A/N: IMPORTANT: BEFORE YOU READ THIS CHAPTER, REREAD THE WHOLE STORY. REASONS AT THE SECOND AUTHOR'S NOTE AT THE END. GO TO CHAPPIE ONE!
"Grrawr grrargh…" Nevermore growled lowly, wanting to call the attention of her mistress, who was zoned out looking at nothing in particular.
Raven settled for patting the creature's head and giving a tired, half-sincere smile and exiting the sty without giving explanation. In the distance she spotted a yellow dragon flying in direction to the arena, Braebyrn without a doubt. She came out just in time.
After walking without a destination for a couple minutes, she spotted Cerise's hood in the middle of a small group located in the bleachers. They were probably discussing about the battle and her mom, and while the last thing she wanted to do was hear of Saundra, it was better than going to her dorm room and wait in silence for the inevitable moment when Apple walked in.
The feelings inside of Raven's chest before that hypothetical situation were a mixture of anxiety, yearn and discomfort. Anxiety, because it made her nervous that she didn't know what she would say. Yearn, because all she wanted to do was embrace Apple and never let go, or at least until she convinced herself that this was all the mistake she wanted to believe it was. And discomfort, because it would be hextremely awkward and hextremely uncomfortable for both.
So, pushing that thought to the deepest corner of her brain and frown formed in her beautifully crafted features, the lavender-eyed witch made her way towards them. Once she was within earshot she heard Holly yell something about miscalculating a spell and Cerise comment something went terribly wrong, and that ringed her bells. Why exactly, she didn't know. It just felt odd that they were using those terms, way too odd.
She hasn't discarded the possibility of her mom miscalculating something in the spell, but it seemed so impossible, given the amount of time Saundra had to elaborate her little plan and her expertise on the subject, that it could only be on purpose. And if by any chance the spell actually went South, it would still be quite a mystery which things worked right and which not, specifically the True Love's kiss part, if she didn't have a talk with the older Queen, a thing that wouldn't happen in a good while.
Now, putting all that aside, why were her friends discussing about that? Did they know something she didn't? Did they have an inkling that could somehow help her current misery? If they did, she had a right to know as well.
"What went terribly wrong, if may I know?" she asked, casting a questioning look that expressed exactly what she wanted to say but couldn't, nobody leaves until my question is responded.
Apparently nobody noticed her until the purple-haired girl spoke, because they all froze at the sound of her voice.
Briar, ever being the risk taker, broke the silence, "Raven." Simply said the brunette clad in pink.
"We were trying to understand what the hell happened today." Supplied Cerise, who knew much better than to lie to Raven in such a delicate moment.
Raven closed her eyes and raised a brow in an unimpressed fashion, releasing a sigh right after, "And what happened? Besides Apple waking up, that is." she dragged the words tiredly, without a trace of her usual amiable self.
Briar gave Raven a look of pity. It was too obvious that the girl was devastated and nearly beyond repair. Raven loved to refer to Apple as "her girlfriend" or "her girl" and such terms, and the fact she wasn't doing so was enough to tell. She would have to pick her words carefully if she didn't want the witch misunderstanding something, a something that could condemn her and her Best Friend Forever After's relationship to death.
"You see, Raven, Apple didn't exactly wake up by a kiss. She was choking and CPR was needed in order to keep her from suffocating to death, and then the only way to make oxygen reach her lungs was mouth-to-mouth…" Briar explained calmly, watching intently any signal of anger, jealousy, anything that told her it was better to shut up. But so far, she only saw concentration, Raven's focus on solving the puzzle she was putting before her.
That was… Until the signal came, in the form of mixed envy, jealousy and "what-ifs", all concealed in those lavender irises.
"And Daring did it after whining, didn't he?" Raven asked.
Of course it had to be Daring. He was Apple's destined Prince Charming, how come she didn't reach that conclusion before? She was too distracted with locking her mom in, then the fall, and then her own angst. What if she had been there? What if she had applied mouth-to-mouth to Apple while Daring arrived? Because Raven didn't remember the blonde boy being there at all!
"Actually… No, Daring couldn't wake Apple." Cerise butted in pausedly, but at the sight of Raven's widening eyes indicated that no matter how slow she said it, it would've had the same result. After all, it was surprising to all of the present, let alone being told the story and not seeing it with your own eyes.
"What? What do you mean with that Daring couldn't wake her up?" the purple-haired witch exclaimed in barely concealed outrage.
"Daring is not Apple's Prince Charming." Melody inquired and begged for someone to complement her comment, because hell she didn't want the next question aimed to her.
"I know we all thought he was, including Daring himself, but turns out he's not. He tried to wake Apple but, he couldn't. And then she began choking." Holly, who had been silent up until that moment, spoke. She knew what was coming next and she wanted to find what went wrong, get her hands on whatever or whoever caused the spell's malfunction and get this done and over with.
Raven, on her side, was very close to a migraine. If Daring wasn't Apple's Prince, then who? This reinforced her theory of the spell failure, but only a bit, and that wasn't enough to quench her thirst for answers. She had to know who woke Apple up now!
