Disclaimer: Everything you recognize from Disney is not mine, but everything you recognize that is not from Disney is.

A/N: Since you all asked so nicely, here is another update! If you didn't get a chance to review the last chapter, that's fine and feel free to review them both if you so wish! Thank you so much to Majestik Moose, AliuIce0814, daisyduke80, Miss Hermione Jane Granger, unorthodox yo-yo, fantomfairy, Maddie, Halo (yes, this is one of the two chapters that you are waiting for!), and Maira Blue for your wonderful reviews! I hope you enjoy this one as well!

Note: Okay, just so you all know, I love Ian. When Abi and Riley insult him, it's them, not me. So, no killing me please!

Chapter 24

"How he even got through the airport back home, I don't know," Abigail said while Ben drove away from the welcoming lights of the city toward where he had been told the house of Jesse James was.

"Well, with the right program, it's actually pretty easy to make yourself a fake I.D. card," Ben told her. "And Ian's smart, so…"

Abigail smirked at him. "Yes, you're very good at making a false identity, Mr. Brown. And Bill in the back too, of course."

Ben smiled as he laughed a little. "Very funny," Riley snapped from the back seat. "Remember that pipe you said that Bigfoot supposedly took wasn't actually taken by Bigfoot but by Ian, which is what lead us to the treasure? Huh? Remember that?"

"Is there a difference?"

Riley looked up at Abigail in shock. She had just insulted Ian. This lady was mad. Ian had better watch his back.

But he had to come up with a snappy comeback. "Um… very little. Ian's just not as rare since he seems to pop up everywhere."

Even Ben had to laugh at that joke. But the smile lingered on his face for only a minute as his nerves rose up inside of him again. Ian… they were meeting Ian…

Riley took out his pocket flashlight and aimed its beam on the paper with the clue on it, reading over the neatly written words for what felt like the hundredth time. He had no idea what the first part meant, but he wondered if he could possibly figure out the second.

"Close to your heart the key now lies. Look there for answers, each beat will be your guide," he whispered to himself, having the feeling that the answer was directly in front of him and had been the entire time. He then wondered if this would be like the movies where a character suddenly got struck by inspiration.

Suddenly, Ben hit a large bump in the road that he obviously hadn't seen, and Riley winced when the jade cross pendant that his father had given him bounced and hit his chest… right over his heart. "Ow, Ben. You need to be a better driver…" the techie began to complain, but his sentence trailed off when he realized where the pendant had hit him. He felt his heart beat against it, and he suddenly knew what the second part of the clue meant. Riley quickly pulled the jade cross out from under his shirt and stared at it resting in the palm of his hand. This was the key…

"Here we are," Ben said impassively.

Riley looked up and saw in the headlights that they were approaching a wooden house set away from the rest of the city. The lights were on and there was a large group of people inside, and he realized that there must have been a tour still going on.

"Wow. It's a small house set in the middle of a dark, abandoned nowhere," Abigail commented with a smug smile. "How appropriate."

"Yeah," Riley muttered nervously. "No one can hear you scream."

"Okay, it's almost eight now," Ben told them as he opened the car door and climbed out after he parked, Riley and Abigail following him. "The next tour starts in ten minutes. I don't know what Ian's plans are, but we can either go on the tour to get a look around or we can go in after the tour is done."

"Why don't we go on the tour anyway, with or without Ian?" Riley suggested, putting the cross pendant beneath his shirt again. "That way, we can still have a basic idea of the place."

"I like the idea, but something's telling me that Ian won't go for it," Ben muttered.

"Yeah…" Then, Riley's eyes widened when another car suddenly pulled up and parked in front of them, but then he relaxed when a small family climbed out, early for the next tour.

Abigail let out the breath that she had been holding and then laughed nervously. "Oh, thank goodness. I thought it was Ian."

"Ah, so you were expecting me. Excellent."

Ben, Abigail, and Riley quickly turned around at the sudden voice, all horrified at who they saw. "Ian," the treasure hunter muttered, trying to will his racing heart to return to its normal rate. "We didn't… see you arrive…"

"We parked in the back of the house," Ian explained. "You know, we didn't want to attract to much attention."

"Why?" Riley asked in a sarcastic tone, yet still confused. "You're not wanted here."

Ian laughed a little. "Oh, Riley. There are different reasons for not wanting to draw attention to ones self." The English man moved his light jacket to the side, and the younger man was horrified to see that there was a gun on his belt. Powell and Dustin did the same from behind him, revealing that they each had one also. Nick appeared to be the only one that was uncomfortable around the metallic weapon.

"See what I mean?" Ian asked with a grin, concealing the gun once more. "It would be in your best interest to cooperate with us."

