All Together Again
Eddie
Sprinting through the woods, Eddie was oblivious to the two figures coming
behind him. He was intent only on finding a way back to the rest of the
group. If Sredny had kept his promise (He damn well better have!), Eddie knew
that he would find Li back with the rest of the Purple Tower. He knew she
wasn't dead, because he could still function. If she had died while they were
Bonded, he would be a helpless wreck now, wanting only to die. Of course, if
she had died after their Bond was broken...Cursing, Eddie sped up. The dealer
was just over the hill, and he was almost there.
Cresting the hill, he stopped abruptly. He heard from somewhere a beeping.
Spinning his sword out, Eddie whirled around, looking for the source. Agelmar
and Caralaine caught up to him, and were immediately on alert, taking the hint
from him.
"I heard a beeping from somewhere," Eddie explained. "There is is again!"
The beeping came again and Eddie thought it sounded close. "Check your
pocket, human." The voice sounded...amused. What in the hell IS that damn
voice? It helps me, but won't talk to me. Shelving the thoughts for the more
immediate task at hand, Eddie felt at his pockets. There, lying in one of
them, was the comm unit he had thought he gave Li. "How the hell did that get
in there?" he muttered to himself, pulling it out. He affixed it in place,
and hit the "send" button.
"Hap? Haplo? Can you hear me? Hap?" he said into the comm.
"What in the Light is that, lad?" Agelmar said, confused.
"It's a comm unit I thought I had given to Li when we split up. I'm hoping
Haplo, the Head Warder of the Purple Tower, still has the one I gave him."
Eddie explained quickly.
"Haplo? The Haplo?" Agelmar asked, astonished. "He's a part of the
Purple Tower. Wow. I never heard that. Damn. He's a legend."
"Yup. And I'm hoping the "legend" is listening right now. Hap? Youthere?"
Eddie heard nothing but static coming from the comm. He kept trying,
though. It was his only hope. "Hap? Dammit, Hap, answer me!" Then the
static stopped and Eddie heard the welcome voice of his friend come through
loud and clear.
"Eddie? That you, Eddie? We thought ya was dead. Li came back here, in
hysterics, tried to kill the gholam, something about him killing you. Poor
darlin's been crying since then. She thinks you dead, Eddie." A note of
reproach had crept into Hap's voice.
"She's all right then?" Eddie breathed deeply, silently thanking the
Light. "Listen, Hap, I know I screwed up, but I don't know how. Somehow our
Bond got severed, but I'm not sure how. But, that can all wait. Now, I need
to talk to Sredny, please. And keep this on the QT for now. Okay?"
"Sure, Eddie. I'll go get the gholam. Hold on."
Eddie stood there for a few minutes, waiting. He explained to Agelmar and
Caralaine about how his and Li's Bond just hadn't been there all of a sudden,
and that was why he had run off without any warning.
"Eddie? Hey, I got her back here safe and sound. It's not my fault that
she thinks I killed you. She tried to KILL me, Eddie. I can't be held
responsible." The gholam said into Eddie's ear.
"Dammit, Sred, shut up! As long as she is safe, I don't care. Now, I need
you to open up a gateway to get me and some friends back there. Okay?" He
gave the coordinates to the gholam, and a few seconds later, a gateway sliced
through the darkness.
Eddie gave his friends an encouraging look, knowing from experience how
hard it was to leave your life behind. "Come on. We don't bite. You guys
trust me? Then come on."
The three of them stepped through the gateway together and were in a
similar wooded area. Sredny was standing there, as was Haplo and Li and the
rest of the Purple Tower, with a few exceptions. Smiling, Eddie addressed
them. "Hey guys, miss me?"

Sredny
Sredny sat back down. Damn Aiel. What the hell was her problem? Was she
blind, deaf, and stupid? If he hadn't been hurt she'd have never taken him by
surprise. Sredny sat back, idly listenting to the Miaden, Tamamne he heard her
called, being berated. He stretched slightly, went puddelish then reformed.
That helped the wounds a little, but not much.
A little while later and they were off, marching along to the car
dealership. The wolves were still curling there lips at him as well. Patty
came over.
"Alright Sred, the wolves hate you more than typical shadowspawn. Just
why is that? Perhaps if I know we can calm them down, a little at least."
