All the Narnians were called into the room to strategise after the horrible news that the Telmarines had been scouting the ruins. Zola sat on the stairs in between two centaurs, leaning her head on her fists. It was a relief not to be slowed down by pain anymore.

"It's only a matter of time," Said Peter. "Miraz's men and war machines are on their way. That means those same men aren't protecting his castle."

"What do you propose we do, Your Majesty?" Reepicheep asked.

Zola answered instead. "He wants to surprise them. A blitz attack."

Both Peter and Caspian looked at her for her reply, then started talking. "We need to get ready for it." "To start planning for . . ." They said at the same time. It wasn't actually sure to them yet who listened to which title. And when. They stared at each other, daring the other to look away. Eventually, Caspian gave in and nodded.

"Our only hope is to strike them before they strike us." Peter finished.

"But that's crazy. No one has ever taken that castle." Caspian interfered.

"Because of the amount of guards," Zola said. "If they are all here, it should be possible."

Peter gave Caspian a glare. "There's always a first time."

In the short time she knew him, Zola had not seen Peter this agitated by anyone. If she could imagine his thoughts in the slightest, she might even think Peter was jealous that there was another guy being called "Your Majesty". He had been King for many, many years, after all.

Arrogance could be something that ran in their family. Edmund also made a habit of arrogance. Even the way he was currently sitting, slouched against a stone, hands in his lap. He had this constant look of indifference to him.

"We'll have the element of surprise." Trumpkin said to Caspian.

"But we have the advantage here!" He disagreed.

"If we dig in, we could probably hold them off indefinitely." Said Susan as she stepped forward to stand next to Caspian. Caspian seemed surprised that she agreed with him. So far, she was the only one. Peter surely wasn't satisfied with it.

Badger shared his opinion as well. "I, for one, feel safer underground."

"You are a badger." Zola tilted her head at the, sort of, useless opinion. Every badger feels safer underground. They're badgers.

"Look," Peter said to Caspian, more calmly than he had been seeming. "I appreciate what you've done here, but this isn't a fortress. It's a tomb."

Edmund spoke up. "Yes. And if they're smart, the Telmarines will just wait and starve us out."

"We could collect nuts!" Exclaimed Pattertwig the squirrel.

Reepicheep next to him disagreed. "Yes! And throw them at the Telmarines. Shut up! I think you know where I stand, sire."

Peter turned around to the centaur next to Zola. He was their general, she knew. "If I get your troops in, can you handle the guards?"

He spared a glance towards Caspian. When he looked back, a low sound came from his throat in the form of his voice. "Or die trying, my liege."

"That's what I'm worried about," Everyone turned back to the tombstone Lucy sat on. "You're all acting like there's only two options. Dying here, or dying there."

"I'm not sure you've really been listening, Lu." Peter told her.

"No, you're not listening," She replied sternly. "Or have you forgotten who really defeated the White Witch, Peter?"

Zola could see in Peter's eyes that her comment stung. His voice became, not louder, but harsher. "I think we've waited for Aslan long enough." He then walked out of the room without another word.

A little while after the meeting had concluded, Zola had wandered through the tomb in search of an armour. Most were made for other creatures, or men, so they were either tiny, or too big. She'd come upon a chest full of armour used a couple years back, when there was still a use of feathers.

After putting on her protection, Zola came across a hat. It supposedly had belonged to a guard of some sort. Not the fighting type, judging by the hat. It had a red feather attached to it, and when Zola searched further into the chest, she found a matching black and red cloak.

She put both of them on. Zola drowned in the cloak, since it was made for an adult man and she, by far, was not an adult man. In her head, she looked fashionable with her new clothes. She posed before the wall. There was no one there to judge her anyway.

Or so, she thought.

"What are you doing?" Came Edmund's voice from the end of the room.

Zola had been surprised by his presence. She was embarrassed he'd seen her, but pretended not to be. Taking the hat off her head to hold it under her arm, she looked at him. "If you must know, I am staking out fashion disasters. Whoever came up with these uniforms should be in prison for what they did."

