Chapter 87: Training Day
"So…who wants to go first?" Regina asks.
No one from Auradon or the Isle raises their hand, the anxiety of working with magic, something that is usually forbidden or nonexistent in their world, makes them extremely skeptical about this training.
Eventually, Mal steps forward. Out of the group, she was the only one who understood her powers and had a decent amount of control. Maleficent stands off to the side, beaming in pride at her alternate daughter's confidence.
"Okay then… Mal, I need you to concentrate… focus your energy and hit me with whatever power you can manage."
The teen looks at the Queen like she's crazy.
"What?"
"I want you to use your magic and take your best shot."
Mal wants to continue arguing, but she trusts that these guys know what they're doing. She shrugs and gets into a strong battle stance.
Closing her eyes, Mal focuses on the energy… the magic that flows through her veins. She inhales slowly and then pushes her right hand forward.
In a flash, a ball of green energy leaves her hand. It's not very big, but it works as it becomes the desired projectile hurtling towards the Evil Queen.
Regina uses her hand without flinching, deflects the blast, and sends it off into the air, where Emma uses her own magic to disintegrate it.
"Excellent shot," Regina praises her and Mal smiles. "Do it again."
The excitement grows inside of Mal. It feels absolutely amazing to be able to actually practice using magic. Her body seems to fill with new momentum, and she's energized and motivated. She uses her left hand this time, striking a more dramatic pose when launching her attack.
Another ball of green energy, much bigger than the first comes flying towards Regina and again she deflects it with ease. She can feel the sheer power of this girl's magic, extremely strong, which means she needed to maintain control as much as possible.
"One more time," Regina says.
Mal does a full turn, her long purple hair twirling with her. She's trying to exaggerate her movements to appear even more impressive and this time uses both hands to let out a blast.
This time, Regina uses both hands to block the attack and it's so powerful, that she's actually forced to take a few steps back to accommodate the blast and prevent herself from being hit. This girl was certainly someone to be reckoned with. The kind of magic user that Rumpelstiltskin searched for. The Queen didn't doubt that the Dark One would want to take time to train this girl.
"Excellent Mal," she says, once the magic had dissipated. "You are a natural."
The dragon girl grinned from ear to ear, and out of the corner of her eyes, gazed at Ben. He looked at her with an expression that could only be described as shocked, amazed, and impressed. This is who she was; a powerful future queen and ally to Auradon. This is who she should be allowed to be and not suppress what she's been born with or be judged for who she used to be.
"Thank you," she says with pride. She wishes that Uma was watching because it would show that snobby pirate who truly was the boss.
Jay, who had been watching Mal the whole time, becomes pumped and excited. When she steps back, he steps forward, ready to take these powers for a test drive.
Regina stands ready. "All right Jay, show us what you can do."
Jay uses both hands and lets out a blast of fire towards Regina. However, it's not controlled in a fixated beam and flames spew out in different directions, not just at the target. Audrey screams and Chad dives for cover behind a tree. Fortunately, Emma uses her magic to shield the bystanders, while Crystal extinguishes the rogue flames to prevent a forest fire.
Jay steps back, shocked by what happened. He looks at his friends and then at his hands.
"Rule Number four when using magic…" Rumpelstiltskin says. "Do NOT get over-confident." The imp was not particularly pleased that the son of Jafar became overexcited and cocky, putting his wife in harm's way.
"I'm sorry," Jay says, looking at his friends. Dizzy and Carlos are particularly shell-shocked, while Chad and Audrey are fighting over the tree to hide behind. "I'm so sorry."
Crystal approaches Jay and puts her hand on his shoulder to reassure him. "It's okay to be excited about having magic… it's a cool thing to have, but you have to be in control. Like we said before, magic is emotion and if you're bouncing off the walls and wanting to show off, your magic is going to do the same thing, making it uncontrollable."
"I'm sorry," Jay says again, he practically hangs his head like a child who's been scolded.
"We'll work with you later," Regina informs Jay. "Now, who's next."
Tallia steps forward. She looks at the rinky-dink "training wand" that Mother Superior had gifted both her and Jane. She had been told that fairy magic was different from regular magic in a couple of ways… that fairy dust actually came from crystals found in the mines under the town, which helped power the wands and...then she lost interest and tuned out the rest of the "lesson." Training wands had very little fairy dust in them, but in the end, wands were merely a vessel that connected to a fairy's own magic. Tallia decides to focus as best she can and not pull a "Jay." She gives the wand a wave, pointing it towards Regina, but nothing happens.
"What the…" Tallia said. She shakes the wand a few times, but all that comes out are a few sparkly stars. "This thing is busted. Why did you have to give us training wands?"
"Because you two are far from being able to earn and use your own wands," Blue explains sternly.
The head fairy had had her patience stretched thin with the daughter of Tinkerbell/Green. A real chip off the old block and just as troublesome. The girl was rebellious to her core and only wanted to cause trouble for all the fairies in the convent. She refused to follow rules and enjoyed working with Freddie Facilier to create chaos with their newly discovered magic. The whole reason that Blue had not contacted Green yet to come to Storybrooke was that she didn't want to deal with two Tinkerbells. Perhaps she should do so as soon as possible.
"How am I supposed to reach my full potential and ride to success if you keep the training wheels on?" Tallia retorts.
Just then, the end of the wand begins to glow with gold magic mixed with green.
"Nothing like a little emotion to get you started," Crystal says to herself.
