Ambrosia stumbled as she rematerialized. She felt crippling nausea wash through her stomach and she had to stagger backwards until she found something to sit on. It was hard and felt suspiciously like a rock. Looking around, she saw that she was in a small cave that looked like a much smaller version of the Mayans' cave.

In front of her, Jill angrily cursed as she paced the width of the cave. Ambrosia felt a little scared to interrupt Jill to ask all the questions she had, so she just kept silent and carried on watching the angry Merlinian.

Eventually, Jill stopped pacing and ran her fingers through her hair, her expression changing from anger to horror. "I cannot believe I just did that," Ambrosia heard her whisper.

"Um…J-Jill?"

Jill turned to look at Ambrosia, who raised her hand like she was in school. "I kinda have some questions."

Jill groaned aloud and smacked herself in the forehead. "Of course you do. I'm sorry. But first of all, I need to apologise for bringing you here in the first place."

Now that Jill was calm, Ambrosia could find herself getting angrier at the whole situation and mostly at Jill. She took a deep breath and coldly said, "That was actually one of my questions. Why did you bring us here?"

"It was the only safe place I could think of in such short notice," sighed Jill, flopping down on the rock next to Ambrosia. "And…I guess I owe you an explanation for quite a lot of things."

Ambrosia held up her hand, halting Jill's speech. She was struggling to remain calm and not lose her temper. Jill anxiously watched Ambrosia take deep breaths and try to stop her neck and head from shaking. "Why?" Ambrosia said finally. "Why did you choose me? Why did you take my strength? Why did you have to teleport us away? WHY ME?!"

The last question ended up being yelled, causing Jill to flinch. "I thought you would be the only one to understand," Jill said quietly. "I saw Julius but I couldn't do that to him because he neither likes nor trusts me after the senate incident. I thought you would be the only one to understand why."

"Well I don't!" shouted Ambrosia. "I know why you had to teleport away, since that crowd was going to kill you or at the very least arrest you, but why did you have to take my strength?!"

"Because I had no strength of my own," Jill replied. "I couldn't have just teleported myself away because I had no strength left. I had to use yours."

"…did you have to bring me with you?" Ambrosia asked dangerously.

Jill hung her head. "N-no."

"THEN WHY DID YOU?!" Ambrosia screeched at Jill, who flinched for the second time.

"I understand you're mad at me, but-."

"No, you DON'T understand!" Ambrosia yelled, getting up from the rock and striding a little way into the cave, trying to expel the majority of her anger through her voice; she didn't like blowing up at people. "You don't understand at all! When I was little, I was picked on by the other children because I was smaller than them. They kept pushing me around because they thought I was weaker than them. I spent years building up this image of myself with them, an image that told those children I wasn't weaker than them. Then when I was fourteen, a man came to our house and kidnapped me to hold for ransom."

Jill looked stunned.

"I was eventually freed without my parents having to pay ransom but I was ruined. Those children who used to make fun of me began doing it again. I had proved myself to be weaker than them by being kidnapped so easily. Even into my adult life, I had people treating me like a small child while giving me adult responsibilities. But now…it was great. My sister told everyone about how I stood up to the Mayan leader and that earned me new respect. I had people who used to be mean to me be nice to me. Then you had to go ruin it all by kidnapping me!"

Jill's face creased up. "Ambrosia, I'm so sor-."

"I don't care about apologies!" Ambrosia snapped. "It's done now. There's nothing I can do anymore. I'm doomed to forever have this reputation that I'm just a weak and easily-pushed-around woman."

Her anger mostly spent, she smoothed her dress down and sat on the floor with her back against the cave. Jill got up, went over to her, and hesitantly sat down next to her.

"Do you know what I've noticed?" she asked.

This was dangerous, considering Ambrosia's current state of mind, but the Greek woman simply gave a grunt.

"You speak in contractions when you're mad," Jill told her. "And your speech is a lot more informal. Can…can I be honest?"

Another grunt from Ambrosia, which Jill took to be a yes, even though she knew she was still treading on thin ice.

"If you'd been yelling at me in that formal language you always use, I wouldn't be feeling as bad as I am now."

Ambrosia turned to look at Jill, who avoided the Greek woman's gaze.

"You're always so softly-spoken. If you'd used formal language just now, I would have assumed you weren't really mad at me, maybe just letting off steam. But when you're mad, you change the whole way you talk, probably inadvertently. It made me realise you really are furious with me. And I don't blame you, don't get me wrong. It's just that…I never imagined that you were capable of getting so angry that your whole speech pattern would change. Believe me, if I had known about your past, I wouldn't have chosen you. I just needed a quick escape."

Ambrosia turned away and considered this.

"You can leave if you want," Jill said, gesturing listlessly to the cave entrance. "I won't stop you. You don't have to stay."

Ambrosia slowly got to her feet and wandered over to the cave entrance, looking out. The cave seemed to be towards the top of the mountain; she could see much further than she had from the Mayan cave. She could see many people walking about in the four sections, plus two people in the Plaza who looked suspiciously like Julius and Octavius.

"You do realise you just made yourself look like the bad guy even more," she said.

Jill nodded morosely. "I know. But I was about to be arrested for something I didn't do; I had to flee."

"I mean when you took me with you," Ambrosia said.

"I know that too."

There was silence in the cave for a few minutes as Jill closed her eyes and Ambrosia continued gazing out the cave entrance, watching the people in the land below them.

"So what now?" asked Ambrosia.

Jill gave her friend a look. "I-I guess we just wait up here until things calm down."