AN: Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas Everyone! This chapter ended up being Super Long! So, I actually had to split it into two parts, which means you're all getting two new chapters as my Christmas present to you! You can all expect the next chapter later tonight! I hope you're all having a wonderful Holiday! Best wishes and a Happy New Year to you all! :)
REVIEWERS!:
Elphaba818: Yep, that's what I did. I'm sorry about the length and the long pauses between updates, but this one should be a bit longer and the second half will be following shortly. And I just love the music choices for the movie so far! It's so beautiful, my goodness!
PeridotGreenHeart: Hahaha... Yeah, sorry about this...
ET-Dragon: Well, here it is! :)
SG1 SGMe: Be killed no longer!
Guest 1: Yes, but not yet.
Guest 2: I'm sorry, I'm not going to directly answer spoiler questions.
Guest 3: That would be a spoiler
Guest 4: I AM! I SWEAR! I'M ALIVE GUYS!
Guest 5: Eventually.
Guest 6: Sometime.
Guest 7: Alright. I mean, I've had this story plotted for over a year now, regardless of what people want to happen, I'm going to write the story I created. I can assure you that one of the things you want has already been planned.
Sam Hill: Oh, Dragon Racing is totally gonna make an appearance eventually, but it's going to take a long time before that.
Odinson: This series isn't about shipping, so even when relationships are a thing it's not going to be the main focus of the story. Yes, Hiccup and Astrid, I don't know about Jack yet because he doesn't have a cannon love-interest except for Toothiana and considering she's his teacher, it would be weird.
Random Person: Haha! No need to worry, I'm just a terrible person! *finger guns and dies a little inside* You're always so sweet, thank you for all the kind comments! I knew the scene with Dagur wasn't going to be as powerful as it was with Stoick, but I agree that the scene has been done a lot and it was just one step in a very long journey, so I decided to take the hit and see how it would land with the audience. Apparently better than I thought, so thank you! I'm glad you like Talia and Eret's bit. It was one of my favored bits :)
BrawlerGamer: Yeah, sorry about the jumping around, but it's about to get worse. When Hiccup was watching Dagur walk away, for him, it was like having to face all of his mistakes and each of the people in he saw represent a different time/people group that he feels a let down, or failed in some way. North represents the Guardians, Jack represents the Big Four, and Stoick represents Berk and his blood-Family. Even though Hiccup wasn't particularly close with North, it's the idea that Pitch tried to convince him of; the Guardians thought he was bad and didn't want him, and even though the judgement wasn't fair (shown by Bunny trying to fight for Hiccup) Hiccup still believes there is truth in it. Dagur is the first person (besides Emma and the pirates) to find out about Toothless, and he responds in the worst ways possible. It's every nightmare and concern Hiccup's ever had on the subject becoming reality, so it's reaffirming a lot of the worries he has about the other people he saw and a lot of emotional/mental things that are not the greatest. It's hard to explain right now because I'm being careful of the language I'm using, but it will be addressed soon ;)
ruby910705: Thank you! You're so sweet! :)
Eris: Glad you liked it! This is what's next, but the reunion is going to have to wait.
