On her way out of the dungeons, Caroline stumbled upon the cell Gwen, the soldier that had tried to help them get Andy and Margaret out of the palace, was being held.

The moment she saw the soldier ripped of her armor and left to rot in terrible conditions, the princess got ridden with guilt. She hadn't visited her at all since she got arrested, but it was for many reasons. She'd been unconscious for three days, she was busy planning a rebellion and she had to deal with her excuse of a father on a daily basis.

"Gwen?", she approached the bars.

"You remembered I exist, I see.", Gwen scoffed.

"It's not like that... It's been weird lately. I'm really sorry I didn't come to see you or even help you! Margaret and Andy are dead, and my dad just straight up murdered Duke Crowsen."

"I'm not surprised. What brings you down here? I take it you weren't here to see me. You sounded surprised when you noticed me.", Gwen approached the bars.

"My dad caught on on the rebellion we were starting... A lot of things went down and now Phoebe and the dead Duke's son are locked up down here."

"You sure know how to have fun, Cornel!"

"Look, I'll do my best to get you out of here, I promise. This is all my fault and I know it. I should have visited sooner."

"I don't want your help. I'm going to take care of it myself."

"That's not going to happen. I'm coming up with a plan, when I'm done, I'm going to fill you in. There's going to be a war, and I know I've let you down, but I need to know whose side you'll be on."

"I'll think about it."

"Thank you. I'll be back soon.", Caroline sighed.

"Whatever.", Gwen rolled her eyes.

"I'm really sorry, Gwen... I swear!", the princess frowned.

"I'm done trusting people. You've got a cause, I get it. I agree with you. And you may have that cause, but I doubt you've got the guts to go through with it. When the war starts... I don't think you're going to fight. You'll probably cower in some corner, or get your friends to do the dirty work for you. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, I'm just saying that you may have the brains to set it all up, but you're no warrior to get in the middle of it all."

"You're right. I'm no warrior. I can't get in on any physical fight. I'm like 5'1'' and have been treated like I'm fragile my whole life, but you know what I am? Someone who is done seeing the supposed king rule unjustly and I'm going to bring him down and not give a damn about who he is. I don't care that he's my father, I care that he's wrong and unlike him I know it when I've made a mistake. I acknowledge it and apologise, even if sometimes my apology is not enough. I'm going to prove to you, that it's going to be worth it for you to join me."

"From what I've seen so far, I doubt it.", Gwen glared at her. Caroline could tell that the soldier was feeling betrayed and really wanted to make up for it, but Gwen wasn't giving her a choice.

Proving herself was going to be hard.

Esmeralda was on the verge of tears when Caroline returned to their room.

Yeah, it was no longer just Caroline's. Esme and a Phoebe were permanently her roommates ever since Andy and Margaret died. Well, Phoebe not so much anymore...

"How are you holding up?", Caroline bit her lip.

"I'm not. I swear to god, if your father dares to even think about hurting Phoebe or Edgar, I'm going to assassinate him myself. He's taken enough people from me. I'm not going to tolerate his homicidal tendencies any further."

"I'm with you, okay? But we need to come up with a plan.", Caroline sighed. "I came across Gwen in the dungeons."

"Oh no... We totally bailed on her... She must think--"

"She does, but we need her as an ally. I feel bad about what happened with her, but we need to see this stretegically too. She's got friends in the army and some of them are bound to look up to her as a leader. There are lots of soldiers locked up in the dungeons. If we manage to get Gwen on our side..."

"You're doing it again."

"What?"

"You're thinking like a queen instead of as a friend. I'm not saying that you don't care about Gwen, but I don't think recruitment is going to be the right way to approach her."

"I'm all ears."

"Gwen helped us because your father killed her friends. That's exactly what she needs right now- friends! We abandoned her after everything she did for us. She is bound to feel betrayed. We have to earn her trust back, and not just because we need her, but because she's a really cool person and deserves to be cared for."

"I'm not good with the emotional stuff.", Caroline's face fell.

"Well, you're in luck, because I am.", Esmeralda smirked.

