A week after the coronation, Mal dyes her hair blonde (it's the same day she breaks up with Carlos, Evie and Jay- she can't bear to look like herself and not be with them, but when a pale-haired girl looks out of the mirror, Mal can remember that she's in love with Ben).

Two weeks after the coronation, she asks Carlos to teach her to read English (her mother's spellbook, the only material she ever felt the desire to read, is written in the old tongue of the fae- that it sounds like silly rhymes is an old party trick that fairies used to use to keep their spells secret).

Three weeks after the coronation, when her roots start growing out and she has to bleach her hair again, and the words blur in front of her eyes as she struggles to make it through a page of the etiquette book Queen Mother Belle has leant her, so she puts it down and pick up her mother's spellbook. It feels like fate when she finds a spell to change the colour of hair, and she casts it without really thinking. She's fae, and it's natural for the fae to use magic to ease their burden.

She forgets all about it.

Four weeks after the coronation, she and Evie are laughing again, like they used to (that's a lie- Mal doesn't kiss her when she giggles wildly anymore, and so it's nothing like it used to be). She and Jay sneak out to spar, to keep their skills sharp (they've always been the protectors, and that's not going to change because they're in Auradon, or because they're not dating). And Carlos is still trying to teach her to read, but it's slow going. So when Evie and Carlos approach her with a speed-reading spell, she thanks them profusely (wants to press kisses to their noses and cheeks and foreheads and lips, but doesn't).

The spell doesn't suddenly make her reading perfect, but now she's fast enough that even when she has to read a word four times to get it right, it only takes a couple of seconds. She managed to give the Queen Mother her book back within the week, and Belle looks slightly put out (she's had the book for two weeks) until Mal asks her for another, and then she beams.

Life goes on like this for a while. Mal's trying her best to be the perfect girlfriend for Ben, and she thinks it's working. She's in love with him, which definitely makes it easier. They're going on pristine dates, and she loves him for it, for how much he loves her.

She meets her stepmother two months after Ben's coronation. She and Ben (well, Ben, and by extension her as his current date to everything) had been invited to a ball hosted by the Olympians, and, naturally, the Queen of the Underworld was there.

Queen Persephone watches her with dark, unreadable eyes. She's wearing a crown made out of daisies, and a black toga, and she's talking to - who Mal thinks are- Hera and Amphitrite. Mal tries to shake it off. She's sure Persephone knows, although she doesn't know how. No one else seems to, and Mal doesn't really want them to. So she walks around on Ben's arm, glitzy and ditzy, trying to prove that she isn't a threat (no one is really a threat to the gods, but they like deference).

The goddess of spring corners her in the bathroom (while she's talking, Mal tries to forget her abrupt, cruel conversation with Jane. It doesn't work very well).

"I'd like for you to drop the glamour," she says pleasantly, but it's nothing but a thinly-veiled command. Mal follows the instruction, letting her magic fall away to reveal navy hair and black eyes, nearly-blue skin and feathery wings.

Queen Persephone nods as if it's what she expected.

"He told me he named you Korë," she says (Mal wonders how Hades managed to tell her anything, and then she remembers that she's talking to a goddess), smile playing on her lips like it's a joke, "He named you after me, as if that would appease me. After he cheated on me. After he had a kid without me. After he married your mother so that you wouldn't be a bastard, because bastard fairies are killed. Is this true?"

Mal nods silently. She's never been cowed like this before, not by her mother or her father or anyone, really, and she hates the feeling.

"But you don't go by it," it's a statement of fact, and Mal feels her muscles tense, ready to defend herself should this goddess choose to try and take revenge here and now (she knows it's futile. That doesn't stop her). She shakes her head, confirming that she doesn't use her given name.

"Why?" Persephone is unfailingly polite, but there's a fury behind her eyes, and Mal understands how she managed to love Mal's father. They're alike.

"Speak, Korë. I won't strike you for it." Another command.

"My mother," the words bubble out before Mal can think it through- before she can decide if she wants to protect her mother. Persephone knows her name, and Mal can feel its influence over her, pulling the truth from her, "was furious when I was born more like him than like her. Because she reproduced the human way, she said. So she made me what I'd be if I'd been born fully fae. She made me fae."

"Did she think I would hate her less if her child with my husband didn't look like him? I still know that you're his." Mal watches the queen warily.

