While Raven and Gale were scavenging through the Headmaster's office, Apple and Axel eventually reached their destination. They were looking through the shelves and books of the Lifairy with no luck. To prevent boredom, they kept themselves in their conversations, not realizing what's in store for them.

"Wow, is that really how it feels like?" asked Apple, nervous about what her brother explained to her.

Axel nodded, "Me and Gale got a lot of close calls, but we made sure the darkness doesn't infect us. And we also made sure to make a list of signs of any corruption. Though, its weaknesses are pretty… weird."

"What do you mean?"

He hummed in thought, "There are a few weaknesses and some of them are still uncovered, one of them was… hand sanitizer."

Apple… did not anticipate that answer. "I'm sorry, what?"

Kitty: … what the fuck?

Maddie: Kitty!

Kitty: I highly doubt that hand sanitizer helps prevent it.

Lucky: (Mumbling, angrily) … oh there's a reason why…

Kitty: Huh, what was that?

Nothing! Moving on. You'll get your answer soon.

Brooke: VP…

I said we're moving on!

"*Sigh* I know. We don't know about the other weaknesses, but we gotta use a good amount of special enchanted hand sanitizer to prevent being controlled. And when I mean special, I mean the good kind. " he said. "Though, it only works when in the beginning stages."

Apple slowly nodded her head, still befuddled about such a strange weakness, "any reason why?"

"Don't know. A friend of mine hypothesized that the corruption the darkness uses is made out of something that gets removed by it, but all its evil is preventing it from being revealed."

"How does that work?"

"No idea."

Ignoring the strangest answer to preventing an upcoming threat, it felt nice talking like this with her brother. It felt like old times. Maybe if-

Just then, a loud noise that sounded like something being knocked over came behind causing the siblings to snap their heads to see what it was.

They saw nothing.

"Huh? Okay-"

"Take that!"

Axel got caught off guard by a loud but young voice as some child seemed to have tackled him onto the ground.

Apple yelped in surprise. But her surprise grew when she saw who it was.

"Aaron?!"

The boy looked to be the age of 9 or 10. He had similar blonde hair to both Apple and Axel but looked to be a lot messier than both of the White's well kept hair and he had a small gold crown on the top. He also had a red hoodie with white sleeves and along with it were yellow shorts that go along with his red soccer shoes that had lightning bolts on them. His face was scratched up with some of them having bandages. The boy glared at the fallen Axel below him with his blue eyes.

Axel looked at his sister in confusion while also staring at the boy on top of him, trying to lift himself up but the strange kid seemed to be heavier than he thought, "Wait, you know this kid?!"

Unfortunately for Apple, she was about to answer when a young girl and another boy around the same age as Aaron popped up.

"Bro! Calm down you knucklehead!" shouted the girl.

Apple's shock grew as the princess saw the other two.

The girl also had platinum blonde hair and blue eyes. She wore a similar gold crown as Aaron on top of her head as her outfit consisted of a red-gold shirt along with a white skirt that had red diamond patterns and wore long blue pants. Her shoes were white with apples on them. She was currently grabbing the wild boy but was failing.

The other boy was quiet but tried to calm the both of them down. Unlike the other two, he had brushed ebony black hair. His hoodie was like Aaron, but the colors were reversed as his's was white with red sleeves while having a navy blue backpack with it. He wore black shorts and gold sneakers that had red crowns on them. He wore a similar crown on his head and red framed glasses over his own blue eyes.

Apple could only watch the scene that was happening while exclaiming, "What are you three doing here?!"

Aaron was the one to speak, still prying the girl's grip off of his arm while on top of the poor guy on the ground, "What I like to know is who is this guy?!" he said, pointing at Axel.

Axel, grunting on the ground at Aaron's weight, "Apple, what's going on?"

Apple, sighing, looked at Aaron, "Aaron, get off of him"

The young boy looked at Apple, "But App-"

"Now." she said, a demanding tone of one of not a queen but a stern caretaker.

Aaron, grumbling in annoyance, immediately got off. Axel thankfully got up and stretched his back. He had to admit, the kid was pretty good at keeping his opponents down.

Letting out another heavy sigh, Apple knew she had some explanations for both sides. She also knew there would be a lot of questions, especially from Raven and Gale once they met up again.

"Axel," her brother looked at her, "This is Eira,"

The girl smiled.

"Orchard,"

The quivering shy kid nodded, unsure of the stranger.

"And you, clearly, already met Aaron."

The messy blonde boy, still unsure about all of this but trusted Apple, waved.

"And these… are the youngest White triplets." she finally said.

Axel's eyes go real wide. Apple was afraid his eye sockets might pop off.

She looked at the triplets, "And you three," Motions to Axel, "This is your big brother, Axel."

Apple's expectations on how her little siblings were to react were spot on. Eira had her jaw drop, Orchard's eyes were wide, and Aaron was doing both.

The triplets were silent, before letting out a predicted answer when young ones were given a surprising reveal.

