Well, this is the 2nd to last chapter. One more to go after this and then it's over. *sob*

Freakizimi: Yes! I wanna read ur fic! I'm sure its great! A link would be great or u could just send it to me hotmail addy. And nah, i live in Australia. This website is pretty american-dominated eh? You're from Britain? CooL! yeah, you're right. i'm being selfish. 95 reviews is nothing to sniff at. It's fantastic! It's great! That's an average of 5 reviews a chapter, thats great! What am i complainin about? I don't know. Having a sad day i guess! *dances* i got a cookie! hey, you know that i'm doig my first lotr story as well! Me proud!

Nakhti: you're from Britain as well? Wow. Theres lots of british ppl on here too! and here i was thinkin it was mainly american. As you notice i'm avoiding the ari subject. I'm going with the phrase, "ignorance is bliss." i like that phrase. Ardeth don't know Zen is dead yet. Oh! You'll like this chappie! Well, i wasn't sure whether to make her wife or girlfriend and in the grand scheme of things, does it matter? shes dead! yeah well, i couldn't really have Hashim whip out the grand piano out of back pocket so they could have a duet. Beam me up [a scotch and soda] Scotty! Heres your happy ever after!

author unknown: Your review doesn't suck. It made me happy cause it lets me know that there are lurkers out there! Lurkers are good and thanks heaps for the review although i think i was just being selfish. hey, i might get 100 by the end! Thanks for a review!

Medjaiangel: thanks for ur review! Happy Valentines back! Another one closer to 100! I reckon i'll get there! Maybe *touch wood* Nah, 100's good enough for me *evilgrin* and thats all i really deserve for making everyone wait and a crummy plotline and screwed up storylline, but anyway.....

Ok, i kinda suspended reality here so yeah, its not really gonna be true to life. Just letting you know, for all those ppl that'll go, "you can't do that, you can't do that in the real world." Hello? FANFICTION! What reality?

****

Ardeth gloated from his place on the ground…….well gloated as much the pain would let him. He watched the truce, seen the men stop fighting and now, it turned out the cavern was still standing, thus the people inside would be virtually unharmed. All in all, it was not going to Shahin's plan.

"Ha ha ha." It hurt too much to actually laugh, but the plain words with laced intent had the same effect on Shahin, "It seems that you've failed. Isn't it ironic that the truce wouldn't have been made if you had not have tried to blow up the cavern?"

Shahin snarled, and a look of malicious hatred and anger so vivid flashed over his face that for a split second Ardeth was terrified. "Shut up you Med-Jai brat!" And with unthinking brute force, he slammed the butt of the rifle into Ardeth's wounded side, shattering the already broken and fractured ribs.

The boy's anguished cry of pain echoed through the wadi, causing heads to turn. Hashim turned pale as he recognised his son's voice, although it was hoarse and choked with agony.

"ARDETH!" Hashim desperately tried to find the location of his son, but there were too many people around him, blocking his view, making it impossible to find his child. Hashim pushed through the throng of warriors, although most of them moved out of his way, their heads also turned to try and find the boy's location.

The wadi was playing havoc with their hearing, the child's cry was being bounced around the dunes, making it hard to pinpoint it's actual source.

"ARDETH!" Hashim yelled his son's name as loud as his voice box would allow, fear consuming him as all he could hear were the murmurings of the warriors and the quiet hum of the wind sliding over the surrounding dunes.

"Father!" The reply was full of relief but weak, and the choked cry after it suggested that someone was still doing something to Hashim's son. "Father!" The voice was full of pain but the frantic panic and fear note in it, made Hashim scared.

"Ardeth! I'm coming! ARDETH!" Hashim finally managed to get out of the group of warriors around him and found himself faced with more carnage-ridden scenery. He looked wildly around but in his panic, his eyes slid over the figures in extremely still position, far away to his right. "Ardeth! ARDETH! Where ARE YOU?!" Hashim was beginning to panic, the silence was deafening, the warriors behind him had gone silent and even the wind seemed to still.

As Hashim's eyes hysterically swept the view from side to side, he eye finally saw and recognised the one of the two figures as his son, just as quickly his heart soared with relief, it plummeted through his feet as the scene in front of him exploded into action and a parent's worst nightmare came true.

****

Ruwaid spun around in shock as he heard Hashim's words about the cave still standing. If the cave still stood, then there was a good chance that it had shielded anyone from the blast and that meant…….that mean, that meant that his son and grandson was alive and that meant that the tribe……..the tribe was saved!

Hope soared in his heart but he tried to still it, all his life it had been one disappointment after another. It would not do to get his hopes up just to have them dashed when the Med-Jai had seen wrongly.