Guest 8: Thank you, I'm always happy to hear when people enjoy my work! A lot of what you want is going to be answered soon, just probably not in the way that you'd expect! I am continuing to write! I promised myself I wouldn't stop until these were finished, so no matter how long it takes me to update; I am still working on it! Promise! :)
octolingkiera: You are so sweet and have listed several things that make me very very happy, thank you! There's only about seven chapters left, so everything's gonna start picking up a bit and those first two things are gonna be addressed! Okay, YES! I can't talk about it a lot because if I get started I won't stop and then I'll give away half the story, BUT! Hiccup being isolated from the others is such an important part of the story and I am so happy someone has finally said that they like it too! I constantly get comments asking for the reunion and the Four's reaction to Hiccup, which I don't mind, but it's also a hugely important part of Hiccup's story that he is separated from the others. Anyways, I'll spoil stuff if I keep going! I really hope to do a Q&A/fun-facts thing about this series after it's over because there is so much discussion to be had about it and it's killing me! I'm glad you like the pirates, they're my little smartass-sweeties! Yeah, I wanted people to know about sorcerers and have the idea that there might be one among the four, but it nearly killed me because I thought I was being blindingly obvious that chapter because it goes from the History class to comments about how Hiccup is doing really well in all his classes, but then people thought it was Jack! It was quite the enjoyable week for me. And yes, I am horrible to characters I love. Thank you, again, everyone wants pairings, but one of the reasons I wrote this is because I don't want shipping to be the focus of the story! I Love music, red pandas are great, I surprised so many people have liked the disownment scene, I think Hiccup would be a prankster in cannon he's just obligated to be responsible, I couldn't NOT make him a sorcerer even if I tried!, Dragons are small boys' best friends, OHMYGOODNESSYES! When did you catch on with the King's Lost Things? Just curious!, Emma will get more time in the spotlight you can count on that! Thank you for such a kind and thoughtful review! Welcome to the madness! And I do see what you did there! ;)
NOTES: Love is never Expected, nor does it follow any Plan. It simply Happens, and we Realize after the fact.
Chapter 20: The Battle of the Department of Mysteries Part 1
The floor was smooth and shiny, reflecting their blurry images back at them as they quietly waited for everyone to make it through the Floo Network. Flynn stumbled out of the extra-wide, marble fireplace last, falling into line at the back of the group as Merida peered around carefully to ensure they weren't in any immediate danger.
Jack stood behind her, waiting for her directions with the rest of the group as his thoughts wandered, "Just a little longer, and then maybe we'll actually have some answers..." An image of two young boys flashed in his mind, but he quickly shook the image away and focused on the mission at hand with a furrowed brow and a hardened expression.
"Any idea where we should start looking for this door you saw?" Astrid whispered as they all grouped together, watching the open room and the dark shadows for any sign of movement.
"The hallway... It was dark," Merida said, closing her eyes while Jack's flicked around continuously, scanning archways and the large fountain at the center of the main room. "Follow me."
Merida took off at a fast walk, careful of where she stepped and watching herself whenever approaching a corner, but not wasting any time in getting to the elevators clear across the large main area they were currently in. They piled into the elevator, and Merida turned to the buttons, looking at all of the labels of floors and the guide that showed which departments were on what floors. Finally, she selected the number nine. The button lit up and the doors to the elevator closed as the box began moving, taking them closer and closer to wherever Pitch Black was prowling around for whatever it was he was looking for in the Ministry of Magic Headquarters.
When the doors opened once again, they stood before a long, dark hallway made of entirely smooth black stone. Several openings gave way to separate corridors and passages, all made of the black stone that reflected their images but swallowed up any light that happened to shine upon it. At the end of the hall was a single door of a grey-blue color and extravagant decorations of curled metal and a strange blue stone centered on the mantel in the middle of the door.
Jack shared a glance with Merida, she took a shaky breath and gave an almost imperceptible nod before stepping off of the elevator and leading the group slowly down the corridor, her eyes fixed on the door at the end of the hall. Once the reached the door, the others spread out behind Merida while Rapunzel and Jack took up their positions to Merida's left and right, respectively. Merida slowly pulled open the door, and Jack stood at the front of the group with his staff at the ready to face whatever lie beyond, Rapunzel a step behind him with her wand in a firm grip and some of her locks falling loose from her braid.
The room on the other side was dark, only the light from the tip of Jack's staff allowed them to see the impossibly tall shelves creating rows and rows and endless rows, each one filled with foggy crystal balls, jars filled with liquids and other assorted things, a couple of large rocks here and there, some tablets with strange writing or symbols on them, and so much more that couldn't be seen.
"Well, I think it's safe to say that this place is definitely mysterious," Flynn said softly as they all slowly tiptoed into the room. "And creepy!" Flynn jumped with a yelp when he turned and saw a pair of eyeballs floating in a jar of greenish liquid.
"What's the matter, Flynn? You scared?" Jim wanted to know, and Flynn shot him a glare.
