Chapter Seven: Escape from the Tower of Mists

The Tower of Mists was a mystical place where everything left you. Everything just vacated the body in the merciless fashion of Kandrakar's very own inhumane prison. Where convicts were sent to lose everything to an eternity of loneliness, coldness, and bitterness until a mere shell is all that becomes of them.

The tower was an endless cylinder-like construction surrounded by thick fog all over. It was hardly noticeable as it was far from the main building and hidden in mists... With no actual doors or windows. It literally extended throughout infinity...Will shivered as she walked on literal clouds and through the fog. The clouds were almost completely solid here, around this part of the tower where the portal had led her to. It was like stepping in deep and soft snow. Will sighed as she felt the cold even in her guardian uniform. There was almost no light here. All she could see wherever she looked was fog and more fog as well as the harrowing body of the tower itself. Even on the outside one could tell; this place was worse than any other prison. This place was created for the biggest criminals in the Universe and it gave her the chills big time.

The way inside the prison was tricky. Only powers the source of which came from the Fortress of Light and Infinity were capable of triggering the live energy entrances to the insides of the imposing building. Powers like her element Quintessence... Normally, only the elders could open the tower though. Not even all of them; only selected people, chosen by the Oracle and the Fortress itself. But there were always exceptions and she knew that. She knew that her bond with Phobos was making it easier for her to find him, even though finding anything around the Tower of Mists was practically impossible. It would help her enter and break him free too...Because this wasn't right. His imprisonment here. Because what she felt inside herself was beyond everything else. And she was a guardian. There are no doors a guardian with a bond like hers couldn't make tremble and open before herself...

- Guardian...Wilhelmina...

"Phobos?"- she stopped walking for a second. She had just stepped on the hard spiral ladder-like platforms that went around the entire tower and she could swear she had heard his voice. Only it took her a hot moment to understand she had actually heard it in her head...

- We have a mental link?! She realized. We haven't even tried to establish one...

- Guardian, I'm here. I'm fading away. I'm fading...

Will felt her heart tighten.

- You're n-not, you're just feeling like it...she tried to comfort him despite her own anxiety. Who knew? Maybe they had purposely put him in some part of the Tower where he was rapidly being drained of everything. - I'm here! I came for you! I will get you out of there!

Somewhere deep inside the Tower, Phobos shook his head in his indescribable pain. It was true, he had more control over his own thoughts ever since she was here. Before that, his mind had tortured him with cruel depictions of everything he had done. Because that was one of the many punishments this hectic place had for the unfortunate prisoners that were sent inside of it. It made sure they never forget their sins and punished them for it mentally and emotionally until even their physical body starts to deteriorate, making them a part of the Tower Mists forever. An inseparable one at that...

He was lying on a big levitating piece of rock, surrounded by a few smaller ones, in a dark and empty landscape. He was tied to his rock with mystical links that had everything entangled in a clueless web. Everything including him.

- I promise you, Phobos! Her voice sounded in his ears again. I will free you!

"WILL!"

Her four best friends appeared behind one thick curtain of fog. Halinor and Kadma were right by their side.

"Stop, Will!"- Halinor cried in desperation as a sudden uncanny gust of wind took over her words and blew in their faces, making their hair fly back simultaneously. Hay Lin shivered and rubbed her palms together; this wind wasn't subjected to her power and that made her fret in front of the many dangers and adversities this prison had in store.

"Get back here, Will, it's dangerous!"- Taranee yelled.

Will stopped again, this time like a schoolgirl being caught skipping classes for the dumbest reason. Only her reason wasn't dumb or nonsensical. She had stopped walking but she could feel that opening the tower here, in this exact place, would lead her to Phobos.

"Oh, now it's dangerous?!"- she yelled in response, frowning at her friends. "You all lied to me again! Phobos is not in the fucking parlor of the Tower, the parlor is way back, we've all been there! He's in the Tower itself! He's a prisoner here now!"

"And that's a bad thing because!? He belongs there!"- Irma exclaimed outraged but Will was more outraged. She stared at all of them with tears in her eyes:

"How can you lie to me like that!? Why did you lie, you know what our connection means now, I sense him as I've never sensed anything or anyone else!"

The rest of the guardians exchanged bedazzled glances in the distance. Cornelia frowned. She had many questions and worries inside herself too, but now wasn't the time to start talking about them. How had Will even come here? How had she been stepping on the gray clouds surrounding the tower, whereas they had to fly to move around...

Was her bond with Phobos going to be the end of them!?

"We didn't mean to deceive you, we actually did contact the Coronian kingdom but they turned our request down. They wished not have Phobos back, Queen Magana has established a new order in her world and he cannot go back there, we had no other choice but to put him in the Tower, he's not to be trusted when he's not with Leonida and their child!"- Halinor tried to explain.

