KP in Halloween's Child

Chapter 6: Light Vs. Dark

Kim and Ron are dancing at the party with no thoughts as to whether or not their daughter was in any kind of trouble. All they had in their heads was what they also had in their hearts at that moment. A great love for the other as they gazed deep into each other's eyes.

Mr. Possible sighs happily at the way his daughter looked as she danced with Ron. He had to admit that at the start, he had his doubts but Ron quickly found a way of erasing them by proving to be the best husband and father ever. He is broken out of his thoughts as Mr. Barkin comes up with a glass of punch in one hand, "Ah Yes, the loving couple sure know how to dance don't they? I knew from early on that those two kids were meant for each other but I also kept my eye on them." Mr. Barkin tilts his head to one side in a whisper to Kim's father, "Don't ever tell them but whenever a teacher couldn't fill their class, I made it my duty to make sure they stayed in the straight and narrow. Especially that Ron fellow, he was always a strange one."

Mr. Possible never takes his eyes off of Kim and Ron, smiling a little as he whispers back, "He is still a strange one but there is no finer man than him for my little Kimmy. He is loving, loyal, and most importantly, he loves her like no one else ever could."

"I hear that! Those two always had a special bond even when they started school." Mr. Barkin says, not even bothering to whisper this time and then takes a sip of his punch.

Bonnie walks up, having heard Mr. Barkin, "Oh puh-lease! It was so totally obvious that Ron was practically her boyfriend from the way they always hung out together. He even came to cheer her on when she showed up for cheer trial-outs." Her eyes narrowed, "Oh, how I hate that day."

Mr. Barkin looks over at the shorter Bonnie, "What are you complaining about? You got the best cheer squad in the state with her on your team and with him, you had one passionate mascot."

Bonnie's voice dropped a bit into a soft growl, "Don't remind me. I still can't believe that he ran around in that stu-pid costume of his but I really hated that fake slobber he would use." She shivers, "I can still feel it getting into places I'd rather not think about."

"You didn't seem to mind his replacement so much." Mr. Barkin laughs and then says to Bonnie.

"Well duh, they had style like their sister and were actually entertaining instead of running around, making a fool out of themselves and the sport we were supposed to be cheering on." Bonnie turns to Mr. Barkin, "Don't you agree that those Pep Pups were a vast improvement?"

Without even realizing it, Bonnie had been overheard by Kim and Ron when the music ended.

"I don't know Bonnie, I like to think that Ron made his contributions as a mascot. Remember the time he saved all of us from Gil, not once but twice?" Kim says with a bit of amusement and with just a hint of annoyance in her voice.

Bonnie turns to see Kim and Ron, "Yeah, I remember and it was also his fault that the freako kept coming after us too! If he hadn't been on the squad, we would never had to deal with such a disgusting at all!."

"Hey! It wasn't my fault that he held a grudge against me for something that was his idea to start with!" Ron whines at Bonnie, "Besides, I saved you all from turning into mutants like him. Isn't that a good thing?" He stops and then taps his chin as he looks at her, "Although, would anyone have been able to tell the difference with you Bonnie?"

Bonnie just growls, "Ooh! Grow up Stoppable!" and spins on her heel, stomping away towards Junior who was talking to Tara even as Kim, Barkin, and Mr. Possible all bust into laughter.

(Meanwhile in the magical world)

The castle's walls loomed over even the tall trees of the forest, a testament to the power of the castle's owner. It seemed bigger than Rose had remembered it to be but then, she guessed that at the altitude she had been at, everything seemed so much smaller.

Ms. Royanna looked at the castle with apprehension and with her witches sense, she could tell that the castle was protected by far more than more concrete walls. She knew that there were many enchantments and spell traps for all who would try to breach the walls but she also knew that the main entrance had been opened for them to come right up through. A certain trap if she ever saw one.

Rose looks at the open door, "If my mom was here, she would just grapple her way in instead of taking the obvious route. Fortunately for us, I have one since I was allowed to stop and get my old one from that tree."

Kamilla just rolls her eyes, "Do you really think that the most clichéd entrances would work on a castle like this?"

Rose glares at her, "Let's just find out." She grabs her grappler and tosses it high enough to snag on the first try, impressing the Vanish family.

