Disclaimer:  Almost everyone in here belongs to New Line, TOTHG, et al.  You'll recognize the ones who don't.

Timing:  Late fourth season and not long after 'A (Special) Day in the Life'

Rating:  [PG]

Spoilers:  Man of Vision, Into the Fire, True Spirit, 'Laundry Day', 'Dirty Laundry', Finn, Suspicion, and Heart of the Storm

Thanks:  To Zakiyah and CMS for their excellent and insightful betas!

*****

Crack!

Instantly Finn dropped behind a large boulder for cover.  She'd known for some time that she was being followed.  The creepy-crawly feeling that trailed up her spine all the way to the back of her head was more than enough to tell her that.  The snap of a fallen twig under a heavy foot only confirmed her belief.

She strained her ears for any further sound of her pursuer, but there was nothing.  Even the birds were silent—more proof that something or someone was still out there.  Silently, she drew her crossbow and fitted a bolt to it.  Then she turned carefully and slowly rose to peek around the huge rock.

Too fast for her eyes to follow, a large, scaled shape leapt at her over the boulder, tackling her to the ground and knocking the crossbow from her hand.  It landed in the bushes several feet away, firing wildly off into the underbrush.  Finn cried out sharply as she landed.  Then a swift backhand across her face set her head spinning.  A clawed hand grasped her throat.  She tugged at it ineffectually as sparkling blackness crept in around the edges of her sight.

Deeper into the thick jungle, Roxton heard the commotion.  Damn it! he thought.  This was supposed to be a routine hunting trip!  His rifle in both hands, he turned and ran towards the noise.

It took only a moment for him to assess the situation.  A figure that struck him as oddly familiar loomed over Finn.  The girl struggled, but it was clear she was losing the battle.  "Damn it!" he swore aloud this time.  He couldn't get a clear shot at her assailant.  Instead, Roxton fired into the air and shouted, "Back off!"

The figure froze and turned quickly to face him, but didn't release its hold on Finn's throat.  The look of shock on the attacker's face mirrored Roxton's own.

"Tribune?!" the hunter exclaimed.

The lizardman smiled broadly.  "My dear Roxton!" he exclaimed.  "What a pleasant coincidence.  I was just looking for you."

Roxton looked highly doubtful.  "So you decided that attacking one of my friends would be a good way to go about that?" he demanded angrily.

Tribune looked genuinely surprised.  "Is she one of yours?"  He glanced back down at Finn, whose eyes were beginning to bug out.  "Damn," he muttered wearily.  He released her, and she desperately gasped in air and scrambled away from him.  Tribune shot Roxton a suggestive look.  "A bit young for you, isn't she?" he queried lightly.

Roxton glared at him.  "What are you doing here?" he asked, deflecting Tribune's impertinent question.  "Get deposed again?"

Tribune hissed and bared his teeth mirthlessly.  "No."

On her knees several steps from the lizardman, Finn choked out, "Friend of yours, Roxton?"

Roxton kept his eyes on Tribune as he answered.  "I'm not entirely sure.  Where did we leave off last?"  He knew the answer; he just wanted to make Tribune say the word.

The lizardman knew it and fought back a snarl as he spat out, "Friends."

"You've got a…funny idea of…friends," Finn coughed.

At that moment, a woman emerged from the thick foliage very near to Finn, startling the trio to varying degrees.  She had curly blonde hair and was dressed in boots, loose black pants, and a fitted green tunic that laced on either side.  In one hand she held a freshly killed fowl, and in the other, Finn's crossbow.

"There you are!" she exclaimed when she saw Tribune.  Her tone was scolding as she went on, gesturing at him with the dead bird.  "What do you think you're doing?  I told you I'd find you a snack; you oughtn't to have gone looking for one on your own."  She glanced over at Finn.  "I assume this is yours?"  She held out the crossbow.

Finn rose and grabbed it from her unceremoniously.  "Yeah."  She began to check over the weapon for any possible damage.

The woman with the bird returned her attention to Tribune and was obviously about to rail at him some more when he stopped her with a word.  "Enough.  Is that what you brought me?" he asked disdainfully.  "It's rather small."

"It's more than you deserve."

Roxton couldn't hold it in any longer.  He burst out laughing, garnering a variety of reactions from his companions.  Tribune looked irked.  Finn looked confused.  The woman looked surprised and then ecstatic.

"Roxton!" she cried gleefully.

He caught his breath enough to reply, "Hello, Eula.  Been keeping out of trouble?"

She pursed her lips.  "Hardly."

Before she could launch into a lengthy and likely embarrassing tale, Tribune interrupted her once again, this time with a threatening, low growl.  "Eula…"

The woman promptly lost her flippant attitude.  "Emperor Tribune," she said formally, deferring to his authority.

"I think we can leave the catching up for when we're all fed and comfortably ensconced at the Treehouse."

