Twisted Wonderland: The Phantom Bride - Love at First Fright

Chapter 23: I'll Fight the Whole World

Suddenly, Riddle's voice appears, "Ace is right."

Ace and the others turn to see Riddle, and Rook and Epel as well.

"Housewarden Riddle!" Ace says, relieved.

"And Rook and Epel are with them," Sereia happily says.

"They're all okay!" Grim happily says.

Suddenly, Vil asks, "Do you two have any idea how late you are?"

"My apologies, Vil. I found myself lost so often without you to light my way," Rook says, apologizing.

"What? I thought you were busting up ghosts with giddy abandon," Epel says, confused.

"Housewarden, you've come to save us! I can't thank you en—" Deuce says.

Suddenly, Riddle turns his head, "CATER. What time is it?"

"Huh?" Cater replies, becoming confused, "Uhh... 11:35, according to the clock."

"We have less than half an hour before the date changes. Let's dispatch these ghosts posthaste!" Riddle says.

"Wait, why are you asking? What's going on?" Cater asks.

But then Ace cuts in, "All right! Team Tux is reunited and back in action! You ghosts might as well pack it in now. It's way past time you released Idia."

Nana and Grampy try to speak up, "But..."

But Rook says, "You can still start over. After all, you wouldn't want your dear mademoiselle to become an evil ghost who kills people, would you?"

Nana and Grampy remain silent.

Eliza finds it offensive, "Excuse me? Are you calling me an evil ghost? I...I'm not trying to be evil! I just—"

"Of course you're not," Briar says, "It's obvious that you just want to find the perfect partner, and want to live happily with that someone, but you've got a bit carried away."

"Carried away?" Eliza asks, and begins to sound skeptical, "Uh, maybe..."

"Maybe?!" Briar questions with her arms crossed with a frown.

Then says, "You kidnapped a student! Have your ghost army kick everyone out of the campus and turn it into a wedding! And almost turned a living person into a ghost! You got carried away alright. Enough to almost force Idia to be a ghost for eternity, and forced into a..."

Suddenly, Puffy angrily says, "Don't listen to anything they say, Your Highness. You've done nothing wrong."

This has Eliza shocked, "Puffy..."

"Dude, did you hear that I said about enabling?" Ace angrily says.

"Can't you see you're doing something wrong?" Epel says.

"Yeah! What they said!" Idia says.

But Puffy says, "I don't care if it's wrong. I want Her Highness to be happy. I'd take on the whole world to make that happen. That's MY lingering attachment! MY wish!" and suddenly, begins to enlarge himself.

Everyone is in a panic.

Grim cries out, "Wha... Wha... What in the world?! The big one's gettin' even bigger!"

"He's manifesting five centuries' worth of attachment at once!" Riddle says.

"I sense a power within him that dwarfs all the other ghosts," Rook says, "We can't stay here. Everyone, get behind us!"

"Did you miss the part where none of us can move?" Vil sarcastically questions.

"Ah, yes, quite. In that case..." Rook says and turns to the others, "Epel. Tanzanite, Jasper. Move these glorified logs to a corner of the cafeteria!"

"Understood!" Epel says.

"On it!" The twins reply.

With that, Epel and the twins begin to carry the student by hand and magic to get them to a different part of the room.

Leona shouts, "Hey! Who're you callin' a log?"

"Insolent humans! I am a retainer to the great and powerful Malleus! Nobody rolls me around!" Sebek says.

"You're going to have to bear with us doing this," Jasper says.

"Yes. We're in a real hurry," Tanzanite says.

"Has everyone been moved to safety?" Epel asks.

"Yes, we're good to go!" Epel says.

"We've got everyone safely away," Tanzanite says.

"You're really set on causin' trouble, huh? Let's get this fight banged out—and by that, I mean clobber this guy!" Ace angrily says.

"I will protect the princess...to the very last!" Puffy shouts and begins to attack.

"Look out!" Sereia cries out.

Puffy flies and dodges the attack. Ace and the others begin to use their magic on the ghost. Briar and Sereia use their magic to protect the others when the magic heads towards them. Briar turns to see Eliza and is very shocked to see what Puffy is doing.

Briar rushes over, "Eliza!"

Eliza turns to see Briar, "You're the girl with those boys."

"Um yes, listen I really need you to listen carefully. I understand that you want to be with your perfect prince, but you're about it all wrong," Briar says.

Eliza remains silent.

Briar continues, "I think you're so busy finding the one who meets your ideal prince, that you don't realize that there's more to a person than just that. Like Ace said."

"Maybe..." Eliza says, still sounding skeptic.

"But Eliza, would you really be happy with Idia, especially knowing that you practically forced him into it?" Briar questions.

"I... I only wanted to find my prince..." Eliza says, sadly.

"But do you even love him?" Briar asks.

"Love...?" Eliza questions and thinks.

Then asks, "But... how do you figure that...?"

"Well, to be honest, I kind of understand wishing to be happy with someone, even though we practically lived in two different worlds. At least, now anyway. Even though the one I wish to be with is actually a prince, he's very nice and caring. He's also smart, and well, he and I had a special connection in a way. I'm not sure how or why, but I had the feeling that he's the one for me," Briar explains, and blushes a bit.

Eliza giggles with a smile, "Sounds like you like him a lot."

"I actually do," Briar says with a smile. She then says, "Still, instead of trying to find the perfect person based on looks and expectations, try to understand if they have feelings for you, and see if that person will make you happy," Then she turns her head.

Eliza does the same and the girls see Puffy fighting the others, practically fighting his heart out.

Then turns to see Puffy fighting the others.

"Because if you ask me, Puffy seems to really fit the kind of ghost Ace describes. I say, Puffy really cares about you, a lot that he's willing to do anything for you," Briar says.

Eliza looks to see Puffy fighting them, and doing everything for her, protecting her, and does everything to make her happy, and will fight for her.

Eliza says to herself, "Puffy..."