Ruwaid squinted, almost fearful to see the result, what if Hashim was wrong? Then you are in no position worse then you already think you are, he reasoned with himself.

There! In the settling dust and clearing air, he could see it! The outline of the cavern! It stood! Jawhar was alive!

Ruwaid felt his heart go still with painful hope and he resolutely turned around and started running back the way he came, intent on seeing if his son lived, and if the tribe would, thus, be sustained.

But each step he took towards the cave seemed to take an age to complete, and it seemed the closer he got, the further away the cave became. The seemed to take on an greasy feel, like time itself had slowed down and as Ruwaid's feet struck the sand for his sixth step, his heel kicking up its own cloud of dust, the scene horribly changed and Ruwaid found himself stuck in a terrible nightmare, a spectator in his own demise.

His knees grew weak and on his seventh step, it felt like he would collapse. Suddenly time speeded up once more, the scene in front of him exploded and Ruwaid was blown off his feet as the fragile glass of hope shattered within his grasp.

****

Ardeth's cry of pain as his already broken ribs shattered echoed throughout the wadi as Shahin laughed maniacally.

"You may be right boy, for once, your measly brain might have come up with a half-decent thought." Shahin grinned insanely and watched in glee as the boy writhed in pain on the ground.

"ARDETH!" The frantic voice of Hashim floated over to the boy and man on the still wind but Ardeth had his eyes screwed up tight, in an effort to stop the flashing lights behind his eyes and still the ever-worsening pain, and didn't hear, or if he did, didn't respond.

"But, you, Ardeth Bay, are going to die. You know it." Shahin roughly grabbed the boy's chin and ignoring the teenager's gasp of pain as he forced the child to look into his misty green eyes said: "Look into my eyes Ardeth Bay and recognise that you are going to die. You can see it as I can feel it. I can feel your life slipping away, dwindling, fading. You, also, can feel it can't you? You can see it. You can see it in my eyes, etched into my irises. You can see yourself fading, waning, dying."

"I…..m-may….d-die, but y-you….will….l-lose. P-pea…..peace has….b-been…a-achi…achieved. Y-you lose….S-Shahin." Ardeth's voice was slipping, his words slurring. He knew that he was losing too much blood, he knew that his body was going into shock, HE KNEW that if he didn't get help soon, then what Shahin said was right – he would die.

"ARDETH!" His fathers panicked voice finally penetrated Ardeth's mind, like cold water poured onto a dying fish.

Ignoring Shahin and the consequences Ardeth replied in a weak voice, "Father!" Whereupon, Shahin promptly hit the boy. However, Ardeth called again, panic lacing his voice as he thought of dying without seeing his father once more, "Father!" Ardeth closed his eyes, the black lashes contrasting drastically with his pale skin and forbidden, a tear traced it's way down his cheek.

"Crying little Med-Jai boy?" Shahin sneered as he felt the teenager tremble beneath his hold.

Ardeth was close to breaking point and he knew it. He just wanted to go home. Go home safely in his father's arms and hug his mother once more. He just wanted to go home to sit around the fire and listen to the older men weave their tales. He wanted to watch The Sabre Dance once more and feel a loving hand touch him. He needed to go home. Oh how badly he wanted to be enveloped in a loving hug from his parents, to touch his mother's dark hair and trace his father's tattoos upon his face.

But it would end today. One way or another. Ardeth knew this and was scared. Scared of dying alone, unwanted and unloved.

"You snivelling Med-Jai brat. If only you could see how weak you really are." Shahin smiled nastily and laughed shortly.

"L-laugh…..b-but you s-still….lose." Ardeth opened his eyes once more, it was getting harder to keep them open.

That comment wiped the smug smile off Shahin's face to be replaced with pure anger and spite. "You think so Med-Jai? You think you win do you? Well, know this, today, we both lose." Letting the boy drop to the sand, Shahin reached into his robe and pulled out another stick of dynamite.

Ardeth felt his heart leap in fear as he surveyed the lethal weapon in Shahin's hand.

"How fast do you think you can run little Med-Jai brat? Fast? Fast enough to warn someone in the cavern to get out before this stick explodes?" Shahin sniggered at the look on Ardeth's face. "Well, you better run fast if you want anyone in the cavern to live boy!"

Ardeth shook his head fearfully and whispered, "Y-you wouldn't."

"Watch me." Shahin carefully lit the fuse to the dynamite, bent down and whispered maliciously, "Run boy. Run. Warn your friends. Run fast boy."

Ardeth's heart stopped as he surveyed the spluttering fuse and then burst into painful life in his chest as adrenalin slammed through his body. "NO!" With strength he knew he shouldn't have, Ardeth pulled himself to his feet and began sprinting towards the cavern.