"With all due respect, your grace, you have a daughter that's not his," the words slip out before Mal can stop them, defending… something. Her mother, or her father, or her birth. She's not sure. Fury cracks behind Persephone's eyes and Mal is sure she will die. She thinks that if she dies here, tonight, she will regret having left Jay, Evie and Carlos at Auradon Prep with only a "see you later". She will regret having kicked Uma to the curb even when her magic screamed at her that Uma was one of her people. She will regret not having used every last drop of the magic in her veins.

But she doesn't die. Persephone sighs, and brushes back the dark curls that have fallen from her crown.

"You know your history, Korë." Mal's knees nearly give in when she realizes that she's not about to die at her stepmother's hand for mentioning her daughter.

"I love Melinoë. She's my daughter. And I remember how terrified I was that my husband would murder her, just because she wasn't his," there's a silence between them, and Mal waits for her sentencing.

"Who knows?" The question startles her, it's so out of place.

"You. My mother. Him." She has to fight to keep Evie, Jay and Carlos's names from following, and she manages only by telling herself that she's never explicitly told them.

"I want you to Promise me that you won't tell anyone else." Mal stares at her with wide eyes, somewhere between terrified and grateful.

"You said your mother made you fae. Is that true?"

"Yes."

"The fae must keep their Promises. So Promise me that no one will find out from you, and I'll let you live. Peacefully. Free. I just don't want anyone to know."

"I swear that no one will ever find out that I'm Hades' daughter from me," her voice comes out hoarse, made that way by a mixture of relief and fear.

Persephone nods once and leaves. Mal thinks she hears her say thank you but then convinces herself that she dreamed it.

She rushes out of the bathroom behind her, already having been gone for too long.


It only takes a couple more events of the same calibre for Mal to snap. She's not surprised by it, not really. She was never cut out for this life, this perfect and wholesome and good existence. And she's not cut out for being glitzy and ditzy. She's made to run with her people, made to collect debts and hold her family close and fight for her life.

Ben finds out that she's been using spells, and it's all downhill from there.

She runs from the responsibilities she hated, the life she didn't want, and the scrutiny of Auradon. She runs from her boyfriend, who has asked her to be engaged-to-be-engaged-to-be-engaged without her realising. She runs from her ex-lovers, and she regrets it, even as she bursts through the barrier and tastes freedom on her tongue.

She runs into a turf war.

Uma and her gang are practically in the middle of a street fight with the Huns, hissing and spitting curses at each other. There are knives and pieces of glass {and a hook} being brandished, and the tyres on Mal's (stolen) scooter squeal as she stops between them.

Maybe on any other day, she would have tried to be diplomatic. Maybe if she and Ben hadn't just fought, she'd try for peace and not war. As it was, she was angry and tired, and it was the Isle, and Uma was hers. Her magic was fracturing and rebuilding itself beneath her skin, becoming reaccustomed to access to only her godly powers.

She watches her magic flare out around her, bringing the Huns to their knees, and then she feels the world go dark.


"Wake up, Queenie!" It's Uma's voice, harsh and angry and home, that wakes her up again.

"What's- where's-" as she comes back to herself, she sits up. It's too fast, and she feels her head spin with the exertion.

"Circe! Calm the fuck down, Queenie," Uma's hand push her back down to the bed, and Mal lets her, exhausted magically and emotionally.

"Where am I?"

"Back of the shop."

Mal raises her eyebrow at Uma, but the sea witch says nothing. They both know that she shouldn't be here. They both know the other won't say anything.

"Your lover came after you," Uma informs her, and it's the detachment in her voice that confirms for Mal, "Ben's here?"

"Sharp, aren't you, Queenie? Yeah. E, Carlos and Jay brought him when they came to fetch you back after your temper tantrum."

"It wasn't a temper tantrum. I'm not going back." Mal insists, and she can feel Uma's disdain.

"You're going back," Uma tells her, "because you're the only one with the power to bring the rest of us over. It's always been your job to look after the kids, Queenie. Make good on your Promises."

Mal shakes her head, but her eye catches on the short blue curls that go flying. "My hair-"

"-did that when you broke through the barrier, yeah. No clue why. Ain't you supposed to be Maleficent, Queenie?"

"Something like that," Mal tells her, her promise to Queen Persephone thick on her vocal cords.

Uma purses her lips and says nothing. She's not an idiot and has definitely already figured it out. Mal changes the subject.

