Simon

Oh Crowley, they are after me, aren't they? Honestly, that's the only explanation I can think of for this, and I just feel extremely guilty. Penny is having a real bad go of it, because of me. I mean, that's horrible, not what anyone needs in a friend. But I do think it is a little bit ridiculous that, after all that's happened, someone is still out to get me? I mean, can't they just let go. Oh Merlin, come to think of it, this all sounds a bit self absorbed, don't it? Maybe they aren't after me. No, surely not. Are they? Ugh, why can't I ever figure out anything. I really don't know now, but I know that if I'm to relieve any of my guilt, I have to find her. And Baz will help me, which is lucky. He has at least twice as much brain power as I do.

Baz

Snow is really freaking out at this. I can see it in his eyes, and by the way he runs his hand through his hair, ruffling it up, or starts biting his lip every so often. But I have a good idea of who I believe may have taken Bunce, so I tell him.

"Snow?"

"Hmm," he turns his head round slightly and I refocus my eyes on the road.

"Well, I think we need to head to Brighton." He makes a little huffing noise of uncertainty, and starts biting his lip again. "You see, I've heard that this family who own an estate there, the Blackbournes, may have been housing a Goblin with them for a little while."

"A Goblin?!" Snow exclaims, "Who the bloody hell would live with a Goblin. And why would a Goblin live with them?"

"Well, that's what I had a bit of a ponder about," I say.

"Good thing you did. 'Cause I can't think of one bloody reason why something like that would ever happen," he mumbles. "Go on."

"Well, I know the Blackbournes have always been a fan of a good old exchange, a good deal. They convinced Father to trade a Ruby for 100 cows once, the git." Snow has an incredulous look on his face. "And I thought, maybe they've struck up a deal with the Goblin." I pull over by a rest stop. "If you need anything now's the time," I say, indicating outside, "It's about another 45 minutes to Brighton from here."

"Nah, I'm good," he says, so I go on.

"Basically, what I was considering, is that the Blackbournes may have agreed to let the Goblin stay there, in exchange for you, and probably something else too, because I know how greedy they are. So, essentially, they let the Goblin stay, and capture Bunce, to lure you there, so that the Goblin can kill you. Win win situation for both the Blackbournes and the Goblin: Goblin becomes King by killing you, and the Blackbournes get the glory of being an accessory to your death, and probably receive some form of treasure, too." Snow looks baffled. "Oh, and they kind of ran a drug ring in 70s, so they probably used some form of drug to get Bunce, if you were wondering."

"Crowley, you're smart," he utters, eyes wide. "Are you seriously telling me you made all those connections just before? I'm so lucky to have you." I smile a little, and he leans over and gives me a quick kiss.

"Now," he says, " let's go save Penny and not get me killed by a murderous Goblin and morbid rich folk."

Simon

It's kind of a long drive to Brighton, and I begin to get a little twitchy. I can't stop thinking about when we get there, and what we'll do. If Penny isn't there, that will be very scary, but on the other hand, if she is, and if Baz is right (which he probably is), that'll be terrifying to. I'm going to have to rely a lot on Baz if there's any kind of struggle, like, if the family and the Goblin get to us. Obviously I can't just call on the Sword of Mages anymore, so I'll be relying completely on Baz skills with magic, and my bare hands. And even though Baz is a brilliant magician, that's kinda terrifying.

At some point I begin to sweat nervously, and Baz puts one hand on my forehead, keeping one on the other on the wheel.

"You okay?" He asks, stroking his thumb over my skin.

"Yeah, just like, a bit scared I guess. He brings his hand down, but keeps his arm outstretched, and I lean into it for a while before he returns it to the wheel.

"We're almost there. And we'll be fine."

