Contains: Graphic depictions of violence in the form of some rather creative executions.
P.S: All questions, comments and concerns after the epilogue will be promptly addressed, as I am an attention whore who loves to talk about the story. PM me or leave a comment and I'll get back to you.
• • •
Carlos never wanted revenge on Roger and Anita, who'd petitioned to have him taken from the Isle as a baby. He'd also met with them for breakfast, and found that despite their overwhelming love for dogs, they were rather nice people, and he offered them jobs in the capital, which they refused politely, to stay in their darling cottage in the countryside of Charmington. That cottage to which Carlos and all his family had an open invitation.
"You have to understand, Carlos dear. We never wanted to send your mother to that awful place. She was a very ill woman who needed to be in a hospital, not a prison." Anita murmured.
"I know. If anyone knows that, it's me." Carlos replied weakly. He knew they spoke the truth. He'd seen it in court records.
"You poor kid. Have another iced coffee on us." Roger chimed in (Carlos loved Auradon coffee, so sweet and rich, and ten different kinds of chocolate), and his wife smacked his arm.
"Any more caffeine and he'll be jumpier than a rabbit!" Anita chided him playfully.
(They still thought they had to buy him things. Him, one of the richest men in the world.)
"That's okay," Carlos laughed. "I've been drinking coffee since I was a kid, so I have a high caffeine tolerance."
And then they gave him that look again, the one they showed whenever he said anything, however small, to indicate how bad his childhood was. It was something like sadness, pity, and righteous anger rolled into one.
If the thought of a child drinking coffee has them so riled up, I guess I shouldn't show them my scars. Carlos thought bitterly.
He couldn't afford to spend too much time with them, the kind couple from Charmington. Because Roger and Anita treated him like a child, and Carlos hadn't been a child in a long, long time. Especially not their child.
Plus, Carlos (of this timeline at least) was still firmly a cat person.
They were so close now. As much as Mal herself wanted to have been the one to end the Beast, she had to content herself with waiting her turn for Aurora and Phillip. The next executioner was Jay, who stood in front of Aladdin and Jasmine with a grim expression.
"You stole my inheritance. I haven't yet been able to contact my family, and you're so, so lucky your execution is scheduled for now, and not later." Jay hissed. "If I can't find my family because they're dead, or homeless, your deaths would be so much worse."
Aladdin opened his mouth to protest, but Mal cast a spell, and no sound came out. They'd already used a truth spell during interrogation to find out that Aladdin really hadn't known about Jay's family, so anything he could have said was merely begging for his life or Jasmine's. Jay wasn't cruel. It would only hurt him and cool his anger to hear them beg, and Mal truly believed this had to be done. The three watched like impassive statues as Jay passed down judgement.
"You're a thief, Aladdin." Jay growled. "And you know what they do with thieves in Agrabah."
Two heads rolled that day, and they always cleaned up the blood by themselves, the four of them. The servants knew there were executions of course, but Mal didn't want to make them clean up blood in the palace. So the killings always happened in the dungeons, and they always cleaned up after themselves. Fatima was getting the same vetting process as Tiana and Naveen's heirs, Nicole and Tomas, all hoping to someday rule. Aziz wanted to be a professional Tourney player.
Evie's turn was next, and she stood in front of Snow White and Ferdinand with a wicked grin.
"Time to finish what my mother started." The girl laughed sweetly, entirely at odds with her murderous demeanor. She didn't think that what Snow or her mother did was wrong, exactly. To get rid of a potential rival for the throne was not uncommon, nor was deposing a queen regent in order to take one's seat. No, Evie's particular bone to pick with Snow was more about how she refused to acknowledge Evie's legitimacy, even now, as she was on her knees awaiting execution.
"I have the dwarves, who used to be your friends, Snow. I have your daughters, air-headed as they are, and I have your kingdom. Tell me I win."
"Hmmph. You want my validation? Doesn't that make you sort of desperate?" Snow asked tauntingly, and Evie's eyes narrowed.
"Tell me I've won, and I'll let your daughters live." She whispered, and Snow's eyes went wide. Evie gestured to the platter she had before her. There were five apples there. One for each of their family, plus one, for the fun of it. Evie had told them that one of the five apples wasn't poisoned, and if they found the clean one, Ferdinand or Snow could live.
