When Amy woke up Melody told her what they had all realized now. Something in the quill like objects that Undine had shot her and Mal with released something in them that allowed the twins to feel the others pain. It had started not long after Mal battled Daedalus with her own dragon zord and had been going on for at least a day now.
Melody sat on Amy's right side, which she was glad for. She had Lonnie on her left and that felt nice too but she found herself wishing that Ellie was there too. Something about her, like Melody, resounded to her. Friends of her own and not friends in part because of her relation to Mal.
"Why didn't you say something to us when it became apparent something was wrong?" Fairy Godmother asked Mal and Amy.
"I didn't really realize anything had gone wrong." Amy answered honestly.
"I did, after the paper cut thing." Mal revealed. "I just didn't want that to be a concern when we have so much to worry about." She shrugged a little. "I mean we have Amy and Melody and Will here, and we only need maybe two more people before we can take back the warzord and hopefully take the gray ranger powers from Gregory. That had to be our priority."
"No." Ben said from the purple haired girl's right side as he rubbed Mal's back softly. Evie was sitting on her left. "That isn't important compared to the wellbeing of our friends." He kissed her softly on the cheek.
"Besides look at what happened out there." Audrey said as she sat across from Mal. Her voice was serious but did hold a teasing quality to it. "Holding that secret nearly got you and Amy in big trouble out there."
Mal hesitated and realized she was right. It was very similar to the reasons why it became important for the group to know that Chad was developing a very unhealthy and probably deadly obsession with Audrey. "You're all right. I should have thought about that. I'm sorry." She said.
Audrey patted her hand gently as Evie stroked her hair and Ben rubbed her back lightly. "It's fine Mal." Evie said to her. "We know now and we're going to help you both deal with this."
"I take it you beat that Tyrant Neptune thing and Undine." Amy now speculated.
"We sent that lizard packing." Carlos said with some pride. Then he deflated a little. "Undine got away again though."
"There will be a next time." Will reminded everyone grimly.
"I'm afraid he's right there." Jay agreed.
"I also told my mom about the Neptune Kingdom's part in the attack and she promised to tell my grandfather but honestly I don't know how we can prove that without any evidence." Melody added and shook her head. "Sorry to say the armor pieces aren't enough evidence and the scythe has disappeared."
"So where do we stand on getting rid of whatever it is that hurting Mal when I get hurt?" Amy asked them, feeling guilty about the entire thing.
"Don't." Mal said to her. "You didn't cause this and this isn't your fault. You have nothing to feel bad about here sis."
"For what it's worth it actually works both ways." Evie now said to Amy. "When Mal gets hurt you would feel it too."
Amy nodded in understanding but couldn't help but reflect to herself just which of them seemed to get hurt more.
Audrey saw her expression and thought she understood. She had been coming down on herself pretty hard over the things Chad had done though no one officially really knew about that but Jay. "Hey, I never got to tell you why I really hate grasshoppers." She said to Amy. "Do you want to know now?"
Amy thought she could use the distraction and she was okay with the chance to try to get to know Audrey better. They were team mates after all and a part of her was growing to like the brunette princess despite herself. "Okay." She replied.
"It was in the second grade. Ben was out sick that day and I was on my own, normally Ben and I would walk home together since our castles were pretty close to each other." Audrey started to talk. "Anyway like I said Ben was sick that and so I'm walking home. We have a grassy field to cross to get home and I'm sitting there walking through it. Out of nowhere this grasshopper comes out and jumps almost literally in my face. I'm not expecting it and I give out this loud scream even as I'm falling into the grass, fast enough that I don't control my landing and I hit my head on the ground." She gave a soft laugh at recalling it even though it caused her fear of grasshoppers, perhaps more rationally so than just because she thought some insects like spiders were just creepy or ugly. "Then I see it's a tree behind me and I debate what I should do before just running home."
Amy couldn't help it, she ended up giggling at the story. Like Audrey she found the humor in it even if she also could easily see why it had made the brunette princess hate grasshoppers. "I had that happen with a moth. It was hot and dry and I open a closet a moth bursts out it, making me shriek and fall to the floor too." She said. Her smile faded a little. "Mom was more concerned about the items on the table I hit than about me." She added.
