The one where some hope comes back pt.2
XXX
They were completely surrounded, Daring lost count how many golems he had cut down by this point and the sheer number of approaching creatures was obviously far too many to strike down all on his own, especially since the ones made from harder materials were the most difficult to kill and him left to do battle with his non-dominate hand while his left swung limply by his side… he was not going to make it. No doubt he'd be seeing Elenore in the other world as well for she had barley moved thus far and as far as he could tell she perhaps did not have long either.
However he would not go down without a fight, if he were to die here in this nightmare then he was not going to curl up on the ground and go silently. He would not. He refused with an animalistic viciousness to suffer that indignity and let the Evil Queen win that much over him in his final moments.
He grit his teeth as his ears rang painfully with the sound of an approaching golem running right for him, the glass shards it had for teeth parted in preparation for ripping apart his flesh.
There was a whooshing sound, a compression of air and the attacking golem disassembled with a shocked cry into a pile of broken glass feet away from Daring.
The prince turned in a fast circle on the balls of his feet as the howls from the golems turned from those of battle to ones of confusion before they all collapsed in a widening circle around Elenore and himself.
"Cerise!" Daring laughed, tears of relief springing to his eyes. "Saving my hide again as usual! Many thanks my friend!" he called out, Cerise's returning laugh reaching his ears as even more golems fell by her hand.
Elenore groaned gritting her teeth as she tried to gather enough of her form to get up.
"Kingdoms I thought that being dead would mean that I wouldn't feel as much pain when she pulls stunts like that." She grumbled getting to her knees.
"Lady Elenore!" Daring rushed to the ghostly woman's side. "I had thought you were nearly about to enter the next life!" He exclaimed as he helped her to her feet.
"It will take a lot more than that cheap-shot to take me down." The woman assured with a kind smile. "Sorry for leaving you to do most of the hard work for a bit, though I must say you have exceeded my expectations." She looked around slightly stunned. "By several thousand times."
Daring smile widened. "This wasn't all me, my friend Cerise did most of it, she's a strong warrior, one of the strongest and fastest heroes that Ever After has ever seen!"
At that moment Cerise decided to blink back to stand in front of the two, battle-ax in one hand and clutching closed a tear in her hood with the other.
"Pleasure to meet your acquaintance my Lady." Cerise grinned for a moment before her face turned to concern at the sight of Daring's condition. "Daring what happened to your arm?"
"I'll explain later." The boy coughed sheepishly.
"Your hood tells me that you are Little Red Riding Hood's daughter." Elenore stared at the girl curiously. "Although your speed… pardon but is it safe for me to guess or would you prefer it…"
"It's fine to announce who my father is now I suppose." Cerise hummed pulling back her hood. "After all it's kind of silly keeping one hand over my hood in the middle of this just so that I can cover my ears."
Daring's jaw dropped and his eyes bugged out comically.
"Just as I suspected." Elenore nodded to self-satisfied herself.
"Listen, I'd love to explain things further, and to patch up Daring's arm, but we've got crazy lady coming at us in five." Cerise's ears twitched in the direction behind her before she turned around and settled into a fighting stance, ax laid across both hands.
Elenore fused back into Daring's sword the prince taking up a position ready for battle as well.
"Who dares try to defy me?" The Evil Queen demanded, flying down towards the three before halting to float several feet above them.
Daring screwed up his face looking pained as his eyes were forced to be treated to an eyeful of what was under the woman's short skirt. To his horror there was absolutely nothing there to cover the woman up!
He was going to have nightmares about that if he were lucky enough to survive this, he was sure of it! He thought his eye twitching.
Cerise refused to be phased by the woman's presence or half nudity.
"I am Cerise! Daughter of Red Riding Hood and The Big Bad Wolf!" The girl declared proudly, looking the Evil queen defiantly in the eye with her own golden ones.
