Chapter Sixteen: Going Home

Monday, June 6, 2016 (Pub November 21, 2016)

Disclaimer: I do not own or profit from the Winx Club properties by writing this story. This story is written for pleasure's sake. All rights reserved.

Notes: First, kudos to Akela Victoria and guest reviewer "xyz" for leaving a review last chapter.

Second, this chapter has mentions from the Winx Club comic "The Loyalty Game" (issue 44) and includes the character now called Captain Valerius Adrian. Valerius a fanon first name that I came up with. You could read the comic on Winx Comics' makes minor appearance in "Suspicion and Deceit" (issue 45) where he is addressed as Lieutenant Adrian. I gave him a promotion to captain because of the time that had passed.

Third, parts of this chapter were written during Camp Nano.

When the HMS Valiant docked into Princess Frejya Space Station, Prince Sky was jarred awake by the sudden feeling of the ship colliding with the magnetic clamps. They were in official Eraklyon space now, even if it was at the edge of their galaxy, and that meant all his father's enemies were ready and primed to take him out.

Sky straightened up from his seat beside his father's bed in the medbay. King Erendor had been stable all throughout the fourteen-hour journey, put in an induced coma and a temporal stasis that halted the exacerbation of his spinal cord injuries. It was a temporary solution. Scans, surgery, treatment, his father needed it all now.

Sky turned away. Him on the other hand, he was a total mess. He looked himself in the mirror and grimaced. His hair was sticking in all directions, not in a fun sexy way either. He found a fine-tooth comb and water, brushing it back into something presentable. His face was still red and splotchy. There were bruises forming along his jaw and under his collar. An especially painful bruise was forming on his right shoulder. Brandon had had the mercy to not hit him in the face at least.

Isolation, lack of sleep, his deep-seated fear that his father was going to die, all of it was textbook reasons for whatever had happened in the training deck and it had led to him emotionally exploding and taking it out on Brandon. He should have known that he would have done something like that. Three years at Red Fountain, hours of studying psychological coping mechanisms, and that was all he had to show for it. He was a joke. His role as a leader in Owl Team was just nepotism.

Sky was not sure how he would face Brandon next. In fact, he dreaded it. Brandon had dealt with so much of his crap already, lived with him for more than half his life and sacrificed everything to be his bodily shield.

Sky jumped when he saw the door opened. His hand was on his weapon instantly.

The woman put her hands up, to show that she was weaponless. She wore a white lab coat over green scrubs. Just over her breast pocket was an Emblem of Erendor.

Sky let out a sigh of relief and dropped his hand to his side. Dame Alayna, or just Doctor Alayna, as he knew her. She was the royal family physician; one of his father's most trusted friends. She used to be the one that fixed all his injuries from his father and mother's brutal training. Set his bones, stitch his cuts, use all sorts of medicines and healing magics to put him back together. As a child, he had dreamt of being a doctor like her.

"Your Imperial Highness, what happened to you?!" Doctor Alayna said, turning his face and checking him. "I heard that there had been a fight on the way, but good gods…"

Still sore, Sky winced and shrugged off her attentions. He could deal with the pain on his own with painkillers. He had had worst and he was glad that she did not ask to see the rest of his bruises. Sky picked up the tablet attached to his father's bed and handed it to the doctor.

Doctor Alayna looked over the tablet as nurses and doctors filed into the room, preparing to move the king.

The doctor kept silent.

Sky looked away, unable accept whatever horrid expression crossed the woman's face. He knew what was coming, but he was hoping that he was wrong.

The doctor spoke. "Your father will have to undergo anaesthesia, Sky."

The informal use of his name made him shake. Not Prince or Highness—just Sky.

Sky let out a ragged breath.

"His Majesty will be unable to perform the duties of his station while under sedation," the doctor continued.

"I've already been sworn in as the Prince Regent. The Queen is still on Andros standing for him at the Sovereigns Council. Will he make it through?"

"I can't guarantee it." The doctor hesitated. "As the Head of the Medical Household and Physician to the King, I must give you this."