Audrey could believe it but it still shocked her. After the grasshopper incident her mother Aurora had held her as she cried and told her it was okay, that she would be okay. Then she had taken Audrey to the kitchen for an ice cream sandwich.
"I remember that too." Mal said to Amy. "I had to laugh because it was what mom expected of me, and it was a little funny too." She added with a small glare from Amy. "But then I came to your room with a small bag of sugar cookies for us to share and so that I could make you feel better." Amy's glare faded a little as she remembered that one too.
Amy looked to Audrey. "Thanks. It was nice to hear that. To know that I'm not the only one freaked out by bugs." She said.
"I thought you might like it." Audrey said with a small smile. "Anything it takes to cheer you up, especially if it's at the expense of someone you don't like."
Amy frowned a little and took a deep breath. "I don't hate you Audrey." She confessed. "Not now anyway. When I first knew you existed through my visions and when I first met you I did, you reminded me of so many of the girls on the Isle that I grew up with, like Undine only a little less on the scale of intenseness." She moved, with a bit of pain, to place her hand on Audrey's. "But we've fought together and I've heard you talk, see how you are with Mal and the rest of us," Again the smile as she remembered when the beds were being made and Audrey had boasted about her bed making skills compared to Mal's. "I'm getting that you're not at all like Undine and Harriet Hook and all the others. It's just going to take time for those old impulses to fully go away is all."
Audrey turned her hand to take Amy's and squeeze it gently. "I'm okay with that." She assured her. "Take the time you need."
Amy squeezed back a moment but had to let go and lean back as she got dizzy. She ended up with her head on Melody's shoulder. "Are you okay?" Melody asked her.
"Felt dizzy." Amy whispered.
"What about you Mal?" Ben asked.
"I'm okay." Mal said. She hadn't gotten the dizzy spell.
"I'm going to get you guys some strawberry milk." Ally announced and went over to the little food station that Jordan had decided to set up not long after their six battles in one day streak they recently had.
"Aside from the obvious, is whatever Undine injected them with harmful?" Aziz asked Doug now.
Doug shook his head. "Nope. It won't kill them outright if that's what you're asking." He said as he examined it through a microscope that was specially designed to see beyond the outer shell, a design they had gotten thanks to information from Andros. "Though obviously if one were to get stabbed through the heart it would have the same effect on the other."
"Why is it that only Mal and Amy were given this?" Audrey asked. "Not that I want to be feeling Lonnie's pain or anything but we've seen how effective this is, so why not give it to all of us?"
"That's easy." Doug replied. "It's streamlined only to people who share DNA."
Evie nodded. "I see. And since Mal and Amy are the only ones related on the team they were the only viable candidates." She supplied.
"Could it affect me if somehow she had given this to Whitney?" Will asked now. "Or if they were to give it to our parents?"
"It's possible." Doug answered. "But not a guarantee. We share half of our DNA from our mother and half from our father. They share their DNA from their respective parents and so on. Even infecting both parents is only basically a fifty percent chance of success." He looked to Will. "As for using Whitney to get to you, it's a bit more likely since I assume you share the same DNA, but the other factor is that she is younger than you are by…"
"About six years." Will supplied.
"So the difference in age gets factored in too." Doug said. "Only twins like Mal and Amy would be so close in age that it would be a near perfect lock. Add to that the fact they are close. It was the only logical solution."
"So they could give it to Evie and Snow and do the same thing then?" Carlos asked.
"No dummy." Jay said to him. "They're related by marriage, not by blood."
"What Jay said." Evie confirmed. "We're related only by the fact that my blood mother the Evil Queen was married to Snow's birth father, but we don't share the same blood at all. Our birth parents are actually completely different." She actually had to take a moment to appreciate the fact that Snow White would have anything to do with her when those facts were considered.
"Alright so let's hit the final questions here." Mal said. "What is it and how do we neutralize it?"
"It's a neurological compound that is developed from certain plants in a cavern located near the Isle of the Lost." Doug answered the purple haired girl. "It's not something easily made but I bet Undine knew how from her mother. There's another plant there that can neutralize it with the right compound that I can make while you retrieve the plant."
"Then let's go get it." Mal said.
