Her Royal Highness

by WanderlustandFreedom

30 years after war ends, King Ben is about to ascend the throne, but there's one major roadblock - a child of Maleficent cursed to become his Queen, or else. Now, the two need to rule an increasing number of kingdoms, including Auradon, in uproar over a new Queen, an Ancient land desperate to survive, an Island severed off Auradon permanently, and war going on over their heads.

41. Chapter 39

Within ten minutes, the master bedroom had been transformed. EMT's arrived on scene and rushed to the master bedroom, escorted all the way by guards. They brought with them an arsenal of IV's, heart monitors, and a sterile tray with a variety of scissors, bandages, needles and different types of creams and disinfectants.

The sheets had been stripped off the bed and the pillows covered with plastic. They'd laid Ben out in the center of the bed and gone straight to work removing the bloodied armor and dirtied clothes from his body. The first thing the doctor did upon arriving was immediately begin treating Ben's pain, which would have set Mal's nerves at ease if she hadn't literally been awake for over thirty-six hours and if she hadn't flown well over five thousand miles across two continents and battled a sand demon and… yeah, it had been a long, long two days.

The Fairy Godmother waved her wand over Ben carefully. Mal sat on the pillow beside his head and carefully washed anything black and sandy off of him as best she could with a warm towel. Around nine, he began to run a high fever, and the magic that existed in the ancient Beast's castle began to react with him in the form of small spasms and his fading in and out of consciousness. The Fairy Godmother's face was grim. Belle and Adam sat on a couch that had been dragged into the room, and a normal medical doctor in white drew blood and ran tests on him. She, too, looked ominous.

"Blood poisoning," Doctor Scott announced with a sigh. "Seizure damage, pleural effusion, brain damage, and that's just the basis of it." She tried to pick off a bit of the sandy scab covering his chin and Ben winced. "I have no idea where the sand is materializing from," She admitted. "I might be able to treat the blood poisoning, but we need the find out what was on her nails that caused so much damage."

Mal looked at the Fairy Godmother. "What do you say?" She asked.

Fairy Godmother set her wand down with a sigh. For a second, she wouldn't meet Mal's eyes. Then, she quietly whispered: "Magical Poisoning. The sand is somehow coming straight from his heart. I can't stop it."

The words: 'Magical Poisoning' reverberated in Mal's skull. A grey cloud settled over the room as Belle bowed her head and all color drained from Adam's cheeks.

Ben tried to lift his hand to take Mal's, but she moved her fingers out of his grasp. "No," She barked as she shook her head and stared at him accusingly. Tears were quickly gathering in her eyes. "No," She repeated, even firmer. "No, that's not fair!" She choked back a broken-hearted sob. "You never did anything to deserve this - all you ever did was do your best! I flew all the way to the Overland to save you and... you're just going to die?"

She adjusted the collar on her jacket and twisted her hands. "Don't you say your goodbyes yet," She commanded. Ben watched as she bit her lip stubbornly and tried to keep a firm composure. He lifted an arm and brushed her knee awkwardly with her wrist.

"Mal, we both know I don't have a lot of time," Ben mumbled as he struggled to move his lips. His face was swelling up and his lips were going blue.

Mal reached down and clenched the waxy plastic sheets. Her hands were shaking. She sniffled and slumped forward. "Please, don't say that," She begged as she scrubbed away at her eyes and let her fingers glide to his face. She kissed his forehead as he closed his eyes. "You can't leave me alone." She whispered

"Alone?" Ben laughed through a cough. "Yes, alone with Mom, and Dad, and Madison?" He tried to pat her hand. "You'll be okay."

"Ben," Mal whined. "I need you."

Ben did his very best to put his hands on top of hers. They were cold, waxy, and without feeling. Ben stared at them, and then looked back up at her. "I wasn't a king until you showed me what it meant to be one. And this last year and a half has been the best of my entire life. I didn't think I'd be able to correct things my parents had done. I didn't think I'd have anything important to say. I didn't think that true love would exist for someone like me." Tears fell from Mal's eyes. Ben tried to move his arms, but they had frozen in place on top of the white plastic sheets. Mal wiped her own tears off of her cheeks as her bottom lip quivered. She leaned down and pressed her forehead to his as he finished his speech: "You don't need me to be amazing."

Mal fell silent for several seconds and then sat back up, looking thoughtful. She straightened up. "You've got another natural few hours at best and mark my words, you royal pain-in-my-butt," Mal started with a deep breath. "I'm not going to watch you die." Her lips curled into a snarl as she glared at him. She snapped her fingers at Doctor Scott as she got to her feet. "Summon whatever doctors you can, treat any symptoms you're able to, and do whatever you deem necessary. I need at least an hour and a half."

"There's nothing we can do, Mal," The Fairy Godmother protested with tears in her eyes. "It'll be a miracle if he makes it to midnight. You'll just have to finish this war without him."

"There's always something we can do." Mal snapped. "Just because it hasn't been done before doesn't mean I can't do it. Now, what can you do for him while I work?"

Fairy Godmother stared at her in surprise. She looked around Mal to Ben, whose smile had faded somewhat. He had already resigned himself, but he believed in Mal enough to trust her judgment. He nodded to the Fairy Godmother. She exhaled softly. "I can put him to sleep," She offered. "It will slow his heart rate enough to buy Doctor Scott more time."

"I can as well," Doctor Scott added. She nudged a doctor's bag on the floor beside the bed.

"Do both," Mal advised. She dropped to her knees on the side of the bed and looked at Ben. "I love you," She told him.

"Mal," Ben whispered. He tried to reach for her, but his partial paralysis had quickly spread to his shoulders. Mal took his hands and squeezed them, even though she knew he had no feeling in them. "I love you. More than you can imagine. You're a fantastic queen. I knew you'd be amazing. Thank you for bringing me back."

Mal wiped tears off of her cheeks and kissed his forehead. "Don't think you're not going to see me again," She warned. "I'm going to be the death of you; not this Helena girl."

Ben coughed his laughter out. He looked at his parents. "Mom, dad," He called for them.

Mal immediately jumped back from his bedside as the aged queen and king got to their feet. "I'll be back," She warned. "Get him under as soon as possible." Ben looked at her forlornly, but he understood she needed to start as soon as possible. He thought this was the last time he'd see her, but she was determined to prove he was dead wrong.

Doctor Scott and the Fairy Godmother nodded. Doctor Scott opened her doctor's bag and began pulling out portable medical equipment. The first thing she began to do was put together an oxygen regulator. Mal slipped out of the room and hurried to her office in the other side of the building. Sophia and Stewart were sitting quietly in the living room, talking softly. They stopped their conversation as Mal hurried through the room, but no one said anything.

Mal's office was a mess of papers and dusty files and things she hadn't been able to work on in two months. She turned on her computer, punched in her passcode, and then paged the Isle of the Lost.

The pulsing icon throbbed on the screen as Mal picked someone, anyone to pick it up. After about a minute, there was a click. "Eliza Deavor, Isle of the Lost," Eliza greeted her. "To whom do I speak with?"

"This is Mal," Mal assured her. "I haven't left for the Moors yet. Eliza, I need you to fetch Hades for me."

"Hades?" Eliza asked, confused. "Just to clarify; the God of Death?"

"Yes," Mal affirmed. "As quickly as you can, please. It's an emergency."

Eliza hesitated. Mal imagined her youthful protégé shuffling through papers with a confused expression. Then: "Please hold," and she heard Eliza dashing off on the other side.

Her father, the God of Death. There was no way Ben could die such a horrible death when the God of Death was literally his father-in-law. Hades wouldn't let him die.

It felt like years later when the phone was picked back up and she heard Hades ask: "Mallie?"

"Dad," The word felt dry in her throat. She tried to swallow. "I… really need your help. The King… Ben is dying. Please, can you save him?"

