In the part of Clawstorm's brain that still held the ability to think rationally, and was not currently still frozen in illogical terror at the memory of Snow White's expectant thousand watt grin, she reflected that perhaps she should have gone with her back up plan and just pretended to be sick or had to go home for a private family emergency or something because this… this was strange.

She should've trusted her instincts on this one, but nooo, because Clawstorm had been sooo certain that Snowball wasn't the type of creep that could spot her out in her Mira persona merely based of a few measly clues!

Well now Clawstorm knew differently and she was mentally placing the other woman from the past-bully/annoyance category in her head to the creepy-stalker-stay-away-ohmigawd-get-it-de-hell-away-from-me category.

"Mira?" Apple asked gently. "Is my mother really telling the truth or is there a whole different side to this story?"

Behind the princess her daughter Raven, Faybelle, Bad Wolf, and the Grim Brothers looked at her expectantly.

Clawstorm swallowed, the Mira persona quickly looking from side to side to make extra certain that there were no dwarves lurking in the shadows.

"No." She said weakly. "No it is not the truth, but to be fair I was the one who suggested that she cover up what really happened as a simple training exorcise… her fair highness is the one who suggested that it would be more believable if… I was the um…" Mira trailed off, not completely having to fabricate the meek look as she stared at her shoes. "Professor Bad Wolf knows more about what's going on I think…"

"I do." The man in question stepped up and Clawstorm couldn't ask for a better friend n the world as Bane began to explain the morning's events (save for certain embarrassing details like who Mira really was and most of Snow White's odd fixation on her).

Clawstorm hazarded meeting her gaze with her daughter's, Raven's understanding, awkward gaze felt like it matched her own and the two witch's winced in sympathy for each other. The mutual understanding that passed between the two was almost palpable.

In hindsight Raven had mused she really should have trusted her instincts and had played sick or said that she had too much studying to do, and perhaps find a way to bring Mira over to the academy for good measure… because this was indeed strange…

XXX

A day before…

Something big might quite possibly happen in the very near future…

Maybe.

And that was the trouble of being able to feel out the ninth sight (sixth sight was for ghosts, seventh was for sensing out magic, while the eighth sight usually developed when one had small children, it was also more commonly known as having "eyes at the back of one's head and around walls and corners" because it seemed like a rare, rare thing sometimes for witchlings to get away with anything as long as their mothers were within earshot or had access to a phone) the ninth sight was not an exact use of magic seeing as it dealt with sensing out things to come in the near or distant future that may or may not happen at all… because it was the future… and trying to hold the future in one's mind was like both holding water with a strainer and trying to feel out shapes of broken glass in the dark with your bare feet, the future being so filled with different possibilities and alternate realities it wasn't exactly something one could predict with absolute accuracy or at all.

Thus it goes without saying that beings born with an ability that was able to sense the uncertain possibilities of certain future events was incredibly unnerving and annoying as hell. All beings naturally born with this ability mostly despised having the sudden overwhelming feeling that something was about to happen only for it not to happen at all leaving everybody with the ability confused and on edge for the rest of the day.

Fortunately for Raven living in a place like Ever After High for so long had pretty much gotten her used to having such feelings almost constantly and thus she was able to ignore the blasted sight a majority of the time unless she deliberately called upon it for special occasions, like when she wanted to sound all mystical and all-knowing to someone that was being particularly annoying as was most likely to get what was coming to the sooner or later anyway or when she was stuck in a Wonderlandian maze, it was pretty much impossible to find your way out of a Wonderlandian maze by one's self unless you were either a native or possessed ninth sight.

However this was a special rare instance where the likelihood of something overwhelmingly foreboding was about to happen was more probably likely than most days. It itched so badly in the air that half of Hathor Academy could feel that something was in the air, and while most either ignored it or glared suspiciously at the sky or ground thinking that perhaps there would be a particularly vicious surprise storm or earthquake over the weekend Raven's grandmother while loaning out her dragon Nightshade had handed the young witch several belt pouches filled with things that made Raven almost too terrified to wear them on her person and had given her strict instructions to stay as close to her grandfather and Giles as she could during her stay in Ever After, much to Apple's endless confusion (since the princess did not possess a ninth sight) and Faybelle knew better than to dispute an elderly witch that has been around the block a few times so she merely sulked.

