Hey everyone! Wow, I can't believe the response I've gotten to this story! Over five hundred views already? What? I'm really glad you're all enjoying things so far, and I hope this lengthier chapter will help satisfy you for a little while.
To my reviewers: (I always answer at the top, so if you don't want to read my responses, skip ahead to the next section)
ToughGirlsRule: (They certainly do!) And I'm glad you're liking the story. I agree, if it wasn't so 'Disney-fied,' this would be what it would be like. I mean, they are the worst of the worst villains, after all. And I'm glad you're liking Jay. There really isn't enough of him in these things. I haven't figured out too far ahead yet, but I do plan on exploring Jay vs. Aladdin a bit. That's all I'll say there. ;)
Guest: I'm glad that you're glad, lol! Hope you continue to read and enjoy.
Delta Orchid: Easy there, don't hurt yourself. The latest chapter is here!
Tiredandlazy: I will happily accept your thumbs up, and I don't think you were rude at all. I hope you'll continue to enjoy.
blackkitty5133: More is here so you don't have to wait. :)
huskylover94: Thank you! I'm glad to hear you think this is so great. Hopefully you'll keep reading and enjoying.
keirstinpaige: Your wish is my command! Was this fast enough for you? ;p
***Warning! This chapter contains some language (mild) and brief references to self harm and abuse/neglect! Nothing graphic, but it is there, so be warned!***
A/N: One more thing, this chapter includes sign language. I've taken the time to describe the signs as they are, but if you'd rather I keep things simple and just say 'he signed, she signed, etc,' let me know!
Anyway, enough talk! To the chapter! Again, I do not own Descendants, or the original story idea. Thanks for all your support and interest. Hope you guys enjoy!
- Raven
Ben
He finds Doug right where he'd expected him to be: in the garden, bent over a book. Despite being the son of Dopey, he was the brainiest one of the group, and could generally be found in the gardens on days they didn't have morning classes. He looks up as Ben approaches, adjusting his glasses to greet him properly.
"Hey, Ben," he says, marking his place in his book before closing it.
"Hey, Doug," he responds, and, because it's the polite thing to do: "What are you reading?"
Doug makes room on the bench as he sits down beside him, smiling as he brushes nonexistent dust off the cover.
"It's a treasury of classics from the past few centuries." He stares lovingly at the book, which is enormous and could easily fill a backpack by itself.
"Did they get settled in ok?" There's no need to clarify who 'they' are; who else could it be but the new arrivals?
"Well enough," Ben shrugs a shoulder, trying not to reveal how uncomfortable the whole thing made him.
"I didn't really stick around long enough to find out, but what are they like?" he continues, and Ben can tell he wants details.
"You saw them," Ben replies. "Jay, son of Jafar-he's the tall one; looks like he could lift a carriage above his head. The rest are-"
"I know what they look like, Ben," Doug interrupts, rolling his eyes, exasperated. "I meant, what are they like?"
He hesitates, frowning slightly. "They're quiet. Too quiet." For the children of four of the most hated and feared Villains, he'd expected a little more…chaos. "And they're skinny," he continues slowly. "Like they don't get enough to eat."
It's a foreign concept in Auradon; not eating enough food. If anything he sometimes thought they'd had too much food. So to be faced with four kids who didn't…it was a little startling, to say the least.
Instead of looking startled, however, Doug nods. "Well, that's no surprise there," he says, and it's the offhand way he says it; so knowing, so casual, that has Ben taken aback.
"It's not?" It comes out harsher than he'd intended, and Doug gives him a strange look.
"Of course it isn't."
His confusion must be showing on his face, because Doug straightens a little on the bench. "Ben, you have to know by now that the Isle only gets our garbage."
"Our garbage," he repeats blankly, the words not quite registering.
Doug nods slowly, still looking at him weirdly. "You know, the stuff we throw out; food that goes bad before it's sold; our leftovers-well, in edibles, really. Old tech. Pretty much everything we don't use."
He must have been silent for too long, as Doug continues quietly, "You did know that, didn't you?"
Ben shakes his head, still a little dazed.
"I mean, it's not that big a deal," Doug covers quickly. "What else? Anything interesting?"
"Not that I can think of," he say slowly.
