Kidnapped!  

Kayla entered her nephew's temple and looked around. The halls were empty and everything was so still, so quiet. "Hmm, so unusual for the god of Strife," she mumbled.

She kept looking into the empty temple rooms and party halls but nothing was in them but the stillness of silence. "HELLO?!?!" she shouted.

Strife then appeared behind her. "They're gone! All of them! They just disappeared."

"I'd like to know why," she said. "Hon, this is nothing like the temple I visited not long ago. What happened?" she asked.

"They all just disappeared on me. It's too quiet, Someone STOP THE MADNESS!!!!" he screamed. It echoed through his temple and cracked a glass.

Where could everyone be? Kayla asked herself.

"Angie?" He said taking notice of the refugee princess. "It is nice to see you! I am glad Shan let you out of his sight for a moment!" he grumbled, still not over his crush.

"Strife what is going on? I could hear you all the way to Athens!" Ange asked. "I was off to see Grandfather Hades and well...."

"I know I am sorry Angie I don't wanna lose my best friend because of my anger and jealousy for that warlock," the Godling stuttered taking her hands in his.

Ange noticed Kayla and gave a weary smile to her newfound aunt. "Look Hon I wish I could help but I don't know how. I don't believe that Viky, Ems, or even Zyn would leave you behind. Maybe they went to market?"

Strife shook his head. "No they are gone!" he cried. "All gone!"

Just then the door opened and Shan walked in. Angelica smiled at her lover as he wrapped his arms around her waist. "Here you are," he purred. "I was getting worried about you."

"Sure you were," Strife mumbled under his breath.

Kayla looked to the Godling. "They make a perfect couple don't they?"

"As much as Ange is your perfect little niece!" Strife shot at her feeling like she had just stuck a dagger in his heart.

"Angelica will come around Strife! She needs time," Kayla pointed out trying to keep her cool.

"Yeah so how are you gonna help me get my girls back?" Strife asked her.

It was black. The walls were painted black. The floor was black.  Even the ceiling was black. No lanterns or torches illuminated the prison of Strife's priestesses. They were all held separate from one another and chained. No one could tell where they were, or who was next to them. They sat in the darkness and prayed for rescue. Their captor just laughed.

Strife and Kayla waited for days. Yet, only one priestesses ever came: Emily.

"What am I going to do, Aunt Kayla? The priestesses are gone, and I feel like nothing with out their presence," Strife whined.

She gave him a hug. "Don't worry Strife. There'll be a way."

Kayla and Strife continued to wait when Ange came into the room. "Whoo!! Let's par--" She realized there was no one there. "-Tay...Geez. Where's all the life, Strifey?" she asked.

"They're GONE! Can't you see? I don't know where they all are," Strife told her.

"Maybe they're hiding?" Emily suggested.

"Oh really? Where? Huh? Can you name a place where and tell me a reason WHY they've gone?" Strife exploded.

"I don't know, Strife. But If they don't come back soon, we're going to have to close this place or something," Kayla said.

Emily thought for a while, and then thought some more. And then, sat down because her head started to hurt. 'Where could they be?' she thought again. 'I don't know.' She kept thinking, but nothing came to her.

Strife slowly went from panicked, to angry.

'Wow, he's really, really, really worried. Jeez, we'll find them,' thought Emily.

If this was some sort of sick joke on Strife's part, his priestesses sure weren't laughing.

Maggie struggled in vain to make out anything in the dark room. All she managed successfully doing was hurting her eyes. She rubbed her forehead on her arm and sighed. What exactly was going on here? One minute she was sound asleep, the next she had a gag in her mouth, a blindfold on her face, her wrists tied behind her back, and was being chained to a dank wall.

She looked up upon hearing a door open. Someone brought them bread and water every now and then, but their entrance never seemed to let any light into the place. She heard their footsteps getting closer; whoever it was walked with a step and then an odd shuffle, almost like they were limping or lame. They hummed to themselves constantly too, it got to be rather annoying.

However, this visit seemed to be different, there was no distributing of food and their feeder was whispering to himself in a singsong sort of fashion.

"Eeny Meeny Miny Might

Something's going down tonight," they rasped.

"Eeny Meeny Miny Moe

One of you has got to go

You can holler and you can scream

Or you can pretend this is all a dream

Don't matter to me, don't matter at all

But one of you is gonna take a fall

Eeny Meeny Miny Moe

Which little priestess is going to go?"

