A/N: The flashback in the beginning of the chapter is a dream sequence, just to be extra clear. Uma says some mean things as a child in this flashback, and there's no redemption for her in this chapter, but she will eventually apologize in the present day, and come to terms with Mal.
Present Day: 8 Days After Coronation
[I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream]
They were once the best of friends, even though they had only been thrown together by circumstance. Because Ursula craved power to get home and reclaim her rightful throne, and because Maleficent didn't want to be exposed as a wrongfully imprisoned fairy without wings. They both needed allies, and if their children (pawns) got along well, it was an excuse to get closer.
[I know you, that gleam in your eyes, is so familiar a gleam]
Five year old Mal and Uma terrorized the Coward's Market, so named because it was joked that no one who shopped there was brave enough to steal from the barges. Uma wasn't a pirate yet, but Mal was still a princess, and her eyes glowed with magic, even with a barrier, and even with the skinny, bird-like bones that showed through her skin and scared her mother when she thought the girl wasn't looking. They both carried themselves like royalty, because Maleficent was Queen of the Moors and All the Fae, and Ursula was Firstborn of the Line of Triton, so their daughters were being groomed to one-day ascend their respective thrones.
Despite their regal bearing, and perfect breeding, they were not so good at playing Auradon as Evie would be one day, once she was allowed to leave her high castle walls. They smashed stalls and stole goods, and stuffed zippered pockets so that no one could take back the ill-gotten gains.
[And I know it's true, that visions are seldom what they seem]
Five became six, and six became seven. Uma met Harry and Mal met Evie, but they were still the very best of friends. The four hung out together, but more often in groups of two, Mal with Evie, Uma with Hook, or Mal and Uma, stealing and raiding, and getting pick of the barges, just like old times.
Their first fight was about tagging.
Mal's long-live-evil logo was always about her, and her family line. It never reflected Uma, or her other partnerships, and it never would, not for all the years she lived on the Isle. Eventually, she helped her friends design their own version of the mark, but the symbol was hers, and hers alone. She refused to include Uma in it, and in doing so, refused to give up any kind of power to her. They would never be equals, because Mal would not submit, and unfortunately, Uma was the same way.
Despite that, Mal still loved her. She was a first friend. The first Mal had ever had. In those early days, despite the fact that she refused to share power with Uma, it didn't mean her care for the sea witch didn't get fonder.
[But if I know you, I know what you'll do]
She loved her, was fallingin love with her. It was first love, and even though their rivalry was becoming more vicious by the day, and their power struggle wasn't resolved, and their minions (Evie and Harry) could practically feel the tension between them, and it was bound to end in flames - despite all that, she was fiercely attracted to Uma.
It all came to a head when they were thirteen, and Mal decided she wanted to kiss her. To claim her, to prove once and for all, that she was the only queen on the Isle, and their parents were nobodies (not that Maleficent had ever wanted to be anything other than one girl's fairy godmother), and Uma could rule at her side over all the peasants in the world, but Mal would always rule over Uma, the only person in the whole wide world who could best her.
They were alone on the pier like usual, when she made her move, and even though Mal was only thirteen, she was a very good judge of character, and thought she knew exactly how Uma would react when she leaned forward, and pressed her lips against her oldest friend's mouth, as the waves broke around them, and the goblins scattered as magic gathered like static on a television set, and the air spun like a broken compass.
[You'll love me at once]
Uma slapped her.
"What the fuck was that about, you dyke!?" Uma screamed, standing up, shoving Mal, stepping back. "I thought you were my friend!"
Her mother had beaten it into her that love was weak, and loving someone of the same sex was unnatural. Uma knew, logically, that her mother was wrong about all kinds of things, and it only made sense that she'd be wrong about this, too. When she saw Harry make out with Gil, she looked the other way, because Harry was nuts, and Gil had been abused, and if it gave them comfort to be with each other, she wouldn't hold it against them, even if it made her skin crawl. But Mal had lived a life that was as close to pampered as an Isle descendant could get. Everyone knew that Maleficent loved her, and she got enough to eat, even if it was rotten, and Uma found it harder to excuse unnatural behavior from a girl with a charmed life - a girl who, if she was being honest, Uma was painfully jealous of.
But knowing something and believing it are different, and Mal didn't know the turmoil that was going through her friend's mind. She only knew that Uma had called her a dyke. Instead of trying to explain, or crying the tears that pricked at her eyes and made her sinuses burn, she gave in to her rage, because her mama said rage gave you strength when all you wanted to do was die.
She was right.
