Chapter Six

A/n: I do not own anything other than my OCs when they come out to play. Everything else is either owned by Disney or the Greek Myths.

Thank you all so much for the continued support! Hard to believe we're at sixty reviews! I greatly appreciate it!

Happy first night of Hanukkah for any of my Jewish readers! Hopefully COVID doesn't impact your traditions, and hopefully all my readers continue to be safe this holiday season.

Hope you all enjoy! Let me know what you think :D

There honestly was no delaying the inevitable, unless one happened to be a king who still attended school and tried to make time for his girlfriend that didn't involve official business. Then there was a reasonable expectation for delay.

It also didn't help matters that Mal seemed just as busy as Ben was. Okay, maybe not as busy but pretty close. Every time Ben turned around, Mal seemed to be attending a meeting about Cotillion or rushing off with Kitty, Jordan and Ally, or checking on Evie or sparring with Uma.

It was for that reason why Ben was currently making his way to the gym two weeks after his talk with Chip, to try to see if he could get a moment with his girlfriend and talk to her about what was going on with the Isle. He trusted her more than he trusted the reports he received…if he received them at all.

"Hey Ben," Akiho smiled and waved as Ben walked into the gym.

"Hey," Ben chuckled as he walked over to him. "What're you doing here?"

"Heard Mal and Uma were going to be doing some sparring," the blond said with a grin. "Jay texted us."

"Us?"

"Emir came too," Akiho said, pointing to the raven haired boy talking to a younger girl who was off to the side. "Ashaki seemed interested in the whole thing, she heard us talking about it in the hall and followed us in."

"What's so bad about her watching?"

"Nothing," Emir chuckled as he walked over, Ashaki trailing behind him. "The talk was just because mom and dad think she needs to call home more and asked me to tell her that."

"I call home once a week!" Ashaki exclaimed. "Ben, don't you think that's more than enough?"

"I see my dad every time there's a council meeting and I still call home at least twice a week," Ben chuckled.

"…we're sure he's human?" Ashaki asked, turning to her older brother.

"Jury's still out on him."

"Hush you two," Ben said, shaking his head in amusement. "I'm missing the sparring."

"Oh yes, that's why you came to the gym," Akiho teased as Ben sat down, the sound of clanging steel in the background as Mal and Uma seemed to really get into their sparring match. "It wasn't to see your girlfriend but to watch the sparring."

"Can't it be both?"

"I'm so proud!" Emir and Akiho exclaimed, draping themselves over Ben as the king turned bright red.

"Do I want to know?" Jay asked as he walked over with Harry.

"Not really, no," Ashaki told him, smiling at the two of them. "You guys gonna spar too?"

"Nah," Jay chuckled. "Carlos and I just got out of practice so I'm beat. Actually, I was looking for those two over there."

"Oh you mean my brother and his best friend who are currently embarrassing themselves and Ben?"

"The very same."

"And why did you need to look for them? Wouldn't they have been in practice with you?"

"They skipped." Carlos said with a chuckle as he joined the group, Dude trotting behind him. "Presumably because they were getting into mischief with Harry and Uma or they finally remembered they have girlfriends."

"Either way they didn't let me know and I had to spend all of practice dealing with Chad muttering about how a captain knows where his team mates are," Jay sighed. "Therefore, I need to talk to them about letting me know if they're going to bail on practice just so I can be prepared for another Chad diatribe."

"Being in Auradon's made you boring mate," Harry chuckled. "Nothing wrong with taking some time off now and then. Otherwise you'd wind up like Henry."

"Henry trained for like eighteen hours a day," Jay pointed out. "I think only you, Mal, or Uma could match him in training hours. I still don't know where he found the time."

"Well when you're not obligated to help stock your dad's store, I'm sure there's more time in the day," Carlos teased and Jay reached over, grabbing the smaller boy close to him and rubbing his knuckles into Carlos' head.

"Gah! Okay, okay! Let me go!"

"Only if you say it!"

"Fine! Boreadon!" Carlos exclaimed and Jay chuckled as he let Carlos go. The son of Cruella rolled his eyes as he rubbed his head.

