EP.205|The Big Reveal!
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“Benjamin Pendragon,” Jasper said, folding his arms behind his head, “rolls off the tongue, plus, Pendragon is a better last name.”
 
“And sexier,” Mal kissed his lips. “Keep it in your pants, Mal.” Hunter teased. Mal growled at him, Hunter chuckled. The grail circled around Ben, flashing rapidly. “What’s wrong?” Ben’s brows furrowed.
 
The grail zoomed past the VKs, circling around a sign that said, “heroes iles, 0.2 miles ahead.” CJ read.
 
“We’re gonna have to go through the Hero Iles?” Evie shuttered. “Portal,” the grail wrote in shiny gold dust in the air. “There’s a portal to Swans in the hero isles? Is it someplace we can't reach by foot?” Jasper questioned.
 
“You could say that.” Nadia replied, “but the grail’s right, there are 3 a person can go through to reach Swan, she placed on where the Villain Isles is but the heroes must have taken because they knew you would never be stupid enough to go through the hero isles.”
 
“She’s right, we’re not gonna be able to get past the gate!” Zeref exclaimed. “Let’s think, is finding Swan really worth risking our lives for?” Carlos sarcastically asked.
 
“Yeah, you idiot!” Ben smacked him upside the head. “I think I have a plan to get us in,” Ben smirked.
 
“I don't like that look on your face, you’re up to something.” Freddie looked at him with concern.
 
Freddie was right though, Ben did have a plan, although, it wasn’t the most comfortable one.
 
“I will murder you on we’re out of this town, Ben.” Hunter promised Ben. The former king had all the VKs locked in the back of a wagon on a cage, riding through the town as the hero's watched, some even clapped.
 
“I don't like it either but just trust me, it was the only way the guards would let me in,” Ben whispered. “Benny!” a familiar voice cheered. Ben rolled his eyes, “Briar...what a surprise…”
 
Mal growled, “Ben, I get your playing hero boy now but I swear if she gets handy I’m breaking out of this wagon so fast it’ll make your head spin.”
 
Ben chuckled nervously, “my love, there’s nothing to worry about, 1) she’s lesbian, and 2) I mated with you didn’t it?”
 
Mal sighed, “I guess your right, but no funny business.”
 
Briar hopped up on Ben’s lap, “Benny~ I was wondering if you wanted to join us for tea later today.”
 
“Why?” Ben asked, “I thought you hated me.”

“Come on, now that you turned on your VK friends, let’s just say,” Briar noticed Mal growling softly, “that spark between us was rekindled.”
 
Ben’s eyes locked with Mal’s “Mal…”
 
“Do whatever you want Ben,” Mal said, obviously pissed. “Honey, you know this is only for the good of the mission.” Ben tried to reason with her.
 
“I said, do whatever you want.” Mal’s growling raised. “But-” “Just do whatever the fuck you want! Jeez! Isn't this what you always wanted?”
 
“No, I always wanted you…”
 
Mal bit her lip, “Ben, promise me, if she makes you have sex with her, I’m the one you see. Alright?”
 
Ben chuckled “what?”
 
“I’m serious! I have to know this meant nothing to you, that it was strictly for information.” Mal’s breath was shaky, she wasn’t even sure if this was a good idea.
 
Ben smiled, “I promise if I have sex with Briar, I’ll think of you the entire time.”
 
Mal grunted in approval, smiling slightly at Ben. “Tea would sound lovely, Briar.” Ben flashed a fake smile.
 
While Briar and Ben entered a small shop to pick up crumpets for the tea party, spectators began to gather around the wagon to throw food at the VKs.
 
“If I get thrown another tomato, it's a frozen city for all these heroes.” Operetta had an evil glint in her eyes, which Hunter was practically swooning over, “so hot…”
 
“I know, do these heroes know how hard it is to get tomatoes out of this hair?” Evie rolled her eyes. “Also, if these heroes ask me if my Tamiki is real one more time I’ll show them how real it is,” Freddie growled.
 
CJ noticed one of the men reaching for Firefly, “hands off!” CJ snarled.
 
“Why should I? Something as powerful as that sword shouldn’t belong to a woman.” the man scoffed. Carlos perked up, he laughed, “you mess up big time.”
 
“What are you gonna do? Bark me to death, please.” he rolled his eyes. Carlos sighed shaking his head, “it isn't me you have to worry about, it’s her.”
 