There was a long, slow exhale from the other side. "Sweetheart, I… don't really make exceptions to death. If it's his time, then… he's got to go, honey."

Tears filled her eyes. "It's not his time. Please, dad. There's… there's still a prophecy in motion. I know he has more time. Please, Daddy."

"Well… if there's a prophecy, then he should be able to pull through on his own, right?" Hades asked. "Give it a little faith, baby."

"I can't," Mal shook her head. "It's… Magical Poisoning. The same stuff that took mom. He's got sand… it's coming from his heart and Fairy Godmother can't stop it."

Hades fell absolutely silent. Mal pushed her fingers into her hair and pressed them against her skull. 'Please,' she silently begged.

"Baby I can't fix that even if I tried," Hades whispered. It was so soft Mal wondered if she'd hallucinated it for a moment, and then stared at the computer in shock.

"But… you're the God of Death," she whispered.

"This isn't a matter of death. If there's not a body for him to go back to, I can't send him back," Hades explained. "That stuff… destroys from the inside out. Even if I tied his soul to his body, it'd keep going until he was a pile of dust. I can't stop the poisoning."

Mal stared at the screen and then laid her head down on her desk. God, she wanted to die. Die to just get away from this mess and this abominable future. "We received a prophecy – a warning. Ben's family enchantress at Mom's funeral said that in eight weeks, so last month, I would do anything to get away. And in eleven weeks, this week, I would do anything to keep Ben alive. And in twelve weeks, next week, he would do anything to die."

"That's not exactly a happy promise," Hades said in a hushed tone. "Believe me, sweetheart, if I tie him to his body, he'll be begging for death a lot sooner than that as his body literally falls apart around him. It's a good thing that people usually die early on into that stuff."

"But it's something," Mal sniffled. "She said… she said that… I would reach the end of my magic and I would know when I had nothing left. So… there's got to be something still that I can do."

A long, slow exhale echoed through the phone. Mal knew why – she'd effectively told her father that she'd received a prophecy of her own death. When he spoke again, his voice was quivering. "Mal, what are your moorland blessings?"

Oh.

Oh.

She lifted her head up off the desk and focused on a drawing she'd made of the moorlands on the far side of the wall. The spirit of the moors wasn't pictured – Mal didn't want people in Auradon seeking her out – but Mal remembered clearly the woman's hands on her head. 'Renew' had been one of the blessings. She looked down at her own hands – bruised and with chipped nails and tiny cuts. "Dad," She whispered, still staring at her hands. "I think I have an idea."

"Yeah?" Hades asked softly, clearly not wanting to ask about it.

"Yeah," Mal affirmed. "I – I love you. You know that, right? And, uh, thank you for always trying to be there, this last month. I swear I'll find a way for you and everyone to visit Auradon once this is over. It's time for forgiveness. It's time for new beginnings."

Hades said nothing, and it took several seconds for Mal to realize he was sniffling on the other end of the phone.

"I have to make one more phone call," Mal said slowly. "I'll let you know how this all turns out."

She pictured her dad nodding on the other side before the phone line clicked and went dead. Mal wasted no time in pulling up the list of conference attendees who had filled the palace not two months ago. From Corona, Rapunzel's contact was attached. Mal found the contact, pulled out her phone, and slowly punched in the number before hitting call. It rang, and rang, and then went dead. Mal called again.

No answer.

Again, she dialed.

Nothing.

Mal growled. "Pick up!" She screamed at her phone as she began to punch in the number for the third time. Before she could hit call, a strange number appeared on her phone. Without hesitation, Mal picked up.

"Hello?" A very pretty, feminine voice asked.

"Yes, who is this?" Mal asked.

"This is Rapunzel of Corona. I saw you were trying to call me, but my phone is damaged. This is my daughter's phone. Who is this?"

"This is Queen Mal." Mal sighed in relief. "Thank god you picked up."

"Oh." Rapunzel sounded immediately uncomfortable. "Why are you calling me?"

"Ben is dying." Mal choked out. "And I know you have healing powers. Please, I need you to come to the palace and help the Fairy Godmother and I heal him."

The other end of the line was silent. After several seconds, Mal was sure Rapunzel had hung up and now Ben was doomed. Just as she was about to end the call and dissolve into tears, she heard the jangle of keys on the other end.

"Bye honey." She heard Rapunzel say in the distance before her voice returned to the call. "I'll be there in forty-five minutes, maybe thirty-five if I don't get pulled over," Rapunzel reported.

Mal almost began to cry. "I swear on my mother's magic, I will find a way to pay you back for this."

A car started up on the other end of the connection. There was a ding and a whir as Rapunzel connected her phone to the car. Suddenly her voice was much sharper and clearer. "Well, not to set standards high or anything," Rapunzel started casually, "But it'd be great if I could heal in public again without having to swear everyone I help to secrecy first."

Mal laughed. "I knew there was a reason I liked you," She told Rapunzel. "You're a little rebel."

"Did you really expect us all to stop?" Rapunzel asked.

"Never." Mal shook her head. "I'll meet you when you get here."

"I'm on my way," Rapunzel confirmed.

Mal nodded and hung up. The phone clicked dead. Someone knocked on the door. It was Lumiere, who was looking older than ever. "Did I hear right?" He asked. "Ben is dying?"

"We don't have much time." Mal shook her head. "Lumiere, have you delivered my message to the Moors yet?"

Lumiere hesitated, then shook his head. "No," He replied. "It was late last night when you left. I was gone."

"That's fine." Mal waved him off. "But I need you to take a different message to them, now if you can?"

Lumiere straightened up. "I am old, but not dead yet," He confirmed. "State your need, and I will do my best."

"I have made the decision to pull the moors into the war," Mal informed him. "Eris, Pitch Black, Helena Apate Troy and any of their consorts are now fatal enemies, and I intend to see their defeat. Please inform them that I will be heading into battle, and if they will go with me, I will raise new lands unto the moors and make cause that the moors will gain riches like nothing ever planned before."

A wicked grin spread across Lumiere's face. "You intend to bring ruin upon the Overland Villains?" He asked.

Mal sneered with a smile. "They bring it upon themselves." She picked her phone up off the desk and shut the computer down. "If you like, wait until Rapunzel arrives. Then you can leave with the knowledge that I have cured magical poisoning if my statements don't already raise enough power."

Lumiere was mystified. "Cure magical poisoning?" He asked.

"Yes," Mal agreed. "I'll not lose my husband like I did my mother." She flicked off the light and the two exited the office.

"If I may, your highness," Lumiere began. "Several hours-worth of footage of you flying over Auradon was captured and released, and one of the guards captured your arrival at the palace. The citizens are panicking."

"Later." Mal waved a hand. "First, I've got to make sure the king lives. Then I'll deal with their temper tantrums. I've got this." Mal nodded. Lumiere clapped her on the shoulder.

"Yes, you do." He nodded. Before Lumiere disappeared again, Mal took him by the shoulders and kissed both his cheeks in typical French fashion.

"Thanks for everything" She whispered.

Lumiere laughed. "You've come a long way," He told her. She nodded without comment and then hurried down to the front circle.

---

Mal stayed on the front steps as the Doctor and Fairy Godmother put magic and medics together openly for the first time in twenty years in a desperate battle to save the king. She hadn't been outside for long when the front doors opened, and Belle walked out. She pulled the door shut behind her and stayed a few feet behind Mal for several seconds before she asked: "You're outside. Am I allowed to talk to you, or are you taking time away from the palace?"

Mal snorted. "I'd forgotten that rule. Yeah, you can sit down." She patted the step next to her. Belle sat down and straightened her dress out as Mal played with the material on her pants. "Did the Fairy Godmother kick you out?" Mal asked.

Belle shook her head. "I couldn't watch anymore. Doctor Scott was removing the dead skin off him when Adam and I took ill. He's still upstairs, but I needed some fresh air." She folded her hands in her lap. "I thought you were working?" She asked.

