Chapter XXV - Lies and Promises

Stefano didn't know what else to do. He was scared, frightened, and worried. Not only for his hide but that of his friends. He hurried off to Vitaly's car and started to literally bang on it desperately. He hoped that Vitaly had a good night's sleep but, he needed the huge tiger now. "Vitaly-a! Vitaly-a! Come-a out-a!" he exclaimed, his bright brown eyes widening with worry. What fi he didn't wake up and they had to deal with them!? What if-

Instantly the dorr slid open to reveal that Vitaly was rubbing his head and massaging his ear. "Stefano, it is very early. Vat is problem?" the tiger asked, yawning, something resembling a sleepy roar. Stefano hugged Vitaly and started to sob.

"Vitaly! They-a came! They-a came and-a said we are-a liars and kidnappers-a!" the Sea Lion cried. Vitaly's ears flattened to his skull and he bared his fangs.

"Who did, Stefano?" the Sea Lion turned and pointed.

"They did-a!"

0O0

Marty yawned sleepily, the nigt was admittingly one of the best he has had in awhile, though as much as he was sleepy and tired, he would not regret it. Gabby was, in short, a beauty. She was shy, but still a bit spunky from her few bits of stories of her life which were not tainted by sadness and woe, which were very few. She was pretty, though she believed herself to be an ugly mare who deserved to never be happy. That, marty thought, was the saddest part of any story she told him last night.

She resembled a pure white filly, like the Andalausian triplets, but to him, she was prettier. He tried to explain that to her but she would refuse to believe him and would instead change the subject.

They talked and talked, shared experiences with each other, gave tips, and Marty reassured her that he will be one of her truest friends. Then he had realized that the sky had suddenly turned pink. His ears perked and he stared to the east. A bit of twilight could be seen and then it came as a shock to the Zebra that he had stayed up all night with her. Gabby noticed as well and apologized when keeping him from sleeping but Marty didn't care if he stayed up late with her, it was one of the most pleasant in his life.

Gabby was starstruck after that and Marty left, but not without giving her one last joke and a high hoof before running off. He only hoped that no one had seen him leave or enter the grounds. He would have to explain where he had been and he knew that Alex would give him another rant about making friends with other Circuses who wanted to ruin them.

He had washed himself up, his coat dirtied because of the horrible conditions of the Circo Freak circus and finally climbed onto his car and prepared to get maye a bit more hours, or hopefully a few minutes of sleep. As he closed his eyes, he heard was a few murmered voices coming from the outside. He shook his head, thinking that it might just be his lack of sleep but he could hear them getting louder and louder and he frowned. He opened his car door sleepily, yawning and his jaw dropped.

0O0

Oh he knew it, he KNEW it! They were all fakers- just like the rest of them! It didn't matter if they were new to this competition, all aniamls were the same and they would do anything to win this competition. How DARE they!? How dare they kidnap his only chance at becoming the leader of the Circus? Now there were only two females in charge, and they needed a third and fourth wheel to help them. He wanted to be the ONLY leader, like Justinian, when he married Safi.

He growled in anger and his eyes momentarily looked to his side where Rita was. her face full of worry and horror. She was the lead tracker, and she recognized the path all too well. The path she and the others took to Circo Zaragoza, her old home. But how!? They couldn't have kidnapped Safi could they!? Kidogo merely smirked at her face, he knew exactly what she was thinking. He was right, and he knew it.

He turned to his other side where Saffy was looking down, not in saddness or shame, but guilt. She knew the scent was familiar and as they got closer and closer to their rival Circus, her ears drooped and the tigress secretly prayed that the path would change, but it did not. Her eyes trailed over to Kidogo who gave her a frown.

He wnated to make her feel like a child. She was naive, stupid, to think that tiger was a good guy. Oh yes, he knew, he knew that the White Tigress was smitten with Zaragoza's tiger. To him, it was all too easy to spot. The male had been toying with her, trying to lower her guard in order to commit the crime, and instead of being smart about it and approaching it with caution, she chose to be young and idiotic and fall for the criminal. She would not only be heartbroken because of Safi's disappearance, but she would never take a male after this.

Very sad indeed.

The first one they had spotted was their small, and rather clumsy, Sea Lion. Estafan or something of the sort. He didn't care, all he wanted was to find Safi and to hopefully, if possible, strengthen her belief that he would be a great leader... and possible mate. The Sea Lion jumped at the sight of them and Kidogo made sure that Rita and Safēda were in the back, out of sight so they could see the wrong done to them.

