A/N: so. yesterday was really busy BUT i still got it published this week so im safe

Death by hanging. Death by hanging. Evergreen hadn't seemed too bothered by it, though her skin had gone white as the marble floor. But she hadn't collapsed to her knees. She hadn't burst into tears. She'd let the guards chain her and drag her to the dungeon, where she'd be locked up for another week-and-a-half until they executed her.

The memory of Ivan's slippery grin made Laxus' skin boil. Freed scolded him when he punched a sizable dent into the wall, but Bickslow had nothing to say. He seemed to be in shock and a cleric led him away to the infirmary. Another was steering Ivan in a wheelchair, though it was obvious from the way that his father was stretching his legs that he did not need it. The cleric looked rather annoyed.

"Don't," Freed warned when Laxus took a step towards him. "You'll aggravate the situation."

"'Aggravate the situation?'" he sputtered. "It's already aggravated enough as it is! Freed, they're going to hang her!"

His knight took a deep breath and shut his eyes, composing himself before he spoke. "There's still time."

"Time? There's still time?" Laxus laughed and leaned against the wall. "We've spent six months going through every document, turning over every goddamn rock and looking in every crevice to find some proof that Ivan is the traitor, not Ever. Six months, Freed."

"Yes, but-"

"What are we going to find in a week that we didn't find in six months?"

Freed opened his mouth to say something, shut it, and then repeated the process. He looked like a fish gasping for air, which is how Laxus himself felt. Makarov had lent a sympathetic ear to Laxus when he'd confronted him shortly before the final verdict was given, but the king only had so much power- the jury, most of whom were under Ivan's greasy thumb, were the ones with the real power when it came to a judgement. The king had looked sick and pale when he'd declared the sentence was execution, and he'd been escorted out by Erza and Lucy not a moment later.

"We'll look at the records again," Freed said.

"Sure. The records."

"Yes. The records. And we'll go into town. There's gotta be some disgusting little tavern where he plots and schemes."

Laxus scoffed. "You make him sound like a villain from a fairy tale."

"But isn't he?" Freed mused. He took the prince by the arm and began to guide him away from the court's room and towards his chambers. "A magnificent and intelligent mage and prince, plotting to rule over the kingdom and abuse his power? It's so stereotypical, I want to vomit."

Not a single soul would tell him what the verdict was. Elfman paced outside the door and pestered every person who came out of it, but they only gave him odd looks and scurried on their way. His hands shook when they brought Ever- Evergreen, that was her actual name- out from the courtroom, lead along by chains just like a dog.

"Ever!" he shouted over the thin bustle of people, and she jumped. Her eyes went wide and she strained against her chains- a guard tugged on them harshly and raised a hand above her in threat, and Elfman could make out her lips saying his name, but they took her away with harsh pulls and jabs against her back with sheathed swords.

Tears pressed against his eyes, but he held them in and stumbled back against the wall. The fact that she was in chains didn't bode well. She wasn't free, and he had also seen Prince Ivan be wheeled out with an oddly smug look on his face. Elfman hadn't ever encountered the prince before, but knew from stories that he was a bittered man with a keen mind and fearsome magical ability.

"Sister!" he called when Mirajane walked out of the room. She showed him no heed, however, and walked down the hall to follow the prince with stiff shoulders and hardened eyes.

Not a single soul would tell him what the verdict was. He was sweating buckets.

"Hey, you." A man with olive green hair stopped behind Elfman and glared up at him with furrowed eyebrows. Another was behind him, taller by a head and with striking orange eyes and pale blond hair. "What're you doing here? I don't think I recognize you."

He coughed, looked over his shoulder and to both sides, then stupidly pointed at himself. The man, dressed in fine armor and holding a sword with an ornate pommel at his hip, observed the open wound on his cheek, huffed, and nodded.

"I-I was here with my sister, Mira. The accused is my friend, so I-"

His back slammed into the wall. His already sore body screeched, but he remained quiet. The green-haired man had his hand on his sword and looked ready to strike in an instant, but the one who pinned him was the blond one. His hands, clenched tightly around the collar of Elfman's shirt, shook, but his face had no emotion.

