Kathryn comes to two conclusions, as she treks through the mountains, all the way up to the temalacatl. First, running track definitely isn't the same as walking in the South American heat, clothes sticking to her skin, effectively stinking too. Second, it's been forever since she actually ran track, so why did she think she'd have a good cardio anyway?

And oh, the worst part is, Big John is distancing them.

"Come on, kids. Pick it up! I don't got time to waste."

Kathryn heaves out several times. "I'm going... to kill him... and steal the air from his lungs."

But they keep going.

At some point, the way uphill is so hard on their knees and ankles and shins and thighs and lungs and everything, John B simply takes Sarah's hand, and Sarah takes Kathryn's, forming some sort of human chain all the way to the top, dragging each other.

Big John keeps walking ahead, and Kathryn hates that she was proven wrong about his knobbly knees. Who knew he'd have such good cardio? This isn't fair, she's dying over here. The only thing that keeps her going is the fact that once they find El Dorado, they're going home, and JJ will be waiting for her, along with Henry and everyone else.

Also, the prospect of a life-altering discovery. And sticking it to her dad. This, she was looking forward to.

"Hey, Pop," John B calls out after falling face first and nearly making the girls join him. "How about we take a breather, you know?"

"How about not? Come on, boy. Y'all are slowing me down. We're losing light."

John B turns to Kathryn. "I can't take this anymore."

"You can't take it? I have the cardio of diseased shrimp."

"It's the only shot we got," Big John cries out again. "Come on."

Apparently his son has had enough, seeing as he nearly runs up to him – Kathryn doesn't know how he manages that – to hold him back. "Hey. For thirty seconds, can you stop being an asshole?"

Sarah blinks. Kathryn blinks. Big John isn't as surprised as they are. More so... inconvenienced. From where they are, they can't hear what he's saying. But oh, does his son hears.

"Thirty seconds? I've been on this trail my whole life, boy, and we are on the cusp. And I got Ward Cameron, who tried to kill me, and Edward Darcy, nipping at my heels. Their daughters spying on us."

That thought boggles his mind, for lack of better terms. "You think they're spying on you?"

His father inhales sharply. "Kid, you don't know the Darcys like I do. They pretend to be our friends, that's how they work. Edward used me to get closer to the Merchant – her whole family is trust-challenged, and you know that. As for Sarah, well... you can stay back here and babysit your girlfriend. It's your choice. But I'll see you at the top, and you better tell Kat to meet me there."

John B stands there for a moment, as his dad leaves, unsure what to do. Big John can't go too far, he needs Kathryn to translate. But if for some reason he apparently thinks she's spying on him, well he can definitely try to put as much distance as he can between them.

So there he stands, between his dad, the gold hunt, and two of the most important people in his life. And John B has had to make that choice before. And he'd chosen wrong. He had let Sarah down, let Kathryn down. He wasn't even there to open her acceptance letter to Yale...

Edward and Big John may have been friends. And a Darcy may have betrayed a Routledge. But John B and Kathryn were not their fathers, he knew that now.

He walks back to them. That choice was easily made, now.

He holds out a hand, helping Sarah through some tall grass, the blonde leading Kathryn with her.

"Sorry. The Camerons aren't really a hiking family, if I'm being honest."

Kathryn stops herself from making a bad joke. She feels like it wouldn't exactly be welcomed, right now. "The Darcys' idea of family bonding is shitting on my life, so you know, me neither." Sarah snorts at her.

John B only turns out to look at his dad, leaving the three behind. "Sorry about him. He gets a little obsessive over the treasure."

His best friend hums. "Hadn't noticed."

Sarah, though, smiles up at her boyfriend. "And you don't?" she chuckles. Kathryn holds back a giggle.

"Stop," John B chastises, despite the laughter in his voice.

And they keep moving. Big John, despite his promise to just go up ahead and wait for them to catch up at the temalacatl, is waiting at the top of the hill, looking over into the distance. Kathryn isn't as happy as she's supposed to be, to stop climbing.

