Chapter 7 – The Tribute

WARNING – Non-Graphic Torture in the third scene. It is nothing debilitating, but it still happens. See endnotes for details.

WARNING – Referenced Sexual Abuse of a minor briefly mentioned in the fifth scene. See endnotes for details.

-:-:-:-:-:-

A week after Audrey returned from Ulstead, another invitation arrived in the mail sealed in a pink envelope, toting the familiar cursive script that warned of a spa retreat.

A week. They'd given her a week.

It was fortunate that Chad had gotten the mail first. Fortunate that Jay had been determined to take Audrey out with Gil so they could cuddle her into submission at Ben's lake house, Evie and Doug acting as decoys to allow for the alone time. It left Chad in one of their many kitchens with Mal, who was working her way through a bowl of strawberries while Carlos pretended he wasn't glaring at Chad from his spot across the room.

"What's that?" Mal asked, tone bored, as though she was searching for anything to occupy her attention.

Chad swallowed. "It's an invitation from Audrey's grandmothers," he said, deftly ripping the envelope wide with a letter opener. "Seems like they want her to take another spa trip."

"Didn't she just get back from one of those?" Mal asked while Carlos rolled his eyes across the room. "How many facials does a person need?"

"An excellent question," Chad hummed, looking over the invitation with feigned disinterest. "Unfortunately, Audrey has that refugee charity event in Hanover this week, so she won't be able to go."

"Boo hoo," Carlos grumbled from his mess of wires.

It was comforting to know that even Mal found this excessive because she rolled her eyes, even if it was sort of fond. "Fuck off, Carlos."

Carlos hunched closer towards his invention.

Chad let out a thoughtful sigh. "Maybe I'll go instead," he murmured, getting an interested look from Mal. "I go in her place, sometimes. Her grandmothers are just lonely. It doesn't hurt to go and play nice for a week."

"Ah yes," Mal mused, grinning with delight. "How better to practice your charm than on royal old ladies?"

"Royal old ladies need love too," Chad said, holding onto the giggle it earned him because he had to stay cool, they couldn't know. "I'll probably head out tonight. Could you let the others know when they get back tomorrow?"

"Sure," Mal said with a lazy sweep of her hand. "Have fun. Let me know if you ever find the optimal number of facials."

"As my lady demands," Chad said with a mock bow, earning an irritated sound from Carlos.

Well, at least Chad would be out of his hair for a week. That should bring him some kind of consolation.

Because Chad sure as shit wasn't getting any.

-:-:-:-:-:-

While it was always bad when Audrey went on her retreats, it was substantially worse when Chad went in her place. Because Audrey's grandmothers, while deranged, needed Audrey. They hurt her, kept her up for hours on end or drowned her with water or strapped her in place to watch conditioning videos while she wasn't allowed to eat anything – but they never left a mark. They couldn't with Audrey, because as much as they hated the world, they needed her. If she didn't survive, their work would have been for nothing, or so their twisted logic went.

Chad, on the other hand, was fair game. Every time he visited in Audrey's stead, they made him sign a contract allowing them permission to do whatever they wanted without repercussion, and they did. They didn't kill him, they didn't maim him, but Audrey's grandmothers hated Chad. They viewed him as the reason for her failures, their friendship somehow hampering the relationship Audrey had with Ben. Chad was an interloper, and because of this, they would punish him as they saw fit.

"Chadwick," Queen Ingrith greeted with that false smile of hers when the servants ushered him into the remote wing of the Ulstead castle where Audrey's training took place. "This is a pleasant surprise. You know, I was half hoping we would get a visit from you."

"It's been too long," Queen Leah agreed, sliding over a familiar set of waivers that they had likely gotten out the moment their patrols had spotted Chad's car. "You really could use some pampering, Chadwick."

"We've had some treatments in mind," Queen Ingrith chirped, keeping her smile just on this side of genuine rather than maniacal. "Now come along, dear. We have a lot to do and so little time."

"Yes," Queen Leah hummed, grinning when he signed the paperwork. "And perhaps you can tell us more about what Audrey's been getting up to."

