World Refugees Final Mix

"And since this is the dream world, I can imagine that I actually have talent." Aya said half seriously as Song drummed up a few notes of her own. She quieted as she walked, taking notice of the way the sound interacted with the environment.

"..hey, hey. Do that again. You know, maybe if we make enough noise, she'll come to us. ...or..." A sly smile slid across her face. "I could use my Maleficent call."

Before anyone could ask the obvious question, Aya cupped her hands around her mouth and began to shout at the gloomy forest ahead. "I'M CONSIDERING SELLING MY SOUL IN EXCHANGE FOR UNTOLD POWER AND MASTERY OVER THE DARKNESS! IS THERE ANYONE OUT THERE THAT CAN HELP ME WITH THIS?!"

Previous real-life experience has taught Aya that this was clearly an extremely effective way to get Maleficent's attention.

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Ren opened and closed her mouth several times, but there were no words. All she could do was make a few incomprehensible sounds and point at Aya.

Well, at least it was a more direct approach than just singing "It's a Small World" over and over to annoy Maleficent out of hiding, and they now knew what was coming... right?

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Deeply within the forest, Maleficent chuckled, a laugh that echoed all the way through the forest, making the leaves shake an ripple in a nonexistent wind.

That was an offer she would never take up. For one thing, she was not incapable of detecting an obvious lie tinged with sarcasm. For another, Aya would make a poor student. Too stubborn, too tied to her own notions of right and wrong and how the world worked. Too strong in herself to be easily manipulated. Similarly Ren was just a little too . . . pure.

Such an offer, genuinely spoken from Songbird . . . now that might be tempting. The girl had already shown herself to be flexible in her notions of good and evil.

But that was not her plan for these three. Not on this night. They could be so mch more useful in other ways, if only she could bring them to do what she wished.

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Song raised her head and her ears flicked forward, focusing in on the dark laugh. "Well, it certainly got her attention. Good work, Aya." She was not being sarcastic.

Of course, she would never make such an offer. Only once had she ever turned to Darkness, and that was out of fear. She knew better now, and nothing would drive her to make that choice.
Well, almost nothing, but any loved one whose life she might try to save using Darkness would surely have mixed feelings on the matter.
No, she was quite through with that, thank you very much.

With a toss of her head - for she really couldn't get enough of being in an equine form - she trotted on ahead, letting her mind wonder over the various scenarios that might lie ahead and what to do about them.

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Aya turning to the darkness actually wasn't that unheard of, it would just take some extraordinary circumstances and she had considered it a few times before. A lot went on in her head that people didn't know about and Aya liked keeping it that way. She also wouldn't go to Maleficent for the dark powers hook-up either since being Yen Sid's student and her student wouldn't work out so great.

"Got her attention well enough." Aya grinned like a lunatic and walked after Song. "HEY YOU GONNA COME OUT AND SAY HI OR WHAT?"

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As much fun as it would be to join Aya in taunting Maleficent to build up some confidence, Ren figured karma would smack both of them upside the head if they were too busy talking smack to look out for a sign of an attack. Not that Aya wasn't likely to catch a clue before it was too late, but Ren was just paranoid like that. Besides, Aya had played that card first, so it was only fair.

Instead, Ren stayed close to the others--the last thing they needed was to get separated somehow. "So, if Maleficent decides to start using psychological warfare on us, I vote we fight back by singing the most obnoxious songs we can back at her to drown her out," Ren suggested. "My favorites are 'I'm Henry the Eighth I Am' and 'It's a Small World.' What do you guys think?"

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Maleficent did not appear, though the path leading deeper into the forest appeared to widen somewhat.

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"I know a better one," Song said mischievously in response to Ren's suggestion. "This is the song that doesn't end. Yes it goes on and on, my friend. Some people started singing it not knowing what it was, and they'll continue singing it forever just because..." she trailed off before anyone decided to throw something at her.

"But really, this dark forest act is a little overdone. I wonder how she'd respond if we started trying to overwrite it with our own dreams?"
Experimentally, she focused on the path ahead and tried to will it even wider, mentally pushing at the trees to see if she could make them move back.

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"Whoah now, we want to annoy her, not me." Aya groaned. Being a former camp counselor, she knew full well the annoyance power of 'The song that doesn't end'. "I agree with the forest thing. Why don't we get the whole Candy Mountain thing going on? Or at least something a little less dark."

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"Again, I vote for Andalasia," Ren said. "We could meet her halfway and make a lovely rose garden... but I can see that ending badly for us with the thorns and all." Hm, maybe she shouldn't have suggested that out loud, then? "Sorry," she said, abashed.

Just to experiment, Ren twirled her finger, picturing a few pastel-colored swirls forming around it. "Well, that's cheering," she said sarcastically when all she could call up was a sad, faded blue and green swirl of mist, nothing like the bright, Easter-toned colors she had imagined.

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In response to Song's attempt, the road did seem to widen, but it was quite wide before the branches of the vast trees ceased to touch over it, and even when they did, no light descended from above to light the path. Instead, the mist seemed darker, as if the opposite of a sun shone overhead, and darkness seemed to spread along the path, even darker than the forest itself.

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Song's steps slowed and she relinquished her equine form before striding forward again more swiftly.

Very few things actually scared Robin these days. Oh, certainly she stayed aware of all the dangers, but trivial horrors like spiders, disease, monsters and murderers in the night... these things no longer bothered her when she wasn't actually faced with them. The nightmares she still had were vague things, based more on emotion than frightening events.
Darkness, though... Darkness itself still plagued her with nagging anxieties and unprovoked terror. Oh yes, she still feared the Dark. That was another reason she would never accept an offer to use its power.

