Everyone pushed in the rocks at the same time.
Nothing happened for a moment. The rocks stayed the few inches in and everyone stood waiting.
"Did we do it wrong?" Artie asked.
Emma was furious. "Why didn't it work?" She looked at the wall mad as hellfire before punching. However, as she swung through, there was nothing to catch her punch. The wall was now merely a trick of the eye. And, she fell through it, onto the bottom stairs.
"Emma!" and "Princess!" Came from the men as they watched her disappear.
Chip, Arely and Artie all made to walk through the wall, but ended up walking into it.
"Dear gods…" Alexander breathed, "She's facing the witch alone."
Patrick saw the distraught look in Alexander's eyes, "Let us do it again. I shall use my boot to press this lower rock and we can get the others with our hands."
"Who's going to go in? It obviously only lets one in at a time." Arely asked.
"I'll go." Alexander said quickly, surprising everyone, including himself with his sudden bravery.
"No, you can't." Patrick shook his head, "I'm a knight. I'll go."
"Nay." Gustave stepped in, "You're a knight who's found love. I'm only a knight. You stay. I'll go."
"Emma hates you after that stunt you tried to pull with the queen." Dunstan said seriously, "She doesn't trust you. She needs someone she does trust. I'll go."
"Have you even spoken 9 words to her? Aside from asking her to teach you to dance this afternoon? She doesn't know you, how can you trust someone you don't know? She knows me. I'll go." Artie looked to the other prince with narrowed brows.
"And do what? You're a child. Can you even wield a sword? Have you even seen a battle? Let alone been in one?" Arely shook his head, "She needs a strong partner. I'll go."
"No." Chip looked to them all with a hard face and unreadable eyes. "I'm going. I have the most experience in battle—not as much as Gustave or Patrick, but the reasons they are not going are sound. She needs someone strong, someone she likes and trusts. That does narrow the field to you and I, Arely. Of course, I don't see why she trusts you." He looked down and back up, "But she does. However, I've the battle experience, and… I'm my mother's son."
"And what does that mean?" Arely asked.
Chip inhaled deeply and his eyes rolled to the back of his head. He began growling, and his head jerked to one side before he looked to all of them once more, his eyes now a glowing yellow, fangs where canines used to be, "It means I'm part wolf." He shook his head clearing his features.
All of the men said nothing. They simply lined against the wall.
"So it's true about Queen Red?" Arely asked as he placed his hands against two rocks, "She's a werewolf?"
"Aye." Chip nodded.
"So, are you a werewolf?"
"I'm… a different type. My mother's the highly publicized type that comes the week of the full moon. She's found control of her wolf, and she has her wolf senses, swiftness and instincts when in battle, but she only has the strength and the ability to change during wolf's week." He paused a moment, "I… can wolf out whenever I please. My senses are higher, more acute than hers and my instincts quicker. I've my strength all the time. I'm a different breed. The only one of my kind that I've ever known or read about. Same goes for my other mother."
"The former librarian?" Dunstan asked.
"She was never a librarian." Chip chuckled. "She's always been a princess. But yes, that one. She got that rumor for a reason."
~0~0~0~0~0~
Emma turned back to the wall. She stood and pressed her hand against it. It was solid again. "Huh." She looked at the stairs that wound up a tower; there was no time to worry about the men and the fact that she was going to battle alone after all. "Maleficent." She whispered as she started ascending the staircase. There was a yellow-green orb of light that illuminated the stairs, and with a tilted head Emma climbed each step with a lazy, almost serene doe-eyed look as she became completely entranced.
But, when she got to the top of the stairs, the light faded. Emma shook from her daze. With a hardened brow, she kicked the door down. She threw her hands up, blue and white, pure magic pouring from them. "I've had enough of your games!" Emma boomed as she took a step into the room. Though, as she took in her surroundings, as she took in Maleficent's lifeless form on the bed, she knew something was off.
~0~0~0~0~0~
Chip looked to see that everyone was ready, "Ready?"
"Aye."
"Push."
