Total Drama Endless

by NondescriptNorbert

Total Drama back again! This time there's new twists, a cast of twenty seven fictional characters, and most importantly; a new host. The story isn't over. Epilogue part 4/6. Wonderland is gone. The girl in the looking glass stares back.

25. Beyond the Pillars of Hercules

Total Drama Endless, Episode Eighteen

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Faster and faster they plunge past the deepest wings of the Chocolate Factory, past the deepest mines, past anywhere man before them could have thread. As they scream through the darkness the glass elevator roars louder and louder and faster.

Then with a tremendous crash it all stops, and everything goes still.

…

A pale light flicks on. Indiana Jones's face glows in the dim light of his hammerspace bracelet.

"Right! Who's not dead? Sound off."

Eight other voices let out a chorus of pained groans.

"Someone's sitting on my head!" Bentley wails in a slightly muffled voice.

"Sorry you." Lenny says pleasantly.

"Someone let us out of here!" Yao shouts.

"Calm down." Athena says.

They hear her fumbling with the controls for a moment before the door slides open and they all go tumbling out.

As they're all getting their barring's back, Princess Peach stirs to life. Markus helps her to her feet.

"Yo you alright Peachy? You still remember me and ****? 'Cause I'm not ready to deal with another personality change."

"Don't worry Markus, I'm fine." She says slightly foggily. "I'm sorry if I was behaving a little un-princess like up there but oh…" She smiles tiredly. "Everything was so tasty."

"We're going to have to restrict your sugar intake from now on Princess." Athena says disapprovingly. Markus chuckles.

"Man, that ain't gonna be hard. Doesn't seem like there's any sugar down here."

"About that..." Beatrice says. "Where is here exactly?"

Indy opens his hammerspace, pulls out a torch left over from their time aboard the Dawn Threader and lights it.

They're standing in the middle of a massive subterranean cavern stretching out in all directions. Towering stalactites high above them drip water down to stalagmites far below. Somewhere currently out of sight an underground stream is running and the air is thick with moisture.

"What do you make of it?" Beatrice asks Indy.

"I'll tell you this much we're not in any part of that factory." He muses.

"I don't know, you didn't see as much of it as me and Doofenshmirtz." Bentley says.

Beatrice sighs. "I can't believe Doof's gone."

"Don't worry about him, he's gonna to like his new job." Bentley insists. "Besides that chapter of the game's over. Time to the start a new one."

As if to illustrate his point they hear the Great Glass Elevator rumbling. A moment later it shoots back up into the air, disappearing through the tunnel it came into through.

"Guess it's official then, this is our next stop." Indy says. He turns to the others. "I think everyone knows how this goes by now, we start walking until we run into someone important."

"You guys go ahead! Me and Athena here will guard the rear." Amethyst says patting Athena on the hip (Which is about as high as she can reach on the goddess) Indy gives her a slightly suspicious glance but nods none the less. He and the others march off into the darkness. Athena and Amethyst trailing behind intentionally straying just out of ear shot. Amethyst looks over to Athena, her face brimming with smug Stasfication.

"What is it?" Athena asks.

"Uh, what do you mean what is it?" Amethyst asks. "We evened the odds!"

"True, with the Doctor gone every former team is down to three remaining competitors." Athena muses.

"More like six on three if you count our alliance." Amethyst smirks.

Amethyst and Athena had of course been the de facto leaders of two of the three teams before the merge, the Shorty Squad and the Flower Girls. Both of which had fared much worse than their shared rivals the Fact Hunters. Shortly after the merge the two of them had agreed to try and eliminate all the remaining Fact Hunters still in the game, and so far things had been working well.

"I'm happy with our recent successes as well." Athena says. "Even if we owe Doctor Doofenshmirtz's 'Elimination' to luck."

Amethyst scoffs.

"Luck? Sure… You saw how things went down back there right? Doof said it himself that Bentley convinced him to take Wonka's offer."

"That was intentional?" Athena asks impressed. "I thought your friend was being altruistic."

"Yeah he was. He was altruistically helping us win that money son." Amethyst says the last part with a falsetto to emphasis it. "Three down, three to go! Who we gunning for next? I'm thinking Beatrice, Lenny, Jones."

"Jones and Lenny may be difficult to part with." Athena admits. "They've been a treasure trove of wisdom."

"Back up, you're not thinking of breaking our alliance early are you?" Amethyst asks.

"Just thinking out loud." Athena assures her. "You have to recognise Amethyst that since our host abandoned us we're reliant on one another, and Jones in particular has been good recently for pulling his weight."

"You wanna talk about people pulling their weight, your little pink princess friend really made a fool of herself back in the factory. Kind of seems like a weak link doesn't she?"

"What are you implying?" Athena asks dangerously.

"If you stick with the plan, nothing." Amethyst retorts. "Look I liked Doof alright? And honestly, Beatrice, Lenny and Jones are pretty cool too. But they didn't earn their place here. And it's either us or them, so don't make me a villain for making tough cuts."

"I'm not concerned about morality; I'm concerned about this group's survival." Athena says.

"It's a simple question Athena." Amethyst says. "Are you with us or against us?"

"Yo ladies! You gonna want to see this!" Markus calls suddenly.

Athena's eye's narrow before she turns away from Amethyst.

"We'll discus this later."

Amethyst grumbles. "Stop saying that."

They rush over to where the others are standing. They've stopped in front of something.

A massive stone pillar towers before them, immense in size and intricately carved.

"Whatever civilization made that it's none I recognize." Bentley says.

"No neither do I." Indy says. "Lenny is this something from one of your stories?"

There resident geek, Letsplay Lenny scratches his chin.

"Hard to say Jonesy. Could be Hylian perhaps? Some JRPG whose art style I don't recognize off the top of my head." He chuckles. "Few of those as there are. Putting aside gaming for a moment we've been on a real British children's literature kick as of late haven't we? It could be we're in another one of those."

"At least I suppose it's good to know we're not the first people that have been in these caves." Peach says.

"Yeah. Real conforming knowing a bunch of dead guys were here thousands of years ago." Yao quips sarcastically.

"I think there were people here sooner than that." Beatrice says in a low voice.

She points across a ledge to another outcrop in the distance. There they can make out the distinct shine of artificial lighting.

Indy squints. "Looks like an expedition of some kind."

Sure enough if they look closely, the group can make out a patch of tents illuminated in the distance lights, and looking harder still, the tiny shapes of people moving among them.

"How many men do you think their group has?" Indy asks Athena.

"It's hard to say." The goddess says.

"Well, why don't you turn around and ask us?" Asks a voice behind them.

They spin around standing proudly behind them is a middle-aged man in antiquated brown American military dress complete with campaign hat. Beside him a dozen soldiers in overcoats and gas masks stand at attention. Their rifles aimed at the contestants. Indy grumbles loudly.

"I'm getting tired of being interrogated everywhere we go."

"I'd suggest you start talking and we'll make this quick then." The man in the campaign cap says, a disproving scowl on his hard features. "Namely I think it'd be best for everyone if you folks could my men a favour and explain to us what in the name of everything good and holy you're doing down here?"

"It's kind of a long story." Beatrice says.

"I think I can figure it out for myself." A woman in a black top a long blond braid says, stepping forward and glaring down at them. "Let me guess, your mercenaries is that it? Thinking you could just swoop in and over take our scientific expedition?"

"But we're not-" Peach begins to protest.

"Who sent you?" The man barks. "The Kaiser? The Tsar? Or are you a private venture?"

"The Kaiser or the Tsar… Hang on a sec, what year is this?" Indy asks.

"1914. Why?" The blonde woman says suspiciously.

Indy breaks into a grin.

"1914? Well about time! Now I get the be the man from the future!"

The woman scoffs.

"You expect us to believe your time travelers? It's gonna take more than some cheap costumes to buy that." She says eyeing Peach and Athena.

"Actually, we're dimensional travelers." Lenny corrects. "We're all competing on a game show together."

The man gives them a mirthless grin then nods to his men. They cock their gun.

"Well folks you get points for originally but I'll be honest and say those don't count for much. Now you've got about ten seconds to either tell us the truth or make us believe all that hocus pocus nonsense before my men open fire. Ten! Nine! Eig-"

He stops dead. Indy's opens his hammerspace and pulls out one of his newspapers and shows him the date. He hands it to the man and shows him the date.

"Decemeber 17th 1996." He reads in a hushed voice.

"What? You impressed but a little scrap of paper from the future?" Amethyst asks. "Cause we can show you way cooler things than that."

She shapeshifts in to a replica of the man.

His men lower their rifles in astonishment.

"How is this done?" The woman asks amazed.

Indy smirks. "With this group, it's best just to go with things."

"Besides." Bentley says stepping forward (Several men leap back at the sight of the talking turtle) "We've still have plenty of questions to ask you, like where we are for starters?"

"Hold up!"

The line of soldiers parts and a soft featured man in a tan button down shirt steps forward.

"You mean to tell me you folks really don't know where you are right now?"

"Nah my ******. They never tell us nothing." Markus says.

"One would argue that's part of the fun." Lenny adds.

"Normally fate guides us to whoever we're suppose to meet." Athena says. "Where ever you mortals are bound, we are to follow."

The sergeant in the campaign hat and his lieutenant eye each other.

"Do we tell them?" She asks.

The man sighs. "Normally I like to keep things on a need to know basis, but well… Seems like they need to know."

The woman nods then turns to the constants distrustfully.

"This is the Whitmore Expedition, finest archeological team ever assembled. We're currently in an uncharted cave system beneath the Atlantic."

"No kidding." Indy says looking around impressed. "You know I'm an archeologist by training myself."

"Oh really? Well you probably know what we're looking for already then?" The soft featured man laughs. "If you need a hint your friend there is already dressed for the occasion."

He gestures to Athena who looks at Jones in surprise. The same dawning realisation occurring to both of them.

"The Atlantic?" Athena repeats. "The domain of Poseidon?"

"Oh yes. Beyond the Pillar of Hercules and everything. Just like Plato fortold." The man smiles.

Indy shakes his head in disbelief. "You're not… No! You can't mean…"

"You'll only find ruins." Athena says.

"Ruins are what we're after." The blonde woman says.

Athena casts her a weary glance. "My father wanted it to stay buried."

"Well it's a little too late for that." The man in the campaign hat says with a smirk.

"Athena is this somewhere you're familiar with?" Peach says.

"Yeah… Wait hold up dawg…" Markus says finally piecing it together. "We're not..."

"Oh we are brother." The soft featured man says. "Ladies, Gentlemen, Congratulations. You're on your way to discover Atlantis."

…

Once the initial affect of his revelation' wore off the soft featured man introduces himself as one Doctor Joshua Sweet, and his superiors as Commander Lyle Rourke and first lieutenant Helga Sinclair. With that batch of introductions out of the way the contestants are led back to the Whitmore Expedition's camp.