"He's not to be trusted with anyone, Coronia has simply seen through their previous mistake! When they wanted to have him and bought him from Meridian!"- Kadma barked. "This is the only place he can be now, Will, give it a rest and come here! The Tower of Mists is not a place one wants to overstay their welcome- "

"Without a trial or a sentence?"- Will interrupted her angrily, resting her back against the cold tower wall. "You all just...just decided that he deserves this, the worst among any punishment Kandrakar can give? This place is inhuman, it's atrocious! Didn't you claim that you wouldn't be like the previous Oracle!?"

"Oh, my God, come to Earth, do you think that a trial would've resulted in anything different since the Coronia exile thing is not effective anymore!?"- Cornelia shouted. "This man is the same Phobos we fought as teenagers, Will, the same man we all wanted to get rid of numerous times for his crimes and his-"

"Yeah, we hated Nerissa's guts too, but she's been living her life like a new person for two years now!"- Will spat. "So, why can't he? Why can't he be rehabilitated and- "

"Are you fucking crazy!?"- Irma screamed. "I swear, the fucking bond is really messing with your head, you don't actually mean this, babe, this is just because-"

"NO!"

A terrible rumble echoed somewhere above them. Irma pulled back in shock at the sight of the anger in the redhead.

"I do mean it! You lied to me because you don't trust me, you actually think I'm crazy for real!"- Will screamed, her eyes filling with tears. "I can't believe that our friendship could go downhill like that, just because I was forced to be gone a few months!"

The faces she saw towards herself were simply shocked. They didn't understand her. They didn't want to try to understand her... They were just...determined. Determined to oppress and control everything the way they thought it was right.

"I'm going to grab her."- Hay Lin shook her head. She couldn't stand this anymore. The air was full of negativity here. And it was plaguing all of her friends. "We have to get away from here!"

"Hay Lin!"

But she didn't listen to the others, she just started flying towards the redhead who desperately pressed her hands against the tower and started to picture an entrance. A door that would open and take her to the prince...

"WILL! DO NOT TAMPER WITH THE TOWER, YOU MIGHT FREE SOMEONE ELSE-"- Halinor screamed deafeningly but to no avail.

Will didn't stop. When Hay Lin put her hands on her shoulders, trying to snatch her away, she swung her around and hit her in the wall. The young Air guardian gasped at that and just sat down staring at her friend who kept channeling her power into the same wall she had just slammed her into without an ounce of hesitation...

"Attack her, bring her here, this is getting out of hand!"- Cornelia ordered with tears in her eyes.

Taranee and Irma exchanged hesitating glances but eventually fired their magic toward their former leader.

Will screamed when water and fire started trying to pull her towards their wielders, like rough chains of usurpers.

"No! Quintessence!"- she cried in her despair.

Immediately, the sparks of her magic made the curtain of fog intensify even more and then cover her attackers, blocking their reach to her as well as their vision. Taranee and Irma's magic flickered in distress and their elemental ropes disappeared. The two of them, Cornelia and the two former guardians could only yell helplessly as they struggled to get free of the enchanted thick fog barriers that pushed and disoriented them.

"Will, please come to your senses!"- Hay Lin stood up and grabbed her by the wrists. "Please, this is not you!"

"I don't want to have to do things like this, either, Hay Lin! But I can't leave him inside this hell tower!"- Will whispered. "I can't. You have to understand me."

The Asian trembled and stopped. For a moment, they just looked at each other and then Hay Lin sighed:

"O-OK...just promise me something."

Will managed a weak smile but then she heard something behind herself and turned around in distress. Hay Lin had simply distracted her so as to blow the fog away from the others and give them a new chance to seize her.

"No!"

"I hate having to do this to you, babe."- Irma huffed as she wielded thousands of small droplets of water over Will's body. They quickly merged together and formed a suit-like layer over, immobilizing her completely.

Will groaned and tried to disperse the water with her powers but failed to.

"What the..."

"Good job, Irma!"- Taranee approved. "She changed the structure of her water, turning it into her very own type of dielectric fluid, an electrically non-conductive liquid that is very resistant against Will's high voltages!"- she explained to Cornelia's quizzical face.

Fuck, Will finished grimly in her head.

"You can do that but not fix your pipe issue?"- Cornelia rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, well. We've been practicing this in case..."- Irma closed her mouth and didn't finish the dark confession but the redhead had gotten the message. Her friends had been practicing what they'd do if they had to fight her. Again. After all, they had already hijacked her once, against her will...