"No." Audrey said. She indicated the rest of their team. "We will go get that plant while you two stay here, out of harm's way."
"You've got to be kidding me." Mal said, not liking the idea of missing action.
"I'm afraid Audrey is quite right in this matter." Fairy Godmother said. "We've already seen what happens if one of you gets drastically hurt. If one of you were to drown or otherwise be killed, so would the other. To say nothing of the distraction it puts on the others to make sure nothing happens to both of you. You need to let them do this on their own."
Amy looked to Mal. "She's right. We have to stay here and trust in our friends." She said to her older sister.
Mal bit her lip and sighed but nodded. She looked to Audrey. "Alright, take everyone and bring this plant back." She said.
"Don't worry Mal, I will." Audrey said. "I want this team to be made whole again." She frowned as something about those words bothered her. "I mean we'll get you guys back in the game, I promise." She looked to the others. "Let's get to work." She announced, making Mal laugh.
The team left Auradon Prep and headed toward the caverns across from the Isle of the Lost. None of them saw Gregory come out from the bushes to head into the school's campus area. He took out his iPhone and said, "It was just as Nerissa said, they're heading out to find that plant and cure Maleficent's brats, who are not with them."
"Then proceed with your mission." Reviveslime said to him.
Gregory smiled wickedly as he thought about coming in here to the school. He was going to make sure his brother got to see Amy, but not before he played a few games with her first. And Mal would finally be eliminated as the thorn in Maleficent's side.
The team arrived at the coast. As Ben pulled out the Praeleanthor sword, Melody enlarged the trident to normal size and Jane pulled out the magic wand. They used their items to transform. The rest of the present team pulled out their iPhones and transformed themselves. "If I remember my geography right we should find the caverns about a mile on the west." Lonnie said. They all followed her directions.
Finding it wasn't hard. It was even a lucky break that the tide was low. The way the sand looked it was easy to tell that the tide ebbed and flowed from this place almost weekly and it would have almost been time for the tide to all but flood the caverns again.
Jane took out her iPhone and transmitted a picture and the scans of the plant they were looking for to their iPhones, except Melody who had yet to receive hers. That was just as well as some of them needed to stay on guard in case this was expected. To that end Miranda, Jay, and Aziz were going to stay on guard with Melody.
"Do we have any idea how far in we'll have to go to find this plant?" Carlos asked a bit nervously. Tight spaces were not his favorite locations in the world.
"I wish I knew." Jane said sympathetically. "Hopefully not far."
"Maybe these are like the areas that are underneath the Badlands." Ben tried to suggest helpfully. "They might be bigger than anyone would assume." No one had even known there were areas underneath the Badlands until they had found Paradias using an altar in one of them to bring Maleficent back to her normal self.
"It's still un underground location." Carlos said wearily.
"All the more reason to get in, find what we need and get out." Audrey said. "So let's head in."
They started into the cavern. They couldn't exactly be subtle about it because each of them made some of splashing sound from the water starting to flow into the cavern.
"No offense Melody." Evie said to the aqua ranger, who if she really thought about the two of them were as much counterparts as Amy and Lonnie or Mal and Miranda. "But sometimes I have to say I hate the water."
Melody shook her head. "Sometimes I do too." She assured the blue haired blue ranger as she thought about some of the rumors that were associated with the depths of the oceans, lakes and rivers.
Gregory possessed an advantage that no one else on Paradias's ship had. He knew where the command center was. He drew his laser, intent on stunning Mal unconscious along with anyone in there. Then he would use the pill Nerissa had developed to disconnect Amy from Mal so that he could kill anyone else in there before he took Amy to a nice isolated place and get to know her better before taking her back to the isle for his brothers. "This is going to be fun Amy, I promise." He said quietly.
He hadn't been paying attention. "What about Amy?" He turned to see a long blonde haired girl and a short brunette guy there.
"Hey, who are you?" The boy asked, somewhere between surprise and maybe a bit of suspicion.
"I'm a friend of Mal and the others. I'm looking to give her and her sister a surprise." Gregory tried to explain away even as he kept his blaster hidden behind his back.
Both of them seemed uncertain about his story. "I don't think Amy really likes surprises." Ellie noted with even more suspicion.