None of this showed outwardly, though. No more then a slight tension in her body, a small frown on her lips as she walked into the darkness. And then, quite suddenly, she put all of her will into a burst of white light, wishing for it to flare outward like a star and wash away the shadows. Not permanently, but simply as a demonstration of her own power here and a challenge of sorts. Come out, fairy. I'm ready for you.

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Ironically, Aya began to whistle the song 'Snuff out the Light', a musical number that never was.

The Emperor's New Groove was once known as "The Kingdom of the Sun", a movie that slightly mirrored The Prince and the Pauper and involved the evil witch Yzma enacting a complex plot to steal the sun. This was because she wanted to remain beautiful forever and because the sun gave her wrinkles, it had to go. "Snuff out the light" was her song and even showed up on the soundtrack. It was a pretty catchy tune.

Alas, there was major production trouble and Kingdom of the Sun became Emperor's New Groove, a much less complex movie with little resembling the previous plot.

Of course, in this instance, Aya was aiming to recreate the exact opposite effect, creating light between her hands in a tight, bright ball that grew in size with each passing note she put into it. Aside from 'snuffing out the dark', this activity was mostly to distract Aya from her impatience over their no-show opponent.

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To do her part, Ren drew inspiration from one of the most unlikely sources. Never mind that the Silent Hill games were probably the worst things to be thinking about right now--actually, scratch that. Go with Dumbledore's speech about turning on the light to ward off the terrors of the dark instead. Yeah, much better. With that nice thought driving her, Ren called up a deceptively light, powerful lantern to light the way.

And just for good measure, a nice and shiny chef's knife appeared in her other hand. Ren grinned at the others and mimed poking something with the tip of the knife. "Doink."

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The light around the three girls was steady, creating a bright circle around them. But the darkness that surrounded the light only seemed to grow darker.

At least a voice spoke from the darkness around them. "Every light casts a shadow."

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Well, it was about damn time.

Robin's light 'solidified' - in so much as light can solidify - as a small, bright globe floating above her raised hand, shooting out soft rays like those one can see if one looks at a light with squinted eyes.

When the words sounded, she stood still. It seemed there might be no point in going further.
"And likewise every shadow has a light at its source," she retorted, her eyes moving slowly over the near-tangible darkness beyond their dome of light. "We're not here to play word games, Maleficent. Kindly show yourself."

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"What she said." Aya muttered, glancing around her. Nope, nothing witty right now.

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"Come on, let's all discuss this in a nice, mature way," Ren said. Sure, the odds of it working out were probably slim to none, but hey, it was worth a shot, right? She still kept a hold on her knife, though--she wasn't a complete fool.

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"No? Not word games . . . then why are you here?" Amusement tinged Maleficent's voice. "And tell me, child, if your desire is to discuss this in a nice, mature way, then why do you speak to me with iron in hand?"

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"Why are you here, Maleficent?" Robin responded, thinking as quickly as she could and trying not to sound too aggressive. Aggression made enemies. Persuasion made allies.
"Why can't you allow yourself to become who you used to be? Margaret is happy. She has a good life. Why are you still divided from her? There's no place for the Dark Fairy in this world, but there's a place for Lady Margaret."

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Aya actually didn't know that the 'iron' thing applied to Maleficent. Sure, it was that way in every other piece of literature ever but Disney had a way of overlooking this and that. Like the whole Hercules being the son of Zeus and a mortal.

Grinning, she filed that little tidbit away for later and remained silent. Diplomacy, famously, was not her strong suit after all and she was pretty sure Maleficent wouldn't listen to any attempts she herself made to reason.

Literature suggested that bargaining with fairies was a bad idea too, after all.

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Oh goody. She had gone and made the lady known for throwing curses around at the drop of a hat suspicious. Ren gave Aya and Robin an anxious glance, then cleared her throat. "Forgive me, ma'am. I had not meant to offend you," she said somewhat calmly before turning her will toward transforming the knife into a solid walking stick.

Ren bit the inside of her cheek out of nervous habit and decided that it would be best if she just kept her mouth shut for now, to be on the safe side.

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Maleficent raised an ironic eyebrow at Songbird, Ren's iron forgotten. "No place for me? I believe you are very much mistaken. Margaret is not a whole. She's a fragment, a fragment denying her past, trying to pretend that she can return to what she was with no consequences. Not unlike you really, is she, Robin? So much of what you are now and have always been is a way of denying the world, of trying to hide from reality . . . just like she always tried to hide in a bottle of wine."

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Song gave the fairy a sardonic look at first. Denying the world and hiding from reality? No, that was what she used to do. What point was there in hiding from reality when so many of her fantasies had come to life? True, she had sought the Dreaming, but that was not a denial of the world. Not in the way Maleficent seemed to imply.

The last comment, however, caught her by surprise and there was a moment of confusion before she realized who Maleficent was referring to.
It took her another few seconds to find a response. "What... what does that... My mother has nothing to do with this. How do you even know about her?" Her tone was more confused and irritated than actually hurt.
"Don't answer that. I don't care. What I meant was that, separate as you are from Margaret, you're as much a fragment as she is. You're her Darkness, and she's your Light. You need both to be complete. What's more, her guilt and all the damage you've done is consequence enough. There's no reason to cause more."

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