Chapter Fourteen

(Song in this chapter is "Healing Incantation" from the movie "Tangled".)

Siren nearly gasped out in shock the moment she found herself underwater in the clutches of some sea creature's tentacle. But she held her air in. How the hell did I end up here?! She wondered, then saw a giant woman's form swim towards her. The closer it got the more details Siren could make out. It was Eris, the goddess of chaos. Eris acted as if she were blowing Siren a kiss, but really created an air bubble than enveloped her. Gasping for air, Siren stood up and swiped her long dark brown hair out of her face.

"The day began with such promise," Eris said sounding disappointed with Siren glaring up at her, "And now look. My sea monster is dead, and I still don't have the Book of Peace." She made it into the air bubble. "All because of you, Siren."

"Uh-huh," Siren said skeptically, "And how the hell did I do that?"

"Aralyne," Eris explained, "has been in charge. She's the one that killed my baby and made sure the Book remained on Captain Amelia's ship safely."

"What?!" Siren screeched. Well, that explained the blackouts.

"Uh-huh," said Eris shoving Siren with one of her long large fingers, "Now… about my sea monster."

"Right, right," said Siren flashing her an innocent smile. This little charm worked on both males and females. "Listen, I'm sorry about that. I don't suppose a heartfelt apology would do."

Eris laughed evilly before answering, "Heartfelt? From you? Siren, you don't have a heart." She shrank in size like a normal human-being. "That's what I like about you. So, I'm going to let you live – not like I have much of a choice, anyways. But there's just one little thing you have to do. Get the Book of Peace and bring it to me."

"Right," Siren said scoffing at her, "Now, see, that's a problem for me because I had my own plans for it. Using it to destroy the peace in Incantationen so that us villains can take over the world, and the next."

"Siren, don't you know that the Evil One is just using you? Once you've fulfilled your purpose, he will destroy you. If you steal the Book for me, I'll let you live and even rule whichever world you like."

Siren thought about the offer and said, "I steal for you, and you ensure that I will live. So far, I don't see a downside. If you keep your word."

"Siren, when a goddess gives her word, she's bound for all eternity."

"All right, you're on," Siren replied.

"I knew you'd see it my way," Eris replied with a grin, "So, when you've stolen the Book –" the goddess showed her directions on how to enter the realm of chaos "– follow that star beyond the horizon. You'll find yourself in Tartarus, my Realm of Chaos."

"Tartarus," Siren repeated, "I'll see you there."

"It's a date then," Eris replied, "So, where were we? Oh, yes. You were holding your breath."

Siren was suddenly surrounded by water once more and quickly swam up towards the surface.

Eris watched her progress and said, "There's a chance that Aralyne may take over again, so I'll just make sure the instructions remain, but with the temptation of another reward." Behind her, Cetus swam ever closer and she turned and smiled at him. "Cetus, well done."

Siren's head broke the surface gasping for air and coughing up water. A ship soared by, and a hand caught her by the collar of her shirt, pulling her up on board. She landed on deck, surrounded by Captain Amelia and everyone else. Her mind blacked out….

I stared up at my friends in confusion. The last thing I remembered was being in the ocean, so I – or my other side, or whatever – must have been rescued. I just hope I didn't do anything horrible this time.

"Aralyne, you're alive!" everyone shouted out.

"Glad you made it," said Milo placing a hand on my shoulder.

"What happened down there?" Tulio inquired pulling me to my feet.

I tried to remember, but all that came up was a vision of a goddess I had encountered before. "You wouldn't… believe me if I told you," I said panting.

"Try us," Meg replied.

"All right, here goes," I answered, "I met Eris, the Goddess of Chaos." Everyone gasped and Tulio and Danny looked furious. "She wanted to speak to me, and invited me back to her place."

"What did she want to talk about?" Marina asked.

The Book of Peace. If I steal it for her, she'll return me back home! I bit my lip. I couldn't tell them that! "She said she could help me return to normal, but as payment she wants me to convince Grandpa to build her a shrine in Nesidy." I can't believe I just lied to them!

"Ha!" said Joshua Sweet with a large smile on his face, "That's a good one! Build her a shrine?"

"So, that's it then?" said Captain Amelia, "We've still got the Book, and the thieves are leaving. Let' s continue our course to Nesidy."

"Right away, Captain!" shouted Proteus.

After a couple more days of sailing, we finally arrived at the port in Nesidy. Once we had docked, and left the ship, we entered the town, and everyone gaped at me, much like the first time I had arrived. It wasn't long until my name was being shouted out around the place.

"Aralyne?"

"Aralyne!"

