This is my sequel to my Poison Apple fic, it will only make sense if you've read my Poison Apple fic. I don't own EAH. Enjoy!
Raven spit out the poisoned apple with all of her might. She stumbled sideways and began to seize.
There was more than enough poison in Raven's system to knock out several ogers but she was going to struggle until she could struggle no more.
"It will be much less painful if you stop squirming," Apple decided to offer up some advice.
"Never!" Raven managed.
The black-haired princess realized that she was being pretty stubborn to a point but, she had to fight even if this was the only way she could right now.
"Whoa!" Dexter struggled to control his valiant steed.
"Grab the reins tighter," Cerise advised as she rode past him on her horse.
Hopper nodded in agreement as he followed Cerise.
"We're almost to the castle of Poison Apple, formerly known as Apple White. Our original plan involved Raven Queen leading us, but she was captured last night by that dastardly blonde and if we're too late..."
Ashlynn nearly dropped Blondie's Mirrorpad when Hunter sped up on the horse.
"Ash, careful," Blondie pouted.
Blondie would have had Dexter filming her, as he had always been her go-to cameraman but since he felt that he had to, 'ride gallantly against the wind to save his True Love', to use his words, he couldn't very well film right now.
Apple wouldn't be too much of a treat but even so, Maddie had gathered up her Wonderlandian pals and they were already waiting to storm the castle as one big team once the others arrived.
Cupid wanted to march right up into the castle and give Apple a piece of her mind, but if her arrows fell into Apple's hands there would be more trouble than there was already. Therefore, Cupid was up on Mount Olympus with her father and if real trouble did begin to happen, Cupid could alert Eros and he would then consult Cupid's uncle, Ares on what to do next.
"Sorry," Ashlynn then resumed recording Blondie.
Blondie winked at her to show that she wasn't angry, "We have almost arrived at the castle. We won't go there directly until we meet up with the Wonderlandian forces."
Raven could feel her eyes lids getting heavy as she continued to seize. She couldn't control the seizing and as she felt less and less balanced, she wondered if she could even control in what direction she fell anymore. To test this, she attempted to throw herself to where all her chains met if only to have the cold metal touch her skin and liven her up a little to fight the poison some more.
"Stop it!" Apple glared at her.
Apple didn't want Raven to hurt herself if only to look pristine going into her glass coffin.
"I refuse," Raven choked out, she could feel her air-intake lessening.
"Your highness," one of Apple's guards came into the room.
"What are you doing here? You're all very well aware that you're not allowed to be in here when I'm working!" Apple crossed her arms.
Raven smirked a little bit when she saw the worried look on Apple's face after her guard was finished explaining things; the cavalry had arrived.
The Wonderlandian army was taking care of the expendable guards, Blondie, Ashlynn and Hunter were helping them as best they could.
That way, Cerise, Dexter and Hopper could get up to Apple's main room and rescue their loves.
Cerise was leading the way, sword first. This sword was Daring's and she carried it with a certain ease and honor. She was determined to free him.
Hopper had gained much more control in keeping his human form. He would still have his moments of getting too frazzled and 'going frog', but, right now, he had to keep it together. Briar had been Apple's prisoner the longest. While he'd attempted rescuing her before, he'd come back with enchantments upon him that even Raven had trouble undoing. This time, failure was not an option.
Dexter could only imagine what Cerise and Hopper were feeling. Part of Dexter was hoping that Raven hadn't been put into a glass coffin. In fact, he was sure that both Briar and Daring had struggled before meeting their demise. He was more than certain that Raven would until she couldn't anymore. But, another part of Dexter was worrying like crazy that Apple had upped the poison dosage and Raven was already in a glass coffin, lying still and motionless.
"There it is," Cerise whispered as she stopped a little ways before the door.
This was it indeed, Apple's central room. Only Hopper had been here before and the door was everything he'd said it was. Intricately detailed with pale paint and blood red jewels.
"Blast!" Hopper went frog unexpectedly, his fears decided to plateau in this very moment and he couldn't take it.
"Hopper, now is not the time for this," Cerise pulled an envelope of 'Fairy Kisses' from her hood and poured it over him.
"Sorry," He was back to his human form almost immediately.
"What's our plan again?" Dexter wanted to be sure to follow the plan, even if he wanted to dart into the room only to find his way to Raven.
"We storm in, fight if we have to and only once we've dealt with her can we free them," Cerise sighed, she didn't very much like the plan either but it was all they had.
Raven felt her ears start to pop. She blinked and found her vision blurring. She had put up a good fight so far but she wasn't sure she could hold out much longer.
"How did you get up here?" That was Apple's voice, her voice was somewhere between a shriek and a whimper.
"Wouldn't you like to know," Cerise's tone was firm, she wasn't scared of her.
Lifting her head up, Raven saw that Cerise was accompanied by Hopper and Dexter.
"Dexter," Raven spoke his name as means to tell him she was still okay.
"Raven," He sighed in relief at seeing her still conscious.
"Oh, no you don't!" Apple snapped her fingers at that.
Apple's only last real line of defense was her evil plant. She'd kept it alive even after her first evilnomics class and it had at least doubled in size. The only real difference was that it listened to her now.
"Get them," She commanded the plant to attack Dexter, Cerise and Hopper as she ran over to Raven.
What was a plant going to do against three people who had blades?
For starters, the plant took Cerise's blade and was now dueling with Dexter and Hopper. Cerise was fighting to get her blade back while being suspended by one of the plants' vines at an odd angle.