"I called Rapunzel. She's on her way," Mal answered.

"Rapunzel?" Belle raised an eyebrow. "Why would you call her?"

"Desperation." Mal rolled her eyes and put her head down. "I've been up too long," She moaned.

"Did you sleep at all last night?" Belle asked.

"No." Mal shook her head. "I was a mite bit high on adrenaline."

Belle leaned over and began to trace designs on Mal's back. "That's not good for you," She cautioned. "Or for the baby. You ought to go up now to sleep."

Mal squeezed her eyes shut at the mention of her condition. "No." She disagreed. "I have to wait for Rapunzel, and then I have to go save my husband. And the baby is only a month into its existence, it probably can't tell the difference on anything." She squeezed her arms tightly around her midsection. "And I'm pretty sure both Ben and I will sleep for days after this mess anyway."

"Be that as it may, you need to take care of yourself. It's a lot harder to keep your head when you're pregnant," Belle murmured. "That's probably why you almost broke down upstairs." She let her hand drop to the pavement.

"I beg to differ." Mal snorted. "Any woman – anyone in Auradon – if they stayed up a night after learning their husband had been captured and then flew to a new continent after learning to shapeshift and then saved their husband by taking on a minor villainess head-to-head and then carrying him back only to learn he was about to die would definitely have shed a tear."

"You're not an Auradon woman, Mal," Belle replied.

Mal shook her head. "I don't think I really belong anywhere. I have three homes in the Moors, the Isle, and Auradon. I'm sort of a… conglomeration."

Belle bit her cheek and twiddled her thumbs. "Have we done good with you, Mal?" She asked.

"Yeah." Mal nodded. "I mean, I'm not dead and you guys let me become a ruler. You've overall been really fair."

"You're more powerful than us," Belle said.

"The people support you more," Mal replied.

"That's not true," Belle answered. "Even though your dragon show put them off a little bit, the kingdom is entirely entranced by you. Ben's recognized it too. Your stunts on the Isle, with the moors… I think you hold more favor than you realize." Belle took Mal's hands and exhaled. "I suppose I did expect it back when you received your blessing, but it's clear to me now that you're already a very powerful Queen. It has nothing to do with Ben. You were always a queen, we just gave you a crown. Now, you've captured the attention of Auradon, and it's up to you now what you will do with it."

"Nothing." Mal insisted. "Auradon is Ben's kingdom. I don't want to be a ruler to them."

Belle gave her an odd look. "You realize that you are pregnant with the future heir to all three countries, yes? That makes you, arguably, the most important person in the country right now."

"One of the countries." Mal put a hand to her stomach with a grimace. "Ben and I agreed they should stay separate."

"Ben still might die, Mal," Belle cautioned.

"No," Mal insisted. "I refuse to believe that."

A car pulled in at the end of the drive. Mal stood up and swayed on her feet. Belle frowned, but slowly stood as a white car pulled into the drive and a lady with a purple dress and long, golden, braided hair jumped out.

"You're here!" Mal sighed in relief. "He's upstairs, let's hurry!"

Rapunzel tossed her keys into the car and hurried to the porch. Meanwhile, Mal helped Belle inside and held the door open as Rapunzel dashed in, barefoot.

"What is it?" Rapunzel huffed as they hurried up the stairs.

"Magical poisoning," Mal explained tersely. Rapunzel bit her lip. "I can't cure that." She said.

"I'm going to try to," Mal informed her. "I just need you and the Fairy Godmother to assist me."

They dashed into the master suite and Mal opened the doors to the bedroom. Inside, Fairy Godmother and Doctor Scott worked elbow-to-elbow over Ben, whose eyes were closed like he was dreaming peacefully. Adam and Belle followed them in but averted their eyes from Ben's ruined chest. Rapunzel glanced over in horror as the smell of hot sand and medicine hit her. Large, blood-filled blisters had formed on what was left of Ben's skin since Mal had last seen him.

Fairy Godmother stepped away from Ben and together she, Mal, Rapunzel, Adam, and Belle gathered in a small circle five feet from where Ben lay.

"What do you have planned, child?" Fairy Godmother asked. Sweat coated her brow and the gloves on her hands were covered with black sand. "It keeps coming, and there is no stopping it."

"Ben's body is familiar to magic. He isn't a stranger to it. His body has the capability to accept magic instead of fight it." Mal huffed, quickly sorting her thoughts.

"This is true," Adam grumbled. "Otherwise, he could not be coronated under the magic of the wand." Fairy Godmother and Rapunzel nodded in agreement.

"The problem here is Helena's magic." Mal took a deep breath. "If I had been there when she first scratched him, I could have contained it, but her curse has spread to his entire body now. It's attacking him, but like all magic, it will change its structure if another opposing force is added. Similar to how I was able to absorb the Fairy Godmother's magic in the barrier, and it changed the structure of my magic vaguely."

"Or when Queen Narissa's and Maleficent's feet were replaced with each other. It changed their magic." Rapunzel agreed.

Mal exchanged a look with the Fairy Godmother. "Correct," Mal said. "Ben has the ability to absorb the magic he's familiar with and dispel it, but we have to, in a sense, water it down with something he's more familiar to." Mal took a deep breath. "That would be me," She said. "Ben's experienced all three of our magical brands." She gestured to Rapunzel. "Your healing power was a gift from the sun. Nature-based. We experienced the exact same thing together in the moors, just last year." She gestured to the Fairy Godmother. "And you both blessed him as a child and coronated him as an adult. Both spells stuck, so your magic is also something not new to his system."

Mal bit her lip and then gestured to herself. "But Ben is the most familiar with my magic. I've done some pretty extreme things, and he's definitely picked up on the residue of my spellcasting. Renewing the Moors, the Isle, that sort of thing. On top of that, I'm a descendant of my mother, from after her magic was changed. That means that the same types of magic I possess…" Mal swallowed. "Is the same type of magic our blood anchor was built off of."

Belle and Adam glanced sharply at Mal as Rapunzel's face crumbled into confusion. "Blood anchor?" She asked.

Mal squeezed her eyes shut and hid her face in her hands as she slowly admitted the truth: "The reason I was brought here is that my mother cursed the firstborn of the crown to me. My mother… sold me to the crown. Ben and I have been connected our whole lives. We just didn't know it till a little over a year ago."

Rapunzel looked shocked, but she wasn't a princess to panic. "Oh," She said softly. She looked over at the bed. "But… if you have a blood anchor-"

"I can force my magic through it directly to him, and Helena's won't know to reject it until it's already in his system." Mal wiped her tears away. "It'll be just as if the anchor that has been sitting on him all his life suddenly decided to act up. It's an abstract concept, but in short, I'm planning to share as much of my magic with him through that stupid anchor while the Fairy Godmother helps me keep it open and Rapunzel tries her best to keep his body from giving up and collapsing during that. That might be enough to mutate the attacker's magic so it will quit attacking Ben."

"Giving up?" Belle exclaimed.

"This is extreme magic." The Fairy Godmother murmured, staring at her wand with something like anticipation in her eyes. "We could shatter that bond you share, we could burn out Ben's body, we might accidentally drain Mal if she doesn't know how to stop, there is an endless list of dangers."

"Couldn't you draw the magic out of him instead?" Belle blurted out.

"He's already mutated his blood and with the little magic in his system while trying to get rid of it. That's why the sand keeps coming out of his heart." Mal shook her head. The Fairy Godmother nodded in agreement. "I'd have to destroy his blood, heart, central nervous system, everywhere the sand has touched in the process."

"Which is all of him at this point," The Fairy Godmother said grimly.

"This room might not be livable anymore if we fail." Rapunzel bit her cheek as she looked around. "We might become murderers trying to save his life."

"Are you saying you might… implode my son!" Adam bellowed. His face was turning a nasty shade of puce.

"We might, or we might save him." Mal laid a hand on his arm.

