When classes ended, Evan sent a hext message to Lizzie saying that he wanted to have a discreet meeting with her about the future of Wonderland. Lizzie replied that she'd meet him in an empty classroom. Several minutes later, Evan arrived there.
"Hello Evan," Lizzie greeted with almost tangible scorn. "I'm familiar with your type: you're going to try to offer me something I want in exchange for helping you with something. Well forget it: you can't tempt me," Lizzie finished by crossing her arms defiantly and turning her head away from Evan.
"I want to punish Raven for her actions on Legacy Day," Evan began, "in order to disband her rebellion and get everyone on the track to following their destinies, which includes you becoming queen of a restored Wonderland.
"Oh that's right," Lizzie said as she uncrossed her arms and slumped her head in defeat. "You can tempt me with things I want. What do you want me to do?"
"Short-term," Evan continued, "I just need you and Blondie to ask Daring to join us. Leave me name of it for right now though."
"All right," Lizzie agreed.
….
While this was going on, Daring and Coach Arthur had gone into headmaster Grimm's office, having scheduled an appointment earlier.
"What is this about Arthur?" Grimm asked.
"Daring presented an idea to me earlier," Arthur began, "and I think you should hear him out."
"Like many things these days, it's about Raven," Daring said with a look of determination. "I propose that you offer her the chance to stay at Monster High, like she originally wanted, in exchange for never coming back to this world. We give her a portal to go through and have Baba Yaga reverse the spell placed on her so that she's barred from coming back here. By accepting this offer, Raven will prove that all her talk of fairness and choice is just camouflage for her own selfishness. Between that and abandoning all the followers she's made once she's gotten what she wants, I doubt those followers will be interested in continuing to be Rebels and everything can go back to normal."
There was silence for about five seconds as Grimm thought this over.
"That's an interesting idea, Daring," Grimm said. "I hexspecially like the part where I give Raven the means to discredit herself as a benevolent revolutionary, but I won't be going with it. By giving Raven what she wants, it might show all the rebels that by throwing a long enough tantrum, they'll get their way which might actually encourage further rebellion. Also, Raven might not be interested in accepting any deal I offer her on general principle."
Because she doesn't trust you, Daring and Coach Arthur thought to themselves.
"Plan B then," Daring began. "We don't leave the choice up to Raven: we subdue her, throw her through a portal, have Baba Yaga do the spell reversal thing and if anyone asks we just say she took our deal."
"What?" Arthur exclaimed in shock. "You never went over that with me."
"I like that plan even less," Grimm said sternly. "If Raven were to suddenly disappear around the same time she's becoming a growing inconvenience for me to run this school and I claim to be the last person who saw her, do you know what that will look like?"
"Oh," Daring said, realizing that it might look like he had Raven killed and thrown in a ditch somewhere but not wanting to say that out loud.
"I appreciate your concern," Grimm began, "but I will handle this."
"Have you seen this yet?" Daring took out his mirrorphone and showed Grimm a chart that showed the results of a survey Blondie recently took, asking the students of the school where they stood in the Rebel/Royal conflict in light of Raven sharing the conversation she'd recorded. "21% of the students are confident with admitting to being Rebels. Combine that with 38% who are undecided because your and Raven's actions have made it hard to side with either of you, that means less than half the school is interested in following their destinies because it's the right thing. Something drastic needs to be done and soon."
"Let's not confuse drastic with regrettable," Arthur said (not liking the current tone of the conversation) while Grimm's eyes were wide at having looked at the chart for the first time and being disturbed at this new information.
"While this is indeed troubling," Grimm said with renewed composure, "The situation is more in hand than it appears. The momentum the Rebels have gained so far will not last. I can outlast them and when that happens, they will scatter and return to following their destinies."
"Do you have a plan B in mind?" Daring asked.
"I won't need one," Grimm answered.
"Like you didn't need to come up with one," Daring started, "after bringing Raven back to this school in case she refused to sign the Storybook of Legends?"
"We're done talking now," Grimm replied sternly with almost tangible scorn. Arthur and Daring decided that since Grimm was in no mood to talk, it was best to leave. Once outside his office, Arthur tapped Daring's shoulder to get his attention.
"Now Daring," he began, "I know that things are fairy tense right now but you need to careful with what do with your anger towards Raven. Many students listen to you and if you say or do the wrong thing then the current tension could go from mean stares and heated debates to a school-wide riot. And if you're thinking how that would be a great opportunity to solve this situation by beating the Rebels into submission, you should know that if Raven's physical abilities are consistent with those of the Kamen Riders I'm familiar with then she's heavily resistant to bodily harm and is strong enough to break limbs with minimal effort."
"Oooookay," Daring said awkwardly. He actually had been thinking about possibly beating the Rebels into submission but with Arthur's description of what Raven could do, he was having second thoughts. "I'm curious: I know those guys with the bug-eyed helmets are heroes from other worlds. How do you feel about Raven ripping them off like that?"
