Disclaimer: don't own anything but the storyline.

Chapter twelve

'Why the hell did the Goddess send me back to save my friends if I wasn't going to do that?' Alanna thought angrily to herself, and went to hit the wall, but her hand went straight through it.

"Goddamn it!" Alanna cursed aloud.

"Child, I planned for you to put an end to revenge plans not participate in them. It's not my fault your friend got hurt." The Goddess sounded angry, which made her voice cause even more pain in Alanna's head then usual. Alanna covered her ears to lessen the pain.

"But even if I stopped their revenge ideas, Jon would still be in danger." Alanna protested. "Roger wants the crown. That's why I was killed. I got in his way. Jon's in his way as well."

The Goddess didn't reply for so long Alanna thought she'd left.

"Very well." The Goddess's voice was grave. "Continue your plan. Save the crown. But just remember, a life for a life. You wont get Jon's life for nothing."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Alanna snapped, confused.

"What the hell's what supposed to mean?" a soft voice asked, and Alanna turned to see Jon awake.

"What?" She said, trying to calm her anger. "Oh, nothing."

Jon laughed, but it was a soft, weak laugh. "Please don't go crazy on me."

Alanna laughed. "You should rest. Let the spell heal you."

"I was sleeping, until someone woke me up." Jon teased, a twinkle in his eye.

Alanna laughed. "Okay, I'll leave. Get some rest." She added, before disappearing to haunt Thom for a while.

"Alanna." Thom gasped, obviously not impressed to be interrupted.

"Hey." Alanna smiled, ignoring his unhappy tone. "Whatcha doin?"

Thom glared at her. "Hm…let's see. I'm in my bed, with the lights out and my eyes closed. What do you think I was doing?"

Alanna took a few steps backwards, even though she knew Thom couldn't hurt her. "Okay, okay…I'm sorry."

Thom sighed, and lit a candle. "Bored?"

Alanna nodded. "I can't sleep…literally, I am unable to sleep. And I got kicked out of Jon's room after a heated conversation with the Goddess woke him."

Thom laughed. "How irrational of him."

Alanna nodded, even though she knew Thom was being sarcastic. "I know."

Thom rubbed his eyes. "Look Alanna, I know you have a short attention span, and can't keep yourself occupied in the hours of the night the rest of us need sleep, but could you please try?"

Alanna felt like she'd been slapped. "I can't lift anything for more then a few seconds. What the hell can I do?"

Thom must have seen the hurt look on her face. "Look, I'm sorry. But tomorrow night's a big night for us, and we need our sleep."

Alanna nodded, and disappeared. She understood what Thom was talking about. Didn't mean she liked it.

"Good Morning." Thom said brightly to Faithful, who stretched out on his bed, and made a little cat yawn.

Wait until you see Alanna. The cat replied mischievously.

Thom grimaced. He knew his twin well enough to know she'd still be pretty pissed off from his harsh words the night before. He regretted them now, because he should be more understanding of his twin's condition. She got to see what her life would have been like very day, but didn't get to live it. She only got to watch. That would be torture. Yes, Thom didn't mean to say those things, but he was tired and grumpy and just wanted to go to sleep. Which meant getting rid of his twin for a few hours.

Thom took one last look in his mirror then left his room. He went down to the stables, where he got a horse saddled for his ride into the city. Thom was going to the city to see if Jon was getting better, and also to confirm what was happening tonight. He also secretly hoped Alanna would be there.

Thom stopped his horse a few blocks from The Dancing Dove, and walked the rest of the way there, taking a few detours, as he didn't want to risk being followed.

"Hey," Thom greeted the men inside the Dancing Dove.

They all said half-hearted hellos and directed Thom upstairs where George and Jon were.

Thom laughed and followed their directions.

"How are you feeling?" Thom asked Jon, who was still in bed, but was sitting up and looked a lot better then he did the day before.

"Oh, heaps better then I was." Jon replied smiling. "Thanks to you."

Thom smiled back, glad to see his friend alive. "It was nothing."

"You saved my life." Jon protested. "That was not nothing."

"Oh yes, the big hero." A sarcastic voice rang out.

Thom turned to see Alanna standing in the corner.

"Alanna." Thom gulped, as he noticed that his twin was still mad at him. "I'm sorry about last night. I didn't mean to treat you like that."

Alanna looked at the ground, refusing to meet his eyes. Then met his eyes and grinned impishly.

"It's okay, it's not your fault."

Thom felt relief flood him. "So we're friends?"

Alanna nodded, and Thom grinned.

"So, is the plan still the same for tonight?" Now that his fight with Alanna was settled, Thom turned to the other occupants of the room, which included Jon, George, Gary and Raoul.

"The plan's still going down." George replied. "It's simple. We get into Roger's room while he's sleeping. Shouldn't be too hard."

"Not with you and all your magic." Raoul added grinning.

"Okay, then once we're in it's pretty simple. We wake him, Alanna stabs him, we all get our tails out of there." George said, trying not to reveal a grin that was forming in the corner of his mouth.

"Why doesn't Alanna just kill him in his sleep?" Thom asked. "She can get in there easily, go unseen, it'll be simple."

