𝘵𝘸~ 𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘤𝘶𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, 𝘴𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘴𝘶𝘨𝘨𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴

𝘾𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙊𝙣𝙚... 𝙋𝙖𝙧𝙩 𝙊𝙣𝙚

Daughter of King Candy, his very own Lady Lollipop, Cameron Candy.

They were the hidden card up his sleeve that he could play at any given time.

The son of the Queen of Hearts, the Prince of Hearts. Archeros Heart.

A temperamental hothead, with powerful ability and all the looks.

Gaston's daughter, the beautiful Gloria Legume.

A pretty face who he knew was going to be useful.

And the son of the human hammer himself, Vasco Sumac.

A key element to the group, his unpredictableness is something valuable, as well as his immense talent in the art of inventing.

These four sat in a semi-circle on the floor in front of him while he sat on a mis-leveled stool 'above' them. And sitting next to him on a dirty burgundy cushion was the disowned son of Mother Gothel, Gabriel Gothel.

After a few minutes of silence, he finally spoke. "The four of you have been hand-picked by myself to take part of the inner circle."

Cameron sat up straight and smiled, but bit her tongue and stayed silent.

Pandora continued, "this is not a choice, it's already done. All of you have my trust." he looked around the semi-circle, eyes landing on Gabe, and quickly looked away, "As you all know, for the past three weeks I have been recruiting a group to go to the other side... to the magic kingdom." He paused and smiled a bit, "I have a vision, and in order to make it a reality, I am going to need your help. It's a large group that we got our hands-on, therefore I've broken it down to subgroups."

He looked at Acheros and Cameron, "The Riot," his eyes met with Gloria's, "The Beauties," then he looked at Vasco, "The Tinkers, and..." his eyes quickly flickered over to Gabe then looked away, "and the costume makers" he ended.

"I can't be there to control all aspects of this operation. So I ask you to be my eyes, be my ears, I trust you to report back anything and everything. You are now a part of me you have my respect, my power, my trust. You are the authority." he said.

A few voices and footsteps could be heard coming from the outside. Pandora ignored this and continued, "You each have been assigned to a group, with the exception of Cameron and Acheros" he looked at them, "everything clear?"

Vasco smiled to himself while digging a small hole with his finger on the ground, Gabe avoided eye contact and pulled at a loose string from the pillow he sat on. Gloria kept a poker face, her eyes almost burning holes through Pandora. Acheros had his arms crossed and seemed to be thinking about Pandora's words, and Cameron wasn't even sitting still anymore, she looked like she might burst from excitement.

"So what was this, like your first big bad guy meeting?" Gloria scoffed, crossing her arms.

"Yeah, the least you could do was give us some chairs" Acheros pouted and leaned on Gloria's shoulder, "and gave me a lead, how dare you, I knew this was too good to be true. We're gonna have to talk about that"

"I for one honestly just can't wait" Cameron squealed, "what's the plan big boss? Tell us! Tell us what the plan is!" she bounced.

Pandora glared for a second at Gloria and Acheros then completely ignored them turning to Cameron with a small amused smile. A couple of knocks were heard at the door, but Pandora ignored them. Acheros scoffed and rolled his eyes, tired of sitting he stood up and dusted off his bottom.

"I'm terribly offended that you made a prince like myself sit on the floor!" he huffed, his face turning red while taking a step towards Pandora, his staff in his hand. Pandora remained in his seat and looked down at Cameron, giving Acheros the height advantage.

"We'll get to those details later, Cam," He said calmly then looked up at Acheros who was directly above him. Pandora had a slightly amused look on his face, "Ros, dear, don't make me take your title away from you so soon" he said and smiled up at him.

𝘾𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙊𝙣𝙚... 𝙋𝙖𝙧𝙩 𝙏𝙬𝙤

Acheros didn't like the sound of that, he held his hand out, between his and Pandora's body, close to Pandora's chest.

"Deary, you don't know how--" Pandora bent over and clutched his chest, silently gasping for air. He looked at Gabe and held his hand out, Gabe immediately gave him his staff. Pandora regained his composter and furrowed his eyebrows, looking up at Acheros.

"I've been practicing," Acheros said, giving Pandora's heart another squeeze.

Pandora gasped out for air one more time but remained sitting down, his smile was gone. Now neither of the two said anything, the group around them was quiet and waiting for the other's next move. It seemed like they were even holding their breath to retain from making any noise.

Then a small slash was heard.

