CHAPTER SEVEN

Reihu pushed his overgrown hair out of his face as he stood in front of WingzCorp.

Having been there since the beginning of the corporation and watching Core run out on them was something that he wasn't going to forget anytime soon. It was eerie enough that he and the rest of WingzCorp were staying there before they figured out that Gattaca was behind everything that was going on. They didn't know what to do for a while; they just ate, slept, and seemed to wander around aimlessly. Part of him wanted to leave that life behind just as soon as Core had left him. He could admit that he felt betrayed, since that was all that he knew.

But when Koto had showed him what Core was really doing, he wondered if his whole life was a lie and if that he was just a pawn in Core's game. He wondered if Core really cared about hurting other people just so he could help a friend who had passed away. Reihu and the others were just a pawn in his plan of revenge (which didn't really work out that well in the first place); it was something that he was never going to forget.

Now here he was, turning around and helping Core with something that he and Christian were looking for. Was he breaking his promise to himself?

It was all too complicated.

Reihu took a deep breath before reaching out and punching in the code that was practically burned into his memory and waited for the door to slide open before he went inside. As soon as the door closed, his lion instincts kicked in and his eyes shifted back and forth as they quickly adjusted to the darkness. So far, he didn't see anyone.

He wasn't sure if anyone was there either.

He started towards his room, going slowly, not particularly in a rush. After Koto had died and everyone had buried him, WingzCorp had completely fallen apart at that point. He hadn't heard from Kuroko or Kagenui, Koto's brother and cousin, and he hadn't seen anyone from the DarkLion. Not even a peep from the DragonGang or Spirit X. But that didn't surprise him, one of the main things about WingzCorp was that you had to be very secretive and it was better not to establish communication with them unless it was absolutely necessary.

Now that the government was possibly on their tails, he hoped that Core was able to get into contact with everyone.

Reihu arrived at what used to be his room and went inside, dropping his bag onto his bed. He looked at the empty bed that was next to him, reserved for Ruliyan, and wondered how they could have lived in their conditions without thinking that what they were doing was wrong.

I guess that's what happens when you're taken at such a young age, Reihu reasoned as he sat down, gripping his hands on the side of the bed. His long nails lightly poked into the fabric underneath him. You did things without question because you were trained that way.

All of a sudden, a foul odor entered his nose and he whipped around, hands out, to see Kuroko standing behind him. "Just wondering, do you guys always smell like that?" He asked, relaxing as he waved a hand in front of his face, relaxing.

Kuroko merely let out a slight growl, his golden-yellow eyes looking over Reihu, as if making sure that he really was the boy that was standing in front of him. Finally, he lifted a hand and scratched his neck. "So Core asked you to come by as well?"

Reihu nodded. "I'm sure that the rest of you are here?"

"Cindy and Kotaro are the only ones that aren't here yet." Kuroko said as he crossed his arms over his chest. "Frankly, I'm surprised you came. I figured that your new life with those people would be too hard for you to pass up."

Reihu wasn't bothered in the slightest. "You know their names," he said as he slid by Kuroko and started to walk out of the room. "I mean, since the whole time we were trying to capture them to 'keep them safe'" he used air quotes around the words. Kuroko nodded in agreement, both still put off of the fact that they were essentially used against their will. Though they weren't going to say it out loud, they learned long ago that expressing their thoughts about things like that didn't help you. "Adapting to our new lives isn't hard." He changed the subject. "Besides, if Core needs something to be done, and he was this frantic about it, it must be something big."

"I got that feeling as well." Kuroko agreed.

Reihu watched him as the two walked to Core's old office. Reihu was sure that everyone was gathered there; it would be fitting. It was where they were taken when WingzCorp was first put together and they were recruited, and it was the last place they were together when they figured out that Core had run out on them.

Stretching his arms over his head, Reihu slowly bent down until he was walking on all fours. It was second nature to him and at times he wondered if he should just let the lion powers that were fused to his human DNA to take over so he could live as a wild animal. It would probably make things easier, but like everything else, he was too used to being half-and-half. He couldn't leave the…friends…that he had now.

