"My finger is feeling itchy to the point that I might accidentally shoot him unless you can give me a better reason not to kill him," Null stated as his eyes narrowed. His focus was solely on the man before him, who was supposedly Prince Carter. It wasn't like he cared; it was just a title in his mind that meant nothing.

"Null, if you shoot him, the punishment we'll receive if they get their hands on us will be far worse than what we were locked up for," Aster shouted, hoping that Null would actually listen to what he was saying.

Null let an annoyed sigh escape him as he raked his fingers through his hair. "You're damn lucky I changed my mind," he said, waving around the gun in his hand.

Carter let out a shaky breath as his wobbling legs struggled to hold him up. "I'm relieved you changed your mind," he said, his heart still pounding a mile a minute.

"Don't think I'll let you off the hook yet. You're coming with us until we board one of those spacecrafts. I would hate for us to get killed when we're so close to escaping," Null stated. He motioned for the man to come closer.

Aster shook his head. Well, at least Null didn't shoot him. But I should be more happy that we're almost out of this damn place, he briefly thought, walking beside Null.

Clap! Clap! Clap!

Aster quickly spun around when he heard footsteps behind them and clapping. His eyes widened when he saw a man with short, spiky, dark lilac hair aiming a gun right at them.

"Wow, I must admit that you both made it a lot farther than I thought you would," the man said as a grin slowly formed on his lips.

"Don't take another step forward, Edmond, or else this prince of yours will have an accident, and you wouldn't want that," Null threatened as he grabbed onto Carter and tugged him backward into a headlock. He placed the gun against the side of Carter's head, showing he meant business.

"I already know you're one of the Warden's lap dogs. So, don't think for a second I'll fall for any of your tricks," Null said with a wild look in his eyes. He placed his finger on the trigger, just waiting to pull it if he needed to.

Damn it, why couldn't we have made it to one of the spacecrafts without any more problems. It looks like I'll play along with Null for now, Aster thought. His heart pounded a bit faster at the uncertainty of what could happen next.

"Just let us escape, and no harm will come to your precious prince," Aster brought up. Confusion painted itself on his features when an even wider grin appeared on Edmond's face.

"Oh, dear, whatever will we do if something bad happens to our precious prince? I'll tell you what will happen," Edmond said with a dark look in his eyes.

Bang!

The breath was ripped out of Aster's lungs when Edmond moved his gun and pulled the trigger. Aster's eyes darted to the left when blood splattered into the air. His heart beat harshly to the point he could hear it ringing in his eardrums.

A look of shock washed over Null when the bullet sank into Carter instead of him. Carter slipped out of Null's grip, collapsing to the ground in a pool of blood. "Are you fucking insane? How could you do that to your own prince!" Null shouted at Edmond, only for him to giggle.

"How could you do this to him? All Prince Carter wanted was peace. How could you kill him!" Edmond shouted in a panicked voice. A sinister grin formed on his face when he heard more footsteps approaching where they were. "Better run before you're caught," he said lowly.

Edmond laughed and swiftly moved to the left when Null tried to shoot him.

"We need to move now!" Null screamed and grabbed onto Aster's arm, yanking him forward.

Aster gritted his teeth when he picked up the pace to keep up with Null since with each step he took; pain shot up his leg.

"Stop them immediately!" a prison guard screeched after entering the area, followed by many more.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Aster chewed on the inside of his cheek. They had a high chance of getting shot by all the bullets whizzing past them when they had nowhere to hide now.

Null swiftly unlocked one of the spacecrafts and dragged Aster inside. He sucked in a breath as blood dripped from his shoulder and onto the floor. He wandered over to the control panel and started touching all the buttons.

Aster looked away from the window when prison guards started charging toward them. "What's taking so long? I thought you said you knew how to drive one of these things?" he said frantically when he heard the sound of bullets get louder.

A chuckle left Null's lips as he grinned. "Yeah, about that, I kind of lied," Null said, pulling out wires and attaching them together. He frowned when he didn't get the reaction he wanted and then repeatedly started punching the buttons until sparks started to fly.

"That's it; I'm gonna really die this time," Aster whined in disbelief. He slumped to the floor when his legs gave out on him when reality struck him.

Null rolled his eyes. "Freaking out isn't helping!" he barked. "Besides, these spacecrafts are fueled by mana, and since the prison has a barrier, no one within it is able to use their powers. Why do you think everyone is armed with dangerous weapons? The barrier can only be dropped by the Warden, and we damn well know that isn't going to happen for us," he explained while he tampered with the controls further.

"If that's the case, then we're never going to fly out of here," Aster yelled as he resisted the urge to cry. He flinched when a bullet dug into the side of the ship.

"Nah, just have a little more faith in me, will you," Null said while attaching the last wire he needed. When a green light flickered on, a crazy smile formed on his lips. "Looks like we're out of here," he said before clicking on a button.

Aster winced when he felt his body weight get tugged slightly in one direction when the ship jerked forward. He stood back up and headed over toward Null.

Boom!

Aster jolted when a loud explosion filled his eardrums. "What the hell was that!" he asked while moving next to Null.

"One of the ship's wings got hit by too many bullets, and a bunch of errors are showing up now," Null explained. He tapped nearly every button he could see.

Aster gripped onto the front of Null's shirt and tugged him forward. "This is all your fault! And quit hitting every button possible!" he stated with rage-filled eyes.

Null shook his head. "Maybe, but I got us out of there alive. So, I'm pretty sure that's what matters," he pointed out before his eyes widened when numerous red errors appeared on the screen.

They both stumbled into the control panel when the ship suddenly charged forward at warp speed.

"Malfunction! A crash is unavoidable!" the screen screeched, causing them both to cover their ears.

"Damn it, you have to be kidding me," Null barked. He walked over and started touching more buttons, only to slam his fist into the controls when the ship refused to listen to him. "Prepare for a crash landing; I'm going to try my best to reduce the damage," he explained while looking over his shoulder at Aster.

Aster swallowed hard when a planet he'd never seen before came into view quickly. He held his breath when the ship headed toward the ground before they crashed. He closed his eyes, unable to watch on.

They were thrown around when the ship collided with the ground. It tumbled a couple of times before finally stopping. Aster held his head, which was bleeding slightly. He tried to stay awake as he stared up at the ceiling of the ship.

Aster drifted in between consciousness. His eyes widened slightly when someone kicked through the roof of the ship and jumped inside. They were wearing an all-white outfit with a gas mask on their face.

"Hey, you stay away from him!" Aster weakly shouted when someone picked up Null and dragged him outside of the ship.

"Looks like you're still alive and in pretty good condition," a man wearing a gas mask said as he walked toward Aster.

Fear flooded through Aster's veins as he weakly tried to kick the man, only to fail when his body barely wanted to comply with him.

"There isn't a reason to fight; you'll be just fine," the man said before punching Aster in the face to knock him out.

Aster let out a groan when the pain spread across his face where the man's fist hit. Darkness consumed his vision against his will. He closed his eyes when they became too heavy to keep open.