Hi Guys. Here is chapter 7 for you. As always a MASSIVE MASSIVE THANK YOU to my AMAZING Beta xez2003 this chapter would be an absolute MESS without you. And a HUGE HUGE THANK YOU to all of you for your reads, reviews follows and fav's. Well I think that's it so without further ado Take it away chapter 7!
DISCLAMER: I DO NOT OWN DESCENDANTS ALL RIGHTS GO TO DISNEY ANY DIOLOGE YOU RECONISE BELONGS TO DISNEY I OWN NOTHING!
Ben's attention was directed solely at the sleeping form in his arms, his smile softening as he stroked Mal's hair. Her breathing was slow and steady as she rested peacefully against him, no sign of her recent ordeal with Maleficent visible on her face. He could watch her sleep for all eternity, he thought, as he tried to memorise every line and feature of her face. To him, she was simply perfection.
And after all they had been through together, Ben just couldn't picture his life without her. Words could not describe the relief he felt that he had managed to find her in time and that she was back, safe and sound, in his arms. The thought of losing her was just too painful to think about. He couldn't even begin to imagine what losing her would have done to him.
As he continued to look at her, unable and unwilling to tear his eyes from her, his thoughts wondered back to all that had happened to them since they had met on the Isle. She had saved his life long before coming to Auradon. Mal had managed to break through his stone cold exterior, to the broken heart that had witnessed helpless as his mother died protecting him and that had known nothing in his life but fear and pain from his father's abuse. Despite her conflicting emotions, torn between making her own mother proud and their newly discovered strange and unexplainable connection, she took it upon herself to show him that there was more to life than the hatred and loneliness he solely knew. As time went by, Ben surprisingly discovered that he had developed a sense of gratitude towards her. And finally, a year after meeting her, he realized that this sense of gratitude had turned into something more, something he never thought he would be capable of ever feeling again in his life, especially on the Isle, a great affection.
She had now become the sun that brightened his life and the light that guided him to be a better person, away from his family's dark legacy. And as he held her in his arms, he promised to himself that he would never let her go ever again. He loved her and he would remain by her side for the rest of his life.
His hand left her hair to slowly stroke her cheek, feeling her twitch at his touch.
As her senses leisurely resurfaced, Mal felt herself float on a sense of utter peace and security. Her lashes fluttered slowly as her green eyes blinked open. She stared at the ceiling for a moment before turning to Ben, having felt his arm around her.
"Hey." she greeted softly with a smile.
"Hey. How are you feeling?" he asked gently.
"Better." she muttered.
Ben smiled in relief and kissed her forehead tenderly in response. "Are you hungry?" he asked gently.
"Hmm." she hummed nodding slightly.
Ben shifted slightly, gently hooking his arm under her shoulders to help her sit up. "Easy" he cooed, helping her into a sitting position. He then reached out to his side for the chicken noodle soup he had asked Hades to bring her a short while ago and placed it on his lap.
"Here. It's chicken noodle soup. Your favorite." He smiled, offering her a spoonful.
She accepted it slowly before trying to protest. "Ben. I can feed myself you know."
"Hush and let me take care of you." he scolded her gently as he offered her another spoonful.
Mal blushed slightly with a shy grin as her eyes locked with Ben's. Mal was thankful that she was sitting up in bed at the moment, as she was sure that the loving and tender gaze he was currently giving her would have made her weak in the knees. As she continued to let Ben feed her, she didn't realize just how hungry she was until the plate was empty within a few short minutes.
Ben's brow knitted in a concern as he watched Mal greedily devour her soup as if it was the last meal she would ever get. He could feel his hatred towards Maleficent rise even more as he sadly realized that she had most likely starved her during her captivity. But he was brought back to reality when Mal asks him about the VKs and Hailey.
"They are right outside the door. Actually, they have been waiting patiently for you to wake up." Ben smiled, getting up and opening the door to the bedroom for them to enter.