She pulled out an object from her lab coat; not a vial or a potion, but a long glass case. It was six-sided and green, with no distinguishable hinges or lips to open it. One facet of the case had a cast-iron herald of the Great House of Erendor on it, small like a coin. He had seen this container many times and he knew its contents well. These containers always held great secrets, like the ruin of Havram. In this case, a set of instructions should the king be incapacitated and unable to return to his duties. Like death.

Sky gripped the container, hands shaking. "Please, at least give me an idea, a percentage, anything."

"Your father took a dangerous fall. It's touch and go. I don't know the full complications until we take him out of stasis."

The doctor raised a tentative hand to Sky's arm, trying to comfort him.

"Sky, he died that day in Havram and then he was brought back to life by the pollen of the Tree of Life. He's an old warhorse and it's a miracle that he is still alive after all that he's been through. If he makes it through, your father cannot be the king anymore, I won't allow it—for good, this time."

His heart palpitated against his ribs. He closed his eyes, overcome by fear. Doctor Alayna stepped forward and enveloped him in a tight hug. He let her. He needed all the strength that he could muster.

Sky took a deep breath and steeled himself. No more emotions. No more focusing on the past, on things that he had no control over. He put his thoughts about Bloom and Diaspro out of his mind. It was times like that this that Diaspro would berate and remind him that his duty to Eraklyon came first.

His father's health was in the hands of the gods. The well-being of Eraklyon was in Sky's. He needed to step up and act like the crown prince now.

"I will go to the capital. Send word to me and the Queen when the surgery is over," he said, straightening up and putting distance between himself and the doctor.

"Of course, sir. I will keep you posted. Be safe."

Sky followed behind his father's entourage of Imperial Guards. It felt like a funeral procession. Sky put those dangerous thoughts out of his mind.

His uniform matched those of the Imperial Guards around him. Blue, white and red particoloured tunics with his blond hair hidden under a beret, a captain's rank attached to his shoulder straps and a different name pinned to his chest. Hidden in plain sight. No one would be able to pick him out from the hundreds of knights lined up in the cargo bay.

His father would be escorted by a full company of knights to a private hospital on the space station. The whole Medical Household as well as a sizeable force had been flown in straight from the home planet. There was no such thing as overkill anymore after too many attempts on his life.

Dame Ariana, a Knight Commander of the Imperial Guard, slipped into their small detachment surrounding the king.

They filed into the cargo hold, facing the bay doors. Vehicles had already been lined up in formation for the transfer to the hospital. Roads had been blocked off ahead of time. Sky watched Doctor Alayna and a group of nurses loaded his father into an armoured ambulance.

It would be a race: the king to hospital, the prince to the capital.

"Where's Brandon?" Sky asked Ariana.

The dark-haired woman looked like the cat that ate the canary. Sky did not like it. Brandon rarely talked about the family drama between him and his sister, but he knew enough that Stella was at the centre of it.

"Sir Brandon was arrested after your altercation in the training deck," Ariana said.

"On whose orders?"

"Mine."

"I didn't ask you to arrest him!" Sky hissed, "I thought I made it clear that it was my fault. I started that fight."

"You did, my prince."

"Dame Ariana, you're going to release Sir Brandon and he will join our detachment," he ordered in low voice.

The other knights could hear him, breaking the illusion of him being a lowly captain for just a moment. Nex and Thoren could listen all they wanted, they were as much his brothers in battle as Brandon or the rest of the Owl Team. "We need every man and woman right now. We can't have one of our guards imprisoned and unable to perform his duties."

"He punched you!"

"Yeah, and I punched back. I'm not a child anymore, Ariana."

The dark-haired knight bristled. "There was nothing that I could do about it. The last attempt on your life resulted in an inquest on Sir Brandon's record. Now, there's going to be a full investigation and psych eval."

"All thanks to you, Ariana! Brandon and I had a fight. I've cooled down and I'm sure Brandon has to. Where is he?"

"Sir Brandon will be joining you…as your prisoner. You will be inserted into a detachment tasked with escorting him from the HMS Valiant to the HMS Princess Eris. The Eris will then travel straight to the capital on the home world so that he may be tried by a military court. As of this moment, you are the chief medical officer for his escort."

Sky wanted to rub the bridge of his nose, maybe even punch a wall. He hated the subterfuge but he was in no position to argue or change plans.

