"Are you sure it's him?" Maddie whispered.
"Positive." Raven nodded grimly.
"What do we do? That lady has the spellbook! We need that spellbook to get rid of the giant cloud of doom!" Faybelle hissed.
"A human rich boy and a clown versus two witches, one fairy, five Wonderlandians, and Apple. They don't stand a chance." Kitty sneered.
"Uh why did you include me in that?" Apple asked nervously. "I can't fight."
"The hell you can't!" Kitty snickered lowly. "What you lack in experience you make up for in intelligence and having the ability to go completely loco, need I remind you that it took three people to subdue you that one time?"
Apple blushed looking off to the side in embarrassment.
"I was impressed and that's saying something." Faybelle piped up encouragingly to the mortified princess.
"We might have more trouble on our hands than originally predicted." Mira spoke, her body going completely tense. "You see that amulet he's wearing around his neck?" The witch shifted until she was holding up the amulet she wore to suppress the scent of her magic for the others to see. "Looks like we match."
Years ago that had been the one thing that had allowed Kline-bastard to survive Clawstorm's attempt at reducing him to a pile of ash, the surprise that he could wield magic too. The surprise that he was not a human but a powerful warlock, his mother may have been human but her completely human husband was obviously not the idiot's father, who Kline's birth father really was stayed a mystery but by the way the bastard was so loyal to the cause of hunting down his own kind Clawstorm had a strong suspicion of who the man's real father was…
Lizzie squinted down at the man. "How did you spot that from this high up?"
"It looked familiar, kind of hard to mistake something that is so similar to what one wears every single day." Mira shrugged, Clawstorm batting her eyes innocently.
"Well that solves the mystery of how he was able to survive my mother going after him." Raven murmured. "We need to try for something a little bit more sneaky than a simple jump and beating the snot out of these guys. And remember, that woman has my mother's spellbook, not only is it a strong reservoir of magic that even an untrained non-magic-user can use, but it also has some pretty potent spells in those pages. They're both dangerous opponents."
"Didn't the Evil Queen put a protection spell on her spellbook?" Maddie asked.
"It takes a while for those kind of spells to take effect in objects that powerful." Mira grumbled cursing herself for not putting extra precautions to her old book. "For that one we'd have to keep getting her to use the spells until she eventually ends up cursing herself, but that would take too long, we have to take her out quickly."
"We should separate them, divide and conquer, it'll be super duper risky but hopefully our advantage in numbers will take down these traitors." Maddie advised, a maniacal glint in her eye.
"I call helping taking out numb-nuts down there." Mira volunteered. "I know lots of defense magics that will be useful in taking him down, since he would have more experience with using magic than the idiot broad. At the very least I can teleport him a far enough distance away and hold ground until the rest of you arrive… or I get a miracle and someone equally as powerful as he shows up after hearing all the commotion to save me." The witch stated cryptically, mentally planning for a brief return of the Evil Queen if the situation allowed for it.
"Mira-" Raven began in a horrified tone.
"Like I told you before your highness I knew the risks going in and no matter the dangers I will be protecting both you and our lands no matter what." Mira cut off the other witch firmly. "Whatever happens it truly is a honor and my right to protect both you and my home, I will never regret it."
"Gods…" Raven almost sobbed. "Why did it have to come to this?"
"We might need to put more people on him than on Courtly." Lizzie assessed. "Mira, you get this creep over to the abandoned quarry half a mile behind us, you saw it when we landed, Kitty, transport me and Maddie over there first then come back for Alistair and Bunny… Raven, how do you want to play the jester?"
"We should initially go for trying to curse her out by making her use as much magic as possible." The witch took a deep breath. "I'm… I think that together Faybelle and I can be strong enough to shield against any attacks she throws our way, and Apple can be used as our eyes and brain while we fight her off but we also have the Book to worry about protecting as well as getting or hands on that spell-"
"That's it!" Apple whispered. "One of you has to sign the Book! Both the Evil Fairy and Evil Queen pages give a power boost to the signer!"
