A Curse Upon Thee 2-11 (Patreon)

“Lancelot?” Mary Margaret’s gasp echoed off cracked stone walls, voice echoing back in the ruined room. “Lancelot, what’s going on?”The armored knight didn’t blink, eyes locked dead on Finn. Even with a weapon aimed right at him, his gauntlets sat at his sides, a smile still calm on his face.“You know, I figured this.” Emma shook her head slowly, one hand on Mary Margaret’s shoulder to make absolutely sure her mother didn’t dare take a single step. “I just knew there was something… something had to be wrong with you.”The man in armor didn’t bother to answer both women, eyes firmly on the guy aiming a furry meat cleaver his way. "How incredibly interesting.” Light from the sky outside poured in through the window, a pale moonbeam splashing across the knight’s dark skin as he tilted his head to the side. “You know, if my eyes weren’t seeing it right now, I’d have to deny it. To think…” Something genuinely amused colored the man’s deep voice, tongue almost tasting the individual words that left his lips. “The bane of all ogres west of Germonia, the fearsome Red Death itself, is a simple wizard?" “People keep calling me that, but they’re wrong.” Finn offered the knight a lopsided smirk as sharp as the blade in his hand. Blue eyes narrowed, he pointed Slaughter Demon straight out in front of him. "It’s sorcerer, actually. Wrong class, you fake piece of shit."

“Fake, you say?” 

Lancelot let out a laugh with those three words, a thick pillar of cloying purple smoke suddenly erupting from nowhere.“What the-” Finn jumped back, dagger still out in front of him.The thick fog plumed out all around him, all of it condensing into a tight, dark mass and swirling in a whirlwind that blocked off the knight and everything behind him.“Mary Margaret?!” Eyes wide, the shout left his throat equal parts question and demand.“What?!!”“I don’t know!” He yelled again, attention still fixed on the sudden show of magic. “I’m asking you!”

When all the smoke finally cleared, an older — and much shorter — pale-skinned woman stood exactly where the dark-skinned knight had, auburn hair done up and out of the way to show off all the glittering expensive gems inlaid into her dark purple dress. “Fortunately for you, young man, you’re correct.”

Dark eyes stared back at him from a face that was still pretty — for an older lady, at least — and those eyes stayed sharp as they swept over the frozen group. “Un-fortunately, you probably won’t live to enjoy that.”

"Cora!" Mary Margaret’s voice was loud enough it filled the room.

"Cora?" Finn didn’t look back.

“Cora.” Emma’s echo did nothing for him.

"Uh-huh…” Finn nodded at the threat, blowing out air from pursed lips as the weirdness calmed down just a bit. Just an old lady. An old witch. An old witch-lady. That was fine, easy to deal with, right? He’d handled Cursed Users before… kinda. 

Granted, he couldn’t really ever remember fighting one, but it felt familiar enough.

No matter what, he could handle one now… hopefully. “Hey, uh, mind catching me up on who the hell the old lady is?" Finn didn’t bother to lower Slaughter Demon even an inch, ready to jump in at any second. “I mean, I’m fine with killing her either way, but I’d like some backstory on Nanny McPhee over here.”

“She’s one of the most evil witches in all the land!” Mary Margaret spat out. “Evil to the core.”

“That… that literally doesn’t help me at all?” An eyebrow went high, Finn frowning a little. “I kinda figured that when I saw him… her.”

"Finn, meet Regina's actual mother." Emma's hand dropped instantly to the cold grip of her Glock. “By blood.”

Well… fuck. “I know I technically asked for it but…” Finn's frown deepened significantly. "...you just keep on telling me the absolute worst things possible, Emma."

"Mary Margaret, my dear." Cora’s voice came out smooth, perfectly controlled in a rasp that made every word come out perfectly shaped and placed. "I’m so surprised you never noticed. I made it quite obvious."

"Where is Lancelot?” Mary Margaret’s face may have been pale but the woman spoke with strength. “What did you do to him?"

"He's quite dead, of course." Cora spoke the horrific words calmly, almost as if she was politely discussing the weather over afternoon tea. "For several months now, quite honestly. Killing the brave knight and taking his place was remarkably easy. Honestly, worryingly so.” The old witch shook her head, hands folding together. “People have the worrying trait of seeing exactly what they want to see."

“Wh-why?” Mary Margaret's voice cracked, that royal certainty shattering completely. "Why would you do this?"Because she’s evil. Finn’s eye twitched. You said so!

"Because, foolish girl, absolutely nobody was going to listen to me of their own free will." The old lady’s mouth curved slowly as she spoke, something that might've been a smile if it had even the tiniest bit of actual warmth to it. "So, I simply became someone they absolutely would listen to. Someone they foolishly believed they could trust."

"Yeah, I've honestly heard enough of this monologue.” Finn bit out the words, digging deep and pulling hard on his reserves. “Burning Brand!" 

Roaring red-orange flames erupted fast along the edge of Slaughter Demon, lighting up the room. Time for an old-school witch burning!

He charged forward the second the words slipped free, closing the entire distance between him and Cora in two explosive steps. Fire burning bright on the wide blade, the heavy meat cleaver came down in a vicious arc aimed right at her skull—“So incredibly aggressive.”

—and cleanly hit nothing but empty air. Teleporting?

Thick purple smoke ballooned lazily where Cora had been standing a split-second ago, her voice coming from the other end of the room all the way to his right. “Exactly like that crude little power of yours. All that lovely, useful anger."

Finn spun hard on his heel and kicked off again, blazing blade carving a fiery arc through empty space. By the time he was on her, she was already gone again; Cora poofing all around the room in rapid gouts of purple smoke, somehow managing to stay exactly one frustrating step ahead of his blade. 

