Okay, so the destructs of Daria's home has been announced, but what will she do? Leave and carry on with her mission? Abandon her mission to stay with the destroyed remains thus taking a chance of having the gods get angry and destroy everything sooner? Or will she have to make a choice that she doesn't want in the first place?

It's all here in this chapter…and guess who returns?

Find out now!

(Geez, I sound like a commercial spokes person…BLEH!)

Please read, enjoy, and review! (I love me some reviews!)

-KB

(Disclaimer: I do NOT own Prince of Persia or their characters. Only Daria, Sama, and any new characters who show up are mine. The Aeon bracelet belongs to me, Blue Rowan, and her sister. The storyline also belongs to me.)


*Chapter 11*

I finally give up. There's no one left here. I've walked for long enough; I've seen enough. I don't want to be here anymore. It's too painful. I stop in the center of the street and drop my head. I can't even breath right anymore; the smoky air and the burning smell is blistering my lungs. I take one last deep breath and decide to take one last look at what's left of my home.

What I find doesn't help.

My back hits the destroyed building behind me and heat swells inside me painfully as disbelief punches me square in the gut. My parents. Two of our elders. Held high onto stakes, tied to them by ropes of some strange red bindings. Their bodies are nothing but burnt corpses now, still in one piece but dead. The four bodies were burned alive. I know this; the awful smell was coming from here. Burning flesh.

Someone's arms wrap around me as I fall to the ground, tears as hot as acid leaving trails of fire on my face. I let out my hatred, my screams fill the air. I release my sadness, my tears soak the blood stained ground beneath me. I scream and scream, not caring who hears or who comes. My people were taught against bottling up our emotions. It's only right for those in mourning to release their cries. A hand rubs my head, rocking me gently.

How long has it been since I've cried?

How long has it been since I felt this kind of pain?

I can't remember and I don't care. It's all I can feel, it's all I can know right now. Whether I want it or not.

A sound cracks from nearby and I jerk my blurred vision around, ready to kill the person who had done this. I wanted to hear them scream this time. They deserved to die. My glare lands on a face I had only seen from my past when I had lived here.

"D-Daria..." Her voice is small, trembling, and scared. "My parents...I can't...where are they...?" She asks. Nami, the elder's daughter. One of the elders who is hanging here before me.

'No!' I rip myself out of the arms holding me and rush at her. She can't see this sight. She won't be able to handle it. She's too young.

I push her to a halt, wrapping my arms around her and falling to my knees so that I can bury her smudged face into my shoulder, hiding her eyes.

"It's fine." I breathe, trying to get my voice stable, but it's just as rocky as hers.

"My parents...Where are they? Tell me!" She cries, gripping my shirt hard and crying out harder than I had. Her tears mix with mine, two cries that echo the same grief. "I want my mommy... Mommy! Daddy!"

"Shh...it's okay. It's okay." I chant to her, rocking softly just as the other body that had held me had done. Why did this come to us? Why now?


"Daria, we have to move. They could still be around." Sama whispers softly to me. I'm still frozen here, staring down at the small child in my arms. She's about ten years old now, I believe. Nami would probably never recover from this. If she does it will take a long time for her to. "Daria?"

I nod, not trusting my voice, and stand up, picking Nami up into my arms. We'd taken shelter in a falling hut near the bodies of my parents and the two elders, one of them being Nami's father. Her mother was probably in a pile of bodies somewhere in the center of the village, but I don't think I can handle going anywhere near there right now. We'd have to check one place first before we do anything else. It's a safe house. We'd be safe there for a while.

I'm about to take a step towards the door, but something bars my path.

"Let me take her." Kas says, holding out a torn blanket across his arms.

Somehow, his hands find their way under my arms and wrap around Nami's body. At first I don't know what to do, then a flash of defensive anger boils through me and my grasp tightens on her. He freezes watching me carefully, but when I find no harmful intent in his stare, I loosen up and he takes her from me. Sama wraps an arm around my shoulder and we step back out into the filthy air. It'll take days for the smell to go away and for my courage to come back, but I'm not leaving until the bodies of my people are laid to rest. The gods can wait for their stupid bracelet.

The bracelet...

I stop. My gaze drops to my still bandaged arm. The thing seems to pulse from underneath it. It's been days since I actually stopped to think about it.

I lift my free hand and grab the bandages around my wrist firmly. I pause for only a second before I finally start ripping away. The white wraps fall to the ground around my feet, brushing my ankle.

Sama stares at me, but I don't really care.

