Before the Lost Four knew it, spring and summer had come and gone. Over the past few months, they had gotten into the rhythm of running their crew, and learned the realities that came with it. Life on the island was harsh, growing harsher by the minutes, especially for the children. Being the leaders, Mal and Uma had to care for their crew. From simple things like handing out some food, to teaching some how to fight, and learning how to sew wounds.

But they did it. They were young, too young, but with the help of the boys and Mal's parents, they learned what they needed to do and how to do it. They adapted. It's what Isle kids did.

It was the night after a minor gang fight that Jay met Maleficent. His father had kicked him out and Mal was sneaking him into the castle. That's when he met Maleficent.

She was a lot scarier in person, her dark wings filling the space being her and sharp features looking royal and intimidating. He swore that she could kill him without a second glance, and he was expecting to be banned from the cove in a similar manner to the Evil Queen being sentenced to years in her castle.

Instead, the woman barely said anything. She listened quietly as Mal explained the situation, then said that he could use the spare bedroom near Mal's instead of sleeping on her floor.

It wasn't until much later when the kids realized that Maleficent had known all along, because neither had mentioned him having done this before, and they definitely hadn't mentioned where he slept.

That incident made Jay less afraid of Maleficent, and less nervous to go to the castle. Instead of seeing the "Evil Fae" that the Isle and Auradon saw, Jay saw a woman who made sure that there were blankets in the spare bedroom and let him eat breakfast with Mal before school.

It was nice.

And his dad never noticed.

Meeting Hades, though, was a whole other experience. The boys had officially met him together, as in all technicality Harry had interacted with him before, but never as a second-in-command of his daughter's crew. They were in the market, Jay giving Harry a lesson in thievery, when they ran into Hades getting fish. He asked them to help him carry it to the Underworld, and nobody said no to Hades.

The walk to the cave was spent with Hades telling the boys stories about the gods. Specifically stories that held the theme of traitors and what happened to them.

The message was received and the boys never mentioned that conversation again. Thankfully, after that the man was friendly. Isle friendly, but still friendly, going as far as to helping the boys learn limited Greek to help understand some of what the girls were saying. It would come in handy on the Isle, as barely anyone knew it and most who did were related to Uma and Mal.

Now all they had to do was learn to write in it, so they could send messages to each other. It would help with their newest challenge, which came in the form of school.

They were all in the same grade. While Jay and Harry had been going to the public schools, the girls were both taught by Hades with some lessons from Maleficent and Persephone. This year, however, their mothers had decided that they needed to attend the public schools as well, to help with their Isle standing. Mal would be joining Jay at Dragon Hall so the villains wouldn't think that she was weak, and Uma would e going with Harry to Serpent Prep due to her pirate heritage.

So technically, it wasn't school that was the problem, it was that they were being split up. Harry and Jay were used to spending time away from the girls, but Mal and Uma were rarely apart. Sure, there was a day here and there, and they could still see each other after school and on weekends when they would have lessons with Hades, but it felt different. It was almost like they were losing a part of themselves.

Maybe that's why, the evening before school started, Mal and Uma found themselves sitting on the roof of Maleficent's castle. The sunset was casting orange and pink hues across the water outside that barrier. Down in the cove, children were rushing between ships and helping to patch up some of the docks and new buildings, while others were running out of the cove and to the ever-growing pirate village. That's were Uma would be going in the morning, as right in the center was Serpent Prep. The school had originally been housed on a boat, but as the years passed they had to move it to the land. Unlike Dragon Hall, Serpent Prep wasn't in a basement and some lessons still did have the children head out to the docks.

"It's going to be weird not going to Uncle Hades cave every morning." Uma said as she wrapped her arms around her legs. "It doesn't feel right to only have aca-dem-ic lessons on Saturdays." She had to sound out 'academic', as Hades had just given them that word for the lessons he taught them, but she was proud of herself for remembering it.

Mal sighed, "Yeah, I might actually miss getting up early." The girls glanced at each other before giggling. Mal hated mornings, unlike her father and brother, and she had to admit that one upside to going to Dragon Hall was she didn't have to be up before dawn. "You promise that you and Harry will give Jay and I our own lessons?" She asked, holding out her pinkie."

"Promise," Uma said, sealing the pinkie promise. "And you and Jay have to teach us anything useful you can think of."

"Of course," Mal agreed. She moved closer to Uma and rested her head on her cousin's shoulder. "I really hope Maman is right about going to Dragon Hall."

"I think she is," Uma said quietly, "It would be wicked if you and Jay could come with Harry and I, but we need to take a stand on the island. More gangs are popping up. The Warriors, the Hunters... the Saints."

Her statement hung in the air and Mal had to hold back a shudder. Only a few weeks before, Claud Frollo's eldest child, Cedric, stared his own crew. Cedric was almost ten, and he hated magic. He blamed magic for everything and would gladly burn anyone with magical blood at the stake. A couple sea witches were barely able to make it back to the Cove after her declared his crew's reign. Along with his eight year old sister, his crew also had the Stabbington Cousins, Drizella's eldest daughter Delaney, James Ratcliffe, and countless minions and sidekicks who blamed those with magic for their fate on the Isle.

Uma was right. Desperation was a big factor for a lot of VK's when it came down to it, and unless they could prove that their crew was safe, and that they could provide for their members, plenty would end up with Frollo even if they didn't agree with him.

