AN: RAW! I hope I scared you.
---
Passepartout was not sure what was happening.
When the man had sprung out of the door, Passepartout was sure that he was going to attack, but instead he became a basket case.
Passepartout was stupefied; he watched the man slide down to the floor. And Passepartout finally put his hand on the man's shoulder, trying to bring a little comfort.
For some reason his gut told him he should be wary of the man, and Passepartout will listen to his gut, but his brain told him that the man was of no danger, at least for now.
---
Rebecca had dispatched her opponent and she turned to see Passepartout trying to comfort a man that was shaking.
Rebecca sighed. She was not sure what had happened but he seemed to be no threat.
"Passepartout stay here." She commanded and walked into the room of the duke.
---
Phileas was sure that Jules had lost some weight since the last time he had seen him, but that was not that long ago.
How could a week make someone lose so much weight anyways?
Phileas had gotten out of the house and onto his horse with Jules. He was not absolutely sure how he had gotten Jules and himself onto the horse but he had.
Phileas saw the Aurora half a mile away from his horse. He could only assume that Passepartout and Rebecca had made it here all right.
Jules was compliant the whole ride, and if Phileas had not known any better he could have sworn that he was dead, but the small rise of his chest and a moan now and then disproved all those worries.
---
The duke was not in the room.
Rebecca checked the whole room over and found no trace of the duke. She stared to haphazardly check the rest of the house but she found nothing to say that the duke was ever there. Other than Rebecca knowing that he was there. There was no one there besides Passepartout and the two other men.
Rebecca returned to Passepartout and the man who had broken down.
Passepartout was talking in hushed tones with the man and he seemed to be soothed by them.
"Passepartout, we should head back to the Aurora. Phileas is not here and neither is the duke."
"All right Miss Rebecca, but I think Mike should come with us." Passepartout answered.
"Okay. And Phileas is not going to be happy about him."
---
Phileas laid Jules down on the parlor couch. He straightened him out and went into the kitchen to find something to clean him up with.
Phileas picked up a towel and some warm water. He returned to Jules wiped off the sticky mess.
Jules's breathing seemed to have worsened but Phileas was not sure what to do.
Then he heard a noise.
It was coming from the direction of the front hall.
Phileas made his way into the hallway and looked around. There was no one there. But he was sure that he heard something.
Phileas went upstairs wondering if it had come from there.
He quietly walked through his dirigible.
He found nothing upstairs, nothing that would cause him any kind of alarm.
Phileas decided to check up on Verne. He walked out of his bed room and descended the spiral stair case, briefly wondering if he had gone completely insane.
He was about to open the doors to the parlor when he thought he saw movement.
He spun around, all his former fears rushing upon him once again.
He saw nothing.
But now he was sure. He was positive that there was someone else here.
Phileas withdrew his pistol once more. He defensively looked over his surroundings, taking in the quietness that seemed to have consumed the world.
The world stilled as Phileas walked through his foyer. The walls glowed with light thrown by the beams of the dying sun.
Phileas turned, fully expecting someone to knock him off his feet. He walked backwards into the parlor door. He grasped the door knob and turned it. He was sure that there was someone in the hall with him. But he began to have an insatiable desire to make sure that Verne was all right.
He watched the hall way as he backed into the parlor. He faced the door and began to close it but before it could click shut someone forced it open.
Phileas did not expect it.
The force knocked him back. He stumbled but caught himself before he fell.
Phileas spun around and his assailant sent a crushing blow to his jaw. Phileas collapsed to the floor but sprung back at once, his pistol forgotten.
He tackled his opponent to the floor and punched him repeatedly. Phileas noted that he was the duke and that increased the force of his blows.
---
Phileas did not notice that the duke was not paying attention to his assault, instead the duke was busy. His hand reached out trying to get a hold on the pistol that Phileas had dropped.
The duke's hand was almost there, he touched the bottom of the pistol, the metal slightly cold on his fingers.
He reached for it, slowly moving it.
He got it!
The duke grabbed the butt of the pistol and swung it up.
He had mistaken the distance between the floor and Fogg, because instead of shooting Fogg, Connor managed to knock Fogg off of him with the pistol.
---
Phileas was on the floor, but he used that to his advantage as he kicked the duke back and used the same momentum to carry him up.
The duke was on the floor and Phileas took the opportunity to withdraw a sword from the near by wall decoration.
He pointed the tip to the duke's neck just as the duke was preparing for another attack.
The duke stood still, his hands raised in the common surrendering position.
They stood there staring at each other for an eternity. Until a crash distracted Phileas and the duke attempted to pull out the pistol he had holstered underneath his coat.
Attempted being the main word, Phileas slashed the sword through the duke's throat. Blood poured from the gash and the duke fell to the floor, desperately grasping at his the wound in a futile attempt to stop it from bleeding.
The crimson blood flowed freely from the duke and Phileas had an odd moment when he was worried about the carpet.
---
He opened his eyes experimentally and found that the world was spinning. He wondered what he had to do to get it to stop and then shut his eyes.
Jules slowly sat up, keeping his eyes closed against the vertigo, and laid back against the couch.
He felt an urgent desire to get out, to move, to run. His fight or flight instincts kicked in and he tried his best to keep his heart rate under control.
He was going to make a break for it. Jules took a deep breath and opened his eyes. He struggled up from the couch and stumbled to the closest wall. Using it as support he began to make his way out of the familiar room with the greatest haste he could muster.
Jules made it to a door but before he could open it, it swung inward and Jules was forced to press himself against the wall in a vain effort to hide.
The people that came into the room did not notice him anyway, too engrossed with their brawl as they tumbled to the floor.
Jules was not willing to wait around for them to notice him and he quickly made his way out of the parlor.
He looked around the entrance hall, he knew this place and he knew that he should feel safe but he didn't. Everything began to sway again and he staggered to the front door.
He lurched through the threshold, resting heavily on the door frame for a moment before stumbling as quickly as he could off of the air ship and into the clearing.
Jules was not breathing well, he could hardly catch his breath and he knew that was a bad sign.
He leaned heavily against a tree and tried to remember what exactly got him here.
He was following the orders of the duke for the Foggs release, and that was yesterday. His world tipped over and a deep coldness consumed him bringing him into the dark.
---
Rebecca, Passepartout, and Mike walked towards the air ship in silence. Rebecca walked ahead of the two boys because she had a feeling that something was going wrong.
She made her way through the underbrush and hurried her steps.
She came upon the clearing and looks at the Aurora. The front door was open. Rebecca turned looking for Passepartout and Mike but she spots something near a tree.
---
Phileas looked away from the duke and towards the couch where he had left Jules, but he was no longer there.
It took him less than a second to determine that Jules was not in the parlor and Phileas rushed into the foyer to find that the front door was open.