Ben wasn't in the library, his bedroom, or his office. Unfortunately, like most castles, Belle and Adam's castle was enormous with dozens of ballrooms, dining rooms, bedrooms, bathrooms, towers, and a library along with who knows how many nooks and crannies. They could search for Ben for days and still not search every place in this castle.
Luckily, they were currently following two dogs, both with an amazing sense of smell.
"Ben!" Mal called as they followed Dude and Griffin around another corner. "Ben could be asleep anywhere." Mal stressed.
"Or turned to stone." Celia pointed out, to which Evie responded by placing her hand over the girl's mouth.
Griffin reached the far end of the hallway and barked, glancing back at them.
"We've got his scent, very pungent cologne. Easy to track." Dude translated. "Follow me, people." Griffin barked at him. "Us." Dude amended.
"That's great, Dude." Jay grinned while Pandora smiled at Griffin, who looked like he was having the time of his life. Like her, this whole adventure was also his first time out of Mount Olympus.
"FYI, I give great cuddles, too." Dude informed them.
"Really?" Gil asked, smiling as they started following the dogs down the hallway. "I never had a pet growing up. Well, except for the elk head in Dad's man cave, but that's-"
"Hold up." Uma cut him off, make everyone look at her where she'd been walking closest to the left wall of the hallway. There were long scratches going along the wall, as if left by large claws, before whatever it was slashed a painting in half, leaving the bottom of it on the floor. "What's this?" Uma asked, glancing back at the others.
Carlos stepped past her to get a closer look while Pandora's eyes followed the scratches, going past them down the hall for any other signs.
"Uh, any chance this was already here?" Carlos asked nervously, referring to the destroyed painting.
"Guys." Pandora called, moving past everyone and down the hallway toward the dogs. She stepped past Dude and Griffin, who looked up at her. She reached out and carefully lifted the royal blue curtain on the window, revealing the jagged rips in the fabric. She looked back at the others worriedly. They all stared at it for a moment.
"Aaannd follow me." Dude called, turning and heading down another hallway. Everyone followed the dogs, now more determined than ever to find Ben soon. Walking down the hallway, Mal decided to check the rooms they passed, which brought them to a sort of display room filled with suits of armor, shields, and swords, stained glass windows on the far wall, and a chandelier hanging from the ceiling.
Everyone spread out as they slowly entered the room, searching all the corners as if they expected Ben to be asleep tucked behind a suit of armor.
"So you can track, cuddle, and talk." Gil's voice carried across the room, making Pandora glance back toward the door from where she'd been studying a set of swords. Gil was petting Dude by the door of the room, Celia waiting in the doorway like Evie asked her to. "Hey, do you think his puppies would be able to talk, too?" he asked, looking over at Carlos.
"Alright man," Carlos chuckled, patting Gil's shoulder, "he's taken. You want a dog, adopt a rescue."
"Seconded!" Pandora called, lifting her hand slightly. "Griffin's a rescue dog." she explained when several curious glances landed on her. "He was days away from being put down when I adopted him. There's lots of animals out there that need a good home."
Carlos grinned as he walked by her, holding out a fist. Returning the grin, Pandora reached out and bumped her fist to his as they all wandered across the room toward the far wall. Everyone but Evie moved around the circular platform in the center of the room, Evie stepped up onto it and then hopped off it at the other end. Meanwhile, Mal and Uma were busting each other's chops, their voices echoing in the vaulted room.
"I wonder what fried octopus tastes like." Mal wondered jokingly, making a couple people laugh.
"Okay, why don't we not do this?" Evie tried.
"We're celebrating our differences." Uma mocked.
"I believe we're being challenged." Harry announced, but Uma just talked over him.
"Let's split up and look for Audrey."
Pandora, Carlos, Gil, and Jay, however, had followed Harry's gaze to stare at the suit of armor standing in front of them.
"That's makes absolutely no sense." Mal argued with Uma. "Unless you give me my ember she's going to spell you."
The suit of armor jerked, a puff of pink smoke briefly appearing from it's mouth as it faced them.
"Girls!" Harry snapped, finally getting Mal and Uma's attention. "We have a situation here."
Everyone turned and looked up at the suit of armor, which moved as a girl's voice echoed seemingly from nowhere.
