Chapter Eight

A/N: I do not own anything other than my OCs when they come out to play. Everything else belongs to Disney or the Greek Myths!

*blows horn in celebration* Guys, we made it to one hundred reviews! Thank you all so much, it's amazing that we've gotten this far and we haven't even hit ten chapters yet! And trust me, things are about to get interesting!

Katt Kiki: Yeah, Belle's about to learn all.

Tracie Adams: When isn't Audrey a problem?

OceanBlueSeaEyes: I can promise that Jay will become friends with Mal, I wouldn't make it so that wouldn't be a possibility. And yeah, no way would Mal stand a whole year without her friends even if she made friends in Auradon. Ah Adam and Leah, and even Audrey, I don't think they'll change. Or at least for now. Change will come for them at least, Adam first though.

danifan3000: Audrey always struck me as the type of person who was nice around other people so that would be why Ben always thought her to be nice.

AmethystDragon14: Yay! Of course Ben would give Mal a present on his birthday, just to make sure she didn't feel left out! He's probably my favorite character to write so far! Ah yeah Audrey…at least she can change with age right? And as for the bad feeling…it's because you know me :D

61394: I will say that a royal will be going to the Isle soon…but I don't think it's who you think it will be.

CrystalKaouri: Oh I'm so glad that you liked the chapter! Yeah the usual headaches are forming but what would a story be without them? And you got it right, it was Chad with the curly blond hair. As for Adam, in the books, he described Chip as someone who was always getting into trouble and stirring things up when Ben pointed out that half of their castle staff signed the petition that the Council of Sidekicks was presenting and Adam blamed Chip for that. And ah the mischief—yeah Ben would not thank them lol :D

Anonymous Reader: Of course Ben would do that! He's the best!

Hufflepuff24: I'm not all surprised by Leah having her claws in Audrey but yay for Mal starting to come around to the word 'friend'!

SnowWhite45: Oh I'm so glad! Though I do have to warn you, the 'feel good' part might come to an end soon. But Ben and Mal as kids is the best! As for chapter total…I'm thinking 70?

IWantColouredRain: To be fair to Belle, she is juggling being Queen with raising two kids and yeah Beast is horrible but at least he didn't pull a Leah and be horrible to Mal's face.

AvatarUzumaki: She almost did make a scene until I remembered how much I hate writing for Leah so I axed that scene right out of the fic lol :D

Guest: True but we can always count on Ben to save the day!

twilightgirl587: Ben's just a sweetheart isn't he? And yeah I can sympathize with Elle, I was the invite that only happened because everyone in my class had to be invited too my classmate's end of school party when I was in 5th grade. No, no betrothal contract so no need to worry about that. Ben and Audrey are just friends here. As for Leah learning that Mal was there, well Persephone has started the process to adopt Mal so that might have led to some of the discovery :D

cass585339: Ask and you shall receive! :D

Hope you guys enjoy this chapter! Let me know what you think! :D

Mal looked at Belle, feeling more than a little nervous. Even if Lady Steph was in the room with her, it was still nerve wracking.

After all, this wasn't just Benny's mom. This was Belle. Everyone on the Isle had heard the stories that Gaston had shouted to crowds in the taverns, even if they didn't want to. And the taverns were by Ursula's Chip Shoppe so Mal had heard plenty of his stories considering the moron didn't believe in keeping his voice down to prevent eavesdroppers. So not only was Mal was in a room with Belle, she was in a room with the High Queen of Auradon.

Also known as the woman who had the power to send her back to the Isle, no matter what Lady Steph wanted.

"Is there anything I can get you Mal?" Belle asked, a smile never leaving her lips as she looked over at the purple haired girl.

Mal shook her head. "I'm good."

"Are you sure? You're my guest after all and the last thing I'd want is for you to go without."

Uh huh. And that's why the Isle's the way it is, Mal thought with an inward sigh. But she didn't say it out loud.

