"So, we have found out that the barrier is like a force field" Niall explains, that made sense, sort of?
"What does that mean?" Ashton asks as he quirks a brow.
"It means that it would cover only a certain area, well, the spell would. We think it might be in your world and then it would project itself shielding your peninsula from the rest of the planet" Harry explains. Okay, now it made total sense, how did you not know about this?
"So that means that it could have been taken down for years, yet noone knew" Mali concludes. The two guys nod as everyone looks around thinking for themselves.
"But how do you get the exact location?" Liam jumps in making Niall shake his head.
"Don't know, don't even know where to start searching" he sighs. It seems Michael got an idea as he grabbed the book from Harry's hold.
"What?" Crystal asks as Michael's eyes scan across the page.
"You say in the middle right?" he questions Harry and Niall.
"Yeah, so?" Niall asks, not following where this is going.
"If it covers a certain amount we have to measure our peninsula and then find its middle. We don't need specific coordinates it has to be somewhere around there" Michael explains and everyone seems shocked.
"You're right! Okay, Niall, can you somehow pull a picture of the whole part of the peninsula?" Calum asks eagerly, everyone's eyes were glued to the computer screen as you were feeling like you finally made some progress.
"Just a moment... Alright, there! The satellite already scanned the whole thing and there's a line that shows how it looked like before" Niall shows.
"Just calculate how long it is and we have it" Louis nudges him.
"This is so intense" Sarah whispers.
"Shhh we're so close" Mali shuts her up. After a few more very tense minutes Niall's got it.
"There, 37°06'45.5" and 113°05'23.3" that's about the middle" he points, everyone jumps from joy and all hug around Niall in a group hug. Onve everyone pulls back there's just one more question.
"What do we do about this information?" you ask, everyone looks over at Calum for guidance.
"We go there and reactivate it, then everything will go back to normal. Well, not really normal, humans will try to get in, but they won't be able to" he explains.
"True...it won't be the same" Mali agrees, but everyone's looking at the ground, something wasn't right here.
"Wait, if it really is in our world then we have a traitor" Calum's eyes glow a little as he finishes the sentence. Everyone was stunned, it's true, someone purposely did it, but who could've done such a horrible thing?
"I can't believe it" Michael growls, anger evident in his undertone.
"But who would do it?" Harry questions and noone says a word.
"Everyone was happy, we were finally together, our two species and we had everything. Sure, there were minor fights, but nothing to result in doing this" Mali goes over it.
"There was no reason to, everything was perfect" Luke adds. After another minute of just silence surrounding the room and you decided to make a suggestion since this wasn't very pleasant.
"Guys let's eat and then we can think about it" you say softly. The others' gazes follow you as you enter the kitchen. They quickly come round and you eat together in silence, someone would only speak if the wanted another person to pass them something from the table.
***
Louis got the brilliant idea of turning on the TV after he finished. Since he was done eating first, you could hear the TV from the living room.
"We're back to the hidden world ladies and gentleman. In the last two days we've searched the whole peninsula and found a village that looked like it was abandoned not too long ago. There has been more and more information that we can't read unfortunately. There's also a new species we've discovered, it doesn't have a name yet, but it looks like a human turned inside out, truly gross. It's been found in a tunnel, two of them actually. Unfortunately they killed a few of our men, but we managed to capture them. They will be sent to the main Sydney lab to learn more about them-" .
"They found the lickers" Sierra chokes on her food almost.
"If they get loose there will be a chaos" Calum panics. Everyone gets up from the table since you were almost finished anyway and join Louis on the couch.
"-They aren't unfortunately the things that made those giant claw marks. We still haven't discovered that species. You would think they wouldn't be able to hide well because of their size, turns out not. That's all for today folks-" and then Louis turns the TV off.
"So now they know about them...awesome" Michael groans.
"Good thing they can't read our ancient language" Luke sighs.
"When did you learn it?" Harry asks, sounding very curious.
"When you're a kid that's the first thing you learn except walking, eating and transforming" Mali explains.
"Well, why do you talk in English then?" Liam adds and everyone shrugs.
"It's always been like that, we write in one, talk in other. I can write English of course, but I just don't" you explain. The four guys nod slowly and you hear sighs around the room, looks like everyone's puzzled.
