Ben and Mal were steps behind Amy and Alex as the four of them walked toward the young king's home. Both of them knew that the younger twin should see Belle after the disturbing encounter with Maleficent, where she struck Amy in an attempt to manipulate Mal. It still made the purple haired girl's blood boil.
Ben reached over and squeezed her hand gently. "I know Mal." He said to her softly. He could only imagine what it was like. Not only did he not have a sibling of his own but he couldn't imagine his parents striking him. Not that he had ever done anything to even pretend it was warranted but still, he couldn't imagine it.
"How can you?" Mal asked a bit snappishly. "You don't know what it's like to want to protect your sibling." She then sighed. "I'm sorry, Ben. I'm just so wound up about it."
"I know honey." Ben said reassuringly. "I'd bet anything that mom already knows we're coming."
"I bet." Mal agreed. After the pizza party the girls had hung out for a little while longer. She had seen Audrey call her mother Aurora just to say hello, and to tell her how grateful she was to have her as a mother. She had tried to do it away from the group but they all knew. No one could blame her either, Lonnie had done the same thing with Mulan and Ally had done the same thing with Alice. Jane likewise had been notably absent as she spent some time with her own mother, who loved her dearly despite some of their issues. Ellie had also done the same thing, with a promise to bring everyone to Arendelle for a visit as soon as she could.
"Alex called his mom yesterday." Ben revealed. "I think he was kind of shaken up by what happened yesterday. Will called his mother and Whitney too. She's been spending a lot of time with Callie." She was Chad's younger sister and the daughter of Cinderella, both of whom had been put into a rather uncomfortable position with Chad choosing to embrace an evil that even most on the Isle of the Lost seemed to have not seen. She had overheard a comment about being curious about the young woman who could enrapture her sister's son.
"You know, this might sound wrong coming from us but I feel like a parent should always be…" Mal hesitated like she was searching for foreign words. In a way, her experience with Belle notwithstanding, she was. "A parent should always try to be right, and fair, and there for their children."
"I think you're right." Ben said to her as he rubbed the palm of her hand a little. "I mean they are still people and make mistakes but as a rule I agree with you." He took a deep breath. "It seems like none of yours were that."
"Sometimes Evie's mom tried with her. I don't know if it came through where it counted though." Mal replied as she smiled a bit at the subtle but loving contact. "But you're right; Amy, Jay, Carlos and I. We got…well we didn't get that, or at least it feels as if we didn't." She gave off a small but humorless laugh. "Lonnie once assumed that even villains loved their kids. In some way I guess they all do, but it's not what it is here. What I see with you and your parents or Aziz and his parents. Even with Splinter and the turtles."
"Sometimes I feel bad that Carlos doesn't really have any attachments in Auradon outside of our group." Ben told him. Unless one wanted to count Dude, the school mascot and his all but official pet. But even then he could still be considered a member of the group. "Even Jay can lean on Aziz and his parents."
"Evie has Snow White too." Mal added. "In fact she was going to see her today as well."
They reached the castle and even if Ben had not been with them Mal and Amy were well known enough not to draw suspicion for their presence. At least no more than the regard some of them got for being the daughters of Maleficent, a stigma that seemed to follow them all to a degree even though Mal showed a very good side and Amy had proven not to even be Isle worthy.
One of the castle servants showed them to the a small arboretum where Belle was already waiting with chocolate covered strawberries and chocolate cake with strawberry soda and Pepsi. She gave Ben a hug and then gestured for Amy to sit by her on the couch. Ben sat on a chair with Mal in his lap and Alex seemed to be admiring the plants.
"So Ben told me you all had some unusual allies to help you stop Paradias and Maleficent's plans this time." Belle said as she took the pitcher of strawberry soda and poured a glass for Amy and Mal. Ben poured himself a glass of Pepsi.
