We are finally arriving in Auradon, and you are receiving a longer chapter as a reward for making it this far! I don't own the Descendants franchise, but I did borrow a few lines from the movie. I enjoyed writing this different take on the limo ride and trip to the museum, but hope it isn't too hard to follow for those who haven't seen the movie recently. If so, I highly recommend a re-watch party!

I am finding reviews to be addictive, and knowing that my work is appreciated feeds my muse. Let me know what you think of the chapter, but please don't flame without an explanation of your complaint.

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Arriving in Auradon

Mal's point of view

While Jay and Carlos descended into childish argument over the candy provided in the limo to cover up their nervousness, and Evie started wondering about what princes would be available at school in an attempt to distract herself, I started plotting. There had to be a way to get the kids off of the Isle without releasing the adult villains. My mother should not be unleashed on the world, but I had to remove her favorite prey before openly standing against her. Maybe this 'Prince Ben' would help us? I certainly did not trust his father, who marooned us on the Isle in the first place and didn't care enough to check up on us to see if the population had changed. He continued to send the same number of rations to the Isle each week, which was not nearly enough because the kids now outnumbered the adults by at least two to one. When there is nothing to do, adults will always find some activity to fill the time. Luckily, we had access to the trash from Auradon, where some people thought nothing of throwing out excess food before it rotted completely.

The limo finally arrived at Auradon Prep and Evie and I alighted from the vehicle with poise. The first thing I noticed was how bright it was compared to the Isle, which was almost perpetually under a dark cloud that caused frequent storms. The boys tumbled out of the vehicle, only to continue fighting over the candy. I rolled my eyes. Their way of dealing with stress was not making a good impression. "Guys, people are watching," I hissed at them. They quickly straightened up and we faced the large crowd in front of us. Clearly, we were to be made a spectacle of as a goodwill program. Maybe this 'Prince Ben' person was only doing this for publicity after all. I would keep an eye on him before approaching him about the rest of the kids on the Isle. In the meantime, we had to make a good impression so Auradon would be open to the idea of more kids leaving the Isle.

Prince Ben came over to welcome us. When he shook my hand, he paused to look deep into my eyes. I felt an odd connection with him, and he clearly felt something as well. I wasn't sure what it was, and experiencing things I didn't understand made me defensive. Ben shook off the moment of connection and went on with a bit of a pompous speech. He hid his nervousness well, but I was good at sniffing out weaknesses in others. After Ben finished his speech about this momentous day when he welcomed kids from the Isle in what he hoped to be the beginning of a great friendship, I tried to break the ice. "Or it could be known as the day when you showed four people where the bathrooms are."

"A bit much?" He asked me with a wince.

"A bit more than a bit much," I replied.

He took a deep breath and seemed to relax. When he wasn't trying too hard to be a ruler, he was actually kind of cute. Bad Mal, I told myself, you are not here to form a crush on the soon to be king. I had grown used to suppressing my feelings on the Isle, so I drew on those skills now. His girlfriend then stepped forward and made sure that we knew exactly who he was and that he was hers. She then went on to insult my mother, couched in a speech of forgiveness saying that she did not blame Maleficent's actions against her mother, Sleeping Beauty, on me. I responded in kind and we ended up in a bit of a stare off. I may always lose these things against my mother, but I win against everyone else.

Ben interrupted our stand off and Audrey was quick to foist us off on a boy named Doug, who identified himself as Dopey's son, and didn't give Ben a chance to contradict her before dragging him off. I wasn't sure how much Ben could help us if his girlfriend led him around by the nose. Maybe my mother's plan was the only one that could get the kids off of the Isle after all. If I had the wand, I might be able to isolate a small hole in the barrier through which I could funnel the kids without letting their parents out. It was risky, and likely doomed to fail, but it was my only plan at this point because Ben looked like he wouldn't be able to keep us here for too long if enough people opposed our presence. We probably needed to act fast.

Doug seemed a bit nervous around Evie and, at first, I wasn't sure if he was afraid of us or crushing on Evie. I quickly decided that it was the latter and wondered how this could work to our advantage. The Core Four always used every advantage available, I thought proudly. I then realized that our name would probably change to something like Villain Kids, or VK's for short. No one here knew about our reputation as The Core Four, and trying to name your own group in a new setting was tacky.

When Evie and I entered our room, she seemed predisposed to like everything around her; but she changed her outward opinion to "gross" when I used that word to describe the room. I felt a bit bad killing her mood, but I couldn't allow myself to become complacent. I quickly closed the curtains, as the excessive light was beginning to give me a headache. We joined up with the boys to start plotting, but they were already as entranced with their surroundings as Evie was. Jay was the first one to focus when I asked Evie to find the magic wand, as he knew a bit more about what we could expect as a result of our failure.

