Taylor Hebert, Princess

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By DireSquirrel

So I got to thinking, if Worm is a grimdark version of superhero comics, what would be the Wildbow version of the Disney Princess?

This got me thinking about the breakdown of Disney Princesses. They seem to be split up into certain categories: Princesses who gain royalty by marrying into a family (Beauty and the Beast); Princesses born to royalty who have shit happen to them (Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, the Little Mermaid); and princesses who are secretly princesses and don't know it, a sort of twisted King Arthur version (Princess Diaries).

So, it only made sense to combine at least two of them and came up with this idea.

Note that I don't own anything hinted in this fic.

Taylor came home worn and weary. She had survived Lung, and "survived" was the appropriate word. Even with the abuse put upon her by Emma, Sophia and Madison, she hadn't felt this kind of exhaustion. She had won, with a little help from her new acquaintances and she was at least someone pleased that Armsmaster was willing to take the credit. She didn't need retaliation from the rest of the ABB. Hell, she hadn't been planning on taking on villains for a while and just going after thugs. Lung had stabbed that plan repeatedly with a metaphorical steak knife.

But now she was home. Sure, she smelled of smoke and burned concrete (which she never really knew could burn before), but she was alive and home. This was especially important because home was also where her bed was. Unfortunately Fate did not have the same in mind.

"Taylor? Is that you?" her dad called out from the living room. Why was he up so late? This didn't make any sense, he needed to go to work tomorrow.

"Yeah," she called out. "Just got back from my nightly run."

"Could you come in here? There's someone here to see you," he called back.

"Um... could I go get cleaned up a bit? I'm really sweaty," she said. And it was true. Fighting a huge, getting huger, rage monster who could set things on fire pretty much at will tends to make you sweat a lot. The mind-numbing fear adds a bit as well.

Taylor could hear him talking lowly to someone in the next room.

"Um, make it quick, Taylor, she can't stay too long," Dad said.

Taylor, the would-be superhero, rushed upstairs, stripped down and jumped into the shower for a superfast cleaning of grime and soot. She threw on some half way decent clothes and made it back down. The "she" who had come to see her was perhaps in her late 60s. Her hair was graying, but Taylor could see the woman had a similar tone to Taylor's own mother, at least once upon a time. They were nearly the same height, with Taylor being slightly taller, but it still seemed like the woman was staring down her nose at the girl.

"Taylor, this is Victoria. She's-"

"A fifth cousin thrice removed on your mother's side," the woman said. Her accent was British, but with a little twist to it, that made it seem like it was not her first language. "But that is rather a mouthful, so when it is just family, you may call me Aunt Victoria."

"Hello," Taylor replied a bit shyly. "I'm Taylor Hebert."

"I must say, my dear, you look so much like a member of the family I almost would have recognized you even on the street," she said with the slightest of smiles.

"Thanks, I guess," Taylor replied.

"Stand up straight," she said in a tone that suggested "Aunt Victoria" was accustomed to being obeyed. Taylor certainly did, straightening her posture instantly. "People do not take you seriously if you do not take yourself seriously."

The inspection began again, making Taylor feel a little like cattle being checked before auction. Victoria looked at her nose, her eyes, her glasses and teeth.

"Very well," the woman said. "It was quite pleasant to meet you, Taylor. We might be seeing more of each other in the future."

"Your Aunt is only here on business," Danny said, seeming a bit nervous. "She has to go back home soon, but wanted to meet you." He looked at me, briefly flicked his eyes to Victoria and then looked back at me. "Taylor, you look pretty tired, why don't you get to bed?"

"Yes, my dear," Victoria said. "Never underestimate the worth of a full night's sleep."

"Thanks," Taylor said. "It was good meeting you."

"And you," she replied with a nod of her head that made it seem like she was dismissing Taylor. The teen didn't really think it over, since her mind was already full of Lung and how she could do better next time. She was out the second her head hit the pillow.

