Chapter 11 – Epilogue

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Chad struggled towards awareness slowly, which was kind of weird because he'd always been an early riser, ready to greet the morning and all that jazz. He didn't usually struggle unless he was sick, but that hadn't happened in a while.

Guessed he was due, then.

He mustered the effort to open his eyes and found himself in the Auradon Castle Private Medical Facility, which was strange, but also there was an Agraben dude wrapped around his legs who wasn't Aziz, which was also strange.

Oh, Jay. That was- that was Jay.

"Chad?" That was Ben's scraggly voice coming from the chair beside his bed. Ben sitting next to a girl his mind supplied as Mal, who looked irritated but relieved which was strong but still a subdued reaction compared to Ben's total and consuming joy (and also relief). "Are you- how do you feel?"

"Tired," Chad admitted honestly, holding an arm out to his super snuggle buddy. "Get in here, champ."

For a moment Ben just stared at him, like maybe this could be a trap, and Chad wondered why that was until a flash of frankly horrific memories echoed through his brain and yikes – but after a few moments Ben decided to make the most of things and fell into Chad's side with a quiet sob.

"I'm sorry," Ben croaked. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I did it all wrong."

"No, you did the best you could," Chad soothed, nuzzling his messy hair. "It's what you always do. You just… you weren't prepared for what I had in store." Chad thought about this. "Honestly, I don't think any of us were."

While Ben cried into his shoulder Jay seemed to stir awake, blinking up at Chad with a confused expression before he sort of just flopped against Chad's stomach. "Are we taking pity on Ben now?"

"Sort of," Chad allowed, running a hand over Jay's head because he knew the other teen liked it. "It's complicated."

Now that he was more awake, Chad was assaulted with a generous deluge of memories – months and months of work and experiences settling into his brain with a wince.

"You'd better make him grovel," Mal ordered with a sniff. "After he made you cry like that."

"I… yes, I do think some groveling's in order," Chad decided with a thoughtful tilt of his head before he turned onto Ben – the brunette, his long-time friend and unquestionable supporter, who didn't always understand Chad but had always been a thousand percent behind his ideas – looking up at him with an expression that was equal parts guilt and sorrow. "I know I've had a rather drastic shift in personality for these past few months, but a lot of what you did was not okay, Ben."

In hindsight, Chad was surprised Audrey hadn't held Ben back the way she normally did – but as competent as she was, she was only human. She'd likely been just as confused and overwhelmed and retreated in on herself the way she tended to when things got to be too much.

Aside from that, there was very little that could reign Ben in when his beast decided to act up.

"I know," Ben groaned, tears spilling down his cheeks. "I got- my beast-"

"I know," Chad said. "But you need to learn how to control it better. I realize that this probably caught you off guard, that this triggered your beast and sent you spiraling into anger – but that's an explanation, not an excuse." He continued to pet steady patterns against Ben's scalp – feeling the joy of who he was mix and settle with the intelligent introspection of the other Chad. "You yelled at me – in public – many times. You undermined my plans and doubted me worse than those gossipers did and it was worse-" Chad said when Ben looked up at him with wide eyes, likely never considering the fact that he could in any way compare to the set of malicious royals that had sent Chad nosediving into depression all those months ago. "Was that all that came from someone who was supposed to be my friend. Yes, I was aggressive towards you – your reactions were valid considering all I did – but two wrongs don't make a right."

"They don't," Ben agreed, a weariness permeating his tone that Chad could scarcely articulate. "You're right."

"You need therapy," Chad said. "You and Audrey both."

Audrey, who Chad thought the world of, was likely struggling under the load of being the heir to two kingdoms. She was young – they all were. They deserved to enjoy their youth the way the other Chad hadn't.

"I can't really trust you right now," Chad continued, which hurt him to say but it was true – Ben had been awful to the other Chad, bitter and grieving the loss of his friend. "You'll have to work to earn that back again. You have to trust me and my intellect and my decisions – support me and help me instead of being full of doubt, instead of acting like you know better."

"…especially when I clearly, clearly don't," Ben sniffed, wiping at his cheeks. "Yes, I can- I can do those things. I can work my way up to being someone you can trust again, and I um- I understand that will take time."

