A/N: Sorry about the wait everyone but we (myself Onyx and S) have been having some difficulties with communication, mostly cause they were moving and all but anyways. Here it is, Chapter 13 Part A. Disclaimers in previous chapters.

"ONYX!" Sarah's furious, desperate scream echoed through both land and mind. High in the mountains, Onyx gave a startled yell and clapped both hands over her head.

'Ow! Sarah, what ?'

'Onyx, get down here, NOW!' A hint of fear made the girl's mental voice shrill, and Onyx didn't question it. Grabbing Damus' hand, the Yami teleported them both into the Village and into the middle of chaos.

Horses, most still moving at a gallop, were everywhere in the Village. Onyx pursed her lips for a long moment before cursed softly, spinning around until she saw the distinctive flash of silver-grey among the river of brown and black. Puckering her lips slightly, she let out a piercing whistle. Immediately Masabi, Onyx's stallion, separated himself from the herd, cantering to a stop at the woman's side. Grasping his mane with both hands, she easily vaulted onto the horse's back and settled herself comfortably as she looked around, assessing the situation with the skill of the battle commander she once was.

'Sarah, Veronique, Katie, report!'

'I'm behind the barn, Onyx. I've found Seltis, he's been knocked out. It looks pretty bad,' Sarah, sounding halfway between frustrated and furious, answered instantly. 'And I've spoken to Gaia. He said Troy came into the stable and took Katie.'

'He did WHAT?' Veronique, who had been waiting for Sarah to finish her report while she found her own horse, burst in.

Onyx's reaction was similar, although a bit more violent and confined to languages that no one save herself and Veronique spoke.

-

Troy pulled the girl to her feet. "Oh I'll get away with it," he replied, his tone arrogant.

Kate knew the disgust she felt was showing plainly on her face. After everything they had done for this man, this was how he repaid them? By brutalizing her, the one who had shown him the most mercy? She wrinkled her nose slightly as the pain started to abate. She had blood all over her face and tunic, and more was still spilling from her nose and mouth. Reaching up with her free hand, she carefully took her nose and realigned it before focusing her energies to begin the healing process. Troy continued to pull her along, not releasing the dominating grip on her arm.

"Would you like to hear the plan?" Troy asked finally, the smugness in his voice grating on her.

Kate just glared at him, making him laugh.

"I'll tell you anyway. It won't do you any good – by the time you could get back to your little friends, our mission will be accomplished. I am the Captain of a large army that is ruled by King Derrick. The King sent me on a mission to find your village, capture your pendants and bring the power back to him."

"Then why take me?" Kate demanded, knowing very well that the pendants did not work unless they were on their rightful owner. However, as long as Troy and the King didn't know, it gave her an advantage.

Troy grinned salaciously as he stopped and pulled her against tight his body. "I needed a gift to take home."

Kate tried to push away from him, but he just held her against his body until she felt the effect she had on him. When her face turned to a mask of disgust, he frowned and began pulling her along again. She silently returned her hand to her nose until it had finally healed itself. Troy had continued to watch her the whole time.

"How do you do that?" he finally asked.

"Do what?" she hissed back, trying not to growl.

"Heal your wounds."

"Majic," was all she said, making it clear she wasn't willing to discuss it as he continued pulling her along.

He 'hum-ed' softly in response and pulled her along for a few more miles in silence. When the sun was riding low in the sky, he finally stopped under a stand of young trees.

"We'll rest for a few moments," he declared, pushing her into a sitting position at the base of one of the trees.

Kate wouldn't admit how grateful she was for the rest, but settled herself more comfortably against the tree and tried to control her breathing and emotions. She watched impassively as he sat down next to her, flipping the dagger around in his hand.

"This is a fine blade you have here," he remarked conversationally, holding it up to examine it more closely.

She didn't say anything, just kept looking straight ahead. Neo had taught her mediation years ago, as a way to control her emotions, but she rarely used it and was out of practice. Thoughts that she wanted to push away kept circling around her mind. He was stronger than she had thought. He was on a mission and determined to succeed. The others had been right about him.

After a little while, Troy dragged her back to her feet. The meditation abandoned, Katie followed him silently and the pair began walking again. If meditation wasn't going to work, she needed a different plan.

It was nearly an hour later before either of them spoke again. Kate, growing weary, was stumbling over rocks and tree roots that she could barely see in the dim twilight. Finally, she fell headlong over a tree root and let out a cry of pain and frustration.

"I need to stop! I've been sick and I can't walk any farther!" She hated the sound of her plea, but her body was about to give.

Troy stared down at her for a moment, than looked out in the direction they were heading. Onyx wouldn't have come up with a plan in the amount of time that it took them to get this far, and no commander would mobilize their troops at nightfall. It was too great a risk.

"Fine. We'll sleep here," he informed her curtly.

