Heigh-Ho!

'Heigh-Ho!'

Heigh-Ho!

'Heigh-Ho!'

Heigh-NO!

'Wow, way to be a buzzkill, Four-Eyes.'

Well excuse me for trying to keep us on track! Not only do we have over 100 or so people that loyally review waiting in the audience, but need I remind you that you two are usually the ones that are keeping the random nonsense in check? Which, now that I think about, is actually really ironic.

I'll cooperate all nice like and everything if . . .

If what? Another tea party?

You could say that . . .

'I don't follow.'

Lets just say I hope you like your tea with extra sugar!

'Ugh. This conversation is so sweet my teeth are rotting away from all the cavities! Either make it stop or get me a girlfriend, too!'

How about I put you back in the closet, eh? That way you won't have to see the two of us happily make out without a care in the world? Or I could press compact you into an area the size of a dictionary and stack you on my bookshelf?

'Onto the reviews!'

That's what I thought.

ajir12 – Well, we'll just have to see if ol' Grimmy remembers Whisp or not . . . hint, hint.

'Okay, enough of the hinting, Four-Eyes. We've wasted enough time as it is.'

We just started!

Extra sugar . . .

Of all the times for me to not have been an undead Kineceleran . . .

TerrorKing10 – As celebratory and awesome as that is, I'm actually dreading that moment. Knowing my roommates, our celebrations will be enough to wake up the entire Underworld and set Hades back for months on end!

Karlos1234ify – That was my full intention for this version of Santa. While the classic one that everyone knows and loves is nice and all, the one from Rise of the Guardians is my all time favorite incarnation of him; not only is he still quite true to the lore, but he's incredibly lovable, kind, jolly, and an all around badass that you just love to have fighting by your side in any sort of battle. He's like your favorite uncle that you only get to see once a year! Oh, and the tattoos. Love the tattoos.

LegionnaireBlaze – I doubt any of the other Guardians (I'm not sure they can actually be called that in this case/world) will appear like this version of Saint Nicholas did (just a quick explanation, the one that I wrote in is NOT the one from Rise of the Guardians. They are very similar, but not the same). And trust me, as long as A.U.N.T. (I suppose it's better than O.W.C.A., the Organization Without a Cool Acronym) allows us to do our thang, you'll have ol' Trinity Force's top hat as a trophy in no time.

Numbervania – Maddie! Send a message to Zachary Hance about the unicorn hair!

I'll have it done in two changes of Jabberwocky's tail!

'Dude, I can't believe you forgot about that old trick.'

That closet sure looks comfy . . . either way, yes, I wanted to try and make that reference. Sigmu is, if you haven't noticed, one of the main inspirations behind the Ever After High aspect of this story simply because their work is so influential and just downright good. I'd recommend any Ever After High fan to them; and yes, an update to When Life Gives You Lemons is in the works . . . somewhere. And while I suppose the ghost versions of Ben's aliens are good, that could only happen if Ben was a ghost; in this case, Ben was more or less brought back as a zombie, making all his transformations as such.

'Zombies all the way!'

No argument there. Anyway, I realize how similar Saint Nicholas is to North from Rise of the Guardians, but I honestly believe him to be the best inspiration at this point; this does not mean however, that they are one and the same. For instance, my version of Saint Nicholas does not have yetis working in his work shop.

So you're a Reaper, hmmm? Hat-tastic! River Styxx has been really lonely as of late . . . she doesn't even want to party anymore! All the confetti cannons gone!

Oh, no. I sense a pairing phase coming on.

You bet your teacups!

Run, Deadpool, run! Before she ships the both of us together!

'What kind of numbskull wrote me into this fanfiction anyway!?

storygirl99210 – At least someone's feeling bad for our Daughter of Snow White ;)

Codecrash – Lets hope that this 'Maddie Moment' isn't contagious!

What are you talking about? The world can always use more madness!

Right . . . either way, I'm a little skeptical on the evil genie idea you suggested simply because I've been holding off on multiple ideas, namely Way too Wonderland and fem Ben, for far too long. That, and I already have enough genies to deal with, Gigi, Whisp, Genie respectively (the later two being the most difficult to control). And now that you bring that little challenge up, I shall indulge in making more people aware of it. Jack x Raven for the win!

Wolfslick – Remind me to send you a couple coils of unicorn hair rope to protect your little base of operations a bit more. Thank goodness Maddie has ties to Ever After and I have my little keyboard/reality warping skills, otherwise we'd be in big trouble.

StrongGuy159 – Agreed. Continuation shall commence!

mechazard01 – Gracias, mi amigo!

'I didn't know you spoke Spanish.'

Maddie, kindly give ol' Deadpool a couple lumps of sugar. I believe his teacup is a little bland.

'What does that even mean?'

BANZI!

'AGH! Don't K-word me! Don't K-word me!'

Darkness Rissing – Believe it or not, I never did have the time nor resources to watch Krampus while writing this, but the commercials and ads were so compelling and spine chillingly good that I knew I just had to write him in to the story. And yes, you are correct about some more . . . questionable fairy tales making an appearance.

Apologies for confusing Savara for your creation. I could have sworn she was yours . . . it's gotten to the point where I have so many reviews and PMs that I've nearly lost track of who's who. Well, better crack the ol' Tetramand knuckles and do some detective work-

Sherlock Maddie, at your service! And my trusty sidekick Dr. Nibbles Watson!

Either way, your little gadget sounds incredibly useful. What we need however is a way to close Bill, trap him in Gravity Falls with his only connection to an outside dimension being my dorm; regardless of whether or not we can seal him in his own dimension as it bleeds into Gravity Falls long enough for us to gather our resources and march our army forth, we need to keep his grubby mitts off of Raven. I don't care if you have to shave the entire unicorn species to do it, but he is not to touch a single hair on Raven or harm a single brain cell in her head, do I make myself clear? On a side note, remind me to infuse you with the genetic code of a Varjoain, a temporary transformation if you so desire; I have no doubt that it might have its usefulness, if only to make you more powerful.

Isom – First, let me say I am so sorry that I didn't give you the proper credit for the creation of Savara; thankfully, the author I wrong credited kindly pointed this out to me, so expect some corrections to be made.

'Speaking of wrongly credited . . . I believe I was robbed of my rightfully asked question?'

Oh, can it, Deadpool. You got the modified gun from Jak's world, didn't you? Not to mention the RYNO, right?

Thanks for the pop-up version, Isom! Ooh, I love my new braclets already! I can't wait to starting bashin' and smashin'!

Agreed. And hey, thanks for the Earth ring! Granted, I didn't expect everyone to be technologically advanced enough to create nanites by the hundreds, but this works just as well. Not with my gauntlets, I can split an entire planet apart! If I have to that is . . . and three-pointed banana . . . well played.

'When and if we crack this three-pointed banana . . . what would that make him then? Some kinda weird mathematical banana split?'

Yummy!

Menatron the Angel of Ideas – The Christmas theme horror movie is not as uncommon as you think; a lot of people were actually against the movie because it just seemed to pile onto the growing gothic feelings towards Christmas (something I think The Nightmare Before Christmas started, loved that movie BTW). And yes, Nicholas St. North from Rise of the Guardians was the main inspiration for my version, made evident by this dual swords, tattoos, and jolly, Russian accent; also, I absolutely love the Blondie idea.

NecrorexSparda Juubi-No-Kishin – Ah, so you are alive!

'And here I was hoping I could finally have a dummy to practice with!'

Do not make me use that cube on you, you Spiderman wannabe. Unless of course, you'd rather find out what food makes Mr. Nibbles, or whatever gender he may be, multiply? I'm sure they'd love to feast on you.

'Nope! I'm good!'

Smart. BTW, thanks for the replacement table . . . although I dread to think what it might have been made out of when you said 'fire-breathing demon trees'. On a side note, Maddie, stop waiting in that corner with your hammer. Just because you can hit him when he comes out doesn't mean you should.

Party pooper . . .

*sigh* I know I'm gonna regret this, but isn't it Mr. Nibbles feeding time?

Ooh, yay! Come here, Mr. Nibbles! Time for num-nums!

'Remind me why we let her feed him like that? You'd think she'd wait for-'

It's just better to go along with it. That, and she has a hammer that's more than capable of turning us into squash 'n stretch pancakes.

Zachary Hance – I believe being given a copy of the Omnitrix and sent to protect Raven's dreams from a certain, one-eyed trinity force constitutes as being part of the story; on a side note, remind me to send you some unicorn hair as a precaution, as well as a quick mention that I hope you learn whatever forms you have unlocked on that thing quickly. I sense ol' Bill's getting impatient. And before you argue, let me say that watching someone use a transformation and then actually using it yourself is much more different than you think.

Bring in ol' Looma, eh? I think I can arrange that . . . lets just hope she doesn't try to fight me instead of you.

Not if me and my mallet have anything to say about it!

'Are you almost done feeding that thing? Because I'm pretty sure that that's not appropriate for a T-rated story . . . just sayin'! I don't wanna get K-word into oblivion by the peeps that run this site!'

Stretchy-Rat – Krampus' design and concept was all my own doing. I was mostly inspired by the lore and the trailers I've seen for the movie of the same title, but several of his lines, powers, and most importantly, his lantern, were inspired by the League of Legends champion, Thresh the Chain Warden. If you haven't heard of this game, I highly recommend playing it as it is super addictive and the world's number one MOBA for a very good reason.

I like Shaco the best!

'Katrina all the way! One good blade deserves another, am I right?'

Eh, give me Braum or Illaoi any day. Either way, I severely apologize for the great length between this chapter and the promised fem Ben, but several things need to happen before Ben can become a girl (sorta): Cedar needs to join the harem, Darling needs to debut and that can't happen until Way too Wonderland is finished, and the Forever Knights need to reappear again (it's been how long?), among other things.

As a wise Wuju bladesman once said, patience is a virtue.

ImmaSupa Stargirl – I think it's just you. Was Cerise really that creepy?

Slappy – You, my creepy and sadistic friend (that being a compliment, BTW), have a deal! Anyone that can scare the ever living daylights out of Deadpool and Bill just by mysteriously teleporting through the dark is okay in my book! Two conditions: One, you do not watch me while me or Maddie sleep (Deadpool's fine if you must sleep watch), and two, you do not hit on my girl or I will put you the wood chipper. Follow those two simple rules, and you'll have Bill's eye as a bowling ball faster than you can say-

Goosebumps!

Exactly!

Lord Dominator – True, Leia is technically human, but she apparently qualified for Watchmojo's Top 10 Sexiest Aliens List or something along those lines.

But none are better than me, right?

Are you going to hit with your hammer if I say 'yes'?

No . . .

I kid! You're adorable, cute, and downright maddening! You mean more to me than any of the previously mentioned woman (although I must admit Looma is impressive. What can I say, I'm a Tetramand and she's a descent warrior). Besides, I prefer my girls sweet, beautiful, and not ready to kill me; hitting me over the head with a mallet, thankfully, does not constitute as killing.

Awww!

'Ugh, someone put me out of my misery. This is so cheesy, I'm starting to become lactose intolerant.'

You're just jelly, Wade!

'Shut up!'

DracoAngel17 – As Deadpool has been so kind to point out, I'll admit that was a bit uncalled for . . . in my defense, flossing ones teeth with another's spine is the equivalent of flicking someones nose on Khoros . . . you know, if we Tetramands had actual noses to flick. And, uh, Maddie?

Yes?

Did you take DracoAngel17's tea?

Does a Bandersnatch know how to play Go-Fish?

'No?'

Yeppers!

But then if you didn't take it, who did?

Well, it could always be my evil, dark clone that loves madness as much as I do but in a really creepy and non-Wonderlandiful way that'll scare the madness right out of ya . . . if she doesn't kill you first.

Wait, you're saying you have an evil clone?

Well, I wouldn't really call her evil, just . .. I really can't believe I'm saying this, but she really needs to have the straitjacket put on her!

Coming from you, that absolutely terrifies me.

'No kiddin''

Nada Sign in – You make a fair point. Of course, this means Way too Wonderland would have to be pushed back farther . . . I think . . . I'm gonna have to crunch some numbers. Either way, Lorna would make for a descent choice, especially since she got so little 'screen time' and was kinda thrown in at the last second during my last story (I think I need to go back and smooth out some bumps and what not).

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!

Oh, Sphinx. Now look what you did! Either way, I'll have to do some serious thinking regarding Courtley and/or Luna, especially considering so many people are vouching for the former; either way, there's always the one-shots!

Kaiju Fan – Yes, both Krampus and Santa were inspired by their respective movies. As for what Krampus came for . . . lets just say that the Headmasters (particularly Milton) made some fairy tales really angry, not to mention vengeful.

Royal Rebel – I was referring to the fact that some of those love scenes between Ben and the ghouls back in We're All Monsters were a little more adult oriented than they needed/should be; I've been working on smoothing those out in order to avoid having the whole story taken down. Either way, thank you. Yes, I do consider myself a genius!

'Yeah, but only you do, Four-Eyes.'

Shut it, Wade! Ahem. Regardless of certain fourth-wall breaking mercenaries, you are actually not far off in what Krampus actually came for (stealing Grimm's soul was just a possible bonus). Now that I think about it, that's almost kinda scary . . . have you been reading my mind!?

Bill Cipher – Okay, that's it! Deadpool, get me Zachery and unlock the Master Control! Surround all of Ever After High and Book End in as much unicorn hair as you can and triple encompass the Well of Wonder; at this point, I don't care if the entire unicorn population goes extinct, BILL CIPHER IS NOT TO GET TO RAVEN!

Creaty, you're starting to scare Mr. Nibbles . . . and me . . .

Sorry, Teacup, but desperate times call for desperate measures. Deadpool, listen very carefully: as soon as you are done securing Ever After High, follow this instructions to a T. No arguments, no room for error.

'So serious . . . where were you several chapters back?'

Wade? For once, save the wise-cracks for later. And listen here, you /censored/ /censored/ /censored/ /censored/ /censored/ /censored/ /censored/ /yup, still censored/ /censored/ /censored/, as soon as February 15th rolls around . . . prepare for PAIN.

BOOYAKASHA!

Fanfic Fan – Then how did you . . . WADE!

'I do nothin', I swear!'

Liar, liar, pantalones en el fuego!

CHILDREN!

. . .

'. . .'

Ahem. Seeing as how I'm the only one here who, ironically, seems to be the most mature (not for long!), I think I can answer your question. And the answer is: we can't tell you! Ha, HA!

Titanzilla – I think Cerise is more worried about the later two; she knows that theoretically, Raven wouldn't care about how she looked as she is already aware of Cerise's heritage. Considering how Headmaster Grimm gets all upset whenever something extreme happens to threaten the legacies, she figures that any yuri relationship made public would be trouble and she's worried about being in a relationship with a boy that both she and Raven love and Raven herself; Venus and Jane get away with it at the moment, under Grimm's standards anyway, because they are not fairy tales themselves and don't have to abide by those rules at the moment. That, and Grimm isn't foolish enough to go up against the two of them plus Ben.

Story Artist – A masterpiece, eh? Think it'll hang in a museum?

'Nope!'

I wasn't asking you, Wade. And now that you bring the whole dreaming idea up, it actually sounds really fun . . . wait, hold on a second . . . I JUST HAD A BRAINSTORM!

'Do tell.'

Thank goodness I remembered my umbrella!

NaruFuu Forever – Very perceptive, but here's a little secret: Deadpool snacks are chimichanga-flavored biscuits!

'Will you knock it off!? Cut it out, or I don't do anymore of your dimension-jumping errands!'

Would you do it for Deadpool snack?

'Nope!'

How about two Deadpool snacks?

'Try again!'

How about this entire box of Deadpool snacks?

. . . You are so lucky they are chimichanga-flavored, Teacup.

Redrangerlegacy – I honestly don't know. I'd like to try and keep this story's ending as different from WAM as possible, but it's definitely something I'd consider. I'd have to put to a poll just to be sure.

Blazorna Ibara – I have got to stop getting involved with this people . . . DEADPOOL!

'Yes, oh Screaming, Four-eyed one?'

Kindly explain to me what you needed 3,000 D-volt batteries for!?

'Hey, you think dimension-jumping's cheap!? I needed those to run your last errand and the next several you got me doing!'

If this weren't so important, I would strangle you right now. Ugh. Seeing as how I probably can't pay that many batteries back your boss, Blazorna, tell him I'll take a crack at him jumping in and every now and again to ruin my life; it's not like I haven't been putting up with this kind of mess before hand.

Shocking, eh?

Bigby the Big Bad Wolf – You bring up some very good points. Either option sounds viable, so we'll just have to wait to see where this goes.

Blackstriker94 – Interesting idea. I think Raven would have more than enough trouble with her mother though.

Smaug – It is unknown at this time. Thankfully, whatever ol' Cipher seems to be doing doesn't seem to affect my carefully sculpted universe directly; he only ever seems to have an affect on these little author's notes . . . hopefully it stays that way.

masterart – Congrats on the new computer! Maybe you can pit that to good use by reading my stories?

'Shameless propaganda. You've hit an all time low.'

I have, haven't I?

'Yes. Yes you have.'

Cartoonfan10 – The Lizzie scene could work quite well for what is to come :) As for your other two questions, Cupid's full name (the C.A. Part included) is Chariclo Arganthone Cupid. I think you can guess why she goes by 'C.A. Cupid' or just 'Cupid'. On a side note, the reason Apple only got three wishes compared to Howleen receiving thirteen is because of a multitude of reasons; rookie genies, in Whisp's case, are given fewer wishes to grant and receive more over their time in service and the fact that Ever After's unique physics limits the default number to three, since that is how many the original fairy tale genie granted.

luciayshadow – Yeah, I'll admit that everyone's favorite little Daughter of Snow White can get under my skin as well as times, but it's mostly just because she's so naive that it's annoying. And hey, Zootopia's coming out a day before my birthday where I'm from! And yes, I absolutely love Sigmu's Ever After High works, especially since they're my main source of inspiration for this work.

Huh. Did not know that about reindeer. You'd think the males would keep them year round and the females would lose them, considering its the males that fight for the right to mate . . . or maybe extreme knowledge of animals just doesn't extend to caribou as far as I thought. Either way, there will be an episode where Ben gets turned into a girl, but its not exactly what you think. He will become a member of the female species, that much I can guarantee.

maverickmoxey2000 – First off, let me just say that I am honored to have received this pretegious award of the Maverick Moxey Seal of Approval. Granted, a rework might be in order in the future, but it's impressive nonetheless; hopefully I can do better next time!

Second, you make some very valid points in labeling the ghouls and how they react, especially with that insight to Ginger. I always found her a difficult character to like, mostly because she appeared in so few webisodes to make any significant impact like Raven or Maddie. Either way, Briar and Ginger's abilities/powers for the final battle are definitely interesting to boot and should bring a unique spin to the fight when it arrives (after several eons of waiting).

I suppose the alternate future is something of a cliché, but a very useful and clever one to utilize nonetheless. And yeah, Grimm really does seem to be setting up the girls to be absolutely useless in the future with the classes he's making them take (something I plan to have Darling point out with a pointy sword later on). And the whole 'listening to Ben's heart' idea is absolutely genius, not to mention freaking adorable.

As much as I'd love to see Apple get bent over Ben's knee and get 'disciplined', I doubt that would ever be within his capability to do such a thing (even if it is Apple), not to mention I would probably get a lot of negative feedback about it (even if it is Apple). You would not believe some of the reviews/PMs I got when I posted the sex chapter in WAM before relocating it to its own story: Biggest. Mistake. Of. My. Career. But I have no doubt that Snow White will probably be having a serious talk with her daughter.

And yes, the boys will be utterly humiliated when they are defeated by Ben and his ghouls even without the use of the Omnitrix to aid them XD

Moon Phase 12 – It is unknown at this time as we are currently away fighting an interdimensional chaos demon. Please try after the beep.

DEATH BATTLE – Bill Cipher. No contest.

'Agreed.'

Yeppers!

Jeptwin – Well, there's only so much one can do in a chapter. And as for you specifically, I'll deal with you later, mi amigo. Right now, I have a chaos demon to stop!

Genie – Politics: 'poly' meaning 'many' and 'ticks' being a parasite. You learn something new everyday.

'I don't wanna be a poodle!'

Get use to it, Wade!

Unknown – I guess you could say it's unknown right now, but it's not a bad idea! As for Dragon Games they will be included, but with . . . minor changes XD

'Oi. Puns.'

Matthew Gemm – Don't plan to!

Shadowman – Fortunately for me and Ben, we are dating two entirely different Maddies. Both are the technically the same, but are from different dimensions. That's the magic of the omniverse for ya!

Guest – Huh. Now that you bring Hades and Persephone up, that would technically make Ben a prince and, apparently, a pseudo demigod (not that he needs anymore power). Either way, the reactions will be hilarious XD

Writing Warrior – You and me both, kid. You and me both.

Killer Croc – While I would love to see a character like Dr. Phacilie (I hope I pronounced that right. I'm too lazy to look it up), I try to keep as many canon fairy tales in as possible; as far as I know, the Shadow Man's an original Disney character like King Louie (who was not from the story The Jungle Book is based on).

Anomyomous – A chaos demon and roommates, that's who.

undertale fan – Creaturemaster's dorm is closed at this time. Any attempt to get inside will result in instant death, no matter how immortal or indestructible they may. One does not simply just fight Bill Cipher. One has to fight Bill Cipher and win.

Paluetena – Over there is a gift shop. Knock yourself out.

'Literally?'

Wade, stop that. Fighting a chaos demon here.

'Geez, since when did you get so serious?'

Since we started fighting a chaos demon here . . .

Kaiju Avenger – Read on, wayward reader!

Smokescreen2814 – No promises on when I might be able to check it out, but I prefer to not receive any recommendations or requests to read stories written by my viewers; I dunno why, nothing against you of course, but it just seems kinda like begging or something' like that . . . ugh, I've been without sleep for too long.

Discord – Just because I'm dead, doesn't mean I'm a rotting corpse! Sheesh!

'I have to agree with Four-Eyes on this one, you Frankenstein monster reject. You really think Teacup would willingly love a festering carcass?'

Now that's just being mean! I mean, I suppose it's true, but there's no need for name calling! You're upsetting Mr. Nibbles! As for your question, Sir Discord, I simply have not had the time . . . besides, I am saving it for a much more deserving if you catch my drift.

Is that like catching the flu!? 'Cause this one time I caught equestrian flu and I was really, really, REALLY sick and was throwing up all over the place and was unable to eat anything, I mean, ANYTHING! I couldn't even use my cannon, can you believe that!? I-

'WHAT IS SHE DOING HERE!?'

My thoughts exactly, Deadpool. As if we didn't have enough madness around here already.

You like madness, too!? I love madness! I-

'That's it! I can't take it anymore! Either she leaves now, or I send her to the glue factory!'

Ooh, is that like a place where you can make lots of arts and crafts and get all sticky and stuck to every little thing around you?

Maddie, you speak madness, right? Can you tell Pinkie we don't have time for this?

Afraid not, baby. Madness isn't exactly an exact language and it has no control! It wouldn't be called madness then, now would it?

Good point. Pinkie Pie, I hereby evict you from my dorm before the story starts!

No, I wanna stay until after!

Before.

After!

Before!

After!

Before!

Before!

After!

Before!

AFTER!

BEFORE!

YOU'RE STAYING HERE UNTIL THE END OF THIS CHAPTER, AND THAT'S FINAL!

If you say so!

Wait, what?

'Dude, you just got tripped by sugar fueled pony. I am so disappointed in you right now.'

ARGH! That is it, Pinkie Pie! You have duped and/or frustrated me for the first and last time! As soon as this chapter is over, you are out of here!

Okie, dokie, lokie!

'I have no idea what that means!'

Ahem. Onto some more positive news, those that have been following my previous work will recall that I promised a Xover collaboration with another author by the name of Blazorna Ibara that will be a canon combination of both our Ben 10 Xovers (a Xover within a Xover, to be exact). Well, that truth has finally come to light and production is finally under way as well! So be patient, my loyal viewers!

On a side note, Blazorna Ibara's Xover is with Ben 10 and an anime series called Queen's Blade that has many highly sexual and occasionally offensive themes, depending on who you might be; the story's rated M for a reason, so be smart and don't read this if you are not old enough to. Just to be on the safe side (I doubt our Xover will hold any content of the sort, but you never know).

As always, comment, review, suggest, and request down below!

Onward!

I give up.

The snow was absolutely relentless in its arctic downpour, the individual flakes mounding and amassing on the ground into an army that slowly marched its way across the ground and covered everything in a layer of white; the storm had forced any weary traveler that was desperate enough to make their way back home for the holidays to take detours and take shelter in any nearby inns or ramshackle places of residence off of the beaten path to protect them from the howling winds and freezing temperatures.

Such was the case when the silver bell that hung tiredly above the door of the Golden Griffin Inn & Tavern rung merrily, its cheery call echoing loudly through the empty inn and only drawing the bar tender's attention for a brief second before the beer bellied man returned his focus to the kegs and mugs whose bottoms were stubbornly laden with layers of alcohol and mead that absolutely refused to be worn away by any normal means of cleaning. The person in question that had broken the silence of the tavern stood motionless at the door dressed in a black and brown cloak with a bow and quiver of arrows strapped to his back that obscured any visible features or distinguishing traits as the cold winds rattled and battered against the tavern walls; within seconds, the bar tender realized that the strange figure had left the door wide open, the temperature dropping fast.

"For ancestors sake, lad, close the damn door!" the bartender growled in a deep, baritone voice as he slammed an empty on the bar out of annoyance.

The figure shifted slightly and kicked the door shut with a flick of their foot, shaking lose some snow from the outside as they looked around the empty tavern; for the most part, it was empty with several tables and elevated stools to cover the floor and a chairless bar that had a wide assortment of alcoholics and other beverages to choose from. What could be described as a couple of wenches of varying ages and beauty lazed around the bar in rather exposing clothing, bored out of their minds with the majority of the two or three customers still there having recently passed out and the rest having retired to the rented rooms above the tavern floor.

"What'll be, lad? We're closin' for the night in but a few." the bartender rumbled.

The figure didn't say a word at first as he slowly walked up to the bar, his leather boots thumping heavily against the creaking wooden planks of the floor until he came to stop at the counter, his face unreadable or visible; nothing but the faint howling of the wind and and the settling of the Golden Griffin broke the silence for several awkward moments as the bartender continued to clean his mugs and the waitresses started to take mild interest in their latest visitor.

Finally, after an age, the figure spoke in a low, hoarse voice, as if they hadn't spoken for an age. "I'm looking for an informant . . . I was told he would be here?"

