(Mal)
You're going to get better, you are.
The electricity seeped slowly through her skin and into her body, rooting itself deep inside every centimeter of her, whispering, healing, urging her to wake. Her blood bubbled and her veins sparked, a sharp sting of power igniting everything inside her and filling her with an incredible warmth.
You're going to wake up soon.
Suddenly, as if something had used a pair of jagged pinchers to clamp down on every nerve in her body, the pleasurable warmth turned into a scorching heat that burnt her to a crisp, causing her to jerk. Through the frantic spasm her body remained perfectly still, though to her it didn't feel that way.
You're going to get better, you are.
Electricity pulsed wildly throughout her with complete liberty until her internal body relaxed, the pain quickly dissipating and leaving behind only a delightful crackling sensation that took over her with ease. The whispers remained. A smooth soft voice spoke to her; Evie's voice. It reeled her mind in, lured her to get lost in the velvet melody, convinced her to let it wrap around every inch of her mind and her body.
You're going to wake up soon.
She followed the girl's voice, followed it desperately until a light was presented in front of her, the intensity of it after days of viewing nothing but a consuming darkness overwhelming her, blinding her. Still, she went toward it, she followed the irresistible lure of Evie's voice, not the least bit terrified of where it would lead her because she trusted the girl, trusted the words she continued whispering into her ear, the words Evie pushed into her heart.
You're going to get better, you are. You're going to wake up soon.
Without any doubt filling her of the Princess, she stepped into the glowing light. Her body was sucked in and she was suddenly encased in a bubble that tingled her skin wherever she touched it; a portal, she had been led to a portal.
The bubble surrounded her with electricity, and trusting that the girl hadn't led her into a trap she reached out to touch the bright-blue sparks electrocuting the air surrounding her, electrocuting her. The sparks attached themselves to her skin, her hair, everything, washing her body with a familiar tingling sensation that pulled her deeper into the light.
Mal's aching body moved heavily and suddenly with a deep, long breath that seemed to be long overdue, her eyelids fluttering but holding their place as a dark cover over her eyes. Her chest continued heaving as oxygen coated her lungs, and the electricity sparked inside her a final time before it left unexpectedly, taking all the pain with it and leaving her body feeling the best it had in a long time. It also left only one thought in her mind, the only thing she seemed to be capable of feeling absolutely sure of in that moment; Evie healed me.
Her mind was clouded with a million thoughts; Evie healed me. How'd she do it? She doesn't even know she has magic. She didn't even know she was doing it. Evie healed me accidentally. And she would have continued being bombard by these thoughts if it hadn't been for the sudden sounds her acute hearing caught.
Muffled voices. Grunting. A cut-off plea. Barking.
This time, her eyelids lifted easily, revealing above her the blank and boring tiles of a ceiling she had become all too familiar with. The sounds grew in volume as her conscious grew more alert, and she quickly registered the mix to be the sound of a struggle. She sat up suddenly, almost as if her body had made the decision to do so without the instructions needed from her brain, turning her head until she found the source of the sounds; well, multiple sources.
And she acted on impulse.
Pushing herself from the infirmary bed Mal braced her feet firmly beneath her before throwing herself toward the agent closest to her. She hooked her arm around the man's neck and used him as leverage to keep her momentum going until she could wrap her legs around the other agent, calling her magic to give her the strength to snap both of their necks with little effort. Twisting her body in the air, she landed on her shoulder and rolled back onto her feet, swinging her arm around to push Carlos behind her and away from the lunging grasp of the third agent. Bringing her elbow up she connected it with the man's nose, causing him to stumble backward, his loss of balance giving her the perfect amount of time to summon the green smoke from her palm and reshape it into a green fireball that she hurled directly at his chest, setting him ablaze and turning him to ash.
That seemed to be all of them, she thought, shaking the green flame from her hand and turning around to face the boy she had just saved; uh-oh, that's not good. Carlos' face was twisted in fright, his puppy-dog eyes seeming even larger as he stared directly at her, almost visibly shaking as he took a step away from her.
