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Hanging up the phone with Ben, and then her mother, after alerting both of them to the Audrey situation, Jane is left with the issue of how to move forward.
Would Audrey come back to the scene of her crime? Would she move on and endanger others? How far did her magic already reach?
These are the questions that plague her as she fills up several long barrel water guns (Super Soakers, as the sticker on the side of the barrel proclaimed them to be) that were scattered around her party. Some of the boys had no doubt brought them for when the afternoon inevitably devolved into a pool party—her own swimsuit is still neatly tucked away in her bag.
Standing up after filling several of the super soakers with water, she then moves to one of the big buckets full of ice and drinks.
She dumps them out. The ice will melt and the drinks are individually packaged. Someone will clean the bottles up later—if there is a later.
Jane hauls the containers to the enchanted lake and fills them up with water.
Then, it's showtime.
Throwing buckets of water over her passed out friends and watching them startle awake should be more fun than it actually is. Instead, it’s nerve wracking, until the first person wakes up. Then it's relieving. Then it's tiresome as her arms grow sore and she’s met with the confused and scared shouts of her classmates who vaguely remember the events that led up to their almost eternal slumber.
“Everyone, remain calm!” Jane shouts over the other teens, throwing the last bucket aside. They grow silent at hearing the normally reserved fey raise her voice.
“Audrey is not here,” she tells them, picking up a water gun, “but she is somewhere else in Auradon.”
There are terrified whispers and cries at this.
“But,” Jane carries on calmly, “her magic can be broken with enchanted lake water.” She gestures to the pile of super-soakers she’s piled up beside her, some already filled. “Take one, fill it up if it’s not already. Some of you should take a bucket, too, so you can refill your guns.”
Many of her classmates are looking more hopeful now.
“We are the sons and daughters of heroes and sidekicks,” Jane continues. “It’s up to us to free our friends and get them to safety—to this lake.” There are some nods and some murmurs of agreement at this. “And it is up to us to try and contact the rest of Auradon, see how far this reaches, and put a stop to it.”
“Now, who’s with me?!” Jane asks, raising her super soaker into the air.
“Yeah!” someone agrees.
“Aye!”
“For Auradon!”
The roar of approval from the other teens before they dive forward, grabbing the water guns and loading them and their buckets up with ammo, makes the young fey grin.
—--------------------
Jane moves swiftly through the forest, or as swiftly as she can, with two super-soakers, one strapped across her back, and a bucket full of water. She’d waited till all her party guests had gone off with their own guns and buckets full of ammo before moving towards Auradon.
A rustling in the bushes to her left gives her pause.
Carefully, she sets her bucket down and pumps her soaker in preparation for whatever might be there.
An animal? A monster? Audrey?
She takes aim.
A twig snapping to the other side of her is all the warning she has before a beast, oddly clad in blue and yellow, leaps at her from the underbrush.
Whirling around, she lets loose a spray of water that stops the beast in its tracks.
It whines and covers its face, but she doesn’t let up. She continues dousing it with water until it collapses against a tree trunk and starts to look like something, or, rather, someone, more recognizable.
“Ben?” she asks, super-soaker empty.
“Huh?” Ben looks up at her, blinking, from where he lays between the roots of the tree. “Wha-?”
“Audrey spelled you,” Jane says, quick to recover from her shock.
“Yeah, I-,” he starts to sit up, “where am I?”
“The woods.” She begins to fiddle with the extra soaker on her back. They’ve got to start moving. Staying in one place is a sure-fire way for Audrey to find them, especially when one of them is Ben - beast or not.
“Yeah. Okay.” He nods, only wincing a little as he hauls himself to his feet. Placing a steadying hand on the tree, he brings his other one up to rub at his face. “Wha- my face?!” He’s found the extra bit of facial hair and sharpened teeth that still remains—the only signs of him having gone beast.
“Yeah, enchanted water can only do so much it seems,” Jane tells him.
“Here.” She hands him a soaker. “Get to the castle and call the Royal Guard - whoever is still awake.”
“But I-”
“Go!” She pushes him in the direction of the castle, and he only stumbles a little bit. “And use the water sparingly! Leave anyone sleeping or otherwise cursed to me and the others!”
“There are others?” Ben asks.
She doesn’t bother answering him. “Go!”
The King of Auradon does as he’s told, shoulders hiked up to his ears, unused to her yelling.
Jane would be appalled at her own actions if she wasn’t so concerned with saving all of Auradon.
She could apologize for yelling later.
—--------------------
When she arrives at the museum, it’s almost nightfall and her mother—
Her mother is stone, frozen on the steps leading up to the building.