"That should be more than enough to beat her." Raven breathed out in relief turning to the fairy beside her. "Faybelle, let's get you signed in."
"We've run out of time." Mira hissed suddenly, visibly bristling as the man below looked from side to side before turning his befuddled gaze upwards, directly at the teenagers (and one adult) watching from above. "We've stared too long! The bastard has sensed us!"
Within Raven's arms the Book of Legends glows brighter, wrapping it's magic around the two witches, almost as if it were trying to protect them.
XXX
The Grimm brothers halted in their tracks on one of the dirt paths leading out of the fairgrounds as the familiar feeling of the Book of Legend's magic tripping their bonds to high sensitivity.
"Now I know that we both felt that." Giles murmured to the air in front of them.
"Clawstorm, Miss Queen, they're in danger!" Milton realizes with growing panic. "I can sense them…" He turns from side to side for a moment, getting his bearings. "This way." The man focuses on the area where the feeling is strongest and takes off running towards the forest, Giles right beside him.
XXX
"They're smiling and waving at us…" Maddie observed lightly as she eyed the two adults on the ground.
"They have no idea what's about to hit them." Kitty snorted, arching her back in preparation to jump.
"They don't have the slightest clue." Apple hummed her lips melting into a feral grin as she waved at their unsuspecting prey.
"How did they miss the giant jabberwocky flying in earlier?" Alistair wondered.
"Well if the state of that lady's rumpled clothes I can make an accurate guess as to why…" Faybelle deadpanned. "Honestly talk about no sense of time and place."
"Everybody on my count." Lizzie smirked, discreetly adjusting her gloves (which were lined with a substance that protected her skin, made slicing things with her hands a little bit more easier). "Three… two… Sick-em' Mira!"
The witch whisked herself out of sight in a swirl of magic before making a dramatic reappearance by shooting out of a cloud of red and purple light farther down the cliff face, tackling the surprised man around his middle before disappearing them both in yet another swirl of magic.
"Karl no!" Courtly Jester screeched reaching for the spot the man had been mere seconds ago.
XXX
Kline hit the rocky ground with a pained gasp, throwing his arms and magic up to shield against the constant onslaught from the tiny witch above him.
"What the-?" He demanded peeking up at the strange girl's enraged face through the blue glow of his magic and the fiery sparks that exploded when her (surprisingly potent) magic made contact with his.
"You bastard!" Mira growled, Clawstorm baring her teeth. "You just think that you can get away with trying to kill the Queen clan and their lands without somebody saying something about it?" She roared striking down and shattering through the man's shield, Kline ducked, just narrowly missing his head from being bashed in.
"And here father had always warned me that it was only the Queen royal family that I had to watch out for." The young man complained as he rolled out of the way. "At least you don't look like a Queen to me- ack!" He coughed when she managed to strike him in the stomach and send him skidding back several yards.
"Geez you just keep on swinging!" Kline coughed, lighting up his hands. "What's a little thing like you doing out here anyway?"
Clawstorm opened Mira's mouth and roared as she leaped at the man, Kline managing to jump out of the way before the witch's strike attack got him, dust and rock bursting out in all directions as she landed her attack on the empty ground.
"Alright, so you just want to fight and not make small talk I take it?" Kline asked once most of the dust cleared and he was met by the sight of a very ticked off witch glaring at him from a sizable crater in the ground.
XXX
Sounds of faint explosions could be heard coming from the quarry behind the teenagers, bursts of clashing magical lights erupting in the sky.
"Mira's in trouble!" Raven fretted as she stared behind them in worry.
"Karl?" Courtly looked around her as if the man would reappear before her. "What have you brats done to my boyfriend?" The woman demanded heatedly.
"Kitty, now!" Lizzie hissed linking her arm around one of Kitty's while Maddie did the same with the other, the three of them vanishing quietly into thin air.
