"HEY! YOU! STOP!" a voice behind CJ yelled as she quickly ducked between two market stands and started running.
She had stealthily managed to swipe almost an entire batch of apples from the fruit stand in the market, but a seam in her bag had forsaken her, and numerous apples had started to tumble across the market. It was only at this moment that the salesman had spotted her, so she immediately sprinted away without looking back.
It did not take long before she had managed to lose her pursuer, who was not the most athletic, by using one of the market stands to jump onto a roof and quickly make her escape.
She unwillingly thought back to Freddie again. She used to be the one to distract the salesman to allow her to steal. Ever since Freddie had left, CJ had not managed to find a suitable replacement yet.
She also knew she had to be extra careful, since most of the market stands were under protection of Harriet and her crew. Stealing from them thus meant that she had called the wrath of her big sister over herself even more.
CJ climbed over a couple more roofs, heading for Freddie's former home. Her little shelter near Bargain Castle had recently fallen into the hands of Uma's gang of pirates, who took the opportunity to take everything that Mal had ever owned. CJ had thus been forced to find a new residence, and had temporarily moved into Freddie's former room, which naturally stood empty.
Lost in her own thoughts, she hadn't noticed three people appearing on the other side of the roof she was standing on, not until she heard a loud bang.
"Aah!" She screamed as she felt a blinding pain in her right upper arm and she fell to the floor. She looked at her arm and saw how some pointy objects had lodged themselves in her skin. As she was looking, she saw the blood quickly seep through her sleeve and soak her arm. Before she could do anything, two pairs of hands roughly pulled her up to her feet and she looked straight at Clay Clayton, who was reloading his shotgun.
"You are getting sloppy." He remarked as he gave her a sarcastically disappointed stare. "Not only dropping your loot, but letting us catch you as well? That's so not like you CJ."
"What do you want?" CJ scoffed at him.
Clay grinned evilly. "Why, you've been stealing our property. You deserve to be punished. Of course, Harriet will decide your official punishment, but I guess she won't mind if I rough you up a bit. You know, for trying to escape." He said, and he socked her in the stomach.
She would have fallen down if not for the two people keeping her up. Clay grabbed her by the chin and made her look up at him. "Shame really. Such a pretty face." He grinned. CJ spat at him, but he just wiped it off with a smile.
"Fuck you!" she yelled, which caused her a hard slap in the face.
"I've heard enough, let's get her back to Harriet." Clay said, and his two goons obediently followed him.
CJ resisted her captors, but both of them were stronger than her, so she had to reside to dirty tactics. She quickly kicked one of the two in the shins and whipped her braid around into the other's face. Both goons uttered cries of pain and CJ tore herself from their grasp and immediately ran off.
"Idiots!" she heard Clay yell, and she ducked right before she heard another shot from the shotgun and it missed her. "Get her!"
She started running again, looking back briefly to see Clay and his goons following on a relatively close distance. As long as she would keep running, Clay would have no time to reload his shotgun, and she reckoned that she was fast enough to outrun them eventually. So, she kept running, and jumping, and climbing. For her, it felt as if they had been going at it for almost an hour. She was getting tired but had noticed the distance between her and her pursuers grow.
When she looked back again, she saw that only the two goons remained, Clay had apparently given up the chase. She dropped down from a low roof, turned into a narrow alley, went through a window, out the other side and back up a roof. Jump over to the next roof, down a fire escape, jump over into a second-story window and out the other side of the building again. She went around one more building before hiding behind a boiler on the top of another roof, and she listened.
Aside from the noise down in the streets, she heard nothing. She took the risk and peeked around her hiding place. Nothing. It appeared as though she had managed to shake off her pursuers. She stayed hidden at that place for a couple more minutes, before starting to relax. "That had been close." She thought to herself. Clay had been right, she had become sloppy. From now on, she would need to plan her robberies more carefully and think out some escape routes.
She then had to tend to her arm, which had really started to hurt during her escape. She saw several pointy objects, mainly small pieces of steel, still sticking out of the wound. Since there were no bullets on the isle, Clay had to adjust his shotgun to mainly fire debris. She carefully picked out all the things she could spot and wound a piece of cloth tightly around the wound, she would have a closer look when she would get back to her shelter.
The way to Freddie's old room wasn't too long from her temporary hiding place and she soon spotted the make-shift entrance through the roof she had constructed. She was once again quite absent-minded and again she heard a loud bang before this time feeling pain in her left leg.
She screamed again as she fell down and clutched her leg. When she looked up, she saw Clay with six goons this time heading her direction from the next roof.
CJ picked herself up as fast as she could before limping towards the entrance to Freddie's room. She kicked it open and let herself fall in. She roughly landed on the cold stone floor and managed to drag herself to a corner of the room with a lot of groans.