"Who woke up Apple then? Who?" she asked twice, with severity, making it clear that she didn't want to be fooled around.
Cerise and Briar's gazes met for a split second before looking away awkwardly. Meeshell raised an eyebrow. Melody winced, as if pained. Holly held her breath.
Everyone was tense. But Darling… Darling looked as if she'd rather swallow her favorite dagger than answer that question. But she had to and be honest, in order to save her friendship with Raven, she had to and find out what went wrong. She had to.
"I did." Darling finally spat out.
To say Raven was astonished was an understatement.
"Want to grab something to eat, sweetie? You must be famished." Snow White offered, wanting to cheer her daughter up.
"I guess I'd like…" Apple cut herself short when she caught a glimpse of Faybelle, who was standing outside the mass of students who either were too distracted to notice her, or decided to ignore the traitor to keep themselves from getting expulsed.
The blonde Princess, however, would have none of that, "Give me a moment, mom. I'll be right back." Was the only thing she said before walking straight up to the Thorn, a scowl forming on her way.
Bianca White, a woman that prized herself for being good at analyzing people and their behavior, knew Apple was very, very close to cause hell to break havoc, but the second she spotted the fairy who'd been helping Saundra, she decided to let her daughter handle it. Maleficent's daughter, apparently.
Faybelle saw Apple coming to her with squared shoulders and an unfriendly face, but didn't flee. It was her time, she knew it.
"You." Apple stopped for only a second and grabbed her by the arm forcefully, dragging her away from prying eyes and, more importantly, her mother's eyes.
They ended up in the Enchanted Forest, far enough so their words couldn't be heard.
"You will tell me how I ended up poisoned and why everyone's acting like something wasn't quite right with me waking up. And you will tell me now, Faybelle Thorn." Apple all but growled menacingly.
The fae gulped, positively scared off her pants, but complied ultimately. Perhaps that could make her punishment less terrible.
"The Evil Queen put her role to use, again. She casted a spell on an apple and ordered me to make sure you ate it. I put it on the basket of fruit you and your friends were eating from in the Enchanted Forest and you just… Fell for it." Apple tightened her grip on her arm and emitted a growl, "Okay, sorry! You ate it and that's all! I don't know why everyone's acting as if it wasn't meant to be! Daring was supposed to kiss you awake, wasn't he?! All I know is I wouldn't want to be in Raven's place right now. Hex, I don't want to be in my own skin!" Faybelle blurted out in a rapid rant.
Apple felt her blood boil. So this rat with wings put that in the basket… I know what to do.
"You are coming to my mother. Together, we will decide what will be of you and not even the Evil Fairy will be able to help you if we decide to condemn you to jail." Apple threatened and dragged the Thorn girl with her back to where her mom was patiently standing, signing a bunch of autographs for the fairy tales who asked her.
"Guys," Apple called as gently as she could with a lion attempting to pound out of her chest and everybody looked at her, "I will take whatever you've brought for the Queen to sign and deliver it to you personally later, I promise. But right now, we need to solve something, if you know what I mean." She finished by nodding once in direction of someone behind her and only then they noticed Faybelle.
The fairy tales handed Apple their notepads, pieces of parchment and even a few items of clothing before casting a naughty look at Faybelle and leaving.
"Apple honey, is this really necessary?" Snow White asked, masking very well her desire to bring Saundra's assistant to her correspondent sentence.
"Yes, mother. Because certainly you will be kinder than me in imparting punishment to Faybelle. I know I am in my right as Princess to apply sentence, but I need a… Counterweight, so to say, to not be unfair." Apple explained with a slight bow of her head.
Bianca pondered her options for a moment. Punish Maleficent's daughter and risk an improbable war, diminish the punishment and unleash her daughter's fury, or…
"You, girl of the Thorn clan, will contact your mother immediately. I shall talk to her before giving you what you deserve for your wrong actions towards not only your class partners, teachers and myself, but to my daughter." Bianca spoke serene and politely, but that didn't cover up the fact she was about to make her pay one way or another, and the price would be high.
Faybelle Thorn, for the first time in her life, was scared beyond her reasoning, and the incertitude only grew bigger when she punched in her mother's number and heard the distinctive sound of a call dialing.
Raven was simply not believing it.
Darling? Darling was Apple's Prince? Or Princess, for that matter. But that made it all the more confusing.
Raven's eyes travelled between Darling and Holly a number of times before she finally dropped to her knees, letting out a breath she didn't know she was holding.
Holly slowly knelt beside Raven and put a gentle hand on her shoulder, but didn't say a word. There's wasn't much she could say. But if there were, the redhead Princess knew Raven would listen.
"I don't love Apple."
Raven and Holly's gazes focused on Darling immediately after the last word was spoken.
"And she doesn't love me. We're not a destined couple." The Charming added casting an unyielding look at Raven, wanting to demonstrate she was being sincere.
