Chapter 4

A/N: Hello! Sorry for the wait, I had an Art field trip, homework and the need to massacre Rhythm Thief pictures by drawing them.

Anyway, I checked my chapters and saw that my chapter breaks were not showing up. I've changed them now so hopefully you can see scene breaks but sorry for that.

Anyway, on with the story!

'… Where am I?' asked the bluebird in a very familiar voice. It looked down at itself. '… What am I? A bluebird? Even I didn't see that coming.'

Marie stood up, blinking in confusion. '… Raphael?'

'Hello Marie. It seems I'm a bluebird.' said Raphael the bluebird.

Marie grinned from ear to ear. 'You really are back! … Well, almost…' she trailed off, looking at the talking bluebird in front of her.

'Yes, well, it doesn't look like it was enough, then,' said Raphael. 'It looks like you only managed to awaken my soul, so you would need a lot more spring water.'

Marie thought about that. 'But that means we need to find the original pool in some cave we don't even know how to find! How will we find it?'

Just then, the sounds of a fight outside reached their ears, and before too long, a familiar nemesis entered the room.

'Aha!' said Napoleon as he entered the room. 'Marie, is it? I see you've found the vial.'

Marie gripped the vial tightly. 'What do you want? I've already used the spring water!'

Napoleon laughed his menacing laugh. 'That doesn't matter anymore. Just give me the vial and you won't get hurt.'

Marie clenched her teeth. 'What do you want it for?'

'Something very important is encoded on that vial, which I need. Hand it over, girl.' he snarled, clearly getting annoyed.

'Well then, you're not getting it.' replied Marie, anger apparent in her voice. 'You want it so bad? Come and get it.'

Napoleon smirked and walked forward, clearly thinking this was going to be easy. Unfortunately for him, he didn't count on the power of birds.

He hadn't taken three steps when Raphael the bluebird attacked him and started clawing at his eyes, temporarily blinding him and making him very angry. This gave Marie time to pick everything up and make a run for it. She was half way to the doorway when a very angry and scratched Napoleon swatted away Raphael and ran after Marie.

'Give me that vial!' he shouted. He was getting closer by the second and Marie knew she had to think of something.

Quick as a flash, she turned around and kicked Napoleon's legs, surprising him and causing him to fall to the ground. She then hit him around the head with the nearest thing to hand; her violin case. Napoleon fell unconscious on the floor. Marie winced, knowing that that hit must have made her violin go out of tune.

Marie ran outside to find Charlie, Raphael trailing her. She found her knocked out outside the door. Marie put down everything and shook Charlie awake. After a few seconds, Charlie came to, groaning and clutching her head. When she saw Marie, though, she forgot her head.

'Where's Napoleon?' she asked. 'What happened?'

Marie explained the turn of events, trying to make the part with the talking bluebird sound as less freakish as possible. Even so Charlie started a bit and eyed the bluebird carefully. 'So… there was a slight… flaw in procedures?'

'It looks like we're going to have to find the whole spring water pool.' said Marie. 'Napoleon seemed pretty eager to get his hands on this vial, though. Maybe you should screen it? He said something about something being encoded on it.'

'Of course.' Replied Charlie. 'Anything to help us find Napoleon. Let's go!'

(Scene break)

They were soon back at the Constabulary, waiting for the screening tests to come back. The silence was deafening; no one could think of anything to say and this went on for quite some time. Occasionally, they would steal glances at each other, but that was as far as anything social got.

Just as the silence was getting unbearable, a police officer came to deliver the screen test results, which Charlie took eagerly. Her eyes scanned through the notes and then across the computer generated image.

'What is it?' asked Marie.

Charlie frowned. 'These look like co-ordinates of some sort. Hold on, I'll get them transferred onto a map.'

Charlie left the room, leaving Marie and Raphael together. For a few minutes, neither of them said anything until Marie broke the silence.

'Raphael, what do you think the co-ordinates lead to?'

Raphael didn't answer for a few seconds, thinking. Then he replied. 'I don't know. It could be any number of things, depending what Napoleon is after. But I personally think that the co-ordinates lead to the Reversal Spring. It's what Napoleon was after initially, it would explain why the Reversal Spring water in the vial didn't matter to him and it makes the most sense.'

'Then we have to get there first.' replied Marie. 'Who knows what could happen if Napoleon got to it? We just need the location, and then we can set off. The sooner the better! We can't have Napoleon getting wind of where we're going.'

'You're right.' said Raphael. 'All we have to do is wait.'

And so they waited. It was only a few minutes until Charlie came back with the location marked on the map.

'Here,' she said. 'This is the location.'

Marie reached for the map and poured over it. She frowned. 'Are you sure? Isn't Napoleon after the Reversal Spring?'

Charlie also frowned. 'I would have thought so too, but this is where the vial leads, and this is where Napoleon wants to go. It's worth checking out.'

'Alright,' said Marie. 'Should we head out now?'

'I would think in the morning.' Charlie replied. 'You'd better get rest, and we still have to call your mother.'

Marie blinked. In the heat of the moment, she'd forgotten her own mother and how she might feel. 'Oh, OK. I'll wait until morning then.'

'I'll arrange the transport for you,' stated Charlie. 'Come 9 O'clock tomorrow and we'll be ready.'

Marie nodded. 'Okay! We'll be ready!' She walked out into the sunrise.

(Scene Break)

Marie found herself walking back to Raphael's apartment rather than to her own, which she didn't have a reason for. She had her violin in hand and the bluebird on her shoulder and all felt calm, but she knew that it was far from that.

There was silence until Raphael piped up. 'What happened to Fondue, Marie?'

Marie stopped dead in her tracks. She had been so caught up in her own troubles that she forgotten Fondue. 'I don't know. He must have run off because I haven't seen him.'

'Oh.' replied Raphael, disappointment evident in his voice. 'Well, he'll come back, he always does.'

Marie smiled. 'I'm sure he will.'

They had arrived at the apartment by now. Marie tuned the corner and the door came into view, along with the sound of scratching. A second after, the source of the sound came into view.

'Well, there's the answer to your question.' said Marie, as she observed Fondue scratching on the door. Fondue glanced in their direction, and once realising who it was, barked and came running up to them. Together, they entered the apartment.

'Looks like we've got a few hours.' said Marie as she set her violin down carefully. 'What do you want to do?'

'I don't know.' replied Raphael. 'I was just thinking about what Napoleon might want where we're going. What might be of importance in this next museum.'

'I know what you mean.' said Marie. 'But we'll just have to go to that museum and find out.'

A/N: Yes, I did forget Fondue for the last few chapters. Please don't kill me. Thanks to Angelucie for pointing it out.

So I hoped you enjoyed the chapter!