The two entered the secret room and walked on their way to another podium. In their sights rested a shiny, floating blue gem in the center of the chamber. As the two headed forward, Tommy looked over, noticing Antonio acting strange, as he hung his head low and his glasses made a white reflection toward the ground. Eventually, Antonio spoke up again; only this time, his voice sounded colder in tone.

“Say, would we still be friends, even if we were on different sides? I meant if I had turned a new leaf.”

“Huh? Antonio, what do you mean by that?” Tommy asked, dumbfounded.

“Listen to me. Maggie is not who you think she is. Do you know why Marshall was despised? Why did the Bears start the war with those—?”

“What’s gotten into you?”

“We don’t need to fix Amy’s machine; or help those bears win the war; we don’t even need to turn in those gems and leave this place...”

“Antonio, are you ok?”

Antonio stopped in his tracks to turn and face Tommy, who also stopped and took a step back to place his hands close to his chest.

“Let’s work together to achieve dominance over not just this realm, but other worlds as well!” Antonio informed him. Tommy was speechless; he couldn’t believe what he said. “Just you and me,” Antonio continued, not missing a beat. “We can be the world’s greatest explorers ever to conceive! In every shape of the way, we’ll be even better than—”

“No, is that Kira getting to your head?” Tommy asked nervously, clutching his chest.

“What are you—?”

“I don’t want to do something like that. I especially don’t want to submit myself to that witch, Kira!”

“Oh, I see,” Antonio replied in a disappointed tone. “I just wanted us to get along, but I guess it was too much to ask, wasn’t it?” He raised his head as he snapped his fingers. “...Boys, hold him off while I go get the gem.” As if on cue, more people walked out from the sides of the place to appear behind Antonio with creepy grins on their faces.

More Miletis? Tommy thought. So he is working with them? Then that means what Maggie said was—

“Not so fast!” A female voice yelled out.

Tommy turned to find Amy and Larry entering the scene.

“Don’t you dare put the finger on the boy and hurt him!” Larry added.

“Ah, Amy, how nice to see you again.” Antonio greeted with a grin. However, when he looked over at Larry, he let off a nasty scowl. “And Larry, I didn’t think you’d show up either, traitor!”

“Traitor, me?” Larry pointed at himself, looking offended. “No way! Amy got me out of the imprisonment and control when she could’ve easily left me—”

“But Kira was doing you a favor—”

“No, she wasn’t; Kira is just trying to use you like—”

“Oh, like you’d know what’s up with her plans? You know little about Kira, either!”

Amy bit her lip and scoffed. “I’ll try to explain to you later just—” Amy glanced over, only to find Tommy had disappeared from her sight. “Huh? Where’d you go?”

“Over there!” Larry pointed at Tommy, sneaking around the area to get closer to the podium and gem.

“Hey, get away from that!” Antonio shouted. But Tommy didn’t listen. He grabbed hold of the blue gem as his body floated in the air. “Get them!” Antonio ordered the other Miletis.

“But sir, isn’t he—?”

“They’re all enemies, so hurry!”

The Miletis pulled out crystals to use as offensive weapons while Amy and Larry tried to fight back.

“Come on, open your eyes!” Larry exclaimed.

“What’s gotten into you people?” Amy questioned them.

Antonio rushed over and got on top of the podium to get a clear view of Tommy. He leaped into the air and tried to grab the gem away from him, both of them left floating in the air thanks to the jewel’s magic powers.

“Antonio, please don’t do this!” Tommy pleaded.

“Hand it over and let go!” Antonio roared.

Just then, the blue gem made a prominent bright glow as it launched a light, blasting through the walls. A blizzard tornado came out and sucked Tommy and Antonio out of the palace.

“Oh no, the blizzard’s getting worse!” Larry shouted.

.-.-.-.

Tommy and Antonio fell onto the ice caps as they crashed down the snowy mountain. The two lost balance as they ended up getting separated from each other. Tommy looked over and saw Antonio sink lower into the abyss, prompting him to gasp.

“Antonio, hang on!”

He jumped down from an ice cap to ice cap until he got closer to Antonio. He extended his hand to reach out to Antonio. Antonio tried to stand up as he also reached out to try and grab his hands. However, before reaching the hands, Antonio pulled back and stuck his hands in his pockets.

Tommy then noticed a small glow come out of Antonio’s pockets as he tried to move and jump to the icecap Antonio was in, but a hand grabbed his shoulder, preventing him from moving any further. He turned to see Amy standing there with a stern look on her face.

“Come on; we have to get out of here!” Amy proclaimed.

“But wait, I can’t leave without—”

As the thick snow buried Antonio, a great big glow occurred from the blizzard, nearly blinding Tommy and Amy, which caused them to fall off the ice cap. As the two fell, they looked to their side as the crystal palace got tumbled and was buried in an avalanche.

“Oh shoot, the others are still inside there!” Amy panicked.

“What do we do now?!” Tommy asked in a panic.

“Brace yourself! We’re going in!” She shouted as the two fell into the sunken, snowy abyss.