| Before the Battle of the Bands, Part 2 | |
| Season 1, Episode 12 | |
| First Aired (USA) May 6, 2025 (FF) May 7, 2025 (AO3) | |
| Episode Guide | |
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"Before the Battle of the Bands, Part 2" is the twelfth chapter of LC Presents: Brimstones and Broomsticks.
Synopsis[]
The Drakescale siblings get to know Raihan; Emily assists Donna in finding Conner before being introduced to Discord; everyone bands together to face an old foe.
Plot[]
A while ago…
On another Titan, in a port town that was made up of the hand of a Titan, the harbor was filled with ships. Ships meant for cargo transport, ships meant for other official business… and even pirates.
A storage building of this port town was filled with all kinds of strange-looking animals from a two-headed unicorn to a large scorpion snake known as the krylock to a humanoid creature that appeared to have twigs for feet. Them, along with many more creatures, were all waiting to be transported. And walking together, past the cages, were two witches.
"Alright, I got something really rare that I'm supposed to ship to the Boiling Isles," one of the witches said. "I don't know what they want with it, but that's not my business. Just as long as I get paid, of course."
"Must be something really valuable," his partner replied before he saw his partner stop in front of a cage.
"Behold!" he declared while pointing to the cage.
Needless to say, the second witch didn't look impressed. "That's just some kid…"
"Ah, that may appear so," the first witch declares with a cruel and greedy grin. "But do not let looks be deceiving…"
Inside the cage was a starving young boy who was dirty and barely clothed. He was crouching down in the corner of his cage, trying to hide his face around his arms while his wrists and ankles were bound in chains. The boy lifted his head up, looking at the witches treating him like nothing more than an animal.
And that boy was, of course, none other than Raihan, the young dragon-witch who had been a slave…
Throughout his journey in the hold of a cargo ship, Raihan was kept in his cage while being rocked back and forth due to the ship going over some large waves. When the animals near him started to make some noises, he covered his ears. He couldn't stand the loud noises they made, since they kept him from getting much sleep.
"Make it stop…" Raihan begged while tearing up.
"Hey!" Raihan heard the guard of the menagerie of animals shout as he came over and kicked his cage. "Shut your yap, ya flying lizard! If you make another peep, you won't be getting any food!"
Raihan flinched when the guard shouted at him. He could only shiver and hug himself for warmth while trying to hold back his tears…
"Hey, are you sure this kid is a you-know-what?" a crew member asked as he and some others looked at Raihan in his cage. Raihan looked at them, seeing them holding some fish in their buckets, which made him really hungry.
"A dragon?" another crew member asked. "You better believe it." He noticed Raihan staring at him with hungry eyes, particularly at the buckets of fish. The crew member grinned. "You want food, kid? Here." He grabbed a raw fish from the bucket and threw it in the cage. "Animals like you like their food raw, don't they?"
The men laughed and walked off, leaving Raihan as he looked down at the raw, dead fish given to him. Hearing his stomach growl, Raihan knew he couldn't be picky and he began to tear into the fish with his teeth, eating like the animal they saw him as…
But sometime later, a terrible storm occurred and caused the ship to turn over and sink. Most of its animals and crew had been killed… with one sole exception, of course.
Raihan had managed to get himself floating on a piece of the boat. He was in his dragon form, but he was weak and not a terribly good flier, so all he could do was use his claws to clench onto the board he was on, praying and hoping for survival on the Boiling Seas…
Eventually, Raihan found himself being washed ashore on a beach. He was in his witch form as he started to wake up. Weakly lifting his head, he looked around to get a sense of his bearings, his body shivering. He slowly stood up while looking at the black plants before him. He had never seen anything like them. "Where… am I?"
He had ended up on the Inwell Isles…
It wasn't easy for Raihan to survive on the streets, since it was a new environment for him. First, he had to steal some clothing hanging from the laundry pins. They weren't much, but at least he was kept decent.
Dressed in a raggedy purple cloak and robe, Raihan scurried through the streets of Inwell Isles, down to the marketplace. He saw many witches and demons coming and going, buying food and clothes and other trinkets. Since this was back when the Emperor's Coven were operating a precinct out of the Inwell Isles, there were also coven scouts looking around for any wild witches or criminals… not that there was a difference in their eyes.
As Raihan looked around, he noticed some witches carrying groceries. He was feeling hungry, so he waited until one of them set a bag down to fix the buckle of their shoe. Quickly, Raihan walked over to the witch and swiped the bread from the bag, but the witch spotted him.
"Hey! That's my bread!" he shouted, causing Raihan to run. "Get back here, kid!"
Raihan ran as quickly as he could, losing the witch through the crowd as he looked for a place where he could hide and enjoy his spoils.
During his time on the streets, Raihan was forced to become a young, homeless thief. He had to learn how to be good at stealing things, like how to sneak fruit from the carts and stands.
Creeping around, he hid behind a fruit stand and used his tail to snatch up an apple while the unsuspecting fruit stand owner was busy cutting down a screaming fruit.
"Oh no you don't," said the fruit butcher, who held a knife to chop the screaming fruit. "Nothin' will get past me!"
This made Raihan quickly run off with the only apple he had, not wanting to risk falling victim to the butcher.
Raihan walked through the streets while pick-pocketing some snails from witches in the unsuspecting crowd. He needed some cash in order to buy stuff. He knew that it was wrong to steal, but he was desperate and he needed snails to have a good meal and maybe even afford a blanket, anything to make his life easier.
After he managed to get some snails, he ran off to hide in an alleyway to count them. He smiled to himself. "This should be enough for a burger," he said, enjoying his small victory as he planned to head to a burger joint to get him something to eat.
But there are times when Raihan wasn't so lucky…
It all started when Raihan was looking for something to eat and he spotted some squid sticks that were up for sale. He knew that those squid sticks were a tasty treat and considered a delicacy here on the Inwell Isles, so he wanted to try at least one.
He looked around, making sure that the coast was clear and that nobody was watching him as he reached to grab one of the squid sticks that were up on display… only to suddenly feel his arm grabbed as a scout appeared in a puff of smoke.
"Well, well, looks like we got ourselves a street rat!" the scout declared as Raihan tried to pull his arm back.
"Stop, let me go!" Raihan shouted, struggling as the scout dragged him away. "No!"
Soon, Raihan was pushed into an alleyway, where he found himself surrounded by three other coven scouts.
"Look, it's just some kid," one scout said.
"Yeah, but he's still tried to steal," another replied. "Why don't we teach him a lesson?"
"Yeah, scare him straight!" one declared as they ganged up on Raihan…
The boy could've transformed into a dragon, but he didn't, mainly out of fear. Instead, he let the scouts pinned him against the wall. "No, stop! I won't do it agai-"
Despite his pleading, he got punched by one scout while another kicked him. Raihan was then thrown to the ground, but the scouts continued to physically beat the boy down, punching and kicking him, making sure they roughed him up good…
After they finished beating him up, Raihan was left on the ground, his body bruised, his nose and mouth bleeding. The scouts looked down at him.
"Should we take him in or something?"
"Nah, he's not old enough to be a wild witch, plus he didn't fight back. He's no threat."
"Let's go out for lunch, I'm starvin'!"
The scouts then left the alley, leaving the bruised and beaten Raihan lying where they left him. As the scouts left, their exiting of the alleyway was noticed by someone in the streets, who became curious. Once the scouts were out of sight, she walked over to the alleyway, where her eyes widened upon seeing the beaten young boy.
"Oh my… oh my gosh!" she shouted as she rushed over to Raihan's aid. She knelt down and began to use her healing magic on him. "Oh no, how could they do this to you?!"
Raihan looked up at the girl healing him, the one who decided to help him. The girl who was the one witch to come to his aid… Amary.
Fast-forward to earlier today, when Raihan was walking through the streets of the Inwell Isles alone. Amary was going to be busy all day doing her own thing with a group of her classmates, so he was left alone in their room. He quickly got bored and figured that he could make a quick trip to the quick market for a snack. Visiting now was very different from how it used to be, especially since there were no longer any scouts around that he had to worry about.
But as he was walking, he spotted a pair of witches nearby. His eyes widened and he quickly hid himself as they walked by. Of course, they never noticed him and even if they did, they wouldn't know who he was, unlike Raihan who definitely knew who one of them was…
'That's him…' Raihan thought to himself as he watched… Cross and Rebecca, who were walking and talking.
'Oh man, it's that teen dragon guy,' Raihan thought as he watched Cross with Rebecca. 'And… he's with another girl? Wonder what they're talking about?'
Raihan knew that he had been told to stay away from the Drakescale siblings, specifically by Amary. They attracted too much attention. But he still wanted to get the chance to meet him, although he was still hesitant.
Instead, Raihan just continued to observe the two and quietly follow them. He noticed Cross's awkward expression while he was talking to Rebecca, who looked flustered at first. But then she looked down with a saddened expression, which Cross looked to feel bad about this.
'Gee, whatever they're talking about, that girl looks sad.' Rai thought until his ears picked up the sound of an alarm, which the other two heard as well, since they began to rush towards the source of the alarm.
Rai looked at them go before he decided to sneakily follow them…
Rai hid behind a cart as he poked out to see Cross and Rebecca fighting a werecat that he recognized to be Payday, an infamous criminal. But he didn't intervene, deciding to just watch the two fight, including the part of Payday kissing Cross, before she made her mistake.
After Payday escaped, Rebecca checked on Cross and Rai saw another girl, Zee, rushing up towards them.
"Cross! Reba!" Zee shouted as she ran up to them.
"Zee? What are you doing here?" Rebecca asked her.
'Zee?' Rai thought as he kept himself hidden while watching the three decide to continue going after Payday...
Raihan had managed to stay on their trail while also remaining discreet. At least, he had managed to stay on their trail when they were in the air, since they were easy to spot from the ground. But when they dove down, he lost them.
"Where could they have gone off to?" Raihan asked himself while looking around until he heard some noises coming from a warehouse. He saw coming out from the warehouse was Payday, who quickly fled from the chaos.
Fearing the worst, Raihan rushed towards the building, heading into an alleyway next to it. He looked around, then transformed into his wyvern form upon confirming that he was alone. He then went up to the top window of the warehouse, where he looked through an open window.
Inside, he could see the fight of Cross, Zee, and Rebecca, vs Serpentina, Eustace, Mosaic, and Mick Jagwick going down. While he saw Zee fighting Mosaic and Rebecca going up against Mick, he also saw Cross having to deal with the two pirates on his own. Rai looked concerned, especially when those pirates got the upper hand and began to beat the green dragon down.
"Wish you had that cat backing you up now, don't ya?" Eustace asked with a chuckle, before he went to resume pummeling Cross in his werecroc form.
'No!' Raihan thought. Then, without really thinking, he intervened. Coming in through the window, he clumsily flew to Cross's rescue, using his speed to push Eustace back with heavy force, knocking him away from Cross.
"Eustace!" Serpentina shouted before her eyes widened at the sight of the purple dragon. "N-no, not another one…"
Rai looked down on Cross, who groaned while appearing to be in a daze. "You okay, dude?" Rai asked him.
Now in the present, outside of the warehouse the authorities had been called in and they were currently loading up the unconscious Eustace and Serpentina into a wagon. Both of them were wearing cuffs but Eustace was especially chained up, with a collar placed in his neck to prevent transformation, along with a muzzle.
"Glad to see that we've finally captured those two pirates," said Torque, who was talking with Rebecca.
"Hopefully they stay locked up." Rebecca replied while glaring at the two pirates.
"Oh don't worry, like with Lupe, we won't take any chances with those two pirates," Torque told her. "Since those two caused the fire at the circus that could have hurt a lot of witches, we've decided to take some extra measures on those two."
"That's great to hear," Rebecca replied, relieved, before she glanced over at the Drakescale siblings, who were with Raihan.
"Man, I can't believe that there's another dragon here on the Inwell Isles!" Zee exclaimed while Raihan tried to shush her.
"We have tons of questions to ask you, like what dragon clan you're from? Or if you know if there's more dragons out there?" Cross asked. "If so, why didn't they come to us?"
"But more importantly, why didn't you reach out to us sooner?" Zee demanded. "Seriously, you should know how famous we are around here, especially me."
Raihan just sighed. "None, I'm the only one around here, and because I wasn't allowed to."
"Not allowed to?" Zee asked him. "What do you mean by that?"
"Look, I can answer all of your questions, but right now," Raihan said as he looked around, feeling a little uneasy with all the authorities nearby. "Can we talk somewhere more… private, please?"
Cross and Zee looked at each other, both of them realizing that this wasn't the best place to discuss Raihan's dragon heritage. Especially since it was so… public.
"Alright, we'll go somewhere private," Cross agreed.
"Yeah," Zee said. "Cause I don't think you'd want to be questioned by the authorities here…"
Raihan sighed in relief and gave a nod. "Thanks, you two."
Meanwhile, in another part of the Inwell Isles, the duo of Emily and Donna were now at the circus, where they were looking around for a certain Ringmaster.
"So you think he'd be here?" Donna asked her as they looked around.
"Well, yeah," Emily replied. "I mean, I don't know if Pryce has anywhere else to be besides the circus…"
The two girls began to ask around for Pryce, going up to some of the employees of the circus ringmaster.
"Pryce? Last I saw him, he was playing with some of those floating ducks we use for the carnival games," said one of the demon clowns. "He really loves naming them and giving each of them complicated backstories…"
"Mr. Dark? Oh, he's probably checking the animals," answered a stunt witch who was polishing his cannon.
"He was over there, and then that spot over there," said McSpeed, who was leaning back while eating a notdog. "Yeah, I just got this notdog seconds ago. Thought I could make a second attempt to be part of Pryce's act."
The two girls continued to look and ask around until Donna finally noticed Pryce walking out of the tents. "There he is," she said, pointing to him.
Emily spotted Pryce as well and the two of them began to walk over to him, Emily calling out to him while waving. "Mr. Pryce, sir!"
Pryce turned to see the two witch girls walking up to him and he gave them a warm smile. "Emily, Donna, I am surprised to see you two here today. How have you two been?"
"Pretty good, sir," Emily replied. "We've both been doing well."
"Yeah," Donna agreed. "How about you, sir?"
"Oh, I've been doing well myself," Pryce admitted. "Of course, the news about that dreadful Lupe fella did startle everyone here, but thankfully Zaraff confirmed that he was taken care of."
"Yeah, he was," Donna confirmed, although her body did tense up a little at the mention of Lupe. However, she wasn't going to dwell on it. Not today.
"So what can I do for you girls?" Pryce asked, figuring that they had come here looking for him for a specific reason.
"Well, sir, it's about my bedknob," Emily said as she brought up the bedknob he had given her. "You see, Donna asked me to use the bedknob to help her find her long-lost twin brother, Conner, who she last saw on the other side of the world. But when I asked the bebknob to help find Conner… it didn't work."
"Is that so?" Pryce asked.
"And it's not the first time I've had that kind of problem with it, actually," Emily revealed while looking down at her bedknob, "There's this one kid, Pete, who I have tried to find by using my bedknob… but it hasn't work, nor does it take me to find Pete. Because of this and the bedknob being unable to find Conner, I am starting to worry that it doesn't work anymore…"
Pryce hummed as he stroked his chin. "How exactly did you try to find this Conner? Did you try to give the bedknob a specific location? Or did you just say the name?" the goat demon asked.
"The name," Emily confirmed. "Is that… significant, sir?"
"I think I see where the issue is coming from," Pryce said before he began to explain. "You see, the bedknob doesn't really work like that. It's a travel spell, not a 'find a person' spell. It's meant to take you to specific locations, not to wherever a random person is at any random time. Sure, it can still take you to someone, but only when you know where they are at a moment."
This surprised Emily… and confused her. "But… it worked just fine before. Like when I was able to find Stella with my bedknob."
"And how did you specifically use the bedknob for that?" he asked her. "Did you have both a location and a person in mind? Perhaps at least subconsciously?"
"Well… maybe," Emily admitted. "I might have been thinking about Stella's house while I was playing with the bedknob, or at least had it at the back of my mind, which is why I might have ended up there." She then realized something else and decided to bring it up as well. "But wait, when an infant named Kay was kidnapped by a group of goblins, I asked the bedknob to take me to her and it did just that. I was teleported to the goblin's ship, which I had never seen before and didn't know about."
"Really?" Pryce asked. Just like Emily, he looked to be confused by this. "That… shouldn't be possible. The spell shouldn't have worked like that." He scratched his chin before looking to Emily. "And you are sure that you didn't know where Kay was at the time, right?"
"No, sir," Emily said while shaking her head truthfully.
"Then… was there any other magic in the area when you used the bedknob?" Pryce asked her. "Because maybe some other spell messed with the bedknob or you triggered something and that's how you ended up on the ship."
Emily looked down at her bedknob, looking even more confused than ever as she considered the possibilities. She didn't remember there being anything that could mess with the spell… but that didn't mean that there wasn't something like that on the boat and she just didn't notice it at the time because of how focused she was on saving Kay. "I don't know…"
Pryce gave a nod. Just like Emily, he seemed to be contemplating what could have potentially messed with the spell… or who could have messed with the spell and what their motivations could be.
He then turned to Donna. "Ms. Masterskull, if you want to find your brother, I would recommend giving Emily a specific location. Do you have any idea where your brother could be right now?"
Donna looked at Pryce while slowly nodding as she gave her answer. "Well… I do know where he could still be…"
Meanwhile, Lindsay had gone over to the area with the Inwell Outdoor Theater to meet with the rest of her friends, including Andrea who had already met up with them. As she walked over to them, they spotted her heading in their direction.
"Linds! There you are!" Tracy shouted as she waved over to Lindsay.
"Hey guys," Lindsay told them as she regrouped with her friends.
"How was your visit with your brother, dear?" Tabrella asked while next to her was Katie in her stroller. "How was meeting this family that he was staying with?"
"My visit with my brother was… productive. As for the Barks, they're… interesting witches," Lindsay replied while briefly shifting her eyes away. "What about you, girls? How was your morning?"
"Oh, I've been busy with a little so and so," Andrea mentioned with a dismissive wave. "You know, my usual thing whenever I make some new friends…"
"Yeah, we know," Jackie said, a bit dryly. "We all know what you were up to, Andrea." She shook her head and turned back to Lindsay. "As for us three, we were here all morning, at the amphitheater for the Battle of the Bards," she explained. "We saw a lot of bands here, including some ones back on our Titan."
"Really?" Lindsay asked, surprised. "Anyone we know?"
"Yes, we met some of our old friends like Felicia, the Ninja Reptiles, and the Bloodwater Gang," Tabrella listed off. "We also met some new friends, a werecat band named Rosie and the Dirty Rats. Oh, and we also met Tracy's old friend Synthia."
"Who is totally awesome!" Tracy interrupted. "You should definitely meet her, Linds. And you too, Andrea, she knows how to scratch records."
"Ooh, she sounds fun," Andrea said.
"I think I would like to meet her," Lindsay admitted. "But you also said that Felicia was here as well?"
"Well, she was here to manage the Ninja Reptiles since they're going to be participating in the Battle of the Bards," Tabrella explained. "But it is not the most thrilling part, Lindsay."
"Oh? What is?" Lindsay asked.
"We're all gonna be partaking in the Battle of the Bards ourselves!" Tracy declared, which surprised Lindsay.
"Wait, really?" Lindsay asked, blinking in shock. "But I thought we wouldn't…"
"Well, I thought so too, but… I guess I changed my mind," Tabrella admitted, though she did feel a little strange. "It was like I suddenly felt a competitive spirit in me."
"I wasn't sure about partaking in it either, but if Tabrella is fine with it, then so am I," Jackie admitted as well. "I didn't think I would care about winning… but I kinda like the idea of us proving that we are the best ones here."
"I just think it sounds fun!" Andrea shouted.
"What do you say, Linds? Would you like to rock with us at the Battle of the Bards?" Tracy asked her.
"Well, it does sound… interesting," Lindsay admitted while thinking it over. She knew that soon she would be leaving with Cross and Donna, heading back home to the Boiling Isles with them. Really, they would all be leaving soon. She wasn't sure about playing at first, but since all of her friends were already going to be playing… surely it couldn't hurt to partake in the Battle of the Bards as one last fun thing before they all left the Inwell Isles. "Alright, I guess I could pitch in and help you guys."
"Aw yeah, that's great!" Tracy declared excitedly. "We're going to show those Shallows just what we're made of!"
"Wait, the Shallows?" Lindsay asked in surprise.
"Yeah… they're competing too," Tabrella admitted while looking down. "To be honest, they did try to goad me into competing. I told them that they were not worth my time, but… guess I ended up playing in their hands…"
"Are you going to be okay?" Lindsay asked her friend, concerned. "Playing against them, I mean?"
"They are… just as infuriating as ever," Tabrella admitted, scowling a bit. "But I won't let them distract me."
"Me neither, although it was… still kinda weird," Jackie admitted. "How quickly we changed our minds, I mean. I guess those girls really pumped us up…"
"Honestly, I was ready to compete anytime," Tracy said with a shrug, not thinking much about it. "I'm just glad you're all ready to compete now too."
"That does sound… a little strange," Lindsay said before she contemplated something, causing her to mutter to herself. "There's no way he would've…"
"Who would've what?" Tracy asked, having picked up what Lindsay said.
"Oh, um…" Lindsay said as she realized her slip up, causing her to freeze up.
Andrea narrows her eyes towards Lindsay, giving her a suspicious look. "Is there something you're not telling us, Linds?"
"Oh, it's… nothing big," Lindsay said as she tried to deny it.
"Come on, Lindsay, what are you hiding?" Jackie asked her. "If it's nothing big, surely you can be honest with us."
Lindsay knew that she couldn't keep it a secret from them, so she just sighed. "Okay, but it's something that we should… talk about in private," she told them while looking around at some of the nearby witches. "It's not good to talk around here…"
The four other witch girls looked at each other before looking back at Lindsay, seeming confused. Just what could it be that warranted them to have a private discussion? Obviously something was up…
"Alright, Lindsay, we'll talk somewhere private," Tabrella said while the others nodded in agreement with her.
The Mane Five began to head somewhere less public, but before they could leave they were all spotted by the Shallows, who were nearby minus Amary.
"Hey look, it's Lindsay again," Britt pointed out before she saw Tabrella with the Shystream witch. "So it is true, Brella really is hanging out with her…"
"Wow, to think we'd run into her twice this week," Juniper commented.
"Say, why don't we give her our old greeting?" Scarlota suggested with a smirk. "Maybe we could ask her if her boyfriend broke up with her yet."
"Good idea," Sienna replied with a smirk.
"Not that she deserves someone as cute as Drakescale anyway," Britt agreed while the girls all laughed.
