It's Only True in the Stories

by RvnsDsks

When the Villain Kids arrive at Auradon Prep, Ben and his friends noticed there was something definitely wrong. When they go to Fairy Godmother with their fears, she decides to help them figure out the truth- but no one is quite prepared for just what truths their search uncovers. - Full Summary Inside! Story adopted from Lightning-Lex372. Rated M for later content.

31. Finders keepers (this is what you get)

Hey guys!

I know it's been ages since I've updated and I'm really sorry about that. Some family stuff came up and we've been working through taking care of that, plus some health issues I've been trying to figure out, and work has been getting insane because it's summer now, and summer and food/customer service mix really well. *can you hear my exhausted sarcasm through the screen?*

But I'm back and kicking up my usual angst with a super long chapter (over 17 thousand words not counting these notes) to make up for my absence.

Let's get this started shall we? To the reviews!

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DrWhy: Thank you so much for your kind words! I'm really glad you think so highly of this story, it really means a lot! I hope your finals went well, and that you'll continue to read and enjoy. :)

Descendants5HLM: Hey! Always great to hear from you no matter how long (or short) the review. ;) I'm really glad you're still enjoying my characterization because I'm trying to stay faithful to the personalities we see, while still giving them human reactions/reasons/lives to go along with them, so that's always a relief to hear. As for Mal and Evie, well, resolution is finally on its way, so yay for resolved conflicts! (And even more conflicts to make up for it.)

Hope you continue to follow along and enjoy!

FlatFox: Thank you for the review and the kind words! I'm glad you're enjoying everything I come up with and that I've somehow managed to make you speechless with this thing, haha. And yes, I did make up "static in the barrier," I'm glad you liked that! I figured there'd be some language differences considering that the Isle is basically its own little world given the drastic separation from Auradon. So I wanted to add some little things like different sayings or slang to reflect that. :)

Hope you'll keep reading and enjoying!

BlueMoon007: Thank you for the review! I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter, and the backstory. We'll definitely be getting more of the backstory reveals now as Auradon starts digging, though they're certainly not the only ones digging. *coughcoughhinthint* ;)

I hope you'll continue to follow along and enjoy!

tradingtruthsforlies: Thank you for the kind words! I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter and I hope you'll enjoy this one just as much!

Guest 1: Thank you for the review! I'm glad you liked how I incorporated the movie dialogue; there's some more of that here, and in chapters to come as we get the ball rolling in movie territory now. And I'm glad you enjoyed my reveal, too! The mystery was fun but now that things are being revealed it's going to be even more fun seeing how everyone else reacts. ;)

I hope you'll keep reading and enjoying!

EvietoyourMal: Thanks for the kind words! I'm glad you're enjoying everything I'm coming up with. I definitely wish a lot of things that the movie didn't give us…but that's why we have fanfiction, and specifically, this story lol. ;) Sorry for the wait, but hopefully this chapter makes up for it and you'll like it just as much!

Kry Chi: Well...words spreads fast in the kingdoms, and I mean, bringing four of the worst villains' kids over is pretty big news…definitely enough to bring some kind of awareness….. Haha, sorry, I'm failing at the mystery act. Isaac definitely knows that Carlos is in Auradon. As for Arandelle, we'll be seeing pretty soon just how things are playing out there, but don't you worry, it will most certainly be fun. ;) Hope you'll continue to read and enjoy!

ceara1888: Yeah, I definitely cut some stuff off, worried I was expositioning too much. Although I did end up adding a scene back in that I had initially cut in the draft because I thought it would leave it too short, lol. Plus, certain reveals had been made that I didn't quite want to make yet, so I cut it and left it for later…some of that later being now, ha. Thanks for catching that, though, I appreciate the constructive criticism and I'll keep a better eye out for that. (Though maybe be careful what you wish for, I do tend to ramble…I think this chapter/note is proof enough. ;))

A: Thank you for the kind words! I'm glad you're enjoying everything so much. In answer to your question, yes, the AKs will be finding out what Isle life was like, though just like in the movie, there's still going to be things that they don't (and won't) know. But the things that will be revealed are going to start being revealed, don't you worry. Hope you keep enjoying! :)

Guest 2: I love that fic! I got a lot of my inspiration from it, if you couldn't tell. ;) I definitely thought it off how it came across that the VKs went through hell on the Isle but as soon as they got to Auradon they became just like the Auradonians and didn't care about the others still stuck there. So yeah, huge fix it with this fic, too. I hope you'll continue to read and enjoy what I come up with!

Random Reader: Haha, yes! I think it's safe to say that officially now, and I'm glad you caught it too! :D

Time Turner: Oh don't you worry, this is just the beginning for Isaac and Carlos. *cackles maniacally* And yeah, Arendelle's got some choice words for Auradon, lol. I hope you'll continue to read and enjoy!

Hazminelol: Yep we are full steam ahead, all aboard the plot train! Woo hoo! I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter, even the sad parts. While I wouldn't say Audrey's life was 'horrible' it was definitely life, and it can be complicated and messy sometimes, and her masks were/are just one of the ways she's learned to deal with mess in a kingdom that doesn't like to admit that the mess exists in the first place.

I hope you'll keep reading and enjoying!

JJ Will Protect You: Thank you so much for the kind words! I'm glad you're enjoying everything so far. Don't worry, things will be definitely be revealed soon. In the meantime, I hope you'll continue to follow along and enjoy! :)

Tiredandlazy: Hello friend! I think I've got you beat for absences, honestly, lol, so who am I to complain?

It's definitely like angst espresso shot up in here, haha. Pure angst extract….ok this is getting weird I'll stop now ahem!

The AKs are certainly coming out of their shells a bit, though I'm often forgetting that other AKs exist outside of the ones I've mainly been focusing on, so in future chapters we'll be getting some more love for Jane, Lonnie, and Doug, just to be fair. ;)

Ah Bennyboo! Poor, unfortunate soul that he is; just wants to help but man he really needs to shut up. (I'm being all self-aware here as this literally is one of the points in this chapter, lol) I'm glad you're loving what I'm doing with the characters; that was one of my concerns was if I was staying loyal to the personalities we see in the movie, while still giving human lives/experiences to explain what's going on behind them. Super relieved to hear I'm still on track! :)

I also thought they were gonna drag out till it was garbage (affectionately using the term, here, haha) similarly to another series also helmed by Kenny Ortega. *chokes* highschoolmusical* What? Sorry, something stuck in my throat.

Anyway, I'll keep being my humorous wizard self and majestically balance the angst and humor. Alakazam! ;)

Hope you keep enjoying, Lazy! :)

SkySorrow: Haha, answers to come my friend, I promise! In this chapter, actually, so I'll let you get to it. :)

Nix: *sheepish laughter* Wow, I hadn't realized it had been that long. Sorry, I know I'm usually pretty good about updating but as I said, some things came up. But I am back, and the worst of the stuff has been cleared up so optimistically I should be on my usual schedule. Hope you keep following along and enjoying!

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Whew, ok guys! Note time!

Author's Note 1: ***Warnings for this chapter are important!***

As I mentioned in a previous chapter, given the nature of the things this story has, is, and will deal with, this story is now rated M. Probably should have been from the start, but I was trying to toe the line to avoid scaring people off. (Pretty sure I've already scared off everybody that needs to be scared off anyway, and if not, then they most likely will be after this so…)

That being said, this chapter contains references to, and descriptions of the aftermath of child abuse! It is not explicit, but it's definitely pretty bloody compared to what I've done before, so please be warned! If anyone is bothered, or thinks they might be bothered, feel free to skip over the section of flashback in the beginning; I've left a sticker for you so you know.

Aside from that, there's the usual; violence and threats of violence, language, some mild implications/references/and brief descriptions of self-harm (part of the earlier blood warning), self-depreciating/self-hating thoughts; toxic parenting; implications/references to assault/rape (nothing graphic); mild/brief teased homophobia, as well as mentions of same sex relationships, and the beginnings of some non-faithful relationships.

The worst of it is just in that beginning section, I promise. But again, as I haven't really gone quite that detailed (blood wise) before in my descriptions of the abuse the VKs have suffered, I just wanted everyone to be aware and be safe.

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Note 2:

Just the fun note for those who are interested. :) The songs that inspired this chapter are The Emperor's New Clothes by Panic!at the Disco (title), Taking you there by Broods, Karma Police by Radiohead (yes I'm using a lot of Radiohead for this story, fight me) ,House of Wolves by My Chemical Romance, Misguided Ghosts by Paramore, 3AM by Matchbox Twenty, and Fall for You by Secondhand Serenade.

Alternative title for this chapter was 'Tell me I'm an angel (I'll take this to my grave) from House of Wolves by My Chemical Romance.

Also, if you haven't noticed yet, I've updated and changed some of the previous chapter titles to better reflect the story/what goes on in them, some of which were original title ideas as well.

Anyway, I think I've held you up long enough. Enjoy the chapter guys! I look forward to hearing what you think! :)

- Raven

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Mal

They were known as the 'Core Four' for some reason. Sure, she guessed it made sense in some ways- there were four of them after all: her, Evie, Jay…and Carlos. Cruella's runt had joined them after all, following loyally after Evie, who'd been the one to bring him in even despite Mal's protesting. Given how soft the other girl was with the boy, it didn't surprise Mal how he trailed after her like a starving puppy. And he followed Jay, of course. She was too sharp not to notice the way the smaller boy looked at Jay, and just sharp enough to be sure the runt stayed where he was supposed to.

But he didn't follow her…not in the same way. He feared her, and that would have been victory enough. But she sensed that he followed her lead purely out of self-preservation and because the others did. Not because he held any loyalty to her, specifically, but merely an obligation. Which meant that he was dangerous, and she would have to keep an eye on him to be sure he didn't turn on her.

While her crew had grown to a size of almost twenty, the pirates still outnumbered them, both in size and sheer strength. They'd grown more and more restless as time passed, taking to the very edges of their borders and attacking any 'mainlanders' they laid eyes on. Always perfectly toeing the line, and never taking any prisoners. It didn't help that Auradon had started sending over less and less, meaning that every fight for food was quite literally life or death, more often than not ending in death. Between the lack of food and the pirates' brutality, her ranks were thinning enough; she couldn't afford to have a single member out of step or out of line, not with stakes so high.

Which was how Mal found herself at de Vil manor -well, apartment- when she should have been with the rest of the gang, preparing for the next counter-strike against the pirates. The boy had been absent for nearly three days now, and while Mal wasn't worried, the others were. They couldn't be the 'Core Four' without the four. And as loathe as she was to admit it, the runt had a certain cunning about him that she had missed when planning strategy.

It's purely strategic, she reasoned with herself as she hovered on the steps outside Cruella's. She only wanted Carlos back for what use he could provide her. Not because she was growing sentimental. She wasn't that weak.

But still, she couldn't help the vague unease that coiled in her gut when she pounded on the door, and a high shriek met her in answer. Nor could she deny the pang of fear that stabbed through her chest when the door slammed open and Cruella herself appeared: hair a frazzled mess of gray and black, eyes wide and somehow piercing even with the vacant look on her face. It took all of Mal's strength (and a fair bit of Evie's training) to school her own features into something resembling her mother's severe glare, and to straighten her back to meet the woman's eyes and sneer:

"De Vil."

