THE BATTLE COMMENCES

Toto burst through the clouds, into the watery sunlight that colored the sky above and the land and water below. He extended his wings and used his tail and his primary flight feathers to start slowing down. "There's the valley, Shizuku."

"Well, what are we waiting for? Hurry, we've got to land so I can take care of Seiji!"

"We must be careful. That was where I lost my friends."

"I'm sorry to hear that, Toto."

"Never mind about that. They knew what could happen to them someday. What we should do is not waste what they gave." The crow began a cautious descent to the island below.

------oOo------

If one were to look at the pirate island (no one ever bothered to name it, even in Cat Kingdom surveys done long, long ago), it was roughly ovoid in shape, with the long axis running northwest-southeast. It had an appreciable portion in the center occupied by a massive mountain, a long-dead volcano whose lava tubes had collapsed and emptied, making it a convenient place for the Pirate King to set up shop. The pelagic climate and local topography and current patterns caused it to be wreathed in fog for much of the year, and numerous eroded mountaintops and the remnants of long-ago reefs were scattered throughout the immediate area, forming a hazard to navigation. The two main land entrances of the pirate lair faced east and north-east, while the valley Haru and Shizuku had flown to was at the other side of the mountain. There was a secret door there, as Shoukichi had indicated on his map.

Phaecis and his gang had managed to settle in this place only with the help of the Black Cat, who brought with her the technical expertise and esoteric equipment of the Doctor. The Baroness' amalgam with him was not only a brilliant mechanician and scientist who was totally, insanely jealous of the Baron and his seeming perfection, she was also now just as skilled as her former fiancée in subterfuge and martial skills.

The Black Cat peered through a telescope from an outpost near the peak of the mountain. The cold sea wind blew her short blond hair back as she surveyed the distant shapes of the Cat Kingdom flotilla. Behind her stood Phaecis, awaiting his turn at the telescope.

"How soon do you think they'll get here?"

"Two, perhaps three hours. It will take them some time to disembark and reconstitute."

She stepped aside and let the Pirate King have a look. The Husky laughed grimly.

"You know, I wish I could see the look on King Lune's face when his ships start blowing up."

The being once known as Louise chuckled. "So do I. So do I. We trained the crews well; let's see if they were worth our effort."

------oOo------

"So you mean to tell me all the humans are now on that island?" the Cat King asked, angrily confronting his female aide. They were in the Conquistador's dimly-lit bridge, where he was getting into his resplendent silver armor with the help of an orderly.

"Y-yes, sir, it appears that way."

Lune groaned. "Yuki will have my head when she hears about this! Why weren't they stopped?"

"I'm not sure, s-sir."

"I'm sick and tired of hearing that! Have Captain Oh'Sesu brought to me! I want some answers!"

------oOo------

"Oh, no. Is this who I think it is?"

"Yes, Shizuku. Or what's left of him."

The crow and the lady stared at the shattered remains of the osprey. They had been sneaking through the valley using magic and avian smarts when they spotted a pile of rocks of a different color—but of suspiciously familiar shape—near a stand of trees and went to investigate.

"Why is he a pile of stone, Toto?"

"Because that's what happens when beings like us die. We revert." He looked around. "He must've crashed, to end up like this. I wonder where Haru and those cats are."

Shizuku also surveyed the area. "I've got a bad feeling about this."

"So do I. Look, let's move into those trees, and you take care of Seiji. I'll do a little searching while you're busy."

"Okay."

The two hid themselves in the little wood, and Shizuku carefully lifted Seiji off Toto's back and laid him on the ground. The crow then hopped away, first returning to Sturmvogel's remains, then moving towards the valley walls as he investigated the area.

Shizuku turned her attention from the crow to her husband and closed her eyes, concentrating. She had already dried herself and him using magic. All that was left to do was assess his injury and wake him up.

"Ungh. Ow. What happened?"

"Oh, Seiji, thank Heaven you're alright," Shizuku breathed, lifting him up gently and embracing him. "How do you feel?"

Seiji looked at her through squinted eyes. "Will you tell those elephants upstairs to take their boots off?"

Shizuku laughed softly. It was the same thing he said every time the tenants of the apartment above theirs in the danchi were noisy. "Well, your brain seems to be working fine. How about your body?"

"I'm fine, Shizuku. I just need a little rest."

"Well, we can't have that." She narrated the recent happenings. "We're on the island now, and the bird we were chasing—there he is, look."

