Chapter 5 – Investigating the Isle

-:-:-

"There are children on the Isle of the Lost?" was what Ben got from his explanation.

"Yeah," Chad said. "And they haven't done anything to warrant being there, so I'm going to copy your first decree and invite them over."

Maybe they could improve things to have a smoother transition than last time, but still, it would be nice to see the Core Four again.

"Um." Ben just sort of blinked at him from where he was sprawled across a couch in the library. "And you're sure there are kids?"

"I- would there not be?" Chad asked, getting suddenly worried.

"Just- I thought the barrier was supposed to prevent that kind of thing," Ben said, and then at Chad's confused look, he elaborated, "You know, pregnancy."

Chad froze, his eyes going wide. "Holy shit," he gasped, heat building in his throat. "Did I- did I kill them too? Did- are the VKs not-"

"Chad?" Ben sat up in an easy movement, sliding off the couch when he realized Chad was wobbling on his feet. "Take it easy. Just- deep breaths for me, okay?"

"I can't-" It felt like he wasn't getting enough air, the room seemed to be spin but Chad couldn't focus on that because the VKs might be dead. "I can't- Ben, if I killed them too- if I killed-" He dragged in a breath that sounded suspiciously like a sob as fresh tears built in his eyes. "M-Mal and Jay and Evie and Carlos- they're so nice, Ben. They're a little rough around the edges but they're- they're really good and funny and strong and they just want to make Auradon better and I might have- if I killed them too, I can't-"

"You didn't kill them," Ben assured Chad, gathering the blond prince in his arms and hugging him close. "So don't even think that."

"But the barrier," Chad croaked. "You said-"

"That's what they told us," Ben cut in. "But maybe, I don't know, maybe they lied. The government does that sometimes – lies to the people to keep them happy and complacent. There sure as hell would be way more angry people if they knew there were innocent children trapped on the Isle of the Lost with the worst villains in all of Auradon."

"That makes sense," Chad gasped, leaning into Ben's chest. "How do we find out for sure, though?"

"We could put in an inquiry," Ben said. "Occasionally they send in stealth drones to review the conditions of the Isle. Unfortunately, all their findings are kept confidential by your grandfather, I believe." Chad winced, because his grandfather had never made a secret of how much he disliked the VKs. "If we can get a different committee to request an inquiry on the grounds of a different concern, we could see if there're kids on the Isle once and for all."

Chad sniffed, slowly but surely calming himself. "We'd have to make sure the drones didn't go anywhere near the residential areas on paper, or else grandfather will never approve it."

"The dump," Ben said, perking up. "We can get one of the subcommittees to raise a concern about a shipment being accidentally routed to the Isle's dump instead of somewhere else. It's far enough from where the prisoners live that your grandfather shouldn't have any issues about sending drones there. From there, we can let one of the drones go rogue and see if we can track down some kids."

"That sounds good on paper," Chad said. "But how will we actually get the plan into action?"

"Easy," Ben said, nuzzling Chad's hair. "We'll ask my dad. He's been finding workarounds for your grandfather for years. Honestly, half the time I think he carries on out of spite."

"It's not a bad reason," Chad said, at once feeling another swell of fondness for King Adam. "Do you think he'll believe me?"

"Only one way to find out," Ben said, and then they were cutting a path to the king's private office, Ben's head held high.

-:-:-

"That wouldn't surprise me, to be honest," King Adam said after hearing Chad's 'theory' about there being children on the Isle of the Lost. The prince had used his supposed vision to explain this as well, which might be an abuse of that particular trope, but the king took the explanation in stride so Chad guessed it was okay after all. "There's an easy enough way to find out."

"How, dad?" Ben asked, giving Chad's hand a comforting squeeze. "Won't he be on guard if you put in a request?"

"That's why I won't be the one doing it," King Adam said with a smirk. "The Duke of Weselton will. Your grandfather won't suspect a request from one of his supposed allies, and I've been holding out on granting a favor to the duke for just such an occasion."

