Once more a huge THANK YOU to pinksakura271 for letting me use her character Amy in this story. Also the minions Maleficent uses here are part of the Kingdom Hearts franchise and are not owned by me.
"We need Mal, Jay, Evie and Carlos back." Lonnie said to Will as they were on their way to the Isle of the Lost. She knew Ben was worried sick that something could have happened to his purple haired girlfriend. Audrey looked lost without Jay around though in fairness she suspected another beating at Chad's hands didn't make her feel any safer. And truth was she missed them too. As much as she was glad she knew the truth now part of her felt a bit envious that Doug and everyone else didn't have to face the reality of forgetting everything.
"Don't worry, we will." Will promised her. The two of them were up front with Will the driver. The only other person who could drive was Audrey and they decided the brunette princess wasn't in any shape for that. Even he missed them. He didn't know them that well but he certainly felt like he owed Mal for helping him to realize what he needed to do to redeem himself with Lonnie and the rest.
Jane took out a small device that looked like a remote control and got ready to extend the magical bridge that would take them into the Isle of the Lost. Their plan though was to ditch the car after entering the barrier and proceed to the city on foot to minimize the attention they drew to themselves.
"Get ready." Will called back to the white ranger.
Jane nodded and on cue activated the magical bridge. They had all heard about it of course, it was part of the discussion on the history of constructing the Isle of the Lost but they had never seen it before. It really was kind of amazing.
"Think we could walk on this thing?" Ally wondered.
"I don't see why not." Aziz answered. He looked to Jane. "How long can this thing stay active?" He asked.
Jane shrugged a bit. "Truthfully it's never been tested." She replied as she thought about it. "It was primarily built as a safe and secure way to transport the villains and minions to the isle. If they didn't have to worry about the stragglers and runners they might not even have kept it operational."
"That was also before someone decided to give villain kids a chance too." Audrey said with a small smile at Ben. She was trying to tease him but the humor didn't reach her eyes. Ben tried to smile kindly back at her but it seemed a little flat as well.
As soon as they had crossed the area and Jane had lowered deactivated the magic bridge again Will pulled off to the side. Jordan handed them all the cloaks and together they got out of the car. Ben took the lead because in theory he knew how to get to where they needed. In reality none of them knew the isle the way that Mal and her surrogate siblings would have.
They made their way to the gate dressed in the robes and slipped right into the gates. They were immediately met by the horrible surroundings of the isle. "Everyone try to stay together." Ben advised him. Jordan couldn't argue that one. In truth she figured she was the best 'prepared' for the isle though she didn't know Will well enough to be positive with him. Even she had her doubts about her preparation.
"Where do we to find Mal, Jay, Evie and Carlos?" Audrey asked Ben in practically a whisper. Needless to say she didn't feel very comfortable there.
Neither did anyone else of course.
"Um, we could ask for directions." Ben suggested.
Will tried to avoid rolling his eyes. "This isn't Auradon, we can't just ask and expect them to give it to us." He glanced around a little. "We also have to remember that most people who have been here long enough know where Maleficent used to live."
"You know it just occurs to me that if time was reversed and Chad was at Auradon Prep then Maleficent might have come back here." Lonnie said nervously. "That might be a good thing as far as ending the spell but without powers I don't know how we'd do it."
They were doing their best to avoid any sort of problems but Ally turned and nearly tripped over some stray logs. She almost fell but was caught. Her hood slipped off and she found herself looking at Gaston Jr. who smiled at her. "Well hello there my blonde beauty." He said.
"Hello." Ally said softly as she moved to stand up. He kept his hands on her arms though.
"I'm glad to see you've fallen for me so easily." Gaston Jr. said with what he thought was flirtatiousness. He didn't notice Ally wasn't so impressed and he leaned down to kiss her on the lips.
Aziz moved up to him and took Ally's arm, pushing him away from her. She instinctively clung against him as her boyfriend stared back hard at her would be savior. "Glad you helped her." Aziz said to him coldly. "But she isn't yours."
"And you're laying claim to her?" Gaston Jr. questioned him.
It was on Aziz's lips to say yes but he didn't truly believe that anyone could really claim a person. "I am dating her." He responded. "And she clearly isn't interested in you."
