CHAPTER 4: What Resides Within

Milo looked in the mirror as he applied the pollen mixture again. He found the ghostly blue outlines helpful in replicating the pattern. After washing his stained hands he tried to smooth his pasty hair again. The clothes he now wore where better suited for disguises than the cloak would be, though, in a few cases, the cloaks would still be needed by his friends. The linguist was grateful to the family that provided the attire.

The bookish king stepped out, the last to finish, somewhat to his chagrin. Something warm and soft rubbed up against his leg. "Here, Kitty." Milo picked Fluffy up and cradled her. "What? Fluffy? What've you gotten into?" Bits of blue highlighted her paws and tail. It seemed she had gotten into the pollen mixture. "Fluffy…" As he walked to another room, one away from the discussing team, he passed Warin. I gotta hand it to you. You took great care of her. Thanks."

The stocky Atlantean smiled with a slight bow. "There was little more I could do then."

Smiling back, Milo replied with another "thank you" and pushed through the door curtain. Many of the fireflies had been released form their globes, resulting in a dimmer room. The area smelled of herbs and was a little warmer somehow. Inside were several beds, all accommodated by those hurt either during the construction of the Casing or the attack in the plaza. Only one had a man sitting beside it. The giant doctor grinned to Milo from the bedside.

"You still think this is a good idea?"

"Sure. Seen it work out in the field," Sweet whispered back.

"Seen ah what?" Vinny shifted in bed.

"Oh, I uh..." Milo walked to the demolitionist's side. "I brought a friend. Sweet's idea." Fluffy was put on the edge of the bed, mewing softly as she walked onto Vinny's chest.

"I've seen animal therapy help ta heal people and help 'em recover faster."

"How 'bout that, eh?" When the Persian lay down, the Italian put a hand on her. "Wouldn't you be afraid I'd light her tail on fire or what?"

Mouth closed, Milo couldn't help but laugh through his closed lips. Only Vinny could be caught in an explosion and still have a sense of humor. "Nah. Besides, where I'm going I doubt she'd want to come along."

"Well, none of us would ah want to be in the center of the city."

"Yeah… Anyplace closer to Rourke and Khobdesheh…" The tone of the discussion outside the door seemed to indicate an even greater restlessness.

"We'd better be goin'. Now, if ya need anythin', the doctor will be in ta check on ya. The Atlantean one, I mean. Not me."

"Take care, Vinny," Milo said as he walked out the door.

"'Ey, I'll be outta here faster than you can say 'trinitroluene.'" Vinny's voice was but a loud whisper, even when he mentioned TNT.

The king's sight went directly to his queen, who stood talking with Keneshea. He overheard conversations as he passed others. The only person in the room, he noted, who did not seem particularly worried by this was Cookie. He seemed to be bartering some of the bacon grease he had been carrying for what Milo guessed was the cook's hope for the Atlantean equivalent. As the king approached the women he could clearly hear Kida's words.

"What of the city's activity? Surely Khobdesheh must know so many, if not all, oppose him."

The woman smiled. "That is how fear turned against him. We were afraid to oppose him, after his 'gesture' at the debate. Thus, when people asked each other, they kept quiet as if they were thinking about conducting their daily lives. The news of discontentment is spreading rapidly in this fashion. I have heard of no one yet siding with Khobdesheh. To him it likely appears we plan to live by his lifestyle."

"What about spies?"

"I do not know, Milo. If there is anyone unloyal, we do not know as of yet."

The cartographer hummed a thoughtful, concerned note. "So where's the secret wing of the library I was told about?"

Kida answered for the keeper of the shell horn. "Keneshea has already explained how to get to the area. There will be a guard protecting it as there has been since Khobdesheh has begun his work upon this land."

"So you'll lead the way?"

"Yes."

"Okay." Milo turned back to Keneshea. "Thanks for your help."

"We have each other to thank. The people will help you, but all of you will save us."