Kamilla tries to shrug it off, "Lucky toss, that's all it was."

Rose smiles, pleased with herself, "If that's luck, then I'm taking it."

Ms. Royanna looks up and sees that where were enchantments for climbing, running, and flying but nothing against grappling that she could see. She had to be careful to use only the spells on herself as any spells towards the castle would set off every alarm and they would be screwed. "Let's try it. I don't see anything against it."

Kamilla couldn't believe her ears! "What? Mother! This is lunacy! We're all going to get caught!"

Ms. Royanna looks at her daughter, "Fine, if you want to try going through the front door. Be my guest."

Kamilla grumbles and mutters, "I should..." before moving to climb up after Rose.

The four of them climb up slowly, keeping as quiet as possible since they couldn't use any silence magic without setting off an alarm. Once the four of them are over, Rose begins to look around and gasps as she sees her friend standing there in plain sight of the drawbridge, as if expecting her to come waltzing in but she didn't understand why she was not walking out under her own power.

Ms. Royanna sees Rose's friend and stares hard, "This is not good, she is under dark magic's influence. It will be far more difficult to expel than the stuff that had been in the water.

Rose doesn't take her eyes off her friend, "What does that mean? That she can't be helped? And why is she just standing there like she is waiting for something to happen?"

"Oy, don't you get it? Your friend is expecting you to come through the easy opening that they left for you." Kamilla glares at Rose, "It is obviously a trap, so going down there would be stupid."

Rose whips her head to look at Kamilla, her hair whipping her face with her eyes glowing in her anger, "I don't care what you say, that is my best friend and I refuse to believe that good or evil, she would turn against me!"

Ms. Royanna sighs, "She may not have any choice. The dark magic will make her obey her master and it will feel as natural as breathing. Believe me, I know firsthand how powerful it can be. I have seen even good souls become corrupted."

Rose shakes as she clenches her hands into tight fists, "No! Not my friend! Not Julia!" She growls, "If someone is controlling her then I will face that person and defeat them, freeing her from their control!"

Ms. Royanna knew it would not be that easy but she kept silent for she had noticed that saying anything would only further enflame the fire that burned within her that was very much like her mother.

Unfortunately, Kamilla had not noticed it as she points at Rose, "Ha! I don't care if you are Rose Stoppable, daughter of Kim and Ron Stoppable. Even you alone, can not hope to defeat someone as powerful as the master of this castle is!" She glares as Rose grabs the hand and pushes the hand way.

"Leave her alone Kam!" Dean almost shouts at his older sister, "She is just very worried about her best friend. Would you be any different if it was yours down there instead of hers?"

Kamilla suddenly remembers her best friend and the feelings she had, which has a calming effect upon her before she softly answers, "No... I would not. Sorry Rose."

Rose had been raised by her parents to accept apologies, especially sincere ones and let whatever it was about go. She nods to her, "Apology accepted. Now let's find the evil lord of the castle and teach him not to mess with a Stoppable!"

Even as Rose starts walking even as Ms. Royanna worries about the fact that they felt they were ready to mess with the Stoppable family and she didn't see any guards or anyone else for that matter, another thing that worried Ms. Royanna as she wondered where all the people who served or guarded the castle were.

Dean reached out to Rose and took her hand comfortingly, which she paused in her walk to look at him and give him a warm smile before resuming the walk. He knew that what they faced would be a very tough battle, but he would do anything he could to safeguard her as a feeling deep inside him that he had to keep he safe.

Moving forward in and through the castle hallways, the four continue their journey in silence with Rose's eyes glowing the whole time.

Even as they made their way the castle, listening carefully for any sounds of a patrol or guard but it was quiet as a tomb, all of which only served to make things more unnerving for almost everyone but Rose who had grown up training to deal with sneaking through a bad guy's place.

Rose remembers her mother's words, "When sneaking through the hallway, always beware of traps, especially the ones you can't see." Suddenly, something makes her hair stand on end as she remembers what else her parents have said, "Sometimes you've just got to trust your instincts." And her instincts were screaming for her to stop as something felt bad around the corner.

