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Chapter 12: Faith
"I still can't believe it, and they dare to call us evil!" Evie said to Mal as the two walked through the halls of Auradon prep.
It had been a day since the failed break-in attempt of one of the paparazzi. Ben's proclamation issuing a heftier punishment for harassing press had been active for the entire day, and Mal had, to her delight, not seen even the slightest hint of any flashing camera since.
"I know, I spoke to Ben about it so many times, this break-in has apparently finally convinced him." Mal replied.
"I'm glad. I still remember that time I found one of them in our room, sniffing through our stuff. He had the nerve to tell me that he was from the press, as if that was supposed to make up for anything." Evie ranted.
"Exactly! I mean, everything they've been doing for so long has actually made me think about some things." Mal said.
"What?" Evie asked.
"Well, you know how the Auradonians took all the villains and sent them to the isle?" Mal began.
"Yeah?" Evie replied, still in a questioning tone.
"But then Ben came around and started bringing some of the good people on the isle back, mainly the children of those villains." Mal continued.
"Yeah?" Evie repeated.
"Well, why not do the same with Auradon? Initially, all the good people stayed here, but they've all grown up and had children of their own. I'm not sure if Ben has ever looked if the people he ruled are actually good people." Mal concluded.
Evie stopped walking and stared at Mal pervasively. "Are you suggesting what I think you're suggesting?"
"Well, why not E? I mean, it would only be fair." Mal said with a shrug.
"You're talking about sending Auradonian people to the Isle!?" Evie exclaimed.
"Only bad people! I mean, that's what the isle is for, right?" Mal replied.
"Well, I guess. But… I like to think that we have all grown as people. I like to believe that we no longer have to rely on a distant island to send everyone who's caused us trouble." Evie suggested.
"The good guys did it to us and look what happened. They have a thriving kingdom." Mal said slowly.
"And the people on the isle have to bicker for scraps." Evie replied. "M, remember how it was for us to grow up there? We couldn't let our guard down for one second or we would risk losing everything we had. Are you truly saying that you'd be okay with having that happen to other people?"
Mal uncomfortably stroked her arm. "I guess not, but I also don't believe that people here in Auradon should be able to do however they please."
"I'm not saying that either." Evie told her. "All I ask is that you try not to fall back on extremes. Start of lightly, with mild punishments. If people still misbehave, maybe try to initiate some sort of prison or detention center here in Auradon."
Mal looked at her best friend. "E, that's actually a really good idea. You're right, we don't have to rely on these extreme punishments, we can take the middle ground in some instances."
Evie happily put an arm around Mal's shoulders. "There you go. See, you don't necessarily have to become an evil ruler."
"Well, my mother was not actually an evil queen." Mal replied with a shrug.
Evie sighed. "Mine was, but then again, I am not the one who will become queen of Auradon."
Mal felt the familiar sensation of fear and excitement come over her when Evie would mention anything about her upcoming marriage with Ben, and the subsequent ceremony which would officially swear her in as queen. Mal believed that her insecurities would always continue to be present but had also been reassured more times than she could count by Ben, Evie and numerous others. The nerves she had felt before cotillion and when she and Ben had first discussed a possible marriage had pretty much disappeared.
"Are you okay?" Evie asked once she saw Mal's expression.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I don't feel so panicked anymore whenever people talk to me about becoming queen. I mostly just want this all to be over so that me and Ben can finally be happy." Mal confessed.
Evie smiled at her. "Well, you don't have to worry about that. Jane and I have been working non-stop, we already have some plans for the wedding that you're gonna love."
Mal smiled back. "I want to believe you, but how can you already be planning when we don't even have a concrete date for the wedding yet? Or a venue?"
Evie shrugged. "It's all in the details. Trust me, you have absolutely nothing to worry about."
"So, you're saying that I won't be a nervous wreck at the first meeting tomorrow?" Mal asked.