The truth is, there was a lot about them that was 'interesting.' Like the bruises. And their clothes: the wrong sizes and not quite right for this weather. The way they all stared at the floor when he looked at them. Except for Jay. He seemed to take every look as a personal challenge, and wouldn't look away until someone else did first. Carlos' silence, and his reaction to the statue. Like he was expecting it to leap off the pedestal and attack him.
Maybe he was overreacting. Maybe all the kids on the Isle grew up like that. But he didn't want to bring it up with Doug, in case he said that it wasn't anything to worry about. That stuff like that was normal. He would have to get Fairy Godmother to check them out, because nothing about this situation felt 'normal' to him.
He stood abruptly, smoothing out miniscule wrinkles in his suit jacket. "I'd better get going," he says with a forced smile. "Lunch is coming up, and I told the new arrivals that I'd escort them down."
Doug looks up at him with a concerned look on his face, pausing him in his tracks. "Ben. Did you really not know? About the food?"
The comment brings a lump to his throat that stings when he swallows, and he barely manages to respond, "No. No, I didn't. Now if you'll excuse me…"
He struggles to regain his composure, but manages a quick nod to Doug. He thinks he hears the other boy trying to say something behind him, but he's already out of earshot; hurrying out of the garden and back towards school.
Mal
The room is ridiculously pink, with lace and frills everywhere. The curtains are almost see through they're so pale, despite also being tinted pink. The blinds draw securely, and she's grateful for that at least. The furniture that qualifies as a 'bed' is large enough for two, and there's a faint smell of flowers in the air. Roses, she thinks, grimacing in disgust.
"It's amaz-"
"Gross." She cuts across Evie's awed gasp, slamming her suitcase down at the foot of the nearest offending item.
"Right," Evie says, subdued. "Amazingly gross."
But Mal can hear her muted squeal of joy, and she can't help but roll her eyes, amused. "Door, E," she mutters, and Evie pauses in her quiet tirade of the room to answer.
"Already got it."
"The lock, too?" It only hurts when you're not careful.
Evie doesn't respond, but Mal doesn't need her to. They both know how these things go. She only hopes Jay and Carlos stay just as sharp. They can't afford to lose themselves in the cushy lives of Auradon.
"They don't really expect us to sleep in these things, do they?"
Evie smirks, but the longing in her eyes as she runs her fingertips across the soft pink comforter is unmistakable. Sure, there'd been beds back on the Isle. Anything and everything qualified as a bed, as long as you could sleep on it or in it, or under it. As long as it was somewhere easily defendable, it could feasibly be called a bed. There were some on the Isle who carried around bamboo pallets that could be unrolled as an easily transportable bed.
She forces herself to shove those thoughts aside and work on unpacking what little clothing she had. The closet is huge, almost a room in itself, but there's barely enough outfits to fill even a quarter of it, even with the clothes she finds already hanging inside. Uniforms; the same ones she'd seen the Auradon kids wearing outside. Blue and white plaid skirts with a matching blouse jacket, complete with a few long sleeved button up shirts of various pastel colors.
"I am not wearing this," she declares vehemently, shoving the disgusting items to the very back of the closet.
Evie lets out a sharp gasp behind her, and Mal feels her lips twitch in amusement. "It's only a uniform, E, you don't have to…"
Her words fall short when she turns, and sees Evie frozen in the closet. Her face is pale, so pale Mal thinks she might be sick. One arm is suspended in mid-air, reaching for an empty hanger, and the other is pressed tightly to her side, her body trembling slightly.
"Shit," she curses, dropping the clothes and rushing to the other girl's side. "Evie, what is it? Are you alright?"
A stupid thing to ask, really. The look on Evie's face; that tight look of pain that Mal knew all too well, should have been an obvious answer.
"Fine," Evie manages to get out, and she even smiles, but it's too thin of a smile for Mal to be fooled. "Just…moved too fast, is all."
"You should sit," Mal says, moving aside some of the clothes on the bed that had yet to be put away.
"Doesn't help," Evie mutters.
"Sorry, that wasn't a suggestion."
It's enough to make Evie actually smile, and she allows Mal to help her sit on the edge of the bed.
"Careful Mal," she whispers with a pained chuckle. "Someone might think you actually care."