Within minutes a band of seven emerged from the large gourd house, carrying baskets of fruit and armloads of textiles so as to appear to simply be heading to the central marketplace. The sky was still dark, as it seemed it had been for much more than a single night. The king found himself wondering if, in this chaos, the usurper had forgotten to lighten it. He secretly wished for a pocket watch. Along the way fireflies flew, a constant reminder of this. Even in this darkness they joined with others on their way, perhaps aware as well that maybe the morning might have been forgotten. The men and women would give them an odd look, trying to decide who they were before realization snapped their eyes forward, knowing what must be happening. The vehicles continued to prowl above.

As the crew neared the market, they handed off their goods to other people or set them to the side, clustering into two groups and looking as best they could as relishers of the early morning, out for a stroll. Before long they had ducked into an alley, following Kida's motion to continue. Walking to the side of the great library they all paused at the sound of a soft, forceful voice in the darkness. One could only tell where he was by the red glow of his crystal.

"Stop! Who are you?"

Kida's voice responded. "We are those who need not be feared, and desire to save our future."

A sound of stone grinding against stone grated painfully upon their eardrums. A doorway appeared, the light from inside highlighting only a few features of the guard's silhouette. "You have come. In case Khobdesheh arrives, I will stick the switch so he will believe the door is jammed. However, this traps you inside. Knock upon the stone and I will open the door if all is clear.

Milo felt a pang of worry, but nodded his thanks. There was a strange feeling inside him, a feeling he rarely had. He wondered if he was suspicious of the guard. It would be so simple to trap and capture them this way. Yet the linguist knew he had little choice either way. Milo could not back out, for they had to take the risk if they might find the information they needed inside. He shook the feeling away, reprimanding himself a little for the notion, and entered. The passage consisted of a stairway down below the building. The walls were well-lit with crystal-activated lamps that threw their golden light upon them all. The echoing screech of the door closing was worse inside. At the bottom of the stairway were the remains of a long-ago-decayed wooden door. The gaping hole opened up into an astonishing chamber. Though used, it still had the feel of having been untouched for thousands of years. Dust lined the corners and silk from a native species of insect larva strung like cobwebs over sections of the place. Though footprints were clear in the dust, even Milo could tell the difference between the oldest and the newest ones. A smell of old paper and perhaps decaying books hung heavier than guilt in the secret chamber. To the surprise of all, however, the room was not stocked as full of books as the rest of the building above.

"Where do we start?" Audrey asked?

"Look for anything that looks like it might be blueprints or a personal log. Anything with handwriting that looks messier, like it wasn't meant to be read by anyone else. Then take that to either Kida or me."

"Milo, eef we cannot read Atlantean, how do you expect us to know eef the handwriting eez conseedered messy?" Mole had already begun to dirty a book.

"Um… Well…" He peered over the geologist's shoulder. "Okay, use this writing as a guide. If it deviates too much from this, it's probably his writing…"

So the search began. Through old tomes they explored, hoping to find some hint, any illustration that might explain the situation. Every hour masqueraded itself as a year, yet at times when an odd sound was heard pounding hearts rushed the time. The utter lack of sleep had begun to affect Milo. Not having slept since Kida's episode save for brief naps between bumps in the Digger 2, he found his eyelids drooping as he looked at what at times seemed like gibberish. As dire the situation and as interesting as the tomes would have been to him normally, he still could not help joining a quieter, darker world, a world of peace reached by slumping in his chair. The linguist had little idea how long his unintended rest had been when he felt a softy nudging at his shoulder. He looked at a blurry face, his glasses having fallen askew.

"Milo… Milo. How is the search coming? Had you found anything?"

Straightening his glasses he replied, "Sorry Kida. Not yet. A lot of history here… Government books…" He yawned loudly, trying to pop his eyes open. Looking around, everyone seemed tired.

"Yes, there is much…" the queen sighed.

"Looks like this feller left some orny-mental box here."

"Jeez, it's just like the hairbrush I found." Audrey responded to Cookie.

"Or the shaving knife I found."

The mechanic looked back at the replying Kida. "You'd think he'd pick up after himself."

"Yes… That is a puzzlebox," she said to country cook. "When I was a child, they were very popular."