They all stop as Rose squeezes Dean's hand and she whispers, "Something bad is near..." She stares forward, focusing all her senses to try and figure out what it was even as Ms. Royanna lifts an enchanted item to see forward from a small pouch and at the same time, they both gasp!

Dean whispers, "What? What is it?"

Rose turns her head to Ms. Royanna, "Jinx, you owe me a soda!" she says out of habit with her mother before turning to look at Dean with a more serious expression, "I think I know who's on the other side."

Ms. Royanna looks at her son and daughter, knowing exactly who was on the other side but she didn't want them to find out. "Rose and I will go this way, you two go and check to see if her friend is still in the courtyard waiting for Rose."

Kamilla whispers, "What? Mom! Do you really think it is a good idea to split up in this place?"

Ms. Royanna gave her daughter a withering look, "You will take Dean and go check on Julia, do not argue with me right now! I am not in the mood for it!"

Kamilla grabs Dean by the arm as she huffs, knowing that her mother was beyond talking to and feels the momentary tug as Dean lets go of Rose's hand.

"We'll be right back, but let us know if you need us and we'll come right back ok?" Dean loudly whispers to Rose and then looks at his mother to see if she got the message too. Upon seeing them both nod, he turns and walks with his sister instead of being pulled along with her. He glances back over his shoulder one last time and sees a most serious expression on Rose and his mother's face before they walk around a corner.

Once out of ear-shot, Ms. Royanna whispers, "The owner of the castle is just on the other side. Are you sure you want to do this?"

Rose thinks about her friend and nods, "I do, no one picks on one of my friends and gets away with it!" She whispers with a bit of a growl.

Ms. Royanna notices her eyes and wonders what it means as she had never seen eyes quite so vibrant blue before.

Rose takes charge suddenly, moving around the corner and sees a large pair of doors. She pushes it open and sitting at the end of a long table is a cloaked figure with two candles burning on it. She storms in and shouts, "Are you the owner of this creepy castle?"

The figure's head raises up just enough for the candle light to reach the lips that had been smiling before to frown, "I thought your friend was going to deal with you. How did you get past her?"

Rose stops at the end of the long table with her hands slamming on the hard wood, "I'm Rose Stoppable! Do you really think I'd just waltz on in through an open door that is obviously a trap?"

The frown turns into a scowl, "I had thought you would be a spoiled, pampered little princess without any fight in you given the importance of who you are!"

Rose snarls, "I am no princess! That is my mother's nickname, not mine!" She does an impressive standing, forward flip from the floor in front of the table to on top of the table, which surprises both Ms. Royanna and the cloaked figure at the end of the table.

Rose runs towards the cloaked one even as Ms. Royanna shouts, "No Rose! Wait!" with an outreached hand but it was too late to stop her and she doubted that she could have stopped her anyway as Rose ran like the wind towards the cloaked figure who mutters a brief spell that hits Rose in the chest and sends her flying backwards through the air!

Ms. Royanna moves quickly cast a soft landing spell when she witnesses something incredible.

Rose does a flip in the air and catches the chandelier, quickly doing a rotation on it even as it swings and just as the swing reaches the peak. She flips forward and uses her legs to launch forward with a brief flash of light from her feet, causing the chandelier to swing with such force and speed that it slams into the ceiling and shatters! Even as it shatters upon the ceiling, Rose's leap had caught the evil one off-guard with the surprising move and slams hard enough to cause them both to knock over and break the high, thick back of the seat upon the cold, hard stone floor.

The both of them slide over the floor with Rose leaping off just as the cloaked one slides right into a stone pillar with a hard enough crunching sound that small cracks split up the side of the pillar at the impact point.

The cloaked figure groans as Rose storms up and grabs the cuff, lifting the person up until they are about even-faced with each other before she shouts, "Free my friend from whatever dark magic you have her under! NOW!" She shouts that last bit even louder than before with her whole body glowing with a tail visible.

Ms. Royanna runs as she casts a speed spell, making it so she dashes faster than normally possible but in her eyes it was still slower than the way Rose had dashed across the table as she shouts to Rose, "Rose! Stop! If you destroy them, then the spell will remain in effect permanently!"

The cloaked figure moves a hand up and pulls back the hood, revealing the face of an angry man with blood coming from the corner of his mouth, "Spare me the pity. Do it! I dare you to destroy me like you did Monkey Fist!"