Acheros looked down at his coat, the side was ripped, it wasn't ripped before. Then his sleeve ripped as well, then the other, then his shirt. An invisible force was tearing his outfit. Furious he looked down at Pandora, who lifted an eyebrow up at him. A small scratch appeared on Acheros' right cheek and a few drops of blood stained his face.

"Do you know how long it took me to make this outfit!" his voice shook with anger as his hand made a fist and Pandora clutched his chest again yet refused to give in and just started up with a smile.

"I'm so terribly sorry your majesty," he said then burst out laughing as if his heart just wasn't on the verge of being stopped. He remained looking up at Acheros.

His face was red with anger and the tearing had stopped, his knuckles were now white and all you could hear was Pandora's laughing as he hugged his own chest.

"Ros, please that's enough!" Gabe's voice made him stop.

Pandora coughed out and gasped to regain his breath, he put his hands on his knees and bowed his head, breathing hard. He placed one of his hands over his heart, the beating was fast and starting to slow down.

Meanwhile, Gabe looked at Acheros with a scared and worried expression, tears in his eyes. He wanted to scold him, but the fear in him was greater.

"Acheros..." he wasn't sure what to say, he was currently torn in between the two, "I can fix your coat," he said putting his hands on Acheros' shoulders.

"It's beyond repair, Gabe," he sniffed.

Gabe glanced at Pandora, who still had his head down, "I'm sure I can fix it" he said taking it off Ros' shoulders, "c'mon"

But they both stopped in their tracks as they heard Pandora let out a chuckle.

"We're still not done here" he looked up at them.

He stood up and adjusted his own jacket, he faced everyone in the room, who had gotten tired of sitting down and with the heat of the argument had backed up against the room.

"I would like you all to formally meet the rest of our group" he walked up to the front door.

With all the tension between Pandora and Acheros, the noise from outside had grown twice as loud. All the bickering and chatting was being held on the other side of the door, surrounding the house.

"Well I'm not sticking around, you can forget about it," Acheros said walking up to the door as well.

"Archeros!" Pandora looked at him. His expression spoke differently this time. Before you could tell he was messing with Acheros on purpose, he was teasing. But now he meant every word he was about to speak.

"You are the Prince of Hearts. You deserve a better place than this dump and you know it, you want it." The people outside started to knock on the door, tired of waiting outside, "I need you to stay so that these people know who you are, so they know who to respect and who will be leading them into our future. So please, stay... Ros"

Acheros crossed his arms, "They already know to respect me, Pandora" then he held his head up high and walked back to Gabriel.

"Now," Pandora said placing his hand on the door knob, "meet the rest of us" he opened the door and a boy, a girl with long brown hair, and a girl with pretty glowing skin and beautiful curly hair stumbled onto the floor. Pandora rolled his eyes and went back to his 'meeting' place.

𝘾𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙊𝙣𝙚... 𝙋𝙖𝙧𝙩 𝙏𝙝𝙧𝙚𝙚

"PANDORA NORMAN FAERY!" the blonde fairy came in, stepping over the people on the floor, "how dare you make us wait outside, who do you think you are?!" she stomped her way over to him, "why wouldn't you let me in? You should have--you had to let me in--"

"I didn't want you in here, Lorelei," Pandora said through gritted teeth.

"What do you mean, I get to be here as long as you're here," she said, wrapping her arms around his neck.

Pandora took her arms off and held them in his hands and looked her right in the eyes, "look, I love you" he said, "but, I don't want you here" he smiled dropping her hands and looking off to the doorway where people were still making their way in.

Lorelei huffed and crossed her arms, dropping her sweet girlfriend act, "oh, okay" she said her voice full of sarcasm, "that's fine with me, Mr. Boyfriend-Of-The-Year" she proceeded to knock over a broken fruit bowl with two rotten oranges inside.

"Oh, and I'm sure you'll get the girlfriend award" he smiled as she rolled her eyes and went to the back of the room.

As the room filled with the evil offsprings, Jamie and Lilith dusted themselves off after getting off the floor. As Diablos was starting to get back up, he felt someone push him back onto the floor.

"Thanks, dearie" they heard and immediately recognized whose voice it was.

"Nice welcome mat, Dora," he said as he wiped his feet on diablos' back, "coz place, the mold really brings out the walls"

Pandora didn't get to reply because someone beat him to it.

"Malin," they said sternly.

Malin stopped in his tracks and turned around to see Odele helping Diablos off the floor, she dusted his back, then looked at Malin with a poker face.

"Odele, dear!" Malin smirked, "so lovely to see you here"

Odele didn't reply, she maintained her cold expression and her head held high as she grabbed Jamie by the arm and walked by Malin, they both started daggers, Malin with an amused smile on his lips.

