Truth or Fiction

by ginnyrules27

The Fates have had it. They're tired of cutting all the life threads of the denizens of the Isle while Auradon seems to be unaware of the issue. While they're not supposed to reveal the future, that's never stopped them before now has it?

81. Chapter 81

Chapter Eighty One

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

*ducks* I know, I know! It's been a good minute since I last updated! Apologies for that! Unfortunately with my vacation at the beginning of the month and how long this chapter turned out to be, it's why the delay occurred.

Thanks to LotusQuil for letting me include another one of their chapters from Adventures in Auradon in here! Definitely check out that fic if you haven't already—and speaking of fics how are we four reviews away from 2k? :D

danifan3000: When it comes to canon, there's a lot we have to question imo!

OceanBlueSeaEyes: Cells at Work…why does that name sound familiar? But that's a good point re: Evan and the hair and adoption :D

JaclynnM: Yeah, we're getting closer to that scene you don't like…

Katt Kiki: Freddy gets all the more closer with each chapter!

AmethystDragon14: Yay! Yeah Chad'll definitely kick himself…oh and thank you so much for the help on this chapter!

jessaminego5134: So glad you liked it!

Marcus Emrys: Lol! That image could power my patronus for about ten years, ngl!

jedblack1997: Yeah I think brain bleach will be greatly appreciated after hearing that scene!

61394: In my defense, I wasn't entirely sure how Ava would be received as a character when I was writing WAL so in Choosing I didn't make her as prominent lol

CrystalKaouri: World Princess Week was a great week and I'm glad I was able to update during it! Honestly Natalie will be lucky to be alive after the Gods in the room hear everything she's done. Glad you liked it!

smc: Thanks!

Flaresouth: Ooh that's an interesting idea, a universe where Dizzy was raised as Anastasia's and not Drizella's! If I didn't have so many fics plus ideas on the back burner… :D

Legendary Fictioneer: That's definitely an interesting point and something that could be considered as to why Frollo and Freddy are the way that they are!

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

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Shang went to reach for the scroll in order to begin to read. However, when he reached for it, it moved out of his reach. Frowning, he reached further only to find himself being whacked by a scroll.

"Could someone please grab this thing?!" Shang exclaimed admist his children's laughter.

"On it General," Emma said and grabbed the scroll. At her touch, though, the scroll seemed to calm down.

"…Guess the Fates want you reading this scroll," Neal said.

"Guess so," Emma nodded and unfurled it.

"…why are my sisters hanging around the corner constantly glancing at us?" Alexandria furrowed her brow in concentration. "They're not even supposed to meet me for another thirty minutes."

"Why are we acting weird?" Kitty asked Lucy.

"What makes you think I would know?" Lucy asked her.

Hadie angled his locker, the mirror on the door catching Alexandria's sisters indeed peering at them from the merging hallway.

Malinda chuckled and shook her head. "Thanks girls for looking out for Hadie, but did you have to make it so obvious?"

"I'm guessing you never said we had to be subtle about our looking out for Hadie huh?" Lucy asked.

"Oh, my dad, are you serious?" Hadie rolled his eyes and went back to organizing his locker, smiling as Alexandria dissolved into giggles.

"I don't see what's so funny about making sure our sister and her friend stay safe," Kitty said, shaking her head.

"This is what, the fourth time this week that one of our group's siblings have come around to just spy on us?"

"Not spy, but rather look out for our younger siblings I'm guessing," Rachel said, shaking her head.

"I swear I don't remember it being this bad before Mal and I got into that argument. I shouldn't be surprised though, she always did tend to go overboard with my safety or protection, especially back on the Isle."

"We live on an Isle with people who want to kill you! Of course I'm going to go 'overboard' with making sure you're safe!" Mal said firmly.

Alexandria held back a sigh and pulled at the short, poufy sleeve of her blouse from where it had bunched under the strap up of her bag.

"Ugh, I hate when that happens. It's so annoying," Alexandria said, shaking her head.

Her curiosity had been getting more and more of the best of her. The tiny hints in Hadie and her own siblings dodging any clarification of the obviously less than glamorous lifestyle of the Isle.

Kitty sighed and looked over at her sister. "You know what they say about what curiosity did to the cat right?"

"Yeah," Alexandria nodded. "But satisfaction brought him back."

She wouldn't admit it to Hadie, as Dizzy had asked her not to, but the younger girl had begun to share the horrors of the Isle now that they were closer through the letters they shared, instead of just the bare insinuations Alexandria had always been suspicious of.

Cinderella sighed softly as she heard that. While she was happy that Alexandria was getting to know her step-cousin, she wished her daughter would have come to her with her questions. Or at the very least brought Dizzy's answers to her.

At least that way, she could comfort her daughter if the dark truth was too much for her youngest daughter.

The young princess knew it was only because the Isle was improving, or she'd still have been kept in the dark of the suffering that her new friends had grown up with.

It was Malinda's turn to sigh as Benji rubbed her back. She knew why Hadie likely didn't tell his friends the truth about the Isle. It was why she didn't tell her Auradon friends right away either…she didn't want to take away their innocence that they'd been so privileged to have.

"As much as I'd like my sisters to hang out with me more often, this frequency feels more akin to babysitting."

Both Kitty and Lucy gave Alexandria a sheepish smile. "Sorry Alex."

"It's okay, you're busy," Alexandria said with a small shrug.

"It really does. We're not babies," ranted Hadie.

"You're our baby siblings and therefore you'll be protected," Mal said firmly. "And yes, I speak for Charming there too."

"Apart from some pesky bullies who are more annoying than they are hurtful, I don't really see any threats out here in Auradon. Not at the school anyways. I haven't exactly gotten to go out anywhere apart from when I went to the hospital. And that was months ago!"

"Oh man, that would drive any one of us nuts," Ashaki nodded. "If this happens this time around, we could try to sneak out of school? Jordan's taught me some tricks."

"No you won't!" Emir, Akiho, Aziz, Aladdin, and Jasmine all said at the same time.

"Oh come on!"

"Oh, true," Alexandria hummed, leaning back against the locker in thought. "We really need to coordinate with the others to make a schedule for Spring Break. Even if we don't like Phil's sister, now that his grandmother is gone, it might be more tolerable to go over. His parents are really sweet, so Audrey might just leave us alone if we're lucky."

"Well seeing as I have a feeling Audrey will likely be grounded up until then, I don't think luck will have anything to do with it," Phil Jr. said, shaking his head.

"Yeah, I'd hate to leave Phil out of visiting everyone just because we don't like his sister. Even if it's not like he wouldn't be invited to hang out at anyone else's," said Hadie as he shrugged on his backpack and spun the dial on his locker as he closed it.

"I mean…wouldn't it make more sense to just go to the homes of your other friends if he's still going to get an invite?" Sammy asked. "Then none of you risk an uncomfortable experience and he still gets included."

"I'd happily host everyone myself, but mom only has an apartment and at the moment, I'm trying to avoid grandmother Demeter's farms for as long as possible until mom makes me go."

Demeter couldn't help but sigh as she heard that. She had to assume it was a mixture of what had happened in the previous scroll sealed with blue wax and Hades badmouthing her to his kids. Still though, it didn't mean it didn't hurt to hear her grandson say he wanted to avoid her.

"Not to mention no one is allowed on Olympus that isn't part of the Gods," mused Alexandria as they began to walk down the hall, the pair purposely ignoring her sisters as they walked past despite the twins' loud clamoring to hide.

"True but mom and dad have a home off of Olympus we could all meet up at," Herkie spoke up.

"Herk it might be a good idea to ask mom and dad so they can be prepared for your friends descending on our home," Hyllus said as Macaria giggled.

Once Lucy and Kitty were out of sight, Alexandria let out a giggle. "You'd think the VK's would wear off on them. Play it cool and wave as if it was on purpose or something, y'know?"

"Noted for next time!" Kitty said with a grin.

"There will not be a next time!" Alexandria exclaimed.

"Maybe they were that loud on purpose," Hadie snorted, laughing softly. "Kitty and Lucy have the same dance training as you, plus some years, they would know very well how to be graceful and quiet."

"Thank you Hadie!" Kitty and Lucy said at the same time, giving the younger blue haired boy a smile.

"Together they can be a bit airheaded though," said Alexandria, nodding her thanks to Hadie as he held open a door that led to the study hall.

"Hey! We're not air headed!" Lucy exclaimed.

"You kinda are," Alexandria said with a small giggle at the looks on her older sisters' faces.

"Seems to be the case with all of our siblings," Hadie smirked as he caught Ashaki glowering from their usual study table at her nearby older brother and his girlfriend as they flirted with each other.

Ashaki shook her head. "I like living vicariously through my friends. Not my brother!"

"Is this the day of stalker siblings, or were they here first?" asked Alexandria as she slid next to Ashaki, Hadie taking the other seat next to Evan.

"With Emir, chances are it's 50-50," Akiho said with a small chuckle.

"You're saying that like you don't know you're just as bad," Emir said, shaking his head.

"They were here first," grumbled Ashaki as she aggressively sharpened a pencil.

"Then what's with the glower?" Emir asked. "If I'm there first, it's not like I'm following you or anything!"

"Now we just need part of Evan's horde of sisters or one the VK's checking in, and we'll have collected our lot," Hadie added, pulling out his notes.

"Hey, putting it out in the universe like that could jinx it you know," Malinda said with a small chuckle.

"Emir can stand in for you too, let's be honest," Evan grinned. "Ben and his goons are around so often, they might as well be Harry and Jay 2.0 for ya."

"We take that as a compliment!" Akiho and Emir grinned.

"Of course you do," Ben chuckled.

"Hmm, not wrong," mused Hadie, tapping a pen against his lips before he snapped his free hand out towards Evan. "Ah, nu-uh!"

"What happened?" Ruby asked, frowning slightly.

Evan sheepishly loosened his hand, revealing Hadie's room keys, pouting in protest. "You don't keep much else on you worth nicking! I can't exactly switch up targets, to not be predictable!"

"Oh," Ruby said with a small chuckle as she relaxed. She thought something horrible was about to happen.

Eugene shook his head. "Really? In broad daylight? Come on Ev, there were about five other ways you could have gotten away with that."

"Eugene!" Rapunzel sighed.

"Yeah, well, I don't see the need to carry things like this," Hadie revealed Evan's wallet as he spoke, grinning as he tossed it to him, taking his keys back in turn.

Neal chuckled as Ashaki shook her head.

"Seriously? You tried to swipe something from a VK?" She asked, looking over at Evan. "Especially a VK who was more than likely trained by Jay?"

"The only time I buy things are on my laptop, and I've got my information memorized so I don't need to pull my card out every time. Keys and school stuff is all I need on person."

Jay grinned. "I've taught you well! Can't get your stuff swiped if you're not carrying any stuff to swipe!"

"Bah, well I'm not willing to start breaking into each other's dorms," said Evan, though he pursed his lips into a slight smirk at the thought of an all-out war.

Malinda shook her head. "Okay between Harry, Jay, Emir, and Akiho and now you and Hadie, I'm honestly surprised Auradon Prep stayed standing."

"How many times do we have to say it? We like AP!" Emir and Akiho exclaimed.

"Maybe I'll get you a watch one of these days, just so I can swipe it off ya."

"Good luck with that," Hadie chuckled. "I caught you stealing my keys, you don't think I'd notice you going for my wrist?"

"Oh, my gods," hissed Ashaki, interrupting as the movement of Emir giving Emma a kiss caught her eye.

"Aww!" Alexandria and Dizzy said at the same time.

"I just want to study, not have front seats to one of my brothers simpering over a pair of big goo-goo eyes!"

"First off, I think you might have been around Phil too much," Herkie said.

"Hey!"

"You know I'm not talking about you," Herkie said, shaking his head at Phil Jr. "But also wasn't Emir there first? It's not like he planned on you seeing that."

Their table dissolved into quiet giggles as they watched Ashaki stand from her seat and walk towards the shelves cluttered with each year's study materials. Which consequently just so happened to be in the same direction as her brother.

"What are you plotting?" Emir asked as he looked over at Ashaki.

