This story is a collaboration with Harry Potter Fan 1994 and is being published on A03 and Fanfiction network in more broken-up segments.
s/13659496/1/Wrecked(Paste behind web address to find story.)
Wrecked
(Chapter 1)
Mal drew thick, dark lines into the wall mural of Jay. She focused particularly on the contour of his shoulders and long, streaky hair. Rain pattered down on the roof and rolled off into the streets below. The door onto the scaffolding was shut, and the window blockaded with cardboard and duct tape. Outside, it had been raining for two days. It was late October, so the precipitation was a mixture of dirty water and grey slush. God bless the barrier for preventing air circulation and giving everyone on the Isle garbage-infused rain.
They weren't freezing, mostly thanks to Evie who made their clothes and kept them warm, and Jay for hauling cardboard and tin sheets on top of their roof to help seal it up. Mal had been layering for the last three days. Tank top on long-sleeve shirt on short-sleeved shirt on Evie's special Isle jacket. Carlos, Jay, and Evie were also layering. Right now, her team was huddled in a small spread of ratty blankets amid the few mattresses they'd managed to pilfer. Carlos was fiddling with one of his gadgets, Evie was embroidering something, and Jay had leaned back, pulled his beanie over his eyes, and gone to sleep.
As Mal added a vibrant blue color over the emblem on Jay's jacket, she heard a panicked gasp from behind. She spun with the spray can outstretched and stared at Carlos, who was looking around in surprise. Both Evie and Jay looked equally surprised.
"Did you guys hear that?" Carlos asked in shock.
"Hear what?" Jay asked. He looked around the apartment suspiciously. Mal studied the look on Carlos's face. He looked amazed as he searched for the source of the sound he'd heard. A sense of dread spread throughout her stomach.
"It was a girl," Carlos said, sounding amazed. "She asked, 'what's your name?'"
Mal had to swallow a gulp as she lowered the spray can and pressed her arms to her sides to stop them from shaking. "No one said anything, Carlos," she said softly. "You probably imagined it."
"Or it could have been your soulmate." Evie shrugged, setting down your project. "Did you get kind of a warm or a cold feeling along your spine?"
"Yeah." Carlos nodded. "Yeah, I did. What's a soulmate?"
"Just your other half." Jay waved the question away, sitting back like everything had been resolved as Mal's grip grew increasingly tight on the can. "It's not as big as it's cracked up to be."
"I think they're wonderful." Evie's eyes turned dreamy. "I haven't had my first contact yet, but I'm sure they'll be royalty from Auradon!"
Jay snorted. "Yeah, whatever," he scoffed. "It's not automatic True Love, Evie. A soulmate is more like… your best shot at a best friend."
Carlos leaned forward, listening to every word. "What do they do? Who are they?" he asked.
"It's someone who you connect with better than any other person in existence," Jay said. "Almost everyone has one. If you get really in-tune with yours, you can actually start sharing thoughts and senses, but that's extremely rare. Most people just get to talk with theirs mentally every once in a while. You usually hear them for the first time when you're twelve to fourteen, but evidently with some people it happens a bit later." He leaned over and pinched Evie's arm, who yelped.
"You have one then?" Carlos asked. "A soulmate?"
"Yeah." Jay nodded. "I heard mine almost two years ago, back when I was thirteen. She's a girl. We talked swords for a few seconds." And, like clockwork, they looked up at Mal, who had to fight to keep the telltale colors of sickness off her face. "Do you know yours, Mal?" Jay asked.
Mal stared with wide eyes and a cold began to creep down her spine. For a moment, she thought it was dread, but then she felt her soulmate's tentative emotions creep through her and realized it was actually their connection opening. Horrible timing. She panicked. "I don't have a soulmate," she said quickly. "I've never felt a connection like what you're describing." There. Clever words.
Against her will, a deep and resounding sense of betrayal filled her. She turned back to the wall and arced the spray paint over her mural.
"Why would you say that?" her soulmate asked. "That's hurtful." Mal bit her lip as she tried to shove his feelings away like they were her own, but unfortunately, he was much more accepting of his emotions than she was. She didn't know how to explain that her own connection was unlike anything she'd ever heard about and it freaked her out. She didn't know how to tell him that she had never felt the things he felt on a daily basis and they scared her every time their connection randomly opened. She did know, however, to tell him to quit doing that in as commanding a tone as she could. It rarely worked .
"It's a weakness. An abnormality. They could tell someone." Mal said in a brash, stubborn tone. Not just someone, of course. If this information ever found its way back to her mother, who knew what would happen? Maleficent, the Mistress of Evil, had never had a soulmate and felt nothing but disdain for those who did. The words "weakness" and "abnormality" had fallen straight out of the Dark Queen's mouth. She was powerful, she had told Mal, because she didn't have some pathetic fool attached to her like nearly everyone else. And, she had pointed out, more people lacked soulmates on the Isle than anywhere else. To have a soulmate… it was a characteristic associated with Auradon and heroes and everything good in the world. The thought that her own daughter could have such a trait - it was too shameful to consider.
"So what?" he asked, just as stubbornly. Mal felt anger, hot and fierce, spike through her. She couldn't tell if it was hers or his. The more they talked, the more the emotions blurred. She heard his voice in her ears like he was standing next to her. His emotions ran under her skin in an icy stream that seemed to warm her up as it rushed by. It was strange.
"So, I don't want to get beaten up because my soulmate and our whole connection is super freaky," she snapped. It wasn't just an insult. Most people had their first connection when they were twelve or thirteen, like Jay had said, but she'd had hers at the age of five. As she'd gotten older, they'd had more and more full-length conversations, which was practically unheard of. And despite that, he was secretive. She didn't know his name, his age, his parents, anything about him. Mal wondered if he was the son of a minor villain and was embarrassed by that. She could let slip who her mother was and lord it over him, but she didn't want to give him the satisfaction of finding out things about her when she knew nothing about him.
"Who would beat up someone because of their soulmate? And besides, our connection's just different because -" He stopped talking abruptly.
"Because...?" she asked with a furrowed brow. Realization began to dawn in her head. He knew. His guilt crept through her spine; cold and condemning. "You know?" she sputtered. "You know what's wrong with us?"
"Nothing's wrong with us," he corrected. Indignation began to build in her heart.
