A/N: Well, here's the ninth chapter! Happy reading!
Disclaimer: I own nothing from either franchises.
Chaos in Paradise
Hamish scrambled into the supplies cart inside the plane station just as it started to move away.
He griped under his breath, "Why did it have to be me? Why couldn't he find some other sucker to perform his 'super secret task'? Got to hide in a frickin' plane to get to Marmoreal Paradise, and find Ali to make sure nothing interferes? This is not fair!"
The cart loaded everything into the plane, leaving Hamish at the bottom of a large pile of luggage and supplies.
He moaned, "Things are not looking up from here."
Tarrant and Ali were gently waken up from their induced sleep, in what seemed like seconds after they departed, and slowly climbed out of their compartment.
Tarrant stretched his back, but Ali rushed off after the rest of the passengers.
Tarrant panicked, and called with a bit of his Scottish brogue creeping into his voice, "Ali, Ali, come back lass!"
Ali stopped in the middle of the hallway, and waited for him to catch up to her.
He said, "Ali, you've got to wait up!"
Ali laughed, and said, "Am I too fast?"
Tarrant nodded, and said with a slight lisp, "Yes. Let's get moving."
Ali nodded, and took his arm again.
They walked together through the rest of the plane along with the other passengers, and squinted a little as the artificial sunlight hit them in the face.
A dozen of the cruise's attendants stood waiting for the passengers, carefully draping necklaces made of flowers over each person's head.
Ali's smile widened as she looked at her flower necklace, and she said excitedly, "Flowers, flowers!"
Tarrant smiled back at her, and said in a soft lisp, "Yes, they're a symbol of the host's hospitality."
Ali frowned at the last word, and processed it through her knowledge of Basic.
She nodded as she finally understood that 'hospitality' was someone's friendliness, not their collection of cheese.
Tarrant asked a nearby assistant, "Where do we pick up our bags?"
The assistant widened her smile, and said, "Oh, they're being taken to your room right now. Here's your room key."
She handed Tarrant a small red card with a large number on it, and walked away to talk to the other guests.
Ali smiled, and said, "Huge, huge room!"
Tarrant nodded, and said, "Yes, it is big, isn't it?"
Ali nodded her head, and began to run off before she remembered to stay close to him.
She scolded herself silently, drawing some looks from the other guests, and kept walking at Tarrant's pace.
Tarrant found his way to their room, with Ali close behind him, and smiled as he saw the look on Ali's face.
At first she walked forward into the room in pure awestruck wonder, but then she smiled, and jumped onto the bed.
She started to laugh loudly, while pulling the huge covers around herself.
Tarrant laughed, and jumped onto the bed with her.
Ali laughed again, and threw one of the huge pillows at him.
Hamish climbed out of the luggage carrier, and cracked his neck and joints as he carefully picked himself up.
He walked out of the plane's hanger, mumbling under his breath, "Where in this enormous hotel am I supposed to find one girl?"
Two assistants, carrying another case of materials into the hanger, just shrugged as they saw Hamish walking out of the plane.
Ali was lying on top of a large towel in the huge, artificial beach in the cruise ship, when she heard a loud noise coming from somewhere in the hotel area.
She tilted her head, and noticed that since no-one else was panicking, it was just a result of her enhanced hearing.
She lept from her towel, and ran in the direction of the sound.
The sound grew louder around the penthouse meant just for the Diva.
Ali slowed her pace as she grew closer, and eventually came right to the side of the room's entrance.
She saw a large procession walking towards the room, carrying all of the Diva's possessions, and eventually saw the Diva herself walking behind the procession.
The Diva was extremely tall, with a long veil covering her entire body.
From where Ali was standing, she could barely see the Diva's eyes through the sheer fabric.
Ali nodded, and thought to herself, "The Diva has the shards. She will be in danger the entire cruise. I have to retrieve the shards from her before the cruise ends, or before someone else takes them from her."
She decided to silently stand guard at the Diva's room, and watch for the perfect opportunity to ask the Diva for the shards.
Tarrant hadn't seen Ali all day.
He was starting to get worried, when he heard that the special concert by the Diva Plavalagoona was about to start.
