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Return-Path: kathreele@earthlink.net
Date: Fri, 13 Mar 1998 18:10:13 -0500
From: Kathe Roper 
To: martntal@wtouch.net
Subject: Honor 4/?

Mishelle crossed her arms in front of her chest and cocked her
head to the side, raised her eyebrows and stared at
Johann von Kest. 
      "You have GOT to be kidding me. HE'S in charge!" Mishelle pointed
at the blond figure in front of her. "You're more
desperate than I thought." 
      "Nice to see you too. What are you doing here?" Johann asked
coming into the light. He was a little over six feet tall
with blond hair and incredibly blue eyes. He wore a short black wool
jacket and black wool pants, and of course the high
black boots, just like Mishelle's. 
      "I was just coming through the forest when I was stopped by
pickets, one of them turned out to be Bryce. The question
is, what are YOU doing here?" 
      Johann motioned for them all to sit at the great oak table in the
middle of the room. "After the New Alliance took over
a resistance movement sprang up immediatly. Knowing that there would be
no way that we could overthrow the new
government at that time we broke into resistance cells and scattered to
the far reaches of the Frontiers. While you've been
off on retreat the Rebel Alliance has been preparing for war against the
New Alliance. I took over command of this
particular cell when the old commander was killed during a raid. So,
have you come to join us von Worthin or are you just
going to pass through, keeping 
your head in the sand?" 

      "Listen Jonny, what I did needed to be done. I didn't want the
fall of the Alliance, but there was no way that I could
stop it," Mishelle spat out angrily. "I was betrayed two fold, my own
grandfather was murdered for the New Alliance and
then my way of life was totally destroyed. I know I can't get my
grandfather back but I'll do anything to restore the First
Alliance, even if it means joining forces with you." She sat back in her
chair, satisfied with her speech. "Plus, I've got some
payback to deliver, personally," she muttered under her breath. 

      "Fine, it looks like you are now the Strategic and Tactical
Officer of Resistance Cell 8 of the Rebel Alliance. Welcome
aboard," Jonny offered his hand for Mishelle to shake and she continued
to sit in her chair, arms crossed. "Fine, I guess you
haven't changed much since the last time I saw you. Travis here is our
Intel Officer, Bryce is our Security and Training
Officer and I think you'll meet everyone else shortly. Travis will you
show where you can bunk, I've got a conference with
another cell leader." 

      "Come on Mishelle, I'll show you to your quarters." Travis led her
to another building close to the mess hall. He
knocked on the door. "Hey Jess, can I come in?" 
      "Sure, hold on a sec," a woman about Mishelle's age opened the
door. She had flame red hair that reached below her
shoulders and blazing green eyes. "Hey Trav, who's this?" 
      "Jessa von Bradner, meet Mishelle von Worthin. She's your new
bunkmate. I'll leave you two to get aquatinted, I've
got to get back to the intel reports but I'll see you at evening mess in
a hour, right?" 
      "Sure Trav, come on Mishelle, I'll show you where to stow your
stuff. So you're the famous Warrior von Worthin,
never thought I would ever get to meet you, actually I thought you had
just passed into legend," Jessa smiled. Jessa put
Mishelle's bag down on one of the beds in the room. 
      "You too? I thought I was the only one who thought that!" Mishelle
smiled slightly at her attempt at humor. "So you
seem to know about me, how about you tell me how you got to this part of
your life?" 
      "Pretty simple really, I was at Junker Academy in Karlsberg when
the First Alliance took over. The students who
remained loyal to the First Alliance fled into the wilderness, a lot
like you were rumored to have done. We eventually spilt
up and joined different resistance cells, I came to this one. Johann let
me join after I fought hand to hand combat with him
and he ended up on his back. I think he figured that he couldn't have me
go to another cell and blab that a girl a full head
shorter than him beat him in combat." Jessa grinned at the memory, she
could still see that stunned look on his face when he
had the wind knocked out of him. 
      "Johann. Heh heh heh, he hates being called by his first name,"
Mishelle laughed. 
      "I know, that's exactly why I call him that. So I've been here for
awhile, I help Bryce Christansen with the training of
recruits. I was about to graduate from the academy and undergo
confirmation when the First Alliance fell. It's my dream to
be confirmed in the Hall of Elders, just like my father." 
      "Wait a minute, your father didn't happen to have white hair and
have an affinity for red shirts did he?" Mishelle asked,
her eyebrows raised in inquiry. 
      "So you've heard of Rudolf von Bradner?" 
      "Heehee, never heard him called Rudolf before but yes, I've heard
of him. My grandfather used to talk about Race von
Bradner and my father used to go out and raise hell while on leave
somewhere. So that's your dad? I'm glad you didn't end
up with the hair Jessa," Mishelle smirked. 
      "You're tellin' me! Thankfully I look a lot like my mother but I
inherited my father's instincts," Jessa smiled at a small
picture of her parents on her bedside table. "So tell me, how did you
know that Johann hates to be called by his real name?
It's not common knowledge you know." 
      "That is a *very* long story, and I think that it's about time for
evening mess, right?" Mishelle said, deftly avoiding the
subject. 
      "Nice maneuver 'Shelle, but I'll get it out of you eventually.
Come on or the Christansen twins will eat all the good food
and we'll have to make do with rolls and berries." The two women raced
out of the tiny building and ran for the mess hall.



