A/N: Hey everyone! I'm very sorry for being two months late. I know I said I would try not to delay so much but life tends to get in the way a lot! I hope you all can forgive me. But I'm back and here with another chapter for you all. Enjoy! Also, please head on over to my YouTube Channel, "C.T. Fosmire, Author," and subscribe to hear my own original stories. As well as my gaming channel, " firelord5151", if you guys want to watch me play some stratagy games. Thank you all very much!

Chapter 10

Inside the Royal Prep gymnasium, several of the school princes were practicing their fencing skills. They were paired off in two's as their teacher watched over them. It was a skill that many princes had to learn in order to defend themselves should the need ever occur. Even princesses were required to learn this art. It was one of the many styles of fighting that the students of Royal Prep could learn. But even though it was a skill that taught the students proper self defense, it was also a sport that many enjoyed spectating, hence the crowd of princesses gathered atop the bleachers on the other side of the gymnasium. The princes who were fencing in the center of the gym were all having fun as well as learning new techniques. However, one certain prince wasn't practicing for fun. He was practicing to be the best swordsman there ever was, as was his goal when he became King. He also wasn't facing just one opponent, he was facing against three.

Marcus stood at the ready and waited for his opponents to make the first move. There was a tense standoff, as all four participants just stood there facing each other. Marcus stood confidently with his left hand behind his back, and his sword pointed at the man in the center while keeping his eyes on all three of them. Suddenly the one on the right attacked first with a thrust of his sword. Marcus easily parried the attack away just as another opponent came at him from his left. Again, Marcus was able to parry once more and thrust his sword into his opponents chest, thus defeating his first opponent and gaining a point. With only two left, his third opponent came at him with a barrage of attacks, hoping to land at least one hit. Unfortunately for him, Marcus was able to block every strike that was thrown at him.

However, Marcus never lost sight of the first one as he tried to attack from behind. At the last second, Marcus maneuvered out of the way, causing both of his opponents to collide with one another. Marcus smiled victoriously as his opponents groaned in pain while they tried to stand up. Once the two were up, they launched a simultaneous attack hoping to catch Marcus off guard. However, Marcus was able to block, parry and reverse any attack that they could come up with. Then on the final block, Marcus angled his sword so that he had both of their swords pressed against his. Then with a strong push, he shoved them off, causing both of them to lose balance, before he slashed at both of their chests as they fell to the floor, thus scoring two more points and defeating his final two opponents at once. Feeling victorious, Marcus stood confidently as if the whole session took almost no effort. The crowd of princesses cheered as they raced over and gathered around Marcus, gazing up at him in admiration.

"Wow, Marcus!" said one of the princesses. "That was incredible. As usual."

"Yeah," agreed another princess. "That was the fifth time today that you've won. You're amazing." Marcus stood there and relished in their praise.

"Thank you very much, my dears," he said in a smooth tone. "I'm very glad you enjoyed the show. It's very pleasant to know that I can keep such lovely ladies here entertained." The princesses all giggled adoringly at his charming words as they continued to praise and admire Marcus. On the other side of the gym, however, were two princes who looked on at the crowd with disdain. James shook his head before turning to Zandar to continue fencing.

"What the heck do those girls see in him?" James said as he thrust towards Zandar's chest. Zandar parried the attack and countered with a thrust of his own.

"Who knows?" he replied. "Probably because he's from a powerful kingdom. A lot of princesses seem to only care for that." James and Zandar continue to clash their swords together.

"But he's such a Jerk," James said with hate in his tone. "All he's ever done since he's been here was push people around and put down anyone that gets in his way. I mean, why would anyone fall for a guy like that?!" James swung his sword Zarndar's shoulder, forcing the Arab prince to step back to avoid the strike and nearly losing balance. Zandar regained his footing and went back on the offensive.

