They arrived to find Ariel and a contingent of guards meeting them. By then Melody had recovered from Undine's attack and she rushed out to hug her mother. Each of the Queen's greeted each other warmly, as did Snow White. Melody then happily introduced her friends. Her mother didn't bat an eyelash at the reveal of the Isle kids and was even happy to meet Amy, who had quickly bonded with her daughter.
"Was your journey here okay?" Ariel asked Adam and Belle.
"We were attacked by Undine and a monster of hers." Adam answered the red headed former mermaid princess. "The kids were able to defeat it and send Undine running."
"Somehow this seems far worse than the problems with the Heartless a while back." Mulan said to Ariel. Both of them shared a unique position as they were not princesses of heart and they had actually fought against them with the heroes that had come to assist them at that endeavor too.
"It's too bad we didn't have any extra help then." Jasmine noted lightly. Any of the ranger groups would have been nice to have, but Aladdin knew the first thought Jasmine had. He couldn't agree more, he missed his old friend as well.
"Where do we stand on trying to arrange our discussion?" Elsa asked her.
"Daddy is trying to arrange it now." Ariel answered. "Ordinarily they wouldn't even speak to him, or us, but they say they never made any such authorization to attack Auradon."
Snow White took out the piece of armor that had been left on the beach during the conflict with Tyrant Neptune. "For what it's worth we have this as proof." She said. "I know it might not be much, but it's a start."
"Aside from the children's testimonials." Belle added. "But I know showing up with the Auradon Rangers might be considered openly hostile."
"I suggest worrying about it when get that meeting." Adam said. "Right now we can't seem to guarantee that."
Ariel nodded in agreement. "We'll have you all shown to your rooms where you can settle in until we know more. And Melody told me they're here for another purpose. That a zord was supposed to be around here somewhere." She said.
"Yes." Wendy said. "And that is about all they can tell you because that is about all they know too." She laughed nervously. "I suppose one can't say there isn't a lot of room for improvising on the job. Will I be able to call Auradon after we get to our rooms so that I can let my daughter know Will and I have shown up alright?" She wondered.
Ariel nodded. "Of course. Each of you have a phone in your room that you can use anytime." She answered.
Melody stopped and glanced out at the ocean. The castle itself sat on a bluff that overlooked it and the expansive view was quiet gorgeous. "It must have been nice to grow up here." Amy said from beside her. "We never had a view like this on the isle."
"Even though you're surrounded by the water?" Melody asked confused.
Amy nodded. "We were surrounded by water but it wasn't nearly as clear and beautiful as this." She revealed. "I never quite knew if it was intentional or not or who did it but the water around the isle is pretty much filthy." She took a deep breath. "I noticed when we left the isle that after a while the filth can't be seen. I don't know if somehow Auradon purifies the water or something." She looked to her friend. "Or are your people responsible?"
Melody shook her head. "My people don't normally leave the borders of Atlantica's oceans." She revealed. "Though some of the various sea creatures that live in around can and ultimately do, and there a couple of varieties that can purify water." She smiled a little. "Maybe one has taken up residence there."
"Like the one that helped us turn back Undine's Daedalus." Amy reflected.
"Oh, no." Melody replied. "That one wanders the ocean and generally keeps to itself. It's actually so powerful that it calls upon a torrent of rainwater wherever it goes. Unchecked it could cause the worlds landmasses to flood, which is why it keeps underwater."
Amy looked at her confused now. "But there was no rain that day." She remembered.
Melody nodded. "I know. I think it must have either been some effect from Daedalus or from Mal's dragon zord." She answered. "But I don't know for sure which one it was." She looked back to the ocean. "When I was growing up my mother and father built a wall up to protect me from the ocean after Ursula's sister Morgana…well, tried to pull a Maleficent on me." She looked apologetically to her friend but she was only giggling at the comparison. "When it finally was dealt with I took this," She placed her hand over the her Triton's trident, currently being used as her weapon and in charm form, "And dissolved those walls."
"Sometimes I wish I could do that with the isle." Amy said to her softly. "But I think the only ones less enthusiastic to the idea of reunification than people like Audrey's grandmother and Chad are the majority of the isle people themselves."
"Hey come on you two." Mal called out to her twin sister and her friend. "We should go see our rooms." The two girls picked up their bags and followed the purple haired girl into the castle.
