A/N : Thank you for all of the positive feedbacks, faves, and followers; you make my day!
Disclaimer : I do not own Glee but the plot of this story is mine
Mission and Manipulation
"Come on! It's that all you've got?" Blaine mocked Nick who is lying on the ground after his face makes contact with Blaine's knee. Nick spat blood and wiped his torn lips as his colleagues laughed hard from the sidelines of the empty field.
It was a good day for Dalton's people to do their activities as usual. Merchants in the town prepared to open their shop and the ladies walked passed them to see if they had had what they were looking for. Children screamed as they were chasing each other and sometimes they went into one of the shop, forcing the owner who luckily had the correct 'power' to shoo them off gently. The older children were parting from their parents to go to Dalton's Academy; learning how to control their power in hope that one day the kingdom would recruit them as their soldier.
In the mean time, on the castle above the hill that was not too far from the town below, Blaine trained with his generals like they always do every morning in the kingdom's square. 'Beating his generals' was the honest statement since he was defeating 2 out of 2 so far, and it was still early in the morning.
Blaine was clearly superior above them all. Being a prince made him had to undergo strict physical training since the day he was able to walk. It was not a happy memory, even if it made him become the best of the best. His father was very strict with him and that made Blaine grew distant from him. It became worse when Blaine declared that he was gay for the first time. No matter how hard he tried to be a perfect son for him, King Anderson never showed such a father-son relationship to him. Blaine even thought his father hated him.
Even though it broke his heart, he had stopped trying few years ago. He was tired of being rejected. Never again.
Blaine offered his hand to Nick and the general sighed heavily before accepting it and pulled himself up. The other generals clapped politely for Nick's lost and another victory for the prince.
"Water," Blaine murmured and opened his palm. In a second, a golden cup filled with water appeared in his palm from nowhere. He then handed it to Nick who finished it in less than five seconds.
His friends called him as the 'Creator' because of his power and he accepted it happily. Blaine only needed to call the name of the item and it would appear for him to be used. When he was seven, he visited the town for sightseeing and became an anonymous impromptu magician, performing his tricks and making quite a fortune from it. When the King found out, it had become his last visit.
Dalton's generals' power was considered much more frightening than his. Nick was some kind of living lie detector and Blaine was saved many times from his dad because of him, since everybody believed that he always tell the truth. Nick was also the head of interrogator team because of the same reason. Trent may look chubby for a standard soldier but he still maintained the prestigious position because of his unique power. He was given the name of 'Mr. Nightmare' as a nickname because he could produce someone's personal nightmare on his command and amplified it thousand times. Blaine, fortunately, never crossed his line as his best friend and with that never experiencing it until today but he heard that Trent's victims often went crazy after tasting the power.
Jeff was the most famous general among the ladies in the castle. His power was strong charm in his voice. He could make every single person (by that, he meant everyone) in the castle to fall in love with him. After the charm had worked, he could even make a person walk off a cliff with a simple command. It worked only for humans, though. Blaine still tearing up from laughing so hard every time he remembered Jeff experimented on one of the kingdom's horse when they were young and in the end resulting him a broken arm.
A rather unpleasant name was given for Sebastian; Silver tongue. He could manipulate someone's memory, but then he often used it for his own benefits so most people in the castle despised him. Sebastian annoyed him many times by trying to seduce him but other than that Blaine considered him cool (he was the only open gay in the castle beside himself, after all).
The last one was Wes, the Great General of Dalton. He was the head of their kingdom's main army and was respected by his men. His power was to manipulate other's movement; that was why they called him the Puppeteer.
Blaine, Wes, Trent, Nick, and Jeff were best friend since they were little. All of them grew inside the castle since their parents worked as soldiers. After Wes graduated from the academy, the previous generals promote him as soldier and soon the others were chosen too. Sebastian joined the elite circle five years ago, when he was promoted by a general to replace him.
This was why Blaine felt anxious since three days ago. He heard from Trent that his father sent Wes on a mission with a small group of his men but he did not know where they go. Knowing his father, this could end up bad for Wes.
"Any news from Wes?" Blaine asked all of them while he produced another drink for himself.
"I haven't heard anything from him," Trent quickly answered. From his tone, Blaine could tell that he was worried too.
"The king won't send him if it wasn't a top secret mission, so maybe we won't hear from him at all," Jeff added, which was sounded reasonable for them. If it was only a regular mission, they would have sent lower rank soldiers instead of their own general.
"I hope he's okay," Blaine said as he eyeing the window of the Great Hall above them. He would not forgive his father if something happened to his friend.
"You almost make me jealous with that tone," said Sebastian with his big grin.
"Not now, Seb," Nick cut him off, seeing Blaine was not pleased to hear that too. Sebastian threw his arms into the air and everyone stayed silent for a moment.
"There's no use worrying about Wes, I'm sure he can take care of himself," Jeff shrugged, stood up and stretched a bit. "Now, who wants to spar with me?"
"Be careful on what you wish for."
Sebastian was about to join Jeff when they saw a scarred looking soldier came from the main entrance toward their direction. The soldier stopped few meters in front of them and quickly bowed. "The King demands for his Prince's presence at the Great Hall, my Lord," he said, a bit stammering on his words.
Blaine's eyebrow raised an inch. "Did The King tell you what is it about?"
"No, Sir."
