Author's Note: I own nothing!
20 Secrets
A few quiet days put Jen on edge again, Gwen was twitchy too but wouldn't say why. Kevin seemed more on edge too and kept shooting Jen looks when he thought she wasn't paying attention. But she spotted him doing it a few times and couldn't place the look, it wasn't distrust. But she didn't have a chance to confront him about it, they got a call from the team Jen had set to watch the Flame Keeper's Circle. Vilgax was on the move.
They might have had him too, if the Plumber team had waited for them like they'd been told them to. But they had managed to catch one of the Esoterica. Jen grimaced as Kevin pulled the mask off Squire Winston, the Forever Knight squire who'd been with them when they encountered the Lucubra.
"Seems like you've been moonlighting for another group of bad guys." Kevin and Gwen flinched back as the squires eyes flooded a sickly glowing mint green. Jen's eyes narrowed. The squire stumbled and blinked his eyes going back to normal.
"I need to report to Enoch." Both girls raised eyebrows as Kevin grabbed the squire by his shirt.
"You really think we're gonna let you do that?" Jen yanked Kevin's hand off the squire.
"Actually, that's exactly what we're going to do. Gwen, go home." Gwen stared at her cousin as Kevin frowned too.
"What? No!"
"That was an order, not a suggestion." Jen took hold of the squire and took off, using XCLR8's speed to be gone before either of the others could react. Gwen stared at Kevin who shook his head.
"I have no idea, she's been acting weird for a while now." He paused as if he wanted to say more. Letting out a breath he continued. "Do you know a George? He's an old man, like really old." Gwen shook her head.
"No. Kevin what aren't you telling me?" Kevin sighed looking after the dust cloud that had been Jen and the squire.
"Like I said she's been acting weird for a while, so about a week ago I followed her. She drove out of town to this little farmhouse. She met up with an old guy named George there. I didn't catch a lot of their conversation but they talked like they'd known each other forever. And he said…" Kevin paused running a hand through his hair. "He said that 'even seventeen hundred years can't change some things.'" He looked up at his girlfriend. She looked just as confused as him. She shook her head.
"That doesn't make any sense. And if Enoch's still around we need to find him, preferably before she does! They've got a history and it's not a pleasant one." Kevin pulled out his Plumber's badge and keyed in the tracking for the Ultimatrix.
"I'm sorry which of the Forever Knights do you guys have a pleasant history with?" Gwen rubbed her head. She had a massive headache coming on.
"Gregory, though he's not a Knight anymore." Kevin nodded.
"Yep retired to an old folks home right, became a librarian." He laughed slightly and motioned for Gwen to follow him back to the car. When they reached the warehouse Jen had already met up with a metal masked Forever Knight and they were currently staring each other down. The Knight's weapons were on the ground by Jen's feet and Winston stood at her side no longer wearing the mask but still dressed as an Esoterica. Jen was holding a dagger in her hand, Enoch's hand was still open as if she'd just pulled it from his fingers.
"Let's not go medieval here, he had no choice, he's been under control of the Dagon." She pointed the knife at a Knight behind Enoch. "Your boy Cyrus here found a seal that was holding an age old demon and his men decided the best course of action was to bust it open. Anyone who was in that cave is a possible current servant of the Dagon." Kevin frowned as Gwen gasped in pain her headache spiking, then everything slipped away in a flash of minty green light.
Jen's explanation to the Forever Knights was interrupted when Kevin went flying through several crates. A voice that was almost Gwen's echoed around the warehouse.
"Correct. You are such simple creatures, so easy to manipulate." The voice echoed around as Kevin scrambled to his feet, absorbing the concrete floor of the warehouse.
"Gwen, you're starting to scare me a little!" He called out as the redhead stepped out from behind a stack of crates, glowing and floating. Her eyes were flooded a sickly minty green and Winston's knees buckled as the same light flooded his eyes. But Gwen, or the thing that had been Gwen, paid him no mind.
"There is a pretender." It snarled eyes scanning the group and alighting on Jen. They narrowed. "But one among you knows this, and more."
"You're talking about Vilgax." The still possessed Gwen nodded at her words, neither girl flinching at the sound of swords being drawn.
"He intends to steal the source of my power, my heart. But you know where it is." The redhead reached out as if to touch her and Jen vanished, reappearing in a small cloud of dust on the other side of the warehouse having sped away from the others.
"I know where it was."
"Heed me Changeling, if your Vilgax acquires my heart he will have all the power he needs to rule the universe. Return my heart to me!" Jen's eyes narrowed and she pointed the dagger still in her hand at Gwen.
"I'll find your heart and see it destroyed for good this time." Gwen shrieked in outrage and then collapsed out of the air, the unnatural light fading from her eyes. Kevin caught her as she fell. Jen flipped the dagger in her hand and threw it, it sank into the ground at Enoch's feet. "Tell George I want to talk to him." With that she vanished in a swirl of green, like how Gwen sometimes teleported them. Kevin blinked at the knights who were blinking at each other. Enoch stepped forward.
