A few
minutes later, Elizabeth started to stir groggily, and with faint memories of
the day's events entering back into her mind. There was a short jolt of panic
and dread, before she felt the pillow under her head and the soft bed she was in. She blinked slightly, but everything was too blurry and
bright, so she closed her eyes again.
Thank goodness. She thought, It was
all just a horrible dream.
She rolled over to get more comfortable, but noticed some odd things. For a
start, she was on top of the covers... and this bed felt strange. Plus the ever-present and pleasant ticking of the antique
clock was missing... and she had shoes on.
All of this quickly compelled her to again open her
eyes to investigate. It took a few seconds for her vision to clear, but when it
did, she sat up with a start. This wasn't her room!
Drake
looked over. “Oh… Hello.”
Pricilla was relieved that the argument between her and Drake was forced to stop due to Elizabeth waking up. “Oh good! You’re all right… We were
worried about you.”
“Where
am I?” Was the first thing Elizabeth asked, looking around.
Although she was disappointed that apparently everything that had happened was
indeed real, she was at least glad that Drake looked perfectly fine. How he was
fine after that, she had no idea, but it was an amazing relief nonetheless.
“One
of the palace guest rooms.”
Drake filled in for her, “In the east wing.”
Pricilla stepped forward. “We were so worried! I thought you were dead and—,”
“Stop it,” Drake warned.
“… I’m glad you’re all right.” Pricilla finished, giving another fake smile.
Drake looked at the clock… It was just past one AM. “Well… today has been…
interesting, now if you ladies will excuse me,” I don’t
want to risk being around you anymore.
He gave a slight bow, and then headed for his room, rubbing his head, which
still hurt. He still wondered what happened… He’d been
looking at a Van Gogh painting when suddenly he felt pain and everything went
black… then the scary dream he was realizing was another memory he shouldn’t
have… now his head hurt. Usually Eclipse was to blame for that, so he'd blame him now, too.
“Well,
at least Drake seems...alive...” Elizabeth commented to Pricilla once Drake had
left. She got up off the bed, not really in the mood to sleep, even though it
was late. Elizabeth felt she should probably also go to see her parents, they
were probably wondering where she was.
“Yes,
he does…” Pricilla nodded. “He manages to get out of things easily, apparently
death isn’t any different.”
Drake stopped by the pit before heading upstairs… something was terribly wrong.
“Eclipse?! Where’s Spot?”
Eclipse,
who was just walking below with a book in hand, looked up at Drake.. “You lost the snake?”
“In my
defense… it has four minds of its own and knows how to
move.” Drake reasoned, looking around.
Eclipse
gave a weary sigh, and then shrugged, “Maybe it has something to do with that
screaming about half an hour ago.”
It just better not be in my room, Eclipse
thought and very nearly said.
As
if on cue, there was another scream in the direction Drake had just come from. He started
off that way, but looked back. “… See, this is why you should have just
let me get the puppy.”
“Drake,
the puppy you wanted would have grown up to be twenty feet long and surely
would have eaten half the guards.” Eclipse reminded him.
Drake
just gave him a blank look, clearly stating that he knew that and didn’t understand Eclipse’s point.
“The
other one was a Bandersnatch.”
Drake’s
look did not change.
“The
rest were strays.” Eclipse asked himself why he bothered to bring this up… it
was a constant bother and he’d already said no; it was bad enough when his
Dragon dressed up for Halloween as a black and white kitty.
“So,
you're not getting one,” Eclipse reiterated in response to the stare. His stony
features suggested that Drake had very little chance of changing his mind about
it.
Drake
shook his head and then walked off, in search of SPOT. “Here, snake, snake,
snake, snake!”
The
next day passed in much the same way. People were arriving for the meeting and
the palace became more and more crowded with visiting world leaders.
Sometime in the afternoon, Elizabeth had left on an airship for home. Though
she found it to be a great relief to get away from the strange place and
people, her departure was not unplanned.
Apparently, her presence was not permitted at the actual meeting, but she didn't mind. She had no real interest in attending,
especially because some interesting arguments had already broken out between
some of the guests.
Drake
found Spot and was quickly ordered, by a surprisingly
high number of people, to get rid of it.
However, he discovered something that he should have thought of before, but hadn’t…
Pricilla rounded the corner, looking for Drake, and spotted Spot in his arms, first.
Her scream surprised Drake and she actually ran away, and stayed away! The entire day! With the birds, she’d
stay a few feet away, but would still follow him around… when she saw Spot she
sprinted to the other end of the palace.
Drake stared at Spot. “… Why didn’t you tell me you had super powers?” For the
ability to make Pricilla stay away was truly an
amazing feat.
