Chapter 9:

Carlos POV

On the drive back from the hospital, all I could think about was what happened. I had made a note in my phone of the words Ben had said. 'Bride, Goal, Broken, Freedom and Jewel. These have to have something to do with Ben. Things of importance to him' I thought to myself. We got back to the castle, welcomed by the King and Queen as always.

Whilst over dinner, I decided to tell them what had happened. "So, when Ben grabbed my arm, he said five words, and I don't know what they mean. I was wondering if you could help." I got my phone out, and recited the words to all of them. "Any ideas?" I asked, and they all had a confused look on their faces.

The King spoke up. "Bride could mean Audrey. Ben was always supposed to marry her, after the coronation" as he said so, I got nervous, and looked down at the table. "But that's all changed now" he added, with a chuckle on the end.

But Belle was deep in thought. "Ben's goal was to become King, so maybe one piece is in the crown" she said, looking at the King. I looked down at my ring, and could see that it was glowing, so I decided to give it a go. The King removed the crown from his head, and set it on the table in front of me. I pressed the ring against it, waiting for a large flash, but instead nothing happened. The king placed the crown back on his head, but the ring was still shining brightly.

I knew at least something was located in the castle, but finding what would be difficult. We finished dinner, and I had decided that I wanted to continue my search. I asked for the King and Queens permission to view Ben's bedroom. It seemed like the best place to start, as he spent most of his time there. Belle agreed, and let me to his room. At this point, the ring was glowing as bright as anything, but I couldn't figure out what I was looking for. His room was filled with everything. A football table, gym equipment and a rather large collection of books.

Whilst I was searching around the room, Belle was stood at his desk. She had found a book sat on it, and began to read it.

She spoke out load. "This was Ben's favourite book. Whenever he was sick, I would read it to him" she started to choke up.

"What's it called" I asked, trying to maintain conversation. "The Princess Br…" She'd began the last word, but quickly turned to me, and shouted "THIS IS IT. ONE OF THE PIECES. IT'S THE PRINCESS BRIDE."

I was filled with excitement, for one we may have found a piece of his soul, and secondly bride didn't refer to Audrey. I ran up to her, and pressed the ring against the book. There was a large flash of light, and we saw a yellow orb rise out of the book. It quickly flew away, and we followed it to a window, seeing that it was headed for Auradon General. Belle pulled me into a hug, as we watched it fly through the wall of the hospital.

Within minutes of it happening, Belle received a phone call from the hospital, saying that Ben's condition has changed, and that his pulse was getting stronger. We both cried at the news, happy that things were finally on the up. The ring however, was still glowing, just not as bright. So I knew something was close by.

We continued to search his room, but had no success. By the time we had finished, it had gotten late, so we had decided to call it a day. I walked back into my room, telling Evie the good news, and she squealed. I went to bed that night happy. Tomorrow was Saturday, so we had all day to search for the rest of the pieces. We now had a place to start.

Saturday-8:30

Both Evie and I had a lay in, and woke up at 8:30. The usual routine pursued, showering and getting ready, before meeting with Belle and Beast for breakfast.

Belle spoke up, "I was thinking about what Carlos said last night. Maybe we were over complicating everything. Bride was in the name of his favourite book, so maybe we need to be more literal. I was considering the word Freedom" she began, eating her food as she did so. "The only time Ben felt truly free was when he was riding his bike. He once told me that it made him feel like he could do whatever he wanted whenever he wanted."

I quickly chimed in "That's why the ring is still glowing. I've seen the bike on the drive in. It's still by the castle, so the ring can sense it." I shot up from the table, not even eating half of my plate of food, and Belle was soon to follow. Both Evie and the King sat there and stared at us, as we ran out of the room. The ring started to glow brighter and brighter as we approached the bike, and once I'd connected the two items, a similar process to yesterday occurred.

His soul rose from the bike, and flew towards the hospital. Minutes later, Belle received a phone call, similar to yesterday. We hugged again, before returning to breakfast. We told the King and Evie the good news who were both overjoyed.

"Now, we have three pieces still to find" I said, with hope on my face. So far, we had found two pieces in a matter of hours, so I was feeling like we could do anything. That feeling quickly faded when we spent the rest of the day searching. The ring had stopped glowing in the castle, so the next place we tried was the school. When we approached, the ring was glowing ever so slightly, so I was optimistic.