The camp itself is impressive in scale, or at least it is when not comparing it to the vast ruins all around it. The crew's brought with them trucks, a driller and an entire barrage of cutting edge turn of the century machines and contraptions. In number's they seem close to a hundred, though most of which are the faceless soldiers in their gas masks. Otherwise, the only people that stand out are an odd group of four characters huddled around a fire, and a thin young bespectacled man sitting a little ways a way surrounded by books.

"Rourke? What's going on?" One of the characters asks, a young woman with a blue cap, overalls and a thick Hispanic accent.

"Look alive everyone, we've got new recruits in our mists."

"Hang on, you mean to tell us you found people down here? As in living ones?" An Italian man with a well-groomed moustache and a metal plate over his chest askes.

"Jimmy Christmas…" The young man in the glasses says, running a hand through his brown hair. "Don't tell me these guys are-"

"Atlanteans?" Helga guesses. "No Thatch, they've all been dead for ten thousand years. These people are… Jones how did you describe your group?"

"Let's say we're very odd travellers from very far away and leave it at that." Indy says extending a hand to the man. "Doctor Henry Jones, Professor of Archeology at Marshall Collage, Former Professor of Muggle Studies at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

"Milo James Thatch." The man says taking his hand. "Department of Linguistics, Smithsonian Institute."

"Is that what your field is?" The Italian asks. "I thought they put you in charge of the boiler kid?"

Milo blushes in embarrassment. "Yeah… well I mean you know, if I'm working in the basement anyway…"

A scraggly little man in a large dirty overcoat laughs uproariously.

"That's enough Mole!" Sweet scolds. He gives the contestants a resigned look. "By the way everyone, This is our geologist, Gaetan Molière."

"Enchanté mademoiselles!" Mole says, enthusiastically shaking, Athena, Peach, and Beatrice's hands in rapid secession.

"Over there's our explosives expert Vinny Santorini."

The Italian nods causally.

"…Our chief engineer, Audrey Ramirez."

The girl with the blue cap waves.

"….Mrs. Packard was our radio operator before the sub went down…"

A decrepit old woman in a pith helmet gives the newcomers a cold stare then takes a long drag of her cigarette.

"…and since you've already meet me, Rourke and Helga that's about everyone you need to know." Sweet says looking around with a satisfied smile. "Unless you count our chef Cookie. Say where is Cookie anyway?"

"Back here assembling the provisions for dinner!" Calls a short little old man with a bowler hat and a white beard. He's steering a rickety old wheelbarrow in front of him overflowing with dry goods. "I reckon I ought to fix us something special if we be having new recruits joining us."

"Great!" Amethyst says. "I'm starved."

…

"Soup's On!"

The group has settled in around the camp fire, their metal dinner trays at the ready when Cookie hobbles up to them with a cast iron cauldron.

"There you fella's go." He says proudly. "Finest gourmet entrée's this side of the Mississippi!"

He ladles a greasy pile of something indiscernible onto their trays. Amethyst and Mole begin gorging themselves immediately. The others present give the food a look of revulsion then begin eating hesitantly. All except for Peach that is. When he reaches her tray the Princess, now back in her Narnian dress and red cloak, pushes it away, and smiles politely.

"You don't have anything else to eat, do you?"

Cookie cackles. "Not used to trail food eh your majesty? Well don't worry. My grub's liable to put some meat on your bones, but it'll grow on ya. Won't it fellas?"

"Yeah… You learn to keep it down after a while." Audrey says. Looking at her tray distrustfully. Peach smiles pleasantly.

"That's alright then. I'm still full from earlier anyways."

Athena clears her throat. Peach turns and to her surprise finds the goddess staring at her with a dark expression.

"What's the matter Athena?"

"You're disrespecting our hosts Princess." Athena says sternly.

"Nonsense." Cookie says dumping Peach's tray into his cauldron. "She can have some later, it'll keep and keep and keep."

"That's alright, I'll survive off my own rations." Peach offers. Athena clears her throat more forcefully. Peach gives her a funny look.

"Athena, are you quite alright? You're behaving strange."

"My behavior isn't your concern." Athena says. "It's your own you should be worried about. You already made a fool of yourself back up in that factory, there's no need to do the same down here."

Peach giggles. "I suppose I was little silly up there. But that's alright, everyone else was too."

"Yes well, they'll be no more of that from now on. Not under my authority."

"Your authority? Athena just because we're friends doesn't mean you have authority over me." Peach says with a little laugh. "I am a Princess after all, I am my own authority."

Athena opens her month to reply but Markus cuts her off.

"Yo! ****! Ladies I just remembered! We haven't slept since like ****** Narnia! That's like what twenty hours ago or some wild **** like that. Athena, I know you and the gems don't sleep but maybe like the rest of us should go to bed before anyone gets cranky? What about it Peachy? That sound tight?"

Peach nods. "Yes I think you're right Markus. Provided our commander is alright with that."

"Fine by me." Rourke says. "Alright everyone, get some shut eye. Endless crew, Helga will assign you your tents. Get some rest because I want everyone up and pulling their weight tomorrow. That includes you, your majesty."

"Of course." Peach says. "Goodnight everyone. Goodnight Athena."

"Sleep well Princess." Athena says a little sifter than usual.

The rest of the group begin packing up for the night.

"I'll be taking the first watch of the night." Athena says, grabbing Rourke by the shoulder. He chuckles.

"We don't usually work a night shift around here."

"Well I don't usually sleep so you're getting one."

"That's kind of you." He says. "And don't worry about your friend. We're short on men anyway."

"Have you suffered any loses?" Athena asks.

"Lost over half the expedition just getting down here." Rourke says with a sigh. He turns and looks off into the dark expanse surrounding them. "I don't pretend to know much about the rest of your journey but I hope you're prepared for rough leg of your little adventure."

"It's not myself I'm worried about." Athena says. Rourke nods understandably then turns and looks off into the dark expanse surrounding them. As he does something about his uniform catches her eye.

"That symbol…" She says gesturing to what looks to be an upside-down V embordered on his jacket. "Why do you wear it?"

"That's just a stylise A. For Atlantis. Consider it the symbol of our mission."

"That's not an A that's a Lambda." Athena says. "11th letter of the Greek alphabet and a symbol of the army of Sparta."

Rourke nods. "Ah, yes of course. Great warriors those Spartans wouldn't you agree?"

"No."

"No?"

"They we're brutes and thugs, overdependent on slavery, and so battle obsessed they made Aphrodite of all Olympians a war goddess." Athena sniffs indignantly. "They were hardly better than barbarians… Or the Atlanteans for that matter."

Rourke smirks. "You don't miss them either I take it?"

"My father was right to make his brother destroy his domain." Athena says darkly. "The Atlantean nobility may once have been the direct descendances of Poseidon but with every generation they grew more profane, and their Empire's immense wealth corrupted them." She eye's Rourke suspiciously. "I pray it still doesn't have such an effect on mortals."

Rourke chuckles. "Don't worry about that. My men are nothing but humble explorers, men of science."

Athena continues to stare at him. "You've come a long way and spilt much blood for 'science's' sake. Are you certain that's the only reason why you seek Atlantis?"

Rourke meets her gaze with a confident smile. "Athena my dear. Do you really think I'd be fool hardy enough to lie to the goddess of wisdom? All we're after is the thrill of discovery. Nothing more."

Athena bores into him with her grey eyes. "I should hope so."

…

Rourke's true to his word. The next day they set out early and keep up the pace until evening. Guided by an ancient tome written in Atlantean that Milo calls the Shepard's journal. The day next they do it all over again, then the same the next day, and they one after that.

They spent an entire week this way, getting to know the Whitmore Expedition and navigating the dark subterrain highway and all it's wonders. All the while the ruins of the Atlantean Empire surround them. Towering columns and vast aqueducts and canals. The relentless passage of several millennium having diminished them, but not enough so as not to make out how ornately carved they would once have been. Between the size and the scale every made man structure they pass could be a great wonder of the world to rival the pyramids or the Roman forum. Down here however they're merely common provincial infrastructure. Their marvels luring the crew downward with the promise of a far greater prize, despite the perils of the underworld.

"What's with the steam?" Yao asks one morning as they make their way through a particularly cramped and misty passage.

"We are currently within the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, on the remains of the former Atlantean continental self." Mole says waddling over. "The entire region is highly geologically active, regard."

He points down a deep crevasse far below them, something's glowing. Yao gulps.

"Is that lava?"

"Lava!?" Mole repeats. He bursts out laughing. "Ah but of course not! Do not be silly. When it is underground it is called magma. There are tubes of it below. The signs of a nearby volcano."

"Mole that sounds like something you should have told us sooner." Sweet says uncertainly.

"Do not worry. The volcano will not erupt unless something catastrophic disturbs it." Mole assures them.

All eyes drift the time bomb Vinny's been tampering with while he was walking. He puts it back in his bag.

"Maybe I'll do this later."

Active or inactive, the volcano stays top of mind for most of them as they weave amongst its lengthy magma tubes. Though truth be told its ominous glow is something of a welcome respite. For when the tunnels grow dark and the only lights are their own, strange things can be heard slithering in the shadows. Things that, everyone's begun to feel they'd rather not meet.

…

Seven days into the trek and the road Milo's had them following suddenly terminates at a deep ravine. Undeterred, the men set up a winch and pulley systems and lower their trucks and equipment down one by one.

"Need some help?"

Indy looks up. He's in the middle of reloading a truck with supplies (Which had been removed when it had been hosted down to make it lighter.) when Beatrice strolls up.

"Thanks kid, but I think I got it." Indy replies.

"Are you sure?" Beatrice asks grabbing a crate. "I'm kinda trying to help out more after you know…"

"Good idea." Indy says gruffly.

"Yeah thanks… Anyway, how have you been? You seem like you fit in around here."

Indy laughs. "I'll say. This is the best challenge we've had."

"You think so?"

"Beatrice I've been wanting to find Atlantis since I was seven."

He sets the equipment he was carrying down, wipes his brow then pause to look around at the expedition around him, as if still not believing it's real.

"I thought I finally had a lead on the place a few months back in Greece but it didn't go anywhere. Even if I had I'd never be able to put together a dig team like this. These guys really aren't kidding around."

"Looks like we've got another obstacle on our hands." Helga calls suddenly, drawing there attention further down the ravine where a large obstruction is blocking their path.

"Seems like another roadblock." Rourke says. "Vinny what do you make of it? Think you get it out of the way?"

Vinny scratches his chin and walks up to the large dark object, like he was a sculptor and the roadblock his marble.

"I could…probably." He says slowing "Depends how hard it is though. If this thing's too durable all my dynamite will do is hurl some loose shrapnel back at us. You don't want that, trust me."

"Tell us what it's made of then Mole." Rourke orders.

"At once commander." Mole says with an eustatic salute. With he's usual energy the little man rushes forward and scrambles up to the top. He taps the object then listens.

"Strange frequency." He observes.

