Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Author's Note: Enjoy.

Facing the Truth

Tori watched with her heart in her throat as the door opened. In walked a man who stood about 6 feet tall. He had short black hair. "Come on, you're wanted."

"By who?"

"It doesn't matter by who, you're a prisoner." He threw some cloth at her. "Get dressed and then let me know when you're done." And with that he went back out and shut the door.

Frowning Tori moved the material until she realized that it was a dress. A black dress. Not very appealing, but…this could come in handy. She slowly got dressed and then called out to the guard.

Coming back in the guard nodded in approval and then pointed at the door, "Start walking."

"I'll have you know that my Father is—"

"The King over Amihan? I know. Get moving."

Tori reluctantly began walking slightly in front of the man. She had a knife, but that wouldn't necessarily get her far. She didn't know how many guards were in here, but as they walked through many halls she hadn't seen one person. She really wanted to know what was going to happen to her, and whether or not she'd see anyone again. Looking around she saw a large door at the end of the hall, it looked like that could be the front door. Perhaps she'd be able to make her way over there, if she was able to escape.

Finally she walked into a big room. The ceiling was high and the wall was covered in torn dark tapestries. There wasn't much light in the room and Tori got a feeling that she was being watched besides the guy behind her. As they walked closer to a throne, which was big and black and cold, she noticed a man sitting there watching her. Getting closer she saw that this man wore black with red in different places, and he had black hair along with skin the color of her Father and Cam's. He looked at her with a bit of a smirk.

"Well, well, what do we have here? A guest!" He looked back at the guard, "I like guests." Then his gaze was drawn back to Tori, "I do hope you don't mind changing. I mean that blue dress, I don't think it would go with my castle, do you?" The man looked down at Tori with a small smile.

Looking around Tori looked right back at him, "Actually I think pink would go quite nicely."

"Just like your mother."

He turned and walked over to a table and looked down.

"My mother? What do you mean? How do you know her?"

"Three questions at once. Okay, first, yes your mother. Second, I mean you act like her, and third she may not have been a queen, but she and your father made themselves quite well known."

"Then you know…"

Turning around he looked at her, "Know what?"

"Sir," Another man walked in and knelt quickly at the other man in charge before getting up.

"What is it?"

"King Chanil is almost at King Kanoi's kingdom."

"Alone?"

"No, just as we expected."

"And from the North?"

"He comes as well."

Smiling the man went back to the table triumphant, "Good. Everything is falling into place." He looked Tori right in her eyes and then said, "I hope you'll excuse me, I need to go and speak with someone. I'll be back."

And with that his body slowly became black smoke and he slowly disappeared through the cracks of the wall. Tori stood watching the spot where he had left, stunned. If he could travel like that, then it wouldn't matter how she escaped. Turning to the other guards she found them standing a bit relaxed but still ready to fight.

Hoping they wouldn't notice Tori began to step away from them. "Where do you think you're going?"

Tori turned and faced the first guard. "Just walking around. Nothing wrong with that. Besides he said I was his guest, so that means I can."

The second guard stepped forward, "Do you think we're stupid?"

Tori bit her lip hoping she wouldn't say the thing that was on her mind. "I just meant that I don't see why I have to stand while he goes off and is gone for who knows how long. It's not like I can escape."

The two looked at each other for a minute before the second one nodded and allowed Tori to wander the room. There wasn't much to the room. The entire room was black basically; even the stone floor had a blackish tint to it. There was his throne and a table, there weren't even any other furniture in the there. She walked over to the table and saw a map of the land. Her eyes widened when instead of the dates of their reign with the King's name it said 'enemy' or 'controlled.' She looked and saw that her Father was marked under enemy and so was Hunter and Blake's and about half of the others. Scanning around her eyes landed on Elizabeth's kingdom—the King was being controlled by this man.

She saw the black expanse that was the kingdom she was in. The castle was situated in the north. Her eyes wandered over to a list that sat next to the map. There were a couple of pages. She started from the bottom and skimmed her way up. A couple of names from the bottom was Elizabeth's name and next to it sat Hunter's. She recognized a few other names of people who had been killed in the past years—deaths blamed on certain people. Like Hunter and Elizabeth. This had to mean that he had something to do with it. But Hunter's kingdom was marked under enemy, so it wasn't Hunter who had killed Elizabeth, it couldn't have—her thoughts stopped as she saw two names on there that she hadn't been expecting—Jason and Rebecca Hanson. Her parents. This man had killed her parents.

"Oh, they were a particular fun death." Not turning around Tori could feel how close the man was to her and she felt sickened as he touched her arm. "Now don't worry, you should be thanking me."

"Thanking you?"

"Yes. Since I killed your parents Kanoi was all too happy to make you a princess."

"He took me in and raised me."

"Hey, you say tomato and I say tomatoe. Not that big of a difference."

Turning around she glared into his dark eyes, "It's a big difference. You MURDERED them."

Rolling his eyes he stepped closer causing Tori to walk back into the table, "No need to yell. It's not like I'm killing you."

"Why?"

"Why not? I needed them to get to where I am now." He stepped back and looked at the room.

"This place?" Tori said with disdain.

"You think it needs a little more." He smiled as he looked at her, "Me too. But Zurn and Choz said this fit me better." He pointed at her, "I got an idea."

"For once?"

The two guards looked at Tori and then back at the man who only laughed, "I like you. And that's saying a lot." He went and sat down on his throne, "So, want to know what my idea is?"

"What?"

"You can stay here and fix the place up. I think there are some flowers in the garden, maybe some vases in the kitchen. I think with you here, it could look just perfect."

"Are you suggesting that I stay to become your servant?"

Laughing the man looked at the other two guards who quickly chuckled. "A servant, I like that. That's a good idea."

"Well, not going to happen."

"Come again."

"I'm going to leave, I have other plans. So if you'll excuse me."

Tori turned and began to walk towards the door only to find herself walking into the tall man. "I've changed your plans. They're not important."

"I have people looking for me. They'll come and get me."

Shrugging he walked back to the table, "Who? Blake?"

Tori looked down to the ground for a split second before looking back at him, "What?"

"Your soon-to-be-husband." He chuckled. "He was interesting. But watching you two continually go out with each other. Pity it ended."

"Ended?"

"Well, explain to me how it is that someone is going to come and rescue you when they're dead."

"You're lying. Blake isn't dead. You couldn't get to him."

"Such importance you place on him. But enough talk of him, it's boring me. Let's see we need a bit of entertainment. What could we do? Any ideas?" He looked at Tori.

"How about riding horses?"

"Nice try."

Tori had to think of something in which she could get away from all three of them, so she remembered something she played with Kelly and Cam when she was younger, "You hide and I'll look for you."

"Now that does sound interesting, except you hide and I'll find you. And if I find you within a certain time you get to do whatever I want you to do."

Tori shivered from the look he gave her. "Alright. You count to 100."

"50."

"Okay, I'll go." She turned.

"Oh, you can't leave the castle."

"Of course."

"Go. As soon as you shut the door, I'll start counting."

Nodding Tori headed towards the door.

King Kanoi stood by the table looking at the map, where else could Tori have gone? "King Kanoi."

Looking up he saw Captain Reyn coming in, "What's wrong?"

"King Chanil is advancing from the south."

"Advancing?"

"Your majesty, he has an army and it's of more than just his men. I saw some other kingdoms colors flying with."

"Your highness."

Kanoi looked over to Captain Shavi, "What is it?"

"King Jacob has troops with him from the far north."

Kanoi looked down at the map and then back up at the men, "This was planned."

"Sir, this is war."