Chapter 30- Jailbreak

My whole world is crumbling so I decided the only stable part of my life is fan fiction so I'm throwing myself into my work, good news for you guys but not so good for me because I will have no life. Well I guess it's good because it gives me something to do.

Star

Iggy and Gazzy were going to blow up the facility. It took a lot of convincing since the last time they blew something up, they hurt innocent humans. But after a lot of goading and pleading from Angel mostly, they relented and Gazzy had to help his Cardinal. We were all compelled to do this. If I had a choice, I'd run with Holden back to Central Park and make some money, maybe settle down and have a family. But the Cardinal was on the line and we were all programmed to help her. She wouldn't even be Cardinal if she hadn't met the last one. Honestly, any of us could've been Cardinals but she got to Cardinal North first. Kate, Ratchet, Holden and I did stop at Cardinal North but it was in disrepair.

But anyways, the plan was to blow up the front tunnel of the complex so there was a gaping hole in the wall where I can rush in, get Max and we would figure it out from there. This was the best we could come up with in ten minutes.

I stretched out my legs and back. I hadn't run in forever and half-shifting was going to be tricky. I wasn't very good at it but I couldn't grab Max with hooves.

"Hey," Holden said, coming up to sit next to me.

"Hey," I say back. He had concern in his eyebrows. I already know what he's going to say.

"Star-" he starts.

"No," I smile unconvincingly as I pulled my leg towards my back, "I'd happy to do it. We need to. We need Max and Fang right now."

"If something happens to you, I don't think I could-," he pauses as if the thought physically pained him.

"Nothing's going to happen, okay?" I say softly, putting my hand to his cheek and sitting down in front of him. I lean in and kiss his lips softly. Holden returns the kiss and lays his hand over mine, holding my hand to his cheek.

"You didn't see what it was like down there," he shakes his head, "We'll be right behind you, if anything happens, I'll be there. We'll all be there."

"I know," I say simply, "I trust you."

He sighs out a breath and smiles weakly at me, "Thanks."

I knew exactly what he saw down there, Angel told us. There's animals down there in cages, there's men with weapons, there's drugs and needles and knives and Max was down there, out of it, almost dead. I know what he saw. I know why he's upset. He didn't get Max out; he thinks he didn't do anything. This is going to fix it. He's going to be relieved when we get Max out of there okay.

"Star," Kate calls, "Are you ready?" Iggy and Gazzy flank her, small black objects in hand.

"Yes. I'm ready."

Fang

I was dragged through a long tunnel and then plopped on a bench. I was tied up in ropes and there was a really painful sensation every time I moved. The bench began to move forwards. I was startled.

My eyes slowly adjusted to the dim-lighting of the tunnel. I was on this cart thing, propelled forwards into a dark tunnel. There was a door behind me where I came from. Mom was sitting next to me and two guards in front of me.

"Awake, are you, darling?" she says too pleasantly.

I don't answer.

"Are you still bitter about that knife? It was just a scratch," she continued, "And honestly, if you'd been a good little boy instead of joining the shifters, none of this would have happened."

I still didn't answer. What kind of mother disowns her son for doing the right thing, cuts him, electrocutes him, and ties him up?

"Oh, we're here," she says cheerily as the cart jolts a stop. Mom snaps her fingers and the guards bring one of her robes and she slides in on over her black shirt and jeans. She places her crown over her long fake bangs. So this is how she does it. The doors are pushed open and I'm dragged by my shoulders by the guards into my mom's room. I look behind me and the doors turn into her bookshelves. Of course. The one place in the entire castle I haven't been to is her room.

"Keep him in his rooms; don't let him get out until he can be trusted. Have the maids attend to him and bring him food but KEEP HIM THERE," she says, not sparing a look back. And then I'm dragged into my old rooms.

I remember how I hated staying in here as a kid but now it's even worse when I'm staying in here against my will. I'm untied and the doors slam behind the guards. I tried the doors. I tried the windows. I tried the chimney. They were all locked, jammed, and stuffed up. Guess that means no fires.

"What am I supposed to do here?" I growl. I lay down on the bed, kicking my legs up. Blinking, I suddenly saw the red dots that Max was going on about. There were about three of them on the ceiling.

I decided I have to get out of here.

Max

"I love you," I say into Fang's chest. He murmurs something to me that I can't hear.

I look up, "What?"

"I love you too, Max," he says calmly.

I settle back down and his arms wrap around my waist. I take in the scenery. We lay in a field surrounded by stars, there's a slight breeze that washes over me, comforting as the sea. I close my eyes.

