Better Together

Chapter One: Two Worlds Come To Meet

"Well, guess we're not quite home yet," said Emily, her Estuary English accent floating across to the group, as she looked up at the familiar statue, with Bella the Pikachu on her shoulder, smoothing down a non-existent crease in the pink dress she was wearing, with a smile. Next to her was her girlfriend, Rose, who had Mel the Eevee, who was bouncing in the arms of her trainer causing the pink sports cap she was wearing to almost fall off while the zip of the matching top moved slightly. Sniffing the bottom of the statue were Cerberus the Houndoom, the tag of his collar moving as he did with the strange stone embedded in it, and Lupa the Mightyena.

"I suppose this is what we get for flying head first into an Ultra Portal," said Rose, taking her girlfriend's hand, with an amused smile and a similar accent. "But Auradon? This is… Well, it's interesting, to say the least."

"Tell me about it," said Emily, a grin creeping onto her face. "I wonder if we'll get to meet Rap…" She trailed off when both Cerberus and Lupa started growling. Turning to look at them, she saw they were both growling at a woman walking down the steps leading up to the castle. A familiar middle aged woman in a blue dress. The Fairy Godmother. Emily had to suppress her grin as Fairy Godmother tentatively made her way over to them while Rose got Cerberus and Lupa to stop growling.

"Are you Emily and Rose Gupta?" asked Fairy Godmother, eyeing the two canine Pokemon with trepidation, before looking at Emily and Rose.

"That's us, yes," said Rose, nodding. "You don't need to worry about Cerberus and Lupa, they won't hurt you."

"You were expecting us?" asked Emily, changing the subject when she saw that Fairy Godmother wasn't very convinced by her girlfriend.

"Of course," said Fairy Godmother, looking at Emily. "Your mother mentioned you'd be arriving today. Though I'm as surprised as she was that you've chosen to come here, since Olympus has its own Academy. And Albion recently gained a second one."

"Well, you know what they say, to have an adventure you first must leave home," said Emily, a twinkle in her eyes as she smiled. "Though admittedly, Rose and I have had enough adventure for a few lifetimes. I think it's time to put down roots."

"Oh, like we'll ever settle down," said Rose, shaking her head as she gently pushed Emily with a smile. "We both love that adventure."

Fairy Godmother seemed confused as she watched the two interact, while still eyeing Cerberus and Lupa, who had returned to sniffing around the statue. She took a deep breath before looking at the girls. "Well, now, if you'll…"

"Why don't I take it from here, Fairy Godmother?" came a male voice, from behind them. Emily and Rose turned to see a boy about their age in a blue suit walking up to them. "Hi, I'm Ben." He extended his hand, which Emily shook.

"Emily," said Emily, with a smile. Before motioning to the retreating Fairy Godmother. "Is that really The Fairy Godmother? As in the whole Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo thing?" She motioned with one of her hands as if she had a wand.

"Yes it was," said Ben, amused. "But she doesn't use magic much anymore. None of us really do."

"Interesting," said Rose, smiling as she stepped forward. "Hi, I'm Rose. This one's girlfriend."

As she finished saying that, Bella, who had been patiently sat on Emily's shoulder for the past five minutes, decided she had had enough of being ignored and pulled on Emily's ear. "Ow!" said Emily, shooting the Pikachu a stern look. "We do not pull on people's ears, Bella. I hadn't forgotten about you." Bella didn't look remotely guilty making Emily roll her eyes before turning to Ben. "Ben, this is Bella. She's kinda like my daughter at this point." Cerberus began rubbing his head against her legs, making Emily sigh. "And this is Cerberus, he's harmless." Cerberus pawed Emily's legs with a growl. "Fine, mostly harmless." Cerberus began to pout as he walked off and settled next to Rose and Lupa.

Rose shook her head, as Mel jumped into her arms, letting out a mew. "Of course, Mel, I didn't forget you either," said Rose, with a smile. Before looking at Ben. "Ben, this is Mel. And the canine is Lupa."

"I hope it's alright for them to be here," said Emily, looking at Ben, with a small smile. "Fairy Godmother didn't seem to like them… Though they were growling at her so I can see why."

"It's fine, Emily," said Ben, with a smile of his own. "We have a few students with friends of their own. In fact, your neighbour in the dorms has a few friends of her own." He looked at both of them. "Shall we start this tour?"

