I'll admit, it was hard to get this chapter out of my brain. Just some stupid stressful stuff involving my job and school, nothing much else, but it has been draining. However, I'm proud to get this one out there now and I hope you all enjoy it.

I'll see you all at the end of the chapter!

It was awkward for the next day or so. Double D knew that it was partly his fault, but there were other things that he wasn't so sure about.

It was obvious what made things awkward with Cerise. Knowing each other's dark secrets did lead to some very awkward silences and some weird glances. There's also the fact he blew up on her dad for what was technically a reasonable question. It was out of embarrassment and maybe some need to avoid needless memories, but that wasn't exactly an excuse.

Clawdeen and Maddie were also acting weird too, which he didn't have an explanation for.

Clawdeen had been friendly enough, but she'd been tense, ready to sprint at a moment's notice. Looking at him like he was a stranger. It was concerning, quite honestly. Visits to her little workshop had been short and he desperately needed a normal place to head to in these trying times.

Maddie herself didn't act too differently from her form of normal. But there was a hesitance there sometimes, as if she were remembering something every time they were talking. It wasn't big, but it bothered him too.

He didn't know what he did wrong (except for the Cerise situation), so he naturally couldn't fix it. Double D's first thought was that they were a little afraid of him, but he dismissed it as ridiculous. Clawdeen hadn't been scared of him before, and he was convinced Maddie was the kind of mad that didn't register fear.

He needed things to return to normal soon. His sanity relied on it.

"Hey."

The boy jumped a little at the voice. He'd been walking through the courtyard, alone, when Cerise had apparently decided to make her appearance. Her face remained neutral, despite the fact he almost had a heart attack.

"Good afternoon, Cerise." Double D did his best to save face, though it wasn't like he cut an intimidating silhouette on his best days. "I was just heading on over to Monster High. Is there something you need me for?"

"Yeah. Apple's helping out with that True Hearts Day party and asked me if I could find a place secluded enough so we could hide it from Grimm." She said it plainly, jerking her thumb at the forest. "Mind helping me with that? We can't use the castle again since Grimm knows about it and we might need to move some debris."

It didn't sound like a request. The boy sighed before starting to head towards the Enchanted Forest with a careful gait.

"Better get started now, then." Double D remained quiet as Cerise moved ahead of him. He mentally mapped out where they were going in his head just in case this situation devolved. "Is there anything you wanted to talk about?"

"Nothing much." Cerise was still keeping her tone level, not really giving anything away. "Just figured I'd need your help with this."

There was a moment of silence as they slowly walked into the woods. Neither seemed brave enough to actually say anything until Cerise cleared her throat.

"My dad and I are sorry about that whole thing in the classroom. We were kinda freaked out and didn't really know what to do." Cerise shrugged, the action somewhat muffled by her hood. "This wasn't exactly a great situation, and we also just out of dealing with that monster hunter…"

"It's fine." Double D waved it off. It kind of wasn't, but this whole situation was a mess from the beginning. "I may have acted a little too defensively during the conversation. I'm usually better at keeping my temper down, but a variety of factors lately made it difficult."

"I'll say. I'm not the only one that thinks Clawdeen and Maddie are acting weird lately, right?" Cerise looked behind her briefly to see Double D nod. "Thank god, I thought I was going crazy out of stress."

"It certainly has been a challenge. Do you have any idea why that might be?" He received another shrug, causing him to frown. "Well, I hope whatever it is, they open up about it soon enough. It'd be nice just to hang out in the workshop again after all of this nonsense is over."

"Hm." The hooded girl hummed in agreement. Some of Maddie's tea would actually hit the spot right about now. She took a moment to formulate her next question. "What was Peach Creek like?"

Double D was taken by surprise by the question, though he made sure to quickly follow up. "What do you want to know?"

"Anything, really. My family didn't exactly get to live anywhere too populated when we were kids." Cerise didn't feel like she needed to explain why. "I talked to people online for the most part until mom and dad decided to stop homeschooling and sent me to middle school."

Double D opened his mouth before closing it, thinking it over. It wasn't like Peach Creek was a source to all of his problems or anything. It was just hard to describe the place to someone that didn't live there, much like anyone else who lived in a small town. Not to mention this was technically a ploy to get him to talk more about his life.