"Is it something suspicious to go over to the same area you're in now?" Ashaki asked with a small shrug.

For a minute, Evan, Alexandria and Hadie watched as Ashaki studied the shelves before finally selecting a few small books and began to return to their table.

"Okay…she's grabbing studying materials. Not exactly plotting some evil scheme," Aziz said, shaking his head.

Except her motives became clear on her way back.

"Oh dear Gods, do I want to know?" Jasmine asked with a small sigh.

For just as Emir leaned forward to peck Emma's cheek once again, Ashaki tripped. Her recently compiled stack of books flew from her hands and tumbled onto her brother's head, luckily missing Emma.

Aladdin shook his head. "Ashaki, do you have any idea how dangerous that was? You could have hit your brother in the eye, you could have hit Emma with a book. I understand you don't want to see your brother with his girlfriend but you don't get to hurt your brother."

"Yes dad," Ashaki nodded, her voice soft. She knew it wasn't the time to remind her father that her scroll-self was from the future.

"By the Gods!" Emma gasped, her hands flying out to hold Emir by his head, the teen clutching at his dark curls, groaning. "Emir, are you alright?"

"I'm going to guess nothing hurt but my pride but those books can really hurt!" Emir said, shaking his head.

"Oops, sorry Emir!" gasped Ashaki, shakily standing to pluck the books off his shoulders. "Good thing I only grabbed the reference material and not the class textbooks! Not hurt, are you?"

"If you had hit me in the head with the class textbooks, I'd have to kill you," Emir said as he looked over at Ashaki.

Abby snorted. "Can't really kill her for something she'd do in the future though."

"N-no, total accident, right? Just be careful next time, sis," Emir smiled weakly as he handed a final book to Ashaki, one hand still rubbing the back of his head. A light blush colored his cheeks as Emma continued to run a hand through his hair, her gaze never wavering in concern, checking for bumps on her boyfriend's head.

Jasmine sighed and looked over at Emma. "Thank you for looking after my son," she told her.

"Of course," Emma said. "I know Emir would do the same for me."

"Don't worry, Em, these weigh almost nothing! Just a sharp corner bonked me."

"Ah ba ba ba!" Ben exclaimed. "If I have to deal with you being the 'mom' friends then you're being held to the same standards as me! To the nurse!"

"One problem with that Ben. I'm not the heir to my kingdom," Emir said.

"Don't care. You're going to the nurse!"

"I second that," Aladdin said, looking over at his son. "Heir or not, you're my son. That's what I care about."

"If you're sure, Emir," Emma sighed, letting the matter drop. "And you're alright, too, Ashaki?"

"Thanks for asking," Ashaki said, giving Emma a small smile.

"Of course! Why wouldn't I ask if you were okay?" Emma asked.

"Yup, I'm fine!" Ashaki flashed a short smile as she backed away. "Just tripped is all, sorry about that!"

"You're sure you're okay?" Jasmine asked, looking at her daughter.

"Mom, when I get the ability to ask my future self if I'm okay, I will let you know," Ashaki said with a small chuckle.

She rushed back towards her table, huffing as she dropped the books onto the table and into her seat, the trio of her friends smothering their giggles at her serious pout.

Ashaki shook her head. "Glad to know I've got friends who'll laugh at my pain."

"Like you wouldn't laugh at ours," Herkie snorted.

"True!"

"That was mean, Ash," Alexandria pouted while Hadie and Evan continued to silently shake.

"It really was," Alexandria nodded in agreement with her scroll-self.

"What? Nooo, I definitely tripped," Ashaki snarked as Alexandria tiredly shook her head.

"You must be very skilled at tripping then if you can apparently control where the books that you were carrying land as to avoid hurting Emma," Evan snarked.

"You're around my sisters too much if you're that vindictive. I think they're cute!" Alexandria sighed as she glanced back where Emma still fawned over a rather pleased looking Emir.

Lucy nodded. "Yeah, and it's not like they're hurting anyone. They're just being cute…wait a minute, what do you mean she's around your sisters too much if she's that vindictive?"

"If I can handle Chad being a complete flirt, you can handle your brother being in real love."

"Real love? Not 'True Love'?" Kitty asked, teasing her sister.

"Of course not, they're not a True Love until they have an act of True Love," Alexandria chuckled.

"He could at least be more like Aziz or Lil Shang," Ashaki huffed. "Sure, they both could stand to just be upfront with dating, but then it means they're not shoving loads of PDA in our faces! I like Emma, sure, she and Emir are cute together, but is this really necessary?"

Benji snorted. "Sorry Ashaki but when it's between Emir finally remembering he has a girlfriend and him constantly shadowing me, I vote for the girlfriend every time."

"Hey!"

"I like you dude but privacy is nice too!"

"I give you privacy!"

"If it wasn't for Lonnie, you'd still be following me in to the bathroom!"

"I haven't done that since we were ten!"

"Says the one who wants to know everything about everyone's ongoings at any moment," mused Hadie as he took one of the books for himself and began to peruse it for notes.

"Now who does that sound like?" Celia chuckled as she looked over at Dizzy.

Dizzy shrugged. "Hey, who knows people better than a hairstylist?"

"Hadie has a point," smirked Evan. "You stick your nose in other people's business and constantly try to find out who's dating who, or is the detective work part of the fun?"

"Okay Evan, would you want to see your older sisters flirting with their boyfriends while you were apparently trying to study?" Ashaki teased.

"Methinks that it's just that it's one of her own siblings and it'd be weird to live vicariously through them," Hadie laughed.

"Considering Ashaki has already said that, I'd say you're right about that Hadie," Rose chuckled.

"Says the guy who willingly allows himself to be limited to rules designed for anyone under fifteen!" groaned Ashaki. "There are plenty of people who date before then!"

"I'm sorry, do you want to be the person who made Mal and Uma angry at you?" Hadie asked. "Following Rat rules keeps you safe and just makes sense!"

"Go be one then," Evan teased as he stole back his pen from Hadie's stash.

"Don't give her any ideas!" Aziz and Emir said at the same time.

Jasmine sighed. "Boys…"

"Eh, I haven't vibed with anyone yet. That's why I gotta stick with seeing through my friend's eyes," Ashaki joked in return, sticking out her tongue. "In the meantime, part of why I keep an ear to the ground, why people like which people. What might I ultimately end up finding important when I finally find someone?"

"The important thing is that you find someone you have things in common with," Jasmine said. "The first thing that drew me to your father was how he understood how it felt to feel trapped in your own life, to feel powerless that anything would change and that all the decisions affecting your life were being made by someone else."

"That moment, when all thoughts go out the window, you know someone so well, someone just has to ask who's the first person that comes to mind and suddenly their face just flashes before you and your breath is taken away," Alexandria giggled, tossing her hair out of her face. "It's an old cliche."

Kitty chuckled. "Why am I not surprised you're the one who brought that up? You and Lucy are more of the romantics aren't you?"

"No shame in that," Lucy said, leaning over to give Alexandria a high five.

Hadie felt his mind space out as his vision flashed gold.

"Why would it flash gold?" Hadie asked.

"A cliche?" he mumbled as his friends continued to banter around him, shaking his head as he dismissed the moment as Alexandria's lengthy hair.

I knew it! Malinda thought with a small smirk. Now to make sure my little brother doesn't take ages to figure out his feelings this go around…and to make sure dad doesn't chase away Alexandria.

'It's not like I'd know anything about romance. Outside of love for my family and friends, it's not like I know anything about…loving the way my parents love each other.' He tried not to make a face. Sometimes his mom and dad were cute, but sometimes he thought they were overdoing it and kind of gross.

"Good, keep thinking like that," Hades muttered. It was bad enough knowing his little girl would end up with a boyfriend at some point, he didn't want his son growing up too fast.

Maybe in the future he would be able to make sense of it, but at the moment he was only eleven. He wasn't interested in that icky grown-up stuff.

"I think you just made your father really happy to hear that," Persephone said with a small smile. She wasn't going to lie, it made her just as happy to hear that her son wasn't interested in growing up too fast.

'I guess I can always ask Ash and Alex to try that 'cliché' trick on me when we're older,' Hadie thought with a shrug, rejoining his friends in laughter and studying, vision already forgotten. For at least a few more years, that is.

"How many more years we talking about here? 20?"

"Dad…" Malinda chuckled slightly as she shook her head.

About an hour later, sequestered away in a practice room, Hadie found himself almost completely stress free for the first time in his entire life.

Good. That's how your life should be, Persephone thought. How both yours and your sister's lives should be.

The Isle was improving, he was able to see his mom at a moment's notice, Mal was safe, and now he could add the familiar comfort of holding his guitar in his hands once more.

"And now you'll be able to bring your guitar with you when you come over so you don't have to wait for mom to bring it," Malinda said, giving Hadie a smile.

Sure, Hadie missed his dad, but his mom had promised to take him at some point to visit at least face to face over the portal.

"I think looking into young Jane's suggestion about making it possible for Mal and Hadie to turn the portal on is a good one," Poseidon said. "At least that way, they would always have a way to see Hades if they wanted to."

Then there was still needing to make up with Mal.

"We…we haven't done that yet?" Mal asked, tilting her head.

Malinda sighed. "No, sadly. We are, unfortunately, very stubborn and admitting when we're wrong isn't exactly one of our strong points…"

'But that's why I'm here,' Hadie thought to himself as he practiced the chords and scales that he knew. 'To find a way to apologize even if she won't do it first. I don't like the idea of us not talking for so long, even though I said she needs to be the one to do so.'

Mal sighed softly. How is my little brother more mature than I am? Then again…he hasn't had years of dealing with Maleficent and the Isle telling him that apologizing was admitting weakness…I mean yes he's had the Isle but he's had mom and dad to prevent that from being permanently imbedded in him.

As the first week of them not speaking had gone on, Hadie wasn't sure he'd ever admit that he felt worse and worse about the whole thing.

And now I'm even more thankful that you didn't remember the six weeks I hated you after your birth, Malinda thought. I'm thankful I only hurt you once…which is an odd thing to be thankful about now that I think about it.

Hindsight may be twenty-twenty in the end, but all he could do was mull over everything he'd said and wish he'd said it a different way in hopes it had been him and not Uma or Ben that had ultimately saved his sister from the abuse she'd faced.

Malinda sighed. "I don't think there really could have been any way you could have said it differently," she said softly. "I needed to hit rock bottom before I could even admit it, I kept telling myself that I could handle just a few more months…plus you know, everything we talked about during the break."

'Am I a bad brother?

Malinda shook her head. "You're the best brother anyone could ever have, Hads. Never doubt that."

"Yeah mini-cuz," Uma nodded. "In terms of 'bad brothers', you aren't even on the list!"

Harry snorted. "Considering you'd have to be worse than Zevon and Freddy to be on the list, I'd say there's no way for the little Lord to be a bad brother."

Or is it just because I'm still an Under-15 that she simply doesn't listen as much as she does with Uma and the others? I don't want to be a baby to her forever.'

Malinda sighed. "It…it wasn't that I thought you were a baby who couldn't handle what was going on," she said. "But more that the older kids wanted to make sure we could try our best to keep the innocence alive for the younger VKs…the innocence no one really kept alive for us besides mom and dad."

Allowing his thoughts to continue to churn, Hadie idly strummed, only one ear truly listening as he tried to come up with a song to convey what he wanted to Mal.

"Hopefully your song writing's improved from that time we wrote that song about dad," Mal said with a small chuckle.

It was hard though, still stuck with only five strings, while the chords he'd found fascinating searching AuraTube seemed more in line with the sound he wanted than what he could currently do.

"Why not buy some new strings?" Neal asked. "I know you can buy them online though the quality sometimes is questionable compared to getting them at a shop."

'Might have to talk to mom again about finding a shop ASAP to get her fixed,' Hadie looked down at his guitar with some concern. 'If there's time. Still have to practice and all.'

"I can get you the name of a shop if you'd like," Ben spoke up. "I don't play personally but I know we have at least one music shop that'll sell strings to repair your missing one."