He greeted them cheerfully until he spotted Kidogo's murderous look. How dare they stand there and pretend they did nothing. HOW DARE THEY! The small Sea Lion trembled slightly and kindly asked why they were here. Kidogo had been more than generous to explain to him how things went, and, as soon as he finished, the Sea Lion ran off.

Sadly his loud sobbings had woken up the rest of the Circus and they were next greeted by a gaping Zebra, followed by a Jaguar and a Lion, follwoed by penguins as well as a Hippo and Giraffe and soon, everyone was out. Yawning and asking what this whole yahoo was about. The small Sea Lion then returned with just the male he was wanting to see, who was most likely responsible for this whole fiasco. The tiger.

Kidogo had walked straight up to him and it did not matter to him if the Tiger towered over him by a foot or two, all he wanted was to get his dear Safi back. Vitaly eyed him back, with just as much anger and malice as Kidogo had in his heart at that moment. The two stared intently at each other, Green eyes to Amber, until the tiger finally broke the silence between the two Circuses who awaited their leaders call.

"Vat you doing here? Stefano tells me you say that ve screw you over" Kidogo nodded fiercely, as much as he could to make a statement.

"Too right, you have! You know, the others trusted you but I knew better! All you animals are the same! You pretend your clueless about what goes on around here, but in reality you're planning everyone's downfall so that YOU could win!" he spat, his calws unsheathing. Vitaly bared his teeth once more and prepared to give Kidogo a piece of his mind before he spotted his old friend, as well as a certain female he pretty-much-did-not-know-how-he-felt-about-yet. Rita's eyes widened with worry, while Safēda's eyes looked swollen,a s if she had been sobbing her eyes out.

Intsantly he retracted his claws, he did not want to be the first one to start a possible fight. Not with them watching as well as everyone else. Alex slowly pushed Vitaly aside so the lion could face Kidogo. "Ok, look. We barely even knew there was such a thing like this a few weeks ago, and as you can see, everyone is tired so we could never have-"

"You could be sleepy because you stayed up all night trying to fit Safi in whatever crate you have with no oxygen for her to brethe in! Just give her back!" Jewel the Goose squacked. Her kin squacked in protest along with her. Kidogo smirked when Alex's face fell.

"Look, we all slept in our cars last night, so-"

"Uh" Marty butted in. Everyone's eyes turned on him and Marty was quick to hold his hoofs up to explain. "L-look, I was with a friend, if I can bring her, she will convince you that I had nothign to do with her, I barely came this morning to sleep!" Alex sighed. Darn it Marty, he almost gave him a heart attack. Kidogo merely frowned at the Stallion.

"I don't trust any of you! If what you all say is true, and you didn't take Safi, let us search your Circus. Most of us have keen senses of smell..." his eyes trailed ot the corner of his eye. Kidogo smirked inside. "Especially Safēda and Rita" he added. The two females slunked, while Alex looked at Gia as well as the rest of the others. They would agree, they had nothing to-

"Nyet! If you don't believe us, your loss! Ve did nothing!" Vitaly snarled, eyeing Kidogo who, in return, snarled back. Gia quickly cut in front of them.

"Now is not the time to fight! Vitaly! They will search! We have nothing to hide, so why bother?" She explained, looking at Vitaly, her gold eyes pleading him not to start something. Kidogo smirked and crossed his arms in triumph. He will deal with the Tiger after he found the evidence.

"Listen to the little Jaguar girl, tiger. You attack me and you'll regret it!" Vitaly glared at Kidogo before huffing and crossing his arms.

"Fine"

0O0

The whole lot of Fantaisie had watched those from Zaragoza wait outside their cars, they made sure no one went in their own cars, for the belief that they would hide their evidence. They had searced and searched but found nothing. No clues, no scents, heck, not even a singly hair did they find that had anything written "Safi" all over it. As twilight turned into the afternoon, almost everyone's car had been checked. Everyone's except for Vitaly.

The tiger, this time, refused to elt any enter his car. Not even Kidogo. He didn't care, he didn't do anything and they should belive him! He had no reason to lie about that, he was telling the truth, but obviously Kidogo did not believe one word that came out fo the Tiger's muzzle. The two enganged in a ferocious battle of verbal wits and intimidation until Rita forced her way through the pile of animals that surrounded the two males.

