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janetbrown711 · 2 years ago

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As the World Caves In

How on earth have they survived?

tw mention of childloss/miscarriage

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11

Ao3 Link

To say William woke up feeling refreshed would be the most obvious lie of all history.

His first thought in his painfully groggy head of his was of his location. Without opening his eyes, he recognized he certainly wasn’t in the palace anymore. It smelled of elixirs and medicines, and the bed he was on was slightly scratchy and worn.

His second thought was of Lena.He couldn’t feel her next to him, which worried him a lot. So much so he fought off his grogginess and opened his eyes.

This third thought was remembering what had happened.

Freeing Wakko. Hurting his arm. The attack. Lots of walking.

He tried sitting up but a wave of pain shot through his whole body and he was forced to sit back down. However, he looked across the room and saw her.

Lena was in a bed across the room from him. She had bandages wrapped around her shoulder and chest, as well as her hands and left foot, as her right leg was in a cast. Her face was also thoroughly bruised and William could still see the mark her mother’s ring had left on her cheek however long ago that was.

His fourth thought was of his children.

They weren’t here, he and Lena were in Acme Falls, far, far away from the castle. He missed them so much already…

“Oh good, you’re awake,” The familiar voice of Helloise Nerz spoke softly. “How are you feeling William?”

How was he feeling? Almost every inch of his body ached and hurt, his wife somehow appearing worse than him, and he was miles and miles away from his children, whom he already missed terribly.

“Right… dumb question,” She apologized. “How much do you remember?”

He thought for a moment.

“Last thing I remember is passing out on your doorstep,” He said. She nodded.

“Well, that’s at least good, because that was the last thing that happened,” She said, checking off something on a notepad.

“So… what’s wrong with me, doc?” He joked a little. Helloise chuckled.

“Nurse. Scratchy is the real doc,” She remarked.

“Don’t sell yourself short, Helloise. I’m sure you could run this place if you had to,” He said. She snorted.

“You’ve got a terribly sprained arm that I noticed was already bandaged, but you’ve made it much worse from, I presume, carrying her highness?” She asked, and William nodded in confirmation. “You also have a torn ligament in your right ankle, minor frostbite, and very strained leg muscles,” she read off of a chart.

“And Lena?” He asked.

“Broken rib, a minor concussion from what we can tell, fractured fibula, severe bruising on the face, minor frostbite, and blood loss from a wound in the right shoulder we cleaned and stitched up, as well as… well– we aren’t sure, we’ll need to talk to her highness before confirming our last suspicion.”

William looked at his wife again.

“How long have we been asleep?” He asked.

“Three days,” She said.

“W-what? Three days?!” he couldn’t believe it.

Helloise sighed. “William…” she sat on the edge of his bed.

“The whole kingdom thinks you two are dead, and honestly? You two are lucky to even be alive.”

“What? Why? How? What about Yakko Wakko and Dot? Are they alright?” He tried sitting up again, but the pain set him back.

“Well, her majesty the queen threw a funeral two days ago. They said attackers stormed the castle in the night and killed the two of you,” She explained.

“But what about Yakko Wakko and Dot? Are they okay?” He begged.

“I haven’t heard any news of the three of them, so they should be alright with the queen,” Helloise shrugged.

“If you could consider being with the queen alright,” he muttered.

“Yes… if that can be considered good…” She scratched the back of her neck.

William sighed. “I’m sorry, it’s not your fault, Helloise.” His friend smiled pitifully.

Just then, a low grumble came from across the room, and Lena began to stir.

“What… where… Will..?” she mumbled as her eyes slowly opened and she took in her surroundings. William wanted nothing more than to rush to her side, and it took him all of his willpower not to. Instead, the good nurse went over and started evaluating her mobility and explaining the situation to her.

“D-dead..?” Her face went pale as a ghost. “That means… They’re with– We have to go. Now,” She looked at William, and started trying to get out of bed to the point where Helloise had to basically restrain her.

“Your highness, you can’t. You need to recover, and you have a broken leg, remember?” She said, adjusting her pillows, but Lena didn’t want to stop fighting.

“I can’t leave them with her- I can’t,” She shook her head.

“Lena…” William said softly. She looked at him for a moment, before giving in and turning her head away. Just then, the doctor came in.

“Oh goodie, you two are awake,” Scratchnsniff said, but he quickly read the room.

“Er… how are you two feeling?” He asked. William shrugged, while Lena remained silently looking away.

He then pulled the nurse back outside to talk for a moment, promising it wouldn’t be long. William nodded and let them go, and his eyes went to Lena.

