Chapter 82: Uh Oh Oh Oh It's Magic

"Is that it?" Jay asks.

The group from Auradon had trekked through the woods surrounding Storybrooke until they reached the source that gave some of them magic.

So say that the well looked unextraordinary was an understatement. It was made of thick granite or marble-like stone, with an octagon-shaped hole that likely looked down into the darkened water below. Above the hole was a roof made of wood and shingles. Surrounding the structure was a base cemented into a cobblestone pattern. Time had certainly taken its toll on the well, being covered in moss, leaves and other debris from the forest. There were also cracks in the stone to show its age. There wasn't even a bucket attached across the top to use and draw water from it. For something that was apparently very important, it didn't look like anything special.

"That's it," Mal says.

She feels herself shudder slightly, the memories of earlier flooding her mind. The closeness to Ben, the mixed emotions of anger, sadness, happiness, love and desire, all swirling around inside her like the waters at the bottom of this well.

Ben feels equally uneasy and gently allows Mal's hand to fit into his own. While they weren't out of the woods yet with their fight and break up, it was improving and slowly being mended. Both their minds flash as they recall the rainbow light that expanded from their lips meeting; a sign of true love according to Ben's father and the reason that Evie suddenly had magic. Despite their problems, they could not deny that their love had sparked something.

Doug goes up and reads the plaque attached to the well.

"WISHING WELL

For centuries, local legend has claimed that mystical waters run beneath this great land. It is said that these waters possess the power to return that which is lost to its

rightful place. If you have lost something precious to you, drink from this well and

bear witness to this miracle as what is missing shall be returned."

"Weird," Jay mutters, gazing down into the hole. You could not even see the bottom and not even daylight seemed to reach it. It was slightly eerie and off-putting.

"Didn't Regina say it's like a beacon that caused our magical potential to be woken?" Jane asks.

"Apparently," Mal says, still rather skeptical about the whole thing. Honestly, while the town's use of magic was new to her, it was comforting to know that she was not alone when it came to having powers. She wasn't the weird VK who had something that was outlawed in her own kingdom.

Evie swallows and steps away from Doug, just for a minute and he gets closer to the well to examine it more carefully.

She closes her eyes and inhales carefully. There's a feeling inside of her, a warmth or a spark. Now that she knew she had magic, she was still curious to see what it could do… She clenches her fists and prepares to conjure something. However, she freezes when she remembers what happened before… she nearly hurt Mal and Jay! What about Doug? She couldn't risk hurting him… and what would he think about it? Would he push her away? Would he be afraid?

Her hands start to shake and immediately, she rushes to her boyfriend and puts her hand back in his, hoping that his presence will quell that curiosity and desire for magic.

Mal, on the other hand, has no qualms in testing out what she can do. She flips her hand up and like a lightning bolt striking her body, a bright green fireball appears in her palm. It felt like her entire body relaxed and there was a sense of relief as if she'd finally let go of something that had been suppressed for a long time. She gazes at the fire in awe and amazement. She's never been able to do things without reciting spells, with the exception of turning into a dragon.

Her friends are a little shocked by it at first, especially Ben, but they draw closer to get a better look.

"Wow," Jane says in amazement.

"I know," Mal smiles. "I've never been able to do this before."

"Yeah, usually the fire comes from your mouth," Jay smirks.

Mal sticks her tongue out at him and at that moment the fireball does a sort of flash, briefly becoming bigger as if reacting to her emotions. It then resumes its normal size, flickering like an ember.

"Mal…" Ben says. "Maybe we should extinguish the magic that could potentially set the forest on fire."

Knowing his nervousness around her magic, Mal obliges, even if she didn't want to.

"Magic is emotion, apparently," Jay says, recalling what Emma and Crystal had told Evie.

"Which is why we need to be careful with this," Ben warns.

"I agree," Jane says. "My mother always said that magic can be very risky and dangerous when not used properly."

Evie swallows but says nothing. She clings to Doug more tightly, fighting tears in her eyes. She leans against the well, trying to keep her emotions in check.

"It's still really cool," Jay continues.

"Very cool," Jane agrees.

Evie looks down at her hands and she realizes that one of them is glowing a light blue. She swallows and prays that Doug can't see it, putting her hand behind her back to hide it. She tries to calm herself, doing what Emma and Crystal said, but it just becomes brighter. She starts hyperventilating slightly.

"Evie are you okay?" her boyfriend asks.

"Y-Yeah, why do you ask?"

"Your hand is really hot," he comments.

