"The best offense is sometimes a good defense." Nerissa declared as she stood in front of Maleficent and Paradias. On either side of her was Chad and Reviveslime. "To that end I present to you our newest creation Guardian Exxod." She stepped back and a large stony, muscular creature came onto the bridge, the metal echoing with his footsteps.
"Impressive." Paradais commented.
"What precisely can this guardian of yours do?" Maleficent questioned the sorceress.
Nerissa summoned a soldier in the middle of the bridge and then Exxod summoned two giant stone pillars appeared on either side of the soldier and then crushed him into nothingness. "I can make that happen slower, I can make them bigger." Exxod stated. "I can trap the rangers and draw out their agony all the while making sure they can't escape. Even the dragon's eye on the purple ranger's staff won't be able to break through it."
"Reviveslime, go with him." Paradias ordered. "Bring those rangers to their knees."
Mal and Evie sat at one of the lunch tables as they waited for everyone else to show up. "I can't side step that any longer." The purple haired girl said to her. "I am sometimes scared of my mother." She sighed a bit. "She's demanding, ruthless, and cruel."
"Almost like my mother." Evie noted. "But…" She started.
Mal understood what she was going to say. "But they're still our mothers." She concluded. She sighed a bit. "I talked to Belle a bit last night, or I let her talk while I asked. She told me a few things about her time with Ben and I…wished I could feel that way."
"What did she say?" Evie asked curiously.
"She talked about taking Ben horseback riding. He hated it really, ironic considering his zord now." Mal said softly. "But he kept at it; for her." She shrugged a bit. "My mother never taught me anything except what she could of magic and history. We never rode horses or…or made cookies or anything like that."
"I know what you mean." Evie said softly. "All I ever got from my mom was make up tips, and how I'd never be as pretty as she is." She sighed a bit. "I'm glad I have you and everyone else M."
"I am too E." Mal agreed happily. They saw Audrey and Lonnie coming first and as soon as they sat down Mal hugged Audrey and Evie hugged Lonnie. Both Auradon girls looked kind of confused. "Did we miss something?" Audrey asked.
"We were both just saying how happy we are to have each other." Evie said.
"In that case, bring it on." Lonnie replied with a laugh and hugged Evie back.
"You know, you're right Evie. That's why you're one of the smart kids." Audrey said with a laugh of her own and hugged Mal briefly. "I'm sorry about your mom Mal." She said.
"I know you are." Mal replied. "But…it'll be okay. I didn't lose a mother I lost a parent. What I got was a bunch of sisters, a couple of brothers, and even someone who is more a mother to me in one day than my parent was in my life."
Carlos with Dude in tow, Jane and Jay showed up. Mal stood up and gave both of them hugs, followed by Evie giving them hugs. Jane had no problems with it while Carlos and Jay seemed a bit shocked but also went with it. When Jay sat next to Audrey he couldn't help but tease, "Are you going to give me a hug too?"
"You wish." Audrey said with a flirtatious smile before leaning over anyway and hugging him against her. "Actually, considering all you've done for me lately, I'd say you earned it." That took him really off guard.
"Come on, break it up." Aziz said teasingly as he walked by them with Ben and Ally beside him. Evie and Mal gave Ally a hug each. Neither of them knew Aziz all that well but Evie still hugged him anyway. Mal made her way to Ben and gave him a hug and kiss on the lips.
"And they harass us." Audrey noted with amusement as she sat back down again.
Jordan showed up at that point but she held up her hands and said, "Saw the love fest and it's great to see it but I'm good right now." Evie, Lonnie and Audrey had to laugh at that but otherwise let it go.
"I'm glad my mom is making you feel better about what happened with Maleficent." Ben said with a smile after he and Mal pulled away from their kiss. "You deserve to have a real family." He looked to Evie, Jay and Carlos. "You all do really."
"Yeah well some of us won't have that luxury." Carlos said with a shrug. "It's cool, we have each other and that's what counts."
Evie understood his meaning. Carlos and Jay really didn't have anyone here aside from the group. Not that Mal did either before becoming involved with Ben. She didn't either. Well technically she did have a half-sister in the form of Snow White but she was pretty sure that her half-sister wanted nothing to do with her or else she would have sought her out. The closest they had been was at the coronation and even then they hadn't spoken.
