Anna blinked. "You're the Grand Duchess Anastasia." She repeated, staring at Anya. "You."
"Why is everyone so surprised by this?" Anya demanded. "I'm starting to feel insulted."
"Don't act as though you weren't disbelieving too dear." Regina said with a roll of her eyes.
"This is weird." Emma said with a nod. The girls were gathered in the common room. The window and wall had been repaired surprisingly quickly by a rather small man in blue who'd studiously avoided Regina. She, in turn, had avoided him.
"So...what do we do?" Ariel asked, looking around at the others.
"Track him, find him, kill him." Kayley said flatly. The others stared at her. "What?"
"You want us to go fight this man?" Mulan summarized incredulously. "When the Detective specifically told them to stay in the school?"
"I think last night proved that this place is safer than anywhere else." Kayley said with a shrug.
"Actually, I could put up wards around this floor." Regina said thoughtfully. "They should be able to protect us from a repeat performance."
"How long would they withstand a siege?" Kayley asked clinically. Regina hesitated.
"Depending on how much strength he has, anywhere from a month to a few hours." She admitted. There was a moment of silence as the others thought this over.
"I say we go kill him." Merida said with a grin. The others looked at her. "What? Kayley's right. I'd rather go out and fight than sit here waiting."
"The Detective..." Aurora objected, trying to be a voice of reason.
"Is one person, with no magic, trying to find and defeat a zombie using the power of Bill Cipher." Regina said slowly, acknowledging the logic of Kayley's argument. "As skilled as she is, Rasputin has several advantages. Chief among them is that he doesn't have to be in Paris. Strictly speaking, he could do everything he needs to do from within whatever limbo dimension he's residing in at the moment. She won't be able to find him, because if he has any degree of intelligence he won't be here in Paris."
"Plus, he's after me. Not anybody else." Anya pointed out. Elsa frowned.
"Very well. When should we leave?"
"Elsa!" Anna protested. "You can't leave." Elsa opened her mouth to argue, but Regina cut her off.
"Anna is right Elsa. If you were present when we confront Rasputin you would merely end up in another coma." She stood up and crossed the room, then waved her hand over Elsa's head. Instantly the girl was covered in a strong haze of semitransparent lights. A silvery blue was the strongest color, but there was a tinge of the same sickly green color Rasputin's creatures had been 'above' the rest, as well as a much deeper green mixed in with the silvery blue. 'Well that settles that.' Regina thought. Nature magic was brown, the color of the earth. And weather magic was sky blue. That deeper green was an indicator of something else. Something much, much more powerful. She brushed those thoughts aside. On the off chance that Rasputin was telepathic, she couldn't afford to be thinking about her now confirmed suspicions. The others were also staring, most of them in surprise and confusion, but Kayley and Meg looked shocked. Fortunately, both of them decided to remain silent. "You see this sickly green?" Regina asked. "That is the lingering chaos magic from last night. It will fade with time, but at the moment you are much weaker than you could or should be." Elsa stared up at her stubbornly, then let out a long sigh.
"Very well. I suppose I cannot argue with logic." Anna quickly hugged her, mouthing a quick thank you over the older girl's head at Regina, who nodded in acknowledgement and waved her hand again, dispelling the projection.
"I'm coming though, right?" Emma said quickly. "Because I'm getting kind of sick of being left out." Regina hesitated again, then looked at Kayley.
"How is her sword work coming?" Kayley frowned thoughtfully, hearing the 'give me an excuse to keep her out of danger' in Regina's tone.
"She's mastered the basics." She said slowly. "But every person has a specific type of sword that they are best suited for, and the school doesn't have one for Emma." Mulan blinked.
"They don't? I was under the impression that the school carried practice blades for a styles of swords."
"They have it for most of them, but I can't find a single Thedas Broadsword for her to use." Mulan frowned, Anya stared, and Meg started laughing.
"Well I'm not surprised!" Meg said between laughs. "You'd need a whole tree to make one of those!"
