Oh my good gosh, you guys!

Guess what?

Okay, I imagined you said, 'What?' back.

This chapter is Chapter 14. Do you know what that means?! It means there are only SIX CHAPTERS left! Six freaking chapters and one epilogue! Oh gosh. I think I'm going to cry. Did you feel that, too? *drama alert*

Huge thanks to these people who review so tirelessly, I consider them superheroes. That's right. Super Reviewers. Here. Have this really cool costume I made with the huge, emblazoned logo SR on it. Yay! Thank you very much: magicdemi-god223 (Haha. That peaking-curiosity thing is really good. I'm glad it did, though. It's really hard for me to choose which passage/paragraph/part? Haha. I hope this is soon enough. I think this is the fastest update I have), addicted2reading9 (Hahaha. Don't let Jonah hear that. I'm pretty sure he's still feeling proud of himself. That does sound smart, though. Haha. Oh, TLC means tender loving care. That's why Ian said he hopes that TLC won't come from Dan. HAHAHAHA – Wait, I remember I'm still on probation for shipping Natan. Whoops) and emmelinekat (I don't know how you do it, but ever since you have always been one of the first reviewers. Thank you. Haha. So that's why! I was wondering why it said 'receiving' XD) By the way, if Shimmering Icicles is reading this, I am so sorry. Somehow my AN got edited from 'I made her like it' to 'I made her so'. Sorry. I edited the previous AN. So yeah. XD

DISCLAIMER: I've been through two multi-chapters and I will never own The 39 Clues.

On with the story! Enjoy... 'cause that's what matters most.

oooooOooooo

Chapter 14

Jonathan levelled his eyes at the younger kid. He could almost feel Alex's need to strangle him right now. He could actually imagine heat waves emanating from all around Alex.

"The kid was taken," Alex stated simply.

"Yep, that's what happened," Jonathan replied, just as plainly. He even pointed at a self-inflicted wound on his forehead which needed stitching, indicating that he had to get hurt before Natalie was taken. Which, of course, was not the case, but surely, Alex doesn't need to know that part.

Alex ran his tongue on the inside of his lower lip, studying Jonathan's aloof behaviour. "Would you mind telling me how exactly that happened?"

"Yes, actually. I would mind." Jonathan examined his fingers tiredly.

Alex slammed his hands on the desk, jumping up with a ferocious glare blazing in his eyes. He was done tolerating Jonathan's frustrating behaviour. "How could you let one little girl go?! Are you stupid?! The Council would have our necks!" he screamed at him.

"Bummer," Jonathan commented drily, but he suddenly straightened at something Alex said. "But, wouldn't that be, 'The Council would have your neck'?" he pointed at Alex confusedly.

Alex glared at him. "I swear to everything that I have... If the Council doesn't kill you, I will."

Jonathan cracked a smirk. "Looking forward to it." He gave Alex a two-finger mock salute and left the room. He whistled a happy tune as he made his way to his room. Getting Alex all riled up like that is just the sprinkles to his huge serving of plans.

He jogged down the flights of stairs to his room. It was so sad that he had to throw – or more specifically, smash – away the phone he used to help Dan. That was brand new. But... oh well. He already did everything he could possibly do to help the situation improve. Now, the strings are out of his hands. He has nothing to manipulate this game anymore. It's all up to the Cahills now, Jonathan thought as he flopped down his bed. He chuckled as he thought about how alike he and his twin think. Maybe they do believe that Cahills are the saviour of the world.

xxxOOOxxx

"The least you could say is, 'thank you'," Hamilton reiterated, glaring at the back of Sinead's head. He's been implying that point ever since he came and Sinead just stuck her nose far up in the air.

"You're welcome," she replied promptly, not even turning around to look at him.

Hamilton rolled his eyes at Amy who shrugged apologetically at him. "She's exceptionally disagreeable today," she reassured him.

"Isn't she always?" he muttered.

Sinead pretended not to hear them and continued on stomping in front of the group. Hamilton volunteered to be the chauffeur who would lead Amy's group back to the jet – naturally – and it wasn't really appreciated by everybody. Jake and Evan stayed close behind, carrying the unconscious Victoria in a makeshift hammock. Sinead reached the jet first and harshly tugged at the door. It didn't budge. She tried again with much more force this time. Nothing.

Hamilton towered over her. "You need help?" he asked, having trouble keeping the amusement out of his voice.