Milo watched as Cookie set the item on top of a stack of books piled precariously at the other end of the table. The cartographer then cracked open a new book to a random page. It was part of a large collection. "Seems like it's all similar subjects. He was certainly doing his research." Peering at the words, only one registered: "Simadar." "Hold on a second!" Milo's mind finally fired, recovering a bit of the past unknown to both himself and his people. As he read, he realized that collection from which he was reading must be nearly the whole of the surviving documents from just after the Mebelmoak. "Everyone listen to this!"

"'…But he was not like the eldest son, Atlas. A great greed consumed this king, the last of the ten brothers. Chigohl not only continued the conquest, but also hastened it to a frightening speed. By this time the conflicts we see today growing between Atlantis and Egypt and Athens were beginning to take shape, due to his increased pursuits of the smaller nations. In his palace, what is now rebuilt as the Atlantean Grand Hotel for our increasingly fewer foreign guests and our wealthiest residents, he kept a great trove of riches. They were indeed a sight to behold, things our ancestors would, in their naivety, surely marvel at for their beauty rather than their value.'"

Milo paused for a second, realizing that during Atlantis's decay, her people had thankfully regressed to that earlier way of thinking.

"'The king realized the inevitable: he would not be able to enjoy his riches forever. In his greed, he ordered every architect and engineer of Atlantis to him, commanding them all to build a device that would increase his power over the over the Heart of Atlantis. Those who would not obey were sentenced to death.

The final outcome of the great project resulted in the imprisonment of the Crystal itself. It was housed in a stone chamber barely larger than itself. As the Chigohl had desired, he could now control the Distribution of Life. In hopes for immortality, the king decided to shorted the life expectancy of his people to match that of the people in other cultures at that time…'"

"My gosh…" Milo added in a comment. "That could've easily been thirty years!" He was answered by the continuation of the stunned silence.

"The machine had unexpected effects. The king found he had not only control over life, but control over the Mother Crystal's movement and over all devices that operated under it's power."

"What if Khob brings in the Leviathan?" Audrey asked.

"Even if he has thought of it, I do not believe he would. The destruction would be too great if he used it to try to destroy us."

"Let's hope you're right, Kida." Milo cleared his throat a little before continuing. "'Just as dangerous was his new ability over healing. If he wished it, and if the person was near enough, the king had the ability to block crystal healing processes. He subdued many of his enemies that resided close by within the city in this manner, letting them die of wounds inflicted by his guards."

"Good thing he didn't do that when he was sendin' those vehicles after us."

"We must have been too far away fro eet to work."

"But what 'bout the life distribution ability?" Sweet continued. "He could just end our lives at any time, couldn't he?"

The question hung in the air grimly.

"We're all gonna die."

"…Perhaps he cannot shorten lifespans to less than what it would be simply of dying of old age. The worst he may do is let us age normally."

"I wish that were true, Kida," the scholar broke in, "but it said their lives were shortened to the life expectancy of other peoples in that time. Thirty years was the life expectancy then of most people in a culture, not the longest one could normally live. Some individuals lived to be more than double that age if they weren't killed or contracted some disease. That's something Atlantis hasn't had to worry about since, well, probably its start. Don't forget, at that time, medical technology, besides the crystals, was much better in Atlantis, so individuals could actually die of old age, not what was considered to be old at the time. Even now, in the modern world, there are places where, women for instance, have a very short life expectancy because, unlike men, they are denied any real medical treatment. From that you can tell it's not genetic, err… I mean it's not in their blood, Kida, but more in their way of life. My guess is Khob either hasn't thought of that or would rather give us another chance siding with him. He seemed really hopeful we would. Until then he'll just hunt us…" Milo saw his wife's expression change to one of half-concealed agitation. She did not like the feeling if being hunted.

"…Perhaps he cannot play favorites. Either all live a certain amount of time or none do," she suggested.

"Just what I was thinking." Milo voiced before continuing. "'Thus the tyrant reigned. Though there were those who met, secret councils quickly made to overthrow him, they were being located and destroyed just as fast. As the time when the process would become irreversible…!' Holy smokes!"

"How much time d'we have?" Cookie asked.

"Does it say how long it will take?!" came Kida's comparatively loud inquiry.

"I'm looking! '…Would become irreversible…' I don't see anything! It just goes on!"

"Then we must pray to the Spirits that time has not passed yet."

