"Keep light on your feet girl! Remember; swift as a wisp, precise as a mantis, and as stubborn as a bolder!" Elenore Queen barked at Raven as the girl and the older woman traded blows with wooden training swords on the sparring mat. "Don't forget to send power into your feet for the jumps and the twists, it'll give you an edge!"
Raven tried not to think about it too much, she tried to focus on letting instinct take over, of moving bursts of magic through her feet so that she would be allowed to jump higher and twist faster, dodging her opponent's blows and saving excess energy that she would need to either prolong the fight or to win it.
And she was managing it; she could feel her body moving in a deadly dance as her senses did the thinking for her, as she surrendered herself to the dance of the battle instead of clinging to the thrum of normal thought.
She had managed to hold that state where all of her senses were wide open until the point to where thoughts began forming in the back of her brain because she started getting exited about finally gaining a little bit more control over her powers.
And that was where she got too distracted to notice mid-jump her grandmother reaching for her foot and bodily tossing her across the room.
As if to make up for her previous mistake Raven dropped her practice sword and threw up her own protective shield even as she was harmlessly caught and suspended in mid-air by the light blue light of the safety magic circle that had been set up just for such an occurrence.
"Alright ya lasted lots longer this time birdy!" Briar cheered from the sidelines of the dojo. "Like by almost a full second I bet!"
"Oh ha, ha, I'd like to see you do better." Raven jeered back as she righted herself and kept her posture perfectly upright as she was lowered slowly back down to the ground. "Seriously grandmother, how do you keep yourself from getting distracted whenever you spar with somebody, it's ghoulishly hard!" The younger witch half-whined.
"Adrenaline and the sheer want to keep living with all appendages intact helps." Elenore Queen quipped dryly as she took off her meshed protective helmet. "And admittedly you do balance out a bit if you channel your magic into the metal of your weapon as a sort of antenna, that also helps to make the power into your blows become more potent, HOWEVER you still need to learn how to fight without doing either of those things first. Remember girls; all the magic in the world won't help you gain the upper hand in a real battle without employing the basics of your training along with all the fancy other stuff, I mean if you just stand there glowing and shouting your enemy is going to laugh at you before they proceed to throttle you. Remember what happened to that young man who dressed up in long underwear and called himself the Black Vengeance?"
Both girls winced, they had both seen that Ghoul-tube clip of a young man trying to emulate his favorite super hero and attempt to stop a mugging in progress, and while the young man later admitted to not having any formal experience with self-defense or martial arts he had procured an amulet that was supposed to make him extra strong and extra fast. The amulet did work but the perpetrator merely jumped to the side and stuck his foot out when the wannabe superhero ran at him and… it did not end well.
On the flip side the little boy who was being mugged was one of Elenore Queen's students, he took out the would-be mugger by use of actual martial arts and fighting mastery and then he kindly called for an ambulance as he diligently preformed first aid on the unconscious superhero.
They had that newspaper article framed up near the front entrance with two pictures; one of a brave little fourth grader solemnly handcuffing the paralyzed criminal as the laughing police officers stood by just in case the perp tried to harm himself further by moving too much before his muscles relaxed enough to bend the joints properly and one standing worriedly beside the stretcher, even offering a little serious-faced salute to the man who tried to save him as he was wheeled onto the ambulance.
They were all so proud of the dojo's brave little pupil, and all so very amused by the video footage that had been released by passerby and the camera watching that particular alley.
Although as far as everyone knew that same little boy made it a point to avoid shortcuts through dark alleys ever since, it was just safer for everybody, the scarred for life child had reasoned.
"Noted grams." Briar nodded grimly. "No chargin' headlong inta the sides of dumpsters for us."
Elenore shook her head in amusement to the horrified looks her grandchildren were giving each other, knowing that she had hit her mark well and that the two girls were imagining themselves being tripped into a myriad of things and then vowing to themselves to do their best not to let that happen to them. "At any rate, take fifteen girls, I'll start locking up while you two change, and while you're at it why don't you check the mail to see if your friend sent you a letter from the school in Ever After yet."
They had given Cupid the dojo's address to send letters to, as a precaution in case anybody from the school tried to track the renegade fairytale refugees down, the plan was to greet any troublemakers with either the authorities or Elenore Queen, the last of the Queen family to become the Evil Queen.
