He sensed the movement in the air, turned enough to block most of the
blow with his forearm. The end of the stick still caught him above the
right eye with enough force to open a gash and send him to his knees,
his head ringing and his sight wavering. He got a vague impression of
black hair and flashing green eyes beyond the descending slash of the
stick as he crossed his arms in front of his face to take the impact of
the next blow and summoned a rose.

	A wave of dizziness and nausea hit her as she saw the face of the youma
she was attacking.

	*Endymion?!*

	The name came to her from somewhere else. Her body obeyed the commands
of another part of her soul. She couldn't stop her strike, but managed
to redirected it so it missed him. 

	The blow never landed. Endymion took advantage of the miss and cast. He
growled as he saw it hit the youma before him just above the left hip
and summoned another as it stepped back. The stick fell from it's hand
from the impact and the pain. He would kill it for it's sheer audacity
in attacking him, The Chosen Consort of the Dark Queen. The ward that
made it a blur flickered out of existence as the youma bent forward with
pain and pressed both hands to either side of the blossom, her face a
mask of shocked horror.

	"Endymion?" She whispered, her voice full of disbelief and betrayal.

	The part of his soul which kept him from hurting his Princess and the
Senshi took over. He could find no name for this youma that stood before
him, even though he knew he should. The rose fell from his hand as a
gray fog enveloped his mind and body.

	Althea backed away from her brother, moaning "no" over and over. He
couldn't be taken, he was dead...she didn't understand...he sagged
forwards and caught himself on his hands, shaking his head back and
forth as if to clear it. She had to get away...she turned to
Shadow-spawn, flattened to the earth, the net so tight now that he
struggled to breath. The spell of unbinding formed from her outstretched
hand as a rain of gray rose petals and the net dissolved at their touch.
She threw herself onto his back as he surged to his feet and 'blinked'
them away, again and again. This time Althea fled to the far depths of
Aurora's mind of her own choice, unable to accept what had happened to
Endymion as Shadow-spawn took them home as fast as he could.


				***************


	Mender made his rounds, checking on the youma who where healing in the
pools. He kept the High Youma's chamber for last, as always. He knew
Nephlyte had another week, at least, in the healing waters before he
would emerge. Still, it was his duty as Mender to check on them
regularly. He opened the door and his gaze flicked over the beautifully
carved table and chair and the little wardrobe that hugged the far wall,
a stack of neatly folded furs next to it. Althea had refused his offer
of a bed, preferring instead to sleep nestled against Shadow-spawn. He
had dug into his 'dragon hoard' and given her five of the softest and
best furs he could find for her to spread on the floor for their
mattress. The High Youma, out of the pool, dripping wet and leaning
against the wall for support, startled him.

	"Nephlyte! What are you doing? You are not yet healed!" Mender hurried
toward him as he squinted at the wound on the High Youma's chest. No, he
shouldn't be out at all.

	"Where is she?" Nephlyte rumbled at him, the furious fire in his eyes
stopping Mender dead in his tracks.

	"Out hunting with Shadow-spawn," Mender felt a cold knot of fear start
in his gut. "Why? What has happened?"

	Nephlyte shook his head, still groggy and confused. "Something...I
don't know..."

	"Well, now, it can't be anything too terrible. Shadow-spawn exists only
to protect her, and that he will do. So, let me help you back into the
pool and I will go and find them. She probably fell off and bumped her
head, or something similar," Mender knew he was babbling as he
cautiously closed the distance between them but he really wanted to get
Nephlyte back into the pool.

	The High Youma was still very weak and he didn't need him thundering
about attracting undesired attention until he was able to use his powers
to keep both himself and Althea safe.

	"No. Get me some clothes," Nephlyte waved him off as he forced himself
straight and pushed away from the wall.

	"Nephlyte, I really must insist..."

	"Clothes. Now. If you try to put me back in there, I'll kill you," The
words were flat and calm.

	Mender had no doubt that if he did try, Nephlyte, even in this terribly
weakened condition, could and would. He tried a different track of
reasoning, getting desperate.

	"Aurora," he purposefully reminded himself to use her new name, "will
not be happy to see you out and not healed. She wishes to go home and as
you are now you will not be able to take her or even protect her.
Please, return to the pool."

	"When I see for myself that she is all right, then I will consider it.
Now, get me some clothes!"