"It's Aralyne!"

"She's alive!"

"Aralyne's alive!"

Everyone in Nesidy surrounded me and my friends demanding to know where I had been and what had happened and if I knew anything about the murders that had been going on. Becoming scared that I might get separated from Tulio and slip back into my "dark" side, I clung onto his arm, refusing to let anyone pull me away from him. Finally, the rowdy crowd calmed down, and Grandpa Lao Shi walked up to me.

"Aralyne," said Grandpa bowing to me in a greeting, "Welcome back. We had feared the worst when you had been kidnapped by Rothbart. Please, explain what had happened to you."

I smiled at him, almost shyly and replied, "It's great to be back, Grandpa. And…" I glanced around nervously at the other inhabitants of the village, recognizing a lot of my old friends. "I apologize, but I'd rather not say what had happened in public. This is a private matter."

Grandpa observed me in silence for a while before saying, "I see. Very well, then. We shall have a little feast to celebrate your return, and you can tell me everything after words. How does that sound?"

"That would be great. Thank you," I replied my smile widening.

As Grandpa then turned to speak to Emily, Mrs. Hawkins ran up to me and gave me a hug. Startled, I took a step back, my hands slipping from Tulio's arm.

"Aralyne, I've been so worried about you!" cried Mrs. Hawkins, "Come on, I've still got your room ready for you."

"Thank you," I said giving her a smile, guilt gnawing at me. Yeah, I know, it wasn't my fault I had been gone for who knows how long, but I still felt bad about the worry I had caused everyone.

"Great to have you back, Aralyne," said Jim giving me a small smile as he clapped me on the back. I grinned at him, before looking around to see someone was missing.

"Where's Melody?" I inquired missing the half-mermaid.

"She had to return to Atlantica for a bit," said Jim, "But she said she'll be back."

As the Hawkins' began leading towards the Benbow Inn, I glanced back to see Tulio was surrounded by practically everyone. We exchanged fearful glances and he tried to shove his way through the crowd towards me. It was, however, useless. The crowd of fairytale characters was too thick, and before I could explain to the Hawkins' that I needed Tulio with me, I felt dizzy, and fell to the ground….

Siren blinked and found herself on her hands and knees in the middle of a crowd, feeling confused.

"Aralyne, are you all right?" a kind female voice inquired. Siren lifted her head to see Sarah Hawkins, and her son staring down at her with concern upon their faces. Aralyne? Ugh! Not again!

Slowly climbing to her feet, Siren replied, "Yes, I'm fine. I just got a little dizzy, that's all." She quickly scanned the crowd. Now, where would I hide the Book of Peace? Siren wondered.

"Come on, we'll get you back to the hotel," said Jim taking Siren by the arm. Before they could take one step, someone had caught Siren's eye. Dr. Facilier was standing in an alley flipping a coin and smirking at her. Her scarlet eyes shone as she thought about what she wanted from him.

"I'll meet you there," said Siren quickly coming up with an excuse to get away from Jim and Sarah, "I forgot something." She quickly pulled out of Jim's grasp and ducked inside the crowd, heading straight for the alley. Once she had disappeared inside the shadows, she turned to the Shadow Man. "Long time, no see, Facilier," she purred flashing him one of her charming smiles.

"Nice to see you, too, Siren," he said, "I wanted to see how you were coming along."

"Fine," she said tracing a finger up his chest. She then grasped his vest collar and shoved it aside, producing a talisman. "You know, Facilier, I had spoken to your friends on the other side, and they're not very happy with you. You had made a deal with them, did you not? That if they had helped you capture Aralyne, you would promise them the souls of anyone who died, right? Well, you didn't get her, did you? So all of their hard work was for nothing." Siren yanked the talisman off from around his neck and threw it on the ground where it shattered. A bunch of eerie red, green, and violet lights surrounded the villains as demonic faces protruded from the stone walls of the alley.

Facilier gasped and stared wide-eyed at the stone faces. "Friends!" he said nervously.

"Are you ready?" the demons sang creeping ever closer towards Facilier.

"No! I'm not ready at all! In fact, I got lots more plans!" Facilier cried out backing away from them. Siren watched on with an evil sneer creeping across her face.

"Are you ready?" the demons repeated.

"This is just a minor setback in a major operation!" Facilier said now panic-stricken as voodoo dolls began to burst from the ground and head his way, "As soon as I whip up another spell, we'll be back in business! I just need a little more time. No! No, please, no!" A shadow demon had latched onto Facilier's shadow, yanking him to the ground. As he was being dragged backwards to a stone demon's open mouth, he shouted out, "Just a little more time! I promise I'll pay y'all back! I promise!" Once Facilier had disappeared, the stone demon shut its jaw, and it, as well as everything else it had brought vanished.

