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Maddie heard the footsteps of the guards coming closer and closer towards him as the sound of clinking gold coins moved underneath the guards' weighted footsteps. He closed his eyes, holding his breath in fear that even the slightest sound would alert the guard of his presence. The sounds stopped, and then quickly began again as the guard turned about and saw one of Chesires cats. Adrenaline was pumping through Maddie as fear rushed into his ears and his heart abandoned him to his stomach. This was it. This was as far as they'd go before Jafar and Rumple would approach them in a mystic duel they weren't prepared to win.

Lucky for them fate had other plans. He supposed if rats were commonplace within the Vault then so too must cats be. Something to feast upon the vermin currently crawling in his pant leg. The guard dismissed the feline ally before walking back out and closing the Vault. Maddie waited for a ten count before exhaling loudly the breath he had held this whole time. "I thought we were done for for a moment there. But yes we've got what we came for so can we please get the heck out of here?" He wasn't sure exactly how they'd manage that, but if they're parents had a plan then he'd be happy to follow. He made his way over towards Colby, offering him a hand up. "You ok babe?"

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”Lancelot? Like, sword in the stone guy? Cool,” Cassi said before she looked at the tower more closely.
Cassiopeia had stopped hugging Rose but one arm remained around her back as they stood there together. It just seemed right for Cassi to leave her arm around Rose like that and it wasn’t like they were going anywhere right at this moment.
Layla joined them and kissed Rose’s cheek before grinning at her sister. Cassiopeia scowled at her twin and stuck her tongue out at her. She had released Rose so Layla could hug her but as soon as Layla let her go, Cassiopeia’s arm slid around Rose once more but once the group made a move towards the tower, Cassi released Rose but offered her hand for her girlfriend to hold if she wanted.

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Willow glanced at her mother when the older guard went into the vault. She swallowed and moved closer to the younger guard, wrapping an arm around his arm and looked up at him, batting her eyelashes softly while she looked up at him and waited for the older guard.
Thankfully all he spotted was a cat. Willow looked visibly relieved but that could be easily thought of as her relief in the men being free to dance with her and her mother.
”Oh, good. Let’s go dance,” she said and pulled the younger guard back to the ballroom.

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"No, but you are made of flesh - flesh that is easily bypassed, allowing access to all sorts of fun arteries and the like that will cause you to gush out water like a geyser," Megan told her brother rather matter of factly. "A well placed incision is all that stands between you and death. If you were made of glass, your blood would be better protected." She was a medical examiner after all - a key part of Megan's job was cutting people open and removing organs and blood. She knew how easy it was to make a person bleed.

Megan twisted her signet ring and her suit of armor from Camelot materialized around her. She still had her skull that she had retrieved from earlier, as well as the tiny pet bat who now nested within it. At her side was excalibur, her magical blade, the one given to her when they first arrived in this strange realm. And the one that she had at first felt that King Arthur would wish to have returned to him. But just as Megan had now claimed her memories and her life from this world, she was claiming this blade. It was hers and hers alone, now and forevermore. "I'm ready."

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"Glad you're alright too." Rose said as Layla hugged and kissed her cheek. She smiled but happily returned to Cassiopia when Layla let go of the hug. She took her hand as they started walking back to the tower. Rose knew Layla was teasing her sister. She didn't mind being part of the teasing.

"Yeah, that guy. Some of Maleficent's men attacked him. But there weren't any around where Rosalia found him. He is injured, but it doesn't seem to be fatal now that he has some medical care." Rose imagined if Rosalia hadn't found him he would have died there. Hopefully, it wouldn't backfire on them.

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Colby held his breath as the guards searched the vault. It was a terrifying few moments. But he was glad he had tossed the scorpion because, really, he didn't think he could have maintained composure if it had stung him. One of the cats did a good job of acting like the noise was their fault. He'd make sure to give them an extra treat later.

Once the guards were gone, he sighed, letting out his held breath. "Thanks." He said, taking Maddie's hand. "That was terrifying." He agreed. It was probably the closest to true danger he had felt since the fight with the skeletons. "Let's get out of here." He agreed.

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"Not really curious or wanting to talk about anything, so thanks but no thanks," she responded, preferring to just go back to keeping her distance from people. Sure, she had her memories again, however few of those that there were, but that's just it. They were very few memories that she had, and for the most part, these two were complete strangers to her. She had spent most of her life all by herself and alone, and that was all that really stuck with her now. Those few memories from before were basically so far in the past they didn't really matter now.

