Reiko was quickly ushering Zephyr, who was still in a state of shock. In all the chaos, and lack of completely attentive leader, Cecily had easily taken the reigns on escaping.

The base wasn't safe anymore. Rosalynd had everything on the prince and his little entourage including the list and the exact location of their former base.

"Keep quiet," Cecily said, though no one was in any state to talk.

"Where exactly are we going?" Orion asked, his hand on little Alma's shaking shoulder.

Cecily spared them a glance but kept walking.

Her voice was quiet when she answered. Almost trembling. "Somewhere safe. It'll take a little to get there but... We'll be safe for a while."

"How long?" Alma asked.

"Should be two days by foot. Now shush."

And so, they followed their impromptu leader through the slowly fading light of nightfall in the freezing cold.

---

"When she says walking," Alma said, her arms wrapping around the jacket Cecily had quickly tossed her during the initial escape, "I didn't think we'd have to go without breaks."

Orion gave her a look of sympathy before turning to the bobbing red hair and mechanical arm that rested on a small sword tied to her waist.

"Cecily," he called. "I think we should stop for the night. Everyone's exhausted."

"But-" Her reply was quickly cut off after glancing back at the little group. Her lip thinned in annoyance or worriedness, Alma wasn't sure which. The girl was always hard to read. "Fine. Orion, keep guard. Reiko, make sure Zephyr gets some rest." Cecily's eyes went to Alma. "You get some sleep too."

No one was in the mood to argue.

Cecily dropped the bag she was carrying besides Alma before looking out into the forest, as though she was expecting something to jump out.

"What about you?" Rei asked. "You should sleep too."

Cecily's head shook. "I've got a pretty good idea of where we are but I want to be exact. We passed Russe about two hours ago, but I want to make sure we're heading in the right direction. No fires. I don't care how far we are from civilization. We need to be careful."

With that, she disappeared into the forest, feet quiet even in the snow.

"Does she want us to freeze?" Alma asked, even though she knew the hunter was right.

"We should be glad," Rei said, his eyes distant as he stared off into the forest. "At least she knows how to survive out here. Maybe those years in the prison did her some good after all."

Gods bless Rei for being able to keep his light demeanor even after all this.

He'd managed to get the prince leaning against a tree, wrapped in two jackets.

Orion plopped down besides Alma, wrapping his arm around Alma's shoulder. She gave him a grateful look.

Until Rei felt like opening his mouth. "Hey, buddy. I'm the one who gave away my jacket. What about me?"

Rolling his eyes, Orion smiled, lifting his other arm up for Rei and giving him a big smile.

A smirk slid onto the foreign guards face as he plopped down beside Orion, snuggling into his side.

"Hey there!" Orion yelled, surprised. "I was joking, you know."

"I wasn't," Rei said, quickly wrapping his arm around Orion's torso. Alma only knew because she felt his hand slide against her stomach. "It's hella cold out here."

"Then go snuggle with your prince over there."

And there went the mood. Three pairs of eyes slid over to the prince whose chin was resting on his knees, eyes distant.

"So," Alma said in a week attempt to save the mood, "how's hole in your side, Orion?"

---

A few hours later, Cecily was making her way back to their makeshift camp. She'd hoped Orion and Rei had the decency to switch out shifts while she was gone and that the other two had enough sleep. They need all the rest they could get.

In the little towns she'd visited she'd learned they'd pretty much became wanted criminals overnight.

She swung the little plastic bag in a circle out of pure boredom.

Back at camp, she found a pile of three idiots cuddled together, Orion being the only one awake.

"We weren't attacked," he tried, probably in an attempt not to get scolded by the scary girl.

Sighing, Cecily simply nodded, not at all in any mood to get mad at anyone. She kneeled besides the trio, setting the bag on the ground and sifting through it before taking out a red apple.

"How'd you pay for that?" He asked, his voice still quiet.

"We're already wanted," she replied, both an answer and a statement.

"Already?"

"News travels quickly, especially when the previous prince self is set to be sent immediately to that prison."

"What about us?"

"Execution for all of us," her eyes traveled to the prince who was still slumped against the same tree. He hadn't moved much since she'd left. At all, for that matter. His eyes were open, but he looked exhausted.

"He slept for a few hours," Orion said, answering the question. "Just woke up a few minutes ago, actually."

"Get some rest," Cecily said, standing with the single apple in her hand. "I'll wake you up before we leave."

She didn't hear him say anything, but knew he didn't want to argue her.

