This was hard to write, but I think I got it out just fine. Hopefully you all enjoy it either way.

Either way, I hope you enjoy it!

The workshop was a little quiet and while Ed had expected that this early in the morning, it was still jarring. Usually when they weren't doing other stuff, he and his friends were here messing around with whatever project they were given or something that interested them. To hear abject silence was a rare, somewhat anxiety inducing thing.

It wouldn't last, though. This was part of the normal routine when they got up in the morning.

Ed fiddled with some of the prototypes of future inventions while he waited. This was going to be a long conversation.

The wait wasn't long, much to Ed's simultaneous relief and detriment. Eddy came in, as loud as ever as Double D followed behind, sleep still in his eyes as he rubbed them out. It was a bustle of activity immediately, even as Eddy paused to look at Ed in surprise.

"Geeze, Monobrow, you actually decide to get up to your alarm?" Eddy chuckled, moving to a table immediately. "Be careful, people might start expecting you to do that more often."

"Is everything alright? You seem uncharacteristically pensive." Double D meant it in a somewhat joking way, but when he got a weak smile in response, he changed gears. "Ed, is everything alright?"

Ed opened his mouth, thinking over what he wanted to say. He should start this carefully.

"Ghoulia said she has a crush on me and is asking questions about our past."

…Well, that could've been worse.

Eddy blinked owlishly at the string of words that came out of his friend's mouth. "Huh?"

"I think the girls are asking a lot of questions and I think we might need to tell them some things." Somehow, Ed wasn't sure if that was better or worse than what he said before. "That whole thing in Hauntlywood might've tipped them off to something and maybe we should come clean."

"…Ok, not something I expected to talk about this early in the morning." Double D put down the tools he'd been holding, somewhat shaky. This was kind of out of nowhere. "How does this have to do with Ghoulia having a crush on you?"

"Congrats on that, but what the hell?" Eddy blinked again before focusing, moving around quickly. "We can't come clean now, Ed. We're at the top of our game here, we can't just quit now."

"I'm not saying we quit! I'm just saying maybe this is about time to get the girls in on this. You know, before it's too late." Ed wasn't sure what too late actually meant in this situation, but he felt that was important to say. "Wouldn't it be better if they heard from us first?"

"It's better if they don't figure out at all. Ed, are you seriously thinking about throwing this all away because you like Ghoulia or something?" Eddy narrowed his eyes at his friend, who looked away. "Oh my god. Seriously, Lumpy? I get it, but damn."

"Eddy, hold back. I don't think that's completely it here." Double D gave Ed a look like he was talking to a small child. Ed actually almost hated it. "What's really going on here?"

"I-I think maybe I've finally realized that we're kind of running out of time? At least, to make sure this doesn't explode on us." It was difficult to say, but it felt like the truth to Ed. "Don't get me wrong, I really do like Ghoulia, and I can actually imagine dating her unlike a lot of other people, but that's not it. The scam's great, but I think we need more people involved."

"The more people that get involved, the more likely it is that things go wrong. Keeping it simple is Scam 101." Eddy ran a hand down his face with a groan. "Are you event thinking about how some of them would react? Queenie would be ticked, Princess would tell on us immediately, and god knows what the others would do."

"He's got a point, Ed. They may be close compatriots by now, but Cerise and her family certainly has a few problems with us being here. The others might too." Double D rubbed the back of his neck, sighing. "Clawdeen would have my head, and I don't want to see Maddie's disappointed face. I think that would kill me."

"Raven and Ghoulia might be good, though." Ed desperately tried to add. He didn't even know why he felt the need to argue this so much. He just felt like making his piece. "Raven doesn't care about destiny or rules, and Ghoulia is smart enough to know that we've done a lot of good."

"That doesn't exactly matter. If one of them decides to rat us out, it's over. No going back on that one." Eddy just shook his head in a way that was almost violent. "Bloodgood might have an idea on how to reveal ourselves, but I think I'm just fine with how things are right now."

