Hey guys. Welcome again to 'Warriors'. I probably should've announced it in earlier chapters, but I somehow forgot, so here it goes: this is the last chapter. I really should've mentioned it before. Either way, I'm going to keep it short up here, so make sure to check the AN at the bottom. So, without further ad, here are my last responses to your reviews:

Mustang52: Thanks for reviewing! Everything will be explained in this chapter. Chad's still dead and Audrey... well, you'll get to know what happened to her this chapter.

Kingson24601: Glad you liked those parts; I really enjoyed writing Maleficent. And good question - it'll be answered this chapter. Thanks for reviewing!

PurpleNicole531: Thanks for reviewing! Well, it's just Maleficent that's been defeated. As of right now, they've just beaten one villain, but there's still dangerous people out there, including Hades, Ursula, Madam Mim, Shan Yu, Facilier... you get the point. Either way, there's still a lot of evil people out there that are probably not happy with an uprising like this. I haven't had the chance to watch the movie yet (I'm going to be lucky if I can watch the dubbed version this month), but I've listened to the songs and they're just awesome.

IAMAGUEST: This is the last chapter of the story, but I will write one-shots related to this story in the future, and there'll certainly be one-shots for the present and the near future. Thanks for reviewing!

Jay-Wow: Thanks for reviewing! Yeah, it definitely ain't over for them. In the first draft, Philip was actually supposed to go through with the spell, but I changed it. A resurrected whiny teenager wouldn't have as much an impact as a grieving father, anyway, though they both have a considerable impact.

Enjoy!

-Writer207

Carlos stopped reloading the crossbow when the dragon shrunk. He looked at it, confused, just like everyone around him – they'd stopped firing arrows. He had no idea what they were thinking, but he himself was wondering why Maleficent was reverting back to her human form. She hadn't been a dragon for that long, and he'd expected her to at least burn down the entire army and, hopefully, overlook the archers.

As the dragon disappeared from his view, the beasts stopped attacking. Most wandered off, but when the civilian attacked them, they still lashed out. Despite this, they were no longer murder machines. And when he looked at the battlefield, looking for the position of the hirelings, he saw they were practically defeated.

The archers, bowmen and others near him cheered. Each of them shouted at least one variation of "we won!". They hugged each other and wore bright smiles on their faces. One of the men grabbed a woman's face and forcefully kissed her on the lips – she went along with it and kissed him back. Carlos did not join them yet – he looked over the battlefield one more time. It was unnecessary, as it confirmed what the crowd already had figured out: they had won.

Well, then, time to leave. Carlos took a quiver half-filled with arrows and tossed it over his shoulder, holding the crossbow in his hand. He turned his back to the battlefield and walked through the celebrating masses. He did not need to struggle to get away from them, but nobody stopped him – at most, they would just stare at him in confusion.

After ten minutes of walking around, he found them: the horses. Many came on foot, but there were some who arrived here on horseback. There were more than a hundred horses gathered in this place, all tied to trees to prevent them from wandering off. In other words: more than enough to choose from, and right there for the taking. He walked among them, inspecting them one by one. Eventually, he found one that he liked: a black mare that did not seem too feisty and was already saddled. He untied the knot and lead the horse away from the others. Once he did not need to maneuver it away from the other horses anymore, he easily mounted it. He almost dropped the crossbow, but he managed to hold it.

He turned his head to the masses one last time. They were still celebrating, congratulating each other and telling each other either how they never thought this was possible or how they always said this would eventually happen. They were all overjoyed, and none of them noticed the son of Cruella de Vil was about to leave.

Carlos could not smile. He tried to feel happy, to at least try to feel what they felt, but it was impossible. He could not be happy. After all, it was their victory, not his. He just so happened to have been present to help them out, even if he played only a small role. But they no longer needed his help, so they no longer paid attention to him. So they would not know he was gone until it was too late.