"Fine. Who's the officer in charge of the escort?"

"Captain Valerius Adrian, and he isn't aware of who you are. All he knows is that you got on the receiving end of Brandon's fists when you tried to treat him—to explain your bruises," she added.

"Adrian? Really? As if he isn't going to recognize my face." Sky knew the man from a previous misadventure in Magix. Someone had tried to use the pretence of a sailing race to kill him and Adrian had been tasked in finding out who.

"No one knows that Brandon's altercation was with you. I kept your name out of all the reports."

Sky glared at the woman. Sky always wondered how Brandon and Ariana could be so different.

Of course, she had redacted his name from any and all reports, and it seemed just like her to use her younger brother's unfortunate situation to their advantage. The whole ship probably knew about Brandon's arrest.

"Adrian won't recognize you," Ariana assured. "Your face is black and blue, and you got a new haircut since the last incident. You don't look like the Sky from two years ago."

"Yeah, thanks…"

Ariana ignored the sarcasm in the prince's voice. "All he knows is that Prince Sky and Sir Brandon have been put on separate ships to prevent further incidents. The prince's ship is scheduled to leave within the hour."

"Obviously, I'm not getting on that ship."

"Exactly."

Sky straightened his shoulders and took a deep breath. He winced when he felt a muscle flare up with pain. The fight had done a number on him but he could deal with it.

It just rubbed him the wrong way to see Brandon being used as a pawn. Brandon deserved so much better than this after all the years he had sacrificed.

The sun was setting on the Infinite Ocean, another day lost to Diaspro. She watched the sky turn red as the yellow orb touched the horizon.

She still had plenty of time left to finish the Sirenix quest. She looked to the chain and black hematite that she rolled in her palm. Sky's stone charm to ward him against dark magic. She wondered what he was doing now, if he was the king now.

Politea had the Breath of the Ocean, which meant that Diaspro had a chance of escaping soon.

The gem fairy wanted to get this quest over and done with. She needed to find the Sirenix Book, finishes those tests and get Sirenix. Then she could continue on with her life. She would come out of this stronger and more powerful than before.

"You should eat," Politea said, coming up to the gem fairy with a yellow-skinned fruit. "We'll stay the night here and then I'll try to open the Sirenix gate in the morning."

"What happens after I get Sirenix?" she asked, following the red nymph to their small camp. There was a fire and some fish cooking.

Sitting down, Politea remained silent for a moment. "I go after Dafne."

"That's what you're going to do. What about me? What do I with Sirenix?"

"You do the right thing. You put your powers to good use. You do your duty to your people, as a princess and a fairy."

"That is very easy to say, but I've tried my whole life to do the right thing only to be used and advance someone else's plot. The duties of a fairy are not compatible with the duties of a princess." Diaspro sat down on a flat rock. The fire crackled as the day turned to night.

"You are a princess, Diaspro. At the very least, someone will be looking for you."

Diaspro shrugged.

She had her doubts about anyone else mounting a rescue for her. Winx Club, definitely not. Trix, not when they had run away with their tails between their legs. Her own people, she was they would do their best to at least find out what had happened to her. As for Sky, he would be too busy doing his imperial duties with his father incapacitated.

"What about your guardians?" Politea asked.

"I was a tool to further their schemes and I stopped being useful to them years ago when I failed to marry the Prince of Eraklyon."

Diaspro unwound her scarf and poured her energies into it, becoming a white ribbon. The white magic was becoming easier and easier to summon. "By the time that the war had ended, the King of Eraklyon had annexed and claimed my own realm as a protectorate of the empire. And then, the Prince of Eraklyon and the Keeper of the Dragon Flame came along and broke the curse on Havram. The whole empire praises the valiant Prince Sky for his bravery, even my own people. I am a relic and a reminder of King Erendor's failure to protect Havram during the war and he has been doing everything in his power to make reparations. I've been tossed aside."

"And do you plan to take back your realm?"

"I'm not about to start a coup. Eraklyon doesn't need another war."

"Then what were you doing in Andros?"

"I was demoted to being the Queen of Eraklyon's lady-in-waiting. The King's personal yacht was in the bay almost causing it to capsize."

