Halfway through the desert more guards arrived to help escort Marcellus. It was quickly decided that they would take a boat back to the Badlands. Jane contacted her mother so that she could have Auradon guards ready to help transfer him to the Isle of the Lost. Sadly Mirage continued to elude them as no one had seen her after she disappeared.
Ben and Mal sat at the fountain near the palace gardens, his arm around her and she playing with his free hand. "I thought you were safe here." Mal said softly. "I guess I was wrong."
"You were trying to keep me safe?" Ben asked a little hurt. "I can take care of myself Mal."
"I know that." Mal assured him. "Leaving you here was for Aladdin and Jasmine's protection, along with the rest of our friends who couldn't transform." She elaborated. "You're the most expendable…no, I mean the most..." She sighed in frustration. "I'm messing up here."
"I think what you mean is I'm the most independent warrior." Ben filled in for her with a soft laugh.
Mal laughed and kissed his hand softly. "Yeah that." She agreed. "You're an independent warrior; your powers have no reliance on ours. That's why I wanted you here for Aladdin and Jasmine. Then I saw Decay and I was glad you were safe from that thing. I didn't realize that Mirage was as bad."
"I understand Mal…at least now." He assured his girlfriend. "You weren't counting on Mirage abducting me."
"I love Evie, I love all my friends." Mal stated and laughed a little. "And if you had told me two months ago that feeling would extend to Audrey I would have laughed in your face, but it…it's different." Mal turned to look at Ben. The two held hands gently and Mal whispered, "But it's all different you know. The way I love them is different from the way that I love you." She leaned up and the two exchanged a soft but passionate kiss.
After a minute or two Ben pulled away gently. "That's the first time you've said that you know." He pointed out.
"Said what?" Mal asked.
"That you love me." Ben answered with a smile.
Mal thought about it a moment. "Yeah, I guess you're right." She agreed and tried to shrug nonchalantly. Ben smiled and stroked her cheek gently. "How many times do Belle and Adam tell you they love you?" She asked him.
Ben shrugged. "No idea." He answered simply. "I've lost count."
"I have a count on how many times my mom has said she loved me." Mal told him. "She told me that once in my life, when I was twelve and basically reached the age where my powers fully came in at." She let out a long breath. "Most of the time I received indifference from her and if not that then it was like scorn or disappointment."
"Sorry." Ben said softly.
"It's life on the isle." Mal tried to brush it off. "I told Jane before we realized you were all taken a bit about our lives. How Jay was a lot like me in not being able to make his parent happy, not being able to feel that kind of self-worth. That Carlos was practically a slave to his own mother." She laughed a little. "Evie got treated well enough by her mother, especially in comparison. Like a princess…but, it wasn't ever quite the same thing as a mother's love."
"You know that's one thing Evie and Snow White have in common." Ben pointed out to her. "Neither really knows what a mother's love is like. Snow's birth mother died pretty young and we all know how things worked out with Snow and the Evil Queen." He stroked her hair softly. "And it seems like Evie's mother didn't love her in the true sense that my mom loves me…or you for that matter."
"You think so?" Mal asked him.
Ben nodded. "Absolutely. My mom told me that she had wanted a daughter too, but they were never able to make it happen. It's one of the reasons Audrey took up archery; to make her dad happy. Aurora and Phillip were never able to have a boy."
Mal frowned a little. "You know, I know it probably means nothing but I have noticed that aside from Cinderella and her prince, no one in the royal family seems to have had more than one child." Cinderella of course was the mother of the traitor Chad and a younger daughter named Callie, whom none of the team had met before. Granted, Will's mother had also had a daughter named Whitney but Wendy Darling was not royal.
"Maybe we all have older siblings that were abducted by Rumpelstiltskin." Ben said jokingly.
Mal laughed at that one. "Yeah, somehow I doubt that one." She replied.
Ben stood up and extended his hand to Mal. "Join me for a walk in the garden?" He requested.
Mal took his hand and stood, offering a small curtsy. It disturbed her in a way that she was getting pretty good at that but she let it go. "It would be pleasure." She answered. The two shared a small laugh as they made their way to the garden.
Jasmine shared a warm embrace with her husband and then her son, and then to Ally's slight surprise the Queen also gave the blonde a hug. "I'm so glad all of you are okay." She said to them.
Genie himself had given his daughter a hug and then exchanged some tassel with Carpet. The two genies had gone off to spend some time together.
Ally looked to Aziz. "I should let you spend some time with your parents before we head back to Auradon." She said to him.
