Chapter One: Once Upon a Time
Once upon a time, long long ago...well, more like twenty years ago, an evil fairy married a god in front of five of their closest friends and family (small cake). Instead of a honeymoon, the pair took over kingdom after kingdom, uniting them all under one evil banner, the Unforgiving States of Auradon. They rounded up all the heroes and the do gooders (basically all the nice people) and they booted them to the Isle of the Forgotten with a magical barrier to keep them there.
This is my home. No magic. No wifi. No way out.
Or so I thought…
Mal stood on a podium as Pain and Panic ran around her ankles, hemming the half done purple dress she was wearing. Her purple hair hung down to tickle her shoulders and her black nails were impatiently twitching. Outside the window was the Isle of the Forgotten. The name was intentional, it was meant to be forgotten. But more than ever, the glittering green dome was pulling her eye.
"How is it possible that you're going to be crowned queen next month?" a high pitch laugh asked. Mal turned her attention to her room where her parents were approaching her. The dark Maleficent, her black regal dress trailing after her, a gold diadem dangling from her dark horns decorated with emeralds. "You're just a baby."
The figure on her side rolled his eyes.
Hades was dressed in a stylish black suit, his flaming hair growing and shrinking with his mood, a pulsing blue stone dangling from a chain around his neck. A golden crown sat upon his head, decorated with sapphires.
"She's turning sixteen," he reminded his wife.
"Hello Mother," Mal sighed, fighting the urge to roll her eyes like her father.
"Sixteen!" Maleficent exclaimed, spinning her staff in her hands. "That's far too young to be crowned queen. Now I, on the other hand, was remarkably mature for my age. But you Mal, probably won't make a good decision till you're at least forty-two."
"You decided to marry me at twenty-eight, remember?" Hades asked, flipping through Mal's open sketch book.
"Exactly my point!" The love from the god and fairy's marriage had left long ago.
"Mother, Dad." Mal went to step forward but Panic shook his head wildly. She rolled her eyes, stepping back, letting him continue pinning her dress. "I've chosen my first official proclamation."
Maleficent raised a dark eyebrow, doubtful, while Hades smirked at his daughter.
"I've decided that the children on the Isle of the Forgotten should be given a chance to live here in Auradon."
Mal's sketchbook slipped from Hades' fingers onto the floor while Maleficent struggled to close her hanging jaw.
"Everytime I look out to the island I feel like they could be so much more!" Mal insisted, stepping off the dais much to Pain and Panic's annoyance.
"The children of our sworn enemies," Maleficent breathed. "Living among us?"
"We start out with a few at first," Mal explained. "The ones with the most potential. I've already chosen them."
"Have you?" Maleficent drawled, stepping forward, eyes sparking.
"Hear her out," Hades muttered, pulling his wife back. "Who are their parents?"
"Cinderella and Prince Charming. Fairy Godmother. Belle and the Beast." Mal paused, knowing this wasn't going to end well. "And Aurora and Phillip."
Pain and Panic gasped, falling over.
"Aurora!?" Maleficent roared. "She was the most heinous princess in the land!"
"Mom, just hear me out!" Mal protested.
But Maleficent raised her glowing staff and Pain and Panic scurried from the room, the door slamming behind them. "I won't hear anymore! They nearly ruined us and we forged our land despite their attacks!"
"Mom, their children are innocent and full of evil potential. But they can't unlock it over there!" Mal shouted back, her eyes flaring up bright green. "Think how much they'll suffer when their children turn to evil."
Maleficent paused in her anger. "Aurora would be livid." She turned to her daughter and gave her a curt nod before sweeping from the room, screaming at her servants.
Hades walked up to his daughter and gave her a quick side hug. "Good job," he muttered into her ear before following his wife.
Mal smirked as she turned back to the window and the isle itself. Things were about to change.
Ben, son of Beauty and the Beast, walked through his home smiling with every step. He was average height, a bit skinny due to lack of food with golden brown hair like his mother. He wore a blue blazer with an embroidered beast head on the pocket and matching blue pants. But if one looked close they could see his fraying cuffs, the soles peeling from his shoes, and the fine layer of grime that covered everything on the Isle.
He shook hands with shopkeepers, dropped a few coins in the tins of the homeless, and helped a little boy get his cat from a fire escape. The Isle of the Forgotten was a dingy place, overrun with rats and devoid of color, streets lined with falling apart buildings and stoked with moldy rotting food. It was easy to lose hope but, as the unofficial King Adam reminded them, it was important to keep smiling. Good had won before and they could win again.
One day.
Ben spent his days doing as much as he could to help others of the Isle, along with his friends. Jane, a mousy girl who dressed only in formless pale gingham dresses and torn ribbon bows in her hair, helped run the school her mother had instituted once the children had reached school age. Fairy Godmother believed that if the next generation had any hope, they needed a good education. Jane practically lived in the library as her mother found more and more for her to learn.