The Evil Queen blinked in surprise. "You're Simone's- I didn't know that she had a daughter spawn's age. We were roommates for years, why didn't she say something?" The woman had the gall to wonder.
"It might've had something to do with my mixed forbidden heritage, that and how the two of you clashed literal swords when you tried to invade my father's pack's territory." Cerise replied back flatly, remembering how her mother had described her old roommate to be out of her mind and prone to strange moods, and tended to be especially strange when she tried to fit reality into terms that fit into her own little skewed worldview.
"That was why she was in such a tiff!" The Evil Queen snapped her fingers in realization. "She was fond of ax's as well you know, which considering who your father is… is a little sadistic but then again Simone had always been a little odd in the head if you ask me. I offered for her to join me you know, I could have used her scrappy fighting style and her knowledge of the forest to my advantage." The woman sighed wistfully.
Cerise scoffed, her mother was odd in the head? More like she learned not to put up with crap from anyone after being exposed to her crazy roommate for year after year (no one opposed Little Red Riding Hood's decision to marry The Big Bad Wolf for very long, Cerise's mother singlehandedly cowed her own close relatives and earned a great deal of respect from the pack, like as in they pretty much treated her as if she were a fellow wolf and an alpha female to boot).
The Evil queen eyed the girl contemplatively. "Say you wouldn't happen to know where-"
"My mother and father left for spring break earlier this week, it will still be some time even with my father's speed for them to get over here to kick some golem ass." Cerise informed dryly.
The Evil Queen did not seem phased. "And what about you?"
"I'd prefer the glory of going out fighting you and your armies, so thanks but no thanks." Cerise's sarcastic tone was lost on the older female.
"Simone said the same thing! You really are her daughter." The Evil queen hummed almost approvingly. "I suppose your request is highly likely to turn out like that, though should the fates be kind and I capture you… I guess the spawn would enjoy a companion pet… even though you are a bit mouthy…"
"How many times do I have to tell you that people aren't pets?" Elenore barked from the sword.
Cerise's hair bristled and she growled in agreement.
"Mom! How long is it going to take for you to move on and leave me to my own life?" The Evil Queen lit up her hands and shot a few spheres of dark magic in jest towards the prince and the sword.
Cerise swung the ax to dispel most of the attack taking out more golems in the distance as she swung the blade; Daring's sword glowed with a fierce magical aura and took out the rest of the attack.
"Speaking of one of the reasons why I'm here; how are you able to defeat my armies so easily?" The Evil Queen demanded sounding like a whiny child.
"Magic." Was Cerise's defiant reply, making the Evil Queen sigh.
"You are definitely Simone's daughter." The older woman nodded to herself before lighting one of her hands up once again, the other reaching for the bone wand tucked in between the end of the tear in her dress and her abdomen.
A loud explosion behind her made the Evil Queen freeze and turn sharply around to see that something had set off in the middle of the golem army surrounding the Wonderland portal.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!" Shouted a Russian accent gleefully, as a tiny little man whooped and hollered while clinging onto the back of Professor Baba Yaga's flying rug, the woman herself cackling evilly as she flew by.
"I told you keeping that explosive metal in storage would come in handy one day!" The crone cackled.
The Evil Queen felt a curious pick up in the wind but did not pay much mind to it, far too perplexed at the odd sight of two of the oldest instructors at Ever After flying around as if they were children.
The lack of any replies behind her eventually drew the Evil Queen's attention. "They've run off haven't they?" The woman muttered dryly to the air before turning around. "Yep. They've gone."
She supposed that it was only to be expected of any child raised by her old roommate, to cart away the injured before they got hurt even further. Simone had always been more sympathetic to the people the Evil Queen used to terrorize in an attempt to fit into her destiny better (Simone always had impossible strict guidelines on how the Evil Queen was to go about being evil that she would try to implement "to keep my sanity intact while I'm stuck living with you" she'd always say for some reason).
