Fairytale of Doom
By CrimsonStarbird
Chapter Twenty-Four – If You're Not With Us
Beyond Erza's closed eyelids, the world was quietly minding its own business, and she was content to let it. Live and let live seemed a sensible policy for a mind that ached with exhaustion. The muted sunlight wasn't bothering her, though she suspected it might if she opened her eyes, so she did not. The throbbing in her head marked its approval of this decision by bashing the inside of her skull a little bit less forcefully.
She hadn't yet realized that she didn't know where she was or how she had got there.
Somewhere, a band was playing. That was nice. It sounded like a full brass band as well, rowdy and enthusiastic in a very orderly way. They were even playing the right notes, which ruled out this being one of Gajeel's antics.
In fact, she felt a pang of disappointment when the music faded away. More hospitals should hire brass bands to wake up their patients, she thought.
Hospitals? Was she in a hospital?
Dimly, she recalled pain and exhaustion, but not the source, or what had come of it.
"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today…"
That intonation caught her attention at once. Wait, was she at a wedding? Whose? Alzack and Bisca's?
No. Couldn't be. She'd missed that one, back when she and the team had been stuck on Tenrou Island. Someone else's, then.
But how could Erza have forgotten something so important? The panic that only a dream's dissociation could bring flooded through her, and she opened her eyes.
She was, indeed, at a wedding. Outdoors, in fact. The band was set up in the corner of a field, their instruments respectfully lowered. There was a long table, too, draped in many white tablecloths and even more plates of buffet food. Crowning it all was a huge three-tiered cake, snow-white icing interspersed with lush ruby strawberries. The numbness that pervaded the rest of her body apparently didn't extend to her tastebuds; she was already salivating.
Chairs had been arranged into rows, though Erza did not recognize any of the guests' faces at a glance. They were all staring at the altar with anticipation. And at that altar, there stood a vicar reading solemn words from an old book, a burly man clad in a red tunic a few shades too bright to do anything other than clash with her scarlet hair, and… Erza herself.
She was getting married?
Her heart stuttered in her chest. She couldn't get married! It was far too soon! She hadn't even had her first kiss yet!
Unless she counted Kagura.
Which she didn't! It was- it was just friendly! That was all! They'd escaped a near-death situation and adrenaline was running high and Kagura was just expressing her gratitude towards a friend and it absolutely did not count!
Which meant that Erza was not ready for holy matrimony at all!
It was as she opened her mouth to tell these strangers that there had clearly been some kind of mistake that she realized she had been gagged.
At last, her warrior instincts flared to life. The dreamlike haze enveloping the world fled in fear; she gritted her teeth and bore the pain of reality. She wasn't technically standing at the altar, she realized. She was sitting, in what looked like a wooden dining chair, and the red-garbed man towered over her like a mountain of muscle.
As if that wasn't bad enough, someone had tied her to the chair while she had been unconscious. Her left hand was bound behind her to the backrest. Her right had been spared only because it was no threat to anyone – in fact, the culprits had gone to the trouble of putting it in a proper cast, white and studded with the odd fake diamond to match the wedding dress she was wearing. From the stretch of her feet, she deduced that she was wearing fancy stilettos, although it seemed a pointless gesture when the ties binding her ankles to the crossbars beneath the chair meant that no one would ever see them.
Huh.
Levy had never mentioned anything like this happening in Mulan.
"Monsieur Gaston, do you…" The vicar's formal words tailed off as he glanced again at the bound bride. In a mutter that sounded a lot more like the sheep than the shepherd, he continued, "Gaston, while we are all delighted that you have finally won the hand of the woman of your dreams, this is a little… unorthodox."
Gaston gave a hearty chuckle. "Ah, but you see, it is for her own good! No woman would be able to contain their natural hysteria while marrying me. She must be seated lest she faints, and I can't have her throwing herself at me until after the vows have been recited!"