They met up with Audrey who was trying to maintain a standard of beauty around the Isle. She helped her grandmother make paints and pigments and was kept busy sewing new ensembles to wear, though most were pink. Her face was always made up and her nails even sparkled sometimes. But like all of them, her clothing was fraying and her hair was never quite clean. But her grandmother said she was a princess and needed to look like it at all times so she made due.
Chad was the last of their friends that they found, a boy with curling blond locks and a crooked tooth smile. He was the busiest of them all. Cinderella, having learned how long one might have to wait for happiness, busied her son's time with cooking, cleaning, and helping nearly every person on the Isle. He was even given second hand clothing, threadbare brown pants and a shirt with more holes and stains then one could count. Chad didn't get a free moment until he had ensured there was nothing more he needed to do for others.
They wandered the allies of the Isle, together, showing that hope was not gone for Good. Though they wore ratty clothing with stains and rips, they still shown bright. When they passed a mother pulling her child along in a wagon, Ben paused and pulled a brown lollipop from his pocket for the child.
"Giving out candy, Ben?" a voice asked. The four turned to see Belle and Adam walking towards them, arm in arm. Both still looked regal, but they had clearly fallen on hard times. Belle's yellow dresses were faded in color and her hair was tied back in a messy bun. Adam wore a suit that had holes in the elbows and patched pants by his wife.
"It was to a baby," he replied.
"Candy rots teeth, you should really give them some vegetables," Adam chided. Belle pulled out a bruised apple, passing it to one of the many homeless people on the streets.
"It's the details, Ben, that make the difference between nice and truly good!" Belle reminded him as the person thanked her profusely.
Adam pulled his son aside, his grip tightening on his son's arm. "You see, Ben, we're just trying to teach you the things that really count. How to be King."
Ben watched his father, waiting for more, but he was seemingly lost in memories and recollection. "I know that. And I'll do better."
"There's news," Adam announced, turning away from his son, drawing the attention of crowds around them. "You four have been chosen to attend a different school. In Auradon."
Chaos ensued. Audrey fainted into Chad's arms who was trembling. Jane's scream turned into a squeak of terror while citizens of the Isle either cheered or shuddered.
"What?" Ben asked in shock. "But that's...a boarding school with evil villains.
"And beautiful dresses," Audrey sighed as she came to. Belle cast her a look and she immediately bowed her head, blushing.
"And I don't do uniforms," Chad laughed. "Not unless they're powder blue. Brings out my eyes."
"I read somewhere that Lady Tremaine is the headmistress there," Jane added in a shaky voice. "Mom said she's a witch who punishes girls who don't behave."
"I don't think we can go," Ben tried to tell his parents in his most diplomatic voice.
"Oh, you're thinking small, son!" Adam chided, patting his son's head like he was a child. "It's all about the greater good! Come!"
Adam dragged his son into their crumbling manor home, his friends and mother trailing at their heels.
"You will go, you will find Maleficent or her daughter, and you will bring back Prince Phillip's sword," Adam instructed the children, passing on the platform where a rotting overstuffed chair sat in the only hospitable room of the manor. It was crumbly and dirty, no matter how Belle cleaned, but it was the only place they could host Audrey, her parents and grandmother, Jane and her mother, and Chad and his parents.
"It was enchanted by the three good fairies and will be able to break the magic barrier," Phillip promised. He stood next to his wife, both of them in simple rag-like clothing. Despite Queen Leah wanting to maintain their royal appearance both knew there were others who needed clothing more than they.
"And Jane, you and Audrey will find my magic wand," Fairy Godmother told her daughter, brushing her hair off her shoulder. Her blue cloak hung off her, the hem littered with rat eaten holes, its pink flopping bow hanging lopsided off her chest. Her hair had turned grey during exile without magic and more than a few wrinkles lined her face. "That way once we're free, I will be able to send the villains away from the land of Auradon and good will finally triumph."
"What about us? What if the villains stop us?" Ben asked, watching Jane's trembling hands and Chad's wide eyes.
"Tell me son, do you enjoy watching innocent people suffer?" Adam demanded, leaning over the railing to glare.
"Of course not."
"Then get the sword!" Adam bellowed, causing everyone to flinch.
Belle placed her hand on her husband's arm, calming him. "Ben, if you get the sword, we can finally stop evil in the land of Auradon and succeed. We can save everyone. For the greater good."
"You have to do this, Ben," Adam grumbled. "For all the world."
"For all the world," Ben sighed. "Okay. We'll do it."
"Audrey!" Grammie called from the back of the dingy room, summoning her granddaughter to sit next to her at a folding card table functioning as a banquet table. The pink princess in a torn lace dress and rusted tiara swayed elegantly back to her regal grandmother who wore a smart dress she'd assembled from the leftovers sent over in a shade of pale pink, a rusted piece of wire with painted rocks and twisted together serving as her crown. "After all this we'll find you a prince and a castle, with enough room for all of us."
Audrey sighed with a giggle only for Grammie to snap at her. "No laughing! Wrinkles, my dear, wrinkles."