It was a lie, of course. Evie didn't get this far just to give up at the finish line. It was also a lie that she would hurt her step nieces. Blanche and Willow might be ditzy and vain girls, but they'd been promised a spot in the new Auradon Prep if they behaved, and if they passed, they could nicely rule Germania while Evie spent time in the capital.
Finally, after what seemed like forever, Snow White looked up at Evie, and bitterly murmured: "You win." Before biting into her chosen apple.
When she dropped instantly, painlessly dead, Ferdinand took a bite of his own apple, thinking that he would either die, or he wouldn't. Of course, he died.
Mal's turn was next, and she looked towards Phillip, Aurora, and Audrey with the highest contempt. Well, maybe not Audrey. She'd been kind of a bitch to Jane and Lonnie, Mal had heard, but she wasn't the type to judge people on first appearances or past indiscretions, especially teenagers.
"You still have time to join me, niece." Mal asked, leaning down into Audrey's face with a concerned frown.
"I will never follow you, you pretender!" Audrey exclaimed. Mal had tried to explain it to her several times now, as Diaval had explained it to her. It was a lot to take in, knowing you were first conceived when all your peers' parents were.
The conversation had gone something like this: Mal had been walking through the rose garden with her familiar, when she asked him who her father was.
"Mother wouldn't tell me. She thinks it's some grand surprise." Mal explained with a roll of her eyes.
"Oh, well it is. And you probably wouldn't have believed her if she told you." The man cawed in a crow-like laugh.
"And why not? She has no motive to lie to me now." Mal replied.
"What if I told you you were conceived by King Stefan?" Diaval asked, and Mal pursed her lips.
"It reminded me of something Aurora said at her trial. She said that her father stole Maleficent's 'innocence', which I assume is some flowery euphemism for virginity-" a cawing laugh at that, until Mal shushed him. "- but I thought about it, and the timeline doesn't add up."
"Ah, clever mistress." Diaval smirked, the feathers at the edges of his face crinkling lightly. "But Fae biology is not the same as humans. Any fertilized egg can wait for years in stasis before developing into a child. There is no such thing among the Fae as an un-planned baby."
"Why did she choose to have me on the Isle then?" Mal demanded. If she had been born in her home as planned, she'd have wings!
"I suspect that the barrier had something to do with it. Once she was separated from her ancestral magic, I'd say your mother simply couldn't help it. Once you began to grow, it was too late to stop you." Diaval explained. "Besides, it was fated this way. If you were born in any other age, you would never have had the connection with your court. This era would have passed by with no great change as the fates had planned."
"I don't think you could have stopped it if you wanted to." Diaval finished, fluttering as if still a bird, moving with eerily smooth motions that really drove home the knowledge that he wasn't human.
Audrey on the other hand, couldn't seem to grasp the concept, and Mal was done trying to explain it to her. If she wanted to die with her parents, so be it.
"No, no, dear half-niece of mine. You're the only pretender here." Mal whispered, before their throats were cleanly slit, and the bodies consumed in dragon fire.
"You did good." Jay said, as Mal stared blankly into the flames.
"No, we did good." Mal replied with a real smile, the first she'd given since Ben had died.
"We did it." Evie laughed, "We did it!"
"We did what our parents never could. All the tears and pain led right to here." Carlos grinned.
"Time to burn it to the ground." Mal smirked, and to the surprised stares, she replied, "Not literally. I actually like this palace a lot. I mean like, legislatively."
"Oh, definitely." Evie nodded. "Rulers can no longer be empty-headed beauties like Snow White."
"Or thieves, who only rule because of marriage or luck, like Aladdin." Jay added.
"Or crazy people." Carlos chimed in. "Gotta vet out those crazy people."
"Or selfish, unprepared idiots, like Aurora." Mal completed the cycle. It was the first rule for their meritocracy: Any would-be ruler of Auradon must attend Auradon Prep (which would finally prepare it's students) and pass a qualifying test. Jay, Evie, Carlos, and Mal had all eventually taken time off to take the test themselves, as it wouldn't do for them to not follow their own rules, but that was still months away.
