A tall man dressed in purple stands on top of a tall cliff, moving in a fluid motion that recreates the scene of a duel, placing his boots in the footprints to mimic the way the two men had done fought earlier.

"There was," he pauses to spin around while moving, "a mighty duel here, Jay. It ranged all over" he started to climb up the ruins. "they were both masters."

"Who won? How did it end?" Jay said, curious about what had actually happened before they got there. The man, Prince Fitz, looked down to where the imprint of a body lay in the gravel.

"The loser ran off alone and the winner-" he pointed off in the direction that the man in black had gone in along with Smiity, Tobi, and Grizzy. "followed those footsteps, toward Gilder." his voice grew more and more venomous as he continued to talk.

"Shall we track them both?" Jay asks.

"The loser is nothing to us, only the prince matters." Fitz turned to the men on horses that surrounded the immediate area. "This was clearly all set up by warriors of Gilder, we must be ready for whatever lies ahead."

"Could this be a trap?" Jay asks as Fitz vaults himself onto his horse.

"I think everything could be a trap, which is why I'm still alive." They all start to ride off to where the aforementioned winner had taken off to.

Meanwhile, the man in black was running to where he had seen the prince and that woman last, climbing a steep hill as fast as he could, that was until he got to the top of the hill and saw the prince with a blindfold over his eyes and a knife to his neck, Tobi on the other side of the knife, this made him slow to a stop. There was a picnic set up on a rock held up by some branches that had two goblets and a wine bottle along with a few apples and some bread.

"So, it is down to you," Tobi gestures to the man in black "and it is down to me." she gestures to herself. The man in black starts to walk towards the two on the rock. "If you wish her dead, by all means keep moving forward."

The man in black smiles and raises his hands to the side while still moving forward.

"Let me explain." he says.

"There's nothing to explain, you're trying to kidnap what I've rightfully stolen"

"Perhaps an arrangement can be reached?" he still walks closer even as the knife comes closer and closer to the young boy's neck. Tobi moves a hand to grab the prince's arm and pull him closer to her so that he wouldn't be able to run.

"There will be no arrangement, and you're killing him." as the words were spoken, Tobi pressed the knife into Smiity's throat harder, making him gasp at the pain. The action made the man in black stop dead in his tracks, his smile falling off of his face and lowering his hands.

"Well if there can be no arrangement, then we are at an impasse." The man in black regains his composure and smiles at the woman again.

"I'm afraid so-- I can't compete with you physically and you're no match for my brains." the confidence that came out of her mouth when she spoke those words had the man in black smirking and crossing his arms over his chest.

"You're that smart?"

"Let me put it this way: you eve heard of Plato, Aristotle, Socrates?" she pauses as the man nods his head. "Morons."

"Really? In that case, I challenge you to a battle of wits."

"For the prince?" the woman says and the man tilts his head with a look on his face that suggests he had something much bigger in mind. "to the death?" his head tilts down slightly with a smile on his face. The look makes Tobi pull the knife away from the prince's neck with a smile. "I accept."

"Great, then pour the wine." the man says and moves to sit across from the two on a fallen tree branch as Tobi takes the bottle of wine and pours it into two goblets. The man in front of her reaches into a pocket on his shirt and pulls out a small tube with a removable lid. He used a small stick to lift the top off of the tube and holds it over for Tobi to take. "Smell this, but do not touch." Tobi takes the tube and brings it up to her nose, inhaling whatever it was inside.

"I smell nothing." Tobi says as she hands back the tube making the man in black smile.

"What you do not smell is called iocane powder. It is odorless, tasteless, dissolves instantly in liquid, and is among the more deadly poisons known to man," He explained, Tobi listening intently. The man in black grabs both of the goblets now full with wine and turns so the woman in front of him couldn't see what he was doing to them. When he turns back around, he sets the goblets down and throws the tube of iocane onto the makeshift table showcasing that it's empty with a smile. "All right then: where is the poison? the battle of wits has begun. It ends when you decide where the poison is and we both drink for our goblets, and find out who is right, and who is dead."

