THE COUNSELLORS

"We have all the ingredients: the bark, the feather, the flower, now what?" Cedar asked.

"Now we cast the spell." Willow picked the items up. "The spell is fairly easy, but I need all magical hands on deck if we want it to work well."

The magic users joined hands and began to chant, "Azui lexia miesad emperis magi zealit oxik tacta!"

The chant was repeated several times, magical energy flowing from the participants as the ingredients began to merge, changing form and becoming one; forming a portal.

"We did it!" Sam exclaimed, jumping with joy.

"Now that's what I'm talking about! Talk about teamwork," Apple clapped, her eyes lighting up.

"Those were the right ones after all," Jackson squeezed Donnie's hand.

She looked at the glowing doorway and then at Leo's sleeping body, "We're gonna save you Leo, that I promise."

Willow smiled, "Okay people, enough gawking and more walking, we need to talk to those Counsellors and find out what they know."

"You think they are there?" Cedar asked.

Willow turned around, "What else could they be doing?"

Odel knew what he had to do, once they realised that there was no plan Odelia had freaked out. Though he had one, it was far from safe and if Odelia or Daniel knew, they would try and stop him.

Ok, you can do this, simple go in, talk a little

A quick transformation and he was Odelia; he walked to the Headmaster's office.

"Come in," Destiny's voice echoed when he tapped on the ebony door.

"Oh it's you. You better have something good."

There were a thousand ways this could all go wrong and each possibility was not looking good for.

"Well, speak the Mistress is not a patient person," the green lady said.

Odel looked at her closely, was that Willow's mum? He had seen pictures of her on Willow's phone, but that wasn't possible, unless...

"Oh Salina, me, not patient?" Destiny smirked.

Headmaster Grimm was looking at her with unease.

Destiny stopped laughing and looked at 'Odelia', "Start talking swanie!"

Odel quickly snapped out of it, "I was wondering what happened to the tales that left the school?"

"Why?" Destiny got off her chair.

"Just want to be up-to-date."

Destiny quickly closed the distance between them and was standing way too close, she whispered, "I am the only one kept up-to-date, you just mind your business, understood?"

"But I have helped you!" Odel nearly screamed.

Destiny rolled her eyes, "I should kill you right now. Why are you so needy? Reminds me of you Grimm."

Odel started sweating; this was truly a bad idea.

"I'm joking, umm, what's your name again?"

"Odelia."

"Well ODE-lia, just know that those tales will be back fairly soon, but sadly they aren't going to live to see another day. How does that sound?"

"Umm, fantastic!"

Destiny's eyes widened, "Such enthusiasm! I like you; maybe I should keep you around instead of Grumpy Grimm over there."

"Really?"

"I like you a LOT, remind me a bit about myself sometimes, your name again?"

"Odelia."

"Well Odelia, run along. Just know you will be seeing those escapees really soon, and I will make sure you get a front row seat when the carnage occurs."

Destiny led Odel back to the door and gently pushed him out.

Destiny smiled, "Wow Narrators, way to make that easy, but oh well, be glad I didn't kill him."

"That was a girl, Destiny," Grimm said.

"No, that was Odelia's idiotic brother trying to get some information, and you can thank the Narrators for helping me out."

DAMN IT! Next time we whisper.

Odel sighed; he made sure there was enough distance between himself and the office before shifting back to his normal form.

Sure he didn't know exactly what was going on, but he knew Donnie and the others would be back soon but from what he was told, coming back was not a good option.

The flash of light revealed a spacious room, with a long marble table and countless chairs. A huge chandelier hanged from the ceiling, dust dancing around its glittering crystals. Dozens upon dozens of portraits decorated the walls, of many influential characters from Cinderella to Thumbelina.

"This place is-" Serena began.

"Stunning," Jackson said, stealing the words right out of her mouth.

"It's pretty and all, but there's no one here," Willow pointed out. "Not a single soul and judging by the dust, no one has been here in a fairy long time."

"So is there like a number we ring to get them here?" Raven laughed, trying to lighten the mood.

Willow rolled her eyes, "Jokes aside, Raven."

Apple walked to the portrait of her mother, her heels puncturing the ball of silence that had encompassed the room. "I could call my mum?"

Briar walked to her BFFA, "Apple, I don't think we have that much time. I mean think of all the chaos Destiny has unleashed in a mere day, if we don't act now it could all turn sour faster than a prick on a spindle wheel."

Cedar stepped forward and asked, "So what are we looking for?"

As if on cue Blondie screamed, "Guys I found something."

Everyone followed the sound of Blondie's voice and it led them to a wide hallway.

"So what did you find," Donnie said as she walked towards the blonde tale.

Blondie wiped some dust of an ancient book with its print fading, "It talks about the history of the Counsellors; it might help."

"Most definitely. Open it!" Raven commanded.

When Blondie turned the page, a bolt of energy sprung from the book and raced down the hallway.

"Maybe that was a bad idea," Serena said.

Willow started running towards the flying orb and then she turned back, "Hello, what are you guys waiting for? Let's follow it."