Rose loosens her grip as she looks at him in confusion with her glow disappearing, "What? What are you talking about?"

He brings his feet under him, which had been dragging to stand a bit taller than Rose and pulls her hands free and shakes the cloak. "That's right, I know the truth. The three of you, your mother, your father, and you destroyed Monkey Fist all those years ago!" He then turns his head towards Ms. Royanna and softly says, "Hello there Roy..."

Ms. Royanna walks up to him and slaps him so soundly that it echoed off the stone walls, "No! Don't you dare call me by my name like that! You have no right to anything, and I won't let your dark insanity harm my children!"

Rose didn't understand what was going on but the mention of her children made her think of Dean and she got riled up once more, "Let go of Julia and return me back home now!"

"Now why would you do that? You destroyed my real love, Monkey Fist who only wanted you as her daughter!" He then spits out some blood from his mouth, "I will see that her dreams are realized when you join the side of evil as she desired and become the most powerful signal to cast the darkest of shadows over all of the both our worlds!"

Rose shakes her head, "You're nuts! I already have parents, why would I listen to you? Just who do you think you are?"

He growls in an animal-style, "I am Ambrose but my peers call me, D-N-Ambrose for my skills in the Dark Nether magic and I am going to become your new father!" He brings up his right hand in a dramatic flair with blackness flowing up from his fingers.

Rose growls, "I don't THINK so!" She throws a powerful punch that sends him flying through the air to land near a door when suddenly there is a loud sound that could be coming from the courtyard area!

D-N-Ambrose laughs, only to be interrupted by a cough before he smiles at Rose, "It sounds like your friend has found some new victims of her newfound power that I have given her."

Rose and Ms. Royanna's eyes both go wide as they realize what he meant at the same time and rush to a nearby window even as D-N-Ambrose slips out through an exit.

In the courtyard was Dean and Kamilla both fighting for their very lives with Julia winning. Julia was standing over them both with a large shadow fist forming over her right hand and Rose cries out, "Julia! No! Don't do it!"

Julia just turns to look up at the window and with cold, cruel eyes that show almost no recognition of her before she turns back and raises her shadow fist high into the air. Black lightning starting to form around the fist even as Kamilla, who is barely conscious sees her unconscious brother, Dean and groans in pain as she starts to cast a spell.

Ms. Royanna begins to cast a powerful spell even as Rose moves quickly, hopping out the window and sliding down the wall with her fingers digging into the concrete, not even thinking about how that was possible and not noticing that she was glowing brightly. Halfway down she springs from the wall, moving at such amazing speed that Ms. Royanna pauses in her spell casting in surprise and is stunned to see Rose slip past Julia and stop her arm with her own arm. Keeping the powerful shadow fist stuck in the air while D-N-Ambrose continues to make his way through the castle towards the courtyard, looking back over his shoulder in case Rose or Royanna had decided to give chase.

Rose looks up at her friend as she pushes the hand up higher from her position on the knees, "Julia! It is me! Rose! We are best friends! Please try to remember! Think of your family, they wouldn't want you to do this!"

Julia looks at Rose with dull eyes before they glow darkly, "I have no friends, no family, I answer only to the darkness and my Master."

A single tear falls down Rose's cheek as Julia moves another hand up from her side to extend towards Kamilla and Dean, a black claw-like hand with lightning extending out towards them. "I'm sorry Julia" She says as she quickly moves her hands and does a powerful mid-section blow that sends Julia flying backwards through the air but she extends both her shadow hands down into the ground in order stop her backwards motion and land on her feet.

Kamilla completes her spell and Dean disappears and she passes out moments before Ms. Royanna's spell takes hold of her and makes her vanish as well but not before D-N-Ambrose sees them both disappear from a doorway to the courtyard.

D-N-Ambrose shouts, "No! This isn't what I wanted! You have failed me sidekick!" He brings his hands up and blasts Julia, knocking her out before a very surprised Rose. Moving quickly, he approaches Julia with Rose getting in-between them.

"I won't let you destroy her!" Rose shouts at D-N-Ambrose.

D-N-Ambrose snorts, "I want you, I don't care about destroying your friend. I saw her actions and after what she did to those kids, I have decided to remove the power from her!"