Oh, gods! Evie thinks. I'm going to burn him! And he can't protect himself as Mal can!

In a panic, she lets go and tries to conceal the blue light by balling them into fists. Her teeth grind in fear and the tears are brimming into her brown eyes.

All of a sudden a bolt of energy goes through her and it expands from her body. It comes out in the form of a wave that blasts her friends back off of their feet. Like an ear-shattering boom, the sound echoes through the forest, causing the branches to shake and birds to take flight. The ground shakes and everyone is left on the ground, trying to recover from the blast.

Mal blacks out for a moment and when she wakes up, she sees that she's looking down at the ground with the trees just below her feet. Her head is pounding slightly and her ears are ringing from the blast. She blinks and within a few minutes, she's able to hear the sound of flapping wings. Looking down at her hands… er… claws and she realizes that she's turned into a dragon. It was weird, but maybe it was a reaction to the blast. Taking a deep breath, she lowers herself down and in a puff of purple smoke, she's normal again.

While a little wobbly on her feet, she pushes her hair back to gather her thoughts.

Evie gasps as her friends are on the ground, all except Doug, who seems unaffected by her attack. She gazes at her hands and bursts into tears, rushing over to Mal to see if she's okay.

"MAL!" she wails. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine Evie, but what was that?"

"That was me!" she says in despair. "I…I lost control again and I hurt more people."

"Evie it's okay," Doug says.

He's immediately by her side and pulls her into a hug, but she squirms and pushes him away. "Stay away from me Doug! I'm dangerous!"

"You're not dangerous," Mal says. "It was an accident."

"You will never be dangerous," Doug says, refusing to stay back, even with her hands glowing a bright blue colour.

He wraps his arms around her again and does not let go. Poor Evie is shaking intensely and sobbing uncontrollably, filled with fear and guilt. She stares at her hands, cursing the fact that she has these powers. She hurt the people she cares about… she shouldn't have this kind of power, it was too dangerous.

"It's okay Evie, it's okay," her dwarf boyfriend says soothingly, rubbing her back.

While Evie cries, Mal gets on her feet to go to Ben. She prays that he's okay as well but as she gets closer she freezes and her eyes go wide.

Laying on the ground is a hairy being dress in Ben's clothes. It has a big thick matted mane of honey-brown fur to match the King of Auradon's but the fur around its face is blonde and almost white. It also has a small cat-like nose along with large claws with the matching pale fur from his face.

The daughter of Maleficent is completely taken aback and unable to comprehend what she's seeing.

When the beast sits up, she can see his hazel-green eyes and realizes that it's Ben.

"Oh man," he groans. Even in this new form, he still sounds like himself.

"B-Ben?" Mal says. "Are you okay?"

"I…I think so," he says holding his head. However, when he runs his claw over his head, he feels the thick fur. He then looks at his claw.

"AUUGGGHHH!" he screams out, however it comes out in more of a roar. He's immediately on his feet, staring at himself in horror, Mal can also see he has a tail of dark brown fur and sharpened canine teeth. "What happened?! What the hell happened?!"

"Ben it's okay," Mal says, trying to remain calm and have finally gotten over the initial shock of what had happened.

"Okay? You call this okay? I have claws, Mal! Claws!" he says. "How… how bad is it?"

Both Evie and Doug look over at the couple and they too are shocked, so much that the daughter of the Evil Queen stops crying.

"Oh my god!" Evie says, realizing that she did something to Ben. Tears well up in her eyes again and guilt washes over her. Her magic turned Ben into a monster. "Ben I'm so sorry!"

"What's going on?" Jay's voice says. "What's with all the yelling?"

Everyone turns, only for their jaws to drop open and their eyes to go wide again.

"What?" the son of Jafar asks.

"Uh Jay… look at your hands," Doug says.

"What…" when he looks down, Jay's heart stops.

His hands are glowing orange and are basically on fire. On instinct, he holds his hands out in front of him, trying to keep the flames as far away as he can.

"What? What do I do?!" he says in a panic.

He then begins to push his flaming hand onto the ground to extinguish them. It seems to work but it singes the earth to soot and ash.

"What the hell was that?" he asks.

"Where's Jane?" Mal realizes. Everyone is here except her.

"Up here!" a faint voice calls out.

Everyone looks upward to see a tiny person fluttering in the air. As it gets closer to them, they realize that it is Jane, only tiny like Tinkerbell. She has a pair of blue-tinted wings that keep her in the air and her entire body seems to glow with a bright light. She's still dressed in her clothes, but it appears as if she's shrunk completely. There is also a trail of what looks like stardust trailing behind her as she gets closer.