For a moment it seemed as if Gaston Jr. intended to start a fight over Ally. He might have too if he hadn't realized that Aziz was not alone but had several other friends with him while he had no one to back him up. "Whatever man." He said with a glare.
They all watched him walk away and they could easily see the similarities between that boy and the man that Gregory had really been. It made them all shudder a bit.
They walked around a little bit, appalled at the condition of the isle. Ben was wondering if Auradon should do something about that but also thought the way everyone here was they might not appreciate the help from their enemies. He resolved to ask Mal about it.
They continued on, trying to avoid as much attention as they could. They found it kind of interesting to find a forested area around there. Then Audrey perked up and looked to Ben. "I think I see Ben and Mal, along with Evie and Carlos…" She squinted her eyes a bit trying to verify what she was seeing. "And, that girl looks like Mal except she's shorter and has dark pink colored hair like a rose." She cocked her head. "Actually it looks kind of pretty."
"Remember they don't know who we are so we have to be careful." Lonnie reminded them. "But as long as they're in the forest I think we should try to talk to them there to avoid getting drawing anyone else's attention."
"Good idea." Ben agreed and the group moved into try to get there last four team members, and to find out what the story was with Mal's apparent twin sister.
Amy could just make out the larger group's interest in her, her sister and her friends. She was still having a hard time sorting out the lives they had apparently lead not too long ago, and that included the training she had undergone while the others had been in Auradon. Still, interest didn't necessarily translate to a good thing and she found herself backing up against her sister as they approached.
That drew Mal's attention and she stopped her other friends. She already decided it was better to confront them in the open where they could have more space to fight or run if she needed too. Beside her she felt Evie tense as well; the bandits in the forest fresh in her mind. Carlos grabbed the blue haired girl's hand and squeezed it reassuringly. On her Mal's other side Jay took a slightly protective step in front of Mal.
That made both Ben and Audrey hesitate a moment. They had both agreed, and the purple haired girl had confessed as much to Jane in Agrabah, that if they hadn't ended up in Auradon then Mal and Jay would probably have ended up together. Though time had been messed with and it wasn't supposed to be that way it still was a bit of a shock to see. It wasn't much easier for Jane to see Carlos holding Evie's hand as Mal had also said her two friends probably would have ended up together if not for her and Doug.
"Is there something you guys need?" Mal asked them a bit coldly. She was not fond of strange groups approaching her, she was not looking forward to her mother's wrath, and she realized she was still on edge about the bandit encounter too; they had clearly wanted to hurt Evie and her sister.
Ben stepped forward first and removed the hood on his robe. Mal let out a small gasp as she had a memory flow into her. Though it had never been discussed, not even between the young king and the purple haired girl, she too had dreamed about Ben in the same manner as he had dreamed about her and now that dream pushed its way to the surface.
Amy cocked her head just a bit in fascination. He looked like the boy who she had seen in her visions. The one who would date her sister, be forced to turn against them as a knight before finally being set free. She had a sudden idea who the others were.
"Mal, it's me. Ben." He said as he took a tentative step toward her. "Do you remember me? Do you remember who you are? What we mean to each other?"
For just an instant Mal flashed back to the first date at the enchanted lake, the dates on the beach, dinner with two other adults…his parents she presumed and wondered why she felt such comfort at that, especially the woman. Then she shook it off. "I don't even know who you are, why would I remember anything about you?"
The others took off their hoods too, revealing their faces. Amy was not surprised to find the brunette princess and the rest of them there. The others truthfully didn't mean much to her one way or another but she had to fight her resentful feelings toward Audrey over what she had seen.
Jay looked surprised at them, but especially at both Audrey and Aziz. Carlos meanwhile had a shocked look at seeing Jane. Even Evie seemed to take a moment to be shocked at seeing Lonnie.
Amy took a step back away from her sister and her chosen siblings and received another flash across her mind. All of them were wearing a costume of some sort in a different color. Her own sister Mal in purple, beside her Evie in blue and Jay in black. Carlos in yellow. Across from them Ben in shining silver armor. Audrey in red, Lonnie in pink, the boy next to her in green, followed by the others she didn't really know in white, gold, crystal and silver. Then like that it was gone.
