TUoC: Chapter 8

Author's Note: Just felt like tossing up a small warning here. There are needles and shots in this chapter. If you're squeamish with that sort of thing, you might want to skip the section where it comes up. Sorry!

Double D started to feel himself waking back up after being knocked out a moment ago, only to hear Zoey near him making weird straining noises as if she was trying to break out of something she was stuck in.

"You need to stop, Zoey," Matthew's voice stated to her with a sigh, "You're just going to keep hurting yourself if you keep doing that."

"I-I'm not gonna lay here on this table to be their freaking guinea pig! And neither should anyone else!" Zoey shouted to Matthew, "We need to try and get out of here!"

Double D started to open his eyes, seeing a white ceiling above him. He tried to get up from where he was lying down, only to discover he could not move, much to his horror. He widened his eyes, only to see what the problem was; his wrists and ankles were locked in place on the table he was currently lying on.

"Double D, are you alright?" Matthew asked, noticing he was waking up, "My dad knocked you over the head pretty hard."

"I guess so…" Double D replied with a sigh. He turned his head to see Zoey on his right and Matthew to his left; they were also in the same position as him on separate tables.

Double D then noticed he was not wearing his cleaning gloves anymore. He could also see that the table he was lying on started to freeze over with frost where his arms were resting; his arms were also ghostly white again, 'Oh… I remember now. This used to happen a lot back then too,' he thought, 'It's why I wore gloves all the time… And why they kept calling me a failure; because of how unstable my skin was with this ice.'

"… Double D, Zoey. I'm so sorry this happened," Matthew stated to them in sadness, "If I was brave like Serena, I could have tried to help you two! But I…"

"Matthew, none of this is your fault, and you know that," Double D replied.

"I-I know, but still…"

The three teens lay there in silence for a short moment before one of them spoke again, "I really do hope the others noticed that we went missing," Double D sighed, "I would be shocked if they didn't."

"But they destroyed both our lapel pins with the trackers on them," Matthew stated in a sad tone, "There's no way the others would be able to find us now…"

Double D and Matthew could hear Zoey chuckle at them, confusing them for a moment, "Don't worry about that," Zoey started to say it's a smirk, "I said I didn't have one earlier, but that was a bluff. I hid mine in my sock, and they never checked to see if the tracking device was anywhere else besides my pockets when we got here. So really, the joke's really on them for not being thorough."

"R-Really?!" Matthew gasped in shock, "That's really smart!"

"I know, right?" Zoey gloated a little before narrowing her eyes, "Look here, I know the situation is dire, but don't lose hope so quickly, you got that?!"

Double D remained silent as he closed his eyes, thinking about Jennifer for a moment, 'I hope Jennifer doesn't try to come here to help; she could get hurt or captured… And I don't know what I would do with myself if that happened. Same with everyone else.'

Meanwhile, back with Layton and the other teens, they finally got to the spot where Zoey's signal was transmitting, only to be greeted by literally nothing around them. The area itself was a very small clearing, one that would be difficult to see from an aerial view.

"Uh… Please don't tell me the signal is messed up or something!" Eddy started to say in a small bit of panic, "There's nothing here!"

"No, the signal is correct," Layton stated, looking up from his phone to look around, "It's very possible that there's a secret entrance located here. We should try to find it."

Everyone decided to split up to find some sort of clue to finding the entrance in their general surroundings. Despite having escaped from this place a few days ago, Serena's memory was still a little hazy on what happened when she escaped with Matthew, so she would not be helpful in trying to remember where the entrance was; at least by her memory.

It was while they were searching that Jennifer noticed something unusual about a particular tree that was nearby; the color of the tree's bark was slightly different compared to every other tree around it, meaning it was a different kind of tree than the other trees. She also noticed that it was a lot smaller in height than the other trees, as well as having different leaves growing from it. Jennifer walked up to the tree to look at it, placing her hand on the tree before realizing something strange; the bark of the tree felt almost metallic and not wooden!

She widened her eyes a little at this, 'Is this tree hollowed out somehow? Or is this a fake tree?!' she thought.

"U-Umm… Mr. Layton?"

