Hey guys! Sorry for the mega long absence. I just thought I'd pop in and tell you guys that after this, there's only three or four chapters left! And I can't even begin to explain how excited I am for the grand finale. I've been planning this ending for over three years now, and it's finally happening! OH MY GOSH! I hope you all enjoy the rest of this novel, as I've loved every moment of writing it. :)

Chapter Ten: The Betrothed

Mo's P.O.V.

I stepped back from the closed door after a few moments of collecting myself. I took a few deep breaths - steeling myself - and then turned around. Chris Garfield was staring at me, his dark eyes seeming even darker. He smiled. "Sit tight, Princess," he said. "The helicopter ride isn't very long. We'll land soon."

I raised an eyebrow. "What?" He tilted his head. "We're not going back to your planet?" I hoped to God that he didn't think I sounded disappointed; going to his planet was the last thing in the universe that I wanted.

"Not right away, no," he answered easily. "With the stressful few days you've had and your fragile mental state, I thought it would be nice to let you get a good night's rest and laze around for a while. Is that alright with you?"

I wasn't sure where the sudden chivalry had come from. Sure, he'd seemed to have a soft spot for me for a while there, but being repeatedly stabbed by his weird extendable fingernails and then getting injected with a psycho alien virus made it appear like he didn't like me as much as he was trying to convince me he did. Now he suddenly wanted to cater to my "fragile mental state" - which wasn't even a thing. There was nothing fragile about my brain.

But I couldn't get angry with him. Maybe if I went along with what he wanted, I would stay alive longer. I still wasn't sure what they wanted with me, or how long I was going to be allowed to live. With no way to escape and no hope of getting rescued by the Avengers, my best bet was to be compliant. For now.

"Yeah, that's fine," I said. I tried to smile. "It'll be nice to sleep in an actual bed. I slept against the wall last night."

Garfield's brow furrowed. "Why?" I just stared at him. He nodded slowly. "Right. Had to spend your last moments with Barton?" It was my turn to nod. "He's a very lucky man, to have someone as beautiful as yourself doting on him. It's a shame he never noticed." He shrugged. "Well, for you, anyway. Not so much for me."

I hugged my arms to my body and tried to ignore the stabbing pain in my heart. Yeah, it really was a shame that Barton hadn't noticed how I felt. I thought, at least. I still had Brendon to worry about. Not anymore, Mo. You're never going to see him again.

Strangely, and I know it sounds horrible, but I didn't really feel all that remorseful about it. Not even about never seeing my family again. The only person I was grieving over was Barton; everything else was numb.

I pressed my back against the closed helicopter door and slid down to the floor, pulling my knees up to my chest. Garfield looked down with a pitying expression on his face. I didn't want his pity. It was his fault I was here, that I was in this whole mess. If he hadn't been so hell-bent on getting me and taking me home to his planet, I would still be in Iowa, finishing my senior year and dating Brendon without a question in my mind about being with him. I still had no idea why Chris Garfield even wanted me in the first place.

No one spoke to me until the helicopter landed outside the mansion I'd been to once almost a year ago. Garfield offered me his hand and pulled me to my feet before nodding to one of his alien friends to open up the door. When it was open, he escorted me out and up to the front door, pulling that door open with a gentle smile. "Here we are, Princess. Earth home, sweet Earth home," he said.

I walked in ahead of him. Part of me really wanted to take off at a dead sprint and try to find another exit before anyone could catch me, but the larger, more rational side of my brain knew that running away would only end up worse for me, and might cause repercussions for the Avengers team or my family. For Barton. Dammit, Mo, stop thinking about Barton. That's not what's important right now. But it was so hard to make myself stop.

The room was larger than I remembered it being, now that it was occupied by four people instead of a thousand: myself and Garfield, and two of his alien goons. I could still hear the music and see the couples dancing around the room. I could feel Stark's chest against mine as he held me a little too close for comfort and hear the way Rogers' voice wavered when he talked about missing his date with Peggy all those years ago. I could feel the soft pressure of Barton's lips on my knuckles. I hadn't felt anything then; I was too taken with Brendon still.

There were the stairs that I had ascended with Garfield, feeling confident and ready to get all of his secrets out in the open. There was the railing we had stood against and overlooked the party behind. That was where I had kissed him to preserve my identity. In hindsight, that probably pushed him to discovering who I was anyway. There were the stairs that I had all but sprinted down, all confidence gone and replaced by nothing but terror and confusion, and anger that had steadily grown.

"Are you hungry?" Garfield asked, snapping me out of my thoughts. He was standing beside me, one hand on the small of my back. "It's around breakfast time, you know. When was the last time you ate?"

