Merida Fights

"What's happening?" Asked Merida, deeply concerned as she appeared next to Mulan. She was doing more things on her own now, slowly getting the hang of her princess duties. But the feeling that had drawn her here had been so urgent and unusual.

"Something terrible. A human girl has chosen to give herself to an evil muse." Mulan was there in her armor and her sword, Mushu was smoldering on her shoulder. Princess Aurora nodded from near the man.

"They can do that!"

"It doesn't happen very often, but it can happen." said Mulan grimly.

"Oh no. But where is she?" Merida was looking around. She sees a balding man in pajamas sitting in bed typing away on his laptop, a woman sleeping next to him. She had expected a girl's room, were these her parents?

"She is far away from here. We can't do anything for her now. She has made her choice. She has given herself so completely to the evil muse that he is now in control of her body."

"We can do that!" Merida gasps.

"We are good, we don't do that. Humans have free will, that is the most basic right God gave them; to take them over like that is utterly wrong and evil." Mulan says fiercely.

"Okay, but if we can't do anything, why are we here?"

"We can't do anything for her directly anymore, but he can. He is her last link to existence. Her sister and friends are going to sleep and her parents don't even understand that she is in trouble. They just think it's a phase, though they are worried that she may be going crazy and are talking about taking her to a doctor soon. If we can inspire him, he might be able to save her."

Merida's eyes are wide, "What is he doing?" as she watches him type on the computer.

"He is talking with a few of his fans about their stories. He is coming to realize that the person he is talking with is no longer just a teenaged girl. He knows she has been having problems with a muse. Her muse is a powerful and deceitful and very attractive character in her story, she has tried to break free of him several times, more times then the man knows, and this man has been helping her by guiding her away from him, but she has always called the evil muse back because she loves him like a father."

"How could she love an evil muse, they can't love back, can they?"

"No, they can't. But building a world together from nothing makes for a powerful connection. But she and her sister wrote themselves into the their world and their story. They exist in the real world and their world of imagination. The two of them are sustaining the world all by themselves."

"Really? That is impressive." said Merida.

"They are a powerful artists, they will do great things, but because of her choice today she will be used to cause great destruction." Said Mulan.

"Oh no."

"He is new to writing himself, but he is more talented then he realizes and he is good, good enough. Muses have made powerful connections with him and have written amazing stories that seem so real. He will have to face a choice very soon to do something or not and it will mean the life of the girl, and he doesn't even know it yet."

They and several other muses watch anxiously as the man bids goodnight to the last of his fans talking to him this evening. He has been wondering about the final fan with him this evening, the girl with the big story that seemed to never be able to be put down so she could have a life.

"Goodnight, daddy," typed the sister and signed off.

"Sleep well, kid." The man rolled his eyes a little at that but smiled too. It felt odd that these kids he's never met called him daddy. His wife thought it was darling, but having talked them out of cutting and suicide did make for a closer then normal connection. They were good kids, but the stress they were under seemed unrelenting and enormous.

"Are you okay?" He typed, the girl had been making odd comments this evening, they didn't sound right. Which was very odd.

The answer that came back was beyond chilling. The man's face paled. He knew it wasn't the girl. What was going on here?

Bad muses popped up around him, trying to lull him, telling him he's tired, it's not so bad, he needed sleep, tomorrow was a big day, just go to sleep.

He looked at the clock, it was late, so much to do tomorrow. He looked at his beloved wife, sleeping beside him. He cocked his head to hear the snores of his daughter in the next room.

He thought all he had to do was close the lid and go to bed, there would be more time tomorrow night.

Aurora reached out. He had talked her down before when she had talked about the muse wanting her to hurt herself. His heart and mind had rung like alarm bells because he knew she was in terrible trouble, at true suicide risk, not just one of those attention seeking suicide note posters. That had been a For-Real.

Since then, he had done what he could to help though that nasty muse kept coming back.

He kept asking her to do things that he was pretty sure would help. But that stupid muse kept coming back, he was worse then that cat. He had even gotten very annoyed at that muse in the advice he had given the girl, growling as he had typed and it had backed down.

Merida reached out. She had climbed and drunk from the Fire Falls to show her mother that she did want to be queen, she had been listening.

Then he realized just what she had been doing based on his word alone. Things that were hard, things that would hurt because the call of writing was so strong, putting it down was hard.

