fleets: Hi everyone! I hope you didn't have to hang for too long with that last cliffhanger! ;)

Chapter 26: Counterattack

Dark could do nothing but watch as Dugal slowly increased the pressure on the trigger of the pistol aimed at the teen's head. Behind the man, Condor and his five hounds watched the happening impatiently. All it took to get rid of Hawk, Kestrel, and Dark handcuffed against the wall was three bullet shots; the sooner Dugal got this over with the sooner they could move on to more important things.

Like making sure all of the bombs were set in place and leaving the facility to a safer location.

Dark looked down the end of the muzzle pointed right at him between the eyes, and he could feel the drops of cold sweat accumulating on his forehead from nervousness. Bates still refused to stop the man and seemed to know something he didn't. If that shitty miniature Vaati bat was wrong about everything being okay, Dark was going to haunt him from the grave.

Just as he was about to pull the trigger, Dugal gave Dark a small, barely noticeable smirk.

The next few seconds all seemed to be in slow motion, and Dark could catch even the tiniest details of everything that happened. He could see Dugal's left hand slowly lift out of his pocket as the man swung around to point the pistol towards one of Condor's hounds. The left hand was holding a small black detonator the size of a cigarette lighter and the thumb pressed down on the red button. At the same time, Condor's calm stance broke as he bent his knees and held his arms out in front of him, and the five Hounds around him immediately took a step towards their master as though to defend him.

There was a deafening explosion and everything seemed to speed back up to normal speed as Dark winced from the noise and the bright flash of light. Yelps and pained yowls were mixed with the ringing boom of the blast, and when the smoke between the smoke Dark could see the mangled yet moving remains of the bits and pieces of Shadow… things. There were two more gunshots, a cry, and a thud.

When the smoke finally cleared, the only thing left was Dugal standing in the middle of an amorphous black shadow substance with bits and pieces of the metal parts from the hounds strewn about. Bits of fabric from Condor's jacket were scattered and blown to bits, and his helm rested on the floor, its Cyclops eye no longer glowing or indicating any sort of life.

Dugal picked off pieces of gunk from himself, and explained offhandedly to the stunned Talon guys and Dark, "You have to kill all of them at once if you actually want to defeat Condor, by the way," he began to wipe his glasses clean with the edge of his jacket, and then his mouth twisted in annoyance when he noticed that his jacket was also dirty, "I've been meaning to do that for a while now."

"He slipped a sticky grenade into Condor's jacket earlier when he tapped him on the shoulder. He then waited for all of the hounds to move near Condor to detonate it," Bates explained to Dark cheerfully when the other teen stared at him flatly with a look that said 'you-could-have-told-me-earlier.'

"Wha-what just happened?" Kestrel stammered when Dugal walked over and released their handcuffs.

"I saved you the trouble of killing Condor. Now if you want to make yourselves more useful, you can disarm the bomb trigger and make sure he doesn't come back to life." Dugal sighed, borrowed the edge of a baffled Hawk's jacket and cleaned his still grimy glasses. Satisfied, he propped them back on his face and did one last sweep around the room while tapping his chin, as though deciding if he was okay to leave them there.

"Er, come back to life… sir?" Hawk stood up, asking uneasily. Condor and the Hounds had easily beaten them earlier, and it wasn't a pleasant prospect to think that they weren't permanently dead.

"Sure," Dugal said as though it weren't his problem. "There are still plenty of those Hounds left. If even one of them shows up and howls he'll be right back up. That's why I'm ordering you to stay here and make sure that doesn't happen after you disarm the bomb. I'll take care of the rest."

"Sooo since we're taking orders, does that mean Talon is officially back?" Kestrel joked. He immediately regretted it when his former boss glared at him. "I wasn't serious, sir," he corrected himself. He'd forgotten what Dugal had been like after a long absence and working together with the much more casual Hawk. He'd been happy to see him that he'd forgotten that the man was actually pretty scary most of the time. That glare. Wow, not many people could do the 'glare behind the glasses' trick as well as he could.

"The only thing that matters is that you disarm the bomb and prevent Condor from reactivating it again. I'm ordering you to do so because if you don't do it, we're all going to die," Dugal explained shortly.

