Disclaimer: I don't own them. I merely enjoy writing them. For those of you that this chapter seems familiar, that's because this has merely been corrected slightly.

Chapter 24

"Get your hands off of me! She was thrashing about.

"Now, now, we won't hurt you. The burning ship was just a distraction."

"You burnt a ship down to get me!"

"Why yes. It was the most fun we've had." There was a wicked pleasure in the man's voice. "I hope you enjoy your stay. It will be short and we haven't had many young women."

Hitomi awoke to find a man's blood red eyes drooling over her. She instinctively recoiled at the sight of him. "Come here, my pretty."

"Stay away from me." Hitomi shrank back as much as she could. The man's course itchy looking hands began inching their way toward her. She cringed at the mere thought of those hands being on her. He didn't get within 10 inches of her though. A barrier shielded her from his touch.

"What?" He roared at the searing of his hands. He tried to touch her again but didn't succeed. "Only a witch could block anyone in such a way?"

"Who are you calling a witch, Gavin?" A voice said from the stairs.

"This…" He stopped and stood at attention when he saw who it was.

"Now we wouldn't want to damage her. I'm sure it's just you imagination." The man walked up to Hitomi's face. He didn't try to touch her. He was just whispering something lurid and vivid in her ear.

Hitomi was puzzled. She didn't know where the barrier had come from when the man named Gavin tried to touch her. It didn't come up when this other neared her. She went red with anger with what he said but when he tried to touch her he was pushed away.

"She should burn in hell! She's not human. Place her under constant guard." The apparent leader ordered. "Lord Meiden wants her alive. I don't know why he didn't send one of his puppets."

Hitomi was left alone to her thoughts. All she could think though was this Dryden's father and Dryden hadn't turned out all that bad. Maybe Meiden wouldn't be that bad. "Yeah right." She muttered. She remembered the kidnapping attempt he made all of those years ago with the geckos. Van had saved her then and many times following.

"Here she is Milord."

It was the man that she had seen when she had looked into the young boy's soul. The boy was really about Vanel and Analous's age but remembered so little. "The ever elusive power of Atlantis." The man walked in with a smirk. "Lady Hitomi, I finally have you. What a shame though that in the end of all of this you will die."

"I wouldn't count on that."

"Don't count on being rescued my dear."

-Vanel-

Vanel felt fear but it wasn't his. He was almost sure that it was his mother. He felt something repelled repeatedly but unable to move. There was fear from elsewhere as well, a fear of maybe, the supernatural.

-Analous-

Analous stopped at the end of the cliff. He had been walking for quite a while now. He really hoped that the others were having better luck than he had been.

The bottom of the cliff seemed to be a valley of some sort in the mists. A levi ship was dropping in to the mist slowly being enveloped. The flag looked like the one that had been on the ship that had boarded them. "What are they doing her?"

They cliff was the most ragged he had ever climbed down. He usually had ropes but today he had to use the knives that he kept in his boots when traveled especially with Lord Van. He may have been training to be king but he had found that soldier could not always count on soldiers defend you. Analous had become an expert in knives, daggers, swords thanks to Gaddess.

Gaddess had his own leviship now but was also the owner of a local Fanelian tavern. His crew was a bit rougher than Allen's previously but they were the most loyal bunch he had ever seen in a crew. Some of them were even from Allen's former crew.

A rock slide brought him back to the present but found his feet touching the hard ground. The mist was much thicker down here than it had looked from the top. There was something about the air and the earth shook as if something heavy walked it. Analous had his sword out and was ready for whatever was coming. Then he heard it, the roar of a dragon.

-Van and Celena-

By mutual unspoken consent the four remaining had broken into groups of two. Van with Celena and Dryden with Millerna were working together. There were two groups of the crew looking. The remaining people of the crew set up camp. So far at each of the check-ins they had found nothing.

Celena stood b him at the fork in soie well worn paths. "Well what direction are we supposed to take?" They felt the earthquake tremor through the earth.

"Earthquakes aren't normal around here." Van said as they ran the direction of the roars that they heard coming. The sound of dragons coming wasn't good.

-Millerna and Dryden-

"Dryden where do you think that she is? I know we haven't found any clue as to her whereabouts?"