"Mal!" Blurs of blonde and blue flew past Ben as Hailey and Evie flung their arms around Mal.
"Careful with her." Ben said firmly as Jay and Carlos hurried over as well.
Hailey felt as if a huge weight had been lifted off her chest as she embraced Mal in a tight hug. She had been worried sick and no words could describe the relief she felt at that moment in seeing her alive. She sniffled into Mal's shoulder as her emotions got the best of her. "I am so glad you're alive. I couldn't lose you too. You're the only family I have now. I feel so alone."
"Hey…Hail. I will always be your sister. As long as you have me, as long as you have all of us, you are never going to be alone." Mal replied gently, hugging her tightly in response.
Hailey nodded slowly, wiping her eyes. "I'm sorry. This shouldn't be about me right now."
"Don't be silly. You just lost your parents and they were murdered by your only sibling. That type of trauma is hard-" But Mal's comforting words got cut off by a very loud thundering sound, which resonated around them even through they were in the underworld.
"What was that?" Jay asked the question on everyone's mind out aloud as they turned to look at each other worriedly. In their many years living on the Isle they had never heard such a loud noise, particularly because it rarely rained on the Isle so it was unlikely to be a simple thunderstorm.
Mal was the first to react as she freed herself from the group hug she was currently engulfed in and turned to look at Ben. "Let's go find out." she said slowly getting out of bed and testing her feet before shakily standing up.
"Easy." Ben cautioned, hurrying over and putting his arm around her to steady her. She waited a few precious seconds for her dizziness to subdue completely as she got used to being back in a standing position, after having been lying down in bed for so long. She then smiled to Ben signalling him to let her go.
"Hey Ben. Are you ever going to tell who Mal's dad is?" Carlos suddenly asked.
"Carlos. Take a look around you and try to take a wild guess." Mal pointed out sarcastically.
All the VKs' jaws dropped as realization finally hit them. "Your dad is-" Carlos managed to stutter dumbfoundedly.
"Yes my dad is a god. It is a long story. I'll tell you all about it later. Right now we have to go. With my Mother running around freely, any noise like that can only mean big trouble." Mal stated, as she and Ben led them to Hades' throne room.
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"Dad?" Mal asked, the word tasting strange in her mouth. It would still take her a while to fully digest and process the news that had been thrown at her so unexpectedly. Hades, the God of the Underworld, was her father. When she was little, and her mother used to get angry at her and lock her up in her room as punishment for not being evil enough, she would always dream that her father would come to 'save' her. Her mother always used to tell her that he was weak, powerless and pathetic but she didn't believe her. Knowing her, she could have easily been keeping him purposely away from her. But as she grew up and finally realized that he was never coming, she accepted that he did not love her, just like her mother. But at least her mother had wanted her, so then she promised herself to find a way for her mother to 'love' her someday so she turned all her efforts into trying to make her proud.
"Ah. I am assuming you all heard that too." Hades replied smoothly as the other four bowed quickly in respect.
"No. We just came because I wanted to talk." Mal muttered sarcastically. Taking a deep breath to calm herself she continued "Do you know what it was?"
"No. But I can find out." Hades said, waving his hand and a viewing orb appeared in the middle of the room, showing a large black cloud of smoke racing toward Auradon. Everyone in the room watched with a worried expression, which quickly turned into a horrified one, as they saw the people engulfed in the smoke instantly fall to the ground in a deep sleep.
Realization dawned on Mal as she cried out. "My mother cast another sleeping curse."
"No! Daniel!" Hailey screamed.
"Jane!"
"Doug!"
"Lonnie!" the whole group cried for their partner.
A confused expression suddenly appeared on Mal's face as she asked. "Whoa hold on. Why aren't we also asleep?"
"The anti-magic barrier around the Isle has protected you and everyone on the Isle from the curse."
"Ok. So what do we do now?!" Hailey cried. "How do we break the curse and stop Maleficent?"
Mal and Ben exchanged a worried expression as they realized they had no idea of what they could do to break a curse of that magnitude. They turned to face Hades as he cleared his throat.