The guards had dropped us off, and Fairy Godmother was waiting for us, ready to begin the search. I told her what had happened over the last few days, and that we found two pieces already. She was overjoyed as well, pulling both Evie and I into a hug.

We spent the day searching around the school, but we were having no success. We had checked every classroom, every corner of the school itself, but it was useless. The ring continued to glow, but it didn't get any brighter. I kept reciting the last three words over and over again. "Jewel, Goal and Broken", but I couldn't think of anything.

Fairy Godmother was the same, rattling her brain, trying to think of anything that came to mind, but she couldn't. Evie was no help either, but she was more concerned that she had work in an hour, and she still wasn't ready. We cut the search short, allowing Evie to leave, whilst the Fairy Godmother and I remained on the premises, walking and talking.

I was explaining to her what life was like on the Isle, and how much better Auradon was, allowing me to pursue my real dreams. The school campus was buzzing with activity, as the students lived in their dorms. The Fairy Godmother had to leave, after all, she was the headmistress. I made my way to the bleachers, by the tourney field, and stared at the ring Ben gave me.

'When he gave me this, I was at my happiest' I thought to myself, remembering all the times we spent together. The day he took me to the Slop Shop, and we shared a dessert. Although it was stale, we didn't care, we had each other and that's all that matter. I remembered the day he took me to the beach, and started to teach me to swim. Whenever I faltered, he was there ready to wrap his arms around me.

Whilst in thought, I had started to cry, and didn't notice that Lonnie and Jane had joined me. Lonnie wrapped her arm around me, and pulled me into a hug. Whilst Jane sat on the other side of me. I finally realised who it was, and looked at her. "I'm so sorry about the other day" I began, "I didn't mean to shout at you. You've been such a good friend to me." She pulled me deeper into the hug. Jane had joined in, and I could feel Lonnie's tears dripping onto me.

"It's alright Carlos, I forgive you. Why did you shout at me, anyway? You said you only saw Ben once, but you got very defensive when I talked about him" she questioned.

I pulled out of the hug, and started to twiddle his ring around my finger. Lonnie notices, and gasped. "No, no, no" she said, her sadness suddenly replaced with joy. "You didn't just see him once did you?"

I shook my head, and she was tugging on my arm, insisting I told her. I finally gave in "Ok, ok, I'll tell you both. But you cannot tell anyone ok. You have to promise" Both Lonnie and Jane nodded, and I began. "Ben and I, umm, were kinda maybe dating on the Isle. We got together about four months ago, at this point." I said, seeing both Lonnie and Jane tear up. I didn't tell them how we met, only that we did, and fell in love. "On our three month anniversary, he gave me his ring, before kneeling down and kissing it." I started to tear up, staring at the ring again.

Jane then decided to ask the most difficult question of them all. "So, is Ben still on the Isle, whilst you are here?" I also saw that this had piqued Lonnie's interest, and I had involuntarily gone a deep shade of red, as I was blushing so hard.

I shook my head, before speaking up. "You can't tell anyone, but he's in Auradon General Hospital, recovering from a fight. He was beaten pretty badly, and Evie and I were brought over with him, as we witnessed what happened. But, no one can know. If people knew that Ben was back, they would freak out. They see him, as a," I gulped before finishing my sentence "Villain, and would want him sent back. He need proper medical care, and if he was sent back, he would die." Both Jane and Lonnie nodded, promising to me that they wouldn't tell anyone. We decided to spend the rest of the day together, telling each other stories about Ben.

The Sunday was spent exactly the same. Jane and Lonnie had decided to take me and Evie into Auradon City, to do a bit of shopping. I finally had made some friends in Auradon, along with Evie, and it was feeling like home. All three girls spent the day trying on different outfits, and what not, whilst I just stood there waiting. I did buy some new clothes, but it took half the time they did. We managed to spend the whole day together once again, and it was really nice, despite the long periods of waiting.

Monday-1:30pm

I was sat with Lonnie, Jane and Evie during lunch time. We were chatting, as usual but conversation eventually died down. I built up enough courage to finally ask the question. "What happened on the day of Ben's incident." Looking at Lonnie and Jane. "I was wondering why he went back into the town alone".

Lonnie was the first to speak up. "We spent the day in his mother's old town. When we first arrived, he spotted a pendant for his mother. It was beautiful. But, he decided not to buy it at the time. When we were walking out of the town, he realised that he had forgotten to buy it, so he returned to get it. That's when…it happened." She finished, trying to remain calm, but I posed another question.

