"Are you sure you don't want to borrow the limo,"

Ben and Mal there only ones out on the deck connected to his office. They'd discussed their plan to return the Isle together and now were waiting on a magical remote to open the barrier. When Mal stepped outside, Ben had followed her.

"We'll draw less attention if we sneak in on our bikes," Mal said, pressing a smile on, "But thank you for the offer,"

"What's that look?"

"There's no-look," Mal countered.

Ben cocked his head to the side, arching a brow slightly. He didn't believe her for a second. She sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose and she leaned against the railing.

"I'm scared," She admitted.

"Of going back to the Isle?"

"No. Not going to Isle. Of the Isle swallowing Auradon. Frist with Hades. And now my mother's scepter being stolen. We found a home here. Found ourselves here. If we lose because of things from the Isle… I feel like… I'm scared of losing everything,"

"We're not going to lose. Good doesn't lose," Ben said firmly.

"Yeah," Mal said softly, "I know,"

Suddenly an upbeat, slightly techno song started playing. Ben startled, looking at Mal with confusion painted across his face.

She snorted, "Don't judge me. Dizzy is responsible for that. She set that as the tone for her own messages to…," She said as she pulled her cell from her pocket. She trailed off as she tapped the nonfiction. Cold clawed at her chest.

"MAL!" It was Evie's voice from inside. She burst out of the office, phone in hand. "We need to go, now,"

"What is it?" Ben asked, looking between them.

"The manor," Mal threw over her shoulder, grabbing Evie's hand and pulling her to an open space, "They're there. Send help there,"

"The manor? The VK manor?" Ben called after them.

"Yes," Mal shouted, moments before her dragon form emerged.

"Was this foolhardy escape attempt your idea?"

Dizzy couldn't breathe from the boot on her neck. Her shattered glasses still sat on her face, the cracks distorting the light glinting off the staff inches from her face.

"How do you expect her to answer when you're stepping on her throat?" Milo argued, pushing forward but he was shoved back into the tight group all the kids were being kept in. Dizzy was trying so hard not to cry. Not to break in front of their enemy but it was hard. It was so hard when she could see the terrified kids huddled together. The kids they'd gotten out, only for it to be worthless. It had torn her heart to see the kids being dragged back inside. Milo's lip was bleeding now, no doubt acquired in a fight to escape.

The scepter bearer grunted but removed their foot. Dizzy gasped, the air sweet relief to her lungs.

'Last ditched plan time Dizzy' she thought, rolling over onto her knees, 'What would Evie do? What would Mal?'

She racked her brain. They'd taken the last potions she had, not she knew how they would be helpful in this situation right now. She considering ripping out a shard from her broken glasses. But that gave her a blade maybe an inch long against a magic-user. She really wished she didn't keep the dagger Jay had gifted her for her last birthday in the bottom of her sock drawer.

"Are these your potions?" They asked as they examined the fog potion, holding it to the light.

Dizzy didn't answer, still trying to catch her breath. 'Buy time. But time. Keep them talking.' She said to herself. "The others have to be on their way."

"I asked a question,"

"I give lessons, but they don't come cheap," She finally said, looking up into the mask.

"I don't need such petty magic,"

"You sure about that? Maleficent was the most powerful sorceress in the world. She could make an enchanted wall that surrounded a kingdom with that scepter. What have you used it for? To make some oversized lawn ornaments," Her mind flashed the image of Florianna being turned to stone and she felt sick to her stomach but she kept pushing, "And gave a few people narcolepsy,"

Before she could react, the bottom of the staff whipped into her temple.

"Dizzy!"

"Dizzy, no!"

Emu and Celia's voices were muted. Dizzy tried to breathe, but the air felt thick like she couldn't pull it into her lungs.