"Doug and I still haven't had much luck tracking down any other zords." Jane revealed as she added dressing to her salad. "But we might be going up the wrong tree, sort to speak."
"What do you mean?" Lonnie asked as she cut up some chicken to add to her steamed rice.
"Mal's dragon zord and Ben's horse zord came to us." Jane answered as she mixed the salad and dressing together.
"But ours didn't." Jay pointed out as he took out one of his slices of cold pizza and then took a bite of it.
Jane nodded. "No that's true." She conceded "That's the catch. If it's a battle zord rather than an animal based zord we might have to uncover it. Doug also thinks that there could be a chance I might be part of that zord formation too but we haven't been able to prove that one way or another yet."
"Where is Doug anyway?" Carlos asked Jane. "I haven't seen him today."
"Outside studies today." Jane answered. He looked to Evie. "Doug wants to add geologist to his scientific credits." That seemed to please the blue haired girl immensely.
They continued to eat in silence for a moment before again their iPhones went off. It was eerily reminiscent of Revive Eyes appearance except for this time Mal was with them rather than off on her own. The app revealed the newest monster, the large granite creature that Nerissa had sent down. Along with him was Reviveslime.
"I'll text my mother and let her know what's going on." Jane sighed. "Get us excused from class." She did just that as they started again toward the doors of Auradon Prep.
As soon as they had passed into the forest Mal said, "We all know the drill; time to get to work." The nine teens pulled out their iPhones and transformed. Jane transformed with the magic wand and Ben combined his shield and sword to transform.
"So nice of you fools to show up." Reviveslime said with amusement. "Because your last near defeat wasn't humiliating enough."
"Changing things up in the lame minion squad?" Audrey asked the blue slime monster though she was actually privately glad that they weren't facing off against Chad again. He was really starting to bother her, truth be told she was starting to think he was getting obsessed with her.
"You won't have to worry about that 'squad' much longer." The granite guy stated. "I am known as the Guardian Exxod and soon enough you shall learn why." Then he summoned a bunch of blocks and sent them straight at the team. They struck the team hard and sent them recoiling backwards.
"Now that's going to leave a mark." Aziz said as he looked to Ben. "Did it dent the armor?"
"Very funny." Ben said dryly.
Reviveslime then powered up a huge burst of energy and released it onto the ground in front of them, shaking up the area. As they attempted to maintain their balance he rushed forward and slashed them all down again.
"We've got to get it together guys." Mal said. She took out her dragon's eye staff and moved in to strike at Reviveslime only to find the increased power in the weapon didn't negate the fact that he still reformed upon being struck.
Exxod fired more granite blocks at the team and forced them to scatter. It was then that some of the ground gave way; most of the team was able to dodge it except Evie. She lost her footing and almost fell but she grabbed a rough edge at the last moment.
"Evie!" Carlos called out.
Reviveslime laughed. "What an interesting little predicament." With that he summoned soldiers in between the distraught blue ranger and the rest of the team. "If you want to help her you're going to have to get through the all of us."
Mal motioned to Ben and Aziz. "Then we'll do just that." She looked to the two boys. "Let's give them a triple strike." By drawing energy into each of their weapons they increased their power and moved in to take out the soldiers.
Exxod moved in with far more speed than a monster of his seemingly enormous size should have and blocked all three weapons with both fists. Then he sent that energy back out at them, knocking not only the three of them back but the other rangers as well. It even shook up Evie's precarious hold.
"Evie, hold on." Audrey called out to their blue haired friend. She raised her bow and started to release arrows at the soldiers, though most of them were able to use their blades to block.
Reviveslime unleashed another stream of energy that struck the ground and it collapsed down around them. "Is everyone okay?" Jordan asked as they started to recover.
"If it weren't for my helmet I think I would have cracked open my head." Carlos moaned as he got up.
"We have another problem guys." Lonnie said. She didn't need to elaborate as they realized that they were several feet underground. "How do we get out of here?"
"All of our weapons and we don't have a grappling hook." Jay said. "That's kind of pathetic."
"No sweat." Mal said as she looked to Jordan and Jane. "Let's magic out way out of here."
