Miss.Ecofreak: okay. time to answer the big question asked in the last chapter

Zakura: I can't wait!

Miss. Ecofreak: you must be the only one who doesn't get it. Both my reviewers have guessed on Torn

Zakura: both of them? Wow, funny coinsidence that they both were thinking the same thing!

Miss. Ecofreak: or... it might be because it was the obvious answer!

Zakura: so who was it then?

Miss. Ecofreak: just read will you? Another thing, in this chapter, Cornelius finally explain why he hates the baron (apart from the obvious reasons of course). Read on and you will find out

CHAPTER 20

AN UNRELIABLE NEWCOMER

Kate

"Can't this thing go any faster?"

"Faster? Who are you and what have you done to my friend?"

"This is an emergency Cornelius! Faster!"

"It's not that easy with all the zoomers around" Cornelius shouted to drown the sounds from the zoomer-engines, "We're going to crash!" (Ms.EF: I do that a lot when I drive the zoomer too fast)

"So get down into the lower hover zone, we have to hurry" I shouted back.

Cornelius gave up his protests, he pressed the button to change hover zone and the zoomer flew down to ground level and hit at least three civilians who weren't fast enough to get away.

I didn't care, I had to get home. Even though I had to risk letting Cornelius go at top speed.

I prayed to the precursors that I wouldn't come too late; it was half an hour since I heard the metalheads had broken through. It was more than enough time to… I didn't want to think about it.

"Can't you go any faster?" I shouted.

"If you keep on shouting you can walk" was the answer.

Finally we reached the inner wall, and the passage way to New Sandover.

I jumped of the zoomer before Cornelius had time to stop.

Shadow was standing near the passage, and he wasn't alone, at his side stood an elite crimson guard and between them a crocadog and a little boy, I felt relieved, at least Jak had survived.

"Wow, you came here fast, I thought you were at the port?" Shadow said when he noticed me.

"Don't try to be Shara's driver during an emergency" Cornelius said sounding tired, he had managed to park his zoomer but smoke was coming from the engine, "This baby needs an overhaul" he said looking at the vehichle.

His eyes went from the zoomer over to the crimson guard next to Shadow.

"What the hell is he doing here?" he asked.

"It's ok Cornelius, he's a friend. He helped me get this kid to safety" Shadow said, "By the way; these are my friends, Shara and Cornelius, and Cornelius' little friend Tanya"

"If you say "the commander's brother" I'm going to rip your ears of" Cornelius warned.

"To be honest I didn't know he had a brother" the guard said, "My name is Torn, and yes I am a crimson guard, but not for long. I'm sick of the baron's attempts to make this city a "better place"".

"Really? You don't think he's doing a great job?" Cornelius asked, he wasn't looking at the guard, Torn, he was looking at the passage into New Sandover.

"Who's this kid?" Tanya asked as soon as she had caught her breath, I swear she must have held it in since we started breaking the speed limit.

"This kid? I found him out there. And he was wearing this" Shadow said, he showed us a read amulet. Jak had gotten it from mother; it used to be my uncle's.

Tanya recognised the seal immediately, "Mar's seal?" she said, "But does that mean he's…"

"Jacob's nephew" I said before I could stop myself, "Son of Maria and the citizen who helped her escape"

"That explains it all" Torn said, "The baron must have found out Maria was living here, I have suspected for a long time that he has no plans of giving the throne back to Mar's heirs"

"Whoopee, we've got a genius on the team" Cornelius said, "If you know all this what are you doing with the crimson guard?"

"Relax Cornelius. He's on our side" Shadow said.

"Really? And how do you know he's not a spy?" Cornelius asked,"That guy's a member of the crimson guards, and even worse, the elite! And you're going to trust him just like that?"

"Not all the crimson guards are like your brother Cornelius" Shadow said, "Some might even have been forced to join".

"I was forced to join but I'm not going with them" Cornelius complained, "He's going to put us all in danger! If you let him join you sign your own death sentence. Why don't you just go ask Erol to kill us all now? Cause I swear he will. Go ask any other agent in the underground and I'm sure they agree, right Shara?"

I really wished he hadn't asked me, I was to busy comforting Jak to even care, "Torn did save Jak didn't he?" I said, "That's got to count for something".

Torn turned to me, "You seem to know a lot about this kid?" he said.

"I knew his father" I said quickly, "He was my teacher at school"

"Don't tell him too much, he might tell the baron" said Cornelius.

"You really hate the crimson guards don't you?" Torn asked.

"Of course I do! They work for Praxis! And I hate Praxis" Cornelius said,"You would too if you knew the truth".

Torn just looked at him, "What truth?" he asked, "Can it be worse than this?" he pointed at the passage as he said the last thing.

I had to admit I was curious, what did Cornelius know about the baron what we didn't?

"Cornelius, why don't you just tell him?" Tanya asked, "You've been keeping it a secret for so long".

But Cornelius didn't talk, he turned away refusing to look at any of us.

"Come on Cornelius, what is it?" Shadow asked.

"If you don't say it I will" Tanya said.

"Fine I'll tell!" Cornelius said, "I knew I shouldn't have told you" he said to the bird before he turned to us again, "But I'm warning you Torn, if you tell the other guards I'll show you how much I resemble my brother. (The violent side of him)

When I was four years old my parents went with my aunt and uncle to a dinner party at Jacob's house. My uncle had just become commander back then.

This was the same night the fire broke out. As you might have heard the baron claimed someone had started the fire so that it would kill Jacob, but he never told who"

"The culprit was never found" Torn said sounding confused.

"Of course he wasn't. And don't think that only because I was a kid I was imagining things" Cornelius continued, "I went exploring in the basement.

There I saw two crimson guards and overheard their conversation.

They started the fire! By order of the commander who later became baron Praxis"

That didn't really come as a surprise to me but Torn was shocked.

"Why haven't you said anything?" he asked, "If more people had known they wouldn't have joined him in the first place."

"Use your brain if you've got one genius" Cornelius said sounding very irritated, "If a four year old came up to you and told you this would you believe him? Or imagine you were one of your loyal crimson guard comrades and heard this from an underground agent like myself. What do you think that guard would have done?"
"He would have locked you up. I get the point" Torn said,"I want to help stop the baron. I might even be able to convince some others as well".

"No way!" Cornelius shouted, unfortunately he wasn't the boss.

"That sounds like a great idea Torn" Shadow said, "Just don't tell them too much at first. We don't want to risk traitors on our team do we Cornelius?"

"I know when I'm defeated" Cornelius muttered, "But mark my words Torn, or whatever your name was. If you cross the line once you will get trouble with the undergrounds top agent. And don't think I wouldn't know, I already got informants on top level in the crimson guard"

"Don't mind him, he's mostly all talk" I whispered.

Zakura: Torn? wow! I can't beileve it!

Miss. Ecofreak: who did you think it was? Erol?

Zakura: no... of course not! (whispers innocently) And what Cornelius said really surprised me! How could the baron do something like this?

Miss. Ecofreak: You should stoptalking about stuff you don't know anything about, it makesyou sound like an idiot.That's all we had for you today. remember to review:)