"That we did." Mal agreed with a small laugh. "But they're definitely a good example of appearances being deceiving." She added as she reached for a chocolate covered strawberry. "They were nicer to my chosen siblings and I more so than some of the people in Auradon have been." She wasn't necessarily referring to Audrey as she had very much improved since the coronation. Her thoughts went not only to Chad but even some of the other students looked at them dubiously. She had more than once overheard Ben, Lonnie, or even Audrey getting on students about that.
"They also knew Amber and the other rangers too." Amy added as she was offered the glass of strawberry soda. "Thank you."
"You're welcome honey." Belle said with a small smile. She looked to Ben. "You told me they knew about the demons that made Chad's sword." She reminded him.
Ben nodded. "Yes." He confirmed. "Something was said about a demon named Maledict as well, meaning the sword had to have been named after him."
"I guess it makes sense that the turtles have seen these demons too." Alex noted as he his hand lightly brushed a pink colored rose. "I mean you said the space rangers had to journey to the demonic depths to retrieve the Praeleanthor sword."
"They also mentioned two people in their own worlds working with the demons, and a man who might be one as well." Mal added and she bit her lip trying to remember their names. "Malcolm, some sergeant and…Mull…no, that isn't right."
"Null." Amy filled in for her twin sister.
"I've never heard those names before." Belle mused. "They must not be in our history. Or they went by something different if they were ever here."
"Venus thought that maybe the demons had never been here before." Ben supplied as he took a piece of chocolate cake on a plate. "That maybe their numerous defeats at the hands of the rangers and the turtles, and maybe who knows what else, prompted them to start considering other alternatives."
Belle hesitated a moment. This was not exactly a normal question. "Your…your sword hasn't told you anything?" She asked.
Ben shook his head. "Nope." He said. "It either doesn't know or isn't talking." He then realized what he said and laughed. "Man, that is a weird statement." He mused.
"I suppose no weirder than anything else we've ever discussed as of late." Mal said. She never thought topics of fighting aliens, power ups for their ranger powers, discussions about sentient weapons, or talking turtles would ever be something she would have to worry about.
Belle was not entirely sure how to broach the subject that she knew Ben had brought the girls, particularly Amy, here for. She looked to the rose haired girl. "How is your lip?" She asked her.
"It still hurts a little." Amy said shyly, and then almost in a whisper added, "I…I never did think much was beyond our mom, but somehow hitting me like that, for no reason, never crossed my mind." Belle reached over and stroked her hair softly.
"You should have seen Mal though your majesty." Alex said to Belle. "Once she got free she was a combination of avenging angel and righteous fury." He had to laugh a little. "It was an awesome sight to behold. Maleficent was probably lucky the soldiers were there to run interference."
"Hey, you're talking about my girlfriend there." Ben said to him good naturedly. In reality he couldn't have agreed with Alex's statement more. "Of course Master Splinter gave her a good beat down instead. He had his own avenging fury right there."
Evie was traveling to Snow White's place. Privately she never understood why her sister chose to live as far as she did, when she could have had a castle in Auradon just like Belle and Aurora and Cinderella and the other princesses. Of course when her earliest dream was to marry a prince and live in a castle of her very own (with a mother in law wing at one point) it was hard to think otherwise.
She had intended to come out alone but was instead hanging out with Miranda as she had chosen to spend some time exploring the woods of Auradon. The blue haired girl didn't mind so much, she had never spent any one on one time with the Scottish girl and found it was kind of nice.
"So did you call your mom like everyone else did?" Evie asked her. "I mean, time difference and all that must be hard to account for."
"Aye, sometimes it is." Miranda agreed. "But yes, I got through to her. No offense, but I bet it seemed silly to you and your isle friends."
Evie shook her head. "No offense taken, I can see why you would think that." She herself had a semi-decent relationship with her mother, especially in comparison to her chosen siblings. Still, she now knew it could have been much better. "And no it doesn't seem silly. You see something like what Maleficent did to Amy and it makes you grateful for what you do have. It's even better when you're willing to admit that to the people who need to hear that."
Miranda cocked her head curiously. "Are ye speaking from experience?" She asked.