"You like a prince, Mal?" the voice asked as they all slowly started backing away from the armor. "How about a knight in shining armor? Or knights?"
The suit spun his sword upright in a fighting stance. Pandora's head snapped around and she noticed that all the suits of armor were coming to life, getting their swords ready to fight.
Everyone turned and ran back toward the door, trying to get ahead of the armor. Unfortunately, two of them blocked the exit, crossing their swords in front of the doorway.
"Gil!" Uma snapped, stepping up onto the center platform, "Swords!"
Gil ran toward the wall, grabbing a pair of swords off one of the displays and passing one to Uma. Jay ran to the opposite wall, grabbing a pair of swords and passing one up to Mal, who had joined Uma on the platform.
Carlos grabbed a couple swords, passing one to Pandora, who was standing with Evie and watching the pair of knights blocking their escape. Celia, holding Dude, and Griffin were standing nervously on the opposite side of the doorway.
All the suits stepped closer, closing in on them, causing everyone to back up a step until they were in a circle around the platform.
"Uma, you take the left." Mal ordered. "Everyone else-"
"Nuh uh." Uma cut her off angrily. "You're not ordering my crew around."
"Well, this is my turf, so-"
"Oh my gosh." Evie spun around, stepping up onto the platform to get between the other two girls, and Pandora was thankful for it. They didn't have time for fighting among themselves right now. "Put your differences aside for one minute, we have bigger problems right now." Evie reminded them sternly.
Mal and Uma exchanged a grudging glance before jumping down from the platform to face the suits with the others.
Pandora swallowed nervously, glancing down at where her hands held the sword hilt. Her palms were starting to sweat within the black leather gloves. She knew some basic sword fighting skills, thanks to Herkie and her friend Aaron. You can't be friends with the Captain of the Olympians ROAR team without picking up a few things. But she doubted she had the skills to take on these enchanted suits of armor.
She didn't have much time to worry about it, though, as the suits lunged at them. A sword came down at Pandora's head, and she instinctively brought her sword up, blocking the swing with a loud clang that was drowned out as the others met similar attacks. The suit swung it's sword again, and Pandora continued bringing her own sword up to block each attack. It then brought it's sword down against Pandora's, pressing down and forcing her back. She released her sword with one hand so she could reach back and plant her palm on the platform for extra support. Her arm shook for a moment before she put all her strength into pushing back, forcing the suit back enough for her to duck to the side.
Unfortunately, there wasn't quite enough room for them to try and get past the suits yet. They all moved to their rights a few steps, slowly circling the platform to face against the next suit in the circle.
Mal and Uma cut to the sides, using their swords to force their ways out of the circle to take on some of the suits that were watching across the room.
The suits of armor outnumbered them at least two to one. Pandora and Evie moved back-to-back to fight a few of them. Pandora saw the suit she was fighting stumble slightly, so she brought her leg up to kick it in the chest, making it crash backwards into the wall.
Jay pulled Pandora up onto the platform with him and Gil. They used the height advantage to take swings at the suits' heads. Pandora even bashed her sword hilt into one of their helmets, though she wasn't sure if it did any damage since it was probably just an empty helmet.
Jay rolled off one of the suit's back, ending up behind it so he could knock it's legs out from under it.
The side doors burst open, letting three more suits into the room. Gil leapt off the platform to help Carlos and Jay take them on, while Evie joined Pandora up on the platform where they could both attack the suits from above.
Carlos' sword got knocked out of his hand, sliding across the room to hit the wall in the far corner. While Celia slid Carlos a shield, Pandora's eyes landed on a potted ivy plant near where Carlos' sword had ended up. A mildly crazy, slightly unlikely idea popped into Pandora's head. She swiped her sword out at one of the suits, making room to jump off the platform and race across the room. She reached the plant the same moment Carlos reached his sword after sliding across the room on the shield.
Pushing the pot slightly away from the wall, Pandora crouched behind it and pressed her palm down onto the soil.
"What are you doing?" Carlos asked, standing with a sword in one hand and a shield in the other.
"Trying something?" Pandora answered uncertainly, closing her eyes and trying to push her powers to work faster than she'd ever tried before. The warmth spread from her chest, down her arm, and into the soil beneath her palm. She wasn't sure if this would work, but she had to try. She pulled life forces from some of the ivy strands, pushing them into a few of the others.