"You are so strange," he said before looking around. "Where's Gil?"

"I think he's talking with a few of my friends. He ran into Emir and me in the hall on our way here and joined us," Ashaki told him. "Kitty should be among the group, and Phillip Jr. for that matter. Of course that usually means Audrey's not too far behind but then again she normally avoids the gym."

"Oh Bennyboo!"

"Then again, apparently I can summon her," Ashaki muttered. "This is a power I didn't know I had. I wonder if it works with other people…"

Ben ignored the mutterings of his best friend's little sister and turned to look at his ex-girlfriend. "Yes, Audrey?"

"I didn't receive your invitation to Cotillion," Audrey said sweetly. "I assume it's lost?"

"Your invitation?" Ben asked, tilting his head in pure confusion.

Audrey sighed. "You've always invited me personally to Cotillion Bennyboo. I guess you forgot with the excitement of coronation and everything that happened that day."

"Audrey…you know Fairy Godmother sends out the invitations right?" Ben asked. He still wasn't sure what Audrey was getting at, asking about personal invitations. "She codes them to the ward she places around the yacht we rent each year."

"I know that Ben," Audrey harrumphed. "I mean my invitation to be your date!"

"Audrey…I'm dating Mal."

Audrey rolled her eyes. "You mean that bad girl infatuation of yours hasn't worn off yet? Look at her Ben! She's not exactly the person you want on your arm as you tour the kingdom now is she? All dressed in leather and her dragon motif, no decent person would wear that!"

"She's not even a person," one of her lackeys giggled. "Considering she's Fae and all."

"Excuse me?" Ben said, his voice hard.

"Bad move," Emir muttered under his breath. If there was one thing that would get Ben's back up, it was the idea of treating people differently just because of how they were born.

"Well I mean, fairies aren't humans," the lackey explained with a shrug. "Plus we all know she's Maleficent's daughter. She's like obsessed with dragons and Maleficent was a Fae before Mal turned her into a lizard."

"Lady Persephone is Mal's mother," Ben said. "She said that at my coronation."

"Oh Bennyboo, like I told you before, you're just too trusting," Audrey told him. "I know you think that blood doesn't make family because of your relationship with Chip but he's still not your brother. Phillip Jr. is my brother. Ashaki is Emir's sister. Kitty is Chad's. Chip's not really your family just like Mal isn't really Lady Persephone's daughter."

"Audrey, you should go," Jay said as he stood up, the VKs in attendance glaring daggers at Audrey. "Mal doesn't owe you any explanation other than this. Lady Persephone is her mother. She has always been her mother. Just because Maleficent birthed Mal doesn't make her Mal's mom."

"Excuse me, but who do you think you are?" Audrey scoffed. "The royals are talking."

Before Jay could respond, he ducked as a dagger whizzed past his ear and embedded itself into the wall behind Audrey.

"There." Mal's voice said flatly as the purple haired Godling walked up to the group. A faint growl could be heard as Estelle also joined them and Ben couldn't help but smile slightly at the sight of the Cerberus who'd now become a staple of Mal's friend group. The only time he wasn't by her side was in classes or her meetings with Natalie it seemed. "Now they're not talking so Jay can make his point."

"Where did you get a dagger?" Uma asked as she joined her cousin. "That's an Angel weapon of choice."

Mal shrugged. "Freddy boy used it on me in our last tete-de-tete. I didn't feel the need to return it to him."

"I'm sorry, you had a confrontation with Freddy and you didn't think to tell me?"

"Not the time Uma," Mal said before turning to face Audrey. "Leave Ben alone Audrey. Gods, you've been broken up a month. Shouldn't that be a giant sign to you that he doesn't want to date you?"

"Maybe he doesn't know what he wants," Audrey shot back. "After all, spelling people is a staple in your family."

Mal's eyes flashed bight green for a split second before it faded.

"See? Your eyes even flashed green just like Maleficent's did at the coronation," Audrey scoffed. "How can you claim you're not Maleficent's daughter when you act just like her?"

