Day broke with the arrival of the Auradonian military on the shores of the Isle. Mal and Margaret were both tied to the main mast of Uma's ship. The pirates all hollered at the soldier as they made their way up the wharf to where Mal and her strange classmate were bound, unharmed. Mal never had thought she would be relieved to see soldiers on the banks of the Isle of the Lost. It meant to her that Ben succeeded in convincing his father of saving them.
Or the King would be dooming Mal and Margaret to death.
Ben was the first to make his way up the wharf. Evie, Carlos and Jay were not far behind him, leading the group of soldiers to the pirate's ship.
Uma was the first to speak as she sauntered to lean over the port side rail of her ship.
"Have you come to negotiate, Prince Ben? Or have you come for war?" Uma mocked Ben with tone that would make her mother proud.
Ben gulped. He snuck a glance at Mal, and made eye contact with her. Mal saw him tense when he saw the sword being held against her neck by Dizzy Tremaine.
"Negotiate. We will agree to some of your terms, as long as you cooperate with us now," Ben commanded. "Release the Princess of Arendelle, unharmed, and we can make further arrangements."
Uma snorted. "Gil, cut her loose. Don't let the Princess leave the ship."
Ben's eyes widened. "You knew? You knew Margaret was a princess?"
"Of course, Beastie Boy," Uma spat. "Unlike you, we make sure keep up on as much news as we can get. Miss Margaret was often see on the few televisions her on the Isle."
Mal, however, did not know Margaret was a Princess. She didn't act like one, or even mention it after she had been captured. Not one threat about what her mother would do if she found out Margaret had been kidnapped and taken hostage. Auradon was is a sticky situation, it seemed. Caught between Arendelle, their biggest political rival, and the Isle, their biggest enemy.
Ben expected Margaret to try and run as quickly as she could to get off the ship. Margaret had been facing the ocean rather than the Isle. Gil cut her loose gently, and she made her way to stand near some of the crew. She beamed, and was in bright blue Isle garb. Uma smirked as the blood drained from the Prince's face. It was thrilling thinking of all the scenarios running through the Prince's head.
"Pardon?" Ben demanded. "What is going on here?"
Margaret smiled a carefree smile. It confused all the soldiers and the Prince surrounding the perimeter of the ship on the dock.
"I'm not a citizen of Auradon," Margaret said. She then motioned to Gil. "This kind young man offered to show me around the Isle once I had shown my curiosity about the Isle. I posed no threat to the crew, or the Isle. Arendelle never has. It still doesn't. Everything you have built is safe from me."
Mal and Ben were both lost within Margaret's words. Neither knew if she was telling the truth. She lied like the villains of the Isle, it seemed. Ben could see the bred diplomat break the surface of Margaret's mask. There was something else going on, but he could not go back on his promises now. Not with foreign relations hanging in the balance.
"Did any harm come to you while you were here, Princess Margaret," Ben pleaded. If she had, Ben was in deeper trouble than he knew.
"Not in the least. They were all as courteous as they could be to me. I actually will vouch for every member of the crew. They protected me while I was here." Margaret was sweet in her words. She choose them as carefully as she could. Not that Ben knew that. Her plans, Gillian's plans all relied on her getting them off the Isle. The crew had been very kind to her, it was not a lie, but they were still rough, cold children of the Isle.
"I will agree with the Princess. We aren't trying to get off the Isle to take over the world, or Auradon, Beastie Boy. We want justice. Our justice is being released from the Isle. How can we be punished, if we have not done anything to have been condemned in the first place?" Uma growled out. "We want off the Isle, every person on this list, or none at all. If we do anything illegal you can send us back on a case by case basis. We are going to stay together. Prince Ben, we are a family, and this ship is our home. We all go together, and our ship comes with us."
Ben looked her in the face, and studied her. Uma was saying understandable things. It was the reason why he wanted to take all the children off the Isle. He walked to Uma and stuck out his hand.
"Deal on the condition that you all attend school," Ben said.
Uma and Gil both expected that. Uma immediately held her hand up to prevent outrage amongst her crew.
"Deal, Prince Ben. This is our first chance. Do your best to remember that," Uma seethed, but she took Ben's hand and gave it one, firm shake. She motioned to have Mal and Margaret let go. "Give us three hours. No one actually believed you would listen to our terms."
Ben nodded in understanding. His father did not hold a good track record when it came to those residing on the Isle.
Mal ran off the ship, bus she couldn't help but slightly empathize with the pirates. She felt the same way months ago, days even. She had run from Cotillion, but she couldn't wait to arrive in Auradon again. The fact that this entire scheme was Gil's idea and left her mind. In the future, Mal would come to regret allowing that tidbit of information to slip her mind.
Margaret all but begged the Rotten Four and Ben to not spread around about her being a Princess. It was clear she was not ashamed of her bloodline, but she did not want to only be like for her crown. Ben bought into it. He often felt the same longing for anonymity. The Rotten Four however were not as easy to convince. Her stunt with the pirates had probably been a bad idea, but Margaret's vouching for Gillian had gotten him off the Isle.
She had bigger things to worry about now, like preparing herself to go to war.