"Why are you calling me that?"

"Calling you what?" Uma feigns ignorance, but Mal just lifts an eyebrow at her.

"Ain't like it's not true," Uma changes tactics, "Didn't lover boy, like, propose already?"

"He didn't- I mean, I didn't know," Mal tries to stutter her way through and explanation, but Uma just cuts her off again.

"Calm the fuck down, your majesty. Look, I'm not actually calling you that because of Ben."

"You're… not?"

"No. Look, I know what this is gonna sound like, but- we took a vote." Mal knows what that means. It's a catch she put in place when she still ran the Isle. If Auradon ever wanted to negotiate, they needed to come under one banner, and the Vote was made to choose the banner. But there's no one who would call the Vote without her, unless-

"Evie."

"She's a fucking force of nature, you know. After you came rushing back in here an' took all the Huns down with you, we were 'bout to take the fight to the King instead. Then E came charging in saying that his majesty would speak to a representative fo the Isle, but only one. We called all the gangs together, but no one wanted to send another group's leader. The Huns wanted to end Lei, the Witches wanted to send Freddie. I eventually nominated you- you're already off, you ain't just gonna be fighting for you, E, Carlos and Jay."

"And you figured that I might at least fight for you considering our history."

Uma shrugged, unrepentant, "I don't know hat I did to offend you, Queenie, but I know you're fae enough that your magic is attached to me. That it hurts you when I'm gone. I'm gonna use that to my advantage."

Mal pushes herself up from the bed, shuddering as she feels the glamour she cast settle over her again. It feels like she's underneath a blanket, just slightly muffled.

"Let's go, then," she says, and Uma leads the way to the front of the shop, no questions asked. As they get closer, Mal hears a familiar voice- "Please, Evie, who am I meeting?" Ben is questioning her... ex-girlfriend.

She lets herself step into the light; she's got purple hair and green eyes and no wings again, but Ben still looks at her like she hung the moon.

"Mal," he breathes, and she feels a smile crawl onto her lips. She may often be frustrated with Auradon, with the expectations it has of her, but she loves Ben.

"Queen Mal," Evie emphasizes, pride in her voice and her eyes, "of the Isle of the Lost."

"You're the representative?" It's not scornful or disbelieving, but relieved.

"In the flesh," Mal tells him and then waits for him to sit down. She's been negotiating for years, and there's a pattern that she follows, these are steps that she knows. She breathes in deeply, exhaling through her nose.

Let the games begin.


Cotillion is bright and beautiful and the decorations remind Mal just too much of the party on Olympus for her to be completely comfortable (or maybe it's the guests, she thinks as she watches Queen Persephone from the corner of her eye). But Mal is finally in her element. She's not glitzy and ditzy, but she's bright and bold, her hair purple and her dress (redesigned after she and Evie returned, now black and purple and a beautiful mix of Isle and Auradon) still glitters, but it's finally not what people care about.

Their eyes are drawn- as she knew they would be- to the crown she wears. It's made of obsidian and inlaid with moonstone, and she's reminding them all that she's Queen of the Isle before she's anything of Auradon.

It's a beautiful feeling.

Persephone watches the girl who looks nothing like her father from where she stands, hardly paying attention to what Belle says. The girl has claimed a kingdom and a people and has done it all without her father's name, and she wonders what Korë could accomplish with blue hair and black eyes and the title of Daughter of Hades.

Carlos spins Mal around as they dance- they were always the dancers, of the four of them- and he thinks about how she's fae and goddess and a queen how no name or title is as important to him as the one she's given up.

Jay stands at the railing with her in the quiet hours, when some of the guests have already gone home, and they sip the illegal champagne he snagged when a waiter wasn't looking. He stares at her, openly, because she broke their hearts and she should know that.

Evie flits around all evening, socializing and making connections, that stuff that Mal hates, the stuff that she was brought up to do. The entire evening, she keeps track of Mal, expecting her to crack, but she never does. Evie's heart swells and shatters again when Mal kisses her cheek before they climb into bed (still the one bed, pushed together. Broken up or not, they still have nightmares).

Ben dances with his girlfriend until his feet are sore and his cheeks are flushed. He holds Mal close for as long as possible- Mal, a queen, one day his queen.

Mal lets herself forget, for a night. Forget the problems that await her, forget that she's responsible for a people now and lets herself revel in her success and in love.