Chapter Nine

A/N: I do not own anything other than my OCs when they come out to play. Everything else belongs to Disney!

*blows horn in celebration* I can't believe it guys! We got this story to over 100 reviews! Thank you all so much for your support with this story! :D

I think it's safe to say we're nearing the end here—I believe I had planned for this to be about fifteen chapters. Hard to believe we're near the end. :D

Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter! Let me know what you think! :D

Jay sighed as he paced around the clubhouse, waiting for Carlos and Lonnie to return. Ben had been staring at the mirror Lord Hades had given them, as if worried that Mal would disappear if he stopped.

He didn't blame Ben in the slightest though. This feeling of helplessness was new to Jay, and it wasn't something he particularly liked.

"Jay, it'll be okay," Evie said, walking over to him as if she could read his mind. "Carlos and Lonnie will be back, we'll give Uma the fake wand, and we'll get Mal back."

Estelle gave a small yip as he wagged his tail, almost agreeing with Evie about her statement.

"I hope you're right Evie," Jay sighed once more but stopped as he looked over at the blue haired girl. "Why didn't you ever tell anyone that Lord Hades was Mal's dad?"

"It wasn't my news to tell," Evie said, her voice soft. "I just hope Mal'll forgive me for telling her secret now."

"If you hadn't told us, we wouldn't have known to get Lord Hades to be at least aware of what was going on," Jay said. "It's not like you were her best friend since the age of five and didn't know she was so overwhelmed that she'd rather go back to the Isle!"

He punched the wall as if to punctuate his point, gritting his teeth to prevent himself from calling out in pain. But the pain in his hand wasn't anywhere near the pain in his heart as he thought about how he let his best friend down. How he let his captain down.

And not for the first time either, he thought. How long have you had to tell Mal the truth about what happened that day seven years ago? Yeah okay maybe it's understandable that you didn't tell her the next day but you've had years to think about it.

She would never forgive him for not telling her the truth. Just as she likely would never forgive Evie for blabbing her secret to them.

"Gee, what did that wall do to you?" Lonnie's voice broke through the silence and Evie and Jay turned around to see Lonnie and Carlos standing at the top of the stairs.

"We need to get you guys a cowbell," Jay said. "You got it?"

"Oh yeah," Carlos nodded, pulling the fake wand out of his bag. Jay had to admit, if he hadn't known it was a fake, he likely would have been fooled too. "The best part about all this is the fact that none of us has magic. Uma can't ask us to test something if it wouldn't get any result in the first place…is that a Cerberus?"

"He's Mal's," Jay said.

"She never mentioned having a Cerberus!"

"Just like she didn't mention she was Lord Hades' daughter. I thought you were over your fear of dogs anyway?"

"Jay, this is a Cerberus! Why would I be afraid of him? Hi boy! Oh what a good boy you are!"

Jay blinked as Carlos got down to his knees, calling Estelle over to him. Estelle left Ben's side to sniff at the new human, giving Carlos a doggy grin after a minute. Of course, the belly rub Carlos gave him might have helped.

"…okay then," Jay sighed and looked over at Lonnie. "Any backup?"

"Well we ran into Chad when we needed to use Carlos' printer," Lonnie said. "He was unsurprisingly unhelpful. We also ran into Doug who seemed to know a little about what's going on?"

"He was in Ben's office with me when I gave Ben the news about Mal going back to the Isle," Evie said with a small sigh.

"Ah that explains that," Lonnie nodded. "He had asked after you Evie, saying something about how he didn't think getting Mal back would take this long."

"Well we didn't think Uma had her captured."

"I explained that to him. I then had to knock him out because he wanted to come and help."

Evie's eyes grew wide at that. "He wanted to what?"

"Yeah," Lonnie nodded. "I mean I like Doug don't get me wrong but he's not the best fighter I know. If I thought there was time to get my brother, I would have but we've got the time limit."

Jay sighed. So they were going up against Harry and Uma and their pirates…and it was just the five of them. Really it should be the four of them but Ben would probably go insane with worry if they made him sit in the car.