They pushed and the same thing happened. Chip walked through the mirage. Arely was quick to follow, and he luckily made it through as well. When Artie pushed against the wall it had become solid once more.
~0~0~0~0~0~
Emma knit her brows and lowered her arms. She slowly padded to the bed and sat down. She picked up the witch's hand, but found it cold. She dropped it immediately. She took one of her daggers and placed it adjacent to the witch's nose and mouth. There was no breath. As a last ditch effort, she touched Maleficent's pulse point on her neck. A pulse was there, but it was weak.
"I didn't… I didn't want to do it, but they made me. They MADE me! I didn't want to do it. I didn't. I didn't want to do it. She was nice. She was good to me." A voice whispered behind Emma.
Emma, dagger still drawn turned ready for a fight. However, she saw a girl in a pink dress and long reddish-light-brown hair curled in a corner. Her face was hidden between the crooks of her arms, propped on her knees and she pulled crazily at her long locks, "I didn't want to do it. I tried to stop. I tried. I didn't… I didn't, I didn't—I DIDN'T!" She shouted, still hiding behind her tresses when Emma got too close.
The blonde took a step back, arms up in surrender, "Okay… How did you get in here?"
"This is my home." The girl looked up, her big, ice blue eyes twitching at the sight of the other woman.
"Oh my gods…" Emma knelt where she was, "Aurora? Briar Rose?" She tried to reach a gentle hand to the other woman, but she turned away, "This magically produced tower is your home?"
Aurora, hugging the wall, craned her neck back to look at Emma—more like to look in her general direction and twitch away from her sight, "Phyllipina loved me." Her eyes now closed as if she were experiencing a migraine and she started cackling, the look in her eye becoming one of pure evil. "You poor, simple girl! You've no idea who you're dealing with!" She lunged forward and scratched Emma's cheek. Emma was quick to move back and hold her dagger against the girl's neck in defense and warning. This was when the crazed princess closed her eyes and shook her head again, "NO!" the meek voice came back. She didn't look to Emma at all, "You need to leave. Now."
"Aurora… I don't understand."
"Yes, it's all a big misunderstanding. No one understands. What is understanding? How do we all understand?" She looked at Maleficent on the bed, "I didn't want to do it. I think I know I loved my Phyllipina."
"That's Maleficent… not… Phyllipina."
Aurora let her head loll back and forth a moment, taking in what Emma said, "Phyl wasn't bad. She was good. She saved me. She saved me. Saved me… I didn't want to kill her." She now looked directly into Emma's eyes, "You're so bright and white. You're what they're afraid of." She smiled.
"Aurora… What happened to you?"
The unstable princess smiled as she bit her bottom lip and closed her eyes, "Love." After another bite to her lip, she continued, "Love had, love fights, love make-ups, love-love, love had again, love lost. Love not lost; love taken! Love ripped from my chest!"
Emma knit her brows, "Did Maleficent take your heart?" her tone was low and soft, thinking she hit it right on the nose.
Aurora, eyes still closed shook her head with a chuckle, "No. I gave Phyllipina my heart."
Emma wasn't sure what to think now, "Aurora, you're not making sense."
"I'm afraid none of it does." The auburn haired princess looked to the ground. "There is no sense to be made because it's nonsensical. The whole of it all. It doesn't make sense. Sense is lost. I didn't mean to kill her. I didn't want to kill her." She paused a moment, "I couldn't fight it. I wished and wished for it to be me instead… They just laughed."
"Aurora…" Emma sat there not knowing what to say or do. Then she realized, "Who's 'they'?"
"Them." Aurora looked into the mirror a moment then clutched her chest. "The two of them." A single tear ran down her face.
Emma did her best to comfort from a distance, "Okay, Briar Rose, but who are they?"
Aurora's eyes lolled to the back of her head and she clutched her heart before anger and rage took over her face, "STOP TALKING!" Then the princess collapsed.
"Be you possessed?" Emma wondered allowed.
~0~0~0~0~0~
"Why is it when you're anxious time stops?" Alexander asked as he paced the width of the hallway.
"Why is it when you're having fun and are happy, time flies?" Patrick countered, trying to distract his oh-so-secret—er, not-so-secret lover.
