Lizzy sits outside in the garden of their Estate and looks up at the sky in thought. It's been almost 2 months since Lilly was taken away by the police under false pretense that she was behind drug smuggling, and her father and brother were behind it all just to save their own butts. She sighs in agitation, wondering what she could do to help her cousin clear her name. Then a thought crossed her mind. Maybe...just maybe if she spoke to Prince Ciel, told him everything that happened then he could help save Lilly.
With this thought in mind and a look of determintation on her face she stands up and heads out to go see Ciel. On her way her father and brother stop her, asking where she's headed. When she tells them she wants to see Ciel they grin and nod, thinking that she only wants to see him to further their chances of becoming engaged. She goes along with it before waving goodbye to them and heading towards the palace.
The guards at the palace see her and look at her suspiciously.
"State your name and business here."
"My name is Elizabeth Chamber, I wished to visit Prince Ciel."
"We're sorry, but no one may enter without permission from the royal family."
"But-"
"It's ok gentlemen."
Everyone starts in surprise and looks toward the voice that came from directly behind the guards.
"She is allowed to see the young prince."
There stands Sebastian with a gentle yet challenging smile. The guards seem to stand up a bit straighter and bow their heads.
"Yes, sir!"
"Come Miss Elizabeth. I will take you to him."
With a sigh of relief, she thanks him and follows close behind him into the palace. Once inside, he leads her to a room off to the side.
"There is someone here to see you highness."
"Send them in." Comes Ciel's voice behind the door.
"Very well."
Saying this Sebastian slides the door open and stands aside, allowing Lizzy to enter.
Upon seeing Lizzy, Ciel stands up right away and bows his head, in return she curtsies and tells him she has urgent news to tell him. His eyebrow raises in question at this but he tells her to proceed.
"Well, the thing is..."
"Yes?"
"It's about Lilly."
"What about her?"
She looks down for a moment and chews on her lower lip as she recalls everything that happened over a month ago.
"She's been arrested for a crime she did not commit and it's been almost 2 months since then."
"What?" Both Ciel and Sebastian look stunned hearing this.
"Elizabeth, why didn't you come here sooner?!"
"I would have if I could! But they hardly let me out of their sight!" She sobs as tears run down her cheeks.
"Who, Miss Elizabeth? Who hardly let you out of their sight?"
"My father and brother! I don't have proof or evidence to prove what they did but I overheard them talking that night!" She exclaimed before taking deep breaths to explain further.
"They said that the one they were dealing with was becoming suspicious, so they needed a scapegoat. That Lilly was becoming too bothersome as of late with the whole incident at the ball, so they made it seem like it was her doing the crime by allowing her to roam around freely so it wouldn't come back to them. They set her up!"
Hearing this Ciel and Sebastian are stunned into silence for a few moments before their eyes narrow in thought.
"Sebastian, go get Claude. He needs to hear about this."
Sebastian nods and bows to the young prince before leaving the room and shutting the door behind him.
"That's not the worst part...she's not simply a maid in our house."
"What do you mean?" Ciel asks surprised.
"She's..."
When Ciel hears what Lizzy says his eyes widen greatly. How could someone do such a thing to someone so close to them?
Several minutes later, Sebastian comes back with an exhausted looking Claude behind him. Lizzy gasps upon seeing his appearance. His skin is paler then she remembers, he has dark circles under his eyes and his cheeks are sunken in slightly. He looks like he hasn't had a decent rest or a proper meal in a while.
"Ciel, what's going on? Why have you called for me? I was in the middle of-"
"Trust me Claude, you'll want to hear about this. Sit, and whatever you do, don't lose your head."
Claude raises a brow in question but nods and takes a seat to hear his little brother out.
...
...
...
"WHAT?!"
Claude is not only enraged after hearing the story but he is also panicking. He knows what they do to prisoners, he knows the methods they use to get them to spill information. To think Lilly is...
"Claude! I said not to lose your head!" Ciel and Sebastian both try to stop him as he rushes to the door.
"I have to go save her!" He protests before his exhausted body gives out and he slumps against Sebastian.
"We will save her Claude. But we need to come up with a plan first. We have no proof or evidence stating her innocence, so we'll have to gather that but it'll take time."