Each of them had gotten their own rooms and Evie was already trying to figure out how to get Audrey to room with her so she wouldn't be alone. Will went into Wendy's room long enough to talk to his sister.
The rangers were going to meet in one of the living areas with Doug to discover their next move. Evie caught Audrey on her way. "So, you want me to room with you?" She asked her.
Audrey hesitated. She knew it would be a great idea given what had been happening with Chad but there was a part of her that still felt resistant to the idea of having to be so dependent. "We don't even know if the same thing will happen here." She tried to reason. "Chad doesn't know where I am now."
"If they didn't already over hear us somehow when the plan first came up, they will now that Undine has attacked us." Evie reminded her logically.
The idea absolutely frightened Audrey. She let out a small gasp before forcing her feelings down again. "He can't know." She tried to argue.
Evie grabbed her hand. "He might." She replied. "And we have to be safe about this." She squeezed her hand softly. "Look, why don't we all just have a sleepover." She suggested now. "All of us girls. That way you're not being dependent, you're being a normal teenage girl." The blue haired girl knew that was important to Audrey too, it was important to all of them honestly.
Audrey closed her eyes, still feeling kind of like she was running. But she also enjoyed those kind of things. "Alright." She agreed. "Let's do that."
The two walked in to the living area to find Doug already working on his scanner by the window. Jay was pacing a bit. Mal and Amy were sitting on the couch with Melody and Mal was finding Melody's earlier analogy comparing their mother with Morgana hilarious. The two girls sat across from Melody and the twins and told them about their sleepover plans. It excited Amy and Melody to hear it but Mal was more curious as to what prompted this decision.
The rest of the team soon showed up and the girls made sure everyone was aware of the plans.
"Sometimes I feel like we're missing something with these." Carlos noted. "Like we're being talked about or something."
"Of course you're being talked about." Jordan said enigmatically with a dismissive wave. "I'll let you guys decide if that's a good thing or a bad thing though." Carlos looked kind of worried to hear that while Ben and Will just kind of dismissed any implications. Jay and Aziz were kind of hard to read and Alex and Doug seemed oblivious to any of it.
Lonnie felt kind of bad for them but didn't really want to bore them with what they would. Yes there would be guy talk and talk about feelings, and they would spend time messing with each other's hair and nails. But she also suspected there was something more to it that so far they were not privy too.
"Well we could have our own guy's night." Will suggested. He did have an idea of what girl's did since he had a younger sister after all. "We can play games." He was sure they would end up talking too at some point but they would never make that kind of omission to the girls…at not in public.
"Grand." Mal said. "We all have evening plans. But right now we have the afternoon to get through and we have a zord to find." She leaned forward to get down to business. "Where do we stand on that?"
"I have figured out where the zord is." Doug said solemnly.
"Well that's good." Ally said. "We can go and get it."
"That's not going to be so easy." Doug answered. "I don't even know how we start doing this." He looked each of them in the eye. "It's in the ocean, somewhere here in Atlantica."
"Great, that does narrow it down." Aziz noted sarcastically.
"I think that was Doug's point honey." Ally replied softly.
"Okay so can we narrow down where exactly it is?" Audrey asked now.
"Not from the castle." Doug answered the brunette princess. "We'd have to do it from the water."
"Okay so Melody can grow a tail and spend months underwater at a time, but that doesn't help us out at all." Carlos grunted.
"I wish my powers could help us out somehow." Amy lamented. She wasn't sure her control over water would help out here.
"We could find out what's going on with the negotiations." Melody suggested. "Go with them on the boat and then find a way to leave once the Neptune's show up. But in the meantime we can look around the ocean that way."
"Or we could get into trouble." Jay said jokingly. "Maybe it will show up itself."
"I'd prefer a something we have a little more control over myself." Miranda noted dryly.
The door opened and Melody perked up as Eric stuck his head in. "Daddy." She said happily, running over and hugging him. That made Amy glance up a bit at Mal. They had no idea who their father was, nor did Evie or Carlos. Jay likewise had no idea who his mother was. Their standing parent never spoke of their missing one and they weren't sure why that was.
"Hello Melody." Eric said affectionately as he hugged her. She then introduced her friends and he welcomed them all warmly, not pausing a moment with the isle kids. Melody appreciated that her parents didn't seem to have any residual issues with them over the sins of their parents.
