(Evie)

Frantic was the only word that even came close to describing the way Evie currently felt as she paced around her room, the knot in her chest never relenting. Frantic with worry, with fear; she was distraught. She wanted the answers to literally everything; why people tried to make decisions for her, why she couldn't control her own emotions, why nothing ever seemed to go well. But most of all, she wanted to know where Mal was.

It was now Friday night and she hadn't seen the girl since she had flipped the chemistry table and stormed from the classroom. She hadn't shown up to any of their other classes, she hadn't shown up in their shared room for the night, and she had skipped the entire new school day. She could have left Auradon; but something inside her told her that the girl was still here. She could have fallen ill; but she had already checked the infirmary. She could be dead; but she knew she wasn't. Just as it seemed to be with every other situation in her life, she had no answers, and no clues that could lead her to them.

Though she had no reason to be, she felt guilty. She felt horrible for ignoring the girl for several days, well aware that no matter what she was going through in her own mind she should never ignore anyone, especially friends; and in her desperate mind, Mal was her friend. I can't believe I was so selfish. Shaking her head, she scolded herself for always thinking Mal's actions were based on something she did, or said, reminding herself that the only constant reaction she could seem to coax from the girl was anger. She barely even likes me; she wouldn't disappear like this because of something I did. I really need to stop thinking about myself. But she didn't think that was fair to say considering she often thought more of others than of herself. She no longer knew what to think.

Her heart stopped beating when the door handle turned, and her feet cemented to the floor as she held her breath, waiting to see who was entering. As soon as she saw purple she found her legs carrying her forward, and she just barely managed to stop herself from lunging into the girl's arms as she appeared entirely, carelessly letting the door shut behind her. Green eyes lifted to meet the red-brown of Evie's, and the older girl immediately knew there was something wrong.

Purple hair was a tangled disaster, a leather jacket twisted to the side with one corner hanging off a shoulder, and dark streaks littered the skin available for viewing. Mal looked a mess, and it didn't take any longer than a second for Evie's heart to break at the sight of how distressed the girl appeared.

The questions were out of her mouth before either of them could even blink.

"What happened? Where have you been? Are you hurt?"

After the last question, Evie finally took a needed breath, eyes searching the girl frantically for any signs of injury. Mal didn't move for a moment, seeming frozen under Evie's stare, however, by the time their eyes met again Evie was staring into narrowed green orbs.

"Do us both a favor," Mal started, voice shaking, eyes burning with fury. "And stop pretending like you care."

Evie was baffled. "What do you mean? I do care about you."

"Yeah," Mal scoffed, finally moving from the door and toward her bed, beginning to toss her sheets around in search of something.

"I really wish people would stop doing that!" Evie exclaimed in frustration despite her best attempts to remain calm.

"Doing what?" Mal questioned without looking at her.

"Telling me how I feel," Evie clarified, watching the girl closely, waiting for her to turn around and properly acknowledge her. "You are not in my mind; you don't know how I feel."

"I think you'd be surprised," Mal muttered under her breath, and Evie could tell she hadn't meant for her to actually hear it.

"Then tell me what I'm thinking right now," Evie challenged, placing her hands on her hips, the look present in her eyes daring her to try.

Sometimes Evie didn't even know what she was thinking, but there was only one thing on her mind right now, and that was the girl in front of her. Mal was somehow always on her mind. You're a stubborn girl. You're caught up in a world that revolves around yourself. But despite all that, I still want to try to get through to you. I still want to get back to the girl I know you truly are, the girl I've gotten several glimpses of.

"Something I don't understand," Mal answered, voice void of any emotion.

"That's not an answer," Evie argued, growing more frustrated with the girl with each second that passed by them. "There's a lot of things you don't understand."

"Then it's the correct answer, isn't it?"

Evie couldn't take it anymore, and before she even knew what she was doing she had closed the distance between them and pulled the girl away from her bed. Mal took several steps away from her, but she only continued to advance, grabbing the collar of the jacket she had made for the younger girl. Her necklace was pulsing rapidly against her chest, eliciting sparks with each beat of her heart, helping fuel her anger.

"What's wrong with you, huh?" Evie questioned furiously, pulling the girl closer to her until she knew she was uncomfortable.

"A fair number of things," Mal replied, her voice quieter than before.

That's when Evie found it, the limited space between them allowing her to see it with perfect clarity. Her heart felt as though a blade had just severed it into several uneven pieces, and she nearly found herself choking with the inability to breathe when the realization crashed into her with an unforgiving force.