Tomorrow would be the first official meeting of the so-called wedding committee. Both Ben and Mal would be present but would mainly select ideas proposed by the wedding planners, which were Jane, Evie and Archer. Ben's parents and Fairy Godmother would also be present, since the wedding would be paired alongside Mal's official coronation.
"All you have to do is approve our ideas. You and Ben can spend your time all lovey-dovey while the rest of us take care of all the preparation." Evie reassured her.
Mal uncomfortably shrugged. "E, I don't want any of you to simply put my duties on your shoulders."
"It's no trouble, no trouble at all." Evie went on. "M, I get to see my best friend get married. To see you be as happy as you can be is one of the greatest gifts you could ever give me."
"Aww, thanks E." Mal replied as she put her head on Evie's shoulder.
"And if I ever get married, you will get to be stressful on my behalf." Evie said.
"There it is!" Mal exclaimed with a broad smile.
The two continued their way to the lunch yard, where Ben was already joined at his table by Archer, Carlos, Jay, Jane, Chad and Audrey.
"Hey!" He cheerfully called out to Mal.
"Hey!" Mal happily replied before softly kissing Ben and taking a seat on his lap.
"What were you discussing?" Ben asked.
"Evie and I were simply stating our happiness at the lack of flashing cameras around." Mal answered with a smile.
"I know, it almost appears as though things might get normal around here." Ben said.
"Normal? Maybe, but it just as well might be the busiest time the kingdom has ever seen." Jane complained as she furiously typed on her laptop.
Carlos sat next to his girlfriend but kept silent at her outburst and simply poked at his food. Jay similarly paid no attention to Jane's rambling, but he was more focused on the tourney schematics in front of him. Archer had been talking to Ben before Mal and Evie showed up and had taken a small break from talking to tend to his food. Audrey and Chad were cackling with each other about the wedding, but every topic mainly concerned themselves.
"Mal!" Jane said sharply. "We still have the issue of the flower girls and the ring bearer I proposed to you earlier, have you given it any thought?"
Before Mal could answer, Ben stepped in. "Jane, we have a meeting tomorrow. That's when we'll decide on any of these major decisions."
When Jane started sputtering as a response, Ben softly shushed her. "Jane, we will deal with all of it tomorrow. Come on, it won't matter if we make any decisions one day in advance. You should actually consider taking a day off as well."
Jane didn't respond, but did resume her furious typing.
Ben and Mal gave each other an exasperated look before grinning.
"So, any plans for tonight?" Mal asked.
"Nothing particular, it actually appears that we might get a quiet night in." Ben replied.
"Ooh, so, movie night?" Mal suggested.
"Perfect." Ben answered. "And the meeting for tomorrow is planned at one, so we'll actually have time to sleep in."
"Amazing." Mal replied with just a hint of sarcasm.
Evie sighed in blissful admiration whilst looking at the couple, and partly to escape her friend's stare Mal excused herself to go to the bathroom.
After just a few steps through the hallway adjacent to the lunch yard, Mal saw an all-familiar flash followed by a clear snapping sound.
Mal turned around lightning fast and was just able to see a person hastily jump behind a pillar. She felt her anger rise rapidly as she swiftly moved over to the pillar.
"Hey!" Mal yelled pervasively as she approached.
Before reaching the pillar, a figure already jumped away from behind and bolted through the remainder of the hallway.
"Stop!" Mal yelled as she gave chase. "I order you to stop!"
That got the paparazzi's attention, with even this person knowing that refusing a direct order from the future queen would most definitely spell trouble. Right before the end of the hallway, the paparazzi stopped running and begrudgingly turned to Mal.
The paparazzi was a woman, about a decade older than Mal, with dirty blonde hair and bright red glasses.
"Your majesty." The woman said with a bow. "I was actually just on my way to-"
"You were taking pictures of me and Ben." Mal calmly interjected. "You are trespassing, which according to king Ben's newest proclamation is a criminal offence."
The woman actually scoffed at Mal's response. "Please. No offence your majesty, but I am simply doing my job. This is the way our business has always been run."