For a moment no one knew what to say, then Audrey shifted just a bit as if she were trying to decide if she should move closer to Jay or not. A muscle in her leg twisted and she went down to her knees with a barely concealed gasp of pain.
Jordan was by her side in an instant. "The potion hasn't had time to take care of everything." She said with a mixture of concern and annoyance. "I warned you that you might still feel some effect from the attack."
Amy watched with a bit of surprise as concern lit her sister and friend's faces, particularly Jay.
"Add me to the list of people who want to make Chad pay for this." Will said grimly. Unlike everyone else there, except now apparently Mal, he had a younger sister and would have made anyone who tried to beat her up pay for it.
With that comment Jay had a flash of memories. Audrey approaching him to dance after Ben's coronation, the second sign she had shown to accept them all with the first being her show of respect to Mal for stopping her mother. Winding up in Audrey's monster induced nightmare to bring her out of it where he told her she was one of them now regardless. The two of them on their dates, where he realized that despite the front's she put out Audrey was in fact just as much of a scared and uncertain teenager as the rest of them. He saw Chad push her, and hit her, and even kiss her despite her struggles. "Audrey…" he whispered.
"You know her?" Carlos asked.
Jay wasn't certain for just a moment. Then he remembered fighting the dark knight as he was determined to make him pay for what he was doing to Audrey. And with that, seeing her on her knees again, made him realize that somehow he had failed to protect her and it all came back. He moved away from his friends to come to Audrey's side.
"What happened?" He asked Audrey. "Did Chad get to you again?" Only Ben and Lonnie noticed as the black iPhone appeared at his side.
She nodded and wanted to say more, but she couldn't find the words as tears pooled into her eyes. She threw her arms around Jay and started to cry. Jay wrapped his arms around her gently and stroked her hair softly, trying to soothe her.
This display caught Amy off guard. Not only because of Jay's actions but from Audrey as well. Everything she had seen didn't portray her in this way. She was wondering what exactly she was missing here. Then she remembered that Jay and Mal were supposed to be dating and she looked to her sister. But Mal didn't show any signs of feeling hurt, anger or betrayal. Her eyes were on Ben.
Likewise his eyes were on her. "Mal, does any of that help you?" He asked her. "Remember who you are, who we are?"
Mal blinked in confusion. She looked between Audrey, who some part of her remembered was starting to think of her as a sister in the same vein as Evie, and again at Ben. Something about his eyes, his gentle smile, it tugged at her again. "I…" She started, making her speechless for the first time Amy could recall.
Audrey's tears and started to subside and she looked to Mal, giving her a weak smile. She thought of something that might help jog Mal's memory. "Mal." She called out, her voice hoarse. The purple haired girl looked to her. "Don't you remember your love for him, Bennie-boo and his crowned swim trunks and all?"
Will had to repress laughter though he couldn't hide a chuckle.
Mal looked at Audrey and the memories struck. She had mocked the trunks and she had mocked the nickname even as she kind of adopted it, but the mockery on the latter had gone away when she realized that Audrey had created it out of pure childhood innocence on a Halloween almost a decade ago. Audrey had never protested Mal using the nickname even though she probably could have. Then she had another memory and looked to Ben. "Ben…Ben Florien." She whispered.
Ben smiled at her softly. "It's better than Bertha." He repeated to her. Amy was confused, she didn't even know that her sister's middle name was Bertha, but she figured it made sense for her mother, just Maleficent being evil. She had never told anyone her middle name either.
Mal couldn't help but laugh a little. "Oh, okay." She remarked. She felt warm as she looked at him. She then had another memory as she remember fighting Ben as the Auradon Knight under Nerissa's control. They had clashed evenly and she had to turn around and free him though, not as a power ranger but as herself. Ben took a step another step toward her and Mal didn't react.
Another step and Ben took Mal's hands in his. "Mal, do you remember?" He asked again softly.
Mal hesitated a moment and then replied, "I…I think…I do." She said. "Ben…my prince…" She squeezed his hands softly. The soft purple glow of the iPhone appeared around her waist. Then another overwhelming thought occurred to her. Those memories though had come at a horrible cost, she had been forced to forget her own twin sister. She looked to her. "Amy…"
She smiled sweetly at Mal but didn't say anything. She knew her sister had to realize whose fault all of this was on her own.
