storiewriter: Ah, hissing at the computer; you almost sound like my sister. Weird, but cool nonetheless. Anyhoo, you wanted a longer chapter? Well, ta da! Enjoy!

Bdeogale Nigripes: Cool! I got the reaction I wanted! Victory dance, w00t!

Paths Crossing: Nope, 'tis not good at all. What will they do? ... Well, this chapter should give the first step to what they are going to do.

Adderstar: That's okay, Kenzie might get a chance to attack Grigory later, or any of the other Sues. I'm sure she'll enjoy it.

No new things to disown here. I made Ironpaw and Reedflame up in like two seconds, but they're still mine. And now, to the main attraction...

Chapter Nine

A stunned silence hit the room as the pompous little bankvole strutted up to the platform, a satisfied smirk on his ignoble face. The keepers of the secret stared in abject horror as Grigory faced the room, and began an impossibly long, flowery acceptance speech.

"Fellow Redwallers, I sinceredly thank you for putting such profound confidence in my humble abilities…"

Mavren gaped, unable to do anything but listen to a helpless little voice in his head, which, in turn, was unable to say anything except this can't be happening, this can't be happening, this can't be happening…

Snowflower was also gaping, and her mind was also making a valiant effort to recover from the unwelcome news of Brother Grigory's election as Abbot of Redwall. However, the voice in her head was not nearly so helpless, nor did it belong to her subconscious self. It was another voice, a strong voice she had never heard before, but immediately recognized.

Get out of Cavern Hole. Help me…they are going to take me.

The mousemaid looked at her friends at the exact same time they looked back at her. Evidently, they had received the same message. Snowflower locked eyes with Wren, and the two sisters came up with an unspoken plan upon the spot.

The dainty mousemaid stood up shakily, and then collapsed to all fours. Discreetly, she shoved a claw into her throat, inducing herself to vomit quite easily with her full stomach. Snowflower was by her side before anything else could happen.

"Oh dear, Wren, are you okay?"

Wren's only answer was a fit of dry heaving. She had never made herself throw up before, and she made a mental note never to do so again. The process, once started, was nearly impossible to stop.

Isaac knelt near his ailing friend, and, once she was done coughing, delicately picked her up. "It looks like she's caught a stomach virus. We'll just take her to her room, Mother."

Alba made no objection; in fact, she hardly noticed, her attention mostly fixed on Brother Grigory. Isaac hated to leave her here, especially with something bad happening that he could not fully understand, but Martin could not be ignored. He carried Wren out of the Hall, closely followed by Snowflower, Quirky, Robin, and Gale. Matthew and Primrose also stood from their seats, and taking Lark by the paw and leading her away. Mavren and Lily glanced at each other, and reached an unspoken decision; the hogwife briefly squeezed her husband's paw before following their friends, leaving the Warrior alone, save for the Sentinels.

Oddly enough, even though only one or two beasts were technically needed to attend to a mousemaid with the stomach flu, nobeast noticed that Wren was accompanied by her entire family and five of her closest friends.

Grigory narrowed his eyes at Wren's untimely interruption to his speech, but continued talking when he decided that the mousemaid seemed genuinely ill.

"My first act as Abbot will be to abolish the outdated devotion to Martin the Warrior, to fully bring Redwall into touch with the spirit of modern times. We have advanced too far to place our hopes in long-gone warriors who are now mere skeletons. Redwall will now have only Redwall to trust, lead by a leader who is living and breathing. Superstitious practices will no longer bind us to ignorance."

"Superstitious practices! Ignorance!" Mavren had had enough. Now, he stood from his seat, and marched straight up to the platform. He literally towered over the bankvole, and he used his height to his advantage, thrusting his face into Grigory's to fully emphasize his anger.

"Now, you listen here, Brother."

"Abbot!"

"Brother! I refuse to acknowledge you to be Abbot. You are a madbeast, Grigory, that has been well established. Anybeast who does not believe in Martin the Warrior has to be insane."

"Martin the Warrior is dead!"

"Yes, but he has more sense than you do, and you're alive! Martin the Warrior is the lifeblood, heart, and soul of this Abbey, and no dottering, mindless little pipsqueak of a bankvole is ever going to change that. I will not follow you, and I know I am not alone in saying so."

Mavren turned his head to face the audience, and Grigory, without thinking, did the same. Lilac Blacktip had risen to her footpaws, and now stood a few paces from the platform, her paws crossed in quiet defiance. Bren Sprakenwulf stood at her right, and Mattia the Dart stood at her left, both of them glaring daggers at Brother Grigory. Throughout Cavern Hole, every single Sentinel was standing up in fearless imitation of their leaders; the Squirrel Brothers, Strongpaw, and the lesser Officers moved subtly throughout the crowd, quietly preparing the archers and warriors for a fight.

