Chapter 9 – Revelations

-:-:-

"Did you hear the news?" Audrey asked out of the blue one day, interrupting Chad's reading time as she flopped down on the couch beside him, spreading out so that her head was nestled in his lap. "The VKs caught Jafar. Also, Jafar was missing."

"That's… good?" Chad said, pretending to process this news while his heart felt like it was trying hard to beat out of his chest. "I mean, it's not great that they lost him, but it's good that they found him now."

"Yeah, apparently it was a whole thing," Audrey hummed, staring at her phone while he pet his fingers through her hair, setting his book aside so she could have his full attention. "He switched himself out for a magic clone when the barrier fell and ran off to Agrabah to find some kind of mystic relic that would allow him to be a powerful sorcerer again. Only Jay figured it out, but get this." She pulled her phone away so she could stare up at Chad with wide eyes. "Lonnie tells me that apparently the whole reason the search was kicked off in the first place was because of this other Isle kid – Lance, did you see pictures of him? Ben danced with him twice at the ball – really made all the high society ladies clutch their pearls, and then he was the one that got attacked by paint with Doug during the Games parade procession..."

"I remember seeing posts about him," Chad allowed.

"Right," Audrey hummed. "Well apparently he parted ways with Uma's crew after the paint attack since hanging out with her made him more of a target instead of less of one, only get this." She sat up abruptly, turning so that she was curled close, allowing her to drop into a whisper despite them being the only people in the library. "Lonnie swore me to the utmost secrecy, and you are my exception as my boo, but like, apparently that was a memory planted in their brains. They think Jafar kidnapped him and then wiped their memories of the guy, so that's why they went crazy hunting Jafar down, only they finally get him, and there's no Lance to be found. Jafar doesn't know what they're talking about, spilling the usual villainous monologue as they transport him to his high-security cell, and now they're kind of going crazy over a guy they can't remember all that much in the first place."

She sat back with a grin of gossip well-shared. "Wild, right? I mean, obviously it is horrible because some poor Isle kid is missing, but that is soap opera level craziness right there."

"Wow," Chad said, struggling to think of an adequate response. "That is indeed crazy. And um- dedicated, to be that determined to search for someone who has been wiped from their memory."

"I know," Audrey sighed, looking off into the distance. "It's kind of romantic. Though it's weird, because I can't tell which one of them was crushing on him. They all seem kind of crazy, but Jay's especially upset. Lonnie left the impression that it wasn't because of his dad's interference, which means maybe he's the one crushing on Lance…"

She trailed off and Chad froze, because that thoughtful expression was the last thing he needed right now.

"You're acting weird," she declared suddenly, her eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Why are you acting weird?"

"I'm not!" Chad insisted. "I am- I am totally fine. If anything, I'm worried about that kid-"

"You know something!" Audrey declared, figuring it out as she lunged forward. "What do you know, Chad? Tell me your delicious secrets. I told you Lonnie's gossip."

"For which I am very grateful," Chad said, not even lying. It was a gift to know that Jafar had been apprehended, to know that Chad wouldn't have to worry about the Agraben cursing him a second time. "But really, it's… it's nothing."

"Why don't you want to tell me?" Audrey pressed. "Is it embarrassing?"

"No," Chad said. "Kind of? I mean, if I knew anything, which I don't-"

"Chad," Audrey interrupted in her do-not-mess-with-me tone. "Do you know where that Isle kid is?"

"Um… yes?" Chad admitted, knowing he was done. "But he's not an Isle kid."

Audrey stared at him.

He stared back.

And then it seemed to click.

"Holy shit," Audrey hissed, curling both hands into the collar of his shirt and dragging him forward. "Chad, were you Lance?"

Chad didn't say anything, choosing to let his head fall back with a defeated sigh and have that speak for itself.

"How?" Audrey burst, leaning forward. "He doesn't look like you!"

"I… might have been training myself to use Fairy Godmother's wand," Chad admitted. "Just- it was sitting there in Sardinia-"

"Chad," Audrey interrupted, her voice tinged with the utmost importance. "I need you to start from the beginning."

"Okay," Chad sighed, and then he did just that.

-:-:-

"So Uma was going to help you with your grandfather," Audrey said after Chad had given her his slightly amended story (the one that excluded time travel). "And the pirates all seemed attracted to you because they're in a polyamorous thing, and Ben's apparently in a polyamorous thing that wants their polyamorous thing, and that freaked you out so you wiped their memories and then ran away."