Kate rolled over and sat up against a tree, closing her eyes in relief. Troy sat down next to her, his eyes roaming over her body once more as she fought to ignore the feeling his gaze gave her. Seeing that expression of lust on Neo's face made her feel womanly, wanted. Seeing it on Troy's face made her feel downright nauseous. Kate ignored the cold feeling she was getting and pulled her knees against her chest. Seeing this, Troy smirked and leaned close to her.

"Go to sleep. You'll need it," he whispered in her ear. The feel of his hot breath against her skin made her shudder with revulsion.

Kate shifted away from him and scooted down so that she was half-lying on the ground. Carefully, she settled her arm under her head as a pillow and closed her eyes. She had learned long ago when she was little to always be alert, even when you sleep. With that alertness now ingrained in her, she knew she would be able to feel any move Troy tried to make. Slowly her thoughts drifted to Neo as her mind drifted to sleep.

-

Frustrated and unable to sleep, Neo finally kicked the blankets off his bed. They knocked into his sword, which he had left at the foot of the bed, and sent it falling to the floor with a clatter. There was a soft scuffle outside his door before Daragon poked his head in. The half-dragons eyes were dark with concern, but Neo noticed instantly that there was no sleep in them.

"You weren't sleeping either?"

"No," Daragon admitted quietly. "I cannot."

"Speak to Dian. He'll give you a sleeping spell," Neo muttered as he swung out of bed and reached for his boots. He had slept in leggings.

"Where are you going?"

"Up to the mansion! If I can't sleep in my own bed, perhaps I can sleep in Kojika's!" With that, he stormed out of the hut, slamming the door behind him.

He scaled the hill to the mansion with ease born of repeated practice, and opened the door carefully so that it wouldn't squeak. Quietly and slowly he went inside and up to the corridor where the personal chambers were. He hesitated at Kate's door before walking inside. It was dark and cold inside the room, not at all like it usually was. Quickly he lit the torches in the living room before moving into the bedroom. In here, a single lantern burned, casting a pale glow across the bed. He sighed as he fell onto the cool comfort of the blankets. Breathing deep, he caught her scent and images flashed before him. Matches they had, kisses they shared, jokes they played, holding her close, making love to her. He sighed again and drifted off into sleep, somehow managing to dream sweet dreams.

-

Troy watched Kate sleep for most of the night. Oh, how good she looked, golden and tempting, and she was just within reach. However, Troy knew if he brought her before the king too battered, the king might take his displeasure out on Troy's own back. Keeping that thought close to quench his temptation, he dozed a little, waking on occasion to make sure she was still there.

-

The next morning, Onyx called a meeting early, in one of the little-used war rooms in the lower level of the mansion. The sun had not yet broken the horizon, and most of those attending were bleary-eyed with exhaustion.

Onyx herself was the only one fully awake, but a look at the dark rings under her eyes revealed that she had not slept the previous night. Nor, obviously, had Veronique, but she was not nearly as awake as Onyx. The younger spirit was half-asleep in her coffee.

"Onyx, calling a meeting at this hour is cruel and unusual punishment," Sarah informed her darker half, setting her tea mug down on a pile of parchments. Onyx quickly lifted the mug away again before pulling the parchments into the middle of the table, away from the damaging wetness of the other's mugs.

"Punishment or otherwise, Sarah, we need my Hikari back. And having known Victorianna as long as I have, I know she has a plan already," Veronique answered. The others turned to look at her in surprise – both at the use of Onyx's real name, and the subtle reference to the two women's shared pasts.

"Your confidence in me is flattering. And well founded," Onyx answered, somehow managing to say it without sounding overly arrogant. With a quick flip of her wrist, she unfurled an enormous parchment map across the table. It showed, in stunning detail, the entire kingdom that she and Veronique had once protected, as well as Sacelon, hidden behind it's magical barriers.

"Wait a second," murmured Sarah, leaning forward to examine the map more closely. "This parchment is older than I am, but the details on here are all recent… We only built that bridge two weeks ago," she added in confusion, indicating the stone bridge where Veronique had been fishing the day before.

"The map is enchanted, it updates itself automatically every time one of the environs it represents is changed," came the immediate response. "And it's older than I am, never mind you," Onyx added as she set one finger on the large C-shaped castle at the far side of the map.

"This castle is where Veronique and I began our lives and training. It has changed very little in those many years, and the monarchy undoubtedly reflects that. The King's line has known about our existence ever since we fled Lohan. It has simply taken them a great deal longer than I expected for them to find us. Now that they have, we will not be safe until all the King's kin are in their graves."

"You're suggesting genocide!"

"I'm suggesting survival!" Onyx snarled back, and Sarah recoiled in fear at her dark half's tone. Seeing the expression in her lighter half's eyes, Onyx quieted immediately.