"You know how it is with girls," Queen Ingrith said, motioning for the guards to grab a hold of Chad. "They're so embarrassed to tell their grandmothers about their personal lives."

"But we know you won't keep anything from us," Queen Leah said, stroking Chad's cheek before she followed Queen Ingrith into the depths of Ulstead castle, to secret passages where hell waited.

It was only seven days, Chad knew, but below the castle grounds…

Seven days may as well be an eternity.

-:-:-:-:-:-

For all his training, Chad wasn't great at keeping track of time during these retreats. He knew it was passing, but between the torture and the punishment, it was difficult to keep a hold of his wits, let alone the time. It didn't help that they worked him over all hours of the day, pushing him until he passed out from exhaustion or pain. They didn't feed him, so he couldn't tell time through that, so he could only guess that it had been maybe two or three days when things changed.

Chad's spine hurt. The entire back of his body ached from where they had him flayed, deep lashes that cut into his skin without bias. They had especially liked lashing his rear, the two queens having long promoted from merely spanking him – such things seemed child's play, now, even if they had been deeply humiliating on his first visit. They weren't interested in using him for sex this time. Chad suspected they were too furious to consider such a thing. No, Chad's virility had interfered with their granddaughter, as such, they were disgusted with him.

There was the beating, the choking, the lectures. The lack of sleep and food – all standard. And then they'd brought in a person he'd never seen before, armed with rubber gloves and disinfectants, a piercing gun leveled in one hand.

They learned, finally, that they could leave Chad with 'treatments' that went beyond the walls of Ulstead.

There was no numbing agent, no pain relief. Just a couple of guards prying Chad's mouth open so they could pierce his tongue. Next were his nipples, and Chad began to recognize a pattern as they tied him to the bed, spread eagle and naked. They were focusing on erogenous zones, because Chad was a whore, and if he was a whore he may as well be properly equipped.

He threw up when they pierced his genitals, lost track of how many they added. Some along the bottom side of his shaft – one near the head. They turned him, gagged him, tied his hands to the headboard and forced him up onto his knees so they could pierce the back too, forcing him to stick his butt out as they got the perineum, the scrotum. They were working on piercing his anal rim when the first commotion started, Chad so rife with pain that he barely registered it.

It was only because the piercer stopped his casual perusal of Chad's entrance, thumbing and disinfecting it with a bored sort of disregard that Chad looked up at all.

He did so just in time to see the door to his holding room get rippedoff its hinges, and in stormed a furious Jay, magic pulsing around his hands while a group of Auradon guards funneled in behind him.

It was such an abrupt departure from anything that had happened in these dungeons that Chad struggled to understand it. Couldn't manage the energy to be more than relieved when Jay crossed over to him with a snarl, Audrey following a step behind him because apparently she'd been there too.

Jay stood there, staring at the smears of blood that painted Chad's skin from the piercings, but Audrey didn't waste any time moving to untie Chad, muttering all the while.

"Stupid," she hissed, her eyes full of moisture. "Stupid. Stupid. They wouldn't have beaten me you dumb, sacrificial piece of shit." She pulled his ball gag off with a growl, something that only worsened when a deluge of bloody spit spilled down his chin, his tongue piercing throbbing terribly. "Fucking- fuck them. Fuck."

"Ben arrested them," Jay said, Audrey's anger prompting him into movement as he rushed to untie the hand Audrey wasn't working on. "Evie convinced some of the castle staff to testify – turns out they weren't so good at covering their tracks after all."

"Fuck them," Audrey repeated bitterly.

"Med team's coming in," one of the guards said, and Jay had to physically pull Audrey aside so the medics could see to Chad.

Things happened in a blur. He could see teams investigating the rooms Audrey had been trained in. Saw them checking out the area they set aside for Chad's cleaning, where they blasted him with a firehose. They were collecting the videos and recordings they had shoved into Audrey's brain, the room with bright lights that didn't turn off, the different ropes-

"Chad." There was Doug, marching beside Chad's gurney as the medics loaded him into an ambulance. "Chad, it's- it's going to be okay."