Rose lowers her fists in confusion with her power fading to normal, "Wait, you're letting Julia go? She isn't going to become your eternal prisoner or henchwoman or whatever you call them in this world?"

D-N-Ambrose shakes his head, "I was merely using her to get you but now my plans are ruined! I have to take her power and leave to plan for another day, so now get out of my way or I will leave her as she is!"

"Let him by Rose, I believe him." Ms. Royanna says as she appears from behind, and walks up with a spell to hurt him in the ready should he do something else.

Rose steps to the side but keeping a very close eye on D-N-Ambrose as he mutters a dark spell and grips Julia with black smoke flowing from Julia's eyes and mouth and into D-N-Ambrose's body.

Rose moves to Julia's side as she calls out, "Julia! Are you ok? Please answer me!"

Julia brings a hand to her head and groans, "Oh, not so loud... I've got a major headache."

Rose laughs and picks up Julia by the neck, hugging her complaining friend who struggles to escape her grip even as D-N-Ambrose looks at Ms. Royanna with an apologetic look that she returns with a furious fire of her own.

D-N-Ambrose sighs and turns as he says, "Take care of the kids and tell Rose that I'll be back for her and next time I won't fail." He starts to fade into black smoke as Ms. Royanna fires her spell into it and smiles as she hears his yelp of pain that fades as the smoke does.

Suddenly the skies are filled with dragons and vampire flies through the still-open drawbridge. "What's going on here?" Moni shouts as she begins to look around, "I find Kamilla teleported to the infirmary from this location and what do I find? Practically nothing!"

Ms. Royanna walks up with worry in her eyes, "Is Kamilla all right?"

Moni sighs, "Yes, yes, she's all right and as we were flying here, I got a report that Dean showed up at the hospital. Both are expected to make full recoveries."

Rose helps up Julia with some of her hair falling into her face to cover it and she shouts, "How about a little help here?" With Julia groaning, "Not so loud! My head still hurts!"

Moni moves quickly, "Oh! Let me help you human." She picks up Julia with no problem into her arms, "She'll be all right Miss..." She trails off as she suddenly picks up the blood-scent of something she hadn't smelled in many years.

Rose brushes her hair out of her eyes, "Hi, I'm Rose. Rose..." She is cut off as Moni shrieks, "Rose Stoppable!" She turns to Ms. Royanna, "Just what is the Halloween is she doing here?"

Ms. Royanna walks calmly up, "She came to rescue the one that you now hold in your hands, so I'd be a bit more careful if I were you. She's every bit as powerful, if not more as her parents."

If it was possible for a vampire to pale, Moni did it. She looks at Rose and then at Julia before looking back at Rose, "You shouldn't be here!"

Rose frowns in annoyance, "Why does everyone keep saying that?"

"That isn't important, what is important is that the bridge between our worlds is almost over. We have to return you to your world immediately or you'll be stuck here for a year." Ms. Royanna says to Rose.

Nodding to her, Rose says, "Believe me, I want to go back home and forget that tonight ever existed!"

Moni looks down at Julia and doesn't see any injuries on her, "I think she's going to be ok but Royanna is right. You need to go back right away!" She turns to Royanna, "Can you help with that?"

Royanna nods, "Yes, I had already prepared a portal return spell and with D-N-Ambrose gone from the castle. The dark magic that protected it and prevented the spell from working is now able to work."

Moni growls, "That dark wizard Ambrose... he just went to the top of my hunt list!" She turns to look at Rose, "But first things first." She stares at Rose until she falls asleep on her feet even as Ms. Royanna pulls out a pearl from her bag and says one word, "Return" to activate the spell already on it. The pearl changes into a large colorful bubble and floats in the air even as Moni finishes telling something to Rose and putting Julia into her arms. The bubble floats up into the air and vanishes even as a dragon flies by it and seems to almost wreck itself by flying into another dragon and then again as it nearly crashes into the castle.

Moni turns to Ms. Royanna, "Ok Royanna, you better have a good explanation for all this. Just exactly what happened here? How long was she here?"

Even as Ms. Royanna opens her mouth to answer, a large dragon that transforms into a human quickly says, "Was that Rose Stoppable I just saw in the bubble?"