She watched in horror as Clay and his goons let themselves fall into her shelter one by one. They all grinned as they saw her laying in the corner, bleeding and exhausted. The last person to fall through the entrance was Clay himself, who joined his goons as they stood over her smiling maniacally.
"Nowhere to run this time." Clay said softly. "I spoke to Harriet, she said she did want you alive, but gave no further mind about what state you would be in."
CJ tried to hoist herself up on a nearby closet, and slowly removed her sword from her scabbard. "Try me." She said panting.
A few of the goons stared at her thoughtfully, but Clay only scowled. "I have no need of more scratches." He then directed himself to his goons. "Do with her as you please but leave her alive. When you've all had your turn, bring her back to headquarters."
The goons slowly approached her, and CJ prepared herself for fighting harder than she'd ever had to do, when she heard a voice from behind the others.
"Leave her." A cold and emotionless voice said.
Everyone looked back, and they saw Solomon standing in the doorway. He looked extremely menacing, with his hands behind his back and his dark eyes glistering with anger. He took one step into the room and all the goons took a step back.
"S-she stole from us!" Clay said, trying to sound brave but failing miserably. "She deserves to be punished."
Solomon stared at him for a couple of seconds and CJ saw Clay cower under his dead-eyed gloom. "I don't care, you leave her alone and you leave this place right now." Solomon slowly said.
"You are not my boss." Clay said through gritted teeth.
Solomon raised an eyebrow. "I'm not telling you this as your boss, I'm telling you this as the guy who will cut up your face so bad you will never want to look into a mirror again if you don't do as I say. Now, leave!"
This apparently made the bucket of fear within the group of goons run over, and the first few already scrambled to escape the building.
Clay kept staring at Solomon with pent-up rage for a few more seconds before uttering words again. "Harriet will hear of this, she will not be happy."
"I will reimburse everything CJ has taken from you, that should be enough. Now, get the fuck out of my face." Solomon replied.
With one more furious look at Solomon, Clay left the room, leaving CJ alone with the former.
"How are your wounds?" Solomon said without any compassion.
"Bleeding." CJ said with a scoff at Solomon.
"Sit down. Let me handle this for a second." He told her. After a hesitant couple of seconds, she complied. Solomon took out a small flask of dark green liquid and popped off the cork. "Put your leg forward." He told her, and so she did. He poured around ten drops of the potion onto the wound in her leg. CJ screamed as she felt an intense, burning sensation and she grabbed her leg.
"What the hell!?" she yelled at Solomon.
"It will hurt a bit for now, but it will heal the wound." He replied.
The pain indeed quickly subsided and when CJ removed her hands from her leg, she saw that the debris had been removed from her wound and the bleeding had been stopped.
"Now your arm." Solomon said, and CJ gave him another hesitant look before unwrapping the cloth in her upper arm.
Solomon poured a few less drops on this wound and CJ managed to hold in her screams of pain this time. The wound in her arm quickly healed as well and Solomon put the cork back onto the flask.
"I guess I should thank you." CJ told him after Solomon hadn't spoken for a while. "For healing my wounds, not for getting rid of those goons." She clarified.
"Yeah, because you were completely in control of that situation." Solomon said skeptically as he looked around Freddie's old room.
CJ chose to ignore that last comment. "Why are you here? Why help me?" she asked him. When Solomon didn't answer, she pressed on. "I already said I want no part in the war. So why come here?"
Solomon remained silent for a few more seconds before answering. "Multiple reasons. I did want to ask you to reconsider my offer." He said as he looked at her.
"I already told you no." CJ said as she crossed her arms.
"You won't even reconsider, given that I just saved you from whatever those brutes were about to do to you?" he asked.
"I would have managed." CJ said stubbornly.
"They were with seven. You were pretty badly wounded. All Clay said was that they had to leave you alive, who knows what they might have done?" Solomon said as he walked towards her. "Pretty girl like you, I doubt if they would have stopped at just beating the crap out of you."
CJ angrily looked into Solomon's dark eyes, but she could not stop tears from welling up in her eyes. "Shut up!" she said with clenched jaw.
Solomon raised his hands. "Alright. I don't mean to upset you, just wanted to point out what I've saved you from."
"Why do you want me to join you so badly?" CJ asked. "Go bother one of the other people on the isle!"
Solomon grinned. "You must know that you're quite extraordinary, CJ. Someone like you can be of so much use to someone like me."
CJ raised an eyebrow. "And how would I be of use?"
"You are an excellent fighter, from what I know you're not dumb either, you know strategy and you have a knack for managing to infiltrate nearly every building imaginable. Furthermore, even I must admit you are quite easy on the eye, definitely enough so to persuade any 'hesitant allies'." Solomon said.
CJ blushed at this, it had become quite rare for people to complement her.
"Should you decide to join me, I can give you food and shelter, a place for you to belong. You no longer have to take any shit from Harriet or Uma, I have them both right here." He said, and he showed the palm of his right hand. "Join me in taking over Auradon and you will be rewarded."
