Always - Moonbli

13. Betrayal and Ninjas

Moonwatcher

Moon jerked away from Peach's - no, Nightmare's - iron grip in fear. She stumbled against Qibli, who brushed his wing with hers comfortingly and glared at Nightmare. 'What do you want?' he snarled. She laughed. Her voice was smooth and high-pitched.

'Oh, nothing much,' she purred icily.

'Just your lives.'

Moon ducked as the animus made another lunge at her. Her long talons barely missed scraping Moon's snout. 'Stop that!' Qibli lashed out and blocked Nightmare's vicious claws. 'Why do you want to kill us?' he asked, sounding puzzled, like he was asking Webs a question during history back at Jade Mountain Academy.

'Well, considering the fact that you want to kill me, my goal is perfectly understandable,' replied Nightmare charmingly. The gold still glittered on her as she shifted from one talon to another. 'We aren't trying to kill you!' cried Kinkajou.

'You're just trying to get rid of me,' said Nightmare, rolling her eyes. 'Big difference.' 'What did you do to Peach?' asked Qibli, clearly trying to change the subject. 'Oh, I simply put him into a magical coma and left him someplace where you'll never find him,' replied Nightmare, grinning wickedly.

'And then I took his identity for, oh, about three weeks, I suppose. Quite the pleasant companion, isn't he, my dears? Also quite naïve, I'm afraid. Seemed to think I was a visitor, didn't know my real identity at all! A very easy prize. I wonder why you went through so much trouble to find him. Useless, in my opinion.'

Moon kept quiet. This was a dangerous, cruel and deadly enemy - if they weren't careful, then they might just find themselves dead. 'What if we weren't trying to kill - sorry, get rid of you?' asked Turtle sarcastically. Moon looked at him in surprise. He usually wasn't this mouthy.

But the look in his eyes said, Not pure genius - pure panic.

'Well, then I'd spare you long enough to listen to your version of the story,' amended Nightmare. 'But, right now, I've got all the evidence I need, so... goodbye, heroes.' 'Wait!' yelled Qibli, as Nightmare's talons travelled in a deadly arc down to them to deliver a killing blow, deceptively quick.

She paused, annoyed. 'What do you pesky creatures want now?' she grumbled, her talons still at Moon's neck. Moon swallowed but readied her own talons. Qibli's distraction was enough for her to assess the situation, and she was prepared to block the strike.

'What if we were pretending to find you to kill you just so we could join you?' tried Qibli. Moon could see the nervousness in his gaze. She quickly took hold of the idea, grateful for the distraction. 'Yes! What if we were going to join you, but couldn't tell anyone that because they would kill us, and we were just pretending to hunt you down?'

Nightmare looked more and more exasperated by the second. She sighed deeply. 'Well, then I guess you can have a fair trial. After that I'll put an end to your tricks.' She surveyed them critically. 'Actually, I don't know why I'm so worried about you. I doubt you can kill a fly.'

Moon really wished they would stop using the word kill.

'Uh... I guess that's the best we can get,' concluded Kinkajou. Nightmare smirked. 'Yes, little RainWing. You could definitely do a lot worse.' Nightmare turned around and waved a talon at a mirror. Immediately, with a sense of mind-shattering vertigo (which was silly, since Moon had wings) the dark corregidor vanished.

It was replaced by a wide, spacious room full of bright artificial light emanating from no visible light source. They were standing on a fairly sized viewing bridge, halfway between the floor and the domed crystal ceiling. But that wasn't what made Moon gasp in horror.