Ericka and Jack were partnering with Hiccup and Astrid to lead a battle against Grimmel and Alvin. Meanwhile, North, Toothiana, and Sandy would head to find Hernan Cortes. Bunny was hanging with the Auradonian soldiers, checking for wounded, and acting as backup if needed. And while this was all going on, Mal and Ben were getting prepped for battle up in the room they'd slept in, which was beneath the attic but still high off the ground so that they could come and go as needed.
Mal groaned softly as she pulled the straps on her body armor tight. The black material felt restrictive and tight against her sore lower back. Ben helped her up, looking worried. "You okay?" He whispered.
"Yeah." She smiled. "You?"
Ben shrugged. "We're getting there." He muttered. He helped her up and cradled her hand in his. Mal watched, expressionless, as he threaded his fingers through hers. "You know what?" he whispered softly.
"Hmm?" Mal sighed.
"I'm excited." He told her. "I know you're not, and you're still angry, but I really think that this is a great thing. And I know it'll work out in the end. As soon as we're done, we'll have seven months to focus on you and on us, and by the time you have the baby, everything will be okay. We'll make it all okay."
Mal's gut twisted and she carefully took her hand back and sat back down. The more she thought about this, the more it twisted at her mind. She didn't know what to do anymore. Ben knelt down in front of her and put a hand on the side of her face. They stared into each other's eyes for several minutes, and Ben started to lean in to her.
A knock came from the door. Ben went to open it. Behind the threshold stood a grisly man dressed in red. Ben smiled when he saw him. "Sinbad?" He asked.
Sinbad stepped into the room and gave Mal a sarcastic salute, which she returned. He was clearly going on in years, with grey in his beard and hair and wrinkles covering his sun-tanned face. His skin looked like leather, and he was one of the most imposing men Mal had seen off of the Isle.
"I'm here to tell you about Tartarus, right?" Sinbad asked, folding his arms.
"If you could?" Ben asked, folding his hands behind his back. Mal took up a classic Isle stance, leaning back slightly with her hands on her hips.
"There's a star at the 76th longitude, heading east." Sinbad pointed. "When we went, we used a star. The journey took about a week by ship."
"No." Mal rolled her eyes. "If it'll take a week, I'm going to fly as a dragon."
"Probably best." Ben nodded. "But you'll have to turn back into yourself to get into Tartarus."
"You're going to go into Tartarus?" Sinbad asked.
"And seal it from the inside," Mal confirmed.
"Woah, Woah." Sinbad held up his hands, looking alarmed. "Several problems with that plan. "One, Tartarus has literally pulled the sea into a chasm that we sailors refer to as 'the edge of the world'. There's nothing around or behind it."
"The world is round." Ben frowned.
"I promise you, dear king, that the world has a gigantic hole in the center of the ocean that surrounds Tartarus." Sinbad rolled his eyes. "If you want in, you'll have to fly over the edge, endure the intense pressure, and jump into Tartarus. If the rumors are true," He elbowed Ben. "And you have her sand powers, you'll be able to get in whether she seals it up or not. Just dissolve into sand and fly in. But little miss here?" He examined Mal from head to toe. "Might not be able to get in."
"Couldn't I dissolve her with me?" Ben asked with a frown.
"Sure." Sinbad nodded. "But lose your kid in the process. That happened to Marina last time Eris captured her. Not fun."
Mal looked at Ben and sighed. "So… if Eris closes the borders to Tartarus, I'm stuck outside?" That meant Ben would have to do it all alone.
"Yeah." Ben looked a bit sick. "We'll have to be careful."
"Do you think you could open the borders?" Mal asked.
"Probably not." Sinbad interrupted. "I wouldn't plan on that."
A thought struck Mal. "That's so weird." She commented. "I can turn into a dragon and the kid is fine, but if Ben turns me into sand they die?"
"Not your magic." Ben guessed.
Sinbad nodded with a broad gesture to him. "That's it." He agreed.
Mal sniffed. "Lame." She declared. "Whatever, though. So, seventieth longitude, east, yada yada. What else?"
"How are you going to get out?" Sinbad asked. "If you seal the doors, even Ben's sand powers won't get you out."
Ben's face fell. He looked immediately to Mal. "Oh." She said with a frown. "Well… maybe we can close it most of the way and then stitch the last bit up from the inside? Or maybe I can tie the locks on the doors to Eris so that her power keeps them closed and therefore, the more power she has, the more shut they are."
"That still doesn't help you." Sinbad pointed out. "Eris has the most power in her little stronghold. Maybe the little opening idea will work, but it will also make your locks dramatically weaker."
