Running for him, she grabbed him by the neck and pulled back. He gasped as he fell backwards onto the floor. Her grip tightened as she took the dagger from her pocket. She brought the blade within an inch of his neck and she smiled. Her beautiful smile was cut short as she was grabbed from behind. She uttered a garbled cry as the dagger flew from her hand and landed on the steps. She was spun around and saw her friends. Her eyes widened as she saw they were all held, captured, and the steps to the temple held many more guards. Her eyes closed and she sighed as the man she had held captive moments before stood and walked before her.

"Very foolish," he told her with a laugh. He raised his hand, striking her face and causing small droplets of blood to fall from her mouth. She narrowed her eyes and laughed as the man pushed his hair over his shoulder.

"Is that all you've got?" She asked, spitting dark red blood onto his brilliantly white tunic. She tilted her head and looked directly into his eyes. "You will pay. It doesn't matter how long it takes but you will pay. You have done some despicable things and if it's the last thing I do I will make you pay."

"I don't think that will be possible for you." He clicked his fingers and two men walked out of the building, carrying long, thick swords. The group of rebels looked at the men and began screaming and shouting. Pushing and pulling they tried to break free of the men holding them. The man smirked as the girl was pushed onto the steps and held down. She was not struggling as the guards held her down and the men took their position beside her.

"Just remember that there will always be people out to get you. No matter how many people you recruit or how many guards you have protecting you, you will be brought down. It may take time but you will not get away with this. Sleep with one eye open, Guardian. You will never be safe."

"Strong words for a person in your position," the Guardian said, smiling down at the girl. "You could have been apart of this, my child, but you chose your path and now I have no choice but to send you to meet the mighty Zoot. Maybe he can forgive you and your sins. But no matter what, you will learn the way of the Chosen. It is just a pity that it has to happen in the other world." The Guardian motioned to the two men and they began to move gracefully around the square, at the top of the steps, putting on a deadly performance. Their deadly dance continued as the group of rebels stood screaming, pleading the Guardian. He ignored them and continued to watch the girl. Her head was placed on the step but she was not struggling, her eyes were fixed on the floor, accepting her fate. The men continued their show as the girl finally spoke.

"I love you, all of you. Tell the others to keep fighting. Bring him down," she said to the other rebels. "Don't forget me and keep the dream alive." The Guardian watched this with quiet awe, unsure where the girls strength came from. In one fluid motion the men brought their blades down. It quickly cut through the girls flesh, sending a spray of blood onto her friends.

"NO!" One of the rebels cried out, tears gushing down her face. She turned as one of the male rebels wrapped his arms around her, accepting her, as his own tears began to fall. Another rebel stood still, his system flooded with shock, and he slowly sank to his knees. The braided head of the girl rolled along the ground and came to rest at the Guardian's feet. He nudged it with his toe.

"All blasphemers must learn the consequences of going against the Chosen. The Chosen will prevail and no one, no one, will stop us." The Guardian motioned and the rebels were dragged into the mall.

"Make sure this is cleaned up. We have a celebration tomorrow," the Guardian told one of his guard as he motioned to the girls corpse and the blood littering the steps. As he walked into the mall the clean up had begun and within minutes every trace of the murder had been removed and quietness returned to the city.

--

The Chosen take-over had been quick and expertly executed. The Guardian had slowly been building support and before long he had more then four times the amount of followers he had, had during the first occupation. The city was still living peacefully and Jay was still city leader when the Guardian decided to strike, sending shockwaves throughout the city and the surrounding area. The takeover had taken place only two years after Ebony, Ved and Cloe returned to the city. By this time Mouse had joined the Gaians and Amber and Bray Jr had rejoined the Mall Rats. Trudy, unable to cope with Jay and Ebony's relationship, had rejoined the Chosen, taking her rightful place as Supreme Mother. Brady, however, has refused to accept the will of the Chosen but, despite her hatred of the Chosen, she has been forced to take the position of Divine Child and she lives the privileged life. Tai-San was beaten regularly for daring to impersonate the Supreme Mother. At least once a week she was beaten and the Chosen made sure that the bruises could not be shown. Only Lex and a few select Mall Rats know about the treatment she receives. The Mall Rats have been Chosen slaves for almost a year, with no hope of escape.

