47 | THE GRID

———————

❝ 𝐢 𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐦𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐮𝐭𝐞𝐫... 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐢𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞? 𝐒𝐡𝐢𝐩𝐬? 𝐌𝐨𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐜𝐲𝐜𝐥𝐞𝐬? 𝐈 𝐤𝐞𝐩𝐭 𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐟 𝐚 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐈 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐈'𝐝 𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐞𝐞... 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐧... 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐲... 𝐈 𝐠𝐨𝐭 𝐢𝐧...❞

———————

    Winterfell screamed in anguish yet again. How long how has it been? Hours? Days? Years? Time moved oddly here — wherever here is. She has absolutely no clue where she is. It was dark all around and the ground was pitch black, and it felt glass-like.

Occasionally, on the side, she would catch sight of what almost looked like a mirror. A mirror to the real world, where she would see that demon flaunting around in her body as though it were a dress to be worn.

Winter had never felt so used... so disgusted. Something else was in her... living her life! Filthy, she felt filthy. Winterfell wanted to throw up. She regretted a lot of things, and she felt remorse for many others as well.

Not calling back home while she was at school (not that there are many phones in Arendelle) but that mattered not, she could have written more. Gale sends letters incredibly quickly. She wished she had more fun — she was only in school once, did she really want to remember being holed up in her room studying and doing homework?

Especially when all her A's would matter not. Not when she would not even get to go to college, so who the hell even cared?

She did.

Winter always thought of it as though she would graduate and simply be proud that she excelled so greatly in school.

And sure, she would be proud but at the same time, those memories would be accompanied by anxiety and lonely times. Who wanted to remember their school days as that?

Her friends also come to mind... Winterfell is tired of hiding who she is. Striving so hard to be someone that she is not. In the grand scheme of things she suddenly finds herself wondering why she always thought it was so important to hide away.

Mal had fucking purple hair for Christ's sake and Winter had been scared to show off her natural white strands? What sense does that make?

Who cares if people judged? She was happy with who she was: she would be happy with herself.

So idiotic — it had all been so foolish of her.

And Winterfell was such a damn cool name — why did she go by Winter? Her parents named her Winterfell for a reason, why would she want to go by something so much more typical than her actual name. Hell, a town had been born out of her name.

A memory suddenly hit her.

"Do you know what your name means?"

"No, what does it mean?"

"Well, you were born in the Northpole at Winterfell. And Winterfell is the break of sunset there during winter. It means the end of a promising day and the start of a new one..."

Winterfell wanted nothing more than to slam her head against something. She is Winterfell Iduna Frost — the winter spirit extraordinaire who can fly faster than the winds and loves exploring the unknown. Not whoever the fuck this Winter character is whom she created at Auradon Prep.

Winterfell slammed onto her knees with dread — fury ripped its way through her soul as she clenched her hands. And she could not help but wonder how she could fall so far, how could she allow this to happen?

If she ever got out of this Winter swore a few things — she is done pretending. Winterfell would be herself proudly and if people thought she was weird then they can be damned and God help anyone who ever tries to mess with her again.

She might not be the most physically combative but she is the soon-to-be Queen of Ice. Her heart had not been frozen before and it still was not, she had no clue why she ever even thought that. She recognizes now that her heart had only ever been weak and soft. But not anymore, because if anyone ever came after her again then her face would be the last thing that they ever saw.

And that was a promise.

Winterfell looked up into the darkness and she could feel her eyes suddenly glow the color of ice as her rage brewed like a storm. At that moment she swore her revenge on Beleth, she would make that demon wish that it never so much as existed. She would make the demon pay.

——————

"Mmm, make them a little wider... yeah — perfect!" Winterfell — Beleth — smirked into the mirror.

This was an expensive hair salon, one of the best in Auradon, but hell... Winterfell had a shit ton of money that could be spent at any time. It was a lavish place, one with slick leather salon chairs and bitchy workers who (despite their stuck-up attitudes) were perhaps the best at this job.

In seconds the stylist had feathered the girl's bangs enough that it spread widely over her forehead and was cut just above her eyebrows. The streaks of brown were gone as the stylist had redone the brown hair dye courtesy of Beleth's request. The mixed hair had been fun at first, but Beleth was more of a brunette by heart.

