A/N : I am truly floored for your patience and dedication, truly! Life isn't doing so good to me lately and made me abandon this story for 2 months and yet you still come back (and even left review, thanks for that!). I feel better this week so it would be appropriate to continue this fic for your holiday present. I know it's short but I hope you still find it pleasing and willing to once again wait for the next update patiently. Happy holiday to you all and may the new year treat you better than 2016!

Disclaimer : I do not own Glee, but the plot of this story is mine

Gamble and Outcome

Blaine's hands were as cold as Kurt's power and he was sure his father noticed this too, but he maintained the tip of his sword right at the King's neck and threw a death glare toward Jeremiah and Sebastian.

"Take off your power from them," he instructed, nudged his head toward Rachel and Puck's direction.

For a tense moment, Jeremiah did nothing and instead gave Blaine the same ferocious death glare. That changed after Blaine put more pressure on the sword and earned a muffled groan from his father. In an instant, Rachel and Puck dropped onto their knees as they were broken out from the trance.

"Fuck," Puck groaned while he was gulping for air greedily. Rachel, however, somehow recovered faster and immediately crawled her way toward Finn who was still lying motionless on the floor.

Blaine really wanted to demand his father to lift his power from the other general and the Queen but he did not want to risk him sending other instructions once Blaine let his mouth being open. He moved his eyes away from Rachel who was now tending at Finn, felt that he was intruding their moment, and instead checked on Kurt.

He could not help but to smile again when he saw joy radiating from Kurt's used-to-be-dead eyes. Blaine's apology, Kurt's gratitude, and their faith on each other were being exchanged over eye contact and it was sending new wave energy to their poor state.

"Blaine, whatever they plant inside your head, snap out of it," Jeremiah said in a low, dangerous tone.

"You should hear yourself talking, soldier," Blaine replied mockingly at him.

"We're your friends-"

"FRIENDS DO NOT MANIPULATE THE OTHER INTO A SUICIDE MISSION, SMYTHE!"

Blaine was breathing heavily after he lost it and Sebastian looked as if Blaine had just slapped him.

"When all of the other generals turn their back at you, I trusted you," Blaine said through his gritted teeth, letting his anger sipping into each one of his word. "I defended you each time you use your power, said that you mean no harm with it. I was apparently lying to myself. Don't you dare call yourself a friend of mine after what you have done to me!"

"And you, father," Blaine's was cracking a bit as tears of anger and disappointments were brimming from his eyes. He lowered his voice s that only his father could hear him but the amount of hatred that he used did not lessen for a bit.

"I always know that I was such a disappointment to you and mother compared to Cooper. For a moment, you let me feel what it was like to make you proud and it scared me. If I had to throw away my morale and let you jeopardize Dalton because you are blinded with greed, then I don't need your love."

He looked straight at Kurt when he said his next words. "I already found the love I can fight for."

Blaine could feel his father's body shook, laughing soundlessly at him. Much to his surprise, he could not care even less. On the contrary, he was glad to finally say it out loud to him. He had lived long enough with pretentious.

From the corner of his eyes, he noticed that the Queen's stiff figure slowly broke down a bit. The King's power must had had run out by now.

However, he still had not figured out yet how he could get them out of the kingdom. Finn and Kurt were both in no condition to fight and the others were also pretty shaken up badly. Blaine would have to be careful not to let his father, their getaway key, out of his control or else.

When Blaine turned his head back, he met Jeremiah's eyes and noticed that he knew his problem and the horrible so called escape plan.

"You do realize that you are outnumbered, right?" the soldier said with a smirk on his face. "It is only a matter of time before you or they," he nodded toward the McKinley group, "make a mistake and we get the upper hand back."

"We'll see about that," Blaine replied coolly despite the fear that began to crawl under his skin, knowing too well that he was right.

"Puck, you okay?" he called, eyes still piercing through Jeremiah as a challenge.

"Yeah, I'll live" the general grunted back after managed to get back on his feet.

"Bring the others out of here. I'll make sure they let you through."

After the general nodded and moved to tend the Queen, Blaine then moved his attention to Kurt who still had not utter a single word and began to worry him.

"Kurt, hey," Blaine tried to break the prince from his trance and for a moment there was no glint of light in his eyes. Then, slowly, his golden eyes lazily moved and landed on Blaine. "That's it. Just focus on me." The Dalton Prince forced himself to remain calm before continued speaking to him once he was sure that he got his full attention.

"Kurt, follow Puck and get your mother and Finn to safer place, alright?

It took another second too long for Kurt to start moving his limbs, trying to get on his feet. However, it soon became obvious that his body finally took its toll from the battle and constant mental assaults. Kurt was barely able to balance himself on one leg before he stumbled back to the ground on his side. Blaine would have launched himself to him if he was not holding the King. His father, again, shook in laughter; he did not know whether he was laughing at Kurt of his escape plan.

"Come on, Kurt. I know you can do it. Hang on a little bit longer for me," Blaine encouraged the fallen prince with louder voice, trying to drown the King and Jeremiah's mockery. It was to no avail.

"Face it, Blaine. There is a huge hole in that so called plan of yours," Jeremiah finally broke his thought as he, to Blaine's horror, started to walk toward Kurt. Knowing how his power works, Blaine pressed his sword harder to the neck to hold him back. "Stay back!"

Jeremiah's red eyes turned darker like a predator. "Or what?"

To prove his point, Blaine drew a drop of blood from his father's neck. Oddly enough, the King's heartbeat did not escalate a bit, not since from the beginning.

