Instantly, Hugo and James grabbed their girls and shielded them in their arms and ran for shelter. They made their way to the old stables in a zigzag motion, James deflecting any arrows that came his way with a dagger. Hugo had picked up a branch and was using that as a shield, although it wasn't the best, it was enough to ensure that both him and Sofia didn't get too hurt.

"Where are these coming from?!" James shouted, deflecting yet another arrow.

"I-I'm not too sure, but look up in the sky, there seems to be winged creatures!" Sofia shouted back. At this point Sofia followed Hugo's footsteps and had also picked up a branch as a way of using it to deflect arrows.

Vivian noticed that the stable doors were locked, and that it would take time to actually get inside the stables, so making a quick decision, she picked up her skirt even further and pushed herself and ran faster.

"Vivian! What are you doing?!" James yelled at her, panicked.

"I'll be fine!" She yelled back, not really paying much attention to him.

But before James could argue, the winged creatures had decided that hand to hand combat would be better, and so now James, Hugo and Sofia were in close battle. At this point, Sofia and Hugo had recognised these creatures as gargoyles that resided in the Mystic Isles. They were usually guarding the prison, so what in the world were they doing here, in battle at that?

A gargoyle had decided to make an attempt at Vivian, but just as it flew towards her she dodged it and it flew straight into mud. She didn't have time for this, she knew the others would need her to open the stable doors first. She jumped over a log and bee lined for the stable doors. She took out her bobby pins, making her hair fall over her shoulders. As soon as she arrived in front of the stable doors she started working on the lock. She struggled with it at first, but after a minute or two, she heard the clicks, and it popped open. She threw the lock off and started pushing with all her weight, putting all her strength in her heels against the stable doors, till they slowly started to creak open. Inside were all sorts of abandoned weapons and carriages, everything was either rotting away or covered in dust.

Vivian grabbed a rusty joust and stood outside the door, swatting at any gargoyles that got too close.

Meanwhile, Hugo knocked out two more gargoyles who got in his range, dodging another loose arrow. He ran towards the doors where Vivian stood waiting for them. Sofia was starting to get annoyed, she dodged another gargoyle, at this point in time, she was confused. Why in the world would the same gargoyles who guarded the Mystic Isle prison be out attacking, in the Ever Realm? 

Sofia's frustrations just grew. She there had to be an answer, but she had no time to focus too much on it. Sofia noticed that they were a lot closer to the stables, and Hugo had already made it to the stables and was helping Vivian defend the stables, readying themselves to close the doors once everyone was inside.

Sofia ran towards them but was blocked off by a fat gargoyle swinging his sharp nails at her. She was able to dodge once, but she didn't notice him also using his feet to attack her. James jumped in, his dagger clanging loudly against the gargoyles nails.

"Go!" James ordered, not bothering a look back to his sister.

Without hesitation, Sofia crawled under the gargoyle and jumped up, running towards the stable doors. She dogged an arrow and threw the branch she picked up earlier at a gargoyle, landing a headshot. Just before she crossed inside, she tripped and fell.

"Sofia!" Hugo shouted, he ran towards her, picking her up and dragging her to safety.

"Are you okay?" He asked, checking over her knees.

"Of course, don't lose focus," she reassured him, patting his bicep.

"Sofia, come help me," Vivian panted, "once Hugo gives us the signal, you and I will close the doors."

Sofia nodded and made her way to the left door, positioning herself so that she was ready as soon as James was at a close distance.

"JAMES!" Hugo bellowed.

James didn't even hesitate, he ran like never before to those stable doors. Hugo nodded his head to the girls, and they started pushing the heavy doors closed. Hugo stood in the middle hand out stretched ready to grab James.

James, defended an attack coming from his left, tumbling into the field, before jumping right back up, running straight for those closing doors. The gap was getting smaller, and James started to panic. The gargoyles weren't making it easy for him at all, they started swarming him, slowing him down. He swung his dagger thrice more, before he noticed an opening between the gargoyles and bolted, never daring to look back.

James literally felt the fire in his legs and the adrenaline in his ears. He could see Hugo's hand outstretched and started leaning forward, stretching out his hand.

Three.

The gap was getting smaller.

Two.

The doors were getting closer.

One.

He grabbed Hugo's hand.

Hugo pulled as hard as he could towards himself; as the two men tumbled, the girls slammed the doors shut. Before even wasting a second, the four blocked the doors with carriages, making sure they were safe before catching their breaths.

James made his way to Vivian, grabbing her head and checking over her. He sighed in relief when he noticed nothing too severe, kissing the top of her head.

