Chapter 2, everything changes

The wedding dress, the one that Marinette had worked so hard on was left intact, though the only thing Nathalie wanted to do with it was take the scissors and cut it to shreds. But that would hurt Marinette more than it would make her feel better. The gown was shoved to the back of her closet instead. Nathalie remained near invisible those first couple of weeks, the only signs of her still being alive being the empty plates left outside her room and things spontaneously going missing. The sprites were the only ones Nathalie allowed around her, because they wouldn't try to get her to talk. They aided with her transformation.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Tikki asked, holding a leave shred almost as large as her own body in her hands. A jar of red dye was sitting on the vanity with a broad flat brush dipped in its hue, "I mean, the cut looks fine as it is."

The cut, as Tikki was referring to it, had been what Nathalie had done with the sewing scissors Marinette had forgotten in her sister's room. The shoulder length hair had been something that always bothered Nathalie a bit, considering that it was too easy to get in her face or tangle in her wings if it got too long. But Sebastian had always liked it. And now Nathalie wanted nothing more than to make herself anew. Gone was the naive and foolish child, in her place would rise a woman of stone. The locks had been discarded in favor of short, almost choppy layers that stuck out almost messily around her head. Pollen, being the most familiar with floof and knowing how best to style it had guided her hand so Nathalie didn't ruin the composition with her own inexperience. The only long hair Nathalie had kept was her bangs, and that had only been because she'd had plans for them.

"Do it," Nathalie replied. Tikki tucked the leaf scrap under Nathalie's bangs, then grabbed the brush and started painting at the locks. From root to tip she performed long even strokes, trying to get the color as seamless as possible. When she was done Tikki folded up the leaf, the dye causing it to stick to itself.

"Nooroo," Nathalie called, the purple sprite flew over.

"Yes?" he asked.

"What types of clothes did you find?"

"Not much," Nooroo lamented, "Not in the vein of what you wanted anyways. We'll have to get the clothes and dye them.

"Very well, what plants make the colors I want?"

As Nooroo listed off the types of plants and colors they produced and what she would need to mix together to get what she wanted, Pollen and Tikki were examining what Nooroo had managed to find clothing wise for Nathalie to wear. Most of them, in accordance with space for her wings, had a racer's back to them, this back strap which ran between her shoulder blades was detachable with a tiny button hidden by the way the pieces connected. Coupled with these tops were pairs of form fitting breeches, usually in black or white. It had been rather difficult to find a place that would make them, even for the crown princess.

Nathalie cut Nooroo off, "Find the plants and have them collected so we can get the dies made, better yet, write a list. I need to get to the royal armsman."

"Why?" Tikki asked.

"I'm getting measurements for a sword," Nathalie replied.

"A sword?" the Sprites knew that Nathalie had been undergoing some changes as a way of coping with the heartbreak of her cheating ex-fiance, but this was a bit much.

"I know I'm good at diplomacy, but the one point I can concede to Sebastian was that sometimes there really is no other option than fighting. And how can I call myself a good ruler if I can't even defend myself?"

MLB

In a little less than a year Nathalie's transformation was complete. Instead of the traditional royal colors she now favored dark jewel tones. Deep purples and blues and greens and even a hint of pink. Colors that screamed with intensity and potency, so unlike the pastels that decorated the denizens of the fairy kingdom. Nathalie liked the colors that screamed, that proclaimed to the world she was foreboding and dangerous. A wild thing not to be tamed. The same could be said for the transformation of her hair, and the fact that now makeup, something she had traditionally never bothered with, was a primary part of her ensemble. Her warpaint, made from the paste of blueberries and painted over her eyes, making them seem deep and wide and almost sunken. In a way it made her all the more terrifying, and yet alluring. Not that she noticed such frivolous things as romance any longer.

It had taken a lot of time and effort and help from the sprites in order for Nathalie to become proficient in her new past time. The sword she now wielded was better suited to her size and strength. Then again, it had been tailor made for her. She could do anything, fight anyone. Her wings and arm certainly had gotten a workout. There was nothing more strenuous than mid-air combat training. That had been what she focused on, knowing her size was not conducive to in-ground fighting. She would need to rely on her speed of movement in order to keep up with the others, who had a near lifetime of experience as compared to her.

