[Fiore's Castle - Early in the morning]
"Good morning, your majesty." Jai greeted as he pulled out a chair for the queen and then for the king. He went to serving trolley and took out a teapot, filled with freshly brewed tea, and two teacups, "Is Earl Grey, alright?"
The queen nodded in response as Jai poured the tea into the teacups. The aroma of the tea exploded throughout the air as it was poured into the cups. He then served them in front of the king and queen as Anna served their breakfast.
Ethan came to the table and sat down while the queen asked, "Where's the others?"
"I'm sorry your majesty for lying, but I need to do this." He took a deep breath and calmly lied, "Yukiko is still training, Ben and Lavi overslept and Mary is checking on Zack."
"That's a marvellous lie you told there, Ethan." The queen secretly thought to herself as she smiled to herself. She then looked up and made eye contact with him, "Oh, really? Just remind them to have breakfast later on. It's not good to start a day without breakfast."
Suddenly, the king cleared his throat, "Jai, go get Ben, I need to talk to him."
Ethan freaked out a little, but regained his composure almost immediately. On the contrary, Jai did not fluster whatsoever, he calmly bowed and complied, "Yes, your majesty."
Despite agreeing to do so, he had no idea how to get Ben. Considering the fact that he and three of the others went out to get the Princess for the past eight hours and until now, there had been no news about them.
He just went to the left part of the castle, hoping that they will get back as soon as possible, before the king and queen suspect anything.
[Phantom's main hideout]
Emily was feeling increasingly tired with every second that passed. She was not doing anything, but slowly, she had the urge to just fall asleep. However, she tried her best to remain awake, because she just felt that if she were to fall asleep, things will be troublesome.
It felt as if it had been forever, since the her body was taken over by Erica, "When will this end?"
Just as she felt her conscious slowly seeping away, she pinched her arm so that she could stay awake.
Red liquid started to drip out from her nose. The red droplets fell onto the concrete ground, forming tiny puddles.
"Blood?"
Her vision started to blur once again, she was so tempted to just give up and just collapsed. However, Erica's voice suddenly echoed in her mind, startling her.
"I'm done."
Emily was so relieved to hear those words, this time she could finally give in and just passed out.
Emily's body just involuntarily slumped over onto Beck's.
"Hey, Yukiko. Emily, she's..." Mary had no idea what happened, but she felt something strange about Emily, so she went over to her unconscious body. She lifted her body up and wiped the blood off her nose.
She checked if Emily was she breathing, which she was. She smiled in relief, but soon that smile was wiped off her lips when she finally noticed something else.
"...Why can't I feel any energy from her?"
Baffled and terrified, she shuddered instinctively as a sudden chill down her spine, "...It is as if she's just became a normal human."
"Yukiko." Mary called out, "Emily...She's--"
"Yeah, I know. This is strange." Yukiko said as she limped towards her, "She seemed to used up all her energy, yet she isn't dead."
Suddenly, Beck let out a groan.
The two girls turned and looked at him as he slowly opened his eyes. "Beck, how are you feeling?"
Confused, he grabbed his head as he looked at Mary, "I'm not dead?"
"No, you're not. You were actually saved by Emily." Mary stated as her eyes trailed down to Emily, who was laying on her laps.
"What? How?" Beck asked as he pushed his weak body up to take a look at Emily.
"We don't know how. She suddenly passed out and turned into a completely different person when she woke up. She seemed to be the one who sealed that demon back into you. That's what we think, she did not explain anything to us, it just happened." Yukiko explained with her arms crossed.
"Ah, looks like the Princess managed to not the take the deal, after all. How intriguing." Jason smirked as he backed away from Ben and paused as he pulled out something from his pocket.
"Here." He huffed as he threw a teleportation sphere towards Ben.
Ben caught it with his good arm and looked at him with an eyebrow raised.
"The Boss wants you to leave now, we aren't going anywhere if we were to continue fighting. This is not over though, we are-- Actually, the Boss is letting you go for now."
The man with black cloak suddenly appeared next to Jason, carrying Lavi, who was unconscious, "Here, there's your friend."
The man threw Lavi on the ground like a rag doll without saying a word.
"Go on now, before the Boss changes his mind."
Jason and the other guy disappeared into the thin air, only leaving behind a trace of mist that quickly disappeared along with them.
The room remained silent for a few seconds before Ben broke the silence, "I guess that's that, we should get the hell out this place."