"Sweet!" Tallia says. She then points the wand at Regina and a beam of magic heads toward the woman. Again, the mayor deflects it. It wasn't very strong, but she did not expect much from fairies as their magic was mainly used to help others and to protect, never to attack (unless provoked). Their magic was not offensive, and this weakness was likely one of the reasons why the Dark One hated them so much.
"That was awesome!" Tallia says. "Let's do it again!"
She waves the wand and sends another, not very strong blast.
"Hell yes!"
Blue gives disapproving looks the entire time and she worries that this girl is going to take someone's eye out with the wand or misuse the fairy dust. Thank goodness she was not part of their fairy realm because she would've been banished and lost her wings on the first day. Like mother, like daughter.
"Okay, time to chill out Tallia," Freddie says, bringing the AK back to reality. Even the villain kid knew that the fairy-in-training was becoming a little overzealous.
"Fine," Tallia says, before handing the training wand to Jane. The cheap godmothers wouldn't even give each of them a wand. "Your turn Jane."
Jane steps forward with her heart in her throat. She is not as excited about this as she was before. After seeing what Jay did and how hard it was for Tallia, she's not sure if she has the confidence to do this. Panic is slowly rising inside herself. Mother Superior had told her that the wand was an extension of herself, and a true fairy does good for others. What if she hurt someone? What if she wasn't really meant to be a fairy? What would her mother think if she saw her daughter actually using magic? What would her friends think? All eyes are on her as she tries to focus on creating magic. Her hand begins to shake as she takes a few practice waves. Nothing comes out the end of the wand.
It's dead quiet and the silence is making it worse. Jane can see everyone watching her with anticipation. They're expecting her to do something, but she can't. She waves the wand a few more times, even twirling it as a ribbon dancer would, but nothing happens.
Rumple chuckles to himself and Belle elbows him to stop. She glares at him. His amusement mixed with disdain for fairies will make the girl feel worse and likely shatter her self-esteem. The beauty then gets an idea that she's going to share with Regina and the others after.
Jane is battling tears and her face is red in embarrassment. Carlos wants nothing more than to run to her and help her, but then he'd be in the line of fire.
Fortunately, Freddie steps forward asking if she can try. Jane lets out a sigh of relief and steps back. As Freddie tries out her magic, the daughter of Fairy Godmother is slinking behind the trees to hide her mortified face.
The daughter of Dr. Facilier has decent success, her voodoo magic is very dark and comes out as green energy much like Mal's, but with hints of black dust mixed in. Regina becomes concerned that this girl's magic is dark… extremely dark to the point of coming from death itself. It should be no surprise, but this girl has to be careful with her magic. This is someone Rumple might have to work with to control dark power of this magnitude.
Jordan goes next, but like Fairy Magic, hers was more wish-based and not used for offensive tasks and ended up only making poofs of purple, sparkly magic.
…
Evie is lost in her own head, trying to control her breathing and keep herself from crying. Tears are prickling her eyes and she fights to stay calm. Each time one of her friends steps forward to try out their magic, she becomes more anxious. From Mal to Jay, to Freddie and Jane, each attempt causes the knot of terror in her stomach to become tighter and tighter. It feels as though she's swallowed an anchor and it's weighing her down, sinking her further into apprehension and dread. Her fists are clenched so tightly that they ache painfully, and her arms have become stiff with the restriction. She doesn't want to see her hands glowing and tries to look at anything else.
Her fear in anticipation of her turn makes everything worse. She wants to be in control like Mal, but she also doesn't want to hurt anyone like Jay almost did. She gazes over at Doug who is watching the who thing with interest. He smiles at her and gives her a thumbs up to show that he supports her. She forces herself to smile, masking the true feelings. When she turns back, her lip curls up and she bites it. Her mind imagines what he's thinking… would he still date her even with this magic? What if she accidentally hurts him or he becomes afraid of her magic? How does Ben cope with Mal's powers? Is Doug like Ben? Will he accept her this way?
Dread becomes panic when Jordan finishes her "target practice" and it's Evie's turn. Air catches in her throat and her heart stops. Her aching fists are burning with heat and sweat. She knows her magic is waiting to be unleashed; building, and building like a snowball, but what happens if it becomes too big?
All eyes fall on her, forcing Evie to try and come out of her own thoughts. She swallows and takes a breath. She takes a cautious step forward, wishing that she'd just disappear into the ground. She's not ready for this… it's too much.
Regina looks at her with deep concern, her brow creeping together looking at the child's face and her own mind fills with flashbacks. It's like looking in a mirror from when the Queen started learning magic; a scared little girl, not knowing what she was capable of and afraid of what could happen. She hadn't wanted anything that was thrust upon her back in the Enchanted Forest. First, pressured by her mother and then Rumpelstiltskin (when Cora was sent to Wonderland). She had lived her life the way others wanted her to… but when she had learned to use magic, it was something that she felt in control of… something that was hers to master and use. Of course, she had used that magic for truly evil things at the time, but now she'd changed and was happy.
She can tell that Evie is afraid of hurting people and she needs to tell the girl that it's normal and every magic user goes through that. From Emma to Crystal to Elsa… self-doubt and fear are part of the process, but it wreaks havoc on one's magic and emotional state.
"It's okay Evie," Regina offers, wishing for a more private setting to talk. "You're going to do okay. Just take your time."
Evie's lip quivers and she sheds a tear. She raises her hand, which is glowing an intense blue colour. It's so bright that it's almost blinding… her hands shake erratically and suddenly, in a flash of blue light, Evie disappears.
A/N: I am so sorry for such a long delay. Here is a brand new chapter.
Answers to reviews:
willdawg992003: Yes, I plan to have Uma get some lessons in magic, just by someone else... specifically her mother