She trusted him, had shown that she loved him like a daughter, she was probably young enough for that. He knew that in his heart.

If she loved him like a father, then he would love her as a daughter. And there was only one way to react to an abusive threat to his child!

"What is that!" shouted Merida as heavy plate armor formed around the man sitting on the bed as he propped himself up to be able to more comfortably type.

"He has chosen to fight!" Mulan shouted exultantly. Impressed by the dragons on the armor.

"But why the armor at all, a muse can't hurt him."

"Maybe not directly but he can be hurt. The evil muse has the girl's mind under his hand. He would make her hurt herself physically to harm him."

"Oh, bother!" The invective was clear. Merida sees many muses begin to appear.

"Oh, Hi Belle, Rapunzel." Said Merida as she hailed Belle in her blue peasant dress and the magic mirror. Rapunzel was there with her frying pan.

"Hello Merida, Mulan. I take it something big is happening. I've not had a call like this for a long time," said Belle.

They look around, many muses are appearing, filling an area far bigger then the small bedroom.

"Who are all of these muses?" Asked Merida. She saw a great many of the Disney characters, but they were only a small percentage of all the muses present.

"Those are scientists, and teachers and all the books he's ever read and movies and TV shows he's watched. Everything he had seen and read and experienced has come to aid him to save the girl. This is a significant event."

An empty glade appeared like the one where Rapunzel and Eugene camped and two powerful wolves circled each other carefully in the darkness, massive power held lightly in check.

"What's that?" asked Merida.

"He has imagined a place for the contest."

"Really?"

"Yes, it is much like how Disneyworld was created it started with an image in a mind. His imagination is quite powerful. The girl and her sister have created an entire world."

Words are exchanged in the comments of a web page, and the battle had begun. The evil muse had come to flaunt his power over the girl, to taunt the man with the child he loved like his own.

The wolf turns into a man, a knight, with plate armor and weapons. He takes a knife from his belt and plunges it into the ground as he takes up the challenge fully.

Merida's jaw dropped open. "He's not going to retreat! Doesn't he know she freely choose the evil?"

"No, he doesn't, he believes her to be good and that she has done this as a deal to protect her sisters. He's wrong but he does not know that. But we can do something in that place."

Armies of muses good and bad are surrounding the combatants, though they cannot be seen. Terminators Vulcans and more step up to flank the man who had descended into a cold implacable determination.

He would free his daughter! The daughter he had known for only a few months, the daughter he had never met, the daughter he didn't know where she lived except in a particular state across the country, the daughter whose real name he didn't even know, the daughter he was diving into hell to save no matter the cost.

He knew that if this went bad, the girl's real parents could go to the police who could get the records from the website to find him. It's not like he particularly tried to hide. He could end up in prison, what was left of his life destroyed. His wife knew about his interactions and that he had saved this girl and others from suicide. But that was unlikely to impress a DA on a witch hunt.

He could end up screwed in so many ways, but he remembered the feeling in his heart when he was in Dachau, how the feel of evil had soaked into the very ground. Skeletally thin victims of the Holocaust came to stand by him now. The people of Dachau had done nothing and evil had flourished, terribly. He would not stand by, not this time, evil would be stopped!

Knights, soldiers, cops, cowboys, star ship officers, and other heroes came forward now.

But how to extract the evil muse without hurting the girl? Words could hurt, he knew that, but you had to care, and a monster like that didn't, couldn't care. What weapons could be brought to bear against a creature of the imagination?

Maleficent and the good fairies stepped forward. "Love and truth are the only weapons that evil can not stand against and those only need words."

There was furious typing as gently glowing balls of energy began to glow over the man's shoulders. The evil muse twisted around to dodge into shade and darkness, and countered with lies.

The man thought for a long moment; science, science fiction, and steampunk muses came forward. Mirrors and lens form around the glowing balls of light. Belle looked at it curiously, trying to figure out what was building on the man's shoulders.

Belle's mouth dropped open, "He's turning the Light of Truth and the Warmth of Love into energy weapons!"

"What! How? Would that work?" Merida asked.

"He's fighting a character in the realm of imagination. And he is quite skilled at imaging things. It may well work."

The girl had fought for so long, maybe she was tired, she may have even invited the evil character to come to her to protect her friends and sisters and brothers who he had threatened before. She had the heart of a true princess: generous and compassionate, willing to sacrifice herself to save her friends. The princesses stepped forward, linking arms, filling a hole in the wall of muses that had come to help.

