Note: Character development is the main point of this story, not action and battles. A good story moves along at a reasonable pace, and unless it is supposed to be in the action genre, there will not be fast-paced "action" in every chapter. (Not even all "action" stories do that, anyway.) If certain impatient people cannot accept this, it would be better for them to go read something else that will better suit their needs.


Chapter Ten

Colchis was once again in his lavishly furnished office, thoughtfully drinking a goblet of wine as he stood at the window overlooking what had once been one of the most lovely parts of the forest. Other than the mountains, there were still several patches of fertile ground in Juno—which were all concentrated in the woods and all maintained by the pixies inhabiting the area. The clearing where the rebels had their hideout was not one of those places. The grass surrounding the building was brown and dead, the flowers wilted, and the water source dry. It was not a very appealing location, but Colchis did not care about such physical appearances. Gaining control of the land was the most important thing.

He turned casually as the door was thrown open, finding himself looking at an indignant Gunther. The physician's eyes flashed with anger as he regarded the other, and as he advanced into the room, he pointed his forefinger at Colchis.

"Valon still hasn't been caught!" he yelled. "You said that he wouldn't be allowed to get away!" He had spent months working on corrupting Valon's mind, and that was something that he was not willing to simply give up, no matter what Colchis believed to be a better trade. Gunther had little interest in Juno's problems; he wanted to be able to enjoy his practice without any such trifling matters interfering.

"Ah yes." Colchis swished the liquid about in his glass as he half-turned back to the window. "Well, I wouldn't worry too much about him. If you did as good a job as you claim, then he will do part of our work for us and kill off the fools who 'betrayed' him." He smirked quietly, obviosly not bothered by the teen's escape.

Gunther stopped and stared at him, then clenched a fist angrily. "I understand now," he breathed in a dark tone. "This wasn't only a test of Dartz's loyalty; you were testing my skills as well! You intended to let Valon get away!" He wondered why he had not stopped to consider that before. He knew how Colchis was and how he reveled in proving his servants were worthy of his time and energy. He realized that he had blindly decided that Colchis had accepted him, and now he was learning otherwise. It made him furious, that his abilities as a doctor were being doubted.

Colchis laughed. "Well, if you want to put it like that, then yes," he admitted. "I'm testing Dartz, you, and Valon all at once. If Valon fails the test, then he would have done us little good in the first place . . . unless we were to sacrifice him to Geates' Tomb. And that actually isn't such a bad idea. He definitely is strong-willed, after all. I believe the crypt's guardian would accept him. Don't you think so?"

Gunther was not pleased at the suggestion. "That's my latest project you're talking about!" he cried. "And now you're acting like it wouldn't even be a big problem if, by some small chance, my work has failed!"

"Come now, Gunther, you're taking it all much too seriously," Colchis retorted easily. "We have to consider things from all angles, and if your brilliance does leave something to be desired in this case, I want to know that there is a back-up plan. And the fact is, I do need a suitable sacrifice. Maybe we should have done that with Valon in the first place, instead of me letting you attempt to warp his mind."

Gunther glared at him, his brown eyes smouldering. "I thought that was the purpose of Sapphire," he snapped. "That's what you determined when we talked a few hours ago—that she would be the sacrifice."

"And I still feel that way," Colchis said calmly, "if we can take her before the rebels simply eliminate her, as they believe we want to do. Unfortunately, the victim does have to be alive for the sacrifice. It is an annoying clause, isn't it." He walked away from the window and to his desk, casually sitting in his plush chair.

Gunther growled. "What about Dartz?" he wanted to know, changing the subject. "Surely you don't believe the story he fed you."

"No, I don't," Colchis responded agreeably. "He was obviously lying, though I must admire his genius in making certain that he would have injuries to help support his story." He took another sip of wine. "He will be dealt with, I can assure you. I know the ideal time to get rid of him." His eyes narrowed pensively. "Though it seems such a shame to kill him. I wonder what his stake in this is? He doesn't really strike me as the determined 'hero' type."

Gunther looked perturbed. "I'm sure there isn't a specific 'hero' type." He turned to go, deciding that further conversation was pointless. "Heroes come in all types."