"Great. Let's get to planning then, because we're going to have a lot of work. It's not just Gwen; we need to figure out a way to free everyone at the right time. We can't be neither early, nor late. Think you can handle this?"

"At this point, I can handle anything."

"Good to hear that, because we're in for a hard one.", Caroline sighed again. "I'm going to go check on Lux. Do you want to come along or--"

"I'll stay here. I'm not in the mood to get out of the room right now.", Esme shook her head. "Good luck."

"Thanks, I think I'm going to need it."

Caroline accidentally found Lux at the Duke's old room, which now laid unoccupied for obvious reasons.

She knocked on the open door and slowly let herself in.

"This isn't the first time I get a haircut, you know.", Lux's voice cracked. "It was no accident that your father chose to do this here."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Why didn't you tell me about Phoebe?", Lux turned around and glared at the princess.

Caroline gulped. "I was afraid you'd be mad at her for what happened with Erebos."

"Of course I'm mad, but I'm even angrier that you kept this from me. You've been covering for her for weeks.", the witch hissed, intensifying her glare. "What did you think I was going to do? Kill her?"

"No, but I didn't know how you'd react and I promised myself I'd protect her! I obviously failed at that..."

"My brother died because of this. I had the right to know. This was important and you shouldn't have kept it from me.", Lux growled, but immediately regretted it. She hadn't been the one to tell Caroline about Tristan's killer, so it was hypocritical her to react like that and she was aware of it.

"I know, okay? I know! But no matter how strong Phoebe appears to be, she's just a kid and I'd do anything to protect her. I knew it was wrong to keep such a thing from you, but I did what I thought was best for Phoebe! And now she's locked up and there's pretty much nothing I can do to get her out.", Caroline clenched her fists and bit her bottom lip, trying to keep her tears from spilling.

"Why are you here, Caroline?", Lux crossed her arms.

"I wanted to check up on you. I was worried."

Lux immediately felt embarrassed about snapping at the princess. "I'm fine."

"You're obviously not."

"I don't want to talk about it. Not with you. There's a lot you don't know and you wouldn't understand without the proper explanations. I don't have time for this."

"Okay then. I get it."

"Thank you."

"I need a favor, though."

"There it is... I should have known.", Lux crossed her arms.

"It's not like that. I really am worried about you. I just needed to know if you have any idea where Scott Harrow is.", Caroline whispered, glancing at the corridor nervously.

Lux gulped and closed the door. "I do. What do you want with him?"

"Phoebe wants to send him a letter. I just need to know where he is. And I wasn't expecting you'd be aware of his whereabouts."

"He's with Alex and your cousin at Daniel's.", Lux said in a low voice.

"Scott found Crystal?!", Caroline's eyes widened.

"He did. She'd somehow ended up at my son's house and hidden there for about a month. Scott managed to find them and they decided it would be a good idea to go motivate Dan to start a war before his brother does."

"Are they okay?"

"Yeah. They're emotionally scarred, but fine."

"Thanks for trusting me with this."

"Phoebe deserves to know where her brother is. I can help you cloak her letter from Alastor."

"You can do that?!"

"Oh, please. There's not much I can't do, even with half my strength."

"What do you mean?", Caroline tilted her head I confusion.

Lux sighed, once more regretting saying too much.

"The deal I have with your father has one more condition; I can't use my magic to its full potential. And now that I got a haircut... Let's just say that I'm not as powerful as I used to be twenty years ago and it's not because of the age."

"That's actually terrifying."

"Agreed. Maybe it's a good thing my powers are confined. After all these years... Well, I doubt I'd be the one in control."

"Do you want to come with me to visit Edgar, Phoebe and Gwen at the dungeons?"

"Who's Gwen?"

"Oh, right. You weren't here.", Caroline rambled. "She tried to help us get Esme's parents out of the palace and got arrested in the process."

"Right... I don't think I'm going to be welcome in the dungeons. Besides, I have some thinking to do. Come find me when it's time to mail that letter to Harrow."

Caroline nodded. "Okay.", she turned around to leave, but stopped. "If you ever need to talk to someone, you know where to find me."

