3,250!
That was how many views I received on the day that I posted the last chapter. I broke my record for the second chapter in a row! I am hoping I can break that record again when I post the epilogues.
That's right! I haven't told you yet.
Yes, you will have three epilogues which will be in somewhat similar format as when I did 'Our Act'. My idea for the last part is going to take quite some time to write since I will have close to five totally different events happening in that epilogue alone, maybe even more. To give me enough time to work on it, the epilogues will be posted on March 3rd: the six-month anniversary of this story being published. If finished early, the epilogues will be posted early.
That will give you nearly three extra weeks to vote on my poll! So far 40 users have voted and I'm still hoping I can get close to 100 users. In the final part of the epilogue, I will announce what the winners are.
Enjoy.
A few days later, the engagement party had begun at the multileveled terrace that overlooked Auradon's Bridge Plaza. Unlike the Isle's, Auradon's had a magnificent tree-lined court with four decks connected by blue carpet-lined stairs. It was the perfect setting to celebrate a wonderful occasion and to make history.
With her metallic-orchid dress, elbow-length lilac gloves, and gold peep-toe heels, Mal looked the picture-perfect Queen of the Isle. She was excitement about her engagement party for a couple reasons. First, Maurice—Ben's grandfather—surprised her that morning with his arrival, since she once again believed he wouldn't be able to make it. Second—although I don't want to give too much away—in a few minutes their plan would be put into effect and she would be able to give a certain someone a gift.
I know that may have confused the two of you, but you'll understand in a few minutes.
King Ben looked, well, like a king in his usual royal suit in the same blue color that he always wore. With his arm intertwined with hers, the lovely couple walked through the tunnel entrance of the Bridge Plaza and emerged on the other side, where the party was already in progress.
Uniformed waiters circulated throughout the plaza, balancing silver trays piled with gourmet food. Jubilant party guests in chic cocktail dresses and stylish sport coats mixed and mingled. Mal's friends seemed to fit in pretty well with their wonderful outfits.
Evie gave off an air of sophistication in a structured midnight-blue gown of her own design. Her boyfriend, Doug, stood by her side in a mint-green suit and blue shirt. Carlos was dressed up in a black-and-white paisley jacket and skinny-cut black pants with a smitten Jane standing by his side in a cornflower lace midi-dress and her one-of-a-kind Jarlos necklace. Jay wore a gold embroidery sport coat, which reflected the glow of the twinkle lights. Dizzy dressed to the nines in a black-and-moss polka-dot frock. The twins, Squeaky and Squirmy, wore matching blue-and-white-striped tailcoats.
Mal politely waved to the guests, before smiling kindly at her 'sister', Aurora. Despite the current situation with her biological parents and daughter, Aurora didn't want to miss history being made or the chance to be reunited with—
Wait! I can't tell you that just yet or else I'll spoil it! Yes, I know you already know what happens next, but I'm the one telling you it now, remember?
Anyways, Aurora was once again by herself since her husband had to take of more business regarding the kingdom of Auroria and assisting with the punishments of his 'in-laws'. I use that term lightly since Queen Aurora stopped considering them to be her parents. Audrey was still bitter about her punishment, so she opted to stay in her new 'cramped' dorm-room until the 'dreadful' celebration ended.
Berth—
Sorry, I was doing so good with the story telling until we got to this part.
Mal took a moment to hug her sister, who was about as excited as her about what will soon transpire. The lovely Lady of the Court continued on her path again until she stopped once again to give a quick hug to Maurice—she's always had a certain fondness for him—causing some of the audience to snicker at her action.
Finally, Ben led his beautiful queen up the stairs to the plaza's balcony to oversee the party. King Ben clinked his crystal glass to get the party-goers' attention.
"Lady Mal and I want to thank you for celebrating our engagement with us today," he told the audience before adverting his attention to his future bride. "I have called you my queen for quite some time, and now you will soon be wife. To commemorate our engagement, I have a gift for you."
Ben paused a moment to look back at the curious crowd. "As you may remember, our Lady Mal is also the Queen of the Isle," he reminded with a slightly scheming smile on his face. "It isn't right for me to ask her to abandon her kingdom just so she can be the queen of mine. Instead of having her choose, I plan on uniting the two kingdoms by removing the barrier for good!"
Despite the protests King Beast had made an hour or so before when the engaged couple revealed their plan to him and his wife, there was nothing they could do about it. It was an official royal proclamation, after all. After so many years of being segregated, Auradon and the Isle would finally be united as one.
"Yes!" Carlos exclaimed with unabashed glee. "I can see my momma again!"
His friends snickered at his 'momma's boy' behavior. Their laughter was soon drowned out by the cheers and shouts of the rest of the audience. Who could blame them for their ecstatic behavior? They were about to be witnesses of a historic event that they would one day tell their children—like I'm telling the two of you.
