Authors notes: 24/07/2019 I've made some small edits to chapter 1, adding a scene where Raven helps out a small Azarathian monk being bullied by more powerful monks. Of course, her help is taken the wrong way. I've added this to make her come across as more sympathetic, so the readers know from the start that Raven is good at heart, but her harsh treatment hardened her.

Small edits to chapter 14, adding in a scene where Raven watches the Doctor battle Sutekh the destroyer, something I thought would've been important for Raven to actually see if she was going to properly trust the Doctor.

Cheers and enjoy the new chapter.

Chapter 52

The Head-Mistress

Rachel stretched her fingers as she finished the update to her story. After proof reading and double checking the spelling she uploaded it all.

She had taken a break from being creative for a few weeks and just wrote what she had previously plotted out in more detail. Now the story was now completely caught up.

Weird, it didn't feel like a week had passed at all.

Dolores, for the past few weeks, had done her best to be as annoying as possible. Attempting to get Rachel in trouble somehow, either by goading her into attacking, or spreading rumours and lies about her. It was kind of infuriating, but as long as Rachel had her four friends the big bitch could throw what she liked at the goth girl.

The only accusation which seemed to gain some traction among people is when Dolores claimed Rachel was trying to shame Dolores for being fat. As far as Rachel was concerned, Dolores had tried to shame Rachel for being skinny and pale. So fair was fair.

Some students began to murmur and give her looks. But Rachel didn't care.

Her devil may care attitude did seem to spark attention not only from people wanting to protect Dolores, but also from some of the boys who seemed to find her attitude appealing and attractive. But Rachel gently pushed them away. She had no interest in any of them. Weirdly, this seem to spark something in Garfield as he too did his best to chase unwanted boys away from her. Sometimes rather aggressively. What was suddenly up with him?!

Rachel knew all too well what would happen with boys. They'd date, they'd find her creepy and repulsive, and they'd kick her to the curb or sell her down the river to maintain their social image.

God, Rachel hated social media. To her it seemed to turn everyone into would-be-celebrities, all falling over each other to make their online social life more interesting than it actually was. Put up a false image of being socially aware, when they just wanted that 'tick', that 'like', that 'heart', that 'thumbs up'.

True, Rachel did have a social media account, but she didn't post that much on it.

Suddenly, Rachels phone buzzed and she picked it up.

"Hi Stell," Rachel said into her phone. "What's up?"

"Hi, Friend Rachel." Stella said, sounding a little unsure.

"Something wrong?" Rachel asked.

"You... you didn't make that picture of Dolores did you?" Stella asked.

"What picture?"

Stella sent Rachel a picture through social media. It was a picture of a really big, and bulky woman holding a fried chicken drumstick aloft, and with Dolores head stuck on the front. The pose of the head made it look like Dolores was staring at the drum stick in deep hunger.

Rachel had to fight back a laugh. In fact, no, forget fighting it back. Rachel burst out laughing.

"I wish I could claim credit for it. But no." Rachel said.

"Dolores is rather upset by it. She's posted a long rant about it, about how you created it."

"Stella, I don't have the skill to make this." Rachel said back. "You know art isn't my thing."

"But still, a lot of her friends are very upset with you."

"Hey, did anyone know about this picture before Dolores posted it up?" Rachel asked, suspicion in her voice.

"Umm... by the sound of it, nobody knew about it." Stella answered.

"So Dolores is embarrassed by something, and she doesn't want it spreading. What's the logical thing to do?" Rachel asked and answered in sarcasm, "Make a post about it and tell the whole wide world that it exists."

"What are you saying, friend Rachel?" Stella asked.

"I think she made that thing herself." Rachel sighed, "And is trying to blame it on me."

"But it's signed 'Rachel Roth'." Stella said. Indeed the image had been signed as Rachel Roth, but clearly not by Rachel Roth, because no way was that her handwriting.

"Stella, that's not my handwriting; and would I be so stupid enough to sign my name to it?" God, Stella could be so naive at times.

"I apologise for doubting you, friend Rachel." Stella replied.

"Don't mention it. I'm not mad, but she's really pushing this on thick."

"What could we have done to offend her so?" Stella asked.

"Not treating her like gods gift to the Earth, I'm guessing." Rachel shrugged, "She gravitated towards us and we pretty much rejected her."

