Chapter 4

Gluttony and Envy were beside themselves with glee, and out made Hope a little nauseous. They sat in the courtyard of the palace, under a gazebo, surrounded by a rose garden that she had planted and trended to herself. Every time she looked at it, she felt a pang of guilt that her own citizens couldn't enjoy similar splendor, but out here was more than a beautiful garden.

"And they retreated all the way back to the beaches?" Gluttony asked.

"Yes, ma'am," said the Thought, a wizard dressed in The orange trimmed robes that marked him as one of Envy's highest officers, "with the help of Lust's angels we were able to drive them back. The battle was bloody, but we are victorious!"

Envy clapped and did a little cheer.

Hope was not convinced. She snapped her fingers, and from the surrounding garden, skeletons rose up through the flower beds, and thorny vines tangled around them, reinforcing them and blooming in the familiar patterns they had chosen. Bending and coiling themselves into belts, where the skeletons fastened rapiers. The tallest one was her captain of the guard, Saidah. She marched over, snapping her sword to her hip with the practiced speed and elegance of pure instinct a large, red rose bloomed from her left eye socket.

"Yes, my Queen?" Captain Saidah asked, taking a knee next to Hope.

"Take fifty other Flower Girls and search the palace for any sign of a infiltration."

"Infiltration?" Squeaked Envy. Hope suppressed an eye roll, and reminded herself that Envy didn't know want better. Even though to Hope it felt like the most obvious thing in the world that the beach attack was probably a distraction for a team to sneak into the palace, Envy and Gluttony had sat out of nearly every war that had taken place between Lust and Hate.

"Yes," Hope said, "you haven't fought Hate for nearly as long as Lust and I so you probably don't realize this, but that was way too easy. If the mages and angels were enough to drive off an attack force of haters and mecha-beasts, than I'm pretty sure Hate wasn't actually there. You don't know Hate like I do, she never misses a chance to get her hands dirty."

"You think that little of my Thoughts?" Envy asked sadly. Hope almost jumped across the tea-table and strangled her. A queen that turned every tactical decision into a question of self-confidence was nothing but dead weight in any alliance she was a part of.

"No," Hope sighed, "it's nothing to do with that, I'm sure your mages are incredible, it's just… Listen, Envy, don't be the idiot who underestimates the Queen of Hatred."

The skeletons rose to search the palace, but as they did a small grip of angels alighted on the grass of the courtyard, carrying a person between them, whoo was dripping with water and blood.

"Captain, wait," Hope said sharply and Saidah paused. She turned to look back at the group of angels, then suddenly her rapper was out, and she was standing in front of Hope, pointing her blade at the wet mass that the angels dumped into the lawn.

"I don't believe it," Hope whispered.

Hate pulled herself to her feet and shook some of the water and blood off of her. She looked like someone had used her face for a battering ram.

"My Queen, the Lady of Lust, sends this prisoner," announced one of the angels.

"Prisoner?!" All three of them exclaimed. Even Saidah looked stunned, though she didn't drop her guard.

"You can all go fuckyourselves," Hate snapped, nursing her black eye.

They were all silent for a moment, then Envy beamed and turned to Hope and said,

"Looks like it was you who underestimated the Queens of Envy and Lust."

Hope tried to calm herself by imagining the satisfying sound her hand would make it she were to bitch-slap Envy as hard as she could. It didn't help as much as she had thought it would. In fact, it just made her think about the fact that she could snack the other Queen. Rate was boiling inside of her.

"Captain," she commanded, "relieve the angels of their prisoner, we can escort her to the dungeons from here."

Saidah and the head angel exchanged a friendly nod as flower girl's surrounded Hate and matched her out of the courtyard. Hope followed them, focusing her whole energy on not having a meltdown.

"What the hell are you all thinking," Hate demanded as they moved deeper into the palace, "a friendly hang out with the ex? Yeah, I'm sure that'll go well…"

Hope glanced at the back of Hate's head.

