Disclaimer: Nothing from the movies are mine blah, blah, blah… And neither is Breaking Benjamin.

A/N: Hey, guys! I'm back with another quick update. Thanks to daisyduke80, fantomfairy, AliuIce0814, Dreams of Leilani, Halo, momiji'sunusedhalo, Miss Hermione Jane Granger, Majestik Moose, and Jedi'Pirate Jaeh for your wonderful reviews! I appreciate them all! Nothing exciting has really happened on my end, except for a March Christmas exchange, so let's get on with the story!

Chapter 20

"I'll follow you if you follow me,

I don't know why you lie so clean.

I'll break right through the irony…"

Riley looked out the window at the deepening sky, listening to his iPod loudly so that he could block out the fancy classical stuff playing on the radio that Abigail liked so much. The only reason that it was playing on the first place was because Abigail was still angry at them for forcing her to come fly to Missouri with them, and also because she wasn't too thrilled that Ian had threatened and used her without her knowing. Riley almost laughed aloud when he remembered how long she had ranted and raved about how she was going to beat Ian to a pulp when she met him in St. Joseph. Right. Like that was going to happen…

Ben pulled into the parking lot of the airport, mentally making a note of where they parked. They wouldn't need it in Missouri anyway since they were going to get a rental car. Abigail glared at Ben and Riley as they walked inside, and the glare continued as they picked up the tickets that they had already bought, and even when they sat down to wait for their plane to arrive.

"Are you ever going to stop giving us that glare?" Ben asked with a sigh.

"No," Abigail answered, crossing her arms.

Ben looked at her pleadingly. "We're sorry, all right?" he said. "Please, can you just forgive us?"

Abigail sighed. "Look, Ben," she muttered. "You don't tell me that we're flying to another state until the day we're supposed to leave. Do you know what it's like explaining that to my boss? Just imagine it for a minute. I'm lucky that I wasn't fired, Ben! Granted we have a lot of money right now, but what happens when that runs out? You don't have a job, Ben, and if I had gotten fired, we would have no money. How would we support ourselves then, Ben?"

Riley turned away from the bickering couple, instantly relieved that he wasn't married. He remembered that Patrick and Emily had been fighting about something eerily similar to this when Emily had said that one of them had to grow up and take care of Ben. His two best friends were now beginning to turn into Patrick and Emily junior. Thank God they didn't have any children…

Speaking of Ben's parents, Riley remembered that Ben had called them to tell them that they were flying to St. Joseph, Missouri. Patrick had seemed okay with it, though Emily was a little wary of the idea since they hadn't been told why they were going. Then again, she was a mother and had to know where her children were at all times.

Ben sighed. "Treasure hunting is my life, Abigail," he told her in a whisper. "I can't change who I am."

"Hence why I am still glaring at you," Abigail returned.

Riley laughed a little. "Come on, Abi," he said. "Would you love him any other way?" The question was meant to brighten the mood a bit, but a sudden realization hit the younger man. Sure he had known Ben a little in college, but if he hadn't been so intent on finding treasure, he would never have earned Ben as a brother. He never would have had some of the most exciting adventures that he would only have dreamed of otherwise. He never would have escaped from his tiny, windowless cubicle. Riley smiled to himself. He was relieved that Ben was a treasure hunter.

Abigail looked from Riley to Ben, sighing as she slowly uncrossed her arms and as the glare disappeared from her face. "No, I wouldn't," she muttered, a small smile appearing at the corner of her mouth. "Just promise me that you'll give me some warning next time you suddenly decide to fly south." Ben threw a smile to Riley, grateful for him making Abigail at least civil again.

Then, his cell phone rang. Ben quickly took it out of his pocket, frustrated that he didn't have much of a signal, and brought it to his ear. "Hello?"

"Hello, Ben."

Ben's breath caught in his chest when he heard the voice. "Ian," he muttered, watching as Riley and Abigail gave him startled looks. "What do you want?"

