The look on the girl's face faltered immediately. "What do you mean, the only ones he took?"

"I think you know exactly what we're talking about." I said, staring her directly in the eye. "He's free again. I don't know how, but he's free again."

She shook her head. "That's not possible. The only one who could've opened it was Sky, who knows about it, or-"

She halts, and turns to look at the boy. "You didn't."

He raised an eyebrow. "What?"

She gripped him by the shoulders. "For the love of Notch, please tell me you did not open the box!"

"I-I didn't!" He exclaimed. "But..." He cast a glance over to the other, younger girl.

I looked over at her, and saw that her face had gone pale, and that she was slowly inching away from the older girl.

The older girl looked over, too. "Oh, Notch." She said, letting go of the boy.

"It was an accident!" The boy defended. "He never...she got curious...I don't think she was in control of herself!"

"It doesn't matter who did it!" The older girl yells. "Do you know who was in that box?"

"Woah, woah, hey!" Jenna yelled, getting the other two to turn and look at her. "Everyone just calm down. We can fix this."

"Now isn't exactly the time for your optimism, Jenna." Jeremy said.

"It's never the wrong time for optimism, bro bro." She gave Jeremy a half-smile. "Before we delve into the whole: 'there's a demon who wants our families dead on the loose' business, let's start with something smaller. What's your names, ages, basic stuff."

There was silence for a few seconds. Then the boy reluctantly spoke. "Um, I'm Tyler, that's my sister Macey, I'm 14, she's 10."

"There Sky's kids, as you can tell by the amulet." The other girl clarified. "My dad's Deadlox. Name's Skylar. 14."

"They don't look much like Sky." Quinn observed in her quiet voice.

"Yeah, I've heard that a lot the past few days. We're adopted." Tyler explained.

Alyssa walked over to Macey, her eyes on the small notebook she was clutching. "Woah! What is that?"

Macey looked up at her, confusion written on her face.

"Uh, it's a notebook." Tyler said, an eyebrow raised. "She carries that thing around with her everywhere."

"What's a notebook? Is it like a log?" Alyssa asked.

Skylar raised an eyebrow, and looked toward me as if to ask "What's wrong with her?"

"She's from space." I explained. "Not really used to all the stuff we consider normal."

"Jason?" Skylar asked, and I nodded. "Oh." She said. "Makes sense."

"A log?" Tyler questioned.

"You know, a log! Like, you type what happened that day into it and it saves it!" Alyssa said.

"Oh. Kind of. She writes in it a lot. With a pencil and stuff."

Thankfully, Alysaa had already found out about what a pencil was at the Kingdom, pre-attack.

"Ooh! Pencils are the things that can make lines where you guide them, right? Cool!"

She smiled, and a small smile appeared on Macey's face, also.

I wasn't surprised. I hadn't known her for very long, but I already knew that Alyssa's smiles were infectious.

"Okay, we've introduced ourselves. Can I please go back to beating the crap out of Tyler now?" Skylar asked.

Tyler looked shocked. "W-what? I told you, it wasn't my fa-"

"I know, but I really need to punch something right now, I'm not gonna punch a ten year old girl, and you're closest to me." She muttered. "To me, that's a recipe for you getting a black eye."

Tyler quickly stepped away from Skylar.

"Hold it. No one's going to punch anyone else." I said, stepping in between the two. "We're not gonna get anything done if we fight each other, okay? And, if she really did set him free, I think you'll get enough punches in by the time this is over."

Skylar stared me down, but she didn't scare me. I could take her if I needed to.

After a long period of silence, she sighed. "Fine."

"Okay." I said, stepping out from in between them.

Suddenly, her fist shot out at a nearby tree, and a small crack appeared in the tree.

She breathed. "Sorry. Needed that."

I shrugged. "As long as you don't kill anyone."

Her eyes suddenly widened. "Wait." She said. "He needs a vessel, right? Who's his vessel? And please don't say he took my dad again."

Was it my imagination, or did I hear her voice shake a little?

"No one knows who he is." Quinn finally spoke up. "Just some random guy. He was too far away to say anything really, but we're positive it isn't Deadlox."

"Can someone PLEASE explain what's going on?" Tyler suddenly yelled.

I turned and stared at him, along with everyone else except for Skylar, who sighed.

"Apparently, Sky told these two absolutely nothing." She said. "They don't know what opening the Box meant."

"Are you serial?"Jenna asked.

"Completely serious." Skylar nodded.

"Perfect." I muttered. "Just perfect."

Jenna turned towards Tyler. "Okay, you wanna hear the story? Here's the gist of it..."

*********one very long explanation later(you guys know the story)********

"And then they trapped him in the Box. The end." Jenna said, a little too cheery for the situation, but then again, she was always cheery.

Tyler and Macey were both staring at her, wide-eyed.

"She's...she's not serious, right?" Tyler asked.

Skylar sighed. "Really? You really think we're lying at this point?"

"...No." He said, staring at the ground. "I just don't understand...why wouldn't he tell me?"

To be honest, I felt bad for him. It was a lot to take in when I thought about it, but I had grown up with the stories, so it didn't seem all that mind-blowing to me.

But Tyler and Macey were learning about their dad's past, something they'd clearly never heard of before.

"Hey, you okay?" Quinn asked Tyler, her hands clasped together, as usual.

"...Yeah. I'm fine."

He obviously wasn't, but I decided we'd better move on with the conversation.

"So...we gonna team up with you guys or what?"

"What?" Skylar asked.

"I mean, come on." I shrugged. "We've all go the same end goal, why not team up?"

Skylar hesitated, thinking it over. Finally she spoke. "Alright. But I'm warning you, one move and I will not hesitate to stab you. I still don't trust you."

"Fair enough." Cameron said.

"I don't know about you guys, but I'm exhausted. We've been walking all the way from the Kingdom. Can we sleep now?" Jenna complained.

"I second that notion." Jeremy agreed, and I had to admit, I was tired, too.

"Yeah, I'm going to bed. See you in the morning!" Alyssa said cheerfully, and pressed a button on her arm. She was immediately surrounded by a metal bubble.

"What the-" Skylar started, but Cameron cut her off.

"Don't question it. None of us did, but she goes in there every time she wants to sleep. I swear, it's like she's a Pixelmon."

A small smile appeared on Skylar's face, before it was quickly replaced with a neutral expression.

"Well, she may have that, but we have the ground. Everyone pick a log and try to imagine it's a pillow."

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