A/N- Hey guys! Yes I'm not dead. Well, anyways, I'm back. It's just been really busy and when I have had free time I just couldn't get myself to write. Sorry for the delay, but I finished my Pirates of the Caribbean fic so I'll be able to spend more time on this one. Also, I fixed chapter 8 because I realized I had Lord Charles tell Serena's mom that it was Diamond who was confronting Darien and then in one of the last chapters they weren't supposed to know that. It's nothing big, just a technical thing. Anyways, hope you guys like it!

Silver Moon Goddess1- Hope the wait wasn't too horrible. Glad you liked it!

Supersaiyanx- The relationships were moving well, but it was indeed time for action.

Melody87- Thanks!

Zoey89- I'm trying to update as fast as I can. It might take me a while, but I'm updating!

cosmoscrystal96- Sorry about the cliffy. The battle isn't over in this chapter as well. It's not as bad of a cliffy, but it is partially one. Glad to hear you like it!

Lady Tristana Rogue- Writing as soon as I can.

Sunny38- Ok so you don't see much of the war in this chapter. This chapter follows Serena and the girls although you do get updates. Next chapter will have a bit more of the war because it will start out with Darien and the Generals.

Darien immediately started shouting out orders for everyone. He gave Serena a sad look before rushing out of the door with his generals and the guards following him. The girls surrounded Serena and showed her where to go. They started running through the halls to find some rooms to hide in. When they passed a hallway that had windows that showed the field where the battle was taking place they stopped for a brief second. There was already smoke rising up from the edges of the fields. The girls all gasped as they were transfixed at the site. A maid rushing past them and hitting Lita on the shoulder by accident brought them back to reality. The continued their journey before they found the library to hide in.

"How long do you think we'll have to stay here?" Mina asked.

"Hopefully until Darien and the generals win." Rei answered. "Let's just hope that they can get this taken care of soon."

"Is there any way we can find out progress?" Serena asked. The worry she was feeling was starting to creep into her voice.

"No, everyone's either hiding, running away, or fighting." Lita explained. Just then a giant grey bird flew in through the window and landed on a couch on the wall.

"Luscious!" Serena gasped. Before the girls could stop her she ran over to the bird and sat next to it. To the other's amazement the bird started to transform into a human with long elegant grey wings. Soon a man in the armor like those who had come with Serenity was sitting next to the blonde haired woman. "Luscious, what's happening?"

"Diamond… he attacked from the forest… his men are hiding in there…" Luscious gasped. Serena looked over Luscious with worried eyes. Her eyes landed on what seemed to be a wet patch on his side. She put her hand on it only to pull back a red palm.

"O god, Luscious, you're bleeding!" She gasped. She found her handkerchief and pressed it to the man's wound. "Please help me!" She cried to the girls. The four were stunned with surprise at the angel that was sitting on the couch. They stood there for what seemed like hours before Mina finally found a box of cloth that a maid had forgotten probably. She helped Serena try to stop the bleeding.

"It is but a scratch Lady Serena." Luscious said. His breath was becoming more relaxed, but was still labored enough to make Serena worried. "Lord Charles asked me to come and stay with you. Tristan would have, but they need him right now."

"It is alright. Just rest for now." Serena whispered. She wiped Luscious' head as the bleeding slowly stopped and the angel started to become relaxed. Serena turned and looked at the girls who were still standing behind her, gaping at the angel. "Please, don't ask me right now. I'll explain later."

As the night wore on, commotion came and went. The girls would sit up straighter every time they heard someone running in the hall outside of the hallway. In the early morning there were yells coming from the hallway. Everyone listened for a minute before realizing it was not Darien or any of his men, but those of Diamond. "Some of the enemy must have sneaked in!" Ami gasped.

"What are we going to do? There's not another exit." Lita asked. Everyone was quiet for a minute trying to think of anything.

"There is an exit!" Serena gasped. She got up and walked over to a bookshelf and studied the books.

"Serena, you will not find an escape in any book!" Rei exclaimed. Everyone glared at her and told her to be quiet. She just rolled her eyes and watched Serena run her hands over the books.

"Here it is!" Serena said. She pulled a plain, leather bound book out of the shelf to reveal one of the secret passages. "Darien showed me how to navigate through the passageways. Come on, I know where we can go."

