Trigger warnings- Swearing.

Kaiden was feeling fed up.

Raven's plan was simple enough. He had to go to the dictator's mansion, pretending to be the guard he had stolen the uniform from, and steal five uniforms for the others.

The reason Kaiden was feeling fed up was that he was waiting for the dictator. When he'd given the name 'Roberts' to the head guard, he'd been told that the dictator wanted to speak to him, and no matter what Kaiden said, he couldn't get out of it.

"Roberts, do come in," the dictator said at last, opening the door to his office.

As Kaiden stepped into the room, he could see that the dictator's office overlooked a huge garden. The garden reminded him a little of home, which he didn't really want to think about.

"You may take your mask off, Roberts," the dictator said.

"No thank you," Kaiden replied, trying to sound as similar to Roberts as possible.

"No thank you, sir," the dictator corrected. "I wanted to talk with you about yesterday's events. How did things go with Kaiden?"

"He got away sir."

"I see. So he is still in Halei?"

"I would assume so. It was only in the early hours of this morning that I gave up looking for him and came here. I searched through the night, trying to find him."

"Please address me correctly," the dictator pleaded. He sighed, "Kaiden is such a pain. The other Champions have also escaped once again."

"How did they manage that, sir?" Kaiden asked, knowing that Roberts would probably want to know.

"That's not really your concern. I've put together a team of guards which I want you to lead so that we can find the Champions. The team is waiting in the equipment room. I want those five in my office in three days."

"Sir, what if that's not possible?"

"Then I will have to reconsider your position as a guard. I need guards who are capable of following orders. You already allowed Kaiden to get away. The Champions are somewhere in the Citadel. I've made sure that only residents from the Citadel and guards can travel between the kingdoms."

"Sir, I really feel tired after yesterday," Kaiden lied. "Couldn't another guard lead the team?"

"If you still want to work for me, Roberts, then no."

Kaiden thought about this for a moment. He'd already knocked Roberts out and stolen his uniform. He supposed that losing his job for him as well was probably taking things too far.

"I do, sir. Sorry."

"Good. Oh, I almost forgot. I heard from a Cadet in Halei that you caught Kaiden and you questioned him. Did he tell you who suggested the idea of the speech?"

Kaiden knew that he needed to lie, "yes, sir. He said that it was Cadence Castel."

"That is a lie. The Cadet overheard you. Apparently, Kaiden told you that it was his brother, Raven. Do not lie to me."

"Sorry."

"Again, not the right answer."

"Sorry, sir."

"Better. Now go. I will see you in three days."

"Thank you, sir," Kaiden said, and left.

Kaiden left and headed down the hall. He didn't know where the equipment room was of course, so he decided to ask.

He saw a woman passing by with some laundry.

"Excuse me, I'm new, could you point me in the direction of the equipment room?"

"Well, sir, you look wonderful in your uniform. It's the third door on your left."

"Thank you," Kaiden replied. He grabbed her hand and went to kiss it as he was taught to do by his dad, then he remembered the mask. So, he simply brought her hand up to the mask and then let go.

The woman blushed and smiled, "thank you, sir. You have such lovely manners."

Kaiden didn't reply. He bowed and headed down the hall.

—-----

The five guards stood to attention as Kaiden entered the equipment room. Roberts must be pretty important if he's in charge of his own team.

The room was decked in all sorts of things, from guns and ropes, to knives and swords. Kaiden recognised the gun which could knock people out which Adri had told him about. He grabbed one and turned to the guards.

"What are your names?" Kaiden asked, still using his fake voice.

"Mate, you already know us?" One replied questioningly.

"Oh, sorry. Kaiden, must've knocked my memory a bit."

"Did you get him?" The same guard asked.

"No, he got away. Whacked me over the head first though."

"Woah ok. I'll lead the team if you need me to, Ed. You go home and recover, I'll tell the dictator that you were with us the whole time."

Kaiden was surprised at how close Roberts and this man seemed to be.

"Ok, thanks," Kaiden replied.

"Right guys," the guard said, turning to the others, "we need to locate and retrieve the five Champions. We've been told that they are somewhere in the Citadel. If we split up and look around the Citadel, we should be able to find them within the three day time limit."

The man turned back to Kaiden as the others grabbed supplies. "I can't believe that Kaiden hit you. Don't worry, I'll make sure that he doesn't get away with it. As soon as he's captured, he'll be killed."

Kaiden gulped. "Thanks, that'll show him."

"Yeah it will!" The man exclaimed. He turned to lead the team out.

Suddenly, Kaiden had an idea.

"Wait!" He called. "Did the dictator not tell you?"

"Tell us what?" The same guard asked.

"The other Champions were spotted heading for Halei. They might be trying to find Kaiden."