"Can you mutton-heads at least try to stay focused? We are hunting a crazy, murderous, evil War Lord here." Astrid pointed out, crossing her arms over her chest and fixing the two boys with a hard look.
Jack chose not to comment and turned to Merida instead. "Any ideas on where he could be?" He murmured, noting in his head that the Department of Mysteries seemed almost infinitely big with the inky blackness stretching out in every direction around them. Looking back at the door proved the room was enchanted as the door stood alone in the middle of a small dais while even more rows and rows of shelves stretched out in the direction the narrow corridor had been.
"Not any clear ones." Merida muttered back, looking anxious and frustrated and also a little pale, but Jack once again decided not to comment. Seer Magic was tricky business, and he knew Merida hadn't quite settled into the role yet, though she had come to accept her powers.
"Guys," Tadashi said, his normal voice sounding loud in the quiet of the room, snapping all of their attention to where the Ravenclaw stood facing down the center row and staring at something they couldn't see.
Jack quickly moved over to stand next to the Prefect, peering down the aisle with the little light given by his staff and Tadashi's wand. He could feel the others pressing in close behind them and at their sides while his heart began to pound in his ears.
A cloaked figure was slowly walking towards them, their shoes clicking loudly with each step and echoing in the space of the room. A sinister chuckle bubbled up from the figure, making Jack's stomach drop as he gripped his staff tight, glancing over at Rapunzel who had gone pale and wide eyed, taking a shaky step back.
"My, my, my. It has been far too long, my Flower." The voice spoke with a gentle and soothing tone, but an underlying note of smugness soured any comfort in the words as the woman stepped into the light and pushed back her hood. "Wouldn't you agree?" Gothel's voice hardened as she glared at the golden-haired princess, her lips curling into a sadistic grin.
"You!?" Rapunzel gasped, taking another step back as Jack and Merida put themselves between their friend and the evil witch they were now glaring at. The others drew their wands, having seen Gothel before and heard stories about what happened, but obviously wary as they had no actual experience with the woman, simply following Jack and Merida's instincts to guard Rapunzel.
"Now, now, is that any way to greet your Nana after so long?" Gothel hissed low in her throat, eying them like they were her cornered prey, though she had stopped moving forward with still a good distance between them. Both she and them would be forced to rely on magic alone for an attack.
"What are you doing here?" Jack demanded, ignoring the hag's open threat and keeping a firm grip on his staff should the need to jump into action arise.
"Oh, Same as you, really!" Gothel laughed pleasantly, waving her hands dismissively, before her glare returned and she snarled through her teeth. "We're all just trying to get what we want."
"Enough of your games, Gothel." A gravelly, male voice cut through the air, making Jack jump and jerk towards the shadows behind Gothel as a new figure began to emerge.
The source of the gravelly voice stepped into the light, revealing a large, hulking figure with a hunched back. An ape with long arms that he used to walk and a sword strapped to the belt of his armor. His crimson red cape shifted around him every time he moved, and the scowl he wore seemed to be permanently embedded upon his face, making his already weathered features wrinkle further.
"You're the Monkey King," Jim said, his voice wavering slightly with astonishment. "You were one of Pitch Black's top generals during the War of the Dark Ages."
"Right you are, boy." The Monkey King growled, fixing his glare on the group of young students. "However, it won't be long now before we all reclaim our titles and this world will know Fear once again."
"The Guardians will stop you!" Merida snapped, her grip on her wand tightening as she shifted into a more offensive stance. Gothel responded by cackling her horrible laugh.
"Oh? And where are your Guardians now?" Gothel questioned, and Jack scowled because the truth was not a single one of them knew where the Guardians were or what they were doing. They were on their own for the time being.
"Enough!" The Monkey King barked, growing impatient with the situation. He drew his sword with a loud, echoing hiss and raised it to the sky. "No more talking, we have more pressing matters to attend to. Die!" He threw his arm forward, pointing the sword at them, and several Nightmares reared out of the shadows, charging at them.
