[center]++ KYUUBEE ++ Kyuubee's eyes brightened up as Bellarino talked, his mind already trying to decide which prank was best for this situation. It was true that Belvedere and Bellarino played way more pranks than he ever did, mostly on the poor members of the Council, but Kyuubee had had his fair share of pranking too. Sometimes when he felt really daring, he would even pull pranks on Kyuberos, which pretty much meant staring death straight in the eye. Of course Kyuberos never did anything to hurt him in retaliation, but one time after getting a surprise haircut from a prank gone wrong, he casted a small curse on Kyuubee. For the nest two weeks, everytime he took ten or more steps, his feet would trip up and he would fall on his face. Hearing about it doesn't sound like much of a punishment, but Kyuubee knew first hand how annoying tripping repeatedly in one day could get. So after that, he tended to focus pulling pranks on others rather than his brother. And now that he was given permission --no, an [i]order[/i]-- by a prince, how could he refuse? The law wouldn't allow him to hurt the eldest prince, but there were so many pranks he could do that wouldn't cause harm. " Okay, leave it to me!" He said proudly, stepping away from the door, cracking his knuckles as he got his spells ready. ++ BELISARIO ++ Belisario was pulled through the castle hallways by Belvedere, still in that merciless headlock, and he had a hard time trying not to fall. Though the twins were younger than him, they still towered over him in height and they always used that to their advantage. Belisario also knew that if he struggled, Belvedere would get more annoyed with him and get much meaner than he was now, so he silently accepted his fate and allowed Belvedere to drag him along. " Ahhh," He heard Belvedere sigh, " It's gross that we have to be escorted by Belladon's filthy little bitch, huh? Here I was, wanting to spend some time with you as brothers, and then [i]thunderthighs[/i] here has to come along too. Disgusting." With Belvedere's arm wrapped so tightly around his neck it was hard to say anything, so he nodded instead, silently hoping that this would be the extent of the twin's torture. But he knew he was being hopeful and that there was probably something much worse waiting for him in Bellerophon's room. Why else would Belvedere be so eager to visit him? He twisted his head around to try to catch Cordelia's gaze, to try and show her that he was sorry for Belvedere's mean words towards her, but she remained staring straightforward. He felt bad for her, having to hear such bad things about her and being unable to do anything, but he looked on the bright side. Atleast she wasn't his full time protector. Belvedere's grip on his neck was beginning to hurt, but luckily enough, the twins' hate for him was so great that touching him for an extended period of time made them "sick" (as expressed in their own words) and not a minute later, Belvedere released him. But it was more like a shove and Belisario had to catch himself on the wall to avoid falling over. He could hear Belvedere's sniggering behind him and he felt like crying. But tears would only spur the torment further, so he resisted. He turned around to continue following Belvedere down the hall, only to find the blonde standing behind him, boxing him in between him and the wall, with no escape but the sides where he knew Belvedere would reach out and catch him if he tried. He gulped and curled into himself, fearful of Belvederes harsh gaze. " Okay, I'm not going to shit with you anymore. I want the flower." He said bluntly. Belisario felt fear pool in his stomach and he unconsciously held the flower that was in his hand closer to his chest. " N-No, Belladon wanted [i]me[/i] to give it to him." He said determinedly. " Belladon [i]this[/i], Belladon [i]that[/i]. He wants you dead. Are you gonna do that too?" He asked condescendingly and Belisario frowned, knowing that Belvedere wasn't lying to him. " This is Bellerophon's flower and I'm going to give it to him!" Before Belvedere could do anything, he darted to the right and began running down the hallway towards Bellerophon's room. ++ BELVEDERE ++ Okay so maybe his plan hadn't been the best, but he really wanted that flower dammit! Twisting around to look at Cordelia, Belvedere snarled, " What are you doing just standing you there you stupid bitch? [i]Get him[/i]!" But then he remembered that this wasn't just anyone they were chasing, and even if he was his bastard half brother, he was still a prince and outranked Cordelia. " Ugh, you useless fucking bitch, why the fuck are you here if you don't do shit. I'll fucking throw my jacket on you and you can be a fucking coat hanger since standing around is all you're good for." He ranted as he angrily pulled out his phone to text Bellarino. '[i]hes coming ur way be ready[/i].' He had hoped to give Bellarino a bit more time by trying to shake down the bastard, but his plan was cut short by the little bitch running for it. ++ BELISARIO ++ The fact that he had actually managed to get away from Belvedere was a miracle within itself, and because of