Chapter 1
Mal, Carlos, Jay and Evie barged in, opening a double door that lead to a meeting room. Around them, books sat in wooden shelves, in the middle was a large round wooden table. Already there, looking over papers franticly were Ben, Fairy godmother, the former king, Beast, and his wife, Belle, and captain of Auradon's forces, Mulan.
They all seemed to be working hard trying to figure something out. When the VKs arrived, they stopped what they were doing, and turned towards them. Mal looked at everyone that was in the room. The fact that the old king and queen were here meant that things have gotten from bad to worse. She sighed.
'So much for being optimistic.' She thought to herself, before unconsciously wiping sweat from her forehead. She pulled out her spell book, and laid it on the table. "So, looks like you couldn't find anything after all." Mal said. Ben looked at everyone, before going up to Mal.
"Listen, we still have some time, there has to be another way." Mal turned to her friends. Carlos was holding his best friend, Dude, who was looking around, excited. Carlos pet his dog, trying to calm him down. Carlos was the one that was least for the plan when Mal first proposed it, but now he looked ready.
He knew what he had to do. Evie was the most determined. She had complete faith in her friends, and whatever happened, she knew that she was doing what she was doing to protect the place she loved. Jay also felt a bit uneasy about this plan, but wasn't about to abandon the VKs now, after everything they've been through.
She turned back to the book, then to Ben, with a sad smile.
"You know there's no other way. Her, curse, it's going to get everyone, sigh, unless four people redirect it, and aim it at themselves."
"I know, I also know that there's another way, there always is." Jay shook his head.
"I don't think there's one this time man." Carlos nodded in agreement.
"He's right. We tried almost everything else, and- this is the only one that we know can work, and we're out of time, we can't try anything else." Evie sighed.
"We should probably start the spell. We'll get the cauldron." She signaled Jae and Carlos to follow, while Mal stayed, not able to look Ben in the face. The adults all looked each other, before looking back at Mal.
"Mal, we can't let you do this." Beast said with a frown.
"My husband's right." Belle said. "If anyone should sacrifice themselves, it should be us adults. You four still have a future, no doubt a bright one." Mal turned to the four worried adults on the other side of the table.
"No, it needs to be us. Auridon needs you four. Plus, she's doing all of this because of us." Fairy Godmother looked at Mal, before wiping a tear.
"I'm sorry, you four are just…" The others came back, this time with a cauldron. Jae and Carlos put the cauldron down. The cauldron was bubbling and shaking, as if it was an impatient child. Multicolor smoke came out of the pot.
"Everything's in, just needs the final ingredient." Evie said, taking a few steps away from the hyper cauldron.
"What do you need?" Mulan asked, not really educated in the mystical arts. Mal turned to Fairy Godmother, who understood.
"The wand." Mal nodded. Fairy Godmother looked at the king and queen, then Mulan, before smiling. She walked over to Mal, and stood right in front of her. With a wave of her hand, the wand materialized, and she caught it. She looked at it, then at Mal. "There was a time, where the thought of me giving this to you, was simply- impossible, but now, I couldn't trust you more." Mal raised an eyebrow.
"You sure it has nothing to do with you having no choice?" The Fairy Godmother's smile didn't waver.
"You've saved us twice now, of course I'm sure." Mal smiled, and took the wand. She walked over to the cauldron and put the wand over the cauldron. She waved her other hand, and a magical aura appeared around the wand. Mal let go of the wand, and moved back. The wand stayed in the air over the cauldron.
Mal smirked, before turning to her friends.
"Alright, the- sacrifices need to stand around the cauldron while I say the spell." The three nodded, and walked over to the cauldron. Mal was going to join them, when Ben grabbed her arm. Mal looked back and saw the sadness in her boyfriend's eyes.
"Mal." Mal looked at the arm, then back at Ben.
"Ben, you know there's nothing else we can do." Tears started to well up in Mal's eyes.
"So, do I just, let you go?" Mal didn't know what to say, so instead she just nodded.
"I-I'll miss you. I know you'll be a great king, and, who knows, maybe, maybe you'll find me one day." Ben let go of Mal's arm, and took her hands. He looked her right in the eye, allowing her to see the tears in his eyes.
"I will, I always will." He said the last one with a small, sad smile. "I love you." Mal smiled back, before leaning in for a kiss. Mal wanted to stay there forever. She really didn't want to do this, but, she had to. She didn't save Auridon once just so it could be destroyed by someone else from the isle.
She stopped the kiss, and slowly let of Ben's hands. She gave him one more look before walking over to her friends. She looked at all of them, and they looked at her with the same determined look on their face. She held out both hands, signaling that they needed to hold hands, and the others followed. Mal closed her eyes, and took a deep breath.
