Chapter Text
Eleven sat by the tower‘s Edwardian panorama window looking over the castle‘s patio. The sun stood at its highest point of the day, basking Dundrasil in its warm light. The loch of Dundrasil reflecting the sun beam glimmered in the callow light of the 12th hour of the day. The prince stared at the inhabitants of the principality sunbathing at the shores of the lake, some children taking a dive and splashing each other with the cold glacier water and young and old couples alike trotting down the idyllic promenades as wisteria petals danced in the wind around them. How much the prince wished he could join them. Jumping out of this window and leaving all the duties of royalty behind. Leaving this life in captivity behind. Maybe starting anew somewhere far away, somewhere where nobody has ever heard of “prince Eleven” or the nation of Dundrasil. A new life as a commoner in a different country, maybe in a small village. Perhaps with Erik alongside him? Just the two of them, no count trying to keep them apart, no political affairs. Just the two of them in their little paradise.
A sorrowful sigh escaped the Dundrasilian noble‘s lips as his mind replayed Erik‘s last words in his mind like a broken record.
“I will come back to steal you away so keep the faith.”
Easier said than done, when you are locked inside a tower, unaware if your rescuer is even still alive or not. Eleven pressed his cheek against the window, watching a pair of birds fly over the black hole and wondering what it feels like being free to just fly away and leave whenever you want to wherever you want.
Eleven drowned deeper and deeper in his own thoughts that he did not even register the sound of his chamber door opening and a young maid in a lime coloured dress and face veil entering.
Jade gazes upon her brother, lost in the darkest corners of his mind, blank eyes gawking outside the window. In a twisted way, the princess was thankful that the brunette had not caught sight of her just yet. The ravenette had anticipated this moment for almost a year now, when she could finally reveal herself to her brother, tell him everything will be fine and let him know that she has not abandoned him after the count had taken over Dundrasil. That she had been lurking and waiting for the right moment until now, for she finally has enough prove to drag the count to court, for counterfeiting, for political assassination, for kidnapping the prince of Dundrasil and using his power and the well being of the people of Dundrasil as black mail against her brother. She could finally take the count down.
And yet, seeing her sibling’s gloomy, unfocused eyes, devoid of any hope and will to go, she failed to find her own voice. How do you even tackle a situation like this? It is not like there is a guide book on how to break the ice after going completely radio silent towards a loved one because you are secretly planning their abusive fiancé’s downfall.
The Heliodorian balled her fists, gulped once and took a deep breath before finally speaking up.
“I am sorry, your highness.”
Eleven flinched, blinking the numbness out of his eyes, as he finally broke out of his trance. Looking around befuddled, the prince finally locked eyes with the green maid and tilted his head in confusion. Why was she apologizing? As far as he could tell the maid hadn’t done anything wrong. Nothing around the room seemed to be broken and even if it was, Eleven never was that attached to any material goods as that he’d ever get heated or upset over a broken vase or two.
“It appears that I have not been entirely honest with you.”, the maid continued, a slight tremble in her voice, clearly anxious over the crown prince’s upcoming reaction. This crown prince however just became increasingly more bewildered by her words, tracing her face for any hint of what she was referring to.
Eleven frowned as the maid turned around, her back now facing him. The maid raised her arms to take out the pins to free her hair from the tiny satin hair cap. The prince’s eyes shot open to the size of a dinner plate as he witnessed thick flowy black hair, in a simple ponytail fall down in a tumble all the way to the maid’s knees. Eleven’s gaze bore into the maid’s back with anticipation and anxiety alike.
“That hair...there is no way… but then again those lilac eyes… no I shouldn’t get my hopes up just yet.”, the brunette screamed inside his mind as he observed the servant girl taking off the veil covering the lower half of her face. The ravenette turned back around, revealing her true self at long last. She straightened her posture and cast an airy smile on her face.
“I’ve missed you, Eleven.”
“Jade?” Eleven uttered under his breath, not believing his eyes and yet there was no denying that it was indeed her. He had been certain that Jade had given up and forgotten about him, not having seen her for 5 years, when in reality she had been right by his side this entire time.
