Time of Fate

Disclaimer: I do not own the Prince of Persia or any of the characters there within, they are the property of Ubisoft.

The Empress had been spending more and more time brooding on the seat of her throne; legs crossed, nails idly tapping on the armrest, and her eyes clouded as she stared forward, unseeing. She had spent several hours of the past few days atop the stone dais with an air of deep foreboding, only standing to pace or nervously examine the hourglass in the chamber beyond the throne room. The servants had begun to notice the disconsolate behavior of their mistress, but any attempt to cheer her was only met with frustration. Even Shahdee had begun to grow concerned.

Whenever Shahdee entered the throne room to give her report for the day, the Empress would be inexplicably irritable as she sat rigidly atop the dais, waving her subordinate away as though Shahdee were a plagued insect. As annoyed as Shahdee was by these terse dismissals, it was very unlike Kaileena to be so harsh with her second in command, so the warrior buried the frustration with ruthless training. She forced her mind shut of her mistress' plight; it was not her place to question the whims of the omnipresent goddess.

Only a few years ago did the Empress of Time arrive on the deserted island as the simple Kaileena; a lonely, frightened girl who stared up the clouded spires of an immense fortress of an unknown shore. One of the first actions she took was to create a companion; Shahdee became of the Empress' loneliness. And in the days before Kaileena christened herself Empress of Time and built up a formidable army of sand creatures, she had been friends with Shahdee.

Of course, Shahdee knew that her companion could potentially take her life with a mere flick of the wrist, Kaileena had been happier then. The green eyed brunette was a mischievous sprite, constantly boasting how the backlash of that tree branch knocking Shahdee's to the ground had been written in the Timeline and could not be changed. They had laughed more together then. Kaileena could foresee events before they happened and Shahdee learned never to question the Timeline. But for the Empress, it was both a gift and a bane. To know so much and be surprised by so little must be a terrible way to live.

Shahdee had always marveled how her friend could be so carefree about her powers, but Kaileena would have her moments where no amount of consoling could pull her from a vortex of despair. Her misery would drive a stake between the two women as she stalked off to the chamber that would eventually become her throne room. Shahdee could never understand how they would be laughing one moment, then her friend's eyes would flash and her body tremble and Kaileena would become so melancholy.

Only a year after Shahdee's creation did Kaileena begin to change. Her erratic bouts of depression would leap into wild furies of hysteria, and it was then she began to cast the makings of her army. She started with crows. Exercising her powers, Kaileena created swordsmen from small flocks of the black birds that haunted the island, usually four to one body, and as her skill grew, she worked beasts directly from the sands. She became so proficient in fashioning her creatures; she could churn out thirty of them in a single day. The numbers on the island rose exponentially and with so many at her command, Kaileena was soon hailed as the Empress of Time.

But despite Kaileena's new followers, she and Shahdee were the closest; a friendship built from the very basis of the earth. Shahdee had been special. The warrior was given a free will not permitted to the sand creatures that formed the Empress' army. Because Shahdee was a more or less, intended in her design to be a human creation, Kaileena had bestowed a little more into the warrior. Kaileena had shyly smiled at her subordinate and explained Shahdee was an aspect of herself; a copy of the warrior within the Empress. Shahdee was promoted along with Kaileena to a warrior general and she, Shahdee, had command of the troops—under her mistress of course.

The two women took to sparring more often to sharpen and hone skills. The Empress was a magnificent fighter and Shahdee proved to be a worthy adversary, all from what her creator had taught her. Though, with Kaileena able to read the Timeline and foresee all of Shahdee's attacks, the fights were dreadfully one-sided, and she would often parry words of confidence to her sparring partner; laughing as she went. Shahdee was disconcerted by these bouts of overwhelming confidence from her mistress, even at times, surprising the older woman with an unexpected thrust. Oh how Kaileena's emerald eyes would light up when Shahdee would break away from the future that had been foreseen; as though the very action of going against predetermined will gave the Empress hope.

