A/N: I do not own Disney's Descendants.

When Mal woke a dark cloud had settled over most of Auradon. Groaning she sat up and held her hand to her head.

"Good you're awake." She heard a voice say as a figure crouched in front of her. It took her a moment to realize who it was.

"Ben!" she cried, throwing herself into his arms. "I am so sorry I couldn't stop her. I tried so hard she was just too strong." Mal sobbed. Ben wrapped his arms around her and held her as she cried gently rocking her back and forth as he rubbed her back and whispered soothing words in an attempt to calm her. When Mal had cried herself out, she simply sat there for a few minutes relishing in the comfort of Ben's arms. It was then she realized that they were alone.

"Ben? Where are we? Where is everybody else?" she asked him. Ben pulled away from her slightly and gently took her hand rubbing gentle circles with his thumb. He heaved a deep sigh and began to speak.

"We are in a cave just south of Auradon Prep. As for everyone else I am not entirely sure, I know that your mother took most of the royal's captive as well as fairy godmother. I do not know what she did with your friends or the students from Auradon Prep. When she broke the freeze spell over a few of us I ran to you and grabbed you from Evie and ran us here. But I promise we will find our friends before Maleficent can hurt them. All I could think about when I was thawed was getting you to safety." He looked away from her at that, scared to see the look on her face when she realized that he abandoned her friends to her mother's wrath. Mal took a moment to absorb the information. She then gently turned Ben's face towards hers.

"Ben, look at me." He brought his eyes up to meet hers. "I don't blame you for your actions. To be honest I probably would have done the same thing. We will find our friends and we will take back the kingdom from Maleficent. I'm just so glad that you aren't mad at me for not being able to stop her. I was so afraid you would be." She took his hand in one of hers and held onto it. Ben smiled at her and brought his other hand up to her face and cupped her cheek. She leaned into his touch, smiling softly.

"Mal, I could never be mad at you, or at least I could never stay mad at you. I may have been frozen in place but I could see and hear everything going on around me. I know you tried and I couldn't be more proud of you for standing up to your mother." He kissed her forehead gently and wrapped his arms around her. They stayed like that for a while, grateful to be with each other. Dawn was upon them when they next spoke. "Mal, we need to make a plan on how we are going to take back Auradon and how we are going to get our friends back."

"I suggest that we find Evie first, she'll have her magic mirror with her and that will make it easier to find everyone else. I think we should make sure to find Jay, Carlos, Doug, Lonnie, Jane, Chad, and Audrey. I know the latter aren't necessarily happy with me right now but I think they will be willing to help in the circumstances, considering it is their home too." Ben nodded at her words.

"That makes sense although maybe in order to help some of the AK's trust you again, although I think Doug trusts Evie at the very least so I wouldn't worry about him, I'd try to balance out them and the Isle kids." Ben suggested. Mal agreed with him and they started working on the best way to locate Evie. In the end, it was decided that Mal would spell them so that only Evie could see who they truly were. They would then head back towards Auradon and see if they ended up meeting her along the way or if they would have to do some more investigating along the way. It was a long walk, about half a day so they gathered some fruit from nearby trees and some water from a nearby river. They then began the long journey back to the center of Auradon. As they walked they tried to learn more about each other now that Ben wasn't under a love spell. She learned that his favorite color was blue, that Mrs. Potts had taught him how to cook when he was a child, as well as that he wasn't sure if he was ready to be king, and that he was never really in love with Audrey he was only with her because of their statuses. In turn she told him that when she was little her mom had banished Evie and her mom because she hadn't been invited to a birthday party of Evie's, that Carlos had once managed to get some of the Auradon channels on the Isle television set, and that her and her mother shared a mind connection and that was how she was persuaded to come to Auradon in the first place as well as how her mother had managed to overpower her.

"Ben? Did you notice how when Jane grabbed Fairy Godmother's wand that it was sparking and out of control but when I grabbed it there were soft sparks and it was unmoving in my hand? What do you think that means?" Mal thought out loud as they were walking.

"Hmm. I'm not sure. You would have to ask Fairy Godmother about that but it could mean that you are meant to inherit the wand from Fairy Godmother." Mal nodded thoughtfully and then abruptly stopped. Ben had to backpedal in order to avoid running into her.

"Ben, I just thought of something? What if my mom put our friends and the other royals on the Isle of the Lost?"

A/N: There is a poll on my profile. Should I have any of the royals/AK's on the Isle or should they all be somewhere in Auradon?