"So, how long have you been looking for Mal to get these answers?" Carlos asked curiously as he gave her directions so she could drive to Evie's cottage.

"Um,…well, since this morning when I saw the news." she admitted.

Carlos looked at her curiously. "Wait, you just randomly decided this morning to talk to Mal? But, isn't Mount Olympus about several hours away by car?"

Pandora sighed. "Yeah, this wasn't exactly my most well-thought-out plan." she admitted. "I'm normally not this spontaneous. I just…It's hard to explain." she finally admitted. "But my mom's going to kill me when she finds out." she added.

"You didn't tell your mom?" Carlos asked, his brows raised. "You traveled halfway across Auradon without telling her?"

"Without telling anyone." she admitted sheepishly. "I just…I saw the chance for some answers and I just went for it."

The drive was relatively short. Carlos directed her through town, and then down a few off roads that eventually took her through the woods. Finally, they pulled up to a really nice cottage in a small clearing, which turned into a decent-sized yard. There was a stone sign in the yard that said Evie's 4 Hearts. The house was at least two stories and made of gray stone with red-brown shingles on the roof. It had a sunroom on one side with walls that were mostly glass. There were bushes and flowers growing all over the yard and around the house, including some vines and climbers growing up the walls in a few places of the house.

Pandora parked the car, admiring the cottage for a few moments while Carlos got out. She turned off the car and climbed out as well while Carlos let the dogs out the back of the car. The two dogs eagerly bounded toward the house across the stretch of grass. Pandora belatedly realized someone was in the yard, appearing to be practicing ROAR and flipping off a stone bench in the yard while wielding a sword. The dogs bounded straight for the guy. Pandora was half tempted to call her dog back, but she knew Griffin was well-behaved enough that he wouldn't just jump on a random stranger.

The guy turned towards them just in time to see the dogs running for him. He appeared to step back in surprise just as Dude reached him, bouncing around on his back legs to get the guy's attention, though he appeared to be focused mainly on the larger dog he didn't know. Thankfully, Griffin stopped several feet away and sat down, his tail wagging so hard his whole body wiggled with it.

Pandora snorted quietly in amusement, though she was relieved. She'd spent the five years she'd owned Griffin studiously training him in order to help fight the negative opinion his breed tended to get as vicious dogs. Griffin was the farthest thing one could get to being vicious. Though he was protective, he never started a fight.

The guy looked curiously at the new dog before looking past Griffin to the two teenagers approaching the house. He had tan skin and long dark brown hair under a black beanie. He was wearing burgundy sweats for working out.

"Hey, Jay." Carlos greeted him as they approached. "This is Pandora. Pandora, this is Jay." Carlos introduced them.

Jay nodded, resting his sword on his shoulder while offering his free hand. Pandora shook it with a smile. "Hey." Jay greeted her, his dark eyes looking curious.

Pandora returned the greeting with a smile. "Hi. It's nice to meet you."

"And I'm guessing this is your dog?" Jay added, glancing down at Griffin, who had moved to sit in the grass at Pandora's hip. "Because Evie threatened Carlos against bringing home anymore strays." Jay added, smirking at his friend, who rolled his eyes.

Pandora chuckled slightly, resting her hand atop her dog's head. "Yeah, this is my dog Griffin."

Jay held his hand out, which Griffin sniffed briefly before lifting his paw. Jay's grin widened as he shook Griffin's paw.

"Cool." Jay noted before glancing between the two teenagers.

"Mal's here, right?" Carlos asked him. "Pandora has some questions for her."

Jay eyed Pandora curiously again before nodding. "Yeah, she's with Evie in the studio." he explained, nodding back toward the cottage.

Carlos nodded. "Cool. Come on," he added to Pandora, "I'll show you."

Pandora nodded slightly, trying to push down her nerves as she followed Carlos toward the cottage. Instead of approaching the main door of the cottage, Carlos lead her toward the open door of the small sunroom to the side of the house. Inside, the place was clearly a clothing design studio. There were mannequins around the room, some bare and some with clothes on them. There were racks of clothes, sketches on the wall, mirrors, tables covered in fabric. And in the middle of the chaos were two girls.

A girl with long, navy blue hair in a red dress was working on a long, purple gown on a mannequin. She paused in working on it to briefly turn around and wrap a measuring tape around another girl's shoulders. The girl was sitting on a stool and appeared to be sketching in a book. She paused to let her friend measure her shoulders before going back to her drawing while the blue-haired girl went back to the gown. The sketching girl had purple hair and fair skin.

Carlos knocked lightly on the open door, causing both girls to look up from their separate tasks.

"Carlos!" the blue-haired girl beamed at him. "How'd it go? Did you order the cake?"

Carlos nodded with a grin. "Yeah, Mrs. Potts said it'll be ready the morning of the party."

