I forgot to say that the story is set the summer after everything happened, so no problem with the school and stuff like that. Enjoy!

I don't own any character besides mine and some Titans, sadly…

Chapter 2 : Memories

"Well, we'll go on mission tomorrow, so you can take some rest. If I'm not mistaken, we'll face some serious problems very soon!" said Frank. "Good idea. Meanwhile, you could tell me something… about my dad!" said Lok, leaning on the sofa. "That would be great. I must admit I'm curious, too!" said Sophie. Frank shrugged. "Why not? We'll pass some time. I'll tell you what I know about him, since the day I knew him…"

Twenty years before…

"So you're the famous Frank Norton! Glad to meet you!" said Metz, extending his hand. Frank shook it and sat down on the chair. "I'm glad to meet the chief of the Foundation, too. And by the way, whatever Fenton said about me it's false!" Metz laughed. "You don't like your chief, do you?" Frank pouted. "He's a damn idiot! Sure, he has quite a talent with Titans, but with his ways he's not gonna get anywhere! Always playing safe, always avoiding risk… what the hell had you in mind when you appointed him chief of the American Seekers?" "Well, he was the best. I say was, because even he admitted that you're better than him." Frank smiled proudly, then frowned. "If you think you can put me in a damn office to sign papers all day…" he warned, but Metz interrupted him : "Calm down! I know you're fit for the field work. That's why I chose you to go with our best agent for a delicate mission." Frank snickered. "What a honour! And who's the 'best agent' I'm stuck with?" Metz pressed a button, and the door opened, allowing a slim man to enter. Frank got up and looked at the newcomer : he was slim, sure, but his expression revealed intelligence… and courage. He immediately felt he could get along well with him; he smiled, and the man smiled back. "Can I present you Eathon Lambert? Eathon, this is our best American Seeker, Frank Norton…"

Now

"That was the beginning. We made it through the mission with flying colours. And then, before we even thought about it, we went togheter in all the missions that we received. We were a great couple; Eathon was the mind, always able to found the solution for an ancient riddle, or to decypher an old code. I was the muscles : not that he wasn't a hell of a good Seeker, but since the very beginning he admitted I was stronger than him in hand-to-hand combat, and I had some quite strong Titans." "Hey, my dad had some tough Titans, too!" protested Lok. Frank nodded and added : "Of course, but having good battle Titans, and by the way I have more than he ever had, it's not enough. You must also be able to conceive the right strategy for them, to be sure they fight at 100% efficiency. And we both knew that in this I was smarter than Eathon." "Oh, well…" Lok mumbled, but Frank went on, half seriously half with a mocking tone. "We did almost everything togheter! I even had to help him when he had to propose to Sandra, and guess who was at Eathon's marriage?"

He stopped, and then resumed, speaking in a more serious way. "But then, we started to be caught in the greatest quest of all times. Eathon had always been fascinated by the ancient Amulet of Will, but he started to concentrate on this when his friend Metz was caught by that curse. He started writing down all his notes and impressions in his diary. I supported him full cause, of course; he was my best friend, almost a brother. But I was more cautious than him…"

Fifthteen years before…

Frank was staring at the rain that poured on the window. The winter night was chilly and rainy. He turned to look at his best friend, absorbed into writing in his diary. He sighed. "C'mon, Eathon, there's no need for you to write everything at once. Give your diary a rest, and maybe give yourself a little rest. You always work so much…" "Frank, we are trying to find out where that blasted Amulet is kept, we are not trying to plan some travel in Grinzburg! Even if we keep working as we have been lately, we could find the solution only in years… many years, maybe!" Frank sighed again. "I'm not saying you to stop working on it, man! I'm just saying you that you don't have to kill yourself with overwork! As you said, the place where the Amulet is kept is a secret that can be discovered only with years of work. Before us, great and powerful Seekers spent their whole lives trying to get traces about it, getting nowhere. This is no thing that can be solved by studying a book, or climbing a mountain; we have to get the right things at the right moment!" Eathon looked up, and huffed. "You're right, Frank. But we can't give up. We have to keep searching, because if we don't…" Frank placed his hand on his shoulder. "Don't even say it; I know about Metz's conditions too, and I care about him, too. But sometimes, I just wonder if we can make it. This is the greates challenge a Seeker can met!" Eathon looked down at his diary, and absentmindedly flipped his pages. "I wonder about it too." Then he looked in the eyes of his friend, and a fire was burning in his eyes. "But we have to try!"