"So devious," Ben said, seeming truly in awe.

The king gave him a smug look. "This is nothing," he said. "Go get to work on your decree, this will take a few days to set up."

Chad spent that time telling Ben all about the VKs while he got to work on the new decree that would cover the Core Four's new citizenships, as well as the new programs and facilities they needed to put in place before they could get the rest of the kids off the Isle.

Mrs. Potts was there to make sure they took breaks, shoving them out into the sunshine or dragging them down tea or suggesting a morning down at the beach when she thought it was necessary. Ben thought it was only fair to comply with all these requests, and Chad followed his lead because it was good to see Ben happy, to see him smiling in the sun (and maybe also seeing him shirtless because he was ripped, and that was like, objectively cool).

They still spent their nights cuddling together, and more than once Chad started the day with Ben's hand between his legs, the other prince rumbling into the curve of his neck while he teased Chad into full hardness.

"Ben," Chad gasped one time after the other prince had finished. "Just- I feel bad you're not um- g-getting anything out of this."

"I'm getting plenty out of this," Ben assured him, the same way he always did.

"But," Chad sighed. "But um- I can- could I touch you, maybe? Is that okay?"

Ben froze, then turned Chad so he was facing him, their groins pressed flush together, making Chad shiver because there was a difference between feeling Ben pressed against his rear and pressed against his very hard length, and it felt substantially more intimate.

"That's okay," Ben rumbled, his gaze half-lidded and hazy. "But maybe we should try…" He curled a hand around Chad's hip and rutted tentatively against him, stopping when he earned a small whine from Chad. Emboldened, he tried it again, making Chad pant desperately at the flood of arousal shooting up his torso. "Is this good?"

"Yes," Chad moaned, one hand bracing against Ben's shoulder so he could shift into the brunette's contact. "It- it feels- it's good."

"Good," Ben hissed, speeding up his movements. "Maybe we should- I mean- the pants-"

"Just do it, um- please," Chad tacked on belatedly, flushing when the other prince paused long enough to shove their sweatpants down their thighs, meaning that just the thin, damp fabric of their boxer briefs was separating them, which was enough to leave Chad breathless. "Ben."

"Good?" Ben asked, like he knew it was taboo, the other prince determined to rut against all parts of Chad.

"Yes," Chad gasped. "It feels really- it's so hot."

"You're hot," Ben offered, forever relentless, and with sweettalk like that how could Chad do anything other than fall apart with an embarrassing whine.

On the bright side, Ben followed not long after, his chest heaving hard by the time they were finished.

"Cleaning time," Ben hummed when they were finished, pulling their sweatpants the rest of the way off before he carried Chad into the bathroom, the same as he did every morning.

"Don't you feel messy?" Chad asked bashfully while Ben wiped him clean with the same dedicated focus he always used, always sure to do multiple swipes over every part of Chad in case he missed something.

"I'm okay," Ben assured him, offering Chad a new pair of boxer briefs. "Do you wanna clean me?"

"O-Okay," Chad said, because after the first time, Ben just about always found his own pleasure somehow from making Chad feel good. It was embarrassing and a little heady to clean up Ben like this, to have his actual length in Chad's hand, but this was- they were just being super helpful friends. Chad was a helper, just like Ben helped him, and this wasn't a big deal. It wasn't.

Over the course of those few days, tales of Chad's new boyfriend had spread like wildfire across Auradon. Social media was flooded with pictures of the two of them together, the internet seeming to marvel at Ben's makeover and where the hell their sudden connection had come from. No one had gotten a statement from Audrey yet, which was probably for the best. Everything seemed to be going as planned.

"Unfortunately, we'll have to sneak into the capital to do this," King Adam said with an annoyed look when they gathered in his study on the appropriate day. "Fortunately, I was able to call in a favor, and Genie's going to teleport us directly into our requested survey room."

"Good guy, that genie," Ben said, holding Chad's hand tight.