Raven did not elaborate when Apple cast her a questioning gaze, ninth sight was something that was only spoken very lightly on occasion to people who did not possess it, most who did not have it tended to grow alarmed when it was explained to them and it was such a hit and miss ability that it was hardly reliable enough to get people actually worried over it. Although it wouldn't surprise Raven if her grandmother was one of the few that had mastered the ability somewhat to the point where they could tell for certain that something in particular was going to happen…

But she wasn't going to bank on it and her grandmother probably wouldn't tell her if asked because it had to do with an unreliable ability and older witches especially were keen of keeping up reliable appearances with their powers.

And apparently her grandmother had sent a message to her grandfather because as soon as Raven stepped off the carriage at Ever After High the old man made it silently clear during their carefully worded and choreographed greetings (so as not to let anyone in on the fact that the elder was her grandfather) that he was going to keep the young girl in his sights nearly the whole time. And to be fair it wasn't as though Raven wasn't encouraging such overprotectiveness that she'd normally object to on a regular day, but the itch of all the possibilities practically vibrating in the air along with the uncertainty of what might happen with Snow White's arrival made it pretty easy for Raven to find herself making sure not to stray out of sight from either the Grim Brothers or the resident faculty, it was just not the type of day she felt comfortable doing such things like being grown up and independent.

"So you guys do wear the pointy hats and wear all black." Hunter began conversationally inclining his head at the black uniform witch's hat standing proudly on Raven's head, the girl had decided that since she was going to be expected to represent the Queen Land's royalty for the weekend it was best to do so in one of her new school's everyday and dress uniforms.

"Indeed we do." Raven smiled motioning to her midsection with one hand and putting the other inside a concealed pocket in the knee-length skirt of her uniform. "At the academy they've separated us out into different disciplined departments the green utility belt and the green band on my hat indicate that I'm in the natural herbatology course for basic schooling, as my studies progress and my chosen disciplines narrow the belts get different colored trims and patterns to indicate what I'll be specializing in.

"Must be a little easier knowing what to wear everyday." Ashlynn observed while cuddling a purring Nevermore in her arms, the human girl and her boyfriend sending suspicious glances over Raven's shoulders to where Headmaster Grimm was attempting to look natural and innocent as he stood behind the young witch a few feet away.

"Actually it's a lot more difficult since the official academy uniforms come in a variety of different styles and combinations." Raven informed while trying to mime that it was perfectly fine that the Headmaster was obviously hovering in an odd manner for someone who was supposedly at odds with Raven for denying destiny and leaving the school a married girl along with giving up her title to someone else. "This is the hooded short sleeved version that I'm wearing with the special utility belt and the stripped knee-high socks whose green and white stripes show that I'm still in basic studies. There is a lot of color coordination as well as proper times to wear different uniforms, the academy is even older than Ever After and the traditions there in regards to this kind of thing are so ingrained that there are even sports teams between the different colored departments."

"So it's like the green team versus the yellow team?" Hunter asks dropping his suspicious gaze from the Headmaster to look at Raven in sudden interest, in his arms Nightshade leaned his long neck over to gently maneuver Nevermore's head back down from her attempt to climb Ashlynn's head with a soft reprimanding sound, the older dragon having long been used to his own code of conduct in humanoid company and demanded the same from his children whenever he was around to enforce it.

"And the red team, and the blue team, purple team, and so on down the rainbow, but we all band together when we are going up against another school of course." Raven assured.

"Well yes that only makes sense." Hunter nodded as if such things made perfect sense to him (and to be fair it probably did, at least he probably understood it better than Raven who spent several days observing others in their casual clothing worried that she'd have to wear all green all the time even in her days off).

