Beck thought it might have been late at night, or possibly early in the morning, when he woke. Then again, in the dark dungeon, it always seemed to be late at night.

It was the footsteps echoing through the stone corridors which woke him. He didn't think it was a guard, because they were hardly ever there, and when they were, they didn't move a lot. These footsteps clicked happily and quickly, and they sounded light, not like one of the stocky guards.

It was amazing how much living in a cage with limited sight could sharpen one's other senses.

Beck weakly lifted his head, trying to ignore the pain in his stomach and the way the ropes which bound his hands dug into his skin.

Standing outside the bars was a girl who must have been around his age. Her hair was bright red—not like the normal orange-red, but actual red-red—and it fell past her shoulders. She held a torch which illuminated her face so that he could make out twinkling brown eyes and a slight smile.

"Hi!" The girl said perkily.

Beck stared at her blankly for a while.

The girl frowned. "I said 'hi.' Don't you know what that means? Do you speak English, or do they speak some other weird language in Topaz?"

"No, I speak English," Beck rasped. His voice came out scratchy and dry, partly due to the fact that he hadn't used it in what must have been days, and partly because his throat was dry as sand. "Just… no one's talked to me in a while, and certainly not in a happy tone."

"Oh, well, you know those guards!" The girl giggled. "They're not really much of talkers. They more so just like to see people locked up and in misery. I'll never understand them."

"Do you like seeing miserable locked-up people?" Beck muttered.

The girl laughed. "No! Of course not!" She pulled some keys out of her pocket and the lock clicked open. She stepped inside and shut the door again. "I can't let you come out, but I can come in."

Beck stared at her in confusion. "Uh… why are you here?"

"I figured you must be miserable, all locked up and starving," she said, as if this explained everything.

"How clever of you," Beck mumbled.

"So, you're Prince Beck Oliver of Topaz!" The girl continued. "I'm Caterina Valentine, of Rowana, obviously. You can call me Cat, though. All my friends do. And we're friends, right?"

Beck thought this girl must have serious mental issues. "Ah, look… Miss Caterina, don't take this the wrong way or anything, but no. We're not friends. I am the prince of Topaz. Those words mean anything to you?"

"Of course!" Cat squealed. "But I don't see why we can't be friends."

Beck was silent for a moment. "Look, are you some sort of jester or something? Because if you are, I'm really not understanding your humor, and I—"

At this, Cat burst into a fit of laughter. "Jester? No! No. I seriously think we should be friends."

"Why?" Beck sighed, wishing this girl would leave him to suffer in peace.

For the first time since arriving, Cat seemed to look serious. "I don't think it's fair that you should be suffering here just because you live in another Kingdom. I know I'd hate to starve alone in a cell for three more weeks just to wait for death."

"Wait," Beck cut her off. "Three more weeks? Three more weeks? That's how long until the next full moon? You mean I have to sit and rot here for three more weeks? Why not just kill me now?" By now he was shouting.

"Shhh!" Cat whispered urgently. "Keep your voice down, or the guards will come!"

Beck was still steaming with anger, but he lowered his voice. He didn't like the looks of those guards.

"They'd better hurry up and kill me soon," he warned, "or I'm going to die of dehydration or thirst!"

"They figure if you're really desperate, you'll eat the mold and drink the puddle-water."

"So… It is mold?" Beck asked quietly, not really knowing what else to say. "I thought it might be some sort of moss, or a fungus…"

Cat shrugged. "I guess it could be… No one's really sure. Maybe it's a hybrid of all three? Like… Fungoss? No, wait, that's just fungus and moss…"

This was not making Beck feel better. "Yeah?" He snapped. "Well, I've been reduced to eating your stupid wall fungus and drinking scummy puddle water which's been here for who knows how long! You happy?"

Cat looked like she was going to cry. In the torchlight, he could see her eyes watering and a tear spilled down her cheek. She whimpered.

Beck couldn't help but feel that he was the one in the bad situation here, but he felt guilty all the same. "No, look, Cat… I'm sorry, I didn't mean…"

"No, I'm not happy!" Cat wailed. "That's why I came down here to give you food!"

Beck stared at her in shock. "F—Food? Like, actual food, not the mold… fungus… fungoss…"

Cat sniffed, but her tears began to ebb. "Yeah. I mean, I couldn't scrape together much, just moldy bread and a flask of water, but…"

"That's fine," Beck murmured. "May I have it? Please?"

Cat nodded and handed over the chunk of stale bread and the flask, which Beck would have reached for, but his hands were still tied up.

"Cat… I can't…" He shrugged and nodded at his roped-up and bleeding wrists.

"Oh," Cat said quietly. She looked confused for a moment. "I guess I can untie you for a little bit, but I'll have to tie you up again before I leave."

Beck nodded in understanding as the redhead moved to untie his wrists. The relief was almost instant as the uncomfortable ropes stopped pushing against his broken skin, and he made a dive for the bread, which he consumed and washed down with the water in less than a minute.

"Thank you so much," Beck panted, out of water from scarfing the food down so fast. For the first time since the capture, he smiled.

Cat smiled back. "Of course! I wanted to bring you something a little more tasty, but most everything our cooks make is kind of rich, and Jade told me if you ate something too rich too soon you'd probably puke, so—"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, back up!" Beck interjected. "Did you say Jade? As in Princess Jade?"

Cat nodded. "That's the one! I'm her personal assistant."

Beck stared at her in bewilderment. How had this ditzy redhead gotten a job as the personal assistant to the princess? It was far beyond him. But that wasn't really the most pressing issue.

