Hey everybody! Everything's going great right now, but it did take some work getting this out here. Hopefully you guys weren't missing it.

Something I have to admit; I completely forgot a certain character was a part of this movie too. Unfortunately, I already have the plans set in place right now, but they will show up later and play a prominent role in another arc.

Either way, I hope you all enjoy this next chapter!

Double D sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, trying to process the news as best as he possibly could from Ed. This week was dedicated to throwing left fields toward them, wasn't it?

"Let's run this down one more time." Double D started counting it all out. "This Lord Stoker decided to use this Vampire Heart artifact to find the next ruler for all vampires and the like."

"Yes."

"He decides on Monster High because it seemed like a decent choice to him and decided to hold an assembly here."

"Uh huh."

"And not only did the Vampire Heart react, it led to straight towards Draculaura, who will become the next ruler." Double D raised an eyebrow as Ed nodded once again. "I don't necessarily see the problem here. Isn't this a good thing by all accounts?"

"Yeah, but I don't I trust Lord Stoker." Ed rubbed the back of his neck as Double D groaned at the lame explanation. "I know how it sounds! But something really doesn't feel right about all of this. Four hundred years and the search ends like that?"

"It is pretty anticlimactic, but sometimes that's just how it is. I'm not sure how to feel about Stoker either, but this isn't exactly impossible." Ghoulia had settled herself over the statistical improbability by now, though she did have to remember one thing; just because chances of something happening are low, that doesn't mean it's zero. "Maybe we're blowing things out of proportion. Quite honestly, we are on the verge of history right now."

"Maybe we should ixnay on the history stuff." Clawdeen rubbed Draculaura's back as her friend leaned onto Clawd for support. The girl had been pretty quiet since the confirmation of her royal status and it was starting to get worrying. "You okay, Laura? You've been pretty out of it for a while now."

"I… I kinda agree with Ed on this. This all seems pretty farfetched, especially since I was there when it failed to find the next Vampire Ruler four hundred years ago." The vampire shrugged, still trying to process all of this. "I don't understand why it would change its mind now. Especially since I'm not exactly queen material."

"Uh, why wouldn't you want the thing to choose you, by chance?" Eddy really didn't get why she was so nervous. All that power delivered onto her plate would be enticing to every other person he knew. "You get to be a ruler of an entire group with no work and no need to chop off the head of relatives who could claim the throne. Most people would and have killed for that opportunity."

"Yes, but as someone who lived through being the daughter of a ruler, that kind of power always comes with jealous eyes everywhere." Cleo had been enticed to have a political edge by being Draculaura's friend, but she did get the hesitance to being put on the throne so fast. "Though it is a benefit, some vampire's might not be happy to have an actual ruler after so many years of freedom."

"Why are we talking about the fact that the Heart chose her matters? Isn't it up to Draculaura to decide if she wants to rule or no?" Raven didn't really see the full problem. The vampire obviously didn't want to do it, so she didn't have to. "She's her own person, and one enchanted artifact isn't going to change anything."

"But there is the fact that the seat has been open for so long. If the Heart wants her, then it most likely won't go after someone else." Apple frowned as she went through the wiki articles on the history. "I haven't found anything saying that it's avoidable. It really is a destiny-based thing."

"Okay, can we not get on the topic of destiny right now? We get that enough as is at Ever After High and I don't want this to spread around here." Cerise sighed. This had the possibility of devolving into something ugly, and she wasn't in the mood for it. "Let's maybe focus on Draculaura and how she actually feels about it. This is about her."

"Cerise is right. This can't be fixed by some good tea and biscotti, or even with one of those nice crumpets from my dad's tea shoppe." Maddie slid over a platter towards the vampire anyway. This was one of her signature things, she couldn't just abandon it. "Though I am willing to try. What is it you want dear? This is about you."

Draculaura took her time to actually drink Maddie's brew, which did have a calming effect. Clawdeen was right about this being enchanting somehow, pun not intended.

"I don't think I want to do this. I really don't think I should do this either." Draculaura knew it was quitter talk, but this wasn't like getting a new job or committing herself to a project. This was literally ruling an entire empire. Of course she'd have nerves. "And Stoker doesn't really strike me as the trustworthy type. My dad always talks about having to wash the slime off his hands whenever he has to shake Stokers."