that, Belisario let his gaurd drop. It was a clear shot to Bellerophon's room after the next corner, and he was hoping to just outrun Belvedere, that is, if he was even chasing after him. And he wasn't going to take the chance to look, not when he was so close to Bellerophon's room. He was so preoccupied with getting to Bellerophon's room fast enough that he failed to realize how slippery the floor had gotten under his shoes, not until he got to the corner and took a too sharp left, causing him to turn the corner a bit too quickly. Too quick to stop himself from running right into what was waiting for him on the other side. He smacked head first into the soild object and the collision was enough to make him stumble backwards and fall flat on his back. Whatever it was that he had ran into, it had been hard enough to make his head throb from where he hit it and when he opened his eyes, it was nothing but a blur. " Wha...what?" He questioned out loud, moving to rub his sore forehead...only to find that he couldn't. The floor below him was sticky and held his clothes on the ground, making him unable to move. " H-hey, w-who's there?" he stuttered. The sticky substance was all in his hair and made it impossible to move his head without ripping his hair out, so all he could see was the castle ceiling. And yet, he had a pretty good feeling who was behind this. " Bellarino, is that you? Look I know you think this is funny but I really need to g-aH" He was cut off halfway by what felt like a bucket of cold water being poured over his head. It must have been charmed because none of it got in his nose or mouth so he didn't choke on it, but the cold water was horrible none the less. He tried shaking his head to get the water out of his eyes, but the sticky floor held his head in a vice grip. He knew what Bellarino's goal wasn't any different than Belvedere's; they both wanted the flower for their own evil deeds. He tightened his grip on the flower, which had gracefully escaped the fate of getting stuck on the floor because of his hand, to make sure that Bellarino couldn't rip it out of his grasp. " This really isn't funny!! Please let me g-AH!" He was cut off again by another dunk of water but this one was colder than the first. The freezing water was like a punch to the face and he gasped, thankful that atleast he wasn't being forced to swallow it. ++ KYUUBEE ++ Slicking up the castle floors and walls wasn't his best trick, nor was it even on average, but the prank he had in mind would have taken too long, and when Bellarino had yelled at him that they were coming, Kyuubee did the firs thing he could think of. And it seemed to pay off when Belisario, the King's infamous bastard child instead of his eldest, came sliding into the hallway, only to be greeted with the barrier he had put up. The barrier had been transparent, so even if he hadn't been sliding in, he still would have ran into without noticing a thing. He watched as the blue haired boy got stuck on the floor and fell victim to the vocal curse he had put on him. There was actually no water being poured over him, but everytime he would say something, the curse would activate and make it feel like cold water was being poured all over him. It was a simple curse that would only last a couple of minutes, so if they were to make a move, it would be now. The blue haired prince began to speak again and was hit with a third round, this one colder than the first two. This seemed to be enough to get him to loose his grip on the rose and he released it. Lucky enough for them it avoided the sticky mess on the floor and fell off to the side. Kyuubee giddily turned to Bellarino and pointed to the rose, his barrier deactivating, " I'll go get the rose!" He didn't trust Bellarino to get it incase he accidently got stuck on the floor himself and somehow blamed Kyuubee for it later. He carefully made his way through the slimly goop on the floor to the flower and picked it up triumphantly, turning back to Bellarino with a smile. " I got it!" Using the same caution he had getting over there, he made his way back to Bellarino's side and handed him the rose vicoriously. " Here you go, one rose! Ha! I didn't expect Belisario to be the one, but I guess we were lucky! Only an idiot would get stuck in that trap!" He laughed. But he spoke too soon because just then he heard footsteps behind him, followed by a loud yell and a crash. He dreaded what he woul find when he turned around, and he was right. Laying next to Belisario was Belvedere and what looked like Belladon's Protector. They must have been running after Belisario and had gotten caught up in Kyuubee's trap too. Before he could warn Belvedere not to speak, the blonde opened his mouth and a stream of foul curses left his mouth, " What in the fuck is this? Who's shitty spell is this? Kyuubee is this you, you little fu-CKER AH!" Kyuubee groaned, already anticipating the backlash he was going to get from Bellarino for letting his precious twin get caught up in the trap. This was exactly what he was trying to avoid! Couldn't life just go smoothly for him...? ++ VALALEE ++ Valalee blinked, looking down at her