Before they could come up with a spell they saw Exxod standing over them. "Looks like you're trapped between in a hard place." He noted and laughed. "Let me complete that analogy by throwing in the rock." He summoned a huge squared granite boulder and dropped it straight down into the small crevice.
"Oh shoot." Ben gasped as he raised his hands to try to stop the granite block. The rangers all followed suit after quickly activating their neon armor and it just barely gave them the strength to hold the block above their heads but could not move it any other way.
"I see that you've escaped for the moment." Exxod said. "Impressive, but I'm sure you can't hold it for that long. There is no one to save you." Through the block he felt the gold ranger trying to use magic to try to find a way past it. "And this block is magic proof as well so don't think to try that again."
"We still have Evie out there." Mal said. "She can save us."
"Oh that will change momentarily." They heard Reviveslime say.
Evie was just struggling to get another handhold and pull herself up there when she saw Reviveslime above her. "Nice try blue ranger. Your friends will be crushed within a matter of minutes. But don't worry about that as they have something you don't."
"The privilege of seeing your ugly face?" Evie questioned disdainfully. She was willing to bet that he was underestimating her friends.
"No my dear." Reviveslime answered. "Minutes." With that he unleashed a huge stream of energy at Evie and it caused her to fall back, the tunnels leading into a river as she powered down and was washed away from the fight.
The other warriors didn't know that. "How can we delay this crushing thing?" Aziz asked the team. "We can't hold on forever."
"If we could give ourselves more breathing room we might be able to stretch this out until Evie can get to us." Lonnie suggested. "With my tessens and my neon powers I can probably dig underneath us."
"It won't be the most efficient thing but we don't have much of a choice." Carlos agreed. "On top of that I could use my clawed daggers to help her out too."
"We can probably hold it without Lonnie and Carlos." Ben noted. "But they have to hurry if we want any leeway whatsoever."
"Do it." Mal said to Lonnie and Carlos. She looked to the rest of her team. "Hold on guys. This is going to get really rough until Evie shows up."
"She won't be showing up." They heard Reviveslime brag. "I just sent her to the bottom of that pit and into the stream that connects to the ocean." The thought terrified Mal as she remembered something else she had in common with Evie; neither of them (nor the guys for that matter) could swim.
It seemed like forever before Evie woke to find herself in a small cabin in the woods. For a moment she was really tempted to freak out over that revelation in itself. She realized she was lying on a small bed and she went to sit up, feeling relieved that nothing was keeping her tied down.
The door opened and she jumped, looking to it fearfully for a minute before the figure revealed itself. She let out a breath she hadn't known she'd been holding. "Doug, what are you doing here?" She asked her perhaps not so secret crush, not that his feelings were any better hidden.
"My uncle and one his friends found you swept up at the small shore by the mines where my dad and my uncles work at." Doug explained as he came in and sat down next to Evie. "Are you alright? What happened?"
"Oh, my gosh." Evie gasped. "How long have I been here?"
"About a half hour." Doug answered for her.
"I have to go." Evie said but as she tried to rise to her feet she felt dizzy. Doug's arms caught hers and had her sit down.
"You can't leave yet." He told her gently. "You've barely regained consciousness. You have to rest."
"I can't." Evie told him. "I was nearly killed by Reviveslime and my friends are trapped by this granite creature thing that last I knew was looking to crush the others."
Doug frowned in worry. "I get that but if you leave right now you'll be lucky to make it over to them, let alone be of any use to them." He told her softly. "Just wait another few minutes and my uncle's friend can help you feel better."
Lonnie and Carlos had made some headway digging further into the ground. It was then that they heard the sounds of the stream that Reviveslime had bragged carried Evie out into the ocean. "We can't go any further." Carlos said to them.
They had gotten very little room out of the dig attempt. For the moment they were not required anymore to hold the granite block up but it would only be a matter of time before gravity kicked in.
"What choice do we have?" Jay asked. "We get drowned or we get crushed."
"We could try going another angle." Audrey suggested. "Dig our way out that way."
"It might work." Jordan agreed. "We just have to be careful. I assume slime boy and granite head are up there and if they think we're trying to get out they'll try their best to stop us."