"Who are you, to talk to me like that? I defeated the greatest fairy of our time. No one can stand up to me now,"

"Who are you to think you can weld Maleficent's scepter? I know the person who should be holding that scepter and she's ten times the mage you are,"

The gem of the scepter was against her neck, pulsing with energy, making her skin itch.

"If you're talking about the half hatched dragon, the scepter already rejected her,"

"Mal doesn't need accessories to be great,"

Pain. It exploding along her neck and up the back of her skull, blurring Dizzy's vision. But that was good. Pain meant anger directed at her. Anger meant compromised emotions she could exploit.

"Who are you?" They asked.

"You don't know? Some VK you are,"

"Boss," One of the other masked individuals spoke up, this one with a soft voice, "This is Tremaine. Granddaughter of Lady Tremaine. She works for the Evil Queen's daughter,"

"If you know the Evil Queen's brat you would know Maleficent's daughter," The scepter moved under Dizzy's chin, pressing into the base of her throat, "Good, I can use you as a warning to her. Stay out of my way or her friends will pay the price,"

The gem glowed. Despite her best efforts Dizzy winced, expecting the worst, but it didn't happen.

"We have an issue,"

It was the voice of another masked person, this one just joining the conversation.

"What?" The staff bearer whipped around, obviously annoyed at the interruption.

"The rest of the house is empty,"

"Impossible,"

"We checked all the rooms,"

Their attention returned to Dizzy, the staff against her neck, the pain slowly spreading from the point it touched.

"Where are they?"

"Did you check under the beds?" Dizzy asked with a pained grin, "Some of the kids are really good at hide and seek,"

The pain intensified, "You taunt me. You disgrace me. I'll prove to you I deserve this scepter by using it to make you tell me where the others are,"

Dizzy could feel her air being cut off. Her vision started to dim.

"Stop it, you'll kill her," Celia said.

"You move and I'll kill you too," They threatened when Celia started to shift. They moved away from Dizzy to have a whispered conversation with the informant who'd just joined them. Dizzy pushed herself into a sitting position.

For the first time she had the chance to clearly look at the masks they were wearing. They were all obviously modelled along the same lines of their Leader's 'Beast' mask but each mask was a different face. Caricatures of heroes. She recognised Aladdin and Hercules along with a few others, but with her glasses broken most were too far for her to focus on the smaller details.

"Where are the other VKs?" The leader asked the group, the scepter sparking with energy. No one spoke.

"Don't make me ask again," Pulling Dizzy by the collar and forcing her to her knees the scepter was pressed to her neck again. She tried to breath, but air wouldn't get in.

The scepter lifted, forcing Dizzy to her feet along with it, "You still think your dragon friend is better than me," And then the pain was gone and she could breathe. She coughed, hacked and gasped, but she was laughing.

"The only thing you proved is you're no VK. Or you'd know everyone else is on the annual camping trip. All you got here are the kids who were punished and got banned from going. Or the sad saps like me, who's so allergic to poison ivy I'm not allowed in a mile of forest,"

"There were never anything camping trips in our research," One of the masked dudes standing behind Dizzy said.

She hid her smile into her shoulder, feinting another cough. 'Got ya,' she thought.

"Shut up!" The leader snapped at the one who'd spoken.

Dizzy scoffed, "Like the news wants to talk about a bunch of poor kids being stuffed in a cabin and getting bug bites?"

Pain flared across her chest as a blast slammed into her. She fell on her side and the hot suffocating pain of magic was joined by the hard dull pain of a foot slamming into her sternum again and again. 'Resorting to physical violence now. I must have made them really mad,' Dizzy thought as she doubled over, gasping.

"Where is the camping trip?"

"How would I know? I've never been, remember. Not allowed near a forest,"

"Where are they?" They asked the others.