"Oh. That's where we'll go then. We'll meet you back here in a few days. We'll play off that you were with us the whole time, ok?"

"Sounds perfect," Kaiden replied. "Thanks, uh...."

"Freddy."

"Thanks Freddy."

"No problem," Freddy replied, "see you around."

Freddy led the team out of the room, leaving Kaiden with the entire contents of the equipment room at his disposal.

He grabbed six backpacks and started filling three of them with everything they needed. Water, food, weapons and of course, five uniforms. When he'd got everything, he shoved the three empty backpacks into the three full ones, after which, he zipped them up. Then, struggling with the three bags, he started to make his way back to the hotel.

While Kaiden was away, he left Roberts' magic card in the hotel room by mistake. Finley and Raven had decided to take advantage and go to buy some food.

The idea had seemed like a good one, until they reached the busier parts of the Citadel and were recognised hundreds of times over.

They'd been chased for the past ten minutes by a very determined guard.

"This was a really stupid idea, wasn't it?" Raven said, breathlessly.

"Most likely," Finley replied.

"Kaiden's much better at running than me. He also wouldn't have been stupid enough to lead us into the middle of a city full of people who want to capture us."

"Should we agree to never mention this to him?" Finley asked.

The two boys headed down a side street and watched as the guard continued down the main street, completely missing them.

"Yeah, let's not mention this to Kaiden," Raven said. "We should attempt this again. We can't stay here all day."

"Let's just head back to the hotel," Finley suggested. "People in shops and stuff are going to recognise us too."

"Good plan," Raven replied, "there's just one small problem."

"Please don't say you don't remember which way the hotel is?"

"No, I've just temporarily forgotten."

"So, to put it simply. We're lost in the middle of the Citadel, we can't ask anyone for help or directions without getting arrested?"

"To put it simply, yes."

"Maybe we could head up the streets we came down?"

"Good idea," Raven replied.

This plan worked for all of five minutes. Then, they were lost again.

"New plan, we're going to have to ask someone," Raven stated.

"No!" Finley exclaimed. "If we ask someone, we'll get arrested."

"If we ask a child, there's less of a chance."

"They also probably won't know where to go."

"Well it's the best idea we've got." Raven headed towards a young girl wearing a pink dress. "Excuse me?"

The girl looked up. "Yes?"

"Do you know where I can find a hotel around here?"

"There's hundreds of hotels in the Citadel. Which kingdom are you from?"

"Astra," Raven lied. "We're meeting a couple of friends. They're staying at a hotel but we don't know where it is."

"Why don't you call them?"

"We can't."

"That's inconvenient," the girl snapped. "Well there's a hotel about ten minutes in that direction." She pointed down a side street.

"Thank you," Raven replied. He looked up the street and noticed a bakery. He had an idea. "If I give you this card, could you go into that bakery and buy some croissants for me?"

"Only if I can have a cake too."

Raven smiled. "Of course."

The girl took the card. "Thank you," she said, and ran off in the opposite direction.

Raven began chasing after her with Finley trailing behind, but they lost her in seconds.

"Shit," Raven said. "Kaiden's going to kill me."

They'd ended up in a sort of town square. The girl must've led them here on purpose. People everywhere were pointing and staring at them.

Finley pulled Raven into an alleyway.

"We're trapped," Finley said. "If we head for the hotel, we'll be spotted immediately."

"We are well and truly cooked," Raven replied.

"Unless we give them a distraction. I've got an idea. I'll give myself up."

"No!" Raven hissed. "The dictator will probably kill any of us now if he catches us."

"The dictator will have to give us a trial first."

"He knows that no matter what, we'll keep escaping. He'll kill you as soon as he gets his hands on you."

"We have no way of getting out of this," Finley explained, "I'll give myself up and you can head back to the hotel."

"Fin, I won't let you do that. Cadence will be devastated if you get killed now. You've both lost way more than the rest of us."

"If the rest of you succeed in taking down the dictator, it'll be worth it."

Finley moved to step into the square.

Raven grabbed his arm. "No. Fin, it won't just be Cadence who'll be devastated if you get killed. The rest of us will be too. Kaiden loves you and he'll never forgive me if I let you do this. I won't forgive myself if I let you do this."

"You really don't want me to do this, do you?"

"I can't speak for everyone. I don't want you to. I don't expect you to do that for me and I'm not going to let you do that for us. We can make a run for it to the hotel. If we get caught, then we get caught. I'm not letting you go to the dictator by yourself."

Finley smiled and turned back, "thanks, Raven. It means a lot to hear you say that."

Raven hugged him. "I can see why my brother fell in love with you. Still not sure why you fell for him though."