"Until now." Mal growled. "What you're doing is not gathering news. All you do is harass us in an attempt to get a good shot for your gossip stories!"
The woman rolled her eyes, but shuffled back a number of steps nonetheless.
"Ben and I, all of us, we are still just kids. Ben might have to rule a kingdom, but we are still just kids. Can't you just lay off for one freaking second!?" Mal exclaimed loudly.
The woman now looked back at her downright unpleasantly. "The people want to see what the people want to see. I can't control that, we are all just going along with the flow."
Mal now felt even more agitated. Was this woman actually defending everything she and her fellow reporters had done? All supposedly in the name of their craft?
"If that is truly how you believe, then you will have to face punishment." Mal said calmly.
"Fine, I'll just leave the premises then." The woman hastily said as she turned away.
"No!" Mal yelled, making the woman stop dead in her tracks. "Ben and I have been more than reasonable with all of you, you will be facing a different punishment that befits Ben's latest proclamation. The least you can expect is a fine and the confiscation of your camera."
The woman now seemed even more annoyed and clutched her camera. "You can't do that, I can't do my job without my camera!"
"Well, then don't go around secretly taking pictures of people! Don't you believe that that shouldn't be what reporting is all about?"
The woman scoffed again. "It's not necessarily what I believe, it's just the way it is. This is my job and I have to make a living. You're just too young to understand how hard it is to survive in the real world."
Mal was absolutely appalled when she heard those words. Just who did this woman think she was!? Mal was raised on the isle! She had been struggling to survive pretty much from day one! If she hadn't been the daughter of Maleficent, she might have ended up less lucky. She had known plenty of kids who had died on the isle, if not from starvation then by the hands of someone else.
"I don't know how hard it is to survive in the real world?" Mal asked, a slight tremble in her voice. "How dare you even say that? Do you have any idea what I've been through!?"
Now the woman seemed both scared and slightly ashamed. "Please, your majesty, I meant no offense."
"Well, it's a bit too late for that, isn't it?" Mal snapped as her eyes glowed green. "You will hand in your camera right away!"
The woman held the camera to her chest, as if it were a baby. "Not a chance!"
"I wasn't asking!" Mal retorted as she approached.
The woman bolted for the end of the hallway, but Mal used a spell she had remembered by heart to grab hold of the camera, which stopped moving in mid-air, also forcing the woman to a grinding halt. The woman clung to the camera for all she was worth, trying and failing to drag it along with her. Mal kept the spell activated as she slowly approached the woman again, who still desperately pulled the unyielding camera, with a stoic expression.
"Y-you witch! Devil's spawn!" The woman shrieked.
As soon as those words escaped the woman's mouth, Mal went rigid. Her mind shut down and she instinctively clenched her fist in disgust. At the same moment, a shock went through Mal and some of her pent-up magic burst out.
The camera, still held tightly by the woman, exploded with a loud bang, causing the woman to fall back with a scream of pain.
Mal looked on in horror as the woman clutched at her face, where several small pieces of debris had lodged themselves in her skin. Her hair was also smoldering as a result of the explosion and a part of her torso and arms was covered in soot.
"N-no…" Mal mumbled as she walked towards the woman she had wounded.
"Mal! What…" She heard from behind her.
Mal looked back and saw Ben, Archer and Jay stand at the end of the hallway. As soon as the guys saw the still shrieking woman at Mal's feet, they ran over to her.
"What happened here!?" Archer yelled as he kneeled next to the woman and examined her injuries.
Mal only stammered, no words escaping her mouth.
"Mal, what did you do?" Ben asked, a horrified expression on his face.
"I-it was an a-accident…" Mal mumbled, tears springing into her eyes. She looked at Ben, who still had that horrified expression, at Archer, who looked both apprehensive and slightly judgmental, and at Jay, who was just perplexed.
