This was a little difficult to write, but I think it turned out fine. Not because the subject matter was hard, it's just some things have been happening lately. Nothing particularly serious, but enough that it's been causing a moderate amount of stress. It's all getting better, though, so no need to worry about it.

Hopefully you all enjoy the chapter and that you have a very nice day!

Nazz wasn't really looking forward to this, but if they wanted to finish this, then she had to go through with this. It would've come up at some point anyway, so ripping the band aid off now was a good thing, right?

…Yeah, this was going to be a disaster. But she'd have this disaster go down her way if she could control it.

"Don't get me wrong about this, cousin, but is this really how you want to do this?" Lagoona looked at the hotel room with a wary eye. The couple had rented a room for a couple of days and Kevin had decided to bring their bags inside. "I don't really know how Uncle Finn told your mom about this, but this doesn't sound like the right way."

"It was going to happen at some point. Might as well get it out of the way." The reasoning didn't sound any better out loud, but she figured that she'd roll with it. Nazz shrugged, tucking some of her hair behind her ear. "Besides, we can't get to the Ed's without going inside, anyway. Doing this now will make sure he doesn't freak out later."

"What do you guys even need to tell them that's this important?" Gil had hated this plan since the start, but Lagoona had convinced him to go along with it. "Couldn't we just get them out here and you tell them in the mall food court?"

"Because they aren't dumb. If they think anything weird is going on, they might run." Nazz knew that for a fact. It wouldn't have taken her this long to get here if the Ed's had wanted to be found. "Surprising them is the only option we got. They might think we're taking them home if we try to trick them out here."

Not to mention what they'd have to talk about is way too personal for them to know about just yet. If the Ed's told them afterward, that was their business. But she wanted to say her piece to them before then.

"If you're sure about this, then I guess it's a waste of time getting ya' to change your mind." Lagoona sighed, smoothing out her clothes. Moving off of Gil's car she smiled nervously. "Let's get this over with. If he starts screaming though, I reserve the right to knock him out."

"Babe no. You remember last time you had to punch a guy's lights out." Gil shivered, the memory resurfacing whether he liked it or not. "He's still going under the knife last time I checked to get his face back to normal."

"He tried to grab my arse, mate. I wasn't going to let that slide."

Nazz rolled her eyes, heading over to the hotel door, using the key to open up quickly. She could hear Kevin adjusting things in the bathroom, which she was glad for. It gave her enough time to take a deep breath and weakly smile.

"Hey, Kev, you have a minute?" The question came out smoother than she thought it would. She could hear the shuffling stop at the sound. "Just something we need to talk about."

"Kay. Just need to put some things away." Some more shuffling happened, and she heard some bags zip up. Kevin walked out, having ditched his hat to let his red hair be free, moving to sit on one of the beds. "What's up? You've been quiet since the food court."

Nazz sighed, motioning for the other two to get inside. She plopped down onto the bed with him, trying to figure out how to open with this. She figured the direct route would be the best way to go.

"I have some good news." Nazz smiled warily, hoping the anxiety didn't appear on her face. "I know where the Ed's are now. Not just a hunch this time either, but an actual freaking hunch."

"That's great!" Kevin's eyes did light up at the confirmation. This was better than he thought, though something on Nazz's face stopped him from celebrating. "I'm guessing there's a but in all of this. I figured you'd be pretty excited about all of this."

"You could say there is a pretty big but." Lagoona mumbled, kicking the floor nervously. She only shrugged at the confused look she got from Kevin. "Trust me, you're gonna have to get cool with some things pretty quickly."

"Are the dorks in jail or something?" Kevin narrowed his eyes at the other couple, switching between them. "If that's it, then it isn't really surprising. I'm shocked they didn't get caught sooner, though."

"That's not it, but that definitely says a lot about those guys." Gil brushed his hair back, thinking on how to do this. After a few seconds, he sighed before slacking a bit under the pressure. "Screw it, I'm just going to do it."