They weren't the only ones getting teleported into Sardinia City – the new capital of all of Auradon – or, well, Sardinia. There were others that seemed to have suspicions against Chad's grandfather – people like Sultana Jasmine, Queen Elsa, and King Eugene Fitzherbert for starters. There were others, but they couldn't teleport too many people in without drawing more focus than necessary. While the Duke of Weselton didn't seem happy with the development, he was pleased with whatever whispered conversation he had with King Adam, going so far as to shake the king's hand while King Eugene got to work piloting the stealth drones that had been guided to the designated area of the Isle during Barge Day – one of the few times they dropped a portion of the barrier to make their supply drops.

They didn't even have to go into the residential areas to find children, there were already some scavenging on the outskirts of the dump – the garbage heap on the far side of the Isle where the items not picked up on Barge Day were abandoned. The children were thin and dirty, clothes insufficient at best and clutching desperately onto a few odds and ends that were definitely junk as though they were their own secret treasure.

"Son of a bitch," Sultana Jasmine hissed under her breath. "He lied about the contraception shots."

Apparently the rhetoric sold to the royals of Auradon, who knew the barrier wouldn't prevent pregnancy, was that all prisoners were provided with some form of birth control in order to prevent population growth on the Isle. The children scavenging through the dump were proof enough that those supposed shots were not effective.

"And now to gather more evidence so they can't just claim those kiddoes as a fluke," King Eugene said, guiding the drones further out from the dump to collect more footage.

As terrible as Mal had said the Isle was, Chad had never realized how truly awful a place it was to live. There seemed to be two classifications of people on the Isle – the villains and the petty criminals they preyed on, people trying hard just to get by. The latter group was larger but substantially more worn down, and made pitiful figures on the camera with their skinny children clutched to their sides.

"Despicable," Queen Elsa said, her gaze heated. "That Christopher would allow this…"

"We all know it's not Christopher pulling the strings, Elsa," King Adam said, his tone hard, fierce enough to leave Chad shivering.

"Do you think it's enough?" he asked, leaning into Ben's side. "They can't deny my decree now, can they?"

"If they buried this, they could," King Eugene said. "Unfortunately, these images are going to leak onto the internet in a horrible security breach." He let out a low cackle. "Regulate that, bitch."

"It will work," Sultana Jasmine offered calmly, and Chad…

He latched onto that.

He had to, for Auradon.

-:-:-

The outcry over the leaked images was to be expected, though Queen Snow seemed to do her best to sell the images as a mistaken oversight on their part, pledging that no children had ever been spotted during Barge Day, which was the most contact the Auradon – shit, Sardinia – guards had with the Isle citizens on a regular basis.

Chad, of course, knew that wasn't true based on the stories he'd overheard from Jay and Mal when they talked about their exploits on Barge Day, but the lie seemed to settle the people of Auradon (Sardinia- whatever, Chad was just going to call it Auradon in his mind, it was less confusing) to the point where they were clambering more for solutions rather than a revolution.

The good news was that all of these stories would be broadcasted on the propaganda channel that fed onto the Isle, which would let the VKs know that their plight had not been ignored so much as erased, and now that people knew about it, they were going to be helped.

"It's… an admirable suggestion, Kit," his father said when they spoke via video chat the evening after the images had been leaked. "But just because we know the petty criminals have children doesn't mean the major villains necessarily do."

"My vision hasn't steered me wrong yet, dad," Chad said, keeping his tone firm, confident, even if he didn't feel that way. He owed it to the VKs. "We can send in another set of stealth drones to more specifically track down the descendants of the villains, but I already know which four I want to invite over."

He knew the base stuff well enough – don't let Mal run back off to the Isle, don't let Ben follow her. Bam, no more king kidnappings, and the pirates wouldn't even have time to get restless and upset anyway, because Chad was going to get them off too. Eventually. He just needed to start with the Core Four first. Once they swore to be good, all the others would want to follow. It'd already happened once before; they could do it again.