“Why…” the prince whispered, his eyes mirroring the emotional whirlwind inside his head.
“Please forgive me, El. I had to keep it a secret from you to make certain Mordegon would not catch onto me being within the black hole. But you need to believe me when I say I did it all for you, Eleven…” She grabbed his shoulders to make him look directly at her, to make him drown in her earnest eyes, to make him understand that this wasn’t a lie. “It was the only way… But don’t worry, I will get you out of here soon, I promise. I have everything I need to defeat the count and make him pay for everything he’s ever done to you, Dundrasil and the world at large.”
Eleven kept quiet, his eyes not once leaving Jade’s. First Erik and now Jade, so many emotions were running through his mind. Confusion, anger, betrayal, but mostly hope and relief. He was upset that his sister never once told him she was here, he was upset that he had to feel so lonely all this time for nothing and yet he couldn’t help but feel tears of joy gathering in the corner of his eyes at the realisation that his loved ones did not abandon him. He was not alone, was not forgotten, Jade and Erik are both fighting their part to get him out of the black hole.
He felt his eyes begin to prickle and itch, but it wasn’t because of the tears threatening to fall but… wait was that smoke?
Jade spun around and noticed clouds of dark smoke rising from the crevices of the trap door in Eleven’s chamber, pulling her brother protectively behind her, in fear a group of fire-elemental monsters were about to jump out of the hole.
“A fire?” Eleven questioned, the smell of the smoke reminding him of that of burnt paper.
“Seems like it’s coming from the basement.” Jade stated.
The royal siblings by heart rushed over to the panorama window, looking down at the castle’s courtyard, discovering a scene of utter chaos below them. Servants and soldiers alike rushed across the courtyard back and forth to the castle’s cellar with buckets of water.
“The fire is down in the print chamber! Hurry up!” they heard the muffled cry of a distressed slime.
“The print chamber? Are they talking about the counterfeits?”, Eleven questioned.
Down in the basement Erik threw arms full of paper money into the fire he had started by lighting up one of the mountains of Gondolian Lira littering the print chamber.
“You know I would appreciate it if you could lend me a helping hand over here, inspector!” Erik grunted, looking over his shoulder to see the interpol officer hunched over one of the office desks, searching for something in its many drawers.
“Proof, I need proof…” Hendrik babbled to himself, looking through the chaotically ordered files, looking for ones he could show in court alongside the counterfeits he had stashed in earlier to support his accusations against the count.
“Well; Hurry up! We're gonna have visitors soon. ‘S not gonna take those goons forever to get downhere!“ Erik murmured, gathering as many bills as he could carry in his arms to feed the flames. He could already hear the thundering stampede of soldiers and servants running towards the printing chamber, muffled screams of “Hurry!“ and “we need more fire extinguishers!“ echoing through the catacombs.
What Erik neither expected nor calculated in his plan was the possibility that the noise of Mordegon‘s people running through the tunnels would wake up the knocked out Jasper and Indignus. The commander and right hand man had been found by the servants tumbling over their immobile bodies in the tunnels, having mistaken them for corpses at first glance.
Jasper held his head, the world still spinning from getting hit with a leg bone earlier that day.
“What… what is going on?“ Indignus asked, slowly getting up, mazed as to why his eyes were still foggy before he finally understood that it wasn‘t a problem with his eyes or due to a concussion, but rather smoke filling up the tunnels.
“There is a fire in the printing chambers, Sirs.“ One of the servants that had found them put them up-to-date on the situation, pointing at the rows of castle staff members dashing through the catacombs with buckets of water and fire extinguishers.
Jasper‘s brows furrowed as a low growl escaped from his throat “that dirty rat! This has to be the northern wolf‘s doing.“
They rushed after the servants to the printing presses to discover that several of the forgery piles had been set ablaze.
“We need to save the printing machines!“ Indignus cried out in horror.
Jasper paid the blue giant little attention, instead trying to squint through the clouds of smoke and ash when he spotted Hendrik and Erik’s vague silhouettes sneaking out of the room, shrouded by the veil created by the smoke.