"Lady-in-waiting is still a good position within a royal household," the red nymph pointed out.

"For most ladies, perhaps. For me…it's a prison sentence. I did terrible things, many unfairylike things. I fed the prince a love potion because I was angry and jealous that he had broken our engagement."

"You were engaged?"

"We were. Twice. When he went off to study in Magix, he met another girl. Bloom, the lost heir of Domino, it turned out. At the time, I wouldn't have minded so much if that girl had been a nobody. I knew I wasn't marrying for love."

For a while, Diaspro explained the history of the last twenty years of Magix and all the other realms. She had a princess' education and could say from heart every memorable event since the fall of Domino, sounding much like the history books she had been made to read.

"So despite all of this, you were never compensated or remunerated for the broken engagement," Politea said. "You are a woman and a princess in your own right. You are worthy of dignity. How could you let them push you aside?"

"What should I have done? Raised an army and gone to war? I already went to war once in the name of the Eraklyon empire. I dropped my studies to become a general. The Yamatite were encroaching from the south and the Eraklyonites had my back from the north. One wanted to marry me, the other wanted to kidnap me and turn me into a concubine. I chose the lesser of two evils."

"That still isn't acceptable, Diaspro. You've a right to dignity and respect."

"My dignity isn't above the lives of soldiers. I can't take down an empire that has been standing for a thousand years nor do I want to. My people will simply be swallowed up into Eraklyon, history will just name us as another glorious conquest done in the name of the Goddess Eraklyon."

"What will you do then? Are you going to remain a lady-in-waiting for the rest of your life? You are a fairy and that means you are meant for greater things."

"You say it so easily, Politea. I am a princess and I am privileged, but I do not live a life where I am free to do whatever I want," Diaspro said, twisting the scarf in her hand. It had become thin and long, whiplike again. She released the energy right after, watching the sparkles float up to the sky. "I am a bird. I may have escaped for now, but once I get out of the Infinite Ocean, I must return to my cage."

Politea watched the white magic disappear. They looked like doves taking wing. She still surprised that Diaspro could harness the power of the sacred clothe. "What do you live for, Diaspro? What makes you get up every morning? What makes you fight?"

Diaspro did not reply. The girl looked down at her hands, searching for an answer and finding none. Her hands shook as she idly wound the scarf between her fingers. "I don't know. I don't know anymore. I used to think that fighting for my people in my own way was fulfilling until I realized that everything I did changed nothing."

In the last few days, Politea had noticed that Diaspro never smiled—not that Diaspro had had any reason to smile, but she was perpetually sad, even in her sleep when she wept. No life, no vigour, no joie de vivre. Perhaps that was a lie.

Diaspro knew duty, but she had no love for it—especially after everything she had revealed about being a pawn and repeated failures to marry the Prince of Eraklyon. She was undoubtedly courageous, as evidenced when she had come out to fight Politea in Andros. Her driving force had been to protect the Keeper of the Dragon Flame, the royal family of Eraklyon and the whole city of Laudine despite the injustices that they had heaped upon her. Diaspro had shown that if given the right motivations, she could be a formidable force of nature like her diamond wall.

Politea knelt in front of Diaspro, taking her shaking hands into hers. "I will help you, Diaspro, not just with the Sirenix quest, but with helping you find meaning in your life. You are not a bird in a gilded cage, you are a fairy and you were meant to fly on your own wings. Tomorrow morning, we start your training as a nymph."

The young man walked the street, listening to the waves crashing against the concrete quays. The Rue de la Commune stretched from one end of the bay to the other, connecting all of the quays. The city hugged the bay standing in the shadow of a cliff crowned by a lighthouse.

There were little smoothie shops here and there along the main road. Cafes and bistros had taken up shop inside the historic stone buildings that had once belonged to shipping companies. All the shipping firms and institutions had been moved up the road several decades ago. Now, the historic area was called the Vieux Port and had become a tourist attraction for any cruise ships doing a tour of the isles. Its quays held a museum, a waterpark, a casino and an amusement park.

The only thing that had not changed was the Horloge, a clocktower that was the very heartbeat of the city. It divided the city between the old and new with the Chemin de l'Horloge that stretched from the clocktower to the ancient Banque de la République and the ancestral seat of the noble House of Tiamat.

