Reunion Royalty Take 26

(Within the Castle: Jousting Field)

Carlos was suiting up for another round after the first round had eliminated a bunch of the knights from both groups. He sighs as he was not happy as he had wanted to quit but he couldn't allow himself to be thought of as a coward either by throwing a battle.

Carlos wishes that he could express his true feelings to Ali but he was a guy and guys normally don't talk about their feelings to just anyone. Still, he had a feeling that she was definitely worth it but he got cold feet just thinking about it.

Meanwhile at the same time, Alicia or Ali as she was known to by Carlos was fidgeting in her seat as she just wanted this to end already so she could do what needed to be done and be the Queen and wife of Conners.

So why on Earth then was she so worried about Carlos, besides the fact that he was one of her best friends and going through an insane jousting competition in which he could seriously get hurt and all to win the honor of being some girl's dream knight in shining silver armor. She also knew that there was even silver armor being shined up for whoever was the winner and two white horses were being donated, one for knight and one for the girl to ride on when it was all over with the end of the competition at sunset so that they could ride off together towards it.

She had to admit that it was all incredibly romantic and sweet but at the same time it was also highly nerve wracking for her. Alicia did not want Carlos to be the prize of some girl that was obviously more fixated on having a literal knight than being able to have a great guy like Carlos. After all, only she knew Carlos in ways that no other person could possibly know.

Ali remembers her past with Carlos, all the times that they had done things for each other and swore never to tell another living soul. All the times he had done the sweetest of things for her and never once asked or called upon a favor because of it. She knew he was a very noble and sweet guy, so to have a guy like that who was her best friend go to a psychopathic girl. It really grated at her but like Carlos, she too had her duties.

It was as Ali thought about duties that she remembered what Carlos had once told her, "Sure duty is important. It is one of the most sacred things that we knights hold true but there are times when our heart tells us that what we have been asked to do, that our duty is wrong and it is then that we have to decide what is most important to us. Duty or our hearts." She remembers how she had then asked him how often something like that happened and how could anyone decide which was more right? With Carlos answering her, "I honestly don't know, but I figure that as long as the two work together. Then it is the right choice but when one or both feel wrong, it will be up to me to figure out how to make things right because no one else can tell me and no one else should."

Ali suddenly feels nervous with butterflies in her stomach as she thinks about Carlos and about Conner, the one whom she had promised to already be his. She didn't want Carlos to win, yet she knew he couldn't lose either as he was easily the best knight. She felt so helpless and tries to think about what to do even as she turns her head to look at HER and narrows her eyes at the hyper girl. "You better treat him right if you do win him, or I swear…" she thinks at the girl with her hands balling into fists slowly.

Annie certainly fit the image of a hyper girl that day, she couldn't stop bouncing in her seat in a most excited way as she cheered at every win by any of the knights but she was always cheering the most for the Carlos guy. She could tell right away that he was the best of the best out on the field.

Annie sighs dreamily as she saw his perfect posture, the strength that he carried himself with. It was as if he carried the weight of the whole world or something on his shoulders and yet he was strong enough to carry it. She wonders what it would be like to be in the arms of a knight like that, to feel such power and strength around her body. She shivers in anticipation.

Carlos stares down the field with the jousting lance in his hand, with a tight grip on it despite how nervous he felt. He had always disliked being in the suits of armor even though he had grown used to the armor, much like a shell of stiff protection around him. He had become adjusted to way the armor allowed him second chances but with how sore his body was feeling after all the fighting already, he knew that despite being the best, he was reaching his limits. Still, he had a duty as a knight and friend to give it his all and puts on his helmet before going out to meet his next opponent.

(Later)

The last opponent was on the ground, laying unconscious but not without a price as Carlos had sustained a serious blow and was bleeding.

Carlos feel to his knees even as Ali and Annie both rushed ahead of everyone to the field where he stood and considering both were in dresses, that was quite a feat for them. They both reach a side of Carlos, each grabbing a arm from different sides to help him. They both say in stereo, "Are you all right? You're bleeding! Hey! Stop saying everything I am saying! Stop that!" It is only when Carlos groans "Please stop fighting..." and becomes super heavy in their hands as he then passes out and is no longer helping the girls.

