Whitewing

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon. Only the idea and OC's.

Author Notes:
-- This will be used for scene breaks and for when the story switches to another character, but it does not mean that a new section of the story has started.
xXx This will identify where each paragraph breaks.
(Character thought)

Disclaimer: Don't own Pokemon, never have, never will. Only the idea and OCs behind the story are mine.

xXx

Chapter 5

The team arrived at the site in just a few hours. The old dirt road used to get there was filled with uneven terrain resulting in a bumpy ride. The sun had set and the moon high above gave off much needed light. Both HUMMERs were equipped a set small dome lights mounted on the each side of the vehicle before they set out. They would serve as the primary light source for the crew at night and would definitely be needed to set up camp.

It took a few hours, but all ten tents were set up. Everyone had their own small camping tent to sleep in except for Aelita and Alex who shared one. The other four tents were very large. Three of them were about the size of HUMMERs them selves and served a few purposes like a mobile mess hall, storage tent, and command tent. The last tent wasn't so much a tent as it was a mobile pavilion. It covered both HUMMERs protecting them from basic weather conditions. By midnight, everything set up and the group was getting in their tents for the night.

Everyone turned in waiting for the sun to rise in the morning.

--

Alex was the second to wake. Johnson of course was the only on up before him. The shiny Umbreon stood in the command tent looking over maps of the area and up loading them to set of handheld devices similar in design to cellphone, but were never used as such. The small devices were how the crew kept track of each other. They had built in GSP chips, had a three miles communications range, they automatically mapped out areas the person had traveled, and they even had cameras in them. The Explorer's Second Eye or ESE as Imperial Crafters had named them was an explorers best friend.

Alex looked toward the rising sun. He was still tired and rubbed his eyes. "Alex, how ya doing?" Johnson asked as he finished copying the data to the devices.

"I'm still a bit tired, but I'll wake up soon enough." Alex walked over to the where the HUMMERs were parked. Opening the trunk on one of them, Alex set up the coffee maker. He walked over to the spring, gathered some water, and then returned to the vehicle to start the coffee.

Within the next hour, everyone had woken up. Breakfast consisted of coffee and eggs for everyone except Aelita who after trying the coffee, went for some of the water from the spring. After breakfast, the group did some stretches to loosen up their bodies for the days activities. Johnson passed out a canteen, six power bars, headsets with lights on the sides, and an Explorer's Second Eye to everyone before they walked down to the temple. Everyone gathered up the supplies that they were elected to carry before they started for the temple late morning.

Just like the Liquid Projection Table had shown them, the temple entrance was a feet up off the valley with a large number of rocks in front of it. The crew climbed up to the ledge where the stone door stood waiting for them. A large hand seemed to grip the doorway, its claws were at least as long as Aelita's arms. She was experiencing her first doubts about coming. "Okay, we all know the routine." Johnson pushed against the right side stone door while Bryan pushed on the left side one. "Place a beacon every fifty feet, report to each other every ten minutes, and most of all, stick with your team."

The stone doors moved a side soon enough revealing the long hallway into the temple. Johnson activated the lights on his headset. Two bright beams of light shot through the darkness revealing the hall that sloped downward. Everyone followed suit and the exploration was officially under way.

The first room that the crew came to was the entrance hall. It was mostly just a big room, a few pillars on the sides to help ceiling from collapsing. Burned out torches were position along the ways, each one held in place by what looked like a pair of hands that seemed to be part of the walls. The crew looked around checking for inconsistencies in the tiles of the floor and any large openings. "Place a Master beacon here." Johnson told Bryan.

"Give me a sec, mon." Bryan pulled out something about the size of twenty-four ounce pop bottle from his backpack and placed it in the middle of the room. It was a dull gray in color and had a small button on top. Bryan pressed the button and it lit up some, but not much. A single red light started flashing at the top signifying the device was working.

The crew moved to the end of the room and found two passages. "We'll go to the left, Andrew, your team goes right."

Andrew headed down the right side passage with Justin and Bryan behind him.

Alex and Johnson took the lead down the left hand passage with Aelita and Cheryl behind them.

The hall was of simple design, bricks had been stacked upon each other. The tile floor was a perfect grid. There was the occasional set of hands holding a torch here and there, always on alternating sides of the hallway. Everything was quite except for the sounds of very quite foot steps. The hall seemed to be turning to the right a bit at a slightly down ward angle. This didn't Aelita too much until they came to their first trap.

The group was walking along slowly when Alex and Johnson stopped. "Aelita, how well have you been paying attention?" Johnson asked.

"I've kept my eyes open." She replied.

"What have you noticed about the torches?" Alex asked.