"What?!"

Shock, curiosity, and amazement was all over their faces as they quickly approached their newly acquired older brother, who could only sheepishly wave before being bombarded by rapid questions while still reeling in the shock.

"How old are you?!" asked Eira.

"Where have you been all our lives?!" Orchard finally said, his shyness gone and now curious.

"Do you have a pet dragon?" asked Aaron. They all looked at him, and he shrugged, "What? Just asking."

Axel, still reeling in, could only let out a weak "Um." while many thoughts spun through his head, 'I have more siblings?! Okay, that is not how I imagined when I returned to Ever After. They're so… cute! I wonder how Gale could handle this? Probably go through crazy shock or squeezing them while squealing at how adorable they are. Or perhaps both.'

"I'll answer a few questions for Axel over here." Apple intervenes, knowing as she took one look at him, he's still processing it. "For Eira, he's 18. For Aaron, I don't think so. Wait," looks at him, "Do you?"

Axel, after he calmed down, shook his head.

"Yeah, no."

Aaron pouted in disappointment.

"And for Orchard's question, it's a long story."

Apple and Axel explained everything to them. The impending darkness, where they've been, and all the other stuff. The triplets listened intently

After finishing, Aaron was the first to speak, "So, we have another sibling as well who is also your twin?"

"That's what you take away from all of this?" Axel asked, to which Aaron just nodded. 'Gale and him would get along great.'

"Yeah, I do."

A loud clap was heard and they all turned to Apple, "Okay! Now that we all got that settled," her eyes twisted in anger at her younger siblings, "I want to know what in Ever After got you three the idea that to come here?!"

All three of them were shaking in fear.

"You stopped giving us letters last week." answered Eira, "We thought we would get the next letter on the next day but it never came. We kind of found it suspicious since you always deliver on time. At first we thought it was schoolwork but then we realized that you don't have any on your schedule."

"Wait, how do you know my schedule?"

Aaron points at Orchard who takes out a long folded list out of his bag, "We have a copy of it in case you come home on a break and it says nothing too important."

"And Aaron," Eira sneered at him, the boy turning away innocently, "felt like something was wrong and left home leaving me and Orchard to follow him."

Apple blinked. She, really, felt the strong urge to facepalm but decided to not to. She was so focused on avoiding Raven that she forgot to write to her younger brothers and sister. In all honesty, if she would remember then she wouldn't think too much of it. She didn't think it could lead to this though.

Axel looked at Aaron, "And why did you tackle me to the ground?"

"Well, Apple always had to deal with suitors and boys asking her out all the time whenever there was some grand party back at home so I always beat them up." Answered Aaron, "Though, I always get in trouble for it. And I'm starting to see why it's a problem."

"Gee, you think?" asked Eira, skeptically.

"Alright, alright. I'm sorry."

Axel glanced at his sister Apple, who was now the one looking away. She didn't want to talk about her problems with suitors, especially if she relied on her 10 year old brother to pick a fight with them.

Afterwards, they kept searching the Lifairy from high and low as the triplets asked for more questions while trying to help, only to find nothing.

"We should probably head back now since there seems to be nothing here. Raven and Gale are probably waiting by now." Apple suggested.

Axel nodded, and he looked at the triplets, "You all can come along. You three are already here and I don't think going back to the castle would be a good idea. It might be dangerous but as long as you three stay out of it then we don't have to worry. Okay?"

The three triplets nodded eagerly.

Apple had other concerns. "Are you sure it would be alright? I mean, with all that's happening…"

He put a hand on his sister's shoulder, "I'm sure Gale and I can figure it out. And it would be a great idea to introduce them to her. Get to know each other. I promise, they won't get harmed."

"Yeah, We'll be careful!" Aaron replied.

The blonde princess looked at him with doubt, and then looked at Eira and Orchard expectedly.

"Don't worry, we'll stay away and make sure this nut head does the same." said Eira with her quiet brother nodding, much to Aaron's displeasure.

Apple sighed, "Alright."

The triplets clap with enthusiasm.

"But if you three get anywhere near danger, run. And keep close. You're better together."

Eira and Orchard nodded while Aaron gave out a salute.

The five of them walked back as they all shared multiple stories to each other, laughing and having a good time like siblings. Apple couldn't help but smile as Axel answered all their questions and the triplets opened up to their new big brother. Even Orchard, the most shy out of the triplets, seemed to be more open than before.

It seemed like everything was going well.

Maddie: Until it wasn't!

Maddie!

Maddie: Sorry! Couldn't help myself.

Sigh* anyways,

But when they got back, all five of them froze.

Standing there were Gale and Raven, nervous at who was with them.

Two purple-black-blonde haired guys who looked shockingly like the witch.

Briar for some reason glaring at a brunette-pink haired guy with a mask and pink scarf who was looking away from her.

And a guilty Headmaster Grimm.

That's definitely not an everyday sight to see.