"Stay back!" He yelled at the others over his shoulder, blue eyes frantically tracking Cora's purple bursts. "She’s got magic!"“Yeah, Finn!” Emma shot back, the slide of her Glock racking loud enough to echo. “I think we can tell.”“My bad for trying to keep you up-to-date, boss!” He swung the burning dagger again, getting nothing but thick smoke in his lungs for his trouble. Several angry curses almost spilled out before he tracked the next appearance of the old lady behind a broken pillar. “You somehow missed the fact that you were cool with an evil witch before!”

Mary Margaret ducked back, the schoolteacher-queen raising her bow, while Emma raised her gun to get a bead on the witch. “Mother!” Finn kept on fighting, keeping the pressure on as hard as he could; desperately chasing after the teleporting purple smoke with his flaming blade. “Fucker! Just! Stay! Fucking! Sti-”

Insane as it was, he was way faster than he had ever been in Storybrooke and so many times stronger than he’d ever felt in Kyoto, all the newly-found gates running through his entire body actively screaming with raw power with each burst of motion.

But whoever this old bitch was, she knew how to move and she knew how to use that weird Cursed Energy that Finn still didn’t understand. 

Aand she was actively, brutally using both against him.

In a blink, she vanished again. “-ill?”In the next, she appeared directly in front of his face. 

One perfectly manicured hand already raised, he ran right into it.

Force he couldn’t see brutally slammed straight into Finn's chest and face. A choked grunt ripped from his lips, Finn’s entire upper body screaming in pain as the impact tore him backwards off his feet and carried through the room; Mary Margaret and Emma grunting as they were thrown away as well. Breath left his lungs all at once, forced free as his back slammed into the solid stone of the wall hard enough to crack it behind his spine. 

The pain at his back was almost nothing compared to the pain he felt in his chest, unable to catch a breath as that same invisible pressure only tightened. Nnggh. Pinned in place against the wall like a bug on a board, Finn couldn’t do anything as Cora glided toward him, heels clicking softly against stone.

The woman deliberately took her time, moving as slowly as she felt; one hand casually raised with her fingers curled almost like a claw.

"Such raw power you possess, boy. Incredible and so so potent. I do wonder—"

Her other hand moved forward, manicured fingers splayed wide as she reached directly for the center of his chest.Finn grunted, still struggling even as his lungs refused to fill with air. No, no, no, c’mon!

“Shhh. It’s okay, boy.” She leaned in closer, hand glowing with magic. “It’ll only hurt for a moment.”

That hand met his chest and the locket around his chest refused.

Finn grunted, eyes shut as the room filled with a blinding scarlet light, every inch of red exploding outward from his chest. A wave of raw Cursed Energy burst from him, throwing Cora backward across the ruined room as easily as she had done to him. 

The old witch hit the stone ground in a purple-colored heap, Finn dropping to his knees a second after her. “What…” Gasping for air, the red locket around his neck kept shining against his bare chest. “What the actual fuck…”

With a grunt, Cora pulled herself to her feet, the old woman wearing a look of unfiltered surprise before that elegant velvet mask slid smoothly right back into place. “Well, now. Isn’t that incredibly interesting?”

As interesting as it was, it still didn’t stop the woman from raising her hands again, roaring torrents of dark purple fire pouring straight from her open palms.

Son of a- Still pulling hard for every little bit of air he could, Finn threw his whole body to the side, rolling across the floor until he slammed into a stone pillar. As quick as he tried to move, those dark flames barely missed his head by mere inches, the tips of his red hair sizzling under the unnatural heat. “Goddamn it!”

Lucky as he was, the oversized over-carved wooden wardrobe right behind him didn’t come out as well.  

"No!" Emma's husky voice cracked painfully across the ruined room as the magical wood went up in flames like someone had sprayed it top-to-bottom in top-shelf lighter fluid and topped it off with a heavy helping of gasoline. “No, no, no!”

The roaring purple fire didn’t stop just because Emma yelled at it, the flames consuming the furniture in seconds. Finn could only watch from the dirt, mouth hanging open and eyes wide, as their only known way back home burned to useless ash.

“Well, then…” Cora smiled, her expression incredibly cold and deeply satisfied as she stared at the wreckage. “I do believe I’ve seen quite enough for one day.”

Then she was gone. 

Just like that, the purple smoke cascaded around her one last time as the old witch vanished again, leaving them alone with the crackling fire

As she stared at it, Mary Margaret collapsed to her knees beside Emma, the heavy sound of her drop drowned out completely by the loud sobbs that tore out of her throat. 

Fuck… Finn pushed himself back to his feet with another grunt, doing his very best to ignore the throbbing ache in his spine and skull from where the old lady had thrown him into the wall. Heat washed over his face, purple and harsh, as he stared with blank blue eyes at the burning remains of the wardrobe. "So, what the hell are we gonna do now?"

Emma went as white as her mother. "We're stuck.” Her green eyes were fixed dead on the magical flames as they began to die out, nothing but embers and ash left behind. “We're completely stuck in the Enchanted Forest with absolutely no way home."

– o – o – o – o – o – o – o –

Sorcery Fight - 100 GPFight your first magic user.

ROLL: Reputation (100) [Naruto] {Control}:

Even long after his death, the very thought of Madara living was enough to create an alliance of all five ninja villages. Now you too seem to possess such a reputation, one that causes the mere mention of your name to drive fear into the hearts of even the most cold blooded killers and most powerful entities. This reputation and fear will increase as you perform more actions and become more well known.

Grimoire Points: 1000