Edmund cocked a single eyebrow. "Okay?" He said. The two stared at each other bluntly, Edmund trying to figure out what exactly she was doing, and Zola trying to make him believe she was telling the truth. "Well, uh, Caspian's looking for you. Just thought I'd tell you."

"What does he want?" She asked him. Zola threw the hat back in the chest and started to take her cloak off.

He watched her every move, shrugging. Then, he added. "You could've just told us, you know? What happened, I mean."

"Would you have trusted me if I said I was a Telmarine?" This time, it was Zola who raised her eyebrows.

Edmund thought of his answer for a second. "No," He said. "Then again, I've never said I do."

A playful smile appeared on Zola's mouth. "Is that so? Do you not trust me? Is it because I'm the better swordsman?" As she talked, she walked past him to search for Caspian.

"No."

"Did your father teach you to lie like that? If he did, he did a terrible job."

"And where's your father than?" Edmund retorted. "You talk about upbringing, but you nor Caspian has been taught manners."

Zola stopped walking. She turned to him. "My father is dead, so at least I have an excuse. Where's yours, huh? You've lived a lifetime here already, but you sure haven't gotten wiser because of it."

"You sound like an old married couple." Said Caspian from behind Zola and Edmund. She had been looking for him, but he had been following them.

"If your idea of a married couple is Miraz and Prunaprismia, that is not very good, is it?" Zola turned her head towards him. There wasn't quite a smile on her face, but she was entertained. She knew she could say these things when it came to Caspian, and Edmund was just fun to argue with. He got so riled up easily, it was almost pathetic.

Caspian smiled, shrugging. Zola followed him, while Edmund deliberately walked the other way. "You've been told what to do, have you?" He asked her.

"Get inside through the window in the back, strike down all the guards on duty as fast and soundless as I can. Yes, I have been told." Zola droned on.

"Good, because if we deviate, it's going to fail," He responded. "And if we fail, we die."

"I wasn't planning to die tonight. I don't know about you, but . . ." She joked.

Caspian's voice became more serious. "I'm serious, Fran. I can't have you die twice. You are my sister."

"It's gonna be fine, Cas, don't worry." She reassured him. But she truthfully wasn't sure.

            After Edmund flew (Edmund did not fly himself, a griffin held him) to the castle to overtake the watching guard, he shone a flashlight to alert everyone he'd succeeded. Four more of those griffins, holding the remaining Pevensies (minus Lucy), Caspian and Zola, flew in. The group all landed in different places. Zola landed the closest to Edmund, because she knew which window belonged to her old bedroom.

            She tied one end of a rope around a tower, and the other around her waist. Pulling on it, Zola tested if it would hold her. When she was sure it did, she walked to the edge of the balcony, planting herself on top of it. Edmund watched how she exhaled and told herself: "It's just laws of physics." Zola let herself fall off the balcony.

            She punched through her window with her sword, the window shattering immediately. It was the first time she saw her bedroom since she left. A pool of dried blood lay on the floor. Jameson had been removed from her room. Zola's gaze lingered on the blood, before she carefully stepped out of her room. Slowly, Zola made her way through the castle. By the time bells tolled, she was sure to have killed over three dozen guards. But something had gone wrong, apparently, or otherwise the bells wouldn't have tolled.

            Somewhere a man yelled. "We're under attack!" And Zola was quick to see she was close to the guards their quarters. She ran the other way before any of the guards saw her. Then, it wouldn't have mattered how well–skilled she was, especially once they saw she was covered in their friends' blood. One against hundreds is bound to go wrong.

            The courtyard was the other way, but since Zola couldn't go that way, she had to find a different path. The sounds of soldiers neared. Zola looked behind her, frightened, but was glad to see they weren't yet in the halls. She took a left into the kitchens. She'd found the kitchen empty, which was a luck.

            Not long after, more battling sounds came from the courtyard. This time, Zola was sure it came from the Narnians. Walking through the kitchen, she got to the pantry, then to a small door that lead to the staff's quarters.

            And the staff's quarters were right beside the courtyard.