"No, stay." Aziz insisted. He looked to Aladdin and Jasmine. "It's only fair that my parents and I should spend time with my girlfriend."
"Girlfriend?" Jasmine asked but in truth she wasn't surprised to hear that one. She just wondered what had changed in such a short time. She had been relatively sure that they had not crossed the romantic line when the rangers had come in from Auradon.
"Yep." Aladdin confirmed. "Seemed to have happened after we stormed the Marcellus's walls and they went into the castle to retrieve their captured friends."
"That's wonderful news." Jasmine said with a smile. She could only guess that the journey through the desert and into the Black Sands had made her son consider what Ally really meant to him. She took Aladdin's hand and smiled at her son and his girlfriend. "We were about to enjoy a midafternoon snack, please join us." The two teens agreed and followed the sultan and queen out of the throne room to the kitchen.
Audrey and Jay sat on the balcony outside of the brunette princess's room. Despite it being a bit humid for her taste it was still a lovely day outside. She also reasoned it couldn't really do much more damage to her hair than being kidnapped had. They had two glasses of lemonade on a table between them. "So what do you think of Agrabah?" Audrey asked him.
Jay shrugged. "It seems like a nice enough place." He answered with a small shrug. "But I don't feel the same sense of…well, the same sense of home that Jordan or Aziz did. Even if my father grew up here, I didn't. The isle has pretty much been my home."
Some part of Audrey couldn't imagine being permanently taken from the kingdom she had grown up at; the same place her mother Aurora and father Phillip ruled as Queen and King. It was of course a completely different place from the Isle of the Lost but she understood his meaning. "Do you miss that place?" She asked. It was hard for her to keep all of the disgust out of her voice.
Jay chose to ignore that. He understood how she felt; time was he had felt that way about Auradon. "I guess…I guess not really." Jay confessed. "I mean I grew up there but it didn't always feel like the kind of home that one would want it to."
"Not long after starting classes at Auradon I had told Fairy Godmother I missed home. In my selfish spoiled way I didn't want to be away from my parents or the…the pampering I knew I would receive there." Audrey confessed, though in some ways the girl she had been then seemed like another life. "Fairy Godmother told me that homes were transitory. I didn't believe that then."
"Do you believe that now?" Jay asked her.
"I'm not sure, but I think I understand it better." Audrey replied as she reached for her lemonade. "I mean, it's almost hard not to picture being in Auradon. It's hard to imagine being away from all of our friends…to be away from you." The last part came out a bit quieter and she felt a blush on her cheeks that was not from the hot sun.
"I think I get it." Jay promised as he reached for his own lemonade. He couldn't get himself to say it yet but the thought of Wherever you are, that's home, crossed his mind. He contended himself with saying aloud, "It's the people that make a place a home." He took a sip of lemonade and then set his glass down.
Audrey did the same and she looked out in the desert. Without really realizing it she started to talk. "I woke up bound in that castle and I almost freaked out." She revealed and then stood up. Jay had to sit up a bit to hear her. "I know we've all been tied down at least once in our ranger careers, but it was…I don't want to say different because that's not really truth. It was more personal for me."
Jay had a pretty good idea of what she meant but thought it would be best to let Audrey say it if she wished to. "In what way?"
"Because except for this time and Wonderland, the other times I've been bound has been in Chad's presence." Audrey answered him. "Even that first time with the Psycho Rangers he still managed to slap me. I think he was tempted to keep me for himself instead of letting Psycho Red destroy me." She started to pace a little. "And the last time, when we faced Cybertech Overhydra and he…" She couldn't get herself to finish that thought or what she had almost expected to happen to her.
"If I have a say in anything, he'll never get a chance to do something like that." Jay told her as he came up to her and laid his hands on her shoulders.
"I know." Audrey said as she turned to face him. She leaned up and kissed his cheek softly. "And I thank you for everything that you do for me." She laid her head on his chest now. Sometimes she just had the fear that it wouldn't be enough, but she didn't want to tell anyone about that.
Jane and Carlos had gone into the palaces library to see what they could find out. He looked up at her and said, "You know if we want to read we really should be looking at the information that the sultan and the queen found about Sermaya."
"Probably." Jane agreed mildly. "We can if you want, but it might be better if the group as a whole looked at it. We may have to cross reference a lot of stuff that isn't here with us."
"That might be true." Carlos agreed. He cocked his head as he looked at a row of books. "Hey, we don't have these two at the library in Auradon."