"You know you can tone it down a bit, you don't have to be so helpful," Mal said. "We already trust you."

Ben shrugged. "I like being helpful where I can."

Lost in his thoughts, Hadie began to strum a song his dad seemed to hum all the time. The God avoided all explanations when asked, but while Mal and Hadie enjoyed the song, even going so far as to get Hades to teach them the full melody, their mom seemed to smile sadly. In fact, Hadie noticed that his dad seemed to hum it most while Persephone was gone, or only when it was near time for her to leave again.

More than one set of eyes found their way looking over at Hades in curiosity. A curiosity that earned the adults a glare.

"It's something that is between me and my wife," the God of the Dead said with an air of finality that no one seemed to want to question.

Contemplating all this while still picking at his guitar, his muscle memory easily adjusting his positions like second nature, Hadie didn't notice someone slip in.

"Who's there?" Celia asked, frowning slightly at the idea of Hadie being alone with an unknown entity.

"Oh wow, you're really good!"

"Well at least we know they're not an enemy, they likely wouldn't have complimented Hadie if they were," Dizzy said. She had seen Celia tense slightly and wanted to make sure she wasn't too stressed out.

Hadie's neck snapped towards the door, finding Neal with his own guitar case in hand.

"Definitely not an enemy in this case," Emma said with a small nod before giving her little brother a smile.

"Ah, thanks," said Hadie, somewhat bashfully. "I-I didn't know you played?"

"So what I'm hearing is that we'll have to have a jam session at some point," Neal said with a grin.

"I started taking lessons a couple years ago after seeing a rock concert on TV, though mom and dad said I can't have an electric guitar till my next birthday." Neal pulled the case off his shoulder and carefully laid it on the ground.

"Why make him wait?" Evie asked, looking over at her step-sister.

Neal chuckled. "I can probably answer that Evie. They wanted to make sure I was serious about wanting to learn since electric guitars are more expensive than acoustic ones."

"Do you mind if I join you? The other rooms have already filled up, and this one is so far back most don't know about it, so…"

"Why would I mind?" Hadie asked. "It's not like you're an enemy or anything."

"This is normally your room, huh? I noticed it seemed only barely used compared to the other spotless practice rooms," Hadie shrugged. "Feel free, but maybe you can help me, and we could see if we have any gaps in each other's knowledge."

"Neal having a preferred room has helped if I need to find him for any reason," Emma said, shaking her head.

"May I ask how you learned?" asked Neal as he pulled out his guitar, one the color of caramel, the lacquer coat still shiny and new looking.

"The same way everyone else does…wait, you mean you all don't learn through osmosis?" Hadie asked, chuckling at his own joke.

The son of Snow White was clearly trying not to eyeball Hadie's own guitar, the blue paint chipped in places and varnish long faded from lack of materials to keep it well cared for.

You know…the guitar is kinda like the VKs in a way. Their innocence chipped away and the 'polish' no longer there but they're just as good as the AKs, Audie thought.

"My dad," Hadie answered quietly, looking away. His fingers carefully traced the tiger flame pattern, bumping over where the holes in the varnish were more evident.

"So…is no one going to ask where Lord Hades learned how to play guitar?" Evan asked.

"This is Dulce, by the way," Neal quickly changed the subject, hooking the straps onto the guitar and pulling them over his head. "Do you have a name for blue there?"

"You know I'm not going to lie, every time you say the name of your guitar I get hungry," Phil Jr said as he got up to grab some of the snacks from the snack table the Fates had provided during one of the breaks.

"Irtyu."

"Bless you," Emir said, causing Aziz to shake his head.

"Ear-true?" Neal furrowed his brow, not trying to make fun of the name, but clearly having difficulty with the pronunciation.

Hadie chuckled softly. "I mean…you're not far off."

"Ear True makes it sound more poetic than it is," Hadie laughed. "Dad says it's a type of blue in Egyptian, so I basically call blue here, Blue, just in another language. Where did you get Dulce from?"

"I mean, not that I'm upset that you guys aren't laughing but…why aren't you laughing?" Mal asked. "I was prepared to defend my brother's name choice."

Chip shook his head and pointed to Ben. "When your little brother names his stuffed dragon 'Flamey' because dragons shoot fire, you tend to accept all name choices."

"I was three!" Ben and Benji said at the same time.

"And extremely uncreative."

"If you mean the name, I got it from Ky and Qullana when they were arguing over it. It's a type of sweet where they're from, sort of like caramel, and I thought it sounded cool."

"So basically you both named your guitars after the color they were, only in a different language," Emma said with a small chuckle as she shook her head.

Neal dragged over a stool and sat himself down before Hadie caught him suddenly stare and blink at Irtyu in surprise, immediately hopping back off the stool to peer more closely at the old instrument.

"Um Neal? You know you've seen a guitar before right?" Ashaki asked.

"What?" asked Hadie, pulling his guitar close to his chest, suddenly self-conscious.

"I don't blame you for that, mini cuz," Uma said, shaking her head.

"I just realized you've got only five strings! Do you know what weight you're using? I've got a few extra sets, because I used to break them all the time when I first started."

"You know you could have just said that without the creepy staring right?" Emma said as she looked over at her brother.

"I'll be sure to inform my future self of that," Neal snorted.

"R-really? I'd appreciate it! And no, I-I've no clue about weights. I've actually never broken a string on this, it's just been like this ever since I got it."

"Honestly, who tosses a guitar with only five strings if they could be easily replaced?" Uma asked, shaking her head.

Mal shrugged. "If it meant I could get a nice thing for Hadie while we were on the Isle, I wasn't going to question it."

"Huh? How long have you had it?" Neal asked as he ruffled back through his guitar case, pulling some small cardboard squares out. "I tend to break one string at least one every six months if I'm honest."

David chuckled. "Why do you think we bought you more than one pack of strings when we'd have to get it replaced?"

"They were on sale?" Neal asked with a shrug. "Mom usually buys the guitar stuff with her reporter salary rather than the treasury…"

Snow chuckled softly. "That's because the treasury is for all the kingdom whereas my salary can be used to spoil you kids."

"S-since I was five," Hadie mumbled quietly before pondering. "I wouldn't be surprised if my dad or mom managed to do a small bit of magic to preserve it. I dropped it down the stairs once and it didn't even crack. But the missing string has never been there, I've only played with the five."

"I mean…it is possible," Fairy Godmother said. "The barrier only blocks out evil magic and if magic is being done to preserve an item, I think it might be safe to say it's not evil."

"That sounds useful, I'm kinda jealous," laughed Neal as he walked back over, gently holding a hand out to take Hadie's guitar.

David sighed. "Do I want to know why you're jealous of that?"

"Probably not," Neal told him.

Hadie glanced at Neal's hand in trepidation. While he'd grown to trust his new Auradon friends, his guitar was literally his most prized possession…

"But I mean…you've let Lia and me touch your guitar and Neal seems like a good guy," Dizzy said, tilting her head slightly.

After a few seconds, Hadie slowly handed Irtyu to Neal.

Neal couldn't help the feeling of pride that filled him as he heard that, knowing that he could be someone Hadie could trust with his most prized possession. Trust being something that didn't come easily for the VKs and understandably so.

The boy smiled slightly and carefully placed the guitar on the floor and before kneeling over it, Hadie joining him to see how to replace the strings.

"You could probably find a video on AuraTube on how to replace the strings but sometimes there's nothing better than seeing it happen right in front of you," Neal said.

"Here, this set isn't even open, if you're up to replacing all of the strings. I can show you how since I guess you've never had to. Then we can even go over a couple full chords."

"Actually replacing all the strings at the same time is a good idea considering how old the other strings would have to be," David said with a small nod.

"I'd appreciate that," Hadie smiled softly. He wasn't as close to Neal as with the others, but he had a feeling this might be a good opportunity to get to know him more. "Oh, you wouldn't happen to know any proper luthiers in Auradon would you? I really want to get her fixed, polished back up, you know? See if I can't get Irtyu to her full glory."

"I'm sure we'll be able to find someone," Neal nodded.

"And if not, you could reach out to Apollo as God of Music," Zeus suggested. The looks he received told him just what was thought of that idea.

"Yeah, I can give you the number of the guy my parents got Dulce from," Neal said as he slowly showed Hadie how to change the strings. "I know repairing varnish can be tricky, but if we get you in contact with him quickly, maybe by dinner? We can get you the guitar back in a week, tops, three days if you're lucky. It'll cost a lot though."

Emma chuckled and shook her head as she looked over at her little brother. "You forgot about Lord Hades' other title didn't you Neal?"

"I can neither confirm nor deny the thoughts of my future self," Neal said, teasing his older sister.

"I don't think price is a concern, but I'll talk to my mom within the hour then if you want to help me get the process going with the luthier. We'd already spoken about getting my guitar fixed, we just weren't sure where to go."

"Of course price wouldn't be a concern," Hades said, shaking his head. "God of Wealth remember? And Steph would be able to use my assets while in Auradon which I'm sure have gotten a fair amount of interest."

"Sounds like a plan then!" Neal grunted as he stood back up, handing Hadie back his guitar. "We'll need to re-tune it though; I've got an electric one…with...me?"

"What's wrong?" Snow asked, her eyes growing wide in worry for both her son and Hadie.

Neal looked on; face dumbfounded as Hadie began to sing in pitches as the Godling quickly tuned the first five strings. Fingers flew across the fretboard in arpeggios, checking accuracy before he moved onto the new string.

Malinda chuckled and shook her head. "Warn the non-Godlings before you start showing off Hads," she teased.

"This is an 'E' too, right?" Hadie absentmindedly asked as he sharply whistled the two octaves up from the lower E that he already knew was in the right pitch.

"Show off," Neal chuckled and shook his head.

With a final strum and speedy change of his hands, Hadie plucked out the full E Major for the first time ever on Irtyu.

Hadie sighed softly. He couldn't wait until the day his guitar had all of its strings for the first time…or rather for the first time in his life.

Letting out his own whistle, impressed, Neal slowly turned back to his own guitar and sat back down on his stool. "I know you said you've been playing for a while, but I don't think I've ever seen someone check pitch without some sort of tuner before."

"Well now you have," Evan said.

Neal chuckled while shaking his head at his friend. "You know this doesn't count right? I haven't actually seen Hadie do this."

"Eh, counts in my book."

To prove his point, Neal pulled out two tuners, one with holes that somewhat reminded Hadie of a Harmonica when Neal blew on it, the other the electric tuner the dark-haired boy had mentioned before.

"Why have the two?" Harriet asked. "I mean…you'd only use one anyway."

Neal shrugged. "I alway carry both in case one breaks or I'm with someone else and we both need to tune our guitars," he said.

"What do you mean? I used my voice, that's technically a way to check pitch."

"He's not wrong," Lil Shang nodded.

"Yeah, but I've never met someone with absolute pitch before," Neal grinned as he continued to tune Dulce.

"And, as I stated before, now you have," Evan said with a small smirk.

"I don't know what that is," pouted Hadie, trying to resist the urge to pluck away his friend's guitar as his eye twitched to Neal's slow tuning.

Neal sighed. "Imagine how much time you'd save being able to just sing the pitch you're looking for and be able to tune your guitar that way," he said.

"It's pretty rare, being born with it, some take years to develop a facsimile of it," explained Neal. "Basically, you don't need to hear reference notes. You can sing or play a note instinctually, some can even name the note the moment they hear it, down to the half-step."

"Yes well again Hadie is a Godling," Celia said, shaking her head. "Being born with things that's rare for mortals is pretty much their bread and butter."

"I-I didn't know that was a thing," Hadie blushed at the excited tones in Neal's voice. "I just like music."

"You know, if you ever found a book about music, you'd be in hog heaven," Mal said with a small chuckle.

"Well, you're certainly capable of doing a lot with it if you put your mind to it," smirked Neal, firing a text off now that he was done tuning. "I just asked my parents to send me the guy's information, but in the meantime, why don't we go over all the chords and whatnot before we have to head out to meet the others?"

"Up until that last line, I felt fine. So why did I get a sense of dread at the thought of them meeting their friends?" Hyllus asked.

