Lilandra is awakened by the explosion and the commotion, and she is on her feet in an instant. "No." she moans, "Not yet."

Pulling on her robe, she hurries to the door and throws it open. Guards are rushing past her room, frantically, scurrying frightened servants going the other direction. One of the guards pauses long enough to order, concernedly, "Close and lock your door, Your Ladyship, someone has attacked the Majestor."

She shuts the door, quickly, and begins to get dressed, quickly. She has no intention on staying in this room, but she is not going to go about half dressed. She dons her silver armor, tucking her helmet under her arm. She grabs the sword out of its case and cries out, as she catches sight of the reflection behind her.

She spins around and D'Alken holds out his hands, "No, don't!" he pleads, "I am not going to hurt you."

"I know." She says, lowering her sword, "What is happening?"

He shakes his head, wisps of his blond hair escaped from his braid and plastered to his face with sweat. "I don't know, Lilandra." He says, too confused to think of the formal address at the moment. "Gladiator attacked me. I... something happened, and I...my master...Lady Deathbird ran him through. She is going to blame me." He lowers his head, "I ran. Instead of trying to help him, I ran..."

Lilandra's eyes narrow, "Deathbird. She is the one. She staged the attack on herself last night to discredit you."

D'Alken looks stricken, "But why? What have I ever done? Gladiator told me things that make no sense. About...Earth and my...my father..."

"Corsair the Informer." Lilandra says.

His eyes widen, "You know? That's what he told me, but it isn't true...is it? Am I...am I really the key to destroying Earth?"

Lilandra is afraid to answer, but she nods her head, slowly, "I searched that reality looking for a way home. I found it in the mind of a young man, catatonic and trapped dimensions away from home. In his stupor, his consciousness took my hand, and I opened my eyes holding yours as you helped me from my ship. D'Alken, you are Alex Summers, of Earth. Fifteen years ago, my brother sent me to sample Earth to discover which dimension it lay in the most firmly so we could conquer it. The gateway was damaged by an explosion that until now we thought came from the planet itself."

D'Alken looks at his hands, "It came from me. No, that's impossible. This is wrong...wrong."

Lilandra comes close and takes his hands in hers, "Alex..."

"Don't call me that." He snaps, pulling away, "And, don't touch me. I am a freak."

"I call you that because that's who you are." Lilandra insists, "That is you are, and it is who you have to be again. You can't stay here, not now, especially not now."

He looks at her and his eyes are like steel, "Oh, can't I? When Earth is given to my Master he will know that I am loyal. He will know that I am the only loyal member of his house. I don't belong there. I am D'Alken of the House Neramani and I am the Chosen of the Majestor."

The door is suddenly opened and Corsair stands there, his sword at the ready, "Then, you will precede him into Hell." He spits.

"Corsair!" Lilandra asks, "What are you doing here?"

"I came to kill D'Ken and rescue my son." Corsair says, grimly, "But I find that one has already been dead and the other is lost."

Lilandra shakes her head, "Corsair, it is not safe here for you. Raza warned me about you. He thinks you are going to betray us all to D'Ken."

Corsair smirks, "Does he now? What do I care about what that metal plated moron thinks? He's an Insurrectionist, is he? He must be good if I never heard of his plans."

"And, no one else will hear of it either!" Raza snaps, stepping through the door. A blast comes from the stunner on his wrist, and Corsair falls. He holds a communicator to his lips and says, in his strict metal voice, "Ch'od, Hepzibah! Now, Corsair is down, D'Ken is dead! The time of uprising has begun."

The revolution in the mines was not supposed to have come, yet, but Raza had found his opportunity. Those who had been contacted secretly, via a communication system so intricate that even the devious coward Corsair had been unaware of their existence, had been ready for the signal. Raza had spread word, long ago, that it was only their lack of palace support that prevented their striking. A figurehead was needed, and who could have ever guessed that it was the true Majestrix.

Lilandra's arrival was timely, and convenient. Almost too convenient.

But then, she had been gone for fifteen long years according to the way the time was measured on the world that had held her prisoner. She had not been biding her time. She had been fighting to find a way home.

She was the one who would free the Empire from this endless cycle of conquest and destruction. D'Ken had never grasped the concept that there was more to the act of invasion and occupation then the annihilation of the enemy. His father had understood. He had incorporated the worlds he had taken, had almost adopted them into the empire. They had been taken by force, but they were not obliterated. They were consumed into the mass of the Shi'ar Empire, taken under the care of the Majestor like lost sheep found by a shepherd.

D'Ken had done none of those things. Under him the taken planets had been destroyed, lost to his ineptitude. Ignorant and greedy, he had lost interest in the planets once they were his, simply moving on to another and another. His people suffered beneath his negligence and those who dared to complain filled the mines...or worse...

The men and woman who followed Raza accepted the command of Ch'od to rise up, and though they had no proof that Lilandra would be any different then her brother, how could she be any worse? This was their only chance.

They rose up spirits that were assumed broken and bodies that were supposed to be too weak to fight. The guards had been overwhelmed easily, and the prisoners had taken their revenge.

But there is one heart amongst the Insurrectionists that is not full of joy.

Hepzibah, slunk in an half crouch on an outcropping watching the slaves overthrow their masters, mourns.

A green scaled hand catches the stone and Ch'od swings himself up beside her. "You are thinking of him, are you not?" he asks, looking at her with cold yellow eyes.

She nods slowly, her tail swishing slowly behind her, "I will never believe he was an evil man."

Ch'od, who had lost friends to the betrayals of the human known as Corsair, sighs, deeply. "Maybe he wasss not evil, Little Cat. Maybe he wasss jussst weak."

"And so he deserves death?" Hepzibah asks, "I wonder if he could not have been spared."

"Your people and mine are exxxtinct becaussse of what he sssspoke to the Shi'ar." Ch'od growls, "Informant. Collaborator. He issss lucky he died quickly. There are thosssse not asss forgiving asss usss."

Hepzibah lowers her eyes, sadly, "He saved my life. Doesn't that count for anything?"

Ch'od shrugs, "Maybe he got the sssatisssfaction of dying knowing he did one good thing with hisss life." He touches the cat's face with his scaled hand and he says, "He wasss not the one you should have had, Ssssweet, Hepzzzibah."

He swings himself off the rock and back into battle.

Hepzibah stays where she is for a moment and remembers Corsair as he had been with her, when he sometimes forgot that he had become something unworthy. She remembers the strength he had had when he rescued her from those who would have done things that would have driven her mad. He had grabbed them, and for a moment she had feared that he was one of them, so furious had he been. But he had comforted her, had tended her wounds, and treated her with such kindness.

He promised to come back for her. He warned her what they would say.

She will keep her faith.