Freddie sided up on Harry's left, "Who's Cedric's father?"

"M-My husband…"

Harry took the woman by the arm, "We know that's not true. So you want to try answering again?"

Carlos intervened, pulling off Harry.

"We still have to be bigger people here." He said.

"That's long gone out the window at this point."

"His father is my husband," She said again, "Winston is his father."

"You're not even convincing yourself with that lie." Dizzy said, "And it's easy to see your son couldn't come for you and your husband. The chances of you and your husband both having blue eyes while Cedric has dark eyes are impossible."

"Winston is the only father Cedric has known. That's his father."

"Is that what you told Cedric? Or did you tell him who his birth father really was?"

Mrs. Baker flinched.

"Did he know?" Harry asked again.

"I told him when he turned 20." She said in a whisper, "Please. My husband doesn't know who Cedric's real father is. I just told him it was a sailor who left me. I'm scared if he knows the truth he'd leave."

"What? Your husband wouldn't be able to stomach that you slept a villain? Or that you gave birth to one?" Harry spat out.

"Ceddy is a good boy!"

"Your Ceddy is turning people to stone. He wants us gone."

"Hold on, if Cedric is Hook's son, what does that mean?" Celia asked the room at large. "If he is a VK, why do they hate us?"

"Cedric was born before villains were banished to the Isle. He grew up here," Dizzy said.

Mrs. Baker nodded, not that it really needed to be said that this point.

"Assuming they're all children born to villains born before the isle, they all grew up without a parent because of that," Freddie said.

"He was so lonely as a child. I didn't know who his new friends were." Mrs. Baker whimpered, mostly to herself.

"Things are starting to make sense," Carlos said.

"Why they idolize the villains so much but hate the VKs." Dizzy covered her eyes, "They called us blood traitors. Why didn't I see it before?"

"You need to tell us where your son is," Freddie said to Mrs. Baker, "Or a lot more people could be hurt."

"My Cedric is a good boy," She said again.

Dizzy pushed Harry aside at this point. She pointed to her face. "Your son and his friends did this to me. They're willing to hurt children."

"I really don't know where he could be."

"If you can't tell us where he is, then you need to give us something that will help us."

"I-I don't-"

"Does he have a computer here?"

"In his room."

Carlos didn't wait for direction, pushing further into the house. "Dizzy, Celia, could you come with me?" They followed without a question.

Mrs. Baker started to move, but Harry pushed her back into her seat, "No. We're not done talking yet. I want to know everything you told your son about the old man."

The third doorway Carlos threw open gave them what they were looking for. A cluttered and dark bedroom. Not many signs of anyone living there currently, but enough personality remained that it was clear this room didn't belong to Mr. or Mrs. Baker.

"Is that a model of the Jolly Rodger?" Celia's face twisted.

Dizzy picked it up, "You can't just walk into a craft store and get this. He had to make it himself or commission someone to do it for him."

Carlos was already sitting at an old desktop in the corner, "Can you two look through the room. Look for a journal, notes. Anything that might give us useful information."

"We're on it."

"Leave it to us."

"If the Isle is that bad you should have said something. Someone should have said something," Evie said, putting the tray in her hands down.

"And what would you have done? You all seem pretty content with the lottery system. We see those stupid welcoming ceremonies on the Isle like we should be so grateful that we're allowed to leave a prison that wasn't meant for us."

"If I knew before I would have pushed harder for a better system."

Uma snorted, "So you weren't doing that already? What's was keeping you back? Too busy living your fairy tale ending with the dragon."

"Don't talk to me like that."

"You and the rest of you poster kids have obviously taken to the lifestyle here. Big jobs. Castles."

"We worked for those things and you don't get to lecture us about that. You were invited to Auradon."

"And yes, and just abandon the kids who couldn't protect themselves, like you did."

"We wouldn't have come to Auradon if our parents had pushed us with the plot to steal the wand. We didn't have a choice. And even if we did, we were kids then. We've been trying to do everything we can from here."

"Obviously not, if you say you could have done better."

"I've been trying to play the council's game." Evie's voice rose, tone sharp and ringing with a threat that it very rarely carried, "You know how the Isle works, but the politics here is a whole new minefield. To get anything, to get even one child here is ten hoops to jump through. A task that only got more difficult when you spelled the king."