The words hurt, strangely enough. Of course, Mal would never admit it. But she would think that with everything they had been through together; and despite her mother's insistence that any kind of attachment was a liability, that it would be obvious by now that she did care. Especially considering the previous night, and exactly how Evie had received her injuries in the first place.
Evie must have read the thoughts on her face, because she leans forward despite the pain, her brows furrowing slightly. "Mal…"
Anxious to change the subject before things got out of hand, Mal picked up one of the outfits Evie had laid aside on the bed. "You want me to put these in the closet for you?"
"No, I'm going to put them back in my bags. I, uh, I can't wear them right now."
An outfit that Evie can't wear? Mal raises an eyebrow suspiciously, examining the offending garments closer. They're varying shades and degrees of blue and leather, her usual trademark style.
"I see nothing wrong with these whatsoever."
Evie huffs a short sigh, rolling her eyes. "Mal. The sleeves."
Oh. Mal looks again, and realizes that they're all short sleeved. Even the one dress that has sleeves only comes down halfway. Mal curses her insensitivity, although there is a part of her that knows being insensitive is usually the one thing she prides herself on. But still…
"It's pretty hot out, E," she reasons. Even she hadn't ditched all of her short sleeved clothes when she'd…well…
"I don't want to weird anyone out," Evie replies flatly. "We've barely been here an hour and they've been looking at us like we're freaks ever since we got out of the car."
"Freaks?" Mal repeats lowly, but Evie continues smoothly, ignoring the interruption.
"Besides, you're wearing a jacket for exactly the same reason."
It's hard to debate such a solid point, but she tries anyway; about to argue that it's not quite the same thing. That her jacket was more to conceal the bruises than anything else. That she'd at least had the sense…but that was pushing past insensitive, borderline cruel. And even if it was in her nature, saying all that to Evie was not an option.
The sound of the lock clicking in the door halts her midsentence, and Evie stiffens on the bed, shooting Mal an anxious look. She almost misses the look, too busy bending and slipping a knife from her boot, grateful the Auradon residents were naïve enough to not bother with a dangerous items check when they'd arrived.
Evie's got her hand hallway to her pocket, ready to grab the small vial hidden inside. It's a simple blend of nightshade, magic, and something else that Carlos had managed to procure, though he couldn't begin to say what it was. It didn't matter so much what was in it as it mattered what it did. The mixture inside would create a thick, dark screen of smoke, and the combination of magic and poison would leave the victims blind and completely paralyzed. Or dead, if enough was inhaled. The paralysis was temporary, at least. The other effects, not as much. It had only been used once, but they hadn't talked about it since then.
The latch snaps, signifying a successful break in, and Mal braces herself to throw when the door swings open and two familiar figures appear in the doorway. Evie slumps in relief on her bed, but Mal takes a moment longer to relax and lower her arm, scowling.
"You idiots," she hisses, but it's more a sigh of relief than anything hostile. "I almost killed you!"
"Well," Jay says casually, eyeing the room while Carlos attempts to fix the lock he'd broken. "You didn't, though it's good to see old habits haven't died so easily."
"Please," she scoffs, replacing her knife in her boot. "As if an hour in this place would make me forget years of fighting for my life."
"Just saying," Jay shrugs. Carlos makes a triumphant sound as the lock clicks back into place, and he comes fully into the room, looking around in a similar state of awe as Evie had.
"This is the pinkest, pr-r-rissiest room I've ever seen in my life."
Jay snorts. "And we all know that's saying something."
"I'm not complaining," Evie sighs, no longer stiff with pain, although Mal knows she has to still be feeling it. "It's got air conditioning and lights and plumbing that works all the time; not just whenever our parents remember to pay the bills."
"Or when-never I high jack stuff and fffix it for you," Carlos adds, before his eyes light up and he rushes past them.
"Hey, check out the TV!" he exclaims, ripping open one of the nightstands beside the beds and pulling out a small black remote. "If you press the red button, you can w-watch TV, and if you press the gre-green button over here, you can play g-ames."
Jay rolls his eyes. "It's not that exciting."
"Th-that's what you say now!" Carlos shoots back, wedging himself under the TV and messing with the wires. "Just w-w-wait till I get it st-started!"