"They are never on the same wall twice in a row." She responded. Looking a bit past them, she could see a set of hands holding a torch on the right side. She looked behind her at the left wall, but the last torch they passed was also on the right side. "Hey, that the patterns been broken."

"That's right. We need to keep a look out for something else out of place now." Cheryl moved forward. "Stick close."

Alex got down on his hands and knees inspecting the bottom of the walls on either side of them while Johnson took a careful look at the floor. Aelita took a small step back, her foot standing on a tile. The tile moved down some and something clicked in front of them. The walls ahead of them opened up slightly. A small blob of white matter was flung at them. "Get down." Johnson shouted. The four of them hit the floor as the blob flew over them. It hit the wall a short ways down the passage they had come from and there was loud sickening pop as the blob burst in a mess of spider webs.

"Classic web trap meant to hold people in place until guards arrive." Alex got up first and shook the dust off of himself.

The crew was a little slow to get started again making sure the trap had been dealt with.

Cheryl stuck closer to Aelita, as she seemed a bit shaken up. "Hey, let's talk. It will help to calm your nerves." Cheryl moved just a bit closer to Aelita.

"Okay." Aelita was new to the whole trapped dungeon thing.

"Tell me about how you and Alex became mates. That should be a nice story to hear." Cheryl made sure to keep her voice low as not to draw too much attention away from Alex and Johnson.

"Well, we met last year." Aelita began her story. "I was walking beside the Helcos River and everything seemed alright. I had walked the same path for the entire school year and nothing had happened. Then one day after a rain storm, the river was a just a bit high." She recalled the day quite clearly. "I was walking along thinking nothing was going to happen, but I was proven wrong. Something came up on the path and crashed into me. The wave that carried it up to path I was on got hold of me easily since I had lost my footing."

"That must have been scary." Cheryl listened intently to find out how Alex had gotten Aelita as his mate.

"It was. One second I was fine on the path, the next second, I was thrown into the river. I couldn't see or do much as the water tossed me around." Aelita did seem a bit calmer. "It felt like I was being thrown around in the river for hours, but then I felt something grab on to me tightly. Before I could even grasp the fact that someone was rescuing me, Alex had pulled to the shore of the river. I was so surprised and thankful, that I just hugged him then there giving my constant thanks. At first, he was too open with me and it took him a while to open up to me."

"That's no surprise. He doesn't open to anyone quickly." Cheryl laughed a bit as the team entered a large room. The room was empty of all objects except for a few torches.

"This is interesting." Alex looked down at the floor. The tiles on each end of the room were like every other tile they had seen so far, but the tiles in the middle of the room were very large almost two foot wide squares. Each one had a letter on it in Spellsworn runes in a five by five pattern.

"Okay, I don't see a riddle around here, so it must be a name." Johnson looked all over the side of the room they were on, but found no riddles or clues.

"I think we might need the name of one of their gods. Take a look up there." Alex pointed to the roof where there was a large worn out image of some sort of Pokemon.

"It's definitely a bird Pokemon." Cheryl stated. The wings may have been worn down, but they were clearly visible.

"Karito, Jectoria, Begniga, Leganmia, and Thortanso. Those are the five basic legendary bird Pokemon in the Spellsworn language." Alex said.

"Very good." Johnson was happy to learn that Alex had done his work on studying the notes about the Spellsworn culture that Johnson had dug up.

"It kind of looks like a phoenix." Aelita tilted her to look at the picture as a different angle.

"It kind of does. Now, Alex, you know the four names of the birds in Spellsworn. Do you know which one is the phoenix?" Johnson asked looking down at the lettered tiles before them.

"I think the phoenix is..." Alex tried to recall which bird was which. "Begniga?"

Johnson picked up a stone and tossed it on the Spellsworn rune for the letter B. The tile flipped over sending the stone to some unknown location. "Nope."

"It's Karito." Cheryl spoke up. She stepped forward walking onto the Spellsworn rune for the letter K. Everyone watched as nothing happened. Cheryl took another step onto the tile with the rune for the letter A on it. Once again nothing happened. One by, each person walked the same spelling out the word Karito in Spellsworn.

"That wasn't so hard." Alex proclaimed as they once again began down the halls.

Two hours had passed since the group had first entered the temple. So far, Johnson, Aelita, Alex, and Cheryl had only faced off against three traps, the web trap, the floor puzzle, and short pit fall. Andrew's group had reported in on time every ten minutes reporting nothing of interest and minimal traps. They had chosen to stop in large room with a floor puzzle before continuing.

With Cheryl there to talk with Aelita, she faired much better then if she had done this quietly. She had shared the story of how she had met Alex and how she came to know him better.

Cheryl continued to talk with Aelita as the four of them walked. They had entered a long hallway that twisted downward to the left. Luckily, there were no traps or hazards. As they entered the room at the bottom of the spiral hallway, they stopped.