"Depends." the bartender lazily paid attention, reaching with a fat finger to get to the bottom of the keg he was cleaning. "How much-"

THUMP.

The bartender paused and set the keg he was cleaning down, his eyes widening slightly when he caught sight of a fist-sized pouch that had been tossed with great weight onto the counter; he quickly snapped it up with his sausage fingers and drew it open, his eyes widening even further when he caught sight of the glittering coins inside. It was more than what he charged for one, maybe three night's stay at his inn alone! With a slight cough and short gesture of his eyes at his waitresses towards their latest arrival, the pair of woman quickly sauntered over and latched onto each of his arms with seductive smiles upon their full lips as they shamelessly flaunted their curved figures at him; the figure didn't respond to the touch for a split second before reaching inside of his cloak and whipping out three throwing knives that were expertly pinned between his four fingers.

THUNK! THUNK! BOING!

The bartender cautiously peeked out from under the bar and gulped at the throwing knife embedded two inches deep into the wall above him, exactly where his head had been mere seconds before he was lucky enough to duck; the two wenches, for lack of a better term, had thrown themselves to the floor of the tavern with the other two knives still vibrating slightly from the bar's counter, right where theur still pumping hearts might have been had they not moved in time.

"Do not make me get out the other four." the figure threatened.

The bartender shakily set a beefy hand on the counter and hauled his great girth up with fearful eyes. "Of . . . of course, lad. No need to bring out the weaponry and likes . . . the name be Gragas by the way." he stuck out his hand; the figure didn't move in the slightest, save for the twitching of his fingers, as if he were already losing his patience and slowly moving for a weapon.

"I'm looking for an informant." the figure repeated his previous statement.

Gragas harrumphed and slowly slid the pouch of coins protectively against his great belly, as if afraid that they would be taken away from him. "I believe the lad ye be lookin' for is over there." he pointed towards the farthest, darkest corner the tavern had to offer before he slipped the coins into his pocket and returned to cleaning his mugs and kegs, trying to ignore the knives embedded in the counter as the figure barely nodded and calmly stepped over the fallen woman on the floor and to the corner of the bar.

The table was a corner booth, meant for the bigger parties of large, burly men that would laugh loud and often as they clashed their beer kegs together and drank themselves silly while regaling themselves with tales of valor and strength that were often mostly made up due to the excessive amount of alcohol in their systems, but the table was only occupied by a single figure draped in a large trench coat that covered his entire figure and any surprises that may have been lurking around inside, a fedora covering his pale, snow white face. Unafraid, the cloaked figure slid into the booth next to the other.

"Haven't seen you around, stranger," the shadowy figure in the trench coat noted. "'Course, I never can tell which strangers are real and which are the voices in my head." he added with a slight chuckle.

The cloaked grunted with annoyance and drummed his fingers impatiently on the table. "I need information."

"And I have what you seek, the trench coat-wearing figure chuckled sinisterly. "If only you could make it worth my while . . ."

With a sigh, the cloak wearing man reached into the folds of his clothes and tossed out an even larger sack of coins out onto the table, the clattering of the golden pieces instantly drawing Gragas' attention as he watched suspicious from the bar, absentmindedly polishing an empty mug as he tried to listen in; when he could not hope to hear the low tones of voice the two men in the corner were using, he coughed loudly, a sound ignored by the two indistinguishable men in the corner but quickly picked by the two hired wenches as Gragas nodded over to the table and, more importantly, the impressive sum of money sitting at its center.

"Now your speaking my language," the trench coat-wearing man grinned toothily, exposing a wide, yellowed smile that would have made anyone else flinch or cringe with fear; the figure in the cloak barely reacted. "What would you like to know?"

"I'm looking for a beast of legend," the cloaked figure explained with an earnest tone. "A voracious monster whose appetite is absolutely endless, a monster so savage it will devour an entire village and continue on in its eternal quest for a food, a monster that can bend the very nature of the world to his whim . . . a monster that I have searched the four corners of Ever After for."

"I believe I know the beast you seek," the trench coat-wearing man grinned toothily. "As for its location . . . well . . ."

The cloak wearing man was at his wits end and reached inside of his cloak, pulling out the four other throwing knives and fixing his gaze on the man sitting across from him before seemingly carelessly throwing them away to his right; a yelp of fright quickly followed.

THUMP! THUNK! THUNK! BOING!

The four knives had all but disappeared from the cloak wearing man's fingers and two of them had embedding themselves deep into the wall of the bar quite a distance away with shreds of torn cloth speared onto their tips; one of the waitresses that had attempted to eavesdrop on the conversation or attempt to try and make off with the bag of gold was now covering her bare breasts with a pale expression of horror and embarrassment on her face as her coworker fought to keep the shreds of her skirt together and in one piece, large pieces of the fabric embedded into the floor boards by the other two knives. Gragas had wisely decided to cower beneath the bar until the knife wielding maniac he had foolishly let into his tavern left, his belly fat jiggling and quivering as he trembled.

"You've got moxy, kid!" the trench coat wearing figure laughed merrily. "Normally I'd feed moxy to the hyenas, but I think you get the point!" he cracked.

The cloak wearing, knife throwing man was quickly losing his patience. "Where. Is. It." he hissed.

"The last I heard of the beast, it was heading towards a place I believe you would have heard of before . . . a place called Ever After High?" he leered with his sick and twisted smile. The cloaked man quickly got up from his seat, barely passing a glance towards the half nude waitresses as he calmly and easily yanked all seven of the knives out of the walls, floors, and counter before swiftly leaving, the door banging open and letting in the freezing wind once more before it closed once again, leaving the inn and tavern to once again fall into an uncomfortable silence. Satisfied that his work was done, the trench coat wearing man sighed happily and put his feet up on the table, removing his fedora to set it on one of the big, red clown shoes he wore on his feet, a sadistic smile upon his bright red, painted lips as he casually pulled out a Mirrorphone he had stolen weeks ago and turned it on, accessing the limited stack of photos and pictures he saved after erasing all evidence on the device to pull up a picture of a boy with emeralds for eyes, hair as dark as wet earth, and an odd device fastened to his wrist.

"Soon, Tennyson." he grinned maliciously. "Soon we shall meet . . . and then fun can truly begin."


F.N: T'was the night before Christmas and all through the school of Ever After-

M.N: Oh, stop it! We are not doing that nonsense again!

F.N: But it's tradition!

B.P: While two crazy guys are out to get my Ben and his friends, you two are arguing over tradition!? I swear, I was swapped at birth!

F.N: Dear, that's not very nice.

M.N: And what do you mean by "my Ben"?

B.P: Nothing! Uh, er, maybe the ghouls are up to something? Their dreaming, right? About Ben?

F.N: Yes, they are. But next time, read the script, dear. You are still grounded.

B.P: But that was four chapters ago!

M.N: Now dear, mind your mother.

B.P: *sigh* I bet Ben wouldn't have grounded me . . .


Cerise wiped her brow off the thin line of sweat that had manifested on her forehead as she yanked the ax out of the tree and briefly rested on it, the blade sinking up to the hilt in the snow; the wind often nipped at her noise like an overexcited wolf pup, turning her cheeks a rosy red in color as she absentmindedly tugged her crimson hood down a little farther to shelter her from the cold. Heaving one last breath, Cerise pulled the ax out of the snow and gave it a mighty swing, cutting clean through the rest of the tree's trunk and sending it crashing down to the ground with a cloud of snow.

Not wasting any time, she quickly started to whittle and hack away at the branches, lopping them clean off with a single swing of her ax, reducing the full grown tree to a massive log that she quickly hack into several much more manageable pieces; despite her great strength compared to most fairy tales, as she set her ax to rest against the tree's stump and lifted two logs easily more than her entire body weight combined onto her shoulders and began to shuffle through the snow, even she couldn't drag the whole tree back to the house. At least not on her own.

"Need a hand, babe?"

Cerise turned around in a circle in the snow, the two logs on her shoulders blocking her view, to see a large Loboan come wadding through the snow with a heavy harness around his strong chest and neck hooked up to a sled that trailed behind him on top of the thick layer of snow and frost that covered everything; the Riding Hood allowed a small smile to grace her lips as she turned around to shuffle back through her tracks and set the logs she had taken onto the back of the sled, repeating the process with the other logs she had cut before taking her ax and lying down on the sled as well before bravely mounting the Loboan and grabbing onto fistfuls of shaggy, gray fur that all but instantly warmed her nearly frostbitten fingers.

"I can walk myself you know." Cerise said after a while of Blitzwolfer trotting briskly through the snow on all fours, his thick layer of fur and under wool keeping him perfectly warm in the frigid winter while Cerise was forced to wear her mother's red hood, woolly gloves, fur-lined boots, and a comfy jacket underneath it all to keep the wolf blood running through her veins and keeping her warm from working overtime.

Blitzwolfer chuckled slightly. "I know. You just like havin' me carry you around."

"Are you saying that I'm fat?" Cerise challenged with a raised eyebrow. The Loboan wisely did not answer his wife and continued to trudge through the snow, not wanting to spend a night sleeping on the couch instead of curled up under the warm covers of the bed he shared with his wife; instead, he shifted his attention away from Cerise's temper and back towards walking through the woods, finally emerging from the forest and into a sheltered clearing that the trees kept draped in a cooling shade when the leaves were broad and full of life in the summer.

"Heads up, Dad!"

SPLAT!

Cerise attempted to hold back her laughter as she climbed off of Blitzwolfer's back and allowed the Loboan and stand back up and wipe the remains of a snowball from his face while slipping the sled's harness off and grabbing a a pair of hefty logs to deposit onto the wood pile, grumbling under his breath. "Crimson, don't throw snowballs at your father." she scolded.

"Sorry." a little girl that was somewhere between five and eight years old apologized; she had deep brown hair the color of earth with a single black and white streak that split her scalp in two, heavily accenting the pair of shimmering emerald eyes that she had inherited from her father as she was enveloped in a smaller version of her mother's hood that kept her warm and toasty where certain anatomical parts failed. Instead of skin tone, she was covered from head to toe in a thin layer of brown hair that formed a warm, fur coat and barrier against the biting winds, a case of hypertrichosis is what she suffered from.

"Hey, don't worry about it." Blitzwolfer grinned as he finished stacking the firewood before he was swallowed in a blast of bright, green light that returned the Loboan to his original, human form; he was tall and lanky with lean, muscled arms and legs that would have snapped like tree branches against Cerise's crushing fingers but kept him strong and fit and about a foot or so taller than the Riding Hood. He was bundled up in a thick, black jacket with white, faux fur at the sleeves and hems to combat against the cold winds and wore a pair of green gloves and boots with white laces to keep them upon his feet and the snow out (he couldn't remember the amount of times Cerise had berated him upon smelling the odor his wet, woolen socks gave off when they weren't dry enough).

"Come inside before you catch cold, dear," Cerise told her daughter as she trudged up through the snow and towards a warm, log cabin that was wedged comfortably under the bows of a pair of conifer trees, their evergreen needles heavy and laden with snow that occasionally landed on the roof with a wet thump! and echoed through the house below. "Your mother's making popcorn for movie night."

Crimson bounced up and down excitedly. "Yay!"

Ben's eyes flickered around the clearing, as if searching for something. "Just out of curiosity, have you seen your sisters?" he wondered before he was slammed into from behind and shoved into the snow, his entire vision engulfed in white as he and whatever had landed on him tumbled a short distance through the snow before coming to a stop; with a quick snap of his arms, he latched onto something with each hand and pulled a pair of girls about a year older than Crimson that struggled and fought in his grip to try and hit each other with red mitten covered fists. Both of the girls had dark, peach skin and sported green eyes the color of deep, glacial ice as short, black hair spilled down on their shoulders and passed over a pair of canine-like ears on either sides of their heads with sharp fangs just behind their lips that they snarled and bared at each other.

"Adalwolfa! Astrid!" Ben scolded angrily, instantly silencing the two bickering girls.

"She started it!" the two of them whined in unison, pointing fingers at each other.

Ben sighed and rolled his eyes, climbing to his feet and keeping a firm grip on the twin's crimson hoods that seemed to be a standard dress for the family. "Stop fighting over who the alpha is or you can forget about your movie night privileges and go straight to bed." he scolded. "Besides, if anything, your mother is alpha of this family."

"Aw, thanks!" Cerise cooed with a smirk as the three girls retreated back inside the cabin with Ben at their heels to herd them in the right direction. The Riding Hood smirked mischievously as she grabbed Ben by the shoulder and pulled him back, slithering her arms tightly around his back and shoulders and she hugged him tightly, resting her head upon his chest and in the crook of his neck.

"Oh, no." Ben joked slightly with a grin. "What do you want now?"

Cerise wiggled her eyebrows and softly kissed his cheek, hugging him a little tighter. "It's time." was all she said.

"Again?" Ben raised an eyebrow. "That's the fourth time this week!"

"Well, it is mating season."

Ben and Cerise's attentions were drawn towards the door where a tall woman but a couple inches taller than Cerise and shorter than Ben stood leaning in the frame with a smug smile upon her deep, indigo lips; her skin as pale as ivory and she bore a pair of dark, lilac eyes under her deep indigo and violet locks that framed her face and was pulled back into a braided ponytail that draped down her back. She was dressed in a short purple skirt with a soft, black silk skirt underneath as well with knee high black boots with indigo laces all the way up. A soft, purple, woolen jacket wrapped around her slim shoulders and figure, draping down to her hips and over an old, gray T-shirt with a purple raven on the front and a pair of silver headphones around her neck connected to her Mirrorphone.

Raven smirked as she unfolded her arms from across her chest and sauntered over to the two of them, leaning on Ben's shoulder with a slight smirk on her face. "Does this mean I'll have to sleep on the couch again?"

Cerise smiled and reached out to gently cup Raven's cheek in her hand, her smile broadening as her fingers brushed over her soft, ivory skin before she pulled Raven into a small hug and pecked her with care upon the cheek. "You're always welcome to join us, dear." she winked mischievously.

Raven blushed and patted her stomach region at the suggestion. "It's tempting," the witch admitted. "Maybe it's time to make little Syndra or Veigar a reality."

"Only after you pick better names." Ben smiled jokingly, earning a quick cuff upside the head by both Cerise and Raven at the same time.

"I'll have you know those are traditional witch culture names!" she scolded irritably. "My grandmother was named Clawstorm!"

Ben rubbed his aching skull; why did he have to fall in love with and get married to two woman that cut through an entire tree with a single swing of their ax or enhance their strikes and blows with a great amount of enchantment and magic to the point where it felt like getting hammered by a cinder block? "I'm kidding, I'm kidding! They're perfectly good names! My, uh, great-great grandmother was named, um . . . Wingfang!"

Cerise burst out into laughter at her husband's feeble attempts to not get creamed. "Oh, for ancestors sake, Rae. Looks like we're gonna have to teach him some manners tonight." she grinned hungrily like an apex predator would at cornered prey.

"Agreed." Raven smirked with a slight leer that sent shivers down Ben's spine as he hurriedly escaped inside the log cabin and out of the freezing winds, quickly raising his voice once more when he caught Astrid and Adalwolfa bickering on the couch once again while Crimson was either oblivious to the din or was very good at ignoring it while she perused through the wide selection of movies available for them to watch. Raven was about to head inside as well and help her husband out, forcing the twins apart and pinning them to the walls with a spell or charm if necessary before Cerise caught her by the wrist and pulled her back out into the cold, wrapping her crimson hood around her to entice the witch to remain out in the snow for a few more precious seconds.

"What is it Cerise?" Raven wondered.

The Riding Hood didn't answer and merely latched onto Raven with a tender, yet vice-like grip that pulled the witch close against her, increasing the warmth they shared as a light blush crossed Raven's face moments before Cerise gingerly pressed her lips to the enchantress' and immediately entered paradise; this was why she loved she loved Ben and Raven and not one over the other. Whenever she was feeling in a rough and playful mood, Ben was than capable of giving her a good time, fighting back and pushing her to her limits whenever they were passionate together. Raven on the other hand, was soft and fragile, as if she could possibly break at the slightest touch in Cerise's often rough but tender grip. Without hesitation, Raven slithered her arms around Cerise's neck and eagerly returned the kiss, eagerly rimming her wife's lips with the very tip of her tongue and giving a muffle exclamation of surprise of when Cerise fought back with extreme vigor.

"Ahem."

The two of them instantly broke away with deep crimson tinges to their faces and varying degrees of embarrassment as Ben leaned in the door frame with Crimson at his feet with her hands over her eyes and Adalwolfa and Astrid childishly gagged and held their throats out of disgust. "Save for tonights, dears." he smirked.

Needless to say, the twins were thoroughly horrified when both of their moms lashed out with their hands and pulled their dad into their tight grip and promptly began to kiss him without mercy; Crimson shrugged it off and scurried back inside, having the couch, TV, and popcorn all too herself until Astrid and Adalwolfa were able to stop gawking at their parents.


Cerise stirred and slowly blinked open her eyes, an oddly warm feeling creeping its way through her chest and into the rest of her body as her eyes began to droop shut once more. She was so warm, enveloped in her hood and nuzzled up close to Ben's still, comforting figure with one of his arms wrapped protectively around her; before the Daughter of Red Riding Hood could slip back into slumber however, a slight shift of movement caught her attention as it brushed against her fingers and hands, shaking her out of her unresponsive state and fully awakening her to find that she had pulled Raven's ivory figure close to her, her hands closed particularly tight around the witchling's breasts and chest, right where her beating heart pulsed just beneath the skin.

With a barely contained yelp of fright Cerise hurriedly pushed Raven's passive figure away, her breathing quick and her heart pulse racing as she watched the witchling roll about a foot across the bed to slump lazily against Clawdeen and pin the sleeping werewolf against the wall; other than herself, no one but the Riding Hood was awake to witness her panic attack. Skelita had taken up residence in a chair beside the bed wrapped up in a warm blanket to keep her bones from rattling loudly while Venus and Jane were curled together, the fingers intertwined with the others lovingly against Ben's other side with his other arm wrapped tightly around Venus as Kitty had once again taken the place of Ben's pillow from some odd reason that Cerise wasn't sure she wanted to know, especially whenever her boyfriend's head lolled lazily across the Cheshire's exposed stomach; Maddie and Whisp had take up the rest of the area at the foot of the bed, the former deciding to sleep over for the night, as Hunter and Ashlynn remained blissfully unaware in their own bed across the room.

Absentmindedly, Cerise began to realize just crowded it was getting in Ben's dorm, especially where his bed was concerned, and wondered just what would happen if more of his ghouls arrived by various means or just how many other girls were going to find themselves apart of her boyfriend's growing harem; they had already forced Skelita to sleep somewhere else, which made Cerise a little guilty for but a moment before her mind returned to something that was a combination of extreme terror, fear, and embarrassment.

Why was she torturing herself like this? Why couldn't Cerise just walk up to Raven and Ben and tell them how she felt, tell them that she loved the both of them more than she thought she had ever loved two people in all of existence. Why was it so hard for her to just tell the two of them that she loved them both and wanted to be in a relationship together with them? With a sigh, Cerise sat up in bed, carefully prying Ben's arm off of her as she sat there, hugging her knees close to her chest as she slowed her breathing and absentmindedly glanced towards Jane and Venus; the plant monster shifted in her sleep, mumbling something under her breath before tentatively planting a soft kiss to Jane's forehead and slipping back into slumber.

Briefly, Cerise wondered why she couldn't be more like Jane and Venus; the two of them loved each other very much and never left Ben out on any of that love either, the three of them forming an inseparable bond with one another that Cerise highly doubted would ever break any time soon. But of course, they could get away with such antics, considering they were not of this world and thus could be subjugated to the words and will of Headmaster Grimm in his firm belief that every maiden was to have a prince, no exceptions, which was one of the reasons why he despised Ben so much. Cerise doubted that even if Ben was okay with Cerise dating Raven and if the witchling even swung that way, their relationship would hardly last for long under the steely eye of the headmaster.

Realizing that she wasn't going to fall back to sleep on the matter anytime soon, Cerise casually glanced at the nearest clock and found it to be roughly about eight in the morning. Christmas morning, Cerise realized after a split second. She decided that with no other option, she could head down to the student lounge to at least grab whatever gifts she had received before the mad rush from the gathering students arrived; making up her mind, she carefully climbed over the many bodies in the bed and tiptoed across the floor, her fingers curling around the knob of the door and pulling it open (the fact that it was kept shut by a high tech, password-encoded lock on one side yet opened by a simple doorknob on the other always confused her). She was about to slip out without waking anyone up when she suddenly bumped into something, a yelp of surprise coming from the thing as it suddenly lurched towards Cerise and forced her to stumble back; the loud rattling of plates and silverware caught her sensitive ears as they stumbled about in an unstable fashion as the Daughter of Red Riding Hood tried to find a footing of some kind until she finally fell right onto the bed she had been sharing with Ben and the ghouls with a loud and all but deafening CRASH!

"What the Sphinx!?" Clawdeen yelped as she awoke with surprise moments before her face was splattered with a wet, sticky substance of some kind.

"Que!?" Skelita cried, her eyes snapping open before she was suddenly splashed with something sweet smelling.

"OOF!" Ben gasped when Cerise and whatever she had collided with landed full force on his stomach, forcing the wind out of him as he and the Riding Hood were hit full force with the brunt of various objects, some of them crispy and crunchy while others were wet and sticky, all of which were accompanied by a myriad of smaller that bounced off of them or stuck firmly to their bodies. Once he had managed to breath once more, Ben sat up and shook his head, sending droplets of a liquid of some kind splattering in all directions; Maddie was wide awake and laughing gleefully as what turned out to be orange juice and cream dripped from her wild, untamed locks with bacon bits and tropical fruits to compliment the odd choice of fashion.

Venus mumbled something under her breath about flavoring pancakes with the blood of her extended family as she wiped a significant amount of maple syrup from her face and squeezed a fair amount of what looked to be tea from her wild, unkempt hair. "What hit us?" she wondered moments before realizing that Jane was covered in strawberry jam, a toothy smile crawling across her lips as a deep blush crossed the shape-shifter's face.

"Something related to a certain, unwelcome princess, that's what?" Clawdeen snarled after taking a quick sniff of her nose and wiping a fair amount of scrambled eggs off of her face; Kitty had been doused with milk and cream and was eagerly sucking it off of her fingers and arms with licking her lips as Skelita picked breakfast potatoes and strawberries from out between her rib cage while Whisp snapped her fingers and summoned an old rag to scrub the coffee off her face and peel a stray waffle off of her chest. All looks, even those belonging to Hunter and Ashlynn from clear across the room, turned to look at Apple as she stood over the bed with a sheepish and nervous smile on her face, absolutely covered in everything that she had been carrying moments before hand.

"Apple, what are you doing?" Raven sighed, pulling an orange wedge out from between her cleavage and peeling a syrup-covered pancake off of her head.

The princess giggled nervously, wincing when she caught sight of the narrowed eyes of Clawdeen and Cerise that oddly resembled a pair of hungry predators that looked like they had decided their next meal was her. "I . . . uh, decided to make breakfast?" she cringed as Clawdeen growled and bared her teeth.

"Apple. Run." Ben hissed through clenched teeth.

The princess paled considerably when she caught of the way Clawdeen was glaring at her, her golden eyes now an intense amber as she pushed herself past Raven and crawled over Ben and Cerise to the edge of the bed, snapping an arm forward and grabbing Apple by the front of her nightgown. "Let me make this as clear as possible, princess," Clawdeen growled in a deep, guttural voice that sent shivers up Apple's spine.

"As long as I am Beta, as long as I am Alpha, as long as I am in this harem, you will never be a part of this family. Leave with what little dignity you have left, because if you can't accept the fact that you are not the only girl that Ben is capable of loving, then you don't deserve him at all!" she roared in Apple's face, flinging the frightened princess towards the ajar door and watching as she stumbled to the floor, quickly scrambling to her feet and escaping the dorm in a fit of fear induced tears; sticky footsteps of syrup and orange juice trailed as Clawdeen watched her flee with slowing, ragged breaths.

"Clawdeen-" Ben broke the silence after what seemed the longest of time; Ashlynn and Hunter had buried themselves deeper into the covers and sheets they shared as Jane hid behind Venus and Ben out of fear. The werewolf whirled around and snarled irritably at her boyfriend while her eyes dimmed back to their original, golden glow before she climbed off the bed and stalked over to the bathroom, slamming the door shut and locking it.

"What's her fairy fail?" Kitty wondered as Ashlynn excused herself from the room and went off to try and comfort Apple while Hunter decided to see if he couldn't take a shower in a dorm that didn't look like it was about to explode from the sheer tension in it.

Ben sighed and took hold of the bed sheets to begin drying himself, reasoning that they could be washed free of their delicious breakfast stains while Skurd, naturally, remained completely oblivious to the entire situation as he dozed peacefully on the Omnitrix and occasionally mumbling things in his sleep that Ben couldn't make out. He loved all of his girls and ghouls to pieces, with him being there to support them in whatever en devour they were partaking in and they would support him in turn whenever he was down as well; but it seemed that Apple just couldn't see that. The princess was so rooted in her firm beliefs of the fairy tales, so far brainwashed into believing that following ones destiny in life was the only thing that mattered in life, that it she simply couldn't accept the fact that she shared a boyfriend with other females of varying species. That is, until she learned the hard way.

"Whisp? Can you do me a favor and check on Apple? Make sure she's at least alright?" he asked the genie.

"I was about to do it anyway. Chao." she gave a playful wave before disappearing in a puff of blackened smoke that briefly rose a small coughing fit from the others until it cleared.

Maddie was still smiling happily. "Now this is what I call breakfast in bed!" she grinned.

"I suppose that is an upside to things." Raven shrugged with a small smile at the Hatter's undeterred peppy attitude.

"And what's better is that it's snowing!" Maddie added, bouncing off the bed and rushing over to the window to plaster her face and hands up against the cool glass to watch as millions of crispy, white snowflakes fluttered and sprinkled onto the ground, only adding to the thick layer of snow that covered the school grounds outside; Kitty vanished from her place on the bed in a showering of glimmering light to reappear beside Maddie with a similar smile upon her face.

Raven knew the look on the two Wonderlandians all too well. "Grab your boots and mittens everyone." she sighed with a roll of her eyes and a knowing smile on her lips.

"Why?" Venus wondered before her long, dexterous tongue slithered out paste her lips and slowly, proactively slid over Jane's entire face, licking off the excess amount of jelly and jam before the plant monster's tongue whipped back past her lips, leaving Jane's face clean and with a fiery flare to her cheeks.

