A/n: I know that some of you were confused as to why I brought in Snow White and her weird feelings towards her former assigned villain into this story but I assure you that it will all make a whole lot more sense in the next few chapters because things are about to get real and I need Snow white to be on the front lines in order to get things moving!
XXX
The old man sat in the center of the chaos, young children chasing each other, some adults were chasing the children to keep them out of trouble, babies both cried and babbled happily, the adults who weren't chasing or watching over the children talked while the teenagers leaned against things and attempted to look too cool to be associated with the others.
The old man was smiling to himself, self-satisfied and smug in the center of the chaos of so many people who bore a striking resemblance to him all around him and living their lives.
"So that's what a large witch family looks like." Raven blinked at the family in question who were across the street from the little outdoor café that she and the Headmas- her grandfather Milton Grimm were sitting at.
"How can he possibly just sit there all happy with all that noise around him?" Milton wondered trying to stamp down the swell of jealousy and regret at he looked at the happy man that could have very well have been him in a few years time if only…
"It kind of reminds me of move-in day and freshman orientation at the school." Raven hummed giving her grandfather a sidelong smile that almost instantly made Milton feel a little better.
She was here now, his granddaughter was alive, healthy, and safe, a blessing he was more than happy about… even though she now lived so far away from the school he had more control over.
"I see that your in-laws are wasting no time with making it abundantly clear that despite your relation to me and therefore your right to regain your honor through the family name of Grimm that they still intend to keep you." Milton sighed, gesturing to the new henna markings dancing and webbing up the sides of the girl's neck and face.
"They'd like to complete what has been started." Raven explained with an apologetic shrug. "And all the benefits of keeping me as a bride to them does help."
I'll bet, Milton thought darkly mentally assessing the net worth of not only the Queen lands and territories but also that of the Good King's. "So one more ritual to go?" He asks lightly.
Raven nodded. "One more ritual for the contract to be complete, then I have the freedom to choose, after an acceptable period of time, when I would like to sever my contract and get on with my life and ascend to the throne."
"Good." Milton states and he means it.
"How have things been from your point of view at the school since I left?" Raven asks, her expression both knowing and curious.
"Well if we are both completely honest you know more about what is going on than I do, from my understanding the students have adapted well to some of them being freed from their fairytale curses and aside from Legend the dragon sneaking out of the stables for the past few days everything is back to normal." Milton smiled kindly not expecting any potential information towards what was really going on in his school from the girl but hoping that he could get a slight hint indicating whether or not he should worry about anything.
"Well given the fact that Legend is expecting to deliver her clutch any day now it's only to be expected that she'll be this restless." Raven informed carefully, almost acting as if she were commenting on some mundane thing instead of something significantly more important. "I have been told that Mira, Cupid, and Blondie caught Legend heating up some boulders with her fire and then curling up on the hot stone, Mira's apparently quite the dragon expert and she worries that a good number of the chicks may be born a little hot under the collar and more difficult to control because of the extra heat …What do you call them in Ever After? …Dark Dragons?"
"Ah." Milton blinked, well that cleared that up. "I'll request that the staff in charge of beast and biology-related classes take the time to inform the students that just because some of the new clutch may be darker and more temperamental, that does not immediately mean that they are evil."
Raven appears to take a relieved breath before sitting back slightly, letting a momentary lapse in conversation stretch slightly, the sounds of life in the downtown district washing over them.
"I spoke to Miss White recently." Milton began carefully.
Raven nodded looking just as weary as her grandfather. "I was informed."
Milton looked off to the side. "…I don't want to rock the boat but… as difficult as this is going to be I am going to have to ask…"
"It's fine, now that you know I think that I am allowed to say to you that Apple has been having difficulties with her parents." Raven spoke lightly despite the heavy set of her shoulders.
"Enough that she is questioning her destiny?" Milton asked kindly,praying to avoid a fight.
"Enough that she is questioning everything about herself and life in general." Raven huffed weakly. "She's a lot stronger than what I would have been in that situation but I still… worry."
"…She didn't say very much." Milton began with care. "But she did get rather upset and she did briefly mention something rather… odd, I don't think that she knows that I picked up on it but when she swore that her parents were to blame for everything going on with that meteorite attack Giles checked into some things. The Wacko clan never had the resources nor the manpower to invent let alone create that war machine you are so afraid of."
