Happy new year everyone!

Due to all the festivities I got kind of delayed, but here's the next chapter.

A big thank you to everyone who has kept up with the story thus far.

Please leave a review if you feel like it, I appreciate all feedback.

Enjoy!

Chapter 36: Injuries

Ben whistled a happy tune as he walked through the hallways of Auradon prep. He had returned early from his royal visit to Charmington to surprise Mal and was now on his way to her room with a picnic basket.

He cheerfully knocked on her door and stepped back, ready to yell surprise.

It was Evie who opened up however, so Ben refrained himself.

"Hey Evie, where's Mal?" He asked.

Evie looked confused. "What do you mean? She went to see you."

Now Ben was perplexed as well. "What? No. I just came back from Charmington to surprise her." He said as he showed Evie the picnic basket.

"Ooh, that's so sweet." Evie exclaimed. "But she told me that she was going to see you."

"What? She went to Charmington?"

"Maybe, she just said she went to see you. I'm not sure if she went all the way there."

"Oh. Well, it's possible that we missed each other on the way then." Ben said, though he was unconvinced. "How long has she been gone?"

"She already left pretty early this morning. Why? When did you leave?" Asked Evie.

"Only about an hour ago. This doesn't make sense. I mean, she knew where I stayed in Charmington, she should have arrived before I even left."

"Try calling her, just patch things up and get back to your little picnic later." Evie suggested.

"I will, thanks Evie." Ben replied.

"You're welcome." Evie smiled before closing the door.

Ben called Mal, but all he got was voicemail. He tried a couple of times, but just got the same result. When he looked at her contact information, Ben saw that she hadn't been online all day. Where could she be?

Ben subconsciously started worrying. For pretty much the entire past year, he had always been with Mal or at least known exactly where she was. He tried to reason with himself to not jump to any conclusions though.

He knocked on Evie's door again.

"All I got was voicemail." Ben said.

"Oh, well, maybe she's busy?" Evie said unsure.

"Yeah, maybe. I just hoped that we would always be there for each other." Ben said with a sad tone.

Evie pouted. "Come on Ben! Wipe that frown off your face. Let's ask around, maybe the boys have seen her."

Ben cheered up a bit when he heard that. "It's worth a try."

And so, Evie joined him as he went to Carlos and Jay's room.

Ben knocked, and Carlos opened up, a pair of welding goggles on his head.

"Hey Ben, hey Evie. What's up?" He said.

"What are you doing?" Ben asked.

"Just putting some finishing touches on the 3D-printer. Chad has been using it so much lately that the improved circuit I installed has already worn out. It has given me an excuse to enhance it even more though." Carlos enthusiastically replied.

"Okay. By the way, have you seen Mal today?" Ben then questioned.

"Ehm, no. Not today. Why?" Carlos asked a bit confused.

"Ben came back early from Charmington to surprise Mal, while she told me this morning that she would go to visit him. We haven't heard from her since." Evie said.

"I tried calling her, but only got voicemail. This is really unlike Mal, we always make sure to be in touch." Ben said worried.

Carlos seemed to be thinking. "Could it be that she has turned off her phone?" Carlos asked.

"We promised each other to always stay in contact, so either she doesn't have her phone or she's currently not getting any signal." Ben explained.

"Or she doesn't hear it ringing?" Evie hesitantly proposed.

"I doubt that, with that fairy hearing of hers." Ben replied.

"Maybe it's a surprise then?" Carlos proposed. "Maybe she's planning something for you in secret?"

"Well, that would definitely be the happiest explanation." Ben shrugged.

"Maybe Jay has seen her." Carlos said as he looked back into his room. "Jay! Jay! Get up!"

Ben and Evie walked into the room, where they saw Jay sprawled on his bed, moaning and rubbing his eyes.

"Shut up and let me rest." Jay mumbled as he threw a pillow randomly into the room.