He heard Shahin begin to laugh behind him, a laugh full of menace and delightful glee as he prepared to throw the stick of dynamite into the cavern. He was enjoying watching the badly injured boy try to save people who didn't even like him, who had tried to kill him.

Run boy.

Ardeth's heart hammered dangerously in his chest and his legs pumped harder then they had ever before. He didn't realise that his breathing had gone perilously shallow and had almost stopped. He didn't feel his broken ribs grinding together.

Shahin threw the stick with deadly accuracy INTO the cavern, the fuse still burning as it skittered along the rock floor, coming to rest inside. A blast within the cavern would kill anyone in there.

Run fast boy.

Ardeth's vision narrowed and tunnelled, until he could only see the cavern's entrance in front of him. He could dimly hear his heart beating in his chest, each thump marked by a muted ache. He could see the fuse slowly burning down, each spark flying off to rest on the cavern floor before dying out.

Can you run fast enough?

Adrenalin poured through the teenager's system, numbing and shutting down all pain nerves, making it seem that Ardeth could run forever, even though he knew that a sprint like this, in his condition could very well kill him. But Ardeth had not gone through seven kinds of hell, just to fail in the last moment.

The Sami-Nhir would not fall. Jawhar and his family would live. They had to. They just HAD TO.

The cavern was getting close, so close. He was almost at the entrance………but the fuse had nearly all been burnt away.

Seconds, oh, how precious time had become. Mere seconds, that was all he had.

Run boy run.

Ardeth breached the cavern's entrance, found himself entrenched in darkness, his eyes almost useless after the blinding sun outside and no energy to counteract for the light displacement.

Run fast.

Jawhar's eyes widened in surprise as he saw the Med-Jai sprint into the cavern, his face as pale as a ghost and his black eyes glazing over. Jawhar had been so busy grieving that he had not even noticed the dynamite thrown into the cave and even now, couldn't hear the spluttering as the fuse burnt ever-more down. In the face of the Med-Jai wild head on rush, he instinctively turned around and grabbed the wailing Thaqib and clutched the robe of Zen.

RUN BOY!

Everything happened so quickly, a sequence of events unfolded in the matter of mere seconds, even nano-seconds were counted down. Jawhar firmly held his child to his chest, Thaqib's head shielded by his father's hand.

RUN FAST!

Ardeth couldn't even see where he was going but luckily he barrelled straight into Jawhar, wrapped his arms around the Sami-Nhir teenager and hurled him backwards, rolling them over and over until Jawhar painfully slammed into a rock slab. Throughout, Jawhar had held tightly onto his infant son but his grasp had been torn from Zen's robe.

FASTER!

Quickly, Ardeth's mind whirled and he realised, there was no time to get them out of the cave. There was no time. There was no time to even get behind the slab. Jawhar was an unresisting form, his mind still whirling from the battering it had taken from being rolled over viciously many times. Thaqib was eerily quiet but had been protected from the roll by Ardeth and Jawhar's bodies combined.

RUN!

Ardeth's mind thought as quickly as lightning flashes and without missing a nanosecond, with strength that the dying teenager shouldn't have possessed Ardeth roughly flipped Jawhar around so that Thaqib faced the rock slab, his little face pressed into Jawhar's tunic and Jawhar's arms wrapped protectively around his little body. Then Ardeth spread his body over Jawhar's, covering all his vulnerable areas, his kidneys, his back, his head, and wrapped his arms around the Sami-Nhir boy, Ardeth's body protecting Jawhar's.

RUN FASTER! RUN BOY RUN!

Ardeth tightened his hold on Jawhar, and although Jawhar didn't really know why, he tightened his hold on Thaqib. For a second all that could be heard in the cavern was harsh breathing and then…………

"Times up." Shahin spoke softly from outside the cavern, having watched Ardeth's sprint into the cave.

The dynamite exploded.

There was a huge burst of light, even with his eyes clenched shut and facing the other way, the bright light seared Ardeth's eyeballs and burned his retinas. The explosion was like nothing he had even heard before, it was so loud, it tore its way into his ears and burst his eardrums and then for a microsecond the pain struck as the explosive wave washed over the threesome. Ardeth's body stiffened and tensed as he numbly felt his back appear to be slammed by a solid wall of concrete. The pain! The pain was like nothing he had felt before. Rock shards smashed into his back and Ardeth screamed like he had never screamed before, the pain……the pain it was overwhelming……..Ardeth clutched his precious bundle even harder, making sure that it was his body that took the brunt of the explosion and that Jawhar and Thaqib would be safe.