Before Blaine could dismissed the poor guy, this time Stanford - Trent's right hand, ran from the same direction toward them. Trent shot up immediately; the look on his man confirmed that he brought bad news.
Stanford bowed shortly and walked straight to his general. He whispered to his ears and Trent's eyes grew wider as he spoke.
"He what?!" Trent yelled angrily even before the man finished speaking.
"What is it?" His colleague asked, but Trent was already in his feet.
"Wes is back and he was badly injured. He's in the medic room now," he said quickly in panic. A cold water was like being poured on all of them. Blaine was the first one to follow him but Trent stopped him.
"You'd best meet the King now. I'll go check on him." He then ran as fast as he could to the castle with Stanford on his side and they disappeared behind the wall. The others soon recovered from the news and hurried themselves to catch up with Trent, leaving speechless Blaine on his own.
Blaine fisted his hand until his knuckles turned white. He left the forgotten soldier and dashed to the Great Hall.
His father better had a good explanation on what happened to Wes.
He arrived in front of the Great Hall in less than five minutes. The guards bowed politely to him but he ignored them and simply strode in, finding his father in the throne with two heavily injured soldiers that were supported by their colleagues.
When his father saw him, his gaze turned cold. He dismissed them along with the patrol men so they were alone in the enormous hall.
"Care to explain what happened to Wes?" Blaine went straight to the point; he did not even salute the king.
"Mind your tongue, Blaine," his father hissed, but there were a hint of joyful in it. The old man rose from his throne and walked toward one of the enormous windows. Blaine crossed his arms, waited impatiently for him to speak.
"King Hummel is dying."
The words confused Blaine until he could digest the meaning behind it. "Are you sending Wes into their kingdom just to spy on them?!"
"Sacrifice needs to be taken."
"It was a suicide mission!"
"Enough!" King Anderson's voice echoing dangerously across the room. Blaine held his tongue in disgust but still looked furious as hell.
"General Wes reported that the King was gravely ill. His chance of survival was little and rumours said that his successor has been chosen," his father continued. Blaine rolled his eyes; here we go again.
"Let me guess, you want to attack them?"
"Precisely."
"Well, then," Blaine bowed deeply as a mock toward the ambitious king, "I hope you'll succeed this time, since your last try was a total failure." Blaine started to walk away from the throne when his father's next word stopped him.
"That really depends on you."
Blaine stopped halfway from the door and slowly turned around. "What do you mean by that?"
His father walked toward him; a cold smile grew on his unreadable expression. "You will go to McKinley and killed their heir."
Blaine blinked twice and realised that he just took one step backward. "N-no, I won't . . ."
"You can easily sneak into their kingdom . . ."
"Father, please . . ."
"Gain their trust and strike them the hardest from inside . . ."
"I won't do it!"
Blaine's chest rose and fell after his outburst. The king stood silently but he still smiled at him, making him look like a crazy man.
"This is our chance to take down their empire, Blaine, don't you see it? Dalton will never be more prosperous than ever if we can claim their land as ours!" His tone sounded as if Blaine should be enthusiastic about this, which was made him sick.
"This is not a chess game, and we're talking about someone else's life." Blaine did not yelled at him this time; he was far too disappointed of his father to be mad at him.
"My vision is for Dalton to be the greatest kingdom of all four," the king stated it as a matter of fact.
The young prince shook his head and continued his way toward the door, ignoring the elder completely this time.
When he almost reached the door, it was opened from the outside and to his surprise, Sebastian appeared in front of them. Blaine confusedly looked between Sebastian who blocked the door and his father, and then a horrifying string was formed in his mind.
"Sebastian, don't," Blaine warned him as he stepped back from the general. Sebastian looked really sorry for him but he kept moving forward to his direction.
"I'm sorry, Blaine. It has to be done for the sake of Dalton," his father continued with a blank expression, but there was no regret in his words.
There were two exits from the Great Hall; one was beside the throne, and the other was blocked by Sebastian. Before he could decide his escape route, Sebastian took advantage of the situation and in the next second he took Blaine down with a great force and pinning him onto the ground with his body weight. Sebastian did not forget to clamp Blaine's jaws, preventing him from using his power.
Blaine fought him as best as his immobilize body could do, but it was clearly a useless effort. He pleaded silently to his friend with his eyes as his final effort to escape but Sebastian shook his head regretfully.
"I had to, Blaine. I'm sorry; The King originally wants Trent to persuade you but I volunteered instead," Sebastian spoke slowly for Blaine's ears only. Blaine's eyes grew wider in horror.
"You have my permission, Sebastian," the king said calmly from above them.
The moment Blaine saw Sebastian opened his mouth, his mind immediately went blank.
Sebastian never felt this guilty after using his power. As soon as he finished manipulating Blaine's mind, the prince looked disoriented for a moment before he blinked twice and looked at him calmly; too calm for a guy who was pinned by a man.
He pulled him up and then stepped back from the royal family as the king came to his son.
"You will leave tomorrow at dawn," the king said, putting his hand on Blaine's shoulder. His son nodded slowly. He turned to Sebastian and dismissed them before he went outside the hall.
Sebastian gently grabbed Blaine's arm and led him toward the door. "Come, Blaine. You need to rest."
He followed his lead to his room obediently; but when Sebastian saw him the second time, tears were streaming down his still confused face.
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