Winterfell truly was a pretty body, and Beleth found herself admiring it yet again. In minutes she had strode from her chair and paid at the front before leaving the place. The sky was beginning to turn dark and Beleth strolled down the downtown streets of the town heading back to campus with a pep in her step.

However, that was quickly ruined by a sudden voice reverberating around her head. She flinched at the deafening deep and wicked tone.

"Beleth..." the voice hissed, "where are you?"

Beleth rolled her eyes—jeez, this warlock was simply so impatient.

"I will be on the way with this body soon," she paused and cringed at the name coming, "master..." she wanted to hurl, she was definitely not some slave to a weak mortal warlock. Unfortunately, she had made a deal with him in order to get into this realm of existence, so she was fucked at the moment.

The voice growled. "We have a deal—you work for me demon! Bewitch the King and bring the body that you are possessing to me at once—I must drain her for her powers as soon as possible if we wish to succeed...!"

And by succeed: Beleth knew that he meant to take over the entirety of the world.

World domination—not a bad thought.

Sadly, Beleth would only be a servant to the ruler of the world. But that was okay, she could scheme a plan to take him over when the time came.

"Of course, master," she rolled her eyes before the presence finally disappeared.

All in due time...

It mattered not if this body was drained of its powers and immortality—those abilities were useless as long as Beleth was possessing her. She would have no access to this girl's powers as it was tied into Winterfell's pure soul, and obviously with Beleth in control—Winterfell's spirit was not present.

Not to mention that Beleth had her own set of powers and immortality. In fact, having the mortal's soul drained completely would only help her, there would be no chance of her retaking her body.

By now she was just approaching the school campus. Beleth figured that she would make a quick trip to the girl's dorm room for anything she might need before cursing the King to do as she ordered and eventually making her way to where she knew the warlock was located. He was not close—so once Beleth left, she would have quite the bit of a journey in front of her.

"Demon,"

Beleth paused at the gruff tone, and curiously she turned to face a slightly familiar face. She recognized him as Winterfell's closest friend. All of her friends were there though. They stood outside the dorm building, and as the sun was beginning to go down—most students were eating dinner. Therefore, there was no one near them at the moment.

"Im'ma tell you one last time... give my friend her body back," he hissed, narrowing his eyes.

Beleth stood shocked for a second before literally throwing her head back in howling laughter. Jonah remained stone-faced as she grabbed her stomach and laughed harshly, the newly twisty hair swaying with every movement. In complete honesty, as Jonah knew Winter so much—seeing this was rather unsettling.

Winter would never laugh like this—so crudely. So mean... so evil.

"Whoo, I'm sorry..." she finally got out, "you are just so... cute trying to threaten me! I mean what're you going to do? At least the other mortals have magic—you are just extra... human!"

That was when Jonah smirked and from his back, he pulled out a glowing blue disc.

"Well," he shrugged, "not exactly,"

Beleth paused and looked at the disc in confusion. It was giving off not magical vibes but something else, and it was something that was not bonding with her being. In fact, it hurt just to look at it, and so she took a newly cautious stance against this human.

It was obvious he had a trick or two up his sleeve, a trick that she did not like.

Without warning, Jonah leaped into the air and did a side backflip while launching the disc at Beleth professionally. It was released so quickly and violently that even Beleth was unable to stop it until it hit her straight in the mid-section.

Immediately, she started screaming as a burning sensation erupted from all over her being. It was like she was back in hell, burning in the pits of eternal misery. Suddenly her world changed and pixelations became it—but Beleth could not comprehend this.

Her being was vibrating everything and hurt and reality became distorted, reality was not reality anymore. It was impossible, she was nowhere—her being was literally being destroyed particle by particle.

Beleth felt as though her spirit was disassembled but every time it would try to be put back together—it simply could not be.

On the other hand, Jonah had been transported fine. He appeared next to the body of Winter, and waiting just feet away were four familiar figures. Mal, Ben, Harry, and Uma stood wearing their normal clothing as there had been no time to take them to the armory. It would be fine as long as they did not stay in the Grid for too long, the Grid did not like too much of a variety in appearance, after all.

It was interesting truly, to see these people of the real world—from Auradon—at that standing as programs would among the darkened world lit only by the bright lights of the system. Lighting struck constantly through the pitch black—and the towers of light glowed prominently.

