Fairy Godmother had led her into what she could only describe as a courtroom. A large podium at the far end, a jury box, and a circle surrounded by metal bars, where she guessed she would be standing, and basically put on display completed the creepy, courtroom and jailhouse vibe. She led her to the half cage and stood her in the center, then closed it behind her.
To one side of her sat the Blue Fairy, the three goodie goodies, Flora, Fauna, Merriweather, Tinkerbell and the blue Genie, all ready to judge her it seemed. Her fellow magic users, or at least at one point in their histories. Fairy Godmother sat at the large podium, where the judge would sit in a courtroom and it seemed the judge and jury were complete.
Then her fellow students from Auradon prep entered and took the remaining seats with the magic users. Audrey, Lonnie and Jane, Chad, Doug and Ben sat in the front six seats.
It was a witch trial by the looks of things. No one would make eye contact with her, and not just due to their injuries. Even Ben wouldn't look at her. He was probably under strict orders not to even look in her direction. Full faerie always tended to make people overzealous though. She should have known to expect a witch hunt, especially with that photo and the news story.
She stood taller in the small enclosed space. If she was going to go down, she would do it with her head held high.
Fairy Godmother was the only one who would look right at her. "Maleficent "Mal" Bertha Blackheart," She spoke in her authoritative, no nonsense business voice. "You have been summoned to determine your morality in the kingdom of Auradon and the seven kingdoms. I will ask several questions and then your peers will ask theirs."
Mal nodded. "Ask me anything you wish," She said, knowing exactly what Fairy Godmother and the others were looking for. Her anger, any shift in emotions to scare them into thinking she was still rotten to the core. She wasn't about to let them see her go full faerie again.
"Is your name Maleficent Bertha Blackheart?" Fairy Godmother asked.
"Yes," Mal answered, "And no," she continued. "My mother told me that I would not receive my full name until I completed ten terrible deeds, or until I pleased her enough. My name is just Mal," she explained.
"What evil deeds did you do to be called Mal?" Fairy Godmother asked. Mal figured she would.
"I received all three letters of my name by the time I was six," She said. "The first letter of my name when I was born and I bit my mother, but she would only call me Creature or Beasty," Mal explained. "I earned the A when I was four. I pushed another child down and stole her toy." She knew Ben already knew part of that story. "I made her cry and her mother yell at her, which my mother deemed evil enough for my age," She sighed. "I earned the L at six, when I shoved Evie, the Evil Queen's daughter off of a small cliff and called the birds and woodland creatures to bloody her up, then got her exiled because she didn't invite me to her birthday party," She revealed, knowing it didn't paint the best picture of her.
Fairy Godmother tented her hands together and leaned over her elbows. "When you came to Auradon, what were your plans?" She asked, even though everyone already knew that answer.
"I planned to steal the wand, your wand, to take back to my mother on the Isle of the Lost," Mal answered truthfully. "She wanted to take over all of Auradon and plot her revenge, and I wanted to be by her side and earn more of my name," She admitted.
"Were you successful?" Fairy Godmother asked and Mal just stared. "Were you successful in stealing the wand?"
Mal but her tongue back, swallowing down the sarcastic answer. "I was not," She answered, "The wand is still in your possession and my mother is now a gecko," She explained.
"Yet you stayed in Auradon," Fairy Godmother said, "Why did you decide to stay?"
Mal resisted looking to Ben. "I couldn't go back to the Isle after my successes here," She explained. "Though I saved the kingdom from my mother, my actions on the Isle of the Lost would be seen as too good." She was trying not to brag. "By choosing good, I exiled myself from the Isle." Of course, in that instance she meant Ben, but no one else needed to know that.
"It was a requirement for you to take a class called Remedial Goodness, was it not?" Fairy Godmother asked. "Would you please tell your peers what you received on the final and your grade in the class overall?"
Mal fought back a smile. "I received 100% on the final," She said, "And 102% in the class with extra credit from the coronation," She explained.
"Now I shall turn it over to your peers," Fairy Godmother explained. "Blue Fairy, we start with you."
The Blue Fairy stood, and brushed her thick blonde hair from her eyes, looking at her notes. "You explained that your mother is now a gecko," she spoke, her voice light and airy, "As a magic user, would you ever return your mother to her former glory and take over Auradon?"
