Chapter 3 - Go The Distance

In the middle of the night, the four young villains left their comfy rooms, with no intention of going back. The Auradon Museum of Cultural History was only 2 miles away from the school, so it didn't take long to get there, unnoticed.

"It's locked!" Quinn said, tugging on the door handles. There was only one guard, an old man who clearly didn't take his job very seriously, as he was watching soap operas on a miniature tv.

"Of course it's locked, ye daft ninny." Harry reprimanded her. He walked back and ran forward, trying to kick open the door. It didn't work, to put it lightly. "Ow."

Uma sighed and pulled out her mother's spellbook. "There's a version of Maleficent's sleeping spell written in here. My mom wanted to keep track of all the dark magic she knew about, so no one could use it against her." The first display you could see in the museum was the spinning wheel Maleficent had used to curse Princess Aurora. It was completely harmless, of course... on its own. "Magic spindle, do not linger. Make my victim prick a finger." Ursula's daughter cast her very first spell. There was an odd feeling in the air, like a breeze had just blown in from the ocean.

The guard stood up and slowly walked towards the spinning wheel, but didn't do anything but look at it. The other villain kids turned to Uma, having expected more. "Hey, no one's perfect on their first try!" She huffed. Glaring at the spindle, she focused all her attention on it, trying to imagine what Maleficent had been thinking and feeling at the time. "Prick the finger, prick it deep. Send my enemy off to sleep." Uma's eyes glowed the same color as her hair, and the guard touched his finger to the spindle. It just barely broke the skin, but he collapsed, snoring loudly. "Yes!" The blue haired girl cheered, louder than she probably should have.

"Nice work, squid head." Dante replied, placing his hand on the glass door. His flames changed from blue to bright orange. "Now it's my turn to show off." The doors began to twist and melt from the intense heat Dante channeled through his arm, until they completely dissolved. "Ladies first."

Uma pulled Harry up off the ground, and they all headed into the museum. They could see a soft, glowing light in the distance, which must have been the wand. Passing by displays of Cinderella's glass slippers and Genie's old lamp, which Harry had to be pulled away from, the villain kids stumbled on something much more interesting.

"Hall of Villains?" Dante stared at the purple and red sign. It was a large, dimly lit room, full of, much to his surprise, lifesized statutes of the villains trapped on the Isle of the Lost. Jafar, Cruella de Vil, the Evil Queen, Gaston, and... "Dad?" Dante stopped in front of Hades' statue, which depicted the former god in his prime, his minions at his feat and hair burning brightly.

"Killer!" Harry grinned, impressed by how intimidating Captain Hook had once been. Young, with all his hair, and much skinnier... This was the Hook who almost killed Peter Pan, not the father of three who couldn't remember his son's birthday.

"Almost as scary as the real thing!" Quinn stepped behind Uma, as if expecting her mother's statue to come to life and yell at her. The Queen of Hearts had barely changed over the years, and her depiction in the museum looked exactly like her, right down to the veins in her neck.

Uma didn't have any words. It was odd to see Ursula still wearing her necklace, and with an expression other than disdain. The statue wasn't anything like the Ursula she knew, it didn't look like the type of person to sit around all day watching television. For the first time, Uma believed her mother's stories about how close she came to ruling the world.

"There's no wand here, let's go." Dante said, giving the hall a smoldering glare. He wasn't impressed by Hades' glory days, or interested in seeing his mother's statue; nothing could change the way he felt about his parents.

Quinn and Harry turned to leave, but Uma stayed put. She had never felt like this before... Uncertain. Looking at Ursula's statue, all she could think about was how much pressure was on her, and how she didn't even know if she wanted this job. "Tell me what to do..." The queen of the Isle said, biting her lip. For once in her life, Uma doubted herself.

Sure, she was a bully. Sure, she stole from everyone she could. Sure, she pulled nasty pranks and mean spirited jokes on her fellow villains. But was she truly evil? Evil enough to take over the world?

Clutching the spellbook, Uma could almost hear Ursula's words in her head. "Of course you're evil, child! You're a wicked witch who's filled with spite and malice, just like your old mother!" The sea witch would've laughed at the idea that her daughter was anything less than the epitome of evil. It was what everyone expected. Everyone except Ben...

"Uma, what are you doing? We found the wand!" Quinn stuck her head in the doorway, interrupting her leader's inner turmoil. Uma shook her head clear of her confusing thoughts, and followed.

Fairy Godmother's wand stood in the center of the museum, surrounded by glittering light and suspended in mid air. It was gorgeous, a foot long, slender stick that seemed to be made of pure silver. Harry, being Harry, of course tried to snatch it out of the air. "Neverland, here I come!"

The moment his fingers reached the magic wand, the metrosexual pirate was pushed back by some invisible force. The light around the wand turned red, and an alarm started to blare out of the speakers. "A forcefield and a siren? That's just excessive!" Uma complained, covering her ears. "Dante, do your thing and melt them before the guard wakes up!"