	Nephlyte knew he would have to return to the waters. The pain from the
wound itself was tolerable, this brittle feeling and light-headed
weakness was not. But he would not go back in until he'd made sure
Aurora was all right. He wondered again what power she held over him,
why her safety overrode all of his instincts for self preservation.  

	Mender 'tsk'-ed to himself, not letting any of his worry for Althea or
Shadow-spawn show as he went to the wardrobe and pulled out the towels
and clothing he had put there in anticipation of the High Youma's
emergence. Well, at least Nephlyte had agreed to return to the pool. Now
all Althea, *Aurora* he reminded himself, had to do was show up
undamaged.

	*Please, Althea, don't be hurt!* he wished he could offer that prayer
to the Light, didn't dare send it into the Darkness.

	Nephlyte made it to the chair and sank down, even those few steps
almost beyond his strength. He growled softly to himself in frustration.
Mender wisely didn't say anything, just set the towels and clothes in
easy reach on the table.

	"I will go and get my healing things while you dress. Please leave the
shirt off so I can get a bandage and some salve on that hole so you
don't do too much damage to what healing you have allowed yourself to
accomplish." With that, he strode from the room.

	Nephlyte grumbled at Mender's insolent scold as he reached for a towel
and began wiping the thick liquid off his body. *Did Mender say she was
with Shadow-spawn?*

	He had a vague recollection of seeing Aurora sleeping against the
horse-youma's side. He shook his head. He must have heard Mender wrong
and that vision come from the delirium of his pain. He started toweling
dry his hair and focused on gathering enough strength to get up and
search for her if she hadn't returned by the time Mender had finished
with him.

	Mender hoped that Aurora would be back by the time he returned with the
supplies, saving him from having to put on a bandage he'd just have to
take right back off. He could have just summoned them to him, but he
wanted the time it would take to walk to his rooms and back.

	*Well,* he thought to himself, *that was one thing that hadn't changed
in the High Youma. He still had Nathan's stubborn temper.*

	He had a hard time keeping his concentration on his doctoring,. He was
beginning to truly worry now. Nephlyte had just finished pulling on his
shirt with a few hisses of pain as the movement pulled at the injury
when a huge booming crash reverberated through the cliff where Mender
had made his home. Shadow-spawn's roaring scream and the bell like
thunder of his hooves echoed through the main hallway for a second, then
disappeared. Mender took a gasping breath as he realized what that
sudden appearance and cut-off of sound meant. He shoved Nephlyte back
against the wall as he flattened himself against it also. 

	*He's 'blinking'? Oh no! Althea!*

	Shadow-spawn appeared, haunches tucked under him and front legs splayed
and ridged as he fought to stop in the small space. He stopped just
short of the wall, his body quivering with strain. Nephlyte
instinctively reached for power that wasn't there yet. He growled in
frustration and hefted the chair in both hands ignoring the yowl of pain
from his chest as he brought it up over his shoulder to fend off the
shadow horse if it should decide to attack. Like the other High Youma,
he had had his own painful run in with Shadow-spawn. The chair fell from
his nerveless fingers as he recognized the form that huddled against the
youma's back.

	"Aurora?" He was at Shadow-spawns side before Mender could move.

	He reached up to pull her down to him. She pulled away from his hands
and huddled closer to the arch of the youma's neck.

	"Wait," Mender told him and touched one of Nephlyte's outstretched arm
gently with one hand as he came up beside him. "Shadow-spawn, if you
would?"

	Nephlyte stepped back with stunned amazement as the youma tucked his
legs and lowered himself carefully to the ground so he would jar his
burden as little as possible. Mender murmured soothing sounds as he
gently untangled Aurora's hands from his mane, then nodded for Nephlyte
to take her off. He knelt next to the youma and carefully lifted her.
She let out a little mew of pain and pressed both hands to the sides of
the rose and kept as curled up as possible as he took her into his arms.
His whole being quivered in anguish at that little sound. He leaned her
back against his chest as her body shuddered with cold and she was
barely conscious from jumping in and out of the nothingness so many
times.

	"Shadow-spawn, move," Mender pushed at the youma's shoulder.

	Shadow-spawn rose and moved his body out of the way but kept his head
hovering close to Aurora as Mender moved to examine his Mistress.

	"Easy, Aurora, easy. Let Mender see," he soothed as he applied gentle
but steady pressure with one hand to her shoulder and the other to her
thigh to get her to uncurl enough so that he could see the injury.