"Oh really? So everybody blabs to their soulmate as much as you do?" She looked back up at the mural on the wall and realized her eyes had started to glow as she aggravated herself more and more. She quickly calmed herself down before her friends could notice.
She directed her attention to him. He had noticed something that was making him uneasy.
"It's because you have magic," he said quietly. "Really strong magic. Am I right?"
She blinked. That hadn't been at all what she was expecting. "Is that a problem?" He must have felt the power surging behind her eyes - an all too common occurrence, as anger was a very common emotion on the Isle. Mal wondered how he knew that he'd been feeling the effects of magic. Fascinating.
"No, not at all. It's just… I think that's why our connection is so strong. I thought it was ..." he paused. Her irritation grew into frustration. The Isle of the Lost's barrier suppressed all magic within its borders. Yet somehow, even though she couldn't use it, she got all the awful side effects. Side effects like him.
"Whatever," she thought to him, officially done playing host to this mysterious voice for today. "Whatever, whatever, whatever." Then she screwed her eyes closed, focused, and threw him out of her mind. The chill faded in her spine. She felt a sense of accomplishment at being able to shut the door between them, even though she knew it would now be a few more weeks before she'd have the opportunity to wrench any more answers from him. That, and the next time they talked, their connection would be stronger. It always was when they learned new things about each other or about the connection. She wondered what would be different this time. Maybe she'd actually be able to shut his emotions out of her system as she could with hers?
"Jay," Carlos said, pulling her attention back to her friend's conversation. "How can I talk to my soulmate again?"
Mal groaned internally. If this was their conversation for the next hour, she was going to scream.
(Chapter 2)
The first time she'd heard that fuzzy voice, Mal had been throwing rocks at Drizella's window as a kid. Jay had been right beside her, snickering and ducking whenever a pebble rebounded on the cracked glass. She had picked up a sizable stone, wondering if it would be the one that would shatter the window, and a cold feeling began to creep up her spine. She'd paused mid-throw.
"Hello? Can you hear me?" The voice sounded distorted, as if it were coming from the old TV in her house. She'd been told it wasn't clear because of "bad reception", whatever that meant. Sometimes it was hard to understand the words and she had to turn the volume all the way up - but right now, there was no TV in sight. This sound was coming from everywhere and nowhere at once.
"Who said that?" she wondered out loud.
Jay turned to look at her funny. Before he could reply, there was an explosion from above. His rock had finally broken Drizella's window. Jay was showered with glass, and he yelped in pain. While Mal laughed at him, the cold feeling disappeared and she thought nothing of it for months.
The time after that, though, she had been alone.
"Hello? Are you there? It's me again!"
Six-year-old Mal had nearly jumped out of her skin. She'd attributed the sudden chill to a weird draft, and had pulled her thin blanket tightly around her body. "Who's there?" she whispered into the dark, putting as much ferocity as she could muster behind her question.
"I'm not there, there. I'm your soulmate. I'm in your head."
She gaped. Before she could respond, all of it was gone. The uncomfortable feeling in her back, the not-quite-clear conversationalist, and any certainty about her sanity. She'd heard the word "soulmate" before, though. Never in a good way. The word had rocked their house worse than thunder when her mother ranted about the weak-mindedness of the fools on the mainland. It had dropped onto the heads of many as Maleficent encouraged her followers, by example, to stone whichever soulmate-connected abominations dared walk below their balcony. It had been engraved in her head as a bad thing - a curse. And now she'd contracted it.
This would have to remain a secret for now.
"So, who are you?" she prodded a few interactions later. Mal was no longer startled by his appearances in her head and was able to keep her composure even if their connection opened in the middle of class. By the time she was eight, the voice had become clear as a bell. No more bad reception.
"I'm…just a person. Like you."
"I mean, are you a boy, or a girl?"
"A boy."
"Tell me your name."
"I don't really want to."
"Why not?" She allowed herself to frown, as there was no one nearby. Mal wasn't used to people defying her. Even at this young age, she cleared rooms simply by being the daughter of Maleficent.
"Because… I like that you don't know who I am. Names have a lot of power behind them. And they mean lots of things."
"Oh, come on. I'll tell you mine."
"No, I don't want to!" Anger filled her - but it wasn't quite her feeling it. The feeling came tinged with something foreign that made every nerve ending in her body scream 'danger!' She jumped out of her chair and clenched her fists against the strange emotion, which was quickly replaced by fear that was very much her own. "Hey, are you okay?" the other person in her head asked cautiously. He sounded rather guilty. "Sorry I got mad. I didn't mean to scare you."
"I'm fine, but - no, wait, I'm not. How do you know I'm not? Did you do that?" she demanded.
"Do what?"
"Did you - I don't know. But you did it, didn't you? You made me feel like...like…"
"What I was feeling. And I just felt what you were feeling." His awe was unmistakable. "That's really cool."
"It is not really cool!" she snapped so harshly that she felt him jump back in her head. It was as if he had tripped and toppled out of sight because he suddenly left and the cold tingle in Mal's spine disappeared. She was left alone once more.
Her mother had been right. These…'connections' were curses. Someone else had access to her head - to what she was feeling, and it seemed to be getting worse. The boy was able to share his emotions with her. Disgusting. And very, very dangerous.
There was an accident when she was eleven. She and Uma's gang had been facing off against each other, as usual, this time on the deck of the Jolly Roger. Someone had tripped, a sword had swung wide, and a sandbag dangling in the air had been cut loose. It fell with a thud onto Jay, and he shouted in pain as his leg bent back in a way it shouldn't have.
They had been younger then, Uma and her, and the event spooked them. The battle ended and Mal and Carlos were allowed to carry Jay home while he yelped and cried in pain, with Evie following close behind. They had been building a hideaway - a place where they could fortify themselves - but it wasn't completed yet. So instead, they went to Mal's place.
The thing about Maleficent was that she rarely spoke or moved on her good days. She simply sat, watching the world go by, or watching people pass below her balcony, and refused to move. But on her bad days… fiery words that hit like bullets, anger that knew no bounds, curses against the Auradon government or Aurora or anything that she felt especially hateful towards that day. Sometimes, it was Mal. Other times, it was the Isle, or her henchmen, or soulmates...but somehow still ended up involving Mal.
Her mother looked near-comatose when they dropped Jay onto the couch. He shouted and Mal couldn't stop the worried power surge that burned behind her eyes. His leg looked… awful. His skin was straining against itself as a broken bone threatened to surface.
