Chapter Eleven

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

*peeks out around corner* So…apologies for that cliff hanger! It just so happened that that was a good spot to stop for that chapter, though I'm still sorry. I didn't mean for it to be a cliffie :D

We're coming up to the end of this story, I want to say maybe four more chapters? Though depending on how it wraps up, there could always be more. I am aiming for fifteen to be the max in terms of the number of chapters.

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

The world seemed to freeze as everyone stared at the Cove where Mal's body had submerged.

"Mal!" Hadie exclaimed, being the first to break the silence, and ran to dive into water after his sister. Only the arms of his mother were enough to hold him back from jumping in. "Mom, let me go! Mal needs us!"

Persephone bit her lip, knowing that was true. However, she couldn't in good conscious let her son get involved. Especially since he was supposed to be at home and not here at the docks, thank you!

Thankfully, Ben had no parents to hold him back from jumping into the water to rescue his girlfriend. Tugging off his beanie, he handed it to Jay and handed the fake wand to someone before diving in after Mal. In the back of his mind, he thought he heard another splash but thought nothing of it. It was likely just Jay or Carlos, or even Lonnie jumping in after him.

His eyes widened as he saw it wasn't of the aforementioned friends or even Evie though Ben wasn't sure if Evie could swim. But instead, the King of Auradon found himself looking at the pirate who'd not five minutes ago had been holding Mal hostage.

Don't worry about that, he thought as he focused back on Mal. Thankfully, she was still struggling which meant she was still alive. The question Ben had in the back of his mind was how much longer she was going to be alive.

Granted, she was the daughter of a God and a Fae—though water generally didn't care about someone's genetic lineage.

What is he doing? Ben thought as out of the corner of his eye, he saw Hook take a dagger out of his boot. The question soon answered itself as the raven haired pirate began to saw away at the ropes binding Mal's feet together.

Right, that makes sense. Even if Mal can't swim, she can at least kick herself to the surface and then Jay can get her out of here, Ben thought to himself with a nod as he wrapped his arms around her waist.

He was the stronger swimmer of the two of them, and even if Mal could kick to the surface, she'd been under too long. Or at least, Ben wasn't exactly interesting in seeing if she could stay under for much longer.

A tap on his leg with the cold hook brought his attention back and Ben saw Hook nod once; the fragments of rope floating down to the bottom of the cove. Ben didn't need any other explanation than that. Mal's feet were free; it was time to get her out of there.

"For Gods' sake, Mal!" Hades exclaimed as they broke the surface, the God reaching out to pull Mal out of the Cove. Jay quickly rushed to Ben's side to help him out of the water while Uma did the same with her First Mate. "I thought I told you to stay away from the docks years ago?"

Mal didn't answer right away, but could only cough as Jay knelt down next to her to cut the binds around her hands.

"I didn't exactly have a choice this time," she said when she got a moment, glaring over at Hades before switching her glare over to Uma. "Thanks to certain squidlings."

Hades also turned to glare at Uma, Persephone rushing over to kneel by Mal as well to make sure she hadn't gotten injured. Estelle even joined the party, licking Mal's cheek to comfort her.

"Steph, I'm fine," Mal muttered.

"Uh huh," Persephone said, clearly not believing her step-daughter. "You've been 'fine' for six months Mali, it's okay to not be fine."

"Not on the Isle it's not."

"Well something tells me that you won't be on the Isle for long."

"You know, I actually thought that you would be the last person to hurt her," Hades' low voice brought both Mal and Persephone's attention back to the confrontation that was going on.

"Please, you think I planned for her to fall in there?" Uma scoffed. She couldn't admit in front of her crew that there was no way she could actually hurt Mal.

Harry had asked her not to—and Uma knew there was a small part of Harry that longed for the old days where it was the four of them. Her, Harry, Mal, and Jay. Why else would Harry have had a flirtationship with Mal when they were thirteen?

"You brought her to Pirate's Cove, Uma! You had Hook Jr. there dangle her over the plank—or at least he would have if Estelle hadn't blocked him!" Jay exclaimed as Ben wrapped his arms around Mal.

"I wouldn't have let her fall in! I was holding on to her, if Mal hadn't started squirming, she wouldn't have fallen in!" Harry shot back.

Mal glared at him. "You honestly think I'd let Ben give up Fairy Godmother's wand and risk his kingdom?"

"You are worth more than my kingdom," Ben muttered to her.

"Furthermore Jay, who was the one diving in after her? Again?" Harry shouted, glaring at Jay. "You'd think all that time in Boreadon, you'd learn how to swim!"

Jay lunged forward but was held back by Lonnie and Carlos.

"Not worth it," Carlos muttered. "We've got Mal, let's get back before someone other than Doug and Chad realizes we're missing."

"Doug already knew about this though," Lonnie pointed out. "And Chad's a moron."

"Both excellent points."

"Ben dove in after her!" Jay growled, ignoring the conversation going on between Lonnie and Carlos. "Just because you've got a guilty conscience Hook doesn't change the fact that you held her hostage around water!"

"Jay, enough," Mal ordered as she stood up. "Let's just get out of here."

"Okay Mal, we've got the car waiting," Ben told her and Mal nodded.

Uma sighed and looked over at her First Mate. "Harry, storage room. Get out of those wet clothes before you're sneezing all over the crew."

If anyone noticed that the order didn't have the usual heat to it, none of the crew commented on it.

Harry nodded. "Aye cap'n," he said softly before turning and storming off; shoving Gil out of the way and snapping at other crew members who dared to look at him funny.