"Peach Creek isn't exactly a poor town, but it's not exactly hustle and bustle." Double D licked his lips, remembering some of the places. "My… family moved there when I was a kid because it was near a bigger city. An affordable place, though a little barren."

"Hm." Cerise didn't add anything else, motioning him to continue. He did, though he kept watching his words carefully.

"There used to be a lot of family owned businesses, though plenty of those have closed down over the years." Double D remembered the day they heard the old candy shop closed down. Despite it happening when they started high school, the Ed's had mourned the loss for weeks. "There was always and abundance of strange people, though. And yes, they were stranger than me and my friends."

"I find that hard to believe." Cerise's joke did earn a laugh from him, which made her smile lightly. "Any particular weirdos come to mind?"

"Only one, though he's harmless by all means." Double D's face screwed up a little as a few particular memories came to mind. "Johnny, one of the kids that lived in the cul-de-sac. Very nice in most respects, though his best friend was a piece of wood called Plank."

"His best friend was a piece of wood?" That was certainly strange, but Cerise did room with Cedar, Pinocchio's daughter. She was living wood, but still made of it all the same. "Was it enchanted in any way?"

"No, Johnny is completely human. Plank was part of a broken fence he found and drew a smiley face on it. Constructed a semi-literal family tree for him." The boy leaned in conspiratorially, raising an eyebrow. "He used to translate for him too, like he was talking. Just put his ear up to Plank and everything."

"Okay, that is pretty weird." Cerise conceded, nodding along with pursed lips. There was a beat before she leaned towards him, whispering the same way he did. "Did Plank ever really talk back?"

"Not in front of anyone, that's for sure." Double D sighed before narrowing his eyes into the distance. "But those drawn-on eyes did seem to follow you around a room. Eddy certainly didn't trust him."

"Great, the most terrifying sorcerer I know is afraid of a piece of wood. That says a lot about his mental stability." Cerise snickered at that, though it was brief. She sobered, giving him a side look. "I do want to know more about all of this. But take your time, okay? We both had to admit to some things way too quickly."

Double D's smile was tight, but genuine. He let out a breath before continuing to follow her deeper into the forest.

"Maybe someday." He nodded slowly, not stopping. "Just not now."

Despite the being so gung-ho about this investigation thing, it was killing Clawdeen a little. Not because it was boring or anything, but it was so much harder when you went down from ten to two people.

Maddie was really damn smart and knew where they could check without needing somebody with tech expertise, along with plenty of unconventional methods, but they'd turned up nothing incriminating on Double D.

Which led to them following him into a forest while he hung out with Cerise, desperately trying to catch anything with her hearing.

And all she was getting was stories right now. Another fruitless endeavor.

"I sense a little frustration coming from you." Maddie steepled her fingers, watching her werewolf friend closely. "Something on your mind?"

Clawdeen sent a quick glance towards the pinkette, barely registering the fact she was hanging from the tree upside down.

"I'm getting nothing from those two." The werewolf rubbed at her eyes, tiredness setting in. She hadn't really stopped working towards this since they started, and it was starting to show. "I'm getting some names, but nothing actually useful."

"Well, it's not like they'd talk about top secret stuff all the time. They have other needs too." Maddie got out of the tree easily, landing on her feet gracefully. "Though, I'd have a better idea of what's important if you told me what we were looking for."

Clawdeen knew that the hatter had a good point, but she still wasn't going to budge on that. Cerise's secret was her own thing and she didn't necessarily want to spill if she could get away with it. Double D being human required more proof than her just saying she heard them talking in a hallway.

Maddie may be crazy, but that didn't mean she wasn't going to want proof.

"Like I said, Mads, we need more than just what I have. Something actually substantial." Clawdeen avoided looking into the other girl's puppy dog eyes as she did, keeping her ears open. "All I've got right now is an overheard conversation. You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"If I didn't believe in you, I wouldn't really be helping you do this, would I?" Maddie was satisfied with the glare she got for that remark, knowing that she'd been right. "I suppose I would have a hard time believing whatever it is, but I know you aren't exactly a liar."