Seiji looked. "How horrible! What happened? Where are Haru and the cats who were on him?"

"We don't know. Toto's still looking around, trying to find that out."

------oOo------

Several minutes later the crow returned, bearing bad news.

"I found two bullets near Sturmvogel's body," he reported, opening his beak and letting a dark metal ball fall to the soil. "I also found a trail of blood nearby."

"Haru's?" Shizuku asked immediately, her face grim. "Or the cats'?"

"I can't tell. There were signs of a struggle, and..." Toto's voice trailed off into silence.

"And what?" Seiji prompted.

"I... don't know. I don't know what it is. I found something. You might be able to figure it out." He sounded disturbed.

Shizuku looked at her husband, who was sitting leaning against a tree trunk. "Are you okay now? Can we leave?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

They left the safety of the stand of trees and went to where Toto led them.

"Here. Look at this."

Shizuku's eyebrows rose. "It's a circle of crushed stone."

Toto pointed with his beak. "And there's another. And over there, too. And there are several more leading up the valley."

Seiji tried to picture the arrangement of the circles in his mind. Trace a line through them, and they sat to the left and right of it, alternately. "What do you suppose they are?"

"I don't know. I'm baffled."

"Well, they look like footprints to me."

"What? But they're so big! What could've made footprints like that?"

The writer's eyes followed the trail of circles up the valley. "Like I said, I've got a bad feeling about this."

------oOo------

Not an hour had passed, and Lune had mastered himself and was quietly but firmly upbraiding Captain Oh'Sesu for his loss of control of the situation on board his ship, when a bright flash traveled across the bridge windows and a loud, sustained roar made itself heard.

The radio operator cat to their left ran to the windows and leaned out as sirens began to sound. "It's the Grimalkin! She's under fire!"

Lune ran to the windows and also leaned out. There was the supply ship, now smoking and listing, with a great gash in her side. "By whom? I don't see anything!" He began to scan the waters. "Mines?"

"Hardly likely, your Highness," said Oh-Sesu, who had come to stand behind the King. "The waters around here are too turbulent and too deep. Why waste mines when there are so many seamounts and shoals around?"

"Then what got her?" The Cat King pulled his head back in. "Are we in Battle Stations? Good! Tell the lookouts to redouble their watch!"

------oOo------

"Hot doggie!" yelled the cat manning the blinker light as he decoded the message coming from the Conquistador. "We're going to see some action now!" He waited for the message to finish, then scribbled it down on a notepad before rushing from his station just outside the Longshallows' bridge.

"Captain! Captain!" he yelled as he entered. "King Lune wants us to–"

Captain Loriel raised a hand, and with her eyes indicated that the Officer of the Day should address the new seaman later about being overenthusiastic. "I saw it. He wants us to turn and help the Grimalkin." The young cat's face fell. "Well, don't look so surprised. I can read our code as well as you. Tell them we're complying. Carry on." The crestfallen sailor skulked back outside. The mini-fleet was maintaining radio silence for security's sake.

"Okay, everyone, look sharp. I want any swimmers pulled from the water and the crew of the Grimalkin taken off if it becomes necessary," Loriel informed her on-shift bridge crew.

The dark-grey Scottish Fold tabby Kagaccha, her present OD, turned. "But Ma'am, we don't have a lot of room on board for survivors."

"Then stuff them on the decks," the vampiric cat snapped. "Tell everyone to keep a sharp eye out for things under the water." It was a weakness of the Longshallows no one had ever bothered to fix: she had no way of detecting subsurface threats.

------oOo------

The silence of the vale as they traversed it only heightened Shizuku's creeped-out feeling. There were no sounds at all: no birds chirping, no animals making noises. There was only a vague moaning drifting on the wind; it seemed to come from somewhere far up on the mountain itself. She and Seiji were following the trail of circles and so far they had come up to a dead end.

"So they end here," Seiji whispered, looking up at the sheer rock face in front of him. "Shizuku, how far away is that secret entrance?"

"I don't know, I didn't memorize the map. We'll have to wait for Toto to return." The crow had flown off an hour earlier, saying he was going to see if Haru and her companions were further up the valley.

They sat down against the rock face, and the man turned to his wife. "What's the matter?"

"What're you talking about?"

"The expression on your face. Come on, Shizuku, tell me what's bothering you."

