Author's note: I thought it might be a good idea to have recaps since there are so many subplots and some subplots might go a few weeks without being touched on. I'm not sure if I want to make this a regular thing, so let me know what you think about it this time.
In Chapter 25 the princesses had a meeting to decide how they should divide their group between defending against the Enchantress's attack on the castle and going to retrieve the third piece of the Undoing Relic from the Challenge of Courage. Snow White tried to convince the others that she could go to the challenge herself, but she was outvoted and had to take Jack Frost with her.
In Chapter 26 Anna found her connection to the spirits within herself and she used it to summon the wind spirit, Gale who brought her and Kristoff to the Enchanted Forest. There they found that all but eleven of the Northuldra people had been wiped out by a dragon.
In Chapter 27 Snow White led an army of animals she controlled with her singing to attack the beasts that guarded the Challenge of Courage. After the battle, Snow White was worried that the other royals would need Jack's help, but he refused to leave without her. She entered the Challenge of Courage and was tasked with finding three keys hidden in freighting visions behind three doors. She passed through the first door and was left in total darkness.
Chapter 28
Snow couldn't see anything. The only things she could hear were her breath, her footsteps, and her head pulsing. It was half a minute before she heard a chilling, almost muffled version of her on voice. "You're afraid of your past; afraid that you'll repeat it."
A memory replayed in Snow White's vision. She saw the huntsman raising his knife to stab her. Then everything went black again because, in that memory, Snow White covered her eyes with her arms instead of fighting back.
When the small amount of light came, Snow White found herself in the woods. Not as much a vision of a memory as much as recreation of her imagination. Snow recognized her surroundings. Each of the trees had horrifying faces and arms. In the darkness found beyond the trees were collections of glowing eyes staring at her. Snow was unnerved to see this again. "It's not real," she told herself. "It wasn't real then, and it isn't real now." The outlined path before her went between two tight patches of the monstrous looking trees. Snow didn't understand why she was so nervous about passing through. Snow forced herself to approach the narrow path and squeeze between the trees. Slowly making her way through, Snow's face was frequently put right in front of the terrible faces that held still and stared at her relentlessly. A few times, Snow had to duck under low hanging branches. Snow was relieved to be near the end. Just a few more steps and she would be-
A wooden hand grabbed Snow's wrist. Snow immediately pulled trying to get herself free, but the grip was too strong. "What's wrong, Snow?" asked the tree whose face was suddenly moving. "Afraid of your own imagination?"
Snow was horrified by the faces surrounding her, laughing at her. Snow reached for her sword. And then her heart shrieked. "Where are my weapons?!" Snow thought, searching hopelessly for her sword.
Snow resorted to twisting the wooden hand until it snapped off. She then ran the rest of the way out of the cramped path, avoiding the other hands that tried to grab her.
The lights went out again.
When the light came back, Snow found herself in a quaint little cottage built for people far shorter than her. This was actually a pleasant sight for Snow. But she knew exactly why her nightmare would bring her here. A loud version of a voice Snow knew well shook the whole cottage as it said, "Now, I'm warnin ya. Don't let nobody er nothin into the house."
It was so loud it made Snow cover her ears. When that voice ceased, Snow heard that same haunting version of her own voice say, "But you did let someone in. Didn't you?"
A deceptively old looking witch appeared on the other side of the window. She wore a black rode, had a long chin and longer nose. "Hello there, stupid little girl," the witch said with a mismatching friendly tone.
"You!" Snow White growled, recognizing her as her stepmother in disguise.
"I don't suppose you would be stupid enough to let me in a second time even though you know how much I want you dead."
Snow marched over the window and slammed it shut. Then Snow White looked around for something to beat the witch with.
"Why thank you, dearie," said the witch from inside the cottage.
Baffled by the witch's apparent entrance, Snow turned around and saw her standing right there despite the fact that she didn't open the door.
"I knew you'd be stupid enough to let me in." The witch held out her basket of apples and said, "Now, be a good, stupid, little girl and take a bite out of the poisoned apple again."
Snow furiously knocked the basket out of her hands and was about to beat the witch with her bare fist. But she was stopped when she noticed something in her hand. She was clutching an apple and she couldn't let go. It was like it was fuzzed to her hand. And even worse, there was a bite taken out of it.