"Then it's decided! She doesn't want to take up the throne." Clawd sighed, relieved at his girlfriend's choice. Being a royal consort sounded really intimidating. He looked around awkwardly at the others. "Is there something you guys can do about this?"

"Wait, are you seriously asking us if we want to start a political scandal?" Cerise raised an eyebrow at the embarrassed werewolf, debating on whether she needed to get her ears checked. "Don't get me wrong, she does have a choice here. Can't she just say no and be done with it?"

"Not to be rude, but you do remember me mentioning that the heart did choose her and her only, correct? Not to mention the power vacuum that's been present for so long." Apple really felt like she was the only one seeing the reality here. She did agree that springing this on a girl with little training was cruel, but that didn't change too much. "If she decides not to take it up, she'll be hated by every vampire in the world. Raven denied her destiny and look at what's happening at school!"

"Really building up my confidence here, Apple. Just doing a swell job." Raven rolled her eyes before frowning. The blonde did have a point, even if it was poorly said. "I can't say that it isn't untrue. Except if this goes down, then it'll be on an international scale."

"Then maybe we shouldn't mess with it. We're teenagers, remember? This isn't exactly part of our job description as peacekeepers for Bloodgood either." Clawdeen perked up, pointing a phone at everyone. "Actually, why not get her involved? I can't say anything for Grimm, but I'm sure she'd believe us if we told her anything."

"Except we don't have evidence. And come one, I can't believe you guys!" Maddie hmphed, crossing her arms over her chest. "What are you all so worried about? This is a call to adventure! Besides, who hasn't caused an international incident in their teenage years."

There was some quiet as everyone looked at each other, very conflicted. Again, a hunch wasn't very good evidence of anything, but if it gave Draculaura a legitimate excuse to deny the throne, then it could help. If it didn't work, then they'd risk making every vampire in the world their enemy.

"Look, can I just show a photo to some of you guys of Stoker? I think you'll get what I mean when I say he just doesn't look trustworthy at all." Ed pulled out a photo from his pocket. No one was sure where he got it and when it came it into his possession. "Double D and Eddy first."

Again, there was a moment of quiet, though it was interrupted quicker when the other two Ed's sighed. Double D raised his hand out, motioning for Ed to give him the photo. The tallest Ed boy did it without question.

The two Ed's looked at the photo for all of two seconds before letting out one sound in unison.

"Ugh."

"…Something wrong there?" Clawd raised an eyebrow as the two boys decided to pass the photo around to the others, faces screwed in disgust. "What is you guys see that sets you off so much?"

"We've spent most of our lives knowing how to trick people and avoid being tricked. And everything about that man is way too clean and presentable to be real." Double D adjusted his tie, already accepting that they were most likely going to be in real trouble soon enough. As the way of his life. "And a man we knew once said, 'a man too clean and polite has done things his mama wouldn't forgive.'* Of course, that man was mentally ill, and we had to take him back to his care facility, but it's not untrue."

"Alright, I guess we're doing this then. What exactly do we do here then?" Ghoulia had long accepted that there wasn't going to be peace in her life right now, so she might as well be an active participant. "Other than gaining evidence, we also need adult support. Not to mention the possibility of getting information spread faster with ease."

"We've got the documentary, and we can upload footage anytime. As long as we get evidence, Bloodgood and Grimm should go along with it." Eddy pointed at Ed, narrowing his eyes as his voice became grave. "But since this is your idea, Lumpy, you're in charge of doing the evidence stuff. Whatever you do, who you bring, and if you get in trouble is all on you."

Ed wasn't worried at all as he saluted his friend, already heading out of the room with great speed. Ghoulia, followed by Draculaura and Clawd, decided to join him before he did something drastic.

Eddy nodded as everyone was already starting to get their separate cliques, having mentally decided on what they decided to do already. They'd gotten into some weird form of telepathy at this point and he was almost proud of this development. He almost went to join them before remembering something, turning around briefly.

"Have you two been recording us this entire time?"

