Pandora kept her eyes focused on all the pool balls bouncing around the table, her hands moving quickly to the handles she needed to defend her goals.
While waiting for Mal to get back, Jay and Carlos pulled her into a some kind of game in the arcade. It appeared to be a combination of foosball and a pool table. There were four holes in the corner that the balls were supposed to go in, similar to pool, but instead of pool sticks each hole was guarded by a little wooden person on sticks that you spin, like in foosball. Carlos was currently waiting to play the winner, and it was between Jay and Pandora.
Pandora spun one of her players, successfully defending her goal while shooting the ball toward Jay's end of the board.
"Guys, Mal's back." Carlos interrupted their game, causing them to look up. Evie was rushing toward Mal, who was heading toward them while Celia went to greet her dad.
"Did you get the ember?" Carlos asked urgently.
Mal held up her hand, holding a small blue rock in answer. "Any chance that our bikes are parked in a locked garage?" Mal asked.
"Uh, yeah, not so much." Carlos answered. Pandora looked at her feet, her hands on her hips, while Jay rolled his eyes.
"And how are we supposed to open the barrier?" Jay pointed out. "We need one of the remotes, which was on my bike."
They all glanced among themselves for a moment, unsure what to do.
Celia suddenly joined them, looking slightly guilty as she pulled a small remote from her purse. "I lifted it off you." she announced, causing them all to look at her. "I thought it might be useful and it is."
"You are making it very hard to teach you right from wrong." Evie pointed out lightly, while Pandora grinned slightly.
"Sweet." Jay plucked the remote from Celia's hand, making her grin.
"Alright, let's go." Mal ordered, leading the way out of the arcade.
They made the trip through alleys and streets, going back the way they'd come when they first arrived on the Isle. Finally, they reached the main entrance that lead to the bridge, which would lead them to Auradon.
"Alright. Are we good?" Mal checked as they approached the barrier.
"Yeah." a few of them answered.
Mal held her arms out, gesturing for everyone to wait while Jay pushed the button on the remote, pointed up toward the barrier. A hole big enough for their group to fit through opened in the barrier, and they all walked through.
When they passed through the barrier, Pandora didn't feel any different, but she noticed something strange happen to Mal. As if the ember's magic activated as soon as it was free of the barrier, Mal changed. Her outfit lost any green and instead was mostly purple, blue, or gray, and some blue streaks appeared in her purple hair.
"Whoa. You've got a little Hades thing going." Evie noted as they walked forward.
"That thing packs a punch, huh." Carlos grinned, checking out Mal's sleeve.
Mal laughed slightly, lifting a piece of her hair to look at it.
They were interrupted by a couple people jumping through the shrinking hole in the barrier behind them.
They all whipped around as two guys rolled to a stop before clambering to their feet. Pandora vaguely recognized both of them as two of the guys who'd stolen the motorcycles, one of them Jay had called Hook. The two were clearly amazed that they managed to escape the Isle, briefly hugging before turning to the others.
Like the others, Pandora's knees were bent slightly, ready for whatever might happen next. After all, there was only the two guys against the six of them.
"Hey, guys," the Hook guy greeted them in a slightly euphoric Scottish accent, "we're just coming for a wee visit."
The two moved forward as if to just walk right past the others. Of course, Jay and Carlos moved forward and shoved them back, which turned into a bit of a macho guy thing, the four guys pushing back and forth. Mal and Pandora stepped forward as if to stop them, Mal even trying to get between them. But in the process she seemed to lose her grip on the ember. Considering how close they all were to the edge of the bridge, Pandora felt a jolt of panic and reached down to snatch the small ember off the ground. As her fingers closed around the cool, smooth surface she felt the warm tingle of magic flow through her fingers and up her arm, spreading through her body in a quick wave.
The feeling was cut short by Hook knocking the ember from her fingers, sending it flying out toward the sea.
"No!" Mal screamed as they all watched in horror as the blue stone dropped toward the ocean. Before it could touch the surface, a large, turquoise tentacle shot out of the ocean to snatch the ember from the air.
Pandora got pushed from behind a bit as everyone pushed to the front of the group to see what was happening. More tentacles appeared before a girl with long, teal hair popped out of the water.
"Drop something?" she called jokingly, holding up the ember in one tentacle.
"It can't get wet, give it back before it goes out!" Mal yelled desperately.
The girl laughed, coiling the ember tighter within her grasp.
"Uma!" the two pirates yelled, one looking thrilled, the other slightly less happy.
"That's my name." the girl smirked before ducking completely back under the water.
