Tangled Plance (AU)

Part 7

Pidge's head felt groggy and her vision was blurry when she first woke up. Her mind immediately went to Lance. "Lance?" She said quietly to herself, before her vision cleared. That's when she realized she was in a boat, and her hands were all tied up. She thought back to the bounty hunters who were probably already on their way to hurt him. "Lance!" She called worriedly, trying to break free of her restraints. She looked down to notice a paper stuck to one of the ropes.

We caught your wanted thief. We'll come for the prize money later, because we have something to deal with first. You're welcome.

- Ezor and Zethrid

Pidge scowled as she continued to try to get out of the ropes. Suddenly, several castle guards jumped on the boat grabbing her and she was too small and outnumbered to get away. "Lance-" She muttered again as they dragged her into a dungeon cell.

"Let me go! You have no idea who your messing with!" Pidge screamed as she kicked at the cell door. She could hear the guard laughed which just added more fuel to her fire. She went pacing around the room, kicking at the dirt. She was smart. She could get out of this. She went to the window, contemplating whether she could squeeze her tiny body between the bars when the door opened. A guard stood there with his arms folded and an unreadable expression. Pidge stared at him.

"Hello." Pidge greeted sternly. She recognized this guard. Pidge had escaped from him several times.

"It's time." He said. Pidge looked at her confused for a second before she realized what that implied. She put a hand to her neck without thinking. "Oh-"

— —

Lance stared at the wall while he was curled in a ball on his bed. He had really been betrayed by Pidge. He had thought that maybe she liked him like he d- Of course not. He was thinking crazy. She was a wanted criminal. He rolled over, spying the flag that Pidge had bought him. He groaned as he sat up and grabbed it, looking at it intently. His thoughts kept wandering to Pidge but he forced it to focus on something else. His mind finally settled on a question. Why did the symbol on this flag look so familiar? It was like a short V. Suddenly, a piece of paper came to his mind. He had seen this on a piece of paper, somewhere, in the tower. He was too excited at the moment to question why.

He jumped up off his bed and rushed down the stairs. He nearly ran into Honerva on the way.

"Where are you rushing off to?" She asked, her arms folded. "You know how I feel about the running in the tower."

"Oh nowhere. Just excited- to be back home." He lied through his teeth. Honestly, he'd rather be anywhere but here. He missed the flowers, the village, those men who helped him back at the snuggly duckling, and Pidge. Even if she did betray him.

An attempt at a smile formed on Honverva's face. "Well, don't get too excited." She said. "I will be in the kitchen making dinner." She left, opening the door into the kitchen and disappearing. After making sure she was gone, Lance rushed to Honerva's work desk and went looking quickly through files in the drawers. He found something he wasn't sure he was supposed to.

The symbol on his flag was doodled on the page, and his eyes skimmed the writing around it. This was Honerva's journal. He tried to read the writing, but it didn't seem to mention anything explaining the symbol. He, however, did pick up on the frequent use of the word Quintessence. What the quiznak was quintessence?

He continued flipping through the pages and his eyes landed on the words adoptive prince. Pidge's voice suddenly rang in his head. 'It's a celebration for the lost adoptive prince.'

This fact immediately drew him to this excerpt of her journal and he began reading.

July 28
The king and queen are fools. They have access to all this quintessence and don't even realize it. The adoptive prince was born a year ago today, and I've always thought it was odd as how the king and queen found the boy. So I've been studying him from a far and the adoptive prince seems to have quintessence levels off the charts. I really need that boy to study him closer but I know the King and Queen would never allow that. So, I'll have to take the last resort and take the child for myself.

Lance reread the words over and over again, things beginning to click in his mind. He suddenly jumped, feeling Honerva presence behind him.

"What are you looking at?" She asked sternly. Lance hesitated before setting down the papers.

"I'm the lost adoptive prince. Aren't I!?" Lance said confrontationally.

Honerva rolled her eyes. "I knew you could be arrogant, but claiming you're a prince? For heavens sake where did you get that idea from?" She said unamused.

Lance grabbed the journal entries and flung them in her face. "These!" Honerva's eye's went wide with rage.

"How dare you!" She said, scrambling to grab the papers.

"How dare you." Lance retorted. "I've believed my whole life that the world was evil and I needed to hide from it, when I should of been hiding from you!"

"Lance you are being ridiculous." Honerva said. "Everything I did was to protect you."

"Well according to your diary, you just wanted to use me for my quintessence. Whatever that is!" Lance said angrily.

Honerva sighed. "That may have been the case, but when my son Lotor died, you were all I had left. Lance I do love you."

Lance fumed. "So, I'm just an experiment and a replacement for your son then." He started walking toward the window. "Goodbye. Honerva."

"Where will you go?" Honerva said threateningly. Lance turned slightly to look at her. "She'll be gone long before you get there."

He could hear the threat in her voice. He moved from the ledge and got in front of her face. "What did you do to her." He spat out.

"She will be hanged for her crimes like the criminal she is." Honerva said smugly, her arms folded. Lance's eyes went wide.

"No. No!" He said, running toward the window and climbing down. He quickly unhooked his hair before Honerva could grab it from the top of the tower and ran. But he didn't make it far.

— —

Pidge was being escorted down the halls by two large castle guards and she so wanted to punch both of them in the face but how tightly they were holding her made it so she couldn't. She looked around in search for anything to help her in this situation. Instead, she found something else that sent her off with angry emotion. Ezor and Zethrid sat in a cell.

She suddenly turned to the guard on her left and bit into his flesh as hard as she could. That made him let go of her and she immediately went swinging, knocking one of the guards out with a punch, and merely disorienting the other. That bought her enough time.

She immediately jumped toward the cell where the despicable bounty hunters were captive. She aggressively pulled Ezor by the shirt until she was right next to Pidge's face. "How did you know about Lance."

"It wasn't us!" Ezor said, her face filled with worry. "It was the old lady. Honerva?"

Zethrid nodded. "Yeah. She's crazy."

Pidge let go of Ezor for a moment. "Wait... Honerva?" She thought for a second. Why did that name sound familiar? Then it's clicked. She was ready to burst out of the castle, but several guards tackling her to the ground was a brisk reminder that she was still a criminal about to face punishment.  "You don't understand he is in trouble!" She shouted as she started squirming to try to get away from them. It didn't work.

She was now walking down the hall again, more guards surrounding her and shackles attached to her hands. The guards closest to her had thick leather clothes to protect from any biting. She felt hopeless. That's when she saw a flash of red. Her eyes followed, seeing a red-jacket adorned man shushing her with his finger and another big smiley face giving her a thumbs up in the corner.

Author's Note:

Who could those two at the end be? Hmm... Hope you enjoyed and thanks for reading :) As always, I love reading your comments, questions, suggestions, constructive criticisms and so forth so please share. This is all for now. The Raspberry signing off-