He decided that Ali would return to the concert hall by the time the concert started, and he would find her then.
He started to walk in the direction of the concert hall, when Ruby Rhod stopped him, and started walking with him, brandishing his microphone like a scepter.
Ruby started talking in his rapid-fire voice, "Well, it's the time of the Diva Plavalagoona's concert, and I'm here with half of the winning couple, Tarrant Hightopp, tell me Tarrant, what are your thoughts on tonight's concert?"
Tarrant just said, "I'm just looking for Ali. She said she would be coming."
Ruby nodded, and said, "You heard the man, and now, to my right I have the very distinguished Duchess of Roses, and to my left, I have Time, but I don't know what he's doing at a concert because he's STONE DEAF! And now, Tarrant and I are taking our seats in the distinguished front row to watch this show!"
Tarrant grudgingly sat next to Ruby, and prayed that he wasn't going to talk the entire time.
The crowd stopped talking as a very tall, graceful, blue woman glided onto the stage.
Ruby leaned forward in his seat, and whispered into the microphone, "And now the show's about to begin folks,"
The Diva opened her mouth, and started to sing.
Tarrant swore he had never heard anything like it before.
The music swirled and serenaded the individual members of the audience, and Ruby actually started to cry softly into his microphone.
Ali started from her light nap, and saw that a long line of card soldiers were filing into the room.
She heard loud crashing and the rustling of furniture in a wild attempt to find something.
Ali crept silently towards the open doors, and peered inside.
The card soldiers were destroying the penthouse looking desperately for the shards.
Ali growled, and ran inside the penthouse, and started to attack the card soldiers relentlessly.
They were no easy match for her enhanced strength and reflexes, but one of the card soldiers threw her across the room into the wall.
She groaned, and felt for broken ribs.
Nothing was broken, but she was beat up pretty bad.
But then another figure walked into the room.
She was really short, and had an abnormally large head.
But she also had a gun in her hands, pointed straight at Ali.
Tarrant was just enjoying the beautiful music, when an enormous bolt of light came ripping through the ceiling, and struck down the Diva.
The audience screamed as large, red card soldiers tore through the back curtain on the stage.
They marched through the aisles, and started shooting down anyone who resisted them.
Ruby started screaming his high-pitched, shrill scream, and scrambled underneath his seat.
Tarrant slapped his hand over Ruby's mouth, and said in his thick Scottish brogue, "You have to be quiet."
Ruby nodded, and grabbed his microphone.
Tarrant looked around for some sort of weapon, and just about gave up, when he saw an abandoned plasma rifle.
He snatched the gun from the aisle, and squeezed off a couple of rounds at the card soldiers.
Up on the stage, the Diva gasped, and pushed herself off the side.
She collapsed to the floor in front of Tarrant and Ruby, and she gasped, "You. Please... the fifth element... she needs me."
Tarrant crawled over to the spot where she was collapsed, and said, "What does she need? Where are the stones?"
The Diva gasped again, and said softly, "The stones... are... in... me..."
A thin line of blue liquid poured out of her mouth, and her eyes closed slowly.
Tarrant paused, and said, "The stones... are in me? What is that supposed to mean?"
Ruby piped up, "Maybe she has them in her? Somewhere?"
Tarrant nodded, and said, "This is going to be ugly."
He picked up a long shard of glass, and sliced open her torso.
He shuddered, and stuck his hand inside the thick blue goop.
He dug around inside of her for a second, and pulled out a short, rectangular stone.
Ruby gagged while Tarrant dug out three more.
Tarrant frowned, and said, "We've got to get these to Ali."
Ruby gagged again, and said, "Your wife?"
Tarrant said, "No, she's more like my girlfriend. It's complicated."
Ruby nodded, and screamed as the card soldiers started to march towards them.
Ali tried to pick herself up as Iracebeth walked closer, but Iracebeth just clucked her tongue, and said, "Where are those stones?"
Ali just shook her head, and dragged her body farther away from her.
Iracebeth just threw her head back, and laughed.
"I like it when they run."
Ali frowned, and said weakly, "I'm not running."
She quickly propped herself up, and threw her body up into the open air vent.
