Chapter 7

Caiden and Emerson had been led back to their cells and the guards had explained to Emerson everything that had occurred while he was unconscious because Caiden wouldn't talk to him. The brothers were now both sitting, silently in their cold, stone cell. Emerson was scared to break the silence because he knew Caiden was angry and he wanted to give him some space. Caiden hadn't acted like this since the death of their parents, twelve years ago, they had died in a car crash and for weeks afterwards, Caiden acted detached, barely spoke and not once smiled or laughed. Emerson was determined not to let that happen again, he had to get his brother talking.

"So, Julian had…" Emerson started.

"Maelicen, his name is Maelicen." Caiden corrected, well at least he was talking.

"Ok, Maelicen, what magic does he use?"

"For years he was my partner, not once did he use magic."

"Does he have magic?"

"Oh yeah, he has magic, he's always had magic. He just always seemed afraid to use it."

"Right, that is not a good sign." Emerson said and Caiden grunted.

There was complete silence apart from the far away sounds of outside the cell and the slow, calculated breathing of the brothers.

"We have to get out of here." Caiden said finally. "We have to stop Villainous."

"Yeah, but how exactly are we going to manage that?" Emerson asked doubtfully.

"Well, have you noticed there aren't actually any guards outside our cell, there are bound to be others throughout the castle, but none directly here."

Emerson caught on. "Laire obviously doesn't think we'll try to escape."

"Or doesn't think we're capable." Caiden concluded.

"Still, how are we going to escape, we don't have our magic and it's not like we can bust our way out of here."

"No, we don't have magic, but if we look for whatever's dampening our magic, then we could dismantle it?" Caiden speculated.

"Or, I could just use the keys?" said a voice from outside. They looked up to see Amya Radiant standing outside their cell with the keys in her hand.

"What? How?" Caiden asked baffled.

"There goes my brother, infamous for his amazing language skills!" Emerson exclaimed dramatically and Caiden scowled, which made Amya laugh.

"Well, you have your friend Jeremy to thank for this."

"What? How?" Caiden repeated, equally baffled.

"I had had to go home to fetch something more, and so I called your phone to ask you where you were and Jeremy picked up…"

"I knew I'd left it." Caiden said angrily.

"If you'd let me finish."

"Sorry."

"After a lot of explaining; I told him I was a friend of yours. So he told me where you were and I came to your rescue."

"How did you get in?" Emerson asked doubtfully and Amya glared at him.

"I wasn't chosen by your brother for nothing you know, I know a few tricks." At that moment, Amya triumphed with the lock, the door swung open and heavily armed guards began to file into the room.

"Oh, crap." Caiden said and he immediately his hand lit up.

Amya swung around and sent a strong gust of air that swept most of the guards off their feet, crashing into their friends. Emerson barrelled forward crashing through some of the guards to make a path through the middle and Amya and Caiden followed, Caiden throwing a fireball behind him to deter anyone from following. He showed his other fireball to the guards around him and they didn't come any closer. They clambered to the top of the stairs and Amya took the lead.

"I know where to go; you'd just get us lost." She said and Emerson grumbled but let her lead them on.

Amya led them down a corridor, through some other doors and finally they found themselves in the main room.

"Uh." Emerson said in despair as they saw they guards, there were approximately forty of them, with their compact assault rifles trained on the intruders. Potiphus Laire stood behind them with a wide grin on his face.

"Hello Amya." He said, and she rolled her eyes. "I'm so glad that you could join us. Would you all like to sit down." As he said that a large table was brought in and placed in the middle of the room, the four places had already been set and the food on the table.

"Well at least we won't have to worry about having tea." Emerson said cheerfully and Laire's grin widened, he gestured for them to sit down, but Caiden wasn't looking at him, he was looking behind him at Jeremy who was sitting in the driver's seat of the van and speeding towards them.

The beautiful woman had gone in to rescue Caiden and Emerson, so Jeremy had been left alone, with the car once more. He'd been baffled when a phone had started to ring in the car; he thought both Emerson and Caiden had taken their phones, but apparently not. He'd picked up out of curiosity, with no idea at whom it could be, he just did it out of impulse. So after Amya had explained, Jeremy had told her where they were, and what was happening. Amya had arrived shortly after and immediately gone into the castle to rescue them.