He then went on to grab the unconscious Lavi who was badly wounded. Mary went to him to take a quick look at his condition, "He's in a really bad state... But, luckily he's still alive."
The whole group gathered as Ben was about to use the teleportation sphere. He visualised the Fiore's castle before throwing the sphere on the ground, to activate it.
The glass sphere broke and the spell was casted.
The next thing they knew, the were back at the Fiore's castle. More specifically, the garden of the castle where breakfast was usually served.
The queen stared that their sudden appearance while the king was not even looking at them.
"What is this?" The queen questioned as she stood up to walk towards them, "Would you care to explain what's going on?"
Ben immediately kneeled down on one knee and gave her an apologetic bow, "I'm sorry, your majesty. We had sneaked out to get the Princess and my brother, despite your orders."
"I see, was everyone in this plan?"
"Yes, your majesty. However, I'm the one who forced them to be in it. It was all on me. So, I'll take full responsibility. They had nothing to do with it." Ben replied. Whatever he said was a lie, everyone participated in their own personal will, not because Ben forced them or anything.
The king stood up and gave Ben a hard kick to the face, using one of his feet. It was so hard that it made Ben fall to the side. He did not say anything, instead he went back to his stance.
The king raised his foot as if to gave him another kick, but he was stopped as Ethan stood in front of him, "Your majesties, I was in the plan too. Not because I was forced, but I wanted to be in it based solely on my own will." After saying that, he kneeled next to Ben and he gave an similar apologetic bow.
"I did it too." Yukiko admitted, followed by Mary, "Me too."
Slowly everyone confessed that they were all in the plan after all.
"Anderson, just let them go for now. Most of them need serious medical treatment now." The queen stated. The king turned away as he decided to let them off. The king walked back into the castle, into his studying room.
The queen sighed as she shook her head, "You guys are sure rebellious."
She then turned to look at Mary, "Follow me, we should treat Ben first."
"It's fine, your majesty. Yukiko had stopped the bleeding for me awhile ago. You can leave me till later, you should treat Lavi first." Ben protested.
"Okay then, we will do that then. Follow me, Mary." The queen ordered.
"Yes, your majesty." Mary complied as she hurried away with the queen as Ethan carried Lavi's body for them.
Just as the queen was about to leave, she looked her daughter as her expression softened, "Sorry, sweetie."
She looked over to Beck and noticed that the seal on him was slightly different, "Come with me too, Beck. I'll check on you two later, just wait for a little while." She informed as she took a glance at Yukiko and Ben.
"Anna, bring Emily back into her room first." The queen instructed.
"Yes, your majesty." Anna answered and did what she was asked.
Ben and Yukiko decided to walk back into the castle. The two were walking awkwardly in silence. To break the uncomfortable silence, Ben decided to start talking, "How's your leg?"
"It's fine, it's not as bad as your arm." Yukiko grimaced at the sight of Ben with his partially missing arm. She then came to an abrupt halt, prompting Ben to stop as well.
"...Sorry." Yukiko forced out suddenly.
She was never really used to apologising. However, this time she felt the need too.
"What? Did you say something?" Ben teased as he placed his hand behind his ear, pretending as if he could not hear what she said, "You should say it louder."
Yukiko raised her hand and swung it towards his cheek, as if she was about to slap him for making fun of her.
"Oh no, here comes the slap." He thought as he closed his eyes.
He waited for the stinging pain to kick in, but it did not. Instead, he felt something warm and comforting at the side of his cheek, where he was kicked at.
He opened one eye to take a peek at what Yukiko was doing.
To his surprise, she had her hand on the side of his face and she was actually healing the wound he received by the king's brutal kick.
"...I said I'm sorry." She repeated as her gaze saddened. She did not look like the usual Yukiko he knew, the Yukiko he knew was someone who will be pissed off after a little tease. But, as of now, she looked like a guilty little girl, even after he had gave her quite the tease.
"I'm not as good at healing as Mary, but I can heal this one."
"Why is she looking so innocent when she's like this. Is this really the Yukiko I know?" For some reason, his heart started to beat slightly faster than usual and he felt an unexpected happiness when he looked at her in that state.
After a few minutes, Yukiko was done. "There."
He came back to reality and regained his composure. "Yeah, thanks." He blurted out.
"What the hell is wrong with me? Why am I acting like that? I should be used to girls by now, but why... Why is this different? Well, whatever. Maybe I'm just tired. Yeah, that must be it."
The two then walked further into the castle as they waited for the queen to summon them.