She wouldn’t look at him, even when he said her name. It broke his heart in two despite that he knew she was going through a lot. After all, they were both terribly worried about the kids.

The kids.

William knew they were resourceful and clever, but he honestly had no idea what Angelina was going to do to them now that they were out of the picture- especially if she thought they were dead.

Especially to Wakko.

“So… your highnesses… what can you tell us about the attack?” The doctor reentered and asked.

“Oh god… where to start?” he chuckled nervously.

“If you aren’t ready, it’s totally fine,” Helloise sat on the edge of his bed. “We just… well… the people are curious. You are supposed to be dead after all.”

“Of course,” William said, before taking a deep breath and beginning.

.o0o.

It had been a tense week. William had been mad at himself when he had sprained his arm. He was a knight, dammit, he was supposed to be trained to be better than that. Now it meant he had to postpone any of his own mini training lessons he was giving Wakko and Yakko until later, which he knew Yakko would be suspicious of. He always had a habit of picking up on their anxiety and carrying it with him like it was his responsibility too, which was upsetting for multiple reasons.

Some of Angelina’s lessons were extremely difficult to try and undo.

At least Wakko was trying to be optimistic about things. After he had broken him out of the tower, Wakko was spending a lot more time with them as a family, suddenly talking to them a lot more than he used to, which William took as a good sign, as he desperately wanted something to look on the bright side about.

Dot was happy too, of course, as she was just glad to have Wakko back too. She could hardly tell everyone else was anxious, she was only four after all.

Oh to have such innocence…

When the first window broke, William had been up in a flash, and despite his injury, he grabbed his sword anyway.

“William? What’s the matter?” Lena had asked, halfway asleep.

“Go back to sleep, my love. I’ll handle this,” he kissed her head and headed out.

“...Be careful,” He heard her say as the door closed.

He walked through the halls, surprised at just how silent everything was. For a moment he even believed the sound might just be a figment of his imagination. Still, he kept his guard up, praying his knight training wouldn’t fail him now.

“…this castle is huge! Even with the map she gave us,” a disgruntled, not-too-far off voice said. William ducked behind a curtain for cover.

“Quit your whining! It’s only three steps: grab the king, grab the queen, and grab the kid if there’s time to spare,” A lower voice shrugged, and William immediately leapt from behind to attack.

Unfortunately, William found himself evenly matched by his opponent and also realized his attacker was surrounded by allies, some that were even taller than him.

He was kinda screwed.

Still, he fought and parried and swung and blocked with a valiant effort, though the pain in his arm burned more and more and it was evident he was becoming weaker. His opponent saw this, and got behind, and he brought down the handle of his sword onto his arm, and William dropped his sword and fell onto the ground, growling in pain.

“Remember, queenie said no blood on her carpets or tapestries if we can help it,” The tallest reminded his attacker, who was now pointing his sword at his face. “Tie him up. With the strongest removed, we can work on getting that queen and the middle boy,” He ordered, before taking a few and leaving.

Wakko.

William growled, and swiped his feet out from under him, causing his attacker to fall to the ground. William then began fighting with his bare fists against the men who tried jumping on and fighting him next.

However, he was too surrounded, and before William knew it, his wrists were tied and he was captured.

“Alright, move it, princey,” one of the men kicked him. William gnashed his teeth, but they planned for that, as two of the men held him down, and a third quickly put a muzzle around him.

“There, now that should get you to behave,” He grinned, pulling William up, and the three men forced him out of the castle, and into the back of a carriage, where he was locked in and left.

He tried kicking the door open, but it was pure metal and all he did was hurt his feet and exhaust himself.

William was alone for quite an amount of time, and he tried everything he could to break free of his restraints but nothing was working. He cursed his stubbornness that caused him to sprain his arm- if it hadn’t been for that he was confident he would’ve been able to take down the six men. He was a knight for god’s sake- he was supposed to be able to protect his family.

He was supposed to be able to protect his family.

After a long moment of silence and stillness, the door opened and Lena was thrown in next to him, and William caught a glimpse of the outside and noticed it was snowing lightly.

He didn’t dwell on that, his eyes falling onto Lena, who looked horrible. Tears were streaming down her face as she looked at him, and she had a giant gash in her shoulder. Despite that, she slowly and painfully crawled her way over and laid against his chest. William did his best to hug her with his hands tied.

Neither of them could say a word, but both knew exactly what the other was feeling, and they did their best to embrace and comfort each other.

Then, the carriage began to move.

They didn’t capture Wakko.

Despite everything, William sighed a breath of relief.