"Yeah! Let's-" Sharon stopped when she noticed something about Scarlota. "Say, Lota, when did you have a tail?"
"Tail?" Scarlota asked, suddenly panicked. "What-" She looked behind her… and was confused to see a rat tail sprouting from her lower back side. After a moment, she went from confused back to being panicked. "Gah! Why do I have a tail?!" she cried out.
"Juniper, is this your doing?" Sienna accused Juniper.
"Hey, don't pin this on me!" Juniper shouted as she waves her hands… which turned into heads that spoke in unison with her. She stared at them in shock and promptly began freaking out. "YAAAAAH!"
"What is happening?!" Britt demanded to know as suddenly flies flew around her. "Gah! What the hell?!" she cried while swatting at the flies.
"Oh my Titan, why did I drink that expired tea this morning!?" Sharon cries out while seeing many eyes sprouting all over her body. "I'm tripping bile sacs, man!"
"We're all trippin!" Sienna shouted as her fingers started to grow extra long. "Fuck!"
The Shallows and their shrieks caught the attention of the Mane Five, who turned around and saw all the… strange happenings around the Shallows as they continued to cry out in a panic.
"What in the Titan's horns…?" Jackie asked in awe as they all watched the distant chaos, wondering what could have caused it… when Tabrella suddenly figured it out.
"Lindsay," Tabrella said as she turned to Lindsay, who looked at her with a nervous expression. "This is… Discord's doing, is it?"
Lindsay attempted to hide it but for only a short moment. Then she just sighed and slowly nodded in confirmation. "Yes…"
Meanwhile, Cross, Zee, Rebecca, and Raihan had returned to the warehouse they had fought in earlier. The place was now empty, making it perfect for their needs.
"Alright, nobody's here but us," Zee said as she and her brother turned to Raihan. "So now we can talk."
"Right, talk…" Raihan said as he looked visibly nervous. Not just because this was his first time talking to other dragon-witches like him, but he also just didn't like talking about his past in general. However, he knew that it needed to be done and he eventually got up enough courage to start. "You see, I came from a different Titan, which was more like… an island kingdom ruled by a warlord."
"Warlord…?" Cross asked in concern.
"Yeah," Rai confirmed. "This warlord was ambitious. After having gotten his hands on a male dragon, he decided that he wanted to create a dragon army for himself." He started nervously twiddling his thumbs as he explained this, visibly uncomfortable. "I don't know all of the details, but… I do know that the warlord wanted his one male dragon to sire children with as many female surrogates as possible. It was… a breeding program."
This shocked the three, who quickly realized the horrible implications as they looked at Raihan, who looked down in shame as he continued his story.
"I don't think the relationship between my… 'father' and my mother were consensual, although I don't remember much about it, something I'm actually pretty grateful about considering the horrors that I do remember seeing," Raihan explained while fidgeting slightly. "But the women there… they didn't have a choice. They were just selected to give birth to the rest of my siblings, to help the warlord build his dragon bred army…"
As they heard Raihan's story, Rebecca covered her own mouth in shock and disgust while Cross looked just as sick to his stomach and Zee hugged her arms.
"But then by some… some miracle, the warlord eventually died," Raihan explained. "I don't know how, maybe someone killed him, but after he died, all of the new dragons were smuggled away, including me. What happened to my siblings…" He gulped, trying to not think about what happened to his siblings. "I don't know what happened to them…"
"Dear Titan…" Rebecca said as she looked at Raihan with sympathy. "That… that's just awful."
"I think I get it now," Cross said as he looked down. "The Emperor's Coven did something similar. They had a Basilisk Revival Program that revived Basilisks, kept them imprisoned, tortured them. Although this… breeding program sounds even worse."
"But… how did you get freed?" Zee asked, trying to keep herself together.
"Well, I was in a cargo ship and originally meant to be transported to the Boiling Isles," Rai explained. "I don't know who ordered me, just that someone on the Boiling Isles wanted a dragon. But before I reached there, the ship I was in got caught in a terrible storm. The ship went down, but I managed to free myself, find someone I could float on, and eventually wash ashore here, on the Inwell Isles. After that, I spent some time on the streets, stealing to survive until I was eventually found by Amary, who you've actually met before," he said to Cross.
"I have?" Cross asked in surprise.
"When you were at Inwell Prep with that other girl, who bumped into her at the library," he reminded him. "Amary's really nice and smart, and she is the closest thing I have to a family," he admitted. "When she found me, she took me in and gave me some food and a bed to sleep in. She even got me enrolled into IP with help from the Headmaster, who's a pretty chill guy."
"Huh, this Amary sounds pretty neat in my book," Zee said with a smile. "She's like a cool big sis to have, is she?"
"Yeah, what's she like?" Rebecca asked.
"Well, like I said, she's not just nice, but pretty smart too," Raihan told them. "She's always focused on her studies and is a bit of a book addict. Like, I think she has read about half of the books at the library and she checks out at least twenty books a day."
"Yeah, when I bumped into her that day, she was carrying a stack of books," Cross recalled. "She sounds like the kind of witch who'd frequent the Bonesborough Library."
Raihan then looked up to the Drakescale siblings, his expression hopeful. "So now that I've explained myself to you guys, maybe I could get to know more about you two," he suggested to Cross and Zee. "Like, I have a lot of questions, especially about your family."
Cross and Zee turned to look at each other before turning to look back at Raihan.
"Yeah, you can ask away, Raihan," Cross said.
"Anything you ask, we can try to answer," Zee added.
"Great!" Raihan replied happily, "Okay, um… well, you guys know that I'm a wyvern, what type of dragons are you two? Are your parents dragons as well… actually, that may be a dumb question…"
"No, it's fine," Cross assured him. "We can tell you a lot about our family, and what kind of dragons we are."
"For one, me and my little bro are Winged-Drakes with some Arctic blood from our gramps," Zee explained. "Cross inherited gramp's cold flames, and I got the steamy parts. Heh, get it?" She looked around at the three, but when she saw that she was getting no reaction, she frowned. "I blow off literal steam, which is my thing, okay? I used to do fire and water spells, but since I got this sigil, I just heat up my saliva."
"Okay, but what about your parents?" Raihan asked "Are they dragons as well?"
"Well, our mom isn't, while our dad didn't become a dragon since it skipped his generation," Cross explained. "Like Zee said, we get it from our grandpa."
"Yeah, and his mom is part of the Clawthorne clan," Zee pointed out. "Although I am as well, even if Clair is dad's second wife. Not that I don't love her as my own mom," she quickly added.
"Oh, so your dad has two wives?" Raihan asked.
"Well, he married my mom but then she passed away," Zee explained. "Then he got remarried to Cross's mom, Clair, and I got the best baby brother in the Demon Realm."
Cross smiled. "Thanks, Zee. And you're a pretty great big sister, even you can be invasive and tentative."
"Ha! I can be like that," Zee laughed it off. "You know what we're sayin', Reba?"
"Um… I guess?" Rebecca said as she shrugged it off.
Raihan noticed Zee's sigil. "Oh man, I've heard about witches receiving sigils on the Boiling Isles. How… did you get it?"
Zee looked down at her sigil, remembering how she got it. She frowned and sighed. "That's… not an easy question to answer, kid."
"Oh, um… sorry," Rai apologized. "Maybe you don't have to-"
"No, it's cool," Zee said, shrugging before she began. "It was during the week for the Day of Unity. The Emperor's Coven were stopping by schools across the Isles to get all the students sigiled before the Day of Unity. Me and my friends put up a fight against the scouts, trying to buy our classmates time." She paused for a moment while rubbing her sigiled arm. "The scouts were all led by Osran, Head Witch of the Oracle Coven. A real jackass. While we did manage to help a lot of our classmates, Osran got me and my friends, which resulted in us getting sigiled…"
Raihan, Cross, and Rebecca had been silent as they listened to Zee, looking at her with sympathy while Zee just leaned back against the wall, letting out a sigh in the process.
"So now, despite the fall of the Emperor's Coven, I have to live with this sigil until they figure out how to get rid of them, which could take who knows how long," she said.
"We do know that a cure is being worked on," Cross said. "I mean, the Atos Foundation has already found ways to de-petrify witches, so there is a chance to get our magic back."
"Yeah, but once again, who knows how long that will take," Zee said, her tone sounding bitter. "Weeks? Months? Years?"
"You know, I always wondered why most witches can't just… you know, hack off their sigiled arms?" Rebecca asked in a slightly morbid tone..
"Uh, no, in fact, someone did do that once," Zee explained. "Like, I've heard about this guy from the Swampy Toes who tried that once, but now he lives with only one arm and their magic's still limited by those sigils."
"Man, I thought that Belos was bad, but hearing it from you guys, he just sounds like he is completely the worst," Raihan admitted.
"Yeah, thank Titan he's dead," Zee muttered before she decided that she wanted to change the subject. "But besides that, I would like to ask if you'd like to meet up with our parents and grandfather somehow."
"Really?" Raihan asked excitedly.
"Yeah, I know that our folks would definitely be thrilled to meet you, Raihan," Cross told him. "They're back on the Boiling Isles, which I will be heading back to soon."
Raihan looked absolutely thrilled at the idea of meeting the rest of their family. He was very tempted to take up the offer… but then he realized something that made him look unsure.
"That… does sound like a great offer," Raihan admitted while looking down. "But I don't think I should."
Cross and Zee both looked at him in confusion. "Why not?" Zee asked.
"Well, for one, Amary would want me to stay here," he mentioned. "She wants to make sure that I'm safe no matter what and she is going to flip when she learns that I talked to you, plus…" He gave an uneasy look. "The Boiling Isles was where I was being taken to. I don't know who wanted me, but that's what me and Amary are worried about. Worried that whoever bought me… is probably still there."
This got Cross and Zee to exchange looks to each other, both of them concerned about a potential dragon trafficker on the Boiling Isles…
Back to Emily and Donna, the two of them were still at the circus and now they both had a plan thanks to their talk with Pryce.
"Alright, so we can't use the bedknob to immediately find your brother or anybody else, but we can use it to bring us to Titan Trapper Island and then we can look for him there," Emily said as she held her bedknob up.
"Hopefully that he's still there," Donna replied, looking anxious. "And if he isn't, maybe we could still find out where he is? Although I imagine the Titan Trappers won't be happy to see me again after last time…"
"I'll put an invisibility spell over us, which should help us go undetected, but if things get too hot over there, we can just use the bedknob to immediately pop back back over here." Emily said as she and Donna both held onto the bedknob, Emily closing her eyes as she turned and tapped on the bedknob. "Take us… to Titan Trappers Island."
The bedknob began to glow and shake as the world around Emily and Donna also started to warp as they were transported to their destination…
…on the other side of the world, where the two girls found themselves standing on the docks of Titan Trapper Island, near the wrecked portal that had originally brought Donna here on her last visit. Since they were on the other side of the world, night had fallen here.
"Alright, stay vigilant," Donna advised Emily as she brought out her keyblade. "They probably put Conner in a brig and I imagine it won't be easy to get him out of here. First, we are gonna have to scout around and find out where they're holding him without raising the alarm then we-"
"Uh, Donna," Emily said as she nudged her silver-haired friend. "Are you sure that this is the right place?"
"What do you mean?" Donna asked as she turned around to look at the island… and her eyes widened in shock. "It… it wasn't like this before…"
The island of the Titan Trappers… was now but an abandoned ruin.
Emily and Donna both looked at each other before they decided to go further inland, into the village that had once been home to the Titan Trappers. There was not a soul in sight, not even a single sentry. It was eerily quiet and the buildings looked empty… at least, the buildings that were still standing looked empty. Others were wrecked. Most showed some damage, while others had been completely torn or burnt down to the ground, although Donna was able to still recognize some of the buildings, such as the temple that had been used to worship the Grand Huntsman… which was now reduced to rubble.
"Hello!" Donna called out as she looked for any signs of life amongst the ruins. "Anyone here? Conner! Raven? Tarak? Nate? Crasha?" she called out while passing by the Broken Nail tavern, which had several large holes in it.
"Isn't it kind of bad to call out like that?" Emily asked in concern as she spotted the distant Observatory Tower… which now had its top completely missing, like it had been blown off. "If anyone is still here, they'll know we're here, and according to you these Titan Trappers weren't exactly friendly… and that's not even considering who else might be here."
"I know, but if there are some survivors, they could use help… especially if one of them is Conner," Donna pointed out.
Emily nodded as she continued to look around, frowning. "What do you think happened here?"
"They were attacked, maybe?" Donna suggested. "I don't know by who, but maybe-" She suddenly stopped, having almost stepped on something. "Gah!"
Emily looked down and her eyes widened. She and Donna took some steps back as they realized that the street they were in was full of tons and tons of skulls…
Titan skulls, that is.
"Are those…?" Emily asked, while looking highly disturbed by the skulls.
"Titan skulls," Donna confirmed with a nod while looking around at the Titan skulls that were scattered around the abandoned town. Some were broken, others shattered, others were hanging from the ends of spears that were embedded in the ground or in walls. Donna and Emily noticed other discarded weapons as well. "They were worn by the Titan Trappers, who were disguising themselves as Titans."
"Oh, so these aren't like their actual skulls?" Emily asked, not sure if she should be relieved by that or not.
Donna shook her head. "No. In fact, I don't think I see any bodies around. Plenty of skulls and weapons, but no bodies…"
Emily bent down to get a better look at one of the skulls, grimacing. "This one… is the same size as King's skull," Emily pointed out. She looked around, noting how many of the Skulls were of similar size, causing her to get an ill feeling in her stomach. "They wore the skulls of baby Titans… this is fucked up."
"Yeah, Luz thought the same thing," Donna agreed as they continued to look around. They found more discarded weapons and carts that had been knocked over. Everything appeared to be abandoned while their crop fields appeared to have been scorched. And then they came across… the House of Strays. Once a place that Conner and his friends had called home… was now a burned down ruin. Fortunately, there were no bodies in the building, but Donna didn't know if that relieved her or not. "Where is everyone? Did they all have to leave in a hurry?"
"That could be the case," Emily replied as they continued to look around. "It definitely looks like a battle has taken place here. A battle where these Titan Trappers were overwhelmed. Perhaps they were forced to abandon their home or maybe they were all captured…"
There was also the possibility they were all slaughtered and their bodies were taken by their enemies, but Emily didn't want to bring that up. Especially not in front of Donna, who looked distressed enough as she searched in vain for her brother.
"But who would attack them?" Donna asked. She noticed another discarded building and how it was covered in strange writing, like someone had tagged the wall. She went up to get a better look and she realized that she had seen these strange markings on other parts of the island as well. However, they were markings that neither Donna nor Emily were familiar with.
"Something even the Titan Trappers were afraid of, I guess," Emily said as she looked around, frowning. "We are in a completely different part of the world. We have no idea what is over here. It could have been a rival group, raiders, pirates…"
"But if they had gotten away, since there are no bodies, where could they have gone?" Donna asked, looking more and more stressed. "Their transporter was destroyed after me, Luz, King, and the rest of us escaped so they couldn't follow us back to the Boiling Isles. So they must've used their boats or…"
Donna trailed off while turning back to the remains of the Observatory. She then began running towards the abandoned tower.
"Donna?" Emily asked as she ran after Donna, following her to the tower, which was surrounded by the rubble that had once been the top floors of the observatory. She saw Donna trying to move some of the debris away to better look around, even Donna blasting some of the debris using her keyblade. "Donna, what are you doing?"
"Looking for clues!" Donna shouted, looking frustrated as she levitated some debris to move it aside. "This place had a library and a map, there should be something that could help us, or maybe something Conner or even freakin' Bill left behind for us to find!" she shouted while using her keyblade to blast some debris away.
"Donna…" Emily said as she tried to reach out to her.
"I have to find Conner!" Donna shouted as she ended up blasting the side of the Observatory. "He… he could have been taken prisoner, or he could have run off to look for me… or maybe… maybe…"
Donna stopped and started to tear up as she lowered her keyblade, which changed back into a keychain. Feeling weak on her knees, Donna fell to the ground and let herself cry as Emily rushed over and knelt down next to her, feeling sad for Donna and guilty that she could have not been a bigger help in her search for her brother.
"Donna… I'm sorry," Emily told her, her tone sincere as she held onto Donna.
"No, it's… it's not your fault, Emily," Donna assured her while wiping away her tears. "It's just… I've missed out my chance to save my brother. I don't know if he's alive or… I don't want to believe he's gone… again."
Emily nodded. She understood a little about what Donna was feeling right now. It was similar to how her own parents went missing and she had no idea where they were… or where her father was. She tried not to think about that too much, but that lack of closure… she knew how much that could hurt.
So Emily comforted Donna, patting her back and holding onto her while Donna cried, letting it all out. Being there for her in the moment was the least Emily could do.
"You know… this whole thing might be a little silly," Donna admitted with a small laugh as she wiped away her tears. "I mean, is it silly that I miss him? I barely know Conner, since I've only met him once. And very briefly. But for some reason, I miss him as if I somehow knew him for my entire life…"
"It's not silly at all, Donna," Emily replied, which got the silver-haired witch to turn to her as Emily continued, a sad smile on her face. "It's not silly that you miss him. Don't talk about him like he's just a stranger to you, because he isn't. He's your brother, your sibling. He is a part of you that's missing, even if you didn't always know he was missing…"
Donna was silent for a moment as she looked at Emily. "Your sister died, didn't she? I don't know if we ever talked about it, but Sonya was your older sister and she-"
"Died," Emily finished with a sad sigh. "Yeah, she did."
"Do you… still miss her?" Donna asked.
"Of course I do," Emily admitted as briefly closed her eyes. "She might have been a bad witch… but she was still my sister. Still a part of me that was taken away." She opened her eyes and gave Donna a reassuring smile. "I hope that you find him, Donna. I hope that you find your brother and are able to get that part of you back."
Donna looked at Emily as she wiped away her tears, gave a small smile, and nodded. "Thanks, Emily. Hearing that… it means a lot."
"Hey, you needed it," Emily replied as she helped Donna back up to her feet.
Meanwhile, at the Inwell Isles rec center, the Mane Five had entered the room that Andrea had used for Emily's birthday party and the room they and Emily had used to break down their suspects.
"Never thought we'd use this room again," Tracy commented while looking around.
"Why not? It's a nice room, it could probably be our own little meet up place at this point," Andrea declared.
"Alright, now that we're all here," Lindsay said as she looked around. She cleared her throat. "Um, you can come out now, Discord."
All five of them looked around, a bit tense as they waited to see how Discord would reveal himself. Katie then noticed a marker lifting up by itself and drawing on the nearby white board. As Katie watched with wide eyes, the marker drew a small picture of Discord… who waved at her, causing Katie to smile and wave back.
"Are you sure he's around, Lindsay?" Tabrella asked, not noticing the animated drawing on the white board behind her as she was holding Katie.
"Knowing him, he's probably waiting to make the most over-dramatic entrance possible," Jackie grumbled to herself.
"Over dramatic, you say?" a voice asked.
Jackie sighed. "And there it is…"
The girls fell silent as the room around them suddenly darkened. As they looked around, the dark room was lit up by a bright blue cloud of smoke that swirled around in the middle of the room. Then, sprouting out from the misty smoke was a familiar draconequus hidden in the shadows, stretching his arms out before the spotlight flared up.
"Presenting… the most extravagant… the bombastic," his voice spoke as the Mane Five and Katie looked at the silhouette of the draconequus before them as the spotlight moved and landed onto him. "Me!" he declared, pressing his fingers on his face as he smiled. "Hello, Lindsay's friends! All of you must've missed me, didn't you?"
However, Tabrella, Jackie, Tracy, and even Andrea all just looked at Discord… with much less enthusiasm while Katie just tilted her head in confusion as she stared at Discord.
"Geez, tough crowd here," Discord said with his arms crossed. "I thought you all would be thrilled to see me again!"
"Define 'thrilled'," Jackie responded with her eyebrow raised.
"Aw, Jacqueline, glad to see you again too," Discord greeted as he floated up to her. "And how is the Apple Blood business going?" he asked while briefly changing himself so that he was dressed up like Dracula, while baring his fangs.
"It's been going fine, thank you," Jackie told him. "And you know apple blood doesn't actually have blood in it, right? It just looks like blood."
"Oh, really?" Discord asked, looking a bit disappointed as he poofed back to his old self and sat on Jackie's hat, much to her annoyance. "I guess I'm still trying to figure out how your world works, including its more demonic goods. Like, eyeballs? And you even eat… pixie pies? I know what my Jackie would think about the whole thing."
"You don't say…" Jackie said, looking a bit irked at Discord while Tracy flew up.
"Alright, Discord," Tracy said as she pointed to him, who was still sitting on Jackie's hat. "What are you doing here this time?" she asked bluntly while pointing at him.
"Aw, Dashers, nice to see you too. You're still as… personable as ever," Discord declared before spotting her sigil on her wrist. "And I didn't know you got a tattoo."
Tracy immediately retracted her arm, hiding it behind her back. "It's not a tattoo…" she muttered, her face down.
"It isn't? Well, no matter," Discord said as he got off Jackie's hat and floated next to Tracy. "As for why am I here, well… can't friends visit their friends from another realm?"
"Well, I guess you can," Andrea reluctantly admitted, causing Discord to look down at her.
"Pinkie!" Discord greeted as he teleported next to her. "How are you doing? Do you still party like it's 1999?"
"I, uh, don't know what that means, but yup! Thanks for asking!" Andrea replied with a smile as she made an effort to be friendly to Discord.
"Say, did you throw a party in here recently? I found some leftover streamers on the floor," Discord said as he levitated the streamers in front of Andrea. "Wow, blue, green and white, eh? Were you having a mint party or something?"
"Uh, no, this is from a birthday party," Andrea pointed out.
"Really? Why, I would've used different colors than that. Like red or yellow! Yellow's always a color of happiness, you know?" Discord told her, poking Andrea's own buttons.
"Hahaha! Yeah, I'll remember that," Andrea said as she tried to laugh it off, a bit forcefully, as one of her eyes twitched and she gave a strained smile.
"Now see here, Discord," Tabrella spoke up. "You're free to stay as you want-"
"And the rarity of the bunch! Tabrarity!" Discord declared while poofing himself so that he appeared in a dress similar to an Anne Wintour-type. He was wearing a teal beret and teal, fashionable clothing. "How do you do, my little amethyst, and oh, you even have this little sweetie belle. Hi, Katie!" he greeted while transforming into a muppet version of himself.
"Can you say, 'chaos?' You know, it's like saying 'Katie' but pronounced with the 'kay' and 'os', you get 'Chaos'!" the Muppet-Discord asked while Katie just laughed. Discord returned back to normal. "Oh, she's just a little adorable witchling, isn't she, Tabrella?"