"So, do the locks most of the way up the door, and then tie them to Eris?" Ben suggested. "Seal it as we leave and hope for the best." He clapped his hands together.
"I think that's our best bet." Mal agreed with a sigh. She turned to Sinbad. "You've been a great help but… perchance, do you have anything from Tartarus that we could use to guide us instead? I don't think either of us knows how to follow a longitude."
Ben snorted in agreement as Sinbad chuckled. "I think Marina has a handful of sand, but that's it. If we go down to the ship, we can see."
"Wouldn't you have any of Helena's magic?" Ben asked.
"No." Mal shook her head. "I didn't take any of it. And I don't know if Helena belonged in Tartarus so much as she could visit there."
"You know what?" Sinbad said suddenly. He reached around his neck and pulled a leather cord out from underneath his sailor outfit. Threaded on the chord was what looked like a real human nail. Mal stared as Sinbad shook it. "Does it have to be a piece of Tartarus?" Sinbad asked. "Because Marina yanked this off of Eris and we've had it ever since. Bring it back and I'd be more than happy to let you borrow it."
"That'd work." Mal nodded. "Can we use it?"
Sinbad removed the cord from around his neck and dropped it into Mal's outstretched hand. Ben shied away from it uncomfortably.
"Alright," Sinbad said as Mal secured the cord around her own neck. "Now Tartarus has no set landscape. From what I can remember, the sky doesn't move at all. I'd try and remember where you fall in because we didn't leave the way we came. Eris dissolved us and had us rematerialize on an island outside Tartarus. It's all sand and black stones. She can change it to whatever she's feeling like at the moment."
Mal nodded. "Will Eris's pets be there at all?"
"I don't think so." Sinbad shook his head. "They were when we were there, but from what it sounds like, they're all out wreaking havoc on the land."
"Okay," Mal said. She picked up Ben's sword from the stack and a dagger about the length of her forearm. "Let's get out of here." She said, handing Ben's sword to him. He smiled.
Sinbad opened the door. "Good luck to both of you."
"And to you." Ben nodded. "Where are you heading off to?"
"Marina." Sinbad smiled. "We have, as I've heard, a sea of monsters to contain." He saluted them both one last time and began to walk away. Mal smiled and hummed.
"Should we fly?" She asked Ben.
Ben shrugged. "Should I dissolve and meet you there or go with you?" He asked.
"I'd prefer you went with me, so we can stick together," Mal admitted. "Can't you directly travel to Tartarus anyways?"
"If I already knew where it was," Ben answered. He sheathed his sword. "I'll just go with you."
"Kay." Mal nodded. "Let's go and defeat ourselves a sand goddess."
Ben laughed, and Mal walked back into the room. She opened the window and climbed out. She blew Ben a kiss and jumped out. He waited for a few seconds and then saw a mighty dragon fly by. He laughed. "I'm coming, I'm coming!" He called.
Ben swung his legs out of the window sill and stared down at the ground and the roads thousands of feet below. He exhaled slowly and then leaped out into the cold winter air.
After following Eris based on her nail for what felt like forever, Ben felt a sharp pull in his navel. Up ahead it was exactly as Sinbad had described, with the sea suddenly falling away as if the world had suddenly ended. Beyond the drop was a doorway that looked like a rip had been torn in the sky. Mal stopped on a small, pitiful-looking island and morphed back to herself with a slight stumble. Ben materialized beside her.
"So, that's it." He breathed.
"Ugh." Mal groaned. "I get not wanting neighbors, but did she have to make it so far?" Ben laughed as she caught her breath. "Can you feel if the place is locked up?" Mal asked.
Ben examined the gates tactfully. "They're not." He decided. "At least, they don't feel like they are."
"Okay." Mal nodded. "Let's go, then."
Ben dissolved and waited for her as she grew her wings out and took to the air. She was unsteady in the air, he noticed. Off-balance.
They flew to the ocean's drop-off and broke over the edge of the chasm. Ben couldn't see the bottom. Carefully, Ben slipped through and began the descent towards Tartarus. The skies inside had the textured of stained glass, with thousands of different colors that changed at rapid speeds. For once, he could feel Mal following him.
They fell through the doors and plummeted towards the ground at a ridiculous speed. As they reached the ground, they naturally slowed, but Ben wasn't worried. He reformed himself on top of the vast golden sands and felt Mal land beside him. She clutched her stomach. "Ugh." She groaned.
"What's wrong?" Ben asked with a frown.
