I do not own any of the Prince of Persia games. There I said it.

Prince of Persia: Warrior within

-Prologue; Engagement at Sea-

It starts the same way every time. I am running through the dark alleys of my great city, Babylon.

Though to anyone else, it would seem that I was just running recklessly, making random turns, with no real destination in mind, in reality I knew exactly where I was going. Though, I was only half way running to this place. I was also running away from something else.

I hit my next turn, looking back to see how far ahead of him I was, and turned forward to come upon a rather angry looking dog. I only stopped momentarily, my fear of my pursuer far overshadowing any fear I would have had for a normal animal, dashing around it and heading on my way once again. The small whine followed by a few crashing pots told me all I needed to know of the dogs fate.

I launch myself up into the wooden beams, and continue moving once I see that he was now within my vision. I was able to move a little bit faster up there, all the way until I was forced to return to ground level. Unfortunately, my luck would not last, as my next turn would lead me to my demise, in the form of a dead end with nothing but a locked door at the end of it. Desperate, I started to pound on the door, begging for whoever lived here to open the door, praying that they would hear the distress in my knocks. After the occupants of this place didn't answer I finally tried to knock the door down, but once again was denied sanctuary. I nearly break down right there, but steel myself once again.

I turn slowly to face my executioner. If he is to take me, then he won't do so without a fight, however futile it would be. I unsheathe both of my swords and stand firm, ready to face my fate. And then………..

My dream had never gotten that far before. Usually he would catch up to me long before I would reach the old man's door. I wonder if this is a sign of things to come.

I awake to find my ship in the middle of a storm, my crew working to help the ship through it in one piece. I take in the scene for a moment before issuing my order. "This storm shows us no mercy! We shall respond in kind! Reef the mainsail." As the crew acknowledges my order, I pull one of them aside. "Bring us closer to the wind." Giving him what I hope he interprets as an encouraging pat on the shoulder, I send him on his way.

A sudden, ominous chill runs down my spine, and I know that this storm is not the cause. I turn out to sea but see nothing on it waters, barely able to see too far past the fog anyway. As I begin to turn back, disaster strikes, and it strikes hard.

My ship was suddenly wrenched to a stop by several flaming harpoons, each one with a rope leading to a ship that had somehow appeared out of nowhere. A couple of them actually made it far onto the deck causing fires to start on several points on the boat. I, however, was more focused on who was attacking. Stripping away my cloak and taking my sword in hand, I rallied my crew around me. "Ready your weapons!" Immediately, my crew dropped whatever they were doing and joined me, weapons in hand, to take on whoever dared to attack this ship. Once I saw our attackers, however, I quickly rephrased that to whatever dared to attack this ship.

At first glance, they appeared to be human, waving their weapons in the air and yelling out whatever battle cries they knew. However, I have had enough life experiences to know that not all is as it first seems. This fact was evident by how their eyes seemed to glow with a bright golden color, not unlike a particular set of enemies that I have not seen in seven years. Almost as if on cue, the Amulet of Time, securely attached to the front of my leather armor, began to glow in the same golden color, as if reacting to the sands that no doubt resided inside of these creatures. This confirmed it. These creatures originated from my destination.

As they pulled the two ships together, they suddenly quieted down and parted, making a path for an extremely freely dressed female. She slowly, almost seductively made her way towards the edge of her ship, and seemed to make eye contact with me, almost as if I was the one she was looking for. I probably would have been flattered if she wasn't currently attacking my ship, and it didn't help matters that the very first words out of her mouth were, "Kill him."

Her soldiers were ruthless, more so than I have even seen before. My crew fought well, but even they could not match the sheer brutality of this woman's soldiers. Fortunately, they had not heard of my skill with a sword. I tore through them easily, leaving no measure of mercy for my enemies.

I did take just a moment to notice quite a few things about these creatures that differed from the once I had fought in the palace of Assad. First and foremost, these creatures were capable of speech, as well as coordinating with each other, meaning that they were capable of intelligent thought. Secondly, these monsters did not require the dagger to finish off. They died just like any other person, which meant that these creatures weren't humans that had been altered by the sands. They were the sands, evident by how upon their death, their remains turned into the sands. The thing that surprised me the most, however, was when the sands were drawn in and absorbed by the amulet. I am well aware of the amulet's attachment to the sands, as along with the dagger and the vizier's staff, this was one of the artifacts that were created along side the sands. As such, I was sure that the same powers that I had access to during my first encounter with the sands, I had no real clue as to how I would access them. The dagger had a switch that when pressed activated it's powers, but this amulet didn't have any such switch.

However, my musings about whether or not I could use the Sands of Time once again would have to wait. As I began my search for another group of enemies to slaughter, another harpoon struck the crow's nest, which was currently occupied by one of my crew and one of hers. Her soldier exploded into sand, while my subordinate was launched off of the nest and plummeted back down to the deck right where I was standing. The wooden deck broke the moment he hit it, causing both of us to fall through to the lower rooms. I was for the most part unharmed, but my crewman wasn't so lucky. I did not falter, though. There would be ample time to mourn once I killed whoever that woman was.

