Hey, guys! I'm back with this new chapter - I guess you've been waiting for this one, right? The one where Mal, Ben and some others go to visit the Fairy Godmother. The one where Mal makes her final decision: good or evil? Either way, this chapter will definitely go out with a bang. Anyway, here are my responses to the reviews and then, there's the anticipated meeting:
PurpleNicole531: Thanks for reviewing! That means I succeeded. He doesn't always have to be a bad guy by default. We'll get back to that later. And yes, they definitely are terrifying. I'd love to go to Neverland, too! I thought that if they could have a second base anywhere in Auradon, it'd be there (It was there or Olympus). Ben sure can handle the responsibilities. He's proven himself already. But he has every right to be nervous, with Maleficent hunting them down. And this is the part where she shows up. I'm sure you'll like it.
Kingson24601: Every story needs a bit of drama. Yeah, they really came close. Either she was desperate or she discovered where they live. If Chad told Evie, he might have also told Maleficent out of fear for what she may do. Or she could've had someone spy on that conversation. Who knows? Thanks for reviewing!
Enjoy!
-Writer207
The next morning, at the crack of dawn, Ben and his companions left Neverland to go to the Fairy Godmother. While he was away, Philip would watch over the alliance and when Ben returned, he officially was the leader. He'd transport them there and back again, but that was it. After all, he was the one who would tell the alliance what those beasts are. He'd also be able to watch over Chad.
Of course, Ben wasn't going alone. His parents were coming with him. Mal went there as well – Ben wanted her to be there, probably just in case things go wrong or if Maleficent showed up. She did have to wear a hood. The company was complete when Henry joined them. He volunteered to go with them as a guard and refused to stay behind. He couldn't be bothered by the fact that he'd just overcome his fiancée's poison.
Philip gave Ben a small phone – "Call me as soon as you need to get back." – before casting the transportation spell. Mal was slowly getting used to this kind of transport, but still hated it that it left them always gasping for air upon arrival. They had arrived in a forest, which was not too dense to walk through. She recovered quickly, like Beast's family, but Henry still coughed when they were ready to go.
"Are you okay?" Mal asked him, hesitantly placing her hand on his shoulder. He nodded and with a move from his shoulder he pushed Mal's hand off of him.
"I'm fine." Henry said. He didn't look at Mal.
"Are you sure about coming with us?" Mal then asked.
"I'm fine, okay?" Henry said, sounding slightly irritated, and then started to walk away from the group. The others followed him. At least he'd stormed off in the direction of where the Fairy Godmother lived. No matter how fast they walked, Henry always stayed at least five yards in front of them. They guessed he was doing it as their guard, but something was wrong. Mal could feel it. After spending one month with him watching her every move, she got to know him better. Something was definitely bothering him.
"Do you know what's going on?" Ben asked her. He looked at her, but after the question was asked, he looked at Henry.
"No," Mal admitted, shaking her head. "The last time I saw him, he was in the infirmary. I had to go because Doug had to tell him something."
"Then he received bad news," Ben said and Mal nodded in agreement. Whatever that news was, Henry did not like it. Yesterday, Mal approached him several times to talk to him. He always avoided having to talk to her, either by walking away or telling her he didn't have the time. Today, he was doing the same.
They walked for ten minutes in silence. They all thought about the same woman and the magical item she was guarding. Mal wondered how much further they'd have to walk when they arrived at the edge of the forest. Not much later the group of five stood in the sunlight and watched the scenery in front of them.
They watched over the village where the Fairy Godmother had been hiding, just one mile away from the edge of this forest. It was a small village with one main street in the middle, ending in a village square at the other side. There were several smaller streets connected to the main street and one another. It was a grim sight, with all those locks on the door and the planks and nails ready to be applied to the windows. The streets were deserted today, which didn't happen a lot.
But Mal didn't pay much attention to the village. No, she looked at the castle in the background. It was a dark, scary castle, but it hadn't always been like that. She knew that it had once belonged to Philip and Aurora. It was a sight she hadn't thought of since she first left. And with the goal of coming here, the castle looked rather threatening. After all, Maleficent could be at home.
