Disclaimer: I do not own The Penguins of Madagascar or any of its characters. I do own the penguin Alex in this story.

The commando penguins, along with Maurice and Mort, were heading back to the lemur habitat. Kowalski held onto the MP3 Player, glancing down at it. He couldn't believe they found it; for a while he was doubting they'd be able to and Julien would refuse to help them. But they actually completed a mission without Skipper! Who would have guessed that Mort had it all along?

"It's a good thing we found the MP3 Player," Private remarked, echoing Kowalski's thoughts. The young penguin walked beside him as they continued their journey through the zoo.

Kowalski nodded in agreement, but didn't reply. He fixed his gaze ahead of him, keeping an eye out for Skipper so their leader couldn't sneak up on them.

Then he realized that the lemurs were trailing a little ways behind them, deep in conversation. He strained to hear what they were saying. "Why did I have to give the little music player to the penguins?" Mort was asking, his voice sounding pleading, and Kowalski could picture him giving Maurice sad, hurt eyes.

"I know it must be hard for you," Maurice replied, but Kowalski could tell from his tone that he was only trying to comfort his friend; it was clear in his voice that he really didn't understand why Mort liked the MP3 Player so much. "But it's for the king," he added after a short pause. "You don't want to go against him, do you?"

"I'll never go against King Julien!" Mort exclaimed, sounding surprised that Maurice would even think that.

"Anyways," the aye-aye added," I bet he'd let you listen to it every once in a while."

Yeah, and my friends and I will start flying! Kowalski thought, not believing for a second, that Julien would let Mort touch the MP3 Player once it was in his paws. The king hardly allows him to touch anything that's his, which means the only thing Mort could get away with touching without being yelled at is the ground he walks on, unless Julien decides to claim that as well…

They were approaching the lemur habitat when Kowalski heard someone calling to them. He signaled for everyone to quiet down so he could listen. A heartbeat later, Skipper appeared in front of them. Kowalski gasped when he saw his leader; he jumped back when Skipper slid toward them, which caused the MP3 Player to slip out of his flipper. Rico caught it before it hit the ground.

"Skippah?" Private stepped forward, looking his leader up and down. "What's wrong? You look horrible!"

Kowalski shook his head to clear it and forced himself to relax. When Skipper appeared out of nowhere, he could have sworn his heart stopped beating for a moment, but now that he was calmed down, he saw that Private was right. Their leader was looking from side to side, his eyes were bloodshot, and his breathing was heavy.

The tall penguin walked to Skipper hesitatingly. "Are you alright?" he asked.

"I've looked everywhere for Alex!" Skipper explained, his voice betraying his fear for his daughter. "She's nowhere! It's like she just vanished!" He threw his flippers up wildly in panic, and Kowalski felt sorry for his leader. He exchanged a glance with the other two.

"Let's just take him to her," Private whispered to Kowalski, and Rico nodded in agreement.

"Skipper," Kowalski began as he turned back to his leader, but Skipper wasn't listening. He was looking all around, spinning in circles, like he expected Alex to come out of hiding and show herself to her father.

"Skippah?" Private called to him, looking frightened of their leader.

Skipper stopped turning and snapped his gaze to his team. "What?" he demanded.

"We know—"

Kowalski was interrupted by Maurice, who appeared in between him and Skipper. "I thought you wanted to keep her away from him," he whispered with a glance at Skipper, who glared at the lemur.

"We can't just let him keep on this path to insanity!" he whispered in response, hoping his words would go unheard by his leader.

"I think he's done hit rock bottom," Maurice muttered with another glance at Skipper. Then he sighed and said," Very well. Do what you want." With that said, the aye-aye went back to Mort, who still stood behind the penguins.

Kowalski waddled over to Skipper. "We know where your daughter is."

Skipper turned on him sharply, glaring at him. "You do?"

"Yes, follow us."

The penguins, with Maurice and Mort following, walked back to the lemur habitat, but when they arrived, Skipper came to a halt, shaking his head and pointing to the brick wall.

"I already checked here," the leader said. "She's not there."

Maurice glanced at Skipper, frowning. "She was there the whole time." He looked down at his feet awkwardly.

"You mean, you lemurs lied to me?" Skipper demanded, glaring at him.