Mal couldn't bring herself to look at their faces for another instant and bolted for the other side of the hallway. She felt Jay's fingers graze her shoulder in an attempt to withhold her, but she shook them off and continued running, and running, and running. She ran all the way back to Ben's room, which they now shared, and locked the door behind her. She then slowly slid down the side of the door, until she made contact with the carpeted floor.
What had she done? She had wounded someone, lost control! She had abused her magical abilities for something evil! Instead of calming down over time, Mal's breath only quickened, her heartbeat fastened, and the cold sweat ran down her spine.
Unable to hold back the first sobs, Mal jumped onto Ben's bed and buried her head in a pillow. The scream she let loose was one of the loudest she had ever produced, but the sound was still muffled by the pillow. She then pulled the covers over herself in an attempt to somehow separate herself from the rest of the world. She could no longer think clearly as she kept laying there in Ben's bed, for how long she didn't know.
When her exhaustion finally caught up with her and she felt her eyelids drop, someone knocked on the door.
Mal didn't answer, she no longer felt safe talking to anyone.
"Mal? I know you're in there, please open up." Ben's soft voice said through the door.
Mal again didn't respond, instead opting to stay still with the blanket wrapped tightly around her.
She heard the sound of a key turning a lock, followed by the sound of a creaking door, and she knew that Ben had entered.
"Mal." Ben said softly. "Mal, we need to talk about this."
Mal still didn't give any sign that she heard his words, instead continuing to lay still, her gaze fixated on the view outside the nearest window.
A sudden weight on the other end of the mattress indicated to her that Ben had sat down on the bed. She then felt his hand on the small of her back, slowly rubbing circles. "Mal, how do you feel?"
Mal practically started screaming on the inside. Surely Ben could guess how she felt!? She had spent all this time in Auradon trying to become a better person, for herself, but mostly for the people she loved. She had found peace with the idea that she would become Ben's future queen. She had accepted the responsibility of having to take care of an entire kingdom. All of that effort, the emotional turmoil, had been for nothing. All because of that one accident she'd had! That one time she had lost control.
"You can guess how I feel." Mal mumbled in response to Ben.
Ben sighed. "I need to know what happened Mal. Why did it happen?"
A tear escaped one of Mal's eyes. "It wasn't on purpose. It was an accident."
The mattress raised up again as Ben stood up before kneeling in front of Mal, staring at her with his hazel green eyes. He didn't look angry or disappointed, more concerned.
"I know that it was an accident." He eventually said.
"How?" Mal asked softly.
"Because you would never do this to anyone." Ben answered. "I know you, Mal. You're a much better person than you'd like to admit."
"Ben, did you not just see what I did?" Mal retorted, slightly raising her head.
Ben gulped slightly. "I did."
"Then you should be furious with me. I just single-handedly ruined my chance to become queen." Mal fell out at him.
Ben looked perplexed. "What do you mean by that?"
"Ben, I attacked someone! I hurt someone! I used magic to hurt someone!" Mal ranted, her sobs becoming more apparent.
Ben softly shushed her as he stroked her hair. "Mal, I need you to believe me here. It's all going to be alright…"
"No, Ben! No! How many times have we gone through this!? This is just what always happens! I snapped! I lost my temper and I hurt someone because of it! This will happen again! These people, they don't stop and I am not strong enough to withhold myself all the time!" Mal ranted.
"You are, Mal. You are so strong…" Ben began, but Mal interrupted him.
"I am not! I can't do this! I want to do good for people, but everyone still keeps pushing me to be someone I'm not. They don't understand! They will never accept me unless I keep proving myself time and time again!" Mal sobbed.
Ben suddenly grabbed Mal by the shoulders and dragged her up, so that she was now in a sitting position and he could look her in the eye. "You won't have to! Mal, I'll be there for you! Always!"
"You can't!" Mal yelled in frustration. "You can't just keep me under your wing like an injured bird, I need to be able to sort out my own problems!"
"You don't have to be alone in this matter. You don't have to be alone at any time!" Ben clearly stated.