With force, she knocked Kidogo aside and her eyes watered. "Vitaly, I know yu no do it. Just let us check. You no do it, we apologize. Let us check, and get it over vith. Please" she begged. Vitaly was about to tell her off until he watched as Rita shook violently. She was an old lioness, not very old but old, she missed her dear friend and only wanted to find her. same went for everyone. They just lost their leader and if they didn't do this, how were they ever going to find out?

Gia stepped foward as well and tugged his arm. "Vitaly,I knwo you do not like it. But understand, Safi was like a mother to all of them, and she wa fair. They just want to find her. You would do the same thing for me, so please.." she went back into the pile next to Alex who studied Vitaly.

The tiger shook, fighting his pride back down until he sighed and nodded. He turned and Alex gave him a nod. No matter what, Alex would never turn his back on his friends, guilty or not. Rita was about to enter to search until Kidogo grabbed her arm and pulled it back. He had a nice idea. He turned his head and smiled. "Safēda. You do it" he proposed. The tigress jumped at the sound of her name and her eyes widened.

Going into his car? To see if he was guilty? But he said he wasn't... then again, what if she found something? "I... can't" she replied, sulkign even more. "I- I just want to get Safi but-"

"Then sniff his car out." Kidogo said. Rita frowned at him she knew his plan, he wanted to make Saffy see her mistake in trusting others. HER mistake. Safēda momentarily locked eyes with Vitaly. He nodded, giving her permission. If anyone had to search him, he would choose her, and he hoped she knew it.

Sighing, the tigress walked foward and entered his car. Kidogo smiled, "I'll close the door so unsavory elements won't ruin the scent" he said, and closed the car door. It was then when Safēda heard him complaining wbout Rita pulling and biting his ear. The tigress sighed and looked around Vitaly's car. He had a lot of stuff. Mainly knives and such, a few propaganda posters as well as a few plushies of him and his friends. Cute.

She went to work and started to sniff around anywhere where they might have hidden clues or evidence. She found nothing pertaining to Safi or her scent, and only stopped when she opened a drawer and saw many his old pictures. She smiled slightly when she picked up an old, worn out photograph with a newborn tiger cub. His emerald green eyes widened as he explored his surroundings and wondering why in the world he was not touching the ground. She picked up another to show the same cub with a little Sea Lion pup with curly whiskers, the two were playing with each other and the cub was careful not to crush him.

She spotted another where the two amigos were playing with a female tiger cub as well as helping a small jaguar cub to walk and jump. Cute. She looked around the drawers and found more pictures, mostly with him in it, showing the old days of the Circus. With each picture that she took out and examined, she felt like she was becoming closer and closer to the tiger waiting outside, until she reminded herself of her mission. While sniffing out anything once more, she opened a few more drawers with nothing but hoops and rings. She took one out, frowning at it before putting it back in the drawer and trying to pick up a scent once more.

She searched and searched around the desk, around his hammock, on his shelves, every corner of his car, and finally went to search around the knives. She sighed to herself in peace, knowing that if she found nothing here, that meant that Zaragoza was right in their claims, and someone else had taken Safi from her. And they would help too, hopefully, surely they would, right? But that was not to be.

At first, when she caught the scent, she actually turned to see if Safi had magically appeared behind her, to give her a reassuring smile that she was there, but she found no one. The tigress gulped, a thought lingering in her head and as she started to sniff again, the scent came at her full force. Knowing what to do, she quickly moved the knives around as carefully as she could so as to not get cut or sliced and she almost yelped when she found what she had caught.

Old beads. Colorful ones, with vibrant colors, dangling from one of the Knife . She took it from there and examined it. She remembered searching Safi's quarters and the make-up department for anything missing. She remembered not seeing her beads in her jewelery box. Tears threatened to over take her as she held the necklace. The familiar scent outside the tent, the lost beads, the flirting and talking, it all made sense.

These were Safi's missing beads.

She growled lowly, before turning, the beads enveloped in her fist, she slammed the door open, surprising everyone there, while she glared hatefully at the tiger. How dare he... HOW DARE HE! He LIED to them! All of them! Including her!

Quick as a flash, Safēda ran towards him, never minding the worried look Rita gave her, and slashed her claws across the tiger's cheek. Vitaly's eyes widened as he felt sharp pain in his cheek and roared. "Vat vas that for!?" he exclaimed. Safēda growled and held the necklace in his face. The animals from Fantaisie gasped and murmered to themselves. That was Safi's necklace. Safēda baed her fangs and growled once more.

"THIS is why! You no good LIAR!" Vitaly growled and took the necklace from her paws.