Instantly the woman's eyes cleared (though somehow the vacant expression remained), a strange, queasy sort of smile flitting across her face.

"Maleficent, darling! Oh, you never come and visit anymore come incomein!"

Mal blinked, uncertain as to what she should be offended about but feeling affronted all the same.

"I'm not-"

"Yes, I know, you never stay long but you must come in and have a drink at least!"

The promise of something potentially alcoholic did it, and Mal let herself follow the insane woman into the house.

It was a poor word to describe de Vil apartment. The room she stepped in was just that: a room, with one window bare of any curtains or drapes, and fittingly featuring a stunning view of a brick wall. The only other window that Mal had noticed had come from above, and faced the street, which honestly, if Mal had the choice, she'd take the view of the brick wall any day. Cruella had stepped into the part of the room that seemed to divide into a kind of kitchen, rummaging through a pantry above her head and muttering things that would have made an Auradonian faint.

The apartment reeked of cigarette smoke, the stench of it so sickeningly thick Mal almost couldn't make out what was underneath. But what her nose couldn't quite sense, her tongue helped to identify even more sickeningly as blood. And also, the promised alcohol. Among other things that she really didn't want to guess about.

"Where have you been keeping yourself, Maleficent? Still in that stuffy tower you call a castle?"

Mal scoffed in spite of herself and rolled her eyes, sliding awkwardly out of the woman's way as she trod back into the main room, two glasses wobbling in tanned and oddly calloused hands.

"No, de Vil, you're referring to the Evil Queen. She's been banished for nearly eight years, remember? And anyway…"

"Oh that's right," Cruella muttered, and one of the glasses slipped from her fingers. Mal cringed as it hit the floor, but if Cruella noticed the *tnk* of the break, she didn't comment on it. "You took the castle for yourself and your…daughter."

Cruella hummed low in her throat, her eyes suddenly a bit sharper as they stared at her, and Mal panicked for all of two seconds before realizing she was waiting for an answer, and hadn't realized that she wasn't her mother.

"Yes…," she confirmed slowly, nodding just a bit and inching further towards the kitchen and away from the woman. Past the stove she could see a hallway, and she could only assume Carlos was somewhere in the house. Maybe she could…

"Such a pretty thing, daughters," Cruella hummed again, dark eyes blinking sluggishly. "You were so proud of yours, too. Little Mall-"

"Mal," Mal finished curtly, not daring to let the woman get any further. The day her mother was proud of her would be the day Mal died at her hands.

"No but you did pick something out, didn't you?" Cruella said, the one remaining glass spinning between her fingers. "You were always going on about how she'd grow into it someday but it was a nice, proper name…so proud…."

"She did?" Mal whispered, head turning sharply to stare in shock, and no small amount of awe. "I mean…yes, of course she has a proper name. But it's been so long since I've used it for her I must have…forgotten?"

"Hmm, I had a proper one, too," Cruella mused, not seeming to have taken Mal's hint. "Proper little boy…proper baby…Cer-"

"Carlos," Mal corrected sharply, not caring as much now about the other boy, not when she was this close to a clue about her true name. "But you were saying…proper names?"

"Carlos?" Cruella blinked, a small shudder rippling through her body, an odd twitch of disgust twisting her face. "No, not my baby…not…him…."

Mal had a retort ready on her lips, a copy of her mother's sneer painted across her face…but then she froze at Cruella's words, suddenly unsure.

"What."

"What?" Cruella whined it like a protest, her fingers jerking sharply upwards to fiddle with the shoulder of the coat she wore, losing the remaining glass in the process. This one was fortunate enough to roll instead of shatter, but Mal thought the shatter would have been more fitting.

"You said that Carlos wasn't your baby?" Mal repeated carefully, edging back towards the hall again just in case.

"Oh of course he's not!" Cruella shrieked, and her fingers closed around the shoulder of her coat and tugged. Something made an rrrrp! sound, and when Mal looked, in her hands Cruella cradled a small, ragged, stuffed Dalmatian puppy, a small strip of felt attached to its belly, matching the even smaller patch of Velcro on the shoulder of her coat.

"See?" Cruella huffed proudly, carefully rocking the stuffed toy. "My baby! Isn't he perfect? Oh, his beautiful spots…."

Mal felt her mouth opening, felt it close silently in equal parts wonder and terror. Words and thoughts flew half-formed through her head, though the only thing she could really solidify was that Cruella was absolutely insane, and that she needed to find Carlos. Now.

"Of course," she heard herself murmur. "Wonderful dog…baby…thing."

Cruella either didn't notice or didn't care to notice her slip up, too busy cooing to her dog.

"Cruella," she said lowly, eyeing the hallway out of the corner of her eye. "Where is Carlos? Your other baby?"

"Other?"

"Yes. Other. Carlos." Maybe enunciating would help.

"Worthless mongrel," Cruella snapped instantly, and Mal flinched at the sudden intense darkness in her eyes. Her own mother had often casually talked about killing her if she were to ever fail her, but in Cruella's eyes she saw actual intent. "Can you believe…I told him to clean this house from top to bottom and just look at it!"

Mal had seen, and it was hard to miss the small square that looked like a broken plastic shovel that served as an ashtray lying on a table with only two legs. The broken and discarded bottles of alcohol (which she felt slightly betrayed that never received, but also immensely grateful. Having met Cruella it wouldn't have surprised Mal if something toxic ended up in it). The filthy coats strewn over the back of the lone, plush rocking chair sat in the corner of the room, facing the window with the lovely brick wall. The dishes that had piled up in the sink of the kitchen, visible even from where she stood. And she didn't even want to think about what the rest of the house might look like.

"Disgusting," Mal deadpanned, not bothering to hide her revulsion.

"Just so!" Cruella screeched, and Mal flinched and ducked slightly on instinct. "When I get my hands on that boy…."

And suddenly it occurred to Mal that this was why Carlos had been missing, and it struck with no small amount of urgency that she needed to find him before Cruella did. The woman in question had turned away in rage, muttering furiously and stroking her dog, and Mal took the chance to sprint down the hallway, grateful for once that she'd worn through the soles of her last shoes, her bare feet now serving as a positive as they aided her in her stealth.

Doors lined the hallway not ten feet in, two on the left, and one further down on the right, with a sharp bend at the very end signifying either stairs or potentially, another door. Mal didn't want to take her chances on flinging open each one, but panic was starting to overthrow the rational part and she knew she wasn't going to have enough time!

"Hades damn it," she hissed, before darting to the nearest door and trying to handle. It jolted in her hand, and she cursed again before moving to the next. That one turned, but when she pushed against it, it refused to open.

"Fucking shitfuck," Mal muttered harshly, wondering if she should even bother with the last door or just move to whatever was around the corner when something shifted.

She turned, breath catching in her throat, but Cruella's voice was still mumbling from out in the front of the house. Which meant that it had come from one of the doors she'd just tried. Hardly daring to hope let alone continue breathing, Mal crept back to the door that wasn't locked, pressing against it a bit harder. It jostled inwards minutely before she felt resistance, and a barely there whimper sounded from the other side.

"Carlos!"

warning sticker

His name came in the rush of her relieved exhale, and the resistance stopped abruptly, the door giving and swinging inwards. Mal let herself stumble in with it, before closing it quickly and fumbling for the light. It switched on with a stilted series of flickering, and though it wasn't quite blinding, the sight that greeted her would definitely be stamped in her eyes forever.

Carlos, clad only in a filthy pair of shorts, stared up at her with wide, terrified eyes. His hair was slick, matted with what could only be blood, given that the parts that should have been white were a disgusting rust brown. His body and face were horrifically pale, so every bruise stood out in that much starker a contrast. Red splotched like ugly, overly large freckles across his collarbone and shoulders, patterned down the sides of his arms in horrific, perfect circles.

Where there wasn't pale or flushed or burned skin, there was the red, and black and brown of blood. So much blood…Mal grit her jaw against the revulsion and horror so strong it nearly made her stagger, and forced herself to take a deep breath to steady herself. She regretted that instantly and very nearly vomited, though it would have only added to what was already on the floor, along with the other fluids that she really really didn't want to think about didn't want to identify didn't need to see it to know could smell and taste and…..

"Hades above and gods below," Mal choked, the slur the only thing she could process, the only thing she would let herself process except fucking Chernaboginhismoutain it wasn't the worst part.

The worst part was that Carlos' lower leg was stuck in a bear trap.

It clamped into the muscles of his calf just above his ankle, digging brutally into the bone of his shin…things that Mal could…could see and holyfuckingshit that was a lot of blood how was he not dead!?

"Carlos?" Mal gagged hoarsely, and the boy whimpered again before cringing and shoving his fingers into his mouth, biting down hard.

It was then that Mal could see that it was clearly not the first time he'd silenced himself like that; blood caked his hands- no doubt from trying to get the trap off- and the parts of his fingers that she could see bore bruises and bloodied welts from where he'd bitten into them.

"Shit, stop that!" she hissed, doing the only thing she could and throwing herself to her knees in the mess, grasping his hands and tugging them out of his mouth.

He yipped softly in pain before flinching again, his hands jerking in hers, but she held tightly, biting the inside of her own cheek to keep whatever noise was in her throat at bay.

"Fuck I'm not…fuck…I'm not going to hurt you Carlos, I swear!"

She could see the way his mouth worked behind his closed and bloodied lips, his throat spasming with words- but nothing came out expect a pained hum, and even that choked off too soon.

"Ok, ok, sh…ssh a sec…what...fucking hell this- What hurts the most? Is anything broken?"

safe

It should have been obvious enough from her perspective just how much pain he was in, what should be the biggest concern; but she didn't know how he processed pain, how long he'd been there for. (All three of those days where she had silently enjoyed his absence, never knowing that this was what awaited?) For all she knew, there were other injuries…though she really, desperately hoped that this was the extent.

Carlos' face twitched, screwed up like he might suddenly cry…and then immediately cleared into a horrific blank mask, his eyes the only thing reflecting just how badly he hurt.

"Shit, come on, Carlos!" she whined, cocking her head back reflexively to listen for Cruella. "I'm going to get you out of this but you need to work with me!"

His cheek twitched, and his breath came out as a sharp exhale, but it was clear she wasn't going to get anywhere with the youngest de Vil either. She huffed her own sharp exhale and rocked back on her heels, eyeing the bear trap miserably.

"Ok then, going for the big one first."

Carlo twitched and blinked and his mask split to convey absolute panic; his body cringing with that fear of sudden, worse pain.

"It's a spring, right?" she asked him in an undertone, if only to pretend that his fear wasn't her own. "Just have to release it and the tension goes and it opens."

His mouth opened, lips curling sharply in a vicious, incredulous expression as he pointedly waved his bloodied fingers in front of her face.

"I don't need the sarcasm, runt," she snapped back, though she was relieved he could manage even that. "I'm saving your life, you know."

Something sober flicked into his eyes at that, his chin dropping slowly. I know.