Mal rolls her eyes as Jay places himself next to Evie on the bed, letting her lean against him. "Carlos if you break it, you're putting it back together."
"I'm not gonna b-break it!" He shouts back, his voice muffled beneath the TV.
"And breathe, dude," Jay adds with a smirk. "You're slipping again."
Carlos mutters something in response, but it's drowned out by the game on the screen, blasting some obnoxious theme music as it suddenly comes to life. Carlos climbs out from under the TV, snatching up the controller to start the first level.
It's amazing just how young he looks in that moment, and something tugs at Mal deep inside. Carlos may have only been 14, and the youngest of all of them, but he'd had to grow up pretty fast on the Isle. They all had, really. But in one moment he'd transformed, and was almost like a kid again. It made Mal ache to see it, and she set herself to organizing Evie's lip gloss in the bathroom, lining up the small array in order of color.
"Jay," she hears Carlos chatter in the other room. "You've gotta tr-try this!"
There's the sounds of a struggle, and a heavy oof! followed by a triumphant laugh from Jay. "You're right, this is pretty cool."
"Ja-ay!" Carlos whines. "There was another controller! Wh-wh-why'd you have to take mmine?"
It's almost normal, and Mal can feel herself starting to wish, to wonder what things would have been like if they'd grown up here instead. It's a dangerous line of thought, and she quickly finishes organizing the rest of the makeup before heading back into the other room.
"Hey, Carlos," she says, and he looks up from his spot on the floor at the foot of her bed. She notes briefly that it's the furthest from Jay, and she inwardly laughs at that before continuing. "How do you want to play this?"
"Play wh-what?" He frowns, his eyes narrowing.
"Well, Evie's already covered you, for now, but you can't stay mute forever."
He reddens, then pales, all set to start choking out a protest, but she holds out a hand and stops him short.
"You know we're not gonna make you say anything if you don't want to. I just wanted to know how you wanted to go about it out there."
He closes his mouth, then nods, thinking. Jay even pauses the game, looking back over his shoulder to hear.
"I think," he begins, then hesitates. "I think I'll stick to wr-riting, and, maybe…" he cringes, his eyes on the floor as he finishes. "M-maybe some sssigning, if you guys…if you still…."
"Dude, chill," Jay says, cutting him off.
Carlos flinches, but Jay is smirking, and he waits until Carlos looks at him before answering. "Of course we still know."
His hands make the signs as he speaks, and Mal can practically see the wave of relief as it washes over Carlos' features.
He brings a flat palm up to his mouth, then pushes outward with the back of his hand towards Jay. It's something they'd never really learned to say, and it was part of the words' forbidden nature that led it to become a necessary part of Carlos' vocabulary.
[Thank you.]
"Ok, let's not go too far," Jay grumbles, but he's still smiling, and he tosses Carlos the extra controller.
The game resumes with a vengeance, and barely more than fifteen minutes pass before they're arguing with each other again. In the midst of all the chaos, there's the faintest sound of a knock on the door. It takes all of three seconds for the game to be turned off, Jay and Carlos standing stock still in front of the TV screen.
Carlos' eyes are wide, his hand shaking slightly as he signs; a finger gun shape, with his thumb against his chin, his pointer finger curling inwards a few times. [Who?]
Mal rolls her eyes, her own movements quick and sharp as she whispers, "Well, if I knew that…" But it's not the time for sarcasm.
The knock comes again, a little more insistent, and Jay shushes Carlos' soft whimper.
[We're not supposed to be here.] He signs frantically, motioning to himself and Jay, but Mal hushes him as well, calling out to whoever is at the door.
"Come in!"
Carlos is shaking, and Mal notes with some relief that Jay has put himself between Carlos and the door. Evie has her hand at her pocket again, but Mal thinks it shouldn't have to come to that. Anyone who would want to cause them trouble wouldn't have been so polite.
"Hello again," a guy's voice says, and Mal relaxes as she recognizes him as the guy from earlier. Ben? She thinks it's Ben.
He stands in the doorway, not entering, and surveys the room curiously. He spots Jay and Carlos, but doesn't comment on their presence, instead turning his gaze back to Mal.
She quickly drops her gaze to the floor, muttering a noncommittal "Hi," in the hopes that maybe one of the boys will say something, too.
