Author's Notes

Hihi All! Clementine here ^^ Just wanted to thank you all for the continued support! Arc 2 is 2/3 of the way done now! Only 10ish chapters to go now ^^ Let's make this great!

Since ffnet isn't the best place for discussing and asking questions regarding TDZ and other fics, feel free to add me on discord Clemmy#1307 if you want to ask any more questions!

TheMoonIsCheese - Nice to see you from Reddit! Waiting is always great yes ^^

Aztec 13 - I'm glad you enjoyed the fighting! I'm sure some questions of yours have been answered here ^^

lordgemini - I'm glad you loved that episode! yeah I can see why it would make sense the other way round but oh well, I think it's fine either way ^^

Guest - Well let's see if your questions get answered ^^ I'm glad you enjoyed the fight!

Dwayne just ran. He didn't look back, he didn't want to see Noah being dragged away or see if anyone was chasing after him. He just kept going.

Noah… Oh no… What do I do… I... I should go tell the others.

He dashed as far as he could away from the scene, he stood behind a corner. He panted hard and held his chest a bit as he kept breathing.

I… I feel like Noah right now...

He felt the backpack he was wearing and placed it down on the ground. He opened it and saw the horn in there, it glowed. He stared at it and sighed a bit.

I should go to that potion store first…

He looked around and frowned a bit. He was in the centre part of town, people were walking around minding their business. Mostly carrying inventory.

Hm. Where is it though…

As he was glancing around he saw someone walk past holding a bunch of hay.

Oh! Maybe they will know.

Dwayne waved his hand. "Hey!"

The person looked back, it was a purple man with dark purple hair. They were wearing dungarees. "May I help you?"

"uh… Do you know where the potion store is?" He asked.

The man stroked his chin and thought for a moment. "potion store... potion store… ah! yes, it should be." He pointed ahead. "that way and go left, keep going and you should find it." He smiled.

Dwayne smiled at him. "Thank you!" he turned towards the direction the purple man was pointing to and walked off.

Trent and Leonard were almost home.

"and that's why you don't kiss random frogs by a pond" Leonard smiled.

Trent blinked and raised an eyebrow. "w-wow…" He chuckled lightly. "Well, I'll be sure never to do that."

"Good good" Leonard smiled and glanced ahead. They saw the infirmary in their view. "Ah yes, our humble abode."

"Wait," Trent said.

"Hm?" Leonard looked at him and stopped.

"Can we go get something to eat?" Trent asked.

"oh, I'm sure Scarlett has something in there." Leonard blinked.

"Oh, I'm in the mood for a takeaway myself, especially after that long trip." He smiled a bit.

"Oh, hmmm…" Leonard thought for a moment and looked around. "Oo!" he pointed to the burger stand. "What about there! I can smell it from here" he licked his lips.

Trent frowned a bit. "uh…" He remembered last time.

"What's wrong?" Leonard tilted his head.

"uh… well, It's the place me and Noah got scammed." Trent frowned a bit. "We were out a few gold pieces."

"pff, don't worry, I won't let you get scammed Sir Trent, trust me" Leonard smiled

"Uh… sure I guess." Trent looked a bit sceptical.

"It'll be fine!" Leonard smiled and walked.

"Hm… alright." Trent followed.

They walked to the stand, the guy was cooking up some burgers.

Trent cleared his throat.

"Hm?" The man looked back. "Hello there! How may I help you?"

"Can I have a cheeseburger and chips!" Leonard smiled and looked at Trent.

"I'll just have a hamburger and onion rings," Trent said.

"On it!" The man started cooking up. They could hear the sizzling of the burgers which made their stomach's rumble.

"It does smell good huh…" Leonard said.

"mhm…" Trent watched the food.

The man turned around, "That'll be 2 gold pieces please."

Trent frowned. "That's way too high man. Can we have the actual price?"

"Yeah, don't fool us!" Leonard frowned too.

The man raised his hands. "ok ok! You got me, heh, clearly you are locals. That'll be 50 silver pieces."

"That's better." Trent frowned and gave the money.

"Thank you" The man smiled and made their food for them. He handed them over. "Have a good day!"

"Thanks" he bit into the burger. "Ah… so good." He walked with Leonard.

"Something to increase my HP!" Leonard smiled and started eating some chips. "Ah…"

"See, a bit of arguing does help" Leonard smiled. "Good job there."

"Thank you" Trent smiled.

"Maybe this means my persuasion level has gone up!" Leonard smiled to himself. "Ooo I wonder if I can convince someone to do my bidding" Leonard smirked.

"Calm down there Max." Trent chuckled.

"Don't compare me to that Oompa Loompa" Leonard pouted.

Trent chuckled a bit as they walked back.

They walked back to the infirmary and went through the door.

