Eika: Hi Z!!! Computer's old problems have been fixed, now it won't do sound.

Clara: You're hopeless. You're just trying to type through the writers block. The computer was fixed a week ago.

Eika: (kicks Clara) Ignore her.

Clara: Ignore HER. She's the one with writers block.

Eika attacks Clara with rope. Very soon they are in a fight to tie each other up.

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Ok. Now what?

I'm trapped in a small cage with armed knights staring at me from every direction. It's been about an hour since I've been allowed back down here after-erm- the king was- I'll say impaired. I had some fun with the knights a few times, staring intently with a calculating look on my face at the platform maybe thirty feet away.

But now the trapdoor in the ceiling's open again, and I'm being drawn upward. My traitorous knees are beginning to feel weak, so I hightail it to the soft platform to sit.

Now what?

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Ouch. Oh, ouch. My arm ACHES.

I open my eyes from the blackness that's surrounded me for who-knows-HOW- long onto more blackness and a large black bird pecking at my arm, stuck out straight between the two flat rocks I picked out. I've seen these things scavenge to find rotten flesh before, and my stomach begins to churn wildly at the thought of my arm as its next meal.

"Shoo!"

It takes flight at my words. By its nature it only eats dead things, and dead things don't talk. Usually, anyway. The way I'm feeling right now seems to ignore that.

"Cure." I whisper the word, feeling a slight bit of MP remove itself from my full supply and soothe my stomach.

Too bad Cure only heals broken bones the way they're set. Meaning if you use Curaga with a bone broken at an awkward angle, it'll heal in that exact way. Major pity, cause typically it takes three hours of wrapping for bones to line up in the right way.

Carefully, I use the two strips taken from my shorts to wrap the bone into place. I can't heal it until tomorrow morning, and by then I hope to be miles away from here.

I sit up slowly from lying on my back, stomach churning wildly and I gulp back against nausea from the wound. It aches enough to bring tears to my eyes but I don't let a single one drop, for that would mean losing water from my body in a desert where there's none to replace it.

My nausea fades slowly to intense dizziness and I nearly fall back onto my back from being completely unable to tell up from down or left from right for a few minutes. I clutch the ground and bite my lip, fighting against the pain.

Then, taking a deep breath, I stand up.

And throw up violently on the ground in front of me. Sides still heaving, I stand. The dizziness is gone, and there's nothing left to throw up, thank Memoria.

I set off towards Ipsens castle, my arm aching badly but bearably.

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I look from my seat onto the faces of the worlds heroes as they stare at me, smiling. The queen isn't here this time. What are they planning? Whatever it is, it can't be good.

"Hello again, Catalina. I understand you had quite an eventful morning." Proclaims the Dragon Knight.

I look down at the platform I'm on without comment. A rustle of cloth and the thudding of footsteps says clearly that someone's coming nearer, and the slight creak of the door tells me it's open.

"Don't want to talk? There's someone here who wants to see you." Suuuuure. Like I'm supposed to believe that. But to humor them, I look up.

And freeze.

Sitting on an extra. . . chair between the king and princess, facing me, is Michimi.

"Hello Catalina, Kupo." He says calmly.

My hands begin curling themselves into fists. I glare at him, full force, using every ounce of my strength to keep from rushing out there and killing him. If I tried, I know my captors would just grab me, hold me a few feet away, and I can't take three or more at once.

"Don't look at me like that, kupo." He's looking at me, looking me in the eye. I try to glare still, but can't take the pressure of looking him face to face, and instead switch my gaze to my knees as my teeth clench, grinding against each other. Michimi, the traitor. The dung filled rotted teeth disease ridden moogle who I once almost trusted. Who turned me in, put my life in jeopardy, and deserves to die in the most painful way possible.

"You okay, Kupo?" My head snaps up, and I find the moogle not one foot away, staring at me, hands behind his back as his tiny wings work steadily to keep him floating gently in the air.

"What do you think?" I snarl, then slam my mouth shut, turning to look away, turning until I can slide to the other side of the platform, away from him, and face a wall so I don't scream my fury. He doesn't deserve words, he deserves to die. He deserves to be here in my place, and I deserve to be free.

Footsteps. I look up at another pressure on the platform. Heavier than Michimi could possibly be. The person grabs my fists and holds them secure, so I don't lash out and hit anything. I whirl, breaking their grip, to find myself staring at the king I hurt so badly earlier looking at me calmly.

"I did what was for the best, kupo, even if you don't think so." The moogle continues. I spot him on my other side, his wings slowing as he lowers himself to the ground. I turn to face him and hear some sort of scraping noise behind me. I turn, but nobody seems to have moved.

"He did do what was best, Catalina. We know it too, even if you don't." I whirl again, looking towards the back of the cage and Michimi, and find myself facing Queen Garnet.

Words climb out of my mouth, try as I might to be silent. "Oh, sure, what's best for you." My voice grates roughly in my ears from the struggle to be silent. "Your murderer locked up in a little cage for you to torture and kill at your hearts content. How nice."

"But, Kupo, they haven't-"

"You shut up! Traitor! You and I traveled nearly a hundred miles and then you turned me in. I was THIS close to trusting you, do you know how rare-I was being weak, a fool! You-!" I raise one fist, pull it back. I can't take this anymore, the traitors in my sight, I'm locked up, and he's pulling some idiotic thing of acting as though it was for the best!

A hand grabs my arm from behind me, another hand grabbing the trembling fist still at my side, twisting them both up behind my back. I try to get out of it, wrenching and pulling with all my might as the traitor retreats from my prison. I can't use my feet for anything, there's nothing they can push on and no flesh they can reach, and the queen is watching me calmly from the back of my cage as I wrench against her husbands iron grip with all my strength.

She comes over calmly, kneels on the floor in front of me, and looks me as near to the eye as she can with me wrenching against the kings grip with all my strength. And there are more footsteps where I can't see, but as I manage to wrestle one hand away I know what happened because another hand, someone besides the kings, grabs it instantly, and I'm trapped again. The other person takes both my hands, and the king lets go only to grab me and haul me off the platform, out of my prison and to a chair while I kick, and struggle, and fight back my screams.

In seconds they've got the black mage and princess holding my legs in place for the chain to snake across each one and be tied by the rusty knight. I'm jerking my body in all directions against them, but that doesn't help me because Beatrix is there, holding my shoulders, and the dragon knight Freya has only one hand now, not against my back anymore but to one side while the king holds the other out straight. And then the queen is tying a chain around my chest to the back of it, going under my armpits so my hands are still free before another chain goes around my middle, snaking just under my elbows as the king and dragon knight push in on my arms, collapsing them against my sides as they give a last yank on all the chains to make sure they're tight.

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Wow. LOOOOOONG chapter. Hope it was worth the wait.

Oh, and if anybody's wondering, this isn't a violation of the agreement the Royals and Catalina made exactly. The deal was they wouldn't get up close and personal as long as Catalina behaved. Catalina's not behaving.