"All together now, on the count of three!" Evie announced, before counting up for the assembled Fae army in front of her. They'd figured out the right magic to use in terraforming the Isle, and today was something of the first test.

When she called 'three!' a burst of magic rushed over every inch of the island. Grass sprung up underfoot, and wildflowers bloomed out of season as the magic took hold over the dead soil of the island, transforming into a lush paradise. Ivy crept across the walls of every building, somewhat insulating the shoddy construction with leaves and vines. The dark and forboding trees in the forest started growing taller, and greener, dark and curling leaves replaced with bright green foliage. Every struggling garden outside Dragon Hall grew three times in the space of seconds, and the greenhouse workers were rushing to and fro to gather all the new produce that had suddenly appeared on heavily laden plants and vines.

Evie looked around when the magic had dissipated, and she smiled brightly at the grass beneath her feet. "It worked." She whispered. "It worked!"

"Did you expect any less, my lady?" Flitter, the head of the terraforming group commented, glancing at his fingers with disinterest. Most of the Fae army accepted their Queen's chosen consort with grace and respect. Witches had always been close allies with the Faeries in the past, so it wasn't uncommon for some to intermarry. The children tended to have a blend of Fae and Witch magics, which were very different, but 'played together' well, so you speak, especially in earth-related magics and the like.

"Well, Mal believed you could do it, and I trusted her judgement." Evie explained. "Still, believing it and seeing it are two different things."

"It was actually a lot easier than I thought!" Another faerie commented. "Less like forcing things to grow on a barren rock, and more like removing the block that prevented things from growing in the first place."

"Wait," Evie interuppted, seething. "Are you saying that they put us here and then took away any chance of growing our own foo!?"

"Oh no," Flitter interrupted. "Madame Fairweather was responsible for Isle magics, yes?"

Evie nodded her agreement. As far as she knew, no one else had tampered with magic here until Mal herself.

"It couldn't have been her." The elemental faerie insisted. "This was dark magic, definitely Unseelie. I'm not sure Fairweather would even be capable of casting a spell like that."

"Oh, I entirely agree!" The second faerie chimed in. "It felt like old, old, magic. Something from eons ago, definitely not a recent working."

"How curious..." Evie mused, biting her lip in concentration. She'd never really thought about it before but... What had the Isle been before they were placed here? Where did it come from? Who lived here before them, if anyone? Originally, they'd all thought that the Isle was just a pile of dirt upon a platform of some kind, after all, it was very conveniently close to Auradon to be a natural island. Carlos had once speculated that it might have just been a rocky outcropping with sand poured over it, but while that theory explained why nothing grew in the town, it didn't explain why the forest existed, magical and mysterious though it was.

Evie dismissed the faeries who'd helped with the terraforming, and frowned in thought as she walked to Hell Hall to meet up with Carlos.

"Frowning causes wrinkles, you know." The young man commented as she entered his home, and Evie immediately snapped out of it, recalling her mother saying those very words so often during her childhood. She realized what Carlos was doing, and scowled at him.

"Carlos! You know that freaks me out."

"It got you to stop frowning though." The boy replied.

"Only to make me scowl!"

"Let's find a way to make you smile then, shall we?" Carlos smirked, and Evie finally broke into a gentle smile, rolling her eyes.

"I appreciate the effort, C, but I actually have something to talk about." Evie explained.

"Talk away. I'm just calibrating the math for this trebuchet. I can multitask." Carlos replied, turning back to his work.

"Well operation Green Earth was a complete success." Evie began.

"But...?"

"But we found out something rather... Perplexing in the process." The girl continued. "Someone, likely a faerie, likely before any of our parents were born, placed some kind of a spell on this island."

"So... The island existed back then?" Carlos hypothesized, and the gears in his mind started turning.

"That's the theory at least. It's the reason nothing grew here, even when the barrier was down and we got decent sunlight for once." Evie explained. "Of course, that doesn't explain the forest, but it's a start at least."

"I kind of miss the old days, back when our only concern was beating the shit out of people who threatened us." Carlos sighed.

"As soon as this is over, we can rest." Evie affirmed. "Once we've achieved Auradon, we'll take a nice, long vacation. Maybe you and Jay can finally tie the knot?" She smirked.

