Author's notes: to address who ever anonymously asked about it, this is not going to be a RavenxApple story, though their relationship and how the Rebel/Royal conflict affects it will be a major element.
…..
Morning the following day, the students of EA High at gathered in the Castleteria for breakfast. Unsurprisingly, all of the rebels had gathered at the same table.
"I didn't get a chance to ask you this yesterday Raven," Holly began while sitting across of from teenaged sorceress/Kamen Rider, "but who is your favorite Kamen Rider? Mine is Shigeru Jo, AKA Kamen Rider Stronger because he was incredibly tough and had a super mode that was so powerful, he'd explode from all the energy if he didn't use it up in a minute."
"I would have to go with Gentaro Kisarargi, AKA Kamen Rider Fourze," Raven answered.
"That's not surprising," Holly answered with a grin.
"What do you mean?" Raven asked.
"Its not really surprising," Holly began, "that your favorite Rider would be a guy who made friends, kicked ass, won the respect of people who initially hated his guts and eventually saved his school from the evil machinations of the guy running it."
Everyone around them stopped eating for a moment as Holly's words sunk in and they definitely saw some parallels between this Kamen Rider and what were likely Raven's goals in life.
"Never thought about it like that," Raven said and then continued eating. "I thought it was because one of his many weapons was a chainsaw attached to his leg."
"Also a good reason," Holly admitted with a wide grin.
I should start brushing up on these guys, several of the rebels around them thought.
"So tell me Raven," Darling spoke up, "how good of a fighter have you become trying to emulate these Riders?"
"Well, that's hard to say," Raven answered. She didn't feel comfortable talking about the greatest fight of her life, the battle with Foundation X, in the Castelteria where anyone could overhear them. Plus, she wasn't super proud of that battle because the major factor in her surviving it was the timely involvement of Tsukasa Kodayo, AKA Kamen Rider Decade. This lead her to decided not to bring it up. "I've been practicing for any real battles that might happen, but I don't really know what I'm doing. I'm treating it like a hobby more than anything else."
"I see," Darling said, deciding that a test for Raven's abilities as a fighter was in order.
While this was going on, the Rebel group was being glared at by Daring over at another table populated by the main Royals.
"You're worried about the recent surge in Rebel membership, aren't you?" Apple asked, standing across from him.
"No, I'm not," Daring confidently stated. "Worry would imply that I am scared and I'm not scared of anything, especially Raven," Daring stated with almost tangible scorn.
"Spare us the tough guy talk, Daring," Briar said with a stern look and folded arms. "You wouldn't have spent the last minute trying to glare Raven out of existence if she wasn't getting under your skin."
"I won't deny that," Daring said then turned towards Apple. "To answer your question, right now I'm more angry that Raven has turned my sister against me and that my attempts last night to make Darling see reason did not go according to plan."
"That's one way to describe what happened," Dexter spoke up. "Another way is to say that your attempts at trying to belittle her into changing her mind about being a part of the Rebels only made her determined to stay in their camp."
"Whose side are you on, Dexter?" Daring asked with an angry glare at his brother.
"The Royal side, of course," Dexter answered nervously. "I'm just attempting to hexplain why your chat with Darling last night didn't go the way you were hoping." Dexter paused to clean his glasses. "While we're talking about her, seeing as how she's agreed to follow her destiny, whatever it ends up being, I don't think there's any harm in letting her hexpress herself by sympathizing with the Rebels."
"She's not supposed to hexpress herself, she's supposed to do what's told," the more handsome Charming brother shot back.
"Careful Daring," Apple said. "I said something similar yesterday and look how that turned out."
"Oh yeah," Daring said awkwardly, seeing Apple's point and not feeling great about how being so focused on Raven and his sister made him forgot about Apple's recent problem of being kicked out of the Royal student council. "My apologies, Apple. I've been so focused on how Raven is attempting to destroy this school that I forgot what you've been going through. I have something in mind to take your mind off of those problems."
"And what's that?" Apple asked.
"For us to start formally dating, of course," Daring said while he flashed one of his non-blinding smiles. "What do you say we grab coffee after classes?"
"Absolutely," Apple replied with more enthusiasm than she felt. She wasn't actually that interested in going out with Daring but it would be weird if she turned him down now that he was no longer interested in flirting with practically every girl in school except her. And it might actually take my mind off everything going on right now, Apple mentally added.
"Oh, did I just hear that you two are actually going out now?" Blondie said as she suddenly came up to this group.
How does she do that? Apple asked herself mentally in regards to Blondie's uncanny ability to simply appear in the presence of any news-worthy information.
"That's right Blondie," Apple said. "And we'll tell you about how it goes afterward."
"If we feel like it," Daring added with a hint of aggression. "That debate yesterday was your idea. You gave Raven the opportunity to spread her dangerous ideas throughout the school. And since you made the debate live, you couldn't edit it so Raven looked less persuasive. If you really are on the Royal side, you better start acting like it."