After that Jeremy just decided to stay with the car and wait, they would be back soon, he was sure of it. It was only when he saw the armed men come in and block their only exit that he got worried. He could count about twenty from where he was, but he was certain that there would be more. Still, he thought, Emerson and Caiden have magic, Amya too probably, they could take out however many guards there were.

Then he got his first glimpse at what the men where armed with MK14s, he'd played enough Call of Duty to know that if these men opened fire, the victims would be ripped apart. They wouldn't stand a chance; Jeremy had to help, but how. He noticed the keys still in the ignition and suddenly an idea sprung to mind, it was stupid, but it might just work.

He glanced over at the castle, inside Caiden, Emerson and Amya had entered the main room and been confronted by the guards. He knew what he had to do. Jeremy adjusted the seat; he opened the door slightly and left it as it was. He glanced up; his friend's faces had fallen, they knew they were dead. He turned the key and the car sped forward.

Jeremy saw Caiden look up, into his eyes. His expression was one of disbelief, horror and respect, Jeremy gave him a grim smile in response. Quickly Emerson and Amya too, noticed the vehicle speeding towards them and Emerson cried out for him to stop. Laire and his guards turned, but did not expect what they saw, a teenager, who couldn't be over eighteen speeding towards them in a VW Golf.

The explosion was devastating; Laire and the guards were blown forwards and immediately knocked unconscious. Amya and the brothers flew backwards. Most of the wall where the car had crashed into had been blown to smithereens. No-one got up.

Caiden's ears were still ringing, he'd just been lying there, Amya and Emerson were unconscious he knew that, but he'd stayed conscious. He felt paralysed, he couldn't move, couldn't get up. He couldn't think; all he knew was that Jeremy had saved them. He'd crashed the car to save them, with him still inside.

Caiden was certain he would be dead; he didn't want to go and check, he didn't want to see the corpse of the teen whose life he ruined. He was paralysed, paralysed with fear.

Finally he got up, he needed to make sure, he had to see. He stumbled over to the wreckage that was once a car, but he didn't care about that. He heard coughing, at least he thought he did, he turned, no-one else had stirred. His mind must be playing tricks, after an explosion like that, he wasn't surprised.

He leant on the empty husk, which was still boiling hot, but of course it didn't affect him. He studied his surroundings; he didn't see what he needed to see. Suddenly he felt a hand on his shoulder; he grabbed the arm and spun his body round, twisting the arm behind the victims back. He heard a yelp, not of a man, but a teen.

"Jeremy?" he asked.

"Ummmm, hi?" The boy replied sheepishly and Caiden pulled him into a hug.

"How the heck?!"

"Yeah, sorry about your car."

"Technically it's just hired. No, how did you survive?" Caiden demanded.

"I kind of jumped out before the impact…" Jeremy said wincing and Caiden noticed blood on his arms and legs, obviously from a bad scrape.

"Wow, man that's really impressive, I thought you were; you know…" Caiden said awkwardly.

"I didn't think you would've cared." Jeremy said quietly.

"Of course I care, I was terrified. I thought I'd practically killed a teenager." Caiden said and Jeremy grinned slightly. There was a thud and a lot of groaning and they heard a gasp as Emerson tried to get up, but stumbled into a parked car.

"We'd better go and help my inept brother." Caiden said jokingly and he walked slowly and steadily to where Emerson was sprawled out on the car.

Caiden prodded him and his body shuddered but he stayed unconscious. Amya stirred and muttered something, Jeremy knelt down next to her to see if she was awake, her eyes shot open and Jeremy jumped to his feet in surprise.

"What happened?" Amya demanded.

"Oh, not much…" Caiden started. "Jeremy just did something incredibly reckless and stupid to save us…"

"He crashed the car." Amya interrupted in disbelief.

"He crashed the car all right." Caiden confirmed. "The explosion knocked us all unconscious, Emerson's still out cold." Amya smiled at that and held out her for Caiden to help her up, he obliged. She brushed herself off and walked over to the unconscious Emerson, she seemed almost completely recovered but Caiden could tell she was still quite shocked; she was just hiding it well.

