Title: Sorceress
Author: PrincessTucker
Disclaimer: I do not own Sorcerer's Apprentice nor Disney or Mikey Mouse, although I do lay claim to Wynne Emrys but that's it. Oh! I will also never, ever make any money off of this story. Ever.
Summary: Balthazar had always expected to have a male apprentice, so when he meets little Wynne Emrys thing's are about to get a little bumpy in his quest as both a Master and to get rid of Morgana.
New York, New York
May 2000
"Up! Up!" A female voice screeched in Wynne's ear and the twelve-year old rolled onto her stomach to escape her stepmother's delicate tones. "Get up right now! I didn't pay all that good money for your silly field trip so you could laze about all day!"
"Yes, Mother." Wynne said from under her cocoon of blankets and she heard the older woman huff and stalk away once she was sure that the woman was gone did Wynne come out from under her cocoon of blankets. "Bitch."
"Woof."
"That's right, Toph." Wynne assure the mutt-puppy, Da' said Toph was a mixture of Pit-bull and Great-Dane "She is a bitch."
"Hurry up!"
"Coming!" Wynne shouted as she rushed through her dressing. Since she was going on a field trip – and they were allowed to wear non-uniforms – so she made sure to put on her nice coverall's and green t-shirt.
"Now!"
"Give me a minute!" Wynne said as she shoved on her boots not caring that she was wearing old socks, she grabbed her stripped backpack and raced down-stairs in time to grab her coat when her stepmother looked to throw it outside. "Breakfast?"
"No. You should have gotten up earlier, girl. Shoo!" Victoria said as she pushed her stepdaughter outside. "You can wait here for your buss I think."
"Yes, Mother." Step-Bitch, Wynne replaced in her mind which she never dared to speak out-loud as much as she and Victoria hated each other her father adored the evil woman and she could do now wrong in his eyes – which meant Wynne's complaints went unheard or uncared for.
Frankly Wynne didn't care either way as she didn't want to know if her Da' liked Victoria more then her.
"Wynne Emrys!" Mrs. Allen called from the buss and Wynne looked up from her book on Quantum Physics in surprise – it hadn't been an hour already had it?
"Coming, Mrs. Allen!" Wynne gripped her book tightly and the ten year-old climbed onto the bus, settling near the front and away from the teenagers.
Lily sighed as she watched her son's tutor curl up into a smaller ball then she could imagine and open a book she had problems reading and understanding, why they allowed a ten year-old in high school was beyond her – Miss Emrys should be in privet classes with tutors although her son said that the girl was testing out of high school and entering college.
"Now, stay together everyone." Mrs. Allen said as they got off the bus over looking the harbor and while history was nice and all Wynne only sighed up to go because she was bored and get her out of that stuffy high school – and away from her step-mother.
Wynne got absorbed back into her book as she listened with one ear on what Mrs. Allen was saying so she could answer and to make sure she wasn't left behind should they decided to move – so she didn't notice when Arthur leaned over her and took her book from her hands.
"What's this about brat?" Arthur said as he held the book sideways and out of Wynne's reach when she went to grab it.
"A book. It's made out of paper with letters written on it between two pieces of hard binding, it's found in a place called a li-bra-ry where other books are." Wynne said slowly like she was speaking to a small child or an ape – which in her mind she was really as Arthur was barely passing any of his classes.
Arthur flushed at the snobbish tone of voice and was furious that some child was smarter then him and prettier then even his girlfriend – which didn't actually disturb him oddly enough. "Fine! You want it? Go and get it!"
With that Arthur turned on his heel and threw the book as far as it would go, at least a few streets over. He smirked as he watched the Brain-Bitch tore off after it; he turned back to his friend's snickering just as Mrs. Allen started to move them along. It would show the little chit right if she got lost and then where would she be with her words and smarts, hmmm?
