Ben heard it. Mal's heart was just beginning to beat again, but the moment he called out to her, it faltered and threatened to stop. If it were just him there and not Evie and the other VK's...he wouldn't have been able to get her back; she didn't trust him. Sending them all back to the Isle undid everything he had worked for to make them feel safe and comfortable here in Auradon. He did this to them.

He now stood back as everyone worried over Evie and Mal. Both Jay and Carlos seemed like they were on the verge of panic as Belle and Fairy Godmother had their hands all over the girls. Both adults ripped bits of fabric here and there from their dresses, and used them to hurriedly wrap around the worst of the wounds Evie and Mal sported. As they worked, Ben observed the very scarred and shirtless Jay grabbing the bits of fabric himself and trying to do it all, doing his best to keep the unknown hands away from his crew. Evie's breath was hitched as Belle wrapped a long piece of gold around her body, very near panic as Carlos darted his eyes all around the clearing as if on guard from Ben's father. Ben saw how absolutely terrified the VK's were, and realized that his mother and Fairy Godmother were the source of it somehow.

Snapping out of his trance, he took off his overshirt, and dropped to his knees next to Jay. "Mom, Fairy Godmother, get back to the road and have the guard alert the infirmary that we are on our way," he ordered. His voice was calm and sure, causing both adults to stop what they were doing and look at him in question. "We've got this. We will be right behind you," he promised when their eyes looked worridley at the group. All sets of eyes seemed to be avoiding their gaze, and they realized that they really just needed a moment. Belle shook her head and rose, Fairy Godmother following her lead. As they backed away from them, the unconscious form of Mal and lifeless expression of Evie pulled at their motherly instincts to stay and help, but Ben seemed to know what he was doing. They left, and the weight of what they had all seen and been through wore heavily on their now tattered garments and horror stricken faces.

"Here," Ben offered as he handed his shirt to Jay.

Most of the panic had begun to leave his body as the adults left, but he was still on guard around Ben. Jay ignored him for a moment, but then snatched the garment from him and shrugged it on, suddenly very conscious of his scars. He wanted to kick himself for exposing himself to the enemy, but Evie had needed him more.

"Jay, I'm tired," Evie whispered as she held Mal's hand and shivered. As long as she was holding it, she could feel her best friend's heartbeat.

"I know E', just stay awake for me okay?" Jay asked as they finished wrapping the worst of the injuries. "Come on, let's go," he warned as he slipped his arm behind Evie's back and hesitated. "Ben, can...can you carry Mal?"

Ben flinched for just a moment, but he was determined to make things right. "Of course, anything you need."

"Evie?" Jay asked, knowing slipping between them as he prepared to lift her into his arms.

"Just do it," she demanded, and squeezed her eyes shut in anticipation of pain.

Jay did what he needed to do, and regret washed over him as the body now in his arms tensed and groaned at the effort.

Ben did the same for Mal, but she was in too deep of a sleep to react to the pain. For that, he was thankful, but he also wished she was awake so that he could apologize for what he had done to her and her friends.

As they hurried back the way they had come, Ben had taken the lead with Mal, and Carlos stayed right at Jay and Evie's side, on guard and on alert for any danger to come at them. "What are we supposed to do now?" Carlos asked as his eyes darted around them for the hundredth time.

"I dont...I dont know," Jay answered truthfully. "We can't go back to the Isle just yet; E' and Mal won't make it, not with the Huns still running the North side of the island."

"Exactly," Carlos agreed. "Does that mean we have to stay here?"

"No!" Jay barked, wincing when Evie jerked in his arms. She had either passed out or fallen asleep the moment they left the shores of the lake, but he chose not to wake her. "No," he tried again, this time more quietly as to not catch Ben's attention. "At least not until the girls are okay to travel. We get them help, and then we get back to the Isle before they can even tell our parents what happened here."

"But what then?" Carlos asked, "what happens when we go back? Maybe we can talk to Ben about letting us stay…"

Jay paused then and Carlos bumped into him at the sudden stop. A dangerous glint entered his eye and Carlos saw Mal reflected back in Jay's gaze when he turned to him dangerously. "We are not staying here." The way he said it sent a shudder straight through Carlos, and he immediately averted his eyes in submission. "For the rest of our miserable lives, Auradon would hang the Isle over our heads and threaten to send us back just to keep us in line. And the longer we are away, the more furious our parents will become until we find ourselves back home and it comes to the point of them doing to us what Maleficent did to Mal. Do you understand," he snarled.

In response, Carlos bowed his head in submission and avoided eye contact. Even though Jay had Evie in his arms, Jay could still hurt him if he wanted to. The rest of the way to the limo was in silence, until Carlos had one more question. Most of the tension had dissolved in the hurried pace, so he risked Jay's anger once more. "Jay, what happens when we get back though?" In the next few moments of silence, Carlos thought that he was being ignored; but, Jay finally answered.