Mal didn't want to dwell on that, but her mind forced her to dwell on just how slow that movement really was in comparison to his already sluggish ones; how he hadn't lifted his head back up yet and she was almost certain his breathing was shallower.

"Sshiit!" she hissed, sucking the air sharply through her teeth and rocking anxiously on her heels. "Shiiiit, this is gonna hurt. Course you probably already know this is gonna hurt…but also you're unconscious so you're probably gonna die before I get you out."

Mal blinked, something thick in her throat, pressure behind her eyes and nose.

"Fuck, you're not going to die, Carlos. There's no core four without you and I'm not losing more of my crew so I'm getting you out of here."

She couldn't begin to say where any of her thoughts or feelings were coming from, but she knew at least the words were true. Carlos was hers now and she wasn't going to let him die. Not here, not ever.

From beyond the door, Cruella gave a sudden shriek, and Carlos jerked, head lifting only just high enough off his chest to give the illusion of awareness. But if anything, Cruella's anguish only served as a final declaration: time was up, and she needed to act now.

"This is going to hurt," Mal groaned again, rolling forward onto her feet and inching reluctantly towards the trap. She didn't know if she was saying it as a warning or just to prepare herself, but Carlos' eyes flickered that fear again in acknowledgment, and it didn't really matter how terrified she was because if she didn't do this….

"Ok," she babbled, if only to fill the pit of that awful anticipation. "Ok so spring…tiny spring trap not that big a deal…not a proper bear trap at least so that's good you know…means you'll get to keep your leg…."

Carlos didn't react to her words, but Mal was almost certain he was down for the count, and her knowledge gleaned from nights drinking at Gaston's tavern would only help if she actually saved him. It didn't fail to occur to her, briefly, that something like this should never have happened in the first place; that someone like Cruella shouldn't have been able to access something this dangerous; that a parent wasn't something a child should need to be protected from, but the thing you could go to. But then the thought was gone, and she was stepping onto the spring of the trap, shifting her body weight as much as she could to avoid the….*whap!*

Carlos jerked into awareness with a scream that was more a high whistle of air than sound, and Mal thought she might have screamed too except her mind was rejecting the images her eyes were throwing at it; so all she really got was the vague impression of red and white and red red red.

And then a far different scream sounded, one with actual syllables in it, and Mal's ears picked up on it and her brain focused just enough to hear:

"…rlos?!"

"Fuck," she whispered, both because there was no avoiding Cruella now, but also because her brain was working again and she was able to fully take stock of what she'd just done.

The trap was off, at least...that she was just able to make out, glinting dimly with gore in the corner of the room. But Carlos' leg….

"Ok, hey," she muttered to the boy, as he screamed another not-scream through lips just as horrifically wet. "Hey at least it's still attached to you, right?"

It wasn't the time for such a quip, and Carlos might have glared at her expect he chose that moment to collapse again, his body shuddering violently in time with his ragged breathing. Mal just registered the danger in that- the danger in all of it really and had she really thought her mother was dangerous? - and somehow managed to reach for him in time to stop his head striking the floor.

"Well," she mused lowly, his body scarily light in her arms. "This is a situation."

And it's a situation she put herself in, and so she hefts Carlos up as gently as she can, grimacing and trying not to look at him…not to see…and prying the door open again. It had barely wiggled in the frame before she heard Cruella shriek:

"Carlos!?"

She nearly jumped out of her skin (which was a poor choice of words considering just how horribly damaged Carlos' own skin, amongst everything else, was), but the sound of the woman's voice was coming not from the front of the house, but from the back, that odd corner that Mal hadn't had the chance to peek around.

She doesn't dare peek around it now, instead hastily shifting the door closed behind her (it was a closet, her brain filled in in hindsight) and hobbled shakily towards the front door, doing her best to keep both her feet and Carlos' away from the sharp edges of broken glass. There was a lot more of it now than there had been when she'd first entered, and she chalked it up to the screeching she'd heard, no doubt Cruella's version of a tantrum.

"Carlos!" Cruella wailed as Mal creaked open the front door. "Carlos, don't hide! Don't hide from mommy…."

And that was all Mal got before she slammed the door closed and was off, as close to sprinting as she could with Carlos' weight. He was barely more a rag doll, really, but even then he was still heavy. It was more dead weight than anything, and it wasn't a poor choice of words here so much as reality; and once she was out of range of de Vil apartments and back into the territory of her Isle, she propped Carlos further against her elbow, stuck her pinky in the corner of her mouth, and whistled.

A simple call, three short notes in descending order that didn't so much as echo as drift.

"I was wondering how long that was going to take."

The shadows peeled back, and Daisha was there, raven hair and dark gold eyes peering out from a solemn, ashen face.

"I didn't ask you to follow me," Mal snarled back, but she was certain her relief was still plain on her face, and it certainly showed when Daisha effortlessly shifted Carlos' weight into her own arms.

"Time?" she asked, as the other girl cast a dark look over Carlos' body.

"None."

"Time," Mal repeated firmly, not accepting it…that wasn't an answer…not with one of hers.

Daisha just fixed her with a look, and Mal tried to snarl again, but it caught as something like a mix between a sob and a heave.

"Who's on patrol?" she asked, switching gears instantly and striding with purpose down the nearest alley. They were far from her hideout, but not too far that her allies (and enemies) weren't around.

"Jay," Daisha answered immediately, and her feet shuffled resolutely behind Mal's, no trace of a waver even with Carlos.

"And on your side?"

A pause, and Mal feared she might have been too bold, had a crossed a line. (Like she hadn't already. Just the other girl's presence….)

"Fen," Daisha said, and Mal grimaced even as her insides twisted relief.

"She hates me."

"She doesn't hate you."

She scoffed, but picked up her pace, turning off and skirting the edge of the markets, not even sparing Jafar's shop a glance as she made her way deeper along the border of her territory.

"She hates me," Daisha murmured. "And takes it out on you."

"That makes sense," Mal answered, daring to shoot a sarcastic look over her shoulder.

Carlos' ghost-like appearance took away some of her bantered edge, desperation creeping in for a moment. And then she caught Daisha's eyes, and nearly froze at the sudden depth in them.

"She knows what you mean to me."

"Is that sentiment?" Mal retaliated, refusing to acknowledge the words, the way they made something warm and powerful fuzz in her chest. "I thought you were better than that."

Daisha's mouth curled downwards at one side, though her eyes sparked with something so intense Mal turned away, so the next words caught against her back.

"Not by a long shot, little dragon."

A howl cut across whatever Mal might have spluttered out in response, and dread coiled again in her gut even as Daisha spat a scoff behind her.

"Good old Fen," she muttered lowly, and Mal paused long enough to let the girl get level with her before posing her concern.

"Will the clan accept this?" Accept this…accept me…accept the danger I'm bringing…accept Carlos.

"The clan follows me."

"Yeah, but like…your dad…."

Daisha chuckled, that low, soft one that made Mal feel things she wasn't supposed to.

"The clan will accept this just fine."

"And Fen?" Mal had to prod.

"She won't be a problem."

There was an edge of something her voice, and Mal shook her head slowly, staring as the other girl took the lead and shifted the chain link fence at the end of the alley. It opened at an odd angle, but she carefully and delicately (oddly) lifted Carlos over and through the gap, before climbing softly through herself. Mal's entrance was decidedly less graceful, but only because of how quickly she moved, anxious to be sure Carlos was ok.

A bird shrieked from somewhere up ahead, though if it was an actual bird or just another clan member sending a signal, Mal couldn't tell. Daisha hooted off a call of her own, something that started high, then ended with a low trill, and instantly the shadows were moving. Mal reached for her knife on instinct, and the high metallic ringing of multiple blades answered her own, undrawn one.

Daisha barked a rough noise, instantly tense, and the arm not supporting Carlos went out to block Mal.

"Draw that blade, I dare you," a voice challenged from the crowd. "See how long it takes you to die."

Mal would have easily met the challenge and happily drawn her knife, but Daisha's arm in front of her was more than just an ineffective shield, and she willed her instincts to subside; returning her hands to her sides in clenched, but docile fists. The tension in Daisha's shoulders eased just slightly, and Mal guessed she must have made the right decision, as the weapons drawn against her also seemed to lower minutely. Then the crowd broke and there was a startling flash of dark chestnut hair, along with the equally startling flash of metal.

And just like that Carlos was in her arms again, and Daisha was locking blades with another armor-clad warrior. It was only that: a clash of blades; because in the next instant the other girl was on her back and even more blood was staining the ground, splattering from a horizontal tear across her face from ear to the edge of her lip. The girl growled and lunged, but a brutal kick sent her crashing to the ground, and the follow up blows to her chest and stomach had her curled on her side in agony.

"Stay down, Fen."

Daisha's voice was strange, not quite her own. It was darker, somehow. Dangerous. Mal could understand now, watching the way Fenris' blood dripped off the edge of her sword, just how the girl had said that the clan followed her. Barely had she processed this stir than a low voice growled from beyond the edge of the gathered clan:

"If you know what's good for you, you'll listen to her, Fenris."

The girl on the ground flinched, but remained on the ground, the red tainted snarl curling her lips the only thing remaining of her hostility. The clan parted fully now, and Mal found herself facing an ominously tall man; broad shoulders that rippled with strength even with the slight bend to his spine. Dark hair that hung long and thick about his face, with a sharp jaw and even sharper eyes that flared with a familiar, yet foreign, golden hue.

"Father."

"Daisha."

The man stopped just in front of them, and Mal sucked a breath and held it, shifting Carlos closer against her side as he lifted his hand. But instead of violence, he cupped his daughter's jaw firmly, his fingers moving with a strange sort of care.

"It's about time you returned," he rumbled, gold eyes flickering with intent over Mal and Carlos.

"I always do," Daisha countered, but she made no move to shield Mal this time, her gaze pointed as she watched her father's movements.

The man scoffed in response, but his own eyes were bright, his grim mouth smiling just as smugly and morbid as she was.

A part of Mal wanted to flee; though not before making it clear just how she felt about being led into this situation. But then she remembered just who it was she stood before, and a move like that would only lead to her death, and by extension, Carlos.' So with a determination she didn't think she should possess she stood her ground, lifting her eyes and letting them light with her forged courage.

"And who are you?"

"Daughter of Maleficent," she answered, as stiffly as she dared facing the former leader of the Hun clan.

"That's not what I asked," Shan Yu replied, and she froze, uncertain. It was usually the only identification that anyone needed on the Isle. No one cared much who you were outside of your parentage, unless your genetic link could earn them favors.

"I…My name is Mal, Sir."

"'Sir!'" he barked, and she jumped at the sound, shifting backwards warily. "There is no place for such formality here, but I won't deny that it's appreciated."

"Huh," Mal echoed meekly, at a loss and unable to process the tumultuous shifting of her expectations.

"And just who is 'Mal, daughter of Maleficent?'"

"Just that…for now," Mal replied, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw Daisha mirror the smirk that crossed his face.

"Hm. We shall see," he said, before his features turned sharply into a fierce glower as his eyes settled on Carlos. "Fenris," he barked. "Enough of your groveling; go and get someone for the boy!"

