WARNING: SPOILERS!!! ~A Watty's 2019 Submission!

Saved for The Pure Hearted Heroine

Swaine watched as Harmony walked down the ramp off the boat, keeping her eye on Evan so he wouldn't fall off into the water below. Then Swaine ran over and took Harmony's arm and carefully led her down the ramp. She gave him a look.
"Swaine, I'm fine." She told him. "The baby's just kicking especially hard today." He shook his head.
"Harmony, we're getting ready to get into a huge battle. I don't want to see you or the baby get hurt, not today of all days." She rolled her eyes, but Swaine was sure she was grateful. The due date could be getting closer and closer and he didn't know if he was ready, much less Harmony.
"Swaine, if anything happens, I can handle it. I'm the Songstress for goodness sakes."
"Yeah, a pregnant Songstress." She gave him a swift punch to the shoulder and they both laughed. Nicky watched with a pang in her heart. They reminded her so much of her Uncle Sam and Aunt Melody. Made sense that they were soulmates.
When they finally reached the others, Swaine let go of Harmony's hand and addressed the whole team.
"Okay, so here's the plan." He said. "All of Hamelin is filled with those manna-made creatures. Those are people who have been turned into monstrous zombie-like creatures." He explained to the younger generation. "And not only that, it's fitting that the undead man has a undead familiar army behind him."
"So why don't you explain your plan, then?" Harmony interrupted, a little irritated. Nicky was pretty sure those were her hormones, though.
Swaine gave Harmony a dirty look, but continued. "Right, anyway. I think to take down the familiars, we need to divide and conquer. We'll split up into groups. I'll take Harmony, Esther can take Evan and Sappy, and Nicky and Jayden can be partners. When we find Mortui, I want us to be together, so the group that finds him first, send somebody to find the others while the other person stays behind and makes sure he doesn't leave. If we need to, we'll stay together as we get through the city, but we will part ways in the palace. Also, as I said before, the people have been changed into manna-made zombies. Do not kill them, they are still people and they will change back. Just knock them out if necessary. Any questions?" Harmony raised her hand a little ways.
"I would rather go with Evan and Sappy." She told Swaine. "Esther and Evan are strong, but not on their own. Esther can really only do healing spells and Evan's magicless, like you. I'll take the smaller two, you go with Esther. That way, we're all evenly powered." Swaine opened his mouth to protest, but Harmony stopped him. "No, don't argue, there's no time for that." He sighed, then nodded.
"Alright. Anybody else? Questions?"
"Yeah, I got one." Jayden told Swaine. "When did you get so bossy?" Everyone laughed at him, then they broke, running into Hamelin. Swaine and Esther started down the winding path, fighting along the way, while Harmony led Sappy and Evan up and over the buildings, using her magic to make them carefully go across the tracks so that the people wouldn't get squashed below. Jayden held out his sword and Nicky held out Aaliyah's staff to the zombies and familiars coming out at them. Jayden leaned down a little to be ear level with Nicky.
"Alright, we have two ways to get out of here. We can follow Swaine and Esther and go down the long road, or we can take my shortcut." He whispered to her.
"What's your shortcut?" She whispered back. He grinned at her.
"Just don't let go." He whispered. Then he grabbed her hand, pulled her through the crowds of enemies, slashing at the familiars with his sword and hitting the people with the hilt. He was running straight towards a railing the led to a drop onto the main road.
"Jayden...!" Nicky said nervously. Then he jumped over, pulling her in close and holding her tight. "JAYDEN!!" She screamed, gripping him as tight as she could. Then Jayden reached into his pocket, and pulled out Swaine's Pickpocket Pistol! He hit the trigger, and out came a grappling hook, that attached itself to a vent in the roof of the city! Nicky screamed as they almost hit the ground, then sighed with relief as they just barely missed it and they went up and away from the enemies.
"Cast a Veil spell while we're still in the air! We're going through the balcony!" Jayden shouted at her. She did just that, and he retracted the hook, them flying through an open door on the balcony and right past two Senfanists.