Her grip on the girl's collar loosened as she took a step back. But the realization had come too late for things to be simple. The door had been thrown open before she could release the girl, and everything turned into a blur as Jay slammed into Mal's side, taking both of them to the ground. She thought she cried out, but she wouldn't have been able to swear on it as her head slowed to a nauseatingly lagged pace, her mind attempting to put everything together into something that made sense. By the time her mind returned to her the damage had been done.

"Jay, stop!" Evie cried out in desperation.

It was obvious to her that the fight was completely different for both participators, and though Jay was actively hurting Mal, the small girl was struggling against something entirely different, someone entirely different. Her legs felt completely detached from her body as she shot toward the two bodies wrestling on the ground, the room spinning around the edges of her vision as panic washed over her.

"Get off of her!"

With a strength she didn't know she possessed she circled her arms around Jay's shoulders, yanking the boy off Mal and shoving him across the room. Completely ignoring her friend's shouts of protest, Evie dropped to her knees beside Mal as she continued writhing on the ground despite the fact that no one was attacking her.

"I'll go get Ben," Carlos said before running out of the room, Dude on his heels.

Evie hadn't known the boy had been present until he spoke, her entire mind occupied by the other two, and now only Mal. Jay made no attempt to dive back at Mal, instead he didn't move an inch from where he had landed, seemingly registering what was going on.

"Mal," Evie whispered brokenly, reaching for the girl cautiously. "Mal, please come back to me. Tell me you hear me."

This was all familiar to her from the time Mal had fainted in front of her, but it was also utterly new, and she had no idea what to do. So she continued calling out to the girl, carefully bringing her hands to her face as the seriousness of the situation finally sank completely in.

(Mal)

Her contact with reality had been ripped away the second someone collided harshly with her body, sending her spiraling to the ground, Evie's red-brown eyes being the last thing she saw before everything morphed into the haunting streets of her childhood. The first thing she saw was her mother, eyes glowing fiercely with an unusual green as her scepter came into contact with her head.

"You useless child!" Maleficent spat at her, anger shining bright in her eyes. "What good are you to me like this!"

She heard her own voice, weak from the state of her. "I'm sorry, mother. I just…"

"You're weak!" Maleficent interrupted, green smoke now swirling around her as her eyes filled with complete disgust and hatred. Hatred for her. "You're an embarrassment to my name!"

There was nothing she could say to stop the magic from encasing her body, and the next time she opened her mouth a scream followed as her mother used her powers to strip her of her magic, the worst punishment her mother ever gave. Mal didn't remember what she had done this time, she nearly never understood why her mother was punishing her, but she never fought against it, knowing it would be no use. Her magic would return after a while, it always did, only for her mother to steal every ounce away from her, again and again.

Once there was nothing more for Maleficent to steal from her tiny body the smoke vanished, leaving her lying helplessly on the ground. When she finally opened her eyes to meet her mother's gaze it was because her laugh echoed through the streets.

"Get out of my sight, child," Maleficent snarled, swiping her hand through the air to shove her body off the street and into the alley.

Before she knew it hands were grabbing her, pulling her from the alley, and she was struggling against them, her strength having grown with her body and the lack of presence from her mother. She was furious, the fight inside her never lessening, even after the searing metal was fastened around her wrists, charring her pale skin until it was blackened. The same metal closed around her legs and she was forced to give in as her knees buckled from the pain coursing through her body.

Several pairs of hands drug her to the middle of the room, nearly yanking her shoulders from their sockets as they locked the ends of the chains holding her wrists to the bar that connected two parallel walls. With one person holding her still a blade sliced from the sleeve of her shirt to the collar on both arms, the front of it falling victim shortly after until the thin material had no choice but to fall from her body, leaving her upper-body covered only by her bra.

Somehow, she knew what came next.

Arms reached around her from behind and her skin ignited with pain as a large scrap of familiar metal wrapped around her, encasing her ribcage. She clenched her jaw in pain as more of her skin charred, the hand gripping her hair keeping her entire spine perfectly aligned, giving her no choice but to watch as the man who ordered this slowly approached.

"Don't think doing this gives me any pleasure, Mal," Head spoke softly, as if he hadn't just brutally strung her up using the only metal that could do any real damage to her.

Iron. It could destroy people like her, including her mother. It was the only thing they couldn't heal themselves from, it was the only thing that could leave them completely defenseless due to the way it temporarily severed their connection with their powers.

"Why would I think that?" Mal asked sarcastically, hissing in pain when the guy who remained by her side tugged on a chain attached to her ribcage accessory, allowing the iron to dig further into her skin.