"Because we don't get snow in Wonderland," Kitty replied. "And anytime it does snow-"

"We don't waste a scoodle-brainned second!" Maddie cut off, eagerly bouncing towards the door. "Last one outside is a rotten Mock Turtle egg!"

Ben watched the Hatter skip off down the hall moments before Kitty flashed away to beat her to the dorm they shared. "We don't have much a choice, do we?"

"If Maddie's involved, no." Cerise smirked. "And if Kitty's involved, you can forget coming inside for hot chocolate if your nose turns blue."

"I take it you speak from experience?" Jane guessed, fighting back her intense blush.

"I couldn't smell for two days straight."


Knock-knock-knock.

Snow White stirred and mumbled something incomprehensible under her breath as she pulled the plush, ruby red covers up closer around her chin to snuggle deeper into her pillow and reach for the soft, grasping hand of slumber. The queen was warm and immensely comfortable in the queen-sized bed that had been provided for her to sleep in, thus allowing her to comfortably live at the school on the girl's side of the dorms in her own private chambers that came with a lavish bathroom; this of course meant that she would have to work long hours, put up with the antics of some of the more troublesome maidens and princesses, and have to deal with Mrs. Her Majesty the White Queen upon her return, but she supposed that it was worth it.

Knock-knock-knock.

Or it would be if whoever was knocking on the door at such an ungodly hour had any common sense.

Knock-knock-knock.

Realizing that she wasn't going to get anymore sleep with the relentless noise the queen inhaled a sharp breath and sat up in bed, her ebony black hair a nasty jungle of snarls and tangles that had spawned upon her pillow as she blinked her sleepy eyes and briefly stretched, ignoring the knocking as she did so. Once she was sure she was awake enough to give enough effort to move, Snow White pushed the warm sheets off of her and scooted towards the edge of the bed, swinging her legs over the side to touch down to what she quickly found out to be an absolutely freezing floor; she ignored the odd feeling in her bare feet and toes and hurriedly made her way over to the door, curling her fingers around the knob and pulling it open far enough to poke her head out and nearly jump back at what she saw.

"Apple?" she blinked with surprise.

"H-Hi, Mom." the princess said sheepishly as long, sticky strands of syrup dripped down from her blonde curls accompanied by orange juice and milk while strips of crispy, greasy bacon and fluffy scrambled eggs found themselves stuck fast to Apple's shoulders, neck, and breasts thanks to what could be argued to be an excessive amount of syrup, jelly, and jam. Her red nightgown suffered from the squished remains of pancakes and waffles with bacon bits, breakfast potatoes, and various fruits decorating her figure with the multiple choices of drinks soaking her night clothes all the way through so that her crimson undergarments seemed to glare blindingly out for anyone that caught sight of her.

"What happened?" Snow White asked, pushing the door open wider to lean against the frame; the queen wore nothing more than a deep red thong and thankfully much more concealing top that really only kept her sizable breasts from flopping all the way out and pinned against her chest while a train clipped to the bottom half of her top formed a half skirt of sorts that covered her backside but left everything else absolutely exposed for one to stare at if they so chose to.

"Mom!" Apple instantly forgot about herself as her face turned red from embarrassment at the sight of her own mother clad in such a revealing outfit. Snow White sighed and rolled her eyes with a small smile as she grabbed her daughter by the wrist and pulled her into her private chambers, closing the door behind her and quickly rushing to the bathroom to grab a towel for Apple to try and clean herself off with.

Snow White sat next to Apple as the later started to dry herself off and the former began to pick bits and pieces of fruit and bacon off, despite how much her daughter struggled and squirmed and eventually yelped with surprise when the queen reached to pick out a stubborn strawberry that had managed to slip between the princess's breasts.

"Oh, please, dear." Snow White rolled her eyes. "I've done far more than that. Remember those baths we use to share when you were younger? I swear, you would have lived like a troll if I let you!"

"MOM!" Apple blushed fiercely, covering her face out of embarrassment.

Snow White smirked and pretended to ignore her daughter's protest. "So what exactly happened, dear? You look like you were caught in the middle of a food fight." she remarked, raising an eyebrow of confusion when her daughter winced and sported a look very similar to that of a guilty party that had just royally screwed up. "Apple . . ."

"I LOST BEN, ALRIGHT!?" Apple suddenly screamed before immediately breaking down into tears and curling herself up into a tight ball of fear and confusion right then and there on the bed next to her mother; the queen was slightly taken aback by this but quickly swallowed her surprise and wrapped her arms around Apple's shivering frame to haul her up onto her lap and hold her close to her, affectionately running her fingers through her daughter's blonde hair.

"Shhh, Shhh. It's alright. Mommy's here." she cooed lovingly.

Apple was too distraught to complain at the use of such childish language. All she wanted to do was simply push herself deeper into her mother if that was possible and hide away from the world and the many mistakes she had made. All she wanted to do was just stay there within her mother's loving touch as she gently coaxed her into telling her what had happened; what followed was little more than a tear soaked babbling of jumbled words and gibberish that would have even made a Wonderlandian absolutely baffled to whatever the princess was going on about.

All the while Snow White was listening with attentive ears, her eyes widening further and further until they looked like they were about to pop right out of her their sockets with shock while her blood boiled at the poor choices her daughter made; though, now that she thought about it, she and several close friends had also made some less than careful choices in life. She could still remember the day she all but very nearly threw away her carefully laid out destiny for someone who she had grown quite close to and had, in fact, fallen in love with. The queen could remember the day they had admitted their feelings for each other, a fairly warm day in the fall when the leaves had turned crisp shades of scarlet and gold and created a fiery shower of colors around the gazebo that sat quietly in the Enchanted Forest; it was at that very place on those very steps watching the sun set and turn the changing leaves several hues of intricate colors that they had proposed their shared feelings for one another . . . and where Snow White had gotten and given her first kiss.

Their love was a forbidden one, the two of them being from opposite sides of the fairy tale and they would often send each other coded messages that could only be found by taking a certain path that wound and twisted its way through the Dark Forest to a certain tree with a certain knot hole that bore resemblance to that of a broken heart, of which they carved their initials into as a token of their love. It seemed impossible that she, a proper princess, and he, a vile villain, could ever feel the same way for each other, but she had never felt so alive than back in those days she now looked back so fondly on.

If only they had lasted.

"Well, it sounds like someone royally messed up." the queen shook herself out of such thoughts when she realized that Apple had finally cried herself out and was simply just hugging her mother fondly; Snow White curled her finger under her daughter's chin and raised her head up so that she could give her a calculating look of motherly disappointment that made Apple swallow slightly with fear. She didn't dare move as Snow White shifted her legs slightly and then proceeded to move her daughter into what the later assumed or hoped to be something of a more comfortable position until she realized that her mother was lying her down on her stomach across her legs.

"Mom, what are you-"

Smack!

Apple bit her lip and tensed up at the sharp spike of pain that shot right through her like a lightning bolt, her face screwed up into an odd mixture of discomfort, abashment, and gratification that both intrigued and unnerved her in a sense. The princess flickered her eyes back and winced upon seeing her mother raise her hand and swiftly bring it down on the princess's exposed ass, her nightgown pulled up to expose the bare skin and leave it to the queen's mercy; Apple dug her fingers into her palms as she wondered just what her mother was doing.

Smack! Smack!

Snow White struck twice more, each time striking swift and quick so that Apple had to suffer little more than a little second of martyrdom before the majority of the odd sensation she was feeling went away, only to come back once more; each time, Apple bit her lip harder, squeezing her eyes shut tightly and fighting back tears of betrayal and confusion.

Smack!

Finally, mercifully, it was over and Apple gasped for air, not even realizing she had been holding her breath as Snow White sat her back up and hugged her lovingly close to her chest; the princess was completely befuddled as to why her mother would do such a thing as spank her and then hug her the next as if nothing had ever happened. Awkwardly, he returned the hug and buried her head into her mother's chest as the queen bent down to kiss her on the forehead and pull her away to look at her.

"Wh-What was t-that for?" Apple wondered.

"Discipline, dear." Snow White explained. "I should have had your tutors do this to you years ago instead of sending you into a time out; you probably could have avoided this whole mess had your father and I been better parents."

Apple shook her head. "N-No, this is all my fault." she said softly.

Snow White allowed a small smirk to cross her face. "I'm glad you realize that, sweety. So now that you've been properly punished, I assume you are going to try and make up for your actions? I did say that Ben was a keeper, after all." she reminded her daughter before a devious grin crossed her face. "Of course, if you change your mind, I'd be more than happy to-"

"MOM!" Apple yelled for what must have been the third time that morning, her face flushing a deep red out of embarrassment. "What is it with you trying to steal my boyfriend!? You're already married to dad, for ancestor's sake!"

Snow White scoffed slightly, her grin never leaving her. "My, how you've grown. First you couldn't bear the thought of a man loving more than one woman, and now you're reprimanding your own mother for trying to get in on the good stuff. And who says a harm is only restricted to men?" she teasingly raised an eyebrow that only made Apple blush even further. "So what are you going to do?"

Apple debated amongst herself for a few seconds. "What if I asked Whisp-

Snow White quickly cut her off. "Dear, think about this before you rush into another mess." she warned her daughter. "You can't fix everything with magic, no matter what kind of friends you may have. And besides, this is your mess that you need to fix without anyone's help. Not Ben, not Raven, not even this Whisp you mentioned." she scolded Apple. "Otherwise, I'm afraid it you will require some more disciplining . . ."

Is it bad that that doesn't actually sound as bad as it should be? Apple wondered before mentally slapping herself for thinking such thoughts. She was a princess and a Daughter of Snow White no less! With the exception of the quickly changing image of her own mother, Apple was not about to turn to such thoughts, especially during such times as this. "I-Is it alright though if I ask for some advice?" she asked.

Snow White nodded. "I suppose that's fairest enough. After all, you did come to me, of which I am immensely proud of you for." she added, hugging Apple once more. "Before you set off though, do you want to clean up a little?" the queen offered before a smirk crossed her face. "I could help you reach some certain tough spots-"

"MOTHER!"


If Ben had known Maddie would have been this excited about playing in the snow, he would have turned her dorm into a winter wonderland a long time ago. Then again, the Headmaster would most likely have a heart attack if he did and the wielder of the Omnitrix didn't want to give the portly man anymore reason to hate him; that, and he didn't want to be responsible for his death should he actually decide to kick the bucket.

Currently however, Ben was more than happy watching as Maddie giggled and laughed while she skipped and bounced around in the snow; the Hatter was dressed in a puffy, purple parka a pair of polka dotted mittens and earmuffs with a small top hat fixed tightly to the band to keep her nice and warm while a pair of bright blue boots kept her feet from freezing off. With a laugh, Maddie eagerly grabbed hold of Ben's wrist and pulled him down into the snow with her where she proceeded to make a snow angel, sending snow flying in all directions as her arms and legs were whipped into a fury until she had created an almost perfectly image of herself in the snow while simultaneously covering Ben from head to toe in a layer of snow.

"Oops! Sorry Ben!" Maddie smiled brightly.

"Sorry doesn't cut it! I told you I don't like the cold!" Skurd huffed with annoyance, folding his pseudopods over his chest and pouting upon the Omnitrix's watch face.

Ben rolled his eyes. "You know, you could always go back inside."

"And miss out on sampling such glorious DNA samples worthy of the gods!? I think not!"

It seemed a good portion of Ever After High's student population had decided to put off opening their morning Christmas presents until later, choosing to enjoy the fresh layer of fluffy whiteness before it got too cold; and with the promise of warm soup and whatever leftovers miraculously remained from last night's Holiday Mash Up for lunch, it seemed that the only logical choice was to enjoy the winter activities first and then enjoy the warm feeling that would sink into them once they had eaten a good meal.

This involved a great many of winter activities to chose from; Hunter and Ashlynn had taken to ice skating on the nearby frozen ponds with the later teaching her boyfriend how to properly skate and not make a fool out of himself as Duchess naturally showed off and put her delicate and well balanced ballet skills to good use, quite literally skating circles around everyone else while giving Tiny a wide berth. Despite his gargantuan size and the fact that his own pair of specially made ice skates were more likely to be used for felling trees and cutting timber, the giant was quite skilled in skating on such a small surface in comparison to his body weight.

Alistair Wonderland and Bunny Blanc, the former wearing a simple blue jacket trimmed with faux, gray fur and a pair of gloves of the same color while the later wore a pink parka ringed with white fluff and a muff for her mitten covered hands, had decided to build snowmen and maidens together; Lizzie had also decided to join in, quickly sculpting a legion of loyal soldiers at her beck and call before quickly dismembering every last one of them with a flick of her wrist and a slice of her finger much to the shock and unease of her childhood friends. This quickly turned to fear when Sparrow followed by his Band of Merry Men came whizzing by on various sleds and snowboards right through the battalion of snow warriors, decimating them into small piles of snow; it was several harrowing seconds that Bunny realized she had instinctively jumped into Alistair's arms just as he quickly set her back down.

Lizzie was too busy chasing after the Son of Robin Hood while spouting off Wonderlandian curses that made Alistair and Bunny blush something fierce to notice.

Raven had opted for a much quieter activity, deciding that watching her friends and fellow fairy tales whiz by on ice skates was entertaining enough as she tossed some bird seed that Ashlynn always kept on hand to a small flock of crows and other winter hardy birds that had gathered at her and Cerise's feet; the Daughter of Red Riding Hood would have much preferred to romp around in the snow with Ben, but it seemed he already had his hands full with Maddie, who looked like she was on the mother of all sugar highs.

Raven however, ignored her much loved boyfriend and best friend forever after in favor of watching as Cupid all but eagerly dragged a hesitant Dexter Charming towards the ice rink, two pair of ice skates hanging lose over her shoulders as she succeeded in getting him to sit down on a log long enough for her to jam a pair of skates onto his feet and tie them into place with a knot that the witchling recognized to be a Lover's Knot; this was a knot so tight and well tied that it was all but impossible for anyone but a pair of seriously committed lovers or someone related to the House of Eros to untie and loosen. With that being said and done, Cupid put on her own pair of pink, heart decorated skates and skated out onto the rink, pulling Dexter along with her and teaching him the basics while he slid and stumbled and fell flat on his butt more than once.

A couple of times.

Several actually.

Okay, it was a lot.

Ben's ghouls had also taken to the winter wonderland; Venus was laughing and whooping with joy as she and Briar Beauty were briskly pulled through the snow in a rickety sled that Hunter had obliged and made on short notice for them by a large and burly musk oxen that plowed right through the snow like a freight train on tracks, her great size and strength easily shoving the snow away as easy as one would swipe their hand through the air.

Daring was currently playing a game of hockey on the second of the two ponds under Ever After High's jurisdiction and quickly made a slapshot for the open goal with enough force to punch clean through a solid plank of wood, only to have it stopped right in its tracks with a mighty whack of Clawdeen's own hockey stick; the werewolf grinned maliciously, briefly frightening Daring before she lunged forward right at him with the puck being expertly balanced between her hockey stick, tapping it back and forth as she powered right towards the prince charming and suddenly swung her stick to drive the puck under and between Daring's legs. Clawdeen quickly dropped down to her knees and followed suit, sliding beneath the prince before springing back up and gave an almighty slapshot that ricocheted the puck off and around the edges of the rink before bouncing off a rock and sailing through the air, colliding with the back of Tiny's skate as the giant performed a pirouette and zooming back through the air like a guided missile to knock of Daring's crown and just barely miss his head by an inch and crash right into the open goal.

"Game. Set. Match." Clawdeen smirked triumphantly, spinning the hockey stick victoriously on her finger.

"Teach me how you did that." Daring demanded, though it was more like a pathetic plea from Clawdeen's point of view.

The werewolf was immensely enjoying herself. "What, the mighty Son of Prince Charming wants lessons from a lowly, mangy werewolf?"

"I withdraw any rude comments, remarks, and insults I have said and/or thought about thy beautiful maiden." Daring seemed to apologize, dropping down to one knee and clasping his hands together tightly in a groveling gesture. "Now please, teach me!"

Clawdeen smirked. "You are so lucky my boyfriend isn't the jealous type."

Skelita watched as the prince charming groveled comically at Clawdeen's feet while she, Ben, and Maddie aimlessly wandered about in search of something entertaining to do that wouldn't involve getting Skurd any colder than he already was; the Slimebiote was already complaining enough as it was and Skelita personally did not feel like hearing his voice assault whatever she had in place of ears. "Perhaps we should try ice skating?" the skeleton suggested.

"Yes!" Maddie exclaimed eagerly before pulling off her top hat and shaking it out over the snow; Ben and Skelita's eyes widened with shock as three sets of hockey sticks, helmets, padding, guards, and ice skates came tumbling out from within the depths of the hat, soon followed after by a conch shell, a pineapple, and a mounted moose head that seemed to blink and regard them for several seconds while they starred at it. Maddie ignored the odd statements and merely scooped them up to shove and cram them back into the hat before allowing Earl Grey, wrapped up in a tiny, striped scarf and mittens, to come crawling out and perch on her shoulder with an even smaller mug of warm tea between his paws.

"Why yes, Earl Grey, I did just happen to keep these for this sort of occasion!" Maddie beamed brightly. "I always wanted to play hockey with Raven when we were little!"

"What stopped you from trying?" Ben wondered as he bent down and picked up a set of skates and a hockey stick.

The Hatter hesitated for a second and cast a short look at the witchling's back, taking special notice in how Raven seemed to just barely tense up while waiting for her response, even from some distance away and amid a flock of cawing and croaking crows that fluttered their wings loudly when they weren't scratching for seeds. "She was . . . uh, busy! Learning all sorts of evil witchy spells and stuff!" she lied.

"A fat good of use that did her." Ben grumbled. "So I take it we're playing hockey instead?"

Maddie was back to her sunny disposition. "Yeppers!"

Ben turned to Skelita. "Are you sure you wanna do this? I mean, no offense, but you're kinda fragile compared to Clawdeen or Daring." he pointed out as the skeleton snugly fit a helmet securely over her skull and experimentally swung a hockey stick, nearly taking Ben's head off in the process.

"Si. I will be fine." Skelita grinned mischievously; Ben raised an eyebrow but nodded and quickly slipped on his set of skates before dressing himself in the protective gear that Maddie had happily provided for them all to wear and finally strapping his helmet into place. With that said and done, the three of them shuffled through the snow and stepped out onto the rink with wobbly steps at first before finally gaining balance and skating out to the middle of the pond where Clawdeen was currently humiliating Daring in front of a considerable crowd of other players that mostly consisted of village folk and much less important fairy tales that lacked any name or identity to be cared about for the moment.

Clawdeen raised an eyebrow as daring quickly scrambled to his feet to save what little dignity he had left. "What are you three up to?" she wondered.

"We challenge you to a glorious battle of hockey, where one team may go in but only one comes out alive in a battle to the death, where honor, glory, and respect be the prizes, with the addition of your enemies blood to taste and drink at your hearts content!" Skurd cut in before Ben could answer.

"Uh, what the Snot-Pocket said . . . but less . . . life threatening." Ben corrected the Slimebiote.

"Oh, please. As if you humans aren't barbaric enough. Just like your Osmosian friend, the lot of them." Skurd huffed.

Skelita interrupted with a cough. "So, do we have a game?" she asked.

Clawdeen taped her chin. "I dunno. We'd have to even the playing field a little bit." she hummed as she waved away the small crowd of nameless fairy tales for her to think as Daring gulped nervously at the werewolf's calculating look; she had become his hockey instructor less than five minutes ago and he was already regretting it. "Maybe three on three?"

"But where are you going to-" Ben started to ask before he was interrupted by a shower of ice as Briar quickly zipped up to them decked full out in hockey equipment with her grip held nice and firm on a hockey stick and a cunning grin on her lips; how the Daughter of Sleeping Beauty had managed to jump out of the moving toboggan, put on such bulky equipment, and dash onto the pond in a matter of seconds was a mystery to Ben, much less how the princess even heard them.

"I call goalie!" she declared excitedly.

Skurd hummed with humor. "You were saying?"

Ben rolled his eyes. "Alright, I've been wrong before." he said before a grin crossed his face as he glanced at the Omnitrix and tapped the watch face with a finger. "But lets even the odds a little." he said before he slammed a hand down on the Omnitrix and encompassed himself in a blast of green light, his genetic warping and scrambling into something new and not of this world. Muscles quickly piled themselves onto Ben's arms and chest as his skin began to blister horribly until short, brown feathers crawled up his arms and legs, turning a lighter shade of brown on his chest and stomach; his mouth and nose melted together like butter, hardening into a yellow, horny beak as his teeth shifted and realigned themselves inside. The feathers continued to cover his body, racing up and over his back and stomach, growing over nearly every inch of his body while Ben's wrists and ankles began to harden while thick scales appeared on them, his fingers crunching and grinding loudly as they molded together into three, strong digits. His fingers grew longer and bigger, becoming curved, black talons as his toes all formed together into a pair of long, sharp talons with his heel bone thrusting out the back and forming a third. A white plume appeared on Ben's head, looking something like a Mohawk of sorts as a pair of large, edged blades thrust out of his elbows, glinting in the bright, winter light; green wrist and ankle guards materialized on his body, a pair of black briefs and a green and white belt soon followed, with a green mask covering his face and a green strap vest manifesting over his chest with the Omnitrix and Skurd appearing on the vest hooker.

"Oh, so we're allowed to use our alien powers now?" Clawdeen smirked with a wolfish grin; before Kickin Hawk could say anything, the werewolf slammed a hand down on the Omnitrix around her left wrist and swallowed her in a burst of yellow light, the changes beginning immediately. Her fur began to fuse together with her skin, hardening and forming a durable armor as her bones almost painfully pushed her muscles and tissue aside, the Omnitrix numbing any pain she might have experience as her bones pushed to meet with her skin and coalesced together to form a thick exoskeleton that turned a faint shade of pink as the transformation continued; her fangs cracked and groaned as they dissolved together to form two plates of teeth that were quickly shredded and split apart to form baleen while they were twisted into a permafrown accented by black markings around her mouth that looked distinctly like feminine lips. Clawdeen's claws and fingers molded together into a pair of crab-like pincers with a loud crunching noise as her legs bent into bug-like joints with her toes and feet thinning out to form spikes for legs that dug sturdily and fast into the ice. A loud squelching sound filled the air as a pair of identical legs ruptured out from Clawdeen's insides, glistening with moisture as she balanced herself on her new limbs while her head exploded in size, her eyes moving farther apart as her brain grew bigger and bigger. Patches on the joints of her elbows and legs turned a dull purple in color, but Clawdeen hardly cared about that as the armored plating that protected her brain split down the middle; she could now see the world more than just a TV show she could interact with. Rather, she literally began to see the world's inner workings as complex equations mapped out the quickest and safest escape routes, analyzed the her opponents and teammates, and cataloged their various strengths and weaknesses. A purple and golden neck brace and loincloth appeared on her body, the Omnitrix appearing at its center and completing the transformation.

Cerebella blinked experimentally before speaking in a chipper tone. "With my sophisticated mind and talents, my victory is all but assured!" she chuckled with mirth.

"Veremos. We shall see." Skelita shook her head before activating her own Omnitrix and encompassing herself in a blast of orange light while Daring whimpered with worry. Her bones cracked and ground heavily as they rotated in their sockets to position her arms above her head, her fingers stretching to a near impossible length while her rib cage grew bigger and bigger, her bones fusing together to become thicker as her vertebrae molded together into a long, spinal cord that outwards into a cup-shaped dome that quickly connected with her growing rib cage and encased the skeleton in a large shell. Flesh and tissue began to form over her arms and legs, connecting the bones to strengthen their mobility as internal organs started to form within the safety of her carapace. A large heart appeared in the center of her chest with massive lungs appearing on either side of the beating organ as skin began to coat the fresh muscle, tissue, and fat that had formed over her skeleton; a sickening cracking filled the air as six, massive holes opened up in the front of her shell as it ground heavily and became more teardrop-shaped in the process. Her jaw bones snapped and crunched loudly as they hardened into a horny beak, her eyes moving apart as the Omnitrix appeared on her chest, completing the transformation.

"Que? I asked for Furryosa!" Tortuga sighed with exasperation, cradling her head with a flipper out of annoyance.

Kickin Hawk smirked. "It's Humungousaur all over again." he rolled his eyes before tensely gripping his hockey stick. "Now lets play! Game on!"

Daring yelped and dove out of the way as Cerebella and Kickin Hawk dove after the puck, their sticks immediately locked and fixed against each other as either side tried to figure out a way to gain an upper hand or claw, as the case may be; the prince quickly scrambled to his feet and rushed into the mess, the paddle of his stick skidding across the ice as he performed a risky move and jumped over and between the two clashing aliens, flicking the puck up and out of its locked position, thus setting the game in motion.

"Maddie! Body check 'em!" Kickin Hawk cried as he managed to gain the upper hand on Cerebella and shoved her back long enough for him to skate around the Cerebrocrustacean, his skates having been ruined and destroyed and thus leaving him to use his wicked talons to get around (not that there was much difference).

The Hatter grinned madly (as usual) and rushed after Daring, easily keeping pace with him as he swiped the puck from side to side to push it forward and towards the opposing team's goal; it wasn't until he was nearly there that he was suddenly having regrets upon seeing the massive flippers Tortuga sported and wielded like a dual pair of hockey sticks that seemed more than capable of slapping him clear across the rink. Fortunately for Daring, he didn't get that far as Maddie lashed out with her stick and suddenly tripped him, sending him crashing to the ice as she stole the puck back and whizzed across the rink in the opposite direction.

"Booyakasha!" Maddie howled at the top of her lungs as she spun around and gave the puck an almighty slap; Cerebella skittered as fast as possible across the ice, her jointed legs working overtime to reach the racing puck and try to prevent a goal from being made until a loud slap! assaulted her eardrums and sent the puck across the rink in little more than a black blur as it whizzed through the air and collided squarely with Tortuga's chest, sending the Geochelone Aerio toppling over onto her back from the sheer force of it.

Kickin Hawk's eyes widened and he snapped his head back towards the opposing goal to see Briar standing there with a smug smirk on her face and her hockey stick spinning triumphantly on her finger in a showboating manner. "Game. Set. Match." she smirked.

"Repetition! Amusing." Cerebella noted with mirth and a classy accent to her voice. "Shall we continue?"