"Pretty much," Chad sighed, leaning into her hug before she decided he didn't deserve it anymore. "I know it was stupid. I was trying to be someone else when I should have just been myself, should have just come to you-"

"No, hey," Audrey interrupted, rubbing small circles on his bicep. "I hurt you. I understand you wanting a fresh start. You didn't mean for it to devolve into a comedy of errors."

"They weren't supposed to remember anything," Chad moaned. "They must have had too many pictures or something, or I didn't hide the spell well enough. They're so good at magic…" He trailed off with a groan. "And now they're looking for someone who doesn't exist."

"Yeah, that's not great," Audrey allowed. "So now what do you want to do?"

"Nothing, to be honest," Chad said. "I'm really happy with what we have. I never thought I'd get a family, and now I sort of do-"

"Not 'sort of'," Audrey interrupted. "You do, end of story."

Chad felt his cheeks heat up with a blush. "I do have a family and my grandfather's gone, Sardinia's taken care of – that's all I need, really."

"And you don't like them?" Audrey pressed. "Any of them?"

Chad cursed his newfound string of honesty with Audrey, because he knew his flush darkened, knew he could hide nothing. "It's a mess, Audrey," he said. "And not one I want to get involved in. I'm not leaving you behind, I'm not threatening this and before you say anything, I'm not settling with you, because you're amazing."

"But I'm amazing because you're finally being honest with me," Audrey said. "If you were honest with them-"

"Who knows what would happen," Chad said. "But I want this."

"Because it's safe," Audrey said. "Because you finally have parents."

"Because I like you," Chad countered. "Because you're strong and talented and determined for people to get their due. You're grace under pressure, and even though people have been saying awful things about you, you haven't stooped to their level. You're wonderful, and before I was doing everything in my power to keep you happy because I knew I wasn't good enough to be with you, but now I… I think I am, I think of us as equals, and I want to make the future a better place with you."

"Okay," Audrey said, some of the tension seeming to leave her shoulders. "But that doesn't change the fact that you have feelings for some of them."

"Audrey," Chad whined.

"You're not mad at me for loving Ben," Audrey pressed. "Or girls, so why would I be mad at you for caring for some of them?"

"Because it would be a mess," Chad said. "And not one I want to entertain. What we have is good."

"Well, we're going to have to figure out something for Lance," Audrey sighed. "Now that they know their memories have been tampered with, those assholes aren't going to stop looking until they find him."

"But they might suck me in again," Chad said. "It was so hard to leave last time. I basically had to duck out on Doug when he was all sad and covered in paint." Even now Chad felt bad about it. "If all of them were present, I'd be doomed."

"So, I dunno, just run into one of them," Audrey said. "One of the ones that aren't so good with magic. Like-"

"Don't say Jay," Chad groaned, burying his face in her shoulder.

"Well," Audrey said, stroking a hand through his curls. "His name rhymes with 'may'."

"I hate this," Chad whined, and Audrey's response was to give his head a few consoling pats.

-:-:-

The unfortunate truth of the matter was that Jay really was the weakest magic user among them. Chad scanned him with Fairy Godmother's wand just to be sure, and while the Agraben had certainly improved since the last time Chad had seen him, he still wasn't great compared to the ladies of the group. He was also the most emotionally vulnerable, which meant he would make the most mistakes, would beat himself up the most, and would generally be the best target to approach when alone.

Which was what had Chad cornering the Agraben during his nightly run of Auradon City, Jay working off the extra energy he seemed to have acquired over the past few days since his father's successful recapture.

"Hey," Chad said from his comfortable spot in the shadows, catching Jay just as he made his usual stop at the ocean lookout near the pirates' former apartment. They had since moved into the suite the others had made for them at Auradon Castle. "You guys can stop looking for me now."

Jay did a double take, looking sort of ragged in his sweaty workout clothes and messy hair. "Lance?" he said, squinting at Chad's mask-less enchanted face. "Is that- how did you get out?"

"He had me stashed in a warehouse somewhere," Chad said, making a vague gesture with his hand. "The magic faded when you took him into custody, I got myself out from there."

"I'm so sorry," Jay gushed, pressing forward and stopping when Chad moved back to keep space between them. "I didn't- we don't remember what happened. Whatever he used was too advanced to be undone-"

"That's okay," Chad said. "Seriously, I think I'm good not being friends with you guys."