When the bracelet is finally uncovered, I drop my hand away. The stones gleam a new in the sunlight now high above the mountain peaks. The sand within each of the gems seems to speak to me. This thing is revolved around time. It could change it too.

"Don't." Sama's hand covers the bracelet and I turn to stare at her in shock. She'd stop me from wanting to save my people? Why would she do that?

"It's not right. I know it's hard, but think about it for a minute. Don't do anything crazy. You're confused right now and hurt, I understand, but that's not a good reason for you to try anything with this bracelet. Give it a few days, please." She says gently as if her words would crack me like glass.

I gaze back down at the bracelet. Alright, I'll wait, but not forever.

She takes my hand and together the group moves silently through the shadows, back towards the entrance into town. No, this is the wrong way. I stop, pulling Sama with me.

"What?"

I look back over my shoulder. The safe house is in the opposite direction. I take a few steps forward and reach for Nami. Kas gives her up to me in puzzlement and I head off along the out skirts of the village, following along the canyon wall around it. We finally come to a small hut a few steps away from the village and I go straight up to the door. I knock twice and then hit the bottom of the door with my foot three times, waiting.

I can feel the others behind me stare at me as if I've gone insane. I probably have. Why would I believe that someone would answer? They're all dead.

Sighing, I shift Nami in my arms so that I can free my hand and reach up for the top of the door. I could get in if I just move a small latch right...

Something moves. I heard something. Inside the hut. Something had shifted. I pause, leaving my hand floating there in mid-air. Great, now I'm hearing things.

Again, something moves and then suddenly a small rectangular opening in the door, used as a peek hole, slides open in a snap. My eyes go wide.

The two, wrinkled, gray eyes glare at me for only a split second before they too widen, but in recognition versus my shock.

The peek hole slams shut, a few clicks from on the other side of the door sound, and then an elderly man rips open the door quickly.

"Daria?" He breathes. "It is you!" His eyes fall to Nami. "Nami too? Thank the heavens above! Come in, come in, quickly!" He motions me inside and then pulls Sama and the others in too right behind me. The hut is small, not really a comfortable fit for seven people. Kas stands nearest to me and the old man moves around him, causing him to press against my left arm, and then he fumbles over to the back wall and presses against it. Like a swivel door, it pops open, revealing a pathway leading into the mountain.

"Daria, lead them down. I will close the door behind us."

Something in the old man's words has my heart sprinting. Shifting Nami carefully, I duck down into the dark, narrow pathway and follow it down until it opens back up at the top of a wooden staircase that spirals down. Torches light the way here, so it's easier to see.

Behind me, Kas groans and mumbles something about the stairs. I head down as quickly as I can with Nami in my arms. When I hit the bottom, I gasp. Two young men, both familiar to me, come directly up to me after jumping to their feet.

"What's going-?" The tallest one of them jolts to a stop. "Daria?"

"No way! Look at you! Geez, you've grown since you left."

"Jahani." I breathe. He's alive. He had been one of my training partners back in our weapon sparing lessons. "Vol." I turn to the other young man who still stares at me in disbelief.

"You're…you're alive." He finally gets out, but it's more shock than relief that I hear in his voice. I'm not surprised, we never really got along that well.

"As are you guys. I thought…" I let my gaze fall to Nami's face. "I thought you all were dead." I breathe a sigh of relief again only this one is heavier. I suddenly feel light headed for some reason.

"We can discuss later." The old man says, coming up beside me. "Let's move into the bigger room." He brushes a hand over Nami's head and then leads me forward farther down the shorter hall and into the larger round room beyond. Around the room, large rectangular holes are dug out and form beds stacked two high into the wall. I remember this room well. As one of our lessons, we were placed in this room alone for a month to train us on how to survive on small rations of food and water.

I failed three times in a row.

"Nami?"

A woman's voice pulls me out of the past. I turn to my right.

"Nami!" The woman engulfs her arms around the girl in my arms and she pulls her away from me. I give her up. "Nami! Nami, honey?"

The small girl twitches a little and then slowly opens her eyes. "Mommy? Mommy!" When she blinks her eyes clear and sees the woman holding her, she jerks awake and circles her arms around her neck tightly.

The woman looks up at me and her eyes fill with hope. "My husband? Did you see him too?"

Pain slams into my gut and I suddenly can't look at her anymore. Sadly, my gaze falls to the floor. I can hear her sob and bury her face into her daughter's shoulder, turning away to go and sit on one of the beds built into the wall. A hand settles onto my shoulder.

