The Coronation

-Alice-

After Harry fell back asleep Gil, Uma and Alice looked at each other in silence.

"So that went..."

Gil started.

"I don't think he likes me."

"That's crazy talk! he just... Needs a little time to warm up to you."

Uma tried, Alice looked away, busying her hands in tidying up the table.

"So what's next?" Alice asked, eyes trained on the table.

"Well, other than me leaving for lunch soon, we should leave sleeping beauty to his slumber."

Gil perked up at the notion of food. Uma waved him off.

"For work you dummy, get your own if you're hungry. It sounds like Harry has to make the call on this one, when he wakes up we will decide what to do. Is it safe to move him? I think he'll be in a better mood if he wakes up in his own room."

"He'll be okay, just sore for awhile and maybe a little light headed."

"I'll take him."

Gil offered and with a nod from Alice, hoisted Harry over his shoulder and walked out of the room.

"I'll see what I can scrape together to spice up the place but this room is now your's to do with as you please. I honestly don't know what's in all these boxes and crates, so if you find anything you want, it's yours. Anything you want gone, I can sell back to the goblins."

Alice looked up from the table in shock. Hers? Her room..

"If it's alright, I'd like to go get a few things. It'll only take an hour or two."

"Take as long as you want, you don't need to ask for permission. Like everyone on my crew, you're free to come and go as you please so long as you keep up on your duties."

"My duties?"

"What you do for this ship and crew. For you, I don't know.. Uh, let's say; help me with our secret mission and help Harry get better. I've got to run, but before I go, there's something I want to give you."

Uma walked back to her chair and picked up the book she had dropped.

"Do you know how to read?"

"Of course I do."

"Not as common as you might think round here. This might help catch you up in terms of magic and witchcraft. It's one of my favourites."

Alice's eyes lit up at the sight of a book. Full of information she had yet to devour. Uma pressed the book into Alice's hands.

"T-thank you."

"I'll see you later tonight. Be careful out there."

"You too."

The next few days passed by in a blurr. Harry woke a few hours after Uma left and refused to see her. Gil had to carefully listen to her instructions and administer Harry's treatments on his own. Uma had worked wonders on the small office. She and Gil had smuggled in all sorts of broken furniture and decorations into the ship and transformed the place. The desk was pushed up against a wall and now functioned as intended. Gil had found a small mattress in one of the goblin barges and he and Alice pinched it late one night. Uma had decorated the small space with stained colourful curtains and an assortment of glass lamps. Gil had brought lumber scraps from the cove's construction and helped her build a bookshelf for the collection she was slowly importing from her cave. When Uma saw their creation she dug out her own cache of books from the bottom of a trunk and lined them up on a shelf beneath hers.

In the mornings Alice joined Gil on his morning runs and spent her days hunting and bringing things to the ship from her cave. When the sun set and Uma returned to her quarters, they poured over the pages of their books and discussed the theoretical possibilities of legends, myths and magic. One night, Uma looked up from the pages of the magic index Estelle had given her.

"I think I've got something."

"Got what?"

"If we can find something with enough power we can tap into the magic of the barrier itself."

"I haven't exactly worked out the how, but we might be able to use the residual magic of a powerful enough item to connect to the barrier."

"The barrier is meant to repel magic itself."

"That's why we need something big. There are a few collectors that might have something hidden away."

"Anything that powerful is going to be next to impossible to find."

"But if we did, then we could use the connection to control the spell itself, take it down from the inside."

"Now that's impossible, the amount of power needed is too much. There's no way we can get enough."

"Unless we were outside the barrier. Magic is unlimited out there."

"So you don't have anything."

"Well I think there may be a way to get through the barrier. You see when the barrier opens-"

"Wait, how does the barrier open?"

How has no one ever mentioned that?

"Magic only for the goblin barges and the royal limousine."

"The royal what?"

"Oh I forgot, you literally lived under a rock."

"How did you know that?"

"It's an expression... But I guess you really do."

"What's a royal limousine?"

"It's a really fancy car that the royal family of Auradon gets to drive. Like when they plucked little miss perfect from her throne and whisked her away to a whole new hunting ground. Now she's over there accomplishing who knows what in the name of evil and the rest of us are left to rot."

"Um.. Okay. So the barrier actually opens for them? Can we use that?"

"Well, no, People have tried. There's a wizard on guard and magic alarms at the barge crossing but the limo, I don't know. Something or someone in that limo is able to trigger an opening in the barrier. I watched them leave last time. The barrier shimmers and parts in a golden ring. It closes too fast. Unless we can catch a ride on that limo there's no other way through."

Uma was grinning ear to ear, despite the bad news.

"I've got an idea."

"If we can't hitch a ride on the limo we can slip through behind it."

"I thought you just said we couldn-"

"With something strong enough, we could hold the barrier open long enough for someone to slip through. Then they could destroy the barrier from the outside and we can all sail far away from this place."