"I'm glad you're safe," he whispered to her.

James turned back around and made his way to his sister, "are you okay?"

She nodded in response, but let him look over her regardless. He grabbed her arms, checking over her as well. James smiled before his legs gave out and he collapsed on the floor. He started bursting into laughter, and the others couldn't contain their laughs either.

After they had collected themselves, they had made themselves comfortable on the cushions that Vivian had collected from the carriages and put in a pile.

"So, who wants to spill the beans?" James deadpanned, arms crossed, expectantly waiting.

"And don't even think about lying." He added.

Hugo and Sofia looked at each other silently communicating.

We can't tell them.

But you know how James is, he's stubborn.

I'm sure we'll figure out a way too–

James narrowed his eyes, "stop speaking with your minds, out with it already."

Hugo sighed, Sofia was right there was no escaping this.

"Fine, but before we do, you have to promise this stays between us." Hugo pleaded.

James scowled, "you're acting as if we're strangers, that's a given of course."

Hugo nodded and cleared his throat, "to get straight to the point, Sofia and I are honorary protectors to the Mystic Isles."

James blinked. And blinked again. "Come again?"

"You're... protectors, of the... Mystic Isles?" Vivian asked, confused.

"The imaginary fairytale land... in the sky?" James asked unamused, cocking his head.

Vivian elbowed him, but she too was a little bit, well, starting to think that her friends may have taken a few too many hits to the head.

"I know it sounds a bit hard to believe, but the Isles are real and unfortunately right now, we don't know what's going on," Sofia continued, as if that was going to make it make sense.

"Sofia, Hugo, I think you both need to lie down," Vivian gently told them.

"We're not–," as if the timing couldn't be better, Sofia got an incoming call from Chrysta on her enchantlet.

"..." Vivian and James looked back at each other, curiosity keeping them silent.

Sofia answered and was not ready for what she was about to see on the other side of the call. There Chrysta was, with her hair in a mess, she was dodging flying fists, arrows and fire, shield out and all.

"Sofia! Oh my! Princess, you will not believe the chaos up here!" Chrysta started, in the background she could be seen dodging various attacks.

"What's going on?!"

"I don't know! But all the prisoners somehow escaped, it's gotten worse than I called Hugo earlier...," Chrysta panted, dodging a fist and throwing one herself.

"Well I guess that explains why the gargoyles are here!" Sofia justified.

"What?!" Chyrsta screamed, "the gargoyles are down there?! In the Ever Realm?!"

"This isn't making any sense, Chrysta, we'll call you back once we have an explanation figured out, that's if we can even figure that out." Sofia waved her off and hung up.

Hugo and Sofia looked at each other before looking back at their two friends. James and Vivian looked at each other, not knowing what just happened. Silence filled the room up for a good minute. Just a bunch of blinking eyes.

"Welp. I guess there's no need to ask for evidence," James cracked, an awkward smile on his face, turning to Vivian for support.

"It took you a full minute to come up with that?" Vivian teased.

The room erupted with light laughter. Now that the tension of things had finally settled, Hugo and Sofia properly explained themselves to their friends about their protector's duties and the Mystics Isles, and quickly moved onto the next item of discussion.

"So, let's start by figuring, just how in the world all those prisoners escaped and why those gargoyles are down here in the Ever Realm, although I already have my suspicions," Hugo stated.

"It would be Alex wouldn't it," Sofia guessed.

Hugo nodded his head.

"Alex, who's that, and why is his name so non-villainy?" James pried, unaware of what he was really asking.

"Well, it's a long story, but to cut it short, Alex is the real reason behind my mother's death." Hugo paused, unsure how to go on.

"Oh," James quietly sighed.

"You don't have to tell us if you don't want to, Hugo," Vivian gently offered.

"No, I want to, you guys are family," Hugo reassured. "It's just I'm trying to think of an explanation myself."

Sofia grabbed Hugo's hand and rubbed his palm with her thumb.

"Alex is originally from my kingdom, when my mother was just a young girl they became friends. From what I've gathered, his family is originally from the Mystic Isles, but decided to live a quiet and simple life in the Ever Realm. From what I remember, he blames my mother for the death of his family, and as for revenge, he killed my mother." Hugo paused, grimacing at the thought.

"He blames her for the way they burned. Apparently, there was a major fire that wiped their entire farm clean, and as a young boy, he sought my mother's help, but he was turned away." Hugo continued.

"Wait, so would you say, like, a little boy in a fire?" Vivian asked.

"Yeah, why?" Hugo gazed at her confused.

"I saw that moment in my dream!" Vivian cried out, slapping James' arm in excitement.