"Perfect. Jane will love it." Evie responded, smiling.

"Who's your friend?" the other girl asked, eyeing Pandora curiously over Carlos' shoulder.

"This is Pandora, I met her at Potts' Bakery." Carlos explained, stepping inside and waving Pandora in after him. "Pandora, this is Evie and Mal." he introduced her, gesturing to the other two girls in the room.

Evie stepped forward and offered her hand, which Pandora shook with a smile.

"It's nice to meet you."

"You too." Pandora returned with a grin.

Mal stood up and shook Pandora's hand as well. She noticed Mal's handshake was a bit firmer than Evie's, though not uncomfortable. Mal didn't say anything, but her sharp green eyes practically bore into Pandora's blue, as if searching for answers.

"You're here for something." Mal finally stated. It wasn't a question, she knew she was right.

Pandora cleared her throat slightly. "Um, yes, that-I mean." She paused to take a breath. "I have some questions…" she started slowly, "although, I'm not completely sure what those questions are?" she ended uncertainly.

Mal tilted her head slightly. "So, you want answers." she summed up.

Pandora nodded slightly.

"About?"

"How about we go sit down?" Evie offered before leaving the room with a spring in her step. Everyone else glanced among themselves before turning to follow her through a doorway into the kitchen.

"Um," Pandora hesitated in the doorway, glancing over her shoulder where Griffin stood in the patio, his head tilted curiously. Turning back toward the kitchen, she said, "I have a dog. Do you want me to leave him outside?"

Before Evie could answer, Carlos spoke up. "Her dog's better behaved than Dude. He'll be fine."

"I resent that." Dude called, scampering past Pandora's feet and into the kitchen. Feeling heat on her back, Pandora glanced over her shoulder and promptly moved to the side to allow Jay to enter ahead of her. But he merely grinned and waved her in ahead of him.

"Sure, your dog can come in." Evie decided.

"Thank you." Pandora told her, turning back toward the patio. She clicked her tongue and Griffin promptly fell in at her side, entering the kitchen with her. She followed the lead of the others and took a seat at the kitchen table in the middle of the room.

Evie set out a plate of cookies, and everyone took one. While most of the others took bites immediately, Pandora merely held the cookie in her hands, her nerves making her stomach tie itself in knots.

"So, you had some questions." Mal started from where she sat across from Pandora.

Nodding slightly, Pandora wetted her lips as she tried to think of where to start. She opened her mouth several times before closing it again, no words coming out. "I'm not sure where to start." she finally admitted. "It's going to end up sounding crazy."

"Well, you drove all the way down here from Mount Olympus on a whim." Carlos summed up. "So, yeah it probably will sound crazy." he joked, making Pandora grin weakly in embarrassment.

"Mount Olympus?" Jay repeated incredulously. "Wait, are you related to one of the Gods up there? Do you know Herkie?"

Pandora chuckled slightly, tucking some of her hair behind her ear. "Um, yes. My mom is Persephone, the Goddess of Spring. And, yes I know Herkie. He's kinda like my cousin. My mom and I live on the same property as Hercules, Meg, Zeus, and Hera."

She noticed them glance among themselves.

"So, you're not really related to Hercules and them, but you and your mom live with them." Jay summed up curiously. "Is that normal up there?"

Pandora tilted her head slightly. "Not really. All they ever told me was that Zeus helped my mom through some stuff before I was born and gave her a home. Her and my grandma Demeter started a gardening and landscape business a few years later, but my mom and I stayed living with Zeus and his family."

"You don't seem like a very…spontaneous person." Mal noted thoughtfully, her sharp eyes studying Pandora curiously. "You're very clearly out of your comfort zone. What made you randomly decide to make a trip all the way down here?"

Pandora swallowed nervously, her eyes fixed on her hands. She thought for several moments of how to start. "I have dreams." she began slowly, wincing slightly at how weird she must sound. But no one made a comment. "I've been having them,…a while. They seem to be fairly random, but I think sometimes they come in clumps. I could go months without having one, then suddenly I'll have multiple dreams over a week. They're different from normal dreams, but…when I wake up I can't remember most of what actually happens in the dreams until something reminds me."

"And you think you can get answers here?" Mal questioned curiously.

Pandora sighed, chewing her lip for a moment before looking up and meeting Mal's eyes.

"I had a dream a couple days ago." she admitted. "It was similar to most of the other ones. It was dark and blurry, so I couldn't really make out most of the details. There was a bright, colorful square. When I got a little closer to it, I could make out shapes that I think were people. I felt…emotions that I don't think were mine. Anger…sadness? Most of the dreams involved emotions that weren't mine. Like I was seeing and hearing from someone else's perspective.

