Thank you to my reviewers, as usual, as we get back into the swing of things post New Year: Boris Yetsin, I'm Addicted To Fanfiction, and David12leca! Enjoy this new one :)

Betty, feeling like everything was going exactly to plan, broke the capsule into his drink.

"Betty...what's that?" Veronica put her hand out to stop Betty from taking it to Chuck.

"Er, muscle relaxer." Betty lied quickly, "Mix it with booze and it lowers your inhibitions. Hello truth serum." Except, she meant that literally . Truth serum, page 252 of her family grimione. Easy enough to make, but it only yielded about two doses and wore off within the hour. Also, most magical creatures had other means to get the truth, but for something like this and someone so utterly human, Betty figured it would fit their needs.

"Maybe we should slow down a little?" Veronica twittered.

Coward, the vicious voice in Betty's head whispered. She shooed it away. She didn't think Veronica of that. Revenge wasn't everyone's dish, even if they thought it was. Betty could finish this herself, and she would.

"It's fine. Right Chuck? You don't want to slow down, do you?" She asked tilting her head and giving her best sad face.

Whatever Chuck answered was something kitschy and cringe-worthy, but it was for sure an affirmative, which is all Betty needed.

"Good boy Chuck," She said, handing it to him. She handed him the drink, watching him chug it. So arrogant, didn't even think to be wary of it. She slid into the hot tub, at least to her knees, and placed her hands on his head like she was going to lean down to kiss him. Just as she was inches from his face, she paused.

"Now sleep," She instructed, willing the magic to bid as she wished. Chuck looked at her quizzically, before his head lolled and he drifted off into a momentary slumber

"Betty!" Veronica leapt up.

"He's fine. He'll wake up in a second. You brought the handcuffs?" The handcuffs had been Veronica's idea, initially, but now she looked unsure. She opened her mouth, scowled, and then retrieved them.

"I'm not sure I like where this is going." Veronica said. Betty clicked the locks into place.

"It's going to be fine. We're just going to get him to admit what he's done. That's it." Betty assured, but some part of her wanted to do more. She shoved it away, but it kept coming back. She didn't want to admit she might be in over her head, that this dark magic was starting to get to her, because they were so close.

She rubbed her fingers over his head again, "Wake," She whispered.

Chuck started to come to.

"What the hell?" He said, shaking his arms.

"Start recording," Betty instructed.

"Hey, guys. It's getting hot in here," Chuck said, huffing.

Betty leaned down, trailing her fingers through the water, "And getting hotter by the minute," She agreed, watching with satisfaction as the fire Sweet Pea said she had slid through her body and into the water, rising the temperature, "Time to squeal, pig. Tell the truth about what happened between you and Veronica."

"We...we had a good time. She had a good time," Chuck said, squinting. Betty locked her jaw. He clearly believed that, so, no lies there. Okay, different question, more incentive.

"The truth, Chuck, or so help me I will boil you alive," Betty snarled, sticking her whole palm into the water, urging it to bubble like a pot on a stove.

"Wha…" Chuck asked, shaking his head.

"Betty?" Veronica asked hesitantly, her eyes sliding over to the temperature gauge. There she was, trying to connect the dots, how Betty was doing this...without anything. Betty just gave her a 'trust me' sort of look. Veronica's hand was shaking, but she returned the camera to Chuck, but her face was still one of worry and confusion.

"How...how you doing that?" Chuck asked, "Ouch! It's boiling, man!" He squeaked, trying to get out of the hot tub.

"The truth," Betty pressed, "What happened this Wednesday."

"We made out."

"And then?" Betty said, clenching her fist. Chuck yelped.

"And then i took her home! And I didn't give her a Sticky Maple. She talked a lot about movies and books I didn't understand I felt stupid compared to her and I posted that picture to make myself feel better. The boys think I get a lot of tail but most of the time I just hang out with girls and maybe kiss them. I'm a virgin." The words seemed to tumble out of his lips unprompted, and he stared at himself in horror, like he couldn't believe what he was saying. Betty smirked; she'd have to remember this potion in the future.

