"Uh-huh. And your name is Merlin," Louise replied, her words dripping with sarcasm. Arthur grimaced at the reply as if he'd been anticipating a different answer -  shock or realization.

"I'm telling the truth, Louise! Have you ever wondered why you never looked like your parents?" he yelled, standing.

"Well... yes, but I'm my parents' daughter! They even have a picture of me as a baby!" she replied, knowing that her statement was futile as soon as it slipped from her mouth. "You were replaced! No one could have known except for Frenchmen!" Louise huffed, a stray strand of hair falling in front of her face.

"Well, thanks for all this... whatever it was. I think I'll be going now. My mom - my real mom will be wondering where I am," she retorted, pushing her chair behind her. Arthur caught her wrist as she started toward the door.

"Louise, wait."

"What?" Arthur slid his hand into his pocket, producing his wallet. Was he going to give her money? Why? He unfolded the wallet, revealing a woman. A woman with flawless chestnut hair that cascaded down, and she had soft cheekbones. She had large, round hazel eyes that looked as if she were gazing straight at Louise. In the picture, she was smiling in what looked like a meadow that surrounded her. She... looked like her. Save for the eyes, of course, but the resemblance was definitely there.

"That's Jane. Jane Marshall - the love of my life," said Arthur softly, closing the wallet, and stowing it away in his pocket.

"You can try to ignore it. But you'd just be ignoring the truth, and sometimes, when you try turning your back on it, it comes to bite back at you later." Louise glanced up at Arthur. He too shared some resemblance to her as well with his semi-gray eyes and soft cheekbones. But no, they weren't his parents, the Melóns were! Wow, now she was calling them by their surname - her own parents! Telling one that they have the ability to manipulate the weather is one thing, but telling them that their parents weren't there parents was another thing entirely. Louise closed her eyes shut.

"Okay, let's say that you are my dad or whatever, don't get used to me calling you that. To me... you're just some random dude I met, alright?" she said. It looked as if her words hurt, yet Arthur merely nodded. Out of the blue, a thought merged its way in her mind. "Um, anyway, I have these two other inquiries - can you  answer them?"

"To the best of my knowledge."

"Okay, well, these other three people had this same dream, but we were on other sides of the world. Surely, the time zones would've messed that up, wouldn't it? And how did we even get these abilities? And why can't Frenchmen just derive more energy from the solar panels?" Arthur's face fell at the second question.

"The first one is difficult to explain and so is the third, so I suppose I should answer the second... Jane thought she'd have enough time after Frenchmen threatened to take her abilities by force. And so, she fled, hoping to reach to this little safe house she had. Unfortunately, she had not anticipated for Frenchmen to know. And...," his voice choked. "Frenchmen had made this invention capable of extracting Jane's powers, and she stole a box of the solution. But if it was to be used at extremely high frequency, it could kill a person. When Frenchmen finally caught up with her, she... set it to the high frequency... And as to the third one, well, it wasn't a matter of how to derive the energy, it was matter of inserting into the body without harm," he finished, his voice shaky. Wait... my mom -Jane- is dead? "Anyway, she had made sure that the abilities would go to some wise people because energy cannot be created nor can it be destroyed. That answers your second question - now to the first. She also had this ability to breach into others' minds, and so, she created an illusion of what you all would do if you all saw each other. It was her remaining essence that was able to accomplish that task, and she had implanted some of her ability into the teleporting fortune cookies - just to answer that inquiry if you were about to ask." Blood drained from Louise's face. It had suddenly dawned upon her what Frenchmen needed her fellow companions for. But why not her? She was this defenseless teenager who didn't exactly have bodyguards following in her wake, so why not just snatch her from her room?

"Arthur, why did Frenchmen not capture me yet?" she asked. Arthur's eyes gazed into Louise's gray ones, his expression impassive.

"Because you are your mother's daughter, and a simple stone cell would not be sufficient for you," he said. Louise glanced downward. Her? What was so special about her? So, yeah, maybe she was Jane's daughter - maybe, but she was as defenseless as a mouse to an owl. Owls had these dangerous talons that could impale anything, and their wings were silent enough to be unheard by its prey, while mice were quick and dim-witted. What was she, a mouse, to an owl? Still, if her fellow mice were kidnapped, she was to be the mouse that would rescue them from the dreadful fate that awaited them.  

"So, how are we gonna rescue them?" Louise asked.

"Rescue whom?"

"Rescue Shijie, Alexa, and Joshua. They've been kidnapped by Frenchmen! I'm not gonna let them die!" she yelled, throwing her hands in the air.