However, not a single Redwaller stood. Mavren looked from face to dear, beloved face in horror. It was like looking at a bunch of living dead beasts; not a single friend of his, not even the Dibbuns, had any trace of their unique personality on their face. They looked back at him with soulless purple eyes, with a universal expression of meaningless happiness on their faces.

Grigory looked back at him with a glint of triumph in his own purple eyes. "So, it is rebellion you choose."

Suddenly, Grigory's irises contracted as Mavren watched, so much so that his pupils completely disappeared in a sea of disgusting purple. Then, the irises seemed to glow with an unnatural light, and a smile that would be twisted if it hadn't been so graceful appeared on the bankvole's face. The small bankvole's body seemed to ripple and contort, becoming gradually taller, thinner, and more curvy, until he…it did not even look very much like Brother Grigory any more. What had been a bankvole was now a tall, entrancing, beautiful, horrible purple thing. It was not fully formed yet, but whatever it was certainly did not belong in Mossflower or in any place whatsoever. When the creature next spoke, it was in a voice that was mutating from its usual indignant squeak, becoming more feminine, more musical and more beautiful.

"Rebellion is punishable by death, hedgehog."

When the group of five young beasts reached Great Hall, they stopped. Isaac softly inquired about Wren's health, and, after receiving her assurance that everything was all right, he set her down on her footpaws. Matthew, Primrose, Lark, and Lily arrived a few moments later, and made quiet inquiries into what was going on.

Snowflower was staring at the Tapestry, heeding none of the activity behind her. Lily, somewhat worried about her friend, came up behind her and spoke gently into her ear.

"Snow, are you okay? Speak to me."

Matthew came up and, forgetting himself for a moment, almost placed his paw on the hogwife's shoulder, realizing his mistake only just in time to avoid being poked. "Leave her, Lily. She's in a trance. Martin's talking to her."

Snowflower returned to consciousness only a few moments after he finished speaking, and turned to face her friends. "We need to save the Tapestry. Isaac, Quirky, can you move those candlesticks?"

Two large, heavy golden candlesticks stood on each side of the Tapestry. Both candles were lit, as they always were, both to honor the Warrior and to illuminate the Hall at night.

Isaac nodded. "Aye, we can."

Snowflower nodded back to him. "Good. Now, everybeast, here's what I want you to do…"

They listened, even though she was younger than many of them. Martin, in his message, had endowed Snowflower with a hint of his own authority and confidence, which drew their attention without question, just as it had drawn others' attention during his own time as a living Warrior.

After a few spoken words, the group of friends moved quickly into their respective positions. Snowflower turned back toward the Tapestry, and advanced to the wall, where Gale, after her victory in the archery tournament, had left her trusty longbow and her quiver of arrows…

Mavren backed away from what used to be the Skeptic Brother, drawing the Sword of Martin. Grigory (for lack of a better name to call the thing that was no longer Brother Grigory) somehow managed to snarl at him without seeming insane (although, whether or not the thing looked insane at the moment could never change Mavren's conviction that it was), and jumped at him, armed with a glittering amethyst sword that seemed to appear out of nowhere.

To Grigory's surprise (and, for that matter, to Mavren's surprise), the thing seemed to bounce off the legendary blade, coming to the ground with a painful bump. The hedgehog took the chance to slap at the supposed Abbot with the flat of his sword, reluctant to deliver a killing blow to a member of Redwall Abbey, even if it was a Stu. The blow landed squarely on Grigory's cheek, and the thing clapped a paw to the injured area as if it had been burned. In fact, it had been burned; during the space of a few seconds between when Mavren slapped Grigory and when the thing's paw made contact with his face, Mavren had caught a glimpse of charred, ruined flesh that somehow did not distort Grigory's face at all.

"Darest thou assault the Abbot of Redwall?" The hedgehog whirled around, to find himself facing Badgermum Alba, or what was left of Badgermum Alba. The kind, middle-aged badger he had known had transformed into a youthful, beautiful badgermaid with purple stripes, whose purple eyes blazed in a sick imitation of the Bloodwrath.

"Oh, he darest, and I wantest. In fact, it's long been a fantasy of mine to rip Grigory limb from limb."

Before Mavren could do anything, the large, heavy chair that once belonged to the Abbot hit the transformed Badgermum, sending her flying into the wall. The Sue slid to the floor, knocked completely unconcious.

Bren Sprakenwulf had made a mighty leap onto the platform, where she now stood, her paws akimbo and a crazy, bloodthirsty grin on her face. Behind her, Lilac Blacktip and Mattia the Dart had turned, the former armed with her rapier and the latter with her darts, to face the quickly growing horde of purple Redwallers that were moving to protect their "Abbot." The huge canine took no notice of the crowd's screams, however; her yellow eyes were glistening with an obsessive madness ten times stronger than any badger's Bloodwrath.

