A/N: Hi people! Here's the next chapter. It's really long. Hope you like it. I own nothing. Please review!

Chapter Six

When Prince Aleksandar awoke, his tongue was coated with sickly sweetness. The awful taste overpowered his other senses; he couldn't see or hear or even think, as if his brain were drenched in sugary brine.

Gradually, his head cleared- he smelled kerosene and heard tree branches thrashing past outside. The world rocked dizzily around him, hard-edged and metallic.

Then Alek began to remember: the midnight piloting lesson, his teachers turning on him, and finally the sweet-smelling chemical that had knocked him out. He was still in the Stormwalker, still moving away from home. All of it had really happened…. He'd been kidnapped.

At least he was still alive. Maybe they planned to ransom him. Humiliating, he supposed, but better than dying.

His kidnappers evidently didn't think Alek was much of a threat. They hadn't tied him up. Someone had even thought to put a blanket between him and the rocking metal floor. And as far as Alek knew, Kara was still back at the castle, perfectly safe.

He opened his eyes and saw shifting patches of light, a grid of swaying shadows cast by a ventilation grill. Neat racks of explosive shells lined the walls, and the hiss of pneumatics was louder than ever. He was in the belly of the Stormwalker- the gunners' station.

"Your Highness?" came a nervous voice.

Alek pulled himself up from the blanket, squinting through the darkness. One of the crewmen sat bolt upright against a rack of shells, wide-eyed and at attention. Traitor or not, the man probably had never been alone with a prince before. He didn't look much older than twenty.

"Where are we?" Alek said, trying to use the steely tone of command his father had taught him.

"I…suppose I don't know exactly, Your Highness."

Alek frowned, but the man had a point. There wasn't much to see down here except through the gun sight of the 57-millimeter cannon. There was literally no sense of direction. It reminded Alek of the time he and Kara had walked through the castle in the dark. He had found each room perfectly, while she had almost gotten a concussion from slamming into the wall. Twice.

"Where are we headed, then?" Alek asked.

The crewman swallowed, then reached a hand up toward the communicating hatch. "I'll get Count Volger."

"No," Alek snapped, and the man froze.

Aleksandar smiled grimly. At least someone in this machine remember his station.

"What's your name?"

The man saluted. "Corporal Bauer, sir."

"All right, Bauer," he said in a calm, even voice. "I'm ordering you to let me go. I can drop out the belly hatch while we're still moving. You can follow and help me get home. I'll make sure my father rewards you. You'll be a hero, instead of a traitor."

"Your father…" The man's face fell. "I'm so sorry."

Like a long echo rolling in from the distance, Alek's mind replayed what Count Volger had said as the chemical had taken hold- something about his parents being dead.

"No," he said again, but the tone of command was gone. Suddenly the metal confines of the Stormwalker's belly felt crushingly small. In his own ears Alek's voice sounded broken now, like a child's. "Please let me go."

But the man looked away, embarrassed, reaching up to rap on the hatchway with an oily wrench.

Kara's only means of transportation she could see in the stables were a horse, or Alek's practice runabout. She knew how to control neither.

Abyssia's mind-bending contraption made Alek think that Kara had learned all that he had since he was four, but Kara knew nothing of what Alek did, except for the few languages Abyssia had planted in her head and the fencing she'd learned long ago.

Truth be told, Bethany had tried to teach Kara (or, Regina at the time) horse-back riding once after coming back from a camp Bethany had gone to, but that incident had left Kara in a cast for six months, so she wasn't eager to try that again.

That left the runabout.

Now Kara had read Leviathan, Behemoth, and Goliath 24 times each in the last year and 54 each altogether, but that in no way meant that she knew how to drive a walker.

But she had to save Alek.

Taking a deep breath, Kara climbed through the runabout's open top and fell headfirst into the pilot's chair. After righting herself, she grabbed the saunters and shoved them forward.

The next thing Kara knew, the walker was on the ground, upside- down. Well, that didn't work, she thought.

Kara pulled the saunters back but all it did was flip the machine even further. She then began pushing random buttons just to see what happened.

Twenty minutes later, Kara was covered in barbeque sauce and breadcrumbs (don't ask) but the runabout was upright again.

Pushing the saunters forward again (more gently this time, though), Kara began slowly chasing after the prince of Hohenburg. She wasn't sure how long she'd been unconscious, but she figured Alek would've been drugged by now and was probably just being assured that his parents were dead.

Kara was right.

"Your father made preparations before he left for Sarajevo," Count Volger said. "In case the worst happened."

Alek didn't answer. He was staring out the Stormwalker's viewport from the commander's chair, watching the tops of young hornbeam trees roll past. Beside him Otto Klopp guided the machine with steady, perfect motions of the saunters.