"How do we know, Darling? How do I know? How do you know?" Raven asked, shaking her head as if trying to make the synapsis in her head to create faster.
"Did we, or do we look like a couple secretly in love? We never interacted directly much. When we were kids and she visited my family's castle she'd be hoarded by Daring and we barely got any time to play. Later, before high school began, our mothers became stricter with acting like ladies and we only had very little time to chat before she was ushered with Daring." The blue-eyed girl paused to look at Holly for a second and continued. "We barely talk nowadays and it's mostly because she's the girlfriend of one of my Best Friends Forever After and the friend and mentor of my own girlfriend. I always saw her as a friend and future sister-in-law, and with the second one being scratched out the list, she's just that, a friend. And I am sure it's the same for her. If someone is my True Love, it is Holly. And if someone is Apple White's True Love, it is you, Raven Queen, you and no one else."
The Queen girl remained silent, taking in everything that she was told by Darling. Briar, Cerise, Melody and Meeshell looked intently at the scene, but refrained from talking, since the four understood this had to be discussed between them for now.
Holly looked at Darling briefly before breathing sharply and proceeding to explain their current situation from her point of view.
"I know what you're thinking, Raven." Said girl turned to Holly as she spoke, "You don't know what is true and what is not. You are unsure whether the love prophesied between you and Apple was as strong as you thought it was. All you want, is to wake up from the nightmare you are in and hug her like there was no tomorrow, to convince yourself she is yours and you are hers. How do I know all of this? Because a while ago I was feeling and thinking the same as you, and to be honest, I still am a little."
Darling looked down at those words, but quickly recomposed. It was only logic Holly still felt unsure.
Raven, on her side, gasped. The fact Holly was going through the same as her had just finished settling in, and it was horrendous. Both were on the receiving end of a possible mistake and it hurt. The poor girl was more fragile than she was, but apparently she and Darling had talked previously and were in enormously better terms than she and Apple.
Before the purple-haired girl could say a thing, Holly continued.
"It's only natural we feel deceived, forgone and heartbroken. But you know who made me hold onto the hope this was all a big bad mistake? That girl right there." The O'Hair nodded towards Darling, who looked dumbfounded, "She got me out of my dark cloud of thoughts, only with her determination to make this all better for us, and for you two, too. Putting the puzzle together might take time, but hope makes us patient and I'm hoping you hold the same one as us, because we're pretty much sure something went wrong. Apple loves you. She loves you more than anything, more than destiny, more than what had been taught to her since her birth. She asked for you the minute she noticed you were gone and nearly went mad when she knew you were with the Evil Queen. She was the one to lead us to you. Will you believe in that? Or in an improbable secret love story between Darling and Apple?"
The silence was thick with expectation. If Raven closed herself in a bubble of insecurity and doubt, there would be no chance of fixing things, no chance of a distantly normal Ever After High.
Sitted on the bleachers, Briar listened to every word that was spoken and found herself amused. The situation had brought a reflexive, more analytic side in Holly. One that perhaps had been there the whole time, but hidden to the world outside her own head. It had also brought all of Raven's demons to the surface, and that made it harder to get to her in the right way. But so far, the lavender-eyed girl was relatively calm, and thinking hard. They would see in a matter of moments whether that had good results or not.
And soon enough, Raven spoke, "I choose to believe in what I've seen and what I've felt in the time Apple and I have been together. I choose to believe she and a great friend such as Darling wouldn't be able to betray the ones who loved them."
Darling smiled and approached, offering both hands to lift Holly and Raven off the ground, doing so in a quick and smooth pull.
Darling and Raven stood there for moments before hugging tightly, parting after a few seconds.
"Thank you for believing in me, Raven." Darling said.
"If something I know is that both you and Apple are not traitors. I needed someone to pull me out of my own misery and get to work. Thank you, Holly." Raven addressed the redhead and hugged her tightly, but briefly and Holly returned the gesture.
"Okay. So far, we know sleeping spells are delicate to cast and some more so than others, including the spell of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, and the fact that even the emotions within the magic user who casted the spell can influence and cause malfunctions." Cerise quickly inquired. Now that the tension in the air dissipated in good measure, they had to get to work as soon as possible.
"All of that is correct. And there's only one way to determine if this was truly a mistake or not." Raven eyed the main building of the school once she finished.
"And what is that way?" Melody asked, hoping it wasn't too nuts of a plan.
"Talking to my mother." Raven answered simply, strongly, unafraid.
"And what about Apple?" Briar was the one to ask this time.
"We are getting her too. I want my girl with me."
Raven answered the same way as before, beginning to make her way to the main building, the rest following up close.
A/N 2: Yep, still alive, cuties! Once again I apologize for the time that took updating. Destiny's Kiss, along with other stories, went under an edition phase to correct mistakes and incongruences, plus the addition of material that was originally removed for dumb reasons. That's why I told you to reread the whole story.
Thanks for keeping up with Destiny's Kiss, see you in the next chapter!
GDQ wishes you a good day/afternoon/night!