Veronica seemed to blink herself out of shock, "Right. Yes. That's all you had to say," She said, clicking off the camera, "Ass." She added, still a little bowled over by his very loose-lipped confession, but was narrowing her eyes, as though trying to figure out if it was the truth.

Betty knew that this was done. That it should be done. That she should let him out. Her hands grabbed the cuffs to unleash him, but something inside of her snapped, took over. Instead of what she'd planned, the cuffs around his arms grew white with heat.

"Oh man, oh god, what's happening."

"Betty!" Veronica said angrily, "That's enough."

Betty turned to her, instinctively throwing out her arm. Veronica slid across the floor and into the pool, sputtering and trying to catch her breathe.

"You like shaming people, Chuck? You like dehumanizing them? Prissy prude in the day, freak in the sheets by night?" She said, every word enunciated with a scarily haunting precision.

"What? No. I mean-,"

"Maybe, you should be dehumanized too," Betty said, shoving him down further under the bubbles, "Literally."

"Betty! Betty wait! It's really hot. I can't breathe. I can't…" Chuck said, blinking as his nose vanished under the bubbles. In a second, his eyes rolled into the back of his head and Betty felt this body go slack. The part of Betty that didn't want this, that had wanted to unchain him, told her to stop. That, very soon, she wouldn't be able to take back what was going to happen next. That this had done enough; she'd made her point.

But doesn't it feel good? You can feel the life slipping away, and you, Betty, you control it...you get to decide who lives and who dies...and he deserves to die.

"Betty!" Veronica threw herself into Betty, both of them skidding into the wet bar by the wall, "Oh my god." Veronica said, looking back at Chuck. She grabbed him under his arms, pulling him up onto the tile. She felt for a pulse, breath heavy, "What the fuck, Betty?" She demanded, starting to give him CPR, "He's still alive," She whispered to herself.

Betty rubbed her head, and it's like all the black thoughts seemed to recede for a second.

"I nearly killed him…" She realized with a horror, like someone had doused her in ice water.

She stood on shaky legs, still almost uncomprehending what she'd nearly done. She crouched by Veronica, who just glared at her.

"I think you've done enough," She said, "God, we just wanted to get him to admit it, not to murder him!" Veronica said, leaning down, "Okay, he's breathing better now, good." She sighed. Chuck coughed, sputtering up hot tub water, a raspy moan erupting from his lips. He blinked open, his eyes wild and frenzied when he saw Betty above him.

Betty did the only thing she could think of; she pressed a hand to both Veronica's and Chuck's foreheads.

"Sleep," She murmured. It was harder to summon the magic without the darkness aiding her, but she was so rattled she hardly thought about it until later. As soon as she set Veronica down on one of the lounge chairs, Betty scrambled back against the wall.

My god, what had she done? What was she thinking?

She sucked in a breath, and it ended as a sob. This wasn't what she wanted to happen. Chuck would wake up and she could go to jail for this. Veronica would never talk to her again. Everyone would know of the darkness inside of her. And worse, Veronica had a video of Betty doing magic, of doing things that can't be explained. And, even if she deleted it, Veronica would remember. Chuck, in some way, would remember. She couldn't explain it. She'd have to. She'd break Mr. Jone's rule and...oh god, she didn't know how to fix this.

Her fingers felt heavy and awkward as she dove in her bag for her phone. She dialed Sweet Pea's number. No answer.

She tried four more times. On the fifth time, she left a message.

"Sweet Pea, please pick up. Crap, crap. Oh, god, I've…I've really messed up and I don't know how to fix it," She spoke between hiccuping sobs, "I know I'm the last person you probably want to talk to right now but I'm really, really in deep and I need your help and I'm sorry and…" She wiped her nose, "Please just answer."

"Betty Cooper!" There was a pounding on the outside door. Betty splashed some pool water on her face. She did not recognize the voice. She opened the door to see a girl with pink hair and fishnet tights staring down at her.

