One Shots

66. [Grieving]

Lilian was usually never scared or worried for her papas. They were always so nice and sweet, treating her so well after all the strife she went through, and even making her their child even though they didn't share blood. They were so strong, too, and even though they got hurt a lot, they always made sure that Lilian was alright and had everything she needed and wanted.

    But now, Damien was stomping through the halls of the Celestial Brigade headquarters with her in tow, holding her hand so tightly that Lilian couldn't feel her fingers. It hurt so much, but with what just happened, Lilian was afraid to say anything about it. All the anger, disbelief, sadness, and despair Damien felt emanated him like ocean waves, making Lilian feel sick to her stomach.

    He had enough reason to feel that way, though. It was still flashing in the back of her mind. She could still hear it.

"By the power of the court and state of Lyra, Ilia von Riegan is hereby found guilty of several accounts of murder and obstruction of justice, and is sentenced to death in thirty days."

    Ilia was going to die. That much even she could understand, even though there were so many words she didn't understand in that sentence. But she could remember her and Damien working their ways through the crowd of magistrates, fighting to reach Ilia before they dragged him away.

The look on Ilia's face was the worst: it was something that Lilian could only describe as painful. It was a mix of every bad emotion spread across his expression that when he saw it, Damien nearly killed a magistrate to try to get to Ilia. Lilian tried too, but they were shoved out, saying that they were barred from visiting due to something she didn't understand. But even outside of the room, Lilian could feel all the bad emotions coming from the chained father she loved.

They knew Ilia was innocent. He couldn't have killed anyone. But they didn't care. They took him away, and there was no way that she could see him again. She missed Ilia so much already.

Lilian bumped into Damien, who had stopped in front of the door to the Tactician Room, where Aunt Isla would be with her trio of guards. The aura he was emanating made Lilian want to cry: he was so broken, all his emotion was spilling out haphazardly.

"Lilian, you should go back to the other kids, okay?" Damien said in a cracked version of his normal voice. "I need to talk with Isla."

Lilian shook her head.

"I...I don't want to lose another Papa," she murmured, refusing to let go of his hand. "I'm scared..."

Damien didn't say anything, but he brought his other hand up to wipe his face before he pushed open the door. Five heads whirred around to see who had entered. Aunt Isla, Uncle Yuu, Aunt Astrid, and Aunt Ingrid, those four Lilian liked: the girls were fun and played with Lilian, and Yuu always had something tiny that he whittled to give her that he knew she would like.

But the other person...it was that green-haired girl that got Ilia in trouble. Lilian recognized her, because she was the one who stopped Ilia while they were in town being a family, allowing the officers to handcuff her papa and drag him away.

"REINHERTZ!"

Damien forced Lilian to let go of his hand, and before she could stop him, he charged at the green-haired girl, who was too slow to avoid getting grabbed by the front of her shirt.

"DAMIEN!" Isla yelled. "STOP!"

"It's YOUR goddamn fault!" Damien seethed, lifting her up in the air. It was easy, since she was hardly taller than Lilian herself. The girl choked, reaching her hands to try to get him to let go. "You KNOW Ilia couldn't have done it, he couldn't have—!"