"Very well."

"Where's your cohort?" he went on in a contemptuous tone.

Eula bit back a sharp remark.  At the same moment, Sennia stepped into view only a few yards from her.  The cinnamon-haired woman was similarly clad to her fellow bodyguard, but in dark blue rather than green, and had a small, neatly trussed wild pig slung casually over her shoulder.  "I'm here," she said evenly.  Turning so she faced away from Tribune, she winked at Eula and went on.  "I have a gift for our hosts."  She presented the pig to Roxton with great ceremony, and he accepted it with equal parts formality and amusement.  He couldn't be positive, but he suspected the boar had originally been intended for Tribune.

"Hang on," protested Finn, looking from Roxton, to the two women, to Tribune, and then back again.  "What the hell makes you think we're taking you back to the Treehouse?  Who the hell are you, anyway?" she demanded.

Tribune only smiled his cold, lipless smile.  It was enough to make the girl back off a step.  "You would be so tasty!" he said with relish.  "Scrawny, but tasty.  Mmm!"

"Tribune…"  Roxton's voice held the same threat the lizardman's had held moments before.

Tribune tilted his head and gave him a disparaging look.  "Protective, aren't you?  I suppose I shouldn't be surprised.  You acted the same way every time I threatened to eat Malone."

"What do you want?" the hunter asked coolly.

"As it turns out, I'm here to do you a favor."

*****

Veronica stood on the balcony and watched the approaching group with mixed feelings.  "We've got company," she called over her shoulder to the other inhabitants of the Treehouse.

"What kind of company?" asked Ned, moving to join her at the balcony railing.

Marguerite didn't look up from the mending she was doing.  "If it isn't Roxton and Finn with fresh meat, I'm not interested."

"Oh it's them with some fresh meat, all right," Veronica confirmed.  She and Ned exchanged concerned glances.  "That and more."

The group below passed inside the protective ring of the electric fence and headed up in the elevator.  It was a tight, uncomfortable fit, but neither Roxton nor Finn was inclined to let their "guests" out of their sight.  They found a cautious welcoming committee waiting for them when they emerged.  Even Marguerite had set aside her mending and watched their arrival dubiously.

"What's he doing here?" asked Veronica coldly, almost before the lift had stopped moving.

Tribune put on a hurt expression.  "My dear, you make me feel unwelcome."

"You are unwelcome."

"He says he's here to do us a favor," interjected Roxton.  He headed toward the kitchen to unload the pig he carried, but Eula quickly caught him and passed him the fowl, too.  He gave her a smile and she returned it slyly.

"And you believe him?" Veronica countered, stunned.

"I think it's worth hearing him out," he called from the kitchen.  As he returned, Roxton looked to Ned.  "Where's Challenger?"

"In his lab," the younger man replied.  "I'll go get him."  He headed quickly down the stairs to Challenger's laboratory.

Without invitation, Tribune made himself comfortable on the couch.

Veronica rounded on him.  "I didn't say you could stay."

The lizardman clucked his tongue at her chidingly.  "All this after we parted on such lovely terms last time."

"Last time," echoed the blonde warily.  "Now should we talk about all the other times?"

Marguerite watched the entire exchange with well-hidden mirth.  She never admitted it to her friends, but despite their earliest unfortunate encounters with the deceptive and manipulative lizardman, she quite enjoyed him.  She found his casual amorality and absolute belief in his own superiority almost comforting and certainly amusing.

She rose.  "Veronica, we might at least hear what he has to say."  She turned an inquiring look on Tribune.  "I presume from the presence of your bodyguards that you're not here on a social visit."  She shot a subtly inquisitive glance at Eula and Sennia, who still stood near the lift.  They both nodded minutely back, and Eula smiled secretively—a sure sign that she had more information to share with Marguerite in private.

Malone rejoined them then with Challenger right behind him.  The explorers chose places around the Treehouse's main room to stand or sit and await Tribune's story.  They all regarded the lizard emperor with varying degrees of suspicion and curiosity.  Neither Finn nor Roxton had put away their weapons, although Roxton had set aside his rifle and instead sat quietly on the edge of the table with his holstered Webleys clearly visible.

Tribune felt ambivalent.  He loved holding court like this, being the center of everyone's attention.  It was no less than his due, after all.  Unfortunately the news he had for them made him feel foolish.  It wasn't a feeling he relished.  He stretched his long arms across the back of the small couch and crossed his legs in a fairly successful attempt to look regal yet nonchalant.

"I had a visit from an old friend of yours the other day," he began.  He was pleased to see the consternation on several of the explorers' faces as they tried to figure out who might be contacting him.  "How easily you humans forget.  I mean Professor Summerlee, of course."

Veronica was the first to react.  Despite her general suspicion of Tribune, she was too excited to hold back.  "You saw Summerlee?  Where?" she demanded eagerly.

