Audrey heard a knock on the door as she was brushing her hair. "Come on in." She said. The brunette princess was sure it had to be Mal and Amy. Sure enough the purple haired girl came in with the rose haired girl came in behind her. Amy seemed rather happy, which since her friend's cousin was okay there was good reason for it.
"Have a good shower?" Mal asked Audrey.
"It feels nice to be clean again." Audrey replied with a smile. "We never even got a chance to clean up from the Frog Borg battle before that demon thing happened." She continued to brush her hair. "And if I feel that way, you guys must have been worse off since you very nearly drowned."
"You can say that again." Mal said as she sat down on a chair. Amy moved over to the mirror. She wasn't too big on her looks but something about her hair just hadn't felt right since the Frog Borg fight.
"Well…" Audrey started and noticed Amy fretting at the mirror next to her. "Would you like some help with that?" She asked the girl.
Amy hesitated for a moment as if she had gotten caught doing something bad. Then she sighed. "Sorry, my hair…feels kind of off for some reason. I don't know why." She revealed shyly. Hair and makeup talks were not something she had with Mal and certainly not with their mother. Evie was the closest she had to that when she bothered.
Audrey sat up and placed her hand gently on her shoulder. "Sit down, let me see what I can do." She instructed. After just a second of uncertainty Amy complied with the princesses words and let her work on it. She had to admit that sometimes it was nice to have girly stuff, which was one thing Mal was not.
"So what's on your mind?" Mal asked amused as she leaned back in the chair. She had to admit a part of her was touched to see Amy and Audrey bonding. She had learned through extensive time that Audrey was a better person than even she gave herself credit for and rather either wanted to admit it or not she was sure the two of them needed each other almost as much as Amy needed Mal.
Audrey hesitated and took a deep breath. "I…it's not easy to say." She said softly, so softly that Mal had to lean forward to hear it. Amy didn't have to worry since she was right there. She could see in the mirror that Audrey seemed to be doing great things with her hair. She could also feel how upset she was.
"Is this about whatever has been keeping you awake at night?" Amy asked her gently.
"Nothing's been keeping me awake at night. It's staying asleep through the night that's been the problem." The brunette princess corrected her. "Since about the time we spent the night in Ben's castle I…I've been hearing voices." She revealed.
Mal wanted to make a joke, she really did. But she knew that wasn't appropriate right now. "What do you mean?" She asked instead. "I mean, I assume you're not talking about like castle personnel in the halls or anything like that."
"No." Audrey said. "You're right that castles have a lot of people working in them during all hours of the day, but I hear it at school too." She sighed a bit. "No, let me rephrase that. I've been hearing him."
Now Amy understood. "Chad." She deduced.
"Yes." Audrey confirmed, stroking Amy's hair for a moment as she was lost in thought. Amy didn't stop her.
Mal cocked her head as she looked at her second in command. "It's not just voices, is it?" She pressed gently.
"For a while it was." Audrey replied. "But when we were getting ready for the dinner to thank the Samurai Rangers and Karone for helping us deal with Paradias's samurai I was getting ready in my room when I thought I saw Chad in my room."
"Oh my pink." Amy gasped. She could fully sympathize with that. She could remember a few time she had caught Gaston Jr. waiting for her in her room. Jay had been there the first two times and he had ran quickly. By the third time it was late at night and she had just gotten out of the shower. She was dreaded to think of what would have happened if her scream hadn't brought Mal to her room. "Did he hurt you?" She asked softly as she turned to face her.
"When I looked back to him there was no one there." Audrey said as she sat down by Amy now. Mal moved over to and leaned down next to her second in command and her twin sister, although judging from the difference in height and weight one would never know they were twins.
"You think you're losing your mind or that he's playing games with you somehow." Mal guessed.
"I wish I knew for sure." Audrey told her. "The night before we came here, I woke up because I thought I felt something…felt him touch me." She shuddered a bit and Amy knew it was not an appropriate kind of touch. "I screamed, and Evie heard me."
"The sleepover tonight." Mal reasoned. "This is for your protection isn't it?" She asked.
"Partly." Audrey admitted and then gave a small smile. "But hey, a good idea is a good idea right?" She asked.
"It is." Amy tried to assure her as she gave her a hug and laid her head on her shoulder.
"Yes it is." Mal agreed. She took her friend's hands in her own. "So know we know. And Evie obviously knows. Who else knows?"
"Jay knows about the voices. But nothing else." Audrey told her softly. "You two know it and that's it."
"Do you want to tell the others?" Amy asked her now.