"What did the pendant look like?" I asked. I was curious about why he would want to return for it.

"Like I said, it was beautiful. It was gold, and had a large jewel encrusted in the middle, with smaller jewels around the outside." As she finished, I started to cough on my food.

"Jewel. That's one of the word, Jewel. He means the pendant" I screamed as I got up from the table. I ran for the Fairy Godmothers office, telling her what I thought. She agreed, and dismissed me from the rest of my classes. I asked her if I could take Lonnie with me, as she knew what it looked like, and Fairy Godmother agreed.

She contacted Belle, asking her to meet us there. I ran back out, telling Lonnie the news, before leading her towards the guard car at the front of the school. We got in, and I told the guards where to go. The whole journey, I had a smile on my face. I was finally going to get the third piece of Ben's soul. I could just feel it. After about 20 minutes of travelling, we reached a mile out from the village.

Belle was waiting for us, and instructed me that we had to continue on foot, as the village doesn't have any roads. The three of us, made our way into the town, and the ring was glowing brighter and brighter as we did so. We finally reached the market place, and Lonnie quickly found the jewel Ben was talking about. She was right, it was beautiful. Belle decided to buy the pendant, and once she did, I shoved the ring against it. The bright light began to glow, before his soul was pulled from the pendant, and flew towards the hospital. Belle pulled me into another hug, and her phone began to ring, symbolising that he was recovering once again.

I thanked Lonnie for accompanying me, and we drove back to the school. I was happy with my accomplishment, but quickly realised that I had a lot of work to catch up on. But what did that matter. Ben was one step closer to returning to me, and that's all that mattered. Lonnie was dropped back off at the school, and I was taken back to the Castle, so I could continue my work. I'd finished building the mechanical broom for Belle and Beast, and they had helped me patent it, allowing me to make some money off of it. Everything was looking up at the moment.

Tuesday-2:00pm

The next day followed a similar pattern. My last class of the day was PE, and the coach decided to test me for tourney, something I was not looking forward too. "Carlos, have you ever played before" the coach asked. I'm pretty sure he already knew the answer, and he was just asking anyway.

"N-No" I stuttered, scared of what was going to happen. He stated to hand me lots of equipment such as helmets, protective gear, shield, and a stick. The proper term for it, I don't know, so I just called it a stick.

"All you have to do, is use this" pointing at the stick "to hit the ball into the back of the goal" 'Goal, Goal' the word rung through my head.

"THAT'S IT" I screeched. "BEN'S TOURNEY GEAR", I said running back towards the locker room. Ben had talked many times about Tourney before, but I mostly just zoned out when he did. He was mad for it. I ran into the locker room, seeing that his ring was glowing as mad as ever. The coach had followed me in, confused by what I had said.

"Coach, which locker is his" I begged, hoping he could unlock it for me "Please coach, this is important" I begged again. He walked over to one of the lockers, and opened it for me, allowing all of Ben's gear to fall out. I rammed the ring against his gear, and I was right. The fourth piece of Ben's soul rose from the gear, before flying towards the hospital.

About 5 minutes later, I received a call from Belle, saying that the hospital had phoned her, updating her on Ben's condition. He was so close to recovery! Belle asked what it was this time. "It was his tourney gear! The coach was teaching me how to play, and said I needed to hit the ball into the goal. Well, it clicked, goal was one of the words Ben said, and the amount of times he raved on about tourney. We are so close, we only have one piece left to find! Broken. That's the only clue we have." I finished. Belle said that I should get back to tourney practise, whilst she considered what Broken could have meant.

The rest of the day consisted of me being tackled to the ground and taking constant beating from the other team. I managed to score one goal, but only just, as the coach had to call it. I think he was pitying me, and at the end of the day, we both decided that tourney was not for me. "Ever thought about band" he asked, chuckling to himself. I just smiled back, trying not to show how offended I was.

Ben's POV:

It had been a week since I had those strange visions, and I couldn't get them out of my head. Every couple of days, I would remember something like it actually happened, but it didn't. I still hadn't figured out who this mystery boy was, and it was driving me crazy. I had made a note of the sentences spelt out in the book, and every day I contemplated them. All the sentences were key to something, but I didn't know what.