She hates that Big John puts John B through exactly the same thing, again, and again. She hates that she knows how it feels now, how hurt John B must feel that he isn't just enough to wait, to hang around, to be put before the treasure.

So Kathryn stares at the older man, even when he beckons them forward. Big John had taken the most drastic fall in her esteem.

"Come on. Take a look at this."

Sarah pants. "Sorry. I had to catch my breath."

Kathryn tugs at her hand. "Don't apologise," she hushers at her, getting a squeeze in answer before she lets go.

"Catch it when you get here. Take a look at that."

It was hard, to hold a grudge against Big John, when he always acted so... jovial. A real life Santa Claus, really. But Kathryn was an expert, so she won't give that to him.

However.

The view from where they were was stunning. Thousands upon thousands of acres of rainforest, running across hills and mountains, of which the peaks hid in the clouds. Kathryn could get lost in that amount of green. She just had to not look directly down, or she would start shaking violently.

"Kat, hey, look at that?" She begrudgingly obliges, Big John pointing out to four stone pillars.

"That's the temalacatl?"

He nods. "There she blows. Solana."

John B stares at his father, pretending like he has no issues with Kathryn, like all of this is normal, and that he isn't just trying to sweeten her up to get her to translate for him. That, he hated. The way people kept using his best friend. If Kathryn refused to give him what he wanted, well, he wouldn't blame her.

But she stands between them, and looks up at him, grinning, all teeth, and he blinks and there's a missing tooth, a more prominent scar on her forehead, no glasses on her juvenile face.

"Okay, even I have to admit, that's pretty cool, Bee."

He can't help his smile. "Bug, you stole the words right outta my mouth."

Sarah squeals, tugging the two of them. "Come on!"

"At least it's downhill, huh?" Big John calls out, already halfway down.

Kathryn shares that feeling.

🍓

Kathryn thanks whoever, out of the three others, thought to bring torches. If climbing up the mountain in broad daylight had been long and tiring, well, she trades it over how stressful climbing down the mountain in the middle of the night.

Luckily for her, the trek isn't quite as long. No, they're at the dig site when night falls, and that's all she needs. Distraction from the oppressing night. Vindication that she could do it without her father, and she was doing it.

Placed between the four pillars they saw from way up there, the temalacatl really is just a round table engraved with Kalinago sigils. Kathryn sets her bag down, finger trailing over the words, as Big John rattles on about the legend. This wasn't a legend anymore. The thought made her tremble slightly.

This felt greater than history itself.

"See these four columns here? Mark the cardinal directions. And there it is. The temalacatl."

He shines his torch right into Kathryn's eyes, who scowls. "Instead of proving your own self right, how about you get that gnomon out?" She gestures at the hole in the middle of the temalacatl. "Pretty sure that's where it goes."

Big John spends a few more minutes marvelling at it, and she can't exactly blame him. "A thousand years of astronomy, mathematics is all contained in this."

Kathryn blinks, for a moment. She hadn't thought of it like that. If the Kalinago were able to pinpoint the exact precise location of El Dorado, according to the stars and their own calculations, well. "We effectively erased from history a people as great as the Mayans. I need... There needs to be study on this, on the effects of–"

"Hey, nerd," John B hushers at her. "How about we get filthy rich first?"

She hums. "Yeah, that, too."

Big John takes out the idol, the gnomon, and carefully places it on the pedestal, muttering beginnings under his breath.

Kathryn stares at it. "I thought it'd open a door or some shit."

"No," the older man chastises. "When the moon hits its zenith, that's when the action starts." He gets paper out of his bag. "John B, I want you to remember the exact order. Sarah, gather up some mud and mark the glyph so we know what to translate. Kat, do your thing. And be quick about it, okay?"

"Hey," John B hisses before she can. "Aye aye, captain. Relax."

