Chapter 181 - Von In Solitude

[Von: We're here. What's happening?] Von sent a message to their team's group chat secretly while being surrounded by female guards and getting tied up with Gem who was also being forced to kneel down on the floor with him the moment they arrived at the checkpoint's headquarters.

[Fily: The fake Petunia's got them all glamoured and under her orders. You've got to escape and run away from them quickly. We're currently hiding somewhere on the third floor and will be on our way to the holding cells to recover Petunia and her collar.]

[Von: Do you need us to do something?] Von asked insightfully while watching Gem have a staring contest with a little bit of growling with the female guards currently guarding them right now.

[Fily: Actually…] Fily sent even though her sentence was not yet complete.

[Von: What?]

[Fily: We actually don't know where the collar is… and the fake Petunia's probably looking for it too so if you can…]

[Von: Okay, we're on it. We just need some time to get away from these… guards..] Von said confidently as if he had a plan on how to escape this situation.

[Von: Hey, you got anything that could help us escape this situation?] Von said by sending a message to Gem and even nudging her from his back and looking at her with a knowing look.

"Grrr!" Gem growled at the female who poked her with a muffled voice due to the cloth wrapped around her mouth.

[Von: Gem!] Von sent and looked at her with a confused gaze once again, infuriated that Gem was not paying attention to what he was saying and was only focusing on her little staring contest with the female guards.

Finally, Gem seemed to have noticed his message and took her time reading the rest while keeping quiet and detached from her staring contest, making the main girl guarding them leave from in front of them.

[Gem: I have a plan, but it's not a hundred percent success rate.] Gem sent and glanced at Von who immediately got what she was trying to say.

[Von: What is it?] Von replied after releasing a relieved sigh after seeing Gem finally pay attention to their problem and plan on escaping.

[Gem: I'm going to bring you to Solitude.]

[Von: What?! Is that allowed?!] Von looked at Gem with much shock and fear in his eyes.

[Gem: Yes, I've done it before with Fily! But I'm just not sure how because everything happened so quickly. But now that my Salamandite has been charged, I'm sure I could just do it again if I think about it. But you have to trust me,] Gem said, which made Von a little more scared knowing that Gem might be getting too excited and ahead of herself this time.

He didn't even hear anything about Fily being able to come and go in Solitude which made him skeptical about Gem's claim, not even to mention the thing that Gem said about not having a hundred percent success rate earlier which made it scarier for Von to trust her.

[Von: Are you sure it's safe?] Von asked cautiously again and glanced at Gem with fear-filled eyes.

[Gem: I don't know… There's this weird side effect that happened to Fily before that's why I never tried doing it again. But I don't think we have another option here Von.]

[Von: A side effect?!] Von squeaked. [Von: W-What is it?] He followed immediately after calming himself down a little bit.

[Gem: If I remember correctly, I think it had something to do with your superpowers… like you'll lose it temporarily when you're in there but you'll get it back quickly after going back here in the real world, just like what happened to Fily.] Gem said, explaining as calmly as she could so Von wouldn't be scared but the fact that Von didn't reply yet might mean that he's getting afraid of it.

And no matter how much Von read the message that Gem said, the words 'losing your superpowers' even if temporarily, made Von almost back out from the whole plan and thought of just staying tied up to Gem for the rest of the mission since Venedette and the others would probably be able to solve everything by themselves anyway.

[Gem: Von? Are you still there?] Gem said and peeked to her side where Von was looking very far away from her as if thinking of something so deeply.

[Von: Is there a high chance that they'll kill us?] Von sent to the group GC which made Gem look at her in disbelief.

Not long after, Gem sighed with an understanding tone as if she accepted Von's decision already. And without even looking at Fily's reply, Gem messaged Von again.

[Gem: I'll go by myself then,] she said and gathered all her power to push herself up.

But to Gem's surprise, Von suddenly pulled her down using the rope that was tying them together and looked at her with uncertainty and a little bit of guilt.

In Von's mind, he was still very afraid of the Salamandite that was said to be similar to the one that killed his sister. But since it's the best option that they've got right now, Von reconsidered his decision and decided to just give it a shot.

[Von: I'll come… This won't kill me, right?] Von said and fixed his sitting position to give Gem more momentum so they could push each other up.

[Gem: It won't! I promise!] Gem said, delighted.

[Von: Okay, I trust you,] Von said and stifled a smile while thinking about escaping from this suffocating situation of being surrounded by a lot of tall and serious-looking women with weapons in their hands and not to forget the fact that they were being controlled by someone powerful and unknown.

[Gem: Here we go,] Gem said and urged Von to start the back push with her so they could both stand up together.

And without even knowing it, the moment Von opened his eyes, he was already in a very clean and empty white space which matched the description of the Solitude that Gem had been telling them all this time.

"Welcome to Solitude," Gem said with a smile after cutting off the cloth around her mouth using the sharp tip of her gemstone.

"Thank you," Von said after having the ropes and cloth around his mouth and hands untied by Gem.

"You're welcome," Gem said with a smile that even reached her eyes after successfully bringing someone else other than her and Fily inside Solitude without having them forget their memories.

But as soon as Von took his eyes away from Gem, he suddenly felt a heavy weight around his body as if the gravity in there was stronger than that of Earth's.

"Where are we?" Von asked which Gem misunderstood.

"Inside Solitude, of course. I just said welcome,"

"No, I mean…" Von trailed off and shook his head, "Nevermind. I just felt a little heavy and thought that we're on another planet or something."

"Oh," Gem's eyes widened and quickly recalled something, "That must be you losing your powers-"

"THAT FAST?!" Von said, definitely freaking out of the sudden change in his body.

"-temporarily," Gem added, finishing her sentence with a concerned tone, "And no, we're not on another planet. Just another dimension here on Earth."

"Oh, so where do we go now?" Von said, acting cool while walking beside Gem even though he was already on the verge of crying inside.

"Where did Fily say they're going at?" Gem asked and skimmed her stat-hut that just suddenly popped from the floor, looking very different from their usual stat-hut that made Von almost want something like it for himself.

"So this place… it's yours?" Von asked out of curiosity, momentarily being the distracted one instead of Gem who was now the one being focused on their mission.

"What do you mean by mine?" Gem asked even though her focus was still fixated at the maps that she found on her files. Even spreading them around the floor and popping walls around them which still surprised Von every time it happened.

"Like, how can you do that? Can you control this whole place?" Von asked which finally caught Gem's attention and made her think for a second.

"Hmmm, I didn't think of that before," she only said and returned to her map tracking immediately.

"But this power-"

"Enough about that. Let's just focus on the mission first," Gem said and merged two walls in front of her to create a bigger screen for the two of them to see the map on a bigger scale.

"So here's what we're going to do…" Gem said and briefed Von about the plan that she had been cooking in that short amount of time to be of help at least to Venedette and the others, especially Petunia escape safely from this mysterious and very unexpected thing that went in their way on what should have been a safe and smooth picnic to Edelweiss over the weekends.