Of Villains and Love

Mal, Evie, Jay, and Carlos sat in Mal and Evie's room alone. Fairy Godmother's attempt to give them a nice gift failed and so did Family Day. The common denominator there was their parents. All four of them often wished they were born to heroes, or even heroes' sidekicks, like Doug, and now they were wishing it more than ever. Their parents were the reason Queen Leah verbally attacked Mal and the reason no one at Auradon Prep liked them. If anything, Family Day proved that they could never be seen as anything more than villains. It's like Chad said, their parents did not teach them kindness and fair play, they were taught to be just like their parents. "You guys ready to get that wand?" Mal asked her friends.

Jay angrily responded, "If us being villains is what everyone wants, it's what they'll get."

Evie looked sadly at Mal, "What about Ben? Don't try to deny it Mal, I know you actually like him."

"Yeah and look where that got me. If I never cast that love spell on him, I wouldn't have run into Queen Leah and had to deal with her." Mal dismissed Evie's claim, "It's just like my mom says, 'Love is weaknesses'." The other three nodded in agreement. They were beginning to love life in Auradon, but just as things were looking up the people of Auradon had to remind them of who they were. Ben seemed to be the only person who actually believed in them, and he was under a love spell.

Together Mal, Evie, Jay, and Carlos had put together their plan. Mal would grab the wand, since she would be the closest. Then Carlos would hotwire the limo after Evie used a sleeping potion on the driver. Jay would act as muscle and the lookout as they needed him. Now they were surer than ever that they were doing what they wanted. Mal added giving Ben an antidote to the love potion she had given him. The idea of Ben still being in love with her while Auradon falls around him and she betrays him just felt extra cruel.

As Ben's coronation was about to begin, Mal met him to take a carriage to the ceremony. Her three friends were being taken with the rest of the school. On the way there, Mal decided to give the brownie that held the potion to Ben. "Here's a snack to keep your energy up. You may get hungry later." She told him, handing him the box.

"That's what I love about you, always thinking." Ben smiled at her thoughtfulness. "But I can't wait." He took a bite out of the brownie, shocking Mal.

"How do you feel?" Mal asked, worried that their plan would be ruined. "Would you say that you still lo- still have strong feelings for me?"

"I don't know. Let's wait a bit for the antidote to take effect." Ben said and Mal nodded her head in agreement.

Then after two seconds it hit her, "Wait you knew?"

Ben laughed at Mal's confusion, "Yeah. You're spell washed off in the enchanted lake on our first date."

"So you've just been faking it since then?" Mal asked, disappointedly.

Ben took her hand in his and kissed it, "I haven't been faking anything." His action shocked Mal once again. There was someone who believed in her. Ben had not acted the way he did because of a spell, he legitimately believed in the four villain kids. If the king believed in them, maybe…no their parents would end them if they failed. Mal would never get another chance to make her mother proud of her. They may have been considering staying in Auradon before the Family Day fiasco, but that plan would not have lasted long. They were too afraid of their parents. Everyone in Auradon may believe they are securely stick on the Isle of the Lost, but they knew. Their parents would eventually find a way of the Isle and they would be punished.

Mal was brought out of her thoughts when they arrived at the church for the ceremony. She heard Snow White reporting on her and Ben's arrival, but ignored that when she saw Ben's parents. There was a somewhat awkward moment between Mal and them before they told Ben they were proud of him. They even went as far as to say that he was going to be a good king. Watching this, Mal could not help but think of her mother. Would this be how she reacted when Mal gave her Fairy Godmother's wand? That would be the ideal situation, but realistically Maleficent would complain about how long it took or the way it was done. As she said "good luck" to Ben Mal thought that even if her mother was only a little bit proud of her it would be worth it in the end.

The ceremony began and Mal kept her eye on the wand, waiting for the right time to grab it. That time came when Jane, Fairy Godmother's daughter, grabbed the wand herself. Sparks of magic flew out of the wand while Jane tried to control it. Mal took advantage of the confusion and yanked the wand out of Jane's hand. The whole audience gasped in fear when Mal immediately pointed the wand at anyone who tried to take it from her. "Come on Mal, revenge time." She heard Jay's voice behind her, the other three had used the confusion to get down to Mal.

