A/N: Oct 11, 2012: An edit twice in one day, wow. Well, I still hope you enjoy! And, I just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who has ever reviewed this story. I appreciate every one of you, yes, even the people who hated this or were disgusted with it. lol.
Disclaimer: I do not own The Lost World.
Chapter 12:
Malone woke up abruptly. At first he had no clue what had jolted him awake. A second later he heard Marguerite saying something. Blinking back his drowsiness, he listened in and heard her repeat the word "No" again and again.
He turned over to look at her and found her shaking. "Marguerite, what's wrong? What happened?"
Malone put his hands on her shoulders, hoping to stop the shivering. She wasn't looking at him or even acknowledging him, so he leaned in close, bringing his face inches from hers. It was then he noticed the tears in her eyes.
"How could they do that?" she whispered
"Who? What did they do?" Malone questioned worriedly.
"John and Veronica. How can they… be together?" She met his eyes, giving him an obviously disgruntled look.
"Marguerite, you've lost me. Are you talking about a dream?" He realized, suddenly, that whatever was bugging her had to be a dream. It was the middle of the night, nothing else could have happened to cause this. "Hey… you were dreaming… you're ok… safe…"
"A dream," she echoed, confused.
"Yes, a dream," he assured.
He rubbed his hands up and down her arms, shocked at how cold she was.
"But… but… it was so real…"
"You know it can't be," he said gently. "You remember what happened to them, don't you?" He hated to rehash their friends' death when she seemed so vulnerable. But, the dream had really shaken her. He had to say something to make her realize what she'd seen couldn't be real.
Marguerite pushed him back quickly. She looked up into his light blue, sympathetic eyes. He was worried for her, but she wasn't crazy. "What if…" she started quickly. "What if they didn't die? What if these dreams I'm having are like… psychic visions?"
She hated the look of complete pity on his face. She looked away, not wanting to associate that look with him, not after all they'd been through. Not after feeling the things she felt for him. It hurt too much to be pitied by him.
He placed a hand on her chin, gently tipping her face up to meet his gaze. The pity was gone, but there was still sadness there. "Marguerite, we saw what happened… no one could survive what they went through… it's just not possible…" He let out a sigh. "It was only a dream. If it will help, you could tell me about it."
Marguerite let out her own sigh that turned quickly into a sob. Taking a deep breath, she pushed back the pain she felt over the dream and told him what she'd seen.
When she finished, she felt all the better for telling him. And was able to go back to sleep. Malone, on the other hand, could not.
He could admit to himself that these dreams of hers were really coming together. It was as if with each dream pieces of one whole story were being put together.
Could it be true? Is Marguerite really having psychic visions? he thought to himself. Are they alive?
The moment of joy he had at actually considering the dream real was tainted by one last question her dream posed. If they are alive, what are they doing in each other's arms?
The next morning, Veronica woke up to the feeling of arms surrounding her. She was so warm, and felt so good that snuggled deeper into the chest that those arms belonged to.
Pretty much still out of it, she murmured, "Mmm… Ned…"
A happy groan came from the person. But, the thing was, it didn't sound at all like Ned. Veronica opened her eyes and came face to face with a person who was not Ned.
Almost frantically, she tried to free herself from Roxton's grip. The movement woke up pretty quickly. His eyes blinked a couple of times before he finally said, "Veronica, what are you doing?"
"I could ask you the same thing. Your arms are the ones around me…" she replied, frustrated.
An embarrassed expression overcame his face when he realized what he'd done and he swiftly retracted his arms.
"Sorry, you must have rolled over here last night," Roxton said.
"That's all right," she allowed; after all, she wasn't completely innocent in the moment either, remembering how she'd cuddled with his warm body.
"Uh… let's wake everyone up; it's about time we get ready to go," Roxton said awkwardly.
Twenty minutes later, when everyone was up and about, Pietro explained what would happen next.
"Not long to go… another hour hike up the mountain and then we'll reach the tunnels. The trek through the tunnels should take five hours at most, that is without trouble. But, with cannibals about, anything is possible. And with a group as large as ours, it's going to be hard to go undetected…"
"So, basically," Roxton clarified. "Be ready."
After their nighttime awakening, Malone was extremely frustrated when he'd awoken early the next morning. Once awake, he just wasn't able to quiet his brain. On top of the early morning wake up, he'd been up most of the night, pondering Marguerite's dreams. None of it could be real, and yet…
Marguerite stirred in his arms. It was a minute later when her wide green eyes stared up at him.