Nausea hit her in waves. She swallowed back bile. Her hands shook as she pulled the leg as straight as she could and fumbled when she reached for the long, straight pieces of wood that Carlos had dumped at her side. Across the room, Evie hurried up the steps with her arms full of white and tan bandages.
"Did you mess up?" Maleficent called from the balcony.
Mal swallowed. Her entire body felt cold and stiff. "We're fine," she responded. Her voice croaked like she'd been coughing. And her hands were icy as she tried to straighten out Jay's leg and ignore his cries.
"Are you sick?"
The question was bizarre to Mal. She glanced sharply over at her mother and then realized that she hadn't spoken. No one had. It was in her head.
"Is that you?" she demanded in her head.
"Yes. Are you alright?"
"You've picked a really bad time. You need to go away."
"I…don't know how to."
Mal tightened the beginnings of a first bandage around Jay's leg. He let out a deafening roar of pain. Tears pooled in her eyes as she kept working and he kept yelling. Across the room, the thumps of Maleficent's scepter began to echo.
"Pipe down!" Maleficent shouted and Jay clenched his mouth shut. Her mother shouts and Jay's screams echoed in her head.
"Is that you?" the boy in her head exclaimed. Even more panic filled her and her hands shook all the more.
"No!" she snapped mentally. "No! No! Go away!"
"Are you hurt? Do you need a doctor?"
"Leave me alone!"
"I want to help you!"
"I don't need your help!" Mal screamed, throwing her hands up to compress her head tightly. "Leave me alone!"
The room became very silent. Evie, Carlos, and even Jay were staring at her with concern. The cold crept out of Mal's spine, but it was quickly replaced with dread when her hair was seized and yanked back. She was now staring into a pair of eyes as vividly green as her own.
"What do you think you're doing?" Maleficent screeched. "Who are you talking to?"
"No one!" Mal squeaked. "No one - no one! I thought I saw Evie reaching over… I wasn't talking to anyone!"
Evie blinked, startled, and scuttled back a few feet as Maleficent's gaze swiveled onto her. "I'm sorry!" she yelped. "I didn't realize!"
Maleficent pulled harder on her daughter's hair. "If you're lying…" she growled.
"I'm not!" Mal squeezed her eyes shut. Bright lights danced in her vision as the pain in her scalp reached a nauseating level. "Who else would I have been talking to? No one else is around! Mom, lemme go!" She twisted and Maleficent released her. Mal fell back and saw stars when her head knocked into the jagged, beat-up coffee table.
Maleficent snarled a little and kicked her daughter's leg. Mal didn't react much - she was still trying to catch her breath. Then, Maleficent turned and walked towards the kitchen as if nothing had happened. Carlos and Evie both reached to help Mal up, but she batted a hand at them and hissed.
"Get back!" Mal forced herself to her knees. "Away from me! Go away! You're too close!"
"Mal?" Carlos asked softly, "What was that?"
"It was you two invading my space!" Mal snapped. "Carlos, go find ice for Jay's head. Evie, run to your mother's and see if she has anything for pain in her emporium."
There was a short hesitation and then the two got up and left. Mal continued binding Jay's leg. He squeezed his eyes shut and bit his lip so as not to annoy Maleficent while she continued steaming at the kitchen table. It's a good thing, Mal thought, that he's in too much pain to ask questions.
By the following day, everyone had forgotten. Everyone except her.
A few minutes after waking up on her twelfth birthday, Mal felt a shiver down her spine before the cold was replaced with a wonderful, contented warmth.
Mal knew the connection was open, but she didn't really understand what it was doing at the moment. Little echoes of sound were pinging around in his thoughts. Alarming, yes, but something else was bothering her. She felt...happy? But it was his happiness. She would've known that even if they hadn't been sharing emotions for months now. Mal did not feel happiness like this.
The echoes formed into snippets of the conversation he was focusing on. "But this part… I really liked… even though Sir Arthur ruined…"
"What are you doing?" she asked. She could feel his immediate surprise on the other end of the connection. He hadn't realized she was there. Interesting.
"What - oh! It's you. Hello. I'm having lunch with my mom. Sorry, I thought the cold was just a breeze until you started talking."
"Lunch with your mom?" Mal repeated. What kind of parent had lunch with their kids?
"Yeah. I just finished her favorite book and we're talking about it. Have you ever read Guinevere and Lancelot?" A spike of her own jealousy accosted him before he could speak further. "Um...everything okay?"
"Yes," she huffed. "So your mom just...what, talks to you? About books?"
"Why are you saying that like it's weird?"
She rolled her eyes. "Because it is! Whose mom just sits down with them and...I don't know, aren't you scared she'll scream at you? Or hit you?"
There was such an extended length of silence that Mal would've thought the connection had closed, had she not been able to feel the characteristic chill in her spine. "Does your mom do that to you?" he inquired slowly. She didn't like the pity in his tone.
"Maybe yours should, too, so you don't end up a complete wimp!"
Mal could feel the boy turning this information over, processing how he felt about it. He didn't speak to her again, even though the mental link remained open. She found a quiet place in her room to wait for it all to be over. For almost twenty minutes, Mal was treated to more warm feelings of someone else's motherly love on her birthday, and she knew he could feel her trying not to cry.
Cruella De Vil was over on Tuesday, since her TV was broken and she wanted to watch the evening fashion shows. Carlos and Mal sat next to each other on a very busted couch and played card games with a soggy deck while they watched Cruella flip through shows. Maleficent was up in her room, having retired early.
"Do you think she can hear us?" Mal asked, shuffling the deck as best she could and glancing over at Carlos's mom.
"If we get loud enough, she'll turn and yell," Carlos whispered back. He took his seven cards and they began a game that Jay had invented called Murder. The goal was to avoid having two of one type of card when the sand in their broken hourglass ran out.
Mal put an ace down and Carlos put a two, and then the TV sound spiked and Cruella shouted in frustration. Her show had just gone to a commercial break.
"No one wants to hear from you, you royal piece of trash!" she screamed at the screen. "Put the Runway back on!"
"...I know I have a duty to my people, and I will - " Mal's soulmate's voice entered her head again, but without the accompanying spinal chill. Mal turned around. Had it come from the TV? But the fuzzy picture was now displaying a hairspray ad. Then it flipped to a news anchor who was also cutting to a commercial. She shook her head as Cruella mashed the remote buttons and focused on the card game.