"We don't know moron," Milo spoke, doubling down on Dizzy's lie "Why would they tell us? We're the trouble makers. They don't tell us shit. They don't care about us. If you were really a VK you would know. You'd know VK's protect each other because no one else will. And you wouldn't be here beating on us like thugs,"

"You aren't Villain kids," They hissed, the scepter slamming on the floor, energy radiating outwards, knocking back everyone a few feet, including their allies "You're blood traitors. You all threw away your parent's legacy. Abandoned them. We are their true heirs. We won't abandoned them. We're going to save them. And make you pay for your betrayal. But I am kind. This insolent worm almost made me forget why we came here in the first place," They said, gesturing to Dizzy. "We want to give you another chance to redeem yourselves. Aruadon poisoned you against our parents. That's not your fault. I'll forgive you for your betrayal if you join us now. See the way forward is with the villains in their rightful place. This will be the only time I afford this chance,"

There was a long stretch of silence. No one moved. No one spoke. But then, Milo stood up slowly. Dizzy's eyes went wide when as he did. Somehow watching that was more gut-wrenching than actually getting kicked in the gut. He took a step forward and spat at their feet.

"My parents were right assholes. If enjoying a better life makes me a traitor, so be it. You can be their heirs if that's what you so desperately want,"

Celia stood next, "It's because my dad actually gave a shit about me that I know this delusion you have about the villains isn't what he'd want for me,"

Emu stood up next, "You can kiss our asses if you think anyone here will side with you after you turned Flori and everyone else into statues,"

"If you want more yes men for your little evil parade, you're not going to find them here," Dizzy said pushing herself to her feet.

"Then you have chosen to suffer like blood traitors," They lifted the scepter to Dizzy's face, "And I'm going to start with you. You're will be especially slow,"

"Dragon, inbound!"

With a low growl the scepter bearer moved to a window to glance outside, "I can handle Maleficent's daughter,"

"She wasn't a dragon last time," Someone voiced, making the leader pause.

"Boss, we also got a heads up about a lot of sirens headed this way too,"

With gritted teeth, the leader ordered, "We fall back. You blood traitors get to live a little longer. Your crimes are too much for a swift death. But fear not, I will see you again,"

Converging on their boss, there was double-tap to the scepter, a flash and they were gone.

"Milo, Em-em?"

"Yeah Diz,"

"I'm going to collapse now,"

They both caught her just as she finished saying that.

"Dizzy Tremaine, master of deception," Milo said with a grin.

"Everyone else in the attic?" Emu asked.

"Waiting until someone gives the all clear knock," Dizzy said.

"Let's wait until we're sure they really left before we get them," Celia said.

"Smart," Milo agreed.

They heard wing beats just then, over the manor followed closely by the heavy thump of a landing. A few kids took off running to the doors at the sound.

"Do you want to try walking?" Emu asked Dizzy.

"Help me to a sofa. They're already going to kill me for almost dying. I'd like to at least be comfortable,"

Outside Mal sniffed suspiciously, still a dragon as she swept over the courtyard. Evie slipped off her back, making her way to the front doors. They were first ones there, but she could hear the sirens drawing closer by the second.

Before Evie could get there, the doors were thrown up. Mal leapt in front of her, a wing shielding her, but then they saw the kids come stumbling out of the doorway. Tears were streaming down some of their faces. Mal transformed, reverting to her human form moments before they barrelled into their arms.

It was hard to get information from seven young hysterical kids, but the words they could make out weren't good.

"Hey, shhh," Evie said softly, combing her fingers through their hair to calm them. "It's okay, we're here, we'll keep you safe,"

"I thought they were going to hurt us," One young boy, he could have been more than seven or eight, cried, clinging to Mal's shirt.

"They wouldn't stop hurting Dizzy," A girl roughly the same age sniffled. Mal and Evie exchanged a worried look.

"You scared them away, Mal," The boy continued, "They didn't want to fight a dragon and they ran,"

"Let's see what happened," Mal said, starting to move towards the door, but the kids started crying harder.