"Yeah."

The princess left Lux alone with her thoughts and returned to her room. She'd visit her friends later. She needed some rest and to calm her thoughts after all that information.

At least she knew that her cousin was safe, for the time being.

×~❦~×

Crystal was fuming. She was moments away from having smoke erupt from her ears as she paced around the room she shared with Scott and Alex.

"Do you think I'll get locked up if I kill my father?", she asked after a few minutes.

"Well, it is murder and he is the king, so...", Scott shrugged.

"First he doesn't defend his kingdom, then he doesn't help us do it ourselves, he is practically waiting for Alastor to attack and he dares talk to Alex like that? I'm starting to wonder if I'm actually related to him in any way."

"Crystie, calm down. What's done is done. I just- I didn't expect people would hate my mom so much.", Alex sighed.

"But he has no reason to hate her, let alone hate you! I swear, if he keeps this up, I'm going to steal his army and march up to Alastor's palace on my own, just to get to your mother and prove to my dad that she's a really awesome person.", Crystal crossed her arms.

"Much appreciated, but quite unnecessary.", Alex told her.

"I really want to know what started all this. Alastor can't have been a damn psycho since birth, right? I need to know when everything went wrong for him.", the princess started pacing again.

Alex and Scott exchanged a worried glance. After they had a silent agreement, Scott got up and wrapped his arm around Crystal's shoulder. "Princess, take a break from all this and relax, okay? We were supposed to be sleeping, not freaking out. You can freak out tomorrow okay?"

"Why do it tomorrow, when I can do it today?", she asked him.

"Because... Okay, you got me there. I have no argument.", Scott shrugged again.

"I've got one!", Alex sat up. "Save the freaking out for when you see your dad again."

"I like the way you think!", Crystal cracked a smile.

As if on cue, there was a knock on the door.

"Yes?", the princess raised an eyebrow.

"Can I come in?", Daniel asked.

Crystal's expression hardened. Scott wrapped his hands around her stomach and gave Alex a look that said he should be the one to open the door. "I hate you, Harrow.", Alex glared at him.

"Love you too, Fang.", Scott smiled awkwardly.

"Why are you holding me? I want to fight him. Let me fight him.", Crystal grumbled.

"No.", Scott told her firmly. Crystal pouted, but didn't protest any further.

Alex opened the door and let the King in.

"To what do we owe the displeasure of your visit?", he asked Daniel. The princess smirked proudly.

"I came here to apologise about the way I spoke to you, especially about making assumptions on your mother's behalf."

"Good for you.", Alex shrugged and tried to close the door on the King's face. Daniel held it open. "Look, your majesty, it was nice talking to you, but your daughter is feeling a little murderous right now. Would you like passing by some time later, when she'll be asleep and not as dangerous?"

"I also wanted to tell you that you were right. My brother is out of hand and it took me too long to realise.", Dan replied.

"At least you don't have your brother's ego.", Crystal smiled at him in a way that said he'd be dead, had Scott not be holding her back.

"What I'm trying to say is that I'll assemble the army and go start a war before Alastor gets the chance to do it first.", Daniel said, exasperated by his daughter's reply.

"Yeah, we want in. Get someone to train us, we're not going to sit back and do nothing.", Scott told him.

"Fine. Anything else you'd like to request?", the King glared at them.

"We want to make a stop at a town near the border. There are a couple of friends there that would like to help.", Crystal replied.

"Are you sure you want to get Jackson and Charles back into this mess?", Scott asked her.

"They're going to kill us if we don't.", she said.

"Are you done?", the king sighed.

"Yeah, you can go now. I'm still mad at you, so it's not safe for you to be anywhere near me. Remember- I've killed before.", Crystal glared at him. "Dismissed."

Daniel left and Scott let go of the princess.

"Now can we get some sleep?", Alex asked them.

"Yes, please.", Crystal face-planted in the middle of the bed.

"I guess we worked out who's the one sleeping in the middle tonight...", Alex chuckled.

"And it's a good thing I'm not sleeping next to you. You kick a lot.", Scott reminded him.

"Shut up, Harrow."