Dawn was breaking, the horizon turning bloodred. They were still deep in the forest, heading west on a narrow carriage path.

"He was a wise man," Klopp said. "He knew that going so close to Serbia would be dangerous."

"But threats couldn't keep the archduke from his duty," Count Volger said.

"Duty?" Alek held his throbbing head; he could still taste the chemicals in his mouth. "But my mother… He would never take her into danger."

Count Volger sighed. "Whenever Princess Sophie could participate in affairs of state, your father was happy."

Alek shut his eyes. It always pained Father when Sophie wasn't allowed to stand beside him at official receptions. More punishment for loving a woman who wasn't royal.

The thought of his parents dead was absurd. It was like thinking of Kara walking half a kilometer without crashing into something. "This is a trick to keep me quiet. You're all lying!"

No one answered. The cabin resonated with the growl of Daimler engines and the scrape of branches against camouflage netting. Volger stood silent, his face thoughtful. The leather hand straps hanging from the ceiling swung in time with the walker's gait. Strangely, part of Alek's mind could focus only on Klopp's hands on the controls, marveling at his mastery on the machine.

"The Serbs wouldn't dare kill my parents," Alek said softly.

"I have other suspects in mind," Volger said flatly. "Those who want war among the great powers. But we have no time to theorize, Aleksander. Our first task is to get you to safety."

Alek stared out the walker's viewport again. Volger had addressed him as simply Aleksander, without any title, as if he were a commoner. But somehow the insult had lost its power.

"Assassins struck twice in the morning," Volger said. "Serb schoolboys hardly older than you, first with bombs and then with pistols. Both times they failed. Then last night a feast was given in your father's honor, and he was toasted for his bravery. But poison took your parents in the night."

Alek imagined them lying dead beside each other, and the hollowness inside him grew. But the story didn't make sense at all. The assassins would have come for Alek himself- the half royal, the lady-in-waiting's son. Not his father, whose blood was pure.

"If they're really dead, why does anyone still care about me? I'm nothing now."

"Some might think differently." Count Volger crouched next to the command chair. He stared out the window alongside Alek, his voice dropping to a whisper. "Emperor Franz Joseph is eighty-three years old. If he dies soon, some might turn to you in these anxious times."

"He hated my mother more than any of them." Alek closed his eyes again. The red-tinged forest outside was too bleak to stare at anymore. A patch of uneven ground set the cabin of uneven ground set the cabin shuddering, as if the world were unsteady in its path around the sun. "I just want to go home."

"Not until we can be sure it's safe, young master," said Otto Klopp. "We promised your father."

"What do promises matter if he's—"

"Silence!" Volger cried.

Aleksandar looked up at him in shock. He opened his mouth to protest, but the wildcount's hand clenched his shoulder. "Cut the engines!"

Master Klopp wrenched the Stormwalker to a halt, cycling the Daimlers down to a low rumble. The hiss of pneumatics settled around them.

Alek's ears rang in the sudden quiet, his body shuddering with echoes of the walker's motion. Through the viewport the leaves were motionless, the air without a breath of wind. No birds sang, as if the forest had been startled into silence by the walker's abrupt halt.

Volger's eyes closed.

Then Alek felt it. The slightest shudder passed through the metal frame of the Stormwalker- the tread of something larger, heavier. Something that shook the earth.

After a while, Kara started to get the hang of Alek's runabout. As long as she didn't push the saunters too hard, she could still go pretty fast, but she often got smacked in the face by tree branches. By the time she'd finally learned how to go at full speed, the Stormwalker was in sight. Unfortunately, so was the S.M.S. Beowulf.

"You have got to be kidding me," Kara muttered.

She was still covered in barbeque sauce and bread crumbs from her "incident" with the runabout's many buttons, and now she was about to climb up a giant metal thingy, in danger of falling and breaking her neck, and then possibly get shot at to save her sixth fictional boyfriend.

"Nico would know better than to almost get shot at. Honestly, Austrian princes these days," she grumbled.

Sighing, Kara pushed the saunters forward and got as close as she dared to the Stormwalker. Kara then grabbed her backpack filled with her copy of Leviathan and Alek's war dolls, climbed out of the open top of the runabout, avoided getting hit by a branch, and grabbed on to the first handhold she saw on the metal frame of the Stormwalker.

When Kara reached the open viewport, she noticed that Volger and Alek were halfway out the top of the walker and Klopp just wasn't paying attention. Carefully, Kara pulled herself through and promptly fell into the walker, head first, with a loud CRASH.