"Oh." Shizuku took on a dour look. "I blame Haru for you getting knocked out, and I really don't see why we're risking our necks pursuing her. She wants to be with Baron, fine. But look at what's happened because of her! Sturmvogel's dead, and we're stuck in this terrible place..." She hugged herself and started to tremble. "If this is a fairy tale, I don't want to be in it any more. I want to go home."

"You can't blame her for acting the way she's been acting," Seiji said huffily. "If I were in there—" he pointed to the mountain "—wouldn't you want to join ol' heroic me in fighting against the evil Minamoto-sensei?" The mention of a dreaded high-school teacher of theirs made Shizuku smile, albeit briefly. "But to tell you the truth, if you hadn't butted in and convinced Baron that she was safer aboard the ship, none of this would ever have happened."

"What? I–oh, that's rich." Shizuku turned an angry countenance on her spouse. "Go ahead, blame me. Everything's my fault. It's also my fault she decided to go and hijack one of the birds! When we get back home, I'm going to have you explain to her mother why she's dead."

"Oh, for crying out loud! She's not dead yet! If this is a fairy tale, she and Baron are bound to survive! They're the good guys, right? Good guys always win! I can't believe you'd even think that of her! You're–Shizuku?"

"I just wanted to make sure no harm would come to her," she said, staring blankly into space, a quiet joylessness in her voice. "If she dies Baron will never forgive himself, I'm sure of it. We'd be to blame too, Seiji, don't you realize that? I can't have her death on my conscience."

"So you've been thinking of yourself all along, have you?" Seiji watched as Shizuku visibly flinched at his words. "Shicchan," he continued in a kinder tone, "you can't direct other people's lives the way you direct the characters in your books. You have to let them live and learn, make their own mistakes. Even if they prove fatal."

"I can't do that! What about 'we humans should stick together in a place like this,' eh?"

"Don't you use my words against me. What the heck do you think we're doing now, huh? We're trying to get Haru back, save her from herself." Seiji frowned. "Did you hear something?"

"No."

All of a sudden the rock face behind them rumbled.

"Whoa! I don't like this," Seiji said. "Come on, let's get out of here."

They scrambled for cover behind a large boulder several meters away. The rumbling continued, and as they watched, the rock face slowly split open and a massive four-armed, two-legged contraption about eight meters tall stepped out. It looked like a creature from an insane tinker's nightmare, a mechanical Shiva with fat-trunked legs and cannons for arms. When it had cleared the door—the couple saw what they had been leaning against for what it really was now—another monstrosity emerged from the space within and made a saluting motion with one of its arms.

Seiji had to work his jaw muscles to make them move. They insisted on letting his jaw hang open. "Oh, wife of mine?"

"Yeah?" Shizuku knelt gawking beside him.

"If this were your fairy story about Baron, would you include mechanical monstrosities in it?"

"I don't think so," replied Shizuku unsteadily, lifting her black cloak from the ground and placing its end in her lap. "That sounds so hokey to me nowadays."

They watched the two robots turn and slowly make their way down the valley, where they had come from, stepping on the talus and scree and leaving circular imprints in the rubble after them. "I think King Lune's in big trouble," said Seiji as he listened to the crunching and pinging sounds coming from their feet. "Big, big trouble."

------oOo------

The two pirate dogs, one a comically bizarre-looking mangy cross between a Shih Tzu and a Chihuahua and the other a handsome, pure-bred black Boxer, threw their prisoner onto the floor in front of the Black Cat. There was a muffled cry of pain as a face met the volcanic rock. Shackles prevented arms from breaking the fall, and legs were hobbled by a short length of iron chain.

The evil cat contemplated the bruised and battered person in front of her. "I wish your boys hadn't messed her up," she carped as she leaned back against her chair. "I keep telling you, I need intact bodies for my experiments. I don't want ones with missing fingers and the like."

"They had no choice," Phaecis returned, emerging from the solitary doorway that led into the Black Cat's lair. "She fought like a tiger, so they had to be rough. I'm sorry that doesn't appeal to your vanity."

The Black Cat sighed. "That's too bad. She's quite pretty, for a human. I wouldn't mind having her as a host for my experiments. May I ask your name, liebchen?"

Dark brown eyes alight with anger snapped up to look at cool, clinical light blue-green ones. "Haru Yoshioka," she said defiantly.

The Black Cat's eyes widened. "Oh, so you're that one," she said smoothly. "The human woman who's been seen with Baron lately."