I shrugged. "It's fine. I'm fine." Garfield gave me a doubtful look. "Really, I am."

He rolled his eyes. "Alright, fine."

No one spoke for a few minutes after that. Garfield was staring at me with those creepily dark eyes of his, and it was really beginning to unnerve me. I'd kept my cool up until that point, but the realization that I was now fully trapped in that hell hole with a bunch of aliens was starting to grow on me. Confidence was slowly being replaced with hopelessness.

"Now what?" I asked, finally breaking the silence. I couldn't take the quiet anymore; it was going to drive me insane. I was afraid of his answer, but I needed one anyway.

Garfield raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"Like, what happens now?"

He shrugged. "What would you like to happen now, Princess? Aside from the obvious." The "obvious" was returning me to the Avengers. I knew it, and apparently he knew it, too. Of course he did. What else would I want right now? Nothing.

Well...

"I want answers," I said suddenly, folding my arms across my chest. That was what I had been wanting from the very beginning, wasn't it? I had some, of course. Why had I been taken from my home in the middle of the night? It was because I was being targeted by aliens. But why was that? That was what needed answered. Why did the aliens actually want me?

Garfield pressed his lips into a thin line. He glanced from side to side, looking at the two aliens who were still standing with us, and then he looked back to me. "Come with me, Princess."

With that said, he turned on his heel and strolled off toward a door on the left side of the room. I hadn't noticed it the last time I was here, but I had never really gotten a chance to get to the left side of the room, I supposed. Garfield pulled the door open and beckoned me inside, shutting the door after he and I had both walked through. We'd just entered what looked to be a very lavish living room; large plush couches covered in expensive fabric and an ornate fireplace were the main attractions. There were two more aliens in there, sitting on the couch facing the fireplace. That is where Garfield directed me to sit - right in between them.

"Don't worry, they don't bite," he said reassuringly with a tiny smirk.

No, but they grow extra limbs and they stab, I thought wryly as I wedged myself in between the two aliens. Both of them bowed their heads respectfully to me. What the hell is that about?

Garfield sat on the coffee table in front of me and leaned his elbows on his knees. "So, it is answers you want, Princess?" I nodded. "Then, by all means, fire away. I'll have no secrets from you anymore."

I raised an eyebrow. No more secrets? What was going on? This is not how I imagined getting taken away would play out. I was expecting a locked cell with no bed and endless hours of torture, followed by an agonizingly slow death.

The past year or so hadn't really made me much of an optimist, if you couldn't tell.

"Why do you keep calling me 'princess'?" I asked, feeling a little silly for inquiring about that first. It was some stupid pet name he'd given me when we met at the masquerade ball. Nothing more. It wasn't significant in any way.

Garfield looked down at his shoes and smiled a little. I gave the two aliens beside me an anxious look. Why was he smiling? What was coming next? Death? Garfield lifted his head and fixed me with his piercing yellow cat eyes. "The answer to that question is going to answer all of your other questions."

I was taken aback, to say the least. How does a pet name answer everything else I want to ask? "What do you mean?"

He smiled again. "Back on my planet, I am the king. The whole world is under my control. The castle I live in has been occupied by my family for several generations, much longer than your humans on Earth have even existed." I nodded to show that I was following along. He went on. "As I'm sure you're probably aware, to continue to keep my world under my family's control, I need an heir. To obtain an heir, I need a wife. A princess - a princess to be my queen."

I immediately didn't like where this was going. There was only one way this was going to go, and it was not at all what I wanted. Maybe if I just played dumb, it wouldn't be so bad? "I'm not sure who you talked to, but I can't even sort out my own love life, so there's no way I'm going to be able to help you find some poor girl to marry," I said, folding my arms across my chest. The alien on my left scoffed; I flinched.

"That's where you're wrong, my dear," Garfield said with a short laugh. "You are who I'm going to marry. Who I have to marry."

I shook my head. I'd figured that out at the start of the conversation, so it came as a little bit less of a shock. It did give me more questions, though. "Wouldn't that make your heir like a half-breed, though? Because I'm not an alien. I'm human."

He laughed again. "Oh, Princess, give up the act." I raised my eyebrow again. "I know that it's you. I've found you at last. Now, come home."

I held up a hand. The aliens I was sitting between both tensed up, ready to leap into action against me. "Excuse me, but I'm confused; what act am I supposed to be giving up?"

"You always were a sly one, Mona," Garfield said with yet another smile. I tried not to panic over the name that was only a couple of letters off from mine. "You got cold feet before the wedding; I understand. It did happen very fast. But I've chased you all across the galaxy, and now it's time for you to come home."

