The silent girl, with a beautiful lapis lazuli that hung around her neck, sat in the center of the empty carriage. Her legs were crossed, as she was balancing her weight from each rock and crack that the carriage road. She trusted her partner to manage on making a safe journey for her, and also for him, but she found it rather difficult to do so because the ride has not been a lot of fun for her. Her stomach lurched again due to an upcoming ditch came along and surprised her. She was, then, began regretting eating before she and her partner headed off for their mission.

It was like a game of chess, all players were set in motion, each side following a specific strategy. It was obvious that Violet was apprehensive for this was her first mission with Piper. That meant that if they faced failure on her behalf there would be heavy consequences.

Violet sighed. Her emotions swam from the depths of her mind; yellow for anticipation, blue for melancholy, and red for rage. She was hopelessly bored, and wished for the action to come. And just like that, her wish was granted. In a flash, the hallow carriage shook violently, and Violet watched in horror as her safe haven was torn apart without mercy. Her heart got stuck in her throat, even her breathing was absence in the still but quiet scene of the ogres, who bore their befuddling minds at the puny girl before them. There might have been a dozen or so of them, standing in their heavy armor, and wielding their lethal weapons.

She snapped from her faze; leaping from her feet, she hopped over the armored heads, and escaped out of sight. However, she sensed somebody else in the midst as she was aiming for the bushes. Her instincts told her to stop and be aware of her surroundings. Violet shot her head up quickly in the direction of the trees, there was a rustling noise, and then a shadowy figure ascended towards her with a long sword in the air. In a nick of time, she snatched her daggers from her belt, blocking the assassin's attack with their blade against hers just merely inches from her face.

In the moonlight, she caught a glimpse of her attacker. Her eyes grew wide in recognition at the dirty blond hair and pale blue shades. Those eyes glared immensely with fire, and she could feel the intensity of hatred from within him. He wore an eyepatch over his left eye, and his tanned skin was no longer soft, but has grown rough from many battles in the past.

"Artie?" She gasped, trying to maintain his sword from ever touching her face. He narrowed his eyes, his lips twitching in arrogance.

"Who the hell are you?" he snarled. His strength was fierce, and Violet knew that she was losing greatly, but she held on, and somehow she was capable of pushing him away for a few seconds before he lashed out again with a yell.

'Right, Artie is different in this world. There's no chance that he would ever recognize me as friend.' Violet thought, as she dodged his swings. She countered one of them, and stepped forth with a thrust. He lunged forward, casting her feeble weapon aside, and swung upwards, grazing her shoulder in the progress. Violet's open wound bled, she had no time to care for it, but it did weaken herself in battle.

Arthur was on the verge for another swing, just as a pumpkin bomb flew at his feet. It exploded on impact, thus, blinding him momentarily. A voice shrieked from above in the night sky, Violet threw her attention for a second at the witch hovering over. "Get out of the way, GIRL," Violet complied, nodding as she ducked away from Artie, in attempts to get far away from him as possible. Her ears picked up the faint melodious of Piper's song in the distance. She found a thicket and flew behind it, concealing herself, and observed her partner dancing mercilessly around the group of ogres he managed to collect. They struggled under his influence, but danced helplessly about such as a puppets dancing for their puppet master.

The remainder of the resistance clamored their way to intervene against Piper's powerful tune. Suddenly, not too far from the performance, Violet saw three figures appearing from atop a hill. She craned her neck to get a closer look, and caught a certain flash of familiar faces. Amongst the three were none other than Cinderella, her long, beautiful, and blond hair cascaded over her shoulders. She also wore a dress-like-armor that matched well with her original form. Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White stood with her, and also had similar appearances like her, as well. Each of them, in particular, held a unique seashell around their neck. All of them gaping their mouths and sung out for the whole battlefield to hear. Their voices stretched and stretched until they made a vibrating collision against Piper's song.

Violet watched in awe, when somebody made their move to assault her from behind. However, because of her keen sense of hearing, she bounded from the thickets. She identified the figure quickly, and stopped in dismay at the tall handsome man wielding the sword that once belonged to Artie, the rightful king of Far Far Away. Her awareness was cut short, as Artie made his appearance again except from behind. It was like a game of Monkey in the Middle, whereas Charming and Artie were it, and Violet fought in haste verses the both of them.

She blocked Charming's oncoming attack, and threw a dagger at Artie, which he dismissed easily. This went on for a while, she constantly blocked, as they swung their swords, in attempts to injure or even worse, putting an end to her life. Violet eventually grew exhausted, as her wound from earlier, was opening, in a more dangerous state, alerting her that she should get it healed. For a second, she inhaled a shaky breath, staggering forward with her feet weighing to the ground. Her vision blurred slightly. The next thing that happened, she found herself sprawled on the battle grounds with a blade to her neck. Her temple throbbed painfully, as she gazed up at the two men towering over her. She couldn't tell whose blade it belonged to, but she knew in that moment she might die on spot.

But fate decided that it was not her time, when both Charming and Artie were caught off guard. A few witches took their time off and came to Violet's aid by launching their skull-shaped chains, snatching onto the men's ankles before reeling them off-balance. Violet's body felt lighter for some odd reason, the ground beneath her left and before she knew it, she was swept away on the back of a witch's broom. Her captor yelled over her shoulder. "Focus on the mission, Violet, we can't always be looking out for you!" Violet nodded the best she can. She was let down near the cages, and watched as the witch flew away to rejoined the battle.

