Author's Note: Thank you to Green Phantom Queen for giving me an idea which immensely improved the story!
Prologue: Once Upon a Time…
Over in Domino, a curious event was occurring in the high school's library. Nighttime had fallen over the city, so the room was devoid of the typical school day noises of gossiping whispers and scribbling pencils of students. The empty tables had some of their chairs pulled back as though the teens had just gotten up and left, with even a forgotten purse slung over one of their backs. Rows and row of stuffed bookshelves were awaiting the time when they'd be needed for some sort of project, or when someone just plain got bored and decided to browse through them.
Over on one shelf, however, a particular dust-covered book with a leather cover and the words Fairy Tales written in flowing gold letters on its spine appeared to have lost its patience. The book's outline was emitting an ethereal violet light and shaking violently, as though something inside was trying to break its way out.
Little by little, the book's shaking forced it near the edge of the shelf, shoving the novels on either side of it away. Finally, when it managed to get just enough room, it toppled down to the floor with a thud, the leather cover facing the floor.
The shaking, violet-aura book had fallen open to a particular page featuring a painting of a young woman, marked with the caption The Queen. While the Queen had strikingly beautiful looks, including blonde hair that cascaded down her back and smooth, cream-colored skin, and she was clad in fine clothing consisting of a black corseted gown with a violet panel running down its center and a black diamond tiara perched on her head, her black eyes revealed something cruel and sinister underneath her exquisite exterior.
The book's glow slowly faded away, its quivering ceasing along with the violet aura's disappearance. For just a few moments, the library returned to its normal, silent state in the nighttime.
Then, the entirety of the book became engulfed in a blinding violet glow. An ethereal wind swirled up out of the light and headed straight towards the ceiling, forming a miniature twister right in the midst of the shelves.
From out of the book, right in the center of the tornado, a woman slowly started to emerge as though she was being raised on a platform; first came her gold locks of hair whipping around her face, capped with the sparkling black diamond tiara on top, then the top of her dress with its black sleeves flowing back in the wind, and finally the black and violet skirt which went all the way down to the tips of her toes.
Once the entirety of the woman had emerged, standing atop the book on the page with her painting, the violet light at her feet faded away and the swirling wind died in an instant.
The Queen remained where she was for a few minutes. Her eyes were closed and her breathing was deep and heavy, taking in the scents and sounds of freedom. Apparently the sound of liberty was nonexistent, but the smell was similar to that of musty books and just a faint scent of flowery perfumes.
"Ah, free at last…" she sighed blissfully.
The Queen slowly opened her eyes and looked at her surroundings, the round, dark pools of her pupils flashing with disapproval. "Humph! After fighting for so long to get out of that accursed book, I come to this place? It's certainly not befitting for royalty like me…" A nasty little smile spread across her face. "But it's nothing that a little bit of magic won't be able to fix…"
Her thoughts strayed towards a conjured image of an eerie, grey-stoned castle, with tapestries woven out of violet and midnight blue threads, gleaming silver chandeliers, perhaps a nice torture chamber in the basement…
She shook her head. "Now, now, I can't get ahead of myself. First things first…"
The Queen stepped off of the Fairy Tales book and picked it up delicately, fearing that one touch would make the old novel fall to pieces. With a lick of her finger, she began slowly flipping through the yellowed, dog-eared pages, passing impatiently through various stories with gorgeous illustrations to accompany them. "Come on, now, where are you…?" she muttered to herself.
Finally, right when she was about to turn another page, she froze with her fingertips clutching its corner. A look of triumph spread across her face, and she removed her grip on the corner to gently stroke her hand across the page. "Ah, there you are," she purred.
She was gazing at a page decorated with a painting of a mirror attached to a grey-stoned wall. The oval mirror was inside of an ornate gold frame embedded with red rubies and black diamonds of all sizes. Reflected in the shining glass was a green, rather ghostly face with only black holes for eyes and two little slits for a nose, entirely surrounded by wispy green mist.
The Queen pointed one finger at the page. "You get out of there now; I need to ask you a question."
A tiny violet spark emerged from her finger and struck the page directly on the green, ghastly face in the mirror.
The book became enveloped in the eerie violet glow once more; this time, however, out of the light came the beautifully decorated mirror, obviously enchanted in some way since it reflected the disembodied face from the painting rather than The Queen's own.
When the mirror had been able to fully emerge from the book, the queen slammed it shut with a bang. The violet glow faded almost instantly.
The mystic mirror remained, hovering in the air before The Queen. She cleared her throat and, slowly and dramatically, chanted into the mirror:
Mirror, mirror, hovering there,
If I tried to take over, how would I fare?
The ghastly face stared at her with its empty sockets for a few seconds. It opened its void of a mouth and replied:
While your power, your highness, is awesome and could threaten,
Your rule would never happen, thanks to heroes seven.
The face dissipated into thin green wisps of mist. Seven separate images slowly appeared in the mirror, revealing six different teenagers and one elderly man in their beds, gratefully sleeping the night away.
The Queen frowned at their sight. "My chances to reign are slim to none because of them?" She stared in particular at the blonde young man rolling around under his sheets and apparently speaking his dreams aloud ("Hand over dat pizza, man, it's mine!").
She folded her arms in disbelief. "Humph! Well, we'll see about that…"