[The way you did once]
"At least I'm not a whiny little shrimp who pretends to be a pirate because she can't be a witch!" Mal screamed, rushing at her former friend, knocking her hard onto her back, and punching her in the jaw. Uma saw stars, but she bucked up, reversing their positions, and pinned Mal on the ground instead, landing a series of punches on her face, jaw, nose, mouth -
"At least I'm not a little princess who pretends to be a witch because she can't be a fairy!" Uma screamed, and stopped for just a moment, giving Mal the chance to chance to headbutt her, knocking Uma back as the satisfying crunch of a broken nose echoed over the silent barge district.
Mal stood back up, kicking Uma hard in the head while she was down, and spat blood onto the ground as she flung her hair out of her eyes.
"I don't pretend shit, shrimpy." Mal smirked through the blood and dirt on her face, and her eyes glowed green. "I am a witch. And you don't need wings to be a fae, you dumb bitch."
[Upon A Dream]
Mal woke up in a cold sweat in their Auradon dorm. Evie had a separate canopy beside hers, but they'd slept in the same bed since she was fourteen, so it seemed a little weird to stop now. It wasn't like any student but Ben and the guys would see them anyway.
She glanced at the bedside clock and sighed, running a hand down her face.
"What's up...?" Evie murmured in the semi-darkness as the full moon shone through the window.
"Sorry babe. Did I wake you?" Mal asked quietly, more subdued than she'd sounded in years.
"Yeah. I don't mind much though." Evie smiled serenely, and her next words were said in her patented mocking mother voice. "Exfoliate enough, and any lost beauty sleep is negligible!'
Mal chuckled at that, and smirked. "I know how you feel. I'm wired from the ritual."
After Ben had left, earlier that night, Carlos brought out the little green lizard that had been purchased from a pet store, and placed it in the middle of the floor. Mal had put her hands in her pockets to hide the shaking as Evie returned from her chat with the King in the hallway, and she smiled at the pet reptile.
"I know this is a lot to ask of a lizard I've just met." She'd chuckled almost giddily. "But are you prepared to be a parent?"
They'd made a circle in the room, drawn out the necessary runes and the triangles and the geometric lines along directional planes. It was a merging of all their magics, with Evie's Germanic runes, and Carlos' demonic seals. The geometry of Jay's pentacles and lines, and Abrahimic sigils, and the fairy circles and symbols that generations of children on the moor were warned to never wander upon, contributed by Mal and Mal alone. It was the same circle they had in her workshop back on the Isle, and they'd cast magic in it before. But here, outside the barrier, things were different, and who knew what could happen?
She'd been able to make talismans that protected her coven, but they didn't smell of magic quite the way she knew this lizard would - they couldn't stop a bullet, and they couldn't save a life. It was like drinking watered down wine and trying to get drunk, it was Isle Magic (with the capitals, emphasis on Isle), and somehow, they all knew this was different. This was the start of it, and Mal's hands were shaking. Jay shook the change in his pockets every other minute. Evie kept checking her reflection, and Carlos tapped his foot and ran his hand across the tail hanging from his belt loop, all the nervous tics that Mal knew by heart, all the little synchronicities she thought they'd outgrown when they left the Isle.
This was Auradon Magic (With capitals, emphasis on Auradon). And there was no going back from this kind of magic. It wasn't meant to begin with a sleeping curse, with the prick of a finger, or the bite of an apple, or a deal with a DeVil, or three little wishes.
The slow rise to power began with a scale from her mother, and a gecko from a pet store.
No wonder they were still so wired, even now, at three in the morning, at a time when they should have been sleeping in before a well deserved weekend, where they could hide away from bitchy royals and discrimination and Remedial Goodness.
"Doing magic here feels so... Different." Evie explained, shivering a little, before pulling the comforter tighter around her shoulders and leaning into Mal. "Before, it felt like relief, like all the magic trapped inside of me felt good to get out."
"Like going to the bathroom after waiting forever." Mal said, and Evie rolled her eyes and shoved lightly.
"Gross, M."
"What, it's true!" Mal defended, before adding her next point in an almost reverent voice. "Doing magic here though... It's so different."
"It's like worship." Evie nodded. "But to whom, I don't know."
"To us." Mal grinned, nuzzling the junction where her sweet-smelling blue hair fell over neck and shoulders in the way she knew Evie liked. "We're worshipping Magic itself, and those of us who can use it."
Evie always smelled like beeswax and herbs, like potions ingredients or apples. Even here in Auradon, where they had their pick of fruity, frothy perfume and soap (not that they could afford the same kind as Audrey, or Willow, or Cindy, given that they were living on charity) she still smelled natural, and Mal knew that she preferred to make her own cosmetics, the way she had on the Isle.
"Do you remember the day I declared war on Uma?" Mal asked, mid kiss, her lips pressed up against her girlfriend's neck, and Evie hummed.