"Poor girl," Danny said.

"'Poor girl?'" Victoria said with a raised brow. "She is vital and she will be tested."

"Why are you doing this to us? We weren't rich, but things weren't so bad," Danny grumbled. "After Annette and I got married you didn't want anything to do with us. Why now?"

"You ask a difficult question," Victoria said. "Your daughter is my heir."

"What are you talking about? Annette was something like the four thousanth in line for the throne! Taylor couldn't possibly-" he cut himself off at the dark look Victoria shot his way. "You're serious. Fuck."

"My nephew, Victor, named for me," she said. "Felt that he was too far down the line of succession. He used his little tinker toys and murdered everyone in the family until it was just he and I."

"Shit," Danny muttered under his breath. "But he didn't know about Taylor."

"No, since she had never been invited to Court, nor was she written down in the Rolls of Nobility," Victoria stated flatly. "After Victor's execution, I have corrected that error. Still, it remains to be seen if she is worthy of the Throne of Latveria." She looked at Danny with a bemused look. "You realize she is parahuman, correct?"

"I... I suspected," Danny said. "Doesn't that break things for you?"

"Nonsense," she said, seemingly to glow with a special radiance that made her seem more regal, though it did not give off any real light. "It does, after all, run in the family."

Danny closed his eyes and counted to ten. Losing his temper with a Queen could be a very bad idea. It might not be a large country, but it was a rather powerful one all the same.

"You're not going to tell her, are you?" Danny said as he realized what was going on. "You're going to watch her and see how she reacts."

"My precognitives tell me that if things go well, she will most likely be a worthy queen," Her Majesty, Queen Victoria von Doom of Latveria stated before turning and waking to the door. "My people will be watching always. It would be in your best interest not to mention this to the girl. She may not take it well."

"What is going to happen to her?" Danny asked.

"Depending on whether she takes the thinker up on her offer, she will become one of the most feared and respected Villains in America, or one of the most respected Heroes in all the world. She will not suffer in mediocrity" Victoria said with a grin full of pride. "And she will do it all with a rather weak seeming power. During this I expect she will suffer injuries, experience great loss and even find a bit of romance in a dark, twisted sort of way. I delight in the stories my precognitives have told me. You should be very proud of her."

"If your capes have already told you what is going to happen, why do you need to test her?" Danny asked.

"Because it is those experiences that make her worthy," Victoria stated flatly.

Months passed. Danny sat by as Skitter became a force to be recognized, her Undersiders ruling along with her over Brockton Bay. He and Taylor barely talked anymore. He didn't know if he should be proud of her or not. Should any parent be proud of their Super Villain child? Especially one with such a meteoric rise? She had gone from a nobody to one of the heads of the Brockton Bay underworld in a matter of months. With the help of her allies, she taken out Lung and the ABB, helped scare off Leviathan, embarrassed the Protectorate and Wards, murdered Coil (who was later revealed to be a PRT employee), and been responsible for taking out a few of the Slaughterhouse 9.

Truth be told, he was terrified of what she had gone through. What caring parent wouldn't be? He really, firmly, thought that she should have had to go through this. Still, they were going to have dinner. He was planning on telling her that he knew all along. He was going to tell her that he was proud of her, even if he was a little disturbed about how it went.

He sat down in front of the TV while waiting for the water to boil and saw his daughter outed by Dragon and the new hero Defiant on national television. His heart pounded as he watched the events unfold. Part way through he heard a pounding on the back door and wondered how many of his neighbors had put two and two together. He wanted to ignore it, but went to the window by the front door. The press was already there, but were kept away by a cordon of men in black suits. Stepping away, since he had suspicious as to who brought the men. He opened the backdoor and saw a familiar face that was positively beaming.

"Your Majesty," Danny said. "You look pleased."

"Pleased?" Queen Victoria of Latveria said with a grin that almost split her face. Camera flashes went off as the press took it all in. "Pleased doesn't even come close. Proud barely touches my state."

