Prologue
Russia, 1916
Our story begins as we are given a view of an elegant music box, playing a tune, and set on a brocaded pillow. The opening had two figures dancing together while a little melody played.
Then, the music box's lid closed and the figurines disappeared.
A hand then picked up the music box and placed it in a purse. The hand belonged to an elderly woman with gray hair, blue eyes, and wore a red cort gown with black and gold trimming.
The old woman, who was the Dowager Empress Francesca of Russia, walked down a staircase to meet a carriage. Two footmen helped the old woman into her carriage and closed the door.
As soon as the door was closed, the horses were ordered to go.
Some time later, the carriage raced through the street upon arriving in St. Petersburg, Russia.
"There was a time, not very long ago, when we lived in an enchanted world of elegant palaces and grand parities. The year was Nineteen Hundred and Sixteen, and my son, John, was the czar of Imperial Russia."
The Dowager Empress's carriage just arrived at the palace of the Russian Royal family, the Esbenovs, to attend her son's celebration with his family.
The palace was lit up, with opulently dressed partygoers streaming inside, and guards all bowed before Francesca as her carriage pulled up to the front door.
As Francesca stepped out with the help of her footmen, two of the guards opened the doors for her, and she thanked them before entering the palace.
Inside the grand palace, a royal ball was taking place in honor of the Tricentennial mark of the Esbenovs' rule. The vast intro of the palace was filled by the highest of the highest of Russian aristocracy. Elegant royalists, dressed in 17th century costumes, waltzing in the main hall as the orchestra played. As was the imperial family, consisting of Czar John Esbenov, his beautiful wife Liana, and their five children, joyfulling mingling on the dance floor.
As Francesca made her way and sat on one of the thrones, she saw someone and waved. "Hello, darling!"
"We were celebrating the three-hundredth anniversary of our family's rule. And that night, no star burned brighter than that of our sweet Sydstasia, my closest granddaughter."
John was dancing with one of his young daughters, the eight-year old Grand Duchess Sydstasia, a graceful and spirited young girl. The little one had brown hair and blue-gray eyes, and was also wearing a turquoise blue ball gown with golden trimming and a matching kokoshnik. She also had freckles all over her pale skin, and cute chubby cheeks.
She smiled and waved to Francesca, who was her grandmother, and danced with her parents, Czar John and Czarina Liana.
John had black hair and hazel eyes, and was wearing a white and gold dress shirt with gold epaulets, dark blue pants, a red sash going across his waist, and black dress shoes. Liana had shoulder length brown hair and brown eyes, and was wearing a white and gold court gown with long open sleeves, a blue sash going across her waist, a diamond kokoshnik with matching earrings and a necklace, white elbow-length gloves, and white high heels.
"Oh, papa!" Sydstasia said with a beam, as her father lifted her up and spun her around.
Francesca smiled as she watched her granddaughter dancing with her father. Sydstasia was very special to her. Her favorite grandchild out of them all.
When they finished dancing, the royal family took their seats in their thrones. Sydstasia sat in front of her parents, along with her four siblings: Angelica, a fourteen year old girl with fair skin, dirty blonde hair, green eyes, and wore the same kind of dress as her sister; Camille, a twelve year old girl who had strawberry blonde hair, blue eyes, and also wore a ball gown like her sisters; Kitty, a ten-year old girl with chocolate brown hair, brown eyes, and also had on a royal ball down identical to her sisters; and Pinocchio, a little wooden boy with dark hair and blue eyes, who was wearing a light blue shirt with a silver sash across his waist and black pants.
Sydstasia lit up upon the sight of her grandmother, and ran over to her. While running over, she carried a drawing she did of the royal chef and a tutor she didn't care for.
When she got to her grandmother, Sydstasia showed her the picture, and Francesca laughed.
Meanwhile, a young boy around nine years old came out from another room. He took a bit out of an apple, and wanted to see some of the fun at the palace too.
"She begged me not to return to Paris, So, I had a very special gift made for her to make the separation easier for both of us."
Francesca took the music box out from her purse and showed it to her granddaughter.
Sydstasia gasped. "For me? Is it a jewelry box?"
Just then, a kitchen servant named Robert caught the young boy spying on the two. "Romeo! You belong in the kitchen!" He berated the young boy, and grabbed him to drag him back into the kitchen.
The boy, Romeo, dropped his apple and struggled to get out of the servant's grip on him.
As the mischievous servant boy went away, Francesca demonstrated how the music box worked.
"Look," Francesca took a key, which was a small silver flower on a neck chain. She put it in the back of the music box, and winded it.
Sydstasia watched in awe as the music box opened up, and the figures, who resembled John and Liana, danced with each other to the music.
Sydstasia's blue eyes widened as the song played. "It plays our lullaby!" She whispered.
Francesca smiled. "You can play it at night before you go to sleep and pretend that it's me singing."