"A lot of time," Chad said, giving Jay's hand a careful squeeze.

He knew him but he didn't know him, but it was all settling, and the fondness – oh, was it pure; oh, did Chad know just how sweet and caring and kind Jay was.

He owed a lot of thanks to the other Chad, but it was his turn to pick up the burden now, to take responsibility for his own life.

"Now," Chad began, giving the top of Ben's head a few pats. "Could you get a doctor? And the others? I um- have a lot of explaining to do."

"About how you saved me?" Jay asked, one arm firmly curled around Chad's waist like he was afraid the prince would disappear if he risked letting go.

"Among other things."

"You said you were dying," Jay murmured, his voice barely audible.

"I was, kind of," Chad explained. "It's complicated, but I promise I'll explain things when everyone's here."

"Then let's make it happen, king mysterious," Mal huffed, leaving with a roll of her eyes that covered how shaky she felt even now that Chad was supposedly fine.

The next thirty minutes were a bit of a whirlwind with Chad getting cleared by the doctor, having a minor argument with said doctor about how Ben and Jay weren't going to leave, getting fussed over by his parents until finally everyone was in one room – his friends and family and the transfer students that he was also dating.

"Okay, so, you guys don't know this," Chad began, aiming this at Mal. "But over the summer I went through a bit of a personality shift."

"We had some idea," Evie offered from her seat beside Mal, Carlos firmly cuddled in her lap. "They seem to expect you to be sweeter, or something."

"Right," Chad said. "That's because I am. Or, I was. See, we all know about those awful videos that got released over the summer." More than one person looked horrifically guilty, and Chad knew it was only going to get worse when he continued his explanation. "They sort of sent me to a bad place and there is just the slightest chance that I enacted an ancient Fae ritual in an attempt to get smarter." He held up a silencing hand towards Aziz when the Agraben prince looked close to celebrating then and there. "Except it didn't work exactly the way I thought it would, because instead of making me smarter, it just brought a version of myself from an alternate dimension into my body who was already smart. Like, it was my body, but his soul, I guess." Before they could start babbling on top of each other, because they would, Chad continued, "It seemed that while he was present, my own soul was just sort of… hibernating, I guess? He thought I was dead, but he also couldn't sense me. He didn't use magic as much. As you can tell, he was more of a politics guy." He looked down at Jay, who was still curled around his legs. "When he saved you, he knew he was sacrificing his life force – or at least, the force that connected him to my body."

"So he's… he's dead?" Jay asked, his eyes shining with restrained tears.

"No," Chad said, furrowing his brows in thought. "He's not dead, he just went home. Don't ask me how I know this, just- I know he's okay, but um- now I'm me again. And…" He looked over to Ben. "I still have his memories of everything that happened while he was here, of why he did what he did, and I think I retained his skills too. So really, it's like I still have a bit of him with me."

"But you're not sarcastic or bitter," Mal said. "You're what they've been wanting this whole time."

"If you're asking if I still like you guys, I very much do," Chad offered. "His affection for you, his genuine admiration and respect – I still feel that. I have all of his understandings of you, though I know I'm not the guy you set out to date."

"I don't understand," Ben finally spoke up. "If it was an alternate version of you, why…"

"Why was he so mean to you?" Chad offered. "He didn't really have friends. He didn't have a family either. In fact, I think he was mostly abused and had built himself from the ground up to be a driving force for Sardinia because it was the only thing that gave him purpose. It was why he didn't have any issues yelling at you, because striving for your friendship in his world had only ever brought him heartache."

"That's awful," Jane said, sounding genuinely heartbroken.

"It is," Chad agreed, hanging his head slightly. "You know he pitied me? He thought that a lot and that was just over me having a normal childhood."

"Can we help him?" Jane asked. "Is there a way?"

"Oh." Chad blinked. "No. But we don't need to, anyway. Don't ask me how I know, but he's okay."

"That's all well and good," his mom said, speaking up for the first time. "But would you like to explain how you thought dabbling in ancient magic was the go-to solution for your problems?"

Suffice it to say Chad got grounded, by more than just his parents.