"Lost Isle you belong" and "Boy's true love" stood out the most, which was why I needed to find this boy. I finally gotten sick of thinking about it. All of my friends has left me, for what reason I don't know. None of them would talk to me, but no one else in the school knew why. I didn't know where I had placed my ring, and the visions kept replaying in my mind.

'I was on the Isle when most of them happened, so maybe I should go there' I thought to myself. That's it, I needed to get to the bottom of this! What the hell was happening to me? I decided to sneak out tonight, and steal the limousine, allowing me access to the Isle. Whoever this boy was, he had to be there. I needed to finish this.

It had reached 10:30pm, and most of the Castle Workers had gone to sleep. I crept out of my bedroom, and headed outside. I needed some way to scare chip, allowing me access to the limousine. I had been practising with my wolf form, and decided it would be the best way. I transformed, and jumped onto the bonnet of the car. Chip jumped, and quickly exited the Limousine, running for his life.

Now was my chance, I reverted back into my human form and started up the limo. By the time Chip had realised, I had already driven off, and was on my way to the isle. I finally reached the bridge connecting the mainland to the Isle. I stopped the Limo, pondering what was about to happen. Then, I had another vision. It was of me sat in the back of a guard car being driven over the bridge. I thought back to the announcement of my coronation. That day, I saw my exile take place on TV, and this confirmed that something had happened. I began to drive, and saw the bridge form beneath me. My god was it spectacular. I approached the Isle, and used the remote the lower the barrier, allowing me access into the Isle.

For some reason, I knew exactly where I was going. I drove down the main streets, and approached a large Victorian mansion. I don't know why I was drawn to this place, but I was. I exited the limo, making sure to lock it so no one could take it. This was an Isle of Villains after all, and I still needed a way to escape if things went south. I approached the house, and knocked on the door. I heard yelling from inside, and instantly got frightened. I decided to hide, just in case I had gotten the wrong house, but I hadn't. He opened the door, the boy I kept seeing. He looked around, and I decided to step out of hiding.

"Hello" I said, as I approached him, and he got all nervous. "Who are you" I asked, still not knowing who this boy was "I'm Car…" was all he said, before he was pulled back into the house. I started to see people approach me, so I made a run for the limo. Luckily I was able to get inside quickly and lock it, but the people started to surround it. I needed to leave, but at the same time, I needed to see that boy. He was the answer to all of my questions. I'd decided I'd have enough of waiting, so I turned on the limo, driving it straight towards the house. I was just about to hit the wall when…

I woke up, frightened by the dream I was just having. I rubbed my eyes, seeing I was still in my bedroom. The last thing I remember was driving a limousine into someone's house on the Isle. 'What was that about' I thought to myself, before beginning my morning routine.

Friday-12:30pm Carlos POV:

It had been almost a week since we found the fourth piece of Ben's soul, and we were no closer to finding the last piece. "Broken, what kind of clue is Broken" I said out load, eating lunch with Evie, Jane and Lonnie, who decided to respond to my question.

"Carlos, maybe you need to take your mind of it. After you, if you put too much pressure on yourself, you're never going to think of anything" she said, her voice soothing. "Why don't you tell them how you and Ben met" Evie said, "It's such a cute story" she added, already smiling over it.

"Ok" I said, before taking a drink, preparing myself for the tale. "I was walking towards my shelter when I heard howling coming from somewhere nearby. I was terrified of dogs at the time, so I ran. When I reached my shelter, I saw Ben laid there, and freaked out. I asked him what he was doing there, and he responded with the same question. So I told him, that I was coming to watch TV, as it was the only downtime I got. Ben got all sheepish on me, admitting that he had broken my…"

Lonnie and Jane were hanging on every word, whilst Evie just looked at me, think what I was. My eyes widened, I finally realised where the final piece of his soul was. "THE TV. IT'S IN THE TV. THAT'S THE FIRST TIME WE MET" I screamed, jumping up from the table, Evie shortly following.

Jane and Lonnie had finally clicked, and decided to tag along. I text Belle, telling her I knew where it was, and that she needed to meet with me and the Fairy Godmother. Within 10 minutes, she was down at the school, and we had all met inside Fairy Godmothers office. "Carlos, where is it" she asked, curious to see what I had discovered.

"The first time Ben and I met was in my shelter. He had just broken my TV. That's where it is, in my TV. It has to be!" I exclaimed, only to see worry on Fairy Godmother's and Belles face. "You want to return to the Isle" they asked, knowing the horrors that entailed.