"A lot of material is the same in each of the kingdoms that compose Auradon." Jane replied as if she were reciting from some invisible text or perhaps committed it to memory. "But there a bits and pieces that for whatever reason stays primarily in a single kingdom. A lot of that includes royal or familial lineages, agricultural, sociological and economical records that are more than a decade or so old are classic examples."
"So much for free society." Carlos said jokingly.
Jane lightly shoved his arm. "It's not that this information can't be shared." She said with a laugh. "But honestly do you think anyone in Arendelle really cares about kind of profits that Agrabah was making when Jasmine was ten years old?"
Carlos had to laugh too. "No, I suppose not." He conceded. "But what if Jay or Aziz needed it for a project at Auradon Prep?"
"Then it would get sent out to them." Jane answered with a small shrug of indifference. "It's actually easier for them considering the fact that Jordan could just pop back here and get it for them." She started to climb a ladder to look at a higher shelf. "The truth is Jordan didn't need to take a boat with us to get here, she did it because it was the courteous thing to do."
Carlos saw a few titles he recognized and then one he didn't. It detailed the inventions of man named Mechanicles….he'd heard that name from somewhere, he was sure of it. Maybe something that had been taught in Dragon Hall. He reached for the book when he heard a gasp, looking up he saw Jane lose her hold on the ladder and she tipped backwards. Without thinking he rushed over to catch her.
He didn't do that however, it was more like he broke her fall as he didn't exactly have the strength to catch a girl in his arms the way that he was sure Jay would have. But the end result was pretty much the same as he had managed to prevent Jane from being really hurt, while he himself had only gotten a couple bruises. He thought it was a nice trade off to be close to her.
Jane sat up a little to look down at Carlos. "Thank you." She said to him softly as she moved a stray lock of hair out of her eyes and behind her ears. That was one thing she had never had to worry about doing before Mal's spell.
"Anytime." Carlos promised her as he looked up at her.
Jane noticed that his shirt sleeve had torn and his elbow was a bruised a little. "Carlos, are you sure you're okay?" She asked as her hand reached out to touch just under his elbow.
Carlos nodded as Jane helped him into a sitting position. "I'm sure, I've had worse." He said nonchalantly. It made her recall what Mal had told her before the whole rescue scenario had begun. About Carlos being little more than a slave to his mother Cruella, that at least out of the four of them he had been treated the worst.
"Maybe we should get that looked at." Jane suggested.
Carlos shrugged it off. "I'm good." He promised as he flexed his arm for her to show that if the bruise hurt he wasn't feeling it. Jane had to wonder if that was necessarily a good thing but decided pressing anymore might just make him angry.
"Alright." She relented and the two of them got up off the floor. "Maybe I should avoid ladders for a while."
The two stood rather close to each other for a moment and Jane thought Carlos just might kiss her; they were looking into each other's eyes. Then whatever reverie was there was broken and he took her hand. "Hey, let me show you a book I was looking at just before that little trip." He said and lead her to it. She was content with that for now.
"How's your arm?" Evie asked Doug as she made some chocolate chip cookies for them in the kitchen. She was referring to the scratch he had taken to protect her when it seemed Mirage was ready to slit her throat in the castle.
"Rather painless actually." Doug said with a smile. He wore a bandage over the wound. Jordan had pointed out she could easily make a potion that would take care of that without a problem but he had decided this was his first war wound and that he would wear it proudly for as long as it lasted. Evie was pretty sure that it wouldn't scar over. She also hoped that would be his last war wound.
"I still can't believe that you went with Mal and everyone to rescue me even without powers." The blue haired girl mused. Granted, Will and Gregory had too but there were two differences. The first was that they had ended up with powers on their way thanks to an unexpected trip into the Cave of Wonders. The second was that they weren't the ones that Evie was nursing a crush on, which no doubt made Lonnie feel better when it came to her crush on Will.
"I had too." Doug said simply. "They had you…I mean all of you and the team was down by half. They needed all the backup they could get."
Despite his attempt to change his words Evie had caught what he was originally going to say. He had done it in large part for her. She felt her pulse quicken a little at the thought. It's funny, before Auradon I never would have given someone like Doug a second look, or a first for that matter. Evie mused as she looked over at him. He had a book in front of him though was only half reading it right now. And now I wonder if I'm falling in love with him.
She cocked her head as she leaned down across from him. He looked back up at her and their eyes locked. For a moment the connection was very strong and Evie had to force herself to ask what she was originally going to. "So Will and Gregory got powers just recently, if you had the chance, would you do the same thing?"
Doug seemed to think about it for a moment. "I don't think so." He answered honestly. "I just feel as if that would make it harder for you guys, not easier."