Count Volger stood, opening the hatchway overhead. Dawn light spilled in as he pulled himself halfway out.

The shudder came again. Through the viewport Alek saw the tremor passing through the forest, leaves shivering in its wake. It unsettled the pit of his stomach, like an angry look from his father.

"Your Highness," Volger called, "if you would join me."

Alek stood and balanced on the commander's chair, hoisting himself up through the hatch.

Outside, his eyes squinted against the half-risen sun; dawn had turned the sky a deep orange around them. The Stormwalker stood a little taller than the young hornbeam trees, and the horizon seemed enormous after hours of peering through the viewport.

Volger pointed back the way they had come. "There are your enemies, Prince Aleksandar."

Alek squinted against the rising sun. The other machine was kilometers away, towering twice as tall as the trees. Her six huge legs moved unhurriedly, but men scurried like ants across the gun deck, raising signal flags and manning the turrets. Along her flank stretched the letter of her name: S.M.S. Beowulf.

Alek watched a massive foot plant itself upon the forest floor. Long seconds later another tremor arrived, rippling across the trees around them and up through the Stormwalker's metal frame. As the next step fell, a distant treetop flailed and then vanished, torn down by the giant walker's stride.

The red and black stripes of the Kaiser's Landforce Jack flew from her spar deck, whipping in the breeze.

"A German land dreadnought," Alek said softly. "But aren't we still in Austria-Hungary?"

"Yes," Volger said. "but all those who want chaos and war are hunting us, Your Highness. Or do you still doubt me?"

But what if it's a rescue mission? Alek thought. Maybe his kidnappers had been lying after all, and Father and Mother were still alive. A vast search for Alek had been launched, with the German land navy helping! Why else would this monstrosity be allowed on Austrian soil?

Then Alek saw that the machine was changing direction, slowly turning sideways across the sunrise….

CRASH!

Alek jumped down from the hatchway and saw Kara lying in a heap right below the viewport.

"Kara?" Alek exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

"Following you; what does it look like?" she replied, not leaving her spot on the ground. "Hi Volger!" she called.

The count ignored her. "They see us, Klopp," he said quietly.

Kara was just standing up to get a better look when the first broadside erupted, bright flashed rippling along the dreadnought's flanks, puffs of cannon smoke swelling into a hazy veil around her. The sound followed moments later- a rolling thunder that broke into sharp, tearing burst from every direction. The treetops churned around them, concussions shaking the Stormwalker and throwing clouds of leaves into the sky.

Then Volger was dragging him back, farther away from the viewport, the engines roaring back to life.

"Load the cannon!" Master Klopp cried to the men below.

Alek found himself deposited into the commander's chair as the machine began to move. He struggled with the seat straps but Kara had sat in a chair next to him and plopped her feet on his lap, laughing maniacally at all the havoc. He opened his mouth to yell at her, but a terrible thought took hold of his mind, freezing him.

If they're trying to kill me…. it's all true.

Count Volger crouched beside him, yelling over the rumble of engines and gunfire. "Take heart at this politeness, Alek. It proves that you are still a threat to the throne."

The second broadside of cannon shells fell closer, a spray of gravel and wooden splinters rattling against the viewport's grill, the smaller pieces spilling through.

Alek spit dirt from his mouth and Kara quickly removed her feet from his lap to avoid the debris.

"Vision to half!" Master Klopp cried, then cursed. The two crewmen were below, and Volger was halfway up through the hatch again, his legs dangling from the ceiling. And Kara was useless.

Klopp glanced apologetically at Alek. "If you please, Your Highness."

"Certainly, Master Klopp," Alek said. He unbuckled and pulled himself up from the commander's chair. The cabin rocked and swayed, and he grasped the straps overhead to keep his footing.

He tried to turn the viewport's crank, but it wouldn't budge.

"You're so weak," Kara commented.

Just to contradict her, Alek took the crank in both hands and strained harder, but the massive armored visor only grudgingly closed a few centimeters.

Another broadside shook the earth beneath them, and the walker staggered forward. Count Volger's riding boots flailed, kicking Alek in the back of the head. Kara began laughing hysterically. Alek glared at her.

"They can still see us!" Volger shouted from above. "We're too tall!"

Master Klopp twisted at the saunters, hunkering the Stormwalker lower. The hornbeam trees rose up in the viewport, the walker's clumsy gait sending Volger's boots swinging again and Kara continued laughing hysterically. For an astonished moment, Alek watched Klopp's hands on the controls- he'd never seen a walker shuffle along in a crouch like this.

Of course, he'd never imagined being laughed at by his "childhood companion." Or a Cyklop Stormwalker having to hide from anything. But against a dreadnought this walker was practically a toy.

