Belle:
I felt dripping down my legs as I walked out of his room.
I let out a quick gasp, and took the nearest cloth to wipe it. Turned out to be one of his shirts…
Oops…
Hopefully that's not the one he decided to wear today.
He followed close behind, not paying attention to the motion I just made, grabbing the shirt and throwing it on.
"Uh… My Greed… Could you possibly wear another shirt?"
"Why's that, babe?" he asked so obliviously.
"Just change, pretty please." I gave him the eyes, and he became puddy in my hands.
"Anything for you, princess," he cooed so cooly, I had nearly almost become puddy in his.
I waited for him at the edge of his door, contemplating something I should have shared with him by now, but just didn't know when to share it…
"Something the matter, Belle?" he said as he tossed off his shirt, and I lost myself in the flex of his inked, shifting back muscles.
Whenever he said my name outright, it meant he was really listening.
"Um, no! I just… don't want to go back, even if I have to…"
His eyes softened as he swiftly threw on a new shirt, the same as always—a white tank that should be illegal for him to wear around me. The necklace I gave him swung and chimed as it revealed the purposeful blank spot in the back of it.
"I can tell when you're lying, you know?" he said. A tease.
"I… Uh…"
He chuckled and placed his hand gently on my cheek as he passed by, throwing his Black Wolves jacket over his shoulder for now.
"I'll walk you down," he said obviously.
Of course you would. What a sly way of dodging my unease. He was so good at minding his own business and not prying.
Good. I wasn't sure if I wanted to share this yet.
But I was conflicted… This was also something he deserved to know.
Before we went downstairs, I spoke, and the words came out before I had even come to a conclusion in my head, "My Greed, I have to tell you something."
He turned his head only, back still facing me as he looked at me sidelong.
"What is it prin—"
"I'm pregnant."
"—cess…"
It was abrupt. But if I learned anything from my man, it was that he would prefer bluntness than a preplanned surprise. At least this way, if he were to not want it, then it would land just as hard as it arrived.
For when one shares or asks, they must be ready for both the good and the bad response. Otherwise, they should've never shared in the first place.
He took his time to face me fully.
Then, dropping his jacket, he walked over to me purposefully, and embraced me.
"Are you really?" he asked.
I almost teared up when I replied, "Yes."
He squeezed tighter before pulling back to look at me. "Babe that's fucking amazing!"
"So, you want this?"
"Of course. If it's with you. That is all I want."
I couldn't have been happier hearing the words. And they were genuine, to bat.
For once, when I looked into those eyes many have long so feared, I only saw happiness in them rather than the sadness I had come to know.
"I'm gonna be a fucking father."
I giggled. "Maybe take it easy with the cussing when the time nears?"
"You sound just like Ryo."
"Maybe I am Ryo in Belle's body?"
"Don't make this weird…"
He was beside himself as he looked as if he could not contain the glee. "How long have you known?"
"Since you left on the Zion Orb retrieval mission over a month ago. I just didn't know how to bring it up, so I made you that necklace."
He smiled as he grabbed it, observing the blank space on the back. He's worn it ever since I made it for him before his mission to retrieve the Zion Orb—never taking it off since.
"I knew that's what that meant," he crooned. "I'm gonna tell everyone."
"Actually…" I dared rain on his parade. "I haven't told anyone else. Not even Alice. If you could, would it be okay if you kept it between us for now?"
He softened his eyes once again. Seemed he had the same effect on me as I did with him.
And he was so gentle when he lifted my hands into his as he said, "Of course."
No corny display. No question. Just as he was. Honoring the request like it was an order, even though it wasn't.
"I mean… If you really want to share it… Who am I to stop you? After all, I didn't even ask you if it was okay to make our relationship public to the Valley, and yet I—"
He stopped me midsentence with an easy finger to my lips. I wanted to bite him lovingly.
"I won't say a word until you're ready, I promise."
He was too good.
For all the blame you place on yourself. For all the people who shun and hate you for simply being what you are. How dare they. How fucking dare they.
I leaped into his arms, and we shared a kiss that I could have spent the whole day repeating.
Perhaps it was bad timing. Perhaps not. Either way, I felt a weight lift from my shoulders that I had been dying to release.
***
**Moments later**
Greed:
I was still ecstatic even as I watched Belle leave through the standalone Pink Room door in the entrance hall. Kiki and Milo escorted her, along with Alice back to the Valley.
I had been ready to be slightly depressed to see my princess leave, but after that news she shared with me. All I could feel was joy.
A joy so close to that feeling back in Pardem when I entered that domain. A feeling that was almost parallel to it.
Maybe this was what I needed? Amidst all the hurt and suffering I caused. Amidst all the bad that was going on around us, and that loomed in the distance in Tartarus. Maybe all I needed was a purpose.
Had she told me over a month ago when I was about to leave for the Zion Orb mission, I might have actually ditched it to stay with her.