"Don't you usually have blond long hair? Nevermind. Look I-," She looked at Betty's face, and then through the pool entrance.

"Who are you?" Betty's question was watery.

"Oh, god, you're joking, right?" The girl asked, brushing past Betty, "I know I'm not wearing the proper uniform, or my fur more specifically, but seriously? Sweet Pea's never mentioned me? Because, I'll have you know, he won't shut the fuck up about you and-,"

The wheels in Betty's mind buzzed. She squinted and took an educated guess, "Toni?"

"Well, that's a relief, or I would have been honestly offended." Toni said, nodding.

"That was quick," Betty mused out loud, relief flooding through her body.

"What was quick?"

"Oh, ah…" Betty frowned, "Aren't you here because…."

"No. But you'd better explain what the hell is going on, girl. Also, why am I getting a message from Sweets right now saying you just called him like eighty times and left a sobbing voice message?"

"Why are you here?" Betty asked, crossing her arms.

"Whatever I'm here for, it can wait. This seems to need our attention." Toni leaned over Veronica.

"Sleeping spell…" Betty whispered softly, belatedly. Toni just turned, sympathy in her gaze.

"Betty, what's going on?"

Betty took Toni through the night, how it had just gone from bad to worse and how that voice, that darkness within her, had just mounted and mounted until she nearly killed someone. To Toni's credit, her face hardly changed as Betty was explaining it. Maybe this was just another Friday night for the wolf pack. Either way, when Betty finished, Toni gave a long hum.

"Yeah, this is something for Sweet Pea to help with," She agreed. She called him, "Hey? Yeah. It's bad. Get your fuzzy ass over here. What? I don't know, we can figure that part of it out later. I know I told you to, but hey- don't get snippy. Sweet Pea...it's really not good. Bring the emergency kit. Yep, that level. Where are we? We're at Mugg's house. I just texted you the address, dumb butt."

She hung up without preamble. "He's coming." She said simply. For a little bit, there was just silence between the pair as Toni checked on both the humans, sighing to herself. Betty stood in the corner, not wanting to make things worse. Finally, Toni looked up and sent Betty a face that said 'been there, done that'. Toni clasped her hands in front of her, spinning toward Betty completely.

"I came because I saw what you did to Sweet Pea's face today." Toni's face was unreadable. Betty winced hard. She'd nearly forgotten about that in the commotion of all this, "And, well, I was worried." It took Betty a second, a second to realize if she'd been worried about Sweet Pea, she'd still be with him. The realization caused Betty to inhale hard.

"About me?" Betty asked, slightly surprised.

"I've been in dark places, and with magic added in, it's no cakewalk. I mean, what you did to Sweet Pea was probably over the line, but he also sort of deserved it. I also don't condone killing a human," She nudged Chuck's supine form, "But I get where you were coming from. The Playbook sounds awful and Sweet Pea is an idiot for not doing something." She said plainly, "But, I feel like you need to hear him out too. You're both stubborn and your both in the wrong, okay?" She said.

"What sort of things do you mean?" Betty asked. Toni hesitated, as though thinking if she thought it was worth it to reply.

"Well, you'll get to hear soon enough." She cocked her head, "He's here."

Sweet Pea came in through the door, took one look and cussed, "I leave you alone for one day, one day," He held up a finger, "Though, may I remind you, it was more your choice than mine."

Toni quickly relayed all of the pertinent information to him. Betty took the wig off, running her fingers through her hair and sighing hard. Today was awful.

"Okay, Betty, over here," Sweet Pea said, snapping her to attention, "In real shit situations like this, we have a cache of potions saved up. I mean, you'll have to replenish this eventually since this is your fault, but you get the idea," He said, clicking open an ordinary looking box, "This is...well, it's half a forgetting potion, half a re-write potion. It makes those gaps susceptible to being otherwise filled in. Basically, we give the the memory they should have. No one's the wiser."

"It's only when you don't have a vampire around you wish you had one," Toni said wistfully.

"Why would we want a vampire?" Betty asked.