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Back in the isle, in a dark and secluded room, someone stood in front of her own cauldron, one that was dripping with yellow smoke. She waved her hands, magically mixing what was inside, before smiling. 'One more ingredient.' She said, before pulling out a heart. The heart of the one she loved the most.
With a deep breath, she crushed it, returning it to dust. She poured the dust into the cauldron, and it began to shake violently. The Spellcaster took a couple steps back, before she started laughing. Thick magical smoke poured out of the cauldron, and began to fill the room. The smoke, as if it had a mind of its own, went for the fireplace, and climbed up the chimney, into the outside worlds.
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A guard barged into the room, looking panicked.
"Your majesty." He said to Ben, before seeing Beast and Belle. "Oh, magestys, um mage…"
"Just tell us what's wrong already." Mulan said, irritated. The guard knew exactly how to talk to her.
"Yes ma'am! Something is coming from the Isle of the Lost. Smoke, thick magical yellow smoke."
"It's coming." Fairy Godmother said, before turning to the VKs.
"It's now, or never." Mal nodded, her eyes still closed.
"An ancient curse comes towards us, fueled by vengeance, greed and power lust. Please allow us to come together, and sacrifice ourselves to absorb this power!"
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The magical smoke came out of the chimney. It was originally going to cover all of the Isle, then move on the Auridon, but something seemed to be calling it, so instead of spreading out, it came together and went in a singular direction, like a stream. It easily passed the barrier, and went towards Auridon.
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The stream of magic entered Auridon and went for the kingdom's castle. It entered the chimney that led straight to the meeting room. The smoke came out of the fireplace. Beast held onto Belle, trying to keep her safe, but the smoke passed by the others in the room and went for the VKs. The smoke stopped above the cauldron, before launching into the cauldron.
As the smoke entered the cauldron, green aura surrounded the four teenagers. The four clenched their eyes shut, feeling the aura course through them. Ben wanted to pull Mal out of there. Watching her feel uncomfortable because of the magic made him feel so useless, but he knew she'd never forgive him if he did.
He needed to have faith in her. Belle turned to the Fairy Godmother.
"Do you know if it's working or not? This curse should only transport them." Fairy Godmother shook her head.
"Right now it all looks like it's working the way it's supposed to. All we can do is watch and hope."
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The Spellcaster was smiling, the room filled with magical smoke. She closed her eyes, and waited for the smoke to work its magic. After a few minutes, she open her eyes.
'What's going on?' She looked around, still in her base. "Why isn't it working?!" The Spellcaster waved her hand, and an image appeared in the smoke. The image showed Mal, Jay, Evie, and Carlos. Seeing their face made the Spellcaster snarl. "No, they're ruining everything!" She snapped her fingers, and something from the darkness dropped a book in her hand.
The Spellcaster flipped through it frantically, trying to find anything to stop them, but saw nothing. She slammed the book, and threw it on the ground. "No, no, no, no!" She gripped the cauldron, and tried to think of a way to stop them. After a few seconds, she looked up at the image, before a slow smirk came on her face.
She picked up the book, and looked through it again, this time finding something. It wasn't something that could stop what they did, but instead alter it. "The whole reason I did this was to ruin those four's lives anyway. What better way to do exactly that," She walked over to a work table and acquired the necessary ingredients.
After a few minutes, she walked back and put everything in the cauldron. ", then to take away the only thing they have left." Bursts of magic erupted from the cauldron, and magical aura surrounded her, as the mysterious Spellcaster cackled with delight.
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Back with the others, the four VKs were beginning to fade out of their realm.
"It's working!" Fairy Godmother exclaimed with relief. Beast and Belle looked relieved, but Ben grabbed his stomach.
"Then why do I have a really bad feeling." Suddenly the cauldron made an explosion noise, causing the VKs to open their eyes.
"What's going on?" Carlos asked. He tried to let go of Evie, but he couldn't move his hand. "Hey, Mal, is this part of the spell?" He asked, still trying to move his hand. Evie noticed what was wrong, and tried letting go of Mal's hand, but had the same results as Carlos.
"This isn't right." Mal said. Suddenly, the aura around them changed. Evie and Jay had the green aura, while Mal and Carlos had a blue. Their bodies started to get more and more transparent, as they tried to stop the spell. The other four noticed something was wrong, and walked up to the VKs.
"I knew it, something went wrong. Mal, Mal!"
"Fairy Godmother, can you do something?" Belle asked with concern. Fairy Godmother shook her head, while a look of panic was on her face.
"I don't even know what's going on." Mal turned to Ben, her body was almost gone.
"Ben, I-I lo…" She was gone. They all were. Leaving only Ben, Fairy Godmother, Beast, and Belle.