"That sounds wonderful but where will we find anything powerful enough? You said yourself that there's not a lot of magic here. Only the traces that slip through the barrier and seep up through the ground."

"But things imbued with strong enough magic still function to a degree. Which means if we find something powerful enough, it might have enough juice left to do the job."

"We still need to work out how to control it, the connection is useless on its own. Magic isn't something we can always see but those born with an attachment can feel it."

Her fingers trailed over her seashell necklace.

"They can read the magic around them and sometimes, tap into that magic."

"All the witches and warlocks here have been severed from the connection for too long."

Alice argued. Recalling the conversation she had overheard between Zachariah and Captain Hook. Zachariah's ramblings were starting to make more sense. Uma looked at her with pride.

"I knew you were smart. But, yes, I haven't figured that out yet, either. But it just might work. What do you think?"

"Well, in theory, if magic is like energy it would be easier to slow the closing rather than stop it completely. If we found a control method and a grand magic object, it... might be possible."

Uma grinned at her and dove back into the pages of the small book.

Alice smiled at her friend over her own beefy volume and relaxed into the wooden arm chair.

-Harry-

Harry's bruises had long since faded and after a week or two he was back to his busy self. Life on board the Lost Revenge soon grew too small for him. He avoided Uma's room completely and kept his steps quiet when he walked by the door. Less that thing from the woods heard him.

The cove had finished most of its construction and the goblins had returned to their usual work. The Lost revenge was now the only boat in the small harbour. There was almost nothing left to occupy his time and he was quickly growing bored of the day to day life of the pirate ship. He hadn't made his presence in the cove a secret and had yet to hear any news of his father's reaction. Eventually, Harry ventured into town with Gil and passed a group of Hook's crew with only a few dirty looks.

Forgotten then is it, father. Harry stopped hiding after that. He was glad to resume his freedom. With Mal and her chief minions off in Auradon, there was a lot to be done back on the mainland. He and his crew made quick work of securing all of the purple haired villain's territory.

He was sitting at the long table in Ursula's fish and ship shack with Uma and Gil when the television was changed to the live recording of the royal coronation. Uma threw some chips at the screen and a few of their crew dutifully did the same, each grumbling insults about those deserters. They quieted at Uma's raised hand. On the small television, a man in a blue coat and gold sash lifted a long glass tube from the dais. An elegant woman in a light yellow dress stood straight backed and presented the wand to the one and only, fairy godmother. Everyone on the isle hated her most of all. Uma shushed the room and stared up at the screen. Harry could see the wheels turning in her head.

They all watched in stunned awe as someone off screen tore the wand away from the woman. The video feed cut off suddenly and Uma screamed in frustration. The whole restaurant fell deathly silent. No one dared break it and risk Uma's wrath. That is, until something boomed like thunder outside and the whole island shook. Harry raced to the window in time to see a large dark green shape soar through the sky towards the castle in the distance. He looked back to call Uma over to the window but she was staring off in the distance, a hand clutching her necklace.

"What was that?"

Gil asked around a mouthful of food, apparently undisturbed by the earthquake as the quiet. The boom sounded again and they all braced for tremors that didn't come.

-Alice-

Alice was laying on the mattress on the floor in her room on board the Lost Revenge listening to the creaking of the ship. She liked it here. The creaking and noises of the ship made her feel like she was never alone. She still froze reflexively every time she heard footsteps or voices in the hall but her heart didn't race so much after a while.

She was reading another of Uma's collection, this one was an old captain's journal that detailed a long voyage to many exotic lands, it was her favourite, when a cacophonous boom echoed through the ship. Cries of confusion and alarm sounded outside as the ground shook. The ship rocked on the waves. Alice rolled off the bed and rushed to the small window of her room. The clouds above were dark as usual but not dark enough for a storm. So what made that noise?

The waves of energy hit her then and she collapsed against the wall. Every single one of her nerves felt like they were being overloaded. Alice screwed her eyes shut and suddenly she could see. All around her waves of sparkling white light were surging by. Alice struggled against the current even though she could still feel the deck, solid beneath her. Something far away flashed a sea green, calling to her. Alice reached out towards it. A tendril of golden light swept out from her. It twisted and twirled in the darkness like a streamer in the breeze.

Her light coiled around the ember of green, glowing brighter with each wave and she felt her. Uma. She could feel her like she was standing right next to her. She relaxed her mind and twirled tighter around her friend. Uma was standing in the restaurant. Alice had never been inside but she could feel the people around her, their fear and panic. Another boom echoed through the ship and Alice's eyes opened with a snap. The lights and feelings were gone. The ring, still tucked safely under her shirt, warm against her chest.

When Uma returned that night, Alice was pacing with excitement. She heard Uma approaching and waited for her to close the door before she erupted from her room. Uma was already at her door, just as eager to speak with her as she was.