"They can do weird mind-control voodoo. Didn't I tell you this?" Sweet Pea glanced up, "Can't keep straight who I've told what rules too. Anyway, we can do this on our own, but not without depleting the stock. Lucky we have you now."

"The video, we need it...for Wetherbee…" Betty said quietly.

"Easy, we just edit it and delete the end part," Toni threw in.

"I don't know the code." Betty admitted. Toni snorted.

"She doesn't know the code oh, that's cute," Toni said, already scrolling on Veronica's phone. Sweet Pea just shrugged.

"Now, before we give it to them, let's, erm, decide how we're going to play this. We need something, something that also can make sense with that." He nodded to where Toni was cutting out the worse parts.

"I heated the hot tub up."

"Okay, you had a remote." Sweet Pea offered.

"Who has a remote for their hot tub?" Toni snorted from in the corner.

"Shush. The Muggs do, as of now." Sweet Pea pinched his nose, "And you had it behind your back. When he admitted to the truth, we cut the video off. I mean, we'll keep in that shit about him being a virgin. That's gold. But, only Wetherbee is gunna see this anyway, so I don't feel too bad. But, now, we need to know what happened after. Problem; we can take away memories, but we can't take away feelings. So, if they felt horrified or shocked by your actions, they're going to recall that and if things don't match up…"
"Oh,"Betty covered her face, "Great."

"Let's see, you got Chuck to confess. You roughed him up a bit, same words you did before, sorta. You pushed him under the water, just a little, just to get him soaked. Then you…."

"Poured maple syrup on him," Toni threw out, carefully putting Veronica's phone back where it had been, "What? That would be bat shit crazy behavior, but would make sense, what with the 'Sticky Maple'."

"Well, yeah, there's that." Sweet Pea blinked.

"Where would I get maple syrup? Did I bring it with me? Did I raid the Mugg's pantry?"

"I dunno, you're crazy!" Sweet Pea shrugged his shoulders.

"I'm not getting out of this, huh?" Betty sighed. Sweet Pea gave an apologetic shake of his head. Betty threw up her hands.

"Fine, fine. I poured a bottle of Riverdale's best over his head." She agreed.

"Perfect. Now, you take Veronica, I'll take Chuck. When I say so, bottoms up, and then let me do the talking. It takes a particular finess to make sure this goes off right, no weird bumps in the memory. And, while I'm doing it, silent. Not a sound."

Betty nodded hard, just glad he was helping. On his signal, she poured the soft milky blue potion down Veronica's neck. A weird haze came over them. Sweet Pea's voice became even and soft, like a hypnotist, as he carefully re-wired their memories. Betty watched in half-awe, half utter shame.

Finally, he was done. He'd added in that Chuck had gone home when Betty let him free and that Veronica had left not soon after. While Betty could revive them now, if they put them safe at home, they'd wake up in the morning. Plus, it was better that way, for their memories to be written over. He used a magic salve on Chuck's wrists and burns and they vanished before Betty's eyes. Without asking, he grabbed Betty's palms and put it on. There was a second, when both forgot the fight they'd had, what had went down. Then, both recalled and Sweet Pea withdrew his hand and Betty felt really shitty about everything.

"So, ah, I'm gunna get these two home." Toni said, interrupting whatever had just happened.

"I owe you one," Betty threw her a grateful look.

"You sure as hell do! You bet I'll come to collect." She said, "And you are sooo lucky I went home and picked up my truck instead of being a wolf all the way here, because otherwise I'm not sure what we'd do with them." She jerked a thumb to where Veronica was sprawled in her passenger's seat.

Then, she was gone.

"I should go home." Betty said to no one in particular.

"Woods, you, me, now." Sweet Pea demanded, crossing his arms. Betty put some clothes back on, grabbing her things, and followed him.

"Sweet Pea, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have attacked you today."

"Yeah, you should be. That really fucking hurt."

"It was supposed to," Betty agreed quietly.

"Yeah, well, Toni gave me a chewing out. I should have told you right away. I should have...you should have known. You were blindsided. And Betty, god, I would never intentionally try to hurt you."