There was no better way than to spend time in the engaging activity, other than the walks through the gardens they enjoyed to share.

The Empress usually made an effort to join her subordinate for the evening meal, but the seat of honor had remained empty at the table. Shahdee had eaten alone more nights than she could count as the Empress kept herself shut away from everything.

As the spring turned to summer and the island had blossomed back to its lush foliage of green, the Empress temper had shortened further. She demanded rigorous inspections be made of the time portals and the welfare of the only ship anchored to the dock, and when one of her minions returned with news of a broken portal, she flew into a rage and had the messenger killed. She furiously ordered that the broken portal be mended within the next three days and then she stalked away from the Central Hall to lock herself away again in the throne room.

Shahdee had remained silent for a month of this ridiculous conduct and she had reached her limit. She made off to confront the ruler of the island.

The black armored woman stopped at the entrance to the hourglass chamber as she spotted a swish of red. The iron-will and rehearsed speech crumbled on her tongue as Shahdee peered out from around the stone door frame, her doubt mounting as she watched the Empress reach out to touch the glass enclosing the lower half of the hourglass. The controlled, steady fall of sands, naturally drew the eye from anywhere within the room by some mystic force too powerful to describe; but Shahdee's eyes were not upon the entrancing sands.

The red sash tumbling from the Empress' arm, danced lightly on the air as she drew her hand down slowly the glass; her sharp green eyes studied the sands in fathomless depths. Motionless, the woman almost seemed to be listening for some soundless voice. The silence stretched in the inner chamber until she sighed and leaned forward, resting her forehead against the glass and closing her eyes.

"Can there be no other way?" she murmured softly to the empty chamber. She stood that way a moment when suddenly she jumped up as though struck by lightening, yanking her hand from the hourglass as if burned. Her green eyes shot directly to where Shahdee was standing.

"Shahdee, what are you doing there?" The Empress demanded, her voice somewhat breathless. Could it be that she was worried Shahdee had witnessed the quiet moment? Unable to deny her mistress' direct inquiry and her will suddenly seizing up again with her temper, the warrior stepped forward staring the other woman straight in the eye.

"I was concerned."

"Of what?" The Empress said sharply. Shahdee held her gaze. She thought the Empress might have known why she had come; Shahdee did not normally have to explain herself and it was awkward to now.

"You haven't been yourself lately. When was the last time you've slept or ate a decent meal?"

The Empress' expression was cold and condescending.

"That is no business of yours."

The words stung Shahdee, had their friendship deteriorated this far? Kaileena had grown cruel and bitter over the years, but Shahdee had always been a warrior. And where her warrior instincts respected Kaileena's stern system to keep her soldiers in line, Shahdee did not appreciate how severely the Empress reacted to trivial details. The venom behind her mistress' voice was coursing like a poison through Shahdee's limbs. She was only a subordinate now, she thought coldly, no longer a companion. She bowed, not meeting the other woman's eyes.

"Of course not," she was not entirely able to extinguish the slighted hurt in her voice. "My apologies for disturbing you."

And without another word, Shahdee turned on her heel and left the chamber. There were no shouts for her return to punishment nor entreaties of regret from the Empress, no, the Empress did not stop her.

Another day had passed and the warrior had taken up to the same brooding her ruler had been so inclined to the past few weeks. Shahdee's boiling anger had reduced to a simmer after she had taken out her fury on henchmen and pushing herself to the point of exhaustion on the training course. Tired and weary, she glanced once toward the brilliant sun descending in the sky and began to make her way to the Central Hall and to her chambers, but she was met with an unexpected surprise before she could retire through her doorway.

"Shahdee?"

The light and uncertain voice made the warrior turn in surprise to face the Empress, apparently in somewhat brighter spirits than she had been in months. It was almost a foreign sensation to see her mistress' smile. Her liquid emerald eyes glanced to one side before staring determinedly at her subordinate.

