At first upon seeing Ellie Melody thought she might be rooming with a cold fish (no puns intended on either of their mothers) but as they sat down Ellie looked to her. "I hear you're my roommate." She said. "I look forward to getting to know you."
"Me too." Melody said, feeling a little better. Ellie then exchanged friendly smiles with Amy as she sat down.
"Fairy Godmother is right, you definitely don't seem like your mother." Ellie said to her. "You seem much friendlier."
"I've always been an embarrassment to my mom." Amy said a little sadly but cheered up a bit when Ellie smiled at her.
"Funny, I've heard the same thing said occasionally about my cousin or aunt. You should see how angry mom gets when she hears it. Me." She shrugged her shoulder. "I don't like it but that's their problem, not mine. I know what they're really like and I bet you're so much more than your mom is smart enough to see."
Amy knew she should be somewhat upset at her mother being dismissed like that and if it had been Mal maybe she would have been, but Amy wasn't bothered by it. Her relationship with Maleficent was all but nonexistent. "Thank you, it's nice to hear that." She admitted softly.
"So what brings you two to Auradon Prep?" Audrey asked the two of them.
"Well actually to be honest the big reason to come here to school instead of school in Arendelle is because we can't control our powers." Alex said casually.
"Um, come again?" Carlos asked.
"Well I can only assume you know about my aunt's special ice powers." Alex said, again so casually that they might as well have been talking about their dinner options. He leaned back a little bit and Lonnie was surprised he didn't fall off the bench. "And that would sadly include her inability to control the powers."
"We're all kind of aware of it." Ben replied. The various details of what had happened in Arendelle ever since Elsa's coronation were not exactly public knowledge outside of the town but it wasn't a well-kept secret either if one knew where to look.
"Did anyone ever figure out where the ice power came from?" Miranda asked them.
"No clue." Alex said with a shrug.
"I remember hearing that your mother couldn't control her powers." Lonnie said as diplomatically as possible. "Her parents tried to prevent her from using those powers and so she never learned how to control them. Then when she was coroneted her powers got away with her for a while."
"It's basically the truth." Ellie replied with equal diplomatic tones. "It's in fact something that my mother still sometimes struggles to control." She let out a soft sigh. "I've come across the same powers as my mother has." She revealed as she raised her hand and let a few snowflakes fall to the ground. "I have enough control not to hurt anyone on accident, as my mother did with Arendelle. But that's it."
"So you've come here to learn better control over your powers." Mal concluded. She hid the smirk from her face, not so much because the situation itself was funny but because she found it ironic they would come here where magic had been all but outlawed. They only had the magic class because that was being used in their fight against Paradias and his accomplices.
"So that explains you." Will agreed as with a glance at Ellie. He looked to Alex. "But why are you here?"
"Same reason." Alex said with a shrug. He was almost too casual about that for Melody's tastes. Once she had an understanding of the massive power of her grandfather's trident she had grown to respect that power for all the good it could do in the right hands, and the destruction it could cause in the wrong hands.
"What do you mean?" Aziz asked him. "I thought only Queen Elsa had powers, not Princess Anna."
"It's true." Alex agreed simply and then raised his hands up. Flames flared up in the palms. "So imagine both of our parents surprise when I did this." They could easily understand that, fire control was certainly something to be concerned about.
"Since no one here really knows how to gain control over powers like that, the best solution was to send them here and participate in my magic class." Fairy Godmother said.
"I might be able to help you with your powers Alex." Amy shyly said to him. "I have really good control over the four basic elements." She was very uncertain with new people but she loved to try to help.
"That'd be great." Alex said with a casual but sincere smile. "If you can do that then maybe I can figure out how to help you Ellie." He added with a smile at his cousin.
She smiled a small but warm smile. "That would be nice." She agreed. She had come to understand how her mother could be so reserved when her own powers had come in. She figured without the support of her family she might have tried to isolate herself just as her mother tried to do, and would have succeeded in too if it weren't for Aunt Anna.