Maybe Rex, Zeno, and Snow would still be alive if I had called it off?
Stupid Dweeb. Enjoy this. I thought to myself as if it were them saying that to me.
"You seem extremely eager today," Havoc sniffed. "Sex that good this morning?"
"Something like that."
"Sus… You're hiding something."
"You need to fuck off."
"Wait. I got it! I knew it all along!"
I whipped my head over to him with a shocked expression. Did I already break my promise to Belle? Unintentionally—by the worst possible person to find out first?
Of course he did… Those stupid hypersensitive senses of his… By the fucking Keep—
"You got pegged didn't you!? I knew you were some type of way! You're a fucking freak, Cap—"
Quicker than I could disregard, I tossed the back of his gilet over his head, pulled his pants down, tripped him, and walked away.
The sounds of Brand's laughter echoed throughout the place, and I even heard Code snicker nearby. I bet he's been wanting to do that since forever.
"What's for breakfast?" I asked as I passed by him.
***
As the biscuits and gravy had been prepared, a mandatory meeting was called in by Daz.
He sat at the head of our long dining table as he scarfed down his meal, and spoke with his mouth full.
"Mmmfmmuhmum!"
"Can you not talk while you eat? Keeper, makes me respect you less than I already do," I commented.
He swallowed and glowered at me sidelong, sauce on his cheek and all.
"I was saying… Does the plan sound solid, yes or no?"
I looked at everyone before I responded. Aside from Alice, Milo, and Kiki who were still escorting Belle back, the entire crew was here.
As I ended at Jo, she nodded with a focused expression.
"If it works for everyone else, then it works for me," I replied to him at last.
"Sorry, I need a refresher. I was too busy imagining Cap getting pegged by the princess of the Valley," Havoc proclaimed at the other end of the table.
I glared at him, and then gestured with a quick head nod to Jo to go ahead and freeze his ass. And she did. Fully.
"As I was saying," Daz began. "When we reach the border of the Mountain jurisdiction, we will be immediately confronted by a bandit group called the Ironmanes. We will need to be prepared on all fronts by the time we arrive, for I suspect that their goal will be the same as in Pardem: lure me out and attempt to kill me. At least, that was the tip that I received before destroying Evalyn's and Velm's beacons. Since I cannot depart further than about half a kilometer from the Den, we will set up our defenses around me, while Anna faces off against Riot Gang's no.8."
"You sure you can trust this tip? What if it's another trap?" I asked.
"Maybe. But one thing that got me was that it came from an anonymous source. It's very hard to distinguish that with magical items, so the fact that the tip came from someone who not only had a beacon of their own, but didn't want the others to know, and purposefully hid their presence within it, told me it had to be an insider." He looked to Code, and gestured him to project the Riot Gang chart from before. Daz looked like he was grabbing a pair of air-breasts…
When Code sent up the chart with his magic up in the center of the dining table, Daz went on. "As you can see, there's only one plausible source where this intel could have came from… Head Officer no.9."
"And just how exactly did you come up with this conclusion?" Nash asked. He had become about as bold with the Arcane King as I was.
"Simple. His unknown status and disbanded group. Also, you probably haven't noticed the mysterious vehicle that has been following us since we left the Valley."
We all perked to that.
"Not to worry. I didn't sense any hostility from that vehicle. In fact, I even heard some distant ruckus behind a mountain in Tahoe Lake near where I had sensed it. And if I had a hunch, there might have been a falling out within Riot Gang. Head Officer no.9 is primary suspect number one."
"Whole lot of 'maybe's' in your reasoning…" I commented.
"True… But without me, would any of you noticed this mysterious follower?"
I was ashamed to answer that. Even for Havoc, who had the strongest senses out of us all; he probably didn't notice.
Yuna barked as Daz ended on that note. We all ignored her. But Daz had gestured two fingers to his eyes and pointed them back to her for some reason.
I faced him again. "Point taken."
"On top of that, the Mountain Knights have stopped escorting us."
We didn't say much to that. We were nearing the border; they probably didn't need to keep watch on us anymore. However, we were still within their jurisdiction. The move made sense and didn't at the same time.
"This is not a coincidence. They were probably notified somehow, and rallied their troops. All the more proof that we're walking right into an ambush, and they didn't want to get caught in the crossfire." Daz gave me an annoying-looking expression, and then went on, "Worst case, if that Head Officer ignores Anna and comes for me instead—or… if another Head Officer arrives to ambush, we'll be ready. The last thing we want is our forces divided."
"What if that Teleportation guy shows up and separates us like he did in the Dead Forest?" Nash asked. A valid concern.
"Now that we know he is capable of doing such a thing, if he comes, his magic won't work," Daz replied. "When he separated us last time, the only one his magic didn't affect, was me. However, he then chose to teleport the Den instead, which was something I did not anticipate he had the capability to do. I'll have a Nullifying magic barrier around us at all times, and we will all be inside this barrier. This is how we will evade that occurrence."
