Standard Disclaimer: KA and the legends are soooo not mine. The craziness of the characters is the only thing I own. Bad Language, Violence and Possible Sexual Scenes Warning. Don't like it, don't read.

Okie-dokie, chapter 15… what can I say? Oh yeah, I really can't kill off Charity, annoy her to no end, but not kill her. I know everybody has been insisting I kill her, but she's important so please stop suggesting it, or else I'll set Merlin on ya'll. LOL, j/k. I will however take any suggestions on how to annoy her. Don'tcha just love to hate her?

The Year Apart-Part 2

I hate boats… er ships, I hate riding on the sea! For three days we've been sailing and I have loathed every minute of it. I didn't get seasick, but it would've made more sense if I did. The rolling and rocking made me a bit dizzy, but not sick. Although, the same could definitely not be said of Brat. Poor kid, the first two hours out and BLEAGH! Charity was soaking up the sea spray at the prow like a regular sea nymph, Yseulet tended to Brat with Claudia's help. Me, well I had nothing to do other than wonder where Loca went off to. No one would let me help around the ship, I can't cook anything without the aid of a microwave to save my life and I've never been good at being idle. All I could do was wait in the cabin and wait for this journey to be over. Oh look, there's my cat.
"RIA! Lash yerself in yer cabin, lass!" Michael, one of the sailors on the ship yelled at me. Perfect, one day way from the coast of what should be Modern-day Spain and we hit a storm. And from what the other sailors say, a very big storm, how wonderful.

I had befriended a few of the more reclusive sailors of the ship; Michael and Raphael were twin brothers…IDENTICAL twin brothers. Both had wavy red hair and grey eyes, a strong build near six feet tall. Michael had a tattoo on the back of his arm of a dancing girl, well as clear of a dancing girl that could be managed and kept his hair pulled back in a puffy ponytail. Raphael was more of the clean cut type of man, save for the piercing in his right ear.

Anyway back to the storm. Waves of freezing water crashed into the ship and poor Brat was even worse from her seasickness. The tossing and turning to the ship nearly made me ill as I held desperately onto the firmly bolted furniture.

A flying lantern past my head made me realize that I had left my backpack out on deck when the storm hit! IDIOT! Everything I need right now is in my backpack. Without thinking, I threw open the cabin door to be greeted by a rush of storm water. I could hear everyone yelling at me to get back into the cabin or at least close the fucking door like the fucking bitch I was (Charity's lovely comment) and searched for my black backpack amid the weathered boards.

"RIA! I TOL' YA TAH LASH YERSELF INSIDE Y'IMP!" Raphael's voice boomed as I struggled to make my way to my backpack.

"I NEEDED MY BACKPACK!" I screeched back, just as I pulled the bag into my arms another wave hit and I was soon underwater. For some reason beyond my comprehension I began flapping my arms as my backpack seemed to sink lower. How strange it is when faced with a life or death situation that you think of the stupidest things, like 'oh my cat was in my backpack, I should go and save her.' I had swam down the depths of the tossing ocean and slipped the straps of my backpack onto my back when I blacked out.

My body felt… strange. The sounds floating to my ears were familiar but I could not place them and the bright light that shone on me hurt behind my closed lids. I couldn't register where I was and if I dared to open my eyes for a moment I'm certain I would have been blinded. But logic didn't rule my brain… I opened my eyes and hissed painfully at the sun.

"Ah, you are awake now." A garbled voice stated in Old World Castilian Spanish, I shrank away from the voice as the rest of my body sensed around me. Soft cloths adorned my skin, I once lay upon a lighter than air mattress. The spots that danced in front of my eyes disappeared to reveal a plump woman in her mid-thirties; she was dressed in a servant's outfit and carried a large basin of steaming water.

I opened my mouth to respond, but no sound came out. Oh, come on I know I wasn't hit hard or anything.

"I don't think ye can talk now, dear. 'Ad to give ye somefink to 'elp yer th'oat." I just stared at the woman. Her brown hair was pulled into a tight bun at the back of her head, she had bright grey eyes and pale skin. Much too pale to be a servant, unless I landed back in Britain, but that'd be impossible. "Aren'tchoo jus like a lil' kitten." She cooed when I shrank away as she reached for me.

I don't trust her, firstly I don't know her, secondly I don't know where the hell I am and thirdly my clothes are GONE!

My voice hasn't returned for three days now, but I did find out where in the world I was; after the storm, I had washed up on the coast of modern-day Spain. Joy. But at least I had Loca with me, that's gotta count for something, right? I mean I am sorta supposed to be where I was headed.

My caretaker, Reia… well, let's just say things are still iffy when it comes to her. Just yesterday, Loca nearly bit the woman's hand when Reia got too close to me. Currently, I'm living in a castle of a young prince, Heriberto; who I have yet to see because Reia deems me still unwell from the storm. Something is going on here and I really don't like it. I hope Claudia and the others are alright, I wish somebody friendly would find me. There is this seriously bad sense of foreboding in this castle and I do NOT like it one bit.