"I think that she will be alright. She can take care of herself a lot better than the last time that she was here."

"Doesn't stop me from worrying." Millerna muttered. She didn't know what was coming for her friend and she didn't know what was to come bit what happened when all of the family came into one place. She knew what Hitomi had seen with her visions. The building of Atlantis was not such a good thing.

-Hitomi-

She listened to all that was going around outside of the cell that she was being kept in. She had just about stopped thinking that anyone was going to take the time to talk to her when the door to her cell opened once again. "Well if it isn't one of the most famous queens of all Fanelia. What's the matter? Your entourage not protect you well enough?"

"Princess Najeh, why are you doing this?"

"Who is this Princess Najeh? I am my own person and the next in line to rule this world."

"You're right you are next in line to rule but not here." Hitomi answered.

What are you talking about? You act as if you know who and what I am." Princess Najeh growled. "My name is Princess Jonarc. My Lord handpicked me to take over his reign when he can no longer do this. You have been a thorn in his side for many years now. You only live because he needs your power and your sons." She crossed her arms across her chest. "Make sure you remember that because after he drains your power you will be killed."

After the princess left, Hitomi muttered under her breath, "That was not Princess Najeh. It was someone else in her body." Of course, she had already known that. Hadn't she been the one to tell them that they would have to break whatever this was that had been placed over her? It reminded her of the alteration that had been made on Celena all of those years ago.

She closed her eyes looking for her son and what he was up to. She felt her body disconnect fro her spirit if only momentarily.

Vanel felt and looked different. She couldn't quite explain it but the girl that was with him was confused. It looked as of her son was just slightly confused as well. "He's finally found a girl that he likes. This is good news." They were headed out once they had put their robes back on but she didn't think that the girl or her son was going to have to wear the things much longer. How he had graduated from slave to a wearer of the black robes she didn't know but then again they were all wearing the robes now. She supposed that drew less attention their way.

Vanel watched all of them closer than he had been. Something had been revealed to him. Perhaps what she had already been shown but he didn't seem to like the destination that they were headed to. Looking a little to the front she saw something that troubled her. Their seemed an unusual whispered stirring among the figures. The only time they stirred about anything they were usually attacking and that seemed to be the only time they were given partial control of their reflexes but she wasn't quite sure on that. Other than those times they moved slowly almost robotically when they were.

Looking behind them she saw that they were being followed by some of them. Usually Vanel and his friend tried to be last but she didn't think that it looked like as if that was going to be allowed here. There was also a tension that rippled all through the dream. From her vantage point she saw that they were going what looked like the ancient city of…. No it couldn't be…

Hitomi came to gasping for breath. It simply wasn't possible.

"See something disturbing your highness."

-Van and Celena-

Van and Celena ran in the direction of the slight earthquakes and the roars. What they saw beneath them wasn't good. There was a cliff that had a mist below it. Stay here!" He ordered Celena. Millerna and Dryden came up just as he unfurled his wings and dove down to get a closer look at what was going on.

Van landed in the thick mist but found himself not twenty feet behind a dragon. All he had time to did was get our of the way so that he didn't get trampled. Analous was in the middle of fighting the thing but he was exhausted. He had been fighting the thing for a while. When he saw the king he went to find a way to distract the thing from him. It may have been part of his duty to protect the queen but it was just as much his duty to protect his king. He threw one of his daggers at the dragons eyes. The dragon gave an angry roar when blood started to ooze out of his eye. Analous leaped up to get the underbelly of the creature before the beast noticed that his lord was behind them.

He felt the tremor of the dragon's body when his sword hit close to his heart. The roar trembled the air around them. Switching slightly to his left his sword sliced that area. The dragon's heart gave one last beat before Analous pulled it form the dragon's chest. He knew that he might need this later.

"Milord, I'm sorry but I had to check out this lead. I saw a levi ship come down here with the resemblance of the one that attacked us. Something is wrong though. There's something down here but I simply can't see it. It's like it's invisible."

"You did well Analous and have passed your test. Let's go find my wife-to-be-again."

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Okay to anyone that is reading these chapters you must know that 22-25 have been corrected. I hope that you enjoy the rest of the story.