Then as Hay Lin and Irma were taking her back towards the others, who were getting ready to leave, she spied a huge set of many pure white sphere-shaped keys hooked on the belt of Halinor's robe.

The keys to Kandrakar's premises... Will felt her breath stopping. One of these babies has to be able to open the Tower... Quintessence!

"Let's get out of here-"

"Wait a minute."

Everyone looked at her in anticipation. They were all lined together now, facing her. Will just smiled.

"Uh-oh."- Irma muttered. "I don't like that smug-"

"Oh, my God, the keys!"- Halinor realized but it was too late. She teletransported them back in her hand, but one had already touched the wall of the tower weakening its defenses completely. Will would take it from here...

"Will!"- Taranee screamed as they watched her teletransport out of Irma's distracted water seize.

"You're acting foolish! You're endangering the Fortress!"- Kadma barked after her as her quintessence interfered with the fog once again, this time creating huge and tall, robust creatures of it.

"Yeah? I think that you're just enjoying being mistresses of the Fortress too much for your own good! Locking Phobos here wasn't your decision to make!"

"Fog golems..."- Taranee gasped when the creatures blocked their way. "She created her very own army of fog golems."

"She has to be stopped!"- Kadma insisted, angry as she and the others started to fight the golems who attacked first, shooting lightnings out of their faceless heads...

Will opened her eyes after a breathless minute of concentration. She had made it! She gasped when Phobos's unconscious body slowly dispatched itself from the links and levitated through the melting wall of the tower that became solid again, right after he was out. He looked paler than ever, dressed in a prison white robe. He just levitated in her arms.

"Phobos!"- Will exclaimed as she threw his hand around her shoulder. "You'll be fine, I've got you! Let's get out of this hell-"

She had this. Her friends were occupied with the golems she had created. She would now fly with Phobos, fly away from here and back to... a portal suddenly opened a few feet above them. Perfect!

She readily headed for it, keeping Phobos secure near herself...

"How did she do that..."- Kadma whispered looking up at the newly-opened purple portal.

"I have no idea, Kadma..."- Halinor shook her head, a grave feeling getting stuck in her chest for they both knew this was supposed to be impossible. It made no sense. Will didn't hold the Heart anymore, she didn't have a strong permitted talisman, one blessed by Kandrakar, how had she even come here...

"Fuck!"- Will groaned when suddenly the portal was closed. Right under her nose.

But the green lights that had been shot at it had come from somewhere behind them. She turned around and disbelief and exclaimed:

"Matt!?"

Now it was apparently his turn to block her way. He hovered towards her in his Shagon form. His strong black wings making him as agile as she was, if not even more...

"What do you think you're doing?"- he questioned sternly.

"What does it look like I'm doing?"- she frowned. "I'm fixing the mistake your lie led to! Or did you think that I wouldn't know the fate you've chosen for Phobos behind my-"

"I didn't know that Phobos is moved to the inside of the Tower up until a few minutes ago when I came here because I sensed a strong portal being open on Earth. In a clandestine fashion, of course."- Shagon interrupted her even more sternly. Will opened her mouth in surprise:

"Wha-"

"I'm a Knight of the Heart of Earth, remember. Former regent? It's kind of my job to monitor that. So, how did you open that portal and come here? Remember what happened the last time you left a portal open? Someone from Earth entered Beta-Meridian and strange things happened."

"Hey, wait a minute, Matt, what are you implying?"- Will protested in outrage. "That I'm being careless? Is that what you're trying to say because that's-"

"The absolute truth, I just don't understand why? Why now?"

She blinked a few times:

"Well, maybe because I felt that I've been cheated and deceived and that Phobos needs my help to-"

"To what, Will, get back to Earth? You said yourself that you and he need to be apart. Do you want that sidereal shit between the two of you to keep getting stronger and tamper with our life? I don't get you right now. Why are you still acting this way because of Phobos when you know that it's wrong!? You still have time to restore your normal life, so why aren't you!?"

Will didn't reply to that. She just purposely looked away. Shagon had his golden mask on, she couldn't read anything in his eyes but she could still make out what he must be thinking. And she? What did she think about all this?

"Leaving him here doesn't stand right with me."- she whispered in the end. In her arms, Phobos moved. He was waking up. His left arm, the one around her shoulders tightened its grip against her skin...

"You have to understand..."

Matt took a deep breath:

"I'm trying, Will, I'm trying my best but you keep expecting me to understand and swallow back more and more huge things. And I'm starting to get really distraught..."

Will opened her mouth, unsure of how to reassure him but that was when a bright pink beam engulfed her and the prince in its magic. The Heart's magic...

"No!"- Will protested when the pink energy separated the two of them inside two separate spheres, and then, then everything went black.

