He sprinted down the corridor toward the gym. His heart was thudding painfully in his chest and his mind was whirling from the sudden turn of events. Leah was alive. He didn't know how. He didn't care. She was alive and they had to go back now. They couldn't just leave one of their own! She was one of them and Greeny wasn't about to go to the resistance without her.
One of them. He started, realizing what he'd just thought. Since when did he begin to consider himself a part of the team? And why did he feel so comfortable with them? Was he not the awkward nerdy teen who didn't have many friends and preferred to work alone? When had his mind changed?
He suspected he knew the answer. Maybe it was the discovery that he wasn't what he thought he was, or perhaps it had been inside him all along. Leah had told him he was special. He just wished he'd understood what that meant before everything had gone wrong. But now he had a chance to fix it, a second chance, and he was not going to fail her again.
He met Blue in the hall as the teen was heading for the showers. Before he could say anything, Greeny seized him by the arm and yanked him back into the gym.
"Bush! What--" the captain began to protest.
"She's alive," Greeny hissed as he pushed open the door and drug Blue inside. This action caught the attention of the other two teens who immediately paused what they were doing to stare. "Leah. I saw her. She's not dead!"
He was aware of how insane he must have sounded, going on about someone he had practically seen die, and if he hadn't seen her with his own eyes, he would have thought he was crazy. But he wasn't and he had. And she knew I was there. He didn't know how she knew, but she'd known, and it had given her the strength to glance up at the monitors, to let him see her face. She knew he wouldn't abandon her. He'd promised. He had to be there for her and somehow he had to convince the others to help him, which he anticipated would be more difficult than it sounded.
Blue frowned and folded his arms, but he did not immediately scold Greeny for his whim of insanity, so he supposed it was at least a start. "Go on," he requested, leaning back on his heels and waiting.
"Well, I was doing the work that Miles left for me," Greeny began as Red and Pinky wandered over to listen, "and once I finished that, I decided to snoop around a little. I was trying to see what I could dig up on Morto from his servers and I may have...accidentally found the video feed of the dungeons."
"Dungeons?" Red questioned with a frown. He glanced toward Blue. "Morto has dungeons? That's pretty hardcore, right there."
Meanwhile, Pinky snorted. "Accidentally?" she repeated. "Unlikely."
"Okay, fine. I hacked it. Happy?" Greeny threw up his hands in exasperation. "But I found her. And she knew I was there," he added. "She...she sent me a message." He brought a hand to his head to make his point.
"Minebens," Blue sighed, shaking his head. "Never understood them. Never will. All right, did she tell you anything useful about how to find her?"
Greeny thought back. "I don't know," he confessed. "It was all scrambled."
"Probably from being so distant," Red guessed. "We've seen powers wax and wane depending on relative location to the intended target."
"Which would make sense if she were being held at Morto's castle," Pinky pointed out. "But what did she show you?"
"Well, it was less like she showing me anything, and more like I heard what she did. Morto was yelling. He was angry..." Greeny trailed off, trying to recall the conversation accurately.
"Obviously, if he was yelling," Pinky scoffed.
"Pinky," Blue said, shooting her a warning glance. "Go on, Bush," he added, turning his attention back to the nervous teen.
"He...he said that he couldn't continue. That he needed the prince." He looked around at the team, noticing their blank and emotionless stares. "I don't know what he was talking about," he confessed. "But whoever this guy is, Morto seems exceptionally eager to find him. I think..." He gulped and took a raspy breath before continuing. "I think he wants to kill him. A-and Leah. He ordered someone to take her to the docks. He wants it to look like an accident. Guys, he's going to kill her!"
"And your point is?" Pinky demanded.
Greeny stared at her in disbelief. "We have to get her before she's murdered!" he blurted out.
Pinky folded her arms and raised a questioning eyebrow. "Do we?"
"Pinky!" Blue snapped, rounding on her once more. "Cool it! Look, Bush," he added, exhaling deeply. "I understand how you feel and that you want to get your girlfriend back."
"She's not my--" Greeny began.
"But you have to think about this from more than just one point of view," Blue went on before the teen could continue his protest. "We would be walking into uncharted territory, a territory held firmly by a man who very much wants us all dead, without any prior planning or knowledge. We would be virtually blind. Besides, you're supposed to be delivered to the resistance in two days. We simply can't go gallivanting halfway across the continent doing who-knows-what Griffion-knows-where."
"I am thinking about it," Greeny snapped, feeling the anger rising in his chest. "This isn't just about me. Leah can control minds. That has got to be useful for the resistance! If we leave her there, then they lose a powerful asset in this fight!" He winced at the word asset. Leah was so much more than that. She was his best friend, not just some useless drone or robot. There was no way he was leaving her to perish in Morto's clutches.
"One life is not worth six of ours," Pinky fired back. "There are plenty more Minebens."
"Not like her," Greeny argued, spinning to entirely face Pinky. "There's no one like her."
"Pinky, last warning," Blue cautioned. The girl, in turn, narrowed her eyes, suddenly looking very murderous. Greeny took an immediate step backward as Red joined the argument.
"Blue, sorry, but, Greeny has a point. We aren't Morto."
"Clearly," Pinky snorted.
