Hello. In this chapter, we get to see what is going on back in Seagate with Miranda!
This will probably be the last chapter before the rewrite. I hope the rewrite is much better and more descriptive than this version, so just hang tight, and I will try to post the new version as soon as possible. In fact, I have already started writing it, so keep a look a look out for it!
DragonEmperor999 and Harmony735, thank you for your reviews, and I'm glad you liked chapter 9. It was kind of a pain to write because of how long it was, but I think it was worth all the work because in my opinion, it is the best chapter. Thank you so much!
Disclaimer: I do not own Knight Squad or the characters or anything that you recognize. I only own my OCs: including Miranda and Emmeline and Quinn and Martin, who make a brief appearance in this chapter.
WARNINGS: MILD VIOLENCE, DARK TOPICS
Miranda was intelligent and clever and brave, but right now, she was scared witless. Not for herself. For her siblings.
Blood dripped from her split lip, falling to the floor in crimson tear drops. Her stomach ached with the developing bruises appearing on her abdomen, not to mention the sharp hunger pangs that came with weeks of little to no food. Her black eye throbbed, and her head spun from a possible concussion. She was sure some of her ribs were broken, too.
She climbed to her knees, spitting out blood, and she stared at the grimy floor of her cell, which was relatively good sized, but the dirt and dust and lack of sunlight definitely outweighed the large space. There were no windows, not even ones with bars, and Miranda found herself in the dark every night, staring at the same four walls and the same heavy door that separated her from the outside world.
Her head was jerked up by her brown hair, and she found herself staring into the cruel eyes of one of Riker's soldiers.
The soldier would have been good looking with blonde hair, cropped close to the scalp but not quite a buzz cut, and deep brown eyes, but his handsome features were ruined by the permanent scowl on his face. He wore bulky silver armor with the Ryker insignia on the left shoulder. His gloves had been taken off, and his knuckles were cut open and covered with her blood.
"Where are they?" he demanded, shaking her like a rag doll.
"Who are you talking about?" she asked, although she knew very well who he was speaking of.
"You know," he snarled. "Your little brother and baby sister. We know they escaped, so where. Are. They?" he yelled, each word causing spit to fly off of his lip and onto her cheek.
"I don't know, and even if I did, why would I tell you?" Miranda asked, trying not to show how scared she truly was.
"It could mean the survival of yourself, you parents, and your baby sister," the man offered.
"What about my brother?" Miranda questioned, unable to fight off the urge to ignore the soldier, although she logically knew that she should have.
"Your brother is the best warrior in this wretched town," the man spat. "He's strong, a good fighter. He would make an excellent soldier."
"You mean slave," Miranda interpreted, "because my brother would never willingly join you, and I know how you treat your so called 'recruits.' It's a wonder any of them survive your 'initiation.' I won't tell you anything about anything or anyone and especially not my family."
The man shrugged. "All right. In that case, when we find your brother and sister, your brother will be a slave, forced to do whatever we tell him to do. At least if he joined us he'd have some rights. As an actual slave, he has none. Your parents will be put to work until they die, whether from exhaustion, starvation, illness, or the punishments we give them when they don't do as we say. Your sister will be sold to the highest bidder, and you… will be executed tomorrow unless you can give us any information about the whereabouts of your brother and sister."
Miranda gulped, but she kept her gaze as steady as she could manage.
"You have fifteen hours to give us information before you die, and if you continue to refuse our order to cough up a location… well, dearie, enjoy your last night alive," he smirked before the cell door clanged shut behind him, leaving Miranda alone with her thoughts.
Miranda didn't know what to do. Giving up Arc and Emmeline wasn't an option, but they still needed her alive. If the soldiers ever discovered where they were, they'd need someone to warn them, and Miranda was the only one that could. She needed to find a way to survive until Ryker's Army was defeated and her brother and sister could come home.
She needed a plan. An escape. Something.
"Come on, Miranda," Arc had always said to her when they were faced with a difficult situation. "You're a genius! I'm sure you can think of something!"
In their family, Miranda was the smart one; Arc was the strong one, and they were both brave and determined and fiercely protective of one another. The Oceana family stuck together, and we never stand by when one of our own is in danger. Family protects family. That's what her dad always told her, what her grandma had always told him.
"I'm the smart one," Miranda murmured, tying back her long brown hair with a ribbon wrapped around her wrist as she always did when the gears in her head were turning (A Series Of Unfortunate Events reference). "I can do this."
"Well, dearie, enjoy your last night alive."