"Of course." Colchis smiled. "How are the rebels coming, anyway? It's about time for our next attack. My patience is wearing thin, you know. I want that Talisman!"

"The rebels are ready." Gunther hesitated. "Should we put our plans into motion?"

"Yes." Colchis grinned devilishly. "Bring Dartz to me, won't you? We should discuss our . . . battle strategies."

"I'll do that." Without another word, Gunther exited the room.


When Alister returned to the summer palace with Valon, everyone was stunned—but of course, happy as well. Valon was apprehensive about the whole thing, and especially about seeing Raphael. Alister assured him again that Raphael would hold no angry feelings, and wandered through the building searching for him while Valon trailed after him uncertainly.

Eventually they came to the library. Alister went in first and found Raphael sitting on a couch near the window, gazing out into space. Calmly the red-haired man went over to him, inwardly knowing how relieved and overjoyed Raphael would be. "I'm back," he announced when Raphael continued to stare into the distance.

The blonde man started and looked over at him. "That's good," he answered. He frowned slightly as he noticed Alister's eyes, which were now filled with peace. He had not seen his friend looking so tranquil in weeks, ever since Valon had been taken. Thoughts tumbled over themselves in Raphael's mind. Was it possible . . . ?

Alister noticed Raphael's confused expression and smiled softly, something that he rarely did unless he was with children. "I brought Valon back," he declared.

Raphael was stunned. He looked around the room and then to the doorway, where Valon was peering in at him. It almost seemed unreal. The Australian had been missing for so long that part of Raphael's heart had believed him to be dead. But here he was, and he seemed to be alright—though Raphael did wonder why Valon was staying where he was and had not instead ventured into the room. "Valon?" he exclaimed as he slowly began to rise from the couch.

Valon grinned a bit. "Hey Raph," he replied, sounding like his old self.

As Alister quietly explained the details of what had happened and what had been done to Valon, Raphael went to the boy, still limping slightly. Rage burned in his heart as he gazed at Valon and thought about what he must have been through. Everything made sense now, especially why he had not come into the room. Raphael realized that Valon must feel ashamed about what had happened and how he had acted when he had met up with Alister again. Valon's blue eyes were filled with emotions—sorrow, guilt, regrets, but a certain hope flickered through the orbs for a split second.

Valon looked down at the floor as Raphael came over. He felt guilty when he saw that Raphael was, indeed, injured—as Alister had said he was. He knew that it was not his fault that Raphael had been hurt, but that knowledge did not remove the feelings of shame. His disappearance had made Alister and Raphael both worry about him, and while they had been worrying, Valon had been mentally tortured and made to believe that they had abandoned him. And even though Alister had forgiven him wholeheartedly—and Raphael would too—Valon still felt that he had been weak to give in even a little bit to the brainwashing.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled, as Alister finished telling about their meeting. He felt quite unworthy of the two friends he had been blessed with, and uncomfortable to be in their presence. Part of him wished that the floor would swallow him into its marble depths.

Gently Raphael laid his hands on Valon's shoulders. "It's alright," he said firmly. "I can't imagine exactly what it must have been like for you, but I know it must have been terrible." And if he was a man driven by revenge, he would feel an intense need to pay back Valon's captors for what they had done. As it was, he certainly would have liked to do that. But he knew it would not serve much of a purpose. Valon was with them again and that was the most important thing.

He then surprised both himself and Valon—and Alister as well—by pulling Valon into a hug. It only lasted a moment before he stepped back, smiling quietly in partial amusement at the boy's shocked expression. "Welcome back," he said softly. It was true that they were not usually affectionate with each other, but Raphael felt that the current situation qualified.

Valon blinked up at him for another moment before allowing himself to smile a bit as well. "Yeah . . . it's good to be back," he said, and meant it. They were still in a strange land, and there was still a good chance that they would end up in more danger, but Valon felt that he was home. He was still welcome in Alister's and Raphael's lives, and that was the most important thing to him. He still felt guilty, but perhaps in time the wounds would begin to heal.


All of the others spoke to Valon at some point when he returned, save for Sapphire, who was steadily growing worse and still had not come out of her room. Marik had a bad feeling about what was going to happen, and though Ishizu assured him that Sapphire was doing her best to hang on, Marik wondered how long that would last.

