Okay, so we left off last time with Mal and Carlos on another journey together. Where are they going? Oh, I hope you'll love this. Enjoy.
Leave a review after reading, please. Feedback is always appreciated.
I'd like to thank the following users for reviewing the previous chapter: DragonEmperor999, xez2003, CarvieCamfia2
To xez2003: Yeah, well, I thought I had the most important plot points of the series planned out. I guess I was unprepared for how "Poor Unfortunate Souls" was going to end. At least "Long Live Evil" and "Ways To Be Wicked", while setting up future stories, had the endings I wanted. And as for why Mal is so calm in this new world, it's because she's accepted that this is her reality now. She thought that there's no use losing her mind if this is her life now. Besides, there was a one-month gap between this story and "Poor Unforunate Souls" where all Mal could do was think.
Mal and Carlos traverse through the woods once again. Mal was doing all kinds of showing off. Tightroping on logs. Jumping over boulders. Using any flat surface as a boost for flips. Carlos just followed her through simple walking. He was so confused about why she's acting so vivacious. That smile on her face, a few childish giggles... it's like she's an entirely different person. What happened to the vile and ruthless but somewhat caring Mal he was talking to an hour ago?
"Um, are you okay?" asked Carlos.
"Why wouldn't I be?" Mal replied with a rather merry tone in her voice.
"Just an hour ago, you were all, I'll let you down if you let me down, and, trust goes both ways... but now..." Carlos paused, unsure if she's understanding him with the way she's acting.
"Hey, I'm not all storm clouds and dark magic. Sometimes, a girl's just gotta get loose, have some fun, put on a little smile," said Mal.
Carlos was even more bewildered by this sudden change in attitude. True, he doesn't know her well, but this shift in personality was just too odd to not wonder about. It got even odder when Mal picked up a purple flower and gently blew it away, letting the wind guide it through the skies.
"Isn't nature wonderful?" Mal asked.
"I heard you go out a lot," said Carlos. "Why act like you don't go out much?"
"I got out, alright. I just never took the time to appreciate the flora," said Mal. "It's amazing how there are still some beautiful flowers and plants in this evil wasteland."
"Okay, are you messing with me or something?" Carlos accused.
"What's to mess with you about?" Mal replied nonchalantly. "Maybe I'm just enjoying myself."
"Okay, but your definition of enjoying yourself is way different than mine," said Carlos.
"Maybe, but who says I can't find something new to help me enjoy myself?" Mal responded. "Burning down houses and torturing morons are fun, but I wanna move pass that phase in my life."
"By acting like a little girl exploring the woods for the first time?" Carlos questioned.
"In a way, I am still a little girl," said Mal. "Like you're still a little boy. So, nothing wrong with a little youthful expression of your feelings, right?"
"Maybe," said Carlos. "But I think you need to sit and calm down. Maybe you're trying to hide your stress behind this nice girl aura..."
"I'm not hiding anything," Mal denied. "I'm just excited for where we're going."
"But I'm not," said Carlos.
"C'mon, we're nearly there," said Mal.
"But this is the way to Grimsmouth," said Carlos. "Why would you want to take me back there?"
"Just curious," Mal answered.
"About what?" asked Carlos.
"Just stop asking question and roll with it," said Mal.
Mal grabs Carlos' hand and drags him towards Grimsmouth. Carlos knew he was gonna hate this, but Mal's current behavior making it a lot scarier for him. Why he willingly chose to go on this journey with her, he'll never completely understand.
At the castle belonging to Evil Queen, the young Princess Evie was sipping tea on the balcony outside her room. She looks at the engagement ring on her finger, reminding herself that she's getting married to Prince Jay of Agrabah in less than a month. This marriage would make both of them leaders of Grimsmouth and Agrabah. If Mal wasn't the daughter of Maleficent, then she and Jay would be in control in the future. At least we have both love and some power with us, Evie thought.
Evie was about to grab the last biscuit on her plate when someone else grabbed it. A hand connected to a purple leather sleeve.
"Mal," Evie guessed.
Mal munched on the biscuit and then said, "Sorry. Did you want this?"
"And what reason could you possibly have to intrude upon my home?" Evie asked.
"First of all, could you ease up with the royal talk?" Mal said. "And second..."
