Disclaimer - Ardeth does not belong to me. (WAH!) Catlanda does though and any other original characters in here.

Summary - The aftermath to Catlanda's news.

Author's Note - There will be suicide attempts in this story. You have been warned about it. This occurs right after 'One Life'.

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Ardeth stumbled through the tribe, bumping into people along the way. The anger inside of him raged on. He simply couldn't believe it! Catlanda, the one person in his life that meant the most to him, was pregnant!

His fellow Medjai watched him stumble across the sand and walk into his tent.

"What's wrong with him?" asked one.

"I don't know. Nobody knows why he's acting like this all of a sudden. Someone must have done something to him badly enough to do this," replied another as they glanced over at Ardeth's tent.

Inside the tent, Ardeth was now visibly angry. His eyes burned with rage as he began to shove everything over inside. He threw his bed over onto its side before throwing his swords onto the ground. He threw everything else onto the ground before collapsing to his knees and openly sobbing.

"Why does it have to be like this?" he quietly said through the tears. "I've failed you my friend. My daughter."

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Catlanda sat beside Isis just outside the camp. Geb stood nearby. Isis whimpered as she looked at her master. Catlanda's eyes were red and puffy from crying since before she met up with Ardeth.

"Spire," she barely said.

"Yes?" it replied.

"Where's Ardeth right now?" she asked it.

"In his tent," it told her.

"Show me," she requested.

A scene appeared before her, revealing Ardeth in his tent, throwing things around the place.

"I don't want to see this anymore!" cried Catlanda as she threw the Spire away from her.

Isis walked up to it and grasped it in her teeth. She looked at Catlanda, who barely noticed her.

"I don't want to even look at it Isis. Somehow, I knew that was going to be Ardeth's reaction. I like the idea about this as much as he does," she told the cat, the sobs quickly overtaking her voice.

Soon, she couldn't even talk anymore, her voice again taken over by uncontrollable sobs. She laid down and curled up into a ball, a hand on her stomach.

"I don't know if I can handle seeing Ardeth like this or even myself," she barely said to herself.

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Ardeth was now laying on the ground, barely aware of what was going on around him. He heard a voice coming from outside the tent, saying something that slightly resembled his name.

'What? What is it that you want from me? Go away! I want to be alone!' he thought to himself as he closed his eyes.

His head drooped to one side as someone walked inside the tent and found him there.

"Ardeth!" she cried as she hurried to his side.

She put a hand on his cheek, forcing him to face her. He barely opened his eyes stared at her. They had a blankness in them that wasn't in them before.

"Ardeth! Can you hear me?" came the woman's voice.

'Haven't you heard me? Go away!' he was trying to say. 'Leave me alone. I want to be alone. I don't deserve anything.'

Though he couldn't make his lips form words as Ayanna looked over her son. She was becoming scared for she never seen Ardeth in this condition before. She hurried to the entrance of the tent.

"Iscantil, come in here, please," she pleaded before walking back up to Ardeth.

Iscantil walked inside and saw Ardeth on the floor. Her gaze went to the other woman in the tent.

"What is wrong with him?" she asked.

"I am not certain. I need you to help me get him onto his bed once we set it right again," Ayanna replied as the two headed towards the bed.

They set it back upright before heading back to Ardeth and carefully lifting him onto it.

"There must be some after effects from his most recent capture. They must have done something so terrible to one or both of them that he's like this," Iscantil suggested.

"I think it's very possible. Where's Catlanda?" replied Ayanna as the two locked eyes with each other.

Fear struck their faces.

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Catlanda looked at her Spire in the sand for several minutes before crawling over to it and carefully picking it up.

"Spire, I know what I must do. Dagger, now," she ordered it.

"Master?" questioned the Spire.

"Just do it," Catlanda told it, wiping the tears from off of her face.

The Spire made a dagger appear before her and she grasped it with one hand, putting down the Spire. She soon held onto it with her other hand as well and aimed it at her chest.

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Iscantil hurried out of the tent and nearly ran into Marok.

"Marok, have you seen Catlanda?" she asked him.

"No, I haven't seen her all day. Why?" he replied.

"I fear something's wrong. We need to find her before something happens," the woman told him before starting to move again.

The two searched the camp, asking questions along the way. It led them to the outskirts of the camp. Iscantil and Marok cautiously walked around the area, looking for any sign of Catlanda.

"Where could she be?" wondered Marok.

Iscantil shook her head before she saw a figure lying on the ground in the distance. Marok followed her gaze and they hurried up to the person to see it was Catlanda.

"Cat, you're here. I'm so glad you're..." Marok started as he held onto her shoulder.

But he immediately sensed something was wrong as did Iscantil. She was facing the other way when they arrived there so they carefully turned her towards them. They gasped at what they saw.

The handle of a dagger sticking out of her body.

TBC...