As the fingers danced in the box, Francesca sang the lullaby.
"On the wind,
Cross the sea,
Hear this song and remember,"
She and Sydstasia danced around a little bit as they both finished.
"Soon you'll be,
Home with me,
Once upon a December,"
As the music box closed, the empress and her granddaughter giggled, and then Francesca gave Sydstasia the key. "Read what it says."
The young girl squinted as she read the small words written on the music box key. "'Together in Paris'. Really?!"
Francesca smiled and nodded.
"Oh, Grandmama!" Sydstasia threw her arms around her grandmother, and the two lovingly embraced each other.
"But we would never be together in Paris, for a dark shadow had descended upon the house of the Esbenovs."
Suddenly, the ballroom went dark and the room went silent. Gasps came from the crowd, as they parted before a dark figure. Helen Parr even dropped her glass of champagne.
The dark figure was revealed to be a tall, middle eastern man with an evil grin on his face. He stalked through the crowd, stepping on the broken glass and crushing it underfoot as if nothing happened.
He was also accompanied by his parrot sidekick, Iago.
"His name was Jafar. We thought he was a holy man, but he was a fraud, power mad, and dangerous."
Jafar reached the Czar, who stood alone firmly. "How dare you return to the palace!" John confronted him with anger.
The man removed his hood from his head. "But I am your confidante," He bitterly said.
"Confidante?!" John scoffed. "HA! You are a traitor! GET OUT!"
But Jafar refused. "You think you can banish the Great Jafar?" He held up her prized possession, which was a demonic red and black reliquary. "By the unholy powers vested in me. I banish you with a curse!"
Sydstasia stood beside her grandmother and gasped in horror. He pointed at the Czar and his family as everyone in the room gasped with shock and fright.
"Mark my words…" Jafar warned John. "You and your family will die within the fortnight. I WILL NOT REST UNTIL I SEE THE END OF THE ESBENOV LINE FOREVER!"
With the power of the reliquary, it sent out a bolt of lightning to the chandelier, shooting it down to the floor and making it explode.
The guests all screamed and panicked, and Jafar was gone.
"Consumed by his hatred for John and his family, Jafar sold his soul to gain the power to destroy them."
Cut to Flashback:
We are given a flashback of Jafar in his lair, where he knelt down before an oracle to sell his soul for dark magic. He cowered down as a huge, shadowy figure appeared above him, and raised his arms in supplication.
A shadow-like smoke in a windstorm left Jafar sucking towards the terrible figure. He morphed into a skeleton as his soul left him. Then, from the oracle, the red reliquary materialized in midair before the man's skeleton. The magic device restored Jafar when he grasped onto it, giving him full control of dark magic.
End of Flashback:
Back in the present, Jafar was hiding beside the palace as he summoned some glowing red snake demons from the reliquary. "Go..." He evilly whispered to the snake demons. "Fulfill your dark purpose. Steal the fate of the Czar and his family once and for all."
The demons hissed as they left the reliquary, making their way to the palace gates.
"From that moment on, the spark of unhappiness in our country was fanned into a flame that would soon destroy our lives forever."
Outsider the palace, a crowd of Bolsheviks were being held back by the locked gates, shouting and demanding to get in.
The snake demons attacked the chain holding the gate shut, until it broke, allowing the Bolsheviks to pour into the palace grounds with rifles, and execute the royal family.
The Russian Revolution had begun!
A statue of the czar was pulled down by some ropes, and it eventually came crashing down on the ground!
Inside the palace, the Esbenov family ran down a hallway, wearing coats over their nightclothes, and running as fast as they could to escape the palace!
"Papa!" Pinocchio cried after someone from outside threw a rock at the window, breaking it in the process.
"Hurry, children!" John warned with urgency and fright.
It was at that moment when Sydstasia suddenly stopped in her tracks. "My music box!" She ran back down the hallway to retrieve her grandmother's gift.
"Sydstasia!" Francesca tried to stop her, but she was too fast. "Come back! Come back!"
Sydstasia ran back into her bedroom to get her music box.
Francesca rushed into the room, shutting the door behind her. "Sydstasia!"
But suddenly, the sound of rifle shots came out of nowhere, frightening Francesca and Sydstasia.
"Please, hurry!" Francesca tried to lead her granddaughter to safety.
From the wall panel, a secret door opened up, revealing Romeo. He bursted out towards Sydstasia and her grandmother. "Come this way! Out the servants quarters!" He gestured them towards the secret doorway, unintentionally causing Sydstasia to drop her music box.
"Hurry, Sydstasia!" Francesca pleaded to her granddaughter.
Unbeknownst to them, Iago was outside the bedroom window, alarmed that Sydstasia was escaping. "Master! She's getting away!"
"My music box!" Sydstasia tried to run back inside to fetch her music box.