We identified the museum where the wand was located and headed out before we lost our nerve. I knew if we became too attached to this place, then we might not be able to follow through with this plan later. The more we came to enjoy Auradon, the harder it would be to risk the release of our parents to get the kids off of the Isle. Failure would mean that we were sent back to the Isle, and the more attached we became to Auradon the harder it would be to risk it all.

When Jay decided to break the front door of the museum down with brute force, I knew that I had to think fast. Not only was I afraid that we would be heard, but I also didn't want Jay to injure himself if the door had extra protections built in. The others seemed to forget that we were no longer on the Isle, and invisible magical protections could be dangerous. Carlos laughed at Jay when he landed on the floor instead of hitting the door, as I opened it with a spell before he could make contact, but I chose not to comment. I used another spell that I had memorized from my mother's spell book to put the guard to sleep.

This magic thing was addicting. It was like my body was finally awake with the magic I first felt coursing through my veins when we crossed the Barrier around the Isle. I was always able to do a little magic on the Isle, since it was my mother that was keyed into the wards and not me, but it was always difficult and my connection felt a bit staticky. I had memorized every spell in my Mother's spell book before I was eight, so she didn't even offer it to me as I left the Isle. She knew that I already had all the tools I needed, and she liked to keep the book close at hand; although heaven knows what good she thought it would do her on the Isle.

We walked down the halls, poking our heads in various rooms in an attempt to locate the wand. We entered one door and were suddenly face to face with our parents. My breath caught as I fought against my fear before I realized that these were just wax replicas, and not the real thing. I looked at the others out of the corner of my eye and was comforted by the fact that they all had similar reactions.

Carlos seemed transfixed by his mother's gaze, and his body seemed to fold in on itself. "I'm never going to forget Mother's Day again," he whimpered. While this seemed like a fairly innocuous statement to anyone else, I knew the painful story behind it. Our parents didn't usually celebrate incidental holidays, or any holiday for that matter, but one year his Mother decided that he should cater to her every whim on the appointed Sunday. Although, since he already acted as her slave every day, I don't know what she thought he could do differently. When he left his closet in the morning to begin his chores, he didn't have a bedroom but at least he had outgrown the dog cage, he failed to wish her a "Happy Mother's Day". He didn't even know what day it was, so he was set up for failure. He suffered a fairly severe beating that day and was locked in his closet for a week. Jay and I snuck food to him through the high window when we could, but he was even skinnier than usual when he was finally released. It took over two years for his panic attacks to ease when someone mentioned Mother's Day, and it sounded like he was being transported to that day by the manic expression on the wax figure of his mother.

Jay swallowed hard when he saw the hunched position the wax figure of his father took. Jafar was not the worst parent on the Isle, but his parenting skills did take a noticeable dip when his wife died. I try not to think about that day, and I know that Jafar blames my mother. I'm just glad that he didn't know how things really went down that day. He loved his wife, who came to the Isle with him on a trumped-up charge because she loved him; unfortunately, the intensity of that love didn't necessarily transfer to his son. He did love Jay in his own way, and was one parent who rarely starved their child when food was available. He found that Jay brought back more merchandise for his shop when the boy was well fed. Jay frequently shared his food with Carlos and I behind his father's back.

Evie's heart stopped beating for a moment when she saw the wax figure of her mom. There was a time when she thought that her mother loved her but, after seeing the kids at Auradon, she wasn't so sure. She used to think that her mother's constant criticisms of Evie's looks were because she wanted to improve them, although it wreaked havoc on Evie's self-esteem. Eventually she realized that the constant insults were because putting someone else down gave her mother pleasure. Her mother kept her well fed, not because she loved her, but because a starved child would not attract a prince. Although, this consideration did not start until she hit fourteen and her mother realized that Evie was her ticket out of squalor. Before that, she simply gave her half of all the food they gathered. This 50/50 division was higher than most kids on the Isle, so she was considered lucky. The problem was, that her mother was not very good at obtaining food, so Evie often fed the both of them with foot gathered (aka stolen) on a trip through the market place on her way home from school. She would wait until someone was inevitably caught stealing and, when the owner of a stall left to chase the thief she would slip in and take her own portion. This tactic was especially effective when she worked in tandem with Jay.

The other three were able to shake off the momentary shock and move on, but I felt transfixed by my mother's gaze. I was drawn back to a memory of my mom teaching me how to be "evil like her". This was a common theme in my lessons, and even resulted in a strangely terrifying song one day when my mother was bored. I was startled out of my reverie when Evie came back to the room and tell me that they found the wand.

This time, Jay's impulsive use of brute force sent us running from the museum without our prize. He failed to factor in the possibility of a force field around the wand, and I was too slow with my warning. I wasn't sure if I was thankful or disappointed that we didn't succeed, but I did inform the others that our failure meant that we had to go to school tomorrow. Starting the day with the new Remedial Goodness class. Can you say, "discrimination"?