Ed grit his teeth, shoving down the anger and frustration before it could boil over. He needed to think up of something, if only to get them to reconsider.

"What if we weren't human anymore?" Ed asked. It felt like everything stopped in the room dead when he said that, even himself. "We don't need to be, right? Make a lie true?"

"No. Absolutely not." Double D put his hands on the table, shaking his head immediately. "That isn't something we should consider in the slightest. Eddy, back me up here."

There was a moment of silence as Eddy hesitated, thinking it over. Double D swiveled his head towards him in shock.

"Eddy!"

"Hey, I was just thinking it over. I didn't say I'd actually try something like that." Eddy put his hands up in a defensive position, frowning. "It's not that bad of a plan, really. Maybe fully transitioning would be in our best interest."

"I'm not hearing this. I'm not going to even pretend to entertain this line of thought." Double D looked at them both like they'd gone insane. "You do realize what you're suggesting, right? We can't just give up our humanity like this."

"But hasn't everything been a lot better since we got here? People like us, we're doing a lot of good, and we don't aren't in Peach Creek anymore." Ed listed everything off, getting up and pacing around. "It'd be so easy to turn ourselves into Monsters, at least. Clawdeen could just bite us, and we'd be werewolves, or we turn ourselves undead."

"Maybe avoid that last one, but yeah, that would be easy enough." Eddy shrugged. The possibilities were endless. "Just mess up our DNA a little and we can be called whatever we want."

"Are you two even listening to me?!" Double D slammed his hands on the table, giving the two a death glare. "I'll admit, everything is going great here, but that doesn't mean we need to make this type of decision so quickly. If I hear any more about this line of thought, I will tell Bloodgood immediately and end this charade on my terms."

The threat caused everyone in the room to stiffen, even the boy who made it. The thought of leaving made them all angry and sad at the same time, but Double D was being serious here. They weren't going to do something like this, especially when the whole point of this was to hopefully get humans and the supernatural to get along eventually.

One of the phones dinged, the other following. The Ed's immediately grabbed at their phones, looking down at them with some sense of urgency. It looks they were all needed elsewhere.

"I'm serious. I don't want to hear anything else about this topic, and that's final." Double D was the first out the door, muttering to himself. "We'll talk more later, but nothing else!"

The two sighed as they saw him disappear through the door, Eddy getting up soon after. He looked at Ed, giving him an awkward smile.

"It's good to hear that Ghoulia's interested, but I don't think it can happen, man." Eddy's smile waned before he started leaving too. "Not without risking way too much related to it."

Ed just sat there for a few minutes, alone as at the beginning of all of this. He didn't feel like getting up, but he knew that he was going to.

Like they said, they had to keep this up.

Cerise was having an interesting time right now and she didn't appreciate it one bit.

She and her family had made the mistake of walking around in public, intending to separate at the earliest opportunity before Hatter saw them. He insisted they join him on an outing with Clawdeen's parents, even if it included the Badwolf's.

That would've been just fine, honestly. Ramona would get to discreetly know more of her friends and they could all be in public without questions. The only issue was Clawdeen seemed hellbent on messing with her sister, with Maddie joining in.

"So, this is where we usually mess around with potions." Maddie showed off the place with a flourish. "I usually blow something up on the occasion. Not my fault that Rumpelstiltskin didn't give proper instructions."

"Glad to see him finally out." Clawdeen squeezed Cerise, who'd she been holding close to her side since they got here. "Honestly wonder how he got away with that stuff for so long. Does Grimm not background check or something?"

"No idea. Honestly, kind of a mystery to me." Cerise was doing her best to keep a blush to a minimum, especially in front of Ramona. She may be ticked now, but that didn't mean she wouldn't use this as teasing material later. "It's all very interesting."

"You know, I'm technically the wolf that's supposed to try and eat her, remember?" Ramona tried to joke, watching the two with narrowed eyes. "I'm surprised Maddie ain't acting jealous either."