"There may be a way but it will not be easy. The only way I know is to destroy Maleficent's sceptre as a spell of this scale could only have been fueled by it."
"And how do we do that?" Ben asked him as he subconsciously reached out to hold Mal's hand in his own.
"There is only one magical item powerful enough to do it, the sword of Excalibur." Hades revealed.
"So. We are going to Camelot." Evie said determinately, as they nodded to each other and turned to leave.
"Wait! The six of you cannot do this alone. Maleficent will be expecting you so I am sure she has organized herself." Hades warned.
"Why not? We have been handling our own business for our entire lives, relying solely on ourselves. Not that you would know anything about that." Mal replied with a hint of resentment in her voice.
Hades sighed before addressing his daughter. "Well. For starters only one of you has magic and I'm quite sure Ben doesn't want to go through the process of saving you again, especially if you exhaust yourself before going up against your mother Mal. I won't be able to intervene as I am not allowed to leave this cave as part of my deal with Zeus."
"And who says we need your help!" Mal spat. Ben squeezed Mal's hand in effort to calm her down.
"What about the powers you gave me?" Ben asked letting go of Mal's hand and pulling her close to him protectively.
"I'm afraid that those will have worn off by now. I was able to channel them through you before but since you have no godly or magical blood, they will have faded." he explained. "No. You guys need help. You are not going to like it but I know of a certain pirate crew who could do it." Hades tried to reason with her.
"No way! I am not working with Shrimpy! Not after what she did to Ben last time!" Mal yelled, clearly outraged at the her father's suggestion.
"And I am not having her psychopathic first mate, who has been after my girl for years, anywhere around her again!" Ben agreed.
"ENOUGH! This is more important that your little personal feuds. You will have to move past them if you want to save Auradon. You will be needing backup as Maleficent will be surely waiting for you. If you will lose, the kingdom will be lost for good. Is that what you want?" Hades challenged.
Mal sighed in defeat. "I'll talk to Uma."
"We will talk to her." Ben corrected her, giving her a gentle squeeze, which Mal returned with a little smile of her own.
"Good. Once she is convinced, use this to teleport yourself off the Isle." Hades explained handing her a pendent.
Mal took the magical object, giving one last long look at her father without saying anything and turned towards her friends to leave. As they are about to reach the door, Mal was stopped by her dad's voice.
"Mal! Wait! Can I talk to you before you leave..alone?" he asked in an almost pleading voice.
Mal let a sigh escape her lips as she turned to Ben. "Will you give us a minute and wait outside. I won't be long."
Ben's brows creased in concern "Are you sure?".
"Yes. Don't worry. I will be fine." she replied smiling reassuringly before giving him a quick kiss on the lips.
Hades watched the exchange between his daughter and Ben, in front of him, deep in thought. There was something in the way they looked and acted towards each other that had made Hades feel uncomfortable and somewhat confused. He just couldn't explain it. And that strange and unexplained feeling in the pit of his stomach had not left him for one second since his daughter had been here. Now was his chance to confront it. He had arrived at the conclusion that maybe explaining to her what had led to his decision to return to the underworld and her 'unwilling' role in it, would finally rid him of this feeling, whatever it was.
"So here I am. What do you want?" Mal asked as she shifted position uncomfortably.
"I wanted to explain what lead me to ask Zeus to return to the underworld-" He started to explain but was cut-off by Mal almost immediately.
"Look, Hades. I am grateful for all you have done for me. Whatever your reasons are, you decided to help Ben and I would not be here now if it wasn't for you. So thank you. But this is as far as it goes. I would not have even found out you were my father if any of this had not happened. Maybe it would have mattered to me to discover your existence when I was still little and innocent and used to dream that you would come save me from mom. But now I have grown up and accepted reality, that neither my father nor my mother ever loved me. At least my mother wanted me so I did my best to make her proud by trying to be the baddest of them all."