I felt the rough texture of Loca's tongue on my cheek to wake me, as I opened my eyes I noticed that it was still dark outside the large bay window. Silently I questioned the feline when I heard muffled voices outside the slightly ajar door. As quietly as possible I crept next to the crack and listened to the voices. One was Reia and the other was the deep voice of a man I never heard before.

"The herb I gave 'er m'lord will make 'er forget, it'll make 'er compliant until th'day of th'wedding. She will be th'perfect bride." Whoa! What the hell?

"Good, I want no one to know what happened to the real princess, this replacement peasant has her likeness. But, what of that mark on the back of her neck?" Instinctively, a hand went to the left side of my neck. There, a small cat paw print shaped birthmark was at the edge of my hair. Normally, I'd have my hair styled so no one can see it nor bug me about it; I wonder how they saw it.

"Tis nothing, m'lord. I 'ave a tonic on it so it'll fade. 'Tis th'only reason why she does not speak." From the movement of the shadows, I could tell the man nodded and asked another question in a low voice that I couldn't hear. "Those travelers are nothing m'lord. They may be odd, but Isabel 'as sent 'em away countless times. Stupid Romans." The guy said something again and Reia bade him good night; I quickly ran to the covers of my bed as Loca curled innocently next to me. The door opened and I could hear Reia mumble, "She'll be th' princess and then she'll die. This plan is perfect m'lord."

The next few days, I was on high alert and desperately tried to not act it. I ate and drank even less than before. The food I did consume was instantly retched when she wasn't around. Loca often snuck me food in the middle of the night so I wouldn't starve, but apparently my meek act was working. As far as Reia could tell, I'm still shaky from the storm. She did however show me around the castle… IT IS HUGE! Huge as in Jack and the Beanstalk huge, it was unnerving.

I did finally meet Heriberto; jeez if there was a definition of fugly… he was it. The man had syphilis sores around his mouth, greasy hair and pockmarked flesh with an even greasier attitude to match. When he greeted me with a kiss to my knuckles, I couldn't help but cringe.

In my sleep, I could hear Reia's voice schooling me and trying to brainwash me, I'm glad I have Loca, or else it may have worked.

"Your wedding to the prince is tomorrow, princess." I looked at Reia blankly, "Did you forget? Princess Carmen, that is most unlike you." She dropped the accent I noticed. She held out a gorgeous gown in a crème colored fabric, it looked regal something that I couldn't possibly wear in a million years… it was a size much too small. But then again, my size has dropped incredibly this past week.

My wedding… shit, it sounds weird to even me and I'm the oddest one here. C'mon, I'm only twenty-one years old, I haven't even finished college, I'm at least 15 centauries from where I should be, and I have no voice to protest. LITERALLY! My voice has been absent for this whole week and now I'm "Princess Carmen" of the lowlands who is marrying Prince Heriberto tomorrow! DAMN! DAMN! DAMN!

I stared out the large window at the sea, on a clear day I should be able to see… aw who am I kidding, at this rate I will never, NEVER see England (slash) Britannia (slash) Hadrian's Wall ever again.

I turn to who Loca growls at, she the size of a full grown German Shepard now in just a week; scary, intimidating but loyal to me and mine.

Another servant girl, Isabel, stands timidly in the open doorway wringing her hands. I beckon her in and she hurriedly closes the door immediately dropping the meek and timid act replacing it with the snobbish air of royalty.

"You are not the Princess Carmen." Duh! DO I look like Royalty? "Heriberto and Reia have poisoned your mind through herbs and words. I have not the time, but you must believe me when I say your life is in danger."

She looked at me expectantly, right as though I really can say what was on my mind.

"Why do you not say anything? My brow rose involuntarily, if she knew what was going on, wouldn't she also remember I haven't got a voice? Do you now understand you are going to be married to that insufferable bastard of a prince?" She hissed. I rolled my eyes and let out an exasperated sigh before nodding Loca to my bag.

The German Shepard size wildcat stalked over to my black backpack and retrieved my notebook to me. With a grateful smile I wrote my responses in as best Spanish as I could manage. My words weren't kind, but they did get the point across.

She looked at me in disbelief before smiling, "My name is Princess Carmen, my maid and good friend was Isabel. In the last minute we switched places so I could go back and warn my father of this plot, but she was killed and I was forced to keep this deception. That was until you came. You will help me overthrow this tyrant and his plots.

"The travelers, your friends I believe gave me this to give to you. I know not the words, but Inara assured me you would." She handed me an envelope of thick parchment with my Arabic name on the seal. "I have many duties to attend to before this hoax of a wedding, but I will return with the antidote for what Reia put on your neck." She closed the door and I quickly opened the letter… yay it's in English!