"This morning the news came on while I was eating breakfast, and I saw an announcement about you four choosing the next kids from the Isle. And it sort of triggered a flashback to that dream, which I had almost completely forgotten about. And suddenly a couple things from the dream became a little clearer. One of the people in the dream was you." she explained, looking right at Mal, who looked mildly surprised.

"A colorful, bright box." Carlos noted quietly. "Like a TV? Maybe the dream showed us on the news. But the person…you said you felt anger? Like the person got angry seeing us on the news?"

Pandora nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah, I guess that sounds right."

"And you said you've had dreams like this one before." Mal added. "Were they all the same, or similar? Can you remember what they were about?"

Pandora thought for a moment. "I know there was at least another one about you that I remembered this morning. You were wearing a light purple dress and holding…a wand?"

"The coronation?" Evie asked, glancing at Mal in confusion. "That's the only time I can think where you wore a light purple dress. And holding the wand…"

Mal held a hand up slightly, as if silently asking Evie to wait. "Do you happen to remember when you had that dream?" Mal asked.

Pandora thought hard, knowing she probably wouldn't be able to give an exact date. But then she remembered that she had that dream in a hotel in Auradon City, because it had been a three day weekend and her whole family had gone down to Auradon City. "It was just before I turned seventeen." she answered. "So, it was fall of 2015? That's the closest I can figure. I can't give an exact date."

"No, that's good." Mal assured her while Evie got up and pulled a notepad from the fridge door to write something down. "That actually makes sense. Ben's coronation was in September of 2015. That would line up with what you saw in that dream."

"Is that the first time you've had a dream like that?" Evie asked, looking up after writing down something.

Pandora shook her head slightly. "No,…but I can't remember any exact details of any of the dreams right now. I think I started having the dreams…Maybe a month or so before that one of the coronation?" she guessed.

Mal exchanged glances with the others.

"That's about the time we came to Auradon." Jay noted, probably saying what the other three were thinking.

"Do you know how many dreams you had during that month before the coronation?" Evie asked, her pen ready.

"Not many. A couple? Yeah, I think only a couple, and they were fairly close together I think. Maybe a week apart?" Pandora thought out loud.

"And after the coronation?" Mal urged while Evie wrote something down. "Can you think of any dreams you had since then?"

Pandora looked thoughtfully down at the tabletop. "Yes. There have been several." she answered quietly, still thinking. "A couple months after that I think it was, I had a couple dreams pretty close together. Maybe a couple days apart?"

Mal looked thoughtful before her eyes sharpened. "A couple months. So around November?"

Pandora shrugged, unable to think of a specific date.

"Around the time Arabella lost the Trident through the barrier, and then a couple days later, you had to reach through the barrier to get it back." Evie spoke to Mal, as if following her friend's train of thought before writing it down on her notepad.

"Do you remember what happened in those dreams?" Jay asked Pandora curiously.

She sighed, trying to think of any details. "There might have been more of the TV screen like image from some of the other dreams. But I don't think any of you were in it. I can't remember anything significant from those particular dreams."

"Any other dreams you can remember?" Evie asked gently.

Pandora nodded thoughtfully. "There was a small cluster of dreams. It was about…maybe three or four months after…whatever you just mentioned about the Trident."

"Three or four months…" Mal muttered thoughtfully, leaning over to look down at Evie's notepad. "So about…maybe March? What can you remember about those dreams?"

Pandora chewed her lip again, thinking it over. "There was a cluster of them. I remember, because it wasn't multiple dreams over multiple days. It was only over a couple nights, but one night I woke up multiple times from those dreams."

"You had multiple dreams over one night?" Carlos checked.

Pandora nodded, her eyes flickering back and forth thoughtfully. "I kinda remember a couple of the dreams from that one night. One of them I think showed the TV again. I think it showed a couple people, one had blonde hair. But the second dream was really different from most of them. It didn't show a blurry TV screen. It looked like it was in person. Like I was in a crowded, dirty street. I looked across an alley of some sort…and I see a girl with long purple hair." she explained, her eyes coming up to meet Mal's again. "I felt emotions that weren't mine. I was shocked, I think angry, and confused?"

"So whoever this is, it's someone who lives on the Isle." Carlos guessed, glancing among everyone at the table.

"And they clearly don't like you." Jay added to Mal, trying to smother a small smirk. He clearly noticed what the rest of them were starting to; Mal seemed to feature frequently in these dreams.

Mal reached over and punch Jay in the arm.

"And you mentioned having another dream the next night?" Evie asked.

Pandora nodded. "Yeah, that one I can pretty much remember. I think it showed a news report of the cotillion. It showed you turning into a dragon and fighting Uma."

Mal nodded slowly while Evie made notes again. "Did you feel any emotions in that one?"