"What's it to you, you freak statue?" Haru shot back.

"Nothing, really. But someone might have something to say about that." The thief and assassin closed her eyes and appeared to shudder slightly. When they reopened there was far more animosity in them. And, strangely, a look of hurt.

The Black Cat got off her chair and stepped down to yank Haru to her feet. An intense gaze scrutinized her for several seconds as the grips on her upper arms tightened.

"So you're the one my inamorata chose to pass the time with while I wasn't with him, eh?" the Black Cat said bitterly. "What did you do to him, you filthy human girl? How dare you try and steal him away from me! You'll never win, don't you know that?"
Haru didn't answer.

"What gave you the right to snatch Humbert's affections from me?" cried the thief, shaking Haru roughly. "Answer me!"

"You tried to kill him!" Haru spat in her face. "I think that's enough reason to take him away from you. You don't deserve him!"

"I don't deserve him? You're the one who doesn't deserve him! And—" the cat's voice faltered "—I wasn't the one who stabbed him..."

"What are you talking about?"

The Black Cat sighed and trembled. Then she ordered the two dogs to take Haru to the jail block. She would prepare her later, when Lune's forces were taken care of.

------oOo------

The Doctor, once more in control of the female body, sat back down as Phaecis' henchmen led Haru away.

My dear, it hurts, doesn't it? You're just like an appliance the Baron's replaced with a newer model.

Yes.

I could help you get your revenge on him.

There was a long silence. How?

Just don't stop me from doing what I'm doing, like you usually try to do.

Very well. But you have to promise me something.

What?

You mustn't kill him.

The Doctor hesitated. My dear, that's an incredibly hard thing to ask of me.

You must do it or I will not help you.

The Doctor couldn't help slamming a fist down on the arm of the chair. Gruβ Gott! You're not exactly in a position to make demands, Baroness!

Nevertheless, have we got a deal?

The Black Cat slumped back in her seat, emitting a gusty sigh as she did so.

Arguing with you is like arguing with a conscience. I should've found a way to get rid of you a long time ago.

Then you would have died too.

Anything's better than quarreling with you for more than fifty years! Or having to keep a constant vigil, just in case you try to stop me by killing yourself. We're like a married couple who can't divorce one another!

There was a brief, ghostly chuckle that made the spirit of the Doctor shiver. That is the price you pay for immortality, mein Leiber. This body is my house, and you are still merely an intruder in it.

The Doctor sighed at her words. My dearest Louise, I grow weary of this argument. We have gotten along well enough in the past. You're not going to make trouble for me now, are you?

Ah, that was only because this silly woman became depressed without hope. But now that my dearest is so near...

Your dearest will be dead, then. I'll find him and make sure of it. I will not be denied a measure of revenge. Since you're behaving very rudely, the most I can offer is to let you see the pain in his eyes before I kill him. What sayest thou, O Baroness?

I... Louise's voice trailed off into silence, and never came back.

------oOo------

Seiji studied the sight before him. "I thought you were joking, Toto."

"Nope." The crow, perched on a boulder to Seiji's left, shook his body, like a dog shaking off water. "I can't believe it myself."

"You know," mused Shizuku, "for a bunch of pirates they've got a pretty sophisticated sense of humor."

They stood in front of the strangest sight any of them had ever seen in the Cat Kingdom yet: a low, wide door under a gray stone awning, bordered by deep, narrow plant boxes set with neat rows of agapanthus stalks bearing eye-pleasing purple florets at their ends, contrasted with fiery red-and-yellow hot poker spikes. Above the awning, stuck to the stony wall of the mountain, was a neon sign, with an arrow that pointed down at the doorway and proclaimed "Secret Entrance" in a lurid violet. The only incongruous element was the visage of a man surrounded by tendrils of plants hanging atop the entrance. It had its fanged mouth open in a devilish smile and would have looked very forbidding in a more appropriate locale—say, a cemetery or a haunted house.

"This is definitely a trap," Shizuku said.

"Of course it is," concurred Toto. "I can't think of another reason why they'd put this up like so."

"Did you find any other entrances, Toto-san?"

"No. But this valley's been strangely quiet today. No one even bothered to take potshots at me while I was out looking for Haru." Whom he didn't find, although he did come across some evidence of Baron, Gabriel and the Stormy Cats having come this way: a small cache of food and equipment, left behind in a copse for some unknown reason.

