Chapter 11! Yay!

So I have some pieces of our dramatic conclusion decided, but other pieces are missing. Let's see how this puzzle's gonna come together. =)

Also, the answer to the monologue question was Maleficent's monologue from Sleeping Beauty.

So, without any further ado, (and hopefully less spelling errors than I've been making writing just these notes!), onward to chapter 11!

Enjoy!

Chris' POV

"I still think it has something to do with the movie itself," John suggested. I'd recruited him along with Mr. Smith to help figure everything out; starting with that riddle.

"No, I don't think so," I replied. "I'm leaning more towards Mr. Smith's idea of looking closer into the words."

"Well, most bad guys usually do something like that," Mr. Smith added. "It probably indicates their plan or leads to their hideout."

"But why would they tell him that?" John asked, gesturing to me. "He's their enemy! Why would they want him to know what they're doing or where they're hiding."

"Maybe they want him to know where they are or what they're up to," Mr. Smith answered, analyzing the situation a little more.

"Well, it could definitely be a challenge of some sort," I said. "The monologue the line was from was about how true love is supposed to conquer all, but the witch wasn't going to let that happen. Maybe we're supposed to derive that, the plan, from the monologue itself and then we can get the location from the line."

"Wait, I lost you. What plan?" John asked.

"Nossida wants to fight, I think," I answered. "I can't say why or what Adrien's got to do with it. But I'm sure there's a fight involved."

"Then let's work on getting a location from the line," Mr. Smith said in a serious tone. "What are some key words in the line?"

"Prove. True love. Conquers," I listed. "Those could all mean something."

"Well, let's try it. Think about places close by that could be linked to such words," Mr. Smith instructed. "They must be close by if both Max and Adrien were able to get to the school so easily."

So we got to work brainstorming. There had to be someplace nearby that linked to one of those words.

Prove? Um... where was someplace that involved proving anything? A courtroom? No, that wasn't it. Prove was out.

True love? You had to be truthful in a courtroom. NO! They were not hiding in a courtroom! I have to lose that idea! Moving on, anything else to do with love? Well, the park is kind of romantic. Maybe they're in the park somewhere? Maybe.

Conquers? This one should be a little easier than prove. Maybe they're in a museum nearby. There have been multiple times in history where someone has conquered someone else. Now, just for fun, how does this one relate to a courtroom…

"I got it! What about Lake Agápi?" John asked. "It's about thirty minutes away from here, and Agápi means love in Greek."

"John, have I ever told you that you're a genius? Cause you are," I said. "That makes perfect sense. It's close, its name is love. That's gotta be it!"

"Well done, John. Now that we've figured that out, let's get over to that lake and save the rest of our MBC team," Mr. Smith said.

"Maybe we should wait till tomorrow. It's late and Mom would be really suspicious if we didn't come home till like two in the morning," John suggested.

"Yeah. And there's something I have to do before we go find them," I added. I didn't want to tell them what it was exactly. Then again, my brother and Mr. Smith wouldn't call me a love sick freak for wanting to still see Sam one more time.

"Then it's settled; we'll go tomorrow," Mr. Smith concluded.

Sam's POV

"I don't think they're coming tonight," Adrien said after a long silence. I was outside sitting on the small, grassy hill that the house sat on. It was like a small yard that declined into a beach. It was nice.

The whole view was nice. It was dark, like the first night I'd came here. The moon was reflecting off the dark water. The sound of the small waves hitting the shore was very calming. If only villains didn't live here…

"Do you think the hint you gave them was too hard, Nossida?" Max asked. I still couldn't believe that Max was Axel. He'd seemed so sweet, so innocent, so human! But I guess that's why they had him break apart the MBC, because he could do it without detection.

"No. He'll be able to figure it out eventually. He's the smart one," Nossida answered.

"Well he doesn't have that much time. Phase two starts tomorrow," Max said.

"Ok. Then phase two starts without Chris finding us. Big deal," Adrien said in response.

"But we wanted to fight him. We had everything already planned out," Nossida explained. "Every last detail."

"You've been trying to anticipate a fight between the three of you?" I asked, pointing to Nossida and Max.

"No. We've been trying to anticipate a fight between all twelve of us," Max corrected.

"There's nine of us, idiot," Nossida replied. "Three of them, five of us, and one of her," he pointed to me.

"Seriously, Ax. You're 27 and you can't even count right?" Adrien asked, using a nickname a presumed came from his alien name.

"Shut up," Max snapped. I had to admit that even though I hated the guts of all three of these guys, they had their comical moments when they almost seemed… nice.

"So do we go back inside and call it a night?" Adrien asked.

"Yeah, let's call it," Max replied, getting up and heading for the door. Nossida followed him. I stayed back and looked out over the lake one last time.

"Ready to go home?" Adrien asked. His voice was gentle, almost as though he really did love me. And he might've. I just don't love him.

"Yeah. Let's go," I replied, walking toward the dock.

Chris, you better get here soon, I thought. Time's running out. And you're our last hope.

Yes, time is now of the essence. Will the day be saved?

Find out soon in some upcoming chapter!

Read on!