'I know', Chad wanted to say, wanted to reassure him, but he was so tired. He hurt so much and he didn't want Doug to see him like this, and all he could really do was lay there and cry.

"It's okay," Doug kept whispering, getting in the ambulance beside Chad and holding his hand. "It's going to be alright, I promise. I promise."

Were that only true.

-:-:-:-:-:-

When Chad next woke he was in a private room in Auradon Castle that had been converted to act as a medical suite, an IV hooked in to provide the nutrients he'd lost for however long he'd been gone, and everything feeling sort of pleasantly distant.

Ah, he was on the good drugs.

Doug was curled up on a loveseat angled next to Chad's bed, slumped against Jane who had her arms wrapped around the dwarf kin. Harry, of all people, was splayed across the couch, and all of them seem firmly unconscious. The others were nowhere to be found, but Chad was willing to bet Audrey had hijacked his hummingbirds for her own usage and would be storming in now that they'd alerted her of his newfound coherency.

He felt thirsty, but when did he not for these things? There was a jug of water on his nightstand, complete with cup and straw and everything that would be wonderful were it in his hand, but it stayed frustratingly out of reach, so Chad just stared at it longingly until he got company by way of an exhausted-looking Audrey that freely exuded rage with Ben just on her heels. And also Mal.

And everyone, apparently.

"Shithead," Audrey hissed, pouring Chad a cup of water before shoving the straw into it and snuggling into his free side on the bed. "Slow sips, stupid."

"Love you," Chad croaked, then followed her orders, even though it was hard because he was so fucking thirsty. He whined when she took the cup away, even though he knew it was for the best. "…my tongue's fine."

"Uma healed you," Audrey dismissed, straightening his pillows so she could keep herself occupied. "We removed all of them."

"Ah." Chad blinked, feeling at his chest to confirm that the nipple piercings, at least, were gone. "Thanks."

"Okay," Mal began slowly, making a visible effort to keep her anger in check. "I don't think I'm the only one here thinking what the fuck?"

"How long?" Evie asked. "How long has this been going on for?"

Chad shared a confused look with Audrey. "I mean, I didn't start volunteering to take her place until I was ten."

Because he hadn't realized what Audrey's spa treatments were, and also he had his own shit to deal with by way of murderous councilmen with aspirations of grandeur.

Audrey didn't say anything, because Audrey was too angry, so Chad spoke for her. "They started training her after her parents died."

"When I was six," she said, her tone clipped.

That made more than one person in the room very unhappy.

Mal spoke up carefully. "When you missed school for that full year- right before Ben proposed to me…"

Audrey flinched, her fingers curling into the fabric of the blanket with trembling movements.

"She was in training," Chad offered, because it was all he had.

"Holy fuck," Harry drawled, rubbing a hand across his face. "No wonder she went crazy."

"Fuck off, Harry," Chad snapped, unable to help himself, and it must have been entirely unexpected because the first mate was so shocked he didn't snarl out a reply.

"Guys," Ben said carefully, perching himself at the foot of Chad's bed. "Why didn't you say anything?"

If that was not the dumbest question Chad had ever heard, he did not know what was.

"What could you have done?" Chad asked. "Aside from nothing?"

"Feel bad," Audrey grumbled. "Feel guilty. Or worse – pity."

"You couldn't have helped us."

"We literally just did," Carlos snapped. "If you had said something sooner-"

"We don't owe you shit, De Ville," Chad shot back with a hoarse growl. "Ben could do something now because he's king, but Audrey didn't want anyone to know, so they didn't know. The end."

Chad would do just about anything for Audrey. He'd go to the end of the Earth for her, he'd fight every battle he could, take every 'spa' treatment there was, because there was no one in the world that understood Chad as well as Audrey did.

"Kind of makes you a shitty friend," Carlos said, making Chad's chest fill with ice. "You think you're noble taking a beating for her, but it's really just stupid-"

"Get him the fuck out of here," Audrey snapped. "Before I do it myself."

