Chapter Fifteen
(Brief lyrics in this chapter is from the song "Secret" by The Pierces.)
Siren sat on the floor in shock, using her magic to heal her left leg and clean off the blood. While she tested out her leg to make sure it worked correctly, she suddenly felt a burning sensation on her lower abdomen. Since she always wore revealing clothing, she glanced down to see her skin flaming red almost as if it had been licked by fire. This wound wasn't as bad as the one on her leg, but it irritated her.
The villainess placed a cold hand over her abdomen, and healed the burn. Once she was sure everything was in working order, she stood up, intending to return to her crystal ball, but without warning, pain shot up her leg starting at her ankle. Looking back down she was horrified to see teeth marks covered in blood.
What the hell is going on?!
As Tulio made his way through Nesidy, he noticed everyone looking worn out as they gaped at him. And the place looked a mess as if some sort of battle had just taken place.
"Tulio?" someone finally said. He turned to see Danny Fenton looking sickly, and almost terrified. The teenager ran after him.
"Hey, Danny. Are you okay? You don't look so good."
Danny ignored the question and said, "You're alive. Does Aralyne...?"
"About that," said Tulio coming to a halt and turning to Danny. The teenager suddenly looked like he was going to vomit and seemed even more terrified. Strange. "Something's wrong. She doesn't remember me at all. Did something happen while I was gone? You're her best friend. You should know."
Danny's mouth opened and closed, but no sound came out. His eyes widened and he suddenly hunched over, throwing up on the street.
Tulio took a step back in surprise and placed a hand on the kid's shoulder. "Hey, maybe you should get to the hospital? I had just left Aralyne there, and I'll take you before meeting Lao Shi."
"N-No. No," Danny shakily said wiping his mouth clean of excess puke, "I have to talk to Grandpa, too."
"Maybe that's not such a good ide-"
"I have to!" Danny insisted. "I can't take it anymore!" He took off running and Tulio followed him.
"Danny, wait!"
They came to City Hall and Danny ran inside, bursting into Grandpa's office, Tulio right behind him. Inside the office, Grandpa was talking to Phoebus.
"Tulio," said Grandpa without surprise, "Phoebus said you were here, and alive no less. Danny, why the sudden intrusion?"
"Grandpa, I can't handle it anymore!" Danny got straight to the point now looking as if he were going to cry, "I have to tell Aralyne! The nightmares! I can't -"
"Tell Aralyne what?" Tulio demanded rounding on the teenager once more, his eyes now narrowing in suspicion.
"Tulio's return changes nothing," said Grandpa sternly, "You will not utter a word to her about this. Am I understood?" Danny paled even more and shut his mouth, nodding, the light fading from his eyes. Satisfied with the teenager's answer, Grandpa turned to Tulio and said, "There are some things I need to explain to you, but that will have to wait until after you explain some things to me."
"If this is about Aralyne I have to know now," Tulio said.
"It can wait," said Grandpa, "Now, how are you alive?"
Tulio scowled and answered the question. "I myself am often surprised at life's little quirks. See, after Captain Hook had knocked me into the ocean, I swam as far as I could, nearly freezing to death, when out of the fog, I saw a pirate ship. At first, I had thought it belonged to Hook or Silver, but I was wrong. It belonged to the Dread Pirate Roberts. His men had fished me out of the water and were about to kill me, when I simply said, Please... please, I need to live. It was the please that caught his attention. He asked what was so important for me here. True Love, I replied. And then I spoke of a girl of surpassing beauty and faithfulness." Danny flinched. "What I told you about saying please was true," Tulio continued wanting to get to the subject of Aralyne, "It intrigued Roberts, as did my description of Aralyne's beauty. Finally, Roberts decided something. He said, All right, Tulio, I've never had a valet, you can try it for tonight. I'll most likely kill you in the morning. Three weeks he said that. Good night, Tulio. Good work. Sleep well. I'll most likely kill you in the morning. I swear, I wanted to return home, but he wouldn't let me out of his sight for very long. Roberts and I eventually became friends. And then it happened."
"What? Go on," Phoebus urged after Tulio paused for a moment.