Reflectively facing Boo York's finest would be far more merciful.
In the locker room Raven hesitated mid-disrobing from her training gear.
"Listen Briar… I… have to tell you something before you hear it from someone else. Please don't get too mad 'kay? Because I already feel pretty down about the whole thing and… well I've learned my lesson so you don't have to-"
"Is this 'bout you askin' Samantha out a while ago?" Briar held up a palm as she interrupted.
Raven ceased her nervous fidgeting with her helmet. "You knew?" The witch looked up with wide eyes.
"Samantha came up to me not long after she turned ya down… she wanted to call a truce between us because it had become apparent to her that… well that her and I's rivalry was startin' to get out of hand. I didn't believe her at first but she said that she understood what it was like to be caught between somebody else's fight an' how embarrassin' it was to undergo a big misunderstandin' in relation to the heart an' now that she knows for sure that ya aren't goin' after her dream job that she'd actually like to get to know ya an' the band as potential allies an' friends… that an' she offered me one good free punch for breakin' your heart. I approved of that."
"You didn't…?" Raven looked at her sister in horror.
"Nah, of course not baby sis'… though I can't say that I wasn't tempted…" Briar trailed off dreamily.
"Why didn't you say anything?" Raven half demanded before nervously shifting meekly. "Are you mad?"
Briar heaved a heavy sigh. "Nah lil' bird, I ain't mad at ya, if anythin' I should be the one apologizin', you gots yer heart broken because I got you roped inta a fight that ain't yours. I know how timid ya are when it comes to the heart an' you do deserve to love someone who can love ya back no problem… you just… either live too far away or they've got their own thang goin' on."
"I know that I have plenty of time to find love and that if I'm lucky I'll be able to find love many times over my lifetime." Raven bit her lip. "But to be honest… sometimes it feels like some of the fairytale that mom left behind hasn't quite let go of me yet… I mean I keep falling for people I see as strong and powerful maidens and adorably super smart princes with openly honest hearts. Which is ironic considering the whole villain heritage thing…"
Briar snorted and rolled her eyes. "Yeah well I can bet ya that probably is more a family trait than ya might think, I mean you've seen how low mama-witch gets when she thinks about her princess breakin' her heart, an' even though grams is way over our absent granddad she was pretty hurt when he left her all alone once she became damaged goods. I'll bet ya a box of chocolates an' tissues that they're not the only ones in the family who was forced to stand back an' watch as those from "the right families" left them by the wayside or tried to knife 'em in the back when their use to them was over with. You're just lucky that ya keep fallin' for halfway decent peeps most of the time, imagine the number some sparkly frilly snob would do to ya if we was livin' in that fairytale dimension! I mean if Faybelle, Kitty, and yer girl Maddie all agree that things get way too serious about conformin' an' tryin' to be the perfect pwetty pwincess an' all that nonsense then things would only be way worse for your honest and big heart ya know?"
Raven huffed but smiled all the same. "Yeah well I hardly doubt that there is actually very many real kind and pure maidens and princes over there, what with the politics and all the drama that comes with being royalty, grandmother did say that all those TV shows are pretty accurate…"
"Exactly! It's not as though there is someone waitin' on the other side for ya specifically, just a bunch of weirdoes wantin' to be on the good end of a decent scandal, I'm sure that if asked they'd briskly tell anybody that once your use to them is done that you're expected to shove off until ya breed a kid for them to terrorize instead. An' with me they'd just as soon rather pretend that I never happened!" Briar nodded sagely. "It's not as though anybody over there actually wants to really get to know us or wants anythin' to do with us outside of what is expected, oh no, not for a descendant of a villain an' her illegitimate sister! We are better off here lookin' after each other like a real family should!"
"Yeah!" Raven grinned and hugged Briar. "And I'll bet that even if I did one day manage to visit the old homelands that I wouldn't find a true kind and thoughtful maiden or prince anywhere! They're all acting so who cares?"
"That's the spirit!" Briar grinned as she hugged her sister back.
XXX
Faybelle glared tiredly into her soup. "Oi princess, would you quite yammering on about that witchling you met at the bottom of a freaking well? So what if her mother kind of looked like the not-so-Evil Queen? Lots of witches from the old countries look like the absent royal family, it's called generations of illegitimate children and second cousins breeding into the common gene pool give it enough time and over half a kingdom can trace their ancestry back to royalty, you were probably just saved by an ordinary common witch and her kid who then fled into the night once you and your mom started to shriek about evil witches and calling out the inquisition and all of that stuff." The fairy narrowed her eyes.
