Chapter 13

Disclaimer: My throat hurts… I'm going to have to find someone else to say the disclaimer today…

Emiko: I'd be happy to say it! Hm… let's see here… Pheo the Flame does not own DN Angel, and she also does not own her computer.

Me: Thanks for that Emiko… thanks…

…

When I next opened my eyes, it was not because I was healing safely in some sort of infirmary. It was not a peaceful wakening, surrounded by quite people who want to make sure you are alright, and cool lights that don't burn your eyes but make you feel calm and rested.

No, when I opened my eyes after the fight with Harlem, it was because Emiko and Kosuke (who had indeed been the man standing between Hayato and Rio's thrones) were trying to pry my dented armor away from the long gash in my side so that it could be treated. If they had set my fur on fire, it would have hurt less. As it was, they may as well have just set Harlem on me again. I tried to endure the pain in silence, but as a small piece of metal began bending away from the open (and still bleeding!) wound in my side, I couldn't suppress a small whimper of pain.

"Oh," Emiko said softly, "Kosuke, she's awake… here, stop for a moment." She walked over to my where my head lay, and gently stroke the fur on my throat. "Rue, can you speak?" I nodded dully, collecting my thoughts as best I could, and then did as I had been asked.

"Where… where am I? I can't remember anything after the fight…" Emiko continued to stroke my fur, untangling a small knot with her fingers.

"You're back at our home Rue," Emiko replied, "Dark is taking Harlem to one of the warhound kennels, so that you can heal here. Satoshi thought that this would be best for you." I smiled tiredly, glad that someone in the royal family didn't want me dead. My torn ear throbbed with the beat of my heart, and I wondered if it would ever heal or if it would be a constant reminder to how weak I was.

"You've got a broken leg and two cracked ribs," Kosuke said grimly. "You're lucky you aren't blind in both eyes, and you also tore the stitching out of one of your paws. Most of these injuries are going to leave scars, but the fur on your side should grow back if we can get this armor off." I nodded, feeling lucky that the extent of my injuries didn't go far beyond that.

"We're going to keep trying to bend this back into shape to get it off of you," Emiko said, and I could see she was worried. "I'll have Towa give you something for the pain as soon as I can, but right now she's still boiling water to disinfect bandages. I'll go tell her right now though." Quickly, she leapt to her feet and trotted off and out of my line of sight, leaving me alone with Kosuke.

"So," he said pleasantly, "You're the scientist's niece?" I nodded, and he continued. "After all I've heard about you, I expected someone with less fur." I laughed softly.

"This form is still pretty new to me," I said, still smiling. "But I'm curious… what sort of things have you heard about me?" I still had very little idea as to why there had been an attempt at my life. I assumed that several of the children who my uncle had captured, whom I had helped capture, had come from this kingdom, and I was sure that was reason enough for the kingdom of Algernon, yet I wanted to hear my thoughts confirmed by someone here.

"That you have red hair, for one," Kosuke said. "Dark was in charge of watching you for about a month before you were shot, and when I asked him about you for the first time, he just shrugged and said 'she's a red'."

"What else did he say about me?" I asked, my curiosity now definitely piqued.

"You wore your hair short, like a boy, and you had bright green eyes," Kosuke replied with a shrug. "That he didn't think you were like your uncle at all, and he wished he didn't have to kill you; little snippets of things that he noticed over the weeks. Sometimes they were relevant to his task, but more often than not he couldn't find out much about you.

"Of course, there were also rumors," he continued. "People in town thought your eyes were magic, and you could charm children away from their backyards with just a single word. Nobody knew about the laboratory back then, and whenever a child went missing, a huge hunting party would gather with torches and arrows and spears, ready to venture into the woods. Sometimes, they would find a missing child. Most times, however, they didn't." Taking a deep breath, he continued.

"We didn't know about your uncle's lab until a young girl named Cira went missing. It was about two years ago. She was thirteen, and everyone in the town knew her and loved her. One day, she walked into the woods, off to pick flowers, and never came back." I suddenly tensed, remembering a day, two years ago, when a girl with long, wavy blonde hair had knocked on our door. She had been lost, and very afraid, and my uncle had taken her in and fed her. She had been the girl I had found two nights later, stung to death by mutant wasps. The girl I had buried under the light of the moon.