“Oh please, what can she-” before she could finish, CJ used Firefly to send a gouge out his eye. “AGH! What’s wrong with you?!” the man scolded.
 
“Awe, sorry, did you need that eye?” CJ wiped his blood off of Firefly, even though she couldn't control it, rare moments, Firefly would work with her.
 
It was like the sword was a whole different person! It would only help in situations that it seemed a worthy time to defeat an opponent.
 
It was almost like Firefly was the master and not CJ! And she hated it every second, she hated the fact she would have to plead sometimes for Firefly to work.
 
CJ sighed, “I hope one day we can have an actual partnership instead of us fighting for supremacy.”
 
To this day, CJ swore she heard a voice. “I hope so too, CJ.”
 
“Well look at that,” Winter’s voice made Evie cringe, “you finally got captured.”
 
“Go away, Winter.” Evie didn’t even look at her. Winter smirked as she looked Jasper up and down, “you know Jasper, Briar and I were looking to try out multiple sexual partners.”
 
Evie growled, pulling Jasper close, “mine!”
 
Winter chuckled, “normally the dragon is the possessive one, but now look who’s being possessive.”
 
“Go away!” Evie eyes flashed a crystal blue. “Why should I?” Winter scoffed. Evie extended her hand, crystals shooting into Winter’s arm.
 
“Even look towards Jasper and I’ll make sure you’re insides are your outsides!” Evie snarled, Jasper could have sworn he saw fangs on Evie, “what…?”
 
Winter clutched her arm and walked off. Jasper stoked Evie’s hair, “babe, how’s Ioaz?”
 
“I feel woozy…” Evie groaned, laying down on Evie’s lap. Jasper chuckled, “first time always makes you pass out.”
 
Ben never felt so uncomfortable that he did right now. He sipped his tea as he sat in his old castle, normally he would have felt at home in the castle garden but now all of the things he loved about this castle felt like a lie.
 
Ben inwardly cringed as he fake laughed at the jokes Briar and Winter told to their hero friends. Back when he thought he was a hero, Ben loved going to tea parties like this. Briar and he would sit and joke about what it would be like as King and Queen, it was sweet.
 
Now, as Briar and Winter made lingering stares at him, all he wanted to do was burn the castle and all of the heroes down with it.
 
“Briar,” Ben pulled her aside, “if we’re gonna do anything can we just get it over with?”
 
Briar laughed, “Ben, I’m lesbian, strictly lesbian, and to be honest,” Briar looked him up and down, “meh.” she shrugged.
 
“Okay, then why invite me for tea all of a sudden?” Ben questioned. “I wanna show ya something,” Briar whispered, leaving the garden and giving a wink to Winter.
 
Meanwhile, the VKs were thrown into a dust old cell in the basement. “Do they ever clean down here?!” Nadia coughed. “Nope!” Geyu laughed, walking towards the cage.
 
Nadia and Geyu starred in silence. Inside his mind, Geyu could feel Araden doing flips, “is her Lucifer!”
 
“Who?” Lucifer laid on the dark cloud. “My mate you idiot!” Araden popped the cloud. “Nadia?” The real Nadia?” Lucifer rubbed the back of his head. Araden ran towards the screen, “oh my gods! Look at those beautiful eyes, so beautifully peach! And those lips, so perfectly kissable! Don't get me started on her body, her personality, the way she giggles my name.”
 
Only a little longer, my love, I promise, we’ll be together again. Nadia knew Araden was in there, even though the two were inches apart, to the two lovers it might as well have been miles.
 
“Stop staring at me like that.” Geyu pushed her away, Nadia scoffed and glared at him. “I can't believe, after all the shit you did to these poor people, you haven't been drowned in holy water yet.”
 
Geyu laughed, “you wish, honey,” he rolled his eyes, “you’re just mad because I have Araden now and you don't.”
 
“You just don't get it do ya Geyu,” Nadia laughed loudly, “I’ve had Araden since the moment I met him, and he has me. Trapped or not, I know that Araden hasn't stopped loving me! And I’ll do everything in my power to make sure he’s back in my arms!”
 
Geyu raised his eyebrow, “Nadia, please, you can't fight me.”
 
“Oh,” Nadia chuckled darkly, “I’m not fighting you,” Nadia leaned in and whispered something in his ear bringing a shocked look to Geyu’s face. 
 