"I don't mean to be mean here or anything." Jay now said. "But are we sure them rooming with Melody and Ben is a good idea if they can't control their powers completely?" He questioned. Audrey gave him a disapproving look, as did Mal even though she had to admit the concern was a valid one. But it could have been mentioned to Fairy Godmother in private.
"It's okay." Melody said. She looked to Ellie. "If something were to get out of hand I can diffuse it with the trident anyway."
"And I trust that Alex can control his powers." Ben said. "It'll be fine."
Jay nodded. "Okay then." He said, hoping it wasn't a mistake.
The next day Ellie and Alex came into class with no incident bigger than a temporarily frozen bath tub of water that Melody was able to melt away and a melted chocolate bar. Ellie reluctantly accepted an invitation from Melody to sit next to her, with Amy on the other side and Mal beside her twin. Alex took a seat and returned to his doodling. He felt a little unsure since the whole class before him was full of girls.
Fairy Godmother came into the classroom but it was still a bit early. "So what classes do Ben and everyone else take while you guys are in here?" Alex asked the girls. He had noticed on the way here that Ben had broken off to go to another room and that everyone from the group that was not in that room had been waiting for the young king too.
"Oh, uh they have English classes down there." Jane said. "And they all take some form of English classes at this time."
Ellie raised her eyebrows just a bit. She thought Jane had to be a really bad liar. She didn't pursue it though as she figured it wasn't really any of her business.
"Alright, well." Fairy Godmother intervened. "It's a little early but we're all here so we might as well start now." She paced the room a moment in thought. "Amy yesterday you volunteered to work with Alex, why don't you start now?" She suggested.
"Yes ma'am." Amy answered. She moved over to where Alex was and sat down next to him and she began to talk quietly with him.
Fairy Godmother looked to Ellie. "I received word last night from the maintenance staff about the water in the bathtub freezing up. It had an effect on some of the pipes as well though that was taken care of easily enough." She said to the new blonde. "It does that during the winter weather occasionally. But can you tell me what you were thinking of when it happened?"
Ellie thought a moment. "Not really. I remember missing my mother, but that was about all I can recall." She answered.
"Couldn't her powers be tied to her emotions?" Jane suggested. "Often times without a conduit like the magic wand or the trident control over magical powers is usually tied to a person's emotional state."
"Very good point Jane." Fairy Godmother agreed.
"But wouldn't that result in snow fall instead?" Mal asked now. "I mean if we tie sadness into weather then snow is the closest thing to rain and rain is equal to tears." She noticed smoke from Amy's hands and Alex waved his hand gently over the flame as if getting a feel for the fire she was using.
"Not if there were no tears." Jane replied. "If it's a general feeling of sadness it might just be cast onto something else like the tub of water."
The iPhones went off and Amy glanced at Mal. The alarm in her older twin's eyes told her what it was; a monster alarm. She sighed internally. "Mal, Amy, Jane, Melody, Jordan." Fairy Godmother called out. "I believe you guys have a test to go make up because of the time you spent in Agrabah." Mal tried to snicker at the excuse but they got up to leave.
"See you later." Melody said to Ellie. "I'll help you try to get a feel for the connection between your emotions and your powers later."
"We'll work tomorrow too." Amy promised Alex and the five girls left.
The two cousins exchanged curious glances. They both felt as if they were missing something.
The rangers showed up at the command center. Doug and Jane immediately got to work figuring out what had set off the alarms. They found both Undine and a large four legged reptile in armor and a holding a scythe with her. They were headed toward Auradon Prep.
"What is that?" Evie wondered. She glanced to Melody who was technically an undersea expert because of everything she had learned from her grandfather King Triton of Atlantica.
"If I remember right that's the Neptune Tyrant." Melody said. "It's a fairy legendary creature, said to be the executioner of the Neptune Kingdom."
"I've never heard of the Neptune Kingdom." Ben said. Granted he assumed it was an underwater one like Atlantica but he still would have thought they would have heard something about it.