"I –" tug, "can –" pull, "do it –" tug, pull, "no, thank you!" Sinead huffed, gripping the metal handle with both hands and heaving the door with as much strength this time.

Hamilton rolled his eyes. He placed a hand over both of hers and pulled at the door with one swift motion. The door opened almost immediately and Sinead could have sworn that it was smug to open when he tried. Hamilton removed his hand and gestured at the open door. "Ladies first?" he said genially.

Sinead glared at him, 'accidentally' stepping on his foot as she boarded the jet. "Ow," Hamilton called out after her real sarcastically.

Amy placed a comforting arm on his shoulder. "Just..." she hesitated, not knowing exactly what to say, "let it go."

Hamilton rolled his eyes for the second time that day. Amy opted for a sad smile and went in after her best friend. He looked behind him to see Jake and Evan forming a vertical line to get inside the narrow door. "I'll carry it – her," Hamilton offered. He heard a loud mocking 'Ha!' coming from inside and resisted the urge to shout back at Sinead. Evan shot Jake a questioning look which the other returned with a shrug. "Thanks, man," Jake said, bumping fists with Hamilton before going inside. Evan gave Hamilton a little salute.

Hamilton stared long and hard at the unconscious body on the floor. He really does not know what went on in Amy's head when she thought of helping this girl out. He shook his head as he slung the girl over his shoulder.

"Careful! She's wounded!" Amy shouted as if he could see him carelessly handling the casualty.

"Oh sure," Hamilton drawled tiredly. "Boss the good Samaritan around and not a single thank you."

"You get used to it," Ian suddenly appeared on his side. "After some time." He disappeared back inside without even offering the help Hamilton was expecting.

Idiot.

xxxOOOxxx

If you think Natalie couldn't hide behind Dan as close as she could get, you thought wrong. She nearly disappeared behind him as she cowered at the sight of a wounded Victoria. "That's the girl who gave me the painful shots," she whispered in his ear frightfully.

Dan interpreted. "She said the bloody chick gave her the shot thingies which were painful," he said, pointing at the unconscious girl. Alistair tied the last bandage around her arm, trying to control the bleeding. "She looks really familiar though," he said to himself, his eyebrows scrunching in confusion.

"Amazing paraphrasing," Sinead commented lazily. She looked at Evan and Jake who were snoring their heads off in perfect symphony.

Ian glanced at Amy resignedly. "Do we really want to help her?" he asked her. They have already exchanged their stories (about the whole Japanese attacks, Ian sending Dan out alone, Dan meeting up with them in the Tokyo Tower, Amy and the group in the hospital, seeing Victoria and how she helped them) and reacted as if this was another bad day in the Cahill world... which technically, it was.

Amy looked unsure. "Victoria said she wasn't working with the Vespers anymore. She actually seem like she could help us," she explained.

"Oh, Amy. Stupid, innocent, dim-witted Amy," Dan commented. Amy made a face at him, but said nothing.

"She might know how to cure Natalie. That's a good thing, right? Makes our job a little bit easier," Sinead stated, snatching Hamilton's Lays away from him. She shook the bag. "Oh, good job, Hamilton! Didn't even leave a crumb?!"

Hamilton feigned a look of shock. "Oh I'm sorry. Did you want me to leave you some?" he asked innocently. Sinead threw the empty bag at his face which he merely slapped away while laughing. "I'm kidding," he said, shaking hard in laughter. "Here you go." He tossed her an unopened bag of Doritos.

Sinead caught it with both hands. "Tangy Cheese! Yay!" She opened the bag and was about to dig in when she remembered something. "Dip?"

Hamilton rummaged inside the plastic bag. "Here." He handed her the Hot Salsa dip.

Jonah nodded, finally understanding. "So that's why he bought Doritos," he told Ian, wagging his eyebrows meaningfully. "Told you he hated those things!"

"That is the most disgusting thing I have ever seen," Dan confirmed. He looked behind him. "What do you think, Nat?"

"I think it's sweet," Natalie said truthfully, smiling. Dan made a huge show of pretending to puke.

"Stop that!" Ian exclaimed irritably, involuntarily chucking a magazine right at Dan's face. "Stop being so casual and normal about it!" Dan let out an offended "Hey!"

"Ian, would you please stop throwing things at my brother?" Amy said exasperatedly.