Not only would Lady Steph probably not be happy with that response but there was a chance that Ben would hear how Mal spoke to his mom. Mal could handle him being mad, she almost expected it, but she could not handle the puppy dog eyes of disappointment.

Not after she'd already experienced them once this week after accidentally dog-earing a book he'd lent her.

It wasn't even as if she'd meant to do it on purpose! It'd been on her bedside table and had gotten knocked off when she was getting ready for bed.

Still, those eyes…Mal lived on the Isle and even she didn't want to experience those eyes ever again. Hence the not speaking her mind at that particular moment. She knew that it would get back to Ben and Mal would be subjected to those eyes again.

"I'm sure Queen Belle," was what she opted to say, Lady Steph having worked with her on honorifics and when it was best to use them.

Belle smiled and shook her head. "You don't have to use my title here Mal. Not when it's just the three of us."

"But Lady Steph said it's rude not to," Mal explained. "And you know, you're the High Queen so I'd rather not get kicked back to the Isle just yet for insulting you."

Belle paused as Persephone sighed, looking as though she was resisting the urge to pinch the bridge of her nose.

"What?" Mal asked, seeing the look on Persephone's face. "You said honesty was important, Lady Steph. Besides it's not like I said anything that was insulting."

"Well regardless, you don't have to worry about that," Belle said, accidentally speaking over Persephone as she opened her mouth.

I'll have to apologize for that later, Belle thought as she noticed she'd done that. That was rather rude of me and it won't help our alliance with Olympus if I anger Persephone because then I anger Demeter.

"In fact, I wanted to talk to you about the Isle," Belle said as she looked over at Mal.

"Why?" Mal asked, furrowing her brow.

"Well because you'd know what it's like, what the people need—."

"No, I mean why now? Why do you care now? Not much has changed on the Isle in like five years from what I've heard," Mal elaborated and then tilted her head, as if doing the math. "Yeah five. Cause I was born four years after the Isle was created and I just turned five so the Isle's nine. Right Lady Steph?"

"That's right," Persephone nodded and Mal couldn't help but beam at the thought of getting the answer right.

I've been hanging around Benny too much if I'm feeling pride at a correct answer, she thought.

"We've always cared about the Isle," Belle said.

Mal rolled her eyes. "Cared enough to put posters up reminding us to be 'good for goodness sake' right? All those things are good for is target practice."

Belle sighed but tried to keep her composure. After all, she'd had the feeling that the meeting wouldn't go exactly the way she'd planned.

Hence why she scheduled it during Adam's council meeting. It was one thing for a five year old to get off topic or distracted—they were five after all—but Adam might see any attack on the Isle as an attack on him.

"Why don't you tell me about the Isle? About your friends?" Belle said as she sat down. "You've made friends with Ben so I know you probably have loads of friends back on the Isle."

Mal glanced over at Persephone, who nodded slightly. They had agreed to not go into what was wrong with the Isle but if Belle was asking, that was a horse of a different color.

"I don't have friends. I have allies," Mal said.

"Oh…yes Ariel had mentioned Elle had asked about you using that phrase," Belle said. "Why?"

"Because friendship is for the weak," Mal said and the matter of fact tone coming out of the five year old's mouth broke Belle's heart. "If you have friends, you have someone that other people can hurt to get to you. Maleficent told me that alliances are the only thing that matter because if you have those then you're safe. Even if someone double crosses you, they end up getting hurt themselves because then they lose any alliance that they were part of."

"But surely that's something only the adults need to worry about," Belle said. "What about the kids? What do they do for fun?"

"…I thought you were supposed to be the smart one?" Mal asked as her ankle throbbed. All sense of holding her tongue went out the window with that. "We barely have enough food to survive, we're not exactly in the market for friends or fun times."

Belle stared in shock. "What…what do you mean?"

"I believe I told you, Queen Belle, the day Mal met Prince Ben, that you would see the same results from Mal's x-rays on any child of the Isle," Persephone spoke up. "If you want to talk about the death rate, it's—."