The others were talking about heading off, as Rose had mentioned Lancelot to the group or whatever, though she did roll her eyes slightly. Not at the fact that she had mentioned it, but on the fact that Cassi had asked if he was the sword in the stone guy and Rose agreed with it. Yeah, no, sword in the stone guy was King Arthur, Lancelot was considered the best of the knights of the round table or something like that. She didn't know the full specifics, but found it a bit amusing that was who they apparently thought Lancelot was.

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Jack rolled his eyes a bit as Megan started getting into specifics on the whole situation, and talking about how one person could easily die or something. "Wow Meg, you clearly act like a paper cut will kill you in a few seconds or something. So dramatic," he said to her with a shrug. "But I do get the point, seriously, didn't have to go into the full details on how easy it would be to kill someone. So yeah, fine, I'll get some armor too or something."

After saying that, he went over to the rack of armor that others had already gone through, and after a bit of searching he did eventually find a set that would likely fit him, before he went about putting the armor on. It was mainly to ensure that Meg would be quiet about the whole he might end up dying or whatever, he was used to her sort of morbid sense of humor, but it could be a bit strange even for him. The armor was definitely weird, but at least it would probably stop him from dying, maybe.

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Agraba:

The younger guard looked at Willow and smiled towards her as they made their way back over towards the ballroom where all of the other guests were at the moment. However once Willow and Aurora were on the floor again they would notice Jafar there along with Rumple now talking amongst themselves and having a few drinks with each other. However luckily for them neither of them noticed the pair just yet which was probably a good thing for now. "Want a drink or anything?" The guard asked looking over at Willow giving her a friendly smile, Aurora was already chatting with the older guard right now. When Tinker Bell quietly made her way back to the dance floor looking rather nervous.

"Well that was certainly a lot of fun." Cheshire said as the cat quickly jumped up onto his shoulder looking rather proud of himself and nuzzled against his cheek. "You two alright?" Mad Hatter ended up asking looking at the two of them as he started to slowly open the vault door. He stuck his head out luckily there wasn't anyone else there and waved the three of them out, Cheshire wasted little time getting out of there to.

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Belle decided to grab some armor as well as a nearby sword figuring that it would be useful just in case things did end up getting bad out there, same as well with Hansel and Gretel however both of them decided to grab tridents as well with Sierra. Arthur turned towards Megan seeing the ring that she wore seeing the armor appearing on her and smiled. "I remember Merlin making those for just about everyone." He told her as he finished getting his armor on as well as Guinevere did to. Sierra looked slightly disturbed at Megan as she suggested all the ways that he could bleed out which was kind of disturbing to her anyway but decided to not say anything else.

"Lets get going then, we should have transport back to the surface at the terminal area." Eric said as Sierra quickly followed behind her father and mother, along with Hansel and Gretel as well as Belle. Once everyone had gotten into the elevator again, Eric pressed the button that would take them back to the central tower of the palace.

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"Actually King Arthur is the sword in the stone guy, he's like Arthur's bestie and whatnot also slept with his wife if I remember right." Layla corrected her sister, giving her a slight nudge and smiled towards Rose at least she was fine with the teasing of her twin as they made it back to the tower. Merlin took a moment and shook his head slightly, he was certainly aware of the affair with Lancelot and Arthur's wife Guinevere. "I'll go and see to him then once we are at the tower." Rapunzel said, as they got back to the tower, the rain was still really heavy and pouring as another flash of lightening came down.

Once everyone was inside of the tower, Layla closed the door behind her as she looked over towards Flynn as he started to move over taking out a rolled up piece of parchment. Luckily some of the more able bodied of Robin Hood's men were able to get a fire going, as Robin Hood took a moment to check up on his men and give a few orders. Flynn then grabbed a nearby candle and then held the flame over the blank paper to reveal a map of Maleficent's castle. He then grabbed a few things to hold down the corners so that the map would lay out flat for the group. "So I did a little bit of snooping around before I was caught and managed to detail her castle as best as I could." Flynn told the group.

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Cassiopeia looked at Layla when she corrected them both. Cassi's eyes widened when Layla said that Lancelot slept with his best friend's wife. "Wow, talk about drama." She shook her head and followed the others into the tower.
Robin Hood and some of the others were already inside. Cassi smiled and waved at some of the people she knew before she looked to Flynn and the candle he held over the map, revealing a hidden image. Cassi's eyes widened at the sight. She had only seen such things in Indian Jones type movies.