"'As the time when the process would become irreversible approached, a brave spirit emerged. Fate guided Simadar through peril so that his body reached the captive heart of Atlantis. He used what knowledge he had gained through spying to sabotage the device.

Wisdom had given him the foresight to warn his people to stay away from the palace. The failure due to sabotage proved catastrophic. The result was the death of the king, heavy damage to the palace, and the martyrdom of Simadar, the hero Atlantis would always remember for his self-sacrifice.'"

"How sad," Milo thought, "that so many documents of him must have been destroyed by the late king…"

"'After this began the Nedakh dynasty of today, a system of rule of only one king over the entirety of Atlantis's glory. In the early rule of King Kashekeim Nedakh and Queen Sheridona they repaired, and rebuilt the old palace, creating a new one in Circle Dihn's center for the new reign. Today they are best known for their technological advances made under their rule, especially regarding weaponry. Through their leadership, Atlantis is certain to become the most powerful empire in the world.'"

"Seems inflated egos were in no short supply." Audrey crossed her arms.

"Eez there anytheeng there on sabotaging… Or bluepreents?"

"No," Milo flipped the pages. "It goes on to art history."

"C'mon, then. Let's get to checkin' these other books!" At Sweet's proposal, Milo and Kida began to search the remaining books on the subject of Chigohl, the others looking for copies of the design in the books and papers. Occasional sighs, of both fatigue and frustration, whispered in the room. After what seemed like hours, but could surely be counted in minutes, the question was asked.

"Has anyone found anything new?" Packard droned, bored.

"No's" and shaking heads came from all.

"I found only a few peectures, but the detail was notheeng that would be very useful." Mole's statement met similar agreements. Though Milo was not sure about his wife, he, at least, was actually tired of this.

"This is so frustrating!" The Latino began to raise her voice. "There has to be something here that talks about how we can find and release that crystal tonto!"

In her irritation, Audrey slammed the book she had been looking through onto the table. Everything on it jumped, seemingly in surprise. The king cringed as he saw the stack of books and what they supported topple onto the floor. A cacophonous noise assaulted ears when the puzzlebox hit stone.

"Oh, gosh! Is it broken?!"

Kida stooped to pick it and a few books up. "I do not believe so, though this knob may be cracked…"

"What about the sound, though?"

"It plays music when it is opened." The queen replied as if it were obvious. "You heard the chimes hitting together." She paused as she looked at it, then put the books she had retrieved back on the table. Kida gently shook it. A few muffled dings could be heard. "There may be something inside… It is heavier than what I remember one should weigh…"

"The plans must be een there!" exclaimed Mole.

Everyone relocated around the box holder.

"Do you know how to open it?" Milo's eyes were wide.

"…No, not this one. Another, perhaps, but not this. If the key were here, we would not need to solve the puzzle… When I was a child, even after the MEH-behl-moak, parents would often keep small toys or treats in these. Groups of children would solve the puzzle, but parents always kept the key so the children would not be tempted to bypass the riddle."

"So Khob has the key?"

"It is likely, Audrey."

"Wait a minute. Back up!" The linguist spun his fingers around each other. "You said groups of kids?"

"Yes. One person cannot solve the puzzle. The concept is to teach children teamwork and sharing. No one child can obtain what is inside unless they work and share with others. I used to have a much smaller one, but the puzzle was different. It could be solved by two people."

"Does anyone else see a human heart, here?" The physician pointed to the form centered on top of the intricate container. The stylized shape had been cut into four sections, a clear crystal knob protruding where they met. The iron and gold from was veined like the Atlantean vehicles.

"Yeah… And letters making a border around the box… The buttons on that and the symbols here must be a part of the puzzle."

"Oftentimes a lever must be held down for the buttons to be activated. It was that way on mine… I see two pairs of them here… I remember a switch or a knob was generally the last step of opening one of these…" Kida trailed of as she slowly

remembered her early childhood. "So, it's like turning the doorknob after unlocking the door." Out of the corner of his eye he saw his wife gesture a "yes."