"Okay, let's go at this two ways then." Mal said as she looked around. "I'm going to help Carlos on the right. Ally, help Lonnie on the left side." She looked to the rest of the team. "Keep an eye on that granite piece. If it decides that it doesn't want to stay there, be ready to get a grip on it before we become pancakes."
"Not the kind of pancakes I want to try." Aziz noted as the four rangers started on their escape plan.
The door opened and in came literally the last person that Evie expected to see, though perhaps it shouldn't have been a surprise considering Doug had said she had washed up near her father and uncle's mines. "Snow White." She said, half in awe and half in shock.
She had with her a tray that had a mug of something steaming in it. "Hello Evie." She said with a gentle smile. That was a shock to the blue haired girl right there. She took a seat across from the bed. "I contacted your friend Jordan's dad and he helped us mix up a potion to heal you up." She handed the mug to Evie and she reluctantly took it.
It felt warm in Evie's hands, and she swore it smelled like an apple flavored drink. Personally the irony wasn't lost on her; either the drink or who was giving it to her. But it smelled delicious and she had nothing to lose anyway. "Thank you." She said softly.
Doug watched the two step sisters, each of them looking kind of awkward in their own ways. It was a barely concealed secret that the two hadn't seen or spoken to each other since Evie's arrival in Auradon months ago. In fact this meeting wasn't even planned out. He had been surprised to find Snow White here today, but she had come to ask his father and Uncle Doc to help her with something, and now Evie washed up from a seemingly losing battle.
Evie reluctantly took a sip only to find it was as good as it smelled. She could taste some of the cinnamon still on her lips. "Leave it to genies to make healing potions that actually taste good." She remarked lightly and then looked again to Snow White. "You did a great job making it." She added a shyly.
"Thanks." She said as she set the tray aside. She took a deep breath. "I'm sorry that we have to meet like this."
Evie frowned. "You mean, you're sorry we had to meet at all?" She asked, feeling a little upset to be saying that.
Snow White shook her head. "No, I mean like this. I heard what you said to Doug, that your friends are in danger from those two monsters." She replied. "A dangerous situation is not how I would have wanted to meet my step sister."
Evie set the mug down, perhaps harder than she needed too. "You've had a couple of months to look me up if you were that concerned about it." She said a bit icily. "And you never did, so why is it such a concern right now?"
"Evie." Doug said tenderly but with more conviction than she tended to hear from him. "You've had that same amount of time and never bothered either."
"That's because I…" Evie started, wanting to remind him something only to realize she had no good reason for it except for one. "Because I…didn't care too."
"I think we both know that's not true." Doug said to her gently. "Especially after what happened with Mal and Belle."
"Wait a second." Evie said as she looked between the two. "You said you overheard Doug and I about the monsters. You don't seemed surprised." She cocked her head a bit. "How many people know about us in Auradon anyway?"
"Well of course there's Fairy Godmother. The council. The parents, at least as far as Ben and the others go." Doug listed off. None of that made sense to Evie why her half-sister knew anything about it. "And the princesses of heart."
A/N: The princesses of heart are a concept from the Kingdom Hearts series that may become important later on in the saga, but as such that means I do not own it, just borrowing it like most everything else in the story.
Evie had never heard of it but right now decided it didn't matter. She did however know that Snow White was considered a princess here along with Audrey's mother Aurora and Ben's mother Belle. Evie wasn't sure what to say to her half-sister now. Snow White then looked at her. "Why didn't you seek me out after you and your friends decided to stay in Auradon?" She asked.
Evie was tempted to fire the question right back at her, but stopped to think about it. "I have a sister in Mal already…even getting that way with Audrey and Lonnie…I don't need…you know." She explained though it had gotten kind of lame as the explanation went on.
"I do understand that." Snow White said. "I think of Aurora and Mulan that way too." She cocked her head, almost exactly as Evie had. "But I think a big reason that you haven't is because you were afraid too." The younger girl was about to protest but stopped when she added, "Just as I was."
That stopped Evie short. "Wait, why would you be afraid to get into contact with me?" She asked curiously. "It was my mom that tried to ruin your life. You didn't do anything to warrant that."