King Ben smiled proudly at his queen. "The honor is yours, as the Queen of the Isle," he acknowledged as his smile grew. "Bring it down, my Queen."
Fairy Godmother stepped forward to offer Mal her wand. Taking it gingerly, Mal gazed down at her three friends, who were looking up at her expectantly. "What are you waiting for?" Mal teased as she gestured to the powerful object in her hand. "It's going to take a lot more than me to bring down the barrier."
As a queen, Mal knew that the honor wasn't hers alone. All of them had a part in the opening of the Isle. If they hadn't been such modeled citizens or successfully attempted to continue the VK Program, none of this would have happened.
In the matter of seconds, Jay, Evie, and Carlos graciously joined their successful friend up on the balcony. The Core Four proudly stood together as Mal began, "To make the world a better place . . ."
"We have to do it face to face," she and her three friends declared in unison.
With a twirl of her wrist, the wand shot a single beam of light toward the magical barrier, breaking it on contact. With another wave of her hand, the wand magically created a beautiful gold bridge that stretched from the Auradon shore to the Isle of the Lost. It was a bridge anyone could cross at any time.
The island would no longer be a prison. Those who were always innocent are now free and forever will be. Without the barrier to act as a shade, rays of sunshine broke through the gloom and shone down on the Isle.
Mal gazed across the sea with a happy smile gracing her lips. Ben nudged her shoulder jokingly. "It's time for you to be reacquainted with your people," he insisted with an encouraging smile. "Tell your people that they are more than welcome to come to Auradon, and always will be."
With her smile growing wider than she could possibly imagine, Mal gave her beloved a quick kiss on the cheek before she quickly, yet carefully ran down the balcony stairs and toward the newly formed bridge. On the bridge plaza of the Isle of the Lost, the citizens looked confused and wondered of it was some kind of trick.
Mal stopped just a few feet away from the island entrance, where the bridge started on that side. "What are all of you waiting for?" Mal loudly interrogated with a wide energetic smile. "Let's go!"
As she twirled on her heels back toward Auradon, Mal could hear the villain children cheering, screaming, and hollering at finally being free of their captivity. They gladly followed their queen across the bridge to the foreign land.
However, everything went quiet once the queen and the island children reached the borders of Auradon, most unsure if it was safe to cross. Mal bravely crossed over the boundary lines and stood next to her beloved king. King Ben, standing before the people of Auradon, gazed at the large crowd of villain offspring as he took a knee before them. Mal followed his lead first, and then Auradon citizens followed their lead at bowing to the 'VKs'.
"Welcome to Auradon," King Ben greeted with the kindest smile any of the island children have ever seen.
After a moment of utter disbelief that a powerful king was bowing for 'peasants' like them, the villain children delightfully swarmed the plaza to greet their new friends. With Auradon and the Isle united at last, everyone mingled, danced, and sang with unbridled happiness.
Mal watched with a certain fascination as more and more island citizens crossed over the bridge. Squeaky and Squirmy happily hugged Harry—preventing him from flirting with any girls—before dragging him off so they could greet the twins' father, Smee. Dizzy happily hugged her grandmother Lady Tremaine while Celia was lifted in the air by her father, Dr. Facilier, before she dragged him off to the dance floor.
Eventually, Cruella crossed over the bridge and smiled reassuringly at her curious god-daughter. "Your parents will be here soon, Bertha," she promised calmly. "Your mother needed to . . . stretch her wings for a moment. Until then, where are my true loves?"
"Your Evelyn is most likely with her boyfriend, Doug," Mal informed with a small, careless shrug. "Carlos is probably—"
"Momma!"
"Found him," Cruella joked with a small snicker. "I'll speak with you again later. For now, I better greet him before has a heart attack."
Well Carlos didn't necessarily have a heart attack, but he did manage to lift his mother off the ground again when he swallowed her in another massive embrace. Once she was safely settled back on her feet, Cruella took a moment to regain her breath. "Haven't seen me in less than a week yet you give me such strong hugs," she teased good-naturedly.
"Well I missed you!" Carlos exclaimed defensively. "Is it a crime to love my momma?"
"I suppose not," Cruella joked, before her attention was adverted to the young lady that was nervously hiding behind Carlos. "Oh! You must be his girlfriend, Jane."
With her arm wrapped around her boyfriend's, Jane timidly hid behind Carlos as she waved at his mother. "Hi. . . "
"There's no need to be so shy," Cruella insisted with a kind smile. "But I'm glad to know Carlos didn't exaggerate to me. You look even more beautiful than he described."