The two of them struggle to hold him up and are about to lose their grips when some of the others arrive and help the girls carry him to the stretcher that was being rushed towards their location. Ali and Annie look at him sadly as he is carried away. It is only once Carlos is off the field that Ali and Annie turn to each other and say in stereo, "I blame you! Me!" It looked like they would get into another shouting match when Shego shouts, "Augh! Will you two give it a rest? That is giving me a headache!" She ignites her hands in a threatening way to get them to fall quiet but that didn't stop the two of them from glaring at each other until the Golden Knight walks up and says, "Carlos is a tough knight, he has fought on through injuries that lesser knights would have surrendered to and even more surprisingly the doctors say he will be all right but he will be unconscious for some time, while his body heals."

Ali quickly says, "Can I see him?" with her hands clasped together before her with eyes that were equal to any puppy dog pout that Kim could muster.

"Perhaps later, give him time to heal for now. I doubt a knight of his caliber would want a lady to see him at anything less than his best or close to thereof." The Golden Knight says as he then turns to grab Annie who was trying to sneak off to where Carlos was. "That includes you as well." He says to Annie.

Mary on the other was feeling a bit mixed about the scene before her. A part of her wanted Carlos to win so that Alicia would understand how she was feeling better and at the same time she felt bad for Carlos as she didn't want him to enter into an agreement with someone he didn't want, much like how she considered the case of Conner and Alicia.

Meanwhile Connie had sneaked off with only her brother being the one who knew that she had done so since he could always sense his sister, it was a weird bond that they shared. Connie was exploring the large castle with Ronnie following after her to try and keep her out of trouble even though trouble seemed to be drawn to her like a magnet.

Ronnie calls out to his sister, "Where are you going? You are going to get into trouble for this you know!"

Connie says back, "What trouble? I am just explorin' big brother's castle."

Ronnie sighs and knew from experience that things were rarely black and white as his twin sister made things.

Connie enters a room and stops when she feels a cool breeze coming from between one of the rocks. She looks at the breeze and knew they were too deep in for the air change to be coming merely from the outside and starts to pat at the rocks and that is how Ronnie found her when he finally caught up to her.

Ronnie didn't know what she was up to but if she was searching that hard, then it was not a good thing. He walks up to her and says, "What are you doing?"

Connie remains quiet for a moment or two before she says, "Searchin'"

Ronnie knew he was going to regret asking but he asks anyway, "Searching for what?"

Connie at that moment pushes in a rock and the wall slides aside with a low grinding noise, "That!" She says very proud of herself for figuring it out.

Ronnie pops his eyes back into his head and says, "I don't think Conner would like us doing this. C'mon! Let's go back to the others!" He reaches out to grab her and pull her back the way they'd come when they hear a pair of servants talking as they walk through the hall, approaching where the twins were so Connie grabs her brother as she whispers, "In here, quick!" and pulls the two of them inside, closing behind them with the low grinding sound, coming to a stop with a soft thud followed by an almost inaudible 'click' just as the servants walk by.

They hear the first one of them saying, "I know I saw those kids go this way." The other says, "Forget those brats and remember the plan." The first one then says, "I know, I know but I really think he's reaching if he thinks he'll be King." The second one says, "Well, I for one won't lose any sleep if there's blood shed over the strangers..." Their voices trail off after that as they walk too far away from the peephole that Ronnie had moved to see who had been following them.

Ronnie turns and sighs as he realizes that he'd just done the worse thing possible. He had turned his back on his sister and now she had disappeared down the dark passageway. Fortunately he was as Stoppable, which mean no shortage of cool gadgets from Wade and since he was used to crawling through air ducts after his sis, it meant he had way to light his way. He brings his arm up and taps a button on his watch to activate something that hung just behind his ears that bring up a kind of light screen over his eyes that gives him the ability to track his sister's thermal signature and then taps another button to turn on a bright light on the watch.

Ronnie walks forward and is surprised when he sees a light switch not too far from where he stood and flips it up to turn on some soft-white 40 watt lights that are strung along the side of the ceiling. He thinks this is weird and turns off his wrist-light but keeps the thermal on so he can track her footprints and follows her on down the corridor.

