A/n: Sorry for the lack of updates lately, been very busy with some new life happenings and have been so tired I once fell asleep standing up.
But here's a short chapter, don't fret, lots of fighting and action to come soon.
XXX
Less than a handful of hours and I'm already exhausted, I'm getting too old for this and I've still yet to reach my second century of life. Clawstorm mentally bemoaned, it was bad enough that she had to awkwardly play nice, nice with Snow bloody White, who if the events of the afternoon had been of any indication, had apparently grown to be even more terrifying in certain subtle ways underneath her perfect maiden act since the last time Clawstorm had any contact with the other woman. She didn't mind the fact that they had avoided getting into a massive fight… even though a big part of her still admittedly itched to tear the other woman a new one and leave her to the tender care of the assassins… Snow White was proving useful thus far and Clawstorm understood the pressing importance that having a completely unhinged powerful ally being helpful in taking down the enemy was a necessary evil…
But did the crazy lady have to be so damn clingy?
Clawstorm shook her head as Snow White, who was holding the miniature witch to her side as they walked molding her leg to Clawstorm's body, and led the witch to a chair while the two waited for the queen's husband and his lover to arrive.
The witch let out a frustrated breath first it was already one big mess but now this little surprise blast from the past came up? Not even comic book heroes and villains had plot twists this weird and they either ran around in public wearing footie pajamas with their knickers on the outside or they were practically naked to start with (although it was fair to say that most plot twists in the comic world weren't really all that weird anymore, seeing as how in Clawstorm's opinion the many themes found in comics tended to develop distinct predictable patterns after a while and… well she did love the art but when you could predict what was going to happen with about an eighty percent margin of accuracy one does tend to get turned off to most of the plot save for the rare instances when the writers actually came up with something surprisingly different or with a satisfyingly happy ending for everyone).
The witch sat down as daintily as she could (hey she may be a criminal in hiding but at least she was still a well-bred criminal) in an ornate chair that looked almost as though it were actually made of gold with the finest ivory silk to upholder it… actually Clawstorm didn't put it past the White family to have any less in furniture…
"We saw what happened on the mirror-camera." Prince Charming announced as he and Anton walked in, confusion written on his features.
"In answer to your unspoken questions; yes I know her, you may vaguely remember her Anton, she's the one who healed your arm when you managed to break it falling out of that tree when you were seven and I was nine." Clawstorm smiled wistfully at the warlock, her body was now roughly that of a pre-teen's. "You were attempting to runaway from my nursemaid who was trying to stuff you into that horrid formal suit if memory serves me right, of course I can't say that I was a very good ruling influence on you seeing as how I was right up there in the tree with you, stark naked and planning ways to incinerate that lacey dress…"
"And Miss Clementine never minded dressing up so she was on the ground laughing at us." Anton nodded, indicating that he did indeed remember. "I always did find it odd that she never appeared to have a family name to go by… My Dark Lady… if I may ask, is she-? Has she not aged at all? I was under the assumption that such a condition was a myth!"
Clawstorm shook her head. "It's no myth I'm afraid, though it is widely misunderstood here in this diminution to the point where the consequences can get rather deadly." Clawstorm tiredly looked up to her bewildered human hosts. "She suffers from an incredibly rare condition found in witches, one that prohibits the victim from aging… she is, as you may have guessed, my childhood friend, and I must say that finding out about this has… well it explains a lot about everything about why Tomak has felt that it is his prerogative to become the king to everything."
"I understand that the… girl?" Snow White asked even as Clawstorm nodded indicating that this was the correct way to address her old friend. "That the girl was told that she'd be the one to replace myself and all the other maidens as the sole fairest of them all if her father was successful… and I can reluctantly admit that I do see how her youthful stature might be useful in that regard, however I still don't quite understand how a little girl could be the key to all of this."
"I understand that the myth behind the illness has gotten to the point to where it's not as well known as it was in the old days so it wouldn't become that much of a threat to the old fairytale system as it is now… that is it won't until the body count begins to rise." The witch sighed, stretching her back as her body grew into its late teens.
