It's a Tale of Woe and Revenge
Chapter Eleven
The Queen skeptically looked around at the strange group of villains now surrounding her, Hyde, and the Dragon, who also stepped forward to stand beside the woman that had complete control of his heart. And when the pirate had first stepped up behind the others, the Dragon immediately felt a pang of guilt for the man he recognized as a hero, as he sensed two minds and souls within his body. Though their circumstances were different, they were also very similar as neither one of them had control over each other's actions.
The evil woman in charge turned her head to the man who gathered their newest allies together and glared at him as she stated coldly, "These are the best you could find?"
Mr. Hyde sighed in frustration and then replied, "I assure you, Your Majesty, there is more to them than they appear. If you will allow us… we can explain why they've been chosen above the rest. There are other villains among us, but the five of them here each have a particular set of skills of more use to help us fight against the heroes.
"Very well," she answered. "But I better not be disappointed. You won't like the consequences if I am. Do you understand me?"
"Yes of course, Your Highness," the scientist responded smugly and then turned to the man whom he had introduced to her before as a powerful sorcerer. "This man calls himself Jafar and is from a land far from here, though has only recently found himself among the rest of us."
Jafar ignited a ball of white light within the palm of his hand and fired it directly into the center of a large tree in the distance as the burst blasted it in two, right beneath where the branches split off from the trunk, causing everyone else to duck down in a brief moment of fear while the man with the power simply chortled.
Before they were all standing upright again, the villain laughed and then spoke up within a heavy Arabian accent saying, "The rumors of who I am have been exaggerated and distorted far too greatly, Hyde. As was word of my death."
Regina's counterpart smiled and replied, "Please, do enlighten us."
"Yes of course, Your Highness," the man answered calmly. "To begin with, I am no sorcerer. At least not any longer I'm not. I was once, until I was tricked by my enemies as I became a genie and forced to become a slave, then imprisoned within the lamp that became my dungeon. However, my lamp was soon stolen by a thief and then again twice more until I found myself within the world of mystery that the rest of us have been found in."
"As I recall, a genie might have all the power in the cosmos, but he or she must also have a master," the Dragon responded as he looked at the man sternly.
Jafar nodded and then looked over at one of the women standing among them as he replied, "Indeed we do. I may be forced to remain with her while she still holds possession of my lamp and has kept it well hidden, but as she has already used her three wishes, I am once again in charge of my own will. However, I choose to use my power for her, as we have come to an understanding."
Brennan turned to the woman whom the genie motioned to, seeming to have become smitten by the dark haired beauty, as he asked curiously, "And who are you?"
She smiled with poise and slowly walked over to stand in front of the handsome stranger as she answered, "In the time and in the world where I come from, the people call me Milady de Winter. I once worked as an assassin for the Cardinal of France until I was captured by a group of the King's finest soldiers, the Musketeers, then sentenced to death. On the day of my beheading, a powerful storm swept through Paris and carried a number of people to the Land of Untold Stories within this period of time several years ago. What kind of storm it was, I do not know. Then, one day I was hired by the one-time King of the land to find and steal what turned out to be Jafar's lamp and my life was forever changed. I was never told how the lamp wound up there and I never asked. But when I discovered its power, I kept it for myself."
"And you made your three wishes?" the Evil Queen questioned, seeming to be unimpressed.
"I do not deny I am a vain woman," Milady responded smugly and turned back to Brennan once again as she gently began to caress his face, her fingers tracing the scar along his right cheek, not knowing that the villain she seemed to be attracted to was not speaking from within his own body. "My first wish was for everlasting beauty."
"Your beauty is without question," Brennan said with admiration, having become captivated by her splendor as she looked into his eyes and then leaned in to kiss him deeply for several moments.
Hyde stepped forward and pulled the pirate away from her, then asked coldly, "And your other two wishes?"
The assassin smiled as she replied, "To never again become a prisoner to anyone and immortal life. I had no need to ask for greater skills as an assassin, as I was always the best. If you need someone killed, I can do the deed without fail. For a price of course."
"Perhaps you may be of more use to me than I initially believed you to be," the Queen answered, fascinated by the woman's confidence and lack of morality. "Who's next?"