"I'm not surprised. They're isolationists." Melody answered.
"Come again?" Carlos asked.
"They don't like contact with outsiders." Jordan translated.
"My grandfather told me he and my grandmother encountered them long before my first aunt was born. They wanted nothing to do with Atlantica and they told them to warn others to leave them alone." Melody continued to explain. "Apparently the only reason they let my grandparents go unmolested was because they needed someone to deliver their message."
"If that's the case then is one of their executioners with Undine?" Amy wondered. She could only assume sometime in the past they had their anti-contact request ignored, hence their decision to have executioners.
"I can only assume either Undine found a way around that or they've changed their mind, though not for the better apparently." Melody reasoned.
"Either way they're here causing trouble now." Audrey said. "We better put a stop to that."
"Of course." Mal agreed with a small sigh. Of course that was because it was yet another monster attack rather than anything to do with Audrey. "Let's find them and let's get to work." They left the command center and headed out of the school. Ben, Jane and Melody took out their items and transformed as the rest of the team took out their iPhones, input their numbers and transformed.
Finding the two opponents was not hard to do. Undine grinned broadly. "So nice to see you again." She said with amused scorn. "Amy, I never did break your legs again, did I?" She asked sweetly. "Remind me to make that happen." She glared at Melody. "And the torments I have planned for you…well let's just say you'll wish I had just killed you."
"You were always big on words Undine." Mal stated to her. "And you did a better job of backing those words up then some others I can think of, but you're still basically nothing."
Melody looked at Amy and couldn't help but ask softly, "Did she really break your legs?" Amy said nothing but her body posture told the aqua ranger what she needed to know and she was not happy about it.
"If ye think you're that good, then why don't we have a rematch ourselves?" Miranda said to Undine as she summoned her swords. She could already see that she had Will, Aziz and even Amy to back her up.
Melody wanted to help but thought those rangers who were about to face Neptune Tyrant needed her expertise to help them. Mal looked to Ben though. "Can you please help Amy with Undine?" She asked him softly.
Ben understood his girlfriend's feelings. "Of course. Go take down that other thing." He said to her. With that Mal lead Audrey, Carlos, Evie, Jay, Ally, Jordan, Lonnie, Melody and Jane toward the executioner of Neptune.
Neptune Tyrant swiped the seemingly massive scythe at the rangers and they all ducked under it except for Jay and Lonnie who timed it to jump off the scythe and bring their weapons down on the monster. The force of the attack might have been better if he didn't have the armor to help protect him.
Undine lashed out and her tentacles slapped Aziz in the chest and head hard. Even transformed it was enough of a stunning force to take him down for the moment. Then with the backlash she slapped Will and Amy hard.
Mal was beginning to get up herself when she was slapped down hard. Audrey looked to her. "Mal, are you okay?" She asked her, growing concerned. She couldn't see the look of grim confirmation on Melody's face.
"Just felt a bit dizzy as I stood up." Mal explained to her. "I'm fine."
Undine moved toward Amy as she flexed her shoulders. "Should I break your legs with my arms or my tentacles?" She asked with a malicious glare. Then she laughed. "My arms I think, it means I get to be closer to your body as you scream in pain."
"Don't be counting your chickens before they hatch Undine." Miranda cautioned her as she flipped in between the sea witch and the rose ranger. She jumped up and kicked her in the face hard, making her recoil backwards. Ben was Amy helping her up.
"That scythe is bigger than we are." Melody noted. "We can't beat that thing as long as he holds that thing."
"You're right." Jay agreed simply. "But how do we disarm something that large of that?"
Jane and Melody glanced at each other. They could only think of one thing. They said it at the same time. "Magic." Now Jane looked to Jordan. "And we're going to need your help too."
"We'll keep the thing distracted for you." Mal said to her. It struck her then how much their group had grown. She would be taking in Audrey, Jay, Carlos, Evie and Lonnie with her. The original six rangers, considering it didn't take long for Lonnie to become a ranger compared to everyone else including Ben. It had been a long time since they had been like that. "Work whatever spell you need too."