“After them! Don‘t let them escape!“, Jasper yapped, pulling Indiginus down by one ear to be on his eye level, pointing at the pyromaniacs sneaking past the guards in the heat of the moment through the tunnel.
“Crap!“ Erik squalled as he dared to glance over his shoulder and caught seight of the blue and snake-eyed generals chasing after him and the inspector. “Run faster!” Erik urged the law enforcer to pick up the pace, pushing past the guards and servants in the tunnels. The thief and inspector could feel Jasper and Indignus‘ hateful glares in their necks as they sprinted up the narrow medieval spiral staircase leading outside to the black hole‘s courtyard at last. They could see the light of the exit to the outside grow nearer and nearer as they ran. Erik’s mind blocked out everything around him, the beating of his heart, the pain in his feet from running, the screams of the generals and soldiers chasing them, the pain in his lungs from breathing in the smoke down in the tunnels. He only saw the light of the sun shining them the way outside like a light tower in the dead of night. It reminded him oddly of his first escape from the black hole ten years ago, although with a lot more fire and the last time he did not have an interpol inspector by his side. But the adrenaline pumping through his veins, his brain in complete survival mode and monsters with bloodshot eyes hot on his trail, that was exactly the same. He ran and ran and ran towards the light and before Erik could properly register it, he and Hendrik were outside in the castle’s patio. He and the inspector squinted at the bright sunlight after having been underground in the dark for an entire day. They quickly returned back to running when the unlikely accomplices heard the war cries of the monster soldiers in the tunnels behind them.
Eleven and Jade watched from the secluded tower as the legal rivals sprinted across the patio, trying to avoid the motion sensored laser guns, Indignus and a handful of his men following them hot on their trail.
“Erik! It‘s Erik!“ the prince exclaimed, his knuckles turning white from gripping the windowsill too tightly.
“And inspector Hendrik, too?“ Jade stated as she observed the fugitives climb up the narrow stairs to the top of the castle‘s curtain walls. She watched in awe as the wolf and interpol inspector scurried over the wall‘s battlement towards the landing site of count‘s private 1940s airplane with the legion led by Indignus still after them like a pride of bloodlusting hyenas.
“It looks like the inspector is helping him to escape.“ Eleven commented as he witnessed Erik and Hendrik cramping into the small one-person aircraft and frantically pushing all the buttons on the display until the propeller‘s finally started turning and the plane took off before any of Mordegon‘s guards had a chance to reach them.
“Bon voyage!“ Erik giggled as he looked over his shoulder to see the tiny silhouette of Indignus stomp around like a grumpy child.
“Where did you learn how to fly?“ Hendrik yanked the thief’s head to look in front of him and to focus on the matter at hand, that being steering the airplane.
“Oh? I never did. How am I doing?“
Badly the Heliodorian thought to himself as the tried to hold onto anything within reach as the plane shook and threatened to do a 360* barrel roll in mid air.
Hendrik gasped as he saw Erik turn around to fly back towards the black hole.
“What do you think you‘re doing, wolf? We‘ve barely managed to escape! And now you want to go back? Have you gone mad from the smoke?“ the Heliodorian exclaimed
“I‘m going to make a quick pit stop to pick up prince Eleven.“ Erik explained nonchalantly.
“If this is a kidnapping for ransom, I refuse to cooperate. You have to be out of your mind.“
“I thought you knew that already. But no. This is a non-business venture.“ Erik clarified, heading straight towards the lone tower his Eleven was in.
The brunette noticed the airplane flying in his direction. So he kept his promise . A small smile formed on the prince‘s lips as he started looking for some way to break the window, he pounded against it, even tried smashing it into pieces with a chair but it never left even a scrape.
“It‘s bulletproof!“ Jade snarled, though her frustration did not stem solely from the count‘s security measures within the tower but the heightened possibility that Erik‘s little fiasko he called a “rescue mission“, might be used against her if her plans to take Mordegon to court should succeed.
The ravenette and her chosen sibling noticed the northern wolf trying to sign them a message. The princess squinted and saw the bluenette pointing upwards with his index finger as he started circling the tower‘s rooftop with the plane.