"They'll need a good knowledge of history and current events." Carlos noted on the night they drew up the curriculum plans.
"And economics, to better run their treasuries." Jay had made his own contribution.
"Diplomacy, so they can smile at people they hate, and lie through their teeth to save lives." Evie added, looking to Mal, who had to think before she added her own tenet.
"Charisma, and public speaking, so that when they lead, people will follow."
And so the four-fold motto of Auradon Prep was born: Scientia, Sententia, Astutia, Oratoria.
Knowledge, reason, diplomacy, charisma.
All the history books had had to be rewritten, because they only ever held cautionary tales of heroes' past glories, and the moral was always something tooth-rotting, like 'always trust in yourself!' or 'kindness is always the answer!' the most common was 'believe in true love!' and Mal knew for certain that one was bullshit. Ben believed in true love, and all he got for it was a hero's funeral and a dedicated wing in the new library.
There was so much work to be done, but there was fun to be had too. All of the main four and their new Auradon friends stayed in one weekend and binge-watched everything they could get their hands on. The only movies they'd ever seen as kids were goody-goody afternoon specials shown on all the Isle televisions because Adam hoped the morals would rub off on them or something. They were so amazed to find out that there were other types of movies out there.
"You guys have never seen Mean Girls? The Breakfast Club?" Lonnie had exclaimed, even though by this point she honestly shouldn't be surprised at their shitty childhood after all the time she'd spent with them lately.
They ate popcorn that was freshly popped (Carlos was amazed that it actually looked like the picture on the pacakge.) Oftentimes on the Isle, they'd gotten empty bags of microwave popcorn with piles of unpopped kernels stuffed into the bottom. The Isle kids would put several in their mouths at a time to savor the butter taste, and soften them enough to eat.
Doug took them out to an ice-cream bar, where there were over twenty different flavors of ice cream, so many that they could scarcely decide (although Mal, who had recently discovered a love for all things strawberry had no problem figuring out what flavor she wanted.) They all got one scoop to try, and went back for seconds, and thirds, and even fourths. It was indulgence of a new, glorious kind. The pure and honest hedonism of four who got to live for the very first time.
Jay suspected that the shopkeeper might not have usually allowed a group of rowdy teens to hang out in her shop eating ice cream all day, but like everyone in Auradon, she'd seen the photos during the trials. She knew that this was their first time, and what they'd come from.
Harriet, through her long correspondence with Hatter, had a deeper understanding of Auradon than most Isle Descendants, even though she'd never experienced it, she understood the concepts well enough, and showed her kings and queens the playhouses and theaters of Auradon.
"You know, Shakespeare wrote a play about the first fae court." Jane had piped up as they debated which to see. Mal was so looking forward to Julius Caesar, but she conceded her interest for the sake of seeing what Shakespeare imagined for the god and goddess of the Fae.
In settling the affairs of her revenge, Shan Mei eventually petitioned Mal to please, please, let her kill Li Lonnie, which was always vehemently refused.
"I have no problem letting the children survive," Mei explained. "They will be raised as Huns, and trained properly, given as much love as we can give. But that adult daughter, I cannot allow her to become a threat!"
"It's non-negotiable." Mal insisted. "Li Lanying lives, or you don't get China."
"May I suggest a compromise?" Jay chimed in. He was great friends with Lonnie and knew her feelings on the matter.
"Suggest away, Jay." Mal inclined her head.
"You should fight," He grinned. "Not to the death or anything, but if she defeats you in battle, you have to let her rule China alongside you."
It was a duel then, and to the surprise of no-one but Mei herself, she was throuroughly trounced and pinned by a wickedly triumphant Lanying. From that point onward, Mei's respect and affection for the other girl skyrocketed, and she began subtly courting the daughter of her father's worst enemy. (As for Shan Yu, he had died in a duel on the Isle, so if he had anything to say about that, it would have to be via seance).
Doug sometimes followed Evie around like a puppy dog, and Mal watched it with amusement, but never said anything. They'd already agreed on it back with Ben.
You're my true love, and I'm yours, and nothing else matters.
These were the greatest times of their lives.