“You gotta be kidding me?!”
 
Ben followed Briar upstairs, “so what did you want to show me?”
 
“This,” Briar knocked on the painting of Belle 3 times, causing it to open a secret passage. To reveal a large metal circle that has a large amount of colorful energy. “Is that…”
 
“The portal to Swan. We’re this close to winni-”
 
Before she could finish, Ben smacked her upside the head with the grail, “sorry Briar…”
 
“She looks better this way.” Mal giggled, touching his shoulder. Ben chuckled, “how’d you get out so quickly?”
 
“VK secret.” Mal winked, pulling him towards the portal. “You ready? She’s right though that portal.” 
 
Ben held her hand, “I’m ready.”
 
Ben stepped into the portal with the VKs, falling into a beautiful stream of colors and stars.
 
“Woah!” Carlos gasped, watching as wolves made of green colored energy run happily, Carlos changed into his wolf form running along with them.
 
Carlos laughed happily, he never felt more alive! The energy was radiating off of the wolves and onto Carlos, it was honestly refreshing. Carlos smiled as he watched them run off, turning into dragons.
 
“What the?” Carlos tilted his head. “Dragons!” Jasper cheered, his eyes glowing with amazement. He morphed into his dragon form, grabbing Evie as he soared high, doing tricks with dragons “JASPER! I’m gonna fall!” Evie squeeled.
 
“No were not,” Jasper blew fire out of his mouth, “these are my people!” Jasper spun in a circle.
 
Evie smiled as he watched Jasper cheered, she’s never seen him happier. Wrapped her arms around Jasper’s large neck, “it’s nice seeing you this happy.”
 
The dragons soon turned into light blue, almost cyan, snow that trickled down on them. “Hunter look! Snow!” Operetta giggled, with a flick of her wrist a snow version of Adonis was made.
 
“Awe, looks like Adonis had a playmate.” Hunter chuckled as he watched Adonis climb out of Operetta’s bag and play with it’s snow duplicate.
 
Operetta laid down in the snow, making snow angels with the VKs. She shot up when she noticed the beautiful ice blue butterfly wings on her back.
 
“KYA?! What the hell are those?!” Operetta shrieked. Mal examined the wings, noticing the intricate snowflake designs, “you don't got any fairy blood in ya, so what’s with the wings?”
 
Nadia smiled softly, watching as Operetta tried to fly. And just like a baby bird, eventually fell on her face.
 
I knew you were special, Operetta. Nadia helped her off the ground. “Guess I need a little work huh?” Operetta chuckled nervously. No kidding, she’s just like her. Nadia giggled and nodded.
 
The snow disappeared, Operetta frowned but smiled when she noticed Freddie’s eyes lightning up.
 
“Big Sis! Look! Shadows and tiki heads!” Freddie gasped as the lavender colored shadows of little children circled around CJ.
 
The shadows turned into the lion heads she could see when she used her Lion Fist move. Freddie felt this strange energy filling up inside of her. She wasn’t complaining though, she felt powerful and she liked it.
 
Freddie looked up to see the shadows fading away outside the tunnel, she smiled and waved goodbye.
 
“Uh, Mal,” Ben caught her attention. Mal turned towards him, “yeah?”
 
“When did you get horns?!”
 
Mal felt atop her head, there was indeed two large horns made of purple and black energy. “Woah…” Mal looked into Evie’s mirror, noticing not only the horns but her wings as well.

One wing was of a dragon and the other was a large demon wing. The symbol of the two horns circled around her, bringing a smile to her face. She laughed as she chased it around like it was a butterfly.
 
She looked to the side of the portal to see her reflection, her eyes widening when she saw her reflection change into Rosary’s. Rosary chuckled and winked at her, fading back to Mal’s reflection.
 
Mal, too shocked by seeing Rosary, didn’t notice her wings and horns disappeared as she fell into the waiting arms of her best friend Evie.
 
“You alright, Mally?” Evie asked sincerely. Mal shrugged, “I don't know why but my reflection turned into Rosary’s.”
 
“We can ask Swan about it when we find her.” Evie smiled at her, trying to bring relief to her friend. Mal nodded and jumped down from Evie’s arms, jumping back in them when lightning struck down on them.
 