"Well before I go into the mythology surrounding the illness in this dimension I should point out that in the dimension where I did my studies they have done more in-depth research into the illness; they call it the Deadman's Frozen Time disease or the Tiny Corpse Syndrome depending on which side of the academic argument you are about how it forms. It's an extremely rare condition found only in witches where a witchling never goes through the transformation from child to adult powers." Clawstorm began as she stood up and paced the room, now in her adult body, periodically peeking over to the closed door to the next room where Clementine dozed in the comforting presence of Clawstorm's bone golems, apparently the girl felt safe with the scent of Clawstorm's magic all around her.
"Normally in a witchling their powers naturally internally grow and peak at a steady, but slow rate until they reach their thirteenth year where their powers mature and settle down into proper manageable levels, in this illness however the victim's powers build up at an abnormally fast rate and peak chaotically until the magical core becomes damaged beyond repair and magic then oversaturates the production of the body's cells and DNA strands until they… well stop. It may appear at first glance that you've stumbled across just about the most powerful witch ever with all the magic that they're wielding but the cruel reality is that the victim's own powers are slowly killing them, and it gets really painful as time goes on. First they stop aging, then they stop eating, drinking, then sleeping, and finally they just stop moving until their bodies just shut down on them, in many cases their corpses don't even rot due to the sheer amount of magic that has gone through the flesh when they were alive!"
Clawstorm takes an unsteady breath. "It's a… very cruel disease, both in the fact that those who suffer from it have to deal with outliving the people they love… and in the fact that they are cursed to slowly lose their minds as the disease progresses… memories become harder to create, basic tasks become too difficult to do on their own, and furthering cognitive abilities like learning new things and growing up to at least become an adult mentally are just… impossible…" The witch looked away. "In many cultures, especially including the ones found here in this dimension, the illness is mistaken for a blessing, the children from this dimension are seen as eternally virtuous, no matter what you do to them the lore dictates that they will always be pure."
"That's why they call them the Holy Fairest here." Anton added. "There are accounts of families in the old days, before it became more commonly known of the tragic decline in health, who use the Holy Fairest suffer to go up in life, ascending through social classes to become kings and queens if they have a daughter or son who has it or, more commonly in our present time, they more often than not get sold off to some foreign monarch who wants to have an eternally fair and perfect spouse in exchange for the child's family becoming important members of the court."
"And on that note… and in the experience that I've had with trying to cure the damn thing it's an all around very scary experience for those who suffer from it." The witch concludes in the ensuing silence.
"I'll bet." Prince Charming exhaled heavily. "Wait. You tried to find a cure for it?"
"She's a Doctor of some sort that goes around curing poisons and curses." Snow White informed to the two surprised men.
"Well… it's more like I've just got a bunch of degrees and one doctorate so that I can go around curing poisons and curses." Clawstorm coughed in embarrassment. "And the team I was apart of… did eventually find a treatment and a cure for the disease, as well as a way to temporarily relieve whatever pains that the sufferers go through however it's more effective if it's caught within the window of either before the witch turns thirteen or at least before they turn sixteen… after that, the longer that they are left to go on in this state there is just too much damage that is done to the mind and body for them to live a perfectly normal life."
"If it's such a cruel disease then why would a man like Councilman Tomak not attempt to seek out a cure for his only daughter? You said so yourself that he was smart for a conniving bad guy." Snow White asked. "I mean if it was just her ignorant mother behind all of this I'd understand but the girl did say that her father had a plan to take the pain away from her while also taking over the world. I mean that's what she meant by those words right?"
The witch paused in her pacing swallowed, taking a moment to choose her words carefully. She did not want to admit this but… well there was no choice now. The family secret was what ended up putting them all in danger so maybe it would be the thing to help them all protect the future. "The main reason from what I can see as to why Tomak would be willing to put both of his children at risk is because… in ancient times, long before the world as we know it existed, some of our witch ancestors created a… symbiotic relationship with the land, connecting their magic to it in much the same way you humans used to believe that the good health and personality on your monarchs directly related to the good health of the land. These witches who managed this became the leaders of their covens and as time moved on, kings and queens to their ancestral realms…"
Snow White's eyes widened. "So you're- your power is…?