Apple sat up from her lunch looking indignant. "We did no such thing! And my mom knows what the true Evil Queen looks like so well that she could pick her out from a mile away in a crowd! I know that the girl who rescued me is the true heir to the villain part of my story and once I find her I will save her from disappearing and she will give me a proper fairytale like my mom was supposed to have and I just know that the two of us can become the best of friends and work together to restore fairytales back into their proper order and stop those Rebels from endangering everybody!" The blonde princess proclaimed with feeling.
"Uh huh." Faybelle said disbelievingly, knowing that the Queen family wanted nothing to do with fairytales anymore and that nobody was actually in danger. "Say princess, are you saying that my mother didn't poison your mom, like tradition states, and that your mom didn't actually get her Prince Charming, like tradition states?"
Apple bristled. "Your mom poisoned mine with a papaya!"
"Ah yes." Faybelle grinned dreamily at the ceiling, showing of the tips of her sharp needle-like fairy teeth. "Ingenious that, adding diversity to the diet of the story."
"And she outright terrorized daddy!" Apple almost hissed. "Making him play a whole bunch of weird games and making him climb a tower to get to my mom! She didn't even give my mother a glass coffin or let the dwarves and all the animals of the forest grieve over her body! She just carried my mom off into the sky and put her inside that… that…"
"Organic hibernation plant pod?" Faybelle outright grinned this time, showing all of her teeth.
"It was a plant cocoon filled with goo Faybelle." Apple glared.
"Well she was in hibernation, transforming from a little princess into a queen through the process of being offered up to some man that she had been arranged to be married to at birth." Faybelle shrugged blinking with false innocence and a wicked smirk. "Why not add some excitement to such a stale tale, and some fairy culture now that the responsibility of being the Evil Queen has fallen upon my family, you know since Clawstorm Queen has made it clear that she and her family want nothing to do with your family or the fairytale business anymore."
"That was a low blow Fay." Ashlynn said dryly, patting a seething Apple White on the back.
"Nothing wrong with reminding the damsel that I will one day poison her and of the truths of reality and besides that I actually like the bunch who are rebelling against the establishment, they actually make things interesting around here, maidens and heroes adhering strictly to the same status quo gets so tedious it's not even worth it to muster up a proper evil cackle it's so overdone." Faybelle drawls just to dig the figurative knife in a little deeper. "Really it's just too much fun egging them on, giving them new ideas for little ways that they can break from tradition, and watching the sheer amount of pandemonium that erupts because of it, really it's everything a bored villain in a school filled with predictable perfectionists could ask for really." That and Briar was always so gleeful listening to the weekly little triumphs that the rebellion had won against fairytales as a whole, as long as it didn't mess with what Faybelle had going on with her roles she'd be willing to help the cause along in her own villainous little ways…
"But they'll disappear if they don't do their stories!" Apple gasped in shock. "You can't just encourage them!"
"You still believe in that hogwash even though you continue to search for Clawstorm Queen and her long lost child?" Faybelle snorted, trying to muffle a laugh, for some reason she just pictured Dr. Clawstorm GrimmBook (formerly Clawstorm Queen) looking down at herself and saying something along the lines: "If I've disappeared then I must be in hell because this afterlife sucks! Where are the fountains of chocolate and the harem of naked winged spirits I was promised for dying a martyr?" or something like: "Yesss, yes Clawstorm Queen has disappeared -got the legal papers and the spiffy new citizenship certificate to prove it actually- there is no need to bother her or her family anymore, we who have disappeared like it when we don't get found by nobodies~", or maybe even something along the lines of: "If she is still concerned that people will disappear then why is her psychotic mother still trying to find me? I put a lot of work into being dead and just because it's inconvenient for them they decide to just up and ignore it all? What's a girl gotta do to enjoy the spoils of properly vanishing into the night?"
"You think that this is funny?" Apple demanded. "People could be in serious danger here! The real Evil Queen could be in danger and her daughter too! Don't you care about what's going to happen to them at all?"