	Nephlyte's face filled with fury as he saw the rose, its stem embedded
all the way to the bloom above her left hip. That was Tuxedo's
trademark, without a doubt. But why was it black? It didn't matter. He
would kill him the next time he saw him. And slowly. This he swore on
the Dark Force he served. Mender's face was calm, but the fury in his
eyes matched Nephlyte's own as he moved her hands to probe the wound.
That brought Aurora back to full consciousness. She pushed at Mender's
hands.

	"Don't, that hurts!" She struggled to sit all the way up. 

	Someone held her back. She glared up, then sighed and relaxed back
against him as she realized who held her.

	"Nephlyte? Oh, thank God!"

	He raised his eyebrows a little, startled at her choice of oaths.

	"Yes, I'm here," he wasn't sure what to do or say to offer her comfort.
"What happened?"

	"This youma just dropped out of the sky and attacked Shadow-spawn while
he was feeding. I couldn't just let him hurt my youma. He's mine!"

	There was a fever bright glaze to her eyes now and heat was radiating
off her. Nephlyte gave Mender a troubled glance as Aurora turned her
head and reached out toward the horse-youma who pressed his soft nose
into her open palm. 

	"This has to come out, Aurora. Now," Mender told them as he frowned at
the rose.

	He could see it's dark magic slowly poisoning her body. Aurora lifted
her head and frowned down at it with him. How could something so simple
as a rose hurt so much?

	"O.K.," she answered in a small voice.

	"Hold her still, Nephlyte. This will hurt. Aurora, lie as straight and
flat as you can."

	"Give me your hands, Aurora," Nephlyte commanded in a gentle voice.

	He took her left one and put it so the palm rested just below her
throat, then wrapped his left arm around her left shoulder and across
her chest to trap it there with his forearm. He just gathered the right
one in his own.

	Mender sat on her legs, just above her knees. "Ready?"

	Aurora took a deep breath, then closed her eyes and nodded. She pressed
back hard against his chest, the fingers of her right hand closing
around his own with almost painful pressure as Mender began to draw the
rose out of her. Tears leaked from the corners of her eyes, yet she
didn't cry out. He was pleased by her courage. Such a brave spirit in
such a little body.

	"Almost out," Nephlyte assured her as he kept his eyes on the rose in
Mender's hands.

	She nodded her head with a quick jerk and then let out a long
shuddering breath as Mender held the rose up and away from her body. It
disappeared into a puff of black smoke. Nephlyte relaxed his grip a
little as the tension left her body and she lay back against him limp.
Only the intense pressure of her fingers around his own let him know
that she was still conscious as Mender moved off her legs. He undid the
side laces to her pants and moved the leather down so he could dress the
wound.

	"Is it serious?" Nephlyte questioned, his eyes showing the worry he
would not let his voice reflect.

	"Serious enough," Mender frowned as he waved at his box of medicines
and bandages on the table. It floated through the air to land by his
side.

	"If..." his words stopped in startlement as the gray rose sparkled into
existence.

	The bloom formed over the wound as the stem molded itself to the curve
of her hip. The leaves grew vine like and wound themselves up and around
her torso, following the path of the poison that was spreading through
her system in the time it took to blink an eye. Nephlyte's growl died
almost before it sounded as one of the vines wrapped itself around his
restraining forearm before he could react. Warm power flowed into him
and he felt some of his strength return. Then the gray rose and it's
vines were gone as quickly as they had appeared. Aurora's fingers
relaxed in his own as she slid into sleep with a soft relieved sigh.

	"What was that?" He questioned softly, more to himself than Mender,
then his eyes narrowed as he became aware of something different about
Aurora. Something that disturbed him greatly.

	Mender grinned, not seeing the shift of emotion in the High Youma's
face, his focus on the wound. It was no longer fresh but showed the
signs of many days healing.

	"A healing spell. Well, well," his pleased chortle was cut off abruptly
as Nephlyte's right hand closed on the front of the apron and shirt
below his neck and yanked him close.

	Mender gave a startled yelp, wondering what had set the High Youma off.

	"Why is she reading as a youma, Mender?" Nephlyte's question was calm
and delivered in an almost friendly tone, yet the rumble under it
promised violence.

	Mender let out a mental sigh of relief as he answered.

	"It is part of her disguise, Nephlyte. I had to hide her somehow. A
Daughter of Man wandering the Mender's house would have raised questions
that others would want answered. Questions that would have led to your
discovery. See for yourself."