"Perhaps, if we invited her into our friend group..." Rachel cut across Stella before she finished that.

"No." Rachel said firmly, "She doesn't want to be 'a part' of our group, I think she wants to lead it."

"But friend Dolores..." Friend Dolores? "She told me you're mocking her with your story. That the Impostor Doctor character is based on her."

"I published the chapter that introduces her a full ten minutes after first meeting her, and it was well over a few thousand words long! Are you telling me I got her character down to a T and wrote a couple of chapters around her in the first ten minutes after meeting? If there are similarities, then it's a coincidence." Rachel sighed. She was going to base the Mistress of the Land of Fiction on Dolores. So the Big Bitch wasn't too far off with her assumption that she was going to be in the story, but it wasn't as the Impostor. "I think she sees herself in that character, and doesn't like how she's being treated as the bad guy."

"But perhaps..." But Rachel cut Stella off.

"I'm not changing the story just because some bitch sees some of herself in the bad guy character." Rachel fumed, "Tell her if she doesn't like it, then she doesn't have to read it. But the Impostor Doctor is not based on her. Period!"

Rachel took a deep breath to regain self control. She'd never gotten this angry before.

"Oh, friend Rachel." Stella said suddenly. "I must go, I'm afraid the power has just cut off. I shall need to search for a light. We shall talk in school."

"Yeah, bye Stell" And with that Stella hung up.

Before school officially started Rachel seemed to be in trouble.

She'd barely said hello to her friends when Rachel was told by one of the teachers to go see the Head-Mistress. She'd given the teacher a bit of an attitude before waving to her friends and motioning to the teacher she was following. Rachel mimed that she'd see them later as she rounded the corner.

When she arrived at the Head-Mistresses office it sounded like she was in some discussion which was getting rather heated.

"Your methods, are exceedingly heavy handed, Head-Mistress!" That sounded like Doctor Pertwee, the deputy Head.

"They are the only way we can ensure our zero tolerance policy is met!" That was the stern voice of the Head-Mistress.

"Zero Tolerance policy! Does it not matter to you the heavy-handedness of your methods might actually encourage such behaviour? After all, why bother causing trouble yourself if you can con the teacher do it for you?!" Doctor Pertwee fumed.

"What are you talking about?"

"Damn it all, woman!" Doctor Pertwee shouted, thumping his fist on something hard. Possibly the desk.

"Don't take that tone with me!" But Doctor Pertwee began talking over her.

"You never leave this room. You've never seen what your rules do to the Children!"

"I know what they do, they make the kids behave!" The Head-Mistress said back.

"Balderdash. my dear!" Doctor Pertwee said sharply. "They no more work than the centrist model of the solar system! They act like children because they are children. They are programmed at birth to find flaws in systems they can use to their advantage, its part of their survival programming, all it takes is an immoral mind with no principles to exploit them. Not all accused persons are automatically guilty, nor should they be treated such."

"Are you suggesting the teachers are bullies?" The Head-Mistress asked.

"No, of course not!" Doctor Pertwee said sharply before adding, "Not all of them at least. But you've honestly never known a child try to get someone else in trouble by pretending to be hurt, wounded or offended? For no other reason than, because its been made so easy to do?"

"I doubt those occurrences happen often." the Head-Mistress dismissed.

"But they happen, that is the point!" Doctor Pertwee cut her off. "What about the person getting unjustly punished just so you can claim this 'zero tolerance' message of yours? You're not inspiring respect of your authority, you'll create a distrust for all authority." Doctor Pertwee paused, before adding, "And frankly with your behaviour and your willingness to act despite your limited scope of the problem, I can honestly see why."

Rachel had to take a second to unpack that before she realised Doctor Pertwee had just verbally swiped at the Head-Mistress. The goth girl now suddenly had greater respect for Doctor Pertwee by standing up to that old crone.

"They don't happen often enough for us to be concerned with." the Head-Mistress, again, dismissed.

"Oh, of course not," Doctor Pertwee sighed, "little Malfoys never get reported in Government statistics, do they." Did Doctor Pertwee have a bad experience at school for him to be arguing this point so strongly? Rachel wondered.