"It is not an inherited power that can be controlled nor used for one's own personal benefits, and not just anybody can take the power of the very earth, sea, and air itself into themselves." Clawstorm spoke lowly, a warning lacing her words. "Yes my home kingdom is indeed directly linked to my own magic in a purely symbiotic and instinctual way, as it is so connected with every three recent existing generations that are directly descended from the original ancestors who defeated the old ruling family and claimed leadership over it three thousand years ago, in the old days the only way that a witch's realm would willingly give itself up to a new ruling family would be if they had managed to kill off the three recent generations of the old ruling family and if, and only if, they had someone in their family who could take of the sheer magnitude force of a realm's natural magic freaking out at the loss of it's protectors, the land's natural inclination being to flow it's power into any witch or magical being it can find until it seeks out the right one, there used to be a magic circle that prevented this but in the times of constant wars it was destroyed, if Tomak were to attempt such a stunt now…"
Anton's dark eyes widened considerably. "But my Dark Lady that would spell the deaths of thousands!"
"No it would be a number much higher than that since he's going to be going after all of the lands witch, fairy, and troll included." Clawstorm snorted bitterly. "Yeah lots of innocent people will die but well on top of the wars he's gonna try to start and the panic he's trying to create, a bunch of people suddenly dropping dead for no good reason would only add to his legitimacy to rule the panicked masses now wouldn't it? That's the problem with Clemintine's condition, the only available research done in this dimension in regards to her illness are all based of the misinformation and the common lies that all say that she'll be cured of her pains and of her symptoms if she were to become one with the lands... it only offers a temporary relief actually…"
"Temporary?" Prince Charming asked, sounding faint. So many dead innocents over a little child and a power hungry man…
Clawstorm was silent for a moment, her head hung in remembered grief. "It was in the early days of my career… I had just finished my thesis and the applications for my research seemed limitless, I was… intrigued by this particular condition when I heard about it and personally jumped aboard the team who had been trying to find a cure for over two centuries by that point… Two of the oldest cases that myself and my team worked on were two five hundred-year-old warlock twins who had never managed to grow past the age of six… we had already begun work on the younger subjects with the more promising results the younger the patients were, but those two… nothing was working and they had already gotten to the stage where they weren't moving very well on their own, the cure that we had been rather close to creating would not guarantee that they would survive not having so much distilled magic flowing through their flesh, so myself and another witch monarch volunteered to attempt… an unconventional emergency procedure involving a serum derived from our donated blood… and, for a while it had seemed to be working, they were improving, they could even speak my name and even remember to recognize me whenever I visited… that is until they began growing a… tolerance to it."
The witch took a deep breath and shook herself out of most of her apparent sorrow. Those boys especially had tried their hardest when the fog had been briefly lifted, did their very best to remember her name even when they started to decline for heaven's sakes! It still seemed so unfair that the one to have survived still vaguely recognized her even when he had forgotten his own sibling's existence entirely… "The treatment did manage to improve their conditions, to the point to where one of them was actually able to survive past five years and age once the cure was eventually administered… but unfortunately, like with so many of our patients, the damage had already been done by the time we got to them, I still get letters and the occasional artwork along with status reports that the families and the asylum send to me on occasion…"
Snow White stared at the closed door to the adjoining room where Clementine still slumbered on peacefully. "What condition will she be in when we administer your cure?"
Clawstorm bit her lip and thought about it. "Hard to say without knowing her actual age. Human mothers who birthed witchlings with this condition gain a… well I guess you could call it a natural instant fountain of youth effect, as long as their child survives they will live at the same age as they did when they birthed them as long as they stick nearby and I sure as hell know that Clemintine was a hex of a lot older than thirteen when she and I became best friends. Damn she could be older than her brother Kline for all I know, old Lovelace died off nearly a decade before I was born and I know that Madam Joanna was secretly seeing Tomak for years before that."
"Well that woman and her poisoned ideas is surely not going to get anywhere near that sweet little girl as long as I live and breathe! So she's not going to be able to bargain information in exchange for eternal youth." Snow White swore with conviction. "How far away does the mother have to be for the fountain of youth thingy to stop having an effect?" The woman asked with sudden false innocence.
"About sixty feet. Give it a few weeks to a month or two and she very well might begin to show her true age as the magic leaves her." Clawstorm admitted reluctantly, feeling conflicted between completely agreeing in getting Clementine to a better family and feeling utter horror that Snow White was considering taking someone's child away on top of sentencing that same child's mother to what could very well be a slow and painful death sentence.
