A/n: I have no idea why I have this headcannon of Raven as a sort of witchy-maiden… I suppose I'd just find it amusing if Raven had some gentle maiden qualities while still maintaining her outspoken independence, like her personality as a whole is the exact opposite of what her destiny dictates she be, which is a crude, devious, and dependently obsessed with the princess, bad guy. It would also be amusing if it's her hand being fought over by two completely different personalities, thus why I'm attempting this fic.

As for the OC's I've decided to mix in some old ones with some new ones, since Faybelle will be a major character in this story I've decided to keep my OC of her cousin Charlotte, and Raven's grandmother Elenore. I'm going to have several Royal OCs (maybe a cat with a fiddle or something) along with characters I didn't use much in my previous story.

I'm also going to try to pick up the pace with my writing style, make this fic go by quicker, it'll help (I think) that I'm unable to post past twenty-one pages (curse you ).

Also should I attempt to raise the rating on this to M or just keep things pg-14?

Be warned this whole thing is a writing experiment.

Let's see how this works out…

XXX

Her cousin's face was unreadable on the screen as she silently digested what Faybelle had just told her.

"So you're actually admitting that it took you seeing the girl naked before you actually believed her when she said that she doesn't want to become the Evil Queen?" Charlotte asked incredulously with a raised brow. "Personally that whole Legacy Day debacle would have convinced me no problem, but then again you were always the paranoid one."

"Charlotte." Faybelle groaned flopping on her back to her bed and slapping a hand over her eyes. "I'm asking for your help here."

Charlotte sighed. "I know, I'm sorry but that was the first thing that popped into my head, I mean seriously? How do you keep getting yourself into these situations?"

"Dumb luck?" Faybelle suggested shrugging. "This is Ever After High, stranger things have actually happened."

"Every time you describe anything interesting happening at your school you make it seem like they've been running a nut house over there. The most exciting thing that I've had to talk about in the past three months here at Hathor Witch Academy is… that one incident where three first-years in broomriding class lost control, two got tangled up in the trees and one landed on my bed through the open window." Charlotte recalled with a shake of her head. "Why are you coming to me first anyway? Isn't the serious stuff usually dealt with by our mothers?"

"For one, you know just as well as I do that our mothers will want to take immediate action in order to both slight the Evil Queen and gain me the second title, but I had given Raven the honor of my word to keep things discreet, and in order to keep matters discrete I need legal options from an unbiased source… and since you are half witch, half fairy… and currently residing at Hathor Witch Academy where they have all of those legal books…"

Charlotte raised a brow but nodded. "Am I allowed to have some discrete help from one of my fellow witches who are actually in the legal track or do I have to come up with an excuse as to why I am lurking around that section of the library?"

Faybelle waived in acceptance to her cousin's concerns. "I've seen you charm the literal skirt off of some uptight maidens when we were kids, remember that one time on mirror beach when those girls were horrified that we dared wear bathing suits without a skirt to cover our bare legs and by the time you were done with them they were wearing way less than we were?" The fairy snickered at the memory.

Charlotte smirked. "Before I get to work on a few of my… acquaintances, is there anything else that you'd like to talk about?" The witch asked, knowing that there was something else, when her cousin was in such serious moods there was almost always something else.

"What…" Faybelle bit her lip, taking the rare luxury of showing helpless confusion (a weakness that she would not dare show to anyone save a select few) in front of her cousin. "What should I do about Raven in the meantime? I mean… she's not our family nemesis anymore and… and after the scandal she caused today, I'm a… little nervous that someone might happen upon her and… well who knows what might happen! What if one of the Royals or the Headmaster manages to convince her to keep her title?"

"I hardly doubt that will happen after everything she's already gone through but if your so worried why don't you let her bunk with you for the weekend? At least you'll always know where she is and you might as well get used to her being around until we've got this all sorted." Charlotte sighed at the scandalous look that crossed her cousin's face. "Or you could always leave her at the mercy of her determined, soon-to-be-former, princess and hope for the best…"

"The things I do for family honor." Faybelle grumbled squinting up at her ceiling; she wondered how Raven would react when she told the witch that the reason why there were so many sprinklers over her bed because Faybelle had the teeny tiny habit of conjuring fire and lightning while she slept…

Charlotte blinked at the easy acceptance to her suggestion. "You gave in unusually quick."