"I will not deny that," Tabrella said while rocking Katie, still a bit guarded around Discord.
"This is all really nice," Discord said as he went to lay down on a table. "But as much as I like seeing you again, someone is still missing…."
"Uh… who do you mean?" Tracy asked.
"Um," Lindsay pointed out. "Discord also wants to meet-"
"Your new friend that Lindsay has told me all about," Discord pointed out as he suddenly flew up to them while forming a smile. "Emily…"
Meanwhile, back in the the warehouse with the Drakescales, Rebecca, and Raihan…
"No way…" Raihan said while staring at Cross in shock. "There are other dragons? In another realm?!"
"Yup. The Human Realm, more specifically." Cross explained. "We recently met this dragon family, the Longs. Their mom's dragon heritage did skip a generation like our dad's, but her two kids and her grandfather can all turn into dragons. Also, her husband and Jake and Haley's dad was turned into a werewolf at some point."
"Wait, turned?" Raihan asked in confusion.
"Yeah, it's a thing back in the HR," Zee explained with a shrug. "But other than that, they're really cool. Like, their eldest son, Jake, is apparently the dragon guardian of the magic community in America, his home country, while his grandpa is the Chinese dragon and a member of the World Dragon Council, a big organization."
"I… can't even imagine a whole council of dragons," Raihan admitted.
"They assign dragons across the world to be magical guardians in each nation in the Human Realm." Cross explained. "And maybe some day, we could have you tag along with us to meet them. I'm sure that Jake and Haley would be thrilled to meet you."
"Yeah, I think I'd like to meet them as well," Raihan replied happily before he got an idea. "Say, maybe we could go into our dragon forms now that, well, we're not fighting around. We could get a better look at them."
"Yeah, we can do that," Zee replied. "Cross, you can go first."
Cross nodded and he started to transform with green flames bursts around him. After he revealed his green, humanoid dragon form, Zee did the same as she surrounded herself in blue flames while changing into her blue dragon form in front of Raihan.
"Wow… both of your forms look great," Raihan admitted, staring at the siblings in awe. "Huh. You know Cross, you are a lot taller than Zee in your dragon form."
"Well, I guess you could say I'm the bigger sibling," Cross replied jokingly.
"Hmm, yeah well, let's have a closer look at Rai's form now," Zee said while turning to Rai.
"Alright, here's mine," Raihan said as he stood up straight, letting the purple flames burst around him. They traveled across his body as he transformed into his own dragon form, ending up being as tall as Zee was in her dragon form. "What do you think?"
Cross and Zee took a good look at his dragon form, noting how in his wyvern form he appeared very different from their own forms.
"Well… it does look … unique," Cross noted.
"I noticed that your arms are missing," Zee pointed out.
"Oh, that's pretty much what my dragon form has always looked like," Raihan said as he flapped his wings. "My wings don't come out of my back, instead they are what my arms turn into," he said as he crouched down. "I think Wyverns are basically dragon versions of bats. At least, that is how I interpret them."
"Huh, I've never heard of a dragon with four limbs instead of six," Rebecca said while looking at his wings. "Of course, Zee and Cross are the only dragon-witches I know."
"This is new for me as well," Cross admitted.
"Well, when I showed my dragon form to Amary, she did some research and that's how I learned that I'm a wyvern dragon. As a wyvern, we only have two back legs and our wings are placed like that of a bat's." he explained. "Of course, there are some complications, like I'm supposed to have venom in my tail," he said as he moved to show his pointed tail. "But I don't have venom."
"Aw, that would have been sick," Zee said.
"Yeah, I know," Raihan admitted. "Plus, there's this… thing with my flying …"
"How so?" Cross asked him.
Raihan sighed and he decided to demonstrate as he tried to fly up by flapping his wings in the air. However, as he flew up, he started to twirl around…
"Whoa!" Raihan cried out as he ended up spinning and swirling around the air before he hit the wall of the warehouse. "Ow!" he cried out before sliding down to the ground.
Rebecca winced from this. "Ooh, are you okay?" she asked before walking towards him and helping him up.
"Yeah, I'm good…" Raihan replied while rubbing his head. "I just… don't really know how to fly all that well…"
"You never learned?" Zee asked in concern.
"Nope, not even when I lived with Amary," he explained. "Since I can't use my dragon form in public, I can't fly around much without exposing myself."
"Then you're overdue for some flying lessons then," Zee said before making an offer. "Me and Cross will teach you how to fly even with those side-wings you have."
This immediately made Raihan excited. "Really? You guys can help me fly?" he asked.
"Of course," Cross said with a smile, liking his sister's idea.
A bit later, they set something up for Raihan, Rebecca standing at the other end of the warehouse as she prepared to take notes.
"Alright, you are going to try to fly from point A here to point B over where Rebecca is," Cross instructed as Raihan got into position. "Are you ready?"
"Ready as I'll ever be!" Raihan declared.
"On your mark, get set… go!" Zee shouted as Raihan changed into his dragon form, took off, and began to fly out.
He flapped his wings as he headed towards the other point… only to not make it. Instead, he ended up flipping while mid-air.
"Gyaaah!" Raihan cried out as he ended up crashing down to the floor. "Ow…"
"Is he okay?" Rebecca called out as Zee and Cross rushed over and helped him pick himself up.
"Yeah, he's good!" Zee confirmed. "Think we need to work on his wing work…"
Soon, all three of them were in their dragon forms, Zee helping Raihan through some wing exercises.
"Alright, wing exercises, go!" Zee stated as she spread her wings out. "Just spread your wings like this." Raihan spread his wings out. "Now, flap them as I flap them," she instructed as she flapped her wings up, then down. "One, two, one, two."
Raihan flapped his wings up and down as Zee instructed. He ended up lifting off the floor a bit as he kept flapping.
"Good, good, your flapping is going great!" Zee said, giving him a thumbs up.
Later, Cross helped out by teaching Raihan about flying using a tapestry he had summoned, said tapestry showing an animated dragon in flight.
"Alright, in order to work on your flying, you'll need to learn everything about aerodynamics," he said as Raihan paid close attention. "The fun part is learning how to glide through the winds."
"What if the winds get too strong?" Raihan asked.
"Well, we can bypass strong winds, though it does affect our speed and endurance," Cross explained. "But we actually do benefit from strong wind, which can help us fly for an extended period and reach higher altitudes."
Next, Rebecca drew a large spell circle, which summoned a wind that blew in front of Raihan, still in his dragon form. Raihan flapped his wings and flew straight toward the wind.
He tried to keep flying forward until he started losing his balance. Eventually, he flipped backward and fell to the floor. Cross and Zee ran up to tend to him.
"I got off-balance, didn't I?" Raihan asked.
"Yup," Zee replied.
Afterward, they decided to test Raihan's gliding form by having him stand on top of a tall stack of crates.
"Alright, just jump up, then keep your wings straight, and glide down," Cross instructed while he, Zee, and Rebecca waited on the ground.
"Got it!" Raihan said as he backed up. He ran forward, leapt off the crates, and spread his wings. He tilted slightly, but quickly managed to correct himself, allowing him to glide a little and land safely.
"How did I do?" Raihan asked.
"A little rough, but you're getting the hang of it," Cross said. "You could work on the landing though."
"You know, we could just do what I did when you had to learn how to fly," Zee suggested.
"We're not pushing him off the roof, Zee," Cross said with a frown.
"Wait… you pushed Cross off the roof?!" Rebecca asked, shocked.
"I thought he could do it, like I did," Zee explained.
"I still have the scar on my upper arm from that fall," Cross pointed out, showing the scar on his left arm.
"Oh come on, it's barely noticeable," Zee said. "Dad had that healed up real good."
Later, they moved outside the warehouse to find more space, ending up in an empty lot.
"You sure we should be outside? What if someone spots us?" Raihan asked, worried.
"Don't worry, no one but us is around to see," Zee reassured him. "Besides, nobody comes to this part of Drop Down Town anyway."
"Alright, so let's try flying straight up, Raihan," Cross said as he showed Raihan a clipboard with an illustration. "Just two flaps, and then straight up when you fly. Then glide down to land safely. Got it?"
Raihan nodded and transformed into his dragon form. He jumped straight up, flapped his wings once, then twice. But when he held his winged arms straight, he suddenly lost control.
"Whoa!" he cried out as he twirled in the air and fell… onto a soft flower bed that had sprouted suddenly, thanks to Cross.
"Thank goodness for a softer landing," he muttered.
"No prob, little guy," Cross said.
As Raihan got back up, a petal from the flower bed floated up and landed on his nose. The boy felt a sneeze coming.
"Ah… ah… AHCHOO!"
He sneezed a purple fireball, which shot out of the lot and into the streets…
…where it landed on a cabbage cart, setting it ablaze. The cabbage witch, returning to his cart, was horrified by the flames.
"MY CABBAGES!" he screamed while trying to put out the fire with a water spell.
The four watched the scene unfold in shocked silence.
"Um… maybe we should work on your flames next," Zee suggested.
Back at Pryce's circus, Emily and Donna had made their return to the Inwell Isles… which did not go unnoticed.
"Hey, you two are back," Pryce said, having waited for their return to his tent. "Did you find who you were looking for, Donna?"
"No sir, we weren't able to find Conner," Donna sadly confirmed. "Nor do I have anything to go off of to be able to find him…"
"Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that, my dear," Pryce replied, sympathetic. "Being separated from your family… hurts. That's not a pain I would wish upon you, not someone so young."
"Thank you, Mr. Pryce," she said, looking down… before looking back up, her expression determined. "However, I won't let this stop me. I will find him. Somehow."
"Now that's the spirit!" Pryce said with a chuckle.
Donna gave a small smile before she turned to Emily. "Emily, I do want to thank you for all your help. Even if it was a dead end, I really appreciate you helping me to try to find my brother and for… being there for me when we didn't."
"It's no problem, Donna," Emily responded with a nod. "I was happy to help and… I do hope that you find your brother someday."
"Yeah, me too," Donna admitted. She hesitated for a moment before continuing. "I… can tell Nina about this, if you like. About how you helped me."
Emily winced. "You really don't have to do that," she said before she heard her scroll buzz, causing her to pull it out.
"Emergency call?" Donna asked.
Emily read the text on her scroll before looking back at Donna. "Lindsay and her friends want to meet up, so… I guess I should be going."
Donna nodded. "Yeah, you go ahead, I think I am just going to… hang out around here for a bit," she told her while looking around.
"This is perfect, actually," Pryce said. "Because I have been wishing to speak with you alone, Ms. Masterskull."
"Oh, you have?" Donna asked in surprise while looking at him.
Pryce nodded. "Ever since that incident where one of Zaraff's beasts was on the loose. You caught my interest then and I have been wishing to speak to you about it."
"Oh, um, sure, Mr. Pryce," Donna replied, a bit awkwardly before she turned back to Emily. "So, uh, I guess I'll be seeing ya, Emily."
"I guess so," Emily said with a nod. For a moment, the two just looked at each other, not sure how they should say goodbye. The moment felt like it called for a hug, but none of them felt comfortable enough to do that, so they just looked at each other awkwardly before Emily spoke again. "So… later, Donna," she said before she walked out of the tent, leaving Donna and Pryce alone with each other.
Donna turned to Pryce. "Alright, so what is it that you wish to talk to me about, sir?"
"Well, I was hoping to talk to you about… your keyblade," Pryce said.
"My keyblade?" Donna asked in surprise. "Wait, do you know what a keyblade is?"
"Yes," Pryce confirmed with a nod. "And I wish to have a closer look at yours, if that would be alright."
After thinking about it for a moment, Donna nodded and held up her key, turning it into a keyblade. "Okay, but… just look, okay?"
"Don't worry, I wouldn't dream of trying to take a keyblade away from its wielder," Pryce said as he bent forward to get a better look, his eyes shining with curiosity as he marveled at its form. "Fascinating… this keyblade was thought up quite perfectly…"
"Yeah," Donna replied, "Sounds like you've seen a few keyblades like mine before."
"I have," he admitted. "I've seen several keyblades up close in my time."
"Really? That's… surprising," Donna replied. "I heard that keyblade wielders are quite rare. Especially in this realm."
Pryce gave a light chuckle. "Yes, you don't see a lot of keyblades like this anymore, although you can still find them if you know where to look," he said before frowning. "But they were once more commonly used… before the Keyblade War."
"Keyblade War?" Donna asked, curious. "What was that?"
"Something that happened… long before your time," Pryce said with a bit of a pause. He looked up from the keyblade at her. "Where did you get this?"
"Well, back when I was in the orphanage, like, when I was little, I found this key on a hill. It was buried in a box, and when I first touched it, it gave me a vision of this woman with butterfly wings, telling me that her key was passed down to me. I later learned that this keyblade belonged to a previous Fae Queen, Mab."
"Mab…" Pryce said, looking distant upon hearing that name, almost as if he was somehow familiar with it. "How much do you know about keyblades, Donna?"
"Not too much," she admitted. "I'm still learning."
"Is there someone training you right now with the keyblade?" Pryce asked her.
"Actually, yes," she confirmed. "Kitsuni, a yokai from another realm, is a keyblade wielder and we do have plans to train together once my vacation here is over."
"That is splendid to hear," Pryce replied. "Has she told you anything so far?"
"Just a bit about Mab," Donna admitted. "I also met another keyblade wielder named Ollie, though he didn't tell me much either."
"So you don't know about Kingdom Hearts or the Heartless?" Pryce asked her.
"I've never heard about Kingdom Hearts, but I've actually fought the Heartless already," Donna revealed, surprising Pryce.
"The Heartless were here?" Pryce asked, concerned. "How…?" He stopped himself and took a deep breath while looking at Donna. "I must warn you about one thing, Donna…"
Donna looked up at him, slightly alarmed. "Yeah…?"
"I want you… to take care of yourself," Pryce advised while patting her gently on the shoulder. "Good luck in mastering your keyblade."
"Wait, that's it?" Donna asked as she saw Pryce turn around and start to walk away from her. "But I thought you were going to tell me something important?"
"Oh… well, I must've forgotten," Pryce said, his hands behind his back. "I should check on my inventory, take care now."
"What about Kingdom Hearts?" Donna asked him. "What even is that?"
"That is something between you and your mentor," Pryce said as he walked out of the tent.
Donna was going to ask him more, but she stopped herself and let out a sigh. Either Pryce was just kidding around with her or he knew more than he was letting on and was just going to keep being evasive. Either way, she doubted she would get anything more out of him, so she just walked out of the tent as well.
Once Donna walked out of the tent, she started to leave the circus, her head down as she contemplated everything that she had been through that day from the Blotlings to failing to find her brother to Pryce being weird…
"Donna?"
Her head lifted up upon hearing a familiar voice and she turned her head. "Felicia?"
"I thought it was you!" Felicia shouted as she happily ran up to Donna, giving her a hug. "Hey there, my favorite superwitch! How are you, Cross, and Lindsay doing?"
Donna chuckled warmly. "Doing fine, thanks," she said while hugging Felicia back. "We've been enjoying our vacation, even met up with Zee and Emily."
"Emily Tricks is here as well?" Felicia asked in surprise. "Huh, so that's where she disappeared off to after the Day of Unity."
"Yeah, she's actually been doing pretty well for herself here," Donna replied before she saw the way that Felicia was looking at her. "Um, something wrong?"
"I'm not sure," Felicia said as she seemed to notice that something was up with her friend. "Donna… are you okay?"
"Oh, um… don't worry, I'm fine," Donna assured her. She did not want to talk about her brother with Felicia, so she changed the subject instead. "So, um, what brings you here? Are you on vacation as well?"
"A workcation, yeah," Felicia confirmed. "I came over here to help some of my friends with their music career at the Battle of the Bards that's going on tomorrow."
"Oh, that's nice of you," Donna said. "Is your dad here too?" she added, hoping to possibly talk to Kitsuni after her weird talk with Pryce.
"No, he stayed back on the Boiling Isles," Felicia admitted.
"Oh," Donna said, a bit disappointed. "So… what are you doing right now?"
"Well, I was just checking out the sights around town," Felicia explained. "When I noticed that there was a circus, I decided to check that out as well. And to be honest, I was hoping to run into you at some point since I already knew that you were on the Inwell Isles. But as luck would have it, I found you here of all places."
"Yeah, I've been here from time to time," Donna admitted with a shrug. "But you know, since you are here, maybe we could… hang out?"
Felicia gave a big smile at this. "I would love to," she said, her tail wagging slightly. She then remembered something. "Ooh, maybe you could even help me out, since you've been here longer than I have!"
"Uh, sure, what is it that I could do for you, Felicia?" Donna asked.
"Well… I had another reason for coming here," Felicia said while glancing around. "I am… looking for someone. You probably haven't seen her, but any information you could give me would be most helpful. If that's not too much trouble, I mean."
"No, no, in fact, I would be happy to help you out," Donna told her. She did find it funny that she went to Emily for her help in finding someone and now she was helping Felicia to find someone around the Inwell Isles. "So… who are you trying to find?"
Felicia and Donna began to walk as they talked while they left the circus.
"Well…" Felicia started to say. "I've never met her myself…"
In a different part of the Inwell Isles, Emily flew down on her staff, landing in front of a water fountain where she found the Mane Five and Katie waiting for them.
"Hey, Emily," Lindsay greeted with a smile.
"Um, hey. So I got your call," Emily replied as she looked around while noticing how everyone seemed… off today. Even Andrea looked unusually nervous, which made Emily wary. "Did I… do something wrong?"
"What? No, you did nothing wrong, Emily," Andrea quickly assured her with a wave.
"Yeah, believe it or not, but this has nothing to do with anything you've done or have been involved with," Tracy explained.
"We just want to have you meet… a friend of mine," Lindsay tried to explain. "Well, more specifically, he wished to meet you."
"Friend?" Emily asked, getting the feeling that there was more to this as Jackie came over and patted her shoulder.
"Best if you keep yer guard up, Emily," Jackie advised. "Do you recall us mentioning… Discord?"
Emily thought back and remembered the mention of that name when she was first hanging out with the Mane Five. She cautiously nodded. "Yes…?"
"Well, he's here," Tabrella replied while holding Katie, who sucked on her bottle. "Discord decided to drop by unannounced as he is prone to do and he wanted to meet you, Emily."
"He does?" Emily asked them. She looked around. "Okay, so… where is he?"
"He should be around," Lindsay replied before she called out for him. "Discord, you can come out now!"
But Discord didn't show up, leaving the Mane Five and especially Emily in confusion as they looked around.
"Um… what is going on?" Emily asked. "Is he here?"
"Maybe he left?" Tracy optimistically suggested.
"No, if he isn't here, that can't mean anything good," Tabrella realized.
"Discord?" Lindsay asked again as she kept looking around. "Where is he?"
Meanwhile, back at the circus in the main tent, Ringmaster Pryce was inspecting the rings in the center of the tent, making sure that everything was ready for the next show. He was alone as well… or at least he believed he was alone.
"Back in the circus business again, I see."
Pryce heard a disembodied voice and he closed his eyes, letting out an annoyed sight. "I thought I sensed a familiar yet annoying presence…"
"Oh, please. As if you can sense anything, you old goat."
Pryce opened his eyes and let out a chuckle. "I suppose it takes one to know one, doesn't it, Discord?"
"Ah, what a riveting response. Do you tell that to your duckies?"
Pryce frowned at this. "Leave my ducks out of this!" he shouts. "Unless you wish to face the fury of Pryce D. Riveteer!" he declared while holding up his cane.
"Pryce… so that's what you go by here, huh?"
Discord popped into existence and looked Pryce over. "And regarding your appearance," he commented. "I have a few notes."
Pryce glared at Discord. "Why are you here?" he asked with a low growl.
"Not for you, believe it or not," Discord told Pryce. "I'm here to visit a friend."
"You have friends?" Pryce asked in disbelief.
"More than you do," Discord taunted Pryce, causing him to let out another growl.
"Are we really going to do this again?" Pryce asked.
"Yes, I imagine so," Discord answered with a nod. "Unless you're no longer able to keep up with me, of course."
Pryce smiled and he raised his cane up like a sword. "Bring it on."
The two were now in a stand-off, glaring at each other with mutual dislike. After a moment, the two rushed towards, Pryce swinging his cane at Discord, who poofed away. Pryce scoffed before he saw Discord floating above him.
"Gotta do better than that!" Discord said before turning himself into a large anvil that he sent falling down towards Pryce.
Pryce snapped his fingers and teleported himself away from the spot before anvil-Discord landed on him. As anvil-Discord hit the ground, Pryce transformed himself into a large hammer and swung himself at anvil-Discord, smashing him into a dozen tiny Discords that began running around. The tiny Discords looked up at the hammer-Pryce.
"Oh this means war!"
"You're in it now, bub!"
"Fire!"
The mini-Discords summoned a cannon, which blasted a larger Discord aimed right at hammer-Pryce, who changed back into his regular form and used his cane like a baseball bat, knocking Discord away. He then aimed his cane at the mini-Discords and made blaster sounds with his mouth, shooting the mini-Discords one-by-one. The larger Discord, meanwhile, had landed in the seating area and he shook himself off. Watching Pryce finish off most of the mini-Discords, the larger Discord snapped his fingers and reality around them began to warp, some parts of it bending down or being folded like a kaleidoscope.
"Come now, I'm just getting started!" Discord said as he snapped his fingers again, summoning portals that rained pies and ice cream down on Pryce while the remaining mini-Discords ran over to him and were brought into him, making him bigger.
Pryce dodged the rain of pies and ice cream before he noticed the larger Discord towering over him. The much bigger Discord laughed and literally spun reality around, causing Pryce to fly through the air. He managed to catch a trapeze bar, using it to swing himself through a rain of pies and ice cream before he let go and hung onto the tightrope. He then snapped his fingers and managed to get reality to stop spinning, giving him a moment to catch his breath.
"Ya missed!" Pryce declared before he realized that the rain of pies and ice cream had stopped. Instead, the pies had all frozen mid-air… before they formed monstrous mouths and flew at Pryce, trying to gobble him up. "Crap!" he shouted as he jumped off the tightrope, attempting to land in a barrel of water below… only for the barrel to turn into a giant pie. Pryce landed in the pie and groaned, trying to clean his now pie-covered face off… before being hit with a normal pie to the face.
"Ha! Can't beat the classics!" Discord laughed at an unamused Pryce, who shifted himself into a large snake and wrapped his coils around Discord.
"How's this for a classic?" Pryce hissed.
"Please, you know what snakes are afraid of?" Discord asked before he snapped his fingers, summoning a large mongoose that showed up in front of snake-Pryce. "The mongoose."