The witch laughed at her while everything grew blurry and dark. When the darkness took her completely, she couldn't see anything, but that was just the beginning of it. She couldn't hear anything; not even her breath. She tried shouting, but she couldn't hear her voice. She couldn't even feel anything. She wanted to pinch herself so she could remind herself that she was alive, but she couldn't even have that. It was just nothing. All she had were her thoughts. "What's going on?! I can't do anything! How long is this going to last? Hello! Is anyone out there?! Can anyone hear me?!" Snow couldn't tell if her heart was racing or if she was breathing heavily; she had no sensory input to tell her. "Stay calm, Snow White. This is all just part of a challenge. This challenge is trying to haunt me with my past, but I didn't have anything to be ashamed of. My friends were right. I was just a fourteen year old girl. I don't need to be ashamed of what happened."
Snow jolted to life, able to see, hear, smell, feel, and taste again. She was in a nursery she recognized. It was in her castle. In that room was another, younger Snow White who stood, bent over a crib. On the side of the crib was written a name; Emma.
Snow White got choked up and thought, "But I do need to be ashamed of this." Snow approached the crib and looked with contempt at her eighteen year old self.
The past version of Snow said to her baby, "Hush, little one. Everything will be alright."
"No, it won't," the real Snow contested.
Ignoring the real Snow, the past Snow continued, "Mommy will make sure there won't be any magic to hurt you."
"Shut up," Snow growled.
"I won't let any fairies or wizards near you."
"You should have."
"And if by any chance you end up with magic powers . . ."
"Don't you dare say it!"
"I'll help you to never use them."
The real Snow White grit her teeth, furious with herself. She pulled her past self away from the crib and struck her across the face. The past Snow fell to the floor and the real Snow screamed, "You have no idea what you're doing to her!" Snow positioned herself over her and startled strangling her past self. The past Snow wreathed and struggled only in pointless ways. The real Snow screamed, "YOU DID THE WORST THING YOU COULD HAVE POSSIBLY DONE, YOU COWARD! You were afraid of magic . . . SO YOU TOOK IT OUT ON HER!"
Instead of merely passing out, the past Snow slowly disintegrated. In the pile of dust left behind, Snow found the first of the three keys. Snow White was surprised to find it there and disheartened to be reminded how far from the end she was. Snow brushed some dust of the key and pocketed it. Snow White walked back the crib while saying, "Emma, I'm sorry." Snow took a look inside. But the crib was empty. Snow clutched her aching heart for a few seconds before picking up the crib and throwing it to the side in a rage. Snow noticed a door similar to the one she had passed through earlier. Had it been there this whole time and she hadn't noticed. Perhaps it wasn't there originally and she didn't see it appear. Or maybe she had always noticed it, but never thought about what it was. Regardless, Snow White exited through that door and returned to the same hallway from before. She had apparently passed through the same door to get back as she had passed through before. There were two more keys to find. And according to what Snow had read . . .
"How could the other doors ever be worse than that?!" Snow lamented. She could see why this challenge require so much courage. She was feeling rather hesitant to keep going.
Snow White had two more doors to enter through and two more keys to collect. She was the furthest thing from excited to face whatever freights were supposedly worse than the ones faces prior. But she knew she had the courage that this challenge required and besides that, there was no way around it. Snow White knew that they needed the Undoing Relic. They would need it to change everyone who had been turned into an emerald statue back. Even if it were only for Cinderella's sake, Snow White would press on. She thought that there may or may not be another way to change them back; perhaps there was a recipe for a potion she could find. But Snow didn't want to think about that. She didn't want the idea of another way to give her an excuse to abandon the challenge. Snow reached for the doorknob, needing to give herself a good convincing before she was ready to turn it. Her fear grew as she pushed the door open. On the other side was darkness again. After her sense deprived experience in the last section of the challenge, she couldn't stand the idea of walking into more darkness. Snow White told herself, "Come now, Snow, your friends need you." She walked through the door and it slammed itself shut just like the last one. She was in total darkness, but she could at least still hear herself and feel her body trembling. Just so she would have something to hear, Snow whistled to herself.