The rest of the clan scattered seamlessly back into shadow at his words, and the other girl picked herself bitterly up from the ground, casting Mal a dark look before slinking back through the crowd.

"Does this mean you're not going to kill me?"

"Not today, at least."

Mal paled, but Daisha laughed, and her body moved to lean comfortingly into Mal's, once more taking Carlos' weight and passing it easily on to a waiting warrior.

"I knew he was going to like you," she murmured in Mal's ear. "You are officially under the clan's protection."

"Safe?" Mal muttered, shaking her head mutely in disbelief.

"You are surrounded on all sides by the fiercest and noblest of the remaining Hun army. An enemy so much as sneezes and you'll know when we bring you their head."

"Pretty sure noblest isn't a word," Mal murmured back, the knowledge of how close she'd come to losing Carlos weighing too heavily to take anything lightly. "And being around the Hun army, even if it's only whatever's left, isn't as comforting as you think it should be."

"How about this?"

Daisha's mouth met the skin behind Mal's ear, and as much as she wanted it to be comforting, the simple kiss forced her mind to conjure up a different scenario entirely. And so instead of leaning back into it or returning the gesture, Mal's body stiffened, a sharp noise of protest catching in her throat; her eyes squeezing shut so she didn't have to see the disappointment on the other girl's face.

"Right, I forgot," Daisha murmured softly, her voice still close even as the warmth of her body moved away. "You don't do casual."

Mal shook her head, not so much out of denial or cruelty, but because she knew that if she tried to say anything now she'd ruin…whatever this was.

"I'm sorry," Daisha said, and Mal coughed something resembling bemusement, her eyes flickering open because if she didn't know any better she'd have said the girl sounded genuine.

But when she met Daisha's eyes she could tell it was, and she turned her head sharply back because they couldn't…she couldn't do this.

"Meaningless words," she said, as harshly as she could while choking on the sentence.

"Maybe on your side of the Isle," Daisha quipped, either choosing to ignore or just not noticing the tone of Mal's voice.

"On any side of the Isle, if you're smart," Mal retorted tensely, hoping she would get the hint- would chance the subject before she could be seen through.

"You know what?" Daisha said, and the rapidness of the change of tone made Mal flinch.

"What?" she asked, turning cautiously into Daisha's far too easy smile.

"Someday we're going to get to Auradon, and then it won't matter what side of the Isle we came from cuz we'll have the whole kingdom."

"Oh yeah?" Mal retorted, melting into bemusement in spite of herself. "You really think Auradon will let us into their perfect kingdom?"

Daisha grinned a deadly grin, eyes bright gold and gleaming just as darkly as the edge of her blade.

"They will when we take it from them, piece by piece."

"Piece by piece," Mal echoed slowly, her own eyes lighting at the idea. "I think I like the sound of that."

---

Chad

It was raining hard enough to drown the world, and while on most nights like this he'd probably let it, tonight Audrey is sitting on the edge of his bed, and he's trying to figure out how she got there.

"I just…I didn't know what else to do," she was saying, and he blinks, not quite understanding.

"So you came to me? In the middle of the night?" He's trying for something teasing but it comes out more incredulous than he'd wanted.

Audrey doesn't huff a sigh or roll her eyes. If anything her expression manages to turn even more vulnerable, her shoulders stiffening as she folds her arms around herself, her eyes fixed on his bedsheets.

"I couldn't go to Ben." She says it in an odd rush, but each syllable is distinctly pronounced to his ears.

"So you came to me," he repeats dumbly. "In the middle of the night."

"Chad, please," she hisses, and it's then that he realizes that it's not just frustration or vulnerability in her eyes. It's fear. "You know he wouldn't understand."

So you came to me in the middle of the night? It plays in his head in a stiff, disjointed loop, and it's only the fear glinting in her eyes that stops him from saying it aloud for a third time. Instead he draws a deep breath, because he knows she's absolutely right, and says instead:

"What do you need me to do?"

Her lips flicker upwards gratefully, even if her eyes don't quite do the same. "Just...be here?" She whispers cautiously, and he dares to shuffle just a bit closer, dares to let his shoulder brush hers.

"I'm not going anywhere," he assures her softly. "It's my room, after all."

She chuckles once, but his words seem to sober her at last, as she edges over until there's a far more platonic space of air between them. It's just a wide enough gap for all the odd tension to hang, and Chad frowns nervously, eyeing the patterns the rain dripped against the curtain.

"What happened?" he finally asks, when the spider web etches grow too dark.

"Couldn't sleep. Went for a walk and ended up with the VKs."

"Well that's a sentence," Chad mutters, and he can't tell which part to comment on first; which is the most important.

Audrey's eyes are distant, despite the closeness of her body. It's a closeness spanned only by the space between them, a space which, after a moment, Chad breaches. It was the right move (the wrong move, so very much the wrong move) as Audrey takes his silent offer and leans against his shoulder, and he is all too aware of the lack of hesitation on her part, the utter ease and no small amount of comfort.

"Couldn't sleep?" He asks, with a mouth and tongue so dry that no amount of rain could have quenched it.

She shakes her head- her head which is just under his jaw and when did it get there why does this feel so right this shouldn't be right!

"It was too quiet," she says, her voice rumbling warmth through his chest. "Most nights I can just ignore it but with the rain, and everything else, it was just…."

"Yeah," he murmurs quietly, his arm shifting up, wrapping around her shoulder. "I get it."

"And then I ran into Mal," she says, and the abruptness of her lowered voice shocks him enough that his arm drops slightly from around her.

"Oh yeah?" He manages to keep is tone somewhat light, but his wariness comes through all the same. "And how did that adventure go."

"I think she's playing me," Audrey says, and while the words are alarming enough it's the lack of alarm in Audrey's voice that scares him. "I couldn't say what for, but there was something about her eyes…."

"These masks we wear…" Chad drawls ruefully, and Audrey sighs heavily into his shoulder.

"She told me Maleficent used to beat her."

Audrey's voice is so quiet, that if it weren't for the sudden cold he felt he wouldn't have been able to say for sure that she had spoken. But he knows she'd spoken because in the dark before him his mind conjures up a memory of his mother- back when he'd been too young to care about trivial things like boundaries and privacy; the haunted look of horror in her eyes as they met his in the bathroom mirror- not because he'd burst in without knocking, but because of the thin, pale lines across her shoulders that he'd just gotten a glimpse of before he'd been rapidly ushered out. Later on he had learned that they were 'gifts' from the Lady Tremaine; scars from her cane. It didn't occur to him until now just how much of an impact she would have had to make- how hard she had to have struck to leave even those thin marks.

"Mal told you that?" he hisses, or tries to, at least. He couldn't quite get enough air in to push it back out in the proper way for a hiss, so he simply ends up sounding breathless. (He feels breathless.) Then Audrey's previous words register, and he blinks cautiously down at her, trying to articulate his concern.

"She could have been manipulating you-?" He says, his voice breaking partway through in spite of himself and turning it into a question.

"I thought of that," Audrey replies, thankfully not commenting on his slip up. She's still leaning too closely against him, but at this point it was just one of many things to worry about the consequences of later. "But it wasn't a manipulation…more like, a mistake."

"Hm?" Chad murmurs, frowning at the top of her head. She sighs and shifts her weight so she's leaning more solidly against him, and it stabs a bolt of panic through his chest before the part of him that was being decidedly stupid got comfortable again.

"It was too off hand," Audrey explains quietly, not noticing his brief lapse (or would it be self-awareness?) "And she knew right away that I'd caught onto it because she tried to make me forget about it. Everything else though…that was a play because the whole point was to make sure I'd think about it."

"I…I don't think I get it," Chad admits with a sheepish chuckle. "But I was never great at the political game anyway so maybe that's why."

Audrey scoffs quietly, but he can tell she's still too somber because it trails off too soon.

"And now I don't know what to do," she says, and there's something in her voice that has him sitting upright, her head lifting from his shoulder. "I have to do something- I've wanted to do something, ever since they came- but I've just been so careful-"

Outside, the rain falls silent almost abruptly, and Chad does not, in fact, appreciate the emphasis it adds to Audrey's words.

"I've always been so careful," she repeats, nearly in an undertone, and he starts to wonder if this was even meant for him when she continues. "And that can't stop just because we know more than we bargained for."

"And Ben's not careful," Chad finishes slowly, understanding dawning in painful, horrifying clarity.

"He doesn't know how to be," Audrey confirms, oblivious to his sudden turmoil. "And I can't…I can't keep doing…this."

"So you came to me," Chad says, because third time's the charm, after all. "In the middle of the night."

"Yeah," Audrey whispers, the weight of the world in her voice. "I did."

And third time might have been the charm, but the weight of Audrey's body against his was damningly heavy, and Chad knows he could never dare to be that lucky.

---

Evie

It was raining, and it might have been something to be excited about except they were inside, and the rolling thunder seemed to taunt her- too closely a parallel to her own turmoil. A week since the Council had met to determine their fate. A week since she and Mal had fought. A week of tumultuous silence. And now this storm….

*barumbarumbarum!* went the thunder, and Evie drew a breath and held it because she didn't think the noise was loud enough to drown out everything she wanted to say.

"I'm awake."

The storm rumbles lowly beneath the current of Mal's voice, and Evie's glad she was still holding her words in because she might have let them go if it weren't for that rumble.

"Just say it, E," Mal's voice sighs.

"Say what?"

"Whatever it is that's been bothering you that I can hear it all the way over here."

Mal's voice was light, but it's light like the rain was, and even that still slammed against the dorm windows.

"Nothing's been-"

"Stop."

She might have flinched, or it could have just been the lightning in the command.

"I lied," Evie blurts, stiffening sharply beneath the thick sheets.

"About?"

Was that thunder or just the drawl in Mal's voice? Evie couldn't tell but she was shaking, and storms like this had never scared her before on the Isle so why was this so different?

"My mother gave me her mirror before we left."

The room was suddenly filled with light, and she thought for a second that it was another flash of lightning, but the light stayed, and she sat up instantly. Mal's hand fell back from the lamp switch, her body tense and alert in her own upright position in a way that made Evie wonder how long she'd been up. But then she saw the look in Mal's eyes…and the darkened storm outside was nothing compared those eyes.

"I'-"

"Why'd you lie?"

"Because it's what's expected of us as children of villains?"

It's a pitiful way out, but Evie goes for it anyway, doing her best to maintain a skeptical air.

"Don't, Eve."

There's an odd twitch of light with another lightning flash that does nothing to hide the way Evie flinches. She was never 'Eve' in the same way that she was never 'Evelyn'- because Evelyn was half-used bits of makeup melted down and held together with paper smiles and plastic crowns; was a princess in name only but her mother had made sure that name was going to be used. 'Eve' was as close to full name as she allowed, and to hear it from Mal now…. She drops her eyes because she can't trust herself to maintain that eye contact; doesn't trust herself to speak under the pressure of that name.

"E."

It's softer, but it's not any better because there's still the full weight of the storm pounding behind it all and….

"Evie."

"Because for nearly every day that I can remember my mother would stand me in front of a mirror and point out everything she hated about me."

There's a strange lull in the storm that her voice brings, but it's ok because her words are more than enough to make up for it.

