Autumn was finally returning home, even if it was only for a brief period of time. Her trip was arranged promptly; she even got to speak to Prince Chanyeol who promised her that she could stay at her house even though she was supposed to stay at the Palace as she was now unofficially part of the royal family. She packed lightly as she had all she needed back home. The trip was planned to leave early morning the next morning. During all this planning and packing she didn’t really have much time to think about Hurricane; much less see him; but whenever she had a moment to pause; her mind would wander; does he know she is going back? Will he miss her? Or does he not even care because his job has now changed to looking after someone else. It would be this endless cycle and she would try to break the cycle by finding something to do.

“Have a safe trip, ok?” Blaze says with concerned look in his eyes. Although Autumn has not told him about the reasoning behind the sudden trip; Blaze knew her well enough to know it probably had something to do with the sudden change in the security personnel.

Autumn nods and waves as she gets into the car. Blaze closes the door behind her; and nodding to the only guard accompanying her, “Please looks after her.” He says with a firm pat on the back on the guard. “Yes Sir.”

Blaze watches as the car drives off until it disappears around the bend; and he turns around and walks up the stairs leading to the main hallway when a sudden barrage of gun shots followed by a loud bang caused him to spin around. A pillar of angry gray red smoke billowing at the main entrance of the palace wall caused Blaze to break out running; Autumn was all her could think about. He approached the wreck the smoke stinging his eyes; burning his throat as he thought; black streaks line his face as he screams for Autumn; but no reply comes except for her name to be screamed back at him from another voice. Blaze finds the owner of the voice pulling out someone whose his legs bloody and the side of his face black with soot but he managed to recognize the guard who he had just said farewell to a few minutes ok.

“What happened?” Blaze says as he starts ripping the material by the leg to look at the wound; a leg wound that wasn’t deep but still required emergency treatment.

“The rebels came out of nowhere… and, and they started shooting; the driver tried to drive away... but the tires burst…” He stopped to cough.

“What about Miss Autumn? Where is she?” Blaze was about to say but his word were spoken before he could form them. He turned to the person who was helping the guard out of the car. It took a second before Blaze recognized him; his features distorted by an angry urgency and worry.

“Where the hell is she!” Hurricane yells again shaking the guard.

“Whoa, calm down, doing that is not going to help anything.” Blaze says stopping Hurricane.

“I need to find her!” Hurricane retorts, “I’m the one who was supposed to keep her safe.” He swore under his breath.

The guard swallowed; his Adams apple bobbing up and down nervously. “They took her and the driver.... before setting off the bomb in the car.”

Hurricane stood up, “which way did they go?’

“Where could they have taken her?” Taecyeon shouted; cracking his knuckles loudly, “It’s been two freaking hours already!”

“Your Majesty; we have already sent out all the possible guards to search for her without compromising the security of the Palace!” The head of security says nervously.

“Son… maybe it is time to call them back; the rebels have yet to contact us; they also released the driver, judging by the large amount of blood we found; I think we should assume that Miss Autumn is no longer with us.” The King says trying to reason with his son.

“No. She’s still alive; she can’t just get away like that.” Taecyeon spat, “I’m going to go join the search.”

“NO! I won’t allow it; Sir Blaze being out there is already causing a big enough strain; we could have lost the future Queen; but we can’t afford to lose the crown prince.”

At that moment a messenger ran in the room forgetting the formalities, “They found her.”

***

The gunshots took Autumn by surprise; but the driver reacted quickly speeding up; but the car rocked when the bullets took out all four tires bringing them to a standstill. The guard took out his weapon and he kept Autumn behind him as the rebels approached the car. Unfazed by the weapon waved in front of him; the rebel opened the door and brought a knife down on his leg causing him to cringe as the pain shot through his leg at the same time; the other door opened and Autumn was dragged out backwards; taken by surprise she managed to knock a knife from her assailant; she dived for it and held onto it. She panicked as two tall men approached her; but she never had to fight before; but it was pointless because a tall black haired man spoke in a voice so deep it echoed as if they were in caves.

“I’m not here to hurt you; we can make this easy and come with us.”

Seeing that there was not much of a choice to begin with; autumn had no choice but to follow. The taller man walking in front while the one who spoke followed closely behind she could hear his every breath. Once they reached a wooded area; the two visible relaxed.

“Zelo go regroup; I’ll bring take her to BAse P.”

The tall one nodded and set off on a jog.

Autumn cleared .”You have old names…” She said softly worried about how he would react. “What court are you from?”

“A court not known to you.” He replies, “My name is Bang-”

He is not given the chance to answer as Autumn pulled out the knife that she hid and stabbed blindly behind her, She felt contact and the man collapsed onto the grassy floor. Not wasting a second; she ran as fast as she could, thankful that she had been dressed to travel that day. When she felt that she was some distance away; something felt off and made her turn around. And instantly she wished she didn’t.

The man stood to perfect attention watching her run; only his hand clutching his arm which bleeds in a bright red running down his arms. He made no effort to run after her even though he could have easily caught her even if he was injured. This image made Autumn push herself to run faster.

As she soon saw a clearing; and the woods soon turned to streets; Autumn kept running in the boundary between the woods and the housing. Although the woods scared her; the town scared her even more as she now understood the reason for the unrest; dilapidated houses and children dressed in threadbare clothes sat in the street; hollow eyes follow her as she ran. It wasn’t the first time she had been to a poverty stricken area. Her father had taken her and her brother to the worst area in Fire court to teach them what it meant to have nothing; but it was the hollow eyes in this Earth Court town that scared her; there was no life in them. Autumn couldn’t help but run from the hollow eyes, running back deeper into the woods. And it soon turned into a downward slope. Losing her footing; Autumn tumbled someway rolling on the hard terrain before being struck in the head by a rock and finally rolling to a stop.