"No!" Mal screamed.
The water started spinning, then growing into a large, swirling mass that stretched as high as the bridge until it burst, spraying everyone on the bridge with water. Pandora ducked, her hands flying up instinctively to protect herself before hesitantly lowering them. When they all looked back down at the ocean, the surface smoothed out, leaving no trace of Uma.
"Hi boys." a voice called, causing them all to spin around. Uma stood behind them, smirking and holding the ember in her fingers. Her two friends joined her across the bridge, Hook looking thrilled to see her.
"Welcome back." he grinned.
"Uma. You swam off and forgot all about us." the other boy noted in a more dull voice.
"Yeah, plotting her revenge, no doubt." Mal sneered.
"It's not all about you, Mal." Uma retorted, causing Mal to raise her brows sarcastically. "I was looking for a hole in the barrier. To let everybody out? And you know what I found, boys?" she asked, turning back to her friends, "It's way better out there than we thought. There's this thing that looks like a furry rock, called a coconut. And fish so big you can dance on their backs." she added, turning back to Mal and the others. "And they've been keeping it all for themselves."
"Whatever. Uma, I need that to break a spell." Mal insisted, holding her hand out expectantly.
"Cast by Audrey, Sleeping Beauty's daughter." Carlos explained.
"Hmm. So, the good guy's the bad guy." Uma noted, laughing. "Well, I might not give it back. See what happens."
"Uma, it's not the time for games, people's lives are in danger!" Mal snapped impatiently, but it just made Uma's two buddies laugh and mock her. Pandora really wished she knew their names, just to put names to their faces.
"Guarantee me that every single villain kid who wants to can get off the Isle." Uma insisted.
"I can't do that." Mal answered.
Uma rolled her eyes and approached the edge of the bridge, holding the ember out over the ocean. "Well, how about now?!" she yelled.
"Deal!" Mal yelled desperately. "Deal."
Uma fake-dropped the ember just to taunt them, and they all lurched forward instinctively.
"Uma!" Evie called, making everyone look at her. "Her word is good."
Uma looked at Mal thoughtfully, before looking down at the ember, stepping away from the edge of the bridge. "I'll still keep this." she decided, tucking the ember into her jacket. "For the time being. Because if you think I trust you to save the world on your own, think again."
Mal rolled her eyes, but there wasn't much she could do.
While Uma and her two friends exchanged high fives, Pandora turned toward Mal and the boys. Jay said something to Mal, but Carlos caught Pandora's eye from around them. To her confusion, his eyes widened and he looked her over.
"What happened to you?" he demanded, causing everyone to look at him, and then follow his gaze to Pandora.
Pandora's brows furrowed, confused. She instinctively looked down, and her hands frantically started feeling her front and arms at what she saw. Her outfit had changed! The style and feel was still the same, but the colors had changed slightly. It had previously been mostly light green with patches of light blue, but the light blue had darkened to almost navy, and there was less green than before, the blue covering most of the jacket. The dark green vine patterns had darkened almost to black.
"Whoa, your hair." Evie added, stepping closer and lightly picking up a strand. Pandora grabbed a chunk of her hair to look at it. Instead of it being all one shade of sky blue, it was a few different shades of blue ranging from a darker cobalt to a lighter aqua.
"What the-?" Pandora muttered.
"When did that happen?" Carlos asked, looking like he was trying to remember when the change had occurred.
"You touched the ember." Jay pointed out thoughtfully. "It did the same thing to Mal, right?" he checked, glancing between her and Mal.
"Um, yeah, I guess so." Pandora muttered thoughtfully, still staring at the clump of hair in her hand.
"Whatever, we've got more important things to worry about." Mal pointed out. "We need to get to Auradon."
"Where are our bikes?" Jay demanded, focusing on the guys on either side of Uma.
"Oh, yeah, um, we crashed them." the dopey blonde guy answered.
Hook made a comical impression of a motorcycle driving off the edge of a cliff and exploding at the bottom.
Pandora glanced over and could see Jay's jaw clenching, and Mal and Carlos were watching Hook's impression with almost matching expressions of disbelief; their eyes wide and brows high on their foreheads.
Hook started laughing, pointing at Jay. "Look at his face." he laughed.
"Here's a thought." Evie interrupted, causing everyone to look at her. "We can try to be friends. Put our history behind us and celebrate our differences."
Pandora stepped back so she could glance at everyone else's reactions. It was clear no one was impressed with Evie's idea.