"Travis," Jessa whined, "stop stealing my food or I'm going to
have to hurt you," she warned him. Jessa and Mishelle
had actually gotten to the mess hall early, ensuring that they got the
good eats, but Travis and Bryce Christansen hadn't
been so lucky. 
       "Promise?" Travis grinned back at her meanwhile trying to sneak a
roll from her plate. 
 *WHAPETH* 
       "Owwwww, jeez Jessa, that hurt, and not in a good way either!" 
       "I told you Travis, never come between a women and her food." 
       Travis looked around the table and saw everyone snickering at
him, even his own twin. "Jeez, can't even trust a twin,"
he shook his head. 
       "But Travis, you just haven't learned how to deal with women yet.
See, ask *politely* if they will give you some of
their food and they'll be happy to oblige you, or most of them will,"
Bryce smiled at Jessa who sat across from him. 
       Travis noticed the focus of his twin's smile and couldn't resist
getting a little jab in. "That's just because Jessa's sweet
on you." For that Travis received a sharp elbow in his rib cage courtesy
of Bryce. 
       "I'm going to leave this party while I still have the ability, 
anyone care to join me?" 
       "I will," Mishelle got up to leave the table, "the night air
always does me good." 
       Mishelle followed Travis outside, the night air in the mountains
was crisp and cool and a full moon was gleaming in the
night sky, casting shadows all around. "Why didn't you or Bryce tell me
that Johann was here? You know how I feel about
him." 
       "Listen 'Shelle, I don't think it was on purpose. I do know that
we need your skills badly and so that may have
overridden any other concerns we might have had about you and Johann
getting in the same area. Anyways, all of that stuff
was a long time ago, can't you let it drop?" 
       "That," she hesitated, trying to pick her next word carefully,
"THING! is the most arrogant, self serving IMBECILE
that I have ever MET!!! He made my life a living hell while we were at
The Block, and I'm not going to forget it," she
snapped. Mishelle leaned back against the bench that she and Travis were
leaning against and looked up into the night sky.
The moon was extremely bright and all the stars seemed to be out to
greet her. There was a light cloud cover whispering
across the sky adding a mystic quality to the heavens above. Mishelle
shook her head, "The Council of Elders must be
having a great time throwing me and Johann together all the time,
especially Grandfather." A small smile spread across her
face at the memory of Otto. "You remember how he always loved Otto, and
Otto adored him. He thought of Johann as a
perfect compliment to myself, even though we never got along." 
      "That's an understatement, you guys nearly killed each other on
several occasions if I recall correctly," Travis laughed. 
      "Yeah, the only time we ever got in trouble was because of each
other, we became the 'Cooler' king and queen." 
      "But if I'm not mistaken 'Shelle, there was something going on
towards the end wasn't there?" Travis grinned and raised
his eyebrows. 
      "Ugh. How did you hear that rumor? You were gone by the time that
one started to fly around The Block." 
      "I have my sources," Travis grinned mischievously. 