"And what's your angle? Huh?" Hate continued, "is the hope here that you'll be able to work through it all, and that the power of love will prevail, and that we can just shoulder the burden of being the bigger person every single-"

"What the fuck is your problem?!" Hope couldn't hold it anymore. Hate turned and looked at her, smiling.

"Well well, looks like I struck a nerve-"

"You had an army of mechs, cops, and battleships off the coast where we didn't even see them and you let an army of inexperienced nerds with dnd spells kick your ass? What are you, drunk?"

Hate raged at her but the flower girl's seized her. The thorned vines holding them together cut new scratches in her skin as she struggled.

"You little shit, I'll tear you a new one," Hate barked, "don't get all high and mighty just because your new mysterious leader is calling all the shots now-"

"Don't you use him as an excuse," Hope snapped, "that jackass could lead himself out of a paper bag, the reason we've been mopping the floor with you is literally just because of our teamwork."

Hate glared at her, but Hope stood her ground.

"Your army got pushed back by Envy! She's literally the weakest one of us! She has to hide behind Gluttony most of the time! What happened to you?!"

"I… Well…"

Hope might have been imagining it, but she could swear that for the first time in her life she was seeing a look of embarrassment on Hate's face. They both stood there awkwardly for a moment.

"I had too see." Hate finally said, "is been so long now that all of you have been running things, I had to make sure you hadn't done something that couldn't be taken back."

"Like getting back with the ex," said Hope.

"Or like getting the ex pregnant," Hate said. Hope felt her stomach drop. That had been the one thing that she had been trying so hard not to think about. Lust said she only wanted the ex back platonically, but Hope knew that it had always been the other side that initiated, and Lust had always had a hard time saying "no."

"You seriously need to step your shit up," said Hope, "you cannot keep getting beaten by us."

She hoped her voice didn't sound desperate. She didn't want Hate to gain full control of the Lifetime again, but maybe she could at least make things too difficult trip keep trying to pursue this path that the Leader had chosen. She had a great track record of ruining their plans,, even join the wars and battles she had lost.

"Are… Are you telling me you want me to kick your ass?" Hate said.

"I'm just asking you to make a fucking effort," said Hope.

"Maybe if you have me some information on this new mysterious leader of yours," Hate said. Hope sighed in frustration.

"It's really nothing to do with the new leader, trust me."

"I never have, and I still don't," said Hate, "how were you even able to find a new emotion in this last year?"

"He isn't constructed from a new emotion," said Hope, "he's based in past experiences- wait no, listen it doesn't matter. Seriously, we don't have some kind of secret ingredient here."

Hate stared at her in that unnerving way Hope had seen only a few times before they fought. For a second she thought the other Queen was going to fly at her again.

"You aren't going to become a prisoner here," said Hope, "I'm going to say you tried to resist."

Hate snarled.

"Stop fixating on the stupid leader thing, it's probably why you keep losing. Next time you attack this place remember we're not a bunch of pushovers," Hope said, drawing her own rapier, "and neither are you."

"Why would you release me?" Hate said, eyeing the said in Hope's hand.

"Because I am the Queen of Hope," Hope said, "and right now there is none. Getting back with our ex will bring us lust, envy, and gluttony, but it'll never bring us a sense of hope."

Hope pointed the rapier at Hate.

"Don't mistake this for anything meaningful. Think of it as me giving you a second shot out of a sense of sportsmanship."

"Of course," Hate said, without taking her eyes off the blade, "were not friends, were not allies. You're my enemy."

Hope drove the top of the sword into Hates heart. Hate gasped and successfully fought off cry of pain. Then she grabbed the holt off Hope's sword and pulled herself closer, driving the sword deeper, until she was face-to-face with Hope. The flower girls grabbed her and tried to pull her back, but she resisted.

"You're my respectedenemy." Hate sputtered, then she collapsed dead on the floor. Hope stared at her body as it dissolved into ashes. The reality of what she had done started to sink in. She didn't know what Lust had had to go through to take Hate prisoner, but she had just undone all of it.

"No one hears about this," she whispered, "ever."

"Yes my Queen," said the flower girls, saluting."