Lexie slowly opened her eyes, her entire body ached and her head was pounding. "Where…Where am I?" She muttered as she flicked her eyes around to survey her surroundings. As Lexie moved her hands she heard chains rattle, so she glanced over to see her arms were bound to a wall by thick metal chains. "That's not ideal." As she moved around a pain shot through her stomach, at first she believed it was her scar but she then remembered the fact she had gotten hit by one of Alisandra's arrows. "Lexie?" A voice whispered quietly, Lexie turned to see McCoy slowly waking up. "Yeah, it's me. Are you Ok?" McCoy looked over at her, "I'm alright, you?" Lexie squinted her eyes slightly as she tried to cope with the pain. "Just a little sore, that's all." "Where are we?" McCoy asked, Lexie once again looked around. "I have no idea, but I can guarantee that wherever we are, it ain't Alister's manor."
McCoy rolled his eyes slightly, "I can see that. Where's Jim?" Lexie was about to answer when they heard a grunt coming from across the room. It was Kirk who was slowly coming around, "How ya feeling Jim?" McCoy asked even though he had a very good guess as to what the answer was going to be. "Like I've got a terrible hangover, but other than that I think I'm OK. What about you two?" Lexie forced herself to smile slightly, "We're as good as we can be Kirk." They soon discovered that Chekov, Kiara, and Alister were also with them and just like themselves they were bound to the wall by chains. "Alister, do you know where we are?" Asked McCoy, "Yes, we're in the castle dungeon." Chekov hadn't really been listening, he had his eyes closed and was concentrating. "I can't move the stone which the chains are connected to." Alister sighed, "You won't be able to, in fact none of us will be able to use any form of magic." That's not what Lexie wanted to hear.
Kirk tried to break the chains, but he just couldn't. "Where's Spock when you need him?" He joked, "That Hobgoblin would have too much fun if he ever found out about our powers Jim, besides even his logic and strength would be useless here." McCoy replied. Kirk knew the Doctor was right, the Vulcan would spent too much time in trying to find a logical explanation for everything, rather than just believing it. "What do you thinks happening on the ship?" Questioned Chekov. "Hopefully nothing as bad as this Pavel. At least the ship is out of orbit, the crew will be safe that way."
Kirk was more than a little relieved that the Enterprise was no longer orbiting Cecilia, otherwise it may have become a target. "I still can't believe that Spock simply let us go back on 'shore leave' after what happened when we first beamed down here." Lexie stated, Kirk was surprised as well. He was sure that the Vulcan would have tried to stop them from returning, but he was thankful he hadn't, in a way. Once again Chekov tried to moved the stones, but he couldn't. "The chains are enchanted with a strong form of dark magic, one that I cannot break." Muttered Alister sadly as he watched the Navigator struggle.
Kiara twitched her lion ears, almost like she was listening to something. "Some ones coming." She whispered, just then there was a loud clang and a door opened to reveal Alisandra standing there, her demonic wings tucked tightly against her back. "Well, look who decided to wake up." Kirk simply glared at her, "Why did you bring us here?" He asked. "I'm surprised you haven't figured that out for yourselves, but since you haven't I'll tell you. With you Guardians locked up in here, there will be no one to stand in my way." "You're forgetting one thing?" Muttered Chekov, "And what's that boy?" "You don't have all the Guardians." Alisandra just laughed. "You really think I'm worried about your friend, hah! He's no threat to me, he's just a pathetic weakling who ran away with his tail between his legs." Lexie was trying her best not to lose it, but she just couldn't sit quietly while she talked about Scotty like that. "Don't you dare say that about Scotty! He's just as powerful as you are! He'll come for us and then you'll be sorry!" As she yelled Lexie tugged on her chains, if she wasn't restrained and could use her powers she would have attacked Alisandra by now.
"Believe what you want and I'll do the same, anyway you'll be reunited with him soon." "What's that supposed to mean?" Alisandra wandered over to Lexie and ran her cold fingers down her cheek, "Just because he's no threat to me doesn't mean I'll let him go, as I speak my minions are searching the forest and they have been ordered to do whatever it takes to bring him back here. Either alive or dead." Lexie's face went white, did she really just say the word 'dead'? "I swear if you hurt him, I'll make you regret it." But once again Alisandra just laughed, "I would love to see you try." Alisandra removed her hand from Lexie's face and a shadowy aura began to float around it, suddenly Lexie felt herself get yanked up against the wall as her chains pulled forcefully at her wrists. Lexie cried out in pain, Kirk pulled at his own chains. "Leave her alone!" The aura round the Queen's hand vanished causing the chains to go limp, Alisandra then turn to face Kirk. "Maybe you should teach your young friend here some manners." She said smugly before walking, almost proudly out of the cell.
