Once more sorry if the story seems too short for you.
Chapter 10. Peace Is Brought
But before Oz's knife could leave the tiniest wound on Kate's cheek, Oz suddenly gasped, gulped and dropped the weapon. Sabrina saw shock and uncertainty on his face. Then, he fell down on the ground, groaning in pain.
A coal black arrow was in his back.
Kate jumped up, her face lighting up with hope. She examined it and let out a Daphne-ish-like joyful squeal.
"Vera!" she cried, rushing to the goblin soldier who had before captured the little girl. All the members of the Gray Knife stood, as if frozen by the sudden death of their commander. But when Kate attempted to snatch Vera away from the goblin, he woke up to reality and took his sword, trying to cut the woman's head off.
In only a little more than a second he was on the ground, with a similar black arrow in his chest. Instantly, a literal shower of arrows flew in the direction of the Knife's members. Those who launched them were certainly excellent shots: none of the arrows had missed or hit the wrong target.
Meanwhile, Kate took Vera in her arms and started running in the direction the arrows were coming from.
"Wait!" Daphne and Basil Grimm shouted for her in unison.
"It's very dangerous!" Snow White cried.
"You can get yourself shot!" Sabrina yelled.
The relentless Gray Knife turned into a mob of panicked, terrified individuals. When bolts of lightning and rays of magic started to appear here and there, in addition to the arrows, everyone in Fort Charming realized that this was the Gray Knife's end.
"I see them!" Puck laughed triumphantly. He and Sabrina were standing still, trying not to move: it became really dangerous to walk in all these arrows, pikes, spells and lightning.
"Whom?" Sabrina asked.
"The guys with the arrows. Look!"
Puck was very much amused, and Sabrina figured out that their saviors looked scary or at least bizarre. The stream of arrows slowed down a little. Now Puck and Sabrina were at least able to join the fight. And to see their rescuers properly.
They looked odd, indeed. They were, in fact, living statues made of dark stone or some similar material. Their black fast horses seemed to be normal, but the warriors themselves…
Their army was the largest Sabrina had ever seen. On the right side of it, though, she spotted familiar faces: the army of the Scarlet Hand was assisting the stone warriors.
Everyone noticed the Hand as well. Charming looked around proudly: he knew the Hand would help them to fight the Knife!
"Wait, where are Kate and Vera?" Sabrina suddenly remembered. Puck shrugged. Beauty and the Beast said they had no idea. The rest of the Grimms were looking around worriedly too.
"Don't worry, ugly. We can't search for anyone in a mess like this," Puck said reassuringly. Sabrina smiled and sighed, relieved. Everything was going back to normal – well, normal for Fairyport Landing, of course. Puck called her "ugly" – which meant everything was all right now.
All was right, that was true. The Gray Knife had paid for its cruelty.
The three armies realized that there was nobody left of the Knife, so the fort suddenly became silent. As if someone had turned off the sounds. Charming's people stood still, acknowledging the victory. Sabrina and Puck walked to the rest of the family. Women and children clapped their hands and danced.
That's when Sabrina had finally noticed Kate and Vera.
Kate was sitting on one of the black horses of the strange stone army. She was holding a hand of a man standing next to the horse. He was in stone armor – just like the rest of that army – but he had a human's pale face. His hair was the darkest shade of ebony, and his sparkling sky-blue eyes were focused on Kate.
Sabrina didn't need her detective skills to guess that the man was Iangul, Kate's fiancé. He had now rescued her in a classical fairytale way, she thought.
Vera was also there, feeding the horse with carrots she had gathered in the fort's orchard. Sabrina could have sworn the horse was talking with the girl. It wasn't very stunning for Sabrina Grimm – she had encountered lots of talking animals during her life in Fairyport Landing. But she was surprised that Vera wasn't shocked by the horse's ability.
"Kate and Iangul look perfect together," Sabrina heard a voice. Mirror was standing not far from the Grimms, smiling gladly. "I have always hoped they'd get married."
"Oh, by the way, how was the man revived?" Uncle Jake exclaimed. "The magic wood had been stolen from us by the Knife."
"Nottingham surrounded a group of Oz's followers, and they tried to give him their trophies in exchange for him sparing their lives," Mirror chuckled. "One of these trophies was the box with the magic wood. When the Sheriff brought it to me, I immediately made a new plan to help Kate. So when the Knife attacked our fort and we were almost winning, I quickly took the wood and went to search for Baba Yaga – the only one who'd be able to construct the wand and open the door to the universe Kate lives in.
"Well, after much wandering in the forests, I found two Baba Yagas at a time: the one who lives here and her elder sister, Kate's foster granny. The latter hurried to open the door to the place in the parallel world I needed, and then they both carved a magic wand of the wood. The youngest Baba Yaga didn't want to at first, but her sister scolded her and I scared her with lightning, so she agreed at last. And then all I had to do was to go to another universe!