"'Friend?" he echoed. "Don't screw with me. I ain't ever seen you before in my life."

Elfman couldn't breath, and despite all his strength, he was unable to pry the hands from him. "I-I met her… when she was hi-hiding!"

The man's face twisted into a rage Elfman had never seen before, his lips pulled tight in a beastly scowl, and he smashed him into the wall so hard that his shoulder popped. "So it was you! It's your fault that she's going to die! You brought her here!"

"Laxus," the knight behind them said. He lifted a hand from his sword and held it out to his companion, a soothing motion as though he were reining in a wild horse. "Stop. Put him down."

"But-!"

"This is Mirajane's brother. He's not nearly so malicious enough to bring Evergreen into the hands of Ivan."

Laxus. Was this the Prince Laxus? Or was this another one? Laxus probably wasn't a common name, and now Elfman saw the crest of the royal family on the clasps that held his cape, made from a very fine material, to his coat. This was the prince, and if what Mira had said about Ever was true, this was her master.

"Y-your Majesty," he coughed. "Pl-please set me down."

It was only with a faint touch from the knight to his back that Laxus dropped him, leaving him in a heap on the floor as he choked and rubbed at his collar bones. Not even a moment after dropping him was it that the prince crouched down to glare at Elfman with eyes that sparked like lightning.

"How'd you know her? What's your relationship?"

It wasn't prudent to lie to royalty. "I was dying. Got beat up by some bandits. She found me and healed me." He paused for a moment and pressed his fingers to the cold ground. "We were friends."

"When was the last time you saw her?"

"I visited her a lot. I saw her just a few days ago, besides from today."

"Did you tell a soul about her?"

"No! My sister sent soldiers to follow me!"

Laxus slammed a fist against his knee. "Damn that Mirajane."

Elfman narrowed his eyes. "She was trying to protect me. She was worried."

"Like I care." He stood up. His cape billowed around him and he looked to where Ever had been dragged off minutes before. "What's your name?"

He hesitated, but answered when the knight at his side offered him a hand. "Elfman."

"Elfman," the prince muttered as he scratched at the back of his head. "I have an important question for you."

His heart pounded- an impressive looking blade fit to slay a dragon hung at Laxus' side, and he wondered if, if Elfman gave the wrong answer to this important question, he would lose his head to it. "What is it?"

"Did you want this to happen to her?"

"No!" He shoved away from the knight and stepped to the prince with a hand to his chest. "Ever is my friend! We've looked after each other for almost six months. I'd take her place now if I could."

"Elfman," Laxus repeated, as though testing the name, seeing if it was trustworthy. "Do you know why Evergreen is in this situation?"

He flinched and leaned back to chew on the question. "They're saying she murdered the High Priest and put Prince Ivan in a coma."

"That's what they say," the knight mumbled.

"Don't be sassy now, Freed," Laxus warned. "We'll tell him the truth, if what he says about how he feels about Ever is true."

"Is that wise?" asked Freed. He side-eyed Elfman with more than a smidge of distrust. "He's the brother of another High Knight, one who firmly believes that Evergreen is the murderer to boot."

"Elfman." Laxus ignored Freed, who scoffed. "Do you know what they're doing with Ever?"

He stayed quiet for the umpteenth time during the conversation and looked away. "I was hoping they'd found her not guilty, but based on the way they dragged her out of there, she-"

"Is sentenced to be hung to death."

Elfman froze. The floor suddenly switched with the wall and he wanted to fall over.

"They're going to hang her in just over a week."

Elfman shook his head and threw his hands out to plead. "But you're the second prince of this country! Don't you care about her? Can't you change the sentence?"

"I care about Evergreen more than you do," the prince warned. "Don't suggest otherwise again."

Freed cleared his throat. "Laxus has no such power to sway the verdict. He may be a prince, but this country's justice system is founded on a vote. Once the jury has spoken, not even the king could do anything."

"What if we changed their minds?" he pleaded desperately. "What was the vote like? Almost half-and-half? We could convince them that he's innocent easily!"

