Dexter struggles against the bony hands digging into his forearms, dragging him across the floor. The gravel on the floor has now completely filled his shoes, and his pant legs are scuffed and torn. But his mind is on Raven and Cupid...

The gravel finally transitions to smooth tile, and the skeletons throw open a massive, imposing door behind his head. Before he can utter a word, the guards toss him inside. Dexter rubs his head in pain and lifts his head to spit back at them. But they aren't looking at him. They're looking directly behind him. Their mandibles move as if trying to form words, but all Dexter hears is the clicking of their teeth.

"Αυτό θα είναι όλο." A voice commands.

Dexter freezes, the doors swinging closed as the skeletons make their exit. The young prince slowly turns his head. Behind him, walking towards him in the vast, obsidian filled, elegant throne room, is a cloaked figure in a black toga. Dexter whirls around, nearly falling on his face as he tries in vain to crawl away. His palms are too sweaty to move him. It wouldn't have made much difference. The figure stops inches away from him, tilting its head to examine the young prince. Dexter's heart is pounding violently against his ribs.

The figure slowly kneels down.

Dexter adjusts his glasses. "You wouldn't hit a prince with glasses, would ya?"

The figure kneels, leaning in close to him. Dexter shuts his eyes and waits for the impact. A second goes by, and another. Nothing happens. He opens his eyes and finds a hand held out for him to take. Quizzically, he glances up at the cloaked figure. Not exactly what he expected for an Underworld greeting. He tentatively takes the hand and allows it to pull him to his feet, staggering a bit. The figure steps back.

"Forgive me for my current state," the figure says, his voice flat and a bit emotionless. He pulls his hood down, revealing a middle-aged looking man with slicked back black hair, pale grey skin, and a neatly groomed mustache. "I was in a meeting when I received word of a living mortal."

Dexter blinks, still utterly confused.

"Oh, my apologies again." The figure pulls a business card from the folds of his toga and hands it to the young prince. "I am Hades, King of the Underworld, Lord of the Dead, God of Wealth, so on and so forth."

"Uh...I'm Dexter Charming," Dexter stammers. "Prince Charming...I like...books?"

Hades jots on a notepad - one Dexter swears was not there before - and rips the paper off. "Dexter the Literate. I will have that sent to the visitors' office." The paper disintegrates into thin air. " - and your pass will be sent in momentarily."

Dexter shifts awkwardly, scratching the back of his neck. The two glance between each other, not saying a word. Dexter scrambles for words, but they stop just short of his molars. This is supposedly the big bad King of the Dead, and he looks and acts more like his uncle Fastidious. He slaps himself mentally, noting that the silence has now dragged on for a full five minutes. Say something, he urges. Say something!

He blows the air out of his cheeks. "I'm sorry. You're not really what I expected. You know, King of the Underworld?"

"Well," Hades starts. "I'll be honest, you're not really one would expect of a prince charming."

Dexter chuckles, his forehead dotted with sweat. "Yeah... I get that a lot."

A sharp crackling pops near his chest. A burst of sparks hovers in front of him as two tendrils of fire rise up and wrap around his neck. The fire vanishes as soon as it appears, and a card on a lanyard dangles from his neck. Dexter fingers it to examine it.

"You are now an official guest of the Underworld," Hades proclaims flatly. "If you do not wish to stay here for eternity, do not eat or drink anything. Also, do not provoke the Erinyes between 10 AM and 1PM. That's their feeding time." He promptly turns and begins back across the throne room.

"Hey, wait!" Dexter scrambles after him. "That's it? You just leave me here?"

"Well, this is an undead business, and you are living. By that logic, I hold no service to you."

"Okay, that's fairest," he reasons. "But, me and my friends came all the way down here and we could really use some help - "

"I'm sorry," he drones. "but unless it is a matter of death, I cannot speak with you."

"But it is!" Dexter blurts out. Hades stops in his tracks as Dexter clamps his hands over his mouth in embarrassment. The young prince breathes deeply, struggling to regain his composure. The King of the Underworld raises an eyebrow at him as if bidding him to speak. He lets out a breath. "Your Majesty, I understand you're busy. But we're looking for a soul who's been kept alive for over a hundred years. This could - "

"Wait a moment!" Hades exclaims - or, rather, interjects due to no change in his volume or range - and takes a step towards him. "A soul has been deliberately kept alive?"