Those energy weapons powered by Truth and Love were searching for their target. They had been refined into laser thin beams of devastating power.

Should the evil muse speak the truth; he would shatter.

If the girl, hidden under the hand of the evil muse, could see just one photon of love she would know that people still loved and cared for her and she could fight and win, she was the only one who could. All he had to do was find him, out there somewhere in the shadows.

The evil character fled the battlefield.

The man grunted in frustration, lusting for the fight that had been denied. Wanting to call the evil muse back with the taunt of coward; but no, he thought as his heart calmed. No, better to talk to the girl of love and hope and her own strength. A reminder that she might see in the morning. That it is worth it to fight and be free. Belle goes over and whispers instructions to him on how to destroy a muse. He sends the message.

Then the man prayed like he had few times in his life, weeping on his knees and then slept. The empty victory ashes on his tongue.

"Now what?" asked Merida somber, "Nothing was decided here."

"In the morning we will see her decision, but now we get to perform a duty we don't do very often, and this may be the rarest of all."

The muses gathered around the sleeping man and placed hands on his head. "There will be no stories nor songs for this man, but this we do before God, who sees all. We are the muses and we proclaim this man a Hero and for winning the battle grant him a gift: the mantle of Father to these girls!"

...

"The girls fights!" Mulan in her armor urges Merida to come. They appear in a girl's bedroom. Merida looks and sees the girl typing on her computer and looks around the huge world of imagination the girl and her sister had created. Every bit as massive and detailed as the world Walt made.

"...just you and me, father. Right here, right now with swords only," the girl was saying, scribbling into a notebook, in a field just outside a forest, huge mountains surround in the background. On one side of the field was the girl, with her sisters and all their good characters; a massive army. On the other was the evil character and his minions, also an army.

"You are good with that sword but I have not taught you everything, my daughter," warned the evil monster that had helped the girls father this world. He was very powerful here.

"Perhaps not, father. It gives you an advantage. You must take up my challenge or leave us forever."

"And want am I to gain from all this if I just happen to win?" The fierce winds blew his black hair out of his handsome face.

"Me." The girl said simply, her long brown hair tied into a compact bun. "I will give myself to you freely, completely and utterly. I will never fight you again and you can do with me as you wish, with one condition."

"And what is that one condition?" He cocked his handsome head.

"You leave my sisters alone. You never inspire them, you never contact them in any way whatsoever, forever." Iron determination shone in the girl's eyes, her voice solid.

The evil character looked over the girl and her sisters, considering. Inspiring them all had been heady, they were strong. But even just this one would be worth the telling of his story. She would tell it so very well. Maybe well enough to change the course of history toward evil.

"Done. I take up your challenge."

"Your word, father. On the challenge and your sword."

"Very good, my daughter. You know me well. I must stick to my story. I will cheat on everything else. On my sword and this challenge, we will contend for your mind, and even if I prevail I will never inspire your sisters. Done?" Asked the evil muse.

"Done." Said the young girl, but the evil muses sword had already left the sheath and was moving to rip her open. She barely dodged, the coat she was wearing showing the rip. She finally got her sword out and was defending herself but she was already bleeding from several places. She had not landed any blows herself.

"Oh, no she's in trouble already. Can't we do something?" asked Merida her bow in her hand and sword on her hip

"No, this is her fight totally and completely. If one of them breaks the challenge we can fight the evil muses on the other side. This is a war of imagination in a fictional world and we can fight here." said Mulan.

"Will she win?" asked Merida, but Mulan could only shrug.

They fought between the armies, ranging back and forth, the girl trying not to venture too close to the minions of the evil muse. They spun to exchange blows and the girl found a dagger in her side.

"Foul!" rose as a mighty cry. The challenge had been broken the armies surged and total war broke out.

"Merida, now!" ordered Mulan, and Merida and many others rose up. Arrows were loosed and the evil character was driven back to his minions in the realm of the story. The girl staggered but was caught by her sisters. Merida, Mulan and other muses created a perimeter around the girl and her sister in the realm of the muse.

The girl was healed from the wound of the imaginary dagger, but she was weeping on the bus to school, "He cheated, even now he cheated. He never loved me. My characters are fighting and dying for me."

"We need to end this, forever. Have you deleted everything?" asked the sister.