"Are you okay?" Belle asked her eventually, snapping her out of her thoughts. She and her companions had stopped walking. They were waiting for Mal to follow them. Mal nodded in response.
"Yes, it's just… I'm home," she said, dumbfounded. She thought about Jay and Evie and Carlos, about the efforts they were making to find the wand. How far had Jay travelled? How much boys did Evie have to enchant? How many systems had Carlos already used to find it? How would they react when they knew the item they were looking for was right under their noses all along?
"Why?" she then eventually asked them. She wasn't hoping for an answer, but she just needed to ask. "Why here? she could've hidden anywhere in Auradon. So why here?"
"This is one of the safest places to be," Beast told her, and he turned his head to the village. "When people try to kill others, they run away. As far as possible. It's an instinct – going as far away as possible from the danger. Villains understand that and look far away from where they live. They never consider looking close to home. Why would they? Their prey would be running from them, not towards them."
"So the closer they are, the safer they are?" Mal said.
"Of course," Ben told her. "She stayed here longer than any other village where she lived. She has never been safer." Mal nodded and then the group continued walking in silence.
During the walk, they mostly looked around. Mal, on the other hand, didn't just watch, she recalled childhood memories. Her fondest memories included Evie, Jay and Carlos running around the streets and fields, scaring people, being evil and having fun together. She could pinpoint the exact location where they would always wait for Jay to return from his journeys. She remembered how proud Carlos had been, holding up the first dog he'd killed. She could still see some local boys swooning when Evie walked past them. Even when she was evil, they still had fun together and shared some great memories. And now, they were on opposite sides of the law.
Eventually, they stopped at one of the houses in the south of the village, in one of the smaller streets. It was nothing special, as it looked like all other houses they've passed. But this one seemed to be in a better state than most. Beast knocked three times on the door, paused, and then two more. They didn't have to wait long before the door opened.
Mal recognized the face. She had seen the Fairy Godmother's face so many times, but never knew who she truly was and what she was capable of. She only ever knew her as an elderly lady in blue, and never thought of her as special.
"It is time, isn't it?" she asked the group, and everyone nodded. Then, her eyes fell upon Mal's purple hair and her eyes widened. "What is she doing here?"
"She is with us," Ben said, "she was accepted into the alliance three weeks ago after a month of being guided. She is on our side." The Fairy Godmother stared at her for a while, until she showed her a small smile.
"Welcome, then. Come inside, before they spot you." She then let everyone enter into her house. First, Ben and his family stepped inside and then Mal. But Henry didn't follow behind her. Mal turned around and looked at Henry, who was looking at something to his right.
"Are you coming in?" Mal asked him, but Henry shook his head, turning it to her.
"I'm staying outside," he said.
"But…" Mal protested, but Henry didn't let her finish.
"There's nobody out here," Henry said, finally making eye contact with her. He looked sad, but nothing else indicated he was actually sad. "There has got to be a reason for that. Don't tell me it's always this deserted here." She sighed. Normally, there were at least some people in the street. And with this kind of weather, there surely should be some kids playing with the parents watching them. If she remembered correctly, today is the market day of the village. But there were as much booths as people in the streets at this hour.
"I'm going to investigate," Henry said, "Don't worry, I'll be fine." He then turned around and walked around the corner, disappearing from sight. She decided to let him do what he wanted to do and went inside. She closed the door behind her.
Mal opened another door and ended up in the living room, where the others were sitting on the old couch. During her absence, the Fairy Godmother had taken the time to take her magic wand.
"You can stay with us until you've found another home," Beast told her. She thanked him for this opportunity, but it didn't necessarily mean she accepted it. She then looked at Ben, who looked rather nervous. And he wasn't the only one. Everyone in the room was nervous for what they were going to do.
"So you really want to do this?" the Fairy Godmother asked him.
