Will stared across his room blankly. He had no direction, no will to get up and do anything. The world seemed to have stopped with Alyss' death. There was a vague sort of anger in his peripheral, a hatred toward Morgan, but he couldn't seem to get beyond the fact that his wife was gone. Any moment he expected her to walk through the door, chiding him for lazing about when there were things that needed doing.

His gaze flicked to the closed door as if she would step through it. There was nothing but darkness, quiet, and a complete sense of loss. His eyes went back to the wall, he let the tears make silent trails down his cheeks.

The door opened, not slowly in respect of the grieving Ranger, but all at once so it bounced against the wall with a thumping sound. "I realize how aggrieved you are, Will, but we do have need of you and Alyss wouldn't want you wallowing in such a way. Araluen has need of your skills."

"Go away, Crowley, I'm not in the mood for your unflappable cheer," he grumbled while brushing away the tears that still clung to his face.

The Ranger Commandant dropped into the chair nearest Will with a sigh. "We all miss her. Alyss was undeniably a bright light that should never have been doused. However, you have the Corps counting on you, the kingdom, and a daughter who misses her mother as much as you do."

With a groan, Will covered his face with his hands. "I sunk into my grief without even a thought for Deva. What kind of father does that make me?"

Crowley chuckled quietly. "It makes you nothing more than a mortal man capable of being flawed. It's time to move forward. You know that."

Will sat back, staring at Crowley. What would any of them do without Crowley hanging about to dispense wisdom? He was undeniably perfect for the position he held. "Thank you, Crowley." He rose from his seat and started for the door.

"I wouldn't be too hard on yourself, Will." Crowley paused for a fraction of a second before he continued. "Or on Deva. Grief can make people act out of character."

He turned slowly to face Crowley. "And what precisely has my daughter done?"

Crowley waved a hand in the air indicating a very vague recollection of the events. "Can't quite recall at the moment."

Will spun and stalked from the room to find his daughter. He found her in short order, hanging about with Mitchell in the rear gardens. "Deva Jubilee Treaty, what on earth have you done now, young lady?"

Deva stared at her father wide-eyed and leaned slightly closer to Mitchell, hoping for some support from him. "What are you talking about?"

He came to a stop in front of the two of them, glowering darkly, arms folded over his chest. "Crowley mentioned something about you getting into mischief while I was ... indisposed."

She rolled her eyes. "It was nothing, Dad, honest. A slight misunderstanding, nothing more. Holly ..."

"Holly!" he roared. "I should have known she would be involved."

"Dad, stop it! We only went to try and find any information on Morgan. To try and discover if he's still holed up in the mountains or if he's on the move. We didn't go far."

Will deflated slightly. "And that's all?" She hesitated and Will's look darkened. "Deva."

"Okay, well, there may have been a tiny fire at the inn we stayed at. It wasn't our fault though! We were being followed and it was just the quickest way to cause a commotion so we could slip away!"

"You set fire to an inn!" he bellowed.

"To be fair, sir, Logan and I were also involved. You shouldn't blame only them," Mitchell added.

Will turned his angry glare on Mitchell. "And yet you allowed her to do this?"

Mitchell swallowed hard and nodded. "You of all people should know that stopping Deva or Holly from doing something once they set their mind to doing it is impossible."

Will opened his mouth to speak, stopped and snapped it shut. Mitchell had a point. Deva was stubborn and trying to stop her when she was set on something was an impossible task. Partner that with Holly's stubbornness and the boys wouldn't have had a chance at stopping them. All they could have done was follow along and make certain neither girl came to any harm.

With a grunt he looked at the two of them. "Stay out of any further trouble, is that understood? And no more blasted fires!"

Before Deva could respond he turned and stomped off. She looked at Mitchell. "Well at least he isn't locked in his room any longer."

Mitchell pulled her close, tucking her head beneath his chin and holding her. "We'll work it all out, don't worry. It may never be fine, but it will get better. I promise."

