She didn't expect to wake up. She especially didn't expect to wake up there. All around her, a clean sterile white room, more clean than anything in Auradon could ever get. She couldn't feel any trace of magic, or any trace of malice, but the loneliness of the place made her feel uneasy.

"Where am I?"

As soon as she spoke, the room itself seemed to come alive. "State your name and purpose," A voice from within the walls spoke.

"My name is Mal," She said, debating whether she should use her real name or not. Everything was fuzzy, but she had a feeling she had to get back to something important. "I'm here—"

"Here to face your fate," The walls seemed to say and echo all at once.

A scale appeared from the wall, a golden feather on one side, light and airy and barely tipping the scale in the least. Mal stepped forward, and then stopped, a sword lay buried in her chest. A simple note on the other side of the scale:

Place Heart Here

Without a doubt, she pulled the sword from her chest and her heart came with it, still pierced by the blade. The side with her heart and the sword plummeted down, sending the feather high up into the air.

Mal fell with it, down deep into the darkness. She tried to scream, but the darkness swallowed it up. The darkness swallowed everything up.

When she finally landed, she found herself in the deepest pits of a cave. Spray paint covered the walls in strange symbols, old dead languages and stick figures warning of danger. It didn't take long for her to realize where she was.

She traced some of the old runes on the wall. "The isle really does lead to hell."

With nowhere else to go, she followed the signs that urged her to turn back. As she got closer, a faint humming started as barely a whisper, then got louder the further she traveled.

Voices, living or dead, she wasn't sure, but they were there.

"Show me the way," she said with a wave of her hand, before she remembered there was no magic there. She sighed and kept walking down the path, the voices getting louder.

Finally, she reached a gate. It was locked, but the closer she got, the more the lock disappeared. When she reached the front, it swung open for her with a loud creak.

She took a deep breath and walked through the gates. Behind her, they swung shut with another eerie creak, but she didn't look back.

Mal kept walking further through the path. All around her, things became darker, colder, and silent. Then, a single light in the darkness, a blue flame.

Hades.

As if he was expecting her, he turned as soon as she got close enough.

"Welcome to hell," he said with a smile as he turned, his hands full of dying flowers. "Oh!" The smile fell from his face. "You are not who I was expecting."

"You weren't expecting me?" She asked. "With all your cryptic messages, what else was I supposed to think?"

Hades tried to keep his cool exterior, but Mal saw right through it. "Well," he said, "Usually the fates are pretty accurate in their predictions." He looked her up and down. "This will have quite a few ramifications. I do enjoy upsetting the balance of things."

From there, Mal knew exactly who he had been expecting.

"Well, since you're here, might as well show you around," Hades said, setting the flowers in his hands on fire, without a care in the world where the ash landed.

"Show me around?" Mal asked. She didn't plan on staying, but didn't want to give too much away to the God of the Underworld just yet. Some kind of plan was forming in her head, but some pieces were still missing. "Were those flowers for me?" She asked next, matching his steps and keeping up with him. She even threw a small bounce in, to keep things interesting.

Hades, for being the God of the Underworld, blushed then. Something Mal never expected to see from a villain. "Well," He said. "I suppose if the one they were truly for can't have them, you may keep them if you'd like." He looked down at his empty hands. "You may plant as many flowers as you'd like."

Mal knew if she played him enough, he might let her go. He was soft and malleable then, and she hoped she could use it to her advantage, as she had with Ben before. Only instead of a prince, it was a god. She gave him a small smile and flowers bloomed in his hands again, dry and dead.

Mal took the flowers from him and they fully bloomed in her hands. Large, exotic, multicolored flowers the world hadn't seen for generations. "You must have put a lot of work into these," Mal said as she followed Hades down the darkened path. "You must really love the someone they were meant for."

Hades' steps slowed. "What makes you say that?"

"Well," She said. "Not just anyone would love ancient flowers that haven't been seen in millenia." She gave a wistful sigh. "You must really care about this person if you went through all this trouble to find these flowers."

Silence fell between them as they continued down the path toward another dim light in the darkness. A single lantern in the distance, the lapping of waves on a shore and a single boat. Mal slowed her steps. If she made it across the river, she would never be able to return to the human world again.

Another idea struck her.

"I know you weren't expecting me," Mal said, deliberately slowing her steps to have more time. "But I could be whoever you were expecting. You obviously wanted to give them the world, and I could be whoever you wish me to be."

Hades froze in front of her.

"I would love to be doted on and loved, but I only ask one thing."

She didn't expect Hades to cater to her wishes, but instead he stopped and turned back to look at her. "What is it you request?"

Mal took a deep breath and stood taller, the flowers still in her hands. "I want to go back to the human world," She said.

Before she even finished her sentence, she could see Hades' face fall.

"Now before you say no, hear me out." She requested and for a brief moment, his face softened. "You weren't expecting me, but I know who you were expecting."

Hades raised an eyebrow.

"Let me go back, let me send you who you truly desire and we can both be happy then."

For a moment, Hades seemed to consider it.

"You said it yourself," Mal said next, watching his every move with careful calculation. "The fates are rarely wrong, but they made a mistake here. Let me go back and fix it and set everything right."

With how long it was taking him to respond, Mal wondered if he was even considering it, or if he would never allow it. She held her breath, she barely blinked, she simply watched him for any sign of any kind of agreement.

Finally, Hades turned and looked her over. "While it is a tempting offer," he said, "I cannot let you return alone." It was better than she expected.

"So come with me," she challenged.

For a moment, she wondered if he would even consider the idea. She couldn't remember the last time she had heard that Hades was in the human world. He enjoyed his time to himself, that much was obvious.

Hades took a deep breath, one of mild annoyance. "If it will get the fates off my back." He put out his hand. "Take my hand, child," he instructed.