Cage threw one of her knives at the evil sorcerer, only for the blade to turn around in thin air, and fly right back at her, far too fast for her to dodge or block it, as Murdoc turned and smirked evilly at her.
It stabbed her through the stomach, making her emit a noise of pain, as the wizard turned away from her again, turning his attention back to combating the mob of cutlery that was attacking him, thanks to Jill, swatting at the knives and forks as if they were annoying flies, and just as easily as if they were too.
She struggled and pulled the knife from her body with her magic, sending the bloodied blade at Murdoc's turned back, but it simply turned around and pierced her again, as the wizard flung Jill and her animated cutlery aside, before rounding on Cage. He stalked over to her, leaned down as she whimpered and panted in pain, bleeding profusely all over her shirt from the two stab wounds, and gave a dark little smirk.
'I'll leave you to die now.'
He turned away from her again, pulling a sword from nowhere and blocking Mac's quarterstaff as the teenager tried to launch a surprise attack on the sorcerer.
Murdoc, Cage feared, was too good, too strong, too powerful. There may be only one of him, but he had animated so many things to fight against them…
Bozer was struggling against an animated wardrobe wielding a carving knife in its 'hand'. As the Spymaster's apprentice watched, the wardrobe stabbed the carving knife into Bozer's stomach, and he fell to the ground. With great determination, Cage started trying to pull herself over to him, to see if she could help in some way or the other, despite her own injuries. She even willed her magic to set the damned wardrobe on fire, but found that she couldn't muster the strength.
Nonetheless, the wardrobe caught fire anyway, as an answering fire appeared in Riley's eyes. A moment later, however, her ankles and wrists were bound with rope, and a gag stuffed in her mouth, and despite her struggles, she was sent flying into a large trunk, which then locked.
The trunk, Cage noted with some satisfaction, then started jumping around as Riley tried to fight it and Murdoc's magic from the inside.
'Jack, duck!'
Beth called out from the ceiling, to which she was chained, spread-eagled, trying to help in any way she could.
Murdoc simply rolled his eyes as if she was an annoying chirping bird while he was trying to sleep and not even a second later, a gag stuffed itself into her mouth too, silencing her.
Cage, now a few feet away from Bozer, was feeling very, very woozy. Her vision was starting to go blurry around the edges…
The last thing she remembered was the Queen being struck in the shoulder by a ball of pure magical energy, throwing her backwards slightly, almost off her feet…
Jack's life had flashed before his eyes more than once.
Those strange moments when time, almost, seemed to slow, so that, as your movements were no faster, it was like moving through molasses…
He was helpless to do anything, like a rabbit caught in a snare, except to watch as his very own longsword, Ol' Faithful, came flying at him, turned against him (quite literally) by magic…
Mac, very, very dazed, slowly regained consciousness, blinking blearily (Murdoc had flung him very hard into the stone wall of the Entrance Hall via a blow to the left shoulder with a ball of magic), only to see Patricia throw herself between Jack and Ol' Faithful, flinging one last magical blow at Murdoc as she did so.
He saw the emotions cross Jack's face as he realized what was happening, he saw what was in Patricia's eyes as she fell, and Mac knew then that the goal that he, Riley, Bozer, Beth, Jill and Cage had been working towards for months had been achieved.
It was just too late.
Mac reached out, scrabbling for his quarterstaff, a couple of feet away from him, where he'd dropped it when he'd hit the wall, struggling to stand back up.
Angus MacGyver never gave up. He didn't believe in lost causes.
His hands closed on his staff just as Jack cried out…
'Patty!'
…and a bright, white light filled the room…
Bozer, whose eyes had been drifting closed, darkness overtaking him, suddenly saw a flash of white light through his eyelids, and forced his eyes open as the light receded and he heard a feminine shriek from the direction of the ceiling.
It was, surprisingly, not difficult.
That pain in his abdomen, that weakening he'd been feeling, was suddenly gone. Slowly, Bozer lifted a hand (easily, also surprisingly) and felt his abdomen, but found no traces of sticky blood, and it seemed as if his shirt was completely undamaged.
He sat up, brow furrowing, and looked around.
Matty, her head no longer bloodied, was staring at the pile of Murdoc's clothing in the middle of the Entrance Hall, as was Jill, who was no longer slumped against the wall with her arm bent at an unnatural angle.
Michael and Caitlyn were sitting where Bozer swore there was a huge pile of rubble earlier, completely unharmed and also completely free of dust.
Bozer made eye contact with Cage, who was similarly staring around, completely free of the two stab wounds Bozer had seen her suffer out of the corner of his eye, then made eye contact with Riley, who was standing in the opened trunk she'd been locked in, her limbs unbound, eyes wide.
Jack and Patricia were in the middle of the Entrance Hall, not far from Murdoc's clothing, the Knight helping his Queen to sit up, the two of them staring at each other.
Bozer looked up (watching them felt like intruding on a private moment), and discovered that Beth was drifting down from the ceiling, looking quite shocked by the fact.
(The shriek must have been her, when she'd been released from her chains, fearful of falling, but apparently, whatever had just happened – presumably the curse breaking, given how Jack and Patricia were looking at each other – had provided for that too.)
Bozer flung his arms up in the air.
'We're all fine? Really?'
Riley snorted, but it was an affectionate sound regardless.
'Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, Bozer.'
Cage raised a brow at him with a little half-shrug.
'The curse was always unusual.'
Bozer shook his head again, glancing over at his best friend to ask for his opinion, but found that he was otherwise occupied, because, with his quick reflexes and even quicker wits, he'd managed to catch Beth, and was now holding her bridal-style. Mac's ears were very red and her cheeks were very pink, and they were both looking rather goofily at each other, apparently struck dumb. Eventually, somewhat awkwardly, Mac put her down gently, though that didn't change the looks or smiles.
'Ugh. I did not want to have to see that…'
Bozer turned as he heard Riley speak, and found that Jack, lacking propriety as always, had simply kissed Patricia, cupping her face in his hands, in the middle of the Entrance Hall. She was also kissing him back, though she pulled away a moment later, raising an eyebrow at him.
Jack, smirking quite unrepentantly, just looked around at the assembled no-longer-cursed inhabitants of the castle.
'Uh…we're just gonna go discuss important business, you know, what to do now that we're not cursed anymore and all…alone.'
They got up and walked up the stairs, disappearing towards her chambers, not fooling anyone, just as the very first light of the new day began to peek through the windows.
Bozer reached out and hugged Riley tightly, a gesture she reciprocated, before kissing him lightly. Bozer then reached out and pulled Jill into a side-hug. Cage and Matty exchanged a knowing, happy smile, then the younger woman crouched down and hugged the older. Beth's parents walked over, hand in hand, to stand next to their daughter, as Mac reached out and took Beth's hand, lifting it and kissing her knuckles.
'Happy Birthday, Beth.'
Tomorrow has finally come.
And now, tomorrow will always come.
A year and a day after the breaking of the curse, Bozer and Mac stood in the groom's chamber with Jack, the former helping Jack into his very fancy wedding clothes (which Bozer had made for him), as the latter tried to soothe Jack's nerves.
(The only reason why it was a year and a day was because royal weddings took a lot of time to plan, particularly when you had a kingdom to rebuild at the same time. Neither the groom nor the bride, despite what you might have expected from her, cared much about the traditional year-and-a-day betrothal period in Phoenix for royalty and nobility.)
'What if I forget my lines? Patty'll kill me if I forget my lines!'
'A, you are not going to forget your lines. I heard you practicing in the privy, Jack. B, Patricia is not going to kill you, no matter how badly you screw up.'
Bozer, done with his task of dressing Jack and doing any last-minute alterations, removed the pins from his mouth and snickered.
'Seriously, man, you're a Knight of Phoenix! Aren't you supposed to be crazy-brave?'
Mac, meanwhile, was snickering at Jack's ludicrously ostentatious outfit.
Jack rolled his eyes and waggled a finger at both of them.
'Yeah, yeah, laugh all you want, but it's gonna be you two soon enough!'
My wedding is going to be nowhere near as fancy, thank you very much. We're thinking a nice, quiet affair with our family in the castle gardens, complete with music provided by the modified musical instruments and a wedding pie - well, actually, two; one apple, one pumpkin - instead of cake.
Though, if Jack and Patricia really do follow through with their plan to adopt Riley as her heir and Crown Princess of Phoenix, Riley and Bozer might not have a choice in the matter…
Royal weddings require a certain level of fuss and pomp and ceremony, after all.
Quite suddenly, Riley, wearing an extremely pretty bridesmaid's dress, also made by Bozer, appeared in the middle of the room, which made all three of them jump.
'Ack!'
'Gah!'
'Chime or something next time, Riles!'
The young woman gave a mischievous little smirk at their reactions, but nodded anyway, then ran an eye over Jack.
'Bozer did a great job, but you still look ridiculous, old man.'
Jack affected an affronted expression.
'Hey, I'll have you know that this is Italian wool. You don't knock Italian wool, Ri!'
Riley raised a sceptical eyebrow, quite sure that Jack only knew the value of Italian wool because Bozer had been going on and on about it during all his fittings for his wedding clothes.
(Which was true.)
'Anyway, what are you doing here, kiddo?'
She shrugged, a deliberately nonchalant gesture.
'Just making sure you weren't getting cold feet and planning to run off.' From the look in her eyes, there was absolutely no way that was the reason. 'Thought I'd just check in on you.'
That was far closer to the truth.
Jack smiled, soft and fond and slow.
'My feet are toasty-warm. Thanks, Riles.'
At that moment, there was a knock on the door, and at Jack's 'come in', the door opened to reveal Beth, also wearing a bridesmaid's dress, a necklace with a rose pendant far more precious than the gold it was made from around her neck, with a wide smile on her face.
'It's time.'
And they all lived happily ever after.
AN: Well, I don't have to say much more than that, right? (And yes, of course the story had to end with them all living happily ever after! What do you take me for?) Thank you for joining me on this crazy, I-have-no-idea-where-this-came-from ride!
My next MacGyver fairytale adaptation, Give Your Heart a Chance, a retelling of Cinderella, will start posting tomorrow. The summary is as follows:
Angus MacGyver. Genius. Billionaire. Philanthropist. Definitely not a playboy. After one too many heartbreaks, Mac's heart is so guarded that his friends fear he'll never find the right one. Throw in a couple of coincidences, some meddling, a hard-working, brilliant, beautiful young doctor and you have a modern-day fairytale.