"Morning, sleepy head," he said playfully.
"Good morning," she replied, yawning. It looked like they were both feeling the effects of the night before.
"How are you feeling this morning? Anymore dreams?" he asked her.
"I feel fine; no more dreams," she answered.
He nodded. "That's good." He was pretty relieved to hear this news.
"They were really starting to scare me," she confided.
He pulled her close, hugging her tight; hating that anything had the ability to scare fearless Marguerite.
"So… how about some breakfast," he said, smirking knowingly, hoping to lighten the tense atmosphere.
"Sounds nice, why don't you go make us some," she retorted, forgetting the deal they'd made the night before.
"Uh uh, aren't you forgetting something…"
"What?" Realization dawned on her face pretty fast. She let out a little annoyed screech before getting out of bed. Before she could exit the room, she'd somehow managed to grab a pillow on her way. That pillow soon sailed through the air to land squarely on his face.
He pulled it off, to just catch her storming out of the room, causing him to laugh heartily.
The group of explorers stood at the mouth of large, dark looking cave. They stared inside the ominous looking thing. Roxton and Veronica shared a dubious look.
"This is it?" Roxton asked.
"Yes, this is it," Rogue replied.
"And you're sure you know the way through there?" Veronica asked, pointing at the darkness. She hated the thought of getting lost in there.
"Of course," Pietro said in annoyance. "We have a map, don't we, how hard can this be?"
Veronica looked to Roxton, again sharing that same unconvinced look, living on the Plateau they knew exactly how hard things could get.
Pietro handed the map over to Roxton so he could analyze it. Veronica looked over his shoulder, hoping to get an idea of what they were going to be up against next.
"Well, let's get going," Roxton announced.
The group lit up some torches before they entered, giving one each to Lex, Chloe, Veronica and Rogue. The rest of the group had their weapons ready just in case.
Three hours into the journey and they were still surrounded by the darkness of the tunnel. Thankfully, though, they were also three hours without a hint of cannibal.
Pietro and Roxton headed the group, leading the way.
"Why would cannibals want these caves?" Roxton asked the younger man in a voice that was almost a whisper.
It made no sense to him. The entire three hours they had not come across a living thing, let alone a human, so it didn't make sense to him that a cannibal would want these barren grounds.
"From what we heard, they believe its sacred land that was sent to them by their Gods. They believe the tunnels give them food," Pietro explained what he knew.
"I can see why." Roxton grimaced. They were the food and they were being led straight to the cannibals.
"Which way, now?" Clark asked from close behind the two men, after he noticed they'd reached a fork.
Pietro looked to the map and said, "Left."
It was only a few minutes later when Veronica came to the front of the group, halting them all. "Shh… Do you guys hear that?" They all stopped moving, listening intently. "Someone is coming this way."
The members that did not have their weapons out already did so immediately. They stood tensely, hoping the footsteps would move away from them.
When nothing happened after a minute of holding their breaths, Rogue uttered, rather loudly, "Veronica, I think you must be hearing things—" She was cut short when a spear zoomed out of nowhere, barely missing Rogue's head.
Their cover obviously blown, Veronica shouted, "Everyone spread out as much as possible."
Three men covered in body paint came out of the darkness, intent on attack.
Veronica took on one of them without hesitation. The cannibal earned a knife in the chest for messing with her.
Roxton shot another one point blank.
The third one ran straight for Lana, guessing that she, being the smallest, would be the easiest target. He caught her off guard, tackling her before she was able to get a shot off with her rifle.
Both Lex and Roxton aimed for her attacker, but couldn't get a clear line of sight.
Lana managed to take the cannibal's legs from under him with a sweeping kick. She then landed on top of him, adding a punch to the face for good measure.
Panting with the effort, Lex pulled her off of the now unconscious man-eater. "Wow," he breathed out, amazed.
Lana blushed profusely when she noticed the awe in more than just Lex's eyes.
"We've got to move," Roxton called, knowing that they didn't have time for stars in the eyes. "No doubt there's more of them, and I'm pretty sure they all heard that gunshot. They'll be on their way. Maximoff, lead the way."
Without hesitation, Pietro once again, took the lead, this time they moved at a run.
That's it for this one. Again, your thoughts would be much appreciated. Thanks!