"Spoiled brat! He's on every channel!" Cruella continued to complain loudly until her show resumed, but Carlos had beat Mal and she was too busy sulking to listen.
"Evie, please! You look fine!" whined Mal, her patience wearing thin. She just wanted to get out already. This happened with every new outfit Evie made. First it had to be fitted just right, and then she had to accessorize, and then she spread an obscene amount of half-used cosmetics scavenged from the trash across the bathroom floor to choose which shade would adorn her face. At least they were currently on stage three: makeup.
"I'm almost done, Mal!" They weren't even going anywhere special. They'd walk around, spray a few tags, maybe make a few kids cry.
The cold running down the middle of her back alerted her to the boy's presence. "Oof. Someone's frustrated."
"Shut up."
"My mom says hi, by the way. I told her about you."
Mal panicked momentarily, before remembering he didn't know anything about her, not really. Thank goodness they had never shared names, or her lie would be out in the open where Maleficent would undoubtedly find it. "Why would you do that? Are you insane?"
"Um...no? But she says she hopes you're doing well, and she was asking if - "
"I don't want to talk to your mom!" snapped Mal. "One mom is already enough of a problem." That quieted him, and a hint of something morose came over her.
Mal was pulled back to the real world when Evie finally exited the bathroom, twirling a little. She'd put purple accents on with her blue outfit. "How do I look?"
"It's not the worst outfit I've ever seen you in," Mal decided.
"Be nice," her soulmate chided. "And yeah, the purple does seem like a nice touch."
She almost frowned. "I didn't tell you that." She hadn't even been thinking of Evie's outfit, only raking over it with a cursory glance.
"You just whispered it to me. Didn't you?"
"No!"
"You can stop swearing - "
"Stop it! I'm not even saying anything to you!"
"Well...I hear you." She knew he could feel how deeply disturbed she was by this. But really, how was she supposed to react? He could hear her thoughts - even the ones she didn't want to share.
"Mal, come here," Maleficent crooned from the balcony. "Come and tell me what you see."
Mal got up and wandered towards the open double doors. She grasped the balcony railing with chilled hands and peered around. There were people down below, dogs and children running through alleyways, the tops of tin-roofed dwellings and an abundance of trash heaps, but Mal knew without asking what her mother was looking at. The smog was clearer today, and they could see through the barrier, across the Bay of Separation, and straight into Auradon.
"Look at them," Maleficent muttered, even though it was impossible to see a person in Auradon from this distance. "Look at their beautiful world. Why, what perfect lives they must lead."
"For now," Mal shrugged and then glanced over at her mom. "Is it time to try again?" The last time Maleficent had attempted escape had been years ago.
Maleficent shook her head in a way that was both demure and sinister. "Not yet," she told her. "But soon. I have a plan that I'm working on… they'll never see it coming."
Mal knew better than to get her hopes up. If she had an Auradonian dollar for every time she'd heard that, she'd have enough to bribe someone to take her off this rock and to the place where there was real money to be made. "And then?" she asked.
Maleficent hummed. "I can't wait until we're free," she announced. "We'll rule that world over there, you and I."
"I can't wait to rub it in Uma's face."
Maleficent snorted and then glanced over - and down - at her young daughter. "Think bigger." She reached into her robes and withdrew something - a book - which she placed on the balcony railing and slid over to Mal. "For you," she said. "I want you to take it and memorize as much as you can."
Mal took the book and cracked the cover open, Her jaw dropped. "Your spell book?" she wondered aloud. "You're letting me have it?"
"You'll need it, one day. I've told you before that Fairy Godmother's wand is the only way off this rock, but it won't be any good without some spells to go with it." Maleficent waved a nonchalant hand. Then, she paused."I do wonder if you're truly ready, though. There are some days...you're not as evil as I thought you'd be."
Mal was shocked by the implication. "I am!" she declared. "Mom, everyone says that I'm the best - the worst - villain kid out there! I aced Evils Schemes and Plots!"
"That class is taught by that old bat, Tremaine," Maleficent rolled her eyes. "It would have been more impressive if you'd failed out completely."
Mal dropped her head. She was rather proud of her grade, but… "I've got a gang - the strongest gang on the Isle outside of… y'know… Gaston's crew."
Maleficent let out a laugh at that. "You've got friends," she spat. "You'd be more formidable if you dropped them and went at it alone. Alone is always the better way to go!"
Alone. Right. Mal took her hands off the railing and balled her fists up. Maleficent was a solo act. A one-woman party. Mal swallowed. She had one strong card left to play, and…
"I don't have a soulmate," Mal lied. "That means I'm not being dragged down by anyone else. I'm not paired with anyone because...I'm supposed to be at your side. Helping you rule." Maleficent looked down at Mal. Mal swallowed. "Isn't that enough?" she offered.
A piercing gaze raked over her. Maleficent looked away. "I suppose," she agreed in a careless manner before waving her daughter away. Mal scuttled back into the room, leaving her mother to lean against the balcony, picturing Auradon as it would look burning in green flames.
(Chapter 3)
After he'd heard his for the first time, Carlos would not shut up about the whole soulmate thing - which was really annoying, because Mal just wanted to focus on forgetting it. He seemed thoroughly fascinated. To be fair, Mal was pretty impressed with some of the things Jay and Evie described, but so much of it wasn't applicable to her situation that it was rendered nearly useless.
Walking through the alley system of the Isle one day, she felt something on the other end of her soulmate connection. It was hard to explain, but it was like an invisible thread was connected to her forehead and she could feel someone rolling the other end in their fingers. Then the connection suddenly opened, and she realized that her other half had learned to open the connection at will, which meant she had some catching up to do. His emotions flooded her for a few seconds in a dizzying mess of patterns and then stabilized. For several seconds she thought nothing, waiting for him to announce himself.
"Yes?" she finally asked.
"Oh my goodness, it worked," he gasped, sounding a bit drained.
She rolled her eyes. "Give the man a medal. Did you need anything?"
"Yeah, actually. Are you Jane?" he asked.
"Jane? Who?" Mal frowned deeply and began to consider the long list of people that she knew. There wasn't a single person named Jane.
"I guess not then." He sighed dejectedly. A strange mix of relief and disappointment filled him. "She's someone I know. It was a long shot since she doesn't usually act like you, but I thought: she has magic, not many other people have magic, maybe you're her."