Kevin had absolutely no idea what that meant, but it became pretty clear when Gil closed his eyes and freaking scales started appearing on the other guys body. He must've gripped Nazz's hand too tight because she nearly jerked it away when Lagoona started to do the same thing.

"Okay, let's remain calm here Kev." Nazz made sure to grab his shoulder before the boy could get up to run. "This is still my cousin and her boyfriend. They just look a little bit different now, nothing to worry about."

"Looks like he's having plenty to worry about." Gil already seemed to regret his decision, getting up from the bed. He tried not to notice the flinch coming the other boy, heading towards the bathroom. "I'm going to take another hydration pill. I'll be back in a second."

"Don't take too long babe!" Lagoona did her best to act casual about this, trying to smile away the tension. The fact she had sharp teeth akin to a shark did the exact opposite of that. "I'm going to guess you have some questions mate?"

"Some? Nazz, what the hell?!" Kevin forced himself to keep his voice down, especially with the glare sent his way from Lagoona. "Just- I mean- what is this?"

"This is my cousin Lagoona. She just happens to be a sea monster." Nazz tugged at her shirt collar, showing her neck. Kevin felt a pit in his stomach form as a part of her neck flexed, revealing slightly off gills. "I'm part sea monster too. From my dad's side."

"Still wanna hear the story about that!" Gil called out from the bathroom. A sink could be heard, along with some gargling of water. "Sounds pretty romantic, honestly. Probably better than that Shape of Water movie."

"God, don't remind me of that." Lagoona sighed, putting her face in her hands. "The whole school made jokes about that for months. I would've liked to learn sign language until that movie came out."

"Can we get back on topic please?" Nazz did figure the jokes were good at keeping Kevin calm, especially since it made them seem like normal teenagers still, but this was serious. She took a deep breath, taking his hand again. "Look, Kevin, I'm just going to say this once. The supernatural is real and I'm technically a part of that. I've been wanting to talk about this for a while now but haven't had the right motivation to do this until now. I just need you to accept this so we can keep going forward."

Kevin sputtered, tripping over his words as he tried to think it over. He didn't really mind, per se, but this was a lot to take in at once. Especially since this wasn't how he imagined this conversation going.

However, seeing Nazz's gaze falter helped him decide a lot faster than he would've normally liked.

"Fine. I want a better explanation about all of this later, but I'm cool with this." Kevin squeezed his girlfriend's hand back, giving a nervous smile. "Not gonna lie, this does explain how you can hold your breath under water so long."

The joke eased the tension immediately, causing the blonde to chuckle. Kevin couldn't help but smile genuinely this time, watching as she punched her cousin in the arm and berating her for thinking this would go wrong.

However, a thought did occur to him…

"Wait, how does this deal with dorks again?" Kevin realized how far off they got at the moment. This whole thing was supposed to be related to this, right? "Don't get me wrong, this took a lot of courage, but we should know what's going on with them."

"Oh, right, that." Nazz got back to business, clearing her throat before answering. "They're apparently in a local Monster and Legend community. Eddy might be magic, that whole giant monster phase with Ed might've been real, and Double D is a legit mad scientist now."

…Yeah, Kevin was going to need that explanation sooner rather than later.

"Eddy, is this all really necessary?"

"Of course it is, Princess. If it wasn't, would I really be doing this?"

None of the people at the lunch table were exactly sure what Eddy was making, but it was certainly complex looking. It was just a diagram of some device, but the only ones that seemed to get it were Eddy and Apple.

Cleo and Raven would've been a little more concerned if it wasn't for the fact the former was going over some last-minute adjustments on the party with Briar while the latter was trying to mess with some gems.

"Whatever it is, don't let it explode anywhere near the party site." Cleo drank a bit from her milkshake, rolling her eyes. "I did not step through so much mud in order for you to burn that place to the ground."