"Can't we just leave them here and blow the place up with th-" Hawk began, but then stopped himself. What was he doing? Why was he questioning Dugal? He was scared, nervous. He didn't know if they could take those Shadow Hounds if they reappeared, and he was afraid they would let everyone down. But… he'd been scared countless of other times before, but he'd never questioned. It wasn't that he was a mindless pawn who did everything Dugal said, but it was that he and the rest of the old team were aware that for things to work efficiently when time was short, the best thing to do was trust their leader to make the best judgment. Doubt was a potent poison. This was no time to doubt. If Dugal said they were going to do something, it was because he believed they could do it. Dugal still had his back to them, looking at his watch and mumbling to himself, calculating time. Hawk's expression hardened, and he tried again. "Yes sir!"

At this, Dugal tilted his head towards them. Kestrel was already working away at the timer while Hawk stood facing him with a clean salute. The ex-Talon leader smiled. "Good." He reached into the inside of his jacket and tossed three bundles at Hawk. "It's not much, but this might help you hold them off while I go… take care of some things."

Hawk caught the bundles. They were three remote detonation grenades like the one Dugal had used to take out Condor earlier.

"Use them wisely. I'll be back when I can," Dugal opened the door to leave.

"We won't let you down sir."

For a rare moment, Dugal's expression softened. "I know."

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Thyme I told you before he's not what you think he is," Vaati said darkly behind Thyme. He was relieved Thyme had jumped in when she did, but at the same time he was peeved about the help. "Do you see that now? He doesn't care about anything and he's going to kill you. Leave!"

"I… but," Thyme faltered. She brought her barrier back up in defense when Thistle casually summoned a wall of ice that threatened to crash down on top of them. The ice shattered when it hit the shield from the Staff of Byrna, but both her and Vaati could feel the power of the attack. "Thistle?" she searched his face in disbelief.

"Thyme, dear, all I'm asking is for a fair 1 versus 1 with myself and Vaati. The best analogy I can think of to what you're doing is, well, think of yourself as the terrible person who decides to interrupt a romantic date and ruins the mood for everyone. Isn't that terrible? I think it's terrible and I think you should leave." Thistle flashed behind them both and a fireball smashed down onto them like a meteor strike.

The wizzrobe actually sounded angry now. In all her time with him, Thyme had never actually seen him angry. Did her presence bother him this much? Another angry voice behind her interrupted her thoughts.

"This is my fight! I don't need any help! You're just going to be a burden so get out of here!" Vaati growled.

Thyme snapped. Her brows scrunched together angrily. These two BOYS. In the next brief pause of Thistle's attack, she broke her shield, and then angrily swung her staff towards Thistle. To his surprise, it launched a projectile that, while it didn't seem to hurt him, was enough to smack him across the face and blink in surprise. "Yeah right you didn't need help! You were losing!"

"I was not!" Vaati snarled. He opened his mouth to make an argument, but then decided to leave it at sulking since he couldn't offer a better case for himself. Just because I wasn't winning doesn't mean I was losing, he convinced himself uncertainly.

"You. Are. Both. IDIOTS!" Thyme screamed, and sent an even bigger projectile towards Thistle. He didn't even dodge it or do anything about it. He simply looked at it as it came charging towards him.

She regretted it the instant she launched the attack. It was an attack meant to damage. To hurt. Maybe even to kill. Why had it come to this? This had happened so fast. Of all the things to remember now, her first memory of Thistle flashed before her eyes as the attack exploded with a bright flash.

A small, cluttered room. It wasn't familiar at all, and it certainly wasn't hers. All of this garbage. There was lots of paper strewn about, unread mail left in a messy pile by the corner of a desk with some on the floor after falling down from the precarious paper tower. She scrunched her nose. This mess bothered her. Couldn't they bother cleaning up the place a little? This was ridiculous. And what was that grotesque little oval statue with an eye and three spikes on its head? Yeah, none of this was hers. This room wasn't hers. Or was it?

She couldn't remember a thing.

The girl opened her eyes. She reached her hands up above her face, and saw her toned, tanned arms. A frightening question began to surface in her mind as she jogged her memories for something. Anything.

Who am I?

The girl sat up abruptly, throwing the blanket off of her chest and knocking some other weird objects onto the floor. She had been sleeping, apparently, seeing how she had been lying across a small couch that had been nearly buried with clutter in a corner of the room. She whirled around in a panic, not sure of what she was looking for, until her eyes eventually landed on a mirror.

The girl's breathing slowed. She reached out her hands slowly and pressed her palm against the cold glass. The reflection of a nervous young girl around the age of seventeen looked back at her. She was wearing a loose fitting simple t-shirt that was way too big for her, and blue-striped cotton pajama pants. Her dark brown eyes stared back, bewildered, behind her black bangs.