"Let's collect some more information first, shall we?" his father countered with a thoughtful look. "You'll have to come back to Sardinia to oversee the data collection."

Ah, so that was his goal.

Chad's family had been hinting at his need to return to Sardinia for the past few days now, but Chad was just too busy. Working on his decrees and trying to recreate the social programs Ben had designed to the best of his ability – organizing housing and creating training outlines for social workers and getting therapists and prepping the foster care and adoption systems and new school curriculums – it was a lot, and Chad was afraid he wouldn't get the support he needed back in Sardinia, not when it was so easy to contact all the necessary royals from Auradon that Chad didn't seem to have in his phone for whatever reason.

"Alright," Chad said, because this was bigger than his unease. "But I won't be able to stay. School's starting soon, and I need to have my new decree finished by then."

"Is there any particular reason you need to work on it in Auradon?"

"All the base work's here," Chad said. "I know I should be helping more with public appearances, but I don't have time for it, dad. This is more important."

"Kit," his father said, looking tired. "I'm worried. You and Benjamin were separated for a reason, and it seems like you've completely eradicated all that distance between you by jumping straight into the deep end. I mean, breaking up with Audrey? Dating Benjamin? Some question your stability."

"They shouldn't," Chad sniffed. "Ben's perfectly nice and thoughtful and kind and anyone, including me, would be lucky to date him. He's not holding me hostage or whatever you seem to think is going on."

Chad knew it was suspicious for him to avoid his own home, but he'd spent years doing just that. It was hard to deviate from ingrained coping mechanisms. There had never been any comfort for him back home, and now he was kind of afraid of his new mom and the happy version of his dad and whatever his grandfather would say, which wasn't anything new.

The king sighed. "I'm just worried about you, is all. Some think you might be crumbling under the stress."

"I'm not," Chad insisted. "I'm evolving, adapting." Chad wasn't sure who all these people were that his father was talking to, because all the royals Chad had contacted seemed to think he was doing a great job, even if he was just copying Ben. "There's nothing wrong with that."

"Of course not," his father said. "Just- I'm here for you if you need me, Kit. You can tell me anything, remember?"

That was… new and entirely different from anything Chad had ever encountered, so he didn't really know how to respond except with a horrible lie.

"I remember," Chad said, trying not to wince.

His father's gaze looked unjustly sad, which was actually sort of familiar. "At least keep your phone on, please, in case of an emergency."

While Cogsworth had gotten Chad a new charger, the prince been keeping the device off out of habit. All the people he needed to talk to were nearby, and otherwise it proved to be a noisy distraction with its deluge of texts – other young royals texting to ask if he'd really broken up with Audrey and what was the thing with Ben and- ugh, was that the kind of stuff Ben dealt with on a regular basis? It was awful.

"Okay," Chad said, because he could compromise, and at least it got his father to smile just a little bit.

"Thank you, son," the king hummed. "Could you drive up tomorrow afternoon?"

"Sure," Chad said. "It'll be a party."

-:-:-

"I'm a little afraid of getting trapped there," Chad admitted over dinner that night, their usual entourage joined by Sultana Jasmine and King Eugene, who seemed to be constant guests now that Chad was working on the updated decree. "Which seems kind of silly, I'll admit."

"It's not silly," Sultana Jasmine immediately soothed, not hesitating to offer comfort. "Your grandfather is a very intense man, Chad. He likes things to be a certain way." She paused, considering him with a serious expression. "You know this, right?"

"I… I do," Chad said, remembering the hateful gaze his grandfather would always pin on him when Chad had the audacity to stroll into his view. He'd gotten a few voicemails from this new version of the Duke, and all of them seemed a bit passive aggressive – lightly chiding Chad for wasting his time in Auradon when he should be attending to his duties in Sardinia, as if that wasn't what Chad was doing. Chad hadn't even risked playing them aloud, he was such a fantastic coward, choosing to stick to reading the transcripts with growing trepidation.

