A/N – Disney owns everything.
This is part 1 or a 2 part chapter, the second instalment should be up tomorrow (Monday).
Enjoy!
Chapter 31
For the second day running the girl's dorm was awoken by the sound of knocking on their door. Evie, again, was the one to answer it. She smiled seeing Mal and Harry attempting to ignore the sound by snuggling closer together - a team effort to block the noise.
This morning it was Carlos on the other side. "Hey Evie, sorry to wake you but we, uh, need to talk to Harry before practice" he said almost nervously while running a hand through his near-white hair.
"Sure, I'll be having a chat with Mal too" Evie replied with a whisper, she'd assumed that 'we' was Jay, Carlos and Gil. "Although, not really sure on the best way to wake them up?"
Evie approached Mal knowing she was least likely to attack and it put her at a safe distance from Harry's hook.
"Mal, Harry, wake up!" she said while gently shaking Mal by the shoulder. While neither were happy to be woken, at least there wasn't a violent response.
"Harry, we need to go get ready for practise" Carlos said from the door.
"Urgh fine" the pirate groaned as he got out of the bed, "Tha gràdh cho mòr agam ort" he said with a sweet smile at Mal before he left with Carlos.
Once the boys were out the room Mal simply rolled over as though she was planning on going back to sleep - not that she would if Evie had anything to do with it.
"I don't know what he just said to you but from the look on both of your faces it was something cute and romantic. He's got such a sweet side" Evie sighed, while Mal screwed her face up not appreciating the gushy remarks.
"I'm sure he'd be more than happy to revert to his old ruthless ways if you'd like?" Mal asked with a raised eyebrow knowing her friend had grown up mostly afraid of Harry on the Isle.
"No thanks, it's unsettling enough when the mask slips back on" Evie replied, causing Mal to laugh and slip her own mask on to try and scare her friend.
"Sorry M but yours doesn't scare me, just worries me - like yesterday" was all she said, quite impressed at how quickly she'd been able to steer the conversation to where she wanted it to be.
"Do you want to talk about what happened yesterday?" Evie asked, not wanting to force her friend.
"Jane asked what it was like growing up there" Mal barley whispered, hugging her knees up into her chest. Evie placed a comforting arm around her.
"That explains a lot, guessing you didn't really tell her anything?" she said.
"We more talked about the adults, didn't tell her anything about us as kids that isn't obvious - mentioned that Harry's good with a sword. How do you even begin to explain to a 12-year-old about initiations and the gang cultures? That all they teach in school is how to be the baddest of the bad? Our only happy memories are from when we escaped our parents? She's too young, too innocent." Mal trailed off, sniffling as though she was near tears. "If it wasn't for my Dad and Harry, my mother's 'love and care' would have killed me before I was old enough to love him." at this the purple haired girl began to sob. While they shared many tales in their hideout this was the most vulnerably Mal had ever presented herself. The tough cookie act long gone.
"We're safe now, we'll find a way to help the other kids and hopefully get your Dad here too" Evie said comfortingly to her friend after a few minutes of silence, besides Mal's occasional sobs.
"Thanks E" Mal said pulling out of her friends embrace, "Think I'm going to go to the library, there's got to be a book in there that might help me" she said with the ghost of a smile before getting changed into the school's sports kit.
It was clear to Evie that she needed some alone time, as Mal was about to walk out the door she shouted up, "I'll come and get you on the way to lunch."
It wasn't long after Mal left that Evie began to make visits to a few of the other girls' dorm rooms after having enlisted Doug's help to carry her sewing stuff so she could begin with the final alterations for the ball gowns. Doug seemed to genuinely enjoy helping her out and they were also discussing what they'd be doing over Christmas once Evie arrived at his parents' house on Boxing Day.
When Mal entered the library she was surprised to see the former Queen sat at the librarian's desk, "Good Morning Belle" Mal greeted her politely, "what brings you to our library? Surely you've already read all of these books?" she asked while pointing round the room.