"At least it's interesting. Do you know how tedious it is to curse a gem?" Raven waved at the rubies with a grimace, adjusting a few carefully. "If you don't, it's very tedious. Enough to make you want to sleep for hours."

"That does look pretty boring. You'd think there'd be some kind of drama to it." Briar didn't really know the context of any of the inventions, but she figured it wasn't anything too bad. "Guess that's Hollywood making things more dramatic than they really are for ya'."

"Can everyone shut up, please? I'm trying to finalize some of the designs here." Eddy turned his attention back to the paper, giving Apple a side glare. "And you need to decide whether you want to give buffs or focus on healing. Pick something, Princess, or I'll figure it out for you."

"Why do you assume we're going to be in another fight after this?" This hadn't been the first time they talked about this. Apple would've called it arguing, but princesses like her were never argumentative. "This seems like a lot of preparation for something that'll never come!"

"It's called being prepared. I thought you'd appreciate that kind of thinking." Eddy scoffed, looking over at Raven. "Are you at least making any progress? I know the staff needs a specific curse to work with those things, but have you found anything out?"

"I'm getting close and that's all there is to it." Raven put some rubies back into a specific jar, something that seemed to drain the magic out of them. She put a couple back into the missing one's place, frowning. "Should have something before the party, at the very least."

"Is weapons dealing just a thing you guys do in your spare time?" Briar may have been lying about not wanting to look into this more, but Apple being pushed out her boundaries was a good thing for everyone. "Or is it just a hobby?"

"Considering we were planning on keeping the class presidential race on two people we know, you could say weapon's dealing isn't far behind…" Cleo did consider it a joke, even if it was kind of true in this instance.

The mirth died a little after she saw Hunter and Ashlynn starting to move very purposefully to the center of the lunchroom.

"…Though, from the looks of it, starting riots might actually be next."

The group gave her a weird look that was cut short when they heard a whistle coming from the middle of the lunchroom. They looked to find that Ashlynn and Hunter had finally made it to the center and looked extremely nervous.

"Ah great, they're doing this now." Eddy grumbled, putting the blueprints away with a huff. No way he was going to get that done today after this. "Couldn't wait until later, could they?"

"Um, sorry to bother everyone here today," Hunter started, rubbing the back of his neck. The awkward smile on his face made everyone turn their attention onto him even more. "But Ashlynn and I have an announcement to make."

"I didn't know those two hung out. That's nice to see some friendships being made, despite everything." Apple remained woefully unaware at the glances two of her friends shared. "What are they talking about though?"

"I know that I'm basically considered a Royal and all, but there's something I have to say." Ashlynn took in a deep breath before grabbing the boy's hand. "Me and Hunter have been dating for several months now. We decided to announce this to make sure nobody else could."

There was a moment of silence before the cafeteria erupted into chaos. The only table that didn't seem to join on in was the five teens.

"Several months? I was under the impression their relationship was recent." Cleo hummed before shrugging it all off. "Well, I suppose us finding them was a fluke, wasn't it Eddy?"

"You guys knew about this?" Raven had forgotten her little project at this point, trying to keep track as everyone lost their minds over this. "When did that happen?"

"When Apple was trying to peer pressure you into poisoning her in that cottage. Keep up with the times." Eddy chuckled, trying to take some amount of amusement from this. "Looks like they decided to spite Duchess. Good for them."

"B-but they can't do this." Apple's good mood had seemingly vanished, replaced by panic as the announcement washed over her. "Ashlynn's always loved her story. If she decides to keep doing this, then she might lose it and end up disappearing."

"Keyword being 'might,' Apple. We still don't anything about that." Raven really didn't want to have this conversation again, but it needed to be said. "You're blowing this out of proportion. It's not like she's completely abandoning it or anything."

"That's easy for you to say, you've already given up on ours!" Apple slammed her hands on the table, pointing to Eddy. "And you! Why didn't you say anything to anyone? Your job is to make sure there isn't an upset between Royals and Rebels."

