The group stares up at the massive structure ahead of them. It's like looking at a beanstalk, if said beanstalk were pitch black and devoid of life. Instead of climbing directly into the sky, it tilts at an angle and stretches over the vast ocean in the distance. Raven's jaw hangs open. She has no words. Apple stares at the structure in the same state of shock. The Charming brothers each crane their necks out of the windows. Dexter lifts up his glasses in astonishment.
"T-That's some... magical ... voodoo ... Fair Witch Project stuff right there!" Dexter stutters out.
"Guys," Sparrow breathes. "I just got the most spellbinding idea for an album cover."
Apple finally pulls up to the base of the tower. Darling slides off the van roof, the rest of the teens stepping out of the van and coming to her side.
"So, Sapsorrow's up there?" Dexter queries.
"Seems like it," Raven confirms.
"But, I don't understand! Why is she using the magic for this?!" Apple ponders.
Darling approaches the tower and sets her hand on it. It's warm, and it feels like it's breathing. "It feels...almost alive."
She presses her hand firmly into it. She suddenly lurches forward, her hand sinking into the blackness. Darling yelps and pulls to free her hand from the substance. Daring grabs her from under her arms and pulls, sending them both backwards. Darling holds her wrist, now dripping with black slime.
"Gross..." she mumbles.
"YOU SHOULDN'T BE HERE!"
A booming voice echoes over them, possibly from the tower itself. They all back towards the van, except for Raven.
"Sapsorrow!" she calls. "It's Raven!"
The tower writhes. A lump emerges from the tendril, molding and carving until Sapsorrow's face appears. She sneers at them.
"You need to leave!"
"Come on," Raven pleads. "I thought we were friends."
Sapsorrow snarls, the black face lunging for her. Raven yelps and jumps back.
"You're with them!"
She looks over Raven's shoulder and glares at the rest of them.
"You're with the Royals!"
Daring brandishes his sword and steps forward. Darling holds him back. "Easy..."
Raven pays no mind. "Sapsorrow, we're not here to fight. Just let us help you!"
"You don't understand!...Just leave me alone."
Her head recedes back into the tower. Raven rushes up to the wall of the tendril and pounds her fists into it, making ripples. "We're not leaving! Not until you give us back all our magic!"
Without warning, an inky black hand grabs Raven's collar. She looks down and blanches. The arm of her shadow was not on the ground. The arm yanks as her shadow rises from the ground, molding and taking her features. Sapsorrow's voice emanates from Shadow Raven's mouth.
"I said leave me alone!"
The Shadow Raven flings its arm into Raven, blasting her back into the group. She trembles, her eyes fixed on the ground beneath them as their shadows slink away from them. They rise, and they twist, and they mold until there are four of them: clones of Raven, Daring, Darling, and Apple.
"Even now, I'm not a worthy opponent," Dexter mumbles.
Daring stands in front of them, sword ready. "Sibs! Damsels! Stay behind me! I'll handle this."
"Sounds good to me!" Sparrow sprints back towards the van.
"Are you joking?!" Darling unsheathes her sword and pushes up next to him. "We need to stand together!" Shadow Darling's arm twists into a tendril and collides with Darling, The force sends her flying backwards into the ground.
"Darling!" Apple cries.
Darling quickly shuffles to her feet as Shadow Darling approaches with sword in hand, cracking her neck twice. Darling grips her sword and lunges, her double doing the same. Steel and shadow connecting forcefully. Darling swings, the shadow blocking. Their attacks parry each other identically. Darling kicks the clone in the stomach, forcing it back. Finding an opening, she swings for the neck. Her sword slices the head clean off. But as quickly as she'd swung, the neck reattaches to the stump. Shadow Darling delivers a swift kick to Darling's ribs and knocks her into a rock.
