Author's note: Sorry for the delay! With ;y journey to England and all the administrative crap that I had to deal with, I kinda forgot to write...Not to mention I had to deal with a problem of logic Atlandim is aware of! You may have noticed that I changed the rating of this story. For blood, mainly. Anyway, I hope you'll enjoy this...um...dark chapter.

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Rourke beamed with intense joy when he saw Milo's body collapse on the floor. The large cut on the scholar's forehead was bleeding badly, and the former commander watched eagerly as each scarlet drop hit the ground, making the bloodstain spread wider. Rourke grinned sinisterly. How bloody stupid that Atlantean warrior had been! Believing that him, Lyle Rourke, would ever help him to conquer the princess's heart! It was a strange feeling, truly. If one man had ever told Rourke that he would one day be living within another's man body, he would have punched that man so hard that he wouldn't have been capable to remember his mother's name. And yet, here he was, controlling that Atlantean warrior's body from the inside, seeing through another's eyes, fighting with another's fists. Rourke had never, ever thought of himself as an artist and yet, there was something about his current situation that made him some kind of a puppet-master. Yes, Galesh was nothing more than a rag doll which he could control without anyone noticing and understanding what was going on. The most perfect disguise. Rourke chuckled and committed himself to tie Milo's wrists and ankles before he would regain consciousness.

While accomplishing his task, Rourke began to probe the depths of Galesh's memories. Within only a few seconds, the commander had learned everything about the Atlantean warrior's life. There was not a single secret that could have been kept hidden from him. Everything, absolutely every detail that constituted Galesh's life was now his property. Just then, Rourke noticed Milo's eyes were rolling under his eyelids, struggling to fill themselves with light, claiming to leave their shelter of skin. The commander took a step back and bent forward to grasp the spear he had dropped after having hit his enemy.

Milo finally opened his eyes to scan the place where he was, not fully understanding why everything seemed so blurred and distorted. Noticing that he was lying on the ground, he weakly tried to pull himself off the floor and, finding that he could not succeed in doing so for some mysterious reason, felt the strange need to readjust his glasses over his nose. But no matter how hard he tried, his hands did not seem to want to leave his back. And finally, it hit him. While remembering what had happened, Milo lifted his head to meet a most unfriendly vision.

"Galesh! What the hell…? What are you doing? Why did you hit me? Why did you tie me up? Why-

Milo instinctively let the next words die before they could leave his lips when he felt the spear's hook threaten his Adam apple.

"I am the one who asks questions here. I suggest you don't forget it. Understood?"

Milo nodded in response.

"Good. Now tell me, Milo: how much do you love Kida?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"I said: how much do you love Kida? Is there anything that you wouldn't do for her?"

"I would die for her if it was necessary!"

"Perfect. Well, I have good news for you: you won't have to die. Not for the moment, that is."

"I think I'd much more appreciate that piece of information if you could lower your spear."

"Hope keeps us going, eh?"

The words were spoken cruelly and sarcastically, and instead of lowering his weapon, Rourke pushed the blade against Milo's throat. A single drop of blood travelled swiftly along the metal, staining the spear's hook ruby red.

Milo gasped in terror.

"STOP THAT!! HAVE YOU GONE MAD, GALESH???"

"No. I am perfectly aware of what I am doing. And if I were you, I would not use that tone."

"You've really gone mad. Release me!"

"Do you think you are in position to give me orders?"

"…"

"There, you see you can be smart when you put your mind into it."

"What do you want?"

"I want to make you pay for what you've done to me."

"And may I ask what I've done?"

"You have stolen Kida from me. Kida was to be mine. And you had to come and ruin everything."

"What? You…love her?"

"It does not matter anymore. You will pay. She will pay. All Atlantis will pay."

"And all this…just to take revenge on one man?! You make me sick!"

"Don't worry; I'll make you more than sick."

Milo could not believe either his eyes or his ears. What on earth had happened to Galesh? The scholar's gaze drifted to the pendant that was sparkling around the warrior's neck. For the second time, Milo noticed the strange scarlet veins that ran through the normally all-blue shard.

It is as if the crystal was…corrupted.

Instinctively, Milo looked at his own shard of crystal and was relieved to find it unchanged.

"Fancy a new kind of crystal, Milo?"

"No thank you, I'm perfectly happy with mine."

"Old-fashioned."

"Pure."

"Weak. Completely out-of-place for a king-to-be like you, isn't it? Let me help you."

With that, the Atlantean warrior removed his pendant from his neck and seized Milo's, not bothering a bit about the fact that the latter might be strangled by the pressure. The scholar's eyes widened with each inch that brought the two shards nearer each other. And so, when the corrupted shard touched the pure one, a flagrant light exploded within Galesh's dwelling-place, and nothing could be heard but a cry of incredible pain.

When Milo opened his eyes again, he felt completely astonished by the sight that was before him. The blast had violently ejected Galesh against the opposite wall and the warrior struggled to stand up again. Breathing hard, his features contorted by rage and hatred, Galesh shot a murdering glare to Milo – whose recent wounds had been healed miraculously by the very same blast - and rushed to grab the scholar's toga, brutally lifting him up. Galesh's left hand suddenly left its right twin and coiled up around Milo's neck.