Jane and Mal worked together to create a set of magic restriction bracelets so he wouldn't be able to cast high-level spells on his own. Aziz confiscated the spell book Chad had found in that ancient library with him. Chad had to finish out his school year not doing any fun sports because Smart Chad was the epitome of a buzzkill who took Latin and even though Chad now understood Latin and retained the other Chad's smarts, he was still annoyed by how much work he had to do.

On the bright side, he did come out of things with four new partners, and they were still all pretty cool.

"Ugh," Mal would groan, squishing his cheeks before shoving him into Jay's lap. "The two of you are disgustingly sweet."

"Thanks, Mal!" Chad would chirp and then Jay would flush and then they'd get to make out for a bit.

One of the biggest adjustments (for the transfer students) was the return of Ben and Audrey to Chad's life – the two people who had always meant the most to him in the whole world.

"Chad, you asshole," Audrey muttered, her arms folded awkwardly across her chest in a defensive stance. "Ben's first edict was so the three of us could get married."

"Yeah, see – I knew that," Chad said. "But Smart Chad did not know that, and he was really mad about you not taking care of Mal and the others when Ben proposed to Mal in his dimension."

"Who proposed to me?" Mal squawked, and then they spent the following ten minutes deciding that if anyone was going to propose to Mal it would be Evie, obviously, Ben couldn't handle Mal full time, which was met with unanimous agreement.

"I guess it doesn't really matter what happened in that other world," Chad said as he coaxed his boos into a cuddle pile, and Ben and Audrey were there too, slowly but surely working to build up all they had broken down.

Chad knew a lot of it happened because they cared about him – but they'd gone about it the wrong way. That left damage, and he wasn't going to pretend it didn't happen.

Luckily, they weren't either, but Chad wasn't surprised.

There were no two people less afraid of hard work than Ben and Audrey.

"Not our world, not our problem," Mal declared. "And I guess this sort of worked out. Audrey's sassy enough to make up for other you's loss."

"And you're sure he's okay?" Carlos asked, cuddling closer to Chad's side.

"Oh yeah," Chad confirmed, running a hand through Carlos' curls for no other reason than he could. "Trust me when I say that guy has got more happiness than he knows to do with."

"Good," Mal sniffed. "Because he deserves it, the cranky bitch."

And if that didn't sum things up, Chad didn't know what did.

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Endnotes:

I did actually begin the last scene and the epilogue with the same line on purpose – though I did it such a long time ago that upon re-reading it I did confuse myself for a solid thirty seconds, trying to determine if I was really just that repetitive, lol.

I hope this was a satisfying ending! I genuinely didn't think this story would blow up as much as it has (at least in terms of response). There's some things I might have done differently when I consider that, but overall, I'm very pleased with Chad's-continued-adventures-in-accidentally-changing-the-world-with-a-universe-altering-wish. Which is just a genre I specialize in now, I guess.

I will say this – this is the last of the completed Chad-centric fics I currently have in my backlog. I have about three more stories, and while Chad is definitely a key player in most of them (because it's me), they aren't from his point of view. When I first started writing for Chad, I didn't really expect to get much of a reception for it (because let's face it, the dude in canon's a vapid dick with the depth of a sidewalk puddle – there wasn't a lot to him). The support and love this character has received over the years has truly been a humbling thing, and it really makes my day whenever anyone says that Chad's one of their favorites now, that they look forward to stories that feature him – because while I am by no means the Chad revolutionist, I like to think that I was at least a contributor.

This is not the end, of course! I still have three more completed Descendants fics, and after that I have a handful of very long, but unfortunately incomplete stories that I think are substantial enough to share. I was going to post them as is with notes to fill in the blanks, so to speak, and if anyone was interested in adopting and finishing them – they'd be more than welcome to do so. My sandbox is your sandbox – play around in it and have fun, that's what it's there for :)

Thanks again for all the support y'all have given me over the years! It has truly – from the depths of my heart – been a gift.

Until next time :)

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"You've never read a book like this, but fairy tales should really be updated. It's a big, bright beautiful world – I see it now, I'll let it in. I'll tear down a wall, and clear a spot for two. To be with you." – 'Big Bright Beautiful World Reprise' from Shrek the Musical.