"Hello Mal, I like to help out here from time to time. It's nice to meet the students" Belle replied with a smile, clearly at home in the library. Spotting how differently from usual Mal was dressed she asked, "are you okay? Do you need help with anything?"
"Yes actually, two things really. Firstly, do you know if there's any books on how the Isle was created and how they decided who was sent? Secondly, you know the villain's hall at the museum?" Belle gave a small nod at this wondering where she was going, "the information isn't great about each person - there's no sense of personality like there is in the hero's hall"
"About the museum perhaps I could meet with the six of you at some point to help expand the information available?" Belle responded, inwardly agreeing with the girl. "There are a few books available regarding the Isle - I'll show you where they are and leave you in peace for your reading."
As Belle took Mal across the library it was apparent to the purple haired girl that while the books existed they weren't actively encouraged reading given their location - a bottom shelf in a tucked away corner, mostly gathering dust.
"Thanks Belle" Mal said as the older women headed back towards the main entrance.
Two books caught her attention: Tried for the Isle and Isle of the Lost: The Formation. Both books looked as though they had never left the shelf before, let alone been read.
Tried for the Isle had a case study on all the original villains who were initially sent to the Isle. It even included excerpts from their trials 22 years ago. She'd go through her and her friend's parents first and then look at the others.
The second book was what it said on the cover. Its contents covered everything from concept designs to the first villains arriving. From Mal's perspective it would be interesting to see how much had changed from the initial ideas. From what Ben's parents had said at family day she felt it wasn't what they'd expected it to be.
It was this book she decided to read first, the other she was planning on going over with the others. It was three hours later when Evie came to get her and she was already half way through.
"Ready for lunch?" Evie asked breaking her concentration.
"Sure, just let me check these books out" she replied pointing towards her finds. Evie was surprised to see the books topics, she hadn't expected her friend to launch right into the research.
Mal was relived to spot Belle was still in charge of the library.
"Can I take these with me please Belle?" Mal asked, while handing the books over to get them officially checked out.
"If you have any questions please just ask me, you know Adam and I were heavily involved" she kindly offered.
"Thank you, see you later" she smiled as her and Evie left the library.
Doug was waiting just outside the library, "have fun helping the resident designer?" she asked him in greeting.
"It's honestly not as bad as you think it is" he replied with a grin knowing Mal's uncaring stance towards fashion. She just rolled her eyes knowing that Doug would do anything for Evie.
They walked to the canteen with Evie talking about the various people she'd visited that morning - Chad had requested yet another cape for the event, still her only male client (excluding the VK boys and Doug - but they don't pay).
The four boys were already at their usual table and it looked like they'd even had a shower after practise. Though that may be because they feared getting kicked out the canteen by Evie before they had a chance to finish their lunch.
They appeared to be in a very animated discussion form what the three could see as they were getting their food. It was nice to see given the frosty reception Gil received, and the glacial ice one Harry got.
Lonnie and Jane were also at the table sat with Jay and Carlos and also involved in the conversation. As the trio approached it appeared they were all talking about the ball, the masquerade theme was a first for the school according to the students who had been there for a few years.
Mal remained fairly silent during lunch - events would never be her thing. Although she was looking forward to spending an evening with Harry, they may even get a 'proper' slow dance. She hadn't even seen her dress yet, and Evie refused to show her what Harry would be wearing. She'd seen everyone else's dresses - even helped Evie carry the various materials back from town a few weeks earlier.
Once most of the table had finished eating she spoke up, "Can we all have a VK meeting in Harry and Gil's room after lunch?" Mal asked, picking the pirates room as it was the tidiest, then turning towards Jane, Lonnie and Doug, "you're welcome too - you might even be able to help."
Evie shot Mal a strange look, genuinely surprised that she had invited the non-VK's to a meeting that would be about their parents. She reasoned with herself that if the three were going to be important fixtures in their lives they deserved to know this information.
