"Woah!" Taro leapt back as the ceiling caved in above them, jagged stone crashing down where he had stood just moments before.
The rest of the group were lucky enough to be far away from the broken pieces of ancient rock coming down above them.
Hendrix, Vida, Charlotte and Ratu flinched backwards.
Boom
Rock and debris hit the ground with a violent noise.
Dust kicked up and into the air as the rebels covered their eyes.
"Agh." Hendrix said, trying to rub the particles from his eyes.
Vida went into a coughing fit. Hendrix reached out toward her, but his hand grasped nothing but dust.
"Shit." A voice murmured from across the room, immediately putting the blinded group on edge.
"Chase?" Another voice yelled out into the cavern.
"Amora?" Vida yelled back, equal parts confused and relieved.
As the dust began to settle, Hendrix, Vida, Charlotte, Ratu, and Taro laid their eyes upon the rest of their crew, slowly getting up in a daze after falling ten feet into the cavern below.
"Kai?!" Taro called out into the spotty darkness.
"Yeah?" Kai called back, rubbing his head.
"Oh, thank god." Taro dropped to his knees, the tension leaving his body all at once.
Ratu's eyes glanced between the two brothers before looking away with a furrowed brow.
Charlotte smirked, letting out an even bigger sigh of relief as she finished her count, making sure everyone was there.
"You alright?" Biggie said, standing up and reaching a hand out to Slim.
"Yeah." Slim took his friend's hand.
"Ha!" Chase pointed at the still blinded Hendrix after the dust had settled.
Hendrix was now lifting his shirt to wipe his irritated eyes, even more frustrated than before.
"Thank… goodness you're… alright!" Vida spoke between coughs, running to her friends for a reunion hug.
"Yay!" Amora yelled, returning her hug as Akilah patted Vida on the back before turning to the stone mount in the middle of the room.
"Is that…?" Akilah wiped the dust from her glasses.
"Yes." Ratu said, stepping over broken stone as she made her way to the stone mount.
Kai, Akilah, Amora, Chase, Biggie, and Slim went quiet as Ratu walked past them.
The girl could feel the tension from the six she had cast out, but she had only one thing on her mind.
"What'll it do?" Chase leaned over to Amora and Akilah, hoping one of them would know the answer.
"If it's anything like my Spirit weapon, it enhances your Mode." Akilah explained. "There's really no saying what it will do until we know how she will use it."
Ratu took one last step towards the mount, now only a foot from the Celurits she had come so far for.
The weapons were crossed in the shape of an X, their curved blades pointing towards the ground on the X shaped mount they rested upon.
She stared in awe, almost motionless in her admiration.
The rest of the group watched on with a slight confusion.
"What is she waiting for?!" Vida thought. She leaned in slightly to get a closer look at the girl's face through the dust that had yet to settle.
"She's… Crying…" Vida thought as she witnessed tears fall down Ratu's cheeks.
"Mama… Papa…" Ratu muttered under her breath, not loud enough for anyone else to hear.
She finally reached out for the handles, grabbing the right Celurit.
What happened next could only be described as a surge of life.
Ratu felt the collective Spirit of the island's protectors travel through her body, the wave of vitality eventually making it back to the handle of the Celurit.
The girl gasped.
"Ratu?!" Charlotte jogged over to the girl. "You okay?"
She held Ratu's shoulders as the girl caught her breath again.
"Y-...Yes." Ratu said, grabbing the other Celurit with more caution than the first.
She turned towards the door, quickly regaining her composure as she stated: "Let's go." in that signature, cold tone.
She took a step towards the door-
"Are we not gonna talk about how you left us to die?!" Chase stood up, throwing his arms up as he looked around the room to see who would back him up.
"Yeah." Kai said, standing up right after his friend.
"I'm with you." Biggie stood up to the surprise of the rest of the crew. "Because what the hell was that?!"
Ratu stopped in her tracks.
A few moments of silence passed. Charlotte debated interfering, as she was just as ready to get back to her bed as anyone else, but she wanted to see how the kids would work as a team.
"Let's try this the Jason way." Charlotte thought to herself. "He always likes a hands-off approach to this type of thing."
"It was the best decision at the moment." Ratu kept her back turned to the group. "We would've died if we kept the door open."
"So you left half of us to die?!" Chase took a step towards her.
"You don't know the meaning of death!" Ratu responded, more conviction filling her tone than the group had ever heard.
Most of the group was taken aback by this remark.
"What…" Chase thought, unable to conjure up a response.
Vida thought back to Ratu's tears just a few moments ago. She thought back to the story Charlotte had told of how she met Ratu. It's like she could see that small girl that Charlotte reminisced about.
"Let's talk about this later, guys-" Vida's attempt at peace fell on deaf ears as she noticed Taro take a step towards the girl with the Celurits.
"You almost killed my brother…" Taro muttered, his fists clenched with a jagged rock in one of them. "And you won't even say sorry."
Ratu glanced at Taro's fists, tightening her grip on her newly found weapons.
The rest of the group could feel the tension in the air.
Akilah grabbed the handle of her sword, Chase grabbed the assault rifle on his back, Hendrix grabbed the strap of his guitar, Kai crouched down, and Biggie gripped his mallets.
Vida, Amora, and Slim's eyes darted between their teammates. It was already too late to bring the situation back to a friendly banter and they knew it.
"Alright, that's enough." Charlotte said, noticing the tension in the cavern.
A few more moments of silence passed, the atmosphere so thick it felt hard to breathe.
"You hesitate." Ratu spoke. "You should've struck already."
The girl made her way out of the cavern and back into the dark hallway, both of her blades in hand.
Taro crushed the rock in his fist as dust flew from his palm, his jaw so tight it felt as though a tooth would crack.
"It's alright, bro." Kai put a hand on his brother's shoulder. "I didn't die."
The boy let out a small chuckle, trying to lighten the mood but to no avail. His brother was too far inside his own head to hear him.
"Well… Let's get a move on." Charlotte sighed, stepping over broken stone while the rest of the group followed close behind her.
The rest of the rebels eventually caught up to Ratu, who was frozen in confusion at the entrance to the temple.
"What the…" Chase said as he and his friends laid their eyes on the same sight that had stopped Ratu in her tracks.
The same Komodo dragons that had just been chasing them with saliva dripping from their jaws were now watching them, keeping their distance from the group.
Ratu took a step forward.
The reptiles backed up.
"It's the Spirit weapons." Vida said, pointing to Ratu's Celurits.
Ratu looked down at her blades, admiring them for a moment.
She began to walk forward, the dragons scurrying backwards as the group followed closely behind.
The walk back to the boat was night and day to the journey onto the island. Komodo dragons watched from every angle, but none dared to get within a yard of Ratu.
The reptiles watched with black beady eyes, licking their scaly lips as the group got back onto their small boat, rowing back to the ship.