"Speaking of teams I think that you and Apple should have a word or two with Mira, she's been a nervous wreck all week about that not-so-secret big extravaganza that Snow White is going to be putting on tomorrow, she's good at hiding her feelings on the matter I think that she's petrified that the queen inviting her to help present things is a trap to show the whole school that the two of you are evil witches or something." Ashlynn requested sounding rather worried herself.

"Sounds like something my mother would do." Apple grumbled darkly from her spot not too far away (she stood beside a board looking Faybelle the human casting the Headmaster innocently confused stares as if she could get him to perhaps believe that Raven would be perfectly fine if he were to perhaps leave the witch for an hour or two alone in her capable company, not possessing the learned skill of deciphering teenaged girl's gestures and pointed looks the Headmaster only blinked at the princess in confusion), her mother was an attention hog after all and as previous examples had showed the woman was more than willing to throw others under the carriage if it meant that she'd be viewed as even more maidenly and fair than before.

The females (and Headmaster) of the group winced while Hunter stared at Apple in wide-eyed surprise.

"Could you tell us where Mira is?" Faybelle swooped in with uncharacteristic concern (she was certainly eyeing Apple with concern). "I need to discuss some Thorn Clan business with her anyway so it's probably best to kill two birds with one stone and just have all three of us go together."

"She's with Giles in the school archives helping him dig out some old dragon harnesses, the queen has sent over a few adult dragons in preparation for the games she wants to have start while she's here." The headmaster informed walking up beside his granddaughter with his arm held out, without even thinking about it Raven took it and allowed herself to be led away much to both Hunter and Ashlynn's wide-eyed confusion.

"It was good to see you two face to face again!" Raven called over her shoulder. "And thank you for watching the dragons while we help out with the pre-preparations."

"Why is she and the Headmaster being so nice to each other?" Hunter whispered to Apple suspiciously. "Does he have something on her?"

"He feels sorry about the whole thing with her mother." Apple quickly assured, it was vague but it wasn't a lie. "That and he's worried about Faybelle taking advantage of her virtue now that they are married." The princess cast Faybelle a sly look which only served to confuse Hunter further while Ashlynn merely sighed despairingly.

Faybelle grinned toothily (showing off her sharp little teeth). "He has every cause to be worried by the way." She winked at the human couple wickedly before grabbing Apple's arm and walking away.

"Is Raven really going to be all right with all of this going on?" Hunter paled as he watched them all go.

"Somehow I get the feeling that she's dealing with all of this just fine." Ashlynn rolled her eyes not feeling at all worried in the slightest.

XXX

"And like I've said before Miss Shards you do not have to worry about persecution or being singled out in a negative manner here, we have strict policies to protect our students and Mr. Bad Wolf will be with you the entire time so you should not worry about a thing." Giles continued to assure a bewildered Mira Shards as the witch used her magic to hover the dragon tackle onto rolling sleds.

"The whole event will be closely monitored and it's highly unlikely that anything bad will happen, you are such a polite girl normally and you were chosen specifically because of your previous good work on Miss Lockes's show, all that you have to do is to continue to be your normal sweet self and talk about dragons." The Headmaster butted in, casting his brother a warning look for no doubt talking as though Snow White was going to eat the redheaded witch. "Just pretend that this is just another ordinary interview or something."

"Umm… Thank you?" Clawstorm murmured with wide eyes, she felt confused, and for good reason, back when she was in school for the first time around nobody save for her closest friends were at all concerned with protecting her reputation or person from a maiden who may have ill intentions. The fact that this was the Snow White, queen of all of Ever After was so perplexing that Clawstorm didn't know what to make of it.

It was incredibly spooky…

But then again she wasn't to become the next Evil Queen, nor did anybody save for Blondie know that she was the illegitimate daughter and heir to the Grimm line.

That might have everything to do with it actually.