"Mal you don't have to do this." Ben pleaded with her. The look of hurt on his face was almost too much to bear.

"Ben you don't understand. Our parents…" She tried to explain herself to him, but was cut off.

"Your parents made their choice." Ben reassured her, "You can make your own."

"That's not what she meant Ben." Carlos said, frustrated with the now king. "She was going to say that our parents will kill us if we don't get this done."

"They're not exactly a barrel of laughs when they don't get their way." Evie said in an annoyed tone. Mal noticed the faces of Belle, Beast and Fairy Godmother soften.

"You're parents cannot reach you here." Fairy Godmother reassured them, "You four are safe."

The four laughed, humorlessly at the comment. "Do you really think that they're quietly sitting on that island? That they're thinking about what they've done? That they feel any regret?" Mal lashed out, pointing the wand at Fairy Godmother. "They've been plotting, planning ways to get off the island and seek their revenge. Even if we don't give them this wand, they will find another way."

Belle looked like she wanted to say something, probably about how getting off the island was impossible, but was cut off by Jay. "All of you were terrified enough of our parents to put them on a secluded island far from you. How do you think we feel about them?" He reminded the people of Auradon.

"Come on." Chad said indignantly, "That's a complete lie. Even villains love their kids."

"My mother treated me more as a slave than her son." Carlos reveal in a fit of rage. He lifted up his pant leg revealing scars, "These are from traps that she had around the house. She never cared if I got hurt by them. If it wasn't for these three, I wouldn't have survived. I was afraid of dogs until I got here in Auradon. Now I love Dude and playing with him."

"My dad made me steal things in order to be given food and a place to sleep. I can't count the number of nights that Carlos, Evie, and Mal sneaked out to keep me company because I wasn't allowed to sleep in his house. Jafar only cared about what I could do for him, not me. I don't even like stealing, I'd much rather play Tourney." Jay added onto Carlos's story. At this point the people of Auradon began to look down at their feet. Beast and Belle looked at each other, feeling guilty that they let this go on for so long.

Evie stepped forward, "My mom always wanted me to find a rich prince, and marry him. She made sure I knew how to apply make-up before I could walk. The only thing good about me was my looks, intelligence doesn't look good to princes. I didn't even realize that I could be smart until I came here. I've come to see that I actually like being smart and getting good grades."

Mal knew that everyone was expecting her to spill her guts like her friends. "Do any of you know what it's like to never be good enough?" She asked the people of Auradon knowing that none of them truly felt that. "Nothing I ever do is evil enough for my mother. Whenever I try to do something, she critiques me and then goes into her 'when I was your age I was conquering entire kingdoms' speech. One time for a project at Dragon Hall I got second place for making evil plans. My mother was not happy with me. She just wants me to be her, it doesn't matter what I want. My mother thinks of love as a weakness."

After a few moments of silence, Ben asked, "What do you want Mal?" Mal had no idea how to answer that question. It was not something she had ever been asked before.

"I have no idea what I want." Mal answered after thinking, "But I do know that I don't want to be evil. Unfortunately for us, we don't have a choice."

"You do have a choice." Everyone turned, shocked to see the words coming out of Audrey. "We will do everything in our power to protect all four of you. There's no need to be afraid of your parents anymore." Audrey's words made Mal stop and think. Looking around she saw every person in the church nodding their heads in agreement. Looking at the other four villain kids she knew they were just as blown away as her. The four locked eye contact and they immediately knew they were all thinking the same thing. They were sick and tired of dealing with their parents. If all these people were promising to protect them and be there for them, maybe it was worth the risk.

Mal was about to return the wand to Fair Godmother when a cloud of green smoke appeared. The four were immediately filled with fear, they knew that this was Maleficent. The crowd of Auradon citizens cowered when Maleficent appeared out of the green gas. Mal saw the anger in the faces of anyone she saw. Remembering that they had all of Auradon on their side, Mal was filled with enough courage to say, "Go away mother."

Maleficent looked at Mal and laughed, "That's hilarious. She's so funny isn't she?" Then her mood changed to pure anger, "Give me the wand." Mal looked from the wand to her mother, then made her decision. The look of shock on Maleficient's face when the wand flew past her into Fairy Godmother's hand was priceless. Mal would have laughed had she not seen the pure rage in her mother's face when she turned back to her. "Why didn't you give me the wand Mal. Now is not the time for teenage rebellion. I do not tolerate failure in this family."