"On my computer, yes I think. I have to check the lab computer at school. Still have to delete everything from the website," said the girl.

"Good. Our brother has the binder and will be home soon. Have you gathered everything that's left?"

"Yes, there's a folder on my desk at home, I have to get all the notes I kept at school. Oh, I have to ask anyone who wrote fanfic or make fanart for my world to delete it. Several people have." Finished the girl.

"Okay, we'll take care of that when you get here. Our brother's bringing charcoal to burn everything. We keep nothing back, we have to end this, I don't know if we can handle going through this again. I wish Mom or Dad would actually listen to us, carving 'help' into my arm didn't work. Daddy's helped us so much in the fight against Father but I don't know if I can do this again." She had seen the fight Daddy and father had had in the comments of the webpage. She had been so frightened when she had realized that so much had happened when she had slept. She had to be strong, strong then she was now she she could protect her sister and even her Daddy.

"I know, me neither. I'm trying."

The girl added the papers to her backpack, then went to the computer and searched again for any documents she may have missed and signed in to the website.

The fight for her mind and soul rages on. She picks up her bow, her best weapon. Her sister pulls out her paired knives, her best weapons. They go to hunt the evil muse, their father of their imaginary world.

...

The sisters are fighting their father again, on top of a hill as the war of imagination rages on. The sister is on her back the evil father ready to strike, the girl looses an arrow and he swats it away. He can strike before she can reload even though she is moving as fast as she can.

A blaze of light flares and a sword lands between the girls. A voice booms out the name of the sword and its powers and restrictions. Everyone scatters from the power of that voice.

"A magic sword would be rather handy right now, and wasn't that the voice of that man who helped them last night?" asked Merida. She looks and sees the man at his computer a look of distress on his face Aurora and Rapunzel inspiring him.

He had gotten the idea for the sword on the way to the store. He had thought it an immensely powerful weapon, one of the more powerful he had every read about, powerful enough to have restrictions on the use of it. He had thought it curious he was working on a quiet little family drama story and didn't need anything like that sword.

But then he remembered what had happened last night and ran home realizing what must have happened, his kids were in trouble and needed help and somehow he got it. He needed to get it to them. He quickly wrote it and posted it hoping that they would get it in time.

Then he read the description of the sword again and paled.

"Oh bother!" said Mulan with an invective that surprised the new princess. "That's no sword. It's the test!"

"A test? Now! We're a little busy for a test," shouted Merida as she loosed another arrow.

"Not A test, THE test. It might look like a sword now, but it's been an oracle and a mirror, among many other things. If they try to use it they are going to see inside themselves."

"How is that going to help?"

"If they pass we will be able to give them gifts."

"And if they fail, will they die?"

"There are fates worse then death." Mulan said soberly.

"Oh bother!" snarled Merida.

...

"What's wrong? Pick up the magic sword and let's finish this. He's getting away," shouted the sister to the girl, shouting across the empty computer lab, she had wiped out all the story notes she could find there.

The girl was trying but her hand couldn't get hold it.

"I can't," the girl cried through her tears, she had read the words and had hoped that since it was a gift for her they might not apply to her but they did and it hurt, because they were true.

"Oh for the love of... Let me," the sister got up, came over and her hand passed right through the sword. "What the...?" She tried again, but it still didn't work. "Why?"

"I'm so sorry, I'm such a bad sister. I tried to save you by offering myself to Father. I didn't want to win the challenge, it would keep you safe." said the girl, tears streaming down her face, not looking at her sister.

Then the sister understood and bowed her head. Lie Breaker was a magic sword and it would not let anyone pick it up who held a lie in their heart.

And she had so many lies in hers.

"I'm so sorry too. I'm a bad sister too, but I still love you and will no matter what."

"I love you too, now and forever more." The girl and her sister hug in both worlds.

"We are the muses, because these heroes have seen into their own hearts and accepted themselves faults and all, we proclaim them Epic Heroes. And give them gifts to fight evil." sang out Mulan, Merida and a multitude of muses.

The girl's bow and quiver and the sister's knives glowed as they became greatly enhanced, representing a renewed strength inside their souls to resist evil.

"What just happened?" asked the sister of the girl.

"I'm not sure, but we just got weapon upgrades. Come on let's get to some cover and figure out a plan." They rush to the forest and leave the sword behind, catching the bus home.

...