Hesitantly opening her eyes, Pandora saw a few of the strands of ivy growing and stretching. Carlos was fighting off a couple of the suits, keeping them from getting to her. Pushing her powers harder, Pandora made the ivy grow and reach out, wrapping around the two suits. Carlos stopped, staring in surprise before glancing between Pandora and the suits, his grin growing. The suits pulled and fought, but the ivy tightened around them, pulling them to the ground and holding them down.
"That was awesome!" Carlos laughed, dropping the shield to offer his hand to Pandora, pulling her to her feet. At that same moment, Mal made lightning shoot down through the roof, zapping the rest of the suits and making them fall lifelessly into a pile.
Everyone cheered, the guys gathering around the pile as if to taunt the lifeless metal. Pandora grinned, but was feeling slightly drained after using so much of her energy, so she just headed back toward where the girls were gathered by the door. There, she saw Mal and Uma go to high-five, only to realize what they were doing. They then shook out their hands in disgust, causing Evie's face to fall in disappointment. The guys, who had been celebrating together, split up into their two different groups.
Pandora leaned against the doorway near Celia, watching as Mal, Jay, and Carlos moved to one side to congratulate each other while Uma, Harry, and Gil did the same on the opposite side.
"Guys, come on!" Evie urged, glancing between the two huddles. "This was so great! We were a team. We worked together."
Pandora glanced between the two groups, noting they mostly looked unimpressed by Evie's speech, though Gil and Harry almost seemed to exchange an uncomfortable glance.
"Come on." Evie tried, touching Mal's arm only to be brushed off. She tried the same thing with Uma to the same result.
Pandora glanced over at Celia, who met her gaze. She looked mildly amused and slightly uncomfortable. Pandora had to guess that Celia didn't like all the fighting between the two groups, but she couldn't be sure. Of course, the girl probably grew up with all these teenagers, so being caught in the middle was probably uncomfortable for her.
"You know what we should try?" Evie asked as if she had a sudden idea. "An ice breaker."
Jay, Mal, and Carlos all sighed, their eyes falling closed. Carlos hid his eyes behind his hand while Mal turned away. Pandora couldn't help smiling in amusement. This was clearly something Evie did that they were used to.
Evie turned to Uma and her crew to explain. "You say something you really like about the other person. Okay? I'll start." She paused, her eyes traveling over the three in front of her as if choosing who to start with. Gil looked a little confused, Uma looked mildly freaked out and annoyed, and Harry looked like he was just desperately wishing not to be picked.
Maybe Evie sensed that, because she picked, "Harry."
His eyes fell shut in defeat.
"Great accent."
Pandora grinned slightly when Harry actually looked up at Evie as if he hadn't expected a real compliment.
"Now you go."
"Is she always this perky?" Uma interrupted, looking past Evie toward the others.
Pandora bit her lip to muffle her laughter.
"Oh, it wasn't really your turn, but thank you."
Mal finally took charge, reminding Evie that they were short on time and needed to get moving. Uma asked where Audrey lived or was staying, since they may find some clues there. It was decided that the guys would go look for Ben while the girls went to Audrey's dorm, as she was apparently in summer school, and they would meet back at Evie's in two hours.
"What are you doing?" Jay asked, amused. Pandora, who had been leaning against the doorway while they talked, had slowly slid down and was now sitting on the floor.
Pandora grinned up at him. "I think I went a little too crazy with my powers earlier. I am a little tired." she admitted lightly.
Jay offered her his hand while everyone filed past them into the hallway. While he pulled her up to her feet, he suggested, "Hey, Mal, why doesn't Pandora come with us to look for Ben? It's a long walk back to the dorms, and we are kind of using her dog to help track down Ben."
"I don't need special treatment." Pandora argued, but her voice gave away that she was at least a bit tired.
"No, Jay's got a point." Mal agreed as they headed down the hallway. "We're just checking Audrey's dorm and the campus, we won't need too many people. You should go with the guys."
Pandora agreed and the two groups soon split up, one heading toward Auradon Prep while the other followed the dogs toward the woods behind the castle.
AN: I hope everyone liked my adaptation of the Night Falls scene without music. Review and let me know what you all thought! And Happy Fourth of July to those that celebrate it!