Evie sighed a bit. "I don't know." She admitted. "Sometimes I do miss my mother. She wasn't as cold as Maleficent. She wasn't as uncaring as Cruella. Still, it was always touch and go. I mean when she didn't get her way it was quite different from when she did. The truth is she'd talk about poisoning Snow White or some other evil deeds she did and it scared me."
"I can imagine why." Miranda said. "I mean it must be scary to hear that kind of stuff."
"It was." Evie agreed. "But it's not just that. Sometimes on the isle I would lay awake at night and wonder what my mother could do to me if I ever pissed her off, and believe me there are times I did despite my best attempts not too." She hesitated only a moment and added more softly, "And here in Auradon I sometimes have to try not to let myself wonder what she could to me because I know choosing good had to have pissed her off, just like it did with Maleficent. Like I said to Mal once, my mom is not a barrel of laughs when she doesn't get her way, just ask Snow White."
"Jafar and Cruella too I would imagine." Miranda said too. She couldn't really imagine what kind of threat Cruella could pose to them though.
They heard the rustling of the forest and barely paid it any attention as it was quite common for animals and such to be wandering around the forest at any given time. It was also logical to reason it could be some other people walking through the forest to reach their own destination as well. This time though, logic failed. A large white creature rushed at the two girls, they were both barely able to dodge.
"What was that?" Evie asked.
"Sorry there, didn't mean to hit you." They heard from a large creature. It seemed to be a four legged creature that vaguely resembled a dragon. It had a white horn on its head like unicorn but was far from cute as the entire body seemed to be made out of the bones of humanoid skeletons. Some might have been human while others were too long or too tall or too oblong to be human. It was still a very disturbing sight. "Actually I meant to gore one of you." It added with a laugh.
"You are one ugly looking creature." Evie noted with disgust.
"Why thank you little girl." The monster said happily. "You can call me Kokki, at least for as long as you're still alive."
Evie and Miranda pulled out their iPhones, entered 7351 and 8011 respectively, and transformed into the blue and Highlands ranger. "We should probably be callin' for back up here." Miranda said to Evie as she formed her bear claw blades. "You do that while I keep this thing distracted."
Evie activated her helmet intercom, "Doug? Jane? Fairy Godmother?" She called. "Can anyone hear me?"
It took a moment but then Doug's voice came back over the intercom. "I read you Evie." He said to her. "What's going on?"
"We ran into this weird monster that calls itself Kokki." She told him. "We need some back up here."
"I'll get some sent your way." Doug promised her. "Just hold on."
Evie saw Miranda slash him with her blades. He took a step back and tried to gore her friend, but the Highlands ranger was just able to twist to the side to avoid that horn. It didn't stop him from slamming his rather massive shoulder into her chest hard. "Easier said than done." She mused as she formed her mirror force shield.
"Oh, I brought this back." Amy said suddenly as she took our the book she had borrowed from Belle. "It was really good, I liked it." She said with a small smile.
"I'm glad." Belle said to her with her own smile. "It has two other parts to it. Before you leave you can take the second part with you." She didn't really trust too many people to borrow from her library but Amy was one of those.
"That'd be great, thank you." Amy said sweetly.
Their iPhones went off and they all instantly answered it. They saw a brief video of the Kokki monster that Evie had taken a moment to capture and then Doug said, "Evie and Miranda need some help battling this thing. Audrey, Jay, Carlos and Lonnie are already on their way. They're the only ones so far who I've been able to get so far."
"Ben and I are on the way now too." Mal said to Doug. "Stand by for now. Let's see if we can beat this thing with just us first, but when you raise the others have them waiting just in case." She looked to her sister and Alex. "That goes for you two too. Wait for us here, we'll be back." With that she and Ben ran toward the castle doors.
"Is it really a good idea to do that?" Ben asked Mal.
"I don't want to show our entire hand to one monster if we don't have too." She told her boyfriend simply. "Besides, maybe this will give your mom the time she needs to really talk to Amy. I think she hates to show weakness in front of us, even me."
