Special thanks to JimStar, Claudia Donovan 13 and author12306 for reviewing!
Hey guys, here's the next chapter, as promised. I accidentally, and quite stupidly, disabled guest reviews (I'm an idiot, I know, don't rub it in) - it's enabled now, so any guests who wanted to review last chapter can (please, it would be much appreciated), anyway, hope you enjoy! See you next weekend!
Prophecy of the Five
Just as Chase shouted his friend's name, the connection was ripped from his grasp forcefully, sending Chase whirling back into reality. He gasped, his grip on his mother's hand loosened briefly, but a second later it became vice-thigh. He squeezed his eyes shut, searched for the connection again, grabbing at anything that might help him achieve it again.
What had he done wrong? Everything had been going so well and now everything was... gone! Completely and utterly gone! He couldn't hear Beyal anymore, it was like the boy had vanished off the face of the Earth!
"What happened?!" Jinja demanded, slightly alarmed.
"Yeah, did it work, Chase?" Bren asked curiously.
Chase opened his eyes slowly, reluctant to give up "I – I don't know." He answered truthfully. He looked to Master Ey and his mother, questioning them silently.
Master Ey sighed heavily "It is hard to explain, Chase Suno-"
"But, you do know," Bren said suddenly "don't you?" his voice was full of conviction. He stared at the man with an unwavering, steely gaze, his brow was furrowed slightly.
They locked eyes for a second, before Ey's shoulders slacked in defeat "Yes." he admitted "I do. It is a consequence of something I could have never foreseen–"
The three friends exchanged a wary look, preparing themselves for the bad news that was bound to come. Master Ey eyed the three of them, assessing, his expression revealing nothing, before, finally, he began his tale.
"I believe it is best to start from the begging. The prophecy." He stated. "While you all share a destiny with each other, each of you has a different part to play in this."
Bren raised his hand, like a schoolboy would when asking his professor a question, "I though our "destiny" or something was to free the Monsuno and find a way to live with them in peace?"
Ey nods "Yes, that is the destiny of the five, but the prophecy speaks of individuals as well." He looked at the three teens, making sure they paid attention to his next words "One shall wander and the Second will follow. Three shall betray to amend. Four will forsake, but not abandon. Five will complete the whole that must be." He recited carefully.
Chase, Bren and Jinja nodded, absent-minded as they focused completely on committing the words to memory. Bren took out his Core-Tab and, after a few moments of typing, asked "And what exactly does this have to do with our current predicament?"
Master Ey smiled slightly "I'm sure you'll figure it out. But now, we have more important matters to attend to, as is locating Bookman's lair."
The three, plus Sky, frowned in confusion "Why do we need to do that?" Jinja asked.
"Because he has Beyal." Came the blunt reply.
"WHAT?!" the four teen's chorused. Sky's expression was just as shocked as the others.
"Settle down, settle down, please," Ella said soothingly, it didn't work, however.
"YOU KNEW!" Jinja raged "You knew and you didn't tell us! We could have saved Beyal by now!" her voice rang through the halls of the temple, tone holding a slight edge of hysteria "Why didn't you TELL US?!"
Bren and Chase grabbed her forearms, trying to restrain her and force her to calm down. It only made it worse. "LET ME GO!" with one strong push, Jinja yanked herself away from her teammates and barreled towards the door.
Jinja's footfalls echoed in the empty corridors as she ran blindly ahead, unheeded of the world around her. How could they do this? Why would they do this? It just wasn't right!
The walls seemed to be closing in on her and suddenly she felt very small. She wanted to get out of this oppressing place. Out of sight, out of mind, and all that. She just wanted to get away.
Without another though, she ran out the door.
She didn't know how much time had passed, or how far she'd gotten. It just felt so good, to finally be out! She inhaled the crisp mountain air, when it hit her just how cold she was. She hadn't grabbed her jacket! Or anything to keep her warm for that matter, in her hurry to get out.
Jinja rubbed her hands against her forearms, trying to keep warm in the sudden chill. The wind whistled by, sending shivers down her spine.
"I think I better head back now." She contemplated out loud. She had cooled down now, no need to catch a cold or anything.
"Jinja!" Chase shouted, running down the halls of the temple. Jinja either didn't hear him, or was simply ignoring him – he'd bet it was the latter, but that wasn't important right now "Jinja!" still no answer, he kept running.
It was a couple of minutes later that Bren called him to the front door, which was thrown wide open. "Looks like Jinja decided to take a walk." Bren concluded solemnly, all traces of his usual humor gone.
It was so cold. She regretted being so preoccupied with her emotions not to notice such a thing, but what was done was done. She blew on her hands and rubbed them on her forearms again, harder than before. It was just so cold.