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The ballroom didn't feel any safer. Willow looked around at all the faces and instantly saw Jafar and Rumple had returned. Willow looked away quickly and stopped at the edge of the dance floor with her young guard. He offered to get her a drink and Willow forced a smile.
"That would be wonderful, thank you," she said and released his arm so he could go get them drinks. Willow looked behind her to see her mother talking with the older guard. She scanned the room again and noticed Tinker Bell returning and she didn't look at ease. Willow swallowed. She had a terrible feeling deep in her stomach that they were running out of time.

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"Actually, a paper cut very well may just kill you in this world," Megan warned her brother. "An open wound is a chance for infection. The smallest of cuts could prove fatal before the advent of modern medicine. I am unfamiliar with the means of disinfectant used here - perhaps alcohol would suffice, or burning the wound if needed," she said pointedly. She did not have a good idea for the state of medicine here. It seemed to be more advanced than purely medieval remedies, but not quite up to the standards Megan was used to. Of course, everything seemed to vary wildly from territory to territory - she was fairly certain Camelot didn't have elevators, whereas this underwater kingdom did.

She was satisfied to see that Jack did put on some armor though. Her attention then was called over to her father, King Arthur, as he mentioned that Merlin had made rings of enchanted armor for just about everyone. It seemed though that neither her mother or father had rings like hers at the moment though, as they used loaner armor. "Did he fashion a batch of enchanted swords as well?" Megan asked, before heading out with the others.

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Rose smiled at the clarification. She did know that, but she had agreed more because she figured he was part of the story. Also, the whole cheating thing was weird to her. But that was her usual opinion about stories with cheating in them. It made it even weirder now that these were real people, and she didn't want to gossip about them.

She raised her eyebrow as Flynn showed the secret map. It seemed easy to discover, but she probably wouldn't have thought to try that. She would have to keep it in mind for the future. She wondered how the paper was treated for that.

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"I'm good. Good kitty." Colby grinned and praised the cat that had interfered. "That was a little close, I almost got stung by the scorpion, and that would have been super unfun." He was glad they were out of there and had the item. "We should get out of here. The longer we are here, the higher our risk of being discovered." Especially with Rumple here.

He looked around, trying to find where Willow had gone. He bumped into Maddie slightly and then started making his way to the refreshment table where Willow was. He also spotted Jaffar and Rumple. He tried to keep his movements smooth and unworried as he walked over to the table.

"Hello sister, how has your evening been going? I can say mine has gone quiet well." He smiled brightly at her, then nodded at the guard near her.

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Fun wasn't exactly how Maddie would describe the sensation. Though he recalled reading an article a while back about how some people with anxiety had issues differentiating between excitement and anxiety. Their brains made the signals almost identical and so while this very well could have been a fun and exhilarating experience, Maddie just felt as though it was anxiety enduring as it gripped at his heart. But he'd wasted no time, along with his family and boyfriend, slipping out of the vaulted area and moving back into the common area where refreshments and dances were.

He quickly spotted Willow as Colby approached her, then Jafar followed by Rumple, and Maddie instantly felt as if someone had shaken the sand in their timer to make it go faster. There was a new knot in his stomach as he continued to look around and found Tinkerbell. He quietly made his way over towards her, trying his best to use any people, pillars, or objects to obstruct his view from Rumple so that he wouldn't be easily spotted on his way to her. "Hey fam, having fun yet?"

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She did sort of wish that the area they were in would stop being a bit dramatic. Sure, this was the area where Maleficent's castle was, but still. Did the weather really have to sit there and point out the fact that it was where the villain was? Heavy rain, lightning strikes, made it a bit obvious. Then again, from what she knew about stories and fairy tales, the villains homeland or whatever tended to be a bit overly dramatic and clearly a bad place to be. She just didn't also expect that sort of thing in reality.

Rosalia stayed quiet again as the group made eventually found their way back to the tower. Which still was a weird place for her to be, since at one point when she was a toddler, it had been her home. It made her wonder how Rapunzel and Flynn felt considering they obviously knew this place and would have more memories of it then she would ever have. This place wasn't really her home, and she didn't really think about having parents or whatever for a very long time. She shoved those thoughts out of her mind though as she watched Flynn reveal the hidden map, figuring someone would come up with a plan or something.

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"Ok, well now you are just being a bit overly dramatic if you ask me at this point," he said to her with an eye roll. Yup, now she was just going overboard and also talking to him really like he was a child who needed her to explain these sort of things to him. That was a bit ridiculous or something at this point, she was honestly starting to get a little bit annoying with that sort of talk at this point really. Sure he preferred to go be a cop instead of going off to medical school or whatever to learn that sort of thing, that did not mean he was an idiot though.