"You know what, let's do this. We're gonna go back and find where the whatever it is that keeps the barrier there. Once it's back to normal we wait for the traitor to show up again and then we catch him" Calum says determined, looks like everybody was in agreement, but there were some holes in that plan.
"Alright, but let's wait at least a week for that. You can't just walk in there, people will be suspicious" Harry says.
"Why wait a week?" Ashton questions as your group was confused.
"Because the research groups are most active the first week or two and then it starts clearing out" Liam explains.
"Ohhh, that makes a lot of sense" Sierra adds making Liam chuckle.
"How do we go there tho without them asking questions?" Ashton asks again.
"Simple, fake IDs, I can get them for you in two days probably" Niall smirks.
"Like your thinking" Luke fist bumps him.
"Right, but how will we get the people out?" Crystal questions.
"Create a diversion" Calum says, like a light bulb appeared above his head.
"Niall could interfiere with their signal and think of a trick to get all of them out" Louis suggests.
"Yeah, but it would have to be something big" Mali sighs.
"I think I could come up with something" Niall reassures. For the next thirty minutes you talked about the plan, trying to figure out everything. Looks like the old group was finally working together like in the past, with a few new friends. That day soon came to an end, but you loved every second of it. Guess this won't be much of an ending adventure.
***
*What happend during the week*
"I'm gonna go to the bathroom" Crystal informs Liam as she runs off upstairs. 'I'm done with this' you think to yourself.
"Hey Payno can I get some water? I drank all of mine" you ask and he nods so you run off upstairs as well. Harry and Niall weren't here thankfully which made you go straight to the bathroom. As expected you found Crystal throwing up. You shake your head, but still kneel down to hold her hair back because you did feel bad, but also angry she didn't tell Michael yet.
"You have to tell them already" you whisper, just in case someone does come upstairs.
"They are noticing your behaviour you know that. This may have been just six days, but time is gonna pass fast and they will notice it" you look to the side as another wave comes over her. She finishes and you wait for her to wash her face.
"I know they will, you've seen Michael yesterday" she reminds you.
"Yeah, I feel like his mark is telling him something's up, more than just a cold. Mali probably knows, but won't say anything and I'm sure the others have their suspicion" you tell her honestly. She sighs and then exists the room without another word. You can't let her be like that, but you can't make her do things too, she's older than you for goodness' sake.
-
"You know, I'm sick and tired of you telling me you're okay. Let Mali help you, you're not fine Crystal!" Michael angrily shouts at her. You knew he was coming from a good place, but this is not helping. It was break time and let's just say things weren't exactly chill. Most of you were in the kitchen and having a snack, Ashton and Sarah went upstairs to change, but you're sure they would hear this.
"I am perfectly fine! Leave me be Michael, you're not my dad!" she shouts back at him. During these five years everyone learned to stay out of Michael's and Crytsal's arguments, Louis, Liam, Niall and Harry stayed to the side with you, just listening to the conversation in silence. Crys and Mikey didn't care if someone heard them, they had to get out what's been bottling up.
"Yes, but I'm your fucking boyfriend and I'm worried about you so just tell me what's wrong!" he yells, but takes a deep breath as he finishes the sentence.
"Leave me alone Michael Gordon Clifford" she says, it wasn't a shout but you still heard it.
"Oh no..." you mumble, she called Michael by his middle name and he hates it, noone knows why, but it irritates him so much and this means she was dead serious. He scoffs loudly and goes upstairs passing by Sarah and Ashton who were just walking down with worried faces.
"Should we...do anything?" Harry asks as silence hits, everyone shakes their head no.
"Okay, had to ask" he mumbles.
"Let's go downstairs and leave them be for a few hours" Ashton suggested as him and Sarah came in the kitchen. You did so and let them be for a little while. They apologised to eachother, well, Michael did first since he couldn't stay mad at her for not telling him what's wrong. It did hurt him a lot because he felt like she can't trust him, but Michael would never admit that. The rest of the day was completely normal. Or as normal it gets.
***
It was late in the evening the same day, you and Calum were on the balcony right at the end of the hallway upstairs. His head was on your lap as he was laying on the couch with you sitting on the end. You stared into the distance, watching the moon you missed so much.
"I miss running around late at night" you admit, keeping your voice low.
"Me too, I miss our village, Charlie. Not being surrounded by professional stuff" Calum agrees.
"It feels strange, doesn't it..." you start and he continues your sentence.