"Because you're weird," Macaria told him.

"Sounds like a plan to me."

Persephone couldn't help but smile at the thought of Hadie getting to have a carefree day with his friends, rather than always needing to be on guard for enemies or other kids who might attack him.

In Ben's office, things were far less carefree.

"What else is new?" Lonnie, Emir, and Akiho sighed while Chip shook his head.

Ben was slumped in his chair, legs jutting awkwardly straight from his seat as he restlessly swiveled his chair back and forth.

Belle frowned as she heard that. As a Queen she knew that there were some parts of the job that could be distressing…but as a mother, she only hoped she could remove the problems her son was facing so that he only had to worry about being a teen.

His hands wrung at the blue beanie Jay had given him what seemed like eons ago, still dressed in worn jeans and a second-hand jacket, without any obvious markers that he was from Auradon thank you very much,

Audie sighed in slight relief. While the jacket in the previous scrolls hadn't indicated that it had the Beast insignia on it, she didn't know if that had changed in anyway.

And the last thing she wanted was for Ben to get hurt.

"Beanie?" Malinda asked, sitting up slightly.

Benji shook his head. "I will never understand your obsession with seeing me in a beanie," he chuckled.

after he had recently returned from a trip to the Isle with Mal and the other VKs so that they could all get Mal her much needed recharge.

Ben pursed his lips in thought. While obviously he'd do whatever he could to make it so that Natalie never came anywhere near Mal, it would stand to reason that the VKs might get homesick. Or at the very least overwhelmed with a culture that was so opposite their own. Maybe they could provide field trips or even overnight trips to allow the kids the chance to see their families again rather than just whisk kids away to never see the people they loved ever again.

Now, arms crossed, Emir leaned against the King's desk as the only other seat in the room, the small couch, was completely occupied by Akiho's lanky form as he draped across both sides with amusement.

"I'm glad I could provide you with amusement," Ben said, giving the blond a look.

Akiho snorted. "Honestly I'm probably more amused that it's Emir giving you the lecture and not me."

"You don't know it's a lecture!" Emir exclaimed.

With her back against the wall, Ashaki texted furiously from her seat upon the floor as she waited for her brother to finish his diatribe.

"…A diatribe is not a lecture!"

In the meantime, Ben would ignore Emir's grilling about the logistics of this Isle trip, with Akiho's occasional input, hence the blond's amusement.

"Why am I not surprised?" Emir muttered.

Since it'd happen before, they had been hoping that Ben had at least come up with a better plan to sneak onto the Isle.

"At least he had more people with him this time," Chip sighed. "I will see that as a win."

At least this time Emir knew so that if anything happened, Emma was aware. Which, as Emir had to add, really needed to be officiated into writing that Emma would be heir in place of Ben's rather than some obscure verbal agreement that only a few people could confirm.

"Huh…that makes sense. With Emir dating the unofficial heir to the Kingdom, he'd want to be more attuned to Ben's comings and goings to make sure Emma doesn't have to deal with too much undo stress," Aziz said.

Hardly something that could hold up in court.

"I mean a verbal contract is still a contract however he's right in that it would be tough for it to hold up in court," Hades nodded.

"I just want to make this as easy as possible for Mal," lamented Ben, interrupting Emir's monologue. "She didn't ask for this, and to have been abused by the very system she'll be brought into… I just want to make it seem like a party amongst friends, not…not a big official event."

Malinda smiled softly and gently kissed Benji on the cheek. "I loved every minute of Cotillion," she said.

"Every minute?" Benji asked, raising an eyebrow.

"…Okay so there was a small bit I could have done with out but the parts you planned were perfect."

"Why don't you include her family in planning then?" Emir wondered aloud. "You've got Uma and Hadie, and a copy of Cotillion goes to Fairy Godmother. You can ask her for another copy so you can still surprise Mal, and maybe get other people's inputs that could make it seem more familiar for Mal than throwing her into the deep end so to speak. Lady Persephone is even staying at the school, I'm sure she would welcome your questions."

"Why not include her family at the start?" Celia asked. "If she's going to be made a Lady of the Court there, having Uma or even some of the Gods helping to plan couldn't hurt could it?"

"I got that copy from Fairy Godmother this morning, printed it out shortly before you guys came in," spoke Ben, lazily waving a hand as Ashaki clambered up from her seat to check the printer.

Aziz shook his head. "So nosy," he chuckled.

"I prefer 'curious' if you don't mind," Ashaki said, teasing her older brother.

"And that isn't a bad idea, I'm sure Uma and Hadie would especially have ideas. Lady Persephone though…She's been perfectly nice, but working with the Gods always makes me nervous, y'know? Mal's mom or whomever need be."

Ben and Benji both flushed as the Gods who were in the room chuckled.

"Don't worry Prince Ben, I won't turn you into a mint plant," Persephone teased, more than a little amused.

"…Good…good to know Lady Persephone," Ben said. "And…and please call me Ben. I think after all this time together, titles are rather superfluous."

"As long as you leave the title off with my name if you don't feel comfortable calling me 'Steph'," Persephone said. "After all, we're to be family in the future."

Emir wandered over to examine the list over his little sister's shoulder, Ashaki slowly running a finger down the paper herself as she slowly perused the schedule.

Ashaki shook her head. "Really? You had to read over my shoulder?"

"I'd apologize for doing so but remember Ash, it's in the future," Emir chuckled.

"Well, look right here," Ashaki tapped at one point of the itinerary. "You need music for the dances, obviously. But instead of the stuffy classical crap, why don't you have her friends create the playlist?"

"That would just be asking for trouble," Malinda said with a small chuckle. "Imagine Cotillion with nothing but pirate shanties."

"You say that like it's a bad thing!" CJ exclaimed.

"That might work," hummed Emir. "That doesn't even have to be exclusively VK's. Lonnie is a DJ after all. We could totally make this Cotillion a perfect mash up of Isle and Auradon!"

"Oh yeah!" Lonnie grinned. "I wholeheartedly accept being DJ for Cotillion! I rocked the hell out of the Neon Lights Ball last year, even with the theme being 'Pretty Pretty Princess'."

"You agreed to that theme!" Audrey exclaimed.

"Yeah but Audrey, it was a repeat of the year before! Mixing up themes won't hurt anyone!"

"How…how do you make neon lights 'Pretty, Pretty, Princess' themed?" Uma asked, looking as if the three words physically pained her to say.

"If anyone can do it, it's Audrey," Jane said; her voice soft but giving the brunette a small smile.

"That's a great idea you two!" Ben hit his hand with a fist, bolting up straight in his seat. "I'll speak with Lonnie and ask Uma if she knows if anyone in their group is musically inclined. I really want this to be a surprise for Mal, so we should all try to keep this from reaching her ears."

"Think you failed there," Harry said with a small chuckle as Mal snorted.

"In my defense, I didn't exactly plan on this being recorded by the Fates and then read," Benji said, shaking his head.

"As long as we outsource to friends to be middle men if others are brought in, we shouldn't have to worry about that," said Akiho from where he still lazed across the couch.

Elle chuckled. "Even when helping Ben out, you still manage to sneak in a bit about delegating," she said.

"It's Ben. He needs as many reminders as we can give him," Akiho told her.

"The real worry is keeping the reporters out still and getting a hold of anything, since Cotillion is televised and all that."

James frowned. "Why have it televised? If this is a dance for children, shouldn't they be able to relax and not have to worry about a gaff being televised?"

"I'm not super worried about that since apparently Lord Hermes is going after the Gazelle, and Fairy Godmother has banned all press from school grounds even for official requests till post Spring Break," Ben said as he twisted in his seat to ruffle through his desk, pen and paper appearing in hand, and he began to make a list.

"Oh if Hermes is going after them then they'll be properly punished," Hera nodded. "After all, the mortals call Hermes a God of Mischief."

"I don't think that's going to stop the class action suit," Zeus said as some of the parents muttered about whatever Hermes was doing not being enough.

"So, change seated menu to a buffet...I'll need to talk to Jane about that, it'll be that extra step to make things less formal. And I'll need to find Uma and Lonnie to figure out music."

"Actually, considering that Cotillion's on a yacht, a buffet might make more sense than a seated menu," Jane said. "Not to mention it'll allow for a bigger dance floor."

"She's got a point," Audrey nodded before pausing slightly. "Buffet style might even save the budget on food which is something we could move somewhere else…like sound if Lonnie's going to DJ."

She rolled her eyes as the AKs stared at her in shock. "What? I like planning things remember? And knowing how to budget is something I'd need to do both as head of the planning committee and as heir to the throne of Auroria."

She left off the part of her being future Queen of Auradon. No reason to stir the pot just yet, even if the contract was still holding on by a thread. It hadn't formally been dissolved after all.

"We're not so shocked at you budgeting but you being nice to Jane," Akiho said.

"Jane and I are friends," Audrey said. "Why wouldn't I support her idea?"

"Let me talk to Jane, seriously, you need to learn to delegate, Ben," Akiho demanded, the King hesitantly nodding before Akiho added, "That way things will get done faster."

Benji chuckled. "I get it, I get it."

"Do you?" Akiho asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Okay...so music," Ben wrote down some notes he knew he wanted to ask Uma.

"Why not have Uma in the room if you've got questions for her?" Celia asked.

"I'm guessing the Shadows didn't find Uma to bring her into the office when they went to lecture Ben about going to the Isle," Hadie said.

"Ah, that's a good point."

"You know," Ashaki piped up, snapping her fingers. "Hadie is into music."

"Really?" Ben asked. "How'd you find that out?"

Aziz chuckled. "My sister has her ways," he said.

"I apologize for nothing!" Ashaki grinned.

"Pffft, I find out about most things going on within the school. And you've got lucky timing on your side it seems," scoffed Ashaki. "Neal found Hadie in one of the practice rooms this morning and they practiced together for a couple hours. Ever since Hadie got his mom to bring back his guitar a few days ago, no one has been able to find him. I haven't heard him, but apparently Hads is really good...I'd trust Neal's opinion because he's the only other one I know that plays."

"I'm sorry, no one's been able to find him?" Mal asked, raising an eyebrow as she looked over at Benji. "Did they employ the use of Jay, Harry, or Uma?"

Benji chuckled. "Not to my knowledge, no."

Ben rubbed at his chin in thought. "Yeah…yeah! I'll see if he'd be willing to play at least for the opening song."

"Opening song only," Hades said firmly. "Hadie deserves the chance to have fun at this dance."

Benji nodded. "To the best of my knowledge, Hadie only preformed that first song," he said.

"Good."

"Well, at least you don't have to worry about changing food, just the service style," Akiho shrugged. "They're used to our options now, so I think you only need to make sure Mal has her strawberries."

"I mean, that was always going to be the case," Benji said with a small chuckle. "Even back when it was table seating, Mal was going to have her strawberries."

"I knew there was a reason I love you," Malinda said before kissing Benji's cheek.

"I was thinking of asking the kitchens to set up a fondue station for sure. Plain strawberries in addition to finger sandwiches with cream cheese and strawberries. Angel food cake. Plenty of whip cream."

"Oooh! Dessert sandwiches sound good!" Dizzy said with a grin.

"Evie, you'd better watch out or Akiho might swipe Dizzy from you," Hadie teased as he saw Akiho perk up at the thought of another sandwich lover.

"Mmmm, dessert sandwiches on top of regular sandwiches? Maybe I need to be titled a Lady."

"…I have…so many questions," Emir said as everyone turned to look at Akiho.

"You don't even know it was me who said that!" Akiho exclaimed before pausing. "Although…it's not a bad idea…"

Blinking furiously, Ben stared at Akiho as Emir and Ashaki cackled. "I should be used to this, and I shouldn't even be supporting your crazy ideas, but…you're already a scion, you could just have a sandwich themed party in general, or for your day of ascension."

"You already know he's going to do that anyway," Emir said as he shook his head, chuckles coloring his voice.

"Yeah, but most 'menseses' parties," Akiho pouted, throwing finger quotations on his latest made-up word, "are stuck up, traditional parties bragging about hunting and serving all the game they can. Ladies can be dainty and have tiny sandwiches. I. Want. Sandwiches."