A voice similar to the Enchantress said, "You're afraid of failure; afraid you'll fail your friends."
When the light came back, Snow was surrounded by emerald statues. Looking around at them, Snow White recognized them all. They were Elsa, Ariel, Rapunzel, Anna, Merida, Cinderella, Belle, Mulan and Snow's husband; all were emerald statues. It would have been odd to an outsider looking in that M was not among those she fear she would fail. It wasn't that Snow didn't care about her daughter; nothing could be further from the true. The real reason that M wasn't a part of this frightful vision is because Snow never thought the Enchantress was strong enough to take M from her. The only emerald statues around her were the people Snow White could actually lose to the Enchantress.
"It's not real," Snow told herself. "It's not real!"
"Isn't it though?" asked the emerald statue that was Elsa who could suddenly move.
"This will happen soon enough," said Ariel.
"It's only a matter of time," Rapunzel added.
Belle looked at the ground and said, "I'm going to be forgotten. You could have brought the memories back."
"I will!" Snow told her. "I always planned to help break the spell as soon as I can."
Belle grabbed her by the shoulders. "It will be too late. You'll die before you choose to help me."
"No I won't!" Snow insisted. "I'm going to assemble the Undoing Relic, defeat the Enchantress, and break the curse. I just need a little more time."
Belle let go of Snow and faded out of existence. "Belle!" Snow cried, being magically compelled to not be sure if this was real or not.
"Who's Belle?" asked Anna.
"You know who Belle is!" Snow said. "All of you except for Mulan. But I can fix this!"
"It's too late," said Elsa. "You should have tried harder to convince me. You shouldn't have taken Jack with you. We needed him to fight the Enchantress! You knew we needed him and you didn't!"
"I tried," Snow whimpered. "It wasn't my fault. I tried to warn you that he should stay with you."
There was anxiety inducing silence for a few seconds before all the emerald statues said at the same time, "You let us suffer."
"No!"
"You let us suffer!" they chanted. "You let us suffer! You let us suffer! YOU LET US SUFFER!"
Snow covered her ears, trying to keep out the haunting noise. Fortunately, an exit appeared in a wall that was otherwise so dark it may have been pure darkness. Snow couldn't stand to be there any longer. She ran for the exit, narrowly escaping the emerald statues that just then tried to grab her. As she ran, she heard loud clinks; the sound of emerald statues' steps. The emerald statues kept chanting, "YOU LET US SUFFER!" while they chased after Snow White.
Once she was through the exit, she was hardly in a more pleasant place. She stood in the middle of her kingdom, watching it all burn. In this vision, her kingdom was in ruin, her people were either dead or terrorized. Only beasts still thrived in this anarchy. "How could you let this happen?!" asked Elsa who was cradling Rapunzel's corpse. All around Snow, there was more than one of each of her royal friends. Most of them were corpses, some were emerald statues, others were managed, but most of them, dead or wounded, were still moving. They were slowly lumbering toward Snow. She ran again, trying to escape the horde of corpses and statues. In Snow's path was something unsettling, yet it was her only way forward. It was a pool of blood. The only good thing about it was that in the middle of this pool was the second key. But the problem with that the key was being held by a hand that was presumably dead and sticking out of the pool of blood. Much to her own disgust, Snow White ran into the pool of blood, immersing her legs in the thick liquid. To make things worse, the blood was deep enough to make walking a slow and difficult process, but it was too shallow to swim in. Snow trudged through the blood, glancing behind, to see the horde of dead or emerald friends that were nearing the lake.
Snow made it to the hand that held the key. She grabbed the key and pulled, but the hand wouldn't let go. Snow grabbed the wrist with her other hand and pulled as hard as she could, desperate to claim the second key before the horde could reach her. Snow successfully ripped the key out of the hand and then the body that the body that the hand belonged to sprang up and grabbed Snow's arms. It was Ariel; AN Ariel that is. "Help me," the blood-soaked Ariel begged.
Snow didn't know what to do, but she didn't have time to help her anyway. The blood-soaked Ariel soon fell back into the blood as her head detached.