"We never found Cira," Kosuke continued gravely, "but we found that damned laboratory and we knew that that was where the children were taken. We left then; hurried back to tell the King and Queen what we had found. At first, we had no idea what to do about it, but then the two came to a decision. They couldn't let you live. Prince Krad was the first to suggest it, but we all quickly steeled ourselves to it. We couldn't think of any other way Rue, and I wish we had. But just thinking about poor Cira, probably rotting in a ditch somewhere clouded our minds." He seemed ready to continued, but I didn't let him.

"I buried her," I murmured. "She was stung to death, and I buried her at night, under the moon." Thoroughly numbed by all that Kosuke had told me, I quickly fell silent and waited to see if he had anything else to say. It became apparent that he did not, but I was saved from having to break what was quickly becoming an awkward silence by the arrival of Emiko and Towa. And Dark. I growled lightly when I saw this latest addition to the group, but Emiko shook her head ever so slightly, silencing me.

"Rue, I brought Dark here to help us get your armor off before that wound gets infected. Is that alright with you?" Her question was not really a question, and I could tell by the tone of her voice that I could only agree. So, once again, I nodded. "Good! Dark, you and Kosuke can work on the dents in the armor, and Towa, you can help me with bandaging these cuts on her face." Towa nodded, and then walked up to me.

"Here Rue," she said, setting a small bowl in front of me, "drink this. It's just a sleeping draught, but Miss Emiko's used it for years to help numb pain as well." Smiling gratefully at the jade-eyed girl, I twisted the front half of my body around until I was propped up on what I would call my elbows. It was an extremely uncomfortable position, and I couldn't help but grimace in pain. However, turning my attention to the small bowl, I began dutifully lapping at the contents. It tasted rather like a strong cup of cold mint tea, but I didn't mind. When I'd gotten through about half of the draught, my eyelids started to feel heavier than they should have. Three-quarters, and I couldn't see straight. I felt my breathing begin to slow down, and I lay back on my side and let my eyes slip closed.

"Harlem really didn't like her," Kosuke said. His words sounded far away, as though from a different room.

"I was telling him," Dark's reply was even more indistinct than Kosuke's, and his voice began fading away. "Telling him the whole time I walked him there to…" Despite a spark of outrage at Dark's words, his voice drifted away completely and I fell into a deep, dreamless, and painless sleep.

…

When my eyes finally opened again, the burning pain in my side had been reduced to a dull throb that echoed through my leg, my face, and my ear. My muzzle and most of the area around my eyes had been wrapped snugly with bright white gauze, and I could feel stitches in my ear where it had been torn. My right hind leg felt strangely heavy, and I figured that it was because of a cast or a splint of some sort that kept the bone in place. Past the gauze, I could see Daisuke sitting near me. I wagged my tail tiredly, happy to see him, and he perked up immediately.

"Rue!" he exclaimed, "I'm glad you're awake, it's just time for breakfast." His words took several seconds to sink in, but they gradually worked their way through the rest of the sleeping draught and the bandages. "Can you walk?" the redhead continued, "If not, I'm sure I can help some way or another…" he trailed off, and I realized he was much too weak to carry me. I bravely attempted to stand up, and although I slipped once, was quickly on my feet. Daisuke smiled, and led the way to the dining room, which was just off the kitchen and only a short distance from where we were. I kept my broken leg off the ground, and hobbled on three feet after him.

Emiko and Kosuke were seated at a small, rectangular table, and Towa was setting out plates and silverware. All of them looked tired, but their eyes brightened when they saw me. I wagged my tail at all of them, unable to speak due to the bandages wrapped around my muzzle, and Towa laughed. Setting a final plate on the table, she turned into the tiny pink bird that was her second form, flew over to where I stood, and perched on my head.

Emiko laughed. "Towa, as long as you're there, could you take that gauze off of Rue's mouth? I'm sure she'd like to eat today." The little bird saluted with one wing.

