Chapter 56

Dante's POV

We split up to look through the shelves. I kept an eye on Zhalia at all times, I wasn't going to risk her taking a chance on us, I couldn't allow it, not when we were in unknown and dangerous territory.

-This guy's mother didn't read him a story before going to sleep.

-I would say that his mother was afraid to approach him.

Hearing the boys joke around gave me some peace of mind, at least there were things that hadn't changed. I wish everything stayed the same.

-Be careful. There are probably more traps.

The boys went inside, while Zhalia and I stayed behind, knowing what I knew about her, I wanted her away from the boys. Sophie and Lok were still blown away by the kind of content the bookstore had, though not surprisingly, it had an entire section for torture chambers.

We followed Lok to the supposed "kids zone", I had to agree with Lok, it was more of a chamber of horrors, I think Claus had never been in a real bookstore.

-Real monsters under the bed, the thing that ate Grandpa! As far as I can see there is no normal book.

This bookstore was creepy, but I think it was going to be the nicest thing in all of Claus's lair. We kept looking for a while, and I still kept an eye on Zhalia. I felt so overwhelmed by everything, I didn't want to find the secret entrance, I just wanted to close my eyes and that magically everything would be solved, that the sceptre would be in our possession, that Zhalia had confessed long ago and that everything would have been solved, or not to find out never and go on living happily in ignorance. But there was no turning back, we had to fix the mess we were in.

Cherit was excited when he found a normal book, Hansel and Gretel, I realized too late, that Cherit was going to get the book from its site. I was too focused on Zhalia not getting us into any more trouble to forget that my team finds trouble wherever it goes. Luckily, Lok stopped him before he could get its out, he was improving a lot, a great sense of pride came over me.

-Something so normal has to be a trap.

-Well thought Lok.- Sophie and I approached-Did you see that? There are three copies.

-Exactly Sophie, three. In fairy tales they always go three by three.

-It's true, the three bears, three beds... I hadn't thought of that.-Lok kept thinking a bit-The first two always end badly, but the third...

-What are we waiting for?

I was somewhat surprised, Lok focused and Cherit excited. Was there going to be more changes in my team?

-Even if the book isn't a trap, that doesn't mean there won't be a can of worms.

Lok was amused by my reference. Sophie didn't wait and she went to get the book that was higher. The bookstore opened, scaring us all. I was immediately on my guard, knowing Claus, the entrance to his den was not easily opened to any stranger. Lok cautiously approached and quickly moved away.

-At the end if there are bugs.

Lok and Sophie hid behind me. Zhalia came running. The bugs were supposed to be spiders, but those things were flying and flying at us. I used "Fireshield" to keep whatever those things were away from us. The bugs began to occupy the entire room and climb the shield.

-I hate spiders.-Normally I didn't care about spiders, but I agreed with Lok, I hated these spiders.

-They are not normal bugs. I can't find anything in the Saiperdex.

-They are probably some experiments of Claus.

The shield broke and the bugs began to enter. We were all getting nervous, we had to exterminate this pest completely before they caught us or whatever these things did.

-Lok, I need you to make a small hole in the shield.

Lok wasn't convinced, but he nodded shakily. He stood up, took out his claws and on one side of the upper part of the shield made a circle with them, the piece of shield that he had cut fell to the ground. I reached out through the hole and used "Incenser", a power that created a stream of fire that filled the entire room and killed the bugs, nothing can survive those temperatures, even if it's a Claus experiment.

I made the shield disappear and the boys rejoined. The secret entrance was exposed, an ancient lever-operated elevator.

-Wow Dante, that power is a bit chilling.-Lok commented as he observed one of the remains of the spiders.-The temperature of the room is suffocating.

-It has that little side effect.

-Why did you keep it hidden? -Sophie was very indignant- It could have been useful to us in Iceland.

-The power is useful, but not in cold places. It has a couple of drawbacks.