"Well, Roberts had grown so rich, he wanted to retire," Tulio continued, "So he took me to his cabin, and told me his secret. I am not the Dread Pirate Roberts, he said. My name is Westley. I inherited the ship from the previous Dread Pirate Roberts, just as you will inherit it from me. The man I inherited it from was not the real Dread Pirate Roberts either. His name was Ryan. The real Roberts has been retired fifteen years and living like a King in Patagonia. Then he explained that the name was the important thing for inspiring the necessary fear. You see, no one would surrender to the Dread Pirate Tulio. So we sailed ashore, took on an entirely new crew, and he stayed aboard for a while as first mate, all the time calling me Roberts. Once the crew believed, he left the ship, and I have been Roberts ever since. Is everything clear to you?"
"I see," said Grandpa simply.
"Now about Aralyne," said Tulio earnestly, "What is it you're not letting Danny tell her? And why can't she remember me?"
"The two questions are connected," Grandpa replied, "She doesn't remember because I had all of her memories of you erased."
"You what?!" Tulio exclaimed feeling his heart drop. "Why?!" Anger coursing through him, he turned to the teenager once more. "You allowed this to happen?! I thought you were her friend!"
Danny's eyes glazed over and he muttered only loud enough for Tulio to hear:
"Got a secret
Can you keep it?
Swear this one you'll save"
"Tulio, calm down and I'll explain," Grandpa said calmly. Tulio turned his back on the teenager who was still muttering nonsense under his breath.
"Better lock it in your pocket
Taking this one to the grave"
"We thought you were dead, especially since we couldn't find your body. When I told Aralyne, she was devastated. And that's when Siren showed up.
Siren?! Tulio's eyes widened in horror.
"If I show you then I know you won't tell what I said
'Cause two can keep a secret if one of them is dead"
"What do you mean Siren showed up?!" Tulio demanded, "Aralyne said she was gone when we got her heart back!"
"Why do you smile like you've been told a secret?
Now you're telling lies 'cause you have sworn to keep it"
"We don't know how, but Siren managed to get her own body. She had tried killing Aralyne while she was down, but Danny protected her. Siren left, but not before swearing she would return."
"But no one keeps a secret
No one keeps a secret"
"Aralyne had hit a depression and locked herself up in your house for days. I had Hatori Sohma erase her memories of you."
While Doctor Possible was cleaning up the wound on my leg - damn that Vizzini! - I peered out of the room that I was in and noticed many others being treated for wounds.
"Doctor Possible, did something happen while I was gone?" I inquired turning my attention back to her.
She paused for a moment before answering, "Yes, but it's hard to explain."
"What do you mean?" I pushed on, "What happened?"
"Other than those working at the Benbow Inn, many others on the street saw you being kidnapped by Hook. Everything was chaos as everyone ran around Nesidy to spread the news and try to rescue you. All of a sudden Belle moved about the town with a knife stabbing people. Something was wrong with her; her skin was an unearthly pale and her eyes were glowing black as if she were under some sort of spell." I sat there horrified not sure if I wanted to hear more. Doctor Possible continued, "Jim Hawkins - the poor kid - he's been traumatized for life. He, John Smith, and Captain Amelia all had ropes and managed to pin down Belle, but when she moved, she broke free, and the rope around her throat snapped her neck." I felt sick. Belle dead?! "She kept moving forward and when everyone realized they were no longer dealing with Belle, but some sort of zombie, they all grabbed weapons to kill her, but she vanished into thin air."
By then she had finished her job and I was allowed to go with bandages around my abdomen, leg, and ankle. "Thank you, Doctor Possible," I said before leaving. I hobbled as fast as I could out of the hospital and headed straight for City Hall. I had to talk to Grandpa right away!
When I arrived, I heard Grandpa talking to Tulio, but I couldn't make out what they were saying. Curious, I stopped right outside the door, and hid just out of sight, peering out at them from around the corner. Grandpa looked a bit worried, Phoebus watched the exchange eagerly, Tulio looked angry, and Danny... Danny didn't look so good. In fact, he looked worse than the last time I saw him, and he was muttering something under his breath that I could barely hear.
"Why when we do our darkest deeds do we tell?
They burn in our brains, become a living hell"
"If I didn't do it, then Siren would have killed her by now! She's the only one that can stop Siren, and I'll have her memories erased again if it keeps Aralyne on the right track!"
