Seeing the rose bush hurtling at her, Cassandra sped out of the way and dodged the oncoming projectile. Riddle, who now seemed to be preoccupied with throwing rose bushes at other students, cackled as the plants went crashing into the screaming and panicking masses. The redhead grit her teeth.
"Okay, what the flying fuck is happening?! Why does Riddle look like a gothic drag queen and why in the name of the psychopaths this school was founded for does he look better than me?!", Yue shouted as his ponytail whipped in the wind, his British accent making a rare appearance, managing to look indignant despite the circumstances. He, Ash, Ace and Deuce had managed to get separated from the others in the chaos and were now trying to figure out what the hell was going on. The feminine boy gagged as hair got caught in his mouth and tried to free it. Ash, seemingly not too bothered, laughed at him.
"You're British-Hong Kong is showing, Yue!", he yelled out, struggling to be heard over all the noise despite the fact the two were standing side by side. Yue glared at him.
"You think I care?!", he yelled back, and Ace looked at them both in disbelief.
"Riddle just turned into a demon from hell and that's what you choose to focus on?!", the redheaded boy shouted, gesturing to the rampaging second year. Ash crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow.
"You seem to forget who we are!", he yelled back over the chaos. Deuce blinked at him from his place beside Ace.
"And what would that be?!", he asked frantically as they all ducked down to avoid an oncoming rose bush, hands clasped over their heads.
"We're supernatural detectives, dumbass! We're used to fighting weird shit we know nothing about and winning! So stop gawking, use that magic of yours, and help Cass stop Riddle! Yue, stay with them! I'll evacuate the civilians!", Ash yelled, giving out orders left and right. Yue nodded and grabbed both boys by their hands as Ash ran off to herd students back to the main campus.
"Come on!", he yelled, dragging them along behind him. Both boys were disoriented by the fast movements and let out yelps as they were pulled. Running through the carnage, the three tracked down Cassandra as the others and came to stand beside them.
"Okay, what the hell is happening?!", Trey yelled in a frightened voice as he held his hat down, watching as his childhood friend went on a literal warpath. Cassandra came to stand in front of the group against the violent winds.
"It seems my worst fear has come to pass. Riddle has gone into a frenzied, magic-fueled state of rage and hate, attacking all those who stand in his path. We need to stop him before he seriously hurts himself or others!", the golden eyed girl explained. Deuce looked at her in bewilderment.
"So you mean Riddle's gone into magical berserker mode?!", the ex-delinquent questioned. Everyone ducked down slightly to avoid an oncoming rose bush, and once they stood back up, Cassandra answered him.
"Essentially, yes!", she responded, wanting him to understand the severity of the situation in his own terms. It was Cater's turn to look confused.
"Wait, if this whole thing is fueled by magic, what happens when Riddle runs out of it?!", the third year questioned frantically. The grimace on Cassandra's face said everything.
"Fuck, I do not like and subscribe to this bullshit!", he hissed in an angry, frightened voice. Ignoring his bizarre choice of rhetoric, Cassandra began to take charge.
"We need to incapacitate him! To do that, I need to cut him with Excalibur, but I'll need a distraction! Quick, what are your Unique Magics?!", the redhead asked frantically. Trey gave her a strange look.
"How do our Unique Magics equate a distraction?!", he asked loudly, but was soon cut off. All of them froze, eyes wide in fear when they heard a menacing sing-song voice.
"Oh Cassandra~! come out, come out wherever you are~! This game is getting rather BORING!", the disturbingly cheerful voice of Riddle yelled out as he searched the rapidly dwindling crowd (due to Ash's evacuation efforts) for his target. He quickly seemed to get tired of this and ended up throwing a rose bush into the crowd at random, which landed not far from where his main target was. Cassandra began to look hurried and grabbed Trey by his shoulders.
"Just tell me, goddamnit!", she yelled, and Trey, soundly terrified, answered her nervously.
"I-it's called Doodle Suit! It lets me override one aspect of an object, and-and Cater can make clones of himself! It's called Split Card!", the green haired boy stammered out. Cassandra released him, but not before she soundly kissed him and gave him a smirk, leaving him stunned. Rolling up her sleeves, she returned Excalibur to its true form, and went to stand in front of the group once more.
"That'll do! Skipper, get back to the school as fast as possible, get Trein and Crewel! Tell them what's happening! When they ask, tell them 'overblot'!", the girl ordered. Skip saluted her.