"You bet your teacups! Game on!" Maddie cried loudly; Kickin Hawk nodded and the game was once more in motion, slowly starting to draw the attention of others as Daring, Maddie, and the two aliens rushed and zipped and slid back and forth across and around the rink in an absolute frenzy, the whacks and slaps of Tortuga's flippers and Briar's stick down on the ice making the gathering crowd wince and cringe and cheer for whatever team they were routing for when a goal or slapshot was blocked just in the nick of time. With every crack of the hockey stick and the crash of the puck, the crowd cheered louder and louder as the teams clashed time and time again, neither side giving in to the other for long with Briar's sheer aggression, Maddie's absolute madness, Kickin Hawk's strength, Tortuga's determination, Cerebella's intelligence, and Daring's dedication to the game keeping each other in check.

"Go Ben!" Venus cheered loudly from her seat next to Jane and Cerise.

The jungle ghoul was confused, having never even heard of the sport of hockey deep within her former, jungle home. "What is the objective of this game? Are they trying to hit each other with sticks?" the she wondered.

"More like knock each others brains out." Cerise half-joked, leaning back on the bench and watching as both sides clashed time and time again; her point was further proven when the hockey puck took a wild shot and collided straight with Cerebella's skull plates, stunning her long enough for Kickin Hawk to zip by and slap the puck right past Briar's head before she could raise a gloved mitt to stop it.

"It's all tied up." Raven noted, sitting on the edge of her seat as the two sides faced off once more for the final match.

Cerise snorted as Maddie stole the puck and slapped it across the ice as hard as she could, dropping down on her belly before shifting her body enough that she could continue forward on her hands, balancing her hockey stick between her skates as she chased after the runaway hockey puck; Raven could do little else but roll her eyes and hope that the Hatter didn't lose a tooth. "Kinda like a certain princess. All tangled and tied up in a mess she can't get out of."

"At least she's trying." Raven sighed as Tortuga blocked a shot with her flipper and sent it racing back across the ice, only to have it be blocked by Cerebella; the Cerebrocrustacean skittered across the ice with the hockey puck in grasp, only to have it be stolen by Kickin Hawk with a loud screech while he raced towards Briar with Cerebella at his heels. The two aliens duked it out while simultaneously balancing the puck back and forth between them, switching between using their hockey sticks to push the puck along and as weapons to whack each other over the head and poke them roughly in the side much to the enthusiasm of the crowd.

"Keyword being 'trying'." Cerise grumbled. "I swear, the things they say about blondes . . ."

"Cerise, that's not nice!" Raven chided the Riding Hood; Kickin Hawk shot the puck right at Briar, only to have the princess crack her stick hard against the ice and send it scattering back across the rink and between Cerebella's legs where it started to drift about aimlessly until Daring picked up the pace and rushed at Tortuga. The Geochelone Aerio prepared to defend the goal as the prince raced at her until Kickin Hawk managed to skate past him and slide right in the way, delivering a rough body check to him before racing back towards Briar.

"Crush 'em, Ben!" Venus cheered with joy.

Jane raised an eyebrow. "Why are you so interested in this?" she wondered with a little concern.

Unbeknownst to anyone, a shadowed figure watched from the treeline of the Enchanted Forest, hidden stealthily amongst the bare branches and brambles and the snow laden bows of the evergreen trees that stubbornly refused to give in to the winter's cold and relentless grasp. He sniffed the air cautiously and breathed a slow, deep breath that rose from his lips like the smoke from the angry maw of a fiery dragon on the rampage; he shifted silently on his feet, the soft clinking of metal accompanying the movement before he leaped clear and low across the ground with nary a sound, as if he had a pair of invisible wings to keep him aloft moments before he landed on the trunk of a tall tree whose branches clawed and raked the air hungrily. He effortlessly climbed the tree, his nibble fingers catching and fitting into the tiniest of cracks and footholds among the bark that allowed him to finally reach a bow high above the ground that gave him a clear view of the ponds and the crowd it drew some fair distance away, roughly twenty yards or so, give or take a couple feet.

This was hardly of concern to him.

He noiselessly grabbed his bow and drew one of twenty arrows from the quiver strapped to his back, each one tipped an unsettling and venomously purple that was so dark it was almost black, setting it against the relaxed bowstring and drawing it nice and taunt as he took aim towards the crowd, ignoring the other, oblivious and ignorant princes, maidens, and village folk that surrounded the pond and cheered loudly like fools; he took a closer aim at the at the more unusual creatures that lurked around the lake in clear sight without fear, as if they were mocking him.

It was not the beast he sought after, no, the monster whose head he desired upon his mantel and its pelt upon his floor as a rug was far more dangerous than the oddly human-like monstrosities that sat on the bench next to a pair of unaware maidens in broad daylight, as if they had the gall to openly defy him. They were of little consequence to him and would have barely registered on his radar had their odd appearance not raised some attention; but the creed he lived by, the silent and unspoken oath he had dedicated his life to, refused to let such vile creatures slip by. For the moment, he ignored the creatures skating around on the ice like fools and aimed his drawn arrow towards the smaller of the two odd monsters on the bench.

The hideous creature wouldn't even know what hit it.

"C'mon, Briar! Hit 'em hard!" Cerise cheered.

"I thought you didn't like hockey?" Raven raised an accusing eyebrow. "And why aren't you routing for Ben?"

Cerise smirked. "Someone's got to route for the losing side."

"I still don't get what the point of this game is," Jane mumbled. "And just why it involves hitting each other with sticks."

Venus rolled her eyes with a small chuckle. "They're not hitting each other with sticks, Sweet Mango. They're-" she started to say before a loud shout caught their attention and the four girls turned to see Hunter racing right towards them, colliding with all four of them and knocking them into the snow; the plant monster spat out a mouth of snow and turned to regard the huntsman out of curiosity while Cerise fought back the irritated growl at the back of her throat.

"What in the kingdom-" Cerise started to berate Hunter before Jane suddenly screamed in agony from atop of the pile of entangled arms and legs, the jungle ghoul sent rolling through the snow and onto her side where she bit her lip viciously to fight back another howl of agony and the tears that were starting to form from her eyes while clutching her shoulder in pain. Hunter scrambled lose from the mess of bodies and crouched down to the injured shape-shifter, grimacing at the long arrow that embedded quite deep within her shoulder tissue with a fair amount of blood leaking form her jacket; the huntsman didn't remain there for long as he was all but flung out of the way by a simultaneously terrified and furious Venus as she screamed for Ben between fits of panic stricken tears and trying to calm her ghoulfriend down while she babbled nonsense in between animalistic snarls and howls.

Venus sobbed uncontrollably, her howls bringing the intense game on the ice to a screeching halt as panic began to spread. "Jane! C-Come on! P-Please, say something! A-Anything!" she pleaded.

The jungle ghoul let out a pained cry as she clutched her chest violently, struggling to remain as composed as possible in the snow until she could no longer and promptly vomited right then and there with tears leaking from her eyes and what was quickly found to be an unhealthy amount of foul smelling blood pouring forth from her lips as she struggled to breath; she was shaking all over, as if she was extremely cold despite all out of winter wear she had to keep her warm and was fighting just to keep from falling back down when she tried to shift herself up into a kneeling position.

"What the hell happened!?" Kickin Hawk demanded as he roughly pushed himself through the crowd of fairy tales with Cerebella, Tortuga, Daring, Briar, and Maddie right behind him moments before flashes of orange, yellow, and green swallowed the aliens and returned Skelita, Clawdeen, and Ben back to the world; the wielder of the Omnitrix was stuck in a combination of horror, disgust, and fear when he caught sight of Jane on the snow, trembling and shaking as she continued to vomit up her precious blood.

"WHO DID THIS!?" he roared with fury, his voice deafening and full of rage; everyone present visibly flinched and cringed from the volume.

Hunter sat up and rubbed his head, crawling back over to Ben and wincing upon seeing the state Jane was currently with Venus openly sobbing over her and trying to comfort herself more than Jane as Ben was stuck somewhere between trying to hold back tears of his own and unleashing every last bit of fury he had on anyone within range.

"Ben, I-" he started to say before a second movement caught his attention; his huntsman instincts kicked in right then and there as he lunged at Venus and tackled her to the ground, much to her chargin just as a second arrow sailed overhead and just barely missed Venus' head before landing firmly in the snow with a soft thunk! Ben whipped his head towards the sound and grasped the arrow in his hand and yanking out with a quick movement of his hand, his eyes quickly analyzing and looking over the projectile as Hunter removed himself from Venus; Cerise quickly tugged her hood down over her head as she and Raven joined the group, the later covering her mouth with horror upon seeing Jane.

"Hunter. Do you by chance recognize who this might belong to?" Ben asked in a steely voice that was more of a demand than anything.

Hunter frowned slightly. "Just because I can shoot arrows, Ben, doesn't mean I can tell who shot them." he said, scratching his chin in thought as he examined the arrow in Ben's hand before glancing at the spot where it had landed and making some calculations in his head; while Crownculus and mathematics weren't exactly his best subject, he could almost instinctively tell where an arrow had been fired from, how much force had been behind it from the bowstring, and even estimate how tall the shooter could have been from how much strength it would have taken to send the arrow flying that far.

"What is it, Hunter?" Ashlynn wondered, coming up behind her boyfriend and just barely holding back her upset stomach when she caught sight of Jane convulsing every now and again on the snow.

"If I'm right . . ." he trailed off, his eyes building a mental map as he calculated the trajectory. "The arrow came from somewhere over . . . there." he pointed at a small section of trees out of the entire Enchanted Forest. Ben narrowed his eyes as he shielded his brow from the glare of the winter sun and looked carefully towards where the huntsman pointed, his eyes widening with surprise and anger when he caught sight of an all too suspicious figure sitting in one of the highest bows of the trees with what looked to be some sort of weapon . . . a bow with a notched arrow!

"Get down here, you bastard!" he roared at the top of his lungs, jamming a finger at the figure high up in the trees; the cloaked man promptly threw him an incredibly rude gesture and threw himself out of the tree, his cloak and cape billowing in the wind behind him as he fell to the snow and took off into the forest without looking behind him and further flaring Ben's temper.

"We're serious now, aren't we?" Skurd remarked as Ben tapped the Omnitrix and slammed down on the activation button without looking at what alien he had dialed in, swallowing himself in a blast of green light that warped and shifted his genetic code into something new. His skin hardened into a thick exoskeleton, becoming jointed and plated as it turned a dull green in color. His bones vanished as his skull became pointed and even thicker than before while his eyebrows took on a physical form and formed into two, horn-like growths; his teeth cracked and ground loudly into needle-like fangs that neatly fit together when Ben closed his mouth. His legs ground and fractured as hie knees bent backwards into a completely different limb, a sort of thin webbing forming between the joints as his toes ripped out of his shoes into a pair of large claws as a third was thrust out from his heel bone. His two middle fingers snapped and groaned as they were sucked back into his hand, the remaining digits twisting into sharp claws as his body pinched in two sections; his rear end swelled into a slim abdomen as pointed spines popped out of his arms and ankles and a pair of green overalls with black stripes all over materialized on his new body just as the Omnitrix and Skurd appeared on his stomach, completing the transformation.

Crashhopper ground his teeth against each other, creating sparks that cracked and leaped over his fangs with agitation as he turned to chase after Jane's attacker before he felt a hand on his shoulder and turned his head just enough to see Clawdeen with a vengeful glare on her face. "Clawdeen, I know exactly what you're thinking. Forget about it."

The werewolf was taken aback by this. "Excuse me?" she snarled.

"You heard me." Crashhopper frowned. "Jane's down and for all we know she could kick the bucket anytime soon; I'm not about to let that happen to you, Skelita, or anyone else that I care about if I can help it."

Skelita stepped forward to protest. "But-"

"No buts." Crashhopper shook his head. "As Alpha, I'm putting my foot down on this one. I'm not about to risk your lives against this maniac." was all the alien insect said before he bunched up his legs and soared high into the air; Venus didn't even look up as she held Jane close to her chest, sobbing as the jungle ghoul's pulse was slowly starting to trickle away like the melting ice while her skin began to lose its dark, purple hue as she wheezed and struggled to even breath.

Clawdeen was stuck between obeying her natural instinct to follow her Alpha's orders without question and forgoing any punishment that she may receive to help avenge a fallen pack member; that was what she and her siblings had been taught from a young age, to never abandon the pack and to always stand together as one, no matter the problem they faced. And to see Jane, a member of the group of ghouls led by a trouble magnet of a boyfriend that had formed and turned into something of a second family to Clawdeen, lying sick and most likely dying on the ground, absolutely helpless and unable to at least seek a glorious death while fighting? The choice was hardly difficult to make.

"If those three think they can slip off to help Ben without me, they've got another thing coming." the werewolf snarled as her sensitive ears pricked up to catch Hunter, Daring, and surprisingly Raven sneak away from the group to rush to the aid of a certain alien arthropod.


Crashhopper slammed his feet into the ground, bunching up his legs at the same time before springing back up into the air with a determined glower upon his face as he soared over the bare branched trees with the greatest of ease; his eyes scanned desperately for the faint figure he had seen on the edge of the woods, the one responsible for what could be the loss of one of the ghouls he held most dear to his heart. To be fair however, he loved every single last one of his ghouls and couldn't imagine life without them by his side to help him fight through whatever the universe had to throw at him, not after what they had been through together. A tale worthy of true heroes had been laid out for them and forged them together with a bond stronger than steel that couldn't be shattered by the mightiest of forces.

"Look! Over there!" Skurd pointed out with a slimy pseudopod; Crashhopper followed the Slimebiote's direction and set his sights on the cloaked figure as he effortlessly leaped from tree to tree as if he were a monkey, bouncing off tree branches and swinging his entire odd weight a great distance with a single hand before back flipping through the air to land on another tree limb and continue the entire process again.

With a grunt, Crashhopper crashed back down to the ground before bounding away once more, shooting through the air like a guided missile at the cloaked figure and overshooting him to land on the closest branch in front, swiping at the cloaked man with his claws; the archer expertly flipped over his arm and continued his hectic race through the treetops only to have Crashhopper try and cut him off a second time with another swipe of his claws that the cloaked figure simply ducked under and threw himself out into empty space to plummet down towards the ground. At the last second, he landed on a flexible tree limb and was sent flying through the air as the branch snapped back up and high into the trees once more as Crashhopper landed back on the ground and leaped once more to ram his head right through the tree branch the archer had just landed on and send him plunging through the air a second time.

"I'll admit, he's good." Crashhopper grumbled when he caught sight of the cloaked figure slow his descent by grabbing onto a branch and using his momentum to swing his entire body weight around and send him flying towards the next branch like a wild gibbon swinging through the trees. "But not good enough!" he added as he bounded off of the stump of the branch he was resting on and threw his entire body weight into the cloaked figure, successfully crashing into him and sending the two of them falling to the ground while they thrashed and struggled and grappled about until they finally landed in a puff of wet snow with the unknown assassin being fortunate and skilled enough to land on top of Crashhopper and pin him in place.

"So . . . the legends are true." the cloaked man said with a silken whisper, grabbing the front of Crashhopper's overalls to pull his face less than a foot to his. "But why waste such power?"

"You call this wasting!?" Crashhopper snarled, shifting his powerful legs underneath of the cloaked figure and kicking him back into the trunk of a tree, shaking some snow lose to fall down on him; the alien arthropod climbed to his feet and glowered at the cloaked man as the Omnitrix timed out and returned Ben to the world.

"Alright, you, I want some answers! And I want them now!" he demanded angrily, jamming an accusing finger at the assassin.

Skurd spoke up, puffing his chest with pride and trying to look furious. "You heard the lad! Starting spilling or I get nasty!"

"You mean nastier than you already are, pond scum?" the archer snarked.

"Pond- why you-!" Skurd growled angrily; granted, it was not the dreaded insult that involved bits of biological matter that came forth from ones nose that was occasionally picked at under the guise of scratching an out of reach itch, but the words still stun like glass embedded in ones foot.

"Enough games!" Ben shouted angrily. "Either start talking or I put the hurt on you!"

"By all means," the cloaked figure hissed as he climbed to his feet and reached inside of his cloak with a hand, barely moving as he seemed to wait for something; what it was, Ben had no idea. "But I never comprise."

"Comprise this!" Ben yelled as he activated the Omnitrix and slammed down on the core, swallowing himself in a blast of green light that warped and scrambled his genetic code into something new. A coating of light, blue fur raced over his body, covering him from head to toe as his spine arched and forced him down onto his hands just as his fingers molded together like hot candle wax into three, firm digits designed to grasp and swing as his toes lengthened and became three, strong digits as well; Ben's skin flashed a dark blue as his shoulder swelled slightly and became muscled and furry while his chest expanded and muscles and tissue piled themselves up onto his body. His skeleton crunched and snapped loudly as he was compressed down to the size of a large dog, his spine arching and cracking nosily before a long, prehensile tail snaked out from the base of his spine, cracking back and forth with anticipation as several special organs formed at the base of the appendage. His lower jaw was thrust outwards as the warm fur covered his face and his eyes split into two more pairs of green orbs as the shaggy hair on his head flipped up to form a pair of furry horns. The most dramatic transformation however was when a pair of identical arms to his original pair suddenly burst forth from his sides from underneath him, flexing and moving on their own accord as two, green sashes formed across Ben's chest with the Omnitrix at the center, completing the transformation.

With a horrendous screech, Spidermonkey lunged at the masked assailant, slamming into him and pinning him against the tree trunk with all four of his arms and legs as he leaned in while chattering irritably. "Enough monkey business! Who are you!?"

The cloaked figure by slugging the Arachnichimp across the face, knocking him to the snow as the cloak wrapped archer brushed himself off. "Pathetic," he murmured. "But if you must know, the name is Jeager the Beast Hunter."

"Ook! Ook! Did your mommy give you that name?" Spidermonkey taunted as he pushed himself back up onto his feet and assumed a fighting stance, gesturing with two taunting hands to come at him as he narrowed his eyes.

Whatever the reason however, this seemed to be the hunter's trigger; while Spidermonkey couldn't quite put his sticky, grasping finger on it, something about him seemed to change from being cold and emotionless to something little more than a loud and enraged warrior, much like how the Arachnichimp was feeling at the moment. With a loud yell, Jeager simultaneously reached inside of his cloak and whipped four razor edged throwing knifes that glinted in the sun for the briefest of seconds before they were hurled through the air with deadly accuracy right at Spidermonkey. The Arachnichimp screeched with surprise and bent over backward as far as possible; time seemed to slow down as he shifted and flailed his arms to avoid the blades as they passed between his arms and head, the fourth just barely grazing past his face as he leaned back just an inch further to avoid it before time seemed to speed up once more and finally allow the blades to stab deep into a fallen log a distance behind Spidermonkey, sinking in up to almost three inches.

Spidermonkey didn't have to admire the assassin's skill as he just barely back flipped out of the way of Jeager's as he attempted to strike him while distracted; the Arachnichimp whipped his tail around and shot off a jet of wet silk at the hunter's face, successfully blinding him as he landed and giving him enough time to charge forward on all four of his knuckles and spring into the air, landing a quick kick to Jeager's chest that sent him reeling backwards while Spidermonkey landed squarely on the ground, assuming the same fighting stance as before.

"You filthy primate . . ." Jeager hissed as he tore the sticky silk from his face and spat at the ground.

"Takes one to know one. Ook! Ook!" Spidermonkey smirked, gesturing with his fingers.

Jeager was all too happy to oblige and quickly reached inside of his cloak, sliding what remained of the seven throwing knives he carried with him at all times and lunged forward with the blades held between his fingers with a clenched fist, giving him the appearance of steel claws as he lunged forward and swiped at Spidermonkey's face, just barely missing as the Arachnichimp leaped back and out of harm's way, firing off twin jets of silk that Jeager ducked under the first and leaped over the second, slashing at Spidermonkey once more with his knives.

"Never fear! Skurd is here!" the Slimebiote declared as he oozed and slithered his gelatinous body over one of Spidermonkey's four arms and tapped into one of the genetic samples of the Omnitrix; the silken, blue fur bristled and became crusty, hardening into glimmering crystals that melted and oozed together like glistening molasses before solidifying into a bulky, crystalline arm that quickly generated and formed a wide and tough shield just big enough and in the nick of time to block a third swipe of Jeager's metallic claws. To his surprise, the knives shattered against the tough diamond like glass, the glistening shards falling to the snow as the fallen feathers of a helpless bird nailed in midflight by a falcon fluttered and fell through the air.

"And you say I don't do anything useful." Skurd winked at Spidermonkey.

"Guess that's just the way the banana peels." Spidermonkey smirked at Jeager as the hunter briefly mourned the death of his weapons. This didn't last long as he charged straight at the Arachnichimp head on, startling him into raising his Petrosapien shield at the last second and shove into his chest, rolling the hunter over him and throwing him behind him where he crashed upside down against the trunk of a tree and slumped to the ground, greatly annoyed. "Alright, big, bad, and brooding, cut to the chase! Ook! Ook! Why are you here!? Ook! Ook!"

Jeager grumbled something incoherently under his as he righted himself and charged straight at Spidermonkey with deadly intent, flipping over the fallen log and easily yanking his four throwing knives out of the tough, rotting wood to hurl them at the Arachnichimp, aiming high and low so as not to miss; the alien primate yelped and quickly blocked the first two with his shield before flipping and balancing on his head to dodge the first and pushing up and jumping over the fourth to slam his shield into the snow, kicking it up and blinding Jeager in the process.

"Ook! Ook! C'mon, talk! What's the fun of getting revenge if you don't say anything!?" Spidermonkey snarled with annoyance as the Petrosapien arm and shield vanished and the DNA was returned to the Omnitrix by Skurd.

"You pathetic . . . disgusting . . ." Jeager hissed as he once again reached his coat and pulled out a small, glass orb that crackled and rumbled violently with a dark, unstable energy that vibrated and rattled dangerously in his grip before he roughly pitched it at the ground; the sphere exploded in a cloud of putrid, blackened smoke and energy that blasted Spidermonkey back a short distance and cut off his acute hearing and leaving him all but blind and unprepared as Jeager charged forward and tackled him to the ground, grabbing hold of his tail and swinging him around and around in tight circle to throw him against a tree with a loud thwack!

"Ben!"

Spidermonkey groaned and shook his head as he picked himself up and rubbed his throbbing, aching skull. His vision must have gotten messed up from the blow, his sight spinning and making him see and hear things; for a second, he thought he heard the cry of his beloved Raven caress his eardrums. And then he quickly found out that he wasn't hearing things when the witchling rushed up behind Jeager and clapped her hands together, firing off a concentrated beam of unstable and chaotic magic and energy that slammed into Jeager's back and sent him sprawling through the snow where he came to a stop with groan.

"Ben! Are you alright?" Raven asked worryingly, kneeling and placing her hands upon the Arachnichimp's shoulders while she looked him over.

Spidermonkey waved her off, greatly confused. "I'm fine, Rae. But what are you doing here!? Ook! Ook!"

Raven rolled her eyes. "Like we're going to leave you fight alone." she scoffed.

"We? What do you mean by we?"

A loud yell caught his attention. "Eat cold, hard steel, you knave!" he heard Daring shout loudly as the prince swung at Jeager with what one could be compared to as somewhat sloppy; it wasn't his fault though, considering he had grabbed hold of the first sword within reach and hadn't anticipated it to be heavy than what he was use to. He found this be inconsequential at the moment with Jane's life on the line and Spidermonkey in need of any leeway he could get. The Beast hunter growled as he bobbed and weaved his head to avoid the cutting blade before reaching inside and behind his cloak to pull out a short bladed sword that he quickly slammed against Daring's blade to bring the two of them to a standstill.

"Pathetic." Jeager growled as he inched his blade forward and quickly pushed Daring off of him, only to just very narrowly avoid getting shot from above; a quick glance at the trees revealed hunter with a bow and a limited supply of arrows sniping from the branches with a deep scowl upon his face as he took careful aim and just barely missed as Jeager leaped into the air and did the splits, the arrow just barely missing his nether regions before sinking deeply into the tree behind him. Daring took the assassin's distraction to his advantage and gave an almighty downward swing with a loud yell that alerted Jeager into raising his sword up in an attempt to block the strike, only to widen his eyes with shock when Daring managed to slice right through and break the blade in two.

With little time to spare, Jeager jumped above a quick cleave from Daring and up to the lowest branch some dozen feet above the ground, swinging himself upwards before he launched himself through the air, spinning his body tightly while doing so to grab the last spare daggers he kept on hand and only in emergencies to hurl at Daring, missing the prince's head by mere centimeters as he bent his legs and landed low to the ground; the Beast Hunter snapped his arms out to the side, revealing a pair of glistening, sharpened wrist blades affixed and strapped to his forearms as he blew a strand of jet black hair out of his face.

"Enough monkeying around," Spidermonkey glowered as everyone stood motionless, barely breathing; Raven turned to face Jeager with a cold, venomous glare could have frozen even the hottest of flames as her fingers and hands danced with unstable, chaotic magic she was cursed by and forced to manipulate and bend to her will while Spidermonkey edged forward on his knuckles with his tail aimed and ready to fire at a moments notice. Daring tightened his grip on the hilt of his sword, sweat dripping down from the previous sudden act of motion as Hunter watched them all like a hawk from above, his eyes flickering from friend to foe and back again to pick up on the tiniest, minute shifts in body movement to know when to strike. "We have you four to one.

"Ahem. I believe you mean five to one." Skurd coughed to signal that his existence was still sound.

Raven narrowed her eyes. "Either way, when you do the math, you're outnumbered."

Jeager passively began to slow his breathing to steady his pulsing heart as he glanced from foe to foe, his mind racing and calculating the number of ways he could attack or be attacked, defend or be defended from, and just about anything else that might happen thanks to his years of endless searching and hunting for the hideous creatures and beasts that lurked within the inky black shadows that the world attempted to sweep them into and forget about; the prince was most definitely overconfident and cocky and would most likely be his own downfall, foolishly leaving a spot open for him to exploit upon. The fight would have to be taken to the air or trees to take care of the huntsman or figure our a way to bring him down to the ground, but he could tell that while he was much more levelheaded than Daring, he was nonetheless easily coaxed into going too far and making a fool out of himself when he lost. The witchling was undeniably unpredictable, but would no doubt be the easiest out of the bunch to take of in a number of ways, especially with several special tricks up his sleeve. The Arachnichimp and his slimy parasite of a partner however, posed a problem; with the device the two of them were linked up to, one could change into any of nearly an infinite amount of forms to attack him with while the other could access the other forms and bring them out into the world through the use of weapons and other devices to aid in an assault. They were the true wild cards.

And in Jeager's world, there was little room for wild cards.

