Joren gave an evil smile as the knocked out princess slumped into his arms. He picked her up and moved back into the shadows. Lucky for him, Rowen missed this as he was so busy fighting off the controlled cloudrunners. Once Joren thought he was a good distance away he spread his bat like wings and rose into the air, carrying Alecie with him. Rowen at that moment turned around to check on Alecie.

"How you doing?" he asked. When she didn't respond he whirled around to find her gone.

"Lecie?" he called. No answer.

"Lecie?" he said louder. He quickly looked around in an attempt to find her when he saw Joren, carrying the unconscious Alecie in his arms.

"Alecie!" Rowen yelled as spread his wings and took off after Joren. The others, alerted by Rowen's yell looked at him puzzled before realizing what had upset him so much. King Tallas saw his daughter being carried away as he paled. He did the same as Rowen as he took off after Joren, while the others stayed on the ground preventing the enemy cloudrunners from doing any major damage to the city. Joren realized by now that his cover had been blown. He shifted the girl in his arms as he increased his speed, bringing her to Broadway as he had been told to do. Rowen and King Tallas right on his heels. Joren gave a nervous look backwards, they were gaining.

"A little help would be nice!" he said sarcastically to himself. As if in answer to his statement.  A group of cloudrunners came up behind Joren, blocking the king and Rowen off from their pursuit. Rowen immediately began fighting off the cloudrunners as the king did the same, but by the time they defeat them all it was too late. Joren was gone, taking Alecie with him. Joren gave a smirk when he realized they were gone. He slowed down a bit as he saw Broadway and his sister waiting for him. He landed lightly on the rooftop as he placed Alecie on the ground. Broadway stepped closer and looked at her.

"Good work." He applauded as he moved over to the edge of the roof to survey the fight that was still going on. Meliara looked at the princess with a sneer.

"This is who we were after?" she asked. "If we were going to capture a member of the royal family why not get someone like the king or the prince even but we got her!"

Broadway turned to look at his sister.

"Trust me on this. It's not her we are after. She is merely the bait needed."

Meliara looked at him confused. "Who exactly are we after?" she asked exasperated.

"We can't be after the king, or else we would have gotten him already, we aren't after the prince, we aren't after the princess, so who is left?" Broadway looked evenly at his sister as realization dawned in her eyes.

"The Ronins." She said simply. Broadway broke into a wide smile.

"Exactly. From what Joren told us, Rowen seems to have a soft spot concerning this girl." He said looking at the knock out princess. "And he is going to go to any lengths to save her, so his friends are going to help."

"So we are after Rowen?" Meliara asked trying to fit the pieces together.

"No."

"No?" Meliara gave a sigh of annoyance. "Then who?"

"Sakura." He said looking down over at the fight.

Meliara looked at him like he was crazy. "What?" she yelled. "What is wrong with you? If she was the target the entire time why didn't we just go after her in the beginning!"

"I wanted to take all suspicions off of her." Meliara calmed down a bit as she waited for her brother to explain.

"If we had gone after Sakura in the beginning, we most likely never would have gotten her. She is already on guard against things that concern me as it is. So once we captured the princess, I knew that Rowen would enlist his friends help. Now they think we are after someone else like the king or her, but don't realize that it was Sakura we were after the entire time." Meliara thought about what he had just said for a moment.

'I guess I see how it makes sense. Although it's a lot of trouble to go through just to get her. Why are we after her?' Meliara voiced her question as Broadway looked at her. He took out the red gem and held it up.

"Because of her lineage." He answered simply looking at Meliara's expression through the crystal. "Her father was an evil man, everyone knows that. And some of that evil had to have passed down to her, whether or not she shows it. It is there. With this crystal that I took from Talpa's castle, I will be able to rule the world through her." Broadway then turned around and picked up Alecie, he then turned and spread his wings.

"Let's take the princess to Skybax City. We will see how things are going there and then we will plan our next course of action." Broadway instructed as he took off, Meliara and Joren right behind him.