"And every reflection just made for pain later but I still had to look forward to each one because maybe something had changed, maybe she'd see…me…just once."

Her voice breaks, and even with the rain she knows she doesn't do a good enough job of hiding the weakness because across from her Mal's head tilts minutely. She exhales sharply and then draws it right back in again because she's barely keeping her words in check but even those words aren't good enough.

"She gave me the mirror so we could complete our mission but when I looked into it…I couldn't recognize myself. I could only see her and I didn't want… I just want to know what I look like."

"And I know that that's all you want but I never wanted to be my mother. You were the first person to see me as something outside of what my mother made me in to and I...Idon't want to lose that." Don't want to lose you don't want to lose us.

It sticks in the air in her lungs, burning in her throat, pounding agony through her veins as she waits; but it's a silence that's maintained because she doesn't dare let that air go- let those feelings go. Mal lets out a shaky sigh, and it's as if all the weight of the world were in that sigh. Evie can almost picture her eyes rolling upwards, the irritation that must surely be in her gaze.

"Where's the mirror now?"

Evie's glad she's holding her breath, because she isn't sure what sound she might have made. Only that it, too, gets stuck, throbbing in time with the syllables echoing in her head.

Of course she still wants to know how could expect anything less? How could you expect anything more? Forgiveness? This is what you deserve it's what you get now tell her tell her tell her!

"I'm s-" Wrong words wrong words she doesn't want to hear it, not from you not right now not ever.

"The- the bottom of one of Carlos' trash bags," she chokes out, the words more bitter than any of her mother's potions.

Mal hums softly in acknowledgement, but it just as well could have been as loud as the retreating thunder for the way it makes Evie's stomach clench.

"And knowing you there's nothing else in that bag he'd be likely to go looking for. Good."

"Good," Evie repeats numbly, voice shaking in spite of herself.

In spite of yourself? Because of yourself! Don't you cry, don't you dare. This is what you deserve.

"Means it'll make things easier when we burn it."

The thunder fades to background noise, and even the poisonous voice falls silent in the wake of Mal's sentence. Evie's head snaps up, eyes searching dimly for the side of Mal's face she can fully see. There's nothing but grim determination in her expression, and it's so far from what she'd been expecting that Evie can't do much but stare blankly.

"I don't-"

The corner of Mal's mouth that she can see twists in a grimace, but her eyes flicker with something unexpected.

"Well I was going to say throw it away, but then it'd just go back to the Isle and we'd be right where we started. And anyway, I've been wanting to burn a lot of Carlos' clothes for a while now, so."

She shrugs, and her eyes flicker again, and it's then that Evie processes what she had said; what the flicker was in her eyes. Shame. Guilt.

"I-"

"Don't," Mal says, and her eyes are suddenly sharp again, even with the grimace still staining her lips. "Let's just agree that we've both been bitches about this and move on. Fair trade."

Fair trade? If you really want to make it fair you'd say what is that you've been lying about. Why you pushed the Cricket on us in the first place.

Shut up, Evie tells the voice, and it obliges, but the thought remains unbidden.

"You're not going to use it?" She pushes instead, searching for any traces of betrayal in Mal's face. Use me?

Oh you're one to talk.

"No," Mal says, and her voice carries the finality reflected in her eyes, in the last lingering clap of the storm. "Not unless you want to."

"I don't," Evie is quick to confirm. What would it show her that she hadn't already seen? That she didn't know. "But…but I don't want to burn it."

She drops her eyes again because she knows what's going to be in Mal's, and she doesn't want to meet that expression. To prove it.

"Ok," Mal says after a moment. "But I still want to burn Carlos' clothes."

She might have laughed, but it turned to a cry before she could stifle either sound, and by then the room was already blurring together under a different kind of rain. Her body shudders with the force of her sobs, irreverent to her attempts to stifle them, and so it takes her a moment to register the pressure on her hands, then on her face. She knows what it is- who it is- and tries to close herself off; to pull back from the weight. It doesn't budge, and so she cracks open her eyes reluctantly, and nearly breaks down again at the sight of Mal kneeling in front of her; the other girl's hands the pressure she'd felt- the pads of her thumbs gentle where they wipe the tears from her face.

"I have never seen you as anything other than who you are," Mal whispers, and her voice is hoarse with something like ferocity, her own eyes bright where they meet Evie's. "Who you are, Eve, you understand?"

"I'm not-"

"Don't you say that you're not anything!" Mal interrupts, her eyes flashing green even as her fingers chase the tears across her cheekbone. "You are fiercely determined to carry out whatever scheme you set your mind on. You are wicked smart and could probably beat out Cruella's designs in fashion any day. You care so much about others that you forget to care about yourself and you are part of my crew, E. That's who you are."

Evie chokes on another sob, closing her eyes tight and dropping her head because she can't accept the words; can't allow the softness of Mal's hands to linger. She doesn't deserve soft- she deserves the fire of those green eyes, deserves the hatred. Deserves the pain…

"Hey, look at me." Mal's voice is still so soft and entreating, and Evie hiccups shakily as she lifts her head, blue meeting green in a delicate balance. "I forget it, ok? It's already been forgotten. You are part of my crew; that means you're one of mine, E, and nothing is going to change that."

And it's more than she deserves, so much more but the thunder is gone from Mal's voice- even the rain outside had stopped. How did that saying go? Rainbows after rain? And even though the Isle had never allowed for such a sight, Evie thinks she could almost bring herself to believe a day might come where she could. But right now she can see the light of the emotions in Mal's eyes, and she decides that right now was enough.

---

Carlos

"So just to clarify: you knew whe-whe-re the wand was and didn't say an-an-anything till now?"

Mal shoots him a look, but he thinks his question was valid enough all things considered.

"Fairy Godmother let it slip early on that it's in some museum, so all we have to do is get to the museum and get the wand."

"Oh is that all?" Jay humphs, crossing his arms over his chest and glaring. "Why don't we hop a magic carpet while we're at it, round things out."

"You have a plan, or you wouldn't have said anything at all," Evie says quietly from the bed, eyes glued to the fabric in her hands. It's a bright grey color, with some of the red that Jay had stolen twice mixed in. (once from whoever had owned it before, and the second time from Carlos, though not for lack of protest on the other boy's part.)

Mal's lips twitch in acknowledgment, a self-satisfied sort of look on her face as she nods her head once.

"Ok but like, what is it? The pplan?" Carlos fidgets with the links on his dog tail, the once bright red now an off-orange, so it looked more like a fox than the dog it was supposed to be.

"We have to find a way to scope out the area," Mal says drawing out her spell book and a pen and flipping to a blank page towards the back. "Figure out if they have anything guarding it, and plot out entrances, escape routes…."

"So basically like our raids on the pirates back on the Isle," Jay interjects, and Evie scoffs lightly, meeting his eyes in shared amusement.

"This is a more than just a raid," Mal snaps, so sharply that Carlos wasn't the only one to flinch. "Need I remind you that this is our one. chance. To prove ourselves to our parents."

The air in the room seemed to get heavier, suddenly, dark and oppressive with the weight of Mal's words.

"To prove that we are evil and vicious, and ruthless, and cruel," she continues, eyes pointed as she glares at each of them, an intensity burning there that was more than just the magic. "Yeah?"

"Yeah," Carlos agrees, shrugging half-heartedly.

"Sure, something like that," Jay mutters, not meeting Mal's eyes.

Evie doesn't say anything, but Carlos watches her carefully pin the section she'd been working on, sliding her needle through a seam of fabric to secure it and folding it all away, which pretty much said all she would have.

"Ok," Mal says, relief and some sort of finality in her voice as she nods again. "We'll keep working on Ben for now, but we're going to need to figure out a route to the wand. Thoughts?"

"I could…ask Doug?" Evie says slowly, then she frowns, her face screwing up in disgust. "Ew that felt weird to say. But he's always staring at me like I'm some complex equation, so it shouldn't be that hard to find something out."

"Discreetly," Mal says, nodding absently in agreement.

Evie spreads her hands and fixes her with a look as if to say 'really?', and Carlos tenses in anticipation of some kind of explosion. Then Mal shakes her head and mutters: "Well the sarcasm isn't necessary," and the release of the tension is almost audible.

"It just sucks your mom was too much of a bitch to give you her mirror, E," Jay chides in only half-teasing bitterness. "We could've just asked it and we'd probably have the wand by now."

Evie stiffens, and Carlos recognizes the danger immediately, shooting Jay a warning look, but Mal gets there first.

"It wouldn't be our work then," she snaps, not quite vicious but certainly fierce. "This is our job, not our parents.' Besides, if she had given it to Evie, that would have left her with nothing to admire herself in, and we couldn't have that now could we?"

She finishes it with a teasing eye roll in Evie's direction, and though the other girl scoffs, Carlos can sense Evie's relief. It's strange…as if she's almost too relieved, but he dismisses it as the general unease that usually followed talking about any of their parents.

"Ok, so we know where the wand is, but do we know where that is?" Mal asks, and Jay shoots upright sharply, eyes widening.

"I've got a thing for that I think!" he gasps, and he's on the floor and tugging the black duffle from under the bed before anyone can so much as blink. "It's one of those weird, Auradon tech things, but supposedly, you can look for things with it just like a mirror."

"Well isn't that convenient for the plot," Evie mumbles, lips twitching oddly.

"What?" Carlos asks, and she jumps, apparently having misjudged how within earshot he had been.

"Nothing," she mumbles immediately, almost pointedly turning to see what Jay was tugging out of the bag.

Carlos follows her example, but he keeps watch out of the corner of his eyes. Evie had been off for a couple weeks now, and while he wasn't going to lie and say that they all hadn't been, it had hit the older girl harder, for some reason. Well, he wasn't going to lie about that either. He knew exactly what reason.

"Jay if you've been holding out on me I swear to all that is Evil…." Mal drawls the threat with practiced ease, and Carlos is no stranger to the way her eyes gleam with very real promise.

Jay waves off her threat (flips off her threat, really) with even more ease, tugging a small black box looking thing from the bag. It takes a second, but Carlos recognizes it and his stomach flutters with energy.

"Is th-at-?" he hardly dares to breathe the words, afraid the object will disappear. But it's very solid and very much real when Jay winks and tosses it his way, and he fumbles, squawking awkwardly as his fingers settle around the thing he'd only ever seen bits and pieces of on the Isle.

"A cell phone." Jay announces proudly, as Carlos shakily presses a button and the phone comes to life in his hands.

"Oh you son of a bitch!" Mal crows, but her eyes are bright and eager as she dashes over to his side, her chin on his shoulder as she watches him push the keys.

"Uh, no, Carlos is right there," Jay replies cheekily, and Carlos would flip him off but he's too busy staring in awe at the phone, which is currently displaying a simple screen of light, with small pictures on it.

One is labeled 'Contacts,' and has a picture of a person on it. The other is obvious enough from the picture of the 'Camera,' and a third says 'Messages,' while displaying an envelope. The fourth and final picture looks like a tiny orb, with a castle on top that says 'AuraWeb,' and Carlos shivers as his fingers press buttons at random, thrilled at each new thing it does.