He had made up his mind, long before this battle started. The alliance's buddy-system did not work for him – he felt more like he was being tried for his bad deeds than being trained to be good. he needed his privacy and he did not want those self-proclaimed heroes to influence his choice, did not want them to force him into a label. He wasn't going to change it now: run, stay away from trouble, figure out what he truly wanted to with his life.

And so, Carlos spurred the mare and he rode off. Where to? He had no idea. He couldn't care less about the destination, and the same could be said about the future. It was all so uncertain now. He only knew he would travel. He would have to work to come by. He would be hungry and thirsty, he'd have it rough, but it would've been his own choice. He'd dye his hair, he'd become a nameless face in the crowd, rapidly forgotten. He wouldn't be feared anymore, he wouldn't be helped just because he was Carlos de Vil. But this life, it would have been his own choice.

It is his own choice. Finally freed from the shadow of his mother, from the ties to his former friends, he would make his own choices. And for the first time, he was going out to find his own destiny.

The next day

In Neverland, at the crack of dawn, Philip was finally ready to let go. As the sun rose, he took a shovel and walked outside. Hours later, he was throwing the last bits of dirt on the new grave. He had already made a cross with some leftover wood, on which he had carved Chad's name, and he placed it in the ground at the grave. He then stood up again and watched the grave.

All of this happened while the Beast was watching. Even though there was work to do, Adam couldn't just walk away and ignore it. He sighed – parents shouldn't have to bury their children. The work can wait, he thought and walked over to Philip. He stopped when he stood right next to the father, looking at the grave. Why do the young die young? Why do the old continue to live?

"I'm sorry," Adam said after a while.

"Shut up." Philip said, abruptly turning his head and red, swollen eyes to his friend. Adam saw the hatred in those eyes, but that disappeared as soon as he realized what he'd just said. "My apologies," he then added, "I just…"

"I understand," Adam said, "Of course, I can't say I know what you're going through. But if you need to talk…" he trailed off, a thought popping up in his mind. Him standing at the boy's grave, Ben's grave, while Philip came to comfort him. Adam shook his head – he shouldn't think like that.

A small smile appeared on Philip's face. "Thank you," He said, and sighed in relief, straightening his back. There was silence for at least half a minute before they spoke again.

"We're going to need you," Adam said, "Will you be there?" Rumors go around quickly, but the former King was certain everyone in Auradon heard at least one version or rumor about their victory. Villains were just as unpredictable as they ever were, and they probably would have to defend their newly-conquered castle. They would need all the help they could get. They may have won the battle, but there still may be a war to win.

Philip nodded, determined. "Yes, I will," he said, "I'll stand by your side. Let's kick some ass."

There was an uneasy pause, during which Philip started to frown. Surely he had expected Adam to greet his determination with enthusiasm, not with the wary look he received.

"Are you sure you want to fight?" Adam then asked.

"I am," Philip said, sounded quite disappointed with the follow-up question.

Adam sighed. He turned his body to Philip, focusing on the father now. "Philip, as a good friend, I ask you to take your time. Mourn. Don't just throw yourself into battle. Don't let it consume you." It. Revenge, sadness, the determination to put a halt to the tyrannical rule of the other villains, among others. All sources of concern.

"They won't rest," Philip said harshly, "so why should I?"

For a moment, Adam did not say anything. He allowed Philip to calm down before he argued against fighting. "Do you think he would've wanted it?" He calmly asked the father. Philip slowly turned his head to his friend, who saw the despair and sorrow in his eyes.

"Just think about it," Adam continued. "Everyone needs time to mourn. So do you." Philip did not respond, and Adam did not say anything else. This led the former King to believe that Philip wouldn't answer his question right now, though he might as well be considering taking his time.

Philip nodded. "I'll think about it," he said. Adam sighed inaudibly - it somehow felt like a burden fell off of his shoulders.

"Good," he said, "I'll leave you alone." With those words, Adam walked away from the new grave. As he walked away, he thought about the question again. Did it really matter? Philip would find a way to do both. If he was called upon, he would come to help. When he isn't desperately needed, he would mourn. At least, that's what he believed his friend would say.

