HEY GUYS! So, with D3 coming out under the title, The Big Sleep, I came up with this theory on what that could mean. At the same time, I wrote it in context of Huma. Enjoy this one-shot!

Mal's dad was human, and he was, in fact, evilest of them all. He was a scientist, but his natural curiosity became his life sentence. Jealous of magical beings and the power they held, he kidnapped and experimented on any person, animal, or object endowed with extraordinary abilities. He was determined to capture the formula to their powers and bestow them upon himself. He was driven mad by his conquest to turn magic into an exact science, and his methods became more and more gruesome as time went on. His atrocities were unparalleled, even by the better-known villains.

He was exiled with every other foul mind in the land. Even after Beast sent him to the Isle, he never stopped searching for the answer to his experiment. He found a roadblock in the barrier. Magic was completely restricted, no exceptions. Still, he did what he could.

Even court the most powerful fairy on the Isle.

Maleficent claimed that he was weak because he was human, but he had years of experience in deception and manipulation–it's how he attained his test subjects. In truth, Maleficent was weak because she fell for it. She had her moment of weakness when she fell in love with him. More than love, she gave him information. For every query he had about magic, she told him everything she knew.

He would leave, of course, and Mal would be born soon after. He didn't fall in love with Maleficent. She was just another source in his investigation.

21 years on the Isle left him plenty of time to map out the experimental design for his freedom. Unlike the rest of the villains, his brain was evolved enough to navigate the catacombs beneath the Isle and the barrier. He would leave the Isle, arrive in Auradon, and continue his experiment.

Spending so much time with Maleficent had inspired him. He was old, out of practice, and less capable of capturing subjects with such ease. However, he now knew of eternal slumber magic, and he had figured out the formula.

That was The Big Sleep. He would have an unlimited supply of subjects–all with different ages, genders, heights, levels of magic–and he would be free to perform all the experiments for all of his investigations on live, unresponsive samples.

The Big Sleep was a scientist's dream come true.

Here we find our heroes on the brink of failure. Mal and her gang had found her father's hideout in what appeared to be a rundown house beside the shore. The house was just a cover up for the underground laboratory beneath it. Mal's dad was expecting her, so he used a vile serum to turn the common animals which roamed around the area into grotesque, humanoid soldiers. Brainless beings with the heads of cows, pigs, and birds stood sentry around the house, and Mal knew it was time for a fight. If they didn't win, they'd all be asleep forever.

Inside the house, Mal's father prepared the eerie green liquid which would send Auradon to sleep. A wicked smile spread across his wrinkled face. After years of waiting, he would finally cover the kingdom in a magical smoke, made by one man's science, and he would be able to continue his research as he pleased. The only threat to his plan was his insolent daughter and her obnoxious friends, but he could tell from the painful grunts and victorious baying that his soldiers were holding up just fine.

Just as he was placing the liquid into his smoking device, a terrifying noise hit his ears. A powerful boom of thunder, followed by a crash of the ocean waves and the horrific squeal of a pig-soldier.

What? He wondered, moving over to a window so that he could view outside. The waves should not be able to reach this far.

That's when he saw her. Mal brought an unlikely ally to the fight, a sea witch. The waves obeyed her, and she beckoned a storm upon her adversaries with nothing more than a shine of her nautilus shell necklace and a glance of her piercing gold eyes of the same radiance. She wiped out the animal defenses with such effortlessness. In doing so, she granted Mal and their gang entrance into his lab.

Filled with rage, Mal's father grabbed a dart gun and loaded it with the poison he concocted. He was hoping that he could cast the spell without any trouble, but he might have to perform a few manual injections to get the job done. He placed the gun in the back of his collar and awaited the arrival of his opponents. Soon enough, he was facing his daughter and all of her friends and allies.

"I suppose this is where I surrender, Maleficent," he said in a low voice, smirking slightly when Mal was visibly irked by the use of her full name.

"It's over, Dad," she stated, taking a step forward. "You're going back to the Isle."