Cotillion went off without a hitch. The new Isle kids were the talk of the town up until the Cotillion ended. They were quickly overshadowed by Mal's beautiful dress, Ben's amazing stained glass window of his girlfriend, and how charming Ben had been at the dance. Gil hoped this wasn't what dealing with royalty was like all the time. He hoped sovereign nations weren't like the royals Auradon produced.
Gil was already extremely uncomfortable with the entire situation and the treatment he and the rest of the high school aged crew members were receiving from the staff at Auradon Prep. It was almost worse in some ways than how they were treated on the Isle. They weren't kept together. The younger kids were all sent to other schools. In the two weeks they had been on the mainland Uma, Harry and Gil had yet to see them again. Harry was worried sick over his youngest sister, and Gil worried about a few of his siblings who were at the grade school. He was not as worried, though. One of his sister's, Georgia, was with him at Auradon Prep. His father was not the worst, and he didn't worry as much about his siblings left behind on the Isle.
"What are we going to do?" Uma asked. She was holed up in Gil and Harry's room. "Nine of us are together, the other nine were ripped from us the second we stepped foot on land."
"I don't know," Gil responded. "Our ship hasn't moved. I made sure all the doors were sealed before we left. Unless they have a kiln or a flame thrower, there is no way they can raid the ship."
"Why don't we just request to stay on the ship?" Harry suggested. "Most of us have practically lived on the damn boat for over a year. If nothing else, we'll sleep there. The rest of the crew may not all be related by blood, but we are the closest thing to family some of those kids have."
"We are still essentially prisoners here," Gil said. "Our crew is resourceful. The second something goes south, the will find us."
"Then we wait? Why are we letting ourselves stay here? We have been prisoners for far too long," Uma growled.
"We can't get ourselves to Arenedelle without tipping of Beast. We leave, and war is upon my country before we are prepared."
"Fine, but the second something goes wrong-," Harry started, but he was distracted when Evie fell out of the closest. The three pirates were on their feet in an instant, and three swords were pointed at the throat of the blue haired girl on the ground.
"War?" she asked, looking up at the three of them.
"What are you doing here, siren?" Uma sneered, she tried to make it obvious that nothing in this conversation would continue until Evie talked.
"Evangeline," Evie breathed, looking Gil in the eyes. "Gillian, please tell me."
Gil lowered his sword. "Oh, Evie," he said. The girl on the ground began crying. Gil remembered how horribly he had treated Evie in their last encounter. He should not have used her family against her, but it was necessary. The guilt washed over him as he saw Evie cry on the ground before him.
"I wanted to go see her when Mal took off, but I couldn't get away from Jay or Carlos long enough to go see her. Then after I encountered you, Ritchie found me, and we never made it to her. Things with you, Ben and Margaret got way too out of control, and I never made it."
"Harry, Uma, put your swords down," Gil demanded, and he sat down next to Evie. They grew up together. He sometimes forgot the respect his mother held for Queen Grimhilde. While the elder Queen wasn't quite right in the head anymore, she had once been a brilliant ruler, and it was not secret that the Evil Queen held the same respect for the White Witch of the Isle.
Evie was the only person who knew Gil was a prince without having to be told. Gil was the first one to have known about Evie's relationship with his younger brother, Maverick, and he had been the first to have been told about their child. Elsa was the one who convinced the Evil Queen to let Evie keep the baby.
"Gillian, please," she pleaded.
"Ritchie has been a good father. Dad loves kids and has been keeping her safe when Ritchie is busy with responsibilities on the Isle. Your mother has seen her a few times, but not for any length of time." Grimhilde may be fine with the child's existence, but only tolerated her grandchild in Evie's presence.
"Is she healthy?"
"As healthy as any Isle child could hope to be," Gil said. He knew it wasn't much, but it was more than nothing. "She misses you."
"As she should," Evie said darkly. "As my own mother said, any child who doesn't miss their mother is a disrespectful child." Gil laughed. The statement, however, seemed to unnerve Uma and Harry. Evie was feared on the Isle for a reason, just as her mother was.
"Princess, you won't tell anyone about this, will you?" Harry drawled. "Specifically, the others in your gang."
Evie's eyes glinted. "I have more reasons to be loyal to you than I do to them. Gil is family, and family comes from, and it always has. Besides, I believe Margaret, Eugenia and a few of those red-headed demons have taken a liking to me."
"I don't trust you, Princess," Uma spat.
"I wouldn't have expected you to, Captain," Evie sang coolly. "I don't trust you either."
"Good." Gil blinked at the pair. He realized this was the first time Evie and Uma had been in a room together without trying to murder one another.
"Besides, you may not have to put up with m for very long. I have been considering going back. For as nice as everyone has been to me here, I miss my child. I wouldn't be opposed to marrying Maverick, either. I have been in love with him for years, the Romeo in my life."
"This is why no one liked you, Princess. You go from being a dangerous bitch to an airhead in seconds," Uma groaned.
Through watery eyes, Evie gave a sly grin. "That's not what Maverick thinks, especially when we are alone."
"Ugh, I don't want to hear it. I get enough unwanted details from the prince and the pirate," Uma groaned.
"Are your virgin ears bleeding?" Harry teased.
"Shut up, Hook." The four shared a laugh. It didn't make the situation any better. They were simply finding a bit of joy in a desperate situation.