"He's selfless, smart and funny. You two are pretty similar but...."

"You like the whole bad boy thing?"

"Kind of," Finley replied, blushing.

"Well, let's get you back to the hotel. Kaiden will be missing his songbird otherwise."

The two boys ran as fast as they could past everyone. People shouted at them from all around. They shielded their faces which helped a lot. When they finally found the hotel, there was no one left following them.

After a short ride in the lift, they were back. Both boys were happy that Kaiden hadn't returned yet.

—-----

When Kaiden got back to the hotel, the others changed into the guard uniforms.

"Ok, how are we going to do this?" Cadence asked.

"Well, there's three options," Kaiden explained. "Option one, we stick together and go around all six of the other kingdoms. Option two, we split into two groups of three and go around three kingdoms each. Or option three, we split into pairs and each pair goes to two of the kingdoms."

"I think option three is best," Raven said.

"Me too," Finley agreed.

"I think we should stick together," Adri said, "splitting up hasn't gone well in the past."

"It's just a question of whether we'd have enough time to travel to all six kingdoms in three days," Kaiden explained.

"Kaiden has a point," Cadence added, "we'd never have time to get around all six kingdoms unless we split up. Splitting into two groups of three means going to one kingdom every day and getting back to the Citadel. Three pairs means one kingdom each day and a whole day to get back to the Citadel."

"That makes a lot of sense," Reina replied.

"Alright, so we'll split into pairs," Kaiden said. "Who wants to go with who?"

"Could I go with you?" Finley asked.

"Sure songbird. Adri?"

"I don't care who I go with."

"Fine," Kaiden replied. "Bird, any preference?"

"No, not really."

"Ok," Kaiden said. "Adri, you go with Cadence. Bird, go with Reina. Adri's good at fighting and so's Bird so it makes sense for you two to be separate."

Both of them nodded. If Cadence and Reina were unhappy with the pairings, they didn't show it.

"Who's going to which kingdoms?" Cadence asked.

"Well I told the team of guards who were supposed to go with Roberts that you guys were spotted heading for Halei, so whoever goes there needs to be careful. Fin and I can do that one."

"Ok," Adri said, "what about the others?"

"Well, Kyrah and Lavea are next to each other so it makes sense for the same pair to do both. Considering that Raven and Cade are both from there, it's a losing battle no matter which pair goes. But Reina did the speech in Lavea so maybe Adri and Cade can do those two?"

"Sounds good to me," Cadence replied.

"Ok, Fin and I can do Halei and Astra. That leaves Raven and Reina heading for Phia and Ronera."

"Just one small question," Raven interrupted. "How exactly do we convince the rebels to join us?"

"That's up to you," Kaiden replied, "I can't think of everything."

The truth was, he didn't know the answer to that himself.

"Is everyone ready to go?" Kaiden asked.

The others nodded. Each pair took their backpacks and headed for the door.

"Where's the card I took from Roberts?" Kaiden questioned.

Raven and Finley looked at each other. Kaiden looked between them, waiting for an answer.

"I uh... kind of lost it," Raven muttered.

"How?"

Raven told him about their little adventure.

"You could've been caught!" Kaiden scolded.

Raven looked like he wanted the ground to open up and swallow him. "I know, but..."

"No! Raven, that was a stupid thing to do! And dragging Finley into it?"

"He's seventeen! He can make decisions for himself!"

"What happened after you lost the card?" Kaiden asked.

Raven explained how they'd got stuck and the way they got back.

"Finley offered to give himself up?" Adri asked.

"I didn't let him!" Raven argued.

"Thank god for that," Kaiden snapped. "If he'd been caught I would've never spoken to you again. I'm already strongly considering it."

"Kaiden, I'm sorry. I know it was a stupid idea."

"I don't trust you with Reina," Kaiden snapped. "You'll probably lead her into danger too. You can come with me instead."

Everyone looked shocked, but it was Finley who spoke, "Kaiden, I thought...."

"We were going to go together. Unfortunately, my stupid brother has ruined that for you. At least I know that I can trust you to take care of Reina and not do anything stupid. You can hold yourself in a fight, but not by giving yourself up. You mean too much to the rest of us. To me."

"Ok," Finley replied, "I promise I won't."

Raven and Finley switched places and the others headed for the door.

Kaiden didn't know exactly how this plan was going to work. He hoped that this would finally be their first win against the dictator and the Citadel.

"We storm the dictator's mansion in three days!" He called to the others. Then, they were gone, leaving Kaiden and Raven with the room to themselves.  

Well, it seems Raven is now in the doghouse. Do you think Kaiden overreacted or is his reaction justified? Do you think our Champions will save the day? And will Adrielle and Raven get back together?

Find out in Chapter 30!