I've written an entire fourth movie about these characters in my head (after writing a better second and third than we were given, to be honest) and now you get to hear what I've developed over the last four years!
Time Trekkers and Emotional Wreckers
Chapter 2/11 - Everyone's Scared of Mal
After the musical number, the fight between Mal and Audrey's Grandmother, and spending the entire day patching up holes, Ben's nerves were shot long before the movie started. He wondered if he had the mental headspace, let alone the focus to contain all that was happening. It was absolutely insane.
And then his face was back on the screen.
He looked bored out of his mind.
And Ben still couldn't get used to the beard, trimmed as it was, on his face.
After only a second of looking at his older self, Ben could see down a meeting table in Beast's Castle. He could see old friends. Aziz and Ally… and Chad was speaking. He moved his hands as he talked. He had gotten a perm… not a fantastic look, but…
"…and that's what we've done in Cinderellasburg, to make the water cleaner."
"We all do that," Melody from Seaside said in a deadpan.
"It becomes obnoxiously clear in these moments exactly how much homework you tricked other people into doing for you in high school," said someone farther down the table to Older Ben.
Everyone in the audience gasped. Chad onscreen scoffed. Ben's heart leaped into his throat. Not only at the admission, but because he recognised the speaker. It was an Older Audrey. Her hair had blonde streaks in it. Blonde and pink. She had smile lines in her cheeks. She looked like her Granny.
She was also sitting beside Ben. All alarm bells went off in his head. He did fast math. From the murmurs everywhere, everyone else was wondering the same thing. The Queen usually sat to his right side when he was facing-
A cell phone went off and Ben once again put his hand to his side instinctively, dimly recognising his ringer. But once again, it was not his. His older self moved to silence his phone against the meeting table without looking at the screen once. "Pardon me," he said. "Please continue-"
The phone rang again. Older Ben flipped it over and pinched his lips together. It was Lumiere, again. He began to get up, flipping one of two binders closed – that would be the confidential items – and said, "I'm very sorry, but I need to step out and take this call. It could be an emergency. If it takes more than a minute, we'll end the meeting early."
Onscreen Chad rolled his eyes. Onscreen Audrey turned her head to follow Older Ben as he walked behind her chair – to the right – and brought the phone to his ear. "Ben," he said, reaching for the door handle.
The subtitles came in immensely handy, because the voice was lowered and severe when it sounded over the speakers. "Maleficent has escaped."
More gasps. Every hair on Ben's body stood on end. He realised he was griping his arms in a vice. His breathing was shallow.
Onscreen Ben stopped in his tracks, looking scarcely less stressed than he was. His eyes narrowed. "Hold that thought," he muttered, opening the door and closing it with a sharp slam behind him. He immediately began to march away, putting distance between the room and him. "What do you mean, Maleficent has escaped? Is she still in lizard form?"
"Lizard form?" the real Mal gasped seven feet to his right. It was the first sound he'd heard from her thus far.
He couldn't blame her – gee whiz!
"We don't know," Lumiere said over the speakers. "They were doing a routine cage cleaning. She disappeared from her box."
"So we don't know if she's conscious?" Older Ben demanded.
"No."
"Has Mal been told?"
This made Ben jump irrationally. Has Mal been told? Well, that implied heavily that Older Ben was confident that Older Mal had nothing to do with it. There was obviously some foundation of trust there.
"She declined my first call and I think she put her phone on silent. I can't reach her."
"Keep trying to find Maleficent. I'll try and get ahold of Mal. She may just be ignoring you because it's her day off and I can ping her if not."
"Okay."
Ben felt lightheaded. He took a deep breath and slowly loosened his grip on his arm. His fingers felt stiff. His eyes were beginning to strain.
The scene changed and they were once again treated to the sight of Mal's phone in the carrier. This time, they could see the baby as well. It was awake and peering around with wide eyes, fingers wrapped around a toy made of plastic loops. Easy for a baby with no small motor skills to seize. It seemed to be a girl, if the bright yellow flower pinned to her hair was anything to go off of.
The phone lit up. "Ben," the contact card read. And there was a picture of him. Very casual – nothing crazy. He was reading a book underneath a tree in a yellow button-down shirt and tan slacks.
The camera panned out. Mal was walking up a flight of stairs, singing to herself. In her other hand swung a cloth bag of groceries and some milk. "Anywhere, anytime that you need anything, count me in. Oh, count me-"
She turned down a handle with a finger and opened a door with her foot partway to slip through, then stopped dead in her tracks.
In the centre of a living room with tan couches and a wooden end table and a mid-sized television was Maleficent. In the flesh. Heading towards the very door Mal had just come through.
