~~~~~~~~~Iv's POV~~~~~~~~~

It was currently eleven in the morning. I was on my way to Ben's house, walking on my own. It was practically illegal to walk outside by yourself here, but we had all planned to meet there so we wouldn't waste as much time.

Besides, it's not my first time hiding away from the police.

We had also made sure to put tracking devices on our phones, which were on us the whole time, incase anything happened to one of us outside. I won't lie though, being on my own out here did make me a little nervous.

I had also told the others about my findings in Aiden's room, about finding more dust in the tiny glass shards.

As I walked through the park, I could hear two different voices talking to each other not to far from me. Hiding behind a tree, I noticed a familiar dark-magenta haired guy with the same green hoodie as always.

I resisted the urge to groan, out of all the people I could meet here, it had to be the one I least wanted to see. Even worse, I recognized the girl she was talking with.

Alexa Jackson, one of the most frustrating people I had ever met. Her hair reached her shoulders, it was dark brown with purple tips, light skin, and purple eyes. She was in a few of my classes back in the tenth grade, but we never talked since she hated me for no reason.

But that's okay because that feeling was mutual.

She's the one Noah started dating back in our freshmen year, and the reason he stopped spending time with us.

I had no interest in hearing their conversation, so as I rolled my eyes, I began to walk away. That is, until a sentence caught my attention.

"Please, Alexa. We're doing all we can find them, I need information about your brother."

"Half brother. You of all people should know I couldn't care less about that disappointment for Jackson blood." Her eyes widened a bit as she brought a hand to her lips. "Oops! I forgot that's your winged buddy! My bad."

Seriously, what did Noah see in this chick?!

But I did forget about that. Leo Jackson's one of the missing people. He's one of my sister's friends, so he's been to my house before; rough past, good kid. I feel bad that he's related to someone like her.

This was enough to set a spark of curiosity in me though, at least I knew Noah was serious about bringing everyone back.

He let out a sigh. "Look, I know we're not in the best of terms, but I could really use your help with this. Is there anything about Leo you can tell me? Anything that might point to who took him?"

After a bit of thinking, she simply shrugged. "Not that I know of, but feel free to check for yourself."

"Huh?"

"He has this tiny shack in the woods where he slept at most nights, you can check there." She didn't wait for any reply after that, and walked away with the same bitchy posture she always had.

Standing there for a little while, he stuffed his hands in his pockets, and I finally took this as a cue to walk over. "It's a better clue than no clue at all."

He jumped in froze, quickly turning around. "I-Iv!! Hey, hi, d-didn't know you were here!"

"I'm a master of stealth." He let out a nervous chuckle, and I glanced behind him to make sure Alexa was gone before continuing. "So, Purple Barbie didn't give much info, huh?"

With a sigh, he shook his head. "I already knew she wouldn't be much help, but it was worth a try."

"At least we know a place to search for."

"Guess so."

An idea then came to mind. I know I agreed with myself to never bring the topic back up since I knew he wouldn't answer, but it was something I hadn't ask before.

"... why did you and Alexa break up anyways? You two were like, the 'perfect couple'." I said in quotations, trying not to barf as the words left my mouth.

His expression grew grim, which is the opposite of what I expected, noticing as he gripped his sleeves. "It's complicated."

"Of course it is."

"No, Iv, I'm serious.." He finally looked down at me, eyes pleading for me to listen. "I want to explain everything, I really do, it's just.. I'm not ready.. Not yet.."

At that moment, I had gotten this feeling.. It was a strange pain in my chest, different than what I had felt for months now. Had I made a mistake in holding a grudge for all this time? I mean, he's the one who shut us out, but I never really thought of a good reason for it..

Soon enough, I took a deep breath. "Well, I've waited this long for an explanation, I can wait a little more."

He smiled a bit at that, the grip on his sleeves loosening a bit. "Thanks, Iv.."

"Yeah yeah. C'mon, we gotta get to Ben's."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"So, what'd you find out?" I asked as I sat on the couch at Ben's home. Lola, Gia, Victor, and Noah all here with me, waiting for the answer.

Ben held up the small vial that had the blue dust. "Okay, so before you ask, no this isn't some sort of drug or anything. After a lot of research and experimentation, I've learned that this is actually just really broken Dinamium."

Lola raised an eyebrow. "Dinamium? What the hell is that?"

"It's a really rare gemstone." Gia started to explain, a finger pressed against her chin in thought. "We have a tiny one in my gardening place, the light it reflects helps plants grow when there's not enough sunlight."

"Well it can also work as a sort of chloroform. If you throw the dust at someone's face, even smelling just a few specks of it can knock a person out cold." Ben explained as he shook the dust inside the vial a bit. "However, that fact is barely known by anyone. We're dealing with someone who's well known in science."

"Finding more of this dust has to be our main goal then." I crossed my arms, leaning back. "If we find more, we can know for sure our culprit is using this to knockout the victims before taking them."

At that moment, a phone began to ring, all of us looking over at Victor who pulled out his phone, raising an eyebrow at the called ID before picking it up. "Austin? What's up?"

We could barely here the mumbled words that came from the phone, and even Victor himself was having trouble understanding. "Whoa whoa whoa, slow down! I can't understand you! What happened?!"

A few seconds passed, and Vic's eyes grew wide, listening to Austin's rambling before finally replying. "O-okay, we'll be there shortly.

He hung up, staring at his phone, the shock obvious on his face.

We all grew nervous, Gia asking as she fiddled with her hair. "Vic.. what happened..?"

"... Nate's gone missing."

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

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