Blushing brightly, Jane hid her face in the back of her beloved's shoulder, causing Carlos to snicker at his love's reaction.
Meanwhile, Aurora approached her sister when the bridge became empty, but the one person they wanted to see had not yet arrived. "Where is she?" Queen Aurora wondered as she lightly placed a hand on Mal's arm. "I'm starting to worry that your plan didn't work."
"My god-mother said they would be here soon," Mal reassured, though she didn't look convinced herself. She tried for a knowing smile to hide her nervousness. "Is he nervous?"
"Extremely," Aurora concurred with a slight shake of her head in amusement. "It's been so long since he's been around so many people. I think he's more nervous about her reaction. I'm afraid he'll turn back into a raven if we wait much longer."
"We can't let that happen," Mal teased as her smile grew. "I can go get them if it's absolutely necessary."
"I don't think it will be," Ben softly intervened as he gestured to the bridge. "Look."
Well the sisters didn't have to look at the bridge for an answer. You see, at that very moment, flowers magical grew in Queen Aurora's hair while the wind-up crow in Mal's pocket magically squirmed out her dress pocket and flew toward the bridge.
On the bridge was two lovely people who have been married for nearly twenty years. They were holding hands as they practically strutted down the runway, swinging their arms dramatically as they smiled and laughed happily at one another. The man had a massive blue mohawk that seemed to on fire from a distance. The woman had beautiful brown hair that trailed down to her waist and wore this sort of black jump suit that showed off her voluptuous figure. The most impressive thing about the woman was the massive wings that were attached to her back, which was a brilliant black color that had a blue hue to it.
The amazing couple was none other than the god Hades and the fairy Maleficent.
All of the party-goers stopped in their dancing, singing, and talking to gaze at the couple, mainly because none of them have seen Maleficent with her wings and because she was the most beautiful creature any of them have ever seen. It was no wonder that she managed to win the heart of a god with her looks.
While the little metal bird wormed its way into Maleficent's pocket, Aurora smiled mischievously at the married couple as she greeted, "Well, well. . ."
Pausing for a moment, when she and her husband were only a few feet away from the trio, Maleficent smile just as kindly at her. "Hello, Beasty."
Of course, Aurora couldn't wait no longer, so she closed the distance between them to give her mother a hug. Maleficent reluctantly let go of her husband's hand to return the embrace of her first daughter. It was quite a touching moment for all who watched.
After breaking the embrace, Maleficent adverted her attention to her other daughter, smiling lovingly at her. "Are we invited to your wedding?" she teased.
"Absolutely!" Mal agreed with a mischievous smile of her own. "By the way, Aurora and I got you a gift for your twentieth anniversary."
"That's not for another two months," Maleficent reminded with a curious tilt of her head. "Why would you two give me something so soon?"
"Well it was really Mal's idea," Aurora insisted as her smile matched her younger sister's. "All I did was find him for her. Her magic was needed for him to be a present."
If possible, Maleficent tilted her head a little more in confusion. "I don't follow. What do you mean by—"
"Mistress!"
At the sound of her familiar name, Maleficent's jaw dropped just slightly when she saw a familiar raven-haired man wearing all black slowly start walking toward her. Seeing her mother's surprised reaction, Mal teased, "I told you he wasn't dead."
Not hearing her child at the moment, Maleficent cautiously strolled a few feet forward until she was standing in front of her 'gift'. "Diaval," she greeted with a small nod, "I missed you."
Diaval, the raven that was now turned into a human, raised an eyebrow in amusement. "Did you bump your head some time in the last twenty-three years?"
Reminiscing about the time without her friend, Maleficent deduced, "I don't believe so. I think my husband prevented anything like that from happening."
Diaval couldn't help chuckling at the answer. "I can't believe I missed you getting married!" He smiled knowingly, yet mischievously as he caught sight of something going on behind his 'mistress', which caused a majority of the enormous crowd to gasp in surprise. "At least I'll be there for your second wedding."
"Second wedding?" Maleficent repeated incredulously. "What do you . . ."
The magnificent fairy trailed off as she twirled around to look at what was happening behind her. Maleficent couldn't help the faintest of gasps that escaped her lips at seeing her husband kneeling before her with a beautiful gold ring in hand.
"Maleficent," Hades began with a smirk at successfully catching his wife off-guard. "You know that I love you, and you know that our anniversary is coming up in a few short weeks. What better way to celebrate it than renewing our vows?"
"Two months?" Maleficent reminded uncertainly. "That's not enough time to plan a wedding. We barely managed before with six."
"We are a god and a fairy who now have our magic back," Hades countered as his smirk turned into a smile. "We'll make it possible. What do you say?"
With the most genuine smile she ever gave, Maleficent cooed, "I would love to marry you again, Aidoneus."