	Mender reached a bony finger under the collar of her jacket to pull the
yellow crystal into sight. Nephlyte let him go with a little shove away
as he studied the crystal, then grumbled a few choice curses under his
breath at his weakness. He actually had to take it into his hand to read
it's magic. What Mender had told him was true. He closed his eyes in
relief. The fear-filled thought that Aurora might have fallen into the
Darkness because of him and his weakness had made his very soul hurt.

	Mender chose one of the gentler healing ointments in his case and
started to apply it to the wound with gentle fingers. Aurora tensed and
made a soft mutter of distress as she twitched away from the pain in her
sleep. Nephlyte frowned at him, but he just shrugged.

	"If she were youma, then I could just put her in a pool for a few
hours. But since she's not, this is the best I can do."

	Nephlyte nodded in understanding but was still not pleased. He
remembered Aurora's warm fingers wrapped around his own as he had
drifted in and out of awareness in the pool. How she had run her thumb
gently back and forth against the back of his hand and how that
sensation had soothed him and gave him something to focus on other than
the pain. He copied that motion now with his own thumb against the back
of her hand. He was strangely pleased when it seemed to work and her
body stilled and relaxed, letting Mender continue with his doctoring.

	The realization of how easily she could be hurt and the myriad dangers
his world presented to her body and soul worried at him. He needed to
get her out of here and back to the golden sunshine and gentle rhythms
of Earth before she truly fell into the Darkness.

	"How long have I been in the pool?"

	"Three weeks, four days. And I would guess you still need another five
before you totally regain your strength," Mender cautiously reminded the
High Youma as he finished the bandage and began to lace Aurora's pants
back into place to help hold it snugly in position.

	Nephlyte ignored that last comment. "What has been happening while I
mended?"

	He needed to know everything he could about what was happening in the
Dark Kingdom if he was to have a chance at getting her out safely.
Especially now that he had been labeled 'traitor'. He allowed himself a
grim smile. He had to admit that label fit when his loyalties conflicted
with Aurora's safety.

	"The Great Queen believes you dead. Malachite has assumed your
position. But then again, he is the only one of the Old High Youma left.
The Great Queen moves the Dark Forces in preparation for invasion for
The Dark Presence has told her that it will have enough power soon."

	"Zoicite is dead then?" He asked for confirmation as Mender rose to get
the fur blanket.

	"Yes, struck down by the Great Queen herself in her fury at his attempt
to kill her Chosen Consort. She forbade Malachite to bring Zoicite here.
I heard it took him a full day to die. So instead, Malachite sent a
flood of lesser youma to me as he vented his anger and his grief."

	Mender didn't know that the Rainbow Crystals had been united back into
the Silver Imperium Crystal as the Moon Princess had awakened or that
Endymion was the Queen's Chosen Consort. Or that the other part of the
reason Beryl had killed Zoicite was for allowing that awakening to
happen and had forbidden Malachite to reveal any trace of that knowledge
to the other youma for she feared that it would weaken their wills. His
Gift for Far Seeing had seemingly fled when he had let himself be taken
by the Darkness. The last thing that it had shown him was the
reincarnation of Althea appearing a thousand years later in the Dark
Kingdom with the High Youma who had been Nathan in desperate need of
help. Help that he had given his soul to be there to provide.

	Nephlyte lifted Aurora so Mender could arrange the fur beneath her. He
realized he understood how Malachite must have felt as he began to
understand the bond between the two High Youma that he had always
thought of as nothing but a foolish and shallow affectation. He imagined
he would kill anything in range for quite some time if Aurora died.

	"Tell me about the Chosen Consort," he asked with a touch of curiosity
as he helped wrap the fur around Aurora's cooling body.

	He thought about moving them to the wall so he could lean against it.
Shadow-spawn saw the High Youma shift and straighten uncomfortably. He
sensed Nephlyte's weariness and understood his unwillingness to give up
Aurora's weight against his chest. Nephlyte froze, his eyes narrowed as
the big youma moved toward them. Mender appeared totally unconcerned as
he towered over them for a moment. The horse youma lowered his head to
flick his tongue against Aurora's cheek, then stepped behind him, those
big hooves too close for Nephlyte's comfort. He almost flinched as
Shadow-spawn lowered himself close enough for him to lean back against
his warm side.