"Oh no! Come back here right now," Wynne called as she chased her book down several streets and back-alley's – never quite noticing that there was not near enough wind to move such a heavy book so far and so fast in her quest to get the library book back before it was in too bad of a shape to be returned.
Wynne could just picture her stepmothers gloating face.
"There you are," Wynne said panting as she finally came to a stop in front of a rather old and creepy looking store, her book half in and out the door-stoop. "Gotcha!"
Just as Wynne pounced on the book it disappeared underneath her hands and she blinked surprised and looked around thinking that maybe she missed it but it was nowhere to be found. Maybe it was further inside the store? Wynne nodded to herself in agreement and pulled her self up, not caring that her formally clean looking coverall's were dirty from the dust on the floor or from the slime she feel in a few times in alley's trying to keep up with her book.
She gently closed the door behind her, reading the name A-N-A-B-A-C A-N-A-C-R-A and mentally fixing them – Arcana Cabana – absent mindly. She peered at the odd and unusually objects scattered about in the store, some were amazing like the genie lamp she found but the head in a jar was not and when Wynne jumped back she bumped into several things including a rather expensive vase – which was now falling.
Until a pair of large hands caught it effortlessly and gently enough that it surprised her as Wynne didn't see or hear anyone in the store even after calling out a few times.
"The second Emperor of the Huang Dynasty locked his least favorite wife in this urn for ten years, they say if you open it up the same thing will happen to you."
"R-right, sorry about that…" Wynne trailed off and pushed her thick glasses higher on her nose. "I'm looking for a book, it's dark blue and writing in German. See, the wind just blew it when Arthur tossed it away from me. I swear it's just a coinci-"
"-dence, I know." Balthazar said as he eyed the rather raggedy looking childe, he couldn't tell if it was male or female.
"Yes, sir. Have you seen it? I really need to get back before Mrs. Allen starts to worry." Wynne said as she bit her lip and the man straightened the urn and walked towards what was the checkout counter – how Wynne didn't notice it was there was beyond her.
"There's something I want to show you Emrys," the man said as he sat on the stool behind the counter.
"How did you know my name?" Wynne was not telling him her actually and decided to let him think that Emrys was her actually name, make it harder if he became a stalker.
"I would say I was a psychic but I doubt you would believe me," Balthazar said the oddly down-to-earth childe. "It's on your backpack."
"Maybe, maybe not. There are a lot of things that can not be explained even with the technological advances humans have made in the past one-hundred years, you could be psychic or not. It doesn't really matter to me."
The man hummed as he drew out a rather oriental-looking box and placed it on the counter, he opened it up and withdrew a small dragon statue and placed it in the palm of his hand. "Now this is something really, really special. If it likes you – you can keep it Emrys."
"I better not," Emrys said suspiciously as she eyed both the metal-dragon and then the man with her green-green eyes. "Da' said to never take anything from strangers, besides Mrs. Allen is looking for me and I don't wish to cause her worry."
"You have an odd way about lying Emrys," Balthazar said amused at how neatly the childe stepped aside his question and was getting ready to leave. "But that's good."
Emrys started for the door and a few feet from it the doors slammed shut in her face, Balthazar was not letting this childe go until he knew for sure she/he/it wasn't Prime. "Shite."
"Language, Emrys." Balthazar scolded lightly as Emrys came back with a pout; it was a pretty cool trick. "Here, just hold it, that's all and you can then leave."
"This isn't going to steal my soul or anything like that, right?" Emrys said as she reluctantly held out her small hand and the chuckling man placed it in hers almost gently.
At first nothing seemed to happen but Emrys felt something like a tickle in the back of her mind when she got an idea or the answer to one of her mathematical problems – suddenly warmth spread and sank deep in her mind through cracks Emrys didn't know she had until it was full. Then both fire and ice, lightning and thunder, light and shadows, water and soil, air and metal, life and death, seemed to echo from her mind through her body until her bones were vibrating from it – it wasn't exactly painful just odd as she watched with wide eyes as the dragon shook it's self awake and wrapped around her left ring-finger snugly.