Who am I? she asked herself again. The reflection in the mirror didn't answer.

"How are you feeling?"

She whipped around at the sound of a voice. She screamed when she saw a tall, thin man wearing a toucan mask looking at her from behind the desk. He'd fit right in with the junk all over the room that she hadn't noticed he'd been there all along.

"Great! You sound energized and wonderful. Do you remember anything?" The weird man exclaimed enthusiastically. He didn't sound sarcastic at all, and seemed genuinely pleased that she had reacted to his presence by screaming.

The girl stopped screaming, recovering from her initial surprise and shock. She peered at him cautiously, trying to gauge if he was a threat or not. "N-no. Nothing. Wh-who are you?"

"You don't remember anything? Not even your name?" The man pressed, leaning forward across the desk excitedly.

"No!" she snapped in frustration. "Tell me who I am!"

But he wasn't listening. The man was too absorbed in his own happy thoughts. "It worked perfectly! I am so good at this!"

"What are you talking about?!" She yelled. Blood rushed to her face in rage when she began to piece things together. "Did you do this to me? What did you do to me? I want my memories back you bastard!"

The man turned to her then, his sharp, calculating eyes putting her objections to a stop with a stern gaze from behind the silly mask. "Who did this to you?" he asked, with a curious tilt of his head. He stood up from his desk and then slowly walked over, handing her a recording device. "You did."

The girl fell silent, and then stared at the device now sitting heavily on her lap. She looked at it worriedly, afraid of what she'll learn, and glanced at the mysterious man for answers. He simply nodded once, indicating she should hear the recording.

She clicked the play button.

"Dear me. If you are hearing this then… ugh it feels so weird recording a message to myself!"

The girl froze. That was… that was her own voice. She strained her ears, making sure she caught everything. There was a familiar voice in the background, the same one as the masked man's, telling the recording that it was for her own good that she keep a record. With another sigh, her old self continued the recording.

"Alright, fine. Hi me. If you're hearing this, then it worked and you won't remember anything. Your name, your past, your friends, your family. Nothing. And you know what? That's what I wanted to happen so stop freaking out if you are, because you're not SUPPOSED to remember anything."

The voice was bitter. Why did she sound so bitter?

"Sometimes we wish we could do life over again. Others wish they could lose themselves so they could stop reliving a life too terrible for them to… keep going. I couldn't escape the past. It haunts me. I can't sleep. Every day is a nightmare and I just can't… I can't do this anymore."

What was she talking about? What had happened to her?

"I made a terrible mistake. I can't escape it… it's all my fault. I can't… I…" the voice paused to take a breath, calming itself before it continued. "But none of that is important now. What matters is that I am getting a second chance to start life over again. The man in the mask is giving me that second chance, and I don't want you to waste it, okay? I don't… I don't want you to waste it trying to look for your past again, because it'll only cause you to relive the nightmares I tried to escape. Please… please trust me."

The girl looked up from the device now, and she glanced at the masked man, her eyes wide. What was she going to do now?

"I'm sorry about what I've done to myself. I know that's a stupid apology, but I mean it. Oh and don't try to look for friends or family. Just know that they… just don't look for them. It's a waste of your time. They're dead. And I guess… now you're wondering where you'll go to since you don't have anything anymore? Who can you trust? All I can say is at this point, trust Thistle. He's the guy with the toucan mask. He's kind of eccentric, and he looks a little weird, but you can trust him."

"That's not very nice," the man, whose name was Thistle, crossed his arms over his chest indignantly.

"He's the only person you can trust. He gave us a second chance. He freed you from my past by erasing everything we had. And… well I guess that's all I have to say. I… I hope you can live the way you want to now. I hope you don't make the same kind of mistakes I did and… I'm sorry."

The recording ended. The girl stared at the quiet recording that was sitting on her lap. Her mind was racing with a million thoughts but none of them were coherent. After a minute or two, her head snapped up towards Thistle, who had been waiting patiently for her to come to her senses. "I have… nothing?" she choked.

"Nope!" Thistle cackled inappropriately. A frown flashed across the girl's face as she questioned whether or not she could really trust this weirdo. Then, with more sympathy Thistle added, "Today can be your birthday. That's when people receive a lot presents, isn't it?" He looked around the room, and then he peered over at a book that was dusting on the floor about a few feet from where he was sitting. It was called Thistle and Thyme: Tales and Legends from Scotland, a book of short stories about lore and magic.