"Did you feel that?"

Uma asked.

"I did! What was it?"

"There was a commotion at the coronation, the barrier came down for a few moments and Maleficent escaped. People are saying it was Mal, but the barrier was only down for a minute or two."

Alice may be an outsider but everyone on the isle knows and fears the great maleficent. Uma continued.

"The barrier is still up and Maleficent would have taken it down by now if she was going to. My guess is something stopped her."

"Something powerful."

Alice worried out loud. Uma nodded.

"But I saw something, one of the answers we need, was right there on a silver platter; Fairy godmother's wand. It brought down the barrier once, it can do it again. We need that wand."

Alice had to admit, the wand would be able to take down the barrier since it was used to create it. She remembered her own revelation.

"I've got some more good news, when the barrier went down I'm pretty sure the island was flooded with magic. That might just be the power surge we needed."

"That makes sense theoretically, but you make it sound like it's a fact."

Alice looked down at her feet. Another secret down the hole.

"I felt it."She pulled her necklace out from under her shirt and held up the ring for Uma's inspection.

"Yea I remember your special necklace, what about it?"

"This ring belonged to my father, he was killed for it but it was taken, along with my infant self, by a woman who worked with my parents. She raised me and kept us both hidden from those who were still hunting us. She died and left it to me. It's the ring of Brisings, the healers ring. It's a powerful thing cursed long ago. I felt it react when the barrier dropped. It sounds crazy but it feels heavier somehow. I think we can use it to connect to the barrier."

"That's brilliant! Now all we need is a control method and the right timing and we can slip into Auradon and steal that wand."

Uma poured some water into two cups and passed one to Alice.

"To freedom."

She offered and raised her cup in a toast. Alice mirrored her.

"To freedom."

It was months later when Alice slipped into the woods for an afternoon hunt while her friends were all busy in their day to day life. She was taking a break by the cliff edge when something glinted over the water and caught her eye. She squinted at the shape, speeding towards the island with great bounces. As it neared Alice was shocked to discover it was a purple motorcycle of all things. It crashed through the barrier, skidded up the shore and disappeared into the town.

Alice sped down the hill and rushed back to the ship. She was in too much of a hurry to go the long way around the cove so she settled for the old cloak and hunch routine. No one looked at her twice as she hobbled down the boardwalk paths. When no one was looking, she slipped over the edge of the raised dock and climbed down and across the supports to the great ship's hull.

She climbed past her own window and peaked into one further down. A single lamp burned inside and she caught glimpses of blond curls rising and falling in and out of view. She rapped on the window sharply. Gil jumped up in surprise, sweaty from his pushups. Alice waves at him through the glass and Gil swings it open.

"Alice what are you-"

"No time, you need to get Uma now."

Alice lowered herself from the porthole and climbed back to her own.

By the time the door to her room opened, Alice had books, scrap papers and notebooks scattered over every available surface. Uma rushed into the room with an irritated look.

"And what was so important that I had to come right away? I had to send Gil to meet with the smithy in my place, that boy has a talent for messing up even the simplest instructions."

Alice was about to answer when a tall head ducked in the door frame behind the young Captain. Her eyes met Harry's icy stair made the words caught in her throat.

"Sorry to interrupt but you would not believe who I ran into."

"Mal is back on the isle."

Alice finished for him. Uma's jaw dropped and Harry just looked at her with wide eyes.

"How do you know?"

Gil asked. Alice moved to sit on her small mattress and the others found seats around the room. Harry took the wooden chair and Uma perched on a corner of the desk.

"I ran into her at Lady Tremaine's place."

Harry explained and looked to Alice for hers.

"I saw her drive across the lake and through the barrier while I was hunting in the woods.

Harry flinched at the word, hunting and Alice pretended not to notice.

"This is good."

Uma muttered.

"If little miss perfect came running home that means she is slipping. Did you see anyone else with her?"

Both Harry and Alice shook their heads.

"Fantastic! Her rescue party should be arriving soon and I have a plan for when they do. We are going to need Gil."

As if she summoned the blond goof ball from thin air, Gil came sprinting into the room.

"You won't believe who I saw in town!"

"Yeah, Mal. We know already."

Uma dismissed.

"Mal? No, King Ben, and Jay, Evie and Carlos. Everyone but Mal really."

Uma grinned.

"Then we've got work to do. Harry. Gil."

The two boys snapped to attention.

"Take the cousins and go wrangle us a prince. Tell her little minions that if she wants to see her little prince again then she should come to the restaurant tonight. Alice, we've got our own plan to work out.

Gil and Harry practically skipped out of the small room with excitement for their new task. Uma turned to Alice.

"Do you think we can do this?"

Alice thought back to the lights she felt on the night of the coronation. She had been avoiding saying it out loud but part of her knew with iron certainty that she could do this.

"I do."