He also wondered further about what she was still hiding something from them. After all, he had still not been able to speak with her about what Volker had told him that morning, despite Ishizu informing her of the conversation. Marik found it rather suspicious, and he was determined to find out why Sapphire had not wanted them to know about Geates' Tomb and the possibility of the Talisman being there. He entertained the possibility that she was ill, but that she was also using that as an excuse to not speak with them. Of course Ishizu did not agree with him, but that did not stop Marik from wondering if it was true. He did not know Sapphire as well as Ishizu and Rishid did, though he knew he should trust their judgement on the matter. Still, even they could be fooled every now and then. Marik hoped that it was not the case this time.

And then it was that Sapphire called everyone to her room several hours later. She was sitting up weakly against the pillows of her bed, her slightly curled blue hair spread out around her and on the sheets. Her skin was very pale and her eyes seemed to be slightly sunken, but she smiled gently at Kade and assured him that she would be alright before sending him off to play with Alexander. Kade left but did not believe her, however, and Marik doubted that anyone there actually did.

"What is it that you have called us here to tell us?" Ishizu asked quietly, studying the woman with her attentive blue eyes. It was obvious that the Talisman's influence had speeded up, despite the fact that they were in the mountains where a small piece of the old Juno still remained. If anything, Sapphire's condition had seemed to grow steadily worse since their arrival, which extremely baffled Ishizu.

Sapphire sighed softly, holding a hand to her forehead as she gazed around the room at everyone present. "I was told," she announced, "that Volker told Marik several important things that he had previously discussed with me. I didn't expressly tell him that these things needed to be kept secret, though I didn't want him to mention our suspicions about Valon when we were not certain." She smiled kindly at the confused brunette. "I'm very glad that our fears were not realized."

Valon simply stared at her in disbelief. "What are you talking about?" he demanded. "What the heck did you think had happened to me?"

Now Sapphire, with Volker interjecting, began to tell of Geates' Tomb and of the rumors of treasure kept there. Geates had forged many different pieces of jewelry and also had obtained various gems that had been buried with him by those who feared that each piece had some sort of curse upon it. There was the great possibility that the Talisman itself had gone there for some reason, perhaps because it knew how difficult it would be for anyone to enter. Sapphire further explained about the dragon reported to guard the crypt and of the need for a human sacrifice before anyone could enter.

Valon was indignant. "Me, offered up like some kinda animal?" He frowned. "That wouldn't happen to me. I'd be more careful than that!"

"You were so badly hurt when they took you that I don't think you would've had much choice," Alister retorted bluntly. Valon muttered something unintelligible.

Seto rolled his eyes in annoyance. "Well, there has to be someone who's familiar with this mausoleum you're talking about," he spoke up in a cold tone. "I can't believe that every single person in this country has no recollection of it simply because they're afraid of some hocus-pocus curses."

Mokuba blushed slightly at Seto's remarks and hoped that Sapphire was not offended.

As it turned out, she was not offended at all. "There are a few who know the location," she admitted. "Most of them live in the forest, and some are guardians of the area around the tomb. They try to keep out unwelcome or unwitting intruders, but I haven't heard anything from them in a while." She frowned, gazing down at the quilt for a moment before looking up again. "They're supposed to send a report to me every month, and I haven't received any news from them in two months now. This is part of what made me wonder if the rebels had gone there. I thought that they might have killed the guardians in order to gain entry."

"Maybe somebody needs to go there and find out what happened," Mokuba suggested.

Volker nodded. "The Queen and I have been considering just such a measure," he said. "On the expeditions I and my friends led into the woods, we were secretly trying to find the guardians, who are spread out in various locations up to twenty miles away from the crypt. Unfortunately, we could not find any trace of them. That doesn't mean that we are giving up, but it certainly makes things more difficult." He ran a hand through his dark hair. "We'll have to search about in the area for the cave itself."

"How hard could that be?" Valon asked with a frown.

"There are many caves all over the area," Sapphire explained quietly. "It would take ages to search through every one of them."

Valon only smirked. "We oughtta get started then," he said, leaning against the bedpost.