He puts his tongue to the ground then smacks his lips.

"Strange taste as well. It is almost like…" He smacks his lips again then pauses. "Wait…"

He bends down and examines the object, then without warning clutches his chest and makes a panic-stricken face. Muttering to himself in horror.

"What's the matter Mole?" Sweet calls. "Didn't find any soap residue up there did you?"

"SHHH! Silence you fool!" Mole hisses. Hoping down from the roadblock. "Quickly we must leave at once."

Amethyst groans loudly. "Leave? We just got everything down here." Mole shushes her again.

"You do not understand." He whispers frantically. "The object's rocky exterior, it is not geologic, it is keratin."

"What's that suppose to mean?" Yao asks. Mole slaps his forehead and snarls in outrage.

"YOU STUPID IDIOTS! THAT IS IT NO OBJECT! IT'S ALIVE!"

He covers his month in horror as the shape behind him begins to stir.

"Oh, now I see how this could be a problem." Yao says faintly.

The great figure rises, lose dirt and debris falling from it's back as its twelve sets of legs draw it to full height. A giant horned head turns and they're suddenly face to face with a heavily armoured beast the size of a jet liner.

"Open Fire!" Rourke shouts. He's men draw their rifles and unload a barrage on the creature. It howls in rage.

"Hold your position!" Helga commands.

"RETREAT!" Mole cries.

The beast lunges at them and seizing a truck in it's mandibles and thrashing it around. The scene devolves into chaos and the entire expedition, men, trucks and all try to get away from the creature at once as it with a single sweeping motion knocks several of them into the air.

The group scrambles away from the creature as it pounces on fuel car. There's a terrified scream from the driver before the truck explodes. Milo the young linguist is knocked off his feet by the blast.

"Agh!"

He feels the ground frantically. Feeling first for his glasses, then his dropped papers. He seems to have gathered everything before he pats out pockets in horror.

"Good gracious! The Journal!"

He doubles back to grab the journal lying on the dirt behind him. The creature (having just recovered from the blast.) draws itself to full height before him and shrieks in outrage. Milo cries in terrors.

"Somebody better do something quick before we lose our gibberish expert!" Sweet says.

"I'll handle this." Athena assures them, pulling a bronze spear from hammerspace and brandishing it. "Just keep the others back an- PEACH NOT AGAIN!"

The Princess dives forward and grabs Milo by the waist and pulls him out of the way just before the monster crushes him.

"Are you alright?" She says.

"Oh yeah. Never better." Milo replies shakily.

Missing its original target, it recovers again and charges towards the others.

"The monster! SHE APPROACHES AGAIN!" Screams a terrified Mole. Then suddenly he too his knocked to the ground. His feet tripped over a tripwire in the dirt. A mountain of rocks comes tumbling into the ravine in front of the creature. Cutting them off from it. Everyone breathes a sigh of relieved.

"That was close." Audrey says.

"Yo nice job on the rockslide Vinny. That was tight." Markus says, slapping the Italian on the back.

"Uh… thanks but that wasn't me." Vinny says confused.

Back on the other side of the rocks. Peach looks relieved as well.

"Thank goodness. They're safe."

"Yeah, but I don't think we are." Milo says.

"Oh yes, that's right…"

The creature spins around and bears down at them again, gnashing its mandibles at the two of them. Peach steps in front of Milo and draws her mallet from hammerspace.

"Stay away!" She calls.

Just as it's about to bare down them. When sharp human cry echoes through the ravine and the creature pauses. The two look each other.

"Milo? Was that you?" Peach asks. Milo shakes his head.

Another cry rings out, follow by another, then a whole chorus. Men have appeared at the edges of the ravine with long spears and glowing wooden masks. One let's out a war chant and the others all carry it, pole vaulting on to the creatures back with their spears, then plunging them between its boney plates and into it's soft flesh. The beast howls in agony and lunges one final time back towards the earth burrowing out of sight. The newcomers cheer victoriously

"They saved us." Milo breathes.

"Who are they?" Peach asks.

"I don't know."

The battle won the strangers hop down into the ravine and surround the two of them, still clutching their spears. Peach brandishes her hammer.

"Don't hurt us! We mean you no harm."

A single individual steps forward and pulls up their mask. They're a young woman with dark skin, white hair, blue eyes. And a pendant with a glowing crystal. She and the pair stare at each other for a moment before a noise draws their attention. In the distance they can hear the others drilling through the rockslide. The stranger pulls down her mask again and shouts something to her comrades in a language neither Milo or Peach have ever heard, before disappearing farther down the tunnel with her group.

"Wait!" Milo cries. He dashes off.

"COME BACK!"

"Mr Thatch! Slow down! Where are you going!?" Peach shouts, chasing after the linguist.

"I need to find out who these guys are." Milo. Says scrambling through a crack in the wall at the far end of the ravine. "These may sound crazy but I think they might be…"

He trails off and stops dead. Peach crawls through the crank then freezes herself.

They stand there long enough for the others to catch up. Widening the crack into a massive borehole with Mole's digger. Soon as the massive drill's powered down their crewmates and fellow contestants come streaming out, they too stop and stare.

They're standing in a cave larger and taller than any of them have seen, lit to almost daylight by some unseen means. The air warm and full of mist but it isn't the climate that commands attention. There in the centre of the cavern atop a perfectly circular plateau surrounded by water falls is the ancient ruins of a city.

"Well I'll be…" Lenny says.

"It's beautiful." Audrey breathes.

"It's everything I would have hoped it be." Milo says awestruck. Indy puts a hand on Milo's shoulder.

"Nicely done Boiler Room."

"You two should run off more often." Sweet says to Milo and Peach. Several people laugh.

"PRINCESS PEACH!"

They group goes silent. Athena's storming over to them, she looks furious.

"Athena!" Peach says. "Look! We found it!"

"Princess that is the sixth time you have thrown yourself into danger this tournament!"

"Yes but Athena."

"But nothing! This reckless behavior ends today!"

Peach looks shocked then offended.

"Athena I'm going to stop helping people in need. Even If I get hurt."

"Princess I may be immortal but you certainly are not. There are fair worse things that could happen to you than slight injury should you keep behaving this reckless. Need I remind you there's already been a death in the competition?"

"I remember Rick's death all too well thank you." Peach says voice trembling. She gestures to Milo "And I just saved this poor young man here from a similar fate. What would you have liked me to do instead of helping him Athena? Stand by and watch him be squashed by that terrible creature?"

"If it would have kept you safe then yes." Athena says.

"NO!" Peach shouts. "No! I was raised to help people. That is my job as Princess. And friend or not I will not allow you to tell me otherwise."

Athena glares at her. "I am a Goddess your majesty! I will command of my mortal followers whatever I please."

"Alright that's enough!" Indy shouts. "Peach already saved the kid. There's no use arguing over it now."

"Actually, it wasn't just her." Milo says.

There's another war cry from above them. And the group of masked figures leap down from the digger, surrounding everyone.

"Holy cats, who are these guys?" Rourke says.

"Oh great. Don't tell me? Another parallel season?" Beatrice asks unaesthetically.

"Maybe this is the Total Drama Everything cast." Bentley whispers.

"I think they're Atlanteans." Milo says.

"Heresy." Athena says angrily.

"They can't be. That's impossible." Helga says.

"Is it's all too possible."

One of the figures steps forward and takes off her mask, revealing it to be the same woman from earlier.

"Who are you strangers and where did you come from?" She commands.

"We're travellers from the surface." Milo says.

"How do you know English?" Audrey asks.

"How do you know Atlantean?" The woman retorts. Audrey looks confused.

"Atlantean?"

"Their language is a root tongue from which all modern dialects decent from." Milo explains. "It just takes a little adjusting for tone and accent and you can basically undo the Tower of Babel."

"Is that how that works?" Yao asks Bentley. The turtle shrugs.

"Makes more sense than you speaking English with a Jewish American accent."

"Doesn't matter how it works so long as they can communicate." Rourke says. He turns to the Atlanteans. "I am Lyle Tiberius Rourke, commander of this group of peaceful explorers. To whom do I have the pleasure of speaking to?"

"I am Kidagakash Nedakh, Daughter of Kashekim Nedakh, Tenth King of Atlantis."

Peach gasps. "Then you are another fellow princess?"

Kidagakash smiles and nods. "Come. My father will want to meet you."

…

The mysteries of both Atlantis's light source and its misty atmosphere turn out to have the same solution. As they approach the city they find the trench that surrounds it is full of liquid magma, the water flowing from the city's plateau constantly streaming down onto it and evaporating as steam, creating the almost prehistoric climate that surrounds the sunken city. The entire scene is like something from works of Verne or Burroughs many lost worlds.

Once they've crossed the (Somewhat dubious looking) rope bridge into the city, the splendor doesn't let up, The plateau and the city itself is an archipelago of ruined temples, statues and public buildings. All built not in the Greco-Roman style as some of the travellers would have suspected, but of an architectural style closer to that of the Khmer or the Bagan temples, yet there are small details to the Atlantean style that made it unique from all that dwelt above.

Slowly they cross from island to island by rope bridge and half destroyed stone walkways. All the while the people of the city look on. Either from their small fishing boats as they haul in the evening's meal or from their many markets or homes as they make their way toward the central palace complex, which looms large over all else.

"This is incredible!" Milo exclaims to no one in particular. "Month ago I'd have eaten my grandpa's hat to get my hands on a sliver of a shard of Atlantean pottery! Never in my wildest dreams did I'd expect to find living people down here!"

"Nor did I." Athena says darkly, gazing around at the city with a look of disgust. "Atlantean society was supposed to be extinct."

She looks up and the palace and winces suddenly.

"What's the matter?" Milo asks.

"It's nothing." Athena says dismissively.

"She's right, they're were not supposed to be people don't here." Helga says, leaning over to Rourke and lowering her voice. "This changes everything."

"This changes nothing." Rourke insists.

"Changes what?" Athena probes.

The two glances over their shoulders at her cryptically. Rourke smiles.

"Nothing you need to worry about just yet."

…

They find the Atlantean throne room much like the rest of the city when they enter it. That is to say magnificent beyond words, but also in ruins and partially submerged. Seated at it's centre under a cloth tent and metal lanterns is a man ancient as the ruins surrounding him. His dark skin gnarled and deeply textured like the branches of an old oak, his eye's opaque and cloudy with the same milky white colour of his beard.

His daughter bows and greets him in their native tongue. The King's response is a growl of distrust, thick with the authority of his title. Kidagakash protests but his reply is just as harsh, so she makes a second plead. Milo grimaces.

"You understanding any of that Thatch?" Indy asks.

"Yeah… apparently the Atlantis isn't exactly open for visitors right now." Milo says hesitantly.

"Well see what a little diplomacy has to say about that." Rourke says stepping forward.

"Your majesty. May I just say on behalf of my crew it is an honour to your city." He says with a bow. The King scoffs.