"Yes ma'am!", he answered, before dashing off towards the mirror gate, becoming lost in the sea of students. Cassandra then turned to Griffin, Shorter, Eiji and Yue.
"You four, go help Ash with the evacuation! I don't want to see any of you in the fray until every student is safe from harm! Yue, make sure you use your magic to protect everyone in case Riddle gets any ideas!", the redhead ordered swiftly. They all nodded.
"On it!", Shorter shouted, before he grabbed Yue by the wrist and led him, Eiji and Griffin towards the direction they had last seen Ash in. Yue sputtered, a mirror image of Ace and Deuce mere moments before. Cassandra was now left alone with her Heartslabyul boyfriends, Che'nya and Grim. She looked at them purposefully.
"As for you all, are any of you good at making a scene and being obnoxiously loud?", she asked slyly, already knowing the answer. Ace, Deuce and Grim (who laid across Deuce's shoulders), looked at each other and grinned widely.
"Our time has come!", they all yelled at the same time, before running off towards Riddle without a word. Cater watched them leave, confusion obvious on his face.
"How did they synchronize that weird sentence?", he mumbled to himself, before dashing off after them. Trey followed soon after, and Che'nya smiled at her one last time before his grin was left hanging in the air. She glared at what seemed to be the eye of the storm, where the clouds swirled and lightning flashed, but she knew what it really was; or rather, who it really was. Her eyes narrowed further as she held Excalibur tightly in her right hand.
"Alright, ", she began, growling out the words to herself.
"Let's finish this."
—------------------------------------------------
Divus sat at his desk within his classroom, to an outsider seeming to look at a book of potions essays due to a minor illusion spell, when in reality he was looking at an old history book; a book on the world's greatest power couples, to be more accurate.
After extensive research, the gray eyed man had realized his initial assumption about his mark was right; it was a soulmate mark. Which meant there was a woman (or man) out there who he was destined to be with. And there was no way in hell it was Cassandra Mikaelson, no matter how much he secretly wanted it to be, because he was not a cradle robber. A fiercely independent science professor/fashion designer, yes, but a pedophile he was not. The morals his Auntie Cruella had instilled in him may have been admittedly rather loose, but they weren't that loose. So he was just going to ignore the 'M' monogrammed on the left side of his lower chest, the fact that the surrounding motif suited the girl in question all too well, and play the part of a doting mentor, until said girl inevitably graduated and they only saw each other at friendly get-togethers and the occasional wine tasting (she seemed like the type to enjoy it).
Yes, that certainly was a plan.
Divus nodded to himself, happy with the plan he had concocted when he heard the door to his classroom slam open. Jumping a bit in his seat, the usually graceful professor quickly closed his book and set it on his desk. Frowning, he turned to berate the unknown cause of his distress.
"Office hours are over, if you have questions I'm afraid they'll have to wait until- Skipper!", the monochrome haired man started to say, peeved that a rowdy student had invaded his space without so much as knocking. All that annoyance disappeared when he saw who it was.
It was his youngest student, a preteen boy by the name of Skipper. He was the youngest of Ms. Mikaelson's ilk, a rather curious and charming young lad who followed Cassandra around like a child clinging to his mother's skirts. He seemed to genuinely like and understand his lessons from what little he had seen of his work, so he was admittedly rather fond of the boy.
So when he showed up in his classroom looking like he had just ran through hell, he was obviously very concerned.
Getting up from his seat, Divus rushed over to the panting boy and gave him a once over. He had a few scratches and scrapes, but thankfully no major wounds.
"Skipper, what happened? Are you alright?", the professor asked clearly and calmly, though on the inside he was anything but. Skipper was still panting heavily, and struggled to articulate a sentence.
"Cassandra! Duel! Fight! Riddle! Ink, everywhere! Flying rose bushes- !", Skipper tried to explain, taking his hands off of his knees so he could accompany his words with frantic hand gestures. Divus grabbed him by the shoulders firmly.
"Skipper, what's happening? Are you okay? Are Cassandra and Riddle fighting? You need to tell me!", Divus urged. That seemed to snap Skip out of it, because the boy finally began to catch his breath. And with wide, frantic eyes, he said a single word that struck fear into the hearts of every mage.