It would be too hard.

"We're waiting on two more people," Kuroko said as he entered Core's office. Reihu looked around at the BlackWolves, DarkLions, and Spirit X. They all looked the same as they had when they split up, if not a little bit older and more…guarded. Despite the two that were missing, Reihu knew that there were still a bit more that were missing.

Raylen, of Spirit X, they hadn't seen in years. He was hardly around when Reihu first started at WingzCorp, but he had interacted with him once or twice. No one knew where he went or if he was ever going to come back, Core never spoke of him so in return, no one else did. It was like he dropped off the face of the earth.

"So what are we doing here?" Tori asked sharply. "What did we need to come back to this place for?"

Reihu noticed all eyes turning to him and he gulped lightly, suddenly feeling like a kid again. He knew that he was the only know that knew what they were going to be looking for, as he was the one that was that close to Core…Nathan now.

"Alright," Reihu let out a deep breath. "Core was a very secretive man," he said as he walked around to the back of Core's desk, grabbing everyone's attention.

"No shit." Caos murmured.

Reihu smiled a little at his division member and then looked serious once more. "And we were never sure what it was that he was doing when he wasn't working us hard. We don't have elemental powers, but he used each and every one of us to try and help him understand what elementals could do." He cracked his knuckles loudly, being sure that his claws didn't poke the skin of his palms. "But no matter how much research that he does, there's always going to be a few things that they don't understand. And the biggest thing they don't know if the limit of an elementals power."

"So?" Rilian shook his head.

"So, a long time ago, Core, Christian, and Reed figured out that there was something that could be used to make an elemental even stronger. But now that things are starting to fall apart around us, especially with the fight with Gattaca that happened recently, they need to find the files that they have on it and find the objects they're looking for to be sure that the government doesn't get to it first."

Reihu took a deep breath, wondering if he should go ahead and do what Core asked him to do. That was the difference this time, he was asked, not told, to try and help him. They weren't sure if the balance between Earth and the Elemental World would ever be restored to its original value. But they had to be sure that the government didn't know specifically who hacked them in the first place and what kind of research they were doing.

"Have you ever heard of something called an Element Stone?"

"So Christian is looking for something but we don't know what," Noah said as he pulled his legs up onto the couch, tucking them underneath him. He rested his elbows on his knees and his chin in his hands. "And there's the possibility that we could get our powers and our guardians back, but if we do, our guardians may be possessed by something?"

"Yes," Sydney nodded. "That's everything that Crystal, Tapeworm, Zack, Cody, and Bailey told me." He closed his laptop and set it down on the coffee table in front of him. "I sent my findings to Julius and Maddie as well, I'm sure they'd like to talk about it when they get home from work."

"You know, considering work is so important." Patrick said sarcastically.

"It is if you're trying to keep a low profile. Not that's easy since people are coming up to us on the street all the time," Riley reminded him. She was leaning in an armchair, sitting in it sideways, her tanned legs dangling over the side. She moved her hands up to her wet, stringy hair, and started to braid it absentmindedly. "What do you think could possess our guardians?"

"If I had to guess," Rhuben said slowly, as if she were thinking about it as she spoke. "It's something in the element world that we haven't come in contact with." She sat up straight on the other end of the couch, her feet resting on Patrick's back from where he was lying on the floor. The five of them were sitting in the living room of their house back in their home of Sydney, Australia, brainstorming. As soon as Riley, Rhuben, Patrick, and Noah had come in from the beach, Sydney quickly filled them in on everything that they had missed from their cousin's phone call. "You know how Core managed to get DalFang and DeathLiger before they could come to me and Riles after we awakened? What if it's something like that? He had that kind of ability, someone else might have been able to figure it out and use it as well."

