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Rose smiled at her mom. She was relieved that Red was okay. The guards were starting to batter their way through the door though, the first slam of the battering ram giving her a bit of a jump scare. She nocked an arrow on her bow and drew it back, waiting for the moment a guard came into view. She still wasn't going for a kill shot, but she was going to give them second thoughts about continuing to attack.

Colby winced. "We didn't do anything. They just showed up. We got inside the tower, but we couldn't do anything but hide and then you guys showed up." Colby explained. He felt like he was being blamed for something that had been completely out of his control. Admittedly he wondered if them casting magic had drawn attention. If that was true though why hadn't Merlin warned them?

The door cracked and fell, Rose let the arrow loose, quickly loading another and taking a second shot and then a third. The first shot missed. The second arrow hit one of the guards in his knee. She winced. That'd be hard to bounce back from. The third landed in another guard's leg. It would slow both of them down so that was good. Two less out of twenty.

Colby moved and activated the device on his wrist, a shield forming, even though it took two attempts. He turned to look at the cats on his shoulders. "Get down and hide in the catacombs." He told them. Silky responded first, followed by Jack. The pair of cats taking shelter away from the fighting. He centered his stance in front of the door between as many people as he could. If Merlin failed to get the defenses up the group would have to retreat.

"I can trip them up, cause distractions.' Colby's eyes widened a bit as he heard Silky in his head again. He nodded slightly and said to her "Once they come inside yeah, keep them from hurting anyone if you can."

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Despite the imminent danger, a part of Megan's mind was still dissecting her brother's explanation or lack thereof when it came to his new powers. She had rolled her eyes slightly when he mentioned that magic was weird. Of course it was weird. They hadn't been in this world very long and they hadn't really had anything about magic explained to them, although Megan was inclined to believe that it had to be at least somewhat of a scientific discipline. Magic was simply things that science couldn't yet explain in her mind. And thus far, she hadn't seen any evidence to he contrary.

The rest of her mind was focused on the situation - namely, the magic SWAT squad threatening to come into the tower. They were in the woods, which made Megan briefly wonder if the SWAT team had threatened other towers along the way, just hoping they'd stumble across the right one. The door had been broken down and Megan drew excalibur, doing her part to defend the tower with the others. She swung her blade time and time again, neatly taking care of four of the would be invaders.

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With every thump against the door, Maddie's heart beat faster and faster. He didn't know what to expect, what exactly was behind the door. Clearly it was soldiers but to what extent? When the entrance was finally breached, everyone reacted with such speed. Colby brought out a shield to help cover others, Red launched shot after shot and Wednesday cleaved through several guards. But still their numbers were greater than theirs. Maddie tried to think of a solution, tried to find something that would be quicker than attempting to pick them off one by one with his daggers.

That was when he saw Silkie. It gave him an idea that was crazy enough to work. Maddie tried to focus on the feelings he held earlier. Focusing on the way he encanted and the motions he did to try and bring back his little demonic friend. His hope was that it would appear behind enemy lines, biting ankles and ripping throats as it made its way to the forefront. Instead the killer rabbit appeared right in front of him looking as vicious as ever. Maddie swiped his blade towards the creature, missing and leaving a wide opening for it to attack. The rabbit jumped onto him, causing him to panic. He tried to swipe again, making sure not to stab himself, but having the caution caused him to miss. Finally he decided to take the plunge and aimed with full force. Injuring the creature enough to get it off of him, holding his dagger and staring it down. "Definitely not going to plan."

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Well all sorts of chaos was happening, at least at the moment. She was staying back a little bit, in this case she was standing back to try and maybe find the best moment to strike out at the guards that had broken into the tower. Merlin was saying that they needed to buy him some time, so right now she was just trying to figure out what was going on. Everyone was sort of doing their own thing, at least when it came to the fact that no one was actively working together or anything like that. Colby was still being as annoying as ever with his continued existence.