That tugged on her heartstrings a bit, she wouldn't lie.

"Trust me on this. If I'm even close to right, then it might keep the school safe." She failed to elaborate why, causing Maddie to huff. "Please?"

Maddie tilted her head for a second before narrowing her eyes with a frown. "Is there some trouble going on at home?"

And right after playing with her heart, Maddie just punched Clawdeen in the gut. She almost growled at the question, even it was accurate. Taking a few moments to calm down, she did her best to get things out slowly.

"My parents were talking about taking me, Clawd, and Howleen out of Monster High." The werewolf spat out. She remembered arguing with them for ours for hours after they'd brought it up. "Said that the Hellscream thing may have been solved, but it still scared them."

"Well, of course they're scared. Three of their children could've been hurt." Maddie said it in a matter-of-fact kind of tone that somehow wasn't infuriating. She did seem worried when the topic of leaving was brought up. "I… I wouldn't like seeing you go, but you have to admit that they have a point."

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean the school is going to get any more dangerous. This was a one-time thing, and I can take care of myself." Clawdeen huffed, some of the feelings from that night resurfacing, mixing with the current frustration. "I've grown up with so many siblings, Maddie. You learn to get your share before anyone can have a piece early when you have as many as I do."

"I'll take your word for it as an only child." Maddie waved it off, though, trying to smile. "And trust me, I do know you can take care of yourself. And able to help others. That doesn't mean you have to pretend everything is alright either."

Clawdeen sighed before giving a shrug, shaky smile on her face. "I'll work through it. This is just my way of doing it."

It was true, though it didn't fully encompass the problem. Maybe Double D and his friends weren't a threat, maybe they were. She needed something to focus on right now just in case things got worse, so at least this was constructive.

Now if only they said anything worthwhile, then maybe she would feel a bit better.

"…how did you enroll here, anyway? I can't imagine that was easy."

Cerise's voice caught her attention quickly. She hushed the Wonderlandian, pulling her close so she can hear them too.

"That's actually the funny thing." Double D followed up. You could hear him rubbing the back of his neck judging from his voice alone. "Bloodgood actually smoothed things over for us before we even knew what this place was. We didn't even know anything about the supernatural stuff until after talking with her."

"…So you three just walked on into the school, didn't notice anything weird until 'Fluffy' came out, and she just expected that to be ok?" Cerise sounded bewildered. It was honestly a very confusing story. "Why did she think that would work?"

"She told us it was to get our honest reactions to everything and judge whether it would be a successful experiment or not." A sigh from the boy came out. "I would've certainly appreciated a gentler introduction, but I suppose there's some merit to it."

…Bloodgood was in on it.

Bloodgood was in on it?!

What the hell was the headmistress thinking? An experiment? Is that what all of this was to her?

"Clawdeen, I can hear your heart racing." Maddie tapped the girl's shoulder, tilting her head to the side. "Is there something wrong?"

She must not have heard them. Clawdeen heard the two get out of range, trying to calm herself down before she started to freak out. She stepped away from their hiding spot, taking a deep breath before starting to head back to Monster High.

"Follow me and I'll explain on the way. There's some stuff I need to look up before we keep going." Clawdeen ran through some stuff in her head, mostly about their trusted headmistress. "Just found a major break."

"Good to know." Maddie just shrugged and followed along, thinking to herself. She kept moving, though a thought did occur to her that didn't register until now.

"How exactly does Double D know Cerise's father?"

Eddy had to admit that while some things had been good this week, there were other parts to it that made him want to just go to his room and sleep off the rest of the ordeal.

The positives were that he was receiving recognition fast for the Hellscream stuff, with plenty of people knowing him as the guy who helped save Monster High. The more the news spread, the more people either were afraid or respected him, something he would've had to kill for back in Peach Creek.

However, there just had to be negative side effects to that. Not only was Headmaster Grimm apparently keeping a closer eye on him than usual, Sockhead had to tell Cerise their secret fully. Even if the whole thing with her being Badwolf's kid did provide some leverage, it did set him on edge that someone knew now.

And then there was this.

"So, I hear you've been trying to make cursed gems lately." Apple had invited herself over into the workshop while Eddy, Cleo, and Raven were trying to finalize some ideas. "Is there any particular reason why?"