Jay's expression fell. "But we could start over," he said. "We want to start over."

"No offense, but your dad just took me hostage for um-" He looked at his broken watch. "-a while. I'm good, man. You guys- it's intense, and I'm happy for you, but I don't need it, and I really don't want to start over, so um- I'm just gonna go back to doing what I was doing before."

"Which was…?" Jay tried to fish, but in like, the clumsiest way possible.

"My own thing," Chad said. "So I'm going now, but could you please call off all the search parties? It's making it hard to get around without people bothering me."

"This isn't right," Jay said. "You should let me make it up to you. We need your statement-"

"He's already arrested," Chad waved him off. "What are you going to do, arrest him again?" Chad shrugged. "It's over, Jay. We had… fun, I guess, but you don't remember me, and what we had wasn't really worth remembering anyway."

With that he turned to leave, offering the Agraben a small wave. "Give the others my best, if you could."

"S-Sorry," Jay said, sounding absolutely shaken, partially wrecked, but-

But he didn't remember why, so it was more like a conceptual wrecking. It would get better in time.

"Wasn't your fault, Jay," Chad called over his shoulder, and then he was gone, sliding on his cheap sunglasses as he headed off towards the bus station, committing to his cover as an Isle refugee.

-:-:-

Chad took a page out of Jafar's book and created a magic duplicate to finish the rest of his bus route. If the VKs bothered to follow him, they would find his clone traveling far north until he reached Arendelle, where he would disappear off the map altogether, heading up towards the Enchanted Forest, one of the few areas free of technology. They couldn't catch him up on cameras there, and he could be believably lost in the wilds.

It was the best destination he and Audrey could come up with, seeing as the borders to Neverland and Wonderland were so heavily guarded.

"And thus ends the tale of Lance," Chad said solemnly, the two of them burning the clothes he had used for his Jay confrontation.

"May this mark a new chapter in our lives," Audrey offered, and then she kissed him on the cheek, grounding him when he felt so especially shaky, and if that wasn't a bright future, he didn't know what was.

-:-:-

Chad wasn't looking forward to going back to school.

Which seemed a bit unfair to Audrey, if he was being honest.

Before, he'd been excited by the prospect of attending school with his partners, of sharing a room with Doug and having people to study with and Jay to make eyes at during Tourney practice. People had known about his grandfather's arrest, but with his literal hoard of partners, it hadn't been as intimidating to face the reevaluations of his peers.

Now Chad was just down to Audrey, and granted, she was down to just him as well, but it made the prospect of school worrying. He didn't have to be Chad Charming anymore, he could just be himself, but now the majority of his classmates' parents were intimately familiar with the abuse his grandfather had exposed him to, and had prodded their children to adjust their behavior around Chad accordingly.

Chad knew this because his first day back, Aziz was pointedly normal, passing small talk and sharing stories of his summer vacation with a casual comradery he'd never shared with Chad before.

"Did your parents tell you to be nice to me?" Chad asked in a lull between the other teen's stories, unable to keep himself silent anymore.

Aziz froze, and then a pained smile tugged at his lips. "That obvious, huh?"

"We don't usually talk like this," Chad prompted with a quirk of his brows.

"To be fair, you usually act like a vapid asshole," Lonnie offered from Chad's other side. "But you're not doing that anymore, which is pretty cool."

"I don't have to anymore," Chad explained with a shrug. "So I don't."

Lonnie perked up. "What, your grandpa made you act that way?"

"He had certain expectations of me," Chad said. "To be good but not better, to be engaging but not… great." He shrugged again. "It was hard to maintain a balance that kept him satisfied."

"That in itself is a level of articulation I never expected from you," Lonnie admitted bluntly, making Aziz wince. "Is it true that you've been helping run Sardinia since you were twelve? They didn't just make that up to keep your kingdom from rioting?"

Chad felt himself blush at the implication, wondering how many other people thought Duke Adam was lying just to save Sardinia some face.

"It's true," he admitted. "I'd been reading up on how Sardinian policies worked in my free time and noticed some discrepancies. I started trying fixing things on the downlow, since I was afraid they wouldn't listen to me since I was young-" And also because he'd been mostly ignored for the majority of his life up to that point. "-and realized my grandfather had a great deal more power than he should, and that he wasn't using it to benefit Sardinia like he should be."

"Wow." Lonnie blinked, slowly taking that in. "That is wild."