“He is heading up to the roof!“ Eleven shouted out trying to look for a way to reach the window leading to the tower‘s rooftop. Erik in the meantime had given the plane’s steering wheel over to the lilac haired inspector and hopped out onto the cone shaped tower roof.
“I‘m an officer of the law, wolf. I‘ve never flown something like this.“ Hendrik silently cussed as he attempted to keep the aircraft hovering above the tower.
“You’ll be fine” Erik dismissed the inspector and rushed towards the dormer window he had entered through the previous night, kicked it open and poke his head through it.
“Eleven! Up here!“
“Erik!“ The brunette looked up to see his beloved friend, a relieved smile settling on his face upon seeing his thief had not been harmed.
“I have come to steal you away, just as I promised! Jade, do you have any rope on you, perchance?“
“Don‘t boss me around.“ Jade snapped at the thief, still clearly on edge from Erik threatening her 4 year plan before softening in tone. She could handle that later. For now cooperating with the thief and getting her brother to safety seemed like the higher priority. “But yeah I do.“ She opened the leather satchel around her waist to reveal a sturdy cord of rope and threw one end up towards the northern wolf.
Erik barely caught the rope when the royal siblings heard the door to Eleven‘s chamber open up behind them and a legion of monsters and human soldiers alike swapped into the room like a tsunami wave.
“Go! I‘ll hold them back!“ Jade hollered, getting into a fighting stance.
“But- what about you?“ Eleven yelped concerned.
“Don‘t worry about me. Now hurry up.“ she bellowed, kicking the restless armours closing in on them with the velocity of a speeding train.
“You better keep him safe, Erik.“ the ravenette uttered under her breath as she saw Eleven climb up the ropes to the outside right into Erik‘s arms.
Erik pulled Eleven close to him, one arm slung around the prince‘s waist, the other caressing through the brunette hair.
“See? I kept my promise.“ he whispered in a hushed tone, before holding onto the rope once again to pull Jade to safety, too as the number of monsters surrounding her had increased.
Jade cut the rope the second she had joined the thief and prince on the rooftop to keep Modergon‘s men from following them.
“Thanks…“ she said as she locked eyes with the thief before climbing to the top of the tower with him and her sibling. Erik upon reaching the peak of the tower, waved with both arms to signal Hendrik to lower the plane so they could all escape this hell at last.
The thief held out his hand to climb into the plane once it was almost within reach when he heard a deafening PANG resounding throughout the valley of Dundrasil, followed by Eleven calling out his name.
The bluenette started to feel a stinging sensation within his chest that grew to an immeasurable pain by the second. Erik fell down to his knees as the world around him faded to black, Eleven‘s desperate cries seeming so far away. Eleven stood frozen in shock and tried to catch his rescuer as the thief fell down from the gunshot piercing right through his head. He held Erik close to himself, tears running down his cheeks as he begged his childhood friend to wake up already.
“Erik, come on. Please get up. You promised me. You promised you‘d get me out of this cage. You promised you‘d stay safe.“
Jade, ripped her gaze away from her mourning brother and the thief. Getting her brother to safety was still her utmost priority. The princess scanned the area around them to locate the gunman. It didn‘t take too long as on the balcony of the opposing watch tower stood Jasper with a sniper rifle and a smug grin placed on his face. The ravenette glare turned sour as she recognized Mordegon standing right beside the snake-eyed servant.
“Shoot them.“ The count ordered and Jade barely managed to throw herself protectively on top of Eleven and Erik before Jasper fired yet another round of bullets towards them. It seemed almost like a miracle to Jade that by the time the hailstorm of artillery ceased, she was still alive and most bullets either missed or only scraped her. Jade and Eleven both rose up again to look the sniper and the count face to face in the eye, the prince not once letting go of Erik, holding him tight to his chest.
