Into the World of Twisted Wonderland

🐙The Merchant from the Depths🐙 Chapter 26

Later that night while Angel was sleeping, ripples started to form in her mind, a scene appearing in her dreams.

Angel opens her eyes to see a small pond, with trees and plants surrounding it and the moon shining in the back. She looks on at awe, seeing the fireflies flickering, their light barely illuminating the area, but it left the moonlight to shine perfectly across the water, enough to set the mood. (A romantic evening...?) Angel thinks as she looks at the trees dropping low, their leaves making a makeshift curtain of flowers as she moves her hand, opening it as she looks beyond the distance, seeing a boat with two people rowing her way. Upon closer inspection, she sees that it was the woman and the man before, this time, Ariel has legs and she still have a dreamlike gaze to Eric as he rows the bow. He stops rowing, letting the boat slowly sail across the water, while he only faces Ariel, a smile on his face. "You know, I feel really bad not knowing you name," he tells her as he stares into her eyes. Angel could see something in the water, seeing that two birds, a turtle, and a crab placed on the turtle's head watching the two.

"Ariel. Her name is Ariel," the crab named Sebastian whispers, trying to reach Eric's ears, but not loud enough to bring attention to the talking animals.

The sound was loud enough for Eric to hear as he keeps staring in her eyes. "Well, that's kinda pretty. Okay, Ariel," he whispers as their faces start to get closer. Angel could only blush at the scene, feeling that she shouldn't be watching this intimate moment, but the moment was interrupted when the boat begins to shake, interrupting the two as they only fall over the boat, with the boat being flipped over. Angel gasps at the scene, wondering if they were okay until two eels popped up, smirking at the pair as they swim away, almost as if they were proud of what they did.

In the sea, Ursula watched the entire scene in her cauldron, a pensive look on her face. "Oh, she's better than I thought," she says, a smirk appearing on her face. "Well, it's time Ursula took matters into her own tentacles!"

Another scene shows up, seeing that Ariel was being held captive by the eels, struggling to get out of their grip and head to the man with white hair, a green tail, and what looks to be a crown on his head and a trident. "Stop, Ursula! Let her go!" King Triton angrily yells out to Ursula.

Ursula only cackles at the man as she holds up the paper Ariel signed before, making Triton eyes wide. "Not a chance, Triton! She's mine now. But, I might be willing to make an exchange...so someone even better," She smirks and paper glows for a bit, emphasizing her words. The king could only lower his head down in shame while Ariel continues to struggle in the eels' grasps, preventing him from making a deal with her. "Now, King Triton, do we have a deal?" Ursula says as she smirks at the king, the vision fading to black, right before he gave his answer. Before the dream ends, Angel saw Ursula's smirk, a thought popped up in her head before heading to the dark oblivion. (She wanted to steal everything from the start)

Angel's eyes flutter open as she looks over her makeshift bed to see that morning has come. She sits up, putting a hand to her head as she recalls the dream. That seemed awfully realistic. Almost like it wasn't a dream at all... She looks over to see Leona on his bed, tossing and turning. She smiles and get up, heading over to where he is and smiling at him.

He yawns. "Rrr...Mnnngh..." he groans in his sleep.

"Good morning, Leona," Angel says softly as he only puts his arm across his eyes, trying to block the sunlight. He peeks under his arm, seeing that the girl is in front of him, smiling.

"Huh...?" He says, trying to go back to sleep. "What, you're up already?" He groans. "You sure are bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Meanwhile, because of you, I'm sleep-deprived..."

"Come on Leona," Angel says as she tries to shake him awake. The action only annoys Leona as he growls and grabs her arm and pull her towards him, making her yelp at the sudden action and put his weight on the girl. Angel blushes as she's basically trapped by his weight. "L-Leona! Please get off me!"

"You ruined my sleep, rabbit," Leona sleepy groans but smirks at the girl's struggling action to try to get away from him. "Just give me five minutes..." he says as he dozes off, tightly holding Angel.

"Leona, p-please..." Angel quietly pleads as she's only held against his chest, blushing furiously at the contact she has with Leona. She never thought the morning would be started like this! She only trying to shake around, squirming at Leona's hold on her.

"Tch," Leona only clicks his tongue at her actions, letting her go as she sit up on the bed, happy that he let her go. Leona only sits up, groaning. "I guess today IS the third day of the agreement." He looks at Angel. "Just remember that come sundown, I'm kicking you guys out, no matter how this goes down. Have your things packed as ready to go," he glares, and Angel only smiles at him.

"No problem, Leona," she says as she gets out of the bed and start packing, the plan set in motion. They only had one shot at this, and Angel knew, they won't fail. Call it a feeling but she knew.

Time until Azul's contract expires: One day

At the courtyard, Angel and Grim gather Ace, Deuce, and Jack, telling them about Azul's loophole and the plan. She looks at them with a smile, while they all stare at her dumbfoundedly.

"..." Ace and Deuce look at Angel, who only smiles at them.

"Are you serious right now?" Jack says as he scratches his head.

"Off to the Coral Sea we go!" Angel loudly exclaims as she basically pushes the boys to the Mirror Chamber.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!" Ace speaks up, trying to stop the girl's actions. "I thought we agreed that nabbing the photo under the sea was a no-go because the Leech brothers would stop us!"

"This plan seems reckless, even by my standards..." Deuce says.

Angel just pouted at the boys. "Do you guys not trust me...?" She says in a hurt tone.

The boys only quickly reassure her. "No, no, no, no! We trust you!" Ace exclaims.

"Yeah, what makes you think we don't trust you at all?!" Deuce exclaims. Angel just smiles at them.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk," Grim speaks up, voice hoarse. "Okay, kiddos, listen up and I'll go over the plan..." He coughs and hacks, trying to find the voice to speak.

"You okay there?" Ace asks Grim. "Got a furball or somethin'?"

"No! I'm still gettin' over all the yowling I did yesterday," Grim says trying to catch his breath. "Mm, anyway, back on topic. Here's how this is gonna go..." He tells the three about the plan and the three only look at the two in shock.

"WHAAAAAAAAAAT?!" They all exclaim while Angel only smiles at them.

"Angel, are you serious?! This is crazy bold!" Ace says.

"Wow, Angel. I always knew you were gutsy, but this is a fresh reminder," Deuce smile and Angel only giggles.

"Will this really go the way you hope, though?" Jack asks, skeptical about the plan.

"We've exhausted out leads and we have one day to go. Angel's idea is all we got," Deuce states. "Not even a whole day, either. We've only got until sunset."

"I guess anything beats sitting on our thumbs waiting around for sundown," Ace comments.

Jack thinks for a moment. "All right. Fine. Stressin' over what-ifs won't get us anywhere. I gotta say, Angel-nothing stops you once you put your mind to something," he smirks at her.

"My plans never fail after all," Angel says with a smile. "So we've got this!"

"Sometimes she's a tad TOO daring, but what's life without a little spice?" Ace says with a smirk. "Okay, guys! Let's roll!"

"Time to get ourselves a photo from the Atlantica Memorial Museum!" Grim exclaims as the five head to the Mirror Chamber, resolve set.