"Woah, so this is mainstreet!", Grim said, flying out of Cassandra's arms and zipping around the statues.
"Yep, and these statues are the Great Seven. Here, they are major historical figures, but back home in my world, they're all characters in very famous stories. More accurately, they're the villains."
Grim blinked, "Your world? Villains? What's that mean?"
Cassandra frowned slightly, "I'm not from here, Grim. The others and I come from a place called earth. Earth is a lot like here, only our magic is hidden.", she said solemnly.
Grim blinked, "Huh? Why would you hide your magic? If you let everyone know you have it, it should help you gain respect!", Grim said indignantly.
The redhead sighed, "Here, yes, but back home people fear what they don't understand. Hundreds of years ago the people of my world held 'witch trials' that resulted in the deaths of countless innocent women and men via hangings and burnings because they were different. Most of them didn't even do magic, they just didn't fit into what people at the time considered 'respectable'. Imagine what would happen if people found out that magic is real in today's world. Some would take it well, but others would try to exploit and hurt us. That's why we hide, Grim. Because for the longest time it was the only way we could survive. We could come out now, but I don't think any of us want to deal with the consequences of that change.", she said with a sad look on her face, as Grim looked on concerned.
Ever since she could remember, the supernatural had been hunted in her world, which led to supernatural creatures lashing out and adding to their bad reputations. Her family was a prime example of this. Cassandra knew that if it came down to the humans vs. the supernatural, the supernatural would win, but that didn't mean she wanted that sort of conflict to happen in the first place.
Cassandra sighed, "Not to mention, I'm not exactly human, Grim."
Grim blinked, "What do you mean by that?"
Cassandra explained her tribrid status, as well as her Court's vampire status, which Grim reacted to surprisingly well.
"So, you're a part of the undead, can do magic, AND you're a werewolf? That's so cool! Can you turn into a bat?", asked.
Cassandra laughed, his innocent question bringing her out of her melancholy state, "Yes, but not because I'm a vampire. I'll show you later. Right now, I do believe I promised you a lesson on the Great Seven."
Cassandra walked Grim over to the statue of the Queen of Hearts, holding him in her arms once more.
"So, these statues are the Great Seven? They look really scary."
Cassandra nodded, "They could be scary when they wanted to, but some aren't as bad as they want people to think, key word: some. In fact, in those cases you might even consider these people the heroes."
Grim pointed to the Queen of Hearts statue, "This granny looks especially snobby, who is she?", he asked.
"You don't know the Queen of Hearts?", an unknown voice asked.
The master-familiar pair turned and faced a red haired, red eyed boy with a red heart painted on the side of his face.
Cassandra shook her head, "I do, but he doesn't. It's why we're here. I'm teaching my familiar about the Great Seven."
Grim blinked, "Queen of Hearts? Who is she?", he asked, looking at the mysterious boy.
The boy grinned, "She was someone who valued rules and discipline above all, strict in all things from the march of the card soldiers to the color of the rose bushes. It was a land of madness where all submitted to her rule. Why, you ask? Because or else it was off with your head!"
Cassandra frowned at his description, holding Grim tighter as he trembled in her arms.
"That's terrifying!", the cat-like creature yelled out.
The still unnamed boy smiled, "It's cool! I like it. No one would listen to a queen who's just nice all the time, right?"
Grim's expression eased up a bit, "I suppose a strong leader is better.", he said with a sheepish grin.
Cassandra shook her head, "I regret to inform you that you are incorrect, Mr... I apologize, but I never did catch your name."
The boy blinked, "It's Ace Trappola. And how am I wrong? You can't be a good leader if nobody respects you!", he exclaimed indignantly.
She nodded, "That is correct, Mr. Trappola. However, the Queen of Hearts ruled with fear and terror. If one should rule a kingdom like that, the people will soon grow weary of their treatment and topple their oppressors like a house of cards, turning the tables and resulting in her majesty's own head being lost in a poetically ironic fashion. One should, instead, rule with a strong will and benevolence. It is important that said benevolence is not mistaken for weakness, that is correct, but it is also important to rule with the people's respect and admiration, not fear.", the woman said in a firm voice.