"Then I guess we'll have to take this one," said Seiji. "If something bad happens, Shizuku will be able to use her magic to protect us."

Shizuku looked at him and smiled sweetly. "You seem to have a lot of confidence in me today."

"Don't I, always?"

"Mhmmhmm." She chuckled. "I still remember you telling me you'd never eat any attempt of mine to cook chicken hot pot ever again."

"That was different." Seiji gave his wife's hand a squeeze and turned to Toto. "I don't think you should come along with us. You should go back and warn King Lune about those robots we told you about."

Toto blinked a dark, beady eye and looked sideways at him. "I was thinking the same thing, but what about you?"

"Don't worry. With Miss Magical Girl here, we can take care of ourselves."

"If you say so. Stay sharp, okay? I don't want to lose a couple more friends." The crow spread his wings and flew off. Seiji and Shizuku watched him hugging the mountain face, dwindling in a few minutes to a black dot against the bright yellow morning sky.

"You know," said Shizuku, "there's one thing I don't understand."

"What's that?"

"If Baron and the others are supposed to be sabotaging the defenses, why haven't we heard anything? You know, explosions and that stuff?"

Seiji looked up at the mountain. "That's probably because they were told to keep things quiet for as long as possible, remember?"

Shizuku thought about it. "I guess. They probably also went in here, since this is the secret entrance Shoukichi indicated. Come on." She looked at Seiji, confidence brimming in her gaze, and with a wave of her hand produced a translucent white force field around them.

They started to walk towards the gaping doorway. Upon reaching it Shizuku cut her field in half so they could touch the door. Seiji gingerly grasped the doorknob and pulled.

"Why, it's fake!"

Shizuku touched the door. "So it is." The entire thing was made in one piece, and judging by its cold and smooth feel was made of metal, not wood, as it had been painted to appear.

"How're we going to get in now?" asked Seiji despairingly. For a moment he wanted to punch the door, but decided against it, as the noise might alert anyone within.

"Leave that to me." With a smug smile on her face Shizuku closed her eyes. She made a lifting motion with her hands, and the slab of metal creaked upwards until it disappeared totally into its recess in the rock.

Quickly re-encapsulating themselves in the field just in case someone within was ready to attack them, Shizuku peered inside and had her first glimpse of what lay within. Beyond the door lay a passageway, narrow, well-lit and empty, furnished in a genteel Victorian fashion, with a red carpet covering the floor and gas lamps jutting out from the wood-paneled walls providing ample illumination with their soft yellow glow. It extended far into the depths of the mountain, so far that they couldn't see the end of it from where they stood.

"Shizuku, I'm starting to become afraid of you," Seiji admitted.

"Eh? Why?"

"I keep fearing you'll turn those awesome powers of yours on me if I so much as tease you."

"That's silly. I'd never do that. Don't you trust me?"

They stepped across the threshold. Seiji said quietly, "Well, you did betray Haru's trust..." The pained look on Shizuku's face made him want to retract his words immediately, and the protective field around them seemed to waver somewhat. "I'm sorry. But it's the truth."

Shizuku remained silent, frowning as they cautiously took some more steps into the mountain. After about twenty meters in the look on her face worsened. She brought a hand to her temple. "Ohhh... my head's starting to hurt..."

"What? Why?"

Before they could do anything the metal door Shizuku had raised slammed into place behind them with an earth-shaking boom. The writer dropped to her knees, shaking her head and groaning in pain. Her magic field petered out.

"Shicchan! What's wrong?" As his wife didn't answer, Seiji bent down to scoop her up in his arms and run like hell towards the other end of the corridor. Anything was better than being stuck here, he thought as his legs started pumping.

All of a sudden the lights winked out, and they were trapped in an utter blackness, alone and confused and terrified, with only a small, gentle hissing sound to keep them company. Seiji turned hither and tither, bumping into the walls and twice stumbling and at the last letting go of his wife and keening her name as he tried to grope for her. The last thing his conscious mind registered before the choking black veil was pulled over it was Shizuku screaming in pain.

Outside, the Green Man astride the doorway snaked its long, forked tongue out of his smiling mouth and licked his lips. Its red eyes glowed briefly as the unearthly spirit within the stone mused on foolish mortals, as it had done for the countless years since its creation, and several times just that early morning. It hoped its amusing master would gift it with a soul to eat or two. It had been such a long time since it tasted such fare.