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Bruises

She's been broken. She's been knocked down. She's been defeated. She's felt pain that most couldn't handle. She looks fear in the face, year after year, day after day, but yet, she never runs. She never hides. And she always finds a way to get back up. She's unbreakable. She's a warrior – she's you.

Kivar sat on his throne, listening to General Nicholas's report.

And now, it really would be his throne – not Zan's

And she, Eowyn would be his Queen, not Zan's not anymore!

Zan, Nicholas reported was still on earth, had no intention of returning to Antar, and Eowyn … Eowyn was in the next room, ready to surrender to him! Once Eowyn submitted to him, Antar would be his forever. The populous who had continued their unruly fight against his reign would have no choice but to surrender.

When they realised that their King was never coming back to save them.

When they discovered that their Queen had betrayed them.

Rising from his throne, Kivar strode to the adjoining chamber, where Eowyn awaited him, gesturing for Nicholas to join him. Eowyn stood bound and beaten in the centre of the room. The very sight of her filled him with desire. "Eowyn, my love" he declared, striding towards her. Grasping her by the hair on the nape of her neck, he raised her lips to his, and kissed her passionately. She did not resist, but that was not good enough. He pulled back a little and raised his eyebrow.

"The next time I embrace you, I shall expect a more enthusiastic response from my wife!" he ordered. Eowyn stared back at him, no hint of submission on her face. 'Good' he thought to himself. Eowyn's passion was one of the things about her that he had always loved. And this would be so much more fun if she resisted!

Kivar traced the wounds on her face. "Who did this to you?" he asked, his voice deceptively soft.

Eowyn looked at him, her eyes flashing fire. "You know perfectly well that it was Nicholas – on your orders!" she spat at him.

Glancing to Nicholas who stood at the door, Kivar directed a blast of power at his General. Nicholas slumped to the floor, instantly dead – his reward for a lifetime of service and exile.

Eowyn looked on aghast. Not that she felt any particular sympathy for the man who had tortured her for weeks but …. "Why" she gasped out "He was only doing your bidding!"

Kivar turned to her, stroking his fingers over her wounds, healing them one by one. Eowyn reflected that only he could manage to make his healing caresses feel like a violation. Finished, he brought her face to his. "I cannot have any of my subjects disrespecting their Queen, now can I?" he asked as if it was the most reasonable thing in the world.

The punch when it came was without warning. It was straight to her abdomen, causing her to fall to the ground at his feet. Gasping, but refusing to show how much he had hurt her, Eowyn rose to her feet and looked incredulously at Kivar.

"That" he said by way of explanation "was for daring to rebuke me. And what is going to follow … you could call a kind of final test. The old Eowyn, the one who would never have submitted to me, would not ever have allowed me to strike her!" With that, Kivar began to kick and hit her, as if determined to recreate the bruises that he had just healed.

Eowyn kept her silence. Although the words stung, almost more that the blows, it was what she wanted. She wanted him to believe her, to underestimate her. She had to get into that Throne Room. She had to reach the Orbital Control, or their ships would never be able to reinforce Zan and his men.

Zan crept towards the city, his numbers now swollen by the Rebels, led by Rath's brother, Laven. He now had three hundred men, surrounding the city. They had taken out the perimeter guards.

Rath crept up beside Zan grinning, in fact he had not stopped smiling since he had found his brother. Brave soldier that he was, Rath had not once mentioned his concern for his brother, who he had feared dead as he had not been evacuated from Antar before the Skins took control.

"The men are in position and all of the guards have been taken out, Sire" he reported to Zan. "All we have to do now is wait." He turned to his brother. "I don't suppose you have a pack of cards so we can pass the time?" he asked.

Laven rolled his eyes at his brother. He was sometimes shocked at how casual his brother was in front of his King, General or no.

"I should think his Majesty has other things on his mind other than card games Rath" he admonished his brother.

Rath glanced quickly at his King, Zan was a study of concern and tension, waiting for the Queen's signal. Until he heard from her, he would not know if she was well, or even alive. Rath laid his hand on his friend and King's shoulder comfortingly.

"The Queen will be well" he reassured his friend. "If anyone can do this, it is Eowyn."

'I can do this' Eowyn said to herself, picking herself up off the floor once more. Kivar stood over her. His eyes gleaming with satisfaction and something else, something that Eowyn dare not name – even to herself.

Wiping his bloodied knuckles on his tunic, Kivar turned to the guards, who had been standing impassively by the door the whole time. "Give me ten minutes" he said to them. "And then bring Her Majesty to me." Striding up to Eowyn where she stood trembling in the middle of the floor, he grasped her head and brought his lips to hers in a bruising kiss.

"You will come in and bow before me" he instructed her. "Tell the court that you are submitting to me and that you will be my wife. Order them to follow my rule."
Eowyn smiled despite herself. Her people continued to fight Kivar. Well, today she would fight with them!

Misinterpreting her smile as acquiescence, Kivar nodded and without another word strode out of the room.

As the door swung closed behind Kivar, Eowyn caught a glimpse of what could only be the Orbital Control. Focusing quickly before the door shut, Eowyn cut off the power to the Control, at the same time projecting a mind warp so that Kivar, and any others in the room would believe that the control was still working.

Pulling all her power into her bruised and broken body, Eowyn focused on her husband.

"Zan" she called through their link. "It is done, come to me!"