AN: Okay, first off, I want to say I'm sorry for pulling a disappearing act. But my aunt and her kids are leaving to move about half-way across the country, and I've been dealing with a lot of pressure, a fudge ton of Writer's Block, and… Well, that's a long, sad, personal story. Lets just call it 'Frigging Severe Family Problems.' But I made this chapter extra long for you guys. Again, I'm sorry for the long wait.

Caitlyn Keseberg: Word still doesn't know what to do with your last name. *Sigh.* Kate, I sincerely hope that this fixes this mess up. This has been confusing me too, and- you're not gonna' believe this- it's making me lose my mind a bit. Woo-hoo scientific worldly thingies! Grammar kinda' sucks… so many rules…

PenguinLoverGurl: I know, right? :D Ugh, I updated (I know, miracle, right?) Hm… I couldn't decide either. I did eenie meenie mini moe (how do you spell that?) and the winner was PenguinLoverGurl. I'm glad that you're getting an account, and I give you an early welcome to the FanFiction world!

Kathie: Yeah, I'd be tired too. Three in the morning? Yeesh… I reply to the anonymous reviews, and PM the people with accounts. It just makes things easier, ya' know? (I split this into paragraphs so it wasn't just a giant word wall, so keep reading)

Yeah, I like to have a solid plan/thorough understanding of what I'm doing. Even though the Eternal Flames was an impulse thing that came out of nowhere… *sweat drop* Thanks for letting me know, I went back and fixed those! This is an explanation chapter. (You still here? Keep reading.)

Thanks! Everyone in my family says I'm 'over-imaginative'- like such a thing exists. And I'm sure you have a lot of talent! I was planning out major plot elements for this months before I even got an account, so that's where my 'talent' comes from. Well, that, OCD, and EXTREMELY strict teachers. You just have to come up with a goal, work on it until you succeed, then bust your butt to exceed. You have to be really dedicated. Try your best not to procrastinate like me… (Okay, that's all. You can stop reading now. Geez, took me long enough to stop talking… Sorry 'bout that…)

Disclaimer: Unless Mr. Buckley gives me the papers, I don't own the Sisters Grimm. I do, however, own the idea of Lethals. If you try to steal them, I swear on my love of chocolate that I will send Skiff the Magical Platypus (who is also mine) after you, and you won't come back from the experience. _

SPOV:

I showed everyone the mark on my arm, and Titania explained what little she knew. We were now planning a visit to Baba Yaga later, and were leaving soon.

I was sent to go pack with an escort, of course- for my protection this time. Puck gave me my clothing back, so I went to change- I'd forgotten how much I love pants, and putting on my combat boots again was like heaven. Titania gave me my crown back, and I stuffed it in my suitcase with all the other things I'd brought.

There were hugs, more crying, apologies, and goodbyes.

Then we were on our way back to Ferryport Landing.

.*~.*~.*~.

SPOV:

The car ride was spent in awkward semi-silence. Granny called Uncle Jake and told him what was going on, and, with my permission, she explained my past. Jake was researching the Eternal Flames and coming up with little-to-no results.

I stared out the window- tuning out the current conversation between Granny and Uncle Jake while Daphne brushed my hair.

I was Sabrina Grimm, and Sabrina Grimm was a force to be reckoned with- a fearless, lethal (and, apparently Lethal) leader.

I wasn't feeling like Sabrina.

I was feeling weak, broken, depressed, and pretty much like a weenie.

Daphne asked me for the hundredth time if I was alright. For the hundredth time I didn't respond.

Most people would be sad after they were forced to watch their parents die, right? If your 'beloved' uncle put a forbidden curse on you, which you know nothing about and could drop dead from any minute for all you know, you'd probably be a bit scared, wouldn't you? And then if you were put an a magic induced sleep for somewhere in the neighborhood of two hundred years, you'd be a bit upset, correct? You'd be feeling a bit confused if, in a 'happy' family reunion type-thing, you all of the sudden found out you're not even the same species you thought you were, right?

