Madeleine

The One Where Everything Goes Downhill

Third Person POV

Madeleine broke through to the surface with a large gasp, her brother springing up beside her ten times more dramatically. The large grin she had been wearing dissolved almost instantly when she registered the view before them.

"Have a nice swim?" The
Commander asked, he was down on one knee, making sure his face was in Milo's as he smirked. Milo pulled himself close to a rock, shielding his upper body from the others. "Hey guys, what're you, uh, what're you doing here?"

"What's, what's with all the guns?" Madeleine tried, her gaze falling on to Audrey in hopes she'd have the decency to explain everything. "Guys?"

Milo let out a deep breath, his hand whipping his hair back. "I'm such an idiot!" "This is just another treasure hunt for you. You're after the crystal." "Oh, you mean this?" Rourke revealed what he was holding, raising it out of Milo and Madeleine's reach whilst still letting the two of them see what it was, he was flaunting it.

"The heart of Atlantis." For a brief second, Milo and Madeleine's eyes meant, and a flash of understanding passed through his. Madeleine slowly nodded and he took her hand. "Yeah. About that, I would've told you and Mads sooner, but it was strictly on a need-to-know basis and, well, now you know," Rourke stood up, dusting his gun off with the missing page.

"I had to be sure you two were one of us." tucking his gun into his belt, Rourke held his hand out to Milo and Madeleine with ill intent written all over his face.

"Welcome to the club, son." "We're no Mercenaries," Milo said, pushing himself and Madeleine away from the rock. With horrible timing, Kida finally broke through the water, her eyes closed as she took a deep breath, causing her to be momentarily distracted as it allowed multiple guards to grab her by the hair, yanking her away.

Milo and Madeleine reached out for her, consequently multiple guns were aimed at their faces. Kida, however, apparently didn't need Milo or Madeleine to reach out for her. She had flipped the guard over her shoulder and into the water, catching his gun in mid-air before snapping it over her knee. Two other's rushed for her. GO GET EM KIDA!!!!!

One was flung into a rock and the other was pinned down, his gun pressed into pinned down, his gun pressed into his chest as Kida revealed a knife. It was sent flying from her hand by one scarily accurate bullet shot by Rourke. With one final kick to the guy, another three dragged Kida away and into custody.

"Mercenary? I prefer the term,
"adventure capitalist"." Rourke said, his gun passing from hand to hand as if it was a toy, and not smoking at the end from where he had fired at Kida's knife. "Besides, you're the one who got us here. You and Mads led us right to the treasure chest."

"You don't know what you're tampering with, Rourke," Milo said, as he and Madeleine swiftly climbed out from the water and stood in front of the Commander, not once looking bothered by the height difference or muscle difference or gun difference or - did Milo have a death wish?

"What's to know? It's big. It's shiny.
It's gonna make us all rich."

"You think it's some kind of a diamond, Milo and I thought it was some kind of a battery, but we're both wrong. It's their life force. That crystal is the only thing keeping these people alive! You take that away, and they'll die." Madeleine boldly stepped in.

"Well, that changes things." He handed Helga the missing page.
"Helga, what do you think?" Merely glancing at it before passing it back, the blonde woman smirked. "Knowing that - I'd double the
price. "

"I was thinking triple."

"Rourke, don't do this." Milo said.

"Academics, you never want to get your hands dirty. Think about it. If you give back every stolen artifact from the museum, you'd be left with an empty building. We're just providing a necessary service to the archaeological community."

"Not interested." Madeleine stubbornly said. Rourke gave a very forceful sigh. "Gotta admit, I'm disappointed. You two are idealists, just like your grandfather. Do yourself a favour, don't be like him. For once, do the smart thing."

Milo stared on in silence. Rourke smirked, as if he wanted that as an answer. "I really hate it when negotiations go sour." With a click of his fingers, Madeleine was dragged away from her brother's grasp and pushed onto the floor, Kida joining her seconds after. The men who had been holding Kida cocked their guns and Madeleine could feel it press down on the back of her neck.

"Now let's try again," Rourke said, holding the page in front of Milo's face.