"What the hell!?" They shouted, looking towards where Jayden and Nicky had landed. They came over and waved their spears around on the floor. Nicky scrambled back, avoiding the swinging spears. She didn't know if they could feel her with the Veil spell on, but she sure as heck didn't want to find out! Jayden stumbled to his feet, practically doing the limbo to avoid being hit by the flying spear. Then Nicky felt something tap her toes, and saw the butt of the spear tapping it.
"I feel something! Someone must be using magic!"
"Get the Unveil Powder! We'll find them!"
"Crap!" Nicky shouted, getting to her feet. "Jayden, run!" They headed down the hall, just barely getting hit by some white powder, the Veil spell slowly already being taken off.
"Nicky, hurry!" Jayden told her. They ran into a huge room, where they bumped into something invisible. Someone. Both Veil spells faded to reveal Harmony! She was by herself.
"Harmony!" Nicky cried. "Where's Evan and Sappy?" Harmony looked distressed as she shrugged.
"I-I don't know! We got spotted by a guard and the two of them ran off without me! I've been on a Veil spell trying to find them!" That was when they heard a squeaky ten year old boy voice and a deeper Welsh fairy voice.
"HARMONY/SONG-GIRL!!!!" It was them! "HELP!!!!" Their voices were coming from Marcassin's chambers.
"Evan! Sappy!" Nicky cried, running towards their voices. "They must be in trouble!" Harmony and Jayden followed her, and when they got to the chambers, they found Evan and Sappy cowering before Mortui! He was cackling evilly as the others entered.
"Well, if it isn't the Young Savour! Her and her little gang!" Nicky snarled at him.
"Mortui! Where are they!? Where is my father, the royals and the Sages!?" Mortui raised where his eyebrows should have been. "Tell me now!" Suddenly, an Arrow of Light shot at him and he fell back, Harmony stomping up to him.
"Answer her!!" She demanded. "Where's my husband and my brother!?" Mortui crawled back a little ways, then stood up and dusted himself off, smirking at the Deal Chain around her wrist.
"Your husband?" He asked cockily, then looked towards Nicky and the others. "Your father? What about your queen?" Evan grunted at him. "Or your lord?" Sappy crossed his arms. "Or maybe your parents?" Jayden looked down. "You all want your loved ones back??"
"Yes!!" Harmony and Nicky said in unison.
"Why the flip do you think we're here?" Sappy snarled. Evan grunted again, and Jayden slowly nodded. Mortui cackled again, then threw some white dust at them. "Very well!" Then Nicky felt the dust fly into her eyes, making her close them, and she felt herself hit the ground.
"Nicky!" She heard Jayden shout her name, then something brush against her wrist, but not grasp. When she opened her eyes again, she found herself not in the Porcine Palace anymore. Instead, she was on a shining pink floor, the walls a white ivory with pillars. Not to far away, were platforms with gold on the sides and they were pushed into alcoves in the wall. She looked around and saw that Jayden had fallen not too far from her, and Harmony was helping Evan and Sappy up. Evan looked around nervously, rubbing his eyes.
"Where are we?" He asked.
"The Ivory Tower." Harmony told them. "The Seat of Queen Cassiopeia." Then she nodded towards the platforms on the floor. "And that's normally where the magimechs are."
"But they en't there now, en't they?" Sappy interrupted, walking up and looking at one.
"So what's going to be?" Jayden wondered out loud. Suddenly, the platform Sappy was inspecting sprang to life, a dazzling bright light covering the top like a teleport.
"Sappy, what did you do?" Nicky asked. Sappy held up his hands defensively.
"I didn't do nothing, mun!" Suddenly, the light disappeared, revealing a small man with light yellow skin, a little white jumpsuit, and a long nose with a lantern hanging off of his nose. Sappy jumped about ten feet in the air.
"Lord Drippy!" Then one that was closest to Evan came alive, and revealed a young woman with curly red hair, a white dress, and white ballet flats. She wore a green pendant and a silver tiara with a single green stone on it. Evan's eyes nearly popped out of his head.