As soon as they were out of the castle Mal took out her iPhone and input her numbers 6319 as Ben formed the Praeleanthor sword and shield and combined them. As he became the Auradon Knight she transformed into the purple ranger.
It was an unlikely hope but Evie unleashed a quaking mirror force attack on Kokki, hoping it would be easy enough just to shatter the bone structured creature. It hit him and even left a few minor cracks in the bones but it wasn't enough to destroy him. "Nice try." He said before sending out several very human looking skulls at Evie that struck with a burst of energy upon impact, sending her rolling.
Miranda moved in to engage Kokki and this time he let two long bones, arm bones if she had to guess though it couldn't possibly belong to a normal human, extend from his hands and as he rose to his hind legs he swung at her. She dodged the first strike and tried to respond to the attack. He blocked it with one of the bones and she realized that they were still clearly very strong. "What are ye anyway?" She asked.
"Something far beyond what any of you limited people could hope to understand." Kokki answered. He then moved with a speed that seemed almost wrong from a slow looking lizard like thing in bone and slammed the other bone right into the center of Miranda's back. She rolled hard, pretty sure that if she weren't transformed she would have something broken right now.
"Is this all there is to the power rangers?" Kokki asked. "Paradias said you all were tough."
"You haven't seen anything yet." Evie promised. "We're only getting started."
Kokki started to walk toward the two rangers but was interrupted by a hail of arrows that stuck him several times. He rolled to the ground, dropping the bone clubs he was using to fight. Audrey and Carlos were then by the two girl's side even as Jay and Lonnie stood ready to fight him.
"Look more rangers to play with." Kokki said enthusiastically. "I'm going to enjoy tearing all of you apart."
"That is one nasty looking beast." Audrey noted.
"I said the exact same thing." Evie said.
Kokki moved in with his massive clawed hands and tried to take a chunk out of Lonnie's arm but she moved quickly enough to block the attack with her tessens. Jay moved in and slashed the monster away from the pink ranger. "That thing has a tough hide." Jay noted.
"It makes sense sadly." Miranda said to him. "That exterior isn't just for show. I think he's really made from the bones of other creatures."
Kokki recalled his bone clubs and struck out again. This time Lonnie tried to block his attack only to find he was stronger than she was. He disarmed her and gored her right in the chest. She fell back hard, against Miranda, and started to cough hard as she tried to catch her breath.
"Are you okay?" Audrey asked her even as Kokki tried to gore Jay. He deflected the attempt with his scimitar and kicked the monster hard on his bone white chest.
"Yeah." Lonnie got out and then coughed again. "If…if I weren't transformed, I don't think I'd be alive…right now." The Asian princess was still trying to catch her breath.
"I've got your back man." Carlos said as he jumped up and tried to bring his earthquake claw daggers down on the monster. The small sharp claws got caught in what seemed to be a small ribcage and Kokki dropped the bone club in his right hand in order to grab Carlos and toss him hard into Jay.
"Thanks anyway." Jay managed to get out as they landed on the ground hard.
"Hey ugly, coming in." Mal announced as she rammed the edge of her staff that held the dragon's eye gem right into his head. He stumbled back and Ben followed up with two slashes to his chest from the Praeleanthor sword. For whatever reason that seemed to have just a little more effect even though Ben suspected he had nothing to do with the demons that had caused the mystery ancient civilization to make this weapon.
"Everyone okay?" Ben asked as he got ready to defend the rangers if Kokki were to strike now.
"I've had better landings." Carlos told him.
"Yeah, and he's been through some falls." Jay tried to joke though clearly no one was in the mood for that. "Well, it was worth a shot." He added.
"I've managed to catch my breath since that attack." Lonnie said as she recovered her staff. "His gore attack really hurts, I'd hate to see him get to a civilian."
"Then we won't let him." Mal said to the others. "The others should be on standby but let's see if we can finish this guy off on our own."
"You could bring in all your friends and still not be able to defeat me." Kokki said confidently. Mal personally thought he was showing too much confidence, which in itself could be a weakness if they could exploit that.
