Short, sweet, and sad.

The morning sun drifted across her cheeks and woke her with a dreamy smile. Mal smiled as she felt the sunbeams tickle her nose and looked up to watch the dust filter through the air. She stretched the joints in her neck a little and reached out to the other side of the bed, where Ben was still fast asleep. Mal liked mornings when she'd just woken up and she didn't have to be sad or upset.

It would start out as a dull ache when she got up and couldn't stand as straight as she used to be. Then it would turn into striking sadness when she looked at the old pictures on the wall. The ones from back when she, Evie, Carlos, and Jay had been the strongest people in Auradon, back before they all started to break. And back when Ben was still getting started and they all thought they had all the time in the world.

Sixty-seven years of marriage and this was the first time she'd woken up before him. His old age must finally be catching up to him. She'd been staying in til nine or ten and up until twelve or one every morning and night since her second child, but Ben had been raised on 6 am waking and 7 o'clock is sleeping in. She'd tried to convince him to stay in with her before, but he got restless, just like when he tried to pull her to bed before eleven at night.

Mal rubbed her hands together and popped her joints. She was old, now. Eighty-six and grey. Her hair had started to grey at sixty, and by the time she was sixty-five, she'd given up on dying it to keep the purple in. Her skin went paler, and the veins showed through her skin. She got wrinkles, one by one, and finally had looked in the mirror and discovered an old woman instead of the Isle-hardened teen she'd once been.

She'd lived, lied, leaped and finally loved. Almost everything she'd once known had faded away. The first to go was her mother, the Fairy Godmother, and then Belle and Adam. They'd died as Mal had grown. Adam had never even met his last grandchild before he was gone. Then, slowly, her own friends had faded out of this life and into the next. Uma and Harry had passed in a freak accident on the Isle, bringing an end to the life-long feud between the two. Carlos had caught sick one day, deteriorated, and finally asked to be put out of his misery. Jay had lived until he was sixty and his body started to break down, as hers was now, and made the decision to take his life – and death – into his own hands. Mal had been devastated to find out her oldest friend had killed himself and that their group was down to her and Evie, but she'd understood he was happier never having to know the pains that old age would bring. He was strong, fast, and smart. Old age would have hurt him more than all the horrors of their youth. It was better to remember him as he'd been, rather than what he was.

Evie had lost Doug when she was thirty-nine and lived alone the rest of her life. As the poor woman got older and older, her natural beauty had never faded, but Evie had fretted over every wrinkle, every mark. Eventually, her hair turned as grey as Mal's, she gave up on keeping up with the people around her and turned her dress emporium over to her kids. Evie lived out the rest of her days in the castle she and Doug had first put the down payment on and died looking out the window in their room towards where he was buried out on their grounds.

And now she was the only one left. The last of the original Villain Kids.

It was meant to be like this. The rise and fall of the populace. People were born, people lived, and people died. And she was okay.

Being the last sucked.

Mal had been queen, but she'd never really taken up the mantra like Belle had during her reign. Pose for photos with Ben? Sure. Answer questions? She could handle that. But despite everything, she'd stayed in the shadows, painted, and hung out. She and Ben had had four children together. Her first one, and the heir to the kingdom, had been born right before she'd turned twenty. She'd had two more in her twenties, and then the last child had been born when she was forty. And they'd all grown up, all done their own things, all went their own paths. And she was proud of them. Each of them in their own right.

Ben had forfeited the kingdom to their eldest son, and they had lived out their lives by traveling from place to place in Auradon and enjoying life together. His hair had thinned and gone white, Eventually, it had been her turn to open doors for him and help him from place to place as he got older and older.

Mal rolled over and poked Ben's shoulder softly. He was lying face-down in his pillows, facing her. "You're lazy today." She whispered. He didn't stir from his sleep. The clock on the bedside table over his shoulder read 11:07. She frowned. "I don't think you've ever woken up this late." She whispered.

She stroked the side of his face with her knuckles. His skin was cold to the touch. Mal jumped up like she'd been electrocuted.

"Ben?" She asked sharply. She pulled his shoulder and rolled him onto his back. She pressed her ear against his chest and listened desperately for any sound at all. There was nothing – no movement - under his skin. Mal grabbed his shoulders and shook him as best she could. "Ben!" She yelled. Tears filled her eyes. "Ben!"

The door to the room opened and one of the palace servants poked his head in as Mal covered her face with her hands and began to cry. He yelled back into the hall for help and rushed over. He took her hand, covered her shoulders with a blanket from their bed, and pulled her out of her bed as she sobbed. People rushed in, swarming the bed in a panic.

She already knew there as nothing they could do. Sixty-seven years of marriage and Ben was dead.

And that was it. She was officially the last one. The one who'd outlived everyone.

Sheesh, this is the second sad thing I've written lately for this Fandom. The other one is Talking to No One if you're interested.

I do not own Descendants.