Now

"When Eathon wanted a thing, there was no one that could stop him. But unfortunately I was right; our searches took years, because we had to follow any traces that promised something, although we knew that most of them were dead ends. And also because the Organization started to hunt us down. When we met the Suits for the first time, they were ridicously easy to beat, but the next encounters were more difficult. The Professor started to throw at us his best Agents, like Rassimov, and we had some trouble to make sure they would remain empty-handed." "Why didn't you asked for help? The Foundation could have helped you, I guess!" asked Zhalia. Frank smirked. "We wanted to keep our discoveries secret, because we feared there were some double agents in the Foundation. Besides, apart from Metz, that was confined in a bed for years, we were the best Seekers of all, modesty to hell; we didn't need much help!" "And I thought that Lok was the macho one!" mumbled Sophie. Lok looked offended, and Frank laughed whole-heartedly. "He inherited this from his father. He was very proud and self-assured… and this," he said in a lowly tone, lowering his gaze, "nearly costed him his life, when we finally found what we were looking for…"

Eleven years before…

"Hey, Eathon, look at this!" Frank exclaimed, holding a very ancient papyrus. Eathon came and took the papyrus from the hands of his friend. "It's from the Ancient Library of Alexandria. It says something about… an ancient land that perished in a great tragedy, and disappeared from the world!" "Atlantis!" Frank said, impressed. Eathon went on reading the scroll, then he gasped, and let the scroll fall on the floor. "Eathon, what's the…" "'The jewel that was of the First and the Greatest is kept there, and can be attained only by passing through the Sea and the Gates'!" Frank's face became as white as a sheet. "Wait a minute… could this mean… that the Amulet is in Atlantis.. and the entrance for it is…" "Is the Temple of Poseidon? Yes, it has to be! We made it! We discovered where the Amulet is kept!" Eathon was so happy that he got up and started an improvised victory dance, soon joined by his friend. When their happines started to cool down, Frank was overexcited. "Ok, we can be at the Temple in two days, then it's just about going to Atlantis and get the…" Eathon interrupted him : "No, wait! I'm going, you must remain here!" Frank's jaw dropped. "What?"! "It's for safety reasons! The Organization is hunting us and we can't move without them noticing us. So, the chance to slip them unnoticed is zero point zero. They can track the both of us, or at least Rassimov can, but just one of us could make to the very place unnoticed. And, if I fail… there shall remain one of us, still knowing the secret!" "But... you're right about the Organization, but you haven't considered one thing. If I'm not mistaken, here says 'There lies the jewel, his sleep protected'! That means that even if you make through the Suits, there is something there that you cannot defeat alone! And I'm not saying it to boast! I would fail too, but maybe togheter we can make it!" Eathon avoided his gaze. "I thought about it… but the risk is too great. I'm going… and you're staying here. Don't worry, Frank. I'll do my best!" Eathon tried to smile, but he couldn't.

Three weeks after

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK! "Who the hell is knocking at the door at this blasted hou…" Frank's complaint was cutted short when he opened the door, and a bloodied and weak Eathon fell in his arms. "Ohmygosh! Eathon!" Frank lifted him into his arms, closing the door with a kick, and rushed to the sofa. He gently deposed him onto it, and went to collect some alcohol and bandages to tend to his wounded friend. When he was back, Eathon had regained coscience, and was trying to get up. "Stay down! You're quite in a bad shape!" Frank pushed him gently down and then started to clean his wounds, mumbling some healing spells when he sensed some major injury. Eathon stood down, not speaking, but when Frank finished, he abruptly said in an apologizing tone : "You were right!" Frank tried to change subject : "This is not the right time for this…" "No. You were right. I make it through to Atlantis, but I was unable to pass the test Casterwill put there to protect the Amulet. And when I went back, I was lucky to get here alive." Frank felt very sorry for his friend, frustrated in the mission of his life, and tried to console him : "C'mon, friend, no need to chastise yourself with that. Besides, there's no guarantee that togheter we could have make it. But we are gonna find out : when you're back in shape, we'll head to Atlantis another time and…" Eathon looked at him with sad eyes. "No. The Organization was unable to follow me to the Temple, and then they don't know where the entrance is. But if we return, they're going to find out; they have half of their Suits up there, it's impossible to avoid them. We had just one chance… and for my fault, we spent it for nothing!" Frank tried to say something to contradict Eathon, to tell him that he was wrong… but he was unable to. And so he just stood there, looking at his broken friend, a man that now should have had to live with the greatest failure he could ever have done.

