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
"Okay, everyone understands the plan?" the king asked, and his friends— and his brother— nodded. "Let's move out, then." Julien jumped out of his throne, landing beside Maurice, who gave him an encouraging nod.
Across the room, Weasel and Lilian were talking. "I'd feel a lot better if you stayed here," he told her.
She glared at him. "No way! I'm coming. I have friends there, too! I want to help them." Determination burned in her eyes.
Julien admired her courage, but he agreed with Weasel. Lilian's way too young to go on a mission like this. He'd never forgive himself if anything happened to her. "You're staying here, Lilian," he ordered, and before she could object, he turned to Emily. "You, too."
She stared at him. "You can't be serious! I want to go with you!"
"And I want you here, where it's safe," he retorted. He took her by the hand and looked into her green eyes. "I can't lose you. Please, stay where I know you'd be safe. Please," he begged.
Emily continued to hesitate.
"Stay here and keep Lilian safe," Julien pleaded with her. "Don't think of it as being left behind. Think of it as an important assignment from your king." He let go of her and puffed out his chest, earning him a giggle from the pretty lemur, despite the situation they were in.
"Well, technically, without your crown, you're just an everyday lemur," she teased.
He laughed then grew serious again. "Do be safe, okay?"
She smiled. "You, too." She glanced at Lilian. "We'll be alright, huh?" She nudged her, but Lilian sniffed as if she was still sour about being left behind, but she didn't argue anymore like she saw no point. A decision has been made. Emily and Lilian were staying on the plane.
"I'm staying behind, too," Sage announced, taking a step forward.
Clover stared at him. "But Sage," she objected," we may need your muscles."
"No you don't," Sage calmly responded.
"Y-Yes, we might," Clover stammered.
"No, you don't. You can handle this without me." Sage took hold of her hand and looked her in the eyes. In that moment, many words passed unsaid between them, and Clover reluctantly agreed to let him stay.
"That's settled," Julien said with authority. He was glad of Emily's and Lilian's safety, even more so that Sage would be here to watch over them. But still there was a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. He hoped they all make it out of this alive, and him and his subjects return to their rightful home. Then he turned to Patch, anger rising in him when he recalled what his brother did to him a short time ago. "You remember your part?" the king sniffed.
Patch nodded determinaly. "Yes… Your Majesty," he quickly added.
Turning his back on his brother, Julien returned to Maurice's side. "You ready, MoMo?" he asked.
Maurice nodded. "But are you sure Patch should be live bait?" he ventured, looking uncertain.
"Well, he can't be dead bait… unless…" Julien gasped. "MoMo! I don't like him either, but we can't do that!"
"That's not what I meant!" the aye-aye hurriedly said. "I just meant, he could be in danger being bait for the fossa."
Weasel stepped forward. "Think about it. It makes the most sense. They probably want Patch as much as they want Julien. That fossa named Mac seemed eager to throw Patch into a cage. He can distract the fossa while we sneak in and rescue our friends."
Patch dipped his head. "I want to help, and I want to make sure Mac and his gang loses."
Maurice grinned at him. "See, he wants to help," he said as he turned to Julien.
"We'll see about that," the king responded, eyeing his brother suspiciously. He didn't trust him, and after all this was over, he was going to throw him out of his kingdom. Only lemurs loyal to the king were allowed to stay, and thanks to his brother— that word felt sour on his tongue now— he was questioning the rest of his subjects' loyalty. But he found comfort in telling himself that he would find all the bad lemurs so what happened yesterday will never come to pass ever again as long as there was breath in his lungs.
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The scent trail led the fossa to the tallest tree on the island. Sander stared up at the plane, anger burning inside him. Curse his short tail. And he wasn't about to give credit to anyone else. There was no way for them to get the lemurs now.
Sander raised a paw and knocked on the truck. What were they to do? He started pacing, murmuring to himself. "I can't return to camp without them. Mac would surely have my tail! But we can't reach them. What do I do?" He stopped pacing.
"Actually," Heath pointed out," we can climb up there, even if you can't. We can bring them down, and—"
Sander wasn't listening. "Think like Mac," he growled to himself. "What would Mac do?" He glanced around, forcing his mind to function like Mac's.
The sound of leaves rustling made Sander look up to see the branches moving like crazy. A closer look, he saw the lemurs hopping through the trees, heading toward—
"Back!" Sander snarled at his patrol. "Back the way we came!"