Big John doesn't seem prone to relaxation at the moment. "We only got one shot at this. I don't want any back talk."

Luckily for him, the teenagers are quite inclined to listen, at the moment. They are after all in the middle of nowhere. And if Kathryn can translate, well, Big John can get them back home.

They stand, at the ready. Kathryn's eyes gloss over the markings, reminding herself of each signification whether they're used as subjects, verbs, or adjectives. They should be okay. She has it down to a T.

By the time Kathryn feels the urge to raise her voice at how long it's taking, the top of the gnomon starts to glow, moonlight shining through it.

"Whoa. Guys. Guys. Guys."

"Shut it, Bee, we can see it!"

A sigil starts to shine on the gnomon. Now, Kathryn isn't a science expert, but she's almost sure that's not possible. She doesn't understand how the thing comes to life like this, but she doesn't have the time to.

"Mark it! Mark it, hurry! Hurry!"

Sarah smudges it, John B hurriedly marking it down. Kathryn nods to herself. Subject. "'Brave traveller,'" she translates, adrenaline pumping through her veins.

They're doing it. They're actually doing it.

The next words come quickly, shining all the way across the gnomon, making the sentence readable to Kathryn, who quickly jots it down.

"Right, okay, it's 'Brave traveller, if you have wisdom, I'll reveal the wealth of the earth.' That's gotta be El Dorado!"

Big John starts laughing uncontrollably, just as the actual table glows, and Kathryn doesn't think to question the science this time.

Their voices overlap in excitement, Kathryn repeating every word, trying to sort out the sentence as they come.

"'Tongue?'"

"What is this?"

"Come on, hurry up!"

"'Patience,' it's patience!"

"Patience!" Big John holds out an arm. "Patience."

John B blinks at him. "...Patience?"

They wait for a few seconds before the dance starts again.

"That's 'wisdom' again!"

"No, no, not in this context."

"And that one looks like a tongue."

"...Could be 'darkness,' could be 'cave'..."

"And that one over there?"

"That's 'seeker.'"

"What's the hand?"

"It's 'home,' most of the time," she answers.

That one wasn't on the gnomon – but her father had it written down. He mistranslated it to 'family,' but Kathryn knew it meant 'home.' She just knew better.

"'Home?'" Sarah echoes.

"Well, if El Dorado belonged to the Kalinago, it'd make sense that they'd call it 'home.' But it doesn't... it doesn't go with the sentence. We're missing one, I think."

Still, the hand is pointing east, and that seems like it's enough for the older Routledge. "It's showing us to El Dorado!" Big John cries out, putting his paper on the table, hiding a handful of sigils at the same time. Kathryn scowls.

He picks it back up. Apologises. She stares at him.

Big John? Who had been so careful up until then? Casually messes up the table?

Thunder strikes. The last glow goes out before Kathryn can read it, but she knows. Big John has the last word. He may not know how to put it in the sentence, but he knew the words. He has the key to El Dorado, where it's hidden, somewhere East of here.

"What do we got so far?" John B asks, the tiniest bit oblivious, or simply not wanting to believe what his father is pulling.

"'I have no tongue, but I'm always speaking,'" Kathryn recites, robotic. She's willing to see if the man will fool the son.

"What does it mean?" Sarah asks.

Big John stares at the Cameron. Long, and hard. He doesn't know how to translate it, this, she knows. But he also seems willing to try and see if he can convince Kathryn to do it for him. Translate Kalinago, away from her blonde friend, that is. As if that turned out well the last time.

"I don't know, I'm missing the other half of the sentence," she says, ironic. "But I think someone can help us. What's the last word, Big John?"

The other two turn to him. He doesn't meet their gazes.

Silence hangs heavy. "Dad, just spit it out."

He splutters. "I don't, well, I'm not sure..."

Kathryn's stomach sinks. Her skin is ablaze. Thunder strikes again.