Him talking to his cats was weird too, "Well aren't you a bit of a crazy cat lady huh? And in what reality do cats actually listen to their owners?" she couldn't help but comment with regards to the situation. Then she got sight of Matt with his demonic bunny friend, and she couldn't help but laugh at him as he started trying to get the rabbit away from him. That was definitely something entertaining to watch. "Wow aren't you a walking disaster too."

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Jack wasn't too sure what was going on, the explanation about the guards outside made sense, how come the guards decided to knock down their door or whatever wasn't. Since how could they have really known that someone was there unless the guards had actually seen the group and all when they were outside. If that was the case then technically it would be their fault. Right now though, he wasn't sure what to do as those guards broke down the door to the tower, and Merlin was telling them to stall as everyone sort of started doing their own thing.

He saw his sister more or less spring into action with her sword, a few others doing things, and someone fighting a demonic rabbit or something like that, he wasn't sure what that was about. Deciding to do something, he figured he might as well try to cast another fireball at the guards. Unfortunately his first attempt at doing so fizzled out and did absolutely nothing! His second attempt went a whole lot better, as the fire slammed into one guard, lighting him on fire and killing him, and the second one that he sent out severely burned and injured another one.

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Merlin found them hidden in the forest but the group didn’t linger long to discuss what just happened, what was in Sierra’s mystery bag or Jack’s fireball technology. Cassiopeia was momentarily disoriented as Merlin transported them back to his tower. She breathed a sigh of relief and flung an arm over her sister’s shoulders. At least they were safe now. Or, so she thought.
It was pointed out shortly after arriving that they were missing a few bodies in the tower. Cassiopeia groaned, they should have left others behind. It even seemed Hansel and Grettel were missing. There was a knocking sound and Cassiopeia turned around, dropping her arm from Layla’s shoulders. The missing people walked in and Cassi relaxed a fraction until they were informed of guards outside.
The voices announcing they were about to ram the door down didn’t surprise her. She simply notched an arrow and aimed it towards the door.
”Seems we weren’t the only ones having an adventure,” she noted. They started ramming the door and as soon as the guards started to pour through, Cassi fired. She hit three people, injuring them all. It took her a bit to get used to rapidly firing arrows. She had maybe only done that a handful of times. That was something she would need to practice on. Cassi drew a fourth arrow and looked for her next target.

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Willow blinked a couple of times when her surroundings changed. It took her a moment to recognize Merlin’s tower but then she was looking back at Sierra. Colby came rushing from a different area of the tower, announcing there were guards outside the tower. Matthew quickly followed, looking haggard and then Willow heard the guards. She turned around, backing up a bit as Merlin asked for time. She watched him walk over to a book and was very interested until she heard the ramming of the door.
Willow jumped at the initial hit, having been caught off guard. The second time the door started to splinter then it quickly gave way. Willow remained in the back of the fray, staying closer to Merlin but still left a few feet between them so she could defend. Willow had never put her kickboxing into real life threatening practice. She hoped she could do it.
There was a guard near them and Willow moved quickly to attack. She swung her leg around but the guard doged before hitting her in the side. Willow crunched over, letting out her breath from the surprise of the hit but she turned quickly on the balls of her feet to retaliate. He dodged her again and Willow narrowed her eyes in frustration. As the familiar movement of her body settled over her, she settled into a more comfortable stance and tried once more. She planted her right foot on the ground and swung around and high to kick him in the head and knock him to the ground. Willow breathed out in relief and turned around, still ready for more.

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Hansel looked over at Mathew seeing their little friend again as Matt summoned him and it seemed to have been dead set on it's summoner, he couldn't help but laugh a little bit. Seeing the little thing managing to tackle Matt to the ground, managing to get demon bunny off though it was still alive and well just a little bit injured. It let out a weird little growling sound as it tried to tackle Matt again, missing though it managed to bite a chunk out of Matt's hair leaving a very obvious bald spot now. The demon bunny cackling at the bald spot, Sierra turned around seeing the demon rabbit. She ran forward and kicked it as hard as she could into one of the nearest guards, and the demon rabbit managed to turn at the last minute and ripped out a chunk of the guard's neck.