"Audrey, that was uncalled for!" Ben exclaimed, as Jay and Harry tensed as if they were ready to attack or defend Mal if necessary.

"Whatever Ben," Audrey scoffed. "When you're free from whatever spell you're under, I'll be waiting for your invitation."

She walked off with her lackeys, and everyone else shook their heads.

"Wow. You'd think someone raised in politics would have more tact," Jay rolled his eyes as Mal walked over and yanked the dagger out of the wall.

"Don't worry about her Mal," Ben said gently as she sheathed it.

"The day Audrey occupies my brain cells should be the day pigs fly," Mal chuckled but if anyone was paying attention, they would notice that it was a little forced.

She had noticed how The Gazelle had been pulling focus on how she looked like a young Maleficent, and Natalie had made a few comments about possibly changing her style. After all, when people in Auradon thought of dragons, they thought of Maleficent.

Mal had shot her down but after hearing Audrey's comment about her eyes…

"You're amazing by the way, for the little bit of sparring I saw," Ben told her, pulling Mal out of her thoughts, as he went to wrap his arms around her. Sure she was a little sweaty from the sparring but Ben didn't care.

"I've had a sword in my hand since I was five, so I should be," Mal said, her easy going tone sounding more natural as she leaned into his embraced. "Harry's the one who taught Uma, Jay and me since he's had a sword in his hand since practically birth."

"It's the life of a pirate," Harry grinned. "Not having a sword on my belt is like being naked."

Mal chuckled and shook her head in amusement as she looked over at Ben. "So, Ben, what brings you to the gym?"

"I can't come by to see my girlfriend?" Ben asked, bending down to kiss her on the cheek.

"Of course you can," Mal said, smiling a little at the kiss. "But I know you're probably swamped Ben. You don't need to add stress by—"

"Mal, seeing you is never stressful," Ben told her. "But I'll be honest, I did come to see if I could talk to you about something."

"Okay. Shoot."

"I um…I was hoping it'd be in private?"

"Ben, unless it's something super personal, whatever you have to say to me you can say in front of the others," Mal told him.

"It's about the Isle," Ben said and Mal looked at him.

"What about the Isle?"

Ben sighed softly and looked at the others, the other VKs seemed to stiffen as Ben said that. Almost as if they were expecting to have to defend the place that'd been their home. Well, except for Gil but he'd only just walked up; looking at Carlos in confusion.

"Mal, I was wondering…can you tell me what it's like on the Isle?" Ben asked.

"I mean I can but…why do you want to know Ben?" Mal asked. "I mean, we all know that if we tell you anything, you'll be fighting with your council for Zeus knows how long before it gets done. Look how long it took before you got them to agree to bring Uma, Harry, Gil and Hadie here."

"Meaning who knows how many kids would have died in that time," Uma muttered and Ben's heart sank. He hadn't want his suspicions to be correct but there was no other option. Not when it came to the quality of the food being sent to the Isle.

"Died?" Akiho asked, also having heard the mutter.

"Ben, did you tell them?" Mal asked, looking at her boyfriend. "About the food?"

"I did," Ben nodded.

"Then shouldn't they know about all the deaths on the Isle?"

"Mal…I only told them what I know," Ben said gently, taking Mal's hands and holding them in his. "If you don't want to talk about it in the gym, we can all go to my office."

Mal paused, biting her lip. She had a meeting with Natalie in about fifteen minutes but…this was the Isle. Natalie wouldn't mind if she was a few minutes late.

Besides, Mal would be with Ben. There's no way Natalie could take issue with Mal being late if it was because of a meeting with Ben.

"Okay Ben," Mal said. "But only if the others come too. Uma, Harry and Gil are more familiar with the status of the Isle after all, and Jay and Carlos have their own experiences."

Evie would have joined them but once again she was at the hospital, sitting at her father's side. While the three weeks off that Fairy Godmother had granted her were up, there was no harm in her visiting on the weekend.

"Of course," Ben nodded and the group quickly made their way to Ben's office. Mal quickly flopped onto the sofa and Ben grabbed a spot across from her so he could see everyone.

