Chapter Eighty-Six: The Truth if You Will

“Something's not right.” Belle packed her bag as fast as she could. “If they're after the Ruby Suit they might decide to get rid of Dad or Lara too!”

“There's no sense killing yourself trying to get there, otherwise who will protect Peter? Relax!” Charlie carefully folded his underwear.

“Dad's put himself in danger. I can't believe he blabbed about the Ruby Suit!” Belle shoved her clothes into the bag. “I mean, what was he thinking? Driving out to Fallsville wasn't going to save him at…CHARLIE NO I DON'T NEED THE CLAUSE RIGHT NOW!” Belle cried as a familiar expression crossed her best friends face.

Suddenly, Charlie started packing faster than Belle!

“Okay fine, Clause me.” Belle grumbled.

“Belle, think about what's out at Fallsville. Your father didn't make that call.” Charlie shoved as much as he could into his suitcase.

“There's nothing out at Fallsville, it's a dump. A rural town with only one landmark and that's March Hill…oh NO!” Belle began packing faster, getting her clothes messed up with Charlies.

“That's right. It looks like Crusader Roger is getting his revenge on Revolver by trying to oust the DVM from the Council.” Charlie groaned. “And he thought he could use the government to do his dirty work for him.”

“And instead all he's done is make my father a target!” Belle cried. “Demon's gonna come after my Dad, I just KNOW it! And that's if Dickson doesn't get to him first!”

—

“I can NOT believe I let you guys talk me into this.” Sunny sighed as she walked up the Masters driveway.

“Hey, Belle herself said the more we know the better.” Sammy pointed out. “Actually, her last message sounded quite panicked…”

“The point is, if we're to protect Peter, we need to know the full story.” Daniel strode forward.

“No, we don't.” Sunny glared at him.

“Trust me, it's better this way.” Petunia put a hand on Sunnys shoulder.

Sunny groaned, and knocked on the door.

“We don't want any…Sunny? Since when did YOU guys start knocking?” Lara opened the door.

“We need to talk to you and Peter. About the Ruby Suit and why Dickson is here.” Daniel pushed himself forward and looked Lara dead in the eye.

Sunny facepalmed.

“I'll get Pete. You guys can wrangle Ozzie and Madeleine.” Lara said.

Inside, the two younger Masters were chasing each other around with pillows.

“PILLOW FIGHT!” Sammy cried, and joined the frockling children.

“I swear, he's only 15 minutes younger than me.” Tammy rolled her eyes at her brother.

“He's good with children though, you have to admit.” Sunny looked impressed as Sammy had the two little Masters laughing.

Tammy and Petunia shared a look, before giggling.

Lara returned with Peter. While Sammy took care of Ozzy and Madeleine the others all headed into the dining room to talk.

“We need to know what you did.” Daniel got straight to the point. “Why is the government after the Ruby Suit?”

Peter sighed. “It was after Giggles debuted the Backpack with it's carbon technology.” He began to explain. “The government sent Lara to find out about it.”

“Government? I thought Lara was in family law!” TJ looked confused.

“I am, for the most part.” Lara told them. “But on the side, I'm a government agent. They use my family law employment as a good cover for what they need me to do.”

“So Lara got in touch with me and we reconnected. At the same time, she got me in touch with a government lab and they got me to work.” Peter continued. “I did a lot of work on the Carbon Power project, also known as Project 40.

“It took me a while but eventually I came up with a prototype suit, the Carbon Suit, which wasn't very good at all and flooded whomever wore it with Carbon Power. I deemed it a failure, but the government decided they wanted to continue with human experiments. I think they called it Project 42.”

“Daryl said something about Dicksons two goons wearing a Project 42 shirt.” Sunny said.

“I'll have to follow up on that.” Peter grimaced. “Anyway, when they scrapped Project 40 I stole the Carbon Suit and fixed it up into the Ruby Suit. Then I gave it to Beauty so she could be Ruby Giggles. I never thought that anyone would think to stab her with a Ruby Weapon but Johannas did so…”

“You STOLE the Ruby Suit from the government?!” Lara cried. “You told me that they were fine with you taking it! No wonder Dickson is here now!”

“Belle told us you might become a target.” Tammy said quietly. “She was right, you're in big trouble for sure.”

“It also explains how you had the Ruby Suit made at all.” Daniel mused.

“I HAD always wondered about that.” Sunny nodded.

“I made sure never to let the government know I had it, so I don't know why they're after it now. They rarely pay attention to anything that happens in Pleasantville.” Peter groaned, burying his head in his hands.

“How'd they know about the Backpack then?” TJ asked.

“Oh that's easy, I put in a patent for that when Beauty was fifteen.” Peter told them. “It was about a year after that when they started looking into it.”

“Which is when Belle became Giggles.” Sunny breathed out. “Oh boy, what a mess.”

“You're telling me.” Peter rubbed his face. Then his phone went off.