Several more days passed by as Parker continued to remaster his core sensing skills. During that time, he struggled more and more at hiding his knowledge and fact that his Air Imperial was far superior to what it should be, let alone his other Imperials.

He was finally to the point that he could flawlessly find the people he wanted within the school. He’d also tested it out with having Caleb and Alexis go down the mountain and hide and he was able to find them just as quickly that way. At night, when he would lie in bed, he would dial in on Alexis’s core and just listen to it as he fell asleep. Parker didn’t understand how but the rhythm of her core had changed slightly since they started all of this training. It began resembling his Alexis’s core more and more every day.

“Can you still sense Lara?” Alexis asked over breakfast.

Parker nodded. “I’ve been able to sense her’s every time I’ve tried. I still can’t find Hailee’s and I don’t know what Master Terra’s sounds like. But I think it’s about time to try the picture frame.”

Unease settled in on both Alexis’s and Caleb’s faces. “Are you sure about that?” Alexis asked.

“It’s just about the time that everything happened last time I think. The last thing I want to do is miss them being in the city.”

Alexis and Caleb stared at Parker, not knowing what to say. Master Sora showed up, looking over Caleb’s shoulder and then took a seat at their table. “I heard what you just said, and I think we need to make our move. Today.”

“I need to tell Lara.”

Everyone turned their attention to Parker. “I’m not sure—” Master Sora started but was cut off.

“She has the right to know. Hailee is her daughter.” Parker had been mulling this decision over for days. He didn’t want to because he knew that she wouldn’t be able to handle herself around Master Terra, however he knew if the roles were reversed, he would be beside himself not knowing.

All three of them could see the resolve on Parker’s face and knew he wasn’t going to budge. “Parker, I want you to go get Lara and bring her to the roof. We will all meet up there at noon, I will bring the picture frame and we will go finish this. We will get Hailee back!”

Master Sora stood up and walked out of The Regale. They sat in silence and watched.

“Be honest guys, what are you thinking?” he asked Alexis and Caleb.

They both turned to look at him. “Honestly?” Caleb asked. Parker nodded. “I don’t see a lot of choices. My gut tells me if we don’t just take Lara with us, she’ll end up finding us and then she’ll be even more out of control than I think she’s going to be anyways. So, I guess it’ll be a lot like that phrase ‘Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.’ Maybe this will help keep her under control a little better.”

Alexis nodded her head the more Caleb explained his thoughts. “I couldn’t agree more. I don’t trust her. Not one bit. But if she shows up without us telling her, we can immediately count her as an enemy and I think it’s going to be tough enough to take down Master Terra, let alone the two of them.”

“All right, well, I guess this is it.” Parker’s heart pounded in his ears. “I’m going to go get her, we’ve got about an hour or so until we need to be on the room. I’ll see you two there.”

The three of them stood up and Caleb was the first to start walking out of The Regale. Parker and Alexis followed him out. Once they made it to the corridor, Parker grabbed Alexis by the arm, stopped her and kissed her, almost a little awkwardly aggressive. Alexis’s body stiffened at the unexpected kiss but relaxed after the briefest of moments. Caleb hadn’t noticed so he was a ways ahead of them.

Parker held Alexis by her upper arms and looked into her eyes. “I love you, Alexis.”

Alexis blinked several times. She knew how he felt but the intensity behind it right now threw her off. A soft smile grew on her face. “I love you too, Parker.”

———

“About time, child!” Lara spat at him as he appeared a few feet away from her.

Parker looked around and immediately recognized where they were. The bench was in the same place he remembered. The small castle that overlooked the frozen lake hadn’t changed. “Why am I not surprised that you’re hiding out in Bled?”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Lara snapped at him, clearly upset about something.

“Nothing. I just know it’s one of your favorite places to be.”

“Whatever. What has taken so long for you to come get me?” She stared out at the frozen lake.

Parker followed her gaze and saw the inches of snow that seemed to sit upon the frozen lake. The trees and mountains in the background were stunning. “I needed to make sure I was ready. Last time, I was of no help. This time is going to be different.”

He walked over and sat down next to her. He was quiet for a moment, waiting for her to add something to what he said but she sat in silence.

“We are going to stop him, it’s time.” Parker waited again. After a minute, he was about to say something when Lara stood up.

“Let’s go then,” she said, holding her hand out to him.