"You presume much to think you are welcome here."

"Sir, we have come a long way seeking-"

"I know what you seek." The king says "And you will not find it here." He props himself up with his staff and scowls. "You're in journey was born in arrogance, and now it will end in vain."

Athena laughs humourlessly.

"What would a king of Atlantis know of arrogance?"

The King's blind eyes narrow in suspect. "Which of you asks such things?"

"I do. Athena, Daughter of Zeus and Niece of Poseidon, the divine ancestor to your corrupt mortal lineage."

Kidagakash gasps. "Then you are a god!"

"I am more than a god, I am an Olympian!" Athena proclaims. "And as a representative under my father I demand to know why you've had the gall to survive your divine retribution!"

"Retribution!?" Kidagakash cries. "The Gods destroy Atlantis out of jealousy!"

"Jealous of what? Your wealth?" Athena laughs. "If only we were so vain. Your mortal line on the other hand couldn't be satisfied by even the immense fortunes they were blessed with. We destroyed you for trying to enslave and plunder the rest of our earthly domains."

"LIES! Atlantis would never-"

"Enough Kida!" King Kashekim commands. He turns his blind eyes to Athena.

"You claim your family is our forebearers yet I've never known them by the names which you give them."

"Then you'd know us by other names." Athena insists.

"Even if you were one of our goddesses…" Kashekim continues ignoring her. "Even then, would you really take ownership of my people's darkest day? Take pride in the cataclysm that killed so many of my innocent? In the slaughter of every man, woman and child in the empire outside its capital city? In the eight and a half millennium of hardship we've endured beneath the surface? You take pride in causing that?"

"You brought such fates upon yourselves." She winces again, something about this room is bothering her.

The King sigh then waves his hand.

"Guards, take these foreigners out the city. They are not welcome here."

"Your majesty please, She doesn't speak for all of us." Rourke insists.

"Oh yes I do." Athena says. "And I am sick and tired of having my will questioned."

"Can someone get here out of here until we're done negotiating?" Helga asks.

"Allow me." Lenny says cheerfully. Athena glares at him.

"Lenny don't you dar- HEY!"

Lenny grabs her by the waist and scoops her up, then strolls over to the door.

"Put me down!" She shouts. "I am a Goddess! I demand you release me!"

"Sorry you." Lenny says, dropping her outside the throne room. "This has just turned into a strictly mortal affair."

And he closes the door in her face.

…

It's an hour before someone comes back out of the throne room. True Athena could have broken back in immediately, but she was too outraged to even do that. She spends the whole time pacing furiously instead, muttering darkly in Homeric Greek. She only looks up when Indy walks out.

"Well it was a group effort, but we talked him up to letting us stay a week." He says tiredly. "Thanks for helping with the negotiations."

She grumbles moodily.

"Would have been better without that noise?"

"What noise?"

"That noise!" Athena says, suddenly rubbing her temple. "Don't you hear it?"

"All I heard was you disrespecting the king."

Athena sighs angrily. "Listen Jones. I may not have been involved directedly, but the affair with Atlantis is a personal one, I don't expect you to understand."

"Just keep your personal opinions and your game separate next time alright? You almost got us in trouble with the royal family."

"You heard how they spoke to me! My father ordered Poseidon to destroy the Atlanteans and here they persist. Refuting his will!"

Indy sighs very deeply

"Well, maybe his will isn't as powerful as you think."

"Lies!" Athena hisses.

"If it wasn't it'd explain a lot about you." Indy says

Athena begins to reply then pauses and stares at him a moment.

"You question my divinity?"

Indy's expressions gives her all the answer she needs. She chuckles in disbelieve.

"Really Professor? I took you as one of the more intelligent players in this tournament. Do you really believe my powers could be anything but divine? Or are you one of those arrogant fools that doubt the power of the gods?"

"Oh I believe in the power of god." Indy assure her. "I've seen in it action and trust me sweetheart, nothing you've done this game comes close."

He seems to have chipped a hole in Athena's pride. She falters for a moment, almost embarrassedly.

"Yes well… its not something mortals understand but…"

"Just… try and stay out of trouble while we're here." Indy says ignoring her.

And he walks off, leaving the Athena feeling utterly defeated for the first time all game.

…

The Atlantean housing market as it turns out is quite agreeable. Soon as the guards escort them from the palace a row of houses is found for everyone. By the time evening's come around (Or it's equivalently down here in this skyless realm.) Cookie and Sweet have returned from the market, and everyone's treated to the best meal they've had in a week.

"Who wants more sea scorpion or whatever this is?" Sweet askes holding up some kind crustacean.

"Pass some here! I'm starving!" Yao shouts. Cookie laughs.

"Take the whole dang thing. Plenty to go around."

"Yes! You guys are the best!" Yao declares happily gorging himself. "Seriously I don't know why but I feel this deep-rooted bond with you people."

"Yo, wonder why that is?" Markus smirks, looking at Lenny. Lenny grins back.

"Yao you could almost say you share a similar point of origin of sorts."

"Yeah, a real mousy kind." Markus says.

"You could almost say, you're both characters from theatrically realised animated films from the Walt Disney company released within three years of each other." Lenny says.

"****** too specific. You killed the joke."

"Right my bad then."

"What those Walt Disney have to do with this?" Indy asks confused. "I thought he mades those little cartoons you see before the main feature comes on."

"He branches out." Markus says.

"You'll find out at some point in the future." Lenny says.

"Hey Doctor Jones, you say your really from the future." Audrey says taking a third helping (She seemed egger to take advantage of not having a meal cooked by Cookie for once.) "Tell us about it why don't you?"

"Believe me kid, it's best left a surprise." Indy says with a smile. "I learned that the hard way in the nineties."

"Fine. Markus you tell us what the future's like then." Audrey. "You're from what? 1950? 1990?"

"Nineties? Nah ****** I'm from the ****** 21st century."

The Expedition looks impressed.

"What is the state of society in the distant year 2000?" Mole asks in awe. "Do they still have dirt, or has it been declared obsolete?"

"****** we got dirt." Markus says. "We got a lot of dirt. More than that. 21st century ****** they fuck a lot. Like a lot a lot. Like people fuckin' who, what, where, when. Like they cut holes in shit and stick their dicks in them. We straight filthy in the future my ******."

"Thanks for the visuals." Indy says with a tone of disgust. Markus laughs.

"Yo I'm sorry. It's been a while since I've said any edgy shit. I think Peachy's been rubbing off on me. All those Nintendo vibes got me on my best behavior."

He throws an arm around Peach affectionately. The Princess smiles, then looks across the room.

"Athena? Markus and I were thinking of seeing some of the gardens tomorrow. Would you like to join us?"

"I'm fine Princess, thank you." The goddess says. She's curled up in one of the circular windows sulking.

"Perhaps then you'd like to help us work on finding our way out? Now that we're here in Atlantis I'm sure our next destination must be close. We'd greatly appreciate your help in finding it."

"When's my advice ever mattered? I'm just the Goddess of Wisdom." Athena mutters bitterly. She gets up and walks away, mumbling someone about going for a walk.

Soon as she's gone Lenny looks around and raises an eyebrow.

"No." Indy says firmly.

"What?"

"We're not voting out Athena."

"You're the one that say it Jonesy." Lenny grins.

"I would if I could." Audrey says.

"Athena's normally better than this." Beatrice insists. "She's just going through some stuff. It happens."

"Yes, Athena's our friend. We should support her. Even if she did insult our lovely hosts and the only royal family this place knows." Peach says.

"I mean, we got more royalty up on the surface." Vinny says. "I was imprisoned for a while by the Turkish Sultan. But uh…" He glances over to Peach uncertainly. "I don't know if you'd get along with him and his family."

"Getting back on point. Athena's too valuable to part with now." Indy says. "She's a competent leader. God knows we need some of those around here."

"Might be all the reason to axe her." Vinny muses.

"What do you mean dude?" Amethyst asks.

"Look at it this way." He suggests. "You say only one person's gonna win this game of yours. Who do you think that's gonna be? Someone big and strong? Maybe. But me I'd say it's gonna be the person that plays the people game. Make's lots of connections you know? Then by the time people start wising up, they've already got too much power so it's too late." He shrugs. "You got nine people left out of twenty-seven? I don't know. Sounds like you're getting pretty close to the point of no return."

Amethyst and glances around nervously. Just then Helga walks and knocks on the door.

"Doctor Jones? The Commander would like a word."

Indy sighs and gets up.

"We'll talk about this later."

He follows Helga out to a separate room where Rourke is waiting. He grins when he sees Indy.

"Doctor Jones. Good to see you! Can I tempt you?"

He pulls out a bottle of champagne and pops the cork.

"It is a Special occasion after all."

"You're not kidding." Indy says taking a flute and draining it. "Atlantis. Brody's going to be green with envy the rest of his life."

"Everything you hoped it would be?" Helga asks.

"Honey, I'm with Thatch. I was expecting ruins not a thriving culture and ecosystem." He peers out the window. "This city a time capsule to an entire yet undiscovered period of history. There're examples of large-scale urban planning here that predate Harappa by several millennium, the entire ecosphere besides homo sapiens is endemic to this underground plateau. Your world's going to sending expeditions down here for decades, the artifacts you bring back are going to be studied for years. Even the pottery shards will be priceless."

"Couldn't agreed more." Rourke says smirking. He slips off his jacket. "But there's more valuable things down here then the pots and pans Doctor Jones."

Indy pauses for a moment, then laughs to himself.

"Should have know…"

He shakes his head and refill his glass.

"What are you after Rourke? Orchuliam? You realise all Plato said it was, was a gold-copper alloy."

"I've got better sources than Plato doc." Rourke says, pulling out a page from Milo's journal and showing it to Jones. It depicts a large star with carved symbols and glowing with a blue energy.

"Fact of the matter is this city didn't find it's way into a cave beneath the sea floor of the Atlantic on its own." Rourke says, undoing his tie and unbuttoning his overshirt. "I may not be able to read that Atlantean gibberish like Thatch can, but that doesn't mean I can't figure out this city's got a hidden power source on my own."

He takes off his overshirt entirely and sits down, putting his feet up on the table. Now that he's down to his undershirt Indy can clearly see that even into middle age Rourke's kept an intimidating physique.

"Apparently this thing or whatever is was allowed these people to do ten thousand years ago what we're just relearning to do with internal combustion engines now. Can you imagine the benefit something like that would have on the surface?"

"And how much people would pay for it?" Helga asks.

Indy puts his flute down and grabs the champagne bottle.

"Have I told you two yet about the time I found the Ark of the Covenant?" He asks.

"Your joking." Helga says. Indy takes a swig of champagne.

"Before I even got it out the temple it was stolen by a German expedition led by my rival. Before they brought it back to Berlin they took it out to an island on the Mediterranean and opened it up. Guess they wanted to see if it was worth the hype."

He takes a swig from the bottle.