Now

Silence.

Lok was unable to speak : he was glancing at his closed and trembling fists, while Sophie and Cherit were stunned by the news, and Zhalia herself was so shocked by them that she forgot to sit in her usual careless manner. Dante was frozen; he could have never imagined such a thing. They had figured some of it when they discovered that Eathon didn't make the test in Atlantis, but not that Eathon had taken it so bad.

Frank slowly spoke again, looking very sad. "Eathon never forgot himself. I tried to tell him, and your story confirms that, that even if I had come along, probably we could not have done it. Nothing. He was… enraged with himself for not being able to get the thing he had followed for such a long time, and that was the key for his friend's healing. After that, he was never the same!" "What do you mean?" asked Lok in a stern tone. "He became… more desperate. He had spent so much time looking for the Amulet that his failure depressed him very much." Dante inquired : "Then why didn't you say something to us? The Foundation could have helped!" Frank sighed and looked sadly at him. "We couldn't. The Organization understood we had critical informations, and decided to isolate us, with whatever means possible. We couldn't call for help, we couldn't even escape. To try to fool them, we made some missions to find other secrets and hidden amulets here in America, but it didn't work. The Professor himself helped forming the net around us. Until…"

Nine years before…

"You're what?" Eathon didn't even look up to him, busy preparing his backpack. "I'm going out. I'm sick and tired to wait for them to break the defensive spell and catch us!" Frank gripped him on his arm. "You're out of your mind! We only have to resist some time more, I'm sure that at Venice they had find out something's wrong and are preparing a relief mission. We just have to…" "You can't fool me, Frank, as much as you can't fool yourself. Even if they had figured it out, what help can be of use against the Professor himself? Not counting Rassimov!" Frank huffed in frustration and threw his fist at the wall. "So, what's the brilliant plan? Running for your life until they corner you?" Eathon weakly smiled. "Kind of. I'm sure I can make a good distance before they catch me. And besides, this will force them to divide their forces. The Professor will follow me, I'm sure of it, so that leaves Rassimov to you. But I know you'll be fine!" "I wish I could say so for you!" said Frank, quietly. The two friends looked at each other, then they threw themselves in each other's arms. "You don't have to do it, Eathon…" "I do. This thing has to end, and I have to end it. I can do at least this. Please take care of yourself, old friend!" Frank looked at him while he opened a window and prepared to jump into the garden. He had teary eyes, and his voice was broken. "I'll do it. But I promise you… I'll come after you, no matter what!" Eathon smiled, his eyes with unshedded tears, too. "I know you shall. Goodbye!" And he jumped, disappearing quickly into the night. Frank didn't move for a very long time…

Now

"His plan worked. The Professor runned behind him like a bat flying from hell, and Rassimov stayed here. I was able to fend off their attack until the Foundation came to help, and they retreated. He managed to avoid the Professor and his cronies for some time. He phoned me one last time, from a off-hand location on the Amazon River, in South America, telling me he was alright and where he was planning to go. And this is all!"

Lok immediately spoke up. "So, you know where he went. Why didn't you find him?" "We looked there, and everywhere, but our research got nowhere. An ancient Titan was nearby, and his power hid his traces and made us walking in circle and stuff like that. We looked for a whole two months, then we had to call of the research." "But if the Foundation already failed, what can we do?" asked Sophie uncertainly. Frank looked at her and shouted forcefully, standing up : "We can find him, that's what we can do! I'm sure that no power can match three veteran Foundation Seekers, the heir of the Casterwills and the son of Eathon Lambert, whose power defeated the Organization! With our combined forces and minds, we can find Eathon, and we are definitely gonna do that!" Everyone laughed in relief at the mock outburst. Dante said in a ending tone : "Then, so be it!" Frank nodded, then declared : "Ok, enough memories and bold declarations before the peril, it's bedtime! I want to have you and your Titans at top shape!" Everyone got up, and went to their bedrooms that Frank had assigned before.

Before drifting to sleep, Lok mumbled : "Hang on, dad, I'm coming!"

So, here is another chapter. Sorry if it's long, but I couldn't find the right place to cut it in two, so I just kept it intact. Besides, it's my fanfiction, so I can do whatever I want. Please review!