Uma's face darkened, "Don't give me that bull, you hadn't brought over a single kid at that point. You'd forgotten about the Isle."

"We were kids. Maybe we did fuck up. Maybe we did get caught up in our new lives, but we're doing what we can now. If I had known kids were scared to apply I would have tried something sooner." Evie rubbed her brow, starting to mutter to herself "Trying to get more kids over at once is going to be a headache. What argument would work? What would work?"

"Wait, you're thinking about this now? Not when you promised me that all the kids would get off the Isle."

"I-" Evie looked at her, wide eyes.

"You lied to me about that."

"I didn't," She defended.

"Oh. So when were you doing it then? After your wedding?"

"I have been working my ass off. You're not the only one who cares about the kids. Just because I don't make my happiness secondary to everything else doesn't make me heartless."

"What's going on?" Mal stepped into the room, eyeing the tension with a nervous expression. She moved next to Evie, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"When were two planning on telling us you couldn't bring all the kids over?"

Mal exhaled heavily, "It's not that simple Uma."

"What's not simple about? Your mother's staff was just sitting in the museum, and was obviously, very easy to steal. You could have taken it whenever you wanted."

"Okay. And even if my mother's staff was strong enough to bring down the barrier, then what? We just have all the kids be fugitives for the rest of their lives. Is that what you want?"

"Anything is better than being prisoners."

"They would have just become another kind of prisoner, always on the run, hiding who they really are. That's no way to live."

"Maybe we need to take a breath," Ginny said, stepping in now, hands up to both sides, "If we start tearing at each other, there's going to be no left to fight for the kids."

Mal took another breath, "I came here to get all of you anyway. Carlos called. Turns out Cedric Baker is Hook's son. From before the Isle was made."

Uma's surprise was the most visible, "Harry had an older brother?"

"Wait, if this guy is a VK from before the Isle, then they all must be,"

"Or at the very least some of them are. Jay's already getting the vehicle. Carlos got a potential location. Baker ordered some packages from his home computer and the shipping address is in here in the city."

"Then let's go." Uma said, "The sooner we can wrap this up, the sooner I can get back to the Isle and the kids I need to protect."

Evie's clenched. She didn't move as Uma left the room. Ginny ran after Uma. Mal turned to Evie, cupping her face, "Hey, don't let her get to you. She doesn't have the whole picture."

"No. She's right. I've been letting the politics of Auradon get in the way of what I should be focused on. Helping the VKs."

"You have been helping them."

"Not good enough if there are kids afraid to come here because of what their parents might do."

"You couldn't have known that."

"If I'd been paying better attention to the Isle I would have. Instead, how many months have I wasted playing the politics?"

"Evie, you did that because you had to."

Evie shook her head, "Keeping kids safe should be a given, not a political ideal I need to play up."

"Keeping the kids safe is what we're trying to do right now." Mal reminded her, "Let's deal with the imminent threat now and well tackle everything else tomorrow."

"One small victory at a time…at what point did we start accepting the small victories?"

Mal didn't really know what to say, because at some point, some way, they had. At least when it came to the Isle.

Evie sighed, "How long until those victories get so small we're losing without realizing it?"

Uma didn't speak for the entirety of their journey. Evie was rather muted as well. Only Ginny and Mal seemed to pick up on their tension. If they weren't already keyed into it, it might have been difficult to pick up, with the way Jay and Gil dominated the conversation. They'd formed an uncanny relationship in their short time together. Gil had even managed to pull his older brother and Anthony into the conversation, even if they were more hesitant with their words.

"What's the plan boss?" Gil asked the first direct invitation for Uma to join the conversation as they observed their destination from a distance. They were sat outside their vehicle for twenty minutes, looking for any signs of movement in or out of the building. They hadn't seen anything yet.

"Looks pretty empty to me," Anthony said.

"Let's just go crush some heads." Two Tonne cracked his knuckles, "Between me, Gil and Jay we've got muscle to spare."

"Gee, good to know what you think of me, bud," Anthony said.

"I was just saying."