She wouldn't show any weakness. She wouldn't cry. She wouldn't scream. She would only stare directly into Head's soulless blue eyes, her own piercing green orbs narrowed with her anger. If he thought this would stop her from doing what she had done before he was mistaken.

"Do you know why you're here?" Head asked in his irking fatherly tone.

"Because you put me here," Mal answered, arms pulling on their restraints when the metal around her middle dug deeper into her skin again.

"You are here because you have failed to obey me," Head explained, reaching behind him to pull gloves from his back pocket. "But by the time you leave here today you'll know to never disobey my ruling again."

"Will I?" Mal's eyes flashed dangerously, but with the lack of her magic it seemed only amusing to Head.

He chuckled lightly. "I'm sure of it."

Mal watched as he pulled the gloves onto his hands carefully, smoothing out any wrinkle in the leather. "What's with the gloves?"

"I don't wish to get any blood on my hands," Head answered casually, as if this were a completely normal situation to him; she guessed it was.

She waited, watching as one of the burly men handed a whip to Head, watching as he unwound it and stepped closer to her. She wasn't afraid of what came next, even as the smooth material cracked into her skin, traveling from her collarbone to the top of the belt fastened around her ribcage, even as the burn told her the whip was lined with iron. She showed no sign of pain even as her own blood slid thickly down her body; from her wrists, from her legs, from her ribcage, from the slash in her chest.

Everything morphed back into the streets she had fought for her survival in after the second lash, but this time she was fully grown, seventeen-years old and facing her mother again. She lifted her hand, quickly attempting to ignite her magic in order to protect herself from her mother, but she couldn't manage it; she was without magic once more.

"Look at you," Maleficent cackled, an uncharacteristic snort escaping her as she doubled over in laughter. "How did you ever manage to live this long? You're so weak, you're so useless. You're not good for anything. You're nothing but a magnet for everyone's hatred."

"Shut up!" Mal shouted, clamping her hands over her ears as her mother failed to hear her.

Nothing had broken her before, not even getting a glimpse of what death might possibly feel like, yet here she was, tears burning her eyes as her hands pressed desperately into her ears, as if she could shut out her mother's taunting words, her own taunting words.

She screamed.

And it turned into her desperate plea for the blue-haired girl to stay with her, to not leave her.

"Wait, E, please don't leave me like this," Mal begged, wincing at how unlike herself she sounded.

With only fear of the girl leaving her clouding her mind, Mal pushed herself up from the uncomfortable mattress, meaning to follow the girl wherever she went, however, a nearly unbearable pain shot through her side the second she moved too quickly, tearing a cry from her lips as she crashed to the cold ground. She tried to lift herself back to her feet, but the wound in her side prevented her from being able to move on her own.

Evie's steps faltered, and she glanced almost robotically over her shoulder to meet Mal's stare. Bringing her hand up to press into her side she let every emotion she was feeling shine in her eyes, silently pleading with the girl to stay, to help her.

"P-please, stay… with me," Mal pleaded, out of breath and feeling as though everything she had ever known was being torn apart right before her eyes.

She watched as an emotionless gaze flickered to her side where she knew her blood was traveling the thin material of her infirmary gown, seeping through her fingers as she pressed harder into her side in attempt to keep the girl from seeing her growing weakness. When Evie's gaze met hers again she could tell there was something different, the color of her eyes having changed, and the complete lack of emotion and sympathy broke her down more than this moment already had.

"I'll tell Belle you need her."

"Evie, please…"

But she couldn't get out another word, her own heavy breathing cutting her off as Evie turned away from her again, walking through the doorway and leaving her behind, completely shattering the world around her.

Her entire body gave out, every ounce of strength and warmth leaving her body as she fell still on the ground she laid on. She didn't know where she was at first, the feeling of something soft beneath her head contrasting with the hardened surface the rest of her body rested against. But there was something, one particular thing that helped her find reality again.

A voice. Her voice, as it always was, luring her, leading her back to where she needed to be, back to another world that had been shattered beneath her feet, another world that had left her behind as it moved forward to better places.

Something soft stroked her face from her temple to her cheek, the delicate touch urging her to open her eyes to a blurry world. She blinked continuously, trying to clear her vision from her tears, from her past. When she finally managed to break through she saw Ben first, then Carlos, then Jay, all of them appearing worried about something, their eyes trained on her. She had just enough time to shift her gaze upward to find Evie, her red-brown eyes filled with tears as she cradled her head in her lap, and barely enough time to open her mouth in attempt to speak before everything faded again, throwing her into complete darkness.