Balthazar closed his eyes in relief and nearly felt faint, he finally find his Master's successor after nearly two thousand years of waiting and searching. His journey was over and he could finally stop for a breather and recoup from the long-times past. This ragged, skinny - odd - childe was going to help him free Veronica from Morgana and then finally end her rein of darkness.
"Holy shite," Wynne breathed as the man walked around the counter and kneeled before her and placed his hands on her shoulders.
"I have been searching many years for you, Emrys, a great deal many years – and here you are, magically in front of me when I was nearly giving up hope." The man looked at Wynne in something that both awe and relief, a little odd since no one had given her that look before now. "That ring means your going to be a very powerful sorceress one day Emrys. Now for your first lesson-"
"Bull-shit."
"Pardon?" Balthazar said slightly startled at the language this child was showing him.
"Magic isn't real," Wynne said plainly as if she just announced that the sky was green and it was falling – which it was for Balthazar as the shook rippled through him. "I don't know what type of trick this is, but every-one knows that magic isn't real – and this is not Harry Potter otherwise you would have been here for my tenth birthday a few weeks ago."
"You…don't believe in magic?" Balthazar said slowly as he closed his eyes in disbelief.
"No, don't be stupid. I thought I already covered that with you," Emrys was frowning when he opened his golden eyes to look at the Prime. "If I can see it, touch it, exam it – then it's real. Show me a magic trick or six and I'll follow your lessons in pulling rabbits or whatever out of your hat."
"Very well then," Balthazar somewhat relived that he wouldn't have to start totally over. He pointed his hand towards some of his harmless things and made them float and dance, he smiled at Emrys's awed look. He gentle placed them back down – harmless but expensive as he was an antique trader after all – tracking down the Prime took more money then two hundred years ago. "Satisfied?"
"Yes, sir. So, I'm going to be learning magic right? Nothing like Harry Potter – turning chairs into pigs nonsense?" Wynne added hastily. "I always thought that was a waste of talent and time learning."
"If you are little apprentice?"
"Well…" Emrys bite it/she/he lips before reluctantly nodding. "I can learn to deal with the disappointment and suck it up and grow a set."
"Language." Balthazar corrected automatically. "Now, first lesson is getting you your own Incantus, stay put and do not touch anything. Understand?"
"Stay put, don't touch anything, sit girl, come boy." Wynne muttered folding her arms and looking up at the man – even when he was kneeling he was taller then the ten year-old. "What's your name anyway? I can't keep calling you sir."
"Balthazar, Balthazar Blake." The man – Mr. Blake – said getting up, up and up. "May I have the name of my apprentice?'
"Wynne Emrys."
"Oh. I see then." Balthazar was unsure of how to teach a girl, he always expected a boy. "Stay put and don't touch anything, I will be right back."
"Yes, Mr. Blake." Wynne was going to keep her word, maybe Mr. Blake would allow for magic-school on the weekends as she had high school during the week and then tutoring afterwards. She watched the man race from the rooms and down what seemed to be a staircase, Wynne also decided to have a chaperone for a few years until she knew for he wasn't a pedophile or an insane asylum escapee.
Wynne was looking at the books Mr. Blake had – her hands firmly in her parka pockets to keep from temptation of touching them – when a hand, smaller then Mr. Blake's, clamped down on her shoulder and whirled her around and shoving her against the bookcase.
"Where have you been Brain-bitch?" Arthur sneered down at the pretty-childe. "You got me in trouble with Mrs. Allen!"
"I am sorry but the shop-keep found my book and had placed it in the rubbish bin, but once I told that it was mine he said he would look for it for me. I am waiting here for him as I didn't want to get more lost then what I already was thanks to you." Wynne said as she clenched her hands in her parka and out of sight from Arthur, she didn't want him to see her ring and take it away.
