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

Iv had said to meet at her house, but that was also when she remembered about Gia. They all wanted to check how she was doing, so instead they called Lola and asked if they could come over.

Thankfully she said yes, and so the two of them went over to the Robbins' home. The window she broke had been fixed, and she none of it was said to the police, so she was in no trouble.

Not to mention when they got there, Mr. and Mrs. Robbins hugged and thanked her over and over again for saving their daughter, which was a little overwhelming.

They all headed up to Gia's room, where Lola, Victor, and Ben sat or stood around, Gia sitting on her bed with a glass of water.

As soon as her eyes landed on Iv, they grew wide, placing the glass of water on her nightstand before running over and wrapping her arms around her friend in a hug. "You're okay!"

"Me? I'm not the one who was about to be kidnapped."

Gia soon pulled away. "But you saved me and got hurt in the process.."

Letting out a small sigh, a smile grew on Iv's face. "Well if I hadn't been here in time, you would've been captured.."

"That brings up the topic at hand." Victor raised an eyebrow, arms crossed. "How did you know that they'd go after Gia? At the exact moment too."

"I didn't know they were going after Gia specifically." Iv took her phone and showed them the updated list she made. "But I figured out the order of the victims."

"Their magic..?" Lola asked a bit surprised.

Noah looked down at her, a little confused. "But I thought we agreed that their magic had nothing to do with it since one of the victims didn't have any."

"Not to mention one didn't even have the same type of magic from Earth." Ben added.

"It doesn't have to be our own magic. Mr. VonLance knew a good amount of spells."

"And most of the spells he knew were related to magic.." Victor finished her sentence, the dots starting to connect.

"Lidia may have magic from another dimension, but she has said that it's similar to Air magic too." Lola added to the explanation.

Iv placed her phone away. "The last one who was taken was Nate, who has Fire magic. After fire was earth, and there weren't that many earth magic users left. Alyse was with me in my room, Oscar had left town the day before with his sister and father, Brianna's got a big family and is always with someone else."

"But you didn't know if Gia was protected." Lola said as she stared at her younger sister, then back at her friend. "That's why you started calling me."

"Gia was supposed to text us earlier, I realized she never did. When she didn't pick up my calls, I started to panic and tried to come here as fast as I could." Leaning back against the wall, Iv gripped her arms. "To tell you the truth, it was pure coincidence that I found them when I did.."

Gia took another sip of water, a smile then growing on her face. "But doesn't this mean we have more clues to find who the culprit is? This should narrow our lists of suspects!"

"I thought so too.."

Noticing her expression, Noah grew worried. "Why'd you say that in last tense..?"

She stayed quiet for a bit, then stood up straight. "While I was fighting the culprit, the theory about them stealing people's magic was proven right.. First they attacked me with Cipher magic, their eyes yellow with the thin pupil; then with Riverton magic, their eyes green and snake-like, and finally.. he started using ice magic, with white eyes.. speaking in Aiden's voice.."

They all stared at her, eyes wide at the explanation. All were at a lost for words, Ben being the only one who thought about it. "Did they only use Aiden's voice..?"

She shook her head. "I heard Bill's voice, Lidia's, Nate's, Laurie's.. I think they used Aiden's voice the most, probably just to trigger me.."

"Then.. what you're saying is that literally anyone in the whole world could be our culprit..?"

"Anyone who knows about the town, anyway.."

"There's also something that makes things worse.." They all turned to Victor, who had a small glare on his face. "They have Bill Cipher's magic.. What if they've completely changed their appearance..? Heck, maybe it's someone who did disappeared, but they've been pretending to be them so no one has even realized they've disappeared.."

"They could even be one of us right now.." They all grew pale at Noah's statement, a deadly silence filling the room.

It could be true.

Maybe the culprit had been hiding among them since the investigation started, only pretending to be one of their friends, a fake attacker.

One of the people here could actually be gone for good, only for an imposter to take their place.

They couldn't even trust each other..

About two minutes of silence had gone by, when Lola waved a hand around. "W-wait a minute, most of us here saw Iv fighting the kidnapper! So that narrows it by a little..!"

Victor turned to her. "What if they have an accomplice?"

"Or perhaps a clone..?" Ben added, capturing their attentions as he looked to Noah. "It wouldn't be that difficult, we've all seen your dad make copies of himself, and they can all act by themselves until he makes them disappear.."

"That's.. true.."

"There's also the possibility that one of the victims could be the culprit themselves, and just staged their kidnapping to eliminate themselves as the culprit.." Iv added, then glanced up at Gia. "Or even so, Gia herself could've planned her whole kidnapping, and ordered one of her clones to be her as the culprit or the victim.."

Lola's expression quickly morphed from shock to pure anger. "How can you say that?!"

"Lola, please.." Gia had a different reaction, expression a bit worried. "She's only trying to say every possibility.. I understand why she'd say that.."

"I'm not just talking about Gia.. The same could be said for all of you, even me.." Iv stuck her hands in her pockets. "For all you know, I chose to start this investigation to lead you all astray.."

"She has a point.." Leaning back against the wall, letting out a sigh. "In other words, we can't trust our family, our friends.. even trust each other.."

Ben stared down at the ground, biting his lip. "We can't even trust that the victims themselves were victims in the first place.."

A few more seconds went by, and unable to hold the pain inside, Iv left the room on her own. The others stared at the door, the same feeling of betrayal growing inside them.

Thinking for a bit, Noah then followed out, finding her on the balcony at the end of the hallway. Once he was close enough, he could hear the quiet sobs that escaped her lips.

"... hey.."

She jumped a bit, but didn't turn back. He walked to stand beside her, seeing her try to wipe her tears away. "You uh.. wanna talk about it..?"

"There's nothing to talk about.."

"Well, something made you cry, didn't it..?"

"... I just.. I-I feel so stupid.." There was a small glare on her face as she stared at the street, tears on her cheeks. "I can't believe I actually thought we could solve this.. w-we're just a bunch of broken teenagers.."

"We did manage to find out more than the police did.."

"And look where that lead us!" Iv turned to him. "We can't even trust anyone anymore! Everything we've discovered has only made things worse for us!"

He had no reply to that, he knew she was right. He felt the same way deep down. So instead, he did the same she has done before him twice before now, opening his arms a little.

She stared at him, a bit confused, to which he smiled a bit awkwardly. "I know I'm nowhere near friend territory, but.. you've already comforted me twice through this.. Might as well try to return the favor.."

Biting her lip a bit, she wrapped her arms around his torso, face buried in his chest as he hugged her back.

This.. this was all just.. too much..

Everything they knew was slowly falling apart, everyone they knew slowly losing themselves..

Maybe..

Maybe it was time to give up..

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

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