This, Erza thought, was patently ridiculous. Then again, when her gaze fell upon the three vapid blondes in bold-coloured dresses – one already fainted, one frantically fanning herself, and one in distraught tears – it maybe wasn't so strange that the vicar seemed to buy it.
If she didn't do something, she really was going to end up married.
It was time to escape from this fairytale wedding and get back to her war. She would marry when she was good and ready for it, thank you very much.
The bonds around her one good arm were frustratingly tight. Her other surged with pain when she tried to move it; a punch thrown with that arm would be as likely to knock her out as her opponent. She had a little bit of movement in her ankles, though, and she began the tricky task of unfastening the buckle on her right shoe using her left foot.
"Then we shall proceed," the vicar said magnanimously. "Monsieur Gaston, do you take this woman to be your wife, to live together in holy matrimony…"
Gaston nodded impatiently through the vows, before barking out the least romantic I do that Erza had ever imagined… from films and books, of course! She'd never given that much thought to her own wedding; it was so far off!
The vicar turned to her. "Belle, do you take this man to be your husband…"
Well, this Gaston bloke clearly wasn't that besotted if he hadn't realized that the woman he had kidnapped was in fact General Mulan, Vanquisher of the Huns.
"…in sickness and in health, for as long as you both shall live?"
And he was clearly missing a few brain cells too, as both he and the vicar were waiting expectantly for an answer from a woman who was gagged.
"Oh, of course," Gaston chuckled. "That will make it difficult to kiss the bride!"
He ripped the gag off, taking several long strands of hair with it. Before he could close in, the vicar held up his hand. "The vows first, Monsieur."
"Well?" Gaston demanded of Erza. "Say I do!"
"I…" Erza murmured. The words came slowly; her mouth felt as though it was still stuffed full of cloth.
"Don't be shy, now!" he prompted, leaning in closer. "No need to hide your joy at having bagged the manliest man in town!"
"I…"
"Yes?"
"I OBJECT!" Erza roared, and she slammed her forehead into Gaston's.
It was like headbutting a mountain.
Then again, Erza had destroyed at least one mountain in her time, and she recovered far faster than Gaston. He was still reeling when she flicked her ankle and sent her loosened shoe rocketing straight into his groin.
With an agonized yell, he staggered, stumbled, tripped… and fell right into the wedding cake.
If Erza had been angry before, then now she was furious.
The one aspect of this scenario that hadn't been an absolute horror show was erupting into a wave of mushed cake and ruined icing before her eyes.
Strength surged through her. Somehow, she was on her feet, forced into an awkward hunch by the chair to which she was tied and all the more fearsome for it. As Gaston's outraged friends rushed at her, she twisted and lashed out with the chair on her back, whacking them with its rear legs like a demented hedgehog. She was not going to stand for-
There was a cough.
The whole scene froze. As one, the rioting congregation, the cake-splattered Gaston, and Erza and her chair all turned to the end of the aisle, where three figures stood in utter bemusement: Lucy, Levy, and Jellal.
"Are we interrupting something here?" Levy asked.
Erza's cheeks had a very good stab at outdoing her hair. "Th-Th-Th-Th-This isn't what it looks like!"
"Oh, really?" Levy wondered, a playful spark in her eyes. "Because it looks like you've been kidnapped and forced to marry Gaston against your will. Are you telling me that you're actually really into this?"
Erza gave a most un-Erza-like eek.
And yet, if the expression on a certain shield-wielding Celestial Spirit mage's face was anything to go by, Erza wasn't even the one least pleased by this situation.
"Oh, I am so fed up of this!" Lucy snarled.
She marched down the aisle, past the ruined cake, past the bound-but-still-formidable Erza, past the twitching-in-rage Gaston… and punched the vicar in the face.
He toppled over and she jumped on top of him, emphasizing every word with a whack of her shield. "Stop – trying – to – marry – people – off – without – their – consent!" Leaning back, she took a deep breath, and then hollered up at the sky: "God, I hate this world!"
