Rotten to the Core

There is very little magic on the Isle of the Lost. There was supposed to be no magic but the song and dance routines that they get when the wind blows the wrong way nix that idea. Maybe King Beast and his cronies couldn't configure the barrier to keep them out, or maybe they were his idea of a punishment. Like the Isle of the Lost needed more punishment.

Una, daughter of Ursula the Sea Witch, was currently trying not to be on the wrong end of punishment. She had gotten into a fight with one of the Stabbington cousins, the one that fought with knives, after he had tried to steal from a marketplace stall that was Undertakers' territory and it had escalated until the two of them were doing their best to gut each other. The Stabbington was trying harder than Una, probably because if she won she wouldn't actually kill him. No, Una would just make him wish he was dead, a wish that might get granted if her sister Uma got to him before Jay or Harry did. Uma's motto may as well have been "No one hurts my sister but me" and she took the direct route to insuring that. Jay, the son of Jafar, preferred to beat anyone who hurt Una, Evie, or Carlos mostly to death before robbing them of everything but their underwear (Mal didn't need his protection, and Una was only on that list because they used to be allies of sort before they joined different gangs). Harry Hook would hook anyone who touched his girl, but only after torturing them out of their mind.

The Stabbington stabbed at Una's arm. She dodged and lashed out at his other hand with her own knife. The Stabbington just managed to get out of the way of the knife.

And ran into her sword.

Una grinned and dragged the blade across his back, opening a bloody stripe in his shirt. The Stabbington let out a grunt that turned into a yell when the hot pepper oil pain potion every one of Uma's pirates used on their swords kicked in. Una knew from experience that it hurt like nine levels of hell when it got in even a small cut, and the Stabbington didn't have the pain tolerance she did.

Her knife flashed in her right hand and cut half an inch deep into the Stabbington's right bicep. She deflected his attack with her sword and made another cut with her knife. Deep cuts and shallow cuts to keep the blood flowing. If Una was able to giggle she would have.

The wind changing spoiled her fun. Music flooded the Isle and its magic burrowed its way into her bones. Her body wasn't under her control anymore. She scowled as she was forced to put away her weapons and run away from the Stabbington. As she swung onto the rooftops to get wherever the magic wanted her to go, she saw the Stabbington crumble to the street and begin crawling to shelter. If he was lucky he would make it to his own gang's safe house before whatever musical number Una was being forced to be part of was over. If not then it wouldn't be too hard for her to follow the trail of blood he was leaving and finish making an example of him. If she was magicked into singing then she would definitely want to.

The magic dragged her into the territory of Mal's gang on the other end of the marketplace, what people on the Isle called the bazaar. Normally when she went there she was trying not to be seen but the magic was having none of that. It forced her to stand in the middle of the street waiting for the main event to arrive. She wasn't the only one either. There were Tower gang girls glaring at Scarface boys and Stabbingtons making rude gestures at Tremaines but no one was moving more than a foot in any direction. At least they weren't singing.

From the sound of it the people cursed with having to sing today were the Rotten Four themselves. Una hadn't been keeping track during her dash across the rooftops, but she thought that they were well into the second verse of their song and hopefully getting closer to the bazaar. The magic was broadcasting the song over at least half of the Isle so there was no way to tell where Mal, Evie, Carlos, and Jay were.

Long after Una got bored of eyeing a crystal necklace that she was just aching to steal (which didn't take very long since Una was not a patient girl on a good day) the Rotten Four finally arrived in the bazaar. Everyone who had been waiting for them immediately jumped into a synchronized dance. As two rows of people switched places Una saw the look in Mal's eyes and resolved to run away as fast as possible as soon as the music stopped. The self-styled queen of the Isle was going to be way more murderous than usual and Una did not want to be the person she took her rage out on.

Finally, the song ended. As the declaration that they were rotten to the core echoed through the air, the dancers prepared to scatter, to get back to their own territories before a war could start. No one on the Isle ever really felt like going to war, but sometimes it was necessary when too many people strayed too far from their unspoken rules.

Only a few of the dancers got away before the voice of one of the greatest villains on the Isle froze the rest of them in place.

"Stealing candy, Mal?"

The group turned as one to face the Mistress of Evil. Only Mal was brave enough to speak to Maleficent.

"It was from a baby," she drawled, swinging the lollypop she'd snatched from little Cindy "we'll call her Sin" Hook at the end of the dance number.

Maleficent gave a smile that was all teeth. "That's my evil little girl. Give it back to the little brat and come with me."

Mal obligingly threw the lollypop towards Sin and her mother before walking a few feet away with her own mother. Harriet Hook, Harry's older sister and one of the eldest of the children of the Isle's major villains, caught the candy and got out of there as quietly and quickly as possible. The other gang members not of the Four took that as their cue to make a run for it while the few people who had no affiliation (yet) tried to go about their business as usual, though they kept an eye on Maleficent and Mal.