"We have returned!" Leonard shouted as he continued to eat his chips.

Scarlett popped her head from the lab. "Oh! You're back and alive" She looked at the two. "Uh… where are the other two…? Are they-"

"Nono, they are fine. They are giving the horn to the potion seller." Trent smiled. "Now I can get drinks for everyone."

"Sounds good" Scarlett smiled.

"What device are you making in there?" Leonard asked as he looked at the lab door.

"Oh, not much I'm just tinkering stuff. Nothing special." Scarlett said. "So how was the fight guys? Did the training do you good?"

Trent nodded and flopped onto the bed. "Ahhh…. I so need this…"

She blinked and looked at Leonard. "So… How was the fight then?"

"It was good! It was like powww! I drew lightning from the gods and blasted that dragon to bits hehe" Leonard smirked.

"Well, I'm glad you enjoyed yourself." Scarlett sweatdropped. "Feel free to relax for now anyway… also one more thing" She blinked.

"Oh? what is it?" Trent bit into his burger more.

"How much did you pay for those burgers?" Scarlett raised an eyebrow.

"Oh don't worry, He tried to get us again but this time we got the proper price" Trent smiled to himself.

"Which was…?" She blinked.

"50 silver pieces!" Leonard smirked.

There was a pause.

Scarlett just started giggling a bit. "f-fifty silver pieces for a burger?! pfft… That's still way too high! He got you again!" She chuckled and went back into the lab.

The two blinked and looked at each other.

"Can we just never go there again," Trent said.

"Agreed." Leonard blinked.

"Ghh!" Noah struggled as the guards continued to grip him roughly as they went down a flight of stone stairs.

Gahh! Where are they taking me! It's getting darker!

"Stop struggling you!" The guard demanded.

"Well, I'm struggling because if you can't see, I'm being dragged away!" Noah complained.

"Oh shut it." A guard his Noah in the face, dazing him.

"GAh!" Noah struggled more and looked ahead. He saw that they were leading him to a cell.

"W-what is this?" Noah frowned.

"The dungeon." The guard frowned and threw him in.

"ah!" Noah flopped to the ground. He coughed a bit of blood. "gah…"

He heard the sound of the cell door shut and lock. He then heard the guards start to walk off.

Ghhh… why me… why now…

He struggled a bit as he sat up, he looked around a bit.

He was in a dirty and uncomfortable room. The room was built with cracked and wore down stone slabs with bits of moss and bugs roaming around. He could hear the sound of rats rustling between the walls. He looked to his right at the metal bars which separated him from the outside world. He sighed.

Dungeon huh…

He frowned and looked at a wall. He saw lines that were carved into it, it looks like they were counting.

Hmm… maybe they were counting days…

He sighed a bit more and stood up. He walked to the bars and looked around to see if anyone was there.

"Hello?" Noah said.

All he could hear was silence.

Noah sighed. "Great…"

He looked around a bit more and saw between the cells on the ground as a manhole cover.

Hmmm, is this where the sewer leads? Well if the guys end up here it'll be easy for them to get me out.

he sat back down.

"It would be a great time for my powers to come you know…" He said to himself.

Noah looked up.

"Hey, whoever is up there giving powers, how about some right now!" He shouted.

Silence.

"Well at least I get time to think I guess." he blinked.

He sighed more. "Well, all I can do is wait for now…"

Dwayne was staring at the potion store.

Well, here we are.

He inspected it more.

It's quite a lovely place, well let's do this for Noah.

He smiled and walked through the door. He took a glance at the man behind the counter. "Hey!"

"Hm?" The man was polishing some vials, he looked over to Dwayne. "Oh hello, how may I help you?"

"Do you remember talking to an Indian guy? He was dressed all smart casual, like a sweater and a vest and everything, kinda snarky, he asked about an invisibility potion?" Dwayne asked.

The man raised an eyebrow. "Hm.." He thought for a moment. "Oh… him." he had a bit of grimace in his voice. "He soaked my shop. Splashing water everywhere. We organised a trade for an invisibility potion recipe in exchange for a dragon horn. Why do you ask?" He looked over.

Dwayne gave a bit of a fake smile, feeling still saddened by the earlier ordeal "Well, I'm actually here on behalf of him." He took off the backpack and rummaged through it to get out the dragon horn. "Ack ack!" he dropped it on the ground. "It… it's hot."

The man's eyes widened. "Woah." he went through a drawer near him and got out some gloves. He walked over and picked up the horn. "I… I wasn't that serious when I said that I'd trade for a dragon horn, just didn't want to give away the recipe that easily…" The man blinked and inspected the horn. "It's real… wow."

Dwayne blinked. "How can you tell?"

"Oh you won't understand, you need to have seen other horns before to tell fakes from the real deal." The man smiled and continued to inspect.