Dexter nods. "And we're afraid it could happen again."

The king's eyes look to the ground as his brow furrows. He shakes his head grimly and begins mumbling rapid-fire. "Decrease in revenue equals greater risk for liabilities, which will decrease influx of souls by 0.0000315% exponentially per year, coupled with risk of this certain occurrence happening again, and this business will see decrease in profits!"

He whips his head up to face Dexter once more. "Dexter, was it? Please, right this way."

Cupid strains, gripping Raven's wrist so tightly her knuckles turn white. Her wings flap sporadically as they struggle to glide the two girls down safely. Raven's feet finally hits solid ground, and she releases her hold on Cupid. Cupid drops to the floor, gasping for air. Her wings glow and shrink back to their original size. Raven kneels down to Cupid's level, not liking how pale she looks right now.

"Are you okay?"

Cupid huffs a laugh. "That's three flights in one day...Not...not too shabby, huh?" Raven knits her eyebrows. "Don't worry about me...I just need to catch my breath..."

Raven sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose. How did she get herself into this? Her first thought is Dexter. Who knows what those skeletons are doing to him?! She knows he can hold his own, but he's not the warrior type. And people will start to notice them missing by now. No one would think to look in the Underworld. She hadn't thought this through at all.

A small hissing sound causes the hairs on her neck to stand up. She glances over her shoulder. Apart from the light above them, almost nothing can be seen except the rock ledge they had landed in front of. But the sound still faintly lingers, as if someone is whispering an "s" sound every so often. She lights a fire in her hand and steps towards the edge of the light. The whispers begin to grow louder.

"Um, Cupid? Which door did we fall through?"

Cupid forces herself to sit up and she looks around her in a daze. Her glassy eyes come to focus, and she goes stark white. "Oh no."

"Cupid?" Raven probes, ready to turn around and confront her. But something cold clutches her ankle. She peers down and nearly screams. A cold, pale grey, wrinkled hand digs its nails into her calf. She lets out a yelp of surprise and falls back, managing to kick off the hand in the process. Quickly crawling back towards Cupid, Raven stares into the darkness as the whispers turn to moaning. Several wraith-like figures begin to emerge, hands outstretched towards them.

"C-Cupid? What is this place?"

Cupid lifts her head to gaze into the darkness, and her face immediately drops. The wraiths creep fully into the light to reveal their hollow faces. Where eyes and mouths used to be, there are gaping holes that stretch and twist to try to form words. Raven jumps to her feet and drags Cupid with her, looking frantically around her as the souls close in. As they near, she can make out what they are saying:

"Please help me find my love..."

"I can't go on without her..."

"Please, Lady Cupid, bless us! Help us!"

"Cupid, what do we do?!" Raven shakes her. Cupid's gaze is fixed on these souls, her breath short and ragged and becoming hysterical. Seeing no other choice, Raven hauls her up by her shoulders and takes off into the darkness.

"Oh boy..."

Dexter can hardly watch the sight in front of him, at the poor nymph assigned at the old dial-up computer the size of a large pumpkin. As soon as she scrolls down, half the screen cuts off, leaving the remaining half needing ten minutes to load.

"Are you sure this is the quickest way to locate your files?" he questions.

Hades, now in a more modern business suit, nods. "Unless you would like to go through our card catalogue."

Dexter slaps his hand to his face.

"...Did you want to look through the card catalogu - ?"

"Nooooo!" Dexter moans.

The nymph gasps, and the computer shuts off.

"What now?!" Dexter groans.

"The system overloaded," she explains, fiddling with the large modem right beside it. "I'll have to start all over again."

"Oh, for Puck's sake - !" Dexter pulls his computer out of his bag. Just as the monitor switches back on, he slides into her chair and gently nudged her out. "I'm sorry, just let me do it."

He opens his laptop and plugs it into the modem.

"What are you doing?" Hades asks a bit coldly.

"I'm transferring the files to my archival program so I can look for it more efficiently." Dexter clicks open some windows, and drags a file towards a drop box. "It'll probably take up all my storage space, but I guess I can deal with that later."

