Heya Descendants!

Twisted here, because Dark is busy editing chapters because she has probably figured out that I don't when post them…*Dark literally just said accurate, so her deduction skills are on point* Thanks FC for the critique on 'Look Before You Leap', you are an angel for getting me out of that. I hate editing with a passion. A deep burning passion that would make the sun ashamed of itself…. But, anyways, here to deliver another delicious chapter for you amazing readers out there. Dobby, we never know how you respond so damn quickly, but your enthusiasm always amuses the shit outta us. We hope you enjoy this latest installment! It's one of Darks favorites!


A few days later...

Hyades sighs as she slumps into her bed and haphazardly tosses her pen and paper in front of her.

She couldn't get over the way Mal reacted to her hug. It wasn't something she normally did; certainly wasn't a go-to with most people. Even she'd been shocked when she hugged Mal.

Just like Mal.

Hyades scrunches her nose at the two images she couldn't reconcile. Mal was usually so sharp and distant, cool and blank. Usually, nothing shook her.

As much as she wished she could unsee it… She couldn't. And her only reason for wanting to forget was knowing how angry Mal was going to be at her.

That look made her chest hurt. And she wasn't going to let it go. Mal wanted that kind of contact. She just didn't want to admit it, didn't want to look weak.

She sticks the pen in her mouth as she looks down at the blank sheet of paper in front of her. Its blankness was taunting her, telling her that no matter what she wrote it wouldn't change anything.

She snorts and shakes her head, when did she become a pessimist?

She sighs as she looks around to the other empty beds in the room. As much as she loved being alone, being alone in the huge hideout was… Lonely. And recently she'd figured out the difference. She hated feeling lonely.

She just couldn't find the words to tell Mal it was okay to need people. To enjoy touch and find comfort in it. It had taken her family so long to reach her on the same subject, and she'd never cared about looking weak.

With a sigh she leans over the paper; no way to get started without starting right?

Mal,

I'm not the best with words unless they're written, so I hope you don't mind letters. I know you would never, ever want me to know this. So, after reading this, consider me uninformed if you never want to talk about it again.

There, Mal was the kind of person who needed an out if something was too much for her to deal with right then.

I just wanted you to know, as much as I also don't like to admit it, liking hugs really isn't a big deal. It's okay to sometimes need others. I had to learn that the hard way, so I'm sure you will too.

Her breath hitches in her throat. Uma. Gil. Harry. Even T. They'd been the ones to drive that lesson home for her.

I just… I couldn't leave this alone without letting you know, if you ever just need another one, I'll be around, no questions asked.

I really do believe you're a great leader and though I messed up by not being honest with you or myself in the beginning, I'm trying to avoid making the same mistake again.

So, yeah. That's all this is. Take it or leave it. No judgment either way. And no one else will ever hear it from me.

D

Hyades takes a deep breath as she leans back against the faded blue pillow Evie made for her. Maybe she should try to write to everyone, it was a lot easier to get all the words out when she didn't have to watch reactions or worry about what they would think.

She looks up at the skylight, frowning at how dark it was. If she was going to go talk to Yensid, she should probably get going.

She also needed to swing by the temple so she could grab more tablets, and ask Pain and Panic if they would mind making more and delivering them to the school. She'd told Mal she wouldn't go back, but if she was thinking of writing to the king again, even if it was just for the sake of habit, she wanted to make sure she stuck to the same writing medium.


The next morning...

"Hey Deez?" Jay calls out as he walks into the hideout. She was usually the only one here this early, which suited him and the conversation he needed to have with her just fine. "Ya got a minute?"

"Sure?" Deez grimaces as she shoves her letter into a pocket of Mal's jacket.

Jay arcs an eyebrow as she rushes out of Mal's space, but decides not to comment on it, "So uh, look, I know we've been a little…"

"At odds?" Deez hesitantly offers with a small smile.

"Yeah." Jay rubs the back of his neck, "that. But I just wanted to make sure you know we're happy you're here." He shoves his hands into his pockets as he sighs.