I walked towards the elevator, Lok and Sophie shared a look and followed me, Zhalia was the last to enter and she only did when the boys were with me. The elevator had three floors, the entrance to the bookstore, and two more floors. I didn't know what to do, investigating the two floors all together would take too much time, and a large group is harder to hide than a small one, he had to divide the team, but how? Leaving the boys alone didn't seem like a very smart thing to do, knowing them they would get into some trouble, and, besides, Zhalia could lead me straight into a trap, the boys would be alone against Claus, but I couldn't leave one of the boys with Zhalia, she could try anything if he didn't watch her. Zhalia looked at me, the sadness written on her face, I came to believe that she was seeing the dilemma in which I found I came to believe that she was seeing the dilemma in which I found myself. I looked at her for a few seconds, she asked me to trust her, and there is no indication that she has betrayed us again, or that she has communicated with Claus beyond what I asked. I gave her my word that I would trust her one last time…

-We will divide into teams. Sophie, Cherit and Zhalia, zone B1, Lok and I, zone B2.

Sophie started to complain about being mated with Zhalia, but I already counted on it. If I put Lok up with Zhalia, they would probably go together, and Lok wouldn't watch his back with Zhalia, but Sophie, she already suspected Zhalia, was always wary around her. If they stayed together, which I doubted, Sophie would not let her guard down, and it would be harder for Zhalia to deceive her, and if on the contrary, they separated, which was most likely, Sophie would be safer. Still, I would ask Cherit to go with them, and to let me know if anything happened. Lok has improved a lot, but he trusts Zhalia and I don't think he suspects Zhalia. If we add to that that she is unstable when he is nervous or scared, if he went with her, he would take refuge in Zhalia to keep calm, so it was safer for everyone if Lok went with me. If anything happened, I could control it.

Dante's POV end

Sophie's POV

Great, it was my turn with the witch, hadn't Dante learned anything this month? Although with the situation we find ourselves in, I didn't want to be paired with Dante, I preferred that Lok, Cherit and I were together, although I know that Dante would not leave Lok unattended, although currently, I am not very clear why.

A part of me is relieved that Cherit was with me, it made me feel safer, but at the same time I feel like Lok was more unprotected, and Dante is a big threat, I just hope not to Lok.

Dante stopped the elevator in our area. When the doors opened, I let Zhalia get out of it first, at first I thought of separating from her, but that seemed dangerous to me, it was best not to lose sight of her. I kept a safe distance, I'm not stupid, I wasn't going to let Zhalia play me.

Just like the bookcase above, the entire floor was filled with bookshelves that went from floor to ceiling, or so I thought until I followed Zhalia further inside and I could see a large number of bookshelves, getting higher and higher. All the bookstores were filled with books just as rare as the bookstore above.

-I think it would be best to separate, that way we will cover more ground.

-You are crazy? I'm not going to let you out of my sight.- Nice try, little witch- I haven't forgotten the strange behaviour you've had these days.

-Since you're so determined to go together… Come on! We have work to do.- Zhalia turned her back on me and continued forward.

-Exactly, although the question is, who do you work for here?-Zhalia stood up and looked at me, she seemed sad and somewhat scared.

Sophie, I'm not going to lie to you. After all the mistakes I've made, I'm trying to do the right thing.

I didn't understand what he meant by that; I don't know if that explained anything. I looked at Cherit hoping he had understood something, but he looked at me just as confused. We followed Zhalia cautiously, what she had said only made her seem more suspicious than before.

Sophie's POV end

Lok's POV

I didn't feel comfortable being apart from Sophie and Cherit, their presence calmed me down and now I was trying to calm down by controlling my breathing, I couldn't lose my mind in a place like this. I had to focus on the mission, not only was it vital to get the sceptre back, but I had to keep an eye on Dante, I didn't know what was going on, but it couldn't be good. I had to behave as naturally as possible, otherwise Dante would suspect, although it seemed that his mind was elsewhere, I couldn't risk it, Dante was a great detective and unfortunately for me, he was able to read me like an open book.