I shook my head. "Garfield, I don't know what you're on, but I'm not this - this Mona or whoever. I'm Kristy Monet. I'm human. Look at my eyes; they're not yellow."

He waved a hand in dismissal of my comment. "Your alien abilities are just dormant. It's from being away from home for so long." He frowned a little and set his chin in the palm of his hand. "I was hoping the injection I gave you when you came to rescue that human boy would shock your body into revealing its true alien form; alas, those damned 'Avengers' stopped it from spreading before your transformation was complete."

I scowled. "You tortured me that night. What kind of 'fiancé', or whatever the hell you are, does that?"

"The trauma and bleeding was meant to accelerate the virus' circulation throughout your body," he said simply. "It would make the process go by quicker."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. He tortured and infected the same person he was hoping to marry and he expected that everything would go according to plan? That she - I - would just fall at his feet and go along willingly back to his planet? Not likely. That was not how you behave toward the person you're interested.

You did attacked Barton and insult him a lot though, my conscience oh-so-helpfully reminded me. I mentally shrugged. I was under the influence of the virus. I couldn't be held accountable for my actions. Right?

I tried reasoning next. "Listen, buddy, I'm really not who you think I am." He tilted his head. "I'm not your future queen. I'm a human, one hundred percent. I doubt I even look like Mona."

He fished around in his shirt pocket and pulled out a crumpled piece of paper. He held it out to me; I took it from him with shaking fingers. On it was a beautifully drawn sketch of a young woman with a small tiara resting atop her head. Her curly hair fell down past her shoulders and nearly to her elbows. Her chin was held high, a small smile gracing her full lips. The corners of her eyes were crinkled with laugh lines. There was a short line of messy scrawl along the bottom of the portrait: Princess Mona.

I didn't want to admit it, but she did look a lot like me. A scary amount, actually. She was older than me, for sure, and it showed in the faint age lines the artist had drawn in, but if I didn't look like that when I neared thirty years old I would be incredibly surprised. It was like I was her doppelgänger.

"Your eyes are just as blue as they've always been," Garfield said quietly.

I set the drawing back in his waiting hand. For a few minutes, the room was silent. Garfield was staring at me, waiting for me to speak. "I'm sorry, but I'm not her," I finally said. "She's very beautiful, and she's not me."

Garfield was on his feet and lunging toward me in half an instant. One hand closed around my throat and squeezed as he lifted me into the air. His yellow eyes were blazing with anger. "Now listen here, and listen well," he said with a hiss. "You are Princess Mona, you are an alien, and it is time for you to accept your role as my betrothed and come home. Do you understand me?"

I nodded, if only to get him to stop strangling me. Maybe I shouldn't have; maybe death would have been preferable to a life spent living with a bunch of aliens in a home that is not my own.

Death was definitely preferable. But I nodded anyway.

Garfield practically threw me back down onto the couch. "We leave tomorrow. Boys, take her upstairs and lock her in one of the rooms. Blindfold and handcuff her so she can't escape."

The henchmen, or whatever you want to call them, gripped my arms and yanked me to my feet. I could feel Garfield's cold glare on my back as I was led out of the room. The two aliens dragged me up the left grand staircase and down the hall. There was the door that I had seduced Garfield into showing me the contents concealed within. That's where I'd discovered that the aliens' plot was much deeper than Fury and the others had told me. I sighed; so much had happened since that night.

The guy on the right opened up a door and the two of them unceremoniously tossed me inside. One of them clasped handcuffs around my wrists while the other wrapped something around my head to blindfold me. It was tight enough that it felt like a horrendous amount of pressure on my skull. The door closed and I heard a lock click. I was alone.

I attempted to push the blindfold off my eyes, it wouldn't budge. What, did they glue it to my head? It shouldn't have been that hard to get off, even if I was handcuffed. I hung my head in defeat.

I sat there on the floor for a little while before managing to stand up. I held my hands out in front of me and moved around the room, trying to feel for furniture. My fingers met something soft; I'd found a bed. I climbed up onto it and fell onto my side, curling my knees up to my chest. I was screwed; well and truly screwed.

There's no hope. You're going away. Very, very far away, where no one is ever going to find you. Not the Avengers, not your parents, no one. You're going to marry Chris Garfield, if that's even his name, and you're going to have his heir whether you like it or not. There's no hope.

I pressed my fists against the cloth around my eyes and tried to fight the oncoming tears. It was useless. I'd cried more in the past almost two years that I'd known the Avengers than I ever had in my entire life, as far as I could remember. I was such a child. I needed to man up and accept my fate, but I couldn't. So I cried instead.

There's no hope. There's just no hope.