Black Knight Chapter 6

I still own nothing

-X-

A few of the villagers had gathered in front of the castle's yard. They had no work to do, mostly because the soldiers had destroyed everything, making it almost useless to start everything over. They thronged in front of the door, knocking heavily with their fists… it'd be a while before the doors would open to complain, but they weren't waiting for them. Soldiers were sent out to quell the raging mob; if it was possible to get them to calm down with violent action, they would, but the crowd was just too determined. One man yelled out, threatening the king.

"Hey," replied a soldier defensively, "do not threaten the king."

"King, how can that man be king? We had put up with him for far too long now…" The man quieted his voice when a man walked through the doors, wearing the clothes that were common to Naoyasu. "What…? That's not the king."

"Oh but I am. King Naoyasu died a while ago and made me the new king."

"But that can't be… you cannot just be made king? What about Princess Misaki, she'd be next in line."

"Why yes, but what if I was to marry the princess? I'd be prince, and then I become king since I was the next male in line right?" The villagers yelled out their opposition. "I don't care what you think you lowlife scum. Once I marry the princess, I will rule this kingdom. Guards, get these people from my sight."

The soldiers did as they were told, all of them highlighting blue and unleashing their powers on a disadvantaged crowd of non-powered people. The villagers scattered as fast as they could, trying to get away to tell more people of the news, but only some of them made it to tell the news. The others had fallen to the ground lifeless as their new soon-to-be king laughed a horrible and maniacal laugh.

Hei walked to the bound man. Goodwyn watched, with all hope lost to him. "We may need you, but if anything, we need Mrs. Jo to be safe. The soldiers are looking for her, and if I'm correct, Keigo will be searching for all three of us."

"I'll do what I need to. I want to repay Jo for what I've done."

"Li, are you sure we can trust him," Misaki asked still skeptical of the man.

"You may not believe me princess, but I truly never wanted to harm my wife. I want to make it up to her no matter what, and even if she doesn't want my help, I will make it my priority to protect her."

"I'll accept your protection Goodwyn," said Mrs. Jo walking into the kitchen. She walked up to her ex and put her palms on the table glaring at him. "But if you even think to betray me, I will never forgive you. Ever."

"I understand," said Goodwyn. "I won't lose your trust this time." Hei untied the man and relayed the instructions.

"I'm going to fight the soldiers, and you guys will go for the villagers. They'll trust you," he motioned to Jo, "more than anyone else."

"Li are you crazy? There is no way you can take all of them on at once. It's suicide." Hei walked back to the princess.

"Are you doubting my power?" he said with a smirk.

"No, it's not that… I just…"

"I know and I'll be alright." He turned to the others. "Now get going, and be discreet. They're already on their way."

Hei followed the three outside and watched as they started to walk away. Gohan came out from the woods and nuzzled against Misaki, neighing loudly. "I can't take you with me, Gohan, but I want you to go with Hei. Hei, take him."

"Misaki, I don't need…" The look on her face told him there was no arguing about it. "Take him and make sure the both of you come back alive okay."

Hei mounted the black steed and rode into the rising sun. The battalion was advancing toward him in a line like last time. Keigo was leading them on, yelling orders here and there, when he spotted the black knight. Hei stopped Gohan and challenged the commanding officer. The soldiers readied themselves for an attack, but Keigo had accepted the challenge. "No, leave him to me. The rest of you go and look for the princess. If he came from there, she and the old bat would be there too." The soldiers nodded and stepped away from Keigo, walking to Hei, but not laying a finger on him. "I guess we have to finish what we started eh?" Hei nodded and jumped off Gohan.

Mrs. Jo and Goodwyn stopped short after Misaki had heard the cries of the soldiers far off into the distance. They had gotten far, the three of them did, but the way they were going, they were all going to get caught by the soldiers. "Why did you stop princess?"

"You guys need to go ahead. Li said they were going to kill you if they find you, but they wouldn't dare kill me. I know my people; they wouldn't accept Quentin unless he was properly appointed."

"But princess," said Jo.

"Please, just go." She spoke to Goodwyn for the first time that morning. "Take care of her okay." Goodwyn bowed to the princess.

"I'm sorry for taking the mother of a good princess away from this world. I shall do as you say princess. I will protect her with my life."

"Alright. Now get going." Mrs. Jo was pushed gently into a running start by her husband and they ran off into the deeper part of the woods. Misaki stood, waiting for the soldiers. When she noticed they were close enough, she started to run to the side, making sure to leave tracks that two people had walked around here, and went in the direction they had come from.

The soldiers reached the place where Misaki had hid. One of them looked onto the dirt ground and found an imprint of a footprint. "Hey, she went over here." He looked around some more and found one other set of prints. "And here is the other one. They are definitely in this area here." The soldiers spread out in search of the two people, searching under everything, looking up in the trees. Misaki saw them, and playing it like she was trying to escape, she snuck up behind them and "accidently" stepped on a twig.

The sound resonated through the quiet wooded area. The men turned back. "There she is!" they yelled each of them trying to get her. The princess jumped over a branch, making it seem like she was legitimately running from the soldiers. They scrambled behind her, until she "fell" from an overgrown root. "I've got her." The soldier, who had taken her arm, brought her up forcefully. "Let's take her to Quentin."

"Where is the other woman, princess?" asked a soldier.

"I'll never tell you."

"We'll deal with that later. We have to get her to Quentin now."

Keigo jumped up and slammed his sword down onto the ground, getting a piece of Hei's trench coat with the blow. Hei moved back, grabbing his own sword, and attacking while Keigo was busy with picking his sword up. Both of his hands were on the hilt, and Hei saw the opening, the right side of his body. The short sword came to Keigo's right side, hitting armor, but still going through quite a bit. Hei jumped away again as the sword came back up in the sir.

