"Xena…is it really you?"
Xena, slowly withdrew the sword from the man's neck, but remained in a fighting stance as she suspiciously eyed him. He cautiously began to stand up while holding both hands up in defense. Xena allowed him to stand, but still held up the sword ready to strike.
"Explain, yourself!"Xena spoke in a demanding tone.
Not seeming the least bit intimidated by her threatening tone, he responded rather calmly, "Xena, it's me,..Diaval."
Her expression quickly changed from one of anger to one of surprise, as the male soldier removed his helmet revealing his familiar face. Xena immediately lowered her weapon and paused, waiting for him to say something else. After an awkward silence of at least thirty seconds, Diaval stepped closer, but stopped when she gave him a questioning look.
"Xena, what happened? Where have you been?! The whole planet has gone berserk, since you disappeared that day! Were you kidnapped or something? Just what happened? Tell me!"
Not sure whether she should answer those questions or not, Xena stood silently, not wanting to put her friends (the Ultras) in any more danger than necessary. As a result of her stubbornness to answer, Diaval sighed in frustration before saying, "Fine, if that's the way you want it, I'll contact headquarters and you can tell them instead." Diaval had just reached his transmitter when Xena sprinted forward and grabbed his wrist which held it, twisting it, causing him to give a mere grunt of discomfort. Not appearing to be very surprised by her sudden action and without removing his wrist from her grip, he stared into her serious eyes for a moment before asking, "So… does this mean, your going to tell me what's going on?"
After a moment she released his arm and took a step back. Not wanting to meet his gaze, she turned slightly to the side and crossed her arms, before giving an annoyed sigh and saying, " It's a long story and it's very complicated."
"Well, I've got plenty of time,…so how about you start at the beginning."
Xena, inconspicuously glanced over at bushes where Taro and Ace were still hiding, before she turned to face Diaval and decided she had little choice, but to tell him the truth. She explained to him about how she disappeared, where she had been and how she was able to get back. She told him about the Ultramen on M78, and that they were peaceful people and that they never meant to harm her, and that she had actually befriended some of them. She made it all too clear that they were the ones who had enabled her to return home, though she left out the part about Taro's illness, since that would have made it seem like they were just using her. Diaval, seemed to believe most of what she was saying, since he obviously knew her well enough to know that she wasn't a lire. But when she came to the part about being friends with some of them and that they actually helped her, he seemed to tense up and was beginning to worry about something. Xena, noticed this and quickly questioned it.
"Diaval, what's wrong?"
He didn't answer, keeping his gaze down, and even seemed to go a bit pale if that was even possible.
"Diaval…?"
When he still didn't acknowledge her, she sought another means to get his attention. She walked right up to him and without a moment's hesitation, struck him right across the face with the back of her gloved hand. She knew it must have hurt, though he didn't even flitch at the impact. She then clutched his shoulders and shook them hard to get his full attention, before shouting in his face, "Diaval, if you don't tell me what's up, I sware I'm going to use you as a punching bag!"
"Xena…" She could tell by the look in his eyes that he was scared, though she couldn't imagine of what," …they are on their way…they are on their way there, now," Diaval spoke barely above a whisper.
"They? They who? On their way where?"
"The Twilloite army!" Diaval shouted, "Their on their way to the planet M78, or the Land of Light as you call it."
"What?!" Xena's voice was now filled with fear.
"They are going to rage war on the Ultras," Xena stood in utter shock at the news, "It all started when they had traced your mysterious disappearance to the Ultras, I think that's what provoked the whole thing. They wanted to attack them, before they attacked us, but now after what who've told me, I see it's mostly just a big misunderstanding."
"You can say that again!" Taro shouted on impulse as he and Ace stood up spontaneously from their former kneeling position.
Diaval's head quickly shot over into the direction of the strange voice and was shocked to see two strange looking life forms coming towards them out of the brush. On pure instinct he briskly snatched his sword out of Xenas hands and went into a fighting stance about to strike when Xena took action and stood between him and the two ultras, with her facing Diaval.