"Probably because they see it as a way to get to the top," Zandar said. "That's what usually happens. If someone is in a high place, others will use him to make themselves look better as well. But look at it this way, we have something that Marcus most likely will never have." James raised an eyebrow.

"What's that?" he asked. The little distraction was just enough for Zandar to catch James off guard and land a blow to his chest, thus winning the match. Zandar gave James a sly grin.

"True friends," he answered. James looked down at his chest to Zandar and back again.

"Hey! You cheated!" James said, even though there was a smile on his face. Zandar only shrugged and he stood there looking victorious.

"It's called strategy," he said in a smug, yet joking manner. "Don't get so distracted next time." James grinned at his best friend before taking another stance.

"Best five out of seven?" Zandar grinned before taking the same stance.

"You're on."

Marcus was reveling in the attention he was receiving, smiling proudly and confidently, feeling as if only he mattered. However, the moment soon passed as Marcus's three opponents pushed their way through the crowd and stood next to Marcus before taking off their masks. One of them was a dark brown haired prince with a small mustache growing in, his hair was long and tied in a ponytail, who stood at around 5' 8''. He had a slim figure, but was still rather muscular. Another was revealed to be a prince with shoulder length red hair and a scar on his chin that stood a few inches shorter than the other prince. He too was muscular, especially his arms, but was slightly more round in his midsection. The final was a prince with black hair that was longer on the left side of his face, almost covering one eye, who stood rather taller than the other two, and was slimmer. All three princes stared at Marcus, who nodded to them in acknowledgment before turning back to the princesses.

"Please excuse me, ladies," he said charmingly. "I have some things to attend to."

"Awe," the princesses said in disappointment as Marcus made his way through the crowd and out of the gym with his three companions following close behind. Once they were outside the gym, they made their way towards an empty classroom, where Marcus shut the doors to prevent anyone from hearing them.

"Is everything going according to plan?" Marcus asked while keeping his back to them.

"Almost," said the prince with the dark brown blonde hair. "Three out of the four princes we need have agreed to our terms." Marcus turned to fully face the other princes.

"Very good, Jeremy," Marcus said. "And who is the last prince we need?"

"Prince Zandar," said the prince with red hair. Marcus frowned at this information. This was not going to be easy. He knew that Zandar was best friends with James, so convincing him to join was not going to be easy.

"Why do we need him anyway?" asked the black haired prince. "Couldn't the plan work with just the seven kingdoms we have? His lands are really nothing but desert anyway." Marcus looked at the taller prince with narrowed eyes, causing him to step back a little in intimidation.

"Because, Harold," Marcus said deeply, "Zandar's land's may be desert, but they are rich with minerals underneath it. And if he were to join us, not only would it benefit our kingdoms greatly, it would provide us with a good base of operations for when the time comes to act on our plans." Harold bowed his head as he took another step back.

"But I don't see why he would join us, Marcus," said the red haired prince. "Zandar is best friends with James, and you two don't exactly see eye to eye." Marcus turned his attention to the shorter prince with a confident smile.

"I have a plan or two to get him to join us, Alexander," he said as a wicked grin formed on his face. "He'll see things our way one way or another. Either he will join us willingly, or we'll just have to force him to join." Jeremy and Alexander all grin the same as he did at the thought. Harold, however, merely nodded his head. Marcus then turned and made his way towards the chalkboard at the front of the classroom. He took a piece of chalk and began to draw something on the board, along with writing some names as well. Once he was finished, he put down the chalk and turned to his companions with a sly grin.

"These eight of our kingdoms border one another," Marcus stated as he pointed to the drawing on the board, which was a map of all the eight kingdoms, including Tangu. "Our kingdoms don't border each other directly, but with the three kingdoms that agreed to our alliance, our lands form a perfect united realm. At this point in time, we have seven kingdoms total. It's not complete, but that should be enough to get us started. All we need is to get Zandar to join our cause and everything will be set."

"But what if he refuses to join us?" Alexander asked. Marcus smiled as he turned to the board again, picking up the chalk.