Despite all of this, for the first time, Adam was hopeful about the future, about how it would look like and hopeful that it would be a nice place to live once again.

It was an extremely busy day. On the day of the battle, there were a lot of casualties and they needed all the help they could get. Many were treated on the battlefield itself, but there were more patients than there were medics and so they needed to find a solution.

This solution was to find a room in the castle that was big enough to accommodate all the patients. They had chosen the biggest dining hall to turn into a makeshift infirmary. Spellcasters were told to bring the severely wounded, those with the most lethal wounds, into the castle where the medics would be waiting, while others were still treated on the battlefield.

Most were wounded, but some died on the battlefield. Some healthy people volunteered to dig the mass graves, in which most corpses were thrown, including Hadrian's. Some alliance members were brought back to Neverland for a proper burial.

The few patients in Neverland were left in the capable hands of one of Doug's most trusted friends, so he himself could travel to the castle after the battle. All others medics from Neverland followed suit, including Evie. The Evil Queen's daughter had no idea whether he allowed it because she could do evil things when left alone or because she could be helpful. Either way, she was happy to leave Neverland and go to a place she knew well.

She remember the look on Doug's face when he saw how many people needed help: his eyes widened and his face paled. He gave her full clearance to walk around in the 'infirmary' and help whenever she could. And for a little while, she did obey him.

But then she noticed a pattern. Since they stayed inside, they only dealt with the severely wounded. That was okay, but there also were those who were slightly injured, and they needed the help as much as the severely wounded. So Evie ignored Doug and wandered outside, to the slightly injured. Even if they were wary of her, that disappeared as soon as they were convinced she wouldn't hurt them today. Most of them had cuts and scratches, which was easy to bandage and treat. At the end of the day, they were grateful for the help.

That was yesterday. Things were better today, but there still was a massive amount of work to do. Luckily, the slightly wounded from yesterday were more than willing to help out. Even with all the help, they still had little to no time to rest.

At one point, about half an hour before noon, Evie went to the supply closets. There were two set up at the side, one for the herbs and one for the limited amount of equipment they had. They could always 'borrow' from Maleficent when they needed some supplies, anyway.

Evie opened the herb closet and carefully selected those she needed, focusing on those that helped ease the pain or numbed people enough to give them the treatment they needed. Some needed stitches, others needed a full-blown surgery and only a select few, those who were beyond saving, needed it to ease the pain until they passed away.

Not much later, Doug joined her at the closets, taking a scalpel and more bandages from the supply closet. He then turned his head to the girl.

"Evie'" he said, to draw her attention, and then added: "Thank you."

Evie ignored the urge to frown. "What for?" He had already thanked her yesterday, and today he did it again. Was it customary for the common folk to thank someone daily? Was there something else he thought deserved thanking?

"Everything," he said, a small smile appeared on his face, "your help here, your knowledge… Just being here. Thank you for that."

"Okay," she said, unsure how to properly react to those words. The first time he was grateful that she helped save a life. Evie may have believed he was thankful that she wasn't lying. But this time, clearly, he thanked her for her help. No-one's ever done that before.

Doug was already returning to his patients when Evie called him back. "Doug?"

He stopped in his tracks, turned his head to her. "Yes?"

Can you be a friend? That's what she wanted to ask him, but it was not what she told him. "You're doing a good job, too."

Doug nodded at her. "Thanks," he said, and then he went back to work, to go and help a poor soul. Evie did the same, walking to her own patients.

As she was treating them, she thought of what she almost said. Friend… Does any other word have such a wide range of meaning? The meaning she knew probably prevented her from asking it. The only she's ever had was Mal - she would've included Carlos and Jay on that list if they didn't fall into the 'ex-boyfriend' category.

But she learned a new definition to the word. It was no longer just a female person she spent a lot of time with. 'Friends' were people to hold dear, were there for you whenever, whatever, wherever, were no longer limited to one gender.

For the first time, Evie considered a guy as a friend and not as prey. It was an idea she could get used to.