Alexander stopped and turned to him. He thought the question over before looking to the other three men, "Any of you have answers?"
"No." Artie shrugged before he stopped and turned his head slightly, angling his ear. "Do you guys hear something?"
Gustave and Patrick glanced to each other before they both drew their swords.
"They're coming." Gustave said.
"Who?" Dunstan asked, unsheathing his sword as well.
"The goons. They know that someone is in Maleficent's room." Gustave answered.
"How many goons does she have?" Artie followed everyone else's moves.
"No one knows. They seem to constantly reproduce." Patrick looked to the youngest prince, "We're just going to have to fight until Emma, Arely and Chip come back."
"Or until we die." Artie looked at him seriously.
"Yes, but Artie?" Alexander touched his shoulder, "You can't think like that. Half of fighting is a mental game. If you think you're going to lose, you're going to lose. You have to believe that you will win. That you will live."
Gustave nodded his head, "Well said, Prince. Where did you become so knowledgeable."
"I learned it from love." Alexander let a calming breath after he spoke; he felt his heart pounding as he chanced a glance to Patrick before looking down one end of the hallway to see the first fleet of goons rounding the corner.
~0~0~0~0~0~
"Emma! Are you in there?! Is everything all right?!" Arely ran in the room to see Emma huddled over another woman. "What the hell?"
Chip strolled into the room a moment later looking to the body before Emma, "I knew I smelt a third party." He shook his head as if clearing something away.
"What happened to you?" Emma asked as she looked at the other prince.
"There was a light in the stairwell… I gazed at it a moment too long. It captured me."
"Yeah, he who has been in more battles and boasted of his strength looked into the pretty light." Arely clapped the man on the shoulder before looking over to the bed and stepping back as he was literally taken aback.
Emma nodded after following his line of sight, "Maleficent is half dead. I'm not sure how, but the Briar Rose did it." She moved to the side, revealing the Princess.
"They really know how to sleep up in the Morpheus Kingdom, don't they?" Arely said as he observed the girl.
"Arely." Chip scolded, sensing something sinister had developed.
"She's passed out." Emma gave the Caspian Prince a glare.
"Why? Did you give her a good punch or kick?" He joked on.
"Arely." Emma's nostrils flared, "You do not want to mess with me. Not now, not tonight. Not while I don't have answers."
"Yes, you made that abundantly clear with the goons."
Emma's fisted hand rose a bit before she threw what looked to be fairy dust on the prince and he vanished.
"Where did he go?!" Chip asked seriously.
~0~0~0~0~0~
"Honestly, Love, do you really think a bit of fairy dust is… going to…" Arely's words slowed to a stop as he took in the fact that he was no longer on the Forbidden Mountain with Emma and the other lads. He looked around to find the Shadow Queen, Queens Red and Belle, Charming and Queen Snow, and the six advisors to the Shadow Queen. "Damn it." He muttered.
"Arely?" Red, sitting at a table by her lonesome looked to the young prince.
"'Ello." He smiled, "Well, it's late, I presume. I'm tired. I'll just go find my fathers and be off." He tried to get out of the library before questions could be asked.
"Prince Arely." Regina walked from one of the bookshelves with Queen Belle.
"Yes, your Majesty?"
"Where the hell have you been?"
"Here, there." He shrugged.
"Where is everyone else?"
"They're still there." He'd gotten in trouble and sassed off a lot in his life, but never had he felt as though his life were at risk. But when he watched the Shadow Queen regally walk down the few steps to the part of the room he was at, and stare him down as she did so, he thought he might just die right then and there.
"Prince Arely, I assure you that everyone in here is not going to accept that as an answer. So, I need you to please, tell me the explicit truth. Where is Emma?" She closed her eyes, scolding herself at her slip, "Where are the others?"
Arely saw the pain in her eyes, "I'm afraid that's the only thing I'll be able to tell you. So, I'm not going to answer… You might have a million other questions after that and I don't have those answers. So, can I just tell you that she poofed me back here because I egged her on, not because she needed to send someone back? Can I just tell you that she's fine? Because that way, I won't make you and the others here more worried than you need to be." He spoke softly, trying not to let everyone else hear. Though, he didn't take Chip's mother into account as he did this.