Erza cast Levy and Jellal a worried glance. "Is… she okay?"
"Yeah, she just has something of a vendetta against every fairytale going at the moment," Levy shrugged.
"…I see." Erza really didn't, but it seemed like the only polite response.
Suddenly, there was a blur of movement and Gaston's fist smashed into Erza's right shoulder. An earthquake raced down the fault line of her broken arm.
She reeled back, but the chair hindered her movement and she fell before the altar. Nothing would bend right. She couldn't stand, couldn't even move, a prisoner of the dining chair and the vicious, vicious pain. Though she knew they would be coming to help, the footsteps of her friends failed to reach her over the blood gathering in her ears.
She could hear Gaston's malicious hiss just fine, though, as he whipped a dagger from his belt. "If you won't be mine, Belle," he snarled, "then I'll make sure no one ever wants you!"
The dagger's point raced towards her cheek – and then suddenly reversed, as Gaston was wrenched away from her. Erza blinked to see the muscular man dangling, actually dangling, in the grip of someone even more imposing, magic or no magic.
Laxus had his hand around Gaston's neck. "You're punching above your weight, mate," he told him frankly, before throwing him roughly to the ground. "I suggest that you and your friends give up this pursuit before her friends get really mad."
With one hellfire-laden glance at Laxus, Gaston slunk away. The chastised villagers began clearing the impromptu wedding setup away.
"Laxus," Erza frowned, as he lifted her and the chair upright again, taking care not to jostle her arm. "I wasn't expecting to see you…"
In truth, she hadn't been expecting Lucy, Levy, and Jellal to rock up either. But that was different. Nothing but pure, neutral coincidence had merged her friends' path with her own. For Laxus to come here, though, after their last encounter had ended in her shouting at him and riding off injured and alone, against his advice…
"Why?" he asked coolly. "Don't you think I can take criticism?"
Honestly? No, she didn't. Not the man whose resentment over half-imagined slights had exploded into the Battle of Fairy Tail.
Laxus was still speaking. "Or is it just that I am surplus to requirements, as usual?" He nodded towards Levy and Jellal, who had both started hurtling down the aisle before Laxus had stepped in against Gaston, and shrugged. "Well, it wasn't that easy to track your kidnappers. I did find the warehouse where they must have been keeping you while they set up for the wedding, though." From his back, he lifted a sack with a familiar metallic clunk. "I found your armour and your sword."
"…Thank you," she muttered.
"Hang on, Erza, I'll untie you," Levy piped up.
Lucy, having apparently realized that beating up the vicar wasn't harming the fairytale endings that he represented, also got to her feet. "Yeah, Levy, do you want to help Erza get her armour back on? I'll make sure the boys don't peek."
Erza had opened her mouth to inform them that she didn't need help when she caught a glimpse of Laxus's reproachful expression. Fate had just solidly punished her for refusing help – and here she was, accusing him of not being able to take criticism.
She gave a small, reluctant nod. "Thank you, Lucy, Levy."
Once she was free of the chair, Levy helped her escape from the wedding dress too, while Lucy kept an enthusiastically evil eye on the two least likely men to ever try to peek.
"Levy, I must apologize to you," Erza began, as Levy helped to snap the vambrace onto Erza's uninjured arm.
"What for?"
"Though I may have defeated the Hun army, Shan Yu escaped. I do not know where he is. I swore I would defeat this foe, but I let him slip through my fingers-"
"Don't worry about it," Levy sighed. "Technically, he wasn't even your villain. I'm the one who got our stories mixed up – turns out I was supposed to be Mulan, heaven only knows why, and you were fearless, adventurous Belle. I sent us the wrong way from the start."
"But I have caused irreparable damage to your story-"
Levy just laughed it off. "Join the club! Lucy didn't last five minutes as Cinderella, Jellal is the politest Beast ever, and I don't know who Laxus is even supposed to be, but I highly doubt his role involves crashing weddings. It's safe to say that all the original fairytales are well and truly shot at this point."