Malin turned to the people in the room then spotted the stool Pandora had been previously sitting on, "oh how nice of you to save me a seat, Dora" he grabbed the stool and dragged it to the middle of the room.

"Malin, nice of you to join us" Pandora smiled, he couldn't decide whether or not he wanted to be sarcastic with him.

"Well I mean I had to. Or else who was going to bring life to this depressing little shack and your sad little crew"

"Hm, lovely," Pandora mumbled.

The Evil Queen Sister's walked in next, Leigh-Anne held her head up high and Sarah held her head down.

"Sorry it's not what you're used to, girls," Pandora said.

"Shut up you're trying too hard," Leigh-Anne said, "it's embarrassing"

Pandora faked a smile as they walked past him, nodding to Sarah as she made eye contact with him.

Pandora looked to see the next person who walked in, "well, it seems we are all here now" he took her hand.

It was Dr. Facilier's other daughter, Jane.

"Aw, all that royal talk is making you go all sweet, Pandora" she greeted him with a kiss on his cheek.

This did not go unseen by Lorelei, nor did she take it well.

"Oh we are so about to throw hands!" she rolled her sleeves up, making her way through people, ready to swing at Jane.

"Whoa! Chill blonde it's just a way to greet people" she said, "at least it's the classy way, I don't know about how your cheap blonde extensions do it but--"

"Oh I was going to do it before but now I will definitely beat your ass," Lorelei said taking a swing at Jane.

However, her fist made contact with Pandora's jaw instead as he had stepped between her and Jane. He rubbed his jaw and looked at Lorelei with a different expression than before... lust?

"Oh so now you're on her side," Lorelei said, her hand already on her way to deliver a slap to Pandora.

However her hand never made contact with his face, Pandora strongly held her hand from moving, he held it mid-air, leaned in to whisper something in Lorelei's ear, then let her hand go. Nonetheless, Lorelei's hand still made contact with Pandora's cheek. He held his cheek and closed his eyes, accepting the fact that he still had that coming. Lorelei returned to her original spot in the back but kept glancing back at Pandora every few seconds biting her bottom lip.

"Now, let's get started shall we?" he said, turning to face the now crowded room. Unlike before, nobody was sitting down. There was hardly any space to get to the other room now.

𝘾𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙊𝙣𝙚... 𝙋𝙖𝙧𝙩 𝙁𝙤𝙪𝙧

"Over the past few weeks, I've approached you all with an offer--" Pandora was interrupted as a person's shadow appeared across the room.

At the doorway stood the beautiful and vicious daughter of Cruella, dressed better than anyone in the room. Her worn-out heels stepped into the house, all eyes on her.

"You made a statement," Pandora said, "welcome"

"Charming place, really," she said with pursed lips, "real cozy"

"Well, you haven't missed anything, you're just in time," he said.

"Brother," she said as she walked past him, head held high.

"Sister, lovely to see you here," Malin said, you could hear the irritation in his voice.

"Anyway, as I was saying" Pandora got the attention back on him, "You are all here because we are leaving this wretched place." he signaled to the walls around him, "you do not know the number of comments I've received about the mold in these walls, so we're getting out--"

Cameron glitched and shouted from outside the door, "I'm outside!" she then appeared back in her spot, "now I'm in!" she glitched outside one more time, "I'm outside again!" then she came inside, "now I'm--"

"Cameron please! Just--" Pandora ran a hand through his hair, "we are leaving the un-fortunes!" he looked around, "but of course you all know that that's why you're here right?" he paused, feeling proud that so many people decided to join him, "what we are gathered here today," he paused again, "is to discuss how exactly we are getting out, and what the plan is once we get to the other side"

He looked at Gabe, he was still standing next to Acheros. He started a little longer, expecting Gabe to stand by his side, but he didn't. He didn't move. He still looked torn between the two, but his legs didn't leave Acheros' side.

He looked away and continued, "there are many parts to this operation, so please bear with me. First thing is to get past the barrier. I have found that the easiest way of doing so is on dump day when all the truck drivers and guards and anyone else on that side will be distracted and focused on dumping. The barrier is approximately 35 feet tall"

"Oh and how do you plan on getting us over that one, genius"

That reply could have come from so many different people, Acheros, Lorelei, Malin, even Leigh-Anne. But he decided to ignore trying to find out who it was and instead just answered the question.