The boy, now known as Ace, looked at the red haired woman beside him in awe. A slight blush appeared on his face as he began to stutter.
"Yeah, uh, I-I guess you're right.", he said, his mind only half there as he realized just how beautiful the woman beside him was. And he had just made a complete fool of himself. Great. How exactly was he gonna crawl out of the hole he had dug himself into? He snapped out of his daze, smirking. He had an idea.
"Say, why don't I help you teach your familiar about the Great Seven? It might be easier with a second opinion.", he said with crossed arms.
Cassandra raised an eyebrow, just what was this boy trying to do?, "I suppose... we can use you as the 'incorrect' side of history.", she said with a smirk.
Ace frowned, "We'll see about that.", they then walked over to the statue of Scar.
Cassandra gasped to herself as she realized she had forgotten her manners, "Oh, by the way, my name is Cassandra Mikaelson.", she said with a small, apologetic smile on her face.
Grim followed her example, "And I'm Grim, the genius apprentice to Cassandra Mikaelson who will become the world's most powerful familiar!"
Cassandra blinked down at her familiar, "I thought you wanted to be the greatest mage, Grim?"
Grim shook his head, "I did, but now that I'm your familiar I want to become the best one there is, so that everyone knows we're the two most badass people out there!", he said with determination.
Cassandra blinked, not really knowing how to react to that statement, "Well, I will do everything in my power to help you achieve your goal.", she said in a voice she hoped sounded equally determined.
With that declaration out of the way, Ace cleared his throat, "Are we doing this or not? We've got classes in less than half an hour.", he said annoyed.
Cassandra raised an eyebrow, "No one asked you to be here. You can leave, I won't hold it against you."
Ace completely ignored her statement, and the red haired woman continued on.
Cassandra sighed, "Okay then. Grim, what do you think about this statue here?"
Grim looked at it for about half a minute, "He looks really intimidating. Then again, all of these guys do."
Cassandra nodded.
"They do, don't they? This lion was the king of the pridelands, a land made up entirely of savannah. His people called him Scar, but his real name was Taka. He was the second born son of the king of the pridelands before him. He led an elite guard of lions whose sole job was to protect the crown and the people of the pridelands, the lion guard. He had the power to roar with the might of all his ancestors, and destroy any who opposed him with it. But he was not content. He felt his brother, Mufasa, was unfit to rule. He encouraged a pointless blood feud with the hyena's of the lands beyond his, the aptly named outlands, and did not properly honor his warriors when they sacrificed life and limb for him. When Taka had his own eye nearly put out by a dissenting lion from a far off land, he realized his brother was unfit to rule when he only laughed at his pain and started calling him Scar without so much as a thank you. He led a coup with the help of lions who supported him, but it failed when his roar was taken by the ancestors for attacking the king. Years later, disgraced and outcast, he tried again, and succeeded with the help of the hyena's. His nephew was the only one who could possibly oppose him, so he ordered him to be killed as well. But the hyenas unintentionally let him live, and he eventually grew into a mighty warrior who overthrew his uncle, whose regime had led to the near destruction of the pridelands from overhunting. In the end, the king was left for dead, and the very hyenas who helped him to power ate him alive, his screams echoing in the inferno his and his nephew had created at the base of Pride Rock"
Grim stared at her, both enamored and horrified and Ace looked the same, but he also looked a bit confused before started yelling at her, enraged.
"That's not what happened! He was a benevolent ruler who ended discrimination in his land! He-"
"- Let his ego and ambition get the better of him at the expense of his people and those around him. Yes, he started out with mostly pure intentions and gave more rights to the hyenas, but he was consumed by bitterness and greed and they abused the freedoms he allowed them on the grounds of 'they hurt us, so we'll hurt them'. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Let this be a cautionary tale, Grim. Humility and the ability to think ahead are skills you will always need in this life."
Grim nodded solemnly, heeding her every word as Ace sputtered.
"You-but I... hey wait a second, none of that story you just told me is in any of the history books! You made it all up!", he accused, pointing at the dragon eyed girl dramatically.