The thought that her failure to end Shan Yu might not have doomed them after all warred in Erza's heart with the worry that there had never been anything but doom for them from the start. "If we cannot complete the stories, how are we to get home?"
"Oh, technically it's not completing the story that does it, but something else along the way." To Erza's bemusement, Levy cast a slightly scared look at Lucy, before adding cryptically, "And Lucy is determined to overhaul that way and find yet another. But on the plus side," she continued, her voice lightening as she directed Erza's attention back to where Lucy was monitoring the politely bemused men. "There are five of us together, now. And Lucy has also run into Gray, Cana, and Juvia, and it's almost certain that Gajeel and Natsu are here too. Just imagine what we'll be able to do once we're all together. I'm sure we've destroyed bigger things than a fake fairytale world before."
For the first time in a while, a faint smile touched Erza's lips. "I cannot argue with that."
Lucy glanced over her shoulder and, seeing that Erza was one again steel and gleaming rather than white and floaty, she indicated to the men that they could join the conversation. "So, where to next?"
"I don't think we should stick around here for much longer," Levy advised. "Gaston could come back at any moment."
"That buffoon is no match for me now that I have my sword," Erza stated.
Levy's worried expression only deepened. "True, but in the original Beauty and the Beast, after Gaston was jilted, he managed to turn the whole village against the Beast. We wouldn't want to face an entire bloodthirsty mob without magic. I think our best bet is to head for the Beast's Castle and regroup. That's where the three of us were going when we ran into you anyway."
"But the emperor has tasked me with aiding his forces against a potential invasion of the territory-"
"There will be time for that later," Levy reasoned. "All the stories are a mess right now. Let's rest in the castle, pool our information, and then decide the next steps we can take together. Does that sound okay?"
After a moment, Erza gave a single nod. Given her recent kidnapping and near-marriage, resting while they had the chance was probably a sensible idea. She did not want that happening again in front of her friends. "Very well. Let us go."
Levy looked questioningly at Laxus, who added, "No objections from me," so they set off towards the castle.
As they walked, Erza cast a sideways glance at Jellal. It wasn't that surprising to see him in this world, given how closely he had been fighting with them against Alvarez, but he was being very quiet. Perhaps he felt awkward, as the only non-Fairy Tail mage in their little group.
It wouldn't explain why he didn't seem able to look her in the eye, though.
Erza deliberately dropped back so that she was walking beside him. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine." He gave a smile, though she couldn't tell if it extended to his eyes or not, as he was still staring at the ground in front of him. "I do not think you should be worrying about me, after what you just went through."
That was an obvious attempt at deflection if she had ever heard one. "You're limping," she said bluntly.
"And you have a broken arm," he countered.
"It is but a scratch."
"What happened?"
"I caused an avalanche to sweep away the enemy army, but got caught in it myself. I was careless." She gave a bitter shake of her head, and then indicated his leg. "You?"
"Fought a dragon."
Her eyes went wide. "A dragon?"
"A small one," he assured her, and she was fairly sure that this smile was genuine. "It would have had nothing on an avalanche capable of wiping out an entire army. Besides, Levy and Lucy were the real heroes. They're the ones who distracted it and ensured we all got away."
"Still, to think that you faced such a foe without magic and still managed to escape…"
"Oh, we had magic," Levy interrupted, turning back to glance at the two she had been shamelessly eavesdropping on. "Lucy obtained the Shield of Virtue through her, ah, purity of heart."
"I hate you," Lucy muttered.
Erza hadn't paid much attention to the shield that Lucy held until now. It was a dull blue, and quartered with a white cross; clearly an artefact of this world rather than something the graceful Celestial Spirit mage had brought with her from their own. Unlike the various shields Erza had in her own portable armoury, she could sense no magic from this one at all. Then again, magic worked differently here. If her friends said it was powerful, she believed them.