"You mean to tell me," Beck whispered, "that Princess Jade knows you're doing this?" Panic was beginning to rise in his chest; he was aware that the king wouldn't kill him before the full moon, but he was worried about what might happen to Cat, the one person who had been kind enough to feed him actual food. (Fungoss didn't count as food.)

"No!" Cat snorted. "I just asked her if I were to go feed you, what should you eat. She doesn't know I'm actually feeding you. Oh yeah, I also asked her how I'd get the key."

Beck tensed. Based on his what, five minutes, of knowing Cat, the prince was already quite certain that she had made it painfully clear what she intended to do.

Yes, the princess knew she was here. Now the only question was, would she give Cat away?

As if on cue, another set of footsteps echoed through the cave-like hall. They sounded lighter than the guards, and yet less cheery than Cat's. Beck desperately hoped it wasn't King Edmund.

Cat let out a little gasp at the sound and hid the empty flask, then began retying his ropes. Beck winced in pain as the rough chords scratched his already broken skin.

Now they could see the orange glow of the torch light flickering in the hall. Cat extinguished her torch in a nearby puddle in hopes that the newcomer wouldn't see them.

The figure marched on until it stood outside the bars, glaring into the cell which held Cat and Beck.

In the torchlight, Beck could make it out clearly. Her blue eyes were narrowed dangerously, illuminated in red by the firelight. Black curls with electric green streaks rolled down her back, just past her shoulders.

Beck knew the danger this put him and Cat in, but despite this, he couldn't help but think that this woman—or girl; she was about the age of Cat and himself—was dazzlingly gorgeous. He even went so far as to think she was the most beautiful thing he'd laid eyes on since he crossed the border into Rowana.

"Cat," she growled between gritted teeth, "I thought I told you not to come here."

"Yes… yes Your Majesty…" Cat whimpered, backing away from the girl and trembling, "he just looked so miserable… and hungry… I had to feed him something!"

"Cat, he's our prisoner!" The girl, who Beck figured must be Princess Jade, exclaimed. "He's here because he deserves to be starving and miserable!"

Cat let out a little sob. "Please don't tell on me, Jade, please! What if it was you stuck in a dungeon in Topaz? Wouldn't you want someone to feed you?"

"That wouldn't happen," Jade hissed, directing her words now to Beck. "Here in Rowana, we know how important it is to keep our royalty safe. I wouldn't be off leading an attack squadron, unlike you! What did you think you were doing, anyway?"

Beck opened his mouth to defend himself, but Cat spoke first. "Jade, in Topaz, royalty are expected to lead important attacks!"

Jade snorted. "That's just stupid."

"We consider it honorable," Beck retorted, speaking up for the first time. "Your family wouldn't lead an attack, of course; you're too cowardly."

Jade bared her teeth and straightened up. "We're the cowards here? At least we're not the ones who hide our castle in the mountains like some terrified animal in a hole!"

"But you are the ones who are too spineless to come and attack us there," Beck snapped.

"Stop!" Cat shouted. Both Beck and Jade fell silent and stared at her.

"The only reason I'm not telling you is because I think you're a halfway decent person," Jade muttered. "I don't want you to ever come down and talk to this mangy animal again. Understand?"

Cat protested, "But I can't let him keep eating the fungoss! That'd make him sick."

Jade furrowed her brow. "Fungoss?"

Cat nodded seriously and gestured to the wall, as if that made it clear.

"She means the substance on the wall," Beck explained quietly.

"I should have learned not to ask, but why 'fungoss'?" Jade asked, throwing her hands in the air in exasperation.

"Oh, well, we weren't sure if it was moss, fungus, or mold," Cat told her, "so I decided to call it fungoss."

Jade just blinked, then shook her head. "We digress… Cat, I don't want you down here anymore."

"But… but…" Cat stared up at Jade with those puppy dog eyes. Jade looked like she might break and give in; she shifted her feet uncertainly. "Jade, he's our age! He's barely even lived a life! If he's going to die anyway, his last days don't need to be miserable."

Jade let out a long, drawn-out sigh. "Fine. Fine. We can keep feeding him, but—a"

Cat squealed in delight. "We! As in we're doing to come and feed him together? Oh, this is great! The three of us are going to be best friends! It'll be like a party every single day!"

"Cat!" Jade shouted, interrupting Cat's one-girl parade. "You and I are barely friends, and I will never—I repeat, never—be friends with Oliver boy here. The one and only reason I will come with you is to make sure you don't get in trouble. That's it. I don't want to talk to him, I don't want to look at him, I don't want to acknowledge his presence!"

"Fine by me," Beck interrupted. "I'm not all that crazy about you, myself."

Jade glared at him. "Watch your mouth. I could make sure you don't eat a thing but your stupid fungoss until your death day. Come on, Cat. We're leaving." She opened the door for her assistant, and the girl with the red hair stepped out of the cell.

Bye, she mouthed to Beck as Jade lead her away. The light of the torch disappeared, and then the sound of their footsteps faded.

Beck was left alone again.

'Kay, so normally, I'm not a huge fan of author's notes, especially long ones. But I'll probably be doing that a lot in this story… sorry.

So Cat's slightly smarter than her usual Victorious self, but this is AU, so whatever.

Thanks LizGilliesFanForever, KIMMIK100, . .mean, DifferentOne4Ever, LuvBadeForever, and three Guests for reviewing!

Like I said earlier, I'm VERY open to suggestions for this story. One person asked if there would be Cabbie, and I'm honestly not sure. If you guys want there to be Cabbie, I can probably put it in, though I wasn't originally intending on Robbie making that many appearances. So if you want Cabbie, tell me! :D And if you have a suggestion, tell me!

Remember to review! Please!