We sit outside the medical wing until I swear I almost hear birds chirping in the middle of the night, then the doctor comes out.

"He's okay, strong willed. He'll make a full recovery in a couple of days." He says, and relief floods through me like a river, I let out a giant, relieving sigh, and hug Sir Robert so tight he almost pops.

"Thank the heavens." Sir Robert says for me, because I'm too relieved to speak.

"Lady, may I see you though? These last few days must have been hard on you and your little boy." He says with a small smile, and I get up from the chair. It has been a hard couple of days, but I don't quite want to think of it too much. It's been an ordeal and a half, but I'm hoping it's all over now. He leads me into his office and sits me down on one of the beds there, instructing me to lie down and then he repeats the process that he did earlier with Arvud. I see him moving around in my swollen stomach, happily swimming like there's nothing wrong.

"He seems to be very happy in his little cocoon." The doctor smiles, "he's getting bigger and bigger every time I see him."

"Tell that to me." I say, laughing softly, "where is he?"

"Sir Castiel Fjeld?" The doctor asks, "he's down the hall in a room. He's so pumped up on pain medication I'm not too sure seeing him would soothe you anymore."

"I want to." I say, "I need to."

"Alright, I will help you up." He says, and extends his hand for me to take, I happily do and he leads me to Castiel's room. The hospital's pale atmosphere makes Castiel almost seem invisibly pale, and his eyes almost white.

A small, smile spreads over his face when he sees me, "Annie."

"Hey, Cassie." I say, laughing softly, pulling a chair closer and sitting down immediately with his frail hand in mine. He sits up with ease, smiling.

"I'm so glad you're okay." I say, "you scared me. I thought you were going to die."

"Takes more than a gunshot to kill me, Anaise." He says with a laugh.

"How are you feeling though?" I ask.

"On top of the world, but I'll be a little different when the morphine stops working." He jokes, "I'm fine. Stop fretting."

"You know me, I can't help it." I say, with a little blush on my cheeks.

"And I love you for it." He says, confidently now.

"You meant that? When you said it you were kind of dying." I say, hoping he did.

"I meant it then, and I mean it now." He says, smiling.

"Good, because it would be rude to say things you don't mean." I say, with a comic undertone to my voice.

"You know I only state facts, Anaise." He says, with a playful grin on his face, and I know he does. I love him for it.

The Enforcers deem the Castle unsafe and have Castiel and I shipped off to a safer place in the Winelands. The workers seem a little distraught by having all these black vehicles running through their lands, we end up hiding in a little cottage the same as the Alliances' one in the Fjords, with a large underground compound. It seems almost impenetrable, and I can relax for a minute, and grieve the death of my father. I don't really know how though, since I've never really grieved properly before, I've always been going forward when something happens, not having a proper amount of time to think about the death of someone close to me. The compound we're in vaguely resembles the WA's compounds, and I wonder whether the Castle knows about them or whether they know of the Castle's methods. I think of calling Zedd and Nathaniel to update them on Castiel's state but I am around too many of the Castle people to properly get away. Ever since we have arrived at this compound they have had me under strict watch, switching guards every hour. I decide to spark a conversation with the guard watching me right now, he has a rigid frame and bushy eyebrows with deep, brown eyes.

"Hello, Sir." I say, politely, "what do you go by?"

He doesn't reply, all my guards have been under an oath of silence because they are afraid to defy me,

"You don't have to be afraid to talk to me, Sir." I say with a smile, "I'm not going to take it as a defying of my leadership."

Still nothing, I decide to take it as he'll listen to me if I start blubbering.

"You probably heard the news, right? About my life partner being a psychopath. You know he ordered a bunch of rebels to kill my father! One would think he's planning a usurping." I say with a huff, "he's a complete idiot. He tried to kill his brother, twice! How stupid is that?" I sigh.

"It would be nice if you could talk." I say, shrugging, lying down on the little bed in the room.