"What do you mean?" Evie asked him.
"Look, it's all fine and good for Jane to be out there with you guys. No offense to anyone but it never hurts to have a quick thinker on the field of battle." Doug elaborated. It was true as her quick thinking had helped several times, ranger or not. The most recent example was her suggestion to try to expand their Auradon Spark attack to encompass more than just a five or six person triangle formation. "But a good team still needs someone behind the scenes to work at what can't be seen right in front of them. That's where I need to be."
Evie seemed to be thinking about and she absently placed her hand on Doug's hand. He didn't mind one bit even a she started to play with his fingers a little. "And how often do you plan on doing the kinds of things you just did for the rescue mission?" She asked him pointedly.
Doug laughed as he responded with, "How often do you…all of you guys plan on getting half of your team or more captured?" The two of them laughed at the comment. "Hopefully not often." Doug answered her seriously. "But times may come about where I have to do that, even without powers."
The thought worried Evie more than she could possibly find voice to express. And the blue haired girl knew she had no right to tell him not to do that anyway. So she said the next best thing. "Talk to Ben, Jay and Aziz about taking up some kind of combat training." She requested him. "If you have to do something like that I'd feel better about it if you were at least better prepared for it."
Doug could tell how much that idea meant to her and he nodded. "Sure." He agreed. "I'm sure we can fit that into the schedule somewhere."
She patted his hand gently. "I know we can." She agreed before she went back to the cookie pan. "Now let's get some of these going." She started to scoop some batter and then looked up. "So, want to quiz me about some of that stuff in there?" She asked.
"Sure." Doug said as he flipped to another page and started to ask her a question.
Lonnie and Will had already entered the palace gardens long before Mal and Ben had decided to take their own walk. They were now walking side by side, her left hand barely brushing against his right hand. "I guess you're one of us now." Lonnie remarked. "How do you feel about that, is it good or bad?"
"I think it's pretty much a good thing." Will answered. "Will my family know about this?"
Lonnie frowned as she thought about it. "I think your mother would have to know." Lonnie said. "I mean technically she's not royalty, but then again neither is Ally's mother and she knows. As for your sister," That brought Lonnie up short. By circumstance or by design, she wasn't sure which one it was, none of the rangers had siblings except for Evie's half-sister Snow White who was born from another set of parents, making them family more by law than blood and was also just over twelve years older than the blue haired girl. At any rate as one of the oft mentioned Princesses of Heart she already knew anyway. "I don't know." She confessed. "There is actually no precedent on how to handle our identities with siblings."
"I think it'd be easier for my family if Whitney did know." Will observed. "Keeping my identity from her would be hard enough but expecting my mother to do the same thing might be pushing it."
Lonnie nodded. "We'll have to ask Fairy Godmother but I think she might agree with you on that one." She replied. After a moment the Asian princess admitted, "I'm actually glad that you're one of us. I saw what Ben and Mal went through before we found he was the Auradon Knight. I'd hate to be out there and having you worry about me as much as I'd hate to worry about someone using you against me."
"Well we don't have to worry about that anymore." Will assured her with a small smile.
"No we don't." She agreed. She didn't point out that they instead had to worry about what kind of relationship they might have on top of the whole saving the world business. The two walked side by side, enjoying each other's company and wondering about the future.
As dusk began to fall the team all got back together dressed in semi-formal attire as they went the banquet hall for the celebratory banquet that Aladdin and Jasmine insisted on throwing for their efforts in saving the city and stopping Marcellus. It wasn't exactly a lot of effort when once considered the services of not one but two genies, but as the old saying goes it's the thought that counts.
"So I guess you guys will be returning to Auradon tomorrow." Jasmine guessed.
Mal nodded a bit. "Yes. We have to resume our classes and make sure things haven't fallen into disarray without us around to stop Paradias's plans." Mal answered as she took a strawberry from a plate. She wondered how they had known to set that out, it hadn't been because of Ben. He'd been with her all day. She also found she was looking forward to seeing Belle and Adam again.
"We also need to get that information you supplied us with back to Auradon and see what we can learn about Sermaya." Doug added.
"It's too bad that you have to leave, but I understand what you're saying." Aladdin replied. He understood the obligation to duty very easily, especially after becoming sultan of Agrabah. The notion of education was a bit of reach since he had grown up on the streets, that was a bit more of a novelty to him. But Jasmine had assured him multiple times that it was important.
"Besides someone has to tell my mother about this." Ally said as she leaned over and kissed Aziz on the cheek. "I think this is going to come as a bit of a shock to her."