"Yes, and I am so happy I didn't turn anything off." Clawdia had made sure to keep quiet the entire time and she was so happy she did. All of this primo stuff and she was so glad she came down when she did. "Don't worry, nobody else is getting this footage until a long while after this is over."

"Keep it that way. Oh, and make sure to delete anything that might be used against us in a court of law, Showbiz. I've gotten screwed over by recordings before." Eddy turned and moved to join his friends in what was probably going to be a massive political scandal. "That goes for you too, Body Pillow. I'll take you both down with me if I have to."

"We'll make sure to do that!" Hoodude kept up a strained smile as the boy left, leaning over to his boss and friend. He was shaking as the weight of the situation dawned on him quickly. "Are we really going along with this? I didn't really read my contract all the way through, but I don't think this happens a lot."

"I think we might need to get used to it, Hoodude." Clawdia got up, already figuring out where she wanted to go. "We just have to go with the flow."

And, as they'd soon figure out, the flow would be pretty interesting as time goes on.

"I was honestly hoping that Eddy was joking when he said that you'd have to be the one doing illegal stuff." Clawd nervously kept his ears open as he stood near the entrance to the hotel. If he hadn't been losing his mind over the stress, he would've appreciated how swanky it looked. "And now I'm breaking into a hotel room. Going through vampire royalty's stuff."

"We didn't technically break in; we were allowed in with Draculaura. Us being here is not illegal." The zombie carefully put the suit back into the drawer, frowning softly. Nothing useful just yet. "It's the fact we're going through his possessions without a warrant is illegal. We could get arrested for this."

"Draculaura should keep him busy, but we should hurry up." Ed was a little less careful, though just as subtle as he went through some of Stoker's stuff. He'd done worse stuff, so he was facing the least cognitive dissonance out of the group. "I don't think she's a very a good liar. We definitely can't get caught now."

"True." Clawd's ears twitched as he heard another bad lie come out of his girlfriend's mouth. He at least felt some relief knowing they'd be honest with each other in the future. "I don't know how much Stoker's buying it. I think he's just playing along because of the queen thing."

"Well then, we better hope he actually has something, otherwise this has been- wait a minute." Ghoulia shuffled some stuff around in a separate drawer before fishing out her prize. "Alright, I found the Vampire's Heart. At least, I think I did."

The only reason why the zombie wasn't entirely sure if it was the correct one was because it looked strangely… dull. The heart was the correct shape and size it was earlier, but the glow of it looked almost like it was gone.

"Is there anything weird about it? It looks normal to me." Ed still rummaged about, giving the gem a quick glance. It really didn't seem that different to him, though something did seem weird about it to him. "Is it even real?"

"I'm actually doubting it is. I've had to help Cleo sort through some of her admirer's gifts before to figure out which jewelry was plastic or genuine." That had been annoying work sometimes, but it was fun to see how desperate some people were to get Cleo's attention. "The Vampire's Heart is supposed to be a ruby. This almost looks like glass."

"Yeah, I definitely think that's glass. I had to learn how to buy jewelry when I was dating her." Clawd shivered. He remembered the one time he tried to save his wallet the pain and buy a fake necklace before. "Never again. Never again."

"Okay, that's pretty good. Maybe we can turn that into the headmasters!" Ed thought about that for a second before slumping. "But then we need to prove we didn't make that. Stoker would be shown up, but he'd just look like a martyr."

"Isn't that a good thing? Sure, we'd look a bit bad, but it's not like we weren't wrong about him trying to fake this." Clawd shrugged, not seeing the danger in it. "If anything, we made sure some kind of apocalypse didn't happen. Putting the wrong person on the throne seems like a bad move to me."

"Yes, but it'd also still cause chaos in the vampire community. At best, we'd have some people angry at us about showing the search isn't over yet." Ghoulia frowned, putting the faux Vampire's Heart in the box again. "At worst, we might face criminal charges and people hating us for trying to criminalize Stoker. Even if he isn't technically a victim."

"We need something that would make it actually stick. Something that shows he isn't doing this just to get it over with." Ed muttered. He was mostly just thinking how his friends would think, and he had a feeling Double D would appreciate that. "If he was doing this for power, then he would choose Draculaura for a reason- hey!"