“What the hell Zeref!” Hunter scolded. “It wasn’t me!” Zeref held his hands up in defense. “Then who was it?” CJ questioned. Zeref looked up to see the small dragon made of lightning magi playing in his hair.
 
The dragon looked kinda like a salamander, it didn’t have any wings but it was electric blue with a yellow lightning bolt it’s belly.
 
“Why hello,” Zeref brought him the dragon down from his head, “you caused that lightning shock didn’t ya?”
 
He scurried in a circle cheerfully and nodded, sending down another lightning bolt that almost shocked Freddie but Zeref gathered the lightning in his hands. “How about we stop shocking my friends.”
 
The salamander-dragon noticed the lightning bolt on Zeref’s other palm, he climbed on his arm and over his shoulder to the other hand.
 
It looked up at Zeref, tilting its head. “I’m guessing it’s curious about the symbol.” Freddie said, chuckling knowing she was stating the obvious.
 
It looked at Freddie, getting excited it teleported to the top of Freddie’s head. It chirped happily, Freddie giggled, feeling the electric shock, noticing how excited it was.
 
“Dosen’t that hurt?” Evie asked. “Nah,” Freddie lowered the creature “I’ve been with Zeref for so long I’ve become immune to electricity.”
 
“It seems really close to you and Zeref.” Operetta observed. “I wonder why…” Zeref muttered, the salamander-dragon ran teleported back to Zeref’s hand. “Welcome back,” Zeref chuckled.
 
It licked Zeref's hand, he laughed, “your a weird little creature aint cha?”
 
It nodded before turning into a lightning bolt and disappearing into Zeref’s hand. “Awe…” Zeref whimpered a little.
 
“Ya know, this is a pretty long portal-” before Hunter could finish, a wave of red blood picked up Hunter “hell nah! I want off that ride!”
 
The wave dropped him on the floor, “you could have done it gently…”
 
The wave splashed on Hunter, surprisingly, it was like water, but tasted just like blood does. The wave did this multiple times till Hunter had enough. “What’s wrong with ya?!” Hunter scolded.
 
The blood water morphed into Arlin, standing in front of Hunter, “Arlin? What the fuck are you doing here?”
 
Hunter saw that Arlin was like a reflection, he mimicked Hunter’s movements. “HA!” Hunter laughed when he made Arlin dance like a clown.

Arlin rolled his eyes, walking towards Hunter, “wait, I thought-'' before Hunter could finish, Arlin flicked her forehead, causing him to fly into Operetta ice shield.
 
“Thanks.” Hunter thanked me, getting up. Operetta smiled at him. Arlin chuckled, walking up to Hunter, smiling gently at him.  “Idiot.” Arlin laughed teasingly, punching his arm as he faded into the marks on his arms.
 
“This portal is getting stranger and stranger…” Evie muttered. She watched in amazement was the portal lit up with different crystals. Evie stood still as the crystals glowed magnificently, she trailed her fingers along the crystal gently, causing each to glow brighter.
 
“Each of these crystals has a story…” Evie said giggling as some of the crystals formed around the top of her head, forming a crown. They came down from her head, forming into the shape of her cat Poison Apple.
 
The crystallized cat rubbed against her leg where the sapphire tattoo once was but now changed into a poison apple with sapphires surrounding it. “Well, since you can transform into different things, can you transform into an answer as to why we’re seeing these things?”
 
The crystals forming into the word NO. Evie's face was deadpanned “I’m done with you.”
 
The crystals then formed into another word, writing; WE COULD SHOW YOU THIS THOUGH
 
The crystals formed into a mirror, showing images of Evie and Sapphire’s life, side by side.
 
“We’re practically the same…” Evie muttered, watching as the memories passed by, “heck, she even looks like me!”
 
The crystals then disintegrated, turning into different colors of dust and particles. CJ noticed FireFly shaking, coming under CJ as it lifted up her towards the particles like a flying broomstick.
 
“Now you wanna work with me?” CJ scoffed, FireFly tilted, making CJ almost fall if she didn’t hold on to the handle. “I get it, I get it!”
 
CJ climbed back up, following the particles as they zoomed through the portal. FireFly did the trick with CJ before letting her enter the stream of particles.
 
Like with Evie, CJ could see images of Sabrina. She slowly walked towards them, touching them but it just caused a hold in the stream. She backed away, allowing the particles to see the picture.
 