But it didn't explain why everyone was acting like Snow White was the bad guy, the precious "fairest princess and queen of them all" was never even considered to be the bad guy even when she totally was in front of lots of witnesses.

This was all very strange.

"It'll be fine." Raven whispered as the two Grimm Brothers began bickering lightly on something that involved a lot of pointed looks and hand gestures. "My mom once said that witches don't just face life's trials bravely, we rig, trick, and take over the obstacles and make things go our way by the sheer force of our power and will. …That and Apple is bringing her stainless steel purse with her."

That made Clawstorm feel as though she could breathe again, the tension flooded out of her shoulders as she chuckled at her own words being used back at her. "Well as long as Lady Apple is around with her purse I suppose I'll always feel safe." The redheaded witch grinned at the princess in question.

"I'm more than happy to help." Apple assured with a nod and a wave.

Clawstorm was far from assured but she was a witch after all and as a witch who had just spent the past few years fighting tooth and nail and enduring the scorn of dozens of worlds for the sake of her family and people's protection she could hardly say that she was terrified enough to be scared away now, especially by one little whining maiden with an ego the size of Boo york!

Granted Snow White was her former bully who had made her high school life a living hell (not to be confused with various forms of actual hell and/or underworld realms… those actually had decent tourist attractions and lovely blues music played in the surprisingly clean streets) in a bad frustrating way, but honestly compared to Clawstorm's other problems Snow White and whatever vendettas she had against her at large for the mere crime of simply existing were hardly enough to get so worked up about, all that Clawstorm had to do was have her Mira persona smile kindly and hold her tongue on whatever cutting remarks the woman made towards her family, pose for some awkward pictures and then Snowy would be gone and Clawstorm could go back to figuring out her real enemy's slimy little schemes and saving all of the fairytale realms from all out war.

Once put into perspective that did help alleviate much of Clawstorms concerns.

And it wasn't like old Snowball had enough brains to see though her Mira persona, after all Clawstorm was merely a means to an end for the other woman back in high school, it wasn't as though Snowy was obsessed with her or anything, at least not to the point where she could spot Clawstorm hiding behind a new face!

That would be utterly ridiculous! …Aaand creepy, very, very creepy.

Now if only she could do away with the annoying itch to her ninth sight…

XXX

The day she was to arrive at the school Snow White nervously checked over her appearance in her compact mirror and worried the fabric of her pristine white dress at the knees as her transport moved along the road. "Oh Anton what am I to say to her? She's going to be rightly upset to even see me, how do I keep her from just disappearing the moment she suspects that I know who she really is?"

"As long as my Lady does not come out and say that you know of her dark ladyship's true identity on the first meeting you may have more of a chance to built a tentative bridge through communication and subterfuge. Right now her dark ladyship is like a mother wyvern whose family and territory have been attacked she will only allow for assistance if she believes that it is on her terms and that you will not be a threat to her or her family, I cannot guarantee that this will end like my lady would like it to, however it is a start and if done correctly the minimum of what we want to achieve will be achieved." The warlock concludes wisely while nodding to himself.

Having spent most of his life being raised beside Clawstorm to become her future footman had taught the man many things about the witch, and while he knew that the woman was going to become spitting mad once she discovered that Anton was aiding her former bully like this he honestly believed that this was the safest course of action that could actually help in getting Clawstorm out alive from all of this, a safety net if needed so that she could live another day to save her people and their homelands.

She did help him find the love of his life and find a home he could find true happiness in, for that he owed her his help in potentially saving her life… whether she liked it or not.

"Thank you for coming with me Anton, I don't think that I could have done this alone and I need a go-between for me and Apple right now." Snow White sighed, it seemed as though as more time went on the more and more Apple seemed to grow to either distrust her parents or find out something about their pasts which only served to make her distrust them even more, and now it was to the point where she was refusing to even speak to them, the only saving grace that Snow White and Prince Charming got was Anton and (surprisingly) Raven, the witch and warlock often acting as messengers and a sympathetic ear to both parties.