Alister raised an eyebrow at him. "After everything you've just come through, you're ready to go out looking for something that might take weeks to find?" Inwardly, though, he knew that they did not have weeks. Juno would be gone by then. He harbored a suspicion that if the guardians had not been killed off by the rebels, they had simply left their posts because of feeling that it was useless.

Valon grinned. "Sure," he said. "I wanna get this place fixed up so that we can go home. I'm sure Raph wants to see his cat. And I wanna find the people who took me and beat 'em up."

Raphael sighed, shaking his head. Valon certainly seemed to be back to his old self, which he was grateful for, but they did not need him doing rash and dangerous things.

Rishid had been silent, pondering carefully over the matter. Now he spoke. "I don't think it would be wise for all of us to go," he declared. "Some of us should remain here in case there is a problem." Mokuba, certainly, should stay. And though Raphael was now able to walk, Rishid did not feel that it was a good idea for him to attempt a long journey through the woods. He was still limping, as the wound had been very severe and had only recently closed up all the way. It was likely that a scar would be left.

"I agree," Ishizu said firmly. "If the rebels attack, there must be people here who can fight." She looked to Volker. "Maybe some of your friends could stay here as well, while the others go on the expedition," she suggested.

Volker nodded. "I know they will be willing to help in any ways that they can," he asserted. "Juno will not last if we don't do all that we can to save it."

Seto grunted. "Even all that we can do might not be enough," he retorted.

Volker turned to look at him coldly. "It will have to be," he answered. "We cannot fail." He was determined to save Juno. Years earlier, when he had been witnessing so many calamities in the land, he had decided that he would become a vigilante to help stop the ones responsible for tarnishing the country that he loved. Unfortunately, he was more often than not too reckless in his haste to overthrow the villains. But he had taught himself most of what he knew and had not had a mentor to train him in such needed skills as controlling his fury and thinking things through.

Sapphire nodded in agreement to Volker's statement. "Talk amongst yourselves," she directed, "and determine who will stay and who will go. But if you cannot find the guardians, it would not be wise to try to go into the crypt. The dragon will not let any of you enter without making a sacrifice—a living, human sacrifice. And we can't have that."

Volker clenched a fist. "The only thing to do is to slay the dragon!" he proclaimed. "Then no one will have to be sacrificed."

"Yeah?" Valon shot back. "And I guess you figure that you're gonna be the one to do it, too." He did not have a particularly high opinion of Volker, especially not when the zealous man had attacked him on their first meeting. Valon felt that Volker was not qualified to be a warrior.

Volker frowned. "Of course," he replied. "There isn't a reason why I couldn't."

"Aw no," Valon muttered in reply. "No reason at all."

Volker ignored his comment. "Could you find your way back to the rebel base, if the need arose?" he asked. If so, Valon was the perfect way for Volker to get to the blasted rebels and to overpower them. First and foremost, that was Volker's mission. He was certain that if those troublesome followers of Fafnir were destroyed, Juno would return to its former glory. The other subjects of the land were in favor of Queen Sapphire, and they were the majority. At least, Volker wanted to think so. The truth was that Sapphire did not have the support of most in Juno. Many who did not like Fafnir wanted various other people to be the ruler.

Alister looked at Volker with annoyance. "Valon just got back," he said indignantly. "You can't expect him to immediately feel like leading you there."

Valon shook his head wearily. "It's alright, mate," he replied, leaning back. He himself was quite irked at Volker as well, however, and he glared at the vigilante. "Just what makes you think I'd help you out, anyway?" he demanded. "You coulda killed me when we first met!"

Volker glared back. "You would be helping all of Juno, not just me!" he retorted. "After the calamities that have struck here, I would think that you would want to accept your part in remedying the situation!" It angered Volker whenever he found people who, for whatever reason, did not want to participate in rectifying the land in which they lived. He believed that such people did not even have the right to live there.

"The only reason you wanna go there is so that you can beat everyone up!" Valon snapped.

Raphael grunted. "And you don't want to?" he said pointedly.

Valon frowned, crossing his arms and muttering. Alister would have been amused, had he not wanted to beat up the rebels himself.


In the end, they decided that Rishid, Alister, Alexander, and Seto would accompany Volker and some of his friends into the woods. The rest would stay behind at the summer palace. Valon was unhappy about remaining behind, but he knew that if the rebels attacked, he would be needed more at the palace than in the woods. And so he had finally consented.

