CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT


"Mother Nature?" Bailey repeated. "You mean…like the myth that's the personification of nature that focuses on the life-giving and nurturing aspects of nature by embodying it in the form of the mother?" Her eyes widened when Tapeworm nodded.

"And you couldn't just directly ask that?" Zack asked his upper lip curling.

"Sorry Zack, not everything can be put in terms such as 'She is evil'," Crystal replied, causing Cody to start laughing. Zack merely shook his head, putting his hands into the pockets of his pants. "And, yes, Bailey, I assume that's what he means."

"So Mother Nature is Geneva's and Gattaca's mother?" Aaron asked, his eyebrows rising. "To be perfectly honest, I'm not surprised. Because it seems that whenever there's something that we always thought we knew, it ends up being wrong." He let out a breath. "Plus, it makes sense that she would be the rules of the whole Element World, considering we've never seen it."

"Can you get Geneva and Gattaca out here?" Cody asked, turning to Bailey, his hand on his chin. "I think that we need to talk to them about this."

Bailey nodded. She closed her eyes and concentrated hard. She found it was easier and easier to get their attention now and was happy about that. But she was also scared about what was going to happen when everything ended. She knew that there was a chance that she was going to lost them, just like the others had when they had momentarily lost their elements a couple of months back. She forced herself no to think about it too much, or else it would just depress her even more or remind her that they really did only have about a week left until they figured out what was going to happen.

"Did you guys know about your…mother being the ruler of the Element world?" Cody asked, diplomatically as soon as the brother and sister appeared in front of them.

"We were aware of that," Geneva said slowly. "But not in the way that you think. While we controlled only a small portion of an area in the Element World, our mother controlled the whole world." She shook her head. "But we didn't know that this was going to be coming."

"How could anyone have known that it was coming?" Tapeworm asked his arms over his chest. "The fact that I've only seen what's going on twice, it doesn't help much." He roughly shook his head. "And I've never actually seen her until yesterday."

"But our guardians said that she was starting to attack the villages there," Patrick pointed out. "Especially with Blazen's and Phantom's mother being attacked. I don't think there's much left for them if this is going to happen in the next week."

"Guys," Crystal said slowly. "We need to find those stones." She thought for a moment. "And the only way I can see that happening is if we agree to stop being hostages and actually act like we know what we're doing." She frowned, twisting her mouth to the side. "We need to agree to help these people."

"Technically we're not agreeing to anything, since we know, now, that we're on the same side," Aaron pointed out.

Bailey sighed, allowing Geneva and Gattaca to go back into her body. They had been chased around with guns and had been threatened for days. They didn't know where Core was, they didn't know where Christian was, they didn't know where Sydney was, they didn't know where the other group was or if they were alive. At this point, it seemed like they had no options but to roll over and let Mother Nature do what they wanted.

She looked over at Zack and noticed him fidgeting.

"Zack," She said suddenly, her eyes flying wide open. Zack jumped, startled. "You have the stone, right?" She asked him.

"Yeah…" he slowly pulled it out of his pocket. His eyes flashed red for a moment before he opened his palm and they returned to its blue color. Bailey moved close to it, her eyes scanning it for a moment. "What's up?"

"You know how Sydney used the Anima Energy Nano Particles to help the use of our watches and how he explained that it's why we have, like, a GPS whenever we can tell that someone whether an ally or not, is getting closer?" Bailey asked, speaking rapidly. She didn't wait for an answer before she continued. "If the Element Stones use the same idea, maybe we can find the other stones with this one!"

There was a moment of stunned silence. It was brilliant. No, it was nothing short of genius. The idea that everything that anyone had ever used come together like that was so simplistic it actually made them feel a little stupid. Everything that they had encountered over the years told them that they shouldn't take the first, quick answer that they could have been given.

"That's a good idea," Aaron said, turning to Crystal. "If our father was able to create the healing serum from elemental DNA, which I'm sure used the same particles, and then it could probably do this too."

"But we also don't know if it's going to blow up in our faces," Patrick reminded them. "Like, literally, we don't know if it's a fake."

"Or if it'll lead us in anymore trouble," Tapeworm added. "We've been running and hiding and fighting so much lately, we haven't gotten any sleep." He looked troubled. "It's only so long that we have until we completely run out of energy and when that happens, we could easily be knocked out."

"What do you think?" Zack turned to Cody with a questioning look in his eyes.

Bailey looked over at him too.

Cody's thoughtful frown deepened. As usual, there was so much at stake. There were so many things unanswered, but now, at least for the moment, things were starting to become clear to them. The only way that they were going to defeat Mother Nature and save the world once and for all, was if they figured out where the stones were and how to sue their power. If they had that sort of power on their side, then they could do away with whatever got in their way.

Bailey watched as Cody continued to mull it over. She could see how tired he was, with everything. But she could also see the sense of responsibility in his face. They had had that conversation a long time before; back when they were on the SS Tipton. He wasn't going to let anyone else innocent get hurt. That was why it was so hard for him to watch his mother and father leave him and his brother. He didn't want them to get hurt, but the feeling of abandonment by a parent stung more than knowing that they could potentially die.

Cody finally nodded.

All of a sudden, Zack didn't feel confident with anything that the others were saying. It wasn't that he didn't believe that what they were saying was true. It was that all of them weren't there. He hated knowing that most of his friends were gone, maybe defenseless without their guardians, and he didn't know what was going to happen to them. Yes, most of Zack was thinking about Riley in that moment, but his other friends were just as important to him. Zack wanted to take her hand. He was scared. He needed someone to lend him some courage. He wanted to take her hand. But this wasn't the time.

So he managed a shaky smile, extended his arm, and said, "Here it goes."


A/N: Ok, if you guys haven't figured it out, the reason that Tapeworm is so important is because he has the power of nature. Also if you haven't figured out the connection, Mother Nature used him as a vessel to show that she was coming to them. How that intertwines with the adults, you'll see it in the next 'a look into the past' chapter. I needed a tiny bit of CodyxCrystal and ZackxOC in here, and you'll see why as the story ends.

This chapter was very dialogue driven and probably one of my shortest ones, but it needed to be that way. I hope you guys liked it. I'll update again soon.

Cheers,

-Riles