"I'll have her moved to a charming small village in the middle of the rural wilderness at the far end of the kingdom, the prison there may not be very elaborate but it is nondescript and Tomak won't think to look for her in someplace so ordinary. Once she's finished… growing old- and beyond if that's what happens- we'll monitor her body for signs of an approximate age."
"…Or you could keep her here for a while, I know somebody who actually knew Mrs. Joanna Lovelace when she was a young adult and… the magic can easily pass through walls without Clementine ever having to actually see her ever again, it's going to take lots of sessions with a children's shrink for her to understand that what her family has been doing is wrong and for her to move on from them, the best thing that we can do is to keep earning her trust and… well I don't like her mother either but let's act like it was all one big surprise that once we've cured her of her illness her mother… er… that is to say we really don't know just how old this woman really is. Some of the human mothers that either volunteered their children for the program that my team worked of for the cure… or where the children had to be rescued from them… they um… kinda turned to skeletons. I was there. I still get nightmares. Trust me it's both really messy and not pretty at all." And slow, Clawstorm mentally added, remembering sunken eyes blinking slowly up at her and skeletal grins that were less grins and more receding dry blackened flesh over teeth, unable to move, only able to hiss out occasionally as they slowly decayed alive until the doctors got the special permission to send out for the special people they were all ordered to forget even existed, to administer the chemicals to end the suffering.
"If we must." Snow White sighed a put out sigh of a maiden, much to Clawstorm's discomfort. "Who do you have in mind?"
"And this is the part where I'm really not going to like it much at all." Clawstorm bemoaned to herself as she looked upon her immediate future with growing dread.
XXX
"And that's what her Dark Ladyship the Evil Queen said for me to tell you Lord Headmaster sir. She also requests that due to the nature of this state of emergency that you as quietly as possible send your best Healers out to the winter palace so that they may help begin administering the cure to dear little Clementine." Mira spoke shyly yet worriedly. "She also stated that she understands that she is a criminal but… please excuse my phrasing sirs but her exact words were that she's too busy trying to save the- explanative- world from an- explanative, explanative- and if she had known that the Jabberwocky would tamper with her fake curse then she would have… um lots of very graphic stuff and made lots of leather boots for good measure. Her words not mine if you please bear in mind sirs!" The witch bowed apologetically.
The Grimm Brothers both stared at the redheaded girl.
Mira politely kept her gaze at her feet.
The Headmaster sat back heavily in his office chair while Giles continued to stare unseeingly at the witch.
"Your lordships?" Mira peeked meekly from a curtain of white flowered red hair.
"Miss Shards… did your nation's monarch look well treated to you?" The Headmaster asked, his tone thick with worry.
That threw Clawstorm off a bit. "Well sir she didn't particularly seemed to like having to work with her fair highness Snow White, but otherwise she seemed well kept."
"Have to work with?" The Headmaster zeroed in on the phrasing.
"Er." Clawstorm mentally kicked herself for that slip up. "I'm to understand that Snow White came across the Evil Queen shortly after I was dropped off, hiding in the forest until she could find a way out of Ever After…"
"She didn't just fly or transport away?" The Headmaster pressed, his concern rising. "Was she injured severely?"
"Um… I'm to understand that Snow White made a convincing argument over the fact that she'd like for the Evil Queen to do bad things to the people who just tried to kill her sir. But her dark ladyship the Evil Queen is still walking I know that much. To be honest sirs I… I know that something big and bloody very well may go down soon and her dark ladyship knows this too, she can't afford not to seek help from Snow White sirs." Mira swallowed nervously.
"Miss Shards do you know how to contact Clawstorm Queen?" The Headmaster asked directly this time, leaning forwards.
Clawstorm's mind blanked for a moment. "I'm so sorry sir… she said that she's not going to listen to any demands that she go back to prison… or speak with anybody outside a select few because her exact location has to be kept a secret until she's right on top of the enemy with all the swords drawn sir!"