"I just… feel awful all of the sudden. Headache and stomach cramps. Ow." She bent over for a few seconds, then stood back up. "Okay." She sighed. "Where would we find Eris?"
"Me?" A de-personified figure asked. The desert floor shook beneath their feet and rocked back and forth. The sand withered around them to reveal black bricks laid beneath their soles. As the sand blew away further, it revealed a pillaged city built only out of broken beams and black bricks. A figure with greasy, black flowing hair appeared, skirting around the edge of a ruined dwelling.
Eris looked, in a word, horrible. Red sores circled her eyes and something black and smooth had dried on her left cheek. She floated like an amputee would walk – with obvious pain. Mal frowned to see her.
Eris gestured at her city. "You like?" She asked. "I was planning to do the whole world like this, but I don't suppose that'll work now." She sighed. "Have you come to kill me?"
Mal snorted. "Kill a goddess? Surely you respect us enough to know we aren't that stupid."
Eris hummed. "Then, have you come to make me promise to stay in Tartarus? Or to not attack your cities anymore?" She sat down on a pile of black bricks and sighed.
"The promise of a villainess?" Mal scoffed.
"Of a goddess." Eris corrected. "Don't you have any gods or goddesses in Auradon? I could have sworn that one of my monsters killed a daughter of a god or something." She buried her face in her hands. "Promises. That's how Sinbad defeated me in the first place." She moaned. "Oh, how the mighty fall."
"I wouldn't trust your word lower than I can curtsey." Mal raised her eyebrow.
Eris hummed. "Interesting." She commented. "Then, pray tell, what is your plan?"
"We're here to seal up Tartarus," Ben told her. "You're never going to leave again.
Eris looked genuinely surprised. "Really? To be honest, I thought that the whole killing gods thing was a bit more straightforward than that." She disappeared and rematerialized in front of the two. Ben took Mal's hand and held on tight. "Don't you know only someone with sand powers can do that?" She asked.
Ben let a smile pull at the corners of his lips. "You're right." He agreed. "An impossible task."
Eris narrowed her eyes. She examined his appearance, and a smile pulled at her lips. "Oh, well, that's a surprise. You even have my daughter's signature." Eris hummed as black smoke began to billow out from around her. "Well, if you want to seal my home, you'll have to go through me first." She hissed. "And I already know that one of you is not as well as she claims to be."
Eris disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Mal and Ben looked around, but she did not rematerialize.
"You'll have to stitch the barrier together since your magic matches hers." Mal murmured. She couldn't explain it, but something felt weird about her feet. They felt numb. "I'll hold her off and over you."
"I'd rather it be the other way around." Ben frowned. "Wouldn't it be better to fight sand with sand?"
"And exhaust each other." Mal pointed out. "No. If I seal the barrier, I'll have to change the structure of the entire barrier before I can match my weaving. Otherwise, there'll be two types of magic, and they'll mix and eventually fall apart. I can do the failsafes, but not the bindings."
Ben exhaled. "Okay." He pulled her towards him using her hip and stole a quick kiss from her. His thumb rubbed a little circle closer to her stomach, which made not only her stomach but also her brain do painful flip-flops.
Ben let her go and began to quickly examine his sand powers. There were two parts to his magic. One matched the makeup of the sands of Tartarus, and the other matched the nightmare horses. The first was imbued with chaos magic, and the second with fear magic. Unlike Ericka or Jessie, this magic seemed to be pretty evenly mixed. Perfect.
"Okay." He whispered. "I think I got it. But we still don't know where Eris is. Watch your back."
"I think I can find her," Mal whispered, looking around. Her stomach was still churning. "I'll just use the second realm and-"
The ground shook and Mal hit her knees. She covered her mouth to keep from throwing up. Ben managed to keep his balance, but barely. Above her head, a gigantic wave of sand was crashing down on her. She put her hands up to stop it but the ground shifted beneath her feet, and she fell. Immediately, sand covered her head and she was swimming in a sea of scratchy silt, reaching for a surface she couldn't even see. Sand filled her mouth, nose, ears, and eyes as she struggled, and she thought for a second that she was going to cough and suffocate in all the sand. Then something solid caught her hand. She was pulled back up into the light. Ben's hand returned from dissolved sand back to a solid form as he flung his hands skyward. Black sand appeared from his palms and rushed up to counter a second tsunami of gold that was raining down on them.
Mal's feet swished on the ground like she was on slippery ice as she tried to gain her footing in the rocking earth. She was still clutching Ben's sword tightly with one hand, but her first knife was gone. The second one was hanging from the sheath by the hilt. Her arms were cut up from when she'd been cut by her own blade in the angry sands.