"Are you sure you didn't see him? Did you see any of the elders? What about your parents?" Jahani asks.

I jerk away and walk out of the room. I don't want to think about what I saw. I just want to know what happened. "Dabir, talk. You know more than I do. What happened here?" I ask, stopping cold in the previous room where Vol and the rest of my group are still standing.

His old gray eyes, full of wisdom like all teachers, become older and more pained. He does know. "It was early morning when they came. I had never seen anything like them before. It's like they…weren't human at all."

As he spoke, something told me to close my eyes so I obeyed. As he spoke, the blackness I saw behind my eye lids changed, bursting into colors. I'm about to gasp, but the faces of people I know kept me from doing so. My parents.

I could see it all happening as Dabir spoke and the vibrating across my wrist lets me know that this vision was the bracelets doing.

"They came like shadows, dressed in all black, and somehow found a way into the village even though we blocked the exit. All the elders called our warriors together and placed them at the entrance to block their way in while the other teachers and I got the towns people hidden inside the houses near the back side of town."

I see it all play out before me. The echoing screams of battle, the dying cries of death. Four black forms tear through our wall of fighters as if they are nothing and then start laying waste to our village. My parents, along with the elders and younger in-training warriors, fought back, but they too were knocked aside like rag dolls. I flinch and try not to scream as I see my mother thrown to the ground, blood seeping out of her chest and my father rushing to her side. A single black figure grabs my father by the arm and some dark magic, red as blood, swirls around his torso, locking his arms to the sides of his body. The rest of the elders and my mother were bound the same way and then tied up onto tall posts into the air. With a snap of his fingers, another black figure walks away, leaving the still breathing prisoners to burn alive on their stakes as they walked away to take care of the rest of the villagers. Their agonizing screams breaking the already war-stripped morning.

I rip open my eyes and gasp heavily, falling back onto the wall behind me for support. The bracelet stops vibrating. Sama comes to my side and wraps her arms around me to give me extra support. I need it more than anything right now; my legs are shaking too hard.

"They came and started burning the houses where the villagers were hiding, but some of us got out and came here to the safe house. We've been here ever since, hoping any survivors would come and join us, but…no one did. We've been down here for several days now." He finishes his story.

"The elders fought back."

"You say that as if they didn't make it." Vol responds to my shaken voice with that stern tone that I haven't heard in a long time. I glance up at him.

"I saw their bodies, along with my parents, hung up on stakes. They were burned alive." I tell him. Both he and Dabir take a step back, but the old man falls into a nearby chair.

"Oh no…" He drops his head into his hands.

All goes silent for a long time. My gaze locks with the bracelet on my arm and I start thinking back on my decision. Could I somehow get this thing to turn back time so I could stop all this? Could I even help?

Sama's arms tighten around me.

"We'll wait until tomorrow morning to go up top." Dabir tells us after a long while, getting shakily back to his feet; his voice is no different-tired and worn by sadness and grief. "Right now, let's just get something to eat and settle down for a while. We all need to take a break from all this. For now at least…"

I wait for everyone to enter into the room before I follow behind a second later. I really don't want to go in, mostly because I can feel the hostility falling off Vol in waves, but I know I have to. Sama's right; I can't make any drastic decisions right now. I'll get some sleep and think about it later.

After coming into the room once more, where candles light the room in a warm, but low light, I climb into one of the cubby holes for beds and curl up, letting my back face the room. Sleep doesn't come easy. Visions of my village outside and the one's that the bracelet had shown me flash quickly through my mind. It's too much for me to handle. It's giving me a headache.

Not a second before my eyelids finally grow heavy, someone throws a blanket over me and I listen to their footsteps as they walk away. Sleep takes me by the hand then and leads me away into a slumber filled with nightmares and tears.


I wake up to voices.

How long have I been asleep?

I open my eyes sleepily, trying to figure out what the voices are saying through my grogginess. I can hear them, so they must be whispering low. Something moves near me and I pop my eyes open wider, the sleepy haze dissipating in an instant. Someone's sitting on my bed side. Is it Sama?

My question is soon answered when I hear Sama's low snores from above me. Even through the thick foot of dirt I can hear her. I roll my eyes which are still sore.

"I see. So that's what happened." Dabir sighs. "She's changed so much since I saw her last. It's been nearly six years since she left here."

"She doesn't speak much of herself so I wouldn't know. We're only here to guard her until we reach the Scar." Kas tells him.

Kas? I want to move and kick him off my bed, but his next words stop my planned assault.

"After that though...I'm not sure."