Cassandra gave him a deadpanned look.
"I'm from a different world, one that seems to have a slight link to this one. Your 'Great Seven' leaked through to us in the form of stories, music, cartoons and movies. That was all the information given on your King of Beasts from The Lion King, a movie where he was the villain and a spinoff cartoon series called The Lion Guard, based on the exploits of his great nephew and his Lion Guard. In fact, all of the Great Seven are the villains in their movies. The Queen of Hearts is the tyrannical ruler from the story of Alice in Wonderland, a tale of a young girl lost in a land of madness. The Queen tries to decapitate Alice for the crime of telling her she was being petty over a game of croquet. Alice was an eight year old child. I'm just telling you both what I know, because your history books were so vague about the Seven's exploits that I assume most of the knowledge pertaining to them is lost, correct?"
Ace's mouth was opening and closing in a way similar to a suffocating fish, which seemed to amuse Grim, who quietly snickered at his schoolmate's priceless expression. Cassandra sighed.
"I'm just telling the stories I grew up knowing to help fill in the blanks. Don't blame me if the image of your hero's is tarnished by what others have written. I'm merely relaying the information to you."
Turning away from the redhead who was shocked by her blunt statement, the tribrid headed over to the statue of Ursula.
"This is Ursula, the Sea Witch. She was a powerful sorceress and a dealmaker, someone who uses magic to form give and take agreements with others. She onced worked in the palace of the king of Atlantica, King Triton himself. But she banished her for 'practicing dark magic', which probably meant he thought she was getting too powerful for a woman. Remember Grim, when people try to look down on you because of your gender, we call that sexism and the person doing it a sexist, but the general term for them is asshole."
Grim blinked, confused by the explanation of the term.
"What am I supposed to do if I meet a sexist?"
Cassandra looked him in the eye with a serious expression on her face.
"Set them on fire and curb stomp them until you beat the asshole out of them."
That caused Ace to choke and Grim to nod with a devious grin, giddy at being given full permission to set someone on fire.
"Back to what I was saying. After she was banished, Ursula took up residence in a cave and started making deals with unfortunate merfolk. She would give them whatever they asked, but it always came at a high price that they could never pay. When they couldn't pay, she took their souls as payment. One day, one of King Triton's daughters, Ariel, came to her to ask for human legs. She had fallen in love with a prince on land, and wanted to be with him. She agreed, but took the princess's voice as payment, and required that she must kiss the prince in three days or else she would lose her legs and her soul. In some versions of the tale, everytime the princess took a step, it felt as if she were stepping on glass."
Ace and Grim both winced at that.
"Three days passed, but the princess couldn't get the prince to kiss her. Partially due to interference on Ursula's part. When Ursula came to collect Ariel's soul, her father offered his in exchange. Ursula accepted and took his scepter and crown, the sources of his power. She had gained control over the entirety of the sea."
Cassandra turned to look at Ace and looked down at Grim. they both looked completely enraptured.
"She grew greatly in size, and just as she went to smite all that stood in her way, she was struck down after the prince stabbed her with the bow of his ship. She sank into the sea, the water stained red with her blood."
Ace and Grim both looked like they were both going to be sick when they heard this.
"Can you not get into the bloody details?! You don't need to dramatize everything!"
She looked at the green looking first year with a slight frown and a raised eyebrow.
"I'm just telling you what happened. I'm not embellishing things. This is me being nondescript, and telling you what The Seven did to get where they were and how it came back to bite them in the ass, in my world's versions at least. I get they are these great historical paragons to you, but people say 'don't meet your heroes' for a reason. If you don't like it, then leave."
Ace only stood there, a look of shock, horror and anger on his face before he huffed and looked away from the master and her familiar. She assumed that was no.
With that, she brought Grim over to the statue of Jafar, Ace following close behind.