As Ben's magic hit the waves, the golden wave diminished. However, several more were rising up on their left and right. Ben carefully planted his feet to guard her against the blasts and threw out his own massive wave of chaos magic. Two enormous tsunamis took form, growing taller as they traveled until they collapsed down on top of their opposers.
Mal managed to find her footing by using Ben's arm to help support her. The two stood, looking around at their surroundings as the sandy floor of Tartarus slowly stilled. For a second, the world went quiet.
"Did she go back to the Overland?" Mal gasped and coughed. A wave of actual sand fell out of her mouth.
"That'd make our job easy," Ben remarked, looking around carefully with a guarded look in his eyes. He moved his stance slightly so he could wrap a hand around her bicep. He carefully took his sword from her. "Get that knife off your arm before you cut your own wrist off."
Mal made a face at him. "Look at you, all authoritative." She snarled as she began to untie the last fastenings.
"Mal!" Ben yanked on her arm sharply as he pointed skyward, where a thick black color was spreading across the barrier to Tartarus. The sky was turning into an inky black. The floor started to rock again, and Mal hit her knees, narrowly avoiding chopping her middle finger into two equal parts. Sand sprayed up into the air as part of a massive sandstorm as the light from the barrier disappeared. The floor sands of Tartarus still gave off an ethereal golden glow, though the air was becoming thick with unnaturally colored silt. Mal grabbed Ben's leg as her own feet were dragged down into the silt. She could see his figure – head down, arms outstretched – as he tried to bend the sands to his will to near no avail.
She took a deep breath before her head began to be pulled down under the sands. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't seem to keep her head up. Ben leaned down and yanked her out of the earth. He'd re-sheathed his sword at his hip and was shaking against the strain of battling Eris's sands.
Mal struggled to get a hold on his shoulder so that she wouldn't slip back under and screamed to be heard over the roar of the storm: "Ben, absorb it!"
Ben held out the hand that wasn't wrapped around her and formed his own sandstorm in his palm. Then, he started suctioning their surrounding obstacle straight into his hand. It worked. The sandstorm vanished and everything was once again still.
Mal felt as drained as she had on the night that she'd nearly drained herself. She slumped against Ben's grasp, gasping, and cried in pain. Something was suddenly wrong with her side, where Ben's hand had been resting. Black steam was wafting from her side, and the protective, heavy duty fabric had melted away entirely. A bloody, singed wound in the shape of a man's large handprint was left. Ben swore.
"It's nothing," Mal waved him off as she gasped for breath. "You must have accidentally siphoned off of me or something, but really fast." She waved at her side until the steam subsided into a wound.
"You need to take to the air," Ben mumbled, anger ebbing from his tone. "This ground isn't going to cooperate with your legs, and you're unsteady anyways."
"You're the one who needs to take to the air." Mal made a face. "You have to stitch the barrier together before I can lock the fail-safes on Eris."
Ben put a hand on her shoulder. "Can you handle her?" He whispered.
Mal balled her fists up at her side and took Ben's sword out of his sheath from his hip. "I can." She resolved firmly. "Go on."
Ben kissed her cheek and dissolved from view. Mal yanked the last remnants of her sheath apart so she could wield her knife with her sword. She let her vision slip into the second realm as she quietly drew her wings out and lifted off the untrustworthy ground. Almost immediately, she spotted a tall, slinky shadow hiding from view in a form of invisibility cloaking. She shot a hand out to apprehend the goddess, but it seemed the invisibility was preventing her from sealing Eris's abilities. That or the goddess had learned to combat her tricks. Eris slipped into the sky, where Ben was now up on the roof, trying to seal the barrier.
Mal tried to summon fire but ran into two immediate problems. One, her conjuring wasn't that great to begin with. Two, only painful sparks were appearing in her hand. It was like her hand was being stabbed with dozens of tiny swords. At her feet, green staining was appearing in the sand – bleeding out of her like she was cut or something. It was just magical blending – powerful magic drew weak magics towards them, Tartarus was a lot more powerful than she was – but it was happening on the worst possible time. She needed to get off the ground.
Mal summoned every wit about her and launched into the sky. The moment she left the poisonous, untrustworthy sands, a little strength returned to her body. She pulled her wings out of nothing and followed Eris. Ben's blade began charged with green magic as Mal quickly caught up to the discord goddess. She slashed and cut Eris across her back. Eris howled and turned, which gave Mal just enough time to slash the blade through Eris's arm and throw her down towards the ground.
