"This mask doesn't cover enough of my face!" Audrey lamented.

Ben barely heard her. He'd been so distracted lately, thinking about the woman he was sure he had seen. She hadn't made another appearance, and it was already the end of the week. The guard clearly didn't remember her. No one else had noticed her. Had she been a figment of his imagination? He couldn't even prove her existence.

"Ben!"

"Huh?" Audrey stood in front of him in her ball gown, distressed despite the ridiculous amount of work that had gone into designing her dress and mask for the evening. "Audrey, you look beautiful. Really."

"I'll never be beautiful," she sniffed. "Never again."

"That's not - " Again? Audrey had never been much of a beauty queen, not like her mother. What did she mean by 'again'?

A servant knocked on the door of Audrey's make-up room. "Your Majesty, it is time for your entrance." Ben's entrance, as well. After all, this was his debut - a life of looking pretty on Audrey's arm awaited him.

Ben and Audrey walked down the long hallway that led to massive, polished wooden doors embellished with intricate designs. Two guards on either side pushed open the doors, which led to a balcony overlooking the ballroom. An elegant marble staircase wound its way down to the ground; it had been covered in a plush red velvet carpet before the event began.

"Her Majesty, Princess Audrey, daughter of King Stefan and Queen Aurora, with her fiance, Benjamin!" The announcement preceded their entry by just a second. Both Audrey and Ben plastered fake smiles on their faces, though Audrey kept her lips firmly sealed together for fear of showing her slightly crooked teeth. Ben noticed the crowd consisted almost entirely of nobles - none of the workers of Auradon had accepted his invitation. Luckily, the poofy skirts of the women took up enough space to keep the room from looking too bare.

They descended the staircase to polite clapping from their guests. Audrey immediately went to join her parents at the head table, and Ben followed. People were dancing - and Ben loved to dance - but he knew if he came within arm's reach of another woman, Audrey's insecurities and jealousy would cause a scene he'd rather not have happen. He waited patiently for Audrey to finish speaking with her parents, exchanged pleasantries with them, and then took her hand for their first dance.

This, at least, they had in common. Though she didn't look it, Audrey was a very graceful dancer after years of training and coaching. She was light on her feet and followed his lead perfectly. Ben was just starting to enjoy himself when another guest asked for a turn with Audrey to pay his respects. The nobleman was just the first of many - each would dance with the princess before she would take Ben as her only partner for life.

He wouldn't have minded this tradition so much if he had something to do in the meantime. Banned from fraternizing with any other female guest, Ben sat, ate, and watched until he was bored. He found Audrey and let her know that he would be getting some air, and escaped onto an outdoor balcony. From here, he could see the moonlight filter through the trees of the closest forest. He thought longingly about his secluded paradise in the woods, where he would be similarly alone but more happily so.

Ben couldn't have been outside for more than a few minutes when he noticed a presence beside him. While he whipped around, she tentatively called his name, and then seemed surprised that he had sensed her before she'd said anything. She looked like a dream - a simple purple gown on her delicate frame and black mask doing nothing to hide the bright green of her eyes. She'd dyed her hair blonde, but he still knew her. "It's you," he breathed.

"You...you remember?" she asked hopefully.

"I remember you from a couple days ago. Not from before that." Softening his tone at her crestfallen expression, he stated, "I was starting to think I had made you up when you didn't show up again."

"Oh. Sorry." She turned her head to look out at the view that being three stories up offered them. "It was hard to see you...and know that you didn't see me."

He didn't quite know what to say to that. "Will you please tell me who you are? What you want with me?"

The woman took off her mask. This time, without much fear involved, Ben found himself stunned by her beauty. Then he immediately felt guilty - how many hours had he spent trying to convince Audrey that outer beauty meant very little? "I'm your...I'm...I'm a person you saved, once upon a time." This admission brought tears to her eyes. "I can't tell you my name. It's not safe. But I can tell you that we're all cursed, Ben. This isn't the world we're supposed to be living in. Everything around us is a lie."

Ben blinked a couple of times. He sincerely hoped she wasn't both a wielder of magic and a crazy person. "Cursed," he repeated stupidly.