The mongoose roared as it tried to bite at Pryce, who let go of Discord and slithered away while being chased by the mongoose and the floating monstrous pies. Snake-Pryce slithered behind the bleachers, the mongoose and the pies right behind him… and sounds of fighting were heard, followed by silence. After a moment, Pryce came out from behind the bleachers, dusting himself off while glaring up at Discord, who was floating overhead. Pryce sighed and six wings came out of his back, allowing him to fly up to face Discord.
"Come on now, you could at least make this a lot more interesting," Discord said while large hands came out from the ground, forming into fists. "I came here for a battle!"
Pryce let out another sigh and he held up his cane. "Alright, I'll give you what you want," he said as his cane started to shift into something that he could use against Discord…
…a keyblade.
This keyblade was all black, thin, and straight. It had a black, narrow helm with a circular black-ring guard. On the side of it were three-pointed black flaps on each side, with white patches. The blade had five rigid parts sticking out from the blade, with the teeth having what looks like two jaws with the lower part resembling an eye.
"Finally got you to pull out your keyblade, eh?" Discord asked as he stroked his beard. "I was hoping you would stop pulling your punches…"
Discord sent his ground fists towards Pryce, who swung his keyblade, instantly turning the fists into debris with a blast of golden light. Discord smirked at this and snapped his fingers, causing the trapeze posts to bend around along with the bleachers as both were sent twirling towards Pryce, who held up his keyblade to block the attacks, although the impact still sent him back to the ground.
Pryce slid across the ground while keeping his guard up as the bleachers and posts continued to drill at his blade. He then disappeared along with his keyblade, only to reappear in front of Discord, attempting to swing at him. However, Discord disappeared as well and Pryce noticed a bunch of eyes popping up, the eyes shooting lasers at him, which Pryce blocked using his keyblade.
"If you plan to wear me out, you're fascinatingly wrong!" Pryce shouted as he blocked the lasers while swinging his keyblade at an eyeball, which popped into bubbles.
"Oh please, 'eye' don't need to wear you out," Discord said in a reflection of an eye, which Pryce spotted. He launched his keyblade at it, making it pop like a balloon. When Pryce struck at another eye, it unleashed some bees around him. "Tell me, why do I keep finding you running your circuses? Doesn't that seem a bit… beneath you?"
"Can't a man have hobbies?" Pryce asked, while swinging his keyblade to shoot out fiery daggers towards the swarm of bees before transforming himself into a swan that was holding his keyblade in his beak.
"Really?" Discord asked with a smirk before he appeared in front of Pryce again, this time turning himself into a tidal wave of green jelly in an attempt to engulf him.
Pryce disappeared before reappearing on the side of the tent, not wanting to get any green jelly on him. He used his keyblade to blast the wave of green jelly, forcing Discord back into his normal form as Discord grabbed his head to keep it from spinning… although that didn't stop his body from spinning. He saw this and grabbed his body to stop its spinning… but this only resulted in the tent around them spinning instead.
Pryce flew up in the air, unaffected by the spinning, and he held up his keyblade to shoot at Discord, who flew around while dodging each blast as he pointed his finger to shoot his own magic at Pryce, which Pryce dodged or blocked. For a while, the two chased each other while shooting spells around the tent, which spun around them. Discord snapped his finger again and Pryce saw a large pair of smiling lips appear in front of him. Pryce stopped himself just in time, since the pair of lips opened up, revealing teeth, and tried to bite down on Pryce, who dodged the bite by turning himself into a snake with six wings that managed to slither away.
"Alright, that does it!" Pryce shouted as he changed back.
"Ha! Bring it on, duck-boy!" Discord taunted as he formed boxing gloves around his hand and paw while punching the air.
The two then launched themselves at each other, prepared to meet mid-air while the reality of the tent was distorted around them. They were about to collide with each other…
"Hello, Mr. Pryce?"
The interrupting voice caused everything to stop as both beings looked down at the entrance of the main tent.
Moments later, coming through the entrance of the tent was Ratla, the Ratworm Tamer, who looked around. "Mr. Pryce? Are you alright?" she asked as she saw… a perfectly normal tent. Everything had changed back, leaving her unaware of anything that might have just happened. "I thought I heard something."
Pryce, now back to normal while his keyblade was back to looking like a cane, cleared his throat. "Everything's all good, Ratla," he reassured her with a smile. "I was just… practicing my lines for our next show."
Meanwhile, back at the venue where the Battle of the Bards was going to be held, the Shallows were doing their practice.
"Alright, after we got over that… whatever that was," Britt said as she, the Shallows, and Amary were doing some stretches. "Let's focus on practice! And we all agree to never talk about that… thing ever again, right?"
Everyone nodded in agreement. They had no explanation for what was actually Discord messing with them, but they all agreed that it was for the best to never talk about it again.
"I still can't believe we got Tabby to sign up just so she could try to prove that she's better than us," Juniper said while stretching her arms out. "I mean, she's a teen mom, shouldn't she be busy breast-feeding or whatever teen moms do?"
"Glad that she's doing alright," Sharon said happily before she immediately frowned. "Not…"
"It was inevitable that we would run into her again," Sienna said while doing some stretches with her legs. "But there's no way she can beat us with our dance routines."
"Yeah! Plus, I picked out the perfect songs we could use," Scarlota said while looking through her scroll. "I hear that that Human Pop is becoming a thing, so I looked up some human music uploaded from the Penstagram videos, and-"
"Lota, we're still going to use the songs I picked out," Britt told her off.
"But Britt-"
"We are not subjecting our audience to this… urban music," Britt told her. "If we play this right, we'll win the Battle of the Bards, show the Inwell Isles that the Shallows are still great, show Tabrella and her boonie friends, and maybe even steal Cross away from Lindsay…"
"I mean, only if he's into that kind of thing," Sienna pointed out, causing everyone to turn to her. "What? Am I the only one who actually sees the flaw in the last part? How can you steal a guy if you don't even know him? Just be honest, you only want Cross because Lindsay has him. You don't like him, you like the idea of taking away from her."
"Yeah, well, you don't even have a partner, Sienna!" Britt pointed out.
"Yeah, none of us do," Sienna said dryly. "But in my case, that's because most boys aren't worth my time. What's your excuse, Britt?"
"Oh you think you're so bright, Sin?!" Britt shouted as an argument sparked between them.
But while the other Shallows were watching the argument between Sienna and Britt, waiting to see who would come out on top, there was one witch who wasn't paying attention to it at all. She hadn't spoken a word in a while, because she didn't care at all about their beef with the Mane Five or their inner fighting. This witch was, of course, Amary, who was too busy trying to text Raihan on her scroll. He hadn't responded to any of her texts, which worried her.
'What are you doing, Rai?' Amary thought to herself, wondering if Raihan had turned his scroll off or if he was sleeping in. 'Don't tell me you're sleeping away the day again, are you? You probably are, though.'
"Hey, you got the cords ready, Robert?"
"You know it, Kannon."
Hearing the male voices, Amary looked up to see the same blue-haired boy she had seen earlier, holding the cords.
"Good, now we can prepare for practice," said Kannon. He was pale blue-haired, dark skinned witch boy wearing glasses. His hair was a bobcut and he was wearing an ivory buttoned up jacket that left half of his chest bare. He also wore white trousers and white heeled-boots, along with a black belt around his waist and arm sleeves with black upper cuffs. "Gotta make sure our equipment is in good shape, eh, Rob?"
Robert nodded. "You know it, smart guy. I can't wait to play off my tunes."
Amary blushed as she watched Robert. She actually had been crushing on him for quite a while now, since they both attended the same school, but she never had gotten the courage to actually talk to him. But she did wonder if this could be her chance. She looked back at the Shallows…
"I'm the leader of this group and what I say, goes!" Britt shouted at Sienna.
"What makes you the leader? My grades are still higher than yours, so you're certainly not smarter or more talented than me," Sienna argued while keeping her face stoic, which made Britt even madder.
"Why you little smart-mouthed!" Britt shouted as she was about to have it with Sienna, if not for Juniper and Sharon restraining her and holding her back from straight-up attacking Sienna, who didn't look fazed by this at all.
"Stop, you'll cause a scene!" Sharon begged.
Amary only needed to watch them for a few moments before making the most logical decision… by bailing on them and going over to where Robert was, since the Shallows were too busy being at each other's throats to notice that one of their own had snuck off to see a boy…
She walked around the venue, dodging and weaving between some of the equipment that was just laying around. She stopped when she noticed a demon saxophone and drum plate just walking past her, followed by someone's Inkid that was carrying some equipment. Amary then got even closer to Robert, who was setting up the cords to a speaker, his back turned to her. As she walked towards him, she thought about what she was going to say to him, too busy thinking about how to start a conversation that she ended up tripping on some cords she didn't see…
"Kyah!" Amary screamed as she fell toward the floor… if her body had not stopped mid-air, though her glasses still fell off her face and hit the floor.
"Gotcha!" Robert shouted, having spotted Amary and used a spell to catch her. He walked over to her and helped her back to her feet. "Are you alright?"
Amary looked up at Robert and blinked. Even though her vision was blurry, she could still tell that it was him. "Uh… yeah…"
Robert bent down to gently pick up her glasses before he stood up and handed them back to her. "Here, you dropped your glasses. Don't worry, they're not broken," he said, his tone kind.
"T-Thanks," Amary said as she took her glasses from him and put them back on. Her vision cleared and she saw Robert in front of her, closer to her than he had ever been before. Her eyes widened at his blue eyes and his cute smile. "Ah…"
"You're Amary, right?" Robert asked her. "I've seen you around back at IP. You, uh, hang out at the library most of the time, right?"
"Y-yeah!" Amary shouted before she mentally chastised herself and tried to cool it down. "A-and I've seen you around too, um, Robby?"
"Robert, actually," he replied. "I'll admit, it is surprising to see you here. I was starting to think you never left the library at IP," he joked.
"Well… truthfully, I was actually forced to come here," Amary admitted. "The Shallows said they needed a sixth member for the Battle of the Bards and I guess they thought I was the easiest one to drag here.."
"Really? The Shallows?" Robert asked as he looked over at the Shallows, who were still arguing. Amary nodded and he shuddered. "Oof, sorry you have to deal with them. Guess that makes us competitors."
"Honestly, I'm not interested in the whole competing thing," she said. "It's pretty much outside of my… well…"
"Your comfort zone?" Robert asked and she nodded. "Yeah, I hear ya. Though are you at least into music?"
"Not especially," Amary said before realizing that she probably shouldn't have said that to the bard. "I-I mean, music is fine, but-"
"Hey, it's fine," Robert told her with a warm chuckle. "So what do you like to do? You know, when you're not being dragged to things against your will?"
"Well, I like reading, obviously," Amary told him. "Other witches aren't far off when they say that I live there…"
"Oh, you know that they're saying that?" Robert asked.
"Yeah, I do," Amary said while looking down. "But I do leave sometimes…"
"Where do you like to go then?" Robert asked her.
"Museums," Amary admitted. "Like, there is this molar museum that showcases molars from all over the Demon Realm. Like ones from the Boiling Isles-" She stopped herself before looking back up at Robert, a bit sheepish and embarrassing. "Sorry, this must sound really boring to someone like you."
"Someone like me?" Robert asked before smiling. "What? You don't think I can enjoy an intelligent conversation with someone?"
"That's not what I-" Amary briefly panicked before she realized something and stopped. "Oh, you're messing with me, aren't you?"
"Just a little," Robert teased. "But honestly, I think it's pretty cool that you are into this kind of stuff, even if I don't know much about molars."
"Maybe I could teach you a thing or two about molars sometime," Amary suggested, a bit playfully. "And you could teach me a thing or two about music…"
"Sure," Robert said with a grin. "Though, do you listen to any music at all?"
"Well, I may not be a music expert, but I do still listen to some every now and then," Amary admitted. "Sometimes when I read, I like to listen to harmonic pan flutes from the famous satyr group 'ABBAAH'."
"Really? Well, lately I have been listening to the songs of Harper Taboo and her old band, The Whisperers," Robert told her. "I managed to get my hands on some of their old stuff."
"Say, didn't the Whisperers have-"
"Raine Whispers?" they both said at the same time, Amary blushing a little while Robert nodded with a smile.
"Yup, that Raine," he confirmed to her.
Amary smiled a little at Robert, then looked down shyly while twirling a strand of her hair with her hand. "So, if we're not competing or anything later, maybe we could-"
"There you are, Amary!"
Amary was interrupted when the Shallows marched up to her, causing her to jump a little.
"What do you think you're doing, fraternizing with the enemy?" Britt demanded to know.
"Britt, I was just…" Amary tried to say before she felt her hand being pulled by Juniper. "Hey!"
"Come on! We have to practice our routine! Last thing we want is for you to mess it all up for us!" Britt shouted as she and the rest of the Shallows began to drag Amary away.
"Yeah! We gotta show these losers what we're made of!" Sharon added as they walked away.
Robert watched Amary get pulled away. She looked back at him and he gave her a small, slightly sad wave. "Well, I… guess I'll see you around then," he said as he turned around and walked back to his band, Amary sighing as she watched him go.
Meanwhile, in a different location, Cross and Zee were setting up targets for Raihan, who sat watching them with Rebecca.
"There," Cross said after setting up the third target. "That should do it."
"I don't get why can't we just levitate the targets around for him to shoot fireballs at," Zee said as she set up another target.
"Because we want to make it easier for Raihan," Cross explained. "Levitating the targets around would be too difficult for him."
"Oh come on, let him experience a little difficulty mode. This is, like, for beginners," Zee said, pointing at the targets that they had set up with posts. "We should make this more challenging."
"He needs to learn how to aim and we don't want him breathing fire everywhere," Cross argued. "Moving targets will just cause him to end up setting something else on fire."
"You worry too much," Zee told him. "I mean, it's not like he'll burn this lot down."
"It's still a risk I'm not willing to take," Cross told her while adjusting the target.
"Come on! What's life without taking some risk…" Zee argued back.
As the two siblings argued with one another, Raihan and Rebecca were just sitting down on a log together, talking to one another.
"You know, it is really cool that I get to meet another dragon," Rebecca said with a smile. "Although it was probably my destiny."
"What do you mean your destiny?" Raihan asked in confusion.
"Oh, it's just that I believe it was my destiny to meet and befriend the Drakescale siblings, so it was probably my destiny to meet you too," Rebecca explained. "On account of my birthmark on my back."
"Your birthmark?" Raihan asked.
"Yeah, it's the shape of a dragon," Rebecca said before she grabbed her own shirt. "Here, let me show you."
Raihan was caught by surprise when he saw Rebecca turn around and pull up the back of her shirt. His face became flustered when he saw her exposed skin, his eyes wandering her backside. He spotted her dragon birthmark and found it quite curious… while continuing to stare at her back in the process.
"Um… wow," Rai said as his face blushed. "I uh, never knew… I mean, that's a pretty cool birthmark, Rebecca," he said. He sounded a bit nervous, yet he couldn't help but stare at her beautiful back…
"Thanks," Rebecca replied before pulling her shirt down and turning around to face him. "Before then, I used to be a bit self-conscious about my birthmark, but ever since meeting Zee and Cross, I realized that maybe my birthmark was a sign. Like it was my destiny that I get to meet dragon-witches like Zee, Cross, and you."
"Yeah… destiny…" Raihan said in awe while looking at Rebecca. In his vision, there were now hearts all around her, along with a sparkly awe that surrounded her. It was evident that the young, dragon-witch boy was definitely starting to develop a crush on Rebecca… who remained completely oblivious to said crush.
"Oh, you know what would be neat?" Rebecca asked as she stood up from the log. "You should meet the rest of Team WZRD: my sister, Whitney, and our friend Darcilia."
"R-really?" Raihan asked.
"Yeah, maybe we could go together to meet them," Rebecca suggested. "Would you like to meet them?"
"Sure!" Raihan immediately answered, nodding in agreement while standing up. He realized that maybe he sounded a bit too enthusiastic, so he tried to tone it down a little and play it cool. "I mean, yeah, I'd like to meet your sister and friend."
"Great!" Rebecca declared with a smile before turning to the Drakescale siblings. "Hey guys, me and Raihan are going to meet up with Whitney and Darcy!"
"That's cool, Reba!" Zee shouted at her, giving her a thumbs up. "Me and Cross will stay to set up the target course for Rai when you two get back!"
"Got it!" Rebecca shouted as she turned to Raihan and grabbed his hand, much to his surprise. "Come on!" she shouted as she began to lead away the blushing dragon-witch…
Meanwhile, in Shriekwood Forest, Donna had brought Felicia down to the forest.
"So this is where you last saw her?" Felicia asked while looking around.
"Yeah, this is the place," Donna confirmed with a nod. "She's probably still here too, but she just hasn't revealed herself yet."
"Why?" Felicia asked.
"I think she likes to make an entrance," Donna explained.
"Like a bard or an illusionist?" Felicia asked.
"You'll see," Donna replied as they entered a camping ground, where Donna came to a stop and called out. "Errol! If you're here, there's someone who wishes to meet you!"
"Meet me, you say?"
At that moment, an arrow struck the ground, a rope attached to the end of the rope. The two girls looked up and they saw Errol riding down the rope like it was a zipline. Once she landed on the ground, she struck a dramatic pose while tilting her hat. She then walked towards them.
"Well, I will admit that I wasn't expecting to see you again so soon, Wonder Witch," Errol declared before glancing at Felicia. "And I see you have a… friend," she added with a cautious tone, becoming more guarded around Felicia, who was staring at her.
"Yeah, and she is the one that wants to meet you, Errol," Donna explained. "Because… well, I guess I'll let her explain." She stepped back as Felicia walked towards Errol.
"Um, hi," Felicia greeted Errol, looking and sounding a bit uncharacteristically nervous. "Um, it is very nice to finally meet you."
"What do you mean?" Errol asked while looking down at Felicia in confusion.
"Oh, that's right," Felicia realized. "I guess you don't recognize me, huh?" She gave a small, embarrassed laugh. "Okay, so this is going to be a little awkward, but…" She cleared her throat and started to speak. "My name is Felicia Fox. I'm Felicity Fauxworm's daughter… and I'm your niece."
Errol's eyes widened as she took another look at the fox biped girl, realizing that she was her sister's daughter.
"Oh," she said in surprise.
Back with Emily and the Mane Five, they were still looking for Discord.
"Discord! Where are you?" Lindsay called out to him. "Discord?"
"Come out wherever you are, you lazy, goat-chicken-dragon-whatever you are!" Tracy called out for him while flying up.
Emily just watched them in confusion before she turned to Jackie. "I'm… still confused about all of this…"
"Trust me, Emily, you're going to have to mentally prepare yourself for this," Jackie told her.
"This Discord… is he like some trouble maker or something?" Emily asked.
"More like he thinks he knows how to throw a party and questions my methods even though you can't have cupcakes try to eat you because they're the ones that are meant to be eaten!" Andrea ranted as she appeared to be more manic.
"Uh… what?" Emily asked. "Is he also an illusionist?"
"It's more than that, dear," Tabrella said while strolling Katie. "Discord is… how do I explain it? He's sorta… very eccentric, but let's just say he can be a bit… much."
"How much… 'much', are we talking about?" Emily asked.
"Halt, friends of Shystream!"
They all stopped after hearing a disembodied voice, causing them to look around.
"Was that…?" Emily asked before a spotlight suddenly plopped down next to her, surprising the green-skinned witch as the spotlight turned on and everything around them turned dark. The spotlight revealed Discord, who was levitating down from the clouds.
"Feast your eyes on the unusual, the unfathomable, the clutter of all things messy!"
"Here we go again," Jackie groaned, rolling her eyes.
"Is that…?" Emily asked as she looked at the creature before her as he landed.
"Tada!" Discord shouted. "Greetings, bonjour, hallo, and ciao, I am Discord! Being of chaos and disorder on top of being Lindsay's best friend from across the multiverse. Wait, hold on for a second." He pulled out a remote and pushed a button, turning up the brightness around them so that the lighting returned to normal. "Ah, that's better," he said before he extended his pawed hand. "Alright, put it there. You must be Emily Tricks, I've heard so much about you! I guess you must've heard a lot about me, haven't you?"
Emily was confused by Discord, looking at his paw, then up at him. "Um… nice to meet you, Discord," she said as she held out her hand, which Discord took and shook rapidly.
"Yes, yes, it's nice to meet a new friend of Lindsay's," Discord said with a smile.
After the handshake, Emily adjusted herself. "To be honest, I don't know what you are, really. I've never seen or heard of a creature like you before."
"Oh, well I guess you are owed an explanation," Discord said as he snapped his fingers.
Suddenly, Emily and the Mane Five were all seated at desks in a classroom while Discord presented himself with a grad cap, glasses, and a suit and tie. As Emily looked around in confusion, Discord spelled out something on the chalkboard.
"Oh come on! We're vacationing from school!" Tracy complained.
"Now class, pay attention," Discord said as he started. "For your information, Ms. Tricks, I am a creature known as a Draconequus," Discord said as he underlined DRACONEQUUS on the chalkboard. "I am a proud member of the-" He briefly censored himself. "-and I am considered a spirit of chaos and disharmony. I can make rain chocolate if I want to, or I can give rabbits longer limbs and I can make waterfalls rise upward," he explained as he walked up to Emily. "For you see, I'm what you mortals would consider, well, a deity. A god of chaos, if you will."
"God of… chaos?" Emily asked him in shock, her eyes going wide as it began to dawn on her.
"Well, yes. I am an immortal being that has the power to spread chaos and disharmony wherever I wish," he declared, not noticing her reaction. "At least I used to, now I can use my magic for good." He chuckled. "Well, most of the time."
Hearing him describing himself as a chaos god forced Emily to remind herself of her encounter with Mel. She started to remember what Mel did back in the Boiling Isles, what she did to her… and as she remembered being humiliated, dragged into her own personal hell, and tormented in Mel's sick idea of a prison, Emily's heart started to race in her chest. Mel had nearly killed her… and now she was face-to-face with yet another chaos god.
"Hey!" Discord shouted as he waved one of his arms in front of Emily. "Are you paying attention to what I'm saying?"
"GAH!" Emily cried out as she pushed herself away from her desk and ran for the door. "Let me out, let me out! LET ME OUT!" she cried as she tried to pull on the door.
"Emily?" Lindsay asked in concern as she started to get up from her desk.
"Oh come on, my classroom isn't that bad," Discord said dismissively, not picking up on what Emily was panicking about. "I could just change the location if you want."
With the snap of his fingers, they were suddenly transported into an office. Emily and the Mane Five now found themselves dressed as characters from The Office.
"What… what is this?!" Emily asked in a panic while dressed like Jim Halpert.
"What… happened to our clothes?" Tabrella asked, dressed as Pam Beesly while Katie was dressed in a very cute business suit.
"Discord, I don't think this is the time," Lindsay said while dressed as Phyllis Smith.