The city was empty. There were no birds calling or merchants selling their wares in the marchés. There were no ships in the bay.

But he knew this place. This place was not a wild dream. This was his home. The City pf Ophir, the capital of the Republic.

The Wanderer walked down Rue de la Commune until he reached the Terraine de Parade, an open plaza at the foot of the Horloge. This was the place where momentous events happened: graduating naval officers, treaty signings, weddings and state funerals. A century ago, there had once been a guillotine for beheading kings and queens.

A black smoke floated around the grey antique cannons lining the square. They had been decommissioned a long time ago. The smoke was not fumes from a hot cannon.

He sensed something else in the smoke. Something malevolent, powerful, dangerous.

He crossed the plaza, bristling. His tattooed arms were glowing gold, and warning him of the threat. He did not care.

The smoke coalesced in a single form on the sandstone steps. Big black leathery wings, skin pulled taught over massive muscles, large grotesque hands with razor sharp claws, the face of a monster.

The Wanderer's clothing changed from heavy wizard robes to a bronze-coloured chest plate of leather and metal. His shirt and pants were became a dark purple. In his hand appeared a long golden staff. He radiated power, coming off of him like golden wisps of fire.

The Beast growled, revealing a set of yellowed teeth. It flexed its wings aggressively, expanding them to their full breadth.

The Wanderer did not budge at the display. He planted his staff in the ground and stared at the Beast.

"You can't keep this up forever, wizard," the Beast said. Its voice was grumbly but its accent refined, every syllable pronounced intelligibly. A smart English accent.

"I am over seven hundred years old. A wizard of your measly three and twenty cannot keep me here for long. My patience will outlast your resolve to keep me here."

The Wanderer did not respond. Instead, he lowered himself to the ground, in a position of meditation, his staff lying beside him. He closed his eyes, becoming a face of serenity.

"Repeating your prayers to your sea gods will not help you, young wizard. Everyday, your hold on this prison weakens. You have seen it firsthand."

Finally, the Wanderer spoke. "You will never leave this place, Duman. I won't let you."

He raised his right hand, showing a band of black metal on his ring finger.

The Beast smirked, knowing otherwise. He had an ally in the blonde fairy; she just did not know it yet.

Dame Ariana had been right about Captain Adrian. The other man did not recognize Sky at all. It helped that his hair was different in cut and colour and that his face had a healing black eye.

It had been two years since the events at Lake Roccaluce. At the time, it seemed rather innocuous to have sailing competition on the lake until a random speeding motorboat had shot out at Sky's sailboat and sunk it to the bottom of the lake.

Sky stood in a detachment of Imperial Guards as Dame Ariana debriefed them all about the escort mission. Adrien and team stood stock still as they received their orders. There was no glory to be had in this escort mission, not when they were being diverted from the imperial cortège or the Prince's retinue. They did well to hide their disappoint. Adrian's unit consisted mostly of special activities specialists, not a single one of them knights or peers. Espionage, intelligence gathering and if necessary, sabotage. Nothing especially major or headline-worthy, which was precisely why they had been chosen for this mission.

"You will be escorting Sir Brandon from here to the imperial capital. I've taken the precaution of assigning extra manpower to your unit." Ariana looked at the Imperial Guards and caught Sky's gaze. "Brandon is your top priority. No drama, no paparazzi, no social media. Remember, Sir Brandon is a trained specialist, not the Princess of Solaria. Do not understand estimate him."

There were a few sniggers, but Sky reined in his ire.

Brandon was handed off to Adrian's unit, wearing his red tracksuit, as if he no longer merited wearing the imperial uniform, and some handcuffs, playing the part of compliant prisoner. A metal shock collar had been placed around his neck to stop him from getting ideas.

Over the years, Brandon had built up the reputation within the Imperial Guard of being wilful and non-traditional. He dated the princess of a foreign realm; he was quick to question and criticize his own prince; and he was willing to break any and all laws as long as they suited his purpose—much to the anger of the everyone when he escaped the imperial castle in the chaos of the Millennium Celebrate, stole a military starfighter, ran away to one of Eraklyon's moons, and then infiltrated back into the castle to find out what had happened to Sky.