"I haven't disemboweled a beast in seasons, Grigory, but in your case, I'm willing to make an exception." And, with that, she pounced toward the thing, claws extended and teeth bared in a savage snarl.

Grigory was on its footpaws in an instant, and its paws fired a bolt of purple light toward the airborne fox-wolf. The energy bolt connected with Sprakenwulf's chest, and sending her flying back among the tables of Cavern Hole. She landed hard, causing an entire table to split in two. For a few moments, she did not get up, obviously in great pain. However, the fox-wolf's insane rage overrode all pain in her mind, and she struggled to get to her footpaws, her yellow eyes blazing.

Lilac slashed and hacked her way to the fox-wolf's side, offering Sprakenwulf support on her shoulder. Her voice and her presence calmed the fox-wolf quickly, in a way that only she, Bren's best friend, was capable of doing. "Easy there, Bren. You'll get him next time. Sentinels!" she yelled to defeat the noise that, to Mavren, seemed to suddenly fill the room. "Retreat! Archers and Scouts, anybeast with bows, cover our backs! Warriors, secure the stairs!"

The Sentinels were engaged in all-out war with the Redwallers, or, at least, the beautiful, purple-colored creatures that had once been Redwallers. What was more, the Sentinels were losing, for many of them were worried about their friends inside the parasites, and were trying to knock out beasts that could only be stopped when they were dead. As a result, many a Sue got their paws on a Sentinel, and the line was weakened by another Sue "recruit." The Officers did their best to discourage the hesitation, but it only got worse as the battle progressed, as Sentinels began to fight former Sentinels and comrades.

Mavren threw himself into the fray, jumping from the platform to strike a Dibbun Sue with the flat of his blade. Once again, the star-metal burned the Sue's flesh, and the unnatural creature went howling out of the room; he was, after all, only a Dibbun. Mavren tried to shake the unpleasant picture of himself injuring a child he had sworn to protect out of his mind, and advanced further into the melee, the Sword of Martin dealing death or injury to every Sue in its path.

Snowflower stood at the wall opposite the Tapestry of Martin the Warrior, bow in paw. Briefly, the mousemaid surveyed the room, making sure her companions were in their positions. Isaac and Quirky had moved the candlesticks, and stood a good distance away from the Tapestry, looking prepared to run quickly. Matthew and Primrose stood the same way, and looked to her for the signal. Wren, Robin and Gale were at the stairs, keeping watch for any Sues who might come up from the battle taking place in Cavern Hole. Lily, in her delicate condition, was as far away from the stairs as possible, standing by the huge oaken doors at the entrance to Great Hall. With the hogwife was Lark, who was too little to help; Lily kept a paw on the Dibbun's shoulder, preventing her from moving.

Now sure that everybeast was ready, Snowflower nocked an arrow to the bowstring, and drew her paw back to her cheek. She took aim at a strong loop near the edge of the Tapestry, which was holding the massive piece of cloth up. She could see very little in the almost total darkness that had been established when the candles were put out, and her paws were shaking with a fear so total it nearly consumed her. There was no way she could make this shot.

She didn't have to. Just as she was about to give up, a strong, invisible paw wrapped around hers, steadying her and gently aiming the arrow toward the exact spot where it needed to go. The butterflies are flying in formation…

Twang!

The loop of fabric split, and one side of the Tapestry plummeted toward the ground. The entire weight of the artifact was too much for the other loop of cloth to bear, and, with a magnificent snap, the loop broke. The Tapestry hit the ground with a resounding thud!

Isaac, Quercus, Matthew, and Primrose acted quickly, running to the fallen Tapestry and, as gently as possible, rolling it up, so that it could be easily carried.

The three eldest Recorder children scampered away from the stairs, yelling at the top of their lungs in fright. "Hurry! They're coming!"

A purple shrewmaid, who only slightly resembled Sister Marianna, whom she used to be, came running up the stairs.

"Darest thou desecrate the Tapestry, ye wretches?" Isaac was the only one who appreciated the irony of that question, since this was one of the very Sues who had discouraged the belief in Martin the Warrior, but even he did not laugh.

Snowflower nocked another arrow, and sent it soaring toward the late Infirmary Keeper, but the arrow seemed to glance off the shrewmaid's purple fur. Isaac prepared to meet the Sue, determined to protect the Tapestry, even if it meant he must sacrifice himself, since he was unarmed and the Sue could "recruit" him.