"But if it's your party, can't you have whatever food you want?" Lonnie asked, biting the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing too much.

The King could only sigh and rub at his pinched brow as he stood from his chair and gathered his things, the Agrabah contingent still laughing.

"Not sure what's so funny," Akiho grumbled. "Sandwiches are great!"

"They certainly are," Elsa nodded as she gave Anna a look. Anna could only shrug since explaining her son was an almost impossible task. Even to her own sister.

"Alright, this is good to start with. I'm going to look for Uma and Hadie. I'll text Lonnie to meet me in a bit too."

"He's still not delegating," Akiho sighed, the joy from the sandwich discussion dissipating from his being.

"Wait," Emir snatched the papers from Ben's hands. "Why don't you wait till tomorrow? Mal, Uma and Hadie are planning to spend dinner and the rest of the evening with Lady Persephone."

"And now the question is how do you know that?" Aziz asked, looking over at his little brother.

Emir shrugged. "I'm friends with Uma and Mal, or at least Scroll-me is, and I clearly get along with Hadie. Plus, like Ashaki, I have my ways of getting intel."

"I want to find Uma before she leaves, then I can use tonight to coordinate with whoever else while Mal is distracted. I want to keep it a secret from her, so if you catch anyone I should talk to since she won't be around, let me know," Ben said, shaking his head.

"Again, kinda failed at the whole 'secret' thing Benji," Chip snorted.

"Yes, they all seriously need family time for the next few weeks, but time is of the essence too. As long as I can get the ball rolling with Uma, I promise to let her take the coordination for that."

"Did he?" Uma asked, looking over at Malinda.

"To my knowledge, I'm going to say yes because that's what my husband is nodding," Malinda said with a small chuckle.

"Alright, as long as you're not trying to do every little thing," Emir said firmly. "You've your Kingly duties now too, on top of school. You can't just add Cotillion to all that. You will let Akiho and I take part of this on, and let us help organize things."

"Because if you don't, then we'll…I don't know what we'll do but I know you won't like it!" Emir said and Akiho nodded.

"Take away his access to the library," Malinda suggested.

"Ooh! That's a good one!"

"Mal!" Benji exclaimed.

"I promise, I'll actually take your help," Ben smiled slightly as gently took the Cotillion itinerary and the newly made notes back from his friend, carefully tearing his notes into thirds.

"Okay what's the next sign of the apocalypse?" Chip asked. "Benji's actually delegating which has to be one of the signs right?"

Lucas chuckled and shook his head. "Settle down, Teacup."

"There's a project I'm already working on and I don't intend to let Cotillion distract me from it."

"Ooh! Tell tell!" Emir, Akiho, Lonnie, and Chip all said; some of them leaning forward in anticipation.

"Oh? Do tell!" Akiho asked as he swung an arm around Ben's shoulders, he and Emir distractedly taking the offered pieces of paper from Ben.

Elle snorted softly. "Some things never change, it's almost like he's distracted by the new shiny thing," she said, shaking her head.

"Nope! For once, I've got a secret. You'll find out soon enough!" Ben dashed out of the room before either of his best friends could comprehend that they'd been denied answers.

"Wha-Ben!" Akiho exclaimed.

He quickly turned down another hall, and another, and another, to ensure neither shadow could follow him.

"Ah we've taught you well I'm assuming," Uma said with a grin. Only a VK would have been able to teach Ben how to lose a tail, especially from someone as determined as his shadows seemed to be.

'It's unfair for us in Auradon to be able to call or visit home at almost any time, while the VK's are completely cut off should they have anyone they care about on the Isle. That's evident from just the first two months in which Mal, Jay and Carlos were here without being able to contact their friends,' Ben thought to himself as he hesitated going towards Mal's dorms.

Ben nodded, his previous thoughts about possibly implementing trips back to the Isle for the VKs coming back to him.

"You know…this kinda goes back to what Jane was saying during the Family Day scroll," Lonnie said. "About melding the two cultures instead of insisting the VKs assimilate to ours. Auradon's a melting pot of so many different cultures already, it shouldn't be that hard to include the Isle."

Instead, he followed his gut and headed towards the gym. Uma was there more often than not. 'In the end, I want them to feel like the Isle is part of Auradon. More importantly...I would like Mal to call Auradon home.'

"When looking for Uma, the gym is probably one of the best places to start," Malinda said with a small smile. "Either that, the pool, our dorm, or the cafeteria. And more likely than not, she's with Harry."

He was just in time to spot Harry and Uma coming out of the gym, clearly fresh from a spar.

"What'd I tell you?"

"Mal…no one disagreed with you," Benji said with a small chuckle.

'But first, I need to get help from her family. And then...then I need to ask certain members a question I've realized I have no business waiting any longer to ask permission for.'

Mal tilted her head. "Why would you need to ask certain members of my family a question?"

"Maybe he's getting dad off the Isle and he has to ask Zeus!" Hadie exclaimed with a grin.

Benji shook his head. "While Lord Hades does get off the Isle, it's not at this point," he said.

"Hey Uma, hey Harry," Ben smiled as he approached the two pirates. "Uma, I have a few questions for you."

"I wonder if Uma will know nothing about any smoke bombs this time?" Jay asked with a small chuckle.

"Hey Benny, what's up?" Uma paused, having not noticed Ben in her desire to head to her dorm. "We were just about to hit the showers; Jay's boys and the cheer squad have the lockers hogged up right now."

"Oh man that locker room is going to smell ripe with the R.O.A.R. team in it," Emma shook her head.

"Jay's boys?" Mulan asked. "I thought Lonnie was going out for the team."

Malinda shook her head. "She hadn't tried out yet. Hence Uma's use of 'boys'."

"I just wanted to ask if you could help me make some changes to Cotillion," Ben began, continuing at Uma's questioning look. "With what's happened to Mal, I want to make it less stressful for her. Less Auradon stuffiness, and blend in some Isle influences?"

"Well you just sold Uma on the idea," Jay said. "Then again, any VK would have been sold with the words 'less stuffiness'."

"Sounds like a good idea to me," Uma and Harry nodded seriously to each other. "Did you have anything particular in mind?"

Mal smiled. "Anything that removes 'stuffiness' is a okay with a VK."

"I've got Akiho talking to Jane about having the kitchen relax things from a menu to a buffet instead. I wanted to see if you or the other VK's would have any ideas, but I want to keep it a surprise from Mal," Ben said, listing a few things off.

"So…should I be worried that scroll-me's being treated to a rant about how Akiho wants sandwiches?" Jane asked.

"I heard from Ashaki that Hadie plays guitar, and was wondering if maybe it'd help if we switched up the music so that it wasn't totally classical and if he'd be interested in playing…or if you know if any of the others in your group is musically inclined. At least for the opening song. I don't want to make you guys just work the whole time. It's supposed to be a party, and you should be able to enjoy it too. Lonnie is good at mixing, so I was hoping to find her and get her on board too."

"Me? Playing? In front of people?" Hadie asked, his head popping up in interest.

"No Hads, you'd be playing in front of Estelle," Celia chuckled.

"A fusion with Lon would be cool, I suppose. And I'm sure Hadie would be willing to play," Uma said after a bit of thinking.

"Between me and Hadie, we'll whip something up that'll knock everyone's socks off," Lonnie grinned.

"He's never really played in front of an audience, but the kid's good. And if it's for Mali…" sighed Uma, clearly not keen on saying whatever she planned to say. "If it's for Mal, I'll help out. Hads has never performed publicly, he might be nervous, so, I'd be willing to…sing…while Hadie plays."

"…You never sing," Mal said, looking at Uma with more than a little shock evident on her face.

Uma shrugged slightly. "As my scroll self said, it's for you Mali."

She glared at Harry and Ben, as if daring them to laugh. Ben noticed her eyes seemed particularly drawn to Harry.

"A spot in the 'Uma and Harry are in denial' club is open for you Benny!" Jay said with a small chuckle.

"That would be great!" Ben opened his mouth just slightly before Harry, unsure if the boy would have a sudden bout of foot in the mouth disease.

Harry shook his head. Why would he have 'foot in mouth' disease around Uma?

"It would definitely help a lot. After all that Mal's gone through, I just want to make it special and fun instead of an event she has to make sure is perfect. Cotillion should be a reflection of her, not Auradon's expectations."

Lonnie shook her head. "That's so sweet, I think you're giving me cavities Ben," she said with a small chuckle.

"That's so sweet, I wanna hurl," smirked Uma as she crossed her arms. "But alright, you've got me sold. You still need to ask Hadie?"

"Careful Uma, you're starting to think like Lonnie," Mal said, teasing her cousin.

"Meh, worse people to think like," Uma shrugged. "And hey, maybe she's starting to think like me."

"Yeah, do you know where I can find him?" asked Ben. "While Mal is having some one on one with her mom, I want to talk with him."

"Hmm, anywhere there's swords or books would be the best first choice," Henry said with a small chuckle.

"You're thinking of yourself Henry," Claudine teased. "Well minus the books."

"Aye," Harry spoke for the first time since the conversation began. "He's off playing with the junior division near the Tourney field."

"The…the junior division?" Macaria asked, tilting her head slightly.

Uma snorted. "He means Melody and Herkie. His nickname for the slightly younger cousins of Godling relations. He's not wrong though, I think they were taking a break from studying and going to spend the day burning energy."

"Ah, okay," Macaria chuckled. "Thanks for the clarification there, cuz."

"…You're welcome I guess," Uma said. While she'd gotten used to the friendly banter, being called 'cuz' by anyone but Mal would take some getting used to.

"Alright, thanks. I'm going to go ask him now then."

"You know I just thought of something," Mal said. "Where's Estelle in this scroll?"

"Probably with you and mom," Hadie said as Estelle yipped in agreement.

"See you on the flipside, Benny!" Uma and Harry waved as Ben headed back down the corridor.

Belle couldn't help but smile at that, happy that both her son and the VKs were able to have a fairly normal moment for teens. Yes she might not have been completely on board with bringing the VKs over but…knowing everything she did now?

'It's nice, getting out of the office,' Ben thought as he stepped outside of the school for the first time in a while.

"Then you should do it more!" Emir, Akiho, Lonnie, and Chip all exclaimed.

'Not that I haven't been, but…getting out onto the grounds without royal requirements or other obligations is nice.'

"So what you're saying is you need a monthly pick up Tourney game," Emir said, nodding his head as if agreeing with himself.

"That's what I heard," Akiho said.

"I heard it too," Chad said softly.

With a deep breath, Ben took in the sharp, clean air. An ear twitched as the twitters of birds reached him.

"That…that sounds nice," Squirmy said softly.

His moment of blank peace enjoyed; Ben shook his head clear before reluctantly moving on with the task he had set himself.

"You know, there's no reason why you can't enjoy your break and then go ask Hadie," Chip said.

'I suppose this technically is a royal obligation, though' reflected Ben as his eyes swept the grounds towards the forest.

"How?" Hadie asked as he looked over at Benji. "Not this 'Prince of he Underworld' stuff again?"

Though the quarry of his search had grown up on the Isle, their hair made it difficult for them to camouflage. Despite all the beanies Jay had, and all the other hats the VKs seemed to wear, Ben couldn't imagine either Mal or Hadie wearing one.

"For the same reason I don't like anyone ruffling my hair! I don't want something catching on fire, especially if it's on my head!" Hadie exclaimed. "Godling or not!"

Mal shrugged. "I tried one of Jay's beanies once, if only to see how he gets all of his hair into it. Wasn't crazy about it."

Whether that was due to pride, or the possibility of their hair turning to fire, Ben wasn't sure.

"With Mal, either one's your best choice," Uma chuckled.

It was something Mal had mentioned being concerned about once though. He had to keep himself from being mesmerized as his imagination began to wander of what purple fire might look like.

Malinda chuckled as Mal brought up one of her lilac fireballs. "It looks like this, Benny," she said.

His eyes caught a flash of color along the tree line, Ben's body automatically reacting and turning towards the group hanging out around the forest's edge. The small group was running about, chasing one another in no discernible patterns.