"We are running out of time, so many of our characters have died to protect us, he's killed Mother." said the sister in a pleading voice.

"I know, I felt it too." said the girl sadly. Mother was a muse that had helped them fill this world with life, she could blaze like a forest fire, but she was gone now. So much of the story had been fed to the fire in the barbecue in the backyard.

"It has to be you. I've hit him so hard but he doesn't stay down. You called him up, he's connected to you, you need to break that connection," said the sister sternly.

"I know," said the girl quietly, running a hand over her bow. "I've tried but I couldn't take the shot."

"You must, before its too late."

"I know, I'm trying."

"I know you are. Here he comes again."

"Let's go up in the trees. I can harass him with my bow from there."

...

"He's not giving up," comments the sister seeing their evil father at the base of the tree.

"I know," says the girl sadly, there was just the main binder left, she was hugging it to her chest.

"I love you," says the sister and then she elegantly dives from the branch to land next to the monster.

She knew she could not defeat him, not really. But she also knew her sister loved her enough to save her. It might be enough to force the girl to take the shot to kill their evil father. They fought with full ferocity. She was holding her own waiting, praying for the girl to take the shot. She blocked the dagger then the sword and spun to block the dagger coming from the other side but their evil father found an opening and laid open her back.

The sister went down screaming in pain.

"I'll claim you first then, my daughter!" laughed the evil muse. He leaned down and grabbed her hair preparing to strike the final blow and take her mind over completely.

"Daddy!" the sister cried with everything she had, everyone had failed her, even herself, even though she had thought of herself as strong.

"Don't you DARE touch MY daughter, you son of a bitch!" roared a man that appeared in dragon armor, with a voice that shook the trees. Merida sees the man wondering why he is weeping and panting in terrible anger as he is trying to make dinner.

The evil character froze and slowly looked up, exposing his throat, and saw a man with a bow, fully drawn, the tip of the arrow just inches from his face.

"I'm sorry father, I love you," whispered the girl as loosed the arrow aimed at the throat of the evil character.

As she finally dropped the manuscript into the fire.

The evil character and the whole imaginary world they made together fades and they are free. They weep, for the price of freedom was so very high. They had worked on that story for years, but it had come so close to destroying them and it needed to be destroyed, but it had felt like ripping out their own hearts and placing them in the fire.

...

Merida and Mulan watch as the girl sits at the computer and sends a message, "Thank you Daddy for loving us so much and fighting for us and showing us the way out."

"You're welcome my daughter. I knew that if you fought you would win."

"I had embraced him. I loved him. We made a world together. He was hurting me but there wasn't anywhere else to go that I knew loved me. I didn't want to fight. He had fathered our world. He was the father of my imagination and I loved him more than anything, even my real life father."

The man was dumbstruck, he had thought he had known her heart and he knew she loved so very deeply, "B-b-but then why did you fight?"

"For you. I believed you that there was good left in me. Because all the pain that I went through, following your instructions, showed me that you were trying to set me free, I'm sorry that I didn't follow them all the way every time. But I knew that I could trust you. I trust you completely, Daddy, I love you," said the girl sobbing.

The man is in tears, humbled by this trust and love. "Thank you, so much my daughter. I love you too. How could I not?"

"My parents are grounding me from the computer, "for life." So I get to be like Rapunzel, but they are letting me say goodbye first. It will be a long time before we can talk again. I love my parents and they are trying to help, so I will do what they say. I'll never forget you." A small smile in the midst of the tears.

"Rapunzel doesn't break her promises and neither should you. I will not, cannot, forget you. See you on the other side, even if it's at the Judgement Bar. You are a good girl. I am proud of you. My daughter, I love you." And the man pressed his fingers to his lips and pressed them to the screen before pressing send. And then he walked over to his wife and gave her a good kiss, telling her they would need to talk later, and then bounded over to his little girl and gave her an extra hug and a tickle and a chase around the house.

The girl read the words on the screen and touched them, and put her finger to her lips, printed out the page for her new paper diary and shuts down the computer and gives it to her parents whom she hugged and thanked, before they went to the psychologist.

"That was amazing. Does that happen often?" asked Merida.

"No. No, it doesn't. While many heroes are proclaimed everyday, that was special, even for us." Mulan smiled.

~ The End ...of this Adventure ~

The Universe is a wondrous, dangerous place. We can make it better or worse by our choices. Be careful out there.