The entire house was quiet. The only sound that could be heard was the sound of the wind blowing outside and the sound of the stove quietly burning, which was the only thing in the house that was keeping the three warm.
Ross, Mike and Bien had no idea what to say. They were feeling very uncomfortable after some of Maverick's guards had just come to search for them. At first, Ross and Mike just wanted to leave this place and find a way back to their own time with as little trouble as possible. But now they realized they had an even larger objective: to find a way to close the gate that linked Bien and Maverick's time to theirs.
"What are we going to do?" Mike asked, breaking the silence.
"I'm not sure," Ross answered quietly. "But with Maverick's guards out there acting like headhunters, we can't really do much if we wanna stay alive."
Bien stood up like he was some sort of leader or commander. He looked as if he had an idea about what they had to do.
"Bien, what's up?" Ross asked, staring up at Bien as he began standing.
"Yeah, you look like you're ready to raid some place," Mike added.
Bien went over to his two rapiers hanging crossed on the wall. "Not me," he said in a stern voice. He ripped the rapiers off the wall and a loud clanging sound erupted. "We."
"Wait, what do you mean, 'we'?" Mike asked, sounding a little desperate and scared.
"I think he means he wants us to go out and kill some of those guards," Ross said glumly.
"No," Bien corrected. "We've got more important things to worry about right now. We've got to focus on eliminating the source of the problem."
"Source of the problem?" Ross asked, his voice heightening with fear as well. "But that would mean breaking into the temple."
"Precisely," Bien said, nodding his head. He dropped his two rapiers on the ground right in front of Ross and Mike.
"But that would mean breaking into the temple," Ross said.
"Maverick's got that place guarded pretty heavy," Mike said. "There's no possible way we could get in."
"That's what these are for," Maverick said, pointing to the rapiers. "They're not too heavy and they're very easy to control. And if you don't kill whoever you attack with it, the least you could do is give them a pretty bad wound."
"Sorry, Bien," Ross said, but lacked the apologetic tone that his statement demanded. "I'm not going to kill someone to do this. There's got to be a better way."
"Ross, sometimes you need to get over death and move on with life. You know what I'm saying?" Bien said, obviously doing his best to change Ross's mind.
Ross and Mike didn't have much choice. Bien was taking this really seriously, but they realized he was right. If they wanted to close the time gate, they'd probably have to at least talk to Maverick about it, no matter what that meant. Maverick was, after all, the head of the Temple of the Finis Tempi.
Ross, Mike and Bien slowly slid out into the quiet night. The air was still with the occasional gust of wind that could be heard in all the houses. While there were a few lights on inside some of the houses, there didn't seem to be much movement in any of them. And no one was outside. All the children had gone inside and the street vendors had closed up for the evening.
The sky was dark with a few white stars twinkling down and barley illuminated the ground in front of them. The ground was easily distinguishable from the houses and sky, and the darkness wasn't so thick that the trio couldn't see much in front of them. The temple was in clear view, as were the two guards standing in front of it, guarding the stairway up inside.
"This is it," Bien said, looking at Ross and Mike. "There's no turning back now. Are you guys ready?"
"I guess," Ross said. He had a rapier clutched in his right hand while Bien had the other one. Mike was pretty much going in defenseless, which was both something he should be thankful for, as well as a curse. (He was thankful for it because it meant he didn't have to fight, but the downside was that he couldn't defend himself)
The two guards were suspiciously staring at Ross, Mike and Bien as they continued to approach. Both of them pulled out their heavy swords and an audible sheath sound was heard as the weapons were drawn.
One of the guards approached the three of them as they continued to advance. Ross and Mike had nervous looks on their faces while Bien's looked relatively confident and determined.
"You! Stop right there!" the guard ordered. He didn't look like a stereotypical guard with heavy armor or anything like that at all. In fact, he didn't seem to be wearing any armor at all. The only thing he had on was the thin, dark gray cloak that Kline and Sandra used to wear.
Bien didn't stop. He continued walking closer and closer, showing no signs of giving into the guard's request.
"Stop, or Maverick will have you thrown in the dungeon!" the guard ordered again.
Without even saying a word, Bien swung his rapier around. The sound of the silver blade sliced the air. With the sharp end of the blade, Bien slit the guard's throat, causing a violent flow of blood to start pouring from the guard's neck.
The guard gagged for a few seconds before falling on his knees and onto the ground, dead. The other guard took notice of this and started charging, ready to impale Bien with his sword.