"Then why was my name in the book? With that awful note?" Betty demanded, "And how do I know you're not going to lie to me right now? LIke you've been doing this whole time?"

"Truth pod. Congrats on figuring it out, by the way," Sweet Pea held up the second dose.

"Does it even work on magic creatures?" Betty asked dryly.

"For shorter times. We just cycle through it quicker.' He gulped it down, "Really. Ask me anything."

"Are you a virgin too?"

Sweet Pea squinted at her, sighing hard, "Yes. Happy?" He grumbled, "I don't have time with the pack and there's not a lot of options with girls in the pack and you're the first girl I…" He winced, holding himself back, "That I care about. That I have cared about that isn't a wolf."

"Romantically?" Betty couldn't help but ask.

"Not right now," Sweet Pea winced as he said it before he could stop, "You're one of my best friends and I want to keep that."

Betty gave a thoughtful nod, "Okay, fine. I'll bite. Why'd you write that."

"Because I'm your protector and I have to protect you. And Betty, you should have heard the horrible, nasty things they wanted to do to you. They said," Sweet Pea seemed to be fighting against the serum, "You don't need to know." He finished finally, gritting his teeth, perspiration beading on his forehead. Even like that, he was still protecting her in a sense.

"Mr. Jones meant from magic dangers, not from horny football douches." Betty said breezily.

"It still counts. And plus, even if I wasn't sent to protect you, I care about you. And I didn't want to see any of those guys try anything on you. Even if you wouldn't have let them, I couldn't let them pretend that you did. So I told Chuck I was playing the long game with you, only to sleep with you. I called you 'mine'. I made sure no one else was supposed to try anything with you."

"But you're not, right?" Betty couldn't help but ask.

"Just trying to sleep with you? Betty...that's...I don't think about that much, not that you're not pretty and shit. Damn, this is really good magic, Betty, but point being...I would have kept it up as long as I needed. And, honestly, if any of them had tried anything with you, I don't think I would have been able to stp from ripping them apart. The same how you wanted to help Veronica." He said.

Betty thought about it.

"I believe you," She said, shoulders slumped after a moment, "I ruined a lot."

"I should have still told you," Sweet Pea insisted, "However...you did do quite a number on our lives tonight, so I'm not feeling overly apologetic."

"Sweet Pea, I'm going to tell you something." Betty flexed her fingers, "I have this...darkness inside of me. It makes me think terrible thoughts. And, I thought my witch powers fixed it, but it came back. I think it's dark magic, making me do terrible things." She whispered.

"Own the fuck up to your actions, Cooper," Sweet Pea snapped, surprisingly hard-edged, "You had choices the entire time."

"But I didn't! There was this voice and-,"

Sweet Pea paced. He grabbed her shoulders, "Betty, impromptu lesson. One that I should have had with you day one. Dark magic, light magic? It's...it's bullshit, okay? It's fake. Made up."

"But I-," Betty tried to argue weakly, because she'd known what she felt.

"No. Magic just...it...it is." Sweet Pea struggled to explain it, and she could see how frustrated this made him, unable to articulate his thoughts, "It's neutral. Magic is nature and thus it's just base, neither good nor evil. It's fair to all, so fair to none as well. Magic doesn't comply to our made-up notions of morality, it's just stuff made up to sell books and TV shows. Truth is that magic is lighter or darker- and I only use those words for lack of a better one- based on the person. You've been feeling lighter, airy magic recently? You've been happy. You get sad, or whatever you think you have, and magic darkness. But it was you the whole time, Betty, not dark magic, not 'darkness'. You."

When Betty couldn't answer, her lips moving without words, Sweet Pea continued. He almost seemed to be on a rant now.

