Start Again | Choni

fury of fire

Cheryl's POV

I moved in with Toni and we'd settled in to her trailer. Hermione had a cabin somewhere near Fox Forest that she lived in, hiding away from Hiram. I'd managed to avoid Veronica due to her suspension, and Nick was back in New York, where he belonged, no doubt causing more chaos whilst nobody took any notice of him. I mean he should have deserved jail but at least he's just out of my life. But now I had another problem to deal with. Hiram wants to take everything from me and what's left of my broken family, and as much as I don't care about any of them, except Hermione, family is still more important and I want to take down Hiram Lodge once and for all. So I guess I just have to play him at his own game.

"Hey, babe, are you sure you wanna do this?" Toni sat beside me with two bowls of ice cream with red and black sprinkles. I love her so much. "I am, I really am. I don't care about anything else apart from protecting my family." I said seriously and she nodded. Another thing I love about Toni, she just gets me. "Okay then I'm with you, babe, but when do you want to do it?" "How about this weekend?" I suggested and she nodded. "Hiram won't be home for hours and Veronica no doubt will drive in to the city for the day." "Exactly." I grinned and took my first spoonful of ice cream.

We'd discussed our plans at length, whenever we had the chance. Both in classes and out, we just hung out in private, talking about the maple business and Hiram's underground empire. "We need evidence." I'd said it a thousand times, but this time it had to be true. We needed to make the police see what he's been doing. Hermione had promised to keep watch whilst we were busy, and if she saw Hiram to stall him long enough for us to leave without detection. My leg was better too, and I'd finally managed to walk a trip to school and back without the crutches. I felt like I had a new lease of life, and it felt amazing. Nothing was going to ruin this feeling.

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After staring at my closet for hours, I'd decided on a tight fitting short white dress with red bra and boots, along with my spider brooch. It was the dress I wore when something bad was going to happen. I last wore it before I left the Sisters, before I entered the hell that was Riverdale. I came out to see Toni staring with wide eyes. "Um, babe?" I laughed and she stood up. "You look so hot right now." She whispered, unzipping the top ever so slightly. Her hands touched my breast and I held back a moan. God I was so turned on. "Come on, we gotta do this." She let go reluctantly and gathered her stuff so we could go. Hermione already had eyes on Hiram, he was at Veronica's speakeasy, and Veronica was out with Smithers in town, so the Pembrooke was empty. I knew how to get in the back without making any noise so the alarms weren't set off.

Before we went in, Toni grabbed my hands. "Babe, just to make absolutely sure you're okay with this? You can't undo this afterwards." She warned me. I nodded. "I know babe, but Hiram's out to get my family and my legacy, and I have to protect that. For my sake, for Hermione's, and for however many aunties or uncles or cousins I have left. This is how Blossoms fight back, and I'm a Blossom." I said. "You're hot when you're angry." Toni said with a twinkle in her eye. "I know." I winked and picked the lock of the back door into the Pembrooke. "Let's go."

I led her inside and up to Hiram's study. Toni started rummaging through the drawers whilst I looked in the cupboards around the study. He had a lot of unlabelled bottles of a dark liquid, which I presumed was maple syrup. Tons of bottles lined up neatly in a cupboard, which a small notebook in the corner. I opened it and saw pages and pages of detailed notes and plans for developing the syrup formula and taking over the Blossom empire. Taking pictures, I stopped at a page that looked entirely different. There were weird names and some chemicals noted down, along with masses and other measurements. "Hey, Tee-Tee, what's this?" I called over to her. She didn't respond. I turned around and she was staring at a file which she had opened on his desk. "Toni?" I went over to her. "Cheryl, look." She said angrily, shoving the photographs under my nose. It was of the serpents, in the Worm, on the streets, at school. I mean where was he getting these photos? "Tee, I don't understand." I said. "I do." We turned around and saw Hermione standing at the door.

"Hermione? What's going on ? Where's Hiram?" Toni asked. "Oh he's well occupied at the Speakeasy. But I came to tell you about his plans. From the beginning." We sat down by the fire and she stared hard for a moment before starting. "The first thing you have to understand is that I loved him for many years, I've done a lot of things for him, unspeakable things. I mean not so far as hurting anyone physically, but I've manipulated and bullied people into doing his bidding just as he has done me. It wasn't easy to let all of that go, but when I had to make a choice between bloodshed and family, I chose family. Cheryl, you and the Blossoms are my family, and they always have been, I've never really been a Lodge. Anyway, he's angry at us because we took his business from him, apparently. The Blossoms took the maple trade from him, many years ago. His grandfather was good friends with the ours, and one day, they discovered the fertile earth and the maple trees. He wanted to start a business, but they took it from him and banished him from Riverdale. He moved to Greendale for a while before coming back to the Southside and joining the serpents. He learned that we were responsible for the deaths of the Uktena, the serpent ancestors. After a few months, he was breaking rules, sneaking out and dealing, vandalising and doing whatever he could to cause trouble. He was kicked out of the Serpents. He died with nothing to show for his life, and his last thoughts were of revenge against the Serpents and the Blossoms. So he plans to take over the maple trade, banish us as we did him, and take over the Southside, turning serpents into mules and drug dealers. He's had this planned for years. He saw his opportunity when you came to live with us, and that's when he made his move. But he's angry now, it's taking longer than expected and he's lost his pawn." "He's going to lose a lot more than that." I gritted my teeth.

After collecting all the evidence we needed, I took one last look around before removing the fire grate and rolled a burning log out onto the carpet. And then we ran. We had moments to escape by the fire hatch before the Pembrooke would be engulfed in flames. Ironic isn't it, how the Pembrooke and Thornhill were both destroyed in the fury of fire. As we slipped out into the street, and passers by began to gather, fire trucks could be heard in the distance, along with the screams of despair from Hiram as he ran home from Pop's, alerted by the security on his phone, desperate to try and collect anything that was salvagable before the building completely collapsed. Lodge Industries was going to be ruined, burned to the ground, and we would win this round. But we knew it wasn't over. There were still more rounds to play.

A/N

Sorry it's so late, I had exams and work to do... but the big ending is coming soon!! Round one is complete, and Cheryl is winning, so let's hope it stays that way. Keep voting and commenting, it really means a lot guys. Thanks again and enjoy! XO