"Nope. Never even heard of Jane. How come you're asking who I am all of a sudden? You've never asked before." Mal crossed her arms even though she knew it would have no effect on him. He couldn't see her; couldn't feel much else besides the effects his emotions had on her.
"Well, I've always felt a little guilty asking you for your identity since I'm not exactly ready to share mine, but I had to know if you were Jane because I see her literally every day." He sighed with a bit of a dry chuckle.
"Mm-hmm. Anything else?" Mal shifted her weight from foot to foot. She understood him not wanting her to know him. She didn't want him to know her either. The fewer people to spread the word, the better. But still, for some reason, the thought of Jane was really starting to bug her.
"No," he said sadly. "Guess not."
"Bye then." His presence slinked out of her head gradually until she was alone again. She took a deep breath and leaned against the grimy wall behind her, deep in thought. Jane. Who was Jane? She sounded like she'd be a daughter of Jafar, but Jafar didn't have daughters - just Jay and his little brother. She might be one of Gaston's since Mal knew that she didn't know all of his kids (did he even know all of his kids?), but Gaston couldn't possibly have a magical daughter, could he?
Nope. Mal went down to the docks to ask Gil because she was so curious about it. It killed her how her soulmate mentioning a simple name could drive her up the wall like this. What if he liked Jane? What if Jane liked him? Unhelpfully, Gil estimated that he was 80% sure he'd never heard anyone by that name in his life. Then he asked Mal what 80% was in fractions, because it was on his homework.
Mal continued drumming her fingers in agitation. She knew practically half of the Isle, more or less. And not a single person she knew was called Jane and possessed magic. Finally, she decided she'd have to ask him about it herself or go insane wondering.
Just after her sixteenth birthday, she figured out how to wrench open their connection herself. It took about two hours of sitting alone in her room and searching for the end of the connection. Finally, though, she felt the icy cold creep down her spine. She sat in triumph for a few seconds until she heard him say: "Ow."
Her triumphant spirits dropped and were replaced by a rather sour mood. "Ow?" She scowled. "I'm sorry, did I hurt you?" She'd done it wrong. She knew it. He hadn't hurt her when he'd opened the connection for the first time.
She could almost imagine him rolling his eyes at her tone. "Chill," he reprimanded. They were both older now and rather than being wary, he found her moods amusing. "No, you didn't. I'm, ah, just in the middle of something. Got stabbed by a pin. Ow - and another one."
"Oh, okay." Mal exhaled. Pain games were common on the Isle. It wasn't her incompetence. "Cool. Listen, I've been thinking a lot about this Jane person. I know it's dumb, but - do you like her at all? I mean - I get we're soulmates and everything - but is she, like, a girlfriend?" She couldn't deny she was anxiously awaiting his answer as she sat in a dark corner of her bedroom. Was that why her normally biting speech was failing her?
Sheepish and a little surprised, he paused for a second. "Um, no. Jane is just an acquaintance," he assured her. "But… I do have a girlfriend."
Mal's heart sank. "Oh. Really?"
"Yeah. She's an old childhood friend. But, I don't think it's working, to be honest. She doesn't know who her soulmate is and our parents are friends so we got together a while ago…" he trailed off.
Mal searched through her feelings, trying to separate hers from his. "A while ago?"
"Yeah. Are you okay?"
"I'm fine...This is just a weird emotion. I haven't felt it before." It felt like someone putting weights on her shoulders and blanketing her head in a dark cloud.
"Hurt?" he asked. "You haven't felt it?"
"Hurt…" Mal repeated softly. She carefully applied the word to the feeling and found it fit. "Yeah, I guess so. Hurt. I feel hurt." Then she frowned. "Why do I feel hurt?"
Instead of answering, he sighed. "I'm sorry." He sounded remorseful, which combined with his apology threw Mal off a bit. "I didn't mean to hurt you. Gah, I should have thought this through a little more."
"You didn't hurt me. You can't hurt me. This is...for some other reason." She didn't like the doubt creeping in from his side, so she changed the subject. "Who is she?"
"My girlfriend?"
"No, your sister."
He laughed in her head. He sounded cheerful. It took the hurt away.
"Her name is Audrey."
Audrey, Audrey, Audrey. She searched and searched, but had no memory of that name.
"I don't know anyone named Audrey. First Jane and now Audrey."
"Well, it's not a common name, but – you haven't heard of Audrey?"
"Should I have?"
"No, I suppose not. Auradon is a big place."
"But the Isle is small. I should know them."
The connection nearly choked out with the sudden change in his mood. All his amused emotions were wiped from her system and replaced by a blank, unsettled feeling.
"The Isle?" he whispered. "As in, the Isle of the Lost?"
Mal got an extremely bad feeling. "Yes...?"
If he'd been standing in front of her, she got the impression he'd have been shaking and struggling to speak.
"Who is your parent?" he rasped out.
Mal pursed her lips. She was pretty sure she was Maleficent's only kid. What was the chance he'd know her? And if he did, what were the chances that he would blab to Maleficent that he was her daughter's soulmate? But something was telling Mal that she'd misjudged everything and that he wouldn't encounter her mother - and tell her Mal's greatest secret - anytime soon. She swallowed.
"My mom. She's Maleficent."
A different sort of ice cold ran through her veins. Fear. Real and true fear from his side of the connection.
"What?" she demanded. "What's wrong?"
"I - don't live on the Isle. I live in Auradon."
Mal felt her throat close up. Oh. Oh. Things started to make sense. Of course his mom wouldn't beat him. Of course. Of course he wouldn't understand about weaknesses. Of course. She felt her stomach drop into a deep, deep pit.
"I-I have to go," she told him quickly and mentally grabbed around, looking for a way to close the connection. She felt him start to help her by pulling his side of consciousness closed. The iciness gradually left her spine.
Mal cursed at her stupidity. Why had she taken it for granted that her soulmate would be on the Isle? Who in Auradon would be so complimentary to her as to have this kind of connection? A villain in the making, maybe?
Or what if...what if Maleficent was right? What if she was good, just like all those simpering morons on the mainland? What if this was proof?
There wasn't a lot of time to feel confusion or self-pity. There were gang tags to paint, friends to lead, and mothers to deceive. Well, one mother.
It had scarcely been a week since last speaking to her soulmate when, as she finished clearing out an alleyway full of people, she felt the connection open again.
