Hello :) 

I got one done, actually.... thank you all for your kind support. 

Lots of love,

Sierra <3

~Songs~

Burn- Ellie Goulding

Tia Dalma (Score)- Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest 

Edit: Me

Chapter Twenty-Seven

~Nobody's POV~

To everybody's complete and utter surprise, neither Jack nor Thea make an attempt to sneak to the temples that morning. Although, it must be said that Thea is still so weak that she has scarcely moved from her lower bunk, and Jack has the loyalty of a St. Bernard, so there hadn't been much of a chance in the first place. Still though, the adults had waited on tenterhooks until Natasha, Clint, Tony, Loki, Steve, and Max officially headed out of the plane,which is now safely manned by Sam and Kyle. 

Natasha leads the party of six out into the jungle, and past the plane. Without Jack and Thea, the expedition is much quieter than normal, which some people appreciate and some do not. 

As they trek deeper into the trees, and as the sun rises higher in the sky, it gets hotter and hotter. Natasha had prepared by only wearing a tank top and shorts, but nonetheless, she is sweating profusely by noon, Myrinea's emerald necklace bouncing on her parched skin, when the party stops for lunch. 

At this point, Max and Tony radio back to the plane, to get reports on both any communication from New York and on Thea's condition (the latter mainly on Max's request). Bruce had contacted Kyle, but nothing new had transpired, although Thor had returned to Asgard and had not since returned. As for Thea, she is still very tired and is mostly just taking multiple catnaps throughout the day. 

Satisfied with this, Max shuts off the radio and stretches. His muscles are tired from the climb, but according to JARVIS's excellent GPS system, the ruins of Jagaddala Mahavihara should be in view within the next two or three hours. Then, its only a matter of finding the jewels of the murdered rajah's daughter. 

"It's apparently haunted," comments Tony as he pours some of the water from his canister onto his sweaty face, "Which would make since, since the princess was killed there." 

"So the jewels are probably in a bedroom," says Clint, getting to the facts. 

"Well yeah, but good luck figuring out what's the bedroom and what's the kitchen. It's almost a thousand years old. Actually, probably more than that." 

As it turns out, Tony is right. The ruins are not the run-down, collapsed stone buildings of the typical Indian ruins in such works as Around the World in 80 Days. Jagaddala Mahavihara looks to be something of a collection of bright green plateaus stacked on top of each other. Currently, it is also empty.
"Is this it?" asks Steve doubtfully. 

"I guess," says Tony, glancing around. "We probably have to do a little bit of digging."

"Digging?" asks Natasha, looking frustrated that they have come so far for something so impossible, "This is a nationally protected site." 

"So?" asks Tony, "All we want are some priceless jewels to take back to some castaway planet to appease the flesh-eating mermaids." 

Natasha doesn't even bother to reply. 

*

It's around three when they find something worth interesting, and it's Steve who does so. He and Loki have been scaling the far left-side of the ruins (which, incidentally, look nearly identical to those  on the right side of the ruins) for the past two hours. Steve had been about to give up and call off the entire mission when he notices some peculiar etches in various shapes: तु योग्य हो दर्ज. 

"Hey, come over here real quick," he says, and Loki, who is one tier below him, and no less frustrated with the lack of progress, reluctantly climbs up to Steve, "Ever seen this kind of writing before?"

"Never." 

"Huh." Steve says, looking at the markings for a few moments. As he runs his hand along the incisions, he notices a larger incision, about four feet tall and two feet wide, right below the scratches. Tracing his pointer finger along it (and ignoring Loki's sarcastic claims that this entire mission is going absolutely nowhere), Steve digs out some of the layers of thousand-year old dirt. 

Not expecting much, he pushes, and is surprised when the dirt showers down off of the incision in a small waterfall, and a large gaping hole, fluid with dust, is now visible. It appears to have been sealed for centuries. 

Standing back, Steve looks around at the location of the incision. It's an intricate boundary of the palace, with irregular angles and sides. It could potentially be a bedroom, but an ornate one at that: the perfect room for a princess. 

In no time at all, Steve has gathered the rest around the gaping hole. 

"Looks possible, that's all I'm saying," says Tony, glancing at the etches above the entrance, "That's Hindi, right there, by the way." 

"What's it mean?" asks Clint.