"But I do need to be able to fight my own battles, Ben. What good of a queen can I ever be if I still require someone to hold my hand at all times." Mal complained.
This appeared to leave Ben lost for words for once, as he looked down but continued rubbing Mal's shoulders.
"Ben, I don't think I can do this." Mal said in a sad tone.
Now Ben looked up with a shocked expression. "What do you mean?"
"Become queen." Mal continued.
Ben now looked pretty much frightened. He opened his mouth, clearly about to reprobate her, but Mal talked right through him.
"I can't do it, Ben! All the responsibilities, the stress, the people and everything! It's too much! I want to, Ben I really do! It's just… Every time I try my best and it's never good enough or there are these people who just always have it out for me. I am only human, Ben. Why can't they see that?" Mal ranted.
Ben remained quiet after Mal was finished talking. It seemingly hurt him to hear Mal talk like this.
"Ben, I love you. I love you like no one else. You know that, right?" Mal tried to reassure him.
"Of course." Ben replied softly.
"I'm just not sure how…" Mal started before being interrupted by Ben.
"I won't lose you!" Ben said loudly, startling Mal. "Not again! Whatever is going at any time in our lives, we will work it out together!"
Despite herself, Mal felt her temper rise. "I already said that I don't want anyone holding my hand at all times!"
"Well too bad!" Ben replied. "I love you and I want us to get married. What that means is that whatever problems any of us get saddled up with, we handle them together!"
"But it shouldn't be like that, Ben!" Mal protested.
"That's exactly how it should be!" Ben claimed. "You become husband and wife for a reason, to be at each other's side for everything."
"But I'll be more than just your wife. I'm supposed to be queen, Ben, how am I supposed to do that?" Mal complained.
"Don't ever believe you have to do everything alone. I mean, I'm king right now, but do you think I all decisions by myself? Without any help? Right now, I still have my parents to fall back on, I have Lumière. A good ruler listens, Mal. But it won't remain like this forever. My advisors won't be there forever. I will need someone to rule by my side, and Mal, I couldn't think of anyone more perfect for the job than you."
Mal was silenced by Ben's words. In some kind of way, they made sense. Ben was never meant to rule the kingdom all by himself, he had advisers, friends and family. No one ever claimed that he was weak-minded or whatever because he asked others for help, no, they said he was wise. Wise people always look for council from others, try to look at a situation from multiple viewpoints and never make rushed decisions.
Mal looked into Ben's eyes, who stared at her both questioningly and hopefully. "I don't have to be alone…" Mal slowly said.
"Yes." Ben replied softly. "I will always be by your side."
"But… what happens now?" Mal asked.
"What?" Ben questioned.
"The woman I attacked…" Mal continued.
Ben hung his head. "We'll have to speak to a lot of people about it. Fact is that the woman was trespassing and ignoring a royal decree."
"But I attacked her, I hurt her, I used my magic on her!" Mal went on.
"Which is why this will be a little harder than usual. Some people will demand extreme punishments for you, but I won't let that happen." Ben tried to reassure her.
"Come on Ben, what kind of case can you put up against this?" Mal questioned.
"The people know you, Mal. They know that you're good and they want you to be their queen." Ben said.
"I wouldn't be too sure of that. After that entire isle business and now this… Who would still want me?" Mal asked in a sad tone.
To Mal's astonishment, Ben started grinning. "Haven't you looked online ever since our engagement was made public?"
"No." Mal answered truthfully.
"Here." Ben said as he plopped down next to Mal and showed her his phone. "A huge number of people have already commented on it, most reactions are through the roof. Mal, the people love you. Now, I will fight whatever is coming our way until the wedding, and I would love to have you by my side."
Mal looked back at the comments on Ben's phone. Like Ben had said, most were absolutely positive. "I will fight for us." Mal resolutely said as she looked back at Ben. "And I will show everyone else that I will fight for them as well."
"That's already more than they deserve." Ben replied.