"Scatter!" Jack shouted, and they all dove in different directions as the Nightmares, Gothel, and the Monkey King all chased after them.
"Rapunzel!" The angry snap echoed through the darkness all around her, stretching out and surrounding her as her feet slapped against the cool flooring and her heart slammed against her chest.
Rapunzel ran as fast as she could, racing along the aisles and aisles and endless aisles of clouded globes and other mysteries as the sharp clicks of Gothel's heeled boots reverberated in her ears, getting closer and closer.
She couldn't, no, she wouldn't be caught in Gothel's trap again. She would not be locked inside another tower. A prisoner in her own home. Lonely even when surrounded by people.
No, never again.
So she kept running even as she gasped with each breath, her lungs burning and her side cramping from the sudden and seemingly endless sprint through the darkness. She rounded a corner on her left and -!
"Rapunzel!" Gothel snapped, and the shelf beside Rapunzel's head exploded with glass and a tentacle that went scattering to the floor. Rapunzel fell back hard onto her back, but pushed herself to sitting immediately and scrambled into a run in the opposite direction as Gothel followed after her with a fast pace, swinging her wand and causing shelves to explode on either side of Rapunzel as she raced down the aisle.
"Rapunzel!" Gothel's sharp voice cut through the air, but was immediately followed by another explosion of glass only this time, it was right next to Gothel's head.
Rapunzel only dared to look back for a second to see the horrid witch go sprawling across the aisle, but that one glance cost Rapunzel her footing as she tripped over herself and hit the ground hard. She slowly pushed herself to her hands and knees, wincing at the pain, and shook herself and forced her body to get back on its own two feet.
"Blondie!" Rapunzel's head snapped to the left just before she started down a passage on the right and she took a few steps forward to see down the aisle.
"Flynn!" She called back racing to him as he waved her towards him, watching behind her as Gothel's shouts came even louder this time.
"Come on, this way!" He said, taking her hand as they ran as fast as they could to get away from Gothel's dark presence.
And as Gothel's voice turned from piercing shouts to distant echoes, Rapunzel's ragged breath started to come just a little easier. "I think we lost her!" Flynn beamed, "haha! We might actually make it out of here ali- AHHHHHH!"
They both screamed as the floor suddenly gave out below them, sending them falling into a dark pit. After a few heartbeats, they hit water with a large splash and an burst of cold.
Rapunzel felt her feet brush a rough stone floor and used it to push herself up towards the waters surface. She found air about seven feet above the bottom and gasped for breath as Flynn surfaced beside her.
"What is this? Where are we?!" Flynn demanded, reaching up the walls, probably trying to see if they could climb back up, but his hands scrambled across more stone. "We're trapped!" He exclaimed.
"It's a spell!" Rapunzel said, also searching for a way out. "It could be security set by the Ministry, or it could be a trap set by Pitch and his followers, but either way the water is rising!"
"Can we counter it?" Flynn asked, looking at her as he reached for his wand again.
"I don't know how," Rapunzel admitted woefully. "But, it is possible that there's a weak point set in case someone fell in by accident."
"Then lets hope this was set by the Ministry and look for that weak spot." Flynn said, his jaw set in determination as they both ignored the part that went unsaid; because Pitch wouldn't bother leaving a weak point even for his own generals.
Flynn did a quick glance around at the walls and then took a deep breath, diving under the water to search for an escape route while Rapunzel out and up to see if the stone would budge under the right amount of pressure in just the right spot. She banged the walls with her fist and pushed as hard as she could on the ceiling while floating in the water, but nothing would move. Flynn came up for air three times, and the fourth he looked around wildly, pushing against the walls and ceiling in a frantic effort to get out.
"It's no use!" He exclaimed. "I can't see anything."
Rapunzel looked at him and then around at the walls seemingly closing in on them. She wasn't ready to give up, couldn't give up. Not yet. There had to be something they could do! So she took a deep breath and dove into the water herself, ignoring Flynn's shout, but the Slytherin boy's large hands pulled her above the waters surface before she could get very far, she was panting, possibly hyperventilating, and his eyes were filling up with sorrow and regret.