Jonah had appeared fully geared up, his black suit adorning his frame attractively and the blue near white bio-lights allowing him to glow just like any other program. He was the only one adorning a helmet as well, the helmet was covering his face at the moment.

He held his disc out and stayed in a battle-ready stance. Fighting within the grid was different than in the real world, he had already explained to his friends who were still shellshocked by everything the Grid was. They had not even explored within the city.

Ben, especially, was absolutely astonished at this place that was literally hidden within Auradon.

They watched as it took Winter far longer to materialize than normal, but when she did—she appeared as she had the last time she was in the Grid (albeit older). Her black catsuit was light up brightly, the wedges adorning her feet glowing at the very bottoms. Her hair was still pulled into the high ponytail with braids crisscrossing on either side of her pretty face.

However, she did not so much as wake up nor shift. She remained laying down motionless—and suddenly, feet away another being morphed (somewhat to life). They would never be able to explain it if they tried, all they could describe it as was a black mass of a being continuously flickering in and out of existence and screaming in pain.

It was obvious now that the plan had worked. The demon could not materialize in this world for this world was not technically on any plane of existence. There was nothing here for it to live out of without a physical body of its own. With that being said, it could not possess anything here either.

"It's working!" Harry shouted, clutching his hook tighter.

Jonah explained that the grid did not like too much variety when it came to the outer appearance. It was hard for both Mal and Uma to comprehend the feeling of having literally no magic—it was like something within them was literally stripped away.

"Hold on, I have a new idea that's better!" Jonah shouted, his eyes lighting up in realization.

Thoughts raced across his head, "you will receive an identity disc, everything you do or learn will be imprinted on this disc..." his head swiveled to the unconscious body of Winter.

And behold, right next to her was her identity disc that she received the first time she ever stepped foot into the Grid. The boy smiled and lunged next to her, crouching down he examined her disc briefly.

"Jonah! What're you doing?" Mal exclaimed—she did not have an identity disc as they did not go to the sirens for the required appearance as of yet.

"It's an identity disc," he hurried to explain, his voice a yell, "you must receive them when you come to the Grid, the only reason you guys don't have them yet is I haven't taken you guys to the armory. Winter got one when we first came—everything you do or learn is imprinted on the disc, it becomes a part of you within the Grid. If I can activate hers..." he trailed, managed to roll her over and secure the disc to her back.

In an instant, something amazing happened.

From who-the-hell knows where, the real Winterfell—the one imprisoned jolted. And she blinked, but rather than open her eyes to the familiar nothingness, she was blinking herself awake.

She sprang into a sitting position with a gasp, her world falling to pieces. The sensation of suddenly breathing and being alive and in a body was overwhelming. Everything was so bright and dark all at once, and the disc was forcing memories and thoughts into her head. Uploading everything since the last time she had been in Grid.

Her brown irises glowed brightly, the blue showcasing everything that was uploading. And within seconds it all stopped and Winterfell was left not feeling exactly like her normal self as she was still powerless within the Grid, but she felt far more normal than had she had since she was possessed.

"Winter? Winnie?" Jonah was shaking her staring at her hopefully.

Winter stared back at him for a long moment and the only thing running through her head was that her best friend did not even know her full name. There was no hesitation as her attention was taken to the demon unable to completely morph.

Standing up, albeit a bit shakily she looked to her friends.

"We need to go back to the real world—we can't kill Beleth here as it can't even morph fully," Winterfell explained in a surprisingly calm and strong tone.

She would follow through on her promise, she was going to make Beleth regret ever stealing her body.

"Beleth?" Mal questioned while taking a step forward.

"It's the demon's name," Winterfell rushed, "I'll explain everything once it is dead, but if we don't kill her it is not going to stop going after me when we leave the Grid,"

Jonah immediately nodded and placed his disc out. Winter knowing what to do grabbed ahold of it, the other four quickly stepped forward as Jonah explained.

"Grab ahold of my disc and I'll take us back to Auradon," he said and like that four more sets of hands were on the disc.

In an instant, the familiar feeling and sight of pixelation overcame all of them — and suddenly the feeling of constantly being disassembled and reassembled took place. When they reappeared, five of them stood just outside of Morton Hall surrounded by their other friends who were nervously waiting for their arrival.