Raven sighed tiredly, looking around her casually just in case she needed to spy whether or not someone was listening in. Apple in an unusual (for these days at least) show of trust towards Raven's grandfather insisted that they should secretly let a third-person who could be discrete enough in on this particular aspect of the bigger issue at hand in order to have a bit of backup hidden up their sleeves "just in case" Raven was uneasy about Apple feeling as though she needed to go behind her parent's backs like this but at the same time they weren't her parents and the fact that they did contribute majorly to her own family being turned upside-down all due to a grudge that they had carried against her mother from high school… yeah. Raven was going to get as much insurance as she could possibly get against those guys so… no regrets here. "My mother knew that if these same… suspicions that you are having came out that there would be calls for war against Ever After, regardless of whether or not the queen and king actually knowing what they may or may not have allowed to happen all because they didn't see fit to check into what the known enemies to our lands were cooking up. That and my mother feared what repercussions would transpire to the White royal family if the public ever found out about the scandal."
"…So they did…?" Milton gestured vaguely. "On purpose? Maliciously?"
"They thought that they were lending out their experts and raw materials to create a top secret railway that was faster, safer, and something that they could have used to propaganda themselves as the better kingdom where the Queen lands were seemingly doing nothing to help our struggling neighbors." Raven corrected before her grandfather got the terribly wrong idea about everything. Sure their propaganda attempt was malicious but they had not actually intended to put thousands of lives at risk or start a war. "They didn't know, didn't care to check, until it was too late to discover that they had been conned. My mother covered it up to protect everyone from war, and yet Apple still found out and now she is furious with them."
"Well it was rather irresponsible of them." Milton's tone was light but the gleam in his eye suggested that it was taking everything he had just to stay this calm and polite.
"I have their confession on Apple's phone, she's recording all of their conversations with her in case she needs to use anything against them, evidence of them being in possession of the blueprints, and Apple has threatened to abdicate the throne if they so much as blink out of line or refuse to cooperate." Raven assured quietly. "They aren't getting away with anything and as a result we have all of their resources at our disposal if something does happen, but I feel as though this will only last as long as everyone keeps silent."
"Then why tell me?" Milton asks, genuinely confused.
"Backup." Raven states seriously. "They do appear to be sincere in their regret towards the lives lost and the state that they had left my family in without a finger lifted for aid or any act of kindness… however if they step out of line and I am not in a position to do anything about it I need someone neutral who is not afraid to remind them of just how serious this all is and how much trouble that they are actually in."
"Gladly." A half-fond half-protectively feral look crossing his features, he was supposed to be the ever neutral an wise Grimm who watched over the growing youth to many rulers to fairytale realms so he wasn't going to get very many chances to express his real feelings on the issue of Snow White and what she had done to his daughter, but this would have to do.
For now at least.
"When this is all over, and we will win, I will do whatever I can to ensure this, if you had the choice would you prefer to continue on with your higher education after you pass through the basic years?" Milton asked, quickly going on to lighter subjects.
Raven sighed. "I'd like to but most likely I'd have to start taking on kingdom duties and being prepped to take over the throne as soon as possible, if I survive everything going on now, it may be needed to have me set aside my personal interests until everything has calmed down enough for me to pick them back up part time."
"Plenty of heirs to the throne have gone on to explore their scholarly interests, you've got plenty of help from the people around you, if you truly enjoy your chosen academic pursuit of magical-herbatology then you should continue on with what makes you happy." Milton assured, taking a careful sip of his espresso.
"My grandmother told me the same thing." Raven narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "Have you two been talking to each other?"
"We may have… formed a truce in order to better look after our one and only granddaughter." Milton admitted vaguely.
"And how has that been working out?" Raven asked.
"Rather well so far." Milton smiled softly.
"I'm glad." Raven stated honestly.
"So am I." Milton stated, just as honest.
"Do you…?" Raven bit her lip. "Do you guys know what you're going to do about mom?" The witch asked nervously.