"Queen Aaliyah!" She smiled at him, and he returned it with a huge hug as a third platform lit up by Jayden, and not one, but two people appeared. One was a man with brown hair that had a purple fur lined cap on covering it. He wore a white shirt and a tan pants with brown moccasins. The other was a woman with dark brown hair, tanned skin, and and an outfit just like Aaliyah's. Jayden gasped.
"Mom! Dad!" They both looked proud of him as the one Harmony stood next to lit up, and it revealed a young man wearing the same thing as Kublai, but he had pale skin, with long navy coloured hair and deep, perfect, blue eyes. Harmony gasped with tears in her eyes.
"Marcassin!" She whispered, running to him and burying her face into his shoulder, crying with happiness. Marcassin wrapped his arms around her and rubbed her back, just as the one by Nicky lit up, and a man with red hair, bright blue eyes, and a wrinkled face from smiling so much came from it. Nicky stared in amazement.
"Dad?" Oliver smiled and nodded, his dimples popping out. "Dad!" She ran up to him, tears streaming down her cheeks, and she wrapped him in a hug, burying her face into his shoulder, sobbing. Oliver hugged her back.
"It's alright now, Nicky. We're together. I'm so proud of you, sweetie." Nicky listened to him, and almost cried harder, then she realised what he said. In all her years of being his daughter, she knew him well enough to know there was something wrong with that first sentence. It was a small thing, but it was a thing that was wrong. She pulled back from him.
"Dad? When did you start calling me Nicky?" Oliver's face turned red, like it had suddenly gotten real hot. Or like he had been caught in a lie.
Oliver cleared his throat, smiling like it was forced. "I-I don't know what you mean, Nicky dear. Haven't I always-" She pulled away from him, cutting him off.
"You did it again. You've never called me Nicky!" She tried to get away. This wasn't her dad. She could see it now. The dullness of just, him. His eyes didn't twinkle, his hair was more gray, just little things that added up to one big thing.
Oliver reached out and took her wrists. She looked to the others, who were practically hypnotised by their loved ones. "Guys! Help!" Harmony turned her head and glanced at Nicky, but using his thumb and pressing gently on her chin, Marcassin turned her attention back on him. He had his arm wrapped around her with her back towards him and he was rubbing her swollen belly.
"Don't pay a bit of attention to her, Harmony. I'm here now, for you and our son." She chuckled and gave him a peck on the lips.
"Hm hm, what makes you think that..." Then she realised what he said, and furrowed her eyebrows at him, frowning. "How did you know I was pregnant?" All the colour drained Marcassin's face. He chuckled nervously.
"Wh-what do you mean?" He asked her. "Of course I knew. Why wouldn't I have known that my wife was pregnant?" She pulled away and stepped back, now looking terrified at Marcassin.
"I'll tell you why you shouldn't have known that I was pregnant." She told him angrily, reaching for her staff that wasn't there. Nobody had their weapons. "I never told Marcassin." Marcassin frowned angrily, his eyes beginning to glow red.
"Ignorant Songstress." He growled, his voice not Marcassin's anymore, but deep and furious. "Why couldn't you just be happy with what you got!? Instead of being selfish, and knowingly about to get yourself killed!" Then his arms changed into octopus tentacles, and they shot out at her, wrapping around Harmony and pulling her back to him. She grunted and struggled against him, catching Evan's attention from where he was sitting and telling Aaliyah about their adventures. He looked past her and saw Nicky fight against Oliver, who held her wrists and wouldn't let go. Then he looked back at Aaliyah, and stood up, backing away. She stood up as well and tilted her head at him, looking confused.
"Where are you going, Evan?" She asked him, a little creepily in his opinion. "I missed you. Please, stay with me." He shook his head vigorously, now frightened of the woman who stood before him. After all, Nicky had just been betrayed by her father and Harmony her husband. Why should he trust the ruler of his kingdom?
"I won't come with you!" He told her. "How can I know I can trust you?" Jayden overheard this from where he and his parents had been talking, and backed away a little. Khulan, who was an exceptionally tough woman, looked close to tears, while Kublai looked discouraged.