Kirk instantly returned his gaze to Lexie. "Did she hurt you?" "No I'm fine." Kiara was amazed, "You're really brave to stand up to her like that, no one has ever done that." Lexie turned and smiled at the Shikari. "I've stood up to someone much worse before her." Kiara then asked who, which Lexie knew was coming. "My uncle, he wasn't the nicest person known to man." "That's an understatement." McCoy muttered under his breath, just the mere mention of the Engineers uncle made his blood boil. "Do you think Scotty and Delta are alright?" Chekov asked, Kirk sighed quietly. "I'm sure they're fine Pavel, the two of them are smart enough to keep out of trouble." He stated, McCoy rolled his eyes. "Are you sure about that Jim?" Kirk turned to face the Doctor. "Why wouldn't they Bones?" "Do you really want me to answer that question Jim?" Kirk smiled nervously, "No Bones, I think I know your answer." Kiara had closed her eyes for a moment, "Are you alright Kiara?" Lexie asked concernedly as Kiara opened her eyes and nodded slowly, "I'm fine Lexie, I'm just trying to telepathically talk to Akela. I just want to know she's alright."
She replied, her lion ears folded down. Chekov wanted to give the Shikari a hug, but since he couldn't do that he simply smiled at her. "Akela will be alright Kiara, you'll see." "Pavel's right, they'll all be OK. Akela, Shibuki, Kiko, and Tarika are strong." McCoy said sweetly, it seemed that was what Kiara needed to hear since her ears pricked up and she was smiling once again. Alister moved his hands about to wake them up, "I'm sorry, this is my fault." He said suddenly. Everyone quickly turned to face the Keeper, "What makes you say that Alister?" Questioned Lexie. "I dragged you all into a fight that started five thousand years ago." Kirk smiled at him gently, "You didn't drag us into anything Alister, we chose to help you with Alisandra, it's not like you forced us to come." But Alister didn't seem convinced. "But you don't understand, this fight would never have happened if I had stopped Alisandra all those years ago." Kirk was confused, "What do you mean by that? Were the two of you friends?" Alister sighed as he glanced down at the ground. "I watched her turning into the monster she is known as today and we were more than just friends Captain… We were in love."
"You were what?!" Questioned McCoy quickly, "In love Leonard, we were deeply in love." Alister sighed once more. "There's a story behind this, isn't there?" Lexie asked, Alister nodded. "Yes, you see. Me and Alisandra have been in love for many, many years." "When did you first meet her?" Asked Kirk, "I met her when Miguel received his powers from the previous Guardian, back then the powers were past down with help of the Queen. I guess it's what you could call love at first sight." Despite the current situation that she was in, Lexie couldn't help but find Alister's love story extremely cute. "Take it the two of you hit it off well then?" "Yes, we got together that very same day. We barely spent a day apart, so much so that I basically lived in the castle with her." "So when you said you watched her turning, what do you actually mean?" Chekov asked since he was confused about that part, "As time went on I slowly started to notice Alisandra's behaviour changing, she would get angry with almost anyone if they made a mistake, even little ones. Then it happened…"
Lexie's small smile faded away, Alister sounded so upset, almost as if he was going to cry. "What?" Alister took a deep breath, "One of her maids accidentally dropped her tiara, which was normally no big deal but Alisandra wasn't having any of it. I watched as her eyes slowly turned red, she then changed into the monster that you guys see today." Lexie watched as a lonely tear ran down the man's face before dripping off his chin and splashing onto the stone floor. "I should have seen something was wrong, I could have stopped any of this from happening." Alister then felt something stroke against his hip, he glanced over to see Kiara's tail gently patting him. "You maybe able to see peoples emotions Alister, but not even you could have seen this happening. We will stop Alisandra, we may even get her back." Kiara said softly which seemed to comfort her tutor, "Thanks Kiara. Now lets figure out a way out of here."