For a moment, Mal wondered whether she should dispose of the boy as well, but the longer she looked into those light-brown eyes she only found herself increasingly worried that the boy would reveal her to the entirety of Auradon and get her thrown out, not even the smallest part of her willing to destroy him like she knew she probably should. However, Carlos remained nailed to the floor beneath his feet, not moving, not speaking, only holding her gaze. They watched each other with fear present in both of their eyes; Carlos' because he had just witnessed not only the use of magic, but also a girl murdering three men without a second thought, Mal's because she feared the boy would vanish from the room and expose her to everyone, expose her to Evie.
Mal raised her hands in a slow, calm manner, showing the boy that she meant him no harm. However, when she opened her mouth to tell him she'd explain everything she found her chest tightening in panic at a sudden realization. Evie! And her words changed on their way passed her lips.
"Go find Evie," she ordered the boy in a panic, knowing she had to deal with the other two bodies lying lifeless on the ground between them. "Quickly! Make sure she's okay."
Though the fear was still heavy in presence, Carlos nodded, turning and heading quickly from the room with Dude at his heels. How could I forget about Evie? She cursed herself for worrying too much about being exposed when she should have been immediately worrying about Evie's life, about whether or not there were agents attacking her as well. My mission is to protect her; I need to at least attempt to get into a mindset that will make her seem important. Something stopped her after that thought; she healed me. She saved me. So shouldn't I find it important to do the same for her? Like other times since she had arrived in Auradon she found herself split on the answer, half of her reminding her that no one else mattered while the other half tried baiting her into believing otherwise. There was a pestering nag echoing in her head, throwing questions at her she didn't have the answers to; if no one else matters, why not kill the boy? It would be a much safer route to take. If no one else matters, why not just kill the girl and take the necklace before anyone else can? It would be much less trouble than protecting her first. And it once again had her wondering why that hadn't been the mission in the first place, but she also found herself wondering if she could actually do either of those two things. She shook her head, of course I could. Neither of them matter to me. I'm just manipulating them for amusement.
Forcing herself to tear her mind from that path before the pestering nag returned in desperation to convince her she wasn't the only one who mattered, Mal stepped forward and crouched beside the bodies, sliding her hands into their pockets in search of anything they might have on them. She found a folded paper in each of their pockets that seemed to read the same thing, so she carelessly dropped one back on the body it had come from and read the words on the other.
Henderson; Coleman; Barkley,
The fact that this high school girl has protection is merely a thorn in our side. Figure out who the protection is, then eliminate them first. If you eliminate the protection before the target, then this will destroy any chance of retaliation after the necklace is in our possession.
I have no doubt that you will succeed. Bring me back that necklace.
You have your orders,
Head Stevens.
That's weird, Mal thought, rolling the inside of her lip between her teeth; they're from a different agency than the first two groups. Head had told her there would be many agencies after the necklace, she just hadn't believed him; she never believed him. Why are they all so set on killing Evie? Can't they just steal the necklace without causing her any harm? It was what Mal had been planning to do since she realized she wouldn't be able to steal the girl's life from her body, not when the girl seemed so oblivious to the entire thing. Not when Evie didn't even seem to know about the powers she possessed, about how strong she was.
Sighing, she waved her hand over both of the bodies and watched as they disappeared, disappointed in herself for having decided to leave the girl alive, the decision making her seem weaker than the other agents. She shook her head, even I know it's not weak knowing when someone's death is unnecessary. And her death would definitely be uncalled for. In fact, more often than not, Evie seemed as though she couldn't get rid of the necklace faster, and if Mal planned things right she might even be able to just simply ask for the necklace and receive it from a willingly giving Evie.
And then, a realization struck her full force. Those agents had meant to take her out while she was vulnerable, when she wasn't able to fight back, and if Carlos hadn't been with her at the time they had chosen she would have been easily killed. You've got to be kidding me, she sighed lightly, shaking her head in slight amusement; in a way, that scrawny little boy saved my life. There was quite a bit of that going around that day; Evie's magic healing her, Carlos being in her room when the agents had arrived, and her keeping the agents from hurting Carlos. Isn't this just turning out to be an incredibly interesting day.