"Raven making herself a Kamen Rider is more appropriate than you might think," Arthur began. "Quite a few Riders got their powers from being kidnapped by evil organizations and getting experimented on. Afterwards, they broke free and started fighting those same organizations. That's vaguely similar to how Raven wants to defy what Grimm and the people above him have in store for her. Plus, nearly all riders get their powers from a source that is also used for evil which is kind of like how even though Raven's magic is evil, she doesn't want to be."
"Whose side are you on?" Daring asked with a quirked eyebrow, confused as to why his heroics coach and a member of the school's faculty was displaying sympathies for Raven.
"I'm on the side that wants to prevent anything like that riot I mentioned earlier from happening," Arthur hexplained. Daring then had a conflicted look on his face as he thought something over.
"Can we go somewhere more private?" Daring asked. "I want to share something private with you."
"Of course," Arthur said as he took them to his office. A short walk later, they had the privacy Daring requested. Daring took a deep breath as he prepared himself for what he wanted to say.
"Apple and I had our first date last night," Daring began. "It did not go well and I have no idea why. I was my usual Charming self," he said with his signature smile (fortunately there wasn't enough light in the office to cause a blinding glare), "which makes girls melt in my hand but for some reason, Apple and I weren't clicking like I thought we would once we started on the road to us being together for ever after. Fortunately for me, Raven leaking that conversation she had with Headmaster Grimm and attempting to convince everyone that his attempts at trying to force her to sign made her more determined to resist him took the public eye off me. I have never been so glad to have people not want to pay attention to me. Anyway, what if Raven not pledging her destiny has already prevented us from following ours?"
There was silence between them as Arthur thought over what we would say.
"I'm glad you told me that Daring," Arthur began. "I'm going to share something private with you as well. About half of the fairytale couples have to put some degree of work into the relationships happening and/or being maintained. In those cases, the couples don't click and then stay clicked forever with no effort on their part like what you were hoping would happen with you and Apple."
"What?" Daring said in confusion. This contradicted everything he'd been told about what happened when a fairytale couple got together.
"It's kept secret due to convenience," Arthur hexplained. "You'd get in a lot of trouble for knowing this and I'd get in more trouble for having told you so let's keep this between us, okay."
"Sure sure," Daring replied. "But why tell me at all?"
"Because I was worried," Arthur began sternly, "that you'd pin your first date with Apple going poorly on Raven and use that to justify trying to smite her."
"Ah, that's fair," Daring replied.
"Which brings me to my next point," Arthur continued. "Don't try to take matters with Raven into your own hands. I know that the Headmaster hasn't had any immediate success yet with the Rebels and his lack of a contingency plan in case things don't go the way he's hoping is less than encouraging but he still has the necessary hexperience to see this through to a favorable conclusion."
"Are you trying to convince me or you?" Daring asked.
"I don't really know," Arthur said awkwardly. "But my point is this: please keep in mind that the ends don't justify the means and leave this to Headmaster Grimm. He will either make this better or make it clear that he can't: either way, it's out of your hands. Do you understand?"
"Yes sir," Daring said and then left Arthur's office. He checked his Mirrorphone and saw a hext message from Blondie saying that she wanted to see him soon to talk about how to make up for the recent PR disaster the Royal side just faced. He sent a reply saying that he would meet up with Blondie at a spot outside the school in 20 minutes.
...
Roughly 20 minutes later, Daring was at the spot he mentioned and saw Blondie approach him. Strangely, she was accompanied by Lizzie Hearts.
"Hello Daring," Blondie began. "I'll cut to the chase. Things have gone fairy badly for us since Raven leaked that conversation. We need to get control of the situation by taking more drastic measures against Raven personally."
This seems familiar, Daring thought. He considered that there was no harm in hearing out Blondie and Lizzie: hexpecially if they were planning something that Coach Arthur would consider too far and Daring could make sure it never got off the ground.
"Drastic like what?" Daring asked.
"We really don't know yet." Lizzie answered. "We're still at the brainstorming phase."
"Who's we?"
"Us and a few other concerned Royals who have a lot to lose if our destinies don't go according to plan. Will you join us?"
"Sure," Daring answered.
"Hexcellent," Blondie said in jubilation. "I'll hext you more information later." The three of them then went their separate ways.
I don't like this as much as I should, Daring thought. If they're not planning anything wrong then what's with all the sneakery? Come to think of it, 'taking drastic measures against Raven personally' could cover everything from putting her hand in a glass of cold water while she's asleep so she pisses herself to an assassination attempt. I might have to do the noble thing here and actually help Raven.
Daring briefly felt the sensation of wanting to vomit as that last thought occurred to him and really hoped it wouldn't come to that.