"You've never met Apple White, for a supposedly meek maiden she was immensely ticked off that Raven had never shown up for the competition. Last I saw of her after dinner she had gotten even more worked up than before because no one had seen Raven since classes ended. Briar was worried that she'll do something drastic if Raven doesn't show up by morning." Faybelle admitted a little nervously, when Briar got worried over Apple White going too far it tended to be something serious.

"I thought you said that Raven told her that she didn't want to be apart of the competition. Why is she acting so surprised that her roommate is trying to hide from the whole thing? I'd hide too if I were in her shoes." Charlotte admitted, utterly confused over this particular princess's motives, it certainly didn't sound like an effective technique to persuade someone into a destiny they didn't want.

"I'll admit that is some pretty strange behavior for someone like Apple White who I know is smart enough to be taking most of the advanced classes offered here… I'll ask Raven if she knows anything about Apple's motivations in the morning." Faybelle mumbled tiredly. "Have pleasant night-classes cousin."

"And you have some restful nightmares cousin." Charlotte bid Faybelle good night before hanging up.

Faybelle stared blankly at the screen of her phone for a moment, before flicking through her documents and selecting one of the reports Raven had given her to reread for the third time.

The identity of the witchling rescued from the Evil Queen's laboratory was her own loomed daughter Raven Queen, after Elenore Queen, the witchling's grandmother had managed to call for help alerting authorities to the scene. It appeared that the Evil Queen had been using her daughter's blood as a base ingredient in creating an experimental curse…

XXX

"She hasn't come back yet." Apple paced Raven's side of their dorm agitatedly.

"She's probably staying the night in someone else's dorm, I'm sure she's fine." Ashlynn spoke soothingly as she sat daintily on Apple's bed.

"I don't understand it!" Apple exclaimed touching her fingers to her forehead. "Why is she being so stubborn about this? I just wanted us to spend the weekend having quality frienemy time and she just up and disappears without a trace!"

"Well Apple, you can't completely lay all the blame on Raven's shoulders, she did tell you that she didn't want anything to do with the villain stuff. I told you that signing her up for that competition without her permission was a bad idea." Briar scolded, her arms folded tightly around her chest.

"But that was supposed to be a surprise! I wanted to show Raven that being Evil could be fun! How could she have found out about it so quickly?" Apple questioned, working herself up even more.

Briar sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "About that… Rosabella mentioned that during their music class the Headmaster had called Raven down to his office… I'm pretty sure he's the one that told her."

Apple made a pinched face, closing her eyes as if physically pained. "Of course he did…"

Briar and Ashlynn shared a look, Ashlynn motioned to Briar who shook her head and gestured encouragingly to Ashlynn, finally the two of them had a silent rock, paper, and scissors contest, Briar winning with scissors.

"Listen Apple…" Ashlynn began nervously. "I know that you just want Raven to drop this whole Rebel business so that your life can get back on track… but we think that maybe you went a little too far this time trying to convince her."

Apple's eyes snapped open. "What do you mean?" She asked sounding slightly hurt that her friends weren't on her side this time.

"We think that you spooked her with that little stunt of yours." Briar informed unapologetically, her cool stare dared the blonde princess to call them out for being truthful. "I mean first you try to trick her into doing something she really doesn't want to do and then because of your actions she's being put on the spot once again. Come on, you can't deny that Raven is a pretty private individual normally, she only lets herself be center stage when she absolutely has to."

Apple bit her lip, looking between the two.

"I just… I'd like it if she'd at least try being evil for a little bit. I know that she, like all the Rebels, have to come around to see things the Royal way eventually so she needs to keep practice." She confessed. "I mean it's not like it'd hurt her to try her hand at it every once in a while."

Ashlynn grimaced not missing the slight towards not only Raven but also herself for being a Rebel, looking for a better life after high school.

"Actually…" Ashlynn began with thinned lips. "I think that it hurts her more that you'd like to admit, earlier today I saw her try to walk past a group of freshman Royals in the hall at lunch break, they all pointed at her and screamed, calling her a monster and a bunch of other really mean things. Raven looked just about ready to cry when she ran outside."

Apple hesitated. "Evil Queens shouldn't get hurt feelings over stuff like that." She said not able to meet Ashlynn's eye.

