✧･ﾟ:*When the sword is drawn from the stone, hope blooms within the rebellion.
But fates and destinies are fickle things and with the legend of the sword being fulfilled, another prophecy becomes set into motion.
Renly has been a part of the rebel...
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He looked like death, with scars and bruises littering his face, and dark circles under his eyes. But there was no mistaking it, those blue eyes and that platinum blonde head of cropped hair, it was Rubio.
Rubio.
Rubio.
Renly let out a disbelieving laugh as she took him in. He looked awful but he was alive.
Looking out at her through the narrow window on his cell door.
Around her, the mention of her name had caught the attention of other members of their group, her name bouncing from cell to cell until every prisoner knew exactly who had come down the steps of the dungeon.
"There's a war going on." Renly informed Rubio breathlessly as she approached him carrying the ring of keys she'd nicked from the guards she killed.
The sound of a large explosion from outside the castle sounded through the barred windows.
Rubio let out a breathy laugh. "You don't say."
"Figured you guys would want to join the fight." Renly said while testing each key in the lock before finally getting it right. The loud click echoed against the stone walls around them.
"Well, I don't have anything else to do today so, might as well." Rubio said as the door opened.
For a moment they simply looked at one another, and then Renly threw her arms around him and embraced him tightly.
"I thought you were dead." She whispered into his dirty tunic.
Then she stepped back and punched him in the shoulder.
Rubio grunted and clutched his arm in pain.
"Never do that again." She ordered.
He nodded stiffly.
"Now, anybody else in here feeling like dying in a war?" She called out loudly.
The responding hollers of the men and women she'd known for years made her smile.
As Renly helped her people escape she silently did the numbers in her head.
Eighty-two of their people had died during the attack at the caves.
Renly did not allow herself to linger on the names of the people they'd lost. Once again telling herself to push it away for another time.
Later.
They moved through the castle as a unit, cutting down every blackleg who came into their path. Taking their weapons and arming themselves for the fight to come. However, most of the king's men let the group of broken soldiers pass.
Renly was for the first time in what seemed like forever at the front of the pack. Leading the group of rebels toward the large castle doors, they would unlock them, and join the fight at the Blackleg army's back.
It was as good of a plan as Renly could have made in her haste.
Rubio was trying to hide his limp as he moved beside her, in any other case, on any other day, Renly might have told the rebels with the worst injuries to have stayed behind with the children and wounded. But she could not deny these people their right to fight for their freedom, to sit by in the dungeons and wait for the battle to end. She would not take away their right to fight.
When they reached the outermost wall of defense that surrounded the castle grounds. Rubio and Damien moved swiftly towards the tower where the gate was controlled. The blackleg guarding it were all distracted by the fighting beneath them, they were not prepared to be attacked from inside the castle walls.
Renly stood by the gates bouncing on her feet, waiting for them to open. Around her, her people were saying their prayers and preparing their weapons.
Renly was reminded of the bath house as she stood there waiting for the gates to open. She had been prepared to die that day, just like everyone around her.
On that day, Arthur had been there to finish the fight.
Renly glanced over at the tall tower in the distance and she prayed, that Arthur was alive, that he would win.
But if he did not, if he died in his fight against his uncle it was up to them.
They had to win.
The loud creak broke Renly out of her thoughts.
"Get ready." She ordered the men around them.
Please, protect them.
She sent out the prayer to anyone who would listen.
The doors opened and chaos ensued.
They moved with lightning speed, all of them running at the backs of their enemies.
Renly let the world fade.
Her sword pierced the back of a blackleg, and just like that they had joined the fight.
The Blackleg's forces were split, fighting back to back, surrounded on both sides.
Renly slashed and stabbed. She did not linger on who, or how many.
Blood rained over her, getting in her eyes, in her mouth.
There was no way of knowing how the battle looked from above. All she could see was her next enemy, her next opponent, her next target.
Then it happened, the large crack sounded like thunder, Renly let her eyes glance up and the feeling of undeniable relief flooded her system as she watched the tower begin to crumble.
"Retreat!"
The word cut through the battlefield like knife.
Renly did not know who had issued the order, or from which side, but she watched the Blacklegs around her turn, and then she watched them run.
The shouting of triumph, of pain, of defeat, filled the air.
Renly's eyes found Bedevere on the other side of the battlefield. Blood covered and alive.
She was just about to let out a victorious shout of her own when she felt it.
The blade went into her back.
She glanced down at it, where the bloody end of a sword protruded from her stomach.
She glanced up again, finding Bedevere's big eyes, his mouth was open as he screamed for her but Renly could not hear him.
Tears welled in her eyes, at the pain, at the loss, at the regret.
She had accepted her fate more than a year ago, even waited for it, and yet, now as she felt the darkness creeping in, there was still something within her screaming, fighting.
Fighting for air, for breath, for life.
Then she felt the blade being ripped back out of her, and everything went black.