"Yes. Someone cursed the whole kingdom - because you're supposed to be king. You've been the king for years now. And Auradon...Auradon is supposed to be a happy place. A place for second chances. A place where people thrive." She sighed and shook her head. "If there's anything that I've learned over the past few days, it's that Auradon's success is entirely because of you, Ben."

"Um..." Could this be considered treason talk? "I really don't think anyone would ever let me make decisions."

"Not here," she insisted. "But in the real world, yes."

He chose his words carefully, so as not to upset her. "Is this why you won't hurt me, even though you have magic? Because I'm supposed to be...someone else?"

"I could never hurt you," she told him in almost a whisper. "I love you."

This was unexpected. In fact, it made Ben more suspicious. Only crazy people loved those they'd never met before. Still, there was something, something, in her voice that so convincingly suggested she was not lying. Plus, she had his father's ring...she claimed they had some sort of past...but who was he kidding? Audrey was the only person who'd ever loved him, and he even questioned that at times.

Instead of a reasonable response, though, he blurted, "I don't know what love feels like."

Why on Earth would he admit that to a complete stranger?

He could see the heartbreak in her eyes. Before she could get out another word though, they were interrupted.

"Benny-boo, what are you still doing out here?" Audrey regularly used that particular pet name when she felt like being possessive. Ben considered the fact that maybe Audrey had a good reason to feel threatened. There was a beautiful woman, alone with Ben, claiming to love him...how much of that did she hear? She'd only just pushed her way past some gossiping women fanning themselves by the open exit onto the balcony. Maybe he'd been lucky for once in his life and she hadn't heard anything.

The mystery woman had quickly put her mask back on the minute she heard another voice, but ripped it off again with a look of horror. "Is that...Audrey? What happened to you?"

Audrey appeared to be equally horrified. "Mal?"

Mal. Ben now knew why she hadn't been able to say her name. Mal, as he had learned in a high school civics lesson entitled 'Preventing Future Villain Attacks', was the daughter of the infamous Maleficent. And currently, she was a fugitive from the Isle of the Lost.

That still didn't explain why Audrey recognized her.

Mal reached that conclusion at the same time Ben did. Her face twisted with rage. "Oh my god. It was you."

Audrey took a tiny step back and yelled, "GUARDS! A PRISONER IS LOOSE! SHE IS ATTACKING ME!"

Ignoring the sudden uproar in the building, Mal advanced on the princess. "You did this."

"GUARDS! SEIZE HER!"

Ben watched, helpless and paralyzed, as a team of six men rushed out onto the very limited area of the balcony. Mal had the good sense to change direction, and backed up until she hit the railing. Audrey ducked behind the new arrivals, continuing to scream. The guards pointed bayonets at Mal, which were affixed to rifles that would have no problem blowing a hole in a target five feet away.

"Stand down, prisoner! Come quietly!" They were confident, but they didn't know what Ben and Audrey did - Mal was a sorceress.

Said sorceress locked eyes with Ben for a moment. He didn't understand. There was no evil in those eyes - he could see it. He had never been more sure of anything. Maybe she was delusional and had a questionable relationship with reality, but whatever misplaced love she felt for him was true. No, he didn't know what love felt like...but why did he think that maybe, she could teach him?

Without warning, Mal leaned back over the railing and toppled to her death.

Ben yelled and gasped at the same time, a garbled sound accompanied by a belated reach for Mal's arm or dress or anything. Even the guards seemed startled.

But no - they all heard it before they saw it. The beat of gigantic wings. A roar of fury. Claws pushing off against rock. A dragon with scales dark enough to nearly blend into the night shot through the air like a bullet, flying away into the forest.

Ben nearly fainted. He was joined in his disbelief by the guards and any guests who still remained to see the spectacle. Only Audrey remained immune to the shock of seeing a supposedly extinct monster appear where milliseconds ago, a woman had been falling towards her doom.

"I want her captured! Tonight! And him - " Audrey pointed at Ben, who was involuntarily stuttering something about dragons, " - Tell her he'll be killed if she doesn't come quietly. And put him somewhere she can't find him!"

Ben paced restlessly in his room. It had been hours since Audrey had decided he was a prisoner instead of her fiance - though frankly, he'd always felt a little bit of both. He still remembered her threatening to have him killed - she wouldn't really do that, would she? It had just been a ruse to get Mal to submit, hadn't it?