"It just hit one hundred," Mal said, her voice soft as both Persephone and Belle looked over at her. "Today…today was a barge day wasn't it?"

"It was," Persephone nodded. Hades had been griping about the extra work over the mental link. "But…Mal, how do you know the death count? Has Maleficent been talking to you about that sort of thing?"

Persephone had a feeling that wasn't the case though. After all, Mal was Hades' daughter and Hades was the God of the Dead. It would make sense that Mal would be closer connected to the death of the Isle than anyone else.

Mal shook her head. "I don't know why but I've always been able to…I guess 'sense' would be the right word to use, but yeah I've been able to sense when someone's on the brink. I don't know who they are but if they're close to death, I can tell. I can't do anything about it but I can tell."

"One hundred…one hundred people dead?" Belle whispered and Mal and Persephone looked over at her, both having forgotten she was there. "One hundred Auradon citizens—."

"They're Auradon citizens now? I thought they were just villains?" Mal asked. "After all, that's why we were put there. Except for the kids who were born on the Isle though, what was their crime? Being an annoying baby?"

"Mal…" Persephone warned softly because she could see Belle's face, she could see the horror that the other woman was feeling.

"I…I need you both to tell me everything," Belle said as soon as she was able to form words. "I'll have Adam hold an emergency council session and we'll get everything sorted out."

"That won't bring back the dead though," Mal said and crossed her arms over her chest. It won't bring Harry's relationship with his father back either. At least Hook's only smacking Harry but I know it still hurts him. I just hope that it doesn't get any worse…wait what am I thinking? Of course it won't. Harriet won't let it.

"I know it won't bring back the dead," Belle said and pulled Mal out of her thoughts. "But at least if I know what's going on, we can work to prevent there from being even more dead to join them."

"Hades would appreciate that actually," Persephone said. "The Barge delivery dates are some of the worst in terms of his work."

"That would make sense," Belle said softly. "As the God of the Dead, he would be the most attuned to things such as the death count…"

She trailed off as she remembered the other bit of information that Persephone had relayed to her that day. About who Mal's father was.

Persephone caught her eye and nodded slightly, as if she was confirming Belle's thoughts or just reminding her of what she already knew. But why wasn't she saying anything? Surely Mal knew who her father was…and at that moment Belle decided that it was most likely none of her business and that were more pressing matters to get into.

"I'd like you both to tell me everything," Belle said as she looked at both Mal and Persephone. "Everything that's going on with the Isle. Things our inspectors might not have thought to report to us. Please. I can't make things right if I don't know what's going on."

Mal glanced at Persephone and the Goddess gave another slight nod of her head. With that, it was as if the flood gates opened for Mal. Hey, she might have been from the Isle but she was still five and in pain.

Belle sat in stunned silence as Mal talked, Persephone chiming in on occasion with information she knew but overall it was mostly Mal who did the talking. Finally, after about what felt like two hours, Belle spoke.

"Thank you Mal," she said, her voice soft. "I…I think I need to have a discussion with my husband about next steps but I can assure you, things will be fixed on the Isle."

"If you say so," Mal said with a small shrug. She didn't exactly trust Belle's word but at the same time, she had to have done something right with Ben being who he was.

Persephone nodded. "Thank you Queen Belle. Please let me know if there is anything you need on my end. Testimony or statistics. Whatever you need to speed up aid for the Isle."

And whatever you need to speed up my claim for adopting Mal, she thought. She and Hades were going to talk to Mal about the adoption so it wouldn't be too startling for her, but with the revelation that Mal was able to 'sense' death so to speak, it was probably better if that talk happened sooner rather than later.

"Thank you Lady Persephone," Belle said as they all stood up. Well almost all of them, as Mal was still confined to the wheel chair. "If there's anything, I will be sure to let you know."

Persephone nodded and soon she and Mal found themselves walking along the castle grounds.

