DISCLAIMER: I do not own The Secret Saturdays.

So finding out that I was the ancient evil Kur and I pretty much have the power to destroy the world wasn't exactly the best moment of my life.

I mean, sure I knew my powers were kind of weird. My parents always told me it was because somebody needed to be able to stop Kur, and since they're pretty much geniuses, I believed them. Now it turns out I am Kur. How's that for an interesting little twist.

It's been three days since we fought off Argost and that huge cryptid in Antarctica. Or maybe it's been longer. I haven't really been paying that much attention. We spent hours in the Arctic trying to figure it out. Doyle had me walk as far away as I could with them still able to see me. The relic's glow would dim, but then when I walked back it would glow like a light bulb. Mom and Dad walked back to the airship with me, while Doyle stayed with the gigantic cryptid (we're really not sure what to call it anymore), and when he followed us back a few minutes later, he said the relic had stopped glowing completely when I left.

Anyways, these past days have been filled with either yelling or silence. Nobody's said a word to me about it since that day, but I know they're talking about me when I'm not listening. I don't blame them. Even after they sent me to bed that night, I could hear all of them shouting about it through the walls of the ship (our house is being rebuilt so we've been staying in the airship the past couple of days). I wanted to yell at them to be quiet but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I just tried to tune them out but I couldn't get much sleep, no matter how hard I tried. I just laid awake for most of the night. When I did fall asleep, I had nightmares. So, finally, on the third night (or longer), I didn't even try to sleep. My parents and Uncle Doyle were talking/yelling again and I wanted to hear what they thought about all this when they weren't worrying about my feelings or trying to protect me from the truth.

"You shouldn't have fixed that relic, Doyle!" Mom was shouting. "I told you that it was full of black magic. You should have just left it alone!"

"It isn't my fault!" Doyle shouted back. "I fixed it because I thought that even if Fiskerton led us in the right direction, we might need more proof to where Kur was. And I was right, wasn't I? Would you rather not know about this at all?"

There was a pause. It was too long.

Finally, Dad broke the silence. "The point is that we know now. Nothing is going to change that. So what are we going to do about it?"

"Do we even really know for sure that he is Kur?" Mom asked quietly.

I heard Doyle groan. "Drew, we've been over this already. The relic-"

"Yes, the relic glowed! We don't know how it works. Maybe it just keyed into his cryptid powers; maybe he isn't Kur at all!" Mom said desperately. I could tell she didn't believe it.

There was another pause as they all thought it over. I crawled out of bed and cracked open my door. Dad was pacing back and forth. Doyle was sitting on the couch directly across from my bedroom door, Fisk right next to him. I hadn't even realized Fisk was there, and it didn't really seem fair that he could be part of the big adult conversation about me. I couldn't see Mom but everyone else looked really tired.

"No," Doyle shook his head. "When we were in Weird World, that snake lady said that the relic only glowed in the presence of Kur. Because it was…what was it? 'The relic is derived from Kur's essence' or something like that?" Doyle looked at Fisk, who thought for a second then nodded.

Mom wouldn't give up. "Fiskerton pointed to Antarctica when we asked him where we would find Kur. Why wouldn't he have just pointed to Zak? I mean, he's the Kur guardian, wouldn't he have noticed if Kur was with him the entire time?"

Fisk opened his mouth, probably to protest that this wasn't his fault, but Dad cut him off.

"I've been thinking about that and I think I might've gotten it figured out. Fiskerton pointed to where Kur would be revealed, not to where Kur itself was. And we found out about…this…in Antarctica." Dad had said that last sentence shakily.

"That seems a little off, if you ask me," Mom said harshly. She was sounding angrier by the second.

"I know, but I can't think of any other reason why we would have had to go to Antarctica," Dad muttered. I leaned in closer and hoped nobody would look at my door. I was pretty sure I wasn't supposed to be listening to this conversation. Everyone went quiet for a while.

Now to some people, this might've sounded pretty cool. I mean, having enough power to destroy the world? That's…big. Huge. But I don't want it. Any of it. Yeah, having cryptid powers was kind of cool and all, since I was around cryptids so much. Being the only person who could stop Argost from getting Kur and destroying the world was big, but I could handle it. Barely, but I could handle it. But actually being Kur? No. I've heard all about it from my parents and the secret scientists: Kur is evil. Turn-the-world-into-a-pile-of-dust evil. I'm not evil. At least, I don't want to be.

Mom's voice brought my head back into focus and I realized she was talking about what I was thinking about.

"Zak is not evil. Sure, he gets into trouble, but what eleven-year-old doesn't? He's good and he'd never, ever do anything evil on purpose! This isn't just some cryptid, Doc! This is our son! This is Zak!" Mom's voice cracked when she said my name.

Another pause.