Not sure? What'd that mean?

"Are you going to stay with her and Sama?"

He chuckles. "Yeah, right. As if she'd let us. Even if we did want to stay, we wouldn't be able to handle it. Arsalan and Firuz aren't desert boys. We live off the cities and towns nearby."

"I see." The conversation goes dead for another long moment. "So this bracelet you spoke of..."

"Sorry. I can't say anything or she'll have my head." Kas chuckles again.

I move then, shifting so that I'm sitting next to him on the edge. He's about to says something but I cut him off. "It's called the Aeon." I tell them. "I don't really know how strong it is myself, but I do know that it has the power of Time. Already, it's shown me into the future, so I know it's got lots more power behind it."

"The future? Do you think that-?"

"I already beat you to it, Dabir. I was planning on going back into time and stopping...what happened, but Sama's right. Even if I did go back, what could one person added to the battle line do? I'd probably be killed just like everyone else."

"And then those that survived would die anyway when the gods decided to destroy everything." Kas adds.

For a second I want to glare at him, but I don't. He's right. Those left behind would suffer even more than those killed by the Hassassins. Sadly, it's better this way. I can still stop others from having to suffer to. My blood runs cold just trying to think about what it would be like; my body shivers uncomfortably.

Out of the corner of my eye, I can see Kas move, leaning back and grabbing the blanket that had covered me before and then draping it around my shoulders. I glance at him, nodding my thanks. Since when is he nice to me? I'm shocked really.

When I turn back, I see Dabir staring between us with a strange look in his eyes. "Well," He quickly changes the subject before I can ask what the look is for, "What do you plan on doing now, Daria?"

"What are you asking me for?" I ask, leaning my head to the side a bit in sleepy confusion. I'm too worn to really have any energy for big emotional changes right now.

He gets up, heading towards me, and reaches into his pocket. He pulls out a tight woven necklace with gold and colored beads around the entire circle. My eyes widen in knowing and instantly I pull my hands back. There is no way on earth-!

"Take it, Daria. By our laws, if all Elders are killed, the children or existing family members must take their place." He grabs my wrist and places the necklace into my hands as he wraps it around a dagger he also draws from his waist. Both items are the traditional objects that the village Elders carry with them at all times. Dabir must have made the new necklace while I was sleeping, he's always been good at stuff like that, and he must have gotten the knife from one of the Elders before they had sent him away with the villagers. As if made from lead, the objects weigh down my hand to rest heavily in my lap, pinning it there as I stare at it in confusion and horror.

"Oh, hell no!" A voice snaps.

I look up to see Vol jump out of the top cubby hole on the other side of the room and land on the ground. He storms over to us and stops by Dabir's side. "Are you insane? She doesn't deserve to be the new Elder! She left her people, abandoned her family name, and then shows up out of nowhere right when the Elders are killed off? Sounds too convenient to me! She's just here to be Elder! She isn't one of us anymore so there's no way she should be allowed this high of an honor! She's an outsider now!"

His words hit home, piercing my heart like a blade. If it was real, I'd be dead now in an instant. At least…I felt that way. My eyes close and I lower my head, my hair covering my face. He's right.

"Vol, you know as well as I do that she left on her own accord. If Samuel returned you would let him take his place would you not? She is no different. She was born and raised here. Her blood runs through our veins as well as ours through hers. We are all that's left of this village and there is no room for anger or hate towards those who made their life decisions. Do not punish her for that. She returned to us and that's all that matters now."

"You're crazy!" Vol shouts, effectively waking up everyone in the room now.

"Enough." I say calmly, getting to my feet. "Dabir, he's right. I left the village, I tore myself from my family and their name. Whether I want it or not, I'm not a Hiren anymore. An outsider isn't allowed to become an Elder. It's against our laws and you know that." I lift my eyes, completely blank of all emotion so that I won't give away how angry I am, and I stare at my old teacher.

"Daria." Sama whispers from behind me softly.

"Who's laws, Daria?" Dabir asks, giving her a knowing look.

"Ours! Who else? She isn't a Hiren, she said so herself, so it's either me or Jahani who are in line until Nami is old enough to take her place as Elder."

"Listen to yourself, Vol!" Dabir raises his voice. "You talk as if the Hiren are all still alive. I know that we are the only ones left, but Daria is seeing the truth of it all where as you are letting your hatred and jealousy towards her cloud your vision. We are all that's left. It is true that Nami is still too young to be Elder and until she is of age, I refuse to let her carry this burden, but as of right now, Daria is the only other one here who is of Elder descent. Whether she accepts the consequences of leaving or not, she is still closer to the position than either of you boys. It is only right, by our laws, that she take her place."

