I'm back with another chapter! Who is ready to see the alliance? But first they'll have to go there and who knows what could happen on the way there... Anyway, first there'll be the responses to your reviews, and then you can read what Ben and Mal talk about as they go to the alliance. Here they are:

Decembra1998: Thanks for reviewing! Today, you will see where he is taking her. More information about the replacement process will be announced right before the finale. You will have to be patient to find out what is means.

anonimo: Well, here's the next update. Thanks for reviewing!

Kingson24601: Thanks for reviewing! We'll see what happens between them. I can say loyalties will shift a lot throughout the story. That would be funny, indeed, but Mal will certainly have to work to earn the trust of the resistance/alliance.

PurpleNicole531: Hadrian will show up once or twice, but not much more. He isn't that important to the story, anyway. Thanks for reviewing!

pinksakura271: Thanks for reviewing! Well, they were not going to treat him well. He doesn't get a special treatment. Maye she should have, but we'll see what she'll do when she meets him again. Off course she knows - God knows what would happen if she didn't. Ben was scared because, well, everyone is scared of what the villains are capable of. We'll see what Mal will do in the resistance.

TKDP: We'll see him once or twice later, so we'll see if he's got something up his sleeve. I don't know if he can convince her, but let's hope she won't. You There is indeed something you don't know (yet). You'll have to wait a little longer for it, but not too long, I promise. Thanks for reviewing!

blackkitty5133: Thanks for reviewing! Carlos is cool indeed. I don't really have a favorite, they're all amazing!

Enjoy!

-Writer207

They had walked in silence for a while now. Mal took in as much details of this walk as she possibly could, so she could later show her friends and mother the way to the resistance. She could just open the spell book and look for the spell that would place him under her control, but that would take a lot of time. Besides, he'd probably see her look for the spell. From time to time, he'd turn his head to her, as if to make sure she was still following him. She had to do it the hard way and now realized she'd better have looked for the spell during the preparation.

"So," Mal began, trying to get the resistance guy to talk to her, "am I allowed to know your name or is that classified?" he didn't immediately respond, but he did answer her question.

"I don't know if I should trust you with it," he said. Well, at least she tried to figure out who he was and why he was so important. She was certain that, if she continued to play her part, she would eventually figure out who he truly is.

"I assume you don't know who I am," he then said. Mal nodded.

"No, I have no idea," she responded. She didn't add that she knew he was important to the resistance. He turned his head, maybe to deduce whether she was lying or not.

"I'm Ben," he eventually said. He looked in front of him again, trying to find the right way to the resistance. Mal nodded. Ben… she had to remember the name. It was easier to identify resistance members by their face because that was harder to change than their names, but she wanted to remember it anyway. It was the only name he'd give her – for all she knew, he could have a completely different name.

"It's a nice name," she commented, feeling a little disgusted by herself. Nice name? Good going. Try not to be too suspicious. She felt like saying something, though she might stop doing that because it gave her an uneasy feeling.

"Thanks," he said, not sure what to say next. Eventually, the next topic became quite clear. There were some things he needed to know. "If you're not evil right now…" he paused, trying to find the best way to continue, "How did you become a good person? Were you a good person before? Did you pretend to be evil?" He found no other solution than to just ask the three connected questions which were on his mind.

"It's a long story," Mal said, trying to remember what story they had come up with. When she remembered, she started telling her so-called backstory. "As a young girl, I was not the perfect daughter. My mother wanted me to act like her, so I did. I was a kid; I didn't know any better. I must've been nine or ten when my mother made me watch an execution. I was looking forward to it, because she was talking about it as if it was a good thing. But off course, good is bad for a villain and… anyway, I saw an older man getting beaten. I…" She took a deep breath as part of her act and then continued. "I asked her to stop beating the man. I knew it was so wrong. I wanted it to stop. As far as I knew, he hadn't done anything wrong. Mother responded with killing the man herself and dragging me to my room, making clear that this is what I should enjoy. She said a lot more, but I can remember the angry look in her eyes when she scowled me."

"So you pretended to be evil and waited for a chance to break free from her?" Ben guessed. They passed a small creek – the water didn't go any further than their ankles. There was a risk of falling into the water nonetheless. Ben couldn't see it because he was to focused on watching his steps, but Mal shook her head.