Grunting and heaving, Alek managed to close the right viewport to half. He reached for the other crank.

"Young master, the antenna!" Klopp cried out.

"Yes, of course!" The Stormwalker's wireless antenna stretched up above the trees, the archducal flag snapping in the breeze. But Alek had no idea how to lower it. He looked around the cabin, wishing he'd paid more attention to the crewmen when learning how to pilot.

Finally, he spotted a windlass beside the wireless set. But as he darted for it, "ALEK, GET DOWN!"

Alek turned in surprise towards the voice, and suddenly Kara leaped out at him and tackled him to the ground, his head clanking painfully against the metal floor.

"What in blazes was that for?" Alek exclaimed as Kara kept him pressed against the floor.

Kara didn't answer, but suddenly Alek heard a deafening BANG as a bullet was shot and a CLANG as it skimmed the right viewport before flying through the open left one, inside the cabin, right where Alek had been standing before Kara had tackled him.

Alek looked up at the girl in bewilderment.

"You saved my life," he said softly.

Kara shrugged, standing awkwardly. "Yeah, well, you know, I don't hate you that much."

Alek smiled weakly and stood, watching out the viewport warily. Through the trees, he saw a shadowy figure holding a rifle. The one who'd tried to kill him.

"Young master!" Klopp cried again, reminding Alek of his duty.

With one more grateful glance at Kara, he darted again for the windlass and Volger's dangling boots delivered another blow to his shoulder, making Kara laugh, despite the awkwardness of the recent dire situation. The windlass spun wildly the moment Alek unlocked it, the antenna telescoping closed a few centimeters from his ear.

He started back for the commander's seat, then saw that the left viewport was still open. He reached across the lurching cabin and began to crank it tighter.

Volger dropped back into the cabin, closing the hatch above him against a sudden rain of dirt and pebbles. "We're out of sight now."

Another broadside rumbled in the distance, followed by more explosions flickering among the trees ahead. Debris struck the Stormwalker, but the viewport's grills were squeezed as tight as a comb's teeth now; only the fine dust of pulverized forest floor filtered through.

Alek felt a moment of satisfaction- he'd done something useful. Kara had no reason to make fun of him now! This was his first real battle, when only hours before, he'd been playing with tin soldiers (not dolls). The rumble of explosions and the shriek of engines somehow filled the hollowness inside him.

The Stormwalker was thrashing through dense forest now. Of course- any cleared path would be clearly visible from the Beowulf's lookout towers.

Alek's heart was beating fast as he slipped back into the commander's chair and watched Klopp's hands on the saunters. His long hours of piloting practice seemed suddenly trifling. All that time in runabouts had been pretend-play, and this was real.

"How'd you get here anyway?" Alek asked Kara, who had seated herself next to him again.

The girl shrugged. "Stole your runabout," she replied casually. "Hopefully you won't need it again cause it's…kinda…." She cleared her throat. "Broken."

Alek was angry that Kara had stolen his machine and destroyed it, but she had saved his life…plus….

"Are you covered in….bread crumbs?" he asked.

Kara held up her breaded arms. "Yeah," she muttered. "And barbeque sauce. Honestly, I didn't know there was barbeque sauce in 1914, much less that it would randomly come out of your runabout, but you know…"

Now Alek was confused. "What do you…?" he began.

Kara grinned maliciously. "Spoilers," she teased. Alek sighed and turned away.

Volger crouched between the chairs to peer forward, his face blackened with dirt and sweat. Blood flowed from a scratch above one eye, shining bright red in the gloom of the shuttered cabin.

"I believe I suggested a smaller landship, Master Klopp."

Klopp barked a laugh, still struggling to keep the Stormwalker low to the ground. "Don't appreciate the extra armor, Volger? A runabout would've been blown off her feet by that last broadside."

"See?" Kara whispered. "It's not entirely my fault that your giant toy got destroyed. The broadside killed it. And at least be glad I saved your war dolls."

The forest rumbled again, but the explosions came from well behind and off to the right. The dreadnought had lost sight of them for now.

"The sun was rising behind the Beowulf. So we're headed west," Alek said. "We should turn left. The pines and firs down in the south are much taller than these hornbeams."

"Well remembered, Your Highness," Master Klopp said, adjusting his course.

Alek clapped him on the shoulder. "You were right to choose a Stormwalker, Klopp. We'd be dead now, otherwise."

"We'd be halfway to Switzerland, you mean," Volger said, managing to sound as if this were some fencing lesson that Alek was failing to comprehend. "In a runabout half this size, or on horses, they wouldn't have spotted us in the first place. Plus, we'd be faster and someone would still be back at the castle," he glared intently at Kara. "or even better, lost in the forest."