"Your name is Thyme," he mused with a mischievous snicker. "This is your home. Everything I own, is yours. Now how's that for a birthday present? Did you want anything else?" Thistle waved his arms generously.

The girl considered her new name for a bit. Thyme. For the first time that day she cracked a smile and she couldn't help but giggle despite herself. Thistle acted so happy about everything that it was too difficult to sit there with a frown on her face for too long. She felt she could trust him, even though she didn't know anything about him yet. She looked around at her new home. She had crinkled her nose at its messiness before, but now it was hers. It actually felt kind of cozy now.

"You're allowed to ask for anything on your birthday, you know. This is your first one! Be as ridiculous as you want!"

Thyme smiled. She had a name. She had a home. There was only one more thing.

"A friend."

Thistle hesitated and looked at her oddly, like it was a concept he hadn't considered before. Then, he threw his head back and laughed. "Done."

Thyme snapped back to reality, the memory leaving her when the flash of light from her attack blinded her. She brought her arms up to her face, and she wondered what had happened to Thistle.

Suddenly, some invisible force yanked the Staff of Byrna from her grasp. Thistle had teleported right next to her and had coaxed the staff to fly to his palm with some kind of spell. Defenseless now, she crouched, ready for anything.

"I hate forcing you to do things. I really do. But this staff I gave you is getting annoying." Thistle turned the magic staff over in his hands, and then with a small 'poof' it disintegrated to dust. All that was left of the Staff of Byrna were its grey ashes. Then, with one hand he forced Vaati to the other side of the room with a bunch of randomly placed and unpredictable attacks, while with the other he pinned Thyme to the wall with an invisible force. Thyme struggled, but it was in vain. The most she could do was wiggle her fingers and turn her head. Thistle tapped his head where the Wishing Cap rested. "Nothing can really stop me right now, so it's pointless that you tried. You picked the wrong side, Thyme dear. But I forgive you. You won't make the same mistake again after you see what I can do."

"Thistle," Thyme clenched her fists as she hung helplessly against the wall. "You're all I have… don't do this." They were back to where they had been before now, with Thistle completely uncontested. Could they really not stop him?

Although Thistle didn't look back at her and he cracked his knuckles as he faced Vaati, he didn't skip a beat in his answer. "Why must you talk as though I'm gone? I'm obviously going to win, you know." He giggled. "Lighten up, will you? I mean I'm sorry I had to stop you like this, but if you stay like that I won't kill you, yeah? Kehaha."

Thyme hung her head. "You're already gone, that's why."

XXXXXXXXXXXX

"And what do you think you are doing, Mr. Petrov?" Dugal asked irritably at the teen who was running next to him around the facility.

"I'm going to end this!" Dark replied pointedly. "I'm going to end the mess you and Vaati started."

"This is none of your business and you'll get in my way," Dugal said stubbornly.

"Then stop me!"

"You're not worth my time."

"Then suck it up and accept it."

Dugal's eyes narrowed dangerously. "I am seriously considering shooting you so I don't have to deal with you."

They ran down two flights of stairs until they were at the lowest level. They didn't encounter any hounds at the lowest level, thankfully enough. Dark had left Hawk and Kestrel to deal with the trigger room when he figured out that Dugal meant to confront Vaati and the wizzrobe on the lowest floors. After some prodding and being annoying enough, Dark had managed to learn from Dugal that there was a high likelihood that the Wishing Cap may have been completed. There was no way Dark could just sit upstairs while guarding a bomb when Vaati might have been in trouble on the lower floors. And he definitely didn't trust the ex-Talon leader to save Vaati's hide if it ever came to that.

Did Dark know what he was going to do once he ran into… whatever it was he was going to run into down here? Nope. Not at all. But he wasn't the type to sit around waiting. He needed to go down there and find Vaati himself.

While he did worry a little about Hawk and Kestrel all by themselves, guarding the trigger from a bunch of Hounds still prowling about (along with the risk of Condor reviving), he wasn't meant to be there with them. He needed to help end this. Oh and maybe punch Vaati in the face for being a total dumbass.

The rumbling was louder now as they made their way through the area. Finally, Dugal stopped by the room where Vaati had been working on the cap. The door was wide open, and there were bits of glass shattered on the floor. There was fighting going on below, with Vaati and a weird masked man exchanging blasts.

"Vaati!" Dark exclaimed, and Bates flew down towards his master excitedly.