"Hey!" He said, shaking her shoulders a little to get her focused on him instead of herself struggling to breathe. "There's no point," He said, pushing a loose lock of hair back behind her ear. "It's pitch black down there."
Their eyes stayed locked together for a long moment as they both came to the realization that they weren't going to be getting out of the trap. The water already lapping at their shoulders and no way to search the exit.
Rapunzel felt dazed as she moved away from Flynn silently, letting her back thump against one of the stone walls of their prison as her whole body felt like it was made of lead.
"This is all my fault." She whispered, her arms coming up to wrap around herself tightly. "Gothel was right; I'm not strong enough to... if I'd only been braver, I could have fought her, but I ran away and I -I'm so sorry Flynn!" She sobbed, unable to hold back the self-loathing she felt at that moment. Why was she such a coward? Jack and Merida were always so brave, so heroic. One look at Gothel and she had been terrified. Turned tail and run away like a scared little girl who had no place on a battlefield.
"Eugene." Flynn murmured suddenly, and she looked over at him, pausing in her sobs for a moment.
"What?" She sniffled, wondering if she'd heard him correctly.
"My real name is Eugene Fitzherbert." He told her, with defeat, and yet some semblance his characteristic humor, dimming his eyes. "Someone might as well know."
Rapunzel felt a small chuckle bubble up at his confession, not from his name, but from the absurdity of the situation. "I don't think I have any last secrets to share with you. The whole school knows about my magic... glowing... hair!" Rapunzel's eyes snapped to Flynn's in renewed hope and vigor. "I have Magic Hair that Glows when I sing!" She almost shouted, making a mental note to give herself a mental kicking later for Forgetting that!
"Flower gleam and glow, let your power shine -" She and Eugene gasped in breaths as the water reached the top of the cave, sending them into darkness for a short moment, and then golden light bloomed all around them as Rapunzel's hair floated all around the cave.
Following the path of the golden strands, they found a small cluster of rocks at the bottom of the cave where the water was escaping from. They quickly swam down to the pile and started digging through the rocks, pulling stone after stone until the passage was just big enough for them to get through one at a time.
Rapunzel collapsed onto the floor of the Department of Mysteries in the Ministry of Magic, water and Eugene pouring out after her as she gasped for breath. After a few moments the hole from where the water was coming disappeared, leaving only Rapunzel and Eugene gasping for air in a large puddle on the floor. When they'd managed to catch most of their breaths, they looked at each other, grinning.
"We made it." Rapunzel breathed, relief and joy renewing her lost energy. "We're alive!" She beamed, pushing herself to her feet and picking her wand up from where it had fallen on the floor.
"Never thought my life would be saved by magic glowing hair, but I guess there's a first for everything." Eugene said, his voice strained from his relief and drained system, existing on the complete opposite side of the 'just almost died' spectrum than Rapunzel.
"Come on! We need to go find the others and make sure they're alright... Eugene." Rapunzel smiled as she started gathering her hair.
"Uh, yeah, about that," Eugene said, rushing to his feet to hurry after Rapunzel, now wide awake at the realization his secret was out. "You can't tell anyone about this, okay? It could ruin my whole reputation."
"Ah, we wouldn't want that." Rapunzel smiled up at him teasingly as they continued walking down the dark aisle, tracking watery footprints across the once immaculately clean floor.
"Well, a fake reputation is all a man has." Eugene said jokingly, his voice and eyes soft in a way Rapunzel had never seen them before, and she laughed.
After a moment they lapsed into an awkward silence, neither one of them sure what was happening as they quietly walked towards where they'd last seen the others. When she felt her heart would explode if she didn't say something to break that uncertain silence, she said the first thing that came to mind.
"Hey, for the record, I like 'Eugene Fitzherbert' much better than 'Flynn Ryder'." She told him, nudging his arm with her elbow, and he looked at her with surprise.
"Well, then you'd be the first... But thank you." He smiled softly back at her, and she was surprised to find that she felt happy.