"My shift ends in two minutes." He grumbles, and then he's out. I take it as a laugh, lying down on my bed. Without his presence, it's too quiet so I find myself crying. My hormones are so out of control nowadays because of little Arvud in there, he's quite the riot nowadays. Moves around freely like he owns the place. When my guard doesn't return for another ten minutes, I figure something is wrong, and my suspicions are confirmed when the lights go off unexpectedly. Feeling around in the dark for a familiar face proves to be harder, but then in neon, shining, dripping letters in front of my room stands

IT WILL ALWAYS BE A POWER STRUGGLE.

Staggering backwards, I find myself falling over something blocking up the whole hallway, when it catches the light of a flashlight I presume, I see the red liquid all over me and the dead eyes staring me in the face, and then I scream. It was the wrong thing to do, but I scream, I scream like the world has ended.

"ANAISE!" I hear a familiar voice yell for me in the darkness, Castiel.

"CASTIEL! WHERE ARE YOU?" I yell out for him, and then he's next to me, with a scared look looming in his powder blue eyes.

"What's going on?" This time he whispers.

"I don't know. My guard left the room, and when I came out all the lights went off and I found that message along with my guards dead body." I try to sound nonchalant, but it doesn't quite work out because I'm scared again, you can hear the fear dripping down from my voice. Castiel takes a moment to read the message and then curses underneath his breath.

"It's them. The Power Struggle rebels." He sighs, "and they're here. They want us because they know about our plan."

"What?" it shocks me too much to formulate a better answer so I just idly stand there and watch the flashlights move through the hallways.

"Damn it! Where the hell are they?" A voice asks breaking the deafening silence in the hallways.

"He said they'd be here!" Another goes.

"We just gotta trust him. She's got a bun in the oven, how far can a pregnant woman waddle?" The first voice goes, and then it's quiet again.

Castiel gives me a signal with his hands meaning that we should go, and then we maneuver through the dark hallways expertly, until I'm met with a cold, hard thing against the side of my head, and someone's hot breathe on my neck.

"There you are, Lady." The voice from earlier says, sounding sickly and terrifying. I cower in it's presence and then feel a hard something hitting my head and the blackness swallowing me whole.

I awake in a dim-lit room, Castiel's sweet, fearful eyes hovering in front of me.

"Thank God you're alive!" He exclaims as I regain consciousness.

"Where are we?" I ask, looking around, I can't make out any of my surroundings because my vision is too blurry.

"The Correction Room," he answers, "going deeper into the Gaol."

"What are we doing in the Gaol?" I ask, genuinely alarmed. What are we doing down here, we don't have any business down here, but maybe the voices from earlier do. That seems so long ago, and maybe it was, but it couldn't have been too long ago.

"Ask Christophe that." Castiel says gravely.

"What does Christophe have to do with anything?" Now the conversation has taken a dark turn, why are we in the Gaol and why is Christophe involved.

"He gave his rebels orders to bring us down here. I don't know why." Castiel says, and it's only now that I notice the darkening around his eye.

"What happened to your eye?" I ask.

"Got in a little bit of a fight with one of the rebels, they gave me a little bit of a shiner." He says like it's nothing, but I know he was fighting for me again.

"Why is it that you're always getting into fights when I'm around?" I ask, hoping to lighten the situation by a fraction.

"Who knows?" He answers, laughing softly. But it ceases as soon as we see where we've come to. In different cells the members of the Alliance are receiving different types of punishments, crying out in pain, along with a formidable figure screaming at them for answers. We're practically thrown into in isolated cell, the metal walls around me closing me in.

"What's happening, why are all the members down here? And why are they being mangled?" I ask, a fearful edge to my voice. Castiel shakes his head in defeat.

"I don't know," he says, but as the door opens up again, he looks up, "but I think we're about to find out."

