Cerise and Briar stared at the same spot of the decorative rug in the middle of the princess's dorm room.
"So we're agreed that we keep that nice hidden away in there? And we tell no one until we have a better grasp of what's going on?" Briar asked for clarification.
"Better be safe than sorry on this… whatever freaky weird thing is going on now." Cerise agreed. "And what about that envelope full of papers written in code that we had found under the Book? What have you decided to do with that?"
"Humphrey owed me a favor, I didn't tell him about us finding the Book, just that I found those papers in a secret cubby in my room, and I asked him if he could keep hush about it while he deciphered the code. He seemed to get pretty excited when I showed him the papers… said something about numbers translating into letters and leet speak." Briar shrugged. "He said that he should have something for us in a few weeks."
"Well at least he's having fun with this." Cerise murmured.
"Things are more than what they seem with the Evil Queen." Briar said grimly. "What is her game?"
XXX
"Why did I have to go for the classic look? How many buttons does one dress need anyway?" Clawstorm snarled under her breathe as she noticed that she had buttoned the last few buttons in the wrong holes of the Evil Queen dress that she was currently trying to stuff a mannequin into.
"This is a bad idea." Little Red Riding Hood said to the kitchen mirror of her family's cottage.
"You said the same thing about me fake-poisoning Wonderland and the rest of those worlds Simone." Clawstorm huffed wiping sweat off of her brow; suddenly she didn't mind it so much that she was currently walking around in her underwear now that the burn of the workout it took to undress herself and dress up the life-size mannequin doll set in.
"Need I point out to you that you are currently trapped inside the mirror dimension?" Simone drawled. "And how did you manage to get that creepy doll thing in there with you?"
"Ever since that talk with father dearest and my uncle they've both been avoiding the room where the portal mirror is. Also the Headmaster never seemed to stop and consider that there is more than one entrance into this place, nor did he think about my family's natural affinity over mirror magic. My body might not have the ability to leave through any other portal aside from the one in the Headmaster's chambers but my golems can." Clawstorm moved to fit tight sleeves over the doll's arms. "One of those places being this cracked old mirror in one of the abandoned mansions around the forest of the school, a little glamour spell here, a distraction there and one of the clothing shops in the village was missing a mannequin and some of their merchandise."
"…It's a good thing that you don't actually have an interest in blowing everyone sky high." Simone sighed in disgust. "I still can't believe that the Headmaster is your father! It makes sense now as to why he was always such a creep to you in high school!"
"He was only really bad those first few months of third year before Legacy Day." Clawstorm reminded finishing touches to the dress. "After that he tried to stay away from me like I had the plague or something."
"And forced you to fend for yourself against the maiden brigade!" Simone growled. "Neutral trusted authority figure my foot!"
"They mostly left me alone after I poisoned my princess a few times." Clawstorm murmured a few words under her breath, her form shifting into a new shape.
Little Red Riding Hood squinted her eyes. "I still say you shouldn't have included that fantasy potion in with the sleeping one. Normal people would have left you alone after the first time, but she just kept coming back practically begging for more."
Clawstorm in her new teenaged form picked up the new dress she had stolen and started stepping into it. "A part of her probably realized that her perfect prince batted for a different team, she just wanted to keep believing that there was going to be a happily ever after waiting for her after graduation."
"You've always been way too merciful towards her." Simone sighed. "By the way you might want to glamour a few things with the dress and shoes unless you want somebody recognizing them."
"Thanks." Clawstorm brushed her now red hair out of her face while she flicked her fingers over her new outfit, magically altering the appearance. "I'm off, I should be seeing you at your home in less than a few hours."
"This is way too reckless." Simone warned.
Clawstorm shook her head. "I can't stay here Simone. Not after learning that he's my-… my father. And because of all those lies people have fed her over the years, Raven hates me so much that she's put a privacy spell on over half the school's mirrors! How can I protect her if I don't know what's going on?"
Simone shook her head. "I know… just be careful alright? It's bad enough that my husband and I have to hang out with one of our oldest friends through a mirror and pretend that you are the worst criminal witch since Morgana, we don't want to lose you in a worse way this time!"
"King Charming and his lovely wife have my back on this, like all of you have always had my back. It'll all go to plan." Clawstorm assured grabbing the mannequin around the waist. "I'll see you later."
"I'd better." Simone grumbled as Clawstorm disappeared in a whirl of magic.
XXX
It had all been going to plan, Clawstorm had set up the mannequin just far enough away for the ever-present fog to cover it, yet make it just visible enough to give the illusion of someone standing in the distance, she crawled out of the mirror without incident, snuck out of the study, opened one of the windows facing the lawn leading to the dark forest, looked around cautiously to make sure no one was looking up, and hopped out the window.
It was when she was walking across the lawn towards an awaiting King and Queen Charming that Clawstorm found trouble.
"Excuse me!" A bubbly blonde girl popped out of practically nowhere, nearly startling the witch out of her own skin. "Hi! I'm Blondie Lockes lead reporter of Ever After High's news club, do you mind sparing us a few moments of your time?"
Uh… I- I guess…" Clawstorm looked around her to find that she had been surrounded, three other students all sporting some form of equipment for lights, sound, and a mirror camera. "I don't… mind…"
"Goody! Could you please state your name?" Blondie smiled encouragingly.