"Shahdee, I am sorry. Yesterday was…it was, ah…that is, I was…" and as the Empress struggled for the right words for her apology, Shahdee was taken back to their years together as contented friends asking forgiveness for breaking a toy and her hope soared. Waving one hand, the warrior wordlessly forgave her mistress for every offense. The Empress smiled and suddenly she was Kaileena again, the young girl Shahdee had played games with in the garden, and she moved forward to embrace Shahdee. Stunned by the abrupt change, Shahdee forgot to return the gesture, but it did not matter to Kaileena at that moment and she pulled away, still smiling.

"I was wondering if we could go on a walk through the gardens. It's been so long since I've stepped outside; since we've had a walk." She gestured delicately with a tilt of her head towards the Garden Tower. Shahdee returned the smile and nodded ascent. Perhaps their friendship was not fading as time drew on as she felt she was ever being led to believe. The two women set off towards the gardens.

Having just come from the outside, Shahdee was not much affected by the sheer beauty of the gardens cast in the brilliant rays of the setting sun or the soft, lulling chipper of concealed birds in the trees as they settled in their nests for the evening. A gentle breeze wafted through the leaves of the trees giving the perception of faint and melodious waterfalls in the distance.

Beside her, Kaileena was absorbing as much of the surrounding nature as she could. The red robed woman closed her eyes and inhaled the earthy scent mixed with the salty air with pleasure. She exhaled slowly out of her mouth.

"The air tastes so sweet." She murmured. Shahdee glanced at her mistress from the corner of her eye. Where the frigid, distant composure normally befitting the Empress would be carefully set in place, it had all but melted away in the sun's tilted rays, leaving a faintly sentimental Kaileena in its wake. Then, as though reading Shahdee's mind or more likely aware of the curious gaze foretold in the Timeline, Kaileena glanced back at Shahdee; her liquid emerald eyes shimmering in the sunlight. She smiled and made a vague attempt to become stately again. "Come. It has been much too long."

And the Empress moved forward into the gardens, leaving Shahdee to obediently follow. Yes, this certainly felt like those younger years, Kaileena had been leader even then. The grass crunched beneath their boots as the warrior flanked her mistress, nodding to the guards stationed at their posts when they saluted the minor procession. Passing the patrol, Kaileena glanced back once at Shahdee and motioned to her subordinate to join her at her side, slowing to accentuate the invitation. Shahdee hurried her step to catch up as they crossed the bridge, forcing herself to remember that the Empress needed to keep up appearances with her minions and not just to publicly remind the warrior of her place in the hierarchy of the island.

No, Shahdee didn't want to ruin this rare moment that was almost like the days before Kaileena became the Empress.

At last, Kaileena stopped in the gothic arches of a lookout tower that overlooked the grand inlet of the island. Many ships had run aground here and their broken, waterlogged skeletons had only their crooked masts rising from the sea to mark their graves. High above the destroyed vessels, a flock of birds flew in the distance, keening high over the wind. And beyond all this the sun set, sending brilliant pinks and oranges jetting across the sky on the bellies of lazily floating clouds.

Kaileena leaned into the elegantly carved railing with her elbows, admiring of the sight. A light breeze lifted her dark hair to waft gently about her shoulders. She glanced back when Shahdee did not join her. The black haired woman only stared at her mistress, unsure to approach or keep up with protocol; was this her friend or the Empress? Kaileena smiled again and tilted her head to one side, another silent invitation to come closer.

Shahdee obeyed and leaned against the railing an arms length from the other woman. She must have been noticeably tense, for Kaileena closed the distance between them and nudged the warrior's elbow with her own.

"Relax." She smiled, that self-same knowing look in her green eyes. Shahdee exhaled. "I may be an Empress, but I'm still Kaileena."

The armor-clad woman had nothing to say.

Everything with a grain of salt, she thought grimly. Have you not seen yourself change over the years, Kaileena?