"Everything we've heard or read about Kur says that it is an evil force. Zak isn't evil, but maybe if this power influences him-"

I kicked the door shut. Loudly. Dad stopped talking. Oh…crud.

I ran as quickly and quietly as I could and jumped back into bed. I was just pulling the covers up to my chin when I stopped. It's not like they didn't know now that I was listening. I tried to slow down my breathing. My heart was doing jumping jacks in my chest. Man, was I in for it. Eavesdropping? Big no-no in my house. Well not that there was usually that much to eavesdrop on. My family didn't have secrets. Well we did. Just not from each other.

I sighed. Either I was going out there or they were coming in here. I opened the door and stepped out. I blinked a couple times as my eyes adjusted to the light.

I walked up to my family. Here we go. I hadn't noticed it before, but the Kur relic was sitting on the tale in front of the couch. As I walked closer to it, the glow got brighter and brighter. I stopped and took a step back. I didn't want my eyes glowing too.

I could see Mom now, leaning up against the wall. She, Doyle and Fisk wouldn't look at me. They probably thought my eyes were going to start glowing or something. Dad, on the other hand was looking straight at me. I didn't know if I felt better about that or if I'd rather none of them look at me at all.

"Did we wake you up?" Dad asked suddenly. His voice was soft, careful.

"No. I couldn't sleep anyway," I muttered, shuffling my feet.

"We probably shouldn't have been yelling," Mom said quietly, still not looking at me.

"Yeah, probably not," I said. I was staring at the relic, watching it glow in my presence. It was oddly hypnotizing. It would work good as a nightlight. Not that I would ever need one.

"Zak," Mom started. I looked up to see her finally looking at me. I could tell a lot of things from her expression; she was confused, maybe a little angry and most of all, worried. "We need to talk about this. We need to…figure this out. Find out what this means."

That was probably another way of saying 'Find out if you're going to destroy the world.' Or maybe I was just being bitter. I knew I needed to calm down a bit. This wasn't their fault. Then again, my parents were the ones who dug up the Kur Stone in the first place and started this whole thing. They had been the ones who'd made it absolutely clear to me that Kur had to be , no it wasn't their fault. It was nobody's fault.

I took a deep breath and leaned up against the wall. "Okay. So we know I'm….Kur." It was still kind of hard for me to admit. "But nobody else does."

"Right," Dad nodded. "The other Secret Scientists know we were going to find Kur and they know about Fiskerton being a Lemurian. A couple days ago, I told them most of the truth. That we had found Kur in Antarctica, but we managed to stop Argost from getting hold of it."

"What about that big cryptid we found in the Arctic? We could just tell them that that was Kur. We believed it," Doyle suggested.

"Maybe," Mom said. "But if they do any tests and find out we were lying, they're bound to get suspicious."

"Then what are we supposed to tell them? That the Antarctic Godzilla we found was just another cryptid?" Doyle said doubtfully.

"Well it was, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, but then we're going to have to pretend we're still looking for Kur. And that would be pretty pointless seeing as—"

"I really don't care if the other scientists find out," I said suddenly. Mom, Dad and Doyle looked at me. Only Fisk kept his head down. "I mean, they would probably find out anyway. I'd prefer it if they didn't, but you guys work with them. We can't keep it a big secret from them forever. I'm more worried about…." I didn't finish. I didn't have to.

"Argost is not going to find out. We won't let him." Dad sounded so confident I could almost believe him. But I didn't. I still had bruises all over my body from fighting him. I wasn't anxious to see him again anytime soon.

"But what if he does? What then? He could put one of those neural parasite-y thingies on me and it wouldn't matter if I was evil or not he could control me and make me hurt people or cryptids or you and I wouldn't be able to do anything about it—"

"Zak!" Mom interrupted my rambling. Suddenly she had her arms around me. Normally it would've made me feel awkward or childish, but right now, it just made me feel safe. "He is not going to lay a hand on you. I won't let him."

"We won't let him." Doyle stood up and put his hand on my shoulder. "You already beat him once, mini-man. When we see him again, we can take him down easy."

"There's nothing to worry about, Zak," Dad said. "We'll find out all we can about what this means, but whatever happens, you're still a Saturday."

Getting that all off my chest made me sleep a lot better that night. Well by that I mean, I actually got to sleep. The sleep itself wasn't exactly great. I had a pretty nasty nightmare. But it started out like most of the other dreams I had been having the past couple of days.

I was back in Antarctica. It was bitterly cold and my snowsuit was torn up, but I barely noticed that. I was facing "Kur", or what we originally thought was Kur. I looked all around me, but my family was nowhere in sight. I reached for the claw, but I didn't have it. So, I really only had one other choice. I turned and tried to run, but I couldn't move at all. I tried to scream but no noise came out and it wouldn't have mattered anyway. There was nobody around to hear me. Before I could even think, one of the snakelike heads swooped down and swallowed me whole.