"Couple hundred people were present when they opened it. Me and my partner we're the ones that didn't die a very painful death."

Rourke frowns. "Well… that's on them for skipping Sunday school. But they don't believe in the good book down her-"

"Found myself in the British Raj in '35." Indy continues. "Ended up in this impoverished village. Turns out their children and scarved Lingam stones (Physical representations of the god Shiva's power if you were unaware.) were stolen by a branch of the Thuggee cult." He grins darkly. "Let's just say abusing the power of Shiva didn't go well for them either."

"Get the point Jones." Rourke says impatiently.

"Athena may be confused about her place in the Atlantean pantheon, but that doesn't mean they don't exist. And when it comes to divine artifacts, I've found they like to stay hidden, and no fortune and glory treasure hunters going to tell them otherwise."

"So you won't help?"

"I'll help you find the stone Rourke. It might be my best chance of getting out of here. But I can't guarantee you'll be happy when we do."

He downs the rest of the champagne and puts the empty bottle down the on the table, then walks out.

"You know where to find me commander."

Rourke grumbles as he watches Indy go. Helga looks at him.

"What's your call?"

"We'll recruit him for the moment but keep an eye on him." Rourke says. "And while we're at it maybe we'd be better let some of the others contestants help. Ideally some of them a little less questioning."

…

Then day Markus and Peach are exploring one of the gardens, the volcanic air of the city, warm and pleasant. Peach sighs happily.

"Isn't it just a lovely morning Markus?"

"Yeah, this garden's tight." He says looking around. "I can't tell if all these plants are supposed to be here or if this place's just overground over the years but it's fire dawg."

"Yes, who knew a lost city would be so bea-Markus DUCK!"

She pulls her friend to the ground right as something large and fast-moving whizzes over them and lands nearby. They look up to fight a strange stone craft shaped like a flying fish wedged in a nearby wall.

Milo and Kida come running over.

"****** did you just launch a fish at us?" Markus asks readjusting his wig.

"I know I'm sorry." Milo pants. "Things just got a little out of hand with our test run."

"That's alright." Peach says walking over to inspect the machine. "This is quite the incredible craft? Princess Kida, do you fly these often?"

"Not for millennium." Kida says. "The knowledge on how to was lost until Milo activated this one a moment ago."

"Yo you got any bigger ones?" Markus asks.

…

A few minutes later the four of them are zipping around in a craft shaped like a hammer head shark.

"****** now this is the way to travel!" Markus laughs.

"This is incredible!" Milo says. "Just think about it! We're the people to see Atlantis from the air in thousands of years."

"Yo what about that other fish?" Markus says.

"What other fish?"

An identical craft identical to theirs but for the blue colouring speeds over. Milo stares at it in confusion.

"Uh. Kida? Are these things supposed to be autonomous?"

"They are not known to be."

The neighbouring craft suddenly grows a face and smirks at them.

"Yo what's good fam?"

"Hello Amethyst. What brings you up here?" Peach asks.

Amethyst transforms back into herself and lands on the craft with them.

"I came to see your new ride. I've seen some of these lying around, how'd you get this one to work?"

"Milo read the introductions." Kida says. "He can read Atlantean."

"Yeah I know. He's got that book he's always reading." Amethyst says rolling her eyes. "It's not even that interesting, just pages and page of the author saying how cool Atlantis and all there stuff is."

"Wait! Back up!"

Milo stops the craft so abruptly half of them nearly fall off. He turns to Amethyst in shock.

"Amethyst you're saying you can read Atlantean too?"

"Uh yeah? I'm a gem remember? We automatically understand every language. Meaning I can read and speak Atlantean just like your friend over there."

She gestures at Kida who glances at Milo awkwardly.

"Actually Kida can't read." Milo says. "None of the Atlanteans can, not since the great flood."

"Tell me what other powers does your kind have?" Kida asks Amethyst.

"Tons!" The gem replies. "We're basically awesome like that. We don't need food or sleep, live forever, can survive all kinds of stuff that would kill a human. All that stuff."

"Can you breathe underwater?"

"Considering we don't need air I'm gonna say yes."

The gears seem to be turning in Kida's mind.

"Come!" She says suddenly. "There is something I must show you and Milo"

…

"Where are we going again?" Yao asks for the third time. Amethyst had gone to fetch him before rendezvousing with the other four at the edge of the water.

"There is a mural beneath the water with writing all around it." Kida says. "Your strange friend here is going to help read it for me."

"Yup. Kida says it looks like it says something about a big star or glowing rock or something." Amethyst says.

"It might be the power source the journal talks about." Milo hypothesis. "The one that's responsible for all of Atlantis's wonders."

"Ohhhhh. I see." Yao says slowly. He winks at Amethyst.

"I'll go with the ladies, if we're not back in five minutes you might have to come after us." Milo says.

"Okay." Peach says.

"Okay good. Great." Milo says. "Kida you ready to…"

He trails off. Kida's in the process of removing her sarong. Markus hits him on the shoulder.

"Don't have too much fun down there, if you know what I'm getting at."

Milo laughs sheepishly then strips down to his underwear. Amethyst throws her jacket to Yao then the three of them dive out of sight, leaving Yao, Markus and Peach alone on the shore.

"So… how've things been with the Shorty Squad?" Markus asks Yao. "You and Amethyst figure you're **** out yet or you fightin'?"

"Nah. Me and Amethyst are best pals again." Yao says. "The two of us and Bentley had a nice emotionally honest heart to heart the other week and talked out all our differences."

"That's lovely Yao. Good for you three." Peach says.

"How are things with you and Athena?" Yao asks. Peach frowns.

"I'm worried for her. I know this place is very personal to her, and I can imagine what that must be like, I wouldn't be very happy if we went to Bowser's Castle for example." She sighs. "Still I wish she wouldn't say some of the things she does."

"Peachy I'm here for this self discovery journal you've been going." Markus says. "I think it's fire, you going getting this far in the game and ***** going on this big adventure like the Mario brothers and saving people and ****. And you know Athena feels the same way. But you scare us always jumping off boats and in front of monsters."

"I can't help it Markus, it's how I was raised."

"Just give us like some warning or something next time?" Markus suggests. "Once we get to our next world or whatever, Athena will probably feel better. Maybe once we're over there will take a page from the shorties and talk everything out."

Peach smiles. "I'd like that Markus."

She looks around at there surroundings. At the crumbling pillars and overgrown statues. At the azure waters and the mist from the volcano in the distance.

"It's a pity, Atlantis is such a beautiful place. But I hope we leave soon for Athena's sake."

"Don't worry, I have a feeling we'll be out of here before you know it." Yao says with smirk. Peach gives him a confused look.

"What do you mean by that?"

Just then, Kida, Milo and Amethyst resurface. Milo almost overwhelmed with emotion.

"The its crystals! That's the power source! They've got some kind of energy that's been keeping this place and it's people alive! There must be a big one hidden somewhere that's powering everything!"

"What? Like how Amethyst and Lapis work?" Markus asks.

"Not exactly." Milo says pacing around in excitement. "It-it's like a medium or something that distributes energy throughout the city. Like a heart pumps blood through a body or something. I don't know. Amethyst can describe it better can't you Amethyst?"

Silence.

"Amethyst?"

"Her friend is no longer here either." Kida notes.

They look around. Amethyst and Yao have mysteriously disappeared.

"How odd. I thought they were here a moment an ago." Peach says.

A nearby bush rustles and out comes Amethyst and Yao, both smirking for some reasons.

"There you two are! Where you go?" Milo asks.

"Oh you know. Just talking to the commander." Amethyst says causally.

A second later Rourke himself comes out of the bush, followed by Helga, Mole, Sweet, Vinny, Audrey, Indy and at least thirty infantry men. All of whom have they're rifles raised.

"Nice morning for a swim wouldn't you say folks?" He asks smugly. "Now… what's this I heard about a crystal?"

…

Back at the house, things are relatively calmer. If one doesn't take into account the cranky war goddess.

"Athena, can you please stop being miserable already." Beatrice sighs, abandoning her card game with Bentley and glaring at the goddess. "Moping around never helps anyway. Trust me I would know."

"I will when I'm shown some proper respect." Athena huffs.

"You're still really mad these people aren't dead huh?" Beatrice asks.

"That, and my allies don't value my advice, our commander threats me like a child and now Jones doesn't even believe I'm a true goddess. The nerve of him."

"To be honest, you are a lot less powerful than I'd expect an Olympian to be." Bentley admits. Athena's eye's narrow.

"Oh really?"

"I've read the classics, the Iliad, the Odyssey and all that." Bentley continues. "You and your family spend most of those books acting like a force of nature. Shapeshifting, appearing any where and just generally being superior to us mortals in any way. I'm surprised I haven't seen more of that this game from you. I recognize you've got powers don't get me wrong, but if Homer and Hesiod and all the others are to be believed you should have been able to get us out of far more problems then you have."

"I'm holding myself back to be fair to the competition." Athena says stiffly.

"Is that so?" Bentley asks. "Even when our lives we on the line and you could have helped us?"

Athena glares down at him furiously for a moment then sighs. "You're a smart turtle Bentley. I can't hide the truth from you." She folds her arms and looks away almost embarrassedly.

"I too seem to be under the effects of the curse Peach and Richard discovered. I wouldn't believe it if I didn't feel it's affects, but it's true. Ever since joining this tournament I've been far weaker than I normally am. Even mentally, my normal wisdom of all things has been reduced to that of an exceptionally bright mortal."

"Why didn't you tell us?" Bentley asks.

"Because I am the leader of this group and I goddess at that. I'm not supposed to have problems. One display of weakness and I damage my reputation. Or worse, I damage my father's reputation.

"Athena weakened or not you're still a pretty useful person to have around." Bentley says

"I'm not a person." Athena says. "I'm not supposed to be just another fellow mortal. I'm supposed to be a god."

"Well maybe 'God' should go for a walk or something and clear her head." Beatrice suggests.

Athena sighs and walks out of the house, following the decaying road down to the water her head swimming with thoughts.

The others try as they might didn't understand, they confused her motives with common mortal quandaries. This wasn't a matter of pride but of securing her reputation and identity, both of which were slipping through her fingers.

She's reached a local market. All around her native Atlanteans are busying themselves trading goods and services, freshly caught sea creatures traded for tattoos or cloth and beads under weaved stalls. Athena wrinkles her nose at the sight of it all. Atlantis's destruction was supposed to be a lesson to the mortal world, that empires of greed and needless conquest would not be tolerated. The sinking of the continent and it's people was also a promise of liberty to the people it had tried to enslave. In the power vacuum after it's fall better, nobler cities such as Athens had arisen to guide the world with its democratic values.