"Perhaps not." Snow White conceded. "But as a result of that your life was drastically altered, and perhaps not in a good way, because of it." She took a deep breath and said, "I had the idea that because of what happened between me and our mother, that you would rather not have anything to do with me."
Evie had to think about that for a moment before laughing softly herself. "Funny, that's kind of my logic." She admitted as she reached for the now cooling mug to take a sip. "My mother tried to break you, and that that was somehow my fault too."
Snow White laughed too and smiled a little. "Not at all. I understood even then what Ben was trying to do with this idea of his." She reached out and took Evie's free hand gently, startling the blue haired girl. Now she knew how shocked Mal must have been when Belle had comforted her. "The child should not be blamed for the sins of the parent."
Evie bit her lip. "And the sins the child does make?" She asked softly. None of them had ever forgotten that they had been only steps away from taking the magic wand back to the Isle of the Lost for Maleficent. If they hadn't been wrestling between good and evil, as Mal had finally made them see, just beforehand, they would have gotten away with it.
"I see no sins here. What I see is my beautiful half-sister," The word caught Evie off guard, her mother had always seemed to go out of her way to say she wasn't pretty enough. "And all of her friends putting their lives on the line against an evil most of Auradon will never understand."
Evie looked down a moment. "My mom never talks about you unless it involves revenge." She told Snow White softly. "I think that might have clouded some of my judgements about you. I shouldn't have let that happen…I shouldn't have let her win again."
"We shouldn't have let her win again." Snow White emphasized softly and then embraced her young half-sister. After yet another moment of shock she was sure Mal felt with Belle, she hugged her back too. "And we won't let her win again." She added.
She and Evie pulled back after a moment. She quickly finished the potion and then said, "I'm okay with that, but not right now. I have to go help my friends and I've…I've let myself get too sidetracked as it is."
"Wait a second." Snow White said. "I came here to get help from my friends, not for me but for you." She stood up at the same time Evie did and as she did she took something that had been beside her since she had sat down. She handed Evie a small compact. "For you, for the magic mirror more accurately." As Evie slipped the compact over the mirror her older sister went on to explain how it worked.
They were about halfway up on either tunnel when Audrey gasped. "It's slipping." She announced. She, Aziz, Ben and Jay each reached up and barely managed to stop its descent toward them. It was more tenuous than ever.
"It's not staying put so well this time." Jay noted a bit nervously. By then Jordan and Jane had come to lend their support against the large granite block too.
"Keep digging." They heard Mal announce. "We're getting there."
Jane gasped. "Wait." She called. "That's the problem. We're weakening the areas that are keeping this granite block from crushing us." She shook her head. "We may have just helped them kill us."
There was a scream from Ally in the first tunnel and a shout of alarm from Carlos in the other. Then the four rangers came sliding out and landing hard. Ben had to resist the urge to go check on Mal but it seemed to be a moot point as they were all standing up now.
"Nice try Rangers." They heard Reviveslime from above them. "But not going to happen."
"Now you're truly sandwiched in." Exxod said amused. Jane realized what had just happened. He had summoned more blocks to close off all of hope escape unless they wanted to try digging into the rapidly moving stream. It seemed unadvisable seeing as how Evie had yet to return.
"This is taking too long." Reviveslime said to Exxod. "Enough with the games, crush them already."
"Alright then." Exxod said and started to descend the blocks again.
"Not so fast." They heard from behind them. "You have to deal with me first." They turned to see Evie approaching them. She and Doug had used a mine cart to get them as close to the area as possible.
"Well, well. If it isn't the Blue Ranger?" Reviveslime said tauntingly. "What are you going to do to stop us, reflect the sun in our eyes with your little mirror shield?" He laughed now.
"Just wait and see." Evie responded and took out her iPhone. She input her numbers 7531 and then transformed. She then took out her mirror shield, but this time it was different. She had to flip a button to lift a piece of protective armor off of the glass to reveal it.
"I'm going to pound this girl into the dust myself." Exxod said and started toward her. "You can't deflect me."
"I don't need to." Evie said with a smile. "Courtesy of Snow White."
"Did she just say Snow White?" Mal asked.
"Did we miss something?" Aziz asked as well.