"Diaval, no!" she shouted ,putting both hands up by his blade motioning for him to stop. "It's alright, their friends, the ones that I told you about."
With that he lowered his weapon and eyed the two up and down, giving them rather strange looks. It was obvious he had never seen anyone of their kind before.
"Xena, me and Ace have to get back to M78, before the your army gets there so we can warn them!" said Taro stepping beside her.
"Who knows what kind of damage they could do?!" said Ace obviously just as anxious.
"You will never make it in time," Diaval interrupted. "Considering the time they left they'll be there within mere hours."
"Xena, who have to get to your headquarters and urge them to call off the invasion!," said Taro.
"Well, I still don't understand. Why would my meager disappearance cause the entire planet to go to war. Any reasonable empire should see that without further investigation it's not logically worth all this bloodshed!"
"Your right Xena, and you may even perhaps be able to convince mission control, of that. But I'm afraid your abduction will not be so calmly handled by the leader of the invasion."
"And who the heck is that?" asked Xena crossing her arms.
"General Sarek."
Xena froze for a moment earning odd looks from both Ace and Taro.
"Xena, what's wrong? Who's Sarek?"
"Never mind, him, we have to get back to M78, now before it's too late!" said Xena snapping out of her frozen state.
"We?" spoke Ace and Taro at the same time.
"That's right, I'm going with you."
"But-"
"No but's! If you want to save that planet of yours this is the only way! Diaval, can you get me a glider right away?"
"You got it!"
Another location: Back on the Land of Light
Ultra Father was in the conference room in space headquarters, with Ultraman and Zoffy. They were calmly discussing the recent planetary alignment when Jack suddenly rushed through the doors with urgency.
"UltraFather!… " it took him a moment to catch his breath, "We just picked up a signal on our scanners, it shows that there is a massive army of UFO's headed in our direction!"
UltraFather and the others shared a brief pause from receiving the shocking news, but it quickly passed.
"What do you mean, Jack? What kind of UFO's?," Ultrafather asked in a serious voice.
"I'm not sure, sir, but…"Jack trailed off nervously.
"But, what?!"
"I'm not sure, sir, but they may have originated from the northern galaxy, which could mean…"
"Which could mean, what?" Ultraman quickly asked.
"Which "could" mean, that their from the same quadrant where that new planetary system was discovered."
"You mean, Twilloh?" asked Zoffy.
"Yes."
"But, you don't know for sure. It could be something completely different," Ultraman pointed out.
"Maybe…but there's something else."
"What, is it Jack?," asked Ultrafather, stepping closer.
"It's…about your son's."
Ultrafathers heart suddenly skipped a beat, which made him slightly hesitate before asking, "What about them?"
"Their gone."
"Gone?!" Ultraman and Zoffy shouted at the same time. Ultrafather merely stood in shock.
"Missing, I should say. They disappeared without a trace, no one has heard from them since yesterday, except that is, for the guard at the prison."
"What? What guard?!" Ultrafather said coming out of his state of shock.
"The guard at the prison. He said, Taro was there to get the Twillohite prisoner."
"Why would Taro need to get the prisoner?! "
"The guard said, that he was following your orders to bring the prisoner in for questioning."
"What?! I never gave such orders!"Ultrafather exclaimed in rage.
"You didn't?!" Jack asked surprised.
"No, of course not! Now check the prison immediately and make sure she's still there!"
"Yes, Ultrafather," with that Jack quickly left to check the prison and anywhere else she may have been taken.
In the mean time, Ultrafather sat down at the conference table and became deep in thought. He didn't seem to care at the moment that Ultraman and Zoffy were still waiting for some sort of orders, like going to find Taro and Ace, and figure out what was going on. He just sat there with his head I his hands and thought to himself, "Why would Taro do this, why?"
Author Note: Sorry, if this chapter seems a little on the dull side, but hopefully I'll pick up the pace in the next chapter. Thank you, for reading!