"Hey, listen, I need you to not be mad at me." Mal heard the voice in her head as she blew her bangs out of her face. The exhilaration of scaring other people faded out of her system. She leaned down and snatched a lollipop away from a child before she addressed her soulmate in an irritated tone.
"What did you do?" she growled.
"No, seriously. I need you to not be mad," he demanded, just as firm as her. She crinkled up her nose. She missed the days when she could easily intimidate him.
"What did you do?" she asked cautiously, this time.
"Something," he mumbled.
"Can you tell me?" she asked.
Before he could answer, someone shouted. People ran for cover, but not from her. They were pointing behind her. Mal grit her teeth and steeled herself before turning around. What perfect timing the Mistress of Evil had sometimes.
Two henchmen confronted her, silent and still. "There's news," Maleficent drawled, stepping out from between them. "You and your friends have been chosen to go to a different school." She looked down at Mal with an intense stare, one that Mal hadn't seen in years. One that meant a plan was in action. "In Auradon."
It only took a few seconds for the news to sink in.
Mal's friends let out little shrieks but Mal simply dug her nails into her palms and turned her attention to the person on the other end of the link. "You did this," she growled.
"You found out already?" he asked. Dread and worry accosted her without mercy.
"How dare you! You brought my mother and my friends into this? How?" Mal demanded.
"You live on the Isle and I live in Auradon. We're not allowed to go over there, so how else could I have ever met you?" he asked.
"Maybe I don't want to meet you," Mal growled as she struggled to suppress the glow of her irises that tended to accompany very violent moods. "Maybe I don't ever want to talk to you again, mainlander."
"Great, well, too bad - it's already been done. I guess I just won't introduce myself and we'll go on like this forever." She could feel his annoyance, but she didn't back down.
"I'm not saying another word to you," she announced.
"Fine." The icy cold faded from her emotions.
Too much celebrating was going on, in Mal's opinion. Evie was trying to talk to her about princes and castles and the like, but Mal brushed her off. "We can't go to Auradon. Our friends are here! We don't know anyone over there, and they hate us!" she argued.
Her mother took a step closer to her. "Mal. Understand that not everything is about you and your comfort. You will go to Auradon and you will do what is expected of you." The implications of that statement settled heavily on Mal's shoulders. The barrier would have to come down, just like Maleficent had always wanted. Except now, it was up to Mal to make that happen.
Her mother turned and Mal suddenly had a thought. How had he done it? How was this happening? She wished that she hadn't sent her soulmate away because now she wanted to interrogate him. It wasn't like anyone in Auradon could up and decide to open the Isle of the Lost and whisk four new children to the mainland…. It made her wonder: who was he?
The four of them had piled into a very, very fancy car. There weren't many cars on the Isle, and approximately zero looked anything like this: a stretch limo with leather seats, candy and water bottles filling various nooks and pockets, a divider between themselves and the driver, and - were those color-changing lights in the roof?
Mal didn't avail herself of the bountiful harvest Jay and Carlos were currently enjoying. Even before they began driving, Carlos's mouth was covered in chocolate and Jay's jacket bulged with all of his 'findings'. As they left their parents, homes, and lives behind, only Evie glanced wistfully backward.
"We'll see them again," Mal assured her. After all, once they stole the wand, everyone on the Isle would be free.
Their driver had pressed a button on his rearview mirror while driving full speed towards the sea. The four teens ooh'ed and aah'ed as a magical bridge materialized, spanning the length of the strait that separated them from the mainland. Mal found herself mildly impressed. Then, with aid from a second button, they broke through the barrier.
The effect was instantaneous and, to Mal, almost seismic in nature. Everyone else felt it to a lesser degree - Jay and Carlos exchanged surprised looks and then closed their eyes, their expressions changing with whatever mental conversation they were having. Evie jumped and grabbed Mal's arm - "Mal! Oh, Mal, I can hear him! He's asking my name!"
Mal was a little too tied up to respond. On the one hand, the magic she had been unable to use on the Isle was now surfacing with a vengeance. On the other hand, the connection with her soulmate had opened - just as it had for Jay, Carlos, and Evie - and something was very wrong with it.
Images and sounds assaulted her - thousands of memories that were not her own. Falling off of a horse. Receiving a stern lecture from a familiar-looking man wearing a crown. Sitting in a classroom - a very nice classroom, with intact furniture and sunlight streaming in through the windows. A garden of roses, and someone singing a song just out of view. Her eyes filled with tears, and at first, she thought it was because she had never seen such a beautiful world.
But those weren't her tears, either.
"Oh my gosh…" His voice sounded broken. "Why would she do that to you?"
"What are you - don't - stop!" Mal started breathing heavily, despite years of training herself not to show her emotions physically when he was the reason for them. "Go away, I'm still not talking to you. And I've got other things to deal with right now."
"How could you live like that? How could anyone live like that?"
"Get out of my head!" Whatever the mental equivalent was of picking him up and drop-kicking him as far as she could, that was what Mal did. The connection closed fairly quickly, but she was left shivering, the feeling of violation and betrayal almost overwhelming her.
"Wow," Jay said from across the car. "That was…" he ran his hands through his hair. "That was…"
"Jane," Carlos mumbled beside him, leaning his head back into the seat. "Her name is Jane."
"I wasn't able to get his name!" Evie mourned. "I don't think he heard mine either! The connection closed too quickly." She turned to Mal. "Did you hear anything?" she asked.
Mal frowned. "Evie, I told you already that I don't have one."
Evie wilted. "Yes, well, I was hoping that maybe you just hadn't had your…yeah."
"No," Mal shook her head. "I am a hundred percent positive I don't have one. And if I did, I would do everything I could to get rid of it."
Auradon was sweltering. As soon as they crossed onto the beach, the driver turned the air conditioning all the way up. Carlos had briefly rolled down the window to catch a glimpse of the blue sky - the first clear sky they'd ever seen - before the driver had rolled it back up and used the intercom to inform them that it was probably best no one knew which car the new kids were coming in.
They soon passed through a city and then began driving underneath dozens and dozens of large, oaken trees. For a long time, there was no sign of anyone, but then Jay pointed to someone reading behind a secluded tree and suddenly it felt like people were everywhere they looked. A few pointed to the car and Mal knew they were deducing who was hidden inside the interior.