Ghoulia and Clawd shushed him as he nearly shouted that out loud. Clawd was relieved to hear that the conversation between Stoker and Draculaura hadn't paused at all.

"What'd you find, dude? Anything good?" Ed handed it to him wordlessly, tidying up some stuff while the other boy looked over some documents he found. He quirked an eyebrow as he recognized only a few words, most of them being in Transylvanian. "Ghoulia, mind doing a translation for us who didn't learn a foreign language?"

"Technically, you guys knowing zombie means you do know a foreign language. You just can't speak it." Ghoulia chuckled but got serious as she looked over the papers. Her frown actually grew, almost forming into a scowl as she pored over the document. "…Yeah, we need to take this guy down as soon as possible."

"Just like that, you're sold?" Clawd felt a spike of dread as Ghoulia seemed to only get angrier as she kept going through it. An angry Ghoulia was a scary one, something he'd only seen once or twice in his lifetime. "What does it even say?"

"It's research. Specifically, it's research on Draculaura and other members of the Vampire Court, past and present." Ghoulia folded the papers carefully, stuffing them in her bag before anyone could protest. "That wouldn't be strange if it wasn't for the fact he kept clear notes on how easy it would be to manipulate her if she was put on the throne."

"Hey, that means I was right! I knew there was something off about that guy." Ed smiled before realizing what being right actually meant. "Oh. That also means this guy probably wouldn't be too happy if we decided to take him out. Oh no."

The sentiment was shared with everyone else in the room as they realized that this wouldn't be as simple an investigation as they hoped.

Double D frowned as Clawdia set up the video chat with care. They'd decided on a particularly strange avenue when it came to this, but Clawdia seemed to know what she's talking about. At least they decided on Clawdeen's workshop for this.

"Are you sure your boss will be okay with all of this? This is a delicate situation, and it is a bit risky to get someone else involved." Double D didn't even really want Clawdia and Hoodude involved. He preferred it stayed within the confines of their group. "Especially since Veronica Von Vamp is, well, a vampire. She'd be effected by this the most."

"Trust me, Veronica is really good at keeping secrets, despite what you're thinking. If she weren't, I wouldn't have made it too far in Hauntlywood." The older werewolf raised three fingers at the boy. "Three words; Director's. Fur Allergy. If she was able to keep me on that project, she'll know how to help with this."

"Might as well ask her for help. Turns out we might have more evidence than we thought." Clawdeen did her best not to growl as she showed some pictures off to her friends. "They literally found notes of his on Draculaura and how the Vampire's Heart might be fake. We're now knee's deep in this."

"Wait, shouldn't this mean we're done here? I mean, we got the evidence we need right now, we don't need to do much else." Cerise wasn't happy that they were about to whistle blow, but this seemed like a simple course of action. "Sure, not a great way to get it, but we can just hand it over to someone in charge, right?"

"Not exactly the most adventurous route, but that is the smartest." Maddie was sitting upside down on the couch, swinging her feet as thought things over. Only Clawdia thought this was strange. "But we aren't exactly addressing the next big question here…"

"Where the heck is the Vampire's Heart." Clawdeen caught on pretty fast, the thought actually throwing her off. "If the one Ed and Ghoulia found is really not the actual one, then he could take it hostage to keep himself out of trouble. Or worse, depending on what kind of reaction he could get out of the vampire community."

"…I thought a political scandal was the worst-case scenario here. And now it's turned into a possible hostage negotiation over an historical artifact." Cerise put her hands over her face, taking a deep breath before letting it out slowly. "How is this Von Vamp actor going to help us out here?"

"Well, there's a lot of ways! If she hasn't lied about her age, she's certainly old enough to have been around the block a time or two." Clawdia shrugged. Admittedly, it was a long shot, but she did trust the woman bankrolling her entire project whole heartedly. "She's also rich and famous, meaning it shouldn't be hard to get some resources as long as we ask nicely."

"I guess it wouldn't hurt to try then. Hopefully she'll have some kind of useful information for us." Double D still wasn't sure, but disregarding a possible asset would be a bad idea considering the situation they'd found themselves in. "As long as she's able to keep a secret of course."

