Hey! It's been a while... I know.
I'm the worst, and to be honest I don't have any excuse for it other than: College built up in work, I'm finding Physics and Chemistry a bit easier to get through now, it's mostly revision but Maths is a tremendous pain. I suck at it! The other reason was that I burnt myself out of writing, I said it would happen at some point, can't remember if it was this story or not. But it happened :( I dislike myself for it and I'm sorry.
STVFOE season 3 just came to a close. To me it feels like all the endings are just mid-season finales and it's so infuriating to have to wait for more! Luckily, I heard it's already been confirmed for late July-Early August. Also, I don't know if I'll be able to quickly pump out chapters like I did before, I started work on this one on Saturday 7th April and it's now the 9th, I found it hard to get back into it but managed to get in the mood and do an extra 1200 words today. Anyhoo, onto the reviews!
zeldex72 - I always hated it when authors burnt out and stopped a fanfic. Guess it's a lot harder than it seems :P I'm back, don't know if I'll end up doing more quickly. But I really want to finish this story! Believe me.
Izaya - Hehehe, I tried to go for a darker feel. Don't know how well I've kept the story in this chapter. It's been over 3 months since I've touched it, I couldn't even remember Matt's name when I started! XD Hopefully I'll get into it soon.
Annabeth23456 - Thank you :)
Darth Becky 726 - Klingon? Who was I describing? I haven't ever seen Star Trek so I don't even know what I was thinking at that time :P
Enjoy~
Staircase
Marco had just left the dining hall and began to roam upwards, in search of Star's room, fear had started to swell in his body. Who knows what he would find once he reached the upper floor, the worst-case scenarios started to tug at him from the back of his mind. He hadn't the time to think about such things and so he shook it out of his head, unbeknownst to him he had accidentally let his senses become dull while trapped in his head. A loud thud roped him back to reality as he simply looked up from the stairs to meet a dagger in the eye. A beast with a looming shadow of death stood before him, lips closed: cracked, arms were clasped together behind his back. "What are you doing here, boy?" A lump formed in Marco's throat, he'd never forget this feeling of impeding doom, the sense that a deer would feel before being pounced on by a lion.
"freshen—I had to freshen up." The Diaz's mouth had barely moved an inch while choking out the brief clause. The King may have had a muscular physique but his mind wasn't nearly as sharp, he had accepted Marco's fragile excuse and proceeded to move downwards, ignoring Marco and barging straight past him. The Diaz began to move again shortly after and calmly walked upwards before starting into a quick pace once he was out of ear-range of River.
Star's Room
*THUD THUD THUD* Came the knock at the door, Star winced at the idea of her father waiting for he on the outside of the door. In fear of what would happen when he pushed his way through the oak door. "Star?" Marco whispered through the hinges, "Star?" He repeated once more, praying for any response at all from the princess. Said princess had perked up at this, she was previously hugging her pillow, sat in the corner of her bed with her head buried deep into the smooth silk cover. Now she looked up to the door and replied solemnly.
"Marco?" The male teen was familiar with this tone, broken and shaky. God dammit, I was too late.
"Star, can I come in?" Miss Butterfly slowly approached the door, trying her best to get her confidence up. She had thought that she would be able to stand up to her father this time: She was wrong.
"I'm sorry." She stumbled, the door currently was unlocked and Marco quietly tip-toed into the room.
"You've been saying that a lot." He replied, his head was hung low but his eyes were fixated on her.
She had ignored his remark and continued, "I thought I'd be fine. But, in the end I couldn't do anything. I could only sit there."
"Yes, you did." For the first time in their conversation, Star's eyes had met Marco's, confusion dwelled within the pearls. "But, had you stood up to him. Who knows what might have happened? Maybe he would've beaten you, or killed you, not as if anyone would've been able to stop him." Marco might've been trying to make Star feel better and play it cool, but hatred filled him due to the realisation that she could've died. "Get up." Said Marco sternly. He reached out for Star's sweaty palm and she focused her gaze once more, accepting the invitation she rose to meet him.
"Why?" She said followed by a slight cough at the end.