Emily smiled as Rose took her hand, while Mel returned to Rose's shoulder, before they followed Ben towards the castle. With Cerberus and Lupa behind them.

Half an hour later, Ben had shown them around the entire campus, which wasn't as big as the two had expected. And now they were stood on the second floor of the dormitory building.

"Right, here we are," said Ben, smiling as they stood in front of a door marked '2-15'. Bella had relocated from Emily's shoulder, and was fast asleep in her arms, while Mel had taken to the back of Lupa. Ben continued to smile as he looked at Emily and Rose and held out two keys, each with the room number on. "I will leave you two to settle into your room, but before I go, do you have phones?"

Emily just smiled before reaching into her watermelon-motif shoulder bag and pulling out a mobile phone in a green case with a green arrowhead in a light green circle on the back. She tapped at it for a moment before smiling and saying "Just type in your number, it seems to be working. I'll transfer it to Rose's when we settle down."

Ben nodded as he took the phone from her and tapped at it. "This is a nice phone, did you get it from Albion?"

"Sort of," said Emily, with a small smile. "It's an iPhone, but you probably don't have those here."

"Ignore my partner," said Rose, shaking her head. "Thanks for the tour, we'll be sure to contact you if we have any questions."

"Anytime," said Ben, just as his phone went off. He gave the two an apologetic smile as he took it out of his suit pocket, before laughing as he looked at the screen. He shook his head before looking at the girls again. "Listen, I'm hosting a movie night tonight, like I do every Friday. You're welcome to join us, with your friends. I'll text you directions?"

"Sure," said Emily, with a smile. Before she looked at Rose. "That sounds like fun, doesn't it, Guppy?"

"Definitely," said Rose, smiling as well. "Back home, Em and I used to have a game night with our friends every Friday. That was fun."

Ben nodded before his phone went off again. He looked at it and laughed again. "I gotta go, my girlfriends just got back from town and they have a surprise for me. I'll see you tonight then, around six?"

"See ya tonight," said Emily, nodding as Rose turned to unlock the door to 2-15. They both watched Ben walk off before stepping into the room.

The dorm room was bigger than both of them had been expecting, complete with two double beds across the right side of the room. Emily walked over to the bed nearest the back of the room and tucked Bella in, placing a gentle kiss on her forehead before walking over to the table in the middle of room and placing her jacket and bag on the back of one of the chairs. She watched as Lupa and Cerberus immediately went towards the fireplace located between the two windows at the back of the room, between two, currently empty, desks, and curled up together, after Cerberus had lit the fire.

Emily chuckled, before looking at Rose, who had already taken a seat on the empty bed, with Mel in front of her and a control in her hand, and saying "This is nicer than I imagined."

"You're telling me," said Rose, as she turned on the TV, which hung on the left wall of the room, with an empty bookshelf on either side. A familiar show began playing, making Rose gasp as Emily grinned. "Is that So Random?"

"Looks like it," said Emily, entranced by the TV. "And look, this one has Sonny in."

"It could be a rerun," said Rose, looking at Emily, while stroking Mel. She scooted up the bed, allowing Emily to get on next to her.

They settled at the top of the bed, focusing on the TV, while Mel jumped into the middle of them.

"Right, we should probably do some research now," said Rose, as she grabbed the remote from the side table and turned the TV off, an hour later. Mel was curled up between the two, asleep. "Before we get sucked into more TV…"

"Yeah, you're right," said Emily, nodding as she got off the bed. She grabbed her bag and jacket from the chair and turned to Rose. "I'm gonna go see what the library has in about the history of this place." She reached into the bag and pulled out a laptop. "You wanna see what you can dig up online?"

"You mean hack, right?" asked Rose, with a smirk. As she gently got off the bed and walked over, taking the laptop from Emily. "Are we even sure there's anything to actually hack here? I should probably just do research online instead, until we know there's something I can attempt to hack."

"You don't mind keeping an eye on Bella?"

"She's our daughter, Em," said Rose, with a smile as she sat down at the table and opened the laptop. "Do you have the charger?"

Emily nodded and pulled a charger out of her bag, handing it to her girlfriend. "Text me if something comes up, gonna be in the library so I'll put the Spy-Pod on vibrate."

Rose nodded as she watched Emily walk out, before standing up and plugging in the charger.