Soon they were heading back towards the dorms, the group of nine attracting a few looks. Jane, Lonnie and Doug had never actually been in the pirates room - the closest they'd been was watching the video of Mal attempting to wake them up from a couple of months ago.
Jay and Carlos decided it would be a good idea to drag their sofa across the hall however Mal and Jane stepped in to offer their services. They'd been learning levitation and thought that between the two of them they'd manage to direct the sofa.
With the sofa safely, and magically, moved across the hall the group sat down and Mal pulled out the two books she'd checked out the library and placed them on the coffee table. The VK's all exchanged glances when they saw the book containing trial details - all knowing their parents were part of the original group to be sent.
"What's this all about Mal?" Lonnie asked, not understanding why she'd withdrawn books on the place she had grown up.
"The truth" was all Mal responded with. Unfortunately, this didn't help the non-VK's. While surprised at the speed she'd launched into the research at the others at least understood.
"You grew up on the stories of hero's, right? That mainly focussed on the good bits, right?" Jay asked the trio. They nodded in response remembering the tales their parents had told them, always overemphasising the hero's good qualities.
Carlos picked up next, "well we grew up with tales of villains and how amazingly evil their schemes were. We know relatively little about our parents beyond how they ended up there and want to know more - this book looks like it should help." he said while pointing at the copy of Trials of the Isle.
"Carlos, can you make a copy of all of our parent's sections?" Evie asked trying to think of a way to make this task easier.
"Sure" he replied, picking up the book and headed back to his room where he had a copier.
They sat in silence while Carlos was out the room, no-one brave enough to speak as it didn't look like to would take much to turn Mal into dragon mode which would come with Harry's full pirate persona.
When Carlos returned, he stated dishing out bundles of paper, each VK getting their respective parents notes. They split into smaller groups, Mal was with Harry and Gil - the others split into groups with their respective boyfriends/girlfriends.
The trio started by going through Gaston, from reading his report it turns out he'd always had an overly inflated ego - he'd come to fame in his French village due to his hunting ability. From reading the supplied information it seemed Gil's dad really did earn his place on the Isle, he'd attempted to kill the former King and had spent years harassing Belle. Even Gil had to admit his dad's past wasn't much to be proud off.
Harry wasn't keen to review his father - he'd convinced himself though that he would do it for his sisters, to help them if they had questions. Mal and Gil could tell that he was secretly hoping it would unlock some insight into why his childhood was so dark.
On paper his father appeared to have the dream life until he left school, he'd decided to travel the world on a yacht when he got stranded which was the beginning of his path to becoming a pirate.
The only rational explanation for Harry's youth would be that his father had such a hard time adapting to the lifestyle and rising to Captain he wanted his son to rule from the day he could walk and talk.
Mal was the last to go through her stack of paper. She point blank refused to review her mother with the others around - that was for when she wouldn't be interrupted.
With that the trio began looking through her Dad's papers. From the man himself she'd only heard tales about the Underworld, with the odd insult being thrown in at her uncles for good measure. From reading the pre-trial it appeared her Dad hadn't had much of a say in his effective imprisonment in the Underworld, only being able to visit Olympus twice a year - so much for family. He'd been compliant when the case was being tried, the God's had even made an appearance at the final sentencing - clearly wanting to ensure their brother took the fall and they weren't also dragged in.
"If anything, he has some of the best excuses for being an awful parent given how his own 'family' treated him - yet he always looked out for me in some way" Mal mused out loud but only the pirates heard along with Evie who since finishing going over her own mother's notes had been keeping an eye on her friend.
She cast a quick glance round the room, spotting that her friends had long finished reviewing their parents if the discarded notes were taken into account.
"How did you guys get on with your parents notes?" she asked, hoping to keep the subject far away from her for a while.