Of course, that wasn't so important at the moment as finding her sibling was. Marinette, in the last year or so, had gone from simply having a crush to completely boy crazy. Nathalie had been so certain she cared for Adrien, more than as a friend. She was completely certain that the description applied to Adrien. Adrien was a total goofball around her, and she noticed how reserved he was around everyone else. But who was to say? Maybe they were both afraid to ruin their friendship? Or maybe after years of waiting and no one making the first move Marinette had decided to move on. Either way, Marinette started skipping out and disappearing more and more and Nathalie was always the one who had to go track her down.

"Marinette!" she called, flying around the fields, "Marinette where are you?"

MLB

Adrien ducked out from his hiding spot as he saw Nathalie fly away, "The coast is clear!" he called out, trying not to be too loud so that Nathalie would come and investigate.

Marinette rose from behind a wishing flower, carrying the bloom with her and drifting into the air to scatter the seeds. The sunlight bounced off her iridescent wings and she looked so happy. Shining so brightly Adrien was utterly entranced. He watched with a dreamy smile, until some of the fuzz from drifting seeds tickled his nose and he began to sneeze uncontrollably. Instantly Marinette shot down and was shushing him.

"She'll hear you!" Marinette hissed.

"Sorry," Adrien said as he tried to stop. Marinette thumped him on the back as he tried to get himself under control. He winced a bit as she accidentally brushed a scarred over nub that apparently wasn't so scarred over. Adrien rose to his full height, which despite being a good bit taller than most Elves was still a bit shorter than the long, lean statures of the Fairies. He didn't mind though, he was still close enough to see Marinette's gorgeous blue eyes.

Marinette sighed as she looked back to the sky, "Whatever happened on that wedding day last year must have been really bad."

"Yeah," Adrien agreed, drawing breath like another sneeze was coming. Which it did, just as he added, "Ba-choo!"

"I mean, now she's always watching, worrying, hovering. I mean, the flail thing?" Marinette gestured to a small circular object decorated like a ladybug attached to a string that was wrapped around her waist. Its purpose was to be swung around and was equally as useful for defense as offense, "What's she trying to protect me from?"

"It's odd," Adrien concurred, "She puts all this effort into training you, she should know by now that you can take care of yourself."

"Right…" Marinette drawled. Nathalie had decided to train both of them to be capable of handling themselves in a fight, though most of her newly learned techniques went to Adrien, who kept a specially made extendable staff on him at all times.

"Anyways," she brushed off the topic, "The Spring Ball is tonight!"

"Yeah!"

"The biggest event of the season?"

"Yeah!"

"What's your plan?"

"I made it so that when the music starts you'll 'accidentally' bump into Nathaniel."

Marinette grinned excitedly and gave him a big hug, a giddy squeal escaping her as she said, "This is going to be the best day ever!"

Adrien soaked up the embrace before returning it meltingly, "It already is," he sighed happily.

And just like that it was over as Marinette pulled back and said, "Wait, Nathaniel?"

"Yeah, the artist with the flaming red hair?" Adrien reminded her.

"Oh, I don't have a crush on him anymore," Marinette dismissed.

"Why not?"

"I found out he likes Chloe, so there's no chance," Marinette explained, "Lately, I've had my eye on Luka."

"Oh boy," Adrien muttered under his breath as he scratched the back of his head, "I've got to find Nathaniel and tell him to stand in a new place, then find Luka and tell him to stand in the old place Nathaniel was standing in-"

"Oh no!" Marinette suddenly started to freak out, "What if he already likes someone else? Or I do something to completely embarrass myself in front of him!"

"Snap out of it!" Adrien took her by the shoulders and gave a gentle shake.

When it didn't work he started to sing and dance and joke and use his stature and lithe build to do some acrobatics. The same things that had always cheered her up when they were small. Adrien tried to keep her happy, since her happiness was his. Still, even as he did his best to reassure her he couldn't help the small niggling of jealousy that rose within him. He wanted to say that any guy who didn't immediately pay attention to her wasn't worth her time, but that wasn't the sort of thing a friend would say. And he had made a promise to himself that he -who had no real family aside from Marinette and Nathalie- would always be there when they needed it. His own feelings came second.

Of course, at some point he became so consumed with cheering Marinette up he didn't hear her calls of warning. Then, an enormous lizard came out of the brush, intent on making meals out of the pair. They ducked and dodged and bobbed and wove, only barely managing to stay out of harm's way. The creature was too big for their weapons to be of any use, though Marinette decided to use her flail as a lasso and her flight momentum to pull Adrien out of the direct path of the lizard.