All in all, he was a seditious knight that disregarded his family's legacy and he cared very little for the value of his title as a baron. This was how most of the tabloids in Eraklyon painted him.

Sky knew better, so did most of their friends in Magix, but back home in Eraklyon, things were different. Reputation and peerage meant everything. Brandon was as much a public figure as Sky, Diaspro or the King of Eraklyon. To be arrested—humiliated—by his own sister was not an easy thing to accept.

A few armoured troop transports had been set aside. Brandon would ride in the second transport and so would Sky as part of a mixed team of specialists.

Brandon kept quiet as he marched into the transport troop. He did not need any prodding or pushing. He knew his way around and where to sit.

Sky sat right across from Brandon. Sky used his eyes to glance at the name tag on his chest, as if checking to see if it was straight. It took Brandon a moment to get the message and realize that Sky was right in front of him. The brown-haired knight read the fake name on Sky's chest and took a deep breath.

"Sir Eren."

"Sir Brandon."

Eren, the name of his dead brother. Eren, which was short for Erendor. Erendor which was one of Sky's many names. Erendor, the name of hundreds of boys in the empire. No one would look at Sky twice and think he was the Imperial Prince. Even Thoren had the name Erendor in his full name somewhere.

There was a long pause. Brandon looked like a wounded dog about to be kicked.

"I'm sorry about earlier," Brandon murmured.

"Nothing that modern medicine could fix."

"Things got way out of hand. I'm still sorry."

"And I'm sorry too."

Brandon played along and wanted to argue further but this was neither the time nor the place. He returned to being quiet and compliant, at least in his own way. The knight relaxed and threw smiles around whenever anyone looked in his direction, like he had not been arrested. He winked at one of the female operatives and complemented her on her hair.

Sky could breath easier. Brandon had never meant any harm, he knew that. The mounting stress and reality was muddling his mind. There was no circumventing the truth:

He was going to be the King of Eraklyon.

The more he repeated this truth, the less scary it became. He had known that he would one day sit on that old throne. After the Eren's death, it had only been a matter of time. He had never wanted the throne but better the crown fell on his head and not someone else's. His father's life was in the hands of Doctor Alayna and the Medical Household. Nothing he could do about it. He had to get to the imperial capital and be prepared.

Everyone settled in the transport. Aside from the whirring of the engines, it was deathly quiet. Brandon fidgeted, looking at the handcuffs around his wrists.

The two specialists on either side of him glared at him, the hands gripping their weapons.

"Y'know, I do actually know how to break out of these, considering these are just standard issue cuffs. I don't see the point in me wearing this," Brandon said conversationally.

Sky sighed. "Please don't. I wouldn't want to inject you and then carry your unconscious body the rest of the way to homeworld."

"I'm not that heavy."

"I'd rather carry Thoren than you."

"Hey!" Thoren, who sat right beside Sky, pretended to look offended. Thoren and Brandon were equally stocky, with strong bodies meant for swinging their large weapons—Brandon and his sword, Thoren and his warhammer.

Brandon straightened up in his seat, rolling his bulky shoulders and sizing up Thoren. "I could take him."

"Come at me, bro!"

"Enough," Adrian admonished.

Sky crossed his arms and rubbed the bridge of his nose to hide his amusement.

"You can't expect me to keep quiet the whole time," Brandon said. He turned to Adrian, smirking. "So, it's been like two years since I last saw you, Adrian. You were a lieutenant last I checked. Congrats on making it to captain."

"I earned my rank," he said curtly.

"Oh, here we go again," Nex murmured.

Suddenly, Sky knew where this conversation was going to go. He and Brandon have had this conversation many times with their fellow specialists at Red Fountain. The first year had been especially rough because of Riven's disdain for their titles and money.

"You saying that I don't deserve my knighthood?" Brandon quirked a brow. Brandon obviously knew better than to pick a fight, but he did it anyways.

"Unlike you, I know how to do my job, which is to protect the prince, not beat him up until he lands in the medical ward."

Sky cringed inwardly. So word had gotten out about the fight, despite Dame Ariana's efforts. The prince kept quiet and glared at Brandon, urging him not to respond. Brandon ignored him.

