A tremor shook everything, and the world began to fall apart. The ship was rocking from side to side violently, and outside on the dock there were terrible screams and thumps, and a furious conscience flashed in Captain Hook's eyes.
"It's time," he announced.
The Isle of the Lost was sinking.
Mal gasped. Her eyes glowed neon green when Ben looked at her.
"The barrier," Mal said. "It's gone. I feel magic again".
So it was the right time to carry out the plan that Hook and Ben had agreed upon. Neither really trusted the other, and Ben knew he was getting in trouble by making a deal with a villain, but there was no other choice. It was either that or let everyone die. And these people were also his people, he was also responsible for what happened to them, and he would not step aside as the Fairy Godmother, or his father, had done.
"Will you do your part?" He asked Hook, who laughed madly.
"Smee," called the pirate, and his first mate rushed to his side. "Prepare everything".
Mal touched Ben's arm urgently.
"I don't trust him," she told him, but Ben shook his head.
"We have no choice, Mal".
And it was true. It could be a piece of blackmail, having them captured in the Jolly Roger so that if nobody did anything they would end up at the bottom of the sea with the entire Isle of the Lost, but Ben felt that he had made a good deal with the captain of the most feared ship of all time. He would put his fleet at his disposal to help evacuate the people, and in return he asked for freedom as soon as they got out. No persecution. It was always risky, but it was better than nothing.
Ben caught the eyes of Evie, Carlos and Jay, and saw that there was fear in their eyes. Returning to their old home was a hard blow in itself, and now they could all die in there. He wasn't going to let that happen. And something there, in Evie's eyes, gave him the strength to stay calm.
"You will lead the evacuation, captain, but people need to trust Auradon to know that they are going to safety. Let us come up on deck," Ben asked, and Hook, who was about to walk out the door, nodded.
"Fine, but the ropes stay; Smee, take them".
When they came up on deck, they realized why there were so many chaos noises. And Ben felt fear, how could he not have felt it, when he saw the vastness of a sea that could swallow them all, and Auradon, his home, so far on the horizon? The earth of the dock was gradually detached, falling into the water, and earthquakes made everything move. Ben watched the wooden bridges break, falling into a heap of splinters, swallowed up by the waves that rose five, ten meters high.
And he was literally tied by the hands. Unable to act, he could only see Captain Hook ordering to help the people who desperately were trying to get to the Jolly Roger, get into boats, and who seemed unable to believe their luck when Hook sent his men to the other ships, and they were able to board the ships.
It was a terrible thing to see, how people ran over other people, crushing and throwing them, in their haste to save themselves, while everything around collapsed, and the creaking of metal, wood and collapsing glass mixed in thunderous sounds that made Ben's hair stand on end.
Hook walked over to him and cut the rope that bound his hands with his hook. There was mutual understanding, in which neither Hook nor Ben asked questions. The ship was rocking with the huge waves and the water was pouring over the deck, soaking everything, and Ben was sure that the Jolly Roger would also be swallowed by the sea...
But he did not doubt what he had to do. He helped Captain Hook set up the people, the ones who made it up to the ramps, stairs, and boarding ropes, and he just hoped they could get out of there.
Uma felt her body burning in spirals of non-physical pain there, deep in the sea, in the middle of the ocean currents, with Harry firmly grasped, and she let go, closed her eyes and just submerged in all the sensations, without holding back a moment longer, because she was tired, so terribly tired.
All she could see was blue. Behind her eyelids, and in her mind, a blue of the sea that stretched in all directions within her being, threatening to engulf her. Harry's skin was cold, and Uma barely sensed his heartbeat, and she stopped swimming, knowing they were sinking, but not being able to let him go.
The people in Auradon believed that love would save the day forever, that it was infallible and bright and sweet, and Uma had been taught that such a soft and dazzling thing was weak, something meant only for the good, something happy. What, then, was that bitterness, that relentless and terrible pain that consumed her? How could that be good?
Harry had been with Uma most of her life. At least in all the happy parts, the parts that she had come to think was worth existing for, even on the Isle of the Lost, even when she still destined to be a villain. He had seen her transparent, clear, all her evilness and the goodness that was also hidden in her heart, human, and Uma never hid from him, in the same way that she knew Harry completely, the good and the bad, all his nuances, every corner of his mind...
And the pain in her heart was so excruciating that Uma stopped feeling. And she stopped thinking. And, for a brief moment, she thought she stopped living.
It was then that the burning in her body turned into something else, something that hit her so suddenly it took her breath away. She felt her body change, her whole nature pouring out from within her, surpassing her like a wave that bends in infinite spirals.