Red ignored her. "We don't leave teammates behind. You said that once. And, well, officially or no, Leah is one of us."
"No, she's not," Pinky snapped.
"Not part of the prophecy, maybe," Red amended, "but she's still a member of our team."
"Hardly. She was never here."
"And you know perfectly well why that was."
"Wait!" Greeny interjected, holding up a hand to end their bickering. "What prophecy? What are you talking about?"
Both abruptly stopped their arguing and turned to face him with equally guilty expressions. However, neither would give him an answer, and that only piqued his interest more. "Guys?" he pressed, peering at them over the tops of his lenses. "What's going on?"
Red sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Cap, should I tell him, or do you want to?"
"I'll do it," Blue decided. "Bush," he added. "You might want to take a seat."
Greeny frowned, but he didn't argue as he obediently walked to the bleachers and sat down. Pinky muttered a hasty farewell and excused herself from the conversation to return to pummeling the innocent bag. Red came over a moment later to join Greeny, a nervous look written across his face. Greeny didn't understand why, nor how a prophecy was going to help him get Leah back, but the team had been successful at keeping him alive and helping him so far, so he decided to give them the benefit of a doubt.
Blue returned a moment later with a handwritten note on a crumpled piece of paper. "This is...rather hard to explain," he confessed, coming over to sit on the row behind Greeny, "but I'll do the best I can. How much do you know about the war between Griffion and Tapush?"
"Um...not much," Greeny admitted. "Just what I studied in history. Didn't the king...Zarron?...didn't he, like, kidnap the Queen or...something?"
Blue shook his head. "No," he said. "That's what everyone's told, but it's not true. The truth is, Morto was jealous."
"Jealous?" Greeny echoed. "Jealous of what?"
Blue blinked, staring at him as though the answer were obvious. "Of Tapushian powers," he replied. "Morto had always dreamed of having them for his own and when that didn't happen, he grew resentful of Zarron and his kingdom."
"Wait...you said 'Tapushian powers'," Greeny noted. "As in, a group outside of your own. Are you not a Tapushian?"
Blue shook his head. "No, unfortunately. I have no more power than what I create with my bare hands."
"Blue's the best fighter the resistance has," Red piped up.
Blue coughed uncomfortably. "Yes, well, thank you, Red. But back to the prophecy. After Morto grew resentful, he decided the best way to take revenge on his opponent was to take the one thing that was important to Zarron."
"What?" Greeny questioned.
"His son," Blue said simply. "The half-Tapushian, half-Griffionese prince. A hybrid. But someone in Morto's court caught wind of his plan and forewarned Zarron. Right before the castle was bombed, the queen and the prince managed to escape. Before you ask, I don't know how, but Morto is still searching. He is determined that the boy can somehow give him the power he's always wanted."
"But to do that, we think he would have to kill the prince," Red added.
"So, wait," Greeny interjected, his head spinning. "You're saying that, in order to get magic, Morto has to steal it from another?"
"Well, it's never been confirmed," Blue admitted, "but, yes. That is the general theory."
"And the prophecy?"
"Speaks of four people who can stop the war and bring peace to the universe," Red answered.
Blue handed Greeny the paper. The teen's frown grew deeper as he scanned the words. "What...what is this?" he demanded, flicking his gaze up to meet the others.
"This is the answer to all of your questions," Blue said.
"But...it's just a bunch of words on a page," Greeny protested. "How..."
"It came from a Tapushian whose powers are prophecy," Red answered. "Long story short, it tells about something called Kataria."
"Ka...taria?"
"An ancient weapon with enough power to overthrow Morto and take back the kingdom. Legends say it is known for helping locate and bring worthy rulers to the throne."
"And this Kataria is what the resistance is searching for?"
Red nodded. "Our team was tasked with finding the weapon," he explained, "and bringing it back to the resistance so they can choose a new king."
"I've been here for almost a week and this is the first I've heard about a prophecy or a world-altering weapon," Greeny pointed out. "And I'm guessing that was your original plan. So what happened?"
"The simple answer?" Red folded his arms and smirked. "You."
"Me? What about me?"
"Leah told us about an untrained, extremely powerful Telek," Blue explained. "Said he might be useful for the resistance, and that he was hidden securely away where Morto would never find him. Only, we know you weren't as invisible as she thought."
"Yeah," Greeny mumbled. "No kidding. So, what was so special about me? What do I have that would compel you to save me? Other than being a Telek, of course. I mean, that can't be the only reason, can it?"
Red and Blue shared a nervous look. "No," Red admitted. "There is another reason. We..." he hesitated and trailed off, looking a bit uncomfortable.
"What?" Greeny asked urgently. "What is it?"
"We weren't supposed to say anything," Red continued cautiously. "We were going to let Leah tell you when we got to the mountains. But I think she'd want you to know, to understand the risks, and understand why we can't go back for her, and why she wouldn't want us to."
Greeny felt his heart thudding painfully against his chest. "Why? Guys?"
"We also had a second mission," Blue said. "To find and protect the prince until we could find Kataria. We have succeeded in completing that mission."
"What..."
"Honestly," Red sighed. "I'm surprised you haven't worked it out for yourself yet. The lost prince, the heir to the Tapishian throne...is you."