Sredny sighed, and stared at the moon for a moment. "I have of course
not always been a very nice person. Hell I'm not a nice person now. But there
was a time, shortly after I came out of the void between gateways, where I was
even more insane than I am now, and still served the shadow. Wolves being our
enimies, I was given the mission to hunt down and kill as many of them as I
could find. I ripped whole packs apart, killing them, skinning them alive, or
even eating them alive. I did. . .well suffice to say I developed whole new
tortures for the four legged, and adapted some old ones. By the time I was
done, I had cleared all of the Borderlands of wolves, and had moved on to the
lower countries. I met and killed some like yourself, they screamed what i now
know to be parts of my wolf-name. Liquid-Shadow-Death. Wolf-Eater.
Grassburner's Son. apparently it was whole long string of things, emotions,
and from what I gathered from. . .research. . . smells and whatnot. Basically
it all condensed into one name, Plague."
Patty walked beside him silently for aways. Then shook her head. A
slight curl of the lip and snarls from the wolves gave away she was conferring
with them. She looked at him and sighed, then walked away, at a loss for
words. Sredny just nodded slowly, and walked on, trenchcoat billowing in the
wind behind him.
After a while they came to the car dealership. Vree talked with the
owner, who kept giving him looks. Sredny grinned at the man. He bcame even
more befuddled. Soon however everyone was picking out vehicles, mostly big
vans. Sredny began to walk through the lot, looking for something. God he
wished Liagala hadn't shredded his Ferrarri he had loved that car. Still he
looked around, and eventually picked out a Land Rover. He would have preferred
a Hummer, the Greens had made one hell of a vehicle their, but you couldn't
expect a dealership to have Army vehicles. The Land Rover itself was a
pleasent surprise. Sredny pulled out his wallet and grimanced. Even with the
"discount" they were getting, he was running low on cash. And being with these
people would mean he would have to pay. Suddenly he remembered the wallets he
had confiscated during the attack on the White Tower. Many of them had been
shredded by Liagala, but still. . .Grinning he found several intact ones. My,
did the tower pay well. He pocketed the cash, then grabbed one of the credit
cards that didn't have a limit. With luck it hadn't been cancelled yet.
Grinning he payed for and everything pulled off without a hitch. About time.
He threw the card into a bush, then walked over. They drove over to the
Weapons dealership, and almost immeadiatelly Haplo ran over.
"Gholam, talk to Eddie" he said handing him the little radio device.
Sredny started to talk into it, then realized about Lia. Shit. He started
tying to explain it, when Eddie told him to shut up and open a gateway. Sredny
complied, and and Hap had gathered the others. Eddie and company came through.
Lia and Eddie ran to each embraced, and kissed deeply. After a minute or so it
ended, and she gave Eddie a full armed slap. Sredny winced. And backed away.
Sredny walked away for awhile, when he heard a crash in the distance.
Not wishing to face Eddie any sooner than he had too, he rushed on without
alerting anyone. After a few minutes he came across Lia, laying amongst the
trees. She looked at him and smiled.
The world went strange. His mind was shoved to the back and something
else took over. He went cold, but he didn't have the goosebumps meaning a
female was channeling, nor could he feel her embracing sadin. He said
something, he wasn't quite sure what, and brought out both guns. He aimed. .
and fired., hen everything went blakc.
He regained concoiusness few moments later, and was looking into
Haplo's face, with the empty eyes. "Ah Haplo. If you are hearing this then
your little Lia is dead, no longer between us. Apparently even the most
powerful of the mensch's creations cannot resist our power. Don't blame the
gholam, he was just behaving like a nice little puppet. Return to me, andI
will love you as you have not been loved since you left. Farewell dear Haplo."
Awareness returned to Sredny then, and it hit like a hammer.
Haplo stared at him. He rolled, looked. . .and there was Lia. . .
perfectly fine, and staring at him disbelievngly. . .tinged with something
else. . .Sredny turned back to Hap. . .who was also fine. He stared at his
guns. . .and then he remembered. He had remembered enough of the face to know
it was not someone he wanted to kill, and that it was someone in the PT. So
when he got back he had. . .put in blanks. He patted himself down and realized
his daggers were gone too. . .after his firsrt fiasco he had hidden them on
Liagala so he wouldn't lose it and hurt her any more than possible.