"I do like the thought of showing everyone that he's mine." Carlos smiled. "I can only imagine the flocks of Auradon girls drooling over him as we speak."

At that moment, in fact, all way over the bridge into Auradon, the only girl who was paying Jay any attention was Mal, and Mal Morgana drooled over no one.

"All ready for that meeting with Elsa Arrenheim?" Mal asked, adjusting Jay's mask and outfit. His armor was different than the infantry, because it was sleeveless, the better to show off his wicked tattoos, the patterns of history that he proudly wore across his arms. Carlos loved to trace the marks with his fingers as Jay did the same with each of his freckles.

He'd first started getting them when they were still in the Mausoleum. Mal was a glorious artist, and an older friend had taught her how to craft a homemade tattoo pen. She'd asked Jay to get her Long Live Evil mantra as proof that all their years of animosity were finally behind them. She wouldn't have asked that of the others, but Jay was the closest thing to an equal that Mal had ever met, and if anyone was going to be able to betray her, it'd be Jay.

After that first set of words that read like a sign on his inner wrist, Jay found that he liked it. Once Jafar was dead, he got a fierce cobra that wound around his bicep to represent the parent he'd indirectly had killed. Next a Muslim crescent moon and star to show the religion he came from, and was slowly learning more about. Chains for his imprisonment on the Isle, and a genie's lamp, the thing he'd always wanted, the thing his father had drilled into him that he needed.

In this particular armor, all his battles and trophies were shown proudly on his arms, to strike fear into his enemies.

"Ready as I'll ever be." Jay replied, and the purple-haired girl could hear the smile in his voice, even though she couldn't see it behind his mask. When the knock came at the apartment door, Mal smirked and hurried over. She had re-cast her glamour that morning, and knew she wouldn't be recognized unless she chose to reveal herself.

"Welcome to my humble abode, Queen Elsa. I'm glad you were able to come!" The hidden queen invited her guest into the tea room, where Jane had prepared scones and a teapot full of hot water so that the two royals could choose their own tea.

"Thank you for having me, Queen Morrigan. I was really looking forward to talking with you." Elsa replied. "I'm not often invited to these get togethers with other rulers, so I was very pleased by your invitation."

Elsa wasn't popular among the other royals? Interesting...

"I can't imagine why. Arendelle is an international shipping empire, and you seem to have a very good heart, your highness." Mal insisted, and Elsa's eyes lit up, letting her know that the compliment was having the desired effect.

"I'm so glad you think that. Most of the high council tend to disagree with me over matters of the Isle." Elsa explained.

"I noticed. I read through the past court records last night after sigining the papers that legitimized my nation as a member of Auradon." Mal replied. "You've been quite the crusader when it comes to ethical treatment for the Islanders."

"And?" Elsa prompted, looking like she expected Mal to laugh at her.

"I think it's admirable. It may be acceptable to deny healthcare and clean water to those who've committed capital crimes, but it's completely unethical to deny it to the children of those criminals, or those who've been exiled for lesser offences."

Elsa let out a breath of relief at that.

"You have no idea how happy I am that you agree." The woman sighed. "So far, my only ally in the court is my cousin, Rapunzel."

Rapunzel agreed with Elsa's measures on the court? Daria Tremaine would be pleased to know about that.

"Some of the other nations occasionally agree, notably Agrabah and Maldonia, the ones with rulers who know what it's like to be poor." Elsa continued. "If it wasn't for Corona's assistance though, things might be even worse. It's all we can do just to keep them from passing the worst laws. We don't have enough power in the court to propose new ones."

"Tell me, your highness, is it better to rule through admiration, or fear?" Mal asked, and saw Elsa's face clam up again.

"Why do you ask?"

"Because my parents died before I took the throne, and I was curious. I was never able to ask them these things, so I ask any other ruler I can get my hands on." Mal explained playfully, and Elsa relaxed again, with something like sympathy that flashed in her eyes. Lanying had mentioned that Elsa was in a similar situation herself. The Ice Queen thought about that for a moment, and recalled how her people had always seemed to admire her, until her powers were revealed, and then they turned on her in the blink of an eye.