Ben's eyes were filled with terror as he looked at the four men, his dream suddenly flooding back to him. Dustin… the gun… Riley…

Suddenly, he gasped when Abigail gently grabbed his hand, bringing him back to reality. "Ben," she said quietly.

"Oh. Right," Ben muttered heavily, turning back to the English man. "So what do we do?"

Ian smirked at him. "I was hoping that you would ask," he replied. "What we should do is-!"

"No," Dustin interrupted irritably, stepping up beside Ian. "We followed your plan last time. Now it's my turn."

"Well, my plan worked, did it not?" Ian snapped, turning to face him. "We got the clue."

"We still need the next one," Dustin commented. "We need it from them!" He pointed at Ben, Abigail, and Riley.

"And we will," Ian told him. "Don't worry, Dustin. But I am the one with more experience in this sort of matter, made evident by your earlier blunders. We go with my plan."

Dustin glared at him while Nick and Powell exchanged looks, relieved that they weren't involved. "Why must you constantly bring those up?" he demanded heatedly. "I've already admitted to you that murdering Jeremy and that old man with his secretary was a bad idea. What more do you want, Ian?"

Riley gasped quietly when he heard his brother use their father's name. Their father had always drilled into their heads to call people by their respective titles and would never let them call him anything other than "dad", which Dustin had just ignored. The fact stung him deep.

"Dustin, how could you disrespect Dad's name like that?" Riley asked, sorrow etched on his face.

"Why do you care, you brat?" Dustin said angrily, his hang moving to the gun hidden on his belt. "He kept things from you, even lied to you!"

"He practically raised us on his own! He put his heart and soul into us!" Riley cried, tears beginning to form in his eyes. "He loved you, Dustin, and you threw that all away!"

"Well, he obviously loved you more!" Dustin shouted, his voice sounding pained and betrayed by the words he was speaking. "He left you the treasure that should have been passed down to the oldest child! That treasure rightfully belongs to me!"

"Dustin-!"

"Riley, just stop!" Ben suddenly snapped, shocking the techie into silence. "Just stop and shut up!" This was it. The anger that he had been keeping inside had finally boiled, and the constant arguing had gotten to him… along with the fact that he had just discovered that he had lost his chapstick when he had gone through airport security.

"I'm… sorry, Ben…" Riley muttered, giving the older man a small, pathetic smile as he hid his true feelings. Ben snapping at him hurt him just as much as hearing Dustin disrespect their dad.

Ben ignored him as he checked his watch. "The tour started five minutes ago," he addressed the group, unable to believe that pointless arguing had wasted so much time. "If we go in now, we should be able to catch the last part of it. Should we go?"

Ian nodded. "Yes," he answered. "At least we'll be able to get a look around. Thank you for agreeing with my plan, Ben."

Xxxxxxxxxx

It was amazing what someone could learn, or not learn, from the back of a tour group when the purpose was not to pay attention to what the tour leader was saying. Ben, Abigail, Ian, and Dustin were on constant lookout for any signs of possible locations of treasure while Powell and Nick were just bored. Riley dragged a little behind the others, his mind in emotional turmoil as he thought about everything that had happened. Dustin and Ian arguing which led to another argument between him and Dustin, and finally ending with Ben yelling at him. Too many things were happening at once that he didn't know if he should be sad, angry, both, or neither.

But it was the last stop on the tour that caught everyone's attention- the living room.

"And it was in this very room that the reign of terror caused by Jesse James was ended," the tour guide was saying, her Northern dialect not really working for this tour. "He was standing on a chair on this wall to straighten this picture when sheriff Robert Ford took the chance to claim his prize. You can see the shattered glass where he shot him through the window right behind you, but you can also see that the picture remained crooked on the wall. There was really no need to straighten it out, but another reason that it was left the way it was is because it provides the same atmosphere as in the year 1882…"

Ben tuned out the rest of what the tour guide was saying as he stared at the slanted picture hanging on the wall intently. This was the same living room where all of his dreams had taken place, and he wondered just how important that picture really was…

Riley stared at the crooked picture also, thinking of the first part of the final clue. As he stared at it, his eyes widened as he finally understood what it meant.

"Now if you all follow me, we'll walk a little way down the road where the remains of the old sheriff station is," the tour guide concluded cheerfully. "I hope you all of your flashlights that we gave you ready!"

Everyone but Ben, Ian, Riley, Abigail, Dustin, Nick, and Powell followed her out into the mild night. Once they were gone, Ben slowly walked over to the wall where the picture hung, fighting the urge to try to straighten it.

"So, Ben. Do you know what the next clue means?" Ian suddenly asked from behind him. "I know you have it."

Ben sighed and slowly turned around to face him, able to truthfully say, "No, I don't. I don't know what it means." He desperately hoped that Ian believed him and didn't think that he was trying to bluff.