"I don't know. I think maybe they should know but I don't want them to think I'm losing it and that I should be stripped of my powers." Audrey admitted.
"No one will think that." Mal promised her. "And I have news for you Audrey; you are not crazy, you are not losing your mind." She looked to the window a moment. "I don't know how he's doing it but what Chad is doing to you isn't some delusion, or fake thing. It's real, I know it is."
"If he were in school, or the castle, wouldn't you sense him?" Audrey asked Amy. "I mean his emotions for me are…are very strong." She wasn't sure what kind of emotion it was exactly and she was sure it wasn't healthy but she knew it was strong.
Amy nodded. "Normally I'd say yes. But that Maledict's blade he uses. It's strong, it's old and it's powerful. I don't even think Aquiella could penetrate that." She replied. Just from what Belle had told her on the way into the castle she knew when it came to empathic abilities and water control that their new friend had her beat. The latter was no surprise of course since she was a mermaid but she was curious what made it easier for her to read minds. "With that in mind he could easily bypass our awareness to get to you."
"You have no idea what it's like to feel so…so helpless, so afraid." Audrey said softly.
"I do." Amy replied to her gently. " She barely considered Gregory a personal threat. But she had plenty of experience with Gaston Jr. "He didn't have magical demonic powers or anything like that but Gaston Jr…he looked at me the same way that Chad seems to look at you." She looked down a little as she thought. "The first time I met him when I was five and he was eight he said he wanted to play a game of doctor, but I said no when he tried to take off my clothes. He beat me for it, he might have killed me if Mal hadn't found me."
"And boy was I mad." Mal added. "He was lucky he was faster than me, not to mention I was more worried about Amy. He might not have walked away otherwise."
"From then on Mal tried to protect me, and so did Jay when he could." Amy continued on. "But sometimes it just wasn't enough and he would find me and try to hurt me." She shuddered a bit and Audrey wrapped an arm around her supportively. "I started to find ways to elude him because I knew my friends couldn't always be there for me. But again on the isle it was kind of like a game of cat and mouse, no demon powers to be worried about."
"The problem is like Chad, he got more resourceful too." Amy said softly. "He found had his ways to trap me. Just before they were sent to Auradon I had gotten out of the shower, had nothing but a towel around me and stepped into my room to find him waiting for me. I screamed as he leapt at me, and he had me on the ground, trying to pull of the towel. Mal came in and he bolted, so nothing happened. But the encounter…" She had tears in her eyes and both girls hugged her tightly.
"I'm so sorry." Audrey said to Amy. "The truth is no one as sweet as you should have had to go through that."
"No one should have to go through that." Mal emphasized. "I don't care how sweet they always were or if they're just now learning to be sweet." They all laughed at the subtle dig to Audrey's character when she first met the isle kids. "No one should ever have to go through what Chad puts you through Audrey, or what Gaston Jr. tried to put you through Amy."
"Is that common on the Isle of the Lost?" Audrey asked Mal and Amy.
"More common that we'd ever want to admit." Mal said with a sigh. "Everyone fears my mother and me by extension most of the time, but you've noticed my mother's indifference to Amy and sadly so has most everyone else on the isle. That's why a lot of people think Amy's a good target. There's several reasons that I once told Ben that there isn't really dating where I come from, more like gang activity."
"What about Evie?" Audrey asked now. "Has she ever…been a subject of interest?
"A few times." Mal replied but figured that would be more of a subject she should delve into further with Evie. "Let's just say there's a reason I always told her being evil was about more than just looking the part, and she shouldn't be so worried about drawing that attention."
"I guess that's one reason that Auradon is better." Amy noted.
Audrey laughed a bit but it held little no humor in it. "It's not unheard of in Auradon or any of our societies either." She promised the rose haired girl. "It's just that that kind of stuff isn't heard about on the Isle. We have our share of regular criminals; thieves, murderers…" She couldn't bring herself to say the last one but they knew what she meant; people like Chad and Gregory and the way they viewed and treated girls. "There was this one guy, non-royal, he grew so obsessed with Ally…well, it wasn't pleasant and it's a good thing Lonnie's very observant or it might have been bad."
"How is it that a guy can be so sweet like Ben or Jay," Mal started.
"Or Alex." Amy couldn't help but add and the purple haired girl looked at her twin oddly a moment but laughed.
"Or Alex." She relented with a laugh. "Could be so great and sweet and then you have the other end of the extreme in Chad and Gregory and Gaston Jr?" She wondered. She shook her head. "I mean two of them grew up in Auradon with Ben and they still turned out to be…well, words my mother says I should use more often but I refuse to use." She added with a chuckle.