"This man is Jafar, royal vizier to the sultan of Agrabah and the renowned Sorcerer of the Sands. He believed he was destined to rule the land, and depose the sultan. He almost managed to do it, but a young thief who found a genie's lamp and used it to make himself a prince so the princess of the land could marry him due to the laws of the time thwarted him. He tricked Jafar into wishing to be a genie, but the thing about being a genie is that, while you have phenomenal cosmic power, you're stuck in a lamp until you get a master and even then you can only use your powers on behalf of that master. Long story short, he was sucked into the lamp and chucked into the Cave of Wonders by the other genie, a magic cave filled with untold riches that touching could cost you your life. A while later he tried to make a comeback, only to be thwarted and destroyed permanently along with his lamp, or so that version of the story goes."
Grim and Ace blinked and tilted their heads, "That version?", they both asked in sync. The two turned to look at each other with disgruntled expressions.
Cassandra smiled and nodded, silently finding Grim's and, to her surprise, Ace's expressions adorable.
"There is another, more modern telling. At least, in my world it is. It goes nearly the same as your original version of the tale, except Jafar doesn't become sultan. He becomes a genie, and the princess becomes sultan. After this, he retreats back into the lamp and is stowed away in the Cave of Wonders by his own free will. It's said, that is where he currently resides, waiting for his Diamond in the Rough to find him and become his master."
The boys looked at her with curious expressions.
"Well, which one is the 'real' version as you say?", Ace asked, arms crossed and eyebrow raised.
The fanged girl shrugged.
"I'm not sure. I've deduced that neither of our versions could be completely correct. The Queen of Hearts was most likely a tyrant, but the King of Beasts could have actually been the ruler you say he was. My guess is that both worlds have different pieces of the puzzle, and with a bit of research we might be able to put together who they really were someday. Until then, I'm personally going to assume that my world's tellings are correct, since we seem to have more total, correct information. I have a feeling that not all The Great Seven were evil, like Jafar here or even Ursula and Scar. I just currently don't have any evidence to the contrary, and the best history lessons are those taught without bias."
Ace looked at Cassandra in awe. At first, he just thought she was a stubborn, delusional jerk, unable to accept outside opinions on the subject of the school's founders (granted, he wasn't acting too differently, but that's besides the point). Instead, she had revealed herself to be open minded and non-judgemental, someone who was just trying to tell a true, uninfluenced tale of history to her familiar.
Ace wasn't someone who respected people easily. In fact, he was a bit of a disrespectful jackass when he wanted to be (at that moment, in various places within the Rose Kingdom, various people who had come to know the red haired male throughout his life suddenly felt enraged. As if the biggest understatement of the century had been made, failing to do the subject of said understatement justice. The feeling would not disappear for hours, and even then most still felt very annoyed, and would go on never quite figuring out what caused the feeling in the first place).
But this girl... no, this woman, this Cassandra, She commanded respect. When he had originally started talking with her, he had just come over to annoy her and maybe get a rise out of her familiar. But as she started talking, he realized he could bring himself to directly insult her. The racoon thing, yeah, but her? It was like his throat seized up at the thought. He could disagree with her, even argue with her, but whenever he thought about laughing at her for her stunt at the entrance ceremony, he felt like he was about to commit a murder. As if disrespecting her was on par with the desecration of some holy location. It was freaky, but it didn't feel like a spell, something he knew from experience (his math teacher back in middle school was a low rank magic user whose unique magic happened to be the ability to ban the use of certain words and sentences in enclosed spaces. That was a real pain in the ass, given all the arguments he had gotten into in that particular class).
In short, he felt compelled to be nice to someone for the first time in his life and he was terrified.
Sure, it helped that she was super hot (and probably out of his league), and that she seemed nice when unprovoked, and surprisingly easy to have a conversation with...
Oh dear Seven, this was Vanessa all over again. He was going to fall in love like an idiot, and get his heart ripped out of his chest and stomped into the dirt.
He needed to leave, now. Save himself the frustration and self-worth issues.
Just as he was about to do this, a clawed hand waved in front of his face.
"... Ace, Ace Trappola. Earth to Mr. Trampola!"
That snapped him out of his internal spiraling. The newly dubbed Ace Trampola blinked and narrowed his eyes at his latest nickname.
"What did you just call me?!", he yelled out
Cassandra smirked and Grim snickered.