Dearest Azhar,

I pray this finds you well, we have found the others unharmed after the storm and were lucky that no one was lost. We have been looking for you for near a fortnight, Azhar, Allah be praised that Carmen had found us and told us about you. Worry not, Carmen can be trusted, she is a princess whom I have met and is much like you at times. We are in ship just off the coast and under the cliff. Carmen has told of plot against her land, and my father and the others wish to help if it means to save you. …

The letter continued to go on about the shitty things that have been going on under Heriberto and details of his scam as well as what was going on while I've been in this place. Apparently Charity was near close to getting pushed into the ocean by Claudia because she wanted to continue without me and for doing some other stuff that would definitely fall under lewd public acts. The annoying twat.

Inara continued on about the plan they came up with and luckily there wasn't much for me to do but to keep playing along until the last moment.

Later that night Carmen came back as promised with the antidote for whatever concoction Reia had been giving me, she said that because of the repetitive doses my voice would be slow to come back; but I would be able to speak a little at a time tomorrow.

Carmen then spent the rest of the time filling me in on the plan, my part and everything else… as well as castle gossip. I would have pretended to have fallen asleep just to escape the prattle if only some of the stuff about Heriberto hadn't made me snort with laughter.

Reia woke me early the next morning in bright cheeriness. Gods I hate her so much right now, before I just disliked her… now I hate her. "Wake up highness, your wedding day beckons!" She near-sang as she pulled me from the bed, "Lady, you have all day tomorrow for idleness, but not today." She bathed me in perfumed oils and warm water. Fed me food that made me feel weaker, leaving me no time to force it from my stomach. Throughout the day, she watched me like a hawk, and throughout the day, my stomach clenched with foreboding.
Everything passed in hyper-drive and I soon found myself at the cliffs in front of Prince Heriberto clasping his hands like a bride. Shit! I am a bride! Where is everybody? I tried to look around but Heriberto's sharp nails dug my skin and brought my attention back to him. Reia had responded for me as my voice despite my pleading looks and frantic shakes of the head. I had even tried to run away when I noticed not one friendly face amongst the crowd. Heriberto's final words of promise filtered through the fogginess that clouded my mind. And we were wed. Tch! The asshole, why is no one coming for me? Then slowly I realized something, it had all been a lie! Nobody was coming for me, Isabel may have been Carmen, but she wasn't going to help me.

Oh God! He's leaning in… ew he's gonna kiss me! God! God! GOD! Somebody help me!

I struggled to get away from him, but for some reason my strength was seriously lacking. The prince pulled me in and crushed my lips to his. GROSS! I felt the bile run up my throat, but it never made it out. Heriberto dragged me back to the castle and despite my struggles I could not get away.

The prince threw me into his bed chambers and quickly locked the door, not before telling the guard to not let anyone through until morning. I hadn't realized how much I was shaking until he came closer.

(A/N: This part gets a little violent and bloody. Just fair warning for those weak of heart or stomach)

"No worries my bride. I will have you screaming my name before the night is through." He grinned his yellowed teeth at me from his syphilis sore covered mouth. I tried to run away, but he pulled my ankle back to the fluffy bed and covered my body with his. Heriberto's weight crushed the air from my lungs causing me to gasp; he took it as an invitation to kiss me.

I tried to scream, but it only came as a muffled croak. Flailing my restrained arms and legs I begged the prince to let me go with tears coming down my eyes. I didn't even have Loca to come and save me, I was completely alone and scared.

That was when I snapped, one of his hands had tried to lift my skirt past my hips and a more primal feeling ran through me… survival. For a moment I stilled, Heriberto was pleased as my mouth found his neck like he did mine. In that moment it was as though Loca was me and I was elsewhere as my teeth tore viciously through the layers of flesh and fat. In that moment I ripped Heriberto's bloody throat out, he had not the time to scream.

Instead he released my limbs to stumble away from me. The blood gushed down his bed clothes, his open breeches exposing his short, stiff sword, his face held the look of terror when I stepped down from the bed spitting out the bit of his esophagus. His copper blood was warm in my mouth, but it wasn't the focus of my concern. This bastard had tried to rape me, killed a girl that looked like me and he would probably do it again all for power.

He made for the door but I was faster and blocked his way. No, he shall not escape and he can not scream for he has no voice box… I took care of that. My claws tore at his face and flesh I was the predator playing with my prey.

Feral action ruled my mind, I watched with curious amusement as my prey gurgled his dying breaths. He reached out to me, but I could only cock my head. A killer instinct dominated in me like never before. I was not angry or scared; I just existed to kill this man with my claws and teeth like any other animal.

Soon, the doors of the bed chamber opened. I turned, bloodied and dazed in an equally bloody room, to the intruders.

