After being sure they had searched the entire building, the boys all met outside.

"We couldn't find them." huffed Vin, irritated at failing their friends.

"They aren't dead already are they?" asked JD.

"Nathan was able to find a broken needle. It looks as if they were injected with something." said Buck.

"I'm going to go to the hospital and see what was in this. It could help Chris and Travis out to know what they were injected with." said Nathan as he grabbed his bike. They watched Nathan ride down the street for a minute before going back to talking.

"I called the police. They should be here in a couple minutes to pick up those men." informed Josiah.

"Were you able to find anything to tell you where they were possibly taken?" asked Ezra.

"There wasn't much to go on. There was blood and signs of them being tied up. There was were signs of someone being dragged but they ended abruptly." said JD.

"What did you guys find?" asked Buck.

"Nothing much. Water was everywhere on the floor. We tried to see if we could catch any water prints of someone leaving the building, but those thugs destroyed any possible leads with that." Ezra muttered and ran his hand through his hair.

A hose from a house they were standing in front of was leaking and he watched it for a while. He frowned as he followed the water down the sidewalk and into the gutter. Thinking about the setup in the warehouse again, he thought about everything he saw, touched, heard and smelled.

"That's it!" he shouted.

The others all turned to look at him. They were all confused.

"Mind sharing with the rest of us." asked Vin.

"When you were inside the warehouse, did you smell anything that was out of place?"

Most of the boys shrugged.

"It kind of smelled like a pool." said JD after a while.

"A pool?" frowned Buck.

"That's it don't you see?" grinned Ezra.
"No, no I don't. Why don't you just tell us instead of creating the suspense?"

"When I was inside, I found no evidence of anything with chlorine. The water must've been tracked in from the other location."

"So you think they're at a pool somewhere?" asked Josiah.

"It's worth checking out." said Buck, "How many pools are nearby?"

Ezra pulled out his phone and typed in the information in quickly. "Just the one, about a block over.

"Lead the way then."

The boys all grabbed their bikes and then rode down the street to the indoor public pool that was closed for reconstruction.

Travis watched as they pulled Chris' half drowned body out of the water again and drop it on the tile floor. The body landed with a sickening thud and Chris' head rolled back to reveal blood. The body was still. There wasn't any sign of him breathing.

A foot kicked Chris in the stomach and Chris coughed violently.

"Thanks for joining us again." muttered Stewart as he stepped over Chris' body and walked over to Travis. "I really must thank you for bringing my nephew into your little establishment. It would've made more tedious to pull off. And it's not as if you didn't benefit from it too. Lucas was probably one of your top students. You know he's a genius right. Can master anything he puts his mind to."

"Could've fooled me. Always seemed like a hothead that always got beat." growled Travis.

"He took acting classes for five years. I have no doubt that his hatred for Chris and his friends had anything to do with his performance for them. He wanted them to think they were stronger so that they'd be the likely suspects. It's all how you play it in the long run."

The man signaled to his men who stepped forward with a tank. Travis could see something swimming in it but he couldn't tell what.

"Let's play a game now." suggested Stewart, "After all it would be a shame to kill you two off too fast and not give Chris' friends a chance to see you both while you die."

The tank was emptied into the pool and six stingrays fell in.

"You like? I had to borrow these from a friend who uses them on any of the traitors in his group. He'd like to hold their heads under water while they got stung. There was this one time a man lasted for three minutes under the water and got stung twelve times. He died before he reached the hospital but then again, that was the point. I'm just amazed at what the human body can be capable of surviving. Shall we test to see how far you two can make it?"

Buck jumped off of his bike before it reached a complete stop and ran to the door of the public pool. The others soon followed after.

"Any plans on how we're going to do this?" asked Ezra.

"I figured we could just wing it." said Buck as he pushed the doors open and went inside.

"Lord." muttered Ezra as he went in with the others.

They all remained silent as they listened for any sounds that they might hear.

They could hear voices bouncing off the wall, but couldn't pinpoint where it was coming from.

"Should we split up?" asked Vin.

"I prefer that we don't said Ezra, "The building isn't too big that it won't take us long."