(Meanwhile)

Drew was talking to Wade without his wife's knowledge since she was busy at the moment, "So what do you think?"

Wade rubs his chin and says, "I don't know Drew, it seems wrong to do something like that to your own daughter. Even if it will make Sheila happy."

Drew nods and says, "I botched it up somehow with the formula and all I'm asking is for you to figure out where I went wrong so I can fix things."

Wade lets out a heavy sigh as he then says, "Look Drew, I will look at the formula that you used and see why your daughter got her powers but I refuse to play any part in removing them without her express consent. That just wouldn't be right and I can't help but think you know that. You were evil once upon a time and you know that doing something like that is just wrong."

Drew growls softly and then almost shouts, "I know all that! I just don't want my wife to stay upset at me! You saw just as I did how angry she was when she wanted to pay back those knights for scaring and upsetting her over what happened to Jamie."

Wade nods and says, "Ok, ok... You've made your point but as scary as Sheila is when she's angry, just imagine how Kim and Sheila would be if you try to force a cure on Jamie."

Drew gulps quite loudly and takes a step back, "Y-You don't think..." Wade then smirks at him as he says, "Only a fool would upset those two without a really, really untouchable place to fall back to." He then clears his throat a few times before he says back to Wade, "You're right, fine! You win! I won't try anything until I've talked to everyone, is that better?"

"That's fine with me Drew" Wade says as he pulls out the scanner out of his pocket, "I should probably start with a current scan of Jamie and compare it with a previous scan of hers. An analysis of the formula shouldn't take too long after that." He turns it on and finds it odd that there is a waiting scan already on it. Curious, he pushes the button to see what it had on it.

Drew nods and says, "I'll go get Jamie then." He turns around and starts to walk forward when suddenly he finds himself almost choking on his collar since Wade had grabbed the back with a tight grip. He grabs at the collar, trying to get air and find his balance long enough to return to stepping back and returning to Wade so he could yell at him for doing that in the first place! After a few moments he is able to get his balance enough to step back and regain his ability to breathe. The adjusts his collar and turns to Wade to shout, "What was that for? You trying to choke me or something?"

Wade grabs Drew and pulls him closer as he whispers, "Shut up Drew! This is serious! Look at this!" He thrusts the screen up before Drew's face as he then says, "Do you see?"

Drew squints at the screen and grumbles, "All I 'see' is something about some person's DNA. Was this really worth choking me?"

Wade frowns as he knew Drew could be thick sometimes and this was not one of those times he needed Drew to be like that before he says, "Look again! Look at what it just told me about it!"

Drew stares at it, reading it more as he says, "All I see here is that your scanner picked up the DNA of Bonnie. So what?"

Wade shakes his head and lets out a sigh and says, "Drew, it is a miracle you've lasted this long..." He then continues before Drew can growl at him, "Listen up, the scanner device has an auto-shut off feature after an extended amount of time and given the time frame it could have only happened when we were all in the dungeon. So it if it picked up the DNA of Bonnie while down there and it wasn't Conner since it was already set to filter him. What do you suppose that means?"

Drew says, "Don't be ridiculous! How could it detect that woman that upset my wife so much down in the dungeons? That would have to mean that she was either still alive or that someone else down there had her DNA and we both know Conner is the only living child!"

Wade closes his eyes tightly in frustration before he opens them and sees Sheila heading their way and says, "I can see that talking to you isn't going to get anywhere. Just think though... who was the only other person we met down in the dungeons?" He then turns to head over to Kim when Drew grab him by the shoulder.

"I've got it! She is the one isn't she?" Drew says to Wade as Sheila gets close enough to overhear.

Sheila says, "Who is the one?" while looking at the both of them and obviously expecting an answer.

AN: Well everyone, I hope that you enjoyed this chapter. I am curious now as to what you think will happen with the knight tournament, will Monique's daughter get Carlos as her knight in shining armor? What do you think will the twins Connie and Ronnie discover in that secret area? What do you think the servants were talking about? Can you believe Drew was that dense? Would you tell Sheila that about what was on the scanner or would you lie your butt off?

As usual all hopes, thoughts, dreams, ideas, honest truth and ways to tickle Sheila with a feather are welcome as usual.