"It's for a project, Apple." Raven rolled her eyes, trying to understand the weird sketches Eddy was making, raising any eyebrow. "Just some stuff we need to go over first."

"Don't get too eager, White, she isn't going to the dark side just yet." Cleo looked over Worshippers Staff, sorting through what kind of jewels would work best with what curse. "Though I suppose it is good to have you here. Is there anything in particular you want for self-defense?"

At the confused look the blonde gave them, Eddy rolled his eyes. "Do you want a weapon or not, Princess? We're making stuff just in case we need to protect ourselves."

"Weapons?" Apple actually looked taken aback, though did seem unusually excited. "Wow, Raven, I expected something to come out of this, but certainly nothing this extreme."

Raven facepalmed, a long suffering look on her face as Eddy barked a laugh. Cleo was the next to roll her eyes, reaching out to flick her manicured hand against the blonde's head.

"We're making things to defend ourselves. Not to attack anyone." She held the staff defensively, waving it gently at the other royal. "Not to mention this is also a historical artifact. Restoring these is usually seen as a good thing, so no evil today."

"What she said." Raven leaned back before giving Eddy a scrutinizing look. "You haven't really explained what your ideas for me are just yet, y'know."

"I'm thinking something along the lines of something to focus your magic or increase it. You got inborn weapons already, just need to improve them." Eddy put down another sketch before jabbing a finger in Apple's direction. "You didn't answer the question either. Do you want a weapon or not?"

"It wouldn't exactly be proper for me to carry one. I do have to take Damsel in Distress Classes for a reason." Apple really didn't even know where she could carry one either. Grimm would certainly throw a fit if he learned about it. "I'm not exactly a fighter in any sense."

"Then you're the support. Congratulations." Eddy brushed off some of the sketches with a flourish, making new ones quickly. "It's a thankless job, but healing and buffs are a boon to us all. Thank you for your sacrifice."

"I really wish I didn't understand that, but Deuce has been on a gaming binge lately." Cleo sighed before setting down the Worshippers Staff. "I still think that Overwatch game is just an excuse to give people eye candy."

"Blatant eye candy aside," Raven chuckled before getting a bit serious. "Apple, can you please drop the destiny stuff for a while. I thought we came to an agreement to keep this low so we can sort things out."

"I wasn't saying anything about that! I just noticed that you were doing some new things." Apple noted the disbelieving looks from the others before huffing. "I really was. I seemed strange that Raven was turning another page in such a short amount of time."

"Yeah, that's it. This doesn't have anything to do with that meeting with Grimm at all either." Raven quirked an eyebrow at Apple's expression. "Ed told me the stuff he overheard before he threw himself out of the window. Still not sure why he had to do that, but fair."

"It's not my fault he wanted to talk with me about it. I gave him my own excuses as much as I could." Apple pouted, crossing her arms over her chest. "He's just thinking about the future. Especially with all the chaos that's going on."

"Who bets that he'll blame the Rebel movement for being responsible for Hellscream? Anyone?" Eddy smirked casually, leaning onto the table. "Come on, I'm willing to take all bets here."

"Betting on a sure thing isn't something a responsible person should do, Eddy." Cleo did take a brief look towards the two Legends before whispering. "Though now I understand what you have to deal with."

"We're right here, y'know." Raven laughed anyway, sighing deeply. "The Royals and Rebels never really seem to stop. Everyone's always fighting nowadays for some reason and it's actually kind of depressing."

"Maybe I need to step up my game then." Eddy ignited the hand with the transmutation ring, smiling darkly. "With this little addition to my repertoire, I should be able to do a very good job in keeping them quiet."

"Maybe hold off on the major pranks until things calm down. We don't need anymore incidents if we can avoid them." Cleo pointed at Apple again, moving back into a serious attitude. "And you stop pushing things. Grimm is one thing; we can't control him. You can control yourself at the very least."

"Fine, I will. I'm sorry I brought it up." The princess's phone buzzed in her pocket, causing her to pull it out. She frowned, wincing a little at the caller id. It didn't go unnoticed by the others. "Sorry, my mother is calling me. I have to take this."