The six rangers moved in to surround Neptune Tyrant. He swung his scythe again, he was big enough and strong enough to swing at all of them but they were fast enough to see it coming and ducked the attack. "If that thing ever connects with us, I think it might just kill us even through our protection." Carlos noted.
"Then let's make sure it doesn't touch us." Audrey said to him. She raised her elemental bow and fired an arrow into his arm. He flinched a little but did not drop the scythe. Personally the red ranger was sure that wouldn't work but still wanted to give it a shot.
Mal moved in with her dragon's eye staff and slammed it into the monster's head. It glared at her and smacked her back hard with its massive elbow. The purple ranger recoiled and she was surprised her jaw didn't break.
Amy suddenly fell back hard and Ben looked to her trying to figure out what had hit her. Miranda noticed that too and lost her focus, which was when Undine smacked her hard and sent her flying into Ben. Will moved in to cover them.
Jordan raised her lamp cannon. Jane tapped the magic wand on one side of the weapon while Melody tapped the trident on the other side of the weapon and with the combined magic Jordan shot at the large reptilian monster with her lamp cannon. The beam struck his hands and he lost his grip on the weapon, the scythe went flying into the water.
The monster turned glanced around trying to figure out which ranger to strike at first.
Will paced Undine and she raised her tentacles and unleashed a stream of inky goo at the green ranger, making him fall back hard. The force of the impact caused him to crash into Aziz. Ben and Miranda were still trying to get up themselves and Undine lashed out at Amy, crashing into her body hard.
Evie gasped as Mal went flying herself and landing hard. "M?" she questioned as she looked around to see what had hit her and wasn't seeing anything, at least not until a massive fist hit her in the chest hard but that was from Neptune Tyrant.
Undine looked down at Amy cruelly. "I won't waste the time on seeing your pretty little face." She said contemptuously. Instead a tentacle wrapped around her waist and she reached out with her hands to grasp Amy's ankles and she gave them both a sharp twist that snapped her legs from the knees down. The rose haired girl let out a loud scream of pain and was working hard not to pass out.
Mal reacted first to the scream but before she could do anything more she felt her legs give way as she got her legs broken in the same manner as Amy had just felt. She didn't scream but she let out a gasp that got everyone's attention before she literally bit her lip to stop herself from screaming.
That really drew attention as no one could figure out who had broken Mal's legs even as it was obvious who had broken Amy's legs. Then Undine let out a wicked cackle. "Oh, it works! Just as Maleficent said it would." She started to lean into Amy. "I wonder what else I can do to you that your sister will feel."
Melody broke away from Jordan and Jane and started toward Undine. She used the trident to knock her off of Amy. By that time Ben and Aziz had recovered and for a moment he was trying to figure out who to go to, Mal or Amy, but when he noticed Mal already had Audrey and Evie trying to get to her he decided to focus on how to help Amy. "Go help the others." Melody told Aziz. She faced off against Undine but Miranda was by her side now too.
Evie was by Mal's side. "M? How did that happen? What's going on?" She asked her. It seemed as if her chosen sister wanted to talk but couldn't work past the pain.
"What's going on?" Jay wanted to know. "No one's been attacking Mal at all when she was getting hurt."
"I don't know what to tell you." Evie said to him. "I don't know what's going on either."
Jane came over and leaned down next to Mal. "I'm surprised she's still conscious with both of her legs broken like that." She said shakily. There was a roar and Neptune Tyrant tried to barrel down on them before getting kicked in the chest hard by Audrey, Lonnie and Carlos.
Audrey turned to them. "This isn't over yet." She reminded them all softly. "I'm concerned about this too but if we don't get rid of this monster Mal might not be the only one left broken on the sands."
Jay took a deep breath and realized his girlfriend was right. He touched Evie's shoulders. "We have to help finish this thing off." He told the blue ranger. He then looked to the white ranger. "Can you do whatever you can to take care of Mal?" he asked.