"What if you drain Mal?" Belle asked, remembering what the Fairy Godmother had just rehearsed to them.

"I die," Mal responded simply. A cold weight set on her shoulders. She'd die, and that would be it.

"Die? What if you do succeed?" Belle asked, growing more and more worried.

Mal exchanged a look with Rapunzel and the Fairy Godmother. "We… don't know," She admitted.

"There will be a great deal of magic left over." The Fairy Godmother said thoughtfully. "He won't be able to control it, but-"

"It should just dissolve out of his system and fade back into the cosmos," Mal shrugged. "The room will be forever tainted, but we'll still be able to live here. The castle might just reabsorb it. Rapunzel and the Fairy Godmother are completely safe, by the way."

"And you?" Adam growled.

"I already told you." Mal straightened up. "I might die."

Belle shook her head. "What are the chances this works?" She asked.

"Slim." Rapunzel sighed. "There's a reason no one has cured magical poisoning, and Ben is literally on the cusp of death." She hesitated. "But… it's never been tried by harnessing a connection like this. Mal's right. If Ben's body has known the traces of Maleficent's magic since he was a child… there's a small chance this might work."

"That small chance is staring into the deaths of thousands of other people who passed because of poisoning," Belle protested. "If I'm to lose my son, I'll not lose my daughter-in-law and grandchild to it as well. There's too much risk. Mal, see reason. The chances this works-"

"Are enough," Mal stopped her, folding her arms.

"I'm in," Rapunzel said quickly.

"Me as well." Fairy Godmother took up her wand and rolled up her sleeves.

"No," Adam rejected. "I forbid it, Mal."

Mal's eyes hardened. "You don't control me, Adam," She warned him.

"There are laws against magic and we have broken enough today," Adam growled. "You with your shapeshifting and now this? I won't have it anymore."

"I'm not an official citizen of Auradon," Mal said softly. "When you first brought me over, I never conferred. I'm still recognized as an Isle citizen, and magic is perfectly legal over there."

"Fairy Godmother and Rapunzel are." Adam hissed. "And you are on Auradonian land."

Rapunzel stepped up. "Mal is queen." She said. "And I will break the old laws to follow a new light."

"Aye." Fairy Godmother nodded. "I supported that law in theory, but when my Jane began to fall apart, I realized just how dangerous this whole thing is." She shook her head. "We were fools to think we could blockade magic."

Belle and Adam exchanged panicked looks. They were beginning to understand more and more that they were on the losing side, and they were quickly running out of cards to play. Belle put her hand on Mal's shoulder. "He's our son Mal, and as he's unconscious, I think it's best we make the decision to withhold this treatment in consideration of the parties. The law states that if he's unable to make decisions, we may step in as his parents."

Mal took Belle's hand and gave it a squeeze. "You two know I respect you above all others." She said. "And I value your advice on everything." Adam and Belle both tensed, sensing a 'but'. Mal straightened her shoulders and delivered the blow. "But I am his wife. You allowed me to marry him as his wife, not by any other title. You understood the risks and consequences, yet still allowed me that legal claim over him. And now I, as his wife, insist that he undergo this treatment."

There were a few beats of silence. Belle looked horrified, but Adam simply stared at her. "Please, Mal!" Belle started to beg, but Rapunzel cut her off.

"She's right." Rapunzel sighed. "Spousal wishes override Parental after someone chooses to be wed. By marrying her, Ben chose to let Mal make decisions like these, should the circumstance arise."

"Ben trusted her anyway," Fairy Godmother added as she moved to the bed. Doctor Scott moved aside to make room for the Fairy Godmother. "He nodded his consent to her plan."

"He wouldn't have if he'd known it might involve her dying!" Belle protested.

"Be that as it may, Mal has a greater claim," Rapunzel said as she reached for the end of her braid and began to untie her now-eighty feet of golden hair. "It'll probably be safer for all non-magic people to be absent from the room." She announced. "Please remove yourselves from the area."

Mal locked eyes with Belle and Adam. Belle was shaking her head and Adam… Adam was staring at her, completely emotionless. He swallowed and put his hands into his pockets. "Well," he sighed, "You… you are the queen, so…"

"Adam, no!" Belle whirled around. "No, no, no, no!" She grabbed at the ends of her hair and pulled. "This is my son!" She yelled. "My son and my daughter and my grandchild! I raised him – he's mine!"

Mal stared at Adam. "You'll… stand behind me?" She asked.

Adam looked away as tears filled his eyes. "Well, I've messed you up enough already," he declared. "I have… dealt with you horribly and even worse with Ben. He wouldn't be the way he is if not for Belle. I think… you ought to know what is best for him."

"She is seventeen!" Belle protested. "Seventeen and she hasn't slept and she's overemotional! She's not thinking clearly and you're stepping down to prove what? Don't you want her alive? Or is the kingdom still all you care about?"

"I can't rule Auradon," Adam admitted through gritted teeth, squeezing his eyes shut. "That much has been made clear. I can't protect Ben either anymore. He's… he's not a boy anymore."

Something clicked in Mal's head. Adam, the man who had suffered what he'd thought was an eternal punishment for failing to help someone. The man who'd had an entire brand-new country placed on his shoulders with everyone looking to him to fix everything. The man who couldn't turn them away or let them down. "You're still reliving your mistake, aren't you?" She whispered.

"I shouldn't have yelled at you in Ben's office," Adam confessed. "You are powerful. And you work hard and throwing Ben in your face was horrible. So, if I never see you again, know I am sorry."

"I meant forty years ago," Mal corrected him. "The Beast… the first time. You've… spent all these years trying not to be that person and I threw that all back in your face. I-I'm sorry." And this time, from the bottom of her heat, she meant it.

Adam opened his eyes and blinked at her. "It is… difficult," He admitted. "I got used to being needed. The Beast… he wasn't needed. Wasn't wanted. But King Adam had a wife. He had a kingdom. He had a son. All these people looked up to him."

"And then those things moved on," Mal finished in a hushed tone. Belle was jumping straight into retirement and being a grandmother, raising a new baby that she didn't have to balance with work. Auradon now looked to Ben. And Ben had been more ready than Adam had expected. He'd never once needed to go back to his dad for advice, finding solace in Mal instead.

Adam nodded, not finding anymore words, and Fairy Godmother put a hand on Mal's shoulder. "I know you have goodbyes," she whispered, "But we have to move fast. The closer he goes to death, the harder it will be to bring him back."

"Yes," Mal agreed, running her hands through her hair. "Yes." She took a deep breath and tried to focus on Bella and Adam. She tried to search for something – anything – to say and found herself coming up blank. Holy crap, she was so tired. "I – I'll probably be just like you. When I have to let the Moorlands and the Isle go. I mean, if I live through this." She laughed and looked over her shoulder at Ben before exhaling. "If I don't… take care of things for me, please? Ben's laws are in my office on the Isle. Try and get them put in. His vision is more than any of us even have room in our minds for." She laughed, shaking her head, and then held out a hand for Adam to shake.

Adam stared at her extended hand and then pulled her into a hug instead. Mal felt herself go rigid before he set her back on her feet. Belle suddenly became weak in the knees and collapsed to the floor. "No!" She gasped, shaking her head so fast that her tears were flung off at Mal's feet. She squeezed Mal's hands until her fists turned white. "Please," She begged as tears rolled down her cheeks. "Please. I can't lose two children."

Mal hugged her Mother-in-law and kissed her cheek. She took a whiff of Belle's rose perfume and sniffled. "Thanks for everything, Belle. You've been a wonderful second mom to me."

"Come on, Belle," Adam whispered. He swept her up into her arms as Belle began to yell in protest. Mal followed them to the door. Doctor Scott, too, vacated the premises. The moment they stepped out, Mal shut the doors behind them and locked them, using a little magic to ensure they wouldn't be opened until all was said and done. She could hear Belle sobbing and screaming on the other side.