"Help somebody!" she called as loudly as she could, dodging the snaps of the sharp teeth behind her, "We need help!"

Tiny pebbles hit the lizard in succession. Not enough to do any damage, but enough to distract its attention away. Nathalie flew in with a larger rock she'd obviously had to swoop to pick up.

"You're looking at it," she said as she tested the weight and trajectory and then took aim and fired.

What ensued was not the most epic battle there had ever been. It was move of using Adrien as bait while Nathalie and Marinette found a way to injure it enough to make it retreat. Apparently blueberries to the eye was that way. Of course, the lizard had reared back in pain, knocking Adrien off his feet and sending him rolling off into the Dark Forests borders. Not that the Elf noticed this, too busy trying to get his vision to stop tilting and catch his breath. With one hand Nathalie grabbed the collar of his clothes and pulled him out, tossing him further into Fairy domain.

"You were in the Dark Forest!" she yelled at him.

"I was?" "He was?" the two said at the same time.

"Do you want what happened to the Rosa Peace fairy to happen to you?" Nathalie seethed at them. Their exclamations to the contrary went unheard as she continued to further emphasize her point, "Locked away forever! And why? Because she made love potions using…" her words trailed off as a petal from the traitorous bloom fell in front of her. A year had passed, spring was here again. "Primroses."

Marinette and Adrien were talking, but Nathalie couldn't hear them. All she could see were the flashbacks of that day. The Goblins and other creatures coming for her, bloodlust in their eyes. Her own palpable fear. Her vulnerability. She wanted to collapse. No, she was stronger than that. And it wasn't as if she would have to face her fear any time soon.

"Lie? Nathalie!" Marinette's voice pulled her out of the cloud of the past.

"We need to get out of here, now!" Nathalie said decisively.

"I just said that," Adrien pointed out. Nathalie toss the primrose petal she's grabbed hold of in the midst of her remembering and tossed it at Marinette, who shirked away as if it was something dangerous or gross. It landed on Adrien who freaked out before hiding it under an aboveground root and running off.

MLB

Marinette was humming and twirling in the air as she and Nathalie flew back to the castle in preparation for the dance that was coming later tonight. Nathalie was looking at her sibling, utterly unimpressed.

"Really? She asked aloud, "That's how you're choosing to react to a near-death experience?"

"You make such a big deal out of everything!" Marinette huffed.

"A big deal?" Nathalie stopped mid-air and folded her arms, "You and Adrien were nearly killed because the two of you don't know how to keep your heads out of the clouds, or in your case, off of the boys."

"I just can't help it," Marinette dismissed her behavior, "I just want to find the perfect boy."

Nathalie had to physically bite back the retort of the perfect boy for her being right under her nose. "I don't care about that," she said instead, "The problem is that you just have no idea what's going on around you! I can't always be there to save the day when you get in trouble, and while Adrien is competent he can't help you if something happens in the air. He doesn't have wings!"

"Adrien and I can handle ourselves," Marinette argued, "And I'd thank you to remember that you trained us to be able to fight, yet when bad things happen you're the one that intervenes!"

"Because you're too young and inexperienced!" Nathalie felt her temper rising, the one emotion that she had not lost touch with in the past year was rage and anger. It served her well, kept her from forgetting, and from forgiving the unforgivable.

"And you-" Marinette caught sight of her appearance in the stream (which to them was more like a river) below, "Oh my goodness I'm a total mess!"

"You're choosing to worry about that now?"

"Of course! I want to look my best," Marinette tugged on Nathalie's arm, "Come on, we have to get ready for the Spring Ball!"

Nathalie let out a breath of laughter, "Ah, no. You have to get ready for the Spring Ball."

Marinette eyed her sister with a look of disbelief and slight disapproval, "You're going like that?" she asked. At Nathalie's nod she added, "Good luck being asked to dance."

"I'm not dancing," Nathalie replied, "As a matter of fact I'm only going because Dad asked me to. Otherwise I would skip the whole thing entirely."

Marinette huffed, "Did whatever happened last year take away your ability to have a good time too?"

Nathalie froze, "Parties are a little less enjoyable when all anyone can do is speculate why you ended your engagement on the day of the wedding," she said harshly.