"Amy?" Ben asked curiously. Mal seemed unsure how to handle that.
"Carlos?" Jane asked a bit nervously. "Do you remember me by any chance?" She asked.
Carlos looked at her. He remembered words that he suspected could easily have come from her. "I…I don't know." He admitted to her reluctantly. In truth both of them were shy enough that they hadn't had the bonding moments that Ben and Mal or Audrey and Jay had had.
Jane bit her lip as she started to take a step toward him but she managed to get her foot twisted in a small tangle of roots and she found herself taking a plummet toward the forest floor. Before impact though she was caught and Carlos helped steady her. "Easy." He said to her softly.
"Thanks, again." Jane said with a bit of a blush on her cheeks. She placed her hand on Carlos's shoulder to start to stand but he placed his hand on hers as he remembered another time when he caught her, that time from falling off a ladder in Agrabah's library. That time though it hadn't gone quite as well as he had taken a fall to the floor with it. "Do you remember something?" She asked.
Carlos nodded. "When were we in a fancy library?" He asked her.
"Agrabah." She answered shyly. "And that would probably have caused more damage than a fall on the forest ground." She giggled nervously. "Don't know which one would have been messier though."
Carlos laughed softly. "It's only dirt. Better than blood." He replied. The two looked into each other's eyes and he felt warm. He didn't have the memories to draw on the way that Jay and Mal had but there was still something familiar.
Then Jane said. "I don't know how to tell moods with dogs or anything, but I think that Dude misses you."
Carlos looked shocked. "Huh?" he asked. Jane took out her iPhone and showed him a picture she had taken of him and Dude one day while the cheerleaders had practiced but Tourney practice had started late. He and Dude had sat there with Jane waiting and she had snagged that chance for a photo op.
"That's Dude." Jane said. "I know you think you're afraid of dogs because of what your mother told you but you're really not."
Carlos would have loved to argue with her but the evidence to the contrary was in front of him. He had memories of first meeting Dude in the woods near the Tourney field. Carlos watching the little dog sleep that first night. Telling his mother Cruella DeVil that he was the perfect size for a pet. He remembered another time where he and Jane had gotten kind of bored and decided to make a go of bathing the little dog. It had been rather messy for such a small animal.
"Wow." Carlos said softly as he brushed the screen of the iPhone, then his hand moved to Jane's and rubbed the top of her hand gently. "I…don't know what's going on." He looked at her. "We know each other, don't we?"
"We all know each other. "Jane said softly. "We're all friends, all family." She leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. The yellow iPhone appeared around his waist.
"You hear that Mal?" Ben asked softly. She smiled at him and nodded a little. He looked to Evie. "How about you Evie? Ringing any bells?"
Evie bit her lip. Some of it did but Ally and Aziz hadn't been able to convince Doug the way they had everyone else despite the ties he had to the command center like Jane and Fairy Godmother.
They heard footsteps and they turned to be approached by a bunch of strangers. Mal recognized some of them from the bandit encounter earlier in the woods. "Not you guys again." The purple haired girl said with a roll of her eyes.
"A couple of you owe me something." He stated with a look between Evie and Amy. "And I intend to take it."
"Jerks like you we can handle." Aziz warned him. "So back off right now."
Some of them laughed as they got a look at Ally, Jordan and Audrey. "Look, they went out and got new friends I guess." One of them remarked. "More to go around."
One reached for Amy. Mal tried to get in the way but he shoved her to the ground hard. Before either sister could react Ben was in between them now. "Back off." He demanded with all the authority of a king. Too bad that it didn't matter to them.
Another reached for Audrey and Jay didn't even hesitate. He stood up and gave him a good, stiff uppercut. Aziz brought his elbow up hard into the guy who tried to reach for Ally. One tried go for Evie but got kicked in the chest hard by Lonnie and Will.
"You all really want to make an issue of this?" One guy asked as he looked Lonnie over.
"I think it's time to see how badly you really want to push things." Will responded. With that from within his own robe he withdrew a curved dagger of his own, it shone in the waning sunlight of the forest. "Next one to approach any of these people will get this thrust into their gut."