Just then everyone else arrived. "Whats going on here?" asked Patty.
"Gholam boy here is possessed by Marit, and just tried to kill
Blayde. I say we kill him to eliminate further problems." Hap was raising a
gun he had aquired and aiming it in his direction. It looked like a grenade
launcher. Sredny looked at it, and something inside him just snapped. Wolves,
Aiel, his Ferrarri, Liagala, Lia. . it all hit him. He just sat down andlaughed.

Jen
Jen was vaguely aware of the flood of emotions racing through and around her.
She was ready to die. But if Mayadi did any harm to her, she could be
effectively persecuted as a Darkfriend and exposed as Black Ajah. Jen didn't
know why that was so high on her priority list--life would go on, time would
still pass, and it didn't matter whether either of them lived or died. The
White Tower would yet stand.
Wouldn't it?
The emotions, the colors--fear, hatred, disdain, contempt, sorrow--all
blue and red and green around her, the stars fading in and out ... dull
neutral wood collided with flashes of silver inside and outside her head. She
had no idea what was going on and hardly cared. The White Tower would yet
stand. It was too powerful, too strong, it could crush the Purple Tower like
such a bothersome insect. The White Tower would yet ...
Awakening, bruised and cold, Jen opened her eyes and flourescent lights
poured into her skull. Quickly she closed them to avoid the pain such
brightness caused. The colors still surrounded her, albeit in a weakened
state, nothing more than minor vestiges about her ears. The cold rolled around
her, waves coming and going and freezing her skin. She knew she was inside,
the faint whirring of a sickly ventilation system reminded her of that. The
only part of her that was not cold, it appeared, was her eyes--they were hot
and pained, the sort of pain acquired from staring at a computer screen too
long. But Jen knew there was no computer involved in this.
She was too aware of every sensation--more than the cold, she was aware
of her chapped lips, tasting like salt; she was aware of the click-clack of
heels in dress shoes on tile; she was aware of hurried voices talking around
her; she was aware of thin flannel sheets and needles poking into her arms;
she was aware of a medicinal odor, so sterile, mingling with acrid bodily
scents ... One of the hurried voices came closer, just as heels on tile
advanced. "Jennaea? Jennaea?" came the pleasant, condescending female voice,
soft like a kindergarten teacher.
She did not respond--whether she was unable to or unwilling to she did
not know.
"Jennaea, it's Miri. Do you remember me?"
She was aware of soft fingers stroking her brow, pushing wisps of sweat-
soaked hair from her face.
"Jennaea, I'm going to call Keneda in. Is that okay?" She was aware.
Miri--that was her name, right?--Miri's voice became harder, more
serious, as she began speaking into what Jen guessed was possibly a walkie-
talkie system: "Keneda, we're encountering a problem here. Need assistance."
"Location?" came the tinny response.
"Cadmium twelve," Miri replied. Her voice became soothing again as she
began to stroke Jen's face. "Don't worry, Keneda'll be here any moment now."
Jen became aware of her breathing, that funny sound made when one
inhales; she became aware of her heart beating within her chest; she became
aware of blood flowing through her veins and arteries, pulsating wildly and
almost painfully. She became aware of her fingers and of Miri's soft humming,
of squeaky carts rolled down hallways just outside this room she was kept in.
Pulsating wildly. Beat. Beat. Breathe.... Beat. Beat. Breathe ...
Moments, yes. Any moment. Those moments passed, and beyond them came a
frantic woman rushing into the room, asking for comments and specifics on the
patient's condition. Patient ...? She felt the cold again, rolling and
rollicking, frigid icy waves around and through her. "Blood and ashes," she
heard the new woman curse softly. "Blood and bloody ashes."
"Is she ...?" Miri asked.
Silence greeted her with open arms. The silver stars lit one by one
inside her skull. They were so beautiful. Frozen, like chilled water on a hot
summer day--though there was no heat to be found, external nor
internal--simply this icy void penetrated momentarily by the passing stars.