Zone B was quite cold with brick walls and metal ceilings and floors, long corridors full of metal doors and stairs. Some doors were open and rooms with bunk beds could be seen, I couldn't imagine Organization agents living in a place like this. Other rooms were laboratories, like the chemistry room at the institute, and there was even a medical clinic.

Dante stands in front of a door with an access panel, Dante uses a power to open the door. The room was single and with a double bed, a bookcase, and a table to study, and best of all, it had a huge fish tank.

-It seems that there are agents with privileges.

- I don't think this room belongs to an agent.

I let Dante study the room, I concentrated on the fish, I entertained myself talking to the fish to keep calm. Have your mind distracted to not lose your head.

Lok's POV end

Zhalia's POV

Sophie and Cherit followed me in a different way than usual, they seemed more suspicious than usual, or maybe it was just my fault that made me feel that everyone suspected me.

We were checking the hallways when Sophie showed interest in the central filing cabinet. Claus kept reports and plans on his research projects there, and since he didn't like nosy agents going through his stuff, he had set up traps. Since Sophie was hell-bent on opening them, I surreptitiously guided her to open the ones I knew weren't too dangerous. I wanted to scare her so she would stop gossiping about what she shouldn't. She opened the first drawer carefully, she stepped away from it a little from her and that gave her time to dodge the stream of acid that she spat out something like an alien slug, one of Claus's many experiments.

I thought that would discourage her from opening drawers anymore, but it only motivated her more of her, so I kept sneakily goading her into opening the drawers that had traps just like hers.

After opening 5 Sophie was satisfied and we all started looking for information. I had to be careful, I didn't want Sophie to find anything she shouldn't. Cherit found a file that I had never seen before, I didn't recognize the code it was saved with, it must be a new project. He gave it to Sophie to study.

-This can't be right. This file contains blueprints for some kind of power generator. Why would he keep it with the other evil plans?

-Let me see-I approached Sophie and took the file from her to read it carefully-Sophie, it is not an energy generator, it is an energy extractor, and it seems that it has a colossal capacity.

-And where would they get this amount of energy from?

Sophie and I looked at each other in alarm. There was only one power source that Claus had access to.

-Of Lok!

Sophie and I responded at the same time. Claus you hadn't told me that the Professor had given him permission to experiment with Lok, in fact, he had barely mentioned Lok to me, and from the way the Professor talked about him, he didn't seem to want anyone to lay a hand on him. Did Claus have any hidden plans for Lok? If that was the case, he understood why he hadn't said anything to me, he knows perfectly well that he wouldn't have allowed it.

-We have to inform Dante and Lok of this.

How could Sophie stay calm? We had just found out that Claus wanted to do horrible things to one of our friends. This was horrible, I didn't want to think about Lok's reaction when he found out Claus's plans for him. And, by God, surely Dante would he believe that I knew all this, that I was going to let this happen, that I had lied to him again, that I had allowed him to put Lok's life in danger, and that it was all a setup for Claus got what he wanted. I couldn't allow it, obviously they had to know, but this wasn't the time or the place.

-Sophie, wait. I agree that they have to know, but not like this. Lok is already very tense about having to be in this place, he imagines his reaction to discovering this.

-Maybe you are right. The best thing is that we tell him when we are at home, far from here and safe from everything.

Sophie took photos of the file with her cell phone, all the plans and all the documents, then destroyed the original file with a very powerful beam of light. She didn't want anyone else to have access to it, and us to be the only ones with a copy.

Zhalia's POV end

Dante's POV

Being in Zhalia's room at Klaus' headquarters left a bitter taste in my mouth. The girl in the photo in her room was definitely Zhalia, as painful as it was, Klaus was her father. This was a nightmare, I wanted to get it over with quickly so I could get away from it all for a while and clear my head. It was very hard for me to believe that Zhalia could have deceived me, rather, it was very hard for me to believe that she would have allowed someone to deceive me. I am always alert when I am working, I know when people are trustworthy, when they try to deceive me. I've always been cautious, and after so many years of keeping people away from me, I had finally let people in again, or rather let them crash into my life and turn it upside down, but Zhalia had reminded me that it is not good to trust blindly.