Pandora thought for a moment, her brow furrowed. "I think I felt shock. I didn't feel any negative emotions, though."

Mal nodded thoughtfully.

"So, the night before that, when you had multiple dreams in one night, was when Mal returned to the Isle, and we followed and had to save Ben from Uma." Carlos noted.

"Any others?" Jay asked.

"I had a couple a few months ago. And then the one a couple days ago."

"A few months ago we dropped off the applications on the Isle for the kids." Carlos pointed out.

"Anyone else seeing the pattern?" Evie asked quietly while Mal took the notepad from her to look over.

"Yeah." Mal answered. "Her dreams seem to line up with the barrier coming down or being damaged. Just like it lets magic on the Isle when the barrier opens, it seems to allow some kind of connection to someone on the Isle.

"Do you have any connections to anyone on the Isle that you know of?" Mal asked Pandora.

She shook her head. "Not any more than anyone else in Auradon. You know, the typical villain-hero rivalry. But I mean, the only connection I have would be Hercules and Zeus having a rivalry with Hades. But me and my biological family have no connections to the Isle past that."

Mal nodded slowly, once more looking thoughtful.

"Do you think these dreams are as it's happening, or do you think they're predicting the future?" Carlos asked curiously.

Pandora shrugged. "I'm not sure. I mean, that news story I saw this morning was only a recap. They had the news story a couple days ago, too, when you four picked the new kids. So that dream at least could have happened as the actual event was happening. Other than that, I can't remember the exact dates well enough to guess if they happened in real time or not."

Any response was interrupted by Pandora's cell phone ringing. She dug through her purse until she found it, then held it in her hand and stared at it for several moments, her wide eyes fixed on her mom's picture.

She tried to fight down a panic. She'd been so caught up in getting her answers, she'd given little thought to what she would tell her mother. Looking up at the clock on the wall, she saw it was approaching seven o'clock.

"Is something wrong?" Evie asked worriedly.

Pandora clear her throat uncomfortably. "Um,…I may or may not have told my mother that I was traveling halfway across the continent today. And she may or may not…be really strict when it comes to leaving Olympus."

Jay looked like he didn't know whether to be impressed or amused. "You drove several hours and didn't tell anyone?"

"How strict is strict?" Carlos asked curiously.

"Like…this is the only time I've left Olympus by myself ever. Like, the only times I've ever left Mount Olympus before have been with my family, and pretty much only to come to Auradon City to…watch one of Herkie's games, or the coronation, or something like that. Other than this city and Olympus, I've never seen any part of Auradon in person. I wanted to go with my friend Aaron to see the campus at Northern Wei, but my mom wouldn't even let me just visit the campus. She wants me to go to college in Olympus, and nowhere else."

Jay and Carlos both whistled, their brows high on their foreheads.

Pandora chewed her lip, looking back down at her phone, which had stopped ringing and was now telling her she had one missed call.

"Maybe if you just talk to your mom…" Evie suggested gently.

Pandora shook her head. "You don't know my mom. She's a great mom, don't get me wrong, but she can just be…overbearing. If she finds out where I am, she could very well drive straight down here and drag me back home kicking and screaming." Pandora stared at her phone for a moment, chewing her lip, before an idea popped into her head. She quickly texted Pavati.

"I'll text my friend and ask if she can cover for me, tell my mom I'm staying with her." she announced to the room. When Pavati texted back in agreement, Pandora texted her mother, telling her that she was having a sleepover at Pavati's house.

With that done, she set her phone face down on the table. In that moment, she abruptly realized that even if she left now, she'd get home around two or three in the morning. More proof that she clearly had not thought this through.

Pandora cleared her throat. "I don't suppose you guys know any hotels or anything in the area?"

"Hotel? Don't be silly." Evie assured her. "I've got four bedrooms in this cottage. You can stay here. Besides, something tells me these answers aren't going to be figured out over one conversation."

Pandora smiled gratefully. "Thank you. I, um, don't have any pajamas." she admitted sheepishly. "Or any change of clothes, to be honest. This really wasn't my most well-thought-out plan." she added, laughing awkwardly.

"No problem." Evie assured her, grinning widely. "You can borrow some pajamas. And I can have a whole new wardrobe designed for you by tomorrow."

Mal snorted, and the boys laughed. "Saw that one coming."

"Who wants pizza?" Carlos asked, standing up and pulling his phone out.

AN: I hope everyone liked this chapter! I hope it wasn't too confusing, adding certain events from the books. They're not really important past what they revealed in this chapter, so don't worry too much if you have no idea what they were talking about.

Also, to answer a question I had in a review, no this is not a Mal/Pandora/Jay story in the romantic sense. Pandora will bond and become friends with all the VKs, and there might be some romance later on.

On that note, please review and let me know what you all think!