"Then we invade," he said as he drew a line through Tangu. Marcus then returned his attention to the other three princes. "Then we'll have his kingdom anyway. And once that is complete, We'll finally have the resources to build our glorious empire."

"With you as the great Emperor," Alexander said with glee. "And we'll be members of your counsel."

"We still get to have control over our original kingdoms right?" Harold asked with his arms crossed. Marcus rolled his eyes and sighed.

"Of course. You all will have autonomy over your lands. But I will be the one you all answer to. You'll all just be my vassal states."

"I think that sounds cool," Alexander said giddy, clapping his hands together like a small child. Jeremy rolled his eyes at the smaller prince.

"You think rabbits eating tofu sounds cool," he said. Alexander glared at Jeremy and was about to retort when Marcus spoke out.

"That's enough!" he said sternly. "This isn't the case right now. We need to get Zandar to join us. And once he does, we'll be one step closer to conquering the world." Marcus exclaimed before turning towards the window of the classroom. "And once I'm Emperor, I'll have the right to choose any bride I see fit." Harold stared at Marcus with a raised eyebrow.

"And who do you see fit as your bride, your highness?" Harold asked, though the last part of his sentence was said with slight sarcasm, though fortunately no one seemed to catch it. Marcus didn't answer him right away as he stepped closer to the window and looked up at the sky. He stared at the clouds moving across the blue sky as a wicked smile slowly crept across his lips at the thought of taking a certain purple dressed princess as his bride, even if it was by force.

"Sofia of Enchancia."

The lunch bell finally rang and Sofia couldn't get out of the classroom fast enough. She had been waiting for hours for the lunch bell to ring so she could find Amber and apologize. Sofia had been spending all morning trying to come up with a way to apologize to her. She racked her brain thinking of what to do or say. But no matter what she came up with, none of them seemed good enough. She was in such turmoil over this that she barely paid attention in any of her classes, waiting for the bell to sound for lunch to begin. But now that lunchtime had finally arrived, Sofia was a bit anxious about finding Amber, fearing that she would be angry with her. But hopefully she can fix it somehow. She looked throughout the hallways in the hope of finding even a trace of her blonde haired beauty. But so far she couldn't find her. Sofia then found herself at the doors to the Royal Prep Cafeteria and suddenly her stomach dropped. Sofia couldn't find Amber anywhere else, so this had to be where she was. Any confidence she had left in her suddenly faded away, fearing that once she found Amber, she wouldn't be able to talk to her. She feared that even if she tried to talk to her, Amber wouldn't want to listen. But she shook these thoughts away. She was determined to fix this. Sofia placed her hands on the cafeteria doors, taking a moment to let in a deep breath. Her heart was pounding hard in her chest. She dearly hoped that Amber wouldn't be too mad at her to not talk to her.

Sofia took in another deep breath and pushed the cafeteria doors open. She stood in the doorway and searched throughout the crowd of students eating their lunches. It took her a moment, but she finally caught a trace of blonde hair and recognized it as Amber's. Amber, who was sitting next to Clio and Hildegard, was sitting with her back to Sofia, so she had not seen Sofia walk in. Seeing Amber caused Sofia to nearly forget her fears and she hastily ran over to her. The sight of Amber beauty always made Sofia happy no matter how she was feeling previously.

"Amber!" Sofia called out. The blonde haired princess turned around in her seat at the mention of her name. Upon seeing Sofia, Amber narrowed her eyes and quickly turned back around to continue eating her lunch. Sofia's smile immediately fell as she slowed to walk. Her heart nearly broke in two upon seeing Amber's hard glare and her back to her. But nevertheless, Sofia steeled herself and continued her way towards her step sister. Inside, Sofia was feeling a great urge to find a corner and curl herself up into a ball, but made no such move and continued on until she was right next to Amber.

"Hey Amber," Sofia said nervously.