“Mother!” she cries, setting down her bucket and racing up the steps. “Mom!”
She looks at her, taking in her motionless face. It’s frozen in a worried, but determined expression.
“Mom,” she gasps, feeling her teardrops begin to fall, cascading down her cheeks.
She’s never seen her mother so still. She’s always flitting about. To see her so still…
Jane shakes her head and wipes away her tears with the back of her hand, sniffling.
No, she tells herself, I can fix this.
Nodding to herself, she steps back, getting her super-soaker ready.
She closes her eyes, takes a deep breath, trying to find the calm she’d been maintaining since Audrey had shown up and attempted to curse her and her friends.
Letting the air out, she opens her eyes and utters the only words of power she knows as she opens fire upon the stone.
“Bippity boppity boo!”
The water lands on her mother, and the effect is almost instantaneous.
The grey stone cracks and shatters around her, and Jane’s mother gasps, pitching forward.
The younger fey drops her gun to catch her.
“Mom!”
“Jane!” she exclaims as she regains her footing. “Jane, is that you?”
“Yes, yes, Mother,” she can’t help but cry as her mom cradles her face between her hands, eyes flitting about her face with worry. “It’s me.”
“Ooh!” Her mother wraps Jane in a hug. “Sweetie!” She rocks them a bit, back and forth. “I love you.”
“I love you, too, Mom,” the younger fey says, pulling back. “Auradon needs our help.”
Her mother nods, giving her daughter's arms a squeeze.
Getting back to business was necessary, but Jane could tell her mother didn’t like it. Fairy Godmother probably just wanted to wrap the younger fey up in a blanket and ferry them both away back home to sit in front of the fireplace with some tea and a good book to remain for at least a week. But needs must.
“I promise to try and undo all that Audrey has done,” her mother says, before her face falls with remorse. “And I’m so sorry your birthday didn’t turn out like you thought it would.”
Jane musters up a watery smile. “It’s okay, Mom.”
Her mother gives her a teary smile of her own. “I want you to know how proud of you I am.”
“Thanks.”
Her mother sniffs before giving another nod and releasing her. “Now go, help King Ben,” she tells Jane, “and I’ll grab the wand.”
The younger fey hesitates. “Are you sure?”
Her mother nods. “Go,” she says, smiling. “Be the hero I know you to be.”
—--------------------
When Jane arrives at Beast Castle, it is to the sight of Mal in the sky as a dragon and helicopters closing in with roaming spotlights. Things are getting messy.
Lightning bolts streak across the sky through the windows of the castle as the young fey runs up the stairs of the tower with her water gun in hand, the last of her enchanted lake water held within it.
Finally, she makes it to the top, throwing open the wooden hatch.
Audrey turns to face her as Jane climbs out. Celia, one of the new VKs, huddles against the side of the tower closest to the cursed princess.
“Janey,” Audrey croons, a smirk crossing her lips, “I see you woke up from your little slumber. And after I sang you such a nice lullaby for your birthday, too.”
The young fey just glares at the leather-clad Audrey, raising the super-soakers to be level with her chest.
The daughter of Sleeping Beauty laughs. “You brought a little water gun to defeat me?” Audrey doesn’t even look as she shoots off another bolt of poisonous green lightning in Mal’s direction, easily keeping the purple dragon at bay.
“What?” Audrey spits, taking a predatory step closer, but Jane holds her ground, tilting her chin up in defiance. Jane vowed never to be cowed by the other teen after what happened during the VKs’ first semester at Auradon Prep. “Do you think I’m going to melt?”
“No,” the brunette says. “I think I’m going to ruin your makeup.”
The blonde barely has time to process her words before Jane lets loose a torrent of water at her.
Audrey shrieks, her hair and, yes, her makeup are ruined as she tries to shield herself with her arms and scepter. The wooden staff hisses and gives off ugly green steam, the water purifying it.
“No! No!” the princess continues to scream, stumbling. She has started to give off steam as well.
“Audrey?!” Jane drops the now empty water gun and runs to the other teen’s side as she collapses.
Did I kill her?
But, no, the fey checks the now sopping wet princess for a pulse.
No, the blonde was alive, just passed out.
Jane sighs, sitting in a wet heap of her own with Celia slowly approaching her.
“Is it over?” the younger teen asks.
“Yeah,” the young fey says, exhausted and damp. “It’s over.”
—--------------------
“So,” begins Snow White on her morning talk show, An Apple a Day, “the public wants to know, how did you manage to take down the cursed Princess Audrey?”
“Oh,” Jane says, smiling bashfully at all the lights and cameras fixated on her. “Mal and Uma did a lot of the work with Hades’ Ember—I just added water.”