"We can't get to them. I know where Frenchmen is keeping them, but going there would be suicide!" Arthur replied.

"Why did you tell me all this information then? Hmm? I think I could've gone on my merry way through my life without finding out that my parents aren't really my parents... And anyway, Shijie went all this way from China to America to England to America not to die, but to warn me! And also to warn the others. He's a hero. And I know you're... sort of my dad, but you're no hero if you just sit on your butt all day doing scientific research. Now if you're not going, then I am. Where is he?" Arthur looked as if he'd been slapped.

"I'm not trying to be a hero, I'm trying to keep you safe-"

"Don't! I don't want to know that the price of my safety is the death of three, innocent teenagers. I want to know that the price of my courage is the rescue of everyone that had been done wrong by that idiot they call Frenchmen," exasperated Louise. Arthur took a defeated sigh.

"He's at the safe house Jane was trying to get to that night. But we don't have any weapons, Louise!" he exclaimed, his eyes frantic. However, she merely grinned with a mischievous glint in her eye.

"And who said that?" she asked, thunder booming behind her.

***

The drive to the laboratory was completely silent, and the drive to the supposed safe house was no different. It also so happened that Arthur actually had a gun with him that he opted not to reveal during the discussion if they should or shouldn't go save Shijie, Joshua, and Alexa. She assumed that the only real purpose he was going with her at that moment was due to the prospect of walking into her own death, which seemed to trouble her dad - Arthur. Grass swept passed her as the beige Nissan Altima raced speedily on the open road, and the sky stretched into the vast distance along with it. Clouds were nonexistent in the blue canvas. However, this wasn't surprising for Louise, as she was trying profusely to calm her nerves, and she realized that she was fairly good at it. What was she doing? Was she just going to march into the safehouse and say, "FEAR ME - THE FAITHFUL RESCUER OF THE PRISONERS YOU CURRENTLY HOLD. WHOOSH! THAT WAS YOUR CAR FLYING TO THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD!" And what security did Frenchmen have? Arthur mentioned that he had the entire United States police force and FBI wrapped around his thumb, and thought, sure, it was unnerving, but it didn't seem likely that he would keep them at a safe house, would he? No, it was too suspicious, he was more intelligent than that. Suddenly, a large rectangular metallic box peered into view, and Arthur cut the engine as soon as he caught sight of it.

"Now, are you sure you want to go through with this? I won't want to lose you," Arthur said, looking down at her.

"I'm sure. Let's go," Louise replied, opening the car door and slamming it closed. Arthur mimicked her motions.

"Okay. There's two entrances - one is out in the open, and the other is hidden. The problem is, I don't know where the hidden one is." Louise jogged up toward the safe house and began scanning the sides, surprised that Arthur did not try to stop her. As a matter of fact, he began doing the same. She placed her hand against the cool metal, and began sliding it up and down the sides of the box. Arthur, on the other hand, merely proceeded to examine the entry way by sight. Louise was about to realize that her plan was hopeless, when her hand slid over an unusual bump halfway on the elongated section of the box. She pushed it slightly out of sheer desperation and to her amazement, it opened.

"Arthur! I found it!" Louise whispered. He nodded and followed Louise into the door. Inside, there was no hint of light, and Louise was only able to make out two entrances - one going straight and one leading downward.

"Which one?"

"Down. He would never keep them in his personal laboratory," Arthur replied. How he knew that it led to a laboratory, Louise hadn't the faintest idea. She didn't wait for him to go first, and she rushed down the stairs only to come face-to-face to a huge set of double wooden doors with an iron lock. It looked like something straight out of a movie. There were even torches beside her, blazing brightly in the darkened interior. "How do you anticipate on opening it?" Arthur asked, no longer whispering. Louise glanced at her surroundings. There were no openings. No weapons. Nothing. And using the torches would consume time they certainly didn't have. There was only one other option, and if they didn't get out in time, they were all going to be thrusted into a cell, looking out to a very unfortunate future. Louise rubbed her hands together rather quickly.

"You might want to stand back," she said, gesturing for Arthur to back up a bit. It didn't take long for him to realize what she was doing, and began to protest. "You're going to trigger the alarms-" But it was too late, anger pulsated through Louise, unlike anything she had ever felt like before. Anger for the mere fact that she had to be dragged in through this distorted adventure; anger to Arthur for revealing that whatever she had thought was real was nothing more than a perilous lie; and anger at Frenchmen most of all for sending Louise down this nightmarish rabbit hole with no prancing mad hatters and smiling cats but with abnormal abilities and lies. But nothing happened. She waited a moment. Nothing. Suddenly with wide eyes, Arthur backed up to the foot of the staircase. Blindingly white light flashed before Louise's eyes only a foot away from her, sending her flying backward by the force of the impact.