Eclipse
came to investigate the screaming, he arrived just in time to see Drake talking
to Spot and asking the snake if it had super powers. The robed man raised his
eyebrow and stared dubiously at the boy. Had Pricilla hit him in the head? Again?
When
Drake noticed Eclipse, it surprised him and he actually backed up a few steps
as flashes from his most recent dream hit him.
The Herculean, bald headed man who was leading them… that was
Eclipse. Almost every fire element they brought to that temple had been chosen and brought there by Eclipse.
He’d caused the deaths of all the people who now
haunted Drake’s mind. Eclipse didn’t ever seem to
care—though at times, in the dreams, he seemed frustrated that this was yet
another disappointment. That he hadn’t found the right
one.
For a long while, Drake once again highly debated not going through with this
event today. It was going to make Eclipse very upset.
But it was his fault… Drake couldn’t
let it go. It was his fault all those people had died, because those monsters
had been looking for him.
Now they’d found him… Here he was, in his
palace, holding his snake that so many feared, and people feared him.
He was going to have to take whatever came his way, and hope the dreams and
books were right and he really was
too important to kill.
Besides, he’d lived this long doing foolish things…
what was another day?
He stopped backing up and instead smirked. “What? Got rid of
Pricilla.”
“Oh?
And here I was thinking that it had just made her louder.” Eclipse replied,
with an intimidating and probing stare. He hadn't just
seen Drake’s surprise, but felt it too.
It was one more small occurrence on the growing list
of strange things that Drake had done in the past few weeks. Nevertheless, the
cause still eluded him; Drake's mental barriers always went back up before
Eclipse could dig deeper…
“Well,
you should learn not to let noise bother you.” Drake suggested, glancing at the
clock. The meeting would be starting soon, “Brahne’s
late.”
“Maybe
airship pirates got her.” Eclipse replied, almost hopefully. It was too bad
that they were only a rumor, probably started by the sudden increase on lost and
missing airships.
Spot
hissed and snapped at some invisible prey in the air as if displaying a
possible event to have stalled the ship.
“Hmm… I still have one of those fireworks…” Drake mused, thinking about that.
One launch and he could end Brahne’s rule forever…
Eclipse
glared at the boy, his meaning clear. Their ship being lost
and Brahne and Zidane killed in an accident would annoy him, after so
much careful planning, but would not be the worst thing that could happen. The
secrets of Terra would forever be lost. So, although he would not be able to
have them, nor would anyone else.
The threat of having them used against him was half the reason Eclipse was so
desperate to get them. Wielding them himself was the other half. Part of him
had always nagged to play it safe, and just liquidate Zidane. It would be a lot
easier, but had none of the rewards.
“Do
not forget that the fact that they are coming here is your fault. We don’t need problems…” Eclipse stated as he
headed off.
“I’m
not sure what that means…” Drake glared.
“It
means ‘put the snake away and go hide’ I think.” Ellipsis stated, walking over.
“I’m
not sure where I’m supposed to put them… I mean, since the leaders have been
here four people have already walked into his room thinking it was a closet.”
Drake said, looking at S who was staring him in the eye. “Someone might hurt
them…” Drake had to worry about that… after what he was planning, it was likely
he was going to need to protect his pets.
“I
have to doubt that, Drake. Spot is twenty feet long and outnumbers up to three
people.”
“So?” Drake
asked as he tried to get Spot uncoiled from around his throat.
“I’ll
take Spot—he’s been fed already right? Last time he got into my room he ate a
sweater.”
“You keep
saying that… but the sweater he ‘ate’ was the one you kept complaining that you
hated so much… and I have to doubt Spot would eat a sweater, and he wasn’t bulgy
and—,”
“Do you want me to take them or not?” Ellipsis smirked.
“Yes I
do…”
“Alright. Oh, you should probably stay
away from the meeting… Eclipse is in a mood—well… constantly, but today is a
stressful event. You know how Zidane will react if he sees you.”
“Oh,
yeah, I know…”
“Alright,
good.”
Ellipsis gave a nod and then went to get some food, expecting to be stuck in
his room for a while… he wasn’t permitted out during
these meetings.
Drake
went and put Spot in Ellipsis’s room. Then he went to his
room and let the raptors out. “Go hunt for a few hours… Actually, go for a day
or more…” He blew his silver whistle twice and most of the birds took off.
Vanda stayed.
“Always causing trouble.” Drake smiled at her, then flicked his wrist toward the window. “Go play!”
Vanda
bobbed her head a bit and looked out the window a while before she flew out.