"He's trying to guilt you," Ben said with an unhappy face when Chad had showed him the transcripts. "Just ignore him."

"Until now, you've been playing ball with him," King Eugene picked up, dragging Chad back to the present. "You've followed their requests, kept away from the kids they told you to, excelled in school and were basically the model puppet for their wishes." Chad blinked, because he hadn't realized things had been that bad, but then again, if he received regular love and attention he supposed he was the kind of person that would happily follow the wishes of others to ensure he kept getting it. He wasn't that strong an individual. "Now that you're doing this tricky thinking-for-yourself thing – which, props to you for that – they're right to be concerned."

"They'll likely wish to get you back into their fold to mitigate further deviation from their plans," Sultana Jasmine murmured. "By force, potentially, but I have made plans for this."

With that, she opened a folder that had been resting innocently beside her on the table, revealing an assortment of white, rectangular pieces of paper covered in Imperial City script.

"General Fa was kind enough to provide these to me," she explained, holding up one of the pieces of paper. "This is a teleportation seal. We can practice with them after dinner, but they're designed to teleport you to a nearby anchor point of your choice. I figured we could establish a few just in case – the car you'll take over, the Agraben consulate, one of our cars. This is just to be cautious, of course, we likely won't need their use."

"It does make me feel better," Chad admitted, accepting the offered piece of paper.

He knew sealwork was an ancient form of magic used in Imperial City – one of the few that could be used by non-magic individuals. The entire source of the mystics relied in the creation of the seal – the ink and paper – rather than the people who used it, much like potions or dwarven runework. It was an old practice known by few, and that Chad should hold one in his hand now was nothing less than amazing.

"Thank you," Chad said, trying to communicate as much awe and gratitude as possible. "This… it's a great comfort."

"Anything to assuage your anxiety," King Eugene said, raising his glass in a toast. "Here's to hoping we won't need to use them."

Turned out, when Sultana Jasmine said they should practice after dinner, she meant all of them. They took turns teleporting to different parts of the garden – first individually, then in pairs, jumping together until it became second nature.

"Better to be safe than sorry," the sultana said as she divided the teleportation runes between them. "We should get some rest. It would be best for us to get to Sardinia in the morning. To be early will show that we're dedicated and eager, and it will give us the benefit of moving up the timeline for whatever they wish to do."

"I've already coordinated with the ships holding our drones," King Adam said. "They'll be ready, so that can't be used as an excuse to make us wait."

"Then sleep well, my friends," Sultana Jasmine said, a pleased smile tugging at her lips. "For we have much work to do on the morrow."

-:-:-

"Ben," Chad said when they were cuddling in bed that night, Chad feeling less guilty about the way he unashamedly clung to the brunette prince. "If anything goes wrong, if the seals don't work or I do end up stuck in Sardinia-" Ben tensed, clinging to Chad with a threatening growl. "You have to be cool," Chad said. "They'll be expecting you to go all beast, but you have to prove to them that you're not that guy. That you're more capable than they could ever possibly know."

They needed to see what Chad saw, what Ben was slowly coming to see within himself.

"Follow your dad's lead, please," Chad said. "And know that I'll do everything I can to get back to you, okay? That I want to be with you more than anything else."

It was true, and Chad tried not to ache from how much it felt like he was baring himself.

Ben considered this, then nuzzled Chad's hair, dragging him forward so that they were chest-to-chest. "Could I get a recording of you saying that?"

"You could get a video," Chad said, already nudging Ben towards his nightstand, where his phone was waiting.

They both slept easier after Chad made a series of recordings confirming his friendship with Ben, his hope for the future, Ben swallowing a whine when it sort of devolved into a pep talk but Chad didn't care, Ben deserved pep talks.

"I wanna be here with you," Chad said. "Because you are my friend and my boyfriend and you are a rumbly, wonderful boy who is going to make the world a better place."