Red stood, "Arely, I think that was handled very well." She strutted over to the young prince, "In any other situation, I would commend you. You're obviously thinking of the Shadow Queen and that's good, but I swear to every god you know the name of and some that you don't that if you don't tell me where my son is, I will rip you to pieces and I won't need the help of a full moon."
Arely had been wrong before, it was in this moment that he thought he was going to die right then and there. "They're at the Forbidden Mountain!" He cried out and quickly shuffled away from the two queens.
"The Forbidden Mountain!?" Came the collective, horrified askance of most everyone else in the room.
"Yes." Arely nodded as he sat in a chair at one of the many studying tables.
"Why did they go there?!" Charming yelled at the boy as he started over to him.
Snow quickly intercepted him, "Charming! Don't frighten the boy."
Charming huffed and crossed his arms, staring Arely down.
"No, Charming, please! Frighten the boy. Intimidation obviously works." Red too, was in a huff.
"It seems that this may be the only thing we ever agree upon." He looked to Red.
Red now rolled her eyes, but said nothing.
Arely knit his brows at the interaction, but he too, said nothing. That was until Regina walked seemingly helplessly over to him. He then felt the presence of the six advisors that were not afraid to be the slightest bit intimidating for their worried, preoccupied Shadow Queen.
"Arely, do you know why?"
Arely swallowed, "Emma said it was for peace, but Chip said it was for you." He whispered. "And I think he said that because Emma couldn't."
Red turned with surprise at hearing her son's name and anguish over what the entire trip meant. She looked over to her wife, who at first tried to ignore the stare but could not hold out for long. Belle quickly descended the steps and took Red's hands, understanding that she had heard something about their boy.
"I think they're going to be fine." Arely said sincerely having seen the entire exchange, plus the anguish in the Queen's eyes. "Chip and I went into the tower after Emma. I'm not even sure of what I saw, so I'm not going to say anything on that except that Maleficent was defenseless. They just need to gather everyone and get back here."
Regina nodded and leaned in to hug the prince. This was when he was forced to see Queen Snow walk over to Queens Red and Belle, assumedly asking what Red had heard when Belle put herself between Red and the White Queen.
Regina let him go, "Excuse me." She quickly made her way to another bookshelf to get out of everyone's sight. Her tears were not lost on Arely before she left.
He looked to the advisors, "She shouldn't worry. Emma wouldn't have poofed me so flippantly if there were more obstacles or they weren't about to come back anyways."
Hook nodded as he sat down next to the boy, "She knows that. She's just… invested."
"For all of your and your families' safety while here for the competition." Graham sat across from them both, unconvincingly covering for the Queen and everyone involved.
Arely knew that he shouldn't point out that the eight of them going to the Forbidden Mountain was neither in the Shadow Lands or part of the competition. Instead, he observed Belle's standoffish behavior with her wife and the White Queen, "Did Queen Red and Queen Snow once have a relationship?" He nodded to the queens in question.
Graham chuckled, "In short, yes."
"And at length?" Arely asked.
"They seem to possess strong feelings for each other still." Bae leaned against the table after listening in.
"And it causes Charming to brood and glare and Belle to get in Snow's face then walk away from her wife." Hook said.
"That's why they aren't allowed to sit next to each other, or really go to the same event unless it's unavoidable." Graham added.
"I wouldn't be surprised if their kids don't know about them. Especially the White Princess. She'd have no reason to suspect that her mother and Queen Red were once romantic."
Arely raised his brows as he took in all the new information. Interesting.
~0~0~0~0~0~
Emma looked at the princess seeing her chest rise and fall. She looked behind her to the bed that Maleficent was on and sadly snapped her fingers, calling a pillow over to her. She ripped a thick strip of fabric and tied it over the princess's eyes, "Cover thy eyes, take thy sight, no more intruders, only see night." The strip lit up and brilliant blue before settling to its original. She took another strip and tied it over her mouth, "No more cries, do not rejoice; I heard your plea and take your voice." Again the strip of fabric lit up and faded.