Audrey took the box. "Beautiful…" She removed a glove to examine the intricate details cast in iron, gold and silver with her fingers. "It's a double combination lock, I think. The four buttons of the heart and the letters, probably. Where's the keyhole, Kida? I could beat this thing in less than--"

"The key would be a crystal. You would not be able to pick it."

Audrey growled in frustration and held the box out for someone else.

The linguist was the one who took it. "Hey wait. There's… There's something written here." He wiped a side of it with the green sash around his waist, trying to make out the inscription. "It's… It's hard to make out. It's so old." Milo adjusted his glasses. "'What resides within?' The box...? The human body? No, surely the heart."

Sweet spoke first. "Muscle tissue and blood, primarily."

"The spirit," answered Kida.

The king added his own. "Pure love."

"Who you really are," came Audrey.

"Home. They say it's where the heart is."

Everyone groaned at Cookie's comment, but the mechanic actually replied. "Jeez, that's just a saying." She quickly pointed a finger towards Mole. "And I don't even want to know yours." Packard was the only one who did not say a word, or particularly care to.

"Okay then…" began Milo. "…Yours is the most literal, Sweet. Kida, yours is the most… Atlantean…" He shrugged for lack of a better word for the moment as she raised an eyebrow. "Audrey, both yours and mine would be a little more abstract for this culture. I think in this case, since the answer would probably be more culture-oriented, 'spirit' is the most likely."

"And since the heart here is divided into four sections, just like a real heart, the combination must be the direction blood would be flowin'."

"Okay. Packard? Audrey? Hold the levers down. Sweet, you punch the sequence in on the heart. I hope it doesn't have to be done specifically before or after the word, "NEE-shen," is coded in… Then we'll turn the dial--"

"Wait!" Milo found the box snatched out of his hands. "How well deed you exameene theez?!" Mole adjusted his goggles, the eyepieces lengthening as they viewed the knob.

"It's just iron, gold, and quartz crystal on that part isn't it? Well, and some unactivated Atlantean crystal, I think."

"Theez eez calcite, much softer than quartz. Eet eez amazeeng eet deed not powder when eet heet the ground. Calcite eez not much harder than your feengernail."

"Really?"

"And theez iron eez corroded from age. The area where the knob feets eento eez jagged. Because eet eez already cracked, the roughness of theez weel break the knob. We may not be able to get eet open without some lubreecation. Eef only I had some graphite powder."

"Jiminy Christmas… How will we-- wait. Cookie, do you have nay of that bacon grease still with you?"

"Yep. Found out Atlanteans cook with veggie-table oils, not grease, so I didn't swap for nothin'. But now ain't a real good time for eatin', Milo." The cook pulled a jar from his waders and handed it over to the scholar.

"Lubrication!" cried Audrey.

"Right. Now, let's get a bit down in here… Great!" He wiped his finger on his tunic, lacking a sink or napkin. "Let's do it."

Packard and Audrey held down the sliver levers. Milo moved back and to the side so he could watch as Sweet punched in the sequence. When he finished, the crystal veins glowed crimson like almost everything else in Atlantis. Milo then approached, but when he saw his wife doing the same, he gestured and said, "Go ahead." She smiled and took the position to type. The linguist watched as she pressed the keys.

"N… I… S…" Milo sighed as the veins dimmed.

"I pressed 's'…" she said, realizing.

"Yep. You should have pressed 'sh.' "Shota.' Not 's' then 'h.'"

Kida put her hand on her forehead. "That is what I deserve for learning both my language and yours at the same time."

"Actually, you're not alone on that. Students who also wanted to learn to write English for fun would switch them. Besides, we're all tired."

"Let us try that again." The procedure was restarted and Milo looked on as she typed it in correctly, each letter illuminating as it was pressed.

"N. I. Sh. E. N."

The illumination stayed, even when the levers were released.

"Let's see what we've got here." Milo pushed up his glasses, and carefully turned the knob, only to hear it clicking. He paused, blinking, before turning to his wife. "You wind it up?" His hand still held on.

"I do not think so… The crystal inside should power it. Perhaps it is a hybrid?"

"I don't know…" He continued to turn it several times before letting go. The box opened mechanically, to his surprise, the movement not as smooth as something running of crystal power.

