"Our priority is to save Lisette, and if that means we have to sacrifice our chances of being with her, so be it. She needs someone who's willing to go above and beyond to never abandon her. You proved that before leaving when you threatened to destroy us if we didn't make a choice to remain or leave her life," he explained. "Seeing as agreeing to this means we're here to stay, what better way to prove we care than by letting her be with the one person who didn't abandon her under pressure?"
Why do I have a feeling they've matured a lot?
"We'd also like to add that if doing this leads to us being connected to Jade, we're perfectly fine with being just teammates, acquaintances, friends, or whatever term you want to give us. We're not doing this for any benefit whatsoever, but to ensure Lisette returns to the person she was."
"What about Leonardo?" I questioned, having just remembered his existence.
The four of them seemed to cringe at the mention of him before Ruke grumbled, "We cut ties with Leonardo."
"What?!" we gasped.
"Why?" I asked.
"Leonardo has certain abilities outside of his elements," Rick revealed. "We didn’t find out until recently, meaning just before the holidays. One of those abilities leads to temporary memory loss."
No fucking way!
"You're fucking kidding," all four Maxwells snapped. "He basically brainwashed you guys?!"
They looked embarrassed by the revelation as Rock crossed his arms over his chest. "Every single time we got close to finding a trail on Lisette, it felt like something would happen and poof, we were back at square one. Again, and again, until it got absolutely frustrating to even bother because no matter which direction we went and all the leads we'd gather, it would take one meeting with our directors to figure things out and poof, gone. Leonardo is in close relation to the council, so he was always present at our meetings prior to him being part of the team as Lisette’s replacement, until we could retrieve her. It was only supposed to be a temporary thing. Instead, it turned out to be permanent because we had no more leads, and any evidence we once had seemed to lead us into different directions. We knew something was up, but it wasn't until there was a foreign visit from a professor that we realized what he had done."
"A professor?" I inquired.
"We don't really know the details," Royce admitted. "She goes by the name of Professor Phoenix or something. She isn't from these parts. Really far away. She funds the grand library for Tracker Hive but only comes to visit once in a blue moon. One of those visits happened when we went to do research on Hives and to find out if we could potentially unbind as potential Hives so we could free her from the disappointment and she'd be able to move on with you. We thought we found something, but then we forgot before we could write it down."
"You know how many magical books work. Once the page has revealed what needs to be grasped, it disappears and won't appear in the same place again. We'd spent hours upon hours searching for an entire week total and boom. Just like that, it was all gone. Our frustration was enough to shake the building, and she was the one to arrive to our meeting room to ask what the problem was," Rick explained.
"Leo was sent to apologize to the head librarian for the disruption on our behalf, giving us alone time with Professor Phoenix. She revealed that it would be hard to research when we were with an eraser. We didn't know what that was until she elaborated and revealed that Leonardo is an eraser. From a mere scan of the four of us, she found out our memories had recently been tampered with. We raced out of there to research it and she was right," Ruke elaborated with a snarl.
"All the missed opportunities in the last ten years to save Lisette was all because of him. Whenever we were close to discovering the truth, he erased it. Lisette suffered ten long years thinking we'd forgotten her, and in the end, it was her 'replacement'. He was supposed to relieve his position once she was rescued. We confronted him about it and he refused when Lisette arrived. Because he's in close relations with our department heads and is rich, they do anything to please him," Royce explained.
"Fucker," the Maxwells declared.
"He's a criminal!" Calvin stressed. "Why can't we arrest him? He's obviously a rat."
"We can't prove he's an eraser," Royce revealed.
"You need a certain sight to see the traces of it. Also, it's not something he can do without consequence. Whenever we'd be back at square one, he'd get really sick for a solid week. We declared we wanted to go our separate ways and our department offered to give us a break until the New Year to re-discuss."
"Bullshit," Calvin muttered. "They're doing that so you can come back, and he'll just erase what you discovered."
"Exactly," the four of them replied.
"Two can play that came," Calvin revealed. "Let's focus on getting Lisette out of this mess. Then we'll tackle making a device for you guys to block out any usage of that gift."
"If finances talk big, then maybe it's time we did a corporate switch," Zeke revealed.
"What?" they asked.
"We'll go into details later," Zeke stressed. "In short, we'll buy out your department. If we do that, we can easily fire anyone we don't like, and before you try to say we can't do that, we most certainly can. We have the funds, and I know a few departments are struggling as of late, including yours."
"How did you know that?" Rick asked.
"Zeke likes to research stuff he can use against those he hates. If you’d pissed him off enough, he would have just bought the department and got you all fired," Zeus casually revealed.
We all just stared at the culprit before he smirked and shrugged.
"I'm diabolical when I feel like it," he said with pride. "Now that we know what's really going on, we gotta get down to action. Jade? Any luck finding Lisette?
"Not yet." I sighed. "It's about three hours before midnight," I urged.
"We now have a plan," Calvin reasoned. "We can assist. The moment you find Lisette, call us. Or let Zackery know and we'll all come to where you are."
"Alright," I replied. "I'm hanging up."
"One last thing!" Calvin stressed before I hung up. "Lisette has to choose what gender she wants to be before you initiate the kiss. Meaning she can either be a boy or a girl. Whatever she chooses will be the final decision. No changes can be made, and we can't redo this method again. She has to declare what she wants to be, so make sure you emphasize that, or she may live to regret it."
Damn.
"Alright," I agreed. "Let's hope we can find her."
"Good luck," Calvin encouraged. "We'll do our parts!"
* * *
Two and a half hours had gone by in a flash, leaving us on the hunt to find Lisette, but still with no luck.
Glancing back at my phone, I noticed it was at 1% battery life.
Shit.
I quickly texted the guys to say my phone was about to die, but that's when it decided to end its life; the screen of death showed up as a loading circle appeared, and the phone completely shut down.