"We have an item like that, too," Laxus spoke up unexpectedly, and Erza felt a spark of annoyance. Was everyone listening in on her conversation? "I've had this sword since I woke up here. It's clearly magical."
"May I see?" Levy enquired. The sheathed sword had barely landed on her palm when a broad smile streaked across her face. "I knew it! This is the Sword of Truth – it's Prince Phillip's magical sword in Sleeping Beauty, just like the Shield of Virtue is his enchanted shield. What does it do?"
Laxus shrugged. "No idea. I can't draw it."
"Then it must have some sort of activation condition on it too. The Shield of Virtue-"
Lucy gave the most aggressive cough that Erza had ever heard.
Levy amended, "The Shield of Virtue has incredibly complicated rules around who can use it which we have yet to figure out, but for some mysterious reason, out of the three of us, only Lucy can hold it. When Jellal or I try to lift it, it's like it is stuck to the floor. Your sword might be the same."
"I suppose," Laxus granted. "Erza did manage to brute-force her way through the activation conditions in the mountains, though. That's how she brought down Tung Shao Pass."
"Hmm. Brute-forcing your way through the conditions on the Shield of Virtue sounds like something that would get you arrested," Levy pointed out.
"Please stop," Lucy groaned.
"Well, I'm sure we'll figure it out," Levy smiled. "We're together, now. It's time to start turning the tables on this world."
It was a nice sentiment, Erza thought. But as her gaze flicked from Jellal, who still wasn't meeting her gaze, to Laxus, who was saying as little as possible and mostly walking apart from the group, to Lucy, who was glowering at the supposedly special shield on her arm like it was about to bite her, she thought they still had a way to go.
For a hall with so many windows, it seemed as though the throne room of the Glass Kingdom's castle had never seen the light.
Heavy drapes that would have been better suited for a funeral parlour laughed at the meagre attempt of the daylight to besiege their fortress. The air was too still to settle the dust, and it hung motionless in the air like a veil between worlds. Beyond their secretive walls, the servants and noblemen were no doubt going about their business as normal, yet only the odd disembodied footstep made it down into that hall of echoes and shadows and gloom. It transformed a room where the commonfolk would come to have their troubles heard by the king into one where they would grovel and plead for their lives.
Not that any of the room's current visitors were the grovelling type. One was a sea-witch still wearing Juvia's form. The spiral shell hanging from her neck glowed a sickly yellow as the stolen voice inside writhed against the magic imprisoning it. She was trying to look nonchalant, disdainful, but Juvia's facial muscles hadn't attempted that sort of derision since she'd left Phantom Lord, and it looked as wrong as the skin she wore. Shadows clung where eight black tentacles should have swaggered.
The second stood tall and spindly and wicked, dominating every room she entered, whether invited or not. Her ragged cape seemed to flutter with every breath, like living wings upon her back. A clawed finger tapped impatiently upon the gnarled staff she held. It might have succeeded in making her look in control here, were it not for the fact that she, for all her displeasure, was still waiting in the silence.
The silhouette of the third man would have been enough to contain the other two with room left over, and yet even the confidence he tried to project faltered and faded, crushed beneath the nothingness in the room. This was one enemy the hulking barbarian couldn't defeat. Though his only movement was the steady rise and fall of his mountainous chest, the hawk on his shoulder twitched, seeing enemies in every corner and feeling the roof press down from above. His hand found no comfort on the hilt of his savage blade, but nor could he remove it.
All three villains stood in a line before the throne. Each could sense the others' discomfort. None of them were foolish enough to think that the others couldn't sense theirs.
The throne itself was empty. The current king of the Glass Kingdom was nowhere to be seen. This room no longer belonged to him, if indeed it ever truly had.
From the darkness behind the throne emerged two yellow eyes, sickly topaz pieces illuminating a devil's grin. They belonged to a cat. Black and grey was his fur; he had more than enough of it to greedily claim all the shades of night. It was luscious, luxurious, and yet none would have made the mistake of thinking him indolent, even had two of the three members of his audience not met him before. This pampered housecat did not have a trace of the wild in him – no, he had an ember of hell's own inferno.