Bien, however, just stuck the rapier out and the guard ran right into the point of it. The guard moaned in pain, and then yelped when Bien yanked the pointed end of the rapier out. Bien fired one quick punch to the guard's face and knocked him onto the ground. As soon as the guard was on the ground, Bien stomped down on the guard's head to deliver the finishing blow.
Barely acting like he had done anything, Bien turned around to Ross and Mike, who were both staring in awe and disbelief at him. "Come on!" Bien yelled, waving his hand for Ross and Mike to come.
The two teenagers started running towards the temple like some invisible force was drawing them to it. Neither of them wanted to go, but for some reason, they couldn't refuse running to the temple. It was automatic.
Bien started hurrying up the stone stairs to the temple with Ross and Mike following him. They both ran into the temple very easily (there was no door leading inside) and they were running down the long halls of the Temple of the Finis Tempi. The sounds of their footsteps were heard as they continued running on the marble tiled floor. (This was probably pretty expensive, considering the time period they were in)
The hallways seemed to never end and always lead back into another hallway that looked exactly like the last. For all they knew, the three of them could have been running in circles. And unfortunately, they didn't doubt it.
"Bien, do you have any idea where you're going?" Mike asked, expecting a negative answer.
"He's got to be somewhere," Bien said, not directly answering Mike's question.
The long hallways of the temple were dark and very unwelcoming. The stone floors had a menacing touch to them that just added to the environment. The temple was very creepy and disturbing at night, and all three of them thought this. However, not one of them spoke up to admit it.
After circling through the dark and spooky hallways for a long time, Ross stumbled upon something. While Mike and Bien continued walking ahead, Ross steered off to the side and tried to look at something to make sure he wasn't seeing things.
"Guys, hold up!" Ross whispered in a commanding tone as Mike and Bien kept trudging on. They both stopped and turned around to see what Ross had just seen. They quickly started making their way back to him.
What Ross had found was a giant door that had been camouflaged somewhat well in one of the walls. The fact that it was dark out only made it look harder.
"What'd you find?" Mike asked.
"I dunno," Ross said. "Looks like a door or something."
Bien continued staring at it. It was indeed a door that Ross had found, but he noticed something on it that Ross didn't. There was something on the door that was eye level with him. It looked like some sort of sign.
"Can either of you read that?" Bien asked, pointing to the sign. There were words written on it, but the darkness proved to make the sign incredibly difficult to read.
Ross and Mike looked at the door and started squinting at it, trying to read the single word that was written on it. It didn't take Ross long to figure it out, and he was breathless when he was able to decipher it.
"It says MAVERICK on it," Ross said in an uneasy tone.
"Maverick?" Bien asked. "He's the one we're after, right?"
"Yeah," Mike answered. "And if he catches us in here, we're dead."
"That's why we're going to strike first, right?" Bien asked as he drew a rapier from his belt.
"Right," Ross and Mike said in unison. They were still very uneasy with the whole idea, though.
A moment later, a giant white flash was seen emitting through the cracks above and below the door. Ross, Mike and Bien were all surprised by the quick appearance and intensity of the white light. As quickly as the light first appeared, it was gone.
"There's something going on in that room!" Ross yelled.
"No, really?" Mike asked in a sarcastic way.
"Enough," Bien said. "Come on, let's head in there and see what's going on."
Bien kicked the door open, and they saw where the white light was coming from. A giant time portal had been formed in the room. The room was completely empty except for a large, luxurious looking (for the time) bed, and of course, Maverick himself.
But by the time the trio saw Maverick, he was already walking into the portal. The three of them had to assume Maverick was about to do something very bad and drastic after entering the portal, so they ran in after him.
After Maverick hopped through the portal he had just created, the three friends ran in after him. Bien was the last one to go in, and he made it through just moments before the portal closed.
Ross, Mike and Bien felt like they were flying literally thousands of miles an hour through a white abyss. There was nothing around them except for a bright white light that seemed to get closer and closer to them as they continued sailing through the white abyss. They were going so fast, none of the three could even breathe.
After what felt like a very long time, the trio finally hit the white light emitting from the center of the abyss that they seemed to be falling through. But when that happened, the light somehow got even brighter, but it faded away very quickly. Once it faded away, Ross, Mike and Bien found themselves in what was obviously another time period.
Around the three, there were large buildings with huge smoke stacks. The smoke stacks were spitting out a steady stream of black smoke, polluting the air and creating a foul odor. There seemed to be loud noises coming from inside the tall buildings. Leading from inside the tall buildings were tracks that were able to transport large carts. The carts were full of coal, and the hardest part of it all was that small children who looked like they were eight or nine were the ones who had to push the carts down the tracks that ran as far as the eye could see.
