Once Upon a Second Chance

(49) - Wild Game of Survival

"I-I'm sorry, she's where?" Audrey asked in confusion as she was one the phone with Lonnie, who was briefing her on what happened to CJ.

"That's the thing; nobody knows. According to Mal, she's not in our Underworld, or this realm's Underworld, so apparently she's in option three," the daughter of Mulan sighed.

"Which is...?"

"Still figuring that out."

Audrey shook her head. "There has to be something we can do."

"I know. The VKs have done so much for us, and it would be nice to feel like they can rely on us in times like these," Lonnie said in defeat, completely lost on what she, the other AKs, or any VKs for that matter can do.

It was then that Prince Philip came down to the kitchen where Audrey was currently on the phone.

Audrey glanced at him, and returned to her call. "Okay, I gotta go now, Lonnie. Update us if you find anything else out." She pocketed her phone and sat down at the table.

Philip frowned as he noticed her mood, and sat down next to her. "Everything okay?"

His alternate daughter looked up. "Not so much. I'm sure you know about the girl from my world who died."

"Oh, Sheriff Swan and Captain Hook's daughter? Yeah, I heard. Poor girl. I'm so sorry," the man sighed.

"Me too. I mean, I didn't know her for that long, but she's pretty dear to some new friends of mine. And they keep searching for way to find her, and I wish that I could help them in any way, considering all they've done for me, despite the fact that I've done really pretty messed-up things to them," the brunette explained.

Audrey had told Aurora and Philip about her brief stint as the Queen of Mean. As frightened as she was of being cast out or disgraced like she was by her old family, she felt the couple deserved to know who it was they were letting into their home, who they were allowing to be around their baby. Much to Audrey's shock, they didn't throw her out or start treating her like a criminal. On the contrary, they were very understanding, and even, get this, sympathetic about the whole ordeal.

Despite her talk with Emma about not being ashamed of her past and confronting the root of her problems, the bitterness and guilt inside her wasn't going to go away just like that. But Aurora and Philip acknowledged that if Audrey still had the Queen of Mean inside her, then she wouldn't have come to them about her past and owned up to her mistakes. They trusted her full-heartedly and they're treatment towards her didn't change, which caused the princess to gain a gargantuan respect towards the couple. She even trusted them a lot more to come to with her problems. There was just such an openness there that she doesn't remember having with any previous members of her family.

"'Searching for a way to find her'?" Philip reiterated. "I thought she was deceased, not missing?"

Audrey shook her head. "Oh, right. We recently found out that due to a confusion in CJ's soul regarding your Underworld, and ours, it vanished to someplace else, and everybody's still trying to figure out what that is."

"Hm..." Philip rubbed his chin in thought as he took in the situation.

"'Hm'?" Audrey leaned forward.

"It's just, the situation reminds me of something I went through a few years ago." The girl's questioning gaze prompted Philip to continue. "After Mulan And I had traveled across the Enchanted Forest to wake Aurora, we were attacked by a Wraith. It marked me, and later dragged my soul to a Netherworld, leaving Aurora and Mulan to believe that I was dead."