Moni nods to him, "That's exactly who it was Waidell, and she has more of her parents in her than she realizes." She turns to Ms. Royanna, "Now you were about to explain, in detail, just exactly what happened here that brought her to our world."

After a sigh, she begins to do exactly that even as Rose and Julia reappear and wake up in their world.

"Oh... I feel like I've been hit by a sledgehammer." Complains Julia as she shakes her head and Rose shakes her head as well, "So do I, what happened to us?"

Suddenly they both became aware of the bright light as Rose dimly remembers seeing a bright light before whatever happened to them both. "The light! We were both checking out the light, I think!" They both get to their feet and walk over to the window where they see Rose's parents having a party.

Rose gasps, "Aw man! My parents are here! We have got to go back home before my parents or the party guests catch us!"

Julia pats her friend on the shoulder, "At least we did what we said we were going to do. We came out to this ratty old building and got inside it."

Rose nods with a sigh, "Yeah, I just wish I'd gotten a chance to explore it more."

Julia smiles, "There's always next year. C'mon, let's go."

Together they walk out the front door, but just as she leaves, her eyes darken completely in a glass-black state under a flash of black lightning and then return back to normal just as quickly.

Epilogue:

Kim and Ron both return back home, never having known of their daughter and her best friend's adventure and the gateway to Halloween was sealed for another year.

Kim kisses her daughter on the head, "How was your evening? Did you have a fun Halloween? Make any good memories?"

"I..." A look of confusion crosses over her face, "Yeah... I think I did. I remember a cute boy."

"A boy huh? Bring him by sometime and we'll play some videogames together." Ron says as he gives Kim a quick kiss on the lips, making Rose groan at her parent's affectionate nature towards each other.

"Mom! Dad! Can't you two control each other for a moment when I'm trying to talk about something?"

Kim and Ron look at each other, then hmmm as they look away in for another few moments before turning back to her in stereo and saying loudly, "Nope!" before they burst out laughing and wrapping their arms around each other with Kim saying loudly, "I love you Ron" and Ron saying back just as loudly, "And I love you Kim!" The two of them kiss each other until Rose growls, "Parents! Ugh!" and storms out of the room.

Meanwhile in the Halloween world, a very sad Dean sighs to his mother, "Do you think she'll think about me back in her world?"

His mother didn't want to explain that Moni had used her hypnotic vampire powers to order Rose to forget everything that she'd seen and experienced until confronted by things from the Halloween world once more. "Yes dear, she cared so much about you that I think she will think about you just as you will of her."

Dean smiles, "Thanks mom"

"Anytime sweetie" Ms. Royanna says as she rubs his head with her hand.

Kamilla saw the entire exchange and grumbles before walking off as she whispers to herself, "I wish dad was still around to make sense of things."

Looking out a window with his mother standing behind him, "She was the most amazing girl I've ever met. I wonder how she feels about me?"

His mother just lets out a sigh and walks off to the kitchen to do some dishes.

Even as Ms. Royanna begins to do the dishes, Julia in the other world is laying on top of her bed with it perfectly made under her and arms crossed under her head as she gazes up at the ceiling before she suddenly gets up and looks at a bird that had landed on her windows still and makes an annoying call that makes her shout, "Quiet! I'm trying to think!" Her eyes go dark and black lightning flows from her finger that is pointing at the bird and completely vaporizes it nothing but a puff of black smoke and small singe spots where its feet had been.

Julia's eyes return to normal and widen in shock before a smile grows on her face, "Cool! I have a superpower!"

AN: What did you think about this chapter? I am sorry I took so long to finish it but real life intruded and then I found it hard to focus with schoolwork and finals. What do you think about what happened with Kim, Ron and Bonnie at the beginning? What did you think of the surprise character, D-N-Ambrose? Any guesses as to what he was going to do with Rose? What do you think about Julia? D-N-Ambrose *did* take the black smoke power that he'd given her back so any thoughts as to where this other black power came from? Or what it might mean for the NEXT Halloween story?

As usual all thoughts, reviews, ideas for a story you'd like to see me work on or continue, crossover ideas (such as KP and Level Up), Christmas ideas, and more are always welcome.