Here is the next chapter!

Sorry it took so long to add this chapter. I had family visiting and I had to get everything prepared for today. Someone had commented that this story was starting to get dull, and I'm not offended! No need to apologize. I know this story has slow down a bit, but I promise it's going to kick back up.

You know, I really wished that "Descendants 3" had a snippet of their graduation somewhere, like during the 'monologue' at the start of the movie. If you didn't read the books, you wouldn't have known that three of the Core Four had graduated or what Jay meant when he said he'd take a gap year.

Sorry for the little rant, I just thought it would be cool.

This chapter will have the graduation, but a couple things will change. I know I have hinted at something the past few chapters, but there will be an entirely different scene that will be useful in a future chapter; specifically, when someone is trying to recover from a burn and when someone else is being punished for a crime they committed.

Next chapter will be posted in a few days, as it will take time for me to do a certain . . . perspective.

Enjoy.

Mal couldn't believe it was finally here: Graduation Day! The tents had been set up. The parents, grandparents, friends, and sidekicks had arrived. So many carriages had rolled up to Auradon Prep that morning, it had caused a bit of a traffic jam.

Carlos stood at the entrance, looking handsome in black-and-white morning suit, which was sewed by his mother, of course. He passed out programs as he greeted kindly, "Welcome to Auradon Prep."

The seniors walked in, led by Ben in his cap and gown, holding Mal's hand. Evie was next, with Doug and Jay falling in step behind her.

Carlos held up his camera. "Say hi to the Isle!"

"The Isle?" Mal repeated curiously.

"Yes! Surprise!" Jane exclaimed as she held up a microphone. "This is the surprise we've been working on! Everyone on the Isle can watch you guys graduate!"

"To inspire every little villain kid! We wanted them to be able to see that they can grow up to do amazing things one day, just like all of you have," Carlos further explained.

Mal turned to Ben in shock. "Did you know about this?"

The king grinned guiltily. "I helped set up the streaming signal. I thought your parents would like to see all of you graduate too."

Smile growing a little larger, Mal waved to the camera. "Hi, everyone! Apply to Auradon Prep! We'd love to have you!"

Carlos adverted his attention to Evie, who was gazing at her feet quietly. Cracking a smirk, Carlos teased, "What are you so nervous for, Sis? You don't want Mom to see you like this."

"Carlos!" Jane chided as she smacked his arm for almost spoiling the surprise. She tried giving the blue-haired princess an encouraging smile. "Mom changed the diploma, so she doesn't forget when announcing you."

"Forget?" Jay repeated in confusion. "Forget what-?"

"Hey." Doug interrupted purposely as he gestured to the argument going on a few yards away. "What's that about?"

The remaining six adverted their gazes toward the general direction, Carlos instinctively shutting off the camera—which in turns sends a message to the people on the Isle that says the video will return in a few minutes. Carlos thought adding that little feature will help just in case something happens that the Isle doesn't need to see.

Off to the side in a private huddle, Fairy Godmother was in a very heated conversation with the Rose family; more specifically King Stefan, Queen Leah, and Audrey. Queen Aurora and King Philip seemed to be playing the mediator while the other four squabbled with one another. Stefan seemed to get angrier and angrier with each passing minute, but Fairy Godmother held strong, eventually winning the argument.

"Audrey can't graduate," Jane informed knowingly. "Neither can Chad. My mom found out they were cheating off each other this last semester when she examined everybody's final grades. They can either do summer school or repeat the semester classes in the fall. Chad opted to take the classes in the fall, but lost all of his scholarships as a result. Apparently, Audrey didn't think Mom was serious when she told her about it a couple weeks ago. If I had to guess, Audrey's grandparents will make her choose summer school, so they don't look bad with the paparazzi."

Mal kept a careful eye on the family for a few moments longer, her eyes unconsciously glowing vibrant green. Something was telling her that one of them would try something—

And she could only hope that no one would get hurt in the process.

