...
"Like father like daughter."
...
"I didn't think you'd be back so soon, Mally."
Descending into Hades underground lair for the second time, Mal grimaced. She hated this option with her heart and soul, "are you enjoying the scenery? The whole Isle, burning down around our ears. It's practically kismet."
"Stop it, dad." Mal hissed angrily, the blue ember glowing hot against her palm deep in her pocket. The air down here was like a furnace, causing sweat to bead up on her skin from the fires raging above, "you know why I'm here."
"Your plan didn't go as well as you'd hoped?" Hades questioned, using a comb to straighten out his blue Mohawk in a cracked mirror, "you got off the isle, but the barrier is still up. So what, have you come to just give me back my property?"
"So you haven't heard?" Mal questioned the god, wandering around the back of his tattered sofa as the man huffed.
"What, that you failed? That you didn't get back your precious little prince? I told you the ember would only do so much..."
"We're going to war, dad." Mal interrupted, hand on her hip as Hades froze mid-brush.
"What did you say?"
"War. A beginning to the end."
"That seems a bit extreme, don't you think?" Hades queried, unbothered as another explosion rocked the world above, "what do you want me to do about it?"
"You're a god, aren't you?" Mal prodded in irritation, "this barrier is going to come down at any moment, and the Isle will be going to war with Auradon. You will be free."
"I hope you didn't come all this way to tell me that." Hades grumbled, "what are you really after, Mal?"
"I want to try and save Ben from his curse. And the only person I know who could possibly keep him from his fate is you."
"Mmmmm, I dunno." Flopping down onto his sofa, Hades leaned on a closed fist, "what are the odds."
"Hundreds of lives floating down into the underworld unchecked, at once. Ben's included, if Audrey has her way."
"Audrey, the Daughter of Aurora?"
"The very same. She made a deal with Dragon Eye."
"Awe, and you care for her," Hades drawled, eye's dolling as he gagged, "I can see it in your face. But it's already happened, hasn't it?"
Standing again, Hades chuckled darkly as he loomed over Mal with a snarl, "she's exchanged the power of the scepter for her life. She's become as evil as your mother, and will stay that way for the rest of her life."
"Yes..."
"And you'd rather save Ben? The Tyrant King? The boy who betrayed you?"
"It's not that easy to explain," Mal hissed unhappily, "Ben had no choice..."
"And you think the little Princess did? What pushed her so far as to take the scepter, the most powerful, evil thing on earth next to my ember? We're all in the same boat here, little girl. No one ever has a choice when it comes to their fates." Hades growled, adjusting his fingerless gloves with a huff of annoyance, "I can't be bothered. I'm not fighting a human's war..."
"But..."
"I'm a god!" Hades snapped angrily, blue eyes shining as Mal took a step back, "petty human squabbles are what brought me here. And the minute the barrier is gone I'm going back to the Underworld, to my wife and my job, and all of this will be just one big nightmare. I don't care about the fate of Auradon. Never have, and never will."
"Don't you care about me at all!" Mal snapped back with as much fire and brimstone as her godly father, causing the man to shift on his boots, "what was mom to you, huh? Just another conquest?"
"Now just a minute..."
"No. No more minutes. You had nearly twenty years to make this up to me, dad. You had nearly twenty years to send a birthday card, or make a phone call. To do anything at all. So don't you make me wait when it really matters because you can't sort out your priorities."
"Mally..."
"No. Just, zip it. You don't care about me, or mom, or Auradon. I get that now. Fine. Whatever. If you won't help me rid Ben of his curse, I will do whatever I possibly can to try. Because if I don't, then two people I love will be walking through your gates when this is over. Along with many, many others. And all of those lives will be in vain, all because you decided to be a shit father." Lip trembling under the weight of what was about to happen, Mal clenched her fists, "and if I walk through those gates right along side them, tomorrow, at least I know for sure you really didn't give a fuck about me."