"My light, I apologize. But you must understand – the King supported the destruction of our Houses. If we are found to be alive now, after all these years of peace, the King surely will not rest until one side has been eliminated. If we give him half a chance, he will seize our power by enslaving Veronique and I, and the rest of you…" She broke off with an elaborate shrug, closing her eyes to hide the pain in them. "The rest of you would become casualties of war."

Frowning, Sarah dropped her head to stare once again and the ancient parchment. Celtos, sitting next to her, wrapped one strong arm around the girl's shoulders to reassure her before lifting his eyes to meet Onyx's.

"You have a plan, Mistress?"

Onyx nodded heavily, then glanced around to each of the faces in the room. Damus met her gaze without expression. Beside him, Daragon was stone-faced, but a muscle in his jaw twitched. Veronique, her eyes red, just blinked once and swallowed before dropping her gaze again. Pyon rolled his head back in his chair, his eyes going to the ceiling. Neo met Onyx's gaze with a bleary-eyed stare. Gartic and Garrus exchanged glances of their own, deep in a mental conversation; Celtos kept his face carefully blank. Sarah was the only one displaying any real emotion – a combination of anger, annoyance, impatience, and fear. Onyx sighed again as she read the emotions in the girl's green eyes. She had seen that expression in the faces of the thousands of untrained, unprepared soldiers that she and Veronique had lead to victory. Young men, not ready for combat, but too valuable to remain home, all champing at the bit, desperate for a battle, all wanting to claim that their sword had claimed the life of an enemy soldier, that they had contributed in some small way to the safety of their land. She thought for a second about how many soldiers had died with that expression frozen forever on their young faces.

Onyx hated that expression.

"All right," she said finally, "this is what we have to do. I will take the main force…"

-

A half an hour later, Onyx strode rapidly through the long hallway, the monsters trailing her all but running to keep up.

"Daragon, I want you, Dhan, and Gaia to remain here and take command of air patrol. I want two dragons in the skies at all times, so you'll have to rotate shifts. Keep the Harpy sisters with you. I want you in the skies before we leave, but have Gaia report to me first. I have other duties for him to attend to."

"And Harun?" Daragon inquired. The Harpy's Brother was an excellent flier, swifter than the dragons and his sisters.

"Harun will be with us. Dhan will have command of your group. See that he reports regularly to Veronique."

Daragon nodded once and vanished with a pop. Veronique immediately moved forward, taking his position beside Onyx, and leaned close to speak in the other Yami's ear.

"I realize it's for the best, Victorianna, but I resent being thrown aside as a last resort."

"If I were to take you out with the rest of our troops, and you were to be killed, then where would we be?" Onyx shot back harshly, then stopped so abruptly that Damus ran into her back. She caught his arm to steady herself, then turned back to the other Yami and addressed her with low tones. "Veronique, there is a very good chance that we will DIE out there. And if that happens, if we fail – I refuse to leave our home undefended."

"Then let the monsters stay!"

"The monsters don't have command experience! All the scenarios we put them through, all the training and work – it's all worthless! NOTHING can compare to experience!" Onyx was shouting at this point, her eyes nearly black with suppressed rage. Behind her, Damus carefully reached out one hand and settled it on her shoulder. Onyx shook it off, but the anger in her eyes dimmed slightly. Turning away from Veronique, she resumed her walk down the hallway. Halfway to the door at the end, she turned around to glare at her old friend.

"And stop calling me Victorianna. My name is Onyx now." Turning around, she reached the narrow trapdoor in the end of the wall and spoke a rapid phrase in the Mage's Tongue. This was the password, and the trapdoor shot open so fast she had to leap back to avoid being struck. When the door settled back against the wall, she calmly stepped into the narrow passage and began climbing the ladder against the back wall. It was a long climb – four stories straight up, since the ladder was only accessible from the lowest level of the mansion, where the war rooms were housed. At the top, she encountered another trapdoor, which opened quietly with the use of another pass phrase. Climbing out the top of it, she emerged onto the slate roof of the mansion and took a long moment to gaze at the Village laid out below her. Her dark eyes lingered on the gleaming stables with the hundreds of sleek, well-breed horses in them, and on the training fields where she had passed some of her amassed knowledge of battle to the monsters that lived with her. From there, her restless eyes moved into the Village proper, over the collection of neat huts, and into the green, where the gleaming stone statues stood.

Shaking her head once, she quietly turned and walked easily along the narrow peak of the roof, stopping once she reached the cupola in the middle. Beneath the beaten copper roof of the small dome, a large brass bell rested. Reaching down, she retrieved a small mallet from its resting place in a niche of the cupola wall. Taking it up, she tucked it carefully into her belt before vaulting effortlessly over the top of the cupola. Landing easily on the other side of it, she resumed her walk along the roof peak, down to the chimney that stood proudly at the end of the house. Hanging from the side of the chimney on a polished copper bracket was a large gong, nearly three feet across. Silently, she lifted the mallet from her belt and dealt the gong three strong blows.