"First of all, if you're going to put blame on me, Princess, remember that Queenie saw them too." Eddy ignored the glare from the mummy, continuing. "Besides, breaking up relationships isn't a part of my job. I make sure people don't try and kill each other by pranking them relentlessly."

"There is a chance those two will break up too. You're making it sound like every relationship is supposed to be an end all, be all thing." Cleo shrugged at the glares she received from some of them. "We're in high school. Not every relationship lasts. Look at what happened between me and Clawd."

Apple got up and left the table out of frustration. Raven tried to get up to follow her but was held back by Briar grabbing her.

"Give her some time. I think she's more upset that Ashlynn didn't say anything about this to her for so long than the whole destiny thing." Briar sighed. She seemed a little peeved herself about the lack of trust between her and her friend but didn't really want to add more wood to the fire. "After a day or two, she'll get over this and make up with Ashlynn soon."

"She better. I'm not dealing with anyone's whining about this." Eddy sent a zap of magic someone's way, rolling his eyes at the resulting scream. "People just love putting work on my table, don't they?"

"Oh, don't like it isn't fun for you." Cleo rolled her eyes once more. She made a note to curse whoever was throwing that salad across the room. How wasteful could people get. "At least this is entertaining."

"Fair enough."

Blondie Lockes always considered herself an expert at picking locks. Not only was it a part of her story, but it was a good skill to have in the human world if she needed it. Sure, some people found it to be a weird skill to have and usually blamed you first when something is broken into. But as a reporter, it was something to treasure.

"Blondie, why are you trying to break into Double D's locker?"

Until that lead to you getting caught by a girl with a red hood and her zombie friend.

"I am doing no such thing." Blondie was doing such a thing, but that wasn't really anyone's business but hers. Anything for a good story. "Even if I was, this is technically justified. Your friends really don't want to give me an interview, even if it would make them look good."

"It's not exactly the Ed's faults that they're private people." Ghoulia didn't stop the blonde from doing her work, as did Cerise. She knew what would happen if they left her alone. "If anything, that might be a good reason to discourage yourself from furthering this line of inquiry."

"Nothing venture, nothing gained Ms. Yelps. That's a motto I need to live by." Blondie could feel the last part of the locking mechanism give way, causing her to gain a manic grin. "And I have a feeling I'm about to hit paydirt."

Letting the locker open up, she was instantly hit by a beaker flying out, spraying her with some chemical. The hit wasn't hard and only a little bit got on her, but there was a pause as everyone registered it. A butterfly even had time to fly down onto the blonde girl's face.

"Oh. I honestly thought that would be a lot worse." Blondie was about to reach towards the butterfly before another landed on the hand she moved. "Hey, you brought a friend with you! Isn't that so… cute."

As she was speaking, more butterflies started flying towards her, landing on her body carefully. It took her seeing an entire swarm of them heading her way. The blonde girl shrieked, running off as the swarm followed closely behind.

"Y'know, if that wasn't a swarm of butterflies, I'd almost think that was a little cruel." Cerise raised an eyebrow at the retreating girl's form. "Though that might keep her busy for a while."

"I'm honestly quite relieved that she went for my locker first." Double D moved out of his hiding place, Ed following close behind him. "Eddy made me put a trap on his that would attract wasps. I figured butterflies would have a similar, if safer, effect on her."

"I don't think she's gonna stop though." Ed shrugged, shoving the locker closed as they passed. "You don't want to know what I trapped mine with. Made the trap myself, honestly."

"I doubt she'll head on over to Monster High to find out, but I suppose that is good to know if we touch your locker anytime soon." Ghoulia grabbed a printout sheet from a folder, handing it off to them. "Speaking of snoops, I think I have a profile on our Ghostly Gossip girl. And maybe even a possible name."

"Is that so?" Double D looked over it quickly, raising an eyebrow. "I suppose that our culprit should be a ghost. That would explain how she was able to get any of those pictures without being seen."