"Alright, you vile villain, start talking!" Daring demanded, edging his sword forward to emphasis his point. "Why have you attacked yon helpless, fair maiden, Jane?"

Spidermonkey gave him an irked expression. "If you talk like that about my ghoul one more time . . ."

Daring coughed awkwardly. "Sorry."

Jeager took the chance given to him and spun around in a wide circle, his hidden blades whistling through the air as he slashed right at Daring and knocked the distracted prince's sword out of his hands and sent it skidding and sinking into the snow a good distance away, too far out of reach for him to get to in time; the hidden blades vanished back into the sleeves of his cloak as Jeager lashed out with his leg and swept Daring's feet out from underneath of him, sending him landing face first into the snow with a groan.

Hunter quickly fired off his drawn arrow and began to notch, draw, and fire off more and more, succeeding in creating a rapidly raining storm of arrows; the wrist blades slid back out from Jeager's wrist as he raised them in time to block an arrow aimed at his shoulder and swiftly blocked another aimed at his abdomen, quickly adjusting the blades as needed to block the upcoming onslaught of arrows moments before he back flipped through the air and landed squarely on Daring's back with a sickening crack! and a loud yelp from the prince. The Beast Hunter ignored his pitiful whimpering and used him as a spring board and launch himself towards the tree trunk behind him to then ricochet off and leap right towards Hunter with fingers raised and clenched like claws and his wrist blades gleaming in the sunlight. Time seemed to slow down once more as Hunter's eyes widened and he lowered his bow, making a move to run and jump down to the safety as time seemed to speed up again and allow Jeager to slam full force into his body, the two of them landing on a thick branch some distance down.

"Show me what you've got, Huntsman." Jeager sneered as the two of them stood and balanced upon the branch, the assassin blowing another strand of ash colored hair aside before hacking and spitting and then proceeding to lung at Hunter with the sharpened blade forcing him to bend back to avoid getting sliced in half. With his heart in his throat, Hunter ducked under another swipe of the blades and jumped over the third, landing on the flat of the blade and succeeding in kicking Jeager in the face; this allowed the huntsman to now use his fists and punch the archer in the gut as hard as possible before decking him across the face. The wrist blades slid back into hiding once more just before Jeager effortlessly caught Hunter's next strike between two of his fingers, a dark and glowering expression upon his face as Hunter gulped nervously. Faster than he could react or even blink, the Beast Hunter swiftly flicked his wrist and easily twisted Hunter's arm around, driving the heel of his boot into his back and eliciting both a cry of pain from Hunter and a loud snap! from his forearm and hand.

Raven winced. "That's gonna hurt in the morning."

"No kiddin'." Spidermonkey crined as Hunter was roughly thrown over the side and landed face down in the snow with a groan, his arm twisted at an unnatural as Jeager jumped and landed down on the ground with barely a scratch upon; to make matters worse, the Omnitrix decided right then and there to time out, returning Ben to the world in a blast of green light.

"Your true form, I can assume?" Jeager spoke in an emotionless tone. "You show potential and great skill, kid. But why waste your talents on creatures that hardly deserve them?"

Ben glared, balling his hands up into fists. "I don't know what you're talking about, but I sure as hell don't like it; you shot my ghoulfriend and injected her with some kind of poison! She could die!"

Jeager scoffed. "That's the point, kid. She isn't worth keeping around for whatever dirty deeds you use her for."

Ben gritted his teeth with a quickly reddening face. "That's not . . . you- she was my ghoulfriend!" he snapped angrily.

"Emphasis on the 'was'," Jeager seemed to drawl with a barely amused tone. "Hydra blood-tipped arrows: like a living acid, it will slowly infect the body and dissolve tissue and muscle, causing internal bleeding and an abnormally high fever with sporadic hot and cold flashes. She'll be dead within an hour."

That did it for Ben. "Skurd," he growled in a threatening tone as he narrowed his eyes at the Beast Hunter. "Get me Rath."

"It would be my pleasure." the Slimebiote bowed as he compressed himself down on the Omnitrix and encompassed himself in a flash of blinding green light. Ben's arms swelled as his veins popped out, alien blood coursing through his systems as muscles piled themselves on top of each other, increasing his size and considerable bulk while his legs increased in strength and length, stretching his growing frame upwards until he stood a good four feet taller than Raven and Jeager. A deep, orange coat of fur sprouted all over his body as his hands, feet, chest, and neck bleached and turned a snowy white while black stripes arched and etched their way across his broadening shoulders; a handful of whiskers sprouted from his face as his jaw crunched forward and his curved over his top lip, tearing through his gums as they did so. His hands became stronger and more powerful as a single, black claw thrust itself out from the back of either hand and a black and green luchador outfit materialized on Ben, completing the transformation when a massive belt with the Omnitrix and Skurd appeared around his waist.

With a loud roar, the Appoplexian pounded his fists against his chest like a mighty gorilla and slammed his fists into the snow for extra emphasis as he glared and growled at the Beast Hunter with pure hatred in his eyes. "Lemme tell ya somethin' Jeager the Beast Hunter, stupid assassin that shot Rath's beloved ghoulfriend, Jane Boolittle! You just boarded the pain train! Prepare to have your ticket punched: SEVERELY!"

Jeager blinked with slight amazement at the enraged Appoplexian towering over him and sucked in a deep breath as the hidden wrist blades slowly slid out from their hiding spots with the low sound of metal on metal. The two foes starred down at one another for what seemed an eternity, neither party moving before the other, until Rath had finally had enough and dropped down to all fours to charge head long at Jeager, snorting and growling like an enraged bull as he did so. "Satyrian Headbutt!" he shouted as he rammed his skull into the Beast Hunter's chest full force, knocking the wind out of him and knocking him to the ground as Rath passed overhead and screeched to a halt some distance away, turning around and snorting with annoyance.

"Thep Khufan Sarcophagus Shot!" Rath roared as he grabbed hold of a nearby rotting log and easily hefted it over head to swing it downward like a club and try to drive Jeager into the ground like a stake just as the cloaked man swiftly dodged to the left and narrowly avoided getting crushed; he then made a leap for the nearest tree, to try and attack from above with his bow and arrows where he would have the advantage of blackmail as he was quite sure even the dimwitted Appoplexian was capable of understanding that getting shot with an arrow dipped in Hydra's blood was not going to be a pleasant experience. Before he could however make a run for it however, a shimmering wall of energy erected itself between him and the nearest tree, holding firm when he slammed right into it and stumbled back in a daze.

Raven frowned, her fingers thrust out and glowing a suspicious lavender in color. "You aren't going anywhere."

"What she said!" Rath added as he broke the rotten log over his knee and broke in two and chucked one of the pieces at Jeager before following up with the second; the Beast Hunter easily sidestepped them and quickly ducked to the ground to slid between Rath's legs as the Appoplexian charged at him with a shoulder shot, slamming into a tree with enough force to topple it over where it landed with a loud crash!

"Watch the crown!" Daring groaned from the ground as the Appoplexian whirled around and threw a punch at the spot where Jeager had been standing mere seconds ago, only to suddenly swing to his left and narrowly miss the assassin once more; Jeager back flipped out of the way of Rath's meaty paws as he yelled "Tetramand Cymbal Clap!" at the top of his lungs and crashed his hands together in an attempt to squish him. The wrist blades slid out once more just in time for the Beast Hunter to block a swipe of the Appoplexian's claw and then push up the blades to shove him back and slash at him; Rath made a move to try and grab, his hand slamming into the ground where the assassin had been mere seconds before only to have him run up his arm and use his back as a springboard, launching himself high up into the air and back into the forest's branches.

Rath growled in annoyance. "Lemme tell ya somethin', Jeager the Beast Hunter! Rath is quickly losing his patience! Not that he even had any in the first place!"

Skurd sighed. "Will you stop your silly bellowing and go after him already? Your ghoulfriend's life hangs in the balance!"

"Lemme tell ya Skurd the Slimebiote, a parasite I never wanted in the first place but am beginning to begrudgingly like in spite of myself! Rath is gonna-"

"Ben! The more time you waste, the less time Jane has to live!" Raven yelled at him.

"Right. Sorry." Rath growled as he launched himself at the nearest tree and stabbed his claws deep into the wood and bark, hauling his considerable bulk up just in time to duck under a swing of Jeager's blades as he leaped from his tree to the Appoplexian's, landing on the same branch as him. With a roar, Rath swung his fist at him, missing as the Beast Hunter leaped up over the strike and landed on his shoulders before back flipping onto a higher branch above just as the Appoplexian jumped and slashed with a claw, slicing the branch in half and sending the two of them tumbling over the side where they landed on another branch, Rath slowing his fall by digging his claws into the bark as Jeager landed on his back and ducked under a swipe of Rath's claws and dodged another attempt before he then just barely dodged a third downward swing that forced him to spread his legs apart as far as possible to avoid getting impaled.

Jeager sighed with relief before clapped both of his legs together, smacking them as hard as possible against Rath's jaws and sending him stumbling back along the branch as the assassin climbed to his feet and pulled his second sword out from under his cloak and slashed at the Appoplexian, missing by mere inches; he then quickly jumped back as Rath lunged at him, grabbing hold of a smaller branch and using his momentum to swing himself around and kick Rath in the jaw before landing on the branch opposite of him.

"That's it! Lemme tell ya somethin' Jeager the Beast Hunter! It's go time!" the Appoplexian bellowed. "Incursean Ambassador!" he yelled as he lunged at the assassin and missed.

"Cosmic Drop!" Rath shouted as he cupped both hands together into a single fist and attempted to crush Jeager beneath him, missing once more as he grabbed hold of the Appoplexian's shoulders and flipped himself over to avoid getting struck.

"Sirius Butt-Kicking!" Rath roared as he successfully managed to kick Jeager in the gut and send him crashing against the tree; his sword fell to the forest floor below, out of reach. With his heart hammering in his chest, the Beast Hunter turned to face the lumbering Appoplexian as he stomped along the branch to bear down on him, shaking the limb with every step as he slammed a hand into the trunk above his head and edged the sharpened tip of a claw to Jeager's throat as a low growl escaped his lips.

Skurd coughed. "On behalf of my host, I believe the safest option would be to start talking. Nothing short of one of your crude atomic bombs would stop an enraged Appoplexian." the Slimebiote seemed to smirk.

Jeager glared up at Rath with pure hatred in his eyes, attempting to find some kind of weakness he could exploit, but nothing short of the Appoplexian's limited intelligence would save him now and even that was out of reach with his sights entirely set upon him; with nothing else to lose, Jeager took a deep breath and began to speak in a low and forced tone, as if every word was like stabbing a knife through his beating heart. "Just like you will lose your vile monster of a spouse, I loss something long ago," he spat angrily. "It was getting close to nightfall and I had been out gathering firewood to keep my family warm, for the night's were getting to be chilled and cold. I was deep in the wood, picking up sticks and kindling to feed the fire and was heading back when I saw them: horrifying, monstrous, vile, disgusting, awful killing machines flooded out of the blackened forest that bordered my village, attacking the livestock and villagers and anything that moved with a beating heart that attempted to flee. With a scream I grabbed hold of the nearest weapon, a discarded pitch fork and rushed to try and defend the only home I knew; I fought for every last cent I was worth, trying and killing as many as the wretched beast's as I could to try and salvage as much as my life as could be saved."

Rath never wavered in his dark glare, snorting with annoyance to ask for Jeager to continue. "It was then I heard the scream. The scream . . . of my mother." the Beast Hunter said with a slight shake in his voice. "I-I . . . I ran as fast as I could through the village, my only goal to save my family as he pushed through the hordes of terrifying monstrosities as they tore into the bodies of my friends and neighbors and savagely feasted upon their still living bodies; I didn't care about them then, I only had my sights set upon saving my family." he recounted before taking a deep breath. "And then he appeared."

"Who?" Skurd raised an eyebrow.

"I'm getting to that, alright!?" Jeager snapped angrily, immediately jerking his head back as Rath edged his claw closer, forcing him to continue. "It was a creature that absolutely dwarfed me with hooves strong enough to crush rocks like pebbles, a rack of antlers bigger than a full grown bull intertwined with vines and ivy, a mouthful of razor-sharp, dagger-like teeth, a decaying form that reeked of rotting flesh, and those eyes . . . I would never forget them as he pulled his claws out of the still bleeding corpse of my little sister and starred at me . . . and laughed . . . like this was all a joke to him." Jeager shuddered, his eyes squeezed shut as he sat there for a minute or two, swallowing deep breaths while Rath and Skurd shared a look before he opened his eyes once more and began talking in a cold, heartless tone of voice. "With tears of rage, I rushed at him with the intent to seek vengeance upon my father, mother, brother, and sister, all of whom I was too late to save, but he hurled me back like I was nothing but a nuisance to him; the last thing I saw before he sent me into oblivion, leaving me to wake up later with my life spared and everything I knew destroyed, were those eyes of his . . . h-he . . . he knew what he was doing . . . and was loving it, absolutely loved it as he shattered my life in thousands of pieces."

"And that gave you the right to shoot Rath's ghoulfriend!?" Rath yelled angrily.

"YES!" Jeager shouted back, slapping his legs together around the Appoplexian's ankles and twisting his lower half just enough that Rath lost balance and fell over and off the branch, hanging on only by his fingers as he glanced at the ground below him and back upwards while Jeager climbed to his feet, brushed himself off, and promptly stomped his boot down on the Appoplexian's fingers, eliciting a fought back growl of pain. "From that day on I swore I would seek vengeance and would not rest until every, last, wretched monster upon his miserable world was extinguished and knew the agony I went through as I tried to piece back together the broken shards of my life; but I save a special place on my mantle for that beast . . . for that cruel monster that changed by life forever."

"And I don't suppose you'd let us off with a warning?" Skurd guessed.

Jeager ignored him. "And I am not about to let a traitor to his own species that refuses to use the power he has been given for such a worthy cause to get in my way." he snarled as he raised his foot up again and stomped it down as hard as possible upon Rath's hand, succeeding in popping two fingers lose as the Appoplexian howled in pain.

"Never fear! Skurd is here!" the Slimebiote declared as he tapped into the genetic database of the Omnitrix fastened to the buckle of Rath's belt and oozed and slithered his gelatinous body over the Appoplexian's free arm and into his hand; a long cable of packed with biological muscles that weaved and intertwined with one another sprouted from between the muscular fingers while skin as dark as ebony grafted itself over and enveloped it in blackness just as a bronze-colored plug with forked protrusions formed at the end, crackling and buzzing with an unstable amount of electricity while the back end of the weapon formed into a tough, black hilt tipped with a second, closed off plug with a pair of metallic bolts popping lose on either side and completing the Conductoid whip.

With a grunt, Rath lashed his new weapon up and wrapped it tightly around Jeager's ankle, snapping the whip taunt and pulling the Beast Hunter over the side just as his fingers gave way and he followed suit. "Lewodan Anvil Drop!" the Appoplexian roared as he thrust out his elbow and landed painfully on the assassin gut just as they landed in the snow; Raven winced and cringed as Rath staggered to his feet and was encompassed in a flash of green light as the Omnitrix timed out and returned Ben to the world.

"Nice work," Ben noted as he gave the Conductoid whip a loud crack, releasing a jolt of electricity from the other end as he did so. "I think I'll call it Livewire."

"And the silly naming begins again." Skurd sighed before a sudden movement caught his attention. "Watch out!" he warned a second too late as Jeager popped back up onto his feet and slugged Ben across the face, grabbing him by the shoulders and thigh and lifting his full body weight off of the ground to swing it around several times before throwing him as hard as he could across the clearing and into the trunk of a tree with a loud thwack!

"Ben!" Raven cried with worry before turning to face Jeager with an angry expression; there was little that would greatly upset the witchling and make her use the dark side of the powers she had been cursed with from birth, things such as a certain guitar playing thief interrupting her performance or the Headmaster's attempts irritating her enough to turn him into a chicken-man and spend the next couple of horrors literally signing his papers in chicken scratch, but watching her beloved boyfriend being attacked was the all time trump card. Raven balled her hands up into fists and felt the chaotic and twisted magic course through her veins as much as her blood did, radiating and concentrating at her fingertips as she slowly began to lose the firm grasp she kept on her conscious mind. "Mercuta Ver-"

She was quickly cut off as Jeager reached inside of his cloak for what seemed the infinite time and pulled out another small, glass orb that crackled and rumbled violently with a dark, unstable energy that vibrated and rattled dangerously in his grip as he clenched his fingers pinched the sphere at Raven; the next thing the witchling new was absolute agony and pain as her entirely vision was encompassed in a blinding light and a blast of energy that sent her flying against a tree where she slumped down to the ground, severely dazed and disoriented. She couldn't tell which way was up or which way was down, what was light or what was dark, what was hot or what was cold, all she could tell that was that she was absolutely helpless now and that everything hurt with a severe, numbing sensation.

"I said I wasn't about to let anything or anyone stand in my way," Jeager snarled as he reached down and picked up his fallen sword; Daring feebly tried to reach for the weapon with shaking fingers, failing as the Beast Hunter picked up the sword and experimentally ran the sharpened blade along his thumb to test its sharpness. "I honestly was planning on leaving such creatures as yourself out of my vendetta, I really was; but you leave me little other choice than to end you."

Raven could barely comprehend the words that flowed and babbled like Riddlish from his lips as he spun his sword with great skill around in his fingers; she attempted to try and erect a protective dome over herself or cast a charm or spell to save her, but the moment she tried if felt like her hand was submerged entirely in a bucket of scalding, hot coals that made her hiss painfully and instinctively thrust her hand into the snow to try and cool it down.

"Magic bomb; numbs the senses and blocks the pathways of energy that allows a magic user such as yourself to perform spells, charms, curses, and the likes." Jeager explained in a casual manner. "It's a pity, really. You seemed like such a nice girl."

Raven could little else other than give of a sickly groan that sounded hard on her throat.

"Just to show you there aren't any harsh feelings, I'll grant you a swift death. No suffering and all that." Jeager promised as he raised his sword above his head with the pointed end aimed for her back right where her heart would be beating in her chest; before the Beast Hunter could finish the job however, a loud, guttural roar assaulted his eardrums and he turned a second to late to see Cerise running on all fours through the snow with her eyes glowing an intense amber and her sharp canines bared and ready to tear into flesh as she leaped into the air and pounced upon him, tackling him to the ground and roaring all the while.

"No one touches my Raven!" Cerise roared in a deeper tone than what she known for as she savagely raked her clenched fingers across Jeager's face and body like claws, leaving harsh scratches and bruises that occasionally drew blood wherever they dug too deep; Jeager's eyes were wide with confusion and surprise as he retched his hand free and delivered a swift uppercut to Cerise's jaw, stunning her long enough that he could get his legs up underneath of her and kick her away.

"What in the kingdom are you!?" Jeager growled, leveling his sword at Cerise.

"Werewolf." was all the Riding Hood said.

Jeager raised an eyebrow. "You don't look like-" he managed to say before a long howl cut him off and he turned around just in time to be slugged across the face by Clawdeen, the werewolf relishing in being able to use her own hands for once and not have to depend on the device gifted to and strapped to her wrist all the time.

Cerise coughed and held her bruised stomach as she glanced up at Clawdeen with a small smile. "Perfect timing as usual." she commented; before the werewolf could retort, the halfbreed scrambled to her feet and rushed over to Raven, landing on her knees as she carefully turned the paralyzed witchling over and briefly set her sensitive ears to her chest to make sure her breathing and heartbeat were normal. When she pulled away, she felt her breath catch in her throat upon catching sight of the witchling now in her care, how with her eyes closed she looked so peaceful despite undoubtedly being in an unbearable amount of pain right now. With great care brushed a lock of violet hair out of Raven's face and gently pulled her up to rest her against the tree, wincing when her head lolled limply to the side.

"R-Raven? Can you hear me?" she asked worriedly.

The young witch mumbled some incomprehensible as she attempted to blink her eyes open and gain a better understanding of her surroundings now that her sight was start to ebb back to her like the trickle of a river before the mighty flood. "Cer . . . ise . . ?" she moaned.

The Riding Hood sighed with relief as she hugged Raven tightly. "Glad to see you're still with us." she smiled jokingly before turning to glare venomously at Jeager as he stabbed his blade into the ground to help him to his feet. "But if you'll excuse me, I have someone to maim."

Clawdeen dropped down to all fours and slowly began to stalk Jeager in a circle, a rather awkward gait for her to be moving in as she regarded him warily, her golden eyes narrowing and shifting to inspect every part of him with the calculating look of a predator towards its prey; she didn't know much about her adversary, but from the way Daring, Hunter, and Raven were lying either delirious or unconscious amongst a meadow of discarded knives and broken weapons that seemed to spring up like flowers, he was a worthy adversary. With a low growl, she bared her teeth and came to a pause, her breath slow and calm before she bounded forward with a loud roar just Jeager swung his sword; the werewolf leaped over the blade, the glinting edge just barely grazing her breasts as she flipped and tucked herself in a tight ball to roll against the ground and sweep her leg out to swipe the Beast Hunter's feet out from underneath him.

Ben groaned as he propped himself up on his elbow, watching as Cerise pounced on his back and shoved his face into the snow with her clenched fingers clinging to the back of his neck moments before he gave a twist of his body and knocked her off, sending her plunging into the snow where he managed to reverse positions and pin her down; Clawdeen snarled and lunged at him, tackling the assassin off of Cerise and to the snow where a short scuffle ensued between the two of them with claws meeting fist and fangs greeting steel until Jeager managed to flip his sword around and grab it by the blade to ram the hilt of the weapon in Clawdeen's gut and knock the wind out of her long enough for him to grab her by the leg and swing her around to slam into Cerise, sending the two wolf-born tumbling through the snow, dazed.

"It's time to end this once and for all," Ben moaned as he climbed to his feet, using the tree as a support as Skurd returned the Conductoid DNA to the Omnitrix's genetic database.

The Slimebiote nodded. "I couldn't agree more." he said before he compressed himself down upon the Omnitrix and swallowed his host in a blast of green light that rearranged and scrambled his genetic code into something new. Ben felt every fiber and cell within himself being ripped apart at the molecular level, becoming lose and separated with no distinct connection between any of them yet remaining loosely locked in place; he felt a sort of darkness within himself, a vile serpent that was curling its way around his heart and soul as the dark fibers began to condense and pack back together into a somewhat more solid form. Ben could feel every part of the painless, numbing transformation as the black fibers wound and wove together to form the standard body of a four-legged animal complete with four, powerful legs that ended in sharp, black hooves like that of obsidian and volcanic rock and a tail that consisted mostly of stray hairs much like one would find on a horse or other equestrian. The shadows began to form what seemed to be a head, only for Ben to discover that the fibers were morphing themselves into a muscled torso as four, thin, muscled arms formed on the chest and torso with two on either side; a somewhat human-shaped head formed on the end of a slim neck as pointed ears sprouted forth from the back of the jawline while a pair of green orbs opened up at the front, blinking experimentally as dark, midnight hair sprouted from the scalp, tightening and condensing into a long, wavy wolf tail. A dark, green chestplate that contrasted nicely against his shadowy skin materialized on him followed by wrist guards, spiked shoulder pads, and a Roman-styled helmet with a bright, green plume, completing the transformation as Skurd and the Omnitrix appeared on his chest.

Phobos glowered and hissed venomously at Jeager, scuffing the snow with a hoof before he realized that thin wisps of smoke were curling off of his ever shifting body much to his horror. "Wrong transformation, Skurd!"

"Oh, for Pete's sake!" the Slimebiote cursed as he tapped into a familiar set of genetics and oozed his slimy body over every available part of the Varjoain; his ash-colored skin condensing and hardening as the vaporous, black fibers that made up his body began to bristle and become crusty, forming familiar crystals that molded together into flawless, durable diamond that shifted and shapened itself into armor to cover and protect the Varjoain from burning up in the harsh, winter sun.

Nodding with appreciation, Phobos summoned a kusarigama with dark, rattling chains the color of soot and a curved, sharpened blade like that of carefully crafted obsidian that gave off no glint of light against the winter's sunlight, and hurled the flaying hook through the air at Jeager, wrapping the hook and chains tightly around his sword and yanking it out of his grasp to toss carelessly over his shoulder. The Beast Hunter dared a peek behind him and hesitated upon catching sight of the shadowy creature covered in protective, Petrosapien armor that glimmered and shone while he swung the fearsome blade of the kusarigama in his grip.

"Run." Phobos rasped in a deep, demonic voice that sent shivers down Jeager's spine as the Varjoain reared up onto his hind legs and estimated the air with his hooves as he did so, slamming back down into the snow and surging forward with the flaying hook swinging wildly, hungrily begging to be sent out to hunt for an unlucky soul and reel them back in; the cloaked moan quickly reached for his bow and notched three arrows at once, firing them off before drawing several more and firing them off at rapid speed in the hope of striking Phobos down and killing him with the addition of several poison laden arrows to speed up the process. This unfortunately proved to be absolutely fruitlessly as the arrows either bounced off of the strong, Petrosapien armor that coated the Varjoain's sensitive skin, passed right through the constantly shifting shadows, or were knocked aside by a single swing of the kusarigama.

Now out of arrows, Jeager resorted to the last two of his magic bombs and chucked them both at Phobos in the hopes of giving him a chance to escape, but both of the chaotically glowing spheres were merely whacked aside and exiled into the Enchanted Forest far off, detonating safely without harming anyone as the Varjoain continued to slowly, carefully, almost teasingly stride towards the Beast Hunter without ever blinking or tearing his gaze away. With one last trick literally up his sleeves, Jeager summoned the hidden wrist blades and assumed a shaking fighting stance that he attempted to hold while taking a cautious step back for everyone Phobos took forward; without a word, he lunged forward and leaped into the air to try and gain the upper hand with a strike from above, only for the Varjoain to cast out the kusarigama's curved flaying hook and clattering chain and succeed in wrapping it tightly around Jeager's shoulders and chest, pinning his arms and the sharpened blades to the side as Phobos yanked the chain down and slammed him into the ground, knocking the wind out of him.

Jeager coughed and gasped for breath, watching as Phobos set a hoof down less than a few inches away from his face. "Go on, finish me. Kill me like the monster you are." he growled.

Phobos didn't answer right away and bent down to grab him by the front of his cloak and shirt with a single hand, easily hauling his entire frame off of the ground to bring him even to his face, lightly cocking his head as if regarding him with interest before he narrowed his eyes and pulled him closer so that he was but a breath away from the Varjoain's face. "I'm not going to kill you," Phobos hissed. "Rather, you are going to learn why you do not go around killing innocent people, be they monsters or not."

