Mulan & aurora fan fic (OUAT)

Yin and yang

⚠️very slight gore warning⚠️
Mulan's POV:
Although the air was cold, my forehead was drenched in sweat. I still felt like my body was sinking even though I was lying still. I slowly lifted my shaking hands off the ground and used them to pull myself up. I knew that if Aurora was still alive, I wouldn't have much longer. I had to find her soon. I left my bag behind after grabbing one last snack as it would only have weighed me down. Then, I ran. I didn't know where I was running to but I could see the castle which didn't seem to be too far away. The sound of my shoes thumping against the ground echoed as I continued to sprint. I stopped after about 10 minutes, my legs about to give way when I realised that the castle stood only a few metres away. I saw no guards so I decided to take a closer look. It looked like I wouldn't need a distraction after all. I felt slightly uneasy. It all felt a little too easy. But maybe this meant that nothing was really wrong in the first place and these nightmares meant nothing. It may sound selfish but I was secretly hoping that Aurora was still in need of my help. I decided that the doors would probably be locked so I climbed to the nearest window. With every move, my arms felt like they would come out of their sockets. And my legs scrambled and struggled to climb up the towering building. Luckily, the window wasn't too far from the bottom. Once I reached it, I soon realised that it too was locked so I smashed it open. I wasn't stupid, so I'd carried a rock with me when I climbed up as I expected the window would also be locked. Glass shattered and a piece flew in my direction, wedging itself in my skin. I winced in pain but continued to clime through the shattered window, glass surrounding me. Once I reached the inside, I became familiar once again with my surroundings. It looked slightly different to when I was last here but I recognised the main details. I decided not to stall myself any longer and rushed up to Aurora's room. The castle appeared to be deserted so I decided I would take my time exploring. I reached Aurora's luxuriously large bedroom and scanned it for anything useful that could lead me to her. I presumed that if she was in danger, she wouldn't be in this very castle, it would be too risky to put her here. It would have to be some place hidden with a large area. Like the forest! Then it hit me. 'No! I'm such an idiot. I should have stayed in the forest. She has to be there!' But while I was in the castle I concluded that I might as well look around for clues that could help me. That was when my eyes laid upon a diary on her bedside table. I opened it to the page where the marker was.
Turn around
Huh? That was all it said. I flipped through the pages for anything else but that was all that was in it. Suddenly, I heard someone clear their throat from behind me. "You really are a clever one aren't you." I instantly recognised that voice, it was... "Philip? W-where is she!?" I stuttered both angry and terrified. "Who? Your precious Aurora? I'm afraid I can't tell you that."
"Then, why are you here?"
"Well you see, I knew you would come. Aurora even said so herself that you would come to save her. True love really does make you do crazy things. Too bad that isn't always a good thing. I never really wanted to hurt Aurora. She was t the one I wanted. It was you. I wanted to be with you so badly, but you ran away."
"What do you mean you didn't want to hurt her?"
"Oh well I had to punish her for also running away. I also know that you love her." He said those last lines in a slow whisper. "And I know that she loves you too. She made you love her. And she needs to be punished for stealing you from me." My head tried to process what he had just confessed but to no avail. I couldn't believe he loved me. It made me feel sick to my stomach. "Did you ever think that I could love a monster like you? Stay the hell away from me and Aurora." I reached for my sword.
"Ah, I see how it's going to be. Fine then. Let's fight." He said, also drawing his sword. He lunged forward almost unexpectedly. His moves were quite unpredictable as he was in a very messed up frame of mind which caused him to act unnaturally. He left no spaces open for me to attack so I stayed on defence. He continued to thrash his sword about carelessly while I struggled to hold him off and protect myself. He gave a menacing laugh as he watched me dodge every attack. I needed a plan. A different approach. I went and hid behind a nearby table. "What's the use of hiding when I already saw where you went. I guess you're not so smart after all" he jeered. He took one step closer and I took the opportunity to lift up the table with a lot of force and slam it into him. The table broke and pieces of wood went flying. He stumbled backwards and I stole that moment to kick his sword away from him, leaving him helpless on the ground. I seized him by his collar and held my sword up to his neck. "You wanna rethink that last sentence?" I remarked and he stared at me with wide and fearful eyes. "Please don't hurt m-me" he stammered and I sneered at him. "After all you've done. To Aurora, to me. You expect me to not hurt you?" Tears started to well in his eyes but I showed no mercy. Something in me snapped when I thought once again of Aurora resulting in me plunging my sword into his heart. I threw my hands to my mouth in shock of what I had just done. I looked at them, drenched in blood. Some may argue that good people don't kill others even if they deserve it. But I'm not a good person. I'm not the hero in this story. Nobody is fully innocent, but nobody is fully evil. The world isn't separated by heroes and villains. I am a hero, but in my own selfish and twisted way. Tears fell from my eyes after reflecting on my actions. Because, although he tried to hurt me and Aurora, I knew him, and was even once friends with him. I didn't even know if Aurora would want to talk to me again. After all, I had just killed her husband. I stayed with him for another minute before leaving to go and find Aurora. My hands were shaking violently and my legs felt like they would collapse at any second. However, I didn't care anymore. All I cared about was finding Aurora, no matter whether she hated me or not. I ran back to the woods, positive she would be there. I tried to escape the recent events by running even faster but my mind was still in that deserted castle beside a lifeless prince. I suddenly felt like vomiting so my legs came to an abrupt halt as I heaved and gagged, still thinking about Philip. Of course I had killed and harmed people in combat before but this was very different. I hadn't even come close to killing someone in years so I had forgotten the awful feeling. But this was worse. The whole situation I was in was completely disturbing and unsettling. Once I had finished throwing up, I took a moment to catch my breath before taking off once again. The forest was close by and dread continued to fill me with each step. In fact, it only took me a couple of minutes to get back to where I had that nightmare. This time I stopped to pick up my bag and decided to bring it with me. I wasn't going to run either. I was too tired and I didn't know where I was going. Luckily, the sun was starting to rise so I wouldn't be travelling in the dark. I presumed that she would probably be in the deepest part of the forest so I set off to find it. I searched for hours, with little breaks in between. My whole body ached but I kept going. I had finally reached a part of the forest where the trees were the tallest and the sun was the least visible. This made it difficult to see but thankfully there was a torch in my bag which I had brought with me. I walked through a pathway surrounded by trees looming over me as if they were watching my every move. I almost felt dizzy, as if the trees were closing in on me and were being distorted. I was about to pass out but then I saw a building that looked oddly familiar to me. As soon as I laid eyes on it, everything stopped. I no longer felt the tress towering over me or closing in. It felt as if that never happened. The sun also became more visible so I put my torch away. I got closer and realised why I recognised the tiny building. It was the building from my most recent dream.