"'Enter be ye worthy,'" says Tony casually, "Definitely something of the forbidden jewelry realm." 

"Well," says Natasha, bending down, "What are we waiting for?" 

The tunnel is small and cramped, obviously having been cut away for a young woman. This being said, only Natasha can successfully fit through it. She has a flashlight though, and a radio, and is fully capable of going through the tunnel by herself.

It's about fifteen feet, sloping downwards, until the tunnel opens up. "Hey guys," she radios, "I'm in a smaller room, but I can almost stand up."

"Anything there?" asks Steve.

"Nothing it's a dead end." Natasha inspects the circular dips in the wall, as if someone had used an ice cream scooper to delve out some of the cave. 

"Dead end?" asks Tony incredulously, "Seriously?"

"Hold on a minute," mutters Natasha. Her hand has drifted to the round emerald on her neck, and she is remembering something spoken to her a week ago.

This may be of use when all other roads are closed.

Natasha frowns, then takes off the emerald from her neck. Hesitantly, she reaches forward and fits it in the largest scoop against the wall. 

At first nothing happens. Then, the wall in front of her begins to shake, dirt showering off of it into her eyes. 

"Natasha?" Steve's voice is slightly concerned, "You all right?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm good!" she calls, watching as the two halves of the wall split and open to reveal a small gap. The emerald drops to the ground in front of her. 

She walks forward, pushing back some of the wall so that she can push in between the panels. Natasha looks around the room in front of her. It actually isn't much of a room, but a small vault-like space. The ceiling above it is circular and slightly darker than the dirt around it; this hidden room was once underneath either a washing basin or under irrigation. The former is more plausible. 

What draws Natasha's attention most, however, is the worn, tattered chest in front of her, no more than two feet or so long. The lock is shattered with age, and Natasha has no trouble using a knife to free the clasp from its tenuous hold. When she opens the chest, she holds back a gasp. 

The chest may be small, but inside it holds perhaps hundreds of beautiful jewels, sparkling even in the darkness. In the center, on a worn lace cushion is a large sapphire, its surface smoother than a lake's. 

Quickly, Natasha closes the chest and begins to make her way out of the small treasure room. Carefully closing the door behind her and using the emerald to seal the cave once more, she begins to crawl back up the tunnel. It's a bit difficult to push the chest in front of her as she worms her way forward, but she manages by pushing forward with one arm and using the other to hold the chest. 

When Steve pulls her up out of the tunnel, she has dirt streaked across her face, but other than that, she's unharmed. And she's holding the jewels of Siyarnah in her arm. 

*

Sam gets the radio call around at almost four in the afternoon. After conferencing with Tony for a couple minutes, he goes to the back room, where Kyle is busy typing on the computer, pokes his head inside, and says, "They got 'em. They're thinking they'll be back around ten or eleven." 

"Sounds good," says Kyle, "What are the kiddies up to?"

"Thea's still lying down," informs Sam, "And Jack's on his laptop still."

Kyle, still looking at his computer, gives Sam a vague thumbs-up, "Sounds good." 

The plane had been excruciatingly quiet that day. Thea's fever had returned, not as high as the one last night, but a fever nonetheless, and Kyle, to confine the virus, had made Jack stay in the cockpit with Sam. 

At around five, Kyle finally gets up, closes his computer, and walks out onto the main walkway of the plane. Thea is still sleeping, and after checking her temperature, which hasn't gone up, but hasn't gone down, he makes his way to the cockpit. 

Jack looks positively bored. He's fiddling restlessly with his laptop and game controller, but his eyes are drawn and annoyed. "Is she better?" he asks. 

"Not yet," says Kyle, taking a seat across from Jack in the cramped compartment, "She will be soon though." 

Jack scowls and Kyle leans awkwardly around the seat to see the screen, "How'd you get SuperSmash Bros. on your Mac?" 

The boy shrugs, pressing buttons on the controller like a maniac, "Peter."
"Of course," says Kyle, and after a pause, says, "Happen to have an extra controller?"

"I've got three," says Jack, nodding towards his bag without looking up from his computer screen. 

So for another hour or so, Kyle and Jack battle each other on the screen, sending their colorful characters up and around the screen, each equally determined to beat the other. In the end, Kyle's video game skills are slightly too rusty for Jack's precision, and at six, he admits defeat.