"She can have more than one wolf in her life. Calm down, I'm not replacing you." Clawdeen did her best not to smile at the sisterly overprotectiveness. She did say that she was going to do the flirty thing with Cerise, and they were making sure to it when they could. "Besides, she might run away if you start getting too feisty."

"Can you please not talk about me like I'm not here?" Cerise didn't look forward to whatever questions her parents were going to have. Thank god they were distracting each other from this. "Maybe just let go of the Red Riding Hood and I can just-"

"No."

Cerise wilted under the denial. She just shrugged and figured that she'd get comfortable. Clawdeen and Maddie at least smelled nice.

The doors to the place opened up, an annoyed looking Double D moving through before stopping as he saw people in there. He relaxed as he saw who it was, moving towards them.

"I see all of you are trying to enjoy some science. Or I certainly hope so just in case Maddie blows something up." Double D raised an eyebrow at Cerise just casually being handled by his friends. "Something going on here?"

"Taking turns holding Cerise. Which, by the way, is your turn." Maddie pointed a finger at Clawdeen with a pout. "I get wanting to keep holding her, but other people need their turn."

"Says the one that was hogging her earlier." Clawdeen handed Cerise off to Double D, who had resigned herself to her fate at this point. It was almost cute to watch her try and hide how she was cuddling up to them. "Here."

Double D didn't seem too phased by this, only giving Ramona a brief look with an eyebrow raised. Ramona would've definitely taken it as a challenge if two other people weren't here right now.

"You're all way too gutsy for people that deal with my dad all day. Is he not scaring you enough? Should I try and fix that?" Ramona was doing her best to remain in control of the situation. She didn't realize she ever had it, and that no one here actually did. "I can definitely try and fix that if I need to."

"I'm pretty sure we're seen as scarier than your dad at this point, so good luck on that." Maddie put her hands up at the grumpy look she got. "Okay, moody, you can be scariest. Don't need to be a spoilsport about it."

"I'm ninety percent sure I'm more wolf than you are anyway." Clawdeen figured she should stop with the in-jokes. It was starting to get distracting. "So, what's up with you? You don't look happy to be here."

"It's nothing. I just got out of an argument. I do have a question, though." Double D squeezed Cerise, who was doing her best to hide her red face. "Does Ghoulia have a crush on Ed? It's not related to anything important, but…"

"Oh, you finally figured that out? Yeah, I'm pretty sure she's got it down bad. It's nice to see since she dates even less than I do." Clawdeen shrugged. Maddie actually snuck in and was getting hugged by her too, an action that barely registered in her mind. "What, Ed finally got the hint too?"

Double D was silent, not looking anyone in the eye as they waited for an answer.

"…Okay, that isn't a great answer, dude." Cerise poked at his ribs to get something out of him. It wasn't working, but it did get him to nearly squeal. "He's not interested or something?"

"No, it's just… extremely complicated. Nothing to worry about." Double D was lying through his teeth, clearly, but that could be dealt with later. "How's everything going with your parents?"

"Pretty boring, actually. Things have been going smoothly so far this week." Maddie shrugged. She wondered if she could sneak a piggyback ride off of one of them. "If anything, it's been too normal. Which means something goes wrong."

"That's surprisingly negative coming from you. Something you're not telling us?" Cerise knew she was probably going to go on about narrators and story structure. "Can't you enjoy the calm for once?"

"I think we both know that won't happen anytime soon. I'm a lit fuse of dynamite!" Maddie laughed before stopping, giving them all big eyes to affirm. "Aren't I?"

The group groaned before laughing at the display. No one could deny her, even if that kind of nullified her point.

"Well, I'm already feeling a lot better. I wonder if that's because Cerise makes a good therapy pet or something." Double D got an elbow for that, causing him to wheeze and pat her on the back. "Kidding, kidding. Maddie, is it your turn, or would you prefer to keep on holding to Clawdeen for a bit longer?"

"I think I'll take her off your hands. You just have to take Clawdeen." Maddie switched everyone out, Cerise already in her hands. Everyone except for the Wonderlandian didn't know how that happened. "Alright, let's get on with the tour! Ramona, you think our parents are ready to go?"