Serena took the first step into the tunnel with her four friends following her and the angel bringing up the end. "My father had these built." Rei said as she ran her hand over the stones on the walls. Serena nodded, but kept going. Every once in a while she would stop and look up at the top of a door. After a few minutes in the tunnel she came to a door, looked above it, and smiled.

"This is Darien's secret library and I'm hoping he won't get mad at me for bringing you guys here." Serena said.

"He's had this the whole time?" Rei asked.

"I don't know how long. He said he started it when he finished the books from the other library." Serena explained.

"This is where you guys went when you kept disappearing?" Lita said. Serena nodded as she sat down in one of the chairs.

"How did he get it so furnished without anyone knowing?" Mina asked as she ran her hand over one of the pillows.

"He's the king. He probably swore someone to silence or ordered the furniture for another room, but moved it in here after a while." Ami said.

"He made these book shelves." Rei said as she studied the book shelves.

"How would you know?" Serena asked.

"I remember catching him working on them. He used to work on projects like this as a stress relief. I needed to find him one day and had searched all over the castle when I came into a small, pathetic hut in the back. He was in there surrounded with wood and covered in wood shavings. He swore me to silence and I pretty much forgot about the incident since I never saw the finished products and the hut was eventually taken down." Rei explained.

The group stayed in the library without any word from the outside for a few hours. Everyone was getting antsy in the library. Ami had picked up a book while Lita had started pacing. Mina and Rei were quietly talking and Serena was taking care of Luscious. "How long are we going to have to wait?" Lita asked.

"Who knows. Until Darien realizes this is where we have gone or until the castle is taken over." Mina said.

"Don't think like that." Serena said. "As long as we have hope we can always win. Though I do think someone should go out there to see what is going on."

"And who do you think should go?" Rei asked.

"I will, I know the tunnels and how to navigate them. My father and brother taught me how to fight before they died." Serena explained.

"No, you are not going out there Serena." Luscious said.

"But I have to! No one here can navigate the tunnels and we need to know what is going on!" Serena argued.

"You promised your mother you would stay in the castle if there was any fighting!" Luscious argued back.

"I'll stay in the castle. I'll find a window or something I can look out of. I promise I won't go anywhere near the battle." Serena pleaded.

"No, and that's final." Luscious said. He relaxed back on the couch, but kept a cautious eye on Serena. Serena huffed and walked over to a mirror. Before anyone could stop her she had opened and slipped through the door. She could hear Luscious and the others shouting at her and gave them a silent apology.

Serena made her way through the tunnel until she came to the kitchen. She opened the trap door and looked around. The chefs and their helpers were all gone with the remnants of the food from the last dinner still on the table. Serena stepped out and made her way through the kitchen and out into the main hall. It was oddly quiet so Serena crept cautiously along the wall and ran from one room to another in case she needed to hide. She froze when she heard voices and found a drapery she could hide behind.

"We need to get back to King Diamond. He wanted us to find Princess Rei and her court, but we've searched everywhere." The first voice said.

"Diamond will have our heads if we come back with nothing." The other argued.

"Then what do you want to do? Burn the castle? That will alert the Darien's army to the fact we are here! They aren't supposed to know we have the women until they are safe back at camp… well I shouldn't say safe."

"Let's make one more round before we go back. Then we can tell Diamond they were not here." The other voice said. "But you get to tell him!"

"Fine, now let's go." The two voices passed by the drapery where Serena was hiding before completely disappearing down the hall. Serena let go of a breath before she peeked back outside the curtain to find the hall empty once more.

She was running down the hall towards the front of the castle when a hand shot out and grabbed her around the waist. Serena let out a scream, but her mouth was quickly covered, but a large hand. "We won't be having any of that now, my lady." A voice that Serena recognized as one of the men from earlier said. Serena tried to twist and turn her way out of the man's grasp, but it only made the man laugh and hold her to his body tighter. "Hey Callahan, come see what I got! The man turned Serena around and another man was walking towards them. The new man was tall with red hair and semi-tanned skin.

"That isn't Princess Rei." The man stated simply.

"Aye, but other than the dust on her clothes she's wearing some expensive things."

"Maybe she's one of the girls from Rei's court? We have something to take to Diamond now. One thing is better than nothing." Her capture said. The other man, Callahan nodded as he inspected Serena a little more.