"She's a famous actor, of course she's good at keeping secrets!" Maddie waved off the concern, practically flipping off of the couch, jumping up and down as Clawdia finished the set up. "Now come on, let's fire this thing up! We've got a conspiracy to uncover."

The webcam lit up once or twice before coming to life entirely, a picture forming for their side of the video call. It took a few more moments for the other side to clear up, a pair of hands still handling their own webcam.

"Come on, darn you, work! This is supposed to- oh!" A pleasant voice came out of the speakers, the complaints cut short with a dramatic gasp of air. "Clawdia! I'm sorry to keep you waiting so long, dear, but you know how I am with video chatting."

The face matched the voice, the pale visage of Victoria Von Vamp looking back at them. She fluttered full lashes at them, black lips smiling to show her fangs as she adjusted a bouffant hair style on top of her head. The woman herself was somehow composed, yet strangely casual at the same time.

"I assume this is your sister and her friends? If so, hello! I've heard so much about you all from my head writer." Veronica waved at them casually, smiling happily. "I hear the filming is going well. I do hope that the pitch goes well with the test footage we have so far."

"Uh, yeah. It's nice to meet you too." Clawdeen wouldn't say she was star struck, but it was surprisingly weird to realize she was talking to a celebrity. Especially to call in a favor. "Sorry to call you up like this, but something weird came up while we were filming. Have you seen the news?"

"You mean the Vampire's Heart finding a new… ruler. Yes, I've heard." A strange look passed over the woman's, blanching slightly. "I'll admit, that was an interesting headline. I wasn't aware that the search was still ongoing. Most would give up after one hundred years."

"Yes, that is unfortunate. However, we may have found a wrinkle that might make the situation complicated." Double D winced as he thought over everything they'd learned within the past few hours. "A few complicated things, actually."

"We have evidence Lord Stoker may have faked the results. He even chose someone he knew would probably make a suitable puppet for the throne." Maddie blurted out. At the stares she got from the others, she shrugged with an innocent look on her face. "I figured it would be good to rip off the band aid. I'd like that if I were in this situation."

"…Wow. Okay. That's a lot to drop on a person, I won't lie." Veronica took it in stride, though panic did seem visible within her eyes. She clasped her hands in front of her, squeezing them and letting them go. "I honestly expected some trouble with funding or something. This isn't what I had in mind."

"Trust me, I wish that were the issue. I'm really sorry for dropping this on you, but we really do have evidence that the plot is real." Clawdia scratched behind her head, obviously finding this more awkward than she planned it to be. "Look, I'm only calling up to see if you might be able to help us here. If the real Vampire's Heart isn't here, then we're afraid he might hide it."

"…Okay. You've never steered me wrong before, so I don't see a reason why you'd do it now. I do think I have something to help you here." Veronica disappeared from the screen for a few seconds, the sound of opening drawers being heard. After some rummaging, she appeared back on screen, a crystal in hand. She focused on it for a few seconds before it disappeared. "That should be with you shortly."

The actor wasn't wrong, as a brief, bright light entered their vision before appearing in front of them. Double D was able to catch it with a quick use of his octo-arms, observing it carefully.

"Is that a teleportation crystal? I thought those things weren't in production anymore because they were inefficient without a magic user around." Cerise was looked over it next, wonder clear on her face. "How did you get your hands on this?"

"I'm old, famous, and rich. You'd be surprised on what I could find with enough time and patience." Veronica shrugged, downplaying it by a good deal. It wasn't like she just handed them the holy grail of magical travel. "That teleportation crystal is one of the best and easiest forms of travel you can ever have, especially if you plan on going over several oceans. If I'm remembering things correctly, your group has two different magic users, so they should be able to charge those things up indefinitely for multiple trips."

"Across oceans?! That's-that's amazing, but do you really want to give us this?!" Double D knew something this probably would've costed millions if in the right hands, especially to those who wanted to cut costs from traveling. "Why would we even need something like this?"

"Oh, oh, wait, I know!" Maddie raised her hand, waving it around as a light bulb shot up above her head. Literally, in her case. "Stoker could be hiding the heart in his office. If we use it to get us there, it wouldn't take long to arrest him at all."