"But mostly awful," Aziz reminded her.

"Right," Lonnie said, latching onto the prompt before she deftly decided to change the subject. "So apparently that Lance kid reappeared long enough to tell Jay to fuck off before he peaced out into the Enchanted Forest."

"Holy hell," Aziz muttered, letting his head thump against his desk. "It is a hoard of drama queens. If that doesn't mark them as soulmates, I don't know what does."

Did everyone know about Ben's polyamorous thing? Was it just an open secret? Chad had thought they were keeping it under wraps before.

And yet, somehow, they'd known.

"You didn't hear it from me, but they're taking turns looking for him up there," Lonnie murmured, her grin victorious. "Which is pretty dedicated, considering the fact that they can't remember him."

"But everyone else does," Aziz grumbled. "We could all see the fucking goo-goo eyes. It's fucked up that Jafar messed with their memories."

"If anything, I think that made them more devoted to him," Lonnie said, as though intentionally mocking Chad.

It seemed like everything he did only made things worse.

Whatever, Chad was done now. He'd given Lance an exit and he was not going back to that mess. He was avoiding the others and their baggage and their problems, and that would be that.

-:-:-

And then Chad came upon a moping Gil.

It wasn't intentional. He'd taken to dodging Ben and his questions and Ben and his loves to the best of his ability, taking obscure paths to his classes and keeping his head down. Now more than ever was he glad to have dropped Tourney, because that kept him from unnecessary exposure to Ben, Carlos, Jay, and now Gil and Harry, half of whom Chad was used to blatantly ogling from habit alone. As it was, Chad struggled not to autopilot his way to their lunch table. He had to force himself to go to Audrey, and while he'd been afraid they would be alone due to their chaotic summer adventures, the other young royals seemed to have closed ranks. Ruby sat with them, always prepared to give Chad an update on his father. Aziz and Lonnie were there, as well as Malvin from DonBroch and Melody from Westerly. Kids whose parents had been a part of the emergency meeting when addressing the issue of Chad's grandfather, and even if it was out of obligation, Chad would take it. At least they were mostly nice about it, and didn't seem to expect Chad and Audrey to be assholes to them.

"I can't believe you," Mal had muttered the one time she had accidentally stumbled upon Chad at his locker, the queen-to-be obviously running late as the halls were mostly empty. "You're still hanging out with Audrey even though she treats you like shit."

"Treated me like shit," Chad corrected, falling into an icy mask. "And she only did that because she was possessed. She wouldn't and hasn't ever done anything like that willingly."

"She pledged herself to Ben," Mal pressed, annoyance clear on her features, though it was an annoyance Chad suspected had little to do with him. She was lashing out at what seemed to be an acceptable target because she had nowhere else to funnel the rest of her anger.

In diplomatic terms, it was a faux pas worthy of being reported since as far as Mal knew, they were not friends, and Chad had just been revealed to be the victim of long-term abuse. Fortunately for Mal, Chad was still very much devoted to her, as little as he wanted to interact with her on a regular basis, so it wasn't like he was going to tell anyone.

"She loves him," Chad said, seeing no reason to deny this fact when the rest of the kingdom already knew it. "I'm not mad at her for that, Ben's a good guy. She loves me too, but I never hurt her as thoroughly as Ben, so the scepter didn't focus on me."

Mal made a face, clearly unhappy with the course the conversation was taking. "When the fuck did you get smart?"

"I've always been smart," Chad said, shrugging. "I just wasn't allowed to act like it."

"Because of your asshole grandpa." Mal's gaze narrowed in thought as she processed this.

"Pretty much," Chad said, shutting his locker.

Mal cleared her throat. "When you left to be her henchman-"

"I had hoped to talk her down," Chad explained, sliding his textbook into his satchel before curling his fingers around the leather strap of the bag. "We can both see how well that went."

Mal paused a moment, seeming swamped with indecision. "You did your best. Just- dark magic, it's strong."

Chad knew, was the thing. Knew because Duke Adam had pulled him into Audrey's room at her parents' request during a lull when they'd managed to talk Ben and the others away. They'd herded Chad into that pink and blue museum and asked him to kiss their daughter awake, to dote on her with true love, when the only thing Chad had in his bones was fear and exhaustion and pain.

He'd kissed Audrey because they'd asked him to, but she hadn't woken up.