And Uma felt all the magic inside her explode, like a tsunami sweeping everything in its path, fast, eager, expanding across the horizon. The edges of her were made from the anger that had built up in her throughout her life, from every injustice, from every death in the desperate longing for freedom. Then Uma understood that it was not only the freedom of being able to travel the world that she had always tried to reach, like a wave that never finishes reaching the shore, but the freedom to be herself in all her glory as a fallen queen, as a sea witch, be sea...
A terrible scream rose from her throat, from deep within, as her transformation was complete, and she was so big and blue and terrible. Tentacles, a part of herself, and her necklace shining brightly on her neck, making her feel that her voice was the most powerful, the strongest of all. She could be destruction, it could end, in that moment, what the villains had started, the revenge, unleash her wrath, cause the world to be engulfed by the sea.
She only had to say one word, just utter it, and she would create...
If it weren't for Auradon, for Beast and heroes, for Mal, who had forgotten about them, Maleficent would never have had enough power, they would be free, and Harry wouldn't be about to die.
The thought of Harry lifeless made her shiver completely, beyond any reason, and her tentacles moved of their own accord, rippling the sea and creating huge, monstrous waves. Uma wrapped one of her tentacles around Harry's body, careful not to crush him, and swam to the surface.
Uma emerged in a crackle of the sea, under the grayish, almost silver, light of a storm, among the terrible gale that makes men shipwreck, like a premonition of death and destruction, the loose and wild braids of her around her.
Only one word emerged from her lips, with the force of all the magic that had accumulated within her, and that Uma accepted as it was, good and bad, imperfect, irrational.
Harry began to breathe harder. Just a little bit, but he was alive. She cradled him in her tentacles with tenderness, pulling him close to the warmth of her chest, close to her own heart so that it guided Harry's.
The rest of the world cleared up and only then was she aware of the outside, of the earth collapsing behind her and the ships nearby, the Revenge and the Tempest, and how small they looked, though Uma wasn't that big, with her agitated crew trying that the ships were not carried away by the fury of the tide.
Her family, her ship. Her home. They were what Uma would protect at all costs.
With Harry held tight against her, Uma swam toward the Lost Revenge. She was aware of her crew calling out her name and Harry's name when they saw her approach. For once Gil, who was trying to steer the ship without collapsing, drenched, was speechless, but Uma saw his expression change, incredulous, so relieved, and surprised. Uma saw his gaze go to Harry, protected by her tentacles.
"He lives," she told him. "Don't be afraid of the storm, Gil. I will guide you".
And he nodded. He trusted her, because Uma had always guided them and because he had thought that he had lose her forever. Gil would blindly follow her.
As she approached the Red Tempest, Harriet shouting orders to her crew, barely in one piece, almost voiceless from shouting, and CJ held tight to the rigging, her jaw clenched and her face streaked with tears, in a way that Uma never thought she would see her, Harry's sisters approached the stern of the ship.
"Harry!" CJ yelled, looking wild. Uma let her tentacles slide a bit so they could see him, but always holding him tight. He was the most precious, the most valuable treasure that would ever exist to her.
"We have to get him to Auradon," Uma said. "The Isle will sink anyway, and the magic barrier is broken, it is time to go".
"I'll follow you," said Harriet, without hesitation, and it was the second time she had said it so sincerely. For a second, she went back to being the girl who proclaimed herself Uma's sister.
Uma nodded and her tentacles hugged the ships, pulling them gently as she swam, away from the only thing she knew, away from the Island, with Harry and her ship beside her. And while she was swimming, she saw another ship, the one that had been on the shore of the islet when the other pirates attacked them. It was almost shipwrecked in the surf, and Uma didn't hesitate. Another of her tentacles wrapped around the ship, around it's chaos, and she continued her way.
Harry woke up to Uma's warmth, surrounded by her, held by a turquoise tentacle. He shouldn't be alive, he had voluntarily offered his life, his whole being, for her… A rational part of Harry told him that he must be dreaming. Or maybe he had not awakened in life, but in a kind of personal paradise where the only person he trusted and loved had taken all the splendor of her and was wonderful and big and protected him, as she had always done.
The other part, devoid of logic, pure sensation, registered the pain in his body, and at the same time the happiness of being wrapped in that tentacle, so strange and familiar at the same time. Harry heard Uma's heartbeat, loud, vivid. He exhaled a calm breath and snuggled against her.
Yes, there he was fine, with his captain. If this was some kind of afterlife, even if it was pure dream, Harry was absolutely calm that it was like this.
"You'll be fine," he heard her say, and the gentle sea breeze caressed his face like a kiss, "I'm here, Harry".
Harry nodded slightly.
"Aye, captain, aye".