      Sure enough, Travis did have his sources, and they were *very*
close to the knowledge at hand. Travis had known
Johann von Kest for many years and knew when something was up. During
Jonny's last year at The Block, when Travis
and Bryce had already graduated and been confirmed, Travis kept in touch
with his old friend. Towards the end of the year
Jonny seemed a little strange when Travis talked with him. He was always
a little distracted and more stand off-ish than
usual, so one day Travis dragged it out of him. Jonny had fallen,
against his wishes mind you, in love with Zoya von
Worthin, his "mortal enemy". The 
realization of this was tearing him apart. 
      "I'm telling you Travis, this can't be right! Not her, anybody but
her!" 
      "Sorry buddy boy, it looks like you've got it bad, whether you
like it or not. How did you figure it out anyways?" 
      "I honestly don't know, it came out of nowhere and I knew it was
true, I love her. And she's going to kill me for it." 
      "You know you have to do something about it, you have to let her
know how you feel." 
      "I know, I know. But Travis..." 
      "Yeah?" 
      "This may be the last time you talk to me." 
  

	 Jonny finally got up his curage and decided to tell Zoya how he felt
about her, whether each of them could deal with
the consequences or not. The time came. One of the instructors had found
out about an old prank that they had played on
eachother and had decided to lock them up in the "Cooler" once again as
punishment. The Cooler was a small stone
building 
on The Block campus. Students were locked in the Cooler as punishment
for a couple of hours to think over their
misdeeds. For Jonny and Zoya it had become a second home. 

      "Maybe we should just move in here and get it over with, that way
people would always know where to find us," Jonny
said as he sat on the cold stone floor. He always delt with being in the
Cooler better than Zoya. 
      "You do that. The Elders know that most of the time it's your
fault that we get stuck in here, you and your stubbruness,"
Zoya chided. 
      "Can't you lay off for one minute?" 
      "It's not in my nature, and it's not in your's either," she shot
back. 
      "There's a lot about my nature that you have no idea about Zoya."
Jonny leaned his blond head against the wall and
closed his bright blue eyes. Zoya peered at him as she paced on the
opposite end of the room. She shivered in the stone
room. Even though it was late spring the Cooler retained it's chill
because of the underground spring that came up next to
the building. "Cold?" 
      "How could you tell? You had your eyes shut." 
      "I could sense it," he said, still not opening his eyes. 'I'm in
tune with you, may the Elders help me,' he thought. 'Alright
Zoya, I've stalled long enough, you're gonna have to deal with it the
same way I did.' 
	Zoya continued to pace the legnth of the floor, her brown hair was
wrapped in a tight bun at the base of her skull. She
knew something weird was going on with him but she couldn't figure out
what. 
       Jonny opened his eyes slowly and looked straight at her. "I love
you Zoya." 
      Zoya's gray eyes nearly popped out of her head, she spun to face
him still sitting on the floor."What!?!" 
      "You heard me." 
      "You can't love me! We hate each other! That's the way our
relationship works, you annoy me, I kick your ass and
that's the end of it, until you do it again." 
     "Believe me, I'm as dumbfounded as you are about all this but I
know it's true. I love you." He got up and walked over
to Zoya. He reached out his hand to take hers but she jerked her hand
away.  "You have no idea what you're doing, you
have to forget it. Forget it all." Zoya turned her back on him and
didn't speak to him. 

      So that's how it went. For the rest of their time at The Block
Jonny tried to make amends with Zoya but she would
have none of it. Everytime he got near her she rushed out of the room or
made herself clearly unavailable. Zoya dove into
her work and her training to bury her feelings from herself. She loved
him back, and she knew it, but she was too scared to
change their relationship from what it already was. At the end of the
year they graduated, most got confirmed as warriors
but Johann von Kest was not among them. Zoya had been confirmed, met
Rex, the First Alliance was now a thing of the
past and now they had ended up together again in this resistance cell. 
  