"Just calling to wish you a happy flight, Ben. After all, it's only polite," Ian said. "Because of some scheduling conflicts, we will not be able to fly down until tomorrow evening. But I want the next clue when we arrive. I know there has to be another one after the one you gave Dustin. It would be best for you to cooperate, if you know what I mean. I'll give you a call when we reach St. Joseph. But for now, enjoy your flight." Then, Ian hung up.

"What did he say, Ben?" Abigail asked, watching as her husband flipped his phone shut and put it back into his pocket.

"Just wishing us a good flight," Ben answered, getting to his feet and grabbing his luggage when he saw that their plane had arrived. "Also, they won't be coming until tomorrow night, so that gives us some time to finalize things before they arrive."

"I don't know about you guys, but something about Ian telling us to enjoy our flight freaks me out," Riley muttered, following his two best friends to the gate. "Do we want to get on this plane now, or is it cursed?"

xxxxxxxxxx

Take-off went by smoothly, and so did the first half of the flight. Ben and Abigail were talking about things they may possibly see in Missouri while Riley ignored them as he listened to his iPod. He even flirted with the stewardess when she brought them water. The techie smiled as he leaned back against his seat. He loved flying. It was his favorite way of travel.

But about halfway through the flight, things began to go downhill. Riley's iPod battery was getting low, and he hadn't charged his laptop before he left Ben's house. The bad thing was, he would have to wait until they reached Missouri to charge both electronics. Great. Now he had nothing to distract him from Ben and Abigail's pointless conversations.

He was in the middle of putting his iPod and laptop away when the plane suddenly rocked violently. Riley froze, gripping on to the portable computer tightly as he looked around him fearfully. "What's going on?" he asked, seeing that his two friends had even shut up. This must not have been good.

"I don't know. Probably just some turbulence," Ben answered, looking up and down the aisle while many other people did the same. "Don't worry, Riley. I don't think it's anything to worry abo-!"

His sentence was sharply cut off when the plane jerked again, and he was roughly thrown from his seat into the aisle along with a few other people. "Ben!" Abigail shouted worriedly, helping him back up while Riley looked at his best friend with fear. "Are you all right?" Then, the younger man looked up when the voice of the pilot came on over the speaker.

"Don't worry, ladies and gentlemen. This is your pilot speaking. We are just passing through some stormy weather, and we should be past it soon. I repeat, do not worry, ladies and gentlemen."

"See, Riley? I told you there's nothing to worry… about…" Ben began encouragingly, but his sentence trailed off when he saw that Riley was staring out of the window fearfully. The treasure hunter looked outside as well, and his eyes widened when he saw the mass of black that was called the sky, only lit up by a streak of lightning as rain pounded against the windows. They were going straight through a thunderstorm.

Everyone was suddenly thrown forward against the seats when the plane was rocked by a powerful crash of thunder. Riley rubbed his head where he had bumped it, but then his arms moved to around his stomach when he had the sudden urge to be sick. Though there wasn't any arsenic left in his system, his body was still weak from the element's effects and from him not being able to eat much. He would be lucky if he didn't pass out, he realized.

"This is the pilot again, ladies and gentlemen. I just want to ask you to take this time to put on your seatbelts. I repeat, please take this time to put on your seatbelts. Thank you."

"A little late for that," Riley muttered in a disgruntled way, slowly pushing himself into his seat and putting on his seatbelt.

Ben anxiously looked at his wife and best friend as he also put on his seatbelt. "Abigail. Riley. Are you both all right?" he asked.

Abigail nodded in answer, though she appeared to be worried, and Ben was horrified to see that Riley's face had turned very pale as the younger man looked back at him, just before the lights flickered and went out.

"Oh, great," Riley said to himself, closing his eyes and leaning his head back against the seat when the plane rocked violently. Great. A power outage was exactly what he needed. He took back what he said before. Flying was his least favorite way of travel.