Several torches lit themselves lighting up the room. Blazers here and there light up the middle of the room. The room was huge, almost as big as the pent house. Statues of various Legendary Pokemon lined the sides of the room, each one made of gold.

"What happened, who lit those torches?" Aelita grabbed onto Alex.

"The Spellsworn have many ancient secrets like this, only science can't always explain them." Alex informed her.

"Don't touch anything." Johnson warned. The base of each statue was lined with various gemstones. One statue on the far wall stuck out from the others though. It was a large woman, standing at least twenty feet tall. She stood up tall, her head raised up some. Her hands held large Kris as though she was offering it to someone with one hand on the hilt and another supporting the blade. She was barely dressed, not that anyone except Aelita cared about that.

"They have some strange statues." Aelita looked on.

"This is a room of worship." Alex suggested.

There before the statue of the women was a large flat alter, blood stains covered most of it and two small indentations seemed to be where the blood collected. There were no other passages into or out of the room visible to the crew so the slowly made their advance toward the alter.

"This is Andrew." Johnson's ESE started beeping.

"How is it over there?" Johnson asked.

"Better question, how it down there by that alter?" Andrew asked.

Alex looked up toward the ceiling above the door they had used to get in. Andrew stood there with Bryan and Justin by his side on a small ledge just below the ceiling of the room.

"Nice to have you meet us. We'll wait for you to get down here." Johnson put his ESE back on his belt. It took a few minutes, but Justin, Bryan, and Andrew made the climb down the wall careful not to disturb anything.

"Worship room huh?" Andrew looked on at the altar.

"Aelita, how ya holding up?" Bryan asked as he set down on the floor.

"I'm doing okay." She said.

With the crew of seven back together, they could really get to work examining the room.

--

It took an hour to go over the room as much as they could. There were no traps, but five various riddles. They also found signs of secret passages in the room, but couldn't open them. It also took Aelita a while, but she sort of got used to the whole unexplainable self lighting torches.

"It's getting late, lets head back for the day." Johnson offered. Water was starting to run low and everyone had eaten all of the six power bars they had. Unlike the trip down to the worship room, the trip back was much faster. Everyone still kept their guard up as they walked, but since they had disarmed the traps they had come across, it went much faster. The crew left the temple leaving behind only the beacons they had placed every fifty feet. The sun was already setting by the time they had returned to surface. The group had talked about what little they had found and went out the riddles they had come across.

The first four were easy and the group spent more time decoding the riddles then solving them. The last one however was much harder.

"I don't get it. Think we might have translated it wrong?" Alex asked looked at the paper with the translation on it. The group had a large fire going serving to light up and warm the area in the center of the camp.

"To pass beyond my hall, one must offer my tears of ice and find my fang of fire." Johnson repeated the same set of words for the tenth time since they translated the riddle.

"Fang of fire?" Aelita looked at Alex as he changed out of the shirt he had worn into the temple. Alex's necklace hung around his neck. She looked closely at the ruby fang and the light that gleamed off it from the fire. It seemed to have a glow of its own. "Alex, look at your necklace." Aelita walked over to him.

"My necklace?" Alex looked down. Then it hit him.

"The key was right under our noses." Justin looked at Alex. "Rubies signified the fire of Motlres and sapphires were used in many Articuno statues."

"I hate it when that happens. We've been looking for something inside the temple and we had it with us the whole time." Alex sighed for not realizing sooner.

"Well, the rest of the night is ours, just head to bed early enough to wake up in the morning." Johnson alerted the crew. "I'll going to go over the photos that were taken."

The rest of the night was mostly spent talking before everyone called it a night and headed to their tents.

xXx

Everyone was up shortly after nine the next day. Breakfast was again a quick meal as everyone readied his or her pack. They knew that today, the real danger would begin. Everyone was given fourteen power bars today and two canteens of water. It was possible that they may not make it back out until late into the night.

The crew took the left-hand passage once they entered the temple entrance hall. This time, Cheryl shared stories of her past with Aelita to help her stay relaxed as they walked. It took about an hour of walking to return the chamber of worship. Just like last they entered, torches lit up and blazers flared to life. Once the light had come forth, they headed for the altar.

"We're looking for some sort of panel on the altar or at the base of the statue." Johnson reminded the crew.

Aelita stuck close to Alex who was searching the sides of the altar were the riddle had been written. Now that Aelita had a chance to look at the old runes, she was surprised. They were very well carved out and seemed to flawlessly flow into the next one. "There beautiful." Aelita said as she sat on her knees next to Alex.

"Late Spellsworn scribes were very picky about their work. They would sometimes redo a project a few times to get it done right. We've found many sets of bars with incomplete riddles in a few other locations." Alex told her. "But yes, they are quite nice to look at."

