The Tale of Ezra: Book 1

Chapter 17: Fight with the thief

"So, they did take it!" one of the soldiers said. "Arrest them!" another one said. "Hold on boys, before you arrest them, let me talk to them." the masked man said. 
"Hey what's this all about? I thought you were helping us!" I said. I must have sounded foolish while speaking because he broke into a diabolic laughter. "Me, helping you? What a joke" he said. 
He then took off his mask and revealed his face. It was Captain Jalen after all. "W-What, Captain Jalen?" I said shocked. We were all shocked, we couldn't do anything, and we couldn't say anything. "Why did you do this, Captain Jalen, aren't you on Regalia's side?!" Anna said. 
"Yeah I was. But it got a little boring helping Regalia." "Wait but didn't we just see you?!" Finn questioned. 
"Oh yeah you guys did, in fact this whole thing was staged. This whole time I was working with the US government on finding the true thieves." 
"You liar! You were the thief! You stole the documents!" Ariana shouted. "Me? Steal the documents? Oh no that was all you guys! Take em boys." The soldiers started coming towards us but they soon all fell to the ground. 

"Just kidding" Jalen said evilly. "Weren't you working with those guys?" Jay said. "Yeah temporarily. You see, I did steal the documents. And I also stole this..." he took off his black glove and revealed the ring. It was the magic ring that was also stolen from Regalia.  "The ring too?!" Finn said shocked. "But I couldn't do all this without the help of a certain someone." 
Someone then came out of the trees. I couldn't believe my eyes. It was Nathaniel who had come out of the bushes and revealed himself to be the second thief. "Nathaniel?!" I said surprised and shocked. 
I couldn't believe it. It was Nathaniel, the person I had trusted probably the most out of everyone in the NGO. He was the only one who understood my struggles and you're telling me that he was involved in almost starting a war between Regalia and the US and basically complicating my life?
"Sorry Ezra, but you were really foolish." he said as he walked up and stood next to Jalen. 
"You guys were all duped. We had carefully planned out everything. Stealing the ring and the documents and everything!" Jalen said proud of himself and Nathaniel. 
"You guys were probably wondering why the government was able to find and track you so quickly. Well that's because we were tracking you and letting them know of your location. That thing that you so foolishly purchased from me." Jalen then pointed to the gold chain that Finn had on his neck. "This thing?!" he said in disbelief. 
"Yes, it was a tracker this whole time. This whole time we've been knowing where you guys were going and telling the government everything. All while playing the role of the masked man who knew where the ring and the documents were located and sent you to go find the keys"
"Why did you do all of this?" I asked. "You wanna know why? Because this world needs governance! Just like the ancient world where there was one person ruling the whole world. These days countries just fight over petty things, land, money, resources, they don't even know how to act right. This world and its current people must be judged for their sins and what they have done! With this ring we can restore the ancient world! We will be the possessors of magic and we will rule the world and make it a better place again."
"The plan was at first to steal the documents and the ring so that Regalia and America would take themselves out, allowing us to come in and destroy their armies and take over their countries, but things have changed especially when you guys came along" Nathaniel continued. 
"So, you guys are just power-hungry thieves!" Ariana said. 
"By the way, we need the keys." Jalen said as he put his hand out. "Oh no way in hell do you think you're getting the keys from us!" Finn said as he stood in front of me. "I figured you would say that" Jalen then dashed towards us he quickly knocked Finn to the ground. Jay got out his scar and started shooting at Jalen. He blocked all the shots with his small dagger and launched the dagger towards Jay. Jay got hit in the chest and fell to the ground. Anna quickly went to Jay and tried to aid him. I activated my lightsaber and swung at him. He dodged my swing and punched me in the stomach. His punch was very hard and I almost threw up. Anna got up and started shooting at Jalen. I saw that one of the bullets grazed him but he wasn't fazed by it. 
Nathaniel came up from behind and put Anna in a headlock. Ariana pulled out a gun but she didn't shoot as she realized that if she did she would shoot Anna as well. "Let go of her Nathaniel!" I shouted at him. Jalen came up behind me and pinned me to the ground. All six keys fell out of my pocket. Jalen picked them up and the keys glowed again. This time they glowed blue and they levitated in the air spinning around and forming one master key.