What meaning did any of that have if Atlantis had survived to the present? How could the mortals be controlled if they knew they could survive divine repatriation? What precedent did that set? The young princess seemed to think the gods could be jealous of their mortal wealth. The king didn't even acknowledge that her family were their gods, or that he had even heard of them. Of course he could be wrong, her family was after all worshiped by many names and their were other gods. The one Aslan ruled under in Narnia. But even then, that land had known Dionysus, and he was a fellow Olympian. Could be possible the Atlanteans really knew nothing of her family, or more troubling, that the city could exist in a world where Olympus didn't?

Something literally tugs her out of her thoughts. She looks down and withdraws, a young Atlantean boy no other than five had been pulling at her robe.

"Leave the stranger alone."

A pregnant woman with a basket of herbs balanced on her head walks over laughing.

"You'll have to forgive my son. He is very curious."

The boy tugs at his mother's dress. She leans down and he gives Athena a shy look then whispers something in the woman's ear.

"No. You can't play with that. It belongs to the nice lady."

"What did he ask?" Athena says.

"He wants to see your helmet."

"My helmet?" Athena asks taken aback. "That's a scared artifact. No mortal could possibly…"

She pauses. The boys staring up at her in awe, eye's shining. Athena sighs and takes the bronze hoplite helmet that's always perched on top of her head off.

"Take good care of it, you understand." She says handing it to the boy. "And give it back to me when you're done."

The boy nods eagerly then puts it on, quickly rushing over to a group of children he's age to show them. Soon enough there's about seven of them chasing each other through the market and laughing. The woman smiles.

"The boy. He's your son I'd imagine?" Athena asks.

"My youngest for the moment." The woman says patting her stomach. Athena nods.

"He seems to be a good child for his age. Physically fit. Perhaps he's already got the makings of a warrior."

The woman laughs.

"A warrior? I should hope not. Other than the royal guards we haven't had a army since the great flood."

Athena raises an eyebrow in surprise. "What of the men we saw in the tunnels?"

"Hunters, looking for food." The woman says plainly. "I have a brother who's one of them. He says your group fought the land beast quite bravely."

"I didn't know Atlanteans valued bravery in combat." Athena says looking across the water at the ruins of a rather grislily mural. One that depicts heavily armed Atlantean soldiers on there fish vehicles burning a rival city to ashes. The artist seemed to have had no shame in depicting the resulting death and agony as well. "I knew of Atlantis when it was an empire. During the days of bloodletting and selfish conquest. The destruction of neighbour states and the slaughter of their people."

The woman frowns. "You speak of times most of people would like to forget."

"That doesn't change the fact that they happened." Athena insists.

"I know." The woman says. "We don't pretend the past didn't happen, how can we? Everyday we suffer for it." The group of children run past them, she grabs her son of the crowd and picks him up. "...that is why we place our faith in our future generations. Raising them to be better so than they may one day carve a better path for Atlantis."

"How has that gone?"

The woman laughs. "See for yourself."

Athena takes another look at the market. At the barters, at the children playing amongst the ruins of the past. These Atlanteans. Once they hadn't be satisfied but all the wealth and power a mortal could desire. Now their lives were incredibly modest and humble. No gold or finery at all but for the glowing crystals around their necks. How far they had fallen from their former glory and not one of them seemed to want it back, seemed vengeful. Instead, they were happy. Perhaps it was true, Atlantis was finally committed to peace.

Athena permits herself a smile. Then suddenly, there's a thunderous noise from the distance.

And an explosion rocks the royal palace.

…

The great stone doors to the throne room are rend from their hinges and comes collapsing downward as a pile of rumble. The scant royal guards protecting King Kashekim tighten their grips around their primitive spears as the entire Whitmore Expedition sans Athena, Bentley, Beatrice and Peach barge in the room. Their weapons raised. Kida's being restrained by four different infantry men. Rourke takes his revolver from its holster and brings the barrel to her temple.

"Tell them to drop their weapons!" He shouts.

Kashekim snarls something in Atlantean and the guards let the spears drop to the floor.

"I knew what you were the moment I heard your voice." He growls. Rourke just smirks.

"Glad we can finally be honest we each other." He grabs the king by the collar. "Now where's the rock?"

"I'll take it to my grave."

"So be it."

He balls his free hand into a fist. Amethyst rushes over and pulls him back.

"NO YOU IDOIT! How's he gonna tell us anything if he's dead!?"

"You're the gem expert then! You tell us!" Rourke snaps, letting the king fall to the floor. Kida gasps then thrashes about trying to free herself.

"Lenny restrain her! The rest of you spread out! Search everywhere!" Helga commands. The group begins tearing apart the throne room while Lenny moves in to take over holding Kida. Milo glare at him but doesn't do anything to intervene. He seems to be a part of this against his will, though his hands aren't tied like Kida's. Besides her two of their own group are also being restrained. Markus being one of them. He shakes his head in disproval.

"Man… I thought ya'll were better than this."

"Jones talked me into it." Lenny says.

"I just want the crystal." Yao says unapologetically. "Besides, you heard Athena. These are the bad guys remember?"

Markus sighs. And looks over to Sweet whose got his hands tied behind his back.

"Thanks for letting Peachy escape doc."

"Happy to do it. I wasn't about to start taking our group prisoner." Sweet says cheerfully.

"I've got three people not appalling themselves." Rourke says impatiently. "Jones, Thatch, Amethyst one of you better find this thing quick…"

"I'm working on it alright." Amethyst says frustratedly, plopping herself down on the king's throne and thinking. "All the journal says is that the Heart of Atlantis lies in it's king or some junk like-"

She sits bolt upright.

"Vinny! Take like two steps to the right!"

"My right?" Vinny asks stepping to the side. A circular panel begins descending into the floor.

"That's it!" Helga says.

"Get on!" Rourke shouts, Dragging, her, Indy, Kida and Lenny onto it. Amethyst hops down after them and then descend out of the room and into a large stone cave, the walls and floors made of large carved stones gently slopping into a deep pool.

"Nice atmosphere, they should put it on the travel brochure." Vinny says.

They step towards the pool and glance upwards at the only light source in the cave. A glowing blue orb floating above them. Nine stones carved with faces hovering around it.

"Jackpot." Rourke says grinning.

The orb hums ominously. Kida steps forward, Lenny having in let her go in the momentary surprise of the room's appearance. Suddenly she collapses to her knees and begins mutter prayers in Atlantean. Rourke rolls his eyes.

"Someone tell her to knock it off, we got a schedule to meet."

Indy touches Kida's back.

"Hey kid."

She looks up, he offers her his hand.

"It's going be alright."

Rourke strolls over to the water's edge and knicks a pebble into the pool. The orb above them suddenly glows red.

"I don't think it like it when you do that." Vinny comments.

"Well then one of us well have to fly up and get it."

"Say no more." Amethyst says cracking her knuckles. She sprouts to fox tails and hovers up to the crystal. They watch her make it as far as the stone faces before she pauses, then flies back down looking uncharacteristically shaken.

"What's the matter, dirt in your ear?" Rourke says "Get us the gem!"

"That's not a gem." Amethyst says quietly. "I don't know what that thing is." She shakes her head as if coming out of a daze.

"This is wrong. We shouldn't be messing with that thing." She says suddenly.

Indy laughs.

"What did I tell you two?"

"Quiet Jones!" Helga snaps. She kicks Kida forward. "You get it then your highness! And quick! I don't like this place."

Kida glares at her, but Rourke takes out his gun again. Hesitantly she approaches the pool. The orb hums with energy, then turns scarlet and theirs a terrible roar as it releases a blast of light and knocks the party off their feet.

"Well that's odd." Lenny says.

"Now what do we do?" Vinny asks.

…

When Rourke returns back up to the throne room with the others, he doesn't look happy.

"I'm getting tired of the games your majesty. I came a long way and lost a lot of men trying to get that big diamond and I'm not leaving without it!"

"You're not getting it Rourke!" Milo shouts. "It's not a diamond! And it's not a power source either it's part of them! It's their deity! And it's what's been keeping them alive down here all these centuries. You yank it out of the city and you'll doom the entire culture to extinction."

Rourke smiles. "What do you make of that lieutenant?"

"Knowing that, I'd say double the price." Helga says.

"I was thinking triple, but let's ask his royal highness."

He jams his gun into the Kashekim's neck. The King laughs weakly.

"My heart will not be swayed by acts of piety violence."

"Is that so…" Rourke says dangerously. He's eyes drift to Kida and he grins nastily.

"You know your highness. An Atlantean crystal would fetch a small fortune on the surface world but a real live Atlantean princess… well…" He chuckles darkly. "She'd be the eighth wonder of the world."

"No!" The king cries.

"The girl or the stone. Take your pick."

"That is asking like asking a body to pick between it's mind and it's heart. The loss of either one will destroy my people."

"That sounds like your problem not mine!"

"That's enough Rourke!"

Rourke turns around. Indy has his gun pointing at him. Helga quickly pulls her gun on Kida. The rest of the men point there's at Jones.

"What? Just one little six shooter? That supposed to scare me doc?"

"He said let her go!"

Amethyst has drawn her whip. Yao and Lenny have also surrounded him, though they have no weapons. Vinny draws his rifle on his commander. Rourke raises an eyebrow.

"Eh tu Vinny?"

"I've done a lot of bad things for money." He says. "Robbed a lot of graves, plundered a lot of tombs but that things down there... I'm not a suspicious man, but I thinking that one maybe we shouldn't take from." He pauses. "Also, I'm not really feeling this whole kidnap the princess plot."

"Fine. Then put a bullet through my brain. See what happens." Rourke challenges. Helga jabs her gun into Kida's temple. Milo tries to rush over but an infantry man knocks him down.

Finally, after a minute of silence, Indy lowers his gun, the others following suite defeatedly. Rourke smirks.

"I thought so…"

He snaps his fingers. The soldiers holding Markus and Sweet throw both men to the ground.

"One hour folks, and either you present that glowing energy gem or we leave with the princess. Come on men, we're moving out."

The infantry men and soldiers begin to withdraw, Audrey and Cookie however stays put. Rourke looks back and shakes head then walks off, leaving the others standing there under a cloud of malaise.

"Well that could have gone worse." Yao says.

"WORSE!?" Milo yelps staggering back up. "We led a gang of plundering vandals to the greatest archeological find in history, and now they expect us to either rip out it's heart and give it to them, or Rourke's gonna put Kida in a display at Coney Island! And you all just let him get away!"

"We know, we're sorry." Audrey says ruefully.

"Admittedly we could have warned you folks sooner." Sweet admits. "Rourke's been after that crystal since we found the journal. He's not gonna leave town empty handed."

"Yeah okay, we're all very sorry. That doesn't help solve our dilemma we have here." Vinny points out. "What's the move?"

"We fight." Indy says.

"We don't fight."

They look up. Athena's just walked through the doorway, the other three behind her. Her eyes blazing with determination.

"…that won't be enough."

"Ladies!" Markus says. "Rourke's-"

"-Kidnaped the Princess we know." Peach says frowning. "Believe me if he thinks he can get away with that without us giving him just deserts he's going to be very disappointed."

