A/N: Thanks for the reviews! Sorry this took so long to do. Between writer's block and differences in opinion about the plot, I'm just glad it got up at all.

Rhea cursed as she ducked under a tree branch, this small branch part of a group of them obstructing the path. Their slow procession had been stretching on for more days than anybody cared to count and people were starting to get annoyed. Catherine and Warrick, temporarily holding Sara's leadership position, had been keeping their eye one everyone and the general morale of the entire group. Their first red flag had sprung up when they only needed one campfire, as opposed to their usual two or three. Now alerted, they had watched certain group members sneak off into the greenery less and less subtly. It had gotten to the point where, when fed up, people would just walk away and not return. After so many had left, the deterioration of their once strong group was apparent. Even Rhea, trying to be the optimist, had figured out that things were going to get worse before they got better - and that was assuming that they would get better.

"How long do we plan to let this go on?" Shen, one of the few of the warriors left, had asked the same question over and over anxiously. "Rhea? Anyone? Someone has to have an idea."

"Why don't you just shut up." Rain muttered, glaring at him. "You think that if anyone had a clue we'd still be doing this?" She waved a hand roughly at the trees. "We're going to die out here."

"Positive thoughts." This had become Violet's mantra. By the tone she used, slightly rough and dull, it wasn't her first time trying to calm her sister, who had proven to have a wild temper.

"Will you be quiet!"

"Guys, please." Rhea, as hard as she had been trying to remain optimistic to keep the group together, just sounded tired.

"She's right. If we want to see this through..." Warrick had made this speech before, and barely needed to start it before everyone looked guilty.

"Do we even know what the goal is anymore?" Rain asked. "I mean, it's turned into just getting through the day without losing people," Another glare at a retreating man. "but didn't we originally have a mission?"

"Find the scroll. The one about the demon king and reincarnating him." Catherine reminded them.

"How'd we figure out to go this way? I mean, look at it," Another rough gesture. "Looks like a bunch of trees to me."

"Entry in the document manager's log. Left directions...of sorts. Travel through the fields of despair, which we've done, then fields of greens, high mountains, then underground. I guess there are signs or something then." Rhea did a quick double take. "I told you all of this when we got you. How have you forgotten?"

"Oh, I haven't." She smiled, half warm, half wicked. "Just making sure you haven't either."

"Such a cliché."

"Whatever. I say we give it a rest for a couple days. It couldn't hurt."

"We have to keep going."

"Who says?"

"Sara did. Remember? We have to keep moving or else they'll find us..."

"I don't see Sara, do you?"

"You're honestly suggesting this?" Though Rhea's eyes were wide in disbelief, she couldn't hide the excitement sparkling behind them.

"Why not? If we don't eventually take a break, we'll all die anyways. We'll just drop like flies."

"You just want us to go against the wishes of our one true leader and stop like sitting ducks?"

"Our absent leader." Rain reminded her. "If she doesn't care enough about us to stay here, why not find a new one? I'll take the job if nobody's offering." Air hissed out through Violet's teeth as she listened. "And I say we stop."

"This is the most irresponsible thing you've ever suggested." Violet said, glaring. "Sara said we keep going, so we keep going."

"Vi, She's not here."

"Still..."

"We just talked about this. I'm leader now, so I say we stop." Her declaration of power sounded like a joke that had already been taken so far as to become believable.

"Rain..."

"Violet, she's right." Rhea's voice held an authoritative double timbre that, whether she willed it to or not, forced everyone to agree. "For one night. We'll find a village."

"Fine." Though she couldn't overtly defy Rhea, Violet sounded mutinous. As they continued walking, she smacked Rain on the side of the head and started muttering furiously, throwing around words that sounded strange in her high, innocent voice.

"Face it Vi," Rain whispered for her sister's ears alone. "Nobody noticed but you, and now that they're listening to me, they'll pay our plan no attention whatsoever."

"It was stupid, risky and wrong." She snapped in the same muted tone, alerting nobody. "You're going to get us caught."

"I won't. Think about it. How easy will it be to take action in a town as opposed to in a forest with nobody in it but us. We should cross the border soon anyways, and then things will really start moving. I've done us a favour, Violet, whether you recognize it or not. When this works, you'll be thanking me."