"Aren't you?" she asks, voice firm. She notices the skittish looks he keeps sending the blonde.

"Dad, what are you doing?"

"I've got all the notes," he fumbles. "Kat we can... I... We know which way we're going. It's..."

"'We can' nothing, you–"

"It's because we're here." In the night, Sarah's voice rings out, clear and true. "This is about Kat and I, isn't it? Because you don't want her to know everything from the get go, and use it against you, you're willing to wait until the last possible moment? Big John, we are not our fathers. And I'm not my brother. You can trust us."

Kathryn bites down her lip, watching the man's eyes fly from her, to Sarah, to his son. Tell her the glyph now, and she'll know where to find it, there's a possibility she'll distance him. Tell her later, and, well, even if she wanted to double-cross him, it'd be too late.

She's not sure she could say she was no Edward Darcy, when oh, if there wasn't a piece of him in her temper.

"Are you really willing to risk it?" she fires at him. "Over a grudge you don't even hold against either of us?" It's not fair, and that hurt her in ways she couldn't grapple with.

He doesn't answer her. That's an answer in itself.

"What was it?" John B barks at the man. "Hey, look at me. We all just went through hell and back to get here. Tell me what it was."

Rain starts to fall over unsaid words. Kathryn turns vengeful. "You're just going to use us?" she spits out. "You're just going to use me, after everything you know my dad put me through, Big John?"

Big John had cooked greasy breakfast for her and his son, so many mornings, pulled out the pull-up couch for her, so many nights. Watched his son find a lifelong friend in her, watched her fall apart, watched his son grieve her when she was still alive.

How easy it flew out the window, in the name of someone she hated.

John B huffs. This is his girlfriend. This is his sister. And they had always been more important than any gold hunt. "Just gonna pull us in and push us out, like you did with mom, with me," he cries out at his father, who looks away, ashamed. "Look, now you're doing it to Sarah, and Kat. You know Kat!"

Sarah shakes her head. She had been in one too many family feuds. "John B, stop."

"No! Kat has always been here for me, and you know this. She was here for me more than you were when you pushed mom away."

Kathryn turns to him, the water cooling her skin, clumping her lashes together. Any words are snuffed out with care from her brother's hand.

"I don't care what happened between you and Darcy, dad. Kat is not him, and I am not you. Tell us what it was! Because if you drive her out, I'll go with her, so what was the word, dad?"

"Yes, John!"

The drops themselves seem to stop, hanging in the air around them. Any warmth naturally goes the second she recognises the voice against the beating of the rain.

"What was the word?" Singh asks. "Tell us all, John. What is the secret of the gnomon?"

The four of them regroup, close to each other. If Singh is here, his men can't be far. Suddenly, Kathryn is almost grateful that Big John didn't tell her the word, so she couldn't translate it aloud.

Less so when the man raises a gun.

Singh tuts, pointing his own at him. "I wouldn't do that if I were you, John. I have you surrounded." Sometimes, Kathryn hates being right. "You'd do best to toss over your gun now!"

A man appears to their right, water clogging their vision, their only senses filled with Singh's voice, screaming at them to be careful.

In front and behind them, two men are holding them at gunpoint.

"Ward was gonna send up a flare to warn us?" Big John can't help but recall. "Yeah, sure."

Sarah, bless her loving heart, screams at the man. "What did you do with my father?"

Nothing at all. "I'm right here, Sarah! I'm okay!"

Across from Singh, Ward walks up to them. Kathryn's vision clots with rage. If he is here, and her own father isn't... She was a Darcy, she only hated as much as she could love.

She had worshipped her father.

"Where's my dad?" she cries out at Ward. "Where's my dad, you fucking–"

She moves forward, the man that was behind them holding Sarah and John B back before they can follow her.

"I had to get rid of him, but don't worry, he's alive," he tells her, but she wouldn't take his word for it. "I made a deal, I had to."

"A deal?" Sarah cries out from where she stands.