When she opened her eyes again, she was back in her apartment. Anxiety and irritation flooded her mind at once. Anxiety because she didn't know what had happened with the prince and irritation because the girls had made a habit of tossing her around like a bag of potatoes.

"Relax."- Matt entered the bedroom with just a towel wrapped around his waist. His buff body was still partially wet. Had he taken a shower since the Tower of Mists action? How much time had passed...

"It's been a few hours."- he answered as if having read her mind.

He sat on the bed next to her, but she scooted away. She could see the hurt in his eyes as she did that but she didn't care. She was so angry with him. She took the phone from her nightstand and checked it. It was almost 6 AM.

"Will, I know you're mad and hurt. I know you're confused and you feel like your actions are right."- the dark-haired man began. "But the cause you're supporting is-"

"This is not a cause, Matt. This is not charity or the PTA, a function where you can just throw money and good words to make things happen the way you want them to!"- Will seethed, glaring at him. "This is my life that was changed! My life and the relationship I have with this person who all of you hate so much, I didn't want for any of this to happen. I didn't ask to be abducted by Avani and tied to her father through a fucking mystical bond we've always been destined to have! But it happened and now that things took another turn and I'm back to Heatherfield, as insane as it sounds to you and the others, Phobos is not indifferent to me, I care about him!"

"I understand that."- Matt gritted his teeth in defeat. "I understand that, but I can't say I'm very happy about it! Your care and concern for him overshadow your feelings for me, I feel, I feel like he's stealing you from me!"

Will stood up and headed for the bathroom. She needed to wash her face; her head was spinning... This was too much hardcore drama for her for one night.

"Is it not like that?"- Matt called after her. "Why are you avoiding me?"

"I am not avoiding you, you're smothering me ever since I came back!"- she shot and turned around to face him. He had followed her to the bathroom, of course.

"I do what!?"

Matt chuckled in disbelief.

"Will, I was a wreck during the months I knew nothing about what has happened to you, I suffered every goddamn day and almost overdosed out of my grief. Three times!"- he exclaimed making her close her eyes in guilt. "Three times in six months, I've never had a lower point in my life, I've never been more hurting than during the time you were forcefully kept away from me, so, it's only natural that I want to be with you now that you're back. I want to make up for the lost time and be happy with you again like we've always been with each other, is that really so bad and smothering of me?! Am I suddenly the bad guy!? That man you care about is the bad guy, he's the same Phobos who has tried to kill you and all of us repeatedly-"

"Matt, please don't start with this again, I feel terrible enough about what my absence did to everyone, especially to you!"- she put her hands on his shoulders and looked up at his wet blue eyes. "But that doesn't mean that the past matters like before. I know what Phobos is. I know who he is and who he was. Unfortunately, that doesn't change anything."

Matt just kept staring into her eyes without saying anything. But he looked beaten and he looked like he would cry, and that made her heart break.

"He's home."- he said in the end, making her puzzled.

"What?"

"Phobos. In my apartment. I couldn't trust him around grandpa, so I didn't take him to the house, of course, but you have keys to both places anyway. Now you know where you can find him."

"W-wait, he will live there now?"- Will felt her heartbeat going faster. She stared at her boyfriend in amazement: "But we are supposed to be apart and- "

"Will, after what you did to get him out of the Tower of Mists, don't you think it's too late for that?"- Matt asked bitterly making her arch her eyebrows.

"Huh?"

"It's too late. We were too late, Halinor and the Council believe that you and that tyrant are already at the stage of the sidereal soulmate bond where you cannot be too far away from each other for long."

"That's not true!"- Will protested angrily. "I just need to know that he's OK and that he's not perishing somewhere while I'm being lied to about it!"

"You were able to divulge the lie because he contacted you. He's in your head now."- Matt's voice trembled tiredly. "Will, don't you get it? This is why I'm so tense and angry with all this because you left Avani's dollhouse but you're still Phobos's puppet."

Filming for Nerissa Crossnic's music videos was a regular event at Heatherfield Film City. She was produced by Cobalt Blue's label and had reached levels of popularity and success faster than any other artist.

All crews knew her well and knew she was a professional. She was always ready and on time, doing her scenes perfectly, usually from the first cut. Her talents were many and admirable. Alongside her beauty, she was a great songwriter, musician, actress, and opinionist, of course. Everyone who was anyone knew she was not just a talented artist but a great diva too. She insisted she does everything the way she wants it. Other professionals that were supposed to work with her on a certain project were only allowed to present her their ideas; the final cut was for her to make. She decided on everything that concerned her and that often clashed with other people's views. Nevertheless, everyone who was smart enough had long learned not to cross her.