With a right click and a tab selection, each file appears in on the screen in an instant. He drags the mouse up to the search bar, types in "Sapsorrow Alla Kinsov-Furr", and all other files except one disappears. Hades leans in inquisitively.

"Is that all it takes these days?"

Dexter nods, scratching the back of his neck nervously. "I've had to organize the library during detention a few times. But I didn't mean to overstep if it offended you!" He adds quickly, but Hades holds up his hand and leans in closer.

"What else can this program do?"

"Well..." Dexter clicks a tab and another window opens. "It can sort the entire catalog alphabetically, by date of birth, date of death, where their soul resides, and..." he chuckles. "by Mirrornet history." Hades raises an eyebrow, and Dexter awkwardly bites his lip. "That was...That was a joke."

Hades nods in acknowledgement and turns to the nymph. "Write that down and file it under "Jokes"."

The nymph promptly nods and hurries off. Clearly this god's sense of humor is under construction, Dexter thinks to himself. Hades leans over Dexter's shoulder once again and begins to inquire some more. Dexter blinks in surprise. No one had ever taken this much interest in tech except Humphrey. A slight flutter in his chest rises. He almost reaches up to grab his chest, unsure of this new feeling. He adjusts his glasses as a grin spreads across his face.

Raven ducks under a large rock, pulling Cupid further with her. She sets her friend down and peeks over the edge of the ledge she had jumped onto. Apart from a few lone specks in the distance, it seems the souls have lost their trail. She ducks back under the rock and crawls back towards Cupid who's still staring blankly. Raven yanks out her phone, thinking maybe they could call for help or even Dexter. She groans; no bars. She looks up at the cherub.

"Cupid, you had better tell me what's going on or we could be spending a lot more time here!" She keeps her phone on for light, holding it between them. But in the ghoulish blue light, she can see Cupid's face stained with tears. Raven sighs and puts her phone down, taking a seat beside Cupid.

"This is the Mourning Fields..." Cupid whispers.

Raven bites her lip, but she sighs sympathetically. She rests her hand on Cupid's shoulder as support.

"All these souls," Cupid continues. "They're here because they've wasted their lives on unrequited love, on mourning love that never happened." She looks at her toes. "Love I caused."

"Cupid..."

She wipes her face with the back of her hand, still avoiding Raven's gaze.

"Do you really think you're that bad?"

"Look around you!" Cupid throws her arms towards the gray fields. "This field was made because of me...and it's not like anyone can let me forget that."

"Cupid, this place doesn't define you. You've made more people happy that there are people down here. I'm sure of it."

She scoffs and hugs her shoulders. "I couldn't even make myself happy..."

Raven knits her eyebrows, worry changing to confusion. "What are you talking about?"

"Nothing!" Cupid blurts out. "Forget it."

Raven leans back into the rock and crosses her arms, staring at her with her lip turned down. Cupid can take all the time she wants, Raven decides. It's not like they're stuck in an endless field of tortured souls that want their hearts fixed. Cupid finally throws her head back and groans.

"He loved you...and you felt the same way. And even if I weren't supposed to be a love god, I wouldn't..." she cuts off, but the message is clear.

Raven's breath lodges in her throat. But would it be selfish of her not to say it had crossed her mind before? She had seen the two together on True Heart's Day, the look in Cupid's eyes. But after Dexter asked her out, she told herself that she had overthought everything. They must've just been friends, right? But clearly, that look in Cupid's eyes had been true.

"So, if you hadn't known that I liked Dexter back - "

"I still would have helped him!" Cupid cuts her off. "I like Dexter. But if he thinks he will be happy with you, I should support him, if not as a love god then as a friend. And, I realized, I shouldn't put all my energy into a boy who won't notice me that way."

"I'm sorry," Raven takes her hand.

But Cupid shakes her head. "Don't be. He's happy with you, and you're happy with him. And I'm still working on moving on."

Raven smiles gratefully. "I'm glad you told me that, Cupid." The cherub glances up at her with a small grin. "Now, we just gotta figure out a way to get out of here."

Cupid shuffles to her knees and begins to stretch. "I guess I stretch out the old wings for the fourth time today - "

"No, no, no! We're not doing that!" Raven quickly dismisses her, placing her hand on her shoulder. "I don't want you passing out mid-flight."