What a coincidence, I have all the problems listed above- and then some. Surprisingly enough, sad, scared, confused, and upset weren't my dominant feelings right now. What is the dominant feeling, you ask? I was downright livid.

Pure, scorching, white-hot, burning, fiery, (insert more clichés here), hatred that had nestled itself deep in my core and showed no signs of leaving in the near future.

Unfortunately, we could infer from past experience that that was a bad thing, so I was searching for something else to focus on. Sad, scared, confused, and upset were pretty far up on my scale of emotions, so I directed my attention to them.

I was determined not to let Acheron get to me, but I was failing. Or maybe 'had already pathetically failed'. I was also determined to rip out his spine and beat him with it, but, again, that was a no-no thought.

"Good, you're learning. Just filter the bad thoughts, and bury them in the darkest corner of your mind."

'Shut up, you're not helping. Wait a second- do you know anything about the Eternal Flames?'

"First you tell me to shut up, then you want me to talk. Make up your mind."

'Maya…'

"Okay, okay. Jeez. Erm… it was banished a long time ago… because it was evil. And your uncle sucks."

'Tell me something I don't know.'

"There are such things as magical platypuses. I'm good friends with one named Skiff."

'What?'

"Exactly."

I was too weirded-out to answer.

We arrived at Baba Yaga's house soon after that. While Granny knocked on the door, I realized I was trembling, with no clue as to why. I wasn't cold, hyper, or scared. Well, that might be a lie. I was kind of scared. What if Baba Yaga didn't know anything? What if she knew everything there was to know, but refused to tell us? What were the side-effects of the curse, what would it do? Would it kill me? What if Acheron found me? What would he do? He'd killed my family once, I'm sure he'd have no qualms about doing it again.

And, on the way to the insane, cannibalistic witch's doorstep, I'd ran in to quite a few ghosts. (Well, I didn't literally run into them, since they're ghosts, but I had a few lengthy, frightening conversations with a handful of the nice people she'd eaten.)

I was shaking quite noticeably now. I felt like I was suffocating, like-

Daphne's voice cut through my panicky thoughts. "Baba Yaga? Are you there?"

"Go away! No one's home!"

"But-"

"No buts! I'm not here, so scram! Leave a message after the beep!" Daphne stared at the door helplessly, and something inside me snapped. I marched up to the door.

"Listen, you. My day has completely sucked. I've found out that I'm not even human, and I had to re-watch the murder of my family. I've got a curse that I know nothing about, I've learned that my mom is actually a re-incarnated version of my first mom, and I have no patience. I've had to suffer through the long car ride here, having little oxygen due to Puck's nasty behind. I need to talk to you, and so help me-"

I felt a hand on my shoulder, cutting me off, and I calmed down a bit. A good thing: during my rant, there had been very little reaction from the curse. It had gotten about ten degrees warmer, but I hadn't gone crazy or burst into flames- which is a good thing. I chose to focus on that and not the anger that I was slowly failing to keep locked up.

The door slowly opened, and someone peeked through the crack. I blinked, and all of the sudden Baba Yaga was at my side, grabbing my arms, hair, face, and examining them as if they were the most interesting things she'd seen in a long time.

"So, you're still alive? Good for you. And you've got your powers back!" She cackled. "Excellent. Come inside, we're currently being watched." And with that bight bit of information, we walked into her house, making me even more on-edge.

It was just as creepy as I'd remembered. There were glass jars filled to the brim with eyeballs that followed your movements. Sparking wands were strewn across the house, and breathing, snarling books were perched precariously on shelves.

Baba Yaga stared at me, looking somewhat irritated. "So, what do you want."

"I want to know as much as possible about the Eternal Flames." I stated as confidently as I could.

Baba Yaga made a face. "Ugh. I got bored with that research long ago. I'm currently studying magical platypuses, they're much more interesting."

"Told you."