This was where Tribune grew less comfortable.  "That's unimportant."

Marguerite's eyes narrowed, but before she could pursue her curiosity Challenger spoke up.

"If you've seen him, why didn't you bring him with you when you came to find us?" the scientist wanted to know.

Tribune visibly clenched his jaw.  He had the feeling he wasn't going to get around this point easily.  "He wasn't in a position to accompany me," he replied coldly.

It was Ned's turn to show his concern.  "Is he all right?  Where is he?"

"If you would all cease your irritating questions," snarled Tribune, "I might be able to tell you what you actually need to know."  He glared at Ned particularly.  "I've always regretted not eating you the first time we met.  I really should rectify that one of these days."

The reporter stood up straighter under his chilly gaze.  "I wouldn't taste good," he answered evenly.  "I've gotten tougher since the last time we met."

Finn watched all this interplay impatiently, occasionally rubbing tenderly at her bruised throat.  "He doesn't know where Summerlee is," she stated unequivocally.  "If he did, he'd have said by now.  He's hiding something."

"My thoughts exactly," smiled Marguerite coolly.  She was pleased with Finn's observation.  Her initial annoyance at the girl's abrupt inclusion in their lives had tempered into a sort of distant mentorship.  Finn had qualities Marguerite appreciated and she tried to help the girl temper and hone them, but never blatantly.  She suspected Finn would resist if she were too obvious in her tutelage.

Veronica turned on Tribune.  "You said he visited you," she reminded him accusingly.

Tribune gave a long-suffering sigh.  "He did…in a dream," he finally admitted with the greatest reluctance.  To his amazement, his revelation didn't garner him the scoffs and condescending laughter he'd expected.  He had been certain this information would have the humans arguing with and challenging him.  Instead, they all looked thoughtful—except for Finn who looked more bored than anything else.  "You don't seem overly surprised," Tribune said cautiously.

It was Challenger who answered after a brief glance at Ned.  "We're not.  Communication with Summerlee and with…others not physically present hasn't been completely impossible over the past three years."

"Now you tell me!" exclaimed Tribune in annoyance.  He rose abruptly and stalked back and forth over what little open space was left in the room.  "Why you didn't see fit to mention this before escapes me!"

"When would we have told you?" asked Marguerite sensibly.

"And why would we have told you?" added Veronica.

Tribune ignored them both.  He stopped pacing and faced them all.  "Six nights ago Summerlee spoke to me in a dream," he began.  "I thought it odd at the time, but unimportant.  A lizard's dreams can be quite complex and perplexing."

"What a surprise," commented Veronica wryly, and not quite under her breath.

"I thought no more about it, until it happened again the next night, and the next.  Each time his manner became more insistent.  He said I needed to find you and help you to find him.  And…"  Here he hesitated, once again certain they would think he was mad.  As off-handedly as he could, he continued.  "…something about a hat."

To his increased consternation, the explorers only looked at one another—not as if they thought he was mad, but as if they knew something he didn't, which was even more irritating.

"What?" demanded Tribune.  He eyed each of them individually, hoping one would crack under his gaze—a gaze that had broken the will of so many lesser beings.  They didn't even flinch.  I'm losing my touch, he thought, annoyed.  "All right," he went on when no one answered him right away.  He turned to his bodyguards.  "We're going."

Eula hesitated for a brief second, her eyes flitting regretfully to Marguerite, before she and Sennia turned and moved toward the lift. 

"No, wait."  It was Challenger who spoke.  "What about the hat?"

Tribune paused.  His own curiosity was piqued, but he didn't want the humans to know how intrigued he genuinely was.  He affected a dispassionate expression.  "Why don't you tell me?  You seem to know more about it than I."

Roxton began the tale.  "We came across a group of archaeologists about a year ago," he began.

"Almost exactly a year ago," interjected Finn.  "I remember it was just after—"  She stopped abruptly.  Something in Tribune's manner made Finn hesitant to share too much information too willingly.  "Just after I met you guys," she concluded. 

"Right," Roxton agreed.  "They'd found Summerlee's hat in an underground temple not far from here."

"I see," replied Tribune.  He once again sat down on the small couch.  "Go on."

"There's not much more to say."

The lizardman's eyes narrowed and a tiny, sly smile tweaked the corner of his mouth.  "I don't believe you."

Roxton's own gaze became icy.  "You'll have to."

"So where is this infamous hat?" Tribune asked, determined to winnow out all the information he could from the stubborn hunter before Marguerite decided to step in.  When she did, he knew he wouldn't be able to learn anything more than the bare minimum the humans wanted him to know.

"It's not here."

Now Tribune put on a great show of indignation.  "I come all this way, and you don't even have the hat!?"

"We know where it is," Veronica said defensively.  Although she hadn't been with the explorers when they'd met the archaeological expedition, she'd heard the full story more than once.  "We just can't get to it."