"Don't mess with me," Siren said into the silent, alley, "Now you've got your just reward."

A male voice suddenly shouted out, "Aralyne!"

I stared at the dark alley for a while in confusion before turning to see Tulio. I inhaled and ran into his open arms. "Please tell me I didn't do anything bad," I muttered into his chest.

"No, I don't believe you did," he said, "Jim and Sarah said you had disappeared, but it's all right. I found you, and not a citizen from Nesidy was hurt."

Sighing in relief I pulled away slightly and clung to his arm, once more. "Well, that's good. Come on, I'd like to change clothes. After all, I've been wearing this for who knows how long?"

We left the alley and walked to the Benbow Inn. Once there, we went upstairs, Tulio waited out in the hall while I changed into one of Belle's dresses; a yellow strapless number with a loose flowing skirt – not the big poufy ball gown, either – and I had managed to tame my hair into a ponytail with a yellow ribbon. I glanced down at the gauntlet on my hand and scowled at it in disgust. My "other" side must have gotten it somewhere. I yanked off the gauntlet and stared at my hand in horror and disbelief before letting out a piercing scream.

Tulio automatically threw open the door and ran inside. "Aralyne, what's –" He froze and stared at my hand which was nothing more than a skeleton. By now I was in hysterics with tears running down my face.

"What happened?!" I wailed, "My hand! Why is it…?" Tulio stared at me, then his gaze shifted over to the gauntlet I had dropped on the floor. Realization dawned on his face, and he got to my side, picking up the gauntlet and storing it into his pocket.

"Come on," he said in a soothing tone, "We have to get you to Rapunzel. She can help." Tulio led me out of the room, and took me downstairs into the kitchen where my previous co-workers were hard at work.

"Aralyne, you're back!" Remy declared to the whole kitchen, and everyone else began to welcome me, but stopped when they saw how distraught I was.

"Rapunzel," said Tulio having me sit in a chair, "We need your help. Aralyne had somehow gotten hold of Mozenrath's gauntlet and, well…." His voice trailed off as he gestured to my skeletal hand.

Everyone cringed and gasped as Rapunzel came forward. "Oh, no," she said kneeling beside me and wrapping her hair around my hand.

"You're being strangely cryptic as you wrap your long hair around my injured hand," I said attempting a joke to try and calm myself down. But, let's face it, I'm honestly surprised I didn't faint when I first saw it.

"Sorry," she said glancing up at me, "Just, don't... don't freak out." She began to sing:

"Flower gleam and glow.

Let your powers shine.

Make the clock reverse.

Bring back what once was mine.

Heal what has been hurt.

Change the fates' design.

Save what has been lost.

Bring back what once was mine,

What once was mine..."

Her hair began to glow and my mouth dropped in amazement. When the light had faded, I babbled like an idiot, "Her hair glows! I didn't see that coming."

"Aralyne," said Tiana trying to calm me down.

"The hair actually glows," I said.

"Aralyne," said Linguini trying to grab my attention.

"Why does her hair glow?!" I demanded.

"Aralyne!" Colette finally shouted out.

"What?!" I shouted back, now falling quiet.

"It doesn't just glow," Rapunzel explained unwrapping her long strands of hair from my hand.

I shot a glance over at Tulio who had a smug grin on his face.

"Why is he smiling at me?" I inquired looking back at Rapunzel.

"Look," she said, nodding down at my hand. My gaze lowered and I stared incredulously at my newly healed hand in disbelief and gasped in preparation for a scream. "Please don't freak out!" Rapunzel cried out quickly.

I made a strange almost-freaking-out noise as a result of stopping myself from freaking out. Hugging myself and rocking back and forth from shock I stammered, "I'm not freaking out, are you freaking out? No, I'm just very interested in your hair and the magical qualities that it possesses, how long has it been doing that, exactly?"

"Forever," she said with a laugh, "But everyone in Nesdiy keeps it a secret, because if the villains find out about it, they'll try to kidnap me. They can't cut it, because once it's been cut, it loses its magical quality and turns brown."

"I see," I said nervously, "Well, um, that's interesting, and thank you, Rapunzel." Wiping the last of my tears away, Tulio helped me to my feet and I grinned at my friends. "I hope to see you at the party."

They smiled back and Tulio and I left.

(Sorry for the late update. My spring break is over and I'm once again in school with mountains of homework. *groan*. So, I'll update when I can. Hope y'all enjoyed!)