Drake walked back downstairs. On his way, he looked out a window and saw four
Airships docking…
The Red Rose was the last to land.
“Hmm… Garnet didn’t come…” He noticed. “That means it’s
play time…”
Zidane
had quickly discovered that he really didn't
want to be at the meeting. He had been dubious about Drake's warning, so he was
shocked at how obvious the set up was now that he was there, and that Drake had
been telling the truth… so he decided to trust him. Brahne was fooling his
friends... things were getting dangerous and Drake seemed to know more about what was going on than he did... for the sake of his friends, he at least see if this were true...
He spotted a door. It looked like it led to a room that was devoid of 'guests',
and he needed to get away. Not just in the 'bored to tears' sense, either.
He stomped into the room with acted confidence, fighting the urge to sneak.
That would make him look too much like a thief if anyone was watching. No
reason to reinforce Brahne's lies...
Drake was upstairs reading some book, Zidane found
him fairly quickly, but didn’t get a chance to say
anything before Brahne walked in.
Drake looked up, hearing her voice. It didn’t
take him long to glance down and spot them below. Drake tensed up a bit, as if
he were going to get up, but then thought better of it and relaxed again, but
kept his eyes on the two below. He knew he needed to talk to Zidane, but with Brahne there… any exchange would need to be done in a way
she wouldn’t recognize.
Zidane shot her a glare then looked at Drake. He was worried; it
was easy to see it in his eyes.
Drake looked bored, as if he couldn’t
care less, but the moment Brahne looked away he gave a vicious smirk. So, you came…
Zidane snarled in response, giving Drake a warning that he wasn’t in the mood for jokes; he was trapped here and needed
to be sure this would be okay. They both looked in other directions when Brahne
cast her gaze at either one of them.
Zidane motioned for Drake to come over.
Drake shook his head and motioned to the queen who kept muttering,
“Shouldn’t cause a scene…” They couldn’t talk with her
around, but he needed to do something to let Zidane know it would be
alright. He looked back at Zidane and
pointed to himself. ‘In my palace.’ He mouthed.
However, that caught the queen’s attention and she hissed at him. “Zidane! We are guests.”
“Are you really a ‘guest’ when you don’t want to be there?” Zidane grumbled.
There was a brief exchange, where she pretended to lecture him about upper-class
etiquette, then Zidane insulted her and was forcibly
shoved out of his would-be safe haven, and into another room. Apparently, Drake
had been paying very close attention, because he followed.
Zidane’s sole sense of accomplishment was that the
tension that was threatening to explode was obviously making queen Brahne
nervous.
“Uh, where is Marina?” She managed to ask, looking at Drake and hoping he’d know where his mother was. Only then did Drake look at
her. He considered her question for a while, then gave the honest answer of, “I
don’t know.”
“Well, can’t you get her?” Brahne questioned.
“No. I do not know where she is and I do not care to go looking. You may, if
you wish.” Drake offered, motioning toward a door.
Brahne hesitated some more… if she left, they might kill each other… which
might solve all her problems, but wouldn’t get the door open.
And Eclipse wouldn’t be happy.
With a sigh and a nervous, but warning glance at both boys, Queen Brahne walked
out the door.
Drake
watched the Queen go and then looked back at Zidane. “You’re the fox in the
hunt, you know.”
He’d been watching people, before he went to… well, to
hide from Pricilla. These people were causing a lot more problems than he
thought they would… When he noticed Zidane had found him, he thought he’d have a chance to work up a plan with Zidane. Brahne
walked in and their silent conversation became more of a roast for Queen
Brahne, but business came first and he knew there was going to be trouble.
“Any minute now they’re going to release the hounds…”
“Yes,
because politicians are a lot more deadly than the feared giant pink poodle.”
Zidane replied sarcastically. Maybe Drake was trying to help him, but Zidane
still wasn't sure. It would probably have helped if
the prince didn't insist in speaking in metaphors, or
actually told him why he had changed sides. He told himself to stop
thinking like that, though… he always
gave people the benefit of the doubt… he gave Kuja a second chance, why didn’t Drake deserve one?
“There
aren’t any Bandersnatchs here.” Drake replied, “Just
dragons.”
He glanced around, nervous but doing a fine job at hiding it. He didn’t know where Eclipse was, or Ellipsis… it wasn’t safe
when he didn’t know who was watching. It always seemed like if anyone in the
palace knew something, Eclipse would hear about it somehow…
“Things are going to get dangerous. Fast.”
Zidane
glanced over his shoulder too, also looking out for eavesdroppers. The room was
lot more open than the first one, and it felt like they only had seconds before
someone found them. This all helped to convince Zidane that it was best if they
just got straight to the point.