"Yes," Ben said, trying to sound more confident than he felt.
"I can't protect you very long from Maleficent. More likely, not at all," she continued, "You will have to be very fast to get out of here."
Ben nodded. "We have to do this," he said. A protective spell would be cast over him, so magic (specifically dark magic) wouldn't hurt or affect him. At least he'd be protected from Maleficent, but everyone would still be able to cut him, hit him, kick him without retribution. It didn't protect against physical assaults, after all.
But Maleficent would show up. In a world where the good guys are hunted down, good magic works as a beacon. If Maleficent was in her castle, she'd be at their doorstep in less than two minutes. And then all was lost. They'd be executed in front of everyone. Mal would have to endure a punishment, too, and she wouldn't be surprised if she were to share her new friends' fate.
She realized this was the moment where she had to choose between good or evil. This time, she couldn't delay making the choice. And that decision was rather easy to make. In her heart, she had always known what she wanted to do.
"Wait," she said right before the Fairy Godmother could utter her most famous words. She, Ben, Beast and Belle looked at her. The Fairy Godmother worried for what might follow next, as did Belle and Beast. But Ben just waited for her to tell them why she interrupted them. She took a deep breath and then continued talking.
"I think I can help to conceal us from mother," she said. "There's this spell. When it is cast, it creates a dark dome, some sort of magic force field, around a certain area. If anyone is under it, they can't get out. Not even with magic. That force field also happens to dampen the spells cast inside it." She didn't have to finish her explanation. The Fairy Godmother knew what she meant.
"We can go undetected," the Fairy Godmother said and Mal nodded. She smiled at her. "Thank you."
"You're welcome," Mal said, smiling back at her. She then recited the spell, word for word. It was one of the few he knew by heart, since Maleficent used this one a lot. The next moment, the Fairy Godmother and the family were trapped under a transparent, though darkened force field. Mal hadn't joined them, since she would have to cancel the spell, too, and it might not have worked if she was under there with them.
She watched as the Fairy Godmother waved her wand and said the infamous spell. "Bibbity Bobbity Boo." She couldn't really see if there was anything that indicated whether the spell had worked. Maybe she was just disappointed, since she had expected to see a stream of white light. Or anything else and all.
The Fairy Godmother nodded at her. Mal then cast the counter-spell and the dome disappeared. "Congratulations," Mal said and she smiled at Ben, who smiled back at her. Belle gave him a big hug. When she was done, it was Beast's turn to congratulate his son in a similar manner. Once he let go, he smiled at the new alliance leader as well. "You'll do great," he said and Ben nodded.
"You must go now," the Fairy Godmother said. She had just put the wand away again, behind lock and key and hidden from plain sight. "Maleficent will be here soon." There was no way of knowing how much of the blast was absorbed by the magic dome, and she did not want her guests to stay long enough to find it out.
"Come with us," Ben said, "Like you said, Maleficent will come soon. She'll kill you." The Fairy Godmother sighed and she put up a smile.
"Thank you for the offer," she said, "but I can't just leave. People will start asking questions." She had a good point. Ben nodded.
"We understand," he said. "Someone will be waiting for you in Alba. You can go there when you're ready." The Fairy Godmother nodded in appreciation. Before they could leave, there was still one question she had to ask.
"How is Jane?"
"She's okay," Ben said, smiling at her, "She's never been safer." The Fairy Godmother sighed again, only this time out of relief.
"Thank you," she said.
"You're welcome," Ben replied. Then, they walked out of the living room and eventually out of the house of the Fairy Godmother. They immediately looked up into the sky. There was no sign of Maleficent yet. The force field had worked. For now. They still had to get out of there as fast as they could. But before they could leave, they had to find Henry.
"Henry?" Ben shouted, looking around in the street, "Where are you?"
"Over here." Henry's voice came from her right, around that corner. Mal turned to Ben and his family.