Milton chuckled. "We've done a few things to help her out… wherever she currently is. She and many others might not completely appreciate it but given the evidence of her innocence we'll be able to spin things to the fairytale realms' benefit. Well… hopefully to everyone's benefit, you mother was always a wild card let me tell you…"
XXX
"The Cheshire tribe has declared you as their foreign sister, you have also been grandfathered in as an official Wonderlandian citizen thanks to the fact that your daughter is their adopted kin." Simone informed in amusement. "Since your curse turned out to be not a curse at all but a harmless spell for a party trick."
"What?" Clawstorm exclaimed, clutching her phone in a death grip. From the witch's (mostly unused) bed Blondie perked her head up from her homework in interest.
"Well we couldn't make out much of the full explanation from what passes as a news station in Wonderland- even though it was an Ever After standard speaking channel-, but apparently between The Queen of Hearts publically announcing your innocence to supposed past mass genocide crimes, your courageous sacrifice of your honored name to protect your family from fugitives hiding in Wonderland, and demonstrating an estimated small amount of what you are truly capable of with your power just to scare off the mercenaries who are after the Queen land's royal family-"
"I still cursed the place Simone! It still counts as a curse if people are terrified of it, and all the other worlds were only supposed to be cursed for a few weeks not years!" Clawstorm moaned.
"Which had been detailed in your written confession and is currently being looked into by authorities and experts, it's mostly all hush right now of course, but from what I've overheard from Giles speaking to people is that they think that somebody definitely attempted to prolong your work to the worlds aside from Wonderland." Bad wolf piped up.
"Wha- why would anybody want to prolong a bloody ominous cloud of doom over a world's sky?" Clawstorm griped. "It had to be a mistake on my part, nobody is that-"
"The jabberwocky have already taken responsibility, they said that they were sorry about the other worlds but they couldn't figure out how to affect Wonderland by itself due to the structure of your spell being so well connected to each part of itself." The hooded woman interrupted.
Clawstorm smacked a hand to her head and muttered passionate swear words under her breath.
"Kline-bastard has now been crowned the new greatest evil criminal wanted by all the known Fairytale worlds." Simone interrupted. "Looks like somebody stole your title for the evilest witch in existence."
"Well he can keep the damn title!" The witch snapped. "But seriously what the frick is going on? Kline being labeled as the slimy traitor he is aside; there is no way that the other realms would allow such leniency for a foul being such as I, where is the catch?"
"You aren't foul." Simone chastises with a snort. "And don't you dare argue back, I've lived with you for four school years and have seen you cuddle up to that plush animal and trip around with those fuzzy pink slippers in the dorm because they were the most comfortable you could find in the shops. And on more pressing topic there has been suggestions that you would be put to work in the Wonderland coliseums."
Blondie utters a sound of alarm.
"That's hardly a punishment for someone who creates golems, my creations would be doing the majority of the fighting and the locals are hardly likely to kill off or injure someone who can give them a good show." Clawstorm states to both assure Blondie and to poke holes into the logic of this sorry excuse for a punishment.
"Most realms are ignorant to the customs of Wonderlandian culture…" The hooded woman trailed off.
"And for the people within Wonderland?" Clawstorm demanded not letting the subject drop for an instant. "There is no way that there isn't some major controversy going on over there from this insane decree."
"I have no doubt that there is… but then again it would all be spoken in riddlish and you do have to consider that it is… well Wonderland that we are talking about here, it's very likely that you've somehow managed to endear yourself to the general populace in some manner or another..." Simone pursed her lips for a moment. "You'd know more about it than we would little miss scholar that you are."
"…I suppose that is something that I shouldn't be as concerned about as how the hell those scaly colossal vamped up versions of really scary dragons high-jacked my own spell! I really should have at least attempted to figure out a way to Wonderland or one of the other worlds sooner just for the mere sake of figuring out what went wrong…" The witch grumbled, her mind racing for any possible way that the jabberwocky had been able to do anything to a spell that had been bound to her blood and therefore her DNA sequence signature.