"Why the hell is there a bunny from Monty Python and the Holy Grail here?" Sierra couldn't help but ask, finding that situation really weird, as she heard Merlin chanting some more, as he managed to get the towers defenses up. The guards who were outside were instantly vaporized by the magical barrier, and the guards inside were as well to along with the demon rabbit.

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Layla threw three knives at the nearest guard one missing, and two of them hitting the guard in the shoulder and chest the demon rabbit was kind of entertaining to watch. Seeing a now bald spot in Matt's hair from it's attack, but she didnt say anything really as she heard the chanting coming from Merlin and then watched as the guards who were inside and outside were all instantly vaporized. "Thats pretty cool." Layla said as she saw Merlin going over and sitting down on a nearby chair looking a bit tired at the moment. "Are you alright?" Layla asked as she looked around and found a nearby cup and found a sink of water and filled it handing it to Merlin.

"I'm alright, the towers defenses are up now we'll be safe for the time being." Merlin said as he took a sip of water as he stood up looking at the others. "I'll get to work on trying to summon all of your parents here. There are rooms throughout the tower if you need to rest you may, just don't leave the premises however." Merlin instructed as he went over to the book that he had earlier where the contacts for everyone's parents were.

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Rose was preparing to shoot more arrows when the guards were vaporized. Her jaw dropped. That seemed...she sighed. Well, she supposed, that was the way things were going to be. She turned to Merlin, "I could use a nap, but first. How long will take anyone's parents to get here? And are all of them alive?" She didn't really know who all was who's kids, it had been mentioned, but honestly, she had forgotten most of them.

Finally, Merlin activated the protections and Colby's jaw dropped. He had known magic was powerful and dangerous but...he let out a low whistle of surprise. That had been ruthless. "Maddie, why in the world was that the spell you went for?" Colby asked a little exasperated. He held out his hand for Matthew to help him back to his feet.

Rose smiled at her mom, now that they weren't in immediate danger she did want to talk with her. She had so many questions still. One that was bugging her, was who her dad was. She had no memories of him. Her heart ached a little. She wished there was a way to be with both her families. In a way, though this weird group of kids were her family. A very dysfunctional one.

Colby tapped his shoulder and both cats jumped up on it, curling up around and on him. He was going to have start wearing a backpack more or set up something for the cats to sit on. It was a little tight on just his shoulders. "The rabbit thing stole some of your hair." Colby told Maddie, touching the bald spot. "I'm sure it'll grow back."

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Megan tilted her head, torn between fascination with the murderous rabbit and the way Merlin had vaporized the guards with ease. She was beginning to get a better sense of the level of power he yielded - although it made her question why he needed any help at all. The only answer that came to mind was that his foe must have been even more powerful, forcing Merlin to require others instead of simply handling it all himself. But if he was going to be relying on her brother's magic skills, then clearly there was much to be desired... Merlin looked exhausted from his efforts.

Her heart paused for a moment as Merlin mentioned contacting and gathering their parents - even though so far, Megan had insisted that her biological parents meant nothing to her. They were simply strangers to her, people who had had sex and created a child. She didn't owe them anything for that - she hadn't asked for them to make her. And sure, she had dim memories of them but they were just that - memories. She had more meaningful relationships with the corpses in the morgue. "You ought to rest - you look like you should be lying on a slab," Megan told her brother.

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To say that Maddie was frustrated was an understatement. He slid the knife back into its slot, looking at Colbys hand and debating if he should take it or not. A small part of him wished to smack it away and just help himself up, but he knew Colby didn't mean anything by his comment. Maddie let out an exasperated sigh before taking his friend's aid and getting up. "Well the only other spell I know is to Conjure fire and I doubt that would've gone well in a room full of books with some of our party intermingled with the enemy. So I thought… I thought I could create the rabbit behind them and have it tear through them first but clearly that didn't work!"