"Oh, Gods…" Evie mumbles in shock.

"What happened to us?" Ben asks, still staring at his clawed hands in bewildered shock.

"I did this to you! I'm so sorry!" the daughter of the Evil Queen sobs.

"Hey, hey, hey," Jay says, leaning down to Evie and joining the hug. "It's okay, it was an accident."

"But look what I did," she says.

"You didn't have control," Mal says. She goes over to hug her best friend.

Ben and Jane want to help but due to their transformations, they're unsure of how to do so, especially the son of Belle and Beast who fears he could hurt someone with his claws.

"Magic really is emotion," a voice calls out.

The group looks over and sees Crystal and Harry walking towards them. Harry is quite shocked by the scene considering Ben is a furry monster and Jane is now miniaturized, but Crystal is not phased in the least. This was a normal Tuesday for him.

"Are you guys okay?" she asks.

"N-No," Evie whimpers.

"Something happened," Mal explains. "Evie lost control of her magic and then suddenly… we were all like this. I woke up in my dragon form and Ben and Jane are like this."

"It was like a sonic boom or something," Doug explains.

"I know, we felt it," Crystal says.

At the time, she and Harry were walking back towards town when they felt the impact of this energy. They were nearly knocked off their feet. The daughter of Rumpelstiltskin was shocked, not by the power but by the familiarity of it all. When her light and dark magic collided, she created a similar kind of blast. Taking Harry's hand, she used her vision to track the source.

"You…you did?" Jane says.

"Aye, right and powerful it was," Harry nods.

"Extremely," another voice says.

Everyone turns to see Emma, Killian, David, Snow, Rumple and Regina walking towards them from the direction of town. Regina sees Evie in such pain that she rushes over to help Doug. Emma and Killian go over and approach Harry. Despite their misgivings about being the kid's parents, they knew they needed to stick by him. Killian puts his hand on the boy's shoulder to check on him. Snow and David go to check on Jay and help Jane come closer to the group and not be carried away by the wind.

"And is certainly not something that should be ignored any longer," the Dark One continues, grinning from ear to ear.

"Is everyone all right?" Snow asks.

"I think so," Doug says. "For the most part."

"Evie are you okay?" Regina asks.

The blue-haired teen just shakes her head and buries herself into Doug's arms.

"What happened?" Emma asks.

"I…I lost control again," Evie admits. "I blasted everyone and now… now look what happened."

"Eves it's okay," Jay says.

"Aye," Killian agrees. "You're not the first one to lose control lass and you certainly won't be the last."

Regina and Doug help get Evie to her feet as she's still overcome with emotion.

"But how do we turn Ben and Jane back?" Mal asks.

"Yes, I do not wish to be in this form any longer," the king says. "It's too dangerous."

Rumple goes over to Ben and with a flick of his wrist, he is engulfed in a puff of gray smoke. When it dissipates, Ben is back to his human self, only with a beard now growing on his face. Mal goes over and embraces him. She kisses his lips, relieved that he was okay and he smiles.

The Dark One then waves his hand and Jane becomes normal again too, wings and light now gone. The fairy daughter struggles to steady herself on her feet again. Snow puts her hand on the girl's shoulder to ensure she's okay and support her.

Mal then turns to Rumpelstiltskin. "What do you mean that it shouldn't be ignored?"

"All of your magic. It appears you and Benjamin's true love's kiss awakened everyone's magical potential, including those who did not previously have such abilities."

"Or they did have it, and just didn't know it," Crystal adds, coming to the same page of realization as her father.

"But I've always known I had magic," Jane says. "I am the daughter of a fairy after all."

"But Jay and Ben are something else," Doug mentions.

"Well, Jafar did have magic," Killian says. He recalls when he and Emma had been separated and he had joined up with Jasmine, Aladdin, and Ariel to find Agrabah. Apparently, the sorcerer had managed to trap the kingdom in a ring of all things and required the princess of the said kingdom to use the menace's magic against him.

"And if your dad was once a beast," Mal says, gazing at Ben.

"It's probably in his blood," Emma says.

"Precisely," the Dark One grins. "And it is due to this undiscovered magic that I suggest we begin training immediately to avoid any further surprises."

"Training for what?" Ben asks.

"Training for magic."

A/N: I have been waiting for this for a while. It's time to start training. There is so much potential for magic here and a few more people are going to be joining. Sorry that it's been so long, but thanks to everyone who continues to review and support the story.