Time & Space

What happened to Lizzy?

The noise proceeded to get more aggressive as a part of the cobblestone floor in a corner began to rumble. The royalty in white and the beauty in black looked with a sense of confusion sprinkled with fear. Like a habit, Ash's pupils swung around her eyes, seeking anything she could use for self-defence. In the end, she could not find anything as it is just a prison cell after all.

The both of them slowly back themselves towards a wall opposite the rumbling, as the stones suddenly gets lifted up. They watched as a wooden trap door pushed the stones up and to the sides, slamming against the ground as it was aggressively swung open. Footsteps echoed from the trap door, getting closer and closer to them.

Out of the trap door, Ash immediately recognised the golden hair that was surfacing out of the ground. She crossed her arms and stretched one corner of her lips, the tension immediately removed as she realised what it was. "Zach,"

As the time traveller rose up from the ground, searching for his beloved, he finally reaches her after hours of stress. His eyes widened and his racing heart skipped a beat, immediately rushed towards her and embraced her in a tight hug. Ash was shocked by the sudden embrace, making her jump slightly by the action. While being wrapped in his arms though, she felt some weights lifted off of her shoulder, and a sense of comfort runs through her as she hugged him back. 

Zach then lifted his head, staring straight down into her eyes with his own that were filled with worry and angered disappointment. "What did you think you were doing? How did you even end up here?- You know what, never mind, just, never do stupid things like this ever again."

"More importantly, are you hurt? How did they treat you?" He releases her from the embrace, grabbing her hands and inspecting them. He reaches his head over to her back and then back to the front, checking for any injury. "I swear to god, if there was even a single scratch..."

Ash giggled, slightly falling for him again for how much he cared for her. She places her had on his cheek, looking at him in a loving, intimate, and yet slightly seductive way. "Darling~ I told you, I would be fine on my own."

They were abruptly interrupted by a third voice, adding to the conversation, "Is this the Zach that you speak off? You betray your own ancestors to be with an English man? The ones that kill many of your own kind?"

"Your majesty, would you kindly just shut up and not talk about him in that way? In the end, he makes up for all of it," Ash continued to stare into his eyes and stroked his cheek with her thumb. He then raised one of her legs and placed it on the side of his hips. "In every best way possible too~"

She gave him a peck on the lips as the both of them smirked at each other, almost forgetting the third person that was in the room. The both of them let go of each other, Zach turning towards Queen Mary. "And you must be The Queen Mary of Scots, the fighter of religious equality, the true ruler of Scots no matter what anyone says, the one who united countries, and the one who is willing to go through hell for her own people."

The golden-haired man bowed to the presence of Queen Mary, showing the utmost respect to her in person and in history. The Queen forms a light smile, unexpecting to be bowed to by an English man. "Well, at least the English man knows to respect and be aware of great achievements when he sees them."

Zach raises from the bow, turning on his heels and towards the way he came from. He reached his hand and grab his lover's, pulling it close to him, "Well my luv, I think it's time we go back home."

"What?" As she was being pulled down the trap door, Ash rebelled and pulled him back into the room. "Wait! What about her?"

She pointed towards Queen Mary with her index finger. Zach peeked from the side, looking at her and then back to Ash. "Oh, no, we can't really uh..."

Zach reached close to Ash's ear, whispering so the Queen wouldn't hear what he was about to say. "We can't do much about it, her execution is an important part of history. We just have to leave without her."

Ash was taken aback by his words, mentally and physically. Despite Zach's best attempt to keep quiet, she reveals it all by voicing it out loud, "What the hell are you on about? We can't just leave her like this, she deserves better-"

Ash pauses, she was suddenly reminded of something while telling her lover off. Her eyes widened, staring straight into Zach's eyes. "Zach, I need to tell you something. I don't think Queen Elizabeth is who she actually is."

Zach raised a brow, blinking as he was not fully following what she is trying to say. "What do you mean by that?"

"I mean that it's someone or something disguised as her. Earlier for a short glimpse, I saw this goopy bloody gory creature with millions of eyes and stuff. This execution is the doing of it, not Queen Elizabeth. The real Elizabeth wouldn't just, execute someone just for no reason."

Zach stayed silent, seemingly to know a thing or two even before Ash had explained it. However, his instinct to not mess with history forced him to shrug it off, he knows that this execution needed to happen as it is part of a history that many knows. "Ash, don't be ridiculous, I already told you why she is being execut-"

"What she says is true," He was cut off by the monarch of Scotland, as she stood there with both her hands placed respectfully on each other. She looked at him with her weathered eyes, the eyes that accepted her death as fate. However, she supports Ash's words, she herself was aware of what was going on. "Elizabeth, she has been acting quite differently for a long while now. I try to tell myself that it is simply how people change, but her change was too drastic to say as that. And for what she had described, every few times, I too see the same image. Her face would transform for a short moment, turning into something very, inhuman. But not only that, she has many different horrible faces too."

Ash crosses her arms, looking at Zach as a way to say 'I told you so'. Zach stood there, slightly stunted by the information he was given. He didn't know what to think, fully aware that Queen Mary's execution is a must, but then how does the face change play into the story? He closed his mouth and sighed, looking at Queen Mary, then back to his beautiful wife. It is what she wants to do after all, and it does not hurt to check that something is up. 

"Alright then, since we are forced to."