"You can call me simply, Moriarty," the man whom Hyde had introduced earlier as a professor responded, though a professor of what no one knew.
The assassin looked at him as she replied, "Ah yes, the professor. And what is it you bring to the table, Sir?"
He smiled and then answered, "I bring to the table, my mind and ability to always be seven steps ahead of my enemies. I am a genius and what people might call, a high functioning sociopath. I faked my death, the same as my greatest nemesis, then wandered to every corner of my world until I found myself within another, as I have come to do once again. I am a mastermind without equal."
"Except that this nemesis of yours has thwarted you on more than one occasion," another of the villains spoke up eerily as she remained where she stood wearing a large cloak draped around her, keeping her face hidden beneath its hood. "Therefore, you are not always seven steps ahead of your enemies as you believe. I know who each of you are. I know of your pasts, your presents, as well as your futures."
"And how do you know this?" Brennan asked when he spoke again nervously while everyone turned to stare at the second woman who entered the clearing along with Milady.
When she didn't appear to be willing to say more, Mr. Hyde responded for her, "This is Lady Macbeth. Her particular abilities, perhaps may be the most intriguing and dangerous of all."
When she finally reached her hands up to remove the hood, everyone stepped back in alarm, except for the Evil Queen, who only looked at her with fascination upon seeing that her skin appeared to be partially decayed and her eyes vacant as well as pure white, making it obvious that the woman was blind.
The Queen smiled as she replied interestedly, "I'm intrigued. Please, go on."
"I can see all that each of you have done in life, as well as what you each will do in the future, as I have been cursed to become the Fate of the Underworld after I stole the all seeing eye from the three witches who possessed it before me," the witch answered quietly. "Guilt plagued my soul and therefore I killed myself after convincing my husband to commit regicide so that I would become Queen of my own land. I committed unspeakable crimes in my life and was thus sentenced to eternity within Tartarus by Hades, the former God of the Underworld. However, I refused to accept my punishment and stealing the eye resulted in the deaths of the Fates. I was forced to take their place, yet I still refused to accept this and so I fled from the hell below and roamed the earth. Because I refused to return, Hades punished me yet again to live eternity in decay."
"When I first came across Lady Macbeth after she found her way into our world, her skin was rotted and her own beauty tarnished," Hyde continued for her. "So, I created a potion to help cease her deterioration. However, it only worked for a short time until the decay continued to return, again and again. Now, she must drink of it often if she wishes to remain beautiful like she was once. As you can see, the potion has again begun to wear off. I'm in the process of making another dose as we speak."
Milady stared at the Fate as she asked, "What makes her so dangerous?"
Moriarty responded, "Imagine having the knowledge of your future. If we ask to know of our fates, we will change all that we do in order to ensure that our fates come to pass, not knowing of the consequences that could occur should we do so. For all we know, we could only make our fate worse than it was meant to be."
"I still believe her abilities could be of great use to us," Regina's counterpart replied smugly and then turned to the final villain yet to reveal himself to them. "And you must be Dorian Gray. What is it that you can do for us?"
"Like Mademoiselle de Winter, I am immortal and an expert swordsman," the handsome gentleman who carried a staff with him answered. "I have been called a narcissist by all I once knew. They were right. I have no conscience as it becomes transferred into a painting an artist created of me long ago. I can do whatever I please, indulge in every pleasure both moral and immoral without suffering from remorse and guilt. My only weakness is, should the painting become destroyed, I will die. Therefore, I've hidden it away in a place only I know and is protected by magic. I am at your service, Your Majesty."
The Evil Queen nodded and then said, "Each of you appear to have a skillset or ability that might serve me well. I'll admit, you intrigue me. But know if you fail me in my endeavor to destroy the heroes of this land or betray me, I will destroy you instead. And believe me, I have all the power I need to be able to do it, whether you have immortality or not. Do I make myself clear?"
Each of them kept their eyes on the powerful woman in want of taking charge of the strange world they have come to find themselves in without saying a word, then Milady finally stepped forward and answered, "I do believe we have an accord, Your Majesty. When do we begin?"