"Who wants gum?" Evie asked, pulling a bag of gum from a pocket on her sleeve. Pandora noticed Celia, who was next to Evie, was glancing around awkwardly.
"Let's go." Uma ordered.
"Uh, no." Mal interrupted. "I'm in charge. Let's go."
"Uh, quick question," Carlos cut in, "how exactly are we crossing this broken bridge without a limo or our bikes?" he asked, gesturing ahead of the group to where the bridge was broken off.
Everyone glanced among themselves for a moment.
"Well, I can swim. I don't know about the rest of you." Uma pointed out.
"I might have a suggestion." Pandora spoke up, her eyes fixed on the clouds up in the sky.
Everyone looked at her, some following her gaze.
"What, you expect everyone to fly?" Uma asked with disdain.
"Shut up, Shrimpy." Mal sneered before stepping up next to Pandora. "What are you thinking?" she asked.
Pandora didn't answer right away, just listening and watching the clouds. Finally, she picked up a very quiet, easily-missed sound that made a slow smile spread across her face. Putting her fingers to her lips, she let out a shrill whistle.
The flapping of wings grew louder before suddenly a great, white horse burst through one of the fluffy clouds, almost hard to see against the white mass. It's twenty foot wingspan stretched as it circled the bridge before diving toward the group. Pandora turned and watched as the Pegasus landed gracefully on the bridge behind everyone. She whinnied and trotted up to Pandora, nudging her velvety nose into Pandora's chest as she reached up to pet behind the horse's ears. Her flowing, blue mane almost perfectly matched the color of the bright summer sky.
"Is that a flying horse?" the blonde guy with Uma asked in amazement.
"You have a Pegasus?" Carlos added with equal amazement.
"Well, sort of." Pandora answered, still petting the horse's face as she turned back toward the group. "Zeus gave Hercules a Pegasus when he was a baby, this is his Pegasus' daughter, Phoebe. She's technically Herkie's, but since he spent so much of time at Auradon Prep I took care of her for him."
"As fascinating as that is," Uma drawled sarcastically, "you really think she can fly nine of us across the ocean?"
Pandora hummed thoughtfully. "Maybe with a carriage." she suggested, looking over at Mal, who grinned.
It only took a minute for Mal to conjure a carriage, which they attached to Phoebe. Everyone climbed into it, except Pandora and Mal, who climbed onto Phoebe's back, their legs tucked behind Phoebe's wings.
With a strong flap of her wings, Phoebe flew off the bridge, flying across the sky above the ocean with the carriage pulled along behind her. Pandora and Mal snorted slightly when they heard a couple short screams from inside the carriage.
Pandora held lightly to Phoebe's mane, her eyes gazing distractedly at the shoreline across the ocean. Mal was sitting behind her, her arms wrapped around Pandora's waist to keep from falling off.
"Hey, Mal?" she asked, turning slightly so Mal, seated behind her, could hear. "Can I ask you something?"
"Sure. What's up?" Mal answered.
"I just noticed that…well, when you passed through the barrier holding the ember, it turned your hair and clothes more blue." Pandora spoke thoughtfully, and she felt Mal stiffen. "And then the ember seemed to do the same thing when I touched it. But then Uma grabbed it and it didn't do the same thing to her."
Mal didn't respond, probably hoping that Pandora didn't come to the controversial conclusion currently in her mind.
"Mal, is Hades your father, too?" Pandora finally asked.
It was silent for several moments before Mal sighed.
"Evie's the only person who knows. Well, and now Celia, since she came to his hideout with me. Yes, Hades is my father." Mal admitted quietly.
Pandora nodded slowly. At least she didn't feel offended like she thought she would. When the idea popped into her head a few minutes ago she'd thought everyone was keeping that information a secret, leaving her to be the odd one out. But if only Mal and Evie knew, it makes sense they didn't tell Pandora.
"Is he…I mean, what was he like as a father?" Pandora finally asked quietly.
"I wouldn't really know." Mal answered, sounding bitter. "My mother was more of a rebound for him, and he walked out on us when I was a baby. I know next to nothing about him."
Pandora nodded slightly, the small hope she had that Hades might have been a good father distinguished like a dying spark.
"If it means anything," Mal continued, "he didn't know about you. And it sounds like he actually loved your mother, and she loved him. When I admitted that he had a daughter with Persephone, he expressed an interest in meeting you."
Pandora tried to swallow past the lump in her throat. That small spark of hope seemed to flicker back to life. But she couldn't let that distract her right now.
"Well, let's focus on saving Auradon first." she decided. "One thing at a time."