She paused to take a long breath before continuing "And I would have turned out just like her, if it wasn't for Ben. He saved me. I wouldn't even know that love existed if it wasn't for him. At first we were both scared as we felt this strange and unexpected connection between us. It brought about such new unexplainable feelings that we had never felt before in our life. Despite being scared, we found the courage to face them together. And in the most unexpected of places, the Isle, we realized we loved each other. I always wondered what it would be like to be part of a family but now I know. Ben and my friends have become my family. Ben has never left my side through it all, not even for one second, even when I was not sure I was capable of loving him back or when he had to face his personal hell. I don't know what I have done in my life to deserve his love but I thank my lucky stars every day. So quite frankly, whatever you have to tell me does not really matter anymore. As you yourself admitted, what mattered to you was getting your powers back. They were more important to you than anything else and besides, as you rightly said, what did you know about taking care of a child. Well it seems at the end, we all got what we wanted."
"But - " Hades tried to interrupt.
"Now I think we don't have anything more left to discuss. So if you will excuse me, I have to save Auradon. At last I have found happiness. I finally have a home and a family who loves me and I am not going to let anyone harm it or take it away from me. Finally, I have something really worth fighting for." And with that Mal turned around and left, without even giving a last glance at her father.
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As they approached Goblin's Wharf, Mal's thoughts were focused on the hard conversation she was going to have in a few moments with her 'arch enemy'. She thought back to the time where they were actually friends. It was a good time. And truthfully, she had gotten tired of this long-time feud with her, even if she would never openly admit it to her. And after all, Mal now had a new life in Auradon because Hailey had decided to give her a chance. And if there was something she had learnt so far from this experience was that everyone deserved a second chance, if they truly showed remorse for their actions.
"Well well well. Look who it is. Came back for a rematch, Beastie?" Harry asked cockily when he saw Mal, Ben and her group approach the anchored Lost Revenge.
"Oh. I'd be happy to kick your butt again, Hook." Ben snarled in response, unable to control himself.
"Ben. Now is not the time." Mal told him softly, pulling him back in an effort to calm him down.
"Where is Uma, Harry? We need a word with her." She demanded.
"Oh really? This should be interesting." Harry smirked before calling out. "Captain, you have visitors."
"Whoever it is, tell them to get lost Harry. I am not in the mo-" Uma snapped as she came up from below deck but stopped dead in her tracks when she realized who her visitors are. "What do you two want?".
"White flag of truce Uma. We are here to talk. Believe me, we don't want to be here as much as you do but we have something important to discuss. Aren't you curious to know what?" Mal tried to reason with her.
"Talk." she snapped back, undeniable curiosity in her voice.
"I presume you heard that loud sound of thunder a little while ago. Well, my mother has put all of Auradon under a sleeping curse and the only way to break it is to get Excalibur and destroy her sceptre." Mal explained.
"Oh really? And let me guess. You need my help to do it?" Uma asked.
"Well..yes. You and your crew." She answered.
"Give me one good reason why I should do that." Uma snapped.
"Because think about it. You were just used by Celia and her father in their scheme to take over Auradon. All my mother and Dr Facilier want, and care about, is to obtain more and more power for their personal advantage. They don't really care about the Isle and what happens to its people. They never did. But I know that you do. If you help us, Hailey is offering you a place in Auradon. You will have a real chance to make a difference to the Isle. Uma, I know that deep down that is all you really want. So please, let us put aside our personal feud once and for all. Aren't you tired of just being a pawn?" she asked.
Everyone looked nervously at Uma as she pondered Mal words carefully. "Okay fine. But I'm doing this for the kids that are still here, not for you." Uma replied firmly.
"Well, I wouldn't have expected you to do it for me anyway." Mal retorted extending her hand towards her. Uma shook it firmly after a little hesitation.
Mal took out the pendant given to her by her father and turned to face everyone. "Now brace yourselves. My mother will surely be expecting us." She held it firmly in her hands and they were all engulfed in a puff of blue smoke.