The group did share some passing glances at the reaction, though let her go without another word. Eddy sighed before grabbing his tools, moving them over to the table.

"So, which head do you want to start with?" Eddy asked before grabbing the Worshippers Staff once again.

Bloodgood had finally been let out of the hospital and she was honestly glad to finally be back. Even if things weren't going well at the moment, it calmed her to finally be back in control.

Though she did feel to be at fault for the incident, it was a good thing many people thought otherwise. She was mainly getting sympathy from most parents and fellow administrators, with only some criticism thrown her way for the original hiring of Hellscream.

Now to focus on damage control…

"I'm assuming that many of the damages done in the original confrontation have been fixed as of now." The headmistress sorted through the files Ghoulia and Ed had placed on her desk, checking on all the news she missed. "It does look like things are calming down right now."

"For the time being, yes." The zombie adjusted her glasses before continuing. "While the situation over Hellscream, including his trial, is over for now, people at both schools are still tense. Thankfully, the werewolves and vampires aren't the problem anymore."

"A lot of people are worrying about other humans sneaking into the place. I don't know why." Ed shrugged, pretending not to notice the irony of the upcoming statement. "It's not anymore can sneak in with so many people watching."

Bloodgood smothered the urge to laugh at the in-joke, if only because it was a little inappropriate. "Is there anything else we need to worry about?"

"There some new gossip website put up centering around Monster High." Ed showed handed the headmistress his iCoffin, showing a website called The Ghostly Gossip. "It's a lot like Blondie Locke's news segments, but also not."

"The information presented is usually half baked and there's clearly no fact checking taking place." Ghoulia seemed especially peeved at the last part. Seriously, the nerve of some people, claiming they were journalists. "Due to the rampant misinformation, it would be best to look into this and hopefully quiet things down before fights start up."

"We can probably make her another media thing to control too!" Ed thought out loud, thinking of all the possibilities. "We just need to get Blondie to work with us, and we'll control all media run at both schools!"

"…That sounds so much more sinister than it should." The zombie blanched before shrugging. "Then again, Cleo always said a good empire is run by keeping a close eye on what information is spread. Though her father was a dictator…"

"Let's focus on getting things to calm down first." Bloodgood put away the file copies, assured Ghoulia had her own stored safely somewhere. "It would be paramount if we had this Ghostly Gossip stop spreading misinformation. Though, it would be nice to expand from Cupids own radio show."

"We'll get right on it. Might take me a little bit, but whoever posting has to be somewhere in the school." Ghoulia got up, Ed following behind her. "It would be interesting to find out how she's getting these camera angles done."

"Actually, Ed, can you stay here for a little bit?" At the boy's hesitance, Bloodgood waved her hand lightly. "It's nothing bad. Just something we need to talk about."

Ed and Ghoulia shared a look before he shrugged, moving back into his seat. He crossed his legs before leaning back, giving the woman a smile. "Something on your mind?"

The door clicked behind Ghoulia, letting the older woman relax. A look of guilt passed over her face before she started talking again.

"I have to apologize. This whole situation involving Hellscream was my fault, and it ended up being put on all of you." It was a terrifying feeling, knowing her students had to fight her battle for her. "I do plan on apologizing to everyone else involved as well, but considering your unique situation, I felt it was best to start with you first."

"Oh come on, it wasn't your fault! Hellscream got everyone fooled for a little bit there." Ed shrugged. He could get why she was apologizing, but the threat was dealt with. "It's not like he got very far either. He couldn't touch us, even with Crabgrass around."

"Still. It wasn't your job to deal with it, not only as a human, but as a teenager. I'm an adult who had their consequences lead on to the students I'm supposed to be teaching." Bloodgood took in a deep breath. "Which brings me to my next topic…"

Ed held up a hand, stopping her. He frowned a little before shaking his head.

"We're not going to leave because of this. Me and my friends talked about it and we want to stay." Ed laughed a little, a fully body shrug this time. "We like being here and made some cool friends. Just because one jerk decided to come in isn't going to change that."

Bloodgood tried to think up of something else but closed her mouth before voicing her concerns. She frowned before giving the boy a polite smile and nodding. "If that's how you feel, I suppose I can't argue."