"Ben and Evie are here." Carlos said before turning his attention to the 3D-printer again.

"Sup guys." Jay mumbled.

"Jay, it's almost noon." Ben said both accusingly and amused.

"But I'm tired." Jay replied with his head in his pillow.

"What did you do last night?" Evie asked as she sat down on the edge of Jay's bed.

"Some tourney with Aden, Alex and Chad. After that I visited Lonnie for a bit." Jay answered.

"You're really not shy with your answers." Ben said with raised eyebrows.

Jay shrugged. "No need to. But what's up? Why are you disturbing my peace?"

"Have you seen Mal today? She's kind of lost." Evie asked.

This made Jay sit up straight. "Mal's missing? Like, really missing?"

"No, no. We're just not sure where she is. She told me that she would visit Ben in Charmington, but he hasn't seen her there, and she's not picking up her phone." Evie explained.

Jay stroked his chin. "Ehm, the last time I saw her was yesterday evening I believe. Yeah, I had showered after practice, went up to my room and saw her walk through the hallway. I think she just came from Archer and Lance's room." Jay said.

"Well, maybe they know where she is." Ben sighed as he moved for the door again.

"Hey! Wait for us! We don't wanna miss the goose chase!" Carlos enthusiastically said as he removed his goggles. "Jay! Come on!"

"Yeah, yeah, alright." Jay said with trouble as he let himself slide off his bed.

"What? You've all gone from villain to detective?" Ben asked all of them with a smile.

"Always have been." Evie said.

And so, they went to Archer and Lancelot's room together, only to find a note pricked on the door.

Gone hiking with the troop

"Hmm, I guess they're also gone." Ben said moody.

"You could try calling them as well." Carlos proposed.

And so, Ben once again pulled out his phone and dialed Archer, only to reach yet another voicemail.

"No, Archer's not answering as well. Everyone's really going out of their way to hide from me today." Ben said semi-amused.

"They'll turn up eventually, don't sweat it." Jay yawned.

"I know, I just hate not knowing where Mal is. I mean, I want to spend as much time as possible with her." Ben said somberly.

Evie patted him on the back. "You're kinda being melodramatic Ben."

Carlos suddenly clapped his hands. "Freddie! Freddie must know. I saw them in the library yesterday. Maybe she's in on the mystery scheme."

Ben shrugged. "Why the hell not, right?"

Freddie and Jordan's room was thus their next destination. Ben knocked, and Jordan quickly opened up.

"Hey Ben, guys, what's up?" She asked once she saw who were at the door.

"Hey Jordan, where's Freddie? Or do you happen to know where Mal is?" Ben asked.

"No, I don't know about Mal. But, I was actually thinking about messaging you about Freddie. She didn't come back to the room last night, I have no idea where she is." Jordan said with a small hint of panic.

Carlos sighed. "Now she's missing too? This is all just fantastic."

"She didn't come back to her room? Then where could she be?" Evie asked.

"I don't know. I only know she went to see Mal at some point yesterday, after that I haven't heard from her. She won't pick up her phone, I thought that they might have been doing something together, but you're saying that Mal's missing too?"

"Maybe not missing, but we don't know where she is." Jay explained.

"That's literally the meaning of missing, smartass." Carlos teased.

"Maybe Archer has seen Freddie, or Mal. They often hang out." Jordan offered.

"Archer and his troop have gone hiking, and they won't pick up their phones either." Ben said.

Jordan looked at him perplexed. "Hiking? Alex told me yesterday that he and the troop would take a trip to the city!"

"What!?" All the others immediately said.

"Yeah, they would go play laser tag and stuff." Jordan added.

"Did Archer lie?" Evie asked. "Or did Alex lie?"

"Or both." Carlos said. "Both of these situations would not really be anything to lie about. I mean, why would Archer say that they've gone hiking if they went to the city, and why would Alex lie about going to the city if they went hiking?"

