Disclaimer: Sunrise. 'Nuff said.

Warnings: *loves Sekhmet*

A/N: *loves Sekhmet* Haha, yeah. Oh, and sorry about the uber-long delay in updating. I was trying to write a novel this month for NaNoWriMo, but I got about 4,600 words in before I realized I wasn't going to be writing anymore of it. *rolls eyes at herself* But I'm back now, so you can probably expect updates to return to normal. Oh, and at the end of the next chapter, Bailey-chan will have a little message for you. ^-^

Telepathic speech is in those little squiggly things. ~telephathy~

Thoughts are in italics.

Chapter Eight: In Which Sekhmet Has His Revenge

            "So you have come."

            The Warlords and Masho immediately skidded to a stop, looking around for Tobraea.

            "Oh, I wouldn't recommend looking for me," Tobraea's voice resounded through the air. "You won't find me.(1) But who cares about that? I have a little proposition for you. You have precisely one hour to find the Ronins and Troopers, find their armor orbs, free them, and escape from my castle. If you succeed, I will allow you to go without molestation. Otherwise…." They could practically feel his twisted grin. "Well. Your time starts…now."

            "I knew it!" Dais growled as soon as the voice disappeared. "I knew she'd turn traitor! Why did we ever trust her?"

            "She didn't betray us!" Amanda snapped, her still-present wings twitching in annoyance. "She couldn't have! Denice would never betray me!"

            "Well she obviously did!" Rajura snapped back.

            "She didn't betray us," Amanda repeated stubbornly. "She didn't."

            "Stop being so blind!" Rajura growled. "People like her can't understand—"

            "Rajura, shut up!" Sekhmet yelled suddenly to everyone's surprise. "Listen, just forget about Denice for the next hour! Arguing about her won't help us get out of here!"

            Everyone stared wordlessly at Sekhmet, mouths hanging open. Having finally proven that he wasn't the complete and utter moron he was often presumed to be, he hung his head and blushed furiously. Then he continued in a low voice, "Maybe we should split up. Half of us should go get the Ronins and Troopers, and the other half should find the orbs. …Wait, no, that wouldn't work. We should just split up and go in opposite directions."

            "I never thought I'd hear myself say this," Cale began slowly, "but, Sekh, you're a genius!"

            Sekhmet simply blushed more.

            "All right," Amanda agreed. "I'll go with the Warlords to the right. Masho, you go to the left…."

            "No," Dais argued suddenly. "It'll be better if at least one of us switches places. I'll go with the rest of the Masho, and Rajura should go in my place. That way, if one group finds something, we can easily communicate it to the others."

            "That's actually a good idea," Kay murmured. "Let's go."

            "And, Rajura," Kayura muttered in an undertone to the white-haired man, "don't say a thing about Denice.'

            "I won't," Rajura muttered back, shaking his head.

            Then the group split in half, going in the directions Amanda had suggested. The Warlords, Rajura, and Amanda walked in complete silence. The halls twisted confusingly, and the torches refused to light up. Tobraea evidently wanted to make it as hard on them as possible.

            After a few minutes of random walking, Rajura inexplicably stopped.

            "Rajura, what—" Cale began, but Rajura held up a hand for silence and he cut himself off.

            Nobody moved. After a moment of silence, two voices could be heard arguing around the corner, the sound growing steadily louder.

            "…actually went and told them when you knew it was a trap!"

            "I had to! Tobraea needed the proof that I was actually loyal to him! If they can just find their way to the dungeons and free them, they'll get out fine!"

            "The only had an hour! It could take them that long to actually find the dungeons!"

            "But this is the only chance we have!"

            "Can't you just go to them and help them find the dungeons?"

            "I'd love to, really I would, but they could be anywhere! Why do you think we're walking around? We won't find them sitting around in our room. I just hope we do actually find them."

            "Me too. I don't think I can stand pretending to be your slave any longer, and if the guys don't get out soon…."

            "They'll get out soon, Rowen. The Warlords and everyone aren't stupid, no matter how much the majority of them act."

            "…I hope you're right…."

            The voices stopped then, and no echoing footsteps were heard to herald the approach of the two around the corner.

            "What do you think?" Rajura whispered to the group of people gathered behind him.

            "It could be a trap," Sekhmet muttered rather hesitantly.

            "But Strata wouldn't agree to anything that would prolong his friends' suffering," Cale pointed out.

            "So we trust her?" Kay asked.

            "I hate to say this…," Rajura muttered. "But if she can lead us to the Ronins and Troopers, we have no choice but to."

            "I told you she didn't betray us!" Amanda hissed to Rajura.

            "I'm not saying I actually trust her," Rajura returned, frowning. "I'm just saying that we've got to take chances if we want to get everyone out."

            Amanda glared at Rajura before turning to walk around the corner.

            "Sekhmet," she said over her shoulder, "tell Dais what's going on. I'm sure he and the Masho will be interested."

            "Okay," Sekhmet returned before doing as she said. ~Dais!~

            ~Hey, Sekh,~ Dais' thought-voice spoke back. ~Find anything?~

            ~Denice and Strata.~

            ~What? Do you need us to—~

            ~No, no! We're not fighting, they're just going to—HOLY SHIT!~

            Sekhmet stared wide-eyes at the scene before him. He was sure that this was something they shouldn't have walked in on.

            ~Sekh? Sekh, what's happening?~ Dais' voice came again.

            ~They're…they're…~ Sekhmet stuttered, unable to even come up with a complete thought.

            ~They're what?~ was the impatient reply.

            ~They're kissing!~ Sekhmet finally got out. He could feel himself blushing and quickly looked away from the two before him.