Mal turned to Ben with tears falling from her eyes and went to kiss his brow, right in between his eyes. "It's going to be okay." She whispered. She ran her hand over the oxygen mask on his face and briefly examined the heart monitor, the IV, and the oxygen tank before unhooking them all and putting them aside. Then all three women rolled up their sleeves and went to work.

"Help me with my hair," Rapunzel commanded as she attempted to shake her golden locks out of an elaborate five-strand braid. Fairy Godmother and Mal immediately jumped to her aid. The moment Mal touched Rapunzel's hair, she could feel the magic pulsing through the locks. Rapunzel hadn't used her gift for a long time, and the magic was aching to be used.

Between Rapunzel, Fairy Godmother, and Mal, Rapunzel's hair was untangled within five minutes. She, the Fairy Godmother, and Mal immediately began to pick the piles of golden locks up to drag them to the bed.

"Is it better to try the larger lacerations or the small cuts?" Rapunzel wondered aloud.

"Well, we're hoping the sand will withdraw, yeah?" Mal reasoned. "So… what are the chances he starts bleeding once the sand starts to leave his system?"

"High." The Fairy Godmother winced. "Probably best to try the largest cuts."

"And cover his heart," Mal added. "I'm still not entirely sure we won't stop his heart beating. Hopefully, Rapunzel's healing magic will be enough to stop him from dying."

"I healed Flynn with a single tear." Rapunzel reminded them. I think I can do this."

"Yeah, it's just keeping the King of all Auradon alive for the next, what, a half-hour?" Mal said sarcastically.

"Probably closer to a couple hours." The Fairy Godmother advised.

"No pressure," Rapunzel commented dryly as she picked up the end of a large lock of hair and began wrapping it up the length of Ben's arm. She left spaces in between each wrap so that Mal could see the black streaks running up his arms through his arteries and veins. Mal helped gently lift Ben up as Rapunzel spread the strands of her hair around the wounds on his chest. They had to be careful of the oxygen machine and the various IV's as they worked, but soon Rapunzel was wrapping her hair in the opposite direction up his second arm, leaving no tangles or knots in any of her locks.

The Fairy Godmother sat Mal down on a corner of the bed. "Sit there and breathe a bit." She commanded. "You're about to expel a lot of magic." She took Mal's place helping Rapunzel wrap another strand of hair loosely around Ben's neck and down around his armpits and shoulders. He looked like he was being harnessed into some sort of protective gear. Mal twisted her hands and tried to control her heart rate as she fidgeted. Rapunzel and the Fairy Godmother wrapped a long lock of hair around Ben's forehead, and then both looked at Mal. She stood back up.

"Rapunzel, you'd best stay here, beside the bed." The Fairy Godmother guided the young woman to the side of the bed. "And Mal, you'd best try your best to be as close to the original wounds as possible."

Mal nodded and squeezed Ben's grey, lifeless hand as she walked to her post. "The drugs and spells might not be enough to keep him under." She warned the two women. "We won't be able to stop the spell if he wakes up."

"He won't be able to move until everything is done." Fairy Godmother sighed. "Already, the grey has spread to his legs."

Mal nodded. "Well, I guess I might hear him curse my name yet." She chuckled.

Neither Fairy Godmother nor Rapunzel laughed with her. Rapunzel gave the teenager a hug. "Everything will be fine." She told her.

Mal cracked her knuckles. "If the spell starts to fail, and I start to die, I want you to leave the room, please." She told everyone in the room. "If Ben and I do die, let it be known that my sister, Madison, will inherit all three of the kingdoms. Until she comes of age, Audrey, daughter of Aurora, will have supreme command over the Isle, Former King Adam and Queen Belle will regain control of the Kingdom of Auradon, and the control of the moors will return to the Spirit therein, while all statements currently enforced will be continued." Mal exhaled. "As I have spoken, let it so be." She rehearsed solemnly.

Rapunzel and the Fairy Godmother both nodded and whispered: "Amen," under their breaths. They looked once more at Ben.

"I will search for the anchor first." Fairy Godmother declared. "And I will strengthen it as much as I can. Rapunzel, as soon as it becomes visible, it is your job to start your enchantments. Mal, the moment the magic from Rapunzel's hair touches him, he will be in pain. You need to move as quickly as possible and begin your casting as soon as we're sure Rapunzel's magic is supporting him."

"Alright," Rapunzel agreed. "Definitely did not think I would end up doing this when I got up this morning." She added under her breath. Mal only nodded silently.

Fairy Godmother picked up her wand and waved it. "Bibbity, bobbity, boo!" She whispered. The tip of the wand lit with blue flames, and the room disappeared around them. Everything was black except for the bed upon which Ben laid and the three teammates who were working to save his life.

Mal became intensely aware of all of the magic in the room. She could feel the great power that resided in Fairy Godmother's wand, and she could feel the coursing power in every strand of Rapunzel's hair. It was as if she had second vision when she looked at Ben. She could see him, pale, sweaty, dying on the makeshift medical bed, but she could also see the sandy black Overland magic that was creeping through every vein, every nerve in Ben's body. She could see it slowly killing him.

Mal looked down at her hands and saw, to her great astonishment, that her body had disappeared. In its place, she saw a humanoid figure made of what appeared to be glowing, green fire, with streaks of gold and blue running through her.

Magic.

She wondered at the sight of it as she took in her glowing fingers and saw in amazement how it pooled and flowed from one area of her body to another. This was what it meant to be magical; to have another layer of yourself that lay in-between dimensions and fueled everything she did. It coursed through her, ran underneath her skin, and made her magical.

Mal had had no idea just how powerful she was.

Singing reached her ears. She looked back to the scene in front of her and was once again amazed. White threads had appeared on top of Ben's heart, forming a string that connected his heart to hers, Mal coiled her hand around it and pulled firm, and felt a tug in her chest. It was exactly as if someone had tied a physical string around her heart and left it out for her to pull at. This would be the curse that had almost destroyed Auradon.

Gold spread down Rapunzel's hair, and Mal stepped closer to Ben and readied herself.

She needed to see the magic in Ben's body, just like she was seeing it in hers. She looked down at her husband's face and tried to lower her eyes to see him in the dimension she was currently existing in. It was next to impossible.

As Rapunzel's magic reached Ben, his body gave a lurch and Mal withheld a scream as the little magic underneath his skin began to swim in nauseating patterns. It was like watching a school of fish swimming in three million directions with trying to keep track of them all. Ben's skin flickered off and on his form. Mal grit her teeth and focused on the magical side of her husband, which was almost nonexistent. Only Helena's residual magic and Maleficent's bond was prevalent on his form.

Mal took a deep breath and used her will to impose her magic to bend to her command. Magic began to leak out of her fingers like she was a water balloon and someone had put small holes underneath her nails. Green flames trickled down Maleficent's makeshift soul bond, slowly approaching Ben.

The flames entered Ben's heart directly through the anchor, and he lurched. His eyes flew open and dry, black sand spilled out of them. He screamed, and every hair on Mal's body rose on end. The black sand immediately began to battle her flames back. Mal lurched desperately and forced the flames through her bond quicker than ever. She planted her other hand on an area of Ben's skin that wasn't covered by Rapunzel's hair and forced the flames to leak through her hand there and go directly into his skin. Now she had two fronts she was fighting.

Ben continued to scream and writhe in pain. The black sand battled fiercely, but Mal knocked it back. "This is my husband." She told it. "Not your host."

