Chapter 9

The Ones We Left Behind

Azalea's P.O.V.

Wanda was sobbing uncontrollably but gave us the keys to the Lost and Found before leaving. But before she left, we all locked in a group hug, each of us letting a few tears fall for the man that was our beloved mentor that was never going to return to give us advice on how to beat the OT's. Wanda left as the rest of us made our way to Epcot. Finn went to get the fob as the rest of us lounged in self-pity.

When he returned with the fob and Wayne's sweatshirt, Philby spoke," When Wayne warned us of betrayal, he wasn't talking about one of us betraying everyone else. He was warning us about himself. Wayne was the traitor." I wanted to scream that Wayne wasn't a traitor to us but I couldn't. I didn't feel like talking and besides, Finn had filled us all in on how Wayne told us to surrender.

"But when would Wayne ever tell us to quit, to surrender. He wouldn't!" Philby stated.

"Maybe you should calm down Philby. It's been a long day and we're all in need of sleep," Maybeck reasoned. Philby ignored him.

"We're DHI's, we can't always trust what we see because it's not real. Philby pulled up surveillance of Fantasmic on a computer. "Look at Maleficent, the dragon, and Finn. What do they all have in common?" Philby asked.

"They create shadows but what does that have to do with-"Charlene started. Philby started the clip. I saw the dragon fall and shoot a blast of fire. I hid my face in Finn's shoulder before I could see Wane be incinerated. Finn buried his own head in my hair before he could witness Wayne's death, again.

"Don't ask me to look at that again!" Finn replied, drained of all energy.

"Which is exactly why we should. There's something here that the OT's knew that we wouldn't be able to watch and therefore not notice what was going on. Philby ran the click again and I forced myself to look at the screen. I was surprised at what I saw. Wayne cast no shadow. Philby asked Finn to go all clear. He cast no shadow.

"Don't you guys see it, it was a DHI of Wayne," Philby smiled.

"He's alive!" Finn shouted. A cheer went up among all of us. Willa examined his sweater.

"This thing smells funny, don't you think?" Willa exclaimed. Philby, after getting in a good snort of the stuff, deduced it was black powder, the powder found in fireworks.

"Illuminations," I gasped.

"When I was at the drawbridge, the place where they store the barges was a hub. And there was this flashing from within it," Willa stated.

"How are we getting over there?" I asked.

"I swam."

"Then we swim," Finn nodded, heading for the bridge. Finn, Amanda, and Charlene were going to swim over there while the rest of us were going to make distractions so that they could sneak in. Some people were lurking around. I threw rocks at them from the top of the building, allowing for Finn, Amanda, and Charlene to sneak in.

I was going to return to the walkway when I spotted Finn and Philby's parents talking to an Imagineer. I quickly climbed down to ground level when the rung on the ladder broke. I slipped and winced at the pulling in my shoulder. Man that hurt! I felt a pair of arms wrap around my waist as Maybeck quietly lowered me to the ground. I nodded in thanks as we ran off into the night, making sure to keep the barge that held Wayne, the real Wayne, the alive Wayne and the rest of our friends.

Days turned into weeks after the day of Wayne's rescue. He told us to report our findings to the Imagineers and take advantage of the time we had while Maleficent and Chernabog were locked up in Animal Kingdom. He didn't say anymore, fearing that if some OT heard him that it wouldn't be good for us. After our brief talk we had with Wayne, they whisked him off to the hospital. Once he was gone, I called Wanda letting her know that her father is indeed alive.

Finn, Amanda, and I would meet up at lunch and would talk Keeper stuff. My dad forbade me from hanging around with the other Keepers and doing anything that had to do with the other Keepers. However, whenever he was away on business I would hang around with the other Keepers whenever we could. My grandmother always looked at me with a knowing stare now but she never questioned were I went, which I was thankful for. I mean, try explaining that you are going to meet up with some other kids to discuss how to save theme parks from imaginary villains.

Anyways, it was lunch time once again. Amanda wasn't at school today, she texted me saying that her powers were acting up and she didn't want to be in any stressful situations. So it was just Finn and me. After the whole hugging incident after we thought that Wayne had died, Finn became a bit more protective of me.

My shoulder had healed considerably, and there was just a faint scar left, though I still didn't want to wear any tank tops anytime soon or else have my dad ask where I got the scar in the first place. Lousy Luowski decided at this peaceful moment to ruin Finn and I's lunch. "I thought I told you, Whitman to stay away from her," he growled, looking intimidating.

I rolled my eyes at him and Finn did the same. "Oh Greg, we wouldn't want a repeat of the stairs incident now would we?" I replied in a sickly sweet voice. Greg remembered alright because he left us alone after that.

"I still can't believe that you out of all the people in this school managed to get the vending machine over there to tip over and roll down the stairs. Straight into the principle as well, which gave you extra points," Finn joked.

"You want to test me Finn? I don't care if you go all clear, I will trip you down the stairs," I joked back. Finn smiled warmingly.

"How's your grandmother?" he asked, turning to a more personal subject. My grandmother had gotten sick recently, though we have no idea about what it is. She's nearly seventy-five and she lived a perfectly healthy life besides running a company completely run by sugary and fatty products.

"She's holding on, but the doctors still don't know what's going on," I sighed. Finn grabbed my hand under the table, and squeezed it reassuringly.

"Don't worry, I'm sure she'll be fine," he replied. I smiled in thanks. We ate our lunch after that talking about what to do next, Kingdom Keeper wise, the bell signaling that it was time to go back to our boring lives where there wasn't a high possibility where you would be captured by imaginary creatures and forced into an eternal slumber if your friends couldn't wake you up. Yup, normal life, alright.