Jaw open, Hades didn't appear to have anything to say as Mal whirled on a heel, "I'm taking the ember with me. You can have it back when I'm dead."
And she was gone, running back from where she came, ignoring Hades standing amidst his cave. The ember was like a led weight in her jeans, and she wished she could have done better. Emerging from Hades lair, the fires had died down significantly. A gritty rainfall was now upon them, slicking the cobblestones. The whole isle appeared to be deserted, and Mal would have believed it if not for the mass of voices towards the front of the island. Uma, Gil and Harry had apparently accomplished their task of rallying the Isle.
Jogging towards the entrance to the Isle of the Lost, Mal tried to ignore the casualties the explosions had taken. She only now understood what Ben had done. He had set explosives all over the Island, and when he set them off...people would die. She still didn't know what his original plan had been, but she suspected the casualties would be a distraction for when he poisoned his own people. Snarling at that idea, Mal sprinted faster through the streets, her heart aching.
Climbing to the top of a roof, the Dragon Girl could see the massive crowd Uma had gathered. It was noisy and chaotic, and in the middle of it all was the Daughter of Ursula.
"...our time is coming!" She cried, voice already gone hoarse from minutes of speeches, "freedom is coming. The crown has lied to us all! To us, to Mal, to the people of Auradon. And it's now our dawn to take it back!"
There was a mass of cheers as Uma raised her sword into the air. As she did this, Mal felt her skin shiver as she looked towards Auradon. From a high place just off the coast, a beam of bright blue light streaked across the sky. It hit the barrier with a loud explosion, everyone ducking down as shards of the magic began to fall from the sky. Watching the wall disintegrate into ash, there were more gasps and screams of panic as massive walls of thorns sprouted from the concrete. Blocking the only means of escape that had just been created, Audrey appeared on the barrier.
From a distance, Mal could see the black tinge her hair had taken at its roots, and the sickly pale color of once almond skin. Her billowing pink and black cloaks had returned, snapping in an artificial wind as silence befell the crowd.
"Auradon is at war." She spoke, harshly and coldly, "King Ben is a monster, and he has murdered your own for his gain."
Waving to the still raging fires, Audrey extinguished them with a mere pass of her hand in a display of power, "loyalty lies with your own. But if you fight for Auradon, you will be honored. You will have the promise of freedom, of a world filled with all of the things of imagination. The King will fall by tomorrows midnight, and when he does, all of us will be released from his families tyranny."
There was a ripple of voices in the crowd as lightning from the rain crackled in the sky, "who will stand to fight?"
There was a long pause; a deep gap of silence as citizens looked worriedly between one another. A new wave of whispers ripped through the crowd as Harry stepped up first.
"I will fight."
"Harry," Audrey spoke, her tone lilting slightly with what sounded like compassion, "I admire your bravery."
Clacking her staff against the ground, a sword and shield appeared in the boy's hands, "you will fight with the strength of ten men."
"I want to fight too!" Gil called, stumbling beside Harry awkwardly as Mal smiled weakly, "uh, Majesty. Queen?"
"Gil. Always loyal to your crew." Audrey said, giving the boy the same as Harry. Still watching from a distance, Mal felt the tears slipping down her face as more and more volunteers stepped forward, taking up swords and shields, glistening with armor as they hugged and kissed their loved ones goodbye. There was almost something medieval about it all, the idea of marching to war, not really ready, not knowing what could possibly happen next.
"Army of the Lost!" Audrey announced, hearing swords clashing against shields as cries rose high into the air, "to Auroria!"
•••
Dear Readers,
I'm sorry this isn't a larger update, but I wanted to let you know what's going on and when new chapters will be coming. All of my current Descendants stories are still on my mind, I haven't given up in them or anything, but school is beating me up this year, as I'm both a full time student and a full time employee. So please be patient with me as I work through this brutal time, I promise I'll start writing again soon. Thank you all my lovely readers.
-R