Jane nodded. "Of course. Go finish this thing off." She answered.
Meanwhile Undine was being paced by both Miranda and Melody. "What did you do to Mal and Amy?" The aqua ranger demanded to know.
"I simply gave them mother's punishment." Undine said with wicked gleam in her eyes. "For being disobedient spoiled brats."
"Do ye have any idea how absolutely pathetic that sounds?" Miranda asked. "How do we reverse it?"
"What makes you think it's reversible?" Undine shot back and then raised her tentacles to fire the inky goo at the two new ranger girls.
Both Miranda and Melody headed toward the sea witch, flipping at the best time to avoid the nasty stream that was headed their way. Miranda landed in front of her and kicked Undine in the stomach hard. Melody rolled up behind the sea witch and tripped her with the end of the trident. She hit the ground hard. She then had two sword edges and a three pronged trident at her throat.
"Okay so what's the plan?" Evie asked Audrey. "How do we defeat this monster?"
"Maybe with some additional help?" Aziz suggested as he came over with Jordan. He could also see Ally coming over to them with Undine seemingly pinned down. Will was staying over there with his recursive sword in case something happened while Ben tended to a Amy in whatever way he could.
Audrey looked to Jordan. "We need to help Mal and Amy." She said to the gold ranger. "Is there something you can mix out here for that?" She asked.
Jordan thought a moment. "Yeah, I think so." She said finally.
"Do that then." Audrey said to the genie girl. "The rest of us will take the tyrant lizard thing out."
"Which brings us to the plan in question." Carlos pointed out. "Especially since I think there's a chance that armor will stop any attack we try to give it as long as it stays whole."
Audrey nodded. "That it does." She agreed and looked to Aziz. "I hate to ask you to take the big risk here but do you think you can distract this thing long enough for us to get a triangle spark going? Maybe even find a way to damage that armor so we don't have to try this again?" She asked the silver ranger.
Aziz nodded. "No worries, I'll take that challenge." He said as he raised his spiral spear.
Since they knew what they were doing Jay stopped Aziz. "Here, borrow my soul scimitar to help keep that thing distracted for the moment." He said.
Aziz nodded. "Thanks man."
"Anytime." Jay replied.
Aziz was already in front of Tyrant Neptune, trying to jab him with the spiral spear in one hand and slash at him with the soul scimitar in the other.
"Lonnie, Ally, Evie, you take the bottom row. Jay and Carlos in the middle and I'm taking the peak." Audrey said. "We'll give that thing all we've got."
The five rangers nodded. "Right." They replied.
With the formation decided the three girls stood shoulder to shoulder. Then Jay and Carlos jumped on top of their shoulders, followed by Audrey on top of the boy's shoulders. It wasn't a positon that any of them really wanted to stand in for too long but was okay for the time they needed to use their attack.
Aziz drew energy into both the spiral spear for a strike and the soul scimitar for a powerful slash and brought both of the energized weapons down on the monster as hard as he could and was gratified to see all of that effort yielded a decent crack in the armor and he just hoped the others could find that mark. Then he rolled out of the way in preparation for the triangle spark.
The six rangers drew their blasters and together shot the beam in the middle that would release the Auradon Triangle Spark, which flew right toward the monster, and rather it was by luck or by design no one could be certain but it struck the flaw in the armor and caused a massive explosion and when the smoke cleared the monster was gone with bits of armor lying about the beach.
"We got it, right?" Evie asked.
"We must have." Carlos said. "We have armor scattered all over the place but other than that there is no evidence it even existed, much like all the others."
"Ye better tell us what we need to know." Miranda said to Undine. "Or else you'll be following in that vile lizard's wake. How do we reverse what ye did to Mal and Amy?"
"What did you even do to them?" Will demanded to know now. The two newest rangers had been the only ones to notice anything was wrong before this last event.
But Undine laughed now. "You'll have to figure that one out on your own and then you'll have to figure out if there is even a cure." She taunted them before suddenly disappearing in a puff of black magic. It left the ranger's coughing for a moment and then they were alone.