The Evil Queen was also reminded on how the Big Bad Wolf tended to solve conflicts, he used to slink quietly away before coming back at some random moment to exact justice, since this girl was the love child of her old roommate and the wolf-boy…
The Evil Queen sighed tiredly; she was going to have to work fast if she had any hope of acquiring Simone's child for an exotic pet that could fight beside her spawn, some familiarity and such a rarity in mix-breeding would no doubt help spawn ease the transition from living in this hell to the divine kingdom that the Evil Queen would build.
Simone might also wish to follow her daughter, might be more willing to side with the Evil Queen if given the right incentive…
For purely tactical purposes of course, who would know the ways of the dark forest better than the bride of The Big Bad Wolf, and since the Evil Queen would be very busy constructing a new empire someone had to give the spawn some proper motherly love.
It wasn't as though the Evil Queen actually missed the other female.
That would just be far too absurd.
However the past was the past and at the moment the Evil Queen needed to get back to the spawn to-
The Evil Queen's eyes widened as she looked up.
The spawn was gone.
"Spawn? Spawn!" The woman exclaimed worriedly as she flew upwards.
XXX
"Faybelle's got Raven." Ashlynn reported.
"Let me see her." Apple demanded loudly, to be heard over the cheers in the background.
Raven whined clutching the phone closer to her as Apple's face filled the screen.
"Oh Raven." Apple gasped tearing up, the witch looked really beat up, and looked about ready to break at any moment. "I'm so sorry, oh look at what she's done to you!"
Raven whined again sending feelings of reassurance through to the princess.
"We won't let her get away with this Raven." Hunter's voice promised. "We will get you out of there and we are going to weaken that crazy nut-so lady enough for Wonderland to finish her off, we are all behind you don't forget that ok?"
Even though Raven could not see his face the witch managed a brave little smile and nodded.
"Spawn? Spawn?" The Evil Queen called out making everybody go silent. Faybelle took back Raven's phone and hit the incoming-mute button before going very still.
Raven felt Apple's determination and a quick glance at her phone showed the princess blowing her a kiss and mouthing words to her.
"I'm coming for you." Is what Raven managed to decipher before the princess put her phone into her pocket.
XXX
"How does Briar do it?" Daring mumbled as he shakily stepped out of Cerise's arms, his hair completely wind-swept and wild.
"Those are some serious glamor spells." Cerise whistled looking at the blank section wall where there used to be a door leading to one of the school lounges.
"Lot of good that did us." Elenore sighed emerging from Daring's sword and taking a step towards the wall spoken of. "Miss Hood if you could please call the friends you spoke about while you were running while I set on getting us inside?"
Cerise got out her mirrorphone and began to dial.
"Elenore!" The voice of Milton Grimm called out from down the hall, the man limped to the witch as fast as his bad leg would allow, gathering her up into a strong hug when he reached her.
"Yes it's Elenore! Good! Now please let go of her so that she can help us!" Giles begged his brother as he ran down the hall with a large pot of something being held in his hands and a horde of angry golems behind him.
Cerise didn't waste time; in a blur of red she was behind the retreating man and with one mighty sweep of her ax the golems in the hall collapsed.
"Elenore or Miss Hood, either one will do apparently." Giles corrected himself.
"Cerise? Cerise what's going on?" Briar's voice demanded from an inside pocket of the wolf-girl's hood.
"I've just found the Headmaster and Giles Grimm and we are now going to patch Daring's arm up and fill everyone in on what we're doing." Cerise told the princess taking her phone back out and turning the screen so that Ashlynn could see what was going on.
"Miss Hood your ears…" The Headmaster pointed staring wide-eyed.
"The Grand Coven won't get here in time to rescue us so we the students have taken the initiative to save Raven and weaken the Evil Queen as much as we can. Wonderland is backing us up and will be ready to send their forces in the second the portal opens. We have harvested enough Bleeding Rebel Hearts to cover as many weapons that we could get our hands on. We have gained control over the school communications and will begin sending a concussion of curses and spells in approximately three minutes. Our impromptu rescue party will be there shortly. And Faybelle currently has secured Raven in a safe place for the moment." Ashlynn cut in with a look that said that they did not have time to be discussing anyone's heritage.
