TOMMY

I wake up slowly and with a nasty headache. I look around, confused. I'm in my own bed, stripped down to my boxers. What the hell? I clearly remember being abducted, choked until I passed out. "Zedd?"

A man stands up from a chair nearby. Despite being a mirror image of my husband, he clearly isn't Zedd. For one thing, he's clearly too calm for the anger I can feel from the far too distant bond. Never mind that he doesn't smell right or move with anything close to Zedd's fluid stride. He sits on the edge of the bed and takes my hand. In a heartbeat, I've decided to play along - for now and only to a point. If this imposter thinks he can have me, he's got another think coming.

He smiles. "Welcome back, love." It makes my skin crawl to hear him use the same endearment that Zedd uses for me. "I was starting to worry."

I wave that away. "You know I'm tougher than that. What happened? Did you kill him?"

"I was going to, but the children stopped me. They were far more worried about you - and, I think, what would happen to me if I did." It's on the tip of my tongue to call him out on the obvious lie, but I bite it back. "However, that's not to say that he isn't dead. I just wasn't the one to do it."

"Goldar, then. As long as he's dead, I don't really care who did it. Although I'd have liked to beat on him a bit first for choking me the way he did. Coward."

I see the flash of anger on his face that he's quick to hide. Gotcha. I can hear the restraint in his voice as he answers, "A good tactical plan to keep him from getting hurt doesn't necessarily make him a coward, love."

"What in the hells was he thinking anyway, going after me like that?"

"From what I gathered, he was going to kill you to try and turn me again."

I pretend to think this over. "Well, that might have worked short term, but even so, you'd still never have gone back to their side. You'd have turned long enough to torture and kill him and then returned to your neutral status, I'm sure. After all, the children would still need you if I was dead." He nods soberly. "Either way, I'm fine now. Where's my clothes?"

Frowning, he says, "Love, I'd prefer it if you'd stay in bed the rest of the day. Make sure that you recover completely before you go traipsing around the house and yard."

My eyes narrow. "What else happened, Zedd? What aren't you telling me?"

He sighs. "Is it so wrong to want you to be completely well?"

"Well no, but-"

He has to work to put the leer on his face. "Of course if you'd rather, I could chain you to the bed."

I scramble away from him, pretending to completely freak out. "NO! You promised! Never again!" Quickly I back into the corner and curl up, knowing I have just freaked him out.

I hear him approach slowly. "What?"

"After you chained me up the last time and the house was attacked and you got knocked out and they used me for hours, you said that you'd never do it again!" Hey, if he can lie so can I... Of course, I'm shoving back very old memories of a similar thing happening to my throat, but it's gotten so much easier over the decades.

He speaks slowly. "I was just playing, love. Calm down." Uncertainly, he pats my shoulder. Yeah, this definitely isn't my Zedd.

I'd love to just kill him myself, but having had a taste of his power, I'm a bit unsure about taking him on without Zedd. So, I'm going to have to buy some time here. "Why would you even joke about such a thing?!"

I jump to my feet, grab the front of his shirt and pull him closer. Uncertainly, he wraps his arms around me as I 'shake' in fear. He sounds panicky. "Just get back into bed and everything will be all right."

"No! You'll chain me up again!"

He's running out of patience for the 'damaged' mate of the real Lord Zedd, I can tell. "If you don't get back into bed, I'm going to have to put you in the dungeon."

Man, this guy knows jack shit about me and that's almost scarier than if he knew everything about me. I scramble back into the bed, curl up against the headboard and start whimpering. "Please don't punish me again. I'll be good."

Cocky now, he nods. "That's better. Do as you're told and I won't have to punish you. Now, get some rest and I'll be back to check on you later."

He leaves the room and I wait a good ten minutes, listening hard the whole time, before I cautiously get off the bed. I quickly search the room, but don't find the clothes I was wearing when he took me. I do, however, find another set and quickly put them on. I can't help but wonder, though, where my other clothes are.

I listen at the door, holding my breath. I don't hear anything so I ease the door open. The hallway right in front of the door looks like the one at home, but I seriously doubt that he's pulling this crap in my own home. I slip out of the room and head in the direction of my living room at home. I hear voices in there and stop to listen just out of sight.

'Zedd' is speaking. "So you know what to do?"

The answering voice is female. "Of course I do! I'm not stupid, you know."