There was a woman down there too, pinned to the wall by something invisible and her arms outstretched like she had been crucified. Her head was hung as though she had given up hope. Dark wondered who she was, and why she was down there. There wasn't too much time to wonder, however, because at that moment a stray shot of a magic blast had ricocheted towards her. She's in danger!

Dark didn't care who she was. Moving on instinct alone, he jumped down into the battlefield before Dugal could stop him. He gripped his sword, dashing towards the blast as fast as he could. He faintly recalled that he had been able to deflect energy shots with a sword during the Avilux incident: he didn't know how he had done it, but he knew it could be done. He leaped towards the blast and swung his sword, deflecting the shot and saving Thyme.

The two fighting didn't seem to care that he had jumped in. They were too busy trying to kill each other.

Dark took a good look at the one who was responsible for it all. He was cackling a crazed laughter, just on the brink of insanity if he wasn't there already. What… was this thing? It took the appearance of a man, but this was no man. Fire and ice swirled around him a storm, the temperature difference between the two elements causing an unsteady gust around the room. It was almost like he was looking at some kind of evil god…

Well, that probably wasn't too far from the truth.

He gripped his sword tightly. This wasn't going to be easy.

XXXXXXXXXX

Dugal watched the view from above condescendingly as Dark recklessly charged in to save Thyme. For all Dugal knew, she deserved this too. That's what she got for helping that insane wizzrobe. And for Dark to just jump in there like that without thinking: that was just the kind of thing that got you killed prematurely. Uselessly.

He didn't waste any more time. He began to rummage around the wreckage of the room he was in, searching. It had to be here somewhere, he was sure of it. The Engst boy had been using it to complete the Wishing Cap, so it had to be somewhere in this room. Had to be. He pulled and tugged at the drawers that were bent out of shape. With some kicking and pulling, he finally managed to pull one of the drawers free. There was a clatter as something rattled inside, and Dugal immediately reached inside and snatched the thing he had been looking for.

The object glimmered slightly in his hands, the golden sand shimmering in the light.

The Phantom Hourglass.

A determined glint appeared in his eyes as he held it up to his face, and then he looked back down to where Thistle and Vaati were fighting. His eyes narrowed, focusing on the pale purple hat that was propped on Thistle's head. This was it. All he had to do was to steal the hat and make a wish himself. He'd been waiting patiently for this. Smirking, Dugal held up his right prosthetic hand, and clicked open a panel on its side. There was a compartment just big enough to hold the Phantom Hourglass.

Those fools. They all underestimated the hourglass's power. It was evident in the way that the hourglass had been so carelessly stuffed in one of the cabinets without a second thought. They were all blinded by the power of the wishing cap that they had forgotten just what this little glass artifact was capable of. It would be their undoing.

Dugal peered over his glasses, waiting for a chance to strike. He only had one chance. He needed to make his move before Thistle caught wind of what he was doing. He lay crouched behind the window, waiting for Thistle to swoop down near the floor.

Immediately, Dugal clicked the switch on his prosthetic, and Time itself stopped. Everything became stuck where it had been the moment the man clicked the switch. Dugal jumped onto the floor, the seconds clicking only for him. He made a straight dash towards Thistle who was frozen like a statue: even his godlike powers didn't save him from the time-stop.

Dugal reached over and grabbed the cap from Thistle's head.

I win.

fleets: MUAHAHAHA I am so mean! I am so sorry about the cliffhangers, I really am (though apparently not enough because I keep doing them lolol). Anyhoo, moar wishes yeah!

Not much else to say. Hmmm, I hope you guys liked the chapter as much fun as it was for me to write.

Reily96: Oh good. Because I am not willing to suffer feel breaking alone huehuehue. ThistlexThyme makes my heart break sometimes since I know their entire unshared background and all ;n; (dun worry we'll get there too)

Lord Siravant: Love makes you do crazy things. Like deny all the facts that are there poor Thyme D:

Iris Martinez: Glad you like it, even with all of these evil cliffhangers I'm throwing at you! AND YES! I have a crew on my ship! :D

Serpent Tailed Angel: Gooo Thyme! Uh, er... hmmm, hey Thyme that was a nice try but... yeah you're still screwed. (abandons Thyme) Go Dugal!

LoZMadLover: lol sorry i know i'm a terrible human being for doing the cliff hanging yet again XD
Don't worry, it'll all be over soon enough and there will be no more cliffs to hang ;)