"They'll be alright," Raphael told him after goodbyes had been said and the other party was leaving. He, Valon, and the others were watching from the marble porch as Volker's group was beginning the trek down the mountain. In spite of his words, Raphael was concerned himself about what would happen to them. According to the books he had been reading, the forests of Juno were ominous and filled with dangers, especially at night. Of course, Valon had safely made it through a portion of the woods, and Ishizu had mentioned about how Adelpha had come to feel at ease there, so Raphael had to hope that everything truly would be alright.

Valon crossed his arms. "Yeah . . ." he said vaguely. He was not that concerned about them going into the forest, but it frustrated him that he was finally back with his friends and now one of them was leaving. He wondered if it was truly the right thing for him to not go along with them. In a situation such as this, when the outcome was most definitely not known, it was almost impossible to know what one should do. And Valon was tired of making the wrong choices. Though, he supposed that he had made at least one good decision for his life—and that had been to look for Alister and Raphael at the end of Doom.

Marik was also watching. He smiled weakly as Rishid turned around and gave him a reassuring gaze before continuing to follow the others. He had not wanted Rishid to go along, and yet he knew that the Ishtars needed to take part in the expedition as well. Marik would have gone himself, had Kade not begged him to stay and had he not determined that he should indeed stay in case of an attack. What was more, since Seto was going, Mokuba would be all the more upset and worried and Marik felt that he should be there for his other young friend. Ishizu, meanwhile, was staying to look after Sapphire. And so the decision had been made.

Juno was so different now. . . . Marik had to wonder what had become of all the people he had encountered when he had first arrived there, such as Apolla—whom he had fought with on his journey to find his siblings. And he also wondered why his Yami had chosen to bring them there. Had it just been purely to torment his Hikari, as Marik had often thought, or had there been another, darker reason? Yami Marik certainly could have led anyone into the web of deceit he had weaved, and it had made sense for him to pick the Ishtars, but still Marik wondered if it was not perhaps too simple to be the complete truth. If there had been another reason, he wondered what it was.

"What if the rebels don't attack?" Marik found himself saying aloud. "Then I would have rather gone with Rishid. . . ." He clenched a fist in vexation.

Ishizu laid a hand on his shoulder. "Juno is nearing its end," she replied quietly. "The rebels cannot afford to wait much longer to launch their next assault. I'm afraid it will happen very soon—if not while the others are gone, it will almost certainly be soon after they return."

"Wonderful," Marik muttered.


The first day and night passed by in relative peace, much to everyone's surprise and relief. For some, however, such as Marik and Alister, this only made them grow more suspicious about what was to come. The rebels likely would not attack when it was expected. Even if they did not realize that everyone was concerned that they would strike, Marik felt that the irony of life would ensure that it would not happen for a while yet. He was certain that when they all least expected it, the assault would come.

For those traveling through the forest, there was little difference between day and night in terms of the amount of light that came through. Other than the lanterns that they brought, the only brightness seemed to come from the pixies that Valon had seen the previous day. Alister recognized some of the oddly shaped trees as ones that they had passed before when searching for Valon, but he tried to ignore the memories that they stirred up. After all, Valon was back with them now, and safe—at least until the rebels would strike.

He followed the others around a curve, seeing out of the corner of his eye that Alexander was still right beside him. The doppelganger was keeping his wings close to him, even though he usually did not like to do so. Right now his priority was to make certain that his wings did not catch on loose branches or even to be grabbed by some of the local wildlife. Alister could see from the creature's eyes that he was somewhat nervous, but he pressed on because he was determined to be with Alister on this venture and to protect him if the need arose. Alexander was loyal that way.

Rishid was bringing up the rear of the party. He narrowed his eyes, brushing aside a low-hanging tree branch as he studied the current area they were passing. Something about it seemed off, but he was not certain what it was. The formation of the trees, or the brush, or. . . . Suddenly he knew what it was. "Stop!" he called firmly.

Everyone stopped. "What's going on?" Volker demanded. "Did you find something?"

