Rachel marched through the forest. She saw some snapped twigs and branches. She glanced at the claw marks on the tree trunks she past. She reached out and touched it, and then looked in the direction it was heading in.
"He's that way," Rachel says.
Rachel untied the flannel from her waist and slipped it back on, wincing as she slipped her arm that had the wound through the sleeve.
She looked at the wound from the bandana and through the claw marks on the flannel. She saw some blood on her arm but then looked forward.
"Can't slow down," She says, "Gotta find Ben."
-D3-
"Ben!" Mal calls out.
The group was inside the castle. Mal was leading the walk forward, however, Dude, being the dog, took lead.
"This way," Dude says.
Dude turns around a corner that was the opposite of where Mal was going. Mal sighs and then follows after him. As Mal follows so does the rest of the group.
"Ben could be asleep anywhere," Evie says.
"Or turned to stone," Jay says.
Mal frowns, "I know," She says.
Dude halts and sniffs in the hallway, causing everyone to wait for Dude to find a scent.
"Ben-!" Mal calls out.
"I got a scent," Dude says, "Very pungent cologne. Easy to track. Follow me, people."
Carols smiles, "That's great, Dude."
The gang follows the mutt down the halls of the castle.
"FYI, I give great cuddles, too." Dude says to the group.
Gil looks down at Dude impressed, "Really? I never had a pet growing up."
Garrett glanced at Gil as Gil then nudges Garrett.
"Oh wait," Gil remembers, "We did have that elk head in Dad's man cave, but that wasn't-,"
Uma glanced at the walls and then noticed scratch marks that seemed to be made by something scary, dangerous even. She nudges Harry, who stopped with her.
"Hold up," Uma says.
Mal impatiently turns, "What?"
"What's this?" Uma asks.
The crew turn and take in what Uma had pointed out. This seemed to make Mal even worried about Ben. Jay wondered if Rachel had been here during whatever happened here.
"Any chance this was already there?" Garrett asks.
Jay shakes his head.
"Let's continue," Evie says.
Dude continues to lead the teens further into the palace.
"Ben-!" Mal yells.
-D3-
"Ben-!" Rachel called out.
Rachel was walking through the forest alone. She was on edge, with Audrey out there and with the power she had in her hands, made Rachel feel as if she was being watched.
As she walked through the forest, she heard the snap of a tree branch. She jumped a little and then reached for a large stick on the ground.
She turned to the direction where she heard the branch snap and then appearing from a brush was a rabbit.
Rachel lowers the stick a little, "It's just a rabbit." She sighs.
Then in the distance, she hears a familiar growl. She turns her head in the direction. She knows who it is and what direction.
"Alright, Ben." Rachel kept a hold of the branch, "I'm coming."
-D3-
Uma, Celia, Evie, and Mal stayed on campus while the boys searched elsewhere for Ben. Evie and Mal had returned from checking around campus, whereas Uma and Celia were in Audrey's room.
Evie and Mal enter the room.
"She's nowhere on campus," Evie says.
Uma sits on Audrey's bed, "Found her diary. And dang, did you ruin her life." Uma grins.
"Okay, so did you find anything in there that we don't already know or-?" Mal was cut off.
Uma got off the bed and closed the diary. Uma tossed it at Mal, who caught it.
"She hangs out at Fairy Cottage. You know where Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather hid her mom from your mom." Uma says.
Mal rolls her eyes, "Yes. The irony is not lost on me." She says.
Uma sits back down on the bed, "How could anyone with this bed ever be unhappy?" Uma smiles.
Celia turns around at the vanity she was sitting at. She was wearing all sorts of gems and jewelry that all belonged to Audrey. She was modeling them in the seat.
"How do I look?" Celia asks smiling.
Evie turns to her, "Okay. The blind stays here." Evie says.
"But- But she's bad." Celia protests in a pout.
Evie looks at her, "And we're not."
-D3-
The boys were walking through the forest when they are being led in a direction Dude claims is leading him to Ben.
"I'm also sensing something else," Dude says, "I know her."
"Her?" Jay asks.
Carlos shifts his gaze from Dude to Jay.
"Yeah, yeah. It's Rachel. She's literally in front of us." Dude says.
Garrett stopped walking when he noticed a red stain on a green brush. He stopped by it and touched it, it was wet.
"Fellas," Garrett says.
Jay and Carlos look over at him.
"Looks like blood," Garrett says, "Either the King is wounded or Blondie is."
Jay glanced at Dude, "We need to hurry."
Dude nods.
And then they begin to pick up the pace. They were sort of running through the forest. All of them; Harry, Jay, Dude, Carlos, Gil, and Garrett.
It wasn't until they stopped in a clearing in the forest, where Dude was sniffing the ground in a circle.
"Boys, something stinks. And it wasn't me this time." Dude says.
Just then jumping down in front of them was the beast form of Ben. When he jumped in front, he went to swing his claws at Gil.
Jay was fast.
He grabbed the back of Gil's shirt and pulled him back. The boys were on defense as they stared at what has become of the king of the land.
"Ben?" Carlos asks, "Did Audrey do that?"
"Huh? I thought I recognized those pants." Jay says.
"He's injured!" A voice from above yells.
The boys lift their gaze and sees up in the trees was Rachel. She was a little bit above them, but not too high up.
"So that's why he's so cranky." Carlos says.