"She'll get to like mine." He said with a smile that made both of them disgusted, Ellie even felt kind of bad about herself for a moment there.
"Dude, I think you better come with us to the head mistress's office." Alex said to him now.
"She's not there." Gregory said with certainty. He was sure she would be at the command center with Mal and Amy.
"Then we should go see assistant head Flynn." Ellie said.
"Really that won't be necessary." Gregory tried to insist even as he got ready to fire his blaster at the two of them.
As Alex focused behind him, trying to heat up the object that he was sure was behind this guys back, Ellie narrowed her eyes at him. "I think it is." She said coldly. She was sure now more than ever that he was no friend of Amy's or anyone else.
He was about ready to shoot them when his hold became unbearable. He dropped his blaster on the ground by instinct and it skidded to a stop. He looked up to two very confused but hostile faces as the children of Anna and Elsa received the confirmation that he was not a friend.
Jane not only had her iPhone configured for the plant they needed but also configured to identify the plant that had caused in the first place. The seemingly utter absence of the former was balanced by the horrific amount of the latter. "We should have found this plant by now." She said. "Something is wrong here."
"Don't suppose that mirror of yours can narrow our search down?" Carlos asked Evie.
"I doubt it." The blue ranger said but then had an idea. "At least if it were being left alone." She took out her handheld magic mirror, currently not a weapon, and said, "Mirror mirror in my hand, show me one of the plants we need." She didn't expect it to work but was surprised when the mirror focused. That surprise turned to dismay when she saw a bunch of the plant gathered together by Paradias's soldiers and Nerissa seemed ready to incinerate them. "Oh no." She gasped.
"Where is it?" Audrey asked.
"Somewhere in the caverns, but it looks like Nerissa is getting ready to destroy them." Evie revealed. "We have to find her quickly."
Jane was glad the magic wand was pretty much one handed. "Let' see if I can cast a locator beam to lead us." She said.
"Why didn't we do that in the first place?" Carlos asked.
"First off if it were the way it should we wouldn't be able to track something that should be around the entire cave." Jane answered him. "Second the spell isn't for the plants, it's to track Nerissa's magic." With that she waved the wand and shot out a burst of light that they quickly started to follow.
It lead them to a cavern area. The noise of the team in the water drew the looks of the soldiers and Nerissa. "You're too late rangers." Nerissa said to them. "These plants are about to die, and your chances of curing your friends will be burnt with them."
Audrey shook her head. "It's never too late." She said and aimed her elemental bow, shooting an arrow at Nerissa. One of the soldiers deflected it with the blade on his arm. The red ranger looked to the rest of the team. "We have to get some of those plants." She said.
They started to charge toward the soldiers, moving desperately to get around them. Individually they weren't much as they could be cut through easily. But their numbers were a far bigger problem.
Nerissa began a magical fire and tossed it straight at the plants they needed for their friends.
Mal had heard the commotion and told Amy to stay there as she went up to check what was going on. She saw what she needed, Alex making Gregory drop the blaster with his powers and Ellie raised her arm, forming an swirl of ice in her hands. "No more games." The future Queen of Arendelle snapped now. "Who are you?"
"I told you I'm a friend of Mal and Amy's." He tried to insist.
"You're no friend of ours Gregory." Mal snapped, her eyes phasing into green for a moment. "What do you think you're doing here?"
"He claimed to be a friend of yours with a surprise for Amy." Ellie informed Mal in a voice befitting that of an ice queen. "We already figured he was lying, but we don't know why."
Mal wasn't sure how to explain this without mentioning the gray ranger powers. "He's a jerk who tried to hurt us." Mal said to them. "And he has something that belongs to us." She looked to Gregory now. "I suggest you hand it over now."
Then they heard Amy come up. She smiled briefly at Ellie. "Hi." She said happily. Then she saw Gregory too. "You." She said with some anger. "What do you want?"
Mal knew Amy had ignored her words, but seeing her so happy to see her friend made it so that the purple haired girl could not be mad at her rose haired twin.
"I came for you. I wanted to get to know you a little before my brother did." Gregory said with a leer at Amy that both she and Mal did not like. "But these two ruined it."