"Thank you?" Deez half chuckles as she slowly moves closer to her 'room', "I do know, and I don't expect you guys to do anything different just because of me."

Jay rolls his eyes, "Well that's dumb." He pulls himself up on a table and kicks a chair out in front of him expectantly.

Deez furrows her brow as her eyes dip to the offered seat. She sighs, but answers his silent summons, "Ok… So why is that dumb?" She asks as she slides into the chair.

"Because having you here, fully here is different." Jay crosses his arms over his chest and rolls his eyes, "Look, I ain't a talker, or a feels guy, but even I know that groups change with every new member. When it was just me and Mal, we butted heads and yelled at each other," He grins as he looks into the distance before he shakes his head, "and that worked for us. Then Carlos joined and we toned it down because, I mean it's Carlos, it got old seeing him jump every few seconds." He purses his lips to the side, "And if you think things didn't change when Evie joined, you're wrong."

"But I don't want you guys to change because of me." Deez frowns, "It's not like you all had a choice in this either."

Jay narrows his eyes and leans closer to her, "You listen to me D." He points an accusing finger at her, "What makes you think that changes anything for us?" He scoots closer to the edge of the table, "We wanted you to join up, and of course we didn't want it to happen like this, but that doesn't change that we wanted it."

"I know-"

"I ain't done." Jay snap, leaning so far forward that Deez presses against the back of her chair, "we knew bringing you in would take some adjustments all around. Not just for us, but you too." He sighs and wipes his hand down his face, "Dammit D. We know you. Well enough to know you see things differently than we do. You feel things even though you don't want to admit it." His eye twitches as he realizes just how blind he'd be in this conversation if it wasn't for his secret meetings with Harry, "And that's, you know, okay.

"Because you know you all feel things even though you don't want to admit it?" Deez asks as she continues to stare Jay down, "Or because you think I feel more than you do?"

"D. Come on. You know I ain't the first to say you care too much, and cause a lot of your own suffering."

Deez chuckles humorlessly as she crosses her arms and looks away, "I guess that's fair."

Jay chuckles at her small pout, "Come on now, don't be like that."

"I'm not being-" Deez lets out a frustrated sigh as she drops her arms to her sides, "I just, I don't know what I'm doing anymore."

Jay shrugs as he lets out a breath, "Well, it won't happen overnight, but eventually, I'm sure you'll figure it out. Just because some shit changed doesn't mean ya have to, ya know, change too. Just adjust."

"Got it." Deez smiles as she stands as well, "So, we're good right?"

Jay's shoulders drop as he chuckles, "Yeah we're good." He ruffles her hair.

"Cool." Deez backs up a few steps before she turns and hops onto her bed.

"So, what are you up to today then?" Jay rolls his eyes at her easy dismissal. This was more the D he knew.

"Well, everyone seems to think I should start sending letters again," She shrugs as she pulls a stone tablet into her lap, "So I thought I-"

"Did you make more of those things?" Jay narrows his eyes at her old form of writing.

"Uh," Deez looks down at the tablet in her lap before she sighs, "no. I picked up more from…" Her voice trails off as Jay stomps closer.

"D!" Jay groans in exasperation, "You went back to the temple!"

"Uh… Well yeah…" Deez slowly answers before she rushes to explain, "But I went really late last night so I could talk to Pain and Panic without running into my dad."

"But Mal told you not to go back." Jay points out harshly, "You have to listen to Mal. You're not on your own anymore, so you can't just go off and do whatever you want anymore!"

"I can't go home? Why?" Deez snaps, "You guys go home every night! I just went to pick some stuff up."

"It's not that D. You went back without telling us. Mal said not to go back."

"Mal actually said she didn't want me hiding out in the maze of tunnels underneath. Which I didn't." Deez points out before she shakes her head, "I don't understand why you're mad at me."

Jay narrows his eyes, was that what Mal said? He couldn't remember her words exactly, just the relief he felt at knowing D wouldn't go back. "Look, you said you avoid the place, so you going back was a change. And you went alone, without telling anyone. That's the problem here."

