Chapter 31
"What do you mean, 'Who's Belle?'?!" Merida shouted for the second time since the war began.
"Do you really not know?" Rapunzel asked curiously.
"She's just trying to trick us!" Ariel insisted before firing another beam at the Enchantress to shut her up.
After avoiding the blast, the Enchantress created a green whip and flung it to wrap around Rapunzel's wrist. The Enchantress changed into three fireballs. Fire spread on the whip all the way to Rapunzel whose body turned into fire and combine with the three fireballs.
"Rapunzel!" Eugene shouted in horror.
Elsa shrieked, "Let her go!" while pointing a hand at the fireballs that were the Enchantress and Rapunzel.
M however lowered Elsa's hand and whispered, "Don't. If you shot her, you'll hurt Rapunzel."
The fireballs crashed out the window. She knew wouldn't be able to defeat Fauna, Merryweather, Ariel, Elsa, Merida, Phillip, Rapunzel, Eugene, and M all at once and all by herself. Still taking Rapunzel with her, the Enchantress flew passed the castle and did a few spins in the air. That was the signal. Beasts emerged from the nearby hiding place and ran toward the city. The beasts were accompanied by walking suits of armor carrying heavy weaponry ran out of the forest and charged toward the castle. And, in addition, there were human looking figures in dark, hooded robes wielding daggers.
The group of royals rushed out of the castle and discovered the Enchantress's forces approaching.
"What's with the robe-people?" Merida asked.
"Cultists," Ariel growled. "I banished them a long time ago. The Enchantress must have reached out to someone with a common enemy."
M told the others, "I'll find Rapunzel somehow. The rest of you can handle the army, right?"
Elsa said, "M, you can't face the Enchantress with just yourself and-"
"Goodbye," M said right before she teleported away.
The Enchantress flew to a part of the beach. They were far enough away from the battle. She changed back into her human form and so too did Rapunzel, the whip still wrapped around her wrist. Though, the Enchantress was quick to make the whip dissipate. Rapunzel raised her frying pan and pointed it at her, but instead of attacking, the Enchantress calmly asked again, "Who is Belle?"
Rapunzel didn't attack, but she didn't lower her defenses either. "You should know."
"And yet, I do not."
Rapunzel wasn't sure if the Enchantress was trying to play games with her, but even if she was, Rapunzel's best hope of getting out of there was playing along. "Belle was a friend of mine. Someone cast . . . you cast a spell that made people forget about her."
"I have done no such thing."
"Well . . . someone did!" Not that Rapunzel believed her, but it was horrifying to think about. What if there really was someone else behind everything, pulling the strings in secret.
The Enchantress crossed her arms. "Perhaps Ariel is capable of more than just assassinations."
Rapunzel opened her mouth to object to her claim. But she stopped, realizing that the last time she said someone could do no wrong simply because she thought they were friends, she was embarrassingly wrong. "Do you have any proof that it was Ariel?"
"No, but I know Ariel must have killed her family and who knows what else she is capable of."
Rapunzel rolled her eyes. "How do you 'know' that?"
"It only makes sense. Every member of the royal family dies, killed by the use of the trident. . . . And yet the killer does not take the trident, but instead leaves it to be brought to Ariel herself. And not long after that, Ariel is enacting plans that only could have worked if she inherited what she had. Little investigation was made to find the killer and the strangest thing was that the killer never came back for Ariel. It seems that she is the only one that the killer didn't want dead."
Rapunzel pursed her lips. That did kind of sound bad when she said it like that. Rapunzel didn't feel like sharing it, but she also thought it was a bit odd that Ariel never told them about the goings on of Atlantica before. Rapunzel shook her head, realizing how quickly she was becoming too suspicious. "How do I know you're not trying to trick me? For all I know, you're just trying to pit us against each other."
The Enchantress asked, "Well, if I were lying and if I did cast this spell, why do you think I would curse this Belle to be forgotten instead of turning her into a statue?"
"I . . . I don't know. You're the one who did it. . . . probably did it . . . I think. Maybe you wanted people to forget Belle because Belle proved that your less violent tactics are more helpful."
The Enchantress furrowed her eyebrows. "In what way did 'Belle' do that?"
"You really want me to talk to you like you don't remember?"
The Enchantress just kept looking at her expectantly.
Rapunzel sighed and said, "Fine. You cast a curse on a prince that turned him into a beast. You gave him a rose that would wilt slowly and if the Beast couldn't get someone to love him before the last pedal fell, he would be a beast forever."
"That I remember. That spoiled brat deserved worse than what I gave him. And he never did get anyone to love him."
"No!" Rapunzel corrected. "No, he did find some to break the curse."
"Belle?" the Enchantress guessed.
"Yes! Belle broke your curse and she's made a real, positive difference in her kingdom."