"This is really getting strange. Mal, Freddie and the righteous sons all missing at the same time." Evie said in a worried tone.

Jay suddenly gasped, and everyone stared at him. "You don't think she's gone back to the isle? Mal, or Freddie?"

This statement made it feel as though a solid weight had been dropped down Ben's chest.

Mal!? Back to the isle!? No! That could not be true! They were happy! Or so he thought. She would never do that, not again. He knew her, he loved her, and she knew this.

"N-no. She would never do that." Ben said confidently but with a slight stutter.

When the others simply looked at him doubtfully, Ben quickly felt his temper rise.

"She has not gone back to the isle!" He almost yelled. "There are plenty of places they could be! We just need to look there!"

"You're right Ben. I know Mal, she would never want to hurt you. We'll all go looking, see what we can find out." Evie reassured him.

"Thank you." Ben replied. "Let's just start with the school, maybe fairy godmother knows something, or Chad, or Ruby and Anxelin. Let's just ask around."

"This is just hopeless, it's like she's vanished of the face of the earth." Jay complained as he and Ben walked past the tourney field looking for Mal, Freddie and the righteous sons.

"People don't just vanish." Ben replied.

"Mal does, she has magic." Jay said shrugging.

"Come on Jay, I need you to think. Where else could Mal be?" Ben asked.

Jay sighed. "Look man, I have no clue. We have searched the entire terrain around the school, can't we just take a break?"

"Are you not at all worried?" Ben asked.

Jay shrugged. "Not really. I mean, Mal can definitely handle herself, and the righteous sons as well. So, I don't really know why we're worrying so much."

Ben put his hands in his hair. "I guess you're kind of right about that."

"Let's just join up with the rest and see what they've found." Jay suggested as they headed back to the school.

When they neared the main entrance, they saw Evie, Carlos, Jordan and Lonnie stand there looking extremely worried.

"Ben! Ben!" Evie yelled as she hurried down the steps.

"What? What's wrong?" Ben quickly asked.

"I just got a call, from Freddie." Evie said slightly hyperventilating.

"Do you know where she is? Do you know where Mal is?" Ben questioned.

"They've gone to the isle!" Evie shrieked.

"What!? Why!?" Ben loudly exclaimed.

"Freddie said something about screwing up and that Mal's still there with the troop." Evie rambled.

"What? Why would she not tell us, tell me? Where is she now?" Ben asked.

"Near the shore. But Ben, she said that Mal is still on the isle!" Evie said hysterical.

"We'll go there immediately, we need some answers!" Ben said resolutely, before heading towards the garage near the school where the royal limousine was parked.

The drive to the shore of Auradon Bay did not take very long, especially since Jay drove far above the speed limit. At the shore, they saw numerous Auradonian soldiers, apparently waiting for something.

"Where are they?" Ben asked a soldier as soon as he had left the royal limousine.

"Ehm, the righteous sons you mean? That's their boat right there, your grace." The soldier replied as he pointed out into the bay.

Ben looked at where the soldier was pointing and saw a relatively small boat heading their way.

"How long before they get back?" Ben asked.

"No more than a couple of minutes, your grace."

"Where are they? Have they come back yet?" Evie asked as she joined Ben near the edge of the water.

"That's their boat, they should be back any moment now." Ben replied.

"Good. And when they do, they will have some explaining to do." Evie grumpily said.

"Mal will explain herself, we know she will." Ben tried to reassure her.

"She better. She not only has to tell us why she went back to the isle, again! She'll now also have to explain why she apparently didn't feel the need to tell us! I mean, we're her family. She knows that we would help her however we would, right?"

Ben nodded. "We'll find everything out soon. Where's Freddie by the way? She went to the isle too right?"

"I don't know. When she called, she said that she was already back in Auradon." Evie replied.

Carlos then answered their question by suddenly running up. "Guys, I just spoke to the person in charge, and he said that Freddie had to go to the hospital."