"You don't do shit for yourself, Audrey," Carlos growled, Jane tensing beside him. "You make Chad do everything-"

"Carlos," Evie chided.

"I'm not wrong."

"I know it's scary to let new people in-"

"I'm not-"

"Get out of here!" Audrey snapped. She threw her arm towards the door in a dramatic sweep, making it slam open under an invisible pulse of magic, and then she was grabbing Carlos without ever leaving the bed, bodily throwing him from the room with the magic she had worked so hard to kindle.

Her chest was heaving by the time it was done, the others staring at her with wide, shocked eyes.

"What," Audrey hissed, falling against Chad's side in an exhausted slump. "You think you're the only people who like magic?"

"How long have you been able to do that?" Ben asked as Jane and Evie rushed after Carlos, whose bruises were likely restricted to his ego alone.

"Fuck off, Ben," Audrey murmured. "Take your dumb sad eyes and go."

Benjamin Florian had been a source of constant pain for Chad and Audrey, however unintentional it was. It was hard to stand beside someone so good, someone who was so genuinely loved, and know you would never measure up to them.

Ben stood there for a moment, torn in conflict, before he eventually turned on his heel and left. Mal followed after him, and Jay looked torn between his best friend – his first love – and Chad, and it wasn't difficult to see which of those two won out.

Still, it hurt to watch him walk away, until it was just Doug and the pirates that were left behind.

Gil wasted no time climbing up onto the bed and pulling Audrey into his lap, who struggled with him on principle. "It's okay," he soothed, running a hand through her curls. "This doesn't make you less. You're still just as pretty and brave and strong as you were before."

"I'm mean," Audrey snarled against this chest. "I'm mean and angry and I'll break you."

"Harry's mean too," Gil hummed, undeterred. "And I still like him a whole lot, so I think you're fine."

Audrey's only response was to sob again, making Chad ache for her.

He jolted when he felt a hand touch his, and when he looked up Doug was grinning at him, a small, comforting thing Chad did not deserve. "It'll be okay."

"I um- don't think that's true," Chad admitted, because he knew if Doug had to choose between Chad and Audrey and the others, there was no question, not really. Chad and Audrey only had their usefulness to offer, their beauty and charismatic appeal. Now that the curtain had been pulled back on the ugly machinations that laid beneath, it was only a matter of time before they were thrown to the wind.

"Stop moping," Uma ordered as though sensing his thoughts, choosing to curl around his legs while Harry helped Gil with Audrey. "All this proves is that you're just as broken as the rest of us. Maybe Carlos will finally stop being a shithead now."

"Doubt it," Chad muttered.

"He'll come around," Doug decided, wrapping an arm around Chad's waist. "And until then, you'll have us."

"'Cuz if you think we're letting you go after that little stunt," Uma spoke up, the height of unimpressed. "You are dead wrong."

"Maybe we should put it in writing," Doug suggested. "They seem to really like having formalized paperwork to use as references."

"Doug," Chad said, half-stricken with the thought of the musician making a commitment he wouldn't want to keep and half awed by the fact that he'd noticed that. "Don't-"

"Okay," Uma said in a tone that meant things were final and there was no point in arguing about them. "I'll be honest, that'd make us feel better too."

"Love you, miss princess," Gil said, nuzzling Audrey close.

"And fuck anyone who tells ye differently," Harry said.

And that was- that was not how Chad expected that particular spa visit to end.

-:-:-:-:-:-

For all that he was healed, Chad was still tired – tired and hungry, the same way Audrey was when she came back from her trips, though at least he wasn't as mentally scarred. They never really wasted much time trying to brainwash Chad because he was too resilient – they hadn't started on him young enough so it mostly proved to be a waste of time.

That aside, Chad had a deep understanding that he was a piece of shit, that he was cruel and calculating and everything his mother would not have wanted him to be. He knew that, so it didn't hurt when two crazy old ladies said as much. They were just being bitter. Chad was just trying to get by.