"Okay," Blondie said awkwardly. She knew something like this would happen. The live debate had been her idea and it had gone well for boosting Rebel membership. Not surprisingly, some of the Royals were blaming her for all that. She wasn't worried as long as it didn't affect viewership of her mirrorblog.
"Isn't that a little harsh, Daring?" Apple asked with a glare.
"Maybe," Daring admitted and then faced Blondie. "Apologies, Blondie. I'm concerned that if something isn't done soon, the Rebels will gain more momentum," he finished while resuming glaring at the Rebel table, contemplating ways to trip them up.
...
A few hours later, it was lunch time. Daring had told Blondie that he wanted to have an interview for his reaction to the recent increase in Rebel membership. After eating, the two of them went to outside the Castleteria.
"Thanks for giving me this hexclusive, Daring," Blondie said.
"You're fairy welcome," Daring replied as he grabbed a piece of paper from his jacket. "I'm hoping you're so grateful that you'll stick to this script I wrote."
"What?" Blondie said in shock as she took Daring's script. She felt conflicted about this script matter: on one hand, doing the interview on Daring's terms would be a pretty big departure from what she knew about journalistic integrity but on the other hand, she needed all the help she could get to undo the damage caused by the debate and this hexclusive could help with that. "There's nothing about Darling in here," Blondie said after reading the short script.
"Because I don't want to talk about that," Daring answered.
"Daring, people will think it's weird that I don't ask you how feel about your sister joining the rebels."
"I'll worry about that later: just stick to the script."
"Fine," Blondie relented as she took out her mirrorpad, took a few deep breaths to get into 'reporter mode' and started recording while holding the mirrorpad's camera towards herself. "What's up Ever After? I'm here with Daring Charming to get his opinion on the recent surge in Rebel membership. Your thoughts, Daring," Blondie finished as she faced the camera towards him.
"Thanks Blondie," Daring said. "It's important to keep in mind that the Rebels' selfishness threatens to destabilize our entire way of life."
"But some of the Rebels actually want to follow their destinies," Blondie recited from the script she'd been given, "so long as others have the option of making their own life choices."
"Not going into how that position enables the selfishness of others," Daring continued, "Let's take a look at some of the people who feel that way. Maddie is insane and doesn't know any better, Holly is a traitor to the Royals so her opinion doesn't count, because of Lilly's gayness she is more inclined to go against the normal way of doing things, due to Cedar being a puppet she has fairy wrong ideas about individual free will being more important than what's best for everyone and Rosabella's only joined the Rebels because she's trying to take advantage of all the attention Raven's getting to spread some of it to her various causes. In other words, she's using Raven. This should all be kept in mind about Raven's new recruits."
"That's definitely something to think about, Daring. Thank you for your time," Blondie said as she turned off the tablet and ended the interview.
"That went hexcellently," Daring said with a grin. "With that taken care off, there's another thing we need to go over. I need you to start using your mirrorblog to endorse the Royals and demonize the Rebels."
"What?!" Blondie exclaimed. "That's even worse than the script thing! It goes against everything I know about journalistic integrity."
"Then it's a good thing I don't care about that," Daring shot back with a glare. "And if you're concerned about becoming a serious journalist one day, think about how hard that will be when the ratings for your mirrorblog take a major hit. That's what's going to happen when I talk the other Roayls into boycotting you because you haven't been showing proper loyalty to the Royal side."
Blondie thought over this for about thirty seconds and then decided to say the first thing that came to her mind.
"You're a dick, Daring," Blondie said.
"That's fair," Daring replied. "There are people like Lizzie and Hopper who have a lot riding on fulfilling their destinies which might not happen because of Raven. To help them, I'll be as big a dick as I need to be."
Blondie began thinking over Daring's words. Raven did need to be stopped to prevent all the chaos that spread from people not following their pre-assigned roles. And that's not just right.
"You're absolutely right: Raven needs to stopped," Blondie answered.
"Hexcellent," Daring said, then shook Blondie's hand to signify their understanding.
...
While this was going on, Hopper stepped outside the Castleteria. Someone had left a note in his locker, asking him to meet up to discuss ways of making Raven pay for Legacy Day.
"Hello Hopper," Evan greeted the future frog prince.
"Why am I not surprised?" Hopper deadpanned. He quickly deduced that Evan had reached out discreetly because Evan (correctly) feared that Hopper would turn him down if asked directly. But since Hopper was here and prepared to ignore whatever he said, there was no harm in hearing him out. "What do you want?"
"To make Raven pay, like I wrote earlier," Evan said. "We need to get things back on track to the way they're supposed to be: I know you understand this better than most."
Damn he's good, Hopper thought in regards to how Evan knew to hit him where it hurt.
"I have some ideas in mind but I might need help later," Evan continued. "Are you in?"
"I'm not agreeing to anything until I know what it is I'm agreeing to," Hopper answered.
"Right now, all I'm asking is for you to keep an open mind," Evan said with a devious grin. "And it looks you will."