"I think I found something." Justin shouted. Everyone herded over to where he was by the left foot of the golden woman statue. The found a small statue of an Entei. Its mouth was open as it to roar, but was missing a fang and there were two small indentations below its eyes. Alex took off his necklace and compared to the statue before him.

"It's a match." Johnson looked on.

"I knew it was expensive, but to think it was key to a temple." Andrew looked a bit around the corner. The group had identified a secret passage only a few feet away from the statue.

"Okay, there's telling what is going to happen." Alex just barely had enough of slack on the chain of the necklace to place the two lunar tears below the eyes and put the fang into place. The loud sound of stone grinding against stone filled the room. The secret passage that Andrew had been looking slowly opened up. A string of torches light themselves to light up the passage which turned to the right a short ways down. The passage was just large enough for the group to walk into two at a time.

"I'll lead, Alex you're second. Cheryl, Aelita, bring up the rear." Johnson advanced toward the tunnel.

"Hold on, I want to check something." Alex objected. Alex removed his necklace from the statue and a few seconds later, the door began to close.

"Good thinkin." Bryan clapped. "Might be betta to split up again."

"If that's the case, then Justin, I want your team to stay here and watch over this room." Johnson announced. "My team will go while your team can check out the other riddles and see what prizes you get. We'll call you every ten minutes with updates."

"Very well." Justin walked to Alex who handed him the necklace.

"Don't lose it." Alex was serious when giving the necklace over to Justin. "It's the only clue to my past I have."

"I'll keep a very good eye on it." Justin nodded his head knowing all too well the true value the necklace had to Alex.

Johnson and Alex lead the way down the new passage with Cheryl and Aelita taking up the rear. Cheryl continued to talk with Aelita to help her stay calm as they walked, but everyone kept their eyes open. They moved slowly down the passage. The floor was made of several tiles in a diagonal pattern and the center tile was red every twelfth tile. Stone bricks made up the walls lined slightly off center of the row below it giving the walls a slightly tilted pattern. A set of hands holding torches showed up every twenty bricks always on the fourth row from the top.

The group of four walked along for about an hour and Johnson had reported to the other half of the expedition every ten minutes, but there was nothing to report. They group would have gone much faster, but caution kept them to a slow pace. At last, they entered a large room. Blazers flared up as they entered the room. Four large statues occupied the corners of the room, each one of a human holding a blowgun in their mouths. Their weapons were all pointed towards the center of the room. "We'll take a break here." Johnson informed them. It had been a while since breakfast and they all pulled out a few power bars each.

While they ate, Alex looked around. His eyes constantly shifted from statue to statue.

"Yo, Johnson, ya there mon?" Johnson's ESE started beeping.

"What it is Bryan?" Johnson replied.

"We be thinkin we find something. Looks to be another stone doorway. Needs a key of sorts, which we don't be having." Bryan informed them.

"Andrew here, I've got a rough translation. It looks like only those who have proven themselves may pass. We've got a indentation of Spellsworn cross here." Andrew told the crew.

"Johnson, I see an golden eye." Alex pointed across the room. Right by the door that lead on was a small golden sphere that looked like an eye.

"We might have the key over here. It looks like we found a chamber of trails." Johnson was happy to finally know exactly what there were dealing with. "I'll contact you in a while."

"So, this is an initiates trail chamber." Cheryl got up. It all made sense. The crew was running a small gauntlet of trials, so only the rooms would have traps in them.

"And that gives us an advantage." Alex smiled.

"What are you talking about?" Aelita asked.

"We are better then the humans of the Spellsworn Era. We are faster, stronger, and most of all, have various skills that humans were unable to use back then." Johnson explained. "What would be a class S trial to them could be a class B for us."

"I'll go first." Alex took a few steps back down the hall. Turning to face the room, he darted forward, the second he entered the room he dove forward, rolling as he hit the ground. Darts flew from the four statues. Alex used his hands to catapult himself to safety landing on his feet facing the others on the far side of the room. He didn't keep his balance though and fell flat on his ass.

"You jumped a bit early." Johnson shouted as the darts stopped. "Aelita, do you know any speed based moves?"

"I know Agility." She responded.

"Use it as soon as you enter the room and you'll be fine." Cheryl took a few steps back. She dashed towards the room and Johnson caught her arm that she had held out. Johnson swung her around and threw her over the floor. The darts never went as she landed gracefully next to Alex.

"Aelita, just keep moving and nothing is going to happen." Johnson reassured.

"I'm not sure about this." She decided to go with a larger starting distance then Alex and Cheryl. She ran down the hall as used Agility as she entered the room. She was already half way across the room by the time the darts had started to fly. Alex caught as she charged into his arms knocking them both over.