He loves you Mal, he thought. I wish you could see how worried he is…he hasn't moved since we got back from your dad's…and don't think we're not going to talk about that! I can't believe you kept this from me!

Jay shook his head slightly. He couldn't get mad at Mal for keeping something from him when he'd kept something from her too. And at least it could be argued that her something was in an attempt to maintain her safety on the Isle and even in Auradon.

He had no excuse for keeping the truth of what really happened that day from her.

Gods…what am I going to do if Mal finds out? Jay thought. All these years and I could have talked to her, told her about what Uma really did instead of allowing Mal to think that her best friend, her captain…her cousin had just stood and laughed as she drowned. I mean, I didn't say anything that day because it would just be too much…and then the next day was the shrimp tail incident but I thought I could give her some time to cool off and then tell her…but by then Uma and Harry were some of our rivals.

"You okay?" Lonnie asked, looking over at him. "You've been a bit quiet."

"Yeah," Jay nodded. "Just thinking is all."

Carlos snorted in amusement as he stood up. "Don't hurt yourself there Jay."

"Hey!"

"Just teasing, you know that."

Jay smiled as he pulled Carlos to him and started to rub his knuckles on the younger boy's head.

"Gah! Jay!"

"Say it! Say it!"

"Uncle! Uncle!" Carlos shouted and Jay let him go, chuckling and shaking his head.

Evie smiled but then sighed. "We should go. Last thing we need to do is show up late. Who knows what Uma would do then?"

"We're not going to think about that," Jay said, his good mood dissipating as he thought about his best friend, about his sister, tied up and held hostage surrounded by her worst fear.

Not that she'd let anyone know that of course, well except for Jay. They'd had a 'gab' session as Lonnie called it one night after Ben's coronation and Mal had told him. No one else though and Jay would keep that secret until Mal said he could say something.

"You're right," Ben nodded as he stood up for the first time since Lonnie and Carlos arrived. "We should get going."

"You should stay here Ben," Lonnie said. "We can't have the King fighting a bunch of pirates if it comes to that can we?"

"We can when the King's girlfriend is the one being held hostage," Ben said simply. "You and Carlos brought the swords so it's not like I'll be going in with just my fists. Besides…if anything happened to Mal and I wasn't there to help…"

"I get it Ben," Lonnie said and walked over to rest a hand softly on his shoulder. "But you know Mal would be devastated if anything happened to you while she was held hostage."

"I'll look out for him Lon," Jay promised.

"No," Carlos shook his head. "I'll look out for him Jay. We all know your main focus is going to be Mal if anything happens and we end up fighting our way out of there. Was…was Lord Hades any help?"

Jay sighed. "He gave us a Godly version of EQ's mirror but that's about it. I think we're on our own."

"Well I mean, my mom was on her own when she faced off against Shan Yu and she faired pretty well," Lonnie said with a grin as she turned to look over at Jay. "As long as I'm not on a roof facing off against him or needing to run off of a roof with fireworks going off around me, I think I'll be good."

"That seems highly specific and also something you won't need to worry about," Jay told her. "Shan Yu and the Huns stick to their own territory and to the best of my knowledge they haven't made an alliance with the pirates."

"Well then let's go get Mal back!" Lonnie said, a grin threatening to split her face in two.

"You just want there to be a fight don't you?"

"Well I mean…that would just be a bonus."

Jay shook his head as Ben snorted lightly, the five of them making their way down the stairs along with their three headed companion.

"Hold up," Carlos said. "Should we be taking him? He can't exactly defend himself if one of the pirates attacks him."

"…he's a Cerberus," Jay said. "A symbol of Lord Hades'. The pirates are already in his bad books, I don't think they'd want to get further into them. Besides, Mal would want to see Estelle. Anyway something tells me Estelle wouldn't be too happy if we left him here alone."

A small yip came from said three headed dog, as if he was agreeing with Jay.

"Well there you have it," Ben sighed. "Let's go."

It was time to bring Mal home.