Apple swings her croquet mallet into a stone towards her Shadow double. Shadow Apple bends its body out of the way as the stone nears. Apple whacks another, and another. Her double continues to dodge, bending its body into inhuman shapes. Apple groans. "Why?!"
The Shadow Apple extends its arm, creating a mallet of its own out of blackness. It rears up towards a nearby cobblestone in the dirt. It thwacks it, digging up a massive boulder that hurdles towards her. Apple jumps out of the way as the boulder flies over the hill and into the ocean. The shadow mallet hooks around her waist and swings her. She tumbles down a hill into a ditch. She stands up shakily, clutching her flamingo mallet. "Play fair!"
Daring parries with his clone, impressed and almost amazed to know he is this strong. Shadow Daring opens to swing. Daring raises his sword and slices down the middle. Shadow Daring splits apart and droops.
"Haha!"
The two halves swirl and mold into two Shadow Darings. Daring's face drops, and he groans. He presses a button on his sword, unlatching the halves and readying them in both hands. "I hate fighting me!" He charges for them again.
Dexter fires another arrow at Shadow Raven. The shadow melts, slides over a few feet, and rematerializes. Dexter reloads and tries again, and again. His hands begin to shake. He's not used to this! He's not good at this!
"Come on, Dex!" Sparrow cheers.
"You can take me!" Raven adds.
"Sparrow!" Dexter glances back at them frantically. "Why do you just have this stuff in the back of your van?"
"You never know when you might need something!" he argues.
"Apple's croquet mallet?" Raven asks flatly.
Before Sparrow can answer, Dexter fires an arrow into Shadow Raven's stomach. He gasps, then smiles. The arrow sinks straight through the clone, and it looks into Dexter's eyes. He gulps. The clone raises its hand. Raven pulls Dexter to the ground. "Dexter, look out!"
The arrow fires from Shadow Raven's palm directly through the van's windshield, shattering the glass.
"Not the van!" Sparrow bemoans and runs over to the vehicle.
Raven pulls Dexter to his feet, trying to summon a ball of fire in her hand. Dexter grabs a rock from the ground and throws it. Raven hurls the spell at her shadow, but both attacks bounce off of it like nothing. Instantly Shadow Raven's arms thrust towards them and wrap themselves around their heads. Raven's sight is near complete darkness as the black oily substance begins to fill her nose and mouth. She kicks, but her feet leave the ground. Her neck strains as she is lifted, and she grabs the dome around her head for support. She looks around for anything! Something!
Through the blackness, she can just make out another figure kicking and flailing. His head is completely covered by the shadow, and slowly his body begins to go limp. Dexter! She opens her mouth to call out to him, but she chokes. She can feel her vision start to blur.
The van roars to life and violently slams into Shadow Raven. It drops Dexter and Raven. Raven rubs her face to rid herself of the goo, while Dexter forces himself to his hands and knees and coughs. She gasps. "Dexter!"
Sparrow leans out of the van window. "Hey, is this a normal magical adventure you guys go on? Because, I don't think I want to be invited to these things any - "
The van launches into the air, Shadow Raven blasts its arm from underneath. Sparrow screams, holding onto the seat for dear life. Raven gasps. "Sparrow!"
The van crashes hood first several yards away from them. Raven and Dexter rush over, hoping that Sparrow is still alive. Before they even reach the van, the driver's side door bursts open and Sparrow tumbles out. He groans. Dexter hauls him from the wreckage.
"Sparrow!" Dexter sits Sparrow upright.
"I...I think she broke my shoulder!" he winces. "See, this is why we wear seatbelts, damsels."
Enough is enough. Raven stands up and faces her shadow double. "Sapsorrow, stand down! I won't fight you!"
Shadow Raven raises its hand, a glob of shadow separating from its palm. It rears back to launch it.
"I said I won't fight!" Raven repeats.