"Do I even want to know whose this was?" Mal asks, her head lifting just long enough to give Jay a narrow eyed glare.

"Was?" Evie asks, looking almost amused as she lifts a brow.

"Well it's very obviously Carlos' now," Mal says, so matter-of-factly that Carlos doesn't question it at first.

"Wai-wait-wait, what?" he yelps, nearly dropping the phone. He catches it, and his finger presses one of the shining pictures.

"What do you mean, what?" Mal replies, thankfully not noticing his blunder. "You're the only one of us who comes close to understanding all this crap. And if Jay's going to get one for each of us, we'll need you to test it first."

"I'm doing what now?" Jay says, and though it's not quite at the same time as Carlos given he's a few syllables behind, the emphasis is enough.

"Hey, what'd you do?" Mal says, instead of answering, and Carlos looks down to see that the screen now has a small list displayed on it, with the identifier being 'Contacts.'

It was a small list, consisting only of; 'Mom,' 'Dad,' 'Ben,' and 'Audrey.'

"Well I guess this person's clearly a loser, if that's everyone they contact," Mal snorts, and Carlos would have asked what did that make them, then, since all they had was each other, but then the phone chimed, and he dropped it for real.

It landed with a dull thmp on the floor, and an odd chorus of alarmed noises went up as Carlos dropped down to pick it up. It seemed unharmed, thankfully, but he wasn't going to be able to keep it if he kept dropping it like that. He pointedly ignores Mal's warning glare, and clicks a button to make the screen light up again. On it is a tiny (1) above the envelope, and it doesn't take long to figure it out.

"Um…this person just got a mmmessage," he whispers, blinking nervously up at the group.

"Open it," Mal prompts immediately, and he jerks away, clutching the phone tightly.

"I can't do that!" he hisses, feeling his face flush red. "It's private!"

"It's your phone, dude," Jay laughs, and Carlos feels the embarrassing warmth spread across his cheeks.

"But…" he whispers, then blinks as the phone dings and a (2) appears above the envelope. "Ffuck," he mumbles, and clicks it.

He frowns, staring at the words a moment, then the name that appears above them. "It's…Audrey's?" he says, then blinks and reads the words again. "Oh wait….she's the one con-con-con-tacting this person!"

"Oh, it's like the radios we used to use!" Evie gasps, and her eyes are almost as bright as Mal's in her excitement. "But you know, obviously more fancy."

"Hm," Mal hums, and Carlos realizes she's waiting for him.

"Oh it…" he falters, then hands the phone to her sheepishly. "Ccan you?"

She takes it without hesitation, a wicked smirk on her face as she scans the screen before clearing her throat in exaggeration.

"'Hey,'" she reads, and Carlos rolls his eyes at the self-importance in her voice. "'Just wanted to say thanks again for last night. It really means a lot to have you.'"

"Well," Evie croons, and her voice is low with scandal. "Auradon just more interesting."

"The second one says 'to talk to,'" Mal continues, lips twitching wickedly. "'It means a lot to have you to talk to.' And that's it."

"Aw, now I feel like shit," Jay mumbles, and Carlos manages to stop blushing just long enough to register surprise as he takes the phone back from Mal.

"Why?"

"Because if I'd waited just a little longer we could've had this person's response," Jay pouts, crossing his arms. "Then it would've been really fun."

"W-w-well that decides it," Carlos mumbles, and he presses buttons until he finds one that looks promising: shaped like a tiny gear. He clicks it, and is relieved when he finds a new list, labelled 'Settings.'

"What are you doing?" Mal snaps, and he ignores her, flipping through the list and changing things until he's satisfied.

"Changing the phone sso it's empty…," he drawls, then displays the now cleared messages. "Nnow it's like a new phone, so no-no-no more 'fun.'"

"Lame," Jay booes, and Carlos bares his teeth in a silent growl.

"It'll be more than just lame if you made it so we can't look for things on it," Mal actually growls, and he shakes his head so fast it hurts.

"No it's ook," he assures quickly, clicking the AuraWeb picture. "I think th-this is the search thing so…."

As if to sense his distress, the phone is quick to display a new picture, of Auradon Castle, with a white bar at the top labeled 'search.'

He starts to type, then stops. He wonders briefly, if this thing was supposed to have access to all kinds of information…. Trying to disguise his actions, he vows to find a way to clear searches as well before typing 'Ceran de Vil' in the search bar. His heart hammers in time with each letter as it fills the bar, his stomach twisting painfully as he tries to ignore the memories flashing through his head of tiny spaces and pain. After a moment of watching the castle spin (which would have been cool in other circumstances), a page of text appears.

At the top are the words 'Sorry, we couldn't find anything. Did you mean…?' Carlos doesn't know whether to laugh his relief or sob it as his eyes flicker over the results on the page; all various things related to 'Cruella de Vil' and 'Dalmatians' and 'fearsome son Carlos de Vil causes chaos in Auradon' (which definitely brings a laugh) and 'sentenced to the Isle of the Lost twenty years ago' and 'rumored lover seen fleeing-' and 'the fashion empire and animal rights activists' worst nightmare' and….what.

Carlos stares at the last line, not quite sure what those words meant. Objectively speaking, he knew what those words were as separate entities…but all together like that? It didn't make sense. It didn't make sense because Cruella had never had a 'lover' never spoke of…of….

"Did you get lost in whatever magic portal they have in there?" Jay's taunt jerks him back into awareness, and he nearly throws the phone he jumps so hard.

"Whu-what?" he gasps, and he realizes when he draws a breath just how hard he's been shaking.

"You ok?" Mal asks, eyes suspicious as they flicker to the phone, which he has just enough mind to tilt so she can't see the words he'd nearly clicked on. "What did it say about the museum?"

"Rrright," he mumbles, fidgeting anxiously and resisting the urge to wipe his hands on something. "Sorry, got distr…sorry."

He grimaces as he fumbles over the words, not even trying to finish and hoping he simply came across as mesmerized by the technology. Admittedly, he was, and one of the first things he was planning on doing was taking apart the phone and putting it back together again to see how it worked.

'Rumored lover seen fleeing….'

Ok so the second thing.

"Museum is…two-two-two point three miles from here," he mumbles jerkily, biting his lip.

"Shit that's…" Mal rolls her eyes upwards, her own lips forming a thin line, and Carlos runs his fingers over the smooth letter keys of the phone in an attempt for calm.

"We have an hour and a half," Mal mumbles her thoughts aloud, and Carlos has to sit because he thinks his body will explode with the need to do something about this sudden information if he doesn't. "That's about how long I figure for anyone to notice or care if we've left the school."

"Um…" Jay says, raising his hand like he's in Fairy Godmother's classroom.

"Which means we'll only have about twenty minutes give or take, to find and get the wand and then get out…. But then we need to get it to the Isle…or maybe we can just get the barrier down? But that won't do anything because she needs the wand and…."

"Um," Jay says again, waving his hand obnoxiously. "You kinda missed a calculation there, Mal; that's a forty five minute walk at least. How do you figure an hour and a half, and twenty minutes for the wand…we're only going to have ten."

"No," Mal draws out slowly, and though her eyes flash green her voice is deliberately calm. "Thirty five minutes there and back- twenty for the wand."

"So you're just expecting us to somehow shave off ten whole minutes of travel time? How are we supposed to….you know what I'm gonna stop talking now."

Carlos misses the look Mal shoots Jay, but he knows it's frustration that rumbles as a groan in her throat as she tilts her head back suddenly.

"Fuck, we're gonna have to do a practice run," she groans, her hands like pale highlights in her purple stained hair. "We're gonna have to a practice run and we still have to figure out some kind of romance-love thing for Ben which is really going to fun…."

"Well hey," Jay offers with more or less an encouraging lilt. "If anyone can manage that it's our Evie."

Evie's lips quirk upwards almost shyly, but there's something about her eyes that don't quite match it.

"Yeah well duh," Mal mutters, rolling her eyes. When they land on Evie Carlos can see something…not quite 'soft' but muted in them. "I don't doubt E can work out some kind of potion or spell…I'm just trying to figure out how I'll manage."

There's a beat long enough where Carlos recognizes that there'd been something awkward about Mal's words, but he doesn't place it until Evie looks stunned and Jay snorts.

"Wait, you? Ben?" Jay snickers, and Mal scowls sharply, looking vaguely offended.

"Is there a problem with that?" she growls, and even Carlos has to press his lips together to hide his own amusement.

"No offense, Mal," Jay says lightly, though to Carlos it's almost delicately. "But you don't like guys. You don't like girls…you don't like people. How exactly are you planning on 'relationshipping' with Ben?"

"Well I don't suppose you have any other candidates in mind?"

Carlos shoots Jay a panicked look and finds it reflected right back at him. It might have been comical if it weren't for the fact that he didn't think Mal was joking, and that even a single word to point out the obvious would end…badly, to say the least. Evie's jaw was tight, though the rest of her face betrayed no emotion, and that alone was all it took for clarification.

"Wait, E?" Mal asks, and the high pitch of incredulity causes the rest of Evie's face to harden, even as color tinges her cheeks.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" the other asks it quietly, but there's no mistaking the challenge in her voice. In her eyes.

Carlos would have liked to say he was glad to see the fire back in her eyes after so long of seeing her subdued- submissive. But not like this…he thinks, eyeing the literal fire lighting in Mal's eyes, the gritting of her teeth in a snarl. Not quite like this.

"Are you seriously telling me you never considered it, though?" Jay counters in Evie's place, and Carlos groans softly and inches back away from the conflict on instinct.

"I did consider it," Mal retorts bluntly, her shoulders squaring in that way she did when she faced any kind of challenge on the Isle. It meant she wasn't moving; wasn't going to yield for anything and you'd be better off continuing on your way than trying to fight through her. "It was the first thing I considered and I did it for all of two seconds before changing ideas immediately."

Ouch. Carlos stiffens, a quiet sucking of air between his teeth the only reaction he'll let himself have. And here he was thinking things were getting better.

"Wow, ok," Jay blinks, and his hands clench and unclench at his sides. He's feeling it too, Carlos knows. But he also knows not act on it so the repetitive action remains, the tension spilling through in the grinding of his knuckles.

"And why is that?" Evie asks, and it's so quiet now that the challenge is nearly missed. But Carlos wasn't stupid no matter what his mother had said, and he knows Evie well enough to know that when she got quiet like that it was never a good sign.

"Do you really want me to say it?" Mal's voice drops, and it's not quiet so much as low…a deep rumble that matches the depth in the darks of her eyes.

"No I think I've got a pretty good understanding of the situation," Evie replies, lifting her chin to counter the wet glint in her own eyes.

"No you don't," Mal murmurs, and her voice reaches a quiet that belies the lingering fire in her eyes. "But it's ok because you don't have to. I do, and that's all that matters."

Carlos jumps at that last hiss, fingers clenching the phone on a nervous reflex. Evie barks a sharp sound that is disproportionate parts laugh and sob, and she's on her feet and turning away…turning to flee…. And in the same beat freezes as Mal's hand closes around her wrist. Carlos can't see either girl's face from where he huddles on the floor, but he can see the twitch of pain in Evie's fingers; can trace the lines of tension from Mal's shoulders to her toes; can see the way Evie's body curls in on itself, anticipating pain but not from Mal.

