Raven's Confrontation

Raven marched over to where Rotbart was preening his feathers in the grass after getting knocked over. "OK Rotty, what's going on?!" She demanded. The hawk-Rotbart looked up at her and blinked his eyes innocently.

"Screee!" He simply said. Raven frowned even more.

"I know it's you, Rotty." She said. "And I know you had something to do with this. Now spill."

Rotbart reverted back to his human form and his face was practically glowing from an expression of pride that bordered on smug.

"Fine. You got me." He said casually. "That was my masterpiece. Impressive, no?"

"What kind of masterpiece is that?!"

"The evil kind, of course. I thought you knew my style, Rae."

"But you've disfigured them for life!"

Rotbart sighed. "Not for life. Unfortunately. It'll start wearing away in two months and be completely gone by the time they hit three."

"Why would you even do that to them at all?!" Raven asked.

Rotbart shrugged. "He's a prince. I'm a bad guy. We don't mesh well." He said cagily.

"And Lizzie? What did she ever do to you?!"

"Nothing. She just keeps bad company."

"You know Kitty's as mad as hell." Raven said pointedly. Rotbart and Kitty had dated in the past, but still remained on more-or-less friendly terms.

"Not my fault her bimbo friend has bad taste."

"And why should you care so much who Lizzie dates? You don't care about destiny." Raven pressed.

"No. But I love to watch the world burn." Rotbart smirked. "One magnificent masterpiece at a time."

Raven narrowed her eyes. "Rotty, I know this isn't just some prank..."

"Of course not; it's a masterpiece."

"NO, it's NOT." Raven said seriously. "It was cruel, unusual..."

"Why thank you."

"...and meant as a punishment!" Raven finished.

Rotbart raised a single eyebrow. "I thought you said I didn't I have any reason to punish them." Rotbart said airily.

"No, but SOMEONE did!" Raven said accusingly. "Apple put you up to this, didn't she?!"

Rotbart stared at his sister in surprise. But quickly regained his composure. "Ah." He said. "Should have known she couldn't cover her tracks..."

"So it's true! Apple DID make you do it!"

Rotbart gave his sister a hard look. "She didn't make me do anything." He said testily. "She wanted retribution, I wanted a laugh. Different goals, same means."

"But...how could Apple do this?!" Raven said in disbelief. "How could she set them up like that?!"

"Easily." Rotbart said. "Remember the prank war?"

"Yes, but she didn't do anything like that! That was, well...sick." Raven grimaced as she remembered the exposed Lizzie and Daring. "And you pushed her into the prank war too!'

"I didn't push her into anything!" Rotbart said defensively.

"Oh yes you did! What are you trying to do, corrupt her?!"

"Hmmm...maybe." Rotbart said slyly. "If I can't poison her body now, at least I can poison her mind..."

"NO! You can't go poisoning Apple like that!" Raven exclaimed.

"Since when did you become a little loyal-royal?" Rotbart sneered.

"Since never. But you can't go corrupting Apple! You'll get HUGE trouble! If Grimm ever finds out just what happened, you'll get all the blame!" Raven knew all too well that Grimm wasn't above overlooking facts in Royals' favor. He would never want it to get out that the next-fairest-of-them all had actively schemed and participated in a plot against a good prince.

"He'll never find out. I won't tell. Apple won't tell. Will you tell?" Rotbart challenged.

"...No." Raven sighed. Sibling loyalty aside, she didn't entirely blame Apple for wanting revenge. While Raven felt everyone should have the right to date whoever they wanted, she did think Daring should have been upfront about it. He had jacked around with Apple's heart and any girl would crave comeuppance. Besides, who would really believe Apple had a part in all this anyway?

Rotbart grinned. "Hexcellent." He quickly produced a plastic bag and shoved the remaining evidence inside. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to ditch the evidence." He said.

"Better not ditch that." Raven pointed to the crystal dish the strawberries were on. "That's Apple's."

Rotbart rolled his eyes. "That idiot." He grumbled. Leave it to that stupid princess to leave clues! He thought. Luckily, he was there to cover tracks. "Fine. I'll bring it back." He said.

"I'll do it." Raven offered.

"No, it's got chocolate on it." Rotbart pointed out. "No sense getting you involved." He didn't think anybody had noticed the platter, but Swan Lake Sorcerers didn't get their reputations by letting details slide.

"Oh yeah...thanks." Raven said sincerely.

"Hey, can't have you getting expelled either. Mom would kill me."

"Oh, I'm already a disgrace to the family name." Raven said resignedly.

"Yeah, even your old protagonist has a bigger mean streak than you."

Raven cringed. "No she doesn't...does she?"

"Did you just help pull off the masterpiece of the century?" Rotbart asked.

Raven rolled her eyes. "That's one opinion..."

Later that night, while Raven was out with her friends, Rotbart came by her and Apple's room to drop off the platter.

"Hey. Can I come in?" He asked when Apple opened the door.

"Oh. Um..." Apple looked in the hallway to make sure no one was watching. "Sure." She let Rotbart into the room.

He set the washed platter on Apple's desk. "I found this at the scene." He said.

"Oh thank you, I had forgotten all about that!" Apple said perkily. Rotbart glared at her.

"Your forgetting could have gotten us caught." He said darkly. "If anyone traced that platter to you, they would have figured out your part in that little romantic rendezvous."

Apple looked horrified and panicky. "Oh NO..." She began.

"Don't worry, nobody did. I'm just saying." Rotbart assured her. Apple heaved a sigh of relief. "Did you hear what Grimm's verdict was?" He asked.

Apple beamed. "They're suspended for a whole month. And Daring has permanently been booted off of all the sports teams." Apple reported happily.

"And Lizzie?"

"She's no longer captain of the croquet team and got kicked out of the princess society. And Daring apparently dumped her once he finished screaming."

Rotbart grinned. "Wish I could have seen it: 'YOU DID THIS TO MEEEEEEEEEE!'" Apple couldn't help laughing at Rotbart's rather accurate imitation of Daring.

"Pretty much!" She giggled. "What a baby! Nobody wants anything to do with him now."

"Hexcellent! And you thought this master plan wouldn't work!" Rotbart gloated.

"It really came together." Apple admitted. "But I didn't think the zits would be that gross; are you sure they won't scar?"

"Positive. I just intensified and extracted the spell from that charm you gave me and put into the lipstick you got. The residue will fade away in time."

"Oh good!" Apple said relieved.

"But they'll always be 'ugly on the inside.'" Rotbart quoted.

"Of course!"

"That was some speech you gave. Very convincing." And long. Rotbart privately added in his head.

"Thank you!" Apple said cheerfully. "And thank you for helping me. I never could have done this without you." She said sincerely.

Rotbart shifted uncomfortably. "No problem." He said somewhat awkwardly. It felt weird to have Apple be so friendly to him for a change.

Apple suddenly felt awkward too, as the full strangeness of the situation set in for her. "...So..."

"So..."

"So what now?" She asked.

Rotbart's response came unbidden to his mouth:

"Wanna celebrate?"