Mal turns around and fires a fireball at a nearby potted shrub. As the shrub burst into flames, someone hiding behind jumped back in fear. It was Jay, Evie's soon-to-be husband. Mal laughed at the sight of Jay's fear and the sound of his startled scream.
"Seriously? Are you ever gonna stop doing that?" Jay complained.
"When you start getting good at hiding from me, maybe I will," Mal said sarcastically, doubting it would ever happen.
"I'm not even carrying magic. How are you even sensing me?" asked Jay.
"A dragon's sense of smell," Mal joked.
"Really?" asked Jay.
Mal just laughed on the inside. Jay actually thought she was being serious about the whole dragon's-sense-of-smell thing. She ignored his stupidity and finished the rest of the biscuit she took from Evie.
"So, are you invited here, Jay, or are you still sneaking around?" Mal asked, having learned that Jay of the new world always sneaked into Evie's castle without the mother's knowledge.
"Hey, I'm gonna be Evil Queen's stepson. I think I'm welcome here now," said Jay.
"But we're not married yet, so you're still not welcome here," said Evie. "But, hey, you know I'll always welcome you here."
Evie approaches Jay for a kiss. Mal turned around to not look, but she could still picture it in her head. Another silent "ew" escaped her lips as she waited for the soon-to-be married couple to finish.
"Don't make me burn you lips off, you two," Mal said threateningly, wishing for them to stop.
"So, if I may ask again, why are you here?" Evie asked.
"There's someone I'd like you to meet," said Mal.
Mal snaps her fingers and teleports the three of them to a spot in the woods not too far from the castle. Evie and Jay see a white-haired boy (Carlos, actually) magically glued to a tree. Jay was intrigued by the bow and hi-tech arrows he found on the ground, while Evie stared at the boy mouth agape. Carlos stared at Evie the same way. Mal was now even more intrigued. It would seem that they know each other.
"Hey!"
The was Jay. While he was messing around with the arrows, he got caught in a net made of steel cable that just popped out from one of the arrows. He tried to break free, but the net was too strong.
"I would've said, don't touch them, but I just wanted to see them blow up in your face," said Mal. "Literally."
"Uh, Evie, baby, how 'bout a little hand here?" Jay called.
Evie couldn't help him. She was too busy playing a game of "Don't blink" with Carlos, only this game involved emotional staring. Mal can tell that there is something going on here more than just them knowing each other by face.
"Uh, Evie?" Mal called. "This is..."
"Carlos," Evie interrupted her.
"You know him?" Jay asked, confused.
"I, well... a long time ago," said Evie. "I thought he was dead."
"Or so you and everyone thought," Carlos said sadly.
"Nice suit," Evie complimented. "Although, the design could use some work."
"You haven't changed at all. No surprise there," said Carlos. "I see you've had a happy life after we last saw each other."
"Well, I had more important things in my life to focus on," said Evie.
"That's what you said last time," Carlos reminded her with slight bitterness in his voice.
"And you're making a big deal out of this, like last time," said Evie.
"I can't believe how narcissistic you are," Carlos insulted.
"I can't believe how sensitive you are," Evie insulted back.
"Whoa, some temperament from a royal princess, E," Mal said, wowed that the wickedly courteous Evie is acting like a true bad girl.
"What are you even doing with him, Mal?" asked Evie.
"When I escaped from the resistance, I thought I'd take home a special guest with me," Mal lied, conjuring quite a convincing story.
"I'm liking this a lot less already," said Carlos.
"Feeling's mutual," said Evie.
"Hey!" Jay shouted. "I could handle this myself, but we could be here all day."
Mal frees Jay by burning the net with fire magic. Jay got singed a bit on the arm, but he just smacked it until the flame died. Mal once again felt amused just messing with Jay. Jay was growing more and more tired of her bullying.
"Get him out of here, Mal," Evie ordered.
"Harsh," Jay said, offended.
"Not you," said Evie. "Him!" She pointed at Carlos.
"Good. I don't even wanna be here anyway," said Carlos.
"I thought it would be nice for the three of you to get to know each other, especially since Carlos here is gonna be more involved in our lives," said Mal. Needing to keep her cover, she adds, "As my prisoner, of course."
"I'd rather rot in jail than see her face again," Carlos said, glaring at Evie.