They spun around her, whirling clouds of rainbow colors, cutting through the
hardness of her heart and spilling open tens of thousands of beautiful silver
stars. She welcomed them all, each and every one so very beautiful. They raced
towards her, through her, and they collected into a gleaming golden ball, so
golden as to be effectively called white, and it raced at her faster than any
other until it hit her squarely in the-- AIR.
She opened her mouth and gasped for air, she breathed in the sweetness
of it and could feel herself closing up, the stars ... the stars clogged her...
Breathe. Beat. Beat. Breathe. Breathe ....
An exclamation of sheer joy escaped the lips of one of those around her
and filled the air with a glee more profound than anything she thought she'd
experienced. Beat. Beat. Breathe.
She opened her eyes, the gold-white light filling her head. Her eyes
still pained to adjust to the intensity of it all, but adjust they did, ever
so slowly. Speech ... Beat. Beat. Breathe.
Silence filled the room, a cold white silence darker than she'd thought
possible. The tension increased as the short auburn-haired woman simply stared
across the room. To the doorway that Jen--*yes; my name is Jen*--still could
not see. It was finally broken by the icy speech of the woman in the doorway.
"Keneda Tiraz Sedai, I am disappointed in you." Jen knew that voice.
"Mother?" the woman with the auburn hair asked, confused. She's
Keneda, Jen noted mentally, hoping that her poor brain could retain this
information. Beat. Beat. Breathe. Mother? Mayadi?
The woman in the doorway--who had to be Mayadi--stepped into the room.
She was resplendently regal, her head held high, in stole and staff. "Child,"
Mayadi began, "you should know better than this."
"I'm afraid I don't ... I don't understand."
Jen concentrated on her heartbeat. Beat. Beat. Breathe.
"You ought to know that Healing a Darkfriend is forbidden. Forbidden!"
"But, Mother, I ..." Keneda began to protest. Beat. Beat. Breathe.
"If I ever hear another word of you--"
"Mother!" Keneda's voice rang across the tiny room as best it could,
cutting Mayadi off scared. "Mother, I have taken one Oath more besides the
mandatory three. I have promised to help the wounded, to heal them. I
cannot--will not!--sit back and watch another die!"
"Do you dare defy me? I am the Amyrlin Seat!"
"And I am the Yellow Sitter!" Keneda responded in alacrity. "I have a
duty that goes beyond this Tower and its bloody rules!"
Silence. Tension. Pain. "So I see," Mayadi answered coldly. "I will
remember that, child." Her heels could then be heard clicking on the tile.
Walking out. Walking away.
And Jen was all too aware of Keneda's soft sobbing.
Beat. Beat. Breathe....
All too aware.

Kat
The vans rolled up, and tired Nila and Stude were loading themselves in,
Liss and some other Ayenda keeping things organized. Kat yawned. The
bond was nice and everything, but after a few days without sleep one
does get a little drowsy. Then she heard gunshots. Everyone jumped, but
most were too used to this to scream or anything.
Not again, Kat groaned to herself. She ran towards it, and stopped when
she saw Hap, a dazed Lia, and a disoriented Sredny.
"What's going on here?" asked Patty, right behind her.
"Gholam boy here is possessed by Marit, and just tried to kill Blayde. I
say we kill him to eliminate further problems," growled Haplo, raising a
pretty daunting weapon. Sredny looked like he was starting to come to.
The gholam looked at him funny, then fell bonelessly to the ground, laughing.
"Great!" Kat fumed, waving her arms helplessly. "We've got an enraged
Warder with a death wish on an insane Shadowspawn that no one seems to
be able to deal with and some oddball jealous... whatchamacallit, Patryn
gal that's fond of possessing Sredny's body! Can't we all just get
along?!" She shut her mouth, seeing the looks everyone had on their
faces. Haplo held his nuclear warhead limply in one hand, Patty blinked
at her uncertainly, and Lissy was trying to refrain from laughing
hysterically. Sredny was still out of it.
"Damn women," Haplo growled. He flicked some switch on that
scary-looking gun of his and glared at Sredny. "But ah'm not promising
anything, gholam." He fingered his gun again.
Lia, who had her wits about her, thank the Light, walked over to Haplo
and said something to him quietly. His eyes narrowed and he bit
something back to her in reply. Kat took this as her cue to exit and,
with another Ayenda's help, dragged the still-giggling Sredny back to
their temporary base.