He was silent though now, as they spoke about apparently heading off for the surface again to go off on this mission and get it over with. That was something he was perfectly fine doing, since it also would get him away from this conversation and onto something that might actually be helpful. Honestly he was getting a bit bored wanting to go do something instead of dealing with more talking or something. Jack was a bit of a smooth talker namely to get info or to get himself out of certain situations, but even he got a bit bored with it at some point.

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Agraba:

The younger guard gave Willow a friendly smile and nodded towards her as he headed off to get a drink at the bar for the two of them, Tinker Bell took a moment and looked over at Maddie as he approached her and wrapped an arm over his shoulder and dragged him away out of sight from Rumple and Jafar. "We need to go like now." She whispered to him, before gently patting him on the shoulder. "I'm doing alright, go and get mom and dad and we can get out of here." She said giving him a slight nod to tell him to get them and they can be ready to go.

However if they looked they would notice that Rumple was staring directly at them giving them an evil grin and smile waving towards them. But he didn't make any indication of calling any of the guards just yet. Both Cheshire and Mad Hatter had gone to get some drinks at the bar, while Auora asked the older guard to get herself a drink as well to they needed to get out now as soon as possible.

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"There's a few enchanted weapons around somewhere the other members of the round table have some." King Arthur said to Megan as he leaned up slightly against the wall of the elevator until they were at the floor again. "This way." Queen Ariel said as she motioned for the group to follow her down the hallway where they had initially entered the kingdom from. There were three carriages already waiting for all of them along with a few extra warriors around ten of them to be exact to help with the mission. "We are ready to go whenever you all are ready to." The soldier told them as Eric nodded towards them as he turned to face the rest of the group.

"Pick a carriage and we can make our way up to the surface." King Eric said as he and Ariel headed towards the closest one along with Hansel and Gretel, as Sierra thought for a moment but she decided to stick with Jack and Megan for now and see which one they would take. "You are welcome to join us if you'd like." Guinevere offered as she made her way over towards the other carriage along with King Arthur and Belle to. The other soldiers that were going with went into the last one as well to.

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Merlin started to inspect the map as he noticed that there was a way into the castle itself as he pointed towards that one. "Could we enter through there?" Merlin asked Flynn as Layla took a moment and looked at the map seeing it as well to, however it was at the side of a large cliff and the pathway looked rather narrow. Flynn leaned back slightly as he thought for a moment as he looked over at Robin Hood's men and then over at Merlin and then the kids to. "It would be easier to get a smaller group through there and infilrate the castle, while a larger group plays as a distraction." Flynn said as he then gestured to a few towers of the castle itself, showing where there were some weapon emplacements.

Robin Hood made his way over as he looked at the plans as well to, he liked the idea of a smaller team sneaking inside. "The smaller group should take out those weapons, my men can play as a distraction." Robin Hood said as he looked over towards Merlin, they were however short on men to they'd loose the battle rather quickly. "How long should it take to get the others here?" Robin Hood asked, hopping that they'd have enough of them to convince the others to help out. "Hopefully not to much longer and they hopefully will get Atlantica's aide it should even the odds." Merlin said to him as Robin Hood nodded. "Though I do suggest another recon of the castle it's been a few weeks since it the map might be outdated at least when it comes to troops." Flynn suggested.

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Maddie followed alongside Tink as she Sheppard him towards another location. He was a little confused at first as to why she had asked him to find his mother and father, but then it quickly dawned on him that it was all a part of the guise that they were a family. The urgency in her voice suggested something had happened, but all that went out the way as he felt himself get colder. He could feel a pair of eyes looking at him, and he unfortunately turned to see Rumple smiling at them and keeping his eyes glued to their position.

He tried to act as if he hadn't noticed, giving Tinkerbell a nod before he made his way back towards the crowds of people. Maddie tried not to focus on it, to just focus on those he knew and what he needed to be doing. He found Hatter and Chesire easy enough, standing by the drink station. Maddie grabbed himself a drink as he looked towards his dad, keeping his back to Rumple while he lifted his cup up towards his lips. "Don't look now but we've been spotted. Bell says we need to leave now."

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Her father didn't give much details on the other potential enchanted weapons that existed courtesy of Merlin. She supposed though that when you wielded Excalibur, you didn't pay much attention to the weapons that others had. Of course, Megan didn't even know the extent of her sword's power. She knew that supposedly, the sword granted the right to rule - and that it was magic in origin. She didn't know what it could do though, beyond being used to cut people.