Things always went Nerissa's way and they were always successful.

At times, it was almost like magic, Anna Banister-Lair could swear as she watched Nerissa wrapping up a scene for one of her songs - "Cavern".
For this video, she was dressed in a bedazzling dark dress while a bunch of nuns was trying to exorcise the sinful essence of a traitorous love from her in vain. She scattered them like flies as the crosses on the walls turned upside down and everything shook and fell apart (the special effects department had really stepped up their game in recent years).
In the final scene, everything burned down and a charred stunt double opened her eyes for the video to end with Nerissa managing to stay alive but still not completely free of the bad love she was singing about.

Anna sipped her coffee as she waited for the set to get ready for her team to use while the director praised Nerissa for her "amazing directing idea" that had helped the video be on such an "exceptional" level.

Anna was an actress in a daily soap for almost two years now. Yes, it wasn't exactly what she had hoped it to be, she had quickly become a supporting character for a younger lead actress who played her daughter, but still and all, Mrs. Lair had entered the industry in her late 40s. After years of just being a policeman's wife and a housewife. It was honestly better than nothing.

"Yes, my dear. I just finished for the day. Wanna grab a bite somewhere?"- Nerissa exclaimed softly after she returned to her huge trailer and slipped out of her stage costume. "Oh, Meridian... Yes, maybe later, take your time and tell me if I'm needed there, alright?"

She was talking to her son on the phone as she sat in front of the big vanity in her silver robe, toning her eye look down a notch with a blending brush.

"No, Caleb, I don't have other assignments for the day. Or the week. Actually, I think that you were right, I am getting a little bored of the whole entire showbiz scene."- the woman shook her head with a smile, ignoring the knocking on the trailer's armored door. She was talking to her son and that deserved her entire attention.

"Yeah? Well, you can always take a break. You did what, one album already? 10 or more videos, bunch of other recorded tracks? That was your dream, you made it big."- Caleb replied from the other line.

He was putting his boots on, getting ready to go to Meridian. He had some things to tend to there, as a Captain of the Royal Guard. Even if not full-time anymore.

"Mmm, yes. You do have a point."- Nerissa mused. "We shall see."

The knocking on the door repeated itself, becoming more insistent:

"OK, mom. Catch you later. I've got to go."

"Bye, baby."

The unlocked door opened almost as soon as she put her phone down.

"I didn't say you could enter."- Nerissa began coldly but stopped when she recognized the face of the woman who had been so insistent.

"I'm sorry, I wanted to talk to you urgently, Mrs. Crossnic."- the brunette said. "I'm-"

"Amanda Fragenson. Who let you in here."- Nerissa interrupted her, unimpressed.

"I have friends in the security department."- Amanda smiled sourly.

Nerissa chuckled softly and then countered:

"That much I guessed myself. Just name them so that I can have them fired."

Amanda looked tense. She clutched the straps of her purse:

"Look, Mrs. Crossnic, I have a bigger issue to discuss with you. It's about my husband and our shares in your late father's company that-"

"That he's willingly selling me back and making a graceful exit from?"- Nerissa smiled and lined her lips with a fuchsia-colored pencil. "It was the right thing to do, wasn't it, Amanda?"

Amanda tightened her lips. She felt stupid. Coming here was stupid and enraging in the first place. Trying to talk to this full of herself woman who actually mocked her? It made her blood boil.

"Mrs. Crossnic, I know that you're blackmailing my husband. I know you're blackmailing him with something I did."

Nerissa scoffed at her reflection as she filled her lips with a matte lipstick of the same color over the pencil she had put first.

"Really?"- she asked derisively. "Then what are you doing here?"

"Really."- Amanda frowned. "I just wanted you to know that it won't work. Not anymore. Because I talked to my attorney. He's preparing my defense and he assured me that he will get me a plea deal with all the mitigating circumstances around the supposed crime you're threatening to release evidence about. I'm a weak, sick woman, Mrs. Crossnic. But you will not pull the rug out from under my feet this easily."

Nerissa listened to her with a stiff upper lip. She had actually stopped occupying herself with her makeup and finally turned to face the other woman.

"Your rug is woven from my father's legacy."- she began dangerously. "I won't just pull it out from under your feet, I will carry you out inside of it If I must."

Amanda's eyes sparkled in distress and complacency. Great, she thought. Great material. Just you go on like that and we'll see who's to blackmail whom...

But Nerissa's instincts were unmatchable. She read her body language like an open book. Something wasn't right. Amanda wasn't simply here to tell her this, this wasn't just a challenge. This was a trap...

A recording, Nerissa thought. She must be recording.

"Get out of my trailer."- she stood up abruptly. "Out!"