"Riley, are you all right?" Abigail muttered, brushing his bangs out of his closed eyes. She was worried when she felt a sheet of cold sweat had appeared on his forehead. "Riley?"

Then, she screamed when the plane began rocking again, but it didn't stop this time. Abigail closed her eyes and clung to Ben while Riley groaned as he kept his eyes tightly shut, holding his laptop close to him. Ben had one arm protectively around his wife while he clutched the armrest of his seat tightly so that his knuckles turned white.

After another few minutes of violent movement, the plane slowly calmed again as the lights flickered back on. "I apologize, ladies and gentlemen. The stormy weather has passed, and it will be a smooth ride until we arrive in Missouri. Thank you."

Abigail took a deep breath as she straightened up and pulled out of Ben's arm, unbuckling her seatbelt as she turned to her younger friend anxiously. "Riley, are you all right?"

Riley slowly nodded as his eyes fluttered open, but his face was still pale. Ben looked at his friend in concern for only a moment before unbuckling his seatbelt and walking out into the aisle, approaching the stewardess as she entered.

"Hi, I was wondering if you could come see my friend," Ben said. "He's not doing so well from passing through that thunderstorm."

The stewardess quickly followed him, Abigail got out of her seat so the woman could sit down beside Riley. "Sir, are you all right?" she asked.

"I should be," Riley muttered in answer, straightening up in his seat as he put his laptop away. "Just feeling a little lightheaded."

But the stewardess was concerned at seeing his pale complexion. "Do I need to bring you anything? Do you need a hospital?" she pressed. "Should I get the pilot?"

Riley shook his head. "No, I'll be fine," he told her firmly. "Some water would be good, though."

"I'll bring you some right away, Sir."

Ben and Abigail sat back down in their seats when the stewardess left, and they were surprised to see the playful smile that had appeared on Riley's face. "What are you smiling about?" the treasure hunter asked in disbelief.

Riley laughed a little. "See? I told you that this plane was cursed by Ian."

Xxxxxxxxxx

Just as the pilot had promised, the remainder of the flight went smoothly. Riley regained his strength as the color returned to his face, and soon his sarcastic humor returned full force, which Abigail and Ben weren't sure was a good or bad thing.

The plane soon landed at a small county a little outside of St. Joseph, and after going through the airport, the three friends could see that it was still raining a little. Riley watched the drops fall to earth warily as the bus came to pick them up and bring them to where Ben was going to register their rental car. It was a boring wait at the car dealership since the man running it had a heavy Southern dialect and Ben couldn't understand him, but they were finally driving away with their light blue rental car thirty minutes later.

"That was… interesting," Abigail muttered, casting a smirk to her husband.

Ben rolled his eyes. "All right, so now I know that the plural of ya'll is all ya'll," he said, glancing back at her for a second. "We'll be able to laugh about this in a few days."

"No, Ben. Ya'll be laughing about it in a few days," Riley corrected teasingly, playing off of the Southern dialect that the car dealership guy had used on his best friend. "Abi and I are already laughing."

"And you have to admit that the bear hug he gave you was hilarious," Abigail added, giving Riley a high five.

"That man was stronger than he looked," Ben told them in his defense, wincing at the thought of the bear hug he had received. "I swear, some of my bones are crushed…"

Suddenly, Abigail screamed and pointed out the window in front of her. "Ben, look out!" she shouted in warning.

Ben's eyes snapped back to the road just in time to see in the headlights that a man with gray hair was standing in the road directly in front of their car. In his hands was a rifle.

A/N: Okay, I don't know if you can have a power outage on a plane without losing all power, but let's pretend for the sake of this story that it can happen, okay? Also, the "all ya'll" thing was a joke with my pastor, so I decided to throw it in since it worked so well. And this isn't looking good. A man with a rifle. Never the best situation. You'll have to find out in the next chapter who he is! Thanks for reading. Your reviews are much appreciated. Thank you!