He appears in the doorway, dressed still in black and blue, and ties me up against a flimsy wooden chair. I can only watch and beg for mercy as he fixates Castiel up on a rotating wooden thing, his bare body forming an X over the board. He's stripped of all his clothes, except for his underwear, and then Christophe is smiling at his handiwork.

"What's the meaning of this, Christophe?" Castiel demands immediately, looking rather helpless up on the board.

"Why should I inform you, dearest Castiel?" He shrugs, with a grin fixated on his face, and then he inspects Castiel's gunshot wound, laughing, "ah yes, that. I assured you next time I got the opportunity I wouldn't miss."

"You're a damn monster!" Castiel exclaims, struggling against the ropes to get his hands loose, I know if Castiel gets ahold of him now he will do much worse than just break his nose. Christophe speaks a little nasally from earlier when I struck him in the nose, and it gives me pride knowing I did something to impair him.

"Shut your mouth!" Christophe exclaims, "you've always talked too much. At least in my opinion, you never know when to shut up." His face comes up awfully close to Castiel's and Castiel doesn't hesitate to take this opportunity to literally almost take a bite out of his face. The tension in the room bounces off the metal walls and hits me at every angle making me wish the entire ordeal would blow over easily. On a table next to me, Christophe opens a black briefcase, lined with different types of weapons. My eyes widen as I see his eyes glint with crazed fascination.

"You know Castiel, I read once that a human body can only resist so much before the brain gives into the fear of the unknown. Let's see how much you can take." He says, and I see Castiel's eyes widen in fear and shock as Christophe whips out a relatively small knife.

"What do you want from me, Christophe?" Castiel's voice quivers and Christophe relishes in his fear, leaning his head backwards in laughter. Neither of us say anything, too shocked by the events unfolding to open our mouths.

"Did you really think you could try something this elaborate without it blowing up in your face, dearest Castiel?" He says, grinning wildly, "you underestimate me. Really, you do. You really thought you and your dumb little Alliance were going to succeed in making Dema a democratic quarter?"

"You really must be a little slow, Castiel. I rule this Kingdom, and your stupid little plan of trying to get into it and make it a democracy will not work, because you're stupid and sloppy. Did you really think I was that dumb, not to realize your plans?"

Castiel wants to say something, "shut up! I'm done hearing your shit."

"You think you've been running circles around me, don't you?" He asks, and then turns to me, "and you, poor naïve little Anaise, you thought you could take this away from me? You two are both stupid, and dull-witted if you really believe you could."

"I can," I speak up, "are you forgetting you only have a forty-percent reigning right?" I say it like he does when he thinks he's right, I've got it in the bag.

"Innocent, little Anaise. I'll have a hundred when your pretty, little head hits this floor and," he comes closer to my face until I can feel his breathing on my face, "the blood runs down to touch Castiel's toes."

"You wouldn't." My voice is unsure and scared, wavering.

"Oh, we both know I would." He grins, "my destiny is just a gunshot away."

"You'll be Reckoned for this!" I exclaim.

"And who's going to authorize it? Your kid?" He replies, laughing, "funny story Anaise, he's going first."

"Don't you dare touch Arvud!" I cry out, and I want to try and protect him from the danger but my hands are tied behind my back and the ropes burn into my wrists.

"Arvud," he says, "of course you'd name him Arvud. After my damn brother."

"It's a better name than Christophe!" I say, and I mean it, "because right now your name is the equivalent to Lucifer!"

"Christophe Lucifer Fjeld has quite a ring to it, doesn't it?" He smiles.

"Go to hell!" I scream.

"Ladies first." He says sardonically, and then smacks me across the face, causing me to topple over and with my hands tied around my back my head hits the ground too hard and it makes it impossible for me to get back up.

"Your turn, dear brother!" He grins, "this is so exciting! I read somewhere that bathing in the blood of your enemies is an extreme sign of power. And I heard that watching the light leak out of someone's eyes is the ultimate feeling. Ah, Castiel, I'm going to love watching the life drain out of your eyes, and watching poor Anaise cry the life out of hers. It's going to be mesmerizing!"