"Jayden. Come back. Please." Khulan pleaded. Jayden shook his head and reached out his arm, in which Evan ran over to him, and Jayden put his arm around the smaller boy protectively.
"No way." He told them, glancing Aaliyah, who looked like she was getting angry, then looked over at Drippy and Sappy, who were happily chatting away and completely oblivious to the chaos behind them.
"Jayden!" Evan suddenly shouted, and Jayden looked back to see his parents and Aaliyah, their eyes glowing red. Evan hugged the arm that Jayden had wrapped around him.
"Puny, magicless, mortals!" The three of them said in unison. "You will suffer for your stupidity!"
"Sappy! He isn't the real Lord Drippy!" Evan called to the fairy. Sappy finally turned and saw it. Nicky fighting against Oliver, Harmony being dragged towards Marcassin, and the glowing red eyes of Kublai, Khulan, and Aaliyah. Then he turned back and saw that Drippy had disappeared. In his place was a huge snake with a hood, and was green, orange, and purple, his eyes glowing red.
"Was it something I said?" Sappy said meekly.
Nicky pulled and pulled, trying to get her wrists out of Oliver's grasps. The Ivory Tower was beginning to collapse as our heroes realised that their loved ones weren't their loved ones.
"Stop resisting, magic brat!" Oliver shouted at her. "I'm your father! Obey me!" Nicky shook her head, glaring at him.
"No! You're not my father! You're not real! This isn't REAL!!" Oliver's eyes glowed red and he roared like a lion, shaking the Ivory Tower, his grip not loosening.
"Nicky!!" Jayden and Evan raced over, being slowly followed by Kublai, Khulan, and Aaliyah. "Harmony!" Jayden tried to pull Nicky's wrist's out of Oliver's hands while Evan and Sappy ran over and tried to free Harmony from Marcassin, who's tentacle arms had her wrapped against his body, like a forced embrace.
"Let me go, you Senfanist!" Harmony shouted. "Get away from me! You're not real!" That was when the building collapsed, and they all woke up back in the Porcine Palace, Oliver's hands and Marcassin's arms turned into chains around Nicky and Harmony, holding them chained against a wall. Jayden, Evan, and Sappy woke up by the entrance with no chains on them, and ran over to help the girls. Jayden used his sword and slashed at their chains, Nicky's coming off the wall, but they couldn't get them off her wrists. Harmony's stayed on her wrists and kept her pinned to the wall. Then a ball of a black magic came and hit her right in her pregnant belly, making her shout, and Mortui's cackle came from behind them. Nicky, Jayden, and Evan stood with their weapons back in hand, ready to fight the undead man. Sappy stood by Harmony protectively, who had gone deathly pale.
"I admire your spirit." Mortui told them. "Not many would have caught the little mistakes the Senfanists made, and survived."
"Let my friends go!" Nicky lashed out, furious with herself that she had been so easily tricked like that. "This is between you and me, Mortui." Mortui chuckled.
"We-ell, I'm sure Pirate-boy and Frog-prince here have something to say about that, but I wouldn't count on the Songstress and the fairy." Nicky furrowed her eyebrows at him.
"What do you mean?" Mortui chuckled.
"Well, the fairy never did much anyway, and the Songstress is a bit, preoccupied." All of a sudden, Harmony screamed in pain and she fell to the ground, panting hard.
"Harmony!" Nicky cried.
"Harmony!" A deeper voice called, then Mortui shouted. Nicky turned and saw Swaine and Esther running in. Swaine had shot Mortui with a Rotshot. When he saw his sister in law, on the ground, and he practically flew over to her. "Harmony, what's wrong?" She gasped in pain, trying to speak.
"Contractions." Mortui told them. "Your precious Songstress can't help you because she's going into labour." Harmony gave him a pained look.
"What?" She gasped. Swaine glared at the undead man.
"You threw her into labour!?" He shouted. Mortui grinned.
"Little one's on his way. Push..." Harmony screamed again.