Layton perked up at Jennifer's voice as he looked over to where she was standing, in front of the out-of-place tree, "I think this tree might be fake!" Jennifer stated.

Layton came over to Jennifer to see what she meant, "You might be right about that, Jennifer," Layton stated, "The color of the bark is very similar to the other trees, but not quite the same. And the height and leaves on this tree are very different."

"The tree also felt cold when I touched it like it was metallic," Jennifer continued to say before making a small gasp, "Maybe there's something hidden inside or outside the tree that could lead us to their base, like a button or a switch!"

"Well, if that's the case, we should examine this tree further to see if we can find anything else strange about it," Layton stated with a smile to Jennifer, "You are rather observant for someone so young. You remind me of someone else I know who is the same age as you."

"H-Huh? Oh, no, I-I'm not smart or anything like that…" Jennifer stuttered a little before making a sigh, "I just really like the Phoenix Wright games, so maybe that's why those kinds of observation skills rubbed off on me."

Layton stayed silent at her for a short moment, "… I had no clue he made the cases he worked on into video games for others to solve. That's interesting."

Jennifer looked at Layton in confusion, "What do you mean?"

"Oh, it's nothing," Layton replied with another small smile, "I was just reminiscing about an old acquaintance I haven't seen in a long time."

The other teens came over to Jennifer and Layton after he called them over, telling them to find anything suspicious about this tree, like a switch or a button. It was while they were all examining the tree that Ed noticed a suspicious knothole that was near the bottom of the tree. He bent down to it and tried to peek inside the hole, only to see the button they were looking for! "Oh hey! A button!" Ed smiled as he pressed it.

The ground around them started to shake slightly, much to everyone's surprise. They soon saw something being raised out of the ground in the nearby clearing; an automated metal hatch that led down underground!

"Huh, that was a lot easier than I thought it would be!" Marie stated.

"Good!" Eddy cheered as he then ran towards the open hatch, "Let's get going already!"

Meanwhile, back with the three captured teens, they soon heard the door to the room open near them; Vergil and Rita had finally come back, and they were both holding some medical supplies and equipment in their hands.

"Hello again, my dear test subjects," Rita greeted them, sitting down the supplies they had on the counter next to them, "Are you three prepared for your shots? If not, too bad."

Zoey started to growl in anger as she struggled to get out of her restraints like last time, "Don't you DARE touch us with those!" She yelled to them.

"Oh, you shouldn't worry about that. The pain only lasts for a minute after the injection before you eventually pass out," Vergil stated, "We even added something special to this serum; a drug that will dull your sense of self."

The three teens turned pale at what he said, "M-Meaning…?"

"It means you three will only listen to OUR orders! You will have no more thoughts of your own!" Rita cackled, "You will also be the first three to get to work for anyone who needs you for fights or future wars; that's what mercenaries do for our future group, after all. And this also includes killing any intruders!"

"T-That's insane!" Matthew stuttered in disbelief, "That's never happened before to me or Serena!"

"Well, we finally got this mind control serum figured out," Vergil replied, "It was only a matter of time before we would give it to you."

Vergil then took a needle with the drug and some alcohol pads from the supply box they had; the serum had a yellow-tinted color to it. He went over to Zoey, "Now then, are you ready to receive your lightning powers, young lady?"

"NO, I'M NOT!" Zoey shouted to him, struggling even more to try and break free.

"Well, that's a shame," Vergil stated as he rubbed her right arm with an alcohol pad, "According to the scans we did, you can master this element very well."

"I DON'T FUCKING CARE ABOUT THAT!" Zoey screamed at him again as tears started to form in her eyes; she finally stopped struggling, "Let me go, please!"

Vergil said nothing. He grabbed the needle with the serum and pricked Zoey's right arm with it, injecting her with the drug. Zoey widened her eyes as she started to scream in pain, tears now streaming down her face. Vergil took the needle out of her arm after he finished injecting all the serum into her. They could see Zoey violently wincing in pain from what happened, her screaming started to die down until she lost her energy to do so.

"Eddy, I-I'm so… S-So sorry," Zoey uttered before finally passing out from the pain.