"Trampola. Didn't you hear me?"
Ace scowled.
"Yeah, I heard you, but why Trampola?!"
Cassandra just broke out into a sly grin, her sharp canines completely on display.
"Because you act like such a tramp, I found it fitting."
This caused Grim to break out into a full on cackle and Cassandra to start snickering. Ace was about to start going off at her when he realized what was happening.
She was joking around with him. She didn't hate his guts like he thought. She wasn't laughing at him, but trying to laugh with him. No girl had ever done that with him. Hell, he couldn't recall the last time his own brother did that with him. It felt nice to just joke around with someone about something that didn't come at another's expense... or his own for that matter.
He soon started laughing as well, which only spurred on Cassandra and Grim. Five minutes later and all three of them were still laughing with tears in their eyes, garnering strange looks from the few students still commuting to class. The joke wasn't even that funny, but all three of them had a secondary reason for their laughter.
For Ace it was because he felt like he could let his guard down for once, for Cassandra it was because it was the first time she had really had a good laugh since she had gotten here, her anxieties about the future preventing her from doing so. As for Grim, it was just because he thought Ace's face looked hilariously stupid as he lost it over a mildly clever pun.
A few more minutes had passed, and the three had finally started to calm down. Cassandra clutched onto Ace's arm as she bent over to catch her breath, and Grim had taken up residence on her head to catch his breath. With one last bout of giggles from the three, Cassandra looked down at her and Ace's joined limbs and almost at the exact same time, both of them realized they were touching. Ace's face turned the color of his hair and Cassandra's cheeks became lightly dusted with red.
To dissolve the situation, the girl removed her hand, though she wouldn't have minded it remaining there a bit longer.
With that out of the way, Cassandra opened her mouth to speak, her arms crossed and her grin reaching ear to ear.
"Wanna listen to what I have to say about the last three, Mr. Second opinion?", she asked cheekly.
Ace grinned, his body's position mirroring her's, playing into this new bit of her's, the air surrounding them having been relieved of all tension. An outsider looking in could think they had known each other their whole lives from the way they exchanged glances.
"Only if you lay off the in-depth analysis. We've gotta be in class in less than ten minutes, so you might wanna wrap this up."
Cassandra jolted, realizing he was right as she checked the time on her new Twisted Wonderland smartphone.
"Shit, you're right.", she said as she put her phone back in her school bag, her expression going from that of realization back to one of mischief.
"I can get this done in under ten minutes. These three are pretty clean cut, but do try not to cost us precious time and interrupt, kay Trampola?"
Ace huffed and turned away at hearing his apparent new nickname, hiding the blush and grin threatening to appear on his face. Cassandra laughed and took that as a yes.
The trio made their way over to the statue of Queen Grimhilde, her snobbish unliving eyes seeming to judge them.
"This is Queen Grimhilde, the Beautiful Queen. Or as she is widely known in my world, the Evil Queen. There is a reason for this so let me explain. She poisoned her fourteen year old step daughter because her mirror said she was prettier than her."
Ace and Grim turned to look at her and blinked.
"That... are you serious?", said Ace.
Cassandra nodded somberly.
"Yep, this lines up pretty well with your world's information so I probably don't need to go in depth. To make her long and pointless story short, she married the king of a large land, one I believe to be the Land of Proxyen, who died shortly after their marriage, became the step mother to his daughter, who was according to her magic mirror prettier than her, tried to have her killed by her huntsman, who did not due to moral reasons, and poisoned her herself by transforming into an old hag to give her a poison apple. This did not go over well with the dwarves the princess was living with, who all chased after her and eventually chased her off a cliff, where she fell to her death and was eaten by vultures. Oh, and she was abusive to the princess before all of this, so..."
Ace and Grim's faces contorted in disgust and horror at this knowledge. The first few had done some messed up stuff, but this was somehow worse.
"All that for such a petty reason?! THAT'S. MESSED. UP!", exclaimed Grim, yelling out the last three words of his sentence in louder tones than the others.