The shadow hurls the glob towards her. Raven runs in front of Dexter and Sparrow, holding up her hands in defense. They glow a bright violet and the glob fires back into the shadow. Everything around her vibrates, but Raven stands firm. Her shadow clone ripples like water until it bursts and spills back onto the ground. One by one, the shadow clones melt into goo. Raven lowers her hands. She doesn't know how she did that, but it happened anyway. Seems to work like that all the time.
She takes a deep breath and approaches the tower.
"Raven?" Dexter calls out to her questioningly.
Raven turns her head up, trying to find the top. She calls out: "Sapsorrow, I'm coming up! So, you know, don't drown me?"
She presses her hand into the massive tendril.
"Wait, Raven!"
Dexter reaches out to stop her, but she takes a deep breath and steps through the barrier. She kicks her legs, trying to swim upwards. Her arms tighten to her sides as something feels like it grabs her. It pulls her up and over, the goo rushing against her body so quickly that it almost feels like feathers and fur. He head finally breaks the surface of the tendril, and she gasps for air. Sapsorrow stands with her hand outstretched and surrounded by a sickly green aura.
"Sapsorrow."
She scowls at the young Queen. "What are you doing here, Raven?"
"I ..." Raven begins. But she shakes her head. "Uh, no! What are you doing?!" She looks around them. "This! Draining magic, for this?! This is insane!" Sapsorrow starts to clench her fist, tightening the tendril around Raven. But she continues. "Can't we work this out? I don't want anyone to get hurt - Whoa!"
Sapsorrow pulls her forward, holding her inches from her face. "Don't you know anything, Raven?! Your "friends" - those "Royals" - They don't care about other people! All they care about is their happy ending, and it doesn't matter who else suffers as long as they get it! But me? I never believed in destiny."
She whirls around and gazes over the vast ocean. Abandoning her attention to Raven, the tendril drops her onto the black surface. Sapsorrow proceeds towards the edge of the tower, and sits. Raven cautiously draws closer to her and sinks down beside her. She stares longingly into the distance as if looking for something.
"So... Grimm put you in the Book?" Raven asks slowly. Sapsorrow nods. "I can't say I'm surprised...but at the same time, I am."
Sapsorrow sighs. "He's still a lying, controlling, old codger."
"Sapsorrow," Raven rests her hand on her shoulder. "We only came to help. I don't want you going back into that book. What can I do?"
Sapsorrow continues to stare over the ocean. Raven follows her gaze. Over the horizon, the barest sliver of land peeks over. Sapsorrow inhales shakily. "I just want to go home."
Raven shifts uncomfortably. Just how long has she been trapped in that book? But she shakes the question out of her head and says, "I know how important home can be, and how badly it can hurt when someone takes it from you. But, you're taking the magic out of the land! And, without magic, everyone in my home is hurting."
Sapsorrow finally tears her gaze away from the ocean to look her in the eye. "I'm only drawing my power from the Wonderlandian Well because I can't use my cloak to transform. I-I can put it back once I'm...If I can just stretch it far enough!" Her face falls into her hands. "Oh, this is never going to work..."
Raven peeks behind Sapsorrow. Her gray cloak hangs like two drapes down her back. She looks at her hands, and they glow a purple aura. She still has some magic left! But nothing can come to mind except...
"Wait, didn't you say once that every incantation has a reverse?"
Sapsorrow looks up uninterestedly. "Yes, so?"
"So...I think I might have a way to restore your cloak."
"It's a magical artifact," Sapsorrow explains dejectedly. "Not even a magic needle and thread can heal it."
"No, but my Mother's Curse might." Raven holds the two ends of the cloak in her hands. "Or...you know, the reverse of it."
"You sure?" Sapsorrow avoids her gaze.
Raven shrugs. "It's worth a shot."
Sapsorrow sighs. "I guess I have nothing else to lose. Knock yourself out."
Raven sighs, closing her eyes and channeling all her concentration into the spell. Her mother had taught her only the straightforward destruction, but if she changes the words:
"Mend the bond,
Sew the fabric,
Heal the stone,
Restore the magic."