"Lady Raven is hopeful that the princess will grow less angry as time heals those wounds and the immediate threat has been vanquished, she is young and needs time to sort these things out for herself… I'm afraid that there is simply not much that I can do to advise my Lady of how to deal with that… teenagers were never really my expertise." The warlock coughed apologetically.

Snow White smiled kindly. "I understand Anton, and I highly doubt that there are very many people who are experts with teenagers."

"I just pray that we do not meet up with more trouble on our way to this act of in-house diplomacy…" Anton speaks gazing agitatedly out the magic resistant glass of the transport.

XXX

"I'm starting to regret this decision." Clawstorm grumbled, fidgeting on the welcoming platform about a mile away from the school's campus where she was supposed to meet with Snow White flying in dramatically on the back of the dragon Legend and have Blondie take a few pictures of the two of them before the queen whisked Mira away in her transport to spend a private personal few hours with the woman doing gods knew what and for reasons that were yet to be explained to anybody.

It was out of character, suspicious, and all around not good for her as far as Clawstorm was concerned, Snowy was already one of hose types of people whom someone like her simply does not understand, and does not want to understand for that matter, she was just someone who people like Clawstorm just stayed out of the way of because once you were on "the bad list" with the queen you were on it for decades and your family tended to suffer because of it.

Not that Clawstorm ever wanted to be on Snow White's good list either, while that may have once been the case once upon a time in the first year of high school when even she had been naïve enough to fall for the other girl's charms for a little while, as the years went by Clawstorm discovered that to Snow White friends were more like… pawns, depending on your use to her she'd keep you around in her inner circle but if you were no longer useful to her she'd sooner throw you away with little regard for anything that had been built between you.

"Just don't forget what Cupid told you about sexual harassment." Blondie piped up causing Bad Wolf to snicker.

Mira grimaced. "I literally have no idea as to why she would come to the conclusion that old Snowball would even want to lay a finger on the Mira persona like that, when I knew her she was obsessed with princes and being the perfect maiden, I haven't the foggiest of clues what she saw in my male self in those spell-induced dreams but whatever it was it surely would not have resulted in her suddenly deciding to fall for me. I mean if she treats the person she loves like she did me I'd hate to see how she'd treat someone she hates."

XXX

In a puff of green light the four hulking figures dressed in shades of green to match the landscape appeared briefly in the clearing before disappearing off into the safety of the trees, they moved stealthily towards their destination like stalking wild cats out on a hunt, the leader of them all focus zeroed in upon reaching their destination in time for the pounce.

The three trailing behind however were wearier of their surroundings, glancing up mostly as if particularly concerned that something (someone in particular) was about to pounce on them.

Even though the controversial speculation and evidence of the Evil Queen's true motives for her terrifying deeds had been brought to light and were circulating around all the realms like a full fledged storm the fact still remained that the insane woman had been willing to put so many worlds under her spell just so that she had the pleasure of hunting down her enemy like helpless prey herself. Despite recent propaganda issued by Wonderland and a surprising growing number of royal voices who had once known the woman personally that painted her as simply a mother with no real support to aid her, who was willing to do whatever she had to do to protect her family and kingdom even at the noble sacrifice of her reputation and her freedom… rumors still circulated, enough that most of the men back at the royal lord's various bases still awoke in a cold sweat in the middle of the night for fear that their nightmare of the woman appearing like a specter out of nowhere to exact her revenge on them all. Very few admitted to such thing out loud but for many the Evil Queen was more like a vengeful god than an ordinary witch, the fact that she had been able to escape her mirror prison by herself and reportedly killed all of their men, and their masters save for lord Kline and even he, the strongest (and also rumored to be a powerful warlock himself) of them all could not escape her unharmed?

It was a nice thought to believe that they could take her should they ever come face to face with her, that all the rumors were just merely hype and that their skills and their tech could put her down and thus prove once and for all that she was just another witch of flesh and bone that could be defeated with a well placed slice to the windpipe or a stab to the heart.