"Congratulations Aelita. You passed unharmed." Cheryl helped the two of them up.

Johnson didn't even back up some before charging. He was one side of the room one second, and standing next to the others a second later.

"How did you do that?" Aelita asked still a bit shaken up from her run.

"Extreme speed. I was clocked at about a hundred and thirty miles per hour when using." Johnson explained. "On to the next chamber." Johnson and Alex lead the way again after he grabbed the golden eye. No longer worrying about every single of the way, the group progressed much faster along the hall to the next room now that they knew what to expect.

As if expecting them, the blazers once again sprung to life. This room was similar in design to the last room, but there were no statues. Instead, most of the floor was filled with tar or something that was very dark in color and bubbling a bit. A small script of runes was on the floor before them.

"Translation?" Cheryl looked to Johnson.

"Only the eye knows thy path." Johnson read the text. Alex pulled out the golden eye he had taken from the previous room.

"The eye knows thy path, huh." Alex looked over to the other end of the room. There lying on a hook beside the door was the second part of the Spellsworn. The side spikes and upper spike of the cross lay waiting for its new master come and collect it, but unlike other crosses, the spikes looked very small sword blades.

"How does that work?" Aelita was confused about the clue.

"The eye is keystone." Cheryl explained.

"And by placing it in the spot, we'll find out how to cross." Alex finished.

"Question is, where is the source stone?" Johnson looked around at the walls while Alex looked at the ceiling. Cheryl looked at the tar covered floor. After a minute searching, the group found what they were looked. A small indentation above the doorway was the perfect size for the golden eye.

"Give me a lift." Alex asked. Johnson and Cheryl both locked their hands together to serve as footholds for Alex to step onto. Once they both had a foot in hand, they gently lifted hi up. Alex placed the eye in the socket and the tar receded just a bit revealing a usable path.

Alex took the eye back and the tar returned to its normal level. "Follow carefully behind me." Alex said.

He took a small step forward, the bottom his boot sunk a few millimeters before it hit solid ground. Everyone followed in Alex's footsteps without getting stuck as they crossed the room.

Alex grabbed the next piece of the cross and inserted the into the center ring. It was a perfect fit.

--

The group continued down the hallway into the final room. As usual, blazers lit the room as they entered. The room before was vastly different from previous ones. It was much larger and seemed to have no traps or anything for that matter. The only thing in the room was a small pedestal that held the bottom spike of the cross that looked like the Kris the golden woman statue back in the worship chamber held.

"This isn't good." Johnson looked into the empty room. He saw no signs of traps and that worried him more then anything else.

"It looks like an empty room. What's the problem?" Aelita asked.

"The fact that it's empty. Spellsworn never leave anything unguarded." Cheryl explained.

After a minute of examining the room from the hallway, they group was unable to find anything. Alex pulled out his ESE and dialed up Andrew.

"Andrew, is there any thing there about the trail of chambers. Any clues about what the trials are?" Alex asked.

"We haven't found anything, what's going on?" Andrew replied.

"We are in the last of the trial chambers. It's a large empty room and the pedestal holding the last piece of the Spellsworn cross is sitting on that pedestal." Johnson explained.

"Unguarded? That has to be some sort of trick." Justin spoke up.

"We be letting ya know should we find something" Bryan finished.

"Thanks, we'll continue looking on this end." Johnson returned his ESE to his pocket just like Alex.

"So, what now?" Cheryl asked.

"We have a few choices. We test our luck and find out the hard way what's guarding this room." Alex held up one finger.

Johnson and Cheryl both shook their heads. "Choice two, we wait and see if Andrew and his team find a clue about what we are going to face in here." Cheryl shrugged while Johnson made no gesture at all.

"Choice three, we continue to carefully examine the room and hope to find a clue of sorts." Once again Cheryl shrugged, but Johnson nodded his head. "I myself am leaning toward the fourth choice however."

"Fourth choice?" Johnson asked.

"Trail and error. We use something as bait to attempt to set off the traps and watch the results." Alex explained.

"And how would we do that?" Aelita asked.

"You know blizzard right?" Alex asked.

"I only just learned it a while back." Aelita responded.

"Then we free the floor and see what happens?" Alex turned back toward the room.

"It is a little risky." Johnson thought it over. "But that could work. Worst case scenario, we suffer minor injuries and lose the bottom end of the cross and have to convince one of the museums who have a copy to loan it to us."

"I guess I'm up for it." Aelita was a bit unsure.

"We've got nothing much to lose here." Cheryl added.

"Alright. Aelita, just aim for the center of the room." Everyone stepped back to give her some room.