"No! Don't leave. Don't,"

"I-I'm not," Mal couldn't walk with the way there were clinging to her, "It's okay, you don't have to go back inside. We'll be safe out here," She looked to Evie, "Go on without me. I'll make sure the guys are okay,"

Evie nodded, running into the manor. The boys were helping Dizzy onto one of the longer couches when Evie burst into the room. The blood on her face and staining her collar and shirt didn't look good.

"Dizzy!"

"Evie, hey," Dizzy plastered on a smile.

Evie dropped next to her, pulling her bag open coming out with a deep red potion.

"Drink,"

"Save that for when you really need it,"

"If you don't drink, I'll force it down your throat,"

Dizzy contemplated the threat for a few seconds before taking the potion and unstopping it. She drank half of it, pushing it back into Evie's hands. Even with a little more than a mouthful Dizzy felt the pain ease in her chest.

"Dizzy, all of it,"

"I'm fine,"

"You're obviously not,"

"I could be worse,"

"You could be dead," Evie said as she gently pulled her broken glasses off. She wiped the blood away from her face, inspecting the gash above her eye.

"Head wounds bleed a lot, it looks worse than it is," Dizzy reassured her.

"D, what the shit?" Mal appeared next to Evie, a few kids still clinging to her sides.

"Unfortunately we can't all have scale armour permanently built-in. But you should see the other guy," Dizzy joked.

"Deflection as a coping mechanism," Mal drawled, "Mature,"

"I learnt from you,"

"I don't deflect,"

"That's true, you don't deflect. You avoid,"

Mal glared at Dizzy, "If you didn't look half dead already I might kill for that,"

"M," Evie chastised softly, "Dizzy, what happened?"

Dizzy explained everything in detail, going through the extra facts she'd learnt, how many people were there, the details on the masks she saw. Milo and Emu supplied details about what happened downstairs when they were first attacked. While they'd been recounting the story they gave the kids in the attic the all-clear to come out and asked them to pack some things for an overnight bag. There was no way they were letting these kids stay in the manor after it just got attacked. Especially not without Florianna. Evie also informed Ben the staff bearer had escaped before they got there. He shifted the first responders from going directly to the manor to searching the area around it on the off chance they teleported to somewhere close by.

"And, I think it's safe to say that whoever is behind this isn't a VK," Dizzy finally finished.

"Are you sure?" Evie asked.

"Not 100%," Dizzy said, "But I tricked them into thinking the other kids weren't here by selling them a bullshit story about an annual camping trip. They ate up. Even mentioned they didn't come across a camping trip in their 'research',"

"Research?" Mal echoed.

Dizzy nodded, "If they had to research us, that means they don't know us,"

"And they're not VK's," Evie summarized.

"Here's the kicker. They referred to me as the Granddaughter of Lady Tremaine. When talking about you two it was Evil Queen's daughter and daughter of Maleficent, which sounds like how someone from Auradon would refer to us,"

"You're right," Mal paced back and forth, two kids who were clinging to her tripping over themselves to keep up with her. When she noticed they were stumbling she stopped, putting a hand on one of their heads in a comforting gesture, "D, go over the blood traitor thing again,"

"Called VK's traitors for coming to Auradon and 'betraying our parents'," She did air quotes around the latter statement.

"They also have one hell of a complex about what a villain's legacy means," Celia added.

Milo snorted, "I'd say it's about five complexes rolled into one,"

"On three, one, two, three!" They heard from outside. Their group exchanged a look, before going to the back entrance. From the doorway they could see some of the kids trying to move Florianna.

"Hey, hey, hey," Mal called, running down to them, "What are you doing?"

"It's going to be dark soon," One said, arms around Florianna's waist, uselessly trying to pull from the ground, "We can't leave her outside,"

"Yeah, what if starts to rain?"

"She wouldn't want to stay in dark all by herself. She told me she doesn't like the dark. She always comes into my room before lights out to make sure they night light is there. It's because she doesn't like the dark," It was a full on sob coming from the kid nod.

