Peaches whirled around in surprise and narrowed his eyes at the chao that had been eavesdropping on his plan.
Acquila, on the other hand, barely took notice to Peaches's venomous look. He was staring straight ahead with his eyes widened drastically. The plan he had been building up in his mind was suddenly lying on the ground in front of him, falling apart as soon as the baby appeared. There was nothing he could do with Kaoru staying close by.
He barely had the mind to wonder how long Kaoru would've had to been following him for her to be able to find him so easily. She couldn't have been that far behind. How had she been able to stay quiet for so long? And why was she suddenly making noise now?
"I see," Peaches said in response to the long silence. "You knew all along that your little friend was gone and were just waiting in the shadows. You're smarter than I originally took you for, Acquila. Honestly, I thought you were just the muscle of the operation."
Acquila's mind was whirling. Muscle? When had he ever shown any kind of strength? All he did was fight to take care of a baby... That had nothing to do with strength. In reality, that was pretty weak, wasn't it? How could Peaches come to the conclusion that he was strong?
"I figured as long as I could get Tuan away from you, I'd win for sure. But look. Now you're here and it's three against one. That's hardly fair."
What was Peaches talking about? They weren't looking for a fight. They were never looking for a fight. This whole ordeal turned into a power struggle in Peaches mind, but all they wanted to do was do the right thing. That opportunity didn't come by often when you're being protected by the chao garden. Mostly chao just... played and relaxed... At least the chao in their garden.
But then Peaches starts to make a fuss about spies and danger... all over a little hare. Which somehow starts an uprising. Can it really be that simple? Can Peaches really be feeling threatened over a baby?
"I just don't see how that's possible," Acquila said aloud, shaking his head.
"You don't see how it's possible for that sort of fight to be unfair?" Peaches hissed.
Acquila shook his head. "I don't see how it's possible for such a small child to be of any threat to you. How is a child going to go out into the world and..."
Tuan looked over Peaches's shoulder and made eye contact with Acquila. He shook his head slightly as if to say "that's not it at all" and looked away.
Acquila closed his eyes. Tuan has already figured it out. He figured out what's going on with Peaches and why it's so important. Did Peaches tell him before he had made it to this clearing? Right now, it's up to him to move Kaoru to safety and come back for Tuan before Peaches can do anything to him. Is it possible to get all of that done?
He opened his eyes again as he remembered something. "You aren't threatened by Kaoru," Acquila said, locking eyes with Peaches. "You were never threatened by Kaoru." He looked over at Tuan, hoping his thoughts were on the right track.
"Of course I'm not threatened by that thing," Peaches hissed. "Why would I be threatened by a child? I simply want to do what's right and protect our garden. Have you no respect for our garden? Do you want it to be taken over, taken from us? If you don't..."
"But that's the same excuse you've been using this whole time," Acquila said. "Surely by now you have some sort of proof that says Kaoru is a spy sent here from somewhere else. You must have found a microphone hidden on her person. Maybe you found traces of people spying on us from the forest. Obviously Kaoru alone can't do anything, so you must have found something else. Something to give as proof to all the people you rallied together."
"What are you talking about? What proof do you need?"
Acquila shook his head. "You know, Peaches, as I was listening to you talk, I started to pick out a bit of a different dialect. I guess we've all forgotten because we've known you for so long, but if I remember correctly, you came from a different garden." He glanced back at Tuan and saw that Tuan was smiling. He was on the right track.
"What does that have anything to do with what's going on?"
"Why did you leave your other garden?" Acquila asked calmly.
"My garden was attacked. It was taken over. I had to leave," Peaches said through clenched teeth. "What choice did I have?"
"That's not it at all," Acquila whispered. "You're threatened by Kaoru because she became an important part of the garden. By adopting her, a lot of people changed their normal patterns so they would involve playing with her or doing something with her. We stopped having so many garden meetings. Falon became fascinated with her and wasn't alone as often. You aren't scared that Kaoru is a spy. You're just upset because she took up all the attention and made us change our ways."
"What are you going on about? See! It's hanging around with her that made you begin to think this! I am not an attention seeker, Acquila. I'm not jealous of her."
"I never said you were jealous of her. I said you were threatened by her. She took all of the attention and so you weren't able to get your job done. You moved to our garden because you are the spy. You were sent here to see what we did and what our secrets may have been. But with Falon and so many others captivated by Kaoru, you had no one to talk to find anything out."
Peaches's jaw clenched noticeably and he refused to say anything. Behind him, Tuan was flying closer, nothing keeping him attached to the tree he had been against original. Acquila just had to keep Peaches occupied for just a few seconds longer, they were obviously right about everything.
"So the only way to take everyone's attention away from Kaoru," he continued, "was to get rid of her. Try to make other Chao see "reason." Tell me Peaches, those chao that were rallied with you. Were they even from our garden? Or did they come from yours?"
Peaches smirked and tilted his head at Acquila, looking at him with pity. "You think you've got it all figured out, don't you? No one will believe anything you say. You can't prove that any of it is true."
Peaches suddenly shot forward, his face full of anger, but Tuan came up behind him and hit him with a large branch, causing the Chao to fall to the ground.
"You take Kaoru away from here," Tuan ordered. "I'll go back and warn the others. I'll meet you soon."