knees. The strange man in the white suit had patched them up for her, but the bandages alone were suspicious enough to tell something bad had happened. She wanted to tell Valexander the truth, but the evil man's words echoed through her mind. To protect her family she had to keep quiet. Even the man who had saved had told her the same thing so this must be serious. Gulping, she looked down at her shoes, " I...ran into some kids from school and they were picking on me." She said, finding herself copying the man in the white suit's words from only moments before. " B-But I didn't back down and gave them what they deserved!" She looked back up at her brother with determination in her eyes. She couldn't tell him that she had lost a fight, even if it was against her imaginary school mates. " But I'm okay now, and I just really really wanna go home," She frowned, touching her wounded cheek. " Or maybe to Grandma's for medicine." It had been a long day, but she didn't want to go home like this where her mom would no doubt ask her questions. The faster her wounds healed, the quicker she could forget about this whole ordeal. ++ FLAERY && DIOMIRA ++ " It's such a shame about Noem," Diomira sighed, looking out the window to watch some birds that had landed on the other side. " He was such a nice boy." There was a dark laugh behind her and she turned to Flarey, frowning, " He gets what he deserves," She said unforgivingly, glaring down at her sword, " Theres no point to being a Royal Protector if you can't do your job. The Queen could have died today, he deserves everything he's given." Flaery wasn't the easiest person to talk to sometimes, but even this was much more than Diomira expected, " How could you say that Flaery? This could have happened to any one of us." Her fellow Protector laughed again, though it was as flat and humorless as the lady herself, " Believe me, this wouldn't have happened during my watch." For emphisis, her sword glistened in the light as she cleaned it, showing off the sharp tip that could cut through almost anything " If anyone tried to get near the Queen on my watch, they wouldn't have lived to tell the tale." Diomira said nothing in return and returned to looking out the window, trying to put her mind on better things. It was true what Flaery had said, a Royal Protector needed to do their job, but couldn't he just get fired instead? Execution for failing a job was unnessicary. Afterall, Noem was young and had many years ahead of him. He was only a little older than her precious Dior afterall... She turned from then window and looked down at Bellona who was resting in bed. Due to the recent attack, all of the Protectors had been put on duty. Which meant all four of the King's and Queen's were now on call, or...well.., three in the case of Bellona. Absentmindedly, Diomira rubbed her neck as she spoke, " Who do you suppose will replace him now? Maybe Kyuberos until they find a sutiable candigate?" " Don't know, don't care," Flaery scoffed, causing Diomira to pout at her bad conversational skills, " As long as they carry their weight, I don't care if it's a chicken with a sword. Probably be better than Noem anyway." Wordlessly, Diomira gave up the conversation and turned towards the window again, sighing. A look at her watch told her that it was almost Noem's designated execution time. If she left now would there be enough time for her to go to his cell and say her final goodbyes? Would she even be allowed to leave the Queen's side long enough to go? It was days like this that made her deeply regret choosing this type of job. ++ MADRIEL ++ The white haired knight paced around the room nervously as he waited for Abiel to show up. It was risky meeting up together like this, in the castle no less, but due to their cover ups, to anyone looking from the outside they just looked like two Knights meeting up together. Nothing suspicious....But Madriel's paranoia was eating away at him, telling him that they were going to be found out somehow or Belzeneff already had his spies watching them. But given all the things he's seen under Belzeneff's rule, he wouldn't be surprised. His advisor Demetrios was a very intelligent and tricky man, and honestly Madriel was surprised that he, Abiel and Evelina had managed to slip by him for so long. The door creaked open and Madriel swiftly turned around, scared that the Assassins had come after him at last, only to find Abiel standing there and shutting the door behind him. He breathed a short sigh or relief and cut to the chase, eager to finish their conversation as quick as possible. " Did you get through to the pimp? Did he agree to our plan?" There plan was to escort Noem up to the higher levels of the Castle/Wizard Council, stage a fight, let him escape, and have Candiland's Cupcakes disguise him and bring them to Candiland. From there Seraphion had his own plans for the Ex-Protector, but Madirel had no idea what they were. His only job was to help Abiel make it look like Noem had put up a fight. It would put an even bigger bounty on his head for the Assassins, but the risk was better than letting the Executioners get him. [/center]