"Good. Put on his clothes and then I'll make you look like him. If all goes well, I will escape and Lord Zedd will take you home with him." Wow - do they really think that Zedd's that dumb? That he won't know me from a fake? I mean, I realize that he's using my clothes to help hide the female's scent, but still she won't move or talk like me... Unless that's why I kept feeling like we were being watched. Still, I have a few cards up my sleeve. I almost miss the next bit of conversation.

"And what happens if it doesn't? Go well, I mean."

"It will. And when I make my escape, I'll take his real mate with me as leverage - just in case you fail. Now hold still." I catch the sounds of an approaching battle and I can't help but smirk a bit. "Quickly! Get into position!"

A moment later I hear the sound of rattling chains. What the hell is he doing? The doors on the other side of the room burst open and there's the sound of several people piling into the room. I'm more than a little surprised to hear my own voice cry out, "Zedd!"

There's the sound of flesh on flesh and a snarled, "Shut up!"

Carefully, I peek around the corner to see 'me' holding (his? her?) face as the chain attached to the collar rattles. Zedd's not going to buy this for a minute. And man does he sound pissed off when he speaks. "You will return my mate immediately, unharmed in any way, and your death will be slow and painful. Otherwise you will simply wish for death."

The imitation Zedd sounds bored. "Of course. I simply wanted to make sure that I had your absolute attention." I hear the collar unlatch and fall to the floor. The fake hurries across the room and throws his arms around my husband.

"Zedd! I'm so glad you're here!"

Zedd carefully disentangles himself from the clinging creature and passes him off to Pina before returning his attention to his 'counterpart'. "Now that you've released your prisoner, I'd like my mate as demanded. Or else."

"Are you getting blind in your old age? You have just passed him off to the female."

Zedd approaches the figure in the chair. "I am neither blind nor stupid. That is not my mate. His clothes don't hold enough of his scent to completely wipe out the other nor the smell of power that, I'm sure, you used to change his looks. Never mind I have at least three other things telling me it isn't him. Now, last chance."

The fake Zedd looks confused. "What three other things?"

Zedd laughs. "As if I'd tell you." He raises his voice. "Thomas! Come out!"

Knowing he can sense me, I step around the corner. "Well done, husband of mine. Of course, I didn't doubt you for a moment."

Screaming in rage, the fake launches at Zedd and they tumble to the floor. Pina has the fake me pinned against the wall. Mara Jane, after sparing a look at the fighting Zedds, goes over to the imposter and pulls the dark magic off, like ripping away a sheet and revealing the female underneath. Quite frankly, if I didn't know for a fact that Essa was dead, I'd have almost expected it to be her under there.

She speaks quickly and quietly. "I had no choice. He made me do it."

I give her a look before returning my attention to the battling males on the floor. "That might be a bit more believable if I hadn't heard you talking before they all came in."

"No, I really had no choice! He has my family!"

"If that's true then we'll help you free them once we're done here" Pina answers.

"He's the only one who knows where they are."

"We'll find out."

The pair continue to fight and, as close as they are, I'm not entirely sure which is which. Quickly tiring of it, I stalk over and pull them apart, flinging one of them damn near across the room. "This is getting old fast, boys."

I'm not all that surprised and a little amused when they answer with one voice, "He started it!"

Now that they're separated, I can definitely tell who is who and quickly punch the imposter in the face. "That's quite enough of that." I glower down at him on the floor. "And I think you have entirely too much dark power for someone who clearly doesn't know how to use it correctly. You were clearly warned, given the chance for an easy out, but you didn't take it."

"But, love - I'm Zedd!"

I laugh, unable to help myself. "No, you aren't. I've known you were an imposter since I saw you when I woke up. All I did was buy time until they got here."

I can feel Zedd's pride in me from across the room, further enforcing that I know what I'm saying. "Well done yourself, Thomas."

I look over at my husband. "Hurt him. A lot."

Zedd turns an assessing look on the prone figure. "Perhaps you have a point about him having too much power."

In a moment he changes and raises his staff. Zedd growls, "This is going to hurt you a lot more than it's going to hurt me."

We all watch, fascinated, as he starts draining the dark power from the man and into his staff. The house ripples and disappears from around us, leaving behind a ruin. There is a scream of pain from the downed figure. Knowing what torture it was for Zedd to have his own power ripped away from him decades ago, the screams don't surprise me much.

I feel the bond, concerned that Zedd might lose himself to the call of the dark power, but I'm pleased to find that my worries are unfounded. While he is enjoying his victim's screams and the influx of dark power, he's just as quickly converting it into his own so that it won't control him instead of the other way around.