"You go ahead, I'll get him," she said. Beast agreed with that plan, as did the rest of his family. They walked away from her – "Be careful," Ben told her – and disappeared out of sight when they turned around a corner. When she couldn't see them anymore, she turned around and walked to the place where Henry was. She walked around the corner and stopped immediately when she saw him.
"Henry?" she asked him, "What are you doing?" She did not find him just standing around. No, he was standing in front of a construction, a seemingly iron cube. It was about three to four feet tall and rather large. And from her perspective, it looked like Henry was giving it a big hug, partially covering it with his body.
"What does it look like?" he asked her, turning his head to her.
"You're hugging a bomb," she said, couldn't stop staring at him. Mal recognized the design. She had seen the drawings earlier, when Carlos was ambitious and devised a plan to blow up the forest and, as a result of the explosion, kill most dogs and wolves and other animals living there. He never got to make the bomb, since he had that idea when he was only eight years old. But now, it was standing in front of her, fully built and as far as she knew, fully operational.
"Yeah, I know," Henry said. He did not like that idea, "but how else am I going to protect the Fairy Godmother from the blast?"
Mal frowned in confusion. "You're going to do, what?"
"I'm guessing we weren't the only ones who wanted to go to her," he explained. "Even if they just want the wand. Now someone's gonna blow her up. We can't let that happen." He and Mal looked at one another for a short period of time before he turned his head away from her again. He did not let go of the bomb.
"You can't stay," Mal said. A few months ago, she would've just told him to move it. She would've pulled him away. She might have not helped him at all. But she changed. She couldn't let Henry die.
"Sure can," Henry said. He looked at her and saw the desperate look in her eyes. He sighed. "Look, there's nothing you can do to make me."
"Henry, just come with us," she said, but he shook his head.
"No thanks. I think I'll stay here."
"But…"
"Mal," he interrupted her. He raised his voice, but he continued talking in a normal voice. "I don't know if you've noticed, but there are no bright red numbers counting down to zero. You should get out of here." He sounded more desperate with every spoken word. Mal didn't budge.
"I'm telling you the same," she said, "Why are you staying?"
"Because I want to be of some use before I go."
"Before you go where?"
"Before I go to Hades!" He didn't mean to yell, but he did before he could stop it. The words resonated in the back of her mind. She understood the meaning from the first second, but it took a while before the message hit her. As for Henry, he looked away from her and continued talking while Mal watched him in shock.
"I thought you understood," he said. "After all, you were her best friend. There is no antidote. Never has been. Whatever Doug has given me granted me a maximum of ten more days to live. Ten days. That's not enough to do what I've always wanted to do. But Mal, please, let me choose. If I'm gonna die anyway, why not make sure the Fairy Godmother is safe?"
Mal shook her head. She could not accept Henry's choice. "Please don't do this," she said – no, she begged. Henry shrugged.
"You can't stop me," he said.
"The blast will be too big. You might just die for nothing," she said, tried to talk him out of it. She saw the blueprints, read about the calculated blast radius. True, Carlos was eight when he developed the project, but he was already pretty smart back then. Some, excluding his mother, might call him a prodigy.
Henry nodded. "I was going to do that in nine days anyway," he said and forced a smile on his face. It faded away almost immediately. "Just go. Please. Tell Ben I'm sorry. Tell him what I'm doing. He'll understand. If you ever see Evie again, tell her that I never stopped loving her. And Mal, you be careful, okay? Now, go."
"What did you do?" he asked her.
"I created a force field around you," Mal said, "It may absorb the blast." She had no idea if it would work. There has never been a case of someone creating an explosion to escape this dome. It could hold, saving the Fairy Godmother's life, but it would kill Henry. Even if the force field didn't work, Henry would still die.
Henry nodded. "The blast may still break through it," he said, not moving an inch, "Goodbye. Good luck." Mal did not stay any longer with him. It would hurt both of them. Henry did not look at her. Mal did not look away until she turned around the corner. First, she walked. When she reached the main street, she ran. Once she was out of the village, she tried to fight back the tears, expecting the bomb to go off at any moment.