Faybelle shrugged, grinning fully to show off her sharp teeth completely and moving her body as well as her long pointed ears forwards in a very fairy kind of challenge.
"I am the future Evil Queen and Evil Fairy aren't I?" She clicked her tongue in wicked glee at the look of absolute horror that crossed Apple's face and Ashlynn's annoyed pinched look before transporting herself out of the cafeteria in a swirl of terrible dark blue magic that arced lightning through the air for a split second before the fairy was gone.
"What was that all about? I've never seen Faybelle act like this back home." Cupid whispers to her new roommate in the ensuing silence as the two girls (plus half the lunchroom) stared at a near hyperventilating Blonde princess from across the room (Ashlynn who didn't personally put much stock into the whole "everybody disappears" scare tactic and knows for a fact that Faybelle doesn't believe in it either just casts Faybelle's empty lunch tray a sour look as she pats a traumatized Apple on the back).
Blondie turns to her winged companion with a question, regarding to how exactly Cupid knew Faybelle when as far as the blonde reporter knew both the fairy and the young god only just met, on the very tip of her tongue, only for it to turn into a startled squeak when she spotted said fairy standing right behind them.
"Oh! Hello Fay, you startled me a tiny bit." Cupid gave Faybelle a kind familiar smile and, much to Blondie's immense surprise the fairy smirked cheekily back.
"My dear Chariclo, could you possibly spare a moment of your precious time? I need to discuss something of the utmost importance with you right away." Faybelle crooned almost flirtatiously as she rested her hands upon Cupid's shoulders.
"Oh of course, if it's that important, I'll be back soon Blondie." Cupid managed to wave at her roommate before both fairy and winged girl disappeared in a much more calm swirl of blue magic.
XXX
The moment the two were transported to the deserted south lawn Cupid dropped her cheerful expression and replaced it with a reproachful frown. "Faybelle, I understand that you are a villain…"
"It was necessary I assure you, perfectly proper form for a villain in these parts." Faybelle assured quickly. "If I was any less cruel I would have gotten real flack for not acting in character, I am supposed to cause my damsel distress, it's confusing, I know but the Headmaster does have very strict rules about these proper formalities… and well to be honest I am more than a bit miffed that little old Apple is still so quick to throw all my hard earned work by the wayside just because I am of the wrong species and family blood…" Faybelle made an extra effort to look hurt and downcast at the last part of her hasty explanation, she considered going as far as to produce some fake tears but negated that thought seeing as how that would wound her pride way too much. "I do work very hard to be a good villain, to do my duty properly in the face of being handed so many stories to preside over, but it does sting when nobody appreciates it, at least the rebellion folks understand… although lately that understanding is more than what the traditionalists give me I'm afraid…"
"…This is all so very confusing." Cupid sighed, letting her shoulders drop. "What was that bit about people disappearing? It seems to have really upset Apple White over there."
At that Faybelle snorted, graduating to a snicker as she rolled her eyes. "Well for one thing it's not at all true, I'll get that out of the way right off. According to mom and auntie Doctor-witch, after his brother Giles Grimm went missing the Headmaster started implementing an old, very untrue, myth that if a fairytale character doesn't fulfill their story they'll disappear from the face of the world forever, and while there have been fairytale character who have disappeared… the truth is that in reality they've just runaway from it all. Off to far away dimensions where no one would ever find them and without heirs to continue the line the fairytales are either dropped from the roster, or like in my case, rolls are carried off to a different family to take them up."
"Runaway?" Cupid blinked. "But I thought that it was a big honor to be part of a fairytale."
"For many it is." Faybelle nodded. "But not for all, I'm sure that you have been warned about the sometimes volatile nature of politics and being very… select in what species is considered inherently good and which is considered inherently evil?"
Cupid shivered slightly but nodded, hugging her arms to herself as she distinctly felt the glamour charms placed into the smooth bone of her flesh, making her look more human, making it easier for others to not question what they saw even if they touched her to discover that her skin was not nearly as soft or pliant as everybody else's.
"The rebellion does not believe the Headmaster or in his strict laws designed to control everybody to the point that they do, and since the rebellion itself does not affect me or my stories I do what I can to help out… for Briar's sake." Faybelle sighed, putting an only halfway false note of truth in her voice.
"Briar?" Cupid asked.
