Minako jerked awake, finding herself laying on a pallet - a makeshift bed consisting of a blanket thrown over hay - in a barn. Her eyes darted around the room, expecting to see Diamond next to her, to feel his hand around her wrist.

She flung her head over the edge of the pallet, stomach heaving though nothing came out.

A glance towards the door showed three armed men standing with their heads close together. They wore clothes that didn't mark them as soldiers, though they all had weapons hanging from their belts.

Her eyes shifted around the barn, looking for another way out. Window cutouts appeared along the top of the rafters - not that those would do her any good at all.

One of the men nodded his head in her direction and she turned away, again dry heaving against the nausea that swelled up within her.

"It's a mild concussion," one of the men said as he sat on the other side of the pallet. "I wouldn't have let you sleep, but it seemed easier if you weren't awake."

"Are you going to haunt me too now?" she asked, keeping her back turned.

"Haunt you?"

"I can't stop seeing Rubeus's eyes. I suppose after Loren's words it's only fair that I hear your voice now."

"What happened to me was my own fault, not yours."

She turned to face the man at her side. His long hair had been shorn away, leaving his blonde hair to curl close to his head. A red line cut across his check running from the top of his cheekbone almost to the corner of his mouth.

Her hand reached out to touch the cut skin, shaking fingers making contact. That was the same mark she had made on the guard who had tried to take the blade from her hand. "You're dead. You can't be here."

"Only for a little while clearly."

"Where is Diamond?" she finally dared to ask.

"I'm hoping to not find out. I have a couple dozen men with me. I think that we put enough distance between us and his soldiers that we were able to rest."

Her voice came out as a whisper. "Am I free?"

"You are free and I am alive."

She lifted her hands up in front of her to stare at the bruises on her wrists. The pain that lingered seemed to have stopped for the first time in weeks.

"Zoicite!" a man's voice called out.

Zoicite leapt to his feet, twisting to face the entryway, hand on his sword hilt at the ready, body remaining tensed as he watched his captain enter the room. "We have to go. Some scouts have been seen fast approaching."

Minako jumped to her feet. "You led them here!"

Loren looked at her with anger flaring in his eyes. Before either could speak, Zoicite took the bundle of clothing from Loren and told him to leave the room. He turned and handed off the clothes to Minako. "I need you to change into this. Tie your hair and tuck it down the back of your shirt. They'll be looking for a woman."

"You can't trust him," she insisted.

"I know what he did, Minako," Zoicite said quietly. "He confessed everything to me and to Jadeite. If it weren't for Loren, I would have never been able to get inside Diamond's stronghold."

"So you forgive him?"

He shook his head. "You should change. We don't have the distance that I hoped for after all."

Minako took the clothes and hugged them against her chest, watching as Zoicite walked to the door and closed it, his back remaining to her as his arms crossed at his chest. "I don't trust Loren."

"Please change, Minako."

She stepped from the pallet and started to undress herself, slipping free first of her meager frock, then stepping out of her chemise. Cool air surrounded her body and she rushed to pull on the borrowed clothing. She tugged at the pants, snug just under her hips. A frustrated sigh escaped her lips as she unsuccessfully tried to pull closed the ties on the front of the pants.

"What?" Zoicite asked at hearing her sigh.

"The pants are too small."

"Are you decent?"

"Yes."

Zoicite turned to look at Minako who was holding the waistband of the pants with tightly clenched fists. The swell of her stomach and her rounded hips kept her from being able to pull the pants up high enough that they wouldn't slip off her. Zoicite cursed to himself for not thinking of this when he had asked someone to obtain the clothes. He crossed over to her and removed his own belt, looping it around her waist as she held the pants up. "I'll find you more clothes tomorrow."

Minako rolled the sleeves of her shirt so that the cuffs fell just above her wrists, her bruised dotted skin flashing into view. Her eyes turned up to see Zoicite looking at her wrists.

"There were many things I had to do in those weeks that I regret. I think the worst was when I had to deliver soldiers from my prince's army to be slaughtered by Diamond because he wanted you to watch him.

"Earning the trust of his men was not easy, but it's what had to be done so that I could get close enough. Otherwise I would have been on the outer walls watching and unable to do anything.

"You were so hard to get to and Kunzite wouldn't let me act until I could guarantee your safety."

"I owe you nothing but gratitude."

"We need to go or Loren's sacrifice will be in vain." Zoicite placed his hand on the small of her back and led her out of the barn.

"What do you mean his sacrifice?" Zoicite kept pushing her forward but didn't respond. When she tried to slow them, he grabbed her upper arm and forced her to move faster. "Tell me what's happening. Is it Diamond? Did he find us?"

"We have to ride, Minako."

"Tell me what's happening."

"Just get on the horse," he said through gritted teeth.

"I can't let him take me again," she said quickly, her body shivering as a chill ran down her spine.

"It won't be Diamond in that group. I don't know how many soldiers are approaching, but I do know that I can only fight off so many with what I have."

Zoicite climbed onto the horse then held out his arm to help pull her up behind him. She wrapped her arms around Zoicite's waist instinctively.

"Around my chest if you could," he said as he adjusted her hands. He pulled on the reins to turn the horse around, pausing to catch the eye of his Captain.

Loren sat mounted on his horse, long sword drawn, cape pushed over his shoulders. His mare stomped the ground, shifting its weight as it prepared to be ridden forward as it had been trained. Loren lifted his chin at Zoicite, signaling for him to depart.

Zoicite clicked his tongue at his horse and nudged his heels into the horse's side urging it forward as fast as it could run.