The knight swept back his hair and refused to look at Elfman. "The vote was unanimous. Good luck convincing some 60 nobles and court members that they're wrong."

"How can they all think that Evergreen is guilty?" he asked. "Ever… Ever is a nice person! She took care of me. She saved my life. She wouldn't murder someone."

Freed and Laxus looked at each other, something secretive and uncomfortable between them, as heavy as a mountain of bricks. The knight broke eye contact first and gave an uncomfortable cough while the prince scowled and looked to the ceiling.

"She wouldn't murder someone. Right?"

"I don't know what it was about you," Laxus began, "but 'nice' isn't quite how most people in this castle would describe her. Go on." He lifted a hand to shoo Elfman away. "You could ask anyone. They'd tell you she was cold, cruel, and serious."

"They'd be wrong, of course," added Freed. "Terribly wrong. She just took her job as a knight to the prince very seriously."

Elfman sputtered. "They thought she murdered a priest because she's serious? Half the people in this damn castle would be suspects!"

"Elfman." Laxus set a hand on his shoulder and steered him down the hall. "Come with me. We'll tell you what really happened."

The cell that they prepared for Evergreen in was the furthest thing from the lap of luxury- not that she had been expecting that sort of thing anyway. And she was used to damp gray walls, floors with frayed rugs, gaggles of people lurking in the shadows, and bars on the windows. She'd grown up in squalor, after all. Compared to some places she'd found to sleep as a child, this was a royal suite.

"Get in there," her escort gruffed. "And be quiet."

He was not very polite in shoving her inside. She landed on the ground, still in her handcuffs, and could not throw out her hands to brace her fall. Her cheek hit the ground painfully and she hoped that the crack she heard was nothing more than a very tired figment of her imagination. Nobody else in the cell helped her get up. Her shirt was still damp from her rude wake up call before the trial and she laid on the ground, gritting her teeth and fighting back the impulse to throw herself against the bars like an animal, especially as a few chose to have a good laugh at her condition.

"Hey, hey, look! The high-and-mighty Evergreen, finally where she belongs!"

"'s pretty funny. See, bitch, this is what you get for being scum."

"All those times you acted so superior for serving the prince, you're getting your dues for it now!"

One of them spit at her and sent the rest into a riotous fit of laughter as they exited the dungeons. They sounded like hyenas, horrible, loathsome hyenas with their teeth bared to rip out her throat. How horrible. If she was remembering right, she'd never done anything particularly cruel to anyone in the castle, except for the criminals she rounded up and threw in the prison. Sure, she was standoffish, but it wasn't her job to be fluffy and friendly. It was to be a knight. It was to protect Laxus. To hell with what everyone else thought of her.

"Hey, you." A very thin hand reached down and yanked her up by the cuffs, and she gasped at the pain in her sliced up arm. A woman with a mane of red hair and sunken cheeks held her, staring at her blankly with startlingly purple eyes. Her lips turned up into a hollow smile. "I know you!"

Ever sniffed and looked down up her nose at her. The rest of the inmates, another two women, watched with curious faces. "Do you? I admit, you also look familiar."

"Oh yes, yes." The woman smiled a little bit more before releasing Evergreen, her eyes tracing up and down her body. "You threw me in here, remember. Six months ago. I hear I was your last catch before you went down the wrong road, little miss."

Evergreen remembered now, and her stomach lurched. Cornelia Flint- a woman wanted for the murder of her husband and children. Laxus himself had assigned her the case, knowing she would take it with a grain of salt, and she did. She had wanted to believe that the woman hadn't murdered anyone, but then she'd walked in on Cornelia sawing off the head of an innocent town butcher while he screamed and bled to death, though the pain and shock was what had ultimately killed him.

Right. Ever hadn't eaten for three days after that.

"You murdered your husband and three children," Ever stated. "And you were decapitating a man slowly and painfully when I found you. This is the best place for people like you."

The inmate raised a hand and Ever thought that she would lash out to strike her. She looked away and offered her bruising cheek with tight shoulders and a clenched jaw, but the hand rested gently on her face instead, rubbing it kindly. When Ever looked back, the look was empathetic and pitying.