Aelita took a few deep breaths before focusing on the room before her. She opened her mouth and let loose a blast of cold air. Snow quickly formed in the room. As a thin layer of ice built up on the floor, the ceiling shifted revealing a large string of holes. A long iron spear dropped from each of the newly formed holes. Aelita refused to let up on her attack and the iron spears were frozen in place as a layer of ice formed over the room.

Aelita couldn't hold out her attack any longer and stopped. The entire area was chilled from the attack, but it dealt with the trapped room. Looking up, there was clear path where it was safe to walk and the spears wouldn't fall on them.

"You did it, Aelita. Look." Alex motioned toward the room. She smiled upon the work she had down.

"Now lets get that last piece of the cross and call it a day." Johnson started into the room careful not to slip on the now icy floor. Cheryl followed suit. Alex walked with Aelita last in line.

About half way to the pedestal, Aelita slipped. She landed hard on her side. Alex quickly knelt down next to her. "You okay?" He asked.

A slight cracking noise above him caught his attention. He looked up to see that a few of the iron above him were breaking free being too heavy for the ice to support. He quickly grabbed onto Aelita who had a look of horror on her face.

The iron spears broke free form the ice and fell down toward Alex and Aelita. Alex's eyes instantly went green giving off a bright light. Johnson and Cheryl watched as their crew was about to be killed. The spears never made contact with Alex or Aelita. Eight large ghostly angelic wings covered them. Each one of them was tinted green and all came out of Alex's back. Aelita was both amazed by the beautiful sight, but also fearful that they may not hold. The spears fell to the side, each one landing with the sound of shattering ice.

Alex looked down at Aelita, he was out of breath and just barely able to keep himself up. "I guess I haven't quite back all of my energy from last week." Alex smiled before falling onto Aelita.

"What was that?" Aelita asked.

"Those wings were one of Alex's spirit forms. You have told her about spirit forms, right?" Johnson asked.

"But I thought that his spirit was a sword." Aelita objected.

"Alex has two basic spirit forms right now. He summons the sword when he needs to fight, but he calls up the wings for protection." Cheryl explained. "It's a good thing he summoned them when he did too."

Johnson walked over the pedestal and using the spear he still in his hands, broke the layer of ice that held it in place. As he took the last piece of the cross, ice along one of the walls began to fracture. A new stone doorway had opened.

"That's our way out." Cheryl pointed to the new doorway.

"Now what happened last week?" Johnson asked.

"I over used my spirit energy big time. Added a new room to the house and then had to fend of against a Typhlosion who tried to take Aelita by force." Alex responded. He was now on one knee.

"You were lucky your wings held out as long as they did." Cheryl exclaimed. "Using that attack, which you still haven't named yet, and then taking on your spirit in the same day. Its you a week and a half alone just to completely recover from using that attack." She knew that Alex would have to take it a bit easier on his spirit energy unless he wanted to pass out.

"As long I don't have to use my spirit form again any time with in the next week, I'll be fine." Aelita helped Alex get up.

"I knew you were kind and sweet, but to think I choose an angel as a mate." Aelita laughed a bit.

"I'm no angel, even with those wings." Alex laughed a bit himself at the joke.

"Come on, this should lead back to the worship chamber." Johnson started down the new hallway. The path lead up and Aelita helped Alex work his way up. Once at the top, they found an indentation in the wall. Johnson fitted the last piece of the cross into the pieces they had and formed a full Spellsworn cross. The eye served as the centerpiece, the top three spikes were all very thin looking sort of like small daggers. As for the bottom spike, it looked like the wavy blade a Kris. If held upside down, it could be used as a weapon, but not a very conventional one. Johnson placed it in the indentation and the opened back up into the worship chamber.

"Been wonderin what be keeping ya." Bryan greeted them.

"I say we call it night. We can explore the next section tomorrow." Andrew offered to which everyone agreed.

Then Justin noticed that Aelita was supporting Alex. "You take a fall, Alex?" he asked.

"Had to use my wings." Alex replied. "Problem was I was still recovering spirit energy from an event that happened last week."

"Ya got to be more careful bout dat." Bryan took over supporting Alex as the group started their way back to the surface. Andrew handed Alex back his necklace before they left the room.

The group hit the surface after the sun had already set. Johnson wasn't too concerned about the pictures taken today, they had to plan for tomorrows events. The crew talked about various things as they had dinner, a light meal of chili, which had been made before they left for the ruins a few days back.

The group went to bed early again to get up for tomorrow's events.

xXx

Aelita was quickly getting into the morning routine of the crew. Wake up by nine, breakfast by nine thirty, and packed up for the ruins by ten. The crew was back in the worship by eleven thirty.

"So, lets see what behind this door." Johnson had the Spellsworn cross in hand. He placed in into the indentation near the door Andrew and his crew had found the day before. The stone door slid to the side.