"Because, we need to see him die." Jon growled. "Make him suffer. For what he did to Alanna."

"For what he did to you." Alanna added quietly.

Thom nodded solemnly, but couldn't keep that pose for long, as the grin on George's face spread, which caused everyone else to smile.

"Hell yeah." George grinned. "Tonight, the bastard dies."

Alanna felt a shiver go up her spine as she waited for the night to come. She began to pace impatiently. She wanted it to come now. She was desperate for a fight. Unfortunately, she still had to wait hours, and everyone else had to carry on as though it was a normal day.

To keep herself occupied, Alanna stayed in Jon's room. She spent a few hours picking up various items, then decided to stop and save her energy.

So Alanna went back to pacing.

Looks like fun. Faithful jested from Jon's bed.

"Oh, shut up." Alanna muttered to the cat.

Make me. The cat said smugly.

Alanna decided to ignore him and continued to pace. She turned back to the cat. "Faithful, I'm a bit scared."

Of what? The cat inquired.

"I'm scared that once I've helped my friends, and killed Roger, that I'll be sent back to the white place I was in before. I don't think I can handle it. At least here, I can talk to my friends."

Faithful purred in sympathy. Don't worry Alanna. What happens will be meant to happen.

Alanna stopped pacing, and thought about the cat's words.

Jon looked around the room impatiently. He was still in George's room at the Dancing Dove, as none of the others would let him return to the palace until tonight. It would risk everything if Roger saw him alive. Still, it didn't stop his boredom.

"'Ello Jon." One of George's thieves, Fingers said, coming into the room.

Jon looked up. "Oh, hey Fingers."

"I brought you some lunch." Fingers said, and handed Jon a bowl of chunky beef stew.

"Thank you." Jon said, taking the bowl from Fingers. "But I could have gotten it myself. You shouldn't have gone to the trouble."

"Ah, no trouble at all Mister Jonny." Fingers grinned. "No trouble at all."

Jon grinned at the man, as he left, then went to eat the soup, which was quite delicious. Jon felt foolish, enjoying stew when he should be busy worrying about tonight. And, he did have one question on his mind. What would happen to Alanna once her task had been completed?

Roger felt some form of satisfaction as he went over his spell book. He was fairly certain that Jonathon would live, and was also certain he wouldn't tell anyone Roger attempted to kill him. For Jon to tell people that it would mean admitting to his own attempted murder on Roger. And that would not look good for the prince.

No, Roger grinned satisfactory, The dear prince will tell no one.

And now, Roger had his brilliant spell, which would kill Jonathon, but make his death look natural.

Roger had decided to kill Jonathon first, because if he killed the King and Queen first, Jonathon would know it was him, and would inherit the crown and probably banish Roger or something equally nasty. So, first he would deal with the prince, then the King and Queen.

Roger groaned as he heard the door being flung open. He didn't even bother turning around.

"Alex, do you know how rude it is to just storm into someone else's room?"

"I haven't seen Jon today." Alex growled accusingly. "Are you still sure he's not death."
Roger turned around. "Did you have fun last night?"

Alex blushed slightly, much to Roger's satisfaction, but continued to rant.

"That's none of your business. The prince is missing, after being stabbed by you." Alex pointed his finger at Roger, who'd had enough of this childish rant.

"Of course he's missing. He's not going to come running back after what happened is he?" Roger sat down and tapped his chin with his index finger. "No, he's going to lie low for a while. Make me think he's dead. Unfortunately for him, I'm wiser then that."
Alex stood there in silence, unable to come up with a response.

"So we're through? Great." Roger continued to speak, not waiting for an answer to his question. "You are dismissed."

He smirked at the fuming look on Alex's face, but Alex left anyway, slamming the door behind him.

"That boy has too much temper." Roger murmured to himself. "And we really should stop his habit of slamming doors."

Alex stormed down the halls to his room. How dare he. How dare Roger treat him like…like some disobedient squire. He was a knight of the realm, and should be respected like one!

Stupid bastard, Alex thought angrily, Just because he has his stupid magic and is related to the damn prince.

Alex hated Roger so much, and would love to see the self-absorbed bastard dead, but he wanted to see Jon and all of Alex's old friends dead more. SO he was going to stay with Roger until this goal was reached.

But now things weren't going according to plan. Roger was being too outrageous, considering himself untouchable. He stabbed the prince for Christs sake! That was committing treason, and endangering everything they were working for.

"You better know what your doing." Alex murmured to himself as he poured himself a glass of wine. Because if you screw me over, there will be consequences.

Alex held his glass up, then drained it dry.

Alanna looked up as she saw Gary and Raoul enter Jon's room. They were soon followed by two cloaked figures who turned out to be Jon and George. The last person to enter was Thom, who looked quite emotionless. Alanna knew him better though, and knew he was just cloaking his emotions like Jon and George had cloaked themselves to get here.

Thom went over to the table, where a bottle of wine was sitting. He poured everyone a glass, then passed them around.

"Let's go." Thom said, and raised his glass in toast.

Everyone else raised their glass to toast what they were about to do, then drained their glasses.

Alanna sent a silent prayer to the Goddess, hoping for success, and safety. Then she fought a shiver that tingled down her spine.

It was time.