"I've wondered that myself too." Audrey said. "I mean Ben, Chad and I grew up together. My mom, Belle and Cinderella practically raised us together with the same values. And yet Chad…well, again look at how he's been treating me."
Mal stroked both Amy and Audrey's shoulders. "I think we should tell the others, but ultimately it's your call Audrey." She said softly.
Audrey frowned. "Let's…do it in pieces." She said. "I don't want to worry everyone at once."
"Well now we know." Amy said to her. "We'll figure out the next step together."
"Ben should know." Audrey said automatically. "You shouldn't have to keep secrets from your boyfriend on my behalf…and Jay should be updated on this too, and that's my responsibility."
"We'll tell them after dinner then." Mal said. "And then we'll see what they say. We still have our relaxing night ahead of us." She again stroked Audrey's shoulder. "And we need a better arrangement for school, I don't want you in a room alone until Chad's been dealt with."
"Too bad we can't all just have one big room together." Amy said as the three of them got up to leave the dressing room. "Then it wouldn't be an issue." She shrugged. "But no room at Auradon Prep is big enough for that."
Aquiella nearly fell but kept her balance on the wall. "My gosh, this harder than it looks." She mermaid girl temporarily turned human said with a laugh. "How do you do this Melody?"
Melody laughed with her cousin. "Lots of practice, but I skinned my knees so many times when I was learning to walk so long ago." She answered with a laugh. "You walk like my mom did when she first got her legs." In any other context that conversation would have sounded weird, but not when talking about a mermaid to a mermaid. "At least you won't use a fork to comb your hair though."
"Yeah we've learned a lot about surface life since your mom was our age." Aquiella conceded with a smile. "Though in your case it was sea life you had to learn."
"Thank you again for all you did for my friends and I." Melody said as she came and helped her cousin walk a bit. "I think you made the difference between defeat and victory today, and you certainly seemed to have saved Belle's life. I know Mal, Amy and Ben appreciate that."
"I thought Mal and Amy had a mother already." Aquiella said. She knew their mother was Maleficent and as such doubted it was exactly the most loving home for them, but it still left her curious.
"They do of course." Melody agreed. Most of them hated discussing the Maleficent and the way she treated her daughter's topic. In fact they hated it with all of the isle kids but the twins seemed to keep finding themselves at the forefront of the topic rather they knew it or not. "But both Mal and Amy have taken a liking to her, and she has taken that same liking to them."
"She called them her children in front of grandfather." Aquiella revealed to Melody. "Not that that's a bad thing but I don't think anyone expected that one, even Belle until she said it."
They were walking downstairs and it seemed Aquiella was getting a hold of it, so Melody released her arm but stayed by her side. Losing balance and falling on the floor was one thing, losing balance and taking a tumble down the stairs was another thing entirely. "So what's next for you guys?" Aquiella asked her.
"Probably try to figure out how to take the gray ranger's powers off of Gregory." Melody speculated. "Mal said that if they had known then what they knew now he wouldn't have gotten them, but it was assumed he was what he said he was."
"I hope that doesn't happen too often." Aquiella said softly.
"Just him." Melody promised her. "They've been a bit more careful about that since then. And that was also before Amy was part of the team so they had no way of sensing his intentions." She laughed a bit. "You actually have a couple of things in common with her."
"In what way?" Aquiella wondered.
"Well she has control over the four elements, like you control you water. I mean your control over water is better than hers," Melody started.
"But mine is just water. Hers is all the elements." Aquiella interrupted. "So it stands to reason that while I might be a mistress of water she's still the element queen." The two girls shared a laugh. "And the other?"
"She can read feelings, like you can. She can't read minds, which is something you can do on and off, but she's a really strong empath. Like you." Melody said. "She can also go intangible, but I don't think you can do that."
"Depends on how you look at it." Aquiella said. "I have a similar ability that falls under my control of water. But without that, then no."
"It might be interesting to see what you can do that is comparable as long as water is around." Melody said. "I mean, where did you even learn this stuff? Mom says she's never heard of things like this before."
"I don't know." Aquiella admitted as they could hear the some of the others in the dining room. "I was told by Aunt Attina that the day I was born a meteor passed over Atlantica. She often wonders if that had anything to do with it."
They found that they were the last to arrive except the twins and Audrey. Both Jay and Ben seemed a bit disappointed to see that their girlfriends and Amy were not the ones coming in but they smiled softly at them. "Thank you again for what you did for us." Ben said to the Aquiella.