"I have to! It's the only way to save Ben!" I said, knowing that nothing was going to stop me, and I think they knew that as well. "I'll go alone if I have to. But nothing is going to stop me from saving him. We are so close, and I'm not going to give up now!" Belle and Fairy Godmother exchanged a glance, before Belle finally spoke up.

"Ok, Carlos, you can go back to the Isle to try and find the last piece of the soul. Fairy Godmother and I will go wait in the hospital, awaiting Ben's awakening. He'll be very confused when he wakes up, so we'll try to comfort him as much as we can, before you get back."

Lonnie chimed in "I'm going as well. Carlos is one of my best friends, and I want to help in any way I can" I nodded, allowing her to come with me.

"Lonnie, you can drive the Limousine, since you know how. Jane, stay here with us, and help Ben when we wakes up, it might be nice to see a friendly face," and Jane nodded. Belle rang the chauffeur, telling him to leave a Limo out the front of the school.

The three of us ran towards the limousine, and began our journey to the Isle. My stomach started to churn, the thought of going back to the Isle was frightening. "Right, we need to be quick" I said, making a plan as we drove.

"I can imagine Mal completely controls the Isle by now, so we need to be sneaky. Lonnie, park the Limo in the docks, and make sure you bring the remote with you. We can't risk someone trying to steal it." We approached the bridge, and Evie grabbed my hand.

"For Ben" was all she said, as the bridge started to form beneath us. I could see Lonnie was amazed by what was happening, so I decided to chip in. "It's even better when you are leaving the Isle" I said with a chuckle. We watched as the barrier fell in front of us, and rose behind us, but something was up.

The streets were completely empty, with no signs that anyone was living there. We parked up the limousine, making sure to hide it as best we could, and I led the way to the shelter. We had no trouble reaching it, and once we were inside, the process was similar. We watched as the final piece of Ben's soul flew towards Auradon General. It passed through the barrier with ease, and we followed it heading back to the limousine. That's when things went sour.

We entered the clearing to see Mal standing on top of the Limousine. "Ahh, look who's back" she said, before getting some of her minions to restrain us. "Finally fixed Ben's curse have we" she began, jumping down from the roof, and heading towards me

"Too bad you won't be able to see him. You have front row seats for my escape" she said, cackling before walking up to Lonnie. "And who are you? Aww, are you one of the Auradon Kids?" Lonnie refused to answer her question. Instead, she spat at Mal, which angered her even more.

"No matter" she began walking away from us. "I was waiting for the perfect time to do this. And now that you are back, well, it's perfect" she said cackling. "When you opened the barrier to get onto the Isle, it weakened it enough for me to gain some of my magic. I was able to redirect the feedback pulse, so it would hit the dome, rather than me. Mal pointed her Sceptre into the Sky.

"Now, I can finally bring the barrier down, and reign terror over Auradon." She thrusted the Sceptre into the air, channelling it to a weak spot in the dome. The same spot that allowed her to destroy Hell Hall. As she did so, I could see the barrier start to crack. It was shattering around us, until a piece of the barrier broke. It was enough for her to escape. She used her mother's sceptre, and disappeared into a shroud of fog, escaping through the gap she had caused.

The three of us, struggled, eventually freeing ourselves of her minions. I thrust my head back, causing the minion holding me to let go, and cup his nose. I quickly helped Lonnie and Evie escape, and made a run for the Limousine. That's when we realised that Jay had been stood watching the whole time. He was stopping us from reaching the limo.

"Jay, don't do this" I begged. I needed to get back to Ben. I needed to be there when he woke up. But Jay was quick to respond.

"You abandoned us on this Isle. You abandoned our gang! All because pretty boy came along. You 'fell in love' with him, and left us to rot." I could see he was getting angry, but so was I. Rage was building inside of me, as he continued to ridicule and insult us.

"You should have stuck with Mal, like I did. We could have been off by now, all of us, ruling over Auradon. But no! The pretty little prince was enough to turn you soft. And now look, he's dying in hospital. It's fitting really, he's gonna die at the hands of you old friends, whilst your new ones are powerless to help him"

By this point, I was sick of hearing him speak. I ran at him, but what I could do, I don't know. Jay was at least a foot taller than me, and definitely stronger. He dodged my strike, but what he hadn't realised is that he had stepped closer to Lonnie. She took one strike at him, and managed to knock him out. Before we got into the limousine, she said "No one messes with the daughter of Mulan, or her friends"