At last, it was time for the main event. Fairy Godmother called up each student one by one to hand them their diploma, which were each placed in either metal or wood frames. King Beast shook each graduate's hand, and Queen Belle handed them a gold-embossed Auradon Prep pin in the shape of a book.

"King Ben," Fairy Godmother called with a proud smile.

"Congratulations, son," said his father with a firm handshake.

"We're so thrilled," his mother whispered as she gave him a kiss on the cheek.

Ben forced a smile as his attention was temporary adverted to the stack of diplomas. There was one that was supposed to have a wood frame to keep a certain someone safe from her weakness. Why can't he find that diploma? Sadly, Ben couldn't look much longer since he would be delaying everyone else who were eager to get their diploma.

Doug was next. He waved his diploma up in the air and whistled as he walked back to his seat.

Fairy Godmother hesitated for a moment as she gazed at the next diploma, almost forgetting what she was supposed to do already. With a wide smile, the headmistress announced proudly, "Evie de Vil!"

As if it was planned, the entire audience gasped in surprise as Evie bashfully stood from her seat and slowly made her way to the stage. From the back of the room, Carlos could be heard applauding and shouting, "Way to go, Sis!"

After snapping out of their daze, Mal and Jay jumped up from the seats, applauding and cheering for their friend so loudly that the rest of the audience had no choice, but to follow. Evie curtsied shyly as she received her diploma, joining her friends a few moments later.

Once she returned to her seat, Evie smiled nervously at her friend. "Surprise?"

"E!" Mal squealed as hugged her best friend as best as she could in their clunky seats. "How long have you kept this a secret from us?"

"Since the night before we left the Isle a few months ago," Evie admitted with a soft sigh. "I wanted to wait until graduation so everyone—both on the Isle and Auradon—would know about my 'new' mom. Are you mad?"

"Never!" Mal insisted as her smile grew even larger. "I'm so happy for you! You now have such a loving mom, who you actually have something in common with unlike before. Since you're Cruella's daughter now, we're practically family! Even more than we were before."

During their little conversation, Jay went up to the stage next to grab his diploma. Once he did, Ben narrowed his eyes in concentration in a vain attempt to get a better look at the stack if diplomas. His queen was supposed to be next, yet he couldn't spot the difference with hers.

Ben barely heard Mal's name being called or the fact that she had kissed him on the cheek as she slowly yet nervously made the long walk to the stage to receive her diploma. Once she arrived at the steps, Ben's eyes widened in fear. Jumping up from his seat and quickly sending a text to a certain someone, Ben raced to the stage to save his queen.

Turn off the camera! NOW!

Carlos was taken back by the message as was Jane, who read the text over her boyfriend's shoulder. " 'Turn off the camera'?" She read in confusion as she looked up at the stage for a moment. "Why would we? The Isle has to see their queen graduate."

"Unless . . ." Carlos trailed off as gazed back at the scene before him. Mal had just climbed the last step, but Ben was racing behind her. Carlos's eyes widened in understanding. "He's trying to keep them from seeing our queen get hurt."

By the time he managed to shut off the camera, Mal had started reaching for her diploma. She had a bright, clueless smile on her face, which quickly turned into immense pain as she grasped the metal frame of the diploma. Mal held out a piercing scream just as Ben came up from behind her and knocked the object out of her hand, shattering the glass that was protecting the paper.

The audience were soon riled up by the turn events, unsure of what was going on. Mal was clutching her hand as carefully as she could, though she was screaming at the top of her lungs in pain and agony. Her hand now had a massive burn and a large cut through the center—since the frame had a sharp edge. She should have known better!

"What's going on?" King Beast questioned as his son tried his best to comfort his girlfriend. "What happened?"

"That frame was made from iron!" Ben exclaimed bitterly as he covered Mal's hand with his to hide it from the audience. Surprisingly, Mal managed to calm down just slightly since the brief contact seemed to have soothed her burn for a few moments. Why was that? "I had switched her frame with a wood one so this wouldn't happen. Someone must have switched it for an iron one."