"Oh, wicked." Mal had to say with some glee. "I like that."
"Bro, that is so neat." Jay agreed with some amusement. Audrey now stood beside him and looked as ready to fight as she could ever be without having her powers for protection. Everyone was ready to defend themselves and each other, even though Mal still had Amy close to her.
Lonnie looked to Evie. "Are you okay?" She asked. Evie saw such earnestness in the Asian princess's eyes and it reminded her of the friendships she had formed with Audrey, with Ally, with Lonnie. The increasing sisterhood between her and Mal. And she remembered the two other important people in her life that couldn't be there at that moment; her massive crush Doug and her older step-sister Snow White, who bore no ill will to her because of the Evil Queen's actions.
"Lonnie." She gasped and hugged her friend tightly. Her blue iPhone appeared in her right hand. "What's going on?"
"We'll tell you after we've gotten some privacy." Lonnie promised her.
The two girl's reunions was not distraction enough for the others. They were too gripped by the wicked looking dagger in Will's hands. "So how about it guys?" He asked them with a thin smile. "Feel like taking your chances?"
"Rolling the dice?" Jordan added with a wicked smirk of her own.
Amy clung to Mal a bit as she watched the situation but the fact they were still debating trying to hurt them all anyway made her feel kind of angry. Her eyes flashed red on and off. Mal's meanwhile were shifting between green as well.
They couldn't quite be sure if it was the glow of power in the two twin girl's eyes or if it was the blade in Will's hand or if it was the aura of power and certainty that seemed to permeate the team of warriors, or perhaps something more. Maybe all or none of those, but whatever it was the group of bandits were smart enough to back away from them.
""Where'd you a wicked looking blade like that Will?" Jay asked him, still sounding kind of impressed.
"A gift when I got my black belt." Will answered with a grin.
"Ben…I don't…what's going on?" Mal asked him. Her memories were still struggling to return but it was clear they were trying. Ben squeezed her hands softly but looked to Ally and Aziz, the ones who had been able to figure it out since the start.
"We're not quite sure how yet, but your mother cast a spell that reversed time to a point that Ben never made his proclamation to give the kids of this place a second chance." Ally explained to her in her soothing British voice; Amy kind of liked it, it sounded nicer than a lot of the incessant noises and jabbering they could hear on the isle at any given time. "As a result of everything that was supposed to have happened didn't happen, except for Aziz and I getting together."
Evie was the one who pieced that together then. "So because you guys would end up together regardless the spell's effect bypassed you guys." She reasoned. "Without the first criteria to take out of your minds, it didn't even bother messing with them."
"Sounds like a flawed spell to me." Carlos tried to joke.
"Far from it." Jordan said sourly. "It was strong enough to even scramble my memories, and as a genie not too many spells will do that to me."
Mal looked to Ben. "It was strong enough to separate us." She reflected softly. "I'm so sorry about that Ben." She hugged him tightly, laying her head on his chest. "I should have been able to resist this better, to come back to you on my own."
"You can't blame yourself Mal." Ben said reassuringly as he stroked her hair softly. "Besides, after you rescuing me from Nerissa's control I owed you one anyway."
"I know mom is powerful." Amy voiced now, which kind of surprised them all since most of them didn't even know who she was. "But mom isn't that powerful, especially here on the Isle of the Lost."
"She didn't cast the spell here on the isle Amy." Mal said to her twin sister. "And come to think of it she probably didn't cast it on her own. She probably had help from Nerissa and Paradias."
"Who's Nerissa?" Amy asked. She had never heard of her, at least to her knowledge.
"She's actually the one who cursed Ben's father Adam into the Beast." Evie explained to her. "She was hoping to use Adam in the plans she and Paradias had but that was forced upon Ben after Belle broke that curse."
"Who are you anyway?" Audrey asked Amy. "I thought that no one here had siblings."
"I guess you happen to be wrong." Amy said a bit confrontationally. "I'm Mal's twin sister; she's older than me by a matter of minutes." She took a step toward her. "And don't let my size fool you, I am just as dangerous as she is, so don't get in the way of Mal and Ben."
