"Taro, we need to talk."
"Okay, uh…come in, " Taro said, while gesturing with his hand for him to come in.
Upon entering, Ace briefly scanned the room before turning to Taro, who had just closed and carefully locked the door. Even though, thinking that it was a bit strange, Ace decided to ignore it and just concentrate on the matter at hand.
"Taro,…has anything been bothering you lately?"Ace asked, trying not to let his concern show.
Taro, immediately stiffened at the question, before responding, "Well, I uh…I-I mean no! Wh-why do you ask?"
"It's just that, Mother has been worried about you. You haven't been keeping anything from her have you?" Ace asked, pretending not to notice how tense Taro was getting.
"No," Taro said sternly, but feared that Ace wasn't falling for it. He had really hated lying to his mother like that, and his brother. Especially, since he never had before, which of course only made him feel worse.
After giving a sigh, Ace walked up to Taro and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, in an attempt to get his younger brother to confide in him. Without saying a word, Taro just stared at him.
"Taro…I'm your brother,…you can trust me, " when he still didn't say anything, Ace continued, "Maybe, I can help if you with whatever your dilemma is, if you'll just tell me what's wrong…please!" Ace, practically pleaded.
Taro ,seemed moved by this and looked, as if he was finally ready to tell him, when he suddenly gasped and grabbed his midsection in pain. This startled Ace, and he grabbed Taro by the shoulders with great urgency.
"Taro!" Ace shouted, with panic spread across his face.
This quickly alerted Xena, who was still hiding in the closet at the time. She anxiously placed a hand against the door and grabbed the knob with the other. While, trying to determine whether she should open it, or not, she suddenly heard Taro call out in agony. She was unsure of what he said, or if it was even directed towards her or his brother, but either way, her instincts took over, and she quickly throw open the closet door and rushed out.
She ran out to see Taro, crouched down on his hands and knees with one arm raped around his midsection. His brother Ace, who was right by his side, had one hand on Taro's back and the other on his shoulder, and looked like he didn't know what to do. Upon, hearing something burst open from within the room, Ace's head quickly shot over to the direction of the sound, and nearly gasped in utter shock.
There, standing by Taro's bed, was the same vicious, purple haired, blue skinned creature, from which Ace almost lost his very life, and very much regretted ever laying eyes on. For a moment, Ace's expression was one of complete shock and disbelief, but it was soon turned to one of infatuated anger, now figuring that she must of had something to do with Taro's condition.
"You!" was all Ace could get out at first, "You did this!"
Her, expression turned from anxiously worried, to completely infuriated. Here she was, possibly risking her own life, trying to save the life of one of their kind, even after all the misery they put her through, and now this "ULTRAMAN" had the nerve, to accuse her of causing the whole thing! With feeling her old self beginning to return, Xena tightly clenched both her fists and angrily snarled at the ultra, exposing her sharp piercing white teeth. It took everything she had to avoid attacking him that very second.
"I didn't do this, you "boneheaded" idiot! I'm, trying to help him!" she snapped at him, taking a few steps further, but stopped when Ace protectively moved in front of Taro, apparently trying to shield him from her.
"Get back! Just, stay away from him!" Ace said, protesting to her approaching.
She halted, and was about to start cursing at him, when her eyes suddenly fell back on Taro. While he was still holding his midsection, she noticed he was heaving forward and beginning to cough up something that immediately caught her full attention. Something red.
"Taro!" she gasped as she shouted his name, her voice now full of fear.
Ace quickly turned his attention away from her and back to Taro, noticing the same thing she did. Taro now had both hands on the floor to support himself, as he let out another coughing gag from his throat, while heaving himself forward. Ace, felt his heart racing and undeniable fear beginning to form inside of him, as he realized that Taro was coughing up blood.
"He needs help! He's nearing the last stages!"
"What?" Ace asked in a stressed, yet nervous voice, barely taking his eyes of Taro to look at her.
"He doesn't have much time left. You have to help me get him back to my home world, Twiloh, so we can save him!"
That finally made Ace take his eyes off Taro and he slowly turned his head to Xena, and gave her a questioning look, before asking, "What are you saying?"
"I'm saying, that if you want your brother, Taro, to live, You AND I, will have to work together to do it, and the only way is to get him back to Twiloh."
After a second of just staring at her, Ace finally asked, "How can I trust you?"
Xena, crosses her arms before saying, "I guess you can't. But, what choice do you have? We either work together, or he dies", she says pointing to Taro. "So? Which is it?"
Ace, looked back at Taro as he tried to decide, and with regret already seeping inside of him, he finally said to her, "Fine."