“So, you were right, this was a trap,” He admitted to Drake. “What do we do
about it?”
Drake
looked back at Zidane and grinned, “Fight.”
“Well,
I'm not saying that slaughtering most of the world's leaders wouldn't be a lot
of fun...” Zidane started, a slightly doubtful look in his eyes, “But I think
it might make things worse in the long run.” That, plus Garnet would
probably never forgive me if I killed her mother, and enjoyed it too… He
thought sadly.
“Fool.”
Drake shook his head, “No. Not them; we fight. Aren’t
you an actor? Cause a big enough scene and they will
let you walk out of here. They expect it, too. A fight between us is expected at some point. Having one now would be
inconvenient for their plans. It will scare people off, and that will kill Brahne’s plan.”
“It
would have to look pretty real if it's going to work.” Zidane pointed out, “But
I'm sure most of those snobs will just jump out of the way the second it looks
like they might spill their cocktails.” He added with a slight mischievous
grin; if he had to make a bad impression, at least he could scare a few of them
while he was at it.
Drake
grinned demonically. “Oh, it’ll look real.” He glanced over and noticed
Pricilla had come into the room—a grand signal that it was time for him to find
something else to do.
“Just behave for a bit—check out the buffet. I know Marina hired about three
different companies to cater for this event; you’re
bound to find something you like. The other rulers might lose their nerve… all
bark no bite, but if it looks like you’re not going to be leaving here on your
own free will I’ll signal for the fight to begin in a way I’m sure you’ll
understand.”
He was about to walk away when something else occurred to him and he had to
stay for a bit longer. “… You do understand that no matter what happens, you
will not be able to go back to Alexandria safely, correct?
They’re going to imprison you. Then Brahne’ll do whatever it takes to
make you weak. What you must understand, is that the more she does to control
you proves how much she fears you; which should be
empowering in itself. Before you decide if you’re going to continue or hide, be
sure you’ve checked on any lose ends you may have.”
With that, Drake walked out the door and into the main lobby.
Zidane
knew it might come down to this, though it was still somewhat of a shock to
have it said out loud. He thought it was a little late
to be worrying about loose ends, but luckily, there weren't
many. Drake's 'warning' had given him plenty of time to prepare, he thought.
He
followed Drake’s advice and checked out the buffet. He hadn’t
had much of an appetite the past few days, worrying about this meeting, but…
things seemed to be faring better and the food did look good…
Drake
spotted Eclipse again… he’d snuck up and nearly given
Brahne a heart attack.
That had been almost amusing to watch, but Drake had other things to attend to. He saw Zidane walking around again, and noticed that
there were people surrounding the area… not at all good.
So, he slunk away from the group of nobles he’d been
talking to.
“Always grabbing attention, hm?” Drake smirked,
walking past Zidane.
That was his signal for the battle to begin, and Zidane took it easily.
Zidane grabbed his arm, “I’ve had about all I can take of you.”
"Then I suggest you deal with it or get out of my palace.”
Drake growled, using his peripheral vision to see if anyone was watching.
Zidane grit his teeth. “It’s your parent’s palace—,”
“Something you’d know nothing about.” Drake interrupted, pulling his arm away.
The two backed a few steps away from each other instinctively and there was a brief moment on both sides where they really hoped the other one was just playing along. “About being a spoiled little brat? No, I don’t. And I’m glad.”
“From what I hear, all you are is a lab rat.” Drake yawned, taking a step to the left, getting into position.
Zidane took a step to the right, trying to let it be a signal that he was playing along, and growled. “People can’t help what they are, just how they act—!”
“I couldn’t agree more. You cannot help that you are a poor, pathetic little thief not fit to be a stable boy let alone a knight; just as I cannot help that I am royalty of noble worth capable of marrying Princess Garnet.” Drake kept moving to the left, curving to the side and giving a faint nod that he understood the signal.
Zidane did the same, but on the right. “You stay away from Garnet, or I’ll—,”
“Ignore her some more so she comes crying to me? Please do.” Drake replied, grinning wide.
The two continued to circle each other, their eyes locked in threatening stares that seemed to be doing a great job at fooling the people around them.
Drake didn’t want to admit it, but locking eyes like this kept making his mind scream to attack. He actually toyed with the idea of doing it; just darting forward and making a quick slash like one of his raptors. It made him smirk as he saw Zidane fighting the desire to look away. Drake decided he needed to both bring up the intensity of this pretend battle and at the same time release the pressure these stares were getting, so he turned his back on Zidane who instantly understood.
Zidane snarled, “Don’t turn your back on me!”