However most of the men on this team were men of combat (save for the leader, he was just trained, never was he actually in a war zone, which only goes to show what happens when you let people who don't know what they are doing assign the ranks and pick out the team members), even after many years of the semi pampered (or as pampered as one could get as a hired fist in a military bunker paid to keep the oppressed common folk in line) life style some of them were still battle weary veterans who had been hired and had fought in conflicts in many different realms doing deeds that made the more innocent of hearts shutter in horror. Being paranoid and not underestimating any and all potential angry things (and some not angry at all, some just did bad things dispassionately for the sake of their goals, which usually you could avoid those bad things happening to you if you could be useful or have access to lots of money to buy their mercy) that could and would kill them was a very good instinct to have in order to stay alive. Especially when the laws of nature factor in… like getting between an angry mother and her offspring… which technically applied here-

The thing about mercenaries is that despite their training to follow orders without question was that not very many of them are willing to be apart of a cause for free, if they feel as though they are not being paid enough and especially when they weren't particularly afraid of their bosses to risk their necks for the rate at what they are currently being paid… thoughts formed in the back of their minds, and these tended to be thoughts about just how worth it would it be to just… leave.

They may be on the hunt, as their leader so believed that they were, but the three lagging slightly behind feared that very quickly they could become the hunted instead.

XXX

"Legend is getting antsy." Clawstorm murmured gently petting the dragon's side in an attempt to calm the creature. "Is it about time to do the dramatic flying thing over her fair highness's entourage yet? I think that both she and I could really use a bit of air to steady our wits."

"I don't see why you guys can't fly a little early." Blondie shrugged as she checked the time. "Just don't forget the com-unit so that I can direct you when she appears over the hill."

Clawstorm smiled. "Thanks chief you sure know how to look after a girl with the case of the nerves."

"A good reporter always looks out for her crew." Blondie smiled back as the witch slid the com-headset over her ears and mounted the excited dragon.

"Be safe Clawstorm." Bad Wolf waved as the witch took to the air. "And none of those usual tricks you usually pull today okay, remember jumping off of a dragon mid-air is only fun if you have someone you actually like screaming at you from below."

"I'll keep that in mind!" Clawstorm called to the ground with a laugh (while she was a teenager and new mother, well… ever since she had figured out how to fly on her own Clawstorm had taken to jumping out of windows and other tall places and scaring the living daylights out of all her friends and family just for the heck of it, however since her mother barely bothered to blink when she did this and therefore was no fun at all the woman was the only exception to the only friends and family rule), the two figures on the platform shrinking further and further as she gained altitude.

It felt good to be in the air again; the feeling freedom it brought after years of confinement and weeks of hiding was precious, the euphoric feeling was almost as tangibly sweet as that of the dripping nectar of the honey mist flower, Clawstorm closed her eyes and enjoyed the moment for as long as she could before she had to open her eyes to steer. Far down below her she could see Snow White's transport and her security detail a few miles away from the welcoming platform.

"Might as well begin my grand act now." The witch sighed in defeat, maneuvering her flying beast to swoop over the trees and road close to the queen's transport.

And that's when something caught her eye, between the trees there were three- no four swiftly moving shadows in green were flanking the approaching transport with odd intent.

One shadow spotted her, hunching over like a cornered wild beast, it tapped his twin on the shoulder and this time the other shadow let out an unprofessional yelp of surprise at the sight of her.

As one both shadows reached into their green uniforms.

"Blondie contact the queen's dwarves and warn them that they are about to be attacked! Bane I really need your help roughly three or so miles down the road like yesterday!" Clawstorm hollered into her com, giving Legend the signal to fly up and keep flying just before the witch jumped off and the green shadows below her shot compact glass balls with blue lightning arching inside at her.

Clawstorm lit up her fists in magic crossing her arms over her face as the twin glass orbs reached her.

The resulting explosion at the impact was enough to strip the leaves and branches off of the neighboring trees and branches as they were engulfed in bright white light.