LANCASTER

His very first instinct is to check if the princess is fine. He turns, expecting to see her, but what chills his blood and sends him into a shock is the fact that she isn't there.

"Your highness!" Lancaster calls, nearly choking on his own words and the thick haze. Using one arm to cover over his nose and mouth as he desperately attempts to ward off the haze with the other to no avail, he begins advancing slowly, but to where, he is still clueless.

As the haze settles all around his surroundings, he notices it isn't really haze. It is definitely thick and heavy just like haze, weighing down upon him, but it is rather clear – translucent. When he stretches his hand out into it, his hand is barely visible, but still undeniably there, shimmering in the mist.

What is this somewhat beautiful cloud of blur? It is even capable to act as a medium for a rainbow to form.

Hallucinations? That ought to explain the fact that he's all alone, despite Alaina being right by his side only moments ago.

But to prove that he is, he needn't go as far as to pinching himself. Lancaster can trust his senses, namely his sense of smell alone, that this is real – the haze is choking him.

Supressing his coughs and trying his best not to inhale the haze, he begins to call again, "Your highness! Alaina!"

Either his skills and experiences he's obtained and accumulated all these years or his sixth sense saves him next, because he jumps to the right just as a sword flings his way. As Lancaster regains footing, he draws his own sword, too.

A blurred battlefield is disadvantageous.

Despite so, Lancaster makes out a shadowy figure several feet before him, and pair of boots from the little space under the haze, where the haze is floating only inches above the floor. The shadowy figure takes a few cautious steps, as if he's aware of Lancaster, too, and is equally alert and on guard – Lancaster watches curiously as the figure hesitates.

Few deciding seconds later, the figure emerges from the slight blur, and Lancaster breathes a sigh of slight relief.

"Clyde. What is happening?" Lancaster speaks cautiously, not wanting to take any chances on the haze.

"Thank the Saints, you're all good, Lancaster," Clyde says as he walks over to Lancaster with his nose and mouth covered with his free arm.

"I am fine." Lancaster frowns. "But the princess –"

"General Trajan is missing as well." Clyde mirrors his frown.

"Wait, what?" Lancaster stops short as they were just moving around to try and see what is going on at the podium from where they are, behind the stands. "Is he not by your side just before this happened?"

"Yes, he –"

He is cut off by a loud bang, and shouts; Lancaster and Clyde freeze on their spots as their heart beats resonate within their ears and thump loudly in their heads, blood rushing in their veins.

They shoot each other a quick glance, and without even speaking, they know what's on the other's mind. They sprint straight out into the now hazy podium in the centre square of the Kingdom of Theia, armed with their swords as they watch each other's backs, just like the old times. They both only draw small breaths, being extremely careful.

Where the haze floats only inches above the ground, bodies lay motionless on the ground – no different from an eerie graveyard covered in mist. As Lancaster squints his eye to look into the slightly translucent haze, people are struggling as they cough and desperately reach out for their loved ones. More bodies pile with each passing second, and he is unable to tell if they are alive once they drop to the ground.

LLOYD

He has no clue what hit him. Perhaps not a clue even as to who hit him. But as he lies weakly on the wooden floor of the bell tower, struggling to keep his consciousness, he briefly sees Trevor fiddling with something in his hand. He tosses it up and down, a spark of gold in Lloyd's blurry vision, with a crooked grin forming on his face.

"Tsk," Trevor hisses in a low voice. "Should've hit you harder."

Blinking hard, Lloyd tries to clear his mind of his own haze forming within. The one who'd hit him... Trevor?

"What are you doing?" Lloyd asks, acting innocent, though his thoughts are racing faster than any shooting stars in his mind, searching for a plan. Trying hard to focus his blurred field of vision, his blood seems to rush faster to his mind, his heart thumping faster than ever as if trying desperately to be align with his rushing adrenaline.

Still grinning, Trevor bends down and aligns his eyes with Lloyd's. "Can't have you ruining my plan today."

"What plan?"

"You're clueless, aren't you?" Trevor mocks. "With your intelligence, I'd have thought you were already suspicious of me since the beginning." His face is dangerously close as his voice drops to a whisper, "Guess you're not all that smart."

Lloyd hasn't got a good chance to know Trevor enough to suspect him... but of what? Sure, he's a shady person, but it's not like he is to be suspected of anything – that is, until now, seeing what's happening. But what does that mean? That he's behind it all – all of this that's unfolding before them?

A dreadful thought crosses his mind, and Lloyd swallows hard, fighting away the lump in his throat as he struggles to remain fearless yet innocent to Trevor. Is this a trap set by Trevor, to pull every single rebel that's potentially a strong threat in unity against the empire together, and end them all at once? Is this a plan devised by him and the empire – is he with the soon-to-be empire and the self-proclaimed future ruler of the Land of Asteria, Caecilius Black, all along?

Traitor. Or, perhaps, a spy. If the craze is as great as the thick haze settling in over the Kingdom of Theia, then it's a plan long set in stone.

How long have they been playing in their hands like little puppets?

Lloyd recalls how they've learnt about the rebellion in the first place, and he turns paler than he already is. It was Trevor, who had given them the intellect.

It was a trap, and they've walked blindly into it.

"Tell me, then," Lloyd manages. "What is this plan of yours?"

Trevor lets out a laugh that sends chills running down the back of Lloyd's spine. "Little Einstein, isn't it obvious? The seven kingdoms system is hopeless! Rubbish; pure disgrace! We have to burn it down to the ground, incinerate it to ashes, and start anew – by building an empire under a single ruler. Only then, under one great empire, can we put aside our differences and live together as one. Differences only create conflict! We shall not let that pull us apart."

"You're only going to create greater conflict if you put people with various backgrounds and ethnicity together – they're not going to live together peacefully," Lloyd retorts, as coolly as he can manage, whilst scanning around. His hand creeps to his robe pocket slowly, unnoticed by Trevor, who is busy indulging in his great speech. "That is why we have the seven kingdoms in the first place, to divide us into our own specialty, our own culture. And we've been living in peace for centuries!"

"Peace," Trevor repeats, "is never there. What about people born between two kingdoms? Where do they belong, then? What about people who have skills that don't belong to their own kingdom, but another's?" He spreads his arms dramatically, lifting his head high – a gesture that Lloyd never expected to experience from him, as Trevor is a very secluded guy. "We're all different. It's time a new world is born, a world where everything is one. A world with our differences aside. It's time to burn everything down, and rebuild a whole new world from the ashes of the past!"

Lloyd lets out the breath he's been holding, before saying, "You're crazy." And, without warning or further delay, he rises to his feet suddenly, knocking an off-guard and overconfident Trevor off balance with as much force his trembling knees would support.

Once Trevor hits the ground, Lloyd releases the special flare he's gotten out of his pocket while Trevor isn't aware, flinging it out of the huge arch of the bell tower, in hopes of gaining the attention of not just Alaina and Lancaster – who he hopes are doing fine – below amidst the thick haze, but also their allies, Kai and Rose, right beyond the kingdom.

He silently prays, hoping for the best – that the one who has given him the special flare himself would notice his own flames and come to their aid soon enough.