Ellie didn't like his words or his expression and she unleashed a beam of ice at Gregory that he barely heard coming. He moved out of the way and glared at the four of them.
"I think you should give them back their item and leave." Alex said with more harsh emotion in his voice than Ellie had ever heard from him in their lives. "Or you'll learn that fire is worse than ice." He let flames appear in his hands just as Amy had taught him.
Mal's eyes were green as well and even Amy's flashed red despite the implicit threat the rose haired girl known he had directed at her. "I won't just hand it over Mal, you know that." He reminded him. With an annoyed shake of his head he jumped off the balcony and ran off.
The cousins were almost more than willing to pursue them but didn't because of Mal and Amy. They looked terrible. "Is there something we can do to help you?" Alex asked. "You two don't look well."
"We'll be okay, thank you." Mal said with a small smile as she took Amy's hands. "We were just resting our eyes in this classroom, guess it's got a homey vibe to it after being her for remedial goodness 101." Amy still had not had the time to test out of that class.
Ellie reached out and stroked Amy's cheek with just a touch of ice. "You feel so warm." She said worriedly. "Are you coming down with something?"
Mal touched her sister's cheek now. She was indeed slightly warm. She had a sudden fear that she might have gotten an infection. "I'll take her to Jordan, she can take care of it." Mal promised. "We'll see you guys in class tomorrow." With that Mal took Amy's waist and lead her away.
Alex and Ellie exchanged glances of curiosity but ignored every instinct that told them to follow the twins.
"No!" Melody shouted and raised her trident to summon the water around them to protect the plants. She was desperate to get to those plants before the fire Nerissa was using to get past the water. "We have to get there as quickly as possible." She announced.
"So much easier said than done." Audrey said as she tried to cut her way through a few soldiers only to get blocked by several more.
"Melody we can't get any closer." Lonnie said to her. "Is there anything that we can do to bring some to us?"
Melody frowned a bit but then worked to reverse the protective weaves she had over the plants to scoop as many up as possible and tried to draw them in a tidal wave toward them.
"Stop them!" Nerissa called out. The soldiers did indeed try to stop them but Ally unleashed her crystal cards to strike at them, at least distracting them and even managing to destroy some of them.
Nerissa rose on a magical tide of fiery energy to pursue it. Much to their horror when she moved past the rest of the plants they were incinerated. It was either they succeeded here or they lost all hope of saving Mal and Amy.
Melody gave as much of a boost to her magic a possible. It was rapidly getting to Jordan and she used magic to help propel it to her. "Get it out of here." She ordered. "Take it to Mal and Amy." She slashed a couple of soldiers with her trident. "I'll keep them busy."
"Not alone." Jordan said as she handed the plants to Lonnie. "I'm going to help you too."
"I'm with you too." Jane said.
"I'll contribute what I can." Evie added.
"We're not leaving." Audrey insisted.
"You have too." Jordan now said to Audrey. "They need those plants and what the four of us need to do is going to be all but a miracle if we can pull it off." She said.
Ally got it now and she touched Audrey's shoulder. When the red ranger looked to her the crystal ranger said. "They want to try to beat Nerissa with magic, something we can't hope to do."
Audrey sighed, but she could see her point. "Fall back." She ordered the rest of them. All of them shared the same shock as the red ranger did but as she ordered. Audrey let out a hail of arrows that she knew Nerissa would have to swerve to avoid, buying their four team mates some few precious seconds before leaving. That left the four remaining magic users there.
"What's the plan boss?" Jordan asked Melody with just a hint of sarcasm. The truth was since this was Melody's idea the genie girl assumed that she had some kind of plan.
Melody wondered about that for a moment and then had an idea. They really had four different forms of magic at their disposal. Jordan was a genie with obvious genie magic. Jane had fairy magic because of her mother. Evie had access to the powers of a witch due to Grimholde the Evil Queen being her mother rather she wanted to practice or not, and Melody had her own magic powers though she could hardly classify it mermaid magic. She raised her trident. "Channel your magic's into my trident." She said.
"Is that a good idea?" Jane wondered. She wasn't too sure about combining various types of magic. It sure hadn't been covered in their class.