The last thing Jay remembered was being knocked over by a beast. He did not know whether it was intentional or unintentional, but he knew that he hit the ground hard. He lost consciousness, leaving only room for him to think one last time: I'm dead.

Because when there's a fight, or when people are terrified, they don't care about who they're stepping on. They only care about themselves. But here he was, waking up to immense pain. I'm not dead, he thought. Great. He did not know how much time had passed while he was unconscious, but it was enough time for people to nearly trample him. Everything just hurt so much – he wouldn't be surprised if he were covered in bruises. It would take a long time to recover.

But his arms… oh, they hurt the most. He remembered the arrows hitting him, and whoever brought him here was decent enough to bandage them and remove the arrows. Even now, he felt like he could not properly move every muscle, which could be problematic for the future. He tried making a fist, but stopped as soon as it moved. His hand and fingers weren't spared when he lay on the battlefield. They could be bruised, maybe broken even.

Jay was getting more aware of his surroundings. He was leaning against a cold wall, suggesting they did not lie him down on the ground. He finally opened his eyes, to be greeted by an equally dark room. There was just one torch that illuminated the scene before him. Slowly, carefully, he turned his head to the flames.

The first thing he noticed were the bars. He was in a cell – no, in a dungeon. Maleficent's dungeon. That was not a good sign. He wanted to know what happened, but did not like to make assumptions for the worse.

At the other side of the aisle, in the dungeon cell opposite of his, sat a girl. From what Jay could see, she looked just as miserable as he was feeling. She too sat against the wall, facing the light. Only after a long inspection, he recognized her: Audrey. There was a bandage around her upper arm, suggesting that she too got hit with an arrow, but hers was bloodier than both of his combined.

Audrey was glaring at something. It was another person, a girl whose face was clearly illuminated by the flames of the torch. She looked eerily familiar, with that stern look on her face and the sword on her hip. He already imagined her and Audrey just finished a conversation that did not go well.

Then, he recognized her. Well, he did not know her personally, but Jay had the pleasure of meeting her father Li Shang. The daughter of the great Mulan, standing guard near them, even if they could not do much. So the alliance had them captive. What an inconvenience…

A thought came to mind, and Jay laughed. It hurt to laugh, but he did not mind. Not this time. Mulan's daughter turned her head to him and Audrey's eyes now stared at him.

"What's so funny?" Li asked him in the middle of his laughing fit. He only managed to answer once he had calmed down and the pain became too much.

"He's coming," he said. His throat was dry and as a result, his voice was raspy. It wasn't loud either, but luckily the acoustics in the dungeons were excellent. "My father's coming."

"He won't," Mulan's daughter told him. if it didn't hurt too much, Jay would've shaken his head.

"Yes, he will." If there's one thing his father had always done, it was looking after his son. Jafar always made sure to personally train the boy to be the perfect heir, a role Jay wholeheartedly had accepted. Whenever he was in trouble and home was far away, Iago – turned human and loyal to his father – would come with some men to save his ass. Agrabah wasn't too far away from this castle. Once Jafar knew what had happened to his son, he would do anything to get him back. Jay was sure of it.

Mulan's daughter walked away, not wasting any more words to the debate. He then looked at Audrey, who apparently did not feel like talking to him, as she now faced the wall, clearly avoiding eye contact. And so, Jay decided to do the same. Once he looked at the wall, he then closed his eyes to rest. The more he rested, the sooner he might heal, maybe with some help from some medics.

For the first time, he felt weak. For the first time, he was being punished for his evilness. He did not like it.

When the villains broke free from the Isle of the Lost, they had decided to team up to get their revenge. Some of the so-called heroes were stupid enough to stay and fight. All of them died. Those who ran away and their relatives would be hunted down for the rest of their lives.

As soon as the villains claimed victory, their alliance fell apart. They bickered about which lands they should own, about that one small town they also wanted in their territory, about what to do with the common folk. There was only one thing they could all agree on: Maleficent would get what she wanted.

