Okay, thank you for all the support! It's flippin' awesome!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the following chapter, it relaxes a bit on all the killing... :)


She was dressed in something white, something beautiful. The doctor had repaired her body and the maids had cleaned her up. Now she looked beautiful, like a true princess. They'd laid her out on an ornate table, the dress spread out and hands holding a boquet of white flowers. Her hair had been cleaned and spread out so it looked like running water. A veil with white and glass beads sown in had been placed on the top. Candles had been lit in all corners of the room and scattered rose petals around her table. The whole effect was surreal and beautigul, like she was something else ready to be brought to life with one kiss. Utterly beautiful.

And yet, no matter how much make up they painted on her or how they decorated anything, they couldn't cover the pale dead look in her calm face, the cold of her corpse, or the eirie way her chest didn't move with breath since it no longer could. No matter how they dressed her, she still looked dead. Like a candle gone out and all that's left is the pale grey rising smoke and the burned wick.

The mice, no matter how the castle servants tried to shoo them away, would always sneak back to sit on her table and lay their fuzzy heads against her cold hands, hoping to draw some sort of comfort from her physical form. Gus was inconsolable, crying as they sat with her all hours of the night.

Charming sat with them, barely noticing mice sitting with his late bride, eyes glued to the carpet.

Sometimes the King would sit with him, hand on his shoulder. He never said a word, just let the saddness overwhelm both of them. Charming felt like he was floating, like it was a horrible dream. One that maybe he could wake up from and then he'd be able to save Cinderella in real life.

Because that was his only wish, to save the woman he loved.


There were few things Adam was afraid of. Very few.

He was afraid of being alone, of losing his loved ones... and okay the ocassional shady looking hag, but hey past experiences leave an impression on you.

And now, he was afraid of the strangled, dead look on Charming's face as Adam told him he had no idea on how to help Cinderella.

"Then I guess I can't help you." Charming said thickly, a dark shadow covering his face despite him standing directly in the light coming through the window.

"Let's not be hasty now," Adam said quickly, "I have a magic man and a gypsy with me. Both are masters of the superstition and strange. And even within the few worlds I have visited I've seen amazing things. Maybe if you let me continue on my quest I could find something." Charming didn't appear to be listening, instead he stood and headed for the door.

"I have a woman who needs to be saved too." Adam said quietly, "And she's currently the closest to the thing that slayed your's. Maybe she'd have an answer if I could save her." This stopped Charming at the door and he turned to look at Adam, a firey hatred in his eyes.

Or was it determination?

Either way, as the door slammed behind him Adam was preparing for the worst.


Jasmine had noticed a severe lack of activity in the dungeon today. And through the bars of the windows looking out onto the courtyard there was a significant lack of people.

"What do you think's going on?" Esmerelda asked, looking out the window again.

"I don't know..." Jasmine said absently, "But I'm starting to get worried about Genie and the others, why aren't they back yet?"

"Call him," Esmerelda said, throwing another rock out the window, "Ask him what's up."

"But what if I tear him away from something important, something that could help us?" Jasmine asked unsure.

"Then he can tell you that and go back to it." Esmerelda said lazily. She'd been twiddling with a piece of straw for the last while when she wasn't throwing rocks at the prison bars and as she spoke she twisted it around inbetween her fingers.

"Maybe you're right," Jasmine shrugged, then she stood and faced the window, pressing her face against the cold metal bars, "Genie!" She called a few times before she heard a loud poof and turned to see Genie floating there as the blue smoke cleared.

"You called my lady?" Genie bowed deeply.

"What's happened?" Jasmine asked, "Has there been any progress?" Genie looked a little disapointed.

"Maximus was able to follow his trail to an old house near the country side on the edge of town. But there was no one there." He looked so dejected Jasmine had to wrap her arms around him, trying to brighten the look a little so she wouldn't be reminded of her own saddness.

"Oh! But Abu did find something else." Genie said suddenelly and Jasmine released him immeadiatly.

"What?" She asked. Genie smiled, but it was a bittersweet smile.

"A carving of an island on the kitchen wall." Jasmine groaned.

"So they've moved on?" She asked angrily.

"Then that means there's no reason for us to still be here," Esmerelda said, getting up from her pile of straw that was supposed to be a bed. She walked over to the jail door and leaned down to inspect the door handle.