Maleficent began to walk towards Mal, but stopped when she heard Fairy Godmother begin, "Bippity, Boppity…"

"Boo!" Maleficent finished for Fairy Godmother, freezing every Auradonian in the church. "Now it's time for revenge." She said grabbing the wand from Fairy Godmother's frozen hand. "Before that, I need to deal with you four. Were you thinking of betraying me?"

Mal looked at the faces of the Auradonians, all those who could fight were posed to go after Maleficent. Anyone who could fight looked like they were running towards the four of them. "Yeah. We don't want to take over Auradon, we like it here." Evie said.

"Hey Mal," Carlos said, "Maybe good really is more powerful than evil."

Mal knew exactly what he was talking about. Despite the fact that there was no magic on the Isle, Maleficent was powerful enough that she could perform some mental magic, but only with Mal. Throughout her life whenever her mother wanted her to do something they would fight using this power. Mal had not been able to ever defeat her mother, but know that she was not using her powers for evil, maybe she would be able to overcome her mother. Before trying Mal knew that she had to get the wand out of her mother's hand so she said, "And now I command, wand to my hand!"

The wand easily flew out of Maleficent's hand and into Mal's. "You will regret this!" Maleficent exclaimed as she transformed into a dragon. The four had to take a few seconds to take in Maleficent's dragon form. They all knew the stories, but had never seen for themselves. The dragon's roar brought them back into the real world and they immediately took off running. They dodged fire until Evie used the mirror to blind the dragon.

"Get behind me!" Mal yelled out to her friends. The dragon landed in front of them and her eyes glowed green, recognizing what Mal was doing. Mal's eye glowed a brighter green than they ever had as she chanted four times, "The strength of evil is good as none, when stands before four hearts as one." The dragon cried out and disappeared into a cloud of green dust. When the dust cleared all they saw was a small, purple lizard.

"What happened? Did I do that?" Mal asked in shock of finally defeating her mother.

"No sweetheart." Fairy Godmother, who had become unfrozen, told them, "She just shrunk to the size of love in her heart. She will stay a harmless lizard, unless she learns to love."

"So she'll stay like this forever?" Mal asked bitterly.

"You four learned to love, she can to." Fairy Godmother told them. The four doubted Maleficent would ever want to learn to love. They knew that she saw it as a weakness.

"I believe this belongs to you." Mal said, handing the wand back to Fairy Godmother.

"Thank you," she said taking the wand, "And I think all four of you have earned an A in goodness class." They laughed releasing all the tension they had been feeling. Fairy Godmother then turned away from them, lifted her wand and called out, "Bippity, boppity, boo!" The Auradonians were unfrozen and began running to the four.

"Woah, woah!" Mal called out grabbing Ben, "Don't worry we got this covered guys." Ben looked at Mal, then smiled. They both laughed as he lifted her up and spun her around in sheer happiness. When he put her down she saw Fairy Godmother talking with Jane and felt guilty. "I need to handle something, I'll be right back."

Mal walked over to Jane and explained to Fairy Godmother that she was the one who put crazy ideas about looking beautiful in Jane's head. "You're beautiful, inside and out, your mom is right about that." She told Jane, then hugged her.

"I guess I got pretty lucky in the mom department." Jane said smiling, then was led away by her mother.

Behind them Mal saw Audrey. They awkwardly smiled at each other and curtsied. "Thank you," Mal told her, "for what you said. We needed to hear that."

"Don't worry about it." Audrey said, "You four have a real family here in Auradon, I could let you give that up." She pulled Mal into a hug, which shocked Mal a bit, but she soon relaxed. Looking up she noticed Queen Leah smiling and giving her a nod. Mal smiled back a the older woman.

After breaking the hug with Audrey, Mal looked back at where she left the other three and saw the castle guards taking away her mother. Goodbye mother I hope to never see you again. Mal thought as she walked back over to the other three and Ben.

As soon as she got to her friends, she was brought into a big group hug. "Let's get this party started!" Jay exclaimed after breaking the hug. People cheered and everyone left the church to attend the party portion of Ben's coronation.

THE END