-------

"I was wondering when you'd find your way back to us." Tyrain, an old acquaintance of Sara's, stretched his hands out in front of him and smiled. The others draped over furniture in the room smiled and a few even chuckled.

"It hasn't been that long." At his chiding look, Sara sighed. "Okay, so it has been a while. I've been busy."

"Busy in the mortal realms, if the rumours have any authority."

"I'm half mortal, remember?"

"Sure you are." He waved a dismissal hand. "Have you rethought my...proposition?"

"That's not why I'm here."

"I recall you having a better sense of humour." He sighed when her face remained serious. "I recall you having a sense of humour."

"This isn't the time."

"Ah. So this is a business visit?"

"This is a protection visit."

"You've lost me."

"I can't tell you here."

"Come." Tyrain gave her his hand as he stood. Though she eyed it pointedly, she slid her hand into his warm, familiar grip and allowed him to lead her to a closed room. With the wave of his hand, he vacated it and sat, watching her walk around slowly. "Do you remember this place?"

"I'm not old like you are. I still have my memory."

"Impudent girl."

"Stop joking. This is a serious subject."

"What is a serious subject? You've said nothing to me."

"I'm sure you don't know."

"It could be a number of things, my dear."

"Being you, I'm sure you've heard of the take-over at the Grand Council Ministry." Tyrain was known through all the realms as the king of the Guild of Thieves, though the name was just a formality. He was, in essence, the purveyor of all things on the other side of the law. As bad as the general title sounded, it was necessary. He kept honour among those who were on his side and kept things in place, allowing for everyone to work and live peacefully.

"Of course. Is that what this is about?"

"Yes. They're following me."

"They can catch you?"

"They're mostly warriors. They can move just about as fast as I can."

"Almost but not quite?"

"Exactly. They are catching up though, and it's suicide to go this alone."

"Ah, so it is protection that's what you want?"

"Not...exactly."

"Company then? You have to give me something to work with."

"I don't really know what I want. Coming here just felt right."

"Hadn't I heard that you were with a group of vagrants?"

"Oh please. You're a vagrant. But, yeah, I was with a group."

"Did they get...caught up with?"

"God, no. I left them."

"Excuse me?" His eyebrows shot up in surprise. "You said it yourself: It's suicide to go this alone."

"I know, but I couldn't pull them into this. It's between me and my enemies. It doesn't concern anyone else."

"Yet somehow it concerns me?"

"You promised to stand by me." She accused. "Are you backing out?"

"Absolutely not. I just need to put into perspective what you're asking of me. Why do you think I should endanger my own when you refuse to endanger yours?"

"Because I'm still one of your own. You told me that that would never, ever change."

"Honey..." He faltered when his words were thrown back at him. After so long, he was surprised she had remembered those words that he seemed to have uttered lifetimes ago.

"Oh. My. God." Sara's face broke into a smile. "You're worried."

"Worry? About you? How could I?" He brushed a strand of hair out of her face, his fingers lingering on her cheek longer than necessary. "I remember all you can do."

"You'd also do well to remember that I said no to you the first time around." She removed his hand and looked pointedly into his eyes which were barely concealing a passion that he had held for the years they had been apart.

"I understand that you did not wish to be my queen," He tried to act nonchalant, but he couldn't hide the love burning behind his eyes. "I have asked others."

"Then why is it that you still have no queen?" She challenged.

"They have not passed the final tests."

"There are tests now?"

"They're new." he waved a dismissal hand in the air and she grinned. She knew that there were no new tests to pass. There had never been any to begin with, and nobody would dare change something so important. Through a subtext that she had grown to understand after years of being close with him, she knew that the test they did not pass was the one of his preference and willingness to give his heart.

"I'm sorry you still haven't found your other half."

"Oh, I know exactly where she is." He tried to make it a joke, but his expression was as serious as she had ever seen it.

"Tyrain," she sighed. "If I'm going to stay here, we need to fix this." she lowered her voice, keeping in mind the listening ears of everyone on the other side of the paper thin walls. "You can't keep openly chasing me if you want things to work between me and everyone else."

"They mean nothing." His hand hovered above her shoulder. "I will order them to leave us if that's what will get you to be mine."