I silently gasped at the news. Grandpa had my memories erased? But why? I felt hurt by the betrayal.
"Because everybody tells
Everybody tells"
"How can you do that to her?" Tulio snapped surprising me, "She's only nineteen! All she wants to do is live her life!" He reached into his pocket and showed whatever he had in there to the others. Unfortunately, I couldn't see what it was. Phoebus cocked an eyebrow in interest, Grandpa looked sorry, and Danny suddenly stopped muttering, his eyes widening.
"Were you..." Grandpa's voice trailed off.
"Yes," Tulio replied quietly.
"Grandpa, we have to tell her!" my best friend proclaimed.
So Danny knows about my memories being erased?! The betrayal stabbed at me once more, and I had to blink back tears.
"No," Grandpa said, "We're not telling her anything. With what happened recently, we can't let her be distracted. She has to prepare a fight with Siren."
"At least allow me to try and win her heart," Tulio begged putting whatever he held back into his pocket.
"Fine," said Luong Lao Shi, "You can try, but if she loses focus on her mission -"
I had heard enough. Not only did he have my memories erased and the whole town was now hiding that little fact from me, but now he was basically giving me to this Tulio. "How dare you!" I snarled walking into the room, and they all looked at me in surprise, "All of you, standing around deciding my future? I am not someone to be manipulated for your own gain!" I turned on my heel and stormed out of the office.
"Trust me! This time I'm sure I've got it right," Morgana declared as she and her mini-shark sidekick Undertow were in their icy lair. Morgana was trying to create a potion to make the shark his normal size again since she had accidentally shrunk him a couple of months ago.
"Yeah, that's what you said last time, and I was sore for a week," Undertow grumbled.
"Oh, stop your carping and stand still," she said aiming for him.
"Oh, this is gonna hurt," he whimpered right as she shot her magic into the potion bowl, and a light struck the shark. At first he began to grow, and Morgana laughed in delight, but then he shrank back to the puny size. Becoming frustrated, the sea witch threw potion bottles into the bowl, and the light continued to strike him, turning him into a myriad of other sea creatures until he reverted back to a miniature shark.
"Oh, it's just no use," Morgana said in despair, "The power is just too strong for me to overcome."
"I bet Ursula could've done it," Undertow muttered.
"What was that you said?" she snarled angrily, rounding on him. Morgana didn't want her sister's name mentioned around her. When they were brought back to life by Chernabog, Ursula had blamed Morgana for their deaths, and Morgana had left, not wanting to be near her sister ever again.
Undertow replied, "Nothin'. I'm just sayin'..."
"Stop criticizing me!" she shrieked throwing a bottle at him, but missed and it smashed against the wall, "That's all my mother ever did was criticize me! It was always Ursula this or Ursula that... or, Morgana, why can't you be more like your sister... Ursula!"
"Well, it isn't Ursula's fault I got miniaturized. It's yours!" Undertow shot at her.
"Is not!" she retaliated.
"Your fault that we had to hide out here for several frostbitten months."
"Is not!"
"Your fault that we can never show our faces in polite society again!"
"You're really pushing it, small fry," she snarled into his face.
Suddenly a magic bubble formed before them, grabbing their attention, and inside the bubble, they could see Danny Fenton trying to talk to a girl with shoulder-length, curly, dark brown hair and golden brown eyes.
"Aralyne, please talk to me."
"No! You lied to me, Danny, and I can't forgive that!"
The two villains exchanged evil sneers and Morgana said, "This is just the kind of break in the ice we've been waiting for. When Aralyne finds out all of the truths the others have been hiding... she's going to have lots of questions. And who'll be right there with all the answers?"
"We will," Undertow said eagerly eyeing the sword strapped to Aralyne's back. He knew what the sword was and the power it possessed.
"Exactly! She'll be the perfect tool for her own undoing," Morgana said.
"And I'll get to be big again," the shark added with glee.
"Finally I'll succeed at the one thing the other villains never could," said Morgana.
"Really, really big again!"
"Total domination of the seas!" Morgana crowed.
"I'll be huge!"
The two villains laughed and danced around the lair.