She claimed the entire landmass, but she allowed the other villains to stay if they wanted. There was one condition: everyone would get an equal amount of landmass to rule, so there would be equality (but also jealousy) among them. Ursula was left to rule the seas on her own. Hades was content to just have Mount Olympus and not any lands that belonged to it, as he already ruled the Land of the Dead.

Maleficent was gone now. This would cause a lot of trouble.

Mal visited the new infirmary, founded inside the largest dining hall of the castle. After looking around for a while, she found him. Ben looked good, considering what had happened and compared to the others. He was the only patient from Neverland that they brought to the castle's infirmary. He still needed some time to recover, but Jason Rolfe had told her he should be better by tomorrow.

"Hey," he said, a smile appearing on his face when he saw her. Mal smiled back in response.

"Hey," she said, "How are you feeling?"

"Could be better," he said. His hand slid to the wound and placed itself there, without pressuring the wound too much. A medic had bandaged it up. It had been just a knife, one without poison smeared on it. It didn't damage the internal organs, but it was close to an important artery. Mal had made the right decision by leaving the knife in there - if they'd pulled it out, they could've hit the artery and he would've bled out.

"Jason told me I could leave tomorrow," Ben said. Mal nodded - she'd already heard Jason tell her.

"Great," she said, "The sooner you're back in shape, the better."

Ben nodded in agreement. He needed to be ready - enemies could strike at any moment. "Do you have any idea of what's going to happen?"

Mal shook her head. "Jafar is coming for his son. We can only guess what the others will do."

Because they were afraid of Maleficent's wrath, many villains did not cross the line too often. Naturally, none of the villains trusted each other and always patrolled their own borders, waiting for an opportunity to rise or a neighboring villain to try and invade their lands. With Maleficent gone, they have created the biggest power vacuum imaginable. And the villains would be drawn to said power vacuum, either by attacking each other or by attacking the alliance.

"Is he bringing an army?" Ben asked.

"Maybe," Mal said. Whether he brought an army or not, the attack would be another devastating battle. and if Jafar took his time to prepare the attack, others might strike in the meantime.

"We're gonna have it rough," Ben said in realization. Mal nodded.

"Yep."

"We might lose," he said.

"Depends."

"On what?"

"Us," Mal replied, "The alliance. The people. They won't give up on a bright future. They have hope."

"We," Ben said. "We have hope." Mal nodded again. Yes, we, she thought. Not they. As she looked at Ben and thought of every conversation they've had, she knew what she had to do.

Mal leaned in closer and planted her lips on his. She kissed him and after a few seconds of confusion, he started kissing back. It felt so good, so right. They had no idea for how long it lasted, but it felt like an eternity.

But even eternities can come to an end. She eventually, reluctantly, pulled away from him. He was astonished with this turn of events.

"That was… nice," he said, a wide grin appearing on his face. For a few moments, he forgot about the pain. Mal smiled at him.

"Yes," she said. Better to do it now than later. They could be attacked at any given moment, and then that would take up all of their time. If she hadn't done it now, she would've waited. Maybe even too long, as they both could die at the hands of their enemies.

"Let's win the war," Mal said.

"Yes," Ben said, nodding in complete agreement, the grin still on his face. "Let's do that."

For the first time, despite the imminent threats from everywhere, Mal felt truly happy.

The End

Okay, I'm just going to throw this out here: thanks to all of you for reading this story, for reviewing, favoriting and following. Thank you for the sweet reviews - I never would've guessed I'd have more than a hundred reviews when I started with this. Thanks for sticking with me, even when the updates were very irregular, to say the least. I could go on and on about how thankful I am, but I guess you get the point now.

As for me writing: there might be a sequel to this story, but I'd rather not get your hopes up too soon. And if I decide to write a sequel, it'll take a long time before I'll actually have written it. I've got other story ideas I want to prioritize right now, including two other Descendants ideas. What I am certain about is that I will return to this fandom with one of those ideas and a series of one-shots based around this story. If everything is okay, the first one-shot will be online by the end of August or the beginning of September. Then again, it could always be later than that.

So, that's it. See you next time, and again, thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed it.

-Writer207