"How does the child know the truth of the Dagon?" Kevin blinked.
"I have no idea what you're even talking about." Sir Cyrus stepped forward, placing a hand on Enoch's shoulder.
"Peace Enoch. They may be able to help us." Enoch grumbled but sheathed his sword as Kevin brushed Gwen's hair out of her face. She was only semi-conscious.
"Who is George?" He demanded and Cyrus stepped forward.
"Are you familiar with the old legends of Sir George and the Dragon? Most cultures have a version of the story but few know the truth. Sir George was a knight, most honorable. He served his king as all Knights should, but defended the people first and foremost." The knight went on to explain the whole story about the knight sealing the Dagon. Winston piped up.
"Sir that's not the whole story. There was a girl."
"Rumors changing a story through the centuries." Cyrus snapped, Kevin frowned.
"This would have happened what seventeen hundred years ago?" Sir Cyrus frowned as Kevin helped Gwen to her feet. She was back to her senses and looked more than a bit freaked out.
"How do you know that?" Kevin frowned.
"Call it a hunch. Where's George now?" Gwen frowned at him he shook his head. He had a feeling Jen knew a whole lot more than she'd told them. She nodded slightly as Cyrus spoke again.
"He had been missing for centuries, but reappeared to us barely a month ago. He told us it was time to enact our true duty, to protect the world from the threat he founded our order to defeat. Sir Driscoll took that to mean we were to purge the aliens from Earth, but he was wrong. George disappeared several days ago leaving only runes in his chamber as a clue to where he had gone." Gwen nodded at the knight.
"Maybe we can help, I'm good at Runes. And I think my cousin may have gone after this George, so for now I say we call a truce." Enoch scoffed but was silenced by a look.
"You are already dangerously close to being banished from the Order Enoch. Do not make things worse for yourself." Cyrus barked at him and turned back to Gwen and Kevin. "I agree, a truce then. Follow us we will take you to the runes Sir George left behind." Gwen nodded taking Kevin's hand and practically dragging him from the warehouse. When they were in his car again she curled up in the seat and refused to speak as they followed the convoy of Forever Knights.
"She knew." She finally whispered as they passed outside of city limits. Kevin frowned.
"You think she knew that the Dagon could do that to you?" He couldn't wrap his head around that. If Jen had known something was wrong she would have done something. But she had tried.
"She's been pulling away from me ever since the Lucubra. When she found out Winston was for sure being controlled she told me to go home. I should have listened." Kevin reached out to take her hand and she shied away slightly.
"Gwen, if anyone understands what it's like to not be in control of your own actions its me. Let me help, please." She stared at him for a moment as he kept driving one handed, the other still within reach. She took it and squeezed gently.
The 'runes' left behind by the knight turned out to be exceedingly complex calculus using several sets of latitude and longitude as points to triangulate a new location. But the moment Gwen had finished deciphering the location the Knights turned on them, shooting both of them before either could act and leaving them behind to join their founder in his fight. Gwen managed to heal them both as they made their way back to the car.
"We need to go after the heart. If Vilgax gets it first we're fucked." Kevin nodded at her words, putting his foot down as he sped to the Plumber airstrip. Gwen was desperately trying to get ahold of Jen whom they hadn't seen since she vanished from the warehouse. She let out a frustrated noise as she threw down her phone and Plumber badge.
"It's no use she's not answering!"
Two figures stood in the deserted state park, it was late, nearing midnight. They made for an odd pair on the trail an old man in a button up and slacks, a pack on his shoulders. The second figure was covered head to tow in a green cloak, the symbol of the Forever Knights on the back. George frowned at the figure.
"I do not understand why you insist on coming cloaked and disguised."
"Call it a hunch that we'll have company that won't exactly be pleased I'm here." They reached the top of a ridge and footsteps sounded behind them from a separate path that met up with theirs. George turned and frowned.
"How did you know where I would be?" He asked as his Knights led by Sir Cyrus and Enoch bowed. The figure next to George stiffened and lunged at the smallest figure in the group prompting the others to go for weapons but Winston stepped out of existence before they could act. The woman swore, her hood falling. Cyrus blinked. He'd seen the tapestry before, The Defeat Of The Dagon, it was said to be a representation of the moment the Knights had been founded or at least the battle that had inspired their founding. It was as if she had stepped from the weave. Her hair fell to her shoulders, she towered at six feet and her eyes were flooded a deep forest green, her features chiseled as though by an otherworldly sculptor, her face all sharp angles with no soft lines to be found.
"He'll go to the Esoterica, we need to hurry. Expect an ambush." George nodded. Enoch stood and pointed his blade at the woman.
"Who are you to give orders to the first Forever Knight!" George's eyes narrowed.
"Lower your weapon or lose your arm Enoch." The knight complied immediately. "She is a very old friend of mine, it was she who sealed the Dagon after I cut out its heart. We must retrieve Ascalon now!" The two headed the charge towards the faint outline of the temple.