"What do you mean?" Hugo asked, now more confused than before.

"That's what I wanted to discuss earlier, I had this weird vision, dream, something like that, but it was bits and pieces and it didn't make sense at all!" Vivian explained.

"But now that you're talking about this scene, it's familiar to the one I saw, I'll tell you all the scenes that I saw and maybe we'll get some sort of answer." Vivian continued.

Hugo nodded, waiting for her to speak.

"Okay, the first scene I saw was a crying boy standing outside a fire and then outside palace gates, now that I think about it actually, it did kind of look like your gates Hugo. Anyway in another scene I see a young teen sleeping on the streets, and in another someone running in the woods. I then saw almost like a rotting corpse being, I think it looked like, mind controlled, and then again, in another scene I saw a figure trashing what looked to be a hideout."

"Wait, why does that sound familiar...," Hugo muttered to himself.

The clogs started working in his head and it finally made sense.

"Oh, Oh. Oh my gosh, it makes sense now. I think when Alex entered me and took control, our minds mixed and I saw his memories. Those must have been his memories." Hugo returned.

"Alex isn't the real villain, Alex... Alex is a victim, just like me." Hugo trailed off.

"Wait, what do you mean, victim? How can someone like him, who's caused so much pain, be a victim?!" Sofia exclaimed.

"Trust me it's not easy for me to say that about someone who murdered my mother, but his whole life revolved around the support of his family and, my mother, and one day that was violently snatched from him, and he doesn't even know why."

"How can you be so sure?" James asked in place of his sister.

"Because I saw it..." Hugo trailed off. Those weren't just nightmares he was having, but he was reliving the past of Alex.

"Alex watched his entire family burn, and when he turned to Adaria she abandoned him, or so he thought, but it's not true! My mother wasn't there, and then it just made it easier for Alex to be brainwashed into thinking that it was all my mother's fault. If there's one scene I remember vividly is these words on repeat; it's all Adaria's fault. I'm certain he's been brainwashed." Hugo claimed, his head spinning with the new revelation.

"Okay, but by who, and how do we proceed from here?" James asked, thinking logically.

"I'm not entirely sure by who, but I have my guesses, and as for how we proceed from here, it's best to split up." Hugo strategized.  

James nodded his head, logically it would be safer to do so.

"We'll handle down here and make sure no chaos goes beyond palace grounds, let alone another kingdom," James presumed what Hugo was going to say.

Hugo nodded with a smile. "Sofia and I will make our way into the Mystic Isles and contact Chrysta to let her know about our discovery and see if she can check my suspicions."

As Hugo made his way to contact Chrysta, the other three got to work to prepare an escape plan.

"Chrysta, are you there?" Hugo called.

"Yep, reading you loud and clear Hugo, what's your status?" Chrysta responded.

"Safe, for now. I have a theory that I need you to check inside the prison. Can you check our high security cells?" Hugo answered back.

Without hesitation, Chyrsta carefully made her way through the prison doors, trying to be as discreet as possible.

"I'm certain that Alex is up there." Hugo relayed.

"Any reason he might come here?" Chrysta whispered back. Chrysta was now inside the prison, trying to look for clues carefully.

"Well we spoke to the people of Vesta and we theorised that he might go after the law and order of this world." Hugo told her like it was normal.

"What?!" Chrysta yelled, quickly slapping her mouth, realising what she just did.

"However, we've made a new discovery, as bad as this might sound, I think Alex was brainwashed, and there's someone else behind him." Hugo informed.

"Oh, that's why you're getting me down here, to check who?" Chrysta predicted.

"Correct."

As Hugo waited patiently for Chrysta, the others were trying their best to make use of what was already lying around in the stables. Vivian had found an old bow and retightened its stings as if it were a violin, managing to collect 11 arrows. Whereas James had found three types of swords and was testing their agility against some wood to see which ones would be better fit for battle. Sofia had started planning their escape route.

Chrysta broke the silence, "Ichamura is gone... oh, this is bad."

Hugo nodded, "Sofia and I will make our way to the Protector's Isle first. We'll meet there and strategize a battle plan if we can."

Chrysta agreed and they nodded goodbye.

James tossed Hugo the other sword that was more agile for battle, and Hugo strapped it to his belt.

"I figured out the doors have a pull system. I played around with them for a bit and slowed them down. If someone can hit that lever on the left wall, we can make a diversion as if we'll come out the front, while we really escape from the back." Sofia explained.

The other three nodded in understanding.

"See you guys soon, because I refuse any other outcome than victory." Hugo firmly claimed, a smile gracing his lips.