His tone was sharp, his voice raised only slightly in annoyance for the events that had transpired. Maddie flinched back as Colby went to go touch his newly acquired bald spot. Quickly storming towards his bag and pulling out his father's hat that he had brought along with him. It certainly hadn't fit him as a child, but now that he'd grown and his hair became a voluminous mess, it sat perfectly atop his head, having his curls coming out the sides and back and hiding the spot.

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The demon bunny was definitely hilarious, at least in her mind, considering the fact that Matt clearly had summoned it, and managed to get it pissed off at him and not actually attacking the guards in anyway. Then the situation with the bunny definitely got made to be better when the rabbit decided to rip out some of Matt's hair., leaving a bit of a bald patch. Now she couldn't help but crack up laughing at the sight, given the situation, she knew she probably shouldn't, but one of the idiots had managed to make a big ole fool of himself.

"Okay, I've seen some ridiculous things in my life, but that right there just takes the cake. You better hope that hat stays on to block out that big of a bald spot on your head," she said with a laugh, once Merlin had dealt with putting up the tower defenses and the guards were all dealt with. This was just amusing. Though she didn't very much care about Merlin saying he was going to find their parents and bring them there or whatever, personally she didn't very much care.

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Despite the fact that he figured magic would probably be draining on his energy or something, just an idea or whatever, he wasn't sure. But currently he actually felt perfectly fine, sure he was a little tired with regards to the situation involving his father and the chaos that had happened there, but other than that he was perfectly fine. There was a bit of chaos going on around them, what with the demon rabbit and then Merlin managing to take down the guards with the tower's defenses which honestly looked kind of cool when everything happened.

The whole parents thing made him feel a bit out of place considering the fact that his father tried to kill everyone, or at least catch everyone, while everyone elses' hopefully wouldn't end that horribly. He ended up nearly burning his father to death too, which honestly he wasn't too sure would actually be a bad thing. Glancing over at his sister though when she made her comment that was directed towards him, "I'm fine Meg, really, don't worry," he said to her with a bit of a smile.

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Merlin took a moment and looked over at Rose when she asked how long it would take for him to bring all of their parents here, as he thought about it. "I'll have to get in contact with all of them individually and then find their exact location as long as it's not blocked by some magic so maybe a day or two. Thats if they don't have their hands full currently" Merlin said, he wasn't sure they were currently doing, and had no doubt that they would probably need help as well to.

Sierra listened to Merlin and nodded slightly she was kind of nervous about meeting her parents but she really did want to find out what they were actually like as well to. Sierra looked over at Willow as she gently gave her a slight nudge and smiled towards her, as she went over and sat down at a nearby table. She watched as Maddie put on a hat to hide his very visible bald spot, at least the demon bunny didnt aim lower or anything like that. "You probably shouldn't use that spell again at least for awhile." Sierra said partly teasing him a little bit.

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Layla listened to Merlin as he answered Rose' question which seemed like it will take a little bit and stretched out slightly, she was kind of tired. The day was pretty long and she was beat as she poked her sister on the forehead slightly to see if she was okay she wasn't sure if she was still eyeing Rose or not. "You alright sis?" Layla ended up asking her sister as she watched Maddie putting on a hat to hide the bald spot, though she was really tempted to say something, she decided against it about summoning the whole demon bunny thing again. Though it was really hilarious to see the bald spot.

The day had been pretty long as she looked over at Merlin. "There are bedrooms here right?" Layla asked looking over at Merlin and nodded towards her. "There are some bedrooms on the fourth floor." Merlin told her. She hoped that she would be able to find their father soon she was really curious what he was like and what she was going to say to him as well to. Hansel, Gretel and Rose looked like they were talking amongst themselves like they were actually catching up or something everything seemed calm now.