The car slowed as they came upon a white stone building with sparkling metal-wrought decorations across the top. The Auradon flag was draped over the entrance, hanging from two golden spikes driven into the stone. In front of the building was a circular drive, which they pulled into, and two lawns split with a paved pathway upon which dozens of people were crowded. Mal squinted through the tinted windows. She could discern three people in the front. One was a curvy woman in a bright shade of blue. Another, more petite girl in a rather frilly pink and yellow dress had her arm looped through the elbow of a boy next to her. The boy looked even more stupid, wearing a fitted blue suit with a folded yellow kerchief tucked inside the breast pocket. What fun it would be to rip that out and tear it into shreds in front of him.
There were other people behind them - students, a few stern teachers and worried citizens, and…was that a band? It had to be, what with the uniforms and the dozens of brass instruments they were holding. However, weren't bands supposed to sound, well...good? Or patriotic at the least? The only cause this band seemed united behind was destroying Mal's hearing before she could get out of the car.
Mal, Evie, Jay, and Carlos all exchanged glances. Carlos had a sticky brown coating on his hands and cheeks, but Jay had cleaned up well enough. As the driver got out of the car, Carlos tried the inside door. It refused to open. They were locked inside, for the time being. Mal couldn't believe they'd fallen for such a simple trick. The driver was coming around to let them out though, so she bit her lip and quelled her rage. On the other end of her soulmate connection, she felt probing, but pushed it away. He probably wanted to make sure she was here, that she was safe, possibly find out more about her identity than he already knew - but she was still angry with him.
Jay began stuffing various candies and non-meltable snacks down his shirt. His fingertips grazed over the chocolate, but Mal could see the gears turning in his head as he glanced at Carlos and decided that he didn't want a matching mess down the inside of his vest.
The door opened with a click and a hand appeared as if offering help. Carlos nudged it aside with his head, careful not to let the stranger within grasping distance of his hair, and got out. The band's pitiful attempt at a welcome song fizzled out, with one trumpeter getting the memo a second later than everyone else. Jay got out next, also shouldering aside the hand as he finished tucking lollipops and bubble gum sticks into his fingerless gloves. It was a smart move - after all, they didn't know the next time they'd see anything edible. Evie was the first to accept the proffered hand, stepping out with demure grace and a bright, excited smile. Mal watched the reactions of the onlookers outside. The boy in blue with the swanky, oh-so-tempting handkerchief was examining Evie intensely. He looked frustrated, as if something wasn't quite adding up, but was hiding it. Behind him, one of the boys in the uniforms who had a ridiculous hat atop his head dropped his trumpet with a clatter. Mal had a feeling he was the same one who had continued bleating his horn well after his bandmates had stopped. His face turned bright red as Evie's gaze swept over the crowd.
"Miss?" The driver called to her, still extending his hand. Mal snarled at the sentiment and then stepped forward. She, too, ignored his hand as she emerged into the glaring sunlight. She heard the chauffeur give an annoyed sigh, but her attention was immediately captured by the three people in front of her.
The older woman's eyes skimmed over the four and she took a deep breath. "It's nice to see you all here, safe," she smiled. "I'm Fairy Godmother, the Headmistress at Auradon Preparatory School." She gave a little bow or a curtsy - Mal never could tell the difference between the two - and Mal took the opportunity to exchange a look with her gang. "Behind me, this is - "
"Where's your wand?" Carlos blurted out, bobbing his head from side to side as he peered at Fairy Godmother, looking for hidden pockets. "Aren't you supposed to have a wand?"
The Fairy Godmother gave a tight smile. "I don't keep it on me anymore," she explained. "That was a long time ago, after all. And now, as I was saying, behind me are the people who will be introducing you to your classmates and answering all your questions. To the right here is Princess Audrey Fanning, one of our Junior Class Leaders, and this here beside her is the Crown Prince Benjamin."
Mal blinked skeptically at the prince, who was examining her as well. His lips were pursed together as his eyes hovered on the wings embroidered on her shoulders. She didn't like the way they were traveling, as if drinking in every last detail. "They let you meet us?" she drawled.
The prince's eyes snapped back up to meet hers. A smile replaced the studious line of his mouth. "I requested to meet you, actually. I was insistent that I would be the person to show you all around. After all, I'm the reason you're all here." No, he wasn't, Mal knew. Her soulmate had caused this. "I felt it was my responsibility to make sure you all feel comfortable and accepted."
'Accepted,' Mal thought, glancing at Audrey's tightening grip on his arm. The princess was examining her outfit as well - focusing on the dragon applique - and looking as if she had swallowed a lemon. Ben nudged her side when her grip began to pinch too hard, still maintaining his smile.
"Prince Ben and Audrey will give you the grand tour," Fairy Godmother explained with a smile. "And I'll see you later. You have your first class with me."
"Can't wait," Mal deadpanned, then looked back to Ben and Audrey as if to dismiss the Headmistress. For several seconds, there was a long and awkward silence. Then, the prince clapped his hands together and took a half-step forward.
"Well! It is so, so good to finally meet you all," He tried to walk forward and shake Jay's hand. Jay, however, stopped Ben with a fist. Ben took no mind of it and outstretched a hand to Mal, who unfolded her arms long enough to reach forward and shake his hand. The moment her skin brushed his, an explosion of color and sound appeared behind her eyes. She looked up at him in surprise as thousands of emotions – trepidation, annoyance, surprise – rushed through her, just like they did when her connection was active. However, this time they were unaccompanied by the cold touch.
"What on earth?" she thought.
"Sorry," someone thought back. And now that Mal had heard it before, it sounded awfully familiar.
She stared up at the prince and studied him. "Is it you?" she asked through the connection as shock raced through her. Her eyes flickered back over his shoulder to where Princess Audrey – Audrey – stood waiting, warily eyeing the prolonged handshake her boyfriend was sharing with Mal. She ripped her hand away and expected the connection to fizzle out, but it didn't, which made Mal panic even more.
"It is me," he confirmed. "I'm your soulmate." And she felt him examining her. She could feel how tight his chest was getting in excitement and his wonder at how "adorable" (his words!) she was for being the daughter of such a formidable villain…by the gods, she wanted to throw up.
"Ben?" she asked in horror - well, perhaps horror wasn't the right word, but it was pretty darn close. "Prince freaking Ben?"
"Yeah." He had to rip his eyes off of her to move down the line. As soon as his gaze had left hers, Mal searched for a way to close the borders of her mind, but there were none. They'd vanished. She remembered they had never really opened in the first place, not the way she was used to.