Not sure what to make of everything, Mal pushed herself back to her feet and turned around to survey the damage done to the room, however, before she could even get the briefest glimpse of the room she found her eyes locking on something laying on the end of the bed she had been occupying; and she couldn't tear her gaze away. The dark-purple and bright-pink contrasted almost painfully with the white of the infirmary sheets, yet she still found her feet moving without her command, carrying her closer to the bed. My jacket? She was utterly lost in confusion as she reached forward to run her fingers over the leather peeking out from under the sheets she had carelessly tossed in her race to get to Carlos. Grabbing hold of the edge of the sheets she tossed the white to the opposite end of the bed, revealing the entirety of her jacket for her eyes to take in. It didn't take long after that for her to realize that it wasn't her jacket, bright-green staring directly at her from an area it hadn't been in before. Her fingertips moved to trace the beautiful dragon design, her mind swimming with admiration at how perfectly it matched the black ink staining the skin of her forearm. Why would you do this for me? She knew exactly what had happened – it didn't take a genius to figure it out – but it did only manage to confuse her more than she already had been from seeing the jacket untarnished despite knowing it had been shred and burnt the last time she had worn it. You barely even know me, she addressed her thoughts to Evie; why would you take the time from your day to do something like this? For me, of all people.
She tried to ignore the way her chest seemed to flutter; she tried to ignore the fact that Evie had managed to reach inside her chest and gain a loose hold on her heart; she definitely tried to ignore the fact that – despite her knowledge that nothing anyone did could ever affect her – the Princess had snaked her way into messing up her entire belief system, her entire aura, by doing this one thing. You stupid fucking girl. She didn't want this, in fact, she despised the fact that Evie seemed to know the simplest ways to get inside her, despised the fact that – after all these years – she found herself crumbling into the girl's every move, desperate for her to do something else. Anger taking hold of her, she gripped the bottom of the infirmary bed and hurled it across the room, the jacket dropping straight to the floor inches from her feet. You don't make me feel anything. I'm not weak. I don't feel anything for anyone. Especially not Princesses.
"Oh my goodness, what happened in here?"
Mal whipped around to find the same girl who always seemed to consume her thoughts standing feet away from her, her red-brown eyes mainly showing worry; but Mal could see the excitement present in the unique coloring, the excitement she knew must be because of her, though she didn't understand how. At the sight of the blue-haired girl Mal quickly grew conflicted with the feelings that crashed into her; her mind telling her the very sight of the girl made her furious, the connection convincing her she felt relaxed and lighter in her presence, her heartbeat telling her something she didn't recognize.
"I got angry," Mal deadpanned, keeping all emotion from showing itself through her eyes.
Her gaze flickered to the figure standing behind Evie as she realized it was Carlos. And once again, she became slightly panicked. What if he told her what he'd seen? What if she knows I've got magic?
"Are you okay?" Evie questioned, beginning to move closer to her.
Magic surged through her in warning, lighting her eyes, and she watched as Carlos took a frightened step backward; however, Evie only continued moving toward her, showing not even a flicker of fear. What is wrong with you? You should be cowering in fright, not looking concerned about me. She hated Evie. She hated that the girl didn't seem to fear her like everyone else did. She hated that she seemed to care about her. She hated her. People feared her, they didn't worry about her, and yet this girl defied everything Mal had previously known and threw her mind into a downward spiral of confusion, of panic.
"I'm fine," Mal replied through grit teeth, wishing the girl would just stop with the whole charade, wishing she would just leave her alone.
Despite her new fears her panic lessened as it became clear that Carlos hadn't told Evie even a scrap of what he had witnessed with the three agents, the girl only seeming interested in knowing how she was and not what she was. She met the boy's soft, terrified gaze passed Evie, hoping that her eyes somehow portrayed her appreciation of him remaining silent, and when he nodded in acknowledgement she found a weight being lifted from her shoulders.
Maybe this kid isn't so bad, she thought, knowing she was growing fonder of the boy than she should ever allow herself to be of anyone, especially given the fact that there was never any point in keeping people around.