He might have had a breakdown over it. Duchess Belle had to pull him from the room, guided him into another lounge so he could cry himself out, the former queen murmuring about how all curses worked differently, as though Chad had missed the devastated looks on the faces of Audrey's parents.

"Thanks, Mal," Chad said, adjusting his bag on his shoulder. "I appreciate that."

"Fuck, man," Mal huffed, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "I'm just being decent. Fuck."

With that, she left him, and even though Chad was slightly late for class, the interaction wasn't as horrible as he thought it would be. Still, that one point of contact did not prepare Chad for the sight of Gil sitting alone in a remote area of Auradon Prep's gardens, slumped under the shade of a willow tree Chad and Audrey liked to retreat to when they needed fresh air but still wanted to be away from the rest of the world.

Audrey pulled to a stop a moment after Chad caught sight of the second mate, the two of them having prepared for a lazy afternoon of sketching. "It that…?"

"Gil," Chad said, looking around to see if any of the blond's crewmates were about. "And not one of his partners in sight."

"Should we go?" Audrey's fingers twined through Chad's own.

"We should," Chad said, and then pointedly did not move.

He hated this. He cared for Gil, just like he cared for the others, and while it pained Chad to see them hurt, there was something especially crippling about Gil's sorrow. He was too kind to suffer, not when he'd already been put through so much.

"You want to help him?" Audrey prompted, her voice soft. "We could just see how things are going."

"Okay," Chad said, taking the generosity for what it was. "If you don't mind."

"I don't," Audrey hummed, and then she was tugging them forward, until the two of them were close enough to talk without being imposing. "Hey," Audrey said, getting Gil's attention with a jolt. The second mate wasn't crying, but he seemed close to it, and he stared at them with wide eyes. "Are you alright?"

"Um- yep," Gil sniffed, rubbing hastily at his cheeks. "I'm really great, miss princess, mister prince. I'm awesome."

"Um." Chad's throat felt thick, his tongue clumsy. "It would be okay if you weren't."

"But I'm fine!" Gil chirped, trying hard to convince himself of this very fact. "I've got everything I could want! I finally have Harry and Uma, and um- I also- wait, that's a secret, but I have it and it's good and more than I deserve and this is- I'm fine, this is fine." His face crumbled at the end of it, the moisture in his eyes building like a relentless thing. "I'm fine."

"Gil," Chad said, found himself moving forward before he could help it, falling to his knees so he could fumble for the second mate's hands. "It is okay to have all those things and also be sad. That would not make you ungrateful. Just- what's wrong?"

"I'm dumb," Gil croaked, unable to hold back anymore. "I've never had to do this school stuff before, and on top of all that we're still worried about Lance and I don't want to bother the others because maybe they won't like me anymore-"

"That could never happen," Audrey assured him, gracefully settling next to the blond on his stone bench and laying a comforting hand on his shoulder. "They like you just as you are, even I know that and I've seen you guys interact for like, ten minutes tops. They'll care about you no matter what, and I'm sure they'd want to know if you were hurting."

"But I don't want to bother them," Gil sniffed. "We just got Harry onboard, and everyone's dealing with the refugee paperwork and Lance and stuff, and I just- none of them are struggling."

"You've never had to do this before," Chad said, his voice gentle. "It's okay to not instantly be good at something that's never been required of you before. And just because they're doing fine doesn't mean they would think less of you."

"Just- I can't seem to do anything," Gil admitted. "I can barely read my homework."

"Then maybe you need a tutor," Audrey said. "Have you tried signing up for one?"

"I don't know what that is," Gil admitted with a croak.

Audrey gave him another few pats, blinking when he leaned into her contact. "Well, that seems like a good place to start, I guess," she said, and then thoughts of their lazy afternoon were abandoned so they could be productive.

Such was the way of things, though, and Chad was relieved that Audrey seemed to take the adjustment in stride. That was his girlfriend, his equal, and one day he was going to change the world with her.

And be very lucky when he did it.

-:-:-

Endnotes:

Even the coldest hearts are no match for the might of Gil! And everyone was totally shocked by this ;)

This is it, team, the last update of 2021. Thank you all for the continued support and feedback! I still have a handful of fics to come, and I hope we all have another awesome year in the Descendants' community ^_^

Story notes:

Lonnie with all the priorities in the world, ladies and gentlemen. It's a good thing she keeps Aziz close by ;)

Malvin is an original character I made up to round off the Auradon heirs. Melody is from The Little Mermaid 2.

Until next time :D