Just then they heard people screaming.

It was Vin who took off first with the others running after them.

As they turned the corner, they came across two men with guns.

The men didn't stop and waver like the others in the warehouse. Shots fired and the boys had to duck out of the way to prevent from getting shot. Ezra slammed himself against the safety of a wall with a grunt next to Vin.

"Are you ok?" asked Vin who was preparing his dart gun.

"Yeah." groaned Ezra as he got his ready.

He touched his left arm and removed his hand to see blood.

Blinking several times, he prepared himself to go back out there.

The men were still shooting at Buck and Josiah who were shooting back.

"They won't go down." muttered Buck.

"Maybe this will help." said JD as he pulled out the smoke grenade and pulled the pin. He threw it down the hall at the men and they could hear cursing.

The boys began shooting again, not stopping until they heard both men go down.

"I think they're down." said Josiah who went first.

As the oldest boy was clearing the second body, the man shifted and aimed his gun at Josiah.

"Look out!" shouted Vin.

A shot rang out, but it didn't hit the spot where the man had intended. His arm fell limp and he fell unconscious. Ezra still holding his dart gun at the man, half in shock at what he just did.

"Josiah are you alright?" asked Buck.

Josiah was limping now, blood dripping from his leg.

"Yeah, could've been worse. We need to keep moving."

"We can't make you walk on that leg. Nathan would kill us." said JD.

"JD, stay behind with Josiah and call 911." said Buck, "Vin, Ezra and I will go on ahead."

JD nodded and began putting pressure on Josiah's wound to stop the bleeding.

The other three boys went on ahead.

Ezra could feel the blood pumping harder with adrenaline. He felt he could actually do this.

Vin stopped them at the slightly open door and peeked inside. He could see signs of Travis and Chris, but also Stewart. Turning to his friends he gestured with his hands what the plan was.

"Take the left Ezra while I take the right. There are two guys with Stewart. Buck, go for Travis and Chris if you can. We'll do our best to cover you."

The two boys nodded and they pulled the door open.

Chris thought he could hear gunfire, but he was too out if to actually tell if it was all just his imagination.

He thought he saw Ezra and Vin shooting at the two men who were guarding Stewart. The men didn't get much of a chance to fire back because they were too busy holding Chris and Travis, ready to dunk them back in the water. Buck ran to catch Travis before he fell into the pool again.

Chris felt an arm wrap around his neck and his eyes widened. His arms flailed to pull the arm away but they felt heavy and they didn't work right.

"Drop your guns boy before I drop your friend into the pool. He's feeling a little sluggish and it would be a shame if he wasn't able to keep himself a float." said Stewart.

Vin and Buck both tried shooting their dart guns but they had ran out.

It was just Ezra and Stewart with Chris slowly fading in his arms.

Chris struggled to keep his eyes open. He could see fear in Ezra's face. Coughing, Chris smiled, "It's okay Ezra. I understand."

Ezra looked like he was about to let his gun go when Chris' eyes finally closed.

"Pathetic." laughed Stewart, "You boys are supposed to be the infamous Magnificent Seven? I'm am deeply disappointed."

Ezra let his gun fall and dug his hands into his pocket. He felt the familiar touch of his playing cards. Pulling out a card, he looked at it curiously.

"Ez, what are you doing? Shoot the man!" yelled Buck.

"Ez!" barked Vin.

Ezra looked determinedly at Stewart and slipped the card into position. He flicked his wrist and the card flew through the air and hit the man in the eye.

Stewart pushed Chris away and the body fell the ground. He held his face, cursing up a storm.

Running, Ezra did a side kick and hit the man square in the stomach, kicking him so he fell into the pool.

They heard screaming as the stingrays stung him ferociously until he stopped all together.

Ezra was breathing hard as he slumped and fell to his knees because he felt like he couldn't stand anymore.

Vin checked Chris while Buck attended Travis.

Ezra heard JD come in and say that the police and ambulance had arrived.

Vin looked over at Ezra who was just staring at the body floating in the water.

He pulled his friend away so he wouldn't have to see it anymore.

"You alright?"