"Storming in on their home turf is asking for trouble." Uma said, "Do you have an idea, Mal?"

Mal was a bit taken back but the genuine interest in Uma's voice. "I do have one." She turned one of her pockets inside out, "I thought this might come in handy," She said pulling a ring out.

"Didn't you already do this?" Uma rolled her eyes.

"It belongs to Belle. Their family has a matching set. I'm hoping this is enough for a locate spell. And that we're close enough."

She closed her eyes, whispering the incantation. The ring hovered just above her palm, spinning, slowly at first, then fast enough to become a blur. Mal's eyes opened, glowing a deep green and fixed at a spot looking up. She closed her palm around the ring.

"He's here. And he's up." She said as her eyes returned to their normal colour. "Somewhere near the top floors, I'd guess."

"In that building?" Ginny asked.

"I think so. I didn't see him, I just know the general direction from me and its that way." She said pointing up at an angle.

"So how do you want to play this?" Jay asked.

"Making sure we get Ben out safely is our priority. But this is the best chance we have to get the staff. If we give up the element of surprise here, we may not get another chance like this."

"Then why don't we knock on the front door?" Ginny said. Everyone looked at her like she was insane.

"Didn't you hear what I just said?"

"I did. And thinking about everything we know about this enemy and everything I know about you." Ginny said, looking at Mal, "They've been gathering information on us and namely on you. One thing that's never your style is spilt your people up in a fight. Chances are they know this and if some of us go through the doors as loudly as possible that's going to draw attention they won't expect the rest of us to sneak in a backway. I say we let the muscle draw the attention while you take that fire escape to the roof." She pointed to the fire escape stairs snaking up the side of the building.

"If that's what Ginny thinks will work I'm in," Two Tonne said.

Anthony shrugged, "I'm good with any plan Gin goes for."

"M? E?" Jay asked looking at them.

"Whoever goes in loud is going to be taking a big risk," Mal said.

"Like any part of this isn't already a risk," Jay said.

"He's right," Gil nodded, "We know this is a fight. We're expecting to come away with some bruises."

"Okay, we'll split up, boys go in loud, the girls sneak up," Mal said.

"I'll go in with the loud team," Evie said without missing a beat.

"What? No," Mal looked at her.

Uma snorted, "Princess if you think I won't play nice because of what happened-"

"Not everything is about you Uma," Evie cut her off.

"Wait, what happened?" Gil asked.

Neither answered as Evie continued, "For this to work the loud team is going to need some magic with them. I have my potions and enough variety in those potions to make them think there's a dragon and a sea monster with us. At least for a little while. I make the most sense because you two are our strongest magic users and should stay together," She looked at Uma and Mal, "And you two work together damn well when you're willing to."

"But Evie," Mal started to argue. Evie placed two fingers over her lips, then replaced them with her own.

"I'll be fine."

"You can't promise that."

"I promised to marry you, didn't I?" She smiled and kissed her again, "I promise, nothing is happening to me. There's no way I'm going to miss out on planning my wedding."

"You better not, I know nothing about seating charts."

Evie laughed softly and leaned her forehead against Mal's, "Be safe."

"I promise," Mal whispered.

"Ugh, let's go," Uma said. She pulled Gil to the side, placing a fist on his chest. He grinned, a wide goofy grin and tapped his fist against her chest.

"I got this. Jay and my bro are with me."

"You better take care of him," Uma shot a look at Jay and Gil's brother.

"Again, I'm still here," Anthony groaned, shoving his hands in his pockets. Ginny bumped her shoulder with his.

"You better help keep the muscle heads in line. Don't let the Princess do all the work."

A half grin appeared on his face and he hugged her quickly.

Mal went up to Jay, placing a hand on his shoulder, "Keep her safe for me."

He laughed, "We both know it's going to be the other way around. Tell Ben I say hello and I'm expecting a hell of a party for saving his ass."

Their teams split up, Uma, Ginny and Mal sneaking to the side alley and boosting each other to reach the fire escape ladder. They were about halfway up the building when a huge fireball engulfed the front entrance. There was the sound of glass shattering and the vibrations shook the whole building. A few seconds later there was another explosion.

"Fucking hell," Ginny held onto the railing, "Your girl don't play around."