"What's the horn for anyway?" Dwayne asked.

"Just something I'm making, nothing of your concern. Now you wanted that recipe yes?"

Dwayne blinked. "Oh, you're giving it? I thought you were saying you weren't being serious."

The clerk perked up. "Oh, of course, I will give it, a deal is a deal, I'm just surprised he kept his side of the deal. Where is the guy anyway?"

"Oh uh…" Dwayne looked down a bit. "It's a long story…"

The man frowned. "I hope he didn't get hurt while getting that horn"

Dwayne raised his hands. "Don't worry! It's nothing to do with that" Dwayne chuckled nervously.

"Good good… anyway give me a moment" The clerk walked to the back of his shop. Dwayne could hear the sounds of papers being moved.

Dwayne looked around as he waited, inspecting all the potions and random ingredients around.

Maybe we should stock up or something…

After a moment the clerk came back with a sheet of paper. It looked a bit old and rough but the text on it was legible. "here." He passed it over. "Just don't do anything too crazy with it ok?"

Dwayne smiled nervously. "I won't! Thank you sir." he turned to walk out.

"Wait." The man said.

"Hm?" Dwayne turned around. "What is it?"

The man blinked and looked directly at him. "uh… You mentioned the guy earlier was an 'Indian person' … what's an Indian?"

Ezekiel sat on top of a clocktower, he watched over the town.

Something feels… off…

He looked around.

Very off...

Suddenly his watch went off.

"hm?" He pressed it. "Hello?"

"Zeke." His boss said on the other side of the phone, he didn't sound impressed.

"Huh.. is something up eh?" The homeschool boy asked.

"Yes. There is something up." The man sounded more agitated. "I have just been informed that Noah got arrested. Have anything to do with that?"

"Of course not, eh. I wouldn't do anything to ruin the mission." Zeke frowned.

"Then who do you think would do this? Staci wouldn't have found out so easily their plans to storm the castle. Someone must have told them. And specifically only said about Noah." The man said.

Zeke thought for a moment, his frown went into a bit of anger.

"him… it was him…" Zeke said angrily. "That son of a…"

"You mean-"

"yes. I'll deal with him." Zeke hung up.

He sighed as he watched over the city.

Where are you...

Meanwhile, as he spoke, someone was sitting at the base of the clocktower, the masked man.

He sat there and listened to the breeze.

I've got everyone in my place now.

As Ezekiel hung up, the man looked over to his daughter playing with some toy cars.

It seems we got some delays…

He noticed her cough a bit, this made him flinch.

Gh… I'm running out of time.

He went through his desk drawers and got out a vial.

I'd rather not resort to plan B...

Dwayne was almost on his way now, he was reading through the ingredients as he walked.

ok so…

Aftator pear, Bird's foot, Bairnwort, Eagle, Titan's blood what the devil are these ingredients? No amount of documentaries will teach me this.

Dwayne frowned and lowered his sheet.

Scarlett should know this…

He opened the door and saw Trent relaxing on the bed and Leonard reading a book from the shelf.

"Hey guys" Dwayne spoke out.

"hm?" Trent sat up a bit. "Oh hey, uh… where's Noah?"

Dwayne looked down a bit. "Well… Here's the thing… When we were out, he got arrested by Staci's guards…"

"He what?!" Scarlett poked her head from the lab. "He got arrested?! Why? Did Staci find out the plan?"

"Is he ok?!" Trent perked up.

"How dare they do that to him!" Leonard said in an uproar.

"I... I'm not sure if they know" Dwayne shrugged. "He just got grabbed and I had to run… I feel bad honestly, I feel like I could've done more."

Trent sighed. "Don't worry man, we're just glad you're fine."

"We'll get him back," Leonard said. "I'll blast them all to bits."

"No need" Dwayne chuckled sadly. "I'm sure we can do it peacefully."

"Just looks like we will need another thing to do while we're sieging," Scarlett said.

"I still wonder how Staci knew…" Trent pondered.

"No need to think about that all now" Scarlett looked over to Dwayne "There's something I need to know, did the guards also get the horn?"

Dwayne shook his head. "No actually, here." He got out the paper and gave it to Scarlett. "I managed to keep hold of the horn and pass it to the potion clerk. I got this ingredient sheet for the invisibility potion."

"Finally, progression" Leonard smirked.

"Hm…" Scarlett took a quick glance through the paper. "I've never heard of any of these ingredients."

Dwayne raised an eyebrow. "You don't know either?" He sighed. "I thought you would know."

Scarlett shook her head. "I do not sadly."

"What are the ingredients?" Trent asked.

Scarlett spoke up "Aftator pear, Bird's-"

"Did you say Aftator pear?" Leonard perked up. "I know what that is!"