"Your Majesty," Danny said. "Why don't you come in?"

"What the fuck do you mean the Latverian Ambassador wants to talk to the prisoner?" Tagg snarled. "No, she can't fucking talk to the prisoner! Tell her to get the fuck out of here!"

"Mister Tagg, I presume," a tall woman with black hair said. She looked slightly bemused by it all, as if she knew something Tagg didn't. "And I do not want to speak with a prisoner, I will be speaking with Taylor Hebert."

"How dare you come in here!" the man snarled. The woman leaned over, her palms flat against the surface of the desk as she glared right into his eyes.

"As Ambassador of Latveria to the United States I have a legal right to have access to any Latverian citizen accused of a crime," she stated flatly. She pulled out her smartphone. "Now, you can either respond to my request, or I can make your day, very, very bad."

Tagg stared at the woman, trying to figure out what was going on.

"Wait, Latverian citizen? Skitter isn't Latverian!" Tagg said.

"Very well," she said speed dialing. "Release the information. Tagg won't cooperate."

"What information?" he demanded.

"Everything we have on corruption in the PRT, specifically about how your predecessors are directly responsible for the accused going towards villainy, and that Taylor Hebert is, in fact, Her Highness Princess Taylor, heir to the throne of Latveria," Countess Lucia von Bardas stated flatly. "And her aunt is not amused."

If anyone had been paying attention to a certain someone in a cell, they would have heard a loud "WHAT?" echo throughout the cellblock.

"In a surprising update on the Brockton Bay story, reports have shown that she was actually forced into villany by members of the East-Northeast Protectorate chapter," the news anchor said, reading off a new bit of information. "Taylor Hebert, better known to the world as the Supervillain Skitter, was actually a victim of abuse by one Sophia Hess, who is now in juvenile detention. Sources have now revealed that Sophia Hess was actually the Ward Shadow Stalker. One man who worked at Winslow High, who refused to give his name, had this to say:"

"We all knew what was going on," a man said into the microphone, his face hidden by shadows. "Well, not that Taylor had triggered, but that Sophia Hess, Emma Barnes and Madison Clements had it out for her. I tried to report it, but the Principal said she would take care of it since it was a PRT situation. As far as I know nothing happened."

"He went on to explain that while he did not know Sophia Hess was Shadow Stalker at the time, he did know she was criminally abusive," the news anchor reported. "And that Taylor Hebert was trapped in a locker filled with, oh god." She swallowed as she looked at the paper in horror. "Trapped in a locker filled with rotten, used feminine products such as tampons, pads and other biological waste."

"People, this was criminal," the News Anchor said, looking right at the camera. "More into the story of Taylor Hebert after this break."

"Oh, it seems my dear ambassador was forced to release our side of the situation," Queen Victoria said with a bemused smile as she watched the drama play out on live TV. "Though I fully intended it to be released in time. Did you know that Coil was actually an administrator at the PRT?"

"What?" Danny asked. "That's counter to everything the PRT stands for!"

"Yes," she said. "Yes it is."

"I tried," he said, sounding like he was a hundred years old and two steps away from his deathbed. "I tried to get her to go to the wards without telling her I knew what was going on, but I don't think it would have been better if Shadow Stalker was on the team."

"My thinkers feel that it was very unlikely she would have remained a hero for long," Queen Victoria stated. "And if you look at it, she's done much more good for the people in her area as a villain than she ever could have as a hero."

"The wrong thing for the right reason," he muttered.

"She learned how to rule, which is the most important," the Queen replied. "Now, my Countess will teach my heir how to comport herself for the public when so very little is private."

"Did you have to release everything?"

"No," the Queen replied. "I chose to."

"She's going to hate you," Danny said. "But you knew that already."

AN: Not too sure how much more of this I have in me, but who knows? I might get inspired.