"Now let's see," She said to herself, "The lock's a pretty simple one, and there's no guard obviously..." Jasmine looked away from her and continued talking to Genie.

"So do you think you could check in on the boys and find out if anything's changed over there?" Genie poofed into a soldier's uniform and saluted to her before there was a loud crack like something being forced to work from the wrong side. They both turned to see the cell door swing open and a certain Gypsy girl grinning broadly.

"I thought you said we were gonna wait so that no one would come after us." Jasmine said, following her out the door.

"Why wait when we're not even gonna stay long enough to be hunted for?" Esmerelda asked and Jasmine had to hurry to catch up to her as she headed through a doorway and up a staircase.


When the door's lock started making sounds Phobeus figured it was the guards. The only question was where they here for one of them or to return Adam?

Neither, in fact, it wasn't even them. It was a gypsy beauty with raven hair and emerald eyes.

"Took you long enough," Phobeus said cooly, drawing the annoyed smirk from her that he'd wanted.

"I didn't see you doing anything. And where is Adam?"

"Somewhere else, they took him because he was the leader." Flynn said as he got up. Lumiere and Cogsworth were inspecting eachother for straggling hay and when satisfied hurried to stand by the door with Jasmine who was keeping lookout. Genie had been sent back to guard the newly discovered portal they'd need to go through later.

"Jasmine, you and the others go on and Esmerelda and I will look for Adam. Meet at the portal where we came in. Do not leave, I have no idea how long all this could take." Jasmine nodded and her group began to creep carefully down the hall. Esmerelda turned to Phobeus and they nodded silently to eachother.

They left the room one by one, Esmerelda reaching the next corner before she let Phobeus catch up to her.

They were on the floor with the larger cells, each filled with atleast two prisoners by the looks of it. Each prisoner saw them and started calling for Esmerelda to let them out. When she didn't comply they started screaming louder, but the guards didn't answer since it was only a few prisoners screaming and besides... they seemed distracted about something else.

But that didn't mean they'd be distracted for long. Eventually enough prisoners would be screaming and that would gain it's own attention. Esmerelda decided they were going to slow and the moment she saw a guard enter the hall to check on all the yelling she grabbed him and thrust him against the stone wall.

"Where are the solitary prisoners?" She whispered, a long nail tracing the man's jaw line. The guard began to sweat and narrowed his eyes.

"I'll never tell." He said through gritted teeth. Phobeus pried Esmerelda off of him and clamped down harder on him. Knee to the groin and elbow to neck.

"How 'bout now?" He asked. The guard whimpered in pain and when he started to turn purple Phobeus let him fall to the ground.

"They're kept in the tower above." The guard gasped and Phobeus chuckled and held out a hand.

"Keys?" The guard hesitated, but when Phobeus put his boot on the small of the man's back he immeadiatly thrust a key ring over.

"Wow, didn't expect him to have them on him." Esmerelda noted.

"I'm the Captain, of course I'd have them on me!" The Captain said angrily.

"Uh-huh, okay Captain where's our weapons?" Phobeus asked. When the guard looked at him questioningly Phobeus gestured to his side, where a sword and it's sheath was not.

"They'd be in the lounge. Near the tower." The Captain said and Phobeus nodded. Then Phobeus stood him up and brushed the man off.

"Thank you so much," He said sweetly, "For your tremendous help this fine day." And with that he quickly grabbed the poor man's shoulders and thrust their heads together. The Captain of the Guard crumpled like wet tissue paper and Phobeus set him sitting against the wall.

"Let's go," Phobeus said as he ran past Esmerelda to the stone staircase leading to the tower.


Adam turned as the door's lock turned and saw Phobeus in time to catch the sword he threw at him.

"What happened to the guard?" Adam asked.

"There's a point to having a woman in these kinds of adventures isn't there?"

"I heard that!" Esmerelda called from down the hall and Phobeus winced. Adam smirked and finsihed tightening the strap of the sword to his belt.

"Let's go." Phobeus nodded and together the two ran out the door. Esmerelda finished tying the ropes on the guards and ran after the boys.

They got about halfway down the staircase before they were met with trouble.

Prince Charming had run up the stairs, sword unsheathed and murder in his eyes. Adam managed to stop the other two in time before they ran headlong into Charming's sword.