"What's going on?" Hades asked, his heart clenching slightly in worry for his son.

But to his surprise, Hercules chuckled. "I believe they're playing tag, Uncle. Though I could be mistaken."

"Hadie, wait up!" Ben broke into a jog as he approached the kids, well aware that only his girlfriend's little brother had hair that blue on campus.

"Someone could have dyed their hair," Evan pointed out.

Ashaki shook her head. "No box dye could get anyone's hair that blue," she said.

It was even easier to pick him out of a crowd nowadays as it seemed the Auradon sun, or possibly the boy's developing magic, had resulted in what Mal called an 'ombre' of cobalt and cornflower.

"I'd ask how you would know what an 'ombre' is but I'm guessing it's an art thing?" Hadie asked, looking over at Mal.

Malinda nodded. "It's where either a lighter color blends down into a darker color or vice versa," she said. "You see it done a lot with hair, specifically girls since their hair tends to be longer, but it can be done in art as well."

Not that Ben really understood what that meant.

"Join the club!" Uma said, shaking her head.

By the time Ben had caught up, he froze in fear as Hadie scrambled up a tree and jumped from branch to branch, the other children running along the forest floor with Herkie in the lead. Until a sudden bough lashed around, knocking the wind out of Herkie.

If that's tag, then it's changed a lot from when I was a kid, Hercules thought; tensing up in worry for his son and for his cousin. If someone was hitting Herkie with a tree branch hard enough to knock the wind out of him…

"Herkie, Hadie!" Ben couldn't help but shout in alarm, trying to close the distance as Hadie suddenly fell from one of the trees and onto Herkie.

"…What?!"

"Oh geez dad, I think they heard you on the Isle," Mal said, rubbing her ear.

"Hey Ben, what's up?" greeted Hadie, completely unharmed, from where he was sitting on top of Herkie, the older boy splayed out on the dirt face down, groaning.

Mal chuckled. "Is it possible for you to be more nonchalant there, Hads?"

"I don't know but I can try!" Hadie said with a grin.

"No!" Hades, Persephone, Meg, and Hercules all said at the same time.

"I-is he okay?" Ben asked. "Are you okay?"

"Ben, it's nice that you care but remember they're both Godlings," Melody said. "Say it with me. God. Lings."

Some giggling emanated from over Ben's shoulder. A glance behind revealed Ashaki, Neal and Melody peeking around the trees. Turning back, he saw Evan appear from the other side of the tree that had its branches smashed into Herkie.

Meg let out a small sigh as Macaria relaxed slightly and even Hyllus and Hercules seemed to de-tense at the words. If the other kids were giggling then Herkie would be alright.

"Yeah, we were just playing hide-in-seek tag," Hadie shrugged. "I got everyone but Herkie here, so we made a trap and the branches whiplashed him right in the gut!"

"That might be the only way of taking down a Godling in tag, now that I think about it," Ashaki said.

"That doesn't explain why you were jumping through the trees and onto him…"

"I mean, Hadie's pretty odd. Are you sure that doesn't explain it?" Celia asked.

"Well, I had to tag him, didn't I?" Hadie laughed, before finally getting up off his cousin.

"I didn't know that tagging involved giving your father a heart attack," Hades muttered.

"Ugh, you didn't have to drop from a tree to do that," whined Herkie as he struggled up, rubbing the arch of his back. "What is with you climbing up stuff to get the literal drop on people? Seriously...you and climbing."

Hadie shrugged. "I like being up high," he said.

"Yeah, maybe he's really Tarzan's kid," chuckled Evan.

"How would that even be possible?" Rose asked. "Everyone knows Lady Persephone would never cheat on Lord Hades just as Tarzan wouldn't cheat on Jane."

"I like her," Hades nodded.

"I thought that had died," Hera sighed.

Hades shrugged. "I brought it back. God of the Dead and all."

"Gotta take every advantage you can get," shrugged Hadie once more. "Besides, wasn't that your rule to include terrain, Herk?"

Macaria chuckled. "Hoisted on your own petard there, Herk?"

"Hey now," Herkie waggled a finger at Hadie. "I didn't accuse you of cheating or anything, just that you didn't have to go all out!"

"He's got a point," Harry nodded. "Even when we spar in practice on the ship, we don't go all out because we know we're all on the same team. Leave pounding people into the dirt for when you have to fight the Angels or the Casters."

He didn't notice the proud smile on James' face but Harriet did which caused her to smile as well. That was the father she had such hazy memories of, and she was happy that at least one version of Harry would get to keep him. Hopefully.

"Nyeh!" Hadie stuck his tongue out and blew a raspberry. "You're just jealous you didn't think of it first!"

"What are you five?" Phil Jr. asked with a small chuckle.

"If I want to blow a raspberry, I'll blow a raspberry," Hadie said with a small shrug.

"Okay, okay," interrupted Ben, waving his hands as if to calm the boys down. Not that they really needed it, as it was obvious to anyone in the group that they boys were just teasing each other. "I just came out here to ask Hadie a favor."

"Only Ben would be so casual about interrupting Godlings," Chip said with a small chuckle.

'Really though,' Ben thought as the other kids came forward. 'It's like the VKs and AKs should've been friends all along if it hadn't been for the Isle. An outsider would never be able to tell that these two have been anything less than the best of friends.'

"Gee, it's almost as if leaving children to live on a penal Island just because of who their parents are was a bad thing!"

"Ease up on the sarcasm, cap'n," Sammy chuckled as Harriet rolled her eyes.

"What's the favor?" Hadie grinned, the AK's around them began to snicker. Ben felt an odd chill run up his spine.

"Really? It's just Minty," Mal said.

"Okay one: we said that was off the table and two: what do you mean it's 'just' me?!" Hadie exclaimed.

'Right. I'm dealing with a VK. Oh man, if only Mal was here to…no, wait. That's why I'm here. For Mal.'

"You're not just dealing with a VK but you're dealing with a VK who's the son of Great-Great-Uncle Hades," Melody said with a grin.

"You can leave off the two 'Greats'," Hades said quickly. Not because he felt any particular closeness to his great-great-niece but because it made him feel old. And yes, he was aware that he was a God thank you!

"Mal told me about your fight."

"King of Tact you are not," Chip said, shaking his head.

The AK's immediately scattered.

"Cowards!" CJ said with a small chuckle.

"Weeeeee're just going to wait by the trail entrance. See you, Hads!" said Melody as she slowly backed away before bolting after the rest of the group.

Hadie shook his head. "Oh sure, just leave me alone! I know what kind of cousins you are!"

"The kind who left you alone with Ben," Herkie chuckled, knowing Hadie was merely teasing them.

"Cowards!" Hadie shouted after them. "Anyways, you were saying? Mal told you, huh?"

"No, Dude gained the ability to speak and told him," Evan chuckled.

"He actually did that in my timeline," Audie spoke up.

Evan blinked in shock. "…Why does that alarm me more than I thought it would?"

"How?" Neal asked.

"He ate a truth gummy," Audie said with a small shrug.

"That just gives me more questions!"

"Yeah," Ben sighed. "She doesn't blame you or anything, just so you know."

Hadie shook his head. "Maybe I could've eased her into it, but I don't think I could've done anything anyways. Clearly mom was the only solution."

"No, Uma was the solution," Harry said. "Like she was when we were seven and then again when Mal didn't want to get into the limo to come to Boreadon."

"That seems to have been the case, unfortunately. Especially since it came down to the powers of my title to get her off the Isle," it was Ben's turn to shake his head. "But I had a point."

"Don't you just hate when that happens? You have a point in your head and then you manage to veer off into rambles," Akiho said, shaking his head.

"Hey, I'm not complaining. The whole half-year deal is stupid, so I'm just glad to see mom again."

"It really is stupid," Poseidon nodded as he glanced over at Zeus. Hopefully, his brother would listen to reason and they could work out a new deal that allowed Hades the chance to see his children and allow Mal and Hadie to be able to have a parent with them.

"Maybe we can figure something out one day, but for now, let's just stick with the favor I wanted to ask."

And I'm so glad we were able to figure something out, Malinda thought as she lightly brushed her baby bump with her fingertips. I can't imagine what Dad would be like if he was trapped on the Isle while I was pregnant.

"Oh, right. Sure, what's up?"

"Not even going to ask what the catch is, huh? Losing your touch in Auradon there Hads?" Celia chuckled.

"Lia, it's Ben. From what we've read, do you think he'll have a catch?"

"…Touché."

"For Cotillion," Ben began, running a hand nervously through his hair. "Mal has had enough stress putting it together, and having to deal with the obscene pressures of noble life…So for the opening dance, I was wondering if you could play your guitar? A familiar face to ease her into it all."

"Yes! When put that way, yes!" Hadie exclaimed.

"M-me? Play in front of everyone?" said Hadie, blinking repeatedly. "I-I don't even know what I'd play, let alone for a public performance!"

"Don't worry Hads, you did an amazing job," Malinda said, giving her brother a reassuring smile.

"You know what I play don't you?" Hadie asked.

"Yep!"

"Any hints?"

"Nope!"

"That's what you'd have us for, Mini-cuz."

"Uma to the rescue!" Harriet said with a grin.

"W-what, Uma!" Ben jumped back as Uma and Lonnie joined them amongst the trees. "Did you follow me out here?"

"A safe assumption knowing both Uma and you but since you're still on school property, I'm inclined to say that's not the case," Akiho said.

"Nah, I realized after I sent you off to find Hadie, he wouldn't have much clue of what to do even if he wanted," Uma laughed. "I ran into Lonnie on my way to find y'all and explained the plan. She's got an idea, so I think that'll neatly nip that problem in the bud."

Hadie gave Uma a small smile. "That's probably appreciated," he told her.

"Yeah, I absolutely want to help out!" Lonnie added. "I've been dying to try out some new mixes on my kit. And these parties have always been so upper crust, it needs a real kick in the ass to actually be fun!"

"I know, I know, language," Lonnie said as her parents opened their mouths. "Am I wrong though?"

"We'll need time to practice then, but I'm down," Hadie said excitedly. "Did you already have a song in mind?"

"I'll make sure you guys have time," Ben promised, nodding his head.

"I've got a couple that I think would be perfect for Mal," said Lonnie. "I'll email you guys the details tonight with a few different options and the breakdowns for song and guitar so you can test them on your own before deciding."

"You do?" Mal asked, looking at Lonnie in surprise.

Lonnie nodded. "Yeah, I know all my friends' music tastes. Comes with being a DJ."

"It'll need to be settled soon," admitted Hadie, his demeanor serious. "I'm serious about practice. I don't like to make mistakes, especially if this is going to be a major event."

"Are…are there people who do like making mistakes?" Squeaky asked, his voice soft as he looked over at his sister and father to see if they could answer.

"I'll go get those options together now then. See you guys later," with that, Lonnie trotted back off towards the school.

Lil' Shang chuckled. "Never change Lon. Never change."

"Thanks Ben, I appreciate this, what you're doing for Mali," Hadie nodded to the King. "I meant what I said. I want it to be perfect then. I owe it to Mal, in addition to an actual apology."

Malinda shook her head. "You didn't owe me anything, Hads."

"I think I might be able to help with that," smiled Ben.

"If it was anyone else saying that, I'd say that would be fairly ominous," Lonnie said with a small chuckle.

It'd been about a week since Mal felt the weight of the world lift from her shoulders. Since Ben, the boy she was so glad to have by her side, blurted out that he loved her…

Hades could be heard grumbling in the background, with the occasional word being audible. However, since the words were usually 'baby' and 'too young', no one commented.

Since Uma, the greatest, most annoying cousin Mal could ever hope would be forever by her side…

"For ever and always Mali," Uma said, giving her cousin a small smile.

Since the two of them had dragged her out of the spiraling abuse Mal found herself trapped in.

"Hey! Mom helped with that too!" Hadie exclaimed.

She wasn't sure if she'd ever felt so content. At least not in a long time. It certainly helped that she had her mom around, on top of properly being able to practice magic to let loose some of the excess emotional energy that had built up over the last few months.