Daz faced me, and gave a reassuring smile before ending with, "Relax. I am your Arcane King."
Hearing him say that gave me a certain assurance. Much like when he had said that the other day, the words had a double meaning. Not only was it a proclamation, but it was him saying to trust him.
Trust. Something I needed to have more of anyway.
I simply nodded, and after a few other minor discussions on the situation, we were on our way.
***
**Hours later. The border of the Mountain jurisdiction**
Here we were.
The border was an interesting place. Though the grass and dirt fields extended beyond the horizon, the one indicator we needed that told us we had arrived was the sky.
Even though it was cloudy on the side we had come from, on the other side ahead was blue and only partially cloudy. Like there was some massive barrier that stopped the rolling clouds in one elongated line, casting a grand shadow that hard-stopped to the other side, physically indicating the border to the land.
I hadn't realized how dark the Mountain jurisdiction was until I saw the distinguishable gap.
Beyond this was no man's land; a desolate neutral zone that led to the Arctics, and then beyond that—Tartarus.
Since this time, Alice, Kiki, and Milo had returned after successfully dropping Belle off.
And we were all at our designated stations:
On the main balcony was me, Code, and Brand, with Daz at our center. Inside in the entrance hall were Nash, Arabella Housekeeping, Alice, and Yuna. Rear in the garden was Havoc, Ophelia, and Star, and in the cargo space below the Den, Jo was sitting at the edge of the open load door that opened from the bottom, allowing her to sit with a leg up and the other hanging down, ready to hop off at any given signal if necessary.
We stopped just yards away from the shadow-cast boarder, and waited.
The air felt warmer here. Which was a strange sensation considering the coolness of the Mountain jurisdiction, and then just miles beyond this part was a place even colder. It was an odd contrast, which fit the odd situation.
We had already been waiting for about thirty-or-so minutes since we arrived.
"Ambush, huh?" I spoke, somehow doubting my own words as they left my mouth.
"Supposedly…" Daz muttered. His tone didn't give me too much confidence.
"This field is vast. If a bandit crew was waiting, we'd see them in the distance—or anywhere nearby," Code said.
"Perhaps they were tipped off as well?" Brand questioned.
"Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised…" Daz replied.
"Well, that's just fuckin' great, Idiot King."
"Now, don't start, you disrespectful brat!"
"Why not? You made sure we played back the plan multiple times on the way here. I get preparedness, but if nothing is happening, we should just go forward."
"If we cross that border, we might fall into the trap!"
"I thought walking into the trap was part of the plan?"
"No, intercepting the enemy is the plan, were you even listening?"
Code let loose a sigh as he smoked his cigarette, and placed his middle finger and thumb on his temples at the sound of us, while Brand touched Daz's shoulder in an attempt to break us apart.
My comm kept ringing the entire time, and I had just about had it as I flung it out and answered, "What?"
Cap! They're here! We're under attack! Havoc said on the other line.
It was then that the ground shuddered, followed by the sudden appearance of bandits climbing over the rails and onto the balcony from all sides.
We were surrounded.
Then in front of the Den, a massive ice wall burst upward, followed by the clashing of massive tectonic plates that struck just from the other side of it.
As the bandits came, we fended them off one after another.
They each wore gray and brown fur, adorned with open leather about their waists, forearms, and lower legs.
And though they weren't anything to fret over, there were a lot of them.
"What did I tell you!?" Daz shouted at me as he sent a bandit flying.
"Shut up."
But then, amidst our quarrel, a large man in a dark cloak I hadn't seen appeared behind Daz. He had a plumed hat and long horns that protruded out from it.
I was caught in a tempest of shock and confusion. Shock that he was suddenly there, and confusion on how…
For not only was Daz's Nullifying barrier established, but we had Code and I here who would have sensed his arrival. Yet did not.
"Arcane King, Daz," the large man spoke. "It is time to go…"
Daz's eyes widened as he barely turned and saw the man mid-hand sign, chanting,
"Higher Teleportation Magic: Grand—"
Our eyes flashed as we realized what was happening. And we were too late to stop it.
"—Exit."
In a flash, everything vanished and materialized all in the same.
I was still trying to process what was happening when I saw another man who was now in front of Daz, wearing a heavy fur trench coat over his shoulders, half doctors mask on his face, golden tan skin, and gray hair…
And by the fucking Keeper, I knew who it was.
"Hello Daz," he said as Daz, disoriented, whipped his head, only to see a hand inches from his face. "And goodbye."
"Greed," Daz managed to say, simultaneous to what the other man had spoken in that same instance. "Run."
"Banish."
And in a blink, Daz was gone.
It was then that the man turned to face me. Slow and enigmatic.
"Greed… How have you been, little brother?" said Wrath.