Clawstorm's mind raced. "M-Mira Shards? Daughter of the enchanted mirror- but not the current Evil Queen's mirror!" The witch was quick to assure. "The Evil Queen from six generations back had this mirror that… adopted me! Yeah… it's all kinda complicated…"
"Oh you don't have to worry." A girl with pink hair assured kindly extending her hand. "I was adopted too, the name's C. A. Cupid, daughter of Eros."
"The god of love?" Clawstorm's eyebrows almost touched her hairline as she shook the girl's hand. "I didn't know that destiny was in the Book."
"It's not." Cupid assured. "I was sent here to help out after Legacy Day and the budding new romances that are forming due to the Rebel influence."
"And speaking of Rebels we are taking a new pole on who identifies as Rebel and who identifies as Royal, what do you identify as?" Blondie asked putting her microphone in Clawstorm's face.
Clawstorm looked over the blonde's shoulder to see the King and Queen Charming discretely gesturing for her to keep going.
"I'm a bit new here so I only know the basics… but if I had to choose…" Clawstorm shrugged awkwardly. "I'd have to say that I'm neither, personally I don't see a reason to be either one, I am who I am and whether or not I become a character in a fairytale is… irrelevant."
And it was the truth, she may have at one point (before Kline-bastard had made himself known) tried to collapse the whole nonsense with everybody needing to sign an ancient artifact and assume the identities of a bunch of dead people, but she was never against anybody following their roles if they wanted to (she was a prime example seeing as how she never signed her name in the Book and still ended up the Evil Queen)… she just wanted to expose all the flaws in the current system so that her daughter didn't have to live with so much racism about witches being evil like she had (she missed the old days when the issues were simpler and not all cloak and dagger like they were now).
To Clawstorm's surprise she was surrounded by hums of agreement and thoughtful nods of heads.
And that's where she found more trouble; because apparently her answer had been so unusual that she suddenly found herself having to answer more questions about herself that Clawstorm was struggling to come up with on the fly while keeping everything vague enough so that she wasn't caught out in a lie.
"Who would have guessed that there was someone with a destiny with such neutral views!" Blondie commented brightly.
"Oh I haven't been registered for classes yet…" Clawstorm coughed embarrassed. "The Enchanted Mirror just arranged for me to pop over here to get a good feel of the place first."
"And I certainly hope that you have found your visit to be very productive Miss Shards." King Charming came up behind everyone, much to Clawstorm's relief. "I'm sorry to interrupt kids but right now my wife and I need to escort Miss Shards back home."
"Alright." Blondie nodded before producing a business card and handing it to Clawstorm. "When you enroll please consider joining the news club, we could use a neutral party and you've got a good feeling about you. I think that you are sure to be a fine reporter in the making."
"Thank you, I'll consider it." Clawstorm took the card and smiled politely.
XXX
"You guys can't seriously be considering this!" Clawstorm nearly whined to the six other people sitting at the table in Simone's cottage kitchen. "I've already graduated high school why would I ever go back?"
"You said to Simone that you needed to get a better understanding to what is going on." The Big Bad Wolf pointed out while wrapping an arm around his wife.
"You need to protect the young miss from any potential attacks by your enemies without scaring her away in the process." Maid Marion crossed her arms.
"And what better way to do that than to go undercover as your daughter's classmate?" Queen Charming shrugged her shoulders.
"You did make a good first impression today, maybe this time around you'll have a better high school experience. You'll at least be able to take all the classes that you're actually interested in, we can supply you with the right documents while you test out off all the boring gen-ed classes so that it's all the easier for you." King Charming proposed.
Clawstorm ran fingers through her hair agitatedly. "And what about you Ramona? Do you think that this is a good idea as well?" The witch demanded Beauty (from the story Beauty and the Beast), the coolest, most reasonable head of her group of friends.
"The better question is; what lengths are you willing to go to for your daughter and the rest of your family?" The woman asked but her level stare indicated that she already knew the answer.
Clawstorm hung her head in defeat.
"I hope that this all turns out as foolproof as all of you are making this out to be because right now… we can't afford me being found out." The witch reminded.
"Nonsense." King Charming assured. "Starting next quarter Mira Shards will be the new resident student genius at Ever After High!"
Clawstorm swallowed thickly, silently saying goodbye to the pair of jeans and sneakers she had on at the moment, for it would be nothing but skirts and heels for the next foreseeable future.
XXX
Several weeks later…
Mira Shards opened the door to the news club tech room and poked her head inside.
"Hello? Um it's Blondie right? I don't know if you remember me-"
"Of course we remember you!" Blondie giggled as she and the rest of her club turned their attention to the door and smiled at the witch warmly. "It's hard to forget about the most anticipated new student of Ever After High! After your little interview with us we've been flooded with questions about when you'll be enrolled! You left quite the impression on everybody!"
"That explains why so many people knew my name in the halls." Mira laughed nervously, stepping inside the room. "Um… you said something about me joining your club?"
"Come on right in." A blond boy with glasses grinned and gestured with his arm for her to sit next to him. "Let's get started."
"All righty." Mira Smiled bravely.