He needn't have worried. Falcir the Silent had followed the Sue from the stairs. He had had to kill too many of his own warriors to have qualms about killing another Sue, and his broadsword, which was liberally sprinkled with garlic water, cleaved through the creature's neck. The Sue fell dead, and transformed into the bloody remains of Sister Marianna posthumously.

Isaac, and everybeast else, cried out in dismay, but the burly otter shushed them. "Leave her, she was lost. What're you doing here, mates?"

The young badger swallowed hard, and fought through his tears to answer. "We're saving the Tapestry from those monsters."

"Oh, good. Let me give you a paw w'that. Hoi! Ironpaw, Reedflame, get over here and help!"

A sizable young badger and a tough-looking ottermaid came from the stairs, and, with their combined efforts, the three Sentinels, Isaac, and Quirky lifted the massive Tapestry. The Gatehouse residents heaved the oaken doors of Great Hall open, and kept them open while their friends moved the Tapestry out of Great Hall. Robin, Gale, Wren, and Snowflower raced ahead to the Gatehouse, both to open the gates for the Tapestry when it arrived, and to collect the weapons that Matthew had stored in his attic in case of a surprise like this. When they left Redwall, they intended to do so fully armed.

Mavren the Warrior and Mattia the Dart, along with many archers and several of Mattia's scouts, covered the retreat up the Redwall stairs. What had been Badgermum Alba had regained consciousness within two minutes, and now fought its former friends with a deadly-but-beautiful fury.

Mattia pulled out a dart that had black and red striped fletches, which would put its victim into a heavy sleep, and held it in her paw, prepared to throw it at the nearest possible opportunity. That came soon; in typical Sue fashion, the badgermaid was right out in the open, presenting herself as an easy target.

"I'm sorry, friend," the albino hare muttered, before she hurled the garlic-sprinkled dart at the Sue. It hit the badger squarely in the chest, and, within seconds, the badger Sue was sprawled out on the stairs, forming an effective barrier to the other Sues who wanted access to Great Hall. Or, at least, mildly effective; within two minutes, the Sues were clambering gracefully over the Badgermum's prone form, screaming blue (eh, purple) murder.

Mattia had no choice but to fall back on her last resort. From a new loop on her belt, she retrieved a large flask that ostensibly served the purpose of a water bottle. Uncorking the flask, she doused the nearest ranks of Sues with its contents with a few deft flicks of her wrist.

"Eat garlic, freaks!" The Sues were forced to halt, rubbing at the wet parts of their skin, which were giving off a liberal amount of smoke. The Sentinels made use of this distraction to escape, rushing through Great Hall, not bothering to stop unless they were archers and needed to check if there were Sues to shoot.

Once outside, they wasted no time at the Great Hall doors; it didn't take the uninjured Sues long to realize that there were other ways out of Cavern Hole, and the whole purple army came pooring into the Abbey grounds. The Sentinels raced through the Gatehouse, and, once Mattia and Mavren, who were at the end of the line, made it out of the gates, the Sentinels who were already outside slammed the gates shut.

Strongpaw, by now, was in the throes of a major attack of the Bloodwrath. He had tried to restrain himself until now, knowing full well that the Bloodwrath was uselesss against Sues; however, against normal Mother Nature, the Bloodwrath had better chances. The badger ran to a great oak tree that was growing just on the boundaries of the forest, and, with a mighty heave of his muscles, lifted the giant plant out of the ground. Ironpaw, Isaac, and several younger badgers came to his assistance, and, with their combined effort, they placed the tree in front of the gates, forming a makeshift barricade. It wouldn't hold for long, and, once again, there were other gates out of the Abbey, so the Sentinels had to make an orderly retreat into the woods.

While the badgers were working, the squirrels were forming a task force of their own. There were many squirrels in the Sentinels, in all of the Sentinels' five guilds, but, whether they were warriors, archers, scouts, minstrels, or healers, all of them still possessed a squirrel's natural agility and stealth. They took the Tapestry, and lifted it into the trees, passing it from tree to tree relatively quickly and quietly.

The rest of the Sentinels seemed to melt into the forest, taking the few surviving inhabitants of Redwall with them. When the Sues emerged from Redwall, they saw a forest as empty as if the Sentinels had never been there, and strangely, though they could sense any normal beast within a radius of slightly less than mile, they could only sense a small band of warriors, who had been sent to the south as a decoy. Even that fragile link to the Sentinels' position was soon as dead as the Sues who were sent after the decoy patrol. The green army had moved swiftly, as usual, even the squirrels burdened with the Tapestry. The Redwall Sues could not find them, no matter how hard they tried.

However, the real damage was already done, no matter what had happened to the Sentinels. Redwall, for the first time since the days of Cluny the Scourge, was fully held in the paws of the enemy. Somewhere in Dark Forest, Martin the Warrior wept.

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