"What do you want to know?" Mal asked as everyone got comfortable. "I mean, Ben, you saw the Isle. You know what it's like there."

"I saw a glimpse of the Isle Mal," Ben corrected. "But I need to know everything that happens on the Isle."

"Why?" Uma asked. "No offense Benny but…we all know nothing's going to change. Oh wait, maybe you lot will bring some of those who have died back to life because death's too good for the villains but other than that…"

"Uma may be blunt but she's right," Mal said. "Ben, we've lived on the Isle our whole lives. You know about the food issues—"

"Calling being given rotten food an 'issue' is understating it Mal," Ben said. "I'm just sorry I haven't done anything about it until now."

"Ben, you've been busy! Being king isn't like schoolwork you can push to the side. Besides, you've also been helping to get Daniel back from Maleficent's dungeons and arraigning for medical treatment for him, along with therapy for Evie and the other VKs."

"Still, I should have done more before now," Ben sighed and then shook his head. "But we're not here to talk about that. I…I need to know Mal. What was it like, on the Isle?"

Mal glanced over at the others, as if trying to determine how much they should tell Ben. It wasn't that she didn't want to...but she knew how hard Ben would take it. It wasn't his fault yet Mal knew how much this would hurt her kind hearted boyfriend.

"…mom practically saved our lives," Mal said softly after a few minutes. If Ben hadn't been watching her lips move, he might have never heard her. "She brought over formula when I was a month old, according to dad. For the women who couldn't nurse or for the families who had mothers die giving birth…the formula was a gift from the Gods."

"Uncle Hades found a way to filter salt water to make it fresh, so people could use the formula," Uma added. "Otherwise, the only source of water we had that was fit to drink was our own urine. You can't drink salt water after all."

"But didn't…didn't you live with Maleficent?" Akiho asked softly, not wanting to bring it up due to Audrey's fit earlier but the question rang in his head. "How would you have…?"

Mal sighed. "Maleficent allied herself with Jafar. After…after Maleficent stole me from dad's, mom gave the stores of formula she'd brought with her to Jafar to sell in his shop. After all, dad wouldn't need six months worth of formula if I wasn't there."

"I think dad must have told the Dragon a lie, maybe about mom finding them on the barge," Jay said with a sigh. "It's the only way Maleficent would have bought it. It's not like she would have accepted anything from Steph."

"Maleficent wouldn't have accepted anything from your dad anyway," Mal scoffed. "If it wasn't for the fact that she wanted to rub it in dad's face she had me, I probably wouldn't have gotten anything."

It was clear that they had forgotten the AKs were in the room, judging by how open Mal was being. Even after being in Auradon a month, the original VKs were still a little closed off from the others.

"Ah good point," Jay nodded. "But you're half God, shouldn't that have—?"

"Still gotta eat Jay."

Ben looked at Emir and Akiho, unsure if he should jump in to bring the conversation back. It wasn't that he didn't want to hear about this, but hearing about his girlfriend's childhood, a childhood that she had to go through because of his father's choices…

"So food was sparse on the Isle?" Emir asked, bringing the focus back much to Ben's appreciation.

Uma snorted. "Sparse is one word for it. There was one delivery barge a month. If you lucked out and got there first on top of being someone in Maleficent's group of allies, you might have gotten something fairly edible. We mainly relied on fish from the ocean and chickens from Old man Slade's farm."

"The stupid birds snuck on to the barge one day," Harry chuckled. "I don't know when but Slade's always had them for as long as I can remember. One day though they broke free and wandered around town. That was when we were about five."

"Jay and Estelle were the ones to grab them for dad, well after I got Estelle that is," Mal chuckled and the aforementioned dog gave a small yip. "The chickens didn't have a lot of meat but it was meat we could trust. Anything on the barge was likely to be rancid by the time we got it."

Ben knew the same look of horror that was on Emir and Akiho's face was also on his. Rancid meat? And Mal was chuckling about it?

"We're used to it Ben," Mal said gently, noticing the look on his face. "It's been our lives since we were born."