Silently, the couple rode for hours, not knowing where they were being taken or why or who was behind any of this, though they had a few guesses.

William was just glad he still had Lena, even if it wouldn’t be for much longer.

He loved her with his entire being, nothing would ever change that, not an evil queen, and not even death.

However, his mind quickly went to his kids.

Wakko was alive- at least, he hoped. The attackers said they couldn’t get blood anywhere, hopefully, that meant they just ran out of time to find him and he was okay.

But if they were killed, William had no idea what Angelina would do to them. They would have no protection from her now. They could be hurt, or worse…

William hugged Lena a little tighter.

After an hour or two of riding, the temperature inside the carriage got notably colder, the snow outside picking up.

William prayed for a miracle.

They continued riding on, William even drifting to sleep at one point, when they were suddenly jerked awake. there were shouts from out of where they were, and William and Lena sat up best they could, though Lena was in a lot more pain. Suddenly, the carriage lost control, and started to skid and slide, though William and Lena had no idea what the cause was- but it didn’t matter because not before long, it crashed into a tree and everyone was thrown into the air, and landed with a crash and crack.

William winced at the sound, closing his eyes but when he opened, he saw it-

The doors were busted open.

Quickly, William scooted out, gesturing for Lena to follow, but she was closing her eyes and cringing in pain, and William realized she had injured her leg in the fall. He knew they didn’t have much time to run, so he carefully got her out, having her arms go around him with the tie, and had her hold herself up best she could as they ran into the woods, and far, far away from the carriage.

It was extremely difficult for a number of reasons, but William was training in hunting and so knew at least how to cover his tracks. He didn’t know where they were or where a good hiding place would be but he just had to hope he could find one eventually– and hopefully one where there was a sharp rock or something so they could untie their wrists.

A feeling of pure relief washed over William as he spotted a cave in the distance and immediately ran for it, barely hiding his tracks anymore and once there, he carefully managed to get Lena off his back and on the ground, where he then found a rock like he wanted and cut the rope tying his wrists. He then took off his muzzle and did the same for Lena.

“Oh, William,” Lena said with tearful eyes.

“Lena,” He pressed his forehead against hers and they breathed together like that for a very long time.

“We can’t stay here for long, can we? There might be bears or something,” Lena broke the embrace.

“Just for a moment, we need to rest- figure out where we are, and what our next move is,” He said, sitting down next to her now.

“We’re so far from home… how are we going to get out of this?” She laughed pathetically.

“I… I don’t know, Lena,” He admitted. “But we’ll find a way, I promise.”

She didn’t reply to that.

The royal couple stayed hidden for quite some time, having only one close call when one of the tracker’s voices was close enough for them to hear, but William was ready with the sharp rock in case he got too close, but he never did, and so they remained until it faded far away.

Eventually, the sun started to rise in the woods, and it slowly dawned on William that the coast was clear, and they were free to go.

But… free to go where? They had no idea where they were- were they even in Warnerstock? They could be in foreign lands for all they know- a place where they didn’t even speak the language and they could be killed for sneaking in and-

Wait. Lena was the Princess, and knew all the languages of the neighboring kingdoms, and would likely be given aid. William was panicking over nothing.

However… Lena was looking rather weak. She lost a lot of blood, and her injuries were only piling up.

“Where do we go now?” Lena asked as he was looking at her.

“Well… I don’t think we can go home, as something tells me your mother was behind this,” He remarked bitterly.

“You’re telling me,” she huffed, before wincing in pain.

William smiled sadly before getting an idea. “I know a place where they can’t refuse us,” he grinned.

Lena frowned. “William… Acme falls is in the middle of nowhere and perhaps the first place they’d go looking for us if we were missing.”

“Unless your mother wants us to be dead. Then she wouldn’t have to or want to look anywhere,” he said. “It’d be just like it was when we had just gotten married.”

Lena still didn’t look satisfied, but clearly didn’t have any further arguing left in her.

“Look… I’m going to go and try to figure out where we are, so we can head to Acme. Will you be okay if you stay here?” he asked, holding her ice cold hands.

“I don’t think I have a choice,” she tried to joke, but William knew she hated it. He kissed her forehead.

“I love you,” He said. “I won’t be long.”

“I love you too, William. Be careful,” she replied, and William ran out of the cave.

It took a couple of hours, but eventually, William discovered that yes, they were still in Warnerstock, and found the direction they were to go to if they wanted to go to Acme Falls. It would be quite the trek, especially if this snow continued to fall, but he had determination on his side.

He was not going to die here, nor was he going to let Lena. He would carry her in his arms if he had to, simple as that.