Emily smiled to herself as she walked into the library. "Can I help you?" came a female voice, with a RP British accent, from the nearby counter. Emily turned to see a familiar blonde woman in a blue dress stood behind it, smiling at her. "I'm guessing you're either Emily or Rose? Since I haven't seen you around before."

"Emily," said Emily, with a smile. "I'm looking for a history book. Just something that tells me about this country. Even just a map will be fine for today, I'm here for a long time."

"I'm sure we have something for that," said the woman, smiling as she walked out from behind the counter. "I'm Alice, by the way. One of the librarians, well, the only one currently since it's summer."

"It's nice to meet you," said Emily, as she followed Alice further into the library. "I'm sure we're gonna be seeing each other a lot. I love doing physical research."

Soon enough, Alice had given her a stack of history books, one on each of the states, and Emily was sat at a table, looking at a map as well as a book on the history of Auradon Central. She was so engrossed in it that she didn't notice the woman with brown hair in a blue and white dress walking up to the table, till the woman coughed.

"Woah," said Emily, jumping slightly. Before gasping when she saw who it was that interrupted her. "Your Majesty… I'm sorry, I didn't see you there."

"You were engrossed in a book, I can respect that," said the woman, smiling at Emily. "And please, call me Belle. I'm not on duty at the moment."

"I don't think I can do that, ma'am," said Emily, with a small smile, as she looked at the queen. "It feels wrong… I was brought up to respect Royals. Sorry."

Belle nodded before saying "Do you mind if I take a seat?"

"Of course, ma'am," said Emily, sitting back down.

Belle smiled as she sat down across from Emily. "I see you're quite into history. Is there anything specific you want to know? Since it only happened twenty one years ago, I can probably answer any questions better than a book."

"Really?" asked Emily, smiling. "You'd do that, ma'am?" She immediately sat up straight, looking at Belle with apt attention. "What can you tell me about how this country formed? These books are fascinating, but they only start twenty-ish years ago."

"Yeah, we had to make new history books when the world was merged," said Belle, sighing. "Any book containing reference to a world that wasn't merged were destroyed in the spell…" She frowned. "My husband forgot to mention that when he told me about his plan. And I know he knew, Merlin told me later. I guess Adam assumed I wouldn't go along with it if I knew."

"All those books, just gone?" asked Emily, frowning. She immediately reached for the nearest book and hugged it to her. "Please tell me somebody rewrote them?"

"Oh yeah, I made sure of that," said Belle, with a chuckle. "Athena helped us with that, though my husband was not completely happy."

"Mum's very helpful like that, yeah," said Emily, nodding as she gently placed the book back on the table. "And she definitely wouldn't want people to go without knowledge. So, your husband was the one who merged the lands?"

"As a wedding gift, yes," said Belle, rolling her eyes. "It was not my idea of a good gift though."

"Can't imagine it was," said Emily, nodding as she reached into her bag and pulled out a pen and notebook. "Mind if I write this down? Rose will want to know about this as well." Belle nodded, and Emily began writing away. "You know, speaking of weird wedding gifts, Aphrodite got me and Rose a hotel room in Paris… The honeymoon suite." She smiled as she stopped writing and lent back in the chair, looking up at the ceiling as memories flooded back to her. "We barely spent any time in there, the hotel had an amazing spa and it was so close to the Louvre."

"What was weird about that?"

"We were sixteen," said Emily, with a chuckle as she looked at Belle. "Which, fine, was the legal age for us, but I did not need my aunt trying to facilitate that…" She shook her head before picking up the pen again. "Anyway, history. Tell me more about how Auradon was formed."

Belle nodded before saying "Of course. Twenty one years ago, after we got married, my husband spoke to Merlin, Yen Sid and the Fairy Godmother about merging the world into one continent." She looked at Emily, who was writing it all down. "They got together with other magic users, including Agrabah's Genie and a bunch of the gods, and over night everything changed." She took a deep breath. "After that, Adam began rounding up the Villains and created the Isle. It took us a few years to settle into the routine we have now."

"So there's no crime?" asked Emily, furrowing her brows. "None at all?"

"It depends on where you are," said Belle, with a small smile. "San Fransokyo has a lot of crime, but they also have the Big Hero Six to protect them, and a prison of their own." She looked at Emily. "The Isle is now only for Villains, and repeat offenders."