Rishid nodded. "I believe so," he said grimly. "Look at the unnatural pattern of those leaves just to the side of us on the forest floor. They don't look like the plants surrounding them." He stepped closer cautiously, surveying the spot again. Then he reached down, picking up one of the leaves. "These are simply setting on the ground," he deduced. "They aren't growing here."

Volker pushed past the others to come over to the scene. "Well, what is it then?" he demanded. "Some sort of cover-up?" He knelt down and began brushing the leaves aside, then gasped. "It is!" he declared. "It's covering a pit!" Carefully he took his lantern and shined it into the hole, aghast at the depth of it. He had not realized that anyone would take the time to dig such a hole and then cover it over, unless they had ulterior motives. But then he saw that indeed someone had. His eyes widened, then narrowed in contempt.

Seto came over now, annoyed with the delay. "Well, what is it?" he demanded, shining his own light into the hole. When he saw the body far below at the bottom, his expression twisted in disgust. This had been set up in order to trap and kill someone, and there could very well be more such traps all along their way. Seto felt immeasurably grateful that Mokuba had not come along and that he had remained back at the summer home, though he doubted the safety of any place in this strange country.

Volker shook his head slowly, anger obvious in his eyes. "This was a very recent death," he observed. "The body hasn't started to decay yet and the blood looks fresh, from what I can see." He straightened up. "The leaves were replaced so that more unfortunate souls might fall through and meet the same fate. The one who did this is probably still here in the forest, somewhere." And he was outraged. The ones responsible would regret their actions once they had the misfortune to meet up with Volker. He would make certain of it.

Alister was also appalled and revolted, though he was certainly not a stranger to death and the actual sight of the body did not bother him as much as it did some of the others. "Could that be one of the guardians?" he asked, though he was certain that he was not the only one wondering that.

"It is," Volker's friend Arvin said. He was a quiet sort, the exact opposite of Volker, and his hair was a reddish-orange color that was cropped close to his head. His violet eyes took in the scene piercingly as he made certain that the leaves were not covering the hole again. After all, they certainly did not want anyone else to fall in. He pointed down into the crater. "Do you see the robes he's wearing, or rather, what's left of them? That is the traditional attire of the guardians of Geates' Tomb. I know because my father was one of them for many years. They're actually a kind of priest belonging to one of Juno's religions, and it's a great sin to kill one." It was obvious from his expression that he was quite shaken by the sight, perhaps imagining his father in this guardian's place.

Seto's lip curled in irritation. "So if the guardians are being deliberately killed, then that means there's a chance that the murderer is after the contents of the tomb, like you were worrying?" he said flatly. That was the last thing he had wanted to deal with, even though he had known it would be a possibility. He had wanted to hurry through this expedition so that perhaps things would come to their conclusion much sooner. Now, with the danger becoming very real, he doubted that it would happen.

"That's right," Arvin nodded in confirmation. "We'll have to be extremely careful as we go forward."

Alexander bit his lip, worrying anew about Dartz. He also knew that Chris and Ironheart were in danger, and with the discovery of the body, he began to worry about Alister's safety as well. He snuggled the gray-eyed man from behind, burying his face against Alister's shoulder. Alister tensed, the way he always did when someone showed such affection, but then slowly relaxed and let Alexander hug him. He did not feel at all comfortable being embraced or in embracing others, even those he most cared about, but he did let his guard down around children.

Seto grunted in annoyance as he walked past Arvin. "Sure, we'll be careful," he answered. "We'll have to watch out for pitfalls."


It was the following night when the trouble started at the summer palace.

Everything seemed perfectly normal at first. Marik was outside again with Kade. Sapphire was asleep, Ishizu keeping a vigil over her slumber. Valon was silently sitting in a windowsill, one knee drawn up to his chest as he gazed out at Juno and wondered what would go wrong next—and trying to determine if there had been a reason to take him specifically. Raphael was elsewhere in the home, trying and failing to make sense out of the entire experience and wondering who had helped Valon escape.

As Valon remained in his position near the attic, staring out into space, he suddenly realized that there were specks of illumination in the distance. He sat straight up, focusing in disbelief at the mass of flickering torch lights coming toward the palace. Could it be Alister and the others returning, not having had any success in their mission? Valon did not truly think it was likely, though he wanted to hope. But he knew that it was more probable that it was the rebels coming back for the next confrontation. He had to warn the others.