"That really is on the nose, but I guess she wasn't really hiding it." Cerise leaned against the locker, minding the beaker full of butterfly attraction serum. "We going to finish that up today or what? I can't imagine finding a ghost will be easy."

"Looks like we have her schedule already, so it shouldn't be too hard." Ed put away a copy of the sheet into his pocket. At least this would get resolved fairly quickly. "Looks like we have time before True Hearts Day, so we can take our time."

"Good. Maybe we can come up with a name for our little 'organization,' as we keep calling ourselves." The zombie bumped an elbow against the hatted boy's shoulder. She started heading down the hallway, books in tow. "Wished you mentioned that little joke of yours sooner. I'm sure Cleo would've appreciated having a brand name in place since the beginning."

"It's not like we were serious about the secret society thing! We just considered it a very funny joke." Double D joined her, waving his arms in the air to emphasize his point. He calmed down briefly to think on it. "Then again, if we do take over that gossip website, it does become a lot less of a joke. We'd need something catchy or mysterious for it to catch on."

"Indeed."

Cerise was about to join the two but felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned around to see Ed, still smiling softly as he looked at his friends backs, but not directly at her.

"Can I say something before we head out?" Ed tilted his head, smile never changing as his volume went down. "Just to clear some things up between you, me, and Eddy."

Cerise had an inkling about what he wanted to talk about, but just nodded. Better to let him say his piece.

"Me and Eddy are fine that you know about the whole scam. Double D wouldn't tell you if he didn't trust you." Ed smiled again, real but somehow fake too. "We weren't happy about it at first, but we know you won't say anything, Badwolf or not."

Cerise twitched at the mention of her own secret, automatically making sure her hood stayed over her head. "That all you wanted to say."

"That, and one more thing." Ed leaned down, getting to eye level. Still smiling, but eyes darkly serious. "Do anything that betrays Double D's trust, whether it's the scam or not, and you won't know what hit you. Friend or not, trust is hard to come by for us. Are we clear?"

The hooded girl shivered at the serious tone, a dark reminder surfacing. She'd gotten so wrapped up in the drama with Double D that she'd forgotten that not Eddy was a part of it, but Ed was too. A pretty big mistake to make when you're dealing with unscrupulous humans.

"Crystal." She said, nodding once. When the boy narrowed his eyes at her, she nodded again. "I won't say a word or try to hurt Double D. I'd pledge my destiny on it."

Ed's face didn't change for a moment, causing Cerise to wonder if that was the wrong thing to say. It did afterward to something more pleasant, letting her relax.

"Good! Just needed to make sure." Ed clapped her on the back, moving to follow their friends. "Hope you're ready to find a ghost, because that's what we're going to be doing for the next few days."

She sighed before following along, doing her best to not let him humming the Ghostbusters theme get stuck in her head. She really needed a break after this party was over before these humans gave her a heart attack.

"Clawdeen, I don't think I can do this anymore."

Maddie's voice pierced the haze of exhaustion, causing the werewolf to sit up. She hadn't even realized how close she was to falling asleep until the rude awakening.

"What?" The werewolf blinked away the tiredness, her mind trying to catch up to the new information presented in front of her. "What do you mean you can't do this?"

"I mean I'm not going to help you continue doing this." The hatter waved around at the workspace, doing her best to remain firm. "Clawdeen, this place is a mess. We haven't known each other long, but I doubt you normally let it get this messy."

The werewolf spared a glance around her workspace, wincing. She had a point. She'd been spending most of her time in here after getting into the school servers. The girl even ordered in occasionally to make sure she didn't have to go outside too much.

"It's fine. Maybe it's a little more chaotic than usual, but it's controlled chaos." Clawdeen ignored the hatters glare, reaching for the mug full of tea. "I need to get this done. This is way more important than getting some sleep."

"I beg to differ." Maddie pulled away the mug before her friend could get to it. "And the longer that you keep doing this, the more likely I'm going to head to Bloodgood. I'm starting to think this is a problem that I'm pretty sure I can't fix."