"Dad's as crazy as I always thought, if anything he was pretty truthful about his life" Jay shrugged having not discovered anything new that was worth noting.
Evie was the next to speak up, Doug's arm around her for support, "I'm amazed Snow and Doug's family want anything to do with me! It appears what she tried to do to her was something she'd tried before - on other husbands and step children." her eyes glistening with unshed tears.
"Mom used to actually be cool!" Carlos started with a smile, "sounds like she was as popular as Evie when it came to designing stuff - her designs just became a bit too extravagant it appears. With the exception of trying to steal multiple Dalmatians nothing she did was really that bad…" he trailed off, seeming confused.
"Nothing new for us" Gil summarised, pointing at himself and Harry.
"Mal?" Evie asked as the room had drawn silent after Gil's comment.
"I've not read my mother's yet, but you don't earn the title 'Mistress of Evil' for nothing" she gave a small shrug, hoping to pass it off as being uncaring.
"Dad's was difficult, he was just the default sacrificial lamb to allow Hercules to have a true hero story - he shouldn't be on that stupid Isle."
With that she got up from her place on the sofa and all but sprinted out of the room. Her Isle mask firmly in place, no Auradon kid - not even Audrey - would be idiotic enough to try and stop her.
"Shouldn't one of you go after her?" Jane asked the rest of the group after the dorm door had slammed shut behind their purple haired friend.
"No, she needs time to cool off - this used to happen on the Isle every once in a while." Evie responded, she gave Jane a small smile to show her concern was appreciated.
"What would she normally do when she went off?" Lonnie asked, to see if it would help them find her later as she highly doubted she'd have gone back to her room.
Evie cast a quick look at Jay and Carlos, who both shook their heads, "that's the problem she'd vanish, come back an hour or two later and never say a word but would have calmed down" Jay answered. "The one time we tried to follow her she went down the cave system Hades lair is at, but she never actually went to see him, so we never found out. Clearly she knew we were following her."
The fact that both pirates were silent during this, and seemed to be having some sort of silent discussion between them put the others on edge.
"Harry, Gil - what do you know that you're not telling us?" Carlos asked, a harder edge to his tone then was normally present.
"She'd go to the docks, namely Hook's Inlet" Gil supplied, clearly telling only a partial truth. It was the glare Harry threw at his best friend for revealing that much almost had Jane wanting to run out the door.
"And…?" Carlos prodded.
"Fine" Harry grunted, in the deadly tone he used to scare people off on the Isle, "she'd come to my hideout and normally I'd become a mix of punching bag, sounding board and tear stained pillow. Happy?" he said before he stood up and went to grab his hook from the night stand. "I'm off to find her - she'll have gone to the gym where there's a real punch bag" and with that he left the room.
"You okay Evie?" Doug asked his girlfriend seeing how pale she'd gone, he'd also spotted that Jay and Carlos had stiffened up.
"That voice, is one we've not heard for quite a while - let's just say that's one angry pirate." Evie said.
Gil felt for the other three VK's left in the room, if he was being honest he found it unsettling seeing the switch go off in his friend. At least the maniacal tendencies were becoming less and less common, although they'd only got particularly bad when Mal was off the Isle.
"They'll both be okay, trust me - I've seen this play out before. Between her mum and his dad neither had a childhood, constantly pushed to do the next impossible task. Sometimes it gets a bit much - they'll be back." Gil tried to reassure the others although Jane, Lonnie and Doug looked like it would take a while for them to get back to normal. Evie, Jay and Carlos just nodded knowing what Mal could be like if she let her emotions build up behind her wall for too long.
While waiting for the other two of their group to return they started to look at the second book that was more about the Isle's design. Some of the early ideas were common knowledge for Jane, Lonnie and Doug - they must have covered it in school when they were younger. The VK's found it strange seeing other designs, they all focused around the same island they lived on but the designs couldn't be any more different. One almost looked like a town you'd find in Auradon, small identical house with a small market area for basic supplies, even the dock design looked like the one Evie liked to go to here to buy fabric.
