The balverine swung its claws at Alice. The latter ducked just in time, only for the balverine to swing the same claw upwards, all in a blink of an eye. The impact sent Alice flying back, landing on the floor with a thud. She groaned, pushing herself up, flinching at a pain in her upper arm. She pulled put her gun, shooting at the balverine 3 times before it jumped up, landing behind her. A gun shot rang out, and the balverine fell to the ground, a bullet in his head. Page and Jade were too busy fighting their own balverines to notice the owner of the mansion had returned, standing up on the balcony like before. Alice's eyes widened, when she noticed him. What surprised her more was his Dragonstomper 48. in his hand, smoke coming out of the business end of the weapon. His eyes were fixed on her, as he lowered his gun. Reaver pulled his eyes away from her, upon noticing the other two woman were finishing off their balverines. He sent her one last, long glance, before leaving. Alice was still frozen. He saved her.
"Alice," Jade gasped, holding Alice's arm gently. Alice flinched, before noticing the long gash across her upper arm. There was a rip in the sleeve of her dressed where she had been scratched, blood seeping through it and soaking the fabric. Jade bent down to rip some of the fabric off from the bottom of her gown, before wrapping it tightly about Alice's wound.
Page, Jade, Kidd and Alice left Reaver's mansion. Exhausted from the events that just happened.
"I never thought I'd side with royal blood," Page began. "But you're nothing like your brother. The Bowerstone Resistance will follow you without question." Page stopped, and turned to face Jade. "So long as you promise to change things when you take the throne. Poverty. Children forced to work. People living fear, you have to make it stop."
"I Promise," Jade said softly, shacking Page's hand.
"The speech will commence shortly!" a town crier called.
"What's going on?" Page asked the other two women.
"All citizens gather to the castle for the King's message! The speech will commence shortly!"
"This is never good," Kidd said worriedly.
"You two should find out what it's about," Page said to Alice and Jade. "I'd come with you, but there's a reason we stay underground. We'll see you at the base when it's over, alright?"
Jade nodded at Page, before she and Alice sprinted to Bowerstone.
Jade and Alice met up with Ben, and Sadie in Bowerstone Market. Together they made their way to the castle.
Rain poured down, storm clouds darkened the once bright sky. Citizens gathered in front of the Castle, whispering in hushed voices. Logan suddenly appeared, not even bothering to cover himself from the rain. Alice clutched her upper arm more tightly, even after ripping some of her own gown to stop the blood from going everywhere. The rain helped a bit. Cooling down the wound that felt as though it were on fire, and cleaning some of the blood away.
Jade, Alice, Ben and Sadie pushed past citizens to hear more clearer once they'd arrived.
"…yes, traitors walk amongst us. Traitors plot against us. Traitors would have you believe their cause is noble. They wear many masks. They may look like your friends. They may even look like your most loyal servants."
A palace guard suddenly brought Major Swift forward on the staircase so the people would see, holding the Major firmly in his grasp. Alice gasped, her free hand held onto Ben's tightly, as the other one was holding onto her wound.
"This. This is the face of a traitor. Major Swift. A respected member of the army and sworn servant of the kingdom, has plotted against us all. He was apprehended attempting to turn loyal soldiers against us, and is thus charged with espionage, treason and conspiracy. Yet there are still others darkening our land with their betrayal. We shall hunt these traitors down, wherever they may be. And they shall suffer the same fate as Major Swift. The fate of all enemies of the crown."
The guard suddenly shot the Major in the head and everyone gasped. Ben pulled Alice to him, holding her tightly in his arms as she let out a quiet sob.
"He has to be stopped," Ben said angrily. "No matter what it takes. He has to be…" Ben choked on his words. "Come on, we have to tell the others."
He wiped away Alice's tears, taking her hand in his before leading her away.
Alice stood, listening to her friends chatter about the recent death of Major Swift. She was still grasping what had happened. She'd seen death before, but nothing as sickening as this. One of Page's men was tending to Alice's wound. Stitching it up. She ignored what little pain she felt seeping through the numbness of Swift's death.
"…Swift was a good friend. He died like a true soldier." Alice heard Walter say, bringing her from her thoughts.
"A true soldier?" Alice asked bitterly. "There was nothing noble about how he died! He was tortured, humiliated and killed like some bloody animal!"
"And he didn't give Logan anything, or we'd be dead by now. I call that noble," Walter said calmly.