      "Well your sources are wrong, nothing ever happened between us. We
can't stand eachother. Conflicting personalities
and all that. We can barely stand being in the same room together..."
Mishelle's voice trailed off into the night air. 
      "Seems like you're making a lot of excuses for something that
didn't even happen." 
      "I'm not-" Mishelle was interrupted by the door to the mess hall
opening and Jessa stepping out. 
      "Come on Mishelle, it's getting late and you've got a long day
ahead tomorrow."
      Mishelle was thankful for the interruption, she didn't want to
have to explain to Travis what was going on. She wasn't
even sure she could explain it to herself. And Jessa was right, tomorrow
would be a long day, a day that lasted for longer
than anyone thought possible. 
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You never looked as lost as this 
Sometimes it doesn't even look like you 
-"A Night Like This" ~Cure 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



The Next Chapter 
The Dawing of Valor

      The small room was lit only by a small lamp at the end a long
table. The ceiling was extremely low and the walls were
paneled by dark wood. Rex von Derbstein looked around, it reminded him
of some kind of crypt. He sat paitently at one
end of the table, waiting for his superior to enter the room. It was
times like this that he wondered why he had done any of
this in the first place. For years he had been the puppet of the leaders
of this regime. He had gone through the academy,
been confirmed, met Zoya... 
      Zoya. That was his one mistake, he had fallen in love with her.
Against orders he had become emotionally attached to
the woman that was only supposed to be a way of getting to Otto von
Worthin. But they didn't know that. They only knew
that he had succeded in his primary mission and had failed at his
secondary one, to recruit Zoya into the fold. 
      Rex shifted uncomfortably in his chair and cringed at the pain.
When Zoya had stabbed him that night he had been very
lucky. She had missed all vital organs but the wound haunted him still.
He, like Zoya, carried a reminder of that night. Rex
shook his head in dispair, how could he have betrayed her? 'You betrayed
her because you were doing your job,' he
answered himself. My job, my mission. All of it for a chance at power,
but a power in an unholy alliance. 'What's done is
done old boy, you made your choices.' Rex didn't have a chance to wallow
any longer, his superior had arrived. 

      "Ah Rex, good to see you," the man smiled. "How was your mission
to the Northeastern Territory? Much trouble?" 
      "No, not really. The uprising reports were greatly exaggerated.
The commandant was antsy and was apparently seeing
things that weren't there, no resistance movement could be found. Only
some fishing and lumber villages, the peasents are
happy and are not antagonistic towards the New Alliance. The problem has
been rectified, the new commandant will be
very catious before making outrageous claims like his predecessor. 
       "Very good, we could have not spared another regiment to
reinforce that territory. We have another job for you
Major. We have two prisoners at a secluded base at Reignsberg that need
to be interogated and you are just the man to
handle the job. We have confirmed that these two are part of a
resistance cell that operates somewhere in the western
mountains. We need to extract all information from them, that area is
hard to protect and our intelligence sources are
concerned about those 
Rebel Alliance scum. The upper heiarchy and myself are not concerned but
to placate those damned fools in Intel we have
chosen you to take this mission." 
      "I will do my best sir, it is my pleasure to serve the New
Alliance, and my duty," Rex said sternly. 
      "It pleases me greatly to know that Major von Derbstein. You will
leave tonight and should arrive at Reignsberg
sometime tomorrow afternoon, and be careful not to draw attention to
yourself. This is an extremely covert operation,
pretend it's just a rutine check of defenses. We don't want to cause any
alarm, that is our way of keeping a grip on these
people. We keep them happy and they won't realize what we are doing. You
are dismissed." 
       Rex stood up and saluted, turned smartly on his heel and walked
swiftly out of the room. Safely outside he leaned
exhausted against the wall, 'I can't deal with much more of this.' Rex
shook his head and ran his fingers through his cropped
hair. He walked out of the complex with his head hung low and his hands
in his pockets. In a half hour he was on 
his way to Reignsberg.



Johann von Kest stepped out into the early morning air and
breathed in deeply. It was just before dwan, when the last
reminents of the mystical night are being shrugged off for the cruel
light of day. He held his cup of coffee with both hands
trying to absorb as much warmth as possible. Johann breathed in the
dark, rich aroma of the liquid before taking a sip. This
was his favorite time of day and he wanted to savor it for as long as
possible for he knew what hardships awaited them that
day. 