"Why would you switch it in the first place?" Queen Belle wondered curiously.

"Don't you remember?" Ben interrogated angrily yet rhetorically. "Iron burns fairies! Mal's only half, but that essentially doubles her pain!"

"Ben," Mal gasped between trying to keep herself from having some sort of panic attack and enduring the excruciating pain. "Take me away."

Ignore the protests of his parents, Ben quickly led Mal down the stairs and out to the hallway of the auditorium. They could briefly hear Fairy Godmother ordering everyone to settle down and remain in their seats. Slamming the door behind him, Ben managed to get Mal to an adjoining hallway before her knees buckled beneath her. Moving so their backs were against the wall, Ben had them slid down so they could sit.

King Ben moved Mal to his lap as she nestled her head into his neck, using him to muffle her cries of pain that she somehow managed to hold in in front of everybody. Ben slowly started to rock her back and forth to help soothe her.

"I'm so sorry," he apologized as he ran his fingers through her hair, kissing her forehead every so often so she would know that she was safe. "I tried so hard to protect you, but it didn't work. Please forgive me."

Mal couldn't necessarily answer since she was in the middle of hyperventilating, not to mention that her profusely bleeding hand was distracting her. Ben seemed to notice and tried to use his graduation gown to stop the bleeding, though it only slowed it for the time being.

"I love you, my queen," Ben reminded before kissing her forehead comfortingly. "I won't let something like this happen again."

Mal raised her head slightly, displaying her pink tear-stained cheeks and her puffy bloodshot eyes. Despite the horrendous situation she was in, Mal kissed him ever so softly for a brief moment. Pulling away sadly, she cooed, "And I love you, my king."

"Hey!" Carlos came jogging conveniently out of nowhere before sliding on his knees to the couple. "Mal, are you alright? What do you need?"

"A minute to catch my breath," she joked as she tried to lighten up the atmosphere. "And to congratulate you on your sister."

Carlos cracked a smile at Mal's attempt to ignore the dire situation. "I almost blew it a few times on purpose," he admitted as he played along with her. "I tried making little hints over the last couple months so you or Jay would figure it out, but that didn't happen until today. I just had to tell someone, so I told Jane, who was about as happy as me—"

"Well, well, well," interrupted a familiar voice as she walked closer to the trio. "What do we have here? An injured fairy with the king she stole?"

Ben huffed in aggravation as he held onto Mal tighter. "Go away, Queen Leah," he practically ordered. "Don't make this worse for yourself."

"Oh?" Queen Leah questioned, feeling quite intrigued as she stepped closer. "But I did nothing wrong. I was in the audience when she got injured."

"Yet you, your husband, and your granddaughter are the only ones that dislike my queen," Ben retorted as he felt his anger growing. "Your family are the only ones in Auradon, besides her friends and myself, that knows that iron burns fairies. One of you must have done this. I will find out who and they will be severely punished."

Queen Leah shrugged innocently. "We did nothing wrong," she repeated as she lightly glared at Mal. "Perhaps, she should be a little more careful next time. She shouldn't want anything worse to happen to her, now would she?"

Holding her gaze for a moment longer, Queen Leah swiftly turned on her heals before heading toward the auditorium.

Ben adverted his gaze back to his queen. "Mal, do you want to go back in there?"

Hesitating for just a second, Mal shook her head in denial before resting her head against his shoulder. "I don't want my parents to see me like this," she insisted. "Or for the Isle to see their queen so helpless. I don't want them to hate Auradon because of one person's actions."

Respecting her decision, Ben looked at Carlos, who was staring at him with wide, unsure eyes. "Please tell Fairy Godmother that we won't be coming back," the king requested as his stood to his feet, him now carrying Mal bridal style in his arms as Carlos went to his feet to. "I'm going to take her to my castle and try to treat the injuries as best as I can."

Nodding quickly, Carlos jogged back to the graduation while Ben and Mal went the other way—

But not before grabbing his camera that had been hidden behind the nearby wall, having recorded the whole scene for all the Isle to see.