Sabrina ran through the large flower field before being tackled by a red flash, “KYA!”
 
Sabrina laughed as she looked up to see Axel, “why’d you scare me like that Axel?!”
 
“Cause I like seeing your cute face, Tsuandere.” Axel pulled her in closed, holding her hips as she kissed him gently. He sighed happily, he loved the way her lips felt on his.

CJ tilted her head, “why do you look familiar?” she pondered, biting her lip.
 
Axel lifted her up on his shoulder, “well, my love, where are we going today?”
 
“I was going to head over to Recovery Temple, Swan’s making her famous 7 layer cake!” Sabrina’s eyes sparkled when she mentioned the cake, ever since they joined the recovery Swan’s cakes were sinful.
 
Axel chuckled, “alright, to the Temple!”
 
With that, the particles began to fade, leaving CJ to fall off of FireFly. She closed her eyes, hoping the fall wouldn't hurt too much, but in the end, FireFly came through and saved her.
 
Ben noticed the particles turning into multiple orbs of magi, circling around Ben before exploding into a beautiful frenzy of magi. Ben gasped, letting it soak into his skin, “it’s so refreshing…”
 
“All these magis...are for Ben?” Hunter stood in awe. “There has to be at least 170 differnt magi types here!” Mal touched the plant magi, watching as little roses bloomed.
 
“Carlos,” CJ noticed Carlos looked confused, “what’s wrong?”
 
“The animalistic magi orb is the smallest.” Carlos held it in his hand, “it’s so cute…”
 
“I think Ben’s animastic powers are just the tip of the iceberg for him.” Evie chuckled. “We always knew you were special, Benji.” Jasper patted his back, making the former king lunge forward slightly.
 
“Ya think so?”
 
“Well we’re all special, idiot, so don't get it in your head.” Hunter ruffled his hair, “you’re still my stubborn animalistic.”
 
“Heck, I don't even know if I’m animalistic anymore…” Ben chuckled nervously.
 
“Well it looks like we’re about to find out.” Mal said as the portal dropped them in front of a beautiful kingdom.
 
“VKs, welcome to the Lunenwin Isles.”
 
“This is where Swan is?!” the VKs shouted.
 
Lunenwin is situated directly on a valley flanked by two rivers and surrounded by mountains. Consisting of five different sectors, the city is connected by a series of metal rails on which a state-of-the-art monorail system operates, allowing citizens to reach opposing ends of the city limits in very little time.
 
The architecture used in developing the city landmarks involves innovative design elements, particularly in that each portion of the settlement is surrounded by petal-like metal panels with exteriors made of platinum, which remain open during the day and closed to provide protection during the night.
 
Ben fell to his knees, crying into his hand, “we finally found her! Thank the gods we finally found her!”
 
The VK laughed as they helped Ben up, boarding one of the speed trains. “Oooh, fancy,” CJ smiled as one of the workers gave CJ and the VKs mimosas.
 
“Hey, why aren't you guys throwing up your lunch now?” Operetta asked. “Surprisingly, I don't feel the motion sickness.” Jasper shrugged. “It’s the mimosas, Swan had them infused with Troia pills to make sure animalistic, demons, and dragons can have a happy travels.” Nadia explained.
 
“Remind me to thank her when we meet her,” Jasper nodded slightly. “Next stop: Swan Residence.” the conductor spoke through the speakers. “That’s us.” Nadia practically jumped over CJ to reach the door.
 
“Calm down lady,” CJ chuckled. “Sorry, just so excited to see your reaction.” Nadia bounced on the balls of her feet.
 
The VKs exited the speed train to gasp in awe at Swan’s residence.  At the city's edge is Swan's estate, a large compound consisting of numerous halls and courtyards to accommodate her large family and friends. Near the estate are several guesthouses for individuals whom Swan chooses to receive.
 
“Well don't just stand there! She’s waiting for you in the back!” Nadia led the VKs to the garden to see Healer sitting in the patio furniture sipping tea.
 
“Of course Healer’s here before us.” Freddie chuckled, “how’d you get here so fast.”
 
“Wouldn't you think I’d know the quickest way back to my own home?” Healer stood up, placing her tea on the table.
 
“No…”
 
“You don't mean…”

“Yep,” Healer took off her hood, letting her black and white hair fall, “I’m Swan.”
 
But you readers know me more commonly as Xiao Melee; the narrator of this series!