"This school is a safe place to hide." The Headmaster seemed to be arguing with the air. "She's proven herself enough that she won't be imprisoned again by our hand at the very least, we can even hide her in plain sight so that nobody would suspect a thing, I know that it would be far from ideal for her but at least it would be better than her having to deal with the queen of Ever After!"
I got there way before you old man. Clawstorm thought, delicately focusing on not thinking about how both she and her father had come to the same conclusions. "I'll be sure to suggest it to her if I ever get the chance to speak to her again Lord Headmaster." Mira promised diplomatically. "Though she may argue against it, she seems to be highly concerned over putting the school and it's students at risk in any shape or form with whatever looming battle that may be coming up."
"So she disapproves of the queen involving someone as young as you in all of this too." The Headmaster sighed, coming to his own conclusions. "She really would have made a good queen if given the chance…"
"Her fair highness will be requesting that her daughter stay with Lady Raven for the foreseeable future as we speak, her extended stay away from school forms are included amongst the information that I have given you, what shall I tell her fair highness about the Dark Lady's request for your assistance?" Mira interrupted, Clawstorm not really feeling up to even coming close to deciphering that last statement.
"Of course, I'll be over there first thing in the morning." The Headmaster waved his hands as if such a thing was never up for debate in the first place. "In the meantime I'll read over my daughter's research so that I can better explain to Healer Phalange that poor girl's condition."
Giles stiffened. "Brother-"
"Thank you Lord Grimm Brothers I will be taking my leave now." Mira stated with one final bow before quickly making for the door.
"Of course Miss Shards go get some rest, I'm terribly sorry that you've been dragged into all of this." The Headmaster spoke apologetically. "I will do my best to make it so that all future interactions are merely between us and the queen, you just focus on resting your injuries and creating more of those charms for Queen Charming. In fact, take Monday and maybe the next day off, you look like you need it."
"Of course Lord Headmaster, thank you Lord Headmaster." Mira nodded before walking out the door.
"And it's just Headmaster and Giles around here Miss Shards!" The Headmaster called as the girl slipped out.
"Brother." Giles sighed.
"Yes Giles, I know, I called her my daughter didn't I?" Milton sagged in his seat, putting his face in his hands.
XXX
"This is just too rich, she's acting nice to you now?" Simone sneered as she poured herself another cup of tea the moment Clawstorm walked through the door into Mira's dorm. The second Clawstorm had gotten back to school she had sent a digital copy of everything that she had given the Headmaster and a copy of all the information that Snow White's people had been able to gather from seven surprisingly willing ex-ninja goons to all her friends so that they'd get a head's up on what was going on (with a few quick notes jotted down to indicate Clawstorm's unfiltered thoughts on the whole day).
"How did the lot of you get a table this big into the room without anybody noticing or mentioning something to me as I walked up here?" Clawstorm ignored the question directed at her.
"I asked Daring and Dexter to help, I said that it was going to be a surprise gift for you since you barely had enough money to buy proper furniture for yourself and that you loved tea so much I figured that this was a good place to start." Blondie explained while spreading jam onto a piece of toast. "Professor Bad Wolf called everybody up to meet here because we're concerned and we wanted to be here for when you got back. Beauty and Maid Marion are over in Wonderland seeing if they can recruit The Cheshire Cat into helping you guys with doing some independent recon on the kingdom of Lance since we figured that having Wonderland back up Snow White's people on this would be the best course of action. Thanks for the digital report on what's going on by the way, your computer skills are getting lots better lately."
"Thank you and when the danger of Tomak finding out where we're hiding his kid is over I'd like to request that you do a special story on that particular illness… it's high time this dimension learned the truth about it and knew that a cure does indeed exist." Clawstorm requested as she pulled out the one empty, and heavily cushioned chair at the table and allowed King Charming to help her sore and stiff form into it.
"Happily." Blondie nodded. "You need to rest, you look almost as though breathing hurts you."
"The Headmaster said something similar, he's allowed me to take Monday and Tuesday off… but with my luck I won't even get that much time to heal before the next big issue transpires."
After that Clawstorm launches into the retelling of the events that had transpired in the last few hours.
"No wonder you look so exhausted!" Red Riding Hood eyed her friend critically.