CJ stared at him. She saw no lies in his eyes, but with Solomon she could never truly be certain. If she had to be honest with herself, she was quite sick of having to basically live on the street fighting for scraps. It would be nice to have someone to fall back on, even if that someone was Solomon, whom she did not trust at all. She could not escape the feeling that he wasn't telling her everything though.
"What more is there?" CJ asked.
"Excuse me?" Solomon replied.
"You're full of shit. You do not need me that badly that you would await me here, you have some ulterior motive, what is it?" She asked straight to the point.
For a second Solomon really looked pissed, before he answered with a slight frown. "Fine. You heard what I said during my 'opening speech'? About the cauldron, how I might need a more powerful magic source to activate it?"
"Yeah." CJ said. "I remember."
"On the isle," Solomon continued as he started pacing around, "There are basically only me, Uma and Maddy who are able to wield reasonably powerful magic, but I fear that that won't be enough. So, I started looking elsewhere. From the villain kids who have left the isle recently, there are two with sufficient magical prowess to be useful in our plan, Mal and Freddie."
CJ sat up straight when Solomon mentioned Freddie. This was apparently the reason why he needed her. "And you want me to persuade Freddie to join your cause?" she said with a raised eyebrow.
Solomon grinned. "See, I said you were smart. That is indeed a part of my plan. Should we be able to bring down the barrier, I would love for as much villain kids as possible to join us in our conquest. Mal and her gang have sadly made it quite apparent that they have permanently sided with good, but I have not heard any concrete news of Freddie. When we eventually invade Auradon, I want her to join us, she could have a very important part to play. But there is one problem."
"She hates you." CJ scoffed.
Solomon bit his lip. "Yeah, it's true we have not buttered well in the past, and that's where you come in. You and Freddie were good friends when she was still on the isle, she will listen to you."
"And why would I tell her to join you when I don't even want to myself?" CJ asked with a small smirk.
Solomon's look darkened for a second, before he started smirking to. "You're bad CJ, I know that, but you're not the 'okay with your friends dying' kind of bad. When I eventually invade Auradon, I may need Freddie, and she can join me voluntarily or I can force her. If she makes me force her, I will be really mad, and I might decide that she will not be necessary to have around when I have conquered Auradon."
CJ paled at this.
"So, you see," Solomon continued, "You can help me here, and not only will I give you whatever your heart desires, but you may also be saving your friend's life. Now, doesn't that sound like a good offer? Also, should you refuse, I might not be as helpful the next time you get yourself in trouble."
CJ stared at Solomon with a mixture of hatred and fear. This was no longer an offer to work together, this was blackmail! If she refused, he would probably have Harriet and her goons back in a whim to have their way with her. Furthermore, if she refused and Freddie would not voluntarily join up with Solomon, Freddie would die. As much as CJ despised Solomon at the moment, she could not let anything happen to Freddie if she would have had the chance to stop it from happening.
"You're saying that, if I do not help you and you take over Auradon, you might kill Freddie?" CJ asked.
"Kill? Maybe. You can be pretty damn sure it won't be pretty though." Solomon said with a grin.
"So, what if you get defeated?" CJ replied.
Solomon looked at her questioningly. "Excuse me?"
"What if you get defeated? What if you won't manage to beat Auradon's forces?" She repeated.
Again, Solomon's look darkened, only this time it remained. "Do you really want to take that chance? You really plan on risking dear Freddie's life on the possibility I might not win this war? If you need some more persuasion, I guarantee you that I am putting all I have into my goal of burning Auradon to the ground."
CJ swallowed, he had a point. Was she willing to risk Freddie's life, and possibly her own, on the chance that Solomon might not win the war? No.
"Fine. When the time comes I will talk to Freddie. I'll see if I can make her join your cause. And in exchange, you make sure I will no longer get harassed by Harriet or Uma, or anyone else and Freddie's life gets spared."
Solomon smilingly placed a hand on his heart. "You have my word, villain's promise." He said, and he spat on the ground. "Good to have you on board CJ, if you want, you can join my gang at the den. You can have a steady place to sleep and some good companionship."
"I'll pass on that. I'll just stay here." CJ replied and nudged her head in the general direction of Freddie's room.
"If it suits you." Solomon replied as he turned around and was about to leave. "One more thing, I might occasionally want you around for meetings we have concerning the upcoming battles, I will probably send one of my men to fetch you, should the need arise. And you better come when I want you to." Solomon said with a dark smile before climbing out of the entrance.
CJ felt conflicted over all other emotions. On the one hand, she wanted nothing to do with Solomon or his maniacal schemes, he was pure chaos and evil and CJ knew he cared very little, if anything at all, for anyone but himself. But on the other hand, he had given her a tempting offer, and she had to take it, both for Freddie's and her own sake.