"The students- but- don't you know just how dangerous that is?" Milton cried in worry.
"Golems have already tried to attack us and even more will no doubt be coming once your little quarantine shield finishes collapsing. Headmaster if we do not act now we are in for a full-out war on our hands and most likely most of us would not have been able to survive that first golem attack if we hadn't taken the initiative to fight instead of run." Ashlynn told the man severely as if he were a child that had said a bad word in front of polite company. "We may just be high school students but many of us are also the future rulers or protectors to all sorts of realms and worlds it is our training and our duty to protect our people no matter our age or the cost. Whether you like it or not we are not backing down as long as this woman reins terror down upon the people we love and wish to protect."
Over the resulting whoops and cheers from Ashlynn's speech the Headmaster winced looking slightly like a scolded child much to Elenore's amusement.
"Looks like we have no choice but to trust that they know what they are doing beloved. Let's at least try to make things easier on them when they do get here, and ensure the safety of our grandchild." The witch spoke softly as she squeezed her arm more securely around his shoulders. "In this situation we have to at least try."
"Fine." Milton sighed in defeat. "I do suppose we have no choice."
"As much as I am enjoying this touching moment we had better get started on our plan." Giles gave his brother a knowing look.
"Plan?" Asked Daring.
"We put some of Miss Queen's serum into the fire sprinkler system." Giles looked warily behind him as the groans of approaching golems resumed. "We just need to set them off to take care of the ones inside."
"Sounds like a plan. Daring let me take off your jacket so that you can get some of that stuff on your injured arm." Cerise announced placing her phone back into her hood's pocket and set to work gingerly peeling the protesting prince's jacket off of his frame.
"Injured?" Dexter's worried voice sounded from Cerise's hood. "What do you mean by injured?"
"It looks like he got hit by my daughter's poisonous bite spell, he'll be fine, and hopefully the arm will not be requiring amputation, as long as we treat it now." Elenore said mostly to the squirming boy when she turned to help Cerise hold him still.
Cerise sucked air through her teeth when she managed to slip the sleeves off his arms, the burns were green and seeping yellowing puss, angry red lines spread from the infected areas, and the skin of Daring's arm was turning a bruising black.
"It looks worse than it actually is?" Daring chuckled nervously when Cerise gave him a glare.
"Do the fire sprinklers react to heat or smoke?" Elenore asked lighting up her one good hand.
"Smoke." Giles supplied helpfully.
There was a soft thunk of something falling to the floor but before Daring could turn to see what it was Cerise had shoved a belt into his mouth.
"You're going to want to bite on this." Was the only warning he got before the sprinklers began spraying light purple tinted water.
The prince cringed, whimpering around the leather belt clenched tightly in his teeth as both Cerise and Elenore held him still and tried to expose as much of his wounds to the spray.
All over the school the shrieks of dying golems could be heard their sounds so loud that no one noticed the bone wand, which had fallen to the floor, spark and sizzle violently before the boney pointer finger curled into the palm forming a fist and all of the power within had been released.
"Well at least there is a bright side to my condition." Elenore commented prying the belt from Daring's mouth with both hands and giving it back to a wide-eyed Cerise. "At least I'm not soaking wet."
"It's a bit too soon for me to hear you making those kind of comment-Elenore your hands!" Milton cut himself off reaching to clasp both of the witch's hands in his own.
Elenore's eyes widened. "Indeed my arm is back! But how-? I thought that my daughter had it!"