Audrey let out a noise of frustration and then looked to Jordan. "Do you have anything to help them?"
Jordan held up to vials, tossing one to Ben and the other to Jane. "Have them drink that. It will mend their legs, it won't be instantaneous but it also has a numbing agent in it so we can get them back to the command center without hurting them further. They'll have to be carried."
Melody knelt down beside Amy and noticed that at some point the pain had become too much for her friend and she had passed out. Before she could worry about removing the helmet the rose haired girl was forced to power down.
Miranda knelt next to Ben. "I'll take Amy, ye best go to your girl." She said to the young king.
Ben hesitated only a moment before gently letting the Highlands ranger take Amy so he could go to Mal.
Mal was able to power down herself but didn't refuse assistance from Evie when she brought the potion over to her and held it steady as the purple haired girl drank. She was relieved to feel the pain subsiding. When Ben came over and she set her head on his lap she let darkness take her.
"She got the potion just before you came over here." Evie said to Ben. "What about Amy?"
"She lost consciousness during the final act." Ben said to her. He glanced over to see Melody slowly getting Amy's body to accept the liquid despite her not being conscious. "Looks like she's got it taken care of."
A few minutes later Will lifted Amy in his arms, and with Mal in Ben's arms they headed toward the command center.
Mal was not conscious of how long time passed before she opened her eyes. She saw her friends at the consoles of the command center. She turned her head to find Amy still out of it next to her, in a small cot next to hers.
"I heard somewhere that twins were well connected, but I didn't think it went to that kind of extreme." She heard Audrey say softly from beside her. Mal turned and gave her a small smile, taking her friend's hand and squeezing it gently.
"We're full of surprises." Mal tried to joke, which earned her a small reproving glance from the brunette princess. Mal could get that, she probably would have given someone that look if she had her position reversed with another.
Then Audrey called out, "Ben, guys. Mal's awake." She slipped out of Mal's grip so that Ben could come over. He leaned down and kissed her on the forehead softly. She squeezed Evie's hand tightly.
"We were so worried about you and Amy, M." Evie said to her softly.
"Has Amy gotten up yet?" Mal asked.
"Not yet." Lonnie said to her gently. "We've been keeping an eye on you at all times. You two really have Belle worried by the way."
Mal felt a rush of guilt that she forced down for the moment. They had to worry about the problem at hand right now, the twins could find a way to apologize to Belle if they needed to later on.
"I think it's time ye tell us what's going on here Mal." Miranda said not unkindly.
"I don't know precisely." Mal told her. "It seemed to start when we first encountered Undine and her pet Daedalus on the beach." She took a deep breath. "I was fighting that sea monster in my dragon zord when I started feeling like something would strike me occasionally."
"It wasn't you being struck though I guess." Ally said. "It must have been Amy."
"Is it part of your twin bond?" Aziz asked.
"Not possible." Jordan said. "If they were bonded that deeply Maleficent could never have forced Mal to forget about her when they were brought here to Auradon."
"Wait a second." Jane said as she got up. "Remember when we came back here after the fight, to take care of our wounds." She headed toward a small area to the side where they kept some of the things that needed to be further examined. "Evie and I took these little pine needle shaped barbs out of your arms that Undine shot at you."
"That must have been how Undine injected whatever she did into Mal and Amy's bloodstreams." Melody realized. "They're like quills or something. It was so subtle there was no way we could have expected it."
"Aye, it was only after a day or so that Melody and I started to notice anything unusual at all." Miranda added and then gestured toward Mal's palm. "The unknown paper cut on yer palm matches the one on Amy's."
"Undine gave you some kind of venom that lets you two experience each other's pain." Lonnie finished. "Presumably at Maleficent's request."
Jane took out the quill like needles and handed them to Doug. "Let's see if we can use this, combined with the blood samples we took from Mal and Amy when we came back, to see if we can find out what's causing this and what we can do to cancel it out." She said.