Alistair nodded his head in agreement. "You never know when the instance would come where young Ian would be holding a knife instead of a magazine."

"Is that supposed to be a joke? 'Cause that could seriously happen," Hamilton commented.

Jonah laughed. "Oh please. Like he would even think of doing that while Am-" His eyes widened when he realized what he nearly said. He caught Ian's murderous look. "Am... A... A balloon... is, uh... is flying over the sky?"

Hamilton snorted. "Yeah. Sure. He's so much better at acting than I am," he said mordantly.

"Oh, like it's not obvious anyway," Sinead said frivolously, scooping as much dip with one chip as possible. "We all know the whole Amy-Ian issue. Anybody who doesn't would have to be dead."

"Ugh. Girly flicks' plot everywhere. Brace yourselves," Dan said, doing the Eddard Stark meme pose.

Victoria stirred in her sleep. Amy automatically shushed everybody which they returned with an 'are you serious?' look.

"No, need for the shushing," Victoria said, sitting up as if her wounds wouldn't open up from the effort. "I can hear you just fine from the start anyway."

"Of course you can," Ian said, rolling his eyes.

Victoria regarded him carefully. He really does look a lot like Alex. "Too bad you're not really related," she murmured.

Ian heard that. "Of course not. That monster could not be my brother whatsoever," he growled.

Victoria laughed without emotion. "When did you find out?"

"My useless uncle dropped hints here and there," Ian said nonchalantly. "How did you find out?" He looked at her intently, his Lucian training waiting for any signs of lying.

"Why do you think I'm in Russia?" Victoria replied as if it was obvious. Ian looked more lost than before. "Oh. So you have no idea who he really is then? You haven't seen the connection yet?"

Ian shrugged. "Should I?"

Victoria flipped her shoulder-length hair. That one movement drained the blood from her lips and she looked as white as snow. "Guess not. Though it would probably amuse you to know that he is a Cahill as well," she said mysteriously, smirking because she knows Ian would never back down from that kind of information.

Alistair placed a hand on her shoulder. "I think we should tend those wounds before we delve into more details, eh, girl?"

Victoria stared up at him. "So, you really are alive," she remarked as if she was pleased by this news.

"No need to sound surprised," Alistair replied dismissively. He led her to a compartment, separated only by a thin cloth.

"Too bad Casper shared the same fate," Victoria laughed, although she sounds like people should take that as a threat.

oooooOooooo

Why did I update early? I think I'd give all of us a good boost since half-term/mid-term/sembreak/whatever you call it is already drawing into a sad and unanticipated close. I still need to do some serious reading because we have a mock exam on the first week of December to prepare for the real January exams. And I am freaking out. Anyhoo, I hope I'd get to finish The Start of Train before Christmas 'cause as I've said, there are only six chapters left and an epilogue.

Moving on, we are getting to the biggest bomb of this story and when that blows up, there would be smaller but as effective bombs to come. Trust me. Even I surprised myself. Also, I have read Divergent! Yay me! It's actually a pretty nice book and would make you think about the world the same way as The Hunger Games does. So yeah. I want to check out Skulduggery Pleasant series - was it? Not sure if I got the title right. Has anybody read them?

Sneak Peek for Chapter 15:

Ian looked at Amy. "Is this going to be permanent? Because I refuse to live through that for months on end," he told her. Amy just smiled amusedly.

Jonah threw a shoe at him. "Just deal with it. It's better than all the yelling and the rambling and the walk-outs and the drama and the Tomas-versus-Ekats arguments and the –"

Ian shot him a deadly look, gripping Jonah's shoe. "I get it," he snapped, throwing it as hard as he could on Jonah's chest. Jonah grunted, looking at Amy with a wounded expression. Sinead and Hamilton glared at all of them.

"Ian, Jonah does have a point," Amy pointed out.

"Who cares?" Ian exclaimed, outraged that Amy sided with Jonah. "I have a point, too."

"I have to live through this every single day," Dan told Natalie. "Can you believe it?"

"It sounds fun," Natalie said wistfully.

Ooohh... A long Sneaky Peekie. Haha. Oh well.

Tell me any mistakes you spotted or what you thought about the chapter by filling out the little box below called Review. I know it's a little bit short, but yeah. Haha. You won't be disappointed next time. Promise.

Read, Re-read and Review. Reviews are an FFers best friend. XD

Much Love, Peace Out!

AngelicSpring.