"This is it, the key to unlock all the magic power from the ancient world." he said in amazement. Nathaniel let go of Anna and went to Jalen. "We've done it Nathaniel!" "Yes, we have." They both smirked as Jalen put the key into the keyhole that was on the ring. The ring started to glow. I could see that Jalen was gaining more power. "Yes!! At last!" he shouted. Anna slowly got up off the ground as she coughed. "Ezra...we have to stop them" she said in a weak voice. 
Jalen held his arms up in the air. "We are victorious!" His voice was heard throughout the forest. I wanted to punch him hard in the face and Nathaniel as well. I still couldn't believe that he was the thief. 
Nathaniel was standing behind Jalen deviously though. He then pulled out a dagger and stabbed Jalen from the back. Jalen was frozen, then blood started coming from his mouth as he slowly turned around to look at Nathaniel who had betrayed him. "What is wrong with you-" he said as he fell down to the ground. Nathaniel then bended down to take the ring from Jalen's finger and put it on his own finger. "You too, were also foolish." he said as he stood back up. 
"Nathaniel! This isn't worth it! You don't have to do this!!" I said. "He's not our ally, Ezra. We have to fight him" Anna said. 
The others stood back up ready to fight. "You can't beat me now. I have the power of magic on my side." He then shot a lightning bolt from his hand. We all quickly got out of the way, and it hit the ground. 
"We're gonna have to fight, Ezra...no holding back" Anna said to me. She was right. Nathaniel was a traitor. He betrayed my trust; I didn't have time to sympathize or show him mercy. 
Jay started shooting at Nathaniel. The bullets just went through him without him getting hit or anything. This was where I'd realized that magic was a very powerful thing. Now I get why the guys from the ancient past sealed it away in that ring. I leaped forward to try and engage combat with Nathaniel. He created a sword made of fire and clashed with my lightsaber. I felt the heat of his flaming sword, it was very powerful. He then pulled back and swung at me and cut my right cheek. He then kicked me in the stomach pushing me back. Finn ran toward Nathaniel, but a stone pillar appeared before Finn. Finn kicked the stone pillar and kept on running to Nathaniel with a dagger in his hand ready to stab him. Nathaniel held out his hand and Finn suddenly froze. "Wha...I can't move" Nathaniel then walked closer to Finn and swung his flame blade at his non movable body but Ariana came just in time to block the slash with her own sword. They clashed with their swords. Finn was able to move again and pulled a handgun out of his pocket and shot, but once again the bullets went through him. Anna came from behind and pinned Nathaniel to the ground. Ariana slashed Nathaniel on the chest which I could tell he felt, and Finn shot him. This time the bullet hit him, but it was not in a vital area. A big wind pressure came from Nathaniel and pushed everyone back. I had realized something, even though he had magic he wasn't perfect at using it. It was only his first-time using magic. 
"You saw it too?" Anna said to me. "Yeah, his weak point." "Oh I see, so we just have to overwhelm him" Jay said. Nathaniel held out his hand and all the bullets from out guns came out. Ariana's sword and Finn's dagger had also broken. There were hundreds of bullets in the air and whenever Nathaniel snapped his fingers the bullet would aim at one of us. He snapped his fingers and one bullet hit Ariana in the leg. She screamed as she fell down him pain. These bullets were fast too. Even faster than when you would shoot them regularly from a gun. He snapped his fingers again and multiple bullets went to me and Anna. We both got hit. I didn't get hit too bad, but Anna did, and she fell down. Jay took out a grenade and threw it at Nathaniel, but he held out his hand and the grenade stopped in midair. He launched the grenade back at us and it exploded. Finn and Jay were both down on the ground and they were bruised pretty bad. I was also down and had some bruises, but I didn't want to give up. I stood back up filled with rage. I was angry for multiple reasons; my anger had leaked to my lightsaber, and it turned dark red. With black-red lightning surrounding it.
I was so mad that I wanted to kill him. "Guess it's just you and me" Nathaniel said. He took out his personal sword and thanks to the magic power coming from the ring his sword changed into a lightsaber as well. We clashed and lightning sparks came from our clashes. 
