Once Marok and Catlanda arrived at the house, they were greeted by Rick and Evelyn.

"What took you so long?" asked Rick, a bit angry.

"That man with Alex's teacher. I don't trust him at all. He wants something that we have. We have to be careful," replied Marok, walking past them and into the house. "He probably wants the Spire."

Evie turned toward the female Medjai.

"Catlanda, there's someone waiting for you inside the house. Apparently, he arrived while we were at the school and Jonathan let him inside. He was sent by your father he says," Evie told her.

"Now why would Ardeth do that now? He's already ordered Marok to come with me," she said, walking past her.

She went inside to find Ardeth sitting on one of the couches. Both of the young Medjai gasped.

"What is he doing here?" asked Marok, obviously in shock.

"I couldn't possibly leave you Catlanda, even if are with Marok. You are too precious to me and I wanted to be here in case anything went wrong," he replied.

"And I thought I was stubborn," she quietly said.

"Ardeth, I fear there's a problem. These two think that this man wants the Spire," Evie told him.

He closed his eyes, partly because of the pain in his shoulder from the trip up and partly because of this news.

"Then we must be on full alert then. We cannot let anyone get it," he replied.

00000

Pyram drove up to a house. Both the passenger and driver climbed out.

"Now what was that all about?" she demanded. "I've never been so embarrassed in my entire life."

"All will be explained Caroline. All will be explained," he replied. "We'll be meeting them soon enough."

He began to laugh as the woman stared at him with a strange look.

00000

Jonathan sat in as chair, watching the small group. Catlanda was sitting next to Ardeth as Marok was talking to the O'Connells.

"Guess I know why he's here now. I was very surprised when he showed up at the door, wanting to come in and wait. He didn't tell me anything," he said to himself.

Soon everybody sat down except Evie.

"I suppose you're all wondering why they're here. Ardeth asked me the last time we met, after the mess with Ramses, if it'd be alright that Catlanda come here to meet some women her age and learn about our culture. He said someone would join her, I just didn't expect two people. Oh, and while she's here, I'll have a chance to study the Spire," she explained.

"Perfect. We have the Medjai brat staying with us for a while," Rick quietly said.

"I heard that," Catlanda said.

"Rick, don't insult our houseguests," reprimanded Evie, hands on her hips.

00000

Later in the day, Ardeth was laying in a bed upstairs when he heard a knock on the door.

"Come in," he said.

Evie and Marok walked inside. She had a concerned look on her face.

"Ardeth, Marok here told me what happened before you came here. About how you got shot before you left. Are you alright?" she asked.

He hesitated for a moment before Evie took that as a no.

"It's been hurting a lot. I fear the trip here has just made it worse but I couldn't just stay there and be worried out of my skull about Catlanda. I think that would be far worse on me than any injury I should suffer or have suffered," he explained sadly.

Marok turned his head slightly away as his leader spoke. He closed his eyes and gave an inward sigh.

"I, uh, need to check up on Catlanda. See if she's alright," he told them before quickly leaving the room.

The two watched him go before Evie's stare came back to Ardeth.

"Do you need any help with anything? Do you need me to check the wound?" she asked him.

"Not at the moment, thank you," he replied, shifting his position. "Though if you could stay for one moment more please? I have something to tell you."

Evie nodded and sat on the edge of the bed.

"Evelyn, I fear that my personal feelings for her might be the death of me someday," he told her, closing his eyes.

"What? Don't say such a thing Ardeth! She's your daughter. Of course you would worry about her. Especially if she was in danger," Evie told him. "Now I'm going to let you rest."

She left the room, leaving Ardeth still the slightest worried about something else.

"Marok, have you finally learned the meaning of obeying orders?" he asked himself quietly before falling asleep.

00000

During the night, several men hurried up to the O'Connell house.

"Remember what the man said. We go in, get the Spire and leave before they even realize it's gone," one explained to the others.

They silently climbed inside and headed down to the room where Catlanda was sleeping. One peeked on to see the Spire was on the bed with her and Isis was at her feet, sleeping silently.

A couple looked in another room to see Ardeth sleeping soundly.

"At least we don't have to worry about anybody. They won't even know until it's too late," one snickered quietly as they walked away from the door. "Maybe we should go after the kid like what the boss said. He said it seems she has some form of an attachment to him."

From inside the room, Ardeth heard voices. At first, he thought they were Rick and Evie but it didn't sound like them. He opened his eyes to see the two walk away from the door, towards Catlanda's room. He stood up, trying not to make a sound and headed out the door. He saw the men prepared to go into the room.

"No, Catlanda," he whispered, knowing it would be impossible for him to defend against all of them in his condition.

But he knew what he had to do. He grabbed his sword from inside the door and rushed out of the room, facing the men. They looked at him with a laugh.

"One man against all off us? Pitiful," one said, pulling out his sword.

"I can try," Ardeth told them.

He started to block the oncoming attacks and his shoulder protested the movement right from the start but he continued on.

The men started to notice he was weakening. One of them bodyslammed Ardeth against the wall and he gasped out in immense pain. The man, who was using his arm to keep Ardeth to the wall, lifted his sword and swung at Ardeth, slicing his leg badly. Ardeth couldn't help but cry out.

Evie awoke to a cry. She climbed out of bed, causing Rick to wake up as well.

"Evie, what's so important in the middle of the night?" he asked, rubbing his eyes.

"Something's wrong, I know it," she replied as she hurried out into the hallway.

She gasped once she saw what was happening.

"Rick!" she cried, stepping back.

He ran out of the room as Catlanda and Marok ran out of theirs.

"Leave him alone!" Catlanda told him, emphasizing each word and holding the Spire in front of her.

Marok held out a sword as the men held out theirs.

The man holding Ardeth against the wall laughed.

"Make me," he replied, putting a dagger into Ardeth's bad right shoulder.

Ardeth cried out in more pain.

"I'll stop...once you give me the Spire," he told her with an evil smile.

She looked at Ardeth, who slowly shook his head.

"Never," she replied. "But of course, I can always demonstrate the power this thing has. Spire..."

"You do anything to me and he dies," the man threatened, putting the sword up to Ardeth's neck.

She lowered the Spire, not knowing what to do. It was then that Rick thought of an idea.

"You want the Spire, right? Then why don't you just take it? It's being protected by a woman. What is a woman doing with the Spire anyway?" he asked the man. "I see no reason that you can't take it away from her real easily."

"You're right, why don't I? Come on everybody, let's get it," he cried, letting Ardeth slide to the floor.

He grabbed his shoulder as Evie ran over to him. They watched the man advance towards the other Medjai. Marok was watching him the entire time.

"Spire, stop him," Catlanda ordered.

The man stopped dead in his tracks.

"What...what did you do to me!" he demanded.

"Spire, take him out of the house and sent back to his master," she ordered.

The man disappeared into thin air and the two ran up to Ardeth, who sat in a pool of blood.

"Oh god, his shoulder," Evie said as she uncovered the area with the wounds.

The man had stabbed him almost right where the gunshot wound was.

TBC...