"Hold it right there missy!" Simone ordered sternly. "You and I both know that there was literally nothing that you could have done once that quarantine came up, you didn't know about the Well of Wonder, you could not count on the Grimm Brothers to do anything useful, and as terrible as all those years of being separated from the other worlds may have been, in the terrible end it actually did help to stop a grand-scale war, you scared the enemy into not only shrinking their allies and numbers but also halting their plans for years. You need to remember that Clawstorm; no innocent lives were lost as a result of your actions, inconvenienced and frightened beyond all heck perhaps… but in the end you did protect them."
"Yes but that does not excuse me of anything." Clawstorm pointed out. "I crossed a line Simone, and the scary thing is that there is literally nothing holding me back from going as far as it takes to protect the people I love. No laws or rules or sense of morals would hinder me if I were pushed far enough, hell I even killed a man! Sure he was going to kill both Sleeping Beauty and myself first out of some sort of jealous fit, but the fact still remains that despite how horrible I felt afterwards I still did not regret it, not nearly as close as I regret having to instill terror into the hearts of so many through my curse. Don't get me wrong, on a survival and on a friendship level I am overjoyed that you guys stayed my friends and allies all throughout this mess but the fact still remains that I'm dangerous, like a bad kind of dangerous, how can anything I've done so far be justified if I'm just a loaded gun whose safety has been taken off, how can you possibly feel safe in saying that I should get a lighter judgment placed upon me when deep down when pushed just right there is a real Evil Queen that is just as ruthless and horrible as all the past literature on me states that I am?"
"Because even though that person you just described may not be what the fairytale worlds want but it is exactly the type of person that we need to be free to run around and do all those horrible things so that the enemy does not succeed in ripping everything that everyone, your family included, holds dear away from them… that and we don't know what a gun is…" Simone pointed out gently. "You have great power residing within you my friend and whether you believe it or not you do have enough responsibility and conscious to wield it."
"You got that directly from a comic book I lent you from the monster dimension." Clawstorm accused, aware of Blondie's footsteps as the girl drew near.
"Those comics did have some good points." Simone pointed out cheerfully. "And you'd be able to pull off the cheeky masked vigilante quite well, even though those revealing long underwear things that those characters wear are completely ridiculous!"
"If you find that crude I should introduce you to the latest runway fashions, that much skin ought 'a show you a thing or two about what revealing clothing actually looks like!" The witch snipped.
"Hey, do you think that they'd let you reserve seats for friends if you ever do manage to get captured and sentenced in Wonderland?" Simone wondered.
Clawstorm rolled her eyes. "Goodbye Simone." She drawled before hanging up.
"She's right you know." Blondie piped up. "You did stop a bad situation from getting worse."
"At great cost." The witch sighed brushing the Mira-persona's bright red hair behind one ear before turning around to face the reporter. "Even in a world filled with fairytale magic and dangerous beasts with teeth wandering about what I did was-"
"Cruel and harsh but necessary." Blondie finished. "And now you don't have to worry as much about doing all of this on your own because there is a whole network of people and kingdoms who will fight to keep these people from winning. It's not going to be easy but with so many people pooling their resources we have a shot in making things right again."
"Or at least more stable." The witch hummed pacing slightly. "I know that I have most of the pieces towards just what is going on with this craziness but I'm missing some key crucial information that will make everything click. Tomak may be the type to have illusions of grandeur and the whole odd thing about him having a destiny towards divine right but there has to be an overwhelmingly good reason for him to have such bravery to stick towards this end game of his for… what? Decades? Maybe even longer!"
Blondie blinked. "Divine right?" She asked.
"Hmm? Oh, right they don't teach that kind of thing here. Divine right is essentially the belief that an individual has been given the right to rule over people and land however they see fit by their gods or whatever divine entities that they believe in. Historically the common people have no say in how the kingdom is run and they can't have a revolution to change that for fear that if they do off the ruling family then the gods and the land itself will turn on them." The witch coughed guiltily when the blonde pulled a face.
"So kind of like how the nobility of those four small kingdoms think that they have the right to do what they do because they were born in the upper class." There was a slightly bitter note to Blondie's tone, one that Clawstorm knew had a lot to do with the distinct possibility that the girl's non-royalty heritage being thrown into her face more than once despite being a sympathizer to the Royal faction's cause.