"OVERBLOT!", he screamed at the top of his lungs, and suddenly all of his earlier explanations made sense. Divus released the boy and stood up to his full height, looking down at the child with dread and fear.
"Oh no.", he said, as Divus finally understood the severity of the situation.
He had to find Mozus.
—--------------------------------------------------
Cassandra marched through the carnage and blustering winds, trying to get closer to her target. At this point, all the students had been evacuated to the main campus and all of the Court was assisting in distracting Riddle. Ace used his wind to enhance the storm, Grim threw fire at him, Deuce threw cauldrons at the ink monster behind Riddle, Cater used his clones as distractions by having them be obnoxious, Che'nya kept appearing and reappearing, Ash shot at the ink monster, Yue tried to use vines to tie Riddle down, and the vampires ran literal circles around him. Trey, meanwhile, was overwriting Riddle's collars and trying (and failing) to talk him down.
"You've overwritten my collars, does this mean you think you're better than me?!", Riddle hissed, his voice sounding just as demonic as it had in her dream as he struggled to dodge projectiles and break free of Yue's vines. Trey shook his head violently, his hair ruffled and hat long lost to the elements, tears in his eyes.
"No, Riddle! You're so much more amazing than you think! Please stop this, we can talk this out!", the ivy haired boy begged. Riddle just shook his head and snarled.
"NO! There is nothing to talk about! You made your choice! You chose her over me, you all did! AND NOW YOU WILL REAP EVERYTHING YOU HAVE SEWN!", the boy yelled emotionally, raising his newly freed hand to send a rose bush flying Trey's way. The boy closed his eyes and braced for impact, knowing he wouldn't be able to dodge. When he never felt pain, however, he slowly opened his eyes and was shocked to find Cassandra standing in front of him, Excalibur in hand, and the rose bush into a million pieces. Trey blushed at the scene, and Riddle's eyes widened.
"Off With Your Head!", Cassandra shouted as a collar manifested and flung itself at Riddle. Riddle used his scepter to fling it out of the way, and raised an eyebrow with a smirk as he crossed his arms.
"Did you really think I was going to fall for that trick again?", he asked rhetorically. Cassandra smirked and planted her feet.
"No, but it was a good distraction!", she yelled, before she dashed forward and brandished Excalibur. Riddle began to look panicked and raised his scepter to block her sword. Literal sparks flew as metal clashed and they became locked in a standoff.
"I have to say, I find this duel to be much more within my element than our earlier scuffle." Cassandra grunted out as she pushed Riddle back. He was stronger than he looked in his current form. Riddle scoffed and pushed back.
"Why? Because you're more of a brute than you like people to believe?", he bit back. Cassandra smirked.
"No, it's because I'm not limited just to Twisted Wonderland magic, and I know something that you don't know.", she retorted cockily. Riddle began to look confused.
"And what the bloody hell would that be?", he asked angrily. Cassandra's smirk widened.
"I'm a shapeshifter.", she responded, and Riddle's confusion showed on his face as Cassandra morphed into a large raven and took to the sky with Excalibur grasped in her talons. Everyone could only watch as she flew circles around the ink monster, which was struggling to bat her out of the sky. Riddle looked on in rage as he noticed that Cassandra was getting quick, critical hits on the beast, slowly smashing it to smithereens.
"No! NO NO NO NO NO!", the dorm head raged as he saw the monster he had made be taken down due to its own ungratefulness and size, reduced to nothing but a pile of ink, glass and cloth. Riddle began to look scared and backed up to get away from his foe, who he assumed was still a raven and could not see. He gasped when he felt a finger tap him on the shoulder, and looked utterly terrified when he turned around and found it was Cassandrs, who was human once more.
"No, no please- !", he began to say frantically. Cassandra only looked at him apathetically, before she rushed forward and ran him through with Excalibur. Riddle hunched over in pain, unconsciously draping himself over Cassandra. The girl brought his head to rest on her shoulder and held him close.
"Rest now, little Queen. It'll all be over soon.", she whispered to him, and they both closed their eyes as they fell to the ground and felt their consciousness wane and be carried elsewhere, with the worried yells of friends and lovers in the background, holding each other all the while.
Sorry it's short, but I didn't want to include Riddle's memories in this chapter and risk the chapter being ridiculously long. Next time, shit home lives and talk no jutsu!
So long and Goodnight, Thackery Binx