I was distracted, I was having a hard time focusing on the present, a part of my mind was worried about Sophie, another part was worried about the whole situation with Zhalia, another part kept seeing all the consequences of not being able to recover Nefertiti's sceptre and another part of me kept blaming myself for allowing this whole situation to happen. And because of my distraction I forgot about Lok, one of the most important things in this mission. I wasn't sure how this had happened. One minute we were walking down another hallway and the next looking for clues in a mad scientist's lab and Lok was having a panic attack.

He was leaning against one of the lab tables, he was gripping the edge so hard his knuckles were white, he was having trouble breathing, and his vision was unfocused. I ran up to him, but as soon as he felt I was going to touch him he growled at me and took out his claws, which dug into the table. I definitely didn't want those claws that had just pierced through the metal to pierce through me.

-Lok, breathe. It's okay, you're okay.

Lok couldn't seem to hear me, and it was getting harder and harder for him to breathe. I knew that putting Lok in Claus's lair was very risky for his psyche, but I didn't imagine this. Though I'm sure I could have prevented it if I'd given him the attention I should have given him. I had my head in the clouds and had allowed this to happen. Now I had to focus and help Lok. Something had triggered this panic attack and I had to find it so I could get it away from him. It wasn't hard to find its, of all the weird and creepy things in the lab Lok was staring at a piece of machinery that wasn't finished being built, and next to it was a cage with chains and a plaque that said "Puppy". It didn't take a genius to know who it was for. What worried me was the fact that I hadn't seen its when I came in, considering that it was the most striking thing in the lab.

I stepped in front of Lok to block his view of the machinery and focus on me. I raised my hands in front of me so that he wouldn't see me as a threat, the last thing I wanted was for him to attack me, that would already be the loss of total control of the situation.

-Lok, look at me. You're safe, I'm here with you.- I got Lok to look at me- I'm going to get closer, okay? Focus on me, and he'll try to breathe with me. Inhale- I took a deep breath, urging Lok to imitate me.- Exhale.

Lok was not able to keep up with me, but little by little I managed to get closer and closer until I was in front of him.

-Lok, I'm going to touch you and help you. Everything will be fine.

I got no response from Lok, he didn't even seem to acknowledge my presence, but I still put a hand on his shoulder. Lok flinched at the contact and gasped a little harder.

-Breathe with me, okay?

Lok began to imitate me, at first, he had a hard time keeping up with me because his gaze was still focused on what was behind me. I put my hand on his cheek and forced him to look at me. Little by little he was calming down and coming back to himself.

-You're doing great, Lok. Keep it up.

I stroked him cheek with my thumb and wiped away a few tears. When he finished calming down, I hugged him. This wasn't fair to Lok, he shouldn't be in this situation, he shouldn't be going through this, and if I hadn't been so distracted this wouldn't have happened.

I was surprised at the sound Lok's claws made as he let go of the table. We definitely still don't know the full power of Lok's claws, and I thought they were like Puss in Boots. Lok was still trembling, but he hugged me back, keeping his claws away and clutching at my trench coat.

-Dante, what's going on? I cannot continue like this.

-Nothing happens. You are safe. I'm here with you and I won't let anything happen to you.- I felt Lok relax against me. Then he tensed.

-Even when?

-What?

-I'm not stupid and Sophie so little. We know that something is happening. You have lied to us since we lost the sceptre, and who knows since when.

-Lok, I...

I clung closer to Lok, this couldn't be happening. Lok released me and I had no choice but to release him. He tried to move away from me, but there was the table he had clawed through. He was trembling a bit.

-I heard you in the bookstore, what you said to Zhalia. It could be considered a threat.- You could tell that he was still affected- Which of the two isn't clean wheat? You or Zhalia?

Dante's POV end