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Before she could fire the guards disappeared but in a way that Cassi had seen in all those superhero movies. She knew they weren’t coming back. She relaxed her bow and put her arrow back and looked over at Merlin who looked drained. Layla gave him some water and Cassiopeia looked at Rose. She nudged her, smiling nicely.
”We make a great team,” she noted. Once Merlin was a bit more rested, Cassi looked to him. ”Where can I replenish my arrows?” She definitely needed a few more before they would go on out again.
Layla returned and Cassi shrugged. ”Not bad, tired. I think I’m going to go find the cats and lay down.” Laying down and resting for a bit, even if it was ten minutes, sounded beautiful.

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Willow shrank back, a little freaked out when Merlin vaporized every guard in the room. She didn’t want to get on Merlin’s bad side, ever. Willow yawned at the mention of resting and wasn’t opposed to the idea. Sierra nudged her though before walking to a table. Willow smiled and walked on over, setting her bag down on the floor and stretched her sore feet and tight legs out.
Merlin’s next step now was to summon the rest of their family here. Willow was nervous but eager to meet her parents. She had known the stories well of them but those were childhood fairy tales. She wanted to know what they were really like.
”What do you think about meeting your parents? We are so close now…”

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"Yeah, we do." Rose smiled at Cass. "We should work on that some more. Guess all those competitions helped us out." She agreed with a small nod at Cass's question about if they could replenish their arrow supply. She needed it too.

Colby flinched a bit at Maddie's reaction. He felt bad. He shot the others a bit of a glare for making fun of him. "At least he was trying to do something." It had been better when it was just the two of them. Colby pulled him off to the side. "Are you okay? We can consider leaving when our parents arrive?" If their parents arrived.

Merlin only answered part of Rose's question. It would be a few days, that'd give them time to rest and get some thoughts in order. She was glad they'd have a bit of time. She needed it. Everything they've done had been so sudden. They hadn't even had the three days' time between getting the letter. Maybe that was because everyone had been so curious they had gathered right away.

Colby wasn't certain what all was planned in the future. And Merlin had so far hadn't been very forthcoming about what the plan was. And now he was admittedly a little terrified of Merlin. He didn't want to press the matter. Would his parents show up? And if they did what would they be like?

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Megan hardly looked convinced - even if her brother wasn't physically drained, he was no doubt mentally exhausted. She didn't mean that he was stupid or anything (although he was the dumb sibling in her opinion), but rather a lot had happened. He had been kidnapped by his father and discovered that he had magical abilities. Even Megan wished that she could spend some calming moments in the morgue, smelling the embalming fluid - no other place in the world was quite so serene. She missed the familiar weight of the bone saw in her hands. The morgue was her temple, her sanctuary - her kingdom, really.

She turned her head as Merlin said it would be a few days before all of the parents were assembled. A sense of dread filled her, one that she didn't understand. She shouldn't have cared about her bio parents showing up - they didn't mean anything to her. They had given birth to her and raised her in her early years, but she didn't remember them. And they didn't know her - the person she had once been was gone, each cell replaced, each memory overwritten with something new. Her eyes then drifted over towards her brother. His meeting with his father had been less than pleasant.

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Maddie was not pleased with Rosalia's outburst of laughter. Leave it to her to bring more attention to a subject that clearly wasn't wanting to be brought up. He pulled the hat a bit further down, ensuring it was secured onto his head before he decided to ignore everyone else. He knew better than to try the same spell a third time, it was clear that his mastery of magic was nothing more than a mockery and he wasn't sure if he should bother attempting again. Maybe it was best to leave the magic to Colby. After all, he was able to Summon a familiar on his first try without so much as a hassle.

Maddie on the other hand had had to practice and try just to Conjure the flames he used and even his demonic bunny took some effort. He looked back to Colby. "I'm fine. I just…sigh... You know I'd follow you to the ends of the earth Colbs. Say the word and I'll follow." He placed a kiss onto his cheek and offered him a smile. Taking his hand into his and hoping things got better for them. Maybe Rosalia would get eaten by a dragon?