"Last I checked Core was on our side now." Patrick mumbled, lightly kicking his legs back and forth so the heels of his feet hit his butt with each kick. "So I don't think it would be him double-crossing us. You know," he flipped his hair out of his face. "If his story about wanting to capture us to keep us safe as a favor for Dad is true," He added thoughtfully. "But what would that glowing thing be? If it was controlling the guardians out of that, could we figure out who is behind it by getting the…thing and running tests on it?"

"I thought of that," Sydney admitted. "And it seems to me that that could be more trouble than it's worth. Especially with so many different elements that are being used in the Element World. I wouldn't know where to begin. You know, except for how Bailey is now able to use Geneva's and Gattaca's powers, but that's a whole other story."

"That'd be a first." Riley remarked.

"I know." Sydney agreed as he shook his head. "So, if one of our guardians came to us, and they were possessed as well, knock on wood," he reached forward and knocked on the coffee table. "Then we don't have a choice but to wait to get back to Boston to get the sample."

"Do you think we'll be able to get back to Boston?" Rhuben asked, looking concerned. "It's like you said, they have that curfew, the news footage, and things are slowly falling apart there. If we can't talk on our home phones or in public to them back in Boston, it's only a matter of time until our cell phones and laptops have to be shut off." She raised her right hand and pointed at her watch. "These aren't working either."

"Yeah, there must be something wrong with it," Sydney looking annoyed with himself. "Something I didn't catch when I was making it. Some sort of bug." He added to himself.

"Ok, well, what about Uncle Christian looking for something," Riley said, changing the subject. "What could that be?"

"He's a scientist, sis," Noah pointed out. "There's so much that he could be looking for, we wouldn't know where to begin." He shrugged. "Besides, Sydney already looked over his computer after we got it back from the police, there was nothing on there. Not even in his locked folders."

"Probably to keep Mom and the rest of us from finding it." Rhuben said. She paused and then recounted her earlier statement. "That wouldn't make sense though, Mom knew about the elements before Dad did. And Dad did research on it, using his profession as a Rocket Scientist to cover it, like Uncle Christian and Core did. So if it was anything that he had, he wouldn't be dumb enough to leave it on his personal computer." She motioned to her baby brother. "Besides, like you just said, Syd would have found it when he checked."

"Mhm," Sydney agreed.

Patrick sat up on his heels, knocking Rhuben's feet off of him, his eyes growing wide. "But what if it wasn't on his personal computer?" He asked.

"What?" Riley wrinkled her nose.

"You just said that he used being a Rocket Scientist as a cover to hide the experiments that he was doing for elementals, so no one would question the times that he may have stayed at the lab late," Patrick said, the tempo of his voice quickening as he went. He was getting excited at his epiphany. "Mom probably knew the reasons why and the times that she would go visit him at work and couldn't take us were because he was showing her what he found."

"And?" Rhuben waved a hand, urging him to continue.

"I get it," Noah blurted out suddenly. "Why would Dad leave all of his findings on his personal computer? If anyone from his work got a hold of it, they would have everything there in that one place. What if he had it on his work computer at the Institution? They're scientists; they have the technology to hide anything that they need on those things."

"Which means what we're looking for is possibly there!" Patrick concluded.

Riley leapt to her feet, her wet hair smacking him in the face. "Be in the car in five minutes!" She declared. "I'll call Julius now." She turned to Sydney. "And be sure that you get all of that down so we can get it to Crystal, maybe Uncle Christian did the same thing. She and Cody should be able to figure out how to get it." She then grinned. "Maybe Bailey could help as well," she added, mostly as a joke.

Patrick smiled as Noah rolled his eyes.

"Something must be wrong with me," Sydney murmured to himself as Rhuben hurried to get the car keys. He grabbed his computer and started to load it into its case, being sure that it was strapped in tight with the buckles and clasps that were inside.

"What makes you say that?" Noah asked with an amused lift to his tone.

"First Zack thought of something before I did and now Patrick?" He pouted. "I must be losing it."

A/N: More questions and fewer answers. I have a habit of doing that, but it makes the story that much more exciting don't you think?

Cheers,

-Riles