"Yeah Ben," Uma nodded. "If it hadn't been for my grandfather sending fish to the Isle, we probably wouldn't have gotten any meat. Well other than the chickens."

"Poseidon was sending fish?" Akiho asked.

"You lot may control the food on the barges but the sea belongs to Poseidon," Uma smirked.

"Helps that Uncle Poseidon is the younger brother that dad's still talking to," Mal added. "Uncle Zeus is basically on dad's 'dead to him' list."

"Very true," Uma nodded.

"I feel that we've once again gotten off track," Jay chuckled. "Sorry captains but otherwise this'll turn into an hour long 'Zeus' bashing session."

Mal rolled her eyes but turned back to Ben. "What's with all the questions about the Isle? Has something happened?"

"That's one word for it," Emir muttered and Akiho elbowed him in the side.

Ben sighed. "I started doing some research into the food going to the Isle Mal. It…it appears as though the food being rotten was deliberate."

The six VKs stilled, as if they were unsure how to react.

"What?" Mal hissed, her eyes once again flashing green and she got up, beginning to pace. "All the deaths, all the suffering everyone experienced on the Isle…that was deliberate?!"

"My mother might have survived giving birth to the runt had she had decent food!" Harry growled.

Jay nodded, his face stony. While his mother didn't die in childbirth like Harry's did, she still would have benefited from decent food. Gil and Carlos remained silent; they'd been one of the few lucky VKs to not have anyone they knew die due to the poor quality of the food but they were still familiar with the issue. After all, they had been under Pirate/Warf Rat protection.

Meanwhile Mal was still ranting. "All the kids who were crushed by the stampedes at the barge, trying to get their shot at something edible! All the stillborns, all the kids who died from dehydration, from allergic reactions…Gods you all call us the monsters! The villains!"

"Mal, I'm furious too but you need to calm down," Ben said, as if trying to sooth a wild beast. "Akiho's working to get the footage from the docks and Chip's talking to the captain of the ship."

"Unfortunately, it's likely that we won't get that footage for a month," Akiho said. "The guy in charge's on vacation."

"A month?!"

Mal had never felt anger like this before, it was pure unadulterated fury. Beast better hope he doesn't meet me in an abandoned room, she thought as unbeknownst to her, her magic began to bubble up. She'd had flare ups before since coming to Auradon but nothing like this.

"Mal…" Uma said as Mal stopped pacing, the squidling recognizing the signs of a flare up.

"Hit the deck!" Harry called, pulling Uma and Jay down; Carlos doing the same for Gil. It was a good thing too because not a few seconds later a fireball hit the wall where Gil's head had formerly been.

"Oh Gods," Mal whispered, horrified, as she calmed down and realized what she'd done. "I'm so…Gil I didn't mean…I gotta go!"

"Mal!" Ben called but Mal had already rushed out of the room.

"So…Mal doesn't find out who's behind the food delays I'm guessing?" Akiho said as he and Emir patted the flames with their jackets to put it out.

Ben shook his head. "No. I'm not keeping secrets from her. I'm more worried about that flare up."

"What did you expect Ben?" Uma asked. "Biological offspring of Maleficent and daughter of Hades coming to a land of magic after having it basically suppressed for her life? She needs more than three hours a week."

"And she'll get that," Ben nodded. "I'll talk to Fairy Godmother right now. Akiho, see if there's any way we can speed up that footage."

Just then, Ben's cell phone rang before Akiho could even respond to Ben. Raising an eyebrow as he saw that it was Chip's number, Ben flipped open his phone and put the call on speaker.

"You alone Benji?"

"If you count being in a room with Akiho, Emir, Uma, Gil, Jay, Carlos and Harry as being alone."

"Oddly enough I actually do."

"Whatcha got Chip?"

"I hope you're sitting down Ben. The captain was all too eager to give me the information. Apparently, the Beauty Matriarch from Hell is a pain in the butt to deal with."

Ben paused, as if processing the information for the very first time. Chip didn't mean…no, he couldn't…could he?

"Chip, you're not…you don't mean Leah do you?"