The Mall Rats sat in the room which Ebony and Jay shared, trying to come up with a solution to the Chosen. They had, had many discussions during the occupation and they had never amounted to much. Lily sat holding Bray Jr's hand as the group continued ming plans that they would never carry out. Lily sighed loudly.

"Do you have anything you want to add, Lily?" Amber asked, looking at her.

"Yeah," Lily said, standing up and letting go of Bray's (Jr) hand. "What's the point?"

"What?" Amber asked, tilting her head.

"What's the point?" Lily asked again. "We have a 'war council' every week and we make these brilliant plans and have we ever carried out any?" The group lowered their heads.

"We just haven't had the chance," Bray said, trying to pull Lily down. Lily pushed his hand off.

"Haven't had that chance?" Lily asked, shaking her head. "We won't get the chance. Do you think the Chosen are going to give us the chance to do something? And if there is a chance do you think it's something we can plan for?" Ebony stood beside her daughter.

"She's right," she said to the group. "If something is going to happen it will happen. We can't plan for everything. When the time comes we'll just know. It's never going to happen the way we want it so we can't keep doing this. Getting our hopes up and then having them dashed over and over." Bray stood up as Ebony sat back down. He looked at Lily and sighed.

"I hate to say this, but you're wrong," Bray told Lily.

"What?" Lily asked. Bray tried to touch Lily's arm but she shrugged him off.

"Well we need to plan. Yeah it may never happen but if something does happen we need to have something in our mind to work from. We can't just dive in and hope for the best. We might miss opportunities by doing that. Now," he said, walking towards Lily. "Sit down and let's talk about the plan."

"No," Lily said, pushing him away more firmly. "God who do you think you are. Don't speak to me like that."

"Lily..."

"No Bray, forget it. You keep doing this, planning your little plans. Nothing will happen if you go on like this and all you'll do is make life harder. If we are going to escape we need to act on impulse and look for opportunities, not sit here in the dark. So just forget it," Lily turned and strode out of the room, almost colliding with a Chosen guard, she headed to her room, as the others began to talk.

--

Ebony entered her daughters room and found her lying face down on the bed. She sat down beside her and began stroking her hair.

"He's so...annoying some time," Lily said, turning to face Ebony.

"They all are hunni," Ebony said with a smile. "Men are pigs. It's the rule of life." Lily smiled. "You were right, though." Lily nodded.

"I know. I'm just sick of getting my hopes up and then nothing happening. We are never going to be free if we don't actually put up a resistance."

"It was different the first time," Ebony told her. "At least there were people putting up a fight."

"I remember your stories."

"Everyone is just too scared now. I just wish we had given the Guardian over to the mob. At least then the Chosen would have been buried and there would be no uprising."

"Yeah. But he'll get his," Lily said, displaying a fire in her eyes that Ebony was all to used to possessing. "It may take a while but he will get his." Ebony nodded.
"Well make it happen. Now," Ebony began, standing up. "You get some rest and I'll see you in the work party." Ebony walked out of the room and put her back against the wall.

"She's her mother's daughter all right," Ebony said out loud, and headed off to her own room.

--

Bray knocked on the wall outside Lily's room and waited just out of sight.

"Come in," Lily said and Bray walked into the room. "Get out." Lily lay back down on her bed.

"Listen..."

"No you listen," Lily told him, cutting him off. "What I was saying made sense and you know it. But instead of taking it on board you decide it would be better to patronise me in front of everyone. You do it again you can find yourself another girl. I'm not like your mother and I won't be spoken to like that."

"Don't talk about my mum," Bray told her sternly.

"I'll talk about whoever I want and you can't stop me. You think I'm just going to lie down for you and forget who I am but I'm not. I have my own mind, Bray and until you can accept that you can just leave." Bray sighed and ran his hand through his hair, his fathers hair.