"-being on the same planet, yet a completely different world" you hum in response.
"We'll be back soon Willow" he says and you look down to meet his eyes, he smiles at you.
"We will Cal" you smile too and kiss him.
"Are you worried about Crystal?" he asks out of nowhere, you freeze for a second collecting yourself for an answer.
"A little, but if she needs help she'll tell us" you reassure him. He laughs at that, his dimples showing.
"What's so funny?" you ask, trying to sound serious, but laughing in the end as well.
"That's exactly what Michael told me when you started acting weird. You know...when you started ignoring me" his gaze falls from your eyes as he looks in front of him.
"Hey, you know I'm never leaving again" you force him to look back at you. He sighs as he brings one of his hands to your cheek
"I know kitty, I know" he says.
-
Now it was the evening two days before you were going to go back to your world. Niall had made the fake IDs, Liam and Louis taught you pretty well and Harry said he was going to stay here and be the man in the chair if anything ever goes south. Let's hope not though. You and Crystal were sitting on the balcony at maybe 1am and you really had to convince her to tell them and this was the best chance you could get.
"You know..." she starts, you nod for her to continue.
"Michael was in the mood, but...I said no" she says, you laugh wholeheartedly at that.
"You said no to a werewolf then? Oh God" you couldn't stop laughing so you put your hand on your mouth not to wake anyone up.
"Stop it! It's not my fault, he got me here where I am right now" she hits you lightly. You finally compose yourself and look at her.
"It takes two for a tango Crys, it takes two" you smirk, her face reddens. She scoffs and lays on her back.
"You know, I'm tired of saying 'i told you they will know' so will you please tell them already" you ask, making her sigh.
"I don't know" she says shortly.
"You don't know what? Crystal it's so simple, there won't be any negative reactions. Also, this is the best news anyone could ever get" you try to cheer her up.
"I know Willow, but it's just hard. I don't want to feel excluded, I don't want to hear all of you ask if I'm okay or do I need help. I don't want any of that, I would just feel so...so helpless" she explains, now you understood her completely.
"You are saying that you don't want us to treat you differently and we won't Crys. Sure, there will be some helping, but that's inevitable" you reassure her.
"But it was the same for you. You could've told us and we wouldn't have treated you differently yet you kept to yourself" she says and your stomach flips, she's right, but that was different as well. You couldn't have known their reaction, you've known them for a month only at the time.
"Crystal" you glare at her, a tear slips down her face and your gaze softens. Before you could speak the door opens and Liam comes in.
"Liam why are you awake?" Crystal jumps when she sees him.
"I could ask you the same, but I have a more important question" he says, taking a seat down next to you.
"How much of that conversation did you hear?" you question, heart beating out of your chest.
"Not much, but I know Crystal and it's becoming obvious. I didn't need to hear you guys, but you have to tell the others and especially Michael" he says. You're glad Liam knows actually, he's kinda like Mali, calm and composed, never taking sides and genuinely a good person. Even though he's sometimes shy and unused of himself he's one of the best advisor and support definitely.
"I-i, wait. If you know, why doesn't Michael? Why can't he figure it out by himself? This just means he isn't ready and neither am I!" she sobs and you and Liam hug her instantly.
"Crystal it's not-" you try to say but she cuts you off.
"It is. He doesn't know, he can't figure out, he's clearly not ready. Maybe he doesn't even want the baby" she says, her sobs are muffled by Liam's shirt. He pulls her back putting both of his hands on her shoulders.
"Listen Crystal, it's not that he's not ready, he knows deep down. He just need confirmation from you, he wants you to trust him, okay? He even discussed it with me and the other guys, especially the last three days. He feels like you're leaving him out, if you are going to be good parents you have to let him be a part of it too. It's not easy, I know what it's like, but you have to stop doubting him and you. Calm down a little and tell them finally, understood?" he finishes as Crys stares at him wide-eyed. You were amazed at how he handeled the situation, truly remarkable. She stared straight in his eyes, the moon making the green in them seem brighter than they were so she nodded, whispering a thank you to him and then to you.
-
Today was the last day before your farewells and Crystal promised you and Liam that she'll tell everyone by lunch. You were just talking to Ashton about how much you can't wait to go back home, but a worried Niall, who just entered through the door, cut your story short.
"Someone turn the news on, quickly!" he manages to say.