“You bore me. I’m leaving,” Drake announced. It actually made him impressed how quickly Zidane caught on to things; how real he was making this look… on his own, Drake doubted he could pull this off. Without Zidane’s help this would have been impossible; it made him glad he had the Angel to work with rather than someone else.
Zidane stalked after Drake as he started to leave, getting in front of him, right in his face. “Don’t walk away from me,”
“Get out of my face, lab rat!” Drake ordered, loudly.
“This isn’t over,” Zidane hissed.
“What? You still want to talk about Princess Garnet?” Drake asked.
The crowd had mostly lost interest once Drake had started to walk away. The tension was dying down and people just wanted to get back to their books.
Zidane gave a sharp nod and the Prince gave a sympathetic smile, as if Zidane were making a big deal out of nothing. Drake leaned forward a bit. “Don’t worry; I’m sure she’ll invite you to the wedding.” He gave a sly smile and turned, walking away.
“You son of a…” Zidane swung out a punch he hoped Drake would see coming.
Luckily, Drake did. He’d expected an attack and ducked down so that Zidane ended up hitting the face of a wealthy noble man who shrieked in alarm.
Drake stood back up, looked at the man and then back at Zidane. “Why you worthless thief!” Drake snarled. “I should drown
you like the stray you are!”
“Bring it on, you sadistic maniac!” Zidane welcomed, holding his arms out to the side.
Drake pounced and knocked Zidane to the floor, but Zidane grabbed Drake’s shoulders and pulled him down, too, then kicked up causing Drake to flip over and accidentally kick someone before landing on his back.
The man he’d kicked spun around, trying
to see who had dared hit him and saw someone laughing at him, so he decked that
guy. That guy stumbled back into a group of people,
knocking them into the reflection pond.
Drake and Zidane got back up. Drake turned toward the now angry crowed, trying to figure out a way to stop the fights. Zidane elbowed him in the center of his back, accidentally making the attack harder than he’d intended.
“OW!” Drake howled and spun around.
His eyes turned a brighter red and as he snarled, Zidane was almost sure he saw fangs. It unnerved him for a moment and Zidane held his head to the side a bit, raising his hands slightly to try and let Drake understand it had been an accident.
Drake blinked a bit and his eyes returned to their normal color, he gave a slight nod and thrashed out at Zidane, landing what looked like a hard blow to the side of his face and causing Zidane to stumble a step.
Zidane retaliated with a stiff kick to Drake’s chest, causing the prince to fall back a few feet, into the crowd. A battle erupted, well, everywhere. People were brawling, screaming, fighting, scratching, biting… it was vicious!
Drake erupted from the crowd as if he had wings giving him lift, he landed by plowing straight into Zidane, causing them both to roll into the crowd and out of view.
It was a very realistic fight, a bit too real at times. Drake rolled under a
table and let the angry crowd swarm on their own.
“Well… this is fun.” He mused, watching the fights.
“It's
the first pleasant surprise I've had all day!” Zidane agreed, stopping next to
Drake.
Brahne
had certainly found all of the most vicious and gullible world leaders. He
really would have expected such high and mighty people to be afraid of getting
into a brawl.
Apparently, they also seemed to be the stupidest world leaders too. They were
ignoring him and Drake, so that they could fight each other. The queen had
obviously not taken into account how poorly they worked together… You would
think they would be looking for the two who had caused the fight, but they didn’t.
“Oh well, better try and make it look realistic...” He thought aloud, knowing
that the people around them would notice them not fighting at any second.
Zidane stretched his neck to loosen the muscles, took a deep breath and then
let out a loud and piercing wildcat shriek. Several people close by visibly
jumped, which made Zidane proud. He gave Drake a 'top that' look, and
tried to ignore the new ache in his throat.
Drake had been startled by that sound, but kept it hidden. He
would never admit he hadn’t been prepared for it.
Drake saw the look and accepted the challenge. He slowly took a deep breath,
leaned his head back to completely remove any blocks
in his throat, and roared.
It wasn’t the piercing wildcat shriek Zidane had done;
it was much deeper, longer.
It lacked the sharpness of Zidane’s, but held a much
more primal sound.
Then he smirked in his best ‘I win’ expression.
“Not
bad...” Zidane admitted, and blinked. How had Drake been able to do that? It
certainly deepened Zidane's suspicion that there was
something odd about the Prince.
“Do you think they notice-” Zidane started, but was interrupted as Pricilla's
high pitched shout managed to drown out almost every other noise in the room
and answering his question before he could ask it.
“Why yes, I’d have to guess they have…” There was a clang that caused Drake’s attention to shift. “Oh look… swords.”