"You want her to use one of those monstrosities?" Anya demanded in surprise. Kayley shrugged.
"It's what she's most suited for."
"What's a Thedas Broadsword?" Emma asked, confused.
"A sword with a blade that's a foot wide and almost as long as I am tall." Anya said bluntly.
"Don't be silly." Kayley said, rolling her eyes. "The blade's only four feet long usually." Emma stared, then grinned.
"Okay, that sounds pretty awesome." She said. Then her grin dropped as she realized something. "Wait, that means I'm not going, doesn't it?" She pouted.
"Yes, that's exactly what it means." Regina said, giving Kayley a quick look of relief and gratitude over Emma's head, unconsciously mirroring Anna. "I think that it would be for the best if only Merida, Kayley, Anya, and I left. Mulan should stay here to serve as a guard." She turned to look at Mulan. "And I think it would be for the best if your guardian left your sock drawer and helped as well." Mulan blushed slightly at Regina's smirk.
"You knew?"
"That there was an immortal dragon living in that room with you? Of course. Speaking if which, tell Mushu that my teacher wants to have a word with him. Something about using marked cards?" Mulan sighed. That sounded like her guardian. Merida stood up, stretching.
"Alright, let me get my bow and I will be ready to go." She said, heading off. Snow looked at Anya anxiously.
"You'll be safe, right? You'll come back?" She asked. Anya hesitated, then nodded.
"I will." Snow gave a small smile.
"Good." She said, though it was clear that she was still nervous. Regina headed for their rooms, Kayley close behind.
"Tell me you noticed that." She hissed when they were out of earshot of the others. Regina gave her a dry look.
"I'm afraid that you'll have to be more specific dear."
"That deep green in Elsa's magic. You noticed that right? You noticed that she's a freaking Earthbound?" Regina blinked.
"How on earth do you know how to recognize that?" She demanded.
"Merlin's been taking me aside and teaching me lately." Kayley admitted. "Teaching me how to recognize and deal with all types of magic." Regina looked around, making sure that they were alone.
"Elsa is completely unaware of her status, and we need to keep it that way, do you understand? Because if word spread that there was an untrained, unaligned Earthbound here, in this school, then all hell would break loose. Everything, dark and 'light' would come looking to claim her. So, for now, until Rasputin is dead at the very least, forget about it, alright?"
"Right, sorry, I was just caught off guard." Kayley said with a sheepish smile, closing her eyes and scratching the back of her head.
"Understandable." Regina said, finally understanding why Meg insisted on calling the Camelot girl Puppy. "Now go fetch your sword so we can leave." Kayley grinned and ran off, either ignoring or not noticing Regina's use of the word fetch.
The Headmistress' Quarters-at the same time
The Headmistress, a surprisingly young looking woman with mousy brown hair in a purple Victorian dress, set her crystal ball down with a chuckle. "So, somebody finally noticed." She said, tapping the hilt of the sword she kept resting against her desk. "That'll make things fun." Sophronia stretched out with a yawn. She's wasn't too concerned about Rasputin, the girls would handle him just fine, and considering what was coming they'd need the practice. Besides, it gave her an excuse to drag two more people into this mess. After all, in light of yesterday's events it only made sense for her to hire some defense teachers for her students. She grinned and waved her hand conjuring a cup of Apple cider. Things were about to get very entertaining indeed.
Author's Notes
So, once again a little geography. Thedas is the continent wherein the Dragon Age games take place. I have completely removed North America from this world and replaced it with the various nations of that place.
Sophronia is an OC of mine (not a self insert though, don't worry) who I felt would make sense as the Headmistress given her abilities and personality. Don't worry, she'll have relatively little bearing on the plot.
So, the next chapter'll be pretty action packed, but after that there'll be some fluff and breathing room.
...It seems that the more I beg for reviews the less I actually get, so this time I'm going to shut up about them.
Anyway, thanks for reading guys!