Torches lit themselves as the full crew walked down the long stone hallway. They were not too concerned about traps yet. After a minute of walking, they entered a large room. The stone walls with various images of Legendary Pokemon. The center of the room had a massive golden statue of a Ho-oh over looking a much smaller version of the woman from the worship chamber.

A large partially filled chest lay at the statue's feet. Gemstone of various kinds and bars made from gold and silver filled the box.

The one detail that caught everyone's attention though were the human skeletons hung by the statue on pillars. Each on had a stake in each hand. A Kris made of silver was pounded through their chests. Each one wore the remains of an old dress and they crew could see necklaces around their necks and rings on their fingers. "Sacrifices." Aelita looked away.

"This is the main chamber." Johnson turned his attention to the golden Ho-oh statue. "We all know the rules. Sweep the room for traps first. No looting bodies. Everything else is a judgement call. We may loot tombs at times, but we have morals."

Aelita and Alex went with Johnson to the statue to inspect it first. Aelita made sure to keep her eyes off the skeletons, but Alex however went to look at them.

After an hour of checking the room, everyone met up with each other to announce what they had found.

"Not too much in terms of other rooms. Found an old storeroom down that hall." Andrew pointed a hallway in the northeastern corner of the room.

"Me and Bryan found a small treasury. Seemed to place where they counted out the offerings before shipping them off to other temples or something." Cheryl explained pointing to a hallway in the southeastern corner of the room.

"I found nothing of interest searching the images on the side of the room." Justin explained.

"I found these. Four sacrificial Kris, all made of gold." Johnson unwrapped the four golden blades from the cloth he had covered them in. Each one has a golden eye on the base of the hilt. "There are unmarked which means that theses were to be used in the sacrifice."

"Those alone will fund this site." Alex spoke up.

"Here's what we found." Aelita held up two necklaces similar to his own, but instead of sapphire tears and a ruby, the gems were swapped. They had ruby tears and a sapphire fang.

"I'm beginning to think I may have ties with the Spellsworn culture." Alex stated.

"That could very well be." Johnson looked the necklaces over. "Unfortunately, we've come no closer to finding out what happened to the Spellsworn."

"What happened to them?" Aelita asked.

"The Spellsworn Empire was in its prime. Many records state that they had their own private kingdom on a string of islands a short ways off the coast. However, one day, all records of them just stopped. Divers had searched for years for the supposed islands off the coast, but there are no traces that they even exist." Cheryl explained.

"Just look around us. A half filled offering chest. Four skeletons still left hanging on the way." Justin motioned toward the center of the room.

"The Spellsworn would normally leave sacrifices up for about week before burning the bodies. As you can see, they just left them hanging." Johnson told her.

"No body knows what happen. One day, day be here, da next, da gone." Bryan told Aelita.

"What few records there are say something about a gateway into paradise. We can only guess as to what happened and why they just vanished." Alex finished.

"They just vanished? That doesn't make sense." Aelita was confused.

"Every explorer has searched for what happened, but no one has found a viable reason." Johnson explained. "That's actually why I became an explorer all those years ago when I was your age. Still haven't found out what happened to em."

The next few hours were spent gathered up items and preparing them to be moved tomorrow morning. The chest that was half filled was emptied and then refilled in a more organized fashion. The only things that the crew took out with them today were the four sacrificial Kris and the two necklaces Alex and Aelita had found.

The crew went through and began documenting the basics of the temple that night before bed. They talked about what all they had found and a few other things. Everyone went to sleep that night knowing that their work at this site was almost done.

xXx

The crew woke up around the same time as yesterday. They had breakfast and then got ready. However, instead of packing up the normal selection of supplies, the crew only took the bare minimum to make room for their finds. They also carried a set of trolleys with them carrying the tow large chests they had found, the offering chest in the main room and a second one in the treasury room. It took some careful maneuvering to get the trolleys past the word puzzle room on the way down, but once done, the rest of the trip down to the chamber was easy.

Once in the chamber, things moved like clockwork. The team began wrapping up more valuable items separately and carefully packed them away in Johnson and Cheryl's packs. Gemstones were bagged by type and packed away. Gold and silver bars were stacked in a chest. Each and every item was tagged and photo was taken then and there. The second chest that they had found was for take home treasures to be split up later. Everything else was either labeled as historic and would be sold to museums cheaply for the world to see or they were marked as trade goods to be sold to Imperial Crafters.

It took well most of the day, but once done, the group had one last thing to take care of.

"Alex, I'll leave this to you." Johnson said.

"What's going on?" Aelita asked.

"We're paying our respects to the four bodies forever trapped in this room." Cheryl informed her. Alex walked over to the first of the four skeletons. He reached up and after a few seconds of struggling, he pulled the knife from the chest of the skeleton. He attacked the knife to a golden chain and carefully hung it around the neck of the skeleton.