"I don't know, Carlos. Now pick up the pace."

When they made it to the parking lot, Ben sent his mother and Fairy Godmother ahead in one car, and they all dove into the one they came in with. The ride to the infirmary was quiet and tense, and the air felt heavy with dread. When they finally made it, the boys weren't sure what to do, so they were forced to follow Ben's lead. They rushed into the too clean lobby and set Evie and Mal on their own gurney, which were then whisked away from them in the very next moment by unknown adults dressed in pale yellow and blue scrubs.

"Wait!" Jay yelled as things were happening too fast, "where are they taking them?!"

"Jay it's okay," Ben tried assuring him, " they are on their way to surgery no doubt. They will be okay, I swear it."

Jay's steps slowed as the panic he had been feeling all night finally started to fade. The adrenaline in his body finally started to fade; his mission had been completed. Ben swore that they would be okay, hospitals were meant to help people. Mal and Evie had finally made it. Tiredness began to flood his body and it felt as if his bones were turning to concrete. "Jay?" he heard, his name echoing in his head. He looked over to the source of the sound, and saw Carlos with his face full of concern. He watched in confusion as Carlos grabbed Ben by the arm, who then turned and blanketed his own face with the same concern Carlos was showing. Before he knew it, he hit the floor in exhaustion as the events of the night had finally caught up to him. Damn it, he thought as the blackness swallowed him and the bright lights of the lobby faded to nothing.

Several hours later, a doctor finally makes it to Ben's private waiting room with some news. His mother and Fairy Godmother were also there as well. They had spoken with the doctors and staff right before Ben and the VK's had arrived, wanting to keep the whole situation under wraps. They were now all tensley waiting with fresh clothes and a worried curiosity as to what was going on.

"Good morning, I'm Doctor Ravenna Drake. I'll be the overseeing doctor on these...cases," she informed. "I do apologize for the clothing options you had to choose from your majesties," she said with a slight bow, taking in the grey sweats and scrub tops the royalty were wearing.

"No matter about that," Belle said as she brushed away the last comment. "How are they doing? We have been here for hours and haven't heard a peep."

"My apologies," Doctor Drake sang again, but the situation is more severe than we first thought. "King Ben...What do you know of these villains' histories?"

"Vallains? They are not villains, their parents are. Their children are innocent as far as I'm concerned," he fumed. Fairy Godmother put a comforting hand on his shoulder, which calmed him down just a notch, but he soon became crushed as he realized once again that he had failed these kids. "I don't know their histories. I really didn't think it mattered since we were giving them a second chance with my proclamation."

The doctor pursed her lips together, a bit disappointed. "I see. I only ask because what you see on the outside and what happened since coronation yesterday barely scrapes at what the x-rays and scans show. Every one of them shows years and years of broken bones, fractures, and overall abuse to their bodies. They are riddled with scars that I don't remember hearing about when they first came over. Do you remember seeing such injuries, King Ben?"

He thought about it for a moment, but he didn't remember anything like that at all. He had seen Jay shirtless at practice before, and who he saw out on that lake was a different person.

"They spelled themselves," Fairy Godmother said in disappointment. "I should have noticed." Belle put her hand comfortingly on her shoulder.

"Did they ever give you any indication on what life was like on the Isle?" the doctor asked him again.

"We don't date a lot on the Isle. It's more like...gang activity," he remembered Mal saying to him once. "I know life there was hard, and there were different gangs. I'm pretty sure Mal, Evie, Jay, and Carlos were all a part of that life. Other than that, they never talked about it there. What exactly are the scans showing?" he asked.

Doctor Drake looked from Ben, and over to Belle in slight disappointment. "I really don't know if I'm allowed to say. Citizens of Auradon are protected by doctor/patient confidentiality, but we have never been in the situation where citizens of the Isle have been in our care."

Ben became fuming when he caught on to what she was trying to say. "Are you saying that they aren't even considered citizens of Auradon, even though they live a few miles off shore in a place that you guys banished them to?" When no one answered, he turned to his mother who looked back at him in shock when his anger reminded her of his father.

Belle promptly gathered herself and looked back at the doctor. "Citizens of the Isle and citizens of Auradon will be given the same type of care and confidentiality should they ever find themselves here in these types of unfortunate situations." She looked uncertain for a moment, but then continued. "If it is not already decreed in the bylaws of the Isle, then it will be so now. Isn't that right Benjamin?" The smile Ben gave her soothed her worries just a bit, but she was still concerned for the injured children. "What can you tell us, Doctor Drake?"

"Well," she began, "Carlos is still sleeping after being sedated in the lobby. We think that he quickly became overwhelmed when he was the only one left out of his friends who were still standing. The nurse he attacked that came to Jay's aid after he collapsed will be okay; King Ben got to him in time to pull Carlos off."

