The pack children quickly found out that school was as boring as it sounded. Spencer and Benjamin were hardly challenged in their classes. Aaron and Shang easily destroyed everyone in PE. Marie mastered Drama class in all of 5 seconds and Jack easily breezed through everything. All of them had separate classes so it wasn't until lunch that they were able to sit together.

"All hands for this sucks?" Aaron said. All of them raised their hands and said aye.

"But remember guys, this is for our parents, our pack." Jack reminded them. "It isn't supposed to be fun."

"PE is kinda fun." Shang shrugged.

"The food sucks." Marie added. It was true that they were used to sauteed vegetables and steak and lobster and filet mignon. School lunch consisted of some dead pizza and horribly undercooked French fries. The fruit cups were half frozen and the milk might as well have been a block of white wood. Jack promptly swept everything into the trash and conjured a meal worthy of their status.

"Our food isn't good enough for you?" Henry asked, standing at the end of the table.

Jack rolled his eyes before replying. "No, it's not. It's horrible. We prefer things with actual flavor." He turned to his plate of Regina's lasagna. When Henry didn't move he looked up again. "Can I help you, Henry?" A crashing sound cut off his reply. They turned to the doors as they were blown open and Ruby stepped in. A darker Ruby with skin like black stone with golden scars and veins. The Dark One's dagger was unmistakable in her claws. Jack knew at once this was not his mother. He exchanged looks with Marie, who nodded. The others slowly stood up.

"Don't move!" The Dark Wolf yelled, pointing the dagger at them. It threw their teachers against the wall, effectively knocking them out. "Weaknesses must be destroyed. We must be strong." Marie shifted into her dragon form, coiling herself around the wolf repeatedly and squeezing hard, constricting it, crushing it.

"Everybody get out!" Jack yelled. Spencer and Benjamin ran to the doors to try and usher the other kids out, but the doors wouldn't budge no matter how hard they pushed. Marie suddenly screamed as she was stabbed twice with the dagger. The Dark Wolf threw her across the room and she landed with a sickening crash through a table. Shang and Aaron shifted and attacked, one catching the Dark Wolf's arm and the other its leg. It tried to stab them and slammed them onto a table. Jack ran to protect a group of girls cowering in a corner as a table was thrown. He braced himself for the impact as it slammed into his shoulder.

"Hey." He smirked at the awe struck girls. "You should probably move, yeah?" They quickly nodded and hurried off to the doors. With the room cleared out the kids shifted into their wolf forms and surrounded the darkness. The Dark Wolf shifted as well, face lighting up with a sinister grin. The dagger disappeared and it faced them with bared teeth. Jack attacked first, raking at its eyes and leaping backwards before it could grab them. He did this three times before signaling with his tail for the others to attack. They each grabbed onto a thigh or a leg, Aaron got hold of its tail, and locked their jaws tight, refusing to let go. The Dark Wolf roared in pain and fire suddenly exploded from its mouth, setting fire to the fur of the young wolves. The wolves let go and backed away, circling their prey.

"Who's weak now?" Benjamin yelled.

"Still you." The Dark Wolf grinned. "I am going to enjoy ripping you apart."

A thunderous roar made them all turn as the rest of the pack came flying through the doors, falling on the Dark Wolf with teeth and claws outstretched. It had no choice but to teleport away or be nearly ripped to shreds.

"Is everyone alright?" Ruby asked. Jack raced to his mothers and endured their frantic licks and nuzzles with happy purring.

"We fought her off. You should've seen it." Spencer said excitedly as Zelena checked him for wounds. "Marie was very brave." The little white wolf was being assessed by Maleficent. Her daughter had healed herself after being stabbed but the worried mother waved healing magic over her again to make sure.

"Looks like the first day of school is over." Jack commented. He buried himself in Regina's chest as the mayor arrived with armed guards in tow.

"What happened?" Emma demanded. "Is everyone alright?"

"All the kids got out in time." Aaron answered. "We expect a reward of a million dollars." Zelena stuffed her tail in his mouth to shut him up.

Emma turned to the guards. "Evacuate the school, send the kids home to their parents and call Gold." They nodded and turned to leave. Emma turned back to them. "Did you see Henry?"

"He's good. He left." Jack answered.

Aaron spat out his mother's tail. "We'll take that million in cash."

"What the hell was that thing?" Emma demanded.

"The Dark Wolf." Said Regina, shifting back into human form. "We took the darkness out of Ruby but it's taken a form of its own."

"How do we kill it? What does it want?"

"To destroy its weaknesses." Regina answered. "Us. Everyone Ruby loves."

Ruby growled next to her. She was enraged that that thing had tried to hurt her children, had hurt her pack, was trying to destroy all she held dear. "How do we kill it?" She growled, or tried to anyway. Regina granted her the power to speak in wolf form and she repeated her question.

"I don't know." Regina sighed. "I thought Mal's fire would be enough to."

Mal shook her head. "I couldn't sustain it or I might've been able to."

"We need a way to contain it, otherwise we're all at risk."

"We need a way to fucking kill it." Zelena hissed. "It attacked our children. It'll do it again and it'll do it with more than everyone Ruby cares about. We can't let it decide to attack everyone in town. It'll be chaos."

"I have to warn everyone to stay in." Emma insisted.

"Doors and walls isn't going to stop darkness." Mal replied. "Nothing can stop darkness from going where it wants to go."

"Dragon fire seemed to hurt it before it ran off." Regina said. "Set up torches all over town. When people light their fireplaces, let it be with dragon fire. When the street lights come on don't use electricity. Use dragon fire. It's a long shot but anything that people can use to defend themselves needs to be accessible. Lily, Marie, Shang and Mal, you need to get to work on that. Belle, Zelena, Benji and Spencer, go to the library and the vaults, find out anything you can. Tink, Merida and Mulan, you three need to spread the word."

"What about us?" Jack asked, bouncing up and down.

"We're going to track the Dark Wolf down. We're Ruby's immediate family, we're its biggest weakness." Regina looked at her son. "Are you afraid?"

"No!" Jack said, wagging his tail. "Let's go!"

"You heard the man." Regina looked at the others before her eyes fell on their alpha, her lover, her mate.

Ruby stood up. "Move out!"

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