The tales followed the orb back to the room with the marble table and it lingered in the centre of the carefully carved stone table, emitting bright kaleidoscopic light.

"What now?" Sam asked.

Raven stepped forward and walked towards it.

"Raven! What are you doing?" Apple asked with fear laced deep in her voice. "Come back."

Raven turned to reassure her, "Don't worry, I got this."

She slowly walked to the magical ball and as she got closer the light got brighter until it swallowed the whole room.

"RAVEN!"

Odelia couldn't believe there was no plan, nothing at all. When she finally realised that she was angry, at first at her brother and then at the rat Daniel.

"He's a dormouse," she corrected herself and then moaned. Why did she care about getting his silly title right? And besides what was the difference between a dormouse and a rat, a rat was bigger so in a way it was a compliment.

She now had no backup plan in case things went south and now she was angry at herself, if Destiny was to lose, she would also take the fall, and if she were to win and discover her treachery, she would die, it was a lose-lose situation.

"But Destiny isn't gonna lose, I mean she is the most powerful being ever after."

Odelia wiped her tears, why the hex was she complicating things for herself, all she had to do was obey Destiny, why in the world was she trying to search for a way to get rid of her like Willow and her stupid friends, those idiots were in for a shock. However she remembered that they did take on the first ever Evil Queen, from Serena talking to a couple of her Ozian friends, she also heard that they got trapped in Wonderland when they went on that silly Geografairy trip, but none of that could be real, right? Those airheads didn't have the mind to escape a world that even the Great Axater's spells couldn't accomplish.

She was so deep in her thoughts that it took a second or so to realise that there was someone looking straight into her eyes.

"What the hex, you weirdo!" she shrieked as she turned from Alexander's face.

"I was worried that you had been put in a trance, was actually about to use my Misre on you," he smiled.

"Okay now you know I am not in a trance, can you leave now?"

"I could, but it looks as if you have been crying."

"What!" Odelia looked shocked, she had made sure to dry her tears and fix the redness of her eyes.

"I smell salt on your face. That sounded a bit weird," Alexander chuckled. "It's just my strong sense of smell, promise."

Odelia tried to roll her eyes but ended up smiling, "It's alright."

"Wow, the great Odelia didn't try and throw some snarky remark my way. Are you sure this is Odelia, or are you Odel?"

"It's me and if you continue, you just might get one."

Alexander sat next to her, "So you wanna tell me why you were crying?"

Odelia looked at him in the eye and for once, she saw something she only saw in her family members, in Duchess sometimes and even occasionally in Serena: compassion. She didn't know how to react to that, not long before she had thrown an onslaught of insults at him and here he was being nice to her.

"It's just Destiny that's all," she said, telling a half truth.

The light that had engulfed the whole room subsided; the tales were still in one piece.

"For a minute there I thought we were gonna die," Copper said, panting a bit.

"Yeah, I can't believe-"

Donnie stopped Jackson in the middle of his sentence and pointed at the seats around the marble table, they were now occupied by people.

"Who the hex are they?" Cedar asked.

Apple walked forward to the dark-haired beauty, "That's Neige White, the second ever Snow White. Guys this orb somehow took us back in time."

Donnie moaned, "Not all that again."

Raven corrected Apple, "I don't think we went back, we are just seeing what happened back then."

The people in the chairs started to talk.

"We have to do something about this!" a hairy man said.

"Who's that?" Blondie whispered.

"Roman Wolf," Cerise answered.

"How do you know that?"

"Blondie, part of my story revolves around the Big Bad Wolves, it's protocol to learn about them."

"So Ramona knows about your ancestor too," Blondie pointed at the woman on the far side with a red hood.

"I have an idea."

The timid voice took the projected people and the tales by surprise, in the corner of the re-created scene was a woman in a brown clock.

"What story is she from?" Lizzie asked no one in particular.

"I don't know," Apple squinted.

"...wait for it, Destiny!"

Smoke surrounded the room and it shut the door, the tales watched in silence as Destiny's demonic minions appeared and started hissing and growling at the Counsellors.

They watched as they pounced on the person they learnt was Majesty Charming, Dexter and Daring couldn't look and the screaming made it worse.

Destiny suddenly appeared in front of Raven's ancestor and then all of a sudden, white light seemed to erupt from her palms.

"White light? Queens don't produce white light when practicing magic, only purple," Raven said.

"Well, she just did Raven, and we need to find out how you can do it, because look," Willow pointed at Destiny as she quickly turned into a shadow. "Maybe we need you to be close to her and be really scared."

Raven backed away, "Guys, I don't know, I don't think..."

"Raven, you can, remember you are like the most powerful Queen ever after, if your ancestor could do it by hex you can too," Serena smiled to reassure her but it didn't.

"But-"

Donnie put a hand on her, "I know it seems difficult, but we are all here for you, we know you have that kind of magic in you. You can do it."

Raven sighed, "Let's hope so, because if I fail-" She looked at the floating body of Leo and the rest of her friends, they needed her to do this and she would, for the sake of Ever After.