            ~That's it?~ Dais question in disbelief. ~Gees, Sekh, don't act like that if it's not important!~

            ~But,~ Sekhmet tried.

            ~Just contact me once you've really found something, all right?~ Dais' thought-voice sighed.

            Sekhmet didn't even bother to reply. Cale had finally made their presence known, and he had more interesting things to think about.

            "I must say, you're doing a remarkable job of searching for us," Cale had said.

            Strata and Denice had immediately broken apart, looking guilty. The boy was now blushing furiously, but his arm did not drop from the petite demoness' waist.

            "Excellent!" Denice said, grinning widely. "Now we don't have to go looking for you!  Come quick, I'll lead you to the dungeons!"

            And she pulled out of Strata's grip, grabbed one of his hands, and immediately walked off, obviously expecting them to follow her.

            The group left behind shared a bemused look before following her deeper into the castle. The torches lit up before Denice and they all rushed after her to avoid being left in the dark again. The walk was silent.

            Eventually, Sekhmet began to become bored. After all, a guy could only spend so much time during his immortal life counting the torches, and he head spent half his time while he was serving Talpa doing so. He had only stopped after he'd counted that there were exactly two million, six hundred fifty-nine thousand, seven hundred sixty-one in the castle. Besides, he really wasn't very interested in the torches of Tobraea's fort, since he didn't live there. (And he never would, if he had anything to say bout it.)

            So he decided to content himself with watching the others. His eyes landed on Kay first. She was walking with her head bowed as if she was deep in thought. Probably about Denice and Strata, Sekhmet thought to himself. Deciding it would be better for his health if he left her alone, he allowed his gaze to move forward to Cale and Amanda. Cale was a step or two behind, walking in a manner that made it seem as if he was protecting her. Amanda was walking in her normal manner, but her wings (still out) were twitching once again and Sekhmet was sure the girl's head kept turning as if she wanted to look behind her. Chuckling softly, he moved onto Rajura. Ah, Rajura. The man was still abnormally suspicious of Denice. But then, if Rajura was anything like Dais, he was suspicious of everyone. Finally, his gaze came to rest on Strata and Denice. He noted with amusement that their hands were gripping each other's, fingers entwined. Strata was a step behind Denice, but his eyes were obviously riveted on the girl in front of him. Denice, though, was seemingly oblivious to everything, striding purposefully forward.(2)

            Or, at least, she had been striding purposefully forward. Denice had suddenly stopped in front of a door. After a moment's thought, he decided that it must be the door to the dungeons. The only question was, why wasn't she opening it?

            "Denice?" Amanda whispered hesitantly. "Why aren't you going in?"

            "I'm trying to remember something," Denice whispered back grumpily.

            There was a moment of silence, and Denice pulled on the handle of the door. The door didn't budge. Silence again.

            Then Rowen leaned forward slightly, whispering something in Denice's ear. Denice looked thoughtful for a moment before she suddenly nodded. Then she muttered something unintelligible, and the door suddenly swung open.

            "What's going on?" he heard Wildfire's voice ask.(3)

            "Three guess, Tiger," Denice hissed back. "And the last two don't count."

            Sekhmet entered the room. The mixed group of Ronins and Troopers were staring at him and everyone else (except Strata) in distrust.

            "So, what do we do?" Rajura asked Denice.

            Ignoring him, she turned to Strata.

            "You remember how to turn these things off, right?" she asked him. At his nod, she continued. "Good. Turn the energy off. They will have one minute to break the chains before it automatically turns back on."

            "Where are you going?" Strata asked.

            "To get their orbs," Denice replied and waved Amanda over.

            "Why do I need to come?" Amanda asked.

            "Only armor-bearers can break those chains," Denice replied. "I tried to break them once, but I couldn't And yet…." She paused, scowling. "Never mind that. Just come with me."

            "All right," Amanda shrugged.

            The two demonesses left through a side door. Strata walked over to a large control panel and began playing with several of the controls.

            "When I tell you to go," Strata's voice drifted over to them, "start breaking the chains."      

            The four chain-breakers shared another bemused look before moving over to the hanging Ronins and Troopers, prepared to start ripping apart the chains. Nearly a minute passed.

            "Go!" Strata finally yelled.

            Everyone immediately began ripping the chains apart, catching the Ronins and Troopers as they stumbled forward, and then quickly moving on to the next person.

            The finished before the minute was over, standing around awkwardly. After a moment, the Ronins and Troopers hesitantly thanked them.

            "What's taking Denice and Amanda so long?" Rajura asked, looking over at the door the two had disappeared through.

            Then, almost as if in answer to his question, there was a sudden ear-splitting scream.

A/N: …Dude, did I even finish typing up this chapter? No, of course not. *goes to type the rest of it up* Ok, the chain-breaking part is stupid. But it worked. Eh, whatever. So anyway. Stay tuned next week, for when I will hopefully remember to update! ^-^

(1) Because I've finally gotten my PA system hooked up! Bow down to the power of the speakers! (^^; QS has problems, ne?)

(2) My revenge for Bailey-chan's super-long paragraph. *grins* 198 words. *cackles* Beat that, Bailey-chan!

(3) This is where I'd accidentally stopped typing up the chapter. Good thing I caught that, huh? ^^;

Thanks to:

Harry2- The necklace is…well, you'll see. I think we got the description right, but don't take my word for it. I haven't seen any it in a good five years. And the announcer guy got away somehow…I have no idea where he went, but I'm hoping he won't be coming back. And that's Masho, not Mousha. ^^

Nell- In this fic? Yes, I do. And remi cub: Don't worry, I'm sure you'll get good speaking skills soon. And thanks for forgiving me. ^-^ *glomps back*