"Well this is easy, so very simple," Tobi's smirk is obvious and she looks like she's talking to a child, trying to explain something that they are to young to understand. "All I need to do is devise from what I know about you to decide if you are the type of person to put poison in their own goblet, or their enemy's.

"Now, a clever person would put the poison in their own goblet, because only a great fool would reach for what they are given, now, I am not a great fool, so I can not choose the wine in front of you." The man nodded at the words falling from her lips, following along with every word. "But you must've known that I am not a great fool; you would have counted on it, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of me."

"You've made your decision then?" The man in black asks, a hint of nervousness laced in his tone.

"Not even remotely! Because iocane comes from Australia, as everyone knows, and Australia is full of criminals, and criminals are used to having people not trust them, as you are not trusted by me. So clearly, I can not drink from the wine in front of you."

"You have a truly dizzying intellect." The.man's hand was pressed up to his mouth in a thinking position.

"Wait till I get going! Where was I?"

"Australia."

"Right, Australia. And you must've suspected that I knew the powder's origin, so I cannot choose the wine in front of me." She leans back to watch the man in black's face, waiting for him to say something.

"You're just stalling now." He still has a smile on his face despite the nervousness shaking his voice. Tobi only cackles.

"You'd like to think that, wouldn't you?" She leans forward to look at the man in his blue-green eyes, staring him down. "You beat my giant, so you must be exceptionally strong, which means you could have put the poison in your own goblet, relying on your strength to save you, so I can not drink from the wine in front of you. But you also bested my Italian, which means you must've studied, and in studying you must have learned that man is mortal, so you would've put the poison as far away from yourself as possible, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of me."

"You trying to trick me into giving something away, it's not going to work." The man in black was trying his hardest to keep his impatience under wraps.

"It has worked! You've given everything away! I know where the poison is!"

"Then make your choice"

"I will, I choose-" She stops and gasps, pointing off in the direction behind the man in black. "What in the world could that be?!"

"What, where?" The man turns, allowing the woman before him time to switch the goblets on the table, placing the one that was originally in front of her in front of the man and vice-versa. She moves her hands back to where they were as soon as the man turns back to her. "I don't see anything."

"Oh, really, I could have sworn that I saw something. No matter." She starts to giggle slightly, making the man in black tilt his head and slim his eyes with apprehension.

"What's so funny?"

"I'll tell you in a minute." She waves off the question. "First, let's drink: me from my glass, and you from yours!" She picks up her goblet and holds it up, waiting for the man to grab his. When he does, she smiles and lifts her goblet higher and brings it back to her mouth only when he has lifted his goblet to his lips. They both put the goblets back down and the man in black smirks knowingly.

"You guessed wrong." Tobi smiles widely at this remark, laughter bubbling up in her

"You only think I guessed wrong! That's what's so funny! I switched goblets while your back was turned." the man keeps the smile on his face despite the words just said. "You fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The most famous one is 'never get involved in a land war in Asia." but only slightly less unknown is this: 'Never go against a New Zealander when death is on the line.'!" She continues to laugh heartily, that is until she freezes mid laugh and her eyes gloss over, her body falling to the floor beside her seat. The man smiles and stands up, walking over to the prince and undoing his mask.

"Who are you?" Smiity asks, startled that it was the nameless man who had won the battle of wits and not the woman beside him, now on the ground. The man before him starts to undo the binding that held his hands together.

"I am no one to be trifled with, that is all you need know." The man in black says, not looking up to meet the prince's eyes.

"To think, all that time it was your cup that was poisoned." Smiity said, looking at the set up on the table before them. The man finished with untying the knots in the ropes around the prince's hands, taking his hands into his own and pulling up the brunette up to a standing position.

"They were both poisoned. I spent the last few years building up an immunity to iocane powder." And with that, he lets go of one of his hands and pulls him away, down the mountain.

Further behind the two running off, Fitz stood looking at the scene of where the man in black had fought Grizzy. He examines the floor and declares: "Someone has beaten a giant! There will be great suffering in Gilder if Smiity dies!" he leaps onto his horse and the take off in the direction of Gilder.