"The same Evil Queen who tried to genocide entire worlds? The one who Raven has been trying to distance herself from out of sheer self preservation?" Briar asked dryly. "I know that you're hoping that Raven can prove to the worlds that she's earned the right to live a good life with the title of Evil Queen by fulfilling your destiny to become Snow White but it's way more difficult than that and you know it. Maybe if you stopped to actually talk to her about it, help her figure out solutions she would stop running away from you."

This time Apple looked down, thoroughly scolded.

"I don't think that I'm the one Raven's afraid of, but I will try to talk to her next time I see her." Apple promised. "She should be back sometime tomorrow, it's not like she can avoid trying to sneak herself some food, and she's not going to do something as drastic as to hide for the entire weekend."

XXX

Raven looked over her food rations for the weekend with a hum of surprised satisfaction; she had squirreled away more than enough food to survive the next two days. She mentally patted herself on the back for being so prepared to hide out for such an extended period of time.

"Raven?" Faybelle's voice called out. "I'm alone, you can come out of hiding now."

The fairy rolled her eyes when Raven tentatively peeked over a row of lockers towards the direction that Faybelle's voice had come from.

"If Apple gives me grief over my taking away the title of Evil Queen I'm going to tell her about this moment." Faybelle grumbled as Raven behaved like a startled small animal as she cautiously stepped out from the plushy carpeted areas between the lockers and benches onto the heated wooden floor.

"It is possible then?" Raven asked hopeful as she walked barefoot to Faybelle. "You can free me of that destiny?"

"'Course I can." Faybelle sniffed. "It's practically going to be over and done with come Monday now that you've given me cause and your permission, the only thing that needs to be done is to go about figuring out how to do this in a way so that nobody can oppose it."

"I'm almost free." Raven whispered tears springing to her eyes. "I can't believe it, I don't have to do it, I can escape!" The deeply moved witch covered her mouth with both hands.

Faybelle's eyes widened. "Hey, hey, hey, don't go all emotional on me." She ordered waiving her hands frantically. "I need you to keep it together so that I can sneak you into my dorm for the weekend."

Raven blinked. "Why do you want me to go there?"

"I'm keeping my future investment safe." Faybelle told her. "You didn't come back to your dorm last night and missed another round of competition, Apple's hacked, and so are a lot of villains by the way, the Headmaster's rigged the entire competition so no matter what you do, you will be the one who wins, I'm afraid that sooner or later there'll be a witch hunt for you."

Raven whimpered, actually whimpered, and then looked to the ground as if she felt guilty, Faybelle couldn't believe her eyes.

"I've made Apple worried, maybe I should send her a message telling her that I'm all right." The witch wondered fidgeting worriedly.

"You will do no such thing!" Faybelle commanded in a no-nonsense tone. "She knows perfectly well why you're hiding, let her lay in the bed that she's made for herself and don't let her make you feel guilty over it."

"But what if she thinks that I'm hurt, or worse?" Raven asked. "I'd never be able to forgive myself if I worried her like that."

Faybelle rolled her eyes, just how naïve was this girl? "She's more concerned that you aren't following your destiny, trust me, by the time Monday comes the only thing she'll be yelling at you for is that you refused to be her evil little pet for the weekend."

Raven thought for a moment but then shook her head. "Fine, I'll keep radio silence, but I'll have you know that Apple cares about me way more than just my role in her fairytale, when she gets onto me about how worried she was I'm blaming you entirely." The witch sniffed as if getting blamed for a minor evil was supposed to make Faybelle think twice about keeping Raven's whereabouts a secret.

The fairy bit back a laugh, how adorable; she had met mosquitoes with more evil bite than what was apparently in Raven.

And yet at the same time it was oddly… maiden-like of the witch to be acting so freaking noble towards Apple even while she was hiding from the princess… it was almost like their roles had switched slightly, Raven was the gentle maiden in hiding and Apple was… well not evil, but she was acting pretty meanly for a supposed future Snow White, what with this scheme to turn Raven evil.

"Are you sure you aren't actually a maiden?" Faybelle snorted down a snicker. "You're sure acting like one."

"What?" Raven asked innocently, the comment going over her head.

Faybelle sighed. "Never mind. Go pack up your stuff and get ready to leave."