"Well they say that sticks and stones break bones." Carlos said. "Maybe we should try that out."
"That's kind of ridiculous dude." Jay pointed out. "It's just a rhyme."
"It's a rhyme." Mal said to them. "But maybe not a bad idea guys. But we're going to need a little more bang for our buck, sort to speak." She looked to her team. "And since we're all fully powered we should be able to activate the neon armor without a problem."
"Great idea." Lonnie agreed. "Increased speed and strength…not to mention it might ease some of the pain from that gore." The seven rangers activated their neon armor and stood before him with a shiny neon glow.
Kokki laughed. "Do you really think that you can stop me with that new glow of yours?" He asked. "I can still see right through you to break you down."
"We'll see about that." Mal said. "Spread out and take him down."
One minute he had a view on them and the next they were out of sight. He caught a glimpse of pink and laughed a bit as he remembered goring Lonnie. He only wished he had done that to one of the two female rangers while they were unmorphed. Then he felt a hard kick to his back followed by an upward slash from s single blade, he assumed the black ranger.
"Not so easy to see now, are we?" He heard the yellow ranger taunt. He tried to follow the sound of the voice only to receive an arrow to the side of the chest that sent him flying. He was sure that had to be from the red ranger.
"Come out and play little rangers." Kokki taunted with a laugh though it didn't sound nearly as amused as it had a moment before. He caught a flash of purple and then Mal slammed her dragon's eye staff into his chest and then quickly turned to trip up the monster, making him fall flat on his back.
"I hope this thing has a hard time getting up." Evie noted.
Kokki twirled around and started to shoot out the same exploding skulls that he had tossed at Miranda and Evie earlier but none of them seemed to connect.
"Time to stop playing around." Mal said. "Ben, Miranda, if you two would be so kind as to provide a distraction to this thing then we'll put it together and end this game."
"Ye got it Mal." Miranda said as Ben added, "We're on it." Together the two warriors moved in just as Kokki struggled to his feet. The two slashed him across the chest and then kicked him back. Kokki shot out one of his bone clubs only to connect with the metal of Ben's shield.
"Auradon blaster time?" Carlos guessed. Mal shook her head and the rest of the team nodded.
First Mal placed her dragon's eye staff, followed by Audrey's elemental bow. Evie placed her mirror force shield behind it and the compact expanded outward. Jay placed his soul scimitar in the middle and then on either side Lonnie placed her hurricane tessens and Carlos placed his earthquake claw daggers. They raised the blaster and aimed at the monster.
Ben drew power into the Praeleanthor sword and slashed Kokki hard, causing a crack to form in the bones of his chest. Miranda followed up by driving her grizzly blades into the cracks and pulling hard. She tried to crush her head in between the bones but she dropped down and cracked the bones even further. Both rolled to the side.
With their friends clear the six rangers unleashed a blast of energy straight at him, aiming specifically for his cracked chest cavity. It struck and held for a moment before breaking apart, and the monster went with it moments later in an explosion.
"So much for him." Jay said. "Overconfident to a fault."
As Audrey activated her helmet intercom to tell Doug all was fine and they could stand down from alert status, Mal and Ben bid a quick goodbye to return to his castle.
Evie was also close enough that Miranda said she would go back with Audrey, Jay, Lonnie and Carlos back to Auradon.
Amy had gone to the library and placed the book back into its place on the bookshelf and took out the second book. She opened up the book to read the book jacket when she heard footsteps approaching. "Find it okay sweetie?" Belle asked.
"Yes ma'am." Amy replied even though she stayed where she was looking at the book jacket.
Belle came up behind her and placed her hands gently on Amy's shoulders. "Are you okay sweetie?" She now asked more softly.
Amy didn't know exactly how to respond to that. "Mom and I never really got along. I pretty much knew what her opinion of me was already." She replied.
Belle gently turned Amy to face her. "But it doesn't make it any easier. She is still your mother and all children expect their parents to love them." She stroked her cheek softly, the one that Maleficent had struck in an attempt to manipulate Mal. "No matter what you may or may not have expected, I would think it would still register painfully."