Marguerite decided it was time to take control of the conversation.  "Tribune," she began silkily, "why don't you tell us more about your visits from Professor Summerlee?  It could help us piece together this little puzzle we have."  She smiled.  "And it would undoubtedly help you sleep better."

It was this that finally won Tribune over.  He'd been free of dreams since leaving the empire's Capitol City, but he had no doubt the dreams would return if he didn't continue to follow Summerlee's insistent instructions.  He gave another long-suffering sigh.  "Very well.  Summerlee said you need the hat in order to return it to him."

Ned piped up at that.  "How can we return it to him if we don't know where he is?"

“And if we don’t have it?” interjected Veronica.

"Purportedly there is a map with the hat," Tribune said, managing to answer Ned's question without actually acknowledging the young man directly.  "I can only presume it will help you to find him."

"Help us to find him?" Marguerite prodded, before anyone else could reveal that the Hamilton Expedition's map, which they believed had been lost with the hat, supposedly showed a way off the Plateau.

Tribune hissed at her, but replied.  "I must have misspoken.  I meant it may help us to find him."

"No way!" Finn exclaimed.  She had spent the entirety of the conversation watching as her friends appeared to fall under the lizardman's delusional sway.  It was time for her to make them see sense again.  "You guys have got to be kidding.  There's no way we can get that hat or the map, and I'm sure as hell not going anywhere with him."  She jabbed with her unloaded crossbow in Tribune's direction.  He hissed back, baring viciously sharp teeth, but Finn felt bolder here in her adopted home and she only hissed back at him.  To her immense shock, Tribune suddenly smiled and chuckled.  She frowned angrily, certain he was mocking her.

"I like this one," Tribune said to the rest of the explorers.  "I still think she'd make a nice snack, but she has spirit!"  He regarded Marguerite slyly.  "I sense your hand in that, Marguerite."

"You give me too much credit, Tribune," she replied smoothly.  "She was quite the little mercenary before she and I ever met."

"Enough."  It was Roxton who interrupted their banter.  He didn't like the way Tribune was eyeing Marguerite—or the easy way in which she returned his penetrating gaze.  "I'm afraid you've come all this way for nothing."

Tribune looked over at him.  "Don't be ridiculous.  She said you know where to find the hat," he said, pointing at Veronica.  "You simply need my help to get it."

Challenger spoke.  "That's going to be more difficult than you might think."

*****

It was late evening in the Treehouse.  It hadn't taken long to recount for Tribune and his bodyguards the story of how Summerlee's hat had been found and then just as quickly lost again when it was buried with two archeologists and a murderous demon under tons of rock.  What had taken time was getting Tribune to believe there was a supernatural force that could possibly be dangerous enough to keep them from going after what they wanted.  Fortunately, a hearty meal prepared by Ned and Sennia, and a couple of hours arguing with Roxton, helped to persuade the lizardman that they were telling the truth.

"Are you certain it's the hat you really need?" Tribune asked.  "Surely the old man had more than one."

"It's the one," Roxton answered impatiently for the tenth time.

In the end it was agreed that they would set out for the site of the underground temple the following morning so that Tribune could see for himself the physical barrier they faced, if not the spiritual.  And with that matter as settled as it could be, Veronica showed Tribune to one of the Treehouse's empty rooms for the night.

"Is this the best you can do?" he snorted at the small, simple space.

"You're more than welcome to sleep down on the jungle floor," offered Veronica.  "Preferably outside the electric fence."

"I suppose this will do," Tribune grudgingly replied.

Once the gathering in the main room finally broke up, the bodyguards were released from their duties for the night.  They wasted no time renewing their friendship with Marguerite.  She led Eula and Sennia to another room near to Tribune's while Challenger found bedding for their guests.

Eula hugged the dark-haired woman warmly.  "Mara, I'm so pleased to see you!" she exclaimed, using the dance name she'd given Marguerite during her time in the lizards' city.

Marguerite smiled and returned her embrace.  "I'm thrilled to see you two, as well," she said, hugging Sennia next.  "But the circumstances definitely aren't what I would have expected."

"Nor we," agreed Sennia.

Challenger arrived with blankets.  "Here you are, ladies," he said politely, handing off his burden to them and quickly departing.  He didn't care to get caught up in whatever the three women might find to chat about.

Marguerite helped the others make up the two narrow beds.  When everything was settled, the bodyguards sat on the foot of their beds and Marguerite pulled up the room's only chair.

"So tell me what's really going on," she said.  "And how on Earth did you convince Tribune to bring you along?"

"Marina didn't give him a choice on that," answered Sennia.  "She said we'd be in violation of our contract if she allowed him to come looking for you alone.  So she assigned us to guard him.  She was also afraid that he was going crazy and might end up get himself killed without someone around to keep an eye on him."