The soldier slowed his pace but the murderous expression on his face had not softened. "We both know that you won't kill the King. You know why? If you have even the slightest gut to kill, you would stand by our side in this battle."

He took another step forward, shortening the distance between himself and Kurt who still had not moved from the ground.

"Quit acting like you're one of us. It's cute. We gave you the chance, millions of them, to prove yourself that you are truly a Dalton and you blew every single one of them. So, do your worst, but I swear to Dalton we will end this before you and your little weaklings even get the chance to touch that door."

Jeremiah's words felt like a hard slap on his face. For the first time, the hand that held his sword slightly trembled. Hearing his doubts being voiced so loud by the person he used to be closed with was like engraving it to his heart. Jeremiah was right. No matter how much he hated his father, he would never have the courage to go farther than this.

The weight of Soldier's Pill inside his pocket reminded him that it would backfire to himself if he ate it and tried to fight all of them to give an opening for his McKinley friends. These were also people he cared about. Sure, his father was never there for him and Sebastian kept teasing him merciless, but the King was still his father and the general always got his back. The only person he could attack using the pill was Jeremiah, and he was not even sure if that was enough to get Kurt and the others out of here.

Blaine was eyeing at Kurt's pitiful effort on trying to get back up with little success, and then shifted his gaze to meet Puck and Rachel's eyes. They were both wearing a matching grim but still determine expression, as if all three of them knew what they had to do. There was no way Puck and Rachel could carry Kurt while they were tending Finn and the Queen. Blaine also could not release one of his hands or even let his guard down in front of Jeremiah. Three of them only saw one way exit in this situation.

"You're right," Blaine went back to face Jeremiah. "I'm done running away from who I truly am. Sand."

As soon as a handful of sand appeared on the palm which covered his father's mouth, Blaine stabbed his shoulder and shoved the sand into his mouth when he yelped in pain.

After that, everyone moved at the same time. Blaine threw the king to the side while Jeremiah launched himself at Kurt. For a brief second, Blaine's heart stopped when the soldier laid his hand on the prince but Puck quickly tackled him to the ground and both wrestled to gain upper hand. The corner of his eyes saw Sebastian followed Jeremiah's step by trying to approach Kurt, probably to use him as leverage.

"Crossbow!" He shot two arrows at the general while at the same time reached for the pill inside his pocket. One of the arrow managed to hit his arm and threw him few steps back but that gave enough time for Blaine to kneel in front of Kurt and grabbed his jaw, trying to work it open.

It had to be him. No one else.

Before he could slip the tiny pill onto Kurt's mouth, a hand grabbed Blaine by the hair and dragged him away from the prince. The pill slipped from his fingers and Blaine watched in horror as it rolled next to Kurt who was still unresponsive. Blaine looked up just in time to see his father was opening his mouth in anger, to use his power on him without a doubt. Blaine swung his hand to bat the hard grip on his hair only to meet with empty air as Rachel slammed her fist directly to the King's face; he knew because a drop of blood fell to Blaine's nose.

Blaine quickly scrambled to get the pill back and once he reached Kurt again, he force opened his limp jaw and shoved it inside before closing it again and prayed for it to work. He could only do that much because in the next second, Sebastian launched at him and sent them both to the side just like Puck and Jeremiah.

"Blaine, you don't have to do this!" Sebastian said through his gritted teeth as he was trying to strangle Blaine with his arm. Blaine was having none of it as he summoned a knife and used it to slash Sebastian's arm and freed himself.

"I should be the one saying that to you!" Blinded with anger, Blaine was the one who initiate the first attack this time. He tried to plant the knife to his limbs to slow him down but Sebastian, equally pissed at this point, kicked it out of his hand and once again tried to pin Blaine down.

Both fought for a brief moment and Sebastian, being bigger than Blaine, gained the upper hand and managed to go behind Blaine's back and snaked one of his arm around the neck while the other hand clasped onto his mouth, silencing him. Blaine tried to break free but Sebastian's legs circled around his, practically bound him toward himself.

His heart skipped a beat as soon as he heard Sebastian was starting to speak right to his ear. Suddenly, he felt as if he relieved the same incident in Dalton's hall, the event that made all of this happened. The déjà vu feeling made Blaine sick and trapped, thus making him fought more ferociously before it was too late. However, Sebastian's grip on him was merciless.

No no no! He took a long and painful time to get back his memory. He could not let him erase it again and turned him against McKinley. Blaine would prefer to die than . . .

In the blink of an eye, Blaine's mind suddenly cleared out. His first instinct was gasping for air as Sebastian was practically choked him just now. For whatever reason, his body was freed from the general who was trying to brainwash him yet again. From the corner of his bleary eyes, he noticed that Sebastian lay motionless on the ground. His head was soon drowning in a pool of his own blood that was seeping from the wound on his temple.

When Blaine finally forced his head to look up and saw his savior, the grin that slowly appearing on his face felt as if it could rip him into half.

Stood protectively above Blaine, with his sword that he dropped earlier on his left hand, was Kurt. He silently thanked Lord Dalton for his gift. The pill sure enough injected new energy to his body as he showed no signs that he was practically unconscious earlier. He was in a fighting stance, hovering above Blaine with such a furious expression aimed toward Sebastian's body.

For the first time, Blaine could really see the fire behind those golden eyes.

The will to keep fighting until the end.

Their eyes soon met and Kurt's new fire channeled into him too. They could still turn this battle around.

And Blaine could still prove the founders of Four Kingdoms that there was still another way to end the war.

A/N : Well, some of you are curious whether Kurt will get his power back after he ate the soldier pill. I assure you that he will (at the right time)

Reviews?