As Exxod ran toward Evie she pressed a small button, one of four, on the back of the compact. It unleashed a burst of light energy at Exxod and sent him flying backwards into some of the foliage.
"What is this?" Reviveslime asked.
"That was my radiant setting. Here's number two." Evie answered with a smile. She pressed another button and then unleashed as stream of energy from the ground to send Reviveslime flying into the air now. "That was my quake setting." She ran toward where her friends were. She pressed the button a third time and then unleashed a stream of black energy at the granite block looking to crush her friends. "Get ready guys." She said as it shattered the granite block.
"We're still too high up." Lonnie noted. "We can't get out of here."
"Simple enough on that front." Jordan said. "Grab a hold of each other's arms." She instructed. They all did so, Jane notable getting Carlos's in one of hers. Audrey notably got Jay's in one of hers. Mal notably got Ben's in one of hers. Ally got one of hers around Aziz. Then Jordan angled her lamp cannon down to the ground and with the boost from the shot and her own magic they came sailing out of the hole, though it didn't result in their best landing.
"Mal." Evie gasped and ran over to hug her. Then she hugged Audrey and Lonnie. She just managed to give Carlos a hug too when they heard rumbling and saw Exxod get up.
"I'm still here Rangers." He said as he started toward the group. Reviveslime was next to him as well. "You haven't won yet."
"I think we have." Mal said. "Let's…" She was about to have them form the Auradon blaster but Evie stepped in front of her.
"No need today Mal. I've got this." She held up her mirror shield again, which now seemed to be more than that. "Time for you two to meet my favorite setting, the storm setting." She pressed the last button and unleashed a maelstrom of energy straight at their two opponents.
This time Exxod tried to block the attack but the current of energy was too strong and it shot right through both monsters and destroyed them on contact.
"Wow, never underestimate the power of reflection." Carlos noted with amusement. "Nice one Evie."
Then Reviveslime reformed in front of them all. He saw though that Exxod was gone. "This isn't over Rangers." With that he vanished.
"I suppose defense isn't quite as good as offense after all." Chad said as he watched Evie use her last setting to destroy Exxod. "Who would have guessed that she would be capable of that." He had a pretty low opinion of the blue haired girl, trumped only by his developing view of Audrey.
"Well that didn't go as planned at all." Maleficent lamented. "Where to these power ups keep coming from anyway?"
"This isn't over, rangers." Paradias promised. "Power up all you like, the end is already set in stone." It didn't occur to him the analogy was flawed as Evie had already used one of her settings to destroy material very similar to stone.
Back at Auradon Prep, they had all gathered in the command center where Evie had just finished explaining to them what happened; from the wash up that she could remember to talking to her half-sister and the present she was given by Snow White.
"So what happens now?" Mal asked her.
Evie shrugged. "Now we try it out and see what happens." She answered her chosen sister with a shrug. "There's still a lot of unknowns. We don't hold each other accountable for what happened in our lives because of my mother but that doesn't mean we're going to get along." She laughed just a little. "But I want to say we'll be okay."
"That upgrade was so awesome." Carlos said. He looked to Doug. "Man, how did your uncles and father do that?" Doug began to explain it but only he and Jane were able to follow his explanation.
"Are you okay with this M?" Evie asked her chosen sister softly. "I mean, me trying to have a relationship with Snow White?"
Mal laughed lightly and took her hand. "Of course I am E." She replied honestly. "Look, we all knew things would change here." She first motioned to Doug talking to Carlos and Jane. Ben was there with them trying to follow the conversation. "I have a boyfriend, and you…well you know nothing's stopping you from having one." She then motioned to Lonnie and Audrey who were talking as well. "We have new friends, who might as well be like sisters." She smiled again. "Ben and I are going to have dinner with Belle and his father tonight." She still wasn't entirely comfortable with calling him by his first name. "Nothing should stop you from pursuing a relationship with your sister if that's what you want. And it won't change that we're sisters either."
Evie nodded and smiled. "Nothing will ever change that." She agreed and the two hugged each other. "In fact, I think I'll see if Snow White wants to have dinner with me and Doug tonight." Mal smiled encouragingly and she took out her iPhone to text her sister.