"No," Mal answered, "While I do want my mother to no longer be a small reptile, I would not use my magic to assist her," She explained. "She needs to learn the lesson herself and it's not something I am about to allow her to get out of."
The blue fairy sat down, then made several notes. The three fairies, Flora, Fauna and Merriweather all stood up at once. Mal had never seen them in person, but she knew enough from her mother to know who was who.
"We all know your mother's abilities," the first fairy, Flora, spoke.
"And we saw your feat at the coronation," Fauna continued.
"What we want to know is how you think you will handle the ban on magic and sorcery," Merriweather explained, her arms crossed almost in disgust. There was obviously no love lost there.
Mal thought about it. "I lived without magic for nearly seventeen years of my life," She explained, "I've only been in Auradon for three months." Though they already knew that. "Magic is still new to me, but so far, I've found that the magic that makes people happy I'm best at." Then she realized she hadn't quite answered the question. "I don't need magic to survive, or perform daily tasks. Most of the time it gets me into more trouble than out of it," She explained, sneaking a brief look to Ben. "I can handle limited magic, or even no magic at all," She continued.
The three fairies all sat at once, scribbling down their own notes. Then Tinkerbell flew forward and stopped right in front of her face. She didn't speak with her voice, but Mal could interpret it well enough.
How do you plan to handle your anger and prevent the evil faerie from returning?
"I rarely get as angry as last night," Mal explained. "I am not trying to throw around blame, but I warned him and he persisted," She explained. "In the future, as I have in the past, I plan to keep a level head, by working through my emotions rather than bottling them up."
That answer seemed to appease the tiny fairy and she returned to the space with the others.
The blue genie stood next. "Your friends, the others from the isle, chose good along with you at the coronation," He spoke, and he seemed less majestic than Jafar had often described. "How would you react if one of them chose to return to their evil ways, and how would you convince them otherwise?" He asked.
Mal thought of each of her fellow VKs. Carlos, Jay and Evie and how unlikely it was that they would return to their evil ways. Still, she let the few scenarios play out in her head. "I would honestly be disappointed," She explained. "Carlos, Evie and Jay have grown so much since we came to Auradon Prep and I would do whatever I could to let them know that they had other options than to return to their previous ways."
"Would you join them?" Fairy Godmother asked as an addition.
Mal thought about it. "Only for a good reason," Mal answered. "If we had to use our evil ways to combat a greater evil," She explained, her mother coming to mind. The entire kiss situation coming to mind.
Mal shifted uncomfortably, the iron of the half cage around her starting to make her bones ache. Those in the room obviously knew her weakness, but she refused to show it, or complain.
"Very well," Fairy Godmother spoke, then she turned to Mal's classmates. "Doug, if you please."
Doug stood and straightened his glasses over his broken nose with a wince, looking down at his notes the best he could. "You stated that you gained the L in your name by attacking Evie and getting both her and her mother banished." Of course he would bring that up, he and Evie were… something. "How did the two of you end up becoming friends?"
Mal fought back a cringe, the story was pretty bad until it got better. "It started when Evie's mother decided that ten years of exile was enough and Evie showed up at Dragon Hall," She started. "Then when the first hole in the barrier broke, I planned to make her touch the dragon's eye in my mother's staff, and sleep for a thousand years. I hoped it would work as my project of evilness and help me gain the next letter of my name." It wasn't getting any better. "Evie and I journeyed with Carlos and Jay to my mother's old fortress, but when it came time for her to touch it, I grabbed it instead." She thought about what a failure it had all been at that time. "I saved her I guess and we became closer."
Doug, and everyone else seemed to take notes.
Lonnie stood, maneuvering her notes around the sling around her arm. "During our time at Auradon Prep, you did a lot of midnight baking," She started. "Everyone knows spells and potions are best hid in sweet treats. What were you baking, and why?"
Mal figured it would come up eventually. "The first time I was baking double chocolate chip cookies." The chocolate chips had been Lonnie's idea. "With a love spell," She added, then she swallowed hard, "for the then crown prince."
The surprise of everyone in the room was tangible and Mal figured she was toast. No one had known about the love spell besides her fellow VKs and Ben. Ben had wanted to keep it that way. Still, she continued.
"The second time, was a double chocolate brownie," she continued louder, over their noises of shock. "To undo the love spell that I had cast over the then crown prince," She explained.