"Hmm, you're right," Discord said while dressed as Michael Scott. "Too mockumentary."
After another snap of his fingers, they all appeared in a more Norwegian environment while dressed in Norwegian outfits and holding instruments.
"What the fuck…?!" Emily asked while seeing that she was wearing a lederhosen.
"Dang it, Discord, not this!" Jackie shouted while wearing clots and a traditional Norwegian dress.
Andrea blew into a tuba in response, which annoyed Discord.
"Definitely not here," Discord said before snapping his fingers…
…and they found themselves on a couch, Discord resembling David Letterman as he held some cards. Emily looked both confused and frantic by all of this.
"Hmm, nope!" Discord said before snapping his fingers…
…and they ended up on the bridge of a ship in space where Emily and the Mane Five, plus Katie, were all dressed as Starfleet.
"Where are we now?!" Emily asked in a panic as she found herself sitting in the captain's chair while in a yellow uniform.
"I don't know, but I do look good in this blue," Tabrella said while in a blue uniform, Katie being dressed in her own blue uniform.
"Easy for you to say," Tracy said while having a red short dress uniform and a beehive-hairdo "I have this weird hairdo."
"And I have this visor on," Lindsay said while pointing to a visor that covered her single eye. She was dressed in a yellow uniform.
"Oi!" Jackie cried out with a Scottish accent while wearing a red uniform. "Why does me accent sounds weird?"
"Man, Discord's sending us to a lot of weird locations!" Andrea shouted while in a yellow uniform. "Wait, where is Discord?"
Then, in a flash, Discord appeared above them. He was dressed in a black wardrobe similar to Q. "I'm sad none of you will appreciate this reference," he told them. "But at least it'd be something fun for Ms. Tricks."
"NOOO!" Emily shouted as she jumped out from her chair, terrified by the casual reality-bending as she backed away from him. "TAKE ME BACK!"
Discord looked at her, blinking in confusion. "What, do you want a change of location-"
"Discord, what Emily is trying to say is… please take us back to Inwell Isles," Tabrella told him while she pointed to Emily, who looked like she was on the verge of having a panic attack while being held by Lindsay, who tried to comfort her. "Emily isn't comfortable with being teleported around like this. It's obviously distressing her."
Discord looked down at Tabrella, then over at Emily, finally recognizing that she looked terrified. He sighed and raised his fingers. "Very well, back to boring old Inwell Isles," he said as he gave his fingers another snap, flashing a bright light…
…and when the light died down, they were not on a starship anymore. Instead, they were back on the Inwell Isles, right back to where they were before Discord showed up.
"Emily, are you okay?" Lindsay asked her friend in concern.
"I… I…" Emily tried to say. She was still very shaken and before she could even finish her sentence, she saw Discord pop up behind Lindsay. "GAH! Keep him away from me!"
"Hey now, what is all the fuss?" Discord asked as he crossed his arms while glaring at Emily. "Is that how you treat any friend of Lindsay's?"
Emily didn't respond. Instead, she just stared at him in horror… before she turned around and took off, running away from Discord, not wanting to be near him.
"Emily!" Andrea and Lindsay both called out.
"You didn't tell me she was this rude," Discord commented, causing everyone to glare up at him, which he noticed. "What?" he asked. "Was it something that I said?"
Meanwhile, the Drakescale siblings were having a little argument in regards to Raihan.
"Come on, I say we should bring him back to the Boiling Isles," Zee suggested. "That would make it easier for him to meet the rest of the family. Then we could ask Eda, who has access to the portal door, to take us to the Human Realm so he can meet the Long family"
"We can't just take Raihan with us, Zee," Cross argued. "First of all, he has this Amary, who I imagine would have something to say about us taking him, especially when she seems to be all that he has. Second of all, whoever wanted him is probably still back in the B.I. We could be bringing him to whoever had him trafficked…"
"Cross-"
"Which is why I think we should bring someone here instead," Cross said. "I can get in contact with Jake while you can stay and keep an eye on him."
"Well… I do live here," Zee admitted as she thought about it. "Yeah, staying here with Rai could be good. Like, I could potentially train him and be his own Dragon Master."
"Great, now I'm even more worried about him," Cross muttered.
"Oh come on, I could be a great mentor for him," Zee insisted. "And if we ever meet this Dragon Council that Jake told us about and they see how Rai's training is going under me, perhaps they'll be so impressed that they make me a certified Dragon Master. It could be like my true calling."
"Well, just as long as you don't push Rai off of the roof," Cross said as he noticed a target and went to adjust it. "This thing's crooked…"
"Here, let me help," Zee offered as she and Cross adjusted the target together. As they moved the target, Zee remembered something and she looked at. Cross "Hey, Cross… do you remember Uncle Gio?"
"Uncle Gio? I… I think so," Cross responded as he and Zee finished adjusting the target, setting it straight. "I… haven't really thought of him for quite a while," he admitted as he turned to look at Zee. "I'm… surprised that you brought him up. You never talk about him."
"Well, not to you, but… I guess meeting Rai has gotten me to think about him again," Zee replied with a sigh before looking down, saddened. "What do you happened to Uncle Giovanni after he left the Boiling Isles?"
Cross paused to think about it. "He went out to look for other dragons, right?" he asked.
"Yeah, he did," Zee replied with a nod, deciding to not tell Cross the true reason why Giovanni left. He didn't need to know the drama that went on between Gio and their grandfather.
"I… do wish that I had known him as well as you did, Zee. I mean, he is my godfather as well," Cross said with a sigh.
Zee looked over at Cross and reached out, patting his shoulder. "Me too, little bro. I wish you had known him better as well," she replied. "And I do wonder if he ever succeeded in finding other dragons…"
Meanwhile, Rebecca and Raihan had met up with Whitney and Darcilia at a local cafe.
"Girls, meet Raihan," Rebecca said, introducing them to him. "Raihan, meet my sister Whitney and our friend, Darcilia."
"Nice to meet you two," Raihan politely replied.
"Hi, it's nice to meet you as well," Whitney said with a polite, pleasant smile as she walked over to Rebecca. "Okay, where did you find him and… what happened with Cross?"
"Um… he's with Zee right now," Rebecca replied, a bit nervously. "But we didn't really find Raihan. He found us. He helped me, Cross, and Zee when we were fighting those pirates who tried to burn down the circus. We had a run-in with them and… our old enemies."
"Old enemies?" Darcilia asked.
"Mick and Mosaic," Rebecca revealed, surprising the two witches. "They're here on the Inwell Isles."
"Ugh, not those two," Whitney groaned.
"They were here?" Darcilia asked. "And they teamed up with those pirates?"
"Yeah," Rebecca admitted. "They unfortunately got away, but thanks to Raihan showing up to help, we managed to take those pirates down and get them arrested."
"Those other two guys ran off because I was in my dragon form at the time," Raihan explained. "Guess they couldn't handle three dragons at once."
"Wait… you're a dragon?" Whitney asked, her eyes widening in shock. Darcilia also looked surprised by this information.
"Oh yeah, he's a dragon as well," Rebecca said. "Did I forget to mention that?"
"Yeah, you did," Darcilia told her.
"Well," Rebecca said as she reached over to pat Raihan on the shoulder. "Since the fight, we've been helping him out, teaching him how to fly better and breathe fire. And I thought I could introduce him to you guys, since he seemed interested in meeting you two."
"Wow," Whitney said, still blinking in surprise.
"Yeah, wow," Darcilia agreed while looking at Raihan. "So… what's a dragon-witch doing here on the Inwell Isles?" Darcilia asked him. "Are there more of you around here?"
"No," he admitted. "I'm not from here, not originally. I washed ashore here after…"
"Rai was… in a bad situation on another Titan," Rebecca explained so he wouldn't have to. "According to him, he was the result of a dragon breeding program led by a warlord who wanted strong dragon warriors. But when that warlord died, Raihan and the other dragons were all smuggled out."
"I was sold to someone who had me taken to the Boiling Isles, but thanks to a storm, the ship sank while I managed to make it here," Raihan revealed. "After spending some time on the streets, I was lucky enough to have a witch take me in, and now I'm enrolled into Inwell Prep."
"Oh, you poor thing," Whitney said as she felt heartbroken by Raihan's story. She was immediately won over by him and his sad story. "Oh, a kid like you shouldn't have experienced all of that."
Darcilia, on the other hand, wasn't as immediately won over.
"Okay, but now my question is… why didn't you reveal yourself before?" Darcilia questioned, looking suspicious of Raihan's story. "Zee has been living here for some time, she isn't hiding who she is, and apparently you've been here all this time… so why didn't you reveal your identity to her sooner?"
"Well, I wanted to, but Amary, the witch that took me in, wanted me to not interact with Cross and Zee, since she was worried about the attention it might bring," Raihan explained. "Though my curiosity did get the better of me and I ended up following Cross and Rebecca…"
"Really?" Darcilia asked, her hands on her hips. She found that all of this sounded a bit too good to be true. "So… you just happened to be following them and then you saw your moment to come to their aid and make a good first impression?"
"Well, yeah," Rai said, a bit taken aback by her obvious suspicion toward him. "When I saw that Cross was in trouble, I knew that I had to help. So I swooped in and knocked that werecroc off of him. I had no choice."
"Right…" Darcilia said while her eyes narrowed, making Raihan visibly uncomfortable.
"Geez, Darcy, would you just back off with the questions?" Whitney scolded Darcilia, pulling her back away from Rai. "He's just a kid."
"Yeah, you're giving him a hard time for no reason," Rebecca told her in a disapproving tone.
"What? I just want to be sure that his story's straight and that he's been honest with you," Darcilia explained. "I mean, how could we know if his story is true or-"
"We can talk to Amary or the headmaster of Inwell Prep," Rebecca suggested. "But he obviously isn't lying about being a dragon. I saw that myself. And from the sound of it, he's been through a lot, so take it easy on him. Plus, he really likes being around Cross and Zee."
"Yeah…" Raihan nodded before he looked over at Rebecca before looking down with a blush. "And, I do like hanging out with Rebecca as well."
"Aw, I'm flattered," Rebecca replied, smiling back at him while not picking up on his obvious crush on her…
…but Whitney and Darcilia both shared looks with each other, immediately having picked up on how Raihan was looking at Rebecca the same way that she would look at Cross. They could tell a crush was happening a mile away…
Back at the venue being used for the Battle of the Bards, walking amongst the many band members who were getting ready for the next day's competition… were the Sirenz. As they made their route between the different bands, they noticed many of their competitors getting along quite peacefully…
A peace that wouldn't do for them at all.
"Look at them, girls," Barissa said as her lips formed into a dangerous smirk. "Look at them all getting along…"
"It's disgusting, really," Royo scoffed, nearly gagging. "Not a real big fan of this 'friendly' competition shit."
"Well, aren't we going to do something about it?" Chroma asked. "Cause I'm hungry, I could definitely use a notdog after this."
"Don't worry, Chroma, we'll have our fill soon enough," Barissa said before she noticed Aqua and Koun accidentally bumping into each other while they were walking past one another.
"Whoops, sorry about that," Koun told her.
"Nah, it's fine," Aqua said, brushing it off very easily.
"Ah-ah-ah, a-ah~!"
Hearing the harmonic melody from the Sirenz, Aqua and Koun's eyes flashed and the two were suddenly… very angry at each other.
"Actually, you know what? You should watch where you're going, beakface!" Aqua shouted at the kappa.
"What? You should watch where you're going, you rude brat!" Koun argued back.
"Brat?!" Aqua shouted as the two started arguing while the Sirenz casually walked past. A purple mist came out from arguing Aqua and Koun before being drawn into the Sirenz's amulet necklaces. And as the Sirenz enjoyed the negative emotions coming from Aqua and Koun, they already spotted their next targets: the Dirtyrats.
"So, what do you think we should wear, girls?" Rosie asked as she held up two photos. One showed her with a lovely dress, the other showed her with a leotard and fishnets. "Should we go with a Grom night look, or the punk witch of the night?"
"I like the punk witch style," Song said with a smile. "I always wanted to look like a bad girl."
"Ah-ah-ah, a-ah~!"
Their eyes flashed suddenly and Valerie's expression changed into a glare. "Hold up, why isn't there a third option to what we want to wear, huh?" she asked. "And why do you have to be the one presenting the only options we have?"
"Because these are the only outfits I could find for rental, Valerie," Rosie retorted. "It's not like you could think of something better, since I don't see you suggesting anything…"
"Because you never let me. After all, it isn't Rosie, Valerie, and Song, is it?" Valerie pointed out. "It's Rosie and the Dirtyrats. Our names aren't even in the band name!"
"Hey, yeah… why is it that your name is in front of the rats?!" Song pointed out
The Sirenz smirked at their handiwork while the purple mist that spread around Rosie and the Dirtyrats, who continued to argue, were inhaled into the glowing amulets of the Sirenz.
"Mmm, so much strife," Barissa said as they smiled at their work. She looked around, seeing strife everywhere that she looked…
"Oh, you think you're better than me, Kosi?!" Josho demanded. The two brothers were arguing with each other, Fuyuko trying to get in between them.
"I'm the leader, so you should just back off, Jo!" Kosi ordered.
"Guys, come on, stop arguing…" Fuyuko told them, trying to ease the tension while the purple mist surrounding the three drifted towards the Sirenz.
Meanwhile, with Duncan and his band, they were in the middle of a heated argument with the Bloodwater Gang.
"You call that music?" Duncan asked Know Doubt. "I call that noise!"
"Hey, our noise is just fine," Know Doubt declared with his arms crossed. "You're the one that plays the trombone a little flat."
"Hey! Nobody talks about Duncan's flat-notes but me!" Poptart pointed out as she stepped forward.
"Oh, bring it on, sister!" Smashermouth shouted as the two bands continued to argue, creating more purple mist for the Sirenz to enjoy.
And yet despite all of this negative emotion… it was never enough. They needed more. And as they looked for more negative emotion to intoxicate themselves with, Chroma felt herself being drawn to somewhere and she spotted another group.
"Hey girls, how about them?" she asked while pointing to another group that they hadn't gotten to yet.
"Ooh… yes, they're ripe with negativity!" Royo replied with a grin as the three began to move toward… the Shallows, of course.
Over at the Shallows, they were practicing their dance moves. However, Britt just looked agitated by their performance.
"Juniper! Your arms are not in sync with Sharon's!" Britt told them off before she turned to Amary "And what the hell do you think you're doing, Amary?"
"Uh… doing exactly what you wanted me to do?" Amary asked her.
"No, no, no, you're supposed to pose with your hand up like this!" Britt shouted as she walked up to move Amary's hand to a certain direction before sliding her foot to a side. "And your foot should go here!"
"Gah!" Amary shouted as she felt her limbs being twisted around, Britt forcing her to pose in a very off-balance position. "Is… this really right?"
All of this tension and negativity… and the Sirenz hadn't even done anything yet.
"Not bad for a group of… novices."
Amary and the Shallows turned around to see the Sirenz walking up to them, with Barissa walking up to Britt.
"Novices?" Britt asked, sounding offended.
"Yeah, is this your first time doing this?" Barissa asked with a smirk. "Because I almost couldn't tell."
Chroma giggled and Britt narrowed her eyes at the three Sirenz. "And who are you three?"
"Oh, we're the Sirenz, if you must know," Barissa introduced herself. "But then again, you probably already know."
"Yeah, from the other day," Chroma chirped in.
Britt scoffed. "I guess you just weren't that memorable," she told them. "As if I'd pay attention to future losers."
"Yeah, I guess you're probably too focused on keeping your own group from completely collapsing in on themselves," Royo pointed out. "Like, talk about uncoordinated."
As Britt glared at the Sirenz, Amary was looking behind the Sirenz and she noticed the other bands arguing with each other or amongst themselves. She then noticed that the amulets that the Sirenz were wearing were glowing…
"Um, hi!" she spoke up while getting up in between Britt and Barissa. "You know, I actually do remember you from the other day, including that performance you gave when you were signing up for the Battle."
"Yes, and you are…?" Barissa asked her.
"Amary," Amary introduced herself while adjusting her glasses and getting a closer look at the amulets.
"Amary, what are you doing?" Britt hissed, not pleased at Amary for just butting into her conversation with the Sirenz like this.
Amary, however, didn't seem to hear her. Instead, she was too busy studying the amulets. "I must say, those are some neat amulets. Where did you get them?" she asked as her eyes scanned the amulets for details… before noticing the symbol on them.
"Oh, these?" Barissa innocently asked while holding up her amulet. "This is just… a gift from an old friend."
"You know, I'm still here!" Britt shouted as she waved her arms, but Amary and the Sirenz just continued to ignore her.
"Hmm, really? You know, it's, uh, pretty weird to use 'Sirenz' as the name for your group, considering there are sirens at the scalding seas…" Amary suggested.
"Yes, and they are known for their incredible voices," Barissa told Amary. "We chose the name to let the competition know that our voices are beautiful, but deadly… for them. But that's all it is, a reference."
"Yeah! It isn't like we're actual sirens!" Chroma laughed, causing Royo to elbow her.
"Because that would be impossible," Royo said as she crossed her arms. "Everyone knows that sirens can't walk on land."
"Right…" Amary said while Britt and the rest of the Shallows watched her in confusion, wondering why she was fraternizing with the enemy.
"What is she doing?" Scarlota asked in a whisper.
"Perhaps trying to get information from them," Sienna suggested, whispering back.
"So where are you three from, anyway?" Amary asked. "Because I have never seen you three around here before."
"Oh, we're from other shores," Barissa said, remaining vague.
"Other shores?" Amary asked, raising an eyebrow.
Barissa smiled and reached out, patting Amary's shoulder and making Amary wince slightly. "You know, you are quite the curious little thing..."
"Well… I um… wish to get to know everyone here," Amary admitted. "I mean, it's not a crime to get to know other witches, right?"
"Shouldn't that go both ways?" Royo asked as she narrowed her gaze at Amary. "You keep asking us about ourselves, but we haven't asked anything about you..."
"Yeah, like, where do you come from?" Chroma brought up. "Are you from around here, or another Titan?"
"Uh…" Amary said, looking a bit nervous as she felt the faze of all three of the Sirenz on her. Amary didn't want to give away too much, but she was worried that they were onto her. "Well…"
"Come on now," Barissa said with her arms crossed. "You seem so eager to ask questions, surely you can answer a few…"
"I… am from another Titan. Though, a Titan you probably never heard of," Amary answered, trying her best to not give away too much about herself. "But I practically live in the library."
"That's true," Sharon spoke up from behind Amary.
"Um," Amary said as she looked behind the Sirenz at the other bands still arguing with each other. "You know, I've noticed a lot of fights and arguments happening around here lately."
"It must be the stress of the competition," Royo said with a dismissive shrug. "I mean, it happens to most bands, right?"
"Yeah, I won't be surprised if a lot of them break up after this," Chroma suggested.
"Come on, girls, we've spent enough time here, let's go get ourselves some refreshments," Barissa told them as the trio began to walk away from Amary, though not before Barissa shot her one last smile. "It was nice meeting you, Amary…"
"Yeah," Amary said with a nod, watching as the three walked away while an angry Britt walked over to her.
"What the hell was that about?" Britt questioned her.
"Oh, I was just… curious about our competition," Amary claimed while looking down with a quiet frown.
But as Barissa, Royo, and Chroma walked away, Barissa turned to whisper to her fellow sirens. "We need to keep an eye on this… Amary girl," she whispered as her eyes began to glow. "She knows more than she's letting on…"
Back in Shriekwood Forest, Errol was practicing her archery while Felicia stood next to her, watching. Donna had given them some distance and was sitting at a nearby picnic table, allowing the two foxes some well-needed privacy.
Felicia watched Errol make bulls-eye after bulls-eye as she shot at various levitating targets, the fox girl witnessing her aunt's archery skills with awe. But she wasn't just fascinated by Errol's talent with a bow. She was just fascinated with her aunt in general, which Errol noticed. And while she usually didn't mind having an audience to show off to, she did feel a bit awkward having Felicia watch her. Because she wasn't just anyone. She was her niece. She was family… and family was something Errol always had trouble with.
"So… how long have you been practicing archery?" Felicia asked her, hoping to learn everything she could about her long-lost aunt.
"Since my time at Inwell Prep," Errol replied before shooting at another target. "I might have hated going there with all the other rich kids, but at least I picked up a few useful skills while I was there." She lowered her bow and sighed before turning to her niece, figuring that she might as well rip the band-aid off. "How did you find me, Felicia?"
"Well… I have been doing some digging into my mother's side of the family lately," Felicia admitted. "I found some old photographs of you, my mom, and my uncle and I decided to try to find out what happened to you, since nobody had heard from you in years. I was able to find some records showing that you were enrolled in Inwell Prep years ago. Finding out what happened to you after that was a bit harder. I actually wrote to Inwell Prep and they told me that you dropped out, but they didn't know what happened to you after that. Nobody did. You just… went completely off the radar."
"Yeah, that was my intention," Errol said as she made another perfect shot, her arrow striking a levitating target. "I didn't exactly want anyone to find me."
"I got that impression," Felicia acknowledged. "But while I was here with some of my friends during Fall Break, I thought that I could at least try to pick up your trail by asking around. I didn't actually expect to find you, since I'm pretty surprised to learn that you had been on the Inwell Isles the entire time."
"Well, I… I didn't want to go back to the B.I. after I dropped out," Errol admitted, her tone vague. "So I decided to make myself at home here."
"Really?" Felicia asked her.
"Yup," Errol said before she held up her bow and arrow at another target.
"And you… didn't want anyone to know you were here?" Felicia asked.
"I didn't exactly want anyone from my family coming to look for me," Errol admitted while glancing at Felicia. "Which didn't stop you, obviously."
"Oh," Felicia said while looking down. "I'm… sorry."
Errol glanced at Felicia before sighing and lowering her bow. "It's fine, kit," she said before turning to Felicia. "I mean, I'm sure you're great. But if you have been digging into your mom's side of the family, then you should know exactly why I wanted to get away from it."
"I know," Felicia said before she looked up at her aunt. She took a deep breath before she decided to break the news to her. "I, um… didn't just come here to see you. I also came here to tell you something…"
"What's the word?" Errol asked as she turned away from Felicia and tried to line up her shot with her bow again.
"It's about your sister, my mom," Felicia said. "Felicity… is dead."
"Oh…" Errol said as she lowered her bow and arrow. She closed her eyes and sighed. "To be honest, kit… I already knew about that."
"You… did?" Felicia asked in surprise
"Word travels fast here," Errol explained. "After the Day of Unity, I wanted to learn what happened. And I heard about what happened to Felicity… and what she did to you… and I'm sorry," she apologized. "I'm so sorry you had to suffer that abuse from her."