The black-haired goddess rematerialized into a solid form and procured a sword from her dark mists. It was a longsword, with a broad tip and sharp blades. Mal wiped the sweat from her brow and the two charged at each other. Far up above, Ben continued stitching the barrier closed.
Eris tried to swing at Mal's legs but Mal saw the blow coming from a million miles away. She stopped the blow using the flat side of her blade and then used the momentum of her returning blow to switch Eris's weight against her. She ducked underneath Eris's right elbow as the goddess stumbled and pushed her down. Eris fell a few yards and returned with an envigored fury. She took a few sloppy throws at Mal's arms, driving the small girl back a few inches, and a one really good one at her neck that forced the young queen to duck or be decapitated.
Mal rose again and the two continued exchanging blows. Several times Eris tried to slip around Mal, but Mal would simply lock swords, push her down, and repeat. Eris might have been a goddess, but it was clear her swordsmanship was sloppy and out of practice. And it seemed Eris was realizing this as well. Mal cut a slash through the pale woman's cheek and Eris slipped back a few feet closer to the ground. Mal knew that if she hit the ground, it'd start sapping her strength again, but the closer the goddess was to her territory, the further she was from Ben. Far, far above them, the hole had shrunk to the length of a few people lying head-to-head. It was perfectly spherical and seemed to be shrinking every time Mal took a glance at it.
The sands turned black at Eris's feet as she touched them. With a scathing look at her, Eris sent the longsword up in a wave of smoke and instead summoned an arsenal of sand. Mal reached for the magic around her only to find it was brutally ripped from her grasp. She couldn't even throw up a shield to protect herself as the tidal wave of sand magic slammed into her and took her tumbling towards the sands. Ben's sword slipped from her hands and blew upwards, slicing her forehead and scalp as it vanished from her grip. Blood and sand ran into Mal's left eye as she rolled and came to a skidding stop on the sands. Green staining followed her in a grotesque trail as she rolled. It was worse now. The longer she was here, the worse it'd be.
Eris had immediately abandoned Mal and began to fly upwards towards Ben, who momentarily abandoned his work to conjure a thriving hurricane of black fear sand, which he sent hurtling towards Eris. Behind him, Mal thought she saw the barrier open a few inches wider. Blind panic set into her nerves.
Despite the magic being pulled out of her and the blood falling from her head, Mal felt her fingers begin to smoke as intense magic filled her. She could feel herself pulling, stretching, transforming as she grew into her dragon form, and then leaped into the air.
Eris and Ben had engaged in a battle of sands as she tried to force him out of the sky. But however great of a fighter Mal was, Ben was better and stronger. Eris was struggling to knock him down. Mal growled, and Eris turned at the sound. Her eyes grew large and her face fell slack as Mal swatted her out of the air. Ben immediately turned his back and began frantically working on the barrier.
As Eris fell, Mal conjured a great ball of fire that soared right towards the goddess. It sent her tumbling in a heap into the dunes of her own realm. The heat was so intense that the sands began to melt in a dizzying pattern of molten reds, glowing golds, and the thick sludges of the remnants of Ben's black sand magics. A large crater had appeared at the base of a large dune and was slowly filling with molten glass.
Mal let herself shift back into her human form with her wings and looked down into the depths of the crater. She didn't see Eris for a moment. Maybe she'd gotten trapped underneath the glass or the sands. She hovered a few inches over the sands. Despite the lack of contact, more green stains appeared under her feet.
There was an electrifying scream from down below. Mal felt every single one of her hairs rise up on end. The earth shook and a massive air suction from the crater almost pulled Mal down into its depths. She slammed into the sands painfully on her side. Tiny molten glass streams raked their way across her skin. A gigantic head rose from the hole, covered by charred, black, silky, flyaway hair. Two golden eyes with red cornea the size of King Adam himself appeared, followed by several more gigantic features that made up Eris, now a colossal foe that literally stole Mal's breath. That, or she'd swallowed another mouthful of sand. She honestly couldn't tell.
She didn't look good. She was on fire and bloody. Eris snatched her up and shook her with a snarl. "Will you stay out of my-" She began with a howl.
A large spinning disk of black sand appeared out of nowhere. It sliced a large gash across Eris's shoulder. Eris's hold loosened as she turned to howl at Ben, who was hanging off the barrier with one hand and a foot to hold his balance.
Eris snarled and flung Mal across the dunes. The moment she hit the sands rolling, she felt something horrible happen to her left arm and couldn't stop a scream from ripping its way out her throat. Her forearm down to her fingers felt numb and tingly and horribly, horribly useless. She couldn't move it.