Faybelle stood up, staring down upon Courtly Jester witch a sneer. "Sorry to burst your bubble miss but that man's name isn't Karl, he's actually a wanted criminal named Kline, and if you know what's good for you you'll hand over that spellbook so that we can get this show on the road." Faybelle called down cheekily.
"You little- no! I will not give up the spellbook like I'm just another obedient pawn in the queen's court! Since when has anybody looked at Courtly Jester as anybody special? Never!" The Woman screeched at them. "Except for Karl, or Kline, or whatever his name is! It doesn't matter because he paid attention to me! He said that I could take over Wonderland if I just helped him out and that's exactly what I'm going to do! I'm going to off the little witch girl and the rest of you brats and then I'll take over Wonderland and me and my darling can rule over this place!"
"But without the spellbook or Raven Queen we can't free Wonderland from the curse!" Bunny exclaimed looking hurt and desperate.
Courtly paused. "Huh. So that's why they wanted me to deliver this to you." The woman looked at the spellbook thoughtfully. "They didn't tell me that, they just said that I should take this book to you by decree of the queen and I'd find out stuff when you showed up. Which I suppose does make more sense of the whole secret mission thing… but that still doesn't excuse leaving me out of the loop! Oh it just figures! I should have used the spells in here to set everyone on fire or something while I had the chance!"
The teenagers exchanged incredulous looks, even by fairytale standards the woman's whole "curse the world for not bowing to me" attitude seemed far too shallow and better fit for a small child than a grown adult.
Apple was completely incredulous, this was… this wasn't just somebody playing the part of a villain; this was an actual villain she was seeing face to face. This was what she had wanted Raven to become? What she just expected Faybelle to be like if Apple decided to go with her destiny anyway? This- this wasn't the stuff of fantasy or romantic in the least, this was crazy! Actual lives were on the line and this woman was overlooking the bigger picture to the point where she was consumed by hatred and revenge for something that so far sounded like practically nothing-
Just like Apple had always been told that Raven had to become jealous of her simply because she was prettier than the witch, that Raven was born to become her villain, to live a life of sorrow if necessary, just as long as everyone played their part, assumed the impossible ideals of lies told over and over again through the centuries.
Why hadn't Apple put more thought into that before now? Willingly throwing oneself into a life of being hated and feared and giving up rights to their birthright for assuming the role of a criminal, all for the sake of somebody else looking better in other people's eyes…
And what of Apple? To be blind-sighted by the realization that it was all a lie, that the whole promise about happily ever after's and perfect fairytales was all just a… a fancy show put on for the sake of… for the sake of what exactly? Tradition? Duty? A title and an unhappy arranged marriage? And just how did they know that Daring was her prince anyway? They didn't! He was just the eldest son of an influential Charming family and that he was the most charming one out of the bunch! He could just as easily be Ashlynn's prince for all they knew, but Apple was a White, and the heir to the throne of the biggest kingdom in Ever After-…
That was what it was, wasn't it? The whole purpose to her fairytale was all for the sake of duty… feed her with promises and lies of happy endings so that she would do what was expected of her, to get married to someone her parents and their court approved of on political grounds, have as many heirs as possible, and to adhere to the ways of the perfect princess so that she would be a good girl and mind! How horrible it would be for them if she dared start to question the role they had already cast for her and forbid the day she actually wanted more out of her life!
It was all a lie, her parents knew it was a lie and yet they still wanted her to be forced into the same unhappy fate as them! Because it was duty, and duty meant more to them than… it was more important than her own happiness!
And here was this Courtly Jester woman; obviously working with Raven's enemy and obviously here to help him get rid of the witch once and for all, ranting on without a care about all the horrible things she was going to attempt to do just because she figured that the lot of them were some kind of group of helpless maidens who couldn't do anything to stop her because they would be too busy waiting for a hero to save them!