“I applaud your courage.“ Mordegon stated, though the royals both knew the count regarded their “courage“ as childish naivety at best “Now here is my suggestion, Eleven.“ the count continued, Jade clearly being a mild annoyance to him “If you marry me, I‘ll spare the wolf‘s life. I might even allow you to keep him around as a “pet“. But refuse me and you will both die here and now. I‘ll let you choose as you will. Just take the ring from the wolf, give it to and I‘ll let him go. You have my word.“
Eleven‘s eyes fell down onto Erik’s pained expression and the blood from the gun wound tainting his chest with a deep red stain the size of the prince‘s palm.
“You know as well as I do, that if he doesn‘t receive medical attention instantly, he‘ll die from blood loss or from an infection. Just hand me the sagittarius ring and I‘ll have him taken care of.“ Mordegon continued.
Eleven’s entire body trembled, he knew he‘d sacrifice his freedom and to a certain extend the entire freedom of Dundrasil, but he‘d rather live a life imprisoned, than live in freedom knowing Erik had to lose his life in return.
“Erik…“ the brunette softly put his forehead against the thief‘s “please give me the ring.“
“No, Eleven… we... both know... he‘s lying“ Erik pressed in a hushed tone, every word he spoke sending another wave of pain through his chest, did the bullet puncture his lungs?
“I‘m alright… I promise…“ he tried grabbing the prince‘s hand as he felt Eleven looking through his pockets in search of the Dundrasilian heirloom. But he was far too weak to keep Eleven from finding the ring at last in his hoodie’s chest pocket.
“Forgive me, Erik.“ Eleven whispered, pressing a feathery kiss on top of Erik‘s head before letting go of the thief and handing him over into Jade‘s arms so she‘d make sure the thief would not try to put up a fight. Not that Erik would have been able to anyway in his current condition.
Through his hazy eyes the thief perceived the blurry shapes of Eleven and Jade, as the prince leaned down to whisper something into his surrogate sister‘s ears, but by now his mind was far too foggy to make out what the prince had told her. He felt like he was drowning in cotton, his eyes slowly shutting and before he knew it - Erik had lost consciousness and hung limp in Jade‘s arms.
Eleven stood up and walked towards the end of the tower‘s roof, holding out his hand holding the ring over the edge.
The prince spoke in a loud and clear voice, yet a slight shaking in it could be heard, betraying Eleven‘s fassade. “If you spare Erik and Jade, I will comply with your requirements. But if you break your promise, I will simply throw this ring into the patio and let the laser guns deal with it.”
“You have my word, highness. Put it on your finger and come over here.“ Mordegon shouted.
“Shall I fire, Sir?“ Jasper mouthed, keeping the rifle ready in position.
“Wait until the ring gets here.“ Mordegon susurrated, not once taking his eyes off of Eleven. The prince balanced back towards the dormer window he had escaped through barely a few minutes earlier to let the monsters inside the tower escort him to Mordegon.
Eleven stopped dead in his tracks however when he once more heard the shrieking noises of a plane’s propellers above them. The brunette looked up and detected Hendrik in the count‘s stolen airplane as the inspector lowered the aircraft once more, having had to fly out of reach, when Jasper had opened fire earlier.
“Wolf! Your Highness! Get in!“ the lilac haired inspector yelled over the deafening sound of the plane’s engine
Jade bit her lip in frustration as she glared at the aircraft hovering barely a few feet above their heads.
“Help Erik survive“
Her brother’s last request repeated within the ravenette’s skull like a broken record. Help Erik survive. She dug her nails into Erik‘s arm, threw the thief over her shoulder and jumped onto the plane. She squeezed herself and the thief into the tight space of the plane‘s cockpit behind Hendrik.
Jasper aimed his rifle towards the escaping aero shooting several rounds of bullets at it, but each cartridge bouncing off of its metal exterior.
“Stop!“ Eleven cried out “you dirty coward! You said you‘d spare them!“
“They‘ve seen the basement and the workshop. You thought I‘d let them leave alive? Well even with him escaping, there is no way your precious thief would survive a wound like that.“
Eleven was about to tell Mordegon off when he suddenly felt several cold metal hands grabbing him and forcefully dragging him back into the tower. The restless armours must have used Eleven‘s distraction from the shooting to get onto the roof. The prince kicked and screamed, at Mordegon, at Jasper, at the monsters, at fate for always taking away what he loved the most.