The others took turns cuddling Chad, helping him eat, get cleaned. He liked taking baths with Audrey after these things to remind him what he'd done it for, but he didn't like asking for them. This time, Audrey seemed determined to give them to him, and sometimes Gil would join them until it was a happy sandwich of people.

Doug and Uma worked together on what they had dubbed 'relationship paperwork' – which clearly defined the limits of their polyamorous thing. It was an optimistic effort from them, but one that seemed to be entirely unfounded. Aside from Doug and the pirates, no one else had been back to visit Chad and Audrey. They were tainted, now. They weren't as pretty or shiny. They weren't useful.

Useful people probably wouldn't have let themselves get abused for over a decade.

Days went by and Chad found himself talking less. He knew Audrey wasn't smiling as much as she used to, because she knew it was over too. They'd tried, and even though they'd gotten far, they'd failed in the end.

"You know," Audrey said out of the blue one day, when they were eating dinner around the kitchen table in an effort to feel normal. "-you know what's really dumb about all this?" She didn't wait for anyone to prompt her, because the question had always been rhetorical. "I had this etiquette teacher when I was… ten, I think. And we'd play this game." Her hands curled around the edge of the table, seeming to shake with tension. "He called it a game," she said. "See, it was my job to sit still and stay poised and refined, and no matter what he did, I wasn't supposed to react. Because a good princess never reacts and…" She bowed her head, though that didn't hide the tears spilling down her cheeks. "I didn't realize until later that he had just found an opportunity to molest me. I didn't know until it was done, until it had gone on for months, and he said if I told anyone- if I said anything they wouldn't like me anymore, because they'd know I was a dirty princess."

"Audrey…" Chad reached over, wanting to squeeze her shoulder or just let her know he was here for her, but she shirked away.

"I never told anyone," she whispered. "But I guess it didn't matter."

"It doesn't," Gil insisted in a burst, rushing to kneel by Audrey's chair. "It doesn't because it doesn't matter if that happened to you or not. I was- my dad used to rent me out for that stuff, and I didn't know what it was but that- that was why I joined Uma's crew."

"I'll kill him," Audrey snarled, wrapping herself around Gil, who accepted the affection greedily.

"Get it line," Uma said, tone hard. "Gaston better be grateful he's in a maximum security prison, 'cuz he wouldn't want to know what would happen if he was free."

"This is stupid," Harry snapped, rising to his feet with a growl. "I don't care if they're still 'sorting their shit out', this has gone on long enough."

"I love you," Audrey was saying, running her hand through Gil's curls. "That wasn't your fault."

"Yeah, but it wasn't yours either," Gil said, and Audrey only squeezed her eyes shut, because there were certain expectations for Auradon and certain expectations for the Isle, and Chad had learned long ago that they did not mix.

-:-:-:-:-:-

"I think the pirates will keep us," Audrey said later that night, she and Chad curled towards each other on the bed in a guest room they had secured that afternoon, the two of them making an effort to stay out of the others' hair. "I'm sorry about Doug."

"It's better like this," Chad said. "They can keep him happy. I'd just get him dead."

"We almost had it," Audrey said, running a comforting hand through Chad's curls. "But I guess it kind of was a stupid plan after all."

"People like us weren't built for happy endings," Chad said. "We were built for middle of the line, satisfactory endings. We pushed for more than we deserved."

"Frankly, just the pirates are more than we deserve," Audrey hummed. "I'm gonna marry Gil."

"I'll change the laws of Sardinia," Chad decided. "May as well, since I have to update the inheritance rulings. I'll give the okay for polygamy and marry Harry and Uma. Assuming they'll have me."

"Maybe we could all get married," Audrey hummed. "All five of us. I mean why not, if you're already going for three? And it'd be a shame to separate them."

"You always have the best points," Chad said, humming his approval. "Okay, we'll do that."

"We'll move to Auroria Castle," Audrey decided. "We can't keep staying here. Our credits from Auradon Central College should transfer over, and we've got the runes set up so you can get to Sardinia."

