Chapter 10: A New Face

Lucy stood in the doorway, her mouth open. Susan and Peter filed in behind her taking in the wreckage. A strangled noise left Lucy's throat as she sank to her knees, tears welling up in her eyes. Neither Susan or Peter knew what to do. The little home laid ravaged. Smoke blackened the walls while crockery and furniture lay on the ground, smashed to bits.

"What happened here?" An unfamiliar voice gasped. Susan and Peter turned around to see a red-haired, green-eyed girl standing in the doorway, gaping at the mess. She was wearing Edmund's coat.

"What did you do to Edmund?" Peter asked, his eyes narrowing as he took a protective stance in front of his sisters. Susan was eying her suspiciously while Lucy hadn't taken any notice of her. The girl threw her hands in the air in a defensive gesture.

"I didn't do anything to him!" She said.

"Then why are you wearing his coat?" Peter asked, his voice dangerous.

"He gave his coat to me and then went off to get a new one!" Ariana said. "He decided to give me his since apparently my lips were turning blue from the cold."

"That doesn't sound like something Edmund would do." Susan piped up.

"Well he did!" Said the new girl, just as Edmund walked up behind her.

"Whoa." Edmund said as he took in the room, not noticing the gaping stares that his two older siblings were giving him. "Someone should tell him to tidy his room."

Ariana took this chance to smack him on the back of the head. When he gave her a 'what the hell was that for' look, she pointed towards Lucy who was tearfully cradling a broken teacup. Peter arched an eyebrow when Edmund didn't snap back at her, but Edmund didn't notice. He was staring at his sister.

"Who would do something like this?" She whispered. Tears threatened to spill over as she stared into the dark room. Peter stepped forward to comfort her when he noticed a piece of parchment that was nailed to the floor. He picked it up and began to read.\

"The faun Tumnus is hereby charged with high treason against Her Majesty, Jadis, Queen of Narnia, for comforting her enemies and fraternizing with humans. Signed, Maugrim, Captain of the secret police. Long live the Queen." Peter read. He slowly lowered the arrest warrant.

"That's awful!" The redheaded girl exclaimed.

"This is Aria-" Edmund began to introduce her, but was cut off.

"I can introduce myself, thank you very much." She said, giving him a sharp look. Edmund scowled in response but she didn't mind, or really care. "I'm Ari. Just Ari. None of that formal name 'Ariana' stuff."

"I'm Peter."

"Lucy." She said simply, still holding on to the broken teacup for dear life.

"Oh my God, you're a yank!" Susan spluttered instead of giving her name. Ari scowled.

"Hey, now! I'm no yankee. Where I come from that's a serious insult!"

"She means that you're American." Peter interjected. Ari cocked her head to the side.

"Oh. Thank you for noticing. You took less time that Eddie over here." She said, pointing over her shoulder at Edmund who flushed red.

"Eddie?" Peter mouthed at his brother who glared.

"How is the war going for America?" Susan asked, frowning slightly.

"War? What war?" Ari asked, staring at her as if she'd grown a second head. "The last war we were involved in ended years ago."

"No it hasn't!" Edmund snapped suddenly. "It's only been going on for one!"

"What are you talking about?" Ari asked, confused. "I didn't even know England was seriously involved-"

"How can we not be seriously involved when the Germans keep bombing us!" Edmund exclaimed, his face filled with anger.

"Germans? Bombing?" Ari asked. Susan and Peter nodded while Edmund seethed. "What war are you talking about?"

"How in the world have you not heard about it!" Susan exclaimed, waving her hands in the air. She took a deep breath to calm herself. It wasn't like her to just blow up like that, but the War was a touchy subject. "Oh, don't worry about it. It's only World War Two!"

"Well that makes perfect sense." Ari said, face-palming. "World War Two has been over since nineteen forty-five."

Susan started coughing and spluttering. "But it's only nineteen-forty!"

"Not where I come from, it's not..."

"Well, what year are you from then?" Edmund asked, anger giving way to curiosity.

"Two-thousand and twelve."

"That's impossible!" Susan protested as she shook her head.

"Yes, well so was a magical land called Narnia until I woke up here." Ari bit back sarcastically.

"But-" Peter protested, but was quickly cut off.

"Look, you've got bigger fish to fry than to debate me on what year it is." Ari said, gesturing to the arrest warrant.

"Speaking of which, this would be a really good time to go home." Susan said as she grabbed Peter's arm.

"No!" Lucy burst out, turning to face the rest of the group. "We have to help him!"

"There's not much we can do, Lucy." Susan said as she looked at Peter worriedly.

"We could contact the police." Peter said, trying to be helpful.

"I hate to burst your bubble, but if what I've gathered is correct, these are the police." Ari said, tapping the parchment with her finger.

"It's all my fault!" Lucy said as she buried her head in her hands.

"No, it's not!" Susan insisted. Lucy turned to send an icy glare at her sister. She jabbed a finger at the parchment.

"I'm the human!" She shouted, tears starting to fall down her face. "He was arrested for not turning me in, and no other reason."

Her words hit Edmund like a ton of bricks. He scowled and turned away from the group, guilt eating away at him already. Nobody even took notice that he had excluded himself from the rest of the conversation.

"What kind of queen does this kind of thing?" Peter frowned.

"It's because she's not a queen! She's a horrible witch, and she's probably already done something horrible, like turn Mr. Tumnus to stone!"

"What?!" Susan looked at her sister in alarm. "Okay, I really think we should go home now."

"We can't just leave him!" Lucy said. She lurched forward and grabbed Susan's arm. The older girl was looking at the entryway as if she were about to bolt.

"Look, Lucy. I don't think there's much we can do." Susan said as she jerked her arm back.

"I want to go home." Ari said, causing the group to turn to her. They all gave her questioning stares. She looked at her hands before explaining. "Look, I was just going for a walk in the woods when I tripped and hit my head. For all I know, I'm in a coma and all of this is just a really vivid dream."

"Well, we got here by walking through a wardrobe." Lucy said.

"I don't want to get dragged into some feud between you guys and a witch. I really just want to get back home."

"Well, you won't find a way back to your time by standing around." Lucy replied. "If you help me, you might find someone who can send you back."

"Lucy!" Susan snapped. "You can't just go dragging everyone you meet into this. For all we know, she's one of them!"

"Hey now! Just because I-"

"Susan, stop it." Peter interrupted. He gave his sister a hard stare. "If it were Lucy in trouble we'd do everything we could to help out. Dad would want us to do the right thing."

"But-"

"We can't just do nothing."

"Well, we can hardly take his word for it." Edmund piped up. All eyes turned to him. His scowl deepened and pointed at the warrant. "He's a known criminal!"

Four different mouths opened to object to this, but snapped closed when there was a sound at the door.

Author's Note: So... This is really, really, late. I've been extremely busy the past week or so because I've been job hunting. preparing for college, and other various things. Hope you all enjoyed it. :)