"Well, okay...what do you suggest?"

Raven shrugs and glances down at her hands. "I could try teleporting."

Cupid shakes her head. "Not possible in the Underworld. If it were, I would have suggested it from the start. What about levitating?"

"I can't really do more than a couple feet..."

Cupid glares.

"It takes a lot of concentration, okay?!"

A hand slaps onto the rock! The two girls yelp. The head of a shade peers up at them, its arms extended towards Cupid. Raven grabs Cupid's wrist and books it up the ledge. She can hear the whispers from below them rasping out for them. Cold fingers knick at their heels.

Cupid falls back and cries out. Raven slides back and blinks in horror. There isn't only one shade. There are hundreds! They stand on each other shoulders, some clinging to ankles, and others spilling onto the ledge. All of them reach for Cupid.

Raven yanks Cupid onto her feet and drags her along. "What do they want with you?!"

"This place is all about unrequited love!"

"So, what? They want you to fix them?"

Cupid huffs. "Pretty much! As long as their hearts are broken in their eternal afterlife, they'll never stop chasing me."

Raven skids to a halt. "Wait a spell!"

"What?"

"That's it!"

"Fix them?"

"No!" Raven runs back in the direction of the shades and whistles. "Hey, souls!" They all lurch to look at her. "You want Cupid? Come and get her!"

In one swift motion, she waves her hands at Cupid. Her violet aura surrounds her, and Cupid trembles as the magic lifts her off the ground. Raven gazes upward at the light in the sky. The exit! She whips Cupid directly under the light, and - just as she predicted - the shades follow. They pile higher and higher, spilling upwards with their arms outstretched and mouths gaping and moaning. Keeping one hand on the spell, Raven sprints for the edge of the cliff and jumps. She lands on a couple heads, but they don't seem to notice. She firmly keeps Cupid above her head as the tower of shades grows higher, and the light grows brighter.

Raven shields her eyes. Cupid yelps as the aura begins to fade. Raven holds both her hands up again and squints. They're almost there! They can make it! The shades begin to wobble beneath her feet. She glances down, and immediately wishes she hadn't! They have to be 10 stories high!

"Raven!"

Cupid lurches forward, the aura around her dissipating, and her upper half disappears onto a marble ledge. She grunts and hauls herself back up, and she turns back with her hand out.

"Raven! Come on!"

Raven's hand launches for hers, their fingertips barely brushing. She clenches her free hand, begging herself to reach higher! Use a spell! Do something! Her clenched hand twitches, her fingers sparking as a spell takes over her hand. She thinks she remembers... maybe she remembers... Her hands curl into shapes, letters...?

"F-L-O-A-T"

Raven jumps and grasps Cupid's hand -

And she floats above her.

Raven glances at her free hand in awe. She hadn't realized what she'd done at first, but it had been a spell from the book. A hand spell...a Sapsorrow spell.

Cupid finally yanks Raven onto the ledge. The young Queen slams her head into the door, the aura around her disappearing, and falls onto the floor with Cupid. The two girls glance at each other... and laugh. That had been close. Raven hands still shake from what she had done, and something bubbles up in her chest. She clutches her chest, not sure if this feeling is good or bad.

A spear tip clanks to the floor. She snaps her head up. Two armored skeletons in black garbs tower over them.

"Mortal, Clariclo Arganthone. You will be escorted to the Palace."

Hades taps on the edge of his desk, his lips pressed together. Among the piles of paperwork, notices, summons, and pictures of his wife, scrolls of heavily-worded complaints in red ink sprawl over the sides. All of it the doing of the teenagers across from him: a rebellious young witch Queen, a Prince Charming stronger in brains than in brawn, and his adopted great-great-niece.

"Escorting mortals into the Underworld without a permit, bribing the ferryman, breaking and entering the Hall of Fates, tampering with the threads of life..." Hades looks up from his desk at the three of them. "This should be reason to call your school."

"Uncle Hades, please don't get them in trouble!" Cupid begs. "It was my fault!"

Hades holds up his hand to stop her. "But, considering the circumstances, and assistance with our information technology by this young man here..." Dexter waves. "I'm willing to let you off with a warning. Be lucky I don't call your father, Clariclo Arganthone."

