Generation 4, Chapter 5: The greedy ones are never happy

When I had been kidnapped to search for something archaeological against my will, I didn't even think that we'd stay in the same country. But apparently, that wasn't the case.

Blindfolded and stuck in a car, it was still clear to me that we were in France, judging by the French phrases being shouted at the speeding car and its driver.

And now we were in Champ Les Sims, a quaint little vacationing town that housed many adventures as well as secrets. Vala seemed determined to uncover one of those secrets. The way she acted, nervous and quick, made it clear that her life depended on it.

"Darling, why are you observing a rock? Are you intentionally wasting time so that someone would come to rescue you? I'm sorry to burst your bubble, Daniel, but no one knows where you are." Though she seemed a lot more nervous than before, she still kept to her interesting but annoying nature, hurling the words "darling" and "dear" every few minutes.

"Because...," I fought to keep my voice even and not appear too hostile, "it's the only stone here with writing on it, so it may contain clues to what the hell you're searching for."

Tracing my fingers along the outlines of the strange symbols revealed some sort of switch. Nervously, I reached out to prod it, awaiting dastard consequences. There weren't any.

"Well, that proved to be fruitless. Do you have anymore interesting theories, Doctor Jackson?" her voice dripped with sarcasm, applying the most to the word 'doctor'. "I thought you were supposed to be smart at figuring things out."

"I am," I stretched my muscles, preparing myself for what had to be done next. "Turn around and you'll see what I've uncovered."

"What good is a hole in the ground going to do us?" Vala turned around and followed closely in my footsteps.

"Ancient civilizations have a thing for being secretive," the excitement in getting a chance to explain it was hardly containable. "And they had a thing for putting switches in such holes. They're usually stuck to a wall, but seeing as there aren't any around, the people must have felt that it was okay to put it in the ground."

Poking and fiddling around with my fingers in the holes revealed two things: A switch as I had expected, and a cool, round object. Was this what Vala was after? I sure hoped it was.

"Seems like the people that lived here decided it was okay to put some of their treasure here... What do you think?" I asked, lifting the gold object up for her to see.

"It's pretty...," her face expression contradicted her words. "But not what I was looking for. You can bag that, though. If I do fail, which I really hope won't happen, a few riches should be enough to appease them...for a while."

"So they're gonna kill you if you don't bring them what they're looking for?" I asked in a quiet voice, frowning, gauging her reaction.

She sighed. "Unfortunately, yes. This is my last chance at redeeming myself. I...I messed up too much in the past." Her chin dropped to her chest, and she pinched the bridge of her nose. "Anyhow," she recovered from her almost-breakdown, "I'm not quite ready to accept defeat. What else did you find in the hole?"

"A switch," I shrugged, "but I don't see what it opened."

"Well, let's get searching, then!" she hollered, pushing me towards the edge of the small hill. "You start searching on the ground, and I'll have a peek around here."

It was a good thing she had to brains to search around the hill. Right at the front of it was a barely concealed staircase, leading down to a dark room, most likely made out of stone.

"Now this...," she smiled, "looks promising. And might I say, with your butt in the picture, it makes all of this look so much better."

I coughed, peeking over my shoulder at her. "Um... Let's just get going. Please."

"Have it your way then," she chuckled, nudging me down the stairs.

Entering the hidden tomb felt like entering a different world. To think that people had once lived there in the stone structure was incredible. Not only that, but it was the first real adventure I had ever endeavored.

"This...is fantastic," I breathed, observing every small detail strewn across the walls. It was a small chamber, with hardly anything interesting concealed, but before me was a door that may have led to something that was a little more interesting.

"Oh, you archaeologists and your silly desire to find out all about the history of some forgotten people...," Vala shook her head as she came to stand behind me. "What is the point of learning about the past experiences of other people when you should be focusing on what's going on right now with the world?"

"I had always hoped we could learn from their mistakes,"I sighed, "but that seems  unlikely."

"Uh huh... As unlikely as the fact that I'm going to uncover that rubble over there," she jerked her chin towards the boulders laying before us. "So, get working. You seriously need to work out more. Those arms of yours are so...puny."

It was true. I hardly worked out anymore, being swamped with studies and adjusting to living in a new town with a crazy roommate that seemed determined to antagonize my sister around every corner, but that didn't mean that my arms were useless.

"How's it coming?" Vala inquired after a half hour of rocks flying in all directions.

"Pretty much the same as when you asked me about five minutes ago," I replied tersely, flinging the pick into the rubble with more force than what was necessary. The rugged rock wall finally came tumbling around our feet, revealing a stone wall.

"What now, oh mighty warrior princess?" I asked, wiping the sweat that converged above my brow.

"Ah, you've got your sense of sarcasm back, it seems. Mock me all you want, Daniel, but I'm not as useless as you think I am."

"Whatever you say," smirking, I backed away from her glare.

"I'll prove you wrong," she seemed determined to do just that, moving towards the wall to poke around and find any secrets it may contain.

"Oh, so you're street smart, is that it?"

"Actually, I am. I didn't have anyone around to teach me values and the meaning of life or whatever, like you were taught. I had a mother who died of a drug overdose and a father who was never at home because he was always away scamming people out of a lot of money."

"Vala...," I started, but stopped as I saw she wasn't going to stop talking.

"I tried my hardest, you know, I tried. But you try being someone better after you were shunned by your own grandparents, and spit upon by anyone that you walked by. Just try forming lasting relationships after that."

Now would have been the perfect time to make an escape. But, strangely, I couldn't will my feet to move. Perhaps it was the adrenaline rush that I got from doing something dangerous for a change, or the fact that I felt sorry for her. She didn't have it easy.

