The Princess With The Jet Black Hair

[Present, Fiore's castle's dungeons]

An hour ago, Erik started blabbering out of nowhere. Emily did know why what to do, so she just sat next to him and listened.

Soon, Erik realised what he had been subconsciously doing. He looked away from Emily and said, "I don't know why the hell did am I telling you all this... It's not like you will understand anywa—"

"I'm sorry." Emily said as she buried her head in her knees, "...For Lilian."

Erik did not expect her to actually listen to him.

She was completely different from what he expected.

"Yeah..." He replied as he leaned his head against the wall behind him.

For a moment, there was a static of silence.

Emily did not know what to say. Erik wanted to revive Lilian so he went with Phantom. He did not want something evil out of that organisation, to begin with. He wanted her to be alive.

"So, what now?" Erik asked as he looked at Emily from the corner of his eye, "I'm telling you, no matter what you do, I'll still be executed. So, you should just get out of here and sleep or something."

"I don't care. I'm still going to find a way. Zack and Kate still need you." She replied as she raised her head from her knees, "You haven't told me why you lied."

"Oh, you're still on that." He asked.

"Yeah, that's seemed to be the only way to save you." She replied.

"...What if I don't want to be saved?" He muttered under his breath.

"Why? Because Lilian isn't alive anymore and you don't think there's a meaning to your life?" She guessed as she slipped a droll look.

"Bullseye." He thought as he averted his eyes.

"You said that I'm the ridiculous one, but I think you're worse than me." She said as she rolled her eyes.

When he heard that he gave her a glare, "Shut up."

"I'm just telling you the truth. Why did you think Lilian rushed over in the first place?" Emily closed her eyes and wait for an answer.

"How would I know?" He replied instantaneously, "I'm not her."

"You're on a whole new level of ridiculous, you know that?"

She then sighed and explained, "Even though I'm not Lilian. I would guess that she wanted to save you—"

"Yeah, of course! Why didn't I think about that." He said sarcastically.

"Hey, I'm not done." Emily narrowed her eyes towards him. She then took a deep breath and continued, "Look, she wanted you to continue living that's why she had the urge to save you. She gave her life in exchange for yours, that's what she did base on her own will. She gave you memories, love and actual life. You're the one to decide whether or not to throw it away or to keep it. Even though she's no longer here, whatever she gave you still remains. She's just no longer here to remind you about it, no?"

"Think about it this way, you own your life to Lilian. So, dying now will be a waste. As of now, Zack and Kate need you, you should continue living for them. If you still think that your life is meaningless, I think Lilian will be upset."

All of a sudden, his eyes started watering.

He wiped them his eyes forcefully and repeatedly, but the salty water was not going away. "What the hell is this?" He asked as the droplets of water ran down his face.

Emily's eyes widened when she saw Erik, "He's... crying."

She shifted her whole body such that she was directly in front of Erik. She reached over and gave him a hug. She did not know what was up with her, but, for some reason, she felt like that was the right choice.

"Those are your tears and you're crying," Emily whispered softly to answer his question.

"Oh, right." Erik thought, "I almost forgotten this feeling."

"Grief."

[Fiore's castle, outside of dungeons]

Jai and Ben were waiting outside for their cue to go in, but it had been an hour and the princess had not given them a single word.

"I think we—" Jai wanted to say something but he was stopped by Ben, "Relax, everything is fine."

Just then. they heard a set of footsteps heading towards them.

From the darkness, a figure emerged out.

It was Beck.

Ben walked towards his twin brother and swung his arm over Beck's shoulder. "What is the princess' fiancé doing here?"

Beck laughed nervously but said nothing to respond.

Ben then wiggled his eyebrows and asked, "Don't tell me... Did you come to look for me? Nah, who am I kidding? You came here to look for Emily, right?"

Beck rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly and nodded, "She was acting strangely in the morning, so I just wanted to check on her."

Ben released Beck and he continued, "I heard from the servants that Emily followed you two to the dungeons. So, where's Emily?"

"Well, let's just say that Emily wants to stop Erik's execution." Ben explained, "Sooo, now she's in Erik's cell talking to him... Or that's what we think she's doing."

Beck's eyes widened when he heard what Ben said, "Wait, is that a little too dangerous?"

"Yeah, it is," Ben replied.

"Then, why did you still let her do that?"

Ben sighed and said, "Don't get me wrong, it is dangerous. But, we can't say no to her, right? She's our leader. Besides, I just want to see what would happen."

"But, that's—" Beck wanted to protest, but he could not. His brother was right about Emily being their leader.

"You two, need to calm down." Ben said as he shook his head, "Everything is going to be alright. Erik isn't in any condition to fight and the Phantom is unlikely to take him back. Trust me, I know them very well. If they really want to take him back, they will act earlier. If I'm not wrong, they probably had chosen to throw him away. And, Erik most likely knows this himself."

When he was explaining this, Jai and Beck noticed the cold look on his face.

Saying that did stir up a couple of memories for Ben.