Ace looked at the statue with a thousand yard stare for a few seconds, before he said in the most empathetic tone he had spoken in so far;
"I really feel sorry for the Pomefiore students. If scholars ever find proof of your story, they will never live this down. Same for my dorm, now that I think about it.", He said, referring to the Queen of Hearts apparent attempt at child murder.
After another moment of lamenting silence, the three moved on to the statue of the yet-to-be-named dorm's patron. Cassandra was conflicted on how to tell his story, since Grim was probably going to ask a lot of compromising questions about him, and while given the fact she was growing increasingly fond of Ace, she wasn't certain of his ability to keep a secret. She didn't want everyone in the school knowing about their new 'mysterious benefactor'.
Sighing, she decided to just let the chips fall where they may. If the worst comes to pass, she can just compel Ace to forget that part of their conversation (though she would like to avoid mind fucking the cute red head who was starting to make her feel a bit like her mates did).
"This Hades, Lord of the Dead, King of the Underworld, and the God of Wealth. He was, for all intents and purposes, not that bad. He did his job, which no one else wanted, really well. He was charismatic and could get a lot of people, demons, monsters and even these elemental beings called the titans to work for him. One day, his younger brother Zeus and his wife, their sister Hera, had a son named Hercules. The marrying your sibling thing happens a lot with the gods, don't question it."
The tribrid had to quickly add on the last part of her sentence after she saw the disgusted looks on her two companions' faces. She saw them open their mouths to speak, but after they seemed to remember they were on a time limit, they shut their mouths. Cassandra internally sighed in relief at that, and upon realizing Grim wasn't asking any compromising questions as well. It seemed he was better at reading social cues than most thought.
"While Zeus was the ruler of the gods, this was not the way things should have been. Hades was the oldest, and therefore the rightful king. But Zeus forced him to rule the underworld by tricking him into drawing rigged lots with him and their other brother, Poseiden, to decide domains. This angered Hades, but he was smart. He bided his time and gathered his allies until he knew he could challenge Zeus. There was just one problem, Hercules. The Fates foretold Hades's defeat at his hands, so he tried to have him killed. He turned him mortal and took him to earth, but his minions botched the job and didn't kill him. Hercules grew up to be a hero, and while Hades tried his damnedest, he still lost at his nephew's hand. In a last ditch effort to get revenge, Hades let Hercules try to retrieve his dead lover's soul from Tartarus, only for him to re-achieve godhood and shove him into the abyss of souls. It is there he supposedly remains, not dead but lost to all save for the Olympians, who have no desire to assist him."
Ace and Grim took a moment to absorb that. It seemed that Grim had questions about how Hades was helping them if he was stuck in Tartarus, but said nothing after a meaningful glance from his master. With that, they all made their way over to the last of the Great Seven.
The 'Mistress of All Evil's eyes seemed to stare into their souls. Not judging as the Queen's had, but disturbingly knowing. It made Cassandra slightly uneasy and it made Ace and Grim shiver slightly.
"This woman is who many consider to be the most powerful of the Great Seven. First queen and protector of the Moors, The Mistress of All Evil, The Witch of Thorns, Maleficent. She was an orphan dark fae who grew up in the Moors, the homeland of the light fae. When she was still young, she met and fell in love with a young human boy named Stefan. They loved each other, but Stefan's love for Maleficent was overshadowed by his ambition and desire to become king. When the king of a neighboring human kingdom, Stefan's homeland, laid on his deathbed after a battle with Maleficent, he declared whoever killed her and brought him proof of her death would become king and marry his daughter. Stefan then traveled to the Moors and told Maleficent about the decree, but he was not there to help her. Instead, he drugged her and amputated her long, powerful wings in her sleep. For all his faults, he couldn't bear to kill her. When Maleficent awoke to find her wings missing, she was in immense pain, both physically and emotionally. When she found out the reason why her wings had been taken, however, she was furious. She stormed the castle in the middle of King Stefan's new born daughter, Aurora's, christening and placed a curse on the child; as the sun would set on her sixteenth birthday, she would prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and fall into a death like sleep from which she would never awaken. The king begged and pleaded with her not to do it, and after a while, she granted him a boon. The spell could only be broken by true love's kiss, something the two of them believed did not exist. After that, the princess was sent to live in the forest with three good Moorish pixies. They tried their best to raise the young princess, but since they could not use their magic or risk drawing unwanted attention to themselves, they didn't do too good of a job. Maleficent watched the young child grow, and eventually, she came to care for her as a mother would a daughter. She tried to remove the curse, but was unable to do so. Soon the princess's sixteenth birthday came, and despite the fact her father had every spinning wheel in the kingdom destroyed, the curse was carried out. Maleficent was heartbroken, and tried her best to break the spell. It was only when she kissed Aurora's head in a final farewell that the girl awakened. After that, the two defeated the now mad king's army and fled to the Moors, where Aurora was crowned queen and Maleficent returned to being guardian, her wings having finally been returned to her."