*

~Thea's POV~

At around seven, I wake up, starving. Sam gives me some grapes, which taste positively delicious on my parched throat. My hair is greasy and disgusting, as is my entire body actually, and I dearly want to take a shower. Which, unfortunately, is impossible, because there isn't a shower on the plane. 

Kyle informs me that I still have a fever, which means that I'm banned from being within ten feet of Jack, which explains why Jack has been in the cockpit the entire day. In all, I'm very bored and lonely, not to mention sick. 

Thankfully though, Peter has texted me, so I have that to entertain myself with. He is sounding slightly more cheerful, but more likely than not, it's not because he's feeling any more better, but because he's determined to put on a positive face. I let him. 

Max has also texted me, probably to sway my boredom because he's nice like that. He's sent me pictures of the chest Natasha had evidently excavated from the ruins, but tells me that they're not opening it anymore until they get back. Which will be later tonight. 

Two hours later, I'm tossing and turning, not able to sleep, even though my body is screaming at me to rest. I haven't had that many bad dreams all day, actually, which is a relief, but it's not like they're gone. Not a chance. 

"Hey, how are you feeling?" 

I roll my eyes upward, because I don't feel like moving my head. Kyle is standing there, with a gentle expression on his face instead of his usual snarky smirk. 

"Umph," I say.

"Can't sleep?"

"Umph." 

"Scoot over, then."

I do not move, mostly because my limbs refuse to. 

Taking matters into his own hands, Kyle lies down next to me on the bunk. It's small, so half of his body is hanging off. I ignore my logic that tells me that Kyle will make fun of me for an entire century and move over so that my head is resting on his shoulder. His breathing is slower than mine, and is comforting as his chest rises and falls. It's someone who (dare I admit it) I care about and is living and breathing next to me.
"You know Lucy's probably missing you right now," says Kyle, tucking some of my matted hair away.

"Uh, I guess," I say blearily.

"Aw, c'mon Thea," he teases, "Just because she caught you several times doing things you know you shouldn't have done, that doesn't mean you should hate her." 

"Yes...I can..." I yawn. 

"Oh, you say that, but I know you don't." 

"Okay..." I whisper. 

"Getting sleepy yet?" he asks unnecessarily. 

"Mmph."

"Speak English, Thea." 

"No..." I say, then shut my eyes. 

*

~Nobody's POV~

It's nearly midnight by the time the jewel party gets back to the plane. By that point, all of them are sweaty, tired, and ready to get out of India. Loki, Tony, and Steve immediately go to the back room to change and at least try to get some rest. As he passes Thea, who is still curled up next to a drowsy Kyle, Loki glances at her, a short scowl on his face.

"Still cranky with you, are you now?" asks Kyle with a smirk, still stroking Thea's hair. 

Loki, who looks disheveled, says coolly, "She's an irascible and foolish child." 

"Oh yes," says Kyle as Thea shifts in her sleep, her mouth open slightly as she breathes, "I know that." 

Loki glances once more at Thea and then follows Tony into the back room. Kyle snorts and then looks down at Thea again.

He wishes she didn't have to go through this. He wishes that she could be a normal teenage girl. He would be more than willing to give all of this away so that Thea can get in regular trouble as a girl; sneaking out and missing curfew instead of running through cities and being stalked by vampire-like creatures.

As he looks down at her, the light throws her soft face into a pallor light. She looks more innocent this way, helpless and asleep, breathing calmly, which is unusual in itself. Her lips are still chapped, and her cheeks sallow from being sick, and her face is flushed, although not quite as much as last night. 

"Stay just the way you are, Thea," murmurs Kyle, closing his eyes and leaning his head uncomfortably against the steel rail supporting the bunk. 

When Max passes by in the low light, also to try to get some rest, he looks at Thea, and is relieved to see that she is asleep. 

And as he walks past, he tactfully pretends that he does not see the single tear on Kyle's cheek, because Max has felt the same way. 

;( 

Hope you liked it! 

~Three Tasks Fact~

I had made the cover for Three Tasks about a month or so before I started it. I will tell you, it's actually the only reason Jack survived. I was going to kill him in the last battle in Blue Moon, but because the cover of the next book featured him and I was too lazy to make another one, I ended up keeping him in. So that is how Jack narrowly escaped death. ;)