Author's note: Hey guys ! Welcome back ! Here is one of my FAVORITE chapters to write. This is the big confrontation between Ben and Audrey.

This chapter is really inspired by the song "Queen of Mean" and it was fun to incorporate the lyrics in the dialogues !

Hope you like it ! Enjoy.

Chapter 26 - Closure

"You drop the act now. We are alone. The doors and windows are sealed with magic. No one will come between us anymore."

Ben blinked, multiple times, trying to understand what was going on. Just a second ago, he was in the castle's dungeon, with Mal and all the others. He blinked, and now he was locked in a small country house - alone with her.

Audrey was standing right in front of him, her hands on his cheeks, looking at him with crazy eyes. Obsessive, psychotic. Strangely, her expression was sweet but inspired nothing but disgust to him. He was slowly starting to realize how dangerous she was. How insane she was... Holding him captive, injuring his friends and family - and claiming that she did it all out of love. Ben felt a drip of cold sweet dripping down his back. His blood was freezing cold and his heartbeat was racing.

The princess noticed how the boys was stiff - and how he didn't seem happy at all to suddenly be alone with her - and she frowned. She felt it coming; the argument. And she was already over it. No matter what she did, Ben always blamed her. He acted like she was a villain - and like he didn't have a habit of getting with bad girls. She took her hands off his face and gave him and hard look.

"What are you making this face ?" She asked him

And the boy had to hold back a snicker, because how surreal the situation was. She was asking him why he made such a face? Seriously ? Ben suddenly felt like he wanted to throw up. But still, deep down, his heart refused to believe it. He refused to believe it was really Audrey in front of him - the responsible of all of his misfortune.

"I never thought you could be so mean…" he said in a whisper

The girl laughed bitterly.

"Yeah well, I always thought that I would be the queen, so…"

And then again, he got mad.

"And you act like there's no in between ?!" he yelled "Just because you can't have everything you want, you have to become the "leader of the dark and the bad" or whatever ? What kind of bullshit is that ?"

And so, she snapped too. It was exactly like two years ago, when they were still together. Somehow, whenever they were around each other, these two always brang out the worst in each other.

"What do you expect me to do, huh? I've been nice for years ! But I'm tired of pretending. I've been waiting patiently for you to realise your mistakes and come back to me, but you proposed to her !"

"So what?" exploded Ben "Because you couldn't become queen you've decided to become mean ?"

Audrey was starting to lose her patience. Her hand was hurting, all of the dark magic she had done had tired her. She didn't want to argue with Ben. But he was so difficult. Why couldn't he understand what she was going through ?

"I'm mean ? Do you even know how much you've hurt me ? Do you even care ? When I see you with her, I feel this overwhelming pain… in my veins, in my brain. And on top of it, you're calling me mean, when she's the one to blame!"

This time, Ben did not answer right away. His anger was slowly fade away. He sat down on a chair, in a corner of the room - one of the only furniture still standing - and put his head in his hands.

"Audrey… Tell me something."

The girl gave him a surprised look. His voice was calm and serious, now. As if he was about to say something important. In her chest, her heartbeat fastened. Finally, he was opening up to her.

"What ?"

"Audrey" he repeated "You know that I did not break up with you because I wanted to be with Mal, right ?"

Audrey felt her heart stop. Ben lifted his head and looked right at her. He had a weird expression on his head, as if he was trying to tell her how sorry he was with his eyes. But there was also a tint of pity in his look.

"What are you talking about ?" she said in a weak whisper

"I broke up with you" - said Ben - "because I didn't want to be with you anymore."

This time, any trace of evilness, of bitterness or anger left Audrey's face. Ben finally recognize her. When she was not so cold, Audrey still had a baby face - and right now, with tears rolling down her face, she looked like a little girl. Her chin was trembling. She was trying hard to keep her facade up, but it was vain. Ben could see all the hurt she was feeling on her face. If he listened hard enough, he could even hear the sound of her heart breaking.

"Why…"

"I'm sorry. I guess, we didn't really have a proper break-up. I know I'm the one to blame for it. But it didn't have anything to do with Mal. Audrey I… I just fell out of love with you."

He passed a hand on his face. Damn, even his heart was aching. Memories were floating back in his mind. The first time he held her hand; their first kiss, when he gave her a promise ring. Gosh, how did he not noticed she still had it around her neck ? How could he be so stupid? All this time he was mad at Audrey, as if she was the reason why their relationship turned so sour - when in reality, he was the one running away from their problems. He never had the courage to tell her the truth; the real reason why they did not work out. He was a coward. But now, he couldn't flee anymore. He had to tell her everything. All of this time, he thought he had done the best thing possible. He didn't want to hurt her, so he left without a word. He didn't even think that Audrey deserved closure. He didn't think that she would stay stuck on them, overanalyzing every little thing, convincing herself they would get back together. He didn't even think that leaving with no explanation would hurt her even more than the harsh truth. Once again, by trying to be the good guy - hiding behind his principles - he had acted like an asshole, and convinced himself he was in the right.

"Audrey… I have to tell you the truth…" he started.

But the girl was shaking her head - ugly crying now. She knew that whatever he would say, she would not like it. A first tear fell on Ben's face and he finally said it:

"I don't think I've ever been in love with you."

"No" she cried.

