Jumping down from the platform, Willow slid onto the castle balcony. Navy's stupid plot put her in the Great Above, and from how badly it had gone around, her location was within the vicinity of the castle Navy and Orchid had turned into their new home.
And with her knowledge, they had taken Purple with. Giving Purple the title of prince with how things were going.
She looked through the window, trying to see where the hell she was. She'd been searching for Purple so she could rescue him and get him to the refugee she had heard about, being led by her best friend, Sunny.
Her traitor brother, Fern, was nowhere to be found.
Not that she cared. If anything, the only place he'd end up was six feet under if he wasn't already.
Willow sighed, the reminder that she had a brother that could potentially be in this dimension with her, and that was something she worried about.
The memory of his betrayal reveal still burned fresh in her mind.
Red smiled. King's overprotective phase was growing out of him, for now.
It probably wouldn't take long for it to grow back into him.
A buzzing sound suddenly filled their ears.
"What the…"
"You know your fatal flaw, King Orange?" Fern said over the buzzing, and everyone glanced in his direction.
Fern was standing tall, arms outstretched, a barrage of drones behind him, and an evil smirk plastered on his face.
"Your assumptions are almost always correct."
King and the others watched in horror and betrayal.
"Fern, you…" Willow struggled to find the right words. Her own brother.
"YOU TRAITOR!" King screamed, lunging for the man.
"Oh, King," Fern sent a drone for him, which promptly tossed him into a far wall, knocking him out. "Traitor is such a strong word."
She growled under her breath. "Stupid Fern! Why did you have to be a stupid fucking guard for a stupid fucking bastard?!"
She kicked the window, shattering it.
"Fuck."
A shadow jumped, and within seconds, an energy ball was shot at her.
Willow, not thinking of a better option, swung into the room, tackling her attacker to the ground.
"Hey! The hell was that for, psycho?!"
Willow froze for a moment. Why did that voice sound so...familiar?
"Purple?" She asked, puzzled by the familiarity.
It had to be. Nobody shot energy balls like he could.
The figure backed up a little, the moonlight shining through the shattered window illuminating the figure.
"Willow?"
Second climbed through, nearly falling onto the glass shards still scattered about before he caught himself.
"Jesus, this place feels abandoned," He muttered to himself before turning to the window and pulling Green in after him. "Come on, quickly! We've gotta get everyone in here before someone sees us!"
"Why would someone see us?" Green asked, having hardly been in here and even less barely understanding the layout and heavily guarded setup of the building they were currently in.
"Because! Navy has more guards than I can count, meaning if there's still some stragglers loyal to Navy, we're fucking screwed if they see us! I know this place should...and might be, abandoned, but we can't risk anybody seeing us! Okay?"
Green sighed. "Fine. We'll be a little more careful." He turned to the window and pulled Red up.
Once they had gotten everyone inside the building and explained what they were looking for, they split up. Blue and Yellow started going through the lower floors, and Green, Second, and Red started heading towards the roof.
Neither Red nor Second had a rough estimate of how many floors were in the building, and the other three hadn't had enough time to fully explore the place, so they were going off of Red and Second's memory.
Which, from how long it'd been since Second had donned a guard disguise to rescue Purple and Dark before they had gotten their powers extracted, was not a good, reliable source.
"Most of this place is cells, from what I can remember," Second explained. "At least when I was in here to stop Orchid."
"And it might still be. The only place I really remember is the storage closer Willow shoved me and Purple into."
I really only remember the top floor, where Dark and Purple were following their capture." Second said.
"Capture?" Green asked, having forgotten most of previous events with what had been happening recently.
"When Purple struck a deal with Orchid to spare us?" Red asked, trying to remind Green of what had happened.
The memories flooded them, a dense silence filling the trio as the memories struck them.
"I'll let you guys go through with your amnesia plan, if you let King and my friends live."
"Where's…the kid?"
"Last time we heard from Purple, he and Dark were taken by Orchid. Something about their powers for our lives or something like that. We're not sure where Second went."
King's heart dropped.
Purple gave himself up for him.
"Purple…gave himself up…?"
"It sounds like he and Dark both did."
"No! Dark isn't that stupid!" Chosen snapped. "He wouldn't do something like that."
"Well, we're alive, and they're in danger. They gave themselves up so we could live. Think of it, Cho. Dark gave himself up for you."
"No-he wouldn't! He wouldn't!"
"He did."
"But-"
"He gave himself up so you can survive. From what we know, Purple did the same."
"So they've been captured?!"
"From what we got from Orchid and Night Shade's conversation a little bit ago, Purple struck a deal with Orchid, and she promised she would let us live if he and Dark gave up their powers. They both agreed, got captured, and they left Second, who could either stay behind to do something about it, or is going to give up and return to the city."
"No. They wouldn't have!"
Purple isn't stupid. He wouldn't do something like that, even if Orchid had promised him King and the others would live.
Purple sighed. "I know. Let's just stop Orchid and get this over with."
"And how are you gonna do that?"
The trio looked up to see Orchid flying in the dull sky, an evil smirk plastered on her face and pink fireballs resting in her palms.
Purple returned that very smirk that told Dark and Second that he had an idea.
"Why don't we make a deal, mom?"
"Oh...yeah..." Green said silently. "That..."
"Yeah, not the best thing to think about, but it gives us a reminder that we are competent, and we're also pretty damn smart. Purple is the reason we got out of that one alive."
"I say we return the favor by opening the portal and bringing him back!"
"Right!"
"Sunny, Willow still hasn't returned with Prince Rose..."
"Stop calling him that. His name is Purple. Good God, how did Navy choose YOU to be his spy?!" Sunny snapped. She hated having Fern at the refugee camp, but he had shown up, gotten captured by Stick City residents(King and the others must've gotten them to rally against Navy at some point, because they presented him as "the bastard's" little spy.
And though Fern had given way less of an explanation as to why he was snooping around Sunny's camp, she'd decided to use him as a guard, since that was what he seemed to be good at.
"But, he is the prince..."
"Call him Prince Rose one more goddamn time, I swear I'll have Willow turn you into a goddamn black rose when she and PURPLE get back!" Sunny shouted. "Now get out and keep looking."
Fern stiffened before racing out of the tent.
The sun-colored stick sighed, collapsing backwards in her chair. Willow had been gone for two days in a rescue mission for Purple, the newly crowned prince of The Great Above.
Great. It was a kingdom.
Sunny has almost no idea where her best friend was, but the castle Navy resided in wasn't too far outside the forest Sunny had claimed as the refugee camp.
Her plan was to use Purple's inside knowledge to wage a battle against Navy and his army to overthrow them once for all.
And hopefully, their friends on the other side were trying to get into the new realm they resided in, which meant they'd have most inside knowledge, given how much of Purple's friends had been captured by Navy in one way or another.
"Come on, Willow. Your smart enough to make a perfect circle in glass, you can rescue a teenager from helping a royal pain."
Deep in the basement of the castle, Night Shade was busy working.
He'd had this project in mind for a while, and with the right components given to him during a routine run between dimensions(did that have consequences worse than what he had in mind? Probably, but not that he cared.), they'd been able to finally begin it.
"Don't worry, King Orange," He said to himself. "You see your family again soon enough."