Hades' son simply pointed to the smoke alarm on the ceiling. "Let's get out of here!" He quickly headed for the stairs, not wanting to get expelled before his first day of school even began. Harry and Uma followed him, running as fast as they could in pirate boots. Quinn, however, stopped by the abandoned guard station, picking up the handbook and opening it to a random page.

"Just give me a second!" She yelled. She grabbed the phone and scrunched up her face, speaking in a much thicker accent. "Yes? No, no, it was a false alarm! Just a malfunction in the... um... 714 chip in the breadboard circuit. Yeah, that's it. Say hi to the missus!" She hung up and joined her teammates, who somehow managed to get out while the guard was taking a nap.

"You're welcome!" The princess stuck out her tongue, waiting for a thank you. The other villains just stared, Harry whispering "I didn't know she could read..."

"Well, thanks a lot, Harry, now we all have to go to school tomorrow!" Uma grumbled, smacking him on the head with her pirate hat.

0-0-0

The next day, our four protagonists, for lack of a better word, had to sit through something much worse than the punishments they expected to face if they were sent home. Remedial Goodness Class, taught by none other than Headmistress Stella herself.

"Now, one of the principles of Auradon Prep is learning from past mistakes." She began to write down something on the chalkboard. "Can any of you think of something from the past we can learn a lesson from?" It was obvious what she wanted them to say, but being villains, the students couldn't help but troll her.

"Ariel should've read the contract." Uma replied. The Headmistress raised a finger, as if to say something, but was interrupted.

"Pan was a psychopath who cut off my dad's hand and fed it to a wild animal." Harry added.

"Anna should've gotten to know Hans better." Quinn piped up.

"Snow White had it coming." Dante grinned. "Who takes food from strangers?"

"Now wait just a minute!" Fairy Godmother objected, before turning around and taking a few deep breaths. The VKs laughed, Quinn falling out of her chair.

"Um... excuse me?" A quiet voice spoke out, only heard because the door opened. A girl, probably a year or two younger than Audrey, with short, mousy brown hair, wearing faded blue clothes, stepped into the room, holding some papers. She likely would've been pretty if she was wearing some flattering clothes.

"Oh, there you are, dear!" Headmistress Stella sighed, the stress disappearing from her face. "Everyone, this is my daughter, Jane." Jane clearly didn't want to be there, and looked afraid of the rotten four.

"Wait, you're married?" Quinn picked herself off the floor, adjusting her crooked tiara. "To who?"

"Well, if you must know," Fairy Godmother brushed her daughter's hair out of her eyes. "To Merlin, but he's staying in Camelot right now to assist King Arthur."

"Okay, well, I've got to go!" Jane handed her mother the paper and ran out of the classroom as fast as her legs could carry her.

"Alright, let's try some multiple choice questions." Stella picked up the Remedial Goodness textbook, which she had written herself. "You find a vial of poison. Do you, A, put it in the king's wine? B, paint it on an apple? Or C, turn it over to the proper authorities?"

Dante raised his hand to answer, but Harry tackled him. "C!" The two boys started strangling each other, until the Headmistress pried them apart.

"Boys, I'm going to encourage you to channel that energy into something more healthy. Like Tourney." She said, holding them both by their shirt collars. She was surprisingly strong for an old lady.

"What's a Tourney?" Harry asked.

0-0-0

The Tourney field was a busy place, with peppy cheerleaders on one side, and muscular players running around, all dressed in blue and gold uniforms. Harry was unimpressed, having never cared for organized sports. Sports weren't really a big thing on the Isle, there was more of a focus on the individual, even among the pirates.

"Flynn, Chad, you play defense." Coach Jenkins, who was one of the few students or faculty members without a famous relative, called out instructions. "Aziz, you're the shooter!"

"Coach, this is Harry, we want him to join the team." Ben introduced the pirate, who kept trying to turn around and leave.

"I don't know, he doesn't look like the Tourney type." Coach said, eyeing Harry's pirate hat and hook.

"Hey, I can totally..." Harry suddenly realized he had no idea how Tourney was played. "What is this again?"

Ben and Coach both tried to explain the rules again, but Harry shook his head. "Never mind. Just point me at somebody and I'll tackle them."

"I like your spirit kid!" Coach laughed, slapping him on the back. He handed Harry a helmet, but he struggled to put it on with only one hand. "You, uh, might want to take off the hook."

"But..." Harry looked at his hook, then back at the field. "Ugh," He sighed, handing it to Coach. "Hold on to this, will you?" He ran off to join the game, thinking to himself how weird it felt to have both hands free.

0-0-0

That ends our chapter.

One Isle kid had finally found a place in Auradon. That just leaves three.

Next time, we'll be focusing on Ben, in the first chapter not based on any scene in the movie.