"But that's not to say that people haven't fallen over themselves trying to get what they think is dark magic. It's powerful, it's sexy. It gives people the illusion they're in control, when in reality, magic is leading them around on a very charged leash, just waiting for something to trigger an explosion. Magic folk have chased this dark feeling of magic around for ages. Hundreds, if not thousands, if not entire cities have been wiped out in pursuit or a magic that will eat them up away inside, that is dark because they themselves are dark. Still, this darkness does have a certain...intoxication," Sweet Pea was very close to her, he'd stopped pacing and was inches from his face. He breathed in hard, like he was feeling it run through his veins right now or recalling that moment. When he opened his eyes, they flashed dangerously yellow for just a second. He licked his lips, looking at Betty, "A certain...allure that's hard to resist. It's the darkness in vampires that makes them crave human blood, it's the feeling of being an apex predator in wolves...that carnal urge to let themselves fall to their most basic primal instincts. To hunt, kill. To howl at the moon. To fuck." He was dangerously close, and Betty only meant that because for a second, she felt her breath catch and she had the thought that if he leaned in now, she wouldn't say no. He seemed to realize what he was doing and inhaled like he was meditating. In a second, his eyes were back to normal, but he still seemed rattled.

He shook himself away, "And in witches, 'dark magic' makes you do great but also inhuman, unnatural things. Things that you wouldn't believe...nearly killing a boy would just be the start. But, yeah, you see it, you've felt it. Bad magic, is a more apt term, and it will reappear again. The difference is, between you and those that seeked it for years and always came up empty, is you know now you are in control. Anything you do isn't under its 'influence', it was a choice to ignore a better path. But it will leave you hollow. It's a disease, Betty. You need to be careful when it comes back, because if you let it in, it will swallow you whole and you will never claw back out. "

"I understand." Betty squeaked.

"But Betty...if all that shit is true about what you felt with it...I think there's other issues in your psyche. Issues you should probably get looked at, or get help about." He said softly.

"Well," Betty crossed her arms, ready to fight, but realized all the urges to do so were gone, "Maybe." She said, looking at the leaves.

"Christ, it's late. We should get you back home." Sweet Pea sighed, "Are we...okay?"

"I guess if you don't hold it against me I tried to turn your brain to soup, I can forgive you for the Playbook. We're showing it to Weatherbee tomorrow."

Sweet Pea gave a wry laugh, "Deal."

As they began to walk back, Betty paused, frowning deeply.

"Oh no," She whispered, "I just realized...in protecting me, you put your words, our handwriting in that book. You'll be implicated too!" The horror on her face was evident, even if a day ago, that would have pleased her to know.

Sweet Pea tilted his head. They were at the crossroads between the Cooper residence and the way back to school. He was looking the other direction.

"Up for a little more magic tonight?" He asked.

"You're going to fix it too?" Betty guessed.

"Well, with your help. But, let's be honest, it's what I'm here for."

XXxxXX

The next day at school, by third period, Chuck Clayton and five of the football players are escorted out of the school with a suspension. The rest of the school watches; most of the girls with a sigh of relief, most of the boys with eyes averted. Sweet Pea does not get suspended, because his name nor handwriting is anywhere in the book. They made sure of that.

Late last night, Sweet Pea taught Betty how to lift the very ink from the pages, as though they were stickers instead of actual ink, and anywhere he wrote a conquest, she changed his ink-handwriting midair to that of Castly's or Baker's or one of the other of the main boys. She then replaced the ink back down, and no one would ever be the wiser. As for anything regarding her name at all, she just picked up the ink and balled it before flushing it- and this whole issue- down the drain.

XXxxXX

Right in the very morning, her bones on fire as she imagines how glorious it will be to see Chuck get what's coming to him, as Betty is at her locker, her fresh copies of the story that will bring Chuck down in the next few hours in her hands, Sweet Pea brushes up close to her, his fingers almost touching her skin, his voice quiet and right next to her ear.

"Chuck remembers exactly what we wanted him to; nothing more, nothing less."

A sigh of relief Betty didn't know she'd been keeping deep down escaped. She gave a grateful nod to him. Sweet Pea glances down, smirking.

"Looks great, Cooper," He said, picking up the first copy and a few more and shaking it in his hands, walking off. Down the hall, she sees him give one to Ethel, and then everyone is clambering over themselves to read the latest gossip of Riverdale High.

