CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Bailey darted back and forth across her room, stuffing her backpack with as much clothes and essential items that she could. Her backpack was already bursting at the seams with everything that she had put in there. She was so already overzealous with her packing that she had no room for the notebook that she carried around everywhere; the one that she wrote her dreams and encounters with elementals and elements in. All of her conversations with Geneva were in there, and so were the things that she and the others had talked about when they were trying to figure out what was going on the first time.

Bailey sighed as she slapped the notebook against her hand, trying to figure out how to fit it in the bag. But that wasn't her main concern.

"Don't worry Bailey, if you think you're doing the right thing, then you're doing the right thing." Geneva's voice filled her head. Bailey smiled a little at the sound of her friend's voice. When Geneva first used Bailey as a medium for her powers (while she was still back in the element world) Bailey was freaked out. But now Geneva was something that she felt really close to. "Follow your instincts."

"But sometimes your instincts can cause you to be blind to some things," Gattaca's, Geneva's brother, then filled the room as well. "Just as a fair warning."

Talk about the angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other, Bailey let out a sigh before turning and sinking onto the bed that was in her room. It was as hard as a rock, but she didn't have room to complain. Core didn't make the building to be comfortable, he made it to work. Now here she was, possibly going to follow him as he tried to sneak into a government building to try and get something that no one has ever seen before. Am I really doing the right thing?

That was her main though that made her hesitate, was she doing the right thing? She hadn't told any of the others her plan; only Tapeworm knew and that's because he knew that he was going to be dragged into it after what the two had heard from Core. It was risky, that was a definite. She didn't even know what she was going to do if she got caught. Would the others even know where she was headed?

It's probably better that they don't know, just in case they get caught as well. Bailey reassured herself, trying to slow down her racing heart. Not when they're already being stalked by these people. They won't expect me.

That's what she was hoping. That she, little Bailey Pickett, would be so inconspicuous that she would be able to talk her way out of what was going on. (She was hoping that her vast knowledge would help her out as well). If she got caught, she could probably give the others time to get away, and then she would be taken in for questioning.

If not worse…

Bailey shook her head. No, she was going to do this. For once, she was going to be the one that was going to help her friends. Even if she had to sacrifice herself to do it.

"What are you doing?" Reihu asked as he entered the large (and only) examination room that was in WingzCorp. Rhuben didn't turn at the sound of Reihu's voice; she continued to walk around the room, looking up and down. As if she was looking for something.

His voice echoed across the room. He shivered, a bit chilled. It wasn't cold in the room; on the contrary, it was actually quite warm. But the metal décor as well as the silent screams of pain that he could hear coming from that room always caused him to shiver. He hadn't stepped foot in that room in a long time and he didn't expect that he would ever do it.

Not since he had left it the first time.

"Last I checked that wasn't your business." Rhuben said easily.

"Last I checked, you are my business." Reihu replied. He followed her around the room, watching as she reached out and lightly placed her hand on a tube, running her fingertips over it. She pulled her hand away and rubbed her thumb against her fingers, a look of curiosity on her face. "You don't impress me."

"That's a shame, because I live my entire life in hopes of impressing you."

Reihu laughed lightly at her quick retort before taking a good look around the room. It looked the same as it always had; tubes set up for the animals that served for guardians and for those that Core was going to work on. Reihu briefly remembered when he was there, he didn't remember anything before he was worked on, but he remembered everything after it. He couldn't imagine why she would want to go back there.

"Do you think you're going to find anything?" Reihu asked after a minute.

"Hm, you're smarter than you look," Rhuben commented before turning around, placing her hands on her hips. She was obviously frustrated. Probably at the lack of finding anything. "It's possible," she chewed on her lip. "It was just an idea; if Core was able to get to DeathLiger and DalFang when we awakened, I was wondering how that was possible and if that's what's going on now."

Reihu snorted. "Do you really think that we can believe what he's saying?"

"Do you?" Rhuben returned, crossing the room to him.

Reihu shrugged. "At this point, with everything that he's done, every lie that he's told…." He looked away for a moment, his brown hair falling in his face. "I don't know." He then smiled when Rhuben stopped, standing in front of him. "Remember one of the last things I said to you was when we were in battle?"

Rhuben thought for a moment. "Kiss of death?" she guessed.

"Exactly." Reihu agreed before leaning down to kiss her.

Rhuben turned her head to the side, effectively causing him to kiss her cheek. "Nice try," she said with a half-smile before turning serious again. She changed the subject. "There's a lot of stuff that could answer a lot of our questions here." She remarked. "What's going on with Zack and Cody and the prophecy as well as, potentially, why I haven't gotten DeathLiger back when Crystal and Tapeworm got their guardians pretty quickly." She turned on her heel and started to pace the room once more. "Most importantly," she crossed her arms over her chest. "What the Element Stone has to do with anything and…" she let out a breath, her hands tightening into fists. "Whether or not we fully can trust Core."

Reihu blinked at her for a moment. "You need to relax." He said suddenly. At the incredulous look on her face, he continued. "I don't think I've ever seen you without your jaw being set every since I met you, I'm surprised that you don't have chronic jaw ache." He started to pick at his long nails. "I should take you out on a date."

Now it was Rhuben's turn to snort. "Sorry, but I'm pretty sure that 'going on a date' and 'saving the world' aren't exactly synonymous."

"Tell that to Cody." Reihu retorted. "Seriously, we should go out. You really do need some time to relax"

"I'll relax when I'm absolutely sure that nothing is going to happen to anyone. That we can figure out what's going on and we can stop it before any more innocent people get hurt or before anyone else's lives are completely shaken up." Rhuben held up a finger. "It's happened too much for my liking, especially with what happened to Zack and Cody. If something happened to their parents because of this whole thing, I wouldn't be able to live with myself."

"How so?"

Rhuben shrugged. "It's my fault Cody is an elemental, I awakened him." She explained. She then grimaced. "But, it's not like we can change anything about that now."

"Are you sure you're ok?" Reihu asked her gently.

"Let's be honest here, when am I ever ok?"

A/N: I hope that you guys liked the chapter, it was more a filler than anything, but I think that it really gave a good look into what Bailey is feeling. Like I said in the last one; besides Zack and Cody, Bailey and Tapeworm have a big part in this story, so you're going to be seeing a lot of them. But I'm also gonna try and equally balance face time with everyone else.

I put in some ReihuxRhuben since I haven't shown it much until now as I seemed to have focused more on CrystalxCodyxBailey and ZackxRiley. So I hope you guys liked the silliness of their banter as well as the seriousness of their conversation because I think that while Reihu is older, he still is kind of a silly kid. Or, at least, more care-free. You'll see more of them as the story goes on.

Also after this, the chapters get longer (about 5,000 words) as the plot to the whole story officially starts now. Of course the idea of whether or not Core could be trusted would be one of the main things that they had to deal with.

Cheers,

-Riles