A Little Insane: The Dark Prince

Chapter Nine - Forever

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"They're ready. Can you meet them at the beginning and bring them here?"

"Why do I have to do it?" Hart asked, seeming mildly annoyed at the request.

"Because I asked nicely," Riley stated, turning his skin back to obsidian and letting the new voice take over, which transferred awkwardly mid sentence.

Hart sighed, knowing he was going to do anything Riley asked either way. There were some downsides to being in love, and that was one of them; being so hypnotized by the feelings that you were barely in control of your own life.

"Besides," he continued, "you're going to need my transportation services. Do something for me, I do something for you."

Hart looked down at the sleeping redhead. She laid peacefully on an energy-based floating bed that Riley created for her. She was beautiful, but because of his mistakes she was so close to death that she almost imitated a skeleton. She was so thin you could see her bones. He didn't know what happened to her, he didn't want to know.

Kroxia's tentacle wrapped around him and lifted him up in the air. While she took him to the beginning of Riley's home, which he later found out was called The Void, he thought he could probably just fly by himself and not need to be carried like a child.

Fortunately for Kroxia, she was a Guardian, and Hart didn't have arguing with a Guardian on his list of things to do.

Hart was dropped at the end just as the portal opened. He waited a full minute before anything happened. A hand came through the portal. It was trying to grab something and Hart thought it was a good idea to reach out with his own hand. It wasn't a good idea. The person immediately withdrew the hand and Hart had to wait another five minutes.

"Hello?" a voice said through the portal.

"It's not a trap, you can relax," Hart said, rolling his eyes.

Fiona walked through the portal and almost tripped when her eyes went up, but Hart caught her in his hands. They exchanged awkward looks and pulled away from each other, Fiona clearing her throat and Hart grinning at the flustered reaction from her.

"W-where is my brother?" Fiona said, straightening her posture and playing with her fingers while she tried to avoid looking at her surroundings, but the only thing she could use to distract her was Hart's face and she also wanted to avoid looking at that.

"Where are the others?" Hart asked, ignoring her question.

"Guys, I'm fine, you can come through," she said over her shoulder.

Dozens of Rogues stepped through and only one Hart recognized besides Fiona. Pearl gave him a quick smile before she went back to serious mode. Their ghostly white eyes stared at him, silently watching, or waiting. They assumed it was a trap because it was Riley who called for them, and they believed Riley wasn't himself after his transformation.

"Like I said, it's not a trap."

"Yeah, well, when you send a giant tentacle from the sky to deliver a letter, who can blame us for being a little worried?" Fiona said.

"Speaking of tentacles," Hart started, looking around for Kroxia, "you have an option of either taking the very long road to Riley, or take a quick but totally scary fast shortcut. Which would you like?"