"That! That right there is how you should feel," Benji nodded.

Glancing at her planner, Mal was excited to see she had a full hour instead of the usual thirty minutes.

"Why wouldn't you?" Ben asked. "That's your time to practice after all."

Reaching her assigned room, she was surprised to see someone already there, about to enter the next room over.

"At least we know they're friendly," Uma said. "Since there's only so many people this unknown person could be going into a room assigned for magic practice, it's either Macaria, Hyllus, Herkie, Elle, Melody, Hadie—."

"You," Mal added.

"Me…oh hey that's right, I have magic! Where's my practice room?!"

"Hadie?" Her brother looked over at Mal, his face a careful neutral.

Hadie held back a small wince at the thought that his sister was surprised to see him.

"What are you doing here?" Mal couldn't help but blurt. They'd never run into each other before, though Mal supposed it may have been due to her often being late to start her practice.

"Oh good, I needed another reason to make Natalie's afterlife a living hell," Hades said with a low growl.

"Did you really?" Posidon asked, raising an eyebrow.

"You know I didn't!"

"An extracurricular was scheduled late, Fairy G moved my magic time to now so I wouldn't have to skip," said Hadie.

"Thanks for that FG," Malinda said.

"Of course, I'm happy to do it…or I will be," Fairy Godmother told her.

He glanced at the planner in Mal's hand, and reached into his bag to pull out his own, flipping to the page that proved he was being honest.

Malinda shook her head. "I would have believed you without the proof Hads," she told her little brother.

Mal looked back down at her planner; a brand new one. One that wasn't tainted by Natalie. There, in a purple block, was the same time stamp as Hadie's.

"Good," Ben said. "You deserve to have a planner that doesn't have reminders of what she tried to do to you."

"We still have that planner," Malinda said softly. "It's up in the attic of the castle in an old box but we have it."

"Why?" Uma asked.

"…Natalie's been quiet, in fact she had been ever since she was fired," Benji said. "Mal thinks she might resurface and if we need evidence against her…"

"I know how villains think, Ben," Malinda sighed. "Comes with living among them for sixteen years after all and Natalie is pretty much a villain abet one with a good disguise."

Mal had a sneaking suspicion that this was Ben's doing.

"You know me so well," Benji said with a small smile as Malinda leaned over to kiss his cheek.

A few days after Ben had brought her mom back, Mal had told him about her fight with Hadie the week before they'd helped her.

"See what happens when we tell people about our problems?" Benji asked, gently teasing his wife.

Malinda chuckled. "I love you but sometimes I want to be able to vent without you going into 'fix it' mode," she said.

It was touching that he cared so much, not to mention she was glad that he and Hadie seemed to have gotten along perfectly without needing her around.

"How could Ben not get along with Hadie?" Jay asked. "Ben seems to be the type to get along with anyone. Plus Hadie's a bookworm just like Ben is."

Though she absolutely should've been around.

"But we understood why you weren't," Benji said, his voice gentle before softly laying a kiss on the top of Malinda's head.

"Hadie, I—" Mal said again, debating her words.

"Mal, I—" Hadie started at the same time, hesitating.

"One at a time you two," Uma said with a small chuckle.

"You go first," they spoke simultaneously.

"It's just that—"

"I wanted to say—"

"You know, I know you're both prideful and stubborn but that doesn't mean you have to compete to be the first one to apologize," Harry said, teasing his surrogate siblings.

They both smiled awkwardly as the two kept interrupting each other.

"At least they're talking though," Meg said, giving her cousins by marriage a friendly smile. "The awkwardness will fade."

"Um," tried Mal. "Do you think you could show me how practice has been going for you? We could work together. I just…I've missed so much, and I would like to see how much you've grown."

"Aww…I hope he doesn't say no," Ruby said softly.

"Sure," Hadie slightly smiled, though Mal noticed he glanced somewhat oddly at the door to his personal room.

"Don't! Just give her a hint mini-cuz," Uma exclaimed.

"You don't have to if you don't want to," rushed Mal. "I just thought that…well, I'd like to hang out. It's been too long and…I wanted to say I'm sorry."

"If you need to apologize Mali, then I do too," Hadie said, shaking his head.

"No, it's fine. I'd like that actually," Hadie smiled apologetically as he reached out to open his door, motioning Mal to enter. "And…I need to apologize too. Just be careful, I have some self-study projects I've been working on."

"What I said!" Hadie said with a nod.

It was her turn to glance oddly at her brother, but Mal carefully entered the dark room.

"Probably because the 'be careful' thing is her line," Celia chuckled. "How many times have we been told that by Uma and Mal?"

"Too many to count," Hadie said, shaking his head.

'Thankfully so few students need to practice magic, Fairy Godmother was able to ward off rooms for each student's personal needs. Though I don't know why Hadie would be concerned, dad's ward scheme was pretty much the same for both of us.'

"I'm sure you'll find out soon enough," Malinda said with a small smile.

The light switching on, Mal let out a little gasp of surprise as she entered the small room.

"You know, I shouldn't be worried because it's just you and your brother but as a parent I do get concerned when my daughter gasps when entering a dark room," Hades said with a frown.

It was littered with books, binders bursting with scraps of paper and, interestingly enough, plants. Quite a few plants, actually, in various states of health or growth. Her own room was kept quite bare, since she only had time to let off built up energy and not much else.

"Hadie's room being filled with books is actually not that shocking now that I think about it," Uma said, trying to ignore the slight rage that had began to bubble up at the thought of Mal not being able to even personalize her room.

"Wow…" began Mal, still taking in the busy appearance of the room. "It's a good thing these rooms are private, there's an insane amount of things going on here and I don't even know where to start!"

"I'm guessing there's no risk of Flametop being bored in there," Celia chuckled.

Malinda shook her head. "That was certainly the case, and Auradon should be thankful they haven't yet seen a bored Hadie. That's just asking for trouble."

"Heh, yeah, I might as well be hitting hyper speed when I'm in here. We only get so much time, I like to attempt as much as I can at once," Hadie smirked at first before sighing.

"Just don't wear yourself out trying to do too much at once," Persephone said. "There's always the school holidays where I'll be able to help you with your powers…and Mal's as well."

He moved over to where a majority of the plants were sequestered and gently ran a hand over a broad leaf, the slight brown tint fading into bright green.

"Um…what's with the plants?" Evan asked.

Rachel chuckled and shook her head. "Who's Hadie's mother?"

"Lady Persephone."

"And what is Lady Persephone the Goddess of?"

"Vegetation…oh!"

"I have so many different things I'm researching, stuff gets neglected. I try to keep a schedule rotation, but it really comes down to whatever I feel like at the time."

Rowyn nodded. "I'm the same way with my art. I can have so many in progress pieces but at the end of the day, the thing that gets worked on is what the muse demands."

"I didn't even think to practice our powers from mom," Mal joined him, examining the various flowers and stalks in different states of bloom. "I've just been doing fireballs and the like."

"To be fair," Malinda said, "our powers lean more heavily toward dad's since we have our dragon transformation, though we're still able to do a bit with plants thanks to both mom adopting us and our biological Fae background. Hadie is more of a balance between both mom and dad's.

"Did you even bother with the refreshers dad always said to do?"

"I'm going to guess…no," Hyllus sighed.

Mal blushed. "No…I totally forgot to do those," she whispered.

Hades shook his head and had to fight the urge to go back into the side room to explode once more. Because he knew the reason why Mal forgot to do those, and he knew he'd have fun playing with Natalie's soul when the time came.

"Start doing them. And with that answer, I take it you didn't even do the yearly purification," Hadie admonished her.

"You really think that she-demon would give her the time to allow her to do the purification?" Chip asked.

"Fair point," Hadie nodded. "Though my scroll-self doesn't know how truly awful Natalie is, even if, I assume at least, I know what happened."

"Touché," Chip said.

Lucas sighed and shook his head. Though he wasn't going to lie, he also hated Natalie. How could he not?

"That might help with regaining control, if even after the whole thing with…her…is over now, isn't enough to feel like your magic has settled."

"That's a good idea," Fairy Godmother nodded. "In fact, someone should be there to help with setting your magic."

"I'm sure mom's helping me," Mal pointed out.

"Alright, dad," Mal gently teased before sighing.

"I'll gladly take that compliment!" Hadie said with a grin.

"Seriously though, thanks for the input, Hadie. I'm sure dad would've told me the same thing if I hadn't cut him out."

"Oh I have no doubt about that," Persephone nodded. "And dear, I have to admire your restraint. I thought you'd be going full on rant over the link."

"Don't tempt me," Hades sighed.

"Oh, indubitably," Hadie grinned. "How bad was it when you finally talked to him through the Link?"

"Now Hadie, you don't know it's going to be bad," Persephone said.

"It's dad," Hadie told her. "It's a safe assumption."

"Oh, Gods, at least I'm not in any actual trouble, it's just the cutting everyone out they're upset about," Mal groaned, jumping onto a desk to sit.

"Oh gee, our daughter willingly isolating herself and not allowing anyone in to help her while a spawn of Satan tears her down? Why wouldn't we be upset about that?" Hades asked.

"Mom threatened to ground me if I ever turned off my Link for so long ever again and said I had to put up with the entire rant in order to be let off the hook. I'm glad Fairy Godmother gave me this week off, just to give me some cool down time. I still went to classes, I don't need to fall further behind,

"Actually that's a good idea," Tiana said. "Even if you don't have to worry about any tests or homework, just going to the lessons when you're not stressed out can allow you the chance to better absorb the information."

but it was nice to have a breather from everybody and just…coast for a bit. But a couple nights after the day…the day mom came, I talked to dad…Mom was on the link too, but we were initially having a girl's night, just the two of us in the room Ben reserved for her. Anyways, dad went on for maybe three or four hours before I managed to beg off to sleep."

"Huh only three to four hours for the rant? You might be losing your touch there Hades," Posideon chuckled.

Hadie gathered up the current notes he was willing to work on, things he was okay with Mal seeing for sure as he let his sister ramble. Allowing her to let off some much-needed steam, and to just…be together. He laid the books on a cleared table as he took in Mal's much needed rant.

Mal chuckled. "Glad to know you just tune out my rants there Hads," she teased.

"Sometimes you can get a bit repetitive about who you rant about," Hadie shrugged.

"—when we sentenced the Beauty Matriarch from Hell, he seriously tried to get me to believe mom contacted him, Zeus, of all people, so that I would contact her!"

"And it turns out that was true," Lucas said.

"Mal, not to burst your bubble, but Uma said they did."

"What?" Mal looked at her brother in shock.

"To be fair, if I didn't hear it be read in the scroll, I wouldn't have thought that was true either," Jay shrugged.

"I don't know if this was before or after Zeus tried talking to you, but mom did mention to Uma that dad was so fed up with not being able to talk to you, that clearly something was wrong just by how hectic your emotions were resonating, that he willingly reached out to Zeus to see if he knew anything."

"I'm going to guess after," Macaria said. "After all, Hadie mentioned Mal's emotions going hectic and she didn't seem to get stressed until after Grandfather tried to talk to her."

"No, there's no way dad, or hell, even mom without dad knowing, would go to Zeus just to talk to me!" Mal shook her head. "Mom would've gone to you or Uma first, other gods, before Bolts for Brains!"

"I mean…she's not wrong about that," Hades said.

"That just proves how desperate mom and dad were to know what was going on," Malinda said. "Reaching out to Zeus wasn't exactly something they'd do lightly and I should have realized that instead of being stubborn."

"And what if mom did go through Zeus?" Hadie lashed back angrily.

"Oh boy," Uma sighed. "This is taking a turn I don't think we want it to be taking."

"Yes, she absolutely would have gone through me or Uma first, but it's not like it would have done any good! None of us were able to get through to you because your link was on mute! Then, when we did manage to see you in person, you'd rush off somewhere, or we'd barely get to hang out one on one anymore and the entire time had to be filled with trying to catch up!"

"But that's not Mal's fault, that was Nat Bat's for over scheduling her!" Ashaki said, shaking her head.