Her expose is read by all, and Jughead gives her a nod of approval when he sees it. Betty's heart thumps a little when she sees him across the hall.

"Quite the expose," Veronica says, tapping her own folded copy when she sees Betty after their second hour, "Whenever did you find the time to write it?"

"Stayed up all last night," Betty shrugged, "Couldn't sleep after…" She trailed off. After she nearly killed Chuck.

"Me neither," Veronica agrees quickly, "Betty...you came through for me, in a way that no one else has ever before. But, uh, can we talk about...what happened?"

For a wild second, Betty's heart pounded. Did she remember it? Did it only take to Chuck? Was she immune, somehow?

"What do you mean?" Betty played innocent.

"About the wig...and the syrup. How far were you going to take it?" Veronica asked, true concern shining in her eyes. Betty let out an inward sigh of relief. She didn't remember, she remembered the lie. How worried would she be if she remembered the rest, Betty thought?

"I went a little overboard. I thought we needed to get justice, but, well...I'm glad you stopped me." Betty admitted, "I just got so angry, thinking of you and of Polly and of-,"

"Yourself?" Veronica finished, "I saw you were still, ah, chummy with Sweet Pea this morning." She said, sending Betty a sad, tired look.

"It wasn't what we thought it was. Sweet Pea was doing that so none of the other football guys tried to get after me." Betty quickly defended him, "He should have told me, I'm pissed at him on that note."

Veronica gave a long inhale, "Betty…"

"Look, I know, I know. That's what they all say. But we talked it out. Had a good fight. And, he's telling the truth. I believe him. I trust him." Betty said, trying to make Veronica understand. She seemed torn, but nodded.

"One chance. If I see anything that suggests he's hurt you or will in the future, I will rain down on his ass unflinchingly."

"I wouldn't want anything else," Betty said, linking her arms with hers.

"Ladies?" The vice principal tapped on Veronica's shoulder, "The Principal would like to see you."

XXxxXX

"Now, I think that these girls have done your school a service," Betty kept her chin high as Mrs. Lodge spoke quietly on their behalf, "Of revealing a snake in the grass that, as Veronica has told me, even you did nothing about in the past."

"They accosted this boy, Mrs. Lodge, even if it was in the pursuit of truth…" He was watch the video, the article next to it, a dark look on his face.

"Which is probably the least of what he deserved, all things considering about what he said of my daughter. Of what he and the football team have been doing for ages," Mrs. Lodge said firmly.

"Mrs. Lodge-," Wetherbee began.

"No." Mrs. Lodge stood, leaning over the desk. Betty saw her lock eyes with Wetherbee, which she assumed was to intimidate him. There was a tingling feeling in the room, an itch on her magic, as Wetherbee did not avert his gaze.

"Those boys will be properly punished," Mrs. Lodge said very softly, but each word was enunciated with a tingle to Betty's bones, "And these two girls- heroes, wouldn't you say- will be given a weeks' worth of detention for their actions and nothing more. This matter will not be brought up again."

Mrs. Lodge sat back.

Wetherbee blinked, frowning to himself.

"Those boys will be properly punished, and these two girls, heroes, will get just detentions," He said to himself, like he was dazed and reading from a script, "Yes, quite right, Mrs. Lodge. I don't know why I didn't see otherwise before. They'll be suspended for six weeks and these girls will sit in detention all this week."

"Now," Hermione clasped her hands, "That wasn't so hard."

"Woah, that was crazy," Betty whispered to Veronica, "I thought for sure we'd be suspended too."

Veronica sent a proud look to her mother, grinning, "Mama's always been very persuasive, she can convince anyone to do just about anything."

XXxxXX

After, Betty had gone to the locker and taken the Playbook out. She ran her fingers over Polly's name, wanting to be able to talk to her sister about this. To know all of it, everything. Even though her sister was alive and well, as far as Betty knew, she'd never felt so estranged from her.

While the rest of the teens ate lunch, Betty went to the back of the school to burn this, forever.

