"Luke? How did you do that?" Krystal shouted in shock. Debris lay splayed across the tunnel's floor and the entrance was left a cavernous opening even larger than before. The troggies lay unconscious, having been thrown against the opposite wall by the force of the blast.
"Ol' Fisheye has some pretty neat tricks up his sleeve," Luke answered, patting the barrel of his rifle. "Now let's get out of here!" He nodded towards the exit. Emma started towards him noting Carter and Anna's presence as they waited a little farther back. "We took Fin to the pirate camp and gave him over to Rigby. He said he'd take care of him," Luke informed them as they exited the anceint passage.
"Luke begged us to just hand him over to the captain instead of taking him to Avery like we'd originally planned. He couldn't stand being away from his waifu that long," Carter said plainly.
"Shut up," Luke muttered and blushed. "You got the Fragment right?"
"It's right here, lover boy," Krystal held up the golden object taking up most of her large hand. It sparkled in the dim light trailing through cracks and openings from the roof above.
"Let's get that to Avery and tell him what happened," Carter said. "Maybe he'll know what all of this means."
"A Fragment of Azteca?" Avery asked, dumbfounded. "Those haven't been found in years- decades even!" The group gathered around him just as they had when they received the mission. Krystal had given him the Fragment and he held it up in the light of a nearby window. He studied it closely, awe-struck.
"What are they?" Anna asked.
"The Fragments of Azteca are rumored to be the keys to a realm of gold and riches. Legend has it that once all four of the Fragments are put together to form the Wheel of Azteca they can take you to a place called El Dorado." Avery explained, lowering his arm and turning back to look at his pirate trainees, the precious Fragment still in hand. "Only eight pirates have ever been known to have found all four Fragments and make it to El Dorado and one of them didn't even return." Emma and Maddie met each other's eyes knowingly.
"What is El Dorado?" Luke asked.
"El Dorado is the legendary city of gold," Avery answered. "There is said to be mountains upon mountains of gold, but Marco Pollo, the captain of the crew that actually went to El Dorado, warned in his writings that there were great dangers and a great evil among the treasures, but alas, he didn't give us much information. Only that they were lucky to even survive." Avery shook his head and stared down at the Fragment in his hand, mesmerized.
"But why would the Armada want to go there?" Luke asked again, an impatient edge in his tone. "What would gold do for them?"
"It isn't just gold, lad. As I said, Marco Pollo didn't give much information, but he did mention a source of great power that dwelled there," Avery answered darkly. "One that could even conquer the Spiral." Somber silenced settled in with Avery's dreadful revelation. His words a chilling prospect that would bring a winter of never ending despair to all the Spiral. If the Armada reached El Dorado, everything would come burning down around them; the Spiral would be under the rule of a merciless tyrant, with no freedom and no hope, all pirates and rebels would certainly be captured and killed, and Wizard City would have no way of defending itself and would be left to beg for pointless mercy. The resistance of Valencia was certainly their last hope. If anyone could fight the Armada, they could, but what if they never came? What if they didn't agree to Captain Blue's plan and prefered to keep to themselves? What if Emma and her friends were left to the foreboding task of facing Kane on their own?
Avery cleared his throat, breaking the downcast silence. He laid the Fragment down on top of his desk gently and straightened up. "I know this is going to be hard," He said. "And I know the task is quite daunting, but we can't let our doubts get the best of us, can we? Your job right now is to train and become the best fighters you can. From this moment forward, you'll be taught more advanced lessons to speed your training up and hopefully, the Resistance will join us soon."
"But what about the Fragments?" Carter asked. "We don't even know how many the Armada have. Shouldn't we be looking for the other three?" Avery met the young pirate's emerald eyes.
"I understand where you're coming from, Carter, but I'm leaving that to more skilled pirates. They'll have better luck hunting down those Fragments than your lot would. As for how many the Armada have, we'll just need to hope and pray they don't already have the other three."
"Let's get on it then," Krystal said, everyone turning to look at her. It was times like these that Emma wondered why Krystal wasn't a Privateer. The Buccaneer had a strong, loud, and commanding voice and she was very tall and sturdy, every step taken with certainty. She seemed a more fit leader than Emma could ever imagine herself being. "Our mission is clear, so let's go rest up and get working on our fighting skills. I'm as ready as ever to hit the sparring chamber and bash some clockworks. Who's with me?"