It wasn't easy, and for a long time Mal kept pouring energy into no change, but then suddenly she felt something change in their bond. She looked down. Ben's seizure-like movements were growing more and more sluggish, and his heartbeat was slowing. Mal felt something sharp yank in her chest. His heart slowed, shuddered, and stopped. Rapunzel seized Mal's shoulders and moved her aside as Mal stared in horror. The tall blonde put one hand around another and began pressing down on Ben's chest. After only a few compressions, his heart began to beat again. Mal immediately began to push the flames back through the spell and the three of them watched in amazement as both her flames and the sands seemed to abruptly lose the nerve to fight. They stilled, and mixed, resulting in the darkest indigo color she'd ever seen. Ben stopped screaming. It wasn't sandy or fiery but seemed waxier in comparison to either of the two magics. It was like… molten glass. The indigo faded, and Mal got the impression it was spreading to the rest of his body. She continued forcing magic through the bond, but it was becoming harder. She examined the magical string. What had started out only a few minutes before as a strong white lifeline was now dimming into a tattered, grey strand. Mal began to desperately force more through it.

Ben's body writhed harder, but Mal could see magic spreading to previously immovable parts of his body. His legs gained mobility, and he arched his neck backward. Just in time, too. The bond was about to break.

Back when the Fairy Godmother had tried to first break the bond, they had tried everything they knew of. They'd forced magic into it, tried to unravel it, and spent months looking for any sort of weakness. They'd finally managed to scatter it by unraveling Narissa's magic from Maleficent's, but that didn't mean it had been broken back then. Fairy Godmother had said it was likely impossible to break, but as Mal watched hinks appear in the trauncts of the spell length, she knew that wasn't right.

"The bond is about to shatter." She told the Fairy Godmother. Her voice echoed even though it had nothing to bounce off of. "Take cover."

The support she'd been getting from the Fairy Godmother abruptly vanished. Mal gasped as the line shuttered, pulled at her heart, and then broke into two. The magical fire that had been on its way to Ben's heart fell to the floor and burned through the ground. Mal gasped in pain as the remaining spell around her heart dissolved, and Maleficent's greatest spell of all was finally gone.

The sands built up and began to overtake Ben's heart again. Mal immediately leaped forward and pressed both of her bare hands to his heart and forced everything she had into him. It was noticeably easier to transfer magic directly, but her muscles began to ache and feel sore. Mal looked down at her body and watched in horror as the sea of flooding, fiery green was siphoned up her arms and out of her body. Already, she was half-drained.

The sharp increase of fire inside of Ben did immediate wonders to him, however. More blue indigo glass appeared and melted away into his system. Ben stopped his writhing and she felt heat return to his heart, whereas it had previously been cold to the touch.

Unfortunately, Mal's body was quickly losing magic, and she couldn't remove her hands. She was firmly attached to Ben while he siphoned out everything that she had. Mal looked down at her body and watched as she grew dimmer and dimmer. She had to stop. She had to find another source, otherwise, she would die and he with her. She tried to take her hands back but they seemed to be stuck to his skin. She began to grow dizzy and more and more magic left her body. Her legs wobbled beneath her, and she swayed as her vision went black.

She felt herself falling forward, hitting Ben's forehead, and suddenly, the room vanished. Mal found herself staring at a gruesome scene. A young girl of thirteen was sitting against a grey, stone brick wall, screaming. The air quality, which made Mal cough and choke a little, screamed 'Isle'. Eight others were surrounding her, unsure of what to do. Mal felt a lot... shorter than she normally was. She looked around and recognized an area of the old Isle of the Lost. The screaming girl was Maggie, a victim of Gaston's and one of Evie's old friends. She had been dead for almost ten years. This scene, which had scarred Mal's view on the world permanently, had occurred several years ago when Mal was nine. She watched Maggie throw her head back and scream and recalled exactly what she was re-witnessing. Maggie was in childbirth at age twelve. She would not survive.

One of the unsure girls shook her head. "It's been too long," they whispered. "She's out of time."

"Wait," Another girl commanded. She was a blue-haired girl that Mal remembered as Evie at fourteen. "Give it a little longer. If the baby doesn't come, then I'll go get my mom to help her."

"She's out of time!" A third girl proclaimed. "She's been in labor for over a day and she's two months too soon. She's too small. She's going to die."

Someone held a hand aloft in the crowd as Maggie's screams echoed off the walls. Clutched in their fist was a warped, broken metal beam with a sharpened edge. "We can use this!" They declared. Mal tried to turn away, but she was immobile, stuck in her old self's body. Luckily, though, the memory fell dark. Despite the abrupt cut-off, Mal remembered exactly what had happened and what horrible ending Maggie had suffered. Neither mom nor baby had survived.

As abruptly as the first memory ended, she was thrust into a new one, where she was eleven and Maleficent was staring down at her with a sneer. "Not evil enough!" Her mother howled. "You're just like your father! Weak, inconsolable brat!" Maleficent picked up a living room lamp and flung it at the far wall. Then she stood, heaving as she caught her breath with a crazed gleam in her eyes. The green light of her magic was flickering behind her irises like a lightbulb about to die. "How can you expect to make Momma proud like that? All the plans I have for you... I'm just trying to teach you the thing that really counts... how to be me." Mal swallowed, and against her will, began to speak.

"I know that, and I'll do better,"

She started falling through space until she was thirteen and her arms were thin and her cheeks were shallow and she was starving to death. "Why am I reliving the Isle?" She demanded mentally, watching herself pull threads off of her clothes, bunch them into a ball, and put them into her mouth to suck on the dirty mess. Was this supposed to mean she'd died? Had Ben died too?

At her prompting, the scene changed. This place was bright, warm, and smelled like sweet flowers. She was at the palace, outside and in the sunshine, and hiding underneath a bush. And that startled her because as far as she knew, she'd never once hidden under a bush in the Auradon gardens. Laid behind the roses and looked at the sky, yes. Hid in a tree and leaped down from the branches, yes, but never hidden under a bush.

The leaves rustled and Belle's face appeared, pushing the branches aside. "I found you!" She cheered, holding out her hands. Mal felt herself squeal as she dashed forward and into Belle's arms. Belle laughed, tickling Mal's sides.

"How'd you find me?" She asked in a bewildered, different voice - Ben's voice.

Belle chuckled. "Oh, Mon Cher, there is nowhere in this world you could go that I couldn't be with you." As these words left Belle's mouth, she began to fall through space again. Somehow, she realized, she was sharing memories with her husband. Her husband that was dead or dying beneath her body while she was trapped in this whirlwind. Now she was watching Ben watch his dad in a meeting. Then, she was sitting alone in her room on the Isle and listening to Maleficent cackle upstairs. With barely a pause she was sitting at a boy's desk and listening to her in-laws screaming at each other outside. "He's not just the crown prince, Adam! He's my only baby!" Belle screamed, her voice echoing as Mal began to relive a battle against the Isle Pirates. That was the last memory of them separate. The next memory was herself from Ben's perspective, staring at her as the guards pulled her out of the car on day one.

She'd wondered before what Ben's first impressions of her were, and now she had her answer. As she watched herself hold her shoulders up and back, she heard Ben's distant thoughts. "That's her? She's just a child!"

The scenes persisted, sometimes in her perspective and sometimes in his. She felt herself kissing him for the first time, but felt him being married to her. As the crown went down on his head, her image was frozen in his mind and in his thoughts. "I'm going to protect you," he promised. "I'm not going to let anyone hurt you." It was an interesting thing to watch herself fall in love in fast-forward. Soon, she was watching herself come home to Ben and was watching them kiss each other and learn to work with each other. She felt Jay kissing her hard before the scene grew dark and quiet. While she wasn't immediately sure of where she was, it only took the feel of Ben's mouth on her shoulder for her to realize that this was their first night together. She felt his anxiousness and his doubts and his determination to make her happy, and closed her eyes to relish the beautiful memory. She said goodbye to her mother again and then felt Ben's perspective as he stared at the test on the bed, slowly coming to the conclusion he was going to be a dad. And truth be told, she felt guilty as they delved into memories of the last few weeks. She saw his worry for her mounting as she talked about it less and less, always deflecting his questions. He wanted it all so badly and she just... didn't.