Everything was dark and it smelled like a mix of garlic, sulfur, and milk left out too long. But it was the inside of a monster, what was it supposed to smell like? I didn't know why, but I started moving through the beast. Only later would I remember it was the same path I took with Fisk a few days ago. Which would have meant that waiting for me at the end of that path was—

Suddenly, the image changed. I wasn't inside the giant cryptid, but in Weird World. Months ago, this would've been cool. I mean, Weird World used to be my favorite show. Now of course, it was my archenemy's mansion and that was it. Not to mention I wasn't in exactly the best situation. I was in a room similar to the one Fisk had been held in. The dungeon. My wrists and ankles were bound to the wall with chains. Even though I had been perfectly fine a second ago, aside from my torn snowsuit, I was suddenly bruised, battered and exhausted.

I thought I was alone but then Argost and Munya, in his spider-like form, came in to the chamber. After we fought him in the Arctic, Argost had looked terrible, like he was ready to drop dead on the spot. Now, he looked perfectly fine. There was no way he could heal that fast. His mask wasn't even cracked anymore, though I guess he must've had more than one. The look in his eyes scared me. It wasn't anger or hatred, like I might've expected. It was triumph.

"Little Saturday," Argost said, opening his arms in greeting. His smile made me shiver. "I hope that you are comfortable."

I didn't say anything. Not that there was anything for me to say. How had I gotten here? Why was I so weak? Why was Argost so happy? Argost being happy was never a good thing.

"This is your second time here, is it not?" Argost said, motioning around him. "I'll think you'll find that Weird World is much more….accommodating when you're not breaking in."

"My family's coming," I said suddenly. "They'll save me and then we'll stop you, like we always do. You're just a stupid, pathetic old T.V. star." Then I spat at his feet.

Immediately after I did it, I regretted it. What was I thinking? This guy had almost killed me just a few days ago. He was a complete psycho too. Who knew what he could do to me? Munya growled at me and took a step forward, but Argost put a hand out, restraining him.

"Now, now. The boy is just upset. It is only natural, after all. There is no need for violence." The man stepped up to me until we were almost nose to nose. "Not yet." I glared at him.

"You know, boy, after what happened in Antarctica, all I wanted to do was kill you with my bare hands. You, a mere child, had taken my destiny away from me. Everything I worked for. That power—"

For a second, Argost's eyes were full of fury and hatred. I gulped and for the first time I was scared. I knew he could do it and he would do it. He could kill me, right here, right now. I was chained up. I wouldn't even be able to fight back.

"I should've figured it out earlier. Your power, your control over cryptids. So….unique. I passed it off as coincidence. Something I would have to take care of later. Surely, it couldn't be anything more than that." He was looking right at me now, the triumph back in his eyes. "I would've never guessed that the youngest Saturday was so important to my destiny."

No.

"That in the middle of the goody-two shoes family was the force of ultimate evil."

No!

"You are Kur."

I shot up in bed in a cold sweat. My heart and mind were both racing. I took several deep breaths as I tried to calm down. A nightmare. It was only a nightmare. It had seemed so real. I should have figured it out when it switched from the giant cryptid to Weird World. The details were already slipping out of my memory, like water through somebody's hands. I tried to hold on to as much of it as I could.

I had been chained up in Weird World. I had felt like I'd just gotten through a fight. I still had some bruises from Antarctica, but in the dream, I was aching all over and felt ready to pass out. And then there was Argost. He had looked perfectly fine. If I still had bruises, he must've had even more. He'd taken a lot more heat than I had (which I gladly took the credit for). Argost had to still be recovering.

And he couldn't know yet. There was absolutely no way he could know that I was Kur. The only people who knew were the rest of my family and I knew none of them would ever tell anyone. Especially not Argost.

Unless…...What if he had something we didn't know about? Something like the relic or something else, that could prove that I was Kur? What if he'd found something? Or what if he'd figured it out by himself? He wasn't that stupid, after all. And he had plenty of resources. Probably more than us. Man, if he finds out—

Out of the corner of my eye, I could have sworn that I had seen someone, or something, move. I was suddenly wide-awake. I sat there, motionless. It was too dark to see anything clearly. After about a few seconds, I calmed down again. I was just a little jumpy. Of course I was, after everything that had happened recently, not to mention that dream. Still, I could've sworn that there had been something there.

Then there was a muffled thump, like something hitting the wall, followed by a muttered swear word. Definitely human. My senses suddenly alert, I jumped out of bed. I made a grab for the claw, but suddenly I was being pinned to the ground. Whoever it was, it definitely wasn't a Saturday and I was definitely in trouble.