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They will try to stop you.

Shun furrowed his brow, watching Chel carefully as he heard her speaking. It was a one sided conversation he was hearing, but it sounded as though she was considering whatever Merlin was offering. He relaxed slightly when he heard she wasn't going to fight them.

...Assuming 'them' meant the rest of the knights in here.

He turned back towards the throne and the figure, drawing out his weapons. Caution was going to be needed.

"Enough of your parlor tricks."

Chris ground his teeth. He saw himself on the throne, at first, but it wasn't hard to guess what was really going on. He could read Chel's face like a book, and clearly Shun was just as privy to the dangerous line she was skipping.

He grabbed Chel's wrist, not a restraining grip but a grounding one - seeking her attention. "What are you doing?"

The figure sitting on the throne disappeared in a whirlwind of robes, leaving the throne empty, but that seemed more threatening now. An empty seat of power, looming over them.

Chel immediately pulled her wrist from Chris' hand, giving him a fierce look of defiance. Caging was the last way to get her to respond positively.

"What?" The question instead went to Jack, whom she could barely look in the eyes. A lot had happened in that crystal stasis.

A lot.

The throne was empty and Chel took a single step towards it, testing the waters of everyone's reaction. "Why not take it for our own?" she questioned the others. "'Fore you say I'm crazy- any of you got a better plan towards stoppin' the darkness that don't involve offin' yourself?"

[enter]

She stumbled her way through the castle as awkwardly as a newborn calf in the fields. This wasn't where she should be, she knew. No, someone like Piper should have died already, whatever her battle ready smiles might have suggested. The only memory she remembered was one of desperate thievery, a lowlife with no place in any society.

(So why had she chosen knighthood at all, then? For purpose or—)

She eyed the throne with the rest, the hooded Great Knight a strangely terrifying figure despite being fully cloaked. Her own face stared back at her suddenly, and the conversation was lost on her for a few moments. The decor was ghastly, but...She remember her dream of ascending. Not just the title, but the position's sway, the means, the attention, the meaning of finding a place for herself. What if all this time she had become a knight because it was a chance to be greater than herself?

Not nobler. Greater. (Not purpose, but power.)

It wasn't without some backing. She held her sacred weapon, she'd slain a great many beasts. Yes she wasn't a Great Knight, but sacrificing herself for others was just stupidity. What if taking the throne was a better way? What if she could be someone worth remembering, the one who turned the tides in this blasted damn war?

Piper watched the throne with hungry eyes as she thought, barely listening.

Maybe it was stupid... actually it very likely was one of the most stupid things Caoin had ever did in her life, but after following the others into the throne room she moved forward, joining the group and watching..

What in the world was going on. It seemed that the one that had been in the room had been waiting for one individual in particular, and upon them getting there things had gone very badly awry. Now there was someone on the throne and she had no idea why.

"Um... you know.. or maybe you don't know, but being there isn't likely to be a good thing. Power corrupts.. and I think this whole room, no the whole castle is in the midst of proving that."

She pulled her bow from her back, Lady Woe fitting in her hand as if it should always be there, and set an arrow to the string. Her aim though was on the throne itself. She knew deep in her heart that there was none among them that should sit there, perhaps the best idea was to put an arrow into the temptation, and perhaps wake the others.

Not even waiting she let the arrow fly..

"Are you going to shoot everythin' that scares you?" she asked Caoin idly.

She crossed her arms, looking at the others. What she saw wasn't logic, it was fear of the unknown. Another step towards the chair. "You see someone of trickery, but I see a ******** who made off for himself while the others all died." She seemed very keen to remind them all of that fact. "How is it any different than what you're doin' huh?"

She addressed Shun and Jack specifically now. "You both sacrificed yer lives because Lancelot said it would fix things." She did the same, but that only further emphasized her point. "I want the same things you do. I didn't get fancy knighthood. I want to help." That was at the core of her being. The throne and power were secondary to her aim; so what if she wanted a little payment for saving the world on top of it all? Was it so wrong to want credit? Want security? Power? Why did they all have to be selfless, giving saps?

"If they puppet me, kill me," she said shortly to Jack. "But you've got to let me try."

"You can't help if you die," Jack said quietly. The look in his eyes said it all, as it always seemed to in every universe: the visions had affected him greatly. In those, they had some semblance of happiness. Here...Here, he had to be a hypocrite: someone who had signed away his life just to tell someone else not to do the same. But Lancelot's cause was true; they knew nothing of Merlin's.

He set his jaw. "I'll fight to live if you will." A perhaps useless promise if she couldn't care less what he did with his life now, but every little thing counted. If they as a group could convince her, he'd call it a success. "Maybe there is a way."

I don't want to have to kill you too.