"That's perfect! We just need to get the headmasters involved, and we're golden." Cerise gave a nod to Veronica. "We're going to do some research. Seriously, thank you for all of this."

"Not a problem at all, dear."

Some of the group was already mobilizing to get the crystal into good hands, others into finding out where they need to head too next. The two werewolves were about to join them when Veronica decided to ask one more thing.

"Before you go, I need to know one more thing." The vampire tilted her head, thinking things over. "The news didn't say who the 'heart' supposedly chose. Any idea on who that might be?"

"A friend of mine. Draculaura, daughter of Dracula." Clawdeen sneered, thinking over the lies Stoker was probably trying to tell her best friend right now. "If a friend of mines translation is right, he picked her because he thought she would be easy to manipulate."

"She really is such a nice girl. I really hope we can get her out of this before Stoker does anything desperate." Clawdia noticed her friend and employer twitch a little at the mention. "Is there anything wrong?"

"Nothing, Clawdia. I hope she doesn't get involved with this anymore than she has to." She sounded truly depressed there, catching them off guard. "Good luck. Feel free to call whenever if you need more help."

Before they could question her further, the line went dead as she hung up. Neither werewolf was sure what to do except for continue going forward.

"I know how all of this sounds, but you really gotta believe me here, Milton." Eddy had been trying for almost ten straight minutes now to get Grimm to listen to him, and he was just about ready to start blowing things up. Things were going nowhere, and fast. "I've helped save both schools before, so you can't say that I don't experience in this."

"Considering the amount of chaos you enable as well; you'll have to understand why I wouldn't believe you." Milton was tired of all the headaches the boy was giving him. He'd been working so hard behind the scenes in order to keep destiny in line but Eddy really did have a knack in keeping chaos going on around him. "Not to mention these accusations are serious and do risk causing an international incident. I try to stay out of Monster affairs enough as is, and this would mire my school right into it."

"I sincerely disagree with you on that. Considering how many ties to royalty you have on the Legends side; this will affect them too if this is true." Bloodgood angrily noted. She really didn't appreciate how she talked to her kid- her agent, especially about such a serious topic. "An international incident will occur, and if they figure out you didn't do anything to fix it, you'll be in hot water anyway.

The three-way bickering sessions was watched closely by a tired Raven, a nervous Apple, and a very scared Hoodude, No one was sure who was winning the argument here, but it was starting to get more heated than planned.

"I'm really not sure why I decided to go with you guys. This is actually kind of frightening." Hoodude honestly was surprised Eddy hadn't decimated the place with his magic. He watched the video of him against Hellscream a million times, so he knew to be cautious. "He's not going to turn Grimm into a frog, is he?"

"His transmutation skills aren't good enough yet, and he doesn't know the spell for it. I think we're fine for now." Raven bumped her shoulder into his, looking at him apologetically. "Also, I feel the need to say this, but sorry he decided that your nickname is Body Pillow. I really don't know where he makes that stuff up."

"Oh, I've been meaning to ask about that! What is a body pillow?"

Raven looked into the innocence of his button eyes and decided that it would be an awesome time to change the subject. She turned towards Apple, who looked between the scene in front of them and her phone repeatedly. "Any news?"

"Ed and Ghoulia are getting away from Stokers hotel room right now. They're getting far enough so they can have you teleport the evidence here." Apple had been anxious about them stealing anything up until they had proper evidence. Then she got more nervous that they would get caught. "I really hope they do it quick before Eddy tries to hurt Headmaster Grimm. Or he gets expelled. In either order."

"…We might need to take a few days off but considering all the work I've been doing- you know, your job- I think that's only fair. Ed just needs to get the evidence from Stoker before-"

"How exactly is he getting the evidence?! Please tell me you're not robbing a foreign diplomat just because you find him untrustworthy. Do you know how much paperwork you're going to cause?"

"Boys, will you please calm down. This isn't a petty grudge match, Grimm, this is a serious issue. And Eddy, please tell me you haven't actually stolen anything."