"Of course, of course," he chuckled, raising his hands to show he wasn't a threat. His calculating eyes scanned the room. Mal was the closest, which made her a preferable target, but she also wasn't the biggest problem. His gaze fell on the sea witch, the teal-haired girl with a look of ferocity etched into her otherwise smooth features. If he left her unattended, she could have his lab underwater in seconds.

Mal took a step forward, under the impression that he was actually giving up. On the contrary, he was just planning his next move. With a swift hand, he reached behind his collar and pulled out the dart gun. He aimed the barrel at the sea witch, and all of the kids jumped back at the sight of the gun. All but one.

He pulled the trigger, but the dart didn't hit the sea witch. Instead, a young man took the hit, and the intended target watched in horror as the boy, clad in a red coat, fell to his knees before crumbling to the ground in front of her.

"Harry!" Uma screamed, no longer interested in the battle at hand. She wasn't worried about how Mal's father proceeded to shoot Mal with the remaining darts. She wasn't concerned with how Mal stayed standing and fought her father. She didn't care about helping the rest of the company disable the smoke machines. While the rest of them ran about the lab, Uma dropped down to her knees and pulled the unmoving form of her first mate onto her lap. She pulled the dart out of his chest and pushed his matted bangs away from his closed his eyes. "Harry?" She asked the unresponsive boy.

Within minutes, the battle was over. The machines were disabled, and Mal's father was incapacitated. None of that was ever Uma's goal. Her goal was survival. She thought that helping Mal would get her there, and she was right.

She survived, but Harry wasn't waking up.

The others had slowly formed a circle around Uma and Harry, watching with sorrowful expressions as Uma hopelessly tried to shake Harry awake. Gil had to sit down and look away, unable to bear the sight of one of his best friends lying lifelessly on the floor. Even the rotten four felt a gut-twisting sensation. The son of Hook was a pain on the Isle, and he did nothing but complain about Auradon ever since he came to the mainland, but they still felt for a lost life. This wasn't even his battle, yet he was a casualty in Mal's family feud.

Uma kept saying his name through gritted teeth. She refused to cry. Crying meant she'd given up and accepted the worst, but that couldn't be the case. There was no way this was real. Harry couldn't be dead.

How could it have ended like this?

Nothing like this ever happens to the good guys?

By helping Mal, wasn't Uma one of those heroes who gets a happy ending in the end?

What went wrong this time?

"Uma," Mal said gently, making the sea witch look up at her with utmost annoyance. Mal had already concluded what the darts were filled with. She plucked a pair of darts out of her arm, sending a sliver of green vapor into the air. Her dragon tattoo decided to make an appearance as well. She knew why she was still standing while Harry was on the ground. "He was hit by an eternal sleep spell."

Uma wasn't processing what she was saying. She was blocking out anything that she didn't want to hear. Still, some part of Mal's words were starting to add up in her head. She sniffled, fighting hard against the urge to wail and scream. Her walls were slowly crumbling, but Mal still had to say the dreaded words to make her fully understand.

"He's not waking up."

Uma choked on the air, her throat aching from holding back her emotions. She looked down at Harry once more. She could see the subtle rise and fall of his chest, indicating breath, but the message had finally resonated in her head. He would forever remain asleep.

She broke down. Tears finally leaked from her glassy eyes onto Harry's relaxed face. Everyone else in the room gave Uma and Harry space and stood in respectful silence. Uma wept silently, barely making any more than a small squeak as she mourned the death of her best friend.

No, that doesn't even begin to cover it, Uma thought as she closed her eyes, trying to imagine her blue-eyed buccaneer with his signature smirk. He was so much more than that.

From their place against the wall, Mal and Evie watched the melancholic scene before them. Evie barely knew either of the pirates, and Mal only knew Uma as a kid. Neither of them had any clue of the nature of their relationship. They assumed it was as simple as a villain and her lackey, but a villain would never shed a tear for a lackey. Harry and Uma were something else, something the Isle didn't get very often.

"M," Evie whispered to her friend, and Mal looked over at her. Evie's brows were furrowed in deep thought. Mal knew that look. She had an idea. "Look at them," Evie suggested.