Iracebeth just cackled, and pointed the gun up at the air vent.
She shot up at the ceiling at Ali, and up in the air vent, Ali cowered, and cried.
She crawled away from the approaching shots, and gasped as her leg got gashed open by an exposed shard of metal sticking up into the vent.
The shots got closer, and Ali covered her ears and screamed in pure desperation, "TARRANT!"
The shots stopped, and Ali heard Iracebeth walk away.
Iracebeth picked something up from the dining room table, and let off a few shots at the ceiling just for kicks.
Ali screamed as one tore through her leg, and she cried in her heavy stutter, "T-T-Tarrant."
Tarrant ran into the Diva's room, and heard a soft sound coming from the overhead air vents.
He walked a little more into the room, and made out Ali's voice stutter, "P-Please... h-h-h-help..."
He yelled, "Ali!" and started tearing at the ceiling with a nearby ax.
Ali cried as the ax blade came dangerously close to her body, and cried, "T-Tarrant... help... I-I c-can't m-move m-my l-l-l-leg..."
Tarrant just said silently, "Shhh... it's going to be fine, you just need to hold it a little bit so I can get you down."
Ali bit her lip, and nodded her head.
She gasped a little bit as Tarrant carefully took her down from the ceiling.
Tarrant frowned, and said, "What happened to you?"
Ali tried to say, "W-w-w-where are t-t-t-the st-st-stones?"
But Tarrant placed his finger over her mouth, and said softly, "We have the stones. You just need to rest a little bit. I'll carry you to our ship, just rest a little bit, alright?"
Ali nodded shakily, and smiled a weak smile up at him.
Ruby said, "Um, Tarrant, there's something blinky on the wall, and it's counting down something..."
Tarrant turned around carrying Ali bridal-style, and said, "We just need to get back down to the hanger, we already took care of all of the card soldiers, we just need to get out of here."
Ruby nodded, and ran out of the room.
They all ran down the hallway towards the hanger, when they passed a short woman carrying a large chest.
Ali's eyes widened, and she screamed, "Th-Th-That's her! Th-The woman who tried to k-k-kill-"
Tarrant shushed her, and pulled out his gun.
He shot the doors to the hanger after they passed through them.
Iracebeth tried to run after them into the hanger, but she was too late.
The doors shut in front of her, and she cursed.
She set the chest down, and said, "Oh, well, I've got the stones-"
The intercom overhead announced, "One minute 'til bomb detonation."
Iracebeth cursed again, picked up her chest, and started to run back towards the wall where she had placed the bomb.
She looked at the bomb fixed on the wall, and cursed again.
"I've got to defuse this thing!" she said under her breath.
She started to pull random wires from the back of the device, but when she pulled the red one, the display jumped from 0:30 to 0:00.
Her eyes widened, and she said, "Oh shi-"
But the enormous explosion cut her off.
Tarrant piloted the spacecraft away from the explosion, and looked back at Ali on the small medical bed.
Ruby looked back at him, and said, "She doesn't look too good, I mean she got shot in the leg-"
Tarrant cut him off, saying, "See that container of salve on the shelf over there?"
Ruby nodded, and Tarrant said, "Open that, and rub the stuff inside all over her leg."
Ruby nodded again, and Tarrant went back to flying the spacecraft.
Ali groaned as Ruby rubbed on the salve, but eventually relaxed as the mixture took effect.
Tarrant looked back again ten minutes later, and asked, "How is she doing?"
Ruby said softly, "She's asleep."
Tarrant smiled, then said, "We've got a hail on the communications frequency."
He pressed the button, and said into the mike, "Come in?"
The White Queen's voice came through the speaker, and said, "Do you have the fifth element?"
Tarrant said, "Yes, and her name is Ali. We're on our way to Wonderland right now."
The White Queen said, "You need to take her to the temple in the Outlands. That's where the stones will be opened, revealing the shards of the Vorpal Sword."
Tarrant nodded, and said, "Acknowledged."
He typed in a few more coordinates into the computer, then switched on the autopilot.
A/N: Weeeeeeeeeeell, how did you like the newest chapter? Please, by all means, tell me what you thought in the reviews!