Someone else landed in front of her. She looked up as Ben hit his knees beside her with panic in his eyes. He stared at her arm as it started to bruise over with shades of blacks, blues, and purples. Mal hadn't honestly known could appear on her skin.
"You have to leave." Ben urged her.
"What?" Mal gasped. She stared at him incredulously. If she left, he'd be alone. "No." She struggled to her feet. "Get back to work. I'm staying."
Maybe he tried to convince her. Maybe he tried to start with her name and a list of reasons why not. But she couldn't hear him as she re-summoned her dragon form. Eris was reaching up and trying to pry the barrier back open. Thankfully, she wasn't having much luck. Mal let loose another torrent of flame that lit Eris's dress on fire. Eris turned as Mal took to the skies again. Ben returned to the top and continued stitching the barrier closed.
Eris screamed as she tried the wrestle Mal the dragon away while simultaneously batting at the flames on her dress. Mal focuses on stoking the flames. Just because the sands weren't flammable didn't mean that they weren't melt-able. So as Ben slowly stitched the barrier as close together as he could without sealing him and Mal inside, Mal tried her best to force Eris into a deepening pit of boiling half-glass, half-sand sludge.
Her dragon skin seemed to protect her from the heat and her busted arm didn't seem to translate over into this form, but Eris's nails were ripping off scales and it was hard to move as glass stuck to her in huge sheets.
Eris slammed her elbow down on her head. Mal shook off the blow and blew fire into Eris's face. Eris broke away and used her legs to send Mal tumbling back over the sands once again. Mal got back, up, prepared to go back to battle, and stumbled. The world around her suddenly got a lot bigger and warmer. She looked down and realized her hands were back. She'd inadvertently reverted back to her human form. The sands she'd tumbled across were bright, vibrant green with magical staining. She was out of magic. She couldn't maintain that form anymore.
Mal ran her good hand across her head. Her horns, which had been irretractable the last few weeks, had finally vanished as her body tried to conserve magic. She'd never used this much magic before, and now she was almost out.
Ben reappeared beside her in a cloud of black sand. "That's it!" He declared with a sense of victory, rushing to help her up. "Let's get out of here." Black sand whirled around him in dizzy, seemingly uncontrollable waves, though Mal knew he held perfect control of it. As he hurriedly helped her to her feet, being careful of her arm, the sands thickened until eventually, she couldn't see anything. A horrible feeling of dread settled into her spine as Ben used his fear sand. Ben made a gesture towards the direction they'd last seen Eris, and the cloud departed. It encircled the discord goddess, who tried to swipe it away. Eris's movements immediately became sluggish as she focused on trying to free herself from the horrible burning pools of glass.
"Can you fly?" Ben whispered, trying to find a way to immobilize Mal's arm against her side without hurting her terribly.
Mal's legs gave out from under her and her vision went dark. When she woke back up, Ben was shaking her, and she was lying on the ground. Her eyes felt sticky. She reached up and brushed blood off of her eyebrows. Oh, right, she was still bleeding from when Ben's sword had been blown into her.
"I'm okay." She gasped, feeling with her right hand for his shoulder. "Help me up."
"No, stay down!" Ben demanded, shaking in absolute panic. "You were just out for almost two minutes. Don't move!" He took several deep breaths and then carefully put her arms underneath her and picked her up. Mal shouted as her hurt arm swung back and forth. Ben muttered a bunch of terse apologies combined with more than a fair amount of swearing as he carefully secured her in his arms and dissolved his feet to help her up.
The pain combined with her bleeding was making her vision feel like an old television or radio system that wasn't quite calibrated to the correct station. She was fading in and out of consciousness. Ben floated her up to the barrier as Eris continued to struggle in her slowly hardening glass prison. "Can you still tie it shut?" He asked, carefully balancing her in his arms.
"I- might?" Mal gasped. Ben helped her to a half-standing position. She put her hands on the barrier and slowly began spelling the barrier shut based on Eris's closeness to the edge. If Eris came near the opening, it'd close. If she went away, it would open. Mal couldn't build a new section of barrier like Ben could, but she could spell what was already there. Mal kept her vision in the second realm as she worked and carefully monitored her magic as it grew thinner and thinner. Too much more, and she'd snap.
"Good job," Ben whispered when the last spell had been cast. "I knew you could do it." He squeezed her arm. Mal carefully wiped the last of the blood flowing from her head away and braced her hand against the barrier.
