Even though their group was small, the covert movements through the castle toward the ballroom seemed to take forever. The whole time, Mal weighed her options. So far, they had a plan, but she also knew she could never really plan anything with her mother.

If it came down to it, could she kill?

To save Ben, she realized, she could do anything. Killing her mother would be hard, but it would have to be done. The world had to go back to good, and the evil would have to go back to the isle. For everyone's best interest and safety.

Even if it meant she, as a killer, would have to go back to the isle too.

She made her plan as they walked down the deserted castle hallways. She knew what had to happen as soon as they entered the ballroom. She had to do it, she had to protect them all.

Even if it meant putting herself in danger.

As soon as they reached the ballroom, she extended her hand out to them to stop them. She put her finger to her lips to quiet them down.

It was now or never.

When they entered the ballroom, nothing was as she expected. Her mother stood in the middle of the cracked tiles, holding a magicked image of her, as Ben looked on, magicked too. Behind her, the friends and classmates she had gathered, but the same ones she knew couldn't do anything to help.

"I'm sorry," she said to the rest of them behind her. She rushed through the double doors and threw up a magical barrier to keep the rest of them out.

She turned toward her mother then, to look at her for the first time in months face to face. The last time she had run. There would be no running this time. She ignored the pleas of her friends behind her, Evie's the loudest, and stepped into the inevitable.

Between her and her mother only one would survive. Only one could survive.

For a brief moment, before her mother realized she was there, everything was perfectly frozen. Her mother, tormenting Ben by doing all manner of torture to whoever she had maficked to look like Mal.

"Enough!" She shouted, the magic surging behind her words and zinging around the room.

Her mother turned to look at her. First a look of shock, and then a smile, devious and dark. Mal focused on Maleficent. She would crumble if she looked to Ben.

Fragile, beautiful, human Ben.

"The prodigal daughter returns!" Her mother said with a menacing smile. She let the fake Mal fall and the magic fell away in a cloud of dust, one of her maids on the floor still carrying the very real injuries. "We couldn't have the party start without you."

She didn't have to look toward Ben to know the magic had broken from him too. "Mal!" He said, his voice light and full of hope. She didn't dare look at him.

"This is between you and me, Mother!" Mal said. "Let the innocents go."

Her mother tsked. "You used to so enjoy watching innocents suffer." She looked to the maid and Ben, but Mal kept her eyes trained on Maleficent. "What has Auradon done to my little trouble maker?"

"It's alright, dear." She said next. "We villains know that sometimes setbacks happen." For a moment, if Mal were more naive, she might have believed her. Maleficent pulled the maid, in and out of consciousness from her injuries up from the floor by her hair. "Kill the innocent here, and I will let you into my good graces again." She looked toward Ben, but Mal refused to follow her gaze. "Heck, kill both of them and I'll make sure you are always my second in command, the Princess of Darkness, since you're so fond of titles now."

If she were more naive, Mal would have fallen for it. If she hadn't been in Auradon and experienced all she had, with Ben and the other AKs, she might have taken the bait. It was too late now. "Let them go, Mother," She said instead. "This is between you and me."

"Fine," Her mother relented. "But only because you asked with such a force that it gave me chills." She shoved the maid forward and she stumbled before making her way toward the open double doors out of the ballroom.

Mal didn't look to Ben to see if he had followed. She couldn't, but she hoped he wouldn't linger longer than he had to.

"Ah, ah, ah," Maleficent said, pulling Ben back by his sleeve. "Not so fast there, Benny Boy." Her gaze focused on Mal once more. "Are you sure you don't want him front and center for the magic battle I'm sure they'll be talking about for centuries? Especially when I win?" She let out a cackle that sent a shiver down Mal's spine. "You always did know how to play the martyr especially well, Daughter."

Mal stared her mother down, the magic surging through her. "Let. Him. Go." She said. "This is between you and me."

"Fine," Her mother finally relented after a few tense moments. "But don't you want to say your final farewells to your sweetheart?"

It had to be a trap. But the temptation was there.

As much as she tried to fight it, she couldn't escape it. But maybe, just maybe, she could use it to her advantage.

Still, all thought of fear and anxiety regarding her mother stopped for just a moment as she saw Ben for the first time in weeks face to face.

For being held prisoner, he looked remarkably clean, but that was where the only similarities were.

His skin was not as clean as it had been before, not nearly as smooth. His eyes were deeper set, like he had seen things that had hardened him to the world. His clothes were well put together and he was clean, but he wasn't King Ben level of clean.

His hair was flat and his eyes were dimmed. He was still Ben, still human, but time had changed him, just as she was sure it had changed her.

Still, for that brief moment, she savored him. She savored every small hair that was out of its usual place. She savored, his clothes, hanging off of him in some places and too tight in others, looking like another man's clothes entirely. She savored his face and the scars she could see, the ones she couldn't see deep inside that he tried to hide too.

She knew the moment couldn't last forever. She couldn't make it last forever as much as she wanted it to. She was way past the amateur magic that had frozen everything at the school dance.

For a brief moment, she lamented that they would never have sweet moments like that again. She lamented that they would have to grow up and be grown ups when it was all over.

That is if she survived.

"Mal," he said. The first one to break the silence between them, the unnatural silence that was out of place in every way. "Mal, I love you."

There were so many things she wanted to say in that moment. So many things she knew she couldn't say simply because there wasn't enough time.

"Boring!" Maleficent shouted, just as she used to when she was a lizard. "Snoozefest over here." The moment was ruined. "I give you a last few moments and that's what you give me?"

At least her mother was distracted by her own banter. "Ben," Mal said next, over her mother's banter. "I'm sorry."

She pulled him to her hard, kissing him like she needed him to breathe, kissing him like he was her last lifeline. At that moment he was.

When her mother least expected it, in the middle of making wrenching sounds, Mal cut off the kiss and shoved him away hard. Once he was completely free of her, she threw up another forcefield between him and her and her mother.

The last thing she saw before she turned back to her mother was Ben, on the floor, knocked back onto his hands, staring up at her, a deep sadness set behind his eyes.

There was no more time to think about Ben.