Disclaimer: I do not own All Hail King Julien or any of its characters. I do own Emily, Patch, Weasel, Lilian, Elizabeth, and the fossa with names, and the idea for this story

Patch was sitting in the back of the cage, drowning in guilt and self pity as the others discussed his fate. What were they going to do to him? He stiffened when Weasel suggested they throw him out of the cage and let the fossa deal with him.

"For some reason the fossa aren't eating us," Lilian pointed out. "So I don't think they'd make an exception for someone who was working with them."

Actually, Patch thought, glancing around at the fossa guarding the lemurs. I think most of them would very much enjoy eating me… He remembered how everyone but Mac made him feel like an outsider. Now even Mac told him that he didn't belong with the fossa.

"Why are we talking about this now?" Emily gazed at Weasel and Lilian before turning to look at Clover and Maurice. "We have more important things to worry about." She lowered her voice. "Like how we are going to escape from here to find Julien and rescue him."

"Emily's right," Maurice decided. "We can discuss what's to be done with Patch once we get our king back."

Weasel snorted. "I'm telling you there's no point. Fossa took him into the jungle and he's been gone for a long time. Our king is dead."

"Don't say that!"

Everyone turned to Mort, who stood at the back of the second cage. His eyes blazed with anger as he glared at Weasel. Emily pushed past Weasel and Lilian until she was standing in front of Mort. She reached out and patted his head.

"It's okay," she soothed. "I'm sure he's still alive and we will find him."

Mort stared at her, taken aback. He disliked her because of the attention his king showed her, and he was sure everyone, including her, knew it. Yet here she was comforting him. For the first time ever his anger toward her melted away and he smiled up at her. Then he wrapped his arms around her in a tight hug.

"Thank you," he whispered.

She smiled as well and patted his head again.

Patch watched the heartwarming moment in silence. Then he cleared his throat and everyone turned to him. "I have a plan to escape," he murmured quietly to them. "But I need all of your help— especially you, Mort."

"No way!" Mort's anger came back, aimed at Patch. "I'm not listening to anything you say!" He hugged tighter on Emily's leg.

"I'm with Mort," Weasel announced, glaring at Patch. "Why should we trust you?"

"Yeah!" Clover snapped around at the male ringtail. "You let us continue to believe you were innocent. You didn't tell us that you were working for the fossa!"

"I was going to," Patch defended himself," when the fossa jumped us."

"Yeah, right," Clover snorted.

Maurice and Emily shared a glance. "Maybe we should listen to him," Maurice said.

"Yeah," Emily agreed. "We have no other option, and remember, he is the king's brother. Julien… isn't here at the moment." She was determined not to say what everyone was thinking, but Julien has been gone for a long time. Could he really still be alive? "So while he is gone," Emily went on," Patch is technically in charge."

Weasel snorted. "He's not my king!"

"Mine either!" Clover declared, and Lilian quietly murmured an agreement while Mort just glared at Patch.

"Whoa, I don't want to be king," Patch insisted. "I didn't mean to take charge or anything, but I have a plan, and nobody else was coming up with one. I'm sorry if I stepped on any toes." With a heavy sigh, Patch sat down, facing away from everyone.

Emily frowned. "We should at least listen to his plan," she whispered.

"Why?" Weasel growled. "He's a traitor!"

"But unless you have a plan," Maurice snapped at him," he is our only option, and we should listen to him."

Clover and Weasel stared at each other for several moments before sighing. "Fine," the orange lemur muttered as Weasel huffed and flopped down on his rear.

Hope flared up in Emily. "Okay, Patch, tell us your plan."

Patch looked up, eyes shining. "Okay, come closer." He lowered his voice so the fossa couldn't hear as he told the others his plan.

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Midnight came and went as Julien struggled through the jungle. He still had no idea where he was, but he hoped eventually he'd stumble across his kingdom or at least some part of the island he recognized.

Finally he gave up and sat down where he was. He stared up at the sky, convinced he could see the moon moving. Was that his life ticking by?

Suddenly rustling startled him. He jumped to his feet and jerked in all distances, but he didn't see anything. "H-Hello?" he called out.

No reply.

"Hel-" He broke off when something appeared right in front of him. He screamed and jumped back. Then he took a better look at the chameleon. "Masikura?"

"Hello, Your Majesty," she said nonchalantly.

"Where have you been?" Julien demanded, stomping his foot. "My kingdom—"

"—is in grave danger," she finished his sentence. "Your brother will return to you, but do not trust him. He's working for the fossa."

"Now you tell me!" Julien shouted. "Look around! It's too late for warnings, Masikura. I did trust my brother and now Karl has trapped me out here with no way of returning to save everyone because I don't know where I am!"

"Oh." Masikura was silent for a moment. "Okay, bye." She vanished before his eyes.

"Wait! Wait!" Julien yelled, running around. "Wait!" He stopped dead when she appeared in front of him again.

"What?" she asked.

"How did you get here?" he demanded.

"I know every inch of this island."

"I thought I knew every inch of my kingdom."

"But this is not your kingdom," she reminded him.

Julien sighed. "Yeah…"

"Goodbye." She vanished again only to reappear after he called to her again.

"Can you show me the way home?" he begged.

She scratched her chin as if in thought. "Okay. But," she added," we aren't going home." Before he could ask where they were going, she once again vanished and reappeared farther away. "Come on, Your Majesty!"

Feeling hopeful for the first time since he found out his brother was a traitor, he ran after the chameleon, wondering where she was taking him.

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"I can't believe I'm doing this for the traitor," Mort muttered angrily. Taking a deep breath, he called out to the nearest fossa, who turned to him. "Hey, cat-face, you want some?" He wiggled his tail and slapped his plump bottom.

At first the fossa didn't seem tempted, then he came over. "I'm sure Mac won't miss one lemur," he said as he licked his lips hungrily.

For a moment, Mort regretted agreeing to go along with Patch's plan. Then he remembered the rest. He wiggled his bottom once more and then ran to the front of the cage, ducking behind Emily. The fossa's hunting instincts took over and he gave chase, crashing into the cage. His head got stuck between the bars.

Panic shined in his eyes as he struggled to get free. Finally he was able to get his head unstuck, stumbling backwards, but the impact left a hole in the cage big enough for the lemurs to slip through.

The first part of the plan worked. Now it was time for the second part. Emily ran to the other cage where the rest of their friends were trapped, and tried to open it but it wouldn't budge.

"Hey!"

Mort turned around to see Sander staring at them. "How did you get out?" he demanded.

"Get away from here!" Patch called to them. "Don't worry about us. Find Julien and get to safety!"

For a moment Emily seemed hesitant, then when fossa came running toward them, she turned to Mort, Weasel, and Lilian. "Come on!"

All four of them ran together, dodging fossa until they were out of the cliff. But still they weren't safe; fossa were still after them. They ran and ran, finally getting to the trees, and they climbed the highest tree and started swinging from branch to branch. Eventually the sound of the fossa faded into the jungle, and at last they decided to stop to catch their breaths.

"What now?" Weasel panted.

For several moments nobody answered him. Then Emily said," We find Julien and then return here to recuse the rest of our friends."

The others agreed and off they went.

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