Lost (Trequel to "Sight")

The Plan

It didn't take long to get to the actual kingdom itself. But finding the heirloom, now that was going to be hard. This kingdom was big-- much bigger than Corona. How were they going to find one tiny necklace?

But thankfully, the Society was on their side. Viper, Musica, and Splash knew some people, and all they had to do was find them and ask where the heirloom was.

Rose, Varian, Kenny, and Rae awkwardly followed behind the Society members as they confidently strode through the kingdom. Well, except Splash. He looked just as nervous as the Coronans-- probably since it was his first time out of his village. But he continued to walk beside his fellow Society members in the lead.

The Society members suddenly stopped, causing the others to crash into them. There were a few insults thrown at them before they all righted themselves again.

They were standing in front of another abandoned building, one very similar to the other Society's building.

Musica walked up to the door, knocking in a certain rhythm. There were a few heartbeats of silence before the door opened. A young girl-- maybe 16 or 17-- opened the door. She had pixie cut black hair and intense green eyes. She glared at them.

"Only one may enter."

"Why?" Musica asked, put a hand on her hip.

"There's seven of you! Choose one!"

Musica sighed. "Fine, I'll go."

The door shut behind her, and the other six stood there in silence. Only about five minutes later, though, did the door open back up.

"Alright, that was pretty quick and straight-forward," Musica admitted. "The necklace is being stored in the castle."

"In the castle?" Varian repeated, a look of worry coming over him.

"Yeah, that's what I said. Now, we're going to have to form a plan to sneak past the guards, and infiltrate the castle."

"How about one of us distracts the guards while the others find a way in?" Rae offered.

"I like this girl," Musica smiled at Rae. Rae seemed to blush slightly. "Alright, who wants to be the distraction?"

Viper flung his hair back and gave her a huge grin. "I'm great at distracting people."

"Right. Now we need to find a way inside the castle." Musica put a fist under her chin.

"Well, the entrance would be too easy," Varian started to say. "Maybe if we find a... a secret tunnel, or an unguarded window."

A sudden memory came to Rose. Back when Rapunzel had just returned to Corona after being gone for a year, they had used a vent in the wall to get back inside the castle. "Or a vent!"

"Great!" Musica said with a large smile. "Now, once we get inside, we need to get to the royal vault as fast as we can."

"We'll need a look out, too," Kenny intervened. "I can do that."

"Alright. Then you'll keep look out outside the vault, as us five"- she pointed to herself, Rose, Varian, Rae, and Splash- "Look for the necklace."

Varian stroked his chin. "But what if the necklace is triggered? We may need to put something in its place."
Splash reached into one of his pockets and pulled out a necklace. It had a simple silver chain with one large emerald hanging from it. "Will this do?"

"Perfect!" Musica exclaimed. "I think we're ready."

. . .

Viper strode up to the castle entrance, swinging his hips back and forth while shaking his lustrous locks all about. He stopped in front of the guards protecting the large doorway, blowing them a kiss.

"How you doin?"

The guards looked flustered, as if they didn't know how to respond to that.

"You guys work here a lot?" He put his hands on his hips and raised an eyebrow. "I love a man in uniform."

The guards just shared a look with each other.

Viper continued to flirt with them, causing more of the castle guards to stop what they were doing and stare at him. Eventually, it looked as if they were all staring at Viper.

"Now!" Musica yelled in a hushed tone. The six ran out of the bushes they had been hiding in, stopping at a vent in the wall. Musica took the bars off of it.

"Come on! Go!" Everyone hurriedly got onto their stomachs and started crawling into the small space.

It didn't take long to get into the kingdom itself. Musica quickly observed their surroundings before turning to a long hallway. "This way!'

The hallway seemed to last forever, as if they weren't even moving. But the end did eventually reach them, and they could see the vault.

"Alright, Kenny. Wait here and tell us if you see anyone coming," Musica told him.

"Right." Kenny stood next to the door, folding his arms.

Musica then turned to Splash, holding out an open palm. He reached into one of his pockets and drew out a strange object. It was a thin metal bent into a weird shape. Rose had seen something like that before-- Eugene used to have one.

After a few nerve-racking heartbeats, the door was unlocked, and the remaining teens stepped into the vault.

It was pitch dark-- there must've been no windows in it. But the Society was prepared. Splash brought out a match from his pockets and lit up a nearby candle that just happened to be sitting around. What other random stuff was hiding in his pockets?

All sorts of miscellaneous objects were scattered throughout the room. Some made of jewels, some made of gold, some made out of regular household items. But one in particular caught their eyes.

Off to the side was a necklace, resting on a small podium. It had a thin, gold chain with an onyx hanging from it. It was the heirloom they were searching for!

Rose had almost ran up to it and snatched it, before remembering what Varian had said about it possibly being rigged. She instead carefully walked up to it.

"Okay. Splash, you got that necklace ready?" she asked, hand hovering over the necklace.

Splash nodded, taking the emerald necklace out of his belt's pocket.

"Alright. On a count of three, I'll lift up this necklace, and you put that one down. Ready?" Rose looked Splash in the eye. He hesitated for a moment before nodding.

"One. Two. Three!" Rose took the onyx necklace off as Splash put the other on. It was smooth, and didn't seem to have any glitch in between. Everyone sighed in relief.

Varian laughed nervously. "Okay, did anyone else think that was going to go horribly wrong?"

Everyone laughed in agreement.

Then the necklace's emerald tipped, causing the weight to be uneven. Then gravity did its worst. It caused the podium to fall over, triggering a deafening alarm. The teens all pushed their hands against their ears.

"Oh, the irony," Varian mumbled.

"Guys!" Kenny screamed through the doorway.

Then the door burst open, Kenny being knocked to the ground, and dozens of armed guards standing behind him.