"Why, Mrs. Crossnic?"- Amanda challenged taking a step back. "Weren't you just saying how you'd take me out inside of a rug? Didn't you threaten to murder me if I cross you about your father's former company?"

"I think that your meds are playing tricks on your brain."- Nerissa feigned innocence. "I think that you're unwell, you shouldn't be here, you should be at home, resting. I mean, yes, you are still in treatment but that doesn't change the fact you murdered your husband's mistress, Amanda."- she exclaimed dramatically. "I'm not quite calm with you around and no one to take action in case you start pointing guns again."

Mrs. Fragenson gawked at her. This woman was too much. Talk about a sharp change of attitude. Had she read through her intentions?! She couldn't think any more about it though because the tall woman pushed her out of the trailer.

"Annoy me like this once again and I may change my mind about giving your husband any money at all."- Nerissa hissed. "Ungrateful fool, you're the only reason I'm paying him off at all. And don't play spy with me. You come across as quite ridiculous."

With that, she slammed the door in her face. Amanda cursed under her breath when she shook off the suddenness and took the phone out of her open purse in order to stop the voice recorder.

"Fucking bitch."- she murmured. "I'll teach you, just you wait."

Her phone, however, refused to work.

"What the hell!?"- Amanda exclaimed in shock at the sight of the smoke coming from the back of the device. Then it fell apart in her hands, revealing the completely burned-out hardware.

Phobos snorted when she entered the room. She just burst out laughing:

"How very amusing, Wilhelmina."- he rolled his eyes softly and continued dealing with the laundry.

He was washing, drying, and then folding. It wasn't that hard, especially with the Earth technology. The Earth Knight had given him clothes and shelter. Doing chores was preferable when the other option was the Tower of Mists. He had only managed to escape that horrible place until now because of his sister. But after she had sold him away, he was at the mercy of those who despised him utterly, and if it hadn't been for Wilhelmina that would've meant final destination oblivion.

"But it is amusing."- she teased. "I've seen you do what not in these last six months but never laundry."

"It was still a castle we resided in. Not this. This is...your wooer's abode."- the man finished with a scoff and a look at his surroundings.

He had to admit it was much better than the basement of the house he had first lived in for a few weeks, many years ago when he and Matt had been roommates for the first time. This new apartment was much bigger, clearly more expensively furnished and decorated, and most probably accustomed to Earth's latest currents of modernity. That didn't mean that Phobos would love it, of course, with his idiosyncratic taste.

"So, I went to buy groceries for Matt and for you."- Will changed the topic, practically pulling the man out of the laundry room. "I got something favorite of yours."

"Kaluga caviar?"- the Prince asked sarcastically as he allowed himself to be led to the kitchen.

"Yes."- Will rolled her eyes in response. "And not only. What's with the tone, pal, you think that we don't have fish shit on Earth? Or you thought that I wouldn't remember?"

Phobos smirked and sat at the round kitchen table with her. She estimated him with a glance before smirking back. He wore a pair of ordinary gray jeans and a dark cotton shirt. His hair was elegantly shortened to the middle of his back, like before when he had to be in an Earth avatar; no makeup, no extravagant royal symbols. He didn't look a day over 25 even though he was in his late 30s by now. He looked...quite dapper.

"So, how come you're not residing with your Earth Knight here?"

Will opened her mouth in surprise. The question had caught her off guard.

"I do...not full-time, I guess. I have my things here; I just go back to my apartment too. I guess this has worked best for me and Matt. We live together but we kind of don't. I come here, he comes to my-"

"Understood."- Phobos interrupted her and then an awkward silence followed.

Will cleared her throat and took a bottle of wine out of the shopping bags she had brought in with herself.

"Let's drink to your freedom, shall we? Not many have lived to brag that they've made it out of the Tower of Mists."

The man didn't reply at once. He watched her pour the red wine into glasses. She knew he preferred red, aged wine. He had given his more than unexpected liberation of the Tower of Mists a lot of thought in the last two days. How truly surreal it was. He was here. Living like a free man after everything that had happened in his life. Living...on Earth. And she, the leader of the guardians, or former leader, due to her own decision to sacrifice, was genuinely interested in helping him adjust to change...

"You do know what your allies think of you after you came to my rescue in the Tower?"- he began in a moderate tone.

"Oh, I know."- Will rolled her eyes. "I'm basically the new Nerissa. The fallen guardian, the traitor. Corrupted by something she cannot resist... In her case darkness and ultimate power, in my case...well, this bond that we have."- she finished her sentence, feeling a tad awkward saying it out loud. "But If I have to judge by the fucking great life Nerissa managed to secure for herself, even after everything, I'm not as downhearted by the comparison anymore."

