Chapter Text
Melody Piper woke up. That wasn’t in any way odd… obviously, but it just felt like something was off. Like when she, Ginger, Cupid, Briar, and Justine all had a sleepover and she fell asleep outside of her bed, somehow all the way in Briar’s. She squinted her eyes open and groaned. The light blinding her, she closed them again, waiting for her eyes to get used to the light. Once they did she looked around she sighed. Yup, definitely not her dorm room. The walls were brown and made of what looked like (from a distance) to be made of wood. The overall vibe was very retro-medieval lookin’, she glanced to the table where the only object was an old fashioned flute, one that kinda looked like her family's generational Piper flute. Dread pooled in her stomach, but she ignored it. The rest of the room was pretty bland so she paid more attention to what she was wearing and sitting on.
She had slept on a bale of hay that had a drabby white sheet thrown on top of it. What she was wearing on the other hand, was anything but drabby. Melody was decked out in a multi-colored tunic that was half yellow and half red. It was pretty long, almost a dress, Melody noted. The tunic had, like, puffy bishop sleeves and she also had some loose fitting brown sewed up pants. Melody also had a hat on, and when she pulled it off to look at it it was red (“ that’s hunting colors Mells. ” She could hear her Dad say) with a black feather with a white stripe. Shivering, she stood up and walked over to the table. What she didn’t see before was another part of her (presumed) outfit attached to the flute. It was a scarf with red and yellow stripes, attached to The Flute. She felt something crawl up her throat unpleasantly.
Melody couldn't deny it now. Her destiny had come.
As the next, murderer Pied Piper of Hamelin.
The next Rattenfänger.
~~~~
Back at Ever After, the rest of the students were packing up from their last class of the week. Some of them had already started longing about amongst the school’s many ponds, tables, and chairs. Many were celebrating the end of the semester and chatting with their groups of friends, flocking to one another. One group in particular stood out. They were Sparrow Hood, Tucker Friarson, Duchess Swan, and the rest of the Merry Men. They had gathered in the treehouse and were arguing about proper party decorations, though not all of them actually knew who the party was for .
“Look, dude, I know you think that the food would be best ova by the bathrooms, but that’s just plain gross! Who would wanna eat our sick food while ‘earin’ someone puke behind ‘em?” Tucker yelled over Sparrow’s rift.
“I don’t care! Let ‘em smell the groOoss air! Yea yea!” Sparrow half said, half sung.
“Sparrow! HONK! You're the one who organized this party! Put some work into it!” Duchess yelled, annoyed as always.
“UGH! Fine ‘Chess! I guess then the food should go by the window, uh, and the speakers by the… door?” Sparrow clearly wasn’t up for the task so Duchess sighed internally and rolled her eyes, opening up her MirrorPhone and texted a number.
Briar. Party emergency.:#1DancerEverAfter
Sparrow and Merry Men are… trying in their treehouse:#1DancerEverAfter
PartyOrNuthin: duchess?
PartyOrNuthin: like ok but imma bring back up k
Sighing and closing her MirrorPhone she looked back up at the boys, who were now arguing about balloons. Rolling her eyes again she wondered internally why she even agreed to this. Well, she knew why, Sparrow came to her all sad and begged her to help. Even if she saw herself as a bad person she… she hoped she was a good friend. Which of course meant she did this.
“SHUT UP!” She honked, “The ONLY reason I’m here right now is because apparently you morons need a babysitter to make sure you cooperate! So do that!” Duchess huffed and crossed her eyes, unimpressed. The Merry Men mumbled apologies and looked very upset at themselves, which likely wouldn’t actually make the job any easier.
Luckily Tucker cleared his throat. As the son of Friar Tuck he was unsurprisingly very quiet and was generally on the neutral side of things. Duchess could count on him to clear up fights between the Merry Men… or even more commonly her and Sparrow.
“Duchess is right. We need to make this the most spelltastic party that she has ever seen, and let’s face it, she’s seen a lot of parties! Like bros we gotta make this fairy hexellent party for one of the honorary Merry Men right?!” Tucker yelled that last part, “SO LETS, GET! TO! WORK!” The surrounding Merry Men cheered and Duchess felt a sense of pride in her chest. Look at these idiots, she had been with them since Spellementary School and they’ve gone from unable to do anything to maybe doing something!
Smiling slightly, she didn’t feel her MirrorPhone buzz. Only later did she see that Professeur Grimm had sent out a school-wide notice. The Storybook of Legends had sucked some people into it. And all of them? Hardcore Rebels.
~~~~
Ever After was in an explosion of talk and gossip. Suddenly, people were finding out that their friends actually were Rebels. Though, many of the students noted that whatever happened with the storybook only affected people who were true believers and firmly on the side of the Rebels. For example, Sparrow was still at Ever After, despite technically being a Rebel. Blondie Locks had sent out a form on the MirrorNet to report any missing students… or teachers.
“Someone’s definitely going to lose their job for this…” Alistar Wonderland muttered.
“Hm?” Behind him his girlfriend Bunny Blanc popped up on his shoulder, reading his MirrorPad.
“Hey Bunny, I was just opening up the thing Blondie sent about the missing people to put Maddie and Kitty on there and… some of the teachers got caught in it too.” Alistar turned to Bunny who looked shocked.
“That's horrible! I mean, I don’t agree with the Rebels but still, being forced to live out a life you don’t want then having to teach under Grimm?” Bunny was almost crying at this point.
Alistar took her hands in his and pecked her on the cheek. “Don’t worry Bunny. This can be fixed, after all what’s any mystery and riddle against me?” He made a confident expression and stance, much like what Daring Charming did to impress girls regularly.
Bunny wiped her tears. “Your right Alistar! We’ll figure this out!” She said, much happier this time.
They were inches apart from each other when they heard a loud knock on the door. It opened and they saw Lizzie Hearts standing there, looking dreadfully upset. She burst in, not noticing Bunny and Alistar’s positions and launched herself onto a couch nearby and started sobbing loudly. Her friends hurried over and started counseling her.
“Lizzie what's wrong? Is this because of the Rebels?” Alistar asked, he knew that some of the more royal Royals might have stronger feelings about the teachers or the sheer amount of the school being Rebels but he hexpected that from Apple White or maybe one of the Charming boys. Surprisingly Lizzie shook her head. Taking her head out of her hands she continued sobbing, just not before both Bunny and Alistar wince at the state of her makeup.
“Both Maddie and Kitty are Rebels and they’re both gone!” Lizzie said through tears before continuing to cry more than Alistar’s mom ever did.
Bunny and Alistar looked at each other. There were four people who made it through to Ever After from Wonderland. The Mad Hatter, Lizzie, Madeline Hatter, and Kitty Cheshire. Those three stayed closely bonded as they were the only ones who could ever truly understand where they came from and why they do certain things. That didn’t mean they all didn’t have other friends but they all shared a close bond, and went to each other in times of crisis. Bunny and Alistar would be in that group, but they’re still new to Ever After and haven’t been through the same traumatizing experience of having your home ripped away that they had.
And now, the only person that was still here was Lizzie.