"Hello, Sofia," Amber said in a casual greeting, but with a small hint of disdain. Sofia's face fell even more as she could feel the tears in her eyes beginning to weld up. But Sofia wasn't about to give up and took a seat next to Amber.

"Amber, can I talk to you?" she asked. Amber still refused to look at her as she took a bit of her food.

"I don't know," she said. "Can you? Am I worthy of your time?" Sofia felt a pain in her heart once more, not just because Amber was acting like this, but mostly because she knew she had hurt Amber.

"Amber," Sofia pleaded. "Please." Clio looked between the two princesses and felt a bit awkward. This was obviously something between the two and Hildegard and her had no part or place in it.

"I think we should be going," she said, taking Hildegard's arm and began dragging her away.

"Wait, what?" Hildegard said as Clio finally got her out of her seat and pulled her away, leaving Sofia and Amber in an uncomfortable silence. Amber continued to eat her food, still not giving Sofia even a glance. Sofia knew that Amber was hurt and upset with her and she didn't know how to fix it. But Sofia wasn't about to give up as she took in a deep breath, trying to build up as much confidence as she could.

"Amber," she began, but Amber made no motion of acknowledgement. "Amber, I'm so sorry for what I did." Amber, for the first time since Sofia had arrived, opened one eye to glance at Sofia before she closed it again and took another bite of her food.

"Sorry for what?" Amber asked, playing dumb.

"For leaving you like that," Sofia answered, her voice nearly cracking as she spoke. "I don't know why I did it. But I did and there is no excuse for that."

"Then why did you just leave me?" Amber asked. "You didn't even say goodbye to me, even when I tried to say it to you. You just completely ignored me." Amber's voice rose a little with every word, but not enough to cause a scene and bring everyone's attention, though it was enough for Sofia to shrink back a little. Not in fear, but in shame. She didn't even know that Amber was trying to bid her farewell, which made her feel worse than she already did. She wished she had an answer for Amber, but she just didn't.

"I don't know why," Sofia admitted. "I guess I was just touched by what Vivian said to me this morning that I… I guess I just didn't think of anything else." Amber rolled her eyes as she let out a scoff.

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" she asked. Sofia shook her head.

"No," she answered, her voice beginning to get caught in her throat. "But I just didn't know how much I meant to Vivian and I wanted to make her feel better. Believe me Amber, I wanted to spend as much time with you as I could before we had to go to class. I really did and I ended up leaving you for someone else and completely disregarded and ignored you when I should have brought you along. It was a horrible thing for me to do and I'm so sorry. Here we were this morning, having a wonderful time together and I go and do something as abhorrent to you. I'm so sorry Amber. I'm so sorry." Tears were starting to form in Sofia's eyes as she let out a tiny sob. She covered her face in shame as more sobs escaped her lips. Amber looked at Sofia and suddenly felt horrible. All the anger she previously held was gone. Now she felt like the monster here for bringing Sofia to the point of crying. Amber couldn't stand the sight of it, nor bear to hear those heartbreaking sobs, and gently wrapped her arms around Sofia, bringing her in close. Sofia welcomed the embrace as she leaned against Amber and sobbed into her shoulder. Amber began to rub up and down Sofia's back to try to calm her down.

"Hey," she said gently. "It's okay. It's okay." Sofia let out another sob, causing Amber's heart to break even more.

"I'm sorry, Sofia. I guess I overreacted. I shouldn't have gotten so mad at you."

"Yes, you should have," Sofia mumbled into Amber's shoulder. "I would have gotten upset if someone had left me like that." Amber smiled down at the brunette princess in her arms.

"No, you wouldn't," Amber said with a chuckle.

"Yes, I would," Sofia repeated, this time without the sob. This caused Amber to giggle once more.

"Sofia, you're too kind for that. You could never be angry with someone for long." Sofia pulled away from Amber a bit and gave the blonde a pouting face, which Amber found too adorable.