He then held out his hand and made a circle of fire around us. "Whoever loses dies" "Fine by me" 
We kept on clashing. I had put all my power into every swing. My rage controlling me and directing me. He was also swinging with all his might and power. I swung left and right but he was matching my swinging movements too. He then swung and hit my left hand burning it. I went back a bit and he swung again and hit me a little bit on the spot where I had been hit by Captain Ezekiel. I couldn't swing anymore. I put my hand on my chest, I was feeling immense pain. He then took a final swing at me. My life had flashed before my eyes, I actually thought I was going to die. I had that same feeling from when we invaded the Georgia airship. Suddenly I felt power stir in me from within. His lightsaber had stopped when it was just a few inches away from my face. But he hadn't stopped it was more like he couldn't move. I then went back a little but if I moved one step back, my foot would be consumed in the flames. I saw Nathaniel struggling to move. "What did you do to me!" I then held out my hand and he was pushed back, and he fell on his back. He was a few inches away from the fire. He got back up, but I ran to him and held my lightsaber to his neck. He dropped his lightsaber on the ground and held his hands up in the air. Something told me to just finish it, but I didn't want to. For some reason I still felt sympathy for him. My lightsaber started turning blue again. I decided to deactivate it. "Thought you were gonna kill me, especially considering all the things I did to you and your friends.
"If I'm being honest, I want to kill you right now, but that wouldn't be the right thing to do" 
"Wow, I'm surprised...thank you Ezra....and I'm really sorry...for what I'm about to do to you right now." as he said that my heart dropped. He pulled me while he was falling down into the fire and we had both fallen down into the fire. The flames had gotten way bigger and way hotter. 
Anna stood up limping as she shouted my name. The others stood up in disbelief. I was dead meat for sure. But I stood up in the flames and punched Nathaniel in the face. He let go of me and I escaped the flames. 
I had felt the pain and the scorching burns of the flames but for some reason I didn't have any burn marks or anything. It was just like when I got bitten by the shark. And just like that time, black-blue lightning was surrounding my body. "Ezra!" Anna said as she hugged me. 
This was the closest I had been to her. She smelled like sweet vanilla. 
"Ezra!!!" Nathaniel shouted as he got out of the flames. He too came out of the flames unscathed and pulled out his lightsaber and tried to swing at me and Anna. But as soon as he did something came from the air. Nathaniel was cut on the back and fell down to the ground. Standing on top of him was Captain Ezekiel. 
"You have something that my ancestors tried their best to keep from this generation" he said with a cold expression. It wasn't just Captain Ezekiel; other NGO soldiers had arrived. Captain Hannah and Sally were also running towards us. Commander Luke had also arrived. 
"You did good." Ezekiel said as he put his katana back inside of his sheath.
We were all badly bruised. This was a long exhausting journey. 
"So, the thief was Nathaniel this whole time?" Captain Hannah asked. 
"It was Nathaniel and Captain Jalen" I replied. 
Commander Luke bent down and took the ring from Nathaniel's unconscious body. I knew for a fact that he wasn't dead. The magic ring must have protected him from the flames.
"Good job, you guys." Commander Luke said to us. "Man, I'm so hungry" Finn said as his stomach growled. 
I saw the file which had the US documents on the ground. I went over to it and picked it up. 
A helicopter flew over us. It was the US helicopter, they finally found where we were. Some of the NGO soldiers took out their guns getting ready to fight. However, the Helicopter had landed. Out came some military soldiers and the president. Luke's face turned serious. The other captains also got serious. 
"How wonderful for you guys to meet us here. We were even planning to go to your country" the president said. 
"What do you want?" Luke said. "You guys already know what we want. Since you have not returned our top-secret documents, we declare war on Regalia." 
"That won't be necessary" I said as I walked over to them with the file in my hands. "Here are your top-secret files. They haven't been opened or looked at by anyone." The president took the files. "Are you sure?" he said. "Positive" "Very well then. We won't be declaring war on you guys any longer. Thank you for returning it." 
They all went back into the helicopter and flew away. 
"You're a hero Ezra!" Sally said. "Well Jalen and Nathaniel stole it and I just found it on the ground" I said trying to be humble about it. 
It was finally over, the thief had been found and we returned the ring and the documents to their rightful owners.