"You can't go to her! She's a part of all of this!" Clawdeen waved down at all the evidence they'd printed off. She didn't know why the headmistress was doing any of this still, but she was starting to get close. "Look, I get that you're frustrated-"

"I'm not frustrated, I'm worried." Maddie grabbed one of the werewolf's hands, holding it close. She squeezed it, slightly out of frustration, but mostly to keep her attention. "And you really aren't giving me much of a choice here. It seems like you're just getting more suspicious as time goes on, even if we aren't finding anything actually damning."

"If we had a bit more time, we'd be able to find plenty." Clawdeen did feel for her, she really did. But she couldn't stop now, especially since they've worked this hard to get this information. "Maybe I am working on this a little too much, but it's only because I care about Monster High."

"Then can you please tell me what we're actually protecting it from?" Maddie waved at their 'evidence' with a frown. "From what I understand, all we're doing is looking at Double D and his friends' history. I don't know how that's helping anyone."

"Look, Mads," The werewolf paused. She still didn't have enough evidence to convince her of anything. She figured that as soon as she did, she'd be able to go to someone about this, but she had zilch as far as she was concerned. "It's complicated. I can explain everything later."

"It wouldn't be so complicated if you just told me what we're actually looking for." The hatter sat down in the chair next to Clawdeen. Her voice still remained stern, though her expression turned gentle. "What did you hear about them- about Double D- that's got you so worked up?"

The werewolf frowned, trying to think of a way to finally broach this. She couldn't make any accusations that she couldn't prove, but maybe there was another way to go about this.

"What if I figured out one of them was human?" That wasn't how she wanted to phrase it, but it was the best thing she could come up with. The lack of sleep was getting to her. "That at least one of them has been lying to us the whole time and we haven't noticed it."

"…I'd figure that it's their issue and they'd have some kind of excuse for it."

At the werewolf's incredulous expression, Maddie could only shrug. "I'm not going to pretend that none of them have secrets. As a Wonderlandian, I have a unique perspective on how the world works, so I know the Ed's are being pretty secretive about something.

"That doesn't give me permission to worry about it so much that I lose sleep over it. I just know that it isn't something I can force out of them and deal with it until they're willing to talk about it." The hatter got up, patting the other girls' hands. "Besides, they've helped us a lot, right? Especially with Hellscream and his plans to hurt everyone?"

"Yeah." Clawdeen would admit that thought had crossed her mind, but that was put down repeatedly. "But-but one got in just wrecked the place so much in barely a couple of weeks. Not to mention Hellscream was willing to go farther by kidnapping Monsters."

Monsters that included her headmistress. Monsters that included her best friend. Monsters that included her goddamn sister.

"And that was one human who learned all the wrong things." Maddie sighed. "I don't know where you heard that Double D was human, but I don't think I care. I know that he's a good person that doesn't aim to hurt anyone, though. And I think you know that too."

Maddie leaned over, giving the other Clawdeen a tight hug. "I want things to get back to how they were before, okay? I miss having those nice conversations with you and Double D while you work together on your latest orders. I miss being able to play-flirt with Cerise to get her all embarrassed with your help. Try and stop yourself before we can't get back to that."

"…I'll think about it." The werewolf wasn't sure if she'd follow through on that promise, but she'd try. "If I find an opening, though, I'm going to take it. I can't stand not knowing."

"Fair enough. Now, let's get you some sleep." The pile of discarded fabrics looked pretty appealing right about now and Maddie wanted to take a nap before working a shift at her father's tea shoppe. "Can't have you burning the candle at both ends!"

The werewolf didn't bother arguing. She'd look for answers later, even if it meant going behind the other girls back a little.

Though, with things going as they were, she wouldn't have to wait long to get some soon.

Alright, looks like things are coming to a head! I'm sure it'll be fine.

...I could be lying too, so be prepared for that. You can't say I did/didn't warn you!

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed and I'll see you all next chapter.