"Are you guys getting settled in pretty well?" Ben asks, and Mal is tempted to laugh, but refrains. Why should he care?
"Yeah, we're alright." It comes from Jay, and Mal sighs quietly in relief that the conversation had been taken from her.
"Good," Ben says slowly. "That's…that's good."
Something in his voice is tight and strained, and Mal narrows her eyes at the floor. Was he being forced to check on them? They definitely didn't need his pity, or any of Auradon's 'hospitality.' She's all set to tell him so, consequences be damned, but just as she raises her head, he speaks again.
"It's uh, almost time for lunch, so I came to get you guys and bring you down to the dining hall."
Mal turns and surveys her crew. Jay is hovering halfway between Carlos and Evie, ready for whoever needs him most. She raises an eyebrow at him, silently asking what he thinks, but he just shrugs a shoulder. Evie looks apprehensive, but she nods anyway. Carlos is the most nervous of them, shifting his weight back and forth and fidgeting with his dog tail. She catches his eye and asks the same thing, but he shakes his head vehemently, pointing at her and then tapping his shoulder twice with a claw shape.
[You're the boss.]
Ok then. She turns back to Ben and nods, trying to seem like she knows what she's doing. "Sure, I guess."
Ben smiles, then, and there's something nice about his smile. Reassuring. Then she realizes what she's thought and scowls, turning back to the rest of the gang and jerking her head. They shuffle into place behind and around her, instinctively creating one of their defensive formations.
Mealtimes were never a fun affair back on the Isle, regardless of location; whether school or home. At school it was general mess of a free for all, and anyone who actually managed to get food was beaten to a pulp and stolen from. And at home, it was even worse.
She could handle herself just fine in a fight, and so could Evie, if it came down to it, and given the right circumstances. Jay was no question, and Carlos…he could hold his own. For a little while. But she really wasn't in the mood to deal with something like that right now.
Ben leads them back to the main entryway, then turns off from there and enters a large open room. The ceiling is impossibly high, with golden chandeliers casting light into every corner. It's more of a giant hallway than a room, with circular tables set up in neat little clusters, and larger tables full of dessert type food set up at the front of it all.
"This is it," Ben says, as if they couldn't tell for themselves. "Sit anywhere you like."
He leaves to join a table full of other Auradon kids near the center of the room, and Mal blows out a short breath between her teeth.
"Ok, where do we sit?"
Evie steps up to her side, nodding her head towards a table near the back of the room. Jay makes a low noise of disapproval, and Mal glances to him out of the corner of her eye.
"Too far if we need to make a quick get away," he explains shortly. She nods, seeing his point. Carlos taps her elbow, and raises a hand to point to another table. It's near the door, almost in a corner; easily defendable, but not so tucked into the corner that they'd be trapped by it.
"Nice work, Carlos," she praises, and Carlos grins, but it's a short lived moment as they sit down. Evie is on her left with Jay, and Carlos sits on her opposite side. The plates in front of them are empty, but there's food in the middle of the table: a wicker basket full of squat round bread, and a few covered silver bowls with steam leaking out from beneath the lid. A small card is next the each plate, and Jay picks one up, staring at it curiously.
"Vegetable rice soup, chicken stew, biscuits, peas, and apples," he reads, slowly.
The names sound familiar on their own, but altogether like that, it might as well be a foreign language. The smell does enough of a job explaining for them, however. Mal feels her stomach grumble, and Evie swallows beside her, her eyes fixed on the plate of apples. Carlos reaches out to grab something from the uncovered basket, but Mal smacks his hand back.
"We don't know how this works," she says sharply. "We don't want to get in trouble."
At least not yet. It's a simple plan, and straightforward. Lay low and blend in, scout out the terrain, gather all the information necessary and then, find the wand. But they can't lay low if they go and break whatever sacred rules they have here in Auradon, so they sit, silently waiting for the signal to eat.
It's not the worst torture they'd experienced with food, but it's close enough that Mal can feel her stomach convulsing. Jay taps his fingers anxiously against the table, and Carlos fidgets with his dog tail, clipping and unclipping it from his belt and making miniscule adjustments to the chain. The smell is intoxicating and nauseating in turns, as memories of old punishments involving food drift through her mind.