Winterfell appeared once again; however, she was unconscious and back to looking as the warped version of herself that Beleth had created.

"Disemdium emporium!" Freddie Facilier shouter, holding out her hands and allowing her magic to come forth full force.

In an explosion of colors, she grasped the soul residing within Winter's body and pushed it out with every fiber of her being. The force within Winterfell moved, as Beleth was not expecting this type of strength.

Uma, Harry, Ben, and Mal sat up — Jonah already standing and watching the show. Uma and Mal glanced at each other before racing over to Freddie and taking either side of her, their hands on her shoulders and gifting her with as much magical strength as they could. This always worked; after all, when one needed a little more strength.

Freddie cried out with her hands clenched and out toward a swirling black mass. It looked like a mini-tornado; however, it was much stronger than anything Freddie had come across. It would beat her in seconds.

"I can't hold it!" She screamed, the others now standing back and watching the black mass of darkness with something akin to horror.

"Should I hit it with the disc?" Jonah questioned, his tone loud.

"No," Freddie screamed back through clenched teeth, "it's back in the real world, it'll just absorb it and use any of its power to its advantage...!"

"Can you send it back to where it came from?" Uma asked only for Freddie to shake her head.

"No, it's too strong!"

"So then what the hell are we supposed tah do!?" Harry yelled, his voice furious as everyone's hair whipped around.

In an instant, something unnatural occurred. Everyone watched in horror as the thing morphed before their very eyes, turning into a dark humanoid being with glowing yellow eyes.

"You can do nothing..." it taunted in a dark voice twisted with only all the worst things in the world.

"They might not be able to," just next to it Winterfell suddenly appeared.

Another Winterfell, at least, because her physical body lay unconscious on the ground. But her spirit, everything that made up her soul took shape glowing ever-so-slightly around the edges. Her hair was a blinding white and her eyes began to glow such a piercing blue it was brighter than the sky itself.

Furiously, and with no fear — she grasped the thing by its arm and it screamed as ice clawed up its form.

"How dare you defile me?" She roared. "How dare you parade my skin around as though some cheap suit?" Her hands clenched the demon even harder, her breathing becoming heavier.

Pure fury made up her being.

"You may be familiar with the scorching temperatures of hell, but tell me ... how cold have you ever been?"

Beleth shrieked as Winterfell allowed the full force of her powers forward, the girl who was born of two spirits was thriving in what was truly her natural form. All the ice and everything that was ever cold in the world seemed to claw throughout Beleth, freezing the demon from the inside out and causing pain like never before.

Even as nothing more than a being on the spiritual plain, Beleth could feel every little thing inside of her becoming so hard that it snapped apart. She was breaking apart! Beleth screamed louder and Winter yelled right back — her fury causing the skies to turn dark and a cold front to sweep the lands.

Thunder shook the Earth and lightning tore its way across the skies. The air around became dry and cold — a clear sign of an oncoming blizzard. A clear sign that everyone should get inside, seek safety, and pray.

Because a spirit of the Earth — a Goddess — was furious and with this fury comes destruction.

Hell hath no fury quite like Winterfell's.

Beleth screamed until finally the black mass froze completely and shattered into a million pieces. The dark shards turned to ash.

Winter was not there for much longer, she barely glanced at her now free physical body before her spirit disappeared on the spot and her physical form sprung up gasping and coughing. She rolled over choking and heaving — the most grotesque and vile black chunks of goo came from her throat which caused her to violently vomit.

Winter's senses were overloaded, every sound was a blur, and with the multiple hands patting her back she was numb. She recognized the many blurred figures of her friends surrounding her, each saying something that she had no hope of grasping. As cheesy as it sounded, there was no denying that Harry managed to weasel his way into being the closest to her and his hand was the one running up and down her back, soothing her as she disregarded the vileness inside of her.

And soon, the second it was all out of her, her eyes were rolling and she was falling. Admittedly, she would have fallen face-first into the puddle of her own vomit that was of questionable nature, but Harry's grasp on her saved her from that fate.

"Ducklin'?! Winter? WINTER?!" She barely heard Harry's voice anymore as she was gone, the wind blowing songs to her as she drifted away from reality.

And for the first time in what felt like eons: her mind was clear and she slept a peaceful dreamless sleep.