"This is the best place for people like us, you mean."

"Let me get this straight." Elfman threw out his hands, keeping them parallel to one another. The light in the infirmary room was soft, but still hurt his head after the mass of information he'd just absorbed. "Your father, the crown prince Ivan, murdered the priest."

Laxus nodded while he poured a glass of water and handed it to Bickslow, who had only just found the strength to sit up and participate in the conversation.

Elfman started again. "Your father, Ivan, murdered Fiore's High Priest and gave himself some sort of drug to put himself in a coma for almost six months."

"Yes," Freed grumbled. He seemed to be having a headache of his own, based on the way he was massaging his temples.

"Ivan murdered the priest with an ax that looked like Ever's and left her in the room to be found with the priest's blood all over her."

"Bingo," muttered Bickslow.

"And Ivan wants to do this to get to you, his son." Elfman gestured to Laxus, who grimaced and looked away. "Because you two are in a competition for who gets to rule the country when the king passed away? So Crown Prince Ivan is a corrupt, greasy, unmanly idiot who thought that offing one of your guards would get you to back down?"

The prince placed his hands behind his back and paced towards the window, where gauzy white curtains were ruffling in the midnight breeze. He held them back to peer out at the moon. "I think he was partially hoping that the experience might even make me go mad. He wasn't expecting me to help her escape, I don't believe. He thought that me seeing her executed would do the trick."

Elfman shook his head and crossed his arms. "I know there are rumors of Prince Ivan being a bad man, but I can't believe-"

"Prince Ivan has abused the country's treasury, murdered countless people to get his way, disrespected women in the most horrendous of ways, and is a corrupt, terrible man," Freed spat. He'd remained quiet for most of the time, but now he was squeezing his hands behind his back and scowling at the floor. "I've known him for years, and never once have I seen him be kind. He's unfit to lead this country. Laxus must rule in the wake of his grandfather."

Bickslow licked his lips free from water droplets. "And he's always been tormenting Evergreen, because she's the only girl Laxus has ever gotten close to." A grin warped his face and he folded his arms, looking triumphant. "There was this one time where he grabbed her ass and almost lost his hand. I swear, she almost cut it clean off. Never seen anyone move that fast, but Gray stopped her, unfortunately. Ivan only got away with a sprain, and I don't think he's ever forgotten it."

Elfman sighed and looked to the floor. His head spun and he felt faint. The morning felt like it was eons ago, and he felt he had aged just the same. Evergreen, the angel in the forest, was a knight of a prince, a supposed murderer, and not at all whom he had believed her to be. She was starting to feel like a hallucination, a bitter daydream, and he wondered if any part of her that he knew was real.

"There is no lack of hope."

The other three men in the room turned to look at Laxus. His hands clenched behind his back until they were white. The moonlight bathed his skin silver and he stared out into the gardens outside. "We aren't without hope. There's still a week left. Nine days to be exact, at noon. I'm not here to give up." His eyes flickered to the others. "Are you?"

A silence settled over them briefly, until Bickslow spoke up. "I ain't givin' up until I see her body hanging from the rope. There'll be no sleep for me until I free her."

"I haven't given up on her before, no matter how hopeless she seemed." Freed sighed and then smiled. "I shall not rest either."

"Elfman."

He jumped enough that his head nearly hit the ceiling, but he righted himself quickly. "Y-yes?"

"You have no obligation to this," Laxus told him, turning away from the window. "You're the brother of a High Knight. If you were to get tangled up in these affairs, you could slander your and your sisters' names. More to the point, you have barely any connections with Evergreen."

Slander his name. More importantly, slander Mira and Lisanna's names. It was unthinkable. He could ruin everything for his family. No one would look at his sisters the same way. It seemed like a very impossible decision.

But he thought of Evergreen, chained, bleeding, soaked, and looking at him desperately as she was dragged away to her fate, and his heart ripped. It wasn't really an impossible decision.

"If I didn't help, I don't think I would be able to live with myself."

The prince huffed and looked at the wall. "Then get to work."