Kids in the audience gasped. Ben finally figured out where Audrey was. She screamed twenty feet to his left.
Maleficent was shorter than expected. Her skin was as pale as Mal's, but had a bruised complexion to it. Like she was running on sub-optimal internal temperature or had simply been in too many fistfights for her skin to return to normal. Her staff was in both of her hands.
Ben chanced a look at the VK's beside him, Mal had straightened up. Her mouth was ajar. She looked even paler than normal.
Onscreen Mal swallowed and dipped towards the ground. She put the milk and the groceries on the ground beside the door. And the baby carrier, which had remained hidden by the door, was placed quietly outside. "Mom," Older Mal said, in a light tone. She waved a finger behind the door at the baby carrier. A bubble formed around it, like the barrier to the Isle of the Lost. In the carrier, Ben went to voicemail again, revealing ten missed calls from Lumiere, and two from Ben.
Older Mal left the carrier in the hall and shut the door.
"It's… been a while," Older Mal said. She sounded like she was about to swallow her own tongue.
Maleficent said nothing. She seemed confused. She sized Older Mal up with a scowl.
After a long pause, Onscreen Mal swallowed. "Can I get you a drink, or…"
"How old are you?" Maleficent demanded.
Onscreen Mal pointed to herself with a single hand. "I'm thirty-two."
"The last thing I remember," Maleficent drawled, "Is you… at that pomp's coronation… and you had Fairy Godmother's wand in hand. And you said that you were choosing to be good."
"No way," Jay said to Ben's right, probably forgetting that they were surrounded.
"You're serious?" Carlos whispered.
Onscreen Mal smiled without showing any teeth. She wandered away from the door and took a seat on one of the couches. "Yeah… I wondered if you would remember that."
"You betrayed me," Maleficent snarled, pointing an accusing finger at Mal. "You turned your back on all that I taught you! You let me down!"
Maleficent was so scary, even through the screen, that Ben found himself flinching away. He was not the only one. The light from the screen revealed a sea of jumpy individuals. Audrey let out squeaks with every harsh syllable.
Even real-life Mal to his right was digging her nails into her arm.
But Onscreen Mal seemed almost bored. And when Maleficent made to continue her tirade, she interrupted, "Stop. Stop. Look, Mom, it's been sixteen years. I'm not a teenager anymore. And you can't bully and manipulate me the way you did before. I know this is crazy, but my life does not revolve around your approval and hasn't for half my life now. Okay? You can't just waltz in here and act this way. If you want to have an actual relationship, then you need to talk with me, not at me."
"Yas!" Someone shouted across the lawn. "Preach it!"
"What is going on?" Evie asked to Ben's left.
"I don't know," Carlos whispered back.
"Why would I want anything in the world to do with you?" Maleficent snarked on the screen.
"Okay, why are you here again? Did you just come here to yell at me?" Onscreen Mal demanded.
"You think I would ever search you out? After what you did?!"
Older Mal paused. "You aren't here for me? Why are you here, then?"
Outside the room, the baby carrier quietly lifted off the ground and began to float away. The little one was sucking quietly on one of the plastic loops. A sharp pinging began to play from Mal's phone. "Find My Phone Alert," it said. The sound certainly would have drawn attention if it had been played earlier.
Maleficent did not seem to notice Mal's question of why she was there. She seemed to not be connecting young Mal very well with older Mal. To be fair, Ben was having the same issue. Was it possible that Maleficent didn't remember any of the sixteen years that had passed since his coronation? The coronation that was tomorrow?
Maleficent looked down at onscreen Mal, still sitting nonchalantly on the couch. "I suppose there's a way to redeem yourself," she said, thinking aloud.
"Come again?" Onscreen Mal asked.
"Yes… you see, Mal, I'm looking for Fairy Godmother's wand."
Older Mal raised an eyebrow. "Why? The barrier has been down for almost thirteen years."
This was news to Maleficent. "Are you sure?"
"Pretty sure, since, uh, King Benjamin gave me the order to bring it down."
More ferocious whispering. Multiple shouts of protest. Ben couldn't tear his eyes off the screen.
Maleficent thought about this, then said, "It still has immense value. I've already been to the Museum of Cultural History… the wand has been removed for safekeeping. The plaque said that it was being kept by the Queen of Auradon. If you help me find it and steal it…" Maleficent spread her arms wide. "I will accept you back to your position as my loyal daughter. You and I will rule together. And it will be as if you had never betrayed me at all."
Ben shook his head. It was becoming clear that Maleficent was out of touch.