"Never bet against Evie. She always gets what she wants," She looked to Uma, "Always."

Uma stared back for a moment before pushing Mal to continue climbing.

"I get it. Alright. Give me this speech later please."

"She wasn't lying to you when she said we'd get all the kids over." Mal continued even as she climbed, "she just assumed we'd do it under the same circumstances we always have, getting a majority council on our side. But now that we know how bad things are for the kids, well, we'll figure out something. That's why she wanted you on our side. If we show Auradon VKs aren't villains, they'll be more open to telling them all off at once."

"And all the times you saved them before wasn't enough?" Uma snorted, "And what happened when it gets out this attack was also VKs?"

"As I said, we'll figure it out."

Another explosion shook the building, this time, originating higher in the structure from the sounds of it.

"At this rate, Evie's going to tear through the building before we even get a chance to do anything," Ginny said.

Mal crested the top of the building, putting a hand up to stop the others when she saw two guys leaning over the front of the building, probably drawn by the sounds from below. Mal held up a finger for each of them and pointed in their direction. Uma and Ginny nodded.

Silently they pulled themselves onto the roof. Ginny moved the fastest, jumping them bot. Grabbing one by the shoulders, she swung herself around him, kicking him backwards, towards Mal and Uma who grabbed him, pinning him to the floor. Keeping her momentum, Ginny used it to bring down the second guy, her arms locked around his neck.

Uma clutched her necklace and said a spell. The clothes on the men ripped and shifted, forming bindings over their limbs and mouth.

"Not bad, Ginny," Uma shot her a rare genuine smile.

"I'm not about to let you have all the fun with your spells," She winked as she smoothed her fly away hairs back into place.

Mal already had the door open and gestured to them both. In the stairway, she did a second locate spell, this one slightly different. The ring glowed this time and the glow drifted off the ring, hovering in the air before taking off like a dart. It moved straight down through the floor, forcing them to hurt to follow. She caught it drifting through the wall towards the floor below them and she burst through the doorway into a hallway. There were four guys here, standing guard in front of a door.

With a growl Mal charged towards them, fog taking over her body as she ran forward.

"Look up! Here comes the dragon!" One yelled.

The fog cloud swelled to take up the whole hall and from the other side, Mal burst through. Human Mal. She jumped right through the centre of their stunned group, rolling on the other side. From the fog, two tentacles emerged, dragged two back into the fog.

Ginny ran out, sweeping the feet out from under the third and tackling the forth.

"Go get the King!" Ginny yelled. "We have things handled here."

Mal nodded, running to the door they'd been guarding. It was locked, but reached inside her, drawing forth the flames that were always at her fingertips and the door burst open, knocked off its hinges.

"Mal? Mal!"

She never thought she'd be so happy to hear Ben's voice. He was tied to a chair, his cheek bruised, but his eyes were bright.

"I knew you'd come for me." He said.

"We need to talk about you getting better security," She said running to him, using a small flame to burn through the ropes on his hands, careful not to burn him.

"Mal, do you know what happened to my parents. Last thing I remember before they knocked me out was they were looking for them too. They've been threatening to hurt them."

Mal freed his arms and shifted to his feet, "Your mom's safe. She's at my place. Your dad…"

"What about dad?" He pressed when she didn't answer.

"He was turned to stone."

Ben took a heavy breath, "At least he's not dead."

As soon as was freed Mal pulled him to his feet, "I'm going to send you with Ginny to get out and Uma and I are going after the staff."

"Uma? Uma's here?"

"Yeah, so there are a few things we need to get you caught up on."

"Mal!"

That was Uma's voice. She turned to see her standing in the doorway before everything exploded. Dust blinded Mal and her breath was pulled from her lungs. Hitting the wall was a shock to every bone in her body.

For a few seconds, she felt like she was blind and deft, but slowly sight returned as did sound but it was with a sharp ringing in her ears.

"You just don't want to die, do you?" A frustrated voice said, cutting through the ringing pain. Mal looked around, trying to take stock of everything. She could see Uma and Ginny, both on their hands and knees before an invisible force pushed them against the floor. Ben was pinned under a piece of rubble.

"You could have been one of the greatest mages of your time, like your mother."