I was still too weirded-out to answer her. "Okay… But can you tell me what you know about it?"

"I can."

I waited for quite a while, but was only met with silence. "Well?"

"Well what?"

My eye twitched, something it did when I was irritated. "Will you please tell me everything you know about the Eternal Flames."

"I suppose, eventually."

I ground my teeth. "Please tell me what you know about the Eternal Flames. Right now."

"So that's what you want. You could have said that in the first place. Why must children make things so difficult?"

Puck and Daphne had to hold me back before I did something I'd regret.

She cackled, noticing my anger. "What exactly do you want to know?"

My eye twitched again. "What is the Eternal Flames? What's the point of it? What are the symptoms, prognosis, treatment? Why was it banned from use?"

The old woman sighed. "Well, you just want to know everything, don't you?"

Twitch. "That's what I've been telling you."

She sighed as if I were the most annoying perso- I mean, Everafter, she'd ever had the displeasure of having to deal with. "We'll get to that soon. In the meantime, have you any other questions?"

I was originally going to say something sarcastic, but, after realizing it might get my face chewed off, I decided against it. "Yeah, actually. A lot of them. First off, I'm not feeling any addiction. Why?"

She rolled her eyes. "You were never addicted to magic, Child."

Cue confusion. "What?"

"You were never addicted. On you, I put one of the most powerful spells I know. That spell concealed your powers from you and anyone that might come after you, namely the Dark King. Unfortunately, yet also fortunately for you, you have unnaturally powerful abilities, which have been fighting the curse ever since I put it on. Your abilities drew you to power, trying to find something that would take off the spell."

"Why does everyone call him the Dark King instead of Ache-" The ancient woman whipped out a wand and silenced me before I could finish.

"Do not, under any circumstances, say that name." She growled. "Names hold power, more than you'll ever imagine. Understood?" I nodded, and she waved her wand, letting me speak again. "Any other questions?"

"Why could I go through the barrier before. I was technically still an Everafter."

"Well, first off, I'm the one who put up the barrier. It would have been easy for me to make you immune to it's purpose."

"Would've been? You mean, you didn't?"

"No, Child. Your particular species has the bloodline of Necromancers, Sirens, and Grimms combined. Grimms, unfortunately, are immune to the barrier." She sighed. "I honestly hoped that you'd be at least intelligent enough to figure that out for yourself."

I swallowed hard, restraining myself. "That's all," I ground out. "Now can you please proceed with telling me about the curse."

The old witch cackled and I raised an eyebrow. "You waste your time with such foolish and unimportant questions, and you neglect to ask what may be the only one of importance."

"What question?" I asked.

She happily shook her head. "I cannot simply tell you, for you must personally seek the knowledge."

I turned to Puck. "Do you want to kill her, or should I?" I growled.

Baba Yaga simply grinned. "And, as for the curse, I'll need a blood sample."

That shocked me out of my anger. "Why?" Call me crazy, but for some reason, I just didn't trust Baba Yaga near me with any sharp objects, especially with the intent of drawing blood.

"Because there are many different types of the Eternal Flames. Some much more… horrifying then others." She cackled gleefully, and I shivered, despite myself.

I was constantly on guard while she took my blood. No one but Baba Yaga and I were allowed in the room. She called it 'client confidentiality.' I called it 'creepy and suspicious.' Since we didn't yet know what variation of the curse I had, I gave her what little information we did have. In turn, she told me a few of the types I might have while she examined a vial full of my blood.

Worst case scenario: If I got fairly agitated, or dropped my restraint against the curse for one fraction of a second, I would turn into a very experienced killing machine. I wouldn't actually kill anyone, though. At least, not until Acheron (I'm sorry, He-Who-Must-Apparently-Not-Be-Named) got bored and pressed the (metaphorical) button. When he did, it would bury me inside myself, and an evil-demon-jerkaziod-thing would take over my body, pretend to be me, then slowly torture everyone I ever cared for- making me watch, helpless, from inside of myself.