Hadie took a deep steadying breath. "The moment someone tried to broach anything, you always got flighty. You did it with me, and you tried to do it with Uma, Ben and mom. There's no shame in reaching out to us, Mal. Sure, I could've done it better, been gentler or smarter like Uma, but as you so frequently remind me, I'm your little brother, I'm still learning how to be tactful, but you also need to learn to be more open at least with family and trust us."

Malinda sighed. "I know…but when it came to you, Hads, how could I say anything? You're my brother and my goal is always to try to keep your innocence since I never had that option. I know if anyone else had destroyed even a minute piece of your innocence, I'd probably kill them so how could I be the one to do it?"

Mal picked sadly at some loose dog fur on her jacket. "I know," she whispered. "I regret a lot, but for some reason I just couldn't. It was like being back at Maleficent's again, and it was all I could do to try to keep myself together. I'm sorry for worrying you. For worrying everyone. For not being there for you whenever you needed me, or tried to be there for me in turn. You've done okay though; I was truthful when I said it last time."

"Hey, I wasn't there for you when you needed me," Hadie said.

"I'm sorry too," Hadie said as he leapt up next to Mal, his legs freely kicking as he swung them from the table ledge. His sister was already stuck in her head with guilt, they didn't need to fight again. "But if I'm honest…I've had my own ups and downs, and you really weren't there, even if it seemed like I was okay."

Mal winced. "And the award for worst sister ever goes to…" she muttered.

"Oh believe me, there are worse sisters out there," Malinda told her.

She looked at her brother in concern. "Was anyone giving you trouble? I know Audrey bothered you a couple times, but𑁋"

"Ooh tell Mal about Aaron! I know we can handle him but I'd love to see him get glared at by a dragon," Phil Jr. said, perking up a bit.

"Phillip…" Aurora warned. "We'll talk to your aunt and uncle about your cousin but you shouldn't wish harm on him."

"Eh, nothing to worry about there, if I'm honest. Not everyone is cool, obviously, but I always followed Isle code and tried to never be alone if anyone bothersome came around," Hadie smiled wryly. "No, um… The first few times I practiced magic, plus the rich food…I got sick and was vomiting…"

"You were what?!" Persephone and Hades exclaimed at the same time. Posideon and Demeter also looked worried and even Zeus had a look of concern on his face.

"Don't tell mom and dad!" He added hastily at Mal's look of shock.

"Ah ba ba ba! That phrase is hereby banned! For both of you!" Hades exclaimed. "The only time you're allowed to tell your sibling not to tell us something is if you're planning a surprise for us!"

"It was only the first week or two of arriving, though it was a pain to swear Harry to secrecy, Jay was always off at practice.

"I'm glad it was a pain, it should have been more of a pain! Harry, why not tell Uma if Hadie told you not to tell me? Loopholes! If you have the choice between a loophole and no hole, choose the loophole!"

"…You just said 'hole' way too many times, Lord Hades," Harry said.

"And that's coming from Harry," Mal added.

"Okay yeah, that's concerning," Hades nodded.

Asclepius helped me figure it out when I finally got to see him, I just had to stick to dad's basic exercises and theories to adjust to the increase, so it's all under control now. You were busy and even if Ben took me to that doctor's appointment, I felt like you needn't be bothered."

Both Mal and Malinda shook their heads. "You should absolutely have bothered me, Hads," Malinda said. "You're my brother."

"Oh, Hadie, you absolutely should've come to me," Mal pulled him closer into a one-armed hug.

"Yes! Yes you should have! Or gone to Herkie! Or Melody! Or any of your cousins!"

Persephone shook her head, as her husband continued to rant, before looking at the others. "He'll be like this for a while, you might as well just keep reading."

"I don't know about being magically sick, but I was having issues too until Fairy Godmother mentioned some tips. I nearly killed Gil with a flare up!"

"And we're sure that's—?"

"No Harry," Milah and Harriet said at the same time.

"Yeah, I heard about that. It was shortly after then, that I almost had my own flare up." Hadie snorted lightly before answering Mal's questioning look. "I found out about Leah starving the Isle, luckily Herkie made that rainstorm to keep me from causing any fireballs."

"Thank Gods for Herkie then," Melody said. "Though I'm surprised we didn't hear about that in any of the other scrolls."

"I mean it kinda makes sense," Elle told her. "We're not exactly glued to the hip are we?"

"Well no…"

"So it stands to reason that Mal and Hadie wouldn't be either."

"We had wondered where that came from, the forecast hadn't predicted it," Mal sighed, rubbing her brother's arm for his comfort and not a little bit of her own. "Again, I'm so, so sorry, Hadie."

"You don't have to be," Hadie said. "It's not your fault that you were being tormented."

"But I'm sorry all the same," Malinda said with a small sigh.

"As long as we all have learned a valuable lesson," he said cheekily, shoving at her playfully.

"You're taking a risk there, teasing your sister," Jay chuckled. "Hope it pays out."

"Oi!"

He found himself in a headlock, Mal roughly tousling his hair. "Come on, come on! Say it!" Mal continued to noogy her brother.

"Never!"

"Say it!"

"Gah, okay, okay, Boreadon!"

"Another win," Mal said with a smirk. "Gods I love being bigger."

"Enjoy it while it lasts!" Hadie exclaimed.

"And don't you forget it," Mal laughed, giving a short nod before she lightly punched Hadie in the shoulder. "Thanks, bro. For sticking with me."

"I think you're stuck with me," Hadie said with a small chuckle.

"Luckily for you, you're pretty much stuck with me," it was Hadie's turn to laugh, returning the playful shove. "So, you want to see what I've been working on?"

Evan shook his head. "You need to get new material, dude."

"Definitely! Though, I want to see first how far you've come with that fireball."

"Oh yes! Show me the fire!" Celia and CJ said with matching grins.

Harriet blinked. "Should I be worried about you?"

"Aren't you always worried about me?" CJ asked.

"…Touché."

"You're in for a treat then," Hadie's grin turned sly, Mal watching carefully as Hadie hopped off the desk and walked over to the plants, picking a rather neglected one to bring over. "You'll want to move, just warning ya."

"I would have advised moving regardless," Hades said. "I don't care that you're both Godlings, I'd rather you not be close to fire without supervision."

"Dad…we can summon fire," Mal told him.

Hades shook his head. "You can still get burned from your brother's fireball and he can with yours," he said.

Mal hopped off and watched as her brother summoned a small, bright white-blue fireball.

"Oooh! That sounds cool, Flametop!" Celia grinned.

"Woah, that looks intense!" Mal wondered. "Didn't they used to be darker? It's also, uh, not as big as I've seen you go."

Hades shook his head. "Size is just to get your point across. If you're in a fight, the whole point is to get out of there. Why waste the energy on making a big fireball when a smaller one will still hurt someone?"

"I talked to dad, and honestly? Big fireballs are just for intimidation. The goal for this one was to focus as much power as small as I could keep it," Hadie allowed the flame to grow in size, the color beginning to darken as it grew, while Mal felt the heat surprisingly decrease instead.

"Interesting," Ben said, his eyes lighting up slightly as he leaned forward.

Belle shook her head. "You and your never ending quest for knowledge."

"Now where did he get that from?" Beast and Abby teased at the same time.

He brought it close to the edge of the plant, looking unconcerned as the plant caught and began to burn, letting the flame in his hand go out with a wave of his hand.

"…Call me crazy but I don't think that was Hadie's goal," Chip said.

"I thought you were trying to revive plants, not burn and kill them?" Mal looked on with shock.

"Took the words right out of my mouth there Mal!" Chip nodded and Lucas shook his head as Abby, Emir, and Akiho chuckled.

"I think I need mom's help more with that, but the point of working with plants right now was to surprise her when she gets back," shrugged Hadie as they watched the plant crumble.

"I'm always happy to help you, Hadie," Persephone said. "And I'm sure I'll be surprised regardless."

"I seem to be able to do minor things with helping already sprouted plants, but trying to go directly from a bulb or seeds is a struggle."

"Advancing with ones powers is a marathon, not a sprint," Hades said. "You try to do something before you're ready either physically, mentally or magically, you'll end up hurting yourself."

Dissipating the last of the smoke, Hadie dug into the mixture of dirt and ash, revealing a still somewhat green, but blackened bulb beneath with a bit of crispy sprouting.

Everyone looked at one another before looking over at Persephone, figuring that it had to do something with her powers.

"So why did you…?" Mal watched as a soft, blue glow suddenly encompassed her brother's hand. A similar glow appeared around the bulb. The small open mouth of the seed cracked open further, before the black bulb unfurled a fresh green sprout, rapidly growing into a yellow tulip.

"Wow!" Alexandria exclaimed, her eyes growing wide.

"I think my powers are a culmination of both mom and dad's," explained Hadie, smirking at Mal's gob smacked expression. "Dad's are easier because it's basic elemental, but when it comes to plants, life or death which are more complex, my powers seem carefully balanced between the two."

Hadie nodded though he would admit, he was looking forward to getting to try out the powers he got from his mom.

"That's really amazing, Hadie," Mal tried to keep the sadness from coming through her smile. Her little brother had come a long way from making wisps of flames since the Isle.

"Well I mean, probably helps that he doesn't have a barrier dampening his powers," Celia pointed out.

'I've missed so much in just a few months. Hadie…how much has Auradon made you grow? That I missed so much in just a few months? This must be how mom feels every year.'

It might just be the same…but at least I know now that you'll never feel that same feeling, Persephone thought with a slightly sad smile pulling at her lips.

Mal continued to marvel in awe as Hadie showed her a few more notes he'd been working on, offering to let her borrow them before he moved on to even teach her a new trick.

"Ooh! Tell tell," Mal said with a grin, leaning forward slightly at the thought of doing something new with her powers.

"Dad wanted to know if this could work between us!" said Hadie as he pulled out a normal blue fireball. "Go on, summon one of yours, you've got to practice too after all!"

Mal shook her head. "You really are turning into dad there, Minty," she chuckled.

"How many times do I have to say we said that one was off the table?!" Hadie exclaimed.

"No. You said it was," Mal snorted.

Grinning, Mal summoned a pale lilac flame with a flick of her wrist. Her face quickly turned to shock as Hadie lashed out with a hand and swiped her flame.

"I can grab her flame?!" Hadie exclaimed with a grin. "That's so cool! Can I do it now?"

Hades shook his head. "No trying to grab your sister's flame until you've been trained," he said.

"Wait, what?" Mal gaped as Hadie held both the blue and lilac flames.

"This should give you an excuse to talk to dad more," Hadie said smugly. "Basically, you should be able to take and control my flame too."

Mal grinned. "Ooh I can't wait to try that out when Hadie gets to Auradon."

"With supervision," Persephone and Hades said.

"…Do Macaria and Elle count as supervision?"

"I say we do!" Macaria grinned.

It took a few tries, but Mal was able to hold on to the blue fire as if it were her own.

"Awesome!" Mal said with a grin.

"Alright Hadie, I think I've got this," smirked Mal. "Now how about we play a game of…

"Catch!"

Persephone sighed. "I know you two are Godlings but I'd rather not test Mal's immortality when there's no one there to supervise," she said. "Please. At the very least play your…fire ball catch when one of your cousins are there."

"Yes mom," Mal and Hadie nodded.

"I'm guessing you'd prefer one of the cousins skilled in water magic?" Hades asked and Persephone nodded.

It was a pair of exhausted and only mildly singed Hadie and Mal that appeared for dinner sometime later, madly grinning and any hard feelings buried.

"At least you two are getting along again," Persephone said, shaking her head.

"You can't honestly be okay with this, Persephone!" Demeter exclaimed.

"Mother, what do you think I can do? It's not like I can climb into the scroll," Persephone sighed.

'Though I'll still be playing that guitar for you, Mal. Ben's right, you deserve to relax instead of some giant stuffy party.'

"And I'll be honest, I did relax at Cotillion," Malinda nodded.

Hadie grinned. "Good!"

"That's the end of the scroll," Emma said. "Who wants to read next?"

Shang chuckled. "Now that I think scrolls won't attack me for reading, I'll read next."