In a flash, the fossa were off, back to their side of the island. Please, let us make it back before them!
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The sun was going down, and clouds were moving in, making it darker than usual this time of day. Patch stared upward nervously. If the clouds didn't go away, they'd have to go on with their plan in the dark. They couldn't retreat and wait for a clearer day. They had to rescue the other lemurs before the fossa changed their minds and decided they wanted to eat them after all.
Beside him, his brother gave out orders. "Weasel, you come with me and Maurice. We are going to sneak in and release my subjects, while Patch distracts the fossa. Mort, you stay here and guide everyone back to the kingdom." Julien's gaze burned into Mort's eyes. "Do you understand?"
Patch glanced at Mort. He only just met him, but he could tell that the little lemur wasn't the brightest around and he lets his feelings blind him.
Mort nodded absently.
Sighing, Julien turned his back on Mort and addressed his brother. "All you need to do is distract the fossa," he told him, and Patch dipped his head. "Okay, Clover—"
The king was interrupted by a low growl behind them. Patch spun around to see a patrol of fossa stalking toward the lemurs, their lips drawn back as they snarled.
Suddenly Julien pushed him forward, closer to the fossa. "Go on now," the king whispered. "Show where your loyalty lies. Either distract them or join them."
Patch hesitated and not because he thought about joining the fossa side, but because it was four fossa against him, a lemur. For the first time in his life, as he stood there, looking into the mouths of Sander and his patrol, he compared his size to theirs; he pictured their teeth ripping open his flesh and how his death would be quick and painful.
"What are you waiting for?" Julien whispered in his ear. "Distract them and we'll sneak off."
"I knew we couldn't trust him," he heard Clover mutter under her breath.
Patch gulped. I can do this… I can do this… "H-Hey, c-cat-face," he called to Sander, who snapped around to glare at him.
"You," he growled in a menacing voice. He stalked closer to Patch. "I always came in second since Mac brought you home."
Patch looked at his brother; then his brother's adviser and his bodyguard. He turned to Weasel and Mort. It dawned on him that these lemurs were giving him a chance to show that he no longer felt any loyalty toward the fossa. Suddenly ice cold calmness came over him, and he looked back at Sander. "Well, you are his second-in-command," he reminded him.
"Since you came along, he has put more faith in you than me. You get all the important jobs and I get the useless stuff. That is until he said you were never a real fossa and he's been entrusting me with the important stuff again." Patch opened his mouth to interrupt, but Sander went on without any notice. "But then you planned the escape, and now my job is on the line. I should kill you right here to get it over with, but I won't."
Patch blinked. "You won't?" he echoed.
"Nope," Sander answered. "I'm going to take you back to Mac and let him decide what to do with you. He'll be so grateful that he'll never think about demoting me ever again!" A wild light shined in Sander's eyes, and Patch realized that he was so obsessed with wanting to praise Mac that it was slowly making him insane. A sane fossa was a dangerous creature, but one who was losing his mind… that was unimaginable…
Suddenly an idea came to him. He could use Sander's obsession against him. "If you want to take me to Mac, you'll have to catch me first!" Patch called to him as he took off in a random direction.
Julien watched his brother run away, unsure if that was the bravest thing he's ever seen or the stupidest. Either way, Patch was putting his life on the line for Julien and his subjects.
Sander started after Patch but froze when he noticed that his patrol wasn't following him. "Come on, you lazy cats!" he growled, turning to them.
"But Sander," objected Heath. "Why chase after the fake fossa failure? We have the king right here. We can take him to Mac instead. He'll be grateful to have him, too."
Sander glared at him. "He'll be more grateful to have that coward!"
"But Sander," Adain tried protesting, but Sander glared at him, and growled again," Come on!"
Heath and Adain exchanged looks, then looked at Simon who shrugged and ran after Sander. The other two were right behind him, leaving Julien and his friends to stare after them in disbelief.
"Patch did it," Weasel whispered like he couldn't believe the king's brother had held up his part of the plan.
"I can't believe it," Clover admitted.
"I told you he wanted to help us," Maurice told his friends.
Julien bit his lip, praying that Patch was fast enough to outrun the fossa. Then he turned toward the camp and murmured," Let's do this."
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