It suddenly occurred to Apple how defenseless the woman was making herself, standing so boldly before them and ranting on when they were the ones who had the higher ground…
Quietly Apple snuck away, picking up a sturdy looking tree branch before tiptoeing around the ledge until she stood behind a small boulder, quickly she worked to lever the rock closer and closer to the ledge where Courtly stood far below them.
"Yes… so quit whining about picking a fight with people that have nothing to do with you and give it to us already!" Faybelle ordered, her expression flat and gaze unwavering even as she spied Bunny and Alistair assisting Apple out of the corner of her eye. "Some of use would like to get things over and done with sooner rather than later! Trust me on this, it's your last chance!"
Courtly gave a harsh laugh. "Foolish child! It is I that should be on the throne! I should be the one to rule all of Wonderland! I'll slay the lot of you! And once little Lizzie comes back I'll happily shut her up and present her head to the soon to be former queen! With this book giving me power and the curse preventing anybody from escaping my wrath I will be unstop-."
With a final nudge the boulder was tipped off the edge of the cliff, hurtling down upon the ranting woman below.
Courtly shrieked at the sight of the huge rock heading right for her, jumping out of the way and just barely managing to avoid being crushed by mere inches. The woman sitting positively stunned in the dirt and staring mutely up at an annoyed blonde princess for a few moments, the spellbook laying feet away, where she had dropped it.
"A-Apple?" Raven squeaked, staring at the princess with wide eyes.
"Normally I'd be opposed to using such violent means against another person but it would be equally irresponsible to just sit back and do nothing while you put the people I care about and the lives of the citizens of this world in danger just for the sake of sating this pitiful delusion you have about yourself." Apple spoke coldly as she began swinging her purse in slow circles in the air, her eyes narrowing dangerously to thin slits.
"You- you could have killed me!" Courtly exclaimed. "You're a princess! A damsel! That- that just isn't your destiny!"
"And you were planning to try to kill us after your little speech." Apple deadpanned. "Destiny or no destiny I will not feel sorry about defending myself or my friends by whatever means necessary."
"You went against your story! What kind of real princess goes against their story?" Courtly adopted a sneering tone.
"The kind who doesn't care and is at the end of her rope." Apple growled darkly, refusing to be cowed.
"I'm going to make you pay for this!" Courtney hissed reaching for the spellbook. "Once I get my hands on you…" She swore opening the cover and beginning to flip through pages, searching for an antiquate spell.
"Too slow." Apple rolled her eyes before swinging her purse down, the bejeweled metal object beaning Courtly square in the head, knocking the woman out cold.
Silence descended upon the area, even the flowers were quiet.
XXX
"You kids don't have to get involved you know." Kline assured gently as he dodged another one of Lizzie's attacks. "This whole thing with Raven Queen and her family has nothing to do with you guys."
"Raven is our clan's adopted sister." Maddie hummed, eerily calm as she sent a series of sharp-edged saucers the man's way.
Kline ducked, furrowing his brows. "Really?" He asked confused. "But she's dishonored, her mother's the one who went completely Armageddon on your world, why would you adopt her?"
"The Evil Queen is only the way she is because of you!" Lizzie snarled. "You and your little band of witch hunters are the ones who brought her here, who drove her to this insanity! Do you honestly believe that she just picked Wonderland at random to poison?"
Kline spun on his heel and made a wide sweep with his hand, sending blue magic out like a wave and forcing everyone but Mira to take several leaps back to get out of the way.
"Alright I'll admit that it's kind of obvious that it was her plan to trap us here, and that we did lead her here, but she is the one who took things this far and went completely postal, totally not my fault!" Kline shrugged.
"You tried to kill her daughter with a whip, you're group is trying to start a war with the Queen lands, and you resurrected an extinct society of witch hunters to hunt your own species!" Kitty pointed out incredulously. "How is that not your fault?"