"Except that most of the few hundred common people who are trapped there are not buying it and would have rebelled ages ago if it weren't for the mercenaries." Clawstorm idly toyed with a stray thread on Mira's dress. "And even though there are royal families who have direct ties to their lands, it's a kind symbiotic relationship that is not to be taken lightly, if they are bad rulers then it'll show up immediately in the lands and the common people are perfectly capable of just simply capturing the ruling family and imprisoning them until they can find someone strong enough to take the shock of having the power of the water, land, and sometimes even the sky itself flow into them. In these type of families it is imperative that the ruling family work to protect and provide for their realm just as much as the realm protects and provides for them."
"Is your kingdom like that?" Blondie asked suddenly very curious.
The witch sighed. "It's not a well known secret, but I do suspect that Tomak, who is from a wealthy family but is not a noble or a ruler himself, knows this and that is why he wants to kill us off, the Queen lands are deeply tied to the current three generations of the Queen family, which right now is just my mother, my daughter, and myself, if we are all killed off the land will go into such a shock that it'll try to latch onto a new caretaker, and since Tomak and his son have proven themselves to be uncaring towards how many have to die in order, I suspect, to take over a lot of entities from witches, fairies, even a human with unusual magical potential could all be put at risk of being shattered apart by the land's need to find just the right caretaker for it before Tomak manages to install his own champion who is strong enough to handle the will of the land on their own."
Blondie wrinkled her nose. "I only saw that Kline guy for a few seconds but I already know that I rather not see him or his father on the Queen kingdom's throne."
Clawstorm shook her disguised head. "Neither of them would be on the throne their both fully male, the earth won't accept anything without a womb to provide future offspring for it's survival, but Tomak does have an illegitimate daughter hidden away, not much is known about her since she hasn't been seen in public since she was a tiny child, but what is known is that she was pretty powerful for a witchling who had as of yet come into her adult powers, it is said, and I know this from personal experience, that she could just walk into a room and the entire ministry of witches in the whole council building could feel her power in the air to the point to where the rest of their senses were blocked the scent of her magic was so strong."
"You knew her." Blondie said knowingly.
"…She was my childhood friend, her name was Clementine. Mom had a lot of business to deal with at the grand council so she and I would play at the daycare while Kline used to glower at me from a far corner. Everyone had thought that Kline was the son of a maid who worked at the council building, and that Clementine's parents hired that same maid to take care of her while they were overseas, nobody suspected them of being Tomak's children…" Clawstorm trailed off lost in memories of her early childhood. "Then one day Clementine ceased to attend daycare and Kline was reportedly sent off to boarding school and that was that. She's younger than me but even so by now she'll be a formidable young woman who has to be even more powerful than her brother… I'm not looking forward to having to deal with her without at least an army of golems and a lot of luck on my side…"
"So if he just wants to take over the Queen kingdom then why the witch hunters? Why those four secluded kingdoms? Why the war machine? And why try to start a war all across the fairytale worlds?" Blondie asked utterly baffled.
"I don't know but whatever his end game may be it definitely has to do with his family gaining power and that it is something that he is willing to wait for and work on for however long it takes before he's succeeded, and on top of that there is the issue as to what could possibly make him believe that he can get away with all of this? What is giving him such assurance that he has gained this kind of gall to even attempt such atrocities? Chief I'm confident that if we can figure out this then the rest of our questions will be answered as well." Clawstorm stated confidently. "…Though the issue now is how we are to get this information… all things considered…"
"They'll slip up." Blondie nodded knowingly. "You've got them on the run and backed into a corner, and I'll bet my favorite porridge that they'll be doing something soon to attempt to get some traction back now that Kline-guy has been exposed and sooner or later they'll run the risk of somebody finding out his connection to councilman Tomak."
"Yes but it's the how they will go about their new plan of attack that worries me." Clawstorm stated biting her lip.
"By the way, what is a gun?" Blondie asked.
XXX
"It was her! I know it was! There is no mistaking it Charming, I've studied all of the school news feeds with her in them and my sources have discovered that she's escaped her prison! What better way to hide from the Grimm Brothers than to hide right under their noses in plain sight! Even Anton couldn't deny that she shares a bunch of similarities with her, it has to be her!" Snow White declared excitedly to the two worried men in front of her.