"You, uh, don't have to apologize, it's not your fault," Felicia assured her.
"I actually thought about going over to the Boiling Isles and paying you a visit," Errol admitted. "But I thought it would be too awkward. I mean, I would be a complete stranger just showing up in your life out of nowhere, claiming to be your aunt." She sighed. "I doubt that would have helped much. I doubt she even told you about me."
"She… didn't talk about her family," Felicia admitted.
"Yeah, that tracks," Errol said with a nod. "I'm glad that you seem to be doing okay though. What my sister did to you was unforgivable, but fortunately you survived… and you exposed her. Hell, you exposed Belos too. That took guts, kit. You should be proud of yourself."
"Um, thanks," Felicia said as she looked down and rubbed her arm. "You know, I have been wondering what she was once like. Maybe you could tell me? Was she always… well, the worst?"
Errol looked at Felicia and paused, thinking back to what her elder sister was like. She sighed. "Well, for one thing… Felicity wasn't always that bad," she admitted with a sad smile. "When I was growing up with her, there was a time when Felicity was… well, she was the cool big sister."
"In the photos I found, it looked like you two used to be close," Felicia told her. "Well, you two and your brother…"
Errol winced briefly. "Yeah, we used to be close," she admitted. "Me and Fel especially. Out of everyone in my family, Fel was the one that I was closest to." She looked down. "And for a time, Felicity was the one member of my family that I could count on, because our brother… he had too much of our father in him. Which is why Nif went on to follow in our father's footsteps while Felicity wanted nothing to do with our father. She distanced herself from him, even changed her last name." She sighed sadly and shook her head. "I don't blame Felicity for that, neither of us wanted anything to do with that bastard. But the sad truth is… there was a bit of our father in Felicity after all, which in the end she seemed to embrace."
"I… read about your father," Felicia admitted. "I couldn't find out what happened to him though. Apparently he just… left the Boiling Isles one day and never returned. Do you have any idea what might have happened to him?"
"No clue," Errol quickly answered, dodging any discussion about her father.
Felicia nodded. "Okay. So… have you heard anything about… your brother? He was a coven scout captain for the Torsa Villa, but he disappeared after the Day of Unity, and nobody knows where he is right now."
Errol scowled at the mention of her brother before shaking her head. "No, I haven't," she told Felicia.
"If you don't mind me asking… how do you feel about her death?" Felicia asked her aunt. "My mom's death, I mean."
Errol was about to answer, but she paused and looked down with a saddened expression. "Honestly, I'm sad. Sad that my sister is dead, even if we hadn't spoken in years," she admitted. "But… I also realized that she most likely deserved it." She then looked up at Felicia, having a few questions of her own. "So how about you, Felicia? How have you been doing?"
"Oh, I've been doing well since the Day of Unity," Felicia admitted. "I actually needed a bit of a break from the Boiling Isles, since I've been swamped with job offers since the Day of Unity. But I am still working while here, mainly managing some of my friends, who are here to participate in a Battle of the Bards."
"Wait, you have been getting job offers?" Errol asked her niece, intrigued by what she heard.
"Yeah, it is a bit overwhelming," Felicia admitted.
"Well, it at least sounds like you've made a career for yourself," Errol commented. "Do you have a place to stay, by the way? Who do you live with?"
"Oh, I live with my dad now," Felicia mentioned. "Todd Tweed, if you've heard of him."
"Todd… oh, that Todd?" Errol asked in surprise. She smirked in amusement. "Wow, I didn't know that she married him."
"They never married," Felicia clarified. "I'm the result of a one-night stand that my mom had with him."
"Really?" Errol asked her. "How long have you known he was your dad?"
"Only recently," Felicia explained. "Mom kept it a secret from both of us for years, only revealing it to me when she tried to… when she tried to kill me," she said as she rubbed her arm, remembering how her mother hurt her.
Errol noticed this and she knelt down, patting Felicia's shoulder. "Hey, she can't hurt you anymore," she told her niece. "And you're safe now, right?"
"Y-Yeah," Felicia confirmed, her voice a little shaky. "Todd has been treating me well and I have a lot of good friends." She looked over at Donna. "Including Donna."
"That's good," Errol replied with a smile. "I'm glad to hear that."
Felicia looked back at Errol, smiled, and went in for a hug, much to the surprise of the older fox woman. Errol had no idea how to respond at first, but eventually she returned the hug, awkwardly patting her niece on the back.
"There, there," she said, trying to be comforting. It was still a bit awkward due to her having no experience being an aunt, but Felicia didn't mind.
"You know," Felicia said as she pulled away from Errol, still smiling. "Perhaps… you could come with me back to the Boiling Isles. It'd be nice to have you around."
This surprised Errol, who quickly frowned. "Oh, um…" she said as she awkwardly rubbed the back of her head. "I'm grateful for the offer… but I can't."
"Oh," Felicia said, her smile vanishing and being replaced by a look of disappointment. "Why's that?"
"It's nothing personal, kit," Errol said with a sigh. "It's just that while the Emperor's Coven may be gone… I still have a lot of work to do here."
"Emily!"
"Emily, where are you?"
"Come out, wherever you are!"
The Mane Five had spread out to look for Emily, searching for her in a park that she had run into. To cover more ground, they split up, Lindsay ending up looking around a hill by a lake while she called out for Emily.
"Emily? Emily!" Lindsay shouted when spotted someone by the lake. She ran over, only to screech to a stop, her eye widening when she saw Emily sitting by the lake while leaning back against a lone tree. "Emily…"
Emily couldn't hear her. As she leaned against the tree, the only sounds she could hear was her own heart racing and a ringing white noise in her ears as she sweated and clutched her chest. She was having a panic attack, her first in a very long time.
"Emily," Lindsay said as she tried to use her voice to reach out to her, but Emily was still very much out of it. Concerned, Lindsay knelt down next to her and gently patted her on her back. "Emily, it's me. I'm here right now."
Feeling her touch, Emily turned her head and saw Lindsay kneeling down next to her. Emily focused on Lindsay's face and that seemed to help her.
"L-Lindsay?" Emily asked while looking at the cyclops girl and feeling her heartbeat and breathing slowing down.
"Don't worry, I'm here," Lindsay said in a calm tone while sitting down next to her. She held Emily's hand, giving it some pats as she helped Emily calm down. "Now, why don't we try doing a few breathing exercises together, okay?"
Emily nodded as she and Lindsay started to breathe in and out. They did it very slowly, Emily counting down the seconds after she breathed in before she let herself breathe out. With Lindsay's help, Emily felt herself coming out of her panic attack.
"Are you feeling better now?" Lindsay asked her, still concerned.
Emily sighed, but nodded. "Y-Yeah, I'm good."
"That's good," Lindsay said. She then frowned and let out a sigh. "I'm… I'm sorry about Discord. I know that he can be a bit much."
"He… really is a chaos god, isn't he?" Emily asked her. She sighed and leaned back against the tree. "You really should have told me. I wasn't prepared for that at all."
"Is that the reason why you ran off?" Lindsay asked her. "Because he's a chaos god?"
Emily nodded. "I know he's your friend, but he just reminded me of Mel."
"Oh… oh Emily, I'm so sorry," Lindsay quickly apologized. "I should have thought of that. I didn't mean for you to be reminded you of her…"
"It's not your fault, Lindsay." Emily acknowledged. "It was just… something unexpected, that's all. But… how in this realm do you know a guy like him anyway?" she asked, confused.
Lindsay let out a soft sigh. "Well… he actually came to me," she admitted. "I was just doing my chores at the farm one day, when suddenly… he showed up out of nowhere and started making the animals and flowers sing as part of an elaborate musical number. And when he first introduced himself to me, well… I suppose I had a similar reaction to you. I was freaked out, overwhelmed, so I… screamed and ran away out of fear."
"That… is a reasonable reaction," Emily told her.
Lindsay gave a small smile and nodded. "Later, after I calmed down, he explained to me that he was 'a spirit of chaos and disharmony', and that he came from another realm just to meet me of all witches. I didn't know why, so he explained to me that I was a variant."
"A variant?" Emily questioned in confusion. "What does he mean by that?"
"Well, he explained to me that where he comes from, his best friend is my alternate dimension counterpart. And he made it his mission to meet and befriend all of the variants of his best friend across all dimensions, which is why he wanted to meet me."
Emily stared at Lindsay in quiet shock. "Wow, that is-"
"I know," Lindsay said with a nod. "I didn't get it at first. Honestly, there is still a lot about Discord that I don't get. But I do know now that he isn't here to harm me, or anyone else for that matter. He isn't really like Mel. He doesn't possess her… cruelty. He has visited me a few times and I've grown to quite enjoy his company and his sense of humor. He also apparently knows variants of my friends as well. Of course, he's less fond of them as he is of me."
"I noticed that from how your friends reacted to him, they're… not too fond of him as well," Emily noted. "Not even Andrea."
"Well, Andrea usually likes him, at least more than the others, but today he was even pushing her buttons. My friends really only tolerate him for my sake, not that he minds," Lindsay admitted. "He does a lot of… weird things whenever he visits, but he never causes any permanent damage or serious harm while he is here."
"What… kind of weird things?" Emily asked her.
"Well, there was that one time back at St. Epiderm, Discord was sneakily roaming through the halls and he turned Danny's head into a goose's head. Danny was unaware of it at the time, and I had to tell him to change him back," Lindsay explained. "And then there was that one time he put me and my friends in a 'friendship test' by placing us in an Escape Temple situation, and there was that time he tried to help with the chores, but it resulted in the brooms coming alive and almost flooding my home." She then remembered one more event. "Oh, and there was this time he met one of my other friends, Treezie Huggins, who he claimed reminds him of someone named 'Tree Hugger', and he had a sunflower sprout from her head."
"Correction, it was a daisy."
Lindsay and Emily's eyes both widened when they heard that familiar disembodied voice. It was Discord, who popped up from behind the tree they were sitting at, startling Emily.
"Gah!" Emily shouted as she backed away.
"Now, now, don't panic," Discord said as he raised his arms, trying to reassure Emily.. "I do wish to apologize, Ms. Tricks. Really, I just wanted to meet the witch that my dear friend Lindsay decided to go through literal Hell and back to save. Because that must make her a very special witch indeed."
"Um… thanks?" Emily asked him.
"But I can also tell you had a bad experience with someone who… well, she isn't really like me, she's a spoiled brat who is not even close to being on the same level as me. Ugh, Melinoe," he groaned, rolling his eyes at the mention of her name.
"Discord," Lindsay said, getting his attention. "Weren't you going to say something to Emily?"
"Hmm?" Discord asked while looking down at them. "Oh, right. Yes, I'm sorry that I reminded you of Melinoe. I suppose I could have… eased you in more."
"Well… thank you for the apology," Emily told him, though she still looked uneasy around him. He was, after all, a spirit of chaos. She had no idea what he was going to do.
"How about we start over?" Lindsay suggested as she cleared her throat. "Emily, meet my dear friend, Discord. Discord, this is Emily Tricks, another dear friend of mine."
"A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Ms. Tricks," Discord told. "Lindsay has told me a lot about you."
"Um, good things, I hope," Emily replied as Discord leaned forward to get a better look at her.
"Huh, you know, those red streaks in your hair… are they natural or dyed?" Discord asked.
"Uh, dyed, actually," Emily told him. "Why?"
"Hmm, well, I can't quite put my finger on it, but you do… vaguely remind me of someone," Discord noted before he twisted around his head. "But I can't wrap my head around who? To be honest, where I'm from, almost everyone has a streak of something in their hair, or mane."
"Mane?" Emily asked in confusion.
"Come on, let's go meet up with the others," Lindsay spoke up as she typed up a text message on her scroll. "I'm already telling them that we found you."
Emily nodded as she, Lindsay, and Discord started to walk away from the lake, heading down the path that would lead them to their original meeting spot by the fountain. Although Discord just floated off the ground while the two witches walked.
"You know, I could just teleport you two," Discord suggested.
"Please don't," Emily said.
"Yes, a little walk wouldn't hurt," Lindsay added.
"Fine," Discord said with a shrug as he floated ahead of them.
Emily gave a small sigh of relief. She felt someone holding her hand and she looked down to see that it was Lindsay. She looked up and saw Lindsay giving her a reassuring smile, silently telling her that it was going to be okay, and Emily managed to smile back.
"Emily!"
"Thank the Titan we found ya!"
Emily turned her head away from Lindsay and saw the Holder Brothers running up to them before they had to stop in front of them and try to catch their breath. Discord was no longer in sight, having vanished as soon as he heard Cups and Mugs.
"Cups? Mugs? What's wrong?" Emily asked them.
"We really need yer help, Ems!" Cups shouted in a frantic tone. "And there's something you should know…"
"We didn't tell you earlier because we were too afraid at the time, but we couldn't take it anymore!" Mugs shouted, he and his brother both looking terrified.
"Hold on, what are you two talking about?" Lindsay asked them.
The two looked at each other, then back at Emily and Lindsay. "Mel's back!" they both shouted at the same time.
Lindsay and Emily's eyes both immediately widened at that. "WHAT?!" they exclaimed.
"She's been forcing us to serve her!" Mugs shouted while on the verge of tears.
"Yeah, you gotta help us, Emily!" Cups shouted, he and his brother both sounding desperate.
"If Mel's here, who knows what she's going to do," Lindsay said before she turned to Emily, who had fallen silent. This concerned Lindsay, who worried that Emily would go into another panic attack at the mention of Mel. "Emily?"
Emily's head was lowered as she stared at the ground. Her heart was beating fast, but she didn't feel afraid. No, she felt… angry. Her fists tightened and she rose her head up while summoning her scroll. "Contact the others," she told Lindsay.
"Who?" Lindsay asked her.
"Everyone," Emily said before turning to the brothers. "Do you two know exactly where she is right now?"
Cups and Mugs quickly both nodded.
"Good," Emily said, her tone determined. "Then we might have the advantage…"
Cross and Zee both felt their scrolls buzzing, so they pulled them out and read their new messages… and reacted to them in shock.
"Mel's back?!" Cross exclaimed.
"Mel… oh shit, she's here?!" Zee shouted. She turned to look at her brother. "Do you think… that she's here for Mily?"
Cross didn't answer, but that thought did cross his mind. He frowned.
"Call your friends," he said after a moment. "This is an all-hands-on-deck kind of situation. We need to be very careful when it comes to Mel…"
Less than a minute later, the rest of Team WZRD received the text from Zee about Mel.
"Oh shit," Darcilia said in surprise after reading the text. "That crazy goddess is here?!"
"Goddess?" Raihan asked in confusion.
"Yeah, an insane goddess named Melinoe terrorized the Boiling Isles a few months ago," Whitney explained while reading the text. "None of us were involved in it, but we did hear about it and some witches we know, like Emily and Cross, were involved in it. And now she's back in the Demon Realm…"
"And Zee wants us to meet up with Emily and the others," Rebecca said as she read the text. She then turned to Raihan. "Sorry that we have to cut our hang out short, Rai. Duty calls."
"I understand," Raihan replied with a nod. "Honestly, I probably have to head back to IP anyway, since I'm sure Amary's probably wondering where I am. Um, good luck with the whole 'crazy goddess' thing…"
"Thanks," Rebecca said with a smile. "I hope that we can see each other again sometime, Rai. It was really nice meeting you."
And with that, Rebecca and the rest of her team headed off to meet with the others while Raihan watched, awkwardly waving at them while staring after Rebecca with a lovestruck expression. "Yeah, I'll see you later, Rebecca…"
Meanwhile, the rest of the Mane Five were all grouped together when they received the text from Lindsay.
"Mel's back?!" Tracy exclaimed in shock.
"And she's here on the Inwell Isles of all places," Jackie realized.
"You don't think she's here for revenge towards Emily, Cross, and Lindsay, do you?" Andrea asked, looking worried.
All four of them exchanged silent, fearful looks. Despite none of them having interacted with Mel in the past, and only Tracy seeing her in person, they all knew that this was not something they could take lightly.
"Well, that is something we won't allow to happen," Tabrella said while holding Katie in her arms. "Mel is not going to hurt any of our friends."
"Or Emily," Tracy added, causing Jackie to elbow her.
Donna, having just read the text, got up from the table she was sitting at and walked over to Felicia, who was still talking with her aunt.
"Felicia, we have a situation," Donna said as she brought Felicia and Errol's attention to her. "I just got word that Mel's back."
"What?!" Felicia asked in shock. "You mean that crazy goddess that caused a riot during the Bonesborough Brawl?!"
"Yeah, the same," Donna confirmed, her tone grim. "Who knows what chaos she might cause while here. I'm going to meet up with Emily, Zee, Cross, Lindsay, and the others. But you can stay with your aunt."
"Oh no, I'm going to come along with you," Felicia revealed. "Not just because it makes an interesting story, but this is something that Kitsuni needs to know about."
Donna gave her a nod. "Alright, you can come along. Just be careful."
"I will," Felicia replied before turning to Errol. "Sorry about this, Aunty. I have to take a raincheck from continuing our meet-up…"
"Don't worry about it, kit," Errol reassured her. "We can always continue this later, right. Do you, uh, need me to come with you? I've heard about this Mel character…"
"What?" Felicia asked before realizing what Errol was asking, causing her to shake her head. "Oh no, that won't be necessary. I mean, I appreciate the offer, but I don't know how much help you could be."
"Yeah, this is more up our alley than yours," Donna added.
"I feel like I should feel offended… but you're right," Errol admitted. "You Boiling Isles kids are much used to this kind of craziness than I am. Just… be careful, alright?"
"Don't worry, I got some good friends who will keep me safe," Felicia said as she pointed to Donna before looking back at her aunt. "But… it was nice meeting you, Aunt Errol."
Errol gave a small smile. "Yeah, you too, kit."
Felicia gave her aunt another hug and this time Errol was more prepared for it, so she did a better job at returning the hug before Felicia let go of her and followed Donna, the two girls making their leave from Shriekwood Forest as Errol watched them, hoping deep down that this wouldn't be the last time she would see her niece…
At the hotel room they were staying in, Lilith and Hunter were both getting prepared after receiving Emily's message.
"You have those glyphs ready, Hunter?" Lilith asked her son while wearing a sash containing potions.
"Yes, mom," Hunter confirmed while holding up a small notebook.
"And I'm ready too! Hoot!" Hooty declared while wearing war paint on his face.
"Me too."
Everyone turned to see Blazer, who entered the room and walked over to them with a determined expression. Lilith and Hunter both looked at each other before turning back to him.
"Are you sure you want to come, Blazer?" Hunter asked him in concern.
"I… I do have a score to settle with Mel," Blazer said as he looked down, his fist tightening. "And I don't want to leave you guys alone with her. Not after all the shit she put all of you guys through last time. Especially you, Lilith."
Lilith looked surprised by the determination in Blazer's eyes, but she quickly nodded. "Very well," she agreed. "You can come with us, but we all must be very careful."
They all knew what Mel was capable of, after all…
And so, everyone had gathered by the fountain in the park. Donna, Felicia, Cross, Zee and the rest of Team WZRD, the Mane Five, Lilith, Blazer, Hunter, Hooty, Emily, and the Holder brothers.
"Wait, do I know you?" Emily asked Felicia, finding her vaguely familiar. "I don't think I've ever seen you before…"
"Um, yeah," Felicia said while rubbing the back of her head. She felt a bit awkward, since this was her first time face-to-face with the infamous Emily Tricks. "I'm Felicia."
It only took a second for Emily to recognize the name. Her eyes widened in surprise. "Oh," she said. "But… what are you doing here?"
"She's a friend," Donna explained, quickly stepping in. "We were hanging out when I got the news and she wanted to help."
"And I didn't want to miss out on this story," Felicia added. "Although… I think I would love to sit down and have an interview with you sometime. Get your side of the story…"
"Um…" Emily said, not sure how to feel about this. "I'll… consider it, but first we have to deal with the current crisis."
"Yeah, what's this about Mel being back?" Zee asked, speaking up.
"Cups and Mugs can better explain the situation," Emily said as she turned to the brothers. "Go on, tell them what you told me."
"Well, it happened last night, when we left McTaverns," Cups explained. "We were heading back home when Mel showed up outta da blue in trying to be friends with us again."
"But we don't want anything to do with her wickedness," Mugs said as he quickly shook his head. "She did try to blackmail us into serving her and she had us fetch a lot of stuff for her. Junk food and all that."
"But like he said, we ain't want to get mixed up with her again after last time," Cups said. "I still get the heebie jeebies when I remember that Underworld trip," he mentioned. "I mean sure, we're afraid of what she might do to us if she realizes that we betrayed her."
"But we're even more afraid of what might happen to us if we go along with her," Mugs admitted. "Either way, she's probably going to screw us over."
"Well, you made the right call," Lilith said with a nod. "Even if it must not have been easy for you two."
"You're gonna protect us, right?" Mugs asked, his tone hopeful.
"Of course," Emily promised them, not wanting to see anyone suffer at the hands of Mel, especially not like how she suffered under the goddess.
"Yeah, don't worry, you two, you're safe with all of us," Rebecca added as the others nodded in agreement.
"Um… how confident are we that we can actually protect these two from an insane goddess?" Whitney spoke up, trying to be the voice of reason.
"Wait… what kind of blackmail did she have on you two?" Donna questioned Cups and Mugs. "Was it just threats? It can't be anything serious… right?"
Cups and Mugs shared a look at each other, visibly hesitating. Initially, they had been willing to help Mel in order to avoid having their sins come out into the open. But they knew that if they helped Mel long enough, things would probably turn out even worse for them than if they had just come clean in the first place. Mel needed to be dealt with, and if they didn't want to get mixed up with her again… it was better for them to just clean themselves.
"Um, Donna," Cups said as he rubbed his arm. "Do yous remember when we came to you while Scooter's ghost was haunting us?"
"Yeah," Donna replied with a nod. "I wanted to ask Scooter this before he passed on… but why was he haunting you two in the first place?"
"Well… the thing is…" Cups said as he looked down, trying to put it delicately, but then Mug cut in before he could finish.
"WE KILLED HIM!" Mugs cried out, tears bawling from his eyes. "We accidentally killed Mistah Crane!"
"WHAT?!" Donna shouted as she along with Emily, Felicia, Cross, Lilith, and everyone else all reacted in shock. Donna's expression quickly changed into anger.
"What do you mean you two killed Crane?!" Donna demanded in anger, scaring the Holder brothers. Before they could back away, she lunged forward and grabbed them by the collars. "They said he passed away from natural causes!"
"We-we-we didn't mean to kill him!" Mugs claimed, still crying. "We were just jokin' around, playin' pranks and scarin' folks."
"And we accidentally scared him to death!" Cups said while frightened by Donna's angry expression.