"Are you saying that I'm a pushover?" she asked sternly, though the effect was lost due to Sofia pouting lips. Amber couldn't help but laugh as she shook her head.

"No, not at all," she said. "I'm just saying you're too much of a sweetheart and a kind hearted person, Sofia. You think of others before yourself. That's what makes you a wonderful person." Sofia began to blush when Amber said she was a sweetheart, and even more so at the word wonderful. Sofia turned her face away to hide her redness from Amber, but had a smile on her face nonetheless. Amber smiled as well, seeing as she got the brunette princess to blush. After a moment, Sofia turned back to Amber, a deep blush still present on her face.

"So does this mean that you forgive me?" she asked. Of course Amber forgave her, but she didn't want to give in so soon. She pulled away from Sofia, though she still kept one hand on Sofia's waist, and looked in the opposite direction.

"I don't know," Amber said. "You did leave me for Vivian. I'm starting to think you have a thing for her." Sofia was about to say something when a thought crossed her mind. She thought about what Amber had just said and a sly grin formed on her face.

So she was jealous that I was spending more time with Vivian instead of her, Sofia thought to herself. She thought of a way to make this fun for her and an idea struck.

"Well can you blame me?" Sofia said. "She has a really sweet voice that I just love listening to. She also has a really nice figure as well. Her hair is so shiny and smooth that I just love combing my fingers through it. And her eyes are just the most beautiful shade of green that just makes you get lost in them." Sofia glanced over at Amber and almost burst out laughing. Amber had let go of Sofia's waist and was now facing the other way, crossing her arms and pouting. And even though Sofia couldn't see her face, she knew that Amber was red in the face. Sofia tried her best to keep herself from laughing at Amber's reaction and decided to keep it going.

"And her hands are just so soft that I could just hold on to them forever. She really knows how to make a girl feel weak in the knees." Sofia could see Amber stiffen up a bit more after hearing that last bit.

"Well," Amber said. "I see where this is going. I better go before your precious princess finds you here with me." Amber had just about enough of hearing Sofia drag on about how beautiful and wonderful Vivian was. In fact, she was pretty much sick of Vivian already and wanted nothing more to do with hearing about her. Amber was about to stand up when she felt Sofia grab hold of her hand.

"Amber," Sofia said in a pleading voice. Amber sighed before looking back at Sofia, then she gasped.

Oh, no, she thought. Not that!

When Amber looked back at Sofia, she looked back to see Sofia giving her the most adorable puppy pout. Her eyes were big and watery like she was about to cry as her bottom lip was poked out and was beginning to quiver. It was a look that was too much for Amber. She tried to look away but couldn't as her heart melted away at the sight. Finally, Amber found her strength and was able to look away as she balled up a fist to her chest.

"Okay! okay! I give!" She said, "Just please stop with the look! It's torture!" Sofia giggled victoriously and wrapped her arms around Amber's neck in a tight embrace. Amber couldn't help but giggle along as she too embraced Sofia. The two shared an enjoyable moment just as the lunch bell rang, signaling for lunch to be over. Sofia was the first to stand up and offer a hand to Amber. She and Amber had the remainder of their classes together so Sofia was really looking forward to the rest of the day.

"Shall we head over to class together?" Sofia asked. Amber was feeling an odd sense of déjà vu but couldn't help but smile back up at Sofia, taking her hand in the process.

"I think we shall," she replied. With that, Sofia and Amber walked hand-in-hand out of the cafeteria together and towards the next class. And in that moment, nothing could be better for the both of them.

A/N: This was very fun to reread and fix up. It really makes me glad that I got back into this. Please let me know what you all think and I will try to be back with another chapter as soon as possible. And also don't forget to go to my P4TR30N account if you wish to support my original writing, but only if you want to. It is completely voluntary. Also remember, Fanfiction does not qualify for P4TR30N as these stories will always be free. Now with all that being said, thank you all very much. See you next time!