Emily nodded before saying "What about here?"

"We have a few crimes a month, but not that many," said Belle, smiling. "Mostly one of my son's friends playing a prank on the shop keepers, but he never really steals anything. Anymore." As she finished saying that, there was a buzzing from Emily's bag. Emily gave her an apologetic smile before pulling out her phone.

"Sorry, this is Rose," said Emily, as she looked up from the phone. Before frowning. "Bella's awake… And she's moaning because her dress got creased while she was sleeping." Emily sighed. "Sometimes I wish she was not so diva-like. But that's what I get for practically raising a Contest Star." She began putting the notebook away before standing. "This has been a really insightful talk, thanks for this, ma'am."

"It's quite alright, Emily," said Belle, smiling. "Anytime you have any questions, just tell Ben you want to talk to me and I'll come find you." She stood up. "And if you want to talk to somebody else who arrived from another world, I can get you in touch with Allie and her friends up in Camelot." Emily furrowed her eyebrows again making Belle chuckle. "You mentioned Paris as if it was somewhere you've been recently. Auradon City used to be Paris, before the merge twenty one years ago." Emily nodded before she started collecting up the books, only for Belle to say "Don't worry about that, I'll put them away for you. You go and stop your daughter from having a meltdown." Emily nodded before thanking Belle and walking out at a brisk pace.

When she walked back into 2-15, she was barrelled into by Bella. "'chu!" she said, trying to look stern. "Pikachu!"

"Yes, yes, I'm very sorry about not taking your favourite dress off before you went to sleep in my arms," said Emily, trying not to smile at the expression on the Pokemon's face as she held her in her arms. "Next time I'll wake you up so you can be grumpy at me for that instead." She placed Bella on the table and snapped her fingers. Her eyes lit up gold for a moment as Bella was engulfed in smoke. When it dissipated Bella's dress was back to being normal and she seemed happy. Before she jumped off the table and ran over to join Lupa and Cerberus, who were still curled up in front of the fire, this time with Mel between them. The Pikachu immediately turned away from the two people, watching the fire.

"How was the research?" asked Rose, from where she was lay on the bed with the laptop. The TV was back on, a news show being hosted by Snow White currently showing. "Did you get much done?"

"I got a bit done," said Emily, joining her on the bed after placing her bag and jacket on the table. "Met Prin… Queen Belle, got a brief history lesson but we mostly just talked about random things… She knows we're not from here originally, though. Mentioned that she could put in touch with some people in Camelot who are also from a different universe."

"Princess Allie and her Knights?" asked Rose, looking at Emily. "I was just reading about them… Remember that school that disappeared in America? Avalon High?"

Emily gasped before saying "They came here? Damn, I remember reading about that a year ago… I thought for sure M would send us out there to check it out…"

"Yeah, me too," said Rose, nodding. "It landed up in Camelot. Apparently Allie is a reincarnation of King Arthur, so they put her and her friends up in a wing of Camelot Castle." She smiled. "Oh, by the way, that door over there…" She pointed to the door next to the desk on the left of the fireplace. "It's an en-suite. And there's a giant corner bath in there, big enough for our whole team…"

"Damn," said Emily, grinning. She stretched as she began pulling off her top. "You know what, a bath sounds heavenly right now." As she did that, Rose gasped, causing Emily to frown. "What?"

"You have tattoos…" said Rose, pointing at Emily's chest. "They definitely weren't there yesterday."

Emily furrowed her brows, before clicking her fingers. Her eyes glowed gold as a compact mirror with an owl on the casing appeared in her hand. She opened it and gasped. Above her left breast was a small tattoo of a black dragon, with green flames coming out of its mouth, and next to that were the initials 'EG' in a very nice cursive. Over her right breast was a very cursive 'Benjamin' as well as the word 'Sure' in familiar handwriting.

"You were very sure of yourself that day," said Rose, as she reached over and put her hand over the 'Sure' tattoo. "And you couldn't believe it when I said yes… Well, sure."

"I wasn't expecting it," said Emily, shrugging. "I was trying to be funny. Though, I did also really want to go on a date with you but I didn't think you agree. Especially since we didn't even know each other at the time. And we on our first day of training for M.I. High."