Jeager coughed. "As if-"

"SILENCE!" Phobos snarled, his eyes widening as they glowed a venomous green, forcing the Beast Hunter to stare right into them; no matter how hard he tried to look away, he found that he couldn't that he was absolutely helpless to gaze into the Varjoain's eyes and see the unspeakable.

He was back at his village, back at the place he had known all his life before it had all come crashing down on top of him like the fractured base of a towering structure to crush him and make him absolutely miserable. The air was thick with the choking smell of blood and decay, making it nearly impossible to breath as embers pelted against his pale skin from the blazing fires that consumed and engulfed the fallen and decimated houses and huts; the air was heavy with screams of villagers and the frightened howls of livestock mere moments before a thunderous roar would cut them off and end them with the sickening sound of wet flesh and crushing bone. Bodies of friends he had since childhood and neighbors that had known him far before then littered the ground, dead or dying as their blood stained the earth a dark crimson in color.

And then he appeared.

One moment he wasn't there and then the next the hulking monstrosity was before him, towering over him even when resting his full body weight on his massive and calloused knuckles and giving off an absolutely horrendous odor of festering flesh and rot. The shoulders utterly massive and broad, attaching two a pair of bulky arms that looked like they could split whole logs in half with a mere flex of the impressive muscles underneath and tear out whole trees with the powerful fingers tipped with claws that could have dug through bare rock. Antlers above a small set of horns thrust themselves almost painfully out of his skull with the rotting remains of once green ivy draped among them like the cobwebs that insisted upon taking residence up in an ancient attic and hooves bigger than Jeager's skull studded the powerful legs that could have launched the beast dozens of feet into the air. But it was those eyes above a cage of gnarled and disfigured teeth that made his breathing quicken and his pulse race, those eyes that him sweat uncontrollably, those same eyes that looked upon him with a cruel and sadistic intelligence that knew full well what it was doing was hurting him specifically, that made the emotionless and unwavering Beast hunter cower like a frightened child.

The horrific monstrosity leered sadistically at Jeager, his head brown eyes glowing through the haze of smoke and ash like a pair of headlights as he uncurled one of his knuckles to reveal the massive claws the adorned each finger and slam it down into the dust, knocking the assassin off of his feet with thunderous boom! accompanied by the sound of squishing flesh; Jeager gasped with fear, scooting back with shaking hands and feet when he caught sight of the corpse of his father underneath of the beast's claws, his mother's lifeless body lying under the creature's bulk with his younger brother and sister wrapped protectively in her arms. Their expressions were of one of pure agony, their mouths agape and eyes widened with horror, frozen forever in an eternal cacophony of screams while wondering why. Why had they deserved this? Why had they been taken? Why had their beloved son and brother not been there in time to save them?

"N-No . . . no! St-Stay back! Stay back!" Jeager yelled in a trembling voice. "G-Get away!"

The horrific monster merely growled, its cage of teeth twisting up into a cruel smile with a series of loud cracking sounds as it tore its claws out of the corpse of his father and stalked forward on its knuckles, blatantly ignoring the Beast Hunter's pleas.

"P-Please, go away! L-Leave me alone!" Jeager begged.

The monstrosity continued to ignore his beseeching and lumber towards him, his powerful shoulders slinking up and down with every movement as crimson stained saliva and drool dripped from his maw accompanied by a sinister growl.

"J-Just kill! Please, k-kill me!"Jeager pleaded, curling up into a tight ball and sobbing uncontrollably as he hugged his knees and buried his head into his chest.

Phobos watched with a somewhat awkward expression at the heaving, sobbing shell of a man on the ground at his hooves, a powerful and deadly hunter reduced to crying like a small child begging for some terrifying creature that went bump in the night go away; the Varjoain glanced away from Jeager and towards Cerise and Clawdeen as the former support Raven and Hunter with her shoulders and the later attempted to help Daring stand up without eliciting a horrifying crack from his back and pained scream from the prince.

Skurd coughed awkwardly. "Well . . . I think he's had enough, don't you?"

"Clearly." Phobos agreed as the Omnitrix timed out and returned Ben to the world in a flash of light while Skurd removed the Petrosapien armor that now adorned his host and returned it to the powerful device upon which he sat like a mighty throne. With that done, Ben proceeded to kneel down and cautiously poke Jeager in the arm, snapping his hand back when he lashed with his hand tightly grabbed Ben by the wrist.

"Y-You . . . ho . . . h-how did . . . is it-t over?" Jeager rasped with fear.

Ben nodded. "Yeah. It's over."

Jeager repeated the gesture with wide eyes and a blank stare, as if he were not entirely there with Ben at the moment despite his grip remaining firm on him; Clawdeen and Cerise bared their teeth and growled but held back after receiving a look from Ben. "H-How . . . why d-did . . . why did you show mercy . . .?" the Beast Hunter wanted to know. "A-After everything that I've done . . . injured your friends . . . harmed your loved ones . . . killed someone you held dear to you . . . w-why did you grant me mercy? I-I . . . I scarred you for life."

Ben sighed and shook his head. "See, that's the thing, Jeager," he said, curling his fingers around the Beast Hunter's wrist and carefully pulling him to his feet and holding him steady on his shaking legs. "The things of the past don't matter, not even the death of your family . . . what matters here, right now, in the present, is what you choose to be now."

Skurd hummed. "Surprisingly wise words."

"You could choose to continue on the path set out for you, the easy route that was opened up when your life was destroyed," Ben said, removing his hand from Jeager's grip to clap him on the shoulder. "Or you can choose to be something better . . . and less life threatening to those around you. Those feelings of fear and horror and sorrow you had? That's exactly how every monster feels when you cut down their friends, their family, their loved ones without being provoked for a good reason."

Jeager nodded, breathing heavily. "I . . . I never thought-"

"BEN!"

Ben immediately whipped his head around at the sound of his name to see Venus come running through the woods as fast as her legs and the snow would allow her, her breath quick and sharp with tears streaming down her face as she held something wrapped up in layers and layers of borrowed coats and scarves and blankets; the plant monster stumbled on a hidden log and nearly crashing to the ground with the object in hand before regaining her footing and running faster towards Ben until she skidded to a stop and dropped to her knees, breathing heavily and ignoring the chilled feeling against her bare skin with her jacket hampered on top of the pile.

"Venus, what is it?" Ben asked urgently.

The plant monster choked and sniffed, not answering at first as she began to undo the tangle of scarves and blankets and coats that were tightly interwoven with one another until the entire half of one end of the object was undone to expose Jane's pale face; the shape-shifter looked even worse for wear, even with the arrow now removed from her shoulder in what must have been a painful manner for both ghouls with her pale, lilac skin that was nearly a deathly shade of white and the way she gasped for every single trembling breath with a shaking hand. Her whole body trembled violently as if she were eternally locked in a chilled state despite being cocooned in warmth and her eyes were half closed and rolled into the back of her head as she fought over every single last breath through her inflamed throat. "Sh-She's dying," Venus croaked. "I-I don't know how much time she has left!" she sobbed.

Ben immediately knelt down and placed a hand to Jane's forehead, hissing with worry when it was ice cold to his touch and just as freezing as the surrounding snow and frost; he checked her pulse and realized with a sickening apprehension that her heartbeat was getting deathly slow to the point where he could barely make it out. It was normal for Ben to shed tears or cry even during the worst of times, usually being the unmovable object that everyone could rely on to comfort them, but even he felt his eyes moisten and his face start to streak with salty tears.

"Venus . . . I think-"

"Don't!" Venus shouted in anger stricken tears. "Don't say it!"

"Venus . . ."

The plant monster sniffed and covered her eyes with her hands. "I know, Ben, I know! B-But I c-can't lose her . . . I d-don't want to lose her!" she sobbed, throwing herself on top of Jane to hug her tightly and try to share her body warmth with her in a fruitless attempt to save her beloved ghoulfriend. Ben sighed and grabbed Venus by the shoulders, pulling her off of Jane to stare hard at her with moist eyes on both parties, a mournful atmosphere forming over the whole group.

"Venus . . . let her go . . ." Ben sighed wearily.

"N-No! Never!" Venus cried, retching Ben's hands off of her before she turned to the Omnitrix strapped to her wrist. "I-I I know! I-I'll turn into Electra! I c-can save her! I can save her!" she cried hysterically as she beat a fist against the device upon her wrist in a panic stricken manner. Ben sighed and was about to tell Venus that it wasn't going to do any good, that Jane was too far gone to be saved no matter how he desperately wanted to, when he felt a cautious tap upon his shoulder and turned around to just in time to hear two words.

"I'm sorry . . ." Jeager's voice whispered in his ear.

The Beast Hunter was nowhere to be seen, his various weapons lying discarded and forgotten in the snow for the elements to handle and take care of; in the spot where he had been standing before Venus' arrival, in the shallow pit his body had created upon reliving his living torment, was a small vial of some kind of green liquid with a cork in the top and a strip of tape with the word "Antidote" scrawled across in black marker.

Without wasting any time, Ben grabbed the vial in hand and uncorked the top, slipping his free hand under Jane's head to prop her up as her lips lolled apart to try and suck in desperately needed air; Venus watched with a worried expression, turning and covering her eyes in preparation for the worse even though she dared to peek through her fingers while Ben tipped the edge of the vial to Jane's lips and pour the entire contents into her mouth, rubbing her throat to get her to swallow and lay her back down into a restful position, hoping that everything would be alright.

"Is that stuff going to work?" Venus wonderedafter a few silent minutes in a more pleading manner.

Ben hesitated. "I . . . I don't know," he said as he turned over the vial and found a small, compacted list of ingredients. "It's made up of mandrake root, salamander blood, lionfish spines, ground unicorn horn, and wolfsbane if that helps . . ." he read off; a sudden gasp of breath caught their attentions and they looked down to see Jane breathing steadily once more, her breaths long and ragged but far more relaxed and at ease than the struggle to breath than beforehand; the jungle ghoul's pale, lavender skin was starting to darken and regain its color once more, her violent shakes and trembling reduced to the slight twitching of her fingers.

"It worked . . ." Venus croaked hoarsely with a relieved smile upon her lips as she took hold of Jane's and gave it a strong squeeze before hugging her tightly; Ben didn't hesitate to wrap his arms around the both of them, finally able to relax knowing that what pieces of his family he had left were still whole and with him still. He could only hope that it would stay that way.


Cupid sighed happily as she snuggled in deeper to the warm, wool blanket that she had wrapped around herself while resting on a couch in front of the fireplace in the student lounge that the school offered to those that were in the higher of their classes compared to their peers; the lounge was open to all during the holidays, but for now it was surprisingly empty save for her and Dexter.

The young deity couldn't have been happier.

"H-hey, uh, Cupid?" Dexter asked.

"Mmmmh?" Cupid mumbled sleepily, getting herself nice and cozy inside of the blanket while using the prince's arm as a pillow to support her head.

"Um . . . er, you're k-kind of on my arm?"

Cupid mentally smiled, knowing that when her crush spoke in that tone of voice he was speaking with the red blush to his handsome face that drove her absolutely wild; her wings shifted slightly to press against her back in an attempt to keep them from making Dexter uncomfortable. "Is that a problem?" she asked without opening her eyes.

"Kinda."

"Why's that?" Cupid asked without moving.

"Because Apple needs to ask you something. At least, I think it's Apple?" Dexter sounded confused. "Is it my imagination or did she go goth?"

Cupid's eyes snapped open and she looked up to see Apple standing over the pair with an apologetic look upon her face, though this wasn't even close to what caught her attention; she wore an outfit mostly composed of a black dress with a dark, purple stripe down the middle that attached to a black, silk skirt that left little the imagination if one were to look long enough at her lavender leggings and sharp, black heels. A black leather jacket with spiked shoulders pads wrapped around her and finger-less gloves of the same color adorned her hands and fingers; a fair amount of black eye shadow made her soft, blue eyes now sharp and piercing with a faint scar that now ran vertically over her left eye, giving her a frightening look if the clanking, chain belt around her waist and spiked fog collar around her neck weren't anything to go by.

"Apple?" Cupid starred; Dexter found that he couldn't take his eyes off of the Daughter of Snow White, though whether it was out of fear or admiration he did not know.

"Cupid," Apple nodded, her crimson lips now twisting in a harsh frown as she narrowed her eyes. "I need your help?"

The Daughter of Eros raised an eyebrow. "Doing what, getting out of that ridiculous outfit of yours?"

Apple narrowed her eyes and placed her hands on her hips, bending over and glaring angrily at Cupid. "Now." she demanded; Cupid shared a quick look with Dexter and reluctantly slipped out from under the blanket and away from her crush, following Apple a short distance away.

"How'd I do?" Apple asked once she was fairly certain that Dexter was out of earshot.

Cupid cocked her brow in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

Apple sighed and rolled her eyes. "I'm working on my evil!"

Cupid pinched brow. "And can I ask why?" she asked in an exasperated tone.

Apple deflated slightly, holding her hands together and biting her lip nervously and sighing heavily all at once, as if it were a sensitive subject to talk about. "I . . . I lost Ben," she admitted weakly. "I got kicked out of the harem and . . . I'm trying to redeem myself. I thought Ben's ghouls would appreciate something more . . . sinister? Dark? She tried out some words.

"Dare I ask how?" Cupid sighed wearily.

"It's a long story," the princess offered sheepishly before getting back to the point. "Either way, I need some advice; what's the best place for a date?"

Cupid blinked for a second and looked at Apple with a look that was wondering if she was actually being serious or not. "Are you joking?" she raised an eyebrow, immediately withdrawing the question when she caught sight of the look upon her face; the young goddess gave a reluctant sigh and put her hands on the princess' shoulders to look her square in the eye. "Apple, think about what you're doing here for a second and try to imagine what Ben and his ghouls might be going through right now: I'm not sure if you know this or not, but Jane was shot with an arrow and it's set everyone on edge; I swear, I've never seen Ben so mad than when he was yelling at us to get inside and running off to go pound someone into the ground. The ghouls are no doubt upset, too . . . maybe you could give them peace right now instead of making their lives like a horror movie with constantly giving them surprises and jump scares?"

Apple immediately brightened up. "A horror movie! That's it!" she snapped her fingers before making her way towards the door. "Thanks for the help, Cupid!"

"Wait! No! That's not what I-" Cupid attempted to say before giving up when she realized that Apple was out of range; with a sigh, she turned back towards the couch to work on charming Dexter a little more and making a mental note to give Ben a phone call to try and give him some prior warning to whatever scatterbrained idea was buzzing around inside of Apple's head like an irritated wasp.

Apple hurriedly ran down the hall, her mind racing at a hundred miles an hour as she made notes of numerous plans and preparations she needed to make if her plot was to succeed; she was busy thinking things over, she hardly even noticed Headmaster Grimm as he hobbled down the hallway on a crutch to keep his weight off of his twisted ankle.

"Ms. White? Ms. White!" Grimm tried to catch Apple's attention and inquire why she was wearing such clothes in spite of her lineage and destiny, but the princess didn't even seem to register he was there as she hurried down the hallway with her Mirrorphone in hand to make some necessary calls and texts. With a sigh, he continued his routine walk upon healer's orders to keep his leg, no matter how twisted or broken it was, well fit and active as much as possible, which left him with a fair amount of time to think about things; his encounter and consequential battle with Krampus the previous evening had opened up some long forgotten memories he had mentally locked away behind closed doors and admit things that he would have scolded himself for prior. For instance, as much as he hated to admit it, Ben's appearance was beginning to become more useful than a handicap and he had to come to terms with himself that if it hadn't been for the wielder of the Omnitrix and his slimy sidekick, he would be currently sitting inside of the twisted demon's lantern and put through unspeakable horrors for all of eternity.

But that wasn't what was bothering him at the moment. Rather it was something the gelatinous mound of goo, Skurd, if he remembered correctly, had said during those harrowing moments between Krampus and the timely arrival of Nicholas North Pole, something the Slimebiote had merely mumbled as a last and final word before they met their end.

"And I thought we would perish during that time we helped create the universe."

Those words tumbled and tossed and turned around inside of his head while Grimm hobbled down the hallway, trying to figure out what those words meant; he had his suspicions, many of them really, about what the meaning of those casually said words, but he knew better than to jump to conclusions. Not only would it most likely anger quite a few powerful people but it would most likely make a complete fool out of himself, more so than when he had attempted to peg Ben as an incubus for the several weeks he had been attending his school.

If he could only figure out how the Slimebiote's words and his suspicions about Ben connected . . .

A puff of ash-colored smoke suddenly exploded in front of him as he covered his face with his arm to try and hold back a rasping cough that resounded through the hall as the arid smoke burned his lungs and stung his eyes; as the smoke began to clear, a figure began to appear, taking on the form of something vaguely human-like, with a head and arms in the appropriate places, but the where the legs should have been was instead a ghostly, wispy tail that trailed all the way down to the floor with the rest of the figure floating several feet off of the ground. It was clearly feminine and possessed pale, pink skin, bright blue hair pulled back into a segmented ponytail with a magenta streak, pointed ears, and stormy gray eyes that of a brewing thunderstorm/ She wore somewhat skimpy attire compared to what the majority of the headmaster's female students were allowed to wear, the outfit consisting of a blue and pink top that showed off her midriff and cupped her breasts quite nicely, showing off a dark pink, scorpion tattoo, and a pink sash around her waist that seemed to taper into a pair of black pants; strapped around her wrist was a familiar blue and pink watch-like device.

"You haven't seen Apple, have you?" Whisp asked the stunned headmaster before snapping her fingers and summoning a tape measure into her hands. "About this tall, blonde hair, skin white as snow, and a knack for getting herself into all kinds of mischief?" the genie listed off while she pulled the measuring tape out to a certain length.

"I . . . y-you . . . how . . .?" Headmaster Grimm stammered, pointing with a shaking hand behind him in the direction Apple had walked down.

Whisp smiled. "Thanks, pops!" she waved good-bye as she flew off over Grimm's head and in the direction he had been pointing with a dropped jaw before pausing and turning around. "Close your mouth, pops. You'll catch flies." she smirked with her hands folded over her cleavage before a long, elastic tongue suddenly lashed out from her lips and snapped up a nearby, buzzing fly right out of the air before snaking back in and disappearing with a loud and satisfying smack! With that, Whisp snapped her fingers again and vanished in a puff of blackened smoke, leaving the stunned headmaster alone in the hallway.

"She . . . I-I . . . how did . . ." Headmaster Grimm stuttered, absolutely baffled before he sucked in a deep breath to calm himself down before smacking his face out of exasperation. "Just walk away, Milton, just walk away and relax before you worry yourself bald over the mistakes you've made." he mumbled to himself as he turned around and hobbled down the hall to continue his walk and try to put off worrying for the moment.


Jane felt absolutely horrible. Everything from her little toes and delicate fingers to head and face felt like it had been jammed inside of a hot furnace for hours on end and suddenly thrust into a bucket of the coldest ice available, creating a painful stinging sensation that made her want to cut her digits off just to end the numbing agony; unable to keep her eyes closed any longer, she stirred and slowly blinked blearily, trying to take in her surroundings and understand where she was. Despite the aching feeling that came her everything, she was also aware that was warm and comfortably so as well.

"She's awake!" a familiar voice cried.

The jungle ghoul grunted as something crashed into her and hugged her tightly, as if it were unaware of her current condition as soft and eerily calming hands caressed her cheek and slithered themselves all over her aching body to massage just about everything that hurt and eased the pain significantly. With a moan she opened her eyes fully and gazed upon Venus' shining face once more, a sleepy smile crossing the shape-shifter's face when Ben came into View beside her with a relieved look. "What happened? Did I go anywhere?" she yawned while she rubbed her eyes sleepily.

"You could say that," Ben chuckled. "But we're glad you're back."

"Don't ever get shot again!" Venus cried, hugging Jane tightly to the point where she was having trouble breathing again; Ben thankfully managed to pry the affectionate plant monster's firm grip off of the jungle ghoul before any permanent damage could be done.

"Easy, Venus. She's still fragile." he half-joked.

Jane yawned a second time. "And sleepy." she added.

Ben nodded. "Then in that case, you better get some more rest. You're gonna need it."

Jane mumbled something incoherently under her breath and lay back down on the soft, comfy head, nestling her head deep into the pillow provided as Ben pulled the covers back up nice and tight over her, kissing her sweet dreams on the forehead as Venus followed up with a quick peck to the cheek. The two of them then stood there with Ben's arm around Venus' shoulders as she leaned into his chest watching their beloved ghoulfriend sleep peacefully once more, sheltered and protected from the dangers of the world again.

Contrary to popular belief, the beds that Ever After High's infirmary provided were quite comfortable with heavy, warm blankets provided in the cold winter and lighter sheets for the warmer months of the year with pillows available whenever needed among the myriad of hospital equipment, such as the IV jammed into Jane's arm, cluttered about the place. Lying on several other beds and either nursing various injuries and wounds or sleeping them off were Daring and Hunter, with the former suffering from a mangled back that would require the best ogre masseuses Ever After had to offer in order to fix and the later suffering no worse than a dislocated shoulder and arm that would leave him unable to shoot the bulls-eyes he was renown for.

A door at the back of the small clinic the school provided opened up and Raven came walking out hanging onto the gnarled, old hand of kindly old crone with hair as gray and white as the fur of an ancient vole and eyes small beady that were enlarged to the point where she looked like an owl thanks to the set of spectacles upon her pointed nose that bared odd resemblance to a bird's beak; a name tag clipped to the left breast of her lab coat read "Healer Sternum" in a fancy, cursive writing.

"She'll be fine," the old witch informed Ben as Raven carefully reached out for his hand and curled her fingers around his. "Ms. Queen here will be out of it for the next couple of hours, stumbling about with limited vision and senses, but she'll be fine by then. If it gets any worse however, catch the first dragonfly you find and report back to me; and try not to get burnt." she added as a side note before disappearing back into her office.

Venus watched the old crone go. "She seems nice." she remarked.

"Baring the things that she said when we came walking in," Ben rolled his eyes. "I don't even now half of what those words even meant but I'm pretty sure I shouldn't repeat them in public."

"Especially the last one." Venus nodded before turning her attention to Raven and snapping her fingers in front of the witchling's face. "Rae, can you here or see me?" she asked.

It took a delay of several seconds for her to respond. "I-I think so . . . yeah, I can hear you." she concluded as she reached with a hand to massage her scalp. "Ugh. What in the kingdom hit me?"

"Magic bomb if I remember correctly." Ben hummed as he helped Raven walk over to one of the available chairs in the room and sit her down; Clawdeen and Cerise each occupied separate chairs the clinic provided, the former somewhat drumming her fingers impatiently on her arm while the later cast worried glances between Raven and Jane. "You sure you'll be alright?"

Raven waved him off. "I'm fine, Ben. As long as I have someone to help me around for a few more hours, I should be okay. At least I'm able to move." she added with a humorous smirk.

"I may be unable to move much at the moment, Raven, but I can still hear you loud and clear!" Daring called out from his bed. "Oh, I hope this gets fixed soon. I have an itch I need to scratch that I can't reach!"

Ben smirked before sucking in a calming, deep breath and running his fingers through his dark, brown hair out of habit. "Well, I can't believe I'm saying this, but it's nice to finally be able to sit back and relax for once." he sighed happily.

"Agreed." Clawdeen remarked as she sat back in her seat with her arms rested behind her head in a relaxed position. "Things couldn't be better."

Skurd promptly slapped his face out of exasperation. "You nitwits! You've doomed us all!" he exclaimed. "For all we know, trouble could some walking right in through that very door!" he pointed dramatically towards the exit out into the hallway from the healer's office.

Raven scoffed. "Oh, come on. I think you're over exaggerating."

As if right on cue, the door banged open and Apple White came marching in with a spring in her step and an exaggerated swag in her hips that showed off her curves and the twisted frown upon her lips, a hand on her hip as she came to a stop and paused to chew a wad of bubblegum loudly before blowing a bubble and letting it pop only to repeat the process again.

"Well you were right about the trouble bit." Clawdeen growled and bared her teeth, making a move to quite literally throw the princess out of the room if need be until Ben stopped her with a motion of his hand; at least, for the time being.

"Apple . . . before I even ask why you're here, can you please tell me why you're dressed like that?" Ben sighed wearily, wondering why the universe always seemed to enjoy screwing him over.

The Daughter of Snow White smiled innocently. "I-I thought you and your ghouls would like it if I tried out a d-different wardrobe . . ."

"It's an improvement, I'll admit." Clawdeen frowned with impatience, drumming her fingers against her arm as she glowered at the princess.

"It would be even better if you stopped borrowing my clothes." Raven sighed.

"You were gone! I couldn't wait!" Apple protested before sucking in a deep breath to calm herself and get to the point. "But that doesn't matter right now."

Clawdeen glared. "Yeah, what matters is you leaving. Now."

Apple frowned and whimpered slightly. "Please, just listen to me for a minute?"

Ben rolled his eyes; he had been hoping to teach Apple a lesson temporarily kicking her out of the harem, both for her safety and a necessity to drive her point through her thick skull. "One minute. That's it."

The princess nodded and began to speak. "I know I messed up and a mistake . . . several even, probably . . . and I know that I probably don't deserve to be forgiven for those mistakes by any one of you, not now and probably not ever." she sighed sorrowfully. "But . . . I want to make up for those mistakes as best as I can, through anyway possible. If I have to spend the rest of my school years doing it, I want to try and make it all up to you as best as possible."

Cerise and sighed and lay back in her seat. "I suppose that's a start . . ."

Apple gave a small smile. "Which is why I've arranged for you all to attend the opening of the latest, kingdombuster movie tonight."

"I withdraw the statement." Cerise frowned bitterly, unpleasant memories coming back to her from the last time she had set foot into a movie theater.

"Please?" Apple begged. "I didn't know what else to do."

Ben raised an eyebrow and regarded each of his girls and ghouls, the final decision coming down to him as Alpha; he admitted that this was probably the best Apple was going to be able to do without going completely overboard and doing something drastic, such as paying off Sparrow to follow them all wherever they want to serenade them with horribly off-key songs that would no doubt be absolute murder on Cerise and Clawdeen's sensitive ears. The only issue however was that at least three of his ghouls would not be able to attend even if they wanted to, with Jane being far too tired to do little else than sleep, Venus too worried to leave her fragile ghoulfriend behind for more than a minute, and Raven needing constant supervision for at least the next couple of hours until she fully regained her senses.

"Depends," Ben began. "How many tickets did you get?"