"I'm not doubting you Snow, but both Anton and myself are rather worried about your personal safety in regards to this plan of yours, given the current storm that is brewing between the Queen witches and those lunatics and the fact that sweet little Raven had warned us that these same lunatics may try their hand at implicating one of us in something nefarious in order to force the war that they need in order to succeed in whatever they are planning."
Snow White drew herself up to her full height and smiled reassuringly. "That is why I am sending her advanced warning of my arrival through a secure means as well as bringing an extra force of dwarves to accompany me to and from the school, if anything happens I know that my forces and the great Evil Queen herself will ensure that our foes do not succeed in anything should they be foolish enough to try anything against me. If anything goes wrong she will come for me, I know she will." The queen stated with overwhelming confidence.
Anton cleared his throat politely. "My lady if I may be so bold as to ask; why are you going to the school in order to attempt to see the Honorable Lady Evil Queen of the Night and Shadow now? Is it because of the recent evidence of her innocence?" The warlock spoke calmly and lightly attempting to do his very best not to fidget, Prince Charmin's pale hand entwined with his richly dark one in support.
"…That… is one of the reasons why I want so desperately to go to her." Snow White admitted her face lightly flushing pink. "I also desire to confirm a suspicion of mine as to the… well I suppose that it sounds a bit odd but I have my doubts towards the Evil Queen's destiny… in fact I am beginning to suspect that… maybe being the Evil Queen was never her true destiny in the first place."
"Well she never did sign the Book…" Prince Charming murmured uneasily.
"And she designed the prince of my dreams to be the male version of herself. Just think about it Charming; she was the prince of my dreams, she ensured that my high school experience was the best years of my life, she knew that I had wanted you to be my prince so she ensured that it would be so, she gave us the perfect storybook fairytale we could ask for, after Apple was born she sent Anton over for you to discover, and she's been protecting us from dastardly schemes from those horrible people!" Snow White listed out taking a shaky breath when she was done. "She hasn't been acting like a true Evil Queen, she's put on the persona of one for everybody else's sake but when you look at it all in a different light you can see that all of her efforts are far too noble and not villain-like at all, which only tells me that maybe, I can't prove anything though, that just maybe if she had signed the Book for real instead of faking it, or had used the right poison that would gift me my actual true love… just maybe it would have become evident that she… has a completely different destiny entirely."
The two men blinked in confusion.
"What are you hinting at Snow?" Prince Charming asked completely lost.
"…I… forgive me for saying this but I… suspect that she may be my prince… the one that I was supposed to end up with." Snow White crossed her arms. "I understand the risks and I understand that I'm the last person that she will want to see and that she may want nothing to do with me but… we can help her, at the very least we can extend to her the option of having somewhere safe to hide, being Mira Shards is all well and good but it is quit the risk to take for her, she may despise me but even she would have to admit that hiding out in our summer palace would be a safer option should she choose it."
Two sets of raised eyebrows. "My lady… you believe that her dark majesty is your prince?" Anton asked his voice pitched a little high.
"Or the closest thing that I'll actually get to a prince, no offense meant Charming." Snow White coughed delicately.
"None taken." Said the blond man still utterly confused, his mind reeling.
Sometimes I really wonder about the integrity of her sanity…
XXX
"So she's sending contractors out to rebuild the school's Dragon Games Arena practically overnight?" Kline walked gingerly over to stand beside his father in front of the large mirror-screen showcasing their latest intelligence on the Ever After royal family. "A rather excessive display of her power to gain the student's parents good graces…"
"And perhaps it is the break we need so desperately right now. How have you healing treatments gone? I can see that you no longer need use of the cane or chair." The elder observed with a note of approval. "Did our dear Clementine's power serve you well?"
"She has been beyond kind to me using her powers like this, willing to use them for me." The younger man nods with a guiltily dreamy sigh. "My bones will still be tender for a while yet but if the need arises-"
Tomak held up a hand for silence. "I know that you are willing to sacrifice yourself for her, for our cause and as pleased as I am that you are so committed even to the littlest of tasks I feel that I'll save you away for later for when the Evil Queen is sure to come ready for battle, and besides I'd prefer it if you steered clear of our puppet's lair for a while, you seem to be awfully allergic to something there…"