When the box opened, however, it was truly a beauty to behold. Patterns of Atlantean crystal lit and dimmed themselves in a slow, marvelous rippling sequence to chimes. The music was enchanting. Why anyone would need to put anything inside would be a mystery, for why, Milo wondered, would anyone want to hide a treat in something that already was? The chime's melody was entrancing enough he had to refrain from humming to it. It was only when he heard a note from someone else spellbound that he moved. The cartographer guessed it was either Audrey or Kida. Thinking past the music, he reached for the folded papers inside, their removal revealing even more intricate patters. He unfolded the first piece, viewing Atlantean handwriting. Milo read aloud.

"'I pity them. They are so blind. When I introduced the concept to them I met with disapproval. Had I not said it was the order of Milo and Kida, I would have been ridiculed. Only then did they seem to agree. I did not want to lie, but today merely proved everything I knew correct. The people are still fools. I feel like a father to his young children. They do not know what is best for themselves. I pray in time they will learn to see this when I switch to the new system.' It's a journal." He sifted through and randomly drew another entry. "'I was afraid of this. Milo and Kida truly represent the people. They are just as naïve. They disapprove as well. They oppose me. I had never thought, when I started this, I would be hunting my own king and queen. Then again, I never believed I would have Rourke by my side as a guard. I still cannot trust him. I need a strong enforcer, but he is too dangerous. Threatening to kill someone when I first met him in that form has put me ill at ease. I do wonder if he has changed. Either way, I believe we are in a stalemate. I think he believes I can destroy him with the power I wield, so he has not dared any selfish act.' That explains quite a bit!" As affirmatives met his ears, he pulled the bottom paper and began to unfold it. The cartographer's eyes widened as he saw the forms upon the old parchments. "Blueprints!"

A great shuffle of feet echoed in the room.

"You can even see the meeneral eenlays for the creestalline circuitry een the stone."

Milo ran his fingers over the words next to the pictures. "Oh, no… I can't read this…"

"What?! " Milo wondered if there was a single person in the room who didn't exclaim that.

"I don't understand these terms. They're technical terms, I guess, for Atlantean engineers and mechanics thousands of years ago. It's Greek to me…"

"But you do know Greek, do you not?"

"Just a sayin', miss," said the doctor.

"Why don' we ask them mechanics who worked on it har?"

"Most of them are dead, Cookie. Warin told me most of the people who worked on the casing died during construction. Apparently making it was dangerous in itself." Milo sighed at the thought of the mortalities.

"If they were alive, we wouldn't need to be here. Plus they worked on it in sections. We couldn't get everything. Just a bit of the information." Audrey moved the blueprints closer to herself.

"Though it would probably be unwise to take anything from this room, I believe we have little choice but to take the blueprints…" Kida sighed heavily before adding, "…Though I doubt Kobdesheh will not notice someone was here…"

"I think you're right. If--"

"I think I found a weaker spot, guys."

"What? How did you--?"

"What're ya pullin' outta your magic hat, girl?"

"Hey, I'm a mechanic, not a magician, Sweet." She put a hand on her hip. "But... You look her. These connections for this side are different than the others. It's my guess these are the last connections, and they aren't reinforced as well. It'd only be reinforced on one side. Reminds me of an earlier model of a gas tank I worked on."

"Jiminy Christmas! Audrey, you're a genius!" Milo took a closer look at the blueprints before folding them up and hiding them in the folds of a red shoulder sash of his garb. "Let's get these back. The sooner the better." The others followed as he reached the top of the stairs, cautiously knocking on the stone.

Grinding, the door opened to reveal, ever so simply, the guard in the night. No shock awaited them, to Milo's relief. The sentry smiled and nodded, letting them pass back into the land of shadows.

Based off the Disney Picture "Atlantis: the Lost Empire." The Name "Shards of Chaos" is property of Disney. The term "gorlock" is property of Disney Interactive. The characters, "MUH-suh MIH-kee" and Khohbdesheh are my property, and I acknowledge I do not own the names. Fan fiction storyline also my property. Milo Thatch, Kidagakash, Bendoh, Rourke and other characters, names, concepts, and all Atlantean in this story are property of the Walt Disney Company.

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