Piper

Piper fashioned a conga line full of all of the ogres in the resistance, even a few tag-alongs has joined his dance, too. He was already rounding them into the cages that the witches brought with them, yet his job was not done. He continued to play his silver instrument, in hopes to collect the last two ogres into cages. They were, Fiona, ogress of the resistance, and an unknown ogre, possibly known as Shrek. He was able to compete against the three princesses, but their voices resonated once again, putting Piper at risk, now that he captured most of the beasts.

"Violet, I need you to cast a protecting shield over the cages." He ordered. Violet thrust out her hands, conjuring the said spell over the prisoned ogres with her hands glowing faintly of greenish-blue. After that, the Piper refocused back onto the three women. Even for a frail shield like that, he knew that it won't hold up much longer for the enemies' melodious notes bounced off it with much passion, simultaneously countering Violet's barrier to the point that it began to break into spider-web cracks. No sooner than later, the shield that the Violet so desperately tried to conserve shattered into a million of sparks. An enraged Piper flared his flute back into battle with much liveliness, things were about to get serious. He demanded her to structure the illusion once more, in order to prevent anymore catastrophes, but this was all too futile.

Piper was merely one man against three powerful women, who were succeeding him in a war of music. It also didn't help that Snow White's animals were acting as a decoy, distracting not only him, but for the witches, too. He cursed silently to himself, his fingers twitching for his dial. But an occurring thought made him pause.

'I can't risk switching species, or else Violet would be in grave danger.' Piper confirmed. He spotted his partner, who was still resisting with all her might, 'At least she's safe.' He nodded. He then spotted two figures in the distance, though, he didn't need much time to identify them. They were speeding along the brinks of the clearing, heading towards them. Piper panicked, he was facing options, none of which he could act upon since he was currently occupied with the women from afar. A few fortunate witches noticed him and flew to him.

"What's wrong?" one of them asked.

"Charming and Arthur are on their way here. Deal with them." He instructed. He pointed to the oncoming figures in the distance, the witches nodded and flew off towards them. His attention was quickly drawn back to the sirens, somehow, their hex was growing with such strength, his only conclusion was that they were able to get their hands on advance magic.

Suddenly, a vociferous screeching sounded into the night sky. It was an official cry of war. Before his eyes, a massive bird, a phoenix to be precisely, sprung forth from within the three women's shells. It spread its brilliant multi-colored wings proudly, and it was about fifty feet tall. The heat of the bird radiated immensely from meters, and it felt like the flames could literally burn his eyebrows off.

Piper smirked at their trump card, however, he too, had a very similar spell, and he would be able to control the battle just as he has planned it. He set his flute to his lips, wetting them slightly, before playing. His familiar was a large basilisk that wisped into the open, and grew until it was the same size of the bird. Its colors were in the shades of bluish green, and for the underside, blackish to yellow, bearing venomous fangs. He demanded it to take charge, nipping the bird with every opportunity it had, and avoiding its blazing columns of fire.

Violet

After regaining a bit of her strength, Violet stood in the moment. With the fierce fight between snake and bird, she gaped dumbfounded as the battle raged on, she had to block her eyes from the sheer brightness the phoenix gave. 'Unbelievable' she smiled like an idiot, unaware of the shadowy figure stalking behind her. With a flash of white and orange, Violet's body flew away from the cages, she rolled roughly, about a few yards, until she landed on her feet, but just barely. She cursed herself for being so foolish, as Artie reemerged from the shadows, instead of his sword in his grip, he was levitating what resembled like rune stones she has seen on that one faithful day.

"What the hell? Even you have the ability to attain such magic?" Violet exclaimed with much disbelief.

Artie smirked, "How amusing," he strode closer to her, "Someone like you would belittle someone like me. I have seen you fight, you're not much of a warrior. It's truly pathetic." His words shot through her heart like ice, her own friend saying such things was unforgivable. She balled her fists, and urged her body to stay awake for a little while.

"Artie," she stammered, longing for some closure. His eyes twitched, as she uttered his name again. He clenched his teeth together, and hissed.

"Shut up!" he raised his stones, "you're not allowed to call me by that name!" Artie cast a fireball, and aimed it for Violet. But, she merely reflected it, pushing the ball of fire in a random direction. She smirked, as a scowl was plastered on Artie's face. He fired again, this time, she side-stepped and sent a dagger at him. Quickly, Artie stretched the stone's powers, creating a tall barrier, just as the dagger flew into the wall, getting absorbed in a flash. A collection of witches came to aid her for a final time, but unfortunately most them died on spot by the power of water. Artie hosed down each witch that came his way.

"Stop it!" Violet hollered from afar, and then her world became terrifyingly quiet. During the chaos of two mythical beings battling each other for a fatal death, and a fight between a newfound wizard against a complete idiot, Violet was too distracted to detect Charming's existence from behind her, his sword gouged through her side. She hardly heard him whispering into her ears.

"Why don't you stop it, my darling?" he cooed, writhing his sword just to make the pain extreme, as he extracted his weapon. Blood spilled forth from her gaping mouth, her whole body went immediately numb. She was unable to hear her own beating heart screaming out in pain, it was a deafening sound, even her surroundings slowed in motion. Violet shut her eyes tightly, and let herself fall to the ground with a silent thud.