"I really hope so. This all just weird to watch." Ramona ran a hand down her face, turning to hopefully get this all going forward. "Watching Hood have a borderline harem is giving me an aneurysm."

"What?! They aren't- why would you think that?! Guys, please help correct her!" Everyone ignored Cerise's pleas, lost in thought. "Seriously, you aren't going to say anything?!"

"It's usually the boy in these types of situations, but it would be a neat twist. I mean, we do kinda flirt with you nearly every day." Maddie stroked her chin before shaking her head. "Wait, none of us really fit into any specific tropes. The author also isn't going to use fanservice."

"Our parents probably think we're all dating anyway, so we might as well make it look like it to her." Clawdeen didn't feel any shame at leaning into Double D, who didn't mind the affection. "Not explaining it to my parents, though."

"I don't want too either." Double D nodded before registering what everyone had just said. "Wait, your parents think we're all dating?!"

"Don't worry about," Clawdeen patted him on the back before raising a hand. "Now, repeat after me."

Everyone took a deep breath…

"Oh Cerise~."

…Cerise was going to murder them all after this was over.

Ed wasn't feeling the greatest after the talk either, or it must've showed. He wasn't quite scowling, but the look on his face was keeping everyone at a distance. It was discouraging.

He wondered if they'd be less or more afraid if they knew.

The boy simply did his best to keep his composure, if only to make himself approachable. Ed started to wonder if he should find a way to fix this fear around him, because that never led to anything good. At least, it wouldn't be good for the scam.

…Right. Now his mood was taking a dive again. Fantastic.

Ed did his best to focus up. He couldn't let what happened earlier bother him too much, or people would start asking questions. Even if had been a lot worse than he expected it to go.

Really, was it that bad of an idea to just turn themselves into Monsters? Yeah, it would probably be a painful process simply because of how it could be done, but it would be worth it. Nothing worry about when it came to the scam, their friends would be happy about it, and they would lose every last connection to Peach Creek! It was a win in his book.

Ed shoved down a frown at that last thought. Maybe that was harsh, but it wasn't like they wanted anything to do with that place anymore.

"Hey, Jekyll!"

Ed sighed, turning around a corner. Looks like Jackson had trouble find him again.

He was a little relieved to see Deuce and Ghoulia already there ready to knock some sense into the newest goon, even if the latest idiot didn't seem to get it yet. That guy who was half-zombie, half-unicorn (Nieghthan Rot he thinks?) at least standing by Jacksons side.

"Come one, you two really shouldn't be wasting your time. The guys basically just going to run home because he's scared like the rest. Or get us killed." Ed didn't even really know what kind of monster this guy was, but he was able to get behind him without the guy noticing. "Honestly, what is he even waiting for?"

"Me."

The guy stiffened as Ed grabbed his arm, turning him around and hypnotizing him instantly. He honestly didn't know what command he actually gave the guy, though as soon as Ed let him go, he just walked off with a dead look in his eyes.

"As always, you appear just when people need you." Ghoulia didn't seem surprised. Ed was a little happy to note she was trying to discreetly hide her drones that were definitely not set to harm the guy. "Are you looking just to become a patron saint against bullies or something?"

"What exactly did you tell that guy to do?" Deuce was a little more focused on the situation, the guy still walking away. "Seriously, what's going to happen to him?"

"Don't worry about it." Ed waved it off. It wasn't like he had any real answer for him either, so might as well move on with it. "You good Jackson? That's the second time this week."

"Honestly still a lot better than most of my other schools, so I can't really complain." Jackson shrugged, grabbing Neighthan's shoulder. "Come on, the club meetings going to start soon. Thanks for your help you guys!"

"Not a problem. Feel free to call us when you need it. That goes for you to, Rotter." Ghoulia took another look at Ed, stopping as she looked him over. "Are you okay? Now that I think about it, you didn't exactly get as showy as usual getting rid of that guy."