Apple smiled sheepishly. "Well . . . Blondie just made a newscast about what happened at the skating ponds and . . . I figured at least two of your ghouls would be unable to attend given how worried you looked," she nodded towards Venus. "Skelita said that she was spending the evening in the kitchen with Ginger and Maddie baking and making treats for the upcoming bake sale and I haven't been able to find Whisp anywhere, so I only bought five . . ."

Ben rubbed his chin. "That's one for me, Clawdeen, Cerise, and Kitty, I assume. So who does that leave with the fifth one?"

Apple rubbed her arm uncomfortably. "It was originally meant for Raven, but . . ." she gestured lamely to the witch. "I . . . t-took the liberty of . . . finding a replacement?" she winced, clenching her eyes shut in preparation for Clawdeen to tackle her to the floor and begin tearing her limb from limb or for Cerise to start throttling her with her surprising strength and speed; when nothing came, she relaxed and recomposed herself.

"Who?" Ben asked.


Cedar Wood zipped up her deep purple jacket with a fuzzy, magenta inside and tugged mittens of the same color a little tighter of her wooden hands as she strode down the main street of Book End; despite being made of wood and feeling very little of the biting cold that forced the majority of everyone else to bundle up or retreat inside thanks to that habit, her pulse (she doubted she had one though) was racing and she felt unbearably hot as she walked down the street less than foot away from Ben by her side. On her left was Cerise and Clawdeen with Kitty on Ben's right side and wearing her ever present, cheeky smile that usually spelled mischief and doom for the victims of her pranks.

The Daughter of Pinocchio was thanking her lucky stars and the ancestors above that she had been fortunate to be in Apple's way as the princess proceeded to insult her and call her several nasty names that would have hurt her feelings had they not been poorly chosen before offering her a ticket to a movie . . . with Ben. Granted, it also involved several of his ghoulfriends as well, but this mattered very little Cedar as she gazed up at Ben and turned a bright red when he smiled back at her.

Though, there was one thing that was bothering her. "Um, can I ask you something?" she wondered.

"What?" Ben asked.

"Why did you tell Apple all those things back there?" Cedar inquired.

"Apple volunteered to look after Jane while we were out." Clawdeen replied.

"And did she really need to know all that stuff?"

"Yes." Ben nodded. "Orangutans are strong as five men, elephants have over one-hundred thousand muscle clusters in their trunk, Humboldt squids are cannibals, crocodiles have the strongest bite force of any animal, the whale shark is the largest fish on the planet, a Komodo dragon's jaws are lined with over fifty types of bacteria, honey badgers are immune to black mamba venom, a Tyrannosaurus Rex can swallow a man whole, and the fact that asking a parrot to stop copying you only makes the situation worse are all things she needs to know if she even wants to stand a chance against Jane. She's rather . . . jumpy."

Cerise raised an eyebrow. "Was it really necessary to give her the cattle prod?"

"That was Kitty's doing."

The Daughter of the Cheshire Cat grinned broadly and linked her arm through Ben's elbow, nuzzling her head against his shoulder as the group approached the Multi-Hex. "I just love a little bit of chaos." she purred.

"Not too much chaos. Be on your best behavior." Ben scolded her playing, earning a small lick from Kitty's tongue upside his cheek, bringing a red blush to the two of them. Cedar felt a pane of jealous overcome her upon seeing that and absentmindedly glanced at her mittens, knowing full well that a pair of wooden hands would greet her instead of soft skin and sensitive fingers to touch and caress and feel with. It made her ponder how Ben could ever love someone like her, someone that wasn't real, someone that paled in comparison to the real thing, something that was a fake.

Her thoughts were shaken from her as they entered the Multi-Hex and were immediately swamped with the relieving warmth and heat that the theater provided to entice customers and movie goers alike inside and out of the bitter cold and snow; immediately the smell of fresh dragoncorn provided and popped by little flocks of microdragons and sweet soda flavors caught her attention and she felt her stomach rumble slightly, blushing furiously when Ben raised a playful eyebrow at her.

"Hungry?" he guessed.

"N-N . . . er, uh . . . um . . . yes?" she gulped, mentally cursing herself.

Ben smiled. "Buy whatever you like. It's on Apple after all."

Upon hearing that, Clawdeen and Cerise were all too eager to indulge in gorging themselves on whatever snacks and treats the concession stand had to offer, ordering two large buckets of dragoncorn, a pair of sodas, and an assortment of candies and gummies that they would no doubt be snacking on for weeks afterwards; to avoid putting a massive dent in Apple's family wealth, Ben simply ordered a small soda for himself and Cedar along with a bag of popcorn for each, with Kitty ending the long order with a Fairy Berry smoothy sprinkled with catnip.

Kitty shrugged off her periwinkle and black paw-print decorated coat and pulled off her finger-less gloves as well. "What movie are we seeing anyway? Ooh, I hope it's something really gory!"

"I think it's called Rose Red's Revenge?" Ben tried to remember what Apple had told them when she had volunteered to look after Jane while they went out and enjoyed themselves. "I think it's about some long lost White relative going insane from being forgotten that foes about killing everyone . . . which is really weird considering Apple of all people suggested it . . ."

"Works for me!" Clawdeen grinned cheerfully as she shifted her great assortment of unhealthy treats around in her arms. "Time to watch some princesses get slashed!"

"She seems too enthusiastic about this for some reason . . ." Skurd mumbled suspiciously; nobody seemed to notice how Cedar swallowed nervously and tried to fight back the way she was trembling and shaking at the thought of getting into a dark theater to watch a horror movie filled to the brim with violence and blood and gore. Ever since was a young puppet (at least, young in mind), she had only been allowed to watch movies that her grandfather Gepetto could watch without getting a heart attack from, which often meant anything that was rated over her current age would be instantly ruled out. In short, this would be her first time seeing a movie specifically directed at fairy tales her age and a horro movie no less.

With this in mind, she tried keep a level head and her mouth shut as she followed Ben and the others through the swinging theater doors and into a large clearing at the center of a band of trees that formed a thick canopy overhead that kept any and all heat from escaping and keeping the place nice and toasty despite the fact that normal trees would have shed their leaves long ago; Ben quickly shrugged this off as some of the magic that was prominent in Ever After and found a row of seats front and center that would give them a good view of the movie.

"H-Hey, Ben? C-Can I ask you something?" Cedar gulped nervously, taking a quick sip of her soda to calm herself.

Ben popped a kernel of dragoncorn into his mouth just as the first trailer started to come to an end. "Sure. What?"

"W-Well . . ." Cedar started to say before she was suddenly cut off by a pair of unfortunate;y familiar voices.

"All good things must come to an end."

"What's that got to do with this movie?" a second voice asked before the two of them burst into laughter; several groans and moans and curses came from the audience as a pair of puppets, one of them being a squat, elderly marionette with rusted, red wood, a pair of trousers, white stockings, and a black bowler and the other a taller, thinner figure with a short mustache, deep brown wood, a pair of lederhosen, and a jacket, guffawed and hooted with glee in the balcony seats overhead.

"Oh, no. Not these guys again." Kitty sighed with exasperation.

Clawdeen raised an eyebrow as she chewed a gummy fairy in her mouth. "Who are they?"

"My uncles." Cedar squeaked with embarrassment. "They come here every day to heckle and make fun of the movies and generally make watching them annoying. They even came to our school once and heckled us during the talent show! Poor Hunter's still in therapy . . ."

"Say, isn't that our niece down there?" Birchman peered over the railing of the balcony seats.

"It must be. She's a chip off the old wood block for comin' here!" Oakler cracked with laughter, oblivious to how a majority of the crowd and audience turned to glare in Cedar's direction with loathing and annoyance that made the Daughter of Pinocchio just want to curl up and hide in the smallest place possible away from all those prying eyes that seemed to stare straight into her soul.

Things only worsened when the second trailer came to an end. "Lets put this show out of its misery!" Birchman declared moments before two arrows came whistling through the air and landed just short of the silver screen, earning more laughter from the two elderly puppets as the third trailer rolled around.

"Moooooooo!"

Clawdeen did a double take. "Is that . . ?"

"Yep." Ben confirmed.

"No, no! Boooooooo!" Oakler corrected the cow that had somehow managed to get into the balcony seats while simultaneously chewing a wad of cud in its fat lips.

"Boooooooo!" the bovine bellowed in response.

Birchman chuckled. "Hooray!"

"Hooray!" the cow repeated, much to Birchman and Oakler's shock; Ben didn't even question how that was possible and proceeded to simply eat another handful of popcorn as the fourth and final trailer rolled around. Cedar remained mostly silent as she tried to look invisible and avoid the stares everyone was shooting her as her uncles continued to relentlessly heckle and poke fun at the movie and trailers that rolled across the screen.

"How rude! Can you imagine someone like that constantly insulting you on a daily basis and ignoring any attempts to get them to go away!?" Skurd exclaimed as he yanked on his antennae.

"Yes." Ben, Clawdeen, Cerise, and Kitty all replied at once.

Oakler shivered uncomfortably in his seat, creating a hollow knocking on wood sound the reverberated through the theater. "That trailer scared the pants off me!"

"You sure you didn't just forget to put them on again?" Birchman commented, earning a much appreciated resounding round of laughter from the audience at Oakler's expense as he fell silent and stewed.

"By the way, I thought your wife was coming tonight?" he commented.

Birchman shrugged, scratching the cow they now shared the balcony with behind the ears. "Eh, the old bat couldn't make it." he waved it off before the distinct flapping and fluttering of leathery wings drew their attentions and they looked up to see a small cloud of bats come darting weaving in through the intricately woven branches to then swarm around their seats and heads with relentless squeaking and chattering.

"Looks like the rest of them did." Oakler shook his head in amazement.

With that being said and done, the lights began to dim and the theater's resident fireflies buzzed and swarmed across the screen to light up and begin rolling the movie; thankfully, with the combination of the recent addition of the flock of bats, a cow that was starting to nibble and chew on Oakler's jacket, and many threatening glares and gestures thrown their way, the two puppets decided to hold off on their hijinks and shenanigans.

Immediately Cedar was having second thoughts of attending as a teenager with long, bushy, crimson pulled back into a tight ponytail, a black shirt with a bright, red rose formed around her left breast and over her heart, a short skirt of the same color, knee high boots lined with white laces and red leggings, and two leather straps over her chest that was decorated with various bottles and vials filled with strange and volatile liquids amongst several knives and daggers that stained various colors, came racing across the screen with a twisted and insane look in her eye; with out a word she yanked a pair of daggers from her belt and threw one at an unsuspecting prince and slashed his throat with the second.

"W-Why is she doing-" she was about to ask when the teenager pulled a vial of strange chemicals and loomed over a trembling, cowering princess that she had cornered on the floor of the room; without hesitation she smashed the bottle against the princess' face, slashing and cutting deep into her pale, flawless skin as a loud hissing sound filled the air among the agonizing screams of pain that follow from the unsuspecting victim while she held her melting face.

"That?" Ben guessed as Cedar covered her mouth and squeezed her eyes shut, rocking back and forth in her seat as she fought back the bout of bile and vomit in the back of her throat; the puppet nodded and trembled violently in her seat as Clawdeen and Kitty eagerly cheered the insane redhead on with gusto. All Cedar wanted to do was run away right now and hide under her bed and not come out until she was sure that the sun was at its highest point to ensure that nothing could hide or slink about in the darkness of the shadows, such as blade wielding maniacs hellbent on eradicating an entire royal family line.

"Oh, my. You humans truly are barbaric." Skurd remarked. "And yet, I can't find myself to look away . . ." he mumbled as he stole another kernel of Ben's popcorn; the Slimebiote's commentary was not helping Cedar's mood in the slightest.

It wasn't until Ben slipped an arm around her slim, wooden shoulders and hug her close to him, rubbing his strong, firm fingers against her tense back and shoulders to ease her into peace did she finally, truly relax; she found that the images on screen were less horrifying than before, even when the insane redhead stabbed the king in nine different places and the queen in three times as many, staining her fingers a bright crimson in color as she smeared the blood of her victims over her face and arms in intricate tattoos and patterns, they were less terrifying. Cedar was still frightened of certain parts naturally and instinctively buried her head into Ben's chest every time something of the likes happened, but this didn't seem to bother the wielder of the Omnitrix in the slightest as he kept his focus half on the movie and half on comforting Cedar while remaining completely ignorant of how Skurd was sneaking bits and pieces of his precious dragoncorn away while sipping away at his soda.

After a while, the Daughter of Pinocchio became aware of a dull, thumping noise that pounded its way through her head like a hollow drum and filled her ears with nothing else but the sound save for the occasional scream of agony that came from the movie screen some distance away; at first, Cedar was confused as to what it was before she realized quite suddenly that it was none other than Ben's heart beating strong and soundly in his chest just beneath the skin and her ears; her eyes widened for a split second before they began to slowly drift close to the steady rhythm of Ben's beating heart, her hand unconsciously drifting to her left breast over the area where her own heart would have been had she had one of her own. She longed for a heart, to feel blood rushing through her veins and to feel muscles and tissue stretch and contract over her bones as she ran and skipped and jumped for joy with the wind in her hair and actually being able to feel it and enjoy it for the first time.

And she wondered what it would be like for Ben to be there with her.

"You gonna be okay?" Ben whispered in her ear.

Cedar nodded. "Mmmh. Y-You . . . don't mind?"

"Mind what?" Ben asked.

Cedar gestured to herself hugging Ben tightly before squeezing her eyes shut at the last second just as the redhead maniac on screen cackled darkly while she repeatedly stabbed an unsuspecting princess in places the Daughter of Pinocchio was glad her tough, wooden exterior would have been protected against; at least, until someone got an ax or a hacksaw. "M-M-Me . . ." she whimpered into his chest.

Ben raised an eyebrow and casually glanced over to Clawdeen and Cerise, the former with a mouthful of dragoncorn as she paused and saw Cedar trembling in her seat, hanging onto Ben for comfort, her eyes flickering back and forth between the scene and the movie on screen just another victim met a gory and gruesome fate by way of an ax; the werewolf then shrugged and nodded before returning to enjoy the movie as Cerise kindly patted her shoulder before resuming cheering on the insane psychopath.

Kitty seemed completely oblivious as she slurped her smoothy as Ben ran his fingers through Cedar's chocolate, brown hair, smiling kindly as the frightened puppet began to relax at his touch and hugged him warmly, even when the wicked redhead on screen carelessly tossed a mysterious vial into a locked room full of cowering royals and locked the door from the outside, walking away in a teasing manner as a loud explosion came from the other side followed by dozens of pained screams.

"That's exactly how terrible this movie is!" Birchman commented.

Oakler laughed heartily. "I know, right? It makes me want to scream, too!"

The two puppets were met with a series of irritated shushing that Ben and Cedar simply ignored for the most part, the former only pausing to hurl what was left of his popcorn up at the two puppets among a rain of other discarded theater treats that the cow in the balcony was all too eager to eat up; Cedar care much about that anymore, ignoring the irritated glares sent her way. She was just finally happy to be able to spend some quality time with Ben without any interruptions taking him away from her before she could gather up the courage to tell him how she felt, before her curse forced her to say before she was ready.

But he couldn't love her, could he? It was always like that with her, with an ever present nagging voice in the back of her head that expressed her worries and assumptions and fears to her just whenever she seemed to be having a good time; it would always come out, poisoning her mind with such worried thoughts. Could Ben ever love someone like her, someone that had wood instead of skin, someone that couldn't feel the world like he and the rest of his ghouls could, someone that could get a splinter just by touching her or holding her hand? Would we ever want to kiss her, knowing it would be the equivalent of kissing a desk or knowing that her eyes would always blink with an audible click or that she had a fear of woodpeckers?

"Cedar? The movie's over." she heard Ben's voice shake her out of her worries and thoughts.

She cracked one eye open and sighed with relief that the movie was indeed over and that the crowds were starting to leave in the time she had spent wrestling her insecurities in her head, among other things; during that seemingly short time that was actually a really long time for those that had their eyes open, she had scooted herself so far into Ben that she had eventually ended up on his lap in the midst of things, a truly embarrassing move on her part that made her face flare up into an intense blush as she all but threw herself off of Ben and to the sticky, dragoncorn and soda laden floor of the theater, trying hard to not look back at him as he knelt down to try and help her to her feet.

"S-Sorry . . ." she stammered.

Ben took her hand and carefully helped her to her feet as Kitty tried to hold back the broader grin than what was usually plastered to her face whenever she was in one of her moods; before Ben could do anything else, the Cheshire had snuck behind him and slithered her lithe arms around his and shoulder, nuzzling her head affectionately against his. "Great movie, Ben," she purred, scratching Ben under the chin with a finger and n ever present grin upon her lips. "I assume our little guest didn't ruin the experience?"

Cedar felt herself turn a bright scarlet as Ben raised an eyebrow at Kitty's behavior with his fingers still intertwined with hers in a firm, comforting grip; the Daughter of Pinocchio was deeply enthralled by the gesture yet at the same time was wondering what was taking him so long to let go of her. Her insides churned uncomfortably as she tried to mentally debate whether she wanted this feeling to continue going on or whether she wanted it to end to save herself from even more embarrassment.

Of course, just like her crush, the universe seemed to just love to screw her over.

She felt her lips tremble and quiver against her own will, her tongue twitching every now and again as she tried to fight back the urge to speak, but naturally the curse placed upon Cedar worked against her. "I-I . . . er, uh . . . I . . . I-I-I . . . um . . . I, er . . . I-I . . ." she stammered, her eye twitching uncomfortably.

Clawdeen raised an eyebrow. "Is she alright?"

Cerise shrugged. "Maybe? She kinda has this truth curse placed on her . . . and it kinda comes out at the worst of times."

"Like now?" Clawdeen guessed.

"Probably."

Ben shook his arm free of Kitty and grabbed Cedar by the shoulders, shaking her slightly to try and get to focus. "Cedar, c'mon, what are you trying to say?" he asked with concern.

Cedar trembled. "I, er . . . I-I . . ." she stammered before she suddenly and inexplicably broke down and fell to the floor on her knees, sobbing uncontrollably in a sudden emotional outburst that startled Ben greatly. "I'm so, so, so, so, so, so sorry, Ben, but I've had a crush on you for the longest time and I can't help but love you and feel this way even though I know you can never love someone like me and never will love someone like me because I'm not like other girls and I'm nothing more than just a stupid puppet that can't even keep a single, stupid from someone as amazing as you!" she babbled incomprehensibly.

She sat there sniffing and shivering on the floor with Cerise and Clawdeen's wide with surprise and Kitty still sporting the ever present smile she wore nearly every single day possible, making Ben wonder for the briefest of seconds if her cheeks were even capable of feeling anything anymore; he quickly ignored that thought and bent down to pull Cedar into a hug, not moving in the slightest as she buried herself into him even further.

"Cedar . . ." Ben started to say.

The wooden girl flinched. "Y-You must h-hate me . . ."

Ben shook his head. "Cedar, that's the farthest from the truth it could be." he told her. "I don't hate you, I couldn't hate you if I even tried."

"R-Really?" Cedar sniffed weakly, shifting her attention to look at Ben.

"Really." Ben smiled. "You might not think much of yourself, but I do. You're a wonderful, and an amazing artist, too. Maddie goes on and on about them all the time whenever she's not drinking tea and just be . . . Maddie, I guess." he chuckled, earning a small smile from Cedar. "There's the girl I love."

Cedar blinked in surprise. "L-Love?"

Ben nodded and was about to say more when a series of loud crashes and clattering startled them all, wood chips and splinters and twigs raining down from overhead as roughly a dozen or so large, bulky figures came falling through the canopy overhead and landed in the theater below, crushing seats wherever they landed. Ben had instinctively shielded Cedar from anything that might have caused them harm and rolled his head up to try and get a good look at what they were up against, his eyes widening with shock and surprise; each figure was encased in a heavy, tight, metal suit of armor quite similar to that of the knights that rested on their stood vigilant and silent on their stands in the halls of Ever After High, save for a few differences such as spiked studded knuckles, shoulders, and helmets that sported a plume of short, bristly, red feathers similar to that of a Roman helmet. Each knight wielded a shield and either a long broad sword or a mace, neither of which seemed to have been kept in very good condition if the stains and rust covering them were anything to go by, but an eerily familiar symbol of an infinity sign over a shield bearing crossed bones stood out almost blindingly. What drew Ben's attention the most however was none other than the crimson figure of the Forever Ninja standing over him with a bright energy sword clenched tightly in its grip.

Clawdeen bristled immediately. "What the- the Forever Knights!?" she snarled.

"Not these guys again!" Cerise growled angrily.

"Again?"

Ben stood up and between Cedar as she glanced up with confused and frightened eyes, watching as Ben bravely stood over her with her fists clenched. "Alright, Ninja Boy, what's your game?" he frowned.

Naturally, the Forever Ninja didn't respond.

"Is that piece of scrap metal even capable of talking back, much less insulting you?" Skurd wondered.

Ben blinked. "You have a point," he said as he tapped the Omnitrix and cycled through the available roster of transformations. "But why am I even bothering trying to reason with this thing? It's time to kick some butt. Humungousaur style!" he grinned as he slammed a hand down on the activation button and encompassed himself in a blast of green light that warped and scrambled his DNA into something new. His bones cracked and splintered loudly as they began to liquidate and dissolve inside of him, slowly turning his arms and legs into fleshy noodles that flopped at his sides and dropped him to the ground as the rest of his skeleton began to compress in on itself and vanish, leaving Ben little more than a pile of fleshy jelly as his organs and muscles rearranged and shifted themselves; he could feel new, elastic tissue and muscle weave and wind themselves around his limbs as his fingers fluidly melted together into a single digit that began to resemble the club of a squid tentacle, even more so when suckers started to pop and burst forth his skin like dozens of pimples and zits. His kin turned a bright orange covered with mottled, brown spots as his hips and torso fused and became one, shortening his body greatly despite the fact that he was growing bigger. His jaw thrust outwards in a jiggling, quivering fashion while teeth splintered and cracked until they were nothing but baleen to filter feed with as Ben's head was pulled into a short mantle that forced his eyes farther apart than before. A suddenly, uncomfortable feeling overcame him until six whipping, crackling tentacles burst forth from his guts and chest, each one tipped with a sucker covered club that relaxed and fell limp to the ground, supporting his weight as a green bodysuit with a black stripe down the middle and a white cuff for each tentacle materialized upon him, the Omnitrix and Skurd appearing on his chest.

The Cephalod-ae slowly blinked his eyes and glanced over himself with surprise. "Whoa! Haven't seen Squidstrictor in a long time!"

"Enough with the family reunion! Duck!" Skurd warned as the Forever Ninja took a swing at the distracted Cephalod-ae with his glowing energy sword, missing by bare inches as Squidstrictor ducked down just in time."Attack!"

"Give me a second! It's been a while since I've used this guy!" Squidstrictor yelped as he pulsed his tentacles just enough to jump over the hot, glowing blade as the Forever Ninja came in for a second swipe; as the Cephalod-ae came back down, he lashed out with a whip-like tentacle and wrapped it tightly around the crimson droid's neck and was consequently snapped back right at the drone like a grappling hook, slamming full force into the Forever Ninja as he instinctively wrapped his strong, sucker laden tentacles around its crimson, exterior plating and held on tight as it thrashed about and tried to pull him off.

Clawdeen snarled and growled as the knights began to move now that their leader was in danger. "C'mon! Ben can't fight them all off at once!" she yelled as she charged head long into battle and tapped the Omnitrix attached to her wrist without looking at which alien she had dialed in as she was swallowed in a flash of yellow light. The first and most noticeable part of the transformation began when the fur and skin around Clawdeen's head suddenly melted off, the bare muscle and tissue quickly solidifying and turning a hard, metallic sheen as Clawdeen's head head suddenly separated from her body, a forked eyebrow-like crest forming above her yellow eyes. Her shoulders pinched upwards, forming large points and then an upside down arch with her head floating between them, held in place by some magnetic field; the werewolf's chest swelled slightly, forming a more noticeable bust. Her skin turned a durable, metallic black with bright, silver lines and spots as her claws crunched and snapped loudly to fuse together into a pair of large pincers, her frame shooting upwards until she stood at a towering ten feet. Her toes ripped out of her boots in two pairs of large claws, a tingling sensation coursing through her entire body as the Omnitrix appeared on her chest between her metallic breasts.

Polarizer briefly glanced over herself to figure out what she had been turned into before she launched herself into the air and clapped her pincers together; a pair of the silent knights were levitated off of the ground, their shields and weapons torn away from them and tightly compacted together as the female Biosovortian crashed the two warriors together with the loud shriek of metal smashing and bashing against each other in an unsavory manner before one of the knights were tackled to the ground as Cerise gave off a long howl and launched herself at one of them, disappearing into the theater seats as Polarizer smashed the other one into the ground.

"Quick! While he's on the defensive!" Skurd cried as Squidstrictor began to remember how to properlu use his latest form, grunting uncomfortably as he fired off a slick, wet stain of black ink from between his tentacles, a process that he didn't want to think about as the Forever Ninja stumbled about wildly with completely blind intentions. The Cephalod-ae tightened his grip on the crimson drone, his eyes widening with surprise as the Forever Ninja pitched the sword into the ground and proceeded to try and pull him off, firmly grabbing hold of one of his tentacles and managing to pry it free after some difficulty, keeping a firm grip while moving onto another of his ten tentacles.

Skurd hummed in thought. "Quite stubborn, isn't he?" he remarked as the Forever Ninja pushed and tugged and strained to remove Squidstrictor from his face, succeeding in removing two more of the stubborn arms but not having much else until it came to an eerie pause that the Cephalod-ae knew should be a warning; this was taken too late as a dangerous amount of hot, red energy and electricity snaked across the droid's metal plating and coursed violently through Squidstrictor's body.

"YEOW!" the alien cephalopod yelped, quickly releasing himself from the Forever Ninja and jumping back as smoke curled off his body and gave off a disgusting smell. "I know Lorna likes steamed calamari, but this is ridiculous!"

"Smells delicious." Kitty purred moments before she vanished in a glimmering shower of sparkling light just as a pair of knights that had been charging at her from opposing directions crashed into each other with a mighty clatter of metal as they collapsed into a heap and tried to remove themselves from each other; the Daughter of the Cheshire Cat snickered mischievously from the canopy above, her cheeky smile instantly turning to one of worry as the Forever Ninja collected its fallen sword and leaped straight up into the air to land swiftly and silently on a branch overhead.

"Get away from her!" Squidstrictor yelled angrily as the Forever Ninja took several swipes at Kitty.