"WHAT HAPPENED?" the warrior roared.

"I…I don't know…"

"DO NOT LIE TO ME!!"

"No, really…I…do not…know." Milo whispered with great difficulty.

"HAVE A GUESS, THEN!"

"I would…if…you…could only…let me…breathe."

Rourke eyed up his enemy up and down before he eventually loosened his grip.

"The only thing I know is what Kida's father told me. The crystal thrives on the collective emotions of all who came before us. In return, it provides power, longevity, protection."

"Why did it hurt me and not you?"

"Can't you see the reason for yourself?"

"I suggest you avoid being insolent."

"Well, I'd say that it protected me because I'm the one who's trapped here in spite of the fact that I did nothing wrong. What did you do, Galesh?"

The only answer Milo got was a powerful punch into his stomach. The blow made him fall on his knees again.

"I said: I suggest you avoid being insolent. Now listen carefully, because I do not like to repeat myself. You will stay here, motionless and silent. Do I make myself clear?"

"With my wrists and ankles tied up, I wouldn't go very far even if I wanted to, would I?" Milo groaned.

This time, it was Galesh's foot that delivered the blow into the scholar's face. Milo's lips began to bleed again.

"Do I make myself clear?" the question cruelly echoed once more.

"Yes."

"Although I'm sure you're being honest, a smart man like you will certainly understand that I can't take any risks by giving you any chance."

"What?..."

And so, before Milo could yell, before he even realized what was going on and before he could look directly at the face of Death, Rourke had stabbed him. The pain that flashed within the scholar's chest was the sharpest that he had ever experienced. Disbelieving, Milo looked down at the blade that seemed to rape his heart and at the flowing river of blood that travelled down his torso, staining his toga with a soon-to-be-dead promise.

Rourke smiled with satisfaction and slowly removed the deadly weapon from the opened wound that would soon steal Milo's last breath. The warrior took one last look at his victim, torn his sash, kept one of the bloodstained pieces of fabric with him, then turned his back on him and walked towards the dwelling's threshold. Just as he was about to leave, he heard Milo's weak, trembling voice whispering something. Pricking up his ears, Rourke listened.

"Kida…Forgive me…Forgive me, my love. I don't understand…Galesh…"

Rourke closed his eyelids with pure delight and gave a small laugh.

"P. T. Barnum was really right." he murmured under his breath before he left and headed for the palace. He could not see it, but his words acted like an electric shock upon the dying scholar. How fast his brain worked at that precise moment, Milo would never even dare to imagine. But three things became suddenly very clear.

1: Galesh's crystal was somehow corrupted.

2: Galesh could not have known anything about P.T. Barnum.

3: The only common point between the fact that 'Galesh' wanted to take revenge, a corrupted crystal and P. T. Barnum was…

"He's not Galesh. He's Rourke."

And it was with that terrible conclusion that Milo's eyes closed themselves, leaving their owner sink and drown into the slow, dark, and yet welcoming, oblivion of death.

Into the palace, Kida was getting very worried. She had been looking for Milo in every place she thought he could be and still had not found him. A bad presentiment was starting to creep and invade her, and despite all her attempts to reject it and convince herself that she was being ridiculous, the feeling grew, pervading all happy thoughts, gorging itself on all the blissful memories that she cherished. Atlantis's queen was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't even hear the heavy footsteps that came nearer and nearer. When she felt a strong hand seize her bare shoulder, she swiftly turned round with a gasp. Then, seeing who was responsible for startling her, she let out a sigh of relief.

"Galesh."

"I'm sorry. I did not mean to scare you, my queen."

"Do not worry about that. I should have heard you."

"If you have not, I dare say you are troubled."

"Indeed I am. Have you seen Milo? I just can't find him."

"That is precisely the reason why I came to see you. I was myself looking for him when I found this."

Pretending looking very worried, Rourke knelt before Kida and handed her the bloodstained piece of fabric that he had taken from the scholar's clothes. Kida seized it carefully with her fingertips and felt her heart stop, then miss several beats when she recognized the unique royal designs that made it clear the piece of fabric was indeed a part of Milo's toga.

"Where did you find this?" she demanded, and Rourke noticed with great satisfaction that her voice was shaking with anguish and fear.

"In the caves, my Queen."

"The caves? Why would Milo go to the caves?"

"I do not know, Queen Kidagakash, but we should hurry, for Milo must be wounded."

"Yes, you are right. Follow me!"

Kida ran outside the palace and ordered her soldiers to gather immediately at its entrance. Within a few minutes only, all Atlantean warriors were ready to obey any orders their queen would give them. All warriors, except one. Melkim was not there.

"Galesh has loyally come to warn me that our Brother Milo could not be found anywhere in Atlantis. We believe that he is currently in the caves. Divide yourself into four different groups and find him! I will lead the first group. May the Spirits of Atlantis watch over us!"

And so it was that Rourke, making a discreet exit, succeeded in creating one of the greatest diversion ever known in Atlantean history. For when all Atlantean warriors went away to look for Milo in a place where they would never, ever find him, the crystal was left unprotected.