But the omniscient Empress seemed not to be aware of Shahdee's skepticism. Again, the warrior tried to stifle the strong urges of mistrust and recall the time their camaraderie had been all that ruled on the island. She looked down to the point where their arms touched, those years felt so far away now. The gesture, intended to be reassuring felt insincere; just a replicated action born of habit.

Sensing Shahdee's regret, the older woman leaned closer until their shoulder's touched as well. Startled, Shahdee looked questioningly at her mistress, but Kaileena said nothing, her eyes spoke for her. Remorse was there, a smiling sadness for time they had lost over the past month, but a flicker of the old Kaileena, bright and spirited, was there too. Shahdee smiled despite herself for the memories that surfaced in the face of those devious eyes and Kaileena hummed her triumph at cheering the warrior.

Together they gazed out over the sea, saying nothing, but simply basking in the others company. They stood and stared, lost in thought for so long that the sky had stained crimson, a portrayal of the very air itself catching fire as the sun set into the sea. It was then Kaileena spoke at last, her eyelids heavy and the red painting made them to look all the more bloody above those green eyes. The Empress may have looked over the sea, but she saw nothing.

"I suppose I can't bury the truth any longer."

Shahdee was immediately alert at these words ominously repeating over and over in her mind. This mood was dangerously familiar.

"You used to ask me why I was here and I had always told you that I had inhabited the island all my life; that was a lie." Surprise lanced through Shahdee and she glanced sharply at the Empress, but said nothing. Kaileena went on, oblivious to everything but her confession. "I fled from my homeland several years ago and I stumbled across this place, hoping to escape my future. But the Timeline will not be denied its course. In my visions I had seen a young man of royal blood seeking to tear my throat with his sword; a prince of Persia was destined to kill me." Kaileena trailed off, perhaps to imagine her handsome assassin. Her smile was twisted like one who agreeably mounted the steps to the chopping block to have their necks kissed by the sword.

"I thought princes were supposed to rescue damsels in distress." Shahdee said mildly, which earned her a strained smile from the red robed woman.

"You would think so…" she shrugged helplessly and unconsciously scratched at the stone railing with her nails as her gaze drew back to the sea. "I ran from the visions and thought to begin my life anew somewhere far away, but the visions came again—they had changed. Instead of being slaughtered in my bed, I would be killed here. I've known all my life…but I hoped. I hoped he wouldn't…" she cleared her throat and turned her head from Shahdee. "And I thought," her voice grew tight, forcing Shahdee to strain to hear her over the breeze; "I thought I had accepted my fate but…but I am afraid."

All of the cynical thoughts evaporated from Shahdee's mind and remorse filled the void instead. At last the truth had been revealed to her, the grizzled warrior had learned of Kaileena's reasoning; her stubborn occupation of the island. To never leave. All those days of bewildering misery was piecing together in Shahdee's mind. The Empress had known the nature of her death all her life, how could this knowledge not have been depressing? But—why wait so long to tell the warrior now? And again Kaileena answered Shahdee's thoughts.

"I want to stop him," Kaileena ground out lowly, her knuckles white on the railing and her shoulders shaking. "Neither of us can exist in the same time much longer. He will approach the island by the next moon and I have already set the measures needed to see that he is stopped. I want to live."

"Do you see yourself successful?" Shahdee asked abruptly and the Empress' eyes widened faintly, like she truly did not believe it possible herself. When Kaileena failed to answer, the warrior continued. "Is your alteration written in the sands?"

"I will kill him!" Kaileena snapped, rounding on her subordinate and throwing her arms down to her sides. Her green eyes flashed dangerously. "I will change my fate!"

"You would defy the Timeline?" Shahdee replied evenly, though secretly she thought the entire notion futile. The Timeline could not be changed. The Empress had always said so herself. Kaileena looked livid. The wind stirred the long sashes of her garments as though accenting her rage. There was too much red in Shahdee's vision—the blood in the sky, the blood of the Empress' gown, the blood above those green eyes—the warrior bent her knees slightly and gripped to the railing behind her for support; a stance befitting a warrior about to receive an attack…and repel it.