"Somehow I doubt that." Mal commented and Ben shot her an amused glare which caused her to just shake her head in surrender.
"Well I do hope whatever is in there can help you to stop Sermaya." Jasmine noted as she picked up her glass of water. "I understand from Belle that whatever is ultimate plan is will be as much of a detriment to us as whatever Paradias has planned."
"We're pretty much looking at nothing now." Audrey said to them. "So anything is a vast improvement." She cut off a piece of the steak they had. "All of what we have comes from what he said and honestly I'm not sure it's reliable."
"You should plan a trip to Auradon sometime." Ben suggested to Aladdin and Jasmine. "Mom and dad would love to see you guys again."
"We might have too." Jasmine said with a laugh. "We can make up for missing parent night at the school a few weeks ago, even though it sounds like we might have dodged the bullet on that one."
"Will you be staying for breakfast at least?" Aladdin asked them
They all exchanged glances before Aziz replied with, "Yeah, I think we can do that. We'll just leave right afterwards. We can be back in Auradon by mid-afternoon."
"I'll have to ask mom when we want to tell Mrs. Darling about Will having powers." Jane said.
"Do you think we'll be able to tell his sister?" Lonnie asked her.
Jane thought a moment as she took a bite of the au gratin potatoes. After swallowing she answered, "I don't know. I would think that would be a good idea but in the end that's her decision."
"If it helps any, I'll support the idea." Aladdin told them. He remembered lying to Jasmine about being a prince, his first official wish to Genie. It had worked as she had fallen for him, but she had fallen for the qualities she had seen him as Aladdin not as the made up prince he had tried to be. "Trying to lie to those you care about if you don't have to is a really bad idea."
As Mal reached for another strawberry, she paused as she swore she saw Will glance at Lonnie and flinch at the remark. She wondered why that would be and then mentally shrugged it off, assuming he was just thinking about how hard it would be lie to Lonnie if their situation had been reversed.
After dinner everyone settled in and spent some time talking, Aladdin and Genie regaling everyone with some of their adventures (except for Aziz and Jordan who had heard it many times before) and then the rangers shared some of their own adventures. They tried to minimize the kind of obsession Chad was displaying toward Audrey but tried to do their best to describe their encounters with the Space Rangers and Jungle Fury rangers. Jay, Lonnie and Carlos shared the dreams that lead toward their new weapons.
Evie and Mal exchanged quick glances when Aladdin seemed to perk up when they mentioned the accented figure that they had brought up. If they didn't have any reason to know better they swore he knew who that was. They also caught a slightly subtler but similar reaction from Jasmine and Genie's draw dropped down with a hard clanking sound that most interpreted as humor but made the two isle girls wonder just a little. Ultimately nothing was said and they reasoned it might not even matter.
They called it early so they could have breakfast before they returned to Auradon the next day.
While the teens had a their nice day the guards of Agrabah had spent most of the day trekking through the Arabian desert to take Marcellus to Auradon and have him transferred to the Isle of the Lost. Some of them were honorable enough and the prospect of an injured woman alone in the desert drew their concern.
"I was attacked by several creatures." She told the head guard. "They're still around and…oh, no. There they are."
The guards were attacked by a huge group of soldiers and Reviveslime himself. The battle ended very quickly with most of the guards being knocked out. "Sadly they'll live." Reviveslime said as he looked around. "But death was not our objective tonight."
"Whatever your objective is slime creature, finish it up." Marcellus said with a shrug. It wasn't his concern after all. He just wanted to grab the box with the glove in it and return to the Black Sands. When he turned though the woman was holding it. "What are you doing?"
She opened it up and laughed. "Looking at a very powerful object." When he started to protest she held up her free hand and laughed. "Oh, don't fret about it. I have no intention of taking it from you. I intend to return it to you."
"And why would you want to do that?" Marcellus demanded.
With a wave of the hand the woman dropped the disguise to reveal herself as Maleficent. "Because I think we might be able to establish an mutually beneficial alliance." She told him. With another wave she shattered the shackles on his wrists and offered him the glove. "You see, my associate Paradias and I are always looking for new allies, and I do believe you would fit the bill nicely. Another descendent on our side as it were."
Marcellus reached out to take the glove and slide it back on. "Revenge on the power rangers would be a nice start." He said.
"Ah, the power rangers." Maleficent said with contempt. "Including no doubt that disgrace of a daughter of mine. We indeed have much to talk about." With that the evil fairy, the sorcerer, the slime general and the soldiers disappeared into the night.