"I revived Iangul, explained the circumstances, and he was ready with his army in less than ten minutes!" Mirror laughed. "The Gray Knife never saw us coming!"
After Mirror had finished, Charming started to make a long speech in order to thank his own soldiers and the stone army. The stone soldiers looked at him with their lifeless eyes, obviously not caring for the praises. Iangul maybe would have cared, but he didn't seem to notice anyone but Kate.
Charming finished the speech at last, and Snow announced:
"Now we'll treat the remaining wounds of yours, and then we'll have an enormous victory celebration! Any questions?"
Mirror raised his hand:
"How about a peaceful agreement between you and us?"
Charming and Snow's eyes grew wide.
"What is the meaning of that?" Lena stammered.
"I changed my plans, that's all," Mirror shrugged. "Now I see that world domination wouldn't have brought me happiness. Why, look at Kate and Iangul! If they had wanted to, they could have helped the Stone Princess with conquering the world. But, as I remember, when the Princess was almost done with this plan, both of them were the saddest of all. Having all living things as their servants wasn't for them. Right?" he asked Kate.
Kate and Iangul nodded. Mirror smiled and continued:
"And now – look at them! Kate is going to become the next Stone Princess at most, and they're – well, very happy. So I thought of the whole problem and figured out: why, it's fun to be a Master for a while – even for several years – but I don't want to rule a world this large forever. I've realized it recently. All I really wanted was to get free of the mirror – and I did it long ago. So, the Scarlet Hand changed its goal. We are now referring to ourselves as a Group for Everafter Rights. Neither Everafters nor humans can be logically called the best race in this world. We now want Everafters to be treated like other people. But as for ruling the planet… Oh no.
"Friendship brings real happiness, as I've recently found out," he concluded.
"Wow, I'll be surprised at nothing from now on," Basil said.
"I think we'd better settle peace at last," Red's shy voice squeaked. "I'm tired of wars and nervousness."
"The girl has a point," Mr. Canis agreed.
"Indeed," Snow White said.
"OK," Charming nodded, hearing the last remark. "Alright, Mirror, in that case, stop terrorizing human population and… change the symbol of the Hand. Scarlet handprints are creepy. As for the new goal of your group, it can be reached peacefully, I think."
Mirror and Charming shook hands, and everyone applauded.
"I can't even believe Fairyport Landing has achieved peace," Sabrina sighed. At this very moment, a rotten banana was thrown at her, narrowly missing her head.
"PUCK!" Sabrina turned to face her husband.
"Just saving you from boredom," Puck smirked. Daphne, Basil, Jonathan, and Lena laughed to tears.
"Hey there!" Mirror called them. "Aren't you going to say goodbye to Kate?"
"Is she going back to her world right now?" Daphne cried. "But the feast! The victory feast…"
"Iangul doesn't like large feasts – and small ones either. He's not exactly a cheery and talkative man," Mirror said. "They're going to have a very humble wedding in the Stone Tower. They won't even call any guests, except for their servants."
The Grimms hurriedly walked to say goodbye to Kate, who had almost become a close friend.
Iangul, Kate, and Vera were all sitting on the black horse, ready to ride away.
"Goodbye, and thank you for bringing the peace to us," Sabrina said to Kate respectfully.
"We'll miss you!" Daphne cried.
"Goodbye, and I'll never be able to express my great thanks to you all for bringing Iangul back to life!" Kate smiled, looking at her fiancé lovingly. Sabrina thought it odd that Iangul hadn't spoken a word to them, but, according to Kate, he didn't like to speak at all.
"Thanks from all the army for saving our lives," Uncle Jake spoke to Iangul. The latter looked at him and nodded faintly.
"He understands some English, and now he's actually flattered," Kate explained. "You must forgive him. He rarely ever speaks, as I've told you."
Just then Iangul shortly spoke something to her in a foreign language. Kate saddened and translated:
"The door between our worlds is closing in an hour, and we need forty minutes to get to it. Sorry! Farewell again! I'll never forget you and your help!"
"Be good girl, my friend," Mirror told Kate. "Take care of Iangul and Vera."
"I will, certainly!" she and Vera waved to the crowd one last time.
"We're going!" the horse announced suddenly in a deep voice. Vera laughed.
The stone army slowly turned in the opposite direction and rode away, led by Iangul and Kate. Kate sometimes turned her head to smile at the fort's inhabitants, until the whole army was only slightly visible on the horizon.
Another epilogue-like chapter, and this fanfic ends. Sorry again for the shortness, but it's only actually an alternate ending to a movie. I have even planned before to make it a oneshot, but then decided to give more details, romance, battles, humor, and cliffhangers.