Ben shook hands with Carlos. Mal got the rush of unease as he tried to avoid the chocolate on Carlos's fingers. When he reached Evie, she felt his worry as she leaned in tantalizingly towards him.
"This is a momentous occasion, one that I hope will go down in history as the day our peoples begin to heal," he proclaimed. Mal stifled the spikes of annoyance that ran through her, then cursed herself for caring that he would feel them. Let him. It was a stupid thing to say.
"Or, the day you showed four peoples where the bathrooms are," she countered. Ben's gaze fell on her as he laughed, and her skin felt like electricity, live and hot. Judging by the self-satisfaction coming from his side of the connection, Ben could feel it too.
"Shut up!" she ordered in her head. She heard him chuckle without moving his lips, though the corners of his mouth crooked upwards.
"I haven't said anything. Why are you so embarrassed?" he teased. Realizing his girlfriend was literally three feet away from him, however, he suddenly stopped. Then, opening his mouth, he asked in a much more subdued voice: "A little bit over the top?"
"A little more than a little bit," she confirmed to the rest of the world.
"Well, so much for my first impression.". Mal bit her tongue to stop an eye roll. She already hated him - so yes, his first impression had sucked. But when she glanced up and her eyes caught his impossibly pretty blue ones, she felt like she was falling through space…
He tilted his head to the side. "Are we good now?" he asked her.
She wasn't sure. Were they good? Was she okay with this?
"Hey, you're Maleficent's daughter, aren't you?" Audrey blurted out beside Ben, reaching forward to wrap her arm through his again. Spikes of anxiety invaded Mal's senses as Ben's face went pale.
"Ah - " he stammered, glancing between the two girls. "Oh, crap, oh crap."
"What's going on?" Mal asked him.
"I just wanted to let you know that there's no bad blood between us," Audrey smiled, leaning forward a little even as she pulled Ben back. "My mom's Aurora. You know, Sleeping Beauty?"
Sleeping Beauty? Mal blinked twice and then fixed her gaze on a thoroughly-embarrassed Ben. "You've got to be kidding me," she hissed. "Sleeping Beauty? The Sleeping Beauty? You had her daughter meet me here - and she's your girlfriend?"
"It didn't really occur to me…" he tried before the thought sputtered off. "I'm really sor-"
"We're not good," she decided, cutting him off. "Get out of my head."
"Mal - "
"I said, get out!"
There was a slight pause, but his presence in her head didn't fade. "I can't."
"You can't what?"
"I can't go away. I'm trying. You try."
"I am, and it wasn't working, that's why I told you to do it."
Another pause. "I thought we figured this out already."
"Guess not," Mal remarked, annoyed.
"What if we try together?" He suggested. "On three?"
Mal pursed her lips. "Fine," she grumbled.
"One, two..." They both began trying to shut down their mental bridge. Mal felt herself go cross-eyed from the strain, but nothing happened. She heard him give an actual, vocalized grunt. Then, Evie started calling her name.
"Mal?" she asked. "Mal, are you okay?"
Mal snapped back to the present, casting her eyes about her group. "I'm fine," she said, then leveled her gaze with Audrey. "I… didn't know Aurora had a daughter."
"Oh, well, she does. But like I said, there's no bad blood. After all, I had the privilege of being raised by my mother, not three fairies in the woods." Audrey seemed quite satisfied with Mal's reaction. It was so irritating that she thought some goody-two-shoes princess could shake the daughter of a dragon. Mal actually had quite a few things to say, starting with, "Remember how your grandparents didn't invite my mom to that christening and started this whole feud? Do you really get to decide there's no bad blood?" but admittedly, she had bigger problems.
"Why isn't this closing?!"
"I don't know." Ben wasn't feeling quite as frantic as Mal, so she pushed some of her emotions off on him out of spite.
"This is your fault. You wanted us to meet, and now we're sharing a brain!"
"It's going to be okay. Just calm down."
Mal scowled and gave a brief nod to Audrey before she stepped right through them and began to walk down the path, through the band. They parted for her like any crowd on the Isle would. "So, what parts of this joint do we need to know about?"
"We were thinking we would start with the major classroom areas and the numbering system so you can find your classes later," Ben began, glancing at her legs as she passed by. She turned around before his gaze could creep any higher and heard him mutter a distant "Sorry," in her head. "Then we were going to swing by the lunchroom, explain the major rules, and drop you off at your dorms."
"Let's skip right to that last bit," Mal recommended.
"I figured you would say that, which is why it's last on the list," Ben raised an eyebrow. "Stay focused for the tour and you'll get there quicker, okay?"
Mal only glared. Then she glanced at her friends and jerked her head to the left. "Come on, we'll find them ourselves."
Ben raised an eyebrow. "They're not marked," he informed her.
"I love a good challenge," Mal replied. She stepped around him and her three compatriots, who looked a little confused on how she could possibly think she could find the dorms on her own, followed her. She felt Ben's mounting amusement as the Fairy Godmother leaned forward to yank on his arms. It was about two seconds before the thought passed through his mind: "At least they're heading in the right direction. They won't be too entirely embarrassed."
Mal fought to keep her thoughts blank. It was a struggle.
Carlos leaned up. "We don't know where we're going," he whispered. "And I want to see the cafeteria."
Mal was busy gauging Ben's thoughts while trying not to alert him to her skimming. He was still expecting them to turn around for help, so he hadn't noticed her snooping yet. "Where would the cafeteria be?" She wondered and immediately, directions opened up in Ben's head.
"Located right outside the art department, which you're already headed towards, with the dorms right beside the math hall across the lawn from the - wait..."
Mal could hardly hold back a smirk as she pointed ahead, slightly towards the left, and announced. "Let's go this way. I bet that's where the food will be."
"How did you know that?" Audrey asked behind Mal, surprised.
Mal spared her a glance only to give her a smug expression. "Just picked up on it," she replied.
"Are you picking up on anything else? Exasperation, maybe?" Ben thought.
He then reacted to something then that Mal couldn't hear - she assumed it was the Fairy Godmother from the professional attitude he immediately summoned up. Mal ignored him, hoping the bond would soften and go away. But when they opened the doors to their dorms for the first time, she could still feel him there, an ever present spectator of her life.
This story is a collaboration with Harry Potter Fan 1994.