"Then I'll head out. We got a lot of work to do, judging from some stuff Double D and Eddy are talking about." Ed paused when his hand met the doorknob, remembering something. With a curious look, he figured it would be best to ask now.

"Why do you hate Milton so much?"

Bloodgood blinked at the question, a hand subconsciously reaching towards the threads keeping her head connected to her neck. Her face remained blank as she answered.

"You know who your friends are when you're at your most desperate." Her face turned sour, a memory crossing her mind instantly. "And Milton Grimm is certainly not a friend of mine."

Ed had more questions but held them back. Moving out of the office, saying his goodbyes, he figured it would be a story for another time.

In a non-descript mall, in an unremarkable town, a girl sat behind a counter of an auto parts store. She didn't exactly look happy to be there, but it was something to do that payed quite well, so it wasn't like she could complain.

Dressed head to toe in goth clothing, marred only by a nametag identifying her as Clair, she huffed as another customer walked out without anything. It was a slow day today and Chad hadn't been responding to her texts. Probably being chewed out by another customer at his own job.

"The money's worth it, the money's worth it." She assured herself. She wanted to get a car on her own terms, and this was job was going to help get it. Might be good on a resume too. "Just need to get through today."

The bell on the door jingled again, causing her to briefly look up. A biker dude and what she could guess was his girlfriend. She looked pretty miffed as the guy immediately went towards some of the motorcycle parts. She must've noticed Clair looking at them, immediately going up to the counter.

"Having some trouble?" Clair did her best to be friendly, mostly because the girl looked like she needed it. Whatever irritation there was wasn't anything new. "Car or…"

"Both." The other girl responded, moving some of her short blonde hair behind her ear. She jerked a thumb behind her at the red mop of hair under a hat she called a boyfriend. "Engines making a weird noise and he's been fussing about it for nearly ten miles. Got a little tired of his complaining."

"You aren't the first one that came in here complaining of that." Clair shrugged, though she did her best to appear sympathetic. Half her job was listening to biker girlfriends' gripe about their guy's obsessions. "Looks like you've been traveling a lot, though. Might be a good thing to come in here just in case you get stranded."

"You don't know the half of it, sister." The blonde replied. She paused for a second before putting a hand into her jacket pocket, pulling out her wallet. She sorted through it before pulling out a picture, putting it on the counter. "Not sure if this'll work, but have you seen these guys before?"

Clair actually raised an eyebrow at that before picking up the picture. She looked it over, noting three very familiar looking figures.

"Oh, you know these guys?" Clair turned the picture back to the blonde with a raised eyebrow. "Yeah, they came in here once. Loud guys, but they paid in cash for some reason."

"Wait you actually saw them?" The blonde didn't seem to expect that answer. If Clair didn't know any better, she would've assumed that the girl was just told Santa Claus was real and had a backlog of presents waiting for her. "Please tell me you aren't joking."

Clair raised an eyebrow, intrigued. "Yeah, the short one was easily the loudest person I've ever met. Pretty sure the guy with a hat was speaking another language and I think I saw the tall one eat a lug nut."

"That's them!" The blonde turned her head, shouting at her boyfriend. "Kevin, find whatever it is your looking for, we got a lead!"

"Seriously?" Clair could see the bob of a red ponytail as Kevin jumped up at the call. "I thought they didn't pass through here."

"Looks like they did!" The blonde laughed before putting out a hand towards the cashier. "What's your name?"

"Clair." The goth was almost surprised by the strong grip from the other girl. Must've been a pretty active girl. "Yours?"

"You can call me Nazz." Nazz smiled happily, shaking energetically. "Now, how if you wouldn't mind telling me a few things, can I ask some more questions about those guys you met?"

Clair suddenly felt like this shift got a hell of a lot more interesting.

...Well, now things are going to get a bit more complicated. Hope the Ed's are okay with a surprise visit, otherwise this will get ugly.

Again, not sure why this chapter was harder to get out, but it's here at least. Hopefully it matches up with the rest of the fic's quality for you guys. Either way, I can just eventually go through this fic and fix it up, but it's good enough for now.

Either way, I'll see you all next chapter!