"Hey Jay," Carlos wobbles shakily to his own feet. "Wh-why don't we go get food? We can ffind muffins that aren't soggy."

"I mean, soggy muffins aren't all that bad," Jay mumbles, but he's all too eager to take Carlos up on his excuse to leave.

Carlos quickly tucks the phone between his two (fucking two) mattresses, vowing to return to it as soon as he could. To take it apart of course. But in the meantime…he was going to see about finding that Arandelle official Ben had mentioned. For the safety of the group, of course. If he knew about Ceran maybe he knew other things…. Carlos casts a quick look over his shoulder as he slips out the door, and he just catches the edge of the tension in the angles of the girls' faces. Then he's off with Jay, idly wondering if his new phone would have anything useful to deal with the aftermath of emotional and potentially physical explosions. Somehow, he doubted it.

---

Mal

She knows that Carlos' bid for muffins was just a poor excuse to leave, but at the moment she can't bring it in herself to care.

"Let go, Mal." Evie's voice is dark, but it's still just a hollow rasp of sound.

"No," Mal snaps back, letting her own voice retain its edge. She knows what will happen if she lets go. "Look at me."

"You're hurting me," Evie says instead, staying resolutely turned away, and Mal is hyper aware of the way her head drops; the curve of her shoulders even more pronounced.

Mal looks to where she's gripping the others girl's arm, notes that while her hand isn't tight, her fingers trail uncomfortably close to the edge of the now fresh scars. Without pausing, Mal fluidly adjusts her grip so her fingers are entwined with Evie's, not losing contact for a second. Evie makes a low noise in her throat like she might have protested, but Mal wasn't about to let it be vocalized.

"Look at me. Right now, Eve."

Evie flinches, sucking a sharp breath of air at the command in her voice (at the name). But she turns- jaw tight and eyes downcast, but she turns and that's all that matters. Mal adjusts her grip to accommodate the change in position, and moves the fingers of her free hand to gently massage circles over and around the marks on Evie's arms.

"You said that I was the first person to see you, well, you were the first person to let me. Keep letting me see."

"You say that now," Evie whispers, though it's a snarl in the curl of her lips, pain tight in her body. "You'll say anything now, and never…talk."

"What like Auradon talk?" Mal fires back, containing the rage to light in her eyes only, her hands firm but gentle as they continue to trace new patterns across Evie's skin. "All 'your feelings were hurt' and I say 'sorry' and regret everything? That kind of talk?"

Evie stiffens, pulling back against her hands, and even with her face cast down Mal can see the way it twists further at her words.

"Because if that's the kind of talk you're looking for then you're right, I'm not going to do it. I don't have anything that I regret saying."

Evie tries to jerk away again, but Mal holds firm and moves her hand to lift Evie's chin, forcing her to meet her eyes.

"I regret that you were hurt," Mal says slowly, shifting her fingers quickly to brush the tears from Evie's eyes before they fall. "But I meant everything I said. I did consider it, E…thought about you being the one for Ben. Of all of us of course you're the obvious choice."

"There's a pause in there," Evie mutters, lips quirking bitterly, eyes still damp despite Mal's efforts. "This is the part where you bring up the mirror. Go ahead then." She lifts her chin as though steeling against a blow, and Mal feels the air leave her lungs more forcefully than she'd anticipated, something like a laugh and a cry all at once.

"Is that - Hades, of course it's what you think," Mal whispers, another breathy noise escaping her as she shakes her head, mystified. "Evie I am not punishing you for the mirror."

She knows she's nailed it because the other girl's eyes drop again, her shoulders bowing under an entirely different weight.

"Evie…" Mal begins with a sigh, but the girl flinches and she knows she can't do it like that. "What do think will happen, if you were the one for Ben?" She says instead, and though Evie remains silent, a fraction of the pain leaves her shoulders. "It would be perfect, of course; you'd manipulate him to our side easily, and he'd adore you- how could he not? You'd get your prince and there'd probably be enough kingdom left for your mother to have a square of when my mother finishes her rampage."

That earns a flicker of a laugh, and Mal hates the next words that come out of her mouth all the more for it.

"He'd be your prince, E, and that means everything that it comes with. He'd be all chivalrous I'm sure, but there's still that expectation…."

She pauses. She wants to pause for longer, wants to take back every word, every hurt that made up this truth but it's inevitable.

She knows Evie gets it because it's not so much a flicker as it is a blaze that stiffens every muscle in her body. Her hands tremble in fists at her sides and Mal reaches for one again in a vain bid for comfort, pressing her palms gently around the other girl's fingers until they uncurl.

"And you think you'd deal with it any better?" Evie says, bitterness sour in her voice, and Mal can feel the pain her words bring as a tight grimace in her own brow.

"It's not about who's better it's about keeping you safe," Mal snaps, as hotly as she can while still maintaining some control over her emotions; her stomach clenching at the very idea of putting Evie back into that situation. "Whatever comes of this I'll deal; but he'd have to touch you, E, and…"

"And what good is a whore that can't be bought, right?"

"That is not what I said, don't you fucking dare put those words in my mouth!" The fire spills out into her eyes again, sparks snapping across the backs of her knuckles with the force of her snarl.

Evie, for her part, doesn't flinch, but the few tears that do fall pop dangerously against the spark of Mal's magic.

"You don't need to," she says softly, a smile on her face that doesn't reach her eyes -her eyes that still don't meet Mal's. "It's been made up for."

The implication…the meaning behind Evie's words hit like a physical blow, and Mal sucks in a breath that wants to be something stronger.

"Remind me to tell my mother to have Grimhilde meet with an unfortunate incident at some point when she takes over," Mal mutters darkly, and her words spur a sudden laugh from Evie that is genuine even with its sharpness.

"Plotting to murder my horrendous mother," Evie mumbles, eyes just a bit brighter- eyes that finally finally meet hers. "Who said chivalry doesn't exist on the Isle?"

"And I will remind you," Mal continues firmly, bringing a hand up to place a kiss on Evie's palm. "However many times it takes, that you are more than what she said you are. You're one of mine, E. That's what matters."

"You'd better watch it, Mal," Evie says, and the laugh spills into her eyes, effectively cutting through the remaining darkness. "You're starting to sound like Auradon with all that sentiment."

"Is that sentiment? I thought you were better than that."

"Not by a long shot, little dragon."

Oh…Mal blinks, pausing with Evie's hand still wrapped in hers. "Shit, this is what she meant by 'also,' isn't it?"

"What?" Evie asks, and Mal shakes her head, fingers trailing idly over the back of Evie's knuckles.

"Nothing." Fucking everything. She says it quickly, carefully adjusting her expression to not betray her…what was it? Realization seemed a lackluster word for….

"Nothing?" Evie repeats, and damn if she wasn't going to drag this out by being all coy.

"I was just thinking that we should probably join the boys and make sure they get the right muffins."

Evie scoffs, rolling her eyes, but there's a genuine ease now that hadn't existed between them for a while.

"He wasn't very subtle about that, was he?" the other girl murmurs, and her eyes flicker with something too quickly for Mal to interpret. But it definitely doesn't take much for her to interpret the way she steps back, her hand slipping from Mal's as her chin dips down. The loss of the physical connection was…something, and Mal crosses her arms to keep the urge to lift Evie's chin at bay.

"E," she says instead, and Evie inhales a breath like a sigh, her eyes reluctantly making contact again.

"I don't-" she begins, and Mal's eyes flash because she knows exactly what the girl was going to say and she thought she'd made things more than clear.

"If the next words out of your mouth aren't 'I hope Carlos found a blueberry muffin' I swear…." she lets her threat trail off vaguely because they both know that Mal would never truly harm Evie, or any of her crew.

Evie chuckles the remainder of her sigh, her lips just barely quirking upwards. "I hope Carlos found a blueberry a muffin," she repeats dutifully, but Mal can see the spark of genuine hope in her eyes that belies her sarcasm.

"Well let's go find out then," Mal replies, and a much fuller bark of laughter slips past Evie's lips in response. It wasn't polite or princess-y in any way, but it was Evie's and hearing her laugh like that after so long a silence- that alone, Mal decides, was worth any potential existential crises.

---

Ben

One breakfast, he thinks to himself as he presses his forehead blearily against the white wall. It's just one breakfast. And then a meeting. And another after that. Maybe some classes if he was lucky enough to escape. And then one more meeting for good measure, just because various royals seemed intent on trying his already worn patience. Ben tries to just breathe, but when he cracks open an eye and dares to turn it towards his destination, his stomach clenches all over again.

The VKs would be behind that door.

Ben groans and clenches his eyes tight, his forehead thumping as he bangs it against the wall. Maybe if he bashed a little harder…. But of course he wasn't supposed to think like that. He was the Prince, after all, and he had more than just one kingdom looking to him. And it was his decree, as everyone was so fond of reminding him. It might have been his decree but it wasn't his mess that he was trying to clean up. The Council had all but thrown themselves at him when he'd dared to bring that up in their latest meeting; that all of the problems they were seeing from the VKs now, all the mess from the Isle, had been their doing in the first place.

And now this latest development. He groans again, turning to sink in a miserable heap, the wall at his back the only thing keeping him from completely keeling over. He doesn't know how the rest of the VKs are going to take it but he knows for a fact that Mal was going to be pissed. More than she already was. It was bad enough that his stupidity had caused her to view him as a threat to her group, but this? Gods, he was so dead. He was going to be assassinated by the daughter of Maleficent and while a part of him thought what a way to go, the other part kept imagining the various wars and conflict that would bring about.

"Which is why I'm just not going to say anything," Ben quips to himself aloud. "We've seen how well me talking without thinking has worked out so now I'm thinking without talking."

At least the hallway was empty, everyone already inside and enjoying their normal breakfasts, their normal conversations and worries. Normal lives. Not for the first time Ben feels the hollow pang in his stomach at the fact that he was 'the Prince' and was destined to be isolated from that normalness even though he and his 'subjects' went to the same school.

"Ugh, I really don't want to do this," Ben mumbles, grimacing as he eyes the door again. But he really had no choice in the matter. He could put it off, of course. But the whole kingdom might burn down in the wake of Mal's rage if she found out how long he'd held off for.

Fuck, he thinks. And then, because his current crimes didn't already condemn him enough:

"Fuck," he says out loud, hefting himself up and leaning his weight against the door. "And yeah, I'm never saying that again, but the situation called for it."

The door opens, and the first thing he's struck with is just how calm everything seems to be given that his world was ending. The second, when he actually makes it into the room, is that Mal and Evie are sitting at the same table as Chad, Audrey, Jane, Lonnie, and Doug are, and while he doesn't know where Jay and Carlos are, he knows they're also sharing the table by the two other trays placed on Mal's left.

"I'm dead," Ben mutters, his feet heavy as they slog over to the table. "I've died, this is it….I'm dead and my brain is just conjuring up positive scenarios to help me cope with whatever comes after."