She snuggled closer to Mitchell, rubbing her cheek against his chest. If he hadn't been by her side these past few weeks she'd have lost her mind. He'd been there for her, held her while she cried, listened to her rant and rave about Morgan, and sat in silence when she didn't need or want words.

"I want to thank you for everything, Mitchell."

"I'll be here for you whenever you need it. Always."

Logan and Holly appeared, sprinting over to them and came to a skidding halt. Holly sucked in a quick breath before speaking. "He's on the way here! There was a report from the scouts that Morgan and a small band of men are heading this way!"

Mitchell sent her a confused look. "He isn't bringing his army? What can he hope to accomplish without his army backing him?"

"Perhaps to ascertain how Alyss' death has not only affected Will, but the rest of us as well. Maybe he thinks Will is going to be so broken up he'll just turn himself over to Morgan and his men."

"My father would never do that," Deva answered. "If that's what Morgan expects then he's sorely overestimated his effect on the world around him."

Holly grinned. "So, let's negate his effect, shall we?"

Mitchell rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. "Does this negating effect stuff involve fire by any chance?"

"If we're lucky it will!" Holly answered cheerfully.

"My father has explicitly expressed his wish that we set no more fires. He was rather specific about it," Deva told her.

"Well, darn it all." Holly flapped a hand in the air. "No matter. He'll forget eventually. We'll just have to wait it out and in the meantime, we have an evil, egotistical overlord to dispense with!" She looked at the others expectantly.

"My mother will kill me for agreeing to help with this," Mitchell mumbled.

Logan slapped him on the shoulder. "Come on, I'm fairly certain all of our parents faced down certain death on numerous occasions and yet here we all are!"

Mitchell snorted. "Sure, right. No offense intended, Logan, but at least you have the benefit of not knowing who your father is. You have no idea if he was a crazed maniac seeing out adventure around every bend in the road or he sat behind a desk tallying numbers all day for some lord."

Mitchell glanced at Holly in confusion when she hauled off and slapped Logan on the chest.

Logan cleared his throat. "Right, of course."

"So, we're going after Morgan, right?" Holly asked.

"Yes, I want him to pay for what he did to my family," Deva said.

It was full dark by the time they gathered at the stables. The shadows of twilight were gone and the moon was only a sliver in the sky, keeping their movements hidden from the knights on the castle walls.

Deva spoke quietly to Windy as she saddled the little horse and led him from his stall. The others were doing the same, trying to keep any noise to a minimum as they moved slowly to the gate.

Mitchell spoke quietly to the knights at the gate, convincing them to open the gate and let them out of the castle with some excuse about getting Deva out of the castle for a little bit.

The foursome was busy celebrating their escape, none of them looked back at the castle as they rode away and consequently they didn't spot the two cloaked figures standing on the wall watching them.

Halt sighed heavily and shook his head. "Those four are going to be the death of us, I swear."

Beside him, Will smiled for the first time since Alyss' death. "Yes, but it will be an exciting way to go, don't you think?"

With a shout of laughter, he slapped Will on the back. "Indeed. Come, I suppose we should follow them and make certain they are not also the deaths of themselves."

"Yes, we should, we wouldn't want that to happen. After all, they haven't given us enough gray hairs yet." He glanced at Halt. "Well, at least in my case that's true."

Halt shot him a look but made no comment. It would do no good to give the boy more ammunition. They trudged to the stables to fetch their own mounts and headed after the four apprentices. It was going to be a long night that neither of them were looking forward to.

They knew they had to go because out there in the darkness riding toward danger were their apprentices. Two of which were their daughters. There was also the fact that Cassandra would skin them alive if any harm came to her precious little boy. And Logan ... while he may not have parents who would come for them if he were injured or killed, neither Ranger wished to see the boy harmed. They'd both become rather fond of the boy.

Even if neither would mention it to him out loud.