"I wish… we could stay here forever," I sigh.

But just because the world hates me, everything crumbled around me and the scene re-molded itself. We were in a thick forest. It kind of looked like the forest by Blueburn Village. A pang of homesickness hit me.

"Max," Fang whispered right up to my ear. I jumped for a second before relaxing and turning to him, laughing.

But he wasn't there.

"Fang?"

"Max, over here," he calls a little far away.

"Fang, wait up!"

"Boo!" he shouts right into my ear and I yelp turning. But he isn't there.

"Fang?" I ask a little hesitantly this time.

I turn and he's walking towards me. I exhale in relief. "Fang! There you are."

But he walks past me, giving me an easy smile and leaving.

"Fang?"

And then I'm plunged into darkness

"Max! Max!" Star's voice calls.

"Over here," I croak, surprised at the sound of my own voice. It sounded like my vocal cords were on fire, dipped in acid, cut apart by chainsaws, crudely sewn together by a million tiny spiders with rusty needles, and then sandpapered.

Pretty nice description, right?

"The lock," I gesture to the deadbolt at my right.

She shifts and uses her horns to pick the lock. Maybe it's that icky blue drug still in my system but I found that fascinating.

"Jeez, Holden's useless," she mutters.

"Holden was here?" I say surprised.

"Yeah, now get out of there, Your Grace." She said 'Your Grace' really nastily. I don't think she likes me very much.

I fumble out of the cage and almost got caught by the wires. I land on the ground with an 'oof'.

"Ow," I rubbed my head and got up.

"Let's go," I tell her.

"Wait," she says and then shifts again, going over to the nearest cage and undoing the lock. I look at her and nod, going to another cage to help free the animals.

Fang

I ran towards the door again, aiming my shoulder at it. There was a slight cracking sound. Encouraged, I backed up and took a running start again.

Let me clarify. In the past 3 or so hours, I have covered every single one of those stupid red lights that I somehow never noticed before I met Max, I have attempted to escape in 7 million ways, and came up with a plan. Right now that plan involves me breaking down the door.

"Knock, knock," a small familiar female voice said, "Room service."

Tessa?

Tessa was once my betrothed.

.

.

.

.

Just letting that sink in. Tessa was once the girl my mother arranged for me to marry. She was apparently from another Realm, which I found now is the human one. She talks like it. I used to think she had a weird accent but she sounds just like those New Yorkers. She kind of sounds like JJ. Come to think of it, she sort of looks like JJ… I digress. Anyways, I spent a year getting to know her and we ended up being friends but we broke it off because Tessa didn't like me. It's not all that depressing. Tessa doesn't like men. But since she couldn't tell that to her parents, I told them that Tessa was upset because she caught me with another woman. They now don't talk to me but Tessa and I are still good friends.

So what was she doing here?

I opened the door slowly; making sure it wasn't a trick. It wasn't. It was Tessa in all her red haired wonder.

"It's you!" Tessa squealed, giving me one of her infamous bear-hugs. She invited herself in just like out times. With an uneasy glance at the half-destroyed door, she claps her hands together, making herself at home on my favorite arm-chair.

"How did you come back to life from the dead?" she asks.

"What?"

"You heard me."

"I didn't realize I was dead," I say baffled.

"Your mother told the kingdom that you were dead."

"What!?" Then a thought hits me, "Is that why Ella and Nudge haven't come to visit me yet?"

"Yep. Probably."

"So how do you know I'm here against my will?"

She shrugged, picking at an invisible thread on the right armrest, "I hear things from your guard."

"How…?"

She looked at me flippantly, "I'm going out with Anastasia Harold, okay?"

"The captain?"

"Yes, the captain," Tessa tries to roll her eyes but she grins. She's in love.

"I'm happy for you!" I smile.

"I haven't told anyone yet so if it gets out, you'll be dead."

"Understood," I do a mock-military salute.

"Now, let's go get your sisters."

"You knock," I push Tessa towards the door.

"No! I don't even know them that well and it would be weird!"

"Not as weird as their dead brother coming at their door! They'd scream their heads off!"

"Either way, they're going to be scared!"

"I'd rather them not wake everybody up!"

"Just do it, Fang!" Tessa stage-whispers, exasperatedly.

"Fine," I grumble and knock on Ella's door, "She's not going to answer. It's 3 in the morning."

"Just a minute," came Ella's distant voice from inside the room. There was a fumbling sound and then rapid footsteps.