Snow White had to keep moving. Behind her, the horde had reached the blood lake and on the other side of the lake was the door out of there. Snow tried to go quickly, but her legs could only trudge slowly through the thick, hip-height blood. As she walked, more hands rose out of the blood, reaching out for her. Some of the hands were made of emerald, some of them were missing fingers. Snow glanced back again. The horde was gaining speed. Blood slushed violently as they moved through it far quicker than they should have been able to. "I'm almost there!" Snow thought. "Just a little further!"
Snow made it to the other side, her legs lifting out of the blood. She bolted for the door and rushed through it. She turned around to close it and saw corpse and emerald statues of her friends were almost there, desperately trying to catch her. One of them shouted, "WHY DIDN'T YOU SAVE US!" Snow White slammed the door shut with all her might and the noises ended.
Snow panted heavily, her body shaking while she kept pushing on the door as a way of begging it not to open again.
"It wasn't real!" Snow said, able to remember that again. "It wasn't real. They weren't my friends. That wasn't my kingdom. Everything is alright. . . . Everything is alright."
Snow looked with dread at the third door. The second door really was worse than the first. She shuddered to wonder what would be waiting for her behind the third. She had an idea what it might be. She knew her worst fear was losing her daughter. Snow figured that M was powerful enough to survive the war. But there was something much worse that could happen. Snow knew what M was and in a way she was proud of her, but in another, it terrified her. Snow White always worried that M would become wicked; that she would end up the same as a certain someone from M's past. There was someone with powers similar to M's; someone who falsely proclaimed himself to be a god. Snow never admitted it, but she was afraid that her daughter would also think herself above mortals and spread a reign of terror.
Snow took a look at the third door and guessed that it would show her M killing their friends. And the worst part would be that Snow would have to kill M herself to claim the last key. Snow knew it wouldn't be real, but it would still hurt.
Snow White couldn't move. She knew she needed to walk through the third door, but the thought of being shown M as a crazed maniac she had to put down was too much to handle.
Snow told herself, "You can do this, Snow. Remember, the real M is counting on you."
She took one step toward the door. Moving made Snow feel like there was tar in her joints. Snow breathed heavily as she took slow step after slow step. When she was close enough, she reached out and grabbed the doorknob. And then she stood still, feeling her pulse pound and her forehead dripping. This was by far the most freighting door she had ever seen.
Snow thought, "Just do it!" and she flung the door open. Resisting her hesitation, Snow walked through and the door closed, leaving her, again, in total darkness. "What will you say this time?" Snow asked. "That I'm afraid of my daughter? That I'm afraid of losing her? Maybe you'll tell me I'm afraid of being a bad mother like I used to be; like my stepmother was. Whatever it is, I can bare it if means I can help save my family, my friends, and my kingdom."
I ghostly voice Snow didn't recognize said, "So . . . you were courageous enough to walk through the third door."
When the lights came on, they might have spooked Snow, but they didn't actually reveal anything scary. Instead, she was in a beautiful garden. And before her, the third key rested on a pedestal. Snow's previously vanished weapons were there, leaning against the pedestal. And she noticed that the blood that had been covering her lower body was gone. Snow was dubious about all the pleasantness around her. But then she calmed down, realizing why nothing was trying to scare her. "Since I already proved I'm brave enough to walk through the third door after everything I've been through, there's no point in scaring me any further." Snow put a hand on her chest, letting the relief set in. She collected her weapons first and then picked up the final key.
Snow took just a short time to enjoy the garden before she returned through the door. Snow took all three keys to the final door and turned each lock to get it open. Behind that door was darkness . . . apart from the light shining on the next piece of the Undoing Relic. Snow came close and inspected it. This one was different from the last two. It was shaped like half of a sphere. It had a triangle shaped slot with a cylinder inside. Snow could see how it would combine with the other pieces. Snow took a quick look around to trying to find something that might jump out at her and as soon as she was sure it was safe, she grab the third piece of the Undoing Relic.
Author's Note: I know. You probably have so many questions after reading this chapter.
What happened between Snow White and Emma?
How did Snow White go from being afraid of magic to being such a big advocate for it?
Why does Snow White think the Enchantress can't take M away from her?
Who was the false god from M's past?
And probably a few more. Patience, patience. All will be revealed in time.
Don't forget; I upload every week, so if you don't get a notification, check to see if there's a new chapter.
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