The man in black and the prince race across a large stretch of rocky terrain, Smiity still being pulled along, though he is starting to stumble and stagger, but the man does not let up. then suddenly, he stops and thrusts the exhausted prince onto a nearby boulder.

"Catch your breath." His voice is laced with venom, an underlying threat of harm if he tried anything gracing his voice.

"If you release me- whatever you ask for ransom- you'll get it, I promise you..." the prince has to take breaths in between words, not used to running for so long. The man laughs at the words.

"And what is that worth, the promise of a prince? You're very funny, Highness."

"I was giving you a chance. No matter where you take me... there is no greater hunter than Prince Fitz. He could track a falcon on a cloudy day. He can find you."

"You think your dearest love will come and save you?" The man in black mocked her.

"I never said he was my dearest love, and yes, he will save me." His voice showed no fear, even though he had every right to be terrified.

"You admit that you do not love your fiancé?" The man in black asks.

"He knows I do not love him."

"Are not capable of love is what you mean." The man starts to take small steps toward the prince, who moves to stand with fire in his eyes, obviously mad now.

"I have loved more deeply than a killer like yourself could ever dream-" He's cut off when the man in black raises his hand to slap him across his face, only stopping his hand right before he gets to touch the prince's face.

"Take this as a warning, Highness. Where I come from there are penalties when a boy like you lies." His tone was harsh and venomous, he was threatening the man he had just saved. He takes the prince's hand again, pulling him off in the same direction that they were already traveling in.

At the scene of the picnic, Prince Fitz assesses what has happened, picking up the tube that was left on the table. He lifts it up to his nose and inhales whatever was in it.

"Iocane. I'd bet my life on it." He moves to stand as he looks over to where the there were two sets of footprints. "And there are the prince's footprints, he is alive...or he was an hour ago. If he is otherwise when I find him, I shall be very put out."

He jumps onto his horse and starts to ride off with the rest of the men in his group following him.

The man in black shoves the young prince down to rest on a rock at the top of a steep ravine.

"Rest, Highness." Is all he says as he puts his hands on his hips.

"I know who you are- your cruelty reveals everything." The man just looks at Smiity with a raised eyebrow. "You're the Dread Pirate Notorious; admit it!" The man smiles and takes a bow.

"With pride. What can I do for you?" The man, Pirate Notorious, smiles proudly.

"You can die slowly, cut up into a thousand pieces." Smiity's words and eyes show his hatred for the man before him. Notorious only shakes his head making a "tch" noice.

"Hardly complimentary, Your Highness. Why loose your venom on me?"

"You killed my love." The brunette's voice is quieter now, his eyes glossy like he was about to cry. The taller man watched the prince closely as he moved to sit down on a nearby tree branch.

"It's possible; I kill a lot of people. Who was this love of yours? Another prince like this one, ugly, rich, and snotty?" Smiity's head snapped to look at the Dread Pirate Notorious.

"No. A farm boy. Poor. Poor and perfect, with eyes like the sea after a storm," His voice becomes weaker as he remembers John, tears welling in his eyes, but before they can spill onto his cheeks, Smiity wiped his eyes. "On the high seas your ship attacked, and the Dread Pirate Notorious never takes prisoners."

"I can't afford to make any exceptions. Once word gets out that a pirate has gone soft people begin to disobey you, and then it's nothing but work, work, work all the time." The pirate jokes.

"You mock my pain!"

"Life is pain, Highness! Anyone who says differently is selling something." The prince looks away and the pirate gets up from where he was seated. "I remember this farm boy of yours, I think. this would be, what, five years ago?" Smiity nods. "Does it bother you to hear?"

"Nothing you say can upset me."

"He died well, that should please you. No bribe attempts or blubbering. He simply said 'Please. Please I need to live.' It was the 'please' that caught my memory. I asked him what was so important for him. "True love," he replied. And then he spoke of a boy of surpassing beauty and faithfulness, I can only assume he meant you. You should bless me for destroying him before he found out what you truly are."

