"Rise, My Daughter."
"Yes, Father." Arsa stood up still shaking in fear. He noticed. "I know how must view me but do not worry. I love you, I truly do & you have made me proud." The words he was saying did not match his expression nor his voice. His voice was empty, cold, without love & without compassion.
The tension in the room was thick. The flames still burning behind The King were loud but her own heartbeat was all she could hear. "I am honored to see you again, Father. I have let go of my foolish & rebellious nature & am ready to fully join our cause."
A crooked smile appeared on The King's face. "You have no idea how pleasing that is to hear. I am so proud, Arsa. I am proud that you informed us of the 2 men who foolishly decided to oppose Andromedous. I am proud that you captured them first hand along with our elite soldier, Toe Beng.
"Thank you, Father. I don't deserve such high praise.", Arsa replied.
"Oh, don't be modest. You have proved your worth. You may leave now. I'm sure you're excited to visit your old room."
"Yes, Father."
Meanwhile in The Demigord Prison, Cell 49, Gridlock & Finn were rotting & desperately trying to handle the torture that was the heat of Veon 5.
"Mr. James, This might be worse that Sundra." The agony of this was too much for the young prince. "Hey kid, do you feel Deja Vu right now?"
"Why? Cause of the Sundra-like heat?"
"No, kid. This is just like that time we were imprisoned in that one Andromedous spacestation. All I gotta do is whip out my laser pen & we'll be outta here."
Gridlock then used the pen on one of the walls but nothing happened. "Oh my flibor! What is this cell made of? Well, I'm all out of ideas. Guess we're just gonna die here, kid."
"No!!! There must be something we can do!"
"There isn't.", Toe Beng replied. He suddenly appeared out of the cell.
"Not you again! You're the bastard that put us here?", Gridlock shouted. Finn said, "Why the hell are you here again?" "I have just one thing to say to you, Finn Greenfern."
"What is it, huh?", Finn said in a snarky voice.
"Back off! She's mine. If you ever try anything on her, I swear to flibor that I will burn you alive!"
After saying that, Toe quietly left.
"What the hell was that about?", Finn asked. Gridlock replied, "How should I know, kid?" Finn & Gridlock were profusely sweating & their bodies were slowly getting redder & redder. " It feels like we're being cooked alive!" Finn felt unbearable frustration.
Meanwhile in Arsa's room, She looked at her own old belongings filled with childhood ignorance. She took out a gallery & started rushing through the pictures. They were pictures of when she was an innocent child, when she knew nothing. Pictures of when she hugged her father, not knowing the kind of man he was. Abruptly, she stopped. She stumbled upon a picture of her mother.
knock! knock!
"Who is it?", Arsa said in an annoyed voice. Toe replied, "It's me. How did your reunion with your father go?" Arsa went quiet.
After an awkward few seconds of silence, Arsa said," Just leave me alone, Toe."
"Alright, sure."
Toe walked away from the door sad & defeated. His horrible posture at this moment made him look like a sluggish creature straight from Bolbo.
"Will my love never be reciprocated?", He thought.
"Shall I forever be a loser in love?"
Suddenly, a familiar voice awoke him. from his self-deprecating thoughts. It was the voice of his childhood friend, Ming Ming.
"Ming Ming?"
"Yup! It's been a while, buddy!"
"Wow, it's nice to see you. What are you doing in the capital city? I thought your Father was moved after his promotion."
"He was. We're just here on a little visit."
"Oh. Well, you wanna hang out? Let's go eat some VorVor."
"Sure! But before that..."
Ming Ming gained a cheeky mischievous look on her face. A face Toe Beng knew all too well.
"Why were you looking so sad, huh? Let me guess... It's Arsa?" Ming Ming began laughing really really hard. So hard that Toe's eardrums almost burst.
"Haha... So funny...", Toe said in a sarcastic & annoyed annoyed voice. Ming Ming replied, "Dude, you've had a crush on her since we were kids. She's made clear several times that she's not interested. Just give up."
"No! I love her."
Ming Ming rolled her eyes. "Whatever, Let's go eat those VorVors."
Meanwhile, huge news was being spread throughout the city by the Royal servants. "The Veon Emperor's Daughter, Arsa Demigord, has finally returned. There will be a public appearance of her in front of the royal palace tomorrow. Make sure to attend."
The public was in Chaos. Most were excited but some were in fear.
"The Daughter's finally returned?"
"Yeah, I guess so."
"I'm surprised The Veon Emperor let her come back here after what she pulled to run away."
"How can she even face us? Doesn't she have shame?"
In her room, Arsa was holding onto her mother's picture in tears. She was in pain.
"I feel so alone & so scared, Mother. If only you were still here.... Please come back, Mother. I need you."
It was now the next day & Gridlock and Finn both still suffered from the horrible horrible heat.
"Here's your breakfast, chumps.", A guard said as he passed some food through the cell.
"What the hell is this disgusting shit?", Finn said as he almost puked from the sheer smell of it. Gridlock replied, "This stuff's called VorVor, kid. I actually really like it."
Finn then fell onto the floor. He was sick of this prison & it's disgusting food.