"For her sake I cannot divulge the entire story, and if I hear anything, and I mean anything from anybody else but those who are supposed to know you are in big trouble you understand?" Faybelle says with full sincerity in her seriousness. "Briar's the illegitimate child of one of the maidens from my mother and auntie Doctor-Witch's graduating class. They took pity on Briar as a baby and spirited her away while auntie Doctor-Witch was running away from… her abusive father. If they hadn't done something then Briar would have been brought to the Headmaster's attention and he would have banished her, just like he'd banish any illegitimate child born from the wrong breeding, to a place that not even the fairies know where exactly, and trust me, around here, that is cause for some worry."
Faybelle wasn't certain how much the whole banishing thing was true but she knew that Cupid would take it seriously, and therefore it would help in getting her to willingly keep mum about Briar and Raven.
"Dr. GrimmBook told me that her father threw her away…" Cupid whispered as the pieces dropped into place inside her brain, coming to her own conclusions.
Faybelle nodded. "That he did, but what they don't like to talk about is that while he did throw her away… he also used his… influence to make her sort of regret being born, so to speak."
Cupid looked up sharply, her eyes alight with an emotion that was more intense than what Faybelle had anticipated, for a brief moment before the young goddess appeared to calm down slightly. "So… Apple White believes in this myth?"
"Yes and no." Faybelle waved her hand in the air lazily. "I personally don't know where Clawstorm Queen, the intended Evil Queen, ran off to but I do know that the extreme anti-Queen family politics that Snow White was campaigning for at the time did a serious number on the wellbeing of that witch-kingdom but because Snow White is supposedly the fairest of them all… well nobody was willing to stand up for a villain so she gave my mother the responsibility, begged really, it was awfully sad, and things stabilized and the common people thrived happily under a new semi-democratic government. It was supposed to be that everybody would assume that she just vanished and the line to the Queen throne died out but despite that the Headmaster and the White family insist that Clawstorm Queen and perhaps her heir are still alive out there so they are determined to find them and then drag them back against their will so that they can regain control of the rebelling fairytale characters who aren't buying into the scare tactics."
Cupid furrowed her brows. "Clawstor-?"
"It's a common villain kingdom name. Have more than a few in my personal family tree to be frank. Plus they both come from the same kingdom so there are some similarities but… well you know how similar people can look when they come from a certain region." Faybelle tried on her most charming grin with eyebrows waggling and everything.
"Ah." Cupid nodded, buying the lie. "But Apple white looked really frantic back there."
Faybelle shrugged helplessly. "She keeps insisting that I become a better villain, so I only do my best to oblige, but it's difficult because she says "be meaner to me" but when I do she's all disappointed because I'm not a witch and because in giving her exactly what she's asked for I've ended up hurting her feelings. If I liked her better I'd try to talk with her about finding a happy medium but she doesn't like me very much on principle and since I'm not the imaginary person she's looking for I'd never measure up to the pretend ideal of a villain in her head. Even if the heir to the Queen throne did exist I don't think that she or he would amount up to what that blonde nut thinks is a real villain. Trust me its just better being a maiden or a prince around Apple, she can be a bit…" Faybelle twirled her finger for the loony sign.
"Ah." Cupid nodded again. "Maybe it's a form of childhood comfort since she was probably raised to believe that the perfect villain will give her a perfect life… that and maybe there is a developing fetish…" the winged girl speculated to herself in a low murmur.
Faybelle choked on air. "Yep. That must be it." She breathed, not sure whether to laugh or retch. "Sounds legit. Let's go back."
Cupid paused, looking at the fairy curiously. "You aren't going to ask me whether I'll keep it a secret?"
"I don't ask because I know that you won't. Shrink to patient confidentiality and all that… plus you did date Briar's sister…" Faybelle coughed trying to mentally scrub the horrible image of Apple swooning after her aunt from her brain.
"And I like Dr. GrimmBook quite a bit." Cupid admitted, an unreadable look in her eye as she linked her hands around Faybelle's offered arm (although she wasn't usually so gentlemanly at school Faybelle did hold much respect for Cupid and she did like to keep her charming side in practice for when she visited the monster realm and didn't have to act like a villain all the time just to fit in, the fairy wasn't exactly lying about it being tiring after an hour or two). "She's earned to live her happily ever after in peace. I'll only concern myself with learning the culture from class and aiding my clients."
