If You Trust Me - An Onward Fan-Novel

◊ Chapter 31 ◊

Previously on Onward...

The brothers continue down the cavernous path, eventually finding a set of stairs and a window overseeing a large number of Gedeon's clones at work. They also find the real Gedeon, disguised as a leprechaun using the S.S. Medallion's magic. After further exploring and finding themselves in a secret room, Ian and Barley discover Gedeon's plans to implant the relic inside his body!

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◊ Lightfoots in Arms ◊

The large metal door of the secret war room slowly opened, making a sharp creaking sound in the process. From the inside, out popped the head of another one of Gedeon's clones. He looked to his left and right to see if anyone was coming on either side.

When the coast was clear, he exited the room, then turned back to the door and asked, "well, how do I look?"

Peeking his head out of the doorway next was Barley, and his face read pride. "Like no gremlin's going to suspect a thing! Just remember: 'disguising yourself is—'"

"'...is a lie, and you must tell the truth to get by,'" the masked Ian finished for him. "Yep...I definitely learned that lesson the hard way. Twice. But now it's time for me to give Gedeon a taste of his own medicine. If he can trick me using this spell, then so can I."

"I really hope so, young mage. But seriously, if you run into any trouble, just give me one of the different signals we talked about, and if it sounds to me like you really need help, I'm gonna come running as fast as I can."

The younger elf could tell his brother was voicing concern for his safety, but at a time like this, was it really any use to call him out on it? Rather than do that, Ian instead made a grin with his illusioned teeth.

"Thanks, Barley," he said, then after taking a deep breath in and letting it go, he turned for the left side of the hallway—the same way he saw Gedeon and his clone companion go, and added, "well...here goes."

The older elf watched as Ian marched his way down the hall, looking and acting like a gremlin after all they'd seen today. Once his brother was out of view, Barley began to do his part of their grand and glorious plan.

The first thing he did was collect Gedeon's plans of medallion infusion and stuff them right into his satchel, then he turned to the walls and took pictures with his phone of all the places the crafty wizard had gone off to using the medallion. While he knew exposing this entire room would be a snap, deep down all the older Lightfoot wanted to do was act like a true gremlin and destroy everything in sight like a maniac—especially the modern stuff. But he figured he could leave that for last until he got all the evidence he and Ian needed to prove Gedeon as a true villain, and until he knew for sure his brother succeeded in his part of the plan. As dangerous and risky as it was, and despite his swelling distress over it, all Barley could think about was Ian and the utter brilliance of this whole scheme. Snatching more papers and snapping additional pictures, the older elf wondered, how could it possibly fail?

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Ian peered around a corner. He could hear the commotions of the other clones. As it turned out, he didn't have to walk very far from the secret war room at all to get to the gigantic main room of Gedeon's hideout. A couple more feet, a few more turns, and soon the younger elf disguised as a gremlin found himself at the very place he needed to be.

On the floor itself, it appeared a lot more hectic and busy than from up top where he and Barley had watched moments ago. But that didn't matter. There seemed to be no sign of Gedeon anywhere—making harsh demands, lighting clones out of existence or anything of that sort—just as the clones passing the plotting room had promised. It was now time for the younger Lightfoot to put his part of his and his brother's plan into action.