Sofia Whitman

To say this was the oddest experience I'd ever had would be an understatement. Yet with everything that has happened in the past few days, I had no doubt that it would only get weirder.

It didn't take long to arrive at the castle from Beauty and the Beast. Prince Charming left his horse outside, chewing on some grass, as he escorted us inside.

The place was huge, as it normally functioned as the restaurant Be Our Guest. We quickly spotted the boys, talking with Belle and Adam themselves. They weren't dressed exactly like their cartoon personas, unlike Charming, but instead were in more modern styles of what they originally wore.

"Sof, Emma!" Lucas greeted with a relieved hug.

"What happened to you?"

"We got totally ambushed as we came over."

"We didn't get 'ambushed'-" Eli cut in.

"What would you call it then?"

There was a brief pause. "A momentary distraction…"

"Ok, well," I said, wanting to laugh, "We also had a momentary distraction."

"You okay, Em?" Eli said, now distracted.

Lucas and I both turned. When a moment ago she was standing right behind us, Emma was now staring off through a window, about 20 feet away. She was still ghostly pale, and when Eli called to her, she blinked away the glassy look to her eyes.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She said, quietly.

"Don't worry about Lady Tremaine," Prince Charming's voice echoed around the room, "She holds no power anymore."

Both Lucas and Eli raised their eyebrows at the mention of the villain. They began telling of how they were also cornered, but by Gaston. Alex was otherwise occupied by the expanse of the vast ballroom. His attention span is particularly horrible. That was, until Eli mentioned how Gaston was only interested in Lucas, and giving up his so-called 'magic'.

"Lady Tremaine said the same thing to Sofia and I!" Emma said, also joining the conversation.

"Okay, so what do you all have in common?" Alex questioned in his socratic mode.

"Uh-" I fished around in my brain, "We're cousins..."

Lucas' eyes widened at the revelation. A new wave of confusion came over me. If our powers had something to do with genetics, then someone else in our family had to have them, too. Lucas and I had always assumed they were a one-off twin thing, but if the Overtakers assumed the three of us could have powers, this might be a whole different scenario.

"So, this is about our parents." Emma concluded.

"Who are your parents?" Prince Adam cut it.

The three of them had been listening quietly to the stories for the past few minutes, after Charming had finished telling them of Lady Tremaine. None of us had noticed them really, a fact we now all become regrettably aware of.

"Um…" Lucas started to say, clearly thinking hard of how to explain.

Luckily, he didn't have to. At that moment, Cogsworth and Lumiere, the clock and candelabra cartoon characters come to life, entered.

"The Keepers are here to speak with you, my lord." Cogsworth said.

Panic rose in my chest. I could see it also affected the rest of my friends, who couldn't keep the shock off of their faces.

"We really must be going," Lucas finished swiftly.

"Oh? But you just got here?"

"Yes, well, we have school in the morning, and it's getting rather late." Lucas fumbled for excuses.

"Of course," Belle cut in, clearly empathetic to the prospect of schoolwork, "But maybe the Keepers could help you. They are also children of light. Well… not so much anymore."

"That's okay. Do you happen to have a back exit? We don't really want to meet any other unfriendly people tonight."

"Yes, yes, of course. Lumiere! Will you show them the cast member exit, please."

The candelabra showed us to the door. We followed behind as quickly as we could, and as soon as the door shut we all put our ears to the surface to listen in. It was perfect timing. Our parents' voices echoed to us almost instantly. My dad seemed to already be deep in discussion with Prince Adam.

"So no sign of him at all?"

"I wish we could give you better news, Finn. But if anything, it seems they are getting more active."

"Like, back at official Overtaker power?"

A brief pause ensued, in which I assumed Prince Adam had visually confirmed.

"What kind of activity, exactly?" Aunt Willa asked.

"Well, just tonight Charming and I stepped in to grab some new kids from Gaston and Lady Tremaine."

"I'm sorry… new kids?"

I inwardly groaned. I could feel Alex and Emma next to me start to panic. We hadn't told them who we were, nor did we ask them to keep us a secret.

"You don't know them? They were like you."

"Holograms, you mean?" Uncle Dell's voice sounded concerned.

I was the first out of the stupor. Alex helped me get everyone else's attention, and then we took off. We needed to get home, or at least out of sight, before our parents saw us. Or else we would be grounded for life.

Lucas and Eli took the lead, with Emma, Alex, and I trailing only marginally behind. We had made it all of the way around to the It's a Small World ride, near the entrance to Liberty Square before I slammed into Lucas' back.

"Lucas?"

But Alex and Eli had also stopped. I pushed in front of him, with Lucas grabbing my arm in warning.

"Well, well. Look who decided to show up." An icy voice said.

Finn Whitman

"That's impossible."

The only word I could think of to describe what I felt when Belle mentioned my kids' names was: horrified.

I didn't dare look directly at Amanda, who was standing next to me. I couldn't understand how they had done it, yet I knew immediately it was true. Vaguely, I recalled the argument I had with my wife last night, when I defended them for keeping secrets. Never argue with your wife, she is always right.

I saw Charlene and Amanda exchange 'I knew it' looks. Philby looked like a computer buffering, as if trying to understand how it was possible. Maybeck was angrier than I had seen him in a long time. Despite both Maybeck and Charlene being the ones to support our own crossovers, the mention of Eli doing the same was clearly out of the question.

"How can they even do that?" Jess asked, directing the question towards Willa and Philby.

"I have no idea," Philby said, his English accent coming out full force.

"It's not like they modeled for it…" Willa added, "But they must have to even be here."

"So you do know them?" Belle asked, seemingly put off by our behavior.

"Oh yes,"

"And they are so grounded for this," Maybeck sputtered, heading towards the door.

"Where do you think you're going?" His wife asked him, incredulously.

"To go find them." He explained, "Didn't you just say you had to save them from OTs."

Everyone realized what he meant simultaneously. There was a mass movement towards the exit, and I only hesitated briefly to inform the royalty that we knew the kids because they belonged to us. I didn't have time to see their full reactions before I, too, headed out. On the way, I picked up a sheathed sword from the front of the castle. I hoped I wouldn't have to use it.

We split up, half of us heading towards Tomorrowland and the other half heading towards Adventure. Each of us knew this park inside and out, and it dawned on me that our kids didn't have the same knowledge.

All of their lives we had adamantly kept them away from the parks, and they had still managed to get entwined in the mess that took up the majority of our own lives.

"How do you think they did it?" I asked/shouted to Philby as he, Amanda, Charlene, and I ran towards Adventureland.

"I have a theory, but it's pretty impractical."

"Spill!"

"They snuck onto the soundstage and did it themselves!"

"Can they do that?" Charlene asked.

"I don't like the other option!"

"Which is?"

Philby only shot me a look, causing my heart to drop to my stomach. I really hoped he was right.