Amya prodded Emerson a few times with her foot, but he didn't stir, he just lay there, face down on the ground, unmoving.

"Maybe he's dead?" Jeremy said, only half joking. Caiden didn't seem to find that too funny and he knelt down next to his brother.

"Emerson?" Caiden asked hopefully, worry having crept into his voice. "Emerson?!" he repeated louder and he rolled his brother over. Amya gasped, shocked at what she saw and Jeremy stood there, paralysed in place. Emerson Tate was laying in a huge pool of his own blood with a piece of shrapnel the size of his hand, from the explosion, sticking out of his chest.

It had taken a five minute long phone call and a further ten minutes of explaining that they didn't have a bomb until they finally persuaded the police that they weren't terrorists. Meanwhile Emerson had been whisked away by an ambulance with Amya to accompany him because apparently it was less likely for a fully grown woman to be a terrorist threat than a seventeen year old boy.

After what felt like hours of questions, Caiden and Jeremy were driven to the hospital where Emerson had been taken. The journey wasn't long and they arrived about twenty minutes later. Caiden seemed very different to before the incident; he'd obviously been affected by his brother's injury. He was much quieter, sort of solemn, as if he was thinking about something. Caiden rushed through the entrance doors, Jeremy desperately trying to keep up.

"Emerson Tate, where's his room?" Caiden asked the receptionist, who looked up from her magazine.

"Huh?" she asked startled.

"Where's Emerson Tate staying?" Caiden asked again more forcefully.

"Who are you?"

"I'm his brother, I need to see him!"

"How am I supposed to believe you?" the receptionist asked, getting frustrated.

"I haven't seen my brother in about half an hour, he was in an explosion, he could be dead!" Caiden shouted and the receptionist shrunk away.

"Ummm… Green Wing, Room 14C I think." She said intimidated and Caiden turned immediately and sprinted off, Jeremy glanced at the receptionist sympathetically who had shrunk back in her chair and was hiding behind her magazine.

Caiden raced through the hospital with Jeremy hot on his heels. It didn't take long to reach Emerson's room. The window wasn't very big so Caiden couldn't see much through the glass; most of Emerson's bed was obscured but Caiden could see Amya kneeling next to it, she was laughing. Caiden stormed in and surprised Amya, she jolted to her feet.

"What is going on?" Caiden demanded.

"Hi bro, it turns out it was just a flesh wound." Emerson said from his bed and Caiden stood there silent, all the worry gone from his face having been replaced by anger. "Isn't that great?" Emerson added hopefully.

"I have been worried to death." Caiden said quietly.

"Ah…" Emerson said awkwardly. "Well that isn't something I was expecting…"

They all stayed motionless, Jeremy intrigued by the drama, desperate to know what was going to happen next.

"It really hurts." Emerson said helpfully. "You can see it if you want, I needed stitches."

Caiden walked slowly over to Emerson, as if calculating his move. Emerson sat up in his bed and began to pull up his hospital gown, instead of leaning forward to look; Caiden punched him in the face. Emerson's head shot back down on to his pillow and he howled in pain as blood started to freely flow from his nose.

"Come on bro, I didn't mean to be not dead. If you're really that desperate, we can always cause another explosion and I'll happily stand there and be incinerated." Emerson whined as he clutched his messed up nose.

Caiden stood up, turned away and walked to the door. He turned back to his brother. "I'll be at home, Amya, you take Emerson to ours when everything's finished here, Jeremy, go home, you've had enough for one day." He opened the door and was about to walk out when he turned again. "Oh, and Jeremy, thank you for everything, and I believe we owe you a job. Take my phone, we'll call you when everything's sorted, but for now, do yourself a favour and relax." With that he turned and left.

"I guess we'll see him at home then." Emerson muttered.

A/N: I found Amya, if anyone cares… Gave you a scare there didn't I (no) when Emerson was 'dying' (No, you really didn't) I bet you were weeping (NO!) Ok, ok… I get the message, geez… Anyway, please review! I will love you forever if you do. Other chapters are up, more are coming. Thank you so much, love you, bye.

Mangobean.