Kara grinned. "Oh, Count," she said teasingly. "You know you love me."

Alek glared up at the wildcount. "She saved my life, Volger," he growled. "I could've been shot!"

"If we hadn't been spotted, you wouldn't have been shot at!" Volger pointed out.

Alek had a remark prepared, but before he could open his mouth, the intercom popped.

"Loaded and ready, sir."

Alek dropped his gaze toward the cabin floor. "Those two would have been more use up here. There's not much they can do with that peashooter against a dreadnought."

"True, Your Highness," Klopp said. "But she'll have escorts- smaller, faster ships moving below tree height. We may get a whiff of them sooner than you think."

"Ah, quite right." Alek closed his mouth and swallowed. The rush of battle was beginning to fade, and his hands were shaking.

All he'd done was turn a few cranks and get tackled by a girl; the others had handled everything important. The bruises left by Volger's swinging boots and Kara's flying tackle still throbbed, reminders of how Alek had mostly managed to get in the way.

He leaned back into the commander's chair. As the simple, overwhelming fear of being shot at faded, the emptiness was rushing back….

Alek wished that it were him bleeding instead of Volger- anything to distract himself from the truth welling up in his mind.

"She's lost our range," Klopp said. "No big guns for a count of thirty."

"They've turned to give chase," Volger said. "But wait till their scouts spot us. She'll swing around for another broadside soon enough."

Alek cast about for something to say, but found himself in the grip of a silent panic, his vision blurring with tears. The attack had swept away his last doubts.

His father was dead; his mother too. Both gone forever.

His Serene Highness, Prince Aleksandar of Hohenburg, was alone now. He might never see his home again. The armed forces of two empires were hunting him, set against one walker and four men. And Kara, though she hardly counted.

Volger and Klopp fell silent, and when Alek turned, he saw his despair reflected in their faces. He clenched the hand rests of the commander's chair, fighting to breathe.

His father would've known what to say in this situation: a short and forceful speech, praising the men for their efforts, urging them to carry on. But Alek could only stare into the forest, blinking away tears.

If he didn't say something, the emptiness would swallow him.

"Alek?" Kara asked, poking his arm. "Are you dead?"

Alek glared at her. "No, Kara, I'm not dead," he said tiredly. "I'm just…thinking."

Kara hmmphed. "Well, stop looking so depressed while you think! It's just sad!" she turned to face the men. "All of you! You should be celebrating! We're escaping! We're alive! The Germans haven't gotten us yet! Sure, two people very dear to us died last night, but there are still six of us here who are alive and well, and we're going to keep it that way! Now, get up, all of you! Stop being so sad and let's just—"

A burst of gunfire broke out in the trees ahead, cutting through the grind of the engines. The walker twisted to a new heading, and Count Volger jumped to his feet again.

"Seriously?" Kara shouted at the air. "I was trying to make a dramatically inspiring speech here!"

"Horse scout, I reckon!" Master Klopp said. "They have stables on the Beowulf."

A shower of bullets rattled against the Stormwalker's visor, louder than any spray of dirt and pebbles. Alek imagined metal projectiles ripping through the armor and cutting into him, just as that bullet would've if Kara hadn't saved him, and his heart began to race again.

The awful emptiness lifted a little….

A huge boom shook the walker in its track, and a billow of smoke rose across the viewport, its choking stench spilling into the cabin.

"Oooh! A smoke machine!" Kara exclaimed. "Those things make everything 20% cooler!" (A/N: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic reference) She gasped dramatically. "You know what this calls for? A PARTY! (A/N: another MLP:FIM reference. Don't judge me) Alek—" she thrust out her hand. "Dance with me!"

Alek was confused. "No! We're in the middle of a battle."

Kara hmmphed. "Seriously, Alek, you're ruining the party. STOP IMPERSONATING SOCIETY!"

Alek sighed as the smoke continued to billow throughout the cabin. For a moment he thought they'd been hit, but then an explosion answered from the distance, followed by the crack of trees and the awful cries of horses.

"That was us," he murmured. The men below had fired the Stormwalker's cannon.

As the echoes died, Volger called, "Do you know how to load a Spandau machine gun, Alek?"

"Ooh! I do! I do!" Kara called out.

"No, you don't!" Alek said.

"I do too! You know, technically…theoretically…..in my mind…..Oh come one, Alek! You're ruining my childhood! STOP IMPERSONATING SOCIETY!"

Alek sighed again. Technically, he had no idea how to load a machine gun either, but already his hands were moving to unbuckle his seat straps.

A/N: Whatdya think? Please review!