"Thank you for letting us stay here your majesty." Ben said to him.
"The pleasure is ours King Ben." Eric told the young ruler of Auradon with a small bow. "I've come to tell you that Ariel has just heard from Arista. We have a meeting scheduled with the magistrate of Neptune and we have to leave now."
"Who's Arista?" Amy asked.
"She's one my aunts." Melody answered her. "One of my mom's sisters."
"Tell Belle and everyone to please be careful." Mal requested of him. "We want you guys to come back safe."
"And if need be remind them that you have children who are more than willing to take down their empire if they do try to harm you." Jay said seriously. No one argued that and in fact Fairy Godmother had told the earth rangers what was going on and Amber had assured them any number of rangers would be ready to help if they needed it.
Eric gave him a nod. "I'm sure we'll be fine but thank you for your concern." He said. He kissed Melody on the head again and then left the room to round up the other adults.
"Do we want to try to go with them?" Doug asked.
Mal thought about it only a moment before shaking her head. "No." She said. "We need to find another way. I don't want to make this process any more complicated than it's already going to be for them." She leaned back a bit. "Can we ask some of your people for help?" She asked Melody.
"We could try and do that." Melody replied. "I just don't know what we can expect. They don't even know anything like that existed. We could be revealing something new to them and leave us at square one as they make the search for it."
Eric, Ariel, Aladdin, Jasmine, Belle, Adam, Snow White, Mulan, Wendy, Aurora and Elsa met at the piers where Eric took the boat out. They had a retinue of guards with them but little else to avoid the chance of being too intimidating. Never the less Aladdin, Jasmine and Mulan held concealed weapons just in case.
"I have to admit I'd feel a bit better if at least some of the kids had come along with us." Wendy said to them.
Belle nodded. "I agree personally but they came here for their own reasons that are just as important to the safety of Auradon." She replied. "Besides having them there might have caused difficulties for this process." They could tell the queen didn't exactly agree with it but that was the delicate dance of negotiations.
"I'm still not clear what the negotiation is for." Eric voiced. "Isn't that armor evidence enough?"
"With Paradias and Maleficent out there doing what they're doing, nothing is so crystal clear." Else answered simply. "Furthermore if they even make the acknowledgement that something had happened in the first place they could just as easily claim their executioner did so without the royal's knowledge, and even make the declaration he went rogue."
"It's a shame we have no way of knowing rather they're telling the truth about that or not." Jasmine mused. "They could tell us whatever they wanted and we'd either have to believe to keep the peace or call them on it and hope they don't start something over it, and be right about everything on top of it."
"My niece Aquiella will be coming with my father." Ariel replied to them. "Believe it or not she was born with the ability to read emotions, except when it comes to those from the sea, and then she can read minds and communicate mentally."
Belle thought she sounded a lot like Amy but kept it to herself. No one outside of the ranger group knew about that except for Belle herself. "Will she be able to read the magistrate?" She asked the red headed woman. "They are practiced in keeping those kinds of things hidden."
"She might not be able to give us a play by play of his mind, but she can at least read him enough to know if he's trying to lie or deceive us in anyway." Ariel assured her.
"If that's the case then I imagine she'll be telling you or King Triton if we're being deceived through your mind so that you can make the verbal call for all of us." Adam said.
Ariel nodded. "I think that's the plan. I may have been human for a while now but I was born a mermaid. That gives her the extra 'touch' she needs to be able to mentally communicate with me." She said. "And of course my dad has never been anything but a merman."
"We'll be at the meeting place in about two hours." Eric told them. "Everyone better take that time to relax because I'd bet that it's going to be an uphill battle."
A few ideas had been passed between the team but all of them were ultimately rejected. It came down to one simple problem; they just didn't have the information to go by.
It got dark outside and Lonnie rose to check on the time, she hadn't thought they'd been here that long. Then she glanced outside and saw why. "Guys." She said.
Amy came to her side and she gasped herself, "Oh my pink." She got out.
A large creature stood outside, huge chains on its arms and legs. They looked to be lethal weapons and his red eyes glowed menacingly and even let out a growl.