The cat's name was Lucifer, and he lounged in the arms of a woman. Lady Tremaine, advisor to the absent ruler of the Glass Kingdom, was a much an underling as her familiar was a tame pet. She was old, but age had added to her rather than taken away. Decades of superior standing and ruthless backstabbing oozed from her straight-backed posture, left her presence towering over those who stood before her.
"So."
The word was silk and daggers, the toll of the bell that permitted the sun to rise; it could have stopped the charging Hun army in its tracks.
Lady Tremaine was not looking at her three guests, for scratching idly behind her cat's ears was far more important. The beast did not purr but hum, an engine primed for some sinister purpose. If his mistress did not deign to acknowledge her guests, then the blood and amber of his eyes did not glance away from them for an instant.
"You are finally ready to admit that I am right."
The lack of any denials spoke volumes in the silence.
Lady Tremaine did not smile. Perhaps she did not know how; she could simper, to hide the knife clutched to her bosom, and she could scheme, a flash of winter's cold, but even in victory, she could not simply smile, and it brought the shadows closer.
"And yet… how badly did you each have to fail before realizing that your rash, puerile attempts to pick a fight with our heroes are no match for the task before us?"
Her gaze suddenly snapped towards the one wearing Juvia's form. "Ursula, the wicked sea-witch infamous across the Seven Seas. By dint of your magic potions, you not only mimicked that woman's form, but stole her very voice. You were perfectly placed to infiltrate their group and make your move. The first Blessing of the Fairies had practically fallen into your slimy lap. And still you failed to obtain it."
"Honestly, dear, only a human with no magic of her own would act as though the Blessings can just be taken."
However, the sea-witch's attempt at sass fell to the floor and was torn to shreds by the shadows. Any further defence she might have tried to muster was dismissed when Lady Tremaine glanced away, although Lucifer's predatory gaze lingered, full of flickering flames which laughed as they devised new games to play once her soul had reached their domain.
"They call you the Mistress of Evil," Tremaine remarked of Maleficent, an outcast even from the fae, her heart growing more twisted with every society that had rejected her. "The Queen of the Dark Fae, now bested not once but twice by mere mortals! Even though all three of the Blessings began within your territory, you let the first escape your curse and the second be carried away by a man who should have been no match for you. I tried to reach out to you, to turn you from this path of wasted effort and blind destruction, but you thought you knew better. You kidnapped a woman you believed would be able to wield the third Blessing – and you were right. She could. Now it is in her possession, and you, the terrifying dragon of nightmare, have been left empty-handed."
"Careful how you speak to me, woman," Maleficent warned.
Dark fae she may have been, but Lady Tremaine merely sniffed in response. "When you have proven that you can do something other than fail, I shall refrain from speaking to you as a failure," she stated, just like she would have stated the laws governing inheritance or the custom for inviting a princess to a ball.
"And you." She turned to the hulking barbarian to complete her assessment. "The mighty warlord feared throughout the lands. You had a whole army behind you, and you could not secure a single sword from a lone general. Now, your men feed the mountain birds, and you would be doing the same if not for your deal with the shamans."
On Shan Yu's shoulder, the hawk seemed to shrink in on itself as the cat's grin widened, though the man himself seemed carved of the same ice that had buried his army.
"There is one tiny mark in your favour," Lady Tremaine continued. "After you gambled and lost your entire army, you accepted your own shortcomings and agreed to work for me. You were given one simple task: to abduct the king of this realm, and open the route for me to step in. Hardly much of a challenge – after all, even Maleficent managed to pull off an abduction, right before her abductee made off with her treasure."
The dark fairy gave a hiss. Lucifer hissed back, swishing his tail. Lady Tremaine ignored them both.