Rachel shrugs, "That and a number of other things." She says.
Gil nudges Carlos, "You know, my dad said that his dad did not handle pain well at all." He says.
Ben growls forward towards them. The boys backed off, but kept their hands up in a defensive way.
Jay turns to Carlos, "You're good with animals. Do something." Jay says.
"Do what?" Carlos asks.
From above they hear, "Anything-!"
Rachel looks at them a bit impatient and looked in pain, but they couldn't fully tell why.
"Okay, alright." Carlos says.
Slowly, Carlos approaches the king. Despite the king being aggressive, Carlos didn't seem to look frightened.
"Hey, Ben." Carlos says in between Ben's growls, "It's me, Carlos, alright?"
Ben launches forward.
Carlos jumps back.
"Ben-!" Rachel screams.
Beast Ben looks up in the trees at her, but then hears the footsteps of the son of DeVil come closer to him.
Carlos held his hands up, "It's Carlos, alright? You know me." He assures the beast king.
Ben still growled at the young boy.
Jay stood back, feeling a little worried for Carlos, but also knew how capable Carlos is. The Isle kids who smuggled their way here, were pretty sure Carlos was going to be dead meat.
"You helped me once. Remember, with Dude? Right?" Carlos says, "Let me help you."
Carlos gestures to the hand that he can see blood in on the king. Ben looks at his hand and growls at Carlos.
"Come on. Let me see your hand." Carlos says.
Slowly, Carlos takes Ben's hand without any protest from the king. He looks it over and noticed a rather large splinter in the palm of his hand.
"That's a big one," Carlos says, "I'm gonna count to three, alright?"
Carlos holds onto the splinter and Beast Ben just stares at Carlos the whole time. Slowly, Carlos counts down but pulls it out on two instead of three.
Ben growls out and swings his arms.
Carlos jumps back.
However, just then popping out was Jane with a water gun firing it at Ben. It was water from the Enchanted Lake. It seemed to at least fix part of the spell that Audrey casted on him, minus the small beastly features like the facial hair and the fangs.
Carlos noticed his girlfriend and ran over to her to embrace her.
Garrett took in the small introductions with Jane and the others, but noticed Rachel slowly climbing down from the tree, but then slipped.
Garrett held his hands out and caught her.
"Catching princess from trees," Garrett grins, "Is this how Auradon usually goes, cause I might just stay."
Rachel looks at him, "What are you three doing here?"
"Four," Jay says stepping over, "Uma is also here."
Garrett puts Rachel down, and then both guys noticed the bandana wrapped around her arm.
"Rach," Jay says with a worried tone in his voice, "Your arm-!"
Now everyone was looking at him.
"I'm fine," Rachel smiles.
She turns to Ben. The two held eye contact for a moment, before any of them did anything. Rachel moved past Garrett and Jay to hug Ben tightly.
Ben hugged her back.
"I was so worried," Rachel says.
"I'm glad I didn't seriously hurt you," Ben says into her shoulder.
Rachel pulls back and then reaches for his hand. She placed her hands on top of it and looks at Ben.
"Rach," Ben says.
Rachel closes her eyes.
"Flower, gleam and glow. Let your power shine. Make the clock reverse. Bring back what once was mine," Rachel sung.
Ben was feeling a sensation.
Then everyone there started to see the palm of Ben's hand and even Rachel's arm begin to close as Rachel had started singing.
"Heal what has been hurt. Change the fates' design. Save what has been lost. Bring back what once was mine. What once was mine." Rachel sung.
And then the glowing was done. Rachel opens her eyes and pulled her hands back and everyone saw as the wound on the palm was gone.
"Did she-?" Harry asks.
Jane looked dumbfounded, "You can use magic?" She asks, "After all this time?"
Rachel looks at Jane, "It's been kinda a secret."
"Kinda?" Carlos asks, "But- But that was amazing."
Rachel gives a small smile.
Garrett crossed his arms on his chest, "So that flower's magic flows through you, huh?"
Rachel glanced at him. She almost gave him a glare, but saw the lighthearted way he was staring at her.
"Don't worry, Blondie. My mom won't have to find out." Garrett says.
Rachel nods.
"So um- why are they here?" Ben asks turning to Jay and Carlos.
Jay nods, "Oh so you see they escaped and sort of joined us." He says.
Rachel glanced at Garrett, "Really?"
Garrett smirks, "Really."
Carlos continues, "Mal has Hades' ember which is our only hope in stopping Audrey. Details to follow."
Rachel shakes her head, "Wait- Wait?"
"Hades' ember?" Ben asks, "Has Mal gone back to the Isle?"
Carlos gestures for them to begin to follow them as he holds hands onto Jane's hand.
"I said details to follow," Carlos says.
"We're meeting up with Mal, Evie, and Uma now." Jay says.
"Uma?" Ben asks.
Rachel lightly puts a hand on Ben, "Let's go. And make them fill us in on the way."
And with that said, the crew begins to walk towards the meeting spot which is Evie's cottage.
As they walked, the boys begin to fill Rachel and Ben in on what has happened so far to them while Ben was a beast and Rachel was running through the forest.
However, as Jay spoke, he glanced over and noticed Garrett staring at Rachel. But it wasn't a creepy kind of stare. It was the way Jay would look at Rachel.
So it's apparent to Jay, Garrett Gothel has feelings for Rachel Fitzherbert.