"I'm not entirely sure." Ezra confessed.

"You're bleeding." Vin frowned when he finally saw the blood on Ezra's red jacket.

"Only a graze I think."

"Let's get out of here."

Ezra nodded and they followed the others out of the public pool.

"Mr Standish?"

Ezra raised his head to see the psychiatrist sitting with his legs crossed in front of him.

"Forgive me, my mind had wondered off for a minute. What did you say?"

The man didn't correct Ezra even though he had spaced out for five minutes and tears were falling from his eyes.

"I asked if you think you're going to be okay to continue in the program."

"Of course, why wouldn't I be?" frowned Ezra.

"You just experienced something that can be very traumatic. People who go through this start thinking about questions like, 'what if it was my friend instead?' or 'it was better that he died instead of my friends'."

"I'm sorry but you make it sound as if that's a bad thing to think that." smiled Ezra.

"Well, it is the normal way people tend to coup, but a death is still a death. We need to watch everyone to make sure they don't end up turning into psychopaths."

"I'm glad you put it so gently for me, doc." huffed Ezra.

"This is a serious matter, Standish."

Ezra looked at his watched, "I know." He stood up and smiled, "My time is up. I'll see you next week."

Ezra walked down the hall slowly, his thoughts still going back to the pool. He barely heard Vin say his name when he entered the room.

"Ez, Chris and Josiah are both back from the hospital."

Ezra went into the room where the older boys were laying down covered in blankets. They were both playing video games while JD dashed back in forth to fetch them things.

"I can't wait to see it when JD realizes that they're just using him so they can continue being lazy." laughed Buck as he joined them where they were standing.

Nathan also came up, holding a book under his arm, "I was able to find out from the hospital that the drug they used on Travis and Chris was paralysis drug. It eventually left their system and shouldn't cause any lasting effects."

"How's your arm?" asked Buck, pointing to Ezra's sling.

"My body is well on its way to mending."

"Fine, just say that it's fine." muttered Buck before laughing and giving the boy a gentle shove, "I'm glad you have your stick back up your ass and going back to acting normal."

Ezra looked down at his clothes. He was still wearing his civilian clothes since the team didn't have to go back to class for the next few weeks. Dressed to the nines again, Ezra did feel like he was more of himself again. This was who they recognized, not the messed up hair and wrinkled clothes person he was when they were trying to find Stewart.

"Something wrong Ez?" asked Vin.

"No, why?"

"It's just when I first stopped you, you had tears rolling down your cheeks."

Ezra self-consciously wiped his face, "I assure you that I'm quite well and that nothing it the matter with me."

"Hey Ezra, can I talk to you for a minute?"

Ezra turned and saw Chris looking at him. Ezra nodded and followed their leader to Chris' room.

"Are you going to tell me I should quit because I'm pretty sure the psychiatrist is on his way to recommending my removal as we speak."

"I was just checking to see how you were."

Ezra smiled, "Peachy."

Chris sighed and nodded, "I know I can't force you to talk to me or the psychiatrist. I just want you to find someone you can talk to that you trust. It's better to talk about it trust me on this one."

Chris was turning to walk out of the room when he heard Ezra whisper, "I'm sorry." Chris turned around and saw tears rolling down the other boy's cheeks.

"I'm so sorry. You were counting on us, on me and I nearly failed you."

"But you didn't."

Ezra shook his head, "I'm not like any of you. I never put myself in a place where I had to choose another's life. I always go into self-preservation. I could've had you killed."

"I told you it was fine. I when he placed you in that situation that you might freeze up, but I had every bit of faith in you." Chris put his hand on Ezra's shoulder and the younger boy looked up, "Because you're one of us, I knew you wouldn't let me down. I know you don't like to show it but you care. You care a lot about us."

The tears began to flow even harder and Ezra hugged Chris. Chris smiled and hugged him back.

"We'll be waiting for you to join us when you're ready."

A/N: No shame, I simply love the moments with Ezra and Chris. I right these on purpose, creating my own feels. I think there shall be one more chappie and that will be the final curtain. Love you all. You guys are wonderful people.