"Um, we're sorry fer not telling you what really happened to Mistah Crane, Donna," Mugs said while shivering. "But if you could find it in your heart to forgive us-"
WHACK!
Donna knocked Cups and Mugs's heads together before slamming them both down to the ground. "YOU FUCKING SONS OF $*%& !" she cursed as she pounced on them and began beating the crap out of them. She pummeled Cups with her fists, giving him black eyes and a busted lip. When she saw Mugs attempting to crawl, she grabbed his leg and pulled him back, Mugs clawing at the ground before she elbowed him in the back. "YAAAAH!" he shouted before she picked both boys up and body slammed them down back to the ground…
Everyone wisely chose to not get in-between Donna and the Holder brothers, steering clear of the scene as they watched with a mix of shock and slight fear.
Emily did not intervene on the behalf of the Holder brothers and she actually looked the most terrified upon seeing Donna's wrath, since it was a side of her that she had not yet seen. She silently counted herself lucky that before now she had only experienced Donna when she was in her nicer mood.
Lindsay covered her eye, not wanting to watch, while Cross looked shocked to see Donna this angry. His sister, Zee, looked intrigued and seemed to be even amused, while Darcilia looked curious. Rebecca, meanwhile, looks scared while Whitney was wide-eyed with shock.
Tabrella was covering Katie's eyes to shield her from the violence while Tracy and Jackie both look disturbed by the violence. Andrea, however, looked like she was about to start giggling because of how funny it was while Felicia covered her mouth in shock.
Lilith was wincing as she watched the beat-down, while Hunter and Blazer both looked afraid and Hooty… had this unreadable expression.
"Should… should we stop this?" Hunter asked his mother.
"No, I don't think so…" Lilith said, shaking her head as Cups and Mugs cried out in pain.
Some time later, Cups and Mugs were both resting at a picnic table while covered in healing patches while the rest of the group got ready to head out to face Mel.
"Well, at least you left them alive so they could tell us where Mel is," Felicia told Donna.
"Yes, and since Mel doesn't know yet that we know she's here, we can catch her by surprise," Donna said while holding up her key. "This is probably our best chance to take her."
"I thought her parents dealt with her, how could they let her loose?" Hunter asked.
"We'll just have to get our answers from her ourselves," Cross told him.
"Is everyone ready?" Lilith asked while looking around.
"We are, Ms. Clawthorne," Jackie said as she, Tracy, Lindsay, Andrea… and Tabrella all stood ready. "Us five are ready to show Mel that she shouldn't have come back to our realm."
Emily looked over at Tabrella, surprised that she was coming with them. "Wait, you're coming with us, Tabrella?"
"Of course," Tabrella replied. "Don't worry, I've decided to leave Katie here with Felicia, who offered to stay here with Cups and Mugs," she said while pointing to Katie, who was being held by Felicia, the fox biped girl smiling as she played with the baby witch. "I don't want to take any chances with Mel. You are not the only witch she has hurt. She also hurt Amity and her family, including Lilith."
"Yeah, she may be a fae-goddess or whatever, but we're not going to give her the chance to cause trouble in our realm again," Tracy said. "This may not be our Isles, but this is still our Demon Realm and she is not wanted here."
"Agreed," Rebecca said as she held her scythe while Whitney held up her sword and Darcilia loaded up her crossbow. "Which is why we're going to hit Mel with everything we got."
"Let's kill a goddess!" Andrea shouted while wearing war paint on her face.
"Yeah!" Hooty added, also wearing war paint.
"Um, I don't think we can actually kill her," Whitney pointed out.
"But we can make her hurt," Darcilia suggested.
"Are you sure that this is going to be enough though?" Blazer asked while looking around at everyone.
Emily, having thought about this, turned to Lindsay. "Hey Lindsay, your friend could also probably help us too, right?" she asked her.
"Um… yes, he probably can," Lindsay admitted, nodding.
"Then this should be enough," Emily decided.
"Wait, what friend?" Donna asked in confusion.
"Trust me, you're better off not knowing," Emily said with a sigh before she felt someone touching her arm. She turned and saw Zee standing next to her.
"Hey, you know that I got your back, right?" Zee asked her, looking serious. "I am not going to let Mel, you know…"
"I know," Emily said as she gently touched Zee's arm, patting it. "And I appreciate it."
"Are you going to be okay though?" Zee asked. "Facing Mel again after she almost killed you?"
"I…" Emily said, trailing off before she nodded. "Yeah, I am gonna be okay. I'm not looking forward to this, but I also can't let her roam the Inwell Isles unchecked, do to the Inwell Isles what she did to the Boiling Isles. I failed to stop her last time, but this time I know what we are up against. She may be immortal, but she's not invincible. We know she can be beaten. And we have Lindsay's friend as back-up."
Zee nodded after hearing this, then smiled. "Alright," she said. "Honestly, I'm kinda looking forward to this. Now I can see some of the crazy stuff that I missed out on during the whole Underworld rescue mission. I was kinda jealous that Cross got to have all the fun adventures."
"Depends on your definition of fun," Cross said as he came over, his arms crossed.
"You got to see Hell, the Underworld, the Yokai Realm, and the other side of the world," Zee pointed out. "I didn't get to do any of that."
"None of that was fun," Cross told his sister. "I didn't even choose to go to the Yokai Realm, I was kidnapped!" He shook his head and then turned to Emily. "Are you ready, Emily?"
Emily looked between the two Drakescale siblings, then nodded and gave a determined look. "Yeah, let's go face her…"
And where was Mel?
She was residing in a warehouse by the harbor, of course. Currently she was laying in a hammock, gorging herself with junk food while using a scroll she had 'borrowed' from Cups.
"HAHA! Oh, these Penstagram videos get funnier every click!" Mel laughed as she scarfed down some chips. She then heard a sound just outside the warehouse. "Oh, it must be them. Guys, you know it's open!" she shouted while continuing to watch videos and eat junk food. She heard the door open, but didn't look up. "Hey, since you are back, could you do me a favor and-"
Mel stopped when she looked up, her eyes widening upon seeing Lindsay along with Emily, Donna, Cross, Lilith, Hunter, a bunch of other witches she didn't recognize… and Blazer. All of them glaring at her.
"…fuck!" Mel cursed as she leapt out of her hammock.
"There's no running, Mel," Emily told her.
"Yeah!" Zee shouted as she cracked her knuckles "Prepare for a good old fashion beat down."
"We're gonna stop you from doing whatever shenanigans you're planning to do here!" Andrea added.
Mel stepped back, but regained her composure and gave a smirk. "Really? You think you mortal can take me? Melinoe? Daughter of Hades? I'm a goddess! You're nothing!" she declared. "And I'm feeling merciful, so I will give you the chance to run away before I turn into a dragon and burn you all to ashes!"
However, despite her threat… nobody moved.
"We're not afraid of you, Mel," Hunter said while holding up his staff.
"And we're not gonna let you get away," Blazer added while standing next to Hunter and holding up some glyph cards.
"Not when we have a score to settle with you," Donna said as she brought out her keyblade.
All of them were prepared to fight Mel, who stood before them. She stared at them in shock, almost finding it funny.
"So all of you came here to fight me, huh?" she asked with a sigh, realizing that they were not going to back down. "Well… looks like it's come to this," she said as she prepared to fight them. raising her fists…
…only for her to immediately turn around and flee in the other direction, much to everyone's surprise. Out of all the things they had been expecting, they certainly hadn't been expecting that.
"Did she just… run away?" Jackie asked.
"That's… unexpected," Darcelia admitted. "Not really what I expected from someone with her reputation."
"Come on," Emily said, snapping everyone out of their surprise as she ran forward. "We can't let her escape!"
Everyone quickly followed suit, following Emily as they began chasing after Mel through the warehouse.
Mel ran as fast as she could throughout the warehouse, on the verge of panic. She looked back and saw that everyone was chasing after her, making her run even after as she headed for the nearest exit… only for the exit door to vanish once she had reached it.
"What the?!" Mel asked as she began to feel up the wall. She slammed her fists against the bare wall. "Where's the fucking door?!"
"Hi, you must be Mel."
Mel looked up to see a draconequus levitating above her. He gave her a small smocking wave and a smirk. "Hi, Discord, a friend of Lindsay's, and you're about to suffer quite dearly for what you did~!" he sing-sang before disappearing.
"What the fuck…?!" Mel asked before she turned around and saw that everyone was on her. Her eyes popped out, her confident demeanor vanished, and she screamed. "YAAAHHH!"
Over the next few minutes, the only sounds echoing throughout the warehouse was the sound of Mel's pain-filled screams as she was beaten to a pulp by the gang. She got punched by Zee, blasted by Donna, body-slammed by Lindsay, pummeled by Emily, bitten in the leg by Blazer, and so on. Everyone got their chance to beat on the Fae-Goddess, who should have at least been able to put up a fight…
And yet, she wasn't.
A few minutes later, after the beating, everyone surrounded the now defeated and thoroughly pummeled Mel. She laid on the floor in a heap, her face swollen, her body beaten and battered. She even bled a little from her nose and lip. And Hooty added insult to injury by coughing up… something onto her, making everyone wince slightly in disgust.
Still, seeing Mel like this was incredibly cathartic… but also something about it seemed off.
"Well… that was easy," Andrea commented.
"Too easy," Tabrella added.
"You'd think she would put up more of a fight," Jackie commented.
"Yeah, I was expecting this to be way more challenging," Tracy noted.
"Maybe we're just that good?" Rebecca suggested.
"No, something isn't right," Darcilia said while shaking her head. "This is supposed to be the infamous Fae-Goddess that terrorized the Boiling Isles?"
"Yes, she doesn't exactly live up to her reputation," Whitney said, noting the rather pathetic-looking Mel twitching on the ground.
"Seriously, how did she give you so much trouble before?" Zee asked her brother and Lindsay.
"She was incredibly powerful before," Cross said. "She was even able to turn into a dragon."
"The last time we defeated her, it took all of us just to wear her down," Lindsay brough up.
"Was she… bleeding then?" Blazer asked while pointing at the blood that was coming from her lips and nose.
"No… she wasn't," Emily realized before her eyes widened. "Oh Titan… her running away instead of fighting us… her being unable to to fight back…"
Hunter realized where she was going with this. "You're suggesting…"
"That she doesn't have her powers anymore," Emily said with a nod.
Hearing her groan, Lilith looked down at Mel. "If her powers are gone… that means…"
"She's mortal," Donna realized as everyone came to the same conclusion as well.
Melinoe, the daughter of Hades… was now a mortal being.
At the Inwell Isles precinct, Mel was tossed inside of a jail cell. Now cuffed, she turned to glare at Lilith, Emily, Donna, Hunter, Zee, Cross, and Blazer, who stood in front of her cell.
"Come on! I'm already powerless, why do I have these on too?!" Mel asked while holding up the iron cuffs she had on.
"Nobody wants to take any chances with you, Mel," Lilith told her.
"And you have a lot to answer, especially from what you did back on the Boiling Isles," Donna said, crossing her arms.
"Please, do you actually think you can hold me?" Mel scoffed.
"For now, yes," Lilith told Mel. "At least until we can get in touch with Kitsuni. I am sure she would leave to here why you are back in the Demon Realm…"
"Although my biggest question is… why are you mortal now?" Emily asked her.
"Yeah, I've been wondering the same thing," Blazer admitted. "And shouldn't you be in the Underworld?"
"And why would you come to the Inwell Isles, which is full of witches wanting to kick your ass, despite having no powers?" Zee asked.
Mel just rolled her eyes. "Please, as if I'd tell you any of my secrets," she told them. "Even if I don't have my powers, I can still make you pay for treating me like this. Do you have any idea who my parents are? I am the daughter of Hades and Maleficent, not to mention the stepdaughter of Persephone. You'll all pay for touching me, ya hear?! My daddy's wrath will come upon you! And my mother will hit you all with death curses!" she declared.
However, nobody seemed to be intimated about her threats. Nobody was threatened by Mel anymore, especially now that she was but a mortal. She had no power over them…
"Please, as if your mother would care!" a voice scoffed.
Mel's eyes widened when she heard that familiar voice. Looking at the cells across from her, she saw, also beaten and battered, Serpentina and Eustace, locked in another cell. Eustace had his arms restrained by cuffs in the wall while Serpentina was in chains.
"Eustace? Serpy?" Mel asked in surprise. She then awkwardly waved at them. "Hey, you two… I see the pirate's life is doing wonders."
"Oh bite me," Serpentina responded before giving a smirk. "But you know, it's pretty satisfying to see you locked up in a cell as well. Almost makes being here worth it." However, her overconfident smirk immediately vanished when she saw Donna and Blazer coming over to her cell. She frowned as she looked at them, being especially surprised to see the latter here, considering the last time she saw him. "Donna… Blazer…"
"You two," Donna said as she narrowed her gaze at the two pirates.
"Hey, Donna!" Eustace cheerfully greeted, not immediately picking up on the tension between her and Serpentina. "How have you been?"
Donna turned to glare at him, making him shrink back a little as he remembered that Donna was still probably mad at him for the whole… trying to traffic her thing.
"Well, isn't this ironic," Blazer said with a smirk. He couldn't deny the satisfaction he felt as he saw Eustace and Serpentina locked away in a cell. "Last time we saw each other, I was the one behind bars." He glared at them. "You know, after you sold me out to Sonya."
"Hey, nothing personal, Blazer," Eustace claimed with a shrug. "We were just trying to get by."
Blazer turned to stare at Eustace in shock. "That's how you justify it?" he asked. "I was tortured! I almost died! And for what? A few snails?"
"I'm not surprised," Donna admitted. "They would probably sell out their own family if they thought there was enough snails in it for them. Like how they kidnapped me and sold me off to some scummy prince from Wonderland," she said as she crossed her arms while looking at the two. "I'm not surprised that you two wound up here."
"Oh yeah, the pretty little rich girl is glad to see us lower-class get what's coming to us," Serpentina said as she rolled her eyes. "As if you'd-"
"Please, you two being poor has nothing to do with this!" Donna interjected while glaring at them. "You are not victims here! And you two have nobody but yourselves to blame for being here," she said as she scowled at them. "I used to think that you were my friends, but that was never the case, was it? You didn't just sell me to Jackson, you also abandoned me when I overdosed! And you betrayed Blazer too!" She stopped, taking a moment to calm herself down. "And that's why you're here. Not because you're poor. But because you two… are the worst. You were terrible friends and terrible witches. You both deserve this… and I'm done with you."
Donna had nothing more to say to them, so she turned her back to them and began walking away. Serpentina gave Donna a scowl and began to bark at her.
"You think you're so above us, don't you?!" Serpentina shouted as she began to shake with her chains. "Donna, don't you dare turn your back on me! Donna, answer me!" she shouted, but Donna kept walking away, Cross and Zee following her.
"Damn, that was cold," Eustace commented, causing Serpentina to shoot him a glare before she shouted after Donna again.
"Donna!"
"Oh give it a fucking rest," Blazer spoke up while giving them a snarl. "To be honest, I don't blame her for not wanting anything to do with you after hearing what you two did to her. You two can't help but backstab everyone who thinks you're their friends, can you?" He turned to glare at Mel. "That goes for you too."
Mel crossed her arms and scoffed. "Oh please, as if you're any better than us!" he told him off.
"Yeah, mate," Eustace agreed. "I mean, you deserve to be in these cells too."
"Yeah… that might actually be the case," Blazer admitted while looking down. He didn't deny it. He knew that if circumstances had been different… he would have been locked up in a cell as well. And he would have deserved it too. He knew that his hands weren't clean, not by any stretch of the imagination. He had done awful things to get away from his abusive mother, but he knew that didn't justify his actions like stabbing Loona or going along with Mel's plans. He was complacent in the horrible things she did, including Donna being kidnapped and given to Jackson. Truthfully, he was surprised that Donna wasn't mad at him for that. Or if she was mad at him, she hadn't brought it up. But that didn't make him guiltless. Not by any stretch.
"But unlike you three, I'm actually trying to be better," Blazer said while lifting his head. "While you guys all just returned to your old tricks. I didn't deserve you guys, and now I have people who actually do care about me," he said as he turned to Lilith and Hunter, smiling at them as they walked him. "And what about you three?" he asked his former friends. "Is your daddy coming to bail you out, Mel? Did he take your powers away?" Mel just scowled in response while he turned to the pirates. "And you two… you have nobody to come save your asses."
Blazer, having said his final word, just scoffed and turned to walk off, Hunter and Lilith following him, leaving Mel, Serpentina, and Eustace speechless in their cells. Now the only one left with them in the cell area… was Emily, who Mel spotted leaning back against the wall while crossing her arms.
"You're enjoying this, aren't you?" Mel asked.
"Yeah… I am," Emily admitted with a smile. "Considering the hell that you put me through… I like seeing you here where you belong."
Mel scoffed. "You should thank me," she told Emily.
"What?" Emily asked, almost laughing at the sheer ridiculousness of it. "I should thank you? For what?"
"For putting you on the right path," Mel told Emily. "Me putting you in your own personal hell was probably the best thing anyone has ever done for you, since I forced you to confront your own sins and that made you a better witch. So how about you show some gratitude?" She smiled a bit too smugly. "Because everything you are now is because of me."
Emily stared at Mel in shock for a moment… before she burst out laughing. "Oh, you can fuck right off with that," she told Mel. "You weren't helping me. You were torturing me. And no, it wasn't the best thing that could have happened to me."
Mel glared at Emily. "But-"
"You didn't put me on the right path," Emily cut Mel off. "But you want to know what did? Cross treating me with empathy while we were both in the Emperor's Coven despite me treating him like a rival. Lindsay showing me kindness and listening to me even though she knew who I was. Both of them coming to save me and convincing me to come with them when I was ready to give up. If you had it your way, I would still be down there in the Underworld. Cross and Lindsay are the reason I'm not. You didn't put me on the right path. They did. So you can just fuck off with the whole 'gratitude' thing. Because I don't owe you a damn thing."
And with that, Emily turned around and walked away, leaving Mel alone in her cell…
"Well, well, look who's finally here," Vitimir said as he glared at the witch standing in front of his cell. "I didn't know it was visiting hours, Lilith. I'm touched that you cared enough to come see me yourself," he said, his tone dripping with sarcasm.
"Vitimir," Lilith said to the former Potions Head, remaining cool and professional. "You look well, at least."
"I wish I could say the same about you," Vitimir told Lilith. "But you really let yourself go after you left the Emperor's Coven. I mean, what did you do to your hair?"
"I will admit, I was surprised to learn that you were hiding out here of all Titans," Lilith admitted, refusing to let Vitimir provoke her. "So close to the Boiling Isles. Why did you come here specifically?"
"I like the beaches," Vitimir claimed, though Lilith wasn't buying it.
"You must have known you were at greater risk of being caught this close to the Boiling Isles," Lilith pointed out. "And that's exactly what happened. You ended up being captured, which is not surprising to say the least."
"Oh, give it a rest, Lilith!" Vitimir barked at her while rolling his eyes. "Are you really just here to make yourself feel better about yourself?"
"Pardon?" Lilith asked.
"I don't need lip from a washed up disgraced witch like you!" Vitimir told Lilith. "I didn't need to sell out some relatives or old friends to get where I was! Unlike you, or Osran, or Ulrich! I at least earned my places through my own talents! You had to curse your sister to get where you're at! And you think you're better than me?! Huh?!"
"And what have you done that is worth talking about?" Lilith questioned.
"I was a Potions Head, duh!" he declared.
"And what does that actually mean?" Lilith questioned. "That you're a conspirator involved in Belos's plans? That you also sold out every witch in your coven so that you could have all of their magic for yourself?"
"Says the one who happily went along with Belos until it negatively impacted her and her family," Vitimir pointed out. "You didn't give a damn when the Emperor's Coven was petrifying other wild witches, but when it was your family, witches that personally mattered to you, suddenly the Emperor's Coven has gone too far? Don't act like you're morally superior, Lilith. If I deserve to be in a cell, so do you."
"Are you done?" Lilith asked, her patience with Vitimir running thin.
"Yeah, I guess," Vitimir said with a shrug. He leaned back in his cell. "So what do I owe the pleasure? Are you just here to gloat?"
"I wanted to see you for myself, Vitimir," Lilith told him. "Right now, I'm considering having you transferred back to the Boiling Isles where you will be put on trial for your crimes against the Boiling Isles."
"Sure, why not?" Vitimir asked. "It would be a big Coven Head reunion. "Me, you, Ulrich, Hettie, maybe Darius and Eberwolf will be there-"
"But," Lilith interrupted. "I wanted to ask you some questions first…"
"Oh, like what?" Vitimir asked her.
"Why here?" Lilith asked him. "Why the Inwell Isles? Why so close to the Boiling Isles?"
Vitimir almost laughed. "You really overestimate how much anyone here cares about what happens on the Boiling Isles," he told Lilith. "Do you know how much the life of the average witch has changed here since the Day of Unity? Not. At. All. Emperor's Coven or no Emperor's Coven, they go about their lives just like they always have. That's why I came here. Because I knew nobody here would even recognize me… well, nobody who wasn't from the Boiling Isles recognized me."
"Have you been in any contact with the other loyalists?" Lilith asked him.
Vitimir shook his head. "I have not. I've been hiding out here since the Day of Unity. I haven't seen any familiar faces here except for you and Tricks."
"Not even Kikimora?" Lilith asked him.
"Nope," Vitimir lied. "Haven't heard from her. Honestly, I just assumed that she died."
"What about Adrian?" Lilith asked him.
"What about him?" Vitimir questioned back.
"He's the only Coven Head still unaccounted for," Lilith explained. "We were never able to confirm his death and nobody has seen him since before the Day of Unity. Do you know what happened to him, at least?"
"I have no clue, actually," Vitimir told her. "I mean, I assumed that Belos had him hidden away somewhere. But after that… I don't know what happened to him."
"So you haven't been in contact with anyone from the Boiling Isles?" Lilith asked him with her eyebrow raised.
"How many times do I have to tell you?" Vitimir asked while getting annoyed. "I don't know where anyone is. I fled the Boiling Isles in a hurry and I have been laying low here ever since."
"Then exactly what were you planning to do here at Inwell if not meet up with other loyalists?" Lilith questioned.
"If you ask Tricks out there, she will tell you that I planned to bring vengeance down upon my enemies, enemies like you and her," Vitimir explained. "I mean, what else would I be doing?"
Lilith looked hard at Vitimir, suspecting him of keeping certain things to himself. She figured that he knew more than he was letting on, but it was also obvious that she wasn't going to get anything out of him, making her sigh.
"Well, that was all the questions I wanted to ask you for now," Lilith told him. She turned around and started to leave. "But I do hope that we'll talk more soon…"
Vitimir watched her start to walk away, scoffing. "Yeah, good talk," he muttered to himself.