Mal looked up, into the face of a woman. Dark eyes and hair. Features she couldn't place, twisted, sharpened by the miasma floating around her and off the staff. Mal pushed herself off, spitting some blood out.

"I agree. I can be. And I don't need to be a villain to do it."

"You're lying to yourself if you think that. Auradon will always be scared of power. That's why they locked the villains away. And that's why I need to free them. To bring order back."

"You know, if you just wanted to see whichever parent you have behind the barrier I'm sure we could have arranged that. You didn't need to go through all this trouble."

Mal's body hit the wall and the pain exploded anew.

"So you know."

"That you and your friends are a bunch of VKs who had to grow up without your mommies and daddies? Yeah. Sorry to break it to you, they'd wouldn't give two shits about any of you. They didn't about us."

"You betrayed them." The staff twisted and Mal felt hot energy wrap around her neck.

"We're not our parents. We don't have to live like them."

Out of the corner of her eyes she saw Uma slowly getting up again. Uma met Mal's gaze and understanding passed between them. Ginny was starting to stir again too.

"You betrayed your mother!" The magic around Mal's neck cut off her air, growing even hotter.

Mal winched, instinctively trying to pull it away, but her hands just passed through.

"My mother betrayed me first." Mal shot back, "I was her daughter. Not another henchman. I just wanted a mom. Just like you wanted your parent."

"I'm going to make my father proud, unlike any of you failures."

"Your dad," Mal gasped, desperate to keep her talking and focused on her and not Uma and Ginny getting up behind her, "Who is he? I could tell you about him."

"I don't need you to tell me about my father. He was the most powerful sorcerer, even stronger than your mother. He was going to rule with his undead army, he'd show everyone what true power is."

"The Horned King," Mal guessed, "Him really? I didn't think his half-dead body could get up. Congrats to your mom, whoever she is for managing that task."

Pain. White, blinding pain. Everything was pain. For a moment Mal wondered if she'd just died. But then the pain dulled and she sucked sweet air into her lungs again. Catching her breath, she watched Uma and Ginny pin down the woman, Uma saying a spell that had her eyes glowing and the dust whipping around them. Ginny reached for the staff, but as she touched there was an explosion of magic. Uma and Ginny were knocked off, towards Mal.

They landed on top of each other.

"Full of tricks aren't you?" She said, using the staff to stand again.

Mal gave a shrug, "You had to be, to survive on the Isle. You don't know how lucky you were to be born in Auradon."

She snarled, "The others were the same. Tricks and deception. Nothing but petty half-baked failures, all of you. When I take care of you, like the others I'm going to find where you hid the rest of the VKs and make them suffer."

Mal felt her blood run cold. Ginny and Uma both stiffened next to her.

"What did you do to the others?" Ginny asked.

"Oh?" A smile twisted her features. "Do you want to see them?"

The staff glowed and the floor below the three of them crack, bowing inwards before falling away completely. They were free-falling.

Mal reached into her pocket, her fingers slipping around cool stone. As she touched it, it grew warm and flamed burst around the three of them. It was warm, yet didn't burn. It slowed their fall, not enough to stop the pain when they did hit the floor again, but they didn't have broken limbs. At least Mal hoped. She wasn't too sure from the way Uma groaned in pain.

"The fuck," She gasped.

"How far did we fall?" Ginny asked, rolling over to her hands and knees.

"A few floors at least," Mal guessed, managing to get her feet under her. She regretted it the moment she turned around and all her energy left her body.

Ginny and Uma had both stopped too, seeing what Mal did.

Closest to them was Gil, on the floor, hands up to shield his face. Jay's body was on top of his, half posed over him, half reaching out, fist clenched in a frozen punch. Two Tonne was a few feet behind, body stiff in a running pose. He was reaching down. Towards Gil. Anthony was standing next to him, arms raised to protect himself. Evie's arm was frozen, halfway out of her bag, a potion vile in her fingers. Something, some trick, to get them out of trouble. Something she'd been too slow with. Too slow stop them from turning to stone.

Finally, we get to some of the bits I've had planned from the very beginning of the story. I wrote this whole story to get to this part.

Nardragon- Until the next page.