"And what am I?" The tears had returned to the prince's eyes upon hearing how his love had died and how he spoke of him. He stood to face the Pirate who had spoken bad about him.

"Faithfulness he talked of, Highness, you're enduring faithfulness! Now tell me truly, when you found out was gone did you get engaged to your prince that very same hour or did you wait a week out of respect for the dead?" His voice was getting louder and more spiteful, like he had a personal hate for the prince.

"You mocked me once, never do it again! I died that day!" Smiity's voice, too, was getting louder. The pirate went to respond but out of the corner of his eye he spotted a cloud of dust starting to form, and from the dust emerged Prince Fitz on his horse with his men following. "And you can die too, for all I care."

With that, the prince shoves the pirate down into the steep ravine, him rolling and tumbling down.

"AS.....YOU.....WISH!" The man shouts as he falls, making Smiity's eyes widen.

"Oh my sweet John; what have I done?" he says to himself and goes to start running down the slope, but he trips over his long red robe and starts to tumble down the ravine. The prince looks down at where the two once were with a confused look.

"They disappeared. He must've seen us closing in, which might account for his panicking in error. Unless I'm wrong, and I am never wrong, they are headed straight into the Fire Swamp." The very mention of the name makes both Jay's and Fitz's face pale.

At the bottom of the ravine, there are two people, one in all black and one in all red. The man in black's mask has fallen off from rolling, revealing his brown hair that was pulled back into a small ponytail. He crawled over to where the prince was laying and put his hand under his head to lift him up, holding himself over the younger boy with a smile. Smiity's eyes light up when he sees the face of the man he had fallen in love with all those years ago. The face of the man he thought to be dead for all this time. The face of John.

"Can you move at all?" John asks.

"Move? You're alive! If you want I could fly!" Smiity answers as John pulls him into a tight hug and a feeling sparks in both of them, one that they never thought either of them would feel again.

"I told you I would always come for you. Why didn't you wait for me?" John asked as he pulled away from the hug to look into his love's eyes.

"Well...you were dead." Smiity smiled slightly.

"Death cannot stop true love, all it can do is delay it for a while" They both smiled at that.

"I will never doubt again." His voice is softer, only allowing John to hear the words, only wanting John to hear the words.

"There will never be a need." John's voice is also quiet. After a beat the two start to lean in, pressing their lips together in a tender and gentle kiss, both of them trying to convey enormous amounts of emotions through one simple gesture of affection. And though they didn't want to, they had to pull away, but for a moment they just stared at each other, not wanting the moment to end. They're interrupted by the sounds of horses.

"We have to get moving." John says and stands up, holding his hand out to Smiity, who takes it graciously, allowing himself to be pulled to his feet. They start to run across the ravine floor, making their way closer and closer to a large grouping of trees; the Fire Swamp. John glances up to the top of the ravine where Fitz and his men stand on their horses. "Ha. Your pig fiancé is too late, a few more steps and we'll be safe in the Fire Swamp."

"We'll never survive." Smiity comments.

"Nonsense, you're only saying that 'cause no one ever has." John says as they take their first few steps into the swamp that could possibly take their lives, Smiity hanging off of John's arms. "It's not that bad," John says, and his lover turns to look at him with a bewildered look. "I'm not saying I'd want to build a summer home here, but the trees are actually quite lovely."

They continue to make their way into the swamp, passing large tree trunks and many vines. Suddenly they hear a loud popping noise, it sounds like it's coming closer to them. They look at each other but continue onwards, that is, until a large spurt of flames erupts from the ground, missing John but catching part of Smiity's robes on fire causing the young man to panic. John quickly grabs Smiity by the waist and forces him to sit, taking the part of the robes that was on fire and does his best to suffocate the flame. He eventually manages to get the flame to go out and proceeds to take Smiity's hands and stands.

"Well now, that was an adventure. Singed a bit, were you?" Smiity shakes his head 'no' as an answer to John's question.

"You?" He asks in return. John shakes his head