"Well you see, at first, one does tend to overthink these simple things." he said, "should we climb the barrier, use the falling items, build a human ladder... when we have the answer right in front of us." he said, "we have one week to pile as much garbage against the barrier." he said, "we've got enough to make it tall enough to climb up and over, so we have to start earlier if we want to get out in time"

"In time for what?" Malin asked.

Pandora took out the invitation from his coat pocket, Gabe had sewn it in for him and unfolded the letter, pinching it in between his thumb and pointer finger, "have I forgotten to tell you the most exciting news of all?" he said, "we all have been formally invited to the annual Halloween Ball"

A soft murmur broke out between the kids.

Pandora smiled and continued, "this year, the kingdom tradition is being held at--" paused before saying, "Beauty Manor, on the 31st of October at 8pm."

The excitement grew amongst the group.

"Please come dressed appropriately, this year's theme..." he looked around, "Tale as Old as Time"

𝘾𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙊𝙣𝙚... 𝙋𝙖𝙧𝙩 𝙁𝙞𝙫𝙚

And just as quickly as the excitement came, it left. The room was now dead quiet as they pondered upon that news.

"We await your arrival" Pandora finished reading the letter, "the royal beauty family" his voice lowered in volume, "this letter must be shown upon arrival" he carefully folded the letter and placed it back in his coat pocket.

The quiet lingered in the air for another second, Cameron spoke up first, but she wasn't bubbly or energetic, because she found that letter fucked up, "so, the dress code--"

"--they're dressing up as our parents?" Estella asked, the 'Cruella in her was drained out when he finished reading the invitation.

"Oh-" Diablos looked down at his shoes.

"That's very--"

"Yeah, I know" Pandora cut off Lilith, he knew they all felt the same, the royal's had kicked them in their pride, their 'evil' 'scary' villain parents, "and that's why we are crashing their precious ball"

A wicked smile appeared on just about everyone's face.

"But it is not going to be as simple," he said, "but I absolutely can promise that it will be so worth it," he said, "we are not going to show up at their front door and say 'we are here to crash your party, no"

"We are going to tear them out from the inside out, among other strategies," he said. "Our main focus, before we start our fun, is taking out the authority figures, so anyone that looks like our parent's age okay?" he said, "this is the part where you might wanna start writing things down," he said, then continued, "with the help of our incredibly talented, Vasco--" he signaled over, Vasco did a little wave at them, "they will be no problem" Vasco laughed a little, his head overflowing with ideas.

"Now, what's left is our fun," Pandora said, "with the royal children having no 'mommy' and 'daddy' to run to we will practically rule their world" he smiled, "so. Like I said, this operation is quite large, so each of you have been placed in one of four groups according to your strengths" he smiled to everyone across the room, "now allow me to tell you what these groups are and their assignment.

"The Beauties consist of Jane Facilier, Leigh-Anne Grimhilde, Sarah Grimhilde, Acheros Hearts, Lorelei, Malin, and Estella De'vil.

Malin smiled, "of course, I am beautiful"

Pandora tried to avoid rolling his eyes, before continuing, "you can all pass off as a royal, so we are counting on you to be our inside destroyers and get us in the ball" he looked around sternly, "you are undercover, understood?" he asked, before continuing, "And Gloria is the lead of your group, so you listen and repost to her '' he spoke serious to get his point across.

Malin didn't look pleased with that part of the announcement.

"Moving on," he said, "the following is the largest and will be in charge of the chaos caused outside the Manor, before getting to the ball, go wild and make our presence known. Everyone will be so busy at the ball, who ever didn't get an invite will have to deal with the following" he paused, "the riot, consist of Jamie Hook, Diablos, Malin De'vil," Malin sat up taller in his seat, "Estella," Malin rolled his eyes at his sister's name, "Lilith, Cameron Candy, and Acheros" then Pandora added, "This group is under the lead of Odele"

Odele's eyes widened, "you got it chief!" then proceed to celebrate with Jamie.

Malin was not having any of it, "Now, Dora, let's think this through--"

"First of all, don't call me that," Pandora said, "and second" he paused, "that position could change"

Odele stopped smiling, "you don't really plan on listening to this pomeranian, so you boss?"

"Oh, please we'd be so much better off with me than with someone who reeks of fish 24/7," Malin said.

"Oy! You have no idea what she's capable of!" Jamie jumped in.

"I wouldn't even want you as a lead, little brother" Estella pitched in, hiding a laugh.

"STOP BEING CHILDISH!" Pandora said in a sharp tone to bring everyone back in, "please, allow me to continue" he said, he saw Malin stick out his tongue to his sister and the sister try to ignore it but stuck her own out when Malin wasn't looking.