"I need you to help me up." Mal gasped as her eyes slipped into the back of her head for a few seconds and flickered before returning to their normal shades. Her limbs felt cold and one ear felt like it had gone deaf. She wasn't far from dead.
Ben nodded and released her. She immediately dropped a few inches to the ground but retained her hold on the barrier. He used his body weight to propel himself up and out of the hole. Ben braced his legs against the entrance of the seemingly-solid realm walls and pulled himself through the barrier. He reached back down through the hole as it suddenly constricted and took her hand. Below them, Eris let out a howl of rage and got to her feet. The fear sand's effects were slowly wearing off.
Ben leaned down to pull her up but was abruptly stopped by an invisible force covering the face of the hole. All of the blood drained out of his face. He tugged again, but Mal's hand refused to cross the threshold of the chaos realm.
"No!" Ben whispered. "No, no!" He pulled sharply, with all his strength at Mal's arm, and she yelped in pain as her knuckles crashed against the invisible barrier. "Sorry." He apologized, reaching down with both hands to try and pull her out.
"Oh my gosh." Mal gasped as she stared at the barrier it seemed fuzzy still, to her. "It's closed. She closed it."
"She couldn't have closed it!" Ben protested. "We were battling her the entire time!"
"She must have closed it when she first saw us fall." Mal realized. That was why she hadn't immediately appeared.
"No, no," Ben muttered under his breath. "Mal, please!"
He continued to yank at her hands as Mal shook. The reality of their situation was crashing down on her. "Ben, she closed the barrier!" Mal snapped. Tears were filling her eyes. "I can't come through. Oh god, I can't come through."
Ben loosened his grip and the two stared at each other. She put her hands up as far as she could, and it was as if she was putting her fingers on a surface of glass. Ben pulled his hair as he panicked and Mal began to cry.
This was it? After all this? She couldn't accept that. Mal pushed her magic through her fingers and into the invisible barrier holding her back. It came visible; a glowing green area about two inches thick that was holding her back from him. She imagined it shattering and breaking, but nothing happened. The green only faded away to make the barrier invisible again, leaving her even more tired.
"I want to cause an explosion." She thought. "I want to blow this up." She closed her eyes and concentrated. A burst of energy appeared in her palm and launched her back a little. She caught the edge of the solid barrier with her fingertips and pulled herself up to see if she could pass now. She couldn't. Her hands were blackened, and the edges of her fingernails had been ripped off, but she still couldn't go through.
"Oh my gosh." Ben gasped, reaching down and catching her jaw. "Your eyes are flashing. Is that-"
"That's bad." Mal interrupted. She shook her head and pressed her forehead against the barrier to rest her head for a second while she thought. "It's no use, Ben." Mal gasped. Tears began to fall back towards the ground below. "I can't- there's no way. I can't come through."
"There's got to be a way," Ben begged. He looked all around at his dismal surroundings. "There's got to be something, anything. Maybe we can rebreak the barrier, maybe I can force you through-"
"Ben." Mal hissed, squeezing her eyes shut. "The only way out is for you to turn me into sand, and we both know that will end badly for one of us three."
Her words made them both stop. Mal looked up and met his eyes as his breathing stilled. While there was obvious pain in his eyes, relief was spreading throughout her. This was her chance. She didn't have to be pregnant anymore. It would be a viable excuse to Auradon and she'd have more time before she had to make this decision again.
"Let me," Ben begged, leaning down and taking her face through the barrier. "You're young. There will be more opportunities for you to get pregnant. You didn't even want it to happen now anyway."
And just like that, she had regrets and doubts. Mal's face twisted and she looked away. "I don't know." She gasped. "This isn't a simple okay, Ben. Just because I didn't plan it doesn't mean I'd rather live knowing your baby died inside of me because of a decision we made."
"Mal," Ben whispered, running a thumb down her cheek. "Please."
Mal swallowed and looked back to where Eris was slowly starting to move faster. "Okay." She whispered. She heard Ben take a ragged breath.
"It's okay." He whispered as sands appeared at her feet. She swallowed hard. Shouldn't she be the one comforting him? "It's okay. You'll be okay."
The sands traveled up her legs. Mal squeezed her eyes shut, but it was no use. Tears still leaked out of her eyes. She pressed a hand to her midsection, wondering if she'd feel the moment they died. She wondered how that would affect her. The sands overtook her head and then vanished. Mal looked up. She was still underneath the barrier. Ben was looking down in rapt horror. She put her hands back up, and the barrier separated them still. "No!" He gasped. "No!" He slammed his fists down on the barrier.