Best case scenario: I didn't turn into a mass-murderer until I was exposed to extreme anger- like what happened when Acheron killed my parents. There would be no demon thing, I just temporarily lost sanity.

You know your life sucks when the best case scenario is only turning into a homicidal nutcase when you're subjected to watching people die. With the war, and the weird Necromancy thing, that wasn't exactly an uncommon occurrence.

An unfortunate/possibly fortunate thing: I was extremely powerful. Because of this, part of the curse had been turned in my favor. Well, possibly. I might be able to summon eternal flames.

Eternal flame (no, not the curse, the actual fire) was black flame that burned infinitely; well, at least until I willed it to stop. But eternal flame wasn't to be messed with- just a single spark of the flame blown in the wrong direction would be enough to ensure your enemy wouldn't ever get back up. The flame adapted to almost any substance and immediately caught it on fire.

As I awaited the results, my fear finally caught up with me, and I was wound tighter than a yo-yo. I was babbling nonstop, and there was a stupid fly that was determined to spend the rest of it's life in my breathing space. I kept swatting it, but it just kept coming back- something that apparently amused the old witch next to me. Or so I could tell from her crazy cackling.

Then we got the results and I realized something-

My life stunk. Of course the Voldemort-wannabe wouldn't condemn me with a halfhearted curse. The only difference between me and the worst case scenario was that I didn't get taken over by the demon until I was exposed to severe anger instead of slight irritation.

And the only good thing that happened was that the stupid fly left after the results came in and were discussed. Maybe it realized that it was one more buzz away from being murdered, or maybe it was a charitable fly that realized that I needed to be alone for a while. Either way, it was gone, and it had saved it's own life.

I kept from telling anyone, something that made the old witch raise an eyebrow. I don't know why. Maybe I didn't want them to worry, or maybe I didn't want to repeat it for fear that that would make it more seem real. Either way, they were kept in the dark. I simply told them that it could be worse- much worse.

"Are you okay?" There was that stupid question again.

I plastered on a fake smile that seemed to fool no one. "I'm fine."

Again, silence in the car. As we pulled up to our house, I felt a tiny bit better. The first person Elvis greeted (well, more like jumped and slobbered on,) was me, as if he could sense that I needed some cheering up. It didn't do much to help, but it was nice that he tried.

I tried to forget about the past by sleeping. Mistake número uno. Nightmares (or, I guess daymares) suck.

Then I tried listening to my iPod- mistake number two. The Civil Wars: Kingdom Come. Nope. I went through my Paramore songs. All I Wanted. 'Nope.' All We Know. 'Not helping.' Misguided Ghosts. 'Okay, that's enough Paramore.' Miranda Lambert: Run Daddy Run. I threw my iPod down in disgust. 'Music's overrated anyways.'

So what did I do?

I silently slipped out my window and wandered as deep in the forest- as far from the house as possible. When I was far enough away, I sat on a large rock by a stream. A while ago, I'd claimed this place for myself. It was nice and peaceful, a great place for thinking. There were tons of raspberry bushes, and a giant, hollowed-out tree you could go in to for shelter, so you could stay for quite a while if you had to. It was a surprisingly large and tranquil clearing.

I sat there and let the soothing sounds of the woods calm me. I remembered the times I'd gone to this place before- usually to calm myself and forget for a while, like now, or just for a change of scenery.

After about twenty minuets of just sitting and forgetting, I was snapped out of my peace by the sound of a twig snapping.

"Hey, Puck," I said with a sigh.

He sat down next to me. "Hey. Nice place."

"I know."

"Your voice is really weird, by the way."

I raised an eyebrow and looked at him for the first time. "How so?"

"You have a weird accent. It's, like, half Irish, half British, and half American."

I looked at him curiously.

"What?" He demanded.

I shook my head. "Nothing." I replied, a little too fast. 'Three halves, huh?'

Fortunately, he didn't notice. He stared out into the woods, relaxing. "So what brings you here, Little Miss Leprechaun?"