Ian stared at him carefully for a long minute, and then turned to look at his henchman. "Powell," he muttered.

Powell grinned, and he suddenly reached forward and pulled Abigail to him, pulling out his gun and placing it against her head.

"Abigail!" Ben shouted anxiously, reaching out his hand toward her but afraid to walk forward because of the weapon so dangerously close to her.

"Ben, give me the clue, and Doctor Chase will not be harmed," Ian said calmly. Then, his eyes traveled to the treasure hunter's hand, narrowing when he saw the ring on his finger. Then, he lifted Abigail's left arm and saw that there was a ring on her finger as well. A smirk spread across his face. "Or should I say Doctor Gates will not be harmed?"

The treasure hunter cursed to himself. Now, Ian knew the one thing that Ben had hoped to keep secret so that he couldn't use it against him. But then, he suddenly remembered that another factor had suddenly come into play about Abigail that Ian didn't know about…

"Ben, the clue," Ian stated strictly.

Nick slowly approached the English man, an unsure expression on his face. "Ian, are you sure that we should use force?" he asked quietly.

Ian smiled at the younger man. "Don't worry, little brother," he answered, his eyes gleaming. "No one will be hurt if everyone cooperates."

Riley was shocked by his words. "What? Little brother?!"

"Oh, I guess you didn't know," Ian said in a taunting way, putting an arm around Nick's shoulders. "A long time ago when we were both still in school, Nick's mother married my father after they moved to England. We grew up together."

"You told me that you had a step brother, Ian, but I would never have guessed that it was Nick," Ben said quietly. "That would explain the different last names."

"Nick, I didn't know that Ian was your step brother," Riley muttered.

But Nick just shrugged. "The need for his name never really came up in conversation," he retorted.

"All right, that's out of the way. Now, Ben, the clue," Ian said, losing patience. "I want my share of the treasure so I can get out of here."

Dustin looked at him with confusion. "What do you mean your share?" he asked. "I wasn't planning on sharing with you or Powell."

Ian's expression suddenly turned furious as he faced the older Poole. "What do you mean? I helped you find it!" he replied. "I deserve a part of that treasure! Nick told me that you would at least give us ten percent!"

"Nick, why did you say a thing like that?" Dustin demanded, rounding on his best friend.

"I… I thought you were going to," Nick stuttered in his defense. "You're giving me that much, so I assumed that you were going to do the same for them. It's only fair since they did help us to find it."

Dustin glared at him angrily. "I will share with you, but not them!" he said, turning his attention back to Ian. "I sprung you and Powell from jail on Nick's urging. That's payment enough!"

"Only because I came up with the plan to get myself out!" Ian snapped in return. "You only carried it out since I couldn't do it from the inside, Poole!"

"I don't care what you say! That treasure belongs to me and has belonged to my family for decades! No one is getting any of it but me!" Dustin exclaimed, pulling out his gun and aiming it at Ben. "And I want that clue now, Ben!"

Ben's eyes faltered, glancing at Abigail still in Powell's clutches before meeting Dustin's desperate gaze. "I don't know what it means…"

Dustin loaded the weapon, but was stopped from fulfilling the threat by another voice.

"Dustin, don't! I have the clue!"

Ben's mind seemed to go numb. He remembered the dream that he had had when he had dozed off at the hotel, and before he knew what was happening, Riley was standing between him and the gun. "Riley, no!"

"Dustin, if that gun goes off, it's going to hit me, not Ben," Riley told him with determination, anger flaring in his eyes. "I'm not going to let you hurt my older brother!"

The older Poole seemed hurt by this statement, for his eyes faltered as he hesitated with the gun. "Riley, just move out of the way. I don't want to hurt you!"

"No!" Riley repeated heatedly, making sure that he was still protecting the treasure hunter. "You heard me, Dustin! You're not my brother anymore!" He glanced back at his best friend with a smile on his face. "I'm Ben's annoying kid brother now."

Dustin hesitated once more, unable to pull the trigger with his brother standing in front of Ben. "Riley, please. Just move…" he muttered desperately.

But before Riley could reply, Ian walked toward the older Poole. Nick decided to follow close behind after a moment, knowing that approaching Dustin at this time might not be the best idea.

"Dustin, put the gun down," Ian told him firmly, placing his hand on his arm to try to lower it. "That's not going to help!"

The sudden hand startled Dustin, and he quickly whirled around. And because of his jump, his finger pressed down on the trigger, and, his arms in a different direction than the rest of his body, the gun went off.

A/N: Wow, that felt like a long chapter. Probably because a lot went on, and then there's an even eviler cliffie! Hoped you enjoyed! Thanks for reading! Your reviews are much appreciated. Thank you!