"Not exactly," she responded, "My mother is good friends with the Evil Queen, who is good at making potions. She asked the Evil Queen to make me a potion which would make me evil. She did, but the effects only last for a week. During my meal on the evening the man died, she did some of it in my drink. That was the point when I became evil, even if I didn't want to. I continued to drink the potion because when I was evil and when I heard I had to drink it at least once a week to stay evil, I did. The evil me wouldn't want to become a good person. Luckily, I've been taking it for so long that I could convince myself to wait 'one more day' with drinking it, making sure I would not. The result is running away and saving you." There was a long silence. Mal wondered if he knew it was a ruse, started to think he knew this was a fake story because of the lack of reaction. Eventually, he did say something, turning his head to her again.

"Wow," he said, "I never looked at it that way. That villains' kids can be forced into villainy like that," he quickly added to avoid confusion. Mal nodded. He believes it! she thought, how stupid can he be?

"Well, it happened to me," Mal responded. "I have no idea if others have to do it, but I am certain my friends aren't forced at all – if I can still call them my friends." She remained silent, waiting for another response. She guessed Ben had no idea how to react to that and instead opted to remain silent, too. The rest of the trip was spent in silence, sometimes broken by some guesses when they heard something suspicious. At least an hour must have passed when Ben stopped.

"Why did we stop?" Mal wondered, looking around, "Are we there?" She didn't understand how they could hide out here – the plants on the grounds were still dense, but she noticed people have walked here before. They were standing on a low pile of dirt where no plants grew. Other than that, she saw nothing special about this particular spot in the forest.

Ben turned around to face Mal. He held a small vial in his hands, filled with some transparent liquid. He looked at her. He wanted to say something, but Mal was faster.

"What's in the vial?" she wondered out loud. This time, she allowed Ben to talk.

"I can't take you and further than this," he explained, "Nobody is allowed to know exactly where the alliance is located, except the trusted members who would never betray us out of free will. So whenever we bring a visitor, we offer this to them," he handed the vial to Mal, "One sip is more than enough. Once you drank it, you give the vial back to me. Within a minute, you will slowly fall asleep. It will only last for two hours, more than enough time to bring you inside the alliance. There, we will decide what is going to happen to you. Some elders will have to allow you to continue your way in. If not, you will be brought back to this spot and then you'll be on your own."

Mal looked up from the vial to Ben as he explained the current situation and found herself annoyed with the situation. She had hoped it was easier to get into the resistance – and to actually get to learn where the front door is – but if this is the way it has to be, then what is there to lose? If she doesn't succeed to get into the resistance, she would be back here. She'd learn the spell to put someone under her command and enchant a member, who could bring her into the resistance. Either way, she had to give this a try. What else could she do? She couldn't just refuse to take it in, so she took the lid of the vial and took a sip. She almost spit it out when she had – the terrible taste only allowed people to take one sip or else they'd risk throwing up. At least she had drunk that one bit. She gave it back to Ben before she could drop it. He took it, placed the lid back on the vial and put it away again, waiting for the effects of the liquid to kick in.

Some time passed without anything exciting happening. Mal was about to say something about it, but couldn't. She was growing tired, getting dizzy, unable to stand on her legs. She almost stumbled, but found support with Ben. He held her arms so she wouldn't immediately fall down. He helped her into a sitting position and he himself went to sit on his knees. She couldn't hold this position for too long, though, as she soon grew too tired to sit and had to lay down. She looked up into the clear blue sky and the tops of the trees. She did not value this sight and instead, she wondered if she could figure out a way to get her hands on the potion – it could always be helpful in some situations. That was her last thought before she closed her eyes and allowed herself to go to sleep, knowing she'd wake up at the resistance base two hours later.

She did wake up two hours later – just not at the place she'd expected. Once she was wide awake, she quickly took in her surroundings. She was trapped in a badly illuminated room with no windows and one door with a small window at eye-height. That window was her only light source. At the other side of the door, there were voices discussing things. At least seven different voices waited for their own turn to speak, even if two came back a lot more than the others.

Mal could've been able to see them discuss if they hadn't tied her to the chair that stood in the middle of that room. Her arms were tied with a narrow piece of rope to the armrests, her legs were tied to the legs of the chair. She didn't know any spell which could potentially free her – she's never had to use a spell like this before. She struggled for a while, trying to free herself, but eventually realized she couldn't get out of the chair and out of the room unless one of the people outside freed her. She stopped struggling and instead opted to listen to the conversation the people outside were holding.

"... and I won't allow it!" A clear, male voice said. Mal didn't recognize it. He sounded angry.

"I know, this is only the seventh time you said it," a second voice said. Mal recognized this voice – it was Ben. The first speaker confirmed her suspicion when he spoke again.