"I...was quick to judge... I'm sorry. I forget that thieves usually have it bad at home...if any of it is true. Wait, are you just making stuff up and messing around with me so I'll feel sorry for you?!"

"Is it working?" she sounded happy.

"Just shut up and open the door," I grumbled.

"It seems that you've forgotten the fact that I'm holding you hostage and that you should be polite towards your captor, otherwise you might be killed," she pointed out.

"Ah, but I would counter with the fact that you need me alive."

"Hmm. You're indeed smart," she smiled slightly, giving the wall a quick rap with her fist. The force against the wall revealed a crack, and when she pressed against it with her body weight, it moved. "Well, well, well. We've got a hidden door."

The door only revealed another set of puzzles. While Vala glorified in the loot that was lying around the room, I was charged with opening the door.

" 'Vala' is an interesting name... How did your parents come with that one?" I mused as I activated the pressure plate that should open the next door. In theory. It could either open the door, or activate a trap.

"To be honest, they didn't name me Vala. My full name is Valencia Larissa. But who the hell wants to be called Valencia all the time? I would have been the laughing stock of the century. I had the ingenuity to use the 'Va' from my first name and the 'La' from my second name, to form 'Vala'."

"That makes sense...sort of," I nodded. The steel chain binding the door dropped to the ground with a loud clang. "This should be interesting..."

All that lay behind the next door was rubble, but double the amount we had first encountered.

"I fail to see the interesting part of this...," Vala tapped her heel against the floor impatiently.

"I might have been mistaken on that...," I cleared my throat. "But I'm definitely not clearing all of this by myself. It's time for you to get your hands dirty."

"Una tortura," she sighed. I learned something else about my captor: She could speak Italian.

~*~

In the meantime, Daniel's rescuers were a lot closer than he or Vala could have expected. Mitchell had the brains to follow the blacked out van that housed Daniel. He called Darcy as soon as he parked near the abandoned cemetery, informing her of their new location. Many hours later, they arrived, a little tired from theirride of the jet, but still determined as ever.

"So they're in there?" Darcy asked as soon as she climbed out of their vehicle.

"Yup. I was kind of surprised to see him wearing normal clothes... Seems like his kidnapper isn't too harsh on him. They seem to be quarreling a lot, though."

"Let's hope the chick hasn't killed him because of that," Jack scratched his neck, peering down the staircase.

~*~

It took a lot of manpower to uncover the door behind the rubble, but even when we accomplished that, there were still many other puzzles to solve. My opinion of the tomb had changed. Some ancient civilization had definitely not lived here. The place was most likely built to house their treasure in the event that they had ever returned to their homeland. So far, it seemed like they hadn't.

The final door, which Vala assumed must be the room with the item in it that she was looking for, was locked with a keystone. After another hour of digging around stones, I uncovered it, and was instructed to place it in the keyhole.

Vala had assumed correctly. Behind the door was a treasure chest, located in the middle of the room, as if it was some object to be worship. That gave her a sliver of hope.

"It has to be it...," she kept muttering, moving towards the box and heaving the top open.

The sound of footsteps behind us was clear, yet Vala remained oblivious, enthralled in the findings of the chest.

"It's not here...," she whispered ominously, giving the chest a pat down to check for any secret compartments. "There are only documents...most likely a map that leads to what I'm searching for. This isn't good..."

"No, it's not," I chuckled. "You're busted."

"What do you mean...?" she asked, rising from her crouched position.

"Just turn around and see. The welcoming committee has finally arrived."

She turned, though it was a fatal move. I had made the decision to deliver a well-packed punch to the face. It was the only way we would be able to make her go peacefully and turn her over to the authorities.

As she lay on the ground, unconscious, I felt a strong sense of guilt. I never wanted to hit a girl in the face. That had been a rule my mother had lain down since I was a child.

"This is for your own good, Vala. Maybe this way you still get to live."

~*~

After a long ride back at the boarding house, Darcy had offered to cook us dinner, while Mitchell and Samantha, both people I still had to get to know better, kept a eye on Vala before we would take her to the police station.

"Hey there, mister Macho. So, how was it, punching a girl in the face? And might I confess, quite a pretty one."

"Oh, come on, Jack. You can see the poor guy is distraught," Darcy chuckled, closing the fridge and bringing out a bottle of Coca-Cola.

"Yeah... Not something I want to do, ever again. If I ever encounter a girl fight, I'd rather leave them to fight it out than step in and get hit by one, or being forced to hit one."

"You're saying you never brawled with Darcy?" Jack frowned.

"Well... She packed the punches. I just ran away. Cowardly, maybe, but our mom prohibited me from ever defending myself, I swear. She kept prattling on about how I was stronger than Darcy, and I could hurt her a lot more than she could hurt me. Sounds like a lie to me now that I think about it."

"Lies are something that you shouldn't be worried about now," Darcy was as pale as vampires are supposed to be in the myths. "Guys... Mitchell should have been down here by now. He said he would swap out with one of us, and he was pretty impatient... I think something is wrong."

She had no idea just how right she was.

Sprinting up the stairs and swinging the door to their room open only revealed two passed-out individuals, instead of the expected three standing ones. Somehow, Vala had been able to beat both Samantha and Mitchell.

"She's good...," I shook my head in disbelief.

"I hate to admit it, but I have to agree with that sentiment," Darcy nearly growled, and moved closer to the bedside table. "There's a note here."

Curious, I came to stand next to her, taking the note from her.

"Thanks for the fun time. I'll see you again someday." was all that was written on the note.

"I have a eerie feeling that we will see her again...," I smirked, crumbling the note in my hand.