"Sure thing Miss Emiko!" she chirped, and hopped down to perch on my muzzle. "I was beginning to wonder if you'd drank too much of that stuff," Towa said, chattering as she began to pull the gauze off with her claws and beak. "Miss Emiko said you'd be awake by dawn, but here it is four hours after sunrise! I was worried you'd sleep through breakfast – you'd hate missing a meal here, Miss Emiko is an excellent cook!" I smiled at Towa's words, but I couldn't stop the small tears that sprung to my eyes. After so many years of going to bed hungry, or wondering if I'd get anything to eat each day, the idea of breakfast, surrounded by people who had been so kind to me despite who I was, threatened to overwhelm me.

"Thank you," I said as soon as the gauze was loose enough to let me speak. Towa flew off of my muzzle with an indignant chirp. "Thank you so much… for everything. You have no idea… how much this means right now." My voice broke, and I quickly shut up before I actually started crying.

"Oh good grief… If you get this emotional over breakfast, I'll make you eat dinner outside." My thankfulness forgotten, I turned toward Dark with a quiet growl.

"You obviously have eaten well every day for the past ten years," I said coldly. "You've probably never wondered whether or not you'd eat each morning when you woke up, already starving from the night before, or thought about eating grass, or –"

Dark cut me off. "You've heard I am a guard here," he said coolly. "For the past ten years, I have been in several very intensive training camps, worked until I dropped from sheer exhaustion, and nearly died twice. I have fallen asleep some nights, and wondered if I would wake up alive. I have been forced, on one occasion, to eat some very nasty and barely edible roots to stay alive, and even then, nearly died again. And for what?"

He glared out of the window behind me, his mask of calmness broken. "Nothing, Rue. Absolutely nothing happened. I was promoted to the head of the Royal Guard, I was allowed to come back to my home… and I was later told to kill you." His eyes softened somewhat. "And apparently I can't even do that right."

During the silence that followed, I realized that the dining room was deserted. Emiko, Kosuke, and Daisuke had slipped off, I assumed into the kitchen. "Dark," I said quietly, "What was going to happen?"

"War," he replied. "Ariston and Algernon have been rivals for centuries, each looking for full control of the forest. Atherton, another kingdom off to the west, fell to Ariston a few years back, and Abelon and Abruzzino were the first to fall to Keiji's reign."

"Keiji?" I asked quietly. "Is he Lyra's father?" Dark shook his head with mild disgust.

"He's her younger brother," he said. "His father was quite old; willed him the throne instead of his eldest child – that's Lyra – when he was especially ill, and not too soon afterwards, perhaps a year and a day, he fell ill again and passed. So now that he's a king, and conquered three other kingdoms, Keiji's going a bit mad with power. Lyra will do anything he says, she's a trained assassin, as you've seen, and worst of all, she's going to marry Krad."

"Well," I said cautiously, "what's so horrible about that?" Aside from the fact they hate each other, and the small issue of her killing my last remaining bit of family, of course.

"He will die on the day of his and Lyra's coronation," Dark explained slowly. "Lyra will have control over the kingdom by default, and hand it over to Keiji in an instant. And those two idiots –"

Towa walked in just then, pale-faced and shaking just a bit, and Dark shut his mouth so fast I heard his teeth click together. "Argentine is at the door," she said quietly. "He says that he wants to see Rue. He is to escort her to the palace." My stomach growled.

"Tell him that I plan on eating first," I replied, remembering how this conversation between Dark and myself had begun in the first place. I could smell what I remembered from long ago as bacon, and if anyone, even my parents come back to life, had come to get me at the moment, they couldn't have dragged me out with a herd of wild horses.

I saw a quick movement out of the corner of my eye, and without hesitating, leapt toward it, pinning something small and scaly under one paw. My whole body ached with the sudden movement, but Dark moved over to me, slowly, and cupped his hands around the paw that held whatever I had caught to the floor. He seemed grim.

"Quick," he said, "pick your paw up and I'll get him. He knows he shouldn't be in here without an invitation…" I hesitated for a moment, but rationalizing with myself, I knew I'd never get anywhere until I could at least forgive Dark. Besides, if what Kosuke had told me was true, he had only been following orders; against his will at that. I picked up my paw.