"Sire might I suggest talking to 'him'."
Ciel looks up at Sebastian surprised for a moment than thinks it over.
"Hmm, that might be a good idea if we want to help her escape. But then she'll be a wanted criminal."
"True. But being a wanted criminal on the run while gathering evidence is a lot better than being stuck in a cell getting tortured for information you don't have."
Ciel nods his head in agreement, but where would she go? She can't come here or go back to the Estate, making arrangements for a ship to take her back to London is out of the question as well.
"The vacation home..."
Ciel looks up at his brother in surprise as he whispers this.
"If we can get her out of there, she can hide out at our vacation home. No one's around, and we won't be going there until summer of next year. That would give us plenty of time to gather the information we need while she hides."
This was actually a good idea, their vacation home sat on the outskirts of the Okinawa Prefecture so the royal family would have peace.
"Alright. Sebastian, send word to 'him' and let him know to keep this under wraps. We'll begin the preparations."
Sebastian nods and leaves the room once more as the other three gather round each other to come up with a plan on how to rescue Lilly.
*GASP!*
As my head comes up out of the water, I gasp for air. I don't know how many times they've done this to me, pressing me for information, but I can't give them an answer which only makes this worse.
"Who are you dealing with?!"
"..."
"Fine, if that's how you wanna play it."
DUNK!
SPLASH!
*GASP!*
This continues for several more minutes before they finally get tired of my silence and throw me back into my cell. Weak from so many things, I crawl back to my tatami mat and curl up in the corner like a fetus.
How long has it been since I've been in here? I've lost track of the days, I don't even know if it's morning or night. I have no windows, just this small, dark room.
The guard who keeps watch over me seems nice enough, if not a bit eccentric. They call him, Reaper. Supposedly he was the best swordsman, the best fighter in all of Japan but he got tired of the fighting and retired. Now he's just the prison guard. He along with some mice that have found their way into my cell are the only living souls here that I can actually talk to.
"Hey Lilly, you alright in there?"
"..."
"I'll get you a blanket, hang on."
He leaves from in front of the door for a few moments before coming back and unlocking the cell, he enters and drapes a nice, warm blanket over my shoulders. I grip the edge and pull it tighter against me as I smile as best I can without hurting in gratitude.
"Thank you, Reaper." I whisper hoarsely.
He frowns slightly before stroking my damp hair, as he has done so many times before.
"Here, drink some of this. It'll help."
As he says this he hands me a metal cup and helps me sit up slowly as I take it. As I bring it to my lips I can smell the sweet aroma of Chamomile and honey. I drink it slowly before handing the cup back to him as coughs begin to overtake me. He rubs my back and frowns once more until my fit of coughing stops, he then hands me back the cup and has me drink the rest of it's contents.
I am so grateful for his kindness that I cannot help the tears flowing down my dirty cheeks, causing streaks along them.
"There there...old Reaper is here for you."
That just makes the tears flow even more and I weakly turn and throw my arms around him, causing him to start in surprise before returning the gesture.
Once he's certain I'm finally calm, he pulls away slightly and pats my head. Suddenly, the door leading into the prison opens and one of the officers comes in.
"Reaper, we have received a letter for you."
"A letter? I wonder who it's from." Saying this he stands and leaves my cell, closing and locking the door behind him.
"It's from the royal family."
My eyes widen slightly in surprise. The royal family...I wonder how Prince Claude is doing.
"Oh? What do they want? I won't come back to fight for them."
He takes the letter from the officer and opens it, his eyes scanning over its contents.
"Hmmm...I see. Well that's nice of them isn't it?"
"What is sir?"
"The royal family wishes to thank us for our hard work and loyal service, so they're sending an attendant over to prepare a feast for us!"
The officer seems stunned before being moved to tears.
"OH! I KNEW ALL OUR HARD WORK WOULD PAY OFF SOMEDAY!"
"Yes yes, keep it down would you? You're hurting my ears." He says while tucking the letter away into his inside pocket before pushing the officer out the door.
"Now go inform the men, we want to greet the attendant from the royal family properly right?"
"Yes, of course! It will be done!"
The officer runs off and I can hear Reaper sigh heavily before coming over to my cell door.
"I'll bring you back something from the feast. Anything in particular you feel like eating?"