"It was all necessary." Kline assured as calmly as he could while shielding himself as Mira pelted him with the rocks she was levitating from all sides. "You people know better than anybody that the best way to defeat the opposition is to have others stir up trouble and fear for you, the Queen lands don't really fit in if you think about it, I mean a witch state nestled on all sides by human kingdoms? A war is bound to break out, it's just a matter when, and who will gain the most profit when all hell breaks loose. Seriously you guys should be helping me rather than fighting me, you could profit from all this as well!"
"…Or… not…" The man coughed when the four females seemed to vibrate with rage and as one leaped at him.
Kline transported himself out of the way before their combined attack landed.
"You ladies are really invested in taking me out." Kline observed from behind them.
"What did the Queen family ever do to you?" Mira demanded her voice raw with emotion. "What did a little girl ever do to deserve you trying to beat her to death?"
"Nothing personally." Kline put both hands up as if he were trying to calm the girls (and disguised woman) down. "But it's not like I'm a total monster and wanted to watch her suffer or anything, you see if it were up to me personally I would have either killed her quickly and as painlessly as possible or I would have simply sent her far away where she could never hope to come back and cause me any trouble, she was just a little witchling at the time after all. But she had formed a bond with something that I needed to get my hands on eventually and I needed to at least try to sever it so that it could bond with me and the ritual called for a large amount of blood to be spilled by a ritualized beating."
"A bond?" Lizzie asked signaling Mira to stand back for a moment until they got all the information that they needed from the man.
Kline rolled his eyes, misinterpreting Lizzie's gesture as a sign that the girl was starting to become interested in his reasoning, greed always won out in his opinion.
"Well now that I finally have your attention to talk reasonably, for your information Headmaster Milton Grimm picked me to surpass himself and his brother as the future Headmaster of that school and the future servant to the Book of Legends, but unfortunately for little Raven Queen she had been present, for some reason, at my initiation ceremony and the Book had formed a bond with her and not with me. But I was very kind to her years back, I had drugged her so that she would feel no pain or fear during her ritualized sacrifice, I even pre-prepared all of her funeral rites so that her spirit could rest easily when she passed." Kline assured once again.
"Bastard." Mira hissed under her breath. She itched to do more to the man but if she ramped up her powers then her glamour would melt away and she still needed people to assume that she was Mira Shards, she needed to come up with a plan.
"But I thought that only descendants of the Grimm family line could form bonds with the Book." Kitty piped up, looking around for ways to use the landscape to gain a tactical advantage on the man.
"Hey I was surprised too when I found out that kid was Headmaster Grimm's granddaughter, but since he had taken great pains to not claim his daughter or granddaughter as his heirs I hardly doubted that he would care much if they were to all disappear." Kline shrugged.
Clawstorm narrowed her eyes, memories of her last conversation with her father swimming up to the front of her mind. "That doesn't sound like the Headmaster we know you moron so nice try with trying to make him out to be that kind of bad guy, even if he wanted nothing to do with his child he would never condone to knowingly helping you with this insane scheme of yours. He may be a lot of things but he does care about the welfare of his students, Raven Queen included."
"Ah, well you got me there I suppose, that was the most annoying thing about the guy." Kline sighed. "Both Grimm brothers at the time I briefly got to meet them were so stuck on all that tradition stuff and kept emphasizing the importance of neutrality. I told the boss that it was bad business trying to sneak under their noses but they are old humans and they'll die off before everything settles into place."
"This plan you're talking about, it sounds like something that will take a great deal longer than normal profiting from war materials." Lizzie realized, her eyes narrowing.
"Yeah well that's the surprise part." Kline smiled. "But for right now I can help you if you just stop attacking me and do a little something for me."
"Let me guess, you're going to offer to free Wonderland and kill the Evil Queen if we help you kill Raven and the rest of the Queen clan." Mira deadpanned.
Kline blinked in surprise. "Well Raven Queen is a little bit more doable but if you think that you can-"
"You have no idea why Raven is in Wonderland, do you?" Kitty rolled her eyes, this man sounded like a bad acting salesman.