"Mal?"

"Yes Lady Steph?" Mal asked, looking up at her.

Persephone took a breath before speaking. "Do you remember the day you arrived in the Underworld?"

"When Uma's uncle found us when we were on our way to the clubhouse? Yeah I remember."

"Well…there's something that he and I want to talk to you about. You're not in trouble," Persephone said, quickly adding the last part on as Mal's eyes went wide. "In fact…I think you might like what we want to talk to you about."

"What…what is it?"

Persephone lightly bit her lip. "I'd rather talk about that when Hades is with us."

"He's leaving the Isle?"

"No, no," Persephone shook her head. Oh how she wished that was possible but it wasn't. "But I have a way of talking with Hades without him needing to leave the Isle. You remember the portal we went through when we came to Auradon?"

"Uh huh."

"Well that portal also allows me to be able to speak to Hades when I'm in my six months in Auradon," Persephone explained. "It works almost the same as a teleconferencing app here in Auradon."

"Oh yeah, Chip showed Benny and me one of those," Mal nodded. "Granted we were bored and I think he wanted to avoid potential mayhem because Emir and Akiho were coming to visit Benny."

Persephone chuckled. She had to admit, she was happy that Mal was making friends here in Auradon—or allies as she would call them. It would make life easier for her should the adoption go through, and there was no reason to think that it wouldn't go through.

Well actually there was one reason but the less thought about her the better.

With a swirl of Persephone's leaves, step-mother and step-daughter (though she didn't know it) found themselves in a wooden area. In all honesty, it was probably Persephone's favorite spot in Auradon because of the privacy it gave her during her portal calls.

"…is it always so dizzy?" Mal asked.

Persephone gave her a small smile. "The first few times, it can be yes," she said. "Let me go ahead and reach out to Hades while you get your bearings, okay?"

"Okay Lady Steph."

Persephone walked over to the portal and found herself thankful that it was full length—it had to be in order for her to be able to walk out of it. But with Mal's chair, there would have been no way to ensure that she was able to see or be part of the conversation.

"Hades?"

"Hey Aunt Steph!" Uma's voice came through the portal.

Persephone chuckled and shook her head. "Hello Uma! What brings you by the Underworld?"

"Uncle Hades was talking about making a restaurant for the Isle that he'd run and he wanted testers for the first bit of food," Uma said. "Harry's here too but he's still eating."

"Well don't stop him, I know you kids need all the food you can get. But speaking about your uncle…?"

"I'll go get him," Uma said. "Just a moment…oh! Hi Mali!"

"Hey Uma!" Mal grinned as she rolled over and Uma's eyes got wide as she saw the chair.

"Is…are you…?"

Mal tilted her head and then followed Uma's eyes. "Oh…oh! No, just six weeks. Don't worry, you and I will be running around the Isle together before you know it."

"Good," Uma said. "Don't mean to run Mali but Aunt Steph is giving me a look."

"I've gotten a few looks like that," Mal chuckled as Uma ran off and Persephone shook her head. It didn't take long before Hades appeared in the mirror.

"Steph!"

"Hello dear," Persephone said with a small smile. Hades always looked excited to talk to her, no matter what he had been doing before she called. "I understand you're going to start a restaurant?"

Hades nodded. "Well…you were the one who gave me the idea. Remember? Maybe a couple of years after Mal got kidnapped and you said I should do something other than stare at the ember all day, looking for ways to get her back?"

Dear…did you not see Mal? Persephone thought on the mental link as Mal stared at both of them with wide eyes.

"Why…why would you be looking for me?" Mal asked and Hades paused as it became clear that, no, he had not noticed the wheelchair bound half fae. "Why would you want to get me back?"

"Memo to me, memo to me, think before I speak," Hades sighed.

Hades, it might be best if we just do it, Persephone thought. I mean I've already started the process for adoption. Belle knows you're Mal's father and at some point Mal's going to meet the other Gods.