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Mal and the others cautiously walked along the long corridors of Camelot's Castle, swords in hand. Surprisingly, no one had attacked them as they entered the front door, but they kept their guard high, expecting an assault at any time. There was an eerie silence surrounding them as they walked, carefully circling around the people they met along the way who had fallen victim of the curse.
As Mal looked around her, she could only marvel at the beauty of this castle, despite their current dangerous situation. On one side, the long stone corridors were lined with beautiful large mosaic windows while the other side held a series of grand knight armors, all glistening as the light from the windows reflected on them. They arrived in front of a large set of imposing doors, with the imprinted Camelot Coat of Arms.
"This must be it." Mal stated as she slowly opened the door. She could only gasp in awe at the magnificent sight before her. The arch shaped ceiling of the throne room was completely made up of gorgeous mosaics and just under it, in the Auradon colours of blue and yellow, was a large inscription in Latin which said "Et Defendi Regnum cuum Fortidudinem et Hororem", translating to "Defend the Kingdom with strength and honor". A black metal chandelier hang from the ceiling and just under it was Excalibur, safely resting inside its stone case.
Just as they entered the room, there was a puff of green smoke in front of them. Once it cleared, it revealed Celia, Audrey and Chad, sword in hand.
"I am afraid we can't let you take Excalibur, Mal!" Audrey smirked with an evil grin.
"Look around you Audrey, you are outnumbered. You are only three, against all of us." Mal replied with a confident smirk.
"I would look behind you, my dear Mal." Celia taunted as she pulled out her amulet, which started glowing with a green light.
Mal and the rest turned around towards the door and came face to face with a number of glowing green eyed knights ready to attack.
"Spread out. We need to get Excalibur at all costs." Mal called out as she turned to battle Audrey.
"Be careful." Ben told her, before heading in Celia's direction.
"Ain't I always?" Mal smiled back at him, before charging towards Audrey.
The sound of swords crashing resonated in the throne room as no one was able to get the upper hand. Mal was being cautious about using her magic. She had to be at full strength, just in case her mother decided to attack. And to make things worst, Audrey proved to be a tougher adversary to beat than she originally anticipated.
"You see Mal. You are not the only one who can play the knight." Audrey taunted as she brought down her sword. However, before Mal could react, Audrey's sword was blocked by someone. Mal turned to face her savior, expecting him to be Ben but surprisingly found Harry.
"I'll hold her off. You get the sword." He yelled as his sword clashed with Audrey's pushing her back in the process.
Mal decided to use her magic to push back the knights guarding the glowing sword and stone. With her path finally clear, she reached out to take Excalibur out of the stone. Her heart beat loudly in her chest, and time seems to slow down, as she wondered whether the sword will consider her worthy enough. But to her relief, she was able to pull it out and quickly sheathed it in the scabbard at her hip.
The villains fell back momentarily as Audrey screamed in fury.
Not wasting time, Mal quickly turned to search for Ben and rushed over to embrace him, brushing past Harry on the way. Harry could only look in dismay, as he noticed the relief and love in Mal's eyes as she reaches Ben, laughing in delight as he spun her around in response. Something heavy settled in his heart as he watched them together, finally realizing that despite all the years he had been trying to get her attention, she had never looked at him in that way, not even for one second. Harry get it through your head. I. Don't. Want. You. was all he could hear in his head so at that moment he decided that is was time to let go of his desire towards Mal.
But the heroes celebration was suddenly cut short by the sudden darkening of the skies and a loud roar approaching the castle. Mal rushed to an open window but was not at all surprised by the sight that greeted her.
"Mother.."
Cliffhanger! The battle is not over! Time for Mal to go up against her Mother one last time. Will she be able to take her down? Find out next chapter. I know due to the new short Uma turning good is impossible but please keep in mind this plot was thought of BEFORE I knew about 'Under the Sea' so please don't get annoyed with me. I hope you guys liked this chapter. Review? Pretty please?