The memories suddenly stopped and Mal was floating in a vast expanse of space. She tried to find her body but honestly had no clue where she was even supposed to start. There was nothing except empty space until a tiny light appeared in front of her, like a pinprick of white. Curious, she reached out for it, and her fingers closed around it. Immediately, she was pulled inside and found herself in Ben's old room. Another memory, she sighed, but this one was much more intense and real. She could move. It was like she was a ghost, peering in on a moment and unable to interact with it. Ben was sitting across from his parents on a chaise with a coffee table in between them. A large bottle of alcohol was open on the table, and Ben was holding a filled glass and swirling it carefully, looking like he was in physical pain. Mal's hands dropped. When had this happened?

"This is going to be so, so hard on her," Ben mumbled.

"It's not just about Mal," Adam declared. "You're giving up more than you're gaining. By all means, this is working out far more favorably for her than for you."

"I don't think so," Ben disagreed. His hands were steady on his glass despite his expression giving the impression he was being stabbed.

"What's she losing?" Adam demanded softly. "Your entire life has been turned upside down and you're losing just as much freedom as she is."

"She's lost her mom," Ben shook his head and then continued listing things - all in her defense, which made Mal smile a little as she stared at him. "She's lost that trust. She's losing everything she ever knew and has to leave her childhood behind. All her friends, all her power, her home and where she grew up, her anonymity - you know people are going to smear her for this. She has all the extra responsibilities that she was never trained for..." Ben slumped back into his chair, swirling his drink a little more as he winced. "Not to mention she's a teenaged bride to someone who's five years older than her. She's basically lost her entire life, the freedom to make her own relationships and live where she wants, everything she's ever known, and it's not even over. She's going to lose the confidence of everyone she knows. She's going to lose years of her life to helping us cover this up, lose so many of those experiences she really should be entitled to as a teen in favor of being a wife at sixteen, having the rest of her life and carrier tainted by my name, losing her v-" Ben cut off with a choke. "Chastity," He ammended, squeezing his eyes shut.

Mal frowned. This was a side of the story she had never heard. She hovered beside the couch and then took a tentative seat beside him. Ben, of course, didn't notice. Across the table, Belle ran a hand through her hair wearily. Her entire demeanor was slumped and radiated defeat. "Have you talked to Mal about it yet?" She asked as Ben downed his entire glass with his eyes squeezed shut.

"God, no," He moaned and leaned forward to refill his drink. "She's still struggling with not being on the Isle with her friends and she just barely started opening herself up to the idea of fixing the Isle. I can't... can't ask that of her."

"Have you gotten any for-sure's from the Fairy Godmother?" Adam asked.

Ben shook his head. "It's all up in the air at the moment. They're running tests of the curse. If Maleficent's spell is specific to a political union, then it won't matter if we consummate or not. But if it's a full-on magical fae-type union, then..." Ben trailed off and took a large gulp of his alcohol. Mal's face felt tingly and numb as she stared at him. This... had to have happened, probably not long after his interview. She had never known...

Belle and Adam watched their son's hands shake on his glass. Adam chewed on his lips and then said: "But a royal marriage is a magical event anyways."

"But the political side will be complete after the ceremony. The country doesn't have to know about the rest," Ben explained. "We can hold out on completing the magical side of things unless the spell says otherwise." There was a pause as Ben took another drink. "Assuming Maleficent actually did specify that the magical half of the ceremony has to be upheld, she's the worst mother on the planet for putting her sixteen-year-old girl up to assault by a guy she knew was already five when her daughter was born. That's also taking into consideration fae law forbids-" Ben scrunched up his face. "I can't remember the term," He mourned, reaching to refill his glass again.

Belle stopped him. "No more," She commanded.

"One more?" Ben pleaded.

"One more will turn into five more, but no more starts now," Belle refuted with a stern look of stone. Ben froze, taking in her statement, and then slowly set his glass down with a nod. Her mother nodded. "What are you planning on doing when you share a room with Mal? You can't spend every evening wallowing in your own self-pity."

"I won't," Ben agreed. "Just let me have this for now,"

"Distraction is one step from addiction," Adam declared.

Ben covered his face with his hands. "I can't do it," He declared. "What do I do if I have to? I can't... fight her." He broke off, trembling and shaking and looking like he was suffering through his own personal natural disaster. Mal watched in growing horror. She couldn't believe that this had happened without her ever discovering. "Listen, Mom and Dad," Ben exhaled. "If this doesn't work out how we hope it will and I end up having to... hurt Mal, can you please step in afterward? She won't want to see me, won't want me around, but I can't let her be alone after something that damaging."

"We'll take care of her," Belle assured her son as Adam nodded along.

Ben exhaled and then got up to put away his bottle of alcohol. Belle and Adam looked sickened as they watched their son try to regain his bearings. He took a deep breath. "I'll stop," He promised softly. "And I'll take care of her. As long as it lasts and for as long as she's here."

Mal reached out to see if she could touch Ben, but the vision went spiraling away, leaving her feeling shocked and conflicted. How many of those conversations had taken place? What had happened? Obviously, the Fairy Godmother had come back with good news, but...

Color filled her vision, cutting off her thoughts. She got the sudden feeling that this was the very last vision. After that, she supposed she'd discover whether or not she'd died or not. She stumbled a little as the world came into focus around her and her mouth dropped a little as she recognized the room around her. It was both everything and nothing like she'd remembered. She appeared to be in Maleficent's room on the Isle of the Lost, though much cleaner than it'd ever been before. There was sunshine outside. Actual sunshine on the Isle, though it was dim.

Maleficent's bed moved and Mal watched her mother rise up. Her head covering was off and her long, brown hair was falling off her shoulders. Sweat covered her face as she leaned down, keeping her feet planted on the floor, and lifted a bundle up into her hands. Mal choked and almost hit the ground. "Hello baby," Maleficent whispered in a tone so emotional and open that Mal immediately doubted it had come from her mom. She managed to take a few shaky steps forward. Maleficent was holding a girl even smaller than Madison but with the same bright purple hair. Herself. A tiny Mal.

Mal had been privileged to know portions of her birth story from the Evil Queen. She'd been born silent after a day's worth of labor on her mom, and a little early. Maleficent had endured all by herself with the Evil Queen stopping by with water every so often. Mal knew she'd stayed silent until they'd named her. She watched her own little eyes open and close, already vivid green, and then looked to her mom. Maleficent was tearing up and smiling proudly as she looked down on her perfect little baby girl. "Hello Baby," She whispered again. "Mommy's so happy you're here now. Do you know who I am?"

'Here it comes,' Mal thought; the I-Am-Maleficent speech. Maleficent leaned down and pressed her forehead against Mal's. "I'm your mommy, and I love you more than anything else. You're my special little fairy. Oh, you look so much like your grandma with that hair."

Mal picked at her hair, feeling tears piling in her eyes. Her grandmother. Now she knew.

"You're the most beautiful baby ever," Maleficent crowed in adoration. "You're my little princess. Just you wait until you're older. You're going to get us all off this island." Maleficent's language slipped and she began speaking in Faesh. Mal's ears rang as she listened to her mom expound, well, everything. Her mouth dropped open in shock. "You're going to be a lively, powerful, passionate woman with powers like the world has never seen. You'll lead all of this people into a new place and you'll be a queen of many lands. And even in lands where you aren't queen, your name will be revered. People in power will crumble when you look their way and your foresight will lead nations to greatness."

"Sounds like the opposite of what you're looking for," a voice from the hallway announced. It was the Evil Queen, with a little black-haired Evie trailing behind her. She approached the bed, glanced over Maleficent's shoulder, and then asked: "Have you named her yet?"

"Oh baby, what should we call you? Do you like Fier? Or maybe Lyst?" Maleficent turned her head to the side. Tiny Mal did not respond. "What about Mal? Just like your momma?"