Chip watched on with fascination and a million questions went through his mind, but let the White Princess concentrate.
Emma took another strip of fabric and tied it around Aurora's wrists. "Bracelets have strength, bracelets restrain, bracelets stop the evil contained." Once more the fabric lit up a brilliant blue and faded.
She stood and moved to the Prince of the Enchanted West, "Something is wrong with her. We need to find out what." She whispered.
"Of course." Chip nodded, ready to step into action, but stopped short, "Before we leave, might I ask a question?" His voice was just as soft.
"Of course, Chip."
"Your magic… It's not normal is it?"
Emma looked down, "It's not."
"It's blue and white. Not even the blue fairy's magic is that brilliant; hers looks dark in comparison."
"Hers is merely fairy dust."
"But it's magic."
"And not all magic is the same. Some is stronger than others, some is evil, some is good."
He stared at her a moment in an internal debate before he finally decided that this was his only chance to be frank with her, "My mother used to read me stories about beings, special beings, gifted beings. They were said to walk the world and blend in, but they were the most powerful beings in the world. They had magic and strength and abilities to do anything they pleased—take another form, become invisible, see through walls, even fly. And they had wit and charm to hide all of their ability and stick to the crowds and the shadows until they were needed. They were always needed. They were called Pure Ones."
Emma swallowed, "We need to get Maleficent and the Briar Rose out of here. I need to figure out what happened for sure to the princess and not just go on assumption…"
"I won't tell." Chip said sincerely, "In fact, I think I might be able to help you sometimes. If need be."
Emma looked at him to find he was telling what he believed to be the truth, "How?"
"I have power of my own…" He said vaguely.
"Oh? You a werewolf like your mother?" She crossed her arms and continued flippantly, "I know you have the nose because she told me but—GOOD GODS!" Emma grabbed Chip's wolfed-out face, "How are you staying both human and wolf?" She opened his eye socket wider staring at his yellow iris, before moving to his mouth, opening it and testing the sharpness of his fang.
"I just can." He pushed the blonde away from him. He shook his head returning to normal, "We'll talk later. We need to figure this out first." He pointed to the two other women in the room.
"My thoughts exactly. You get the other princess. I'll deal with her, just in case she wakes up."
"You think she will?" Chip asked, hoisting Aurora effortlessly into his arms.
Emma looked at the prince gravely, "Nay, but I'm not going to take chances." She placed her hand to Maleficent's pulse point one more time, "Her pulse is slow, but it's been steady." She said. She placed her hand over the other blonde's chest and let a little healing magic settle in, in hopes that Maleficent would stay alive enough for her to get answers. Then, she picked up the evil witch. "Let us go get the others."
They walked into the corridor and down the spiral staircase. Once the wall came into sight, Emma concentrated and it soon disappeared. They stepped into the hallway to find that it had turned into what seemed to be the hallway of terror.
Artie, Alexander, Patrick, Gustave and Dunstan were fighting goon after goon. It seemed the castle was on red alert.
"Emma!" Alexander saw them first and ran over to her. "All of them found us and just started attacking!" He cried.
Emma screamed loud, hoping that her cry would echo down the halls, "Freeze goons!" Every last goon was immediately covered in ice.
The men looked to the bundles in Emma's and Chip's arms.
"What in gods' names…?" Gustave said as he looked to the fallen evil witch in Emma's arms when he noticed the blood on the makeshift bandage on the princess's hand, "Here. You're bleeding still."
"You are too." She said, "I'm not letting anyone non-magical deal with her." Her tone too serious to argue with.
"Yes, your majesty." He nodded.
"We do need to get out of here before they thaw." The blonde took a breath, "Circle up. Let's go back to the Shadow lands."
AN: This is my favorite chapter so far guys; that's why I was so quick to post this week, haha! I love writing crazy people. Did I do well? Other thoughts and feels? I wonder why Aurora thought the tower was her home…? What's going to come of all this?
Please Read and Review!