Everything went black as Ardeth lost consciousness yet his arms remained tightly around his fragile package like a death grip.

****

Shahin smiled with malicious pleasure as he watched the cavern explode and leaned into the blast as the concussion of it threatened to bowl him over.

No one could've survived that. His job had indeed been accomplished. The heirs to the Sami-Nhir and Med-Jai tribe had been exterminated.

With extreme nonchalance, Shahin turned around, walked away over a dune while everyone was looking at the horrendous explosion, got on a random horse and rode away.

He was going home to report his success.

****

"NO!" Hashim screamed as he watched the cavern blow up and fell to his knees, sobbing as he surveyed the wreck in front of him. No one could've survived that from within.

He had watched in horror, frozen, unable to move as his son had sprinted into the cave, to certain death – he had watched his son commit virtual suicide. And he had not been able to do a single thing about it.

And now, it was over.

****

Ruwaid was blown away as the concussion from the blast struck him, his body slammed into the ground some 10 metres away, and rolled like a rag doll.

"No." The Sami-Nhir chief whispered as he stared at the wreck from his place on the sands where he had come to rest.

A dynamite blast within a confined space was lethal, and killed virtually everything. There was no chance his son could've lived. There was no hope of that.

His son was dead. Dead.

Ruwaid had also seen Bay's sprint into the cave. Hashim's son was dead also.

It was over.

The war was over, but too high a price had been paid.

****

An age seemed to have passed where no one moved or said anything. The air still vibrated from the blast and the individual warriors figures seemed to be frozen. Then slowly, a solitary figure advanced towards one lying on the ground.

"My Lord? Ruwaid? Are you okay?" Mikail bent down and touched his leader. Behind him, all the Sami-Nhir warriors were gathering, tears forming in their eyes. Their future leader was dead, gone. They had watched the young boy grow from a toddler into a young man, and now he was gone.

Across the wadi, the exact scene was being played out except it was the Med-Jai warriors who were gathered around Hashim.

More time went pass and all that could be heard was the father's sobbing and the warriors lamentation for their fallen heirs. The sons had been well liked and would be greatly missed.

Slowly, painfully, the two tribal chiefs stood up and shakily walked over to each other and grasped each other's arms tightly, to express their sorrow and sympathy for one another. Then as one, they turned to their warriors gathered in front of them and spoke in a trembling voice:

"Form a human chain, we must dig out our sons…..corpses."

****

Jawhar cracked open en eye not that it did much good. It was still pitch black. What am I doing here? He confusedly asked himself before the events struck him. They had been in an explosion. In a BIG explosion. But he was still alive. Admittedly, he felt like he had been a horse stampede and his head ached but he was still alive.

Thaqib! Jawhar suddenly awoke to the fact that he was still carrying his infant son in his arms and desperately tried to ascertain if the baby was alive. He heaved a huge sigh of relief when Thaqib abruptly kicked out and began wailing. So his son was alive. That just left……Ardeth.

Jawhar started in shock as he fully remembered what had happened.

Ardeth had sheltered him from the blast. With his own body. The Med-Jai had hurled him away from the dynamite and shielded him. With his own body. He saved me. Jawhar's mind was in shock as it tried to deal with this new information, with information that proved that he, Jawhar, had been wrong all along about the Med-Jai's attitude. Ardeth Bay had saved him and his child's life.

"Ardeth? Bay?" Jawhar's voice trembled and choked on the dust floating around him, "Ardeth. Can you hear me?"

Jawhar tried to move fractionally, and ignored the pain in his side, which indicated at least a badly bruised side. He was still clutched tightly in the Med-Jai's arms, but……..Jawhar tried to move but found he couldn't. The grip on him was like a death grip, like a body in which rigor mortis had set in.

"Ardeth?" Jawhar's voice hitched slightly and with a single finger, touched the teenager's skin. It was cold, oh, so cold! "Ardeth!" The only reply to Jawhar's frantic cries was the wailing of his son.

The Sami-Nhir teenager took a deep breath and tried to calm himself down and listened. There was no sound of breathing except his own and his childs. Even though he was pressed onto the Med-Jai's chest, Jawhar couldn't feel the chest rising or falling.

"No." Jawhar clenched his eyes shut as the realisation struck him. Ardeth Bay was dead. He was not breathing, Jawhar couldn't feel a beating heart and his body was so cold. His limbs were frozen in their last position by rigor mortis……….Ardeth Bay was dead.

Ardeth Bay had saved Jawhar and Thaqib from the deadly explosion. And paid for it with his own life.

A solitary tear slid down the Sami-Nhir's cheek from guilt, grief and the sacrifice.