"Mal doesn't care what I do as long as I get caught making her look good, and not caught doing anything that would come back badly on her."

Jay shoots her a look of disapproval, his mouth opening before he snaps it shut. "You'll get used to her communication skills- Or rather lack of," he sucks his teeth before he pops his lips and continues. "But she does care, in her own way, about what you do." Well, this was more difficult to balance than he'd first thought. It was frustrating. He wanted to throttle her for being so unnecessarily reckless… But he didn't want her to know what they knew.

Deez tilts her head to the side as she stares Jay down, "So, you both care about when I go home?"

Jay looks away, "I always care about when any of you go home. But if they don't, Cruella and EQ become twice as shitty. And then everyone loses. When you first joined ya asked to sleep here, and with your games with T, we just kinda assumed you didn't have to go back…"

"I do have to go home when he notices I'm not there."

Jay narrows his eyes, "And, how often is that really Deez?"

Deez shifts on the bed, turning her back on Jay as she sets her tablet down on the box beside her bed, "When he wants something. Isn't that how it is for all of us?"

"Everyone has a different experience with their OV, Deez." Jay sighs as he looks away. "Some of us need to be home every night, for something or another… So if you can get away from him for a couple of weeks," He shrugs, "Why wouldn't you?"

"That still doesn't explain why you're so mad." Deez sighs as she looks back up at him.

Jay takes a deep breath. "I'm mad because Mal is probably going to be pissy about this, and it's my ass that gets chewed out over shit like this."

"Why? No one was here. You know I go see Yensid at night, why-" Deez narrows her eyes as she jumps up from the bed to face Jay, hiding her hands behind her back, "You know…"

"Of course I do." Jay rolls his eyes.

"How?"

"Because we all go through shit, Deez."

Deez stomps her foot, "But everyone else gets to go home without getting yelled at."

"Because there are worse repercussions when they don't. And unlike your father, their OV's are quick to notice their absence." Jay narrows his eyes, something about the current conversation was throwing him off.

Deez snorts inelegantly as she crosses her arms in front of herself, "If my father wants something, where I am doesn't matter. He finds me. Every time. So just stop." She stops, as if realizing for the first time she'd been shouting, before continuing in a lower tone, "I'd rather get it over with than be hunted down and have to do it in front of anyone, or worse have him bust down the hideout."

Jay lets out a heavy sigh, as he rubs the back of his neck. "I guess… That's understandable…" It's not like they would be able to do a damn thing to stop it. Senior may not be able to scorch things anymore, but he still had inhumane strength. Even with what they knew, it wasn't within his capacity to do anything to stop it, no matter how much he wanted to. It was Carlos and Evie all over again, and it made his chest hurt. He was no match for an OV, especially one that could crumble columns.

"Right." Deez sighs as she drops her arms to her side, "Do you actually know, or are you Jay assuming?"

Jay shrugs, "Doesn't matter, you've already-"

"It does though." Deez snaps.

"You've already confirmed it." Jay lifts a brow. Hm. He hadn't realized she had gotten angry. By now she usually had flames flickering to life up and down her arms.

"I didn't confirm anything!" Deez glares, "I realized you knew something, now I'm asking how."

"Now who's jumping to assumptions?" Jay shoots back. "I can connect dots too, ya know. You barely ever talk about yourself in conversations."

"So? No one does."

"Exactly." He crosses his arms, "We know better than to just assume you're some untouchable princess. You're not the only one in our gang ya know."

"But that's exactly what the rest of the isle thinks! And I've never done anything to change the rumor."

"Well we're not the rest of the isle, are we. I had a hunch. I went with it. And here we are..."

"You assumed…" Deez gestures for him to continue.

"That nothing on the isle is ever what it appears to be."

"But you know what happens…" Deez frowns.

"And? I know what happens to everyone. That's kinda part of my job as the second."

"But you don't go out to the temple, and no one else knows-" Deez sighs and throws her hands in the air, "Whatever." she snaps as she turns away.

"No. Not whatever." Jay frowns as he reaches out to catch her arm. "He didn't mean to. It was just fall out from getting into a fight with Atilla."