"And by "had it" you mean that creepy wand made out of bones is actually… your arm?" Cerise piped up quickly spying said wand on the floor and snatching it up out of sight under her hood to spare the ghostly woman from having to see it. "The Evil Queen got distracted so I took the opportunity to nick it off of her… um congratulations on getting your arm back?" She coughed awkwardly, because it was one thing to hold the arm when she didn't know whom it used to belong to but now… well it was kind of creepy -er, creepier than before. To give herself something to do Cerise took her mirrorphone back out to make room for the… Elenore's remains, and also to include Ashlynn in on what was happening at the moment with visuals.
Elenore grinned wickedly, taking her hands out of the Headmaster's grip to turn to Cerise. "I got back more than just my arm Miss Hood."
The witch lit up with magical power, the strength of which even Daring could feel. "The the full extent of my powers have been returned to me, I can now do battle against my daughter with my capabilities at their fullest." Elenore's eyes were wild but in a way that made Cerise's inner wolf want to follow this woman into battle no matter the danger. "I am back! Thank you Miss Hood!"
"Anytime Lady Elenore." Cerise blushed looking to a spot on the floor.
"Elenore…" Milton reached for the witch cupping her face and giving her a pleading look.
Elenore's grin softened into a smile, her magic surrounding the both of them. "You know that it must be this way beloved." She murmured placing one hand on his and the other to cup Milton's face. "If there is anyone that can keep up with my daughter it's me and besides, this time I won't be alone."
She leaned forward Milton meeting her halfway and the two exchanged a kiss.
Cerise and Daring turned their heads sharply away while Giles gave the two a sad look.
The kiss lasted longer than what the teens were comfortable with but when it finally finished Elenore stepped back with a lingering touch, her wicked grin back in place before disappearing in a rush of magic.
"Let's get to work." Milton stated blinking away his tears. "Let's give Elenore and my granddaughter all the help we can give."
XXX
"Where are you?" The Evil Queen called trying to sense out the spawn.
She knew that the girl was somewhere in the general area but the spawn was not using her magic so the Evil Queen couldn't pinpoint her exact location.
The Evil Queen suddenly startled badly when her senses were overwhelmed by a horrifyingly, familiar magical signature.
Magic wrapped around her before the Evil Queen could react throwing her roughly to the ground far below.
The Evil Queen barely had time to shield herself before her body rammed into the trees, the hard ground pushing back against her shields until she skidded to a stop, fallen vegetation and a large divot in the ground having been left in her wake.
The Evil Queen's eyes widened as far as they would go once she lowered her arms to look up.
Elenore in her full, magic powered, glory floated high above the Evil Queen's head, her wicked grin holding a deadly edge to it. Both of her hands were lit with magical energy.
The Evil Queen looked down to her body, noticing with growing alarm that her bone wand was missing.
It had to have been stolen by Simone's Halfling child; no one else had the opportunity!
But her personal seals should have prevented anybody taking anything off of the Evil Queen, what made Simone's daughter special enough to even touch her let alone steal the wand and take down so many of her army?
The Evil Queen would have to capture that child, and after proper disciplinary measures the Halfling would have to be studied, the woman began to plan.
Elenore witch fired off two warning shots of magic to get her daughter's attention, the Evil Queen moving fast to duck out of the way, cursing under her breath when a jolt of pain ran up from her injured knee.
"Don't be so naïve as to think that I'd let you kill me that easily Clawstorm!" Elenore roared like the mighty dragon she now resembled.
The Evil Queen ground her teeth together leaping into the air to hover across from her meddling mother.
"This will be the last time you meddle into my life mom, this time I am sending you to the afterlife and I will make sure that you don't cheat your fate again!" The Evil Queen declared her hands wielding tainted magic of the vilest level that she could summon.
"The only way you can ever be certain of that is if you are dragged into the afterlife with me." Elenore countered, the two witches now circling each other, flying higher and higher into the air.
"Enough of your lies! I killed you once, I can do it again!" The Evil Queen proclaimed.
"And I will drag you with me to our eternal rest." Elenore promised solemnly.
With that said the two witches charged.