Patty groaned and rubbed her temples. "I think it's about time to
leave," she said. "Someone take care of Sredny's car,"-- her tone made
it clear she didn't think he was in the best frame of mind to operate
any machinery at the moment--"gather everyone up, and let's get out of
this bloody forest!"

Patty
There was confusion for a while. People shuffling between cars trying
to get situated. Patty tried to will her headache away. It was like doing
one of those stupid logic problems to try and figure out who shoud travel with
whom. Eddie should be with Liagala, but neither of them could be with Sredny.
For that matter, Sredny couldn't be with Hap, Lia or Tamane either...
The Warders should be farily dispersed between vans, as should Ayenda.
They had to have at least two drivers in each vehicle. At least that wasn't a
problem. Except for the youngest Studè everyone had some experience driving.
That they didn't all have licenses wasn't an issue. Getting pulled over for
driving without a license would be the least of their worries.
Someone was thinking head and managed to scrounge up some more com.
units. This way there'd be communication between vehicles even without the
wolves traveling directly with them. Patty could feel the presence of
Moonlight Dancing in the back of her mind itching to ~go~.
The last door slammed. The last engine roared. They were on the road.
Hap was in the lead with Liagala, Eddie and Mike in his car.
Kat followed driving Sredny's car. Lissy and Sredny were her passangers.
Patty came next in the Brown van. Caralaine rode in the passanger seat
beside her. Agelmar, Liam, Katassa, Rebecca and Danielle were in the back.
Kaitlyn followed driving the Blue van. Tristan, Trace, Rebekka, Kasha,
Jami and Tamane were her passangers.
Vree brought up the rear with Danielle and Timothy in tow.
They wouldn't be able to travel in such an obvious caravan for long.
But at this point, the important thing was that they were moving.

Vree
Vree nodded her satisfaction as Ben pulled her car around. "Wonderful,"
she said, as Ben got cut the engines, got out, and handed her the keys.
Ben nodded, a harried expression on his face as he handed her the legal
papers for the vehicles.
Patty stepped forward, brows furrowing, "How much?" she asked and was
surprised as Vree shoved two automobile deeds into her hands, both with PAID
stamped clearly in fresh, bold, red ink accross the bottom.
Vree shrugged at her inquisitive glance and turned to find Sredny
talking with Ben about a Land Rover. Making her way to Ben she tapped him on
the shoulder. "Just give him half the regular discount," she whispered in his
ear, feeling a bit malicous toward the gholam despite her words to Tamane.
Unlike Patty she had known about Wolf-Eater since Shadow's re-entry into her
world. She had learned of his existence through her childhood with the
wolves. She had learned Sredny's identity since Shadow's return. And she
wasn't so pleased to know of his past. Sredny was a friend, but he'd bare
watching.
She smiled as she watched Sredny whip out a credit card with a Warder's
name she once knew. Damn that Rumic Tanshario, she thought, remembering the jerk
who once lived by that name. Hope the gholam gave him what he deserved.
The car roared to life beneath her, a small shield of protection
springing into being around it, cocooning the car in a comforting embrace.
Vree smiled. Nope, no normal car was this. The car was small, sleek, black,
capable of extremely high speeds and loaded hood to tail with power woven from
both saidin and saidar. All of which was then covered with a weave of
consealment, again woven of both sources. Battle Angel was painted in deep
purple in a small logo beside an elegant tail fin. It had taken Ben nearly a
year to have it finished for her, but then Ben owed her much more than his
life. Lucky for him she wasn't the kind to collect on it. She rolled down
the window, leaning out to say, "Thanks, Ben. We're even."
He raised an eyebrow at that. "You know we're not."
She shrugged, shifting to the car to drive and headed for the end of the
lot.
The sound of an explosion distracted her long enough to pull the car
into an empty space. The sound had come from near the highway so that's where
she'd head. She reached the accident site just as the gun shots were fired.
Vree froze at the edge of the small clearing, listening as the gholam
delivered a message, voice empty and halting.
She listened passively as the Haplo delievered threats, the gholam
literally dissolved helplessly into laughter, and Kat summed up the situation
with a string of griefs.