Deez snatches her arm away from Jay, her eyes wide as she backs away, "Wonderful! You know about that too!"

He rolls his eyes, "And? We've always known that Atilla tries to recruit you." This had certainly not gone the way he expected at all. He wasn't used to her anger being targeted at him. Great. Now he had three disgruntled girls to deal with. Just, great.

"Never in person." Deez chokes as her back slammed into the wall behind her, shaking the whole room, "That was a first." She continues before she pops her hands over her mouth.

"Huh. I didn't know that..." Jay's frown slowly crooks into a wicked smirk, "You joinin' must've pissed him off." Amusement laced in his tone.

Deez rolls her eyes as she crosses her arms in front of her chest, leaning against the wall as if that had been her plan all along, "Like I care if that pissed him off. And it's worse that you thought he'd spoken to me before that, so I guess it's not the worst thing for you to find out."

"Well we knew him and Cora had been trying to recruit you. We didn't know it was his underlings doing his bidding." He rolls his eyes. "Fucking pussy was probably too afraid you'd fry him crispy."

"Maybe that's why T hasn't wanted it to get out that I can control it." Deez frowns, but then her eyes narrow and she looks back up at Jay, "You're still a dick for not answering me."

Jay rubs the back of his neck, "Yeah, usually." He could understand her frustration. They'd talked in circles for a good ten minutes. He wasn't too thrilled with himself either. T was going to be so fucking pissed when D found him.

She sighs, "I'm not asking for permission to visit Pain and Panic, and I will never hide here if my father is looking for me," She glares, "just so we're on the same page."

Jay presses his tongue against his teeth. "Can't the imps just deliver stuff to you once a month, and play fetch for the old man?"

"I did ask them to do that for me," Deez shrugs, "I'm just being clear."

"Like glass. Got it." He holds up his hands defenselessly. "Can't argue with that logic, and this is too close too… Caring, I guess, for Mal's liking so you're stuck with me."

"You say that like it's a bad thing." Deez rolls her eyes before she ducks around him and plops back on her bed.

"Do we know the same Mal? She'd rather impale herself than utter even a whisper of something nice, ninety percent of the time. Let alone with something so personal."

"I meant the stuck with you part." Deez rolls her eyes, "Now, did you come here solely to pick a fight with me, or did you have something else you needed."

"Wasn't my goal to pick a fight." Jay resists the urge to roll his eyes. "I just came here to talk to you, and then I saw those stupid tablets."

"Hey!"

"You're writing isn't stupid. It's you getting them I find stupid. Are we clear?"

"That you find stupid things stupid, sure, we're clear," Deez says defiantly.

Jay groans. He was so bad at this. It sucked. Why did she have to question his motives so much? Didn't she know how much they cared about her? Or did they have to spell it out like the overly extra Sea Three… Cause he doubted that was ever going to happen. This was going to be a shit show, he was just sure of it. "Close enough." He sighs. "It's not like I could stop you anyway."

"I'm-" Deez snaps before she sighs. She looks up at him before she bites at her bottom lip, "I'm sorry." She finishes in a much softer tone.

Jay lifts his brow at the sudden one-eighty, his eyes narrowing suspiciously. Evie usually said sorry right before she would blow up again. Then again, the tones seemed a lot different. And this was a much more serious discussion rather than getting into an argument that shoes didn't have to match.

"I'm still figuring this out, Jay. I don't mean to snap, or attack." She pulls her knees up to her chest and hugs herself.

"I get that Deez, just get that we are too. We get this was hard. Even Mal is pissed about it. Her mom overstepped on her out of spite."

"She's got three favors… Well, two now." Deez shrugs, "I'm sure she's just testing me.":

"And she wasted them on you in our teens?" Jay scoffs, "Come on, it's not like there's any chance of getting out of here anytime soon." He rolls his eyes, "Why not wait till your more powerful to call you on that shit."

"Because she knows what my father has me do, and I'm sure her next favor is going to be her telling me I have to make a deal with him or something so she can get out."