      Today he would lead a small raiding party to the base at
Reignsberg where two very important objectives waited to be
achieved. The first was to rescue two members of Resistance Cell 4, the
second was only to be revealed upon entry to the
base complex. Even though the base at Reignsberg was small it was not an
easy thing to break into, the job would require
patience, training and a fair amount of luck to pull off and Jonny knew
exactly who he would have to count on to pull off
this particular mission. Mishelle. Jonny shook his blond head and looked
towards her and Jessa's quarters. 'Why her? Why
now?' he thought aimlessly to himself. 'I can't bare to lose her again,
especially if it's permanently.' Jonny tried despertly to
shake off the feeling of dread that hung like a enormous cloud over his
head. 'Better get things moving if this mission is going
to come off as planned.' Jonny turned an entered his quarters again.


New Alliance Base
Reignsberg
5 pm

      Major Rex von Derbstein made his way through the main gate at the
base. It was a miserable day in the foothills of the
mountains. It was drizzling and the wind had picked up since morning
making all personel unlucky enough to be posted
outside extreamly cranky and unpleasent to everyone, including a Major
in the Intelligence Office of the New Alliance. If
they were charged with insuboardination they would at least be thrown in
the brig, thereby being removed from the weather
outside, which was all they really wanted. Rex sympathized with their
situation and let obvious hostility pass without any
reaction from himself. He wanted to get inside as much as the grunts
did, and that was exactly what he was going to do as
soon as possible.

      "Ah, Major von Derbstein! Welcome to Reignsberg, I hope your stay
will be a pleasent one for all involved," the
Commandant of the base greeted him with an air of nervousness.
      Rex smiled trying to ease the commandant's demeanor. "I'm sure it
will, this is just a routine inspection and the boys at
Intel want to get a report on those two prisoners that you captured
recently, just to be on the safe side. Don't worry, there
shouldn't be any problems Commandant Weiss." That seemed to do the
trick, the commandant's manner relaxed
considerably. "Now, on to business. I would like to rest for a couple of
hours and then I would like to see the prisoners.
Can that be arranged?"
      "Of course." The Commandandt motioned to one of the office staff
to join them. "Lt. Emmermann can show where you
are staying, and I'll make the arrangements for the prisoners to be seen
at 8 pm. Is that satisfactory Major?"
      "Perfectly Commandant." Lt. Emmermann escorted Rex out of the
Commandant's office and to his quarters on the
opposite side of  the camp.


Just Outside the base at Reignsberg 
7:50 pm

      The small band of resistance fighers gathered around the insertion
point at the far end of the base perimeter. After a
hard ride from the camp the group of  ten were exhausted but their
bodies were too full of adreniline to take any notice.
Jonny was in command.
       "See that building over there?" He pointed to a long low building
about 50 meters from their current position. Everyone
nodded. "That's were the two cell members are being held. Bryce and
Jessa, take your team and get them out of there as
quickly and as quietly as possible. For some reason the New Alliance
doesn't believe in guarding prisoners that well so you
should have much trouble initially. Don't take any chances though, we
can't fight off a counter attack if we're caught so take
that into consideration. Just go in and get them out of here. Take the
assigned route back to camp and we'll see you there."
He placed a hand on Bryce's shoulder, "Take care of yourselves." Jonny
now turned to the remaining four members of his
own team, which included Mishelle. "We have a different objective. We
are to break inside the Commandant's office and
'liberate' some very sensitive files from his possession." Mishelle
smiled slightly, she always loved covert ops better than
conventional missions. "Mishelle, you'll come inside with me. Isa, you
Peter and Victor act as guards and keep us posted
on what's going on. If there is any indication that the mission is in
danger you are to leave after giving the signal.
Understand?" The remaining three nodded an afirmative to their
commander. "Good, let's go."

      Bryce, Jessa, Travis and the remaining members of the first team
slipped stealthly into the camp and made their way
towards their objective. Jonny, Mishelle and the others slipped in a
moment later and made their way towards the
commandant's office.