The team ran outside of the castle. The giant monster had not moved. But in a flash of light Paradias appeared with Maleficent, Chad, Gregory, Marcellus, Undine, Jabberwock and several soldiers. "I see you've made it to Atlantica despite Undine's best attempts." Paradias said jovially, as if he were the host and not a party crasher himself. "So much the better I suppose, now the real festivities can begin."
"What is that thing?" Amy asked.
"That, my dear daughter," Maleficent said with some thinly veiled sweet contempt. "Would be one of the most brutal creatures to ever exist upon this world." She gestured up at the grand beast. "Meet the Forbidden Demon."
The group exchanged looks of worry and apprehension. There was only one possible solution here. "Let's get to work." Mal declared. As Ben, Melody and Jane pulled out their items the rest of the team took out their iPhones, input their numbers and then the entire team transformed.
"We need Auradon Megazord power!" Audrey called out. On one side of her was Evie and Lonnie and on the other side was Carlos and Jay.
Mal called out, "Auradon dragon, I need you!"
"I need you Auradon stallion!" Ben called out now.
"Auradon Battlezord online!" Jane called out in between Jordan and Ally.
"Auradon Falcon time to soar!" Aziz called out.
"Battlebear, on line! Time for warrior mode!" Miranda called out.
It seemed on paper to be six on one fight, which would become three on one if they combined their zords to form the Auradon Champion Defender and the Auradon Falconbattlezord. But Maleficent laughed. "Oh, you do realize that this wasn't going to be such an even fight, right?" The evil fairy asked.
Chad transformed and Gregory used his iPhone to transform. With Marcellus and Undine they vanished only for the warzord to land on the ground. Inside the four of them stood ready to fight.
Will looked to Amy, Ellie, Alex and Melody. "Looks like this is our chance." He said to them. "We have to wait for the chance to take back the warzord." The four of them nodded in agreement.
"Oh, don't think I've left you guys out of the fun." Maleficent said. "Jabberwock, soldiers. Time to finish them off."
"Oh that is one ugly looking bug." Alex said simply as he raised his flame kissed tonfa's and unknowingly took a step forward to protect Amy.
"Alright guys." Mal said, having a slightly different idea. "Ben, combine with the Audrey and everyone to form the Auradon Defender Megazord. Aziz, combine with the girls for the Auradon Falconbattlezord. Miranda, you and I are going to form the Auradon Dragonbear battlezord." She declared.
"On it." The others confirmed.
"What an unexpected turn of events." Paradias commented though it was anyone's guess as to rather he was joking or not.
Maleficent looked on eagerly as the three battlezords got ready to engage the warzord and the Forbidden Demon, and as her pathetic excuse for a daughter and the four zord lacking fighters got ready to fight Jabberwock and the soldiers. "It's time to prepare for the battle of the ages." She said happily.
"Oh my gosh." Ariel gasped as she saw in person for the first time what these fights could look like. Giant monsters and large robots. The darkening sky was almost a new thing for them all but not unheard of.
"Oh, Ben. Mal. Amy." Belle whispered and Adam placed a hand on her shoulder consolingly.
"Is there nothing we can do to help them?" Elsa asked. She too had never seen the magnitudes of these fights up close, the last one with Frog Borg notwithstanding. That would had not involved such a large and brutal looking monster or the zords.
"I'm afraid I don't see how." Snow White said softly. She had begun to worry for her step-sister's safety more and more as things got more intense.
They were surprised when it was Snow White's cell phone that went off. She answered it. "Hello." A moment later she said, "Of course." She put it on speaker phone. "Go ahead Doug, we can all hear you."
"I'm sorry to bother you." He said. "But attack that you've probably seen from your boat has caused energy spikes from the zord we came here to track. We know where to find it."
"How does that help anyone now?" Aladdin asked. "All of them have to be occupied with the fight before them and we're trapped out here in the ocean."
"Can't you get any of the ranger teams from Earth to help out?" Jasmine asked.
"In theory I could ask them to try to retrieve the zord." Doug admitted. "But so far we haven't found any indication that their megazords can come through the gateways as easily as they can. But the new zord is actually located underneath the island where you are headed for your negotiations."
"What?" Wendy gasped.
"You mean…" Belle started.
They were sure Doug reflexively nodded. "That's right. I don't know how it happened but for whatever reason this zord is in the hands of the Neptune Empire." He finished.