"Use your brain, Ben! We're talking 'bout a villainess - Maleficent's daughter, no less! Don't you remember how many people she's killed? We all lost at least one family member to her. You too, if I remember correctly. Why do you keep protecting her?" That's when Mal realized they were talking about her. She remembered Ben said they were going to discuss whether she was allowed to stay with them or not. now she knew Ben defended her and the mystery guy did not. She guessed it was him who had the idea of tying her to a chair.

"She is different," Ben said.

"She's not," the first speaker declared. His feigned calm voice betrayed his true emotions – Mal recognized the tone from the many times she threatened someone.

"She can be trusted," Ben said in his defense, not using the same tone the first speaker used. Mal wondered if Ben tried not to sound like him or not.

"How do you know that?" the first speaker said, "For all we know, she put a spell on you that made you trust her." I almost did, Mal said, but didn't say it out loud. It would be dumb to say it like that, when all those people could hear her.

"She didn't put a spell on me. I would've known," Ben sounded convinced of his case and Mal nodded. He was right, only because if she had, she would've blown her cover. And as much as she hated to pretend being evil, she still had to play her part.

"You would?" the first speaker said with a tone Mal liked to use, "Philip applied his protection on you, like, four days ago. It should have worn off by now. You should be we took away that spell book of hers. Believe me, there's no reason to trust her. She is dangerous and needs to leave before Maleficent shows up and kills us all!" Only when he mentioned her spell book, Mal started to look around for the bag she had prepared. It was nowhere to be seen. She started to panic. No bag meant no food, no water and no spell book. She eventually calmed herself down, telling herself they might be guarding the book, hoping Ben thought she stole it from her mother as a preparation for this trip.

"That's enough!" A third voice, a female voice, interfered before Ben and the first speaker could continue their argument. "There's no need to fight. Yes, she can be dangerous. Yes, there's a chance she can be trusted. Only time will tell. At least, if she stays, someone can be her guide."

"If someone wants to," the first speaker said.

"Stop it! This has been going on for far too long. Now apologize." She sounded mad. For a second, everyone remained silent. Mal suspected the two boys were afraid of her. Then, Ben started to talk.

"I'm sorry," he said, "I shouldn't have immediately contradicted you. Everyone has the right to speak their mind, and so do you." Ben didn't have to wait too long for an answer.

"I'm not," the first speaker said.

"Chad…" the girl said, trying to sound threatening.

"I am not," the first speaker – whose name is apparently Chad – repeated, emphasizing each word. Mal now wished she was able to see the argument play out in front of her. Now that would have been interesting to watch instead of only being able to hear what they were saying.

"Guys!" a fourth voice interfered. Everyone, even Mal, froze. They remained silent and waited for him to talk again. he must be older than the others, Mal guessed. At least, his voice sounded like it belonged to a middle-aged man and not a teenager. "Stop talking or you will be excluded from the voting. Now, let's start. Who votes in favor of sending her out of the forest?" Nobody said a word. Mal would've liked to hear the result, but apparently they didn't vote that way. She could at least guess that Chad was voting now.

"Who is in favor of accepting her in our ranks with strict conditions?" Again there was no sound, just as with the third question. "Who is in favor of accepting her without conditions?" Only after that last question, people started to talk again. Everyone expressed their feelings about the result with one clear 'you've got to be kidding me!' from Chad and some other reactions.

"Then it is decided," the man said, "You can all go now." Footsteps could be heard, walking left and right, eventually disappearing. After what seemed like ages, two people came back and they put the key in the keyhole. Not much later, the door opened and light flowed into the room.

When her eyes had adjusted to the light, she saw two people had walked in. One of them was Ben – it was nice to see a familiar face – and the other one was an Asian girl. There wasn't anything special about her, except that the sword, hidden in the sheath she carried, probably was very sharp.

"We decided you can stay under strict conditions," Ben declared and then looked at the Asian girl, "This is Lonnie. She will look for someone to guide you during the first month." Lonnie nodded and she took her sword. As expected, it looked really sharp. Mal stared at it in awe. She knew the resistance was quite resistant, though she didn't know they allowed girls to wield swords or any kind of weapon. Luckily, Lonnie only used it to cut the ropes. Mal rubbed her wrists and once the ropes at her legs were removed, she stood up.

Ben spoke up again. "As the leader of the alliance, I have the, er, honor of welcoming you in the alliance." Lonnie nodded as she put her sword away. Mal looked at Ben. So that was why he was so important – he was the leader of the resistance! Another question then rose. He's just a boy, why is he the leader? Why isn't that older guy the leader?

"C'mon," Lonnie said, trying her hardest to sound friendly," let's go find you a guide."