"How very optimistic you are indeed."- Phobos sneered but followed it with a smile. His eyes gleamed in an odd way as they hit their glasses together in a toast.

"I don't plan to go off my rocker like her."- the redhead shrugged, sipping on her wine. "I plan to just take things one step at a time, slowly return to my kind of normal. Find a way to fit all the novelties in my life in a suitable place...You know."

Phobos looked down at his interlaced fingers for a moment before returning his pale green eyes to her. She stood by her chair, up on her feet, leaning against it with the wine glass in her hand. Smiling at him in her white jeans and plain blue cropped sweatshirt. There was something about her smile he had never before given her credit for. They knew each other for many years, years in which they had been enemies. He had pictured her death on more than a few occasions. She was someone who had challenged him. Defeated him, even. He had always noticed her strong qualities but had despised him back then.

Then, during his 10 years in the Infinite City dungeons, he hadn't seen her at all. Forgotten all about her. The redheaded guardian, her smile, her wits, and how she had managed to make him burn, in his hatred for her and her guardians, indeed, but still. Burn. And that the smile on her lips was contagious. He had needed six months of forced puppetry with her, under the iron patronage of his troubled daughter to notice that.

"No one plans to lose their ties to sanity. It merely happens."-Phobos said eventually. "And when it does, nothing is worth stopping anymore. Until you physically have no other choice."

"So, you do admit you were crazy."- Will teased. "Everything that you've done, regardless of the reasoning. The execution was crazy and destined to fail. I mean, come on, I was the guardian leader, after all."- she stuck her tongue out at him, doing a little goofy dance around the table.

"So it seems."

She was just messing around but he looked completely serious. Will's smile slowly started quenching:

"Oh, come on, Phobos, learn to take a joke- "

"Why say it's a joke when you were clearly being earnest? And I wasn't condescending either, I merely stated a fact."- he objected. "Don't you perceive the fact that me and you are both marked to share such a rare magical binding as an augury that this was meant to happen? As you said it yourself, my actions were destined to fail the moment you came to oppose me. This is what the sidereal bond is about, isn't it? About prevailing. Subjugation. Submission of one soul to the will of another."

Now the redhead's face dropped for real. She felt a strange unpleasant feeling tingling in her chest.

"I don't see it like that."- she said seriously. "I think that you failed because of everyone who stood against you, not just because of me. Because you were standing with the evil and the wrong, and those are always defeated by the good. That is why you failed to usurp Elyon's power and then go on with your lunatic quest for dominance."

"Good."- Phobos repeated scornfully. "What do the good do? Are you good? Two moons ago, you broke me, the evil one, out of eternal prison, did you not? Was that merely because you're "good."?"

"No."- Will countered, getting annoyed. "And yes! The Tower of Mists is an inhumane shutter, I can't let you be put there. Not after I saw so much more of you. More than- "

"The evil."- Phobos helped her.

"I'm sorry, are you taking that as an insult now? Weren't you the one who called himself "The Evil Prince of Meridian."."

"With cynicism and irony."- the fair-haired man sneered. "The people of Meridian called me that from the first day I can ever remember, I simply decided to take up the glove."

"I know."- Will rolled her eyes. "That's what I meant! I saw and learned more about you than I've ever cared to. And I don't regret it."- she added making his angry look soften a tad. "Before Beta-Meridian, I saw you as a delusional psycho who deserves nothing but the death penalty! I admit it, had they asked me before that, I would've never had a problem with you being sent to the Tower. Yes, then you and Leonida had a child and that changed things a little. Most of us wanted your child to have a chance to know their parents. Maybe even change them? Then when Avani came along and when she kidnapped both of us, I saw you for who you are underneath the malice and the definition of the people. A son denied love, a mistreated child, and a suffering father being torn between his inability to be there for two daughters. Yes, Phobos, I know that you don't show it and pretend that you don't care but I know you do."- Will sighed. "I know that you're in pain because you cannot see Opal. I know you love Leonida and miss her terribly. I know you are even hurt by Avani's actions and her disappearance. You wished that she could be a part of your family. How much you wanted a family, I can only imagine..."

"Don't get tedious."- Phobos interrupted her coldly and stood up. "You know nothing. Don't let the fact we were forced to be so intimate get to your right mind, I'm not just some family-needing moron who would just give up everything for them. I have ambitions and I-"

"But you did give up everything for them. You let Leonida take your place in the power transfer on Arkhanta."- Will blocked his way decisively. She wouldn't take shit from him.