I waded my way through the flooded rooms below the deck, stopping only to kill off another set of sand monsters, when I felt a sudden jolt in the ship, followed by a large section of the hull caving in, dashing my hope of saving this ship. I didn't mind. This just meant that I would be taking the woman's ship along with her life. I made my way past the gash and came to what looked like a dead end, until I spotted a rope, anchored down to the floor that lead up through a wooden grate. Taking hold of this rope, I cut it below my grip and was immediately launched up through the grate and towards my invader's ship. I began my descent but was close enough that I was able to slow it down by stabbing my sword into the mainsail. I hit the ground and looked up at my opponent, who was apparently not happy about the fact that I was still living, breathing, and fighting.

After taking out a few more sand creatures, I made my way up the stairs and finally stood facing her, ready to bring swift justice through my blade.

"You will never reach our shores alive."

"For your sake, you better hope I don't." I still had my sword in my hand, so I was fully prepared for her first attack.

For a woman, she was surprisingly skilled, keeping me on the defensive for a good portion of the match. Not only was she particularly strong for her size, she used two swords as opposed to my one, which kept me from even attempting to take the offensive. Unfortunately, and thankfully at the same time, one of my crewmen had attempted to brave taking her on himself, and was apparently defeated quite easily. I maneuvered my way over to his body and picked up his weapon, now ready to take her on with the odds slightly evened up.

It also didn't help that I couldn't really go at her using my far superior agility, seeing as the beams were now flaming, and therefore probably weakened. I was able to catch her by surprise a couple of times, using her own body to vault myself into the air, land behind her, and attempt to catch her by surprise. However, she was also pretty quick herself, and recovered just fast enough to block my attack, then knocked my swords away, the one that I had acquired from my fallen comrade flying out of my grasp, breaking my guard and slashing at me. Fortunately, she undershot her intended target, and instead left me with a small cut on the right side of my nose. This still caused a very angry response to escape my lips. "You bitch!"

After that, I became just a little bit more aggressive, starting to push her back this time. She, however, still looked like she was the one in control of this fight, which only cause me to attack far more aggressively. After a while of this, we locked swords, and then she ended toe fight. "It seems the Empress has overestimated your abilities."

"The Empress?" That one moment of hesitation was all she would need. Using her own swords, she wrenched mine out of my hand and planted it into the wooden beam that served at a border to our fighting area. Then she came back around striking my chest with the hilt of one of her swords, continued her rotation and kneed me in the gut, and finished it up with a spinning kick that sent me overboard.

-Two Weeks Ago-

"The Island of Time. The place where the Sands were created. The place from which the Maharajah stole the Hourglass."

"And what if I could reach this island?" I step into the room, addressing the old man that has supported me over most of the last seven years, providing me with shelter, knowledge, and most importantly advice. Much as he was doing right now.

"They say the Maharajah found portals there, where one could pass backwards through time."

I allowed his words to sink in, a small glimmer of hope returning to my face. "Back through time? To the birthplace of the sands." I could automatically tell just what his next question was going to be. "Something terrible happened when out army traveled to the Maharajah's palace."

In similar fashion, he had already put two and two together. "You found the sands of time." It wasn't a question either.

"Worse. I opened them."

"Whosoever shall open the sands must die." He spoke as if he was reciting something from a book.

"I was forced to kill those I fought besides. Those I had loved." The memories were still fresh in my mind, even after all of these years.

"But now an unstoppable beast chases you." Obviously he knew a lot more about my current situation. How much he was willing to tell me was a completely different story, I was sure.

"For the first time in my life, I am afraid."

"And you will die."

There was a thought that was nagging at me ever since this whole situation began, and I needed to see if he knew about this as well. "I used the sands themselves to reverse time, making it as if the hourglass was never opened."

"The beast, the Dahaka, is the guardian of the timeline. You were supposed to die," Considering all of the times I had reversed time during my first journey with the sands, I didn't doubt that. "So it will catch you and see to it that you meet your fate." He raised a hand to stop me before I could leave.

"It is better to try than to wait here for death." I had no intention of just sitting and waiting for my own demise. If I was going to die, I would rather die fighting.

"Madness!" Apparently, the old man believed differently than I did. "Even if you manage to reach the island, you will still have to face the Empress of Time."

I didn't care who stood in my way. I now had a goal. "I will travel back in time and prevent the sand from ever being made. If there are no sands, the Dahaka will have no quarrel with me."

The old man could clearly see that I had no intention of changing my mind. "Go then my prince." I turned and began to walk away, needed to prepare a ship and a crew for the long journey. The old man, however, had one more piece of advice to give. And as determined as I was to get going, I still gave him the respect to stop and listen. "But know this. Your journey will not end well. You cannot change your fate. No man can."

-End-

Ok, so I just got finished playing through the Sands of Time trilogy again, in anticipation for the next-gen version. I got a sudden urge to write something on the Prince, and after a few failed attempts to do something original, I just decided to try my hand at writing out one of the games. I decided upon the Warrior Within because it was the only one that I was unable I beat in one sitting.

Give me some feedback. I won't continue this story if you think I haven't done it justice. And please, don't hold back.

Thanks in advance.