"Who cares about your stupid book, Brainie!" Arthur said as he gripped the childe's shoulders tightly enough to leave bruises and shook her hard enough that the vases on top of the bookcase rattled and something fell off with a loud crash. "Look at what you did!"
Wynne wasn't focusing on Arthur anymore, she was eyeing the strange doll-vase with some amount of fear at the crack – what ever magical item that was it was both powerful and bad that her bones were hurting in a bad way. Wynne gasped as Arthur shook her harder and the side of her head cracked on the bookcase causing pain and trickles of blood to trail down her face.
Wynne couldn't help it, "Balthazar!"
Balthazar's head jerked up at the sound of his Apprentice's scream of pain and terror, he was already surging up the stairs and placing the childes Incantus in his pocket. He didn't even pay attention to the Grimhold or the mess as he rushed into the main part of the store, he only saw a red-headed teenager gripping his Apprentice hard enough to bruise her and blood was streaming down Wynne's terrified face as the man shook her violently.
"Let. Her. Go." Balthazar quietly roared and the redhead spun around and Wynne fell to the ground and scrambled away from them both until she was pressed tightly between the bookcase and a large crate. "Now!"
"Who the hell or you?" Arthur sneered at the dark-haired man. "I'll do what I want with Brainie as its no business of yours."
Wynne burrowed deeper into her corner and patted at the head-wound – which always bled everywhere from what she had read – so only she caught sight of the doll-vase as it rolled by it's self behind Mr. Blake and cockroaches started to pour from the crack. Wynne kept her mouth shut for the time being as Arthur was still between her and Mr. Blake and she still didn't quite yet believe in this magic nonsense, not until it formed a rather odd looking man – which would be slightly odd if he didn't give off this…taintness to him.
"Watch out!" Wynne called when the Furred-Bugman raised his glowing stick at Mr. Blake's back from where he seemed like he was trying to strangle Arthur.
Balthazar instantly ducked in time to miss Horvath's air-blast at him but it sent the creepy-boy/man clear across the store and slammed hard into one of the cabinets in that general area. He didn't even bother looking behind as he tossed an air-blast back as he rolled away from Horvath.
"Ah, Balthazar, it's so nice to see you again." Horvath said from where he was pinned to the glass roof. "This isn't at all sporting of you, you know?"
"Be quiet. Ignore him," Balthazar said as Wynne stumbled to her feet to hide behind Balthazar, he tucked an arm in front of his apprentice to make sure she was slightly more protected. "He's always been cranky like this for thousands of years. Now, where is the doll?"
Wynne pointed at it next to the counter's floor and then reached down to pick it up without being told. "Arthur knocked it over while he was shaking me, it cracked and cockroaches started coming out of it."
"Well-" Balthazar didn't have time to finish as Horvath blasted him across the room, Wynne screamed as she ducked behind the counter to get some cover from the magic-dual that was going on.
With wide eyes Wynne watched things go flying and swords danced, it wasn't until the counter was almost set ablaze that Wynne decided to make a run for the door and get outside, Wynne was nearly there when the rug bunched up under her boots and tripped her – nearly losing hold of the doll-vase that Mr. Blake wanted her to watch.
"My, my, my. Balthazar sure picks the weaklings for apprentices," Horvath said as he took in the street-urchin his former friend called an apprentice, it's blonde hair was all dirty and tangled and it's clothing matched. "Give me the Grimhold and I'll let you leave this store alive – although if we do meet again I will kill you."
"No! Don't you dare touch her!" Balthazar shouted as he tried to free himself quickly and get through the flames in time to save the one he waited so long for.
Wynne closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath to calm herself down, she could feel her bones perk-up and tingle; Balthazar's eyes held fury while Horvath's were pleased with the fact his lie went over so well – neither were prepared for what Wynne was about to do next.
"Fuck you," Wynne shouted and thrust her hand with her glowing-green dragon-ring out towards the Furred-Bugman. She wanted him to stop it! "Mr. Blake said no!"