"You know what?" Chad said, sitting up with a renewed sense of vigor. "I'm updating the laws tonight. I'll call an emergency planning meeting. They won't know what it's for-"

"That doesn't mean they won't have assassins," Audrey hissed, grabbing his arm.

"But it's only one night of assassins," Chad countered. "If I take care of this now, we won't have to worry about the others getting targeted because of our relationship. It won't be a problem anymore." Mind made up, Chad went to grab his tablet, setting the first of his many plans in motion. "Your grandmothers are gone – your kingdoms are saved. It's about time I stood up and put an end to the reign of Bloody Sardinia."

"Chad," Audrey hissed, following him off the bed. "This is stupid. You shouldn't do this on a whim."

"I have a plan ready," Chad snapped. "It's been ready, I've just been too scared to use it. So I just keep tweaking it to make sure it's air tight, to make sure it's perfect, but if I keep waiting, I will push it off until the day one of those damn assassins kills me. I'm going tonight."

"I'll come with you," Audrey declared. "With my magic-"

"Don't make me knock you out," Chad warned. "Sardinian citizenship laws don't apply to you. If you kill someone in my kingdom, it will be a lot more difficult to deal with than me killing someone in my kingdom, even if it is to defend yourself."

Audrey knew that, she just didn't necessarily like it.

"This is stupid," she said. "If you die-"

"I won't," Chad promised. "I still have that rune you tattooed on my back, okay? If I get close to death, it will teleport me to you."

It didn't work in the depths of Ulstead, but in Sardinia, it should activate just fine.

"That's assuming that I drew it right," Audrey muttered. "Chad-"

"I'm doing this," Chad pressed. "I'm doing this and we're going to start a new chapter of our lives where we say fuck to maintaining public appearances. You won't have to be bratty and I won't have to be dumb, we can do what we want and run our kingdoms."

"And fuck anyone that gets in our way," Audrey said. "Fine. Fine. But I'm watching you on the coms."

"Just don't let anyone else see," Chad said, and really, he meant don't let Doug see, but Audrey seemed to get it.

"Of course," Audrey said, because she was not a schmuck. "Now go kill those fuckers."

"Yes ma'am." Chad gave her a salute, and then he was teleporting to his secret apartment so he could armor up, knowing it would be a bloody night indeed.

-:-:-:-:-:-

Endnotes:

Thank you guys so much for all the feedback! I am forever grateful for the lovely outpouring of support you guys have given to this story – something that felt entirely self-indulgent and has been a work in progress for me for so long. It's a real relief to finally have it finished :)

The next chapter isn't an epilogue, but because of the way it's set up, it felt better posting it as it's own thing rather than including it in this one. So, onto the next chapter! :D

Story notes:

Queen Ingrith is from Maleficent – Mistress of Evil.

So I googled a list of body piercings for this scene, and these are all apparently real things. I am not nearly clever enough to make these up, but people do them – which is cool, you do you, but like, they literally never occurred to me as options.

It is my belief that Audrey's magic sort of manifests like the Force, thus leaving her with telepathy.

WARNING – Non-Graphic Torture – in the 3rd scene, Chad goes to Ulstead to take Audrey's place for one of her spa weekends. His grandmothers have him tortured, though none of it is graphically described. His back is lashed, there is sleep/food deprivation, and eventually they upgrade to forced cosmetic piercings without numbing agents. If you would like to skip this, bypass the first part of the scene and jump down to the line:

'He did so just in time to see the door to his holding room get ripped off its hinges, and in stormed a furious Jay, magic pulsing around his hands while a group of Auradon guards funneled in behind him.'

After that you will be good to go.

WARNING – Referenced Sexual Abuse of a Minor – in the fifth scene, Audrey talks about an etiquette teacher that had molested her. She doesn't go into detail about anything, just establishes that it happened, but if you would prefer to skip this, look for the paragraph that starts with:

"You know," Audrey said out of the blue one day…

Gil also shares his own experiences with such things, so if you'd like to skip that too, just jump down to:

"I'll kill him," Audrey snarled, wrapping herself around Gil…

And then you'll be good to go.

Until next time