This last part, he realizes too late, was said just loud enough that he is heard by the table, and a variety of amused, worried and shocked faces greet him. The amusement at least, had come from Mal and Evie, so he guesses that's a plus?

"Sorry," Ben mumbles, feeling his face heat as he sinks into his chair beside Audrey. "I guess I was just surprised to see you guys at our table. I didn't uh…didn't think you'd actually join us."

Evie's amused smirk widens, and Mal lifts a brow, her eyes unreadable as she take a bite of scrambled egg.

"I'm just surprised that I wasn't offended by that," she replies coolly, and he reddens further, sinking into his seat a bit more. So much for thinking without talking.

"You ok?" Audrey whispers, and he manages to conceal his own surprise at the genuine concern in her voice. The last time she'd spoken to him it had been a week ago, and she'd been telling him that he would never understand her.

"Yeah," he manages to whisper back, his voice breaking. "Just tired of all these meetings."

She scoffs a breathy laugh of understanding, her eyes warm where he'd grown to expect cold. She slips her hand into his and he almost jumps he's so caught off guard.

"Are you sure I haven't died?" he finds himself blurting, and just like that Audrey's hand is gone; that scarily familiar coldness back in her eyes as they flick in the direction of the VKs, and he realizes that the warmth it had been just like all her other expressions- a front.

Fuck.

"Well I don't know about death, but you're definitely going to starve if you don't get something to eat," Mal quips, crunching through a piece of toast. "Wait, can I say that joke?"

She looks to Evie, green lighting in her eyes, and Evie looks as if she's trying to glare at her, but her lips fight too hard to curl into a grin.

"I don't see why not," she murmurs back, her own eyes bright with mischief. "We've got the experience to back it up, after all."

Doug shifts uncomfortably in his seat, no doubt recalling the conversation he'd had with Ben all those weeks ago; about how the Isle had no food so it was small surprise the VKs had looked as though they'd been starving.

"You guys have no sense of humor," Mal whines, when no one else says anything.

"Ha," Chad deadpans, head turned pointedly away. "Ha ha."

"Asshole," Mal growls to the back of his head, and Ben sees a muscle in Chad's cheek twitch briefly, as if...as if he'd been about to smile.

"Sorry Ben," Evie finally says, and though the amusement remains in her eyes, the rest of her expression is genuine. "I hope it didn't seem like we were joking at your expense."

"If anything, it was ours, really," Mal mutters through a mouthful of…something. "But yeah, sorry. If it were me, I'd hate to be stuck in a room full of ignorant royals too."

"Hey Charming, she was talking to you," Jay's voice drawls suddenly from Ben's right. "I thought it was rude and junk to ignore people when they talked to you."

Chad sighs heavily, his head turning as the other half of VKs approach, and Ben realizes that that was why he'd been looking away. He'd been watching Carlos, who pauses in his argument with Aziz just long enough to roll his eyes in Jay's direction. Nikki just shakes his head and plops himself down on Lonnie's left, the remaining boys following suit, with Aziz to his boyfriend's left; leaving Carlos sandwiched between Aziz and Jay, his hands wrapped around a steaming cup; Jay sprawling easily in his chair to Mal's right. Mal, for her part, narrows her eyes at the seating arrangement, gaze flashing between Carlos and Aziz with a hint of caution.

"Ok I missed something," Ben blurts, head roaming back and forth between the table's occupants. "I must have missed the silent pact to suddenly stop hating each other."

"Oh no we still hate each other," Aziz says seriously, head nodding in Jay's direction.

"Yeah no, I can't stand the guy," Jay echoes, and he scowls for all of two seconds before snickering.

"Aw and you ruined it!" Aziz cries, but he's laughing too, and Mal settled back into her chair, her eyes relaxing from their glare.

"Speak for yourself," Jay scoffs, and he goes to cross his arms before starting suddenly. "Oh right- E, here." And he reaches across the table and deposits a small, slightly squished muffin on Evie's tray.

"Jay, I can't believe you actually did it!" The girls squeals delightedly, and Mal's expression softens further into something vaguely pleased.

"Of course I did," Jay retorts, completing his aborted gesture and crossing his arms cockily. "I told you I'd find a blueberry muffin and I did."

"Um, I fu-fu-found it," Carlos mutters, somehow jabbing his elbow into Jay's side without jostling the cup. "And Mmal, I found…I found ththis."

He places the cup on Mal's tray, and Ben catches the familiar, rich scent of what can only be-

"The best coffee Auradon has to offer," Aziz brags in Carlos' place, grinning broadly.

"Carlos you fucker!" Mal crows, and her eyes light up again- though thankfully, Ben notes, not with magic green fire this time.

"That one's not an insult," Aziz states, brows lifting proudly. "See, I'm learning!"

Mal lifts her head from the cup to glare sharply at him, and dutifully quiets down, picking inconspicuously at his own pile of eggs. Mal instantly goes back to the coffee, lifting it to her nose and inhaling slowly. The contentment on her face snaps to suspicion so fast Ben almost doesn't catch it. She takes a sip and the suspicion changes from betrayal to outright resentment.

"This is not coffee, what the fuck is this shit?" she growls, and Jane chokes into her orange juice.

"It's coffee," Jay confirms, taking the cup from her and drinking a mouthful himself. "They make it different here, without mud. Get this, they even put extra stuff into it to make it taste better."

"Better?" Mal hisses, eyes dark and almost mournful as Jay finishes the rest of the coffee.

"People have different tastes," Lonnie offers carefully, patting Jane on the back and offering her a napkin. "Not everyone likes…"

"I like coffee just fine," Mal growls, and there was that fire Ben hadn't missed. "That is not…."

"Just try this and shut up about it already!" Chad snaps, plunking his own untouched coffee onto Mal's tray. Some of it splashes onto the surface, leaving a miniature steaming puddle of dark liquid.

"Yeah right, you probably poisoned it or something in some pitiful revenge plot," Mal grumbles, but there's no true malice in her voice, which just further solidifies Ben's belief that he wasn't actually experiencing this.

"There's nothing in the coffee," Chad growls right back, and though his jaw is tight, his eyes are surprisingly neutral.

"Why is it a different color?" Mal retorts fiercely, tilting the cup and pointedly spilling more black into the puddle.

"Because that one had stuff in it!" Chad huffs, gesturing with a flat palm towards the now-empty cup on Jay's tray. He freezes like that, hand still outstretched, and Ben watches a variety of emotions flicker through his eyes, all along the lines of guilt, panic and concern. There's a beat where Mal gives him a dubious look, then Chad lets his hand fall back by his side, shaking his head as he shoves himself up from the table.

"You know what? Screw it- drink the coffee or don't, it really doesn't matter to me. Don't know why I even tried…."

He's storming off from the table before Ben can decide how he feels about the interaction, and Mal flips off his retreating back. Beside him, Audrey barely makes a sound as she rises, and there's another odd beat where she follows after Chad. It takes Ben a moment to realize this beat was because he wasn't following her, hadn't protested her absence. But what would be the point? If she was right about one thing it was that he didn't understand her fear; the only way he could understand was through talking, and she'd made it clear that talking wasn't an option right now. So he stays silent in his seat, and after a moment, Mal takes a drink of the new coffee.

"Ok," she says, much more at ease than he felt. "This one's better. But still…I don't know it's just. Missing something…."

"Told 'ou ith mithing the mud," Jay mumbles through some French toast, wiping his fingers on his pants before reaching towards Mal's plate- the source of the pastry.

"Goblins knew how to make coffee," Mal agrees wistfully, and Ben isn't sure he wants to know if this was another not-joke at their expense. "But I guess this isn't half bad either."

"Well I'm glad you've finally got your coffee tastes settled," Aziz says, dark eyes glinting even as he eyes the dark coffee with mild distaste. "Cuz you're gonna need a lot of it if you're gonna meet my dad. He does tend to talk…"

*clnk*

Jay yelps as Mal's fork just barely misses his fingers, jerking his hand back sharply with a sour look. Mal doesn't miss a beat, just spears a piece of toast possessively, green eyes dark as they turn from Jay to glare at Aziz.

"What did you say?"

Ben lowers his head into his hands, wishing that Aziz's voice would do more than just muffle; wishes that he'd never opened the dining hall's door in the first place.

"I said my dad is kinda hyper and likes to talk a lot, so you'll need a lot of coffee if you're going to-"

"Meet. Him?" Mal repeats, and for all her magic fire, her voice could still turn to ice with ease.

"Wait, Ben…you didn't….ooh. You didn't tell them yet."

The realization falls flat in Aziz's voice, and Ben begrudgingly lifts his head to meet that oh so familiar fire of Mal's eyes.

"Didn't tell us what, Ben?"

Ben takes a breath, but only that because even though he'd like to hesitate for longer, he's certain he'd be a pile of charred ash if he tried.

"The Council wants to meet you guys," he says, not slowly (Mal's anger didn't allow for slow right now) but definitely cautiously. "To uh, talk about the Isle and…see how you've been adjusting to Auradon."

For a second, all he receives is stunned silence and stunned faces. And then Mal blinks, and Ben braces himself for the end.

"I'm sorry," she says, and her eyes drop briefly in reflection before snapping up again. "Could you repeat that? I just wanted to make sure Chad didn't actually poison the coffee cuz for a second there I thought you said that the Council of Auradon wants to meet us."

"I did," Ben says, somehow managing to keep his head high despite the way his insides twisted.

"You…are you fucking serious?" Mal snaps, and he's morbidly impressed that although her hands light with fire, it hadn't yet spread to instantly kill him. "Our parents' enemies?"

"Uh-"

"I know what I fucking said," she bites across Doug's half-hearted moan of protest, her eyes still resolutely burning into Ben's soul.

"Our parents' enemies want to sit and what? Talk about the Isle?" Her chin lifts, and the fire dies from her hands long enough to graze them along the backs of her group. "Talk about us, you mean….our pasts- which I thought I made pretty clear weren't to be touched!"

The dining hall went quiet- or had it already been and he was only noticing now that Mal's voice was echoing about the place? Mal sighs, throwing her head back in exasperation, fingers gripping tightly to Jay and Evie's shoulders.'

"How the hell am I supposed to-? Fucking Hades below, Ben you don't think, do you?"

"That seems to be the recurring trend," he mumbles jerkily, somehow still standing- still meeting her eyes. "But I think the other recurring trend is that I care about you guys. I wouldn't have-"

"Care?!" Mal nearly shrieks, and Carlos shrinks a bit in his seat, Jay and Evie quickly shifting their positions so their arms and hands wrapped firmly around Mal's arms and shoulders. "You can't say that you care about what happens to us when you keep putting us in danger!"

"The Council isn't dangerous," Ben actually snaps, and regrets it instantly. The look Mal shoots him is enough to end his life far more effectively than any fire or knife.

"A room full of a bunch of self-righteous assholes who murdered our parents and then brought them back to life to serve an eternal jail sentence; those same smug bastards who left hundreds of children to be tortured and killed and called it 'justice' and 'getting what they deserve' solely based on their parentage?"

Mal's voice breaks, but the fire in her eyes remain, her lips twisting bitterly. "Now you tell me how putting us in that same room isn't dangerous. Tell me now how much you fucking care."