"She's killed Prince Heriberto! Get her!" One of the guards yelled, but instead of running he cast a rather thoughtful look to the ceiling before falling lifelessly to the ground. The other was dead before he even realized what was happening. Standing behind them was a panting Phillipus, sword poised and bloody of the guards' blood. Claudia rushed to his side and saw me covered in Heriberto's blood.

"Oh my God, Ria!" She cried holding her hand to her mouth in horror. How nice it was to hear Latin be spoken again. My eyes lazily drifted around the room to the polished silver mirror, for the first time I saw myself, covered from the mouth down in Heriberto's blood. I did not register it then, but oh how I must have looked to my dear friends. Like some kind of vampire, an evil succubus before them and I had just taken blood into my mouth, I must have looked as though I savored it from my blank looks. Inara, Brat and Carmen came a second later bruised and bloody, yet still alive. Carmen's head was wrapped in a bandage and I knew she had not betrayed me and I felt guilty for doubting her. Brat and Inara held me tightly in an embrace as I fell to my knees.

"When Carmen didn't signal us, we knew something was wrong. Oh God, we are sorry for not coming sooner Ria." Claudia had tears in her eyes as she cleaned my face and the others pulled me to my feet and away from the carnage.

I was cleaned in the ocean's waters, but I swear I could register nothing. I stood there as the ocean's waves crashed around my waist, the blood on my body washed away with the bathing salts, but still I could not feel clean. Slowly I rubbed the bathing salts against my skins, scrubbing to desperately make the blood that was no longer there go away. My skin became rawer with every grating stroke on my arms, hands, neck and face. The linen shift I wore for my modesty soaked through and through, stuck to my skin. Soon the pain of my raw skin and the crash of salt water against it were too much and I ended up just hugging myself from the cold place my mind had sent me to. In that world, not even the once peaceful sounds of the ocean could clear the sound of Heriberto's dying gurgles. In that world the realities of what I had done, what I am capable of doing would never be washed away.

Claudia and Ysuelet came for me and saw my red raw skin. Their clucking over my self-inflicted abuse was lost to me as they dragged me from the increasingly freezing waters to dry up and change. Their concern was pleasant if not wasted.

They took me aboard a new ship so that I could rest and left me to sleep. Loca had reappeared, bandaged and weary; she had been captured as well. In the stillness of the cabin and rocking of the ship, did I register what had nearly happened and what had happened. I was almost raped and I had killed. Burying my face in Loca's fur I wept and sobbed until I had nothing left but for me to sleep.

The next morning I woke to someone shaking me, Brat's blue eyes stared into mine; her familiar accented lilt was demanding me to wake. "Ria, wake up! Yer dreamin'!"

"H-hi." I croaked, she handed me a cup of fresh water after adding some crushed herbs. She told me they were the ones Carmen fed me the other day. I thought I had dreamed it all, but the full realization came back and with a strangled cry I sobbed heavily in Brat's arms. Yseluet came rushing in with her herbs to check on my wounds. Physically I had none, but my mind is another story.

"Shh, I'm 'ere. Yer safe, I'll look afta ya." She tried to comfort me before I fell back into a restless sleep from the herbs Yseluet gave me for rest.

Over the next few days, I learned about what had occurred. Reia had learned of our plan to overthrow Heriberto and knocked Carmen out. She put some kind of drug in the paste for my mark that would make my limbs loose and weak. Then she drugged Loca as well, somehow she found out I was being sneaked food that wasn't drugged.

Anyway, as Claudia said when they didn't get Carmen's signal, they were worried and decided to go onto plan B, storm the castle and kill the prince. Plan A was get us out of there and back to Carmen's father where his army could kill the prince. Well, I had gotten to the prince first… excuse me I need to vomit.

I must lock this all away, I can't let them fear for me. I can't let them worry. I'm frightened, but I will not be weak. For them I will be strong and normal… if only he were by my side. But he's not and I am alone.

So anyway, now that Heriberto is dead with no heirs (guy was impotent) or kin, Carmen's family is taking over. Good for them. I just want to leave and ne'er return. Is that so hard? If only this were some dream, a nightmare, but it wasn't. Phillipus did say they were going to Constantinople and Inara did say that their trade route would bring them past those market places.

I wish I could forever wash the stain of blood from my hands. I have killed a man; it may have been in self defense, but forever will I remember the look on his face when I tore out his throat with my teeth. The memory of the brutality in which I had slain Prince Heriberto will haunt me, because of this I fear what I will become.

A/N: Ay! That was an intense ending. I really was having a hard time with this chapter, first it went one way, then it had to go another way and then I realized that Ria is a fighter… but she's never really had to use her skills. However there are more mystical things at work and of course will be explained. I hope you liked this chapter. I worked hard.

Happy New Year and Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday, whatever you celebrate! See you next year!