"We're going tonight." The butterfly's eyes had widened at the announcement.
"We-we planned for tomorrow." She had snatched her hand away and tried to mimic some sort of weird shapes with her hands, probably a means of calming herself down.
"We're going tonight." He repeated once more, the boy's eyes had hardened – protruding the princess' eyes with a stare that had probably just over half the intensity that River held. It was pointless to try and convince the Diaz otherwise, by now he had fully prepared himself mentally to go through with it. The anger that laid dormant in his body had shown signs of emerging when he had encountered Ophelia, Matt and River. However, he had always been unsure of himself before, this subconscious barrier had held him from being assertive in his actions. He only had to convince Matt to keep Ophelia busy tonight.
Dining Hall – Entrance
The conversation between Marco and Star had only lasted a few minutes maximum, although, it felt as if the future was decided in that moment. A new era had begun to spring forth and Marco would ride that wave to the end, no matter how bitter it is.
Dining Hall
The left massive door was currently open, the right one laid closed – it was unnecessary to leave two to of them open, it would have only let more of a draft through. The teen made his way slowly to the area before the royals and knelt on one knee. "Pardon for the intrusion." He spoke with a newfound confidence. The King was now sitting in the centre seat.
"Forgiven." River replied nonchalantly while holding his glass out for another batch of wine to be poured. Moon was sitting with both hands in her lap, Marco gave her a quick glance – the kind that would mostly go unnoticed unless you were paying attention for it. Luckily, she was, the message itself wasn't anything particular. A simple gaze to say 'I need to have a word with you after.'
The boy walked over next to Matt again and sat down, proceeding to eat the dessert which had just been swapped for his plate along with all other Chosen. The Diaz kept a straight face while talking, he didn't move his eyes, "Matt." Aforementioned lad perked up, "We're going tonight."
"I'll take care of her." Matt didn't require much convincing, he was the kind of guy that'd be ready to go into a fight had you given him 10 seconds notice.
"What are you guys talking about?" Al asked innocently.
"Al, if this works out we'll tell you – but if it doesn't there's a 99.9% chance that we're all going to be executed. I'd rather you not go down too."
"The hell? You're planning to risk everything and not involve me? I thought we were friends." Alfonzo's head was about halfway across the table at this point.
"We can talk more later." Marco stated before motioning for Al to hush, not wanting any others to overhear their conversation.
Once the dinner had been cleared, Marco and co headed for their respective rooms. "Hey, you two," Al called as he chased behind them, "what's this I hear about being executed?" His concern was evident in both gestures and tone. Queen Moon had left during the closing speech by the servants.
"We can discuss it later, I just ate!" Marco jokingly replied as he hurried away to his own personal quarters. Matt was soon to follow leaving Alfonzo standing outside the dining hall's partially opened doors to state in curiosity and worry.
After the duo had escaped Al's onlooking eyes, they both started to converse – "We're going tonight?"
"Yeah."
"I thought the plan was for tomorrow." Matthew was slightly lagging behind Marco, struggling to keep up.
"We don't have the luxury of waiting longer. We're taking Ophelia down tonight." Eventually, they had hit the floor that housed them for the time being and Matt caught up to Marco's stride, although when he looked for his newfound friend he only found eyes of calm rage. The kind that an assassin holds before they strike for a kill.
The two approached Marco's room and slowly unlocked it, they had arrived to find that a few of the lamps in the room had already been lit. A royal was sitting in one of the chairs that laid in the corner: Moon. "Queen Moon," both exclaimed in unison, she was never one for formalities, however, the castle made sure to reinforce on the first day that they were welcomed as an extended family for their time here. "To what do we owe the pleasure?" Matt continued.
"Let's skip that chit-chat, what do you need from me?" Straight to business, the old Marco may have been taken aback by this sudden boldness: The current Marco was not the old Diaz.
"Sorry to ask of this Queen," he began, "but I'm going to need you to keep River distracted for a few hours tonight." A soft glow lit all of their faces, Marco was stood 2 steps in front of Matt, Queen Moon was about 2 metres opposite Marco – a green, velvety chair had encompassed her frame.