"What's your name girl?" Serena remained silent, angering the men.

"He asked you a question!" The man holding her yelled. He squeezed on her stomach, making Serena cry out in pain.

"Now girlie, are you going to tell us your name? It matters not. Diamond will know who you are anyways." Callahan said. He lifted Serena's chin up and studied her face. "You choose to remain silent, alright, you'll still be coming with us."

The two men led Serena outside, swords drawn and their eyes constantly roaming the surrounding area. Serena saw a glimpse of something lurking in the alley of a building that they were about to pass. When the group walked in front of it a wolf, well werewolf, jumped out of the dark alley and onto Callahan. The man holding Serena swung her around facing the wolf. The wolf's black body glared up at the man as it choked the life out of its first victim; its gold eyes studying the man carefully. Eventually Callahan stopped moving and the wolf released the dead man's neck. With his eyes locked onto the other man's it planned its attack. The man holding Serena captive decided that Serena was weighing him down so he pushed her towards the wolf and ran off. The wolf avoided the girl and took off after the man, catching and soon killing him.

"Thank you Tristan, but shouldn't you be out fighting?" Serena asked.

"Yes, but Luscious was supposed to come back after he made sure you and the others were safe. Since he had yet to return Charles sent me to find out what happened." Tristan said after morphing back into his human state.

"Well, Luscious was hurt. He had a cut in his side that stopped bleeding, but he had lost too much blood transforming and de-transforming."

"The other girls saw him de-transform?"

"Yes and I will be explaining that to them later. Mina already knows what I am, she helped me when I was here the first time."

"Why did you need help? Did you go through your cycle again?"

"Yes, now, what's your plan of action?" Serena asked.

"I'm going to take you inside and then check on everyone before returning. Although we have done a good job at holding back Diamond's army. I wouldn't be surprised if they retreat soon."

"Our men have been in the forest sniffing them out haven't they?"

"Yes, thank god we had a good amount of the werewolf and were-animals here." Tristan said. "Where's your sword? That should have been the first thing your father and brother should have taught you; to always have you sword."

"O crap, it's in Charles's tent still. I forgot to go get it." Serena said, slapping her forehead. Tristan rolled his eyes and led her to the barracks where everyone was staying. Serena grabbed her sword from Charles' room and quickly got out of there. Tristan followed her to the castle where Serena proceeded to navigate the tunnels back to the secret library.

"Serena! Your back!" Mina said when she saw Serena and Tristan walk through one of the trap doors in the wall.

"Um, ya. I found Tristan, well he sort of found me, and so I brought him back. He wanted to make sure we were all alright."

"Tristan, I'm sorry I didn't keep a better eye on her. She disappeared before we could get to her." Luscious said as he pushed himself off the couch he was on.

"What do you mean she disappeared before you could get to her?" Tristan asked, his attention turned to Serena who gave him an innocent look.

"Secret doors." She said. "That's why there are no doors."

"What's going on out there?" Rei asked, breaking the reunion.

"We've been able to stop the progression of Diamond's troops and it looks like a retreat on their part will be happening soon, though soon could mean 5 minutes to an hour or so." Tristan explained. "Is everyone ok?" Everyone nodded except Luscious, but Tristan already knew about his condition.

"What will you be doing now?"

"Luscious will stay here. Although he is a fast healer it is better that he stays here, gains his full potential again, and protects you just in case. Serena also now has her sword so she isn't completely useless either."

"Hey! I was not useless before!" Serena whined.

"I will be returning. Serena will lead me to the nearest main hallway where I can get back outside. Then she will be returning here, won't you Serena?"

"Yes." Serena mumbled.

"Good, I'll tell Darien where you all are so when we're done he can come get you." Tristan said. "Serena, let's go." Serena nodded and walked with Tristan to the door in the wall where they had come from. They silently walked through the tunnels until Serena opened a door that led into the hall where they had disappeared from.

"I know go back to the library." Serena groaned before Tristan could say anything.

"And be good. We'll be back to get you guys, don't worry. This battle is almost over." Tristan said.

"But the war has just begun." Serena mumbled, finishing Tristan's sentence since she knew he wasn't going to. Tristan nodded sadly, gave Serena a smile and ran down the hall and back to the battle. Serena stood behind the door in the passageway for a minute before she walked back to the library to stay for the remainder of the battle.