As it turned out, Marik and Kade had also seen the unexpected glows. Determining that they must be in for trouble, Marik quickly ushered Kade inside and then followed him, meeting Valon running down the stairs. "It looks like we've got a fight on our hands!" Marik yelled to him as he dashed past.

"No kiddin'!" Valon retorted.

It seemed that no one could ever fully prepare for a large scale battle, and there was not even time to try to begin to do so as the army came to a halt in front of the closed gates. Ishizu, observing from Sapphire's window, narrowed her eyes as the tall figure in the lead stepped forward.

"I'm afraid you can't continue this ruse," he said coldly in an accented voice. "Colchis knew of your location all along, since he once worked in the palace, and now we've come to destroy all of you." He looked toward Ishizu, his face masked and wreathed in shadows by the dark hood of his cloak. Over the distance separating them, Ishizu could not make out any of his facial features.

She leaned out of the window angrily. "We will not be defeated so easily!" she declared. "The future of Juno depends on us and we will not fail in our mission to save it!"

"That's what we're after too—the salvation of Juno," was the reply. "But our methods are different from yours." Behind him, the rebels took up a loud chant of "Free Juno! Free Juno!" The man in the lead did not join them, but instead stood stoically as their furious and fervent cries increased. The large majority of them had no idea what was actually going on and how Colchis was manipulating them. Only a select few of the higher ranked men actually understood the dark secret behind what was happening, and they were content to assist people such as Colchis and Gunther in order to obtain their goals.

Ishizu continued to gaze down at them, wondering in her own mind if such things could be true and feeling quite sorry for the rebels if they were. Fafnir had blinded many of Juno's citizens in his quest for power, and Colchis most likely had been preying on that fact. Such zealous people were more than willing to be rid of the Queen if they were assured that the destruction in Juno would stop if they did.

"If a battle is what you desire, you will have it," the Egyptian woman said now. "But it will not take place in this building. You will have to get past the brave soldiers before you can reach the Queen, and you will fight them below the mountain in the dead fields." The grounds would not be a good place for such a battle. They needed to be preserved as one of the only spots in Juno that still had flowers, trees, and other plants, which were needed for the land and the people to continue to survive. Many of the trees and plants bore fruit and vegetables and other edible things. A mountain in general was not an ideal place to become locked in mortal combat, anyway.

The leader did not take much time to ponder over Ishizu's declaration. "Fair enough," he said. "Gather your soldiers and we will meet at the foot of the mountain." With that he turned and began to walk away, the rebels following after him.

Ishizu watched them depart, then leaned back into the room and closed the window. Her heart racing, she glanced at the still sleeping Sapphire before hastening out of the room to inform the others.


Dartz looked out over the battlefield, his hood whipping against his face as a fierce wind swept through. A storm was coming. That seemed altogether appropriate, but still unpleasant—to be fighting to the death in wind and rain, and probably thunder and lightning as well. That was so much like it had been during the battle of Atlantis so many millennia ago.

He was still not pleased about sending the rebels out to fight the others, but Colchis had assigned him to the army as a test of Dartz's loyalty—unless he was planning to kill him during the battle. Dartz had certainly considered that possibility and he knew he would have to be on his guard. And he knew that the fight was inevitable, no matter whether he was leading the rebels on or not. It would be risky, but he would do what he could to help bring Sapphire's side to victory while hopefully not incriminating himself along the way.

The opposing side had arrived now. Dartz watched them as they marched down the remaining yards of the mountain to stand facing the rebellion. Their armor was scuffed and scratched, but their weapons were sharpened and held high. Their eyes were cold and firm, though emotions such as nervousness flickered now and then. But in spite of any feelings of agitation, they were not afraid to fight, to die for their country. And Dartz knew that the same could be said of all but the few greedy ones under his command.

Slowly he raised his arm high, his own sword gleaming in the few wisps of moonlight, and then he lowered it again, clipping off several brown blades of grass in the process. His golden eyes narrowed as he knew the moment had come. The battle could not be put off any longer. His voice rang out over the field, carried by the wind to almost everyone in attendance. "Attack."