"No." The King Kashekim says staggering to his feet. "I will not let more blood be spilt for my mistakes."

"Your majesty I lead Rourke here. I'm the one who's at fault." Milo professes.

"No. It is mine for letting you enter my city. The latest in a long string of misjudgments I'm now paying for." He grips his staff for support and staggers forward. "If your commander wants an Atlantean royal as a trophy he can have me. Then my daughter and my people will be safe."

"It's not going to come to that." Athena assures him. The King glances in her direction skeptically.

"Where has this change of motive come from goddess?"

"You're not only one who has misjudged things." She looks up and makes eye contact with Peach. The two smile at one another then Athena turns to the others.

"Now all of you follow me. Atlantis has one last war to fight."

…

Rourke and his men have forfeited the area around the tunnel they came in, his men hiding behind sandbags, their gatling guns and artillery pointed outward at the city. Deeper in the tunnel itself Rourke stands stoically. Kida's tied and bound behind him, lashing out a him with every foal term in the Atlantean language. Helga checks her pocket watch.

"That's an hour. Do we prepare to ship out sir?"

"I'm not going anywhere without that diamond lieutenant." Rourke says stubbornly. Kida laughs bitterly.

"My father will never give in to your demands! Just try and enter Atlantis and again to enforce them, you will not take him by surprise twice."

Rourke grumbles. "Can we get a mussel around the girl?"

"Hold that thought!" Helga says suddenly. "Do you hear that?"

She and Rourke slowly creep to the edge of there fortifications. There's a low buzzing in the air getting steadily louder. They watch as across the moat in Atlantis, a cloud of specs take off. Rising into the air into the air higher and higher, until all at once they crest like a wave and dive down towards their position.

"We've got company!" Rourke shouts.

High above them three dozen flying stone fish and hammerheads and swooping down at him, their riders former crew, contestants and native Atlanteans alike.

"This is it! Just like we rehearsed!" Indy shouts.

"Be ready for anything! Rourke's got a lot of guns and he's never surprised!" Audrey warns.

"This is crazy! Why did I volunteer for this!?" Beatrice asks herself.

"OPEN FIRE!" Helga roars. The soldiers unleash a barrage of gunfire, the attackers respond with a volley of arrows then swoop back up. Several people leap from their vehicles with the help of the long flexible Atlantean hunting spears. Letting their mounts crash down at full speed. Four of them hit the formication at once and the whole thing explodes. The scene on the ground erupts into chaos as men fire into the air while the others try and contain, the enemies on the ground.

"INTO THE CAVE!" Helga calls over the cacophony. "DON'T LET THEM GET TO THE PRINCESS!"

Sweet knocks her out with the butt of a rifle.

"Thanks for the directions." He says cheerfully. "Come on people. You heard the woman!"

He and several others charge the cave, only to be chased back out by a hail of gunfire.

"They're too well defended in there! We got to flush them out!" Milo calls from his fish mount.

The soldiers continue their defensive fire. One of them being Mole, the last of their crew still loyal to Rourke. Vinny leaps down from his fish in front of him. The little Frenchmen yelps and grabs his gun.

"Get away from me you filthy traitor!"

"Come on Mole, I know you're not going to shoot me." Vinny says walking towards him.

"S-stay back!" Mole stammers.

"Is this really what you to do? Kill your friends and betray a whole civilization for Rourke?"

"He promised me lots of money." Mole whimpers.

"Okay but, I'm just thinking out loud here, those Atlanteans will probably give us lots of treasure if we bring back their princess." He offers him his hand. "You like the sound of that?"

Mole squeaks in alarm and then scammers back into the tunnel. Vinny scratches his head.

"Man. I really though he'd go for that."

Suddenly they roar of an engine comes echoing out of the tunnel and men and trucks come flooding out of in terror. A second late the massive digger comes thundering out. Mole at it's helm, cackling like a mad man.

"HA HA! FLEE YOU COCKROACHES FLEE! VIVE LA FRANCE! VIVE LA LIBERTE!"

"There's the Mole a known." Sweet says.

"We got 'em now!" Yao shouts from the helm of his own fish. "Come on! Let's win this!"

"Glory, Glory halleluhja!" Cookie cries, as the Atlantans break out into there war chants.

Suddenly one of them is struck and plummets from his craft. They look down and see one of the trucks launching primitive aircraft up towards them.

"You're kidding me…" Yao says.

"****** who brings airplanes to find Atlantis!?" Markus demands.

"Told you Rourke was never surprised." Audrey says.

While the air's being contested, back on the ground it's still complete pandemonium. Mole's great digging machine being three times the size of the any other truck. Everyone else's prime motive now seem to be escaping it.

"COWARD BEFORE ME YOU SWINE!" Mole laughs. "YOU CAN ONLY RUN SO LONG!"

The great machine suddenly coughs out a mass of black smoke and sputters to a halt.

"What!? No! NO! NO! NO! NO! WORK YOU STUPID THING!"

He throttles the controls in rage, only to be forced to flee from the cockpit by a free wave of gunfire from the men that were until moments ago he's comrades. The threat of the digger gone, the fighting on the ground resumes. By now all rank's broken down and the fighting's devolved into dozens of individual battles.

Most of the other trucks are still active and trying to encircle their own men to as to offer them a defensible position, like frontier wagon train. Vinny picks off the driver of one of them. His body goes limp and falls forward onto the gas pedal, he's truck swerving out of rank. It crashes into a bolder and Kida falls out the back.

"KIDA!" Milo cries.

He rushes over, spear in hand.

"Milo!" She says. "Quick. Unbind my hands so that I may fight with my people."

"Sorry your highness, you're to valuable. Come on, we got to get you out of here."

He grabs her hand and starts running with her towards the rope bridge.

"Where do you think you're going Thatch!?" Rourke thunders.

He aims gun at the two of them, then there's a loud crack and he stagger back in pain, and he drops the gun and spins around. Indy's standing behind him, whip in hand.

"Jones!"

"Hi Rourke!"

He slugs his former commander in the face. Rourke recovers quickly then glares at him.

"You promised you'd help us find the gem."

"I said thinks would get ugly afterwards didn't I?"

Rourke laughs. "Fine. Let me show you how ugly I can get!"

He sends his fist into Indy's stomach and the archeologists doubles over. The two of them begin brawling.

Vinny drives up in one of the trucks. He hops out.

"Milo. Take this."

"Thanks Vinny. Come on Kida."

"No! I'm not abandoning my people."

"Look lady, no offense, but we kind of started this whole thing for you alright? Maybe do us all a favour and try not to die."

She nods reluctantly and gets in the passenger seat. Milo hops behind the wheel and starts the engine.

"Not on my watch!" Rourke cries. He pushes pass Vinny and Indy and lunges for the speeding truck, grabbing on to it's tailgate. Indy dives after him and grabs hold of Rourke's leg as there both dragged behind the truck.

"You don't know when to quit do you doc?" Rourke demands. Indy laughs spitefully.

"Wouldn't have made it this far if I did?"

"Yeah? Well I'm sorry to break it to you but the road ends here!"

He gives Indy a hard kick with his free leg and Indy let's go of him, grabbing onto a spare loose rope from the truck's canvas at the last second. As he hangs on for dear life as they truck speeds along the rope bridge, over the moat of burning magma. Summoning what's left of his strength and pulls his way back up the rope until he can stand on the trucks bummer then swings himself into the back of the vehicle, knocking Rourke off his feet.

"You betrayed Atlantis Rourke!"

"What's it ever done for me!?"

Rourke grabs a fire axe from the floor and takes several swings at Indy. Slicing the canvas to ribbons.

They hit a bump and Indy loses his balance and collapses to the floor. He looks up to see Rourke towering over him, a deranged look in his eye.

"You know doc you we're one of my favorites of your group. It's almost a shame to end it this way but I just suppose I'll have to find it in myself to move on!"

He swings down the axe at Indy, but suddenly something swoops down blocks it. He's axe head stuck in a wooden hammer. It's Peach and Markus.

"I'm not watching another friend die!" Peach declares. Rourke sneers.

"Fine by me. I'll just kill you first!"

He lunges at her, Markus knocks him back so hard he dents the metal truck bed. Rourke gazes of at him.

"And when the hell did you get so strong?"

"Yo it pays to friends with a goddess." Markus grins, cracking his knuckles.

Back at the entrance to the palace, Athena stands surveying the battle below her. In her heart something knows it hasn't been going well long before Sweet and Beatrice fly over. Their shark mount loaded with wounded Atlanteans.

"Is this all our casualties?" Athena asks.

"Not even close." Sweet says grimly. "I'm going to have to go back for another trip. It's going rough over there. We've lost too many mounts and they're really thinning are numbers on the ground."

"Is the goal secured?"

"We've got Kida if that's what you mean." Beatrice says.

"Then get everyone across that bridge. We'll make a fighting retreat then regroup." Athena orders. Sweet nods and flies back off. Beatrice turns to do the same.

"Wait. Beatrice. How is Peach and Markus? Are they safe?"

Beatrice grimaces. "Last I saw them, they were rushing off to fight Rourke."

She flies off after Sweet. Athena sighs and bangs her spear on the ground in frustration.

"I hear my people are not the warriors they once were." King Kashekim says hobbling over.

"They fight braver than they've ever have before." Athena says. "You should be proud of them your majesty. Unfortunately, there efforts we're not enough. Unfortunately, I was not enough."

"Strange talk for a goddess of war." He muses.

"I am not at my usually standard. There's been something dulling my powers." She insists. Then winces again and rubs her temple. "Not to mention of that everytime I so much as see your palace there's that infernal noise to contented with.

The King frowns.

"I wonder…"

"What?" She asks.

The king looks up at her.

"In a time of great need the Heart of Atlantis may choose a member of the royal family to act through and protect itself."

"Choose? You speak as if it's alive."

"In a way. The Heart was a gift from the stars to Atlantis, it fell to us and at the dawn of our existence, feeding off our shared experiences and growing stronger as we did, making possible our many wonders." The King shutters in deep shame. "When I first took the throne I was unsatisfied with all it had given us, and set out to conquer the rest of creation, the wars eventually turned against my favour and it my arrogance I sought to used the crystal as a weapon of war, but It's power proved to great. It overwhelmed us, and lead to our destruction.

"But that's not possible, we Olympians destroyed Atlantis." Athena says concerned. The king laughs weakly.

"Then you worked through my greed. I was the one to doom my empire. My choices lead to the death of our home continent. The Heart, despite my betrayal saved a small portion of the capital. But in exchange it chose my beloved wife to bound with, and she was lost to me forever."

The strange noise is growing louder, as are the sounds of battle behind them, Athena tries to block them out and focus on Kashekim.

"If that's true, why did the crystal reject your daughter? Surely this constitutes as a time of need."