Tessa murmured an 'I told you so' under her breath as the door slowly opened. The look on Ella's face was priceless. Her mouth dropped open, her eyes bugged. Aside from that, I noticed that her eyes were red from crying and her entire look was a mess.

"Ella, are you okay?" I rush up to hug her.

"No! Don't touch me," she backs off into the room and I walk in before she could close the door on me, "What are you? A trick? A trap?" A/N Let's see who gets that reference.

"Ella, I'm alive, Mom lied to you."

"No, no, no," she sobs, "What about Iggy? Where is he? Is he dead?"

"That's great. I'm back from the dead and my sister asks how's my friend," I chuckle. She glares at me and I reply, "Iggy's okay. I was just captured. Iggy's with my friend. Max."

Ella pauses, "Who's Max?"

"The shifter."

Her nose crinkles, "You leave home for a shifter? And let us all believe you were dead?"

"I was disowned by mom," I tell her, getting annoyed.

"Okay, enough you two," Tessa cuts in, "Where's Nudge?"

Ella waves a hand to the bed.

Or should I say beds? I didn't know they shared a room. There were now two twin beds dominating the middle of the room.

Ella reads my mind, "We didn't share a room but after you and Iggy died, we didn't really want to be alone. So we share a room so we can comfort each other if we wake up screaming or crying."

I swallow, "I'm sorry."

Ella waves it off, "So what did you come back for?"

"We need to get you out of here," I tell her.

"Excuse me?" she asks, "Why?"

"It's not safe; you'll understand when I show you."

"Show me what?"

"Just wake up, Nudge."

Ella gave me a mildly annoyed glower but went over to Nudge's bed and shook her shoulder gently, "Nudge. Nudge, wake up."

Nudge isn't a good person when she wakes up against her will. Besides the mornings, she was usually a chipper person. But she was cranky and sleep-deprived apparently since my alleged death. So when Ella went to wake her, her first reaction was swatting at Ella's hand. But Ella was insistent and Nudge woke up.

5 minutes of insanely fast talking and…..go!

"What? Fang? What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be dead? Are you a ghost? Are you coming back to haunt me? Oh, no! I knew I shouldn't have taken that cake Eliza left for you when you turned 14 but I was hungry, please forgive me. Don't attack me please; I'll be good I promise. I won't steal any of your birthday cakes anymore. Well I can't since you're dead. I'm sorry about everything I did to you. Wait, if you were dead, how come it took you two months to come back? Have you been to Heaven yet? Is it pretty? Did you visit your funeral? It was so depressing and they played your favorite song and Eliza and Deidre were crying so loud. They were your nanny and maid, remember? Well they were fired after you died and I was really said to see them go. Wait, are you dead? You look pretty alive. Ella, you knew about this? And what's Tessa doing here? If you aren't dead, is Iggy alive too? Where have you been? You have to tell me everything. If it's about that shifter, I'll be extremely angry. How dare you leave us for so long! I missed you so much. Oh my gosh, Fang! It is you," Nudge sobbed into my shoulder.

"Hey, it's okay," I pat her back. Her whole body was shuddering with shaky breaths, "I'm here. But we need to leave."

I knew I should've checked in mom's rooms when I was younger. I knew she was going to kill me if she caught me but now I really have nothing to lose. But dragging Nudge, Ella and Tessa into this sort of bothered me. Of course, Tessa wasn't coming with us. I told her about how I met someone who looked like her (JJ) and how she could be from the human world but she told me that she had to stay with Captain Anastasia Harold. This would be a lot easier if she came with us though.

We waited around the corner of the hallway to see Mom leave. "Go, go, go," I whispered and we ran for the closing door and slid in before Mom could notice us. Why am I still thinking of her as Mom? I turned and said a quick good-bye to Tessa who nodded and waved as she turned away. I felt a pang of sadness, like I knew I wasn't ever going to see my friend again.

Marian's rooms were gilded on practically every surface except for the walls. Those had bookshelves and paintings or green wallpaper. Then there were the mirrors. Mo-Marian had three floor-to-ceiling mirrors, always kept perfectly clear, with gold edges carved with designs. Marian was always vain like that.

"Here," I point to the bookshelf and pull it away with ease, like a door, "Get in."

I pulled the door shut slowly and heard Marian come back. I left it open a crack and watched as Marian approached the mirror and slowly lift that presumptuous crown off of her head. She lifts the wig's bangs off of her forehead to reveal a circlet of blue markings.

"Oh my god," I whisper and let the door softly close and ran for the cart.