The carriages were ready for them, with the fairy tale characters already sorting themselves into carriages. The day before, Megan would not have sought out a seat with Guinevere and Arthur. But now, she remembered them as her parents. And Megan wasn't much of an extrovert. She didn't like riding with strangers. So, Megan took a seat in the same carriage as Arthur and Guinevere. She left the door open as she got in, assuming Jack would follow most likely.

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The conversation was going on and on a bit about the castle and all and how they were supposed to get into it. Then again, it seemed like everyone went charging towards death in general or something. Some might call it heroic, others would call that sort of thing stupid. She personally would call it stupid, since heroes and knights in shining armor weren't real, they didn't matter, they weren't real, none of that existed really. It was all fairy tales meant for children really, so why did these people seem so intent on playing up that sort of fantasy.

Sure, she did have some memories of this world, but they were just that, memories. Nothing more, she felt no connections to these people or this place aside from vague recognition. Her attention was drawn again as they were now talking about needing to potentially do another round of recon since apparently the castle might have changed in a few weeks. "So going to check out the really creepy castle and hope we don't get caught, that'll be fun..."

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He was wondering how much of an army or something did Atlantica have, especially considering that when they reached the carriages, there were 10 sitting there waiting to go with them. Earlier it had sounded like they didn't have too many people to spare, but this was making him wonder just how much they were potentially hiding with regards to it. Then again, they might not want to fully show how powerful they are in order to keep people from thinking that they were a threat. That always was an explanation.

Glancing at the carriages, he saw people starting to split up, and Meg getting into one of the carriages, following after Arthur and Guinevere. He thought for a moment about letting her be in that carriage or something with her parents and letting her be, but he decided at the last second to go into that carriage too. Eventually climbing in and finding a spot to sit down by her.

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Cassiopeia looked over the map with the others, following the narrow path along the cliff that would be the back way in. She then scanned the guard towers and wondered how they could get there and disable the guards and weapons. Her father mentioned his men being the distraction and Cassi quickly put up her hand.
”I’ll be part of the distraction. I don’t do heights,” she explained. She had never fallen from a great height or even a small one but there was something about being high up, away from the ground, like a cliff that sent her stomach plummeting into her feet. Being in a tree wasn’t so bad but the cliff would be too much for her.

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Willow watched her young guard leave to get them refreshments and she sighed a bit before looking around. Colby filled her vision and she smiled before hugging him. She was relieved they made it out of the vault okay and he seemed happy, like they had gotten what they came for.
"I'm doing fine. About to dance with that fine guard over there," Willow said with a nod. Matthew came near after that but was quickly scooped up by Tinker Belle. Willow tracked their movements and saw what had Tinker Bell concerned. Rumpel winked at them all and Willow quickly looked away. She wrapped an arm around Colby to steady herself before glancing at her mother with fear in her eyes. Their time was officially up.

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Rose listened intently. She didn't mind which team she was on, but she would want to be with Cassiopeia. "Either team is fine for me. But I'd rather stick with Cassiopeia this time." She was thankful that this time things had worked out, but she didn't want to not be by Cassiopeia's side.

"We can do recon before the others show up. Unless you know they will be here tomorrow morning or something. How far is the castle from here?" She asked Merlin and glanced at Flynn. Either one could answer.

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"Ah, that sounds nice." He said, keeping the smile plastered on his face even as Rumpel noticed them. That was really bad. They needed to go. Immediately. He let Willow lean into him. It helped him too. "I suppose that puts a wrinkle in the rest of our night." He looked for his dad.

"Let's go meet with the rest of the family." He offered his arm so she could properly hold onto that and started crossing the room to where his dad was. When they arrived, he kept a smile on his face. They converged with Maddie, who had already said something to their fathers.

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Agraba:

Cheshire and Mad Hatter took a moment and looked at each other then over towards Maddie, as Tinker Bell went over to join the rest of them, she looked around the only way out of the room was through the way that they had came in from. "Lets get going then." Aurora said as they nodded and started to slowly make their way out of the dancefloor.

However as they did there was a number of guards coming into the room and they seemed to be on alert now as well to, which wasn't a good thing most likely, however the guards didn't notice them just yet either. On the way out there were a few guests however that were in the way as well to, being checked by the guards as they left checking their papers to make sure that they were right like they had done on the way into the palace itself then a voice behind them spoke up. "You all going somewhere?" Rumple asked he was still very much covered in burns thanks to Jack earlier.