Cupid nods and stares at the ground. "Yes, Your Majesty."

"And, as for you two." He turns to address Dexter and Raven. "If the allegations of sealing life away to keep living are true, I pray to Gaia that you have sort of plan." Raven and Dexter glance between each other nervously. Raven shrugs and teeters her hand back and forth. Hades closes his eyes and lets out a slight exhale, something the two of them think is a sigh. "I know how mortals are when they have a taste of immortality. Either they crave more and more until they lose it, or they want nothing more than to be rid of it. This entity you've released, you must proceed with caution. They will not be stable."

Raven gulps.

"As for the imbecile who decided it would be a good idea to contain people like that," he continues. "There might be a place in Tartarus for him if he continues with that behavior." He stares at them. The room falls silent, the atmosphere a bit heavy, until it's broken by Cupid's snicker. Both her companions glance at her incredulously, but Hades cracks a smile and hastily writes something on a notepad. "Joke: successful. I will have that marked accordingly."

"Thank you, Your Majesty," Raven bows, breaking the tension. "Do you think we could have a ride out of here, if it's not too much to ask?"

Hades nods and jots something down on his notepad. He rips off the paper and watches it disintegrate. "The ferryman will be waiting outside to escort you back to the surface. Please, for your own safety, do not come back here during the summer."

Raven bows again and turns to Cupid. The three turn to go.

"Except for Dexter!" Hades adds. "You may come back whenever you like."

Dexter grins. Cupid nods, guides her and Dexter over to the door, and leads them out. Hades dips his head down to resume his work...

"Wait, Your Majesty?" Dexter calls, peeking back in. "I'd like to ask another favor."

Back in Gile's room, Dexter assembles his laptop to the projector set up in front of them. Raven had asked Cupid if she wanted to watch, but she had said she's had enough of fates and destiny for one night. When they had returned, Apple had jumped up from the book she was reading and flung her arms around Raven. Raven could feel a bit of a squeeze from her grip.

Dexter inserts the drive into his computer, a series of black-colored files popping up on his screen. Raven raises an eyebrow at him.

He chuckles and shrugs. "I thought, you know, maybe I'd get ahead?"

"Dexter," she presses.

"Right, right, right," he acknowledges her, reading the room. He clicks through the series of files, setting some aside to clear the screen, and drags out one titled "SAKF18-19-ATU-510B". He snatches the cord to the projector, jams it into his laptop, and watches as the sheet in front of them lights up with the same image as the screen. He turns to her. "Ready?"

She wrings her hands, starting to tremble a bit. Is she ready? She has no idea what she's about to see, if it'll mean anything or if she's actually fighting for an ancient evil. Will it make her feel any better if she knows? She takes a deep breath, and nods.

Dexter clicks on the file. The screen cuts to black, a single white arrow in the center. Dexter clicks on the arrow, and a time bar appears at the bottom. He takes the ball icon that inches across the bar and drags it slowly across the screen. Pictures of people flash across the screen, so fast that Raven can barely comprehend their faces. She squints, Apple taking a few steps closer. Giles adjusts his glasses. The images whiz and flash in multiple colors until finally it goes black.

"Go back!" Raven orders.

Dexter drags the ball back a few bits, settling on a picture of Sapsorrow at a podium. Mirrors hover over her, and she's wearing the same dress Raven had seen on her Legacy Day.

"Here!"

Dexter presses play, and he lets it go:

Sapsorrow stared at the key hovering in front of her face. Her eyes were as hard and cold as stone, as if she were staring at her worst enemy. Her line of sight dropped to the book, the Storybook of Legends. A sneer formed on her lips and her brow furrowed, a volatile mixture of fear and fury. Just over her shoulder, she looked. A stern man with dark brown hair and a tiny mustache stared expectantly, urging her, pushing her. She turned and gingerly took the key between two trembling fingers, set it into the keyhole, and twisted it slowly. The head of a donkey appeared from the mist on the Storybook's mirror, and the book furiously flipped open and began to display a series of images:

A king and his daughter in front of a queen's tomb.

The same king on one knee, presenting a wedding ring... to his daughter.

A team of seamsters and seamstresses hard at work sewing three amazing gowns, while the princess sews a creation of her own.