"You will help me accomplish my goal." Kaileena stepped toward the recoiling armored woman. "When he comes at sea you will intercept him and sink his ship."

"Is that in the Timeline?" Shahdee said, her dark eyes narrowing. The red against the sky seemed to darken and the liquid emerald of the Empress' eyes had transformed to searing green flames.

"Enough! Enough about the Timeli—" Suddenly the Empress' eyes widened and she froze in place. The faint, curling designs carved into her arms from the sands began to glow a luminous gold to match her shining golden pupils as the woman rose from the ground.

A vision.

Shahdee tensed.

The Empress usually greeted the end of her visions in hopeless misery or uncontrollable rage. Shahdee gripped harder to the railing behind her.

But this particular Seeing seemed to take longer than they normally did and the warrior was at a loss of what to do. Kaileena was sinking from the air to her knees; choking back sobs before a flustered Shahdee.

The voice of the Empress had become a shaky, crooning echo of its former self.

No, no, please stop. No more, I don't want to see it again!

The wretched pleas were tearing through the warrior's spirit to a tenderness she thought she had long since buried. The vulnerable woman cried for help, for the hand of friendship that had not entirely dissipated between them.

And against Shahdee's screaming sense of judgment and foreboding, she moved forward and lightly touched the Empress' shoulder, hoping to break her from the horrific trance. Kaileena gasped at the touch and looked sharply up at Shahdee with those golden eyes, but she uttered nothing as she had a moment before. The gold of her pupils seemed only to grow larger and larger until the whole of her eyes were shining with the power of the sun. Shahdee squinted and turned to shield her eyes from the light.

Just as suddenly, Kaileena wrenched away from Shahdee's hand, thrusting back against the railing so hard she tilted dangerously over its edge. Shahdee's heart stopped. Her movements were lightening fast as her hand closed viselike on the Empress' forearm, bringing the woman back into the tower before she could plummet to her death.

"Don't touch me!" Kaileena shrieked, wresting free of Shahdee's grasp with animal strength and scrambling from the tower to the solid earth behind, panting heavily; her expression fierce and distrusting. The warrior stumbled back, shocked at the transformation in Kaileena. She had just saved the Empress' life!

Unfortunately, Shahdee did not know what the Empress had just seen. The visions that haunted Kaileena were of the prince before the warrior woman touched the Empress' shoulder and a new sight formed in the future. Kaileena had seen Shahdee's betrayal clearly for the first time. She was furious and she was hurt by it, but Shahdee was looking at her as though injured.

Unable to explain her violent actions to Shahdee or express her trepidation, she briskly strode away from the tower, condemning time to slow in her wake for a hurried escape and leaving a hurt and confused Shahdee to stare after.

The strike sent Shahdee to the ground. The Empress in her righteous fury, had struck her subordinate for reporting failure.

"You should have DIED protecting me!" she screamed.

"I'll not give my life for some foolish mission. What is written in the Timeline cannot be changed! If you want to save you own life, do it yourself!"

Shahdee had had enough of this foolishness; the Empress tactics were futile and nothing would have come of Shahdee's death. Her life would have been wasted on a wild effort that would change nothing. The Prince would still have advanced on the castle and destroyed the Empress in some way or another. It was only a matter of time.

Kaileena had ceased to be a friend the moment she sent Shahdee from the island. And now the black armored woman glared across the sacrificial dias at her enemy, a being meant to die; a beautiful doe meant for the slaughter. Shahdee could achieve such a sacrifice for the Timeline.

The warrior threw herself at her mistress, her weapons in her hands and murder in her eyes. The Empress could do little but hold Shahdee off—she had made the warrior a little too powerful—taught her a little too well. The red clothed woman gripped at the wrists that strived to bring dual swords down on her head, forcing the powerful arms to remain trapped midair. She bucked once but it did nothing to avail her as still Shahdee bore down on her. Time was running short and Shahdee was, literally, gaining the upper hand.