      Jonny and Mishelle stood by the filing cabnit in Commandant Weiss'
office. Jonny was flipping through the files quickly
while Mishelle looked around the office nervously waiting for Jonny to
find what he needed. 
      "Hurry up, I've got a bad feeling about this..." Mishelle
whispered hoarsely to her compaion.
      "Shhhhh!" Jonny looked up her annoyed as hell, couldn't she leave
him alone just once? "I'm going as fast as I can."

tap.....tap tap...tap

      The pair froze in their places. That was the clearence signal,
someone was coming and Jonny and Mishelle were now
on their own. The duo ducked quickly behind the filing cabnit, just in
time too.
      The door to Commandant Weiss' office opened and a dark head peared
into the semi-darkness. His eyes scanned the
room. From where Mishelle sat she had an unobstructed view of the man,
and what she saw made her entire body burn
with hatred. Not thinking rationally, going only on an impetuous desire
for revenge, Mishelle eased herself from her and
Jonny's hiding place. Jonny grabed thin air as he lunged to keep her in
her hidden but it was no use, she was already out.

      "Hello my sweet. Come to kill yet another innocent?" she said
icily. Mishelle was the vision of calm on the exterior, on
the interior however she was doing everything in her power not to slice
his throat open right there.
      Rex stood in the doorway dumbfounded. He never thought he would
see his love alive again, and there she was, not
three feet away from him with murder flashing in her gray eyes. "No
Zoya, I'm only doing my duty, there's no personal
feeling involved in my work."
      "Ha! No personal feeling. Didn't it give you great satisfaction
when you poisoned my grandfather, a man who loved you
like a son? And didn't it please you when you bedded his granddaughter
and made her fall in love with you? Or was it all
just part of your duty to an unholy alliance? Tell me, I want to know
exactly what kind of man I'm about to kill since the
one that I thought I knew was obviously a lie."
      "Zoya please..." Rex pleaded with her. "If you kill me the New
Alliance will never let you live, and that means that the
Resistance is doomed. Save yourself, live to fight another day." Rex's
eyes reached out to her soul, she knew he was right.
      "Trying to save my life are we? Well done, you just saved your
own, for the time being that is. That day will come soon
enough, and when it does I'll be there casting your worthless soul into
the pits of damnation like the traitor and murderer
you are." Mishelle snapped her fingers and Jonny appeared from behind
the cabnit, broadsword in hand. "Now step aside
Rex."
      Rex stepped out of the doorway and Jonny and Mishelle began to
move past him slowly. The former lovers kept their
eyes locked, one pair seething with hatred and the other pair not quite
alive. Just as Mishelle passed in front of Rex he
whispered softly so that only she could hear "I'm the one keeping you
alive Zoya."
      A chill crept up Mishelle's spine at the realization, "And I'm the
one keeping you alive Rex, only for the purpose of
killing you later." The corners of her mouth rose in a sneer but before
she could say or do anything more Jonny grabbed her
hand and pulled her running into the hallway. They ran out of the
deserted office and into the cold, wet night with their
objective achieved and a personal vegence sworn.