"I see you found out." Keigo grabbed his armor and let loose electricity on himself. "In order to not kill myself every time I use my power, I have to give up some protection. As you can see, this armor is made of some very strong rubber." Keigo fingered the small cut and smiled. "If you can get another it, I'm guessing you can kill me, but I don't think that'll happen anytime soon." He ran forward once again, sword in one hand this time, other hand free, trying to grab the man closer. Hei dodged the sword as it swung violently in the air, ducking and weaving away from Keigo.

Hei and Keigo were fighting in the vicinity of a farm house. Unexpectedly, Keigo threw his sword forward, making Hei try to avoid it, but the moment he tried to step out of the way, Keigo grabbed him. Yellow electricity poured out of his hands into Hei's body, and then, to top it all off, he was thrown into the house. The weak structure broke under his weight. It reminded him of anther time, almost like it was déjà vu. He pushed himself up, body rigid from the attack. Keigo walked up slowly, stopping to pick up his sword. "You'll never be able to beat me Li. So you might as well just give up." His electricity sparked on his body and ran through his sword, enhancing it.

Gohan, who was grazing not far off, sensed something was wrong in the air. He held his head up high, looking in the direction of the man that Misaki had led him too. Hei was on the ground, and another man was walking towards him with all the attention of hurting him, so Gohan knew. He neighed, and trampled the ground violently. He knew that Misaki wouldn't want him to die. Gohan ran as fast as he had, that night Misaki had run, and went straight to the man standing over Misaki's friend.

Keigo brought the sword up, the electricity ready to kill, when he heard behind him a thundering sound. The sound came so quick and abruptly that he had to turn around and defend against it. The horse had raised its leg against the enemy, bringing it down in fury to trample him. The tip of his hoof caught onto the man, tearing into his armor even more. Keigo was brought to the ground, electricity diminishing as it coursed through the ground. Gohan was still trampling him, when Hei got up and reached for the long sword. He pulled Gohan back and looked at Keigo.

Surprisingly the rubber armor was durable than he would've guessed. The bulk of the damage was taken by the rubber, and Keigo was relatively unharmed, sore, but unharmed. Hei outlined blue as Keigo started to plead for his life.

"Please…" He got up trying to reach Hei, but Hei held the sword ever closer the armor-less part of his body. "I'll see what I can do… you know, tell Quentin to find a place for you. I'll do anything! Please," he yelled as the blade came closer to him, "don't kill me!" Hei plunged the weapon into the man, his blue electricity finishing him off in seconds.

"Good job Gohan," he said to the horse as he mounted him. "It's time to finish this."

Goodwyn walked the path a little faster than Jo did; she had to run to catch up with him. The man was talking as he rushed forward. "We should help her…"

"What do you mean? Princess Misaki?"

"Yes," nodded Goodwyn, "we need to band together as a village. We can do it, we have the numbers."

"But Goodwyn, they have powers."

"I promise you Jo," he looked at her emphasizing his plea, "this'll work as long as we have their cooperation." His voice had sounded so sincere, that she was tempted to believe him, and she was brought back to the times when things used to be good between them. Mrs. Jo followed after Goodwyn as he located the villagers hiding among the brush. He went turned to Mrs. Jo, telling her to talk to them. "They trust you Jo. They will listen to you; why would you lie to them?"

Mrs. Jo knew he was right. They might've not known who Hubert really was, but they still didn't like him, and they were more likely to take orders from an incapable king than listen to an estranged old man. She walked up to the families, taking care to be seen by them all. The men of the families came out in front of their wives, or sisters, glaring at Goodwyn, who walked behind Mrs. Jo. "You must listen to me," started Mrs. Jo. "Our princess has gone back to the castle to save us." The men looked at her; the women, they started to come closer.

"Princess Misaki? She went back to save us?" asked a woman.

"Yes," spoke Jo again, "King Naoyasu has died, as I know some of you have heard, and Quentin, the advisor…" Someone interrupted her.

"The advisor? I've never like that man for some reason."

"Me too," chimed in a younger woman holding two kids close to her. "I always got a bad vibe from him."

"And the princess has to marry that man?"

"Yes," put in Goodwyn. He earned a suspicious glare from the men before Mrs. Jo continued.

"She doesn't want to marry that man. She already has a man whom she loves very much. Quentin will only destroy us, and if he and the soldiers continue to take over this kingdom, we will never have the peace we had when the queen was alive."

"What do you want us to do about it? The soldiers will kill us in a heartbeat," said a man.

"You have to try, don't you? Do you want your children to grow up in fear?" Goodwyn stepped up to Mrs. Jo, putting a hand on her shoulders, talking mostly to her it seemed. "Your children should be able to be free and live without the fear that their parents are going to die before they get back home. If we let these men continue doing these horrible things, then that fear will become a reality."

"I'm sorry," said a man shaking his head, "but I will not fight. I have a family."

"That's why you should fight!" said Goodwyn, but the man quieted him.

"It's too dangerous."

"No." The rest of the family watched as the man's wife moved up to Goodwyn and Mrs. Jo. "I will fight. They are right you guys. I remember the queen trying to do her best for us, and we just let Quentin come over and do whatever he wants? I do want my children to have a happy village to live in. And plus," she said to her husband and everybody else, "I like Princess Misaki; I think she deserves to be happy too." Cheers went around to the woman's speech and they looked at Jo and Goodwyn. "I'm guessing those of us who want to fight will. What should we do?"

-X-

A/N: Sorry to all those who found the fight rushed… I tried to think what else I could've added, but I was just so at a loss, I kept it at that. -_- And I hate when people, the bad guys, start begging for their lives when they're losing! It irks me to no end… that's why it was in this story… just saying.