.o0o.

“So… yeah. We hiked for hours to reach here, the strains and pulled muscles and frostbite are from trekking through the snow, and that’s how we got here,” William finished his tale.

“Oh William, that’s so terrible,” Helloise looked at him sadly.

“That does explain a lot… you two should really be getting rest now, no?” Scratchnsniff remarked, reading over their charts one more time.

“Rest, yeah…” he nodded slowly, though sleep was the last thing he wanted. He wanted to go back to the palace asap, and kill Angelina, and get his kids back. He was confident Lena felt the same.

Though they wouldn’t be able to do much good in this state, especially without a plan.

“We’ll leave the two of you alone for a minute… you’ve been through a lot and need time to process,” Helloise said.

“Thanks,” he gave a weak smile, which she returned. The good nurse and doctor nodded at the couple before exiting to deal with other patients no doubt.

ONce they were gone, William’s eyes then went to his wife, who still wasn’t looking at him, staring intently at the ground and wall.

“Lena, my love, what’s the matter?” He asked.

“That’s your first question?” She said bitterly.

Okay, that was on him. That was a pretty dumb question.

“What are you thinking about?” he tried again. Lena closed her eyes.

“I… I saw Yakko during the attack.”

William’s stomach dropped.

“D-do you think..?”

Lena shook her head. “N-no, I… I don’t think so– i just– he was so scared, William. H-he hugged me when he should’ve ran, a-and he was begging and pleading to stay with us and I just–” Lena covered her face with her hands.

“They must be so scared, William– all three of them. A-and if they think we’re dead? We haven’t even had the death talk with Dot yet, she won’t get it, and Wakko will be left with mother all by himself and Yakko will just blame himself and I just– I promised I’d never let anything bad happen to them, but look where I am, William. I’ve failed,” She was shaking now.

“Lena–”

“D-don’t ‘Lena’ me, William, I-i’m serious! Wakko has almost died three times now and I swore I’d never let anything bad ever happen to him, a-and Dot could’ve died too, stumbling down those stairs… and Yakko– Yakko might’ve died to the attackers too– they did think he was Wakko for awhile, and that gun knocked him clean out,” Lena began to cry but clearly was trying her damndest not to because of her ribs.

“L-... Darling, this isn’t your fault,” William so desperately wanted to hug her but the beds felt a million miles apart.

“Why did I ever want to have children? All I’ve done is put them in danger a-and–” Lena’s breathing hitched.

“It’s your mother’s fault, not yours– it’s not your fault she’s heartless and cruel and–”

“--But I keep just– a-and I– a-and now–” Lena held her stomach.

William stopped.

Finally, she looked at him.

“I-i barely knew, I-i mean I had a feeling, but it was only eight weeks, and so I didn’t tell you but when they attack I knew it could happen b-but I really, really hoped it wouldn’t, but th-they beat me hard, a-and when you left me in the cave I began to bleed a-and bleed a lot– a-and I just–”

Oh my god…

No…

“Lena… I-i didn’t know– I-i’m so sorry, I-i wish I–” William didn’t know what to say. Neither did Lena as all she did was cry now.

It killed him, it killed him to see her like that.

He had to do something.

Slowly and carefully, ignoring every single pain alarm bell in his brain, made his way over to her bed, where he picked her up softly and moved her over until he could climb in alongside and hold her close.

“It’s not your fault, Lena darling,” He whispered.

“I-i should’ve never confronted her– I should’ve just stayed quiet and been the daughter she always wanted,” Lena pounded against his chest.

“I’m so sorry, Lena,” He closed his eyes and stroked her head. “You don’t deserve this.”

Lena stopped momentarily at that before quietly just burying her head in his chest and crying silently there. William was okay with that, as despite everything nothing did feel better than getting to hold her close again.

But god he was scared. For Yakko, for Wakko, for Dot and for Lena.

“W-william..?” Lena eventually croaked out.

“Yes my love?” William immediately answered.

Lena thought for a moment.

“...William, tell me we’ll find them again.”

“We’ll find them again, Lena.”

“Swear it.”

“I swear to you, Lena; We will find our kids again.”

Lena’s tears stopped.

“We’ll find them again,” She whispered.

“Yes we will,” He kissed her head and couldn’t help but smile a little.

They were going to find their children and get them back if it was the last thing they did.

#animaniacs #angelina 1 lives au #wakkos wish #my fics #sir william the good #lena warner #helloise nerz #doctor scratchnsniff #angst #tw miscarriage #tw childloss #tw blood #tw kidnapping

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