"What would you have me do? Let them run around attacking whoever they like?" The Head-Mistress said as if this was the logical opposite of what she was trying to do.

"What about dealing with them on a case by case basis?" Doctor Pertwee suggested as if it was obvious, "The system you are looking at is impossible at achieving the ends. But then, I guess the ends you are celebrating are not the ends you are pursuing!"

"The studies prove this works." The Head-Mistress insisted

"They most certainly do not!" Doctor Pertwee argued back.

"I know they're difficult to understand." The Head-Mistress said, rather patronisingly. "If you were a scientist you'd understand this."

"'IF' I were a scientist!" Doctor Pertwee fumed, "Might I remind you that I am a scientist! And I have been for many centuries!"

"What are you complaining about? The school is making headlines for its progressive stance against bullying! Think of the Government investment."

"I honestly think that's all that you think about." Doctor Pertwee sighed now as he simmered down. "Teaching the children doesn't matter. But Government investment is. They can pay through the nose to fix the problem or reward a solution, but the one thing they can't change is the corruption at its heart."

"If you are quite finished, Doctor Pertwee. I do have work to do."

The Head-Mistress' door flew open and Doctor Pertwee stepped out, resplendent in his smoking jacket and long opera cloak. His feathers looked ruffled and he stamped past Rachel without acknowledging her existence.

"Miss Roth, I want to see you now." Said the voice of the Head-Mistress.

Rachel approached the door and she began to get a pang of anxiety. She hated the Head-Mistress. She absolutely loathed her. So much so that in her story she'd based a monk from Azarath on her. One who was supposed to be next in line to lead the order after Azars passing, and one who greatly disliked Raven. The Head-Mistress greatly disliked Rachel, Rachel knew it, so whatever the Mistress wanted of Rachel, doubtful it was going to be from a position of understanding, more from a position of "I'm in charge, do as I say."

Rachel entered the office. It was all prim, neat and tidy. The Head-Mistress, the wizen old crone, dressed resplendently in her grey business suit, sat behind her big desk and motioned for Rachel to sit down.

Despite being present the Head-Mistress continued working at a lap-top, totally relaxed. She did not speak to Rachel at all.

Rachel knew what she was doing. This was a tactic to break the person she wanted to talk to. To bask in the Head-Mistresses social power in this situation. But Rachel didn't care. She relaxed. What could the Head-Mistress do that could possibly hurt her?

The older woman finished what she was typing and removed her wiry glasses to give Rachel her full attention.

"Do you know why you're here?" She asked.

"Because you sent for me." Rachel said with disinterest.

"You're here, young lady," she said with an edge, "because we've had a number of complaints about you and your gang bullying fellow students."

"Gang? Bullying?" Rachel questioned quietly. Rachel was relaxed, but was on guard with her words in case she said something which could be willingly misinterpreted.

"Yes. The reports in the last few weeks are through the roof!" The Head-Mistress said.

"All sent by the same 'concerned individual'?" Rachel guessed, with a bored tone.

"All were sent anonymously." The Head-Mistress dismissed.

"Same handwriting?" Rachel asked.

"They were sent electronically."

"Of course. Same sentence structure and spelling?" Rachel said, the more she questioned, the more the Head-Mistress got frustrated.

"We're here to discuss your behaviour!" she said testily.

"Of course we are." Rachel dismissed, "You have to take all accusations seriously with zero tolerance, and never question if they are real."

"Are you suggesting these accusations are fake?" The Head-Mistress raised an eyebrow. Something Rachel liked to think Raven got from the Head-Mistresses Azarath Monk counterpart in the story.

"In so much that they tell only one side of a complicated story." Rachel said.

"I don't think she'd lie about this." The Head-Mistress looked at Rachel intensely.

"Ah, so it is one person." Rachel realised, and the Head-Mistresses frown went even deeper and her eyes became more piercing like they could see into Rachel's soul. Unfortunately, if they could she'd be able to see Rachel spoke the truth.

"I don't know what feud you have with her." The old crone began.

"I never picked her out for a feud." Rachel corrected.

"I don't care what feud you have with her, but I want you to stop it!" The Old Crone hissed in a low, cold tone.

"As long as she stays away from me and my friends." Rachel said back, more in control than the older woman sounded.