"Please explain why you felt the need to undo the spell," Fairy Godmother requested, after calling the rest of the room to order. "And the status of the king now."
"I thought we were going to get the wand and escape back to the isle, exacting our revenge," Mal explained, not looking in Ben's direction at all. "To have him follow me around like a love sick puppy, just seemed extra cruel." She looked down at his signet ring, still on her forefinger, not quite able to look to him yet. "As of this moment, he is not under any spell of mine," She explained.
Everyone seemed to take notes again, scribbling to the best of their abilities with their various injuries.
Jane stood next, her hair parted differently, a little longer, really bringing out the shape of her face and the large gash across one cheek, red and raised. "You tried to turn me against my mother to gain her wand," She spoke, her timid voice shaking slightly, "You bibbity boppity booed me into thinking that I wasn't good enough." She had been kind of hard on Jane, she realized. "Then you reversed the spell. Who else have you spelled into doing your bidding?" She asked.
"Ben was the only one I spelled to do my bidding," She said. "You and Lonnie and a few other girls with the hair spells," Mal explained, "but that's it." Then she remembered the little girl in the hallway and her own hair transformations. "There was a little girl in the hallway, but that was simple entertainment for her."
"Would you clarify, please?" Fairy Godmother stepped in. "What exactly did you do to the little girl in the hall?"
Mal took another deep breath, the iron surrounding her really starting to make her uncomfortable and fidgety. The sooner she could leave, the better. "I changed my hair color for her," she explained, willing her hair to augment as she spoke. "From blue, to black and white, to red." She paused, giving them the full effect. "Then she asked me for pink." She could hear their amazement and shock at her transformations. "And she asked me to play tea party, but I had to decline." She willed her hair back to her purple, "though I told her I would return when I had time," She added.
More note taking, then Chad hopped up, as best he could with his wrapped head, the bandages just starting to darken with blood. Her magic as the rogue faerie most likely the cause. "You can shapeshift at will?" He asked, and she nodded, "Then how do we know you're the real Mal and not an imitation ready to take over the kingdom at the first opportune moment?"
Some big words in there for Chad, but Mal kept her face even, even through the persistent ache of the iron. "I can shapeshift at will," Mal agreed, "But it's taxing," She explained. "If I were someone else, or someone else were me, they would start to break, morph back into themselves," She explained, "Little things at first, eye color a shade off, or freckles in just the wrong places." She knew it was about time that they all knew her mark, even if it wouldn't necessarily help things.
She tore down her sleeve to reveal her Dragon mark, and inciting more gasps. "I bear my mother's mark and that cannot be replicated for long with shapeshifting," She explained. "It resists and burns the wearer if it doesn't belong on their skin. You all will know quickly if I am an imitation. The true mark cannot be harmed or removed." She pulled the small knife from under her skirt, ignoring the gasps of fear and shock and sliced through the mark, only to hear the familiar whine of metal against metal. It could not be harmed.
Audrey stood before Chad even sat down, wobbling, trying to balance on a broken leg with heels and a broken wrist, along with several other small injuries. Somehow she had taken the brunt of it and Mal fought back a cringe. She wasn't going to be very happy.
"You used a love spell to steal my boyfriend," she nearly shouted, "What's to stop you from spelling Ben again and taking the crown and the kingdom for yourself?" She asked. Mal realized it was a valid question. Audrey had a right to be concerned. "Do you think he would ever take you as his queen anyway?" She blurted out intentionally, quite bitter it seemed.
Mal took several seconds to figure out how to answer that, and how much she should reveal about their predicament. "I did steal your boyfriend, and I apologize," She said, looking right at Audrey. "I can't even begin to understand how painful that must have been for you." She could start to feel it a little after the last few weeks she and Ben had had, but she kept that to herself.
Then she turned back to Fairy Godmother. "Honestly, if I wanted the kingdom, I could take it with little trouble," She explained, truthfully. She was rapidly sinking and they were probably going to kick her out anyway. Might as well be completely honest. "But I would rather not," She said, "It's Ben's kingdom and I'm going to do my best to keep it that way."
Audrey crossed her arms in frustration and winced as she knocked her cast roughly. Then she plopped down in her seat.
"Your majesty," Fairy Godmother spoke with reverence turning to Ben, "You have the floor."