Legend of Kataria (Draft Version)

Chapter 11

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.