"Merida, lower your bow," Rapunzel said calmly. "We can still talk this out."
"What's there to talk about? There have their hearts set on killin Ariel and we're not lettin that happen."
"We don't want a fight," Rapunzel insisted.
Eugene tilted his head to the side. "We don't?" he asked confused.
"EUGENE!" Rapunzel growled through gritted teeth.
"I mean we don't! Of course we don't," Eugene said nervously.
Cinderella said, "We don't know what's in this world. There could be any number of explanations for the mix up. Maybe this world has . . . I don't know, floating jellyfish that make you delusional or witch doctors that change your memory."
Raya whispered to Namaari, "These people are crazy, but they actually sound like they're not the bad guys."
Merida said to the rest of her group, "Fair enough, but we've still got ta keep them away from Ariel."
"So, how about we don't kill them; we just knock them out and lock them up?" Eugene suggested.
"I'm comfy we that," Merida agreed.
"Hey, don't we get a say in this?" Raya asked more as quip that a serious suggestion.
"NO!" shouted all five of the strange visitors.
"Yeah, I figured." Raya turned to Namaari and told her, "Don't kill any of them either, okay?"
Namaari sighed. "Fine."
Raya pointed her sword at Eugene and shot the blade into segments connected by rope inside. The tip of the blade was headed straight for Eugene's shoulder; a deliberately nonfatal attack. Eugene's reflexes were just barely fast enough to deflect the flying segments with his own sword. Raya retracted the segments, pulling them back into a singular blade.
Namaari ran at Phillip and clashed both her swords against his shield. She kicked the back of his leg, bringing him down to one knee. Namaari raised her hilt, preparing to strike it against his head, but Merida shot an arrow that knocked her sword back. Namaari still held onto both swords, but she was prevented from hitting Phillip. Merida switched to her sword and grouped up with Phillip.
Raya repeatedly clashed her blade against Eugene's blade and Rapunzel's . . . . frying pan. "Is it common for people to fight with frying pans where you're from?" Raya questioned.
"No, that's just me," Rapunzel admitted.
Raya could keep up with them at first, but then a series a hammers came flying at her; sent by Cinderella no doubt. Raya deflected the first two but the third struck her in the chest.
"Hang on," Namaari requested of Phillip and Merida. "You two aren't supposed to kill me, right?" Namaari stuck both her swords in the dirt and held up her fists, propositioning them to do the same.
"I'm comfy with that," Merida said, removing her weapons, prompting Phillip put down his.
When Merida and Phillip came at Namaari, they expected it to be easy. They were wrong.
Namaari ducked under Phillip's fist, moving passed him to punch Merida and then send a backward kick to Phillip.
Merida tried to hit her back, but the next thing she knew, Namaari was hitting her twice more. When Phillip ran to join them, Namaari grabbed Merida by the arm and threw her at him. Instead of falling into the collision Namaari was hoping for, Phillip picked Merida up and she kicked Namaari with both legs, knocking her onto her back.
"Does everyone fight in a skirt where you come from?" Namaari asked, getting back up.
"If ya count kilts, then yes, actually," Merida answered.
Rapunzel tried to wrap Raya up in her hair from a distance, but Raya kept whipping Rapunzel's hair back with her segmented blade. Likewise, Raya tried to slash at Rapunzel from a distance, but Rapunzel had wrapped some of her hair around her arms to act as shields. Rapunzel's hair was durable, but it wasn't as powerful as it once was. A few years ago, Raya's blades would have shattered against it.
Eugene docked under the slash of the segmented blade and came at Raya. To defend herself at close range, Raya reconstituted her blade into one piece and guarded against Eugene's attack. Cinderella used her magic to guide Rapunzel's hair through the air to wrap around Raya's leg. Rapunzel gave her a good pull and as soon as Raya hit the ground, Eugene put his foot down on her right arm and pointed his blade at her neck.
Merida and Phillip attack Namaari relentlessly, backing her into a tree. When she tried to hit Merida, she blocked and Phillip hit Namaari. When she tried to hit Phillip, he blocked and Merida hit Namaari. Eventually they caught her in a series of one sided strikes, ending with them both hitting Namaari in the gut at the same time. Namaari slid down the tree and sat in the dirt, clutching her gut. It was over.
They put Raya and Namaari next to each other and Cinderella cast a spell on a tree that divided it into smaller metal bars around them. The leaves and branches blended together, shifting into a metal roof.
"You can come out when you stop being useless," Eugene told them.
Rapunzel asked Cinderella, "We will come back later to let them out, right?"
"No need. The spell will break at midnight."
"Midnight?!" Raya cried.
"Aye, midnight. That's whatcha get for tryin to kill our friend," Merida said.
"You talk like you're so tough. I'd like to see you fight us two against two," Namaari taunted.
"And I'd like to see an arrow in your head when I don't have to do things the nice way!" Merida shot back angrily.
Merida and Namaari stared at each other with deadly looks on their faces.
"Merida," Phillip said charmingly as she kept fuming. "Look at me." Phillip grabbed her chin and pointed her face toward his own. "You don't have to be angry anymore."
As she looked into Phillip's blue eye, Merida felt all the anger drain from her body. "Thanks. I needed that," Merida said calmly.
Raya whispered to Namaari, "As much as I hate them, I got to admit, that was pretty cute."
"It was," Namaari growled, her anger only increasing.
Raya told the strange visitors, "Look, we get why you're mad at us, but we need to warn Heart that there's trouble coming."
"'Heart.' That's the place we just came from, isn't it?" Phillip asked.
"I'll send over a letter with a spell," Cinderella said before changing a few fallen leaves into a piece of paper with writing appearing on it. "I'll tell them that 'Raya and Namaari' say they're in danger. They can decide for themselves if that means anything to them." With a flick of her wand, the letter flew away, leaving a trail of fading, magic dust behind it.
"Well, it's anyone's guess if they actually believe that letter," Raya said bitterly.
Eugene added, "It's also anyone's guess if they'll understand the foreign writing, but we'll be handling the danger, so what does it matter? Come on, everybody, we have a queen to find."
"Hah! Have fun!" Raya said mischievously.
"We will have fun, thank you very much," Eugene said spitefully.
Namaari said, "They're in for a surprise."
Raya whispered, "Hopefully, they'll realize Ariel is nuts and take her down for us."
As the strange visitors left, Raya inspected the bars. They were tightly positioned, made of steel, and had no door whatsoever. It wasn't designed to open, just to keep them there until the magic wore off. "Well, I guess you and I are just going to take a load off until midnight. Or until we 'stop being useless,' whatever that means."
Raya sat on the floor, leaning against the bars. In time, Namaari sat beside her. "If we're being honest," Raya said, "we really could have tried harder to talk things out with them."
Namaari sighed. "I guess we could have."
"I wasn't thinking clearly because of all the . . . well, you know," Raya confessed.
"We've got nothing but time, if you want to talk about it," Namaari offered. "Talk about it without the yelling, I mean," she added.
Author's Note: I realized that the part where Rapunzel growls, "EUGENE!" through gritted teeth, might come across as out of character if you've only see Tangled the movie. But fans of Tangled the series know that that was exactly right.
I hope the fight wasn't too short for you. At first, I was worried about that, but then I realized that it might be longer than either of the fights between Raya and Namaari from the movie once you edit out shots of other stuff happening.
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