"Is that how poorly you think about our prince?" Brandon replied coolly. "You sheltered little boy. I may be the son of a knight, but I didn't have an easy childhood. I've been fighting for Eraklyon since I was twelve. Out of this entire detachment, I am the only one who has ever been within the borders of Yamatai. I was there for Yoshinoya, for the Trix, for Darkar, for Valtor, for Mandragora, for the Black Circle, for Tritannus—and so was Prince Sky."

Sky heard the vehemence rise in Brandon's voice. Looking back, the prince was not sure had he had even survived the list of enemies.

"The prince himself put these bruises on me. You shouldn't mistake Sky's compassion as weakness. How many wars can you say you've been in? I know your dossier, Adrian. I read it as soon as the incident in Magix had been cleared up. You've never been in an all-out battle. You're trained for covert operations but nothing above sabotage and misinformation and neither is your entire team—save for the detachment of Imperial Guards that my sister gave you."

Brandon stared Adrian, daring him to argue.

"Sir Brandon, Captain Adrian, stop," Sky said severely, thinking of how his father would diffuse the situation without threatening treason or execution. "We're not having a pissing contest here."

The ship whirled to the side, pushing Thoren into Sky and Sky into Nex, despite their harnesses.

"What the actual hell? The pilot should have his license revoked," Nex muttered, squirming under the push of gravity and the bulk of bodies.

"Everyone, hang on!" Adrian yelled as the ship took another swerve.

Evasive flight manoeuvres, Sky knew them well. Something was going on outside the ship.

Brandon's eyes widened at the same realization and straightened up, becoming pale. Brandon's first duty was always Sky's safety, disgraced or not. It was in Brandon's nature to act first and question later. "Adrian, status report from the cockpit now!"

Adrian did not hesitate. "Antiaircraft gunners on the roofs along our flightpath. Everyone, brace yourselves!"

Sky looked outside the window looking for sign of their attackers. He braced himself as the ship swerved again. They were stuck in a metal shell waiting to get shot down, or worst, completely obliterated. He had to trust that the pilot and his crew knew what was going.

Adrian pulled up a holographic map of their route, tracking the detour. The marker raced across the projection. Sky closed his eyes, listening to the sounds of the battle around him. A calm came over him. He had done a thousand of hours in simulation training and another thousand in real aircrafts and spacecrafts. Before he had even gotten to Red Fountain, he had already had his license to fly. Riven had even called him out on his richboy privileges back in their first year, long before he had even known that Sky was a prince. He wanted to be in the cockpit right now to take his life in hand and fight whoever dared to attack them.

A staccato of explosions. Flares.

A scream of the boosters. A hard bank to right around a tight corner.

A reverberating sound of a missile flying under them.

Another set of flares, a sharp turn, repeat.

They were weaving between the installations, avoiding whatever threat was after them. They were on the offensive too, their turrets shooting at unknown targets. There was a long moment of silence. Sky realized that they had no more flares.

And then actual hit.

Sky's head slammed against the headrest as his body suddenly flew out of the seat like a limp doll. The seatbelt and harness constricted around his chest and suddenly, he fell back into his seat, pushed by the Gs. Sky tensed up his muscles, willing himself to stay conscious before he started experiencing G-force induced loss of consciousness, knowing what came next. Brandon in front of him fought to keep his eyes open. Some of the others had already blacked out, their heads lolling.

The alarm sounded all throughout the ship. "Crash imminent. Brace for impact. Crash imminent. Brace for impact."

The steel belly of the ship kissed the ground and sent orange sparks flying everywhere. The steel screeching against the road was worst than nails on a chalkboard. Sky's ears rung. His vision blurred. Suddenly, the wind escaped his lungs as his weight strained against the harness. The crunch of concrete cracking and metal folding.

Sky blacked out.

He was the first to wake up.

His heart pounded in his chest.

The sound of the sirens and alarms from the cockpit echoed in the periphery of his mind. His vision cleared as got his bearing. The transport had stopped moving. He undid the harness and fell to the floor, his boots making a heavy thump. The ship had landed at an odd angle and everyone hung from their seats like strung up puppets. The contents of his stomach, which was not much, threatened to make an immediate exit.