When she finally stopped in front of the prince, who was still wrapped around himself, she offered him a hand. Not the cold mechanical one that she could easily lift him with, but the warm one.

He looked at it a second, and then back to her.

"Let's walk," she said, offering her best gentle smile.

He stared for a second before taking the hand.

---

Zephyr knew Cecily wanted to talk. Probably about how he'd failed at his job as the prince. It was, after all, his job, to keep them safe. It was his job to make sure everything was planned and ready to go at the end of it all. But it was Cecily who'd reacted while he sat shocked, staring at his formed home. The only mercy was that they didn't show his fathers body.

But he still walked behind her, wrapped in a single jacket after dropping the second back on Rei. If things weren't the way they were, he'd have taken a picture of the guard drooling on the assassin's shoulder.

When Cecily stopped, he stopped three feet behind her, keeping just out of arms length. He kept his gaze down, away from her.

"Eat," she said.

When Zeph looked up, she was holding a red apple out to him.

Hesitantly, he took the small peace offer.

She watched him eat in suspenseful silence and the former prince remembered the first time he'd been under that gaze. She'd stared at him with a tightening dog leash around her neck and he knew she would kill him if he wasn't careful with his words.

There was a difference in her gaze now. Now, she was careful, almost gentle with every movement as if he'd spook at the drop of the hat. She looked at him like he was a lost puppy but at the same time, she looked as though she understood.

Finishing the last bite of the apple, he tossed the core on the ground.

"Tell me everything that's going through that overly styled head of yours," Cecily said, that same overly gentle smile on her face.

That comment quickly earned her a scowl.

"Just worried, I guess."

"About the palace, the country, or us?"

"Um, I...I don't really know."

"Expected. What do you want to do next?"

Next? That was second thing that his mind went to, after a few hours spent thinking on his father. What were they going to do next? What was he going to do next?

He looked into her eyes and told her exactly what he thought to be the next course of action. "I think I want to step down from the throne."

She stared at him for a second and he had no idea what was going through her head.

"What?"

"I think it would be best to give up. Escape the country, find somewhere without these stupid laws about politics and royalty. You know, live a- live a peaceful life."

"That's not all."

How she knew was beyond him.

"I was also thinking of...of whether or not I would make a good King. I mean, as soon as I felt comfortable with the missions I immediately relaxed and almost got all of us killed. I had absolutely no idea how to approach you the first time I met you and I put you in a leash. I decided to recruit a- to recruit a fifteen year old to go out and kill people. I mean I know I'm supposed to pick people from my generation but she's a kid for gods' sake. Then suddenly, my father dies and I don't know what the hell I'm supposed to do."

Everything went to fast, Zeph didn't have a moment to react.

One second he was standing in a pile of snow, his eyes trained on a single cold spot, the next he was pinned against a tree, a foot above the ground. And now, it wasn't the snowy white ground he was looking at, it was Cecily's deep black eyes. And she was mad.

"You have no right to say that you aren't worthy to be king. No right what so ever."

"But-"

"Shut your mouth. For the next few seconds you're going to sit and listen like a normal person and then we're going out to make you king."

He didn't both mentioning that there would be no sitting so long as long as she had him pinned to a tree. Honestly, there wasn't even much standing involved in this.

"I'm not good at speeches, I don't have your training or experience, and I sure as hell don't talk as much as you or the others. So we're getting right to the point. You were the one who decided to drag me out of the home I'd managed to make myself in those prison after all those year. You were the one who dragged everyone into this and yes, that wasn't your best idea. Or at least it wasn't. You, all on your own managed to turn this little group of murders and one little girl in to a functioning team.

"Yes, you screwed up once or twice but you did something a shit ton of people never did. You regretted it and then you stood back up and you learned from it. What do you think happens if you give up now, huh? You get to go to that prison that made me as screwed up as I am and me and those three idiots back there get to die."

There was a moment of silence.

"You're not screwed up," Zeph said, his voice nearly lost in his mouth.

Cecily slammed him against the tree, this time a little harder.

"And who do you think that's because of, huh? Before I met you I really was a murderer. No matter how much you or everyone else wants to deny it I killed my own mother by putting a knife through her damned heart. And, in the prison, you know what I did there? I killed anyone who stepped near me or at least broke a bone or two, if I was feeling nice. I hunted anyone who stole from me and I slaughtered them without a second thought because I was so screwed up I just didn't care anymore. My life was already over. Yeah, I had a nice little room to call home but the second that damn buzzer went off nothing felt safe anymore and I'd jump at anything that stepped too close to me.