"You, however, managed to find a whole new way to botch the job. You kidnapped the wrong man. Still, even he would have been useful as leverage, if you had managed to hold onto him. But you did not. Despite being injured, he managed to get clean away."
Shan Yu could no longer hold his tongue. "Because she interfered!" he growled, jerking his head towards the shapeshifted Ursula.
"If you can't keep hold of your assets, they're fair game," the sea-witch shrugged.
Lady Tremaine's eyes narrowed a touch. "Fools. Little wonder you all keep losing."
"And how are your plans coming along, my lady?" Maleficent interjected, with a delightfully gruesome sneer. "Have you got a daughter married to the prince yet?"
"And then you were going to, what, use that to establish legitimacy once you offed the king?" Ursula added. "Last I heard, he was fit and well. Hadn't even been kidnapped."
Maleficent smirked. Shan Yu glared daggers at them both, though his actual weapon remained sheathed. He hadn't forgotten where he was. None of them had.
"Given the competence with which he conducted himself at first, the king appeared to be an obstacle to my control of this kingdom – and more importantly, its army," Lady Tremaine answered, with the same polished smoothness. "A prudent approach was essential. However, the king is no longer standing in my way. To all extents and purposes, I am in control of the Glass Kingdom now. Yes, I will still need some spectacle to appease the masses. Perhaps proceeding with the ball will show how the kingdom will flourish under my reign," she added, with another sniff. "What matters, however, is that I have secured my power base while you three were blundering around the realms, fighting with each other and letting the Blessings of the Fairies slip through your fingers."
Lucifer leapt down from her arms and curled up on the empty throne. Though he affected laziness, they all knew he continued to watch them, his fluffy tail not quite thick enough to hide the luminescent slits of his eyes.
"There will be no more infighting. There will be no more acting independently. There will be no more failures. This is your last chance to get on board with my plan. If you want to win, then from here on out, you will do as I say. You no longer have any goodwill."
"You're just a human – not even royalty in your own kingdom!" Ursula scoffed. "I don't take orders from you, dear."
"And if you want to keep losing, then feel free to continue not taking orders from me," the lady dismissed. "If you want to win, I'm still willing to share my pending victory with you. All you have to do is follow my plan."
This time, the sea-witch did not back down. "Victory," she echoed, twisting the word like she twisted Juvia's face into a sneer that did not suit it. "You are the only one who claims there is a battle which needs to be won. I see no sign of it."
"I have seen it in the Magic Mirror," Lady Tremaine countered. "The mirror sees all, and it does not lie. It has told me truths about our world that will frighten even the blackest heart – truths that I am willing to share in return for your allegiance. You are each powerful individuals who are much maligned in this world, just as I am. The undefeatable warrior forced to roam the wilds with a band of barbarians, the shapeshifting sea-witch who is reviled in her underwater kingdom just for following the terms of contracts freely signed, the black fairy of draconic descent shunned by the society that should have worshipped her."
"Speak for yourself, dear," Ursula shrugged. "Not all of us have long-winded plans that require multiple weddings, you know. It won't be long before I overthrow that foolish King Triton and take his power for my own."
"But it will. In fact, if you remain on this path, you will never be Queen of the Seven Seas." The lady's patience had expired. "Our whole world is not real. It was created for our enemies, and we are nothing more than their foils, obstacles on their roads to victory."
Ursula gave a cackle of laughter. "This is ridiculous!"
Maleficent's staff struck the floor with a flash of green light. "Silence, fool, and let her talk."
"Don't tell me you believe this nonsense." Ursula fluttered Juvia's dainty hand in a manner that wasn't as derisive as she tried to make it look.
"I know that the Magic Mirror in her possession is a wise and powerful artefact, regardless of her own credentials," the dark fairy warned. "Disregard its warning at your own peril."