Ace and Grim blinked after the lengthy story, and Grim soon asked;
"Wait a second, that story was... happy. I thought the Great Seven were all villains, so why does this Maleficent lady sound like a hero?"
Cassandra turned to look at the two. Grim had left her head a while ago and was now floating beside Ace.
"Because that's the most modern and informative retelling we have in my world. The original story was that Maleficent was acting unprovoked, aside from the fact she was not invited to the christening. In that version she hates Aurora and instead of her kiss saving her, it is the kiss of a prince Aurora met before she was cursed and fell in love with at first sight. In that version the prince kills Maleficent while she was in dragon form."
Ace nodded when he heard this, taking what just half an hour or so ago he would have considered earth shattering news very well.
'He accepted the complete debunking of his world's history rather quickly after our little debate.', Cassandra mused.
"Yeah, the second version sounds a lot like our version. But I assume you think the first one is likely the correct one?", the red eyed boy asked, smirking.
Cassandra nodded, crossing her arms and returning his smirk.
"Yes, I do. It makes more sense realistically, and it's much more detailed. It's harder to make up little details than most think it is. Of course, I could be wrong and the second one was just an amazing but fictional retelling of the actual events, but my money is on the second one being the correct version."
Ace nodded and responded with, "Yeah, that does make sense, and it does actually align with our geography, since the Rose Kingdom actually does border the Moors, and the Valley of Thorns has had a long standing alliance with the country.
After that, the two gave each other meaningful glances and widened their smirks. Grim looked back and forth between the two, he had no idea what was going on.
Not even a second later, the shrill sound of a school bell reached Cassandra's ears. It was the warning bell. They had five minutes to get to class.
"Shit!", she shouted out as she grabbed Grim out of the air with "Hey!" from him signifying his annoyance at his situation. Ace blinked.
"What's wrong?", he asked.
Cassandra adjusted her bag strap and checked to see if she had everything she needed one last time.
"I heard the warning bell. We've got less than five minutes to get to class, and I don't know about you, but I like to make good first impressions. Especially on the people who will be grading my assignments."
She tucked a disoriented Grim under her arm like a football and started to make a mad dash for her homeroom, leaving before Ace could ask how she heard the bell when he didn't. She soon stopped, however, and ran back in the opposite direction, coming to an abrupt stop in front of her newest friend.
"Love to stay and chat, but I gotta run, and I suggest you start running too. I really do hope you found my little lesson informative and I hope to see you at lunch. Till next time, Trampola."
With that, she used her free hand to gently grab the Heartslabyul student's face, brought his face closer to hers and laid a soft kiss on his cheek. Ace felt his face light up as he stood there like an idiot, watching the not-so-mysterious-anymore girl run off to class.
After about thirty seconds, he realized he was also late and started running in the same direction the blood drinking girl left in with a loud exclamation of "FUCK!"
The next time the two would see each other, things would be a lot more complicated.
You know, sometimes I read other fanfics that don't go into too much detail but still tell an amazing story and think 'Why can't I write like this?'. But then I remember that I'm autistic and have ADHD which means I have to explain every fucking thing and point out every little detail. Autism is both a writers blessing and a curse :'). Anyways, here's the latest chapter, enjoy my lovely degenerates. So long and good night, Thackery Binx.