"Well, if it makes you feel any better, I feel the same way," said Evie. "Except I'd rather be locked in my room instead of in jail. And if I were thrown in jail, which is impossible since I'm a princess and the daughter of the Evil Queen..."
"You would like to have your make-up kit with you. I get it," Carlos said, annoyed by her narcissism.
"No respect, as always," Evie retorted. "I can't believe we ever became close."
"I don't think we were ever close at all, from your perspective, that is," said Carlos.
"You guys were close?" Jay asked.
Evie ignored Jay and continued shouting at Carlos. She said, "Just a lowlife hood, as you always were."
"At least I'm a lowlife who knows the true meaning of love," Carlos retorted. "At least I found someone who I care about and cares about me. You're delusional if you think what you and Jay have is true love."
Evie slaps Carlos across the face, much to Mal and Jay's shock.
Carlos' cheek turned red due to the hard slap. But he didn't seem to care. Although, a tear appeared to have escaped his eye. Evie showed no sympathy and just turned her back on him, walking back to the castle.
"Hey, wait up," Jay called.
Jay ran after his fiance. Mal stayed with Carlos.
Mal frees him from the tree, only for him to grab his weapons and walk away from her. Mal followed him. Mal tried to get his attention, but Carlos wouldn't even look at her. Mal teleported herself in front of him, but he just walked around her and ignored her. She lit up a huge flame in his way, but he did the same thing with her and just walked around it.
"Talk to me, Carlos. C'mon," said Mal.
"We got nothing to talk about," said Carlos.
"I did say I was curious," said Mal.
"And you thought making me face Evie again after all these years is the best way to satisfy your curiosity?" Carlos questioned angrily.
"I saw the look on your face when you saw the castle a week ago," said Mal. "I figured you and Evie had some history. I just wanted to know."
"And why do you care about that?" asked Carlos. "And don't say it's just because you're curious."
"I don't like secrets. You and Evie know each other and I want to know how and why," said Mal.
"Well, stay out of it," said Carlos.
Carlos walks away from her again, only for Mal to poof right in front of him again. He tried walking around her again, but she kept blocking his way. Frustrated and annoyed, Carlos aims an arrow at her.
"Do you really wanna do this again?" Mal asked, fed up with this scene.
Carlos knew it was pointless to even threaten her. Besides the fact that she can easily counter his shots with her magic, he doesn't have the guts anymore to release the bow when aiming an arrow at her.
"Look, I'm sorry if seeing Evie again was painful for you," Mal apologized. "But if we're gonna be allies... maybe friends even... we have to know more about each other."
"You wouldn't even tell me what your plans are for the resistance," said Carlos. "Now you expect me to tell you more of my secrets?"
"I want to dethrone my mother!" Mal revealed.
Carlos was quite now. He didn't expect her to just shout the truth at him, but clearly he provoked her like she provoked him. One thing he was sure of is that she was telling the truth. Pushing someone's temper to its limit can pressure this someone to just drop the truth bomb.
"And you want the resistance to help you," Carlos guessed.
"I can handle my mother, but she has an entire kingdom as backup," said Mal. "I need help. Your help. Other people's help."
"You didn't have to keep that from me," said Carlos.
"Well, I did," said Mal. "But now it's your turn. How do you know Evie?"
Carlos calmed down as he sat down next to a tree. He takes out an arrow with a heart-shaped tip. Mal jokingly thought it was a love potion arrow, but why would Carlos ever invent something like that? She just sat down next to him while keeping some distance between them.
"The first time I met Evie, it was her sixth birthday party," Carlos started.
Funny, Mal thought. That was also true in the old reality. Carlos first met Evie at that exact same day.
"We never really spoke. I just gave her a gift and walked away," said Carlos. "But every time I had to come along with my mother to her meetings with the other villains, I keep seeing her. I was too shy to talk to her, though. I just watched her from across the room. Every single time."
"Creepy," Mal commented.
"A girl as beautiful as her, why wouldn't I?" Carlos replied.
Mal understood. No matter which world, boys would always stare at Evie because her beauty rivals that of Cinderella and Snow White. To know that Carlos still does the same even in this new world, she thought it was kinda cute.