Maggie shook her head in exasperation. *Ladies and Gentlemen we have a Nutcase* she thought to herself.

"You'll do nicely, pretty pretty," the voice drawled and grabbed at Maggie's chain. The scary thing was, she still couldn't figure out if it was a male or a female speaking.

She felt her chains give way and she was pulled to her feet. She rubbed her sore wrists in the short moment of rest she got before being guided towards a small door.

Even the corridor she was led into was dark. There was no illumination on the wall anywhere.

"Don't fight now," the voice whispered, suddenly transforming from a harsh rasp to a kind, relatively normal tone. "I'm getting you out of here."

"Then why is your hand over my eyes and why were you just rambling like a lunatic?"

"Because I'm going to light a lamp and I can't let you see me. And the bad rhyme thing was just an act, in case there were guards hidden in that place, I couldn't let anyone know I was setting you free. My boss would kill me if he found out."

"Can't imagine why," she snorted.

"Now," he (At least she was pretty sure now it was a he) whispered urgently "I'm going to send you down this water disposal pipe, just hang on for the ride, it should get you far and away from here and you can warn your God."

"Warn him? What do I have to tell him? I don't..."

A scroll was tucked into the back of her coat. "Here."

"...Know anyth-I-I-I-N-N-G-G!!!" she shrieked as she was pushed down the tube.

For minutes she plummeted down the dark shaft, occasionally hitting a wall or two, before landing with a splash in the water-filled pit below.

"Oh gross," she spluttered, wiping the murky water out of her eyes. Well, at least it couldn't get any worse. Just then she realized that there was a steady current, and that it was pulling her towards a bright light.

"I just had to think it, didn't I?" she growled as she was sucked under the water and into the light.

She'd been wandering for what seemed like hours, her feet were sore and blistered and her clothes and hair were still soggy.

As it turned out, whoever had kidnapped them had a pretty big base of operation. After being sucked out the drainage pipe she'd ended up in yet another stream of water, this one slightly cleaner.

The sudden change from complete darkness to complete light had disoriented her and it had taken a while for her eyes to adjust enough for her to see she was riding down an aqueduct. A very, very, big aqueduct. By the time she'd reached the end her vocal chords were raw from keeping up a constant stream of curse words.

She'd stumbled to her feet, dazed, soaked to the skin and shaking like a sapling in the breeze. She had no idea as to where she was so she'd just started walking until she came upon familiar landmarks.

That brought her to now, still wet, still exhausted, and still doing her best to curse.

A gigantic sigh of joy escaped her lips as she pushed past a thick grove of bushes and saw the temple looming before her. Wincing in pain as the scroll prodded her in the back for the umpteenth time, she dragged herself up the steps. The moment she'd slammed the door behind her, she dropped to her knees and curled up into a ball, sobbing in relief.

Strife's priestesses covered their ears in pain. The noise was nearly unbearable. The fact that they could see again was a blessing and a curse.

Sometime after Maggie's daring escape, light suddenly flooded the room in which the priestesses were held. For the first time they could see who was there, and it came as a great shock. They all were. Anyone who was, or ever had been a priestess of Strife was chained, bound, or caged in the large spooky hall (With the exception of those at Strife's temple of course). And having finally collected all of his prizes their captor had revealed himself to them.

And now he was singing.

"Oh if I had the chance I'd ask the world to dance and not be dancing with myseelf! Oh oh uh oh!"

Several of the girls screamed in agony at his horrendous off-key singing.

"Aw, c'mon chicks. I'm telling ya, Billy Idol...he's gonna be big! Jump on my band wagon. And while I mention it there's sumthin' else ya can jump on too," he grinned a malicious grin and laughed a laugh not unlike Strife's.

"Ew! I don't think so" Viky murmured over the din. Unfortunately, he heard her.

He crept close to her and stuck his face right in hers, his breath smelling like fear and loathing. "What does your dear Strifey have that I don't have? Huh?"

For a moment he looked sad. A bit of pity was just about to creep into Viky's mind, when his face regained it's vicious homicidal expression. Pity was buried under fear.

He sensed it and laughed. "You see toots, that's what I do best. I locked you in the dark cuz everybody knows girls are scared of the dark. I kidnapped you to instill terror in your hearts."