The guards outside his door refused to discuss anything, but by the commotion he'd heard a few minutes ago, he assumed something significant had happened. "Please, just tell me when I can leave!" he begged of them.

"Not tonight, sir. You might as well sleep for a while."

"So you can kill me without any resistance?" he muttered bitterly. No, he decided, more angry than afraid. He would not go out this way.

Mal took another punch to the gut from some unnamed soldier, while Audrey supervised. The unused dungeon was deep in the bowels of the castle, deep enough where no sound from the outside world came in, nor vice-versa. Her coughs and cries were heard by no one, save her few captors.

"I'll ask you again, and if you cooperate I might even send you back to the Isle instead of killing you. Who else knows?" demanded the princess.

"Go to hell," Mal snarled back, earning herself more pain. "You're definitely ugly enough to belong there."

In all honestly, Audrey didn't look that bad, but she was certainly nowhere near the beauty queen she had been before. Still, Mal had clearly struck a nerve. "Shut up! Shut up! You don't talk unless you're answering my questions!"

"I don't answer to trolls."

Audrey actually slapped her for that one. For a split second, Mal thought she saw tears fill the other girl's eyes, but the fairy was far beyond pity.

"Don't you dare cry," Mal spat. "As if you're some sort of victim. You kept us all on the Isle, and do you know what happened? Carlos is dead. His mother killed him. Jay's leg is gone. Evie's been starving herself for years. And Ben - well, you have to know by now how miserable Ben is. You're responsible for it all, and I will make you pay."

Before Audrey could respond, a guard came rushing down the stairs. "Princess Audrey - your betrothed has escaped!"

Audrey's eyes widened in horror. Ben's life was the only thing keeping Mal from using magic. "Shut up!"

It was too late. Mal smirked - and then she was gone.

It was exhilarating, being on the run. Being free. Ben could hardly believe he'd been daring enough to climb out of the window or coordinated enough to not break his neck doing it. By the time he was whizzing away on his moped, he had a smile on his face.

He went where no one would find him, and by the time he was sitting by the shore of the lake, dawn was breaking above the tree line. The smile slowly slipped away once he realized he had no idea what to do next. Where would he go? Who would hide him, a fugitive from the royal family? What would happen to his parents?

The thought of having to go back turned his stomach. Back to a woman who didn't love him. Back to a life he had no power to change. Back to being part of the problem. He couldn't bear it.

"Ben?" He hadn't even heard Mal coming, but for some reason her voice didn't startle him. He turned around, forgetting to hide his forlorn expression. "I heard you escaped."

"For what it's worth," he muttered.

Mal came to sit by him, not saying a word. His eyes were drawn to her now bare ring finger. "Where did your - my father's ring go?"

"I gave it back to you," she told him, the corner of her mouth quirking up. "On the balcony. You haven't checked your pockets?"

Fumbling in a manner totally lacking grace, Ben did so for the first time since the previous night. What she said was true - the ring had found its way into his jacket pocket. He held it almost an inch away from his nose to inspect it. The piece of jewelry was a work of art, with intricate designs carved into the smallest of spaces and a sapphire that sparkled no matter what direction it faced.

"Living on the Isle, you get good at stealing things without people noticing. And giving them back, I suppose." She smoothed out the wrinkles in her dress - the same one as the night before, Ben noticed, though significantly dirtier and covered in spots of - was that blood?

"Did she hurt you?" he asked softly.

Mal held his gaze - if ever Audrey had looked at him with such love in her eyes, he would have been a much happier man. "She didn't do the one thing that would hurt me the most, so I don't care."

Ben felt a lump in his throat, and had to look away, so he leaned back on his hands. "I just don't understand, Mal. Why am I not scared of you? Why would you break out of prison just to find me? And why does the idea that this life is just a bad curse give me hope?" He shook his head. "I should know better."