Meanwhile, inside of an interrogation room, Cups and Mugs were sitting at a table with Torque. To say the least, the two boys looked extremely nervous.
"Oh boy, what are they going to do to us, Cups?" Mugs asked with a nervous gulp.
"They'll probably throw us in the slammer, or the chair, or the sanitarium!" Cups fretted.
"Woo boy, I wouldn't want to be in your two shoes right now," Torque said while he watched over them. "I mean, killing a respected member of the community, a Coven Head at that… whatever Lilith has in store for ya, it probably won't be good."
This made the two brothers even more nervous as the door to the interrogation room opened. They turned to see Lilith coming in, Emily and Donna accompanying her. But as nervous as they were to see Lilith… they were even more scared when they saw Donna, who still looked very unhappy at them.
"Alright," Lilith spoke up as she took a seat. "We can now discuss what to do with you two, and what will be your punishment not just for Scooter Crane's death, but for covering it up as well."
"We're going to be thrown to jail, are we?" Cups asked while Mugs cried.
"Hey, as long as I don't have to do any paperwork," Torque replied with a cheerful shrug.
"Yeah," Donna said while crossing her arms. "Those two deserve to be imprisoned for what they did…"
"I don't think that's necessary," Emily said, speaking up in their defense and causing Donna to turn to her in shock.
"What? Emily, you heard what those two did," Donna argued.
"But did they actually intend to kill Crane?" Emily asked everyone. "Because I did hear that part where they said they didn't mean to kill him, Donna. Now, I've known these two long enough to know that their actions after that, covering up their involvement, was out of fear, not out of malice. They're two dumb teenagers who did something stupid and panicked."
"Hey, I'm not-"
Cups tried to object, but Emily shot him a look that immediately silenced him. She then let out a sigh. "Look, I know them. And I know they didn't intend to hurt anyone, this just sounds like it was an accidental murder."
"But-" Donna tried to counter, but Emily continued.
"And let's face it, I've done a lot of things way more awful than what those two did," she pointed out. "And I did them out of malice, Donna. Should I be locked up and thrown into the slammer? Why am I walking free? Or what about Lilith?" She pointed to Lilith. "She did a lot of terrible things while in the Emperor's Coven yet she's free to walk free. Sure, in the end we decided to do the right thing and turn our lives around, but is it really fair that they should be detained for a mistake they made while someone like me or Lilith got off scott free?" She turned to look at the brothers. "I just think they should get some mercy. At the very least, they deserve a hearing."
Donna and Lilith both looked at each other as they thought about the points Emily had made. She had made a good argument, and it was something that Lilith understood especially well. The elder Clawthorne gave a sigh while turning to Cups and Mugs.
"I'm… not going to have you two thrown in jail," Lilith decided. "But… you are still going to be punished. When I return to the Boiling Isles, I will bring you two back with them and we'll figure out your punishments there. Most likely it will be some form of community service or probation. Would you two agree to that?"
The two brothers looked at each other, then back at Lilith as Cups nodded. "Yeah, that does sound better," he admitted.
"Yeah, although our grandfather is not going to be happy about this," Mugs replied before turning to Emily. "Hey, Ems, can you tell our boss that we won't be able to come into work anymore?"
"Yeah, I'll be sure to relay the message to him," Emily replied with a nod.
"Great," Mugs said before letting out a sigh of relief, visibly relaxing. "Man, I am relieved that we don't have to hide our guilt anymore," he said, looking like a weight had been lifted off of his shoulders.
"Yup, and now that we don't have to worry about Mel or anyone else trying to use this as leverage," Cups cheerfully added before he noticed Donna, who was still glaring at him, making him nervously add "Even if some ain't gonna forgive us…"
"Yeah, I'm never going to forgive you guys for this," Donna told them.
Cups and Mugs both looked down. "I guess that's fair…" Mugs replied.
Lilith, meanwhile, turned to Torque. "Now that has been taken care of, there's one thing I have been wanting to discuss with you about. The fates of some of your prisoners."
"Which ones?" Torque asked her.
"Lupe and Vitimir," Lilith explained. "I'd like to ask if you could transfer them to the Boiling Isles so they could be questioned and held there."
"Yeah, that's not going to happen," Torque declared, much to the surprise of Lilith. "Sorry, Ms. Clawthorne, but I can't hand my prisoners over to you."
"What?" Lilith asked him in shock. "Why is that?"
"Well, for one, you don't really have any jurisdiction here," Torque brought up. "The Inwell Isles is an independent nation. Sure, we cut a deal with the Emperor's Coven and sent wild witches back to the Boiling Isles, but even if that deal was still valid, which it isn't, everyone knows that you left the Emperor's Coven. You really don't have any real recognizable authority here, especially since the Emperor's Coven fell. Plus, I can't really move any prisoners without the clearance from the Inwell family."
Lilith grumbled at this. "I don't believe this. You're holding two prisoners that have committed heinous crimes back at the Boiling Isles!"
"Like I said, you have no authority here and from the sound of it, you're not even here on the behalf of the Boiling Isles, you're just a tourist," Torque said.
"A tourist?!" Lilith exclaimed. "Wait, why are you letting me take Cups and Mugs then?"
"Because they didn't commit crimes here, unlike Lupe and Vitimir," Torque explained. "And they're just kids, they're not dangerous like those two are. I'm fine with bending the rules a little for Cups and Mugs, especially if it saves me work, but for Lupe and Vitimir, you're not even sanctioned or approved by your government to handle the transfer of prisoners… do you even have a government after the fall of the Emperor's Coven?"
"We're still working on it!" Lilith shouted as the two argued.
While Lilith and Torque argued, Donna and Emily both decided to quietly walk out of the interrogation room. As they left, Emily looked over at Donna and saw her staring at the floor.
"You okay, Donna?" Emily asked.
Donna looked up at Emily and nodded. "I am, just… just remembered that Lupe is in here."
"Do you… want to see him while we're here?" Emily asked her. "We can probably find his cell."
Donna was quiet for a moment, then she looked back at Emily. "Do you?"
The two girls both fell silent, both of them thinking about whether or not they wanted to see Lupe. But after some consideration… they both came to the same conclusion.
"Honestly, I don't want to be anywhere near him," Donna said. "I'd rather let him rot than give him any satisfaction. I don't even need to know how he came back."
"Yeah, same," Emily replied with a nod. "I might not know why he is here… but I don't need to either. I don't need to see that monster again…"
However, unknown to the two witches, they were both currently being watched… by Zara through her crystal ball. She had been a bit nervous while watching their conversation about Lupe… but now she could sigh in relief.
"Thank Oz, I was worried for a moment there," Zara said as she wiped the sweat from her forehead. "I thought she was actually going to see that dreadfullable bastard and that would have caused some problems. Glad she decided to avoid him, at least for now. But I am going to have something about him, because Lupey knows way too much…"
She then tapped on her crystal ball and it changed to show the imprisoned Mel. "And as for you," she said to herself, a smile on her lips. "You didn't tell me that you were powerless. What an interesting development…"
Back in front of the precinct, Emily and Donna both exited out of the building, finding the Mane Five waiting for them.
"Emily, Donna, is everything alright?" Lindsay asked them.
"Yeah, everything is good," Emily responded. "Lilith and Torque are just, um, negotiating." She looked around. "Where's Zee?"
"She and her friends already left," Tabrella explained. "Apparently one of her friends was in a bit of a hurry to leave."
"Which one?" Emily asked.
"The one who had the crossbow," Tabrella noted.
"Darcilia," Emily realized. "Huh, I wonder why she was in a hurry to leave…"
"So is that, um… Discord talking to Cross over there?" Donna asked, pointing over to Discord, who was talking with Cross.
"Yeah, he wished to meet you both," Lindsay admitted as they turned to watch the two interact.
"No way," Cross was heard saying in surprise. "There are dragons from where you came from?!"
"Yes, indeed, though I doubt they could transform like you do," Discord replied. "The dragons where I'm from are quite common… though, most of them can be quite… rumbustious and crass," he said rather unfondly. "Of course, I am still friends with one small dragon that my best friend knows. We play Ogres and Oubliettes together."
"Ogres and Oubliettes?" Cross asked in confusion.
"A game similar to whatever your DnD equivalent in this realm is," Discord said with a shrug.
"Uh… still not sure what you mean," Cross admitted before turning to see Emily and Donna. "Oh. Hey, Donna, Emily."
"Oh yes," Discord said as he teleported in front of the two, causing them both to take a step back. "Hi, you must be Donna, I'm Discord. I don't think we've formally met."
"Uh, yeah," Donna said before she greeted him politely. "Nice to meet you, Discord. You must be Lindsay's friend I've heard about."
"That I am. I came by for a visit and I thought I should meet her partners before my leave," Discord said.
"Um, I'm not actually her partner," Donna said, trying to clear up the confusion. "We are in a polycule. We are both dating Cross, but we aren't dating-"
"I've heard a lot about you, you know," Discord interrupted. "About how you're a superhero who wields a giant key as a weapon."
"Yeah, that sounds like me," Donna replied. "Do you have either of those back in your realm?"
"Well, we do have superheroes, but only in comic books I'm afraid," Discord said with a sigh. "And unfortunately, we don't have any keyblade wielders…"
"So you do know what a keyblade is," Donna realized.
"I've seen a few," Discord admitted. "I have even had a few… entertaining scuffles with a particular keyblade wielder."
"Entertaining?" Donna asked before brushing that aside. "If I could guess, you must be some kind of… trickster or chaos god."
"Oh, guilty as charged," Discord said with a smile. "Admittedly, I only use my magic for good these days. But back then, I was a real bad boy, and with all of this power in the palms of my hands…" he said as a red glint of light flared beneath his face before he shifted back to normal. "But thanks to a good friend of mine, I've decided to limit myself to only being an occasional nuisance. You know, like the kind of nuisance that steals picnic baskets one day, and then saves the world from an opposing evil the next and so on."
"Wow, you… you sound like you're no stranger to heroics… in a way," Donna commented.
"Well, mainly I just look out for my friend's group," Discord said. "They do most of the world saving. I just sometimes help."
"They sound like my kind of people," Donna replied, amusing Discord.
"If you could say that," Discord said while looking at Donna more closely. "Although I don't think I have ever met a variant of you before, while Emily reminds me of someone, even if I'm not sure who…" He then noticed Emily standing there and he turned to her. "Speaking of, Emily, it looks like we don't have much time to get to know more of one another. I would like to stay longer… but I don't want to overstay my welcome."
"Oh, that's… too bad," Emily said, a bit awkwardly. "I will admit that I am… curious about you, even if I have had bad experiences with deities in the past…"
"Yes, sorry for how we got off the wrong foot," Discord said. "If only we were able to get started the right foot, but sadly I only have two left feet." He pointed to his foot, or hoof, on his left, and then the lizard's talon on his which looked slightly like a left claw.
"It's… fine, really," Emily assured him. "At the very least, I do want to thank you for helping us catch Mel. I do appreciate that."
Discord smiled. "It was my pleasure. I mean, this Mel thinks she's all that, but really it's just, well… sad," he replied, pausing for a moment before grinning again. "Well, I'll be sure that for my next visit, we will have plenty of time for tea, crumpets, and games!" he declared before he snapped his fingers. "TTIF: Ta-ta for now, Lindsay!"
And so, in a flash, he disappeared on the spot, leaving Emily, Donna, Cross and the Mane Five alone.
"Bye, Discord!" Lindsay replied happily with a wave.
"He just disappeared before you could…" Emily noted before shaking her head. "This day turned out weirder than I thought it would…"
"Trust us, this is actually one of his more low-key visits," Tracy admitted.
"Low-key?" Emily asked.
"Yeah, things would've been a lot weirder if he stayed longer," Andrea told her.
"Well, I'm just glad that he won't be sticking around for the Battle of the Bards," Tabrella admitted before she started walking. "Come on, let's go pick up Katie from Felicia."
"Wait, Battle of the Bards?" Emily asked as they began walking together. "That's… the first time I've heard about it."
"You didn't see the posters for it?" Lindsay asked.
"I guess I've been busy with my own stuff," Emily admitted while looking down. "But it sounds like a competition."
"Yeah, it's this competition where bands compete to show who has the best music," Jackie explained. "Even bands from the Boiling Isles are competin'."
"And we'll be competing as well!" Tracy declared. "We'll be facing off bands like Rosie and the Dirty Rats, the Bloodwater Gang, the Ninja Reptiles…"
"And it's going to be so fun!" Andrea cheered. "I already have so many ideas for our band!"
"You're all going to do this?" Emily asked in surprise before looking at Lindsay. "Even you, Lindsay?"
The cyclops visibly hesitated. "Well, I wasn't sure at first," she admitted. "But if the rest of my friends want me… I guess I'm in," Lindsay said with a smile.
"Huh, that… does sound neat," Emily said. "I think I'll check it out."
"Great!" Andrea declared. "Cause just wait until you see me play the drums!"
"You, uh, want to come to the Battle of the Bards?" Tracy asked awkwardly.
"Well, not to compete, obviously," Emily admitted. "I was never good with Bard magic, even before I got my sigil. I just thought I would… swing by to cheer you guys on. If that's okay, of course."
Andrea, Jackie, and Lindsay looked over at Tabrella and Tracy, knowing that those two might be the only ones with reservations against the idea.
"Well… I guess you could come," Tracy said after a moment, trying to play it off. "But be warned: you're going to get blown away by how awesome I am."
"Really?" Emily asked, a bit amused.
"We're all going to be terrific, darling," Tabrella told Emily. "And yes, you should come. Ooh, I am already thinking about what outfit to wear!"
Lindsay quietly smiled at this, glad to see her friends warming up to Emily a little, at least enough that they were fine with her walking with them and attending their show.
"You know, I think Felicia mentioned a Battle of the Bards that she was helping out with," Donna brought up as she and Cross walked along them. "It would be fun to check it out."
"Yeah, especially if the Bloodwater Gang are playing there as well," Cross admitted. "Should be one last fun thing to do before we all go back to the Boiling Isles…"
"Yeah," Lindsay agreed. "One last fun thing..."
But while everyone else had the Battle of the Bards on their minds, there was one witch whose head was somewhere else. Currently, she was in the Inwell Prep library, looking over some books she had opened in front of her on the table.
"Come on, there's gotta be some information about those necklaces in here," Amary said to herself as she looked through the pages of the books. She began to speed-read through them, her eyes glowing as she flipped through the pages, looking for anything she could find about the necklaces that the Sirenz were wearing. Unfortunately, she didn't find anything. "Not these ones," she said in a frustrated tone as she pushed the books aside and buried her face in her hands. She knew that there was something off about those amulets, about the Sirenz. And the answer she was looking for had to be here. It had to be.
"Hey, Amary," Raihan said as he came into the library, having heard her. He slowly walked toward her, silently hoping that Amary didn't ask him where he had been all day. "Did you, uh, just make it back?" he asked her.
"Yes, and sorry that I took so long, the Shallows had dragged me into this Bard competition," Amary told him as she placed more books on her table and began looking through them. "But I did see something there, something that I need to look into more."
"Oh, what are you looking for?" he asked her.
"Information about magic necklaces," she explained. "There was this group of girls who called themselves the Sirenz. But from the moment they showed up, everyone became more likely to be at each other's throats. It's like… their presence riled everyone up…"
"Huh, that… does sound weird," Raihan admitted. "What do necklaces have to do with it?"
"The Sirenz were wearing these amulets with strange markings on them," Amary explained. "They stood out to me."
"Do you want me to help look for any books about their necklaces?" Raihan asked.
"Yes, that would be helpful," Amary said with a nod. "Because I have this really bad feeling about those girls…"
"Even more bad than hanging out with the Shallows?" Raihan asked while walking over to a bookshelf, where he began looking for more books for her. "How was that, anyway?"
"Ugh, I really don't want to talk about them," Amary groaned before she decided to change the subject. "So what have you been up to, Raihan? Cause I have been texting you all day…"
"Oh, um, sorry that I didn't respond," Raihan replied, a bit nervous. He paused, wondering if he should tell Amary the truth or not. After a moment, he made up his mind. "I was, um… well, I made some new friends…"
"Oh, really?" she asked him, looking up from her books. "Do they go to this school?"
"Um, not exactly…" Raihan admitted while poking both of his fingers nervously. "They aren't from here… they're from out of the Isles…"
"Rai…" Amary said, her tone changing as she turned to look at her, her gaze narrowed in suspicion. "What friends from out of the Isles are you talking about…?"
Raihan saw that she was trying to figure him out and he gulped. "Alright, I went to hang out… with the Drakescale siblings," he admitted.
"What?!" she exclaimed in shock, though with a very quiet and hushed tone due to them being in the library. She did not want to have to end up shouting. "You went to hang out with the dragon siblings after I told you not to?"
"Yes… but everything was fine," Raihan assured her. "It was… actually nice." He sighed. "You know, hanging out with other members of my species."
Hearing this, Amary visibly relaxed a little. "Oh," she said as she looked at him. "That's… good. I'm glad that you… enjoyed your time with them."
"Thanks," Raihan said with a nod. "You now, you wouldn't believe some of the stuff that I managed to learn from them…"
"Well, you can tell me about it later," Amary told him as she used a spell to levitate a book off the shelf and into her hand. "Because I still need your help to find those books that I'm looking for."
Raihan sighed, but complied. He went to check the other shelves of the library, all the while thinking about the Drakescale siblings… as well as Rebecca. He hoped that he would be able to see them again… especially Rebecca.
As Amary looked through the pages of her latest book, her eyes widened when she found something. "I found it."
"What did you find?" Raihan asked as he hurried over to her.
"Information about those necklaces those girls were wearing," Amary said as she showed him the illustration of the amulet, along with the purple mist surrounding it. "Time to learn who or what we're dealing with…"
Back at the Inwell Isles precinct, the trio of Mel, Eustace, and Serpentina were still currently incarcerated, with Mel in one cell while Eustace and Serpenina shared another.
"Come on! You can't keep me here!" Mel shouted as she shook the bars of her cells. "You don't know who my parents are!"
"Hey, would you keep it down over there?" Eustace asked as he tried to pick the lock with his feet, since his hands were bound. "It's hard enough that I can't get this damn collar off of me!"
"Of course they'd keep a collar on you," Mel pointed out while rolling her eyes. "You're a werecroc, do you think they'd take their chances by not restraining you?"
Eustace didn't pay any attention to Mel, instead he was focusing on the lock, holding a lock pick between his toes. However, he failed, the lock pick falling onto the floor. "Dammit! These must be lock picking proof… and I'm supposed to be a great escape artist!"
"Oh, that must be so bad for you," Mel said sarcastically before looking over at Serpentina. "You haven't said anything at all for a while, cousin," she said. "Sobering over what Donna and Blazer said to ya?"
But Serpentina didn't say anything. In fact, she looked… unusually calm, something that Eustace picked up on.
"Serpy?" Eustace spoke up to her. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine, Eustace," Serpentina replied as she gave a smile while seated in her cell. "Because I know for a fact that we won't be in here for much longer…"
In another universe… in another time.
Specifically, in the distant future… of 2008.
'Captain Avery's Journal Log: 3456.85. We have just finished bringing a peace agreement between the Hugopotanians and the Clamphibian Empire.'
On the bridge of a starship sat a blue-eyed young Caucasian human man with brown hair. He was dressed in a blue uniform shirt with a yellow and black V-shaped stripe, yellow discs around his shoulders, black pants, and boots. He was stroking his chin as he looked around at his bridge crew.
'After that, I have ordered the USS Pluto Charlotte ECV-441 to continue its mission to make first contact with new planets not yet allied with the Cosmic Alliance. And although we know not what lies ahead of us, I think about how at the very least I will face the unknown, as I always have, with some of the bravest and most talented men and women that I have ever known. Such as Commander Hilbert G. Hiker, who has mapped our route through the stars.'
Sitting next to Avery was a bearded human male with green eyes and a scar above his eye. He wore a similar uniform as Avery, but with only a black V-stripe on his shirt.
'Or our communications officer is our trusty feline friend F'Lina Spottica. She has not been here as long as the rest of us, having only been transferred to the Pluto Charlotte right before our mission into the cosmos. She couldn't have possibly known what she was getting into. Despite this and her age, she has proven herself to be just as dependable and skilled as the right of us, though I have often caught her making glances at one of our engineer officers, Shendi.'
Avery glanced over at his communications officer, who was a humanoid feline young woman with brown fur, yellow eyes, and a combed brown mane. She was wearing a yellow long-sleeved dress, but no boots and her tail stuck out behind her. Avery saw that she was looking up from her console over at a blonde-haired, pale skinned humanoid young woman with pure blue eyes, a green uniform shirt, and black pants. She glanced back at F'Lina, who quickly looked back down to her computer console while blushing.
'And of course, then there's the Chief Engineer himself, O'Bailey, who I suspect has not been completely honest with me about his origins. But he's done so much for us and the Alliance, what reason would I have to distrust him? Perhaps… someday, he could tell me. About his origins. About what he has been hiding. I… do want to give him that chance to tell me himself.'
Having opened a panel in a wall on the bridge and working on some now exposed circuitry was a dark-skinned, human-like man in a green uniform. He wore dark shades, a cybernetic prosthetic, and part of his bald head was replaced by a metal plate. He looked around and spotted another crew member. "Circuit, can you double-check the wiring on this panel for me? I could use a second opinion."
"Request: Accepted, sir," said Circuit, a humanoid brown-skinned man with a robotic eye and a black and red uniform. He walked over to check on the exposed circuitry.
"Sir, we got a situation," said a lizard-like humanoid alien wearing a green uniform as he came up to Avery.
"Proceed, Quando," Avery said. "What's the situation?"
"There has been a spike of interdimensional energy within the ship, sir," Quando replied as he showed his scanner to Avery, who frowned.
"You said within the ship? Not outside?" Avery asked.
"Correct, sir," Quando confirmed. "Which means that whatever is giving off this energy… is already on board this ship. And might have for some time. We must be prepared for another incursion with another dimension."
Avery sighed. "Alright, who are we dealing with this time? The Indaverians? The Mindmelders? A Non-Corporeal?" he asked.
"Actually, that would be me."
Someone suddenly flashed onto the bridge, causing everyone to stare at them in shock… although it was someone they recognized and knew all too well…
"Discord!" Avery shouted as he stood up, ready to face whatever Discord had in store for him and his crew this time.
"Yes, it is I, Captain Avery!" Discord replied with a smile. "I thought I would swing by and check up on you. And then I thought that while I was here you could also play one of my games to test your crew's friendship and loyalty yet again!" he declared as he was about to snap his fingers. "Pick your weapons, Avery. I pick… the mind!"