"What!?" Both Ben and Evie yelled.

"Was she hurt?" Ben asked.

"No, well, not really. She didn't have any physical injuries as far as they could tell, but apparently she did not feel well at all." Carlos answered.

"We need to go see her!" Evie urged.

Ben directed himself to Carlos. "Did Freddie say what she and Mal were doing on the isle?"

"No, not specifically. She sounded really upset, Ben." Carlos answered.

"We'll go visit her after Mal and the others get back, it will be just a few minutes." Ben said.

"Alright." Both Evie and Carlos agreed.

Ben looked back at the water, in the direction of the isle. Mal had gone back!? Why? Was it simply to get Freddie back? If so, why had Freddie gone there in the first place? And why were the righteous sons involved? Ben had all these questions and no way of answering them just yet.

He looked over at Evie and saw that she was as conflicted as him. "What do you think?" He asked.

"No idea, but I would like to know." Evie replied grumpily. "She has gone back to the isle again! I thought we were over all this after that entire Uma-business."

"Me too." Carlos added. "I came up with the girl talk and everything. I truly believed that she would never let us in the dark like that again."

"Guys, Mal knows how much we care about her. I'm sure that she must have had an extremely solid reason not to tell us of this. She must have." Ben spoke.

"What reason could that possibly be?" Carlos asked to no one in particular.

"Oh Mal, what kind of trouble are you in?" Evie mumbled, her eyes wide with fear.

Suddenly, there was a lot of movement along the Auradon soldiers, who all started running in different directions.

"Wha- what's wrong?" Evie asked as she clung to Ben's shoulder.

But Ben had seen it too. The boat had hoisted a red flag, which meant that whoever was on that boat needed medical attention.

"Something's not right." Ben told Evie. "The red flag means that someone on the boat is wounded!"

"Oh my god! Do you think it's Mal?" Evie asked fearfully as she pressed her hands to her mouth.

"I don't know." Ben replied mindlessly.

Ben's thoughts were going full speed. He didn't know what his friends had done on the isle, but apparently not everyone got out of it okay. Who? Was it Mal? Or Archer? Or Lance? All these questions and more whirled through his head as he watched the boat near the coast.

When the boat docked, Ben was the first to reach it. He saw Archer sitting near the front of the boat, bandage wrapped around his head and left leg, both of which appeared to still be bleeding wounds.

"Archer! Oh my god! What happened? Are you heavily wounded?" Ben hastily asked as he approached his friend.

Archer stared back at him with a mindless expression before shaking his head. "You need to go see Mal." He eventually said with a tired voice.

"Wha-?" Ben started as he turned around to look at the door that led below deck.

His words got caught in his throat as he watched several people get up on deck. The first was Lancelot, carrying an infusion, followed by Royce and Aden carrying a body on a stretcher.

It was Mal. But Ben had never seen her like this. Her face was battered and bloodied, with multiple cuts and spectacular bruises. Her arms were bared, and they were also covered in bruises and cuts. Bloodied bandages were wrapped around both her arms and her chest. It looked as though she was unconscious.

Lancelot, Royce and Aden halted for a second when they saw him standing there, but then continued to bring her on shore, where an ambulance had arrived at the meantime.

Ben mindlessly followed them, unable to utter a single word or produce a single thought. There was Mal, laying on that stretcher. The love of his life. The one person he cared about the most, more than anyone else, looking like she had been put through a meat grinder. She wasn't moving, she wasn't speaking, she wasn't doing anything.

This was all wrong, this couldn't be happening! Mal could not be hurt this badly, this was all a bad dream. Mal! The girl who according to everything that had happened in her life should have been a terrible person, but turned out to be so sweet, so kind, so good. She did not deserve this! This should not have happened to her!