She couldn't let that happen. They couldn't let that happen. If Dragon Hall was their best bet at taking more territory, then Mal would do it.

A flash of light caught her attention and she straightened with a gasp, pointing out towards Auradon. "Uma! It's a shooting star!"

Uma looked out, and there streaking through the sky wasn't just one, but two, shooting stars.

Together they watched in awe, and with a nod to each other closed their eyes and made their wishes.

Maybe it was futile. Wishes didn't come true for the VK's. But maybe, just maybe, their wishes would come true. Only the Fates could tell.

School was worse than Mal imagined. The Gaston twins were annoying, Madam Mim's granddaughter Maddy kept following her around, and everyone expected her to be more "Evil" than her parents since they all believed Beast's tales and of course the offspring of Hades and Maleficent had to be the most evil being on the island.

The only thing that made school bearable was Jay and they weren't even together all the time.

She just wanted to be ignored and to work at her own pace, preferably on a top that wasn't about "evil acts for kids," and keep an eye out for VK's who needed help. Instead, most of her time was spent trying to pretend she cared about curses, pretending she was self absorbed, and pretending to love evil in front of the kids she knew really did love it, all while keeping an eye out for any kid that would be a good fit for her crew.

But out of everything in the school, the thing she disliked the most was seeing Princess Blueberry.

For her credit, the other girl never sought Mal out and she stuck to the shadows, helped by the fact that most of the students ignored her after the disastrous party. But holding grudges ran in both sides of Mal's family, and she happened to hold them very well.

Even though everything worked out in the end, she was still feeling bitter over never receiving an invitation. And yeah, Blueberry probably had nothing to do with it, but did that really matter?

Her dad would say it did. Her mother would probably give her a double-sided answer. Borra would ask her if it was worth it.

She needed to distract herself. She wasn't here to get revenge on the princess, she was here to get her crew standing. They needed to make their mark.

And it just so happened that one of the things discussed in class was graffiti.

How fun.

Something the Isle had a surprising amount of was paint. Especially spray paint.

Whether it was because of the chemicals, or paint was a common thing to be thrown out during spring cleaning, a lot of it ended up on the boats for the Isle and the villain kids immensely enjoyed the stuff.

The Lost Four had a stash they hadn't used yet, waiting for the right time, and that right time was now.

She had taken yellow, red, teal and purple paint and covered the walls in Dragon Hall, with Drizella Tremaine's room being hit the worst. But as Mal stared at the walls, something felt off. It felt like something was missing.

Whatever it was, it stayed on Mal's mind. She couldn't pay attention in school, which actually put her towards the top of her classes, or in her lessons with her father, and she could barley pay attention to Uma and Harry when they were relaying what they had learned in school.

Snapping fingers brought her out of her recent daze and she looked over to see a frustrated Uma huffing at her. "Mal," she whined, "you zoned out, again!"

"Ooops?" Mal said sheepishly with a shrug of her shoulders. Uma just sighed in annoyance, while Harry dropped down beside the Mal and poked her forehead.

"You're been doing that for over a week now. Maybe you should tell us what's going on in that pretty purple head of yours?"

Mal swatted his hand away with a roll of her eyes, but maybe they had a point. She couldn't continue to space out, it could be dangerous. Sometimes, despite what her teachers said, four heads could be better than one.

"Okay, okay. So while I was spray painting Dragon Hall, I realized that something felt off."

"Off how?" Jay asked with a frown.

"I don't know! Just off!" Mal said. She waved her hands around for a minute, trying to figure out what to say, before laying back on the dock. It was getting darker every day, and while you couldn't see the stars above the Isle due to the clouds, you could see them outside the barrier. Looking at the sky, even with the clouds, helped her think. The others knew that, which was probably why instead of saying anything they just laid down around her.

They stayed in silence for a few minutes, excluding the shouts from the pirates ships and the smells coming from the pirate village, before Mal tried explaining again.

"Its like... the colors represent us, but other VK's use these colors to. So-So its... its us but also, anyone else could claim it."

Uma hummed, but it was Harry who spoke next. "A symbol." He said, "We need a symbol to use for tags, and for flags."

"Yes!" Mal shouted, shooting upwards. The grin on her face widening by the minute, "That's exactly it!" She raced over to her bag, searching for her dull pencil and sketchbook before running back to the others.

She put the pad on the ground and started to sketch, her friends looking over her shoulder and putting in input.

Eventually, after minor bickering and debating, the final image came. In the center of the image was a sword pointing downwards, a wave was wrapping around it, starting at the point, but halfway up it started to turn into a dragon. The dragons tail continued till just below the hilt, where the rest of the boy started to form. The legs wrapped around the hilt, and a roaring dragon with wings stretched upwards. Towards the end, after some talk between each other, Uma took the pencil and added to the symbol. The words Ruthless as Tide were above the sword, and below it Cold as the Sky.

One by one the four admired the sketch, and quietly Mal said "Perfect."

Over the next month tags appeared all over the left and middle parts of the island, from inside the school to on (former) Prince Hans hut. The message the Lost Four's crew was sending was clear.

But inside the group, something else was whispered amongst members. A reminder. A promise.

Fight for the lost. Protect the Found.