"So embarrassing," Ben muttered, but Chad was undeterred.

The next morning they woke up with Ben's alarm, but the brunette didn't let them leave the bed until Chad was properly ravished, Ben posed over him while he jerked Chad off in careful movements, easing his hand into Chad's underwear while the blond clung to his shoulders, letting out harsh pants and desperate whines.

Chad wanted to return the favor, but there just wasn't any time. Ben wouldn't let him apologize though, the other prince content to help Chad clean up before they got dressed and went to the garage, accepting a basket packed with breakfast for them to eat on the road, courtesy of Mrs. Potts.

Sultana Jasmine and King Eugene were riding in a separate car so they would have multiple exit strategies if needed, and Chad got his first look at the outside of the Sardinian capitol building, where all the legislative work was done. It looked grander, somehow, than the one back in Auradon- and distinctly Sardinian rather than a celebration of all of Auradon's cultures, like it should be.

Chad brushed it off, though, keeping calm and cool as he held Ben's hand, the two of them escorted by King Adam into the depths of the building.

King Eugene and Sultana Jasmine met them in the drone room they'd used before, as did Chad's father, who seemed a bit harried but relieved to see Chad.

"I thought you were coming up this afternoon," he said, giving Chad an indulgent smile.

"I couldn't sleep," Chad lied, squeezing Ben's hand. "They were kind enough to indulge my eagerness."

"Of course," his father said, his gaze entirely on Chad. "Shall we get started then?"

Again, King Eugene was the one to man the drones (apparently Corona had been the one to invent them), acting under Chad's suggestions as they looked for the VKs.

It wasn't as fast a search as Chad would have liked. Mal was easy to find, having a conversation with Maleficent (who looked so deceptively slight) while she spray painted some graffiti onto a wall. Jay, they found jumping over roofs and gutters until he descended into Jafar's Junk Shop, where the imprisoned sorcerer gave him a critical look before nodding for him to unload the goods he'd collected for that day. Carlos was outside of Hell Hall, washing Cruella's car with frantic motions, his eyes wide and occasionally glancing back towards the mansion itself, as though afraid of his mother making an appearance. Considering his fear of her, he probably was.

It took a while to find Evie, but eventually they saw her sketching in the withered courtyard of Castle Across the Way, her knees drawn up towards her chest in a defensive hunch as she kept the castle door firmly in her line of sight, perhaps afraid her mother would interrupt her solitude.

Of course they found other VKs during this search. Dr. Facilier had two daughters that worked his stall – one telling fortunes, another manning an arcade that seemed to act as a refuge to get orphans off the streets. There was Gil, Chad thought, dragging a battered looking tree into Gaston's hunting lodge before chopping it up into firewood. There was Harry Hook prowling through the streets, and even without his father nearby, it wasn't hard to tell who he belonged to. There was Uma, dragging in a fresh catch of fish into the Chip Shoppe. There was his cousin at a hair salon, of all places. There was the Queen of Hearts' daughter. There were descendants of the Huns.

There was a whole mess of VKs, and no one had known about it, because no one had ever thought to look.

But they were now.

And soon, they were going to fix it.

They just needed to do a little more scanning.

-:-:-

Endnotes:

Some more scanning, and then perhaps some more planning? Slow and steady wins the race, team ;D

Story notes:

The only way I could possibly fathom the heroes of Auradon being possibly okay with allowing a mixed population to run free in a contained space is if there were preventative measures in place that stopped procreation, which would mitigate the issue of innocent people who haven't committed any crimes getting trapped on the Isle. Like, there are still a bunch of flaws otherwise, but I feel like that has to at least be a baseline, so it's the lie the Grand Duke sold to get the approvals he needed.

It is my personal headcanon that Varian – the teenage prodigy inventor from the animated Tangled show – invented the drones used in this chapter, which is why Eugene knows how to use them.

The Imperial City Seals are not unlike the seals used in Naruto, because paper magic will always be super cool.

Until next time :)