She could not immediately find Ben, Beast and Belle at the edge of the forest. Maybe she was so distracted by Henry's condition she ran to another part of the woods. Maybe Ben and his parents already walked to the meeting point. Whatever the reason may be, she did not expect to hear someone whisper-shout her name.
She turned her head to noise and her eyes widened. "Carlos?" He was standing there, signaling to come closer. He was smiling widely. Out of sheer curiosity, she walked closer to him.
"Hi!" he said, "I'm glad to see you again!"
"Me too," Mal said. After two months, it was good to see Carlos like this: happy and in a good mood.
"I'm also glad you're out of that stinking village," he continued. Mal frowned while he turned his back to her and walked back to where he came from. Mal followed him closer to the edge. "I did wait for you, you know." He grabbed a small object – Mal couldn't see what it was.
"Why?" she asked. Why did you wait for me? Why did you lead me here? Why are you even here in the first place? But Carlos didn't answer. Instead, he picked up the binoculars off of the ground – Carlos must've brought them here – and handed them to Mal.
"Take these," he said, "and look at the village. Pay close attention." Mal did as she was told and looked at it through the binoculars. Everything was bigger and it seemed she stood closer to it now. She was looking for something, anything at all.
As soon as she realized what she was supposed to look for, there was a big explosion. She couldn't unsee the damage nor forget the sound it made when it went off. Smoke rose from a certain area and suddenly, the village lived again. People came out of their houses, screaming in terror, wondering what had happened. Some went to see what had happened. At least four houses were damaged and completely destroyed. One of the houses, possibly standing closest to the bomb, was damaged, but it surprisingly survived being destroyed. Around the site, child was crying for her mother to get up. A man carried a body out of a damaged house. Many more dug in the debris to find people underneath it and potentially save them. Everyone who was hurt, eventually survived this disaster. Those people, however, would never be able to find any piece of the auburn-haired boy who died protecting one very important woman.
Mal slowly lowered the binoculars and stared at the village. She felt numb and a single tear rolled over her cheek. There was only one thing she could think of. A second tear appeared. Carlos was oblivious to her sadness and took the binoculars he gave her.
"That's weird," he said. He placed them at his eyes to look at the village and then lowered them again. "There should've been a bigger blast."
Mal turned her head at him. She noticed the object in his hand. She knew what it was – the bomb's on-switch. She lifted her head and now looked at her friend, the murderer.
"You built the bomb?" She tried to be mad and angry, but it sounded rather indifferent. Carlos nodded, not yet looking at her.
"Yeah," he said, "I had to do something. We couldn't reach you and Evie and Jay thought my ideas would never work. But they did work, as you can see. Unfortunately, something went wrong." He put the binoculars back at his eyes and watched the village, hoping to find out what exactly went wrong.
"You killed him," she said, a slight tremor audible in her voice. Only then Carlos looked at Mal. His face paled when he saw her. He recognized this stance – Mal was angry and Mal would not hold back, not even for him. He did what anyone would've done in his situation: he dropped the binoculars and the switch and ran away from her.
He was too late. Maleficent had always taught her that, if you suppress emotions long enough, there would be one powerful blast once she finally cracked. Maleficent always encouraged her to show emotions related to being evil, but told her sadness was a weakness. Mal had never been sad before, so she had no idea how heart wrenching it would be.
She screamed out of agony and one powerful word echoed through the forest. She sank on her knees and let it all go. A purple blast wave spread rapidly, with Mal at the source, and in no time it hit Carlos. He immediately stopped moving and fell down to the ground. He did not get up. And Mal sobbed and continued sobbing. She couldn't stop. After all, this was the first time she had lost a friend.
"Mal? Mal!?" Ben shouted from afar. They grew louder and louder until Ben had finally found her. He knelt next to her and wrapped his arms around her.
"It's okay, it's okay," he tried to calm her down. "What happened?"
"Carlos made a bomb," she said, and glared at the place where he lay. "It exploded. He killed Henry."