"Ben..." She reached out to touch his cheek, and he let her turn his head to face her. "Where we're really from, you're the most hopeful person I know. To see you like this...I can't even tell you how horrific it is. You're such a good person, you gave a second chance to kids no one else cared about even before you became king. You kept Auradon safe, and your people happy. You worked hard to give everyone the life they deserved, even the people that wronged you personally. I've never admired anyone more, and - " She blinked away tears to keep them from falling. " - for some completely unfathomable reason, you wanted to marry me. Me. The daughter of one of the world's most hated villains, the girl who came to Auradon fully intending to take it over, the person you taught how to love." Now she was the one who could not look him in the eye, though his shock probably would have made her chuckle were the situation any less tragic. "But now we're stuck in this nightmare, and the only way I can think of to end it won't work, because I'm the only one who remembers - well, besides Audrey, but she doesn't care about anyone - "

"How would you end it?" Ben prodded gently.

Mal didn't answer at first, tracing patterns into the stone beneath them as she stalled. "...True love's kiss," she eventually mumbled.

"What?"

"True love's kiss." She sighed. "Otherwise, I'll have to find Fairy Godmother and hope she doesn't turn me into a lizard before I ask her how to lift the curse..."

"Your true love...that would be me, right?" Of course it was him. What a stupid question, after the monologue she'd just delivered.

She just smiled tiredly. "Yes, that's you. But it doesn't work if you don't feel the same way."

He thought for a moment. "Let's say you're telling the truth, and in reality I do feel the same way. In that case...I mean, there are a million ways this ends badly. This could all be some elaborate ruse to get to Audrey. Or to keep the royal guard from coming after you. You might just be a psychopath who wants to kill me..."

"This is not helpful."

Ben grabbed her hand, the one closest to his, and squeezed tightly. "But I don't care. I choose to believe. Because if what you're saying is true - that's the life I want. That's everything I could ever want. To be part of the solution. To be with you." If there was one good thing he'd ever done, in all his life, it was making her eyes shine with hope like that. His heart soared. "So just...just let me try."

To his surprise, she really didn't take much convincing. In less than a second, her lips were pressed against his, and for all intents and purposes that was the first time he'd truly been kissed.

There was no earth-shattering boom. No void opened up in the sky to swallow them whole. Instead, Ben and Mal felt a moderately strong wind whirl around them and then scatter in all directions, rustling the leaves of the trees around them. Mal felt Ben's initial awkwardness melt away and there - that was the man who loved her; she knew by the way he pulled her so close to him she was almost on top of him, she knew by the smile she felt against her own.

"Mal..." Ben pulled away just enough to rest his forehead on hers. The fatigue and depression had all but disappeared - he looked like a ray of sunshine personified. "I love you so much, Mal. I am so sorry I didn't remember."

She didn't answer, instead throwing her arms around him and holding him tight. Someone was sobbing - was that her? The relief that coursed through her veins had dulled all her thoughts. She kissed him again and again, demanding promises of him that didn't make any sense ("You can't ever issue public invitations to masquerade balls!") and he agreed with them all, only vaguely remembering the past few days like a dream receding into the recesses of his memory.

"Come on, Mal." He helped her up, only to kiss her again. "We've got a rogue princess to deal with."

"I don't even care!" If Mal felt relieved, it was nothing compared to Audrey's absolute euphoria. "I'm beautiful again!"

Even while being arrested, she appeared as dainty and poised as a porcelain doll. "I hope prison wrinkles your skin," Mal snapped. "I can't believe that's the worst thing I could wish on you after what you did to Ben and my friends."

"And you," Ben reminded her.

"And me!" Mal agreed.

"It wasn't personal, Mal. But I'm glad it's over. My reflection actually made me nauseous."

Mal fumed as she was escorted away. "It wasn't personal?"

"Give her a few days to mull it over in jail, Mal. I'm sure she'll have a more reasonable reaction." Ben turned around when he heard the door behind them opening. "Look who it is!"

The fairy was nearly tackled to the ground by Evie and Jay, each trying to apologize louder than the other. She shrugged them off and lunged at Carlos, who seemed rather confused. "Why can't I remember any of the stuff you guys are talking about?"

Their reunion only grew larger. Jane and her mother, Lonnie, Uma, Doug, Adam and Belle - they all had their own horror stories and shared in the joy of the broken curse. It was among all their friends and family that Ben pulled Mal to the center of the room. "We never did finish our engagement ceremony." He knelt down on one knee, and smiled up at his future wife, ignoring Evie's apoplectic orders to wait until they had arranged another ball. "Mal, will you marry me?"

The answer was a resounding yes, of course, and Ben put his ring back on Mal's third finger - right where it belonged.