"How did they go from this" Evie mused, pointing at the book, "to where we grew up - there's no similarities."
At this Doug flipped through the book, clearly looking for a specific section before handing it to Evie and the other three VK's who had crowded round her shoulders to read too.
The book told them that as being sent there was effectively a life sentence the villains should be allowed something of their own styling. This explained a lot about the unique building styles that ranged for Cruella's Edwardian London town house, to Hook's ship and a replica of Gaston's Tavern.
"Mal's artwork was a shock to us" Lonnie admitted, "they make you study the Isle when your younger and even the final sketches don't look like what is does now."
"What do you mean?" Jay asked, confused that the style had changed so much.
"Well we were told that besides the people who lived there, it was designed to be somewhere anyone could live" Lonnie answered her boyfriend's question.
"Perhaps if they took the trash away for the first time in 22 years it might look okay, although I think the stench is pretty stuck by this stage" Carlos replied.
At this Evie pulled out a pen and paper to write down a list of what the Auradon kids learnt about the Isle and what could be done to try and actually make the Isle like that.
When it reached dinner time Harry and Mal had still not returned to the room, hopefully they'd just decided to go straight to the canteen rather than come back.
However, when they reached the canteen it was clear the duo weren't there. The meal was spent mainly in silence, all of them starting to worry a bit about the two. Those that had grown up around them knew that Mal would never normally be gone that long.
"Jane, if they're not here by the time we're done then I think we need to go and see your mom." Evie said to the other half-fairy who nodded in agreement.
"As it's the weekend she'll probably be in her apartment. I'll show you where it is" she replied, knowing that the two were a potential flight risk when riled up as they had been earlier.
After dinner, the group followed behind Jane as she led them through the school towards her mother's apartment. Just before they reached her office, they turned right and went down a corridor none of them had paid much attention to.
The walked past a few doors before stopping at a door on the left had side, Jane produced a key from her pocket and let herself in.
"Mom, are you here?" Jane called out.
"Yes, Jane dear - are you okay?" the headmistress came to an abrupt halt when she appeared in the main room and spotted the large group of friends her daughter had brought with her.
"You haven't seen Mal or Harry, have you?" Jane asked her mother.
"Yes, I have, about 2 hours ago" Fairy Godmother replied, "They both wished me to sort out someone to talk to about their childhoods, although Mal did just look like she'd been to the gym" she filled the group in with the information, her intuition telling her something wasn't quite right. "Is there anything else?" she asked.
At this Gil stepped forward, "We've not seen either of them since just after lunch - you don't happen to know where they went after here?"
"Unfortunately not, although I know they're still on the school grounds as no one has left the wards. I'll give you an hour, please come back if you don't find them." with that the group left the apartment that Fairy Godmother and Jane shared (during the holidays) and headed back to the girl's room to see if they'd gone there and, if not, to come up with an action plan.
When they got to Mal and Evie's room they discovered it empty and untouched since Evie and Doug had returned from fittings that morning.
"Evie, has a fabric explosion happened in here?" Carlos questioned knowing that the room was normally kept in a much better state.
"No Carlos, it's just the alterations - why do girls always have to go on diets between initial measurements and the actual event?" Evie huffed in frustration. Doug sympathetically patted her on the arm knowing his girlfriend's frustration at the constant changes.
With that the group split into smaller groups of who was going to search where.
Jay and Gil were going to try the swords and shields amphitheatre, both knowing the duo liked to sword fight for fun as well as survival.
Evie and Doug were going to take the grounds, specifically the places the VK's tended to use when they needed some time alone.
The final group, Jane, Lonnie and Carlos (along with Dude) were going to try the art department and also the library. If they had no luck in those parts of the school they'd begin a systematic search of the rest of the building either before the hour was up or they found them/got a text saying they'd been found.