"I'm afraid we've got bigger problems than that now, dear boy!" Skurd cried moments before a knight rammed into him with its shield and sent him flying across the theater where he landed with a wet splat! on a tree trunk and crawled up into the branches overhead once he sure he wasn't going to hurl. The Cephalod-ae whipped out a tentacle and curled it around a branch to swing him over the ground from above and releasing a jet of slimy, black ink from overhead down onto an unfortunate knight below before dropping down to begin tearing away at the metal suit as fast as possible.

All Cedar could do was watch from the floor, curled up in a trembling, wooden ball as Polarizer rushed at another knight and slammed her pincers into its chest, blasting the metal warrior back from the build up of the magnetic field and sending him flying through the air where he crashed with a second knight that was about to cleave Cerise in two with its broad sword as she wrestled with another knight on the floor; with a low, savage growl, she quickly turned the tables and managed to heave the knight's entire weight up into the air on her shoulders, chucking him a fair distance away and taking out a row of theater seats while doing so.

The Daughter of Pinocchio wanted to help, wanted to able to do something to aid her friends in battle, but that ever nagging voice in the back of her head came back around again; she wasn't strong or fast like Cerise, she couldn't teleport and vanish without a trace like Kitty, and she most certainly couldn't transform into a variety of extraterrestrial forms to help herself in battle like Clawdeen and Ben could. She was useless to them, just as she was usually useless to everyone else on an average school day at Ever After High.

But now that she thought about it . . . there had been a moment when she could sworn she felt something, just the briefest moment of some sort of power or tingling sensation from the first and last time Achilles of the Ten Blades had followed a foolish Daring Charming back to school; she wasn't entirely sure what had happened, but she thought she had done . . . something at the very least. With little else to lose Cedar propped herself up on her elbow and cast a hand towards the ground, squeezing her eyes shut tightly as she tried to concentrate as much as possible on something, anything that might give her a hint of power. To her, it was a guessing game where the answer always seemed to be 'something', but she couldn't quite figure out what.

A loud crack came from overhead and Cedar glanced up just in time to see the branch the Forever Ninja had leaped off of at the last second as it made a wild swing of its sword at Kitty come crashing down through the air and land loudly on the ground behind of Polarizer; the Biosovortian whipped around at the source of the noise, leaving herself completely exposed as a knight slammed into her and roughly knocked her to the ground, sending her head flying off and away from between her shoulders and landing somewhere between the maze of seats of the theater.

"If I hear one head joke . . ." Polarizer's head warned.

"Kinda busy!" Cerise grunted as she grappled with another one of the knights.

"Clawdeen? Where is your . . . head?" Cedar winced at the word.

The Biosovortian's voice spat violently and grumbled something incomprehensible. "Somewhere between a mess of cottoncandy and sticky soda covered in peanut dust, that's where. I'm the only talking head!"

Cedar coughed awkwardly. "Right . . ." she said as she began searching while Polarizer's body picked itself up and began to blindly stumble around, narrowly missing collisions with knights and theater seats alike; Squidstrictor leaped off of his opponent and wrapped a rubbery tentacle around its ankle, hauling it off of the ground and slamming it roughly into the ground twice like a child would beat in a wooden block through a hole before hurling it off somewhere through the dark theater where it slammed against a tree trunk with a loud thwack! and fell silent.

"Am I the only one that's noticed these guys haven't said a word since they started attacking us?" Squidstrictor realized moments before the Omnitrix timed out and swallowed the Cephalod-ae in a blast of green light, returning Ben to the world.

"The butterfly's oblivious to the brightest flower until its picked!" Kitty shouted in Riddlish overhead as she narrowly avoid another swing of the Forever Ninja's sword, back flipping to land on another branch before flashing away to another some distance off.

Ben grunted as he ducked under a swing of a knight's mace and swept its metal legs out from underneath it as he dropped down to the ground and popped back up again. "I don't know what that means, but I'll take that as a 'no'." he said before a loud scream caught his attention; he immediately whipped his head towards the source of the noise to see Cedar just barely dodging the wide and powerful swings of another knight's sword, ducking under or leaning back at the last second to avoid getting hacked in half by the blade until she tripped over a discarded soda cup and fell flat on her back, leaving her a literal, sticky situation.

"Cedar!" Ben cried, rushing to try and save the wooden puppet.

At the last second however, a dark figure dropped down from the trees overhead in between Cedar and her attacker and slashed at the knight with a pair of blades that glinted in the winter moonlight, forcing the knight to step back as the figure then lunged forward and drove the two pointed edges through the chest of the knight and tearing them out to the side with the loud shriek of metal; the knight shudder for a second before falling to its knees and slumping over, lifeless. Ben peered closer and watched as the blades the figure carried softly slid back into the sleeves of a cloak with an empty quiver and bow strapped to his back; the cloaked man then reached up with pale fingers to pull off the hood and reveal a pale face with a single scar over the right eye that traveled all the way down to his lip where a black beard and goatee had sprouted in greasy and shaggy strands upon a head of jet black hair.

"They're enchanted. Magic." Jeager the Beast Hunter explained short and curtly. "If you ever need me, just yell. I'll be there before you know it." he nodded in Ben's direction before pulling the hood back over his face and leaping back up into the canopy in a rustling of leaves, leaving no other trace behind as Cedar starred at the spot her savior had been standing moments ago with short, ragged breaths.

"The lad does know how to make an exit and entrance," Skurd mused. "But I believe we have bigger problems than that!" the Slimebiote yelped as another of the enchanted knights rushed at him and Ben and collided with him like a freight train; Ben's shoes dug into the ground and skidded through the dirt as he pushed and strained to hold back against the knight's tremendous strength, able to gain some ground for a short time before losing ground once more.

With a grunt, Ben pushed off of the charging knight and slammed a hand down onto the waiting activation button of the Omnitrix, not caring which alien he got as he was swallowed in a flash of green light that warped and rearranged his genetic code into something new and unseen before. Dark indigo fur began to sprout all over his body, growing short and shaggy as it traveled from between his shoulders to across his arms and down his chest and sides, snaking down around his hips and legs as his face was engulfed while his skull shifted slightly with a loud series of snaps and cracks that resounded loudly through the air; his shoulders broadened as muscles piled themselves up onto his arms beneath the layer of deep purple fur, his fingers growing stronger and more powerful as they lost any sort of hair they might have had or gained while turning a pitch black in color and losing the fifth digit was it was pulled back into his hand with a loud cracking noise. Ben's legs crunched and snapped loudly as his ankles bent in half and pulled back into a new joint as his feet tore through his shoes, his toes fusing and melting together to leave the toenails that molded together to form a tough, blackened hoof that split to form a cloven pair. Creamy, white fur sprouted from his chest as a short, fluffy tail popped out from the base of his spine and a pair of white, curled horns like that of a ram's thrust out from either side of his head. Ben's skull began to thicken, layers of new bone forcing its way into existence as special chambers filled with fluid formed in his head while the rest of his skeleton reinforced itself as he was compacted and compressed down into a smaller frame of about half of Cedar's height. The transformation completed as green bands formed around his wrists and arms and a belt with the Omnitrix and Skurd around his waist above a pair of black briefs, completing the transformation.

"What the- a new alien?" the Satyrian starred in shock at his new hands for the briefest of second before he was quickly reminded of why he was here as the suit of armor's shield butted into him, nearly knocking him off of his cloven hooves as he struggled against the suit of armor's great strength and weight, pressing his head tightly against the shield. When this seemed to gain him some form of leeway, he did the only thing that came naturally: he used his head and bashed it against the shield as hard as he could, knocking the surprised knight back a couple of feet.

With a wicked grin, the Satyrian pawed the ground with a hoof before charging forward as fast as possible with his head and horns lowered to the ground and jerking them up at the last moment to deliver the maximum amount of power it took to send the magical suit of armor flying through the air and landing roughly against a tree trunk where it slumped to the ground dazed; this was quickly changed to lifeless when the Satyrian charged right it and plowed straight through the shield and tough chestplate like it was butter, pulling his head to shake his horns free of metal shards.

"That's it! I'm callin' this alien Smashface!" the Satyrian grinned.

Skurd rolled hie eyes. "How original."

Smashface frowned. "If you're not going to help-"

"Oh, fine! But only because you insist!" Skurd cut him off dramatically as he tapped into the Omnitrix's extensive genetic database and selected one of its many samples whole sliding and slithering his slimy body over the Satyrian's head and horns; the tough, bony, keratin of the horns bubbled and cracked horribly, separating into dozens upon thousands of tiny islands that blackened and splintered while hot, steaming magma poured and oozed down through the cracks and gave off a smoldering odor as the rock encrusted horns suddenly burst into flames.

"Nice." Smashface grinned as he cracked his knuckles and turned to face what remained of the enchanted suits of armor before surging forward with his fists clenched tightly, his head lowered to the ground, and his flaming horns aimed where it hurt; what followed could only be explained as three of scenes of Smashface ramming his entire body through the chest of one of the suit of armors, rapidly and relentlessly kicking another knight in the gut with his sharp hooves, and finally headbutting a third knight with his flame covered head in a small explosion of hot metal. With quick breath, the Satyrian landed on the ground to rest as the scraps and remnants of the knights fell and pelted the ground around him like rain.

Cedar felt her jaw drop at the sight as she climbed to her feet and watched as Cerise chucked the last remaining knight through the air towards Smashface mere seconds before the Satyrian dashed forward and rammed his flaming head through its gut, destroying it completely; out of the corner of Cedar's eye she caught sight of Polarizer finally stumbling across her discarded head and set it back into place seconds before the Omnitrix timed out and swallowed her in a flash of yellow light to return Clawdeen to the world.

"Where's Kitty?" Cerise wondered.

"Up here!" the Cheshire cried from above. "Yow!" she yelped as she narrowly dodged a thrust of the energy sword that just barely missed her armpit.

Smashface cupped his hands over his mouth. "Get down here, quickly!" he cried; little before those words had left his mouth had the Daughter of the Cheshire Cat vanish in a shimmering, glimmer light, leaving a taunting smile behind for a few more seconds before she reappeared by the Satyrian's side, taking note of his new form for the briefest of seconds before yelping when the Forever Ninja flipped over the side of the branch and landed squarely on the ground with its grip tight and firm on the hilt of his energy sword. Smashface socked his fist into hand and raced forward down on all fours, crashing into the droid's legs like a bowling ball through pins before bending his legs and backflipping onto its back to smash its metal skull into the ground.

The Forever Ninja lifted itself up and shook Smashface free, whirling around to slice its sword in a fashion that would have normally taken a being's head off head off had the Satyrian had horns and a skull that could be compared to either Taydennite or a an Appoplexian's intelligence level a the glowing blade and hilt smashed and shattered upon contact, much to the droid's surprise. Before it could reach for another weapon Smashface surged forward and plowed his entire body into its durable plating, sending it bouncing and tumbling along the ground with a series of clattering metal and weaponry that finally rolled to a stop some distance away.

"Go ahead. Try it." Smashface snorted angrily, clenching his fists as the Forever Ninja staggered to its feet and absentmindedly glanced between the Satyrian, werewolf, Cheshire, Riding Hood, and puppet before it decided that it was not worth risking further injuries to its system and reached for a small bomb strapped to its chest; before Smashface could stop it, the Forever Ninja pitched it towards the ground where it exploded in a cloud of odorless smoke that made every cough and hack violently and their eyes water, giving the Forever Ninja more than enough time to escape.

After a while, the smoke began to clear moments before the Omnitrix timed out and encompassed the Satyrian in a blast of green light that returned Ben to the world as Skurd returned the Pyronite DNA to the wondrous device as well. "Well, I'm beat." Ben said after a while.

"And you aren't the least bit worried about the Forever Knights coming back?" Clawdeen raised an eyebrow. "Not to mention why they're here in the first place?"

Ben sighed. "It's a long story. I'll tell you all about it tomorrow over breakfast. Right now, it's getting late. And cold."

"Agreed."Cerise nodded, tugging her crimson hood a little tighter around her; Cedar didn't say anything as she and the others quickly gathered up their jackets, coats, mittens, gloves, hat, scarves, and every other conceivable winter clothing they had brought with them before scurrying away lest they be blamed and charged for the damage to the theater, leaving Birchman and Oakler all alone once more.

"I loved tonight's movie!" Birchman grinned broadly.

"You did?" Oakler asked in bewilderment. "What was the best part?"

"The ending, that's what!" Birchman cracked, earning ancient guffaws and laughter from the two elderly puppets that resounded aloud and out through the empty theater for no one to hear in particular.


"So what's the verdict?" Ben asked as he sat on the edge of his bed with Cedar beside him and gripping his hand tightly, her wooden fingers intertwined with his firmly as Clawdeen lay across the bed on her stomach beside him, giving off a low growl that could be considered the canine equivalent of a purr from the processional scratches she received behind the ear from her boyfriend; sitting at the head of the bed with what Ben quickly learned to be an aching back was Venus was Jane curled up and trembling in her lap, only calmed and soothed under the plant monster's relaxing touch as she softly petting her and ran her fingers through her hair. Cerise sat up against the wall next to Raven while Kitty was curled up and half asleep a little ways off, Skelita and Maddie taking a spot on the floor having arrived late and covered in flour that she didn't want to get all over the bed, with Whisp hovering over them on her wispy tail having only recently appeared in a puff of blackened smoke after giving up on finding Apple right away.

Venus sighed. "Well, Apple did a somewhat decent job of watching over Jane while I caught some sleep."

"Then what happened to the healer's office?" Ben wondered.

"That's the what happened when Apple forgot Jane was a vegetarian and tried to feed her some chicken soup . . . it didn't go over well . . ." Venus explained.

Skurd rolled his eyes. "I can imagine."

Cedar dared to rest her head on Ben's shoulder, relaxing when he gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. "What happened after that?" she asked.

Venus shrugged. "Well, after the disaster with Jane, we sent her to go help Skelita, Maddie, and Ginger with the bake sale."

All of the attention turned to the floor where Maddie was eagerly sucking the flour off of her fingers between sips of herbal tea and Skelita was trying to just get it off of her; fortunately, the later had an answer ready. "Apple was most helpful at first . . . but then we left her with the oven."

"Is that why I thought I smelled smoke?" Raven raised an eyebrow.

Maddie nodded with a bright smile. "You bet your teacups! And we even got to put it out, too!"

"What about you, Ben? How did things go on your date?" Skelita asked.

The wielder of the Omnitrix briefly glanced between Cerise as she shifted a little closer to Raven to ease herself, Clawdeen as she rolled over onto her back with a weary and tired expression, Kitty while she dozed off and slumbered right then and there in a warm spot found deep within the blankets and covers of the bed, Skurd as he compressed himself down on the Omnitrix for a little midnight snack, and then finally to Cedar who turned a bright mahogany in color. "Same as usual, I guess: I try to relax and have a normal day for once, and the universe insists on screwing us over."

"So overall, not too bad of a night?" Maddie guessed.

"Do gorgons turn people to stone?" Ben countered with his classic, goofy grin. "But if there's one good thing that came out of tonight-" he turned to look at Cedar only to be met with a sudden, quick kiss to the lips that completely caught him off guard as the wooden puppet gulped and quickly peeled away out of embarrassment. Ben sat there out of shock for a few split seconds before curling a finger under Cedar's chin to turn her back towards him just as he softly kissed her upon the lips, his hand moving to cup her cheek as she sat there absolutely stunned and mystified before she relaxed and felt her eyes droop shut under Ben's comforting touch as his hands traveled up her smoothly polished arms and looped around her waist and clutching her hand tightly while her hands blindly searched around for something to hold onto and deciding his shoulders wee a good place to start. Cedar was practically melting in Ben's arms and never felt so relaxed or so . . . wanted in all her life; sure she had received comforting and loving hugs from her father, grandfather, and godmother, but this was something entirely on a different new level, something she couldn't describe or put in her words as Ben eventually ended the sweet kiss after several more heavenly seconds that left Cedar with a dreamy smile on her lips as she leaned heavily against Ben.

Clawdeen smirked in bemusement. "And there's the ol' Tennyson charm we all know and adore."

"I-I take it she now associates with us?" Jane guessed.

Cerise coughed awkwardly. "That still leaves the issue of Apple to deal with . . ."

Clawdeen grumbled under her breath and folded her arms over her chest. "I don't wanna let her off the hook so soon, but back in the theater, watching royals get hacked and slashed into bits and pieces and then beating the living daylights out of the Forever Knights . . . there's just something so . . . therapeutic about it."

Whisp shrugged overhead. "If you ask me, she's suffered enough. Not only is she probably going to be scarred for life for that little trick of mine, but she already feels horrible enough as it is." the genie presented her case. "She's practically prepared to leave the harem if necessary, finding a replacement."

"Cedar is not a replacement." Ben argued back. "But you both make good points. She still deserves punishment of some kind and she already feels bad enough as it is . . . no reason to make her feel any worse."

Skurd cleared his throat, drawing everyone's attention. "What say we ask dear Raven if our sour apple should return or not, yes? After all, if I remember correctly, they are roommates."

All heads turned to look at Raven with varying looks of curiosity and need for guidance, though Maddie was her usual, happy, mad self and was perfectly content with drinking her tea on the floor, as if she somehow already new the outcome of the matter at hand. "Well . . ." Raven took a deep breath. "Apple can be somewhat . . . thickheaded at times, but once you've nailed her hard enough to get the message across, she's definitely more willing to listen, like right now." she began. "So, if we make it clear that she is not entirely off the hook yet . . . maybe on a probation or something, then she could probably be allowed to join the harem again?" Raven concluded, though it sounded more like a question than an answer with the words feeling somewhat foreign in her mouth.

Ben nodded. "Alright. All in favor of letting Apple back in the harem on probation?" he called out, raising his own hand in the air; Raven, Venus, Skelita, Whisp, Maddie, Jane, and Cedar all raised their hands with Clawdeen and Cerise opposed. Kitty remained asleep and oblivious to anything else other than her current catnap.

Whisp clapped her hands together happily. "So it's settled then! Apple's back in!" she smiled brightly.

"Yeah, yeah." Clawdeen grumbled. "She's still trouble if you ask me."

The genie shrugged. "Well, that's your opinion. I'm gonna go tell her!" she exclaimed happily, twirling around in the air as she descended down to the floor and traded her ghostly tail in for a pair of legs and a pair of baggy, black pants and curled slippers that she paused to wiggle the toes of before walking over to the door of the dorm; this confused Ben slightly, wondering why Whisp just use the simple genie trick of teleporting to ones location, until Whisp grabbed the doorknob and pulled it open to let Apple fall in and flat on her face having been leaning up against the door to try and listen in.

Raven sighed. "Apple . . ."

"Sorry," the princess apologized. "I-I couldn't wait . . ."

"Que? How much did you hear?" Skelita asked.

Apple gave a sheepish smile as she sat up and rubbed her arm uncomfortably. "Everything . . ."

"In that case, ghoul, you're sleepin' on the floor." Clawdeen said from the bed next to Ben with a satisfied smirk upon her lips. "Just hope Jane doesn't roll over in her sleep on you . . . I hear sleeping under a buffalo is not a pleasant experience." she added with a small chuckle as Apple paled considerably. Mostly though, she was just relieved that she had been able to fix her mistakes . . . for the most part at least.


The Forever King, ever since he had willingly drank a concoction of chemicals and alien blood to satisfy his selfish desires, had become a much more arrogant and aggressive being since his arms had swelled with muscle and power and the shaggy fur had sprouted all over her body to give her the appearance of a large, hulking gorilla that his slack jaw and his habit of resting his body weight on his knuckles when he wasn't sitting upon his sorry excuse of a throne; the current place they were forced to call home, a relatively dry section of the sewers that weaved and coursed underneath the Village of Book End, did not help sooth his temper with its pungent odor.

"M-Me l-lord." Sir Morton's chilled voice called him by title.

With an irritated sigh, the Chadwick looked from his fixed gaze upon the scribbling and inscriptions of the spellbook before and upon the shivering, chattering form of his second in command. "What is it?"

"The l-lads an' I w-w-were w-wonderin' if we c-could light a couple o' l-laterns to stay warm an-"

The Forever King roared angrily and cracked a fist against the frozen, slime covered floor of his chamber, riddling the ancient stone with cracks and fissures as he shook his fingers free of pebbles and chips. "You fool! These tunnels are filled with methane!" he growled angrily. "You'll blow us all to kingdom come!"

Sir Morton nodded with his arms folded over his chest in an attempt to stay warm. "Of c-course, me lord." his teeth chattered. "I d-don't suppose there bein' any progress made on the magic learnin'?"

Joseph Chadwick growled. "Some. The very magic I sought to extinguish but now must manipulate for our plans to unfold, makes things rather difficult at times . . . why, I have no idea."

"P-Pardon me for s-sayin', b-but perhaps it b-because yous aren't of magic t-type." Sir Morton suggested. "Me an' th-the boys have b-been doin' sc-scoutin' out an' about and haven't seen many humans doing all this hocus-pocus stuff o' yers. Mayhaps th-there be a d-differ-"

The bulky knight was cut off as the Forever King roared angrily, his howl echoing off of the walls of the sewers and ringing off far down the tunnels for miles to come, stirring the inhabitants of the tunnels that had chosen to hibernate the sudden cold flash away in their caves and lairs of their choice. "Don't ever suggest something like that again! Ever! I am a Forever King! I will do what I wish without consequence!"

"Of c-course, yer majesty." Sir Morton bowed, his voice quivering, though whether it was from the cold or from fear was up to debate. "Also, m-me an' the boys have s-stumbled across somethin' of particular interest that you may . . . uh, find interestin'."

The Forever King narrowed his eyes. "What could possibly interest me?"

Sir Morton coughed uncomfortably. "Well, before I be sayin' anything, the droid's returned without his platoon . . . reports and data indicate it tangled with Tennyson and lost . . ." he flinched upon catching sight of his master's thick fingers curling into a massive fist that could have easily crushed him. "B-But on the b-brighter side of things, we be catchin' a creature of alien d-descent th-that claims to be able to perform magic."

Chadwick snarled and lumbered over to his second in command, easily dwarfing him with his impressive frame and gigantic knuckles that all but dragged against the ground. "How could this off world scum interest me?

"M-Maybe you c-could learn m-magic from him?" Morton suggested.

"'It', Morton. I could learn magic from 'it'." the Forever King corrected with a snarl. "Bring it in." he demanded, turning around so that his back was to Morton; the knight quickly bowed and left the room with the clanking of metal; several moments that felt like hours later to the impatient monstrosity that had formally been the Forever King passed before two sets of footsteps walked into the room with the sound of something being dragged across the floor glowing suit. Chadwick turned around to see the Twins standing there each holding a thick, rusty chain that attached to the thick metal collar around the neck of the prisoner, its hands shackled behind its back. The being bared resemblance to a gigantic, bipedal turtle with a sharp, jagged shell and segmented carapace, razor-sharp claws sprouting from the ends of his flipper-like arms and acting as short, stubby toes on his feet. Dark, green markings covered his arms and the back of his weathered legs while bright, purple flames crackled and cooked around his blackened skull, held in place by a neck of what looked like sharp fangs and horns; red armbands with yellow cuffs wrapped around his arms and a red belt of a similar design sat around his waist with a bull skull in the middle and a crimson loincloth attached.

"Leave." the Forever King ordered the Twins; the two mask-wearing knights did as they were ordered without a sound and left the room to the creature and Chadwick.

The Forever King grunted. "Creature of the stars, I am not a patient man."

"And I have a name. Adwaita, Rightful Ruler of Ledgerdomain." the altered Geochelone Aerio grumbled unenthusiastically. "What is it that you want from me anyways?"

Joseph clenched his fist tightly, squeezing his fingers with enough force to crush bones. "Power. And to final destroy Ben Tennyson, the traitorous scum."

At that, Adwaita's attention spiked. "I assume you have a deal then?"

"I do," the hulking beast nodded. "You teach me how to wield the power of this world properly and amass an army strong enough to cleanse this world and destroy all who appose me, and I will let you live. Teach me the ways of this magic, and I will allow you to . . . fight by my side in our common goal against the brat." he shuddered as the last words felt like acid in his mouth. Making such deals with such a filthy creature as this went against everything he believed in everything he worked for, but in his tireless pursuit of his goals, sacrifices had to be made; after all, the Forever Knights had utilized alien technology to carry out their plans for centuries. And who said that a weapon had to be made of steel and metal to be of use.

"I will require better quarters than this," Adwaita spoke up in a grizzled, ancient tone. "And access to any and all books and magical artifacts you may have. Do we have a deal?"

The Forever King gritted his teeth fiercely but steely nodded. "We have a deal, alien scum. We have a deal."

And there we go!

Whew! Sorry this took so long! Things just kept on getting in the way. On a side note, Smashface belongs to kjmarch on Deviantart. Look 'im up some time. You won't be disappointed.

Really? Me, too! You know this one time-

That's it, I can't take it anymore! *Thankfully, mercifully, Deadpool reappears in a flash of white light, sustaining multiple injuries and missing an entire arm as he cradles a deactivated Omnitrix colored a dismal gray in color and a pair of black and orange gauntlets with a stretched out, hourglass figure of the later color decorating them; fluttering next to him is a Nemuina wearing the Omnitrix symbol on his chest* Deadpool! Thank goodness you're back! Send th-this . . . this . . . thing away! Now!

'Who, Mr. Nibbles?'

NO!

No, Wade, not Mr. Nibbles. I'm referring to the pretty pink horsie using the bunk beds as a trampoline.

Whee!

'Gladly. Adios, muchachos.' *taps device on his wrist with his nose and Pinkie Pie disappears, much to everyone save Maddie's relief* 'Now then, take your junk and let me sleep. If we're gonna fight ol' nacho chip I need my beauty sleep for when I die.'

Whatever you say, Deadpool. I take it NegaBen and Mad Ben 10,000 weren't happy to see you?

'You have no idea. Good night.' *flops down on the floor and snores loudly*

Well, with that out of the way, I guess the only thing to say is to watch out loyal readers! A story detailing our glorious triumph or death (hopefully the former) over Bill Cipher, Master of Chaos and Madness, will hopefully be posted by the end of the week. On a related note, this story will be on temporary hiatus until I update my other stories at least once; I can't even remember the last time I wrote a chapter for Cupid's Crystal Ball. So sorry!

Viva la revolution!

What the Hatter said. TO ARMS, ZACHARY, TO ARMS!

"I really fell into the wrong story."

You're just realizing this now? Either way, as always, comment, review, suggest, and request down below.

Hasta Luego!

TO ARMS! FOUR ARMS, THAT IS!