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Sierra had told Willow that she was a bit nervous about meeting her parents and getting to know them, and rest sounded really good right about now as well to. She had slept for most of the night peacefully, waking up in one of the rooms that were within the massive tower, she stretched out slightly and yawned. She started to go and get changed into some clothes she had been wearing the day before, making note to ask Merlin for some more. Wearing the same set of clothes for more than one day always did make her feel dirty for some reason, as Sierra headed down the stairs closing the door behind her.

Sierra could smell some cooking as she headed down the stairs, looking over she saw Red, Tinker, Hansel, and Gretel there talking amongst themselves. Some food was being cooked on a nearby stove in the kitchen like part of the tower, as she took a seat and waved towards the group. "Good morning." Sierra said, noting that Merlin wasn't there looking over towards the others. "Where's Merlin?" Sierra asked as Tinker turned to look at her. "Still resting a bit he should be down soon though." She told her, Sierra nodded as Gretel came over with some food with some scrambled eggs and bacon on it which she quickly started to dig in.

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Layla woke up and stretched slightly, her cat snuggled up in her lap as she reached over and started to pet him on the head, the cat purring happily. Layla smiled as she gently lifted her cat setting him down to the side of her, looking over at her sister she tossed her pillow at her sister's head. "Time to wake up lazy head." Layla told her, as she started to get changed today was hopefully they would be able to meet their father. Once she was fully changed Layla grabbed her things and started to head down the stairs. Looking over seeing the other adults in the room talking amongst themselves and Sierra sitting at the table and eating some breakfast.

"Good morning." Layla said giving them a wave as well to taking a seat at the front of the table as Gretel came over and giving her a plate of food as well to. Looking at Sierra's it was the same, which she didnt mind at all as Layla started to dig in hearing Sierra's question where Merlin was she was curious as well to. Hearing Tinker answering the magic he used must have worn him out then if he was still sleeping as well.

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"If you wanted to be useful then maybe you should have learned what the hell you were doing. You clearly know nothing about how the world of survival works, I bet your life was so happy go lucky before all of this nonsense. Just perfect in every way and youo never screwed up with anything," she said a bit sarcastically, before going on to completely ignore them, and everyone else really. She wasn't too sure about this entire situation still, the idea of meeting her biological parents. The people who had abandoned her, and left her to grow up as an orphan on the streets by herself. No one ever really looked for her or seemed to care.

That night she hadn't really been able to sleep, not really anyway. Strange surroundings where she didn't trust anyone else around her was not a place where she wanted to try and sleep. It wasn't very easy, but she eventually managed it and the next day she woke up with Lucky sleeping next to her. Rosalia was a little bit not caring about the idea of wearing the same set of clothes more than one day in a row, she was rather used to it, and honestly felt weird in clothes that she deemed as too clean. She went down to where the others were gathering, just going into the area rather quietly with her puppy in tow.

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Everything had been chaos, and suddenly everything was a lot calmer. It was nice that the guards and everything was dealt with, that was for sure. Now though, everything was a lot calmer and no idea what was really happening. Sure, they all were now waiting for Merlin to contact everyone else's parents, which was something that he wasn't sure would be a good thing. Considering the fact that from what he knew, the others here, as he thought before, were all kids of the typical hero in the fairy tales, he was the oddball, he wasn't like that at all, and his father worked for their worst enemy, which might not be too well received that he was even around.

These thoughts stuck with him until the next morning, causing him to not really get much sleep. Actually, his brain now wondered how Meg's parents would think of her growing up in the same household as him, that was going to be an interesting conversation that was for sure. The other thought that crossed through his brain was just how mad his father would be with him having lit him on fire, that was an interesting thing to think about. Jack was sort of just lost in thought with everything the next morning, not really saying anything to anyone in particular.