I've been in enough awful situations over the years to learn that when people say it's gonna be fine, it's never fine. Once, when I was in a care home in the summer, a fire started in the night, but the adults still tried to reassure us everything would be alright. It most certainly would not, I thought, and said something along the lines of that. The housemother just glared at me and continued shuffling the other children out of there. So, the point is, I really wanted to trust what Baz said, but I couldn't.

Baz

Snow is clearly unnerved as we arrive, and, even though I wouldn't show it- I need to be calm for him- I am too.

I park on the street, or, dirt lane, should I say, and as soon as we step out, Snow starts to shiver uncontrollably.

"Shit, Simon," I say. "Here, put my jacket on over yours- it's not like I'm even cold or anything." Which was true. He takes it, and even though it's a bit tight over his wing area, it makes him shiver less, and look a bit more comfortable.

"Thanks Baz," he says, and takes my hand. It is like that we enter what could possibly be one of the most hellish situations we ever have to face.

Simon

The house is a little bit beautiful, in an ominous way. It's at least three stories high, and Victorian looking, a bit like Baz'. A couple windows are left wide open on the first floor, which kind of confirms Baz' theory for me, because, why else would anyone leave their windows open in a place like this, it would be like burglar heaven, and a surefire way to let insects and animals into your presumably very fancy home. We easily slip through one of the windows, and it's when we drop down on the hardwood flooring, that I realize, I do not have a bloody clue what our plan is here. I whisper this to Baz, and he tells me not to worry.

"Just follow me," he says, "and stay quiet."

Baz

To be honest, the extent of my plan is not particularly grand. It pretty much goes like this:

Find the basement (undeniably where they will be keeping Penelope. No windows? Check. Creepy as? Check. Where people get killed in horror films? Check.)

Get Bunce.

Continue being quiet, and get the hell out of there.

It probably won't be as simple as that, but, that's all I come up with. They'll probably be waiting for us, the Goblin hiding out, ready to attack, so I have a good stunning spell in mind for anyone who appears.

I vaguely remember coming here when I was young, so I have a bit of an idea where the basement is. I lead Snow down the hall, gripping his hand with mine, and eventually we arrive at an ornate maroon door. The basement door- I remember it because I always thought it was particularly unsettling, partially because of its exterior, partially because of what was behind it. I open the door, and it's completely dark. It squeaks annoyingly as I widen it enough for us to slip through, and I can almost sense a shift in the house, a preparation for battle. I step through the door first, and quickly discover the lack of a step in front of me.

"Shit," I whisper, as I fall to the ground. Snow, bless him, does exactly the same thing after me, and lands on my stomach. It takes a lot of my strength not to emit a sound of pain.

Simon

I land on top of Baz, and almost as soon as I stand up, feel a tap at my shoulder. I turn around, and there's Penny, lit up by her phone flashlight. I outstretch my arms to her, and she smiles and hugs me.

"Good to see you," she says, and Baz promptly shhhs. I think Penny glares at him a little.

I kind of wonder for a minute why Penny didn't just get the hell out of here herself, it seems a little out of character for her to need help, but as I go to walk up the stairs, assuming only one step was missing, I find out why. There are no stairs.

"Oh Crowley," I whisper. "Crowley, Crowley, Crowley." I turn to Baz. "Plan?" I ask.

"Unfortunately not," he replies. Our thoughts are soon interrupted though by the sound of footsteps, and then a ladder dropping to the basement floor. I have a bad feeling that this room may soon be a bloodbath.

Baz

I don't wait for them to reach the floor, I just go for it.

"Stunned Mullet!" I shout, pointing my wand in the direction of the gnarly green being. It topples to the ground, unconscious. It astounds me that it was so unprepared for this fight, clearly it thought it would be easy. I gesture for the ladder, as Snow and Bunce are just standing there looking slightly stunned themselves. "Nice one," Bunce exclaims, and then follows me to the ladder.

"I know," I say smugly, and lead the way up.