The swords pulled from their sleeves and surged towards Horvath – who threw up a shield but the force behind the attack forced him back several feet and through the flames – which Horvath had no choice to put out.
Emrys was pale and shaking, the blood on her forehead stood out starkly from her first use of magic – powerful magic at that, her right arm cradling the Grimhold tightly and gently. Balthazar was proud and pleased while Horvath was moving on from angry to pissed off. Balthazar saw the flames jump in Horvath's hands and he struggled anew and harder to free himself – his apprentice was no where near ready to face Horvath in combat nor was she strong enough to pull off another attack.
"No!" Even as he freed himself Balthazar knew he would be too late, the flames were already leaving Horvath's hands and engulfing Emrys huddled body as he fell from the ceiling to the floor below. "No!"
"Tsk, tsk, tsk." Horvath said as he brushed imaginary ash from his coat. "You little apprentice may have been stronger then what I expected but easily squashed like a bug like all the rest."
"No…Emrys," Balthazar whispered brokenly as the flames raged behind Horvath like a demon from hell. "No…I can't…not again…"
"Poor Balthazar," Horvath chuckled as he summoned more magic, it would be pathetically easy to kill the weakened sorcerer now. He always was when he lost an apprentice he was training at the time. "I thought you would have learned your lesson by now old friend?"
Balthazar closed his eyes, frankly even the 'death' he would receive would be too merciful for him – he barely lasted five minutes as a Master for his Master's descendant and he already failed. Horvath's eyes gleamed with glee, as he got ready for more of his fire, he adored when his former master was teaching them fire, as it was one of the things he excelled at.
"Mr. Blake? Fire is suppose to hurt me so I have a shield up now, but I can't get out." Wynne said from inside of her green-shield and both Sorcerers's whirled around to stare at Wynne in shock. "I'm stuck."
"Emrys…" Balthazar was too relieved to see that Wynne's wound had healed and she wasn't as shaky looking.
"You little cockroach," Horvath hissed and increased the power of his fire-blast and Balthazar tackled Horvath from behind, knocking of the Ten-year Urn next to them and the lid fell open and started sucking in Horvath and Balthazar. "Ah! No, this can't happen to me! Not yet!"
"Run, Emrys! Run and don't look back!" Balthazar shouted and he was pleased that his apprentice followed his directions; the last thing he saw was the bright green backpack in the frame of his door before the Urn sucked him fully in. He hoped that Emrys would be safe until he was free again.
"Wynne!" Mrs. Allen called relieved when the ten year-old showed up looking both bloody and clutching a doll to her chest. "What on earth?"
"In there-" Wynne said pointing to the store just as Arthur rushed out.
"There are wizards dueling in there!" Arthur said as he pointed wildly at the store behind him. "Fire and living swords!"
Mrs. Allen and Mr. Richardson looked at the each other then at Arthur's bloodied knuckles and then the blood on Wynne's forehead. Mr. Richardson decided to take the league while Mrs. Allen called the cops, "Wynne, sweetheart, did Arthur hurt you? Cause that wound on your forehead?"
"Yes, Mr. Richardson." Wynne said softly as she edged away from Arthur and his friends. "He shook me pretty hard and bashed my head into the bookcase, it still hurts and there was blood."
"What? Shut-up you lying little bitch!" Arthur snapped and paled when the other teenagers stepped away from and both of the teachers and the two parents frowned at him.
It was at this point Arthur could hear the cops coming and his stomach began sinking as he then realized that he was in really deep shit now, he really was going to jail this time – and it was all thanks to that little bitch! "This is all your fault you little bitch, when I get – I will get out – I will fucking kill you!"
Wynne only shivered and hovered between Lily and Terry as the cops pulled up; she just wanted to forget this day. While everyone was talking to the cops she gently entered the store and looked around, everything looked like it did when she first entered it and she placed the doll-vase by the bookcase before exiting the store with one last look about the magical store.
Wynne was never coming back here, not for anything.