"Sorry, Skipper," Maurice murmured. "But they told us to." He pointed to the other three penguins, who all gasped and started looking around, pretending to see something so interesting that they couldn't reply to what Maurice said.

Kowalski dared to look back at his leader and winced when he saw the hurt in Skipper's eyes. "You told them to lie to me?" he asked, staring at his team. "Why?" Before any of them could reply, anger replaced the hurt in his eyes and he shouted," Why did you tell them to lie to me?"

We're in trouble now, Kowalski thought, but he didn't regret lying to his leader if it meant helping Alex. He'd just never tell that to Skipper.

"I'm sorry, Skippah," Private apologized, walking over to him, but Skipper stepped back. "Alex wanted us to," the young penguin told him. "She was really upset and we—"

He stopped talking when Skipper lifted his flipper, anger still blazing in his eyes. "I don't care what Alex wanted," he growled. "If I can't even trust my own team, then I don't know who I can trust!"

Kowalski wanted to tell him that he can trust them, but when he opened his beak, no sound came out. He shut it again and looked down at his feet, shame washing over him.

Without another word, Skipper jumped into the lemur habitat, leaving his teammates where they stood with Maurice and Mort on the other side of the wall. A heartbeat later they heard Skipper yell, and instantly his team jumped into action, hopping over the wall, followed closely by the two lemurs.

Kowalski stood there in shock, not believing his eyes. Julien sat on his throne, while Alex fanned him with the bamboo stick that had leaves at the end of it; there were a couple of empty smoothie cups beside the chair. The two animals looked up, startled, when Skipper yelled. Kowalski wasn't surprised to see his leader looking so mad.

"Ringtail!" he screamed, storming over to the chair and hopping onto it, glaring down at the lemur. "What do you think you're doing? Why is my daughter fanning you, like— like some kind of pampered baby?"

Julien met Skipper's blazing eyes steadily, before pushing the penguin away from him, which caused him to fall off the chair. Kowalski helped his leader back to his feet, but Skipper kept glaring at the lemur king.

The ring tailed lemur jumped off his throne, waving his hand at Alex and she lowered the fan. Kowalski watched, not understanding what was happening. He couldn't help but steal a glance in Alex's direction and was shocked to see the female penguin staring at the king with an admirating expression on her face as Julien towered over Skipper. Did she like him? he wondered, hoping the answer would be no.

Sliding over to her, he whispered to her," Good news: We got the MP3 Player. Bad news: We ran into Skipper on the way back."

"That's okay," she replied, still watching Julien. Kowalski tried not to groan out loud and forced himself to pretend that he didn't care that she wasn't paying much attention to him.

"Well, silly penguin, you see," Julien started as he circled around Skipper before coming to a halt in front of him. "Your daughter here is being a new subject to my kingdom."

Kowalski saw Skipper's eyes harden even more, and before anyone could do anything to stop him, he launched himself at the king.

Alex seemed to be about to run over to them, but Kowalski put his flipper out to stop her, shaking his head. "Don't," he said.

"But I have to save the king!" she protested, her eyes wide with panic.

The tall penguin stared down at her in confusion. "You really see Julien as a king, don't you?" he asked.

"Of course!" she answered, sounding utterly shocked. "Don't you?"

Kowalski just barely stopped himself from laughing out loud. Instead he slowly shook his head no. "He might have been one back on his home island, Madagascar," he confessed, choosing his words carefully so not to hurt her feelings. "But he's not really a king here; just some deranged animal who's unable to let go of the past."

Alex stared at him for a long moment and he looked back, nervous about the anger and hurt in her eyes. Then she turned to where her father was attacking Julien. By this time, Private and Rico were pulling Skipper off, while Maurice and Mort rescued their king from Skipper's punches.

Kowalski saw his opportunity. Double checking to make sure no one was paying attention to them, he grabbed Alex's flipper and hopped off the platform.

She let out a protest as he dragged her with him, but it wasn't until they were underneath the platform that he finally let go of her. She turned on him. "What's your problem?" she demanded.

Suddenly embarrassed, he started having regrets, but he knew he had to do this.

Without replying to her question, he took a step toward her and she backed up until she was trapped between him and the concrete wall of the platform. She looked up at him, fear and uncertainty in her eyes. Still he said nothing. He bent down a little until he was at eye level with her. Then he moved forward, pressing his beak against hers.

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