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Evie slowly opened her eyes. Above her were green leaves, and a cloudless blue sky. She could smell the freshness of nature, and feel the soft dirt she was laying on. She looked around. She really was in a forest. Where exactly, she had no idea.
"Well, not going to find anything lying down." She picked herself up, and sat up straight, before looking around again. She heard stirring coming from behind, and turned to see Jay, unconscious and against a tree. She sighed with relief. She wasn't too far from her friends. She got up, and cleaned herself the best she could.
She walked over to Jay, and knelt beside him. Evie looked around, before softly shaking her friend. Jay slowly responded, and soon, opened his eyes.
"Uhh, Evie?" He looked around. "Where are we?" Evie looked around.
"Trees, dirt, animals, we're in a forest Jay."
"You're in a good mood." Jay scratched his head, before getting up. Evie did the same, and crossed her arms.
"Sorry, I'm just- worried. The spell was supposed to bring all of us into some new realm, but something happened, and now, it's just us." Jay looked at his friend. Something like this didn't happen often, Evie getting worried like this, but he could understand where she was coming from.
They were in a completely new place. They knew they would have to be, but they thought they'd at least be together. He put on a confident look.
"Alright, I think we should go look for Mal and Carlos. They're probably somewhere in this forest, or maybe outside of it." Evie turned to Jay, before nodding.
"Yo-you're right. We won't find them if we just stay in one place." She looked around, before pointing at a random location. "What about here?" Jay shrugged.
"Why not?" The two started walking, both hoping they'd find something before nightfall.
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"It's been two hours." Evie said.
"It has been two hours."
"And we've found nothing." Jay looked around.
"Yup, nothing." Evie turned to her friend, with a raised eyebrow.
"Are you ok?" Jay shrugged.
"Just thought I should say something." Evie was about to say something, but instead just shook her head, and continued looking around. That's when she saw something out of the corner of her eye. She turned around, facing Jay, who raised an eyebrow.
"What?" A small light came from behind him, and Evie widened her eyes.
"Duck!" She used all her strength to tackle Jay out of the way, and an arrow went flying, hitting the ground in front of where Evie stood. Evie and Jay were trying to catch their breath, as they tried to figure out where that came from, when suddenly,
"Put your hands behind your head." A voice ordered. They both stopped breathing out of fear. Evie got off of Jay and, both of them, got in a kneeling position and put their hands behind their heads.
"Who's there?" Evie asked, wanting to look around, but quickly decided against it. The two teens could hear the sound of footsteps getting closer, until it stopped behind them.
"I have two arrows. One for each of you. Now, tell me where you came from, and what you're doing here.
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Mal was woken up by the sweet smell of week old trash. She took a sniff, still half asleep, but second the smell hit her nostrils, she was up. She jumped to her feet, and looked around.
"Evie, Carlos, Jay?" Suddenly, she heard a high pitch scream coming from the dumpster next to her. Suddenly Carlos jumped out of the Dumpster, and landed on his side.
"Ugh, that, just, why?" He looked up and saw Mal extending a hand. He smiled.
"Thanks Mal." He took the hand, and got up. "So, we're here." Carlos looked around. "The 'other realm' right? As far as first impressions go, not good."
"C'mon, we should find Evie and Jay. Whatever we do, we should do together." Carlos nodded, while still trying take all the things he collected from the dumpster off of him. They both left the ally, and looked around. They seemed to be in some small town. They could see a few people walking down and up the street, entering stores, talking to each other.
Everything looked normal. As they walked to nowhere in particular, at times they caught the cities residents giving them strange looks. Some would simply raise an eyebrow, while others made a scrunched up expression. The second one was probably due to the whole dumpster thing, but the eyebrows.
Mal looked around, wondering what was so weird. She looked at everyone walking, then back at Carlos, and herself, specifically her clothes. Now that she actually thought about it, what these people wore were dramatically different from what she was wearing. Compared to the citizens, she and Carlos looked like they were dressed up for some kind of festival.
Everyone else wore such bland and dully shaded clothing. Not even the students from Auridon Prep were this bad. Bad or not thou, they were what people wore, and what they were wearing made them stick out. They needed to get off the street. Mal looked around before finding a diner across the street. She grabbed Carlos by the arm.
"Follow me."
"Whoa!" Mal pulled her friend across the street, dodging a car that almost hit them. They stopped in front of the diner, and Carlos read the sign in front of it.
"Granny's Diner." He turned to Mal.
"Looks, homey."
"A little too homey for me, but maybe we can get some kind of information from here. C'mon."
Mal and Carlos walked in, and looked around. It looked like a regular boring old diner, nothing special about it, a trait this whole city seemed to like to share. The two teens decided to sit in front of the counter.
"Do we have any cash?" Carlos asked. Mal dug into her pockets and pulled out five gold pieces, and a gum wrapper.