But Romeo stopped her, and forced her back through the doorway. "Go! Go!" He demanded, before slamming the panel shut.
At that same moment, voices came from outside the door. "Comrades, in here!"
Romeo put his body in front of the panel to give Sydstasia and Francesca time to get away.
The door bursts open, revealing the angry revolutionaries. "Where are they, boy?" One of them demanded to know.
But Romeo responded by trying to fight back.
In return, the guard smacked the young boy with the end of his rifle, knocking him out completely! His left hand reached unnoticed for Sydstasia's music box.
Once they escaped the palace, Francesca ran with Sydstasia across the ice. It was freezing cold, outside. The two shivered, not being dressed appropriately for the temperature outside.
"Grandmama!" Sydstasia cried.
"Keep up with me, darling!" Francesca assured her.
The two passed under a bridge, unaware that Jafar was standing atop. The evil man leapt down upon them, landing hard on the ice, and grabbed a tight hold on Sydstasia's ankle. Sydstasia screamed, as she tripped forward!
Francesa turned around in horror upon seeing the evil Holy man. "Jafar!" She struggled with him, trying to free her granddaughter.
"Lemme go, please!" Sydstasia begged.
But Jafar wouldn't let go of her. "You'll never escape me, child! Never!" He grinned maniacally, and snickered evilly.
But suddenly, the ice beneath the man began to break apart. Jafar noticed as he began to fall through into the cold river. This gave Sydstasia time to wrench herself free. "Let go!"
She watched as Jafar thrashed about in the water. As he was going down, the man and girl locked eyes for a moment. Jafar's eyes were glowing, full of rage and fury.
"Iago!" Jafar cried out to his henchman, who had just arrived at the scene.
"Master!" He responded.
Jafar's fingers dug into the ice, unknowingly releasing the reliquary he had with him. But he couldn't stop himself, as he kept getting slowly dragged under. He took one last desperate reach out of the water, and then, Jafar was sucked under by the current, drowning and freezing to death.
This broke Sydstasia's gaze with the evil man, and she continued to run with her grandmother into the cold night.
Iago stared in shock at what had just happened. With his master gone, all that was left of him was the reliquary.
After a while of running, Francesca and Sydstasia made it to a crowded train station. They fought their way past the other passengers, trying to catch up to the train that was leaving.
"Sydstasia, hurry! Hurry!" Francesca informed her.
When they caught up to the train, Kayley and Garrett managed to pull Francesca on board.
But the old woman looked in horror to see Sydstasia still running in order to catch up. "Grandmama!" She cried.
"Here! Take my hand!" Francesca reached her hand out to her granddaughter.
Sydstasia reached out and grabbed her grandmother's hand, desperate and frightened.
"Hold on to my hand!"
"Don't let go!" Sydstasia begged.
The two tried to keep hold of each other's hand. But then, Sydstasia's hand suddenly slipped away from Francesca's grasp, and she screamed as she fell!
"Sydstasia!" Francesca watched as the young girl stumbled down.
Sydstasia hit the ground hard, and lost consciousness.
"SYDSTASIA!" Francesca cried. She tried to jump off the train, but the other passengers held her back to protect her.
Francesca could do nothing but watch as the view of her granddaughter was obscured by a sea of other people, and disappeared in the distance.
"So many lives were destroyed that night, What had always been was now gone forever."
As onlookers came over to help the fallen girl, we cut away to a close-up of a painting of the royal family. The "camera" zoomed into a better detail at Sydstasia.
"And my Sydstasia, my beloved grandchild…I never saw her again."
Cast:
Anya/Anastasia Romanov: Sydney (me)
Dimitri: Romeo (Sydney's boyfriend and my OC)
Vladimir: Tiger (An American Tale)
Grigori Rasputin: Jafar (Aladdin)
Bartok: Iago (Aladdin)
Dowager Empress Marie Feodorovna Romanov: Francesca (Sydney's grandmother; based on my RL grandmother)
Sophie: Miss Kitty (An American Tale: Fievel Goes West)
Pooka: Gary the Snail (Spongebob Squarepants)
Phelgmenkoff: Miss Hannigan (Annie 1982)
Czar Nicholas: John (Sydney's father; based on my RL father)
Czarina Alexandrea Feodrovna: Liana (Sydney's mother; based on my RL mother)
Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Alexei Romanov: Angel, Camille, Kitty (my OCs), and Pinocchio (Disney's Pinocchio)
Other citizens of Russia and Paris: Various Disney/Non-Disney characters
So for my first parody, I'm going be writting one for one of my favorite films "Anastasia" and I'm going to be playing the titular princess! I've also casted some of my other favorite characters and OCs to play the other parts, and yes, this AU will have both human and animal characters interacting. I'm also a dummy who decided to start this while in the middle of writing "A Friendship Along the Past", but I think I'll be able to manage it. Anyway, stay tuned for more of Sydstasia!