Are you sure it's the best time? I mean…wouldn't face to face be better?

Hades, she's already asking why you would be looking for her. I don't think you have time to wait for a face to face meeting.

Hades sighed and looked at Mal, who looked somewhat annoyed at the silent conversation. If she had been standing, odds were she would have been tapping her foot. Persephone was right, there truly was no time.

"The reason why I'd be looking for you…is because you used to live here in the Underworld," Hades said.

Mal shook her head. "I don't remember that."

"Yes well you were a baby when it happened so that might explain why you don't remember it," Hades told her.

"No," Mal said, shaking her head again. "I've lived with the Dragon all my life. I would have remembered living somewhere different."

"Mal, trust me—."

"Lord Hades, with all due respect, why should I?" Mal asked. Hades wasn't going to lie, it was a little strange hearing that come from his own daughter. Auradon must have been rubbing off on her.

"You know what, you're right," Hades said with a chuckle. "You don't have to trust me. But then I guess you wouldn't be getting this birthday present I managed to scrounge up for you either."

"Did Lady Steph tell you when my birthday was? She said she found out through Queen Belle," Mal said, her eyes lighting up in slight interest at the thought of a birthday present waiting for her on the Isle.

Hades chuckled. "Well, no not really. I was with the Fates when they started weaving your life thread."

"Why…why were you…?"

Hades sighed but knew there was no other way to tell her. "Mal…I'm your father."

If the situation wasn't so serious, the confused yet stunned look on Mal's face would have been hilarious.

"You're…you're my father?"

"Uh huh," Hades nodded.

Mal shook her head. "No…Maleficent said my father was weak and human. And you're a God."

"Maleficent also lies," Hades said and Mal nodded, as if granting that Hades had a point.

"Mal, what if Hades told you something only your father would know?" Persephone asked. She'd already readied the photos in her phone in case Mal wanted proof that she'd lived with Hades but they might not be needed.

Mal nodded and then sighed. There was truly only one thing she could think of that her father might know.

"What's my middle name?"

"And here I thought you were going to ask me a hard question," Hades said with a small chuckle. "Bertha."

"Which reminds me, you can change it if you want to," Persephone said.

Mal tilted her head. "But…wouldn't Maleficent just change it back?"

Persephone smiled as she knelt down by Mal. "Mal, sweetheart, your father…your father and I want to ask you something. I know you've just had a lot of information dumped on you but if you had the choice to live with your dad and me or Maleficent, who would you choose?"

Mal bit her lip. That was honestly a tougher question than she thought.

She barely knew Lord Hades and she knew Lady Steph a bit more thanks to their time in Auradon while she'd lived with Maleficent her whole life. It should have been an easier answer.

But…after seeing Benny with his parents, Chip with his mom, Elle with her mom, and even Emir and Akiho with their parents, Mal knew she wanted a parent who wouldn't always have the danger of pain lingering with every interaction. Someone who cared about Mal and not just how she was as an extension of them.

"I…I'd choose you guys," Mal said softly as she looked at both Persephone and Hades. "Yeah. I'd choose you."

Persephone smiled though a hint of sadness could be seen. "Well then…sweetheart I petitioned Queen Belle to adopt you the day we arrived in Beast Castle. Remember the day you met Prince Ben? If the paperwork goes the way it should, you will be our daughter."

Judging by the look on Mal's face, if she had been able to jump out of her wheelchair, Persephone likely would have been greeted with a bear hug to rival those of Hercules.

But the almost face splitting smile was an excellent second option.

As the three of them continued to talk, back at Beast Castle, Belle sighed as she picked up her phone and dialed the number for her husband. After everything that Mal had told her, Belle knew that this wasn't something they could handle on their own.

They'd need to call the council for a meeting—and that would require convincing her stubborn old goat of a husband that it was even needed in the first place.

"Adam?" Belle said as Beast picked up. "Can you come to my office? I…I think there's something we need to discuss."