Patty groaned and rubbed her temples. "I think it's about time to
leave," she said. "Someone take care of Sredny's car,"-- her tone made
it clear she didn't think he was in the best frame of mind to operate
any machinery at the moment--"gather everyone up, and let's get out of
this bloody forest!"
Vree nodded agreement happily. Grabbing Sredny, she managed to get his
keys away from him and tossed them to Lia before heading back to her car.
The group followed, Kat climbing into her car after her. Kat's eyes widened
slightly as the door pulled shut and the protection field sprang into place
but said nothing as they headed for the far end of the lot once again.
Vree was faintly surprised when they pulled to a stop to find a frantic
Ayende prancing around.
"Light! Kat! I- I- thought, you- you..." Larissa threw herself at Kat
as soon as the door opened. "The Bond, I thought, it... it just went away!"
she sobbed, making Vree wonder just how powerful those shields on her car were.
Kat tried her best to calm her companion. "Shush, Lissy, it was still
there. The car dampens it." She threw as speculative glance at Vree, who
shrugged, glancing at the sky in all innocence.
A few of the Ayende looked interested but Vree put an end to their
curiosity--temporarily at least--with a curt order to move their butts into
their prospective vehicles, strap in, and get on the bloody road. Her
patience was wearing thin. She did not like sitting still long enough for her
enemies to close in. And the White Tower right now was definitely her enemy.
Haplo grumbled something unintelligble even to her keen ears and began
passing out guns, knives, and ammunition. Vree pocketed a spare gun and a
number of extra daggers, making them disappear somewhere on her person before
heading back to the car.
She was only mildly surprised as Kat climbed back into her car and
Larissa followed, attempting--foolishly enough--to sit on her Warder's lap
despite the car's low ceiling. Kat cursed, giving her a swift tongue lashing
that send her Ayende scuttling to the cramped spaces of the "back seat."
Really none to speak of, Vree thought sparing a bit of sympathy for the woman
as she pulled her door closed.
Larissa's eyes bulged as she felt saidar spring to life around her but
remained silent.
Vree started the car and the three shot off into the night.

Lissy
Squished in the back seat with Kat, Lissy squirmed around trying to find a place
to put her awkwardly long legs.
"Maybe if you could just....try moving you feet over there will yah, Kat?"she
heard a groan come from Kat
"I can't! Thats where my sword is! I'll cut of my leg!" She sighed" try sticking
you feet out the window Liss."
Liss frowned "I'm not putting my feet out the window! Why don't you put that
blasted sword in the trunk?"
Kat answered sharply "NO! What if I need it? I would be better to have cold feet
than be dead!"
Lissy wine back "Vree! Kat won't put her sword in the trunk and I can't fit back
here with it in the way!" Vree roled her eyes.
Vree answered in a sweet voice, "Now if you two will be quiet and Let Vree drive
this car out of this Light forsaken place she might give you both a purple sucker."
The back set was silent. Vree laughed to herself. Thank the Light! They shut up!
Later down the road they came to a car, a Landcruser, stuck side ways in a
ditch. A tall man, about 6'3", stood cursing(in British mind you!)at it.
"Bloody thing!!!!" Liss, seeing the car and the guy, screamed at Vree to stop.
Thinking it was some life or death thing Vree slammed on the brakes. Liss had
been leaning over the set in front of her and the car stopping threw her over
it. Liss scrambled at the door, opening it and jumping out.
Vree turned to Kat and said in a worried voice "What?!?!What happened?!?!"
Kat groaned and pointed out the window at the man and his car. Kat explained as
they watched Liss run up and hug him. "That's Andrew Stonehelm. Lissy's boyfriend.
Him and his Cloake of Lorien and sword named Gildring." she added "and his 5 o'clock
shadow" Kat laughed to her self to see his Landcruser in a ditch. She sighed
painfully and climbed out of the car. Kat waved to Liss and Andy. "Come on
people we need to get out of here!" Vree leaned out of the car and asked "Are
we taking him with us?" Liss answered "Yah his car is dead in the gutter!"
Grinning Liss and Andy climed into the squished back seat and Kat got up front
with Vree. She gave Vree this don't look back there you might throw up Look
and they went on there way.