"How are we going to get all the way to your dorm without being seen?" Raven asked. "I had trouble the first time around and that was when they weren't looking for me."

"I have a plan." Faybelle assured taking out a glass potion bottle. "Since the villain competition is obviously rigged you are going to help me try to win a different one, there's a pet competition in an hour and you are going to take this beast-transforming potion and win me something."

Raven's eyes looked like they were going to pop out. "What?" She squeaked.

"Oh, yeah, you'd better try to go to the bathroom first, your going to be an animal for the next two to three hours and I'm not changing you back until the competition is over and we are safely in my dorm." Faybelle declared, hands on her hips.

"But-" Raven tried to argue.

"Or I could always leave you here…"

"Going! Going!" Raven said as she headed for the bathroom stalls.

XXX

"It figures that you'd turn out to be two different animals put into one." Faybelle sighed as she set her fuzzy bundle onto her bed and moved away in order to set Raven's duffel bag in the empty closet that was dutifully reserved for a roommate who had not made it out of Wonderland in time before it was poisoned. "A cat with furry bird wings… is there any part of you that does things the simple way?" The fairy grouched.

"Hey Faybelle? Do your mirrors have privacy spells on them?" Cat-Raven asked (the beast-potion did not take away the ability to talk in tongues that others would understand) worriedly as she stared at her reflection in the mirror situated across Faybelle's bed.

"That's an odd question." The fairy observed eyeing the black and white shorthaired cat suspiciously. "Why do you ask?"

Raven shifted awkwardly on her paws, nearly tipping over when her wings suddenly wrapped around her unconsciously. "It's… probably just me being paranoid but… for a couple of months now, ever since Legacy Day, I swear I sensed my mother's magic through the mirrors of the school, and I know that somebody's been watching me… my magic can sense that pretty clearly so there's no question. I had first tried to brush it off as me getting more attention than I was used to… but then I started seeing her in the corner of my vision whenever I passed one. So I've been putting privacy spells on all the mirrors I can get away with, it's been working, but whether I'm just being paranoid or if my mother actually is watching me is-"

"What's the spell you've been using?" Faybelle asked walking brusquely to her mirror.

"You believe me?" Raven asked surprised. "When I told Apple she acted like I was losing my mind."

"Apple White may like to pretend that the current Evil Queen wasn't as freakishly crazy or dishonorable in her career but I like to be practical about things, especially when those things have the potential power to kill me. There is nothing in the worlds more precise than witch's intuition, if you felt her watching, most likely she is." Faybelle snapped drawing up her power. "Do you sense her now?"

"No, but I had spelled all of the mirrors in the locker room long before you came in." Raven admitted shivering a little.

"We have plenty of time before the competition starts. Now give me that spell." The fairy demanded urgently.

Raven apparently hadn't been kidding when she had been stressing for being quiet about their little deal, there really was a viable dangerous threat out there.

XXX

Apple walked across the campus lawn, dejectedly holding Raven's latest trophy from the villain competition, the Headmaster had given it to Apple so that she could give it to Raven and perhaps find a way to convince Raven to reappear, if not to finish the competition, then to get her to come to the awards dinner where there was a seat waiting for her.

She didn't mind being asked to present the trophies to Raven; she did mind that Raven wasn't anywhere to be found to present the trophies to. Apple couldn't even connect through to Raven on her phone; the witch had turned it off and wasn't taking any of her calls or responding to hexts!

"Hey shouldn't an actual villain be holding those?" Faybelle drawled, snapping Apple out of her thoughts. "Unless of course you're thinking about changing careers, then I suppose you might have more right, but still, terrorizing your witch-turned-maiden roommate to go into hiding is pretty mediocre for an evil-doer."

Apple turned to the fairy with a glare; Faybelle was standing next to a low table with an empty decorated blue box and a pet carrier sitting on it, her phone in her hand as she idly swiped her fingers over it. "This is Raven's trophy! I'm going to give it to her once she turns up!" The princess declared heatedly.

"A trophy she obviously doesn't want, and a trophy that had not been obtained by honorable means." Faybelle pointed out dryly. "C'mon princess, leave the witch alone, she obviously doesn't want to play your little fairytale games, so why don't you accept that she's not going to willingly become your exotic pet and get a real villain to take her role."