"I didn't tell you the whole truth about three years ago," Carlos continued. "I did run away from my mother, but I didn't run into Robin Hood immediately. I ran into Evie while she was visiting Camelot. It's a funny story. I was hiding from her because I didn't know if I should even talk to her. I was watching her from the top of a roof. I tripped and I fell. Crashed into a pile of hay right next to her. She recognized me and we started talking. One day of getting to know each other, laughing at each other's jokes, or her laughing at me when I had an accident... I don't know. We just clicked. I told her that I didn't want to go home to my mom anymore, so she took me in, hid me in her castle's basement. I stayed there for three months and I got to know her better. Believe it or not, she's not exactly all bad."
"Oh, really? Then what was she like?" Mal asked, pretending she doesn't know about Evie's nice side.
"She's actually... good," said Carlos. "She's caring, considerate, compassionate... she took care of me, made sure I was happy. And I was happy. She made me smile. I made her smile. We kept each other company. I tried to teach her about science and she would just pretend to understand and I would just go with it. She made me feel... feel like... like..."
"You loved her," Mal figured out.
Carlos didn't have to nod to answer. The look on his face made it so obvious.
"But then she and Jay started hanging out more and everything changed," said Carlos. "She fell in love with him, got more involved with the other villains because of him, and then it's like the good side of her just switched off permanently. All I knew is that she started to treat me more like my mother. Like I was just a slave. A slave to a princess. It hurt so much to see her treat me that way, so I ran away... again."
Mal scooted closer and put one arm around Carlos, hugging him even if he wouldn't like it. He didn't fight back. He accepted this act of comfort. Carlos leaned on her until his head rested against hers. Confessing yet another big secret took an emotional toll on him, so Mal wanted him to have a shoulder to lean on.
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ ROTTEN TO THE CORE ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
Meanwhile, on the other side of the woods, Evie told Jay her own version of the story between her and Carlos. She just casually fast-forwarded through all the important parts as if she didn't care about them at all. She told Jay that she took Carlos in to be her servant and prisoner, which was a lie, and that he ran away after three months of servitude.
"You're holding back something," said Jay. "I mean, from the look and sound of it, you seemed like you were... friends."
"Well, he wasn't all bad, really," Evie admitted. "He's smart, too sweet for his own good... but I could not let myself fall into the light. I had to remain strong and resist his charms."
"Charms?" Jay questioned. "Were you two... in love?"
"Hell no," Evie denied. "When he's not being nice, he was judging me for how I treated him. Ungrateful runt, he was. I gave him a home, I fed him, and made sure no one found out about him. And how does he repay me? Constant criticism of me just being myself. He criticized me for caring about my looks. He criticized me for my so-called prejudiced opinions of other VKs. Worst of all, he criticized my feelings for you."
"Well, then he's a jerk," said Jay. "No one criticizes my girl but me."
"True," Evie said amorously, stroking his cheek with her hand in a very affectionate manner.
Jay smiled and leaned in for another kiss, but Evie turned her head.
"What's wrong?" asked Jay.
"I just never thought I'd see him again," said Evie. "I just made myself think he was dead. Well, news flash, he's not. There he is."
"Do you... miss him?" asked Jay.
"Why would I?" Evie questioned, denying that she did.
Before Jay could interrogate her further, they both received text messages from Harry. Same message. Just as they were about to read it, Mal poofed right next to them with Carlos. Carlos was tied up in magical restrains (as part of the act, of course).
"Harry sent every single his closest buddies the same message," Mal said.
Evie and Jay read the message. The message came with a picture. A picture of... Ben and his closest friends from the resistance, hiding somewhere in Faraway Cove. Harry's message said: "Want to have some fun with the resistance?"
"Oh, we definitely do," said Jay. He turns to Evie and asks, "Wanna join me, baby?"
"A princess would never fight her own battles. Lucky for you, I'm not a hero princess," said Evie.
"Looks like your plan worked, Mal. They're out of their hiding spot and they're about to lose the game," said Jay.
"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go whoop some resistance butt," Mal said excitedly.
While Jay and Evie exchanged excited smiles, Mal turns to Carlos and winks at him, reminding him that she's still on his side. Carlos nodded to let her know that he knows.
However, Carlos knew something was wrong. It's still hours before the time Ben said he would depart. So, why would Ben move out right now?
This is so NOT good. Ben and the resistance are out of the catacombs and just got spotted by Harry. Remember what I said about building up to intense stuff...
So, what do you think?