Jay rolls his eyes, "You're not a fucking genie. You can't make the impossible happen. Why the fuck can't the OVs just accept we're stuck in this shit hole till we're dead. Might as well make the best of it." He shrugs.

A slow, small smile twitches at the corners of Deez's lips before she turns away.

Jay narrows his eyes suspiciously. "Or at least wouldn't." He says slowly. "You wouldn't do that to the isle. You can't even burn one of us without losing your shit and running away for weeks. Fuck only knows what heavy ass guilt would weigh your ass down if you sic the bastards on an unexpecting Auradon. Not like they wouldn't deserve it, but still… Can't see you doin' it."

"You're right," Deez shrugs without looking back, "I won't."

"Pretty often too, though people choose to ignore that." He grumbles childishly, as he crosses his arms.

"It scares me that I could though," Deez admits heavily.

Jay shrugs, "Doesn't scare me." He states surprised by how much he meant it. "You always do the right thing Deez, even if not everyone agrees with it. Obviously." For being so sensitive, she could be pretty logical when push came to shove.

"Could you not tell anyone though?" Deez bites at her bottom lip as she rubs her hands together slowly, as if washing them clean, "I really don't want anyone else to know that I'm the only thing standing between them and my father raining destruction down on the isle."

"Sounds good to me," Jay shrugs, doing his best to sound like he was agreeing with her while knowing there was at least one other person he was going to share the information with, "Fuck anyone knowing that shit." He runs his hand through his hair.

"Thanks." When she looks back to Jay, her eyes are overly bright and glassy.

Jay sighs, looking around the empty room before he walks over and envelops her in a hug so her head rested against his chest. "No problem. And for the record, this didn't happen this time or future times. It stays between us. I don't wanna hear Mal."

Deez quickly wraps her arms around him and nods, hiding her face in the scratchy fabric of his shirt as she cries.

Jay's hand cup the back of her head as his other hand rubs her back. It wasn't like he didn't do the same for E and Carlos when they needed it


It's so fluffy I'mma die, right?

What did you guys think? Would you have written that letter to Mal? I personally wouldn't myself, but it was a damn cute sentiment, right?

And then the scene between Jay and Deez? Do you agree with Jay? That Deez was naive to expect everything to stay the same with their new dynamics, or last least not want them to change for her? Did the sweetness hurt your teeth? Or make you sigh with relief?

What did you think of Deez's confession that she could release Senior? That's a lot of responsibility to rest on any teen's shoulders. Would you be so uncertain if it was you? Or would you have a more solid stance on the situation?

If the truth comes to light, how do you think the other VK's will respond till D's dilemma?

It's rare that the Core so openly display emotions. Did we do a good job to keep Jay's characters integrity while writing this one?

We try to demonstrate how black and white bleeds into grays on the isle. We've been curious. Nature vs. Nurture. What really makes a villain. Do you see any of these kids following the OV's footsteps? If so which ones?

With much anticipation, love, and appreciation

-Twisted

Thanks Dobby for the first suggestion! Let us know what you think of the songs for Mal.

Also, here's the rest of them.

Trouble-Pink

You Call me a Bitch like it's a Bad Thing- Halestorm

Natural- Imagine Dragons

Control-Halsey

Everybody wants to rule the World- Lorde

Stupid Girls- Pink

Beautiful Trauma- Pink

Please Don't Leave Me- Pink

Don't let me Get Me- Pink

18 Wheeler Truck- Pink

Pretty Girl- Maggie Lindemann

Whatever it Takes- Imagine Dragons

And as requested from FC here's the songs that inspire the one and only, Harry Hook! Dark has a whole list on youtube dedicated to just him.

One last drink- Enter the Haggis

Believer- Imagine Dragons

Don't threaten me with a good time- Panic at the disco

Victorious- Panic at the Disco

Bad Days- AJR

Bag Guy- Billy Eilish

For your Entertainment- Adam Lambert

Circus- Brittany- Brittany Spears

If you seek Amy- Brittany Spears

Sum of our Parts- Mary Lambert

I choose you- Sara Bareillis