"We'd better go to the lower deck," Harry suggests, and the others nod in agreement with him, because trusting is dangerous again, and there are plenty of prying ears within reach. So Mal, Ben, Harry, Gil, and Uma go to the ship's kitchen to talk.

They all look exhausted, although not even a full week has passed since they returned to the Isle of the Lost. The excuse for sending them back was that Auradon would be safer if they went back to taking certain preventive measures after, over the years, some of the villains had tried to carry out plans for revenge. The last attack, the one that doomed them all, was planned by Madame Medusa, who obviously failed. She's been hiding since they got back to the Island, because if she dares to show her face up, she'll probably end dead.

"So, what's the plan?" She asks, wanting to rush Ben into talking. Harry can't help but want to smile at her tone.

Uma has changed a lot since the last time they lived on the Island, but she remains restless and little patient. The nine months that she was pregnant were the longest of her life, because waiting has never been exactly her thing.

Mal and Ben look at each other and he takes a deep breath and then sighs before starting to speak.

"Mal and I have been thinking a lot, and we think there is only one possibility: without me, Chad is next in line, but they cannot crown him king without openly declaring that the Fairy Godmother exiled Mal and me. Many people in Auradon would disagree and there would be trouble. I am sure that at some point they will send someone to take me back to Auradon and make me relinquish the crown." In theory, Ben and Mal are still kings. Decadent kings, exiled, without any power and without a voice. Tragic kings. Ben looks apologetic before continuing. "That is when I will negotiate my freedom and Mal's. If I succeed, I will seek magical help to find a way to get you all out of here."

Harry snorts.

"Who do you think would want to turn against the Fairy Godmother? No one will help us, Ben, even if they agree to set you free."

"Well," says Ben, and he seems to have given a lot of thought to the answer to that question. "I would have to find the enchantress who put my dad under the spell; she is the only person I can think of that is more powerful than the Fairy Godmother, and I think I remember my mom told me that she was one of the few people who opposed the creation of the Isle of the Lost."

The baby wakes up at that moment, waving her little hands in the air and crying, wanting to feel Uma or Harry. While the others deliberate on Ben's plan (Uma has to say that it's not very good, but it's all they have), she gets up from the chair where she's sitting and begins to walk, rocking Nerea gently.

"The plan doesn't give us any guarantees," says Mal, "but it's our only chance."

"And what is our place?" Asks Uma. Her mind has more or less returned to the same as when she was sixteen, so she is not going to be naive enough to think that they have come to tell them this just for the sake of it. They need them.

Then Ben looks at her and Harry seriously.

"I need you to take control of the Isle. I know that the people will trust you, and I need you to keep them as calm as possible while I get help."

Harry's blue eyes meet Uma's gaze, and they have a silent conversation. It's their thing, they've always communicated this way. It was that why they were unable to hide from each other, that they were never able to deny what they felt, even before living in Auradon.

"We can't," Harry finally says, idly fitting the tip of his hook onto the table. It is a nervous gesture that Uma knows very well because he has always had it. "Sorry, Ben. We are taking care of Nerea now, and we can't take a responsibility like that."

"Taking control of the Isle again means having to fight for territory", Uma sits down at the table again. The baby is awake, looking at everything with sparkling eyes that stop at Ben, at Gil, at Mal. She is recognizing familiar faces, but she smiles when she sees her dad. She lets out a wonderful laugh and begins to move in Uma's arms, hungry for Harry's attention. When she does that, Gil tends to joke saying that she is like Uma. "What if we get hurt, or worse? I am not going to leave Nerea alone in this place."

She gives in and puts Nerea on Harry's lap, where he holds her and bounces her around a bit to keep her smiling. Uma never wants to stop seeing her daughter's smile, nor the mischievous glint in her eyes. Nerea is also restless, like Uma: she has been like that since she was in her mother's womb and Harry used to call her "little wave", because of the way she moved. The baby looks a lot like her, but Uma hopes she'll have a better life. She wants to give her more.

"The crew can take care of the dirty work," Gil smiles at her. Her faithful friend, always ready to do what Uma asks. Like them, he has changed too; not just physically. Auradon was what Gil always needed; he didn't stop having his isle sense of humor, but he stopped worrying about fitting in, he stopped trying to belong to his father's family because he understood that Uma and Harry were his family. "Anyway, we are a bit bored."

Again stagnant, stranded. Shipwrecked.

The baby makes a noise, outraged by the lack of attention. She then attracts everyone's stares and laughs when Ben pampers her, and she pulls Mal's hair. Uma and Harry are tempted to laugh too; it's the effect that Nerea have on them.

Uma has always been a tireless storm; she isn't designed to sit back and watch. She's not cut out to be a spectator on life, so she has another silent conversation with Harry. They make a decision. They can't deny this to Ben, not after everything he did for them, for the Isle of the Lost. It's not his fault they're locked up again.

"Fine. We'll try to take the control here; that way we'll be sure that, at the very least, the shipments from Auradon are well distributed." She denies, exasperated, when she sees Ben smile. Her foolish friend, too good for his own good.

"And what are we supposed to do while we wait for the Fairy Godmother and the Council to send someone for Ben?" Gil asks.

Everybody knows. The word floats between them, but no one wants to say it, with fear of disturbing the sound of the baby's happy, carefree laughter.

Survive.