"And that is what the Magic Mirror has revealed to me," Lady Tremaine stated. "Our entire world came into being only a few days ago, when the strangers from the world beyond the mirror entered it. We exist as no more than the villains in their stories; the supposed darkness to be conquered by their light. Should we fight them on their own terms, we are doomed to fail, and if our enemies manage to leave this world, taking their magic with them, we will all return to nothingness."
"Nonsense," laughed the sea-witch.
No one else joined her.
"We are on the wrong side of the mirror," Lady Tremaine lamented. "Our ambitions mean nothing while we remain stuck in the doomed roles this world has created for us. But we can be so much more! Let us reach beyond this sham world. Let us seize the Blessings of the Fairies from these intruders. With the magic from their world, we can turn our Magic Mirror into a gateway that will let us leave the heroes' stories and take their places!"
"Pretty words, sweetie," Maleficent yawned, studying the lethally sharp nails on one hand. "But we're not your army of mindless drones. Would you care to share exactly how you're going to gather these three Blessings when they can only be used by those with certain heroic traits?"
Sulkily, Ursula added, "Not to mention those that can only be passed on with consent."
"Why, that is the simplest part of the plan. I have already used the foolish king and his younger brother to draw out the information I needed from the Magic Mirror. I needed to know the natures and holders of the three Blessings of the Fairies – and more importantly, I needed them to see it. A simple illusion, a bit of sleight-of-hand with the aid of dear Lucifer, able to climb up to the top of the tower without leaving a trace, and they left unaware to put my plan in motion. Since my allies proved so unreliable, I had to enlist the unwitting help of my enemies."
Her twisted sneer was the closest Lady Tremaine had come to a smile. "Now, do you wish for it to stay that way? I'm sure I need not remind you that doubting me would be a very foolish thing to do – perhaps the greatest of all your failures on your self-centred quests to obtain the Blessings of the Fairies so far. While I may not have magic of my own, I am still the one to whom the Magic Mirror spoke. I will do the planning. You three just need to play your parts. And once the magic is ours, we will cut ourselves free from the world where we are doomed to lose to the so-called heroes and conquer a realm with far more value. What do you say?"
"I'm in," Shan Yu spoke up unexpectedly. "There is nothing for me in this world except revenge. Give me new lands to conquer, new men to control, new cities to burn."
After a moment, Maleficent gave a single nod. "No fairy would ignore a warning provided by a Magic Mirror, hard though it may be to comprehend. I will join you, but I want to know the full plan."
"Very well," Lady Tremaine agreed.
All three of them were looking at the sea-witch now, who shifted in someone else's form. Maleficent was too knowledgeable about magic to dismiss Lady Tremaine's words out of hand, and Shan Yu had nothing left to lose by throwing his lot in with her, but Ursula had powers and ambitions not so readily discarded without proof. While Lady Tremaine could have shown her the Magic Mirror, and made it repeat its warnings, she was loathe to give away her secrets when, really, she was doing the sea-witch a favour. It would be helpful for her plan to have Ursula on her side, but far from necessary. The glory of taming another powerful villain was the real prize here.
"Look at it this way," Lady Tremaine put forward. "If I am right, and you side with us, then you get to be with us as we escape from this world. If I am wrong… then we'll still possess so much magic that it will make that special trident you covet look like a mere bauble. What do you have to lose?"
There was one good answer to that, and the shadows knew it, the footsteps that didn't dare tread too close to the hall knew it, the devils that watched through the infernal cat's eyes knew it, and it was the only reason why they bothered watching at all.
Whether they believed their world wasn't real and they were forced into doomed roles didn't really matter. They all knew great power when they saw it.
Each of them wanted that magic. None of them wanted to share it.
When Ursula gave a begrudging nod, it was for the same reason all the others had – one couldn't backstab the other players if one wasn't in the game.
A/N: Sorry folks, had a chaotic travel weekend (and not in the good way). Back home now, so normal service should be resumed from this weekend. And now that all the fairytales have officially gone off the rails, there's nothing but chaos to come. Thanks for reading! ~CS