            She sped up, finding that she could run at full speed again. The door from the staff's quarters to the courtyard was locked. Zola turned around, hoping to find a key, but instead she found women and children sitting silently on the floor. The women covered the eyes of their children, forbidding them to watch Zola. They didn't even recognise her.

            "Where's the key?" She asked.

            One woman pointed to a cabinet attached to the wall. Zola opened it. Inside hung a golden key, she tried it on the door, and heard a click. Zola was ready to run into the courtyard, where the fighting was happening. She could actually see it now. But she turned around instead.

            She smiled at the woman. "Lock the door behind me." The woman nodded rapidly, already standing up. Once she'd reached Zola, Zola rested her index finger against her lips. Sshh was the sound she made.

            And then she could finally run into the courtyard, ready to fight. Minotaurs, centaurs, dwarfs, everyone was fighting the Telmarine soldiers. As she struck down a soldier, Zola tried to scan the crowd of people to spot Caspian. There were too many people to succeed.

            Time moves differently when you're in a battle. It somehow flies by, and you feel like you've only been doing this for five minutes. Yet your body feels like it has been at it for hours. Small cuts from where your opponent struck you start to multiply and quite hurt. As much as the adrenaline is there, you can feel your body suck itself dry of energy. It's tiring and thrilling, all at the same time.

            So Peter surprised her. "Fall back!" He yelled a couple of times. He stood on the stairs leading to Miraz's chambers. Miraz himself was looking out onto the battle from his balcony. It was the first time Zola'd seen him.

            She held his eyes for what felt like eternity. The courtyard slowly emptied out, all the Narnians ran for their life to the gate. They knew if they'd get trapped, they were as good as dead. Zola ran to the gate, but saw, in the corner of her eye, a dwarf. He was alive, but stuck under a giant rock the Telmarines had thrown from the balcony.

            Looking between the dwarf and the minotaur struggling to hold open the gate, Zola thought through her options. She thought she would be able to make it. How heavy can the stone be anyway? As fast as she could, she ran towards the dwarf. It was one she had known ever since she was twelve.

            Zola crouched down beside him. He wasn't badly injured besides the giant rock on top of him. She let her sword fall on the ground, using both hands to try and lift the rock. It was heavy, too heavy.

            "You foolish girl!" The dwarf struggled to say. "Now we're both going to die here."

            "We're not dying," Zola groaned under the weight of the stone. She remembered her conversation with Caspian before coming to Miraz's castle. "At least, I'm not planning to."

            The newfound force of will gave her enough power to hold the stone long enough for the dwarf to crawl out from under it. Once she let go of the stone, she saw he had a wound on his leg.

            "Can you run with that?" She asked him.

            He nodded, and the two started running. After having stepped on his leg twice, the dwarf fell down. He tried getting up, but he couldn't. The wound was worse than he'd anticipated. Zola noticed him not being beside her anymore and looked back. She saw him crawling towards the gate in agony. He would not make it.

            She ran back, swooping him off the floor. With the dwarf in her hands, she ran even harder towards the gate. Arrows swooshed past her every second. The minotaur holding open the gate was already on his knees and shaking. Zola wouldn't give him another minute.

            Just before she could make it to the other side of the gate, the minotaur's legs gave in. He fell down, leaving a split big enough for Reepicheep, but not for Zola. She stood at the gate, eyes swelling with tears as she looked at Peter, who sat on a horse on the other side of the gate.

            His eyes were swelling too. Not just for Zola, but for the many Narnians stuck behind the gate, doomed to die. The Narnians (mostly centaurs) assured Peter that their fight was not yet over and turned back to the fight. They died fighting. Honourably.

Zola turned around, having accepted her fate as well. Just as she did, an arrow meant for her reached the dwarf in her arms in his chest. Blood spilled from her arms, dripping down onto her shoes. Zola looked up to the source of the arrow. Miraz himself held a crossbow in his hand. He looked sorry to have missed her.

            When he turned around to his general, assumably to bark an order to kill her, she took her chance.

Little longer than most chapters. I feel like the banter in this episode was so double–sided, which is so them. It was like 1) I don't really want you here, but 2) I am kinda starting to like you and am looking out for you.