Chapter 8

Winona, at first, offered to send some of her men with Britney and the others, but they reassured her that they could get the videotapes without her help. Everyone else had successfully completed their tasks, and they felt responsible for retrieving the tapes.

*****

Kylian ended up combining their previous plans and came up with a way to get onto the crime scene with the least amount of suspicion. His miraculous plan? They ask Chadwick for permission to go to the crime scene, and while they're there, Michael and Britney could sneak away to the cellar. Kylian used their affection for each other as an excuse for them to get separated.

Kylian's comment of Britney and Michael's relationship made the atmosphere obviously awkward, and William explained what happened at the mall. (Refer to Chapter 2.) However, Britney reassured them that she could carry out the plan no matter what and Michael joined in claiming the same.

The initial part of the plan was to call Kiara and ask her if she had told Chadwick anything. Britney tried to call her first, but to everyone's surprise, she didn't pick up. Michaelangelo and Kylian tried video calling, texting, emailing, everything, but no response. They turned to William to help them out, and he refused.

"That's it," Britney declared, "I am sick and tired of you acting like a three-year-old, annoying, spoiled brat, who hates the sweetest person on this planet for no apparent reason! You can't even put your ego away long enough for one damn phone call!" Everyone, especially Britney, was surprised at how just she went off on him, but William still didn't budge.

Michael held Britney back as Kylian tried talking to him in Gallian and whatever he said clicked and his eyes began to glow green as he used his telepathic abilities to contact Kiara.

The contact went through, and they managed to ask her if she told Chadwick anything and she said she told him nothing of the sort. Britney then asked her how she was doing, and Kiara was "just fine."

*****

Chadwick's home was a normal-sized cottage, which was a shock to Britney and Michaelangelo, who were so used to visiting the enormous homes of their rich and powerful friends.

The modest home was surrounded by trees on all sides, but it had a large clearing in front of the garden by the front door. There was also a mountain in the landscape that just gave off this feeling of serendipity. It didn't look anything like a villain's lair.

Kylian mentioned how he, William and Kiara used to spend their summers there as children, and William adds how Kiara drifted from them, not the other way around. This comment left Britney perplexed, but before she could ask him to explain, Chadwick came out to meet them.

Kylian approached him first, as Britney squeezed Michael's hand in an attempt to keep him calm, and to keep herself calm. William went up next and introduced Britney and Michael, who were desperately trying to stop themselves from blowing a hole through the man's head. Chadwick smiled during the introductions and they couldn't fathom how someone so horrible could smile so warmly.

He showed them to his modest living room and tried to make conversation with him before they asked him if he had heard anything from Kiara. He mentioned how she had visited him the week before, and asked why they were asking about her if they were her friends. Michael immediately jumped in and told him how they had upset her a few days prior and they hadn't had any contact with her since.

Chadwick, who was a bit suspicious, asked why they went to him first, and Britney said that he was the only one of her family members they knew. She also mentioned that Kiara was upset with Kylian for losing a special brooch that she had made for him and they thought it was on the mountain. The hill was cut off from civilians, so they wanted to ask him for permission to go and look for the brooch.

Chadwick called them out on their obvious lie, and his eyes began to glow a tarnished silver as he asked them of their true intentions. Kylian, William, and Britney saw his eyes glowing, but nothing was happening to them. They suddenly all turned to Michaelangelo, who blurted out that they were looking for evidence to convict the leader of the Saviours.

Michael didn't mention Chadwick, and William used that as an opportunity to pin the blame on Aaron Moore, leaving Chadwick satisfied. He commented how it was, "600 years too soon for you kids to be lying to me," as well how dangerous what they were doing was.

Britney claimed that Aaron had killed her mom, and she had to take revenge no matter what. Chadwick studied her for a while before giving in to the flame in her eyes. He agreed to take them to the crime scene before leading them to his personal teleporters and taking them to the hill where they fought Moore and his Saviours.

*****

As Chadwick was walking them around the hill, Britney and Michael suddenly dropped into the ground and popped up in the woods near the clearing. They realised that William had sent them there and was most probably covering for them. They didn't waste any time with their searching for a certain brown spot on the ground.

As they were walking, Michael asked Britney why she rejected him, and the question startled her.

In all honesty, she was overjoyed at Michael's confession, but she didn't feel worthy of him. She had been trained to kill from birth, and had an extensive body count. Britney didn't feel that someone like her, who could kill without batting an eyelash was entitled to love.

Michael tried to comfort her, but she shied away from his embrace. He reassured her that he still loved her regardless of what she did in the past, and that he'd wait for her to love herself as much as he loved her. He then leaned in for the kiss once more, and Britney actually went through with it.

After Michaelangelo finally kissed Britney, he miraculously remembered the path to the cellar and soon enough they were there. He placed his hand on the cellar and the latch opened up revealing Raphael and Doria's life work, which was collecting dust.

They split up to look for any sort of video tape that would be addressed to Michael or Antoine and Ines, and that wasn't easy in the slightest. There were heaps of papers, boxes, files, and videotapes everywhere, and they didn't nearly have enough time to play them all and find out which is which. Regardless, they looked high and low for clues to find the videotapes.

Britney then spotted a box marked: PROJECT ANARCHY, and let her curiosity get the best of her. She opened the box and found videotapes, with some marked with the day her mother went missing, December 25, 20XX. She called Michaelangelo over, and he noticed that others had the day before his parents were killed. They looked at each other before Britney used her power to shrink the box and put it into her pocket.

They went back to William and Kylian, who had found "evidence" of Aaron's affiliation with the Saviours. When Chadwick asked them where they went, Michael implied that he and Britney were being intimate in the woods, which made him drop the conversation and take them back to AMA.

*****

The first tape they played was Raphael and Doria explained PROJECT ANARCHY. They claimed that combining the power of the Five Celestial Kings could outpower only one of the Creator's Magicians. Attaining that power wasn't difficult since they just had to find their magicians.

For reference, the Five Celestial Kings are the strongest in the Council of Twelve, the governing bodies of Magiterra. They are all substantially weaker than either Creator, but the Creator's magicians developed their power over time. That means that for the first twenty years after the contract is made, the Creator's magician's power is slightly weaker than or equal to the Celestial Kings.

Back to the story! They moved on to the next videotape, and it was a brief video where Raphael and Doria revealed that Chadwick had betrayed them and was coming for their lives. Michael's parents told Antoine they were right about Chadwick all along. He was just using them to get the information he needed to destroy his granddaughter.

The video cut off, and everyone present was in utter disbelief as to what they had just watched. An enraged Michael turned to Winona and asked her what they would do next, and she said, "We can report everything we have, and hope that they believe us."