At the name, Little Mal screwed up her face and began to cry. Maleficent chuckled and hugged the baby close to her chest. "Oh, my little Mal," She whispered, tears leaking out from underneath closed eyes as she cradled the baby. "You won't let your momma down, right? You're going to be just as strong as me. Times will get crazy, but you are going to be everything we need."

With the force of what felt like a speeding train, she was flung out of the memories and back into her body. Their room - hers and Ben's - came back around her, sturdy and real. Ben was underneath her, and rapidly regaining color. She pushed herself up with a gasp as her vision went crazy - shades of green, glints of white, and the magical vision struggling to separate from the real view of things. Fairy Godmother pulled Mal back a few steps and waved a hand in front of her face. "Are you alright?" She asked. "Can you see?"

"Vaguely," Mal whispered. Her throat was hoarse. She tried to swallow, but she was all dried up. She heard the Fairy Godmother start talking about fluids to Rapunzel, but her eyelids were beginning to grow heavy. She gasped for breath as she examined her magic. In her hands, blue indigo magic was blending with what was left of her green magic. Mal focused on a small portion of her stomach as the blue glass slipped around her arms and joined the magic inside her body, which changed color vaguely. There was no magic inside a portion of her torso. Mal wondered what that meant.

Ben was laid on the bed comfortably. Green and black magical stains in a multi-pointed star pattern covered the sheets upon their makeshift medical bed. The blue glass had begun to spread rapidly through his frame. The green fire only added to the glass as it branched out. Mal couldn't believe her eyes. It appeared that the glass was… devouring the sand. It consumed the black specks and drove what it did not dissolve out through the pores of Ben's skin. The black, sandy scabs, barely visible through Rapunzel's hair, detached from Ben's chest.

"How long will all this magic be inside of him?" Mal asked, tilting her head. "There's so... much."

"Probably a few days," Fairy Godmother assured her. "Then it will all be gone and all will be back to normal. Don't worry, child."

Fairy Godmother and Rapunzel began to rapidly untangle Rapunzel's hair from Ben's frame. Mal blinked several times. The real world was returning to her vision in bits and pieces. She could see the new skin that Rapunzel had healed on Ben's chest where taking off his armor had peeled it off, but at the same time she was watching as all of that blue-glass magic gathered together underneath the wounds in Ben's chest and began to filter through him, just like it did in Mal's body. His heart pumped it out to his fingers and back, and Mal watched as the last of the sand disappeared into the glass or was pushed out of his body through his pores. It would probably take several hours, maybe days for it to diminish out of his bloodstream and into his surroundings, and then all would be alright. He would be okay.

Mal swayed and sat down before she reached for Ben's hand and found it warm to the touch. She squeezed, but he didn't squeeze back. Mal squinted at the new, pink skin across his chest and noticed something was amiss. She frowned as she reached out and brushed her hands down Ben's pectorals. What had started out as six long scratches on his neck, collar and chest, not counting the small one on his chin, had solidified into what looked and felt like black lizard skin.

Mal brushed her thumb over the smallest patch of black scales on his chin, not even a half-inch long, and then trailed a finger down the largest nail line over his chest. Ben shivered in his sleep at her touch. She pulled her hand back. "Sensitive," She whispered and began brushing the loose sand off of him that had been pushed up by the blue magic.

Rapunzel was hastily re-braiding her hair. "It looks like the dragon." She sighed. "The one you turn into." She didn't look nearly as exhausted as the Fairy Godmother or Mal did.

Mal blinked. Transforming into a dragon seemed like years ago, but she supposed yes, the scales on Ben's chest did look an awful lot like her dragon scales. "Incredible," She whispered.

"His parents won't like them," Fairy Godmother said as she dropped to the floor beside the bed.

"Well, it's with scales or dead," Mal said as the last few dredges or her abnormal vision returned to normal. The blue glass look underneath Ben's skin vanished from her sight, even though she knew it still remained under his skin for now. "Did the scales… come from me?"

Fairy Godmother sniffled. "I don't know." She whispered and covered her face with her hands.

Rapunzel fastened her braid and bent down to hug the older woman. "I'm so sorry." She whispered.

Fairy Godmother began to cry. Mal slid off the bed and crouched down beside them. "What happened?" She whispered. The Fairy Godmother opened her hands but did not answer. Mal looked to Rapunzel for answers.

"Her wand melted when the anchor shattered," Rapunzel whispered. "She had it completely invested in the spell. It's a good thing you warned us because she was almost burned."

Mal's mouth formed a perfect little 'o' as the Fairy Godmother's shoulders began to shake. "It was for a good cause." The older woman tried to console herself. "I'm happy it worked." She buried her face in her hands as the tears started to flow freely.

Mal put her arms around the Fairy Godmother's shoulders. "Is there any way we can get you a new wand? I could have someone forge something from the moors."

Fairy Godmother stood up with a sniffle. "Do not worry. I will be fine." She got to her feet slowly. "Without the wand, the authority of crown will need to be passed by hand. I will visit later to discuss with you and Ben." She wiped tears off her cheeks and went to the door. She pulled on the handles, but the doors were locked. Mal forced herself to her feet. The world tilted, but she strode forward.

The Fairy Godmother moved aside as Mal stumbled forward and took hold of the knob. "Make it easy, make it quick-" she paused to yawn widely. "Open up without a kick." She finished. The doors flew open and Mal sank to the floor as her eyes rolled into the back of her head.

"Mal!" Belle exclaimed from the living room.

"Mal!" Adam stood up beside the sofa. His eyes were wide as he looked at her like he'd never seen her before. Mal covered her eyes to shield from the bright lights in the living room and groaned. Small hands rushed to her shoulders. The sky outside the windows was dark, but steadily brightening. She'd now been up for forty-eight hours.

"Are you alright?" Belle asked her. The rose perfume wasn't helping Mal's return to Earth.

"Sleep," Mal mumbled as Belle and Sophia helped her up and turned her back around.

Belle gasped and left Sophia to support her as she walked to Ben. "Ben?" She whispered. She put a hand on her son's shoulder but jumped back when she was shocked.

"He's still got lots of magic on him." Mal yawned. She stepped over the portion of the carpet that had burned away to floorboard when the anchor had shattered and snapped her fingers at the bed. "Forgive this poor abused space and clean up this entire place!" She commanded. The sand blew off and arranged itself into piles on the side of the bed. The sheets were still stained in fiery patterns of green and there was a funny ivory spot next to Ben's feet, but aside from that, everything was clean. Mal stretched her arms above her head and went to retrieve the bedspread from where it had been stashed in Ben's closet.

"What happened?" Belle exclaimed. "How did you do it?"

The Fairy Godmother took a tissue from a side table and curtseyed hastily. "I'm going to take my leave now, your highnesses." She wiped her eyes as she hurried to the door.

"I'll fill you in," Rapunzel said, taking Belle's shoulders. "We have lots to discuss. Mal, are you coming?"

Mal reappeared, hauling the bedspread out of the closet, and threw it on the bed without a word. She snapped her fingers at it with a yawn, and it straightened out. "No." She told the pair dejectedly. "I've been up for almost fifty hours. I need to sleep." She climbed onto the bed beside Ben and curled his arm around her before leaning into his shoulder. She didn't care that it wasn't exactly polite to fall asleep with a guest in the room. In her defense, it had been a very long forty-eight hours. She fell asleep within thirty seconds, snoring softly with her head resting on Ben's chest as they both rested from the experience they'd just endured.

Rapunzel and Belle shut the lights off on the couple and closed the doors. Then Belle guided Rapunzel to the couch with a 'tell me everything'. Meanwhile, Lumiere stood at attention beside the closed door with tears in his eyes. She'd done it. She'd really done it. He'd seen it with his own eyes that Ben was fine now.

He wiped his eyes and left without a word or a glance back. Mal had pulled more than enough of her weight, and it was now time to do his portion to set the ball rolling.

Lumiere was going to the moors.