"You're sick!" Castiel exclaims, "a sick monster!"

"You can do better than that, Cas. You're much wittier than that, aren't you? Or is the situation finally sinking in?" Christophe mocks, but Castiel's mouth remains closed.

"Any last words brother?" Christophe asks, smiling happily.

"I hope you burn in hell." Castiel says.

"As long as you're there with me, brother." He replies, and then I hear a deafening scream of pain and watch how the blood pools down at Castiel's feet. Christophe hurries to find a bucket of sorts and then holds it up against Castiel's pale skin to collect the liquid gushing from his skin. I thrash around as much as I possibly can until I'm certain my wrists have gone raw from the rope. I watch in horror as Christophe empties the bucket of blood over his head, laughing maniacally, licking the layer of red off afterwards like one would lick milk off the top of your mouth.

"God that felt good!" He says, laughing happily, "I don't know why I haven't tried that sooner! How are you feeling, Castiel? A little weak, maybe? Because I feel rejuvenated! Fantastic!"

"Stop!" I scream, "just stop! You've made your point, you're all powerful, now let us go!"

"Poor Anaise thinks I'm done with her. Baby, it's just begun." I start to accept my fate, I'm done this is the end. I'm not going to live to get to know Arvud, and he's never going to live to see the world and all of it's wonders. I'm only eighteen, I have only been outside of Dema once, and I regret never begging my father to take me along on a trip outside of Dema. I regret erasing all the great memories my mother and I made together and I regret never telling my father I loved him, because I did. I loved him so much, and I miss him so much now. It's only been a while since he died, but the wounds are fresh and burn like my raw wrists. I regret not telling Castiel I loved him sooner and I regret ever trusting Christophe. I regret my whole life, because all I've ever done is sit around and wait for the world to change, I hate that Dema will never see the light. I hate that Abersai and Aberkay will starve to death because I couldn't save them soon enough, I hate that I'm making the Alliance suffer a long, painful death while I know Christophe will make mine and Arvud's quick. I hate him, I hate this, and I hate myself. I'm sorry. I'll see you soon, mother, father, and all the lives lost while I sat here in the Castle waiting for my life to change.

I don't know how long I lie on that floor, hoping and praying my life would end until the door flies open and a masked avenger barges in.

"What the-?" Christophe doesn't even have time to profane it's name because it's already shot him in the head, having the pool stick to the shiny metal walls. It moves to Castiel, immediately tending to his wounds, wringing gauze around the cut Christophe made, and then unties Castiel, helping him down from the platform. He collapses on the floor like a ragdoll, I hear him suffering to move out of the pool of his own blood. It moves to me, untying the ropes, leaving my raw wrists gasping for air like my lungs are. It's got familiar blue eyes and a strand of white blonde hair falls out from it's dark cape. It moves back to Castiel, taking it's hood off, and revealing short, white hair about my length.

"Aurelie," Castiel breathes out, "took you long enough."

Aurelie nods, laughing softly, "damn it, Castiel. Why am I always having to rescue you and your team out of the worst situations?"

"I bet you never had to pull me out of a pool of my own blood, huh?" Castiel still tries to make light of the situation but I can see him fading, because his eyes fall closed every now and then. I know why, the blood he's lost could be fatal and we're down in the Gaol, no doctor will help us now. I start to accept that Arvud and I are going to have to get by on our own, start to accept that the love Castiel professed toward me won't outlast his death and when this is all finished it'll just be little Arvud and me. That makes me sob.

Aurelie turns his attention to me, helping me up and giving me a soft smile, "he'll be okay. He's always okay." I'm only crying harder again, because this is so unfair. I don't even notice Michael rushing into the room, immediately tending to Castiel because I've got my head engulfed by the black of Aurelie's cape when I lose consciousness.

shit did i write this