Sapsorrow clutched her stomach, her jaw tightening.

The princess in an old, matted, furry, gray cloak, the dresses tucked underneath, running from the castle in the background.

The princess, now only wearing the cloak, hard at work in a scullery.

A prince at the scullery door, peeking in. The princess in her gold dress admiring herself in a mirror.

The same prince sick in bed. The princess appearing in the cloak, bringing a cake. The prince eating the cake, revealing a ring.

Several hands appearing to try on the ring. Some hands with misshapen or missing fingers.

The prince putting the ring on the princess in the cloak. The princess removing her cloak and revealing herself.

Her fists clenched the fabric over her abdomen as if trying to hold back a searing pain. A mirror materialized in front of her, making her jump back in fright. Her eyes finally went wide with horror at the last image:

The princess marrying the prince.

She gripped her carefully groomed hair. Tears streamed down her face. Her head shook erratically until she finally snatched the page and tore it straight out of the book. The crowd below her froze in stunned silence, then suddenly erupted in jeers and scorn. Sapsorrow backed up, still clinging to the torn page. The screams of hatred rang through her head. Grimm yelled out and charged towards her. She brought the page to her face and heard it crinkle in her fist. Her fist...glowing a sickly green. The stony gray of her eyes burned with the same green, and she brought them back up to the crowd. She stretched out her free hand towards the people in front of her.

Suddenly, the book slammed shut. She gasped, finally noticing Grimm stomping towards her. She cried out, whipping up her hand in defense. The shadow beneath her responded and shot up in front of him. She froze, her eyes and mouth opened wide. Grimm swiped the shadow away and advanced once more. With this, she spun around and leapt from the stage, swirling her cloak around her before soaring off as an osprey.

Something jolted her back. Grimm, holding a spellbook in one hand and a spell in the other, dragged her by her ankle back towards the stage. Sapsorrow tried furiously to flap her wings, feathers flying out with the effort. She inched closer and closer to Grimm's hand, her thin ankle coming into his grasp. Suddenly, with a painful crack, her wings folded backward. She continued to fold. The shrill screeches of a bird slowly morphed into the painful cries on a girl until finally, only her cloak remained. In Grimm's hand was a leather bound book.

The screen cuts to black, leaving Dexter, Apple, and Raven speechless. Giles hangs his head in shame and switches the projector off.

"Good Grimm..." Dexter finally exclaims.

"The Tale of All-Kinds-of-Fur," Giles says grimly. "Even I had thought that...that story was too much. But Milton was adamant."

Raven shakes her head, both in astonishment and disgust. "...She was just a kid!"

"She was a danger to our world."

Raven gasps and whirls around just as Headmaster Grimm removes the drive from Dexter's computer.

"Hey!" Dexter shouts.

Headmaster Grimm drags Sapsorrow's file to the Trash icon and swiftly empties it. "She was unstable. She somehow gained possession of dark magic and unleashed her frustrations on the school."

"Could you blame her?!" Raven shrieks. "You were the one who insisted on her carrying out that life. You were willing to let her father try to marry her!"

He chuckles. "Obviously, it wouldn't have come to that."

"There were other options you could have taken," Apple argues, coming to Raven's side. "You could have talked her down. You could have tried to have given her support instead of letting her suffer inside a book. You could have prevented - "

"This was the only way to keep our world in order!" Grimm grips the flash drive in his hand. "We all have our parts to play, whether we like them or not." With that, he turns to the fireplace behind him and tosses the drive inside. Raven cries out, arms out as if trying to catch it.

"Milton! This has gone far enough - !" Giles barks.

"Not another word!" Headmaster Grimm growls at him. "We will speak later. Miss White and Mister Charming," he points to them. "I suggest you two return to your rooms. And as for you, Raven Queen, for leaving school grounds after dark, taking an unauthorized trip to the Underworld, and meddling in the affairs of the Fates, you are hexpelled from this school!"

Hi, it's B-Skell (dumb name, but that's what I'm going with right now!) I just wanna let you know I am very bad with updates, and this chapter was insanely hard to write. I want those who are enjoying this story to please please PLEASE be patient with me and know that I'm still thinking of you all.

Thank you.