Now, it's fairly obvious that Bunce does not have her ring on, otherwise I'm sure she would've found her way out of this situation already. Because of this, I am the only only one who can currently use magic, in this trio, and have quite a bit of responsibility. As we step out of the hallway, we are confronted with our primary obstacle on our way out of here- the Blackbournes. Clearly they had been hiding in the shadows waiting for something like this to happen.

"Hello, Simon." Mrs. Blackbourne exclaimed as she stepped out dramatically, but then she reeled back. "Oh, hello Basilton. What're you doing here?" I take Simon's hand.

"I'm here with Snow."

"Oh." She and Mr Blackbourne say at once. I don't believe I'll be needing my wand for this one anymore. I have an idea.

"I think you might have a bit of explaining to do," I prompt them.

"Yeah, bloody hell guys," Bunce adds, and I turn around and give her a bit of an I've got this glare. She raises an eyebrow.

"Hmm, well, I believe I could say the same to you," Mrs Blackbourne says.

"And what are you implying by that?" I ask.

"Well…" She gestures to mine and Snow's intertwined hands. I consider what to say next.

"All due respect Mrs. Blackbourne," I decide to say, "get over it." She looks taken aback. "In the grand scheme of things," I continue, "I believe the bigger problem is not my befriending Simon Snow, but rather, your attempt to get him murdered, in exchange for what, may I ask?" The Blackbournes ponder this for a minute.

"For your information we were given a very good deal, Basilton," Mr Blackbourne starts. "In exchange for assistance in your little friend here's death, we were given one of the greatest swords ever created by goblinkind."

"May I see it?" I ask, and Mrs. Blackbourne sends one of their children to fetch it. The Blackbournes never miss an opportunity to show off. While they're getting it I warn Snow and Bunce to step back.
"This could be a prime opportunity for them to get at you," I explain, "and you're both unarmed."

The girl soon comes back carrying what is admittedly quite a beautiful sword. She hands it to me and I inspect it. It has little rubies lining the handle, and the blade is purely made of gold, shiny, only marked by tiny scars of battle and an engraving of the creator's signature (Yes, even medieval goblins had a signature).

"Hmm, quite impressive," I say, and they all beam. "Now," I continue, "I will give this sword back to you, but only if you agree to cause my friends and I no harm." I'm sure Bunce is using her death glare at this stage. "You know, I believe my father would be extremely unhappy with you, if he were to find out of any harm doing to me here. And harm to me includes harm to my friends." I take Simon's hand once more, and he gives mine a squeeze. "Deal?" I finish. "Oh, and you better give my friends ring back." I turn around and see Bunce smile, I bet she thought I'd forget about that.

The Blackbournes take a while to consider this. Mr and Mrs consult each other quietly, and obviously they conclude that my Father's anger at them would be less than ideal- no more rubies in exchange for cows, I suspect.

"Fine," Mr Blackbourne finally says. "We shall leave you and your friends be, but you must hand us back our sword before any of you move." Ah the Blackbournes, forever untrusting.

"Okay." I hand back their fine sword, they return Bunce's ring and they watch us go with a grimace on their faces. That was surprisingly simple.

Simon

Sometimes my boyfriend is unbelievably cool. He just got us out of there that easily. I was like 80% sure I was going to be killed before. I give him a kiss before we step in the car, and I can feel him smile a little.

"Nicely done," Penny says to Baz, and I know that's a good acknowledgement going from Penny to Baz, considering he kind of took over, and Penny's not really into that. It was necessary though.

As we head home I can tell there will always be that bit of worry lingering in the back of our minds, but that's okay, I guess. I can handle that, because I've got Penny and I've got Baz- two amazing people by my side.

AN: I'll admit that was a little bit hellish to write- I kept putting it off- and probably a little low quality, but here it is! I hope you guys enjoyed, and were satisfied with the ending. Feel free to review, and I'm sorry it took so long- I honestly didn't think I'd ever do it, until I saw a review, and I just knew I had to do it. Thanks for sticking around! ;)