The Head-Mistress then got up, and moved to go out her door. She pointed at Rachel and said, "You stay there," and she went outside.

She was back quite quickly leading a tearful Dolores into the room with her and they both sat down, Dolores in a chair next to Rachel, the Head-Mistress back behind her desk.

"As you can see, Dolores is very upset." The old bag said.

"What, you want me to give her jelly babies and a hug?" Rachel answered and turned to Dolores, "Leave - us - alone."

"I want you to leave her alone!" The Head-Mistress hissed firmly.

"Not possible, I don't seek her out."

"Yes she does." Dolores said through fake tears. "I was... I was... I..."

"No need to say anything, Dolores." The Head-Mistress said soothing. Rachel rolled her eyes at this.

"I want a restraining order on her, immediately." Rachel said.

"She'll only come after me and claim I violated it." Dolores suddenly said.

"So you acknowledge a way to twist the rules to suit you." Rachel fired back coolly.

"Enough, the pair of you!" Both girls fell silent. "I think you should apologise to each other." Both girls began to protest. "I don't care. Whatever you did to wrong each other I want it sorted now."

"Gladly." Dolores said, taking the lead. "I'm sorry Rachel, I don't know what I did to offend you, but I am truly sorry."

Rachel didn't buy it for one moment, something in those eyes told Rachel that Dolores had no idea what she did, but whatever it was the bitch felt it was somehow justified. Well, two could play that game.

"Then I'm sorry. I don't know what it is about me that offends you so." Rachel said coldly, then looked at Dolores with intensity, "But whatever friction there is between us. I want... I would like it to stop, now."

"Rachel's apology didn't sound sincere, miss." Dolores said, pointing at her.

"What do you want, a parade in your honour?" Rachel sighed.

"Enough." The Head-Mistress cut across. "Now we have another matter." She turned to Rachel. "That thing you write on the internet. The Lost Child of Azurath."

"Azarath." Rachel corrected, but the Head-Mistress plowed on.

"The story. You've written a character which Dolores finds upsetting."

Oh for god sake!

"You want me to change the character?" Rachel questioned.

"No, I want you to delete the story and remove it from the internet." The Head-Mistress said.

Rachel looked at the old crone intensely and said one word, firmly, and finally.

"No."

"Excuse me?" The Head-Mistress asked, as if she didn't hear the first time.

"No."

"What do you mean 'no'?"

"It means no." Rachel said simply.

"You're already in hot water." The Head-Mistress said darkly.

"And what I choose to write is not the schools business." Rachel answered back, "Anyway, the... character in question," Rachel felt it best not to name which character, "was written about before I even met Dolores. You can check when that chapter was posted, it was only just after I met Dolores. Unless I'm capable of Time Travel myself, I can't have written all that and got her personality down so quickly."

"Miss, she's lying. The site said she edited those chapters recently. To make the character more like me!" Dolores said.

"You can check previous editions in the archive." Rachel answered, "all changes are logged."

Rachel knew Dolores was preying on the Head-Mistress's ignorance of new technology.

"Be that as it may." The Head-Mistress said, "I think its simpler if you just delete it from the internet."

"You mean 'easier for you'." Rachel countered. "I'm not deleting the whole story just because Dolores thinks the bad guy character in the last few chapters is somehow based on her." Rachel turned back to the old crone, and keeping her tone and voice level Rachel continued. "And I'm certainly not going to delete it because it would be easier for you." The old crone looked utterly livid. "If Dolores doesn't like the story, she has the option not to read it, nor draw attention to the character in question. But she has; she's upset by it and doesn't want people to see it, yet she draws attention to it. Yeah, that's logical."

The Head-Mistress looked like she was about to pop a blood vessel under her cool exterior.

"Either you delete the story, or add Dolores to your social media so she can keep track of this character."

"My social media account is about me, not just the story." Rachel said.

"I don't care. Add Dolores, or you have after-school detention all week." Rachel raised her eye-brow again. That was harsh, very harsh; and all because of that blubbering land whale?

Rachel picked out her phone, connected to the school internet, logged onto social media and did something the teacher wouldn't be expecting.

"There." Rachel said.

"I don't see a friend request." Dolores said.

"Search for me." Rachel answered. After a few seconds Dolores was confused and she looked at Rachel accusingly.