"You're welcome." Aquiella said. "Where are Mal, Amy and…" She hadn't learned Audrey's name.
"Audrey." Jay supplied. "I don't know."
"They might be talking." Evie supplied. "I heard Audrey say she wanted to talk to the two of them on our way end."
A few minutes later the three of them came downstairs and joined the rest. Audrey hugged Jay tightly as Mal went over and kissed Ben on the lips. Amy waved shyly to Alex and smiled at him, he smiled back at her.
"Ready to eat?" Ben asked Mal as he rubbed her back softly.
"Yes." Mal said to him and gave Evie a look. It was the look that made the blue haired girl know she had been told by Audrey what was going on and that they had to come up with a plan before they lost Audrey. Evie felt better knowing Mal was in the know now.
Audrey hugged Jay against her and he hugged her back, but he knew something was wrong.
They sat down at the dinner table. Melody had long since prepared her parents about Amy's particular appetite and they had settled on a variety of pizza with an emphasis for pepperoni pizza so she would be happy. They had Pepsi, and strawberry soda, and sprite and root beer to choose from.
"So Audrey talked to you two?" Evie asked Mal as they sat down with a couple slices of pizza and cans of Pepsi.
"She did." Mal told her as she opened up her can. "I don't think she's losing her mind Evie." She said before taking a sip of her beverage. She set it on the table. "He's getting past everything somehow just to get to her. His obsession is getting as bad as Gaston Jr. was with Amy."
"Remember when you caught him in her room after she was done showering?" Evie asked with disgust as she opened upper her own can. "I'm surprised you didn't kill him."
"I was so close to it." Mal said with a flash of green in her eyes. "He was so lucky that Amy forbid me from killing him. She was afraid she would lose me if I did." She laughed somewhat dryly. "Can you imagine anyone forbidding me from doing anything?"
Evie laughed a little too. "Only Amy could get away with that." She pointed out.
They turned to see that Jay was talking with Ben. Undoubtfully they were trying to figure out what they were missing with Mal and Audrey. Both of them had decided it was best to wait until after dinner to mention it to them and that Audrey would be the one to tell them while she was there for moral support. That left Audrey sitting by one of the windows but she wasn't alone, Amy had joined her and they were talking quietly.
"I guess one good thing came out of it." Evie said. "Audrey and Amy have grown closer. I know it might not seem like a big thing, but we're all family and we have to learn to like each other so we can coexist together." She reached for one of her pizza slices.
"I know what you mean." Mal said. "Really that and Ben are the main reasons Audrey and I made our peace. And of course Jay liking her. Which is okay, it's worked out well for both of us, all of us I mean."
They watched Will and Lonnie sit down by another window. They could see him talking animatedly and Lonnie laughing occasionally. They surmised he must have been talking about something involving Whitney.
"You're not mad that I knew and didn't tell you, are you?" Evie asked as she took a small bite.
"Of course not E." Mal assured her. "Look I get that I'm not always that easy to talk too, at least compared to you. I'm just glad that you got Audrey to start facing it and to get her to start talking is all." Then she reached over and poked Evie's arm. "Besides, you were just there is all, nothing but luck."
Evie laughed. "Oh, such a nice thing to say to your chosen sister M." She teased. "Now, if you'll excuse me I have to go talk to Doug. So far chemistry and pizza are the only romantic links we have together and I want to build that up." Mal smiled at her and waved as she wandered over to where Doug was.
Mal herself wandered over to the Aquiella and Melody. "So what do you do when you're not helping save us from imminent destruction?" She asked the mermaid visitor.
"I'm in the orchestra at school." Aquiella said to Mal. She didn't seem to care at all who Mal was, just that she was another person she could make friends with. The purple haired girl knew from experience that it wasn't always easy. In fact once she really thought about it unless they were part of the team they still didn't have many friends. "I practice a lot to keep my powers sharp." She laughed a little. "Actually if I were going to Auradon Prep I'd probably be in your magic class."
"Melody told you about that huh?" Mal said with a laugh. "We're all scraping by in that class. Good thing it's not really for a grade, though in some ways it being for our ranger job that might make it even worse than failing a grade."
"I think you guys should be careful." Aquiella revealed in a serious tone of voice. "I don't trust the Neptune Kingdom representatives. They claimed to know nothing about the Neptune Tyrant but it might have been they weren't told so that nothing was given away."
"They did seem to know about the zord huh?" Mal relented.
