One Man's Revenge…

"What?" Apple said. She was completely taken aback by Rotbart's question.

"What are you going to do to Daring?" He repeated.

"Oh. Well…um…." Apple hadn't given any thought to that. She had been too shocked and distressed to contemplate what to do next. "I suppose I'll have to confront him and tell him it's all over." She said.

Rotbart looked at her with disgust. "That's it? You're just going to give the guy a lecture and walk away?"

Apple bristled defensively. "I'll make sure he feels deeply ashamed for his actions. And I'll make sure that he knows that he'll never, EVER have any chance of winning me back. I think it's a VERY suitable punishment." She said with the confidence of an allegedly irresistible princess.

"Hardly." Rotbart said. "Come on, princess: it's obvious that Daring doesn't care about you. If he did, he never would've got involved with Lizzie in the first place."

Apple her mouth to argue, but immediately stopped as she realized that Rotbart was right. A mere guilt trip would hardly suffice in Daring's case.

"Besides, you can do WAY better than that." He said. "You pranked the hell out of me just for being in your story. Why don't you think of something epic to get back at the guy who wants out?"

"Like what?" Apple asked.

Rotbart grinned. "You could always crap on him again." Apple responded by whapping Rotbart with his own shirt. "OW! Okay, okay, I was kidding! But seriously, you know him better than me. What does he love most?" He asked.

"Himself." Apple immediately responded. "I could break all of his mirrors…" She thought aloud.

Rotbart scoffed. "That's boring. And mirrors are easy to replace. You need something more..." He trailed off as he tried to think of the right word.

"More what?" Apple asked.

"…Unusual." Rotbart said decisively. "You need something cruel and unusual."

"Cruel?" Apple said uncertainly. "I don't know…"

"What he did to you was cruel." Rotbart pointed out. "Dish it back."

"But, Mother always said an 'eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.'" Apple said.

"So don't go for his eye. Go for his balls." Rotbart replied. "Besides, that philosophy never stopped you when it came to me, did it?"

Apple flushed in embarrassment. "That was different! You were mean to me first!"

"And he started this! What's the difference?!"

"But he never meant for me to know!"

"But you do. So retaliate!"

Apple looked at Rotbart suspiciously. "Why are you so keen on me taking revenge?" She asked.

He shrugged. "I like being the devil's advocate? And face it, you need my insight."

"Why?"

"Because I'm very good at making people suffer." He said with a sinister smirk.

Apple flinched nervously. That evil smile of his still creeped her out. "I could go to Kitty, you know." She said. "She's good at pranks too."

Rotbart looked at her incredulously. "Her?! Are you kidding?!"

"What's wrong with her?"

"She's totally unpredictable. The only thing you can count on her to do is defend her Wonderland friends. And you do know who her best friend is, right?"

"Oh yeah…Lizzie." Apple sighed. How could she forget that those two were best friends forever after? Kitty would never stand for anyone messing with her friend's love life.

"Exactly. So I'm your best bet to make sure that Daring will rue the day he let his snake out of his tainted Eden."

"And what if I decide that I don't want to take revenge?" Apple challenged.

"One man's revenge is another man's justice." Rotbart said. "And you want justice. Admit it."

Apple bit her lip. Deep down she really did want to get back at Daring for cheating on her, but she was worried; it was one thing to stand up to a bad guy by pranking him, but it was quite another to inflict something "cruel and unusual" upon another protagonist. Would that make her a villain?

Rotbart continued: "What he did wasn't fair. And you shouldn't stand for it as fairest of them all." He almost gagged a little bit as he said those incredibly cheesy words, but he managed to keep a straight face. He didn't know why, but he REALLY wanted to see that princely prick suffer. And he figured that a trite line about the White family honor was just what Apple needed to push her into action.

And he was right. Apple got a determined look on her face and declared: "No, I won't stand for it! I swear upon my destiny, I will make that cretin pay!"

"Woo-hoo!" Rotbart cheered.

"And what's more, I will let you assist me in administering a truly fitting punishment." She said with an uncharacteristically wicked smile. "A cruel and unusual one."

"YES!" Rotbart said. And once again, he found himself marveling at how much better that perfect little princess looked when she let her dark side out.

And then his cell phone rang.