"You can't dissolve me." Mal gasped. Her mind raced with a thousand reasons why. Maybe Eris had planned for that. Maybe Sinbad had been wrong. Maybe it was because she was magical herself or maybe it was because... she was pregnant. But then, the baby didn't have any power over her, and Marina had been able to be dissolved. Mal squeezed her eyes shut. It was her, she realized. Despite everything at stake, she couldn't let Ben kill the child he wanted so badly. Her magic wouldn't let her. Tears leaked out of her eyes, and she bit her tongue to keep from cursing her own name.
Ben dug his nails into his hands. "What can we do?" He begged. "Please, you've got to have a plan. You always have a plan. You've always come back to me before."
Mal put her hand on the barrier. Beneath them, Eris screamed in rage as she tried to pull free of her quickly-hardening glass prison. Angry white burns spread across her skin. "There's nothing else." She whispered. Her voice cracked. Her muscles sagged towards the ground, but she had to at least tell him she loved him. She had to at least say goodbye.
"Please, don't Mal." Ben bit his lip. "You – magic – anything is possible." He reached through the barrier for her hand and twined their fingers together as his shoulders shook. "We deserve a happily-ever-after, after all of this."
Mal shook her head. "I told you." She whispered. "Villains never get happily-ever-afters. Not even their children." She squeezed his hand and kissed his knuckles as Ben's eyes filled with tears. "Go back to Auradon, Ben," Mal begged him as her voice cracked. "I'll survive here as long as I can, but she'll catch me eventually. Please… I don't want you to see me die."
A heavy weight set into Mal's bones. This was it. She was going to take her last breaths here. She winced as Eris howled and ripped a section of hard glass off her upper arm, taking skin with it and leaving muscle exposed. Mal's stomach churned.
"No." Ben shook his head. "No, you're not going to die."
"Go." Mal urged him. "Go, please. You're free now. The curse is broken. Go back to Auradon. I don't want you to see me die. Audrey can take care of the kingdom until Madison is old enough to take over that and the moors. Everything will be okay." She squeezed his fingers in a white, vice-like grip.
"No." Ben refused to believe her. "Don't say that. You're going to come back. You're going to be okay. You're the hero of our tale, and your name will go down as the greatest queen in history, right beside mine. We're going to have kids and rule the kingdoms and watch movies-" His voice broke. "I don't want anyone else." Ben wept. His eyes filled with tears that fell through the barrier, past Mal. He leaned down and kissed her one more time, one last time. "I'm staying." He told her and began to climb back down through the barrier. "I'd rather be with you in death than be without you in life."
Mal stopped him climbing down. She kept his face down by hers for a few more seconds, just so she could kiss him, long and slow like he'd taught her in the first place. "I'd rather you be alive." She told him. "I love you. Ben, you taught me what love felt like. No matter what anyone says, no matter what happens, you'll always be the hero of my tale."
Ben squeezed his hands as tears ran freely down his cheeks. He kissed both of her hands. "I will be back." He promised. "I'll bring the army, the navy, the cavalry, whatever Auradon, the Moors, the Isle, and the Overlands have. I swear to you Mal, I'll be back."
"Don't swear me that." Mal chided. "Just go home. It'll be okay."
"Hang tight," Ben commanded in a husky tone. "I'll return as soon as I can. I don't care if I have to rip through the laws of the universe and kill Eris with my bare hands, I won't let you die."
"Goodbye, Ben," Mal whispered. "It's been an adventure."
The two stared at each other for several seconds. Mal knew Ben was planning on coming back for her, but there was nothing more to be done. If he did return, he'd find her body and a cackling, insane Eris. This was the end of her rope. She squeezed his hands one last time and let go. He stood up and watched as she fell towards the grounds of Tartarus below. Just like before, she slowed before she hit the sandy bottom.
Far, far above her, she watched as Ben dissolved into a cloud of shadows and took off towards the Overland. No sooner had he left, Mal glimpsed a giant wave of sand falling down over her head. She could have stopped it or moved out of the way if she wasn't drained, but she was so exhausted that she couldn't even lift a finger to save herself. She couldn't even feel anything except pinching, drowning despair as she took in the last view she'd ever be gifted with in life, trying to remember what Ben's kiss had felt like on her lips as the sand covered her body, crushing her chest and forcing her last breath out of her lungs as her eyes rolled into the black of her head and everything went black.
Queen Maleficent's lifeless body was left buried under miles of sand, never to be found or recovered.
Merry Christmas. Epilogue out next week.