"How dare you?" she snarled, thinking less to distract than to throw back the barbs that pierced her from Shahdee's betrayal. "After everything I've done!"

"I'll help you change the Timeline," Shahdee snarled and twisted hard at the Empress' wrist. The other woman flinched but held her ground; glaring back at the armored woman with a cold, but dignified contempt.

"You…will not be the one to kill me, Shahdee." The Empress said, quietly triumphant to deny Shahdee even this small penance.

"I aim to change that right now." Shahdee twisted hard to throw the Empress to the ground, but the red clothed woman was quick to counter with a swiveling side step of her own; the warrior's deadly intention served only to rotate them half-way around. The Empress may have been unable to fight back without her own swords, but she too was a warrior and undeniably strong; and kept Shahdee from striking.

"No, Shahdee. My would be killer will be my saving grace this time, but you shall perish." Her green eyes shimmered. "And for your betrayal, I feel no remorse."

Shahdee screamed in fury, thrusting forward and pushing the both of them back towards the sacrificial alter, but still the Empress resisted to be taken down by force. They struggled against each other, grunting and panting, Shahdee thought she might finally be wearing down her mistress as the Empress' expression changed to one of fear. The red clothed woman glanced over Shahdee's black armored shoulder. The warrior had only an instant to glance back and see the Prince whose ship she had attacked; he had followed her to the past. She had led him directly to Kaileena. Before Shahdee could think over this new dilemma of just how far the reaches of her betrayal extended, when the Empress spoke:

"You! Help me!" And at last the Empress gave in, giving Shahdee the perfect opportunity to throw her down. The black clad warrior executed the move, efficiently throwing Kaileena towards the edge of the precipice and the older woman barely caught its edge, saving herself from plummeting to the stone far below. Shahdee only glanced once over her shoulder for the newcomer, the prince she had foolishly battled earlier for a lost cause.

Now, whether she lived or died which seemed to be inevitable on this dais, she knew her revenge would be exacted.

Shahdee walked to the platform's edge, regally looking down at the woman who had once been her greatest companion; the woman who had become her deepest foe in her desperate attempt to cheat fate. How ironic that Shahdee had been made ruler when Kaileena scrabbled at the edges of her royal dais; how she too, would be forced to make the ultimate sacrifice for gaining the throne. Kaileena's green eyes, that shimmered with all that Shahdee felt, of loss and ache and isolation, stared back solemnly into the warrior's dark eyes. A wordless farewell.

The warrior's black eyes were blank and her voice softly listless as she spoke:

"It ends here."

Author's Note: Ooo, how did Shahdee know the story would end right there? Creepy. lol! Wow, it really is so hard for me to chose my favorite game out of the Prince of Persia series. I just like them all so much! But ever since I played Warrior Within, I've wanted to write something for Kaileena. She's insane, and that makes her fun. I love her accent too, I mimic her everytime I play it through. So naturally, I thought I'd delve a little into her past and see what I came up with (nothing), so I invented something of my own. Initially, I was going to write it from Kaileena's point of view, but Shahdee surfaced in my mind--and just something about the warrior appealed to me. I think the bit where she realized Kaileena is going against the Timeline and discovers Kaileena's a little foolhardy for it just piqued my interest. Then the beginning scene made sense--everything was making sense in my head, even this little story idea!

I really wanted to focus on their relationship after that; how each of the characters struck me in that last fight for dominance. Tragic really. I could just imagine their friendship crumbling to the slowly swelling chaos. I still have other theories about these two, but my mouth stays shut for those. At any rate, I tried to leave things fairly ambiguous, with just a touch of specific interaction. I only hope I pulled it off!

Anywho, please drop me a review as I deeply appreciate them! Many, many "thank you"'s in advance!

Blackfire 18