A/N: I was in a solemn mood so decided that this would be a good time to finish up writing the serious part of this final chapter.
Please be reminded that all stories/characters are fictitious and anything you recognise do not belong to me. Any resemblance to actual persons is unintentional.
I do not own Austin & Ally.
Fin
Trent chuckled as the rest all expressed surprise with the exception of Trish.
"Aww, Trish baby, aren't you going to greet me?" He grinned at the aforementioned girl who shot a look of disgust at him.
"You are repugnant. I detest you."
Trent didn't seem offended at all.
"And to think we were so happy together while in Marino High," the man smirked.
Trish gave him a fake smile before turning away from him.
The rest were extremely confused by the two's interaction as well as Trent's appearance.
"Trent, what are you doing here?" Austin asked tentatively, unsure of the situation right now.
"Finishing what the stupid witch was supposed to do," Trent grinned maliciously. "Getting rid of all of you."
There was a beat of silence.
"What…?" Ally asked, confused, before taking a step back as a flash of silver emerged from the cloaks of Trent's and it proved to be a knife.
The men took protective stances in front of the women.
"We don't understand, Trent. Who are you really and why are you involved in this?"
Trent cocked his head to the side and looked at them as if he was considering Austin's words.
Suddenly switching to their form of formal speech, he continued. "I was going to let you all disappear without a clue as to why you are going to die but now that I think about it, it would seem more fun to see the knowledge of your impending dooms and looks of helplessness on your faces as I wipe the life from your eyes." His eyes flashed malevolently.
"You see, it all started when all we were trying to do, was to make a living," Trent continued, pacing in a relaxed manner, with little regard for the tense royals in front of him. "Everything was going oh so well. But your fathers, the current royal highnesses," Trent said sardonically. "Were so consumed with your idiotic, narcissistic wants and the upcoming royal galas and balls to pay attention to the needs of your people. Everyone needed a chance to defend themselves. You were denying them of it!" He spit out at Austin and Dez.
"What needs? What exactly are you talking about?" questioned the ginger prince.
"And who is 'we'?" Dallas had piped up.
"I thought brainwashing Trishy here would allow me to deal you with an additional blow of being hurt by someone close to you but apparently your love triumps all?" Trent continued, not acknowledging their questions.
"To think I went to all the effort to get a fake mother for you Trishy-poo." He smirked at the bristling girl. "You were supposed to believe your 'mother' that they were a threat to your family and kill them." He clicked his tongue. "I guess that woman was not as good an actress as she claimed to be after all, was she?"
"What needs were you talking about, Trent?" Austin repeated Dez's query calmly and that seemed to tick Trent off.
"THE NEEDS?!" He roared, specks of spit hitting them as he rounded on the group. "HOW ABOUT JUST BASIC SURVIVAL?! YOUR FATHERS WERE SUPPOSED TO TAKE ACTION AND CLAMP DOWN UPON THE ILLEGAL BREACHING OF THE LANDLORD-TENANT LAW BY THE RICHER GENTRY WHO WERE BULLYING THE WORKING CLASS!"
Trent breathed heavily. "Men were there to claim the rent from us. We had owed them 3 months' rent because the harvest was poor the past seasons, but finally, there was some hope as the upcoming winter chill had promise of a wonderful harvest of winter crops. My father begged them for just a little more time. Just a little…But no, they said we could trade something of ours in return, just to stave off a tiny portion of the rent – my sister."
"My parents refused, of course. But they tried to drag her away. Fortunately, the other members of my family managed to beat them off. But they returned the next day, with twice the number of men, twice the force, and twice the damage. Not only did they take my sister with them, but they had also torched our entire farm. My entire clan died that night," Trent gave a humourless chuckle.
"Throwing their stupid silly selfless selves onto the burning flames in an attempt to stop the fire, in the hopes that the ones who survived might be able to salvage something. Of course, all that was left were cinders, ashes and some smouldering embers. The ones who had survived? Most of them died in despair, whether by their own hands, or of a broken heart. I do not know what became of my sister, did she get used by the men till death? All I know was that I am still unable to find her."
"And no one was even brought to justice over that. Almost twenty people died that night, but all the magistrates did was to cover it up as an accidental fire and then proceeded to attend your glitzy dances and receive 'funding' from the perpetrators for their causes. Why were we ignored? Was it because we were no more than you white men? Was it because we were poor? Whatever the reasons, how can your fathers speak of an upright sovereign if the murders of a dozen people can be considered as merely an 'unfortunate accident'?"
Trent smirked at the solemn group. "Well, whatever, I guess the fun is over now. Look on the bright side, at least you guys will suffer less than those corrupted officials."
"No." A feminine voice spoke.
Trent turned around to see Cassidy glaring at him, it was as if all her anger from before had returned and there were tears of anger in her eyes.
"Just because you were wronged did not give you the right to take innocent lives for your personal revenge. Repayment of debt is right but I sympathise with the conditions of repayment that those men had caused for you and your family. However, regardless of your reasons, your actions show that you are no different from the men who took your family's lives. Just because you wanted to use me as a pawn in your scheme...my family was not involved in this. Not one bit. They did not deserve their outcome either. So did you really think that you could just share your criminal confessions and plans with everyone without consequence?!" It was Cassidy's turn to smirk as Trent frowned at the blonde.
"Big mistake," her tone turned cold.
A strong wind suddenly blew about the entire place but it wasn't blowing them away, it was sucking them in, towards a white light which had suddenly appeared at the end of the room.
The two princesses grabbed the two unconscious children as they were being dragged with the wind. What they didn't expect was for Trent to suddenly grasp at their ankles as he was being sucked in.
The princes tried to hold on to the misses as Dallas tried to release the man's death clasp on them.
Ally shrieked as she lost grip of Austin on one of her hands and Dez tried to pull Tris.
Trent punched Dallas in the chin, causing his own grip to loosen on Ally and Austin took the opportunity to push Ally to hold onto the bolted stair banisters before struggling against the air currents to assist his men.
Trent's actions had caused the rest of the group to get dragged further along the ground towards the light and the three men used all their strength and shoved Trent's clutch off of Trish.
With a loud screech, Trent disappeared into the bright light.
The group stood there, shell-shocked and stunned.
"Is he…?" whispered Ally.
Cassidy shrugged tiredly. "Oh relax, he is not dead. I just sent him back to Neilaz. He should be unconscious and waiting for us when we return. I just wanted to see him panic a little."
Austin sighed in relief, running his hair through his hair. His lips closed in a thin firm line before he turned back to the rest of them with a weary glance of hope and longing.
"Let us go home."
-end-
A/N: Whoa. What'd you think? Aye, please note that this story is probably historically inaccurate (It's fantasy) such as the language/English/racial issues but I think some of the issues raised were probably prevalent/relevant at the time. I recommend reading Marrakech by George Orwell. It really makes you think.
There's still a short epilogue to come soon. :)