It's at least twenty minutes before change comes, in the form a confused looking Ben. He appears suddenly behind Carlos, who jumps so hard his knee hits the edge of the table. Mal motions quickly with her hand, calming him before he tries to start apologizing.
"If you don't like it, we can get you something else," Ben says, decent enough to not comment on Carlos' reaction. "We weren't sure what…"
"No, this is fine," Jay cuts him off quickly. "It's just… we thought…" He looks to Mal helplessly, not sure how to phrase their concern.
"We didn't how much we could have," Evie blurts for her. "Or who we had to ask."
Ben blinks, and his confusion is almost comical. "Ask?"
"If it was okay for us to eat?" Mal says, wondering if maybe they'd pegged this the wrong way.
"Ok," Ben says slowly, like he's trying hard to stay diplomatic. "I don't know what lunch is like on the Isle of the Lost, but here you can eat however much you want…. And you don't have to ask anybody."
I'm sure you don't know, Mal thinks sourly, but the emotion is only halfhearted because she's still starving.
"Right," Jay mutters quietly. "Uh…thanks."
The word is just as foreign a language as the food before them, but somehow Jay manages it, and Ben nods awkwardly.
"Enjoy your food."
He makes his way quickly back to his table and sits down, and it's only in watching him go that Mal realizes that everyone he's sitting with is staring at them. She quickly whirls back to face the food, and her group.
"Ok then."
It's all the encouragement they need, and they start adding food to their plates. Carlos is torn between the two soups, but Jay 'helps' him decide when he takes a bite of one and instantly spits it back into the bowl with a grimace. He chooses the other soup, and Jay begins to rip off pieces of bread. They all avoid the apples, but Mal doesn't really need the added food as she's already full in minutes.
She shoves her plate away, groaning as she sits back in her seat. "I don't want to waste it, but I am stuffed."
Evie eyes all the food still left unfinished at the center of the table. "Mother would kill me for leaving this much."
"Nah, she'd probably just beat you," Jay says matter-of-factly, crossing his arms behind his head. "Or she'd…."
Evie glares at him, effectively cutting him off. Mal stares at her own plate, thinking that a meal like that would likely have lasted her at least a month back home. If Maleficent was in a good mood, that is, and actually let her eat in that month. And didn't try slipping poison into any of her food.
A bell rings loudly above their heads, shattering her train of thoughts. Carlos just about jumps out of his skin, but Mal notices that everyone else starts to get up and head toward the doors. She quickly pushes back her chair, and the rest of the gang follows her lead. They're about to tail the Auradon kids leaving ahead of them, when Ben appears once again and stops them by the door.
"Ok, so normally after lunch you'll head to your first afternoon class," he explains. "But we still haven't figured out what classes you guys will be taking yet. So for right now, you'll be going to Remedial Goodness class with the Fairy Godmother."
Mal straightens, suddenly alert. Fairy Godmother? This could be the chance they were hoping for. She glances to her right to see that Evie is just as focused as she is, and she grins to herself. Maybe they could pull this off after all.
"It's technically your first morning class," Ben continues apologetically. "But the schedule…anyway, it's right down that hallway. You can't miss it."
He points the way they're supposed to go, then gives them a quick smile before hurrying down the hall in the opposite direction as a second bell rings out. They follow his directions to 'Remedial Goodness,' Jay laughing about Carlos's reaction to the bell, but his humor does nothing to quell Mal's sudden unease. By the time they reach the classroom, the hallway is practically empty, but she wouldn't have survived as long as she had if she let 'practically empty' be synonymous with 'safe.'
Evie goes in first, ducking under Jay's arm as he holds the door. It's not so much a gesture of goodness as it is a strategy of defense. Evie can easily clear a room with her vial, but if things got messy, Jay was positioned to block any escapees, or else leap into the mess himself. Carlos crept in next, always closest behind, and always closest to the door in case he needed to run. She's the last one left, defending them from anything that might try to catch them from behind.
It's that instinct that drives her to scan the hallway a final time before entering the classroom, and so she's the only one that notices Ben. He's standing at the far end of the hall, frozen outside of a classroom door with a weird look on his face. She doesn't get the chance to figure out what it might be; because he realizes she's seen him in the next instant and ducks inside the classroom, leaving them to face their first class in Auradon alone.