"How cute of you to conjure such an amusing story in hopes of quelling my rage," the Enchantress said condescendingly. "You expect me to believe that there exists some impossible woman who proved my methods wrong and I have conveniently forgotten about her. Rapunzel, I assure you that if this Belle were real, I would most definitely remember her."
"I know. That's why I think either you're lying about not remembering her . . . or . . ." Rapunzel hated to say it. "or whoever cast the forgetting curse affected you too."
"I say again, this is such an amusing story. But we really should concentrate on events that actually happened; such as the murder of Ariel's family."
"I think she's heard enough from you," said M from behind the Enchantress.
The Enchantress turned around and created a shield to defend against an expected light bolt.
M charged up her hand, preparing to shot. And then she teleported herself right in front of Rapunzel and shot the Enchantress in the back. M turned to Rapunzel and said, "They need our help back there."
M was about to put a hand on Rapunzel's shoulder and teleport her away, but Rapunzel pointed and shouted, "Watch out!"
The Enchantress was right behind M and was covering her fist in emerald. She threw a punch, but M caught the Enchantress's fist in her hand. The Enchantress was surprised by M's ability to stop her emerald covered fist so effectively. M wiggled her eyebrows as a way of gloating. M covered her fist in lightning and punched the Enchantress, creating an explosion of electricity and sending the Enchantress flying away.
M turned right back to Rapunzel, put a hand on her shoulder, and teleported away with her. They reappeared outside the castle and there was beasts and moving suits of armor everywhere; they were concentrating their efforts to the princesses' destruction. The cultists however, were less focused. The cultists looted shops and attacked civilians. As the group fought off the invaders, they would fight their way through beasts and suits of armor in search of the cultists because they were the ones threatening the civilians. To protect as many people as possible, they split up.
Elsa ran through the streets, blasting every enemy in sight. A familiar-beast lunged at her, but she created icicles that impaled it. An arrow-beast shot at her, but she created a wall that caught the arrows. Elsa willed the wall to move toward the arrow-beast, catching every shot as it went until it smashed into the arrow-beast. Elsa saw a cultist chasing a child, hoping to do something Elsa didn't want to think about. Filled with rage by this disgusting cultist, Elsa didn't hesitate to blast him. The cultist froze as he flew backwards and shattered upon collision with a house.
M grabbed a suit of armor's helmet and electrocuted it until it was almost melting. Moving on from the suit that she was sure was dead, M spotted a cultist stuffing his pockets in a jewelry shop. As M reached out, her left arm turned into smoke which stretched all the way to the cultist. M's smoke-hand grabbed the cultist by the neck and pulled him out of the shop. M lifted the cultist high and slammed him into the ground, breaking his skull.
M returned her arm to its regular state and was soon found by a much larger suit of armor. This one was bulky, eight feet tall, and wielded a massive hammer. M was unfazed by the suit's large stator. The suit swung its hammer horizontally. As the hammer moved toward her, M teleported to the area that the hammer had just passed by. M punched the massive suit in the stomach. The massive suit backed up and swung its hammer downward. M dodged to the side, avoiding the strike. She then grabbed hammer, ripped it out of the massive suit's grip and beat it to death with its own weapon. M didn't look strong enough to wield such an oversized hammer, but there she was, doing it all the same.
Merida and Phillip ended up fighting together against the beasts. They were doing well enough against their enemies at the time, but there was something worse hiding nearby. Spying on them from the shadows was Aurora, still armored with the magic wand that didn't belong to her. Aurora stepped out from the shadows behind Phillip and Merida. Aurora signaled for the beasts to leave them to her. The beasts roared one final time at Merida and Phillip before turning around and running away.
"Yeah, you better run!" Merida taunted.
Aurora whispered, "Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo," enacting a trick the Enchantress had told her about. From the wand, dark mist flew its way to Merida and Phillip, covering their eyes and ears to warp their perceptions.
Merida and Phillip each saw an illusion. They both saw swordsman clad in tattered, green cloths. But Merida saw the swordsman appear behind Phillip and Phillip saw the swordsman appear behind Merida.
"Look out!" Phillip shouted.
"Behind you!" Merida warned.
But Aurora's magic kept them from hearing each other.
Merida saw the swordsman stab Phillip in the back while Phillip saw the swordsman stab Merida.
"NO!" they each cried. They each saw the other die at the hands of the illusionary swordsman. And then the illusion made Merida see the swordsman where she should have seen Phillip. And Phillip saw the swordsman where he should have seen Merida.
"You'll pay for this," Phillip said, not knowing he was talking to Merida.
"That was a good man you just killed," Merida said, not knowing she was talking to Phillip.
Under the influence of the illusion, Phillip and Merida pointed their blades at each other, about to fight the person they thought they were avenging while Aurora watched with malevolent eyes.
Author's Note: Thank you for reading. Please follow, review, and check every week for new chapters.
DON'T FORGET! Star Wars: The Unending is coming on October 31st.