Everywhere she looked the snow stretched on, covering everything in sight. Jinja had been so confused and angry that she hadn't realized where she was going, and the wind had quickly covered up most of her tracks.
It was simple and frustrating; she didn't know how to get back.
The wind wheezed by, icy and biting as it whipped around her. The wind sounded as if it was howling, and she briefly caught a glimpse of something in the corner of her eye, but when Jinja turned around, she saw nothing. She shivered again, turning back in the direction she hoped she had come from.
Behind her, a gust of wind covered up tracks that weren't hers.
This was a bad idea – but at the same time, it was the only one that he was able to come up with. And he had had weeks – not hours, not days, weeks – to plan everything out. But he always came back to this! Dax could officially declare this scheme as the worst he had ever came up with.
The plan – and seriously, he could hardly call it that – was simple. Get in, get the information, get out. Of course, 'get the information' actually meant talk to Charlemagne and Dax wasn't eager to do so, exactly. It wasn't something he would normally do, or ever, to be precise – but he was desperate, as much as he would have loved to deny it.
One-eyed Jack had served as a good distraction, just as Dax had intended him to, and in no time, three-fourths of the small S.T.O.R.M. base – that had been made into Charlemagne's personal lair – were out in the open and battling against his... allies.
Getting in had been easy, as the vents had always been his favorite place to hide when he wanted to avoid his adoptive guardian. The best thing about S.T.O.R.M. facilities, in Dax's opinion, was that they were all built on similar blueprints – only the most important facilities had ever had any special design. Dax found his way in record time.
The one thing that Dax did not predict, however, was Charlemagne not being in her office. She was in the hallway, and he could see her through the grate of the vents. Dax's breath caught in his throat, and he tried to suppress the quickly rising panic. This is my only chance...
Shifting his weight forward, he crashed down through the vent and landed directly in front of the person he hated most in the world.
He saw the look of surprise that briefly crossed her face, but then it was gone, replaced by a fierce scowl.
Okay, so maybe this wasn't such a good plan and maybe he should have thought it out better instead of rushing in head first – but it wasn't as if he hadn't known that.
Desperate times called for desperate measures – and all that came with it.
Dax felt rage swell up inside him, and he grit his teeth in an effort to school his emotions.
For a long moment, there was only silence and wrathful glares between the two, then Charlemagne smirked smugly, triumph shying in her eyes. "So, you came running back in the end, didn't you? Just like I said you would." She dragged out her sentences tauntingly, making Dax bristle.
"I'm not!" he shouted, his anger getting the better of him.
Charlemagne's smirk widened "Oh?"
Dax suppressed the impulse to wipe that smug smirk of her face."Where's Beyal?" the words were out his mouth before he even realized he had open it. Some distant part of him reprimanded him for being so tactless, but in his bubbling rage he didn't find it in him to care.
The blonde frowned down at him, distaste marring her features "How should I know where your snotty friends are?"
And then it hit him, like a ton of bricks, that Charlemagne had even less information than he did. The realization made his stomach drop and he suddenly saw the situation with much more clarity. His plan hadn't just been a just a bad idea – it was idiotic! He had just revealed valuable information to the enemy, information that could potentially be crucial to team Core-Tech. The only thing he had to be grateful for was that the hallway they were in wasn't big enough to host a Monsuno brawl... without bringing the entire house down. There were many ways he could have gone from there, but he stood frozen for those few, precious seconds, and then Charlemagne was barking orders into her walkie-talkie and the halls flooded with S.T.O.R.M. soldiers ready to capture him.
I can fight them, the thought flashed in his mind, but I can't afford to lose, not now...
He made a run for the roof, since the security was blocking all the ground entrances. It was a bumpy ride, but thankfully, most of the soldiers were still distracted outside. He evaded and hid as much as he could, knowing full well that they could easily trap him if he wasn't careful. For a brief moment, he wondered how Beyal would have escaped – because there was no doubt in Dax's mind that the boy could do so. Would he bounce off the walls and dance around his pressures or would he simply outrun them? Maybe he would have kept to the shadows and waited cautiously as Dax was now. But, if Dax could hazard a guess, he'd say the boy would charge head first at the soldiers and distract them, lead them away from the others – from a crumbly Bren and a noisy Jinja, from a cocky Dax and a wary Chase.
He pushed the thoughts away, the fact was, he was alone.
The trip to the roof was long and treacherous, and Dax was just happy that he didn't run into Charlemagne or Trey on the way up. The moment the door to the roof burst open, Dax knew that his pursuers would catch up to him in a couple of seconds. But before that could happen, he pulled out his core and out came Airswich – after that, he was home free.
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