"It depends on the situation, I think." Elsa finally spoke. "If people can be trusted to do what's right, rulers should trust them enough to give them that freedom. But if all people know is self-destructiveness, they must be ruled with an iron fist, lest their society falls into chaos."

"I see." Mal replied, secretly rather impressed by Elsa's wisdom in that response. "As for myself, I tend to believe that people should be allowed to do as they wish, for the most part. But we as rulers must give them the opportunities they need to grow."

"When I first took the throne, my mother had left the country in something of a... fragile state. Unemployment was at an all-time high, and poverty was running rampant. Before I could ask my people to follow me, I had to make concessions to improve their lives, by creating jobs, and government programs to help them get back on their feet. I think that if you treat your subjects well, they'll grow loyal to you." Mal explained. She actually felt that was the truth. Her mother had never really bothered to rule the Isle, even though she was perfectly capable.

"Let me take your invasive question, and ask you one of my own." Elsa teased. "What do you think of Mal Morgana?"

"The leader of the Isle of The Lost?" Mal asked, hiding her shaking hands under the table. Why would Elsa ask that? Did she know or suspect her true identity? Mal would have to play this smooth if she wanted to get answers without revealing her hand.

"Well, I've read the reports from the Isle council meetings when she first made her debut, so to speak." Mal cautiously explained. "From what intelligence I can gather, it seems like she rules with an iron fist. She made an example killing up front, but her executions have tapered off since then, so I get the impression she wanted to scare people into obeying, and doesn't take any enjoyment from the killing itself."

Now here was the scary part. Painting herself in a positive light without revealing anything she wasn't supposed to.

"I think, for a child raised by villains, she's doing the best with what she has. Statistics show that there have been fewer deaths from exposure, starvation, and sickness than ever before under her reign. If you don't count her own judicial killings as crimes, the crime rates have also been greatly reduced."

"We never heard those statistics in the Isle court meetings..." Elsa mused.

"Certain parties thought in their best interests to obscure the facts." Mal explained curtly.

"Then how did you find out?"

"I asked Yen Sid. Gathering information on the Isle is his job after all."

"Yes," Elsa nodded, thinking back to past meetings. "I remember that King Adam and some others were discrediting him recently, saying that he'd been corrupted by evil or some other nonsense."

"At the risk of sounding like an insane person, I believe I can even explain why." Mal continued, easing her way into the big reveal. "It's public, though not exactly common knowledge that the Isle is an independent nation. Adam made it so, in order to bypass the dungeon accords and legally create a prison colony. I speculate that if they took Mal seriously as a ruler, they would also have to take her nation seriously, and they'd have to face the consequences of their actions."

"It's as good a theory as any." Elsa replied.

"And what do you think of Mal Morgana, Queen Arrenheim?" Mal asked, and her shoulders were tense, prepared for anything. She was even ready for Elsa's shocking reply.

"I think she's sitting across the table from me, isn't she?" The queen smiled brightly, as if she'd just figured out a puzzle, and Jay immediately darted forward from the doorway to wrap and arm around her throat, pressing a knife into her pale neck.

"Excellent deduction, your highness." Mal sighed. "How did you guess?"

"You spoke so passionately about the good that you've done, and no one from Auradon calls King Adam just 'Adam', not even a newcomer, like you were pretending to be. You said his name with such... Anger." Elsa explained, sadly.

"I can't let you leave here knowing my secret." Mal replied, and Elsa smiled, showing just the glint of what Hans must have seen when he lied to her. She looked bloodthirsty.

"I don't think you could keep me if you wanted to." She replied coolly, already covering Jay's fingers and hands with frost as he shuddered. Mal cast a warming spell that she had to pour more and more magic into as Elsa increased her own power.

"I have come too far to choke at the finish line!" Mal hissed.

"What are your goals, Mal? What do you hope to accomplish?" Elsa asked, all icy calm to Mal's burning fury.

"I don't want revenge. But I do want justice. By Fae law, I legally have the more valid claim to Aurora's throne. I want my family land back, and I want them to pay for all the lives lost on that damned island!"

"Good." Elsa smiled gently. "Consider me an ally."