"I can't find her. I'm still blocked!"

"No." Rachel said, failing to hide a small smirk, "I deleted my social media account."

Dolores looked horrified that she'd even do that. "Why?!"

"It was never important to me. I hardly ever used it anyway." Rachel said, not looking Dolores in the eye, she didn't need to. Rachel had check-mated her as far as Rachel was concerned.

"A weeks after school detention, Miss Roth!" The Head-Mistress said, "Now get out!"

"But Miss," Dolores pipped up, "What about the picture!"

"Two weeks after school detention, Miss Roth." The Head-Mistress said, "I hope you'll learn your lesson, now get out."

Rachel gladly got up and left the crying Dolores with the Head-Mistress.

Lesson? That sometimes people with power will do whatever it takes to appease people who screech and cry all the time like big babies, because it's easier than dealing with them and convincing them where 'they' were doing wrong?

That sounded like the lesson.

Perhaps the Head-Mistress just lacked the imagination to think how she was being manipulated by Dolores. Maybe she just didn't care, and thought appeasing her was the quickest way to shut her up.

Rachel would only be too happy to have peace with Dolores. The only problem was Rachel's version of peace wasn't the same as the 'peace' Dolores wanted from her.

Outwardly, Rachel was calm and at peace. Inside, she was raging and seething.

Rachel sighed. Despite her frustration there was something she just couldn't shake. Maybe it was because she was young and not that experienced with how harsh and unjust the world could be. But something about that whole interaction between Rachel, Dolores and the Head-Mistress just felt so unbelievable, as in fake. But what about it was fake she couldn't quite put her finger on. It was as if the whole thing was staged perfectly just to specifically annoy her.

It's your imagination. Rachel's head said.

Raven was again awoken from her slumber by something. There was movement going on somewhere in the bushes.

Her brain was awake in an instant, ready to sense danger. Looking up into the sky and to the floor there was no sign of the fictions from Gullivers Travels, so it wasn't them.

She sat down, but stayed wary. That's when she noticed there were only two other people here. Barriss and Alice!

Where was the Impostor?!

"Guys, wake up!" She shouted, jolting Barriss and Alice awake. "The Impostor's gone!" They were both up in an instant.

A rushing figure through the bushes told Raven the sound she heard was obviously the Impostor escaping.

Barriss took off after her, Alice quickly ate her biscuits and her form expanded yet again into a giant, while Raven took to the sky to find where the purple, alien woman was. She wasn't that difficult to find.

Raven shot forwards towards her like a bullet, no way was she escaping after everything she'd done.

The Impostor held something in her hands, she pointed and activated it. A laser blast fired out and suddenly some big portal opened and without hesitating nor breaking her stride she lept straight through it!

The portal began to close. But Raven had stopped in midair, arranged her arms into the right positions, said her chimes, focused and cast a black shield to hold the portal open.

Raven landed near the portal with Barriss and Alice landing beside her, Alice was back to her normal size.

"After her!" Raven commanded, and Barriss lept through the portal, followed by Alice. Once the way was clear Raven passed through too allowing the portal to collapse behind her.

They had moved. They weren't in the same place as before. This was a deep, dark jungle setting. Clearly, they had jumped fictions from Gulliver's travels into something else.

"What was that thing the Impostor had?" Barriss asked.

"Looks like some sort of a teleporter." Alice said, "It was like the one the Doctor was trying to repair."

Alice could see it from fifty feet in the air? Odd, because Raven couldn't.

The ground shook, and something pushed its way out of the forest clearing. It swiped its head to the side and knocked the girls to the ground. Slightly dazed, Raven looked up and saw a giant dinosaur standing over them, its jaws coming down ready to snap them in half.

To Be Continued…

Authors notes: A bit of a short one this time I know. :P

The debate between Doctor Pertwee and the Mistress I'm a little unsure of. It was written with the intention that not everything is alright with the school; and that the Head-Mistress only cares about the schools prized image and reputation, as long as that remains intact the students could go hang.

I admit updates have becoming less frequent as I've been scratching my head over what to do next. Now I have an idea and an outline of where to go.

Originally, Ed was going to join the girls on this next leg of the story. But as I planned it I found he was only surplus to requirements as he wouldn't have added anything to the story.