Una made it about five feet before she was grabbed from behind by one of Maleficent's goblins. Normally she would have stabbed him in the arm and kept running but with Maleficent right there the most she could do was struggle and keep her hands near her weapons in case the situation escalated.

"None of that," Maleficent said. "The five of you are going to a new school in Auradon."

The Rotten Four also got the goblin grab treatment as they tried to run away.

"I am not going to a school with prissy, pink princesses," Mal spat.

Evie sighed. "And perfect princes."

Mal glared at Evie and the other girl immediately made a sound of disgust that fooled exactly no one.

"I don't do uniforms, unless they're leather. You feel me?" Jay said. He winked at Una, who rolled her eyes.

"I read there are dogs in Auradon," Carlos said. "My mom says dogs are vicious, rabid pack animals that eat children who misbehave."

Jay smirked and leaned towards Carlos before barking in his ear. Carlos nearly jumped out of the grip of the goblin that was holding him.

"Yeah, Mom, we're not going," Mal said.

The smile on Maleficent's face morphed into a scowl that was actually only half as terrifying as the smile had been. Still, if Una could have stepped back she would have.

"You will go to Auradon and you and your friends will complete the task that the entire Isle is depending on you to complete," Maleficent growled. "Is that clear?"

"You're not exactly selling it, Mom," Mal said.

"W-what are we supposed to do?" Carlos asked.

Maleficent's smile was back. "You are going to steal Fairy Godmother's wand."

A few of the people who were listening in on the conversation gasped, and then immediately ran so that they wouldn't get beaten up by a goblin. It would probably have been better for Maleficent to tell them that in private, but with Una being part of the group that really wasn't possible.

"So we steal the wand," Mal said. "Then what? Jailbreak?"

"With the wand and my staff I'll be able to bend the forces of good and evil to my will," Maleficent said with grand gestures. Then she dropped her arms and added, "And I suppose I'll break down the barrier and let the villains wreak havoc on Auradon."

"I'm in," Jay said. The other four looked at him. "What? Sounds like fun."

Una shrugged. She couldn't argue with that. Stealing power from right under the Fairy Godmother's nose and using it to escape the Isle for good did sound like it would be fun. And there would be plenty of people to watch suffer afterwards when the villains took over Auradon.

"Una agrees with me," Jay said.

Mal scowled. "We do this for you, we get more than just being let off the Isle."

Maleficent raise an eyebrow. "And what would that be?"

"A kingdom," Mal said. "One each."

"Two, total," Maleficent countered.

"Three," Mal said. "And one of them is the Moors."

Maleficent sighed in a very harsh, dragonish way. "Three, including Atlantica and Agrabah."

"You don't have first dibs on those," Mal pointed out. "Two, including the Moors."

Maleficent gritted her teeth. "Fine. Get me Fairy Godmother's wand and once we're all off this blasted island the five of you will have the Moors and another kingdom of your choosing."

"Deal," Mal said. "When do we leave?"

"Tomorrow morning in front of our castle," Maleficent said. "Don't be late."

The Wicked Fairy swept away with her goblins scrambling to keep up with her.

Mal turned to her gang and Una. "Go pack," she ordered.

Una glared at her and very pointedly didn't move. A growl rose in Mal's throat and her eyes flashed acid green.

Jay sighed. "Una, could you just listen to her for once?"

Una pointed at him with one finger before spinning around and disappearing down an alley. She heard Jay telling Mal that she was going to go pack as she climbed one of the ladders lining the wall, and then she was off and running along the familiar rooftop path back to the Lost Revenge.

Secret 1

Mal loves ordering people around, but she hates it too.

A/n: So, I'm posting this because I realized that I should get it and my other big Descendants story date stamped before Descendants 3 comes out so that people can't complain about me not including characters/information from the third movie. I've had these stories started since May 2017 (for this one) and October 2017 (for the other one) and there have already been a lot of changes (this one was supposed to be the kid-friendly version. Oops.) without me having to totally rewrite the chapters I already have to make them canon with Descendants 3.

This one is going to be closer to the movies than "Write in Ink (Make it Stay Forever)", but it's also going to be more violent, re: above "Oops." I've read Six of Crows and it is influencing my writing. I'm Kaz according to the character quiz on the Grishaverse website. But I digress. This will be closer to canon, but also not. You'll see. Chapter 2 of this story isn't written yet (unlike Write in Ink, where I'm almost three chapters ahead) so it's going to be a while before I post more. Also I have other stories I need to finish first. Re: above getting this story date stamped. I'm sure I'm using "re:" wrong.

TL;DR: This story isn't going to be updated for a while and it's been posted for selfish reasons.

-Cynder2013