Mal sighed, gently pulling the kids away from Florianna's stiff from, "Hey, it's okay," She hug the crying kid, "We're going to help Flori, I promise,"

"We're not going to leave her,"

"It's safest to leave her here right now, until we can fix her," Mal said, "And Florianna wouldn't want you all out here in the cold because of her," She cleaned the kid's face with her sleeve, "Come on, everyone, inside. Florianna will be okay,"

Mal saw the kids inside, looking at the others standing the doorway.

"We can't go to the Isle until we know these kids are safe," Evie said.

"Yeah," Mal sighed, "I know,"

"Wait, you're going to the Isle?" Dizzy asked.

"Yeah, we were planning to leave in a couple hours," Mal said.

"Why?"

"We can't get the wand," Evie said, "So we need to find a magical relic as strong as the staff. Our best lead is Hades' ember,"

"I don't think Hades will just hand that over," Dizzy said.

"I may have a plan for that," Mal said, "The real issue will be figuring out where he keeps it hidden. I don't know where Hades has his place, but someone must know and we still have a few people who owe us favors,"

"Oh that's easy," Celia said, "I know where Hades is," Everyone looked at her. "I'd run earns for him,"

"You?" Mal questioned, "How long did you work for him?"

She shrugged, "Since I was nine, ten,"

"Alright you can tell us where to go,"

"You have to take me,"

"Not happening," Mal said, "Too dangerous,"

"You realize I've spent more time on the Isle than you have," Celia counter.

"No one knows the Isle like we do," Mal said.

"Isle's changed a lot in last few years. You walk onto those streets now and you'll be made in seconds,"

"Kid, we can handle ourselves,"

"I'm not a kid,"

"Mal, it might not hurt to have someone who knows the Isle now," Evie said.

Mal looked at her, hundreds of words passing between them silently.

"Alright," Mal said, "But, we're in charge. What we say goes,"

"Sounds good to me," Celia perked up.

"Hey, I'm serious. You have to listen to us. None of that loose cannon going on your own shit you pulled back at Sixth Circle,"

With an annoyed sigh Celia nodded, "Fine. Whatever,"

Then, they all heard what might have been the most absurd noise to hear after all of the day's events. The doorbell. It was so random and outplace they all stared at each other until it rang again.

"Who the fuck?" Milo asked, voicing the words that were in everyone's minds.

"Jay and Carlos?" Dizzy suggested.

"When have Jay and Carlos ever used a doorbell?" Evie said.

"No one coming to attack us again would be stupid enough to ring a doorbell, right?" Emu asked.

"You guys stay here," Evie said as she nodded to Mal. Together they went to the door. Mal lit a small ball of fire in hand, while Evie reached for a potion in her bag. Mal looked through the peephole and was so taken back by who she saw she didn't even give Evie warning before opening the door.

"Audrey?"

"Hi, oh I wasn't actually expecting too-Oh, your hand is on fire,"

Mal looked at her palm like she was surprised to see it still on fire. She shook out the flames.

"Are you okay?" Audrey asked, leaning in slightly to see behind Evie and Mal. The first floor had been trashed by the events of the way, namely the hallway to the kitchen which could be seen from the main foyer.

"Why are you here?" Mal asked, "Wait," Her guarding going up again, "Are you really Audrey?"

"I- yes? I'm sorry. I know this is weird. But I tried messaging you and Ben," She said looking to Evie, "But you didn't get back, which is understandable. I know we didn't really keep in contact after university. I didn't know where you lived now and I thought this would be my best bet, which evidently it was,"

Evie held up a hand to stop her, "Audrey, it's been a bit of a day for us. Why are you here?"

"Right. Um, so I might know who stole the scepter,"

How does Audrey play into all this? And I know I promised the Isle soon, but the last two chapters both got spilt because they got too long. But we'll get there. Soon.

Nardragon- until the next page.