"I never seen necklace in LIFE!"

"And still he denies it!" Kidogo exclaimed loudly for everyone to hear. Rita shook her head in disbelief.

"No, he couldn't have done- no I don't belive it" she whispered sadly. Kidogo smugly smiled at the tiger.

"See? I was right, wasn't I? The evidence is right there! Safi's missing necklace from the night before has been found in your Circus... so now, where is she?"

"But we don't have her! There must be some mistake-" Gia said, as shocked as everyone else was at the finding. She looked at Vitaly, and cringed at the sight of his messy cheek. "We did no such thing! Safi was our friend! We would never hurt her!"

"Doesn't matter" Safēda growled. "You better give Safi back or I'll-"

"They no do it!" Rita exclaimed. "I know these animals! They family! They no hurt Safi! Never!" Kidogo frowned.

"So you back up the kidnappers? Not us? Your family, Rita? I thought Safi was your friend!" he said, feigning believable sadness. The animals protested against her.

"How could you Rita!"
"Traitor!"
"Why!? After all we've done to make oyu feel at home-"
"If they're more than your family, why don't you stay with them!?"
"Yeah! Kick her out!"

Rita sputtered, she had no way of choosing one Circus for another. She looked back at Zaragoza, there was completely no way these animals had the heart to do something so bad. They could never do that. She looked back at those from Fantaisie. She had known them almost as much as she had known Zaragoza, she could never pick one family out of two. Safēda had then angrily snatched away the beads from Vitaly's paw, looking him in the eyes and caught an emotion she hadn't seen before: Sadness. She growled before she angrily, and sadly, walked away.

She was stupid. She was so stupid! How could she had let her guard down merely because Safi had said so? It was all her fault, she should have never let her guard down, even for mere hours, she should have never done it! But then why did he seem so sad? Bah! It must have been because he had been caught! Dumb tiger! Stupid, stupid, stupid! Kidogo took her sign of walking away as giving up. Pathetic. However, it may come in handy if they spread this little fiasco around. That'll teach them!

He turned to face the animals. "Alright, fellas. They won't give us Safi, so I guess we'll have to leave and search for other means to make them" with that he turned and marched away. The animals glared at the Zaragoza animals before they turned themselves and with caution. For all they knew, they could be the next ones to be kidnapped. Stefano sobbed even harder than before and clung onto Gia while she hugged him, biting her lip to keep from crying.

They were in huge toruble, and they didn't even deserve to be. Vitaly tightened his fists, glaring after the lion. He had a big mouth, he did. He may foold everyone else but he will not fool Vitaly. No one did. Alex stood next to him, glaring after the animals before he lightly commented.

"That guy wasn't so nice". Vitaly had the grace to then stare at the lion incredulously.

"You think?"

0O0

Grace and the rest watched from afar as the whole scene took place. A smal smile ran through her lips when Safēda had entered the tiger's car. There they would find it. They had carefully planned it oh so precisely. So she could take her time in searching everywhere most likely to hide evidence, and she would get a little sneak peek at the other tiger's little life. She had to admit, it was too perfect.

Now with loyalty and trust broken on both sides, the two Circuses will most likely crumble, which only left Circo de Flora and Circo Freak left. And then theirs would be the only one to win not only the competition but as well as the 1 million dollars in cash prize. Shida paced back and forth, reciting what was to happen and how the plan will help them advance. Her mate, Solide, merely yawned and eyed Zaragoza boredly. He only showed interest when Safēda had come out of the car and took a good swing at the tiger.

"Oooh" he mused. "That has got to hurt, well, from my perspective" Grace rolled her eyes. She mainly focused at what the lion, Alex, did. He merely stared and stayed close to that jaguar girl. How dare he. He was so stupid! But that allowed for him to see how protective he was of his mate than anyone else. Shida had stopped reciting and smiled nastily when those from Fantaisie started to leave.

"Good. All we need is to increase tension between the other Circuses against them and we'd get all four others to the carefull planning of one!" she said excitedly, reciting the exact words that her father had spoken to them the night before. Solide merely rolled his eyes before getting up.

"Well, you guys stay and watch further. I'll go back and tell Kaden that everything is working perfectly" and the cheetach ran off, leaving his mate and Grace alone. The light brown lioness tilted her head and then turned to Shida, who was happily prancing around.

"Well, do we sit here and watch what else happens?" she asked. Shida rolled her eyes and scoffed.

