A large courtyard containing the palace. The sandy grounds are enclosed by a tall stone wall, about twenty feet high. There are two doors at the north and south walls, one leading into the town and another leading to the country.

::Rather than take the back door into the courtyard, Julie scales the wall using a pair of sai which she drives into the wall in order to carry herself up. It takes under a minute for her to get all the way up, and she simply jumps down the other side, bending her knees quickly on landing to absorb the impact. Spinning the sai around her fingers, she stares out the guards as she walks past.::

::The guards hang back, watching the warrior nervously as she continues.::

::Julie continues to stare dangeously at the guards as she makes her way to the castle. Once she's below the window to her quarters, she uses cracks in the stone walls to easily maneuver and swing herself inside.::

::The window Julie had left is not high from the ground and she somersaults in the air before landing squarely on both feet and running to the wall. She uses some carts stacked with boxes to climb and make her way over the wall into the town. Girl does not like doors.::

::Julie blinks in and looks up at the walls.::

(Ai. I'll never find it.)

::She runs towards the castle, jumps on a wooden box then inside through a window.::

::Julie rolls as she lands not to hurt herself then runs off to the country.::

::Phoebe and Petunius approach and see how many guards there are.::

"Maybe we should try a more subtle entrance than the front gate."

::She walks him along the wall around the courtyard.::

"We can get over this. I can levitate us and hopefully there'll be an open window somewhere. I'm gonna make the assumption of if anybody sees us, we're screwed. So..."

::She turns and looks at him.::

"Let's try to avoid that, hm?"

"Sounds like a plan. Let's do it."

::Phoebe nods and then goes pink as she takes a hold of Petunius around the waist, holding him close. She clears her throat and slowly the two rise into the air and over onto the other side of the wall, where they land quietly.::

"Intruders at the east wall!"

::Well, three guards have already spotted you and are running at you whilst drawing their swords. They're really quick moving. They use their surroundings to hop on the scattered stones and leap high into the air. One of them is bringing his blade right down at Phoebe's head.::

::Phoebe does the useful thing and screams.::

::Petunius quickly raises a hand, creating a forcefield around him and Phoebe which causes the blade and the guard to bounce away harmlessly from them.::

"Well so much for that plan..."

::Bouncey sword! But now you're surrounded by the three guards and two more are coming.::

"Give in and the Emporer may let you live."

::Petunius pulls Phoebe close and slowly drops the shield, deciding to go for the logical talking approach.::

"Listen, we've clearly got a misunderstanding here. We're not who you think we are."

::Phoebe clings on to Petunius, having flinched when the sword nearly hit her but suddenly ended up the other way.::

"I don't know if they're going to listen, Petunius."

::When Phoebe speaks, the guards suddenly recoil.::

"She speaks with the warrior's tongue!"

::They back off further. Since Phoebe had addressed herself to Petunius, she had spoken in English.::

(Okay seriously, what's with that?)

::Petunius frowns at their reaction to hearing English and looks at Phoebe, before turning back to the guards.::

"Yes, the warrior. We know the warrior. We have urgent business with the warrior."

::He deliberately avoids being gender specific in hopes of not screwing things up further if they're not talking about who he thinks they're talking about.::

::Two guards carrying large and very deadly-looking spears point them at the pair.::

"Which province are you from? Ju Rong mentioned nothing of visitors."

(Ju Rong? Julie?)

"We're friends."

"Ju Rong does not keep 'friends'."

::The pointed blades of the spears jab at Phoebe and Petunius, but as a scare tactic rather than an actual attack.::

"We were childhood companions. This..."

::Petunius pauses, acutely aware of the sharp sharp spears aimed at them.::

"This isn't exactly a planned visit. We've travelled from somewhere far away for the past four nights just so we can see her. We've heard so many tales about the mighty Ju Rong."

::Julie bends her knees as she lands and approaches the guards.::

"It is alright, they are not enemies."

::Yay! Chinesing it up.::

::Petunius looks at Julie and then the guard as if to say "believe us now?"::

(Wow. These disguises must really suck.)

::The guards apologise profusely and all quickly disperse in case Ju Rong is angry enough to kill them.::

"You guys... what the hell are you wearing?"

::Julie lifts her eyebrow.::

"Disguises. Fat lot of good they did us. Though I still say it was Phoebe speaking English to everyone that gave us away."

::Petunius looks down at his kug fu pyjama thingy and shrugs.::

"So. We're here to save you from this...tragic life of luxury and decadence and take you back to dreary old San Fran."

"Tell me about it! What the heck is with the service? Are you queen or something?"

"More like personal assassin. From what I hear I've done no one any good. They all fear me. You'll never guess who I have in my room though... it's past Prue with her lackey, Carys. Prue was about to help me get the hell out of here so I can find Ju Rong and bring her back so Prue can kill her instead of me."

::Julie nods.::

"They have really good food here."

::Petunius frowns, slightly confused.::

"Wait, so you're hanging out with your past self's potential assassin?"

::He raises an eyebrow and shakes his head.::

"Gotta say your past life's beating mine by a mile."

"Thankfully Prue recognized me as not being the Julie she was looking for. Carys on the other hand tried to kill me a few times and wound up with a broken arm. Are you guys here to take me back or just out for a stroll in my past? Have you seen Andrea? Is she okay?"

"We're here to take you back. Prue--our Prue-- is back in the present, rallying up all the past lives to bring them back to their own times. Andrea's okay. She and Sharon have gone through one of the other portals to bring back whoever else might have been on The Source's hit list."

::Phoebe's not been paying attention. She's gazing up at the figures on the balcony.::

"Oh, thank God. We should hurry and go. Give me one second."

::Julie jumps here and there then scales the wall crouching tiger hidden dragon style and gets back into her quarters through the window.::

"I can't believe it's Prue. Here. I mean... wow."

::Phoebe stares up still.::

"Why won't she come down? Do you think she doesn't know me in this life?"

::She looks at Petunius. This is really affecting her.::

::Petunius offers her a small sympathetic smile, despite not knowing the answers himself.::

"You know Prue. She usually has a reason for doing or not doing something, probably regardless of whatever life she's in. I'm sure that doesn't have anything to do with not recognising you in this one. Maybe she'll come down when Julie comes back."

(Yeah, cos that really makes her feel better. Idiot.)

"Maybe."

::Phoebe continues looking up but finally moves her eyes away.::

"Well, if she doesn't, she has a damn lot of explaining to do in the future. Treating her own sister like that."

::She smiles weakly then looks back up.::

"I wonder what she's like."

::Julie comes back. She catches the disappointed looks on Phoebe's face.::

"Let's go. They won't come out until after we've left, Prue doesn't want to risk changing my future."

::After a moment, Phoebe nods. But she can't help but raise her hand in greeting at her past sister above before slowly turning to face away.::

"Let's get going then."

::She leads the others to the wall and takes a gentle hold of Petunius, levitating with him to the other side and waiting for Julie.::

(Hope she can make it, actually. Of course she can, you just saw her run up a wall. Mental note: ask where she learned that.)