"I came up here to deal with you and instead I get to deal with you and your accomplices." Charming said darkly.

"Hey, what happened to Cinderella was not-" Adam started to protest but was cut off by Charming swinging his sword at Adam's throat. Phobeus blocked the swing and the two began to duel.

"You're... not... leaving!" Charming grunted.

"If... you... want to... save... your girlfriend we... are!" Phobeus threw the prince into the wall and leveled the blade at Charming's jugular.

"You're in mourning and addled by grief. A sword fight is not the best thing to be in right now." Adam said empathetically. It wasn't so much that he was trying to sweet talk his way past Charming's sword, in fact that was the worst course of action he could take right now. No, he understood what Charming was going through. Allright, Belle wasn't technically dead, and he hoped to save her before she was, but at the same time when she'd opened her eyes and they weren't even her's... Adam had almost died when she'd screamed at him and run away... when she kissed Aladdin passionatly as a means to hurting Jasmine and him... when she'd sneered and said cruel things to him... Everytime he closed his eyes she was there. Poisoning his memories of the real Belle... taunting him with the belief that Belle was gone... forever possibly...

Adam gave himself a shake and forced his thoughts to the matter at hand. He placed a hand on Charming's shoulder.

"Let us go." Adam said calmly, "Let us find a way to help her."

Charming looked pained, pained at the thought of what was lost and left to lie in that dark room...

He nodded, accepting Adam's hand to pull him to his feet.

"But first we'll need some supplies." Charming said.


It was almost sundown when Jasmine, who had been playing look out for most of the time, called down to the others that she could see Adam, Esmerelda, and Phobeus riding towards them.

"Who's with them?" Lumiere asked, climbing up the tree to get a better look.

"I think that's the prince!" Jasmine exclaimed, "What's he doing here?"

When Phobeus and his party reached the others he explained in short, breathless gasps.

"We need... to head towards the house... Shedea and the other's were staying at..." He panted, pulling Lumiere up onto his horse.

"So, uh, how'd you manage to secure these?" Cogsworth asked as he mounted onto the back of Charming's horse.

"The gracious Prince Charming has decided to join us while persuing a quest of his own." Phobeus said dryly as the horses took off. Cogsworth wanted to ask more, but found it hard to talk when a horse was going very fast and the other person on the horse wasn't very interested in talking to him.

They arrived at the Chateu by nightfall, Flynn jumping from Esmerelda's horse when he heard a neighing from the backyard.

Flynn found Maximus and the monkey that had followed Genie and Jasmine through standing in the backyard, over the body of a dead horse and dog.

"Oh gosh." Flynn said, feeling a bit sick. Both animals looked like they'd been strangled and Maximus whinied miserably at Flynn. Flynn ran his fingers through Maximus' mane in an effort to calm the creature, while simultanesously steering him to the front of the house. There he led the horse to the other horses and Flynn headed inside.

"You found Maximus?" Phobeus asked.

"Yeah," Flynn said breathlessly, "And in the back there are some dead animals."

"What?"

"Dead horse and a dead dog." Flynn reported.

"You think she did this?"

"Probably, can't imagine why though." Flynn shrugged, "Where are the others?"

"Exploring the house, looking for Genie."

"I'll join them."

"Are you okay?" Phobeus was giving Flynn a concerned look. Flynn drew himself up to his full height and puffed out his chest.

"'Course I am." And before Phobeus could say anything else, Flynn hurried up the staircase.

He looked inside one of the first rooms, a dark room with the curtains drawn, and saw Jasmine sitting on the bed holding something white in her hands. Her eyes looked misty when she looked up at Flynn.

It was a pair of large, baggy pants. With patches on the knee.

"They were Aladdin's," Jasmine explained when Flynn gave her the curious look long enough, "I guess seeing them really drove home the point that I need to find him." Jasmine laughed, embaressed, and wiped her eyes.

"Hey, I'm not so good at the emotional comforting stuff... but he's allright. You and I both know he's somewhat safe at the moment."

"Until Shedea decided she's had enough of pawing my fiancee!" Jasmine snarled darkly, gripping the pants tighter.

"So... if he's not wearing those... what is he wearing?" Flynn asked distractedly. Jasmine huffed and stomped from the room, Flynn calling after her but to no avail.

"Women..." Flynn groaned annoyed.