"We can share a burger." Mal said.
"Cheese?" Mal shrugged.
"Fine."
"With mayo."
"Don't push it." An elderly, but capable looking woman walked over to them with a pen and paper.
"What can I get you?"
"Just a cheeseburger with any soda." She wrote down the order and nodded.
"Is that all?" Mal thought about it.
"Well, do you have a map of the area by any chance?" The woman raised an eyebrow, before looking around. After looking for a while, she found a stack of maps of the town below the counter, thou they were a bit dusty. She handed them over to Mal, who opened it.
"So, I'm guessing you two are new. Visitors?"
"Kind of." Carlos answered. "You don't get a lot of that here?" The woman nodded.
"It's a small town, not even on the map, but we did get another newcomer a couple days ago. Don't know why, but it looks like we're getting popular, not that I'm complaining. The more customers the better." She said, before laughing a little. "I'll go get your order."
"Thank you, um"
"You can just call me Granny." With that, Granny walked off into the kitchen. Carlos moved closer to Mal in order to see the map. The city looked standard, nothing out of the ordinary. Carlos pointed all the forest around the town.
"We got dropped off in the town, but maybe the others are in the forest." Mal nodded.
"That's possible. We'll look around there after we're done." Carlos nodded. A little while later, Granny came back with a cheeseburger and coke. Carlos smiled, while Mal's stomach rumbled. It may or may not have been a while since she last ate. She took a knife and cut the burger in half.
They both enjoyed their breakfast, sharing the drink between themselves. The bell tied to the front door rang, and a blond woman wearing a red leather jacket walked in. She walked up to a table and sat down.
"Ruby, get out here and take some orders!" A young woman wearing a, revealing, uniform walked out of the back, and went over to the blonde. Carlos widened his eyes as his head followed Ruby as she walked. Mal noticed and rolled her eyes. She waved her hand in front of Carlos' face.
"Hello, reality to Carlos." Carlos snapped out of his thoughts and looked at his best friend.
"Oh, I was just." Mal shook her head.
"Don't. How about we just pay and start searching." Carlos nodded in agreement. She waved Granny over and pulled out her coins. Granny walked over, and put down the cleaning rag she had in her hand.
"Finished?" She asked, already taking their empty plate.
"Um, I'm not sure how much it was, but is this enough?" She put her coins in Granny's hands. Granny raised an eyebrow and raised the coins closer to her to see exactly what it was. She picked on up and looked at it.
"What is this?"
"Eight coins. I know it's more than enough for the burger, but we also got a drink, so…"
"Riight." Granny took a bite out of one of the coins. 'Is this really real gold?' Sure enough it was. She looked at the coins, then back to the kids. "Uh, really, just two of these is enough." Mal and Carlos looked at each other, before looking back at Granny.
"Really?" Carlos asked. Granny nodded, before giving the coins back to Mal.
"My food's good, but not that good, a-and if you need a place to stay come by my bed and breakfast, I can get you a room for a few days." Both kids were confused, but nodded.
"Thanks, we should probably get going, but we might take you up on that offer later." Granny smiled.
"Alright, enjoy yourselves, and welcome to Storybrook. Mal signaled Carlos that it was time to go, and they headed for the door, and into this new world.
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In an apartment, a black haired woman was just finishing making a brownbag lunch when Jay walked down the stairs, wearing a school uniform (White dress shirt with black pants and a tie) and a backpack on. He grabbed the brown bag and put it with his other stuff in his bag.
"Thanks mom." He said with a smile.
"No problem Jay. Hey, before you go, remember you're making dinner for yourself tonight. I'm helping out in the hospital."
"Got it." He said, on his way out.
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In the Major's house, Evie was organizing her school binder, putting her design sketches in the back, before closing it and grabbing her bag. As she walked to the entrance, her "mother" called.
"Evie, call your brother, you're both going to be late." Evie walked up to the bottom stair.
"C'mon squirt, I'm leaving you in five minutes!" She exclaimed. A minute later, a young boy came down the stairs.
"I'm coming." The boy reached the bottom, and Evie ruffled his hair a little. He moved out of the way, but smiled, right before a woman wearing a pantsuit with black hair walked in with two brown bags.
"Alright, Henry, Evie, hurry before you're late." Henry grabbed his without a word and walked off. Evie grabbed hers and looked at her "mom"
"Try not to let it get to you." The pantsuit woman sighed.
"Of course. Your brother's just treating me like an evil stepmother, why would I need to worry." Evie gave her a quick hug and headed out the door, and into her same boring world.
And that's the end of Chapter 1. I hope you liked it, and I hope you'll enjoy future chapters. This is a little story I'll work on when I can, so I won't be posting frequently or anything like that.
That's pretty much it. Tell me what you think and I'll see you in the next one.