"Yes," Ward nods. "I did a favor for mister Singh. In return, he's gonna give me all I want."

Kathryn can barely restrain herself from clawing his eyes out, something she knows will get her shot. "You think you're doing her a favour?"

"I want her safe!" he shouts at her. "Isn't that right, mister Singh?"

Singh seems uninterested. "When we're finished, she can go with her father. Safe and sound."

Kathryn scoffs, cold smile stretching at Ward. "You just never know when to ask, do you?"

"And you too can live, you know, Kathryn, if you just give me what I want!" She can't help but wince at Singh's shout, retracting into herself. "The way to El Dorado!"

But Kathryn only stares. Because she doesn't know the way. Big John made sure she didn't. And he wasn't done with that plan, it seemed.

"Sorry Carlos," the oldest Routledge says. "She can't do it. And you ain't gonna kill her. 'Cause we both got the treasure." He gestures at his head. "It's right up here."

She thinks that old man has lost his goddamn mind, and when she crosses John B's eyes, she's fairly certain he did. Because Singh isn't the kind of man you bargain with, and he should have known. They should have known.

"John, John, John. You know what the Guajiro king did to the slaves that mined El Dorado, John?" Kathryn inhales sharply. "He had them executed, so they could never reveal the secret location, and he did it here, you know, on the Stone of Solana. And I think it's important, very important, that we honor tradition."

Kathryn can't react as fast as she wants to. She can't scream at Singh that history isn't meant to be repeated, she can't scream any smart quip, because a man grabs John B by the back of his neck, and aims a gun at the back of his head, another man pointing at his face.

"No," Sarah begs next to her.

"So, tell her, John. What was the word?"

Sarah pants, reaching aimlessly for her boyfriend, tears mixing with the rain, as Kathryn nearly runs up to Big John. Surely, he's going to cave now. The treasure can't be worth John B's life, it can't, and it doesn't!

"Big John, please," she begs, voice warbly, all bravado gone. She was her Brother's Keeper. "Please, just tell me!"

But he remains silent, as Singh taunts them.

"Dad, just tell her!" his own son begs for his life, but it falls on deaf ears.

He looks down, and if he was ashamed before, this was disgust at himself. Kathryn's gut churns. "He's your son, for god's sake, please just tell me!"

"John," Ward himself steps in. "Jesus, John. Tell her!"

Kathryn recognises the look in his eyes, as she steps back, wiping her face of sweat, tears and rain. Her father had worn the same one. The treasure would always come first. That was the curse of the Routledges, the Camerons, and the Darcys. John B had broken it, reaching back for his friends

But Kathryn, who didn't know if her dad was even alive anymore, would remain a Darcy. She wouldn't go out quietly. That had never been in her nature. And if she could trade one for another, maybe, just maybe, she could try the Maybank way.

Stupid things have good outcomes all the time.

Kathryn lunges for the first gun she sees, the one at John B's face. The man easily pushes her to the ground, and she stumbles in the mud.

She barely has time to look back up, that a gun is raised at her.

A shot is fired.

She expects searing pain. She expects to taste blood, to pass out immediately, but no. Singh's man falls to the ground. Behind him, Ward is holding his weapon, steady. Kathryn's mouth goes dry. Ward can't have just saved her life, can he? That can't be right. No, she's just entered a parallel universe–

She blinks. She had the key to El Dorado. That man wasn't getting rid of her. He didn't save her. He just tried to buy her. She was a bargaining chip. Her life was a means to an end, to him. But not to her anymore.

She shoves Ward back as she stands. John B, quicker, and smarter as to use the distraction, jerks his arm back into the man behind him, grabbing the gun.

"Go, go, go!"

Shots are fired at them, from them, Kathryn isn't sure as Sarah grabs her wrist and tugs her away, the Darcy barely noticing that Big John has picked the gnomon up in their escape.