Ben started walking faster to catch up with the stretcher that had now almost reached the ambulance. All the sound and images he had pushed away after he first laid eyes on Mal now came rolling back. He saw many people move towards the stretcher, all with wide, shocked eyes. He heard astonished yells of surprise and terror. He saw Evie and Jordan burst into tears when they saw how their friend had been mauled. Jay, Carlos and Lonnie were simply speechless, though their eyes spoke a thousand words of sorrow.

Ben himself now reached the stretcher, and he bent himself over the beaten body of his girlfriend.

"Mal! Mal! Talk to me, please!" He practically begged of her as he stroked some of her hair out of her face and grabbed her hand. "Mal! Please! Don't be dead, please don't be dead!"

"She's not dead, Ben." He heard a voice say.

When he looked up with teary eyes, he looked straight at a very panicked looking Lancelot. "What have you done!?" Ben yelled at him, before looking back at Aden and Royce. "What have you done!?"

Royce looked kind of offended by these comments. "Woah man, chill. All we did was get her out of there."

Ben didn't listen as he simply turned back to Mal, who was being loaded into the back of the ambulance. "Mal! Mal! Please wake up, please!" He begged again.

But Mal did not move, or even produce a single sound. She just laid there, looking so fragile, so innocent.

"Your grace, we need to move her right now." A voice suddenly said, and he felt a hand on his shoulder.

Ben looked behind him and saw a member of the medical personnel look at him expectingly. "I'm staying with her, I'm not leaving." He quickly said.

"You can ride along with the ambulance, but we need you to let us do our work." The man said.

Ben nodded, and slightly moved aside as the man joined him in the ambulance and closed the doors behind him.

Ben never let go of Mal's hand as they started riding for the hospital. In the meantime, the doctors already changed her infusion and supplied Mal with an oxygen mask.

"Will she make it?" Ben asked, trying to mask the fear in his voice.

"We are doing everything we can your grace." One of the doctors replied.

This only made Ben panic more, but he refused to let himself go against the people who were right now doing their very best to keep Mal alive.

This was undoubtedly the worst Ben had ever felt. He was overwhelmed by fear and doubt. He could not lose Mal, he just couldn't. That would end him. They had gone through so much together, had known both the purest forms of happiness and the darkest forms of despair. Now that he knew her, there was no way for him to continue without her.

He looked at her again, studying every bruise, every cut, every piece of battered and beat up skin. But he looked past this, underneath all the injuries was his soulmate. He knew Mal, she was tough. She would get through this and they would go on to have their happy life together, this would happen.

Ben felt every doubt he could have had about his relationship with Mal disappear. When she would wake up, Ben would no longer hesitate. This was the woman he would marry. He was as certain of this as he could be of anything else. The long wait would finally be over. He would not risk losing Mal again before he could confess his undying love for her.

Ben felt a squeeze in his hand, and he immediately looked at Mal's face. But he saw no change. Her bruised eyes were still closed.

He then noticed that the doctors were no longer operating on her.

"What's going on?" Ben asked.

"There's nothing more we can do for her until we get to the hospital, your grace." One of the doctors said.

Ben nodded and looked back at Mal. He saw her chest rise steadily as she breathed into an oxygen mask. New bandages had been put over the worst wounds and the smaller ones had been cleaned, but many were still bleeding.

"What is her situation?" Ben asked sadly, as he started stroking her hair.

"Multiple bruises and cuts all over face and body. Broken nose and cheek bones. Broken wrist. Bruised elbow and knee. Broken ankle. We suspect at least three broken ribs as well. Heavy cut on the left arm cut into muscle tissue, but no internal organs have been seriously harmed though as far as we know." One of the doctors quickly summed up.

Ben was shocked. This was as big of a beating as he had ever seen. Not even in his time riding with the righteous sons had he encountered anyone with a similar amount of injuries.

At this time, the anger started boiling up inside of him. He didn't know who was responsible for this, but he knew one thing. He would find this person and personally make sure that he or she would get the punishment they deserved.