"Do I need to know why?" Mrs Butterfly had been staring into the ground for a while now, but she had raised her head to directly address Marco.
"Not really, but I'll tell you it involves Ophelia… Need anymore?"
… A long pause had enclosed the room into an ominous aura, all minds were ticking away with their own conclusions and suspicions. Ah crap, what if she doesn't take it? We don't have a backup for keeping River busy, yeah, she might dislike her husband and second 'daughter' but that'd be no reason for her to want the girl to go down in flames.
'Marco! You're being way to direct, I know you might be pissed off but this is a bit aggressive don't you think!?' Matt was being honest, for some reason the Diaz had been far more reckless today than all of his life combined.
…
"How many hours?" - SHE TOOK IT! Screamed the primary teen in his head. A barely audible – at least to the Queen's aged ears – sigh escaped from Matt's throat.
"Three. If possible, as long as possible really. Three would be the maximum we'd need." The town was only about a 30-minute walk from the gates, if he and Star hurried they could probably make it in 15-20 minutes. Excess of 2 hours would be plenty of time to find the bar and get the confession…
…
Wait.
…
How am I going to get the confession? I can't keep a record of his voice… Or can I? There were those new 'audiographs?' I think they're called, but they're ridiculously expensive. Who would have on—
"Moon," Marco cheekily tagged on at the end.
"Yes?" She replied.
"One more thing, would you happen to have one of those audiographs within the castle?"
"We have a few, why?" She had dragged the 'y' on for some time.
"May I borrow one for something?" It took her a second to respond, probably a bit frustrated that at the audacity of the young boy.
"I'll have a servant deliver one to your room within the hour."
"Thanks Queen Moon." Matt and Marco stated in unison once more. *6:30 PM*
6:53PM – Marco's Room
Moon and Matthew left for their own jobs to complete a little while ago. Leaving Marco alone in his room, once the audio-*Knock knock* Speak of the devil.
Marco dove up from his bed to jog to the door when he opened it with a casual swing, "Hi Em, you brought the thing?" The personal assistant looked at him blankly.
"I don't know what on Earth you'll be using this for but here." Her hands reached out to hand deliver the parcel, the teen gratefully accepted – it was about a third of the size of a gramophone and held a little keycard-like thing in it. It used a hole puncher to store imprint graves and bumps in the card, this allowed for playback – close to the original sound. A new piece of technology that only came to public view about 3 months ago. Not as if anyone that lived near Marco could afford one. They weren't very good for storing music, the cards weren't massive at all given the size of the thing – but they were excellent for recording small conversation: Perfect for what he needed.
"Thanks a bunch, Em! You really are the best!" He shouted back to her as he darted out his room and left for the staircase. 'Is he going up? That's where the royals live!' Emilia was in hot pursuit of the teen.
Upper Floor
Once Emilia had locked the Diaz's room and carefully jogged up the stairs, not wanting to be spotted herself as only a few selected servants were permitted to be up here. She gazed around for a moment before giving up figuring that he probably had some reason to be up here. 'I don't get paid enough for this.' Was her last thought before she grabbed a hold of the railing and proceeded down the stairs.
Star's Room – 10 Seconds Previously
"Star, psst! Open up!" Marco silently pleaded while standing outside the princess' housing. A few seconds went by smoothly and then Marco heard footsteps coming up the stairs to his right. "Star hurry!" He pleaded once more, that was when the door fell through and he collapsed onto the young princess. The door had been left open but luckily the fall wasn't too noisy considering there was a carpet.
The teens practically froze, Marco because he didn't know who was coming up those stairs, what if they came over here and saw this?! All of it would be ruined! Star was frozen because of something else… Namely, someone else.
Ending Notes:
I probably could've wrote more, but I have a physics test tomorrow and I need to revise. Also, I didn't want to make a massive chapter here and then completely forget about the next 'part'
I think I've lost track of what day we're on right now, I remember that I was trying to time it out all realistically but I forgot :P
Review! It helps me know you're still interested, leave constructive criticism or praise, whichever is fine and anything else is fine too! Peace~