Now, Cerise's ears weren't a secret to Raven or Dexter, but she sure didn't want to give Apple that kind of information about her and she wasn't very sure how Hopper would react.
As vines were cut, more vines sprouted from the plant. Soon enough, Hopper and Dexter were being held by vines on the plant. It had taken their blades as well, but Cerise was getting closer and closer to her blade again.
"Guys," Cerise figured it out, "we shouldn't cut the vines, let's cut it down."
Apple started to un-do Raven's chains.
"No..." Raven mumbled.
If Apple was really freeing her from the chains that meant that she didn't see her as a threat anymore. Raven reached up and pushed Apple away from her. Even though her vision continued to blur, she could easily make out Apple's form above her.
Next, she tried to kick up at Apple, but Raven was quickly losing strength. She couldn't pick her legs up a second time and her head then to fell to the side as her eyes started to close.
"RAVEN!" Dexter screamed her name, the worst had happened.
Cerise had jammed her sword into the plant's stem and it was dying. The vines around her, Dexter and Hopper were getting loose. Of course, they were all very much entangled in the vines so, they had to do some ripping and pulling.
"Go," Cerise slashed through enough adjacent vines that she freed herself, Hopper and Dexter.
With a quick growl, Cerise had tackled Apple away from Raven and Hopper went over to help her.
"Rae, no...No," Dexter picked Raven off of the ground and held her.
He was nervous about this whole thing. Sure, he'd kissed Raven plenty of times but if Raven were to wake up, this had to be 'True Love's Kiss'. What if it wasn't? What if he messed it all up and she stayed like this, cold and...
Cold? No, it was too soon for that! He had to kiss her, now.
"Not again," Hopper was blasted by Apple and turned into a frog once more. He was going to be stuck this way a while.
"I've got you," Cerise pounced Apple again, further drove her into the floor until she came to a pillar in the room.
"Oh, now you've done it," Apple glared at Cerise and despite being evil these days, she was still very self-absorbed and fretting over her now messed up hair.
Taking advantage of the fact that Apple was distracted, Cerise bound her hands with some of the left over vines from the evil plant. She then brought together some of the thicker vines and tied Apple to the pillar.
"Dexter, toss me a chain," Cerise yelled.
He did as she asked and once he saw that Cerise had subdued Apple, he knew that there was no more time to waste.
"Raven, please wake up," Dexter whispered as she leaned in to kiss Raven.
This kiss was like no other; he met her lips and held her face in his hands. Their lips were locked together and he wasn't about to move until he felt Raven kissing back. He would stay right in this position for all of eternity if that would make her wake up.
Cerise ran over to Hopper and picked him up. She walked over to Briar's coffin, pushed the lid off; not caring if she broke it and then helped Hopper move in to kiss Briar.
"Huh?" Briar seemed to come to rather quickly, "Has it been a hundred years already?"
"Briar!" Hopper jumped up excitedly in frog form and then returned to his human form.
The formerly sleeping beauty gave a smile of thanks. She might just have to celebrate with a comfy nap as opposed to the one she had to take against her will.
Running at full speed to Daring's coffin, Cerise pushed the lid off with great force and kissed him with the very same power and gusto.
In true Daring fashion, he didn't bother breaking their kiss. He simply lifted Cerise up and onto his lap.
"Your hair is longer," Cerise commented as she broke their kiss.
He gave her a smirk back, "So is yours, m'lady."
They blushed when they realized that everyone else was around and Cerise then took to helping Daring out of the coffin.
"Raven, please...I...I can't lose you," Dexter started to cry and he tried kissing her once again.
"D-don't," Raven's hand came up to wipe his tears. She still sounded very tired, but at least she was awake.
"Rae! Oh, Raven, you're alive," He hugged her tightly.
A set of bright blue eyes met Raven's midnight violet ones. She was unfamiliar with this room and right when she was worried that she was trapped yet again, she realized that this was a hospital room. Thankfully, Dexter was here.
"Dex?" She looked at him.
"Hey, Raven," He was sitting at her bedside.
"What happened?"
"Well, after I woke you with True Love's Kiss we had to rush here because of the extra poison Apple hit you with. That way, they could pump it all out of your system," Dexter explained it as best he could.
She nodded in understanding, no wonder she had been in such bad shape back at Apple's place.
"And Briar and Daring?" She asked, "Are they out of there too?"
"They're safe and sound," He assured her, "Apple's been taken into custody and we won't have to worry about her again."
"Good," Raven sighed in relief and she grabbed onto one of Dexter's hands, she was just so glad that it was all over now and that none of their friends would ever go 'missing' again and end up one of Apple's trophies.
"Rae?" Dexter kept his tone low, unable to keep it level.
"What is it?"
"I never want to lose you again," He still held onto her hand and then knelt down, "Marry me?"
"I'll think about it."
"Wait, what?" He was taken aback by that for a second.
Raven started to giggle, "Well, I thought about it."
"And?"
"I say yes."
"What do you mean...wait, you said yes?"
"I did, now come here."
Dexter stood up and he and Raven shared a kiss. If this was the start of finally getting to Happily Ever After, it had been pretty well worth it.
A/N: 'cause yay ^^ I'm very happy with what I did here, sorry if I kind of killed you all with the pain Raven feels and Dexter screaming her name, I mean, can't you just hear the agony in his voice when he does? Anyhow, hope you liked this.