"Anyway, The riot will come in at my cue once we grab everyone's attention at the ball, details to be discussed later in our groups" he sighed and ran his hand through his hair, "we have a group of tinkers that are in charge of creating our gadgets and other of sorts to use," he said, "that group is under Vasco's lead and consists of Cameron and Lorelei"

"Why did you put me in this group?! Why?!" Lorelei said through gritted teeth, "it's because of my mom huh? It only because of her, huh?" she said raising her voice, "you assuming, racists--"

"Lory." was all Pandora had to say for her to stop talking, she crossed her arms and grumbled something.

"Good girl" he smiled, quickly remembering they had an audience, his cheeks were dusted red, as he quickly blurted out, "we have costume makers, you guys are working on a deadline so work efficiently. You'll make us blend i-in, etc-- Gabe is under lead, and Gloria, Leigh-Anne, Malin, Sarah, and Cameron will be making the-- things"

Malin was about to protest once again before Pandora beat him to it, "I am this close" he held his thumb and pointer finger together, "this close to grabbing the stapler I found and using on your mouth so please, don't you dare say anything, anything" he said, subconsciously sticking his hand out for Gabe to place the stapler in it, but he didn't.

"Oh your empty threats have no effect on me, Mr. High-and-Mighty" Malin didn't move from his seat, he didn't have a snarky remark nor a complaint, his face was stone-cold, his lips pursed, "so no worries, I will not it here and beg you to give me a lead, because I know I deserve to be now, so for now, I'll just wait patiently for the right time to shine brighter"

𝘾𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙊𝙣𝙚... 𝙋𝙖𝙧𝙩 𝙎𝙞𝙭

Pandora's brain couldn't process if he should worry about Malin now or later, but he decided to take advantage of his quietness, "now I don't care how fucking silly or childish this sound's but you will all spend time in you're groups every day for at least an hour and a half, maybe two, starting now." he said, "Please use and value this time as we are on a deadline, we have two weeks till October 31st. I will come around to give you all further instructions" he felt a wave of tiredness and a massive headache hit him, "and every morning we will meet here and go to our location to gather the trash to start making our mounting, everything..." he paused, his head throbbing with pain, "understood?"

All he heard was a big mumble, he couldn't remember what the rest of the day was like as he pushed through his headache to help guide the group's first meeting and give additional instructions. He cut the meeting short, he sent everyone home half an hour early as he just couldn't stand the jibberish coming out of some people's mouths. All they managed to do was get to know each other, he told them it was going to sound stupid, but with the headache, he didn't care. And Cameron glitching from one group to the other wasn't making anything better.

After everyone had left, Pandora looked around for Gabe, but he wasn't in the house either. At this point, Pandora's eyes weren't functioning either, they grew heavy and blurry from how tired he was. He sat on the decaying couch and remembers seeing Lorelei's blonde hair.

"Your house, on the weekend," he said and couldn't hear what she said, but he knew she wasn't happy.

Lorelei stomped out of the house and Maleficent entered, back from her day out.

"Mom?" he said with a weak smile.

"You feeling well, Pandora?" she asked coming to see her son, "Lorelei just left--"

"Mom, I'm just tired," he said, getting up, "I'm planning a trip to the magic kingdom, mom, I'm taking everyone with me"

Maleficent's heart felt proud as she helped him get to his room, "aw no wonder you're so tired, being evil is hard, huh?"

Pandora collapsed on the crummy mattress and nodded, "I'll tell you more about it in the morning. Anything you want me to call dibs on when I'm there for you? I'm getting you off this dump, mom"

"You get your sleep first, okay Dory--" he remembered hearing his mom say before blacking out.

𝐛𝐞𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐝𝐚𝐧𝐢-

1 am, stayed up to finish thing no matter what. anyway, sorry if it's a bit rushed and repetitive, THERE'S SO MUCH GOING ON OMG! 

this is just the begining of it stay tooned there so much going on, there things in here that i wanted to but (*cough* i just know we can all picture gabe's sad looks whenever Pandora talks to lory *cough* *cough*) I know we didn't get to see much of that BUT IT'S THERE I SWEAR--

anyway- couple graphics, gotta make those soon, and also I guess this is our schedule now y'all every sunday night :)

also make sure to check out the other blackhearts book (if you haven't already) we will be having a chat about this chapter there soon(probably in the morning lol)

alrighty, so I'm going to sleep, please forgive any typos (i semi went through it but I'm too tired, I'll read through it tomorrow) bye *mwah*