"It was just a matter of time before Logan did this. Before he decided to hunt us down. We have to fight back," Page said softly.
"We're still not ready though. We need more allies. And thanks to Swift's efforts, we know exactly where to look."
"Before he was executed, the Major managed to send us a message," Ben spoke up.
"A soldier still loyal to the old guard brought it to me, at great risk to his life," Walter announced.
"What does it say?" Jade asked.
"Well this is Swiftie we're talking about, so it's rather straight forward. "You will find allies in Aurora"." Ben recited.
"I still don't understand how anyone there can help us. Aurora is a dead land. Theres nothing there," Page said.
"Or at least, that's what we've been told. It's still the only lead we have anyway," Walter said grimly.
"Can we get on with the plan? I have an overwhelming urge to shoot someone," Ben mumbled, before sending Alice a concerned glance.
"First thing, we'll need a ship. Jade and Ben will get hold of one. While Page and I make sure the rest of the fleet doesn't follow," Walter informed the group.
"What am I doing?" Alice asked, noticing her hadn't mentioned her name in the plan.
"No, you're staying here," Walter said firmly. "You're too injured. And you lost too much blood."
"I can still hold a gun, I'll be fine," Alice said, as Page's men cleaned up her now stitched up wound.
"Alice…"
"No Walter, I'm coming too."
Walter sighed in defeat. "Alright, you go with Ben and Jade."
"You'll need to go via the back alleys. And they'll be crawling with soldiers," Page voiced.
"Not a problem, I know my way round the place," Ben said.
"Go on. My men are putting together all the materials we need. It should be quite a display."
Ben led Jade and Alice away, Sadie following closely behind Jade.
"Stop, only royal guards allowed," the guard said, as the four of them approached a nearby factory.
"Oh, I know," Ben began. "But can I just say, wow, you look so stylish, you know, with the helmets and everything. My friend, myself and my wife here," Ben said, pulling Alice to him, making her glare at the blond soldier. "Were wondering if we could join you, because, I mean, you just make us ordinary soldiers feel so inadequate."
"Leave," the guard said firmly.
"Oh come on. Don't you have any leaflets or application forms we could take with us? If we could just get inside and get your autographs. We are huge fans."
"Leave or we will be forced to terminate you."
"See? Even their vocabulary is stylish."
"Ben, can we please get this over and done with?" Alice asked innocently.
"Sure thing love," he winked, before he, Alice and Jade pulled out their weapons. Ben with his rifle, Alice with her Flintlock pistol and Jade with her sword. Alice shot the guard, before Ben kicked down the gate, firing at the other guard. More guards came, which Jade make short work of with her gauntlets.
They went inside the factory, firing at any guards that came in sight.
"Let's get out of here, the docks are just around the corner," Ben said as they exited the factory, making their way through the back alleyways. There was a loud explosion when they made it out of the alleyways. Ships exploded, erupting in flames. Parts of buildings also exploded, filling the air with more unnecessary black smoke.
"Come one, the way to the ships should be clear," Ben said, leading them away.
"If this is what you call clear I'd hate to see your definition it's opposing meaning," Alice said sarcastically at Ben as they ran into more guards.
"It was an honest mistake!" Ben called over the gunfire.
Alice rolled her eyes, shooting more guards, which were all gone within seconds.
"Walter! What kept you?" Ben asked, as they saw the mentor run over.
"We have to hurry! They're going to be following us after all," Walter said as they headed towards the docks.
"What about Page?" Alice asked.
"She's staying behind. Someone needs to organize things here. Now come on!" Walter looked around to find a ship. "Well, it's not much, but at least it floats. That's what counts," Walter said, looking at a small wooden boat.
"Or, you know, we could take this one and then not drown as soon as we leave port," Ben said, looking at a Reaver Industry made ship.
Walter chuckled, "Well, even better. I've got a good feeling about this voyage."
Alice couldn't disagree more.
A/N: Woop woop chapter 20! I apologize for Reaver being a tad out of character at the beginning there, it kinda just came to me and I felt it had to be in there? So, apologies if you didn't really like that type of Reaver :( Let me know if you didn't like it and I will do my best not to do something like that again :)
Also, if you have any suggestions about what you want to happen, then let me know and I'll see if I can do it :) I'm always happy to hear what you guys think.
Oh and, let me know if you got Black Veil Brides latest album...or if you even like them :)