Amy bit her lip. "It kind of does." She said so quietly that Belle had to strain to make sure she heard the rose haired girl right. "To…to have disdain for someone, isn't that different from actually striking them? From hating them?" She wondered.
"Sometimes they're one in the same." Belle answered softly. "And sometimes they're not." She wished she could say that Maleficent didn't hate Amy or Mal, but she found she honestly could not say that to her. She felt it would be a lie. Privately Belle thought that perhaps Maleficent didn't really hate either of her daughters, but only because it was an emotion that she couldn't bother to feel for them when all she cared about was power and causing misery.
"I guess…I guess I just don't understand it. Understand her." Amy said. "I shouldn't want to but…"
"But she's your mother. You want to, even though it seems impossible." Belle finished for her gently. "I know, sweetie. I know."
Amy looked up at Belle, seeing the look of concern and love in her face, something she had only seen from Mal, and that was different to her somehow. She felt tears brimming in her eyes and impulsively she threw her arms around Belle, who hugged the girl back and murmured softly to her.
It was those last words, and that emotional embrace, that Ben and Mal caught the tail end of. Ben put his arm around Mal's shoulders and she laid her head softly against his shoulder. She was glad that Amy had found someone else she could trust so fully, even though the circumstances leading to it were horrible.
Ally, Aziz, Jordan, Aquiella, Melody and Ellie sat at the table in the command center listening to Miranda talk about the fight. Next to them Will sat with Lonnie in his lap, his arms around her waist. "Man, sounds like we missed a nice fight." Aziz said almost regretfully.
"There will be others I'm sure." Jordan said to him.
"At least for once it wasn't something that required all of our efforts." Ally said. "Not that I don't enjoy being a ranger but I worry one of these days we're going to encounter a monster where all of our efforts, and all of our friends, just won't be enough."
"Well let's not forget we have one untapped resource." Doug said to them as he held up the gray iPhone. "It's been synched back up to our system and it's ready to go."
"I still say that you could take it." Aziz said to him. "You could be the gray ranger."
Doug shrugged it off. "I probably could." He agreed. "But it's not what I want. I'm perfectly fine here helping you guys out of the jams you seem to get yourself into." He laughed a bit. "Sometimes you just need the outside perspective."
"We'll find someone." Will said. "It seems as long as we know they're trustworthy there are no shortage of candidates."
Evie entered the small house Snow White often stayed at, placing her key back in her pocket. Sometimes it still amazed her that she and her step-sister could get along so well considering there was plenty of reason to have bad blood exist between the two. It was a reminder that despite the fact she might have had a better relationship with her mother than her chosen siblings could say about their parents, it was still far from perfect.
She stepped further into the house and was about to call out for her step-sister when she heard crying in the kitchen. She slowly moved over to find her sitting at the table, alone. She held a single red rose in her hands. "Snow?" She asked worriedly.
Snow White practically jumped out of her chair. "Evie. I didn't hear you come in." She said as she tried to dry her eyes.
"What's wrong?" Evie asked her as she came into the kitchen. "Did something happen?"
"A long time ago." Snow White said to her softly. "It's no big deal."
"It happened a long time ago and you're still crying over it." Evie reprimanded gently. "Clearly it's something that's a very big deal. Please talk to me." She added imploringly.
Snow White set the rose down and pulled two water bottles from the fridge. Evie sat next to her and waited as she set the bottles down before sitting herself and looking at the red rose. The blue haired girl was about to prod again when Snow White said, "I suppose really you have the right to know about this anyway. It just happened so long ago, and I didn't want to upset you over something that is far beyond your control."
"What happened?" Evie asked her again, just as gently but more insistently. "Please. Just tell me."
And so Snow White told her what happened. When it was over Evie had her own revelation and she took her hand gently. "Believe it or not, I think we actually can fix this." She said to her. "But I'm going to need my friends to do this." She texted her team asking them to meet in the command center and then she and Snow left.