~~~~~~~~~Third Person POV~~~~~~~~~

"So, anything off about it?" Lola asked as she leaned against the couch, all staring at Ben as he inspected the necklace's crystal with a microscope.

After a while, he pulled back and shook his head. "Not that I notice, this is just a normal crystal. As for fingerprints, Iv's were the most recent, Aiden's were very visible too."

"In other words, this was a waste of time." Victor let out a sigh. "So much for that."

"There's still a question though." They all turned to Noah, who stared at the ground in though. "I understand why she would keep this after Aiden went missing, but where did she keep it? And if so, why was it by the bed when we found it?"

Ben nodded at the questions. "That's a good point. Because of the broken window, we can tell the fight started in her bedroom, and one of them crashed through. I doubt it was to escape since it would've been easier to open it, so we can assume one threw the other out."

"We also found more blue dust out in the woods, along with her broken phone." Lola turned to Ben. "Speaking of which, have you been able to fix it."

"Unfortunately no, I'm missing the needed equipment."

Victor then looked over at Aiden, his expression more worried than serious this time. "Aiden, are you sure there's nothing you remember? Anything at all could be useful."

He thought for a while, and then shook his head. "No, I'm sorry.. Besides Iv's voice, there was nothing but silence.."

"Then I guess we better keep investigating, c'mon!" Lola walked over to the door with Noah and Victor following behind. Ben gave the necklace back to Aiden, who then ran after the others, and together they drove to the edge of the forest.

That drive was the most quiet of them all..

Victor tried to distract himself with driving, but the scowl on his face was obvious to see. Being honest, had already lost all hope in this whole situation, and he only continued to investigate to make time go by.

Lola still tried to stay positive for everyone's sake. What kept her going was the thought of 'The others are suffering more than we are'; not only that, but seeing Iv do everything she could to save Gia really made her reconsider her role as a sister. It was her job to protect her family, so she wasn't gonna give up so easily.

Noah was mostly angry with himself. There were still so many unsaid things between him and Iv, and now that she was gone, he might never get the change to see her again. They would never get the chance to start over, and become proper friends again.

As for Aiden, all these events made him feel truly powerless. He wasn't any help, he hadn't been any help since he arrived. He had no memories about his time away, nor did he have any magic to help, and now his sister was in the same shoes as he once was.

Maybe worse..

"We're here." Victor announced as he stepped out of the car, the others soon doing the same.

They didn't know where to do, nor did they have a planned, they just wanted to find something, anything that could seem helpful. But now, it all only seemed like they were getting further away from the truth.

Was there really nothing that they could do..?

There were still so many people missing, so many families crying, could they really stop things here..?

Aiden's eyes were only focused on the necklace he held in his hands. So many emotions clouded his head, unsure of what to think or how to feel.

His thumb was pressed against the broken part of the crystal, it gave him a strange sensation of hope for unknown reasons. Maybe it was the thought that Iv knew something else about the necklace, or maybe it was just an excuse to keep something important to him around.

He didn't know..

... 

"Hey, so.." Lola turned to the others, walking backwards to keep going. "What exactly's the plan this time?"

"If you have one yourself, let us know." Victor replied, hands in his pockets as he shrugged, then turned to face Aiden. "Anything you'd like to-"

His eyes then widened at a strange sight, and when the others heard his words come to a stop, they turned to whatever he had seen. All three of them stared in shock at Aiden, who looked up in confusion. "Uh.. something wrong..?"

Pointing over, Noah's eyes narrowed a little. "Dude, your eyes are.."

"They're red..!!" Lola finished for him as she pulled out her phone, putting on the camera app before handing it over.

A wave of fear went down his spine as he stared at himself. They weren't kidding, his eyes were glowing red, bright red! It was normal for a magic user's eyes to change color during the strong use of magic, but whenever he did, they were white, not red! And even more of an issue, he couldn't use any magic!

"What the..-?!" His words were then cut off as a sharp pain went throughout his skull, forcing him to let out a yell.

Nothing was wrong with him, at least, not physically. But his pupils had shrunk at the pain that invaded his head. Falling down to his knees, he tightly gripped his head as he tried not to scream in agony, eyes tightly shut.

Everyone else stared in fear, not knowing what was happening, nor what to do.

However, when Aiden opened his eyes, the pain stopped as well. The only problem was that his surroundings had changed as well..

"W.. w-where am I..?"

Thanks for reading!!! 'Till next time!!!"

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