"Daisy couldn't believe how bold you were," said Rose, laughing. As she pulled her own top off. "Do I have them?"

Emily just smirked as she said "So you're giving me permission to look at your tits?"

Rose rolled her eyes before she said "There's a mirror in the bathroom I can look at if you don't want to do it."

Emily immediately shook her head violently as she turned her attention to her girlfriend's chest. Sure enough, the same dragon tattoo and initials were above Rose's left breast, while 'Benjamin' was written above her right one, with '36459' underneath it. Emily frowned as she ran her hand over the numbers. "Is that meant to be me?"

"What do you mean?" asked Rose, confused. "What is it?"

"A pile of numbers, that I think spell my name on one of those old phones that Frank still has," said Emily, with a small smile. Before gasping. "Oh my gods, what if these are soulmarks?"

"Those things that only appear in fan fics?" asked Rose, looking at Emily. "How do you even figure that, anyway?"

"Well, when Aphrodite married us, she mentioned that we were soulmates, right," said Emily, looking at Rose as she got off the bed. "Well, she also let slip that we had more than just each other… Maybe this is her way of telling us who they are?"

"The Olympians just cannot stop toying with us, can they?" said Rose, sighing. Before looking at Emily. "You know, a bath sounds nice. You still up for it?"

"A bath with my girlfriend where Bella won't interrupt because she's still sulking in the corner of the room?" said Emily, smiling as she slipped her trousers off and walked towards the en-suite door, undoing her bra.

Rose chuckled before doing the same.

Rose smiled as she slipped into the bath, letting Emily put her arms around her. "So, we have three more soulmates," she said, smiling as she lent back into her girlfriend. "And we definitely know who they are, right?"

"Benjamin is definitely Ben, yeah," said Emily, as she began rubbing water over Rose's body. "And the dragon is Mal, since she can turn into one… But EG? Evie?"

"Possibly," said Rose, smiling. Before letting out a delightful moan as Emily rubbed her shoulders. "Oh, keep doing that, it feels good. You know how the Evil Queen sometimes has the surname Grimhilde, so…"

"So, our soulmates are King Ben, Mal and Evie…" said Emily, with a grin. "This is gonna be fun, can't wait to meet them."

"Yeah, fun," said Rose, taking a deep breath as she lent off Emily. "I know that we're good together, but…" She looked at Emily. "Are we really ready for a poly relationship?"

"It probably won't be easy, but how can we say we're not ready if we're not even willing to try?" said Emily, looking at her girlfriend. "Besides, we can tell them we want to take it slow, I'm sure they'll be OK with that."

"Yeah, you're probably right," said Rose, leaning back into Emily. "Do what you were doing earlier, it was nice."

Emily chuckled before reaching around and beginning to wash Rose again.

After finishing the bath, they lay on the bed in towels. Bella and Mel had decided to join them and were on the laps of their trainers. More episodes of So Random played on the TV.

"I wonder why Ben hasn't text us the directions to his room," said Emily, frowning as she looked at her phone. "He said he would."

"Did you actually give him your number?" asked Rose, looking at her, with a smile. "Because that might be the reason."

Emily's eyes went wide before saying "Shit, I hadn't," and immediately tapping away at her phone. "Good call."

Rose just laughed as Emily placed the phone down and returned her attention back to the TV. "So, it's coming up on four, do we want to take Lupa and Cerberus for a walk before we go to Ben's film night?"

Emily looked over at the two canine Pokemon, who were looking up at her and seemed ready for a walk. "Sure, could be fun," she said, as she got off the bed, gently placing Bella on the bed, to a moan from the Pikachu, and clicked her fingers. Her eyes went gold and a grey smoke engulfed her. When it dissipated, she was in her normal clothes. Completely dry.

"That's cheating, Em," said Rose, shaking her head. "But do you mind…" Emily laughed as she did it again. This time the smoke engulfed Rose and when it was gone, Rose was now back in her normal clothes, also dry. "Thank you, sweetie."

"No problem," was Emily's reply as she grabbed her bag from the side. Almost immediately Lupa and Cerberus burst into life, running up to Emily and nuzzling her hand. "And these guys are definitely ready for a walk."

In case you didn't realise, this is a rewrite of both "The New Girl" and "A Whole New World", throwing in an extra character...

I hope you enjoyed it. :) Please leave a review if you did. :)