"No, I'll admit that does have me a bit confused." Kline admitted.
"Our answer is no by the way." Maddie sighed, getting ready to start fighting again.
Kline actually looked disappointed. "Well have it your way I guess though I'm afraid that I can't go easy on you forever." The man lit up his hands.
"And neither can I!" Mira sprinted forward, throwing her full body and magic into the man, sending them both hurtling down a slope and into a rock wall.
XXX
"Do all bad guys have to go through the whole "I am evil" speech or just the stupid ones?" Apple griped. "And here I was actually worried that she might pose some sort of danger. Honestly why was she more concerned with talking rather than doing something if she was so worked up about things?"
"Well to be fair she obviously assumed that she was dealing with a textbook fairytale bunch and long-winded evil speeches are kind of the prerequisite to most evil deeds. You know to strike fear into the hearts of heroes and make innocent little maidens cry and such." Faybelle coughed awkwardly.
"Well I already know that." Apple sighed. "But this isn't a fairytale, and furthermore… that tradition is stupid. And insulting, I mean… sure lots of princesses in the edited fairytale stories were kind of… portrayed as gullible, and tended to fall into traps easily, but those were all lies! A-and that whole stereotype of princesses being airheads is completely false! It's practically nothing to strike at the bad guys while they're busy preaching about how evil they are!"
"…You doing all right Apple?" Faybelle squinted her eyes, actually feeling… slightly concerned, she knew that the princess was questioning her destiny and all but to easily come out and say that the status quo in regards to a fairytale tradition of evil ranting was stupid? It was very unusual indeed.
"No." The princess glared at the ground. "But I've just realized that I'm far better off than I was before and… maybe- no… I will be even more better off the more I distance myself from being confined into somebody else's life and somebody else's expectations."
Faybelle raised her brows and exchanged surprised looks with Raven.
Apple flinched as the sounds of battle intensified from the quarry behind them. "Faybelle, if you could please help fly me and one of those two down there, you can retrieve the spellbook for Raven while we tie that lady up and move her out of the way. From the sound of things behind us, and the fact that Kitty hasn't returned yet, you should sign the Book and magic yourself and the others over to help while Raven and I stay behind to reverse this curse and open Wonderland up to the rest of the worlds once again." The princess spoke calmly and levelly despite the fact that she was shaking like a leaf. "Be safe out there okay? And see if you can bring everyone back safe-… well see if you can do what you can." The princess coughed wincing again when the sound of a particularly large explosion reached their ears.
"Alistair, could you call the queen or somebody to send us help. Update them on what is going on." Raven requested quietly as Faybelle and Bunny made their way to Apple.
XXX
"Mira!" Lizzie cried out when Kline expelled a burst of magic that sent the girl flying into the stone wall opposite them, the girl of hearts starting to jog towards her fallen comrade.
In a cloud of black smoke Mira's fallen form vanished, Lizzie too far away to see the smirk that the witch had worn before her form dissolved out of sight.
"What was that?" Kitty demanded because the inky cloud certainly didn't look like the witch's magic. "Where did it take Mira?"
"Somewhere safe to heal." A voice hissed from a previously unnoticed inky black cloud of smoke vapor hovering above them, gasps drew from the girl's mouths as Clawstorm, in her true form, delicately stepped out of the cloud and onto a rocky ledge several dozen feet up from them (she had conjured up a suitable long-sleeved white button up shirt and some freaking jeans, to at least be a little bit more comfortable while fighting).
"Dreadfully sorry about the inconvenience that my spell has put your lands in but I had not meant it to be held up this long, let's just say I miscalculated the true extent of the patience and the sheer vileness of my enemies. But I assure you that I have no intention interfering with your little plan, I would just like a chance to reduce dunderhead over here into a tiny pile of bloody tissue and boney bits."
Clawstorm put her hands to her hips. "Hello once again Kline-bastard."