"Ty." She moved towards the wall, his body turning so he could watch her. "You can't. If you get rid of them all, the Guild will be nothing. Then who'll protect me?"

"I will. With my life."

"You're not enough."

"Oh, that hurts." He wasn't offended, but she found no humour in the situation.

"I'm serious. I'm in trouble."

"What have you been doing?"

"Things that very powerful people might find...undesirable. They know I'm alone. They want me. And I know I can't fight all of them alone. I could end them, but if there were more..." She shuddered. "I just can't chance it. Not now."

"Not after what you've become." he murmured.

"Exactly. I need you and I need to Guild. But you need to treat me like you treat everyone else so what happened last time won't happen again. The reason I left in the first place was because of the enmity that grew between me and everyone else. Nobody liked the inequality then, and nobody's going to like it now. Treat me like you treat them and I'll leave. You can deal with my body when they kill me."

"Don't be ridiculous. There isn't a person here who would do anything to you against my will."

"You can never know everything that goes on behind your back. Besides, I can never be with you now that I lead these realms."

"I bet you could do it." His fingertips grazed her cheek before she turned away. "You can do it." he whispered as she walked out the door. "You can do anything."

-------

Catherine strolled over to one of the dying campfires and sat down to poke the embers with a stick. She was on edge, sensing that something big was going to happen. Sleeping was not an option.

She looked up at the sky sprinkled with stars and just stared, listening to the soft sounds of the forest. Everyone else had already left for the inn where they were spending the night, the scattered fires of that night's outdoor feast remnants of the community and its people. She knew that she should be sleeping - allowing her senses to regenerate before another day of needing them to be ready. She gazed lazily into the flames once more, but jumped up when she saw the silhouette of a person standing on the other side of them. Her hands were instantly engulfed in her pink and white magical fire, and she kept her voice low and menacing.

"Who are you." she demanded, squinting through the fire to try and get a defined image of the person's face.

"Don't." Sara stepped closer until her features were lit up. "I'm not going to hurt anyone."

"I didn't..." Catherine was shocked to see her friend. She, along with everyone else, had assumed that Sara's departure was for good. That she would never be coming back.

"I know. I didn't plan on you being out this late."

"Couldn't sleep."

"I realize that." Sara sighed and rubbed a hand over her tired looking face. "Catherine, you can't tell anyone I was here."

"They'll find out for themselves in the - "

"No, they won't. I'm not staying."

"If you didn't intend to stay, why come at all?" She said angrily.

"You think I'm that careless? To leave all of you alone? I know if something goes wrong you might not be able to help yourselves. If your enemies are powerful or if there are many of them, we both know that you don't stand a chance." Sara smiled sympathetically. "I've been trailing you since I left you. Every night I poke around, making sure you're alright. Just because I choose not to stay with the group doesn't mean I don't care."

"We just assumed..."

"I know." Now her voice was sad. "Almost all of you were once mortal, or spend a lot of time in the mortal realms. Mortals assume everything. If someone leaves you, it means they don't care? I've never understood that." she sighed again and looked up at the sky. "I should get back. Don't get it in your mind to wait for me here every night, because I won't do this again. If anyone is here, I won't come, and believe me, it's better if I come." She waved before disappearing into the forest. "And Catherine? Don't tell anyone."

"I won't." Catherine murmured, knowing Sara could still hear her.

-------

Tearing through the forest, Sara cursed her bad decision. She had seen Catherine. She was fast enough that she could have left, leaving only an illusion in her friend's mind. But she couldn't. Now she was feeling the pull towards the group that she had been fighting since she left. The emotional pull that came with knowing that she was leaving so many friends behind.

Her senses ranging out in all directions around her, she knew the rebels were coming when they were still miles away. Now set on a single purpose - leading them away from the people she was trying so hard to protect with her absence - she sped up and streaked through the trees faster than she had ever gone. She was no longer fuelled by anger; No longer running at an unnatural speed because she liked it or because it made her feel powerful. She was now running for safety - the safety of everything she loved. So she ran, her vision blurred behind a watery film, tears streaming down her face, away from the people that meant more to her than the world, leading their enemy deeper and deeper into the forest.

A/N: Please review if you liked it, and even if you didn't. I love to hear from everyone! Thanks for reading!