"I can't take it anymore? It's only been one day & I'm already going crazy. I can't spend my whole life here! We're supposed to be preparing to stop Andromedous. How the hell did we get wrapped up in this shit!?"
"Don't worry, kid. I'll figure something out." Gridlock tried to reassure Finn & & make him feel better but even he didn't believe the words coming out of his mouth.
"Hey, Snorki! Get over here, lad.", The guard outside the cell shouted. Snorki rushed over. He seemed timid & scared. The guard put his hand over Snorki's shoulder not as a friendly gesture but to show dominance.
"So, buddy... You know about the princess' public appearance today, right? You see, I really wanna go there. I've heard she's hot."
"Umm, so?"
The guard's expression changed into an angry one.
"So?"
The guard slapped Snorki's face.
"You're gonna keep watch on these two prisoners while I go see the sexy princess, all right?"
Snorki nodded submissively.
"Good boy."
The guard patted Snorki's head & was on his merry way.
"That guy sucks, huh?" Gridlock was trying to befriend Snorki.
"Shut up, Prisoner!", Snorki said.
"Woah! Why so harsh, buddy?"
" I know what you're trying do!" "You're tryna make friends with me so I let you out. I'm not stupid! I know that!"
Gridlock smirked. "I ain't tryna make friends with you, kiddo. I'm tryna make a deal with you."
"A deal?"
"Yeah, a deal. Something we'll both benefit from."
"What is it?", Snorki asked while sniffing his nose. Gridlock replied, "All you gotta do is let us the hell outta here."
"How would I benefit from that?"
Finn began munching up the VorVor. "Woah, This actually is pretty good."
"Snorki, who's job is it to keep us here?"
"Long Feng."
"Exactly & nobody knows Long Feng left you in charge. If you let us
out, Who'll be blamed? Hmm?"
"Long Feng?"
"Exactly, let us out now."
"I don't know... I'm scared.", Snorki said while nervous. Gridlock replied, "It's time to stop living your life scared all the time, Snorki. You want to get revenge on the bastard, don't you?"
"Yeah.... Yeah! YEAH! That bastard stole my girlfriend!"
Snorki then opened the cell while fueled with adrenaline. "You may leave, gentlemen."
Gridlock stood up & looked over at Finn. He was still on the ground munching the VorVor.
"Get your ass up, brat! We gotta get outta here."
"In a sec, Mr.James!"
Thousands of citizens from the capital city gathered in front of the Royal Palace to gaze upon the lost Princess.
"There she is!", Someone shouted.
A huge stand was placed in front of the palace with Arsa on top. Drones flew around her to make her voice reach the public.
"Hello, People of Veon 5.", Arsa said nervously. The people became silent. Even a pin's drop could be heard in that environment.
"I know how you must view me. Firstly, I'd like to apologize for my previous actions. What I did was so treacherous that I cannot even hope for your forgiveness but I want to assure to you that I have changed. I believe in My father & his organization's cause. I... I... I believe in Andromedous' cause!"
"Yeah!!!", The crowd cheered. They finally broke the silence. They were ecstatic upon hearing Arsa's words.
"Wait! Wait! Wait!", The guard from earlier shouted. "What is it, man? Just be happy! The princess is on our side again." The guard replied,"How the hell can we be sure that it even is the princess? She's wearing a goddamn mask! They could easily replicate her voice from those drones there? What if the government's just tricking us, huh?"
"I guess you're right..." The other people in the crowd began to agree. Arsa was wearing her all black outfit with the mask on.
"Take it off! Take it off! Take it off!", The crowd began chanting. Arsa was now sweating profusely. She was scared, terrified even. The thought of showing her face to the public, the thought of exposing who she really was to all the friends she made on her journey with The Drifters absolutely mortified her.
Meanwhile in the prison,
"Run, Finn. Run!"
"These guys are shooting out fire from their goddamn hands!", Finn shouted.
Gridlock & Finn had made it to the hallway from where the Guards exit with the help of Snorki.
All the other guards in the prison. were chasing after Gridlock & Finn in the hallway to the Guard exit. They wore the same black outfit as Arsa & Toe.
"Look, Finn! It's the exit! Just a little bit more." One of the fire blasts grazed Finn's pants. "AHHHH!!!!!"
"What will we even do when we get to the exit? We don't got a ship?", Finn asked. "Don't worry about that, kiddo. I'll just steal one. I'm an expert in stealing."
They made it out the exit but didn't know what to do next. "Hurry, Mr.James!" "Umm... Look at that spacecraft over there. It must belong to one of the guards.", Gridlock said. They rushed over but the guards were still chasing.
Gridlock lasered the fingerprint sanner & they were in. The spacecraft then launched into the ship. "Hey! That's my ship!", One of the guards screamed. The guards began shooting fire at the ship but none of it landed Gridlock was just way too good..
"Alright! It's time to get off this stupid hot planet. Ahhh... I need to get to a cooling centre after this one.", Gridlock said excitingly.
"Hey, Mr.James? Look at that giant stand in front of that palace all the way over there. One of the people that caught us is on it."
"Why you getting distracted, kid? Why don't you help me set up coordinates for hyperspace?"
Finn was still focused on the stand he was looking at through the ship's window.
She was done taking off her mask.
"Arsa?"