"And then you and you're happy go lucky face showed up with your scared little guard. I wanted to kill you right there, but you gave me something I thought I'd have to go forever without. You gave me hope. Suddenly nothing was the same. Suddenly, I didn't need to kill to survive and you taught me that I didn't even want to unless any of you guys were hurt. And then...and then you took that collar off my neck and I wasn't a monster anymore. I was a human. A human who was happy and I could survive without anymore blood on my hands than I'd already taken. And, yeah, some nights I'll suddenly remember all the people I killed and I'll feel bad. I'll feel so bad inside and then I remember that I'm human. And this was something you gave me.

"So the moment you say you, my hero, is not fit for the throne, especially compared to that filthy slave trader, is the moment you get to walk back and tell Rei that he's less than human because that's what the new king thinks of him. You get to walk back and tell Alma and Orion that they're better off dead. You get to tell this country, your country that they're better off with these god awful laws and some slave trading bitch as the King. The moment you say that you're not worthy of being king is the moment you tell your father, who believed in you more than anyone that he was wrong and it's the moment you tell me that I'm an emotionless murderer who's good for nothing but killing."

Cecily dropped him to the ground, her breath harsh in the cold weather.

Zeph didn't know exactly when he'd started crying, but he thought it was around the time Cecily's voice cracked when she said she was no longer a monster.

"So," she said, though he didn't look at her, choosing to watch the water trickle onto the snow, "what's it gonna be? We gonna run or am I going to put you exactly where your father knew you should be?"

The cold stung his wet cheeks when he looked up at her.

She looked back at him with strong eyes filled with confidence.

"You said you knew somewhere safe?"

Cecily nodded, a smirk crossing her lips.

"Can I count on you to fight for me in order to get my crown back and fight for my crown even after?"

The girl smiled, a fist pressed over her heart. She gave a curt, poorly practiced bow.

"Yes, you're Majesty."

---

Reiko could see bags under Cecily's eyes, even through the rain that had hit them suddenly.

After she'd come back with the prince, the both of them seemed to be filled with a new vigor. The prince, soon to be king, had agreed with Cecily on needing a safe place to stay for them to plan things out.

Now, he was starting to wish they'd walked through the night so this rain could've been avoided. It was just starting to get warm too, and then the stupid rain hit. The snow that coated the ground was now slushy and slippery and all around gross. One of the things that Rei hated about his country was the weird weather. It really never knew how to make up it's mind between seasons.

Cecily came to a sudden stop.

Alma all but screamed as she slid and nearly hit the ground. Orion barely managed to catch her.

The foreign guard now fugitive looked up as Cecily plastered her body behind a tree just before the forest line ended. A town in the middle of a forest. How strange.

After a moment, she signaled with her hands to move, just after pulling her hood over her hair. The others did the same without having to be told.

Suddenly they were out of the foliage and in the open. Not running though. Even Rei knew that would draw too much attention. In the rain, though, there were hardly any people running around outside. The occasional farmer gave a nod of the head as they walked past, but that was it.

Finally, when they stopped, it was out a run down old house. The roof was covered in twigs instead of tiling. It may have been more modern at one point, but now it mostly looked make shift. At this point, whatever kept the rain out, he supposed.

Cecily knocked on the door three times. Her body was still tense, though, her eyes darting back and forth as she waited for the door to open.

When it finally did, there was a man standing in the door, his body leaning on two crutches. Naturally, Rei's eyes went to his feet to see that they both looked more or less fine. When his eyes traveled back to the man's face he saw that he was definitely older than the rest of them. He had black hair and stubble coating his cheeks and chin, like he'd shaved a few days ago. The man was thin, almost alarmingly so. His eyes were gaunt just like his cheek bones. But there was a familiarity to his features.

This was the face of a man who knew hunger.

"We need shelter," Cecily said, peeking past her hood to meet the eyes of the other man.

The man nodded, moving away from the door though never taking his eyes off the little group.

Orion closed the door behind them all.

The man stood for a few moments, taking them all in, though his eyes were more directly set on Cecily.

The girl stepped closer to the man.

They all jumped when he let go of the two crutches, falling into the hunter's waiting arms. Both of them went to their knees, too focused on themselves to notice the curious glance of the others.

Rei finally understood the familiarity.

"You're home," the man cried into her neck, his hands combing through her hair as it glowed in the dim lighting.

"Mm," she hummed. "I'm home, Dad."

Also, I'm super bad at naming chapters so don't judge me.