Parker reached out and grabbed her hand. The next moment, they were standing on top of the castle. The sun was high in the sky as he stood there looking at Master Sora, Alexis and Caleb.

Before he even noticed, Lara shouted. “Give me that!” and she snatched the picture frame out of Master Sora’s hand. Before they could react, Lara was gone.

“I said this would happen,” Caleb said.

“It’s fine,” Parker responded.

Everyone looked at him confused. “It’s fine?” Alexis asked. “How is it fine?”

“Because I can sense her core easily. Let’s go.” All four of them grabbed hands and the next moment they were standing next to Lara in the middle of a street. Skyscrapers surrounded them on all sides and horns were blaring at the sudden appearance of five people in the middle of the road.

Parker could see Lara looking around for Master Terra. He grabbed her by the arm and forced her to the sidewalk. “Hold on!” he commanded her. “Don’t go running off. We need to work together!”

Lara didn’t even look at him. She continued scanning the crowds. “What’s the plan then?”

“Ideally we get him away from here but I don’t know what his core feels like.”

“I can feel that his core is close by but I don’t see him. I can feel Hailee too!” Lara was looking around frantically now.

Parker felt it before he saw it. Without looking, he shoved Lara away from him, almost knocking her down in the process, as a giant rock crashed right where she’d been standing. Screams broke out from all around them as people looked at the debris on the ground. They looked around to see where it could have come from when a voice rang out from above them.

“Why did you save her?” Master Terra shouted at Parker from ten feet over their heads. Everyones’ attention turned upward at his voice. More screaming broke out around as people started running in every direction.

Master Terra was standing on a large chunk of rock that looked like it had been taken directly out of the street. Car horns started blaring and Parker could hear a car alarm going off.

“You need to stop!” Parker screamed back. “Where’s Hailee at?” He was hoping the master would look in the direction of Hailee but no luck.

Chunks of rock started shooting off of the bottom of the master’s floating platform. Parker dove to the side and took cover behind a parked car. Alexis was close to the blasting zone so Parker focused as hard as he could and she vanished from the spot and appeared right next to him with a sharp, little yelp. Caleb had taken cover and Parker could see that he was looking around as fast as possible to spot Hailee.

Parker closed his eyes for a moment to dial in on Hailee’s core and he could tell that it was really close. Could he teleport her to him just by the rhythm of her core? He didn’t know if that was possible but it was the one thing he could think of trying as it sounded like chaos was really starting to break out around them. Master Sora and Lara had disappeared and he could hear the sounds of their Imperials clashing.

Looking at Caleb and focusing on his core very quickly, Parker teleported Caleb next to him and Alexis. “I’m going to try to teleport Hailee here.”

Caleb just stared at Parker as Parker closed his eyes. After a moment, Hailee’s limp body landed next to Caleb. “Oh my God!” Caleb yelled, grabbing Hailee’s limp body into his arms. “We need to get her out of here!”

Before Parker could teleport them away, Lara screamed from nearby, “Hailee!” A burst of wind that Parker had never felt before ripped past them, knocking them flat to the ground. Cars flipped over and all of the windows within a hundred feet shattered.

Parker reached his arm out toward Caleb, who was covering Hailee’s body with his own to protect her. In the blink of an eye, Caleb and Hailee disappeared.

“What did you do?” Lara screeched as she fell out of the sky into a small jog, stopping in front of Parker.

“I saved them!” he yelled in her face.

Lara screamed and Parker felt a warm liquid splash on his face as he saw a sharp rock sticking out of Lara’s left shoulder. Over her shoulder, Parker could see Master Terra sliding down the side of a building. Lara dropped to her knees, clutching at the rock. It looked like Master Terra was trying to say something but he couldn’t understand it over Lara’s screaming.

Master Terra lunged off of the building and was flying through the air to land the finishing blow and as Parker was going to push her out of the way again, Master Sora came flying in from the side, body checking her out of the way to save her life. As Lara crashed across the ground, Master Terra stabbed a large, knife shaped rock into Master Sora’s chest.

Master Sora fell backwards from the momentum. Everything seemed to freeze for a moment as Master Terra stared into the eyes of Master Sora. Parker couldn’t comprehend everything that was happening.

“I’m sorry,” Master Terra mouthed as a torrent of flames tore through the air at him. He sank into the ground in an instant before the fire got to him.