The fairy watched in complete fascination as Apple's whole body seemed to bristle, her mouth bared her (perfectly white and strait) teeth like a feral animal, her eyes were as hard as the clearest blue diamonds Faybelle had ever seen. It was so completely un-princess-like that Faybelle half thought she was hallucinating.

Quickly, the fairy took a picture, tuning out Apple's response as she saved it as her wallpaper; it would become one of her most prized possessions, proof that there was something that actually got under the princess's skin.

Faybelle tuned her attention back to Apple's furious ranting.

"-And what do you know about Raven anyway? Huh? You don't know even a little bit! But I know that somewhere under all her stubbornness she's a true Evil Queen!" The princess declared in a way as if stating she knew the word of the gods through the messages they sent her through her alphabet cereal.

Faybelle looked down at her phone bringing up one of the reports that Raven had given her, her attention drawn to the pictures investigators had taken of Raven's wounds. "I highly doubt that, seeing as how all of the evidence points to the opposite of your assumptions about Raven. In fact… I'd hazard to say that she's more suited for the role of a maiden, not some princess's evil little fairytale toy."

"Come off it Faybelle you don't know anything, and aren't you usually one of the ones who openly dislike Raven and her Rebel cause? What changed? Are you turning Rebel on us?" The princess accused (in a stupidly arrogant manner), it seemed like Faybelle was going to have to make a certain princess cry today.

"Hardly." Faybelle snorted as if unaffected by the jibe. "But if you are so in question of my loyalties to my family's honorable title then why don't you ask Raven if I'm exhibiting any Rebel behavior. Oh yeah… you can't, because you've scared her so badly with your uncharacteristic manipulative little stunt that she's taken to hiding from you." The fairy said, giving the other blonde a flat look.

Apple White actually snarled, Faybelle hadn't ever thought that was even physically possible for the princess.

Faybelle exited out of the file with the pictures of an injured little teary-eyed witchling and put her fists on her hips as she stared Apple down. "Here's the thing princess; Raven's recent actions have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that she's not true villain material, she's too nice to people who constantly point out that she's related to a dishonorable slug, she'd rather hide from this whole mess you put her in rather than do the proper thing and tell you where to get off, and on that note she's been far too tolerant of your pathetic attempts to turn her into some sort of evil pet." Faybelle curled her lip in disgust because the mere thought of going around saying that she and Briar were the best of frienemies ever after, and have maiden-villain "bonding time" was more than enough to make her stomach roil. At least Briar had more respect for Faybelle than that.

"Maybe you should leave her be and just find someone else to fill her role." The fairy suggested. "She's already living under a dishonored and hated name so why don't you do the perfect maiden thing and let her find a way out of the title of Evil Queen so that she can gain back her honor. I can't believe I'm saying this in her defense but this whole Rebel thing might be just what she needs to escape her dishonorable mother's shadow, it would be just too pathetic if she did try to become the Evil Queen and restore the honor her family used to have."

"Raven's got more honor in her little toe than you could ever hope of having!" Apple roared making Faybelle jump. "She's the perfect person to become my villain, and just because your relationship with Briar is different than my relationship with Raven doesn't mean that it's wrong or pathetic, it's special to us and just how we are with each other!"

Apple glared at Faybelle as she calmed herself down. "I care about Raven, I'm worried about her future as well as mine, that's why I'm trying so hard to get her to see that if she puts her mind to it, she can become the perfect Evil Queen, a perfect storybook villain, not a dishonorable monster. And she didn't go into hiding because she's scared of me, Evil Queens aren't afraid of anything!"

Faybelle and the crowd that had gathered around to watch their argument fell into contemplative silence.

"Well I'll be." Faybelle said tilting her head to the side. Perhaps the princess really did care about Raven in her own, twisted way. "You really are more than just a pretty face princess."

Apple opened her mouth to argue some more but was cut off when the speakers announced that the judges had decided who won the prizes for the pet competition.

"Well as fun as this was, I'd better head over before Cedar get's credit for my pet's prize." Faybelle said as she started to walk away.

"What?" Apple asked.

"I didn't feel like being all smiles at the judges, so I hired Cedar to do that job for me while she watches over my pet. Not the evilest thing I've ever done but it's definitely underhanded don't you think?" Faybelle said as she smirked over her shoulder.