"You know, I could ask you the same thing."

"But I'm not a leprechaun."

I sighed, not taking the bait. "I'm forgetting. You?"

"The Old Lady says that supper will be ready soon. I think you'll like it."

"Somehow I doubt that."

He just grinned and got up. "The Old Lady says she'll understand if you don't want to eat. So, whether you come or not, I'm getting food. Just a warning."

"Five more minutes, mother."

He shrugged, walking backwards so he could still look at me. "Whatever. Don't come crying to me when-" And then the most unexpected thing happened.

I got up, trying not to smile. "Oh, my gosh. What was that? Did you just fall?"

His face turned red. "No! I just… attacked the ground."

"Backwards?"

"Yes!"

I tried to smother my giggles as I helped him up. "Come on, let's go."

Trying not to laugh, we flew back to the house, and made it just in the nick of time.

"Lieblings, dinner is ready!" I flew into my open window, while Puck flew toward the front door. I took a deep breath, and quietly excited my room.

I slowly descended the stairs and immediately noticed something off. My eyes widened. "Are those cheeseburgers?" The smell was making my mouth water.

Granny laughed. "I figured that this would cheer you up."

I put up my happy façade once more. "Consider me cheered." I replied falsely, sitting down at the table and tearing in. I practically inhaled my first burger, and was quickly demolishing the second when I noticed everyone staring at me. "What?"

"Who are you and what have you done with Grimm?" Puck looked amused. "Now that's not very princess-like at all." He snickered.

I stuck my tongue out at him. "This is my first normal burger in about three years. You're ruining the reunion. And you also forget that I've been sleeping for three days."

Puck reached forward to take my food, and I slapped his hand away, giving him a death glare.

Daphne looked at him. "Puck, you don't, and I repeat don't get between Sabrina and a good burger. She has silverware- do not underestimate the damage she can do with a fork."

But it didn't matter. Burger number two had already found it's way to my stomach. I sighed and patted my stomach contentedly. "I love burgers."

I couldn't force myself to talk to anyone anymore, though. My façade was slowly crumbling- it had already had holes in it from far too much current use. I stretched and let out a fake yawn. "Well, I'm beat. I think I'll turn in early. Night, guys." I slowly made my way up the stairs, trying my best to look exhausted. A chorus of 'goodnights' followed me.

Once I was out of sight, I darted toward my room. Once I was sure that the door was completely closed behind me, I took a small and surprisingly light object out of my suitcase, which I had yet to unpack.

I walked toward the window so I could see it better. After careful decision, I wrapped it up in one of my sweatshirts and climbed out of the window, perching on the roof. I gently took it out so I could look at it. Small, intricate swirls of polished silver with gleaming, light blue gems that perfectly matched my eyes.

A tear fell from my face and splashed it's landing on the sweatshirt that was spread across my lap. The tiny droplet of water simply hit the fabric and spattered- leaving tiny parts of itself to be devoured by the cotton. It was soon accompanied by many more of my tears. Silent sobs shook my body with so much intensity, I could just barely hold them in.

My façade was destroyed, along with any barriers against the pain.

Eventually the sobs stopped, but, being an Everafter, I didn't think I'd ever run out of tears. They just kept spattering my sweatshirt.

I removed my gaze from the delicate tiara to stare at the bright, full moon, thinking of nothing but my parents.

"I'm so sorry," I whispered, clutching the crown to my chest, pretending they were listening. "My last words to you were 'I hate you.' I just want you to know how much I regret ever speaking those words. I miss you two so much, and, even though you probably can't hear me, I just want to say… I'm sorry. So, so sorry. And I love you. More then you'll ever know."

A sense of peace washed over me suddenly. And, as I looked to the sky, gathering my strength to go back inside, I vaguely thought I heard something, but I immediately dismissed it as the whispers of the light wind.

'I love you.'

Wow… well wasn't that rainbows and sunshine? Sorry 'bout that…

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