CHAPTER 6

"Marguerite, honestly, could you walk a little faster please? It won't kill you, I promise."

Marguerite quickly spun around and came face to face with Roxton. She also noticed that she was out in the jungle with everyone else and not back in the cave with that "child." She couldn't help keeping the look of confusion off her face. Was that all just a day dream? Am I losing it?

She looked ahead and saw Challenger, Veronica, and Malone stop walking and were watching her with worried faces. Roxton slowly stepped closer to Marguerite and reached out to touch her arm. "Marguerite? Are you all right?"

She kept trying to figure out what had just happened, but she couldn't come up with an explanation. She just shook it off as a figment of her imagination and put on a smile. "I'm fine, I just think this long walk of yours just might in fact do me in with this pace you're setting."

Everyone rolled their eyes and started walking again after seeing Marguerite was back to normal. Marguerite could tell however, that she hadn't fooled Roxton.

She quickly picked up her pace and tried to put some distance between her and him. What the hell is going on here? That was too vivid to be a dream, we were all there. Weren't we? I must be hallucinating, maybe it's all this bloody heat.

"Marguerite, you know you're going to have to tell me what that was all about sooner or later." She looked to her right to see Roxton had already caught up to her ignoring her quickened pace as a hint that she didn't want to talk.

She raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms. "Oh? I wasn't under the impression that I had to tell you everything."

"Come on, Marguerite. It will help you to talk about it. You know I'm always here to listen when you want to talk about anything."

She looked into his eyes and she could tell he was sincere and that he was honestly worried about her. "Thank you John, but there's nothing to talk about." She gave him a tense smile and started walking again. She felt a sharp tug on her arm and turned around. "Just what the bloody hell-"

"Sssh! Get down!" Roxton quickly pushed her to the ground and made a motion to the others to find cover as well.

He dropped down beside Marguerite. "What is it?" She whispered.

"There's people out there, seven or eight at least. I don't think they've spotted us, just stay down and let's see if they pass us by."

Marguerite peered through the bushes and saw that they were only coming closer. She quickly pulled out her pistol. "They're coming right at us, John" she whispered quickly, "if you have a plan, now's the time to share it."

Roxton pulled out his Webleys and watched as the group of men got closer and closer. "Roxton! What are you doing!"

He looked over at Marguerite and then at the others. He stood up and started shooting quickly. "Run!" He hit three of the men and started running after the others.

Marguerite saw Veronica and the others duck behind a large rock formation and started heading for it. She looked over her shoulder and saw Roxton following her as well as five more men with bows and arrows. She could hear the arrows whizzing by her body, some narrowly missing her. She kept her eyes fixed on her friends and picked up her pace to reach them. She could hear Roxton behind her shouting at her to keep going and shooting as well to keep the men back. Challenger and Malone provided cover fire for both of them as they got closer and closer.

"Marguerite! Look out!" She heard Veronica's shout but she didn't have time to react as she felt herself fall to the ground. She looked up to see the sun shining in her face as well as a dark shadow of a man hovering over her. She tried to reach for her pistol but the man kicked her wrist which forced her to drop it. The dagger glinted in the sun as it started making its way toward her, when all of a sudden the man groaned and fell back.

Challenger and Malone took out two men each with their rifles leaving no one else from the group. Marguerite got up and dusted herself off and noticed the man who had attacked her had a dagger sticking out of his chest. She nodded her thanks to Veronica.

Roxton ran and caught up to everybody. "That was the last of them. We're safe."

Malone walked over to where Marguerite had fallen and saw something shining in the dirt. He picked up the small object and held it up. "What's this?"

Marguerite quickly recognized what it was and immediately twisted her body and lifted her leg up to examine her boot. She saw that the hidden compartment had busted open and it was empty. "Damn it," she muttered under her breath.

Everyone noticed her mad dash for her boot and looked at her wondering exactly what she was doing. "Is this yours, Marguerite?" Malone asked.

"Yes, can I have it back please?" Marguerite stepped forward with her hand out.

Veronica came forward and took it from Malone before she could get it. "Why did you have this hidden in your shoe?"

"What does it matter? It's mine, just give it back." She started walking towards Veronica but as soon as she got close enough, she threw it to Roxton.

"This is not a game!" She turned to Roxton. "John, give it back."

"We don't have time for this foolishness. Just give it back to her, John, and we can be on our way." Challenger kept his rifle close and scanned the jungle while everyone else was playing keep away from Marguerite.

"I'll give it back to her, George. I just want to know what's so special about this little piece of gold that she has to hide it in her shoe. She has had thousands or even millions of pounds worth of diamonds and jewels at the tree house at one point in time. Why the secrecy with this little chunk of gold?" He held it up and examined it. "Quite an odd looking piece if I don't say so myself."

Marguerite huffed and put her hands on her hip. "Well?"

Roxton looked back at her. "Well what?"

"Are you going to give it back to me or not?"

"Depends, are you going to tell us the truth or not?" Marguerite saw him toss the most precious piece of treasure she owned up into the air and catch it. He tossed it up again and smiled at her. Her gaze followed the half piece of the medallion as it went up again but noticed it didn't come down this time. It lay frozen in mid air. She looked around and noticed her friends weren't moving either, in fact, they weren't even breathing. "Wh-what is going on here!"

A/N: Thanks again for all the reviews, as you can see I posted two chapters this time so continue to the next part for more. :) Drop me a quick line if you can.

GWbaby: I would love to put Ned and Veronica together, but as you can see from the note I made in chapter one, this story is based right before the episode Hollow Victory and we all know that Ned and Veronica aren't together at that point. This story is an adventure I wrote to take place before that episode, my own episode if you will. I'm sticking to the story line of the show so there's no way I could put them together. Well, I could but it wouldn't be accurate to the timeline and I don't want to deviate from that. I'm sorry I couldn't fulfill your wish, but I have already completed this story and am posting steady updates so keep reading, I hope you won't be disappointed with the rest. :)