The mermaid girl nodded. "Yeah. I don't know how much they knew but they weren't oblivious to its presence." She replied. She frowned a bit. "Too bad we didn't meet the queen or king. At least maybe we could have gotten closer to the truth."
"We'll figure it out when we get there." Mal assured her. "We always do. I have to say though I kind of wish that you could help us out. We seem to need all the help we can get."
At that moment Amy was just relating what she had seen to Audrey when they had healed Aquiella. "Do you think maybe there's an orange ranger power out there?" She asked the brunette princess.
"Wouldn't surprise me." Audrey said as she picked off a piece of pepperoni and then ate it. Then she picked up her root beer. "I just wonder if its gem form like the green ranger powers were or if somehow it's in something already like the aqua gem Melody uses." She mused as she took a sip of her drink.
Amy had finished taking a drink from her strawberry soda. "Good point." She agreed. "And where is it? It could be just about anywhere."
"We should say something to Evie, Carlos and Doug about some kind of gem tracker." Audrey suggested. "I mean we have to have enough readings by now to find at least one of them."
Amy giggled. "Yeah, one would think that." She remarked. Audrey laughed with her.
Dinner was winding down and Audrey went over and took Jay's hand. "I need to talk to you." She said softly.
"Alright sure." Jay said as he placed his plate, with two pieces of crust still on it, on one of the tables. He noticed from the corner of his eye that Mal had gone over to Ben and kissed him on the cheek before taking his hand and excusing them from his conversation with Ellie and Alex. Amy meanwhile waved at Melody and then went to talk to Evie.
He got another small shock when he saw that Mal and Ben had come out with them. The two girls lead them over to a bench and sat down with them. To call Mal relaxed was an exaggeration but it was clear whatever they were doing out there had nothing to do with her.
"Jay, remember when I told you that I was hearing Chad's voice." Audrey started.
Even as the former thief nodded the young king interrupted, "Wait. What? When did that start? How long has that been going on now?" he asked her.
"It's been a few weeks." Jay said to him absently. This wasn't news to him though it was certainly still a thorn in his side. "It seemed to start that night we stayed at your castle." He wondered when a statement like that became normal. "What about it Audrey?" He now asked, even though Ben was in shock. Mal squeezed his hand softly, knowing that the worst was yet to come.
"I wish I didn't have to tell you two this now, so that it didn't ruin your night, but…it's gotten worse." Audrey said.
Jay tensed up. "How?" He asked.
"When we were getting ready for the dinner with the Samurai rangers I thought I saw Chad in my room." Audrey told him.
"What? How?" Jay asked.
"I didn't actually." Audrey assured him. "I saw him in the mirror but when I turned to face him he was gone and no one was in the room or in the mirror, except me of course."
"More mind games." Jay said angrily. "He's really getting on my last nerves."
"I don't think its simple mind games Jay." Mal said now, the first thing she had said since they had come out. "Audrey's not losing her mind and there is more to it that we don't understand yet."
"Mind games would be one thing." Audrey said to him. "It's all mental. But, the night before we came here, I woke up with the sense that I was being touched…I mean really touched."
"I'm going to kill him." Jay said simply. "When I see him again I'm going to kill him."
"Audrey you should have said something sooner." Ben said softly. "If this isn't a mind game then he's just toying with you, and sooner or later he might take that up another stage. Really, there's only one more stage to take it too."
"She knows." Mal assured Ben softly. "That's why Evie got her to start opening up about it. So we can figure out ways to try to stop it." Mal hated to admit the fact that she wasn't sure they could stop it if he was that determined. Even killing him seemed to be a far off reality.
"I just don't want to make a big deal about it." Audrey said to them. "We don't even know if he'll want to go that point until we've been defeated. He already knows the two of you want to finish him off and you two can't be the only ones." She squeezed Jay's hand softly. "But I knew it had to start getting around. Sooner or later we'll have to tell the others too."
"We might as well keep it here for now." Ben said. "If it's not happening outside of Auradon and it's not happening when you're with others then you should be safe tonight." He looked to Mal. "Which was probably the idea behind the girl's night. That was a good idea."
"Tell that to Evie." Mal said as she kissed him on the cheek. "It was her idea."
"Enjoy the night." Audrey said to the two boys. "Play your video games and do whatever it is you guys do. We're going to talk and mess with each other's hair and stuff, and we'll worry about it tomorrow when we leave."
"That'll be a lot easier said than done." Jay said to Audrey. He kissed her gently on the lips. "But at least I know you'll be safe tonight with Mal and the other girls." He just hoped he hadn't jinxed anyone, especially the girls by saying that.