"I don't know." Melody admitted. "But it's the only chance we have to overcome Nerissa's magic." She did wish that Mal and Amy were there to contribute their magic, and wondered briefly if Ellie and Alex would have been useful here too. It didn't matter now.
Jordan placed her hand on the trident handle. Jane placed the tip of the magic wand on the trident handle. Evie bit her lip, feeling very reluctant about it as she had not wanted to try to use the power that she knew was her birthright. She then let out a nervous breath and placed her hand on the trident.
Almost as if the trident could sense their intentions it took all of their magical energies and from the three prongs on the trident it unleashed a huge magical blast that easily overcame the soldiers still present.
Nerissa however raised her hands to block the fiery energy and worked to try to repel it back at the four rangers. The four in turn channeled all of their energies into the attack.
Audrey turned around to the caverns entrance. She was hoping that the four team mates who had wanted to stay behind would be right behind them. "Where are they?" She asked.
"Some of us should go back inside." Will said. "And bring them out."
"He's right Audrey." Jay said. "They should have been out by now and I don't see how they could expect to take Nerissa on their own."
The red ranger hesitated for a moment but realized that they kind of needed Jordan anyway just in case Doug needed something magical. Audrey looked to Lonnie and Will. "Take that back to the command center so Doug can work on the cure. The rest of us are going to go get our friends out." She said.
Then there was a huge explosion from the cavern, it was hard enough to shake the area, "No!" Ally shouted in alarm. Lonnie and Will forgot their orders as they all rushed back to the cavern. As they drew closer it was getting hard to see through the smoke.
"Jordan!" Aziz called out.
"Evie!" Audrey called out.
"Melody!" Miranda called out.
"Jane!" Carlos called out.
"I can't see any signs of them anywhere." Jay said with annoyance.
"Can any of you girls here us?" Ben called out now. "Please let us know you're okay."
They heard some coughing and found Melody heading toward them. Jordan wasn't too far behind her and then Jane and Evie came out, leaning on each other for support.
Carlos over there to take Jane from Evie while Audrey did the same for the blue haired girl. "What happened?" Audrey asked Evie. "Are you all okay?"
"I think so." Evie said. "Melody had the idea to combine out magic to destroy Nerissa."
"Did it work?" Ally asked as she and Aziz came to Jordan's side as Miranda came to Melody's side.
"We're not sure but we didn't see an sign of her as we were leaving, and there is only one door the cavern, assuming that she didn't use magic to escape." Melody said. She touched her arm gently, finding it hurt a little bit from channeling all that magic power. "There's no way she could have had the power to escape magically though."
"Maybe she really is gone then." Lonnie said in some amazement.
"Maybe." Audrey said reluctantly. "But we know what's important right now. Let's get these plants back to the command center."
Some of the plant went to Doug so that he could make the cure for Amy and Mal. Fairy Godmother took the rest so that they could regrow the plant and repopulate it. "I'll send some guards to check it out tomorrow for any signs that Nerissa may have survived and see if that other plant is around." She said.
"Why do we want to save that plant?" Carlos asked. "Look at what Undine did with to Mal and Amy with that."
"That's Undine's fault." Amy said to him. "Not the plants. It was just a tool, no different from the gray gem that Gregory uses against us." Mal personally thought Carlos had a point but could see that Fairy Godmother agreed with that assessment and let it go. "And speaking of Gregory…" She told them what they had caught Ellie and Alex doing.
"That was so cool of them." Melody noted when she was done and then laughed a little. "No pun intended." She added and that got laughs from the rest of the team.
"So are we sure that worked?' Ben asked Doug.
"I can only assume so until the next fight when we can hopefully test it out." Doug answered him. "But if it did work Undine can never use that against them again."
"There's one way to know." Carlos said. With that he reached over and pinched Mal's arm. She let out a gasp, more of annoyance than pain and glared at him. He quickly held up his hands. "It worked, Amy didn't feel it." He pointed out.
"You're right." Mal said with a straight face. "You're right, we now know it worked." She then met Carlos with a fierce glare. "So that means I only have to injure you lightly instead of gravely." With that she got up and started to chase him.
As he ran around the consoles and toward the stairs he called out, "Ben! Jay! Someone help!" Even as he dashed toward the stairs with Mal behind him and the laughter of the rest of the team.