"Nothing much. Got into a bit of… actually, never mind." Ed waved it off as best he could, deciding to not mention the argument for now. Ghoulia would realize what the topic was about if he did. "Just feeling a bit down today. You know how it is."

"Fair. Some days can be just like that." Deuce shrugged, watching the two boys go with a raised eyebrow. "Looks like the hybrid support club is getting bigger at least. It's weird to think it was only started last year."

"Aren't you half human too? I don't get why you don't advertise it as much as the others." Ed flinched at the detail, not realizing the implications of that. "Then again, I'm sure it says quite a bit about other people that they don't know enough gorgons to tell the difference."

"Hey, don't advertise that." Deuce immediately got defensive, something that shot down Ed even more. "I'm just… Look, I'm good the way I am, but that doesn't mean anybody else has to know. We'll talk later."

"Fine, but you will have to realize this doesn't work in the long run." Ghoulia watched the gorgon go with a shake of her head. She gave Ed another once over, realizing he looked even worse. "Are you really okay? You look a bit sick."

Ed stiffened, immediately turning around without a word. "Yep! Let's get some stuff done today. I think we still have a few projects to get over with."

Ghoulia blinked at the response, wondering where that came from. Ed usually wasn't in as much of a rush to get any projects done, especially if there was a good-sized time limit.

"Hm. We don't even have any projects to do today." The zombie could only follow him closely, starting to wonder what set him off.

Maybe she shouldn't have said anything after all…

"Why is it whenever I hang out with you people, I always end up in the forest?" Cleo waved her hand in front of her face, sighing deeply. "I'm glad for the warning this time to get appropriate shoes, but I fail to see why I had to be included at all."

"Queenie, if you could kindly just… shut it or something?" Eddy wiped away some sweat from his forehead, looking ahead at Apple and Raven. "What exactly are we doing out here? I hate agreeing with Queenie, but this doesn't exactly seem like a fun field trip."

"Mom apparently left me a Wishing Coin. One of the bronze ones too." Raven showed it off, looking at it with clear suspicion. "They're usually used to help create or at least let people see the results of a wish."

"Raven wants to see if it could show us what happens if we don't follow our destinies. She thinks that whatever shows up will be good." Apple and her had clearly had an argument about it and she wasn't exactly happy about the possibility. "We figured witnesses would be a good idea just in case. We invited you two because you're our friends, while Cedar is the tie breaker."

The daughter of Pinocchio, Cedar Wood, just nodded along with Apple's words, a little nervous to be hanging out with the rest of them. She didn't seem to know how exactly to treat all of this, fiddling with the glasses she got from Heritage Hall.

"I don't really know why you guys brought me, honestly. Is it because I can't tell a lie or was I just the first person you say?" Cedar started talking rapid fire, shaking her head after saying it. "Actually, I don't think I want to know. I feel like I wouldn't like the answer."

"Relax No Strings, we're not gonna hide you in the woods if something goes wrong. Well, those two won't." Eddy did get into her face, narrowing his eyes. "Though, quick question; if your father's nose grew every time he lied, what would happen if he claimed that his nose grew? Would it since he's lying, or would it stay the same since he's telling the truth?"

Cedar just blinked, bewildered by the question. "What?"

"Eddy, leave her alone. She looks ready to die on her feet at the slightest amount of pressure." Cleo just rolled her eyes. Despite the girl technically being made of wood, it looked like she couldn't breathe out of pure anxiety. "At least this gets me away from my family. I swear, Nefera is getting more insufferable every day."

The walk in the woods got quiet as they made their way to the Wishing Well, a small place located within the Enchanted Forest. It wasn't really able to give any wishes unless a Wishing Coin was used, but it did make the magic of using one a good deal easier. Plus, it was a place of tradition, much like other parts of Ever After High.

The forest gave way to a clearing eventually, the Wishing Well in the middle of it. It had vines wrapped around it, giving the place an age that was hard to identify. The magic holding was probably the only thing holding it together.

