"Look who it is," came the menacing voice. "If it isn't our little traitor."
Skyler tried to jerk away, only to back up into another set of strong arms behind her. Skyler turned to face the new foe. He was a younger man than the first guy. Strong, but obviously not the leader. He had a full head of reddish brown hair and a face full of freckles that probably made him appear younger than her really was.
She slapped a hand at her chest, trying to play the distraught female and found it wasn't much of a stretch.
Okay, so it wasn't acting, really. She was frightened, but she also needed to get at that communicator that she'd stashed there.
"What do you want?" She asked, shakily.
There. She sneakily managed to get the small communicator out and with a twitch of her fingers, she flipped it on.
"We don't need you now," The older male said. Skyler turned her attention back to him.
"What do you mean?" Skyler asked, afraid that she already knew.
"We have Titania's grandsons," The man sneered. "You would have made the process so much easier, but you chose to stand with the humans and monsters."
"You're trying to contact Oberon, right?" Skyler asked desperately. She pretended to sweep her hair behind her ear, managing to get the earpiece in place.
"We want to take our rightful place on Avalon," He snarled back. "He took his own 'children' back, and left us all to fend for ourselves in a world where we don't belong."
"How did you find out about what you are?" Skyler asked, trying to keep him talking. "Because I had no idea until recently."
"My mother contacted me," He said, eyes gleaming. "She taught me what I needed to know to control my power, and what I needed to do to get Oberon's attention. He could care less about us, but he bows to Titania's will. I am the one who started gathering more of the Children of the Fae, and brought them here to take Titania's daughter and grandchildren. She won't be able to ignore that."
"Skyler, are you alright?" Brooklyn said in her ear.
"No, I guess not," Skyler said, trying her best to calm herself down. She was trying to balance out answering Brooklyn and making this guy think she was turning to his way of thinking. "I can understand wanting that, too. I was twelve years old when my mother disappeared, and spent my life bouncing in and out of foster homes. I didn't belong anywhere, and couldn't figure out why."
The mad gleam in the man's eyes began to fade. Good.
"Skyler?" Brooklyn asked again, uncertainty reverberating in his voice.
"What's your name?" Skyler asked, doing her best to block the sound of fighting behind her.
"Blake," He said, the question seemed to have caught him by surprise.
"Blake, I'm Skyler," She held out her hand in a mild mannered greeting. After he shook her hand, she fought the urge to wipe her hand on the skirt of her dress. "There's an easier way than this, you know," She hinted, "to contact Titania."
He looked at her suspiciously. "What's that?"
"First, you need the kids alive," Skyler said, matter of factly. "Titania won't do anything without those kids."
"That was the plan," He said darkly.
"Okay," Skyler said with a smile. "Just making sure that I'm on the same page. You also can't hurt the Gargoyles."
"Like hell," the younger man behind her spat out.
"Seriously," Skyler said, acting all wide-eyed innocent. "She and Oberon like them enough that they put them in charge of the grandchildren here."
He seemed to think about that. "I guess you have a point. We will leave them as untouched as possible."
"Let me talk to them," She insisted. "They know and trust me. Maybe I can get them to back off, as long as no one is hurt."
"Fine," Blake snarled. "You have five minutes to prove it to me."
"Alright," Skyler said. "I'll meet you back here in five minutes." With that, she turned and ran. She almost ran head first into a very angry Brooklyn in the hallway outside the Great Hall.
"Where are they?" He snarled fiercely.
"They're in there," Skyler whispered frantically. "Brooklyn, you need to help me."
He turned to look at her then, and seemed to calm down. "Do you have any ideas on how to stop this?"
"I might," Skyler said, hesitantly. "More like I have an idea on how to get the kids to safety, and let the grownups fight without having to worry about the young ones."
"That will work," He said angrily. "What's the plan?"
"Bring me the kids. All of them," She stressed. "Alex, Christopher, Liam and the twins. Bring them to the Great Hall. I will protect them, I swear, but I need you to talk the rest of the clan, Elisa and the Xanatos' into pretending to give up. Just gather everyone in the courtyard, and be ready to move. If my plan works, it's going to happen fast."
"Okay," Brooklyn nodded. He raised a taloned finger to tap the device in his ear, "Did everyone hear that?"
"Yes," Goliath said slowly. "I do not like it, however."
"I know," Skyler responded, "But I don't have time to explain. They only gave me five minutes to try to end this without bloodshed."
"What choice do we have, lad?" Hudson huffed out, sounding tired. "We cannae keep this up."
"He's right," Skyler said. "I had a dream, or a vision, or whatever it was, and a lot of you didn't make it through this. I am trying to avoid that happening."
"Alright," Goliath said, reluctantly. "Everyone, meet in the courtyard."
"I'll get the kids," Brooklyn said.
"And the Xanatos'?" Skyler said. "And Owen, not Puck. Not puck yet." she corrected.
"We'll take care of it," Elisa called into the earpiece. "I just hope this works."
"Me too, Elisa," Skyler admitted.
Turning, Skyler made her way back to the hall to let Blake know that she had been successful in her 'task'.