"Ugh, what a useless emotion to have," Rita stated with disgust. She went over to Double D next, "Alright, now it's your turn, failure."

Rita grabbed a needle with a light blue serum and some alcohol pads to use, "I feel like you should really thank us for this. We reworked the drug you took in the past to make your powers more stable, but we could never use it on you because of the damn thieves that took you away," she looked down at his arms, they were both still freezing over on the table, "What an annoying side effect you have, Edward. But once we inject you with this, it might take a few hours to go into effect on your skin. Your skin will finally be normal."

"… Where are my mother and father right now?" Double D asked with a stern expression.

"They are locked away in the room you grew up in," Rita replied as she started to rub his arm with an alcohol pad, "We left them there to rot away and die, but it looks like they are still alive, last time I checked. It's very annoying," she grabbed the needle with the light blue serum, pricking Double D's arm to inject him with the drug, "Not like those two were your real parents anyway! Your mother died giving birth to you, failure!"

Double D widened his eyes in pain; he started to remember how this used to feel, but now it felt even worse than before. He started to breathe heavily as he winced in pain from what was happening, but then a few tears started to fall from his eyes at a thought he had, 'Jennifer, please! Please don't come find me… I don't want to hurt you!'

That was Double D's last thought before he passed out from the pain.

Vergil and Rita turned to their son, "And now for you, Matthew."

Matthew could only sigh in sadness, 'I guess this really is it, huh,' he closed his eyes, preparing himself once again, 'Serena, I'm so sorry.'

Elsewhere in the base, we could see Layton and the group of teens running down a single hallway before the hallway at the end split into two; left and right.

Eddy groaned a little, "Great, which way should we go now?"

"We should try to split up into two groups to cover more grounds," Layton concluded.

"I'll go left," Nazz stated to everyone, "Who else wants to come with me?"

"I'll go!" Serena stated with a raise of her hand.

"I will too," Kevin stated, "I'm not gonna let you go alone."

"I think I'll go too," Marie finished off.

"So, that leaves everyone else to go right," Jennifer stated, "Everyone okay with that?"

"Yeah!" Ed nodded his head.

Everyone nodded their heads in determination before splitting up into two groups: one going left, and the other going right.

With the left group, we could see the four teens rushing down the hallway, coming up to some of the doors to the side to see if they could find any trace of their friends or the other missing teens. It was while they were doing this that Serena came across Edward's old room; it seemed to be locked when she tried to open it. She gasped at what it could mean.

"Hey, guys!" Serena called out to the others as they came over to her, "The door to this cell is locked! Someone could be in there!"

"Alright then," Kevin stated as he rolled up his sleeves, gripping his baseball bat as he did, "You might wanna stand back, okay?"

The three girls backed away from the door as Kevin instructed. He then started to use his bat to break down the door's handle to potentially brute force his way into opening it. Eventually, the doorknob fell off!

"Okay, got that done!" Kevin sighed before turning back to the girls, "We should all try to push the door down now."

Everyone nodded their head. They got into a position for them to run into the door to break it down, "On go! One, two, three… GO!"

All four teens slammed their bodies into the door with all their strength, causing the door to fall! They all stumbled into the room from what they did.

"Ouch, that's smarts…" Marie grumbled a little.

Nazz looked in the room, only to see two adults lying in a bed, both looked very weak. She widened her eyes at who it was, "Wait a minute! That's Double D's parents!" She gasped.

The four teens went over to the adults, only to see that they were asleep, but also in pain from starvation.

"T-This is awful…" Serena muttered in sadness.

"We should tell the others about this," Kevin stated, "But I think one of us should stay to make sure nothing else happens to them."

"… I'll stay behind," Nazz started to say before turning to the others, "Go one and find the others, okay?"

Kevin was about to argue for a short moment before realizing this was not the time to be stubborn, "Okay, we'll come back here once we find them."

"Right, be careful!"

Meanwhile, with the right group, Layton and the three teens were opening all the doors that they passed by, trying to find either their missing friends or the missing teenagers.

Eddy approached one of the doors and opened it, only to widen his eyes in shock, "Hey, guys! Come here! I found everyone!"