The illusion disappears from the figure and his natural looks come forth. A gasp from behind us has me turning quickly. My eyes narrow at the officer as he comes forward to stand next to me. What in all the hells does he want now?

"Wilem? I thought you were dead!"

"You know him?" I demand.

"He's my cousin - distantly, anyway. I'd heard that he'd died in a spaceship crash hundreds of years ago!"

"Well someone apparently lied to you. Are you going to stop Zedd?"

The officer shakes his head. "He'll be easier to deal with if he doesn't have power and Zedd certainly has proven that he can handle it."

Goldar speaks up, sounding a bit bored. "The dead are always easier to handle, Heddlu."

"Dead?"

Scorpina nods. "If Zedd pulls all the dark power out of him, it's a very real possibility and I assure you it will not be even a remotely pleasant death."

He considers this for a long minute and then shrugs. "With everything he's done in the recent past, it's still better than he deserves. And Zedd would certainly be within his rights." Good answer. Still though…

Looking back to my children I notice that while Mara Jane has near the same detached expression on her face as that of Goldar and Scorpina, Jacob seems just a bit more concerned about the possibly fatal outcome of our foe, while Grace and Sullivan- shit. Watching as Sullivan is currently urging our youngest daughter to look away, I realize unhappily that despite my desire for this matter to be over and done with as soon as possible, it's not something I wish my children to witness.

"Zedd, stop."

Sparing the slightest bit of a look back to me, no doubt wondering if he's misheard, I feel the doubt from him through the bond even as he continues to rip what little power the bastard has left out of him. "What?"

"You need to stop, mate."

Looking between me and his victim, clearly confused, he however reluctantly does as I say, a dark scowl undoubtedly marring his hidden face as Wilem's screams of agony taper off to barely audible whimpers. "What's wrong? If it's about the power-"

"It's not the power." Cutting my gaze to our children, I watch as he follows my line of sight, a curse of realization coming as he sees the slight upset his punishment has caused.

Taking a deep breath and forcing himself to calm down, when his answer comes it's mostly what I'd been expecting. "Thomas I understand, however to leave him with even the slightest bit…" Hands twitching around his staff in a manner I understand all too well, I know the bastard's death isn't the only thing driving him to finish the job now.

"How much is left?"

"Enough to keep him alive for another day or so or…" Or give you the rest of your now needed fix. Fantastic.

Sighing and knowing that if it was just Zedd and myself, or even the two of us accompined by Dar and Pina I would allow him the luxury in a heartbeat, I however can't do that kind of damage to the children's view of him. "We need to find the girl's family." Moving to him and laying a reassuring hand on his arm, I give him what I hope is an understood look. "Her family first, then, as you've been told, you know your rights."

"You're sure?"

"I won't stand for anyone attacking our family any more than you will, Zedd." Looking at the prone figure in disgust, I give him a telling kick. "He'll finish paying, just as Essa did, just not in front of the kids, mate, and not before I've had my own time with him."

He takes a deep breath and nods. "Goldar, Scorpina - get the information we need." Together we step away as the warriors get to work. "What has he done to you, love?"

"Besides choking me until I passed out and abducting me? Nothing I know of. Why?"

"He hasn't - touched you?"

Suddenly understanding what his concern is, I quickly fill him in on what happened before they arrived. "I just want to make sure that I get a few shots in before all is said and done, Zedd."

His relief is thick in his voice. "Ah. Well, that makes sense."

Abruptly the two warriors questioning the prisoner make a dash for the back door, Pina calling behind them, "Stay here and watch him!" This can't be good.

Thirty minutes later they return, in their natural forms once more and supporting two adults, two children and each of them holding a baby. Before Zedd or I can move to help, our children descend on the group and instantly start helping. I catch Pina's eye and she gives me a nod. While the children are distracted, I commence to dishing out my own punishment. Not quite as much as I'd like, but Zedd needs to yank the rest of the power from this idiot while the kids are busy. I nod to Zedd and step back. I almost hope that he lives through this. Zedd's told me what hell he had to live through just trying to recover and he didn't even lose all his power.

I look at Heddlu. "You'll deal with the remains, right? Living or otherwise?"

He nods. "If he's living, he'll go straight to the hospital ward at the prison. If he's not, well there's always the morgue."

"And nothing will happen to Zedd because of this."

"Correct." Heddlu pauses as he thinks. "Unless the addition of so much dark power causes him to do something stupid, but I doubt very much you'd let that happen."

I turn my attention back to my husband. "You're smarter than your cousin at least."