On second thought, Sky fell forward and started to retch. Half-digested soup and crackers had been the most he could handle for the last few days. He kept going until nothing else would come out.

He wiped his mouth with his sleeve and got up.

He had to keep moving. Had to stay alive. He was his father's last living son. He had to get back to Eraklyon.

Nex had escaped his seat and was trying to wake everyone else. Brandon was already working at his harness. Thoren was working on opening the side door with his war hammer. He winded up, the great dark ruby pulsing on the head, and swung, waking up the others with a resounding crash.

Sky gathered himself and moved to undo Brandon's cuff. The knight was useless as a prisoner and Sky needed all hands on deck. Sky pulled up screen on his gauntlet, deactivating Brandon's electronic cuffs.

"Thanks…" Brandon whispered, looking pale. He got a whiff of the vomit and turned away.

"Yeah, sorry about that."

"I've had worst. Any idea what's going on?"

"Day of the Royals again?" Sky suggested. That was their code for a compromised false identity.

"No clue."

Sky moved on to shock collar.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Adrian grabbed Sky's arm, stopping him from completing the passcode sequence. Sky winced from the throbbing pain. It was still sore.

"Don't be stupid, Adrian! We need all the help we can get. I'd rather have Brandon as an able body than a liability."

An argument raged in Adrian's hazel eyes, his authority being threatened. Sky knew exactly what Adrian was thinking, how he thought that he was losing control of the operation. Well, tough luck, not everything went as planned all the time, Sky thought sardonically. The enemy had never waited for him, they sure as hell were not going to wait for Adrian.

"The collar stays on," Adrian said finally. He turned to Brandon. "If you turn on us, I have orders to kill you on sight."

Brandon rolled his eyes melodramatically. "Of course, Ariana would do something like that."

Sky could live with that.

"Less talking, more moving," Sky said as he skimmed down the rows of groaning bodies. He and Nex took in everyone's injuries.

"Everyone, grab your gear. Captain Adrian, how many clicks between here and the Eris?" Sky said, trying to steer the officer's mind back to the mission without being bossy. He reached into his medical pack and handed Brandon his uniform matrix crystal and his weapons. In a subtle flash of transformation, Brandon was back in his Eraklyonite BDUs.

Sky gave Adrian a meaningful glare, telling him to take charge of his team. Adrian huffed, nonplussed by Sky's tone, before jumping into action.

Miraculously, everyone in the transport had survived with mostly minor injuries. Sky broke into the cockpit and retrieved the pilots. Both of them had been knocked unconscious and he used this time to fiddled with the communication panel and sent a distress signal on his private channel.

"Just hang on and stay close to Sir Brandon. The other transports were grounded and separated by the enemy. We've already deployed the 425 tact fighters to your location. Stay safe and keep your comm on, sir," a voice on the other end said.

"Affirmative. Any idea who is targeting us?"

"Ninjas, sir. We have info that it is a unit of specialized science ninja."

"Thanks. Sir Eren over and out," the prince said, ending the transmission.

He took a moment to breath before letting out a string of curse words.

At least the Imperial Guards at the Eris were alerted and already moving—but ninjas! Goddamn ninjas every single time! Yoshinoya was making his move and it looked like they were preparing to overthrow the royal family for real.

A flash of anger ran through him. He was going to cut down every ninja that came his way.

Sky's hands shook as he checked the pilots for injuries, giving them the necessary healing shots and booster pills—they were only temporary solutions. They would probably feel the bruises later.

"We're three clicks out from the Eris. According to the sensors, we were targeted by ninjas—which means Yoshinoya and the Yamatites are on to us. They know that we're transporting Sir Brandon," Andy said to his team, as he detailed the course they were going to take. "We move in teams, we stay as a team. We shoot to kill. Team Alpha, you're up."

Sky flicked the safety on his energy rifle and moved in behind Brandon as Thoren pulled the door open. Nex was crouched behind Sky. They were met with an inferno of metal and concrete. Their boots hit the blackened ground and they made a run for it to the nearest cover.

Notes: A lot of things happened, isn't it exciting? Don't forget to leave a review!