Viky couldn't help but blurt out, "So you then subjected us to the scariest thing of all-your singing?"

His eyes narrowed angrily, but it shut him up. He walked away, but left one final remark: "You worshipped him, now you will worship me."

Back at Strife's temple, Ange, Kayla, Ems and Strife discovered Maggie nearly passed out on the doorstep. they bombarded her with the obvious questions of Where? Who? and Why?

Maggie handed Strife the scroll and laid her head on the temple floor.

Strife nearly ripped the scroll in anticipation.

The four girls were silent as he read. Emily finally spoke up. "Well?"

A look of anger crossed the god's pale face. "I know who has them," he said. The scroll burst into flames in his anger until not even ashes remained.

"Deimos."

Zynthiel had been a little startled when the bright light had appeared but only for as long as it took her to realize where she was. Some of the other priestesses looked scared but Zynthiel just glared at the creepy, Strife wannabe dancing with glee in front of them. She winced at the horrible singing but managed not to scream in panic.

If only she had one of her knives...but they were all gone. She tested the chains that bound her to the wall as the blond, Strife look-alike taunted Viky. "What does he have that I don't?" He was asking her.

Where should I begin? Zynthiel thought in disgust.

Where was Strife to rescue them? He was barely around and now when they needed him the most, he was nowhere to be found. She was going to have a few words with him when this was over. They all were. For now, she would keep quiet and look for an opportunity to get out of here somehow.

All of a sudden, looking around at the other priestesses, she realized that Maggie was nowhere in sight. She was pretty sure Maggie had been priestess-napped along with the rest of them but if so, where was she? It wasn't like there were an overwhelming number of priestesses she could be hidden among. So, either, she was being imprisoned separately for some reason or...she had escaped!! In which case, Strife should be blasting the walls down soon. Zynthiel tried hard not to grin at the thought. Maybe there was hope yet.

"Deimos? Who's Deimos?" Emily asked.

"Strife's cousin," Kayla explained.

"Half-wit cousin," Strife corrected. "I think all that dye over the years has finally leeched into his skull, because this has to be the craziest thing he's ever done." Strife paced in a circle around the women, seething with anger. "Did he think I was just gonna let this slide? Please! He knows all I have to do is go crawling over to Ares' and he'll help me out."

"So why don't you?"

"What?"

"Why don't you go over to Ares and let him help you?" Ange asked.

"Oh no. No no no. That's what he wants me to do." Strife chewed on his thumb, lost in thought. "No help from Unc. This time it's personal." He slammed his fist hard into his open palm.

"I'm going with you," Maggie insisted, pushing herself up off the floor.

"Are you kidding me?" Strife snorted, making no move to help her to her feet. "You're exhausted and weak and not five minutes ago were giving the floor tiles a good rinse while huddled in a fetal position."

"Exactly. I've been down a disposal pipe, dumped in a storage pond, shuttled down an aqueduct, forced to stumble aimlessly through the forest, and then surrender what little dignity I have left." She took a calming breath and then grinned maliciously while balling up her fists in front of her. "And I will not feel properly restituted until I go in there and give that guy a good hard punch in the face!"

The other girls took a cautious step back, lest Maggie lose her grip on reality completely.

Strife arched an eyebrow at her for a single superior moment, then put his arm around her shoulders. "You make me so proud," he gushed, faking a sob or two.

"Ow!"

"Shh!"

"Lousy prickers," Maggie muttered.

"Look, either keep your voice down or go back to the temple," Strife hissed. "Deimos will have a field day telling everyone he kidnapped my priestess and managed to catch me before I even got inside the compound."

"There is no way in Tartarus I am going to walk all that way. I've already done it once today, for Zeus' sake."

"Then be quiet!" he growled.

"Somebody certainly got up on the wrong side of the very empty king size bed this morning."

Strife glared at her. "One more word. One more syllable and I might be easily persuaded to let Deimos keep you for the rest of the next fifty seasons."

"I'll be good," Maggie promised, pretending to lock her mouth and throw away the key.

"All right," Strife parted the shrubs in front of him. "There's the castle. The hard part now is how do we get in?" He looked to the priestess for suggestions but she simply shrugged her shoulders innocently and put a finger to her mouth, indicating she couldn't speak.

The Godling narrowed his eyes at her. "Has anyone ever told you how incredibly aggravating you are?"

Maggie just smiled and batted her eyelashes.