Marinette sensed the danger in pressing the issue and held her hands up placatingly, "Alright, alright. Still a sore subject, I'm sorry. It's alright, I'll have enough fun for the both of us."

"Your feet are going to be sore," Nathalie pointed out.

"When you dance with the perfect boy you feel like you're dancing on air," Marinette parried.

"So your feet are going to be really sore," Nathalie ribbed.

The sisters laughed as they flew back to the castle.

MLB

The Spring Ball was a traditional event in the Fairy Kingdom. And in the years before last Nathalie had always looked forward to it. She was always awkward, but it was a good chance to have some fun away from sneaking out under her father's watch, which as the eldest and heir apparent Nathalie couldn't do nearly as much as Marinette could. And yet, this year as she strode in on her father's arm Nathalie wanted nothing more than to spread her wings, fly off, and hack at something with her sword until her muscles screamed or they gave out. After having her heart broken this whole thing felt so fake.

The Fairy King noticed this and whispered to her, "Smile my dear, smile."

Nathalie tried to oblige, but ended up looking more like a cornered creature baring its teeth.

"A real smile," the king nudged.

"This is one of my better ones," Nathalie parried.

"I just don't understand," her father shook his head, "You used to love the Spring Ball."

"Dad, I'm just too old for this sort of thing," and it was true. Amongst the Fairies she was considered a spinster. And since she'd never expressed interest in anyone, a betrothal had seemed the most logical option. Until it hadn't been, and then Nathalie refused to try again.

The Fairy King sighed, "Well, I hope you're not too old to share a dance with your father,"

Nathalie smiled for real and was about to respond when a voice called out, "Or someone even better."

That voice. It couldn't be. But sure enough when Nathalie looked over there he was. With that smarmy charming grin and his armor shined to perfection. And that confident glint in his eye. The one that said though she hadn't yet given in this would be the time she surely would.

Sebastian began to sing, something she'd adored when she'd still been blind to the truth. But now he was making a production of a public apology. A way to force her hand, to make her forgive him because of societal expectations. If he made such an effort before so many witnesses she would be the one in the wrong for refusing him; which she had every intention of doing.

She decided to remind him of what exactly he had done wrong, "You cheated on me, remember?" she hissed at him.

"You left me at the altar," he said as though it was an equivalent exchange of agony, "remember?" when she looked unmoved he mimed a sword -symbolic of her indifference- plunging into his heart.

Of course, that was more for the crowd than for her. He was charming everyone, even her father, even the sprites. They all believed him, because they couldn't see past the surface. The song continued, and now Nathalie could see he'd managed to rope in others, swaying them with his charm and words into helping him win her back. They all gathered around the ballroom's fountain, forming a huge flower that was supposed to be a token of peace. One that she would be expected to accept, even after taking to the air to escape the kiss he'd attempted to force on her. And still, he persisted to think he had claim on her, calling her his.

"I'm not your anything!" Nathalie shouted at him, somehow still remaining relatively impassive despite the rage she felt boiling under her skin, heating her blood and making her sword hand twitch for the hilt of the weapon.

"One little mistake," Sebastian chided her. As though he truly thought his actions nothing more than a trivial matter. Despite how utterly it had torn her apart.

"Little?" Nathalie repeated numbly. Her ire was unleashed, "Little!" she descended towards him with an accusatory finger pointed, "You, you have a lot of nerve walking in her and saying it was one little mistake!"

And then she began to sing. Full of anger, full of righteous fury. This was not Fairy song, this was something far darker and more primal, being drudged up from the very depths of her soul. Sebastian would pay, and a public slamming, ridicule, humiliation would be the lightest pound of flesh she would extract before she was through.

It was fun, so incredibly satisfying to see him tremble with fear even as he tried to continue to win her back. Skittering like the lowest form of life, a coward with no spine. Further and further she dove him back until he was literally against the wall. With a final declaration of how she wanted nothing to do, loud and in his face so it would get through his incredibly thick and self-absorbed skull, she pulled the doors until he fell through them and then immediately slammed them shut. A final petty wave had her looking back at the crowd, who watched her as though they had no idea who this creature was.

Too satisfied to care Nathalie said, "Now that was fun."

The awkward silence ensued. Made only more awkward with Marinette's declaration of it being awkward as she looked away. With a sigh of frustration Nathalie threw up her hands and stalked away, uncaring of the party she was leaving behind.

leave me a comment and tell me what you thought. Until next time