She threw it into the bin and picked up a can of gas. As she was pouring it over the pages, Cheryl seemed to slip by her side.

"Someone hurt Jason, and he hurt your sister too. I can't pretend like he didn't. I imagine how I feel, and that's how you must feel, on some level." Cheryl said, staring down at the open book, "For what it's worth, if for a second I could pretend be Jason and you could be Polly...I'm sorry." She said, voice breaking a little.

"I accept it," Betty said.

She turned to set the can down and when she looked back it, the book was on fire. She hadn't even seen Cheryl pull out the matches or a lighter, but it didn't matter. This book was going up in flames.

Betty leaned into the fire, feeling at peace as the heat wafted over her. She looked back at Cheryl, a little embarrassed about it, but Cheryl only smiled, leaning in too.

"Our specialty, Betty Cooper, is fire."

XXxxXX

"If you publish an article saying I fired a gun, my life will be ruined," Dilton pushed his glasses up his nose, shaking his head imploringly, "No only will Sheriff never believe me, but I'll be banned from the Adventure Scouts and charged with a misdemeanor!"

Betty had nearly forgotten about Jughead's side quest on his own, even though Jason's death was always on her mind, until he caught her after lunch, saying he had a lead. Betty noticed he didn't shy away from her, but instead leaned in, excitement rippling across him.

And, Betty high of the success of her latest story, couldn't wait to hear what it was. But, as Jughead had described the last couple days he'd had, tracking down this and that, she felt less sure about it. Now, sitting in the office with Dilton in front of her, Betty wasn't sure what he was going to say and this frightened her.

Jughead didn't notice, too engrossed in the truth.

"So, what if I have a better story? I'll tell you what I know if you promise me the gunshot stays between us." Dilton finished.

"None of that wolf shit, right?" Jughead asked suspiciously. Betty bit her lip hard, trying not to make a face that would tell Dilton just how right he was.

"No, not that." Dilton said, "Scout's honor."

Jughead shared a glance with Betty.

"You have our word," He replied, "Journalist's honor," He teased gently.

"I saw something nobody else saw at Sweetwater River. Two things. I saw a car, I think it was Ms. Grundy's, but more than that…"

Jughead's eyebrows raised. Betty agreed; what could be more than that.

"I saw Cheryl. Like I said, on the rocks, soaking wet. There's more, something I saw before the other scouts came, and for the longest time I wasn't sure what it was. But…" Dilton gulped, "I'm pretty sure she was doing blood sacrifice."

So, obviously we have some pretty major changes staring to happen!

*Toni meets Betty way earlier, and on better terms, I'd say. In fact, she just will end up meeting EVERYONE earlier!

*Dark magic, yo. I hope that explanation sorta made sense. I dunno. I like the idea of very natural things being just base, just neutral neither good or bad and then exploring how individuals use it that makes it good or bad, such as inverting ideas of traditionally 'bad' magic and having it be used for good or vice versa. Betty's 'darkness' and 'dark magic' in general will still be present, just explained differently!

*I'm here, trying to rewrite this series, and in a lot of senses making people magical just makes the whole story make more sense. But, there are some things that are stupid and cannot be fixed (letsbehonest the show itself is stupid but we all love it anyway) such as...pouring maple syrup on someone? like wth? So, this is me poking fun at it while also trying to come up with a near reasonable explanation?

*Lastly, as a reminder, if you review ten times you get a drabble/short writing from me with a couple or set of characters of your choice! It's a way to encourage reviews, but also to reward those that do faithfully review every or near every time. Since we've reached the 10th chapter last one, we actually do have one person who is able to redeem; David12leca! So if you want a drabble, go to my profile, scroll down, and the info should be there! There's a couple of ya who are close, so just remember if you're enjoying this story at all, please leave a review! I love writing this story, but I'd love writing and posting it more if I knew there were those of you out there who wanted to read it. And, you can be a guest and review and get the Drabble, you just need to identify with yourself other than just 'guest', wether it be in the acutal review or changing the name above.