They shove themselves together, hiding behind one of the pillars, Kathryn frantically patting John B, who has to whisper to her that he's fine if she is. Sarah doesn't seem to be able to let go of either of their hands, too.

Big John fires back towards the temalacatl. Shots are exchanged, enough to make them yelp and scream, knowing that they were still here, not going away.

Across from them, Ward wasn't leaving either. But they weren't shooting at him, no. He was safe. Well, relatively, seeing as the second Singh catches a glimpse of him, all bets are off, she can guess.

But safe enough to scream at Sarah to join him, at least.

"No!" she cries out. "I'm not coming with you!"

"I'm your father!" he says, as if that absolved him of everything. "I saved Kat's life, Sarah. Now come with me before you get killed!" A shot comes close to her, Kathryn yanking her back in the nick of time. "Damn it, Sarah, we don't have time for this! Now come on!"

Sarah has other plans. Sarah was tired of listening to her dad, she was tired of following his lead, of being played, of always believing he could be good, because he was not, and she was going to put an end to this.

"John B, give me your gun."

He looks back at her. "What?"

"Give her your gun!" Kathryn screams out, nestling against the stone. "If she wants to shoot at Ward, well, then, good for her!"

That's not exactly the plan, but it seems to be as Ward, momentarily safe from the crossfire, steps towards them. "You're coming with me."

"Back up."

"What are you doing?" John B cries out. "Sarah."

Kathryn shakes her head at him, screaming over the gunshots. "Let her!"

"I said back up." Her voice is wobbly, but she is holding a gun at her own father, so no one can blame her.

Ward stops, a few feet away. "Put it down, Sarah. You're not gonna shoot your own–"

Sarah fires at the ground in front of him. It signals his position to Singh. If Ward wants to stay alive, he has no other choice but to flee. Which he does. She heaves out a sigh, and even in the darkest part of the night, over the sound of the beating rain and the gunshots, she feels liberated.  She would not be his daughter again.

Tetchily, Big John takes the gun back from the girl. "You're one of us now, kid."

Kathryn frowns at him, taking her by the arm. She's had it with that old man. "She always was. You were just too blinded by the gold to see it," she hisses over the noise.

She sees him swallow thickly, only indication of his uneasiness, and maybe, a hint of guilt. Good. He deserved to feel bad.

"Go. I'll cover you."

None of them have to be told twice. Grabbing the other's hand until they form that same human chain that got them here so far, the three teenagers run away from the scene.

Author's Note: 4 chapters left...? oh! uh oh! my thesis work reaching a quieter, slower path? OH! UH OH! THE WEEK-END ALL TO MYSELF? none of us are making it out! we are in the trenches, in the depth of kat's character arc, and the south american rain forest! and well, of course, the last plot twist before the end, and i am so . so excited!

oh also because no one asked but i really wanted to tell -- i made a tiktok trends about people who had a crush on kat and YES, pope, kie and sarah are mentioned for three different reasons;

pope because it was really just a dumb crush so yes, he likes kat for two days after she first verbally beats up a bully for him ... and then jj stares at him for those two days straight and he's freaked out! like i fully believe they sat down once at like, 8, and it went something like "hey kat's kinda..." "KINDA WHAT?" and it was never spoken of again

kie had a girlcrush on her before she realised she liked sarah or even liked girls,, she essentially just found her really pretty that one time they went to surf and kat stayed behind to read and then spent the whole while acting so cutesy towards her by basically hogging her which jb was the tiniest bit mad about ... and then of course she met sarah

sarah has a Major Girl Crush for a month when kat comes back to the obx? mainly because she loves what she can't have and is detaching herself from Frosted Tip, and it's mostly played out as sarah sticking around when kat's a bit of a bitch? like their first interraction kat said she felt like a charity case for sarah and that girl still stayed for Reasons (Gay Reasons)

oh and cleo saw kat pick up a weird bug barehanded and had a very confusing couple of hours after that

(sorry i love my silly headcanons)