"Well they're not taking my Chad, because I'd miss him too much," Cinderella simpered, squeezing her son's cheeks. She looked practically identical to the way she did when she'd been a servant for her stepmother, rags and cinders, just a few more laugh lines around her eyes. Standing next to her was her prince, in matching rags in solidarity with his wife, his brown hair starting to show lines of grey.
"Really, Mom?" Chad asked.
"Of course! Who else would help me in the soup kitchen and mend the street kids' clothing and clean the alleyways and bake pies for the old ladies?" she exclaimed.
"Maybe a new school wouldn't be the worst thing," he muttered, face falling.
"Chad, Lady Tremaine is the headmistress of that school," she reminded him, which caused him to pale at least three shades.
"Oh no, I'm not going!" he called to the others.
"Well, Jane's going!" Fairy Godmother declared bravely, patting her daughter's hand. Jane was staring determidley, forward, as if blocking out the discussion around her. "This is our chance, and we're taking it."
"Audrey's not going anywhere until we get rid of this unibrow," Grammie murmured, pulling tweezers out of her giant bag. Audrey's face turned scarlet and she hesitantly touched her brow.
"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU ALL?" Adam roared. Belle stepped back, realizing this was one time she could not calm her husband. "WE USED TO BE AN INSPIRATION TO THE PEOPLE!"
Jane stepped behind her mother, finally hearing the conversation around her. Audrey flinched as her grandmother plucked her brow and Ben seemed to shrink at his father's rage.
"FOR TWENTY YEARS I HAVE SEARCHED FOR A WAY OFF THIS ISLAND! FOR TWENTY YEARS THEY HAVE HELD US AND OUR PEOPLE CAPTIVE UNDER EVIL'S TYRANNY!
"Lady Tremaine and her awful daughters have made a home in your castle, Charming, and, Cinderella, turned your father's old manor home into a school of evil!"
Cinderella let out a tiny sob as her husband held her. Fairy Godmother's normally kind eyes sharpened.
"Maleficent has taken over your home and now rules all the kingdoms under her evil will."
Aurora paled while Grammie angrily tugged at her granddaughter's brow. Phillip looked like he wanted to hit something.
"And Gaston is sitting in my home with his brood of children, turning my family's good legacy into a mockery!
"My friends!"
They all looked to Adam like a leader. Like a king. Ben was stunned at the way his father could stir a room into following him.
"Our day has come!"
"Now, Jane," Fairy Godmother turned to her daughter and handed her a silver leather book that was peeling on the spine. "This is my spellbook. The spells won't be as potent without the wand and they don't work here, but they will in Auradon.
"Remember?" she asked the group, smiling at Cinderella and her prince. "When we were spreading goodness and making dreams come true?"
"Like it was yesterday," Cinderella replied, stroking her wedding band.
"And now," Fairy Godmother handed Jane the book. "You will be making your own memories of heroic bravery."
Jane held the book like it was a bomb and looked like she was going to throw up. Chad thought to himself she looked very un-ready for heroic deeds.
Car horns suddenly honked and everyone suddenly became excited. Audrey gasped, beaming, standing up from her still plucking Grammie.
"Guess it's time," Chad laughed nervously as his mother smoothed out his hair.
"Who's the best princess?" Grammie asked Audrey.
"Me," she giggled sweetly.
"Excellent! Let's go."
"What's our mantra, Chad?" Cinderella asked her son, licking her finger and pasting down his eyebrows.
"Others first. Always," he recited, ducking out of his mother's grip. But she didn't notice as she was wiping away happy tears.
"Come on, Mom!" Chad called, grabbing his bag and following the crowd outside. But Cinderella couldn't leave until she shined a dingy cup sitting on the counter before running after her husband and son.
Adam and Belle stepped onto their stone balcony, looking at the gleaming dark kingdom of Auradon across the sea. Ben followed in their shadow.
"The future of the free world rests on your shoulders," Adam told his son, lines hardening on his face. "Don't blow it."
Ben swallowed hard, looking at the dark kingdom. His whole life was about to change. And with luck, the world.
Belle hugged Ben tight and kissed his cheek, then ushered him back into the manor, leaving Adam to stare off into the distance and into memories full of regret.
The limo outside was drawing a crowd. It was painted with blue fire and an angry dragon hood ornament glittered under the sun. A hunchbacked grey skinned ogre climbed out of the driver's seat, glaring at the good doers who got too close.
Audrey had to stop herself from running into the limo. Chad bowed low as he opened the door for her. Jane stood by the trunk, clutching her bag. Fairy Godmother eventually took it from her and threw it inside.
Ben finally came out of the manor, tossing his bag into the back before pausing by the limo door. He looked back up at his father watching him with stern eyes and his beaming mother watching with the other parents and the crowd of people who believed that this was their sign.
All the eyes watching him made Ben's skin crawl so, like a coward, he climbed into the limo and stared at his lap while the only home he'd ever known passed like a blur outside his window.