"Y… you do?" Scarlett raised an eyebrow.

"Of course! It's the type of ingredients I'd find in my alchemy books" Leonard smiled.

"Here." Scarlett passed the paper. "Translate."

"Who knew larping knowledge would help us here" Trent chuckled.

Leonard inspected the sheet. "Oh, this is easy!" He smirked and read out loud. "Avocadoes, fenugreeks, daisies, wild garlic and wild lettuce." he smiled.

"What's a fenugreek?" Trent asked.

"Oh, it's a herb, good for healing powers" Leonard smiled.

"Those don't seem too hard to get, who knew such a potion would have such easy ingredients," Dwayne said.

"A lot of potions have easy ingredients, it's more about the doses and which ingredients to combine with each other, you have to do everything precisely," Leonard stated.

"You know a lot about this huh?" Dwayne smiled.

"I went to an alchemy school after all" Leonard smirked.

Dwayne's eyes widened. "Wowww! I'd love to do that one day."

"An… alchemy school?" Trent raised an eyebrow.

"Yes! Back on earth! There was alchemy training there, we got to mix up stuff, gather ingredients and make potions" Leonard smiled.

"What kind of potions?" Dwayne looked very excited.

"Well, there was this amazing one called lemonade, and another called squash!" He smiled.

"Aren't those drinks?" Dwayne blinked.

"Well duh, potions are drinkable" Leonard rolled his eyes. "Mortal…"

Scarlett blinked. "Guys, the ingredients are easy to get so you guys can go out there to get them, in the meantime, I'm going to set up the kitchen for brewing and combining ingredients."

"The kitchen? Don't you need like an alchemy set or something, I've seen them in the movies." Trent blinked.

"Pfft. it's all pretty much heating up stuff regardless. It'll be fine" She walked towards the kitchen. "Go and get those ingredients!" She demanded as she walked in.

The guys nodded and looked at each other.

"Hm… Avocadoes, fenugreeks, daisies, wild garlic and wild lettuce, what does it mean by 'wild' exactly?" Trent asked.

"Oh, it means that they must be taken fresh. So nothing from a supermarket." Leonard smiled.

"Hm." Trent thought. "Well, would something from like a market work? Those are usually fresh fruit and veg" Trent asked.

"Hm.." Leonard thought for a second, he stroked his beard. "I'm sure it will work" he smiled.

"Good" Trent smiled. "I think I can go to the market and get the fruit and veg" He looked at Leonard. "Since you know about Fenugreeks, you can go acquire them while Dwayne can get the daisies."

"ooo sounds good" Dwayne smiled. "I love daisies! it's what I got my wife for our first date," he stood proud.

Trent smiled at that and stood up fully. "Ok well, should we get going?"

"Of course" Dwayne smiled.

"Always ready to be in a gathering quest," Leonard smirked and started walking out. "I'll be off! It'll be a long journey!" He dashed off.

Trent blinked. "How abrupt."

"He's always like that" Dwayne smiled.

"I'm still not fully sure what those f… fen.. feneru things are." Dwayne said.

"I don't think that's the name" Trent blinked.

"What is it called then?" Dwayne frowned a bit.

"Uh… fe… fenelium?" Trent blinked.

"That doesn't sound right either." Dwayne sighed a little. "Oh well."

"Mew…" Perdi walked over from under the bed.

"Hm?" Dwayne looked down. "Is something up Perdi?"

"Mew." The cat looked over to the front door.

"Oh, you want to come with?" He asked.

The cat started purring.

Dwayne smiled. "Awh… well… it's only daisies, sure let's go for a walk." He smiled at Perdi as he started to walk out. "See ya, Trent!"

Perdi started following him. "mew…"

Trent smiled at him. "See ya!" He watched as Dwayne and Perdi walked out.

"Well, I guess I'll be going shopping then." He rummaged through his pocket and got out some coins. "uh… I think this will be enough." He blinked and started walking out.

Noah sat alone in the dungeon. He sighed a bit.

I can't even tell how long I've been in here…

His stomach growled.

Gh… hungry…

As he sat there in silence he heard the door opening. This made him perk up a bit.

"hm?" Noah blinked.

He looked over towards the entrance of the door and heard some footsteps.

Noah blinked and saw a guard walking down the stairs.

Oh no, what's this…

The guard looked different, they weren't wearing armour, they were in dark purple samurai gear, this made Noah raise an eyebrow.

"uh…" Noah blinked.

All he could hear in the silence was the constant steps as they slowly walked over, each step louder than the other. It made Noah shake a little.

The person walked over to Noah's cell and looked at him, all Noah could see was the eyes of the person behind the samurai helmet, dark purple eyes. On his side was a katana.

The person glanced at Noah.

"Noah. I have a few questions."