No. She would no bow down, would not give in, would not die. She would fight against Riker; she would not let that horrible man and his terrible army win. They'd stolen her home, her parents, her rights; they'd practically already taken her life from her by taking away everything she knew and loved.
They had stolen almost everything from her. She would not let them take her brother and sister, too, and that meant she had to survive in order to protect them.
Miranda took a deep breath, staring around her cell and trying to piece together a plan. A smile stretched across her face as the pieces of an escape plan clicked together in her mind.
Maybe to escape and find her brother and sister... she had to give them what they wanted, and before you ask, no, she does not mean the location of her brother and sister.
Miranda released a proud exhale before getting started.
"Guard!" She called, and the door opened, revealing the soldier that had been pummeling her only half an hour before. "I won't tell you where my brother and sister are, but in exchange for better treatment of my parents, including letting me see them, I can give you something else."
The soldier smirked. "And what would that be?"
"A new recruit," Miranda answered.
The soldier tilted his head in curiosity and interest.
"I will join Ryker."
Quinn and Martin Oceana glanced up as the door to their cell creaked open, and they prepared themselves for yet another interrogation, but the person who walked into the cell was not a soldier or a guard.
It was their daughter.
"Miranda!" Quinn cried in excitement and relief at seeing her daughter, injured but alive.
The parents hurried to embrace their daughter, and for several moments, they only hugged each other… but then Martin got a good look at his oldest child.
"You're wearing the insignia of Ryker," Martin murmured as he stared at painted R on the sleeve of her brown shirt.
Miranda nodded. "In exchange of better treatment for you… I agreed to join Ryker," she stated, stoically.
Quinn shook her head. "Mira, no. We'd rather die than allow you or your brother to severe that monster," she spat.
Miranda sighed, and she grabbed her mother's hands.
"I'm sorry, Mother, but this is the way it has to be," she stated with genuine sadness in her eyes, before the brunette disappeared through the door, which fell shut behind her with an almost foreboding boom.
"I can't believe she would join Ryker after all he's done," Martin shouted, nearly crying at the mere thought of his daughter following that man.
"I don't think done she truly joined him," Quinn whispered, and Martin turned to see his wife staring down at a small slip of paper. "She pushed it into my hand."
"We'll, what does it say?" Martin questioned as he crossed the cell to stand beside his wife, glancing down at the familiar handwriting of Miranda Carter.
I got Arc and Emmeline out of Seagate, but they're looking for them. They think they know too much. I need to warn them, and this is the only way I can do it. I'm sorry. P.S destroy this note after you read it.
Martin smiled at the realization that his daughter hadn't joined the monster wearing a human face, and he walked over to their window. Unlike Miranda, their cell had a small window with bars. The space between them was just big enough for his hand to fit through.
He tore the note into as many pieces as he could, and then, he squeezed his hand between the bars and allowed the remains of the paper to flutter away in the wind.
Meanwhile, in the kingdom of Astoria, Arc cradled his baby sister in his arms, staring out the window at the moon. Ciara had headed back to the castle for the knight, and Warwick and Prudy were asleep in their respective dorm rooms, leaving Arc and Emmeline as the only ones awake (mostly because Emmeline had started crying in the Middle of the night, and a very cranky Prudy had, and I quote, threatened to 'throw him out the window and off the side of the mountain if he didn't get Emmeline to stop crying.')
"I'm not sure how much you remember about our family," he said to Emmeline, voice oddly loud in the silence of the dorm rooms. "But they are so kind and brave... and they love us very much."
The moon seemed to shine just a little brighter, and Arc hoped that mean somebody was listening and would over his mom and dad and sister.
"Wherever they are," he murmured. "I hope they're okay."
Here we are, don't turn away now,
We are the warriors that built this town
Here we are, don't turn away now
We are the warriors that built this town
From dust.
-Warriors by Imagine Dragons
Warriors is one of the theme songs for the story.
The chapter was kind of short and choppy, but I needed to include this in order to 'set up' for a future event, which will be detailed in the rewrite. I have already started the rewrite and will try to post it soon. Thank you for your patience, and I hope you enjoyed the chapter.
I can't remember if I gave them a last name or if I gave their parents first names (since these characters are not the same ones as in the show- like Arc's dad- they do not have the same names as on the show), so if I did and I just don't remember, I'll fix any inconsistencies in the rewrite.
Please leave a review! Thank you all for reading, and I hope you all have a nice day! Goodbye, everyone!
Word Count: 2, 000 words