Layton, Jennifer, and Ed ran over to Eddy, only to see what he said was true; all 48 missing teenagers were here in this humongous room! All of them looked to be sleeping, encased in glass cases. They could see something in the back of the room; a giant window that showed a lower floor, along with an elevator lift that went to that floor.

The group entered the room with caution, heading towards the back to see what was in the room below through the giant window. The room itself looked a lot like a training room for fighting; there were even swords and things on the walls! They all widened their eyes to what else they saw; they could see two scientists down there near another big lift on the other side of the room: Vergil and Rita!

Eddy started to growl at them in anger before looking around to see where the switch, button, or lever was to get to them from this elevator lift. He eventually found the button for it next to him. Before Layton could tell Eddy to stop, he pressed the button to lower the lift down to the floor below. The lift slowly went down to the floor below them, eventually landing with a gentle thud.

Vergil and Rita turned around to see who had used the elevator; they widened their eyes in shock, "H-How did these people find us?!" Vergil asked.

"It seems you are not as thorough or clever as you might think, Vergil and Rita Bishop," Layton stated to them, holding up his phone that showed Zoey's signal on the GPS map.

The two scientists growled, "So that brat DID have something on her! That little—"

"Where are my friends you kidnapped?!" Eddy yelled to them, restraining himself from approaching them and punching them in the face, "You took my girlfriend, so fess up!"

"Yeah, where's Zoey, Double D and Matthew!" Ed asked in anger.

"… Ah, I see," Rita mused for a moment before making a smirk at Eddy, "You must Eddy! Zoey mentioned you by name before she passed out from her injection."

The group was stunned at what she said as Eddy's face became red with anger, "Y-You…!"

"Would you like to see them?" asked Vergil as he pressed the button for the elevator lift that was on their side of the room, "I feel like it will be a lovely reunion for you all."

The lift near the scientists slowly started to lower towards them. Everyone could see Double D, Zoey, and Matthew standing on the lift coming down, much to everyone's surprise.

Layton could immediately sense something was off about them; their eyes were glossed over, "What did you do to them?" he asked as he narrowed his eyes.

"We gave them our life's work, of course," Rita started to say, "Reapplying the serum for Matthew was no problem. The other two did not take long to succumb either."

"B-But why?!" Jennifer shouted to them in a rare moment of anger, "Why would you DO something like this?! Why would you do this to anyone?!"

Rita scoffed to Jennifer, "Like telling you anything would do you any good in the long run, child."

Meanwhile, back with Kevin, Marie, and Serena, they came back up to the room that the others found a moment ago. They rushed towards the back of the room, only to see the scene happening below them with everyone else. The elevator was still in the room below.

Marie widened her eyes, "Oh geez!" she gasped, "We need to help them!"

"This thing had a lift to it, right?" Kevin asked, "Maybe we should try and—"

"W-Wait!" Serena yelped, "I have an idea! Just hear me out for a second, okay?!"

Kevin and Marie looked at each other before the three teens huddled together to talk about what Serena was planning.

"… Anyway, all of you are in the way of our plans. None of you will leave here alive," Rita stated before turning to the three teens behind them on the lift, "Eliminate these intruders for us, won't you?"

The three mind-controlled teens said nothing. They walked off the lift as Vergil and Rita got onto it. They pushed the button to make the lift rise to the floor above them, leaving everyone else on the floor below, "Things will get messy now, don't want to get in the way," Vergil stated with a chuckle.

"… Jennifer, please stay right here for your safety, understand?" Layton stated to her. She only nodded her head.

"Uh… This is not a good thing!" Ed gasped as he turned to Eddy, "What'll we do?!"

"I…" Eddy muttered a little in sadness and disbelief, "I-I don't know."

Two laughs could be heard over an intercom that echoed all throughout the big training room, "Kill them!" both Vergil and Rita shouted.

Author's Note (September 20th, 2023): AH FUCK, IT'S A CLIFFHANGER! Sorry about that! The next chapter will be very long, which is why I'm splitting it into a cliffhanger. My bad!

Chapter 8's Song Title: "Believe in Me Who Believes in You" - Va-11 Hall-A