I shake my head and give him an apologetic smile which in turn causes him to smile warmly at me and shakes his head.
"Don't you worry, I'll bring you back something really good."
With that he gives me two thumbs up and grins wide before heading out to greet the attendant.
About an hour later, Reaper comes back with food as promised and I can hear the commotion outside as the officers have a great time at the feast. He comes into my cell and sits down next to me before handing me a plate of some type of circular food with all sorts of things in the middle of them.
Seeing me look at them curiously, he explains that it's called Sushi. It's made of raw fish, bamboo shoots and rice wrapped in seaweed. It looked weird and I was hesitant to eat it, but right now I was starving and once it passed my lips I couldn't help but eat more. It was better than I thought it would be and soon I realize that I have eaten every piece on the plate.
I bite my lip and look down, ashamed. But Reaper merely smiled and patted my head.
"Do you want more? I can go get it for you."
"Oh no...I don't want to impose on you further. You're already being kinder to me than I deserve."
"Oh nonsense! I'll be back!"
With that he stands to head out and get more Sushi but then stops short as he sees one of the mice running past his foot and toward me, picking up whatever crumbs were left on the ground before stuffing them into his cheeks and scampering off.
"Nasty things they are. How can you be friends with them?"
"All life is precious, everything has its own place in the world. Who are we to decide they deserve death simply because we don't like them?"
"But they carry disease."
"Well so do other things, like birds, wolves, it matters not. If a disease is contracted and carried, it could be any sort of creature, but I don't see people going around killing them simply because they do. If they did, we wouldn't have many animals now would we?"
Reaper looks surprised for a moment. He had never thought of it like that before and soon he smiles at her before leaving to get her more food.
Late into the night the feast finally ends and the officers fall into a deep drunken slumber, or so says Reaper who sits outside my cell talking to me until I can no longer keeps my eyes open and soon fall into a deep sleep myself.
Reaper peers into her cell to make sure she's asleep before going over and opening the door leading into the prison. He then circles around back and into the small wooded area beyond to find the royal attendant and Prince Claude waiting.
"She's finally sleeping, and all the other officers are passed out drunk. If we're going to do this we better hurry up."
He says to the other two men and they nod in agreement before following Reaper back into the prison. Once they enter he opens her cell door and they all step inside.
Sebastian and Claude both hold back a gasp of surprise when they see the kind of condition Lilly is in. Her face, arms and legs are all bruised, her lip is cut and she looks like a skeleton with meat on her bones. If not for Reaper making sure she ate at least something, she would surely be dead.
Claude picks her up gently and carries her outside to the horse waiting for them deep in the woods. Sebastian and Reaper follow behind him to make sure nothing happens, once Claude hoists himself and Lilly up onto his horse he sees two mice standing behind Sebastian, looking up at Lilly as if to say their goodbyes.
"Sebastian dispose of those two rodents. God knows what kind of disease they might be carrying."
Sebastian turns around to do as he was told, but Reaper stops him by putting a hand on his shoulder.
"I wouldn't if I were you."
"Oh? And why's that?"
Reaper looks over to Lilly and smiles.
"She told me once that all life is precious, everything has its own place in the world. Who are we to decide they deserve death simply because we don't like them?"
"But they carry diseases." Says Claude as he looks down at Lilly.
"I said the same thing. And she replied that other creatures do as well but we don't see people going out and killing them simply because they do. And if we did then we wouldn't have many animals now would we?"
This takes both Sebastian and Claude by surprise and they both look at Lilly with a smile.
"That's just like her." Says Claude as he brushes the hair from her face gently.
Reaper and Sebastian both nod in agreement.
"Thank you for helping us Reaper."
Reaper shakes his head. "I didn't do it for you."
With that he takes one last look at Lilly before heading off in the direction he came.
"She certainly touches the hearts of everyone she meets, wouldn't you say Sire?"
Claude nods as he stares down at her sleeping figure in his arms. As he does he swears in his heart that he will clear her name and never let her go again.
"Lets go Sebastian. We must be back at the palace before dawn, have one of your most trusted look after her while we're away. I don't want anyone finding out where we're taking her."
Sebastian nods before they both spur their horses into motion and head off towards there vacation home on the outskirts of, Okinawa.