"Records show that they sacrifices were buried or burned with the knife used to kill them hung around their necks by a golden chain. They called it a sign of respect for those who up their souls to their gods." Johnson explained. "While we can't offer them a proper burial, we can give them the honor of keeping their blades on golden chains. The runes on each Kris spell out the name of the person sacrificed in this method."

"I think I get it." Aelita watched as Alex pulled the Kris from each body and then hung the Kris on a golden chain around their neck.

Once outside of the room, Johnson removed the Spellsworn cross to seal the room again. "And as our final act with this tomb, we shall make sure that no one disturbs the bodies beyond this room." Johnson bowed his head as Cheryl used her second set of jaws to deform the keystone where Johnson had placed the cross at to open the door.

The trip back to the surface took a while longer. Mostly due to the word puzzle room.

A pair of ropes spanned the length of the room. Tied to the middle of the ropes was one of the chests. Alex walked one side of it while Johnson walked on the side of the chest keeping it on track. Justin was one side of the room pulling the ropes toward himself while Cheryl acted as the brakes on the other side of the room pulling back on the ropes just enough to create some resistance so that the chest would go too far forward. This would have been so much easier except that they had to have the chest switch columns in the middle of the word puzzle.

At one point, Alex fell onto a rigged rune but Johnson caught him. Over all, carrying out the treasures they had found proved to be the biggest challenge, but once they had cleared the word puzzle, it was easy.

They crew made it out of temple late that night. The moon was high in the sky and everyone was tired. They carried their treasure back to the HUMMERs and loaded them before calling it a night.

xXx

The crew spelt in the next morning. It was about by the time the majority of the crew had woken up. The morning was spent packing up and getting ready to leave. The last thing the crew did before they left the site was block off the temple doors so that no one would accidentally walk into the temple and get themselves hurt. It was quite ride back to Kartonu City. The crew headed back to the Dragon's Den right off the back. Johnson had called ahead to get help with unloading the vehicle when they arrived. Both HUMMERs pulled up to the building where there was a pair of Machamp waiting for them.

"Just tell us what goes where, Mr. Yelstien." The first Machamp bowed his head.

"This chest heads to the pent house. The other one heads to the vault." Johnson said. "Cheryl, take our bags up to the room with the others. As for you Bryan, I want you to help me carry a few bags down to the vault."

"Understood mon." Bryan took hold of the bag Johnson had handed him.

Cheryl handed bags out to everyone else to be taken back up to the pent house while the Machamp dealt with the chest.

--

It took an hour, but after everything was unloaded, they crew met up in the study for a post exploration meeting.

"Over all, we've learned nothing about the Spellsworn disappearance." Johnson started the meeting.

"We have found out that my necklace however is indeed related to the Spellsworn Empire." Alex held his necklace up along with the two inverted ones he had collected.

"That is true. What else have we found that is good news?" Johnson asked.

"We have picked up a Spellsworn cross of our now." Justin added holding up the cross.

"We've also have four unmarked sacrificial Kris. Chances are if we can identify when they were made, we might had a good estimate when the Spellsworn vanished." Andrew did have a point there.

After a ten minute meeting, Johnson came to the best part of the post exploration meeting. Johnson opened the chest labeled take home. It was filled with a multitude of gems, rings, coins, and a few other items in it.

"Aelita, here are the rules. It's basically a round robin pick of items. Pick items based on those you want to keep first. Anything you pick is yours to do whatever you want this though." Johnson explained as he laid out the times. The smaller gemstones were divided into small piles that counted as a whole item though.

"But I didn't do much." Aelita was surprised by the fact that she was also given a chance to pick some of the treasure that they had gathered.

"You did your part over the last few days. Besides, its not like we don't have enough to share." Johnson explained. He reached down and picked a small bag of gems.

Alex picked next taking pair of gold coins. Cheryl was next and took a large opal smiling. They all knew she had plans for it. Bryan was next and took a small stack of gems. Justin was up next and took a diamond coin mention something about a growing collection. Andrew took a pair of gold coins as well.

"Alright Aelita, take your pick." Johnson motioned to the treasure before them.

"Okay." She looked over the choices before.

"Just to let you know, there is jeweler in town. If you see a gemstone you want in a ring or on a necklace, he's more then willing to make it make em." Cheryl told her.

A small emerald caught her. It was round with a somewhat red center and reminded her Alex's eyes when he had saved her once from Michael and again from the spears a few days ago.

This round robin picking order continued until everyone had a small collection of treasure to call his or her own. Aelita was very happy to have come on the trip. She had met the Johnson, a world famous explorer, Alex had given her the best birthday she could ask for, she had also met the people Alex could call his family, but most of all, she had spent the week with Alex learning more about him.