• • •
Harriet came to Mal one day, wearing the red Captain's hat that Madelyn Hatter had made for her, and she asked for a writ of passage to use her ship outside of Auradon waters.
"Absolutely, Hook." Mal smiled. "Keep any piracy off the books, okay captain?"
"Nah, that's Uma's thing. I'm strictly doing an exploratory journey." Harriet explained with a grin.
Uma herself had come by just a week earlier to get her own certificate, claiming that she was going to go rightfully claim her throne in Atlantia. Mal told her to make sure any mayhem and bloodshed wouldn't be traced back to Auradon.
It was a messy business, but Mal wasn't in the habit of denying anyone their revenge, and she supposed now that things were getting settled down, the pirates wanted to be back on the ocean.
"What are you looking for?" Mal asked teasingly, and handed the stamped and signed certificate to Harriet, who looked at her with a smirk.
"The Lost Island of Tir Na Nog." The girl whispered, and Mal felt a tingle in her bones.
"Do let me know what you find out." She replied, trying to seem nonchalant about it.
"Will do, commander." Harriet replied, grinning over the use of Mal's old nickname.
Lost Island.
Mal knew, objectively, that the ancestral home of the fae was called the Lost Island. But she'd never heard it said aloud, never noticed the similarities.
Lost Isle. Isle of The Lost.
Using the cellphones they all had now, Mal frantically called Jane.
"What is it, Queen?" Jane asked (Mal had told her a million times to call her Mal, and Jane had answered a million times that she was the Queen and that was all).
"Why did the Fae leave Tir Na Nog?" Mal asked in lieu of an explanation, and Jane chuckled lightly on the other end of the line.
"You never paid attention in Diaval's diaspora lessons, did you?" Jane teased.
"This is no time for jokes! Why did they leave, Jane?" Mal asked, practically begging, and her senechal could tell the worry in her voice.
"The seelie and unseelie were fighting, and it tore the land apart in a massive civil war. The queen at the time was actually named Mal, like you, but it was short for Maledictum." Jane explained. "Maledictum placed a curse on her own land, and insisted that it would never bear fruit until the two factions could unite under one banner and work together to release the curse."
Mal dropped the phone, and Jane, worried, could no longer hear her on the other line. Jane didn't know what had happened while Evie and Carlos were alone on the Isle, but Mal did. And even if Evie had told her, she may not have told Jane the whole story.
They didn't terraform the Isle. They just removed a curse, and gave it a little push.
When the four plus Jane entered the room, having been summoned at Mal's abrupt disappearance, she looked up at them with eyes of flame.
"Out of all the places they could have put that Island..." She whispered, in a voice that was neither angry nor sad.
"Mal, we promised ourselves not to think about the Isle anymore," Jay interjected, but Mal smiled at him to show she wasn't upset.
"Out of all the places to have met, fate took us to the Lost Island of the Fae."
All four understood. They'd been told about the Island in conjunction with their thoughts about where the Isle might have come from. Without this last bit of knowledge, no one could put it together until now, but they knew Mal was right.
It was just one more sign that this was more than right.
This was destiny.
• E N D •
This chapter is dedicated to all the fans who've read, reviewed, and raved about the story from it's very first chapter to today. Without you guys, this would probably end up as just another handful of chapters on a pile of unfinished works. I'm glad I could complete it for you.
Special thanks to:
snickers_cat and courtney_young from Wattpad for giving me real-time feedback on their thoughts and feelings about the chapters.
That Gay Nerd, DeathCrawler and Shadowgirl608 from Fanfiction for their detailed and consistent comments on nearly every chapter. They brought me inspiration to keep writing.
And last but not least, TheHarleyQueen, who wrote the Seven Deadly Sins series and got me to think about Descendants in a new way. Without her thoughtful and intriguing alternate universe, I might never have started thinking about my own. Please go and read all her Descendants stories while you wait for the next chapter of our heroes' story.
Magic Mirror, true and bold. Tell me, what does our future hold...?
What will Mal, Evie, Carlos and Jay do next, now that they've finally got their revenge? How do Lonnie and Mei get past their differences to become friends? What happens when Ginny meets Rapunzel?
Find out in the sequel: The New Dragon, coming soon.
Long Live Queen Mal!