"Well, it certainly isn't any Well of Wonder. We really do need to visit that while it's in town." Apple took in a breath, letting it out slowly. She looked at the others with a nervous smile. "Are you ready to see what happens next?"

She only received some raised eyebrows from her friends, kind of ruining the drama of the moment. Cedar seemed to take it seriously, nodding quickly at the question. Apple just sighed, giving Raven a nod.

"Alright, here goes nothing." Raven held the coin up, gulping as she stood over the mouth of the well. "No one blame me for whatever comes up."

Raven silently let the Wishing Coin fall. The fact that it was a bronze coin meant it would give them a vision, but no actual tangible results, something she accounted for. She wished to see what would happen if the Rebels continued to try and not follow their destinies.

And for a moment… nothing happened.

"Isn't there supposed to be something happening right about now?" Cedar stopped, putting her hands over her mouth. "Oh no, I just jinxed us, didn't I?"

She did indeed jinx them as a green smoke started to drift out of the well, moving across the ground like liquid. It moved around each person, eventually rising to envelop them completely as it pervaded, and eventually took over, their senses.

Eddy almost thought some of them would suffocate when the air finally returned, only to be replaced by the smell of something burnt.

The scene that greeted everyone was Ever After High burning to the ground.

Everyone recoiled at the sounds of destruction, the sights of people fleeing from the scene as everything seemed to unravel. Many of them were familiar and were all miserable as they cried out, trying their best to survive.

"Well, this is a bit dramatic!" Cleo shouted above the destruction, having her staff out instinctively. She gripped it tight, expecting something to pop up and try and attack them, despite knowing this was a vision. "Anyone feel like getting off this ride now?! I think I've seen enough!"

Eddy was about to agree with her, but something about the vision gave him pause. He could actually see himself walking around too, stumbling away from the school with a noticeable limp. Vision Eddy seemed to be trying to activate his magic, but it could only sputter and briefly appear before dying out.

The only problem to this was that Vision Eddy wasn't wearing the suit.

"…This isn't real." Eddy felt his face twist into something wrathful. He put one his hands up, lighting it up with prejudice. "Something isn't right here."

He snapped his fingers and the vision ended then and there.

"What- How- Eddy, we were still going through the vision!" Apple turned around quickly, confused, and traumatized after what she saw. "You can't disturb Wish magic! That usually ends in something bad happening."

"Yeah, which is why I used an Illusion spell. The kind that usually disperses that kind of stuff." Eddy moved towards the well, frowning. "Ray, you think you can get that coin back? Something's fishy around here."

"Eddy, I can't-"

The boy gave Raven a glare, cutting her off. She just shook her head, still shaken by the experience. She moved over to the well with some trepidation.

"Eddy, when a Wishing Coin is spent, it usually disappears. I can't just, y'know, grab it back up with magic like…" Raven waved an arm over the well, her magic flaring and actually grabbing something, putting it into her hand. "…What?"

"Oh, wait, let me take a look at that!" Cedar jumped forward, snatching the coin out of the other girl's hand. She put on her glasses before blinking at the coin with a good amount of suspicion. "…This is fake. Like, extremely fake."

"How can you tell? No offense but aren't you the daughter of a literal puppet that carved you out of wood." Everyone gave Cleo a glare, getting her hands up in response. "I'm just saying. That coin does look cheap, though."

"These glasses help me determine if something is fake or not. Apparently my dad had a thing for honesty back in the day and he wanted me to have this." Cedar looked over the coin again. "And this thing has a ton of illusion magic placed on it."

"…Somebody stole from my mom." Raven felt a spike of fear as she realized what must've happened at Heritage Hall. "And they decided to trick me with that."

Nobody realized it then, but it was the first thing that would lead to a lot of things being aired out that really shouldn't have been.

Not entirely happy with this, but it'll do for now. It'll at least do for now until I go through the older chapters and start fixing stuff up.

Hopefully you all liked it and I'll see you next chapter!