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Sierra decided to follow along with Arthur, Guinevere as well as Megan and Jack into the carriage that they were going in as well, once everyone was inside the carriage they quickly went off, and back into the water. Sierra took a moment to look over at the caste and the rest of the kingdom going off into the distance. Guinevere and Arthur were actually happy that their daughter decided to join them as they continued to travel through the water. "So do either of you have any kind of fighting experience?" Arthur decided to ask looking over at the three of them.

Sierra rubbed the back of her neck slightly and shook her head. "No not really honestly." Sierra said as Arthur nodded slightly she didn't seem much of the fighter type really either to him. It didn't take to long for the group to reach the surface again as the island came into view in the window, there were around twenty ships floating in the distance within the harbor of sorts. The carriages then slowly moved towards a more secluded area of the island itself so that they weren't spotted which was probably a good thing then.

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"Heights aren't all that bad don't be such a chicken." Layla said looking over at her sister teasingly as she gave her a slight nudge she knew that Cassi didn't do so well with heights but it was always funny to see. Merlin wasn't really familiar with the area as he turned to look at either Flynn or Robin Hood who had been in the area a lot longer than he had been. "It's a few hours walk from here, we can leave first thing in the morning and we can go from there once the rain clears up." Flynn said as Robin Hood nodded towards him Merlin nodded as he looked over towards the group.

"We aren't going to start the fight on the castle yet just the recon until the others come once they have finished their tasks." Merlin told Cassi as he looked towards the group. "We should get some rest." Merlin told them as Rapunzel came over to the group and looked over at the kids. "They set up some rooms for you all upstairs if you want it." Rapunzel told them Layla nodded as she looked towards her sister.

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Cassiopeia blushed when Rose said she wanted to stay with her group after they did the recon. Cassi leaned into Rose and kissed her cheek quickly before refocusing. It amazed Cassi how quick it was for her to transition from being only Rose's friend and harmless flirting to something a bit more serious. She was loving every minute of it.
Cassiopeia looked at her twin when she tried teasing her. Cassi nudged her back in retaliation.
"Ya, let me know how that goes the next time you need a spider killed." It really made hunting difficult when a spider landed on her sister's shoulder and she scared everything off within ten miles of their location.
A decision was made to wait until morning before they did any kind of recon. Cassiopeia liked the sounds of that. A decent sleep, meal and a chance to restock their supplies would make certain they were fresh for reconnaissance and any possible fighting.
Rapunzel announced there were rooms for them all upstairs and Cassi looked to her sister at the same time Layla looked to her. "Should we share a room?" she looked at Rose, inviting her to stay with them as well. "Unless you want to stay with your mom of course." Cassi would love for Rose to stay with her. Nothing would happen, not with Layla there but she didn't want to pressure Rose either. They could simply share a meal together and see each other in the morning.

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Willow remained latched onto Colby's arm, seemingly trying to leech the strength from him as they regained their rather large group. Willow was ready to run off the dance floor when a voice made her blood run cold. It was one thing to see the man from afar, another entirely to hear and see him up close.
Willow slowly turned her head to look at the man who was heavily scarred. She just stared at him, unsure if she should curtsey, curse or run. Willow's eyes drifted to her mother's form, looking for help and answers.

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"I would much rather spend time in a room with you at this point in my life. I do have many questions for my mom, but I'd rather cuddle with you." She winked at Cassi. Rose was a flirt. Even in a relationship, she liked to flirt with the person. Remind them what they meant to her.

"You can cuddle too if you want, Layla." Rose said, giving her a playful smile. Though she doubted Layla would. It was likely there was a clear divide. Rose was poly, but she would not tread on their sisterly bond. Joking about it was one thing.

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Colby could feel Willow's fear in her grip on his arm. He was determined to protect her. But with the arrival of Rumple his normal easy-going manner left him. The man had been disfigured, an event for which he had not been present. It was grotesque. However, he didn't have the lamp. If he could distract Rumple and the guards of Jafar long enough, maybe whoever had it would be able to get out with it.

After taking a slow breath of air, Colby smiled. It was the grin of a cat about to play with its prey. "We were discussing the wonderful food spread. And the fantastic music." It wasn't the best lie. Rumple would probably easily be able to see through it. But if Colby could keep his attention, that was good enough. "I find a soiree like this is best spent near the food table. Colby had no idea how a soiree would normally go. He had never been to one before. But if historical dramas had any facts, the food table was where the evening drama was discussed. The equivalent to the office water cooler.