Mal did as she said and looked closer. Uma's shoulders shook with quiet sobs, and her contorted features completely contrasted Harry's peaceful expression. She kept one hand under his head, holding his forehead against hers. Her other hand gripped his jacket tightly despite the tremors of her arm. Evie clearly saw something that Mal couldn't.

"Your mother's curse had a cure," Evie elaborated, keeping her voice low. Mal's eyes widened in realization at what Evie was implying. Her mother's curse did have a cure. Evie's mother's poison had a cure, too. Even Uma's mother's deal called for this fix to satisfy the terms. She looked at Evie, whose brown eyes held a glimmer of hope as she said, "It might work."

Mal nodded and stepped away from the wall. She approached the grieving sea witch and said, "Uma."

After a moment to regain as much of her composure as possible, Uma looked up at the one who called her name. Mal was taken aback at first by the defeated look on Uma's face, but she pushed the thought aside so she could relay her message. She flicked her head towards Harry and advised, "Kiss him."

This caught the attention of everyone in the room. Of all things she could say, no one expected her to request of Uma to kiss a dead man. They began to form a circle again, this time around both Uma and Mal. Uma was stunned speechless by the idea. After a long pause, she asked weakly, "What?"

"Kiss him," Mal repeated, and she looked back at Evie, who gave her a curt nod. She turned back to Uma and tried to give her a small smile. "It might save him."

Uma's mouth hung open, and her eyes darted between Harry and Mal. She was able to deduce that Mal was suggesting the same universal antidote that she used on Ben when he was under Uma's love spell. This was different, though. Ben was Mal's established boyfriend of six months at the time. Uma and Harry grew up in a world without love. How could she know if that's what they had?

Uma sighed before speaking, her voice cracking, "Mal, I don't know if Harry and I–"

"Just try it," Mal insisted, hope bubbling inside her like a warm sun rising in the east. She had grown so used to happy endings in Auradon that she couldn't bear the thought of denying Uma her one happy ending.

Uma held Mal's gaze for a moment longer before she finally set her eyes on Harry. All eyes in the room were on her. She moved the hand on his shoulder to his cheek, brushing the edge of his hair with her fingertips. She swallowed hard, struggling push out the big fear: What if it didn't work?

Uma took a deep breath and closed her eyes, steeling her resolve. She wouldn't know for sure unless she tried. She leaned down, angled her head, and gently pressed her lips against his slimly parted ones.

There was a pause in the room. No one breathed. No one moved. Even Uma didn't dare to destroy the still atmosphere. She kept her eyes closed and focused on what she was doing. A simple kiss.

With her eyes squeezed shut, Uma didn't know why she heard someone gasp until she felt a rough hand brush against her cheek.

Uma's eyes snapped open as she pulled away. Hovering a few inches above his face, she was greeted by a pair of icy eyes staring lazily at her above a wide smirk. He even chuckled as he rubbed his thumb across the tear-stained skin of her face.

The room erupted into a chorus of hoots and hollers. The mood was turned completely upside down. Grief turned into celebration.

Uma tuned them out. She was still trying to process what just happened. Harry was cursed into an eternal sleep. She kissed him. Now he's awake.

Do we actually have it? She thought to herself. True Love's Kiss?

"Ye know," Harry said, snapping Uma back to reality. She couldn't help but get lost in his eyes while his brogue rolled off his tongue. "When I imagined our first kiss, I never thought ye'd be cryin'."

Uma laughed lightly. She found that she'd started to cry all over again, but this time it was out of happiness. She couldn't hide the smile that was etching itself onto her face. Her forehead pressed against his again, only this time they were both expressing joy. This was the happiest either had ever felt. Not only did they avoid Harry's death, but they'd put their feelings into action. Now they knew what they shared was special. It was worthy of being called love.

"Shut up," Uma warbled, leaning in to kiss him again.

I hope you enjoyed that quick little snip! Lemme know what you guys thought, or what you guys think THE BIG SLEEP is. G'night! -JoJo, who should really study for her AP Tests