"Part of that has to do with me keeping part of my attention on my golems back at Snow White's place. Clementine seems to be more comfortable when she can sense my magic; she's sensitive enough to be able to pick up on my scent even through the dampeners. So what do you guys think about all of this 'cause to be honest I'm flying pretty blind here with all the…" the witch hesitates to put a name to the helpless feeling coursing through her.
"Personal feelings messing with your game?" Queen Charming finished in Clawstorm's stead. "Don't worry we kind of figured that things would get that way the other day so we've decided to pick up the slack while you're still reeling."
"Yeah. That. And thank you I do need other people with clearer heads to help me out here." Clawstorm admitted. "Snowy's scarier now, more so than I remember, 'nd her being nice to me is… really weird. I can tell that she feel guilty for the whole rocks falling out of the sky thing but she was clinging to me like I was an old stuff toy practically the entire time I was at her palace."
"Nah, seriously?" Bad Wolf blinked in surprise.
"I'm pretty sure she left bruises on top of my bruises." Clawstorm almost, but not quite whimpered. "And then this whole thing with Clementine happened and I just… it feels like today I just keep getting reminded that I'm a mad scientist, not a villain, or a hero, or even a soldier! Where do I go from here? I always figured that I could just… choke this whole mess out you know? Be the big bad Evil Queen who was so scary that entire world feared the mere mention of her name and wait in hiding until Kline or Tomak made a mistake and have their little puppets turn on them while I snuck what information that I had gathered on their group to the proper authorities so that then the other realms would have to step in, and then when everything was all said and done I'd escape prison, leave behind that explanation on why I actually did what I did before I had a word or three with those be damned- I mean darn Jabberwocky about why that confetti spell was still so high in the sky all these years later, and then just… quietly go back to the monster dimension." The witch shrugged.
"And leave everyone wondering and scrambling all over themselves about you suddenly not being so evil after all but in fact the unsung savior to everything they hold dear." Simone snorted. "And your daughter and mother?"
"They'd hunt me down, give me the yelling to of my life, and then once all the yelling was done they'd proceed to try to drag me back into the family loop I'm more than sure about that." Clawstorm nodded to herself. "It's just how things are done with us, been that way since the original Evil queen if the stories and personal diaries of Queens past are to be believed; now however things are just going to be awkward, what with the whole thing with my father and my daughter's two love interests lurking in the background…" Clawstorm made an unimpressed face.
"Wait… both Apple and Faybelle…?" Blondie questioned looking highly confused.
"Royalty do things differently dear, especially when you've got a fairy and a witch with a kookie family history in the mix." Simone explained. "Clawstorm's great-great aunt had relations with all five brothers of the Lower Umperland's royal princes, and fairies… well let's just say that their higher class social structure can get pretty complicated."
"And Miss Apple is still pretty ticked off at her mother." Clawstorm added wearily. "Right now she's going to want to align herself closer to anything that has nothing to do with fairytales and… well…"
"You can't get as far away from fairytales as your daughter." Blondie finished sounding equally weary, both girl and witch half surprising each other by the similar looks of resigned dread that they were giving one another across the table. "So by two love interests you aren't talking about a love triangle…? …That… that doesn't sound like Apple is taking things very well…" Blondie felt safe in voicing since Clawstorm's expression on Mira's face seemed to agree with the human girl while the rest of the table just seemed to sigh and mentally thank whatever gods or spirits that they believed in that at least it wasn't their children.
"They'll be fine." Clawstorm tried to reassure herself more than the rest of the table. "My daughter will make sure that all three of them fully know what they are getting into, she's outspoken but very cautious when it comes to personal affairs."
"Er, yes and I know that Apple won't go past any boundaries… and she will listen to Raven who is listening to everybody else… and Faybelle won't stick around if there is unnecessary drama…" Blondie winced at her words.
"It's the lack of drama that she should be worried about." Bad Wolf muttered under his breath only to flinch when Red Riding Hood cast him a Look, with capital letters and italics and everything.
"They'll be fine." Clawstorm repeated, still trying to convince herself. She was keenly at a disadvantage since she felt that being absent for so many years meant that she had no say whatsoever in anything in Raven's life anymore and as a mother that really worried her. "They won't rush into things, or do something crazy. Two thirds of them are cautious enough. It'll all work itself out before they even get to the point of crossing a point of no return…"