"I know you have your own mind," Bray told her, taking a seat beside her on the bed. "It's just that we need to keep peoples hopes up. Even if nothing happens we can't be demoralised. Think of poor Tai-San or even Brady. It will happen and we need to keep the dream alive."

"I know that but it doesn't matter how many plans we make everyone believes that the dream is dead." Bray sighed and took Lily's hand.

"We need to stick together. I'm sorry for what I said. Do you forgive me?" Lily looked at Bray and tilted her head. She liked keeping him waiting, especially when he messed up.

"I guess," Lily told im with a smile.

"Good," Bray said and kissed her gently on the lips.

--

Lily woke up from her sleep by the rough handling of the Chosen Guards.

"What are you doing?" She asked as she was pulled from her bed and thrown to the floor. Her hair was thrown around everywhere and one of the guard stood on one of her long braids, causing her to wince. He pulled it free and slowly rubbed her head.
"You are late for your duties," one of the guards told her. "You have work detail at the farm." Lily shook her head and stood up.

"You catch more flies with honey than vinegar," she told them scowling. She reached for her clothes and turned to face the guards. "I need to get dressed." The guards raised their eyebrows but stayed in their position. "I'm not changing if you're standing there." One guard raised his hand as footsteps came up behind him.

"What are you doing?" Brady asked, putting on her most authoritative voice. Due to her timid nature, the voice was not as strong as she hoped.

"Uh...well..."

"Uh...Divine Child. We were just calling this slave for work detail. She was late."

"Then why don't you leave her to dress. If you mistreat her again you will be severely punished." The guards nodded and left the room. "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine," Lily said, hugging her friend. "They were a bit rough but it's nothing I can't handle." Brady sighed and sat down on Lily's bed as Lily started to dress.

"I'm sorry," Brady told her. "I've tried asking for you to be transferred to be my handmaiden but the Guardian won't allow it."

"I know. But even if I did get transferred it wouldn't help the others." Brady nodded. "I need to get out of here. We all do." Lily sat down next to Brady, still half dressed and sighed. "We can't keep this up forever."

--

Ebony, Jay, Bray, Lily, Amber, Lex and other slaves were standing at the Phoenix fountain, waiting to go on their work parties. For months the work the parties were doing had been getting harder, the work was longer and they were having to travel further and further to get to their duties.

"I hate this," Bray said with a sigh.

"Well we love it," Ebony said sarcastically.

"There's no need for that," Amber told her, adjusting her shackles to a comfortable position on her wrist. Jay took Ebony's hand and gave it a squeeze. The Chosen guards began walking down the stairs and two joined the chain gang, one at the front and one at the back.

"Here we go again," Jay said, pulling Ebony close. The two guards began moving the slaves out of the mall and towards the farm.

--

The slaves were walking along a dirt road, heading towards the farm. Bray was dragging his feet and looking around him at the countryside. All of a sudden he felt a rock slip from under his foot and, before he could stop it, he was on the floor. He grabbed his knee as a sharp pain ran through it.

"Damn it," he said as a guard ran up to him.

"Get up," the guard said, prodding him with his staff. Bray narrowed his eyes. He stated to get up when his eyes fell on a large object next to him. Before he knew what he was doing he picked it up, leapt to his feet and smashed the guard with the rock he was holding. The guard collapsed, his blood gushing onto a few of the slaves. The guard at the front of the slaves leapt to his feet but Lex grabbed him around the neck and Jay attacked him with the fallen guards staff. Before long both guards were lying beside each other and the slave had run off. The Mall Rats stood looking at the guards and watching the other slaves running.

"Where did that come from?" Amber asked Bray.

"I don't know," Bray said, looking the guards. "I just saw an opportunity and took it," he told his mum and looked at Lily.

"I hate to break up this little party but we need to get out of here and go somewhere safe," Ebony told the group.

"Yeah more guards and slaves will be along soon," Lex added. "We need to get these shackles off and find a place to hide."

"The resistance is back," Ebony said with a smile, and the group headed back into the city.