"Whoa," Mike said, taking in their new surroundings. "Where are we?"
"It looks like we're in the time of the Industrial Revolution," Ross deduced when he saw everything going on.
"I'm afraid I don't know about that," Bien said in an almost sorrowful way.
Probably not, Ross thought to himself. You come from the late 1700's. The Industrial Revolution didn't come around for almost a hundred years later.
Ross, Mike and Bien stood standing there for a while, not knowing what it was that they were supposed to do. Why did Maverick come here? Or did he do something to send Ross and Mike and Bien down a different path in time than he did?
The silence between them was broken when they heard the small boy who was trying to push the carts loaded with coal towards the giant factory they were standing in front of. The three turned their attention to why the boy was screaming, and they saw what it was.
Maverick was standing right by the small child with two more of his bodyguards. They were obviously threatening him about something, and the boy got scared and ran inside the factory.
Ross, Mike and Bien had no idea what Maverick or his bodyguards could have said to the boy to terrify him, but they had more important things to worry about.
Maverick pulled out a large bag and started taking giant handfuls of coal from the cart the small child was wheeling and stuffed them into the bag. Mike spoke up after he saw all the coal Maverick was stealing.
"Hey! What do you think you're doing?!"
Maverick and his two bodyguards looked up and were very irritated to see Ross, Mike and Bien standing there. Scowling, he turned to his two bodyguards.
"Don't worry about them; I've already got all the coal I need," Maverick said.
Maverick held the giant bag of coal he stole in one hand and turned away. With his free hand, he held it out and another white portal started appearing out of thin air.
"Wow, that guy can create portals," Mike said sarcastically. "Awesome."
"Roris! Kip! Get in here now!" Maverick ordered to his two bodyguards.
His two bodyguards started heading into the portal after him. Kip made it in the portal all right, but just as Roris was about to get in, something nailed him in the back of the head, knocking him to the ground.
Ross and Mike were surprised when they saw what had hit him. It initially looked like a giant black rock, but when they turned their heads, they saw Bien staring at him as if he had just done something a little out of character.
All Bien had to do was pick up a rock he saw on the ground. From there on, he relied on accuracy and force to nail one of them in the back of the head, and it worked. It successfully hit Roris.
Roris turned around and glared at the three of them, but he didn't do anything. Roris's brown eyes widened with fear. He had messy, long brown hair and a thick beard. His teeth looked grey and very unhealthy, but he had a sneer on his face. He tried to back away when he saw Bien draw the rapier from his belt again.
"You're toast!" Ross threatened.
Roris turned around and started running for his life, but Ross was much faster. (It was expected after seeing how fast he had to run from his bus stop every afternoon after school when he lived in Kansas)
When Ross caught up with Roris, he made a diving leap and tried to tackle the bodyguard. It succeeded and Roris was dragged to the ground. Ross tried to keep Roris pinned to the dirt until Bien was able to make it over.
Bien only took a few additional seconds before he was over. In one fell swoop, he had his rapier ready to attack, flipped Roris over so they were looking into each other's eyes, and with the sharp tip of the rapier near the handle, Bien slashed Roris's throat.
Roris died instantly in one scream of pain, but there was no struggle after that.
Ross, Mike and Bien were all very quiet and disturbed about what it was that they just had to do.
"Man, how many more people are we going to have to kill?" Ross asked. "Can't we just do this just by capturing Maverick and making sure he doesn't keep sending guys to kill Mike and me?"
"Ross, this isn't a fable," Bien cautioned. "Life doesn't work like that. I've learned that after being an archaeologist for a while."
Ross just let out a small sigh. He knew Bien was right. He was just upset that now three people were dead because of this dispute.
"Hey, am I the only one wondering why Maverick even came here to get some coal in the first place?" Mike interjected, quickly passing glances to both Ross and to Bien.
"Yes, I've been wondering about that as well," Bien said.
"Maybe he's building something and coal is its fuel source," Ross suggested.
"Or maybe he's trying to make a fire," Mike said.
"What would he need a fire for?" Ross asked. "He's got the equipment he needs to make a fire already, like those wooden sticks. Which leads us back to how this whole thing started: why does Maverick want to kill us just because you broke a stick, anyway?"
"This sounds like it could get pretty complicated," Bien sighed.
"Hopefully not," Ross said, trying to stay optimistic. "Maybe if we can just talk to Maverick about all this, we can figure out what's going on and we can try to get this sorted out."
Maybe.