She repeats the phrase over and over under her breath. She peeks behind her eyelashes and nearly stops the incantation mid-word. The two ends in her hands are now one. The tear down the cloak slowly closes up with violet mist. It's as if it had never been torn at all. As the tear reaches her neck, Raven lets go and stops whispering the spell. Sapsorrow sits unmoving.
"Are you done - ?"
She gasps and rises off the ground, light blazing from her cloak. Her body curls in on itself, her cloak wrapping around her. In the blink of an eye, instead of a girl, there is a bird. The bird curls in the same fashion, replacing itself with a bear. She continues the motion in rapid succession, changing from bear, to beetle, to owl, to whale, to donkey, to wolf, and finally back to a girl. Her feet land back on the tendril and she turns to Raven, a smile spread across her face.
"Thank you, Raven!"
Raven stares in shock and awe, and she musters a "y-yeah."
Sapsorrow shuffles her feet. "Well, I guess this is goodbye, huh?"
"Yeah...spell you later!"
She knits her brow. "Um...it's "smell" you later."
"Uh...sure!" Raven says.
"Well...bye!" Sapsorrow whirls around, sprints for the tower's edge, and leaps off. Raven peers over the edge just in time to see a large osprey soar over the ocean waves. She watches in amazement as Sapsorrow flies away into the distance.
The tower begins to rumble. Raven grasps the tendril tightly as it begins to move backwards. It moves faster and faster, in a hurry to return to the land. She digs her nails into the tendril and prays to stay on. The tendril dips, and Raven's grasp slips. The ground is quickly nearing; she only has seconds to think. Teleport! Fly! Make a platform! Do something! She flings her hands in front of her.
The others watch in horror as the tower collapses around them. Dexter and Daring try to support Sparrow's shoulder while Darling ushers Apple into the van.
"The whole tower's coming down!" Apple screams.
"What about Raven?!" Dexter cries.
As if on cue, a portal opens above them and Raven plummets at his feet. She groans.
"Raven!"
The tendril crashes down on top of them and the next thing they see is blackness.
The clouds hang low over Ever After High. Without the well's influence, much of it has gone gray and empty. Everything is quiet. The students who roam the courtyard sit despondently, waiting for their magic. Waiting for their rescue. Over the silence, a sputtering pops in the sky. Something violet appears through the clouds, lowering into the courtyard in front of the school. The students gather as the orb, as if out of Oz, lands on the brick road. The bubble pops, and Sparrow's van lands with a resounding thud. Raven peeks out of the skylight.
"That wasn't so bad," she comments.
The van falls again, the tires tilting inward awkwardly and the hood smoking. Darling accidentally yanks the steering wheel off, and Sparrow simply sits, staring straight ahead.
"Look!" Apple points to the horizon. Flashes of green and blue shine on the hills as the sun rises. The color spreads rapidly, pinks and yellows and oranges and blues returning to the grounds and the faces of the students. Farrah waves her wand, and a shower of sparkles falls from the end. Animals rush into the crowd. Birds land on Apple's shoulders again. Everyone begins to cheer and hug one another. Raven steps out and is immediately hugged by Apple. She chuckles and turns her attention to those in the crowd. Some come over to thank her. Others stand back. She understands.
As they celebrate, Headmaster Grimm watches from his office. His face is grim.
"So," Baba Yaga appears beside him. "The magic is back."
"But Sapsorrow is still free," he acknowledges.
"What does that mean for us?" she asks warily.
He shakes his head. "...I don't know."
Baba Yaga gazes down at Raven. "She's getting stronger. What happens when she learns the truth?"
Grimm clenches his fist. "No one must know!" He turns away from the window. "Every last record of Sapsorrow Kinsov-Furr, and all those associated with her, must be destroyed."
Baba Yaga sighs. After all this time, he's still the same. "Very well."