"I thought my power failed me for a moment."

"Well, I think that comes to no surprise, considering your parentage," Arthur replied after a moment of recovering his surroundings. Louise coughed up ash before replying, "Can we please talk about that some other time? Just makes sure we get them out before he finds out we've breached the security!" Regaining their senses they helped each other up and raced into the now open doorway into a dimly lit corridor with a continuous line of cells. She heard murmurs coming from the last cell, and spent not even a mere second, sprinting to the face of it. A sigh of relief escaped her lips, and a smile picked at the corner of her lips. Shijie cradled the bars in front of her, and Alexa and Joshua were not in contact with the bars but were both attentive, their green eyes, landing on her. "Hey, guys and PIC! We've come to your rescue!" exclaimed Louise. Arthur jogged up beside her, holding a ring of keys.

"Found them on the wall," he replied to her unspoken question. Hastily, he unlocked the cell, and gestured for the tenants to leave, but they remained put.

"Guys, why aren't you going?" Louise asked, staring at them. Shijie leaned against the cell with such profound grogginess, she could've sworn that she winced.

"We too drained of energy - can't escape...," he said in a raspy voice as if he had just woken up from a deep slumber. As Louise was about to protest, Shijie's eyes closed, and his breathing began to inhale and exhale periodically. Both Joshua and Alexa also looked in no state to move.

"Guys-"

"Well, I've been waiting for you, Miss Melón. Oh, wait, Miss Marshall. I suppose it depends which name you're willing to take," greeted a French-accented voice with a hint of amusement. Calmly, she whirled, looking at a middle-aged man with a stubble on his chin and blonde hair with striking blue eyes that seemed to pierce Louise's skull. As an evil mastermind, she genuinely didn't believe that he would be sort of handsome, and she couldn't help but stare as he strode toward her in a black suit. She sensed Arthur stiffen behind her.

"Actually, my name is Louise," she gritted behind clenched teeth.

"Ah, beautiful name, is it not? French for 'female warrior.' Oh, and Arthur Wentworth, of course. You're here as well... The whole family in one room. Wait. One, two - no. Someone's missing," Frenchmen replied and feigned thinking. "Oh, yes! Jane. Poor Jane Marshall, lost to the inevitable fate that awaited her."

"You, jackal! You brought upon her death! And don't dare talk about her as if she were some person!" Arthur spat, his eyes burning with fury, Louise wasn't sure he was capable of mustering, considering his seemingly calm poise. "Guards, get him," Frenchmen commanded. A few men in black wear that Louise didn't even know were standing behind Frenchmen due to the dimmed light, came at Arthur mercilessly, pulling his hands back. "And we'll be bringing you to the lab to test some... experiments."

"OVER MY DEAD BODY!" Louise shrieked, the air deadly quiet. Suddenly the familiar blindingly white light returned, burning into the ground between Frenchmen and Louise. The sound reverberated throughout the safe house, deafening, and for a moment, Louise was inclined to believe she had lost all hearing until Frenchmen's footstep backward echoed in the corridor. Recovering himself, Frenchmen pulled out a walkie talkie from his belt, and whispered a command to quiet for Louise to hear.

"So be it!" he replied, and suddenly a firm grip clasped her hands.

"LET GO OF ME-" Almost instantaneously, a sharp prick shocked her, and she glanced behind her. A heavy-set man dressed completely in black held a needle over her, containing some sort of transparent liquid. At the edge of her vision, Arthur escaped the grip of the black-worn man, and scrambled over to her side.

"No... WHAT DID YOU DO, FRENCHMEN?" he screamed. Wait - no he wasn't screaming. He was whispering? His face began to distort into some sort of sickening shape, as Louise strained to clear her vision.

"I merely drugged her, Arthur. But of course, if she won't cooperate, worse things may arise. Guards, I feel that our potential experiment has over welcomed his stay. You know what to do," Frenchmen responded, directing the last words at Louise. Black dots began to dance before her eyes, and it was only seconds before the world collapsed into a black emptiness.

Yeah, no, I wasn't asleep this past week, haha. I've actually been writing. A lot. I think I got roughly three chapters done - the latter being quite long. Anyway, if you enjoyed this chapter, please vote or comment. Or do a cartwheel. You need to get some blood pumping! Though I think Louise has enough of that blood pumping...