"Of course. You came home with a rearranged face, and your mother almost had a heart attack." The witch replied with a smirk in her voice, and Mal chuckled against her skin.
When two people have similar personalities and interests, and spend a lot of time together, the rivalry grows unbidden, even between friends. Mal had everything Uma wanted - a mother who actually loved her, the ability to use her magic to some extent behind the barrier, the charisma to attract followers who weren't just wharf rats, and the reputation to have the whole damn isle on a silver platter. They'd danced around uncomfortable silence, ignored the snide remarks. They'd avoided the things that ground on their nerves about each other's personality, until they squeaked like rusted hinges and everything burst at the seams like the overstuffed trash bags dragged off of the barge on the first of the month.
"Why?" Evie finally asked, and it was Mal's turn to shrug and hum in answer.
"I dreamed about it." She finally replied.
"And?"
"And I felt apprehensive. It's understandable, given the night we've had." Mal answered, pulling away, and tucking her knees up to her chin on the bed, wrapping her arms around her ankles.
"About Uma?" Evie asked, and even without magic, Mal could tell what she was thinking. Uma's still back on the Isle. And even if she wasn't, she owes you a life debt. You saved someone she loves, and she wouldn't dare backstab you after something like that.
"Not about Uma." Mal shook her head. "Just in general. Things are moving. It feels like the air before the storm, like the night we met Freddie. Something is happening, and not knowing what makes me nervous."
"Let's read the cards then." Evie sat up straighter, turning on a dim lamp, and reaching into a bedside table for one of her most treasured possessions. Mal had made these for her on her fourteenth birthday - a set of tarot cards, meticulously cut from cardboard, and painted by hand, with witches and warlocks of Bavaria on every scene. Evie had never need to tell her about it, because she'd asked her mother. Maleficent was not well versed in the ways of witches, but everyone with magic used the cards, even light-aligned fairies and so-called "good witches" had a variation of the tarot deck that was more suited for polite company.
(Evie's mama had always scoffed at that. Half the cards' power came from pentacles and nudity and symbols. By removing things that people like Adam would find offensive, they removed part of their own power.)
Evie still had Mal's handmade deck, and she'd lovingly named it the Morgana Deck. She placed a hand on the top of it now, the plain brown back of the cardboard deck, and asked her question.
"Phase one of the plan has been enacted. The request has been made. The prisoner has been exchanged."
Mal recalled that part well. They'd snuck into the cell with the terrarium that housed Maleficent's new form after the ritual, giddy with the magic high, and elbowing each other. They didn't even need to sneak, per se, because Maleficent wasn't off-limits, especially not to Mal. No one expected her to be able to escape (and though she could, she wouldn't). It showed a lot of trust, that Auradon left Maleficent almost entirely in Mal's hands, and that Maleficent left the plan for her escape in her daughter's hands as well.
This was not the loveless lizard Fairy Godmother imagined she was.
The electromagnet in Carlos' bag scrambled the video footage, and they swapped one gecko for another, putting Mal's mother in the little carrying case that had once held the lizard from the pet store. She couldn't believe there weren't any alarms when they opened the terrarium.
"It's ironic that she tried to take over all of Auradon and she gets fed better than we were on the Isle." Jay groused, and Evie punched him in the shoulder, which probably felt like the punch of a teddy bear, if her teasing grin was any indication.
"You have to admit that crickets are a lot less expensive than renewable inner-city infrastructure." The blue-haired girl mused.
"It can't be this easy." Mal had said then, as they left the room behind them, only to realize that yes, it was exactly this easy.
Once outside, Mal opened the little cage, and whispered, "See you later, mom."
Her mother wouldn't take a proper form until she was in a place where no one could see her, preferably behind a castle of thorns with Diaval. Still, she felt a warm glow of magic sweep over her, and her mother's voice in her mind, echoing in the silence like an opera house.
"I know you will make me proud."
Back in the present moment, Mal bent over the cards with her best friend beside her. Her true best friend. She closed her eyes as Evie asked the question, afraid to see the answer.
"What will happen as we enact phase two?"
She'd phrased it very specifically. She didn't know whether it would succeed, because they were the inner circle, and they could do nothing less. She asked not about the obstacles specifically, but what would happen - that was to say, the machinations of fate.
When Mal felt steady enough, she opened her eyes, to see the card, and felt a tingling sensation down her spine, and the chillbumps of power on her arms. This was a card that might be intimidating to others, but it was the card of change, rebirth, closure, regeneration - it was something that Evie and Mal had in common, something they had shared since they were ten.
The card was Death.
And in the Morgana Deck, the only one of it's kind, Death was a girl who rode a pale horse, a girl with violet hair that nearly glowed, green murder in her eyes and a kingdom kneeling before her.
"Perfect."
- End of Act One -