Ben grimaced at the memory. The moment Jay fell, people started rushing at them all at once. The moment one of them dropped to Jay's side to help, Carlos snapped and attacked the nurse before Ben could even blink. Once he pulled Carlos off of the guy, Carlos shoved him back and guarded Jay like they were going to attack them. It took Ben, a guard, and two more nurses to reach him and stick the needle into his neck. Carlos's eyes found his right before they closed, and betrayal wasn't even a word close to what that look was about. "And Jay?" he asked.

"Jay will be okay as well. We are treating him for extreme exhaustion as well as blood loss...among other things."

"Blood loss?" Ben asked, not remembering too many deep wounds on him. "Oh yeah," he remembered, "Carlos had said that he had given Mal some of his to keep her from bleeding out."

"Well," the doctor continued, "he gave a bit too much, but that explains a lot actually. As for Miss Evie...she's getting a transfusion as we speak. She came out of surgery just fine, but she's going to have to take it easy and let her back heal." When the doctor averted her gaze, Ben knew that she wasn't allowed to say much more about her. Little did he know that she was in silent disbelief at the sheer amount of scars littering her skin, especially the one above her heart.

"And...Mal?" he asked. They were all wondering about Mal. They had no idea how she had even survived this long.

Doctor Drake sighed. "She is still in surgery. Are you sure you have no idea what happened to her last night?"

"No," Ben said as Mals screams echoed inside of his ears. "I got a call early this morning that they needed help. They said that she had been stabbed by a cursed dagger, and that the Enchanted Lake could break the curse. It was as if a dagger kept assaulting her, even though it wasn't there."

"I see," the doctor said, puzzled. "The evidence of those attacks are not seen, although the sheer amount of blood loss does support it."

"We saw it too," Fairy Godmother admitted. "Somehow, a curse got into the Isle."

"It's not only that," the doctor said a bit more crestfallen. "That girl was tortured...even more than the rest. Hours worth it would seem."

"Wait…" Belle said, confused. "Tortured?"

"Yes…" Doctor Drake said as she was also confused, and then she realized. "Oh my dear...these children were not just attacked, they show signs of torture. Every single one of them, different in one way or another. And Miss Mal...she got the worst of it...by far."

Everyone in their small room became deathly quiet. Had a gang captured them all and tortured them just for the fun of it? Could children really be that cruel?

"Are you sure?" Belle asked in a shaky whisper.

"I am; but until we get the story, there are still things that don't add up. Based on what i've seen…" she started before looking to Ben and Belle, as if asking for permission.

They both nodded. Yes, the Isle kids deserved their privacy, but they still needed to know.

The Doctor continued. "Based on what I've seen, Carlos, Jay, and Evie all displayed wounds that had already been stitched up, save for Evie's back, but Mal had none of that. Now this is just my opinion, but it seems like those three had escaped, recuperated, and then went searching for Mal. Someone had Mal for a long while before she was rescued, because abuse of that scale requires time...and skill."

Time and skill. Mal had been gone for exactly...13 hours before he got Evie on the phone. They were back on the Isle within an hour after his coronation, and he got through to Evie at 5 this morning. It hadn't even been half a day and the four of them had all been tortured! He deserved to be laying in a bed just like them. It was his fault for supporting the decision to send them back, even if it was temporarily. "When can I see them?" he asked.

"Not for a while longer I'm afraid," Doctor Drake said. "Mal is still in surgery, and Evie has just come out of hers. The boys are resting, but in their mental state I think it's best to give them some space for a while. I'll let you know when you can see them."

Just as the doctor was turning away, Ben stopped her. "Keep them together," he ordered. It wasn't a request, it was an order.

"I'm sorry?" Doctor Drake asked, not understanding what Ben meant by that. Certainly he knew that there were protocols to follow.

"I said, keep them all together. I don't care how you do it, but they stay in the same room. Are we clear?" he asked in determination.

"Benjamin!" Belle gasped in disbelief.

"Haven't they all gone through enough?" he yelled. "Keeping them together is what is best for them, and I expect my orders to be followed." The sternness and determination in his voice caused his mother to shake her head, but the doctor nodded and retreated the way she had come, hopefully to make the necessary arrangements.

"Ben," his mother said soothingly after nodding for Fairy Godmother to go. Expecting to hear a lecture, he shut his eyes and prepared himself. "I'm proud of you." His eyes snapped back open and he saw his mothers beaming smile. "You cared about these kids when no one else did. Please don't blame yourself for what happened to them. We will get to the bottom of it, okay?"

Ben smiled back, relieved and soothed by his mothers words. "Thanks mom."

"Don't stay here too long," she warned, "you have school tomorrow and you need to rest."

"School? Really?" he asked with a light laugh.

"Yes, really. You may be King, but that doesn't mean you get to play hooky." A darkness then built behind her eyes and Ben knew what she was about to say. "Now, I'm going to find your father. Please don't do anything rash in effort to help these kids."

"I won't, mom. And please tell dad to stay away from them from now on."

Belle nodded, and then left him alone in the too clean room.