"But…Uma, we've got the wand…" Gil said. Ben had handed him the wand in his haste to get Mal out of the Cove. Not exactly something he probably had meant to do.

Uma nodded as she glanced over at Jay, Mal, and the others who were slowly making their way off the docks. Meeting Mal's eyes, Uma gritted her teeth and pointed the wand to the barrier.

"By the power of the sea, shut it down and set us free!"

"And I'll take that young lady before you cause any more trouble," Hades said, his voice firm as he pulled the wand from her. No one noticed that the wand failed to bring down the barrier. Nor did they notice that the Auradon Six had practically run out of the pipe as soon as Uma had started to cast her spell.

Much to Lonnie's disappointment of course but even she could admit that it'd be better to not risk Mal going into the Cove once more.

However, after a minute, Uma couldn't help but notice a definite lack of barrier demolishing. "Jay! You two bit scarf stealer! You gave me a fake!"

"You thought we'd be stupid enough to give you the real wand?" Jay called back, standing back to make sure that everyone else got out safely—Lonnie being the only one to stand by his side. "You never said our deal had to include the real wand, Uma, just that I get you Fairy Godmother's wand. You now have Fairy Godmother's wand!"

Uma snarled and turned to her crew. "What are you all standing around for? Get them!"

Jay had broken his end of the deal, there was no reason why she should uphold her end.

"Uh uh," Persephone said as she stood up; Jay and Lonnie taking the opportunity to scurry out of the pipe. "You might want to rethink that."

"Or what?" Uma asked, whirling around to look at her aunt.

Persephone smirked slightly and her hand glowed slightly, causing more tendrils of seaweed to rise up and pin some more of the crew to the dock or the deck.

"Does that answer your question?"

Uma growled. "Uncle Hades knows the importance of keeping your end of the deal and Jay broke his! He was supposed to get me the wand, not a fake wand!"

"Uh huh," Hades said, his voice flat. "I think you threw all chances to be the injured party here when you kidnapped Mal. There was a time when you wouldn't have even thought to use Mal as leverage. You would have had a sword at the throat of anyone who tried. You and that Hook boy, though it seems that he still remembers his loyalty."

Uma glanced at her crew and the unpinned ones quickly scurried off to make themselves busy at a place that wasn't there while the pinned ones tried to make it clear that they weren't listening to the conversation.

"…it's not my fault…Jay hasn't even told her…" Uma muttered.

"And why should Jay be the one to tell Mal anything?"

"Because she'll listen to him!"

"After what you just pulled, do you think he's likely to tell her? You're grounded. No sparring for two weeks."

Uma stared at her uncle with her jaw dropped. "You can't ground me Uncle Hades! And why do you even care about what happens to Mal? She was just your errand rat!"

Hades couldn't help but stare at Uma. "You really don't know? Mal said she'd tell you."

"Tell me what? In case you haven't noticed, Mal and I haven't talked since she dumped rotting shrimp tails on me and the crew split," Uma muttered.

"Yeah, what's Mal supposed to tell Uma?" Hadie asked as he looked at his father.

"Aren't you supposed to be back in the Underworld?"

"…no?"

Hades raised an eyebrow. "Nice try. I may not be able to ground Uma but I can ground you. Two weeks."

"Dad!"

Persephone sighed. "Hades, you know this is Mal's business. She might not like it if you tell Uma."

"Considering she glared at me like I was Zeus, I don't think she'd care either way," Hades told her.

"Tell Uma what?" Uma asked, looking between her Aunt and Uncle.

Hades sighed. "…why wouldn't I care about my daughter, Uma?"

"Wha—?"

"That's right. You just kidnapped your cousin."

Uma stared at him for a second before shaking her head. "Nice one Uncle Hades but Mal would have told me if we were cousins. There's no way she wouldn't have told me something like that."

"Yeah, okay," Hades said. "But ask yourself this. Would I lie about that?"

"We're villains. Lying's second nature," Uma muttered.

"Not about family. It's the only thing we've got on the Isle after all," Hades said firmly as Persephone rested a hand on his shoulder.

Uma shook her head, staring in the direction Mal had gone in shock. Her cousin…why hadn't Mal said anything?

Why hadn't she known? They'd been best friends, co-captains for four years. That should have been something she should have told her.

Though…if Mal had found out after the split, it'd explain why she never told Uma. Why would you tell a secret to someone who'd become your enemy?

"Look Uncle Hades…I just wanted to get the wand to get these kids off this hellscape of a rock," Uma said, her voice soft. The crew wasn't listening, or at least the pinned ones knew better than to listen in at any rate. "Mal was meant to be returned unharmed…"

"And you thought kidnapping the girlfriend of the King would be the way to get kids off the Isle?" Hades asked. "Uma, Beastie Jr. for all his faults does seem to want to get kids off the Isle."

"Really? Cause it's been six months since the last group and no one's left. He's been busy with his kingdom wide tour to make him and Mal look good," Uma scoffed.

Hades shook his head. "Did the guy who jumped into the Cove for his girlfriend seem like the type to do something just for attention? Hook Jr. was already going after Mal, Beastie Jr. didn't have to jump in but he did. Because it's…it's clear to anyone that all he wanted was for Mal to be alright. Something you used to want too."

Uma couldn't help but sigh, though she tried to keep it as soft as possible. What had she done? With this…there was no chance now of the original crew reuniting and once Harry realized that…would she lose her First Mate on top of having already lost her cousin and one of her best friends?