"I thought I was !" he claimed "I really did ! But I was only a kid, I had no idea what love was. And everyone was telling us that we were soulmates, that we were perfect together. But it wasn't true. We were not in love Audrey !"

"That's not true !"

Her voice cracked. She fell on her knees, and sat down on the floor - suddenly all out of energy. She looked awful, mascara all over her cheek, eyes red and puffy. In that moment, she was no villain - just a heartbroken girl.

"That's not true !" she repeated "I was. I am. I love you Ben."

"No you don't."

"Don't tell me how I feel !"

But Ben shook his head and strengthened his voice.

"No Audrey, you don't ! You think it's love because you don't know anything else. But it's not. I didn't know what love was either, before I met Mal. But now I do… and I can tell you: it's not that."

She couldn't even answer. Tears made her blind. She didn't even see Ben's face anymore but his voice ringed in her ears when he gave her the final hit:

"When you love someone you want to protect them, and you want them to be happy. But you Audrey… you tried to take away the most precious thing I've ever had. Instead of being happy for me; you tried to hurt Mal, and by doing it you hurt me. So you're not in love, no. You're just insecure."

Audrey shook her head frantically and pressed her palms against her ears. Her eyes were closed but tears kept coming out. She was trying her best to reject Ben's declaration, to convince herself he was wrong but already, his words were echoing in her mind.

"Shut up !" she screamed

But she couldn't deny all she wanted; deep down, she knew he was right. All this time she had convinced herself that she only wanted what was good for Ben, but in reality she wanted to have him all to herself. All this time, she claimed that she wanted to protect Ben, to save him from Mal and the other VKs - as if he wasn't grown enough to decide himself what was good for him. All this time, she had put the blame of all her misery on Mal - thinking that the purple haired girl had stolen and destroyed her life. But in reality, Audrey was the only cause to her problems. She was the reason why Ben left. She was the reason why nobody wanted to be friends with her. She was the only reason why she was so unhappy. She had been trying to run away from this truth during all this time.

"You're insecure" repeated Ben "Insecure, selfish, mean and immature."

"Shut up ! Do you really think I do it on purpose ? I don't want to be like that ! I didn't want for any of this to happen !"

Ben's face softened.

"Then don't be like that ! Hand back the spellbook and the scepter; undo what you did. People change, you know. Life changes. You can change !"

Audrey opened her eyes again. Her tears had stopped. Ben was standing up, in front of her, giving her his hand to grab. She did and he helped her get up. For an weird moment, they just stood there, facing each other awkwardly before Audrey broke the silence:

"Are you going to forgive me ?"

She had suddenly remembered what Uma had said to her ten days ago - in her dorm room. Ben was always so pressed to forgive and give seconds chances to villain kids; but would he actually do the same for her ? He acted all kind and calm, but would he have for her - who literally grew up with him - the same empathy he had for kids he didn't even know at all? But Ben's face had darken.

"What ?" he hissed - as if he couldn't believe what she had just said.

She had cursed his dad; spelled his fiancé, stole dangerous weapons from Auradon's museum and put the entire kingdom in danger - and yet, she was asking him if he would forgive her, just like that. And she said it with such a tone… as if she considered him to owe her forgiveness.

"I said…" she repeated with an annoyed tone… "if I hand back the scepter and the spellbook, you will forgive me, right Benny Boo?"

It's at that moment that Ben knew Audrey was irredeemable. Everytime he thought she was getting nicer, right when he thought she was finally understanding her mistakes - she would show him another flaw. She was so full of herself. Incapable to look pass her direct interests. Was she even genuinely sorry for what she had done ? Did she even understand the pain she caused ? No. She was only thinking of surrender because she was now estimating that it was the best issue possible.

So Ben did not answer. In his chest, anger was building up - stronger than ever. The answer was no. He would never forgive her. For hurting his family. Hurting the love of his life. Kidnapping him. Hurting him. Although she looked like the sweetest angel, he was starting to suspect Audrey of being - perhaps - a "psychopath". The uneasy feeling came back, the cold sweat too.

She was staring at him, waiting for an answer - with all the seriousness of the world, as if her request was legitimate. But then, she understood why he was taking so long to answer and her body stiffened. She got mad again. For real this time. Ben had never loved her. He had never cared about her. He was putting strangers before her - when she had always been there for him. He was exactly like the others. He was ready to throw her life away ? What would happen to her if she surrendered but the King did not officially forgave her ? Everyone would turn against her, they would call her a "villain". They would demand for her to be banished out of Auradon ! And Ben knew all of that. He knew all of that, yet he had made that choice.

Well, if he thought Audrey would let that happen without fighting back, he was wrong. Before he could react, she ran towards the specter that she had hidden in the other room of the cottage - where Uma should have been. Her idea was to cast spell on him to make him change his mind; to force him to grant her immunity. Maybe even to fall in love with her and ditch Mal - if he tried to fight back. But when her fingers wrapped around the wooden weapon - her entire arm turned blue and a dark smoke started coming out of the emerald on the top of the scepter. All this time, Audrey had been feeding the wand with her energy - not knowing that anything that Maleficent had once create would forever stay linked to Maleficent.

Alas, when she realise her mistake - it was far too late; for the dangerous, wicked and evil witch had appeared before her.