He had pushed her away and enraged her many times during their time in Avani's castle. At first, he had succeeded. Not that Will had wanted to associate with him in the beginning, she had decided to really talk to him after over a week. She had been repulsed by this man on many occasions and wanted to punch him twice as many times. But as time passed and she got to know him like never before, due to having no other choice, she understood this was just his defensive and coping mechanism. He had picked it up from his mother who was forced to hide her love for him and learn not to love him with time...

"My mother was a weakling and a fool, I've inherited nothing from her!"

Will jumped in her place and looked up at the angry face above her. Now he was really angry. How stupid of her, she had forgotten they have a mental link now and he could pick up on her thoughts if she wasn't careful. Dumb psychic magic...Fucking dumb sidereal bonding!

"Forget your mom right now. This is about you! Because you're more than a villain! More than a monster! Yes, the monster part...it is a part of you. Or as I like to imagine, was a part of you."- she placed both hands on his shoulders and practically shook him up: "In those six months we spent in Beta-Meridian you saved my brother once and me twice while having no magic! You see, that's why I'm advocating for you. That's what I want my friends to see. That's why I wanted you out of the Tower of Mists because I've grown to care about you at this point. I don't care that the Council thinks that it's because of the sidereal bond thing. I care to stand up for what I believe in!"

"Anyone from Meridian would've saved your brother in my place. "- Phobos muttered in response even though her words had almost stunned him. He knew she held that deed of his in high regard. "Traditional chimeras used to be common on Meridian, many villagers from the west had to learn their weaknesses and fight them to survive when needed. Eventually, they learned to hunt them down and almost made them extinct for their resources. Typical humans-"

"Yeah, I agree with that, but you're wrong about the first part. Not anyone would risk their own life for someone else, especially not some alien kid. Alien to them."- the redhead shook her head. "Take Avani's guards, for example, they couldn't be bothered."

"And remedying an allergy you didn't know you have is also not exactly a feat to be written down in the history books."- Phobos went on, pretending to be bored. "You had never tried this herb before that evening, many people have bad reactions to it-"

"Shut up, will you? I'm trying to praise you around here."- Will rolled her eyes and smirked at him.

The prince narrowed his eyes in response and allowed a very small smile to start dancing on his lips.

"You know this is a ridiculous piece of clothing, don't you?"- he said after a few moments.

"Give it up, royal loser!"- Will laughed as he pulled the hood of her sweatshirt over her head. He had bugged her about her clothes so many times by now it was like a tradition for them. "I'm not interested in having tea parties with you, so I say fuck the etiquette."

"Sorry, are we interrupting something?!"

Caleb's angry voice made them recoil. Will pulled away from the prince and he removed his hands from her hood in a slow yet unruffled fashion. When Cornelia and another, shorter blonde entered the room after the rebel leader, his face changed. It darkened.

"Caleb?"- Will began puzzled. "Cornelia? How did you get inside-"- she didn't finish because her eyes fell on the short blonde too.

"Elyon?"- she added in disbelief. Her disbelief quickly turned into a realization that Phobos had gotten to the minute he had seen his sister.

Will needed a moment to inspect their faces and get over the surprise. Caleb was fuming. He looked like he could smash both her and Phobos like ants if they even flinched. Cornelia looked at her as if she was disgusted with her. Great. Will sighed gravely, getting ready for another shitty confrontation. And Elyon just said:

"Hi, Will. I'm happy to see you again after so much time."- she said in a soft, tired voice. "I can tell you can already say why I'm here. I've come to take Phobos with me."

"Er, hi, Elyon. I'm glad to see you too but why take him? You sold him to Coronia?"- Will reminded her crossing her arms on her chest. She glared at Caleb and Cornelia, knowing this was their doing. "I thought you didn't have the right to legally pursue your brother's case after that-"

"That's right, but as the ultimate ruler of Meridian, she does have one final function that she must resort to since Phobos is not on Coronia."- Cornelia interfered coldly. "He's not a criminal anymore in both realms anymore, due to Magana buying him and legally changing his status, but he's still a criminal everywhere else where his evil has reached. And that's a lot of places."- she whispered darkly, piercing the redhead with her imposing eyes.

"I wasn't asking you, Cornelia."- Will retorted calmly. "Elyon? Do you want to take a seat and talk?"

Elyon started to tremble. She had cried. Her makeup had smeared around her eyes and she looked as if she had lost weight in these last six months. Will could understand her, this poor girl had been through so much shit. She had even lost her husband last fall at the fragile age of 23. Life had always been unfair to Elyon Brown Escanor, even now, when her most loyal Royal Guard opened his mouth to roar before she could even gather the mental strength to respond:

"She's here to end this madness once and for all. Because it's her right to. Her Majesty is here to take the repulsing tyrant Phobos to his execution! "