Chapter 184 - Rainbows

"If we went the wrong way, they shouldn't be Venedette and the others be here right now too?"

"What if the guards caught up to them and prevented them from coming here?"

"I doubt that Venedette and Lei are more than capable of escaping those brainwashed female guards."

"Yeah, but Fily isn't…" Von said and looked at Gem with concerned eyes.

"No, but they could also be in the garage right now and I should go meet them there immediately," Gem said and prepared herself for a run but Von suddenly held her arm to stop her.

"What if it's a trap? We don't know what that fake Petunia is thinking so we shouldn't act too rashly about this," Von said and pulled Gem out of the crowd and into the now-empty holding cells while shaking his head stubbornly.

"Why did you bring me here?" Gem said and pulled her arms away from Von's hold.

"If we went in the wrong direction and Petunia's not here, there's a chance that the commander could be here with the collar that my mom and Fily are looking for," Von said and went silent when he noticed Gem's unconvinced look at him.

"What?"

"What makes you think that the commander is just loitering around here when clearly, he has what that fake Petunia wants. If I were her I would most definitely put him somewhere else and torture him to death until he gives me what I want," Gem said with matching eye rolls as if she was just stating the obvious.

But unlike her, Von's thoughts were different, he did not even consider the fact that the fake Petunia has yet to get what she wants until Gem pointed it out.

"Y-You're right! I think I know what we should do now!" 

"What?" Gem asked and suddenly stood in a defensive position after hearing a commotion not far from them in the hallways.

"Quickly, spill it out!" Gem said and locked the bars herself from the inside of the holding cell they were currently at.

"The collar is what that fake Petunia wants, right? We should give it to her!" Von said which immediately garnered him strong disagreeing glares from Gem.

"Why would we give Petunia's memories to her?" Gem said and suddenly turned Von around to face the open window behind them.

"Of course we're not giving her the real one. Just like how she faked being Petunia, we should also fake that we have the collar and that we're giving it to her in exchange for letting this place go and coming with us."

"Why should we offer her to come with us? Even if it's fake?" Gem asked and crossed her arms while looking at Von as if he was thinking about nonsensical things.

"Because, we want to fool her, like what she thinks she's doing to us," Von said and shrugged, "There's another collar like Petunia's in the Levi-yacht."

"Hmmm, that's not so bad of an idea, let's see what the others have to say about it," Gem said and suddenly hopped on Von's back without prior notice.

"Wh-Whoa, what are you doing!?" Von said and turned around to throw Gem off his back but Gem's grip was already tight around his neck.

"Let's go. Fly me to the Yacht, and we'll go back to the garage with that collar later," Gem said while pointing innocently at the open window, a few inches from the tall ceiling, in front of them.

"Come on! There's a lot of guards coming here and I don't want to be caught like last time!" 

"Tch, fine!" Von said and wrapped his arms around Gem's knees for support.

"You could have just gone back to Solitude and looked for the real collar by yourself, you know?" Von said and lunged backward for a smooth lift after that unfamiliar heavy feeling he had to experience at Solitude earlier.

"I already locked the cell, and besides, isn't it fun to be on a mission with me?" Gem said with a wide smile and then looked back to the guards who had just arrived behind them outside of their cell.

"Bye-bye, losers!" Gem laughed and even stuck out her tongue to them before taking off with Von through that wide landscape window.

***

"One, two, three. Where's the other two?" Heize said from a distance while letting Venedette and her team think that they're helping those guards and prisoners escape her glamour by talking to them.

"Uhh, our people are now on their way to the fifth's cell where these people said they spotted the two kids at," Heize's human assistant said.

"Gem and Von. Okay, make sure to bring them here, I really need that girl's powers," Heize said worriedly while still watching Venedette and the other two kids trying to make peace around a crowd of a thousand employees who hate them.

"Why do we have to get caught up in this weird situation? Just get your cat already and get out of our country!" an annoyed chad said which was then followed with a lot of second opinions from people mostly agreeing with him.

"Please, please. Just calm down, we'll get through this situation safely, okay?" Venedette said and finally saw the fake Petunia entering the room with teary eyes and looking so fragile as ever.

"Venedette, please take me out of here. I don't want to be tortured anymore!" Heize said and fainted on the floor which made a lot of people, even men and those who were not under her glamour gasp and care about her.

"I… It's okay, I'm just-" Heize said and puked rainbows which made the people who ran to her for help step away instinctively.

"Is that really Petunia?" Lei asked and looked worriedly at Venedette and Fily who both looked like they were not convinced of this furry's poor acting.

But unlike them, Lei was worried sick and could not stop himself from overthinking the situation.

"Guys answer me! Isn't that Petunia?!" Lei said with an angry voice but Fily and Venedette were just silently watching them and did not even bother to look at Lei and answer him truthfully.

"What happened to you?" a guy with a soft voice asked Heize which made more people interested in her story.

"T-That other cat is trying to steal my place. Please believe me Venedette, Fily, Lei… Help me."

"What? What did she say?" The crowd murmured after not hearing Heize's voice loudly but then another man from the cell where Von and Gem were earlier suddenly spoke.

"Weren't you just oppressing us earlier? Why are you suddenly acting weak and sickly?"

"T-That's not me! That's the other cat!"

"But the cat in the other jail beside ours earlier couldn't even talk!" 

"What?!" Lei panicked and looked at Venedette and Fily's reaction again after hearing what that guy said.

But when she saw the uninterested gazes in their eyes, Lei finally lost it and made his way through the crowd and to Petunia in a swift.

"Come on, how can I help you?" Lei said and scooped the fake Petunia up in his arms while trying not to get his shirt spoiled by the rainbows on the floor.

"W-Water, I need water," Heize said helplessly and even threatened to puke again which made Lei haste to the water dispenser he thought he saw earlier on their way to the garage.

"Oh no, Lei's been glamoured!" Fily said worriedly after seeing him suddenly appear in front of the fake Petunia and even offered to help her with her obviously fake sickness.

"Oh, Lei…" Venedette said and shook her head slowly, not even noticing the number of eyes currently situated at her and Fily for looking like heartless teammates who would just let their teammate die.

"I can't believe it, I already knew the Princess is not someone who truly cares about her people… but this? This is too much."

"She's so heartless." Another guy said which made Fily a little bit more concerned about Venedette who was now being accused of something she's entirely not just because of that fake Petunia wannabe.

"Let's go. We don't know what that cat is planning for Lei by baiting him in," Venedette said while offering a hand to Fily who noticed the pain in her eyes which she was trying to hide so badly by maintaining her composure and acting tough.

"But you're not the bad guy here," Fily said while hesitating to take Venedette's hands.

"You should go, I don't think I can help you both on the battlefield," Fily said and smiled at her while pulling her arms back to her sides.

"Good luck," Fily said and smiled a little to cheer Venedette up who didn't even look at her and took off speedily on her own to go after Lei and that dangerous little fake Petunia.

"Venedette's not the bad person that you now think she is, guys! That talking cat is really just fake and we of all people would know that!" Fily suddenly shouted which grabbed all of the people's attention back at her, but not in a good way that she was intending for it to happen.

"What did you say?" a tough-looking female guard said and stepped forward while clutching her fists together.

"Oh no…"