"Of course! We need to see their reaction, remember! Always use a situation to your best advantage!" she sang as if it was one of her favorite songs. Grace groaned and covered her eyes.

"You are so embarrassing, Shida. I can't believe Solide fell for you"

"What can I say? I'm irresitable"

"Yeah, don't believe everything your daddy says... like when he tells you you're pretty" she smirked. Shida pouted before stalking off.

"Fine. You watch them alone. Consider this as punishment!" and then Shida disappeared. Grace was about to call after her to come back but stepped on her own tail to remind her that if that were to happen, they would be caught... or rather she would be caught. She can't risk the mission... not even for her own good. Darn it all.

Knowing that there would be nothing else that would be very interesting, she decided to make herself comfortable and laid down.

0O0

Iggy didn't know what to expect when he didn't find his mother next to him. Then when he spotted the other grownups leaving off, he decided to follow behind, but at a reasonable distance. When he had arrived at Zaragoza, he wanted nothig more than to jump out and introduce all of his Circus to them. It seems as if they finally decided to become friends.

But when Kidogo claimed that they had lied to them and kidnapped his mother. All he could do was stare in horror. Where was his mother? They were lying weren't they? About his mother!? But when Kidogo and the other animals started to search, his fear multiplied and then sunk everytime they did a search and found nothing.

Then they came to Tiger stuff's car. And when Saffy came out and held the beads in his face. Iggy couldn't, no he didn't, want to believe it. Had his new friends really taken his mother away? When the adults had left, the animals murmered to themselves just enough so Iggy could hear correctly.

"Vitaly what are we gonna do?"
"Why are they blaming us?"
"How did those beads get in Vitaly's car!?"
"You didn't just take those did you, Vitaly?"
"NYET!"

Iggy stared at mainly Alex who rubbed the back of his mane, his brow furrowing. "Well we can't just stay here and let this happen! We'll find Safi and then we'll prove that lion wrong! We need to expose whoever did this!" Iggy then ran out of his hiding spot and hugged Alex who jumped at the sudden hug the cub gave him. Everyone gasped as they saw Iggy suddenly appear.

"I want my mommy!" he cried. Gia picked him up and hugged him tenderly.

"Don't worry, Iggy. We'll find your mama. We'll find her and see to it that she is okay, or whoever hurt her will get it! Promessa!" she said sadly. Alex nodded his head.

"Don't worry kiddo, we'll do whatever it takes to get your mom back! And make sure your family doesn't know that you're still here, we don't want you to get in trouble and not see us again" Gloria then cooed at the little cub, tears running down his muzzle.

"Don't worry sweetie, we'll find your mama. We're gonna help! All you need to do is help us with a little bit of detective work and hopefully you can get Rita to help us" Vitaly grimaced. His back was turned to everyone, he didn't want to face him. It was his fault. If he hadn't been so tired yesterday, he might have picked up the scent and returned it to them or had done somehting to prevent this. Soon everyone would think their Circus had kidnapped a loved one. And they could do nothing to stop it.

Iggy sniffed before looking over to Vitaly and sulked a bit. "What about you, Tiger stuff? Will you help too?" he asked. Vitaly was shocked to hear the cub speak to him and slightly turned. He nodded. This wasn't going to get him to stop. No, their Circus would win and then would they have the right to claim that they hadn't stolen Safi.

With luck, they would even find the real culprit, whoever that was.

0O0

I don't particularly like this Chapter so much as when I planned it... meh. Well I hope you guys still find it to your liking! I know, too serious and I don't think I made it as emotional as I wanted it to be but that it entirely up to you. So we have Zaragoza in the middle of this long fiasco between Circuses and find themselves pawns in a game they never expected to play, Fantaisie is brutally damaged with the loss of their leader and picking a new one is going to bring a lot of arguments and, of course, doubt.

And so relationships and friendships are put to the test. Especially Vitaly and Saffy's. Distrust between them, right when they were about to really hit it off. I just like to ruin your expectations don't I? Flame me, fi you want to do so -_-

And for those of you wondering, if you could, why iggy's reaction to them isn't like 'I HATE YOU! YOU TOOK MY MOMMY!" well he just saw both sides without interference. Some kids are entirely innocent until they are corrupted to one side. So Iggy is thinking that his friend's never hurt his mom. After all, his mom was nice to everyone and helped them when they all landed on one another, why hate her?

So there you have it! :3

Uzuri, OUT! And do give me more ideas about what could happen next guys, who knows, I might use'em ;)