"So you're taking her side!" Vol points at Daria and spits out the word 'her' as if it's a disease.

"Do not make me out to be something I am not, boy." Dabir challenges. "I wouldn't want either of you to carry this burden yet because you are much too young, but what other choice do we have? Asal will have the choice to take her husband's place if she so chooses as well, so I am not taking sides."

Vol glances at Nami and then her mother who are sitting by watching silently with worried looks on their faces and then at Jahani who glances at everyone else sheepishly as if he doesn't want anything to do with the argument. His annoyance grows and grows until Daria feels it hitting her in waves all the way on her side of the room.

He finally cracks. "You don't deserve this!" He yells, pointing at her again. "You left! You chose to dirty the name of the Hiren and leave! Traitors like you shouldn't be here! I know what you came back for and I refuse to let you take the Elder position!"

"You think you can do better, Vol?" I finally can't take it anymore. His anger is going too far. I may have left but I'm not a traitor and I'm not going to stand by and let him talk to me like I am one. I lift the dagger, the Elder necklace that is regarded as sign of bravery and honor in my village wrapped around its blade, and hurl it at him. He takes a step back in horror, his back hitting the wall, and the dagger tip embeds into the wall right next to his head. He breathes heavily in shock.

"Yes, I left! I wanted to leave! I didn't want to be under the thumb of anyone who bought us to do their dirty work! I know it was our way of life, but I didn't want it! I didn't want to see my people threatened by disease, rape, war, or anything else this world decided to throw at us. I chose to live for something better and so far I've done pretty good! If you think you can lead our people into a better future then go ahead, but I will not let you run my life through the mud and make me look like the fool here. I wanted a change for the better so I went for it! I'm living for myself and the people I care about now instead of for the buyers and those who hired us! I chose my freedom. What you do with your life is your own business!" When my words are finally over, when my anger is finally flowing free out of my body, when I can no longer stand the sight of him, I spin on my heel and storm out of the room, grabbing my whip from the chair outside the door, and climb the stairs that lead out of the safe house. The thick, death filled air welcomes me back outside, poisoning my lungs, but I don't care. I'm too furious to notice. I fall to my knees and breathe heavily, trying to calm myself down. My whip falls out of my hands and lands on the ground next to me as my palms hit the dirt. My fingernails dig into the earth, stinging from being pulled, but I hardly detect it. My head is light again, swirling with so many emotions that I can't think straight. I don't recall ever being this mad in before in my life.

I squeeze my eyes shut, not wanting to see anything anymore. I don't want to be here. I want this all to go away. I need to burn some energy now before I explode.

"Hmm…poor child." A deep, silken voice chuckles like the dark itself. Recognition hits me hard and my heart rate speeds up on instinct. "What are you doing out here and so…alone?" He chuckles louder now, as if my pain and suffering is amusing to him. He did all this. He caused it all.

The bracelet on my wrist seems to be reacting to me, burning again into my skin, but I don't feel it at all. I only feel the all-consuming rage that pounds through my body, throbbing in my ears in time with my heart beat. My eyes burn now as I open them and turn my glare on him.

It's him. The one dressed in all black that had threatened the people of Kamin.

His sleek smiles only widens in enjoyment. "A bit mad are we?" His hand, in a flash that is too quick of her eyes, shoots out to his side and his own whip appears, its black barbed edges gleaming in the sunlight. His smile widens.

With another flash, he snaps his weapon forward but sadly for him, my anger has made my adrenaline higher than it needs to be and my speed is just a tad bit faster. I rip my whip off the ground and snap it forward at him as well. Our weapons collide, knocking away from each other and back towards us.

His smiles widen again and sharp, almost fang-like, teeth shine in the sunlight from above.

'Fine. If it's a fight he wants, then it's a fight he's gonna get.' Are the last thoughts that run through my mind before I throw myself forward.


WOOT! More fighting to be had in the next chapter that I promise won't take me this long to update. I feel like I abandoned y'all there for the longest time (darn you, writers-block!) but I can assure you it won't happen again. :D

Now, once more, all town names and geography is made up out of my lazy imagination because I'm too hard-headed and…well, lazy to bother looking any of it up. Sooooo sorry, but please bare with me.

Again, thank you to everyone who has faved, alerted, and commented! I welcome more advice. And also thanks to those who read as well!

Please continue on with my story and review with all the help you can give! (I love me some reviews!)