"…I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Bloodgood just decided to curse them both right now. I don't think it would be the first time." Apple was reconsidering her role in all of this. Her mother would be so disappointed in her if this turned out to be nothing. "I probably should've taken point on this. I don't understand why we let him do it, he did kick down the door as he walked in-"

Ding!

"They want to send the evidence in!" The princess didn't seem to realize she shouted, catching everyone's attention. She put the phone in Raven's hands, not caring how it looked. "Your turn, Raven!"

The sorceress sighed, rolling her eyes as she used the familiar spell that would summon the files and fake Vampire's Heart. It manifested easily into her hands, which she handed off to the headmasters as soon as she could.

"Here's the evidence we got. You're gonna need a translation app for the files, they're all in Transylvanian." Raven shrugged at the surprised stares from the adults. "You said we needed evidence, and we made sure to get it. Don't be so surprised."

"I was hoping you wouldn't have to steal it! You don't have a warrant or have the authority!" Grimm pinched the bridge of his nose, sighing deeply. He wasn't going to get any sleep tonight out of anxiety, was he? "As much as I'm glad Ms. Queen is doing something at least slightly villainous, that doesn't mean-"

"Milton just look at the heart. You're supposed to have some idea how enchantments work, right?" Eddy was already exhausted with this and just wanted some sleep. The days without it were starting to wear down on him. "You won't have any problems with it soon enough."

Bloodgood grabbed the files, looking over them cautiously. "I can read Transylvanian just fine on my own. Milton, you stick with the heart."

Grimm growled, but opened up a drawer anyway. Pulling out a specialized magnifying glass, he grabbed the suspected Vampire's Heart carefully and began looking it over. Bloodgood began analyzing the files easily, cringing as she saw a picture of one her students.

It took a few seconds before their faces actually started to change. It was almost concerning to see Grimm get a paler by the second and Bloodgood's face move into a scowl.

"You know, I used to go to Monster High, and Bloodgood was in charge back then too. Worked in her office a lot. I know that face." Hoodude gulped, cowering at the dullahan's face. "That is not a good look."

"Um, have you two found anything?" Apple knew the papers had it, but she wasn't so sure about the heart itself. "It looks like you have. Please don't leave us in suspense."

"This- this isn't possible. I had this magnifying glass enchanted to gather details of any enchanted object I run across. It should be going insane by now." Grimm put it down, looking at the heart with open disgust. "Not only is this thing glass, but it was also enchanted to light up like a cheap toy and had a tracking enchantment put on it."

"The files aren't much better. I'm ready to convict him at a moment's notice, but I have a feeling that's not a part of the plan." Bloodgood closed the files, putting them down onto the desk. Putting them into a safe place would have to wait for later. "I'm guessing you've arrived at the same conclusion I have?"

"The real Vampire's Heart is probably hidden away somewhere so Stoker could use it as leverage if he gets caught. We need to find it first." Apple didn't like the next thing she had to say. "And since putting the authorities out to do it would catch too much attention, we'll have to do it."

"All we're asking is some time to get it or figure out where it is before you do anything. Maybe provide a distraction against Stoker while we're out." Raven waved off the concern easily. "We might have a way to get to places easily, even if it across the world. We just need permission."

"…Fine. But don't cause an incident that would get you all in trouble." Grimm leaned back into his chair, frowning deeply. "Since Stoker is not only committing fraud, but trying to fight destiny itself, he does need to face the consequences of his actions."

"Seriously? Just like that?" Eddy questioned but stopped himself from doing it further. "You know what, I'll take it. We're leaving tomorrow. Send an excuse out to the teachers when you can."

Eddy turned around to leave immediately after, followed curtly by Raven. Apple smiled at the two headmasters awkwardly before following them with Hoodude.

"Thank you for this. We'll make sure this all goes smoothly." The princess sighed, muttering under her breath. Despite that, they could still hear her say one last thing. "Hopefully."

"I hope you do." Bloodgood slumped. This was the second time in a row she had to rely on the children she had to protect. She was really starting to feel pathetic. "I sincerely do."

Things are starting to head in the right direction! Hopefully you all enjoyed and that you keep enjoying as the arc continues.

I'll see you in the next chapter!