"Hey, easy." Mal said to Amy with the sternest voice she had ever used on her. In truth that didn't say much in the long run. "Calm down Amy. Audrey's my friend, whatever differences we had when we first got to Auradon are long buried. She's my second in command now." That last one was a bit of a revelation to her as well since her memories were only just returning but even as she said to her sister she knew it was true.
Amy looked to her sister sharply only to see the truth in her eyes. Everything she had seen in her visions about her sister and their friends arriving in Auradon was truly in the past. She knew she was going to have to remind herself of that for a little while, but if Mal could see Audrey for something better than she would try too. "Sorry." She said to Audrey. "So many conflicting things in my head right now."
"I understand that one." Audrey promised her. "We have to break that spell your mother has over everything."
"Hey hold up." Amy said. "All of you seem to have recovered your memories and mine have been fighting the spell for a while now." She looked confused. She was still at that stage where she hadn't had the time to learn about magic the way they had. "So what's left to do?"
It was Jane that filled in the gap on that one. "No other student or faculty member, aside from my mother Fairy Godmother, would remember us. They'd be unaccepted strangers instead of accepted students when we return." She filled in.
"Oh." Amy said softly, almost sadly. She didn't want them to leave again but she couldn't stand in the way of their new lives.
Mal wrapped an arm around her sister's shoulders and hugged her softly. "And we might just need all of that stored up trust and good will if we're going to convince them to take in another villain kid, especially when she's the expected trouble maker of the evil Maleficent." She said with a teasing menace in her voice. Amy laughed.
"Just what we need, another kid from here." Audrey remarked and Amy was about to bite back when she saw the smile on Audrey's face and the humor in her eyes as she added, "Even if she does have pretty colored hair."
"Time to get back to Auradon then." Ben said and he smiled at Amy now. "All of us."
They started back into town and Amy gasped, "Oh, I forgot, I should show you…" She started but was interrupted by movement. They all turned to see the town mostly deserted for a moment before large shadowy creatures with horns and tails and swords formed in front of them. "What are those?" She asked.
No one had any answers. Jay was the first to try to attack but he slipped right through the strike. Will tried to stab another one with the knife with the same results. That same insubstantiality didn't apply to them as they struck the two boys hard.
Evie looked to Lonnie. "Can we transform?" She asked.
Lonnie shook her head regretfully. "No. Our powers are down until we can take the iPhones, the wand, and Ben's weapons and resynch them to the morphing grid." She explained. In truth it was a bit over her head but she could see that Evie understood each word perfectly.
"I wish we could use magic here." Jordan said in a whisper to Jane and Mal. "I don't even know what these things are, let alone what we can do stop them." She wasn't sure they could get out of here now.
"They're a breed of creatures called Heartless. Somewhat antiquated creatures I used to have some command over, lost it until recently." They heard a familiar voice say from the back. Some of them parted to reveal Maleficent. "I'd suggest asking some of your parents in Auradon about them but you won't be returning there."
"What are you doing here mother?" Mal asked.
"I had to make sure the spell continued to function, though I didn't think your little prince and the Auradon brats would show up here without powers. The failsafe I had just in case something like your two little friends over there happened." She gestured to Aziz and Ally.
"You took Amy away from us." Jay said with a dangerous narrowing of his eyes. "You stole our memories of her away."
"If you four had done your mission the way you were supposed to then you would have never known about that." Maleficent stated as she glared from Jay to Carlos to Evie before settling in on Mal. "That was your own doing."
"You really are a terrible excuse for a mother." Audrey snapped. That surprised Mal just a little and Amy quite a lot.
Maleficent laughed. "Coming from you that's rather rich." She commented and then unleashed a stream of energy at the group, sending them reeling. As they struggled to get up they were surrounded by the Heartless that Maleficent had summoned. They forced the teens to stand and held their arms. Two of them had even done the same with Amy despite her not having any known powers. Though Amy could have tried to attack them she suspected she'd have the same luck as Jay and Will.
Maleficent strode forward, completely disregarding Amy's presence as she truthfully had more often than not in her life. She stood in front of Mal, with Evie and Ben on either side of her. "You and all of your little friends have caused me enough trouble. Tonight all of your ends have come." She promised.