The two members of Resistance Cell 8 galloped through the dark
trying to get away from the fresh memories of
Reginsberg as fast as possible. Mishelle gripped Travler's reigns
tighter as she entered the clearing behind Jonny. They
hadn't spoken since the base but Mishelle knew that he was very angry
with her.
      Johann dismounted his horse and sat against a large birch tree in
the middle of the clearing. He sat silently for several
minutes, just leaning back against the tree with his eyes closed.
Mishelle watched him closely. He wasn't sleeping, that she
knew, his breathing was too slow. Unlike most people Johann's breathing
rate actually increased while he slept. That was
one of the many things Mishelle had learned by being stuck with him so
many times in the cooler; but up until now this one
particular quirk hadn't made sense to her. Unlike most people, sleep was
not an escape for him. He couldn't rest and be ok
with himself when he woke up. He always had to be doing something,
keeping busy, not letting things get to him. She was
half right, but there was another reason why Johann von Kest hated to
sleep; that's when the dreams would come.
      The peaceful silence of the very early morning was broken by
Johann. "What was that back there?"  He opened his
eyes slowly and peered into hers looking for truth.
      "You don't know what happened do you?" Mishelle smiled inwardly.
Finally, someone who didn't know anything about
that time of her life.
      "I guess I don't, but what ever it was it changed you, and not for
the better. I was genuinely scared back there. Not
about the thought of being killed by that guy but by how you changed
when you spoke to him. You were lifeless, but there
was this deep burning fire coming out of you, directed solely at him.
Now what was going on?"
      Mishelle got off of Travler and sat down across from Johann. She
wrapped her parka tightly around herself and began
the story. "I met Rex von Derbstein the night we were confirmed.
Apparently he was my equal in warrior standing. I was
determined to hate the upstart that I had never heard of but his charm
won me over. I guess that says a lot about my
resolve, doesn't it?" The expression on Jonny's face told her that he
didn't agree. "I fell in love with him. I did. I was totally
gone on this kind, caring, outstanding warrior, and all the while it was
all part of an elaborate plan to take over the Alliance.
He was their henchman, so to speak. He was put into place by some
mysterious council, the same one that rules now, to
infiltrate my good graces and get close to my grandfather. Poor
Grandfather, they wanted him out of the way because he
sensed that something was going on and he would be able to uncover it.
Rex's mission was to kill him, and he did just that,
and then he came back to our bed as though nothing had happened."
      Jonny could see that she was exhausted but knew that she needed to
get all of this out in the open. His heart grew cold
as the image of Rex poisoning Otto took hold in his mind. Jonny made the
decision right there that Mishelle's vengeance
would now be his too. Otto was the closest thing he had ever had to
family and for someone to murder him....
      "I found out about the plan one night, I should have killed him
when I had the chance. Instead I left what I'm sure would
be a very painful reminder of his betrayal, but he doesn't even have the
capacity to feel that. He's a shell, a heartless,
brainless lackey for an unholy power. He has no soul."
      Jonny looked at the woman sitting across from him. Gone was the
exuberant spirit that he had known since he was
fifteen, gone was the fire and hatred that he had witnessed only hours
before, what he saw now was a woman being
consumed from within. "And your becoming like him more quickly than you
realize 'Shelle."
      Mishelle looked at Jonny, more shocked than she had ever been in
her life. Then anger came, "How dare you
compare..." She didn't get to finish her remark.
      "Look inside yourself. Remember how you were when you saw him? Any
semblance you who you are washed away
as soon as you saw him. You are creating your own prison by letting this
take you over."
      "Fine, you're right," she admitted. "So what do you suggest?
Forget that he betrayed me and murdered my
grandfather?"
      "No, of course not. Just share the vengeance. With me."
      Mishelle looked deep into his blue eyes and knew that he meant
what he said, and she knew that he was right. "Ok, but
this doesn't mean that we have to get along, right?"
      "You wouldn't have it any other way," he smiled.  
      The semi-friendliness between the two was broken by the sound of
horses nearby.
      "Shhh," Jonny motioned for Mishelle not to make a sound. He saw
the troops come into the far side of the clearing.
Making a split second decision he grabbed Mishelle, hoisted her onto
Travler and sent them off to escape. Surveying the
ground he then mounted his own horse and rode in the same direction as
Mishelle. He was just in time the soldiers that had
been sent to capture them were gaining ground fast.

      The three soldiers rode through the forest following Jonny and
Mishelle unfortunately they didn't hear Jonny tell
Mishelle before she left to keep her head down as she rode. One of the
soldiers got a shot off his crossbow that caught
Jonny in the shoulder but soon afterward met with a nasty fate. This
forest was used by the Resistance and was booby
trapped in case this type of situation ever arose. Low hanging wires
were strung between trees to decapitate anyone who
didn't know to keep their head down. The first soldier fell off his
horse and the other two didn't have anytime to react
before they met with the same fate. Mishelle stopped and let Jonny catch
up to her.

      An arrow had passed through his shoulder and he was bleeding
fairly heavily. "Jonny, where are we? I need to know to
get you some help." Jonny pulled a tattered map out of his saddle bag. 
      "We're here, about 30 miles from the base,"  he pointed to a
large, dense forest on the map and cringed at the pain.
      "Good, come on. I'm taking you to a healer I know, she's a friend
of Grandmother's and she's loyal to the old Alliance.
She'll be able to help you."