"Perhaps, the crystal recognized that there is a higher power than a royal in it's presences. One from which are most distant ancestors are decanded.

Athena's taken aback.

"You said-"

"We've both said many things that were wrong. But there may truth somewhere in the middle." He looks up at her solemnly. "The Heart calls Athena of Olympus. Can you feel its presences?"

Athena stops and listens truly paying attention to the din she's heard in the background this whole time.

"I can hear it." She breathes. "I can hear you."

She turns back towards the battle in the distance.

"I know what must be done."

She places her hand to the ground and begins whispering. The carved glyphs around her start to glow a pale blue.

…

"Stay still ******! Let me **** you up!" Markus shouts. Rourke's standing his ground, dodging attack after attack from the three contestants. Markus in particular is punching harder than he has since Mobius.

He aims a solid blow to Rourke's jaw. Rourke dodges and Markus instead punches a hole through the back of the truck's cabin. Milo slams the breaks and swerves violently, sending everyone but him and Kida tumbling off the truck. They land in the hard stone of the ancient gateway that the city side of the rope bridge is tied to.

Rourke get's up first.

"Well Markus I must say the new strengths impressive." He picks him up by the collar.

"Now let's find out if you've got the reflexes to much it."

He pushes Markus off the edge of the plateau.

"Markus!" Peach cries.

She spirits over to the edge and peers down, Markus's hanging on by an old vine. She breathes in relief.

"Markus don't worry! I'll rescue you!"

"PEACHY LOOK OUT!" He bellows.

She swerves around just in time to avoid a nasty blow by Rourke's axe. She counters with a swing of her hammer. He yelps in pain and drops the axe. A gunshot rings our and Rourke staggers back clutching his arm. He looks over to see Indy standing there, gun draw.

"End of the line Rourke."

He pulls the trigger again. It clicks empty.

Indy grins sheepishly. Rourke grins, then lunges at the archeologist, grabbing his shoulders and headbutting him. Indy drops to the ground unconscious. Rourke laughs.

"Next time make sure you've got enough ammo doctor."

He picks Indy's unconscious body up by the throat.

"Stop! No! You I don't have to do this!" Peach cries. Rourke drops Indy and turns to her, almost looking offended.

"I don't have to this!? If I recall correctly, your friends betrayed the expedition!"

"You betrayed Atlantis!"

"Why do you people think I'd care about that?" He asks. "After I get back to the surface I'll be richer than the Rockefellers! "

"People are dying!" She says desperately. Rourke cackles.

"It's basic Darwin princess!"

He blocks a hammer blow from her.

"Survival of the fittest!"

She swings again, he catches her hammer in his palm and rips it out of her hands.

"You have to be willing to do what it takes to thrive."

He lands a hard blow on her thigh with the hammer. She cries out in pain.

"And if you can't keep up…"

He hits her across the face hard enough to daze her.

"…You're history!"

He sends his boot into Peach's stomach. She falls backwards off the gate.

"PEACHY!" Markus shouts. He manages to catch on to her hand, but his own grip loosens. Beads of sweet roll down his forehead as he glances below them into the red mist.

"Markus! Hold on!" Peach begs.

"I'm trying!"

He grits his teeth.

"Peachy you can do you little floating trick with two people can't you?"

"No!"

"Yeah, I was afraid you were gonna say that."

Rourke strolls smugly over to the ledge and smirks down at them, he's got he's fire axe back.

"Well looks like it's going to be a double elimination tonight? Isn't it?"

"Commander! Please!" Peach begs.

"Sorry princess. I don't like to leave things hanging."

He raises his axe to hack away at the vines their clinging to… Then suddenly there's a flash of light and he stops and turns around.

Across the bridge in the open battle field, The soldiers helping Helga back to her feet pause. men trying to killing each other stop and stare, and in the city, the Atlanteans all gaze up at their palace, eye's wide with wonder.

Every glyph, every carved stone on the royal complex lights up and glows. On the front plaza, Athena's standing arms raise, wind whipping around her. The ground cracks and the Heart of Atlantis burst through the floor and hovers behinds her. Spinning rapidly and glowing.

The King and his guards watch in awe as slowly, almost tranquilly the War goddess points her spear at the city gate and a burst of light shoots forth. It strikes an ancient statue and it's eyes begin to glow. Slowly the towering golem draws its self to full height and strides towards Rourke.

Rourke swallows hard and tightens his grip around his axe.

"Do you're worst!"

The statue crackles with energy, then a burst of light shoots out of its mouth and Rourke's vaporized.

The shock of the blast finally causes the vine Peach and Markus to snap. They both shriek as they plummet into the fiery pit. Then stone giant leaps forward and catches them in his right hand. Markus clutches his chest.

"We're Alive! But- How the-" He stammers looking up at the behemoth. Peach smiles, and wordlessly points to the palace.

The giant slowly straightens back up and turns it attention to the battlefield across the bridge.

"What is that?" A solider asks.

"What does it matter!? Shoot it!" Helga shouts.

Someone get's a mortar round off and it strikes the giant in the face. A plane swoops down and peppers it with bullet. When the smoke's cleared there's no damage. Another burst of light is fired at their artillery, which explodes into a pillar of flame. The Heart awakes two more statues and they lumber over. One destroys the planes with a beam of light. The other fires a fresh energy blast at the Whitmore Expedition.

"RETREAT!" Helga bellows, almost unnecessarily as she and the remaining soldiers flee fast as they can back into the tunnel. Scrambling fast as their legs can carry them to escape the deadly rays of light. Soon as the last one's ducked into the tunnel Vinny detonates an explosive charge, collapsing the entrance.

"…And stay out!"

A cheer rises through the Atlantean ranks. Back at the palace Athena smiles, she turns to Kashekim. To her surprise he nods to her then bows. His guards follow suite. The Goddess turns back to gaze from lofty vantage point. From the nearby streets to the battlefield in the far distance.

All of Atlantis is bowing to her.

…

The last of the air vehicles pull up to the palace and Kida leaps down and runs to her father, throwing her arms around him.

"Father are you alright?"

"Much better now that you are in my arms again Kidagnash."

Kida looks at Athena.

"A day ago you preached Atlantis destruction. Now you have saved our people. What brought this change of faith?"

"I had a lesson in hubris. Something many of us have learned today."

She eyes Peach, Markus and Indy, all bruised by otherwise unharmed. Peach wrings the helm of her red cloak timidly.

"Athena…" She begins. The goddess holds up a hand to silence her.

"You've nothing to apologies for Princess. I'm just happy you and Markus are safe."

"I didn't catch most of it…" Indy says rubbing his forehead. "…But I'm told you put on a hell of a light show Athena."

Athena gestures up at the crystal. "They we're responsible for some of it."

"But all the same, you're the one using it's powers." Bentley points out.

"The Heart doesn't work like that." Milo insists.

"Milo's right." Athena says. "To put it in simple terms, I and the Heart have spoken and it was decided that for the people's sake instead of it using me as a conduit we would harmonize and share our powers. And that I will take the title of protectress of the city of Atlantis and all her people!"

She raises her spear, the Atlanteans around them cheer. The contestants clap modestly.

"So you're stealing another city from Poseidon? I'm sure he'll be thrilled." Indy says.

Athena gives him a coy look. "Well… there won't be much love lost there. We've never seen eye to eye."

Indy nods then gives her a more serious look.

"What about the rest of us?"

Athena smiles transforms into one of sincerity.

"I think you're ready."

…

They two remaining trucks are tied to the Mole's drill and they're stocked with supplies and lead to the other side of the city, there another bridge is waiting for them.

Indy and Beatrice help Vinny load the last few goods on to the trucks then walk over to join the others. By the looks of it, most of Atlantis has come out to wish them farewell.

"You sure you're coming with us Milo? There's a hero's welcome waiting for the man that discovered Atlantis."

Milo laughs, puts his arm around Kida. "Thanks but… someone's got to keep an eye out in case Helga every comes back. Plus I'd like the get to know some of the royal family better. Maybe teach her some gibberish." He clears his throat. "I-I mean teach them some gibberish."

King Kashekim smiles and shakes his head. Standing proudly to his right hand side, the next Atlantean goddess smiles down at her old friends.

"Anything we can say to make you change your mind?" Indy asks her. "If this place is setting a precedent then we'll need your leadership going forward."

Athena laughs.

"You've come a long way from Hogwarts Jones. I have faith you and Bentley will be able to look after the others."

Indy sighs. "I don't want to work with the turtle."

"He's a good man."

"Yeah, but he's a dirty racer."

"For crying out loud are all you Fact Hunter's still mad about that?" Bentley asks.

Athena turns to Yao, Beatrice and the two gems.

"Stay out of trouble you four."

"Pff… When have we ever started any trouble?" Amethyst asks. Athena shakes her head.

She turns finally to her fellow Flower Girls, both of whom eyes are swimming with emotions.

"I taken you both as far as I can."

"Yo Athena we still need you dawg." Markus says. Athena smiles.

"I understand Markus. But I'm needed here as well." She gestures to the people around them before turning back to the two. "You'll have to look after each other from now on. Victory belongs to one of you, the other just has to support them as long as they can. I trust you'll be able to do that for another?"

Markus nods solemnly. "Yeah… I think we got that."

Peach clears her throat and looks Athena in the eyes. The princess struggling to hold back her emotions.

"Athena of Olympus, on behalf of my people it has been an absolute honour and privilege to make your acquittance. You will always have a home in the Mushroom Kingdom should you need one, and…"

Athena rolls her eyes then spreads her arms. Peach's lip twitches for a moment then she buries herself in the goddess's embrace, Markus following on her tail.

"We'll miss you everyday!" Peach sobs into her shoulder.

Athens sighs wistfully. "As will I."

She cups there faces in a motherly way.

"You have been some of the bravest mortals I've had the pleasure of mentoring. I am, so very proud of both of you. I have no doubt in my mind that you have earnt your places amongst the Elysians."

"Okay you two. Time to get going." Bentley says. "Next destination's waiting… where ever it is."

"Just follow the path back to the surface, your next world will wait for you there."

Bentley raises an eyebrow. "How to you know that?" Athena winks at him.

"Since I connected with the crystal I've been feeling my old powers slowly return."

Bentley shakes his head.

"Well great! Of course you get them back just as they stop being useful to us."

Athena laughs. "Good bye Bentley."

Bentley sighs. Athena turns back to Peach and Markus.

"You two must go now. I hope to see you one of you at the finale."

"Thank you Athena, for everything." Peach says.

"Smell you later." Markus says.

He and Peach hop into the back of one of the trucks. Mole fires up the digger and they begin to move. Markus sighs.

"Man… it finally happened. Guess we're not gonna be the Ladies and Markus anymore."

"What does that make the two of us now?" Peach asks.

Markus considers it for a moment. Then smiles.

"How 'bout friends?"

Peach smiles back, and the watch together as they convoy pulls away from the city, leaving Atlantis behind, and their dear mentor with it.