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Sleep came to Cassiopeia quickly but that meant the morning came just as quickly. Cassi was having a pleasant dream about tracking a herd of deer when she was rudely hit in the head by a tree branch. Or pillow. Cassiopeia opened her eyes, and saw nothing but fuzz and grey. A disgruntled sound came from her cat Artemis before she jumped down and left. That was when her twin sister’s voice filled her consciousness. Cassiopeia groaned and rolled over.
”Five more minutes,” She pulled the blankets up to cover her face. Thankfully, Layla left her alone and Cassi laid in the fading warmth of her bed for a little longer before she rose. Her body ached and bones cracked from the walking and intense moments of fighting or being hunched over for too long. Eventually, she moved towards the bathroom and showered to wake herself up completely before she headed downstairs.

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Willow woke early the next morning, eager to get her day started. She had been dreaming about what her mother was like all night and likely didn’t get a full eight hours but she still felt energized. As she went about her morning routine, first with a bit of yoga, she thought about the memory that had flashed through her mind only days before. Willow fingered the key at her neck, caught in a daze before she heard footsteps passing the hallway. Quickly Willow dressed into the clothes from the day before. She rearranged her outfit as best she could but she would need more shirts at the very least. Running around and sweating all day was not good for anyone.
Willow left her room, pinning her hair back as she walked so it was up and out of her face. She descended the steps into a room that smelled of delicious breakfast foods and eagerly joined the others at the table for something to eat.
”Good morning everyone,” she greeted cheerily. Willow sat near Sierra and smiled brightly at her. "How did you sleep? I couldn't stop thinking about meeting my mom."

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Rose woke early and sat staring out the window. She wished she could go for a hike. Her usual morning routine was to go for a hike. Though the reason for that had always been to find clues about herself. And here she had answers. Finally answers. As incomplete as they had been. She smelled some food wafting from downstairs and headed that way, slipping her shoes back on. She had no desire to run around a stone tower without some sort of foot protection.

"Good morning everyone." She said joining them. She sat next to Sierra and gave her a slight nudge. "You sleep okay?" She asked her friend. It was bizarre how many of her friends were here. Sierra and Cass and Layla. They all went back. She didn't even have the excuse of having lived at the orphanage with the others.

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Colby ignored Rosalia but instead focused on Maddie. His heart twisted a little bit as he said he would follow him to the ends of the earth. Colby didn't feel he deserved that from anyone. Especially from Maddie. He hadn't been kind to him at first. He had tried to push him away and be left alone. That's how he was with everyone. He hated people caring about him. There wasn't a good reason for it. Or maybe there was. He was part cat, right. He had come from this magical world and had been sent away as a little kid.

That night in their room Colby lay close to Maddie. "Thank you. But you should get to chose too. I never want to take you somewhere you aren't happy." It wasn't hard to say. It felt right. He didn't want to think it was meant to be. But it felt like it.

In the morning he didn't want to get up, so he didn't. When the rest of the group was ready to move or a parent showed up he figured there would be action. For now, he lay curled with Maddie.

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Megan hadn't slept much during the night. It wasn't because she was stressed or afraid or nervous - or even excited to meet her biological parents. She was an insomniac. It had been an asset during medical school, as she survived with fewer hours of sleep and could get a few extra hours of studying in - and post school, it meant that she always had the time to watch a horror movie or two before heading to work. She loved how still the world felt at night, knowing that businesses were closed and most people were in the realm of the unconscious. There was something spooky about the night, something that just felt right to her.

She wondered briefly if there had been a mistake and her actual parent was Jack from the Nightmare Before Christmas - or perhaps even Dracula. Most of the people here seemed to be more or less carbon copies of their parents. She and Jack were the exceptions. He was nothing like her father. And her biological parents were royalty - they were heroes - Megan wasn't that in any shape or form. For a few hours during the morning, she had stared at excalibur, as if the sword would vanish into smoke, turning out to just be a mirage. She could hear the others moving and heading down to the area with the rest, but Megan stayed in the room she was in, pulling the skull out of her bag - her new friend, Mina.

"They don't understand me, do they?" she whispered to the skull. "I don't think I'm the slightest bit like them, Mina."