In less than a second, Dark held a squirming, dark, lizard-like creature with two golden stripes running up its sides. Towa shrank back through the doorway and into the kitchen, and I instantly knew from her reaction that this was Argentine.

"Good reflexes Rue," Dark said, still holding Argentine the Lizard by his tail. "See, with a bit of training you'll be fighting just fine." I growled at him, not wanting to do so much as think about the night before. "Oh alright… fine. But you're going patrolling with me one night." I flicked my tail back and forth in annoyance, but said nothing to the contrary.

Argentine finally managed to twist around, bite Dark's hand, and fall to the floor. However, instead of scampering out of the door, or escaping out of a window, he sat still for a moment before disappearing in a flash of silver.

"You're wanted in court," he said after a moment. In human form, Argentine looked about Daisuke's age, with slightly spiky, dirty blonde hair. He wore lots of black, with hints of silver on the collar and cuffs of his shirt, and I thought that he must be either a servant of Satoshi or Queen Rio.

Emiko walked in quickly, with a large basket hung on one arm. I could smell toast. "She is also wanted at the breakfast table," she snapped at Argentine. "You are welcome to stay if you wish, breakfast's nearly finished." She smiled at me, pointing to a chair at one corner of the table. "Rue, you can sit here. We'll have to move you once Harlem gets back, but for now it'll be fine." I blinked, surprised at the invitation to the table, but wagged my tail and leapt lightly into the chair. Argentine stared at me, and I could not read his silver eyes, but gazed stoically back despite this.

Finally, he shifted his gaze, and I allowed mine to wander again as he gave Emiko an answer. "I shall be back for her in an hour. In the meantime, do try to make her presentable." I growled, but he paid me no mind. In a flash of silver, he returned to his lizard form, and was out the window in the blink of an eye. Emiko returned to the kitchen, leaving the toast on the table and me alone with Dark.

"It's the Queen who wants you," Dark said finally, taking a seat next to me. "It's no secret to any of us that Argentine's her servant and errand boy. But the question is why she would want you…" He trailed off, glancing out the window. Towa walked in with a huge plate heaped with scrambled eggs, set them on the table, and then trotted back into the kitchen. I tried not to drool.

Dark continued at a different rate, almost speaking under his breath. "Look, I know they seem like nice people, but they can be ruthless if they have to be. I'm not much more than a pet to them now. Don't look at me like that, I've told you what they've done to me and how I was treated." I shook the look of disbelief off of my face, and kept listening. "I don't want you ending up like me, so if you are offered anything, anything at all, refuse it unless it's a new set of armor. You'll be needing that." I smiled at him, somewhat amused by his worry. Nobody could own me. I wasn't just some dumb creature that could be collared and kept.

"Don't worry about me," I said with a quick grin. "What you ought to worry about is the food here." Dark laughed and scratched me behind the ears.

"You wouldn't dare," he replied, mockingly threatening me. Daisuke walked in, carrying a bowl of strawberries, tripped over Wiz (who was hopping around under his feet), and went flying. Dark caught the bowl of strawberries as it flew, and I snatched the single one that had fallen out of the bowl in my teeth before it could hit the ground. Glancing down at Wiz, I bit the strawberry in half, picked up the furry little creature, and let it enjoy the fruit.

"Are you okay Daisuke?" I asked quietly. The boy was still laying face down on the floor, unmoving. He didn't answer me. Dark stood up and walked over to his brother, quickly turning him over onto his back. Daisuke had broken his nose. Blood was gushing from his nostrils, and his eyes were closed. There was a cut above one of his eyebrows as well from hitting the floor, and it was oozing blood at a rate that was alarming for its small size.

"Go get mom," Dark said quickly, and I thought I heard panic in his voice. "Dad and Towa too; he's still alive but he's losing blood." Quickly, I turned toward the kitchen and dashed in, forcing myself not to sprint. As I left, I could hear Dark still speaking.

"Daisuke, stay with me… Can you hear me? C'mon Dai, open your eyes… please…"

…

AN: Probably not my best chapter... a lot of dialogue, which is something I'm not too fond of. However... so much happened here, I hope that makes up for it! Please review! *hugs*