Onscreen Mal started at her mother. A few people took little breaths, as if they were holding them. But then Onscreen Mal doubled over and began to laugh. She clutched her stomach. Maleficent was affronted. "What's so funny?" she demanded. "Why are you laughing?"
"Mom," Older Mal said through laughs, "I'm not going to help you steal the wand. I'm… General of the United States of Auradon's Army. I'm responsible for the safety of Auradon."
This was news to everyone. Mal in the real world clamped her hand over her mouth. "No!" Chad shouted down near the front. "Not a chance!"
Someone threw popcorn at the screen. Now there were multiple shouts of protest. Ben grit his teeth. Behind him, his dad hissed, "What were you thinking?!"
The entire Aurora family was loudly complaining, but they didn't drown out Maleficent's next question.
"If you aren't here to serve me, then why did you come?"
Onscreen Mal paused again, thinking hard. "Do you… think I'm here for you? That I knew you'd be here?"
"Why else would you be in the royal family apartments?" Maleficent demanded.
Which was a good question. People quieted.
Onscreen Mal stayed perfectly still for a moment. Her mouth somewhat ajar, the wheels turning steadily behind her eyes. Then she licked her upper lip. "Mom," she said slowly, then paused. The silence seemed to drag on forever. "I… live here."
All of the whispers across the lawn died. There was a full and complete silence. Ben's ears popped.
He didn't dare glance towards the VK's. But he heard one of them whisper, "No way."
Before anyone onscreen or on the lawn could do anything, the door behind Onscreen Mal burst open and the boy from earlier, Zachary, rushed in. "Mom," he said, the word running through Ben like an icy blast. There were gasps and shouts of horror and surprise. "Dad said I could order some carbon fiber filament if I cleaned the kitchen. Can we-"
Older Mal seized the back of the couch with one hand and propelled herself over it in an awesome move that had Ben's brain doing somersaults. The physical strength of this woman – what?!
She seized Zach by the shoulder and whipped him behind her, putting her body in between him and Maleficent. And then she put her fists up, ready to fight.
"Mal," Maleficent asked. "Who's this?"
"Mom," Zach asked behind Older Mal, and it finally clicked for a few people in the audience. Ben heard "ooh," and "Oh wait," from several for whom it hadn't clicked for before. "Is that Grandma?"
"I'm going to be sick," Mal said to his left.
Ben ripped his eyes away from the screen and indeed, she looked very pale. "Is this a sick prank?" Carlos demanded, looking at him. "Did you do this?"
"I absolutely have no clue what's-"
"You married the son of our imprisoners!" Maleficent demanded from the movie.
"You did say to take him out," Older Mal said. The joke was accepted – people laughed and Ben even heard his parents and Jay and Carlos try to hide their wheezing. Ben didn't laugh. He was analysing everything he could about what he was seeing. Older Mal did not seem nervous in the slightest. Her tone indicated steadiness and surety. And behind her, Zach seemed startled, but not afraid. He kept close to his mother – Mal – and brought a hand up to touch her shoulder for extra security. But he did not look afraid.
"Look, Mom, Belle and Adam have their faults and made their mistakes, but Ben has worked very hard to fix everything. I know this is confusing to you, but if you want to sit down, I can explain the last sixteen years."
Maleficent brandished her sceptre. "Why don't you introduce me to my grandson?" she asked, and the tip of the sceptre went green.
"No," Older Mal replied.
Maleficent snarled. "Maybe you didn't hear me, pumpkin. Why don't you-"
"You think you can break into my home, speak the way you have to me, and then meet my childr – child?" Older Mal stood up straight. "No. I will not allow you to treat my family the way you treated me. Not a chance."
"Last chance," Maleficent warned, and Ben found that his fists were balled up at his sides again.
"Darling," Older Mal said to Zach, behind her. She was very carefully not using his name, Ben noticed. Fae law dictated that you keep your name safe. "Please go down into your bedroom until Grandma and I have finished talking. Nothing bad will happen. I promise."
"Don't you dare move!" Maleficent demanded, wielding the sceptre at Mal and Zach.
"She can't hurt you," Mal reassured him, though Zach did not look doubtful for a moment. "I've got you. Go on."
Zach immediately stepped away. He did not look back at Maleficent once. Mal stepped along with him, and towards the hallway that he had emerged from that morning. Maleficent shouted in warning, but neither reacted. So she lit up the tip of her wand and a bolt of green energy arced towards Zachary. The audience screamed, but Onscreen Mal deflected the bolt without any wand or sceptre in sight. It richocheted off Mal's arm, hit a metal decorative object on a shelf behind them, bounced off a mirror by the door, and then slammed into the television, leaving a gaping hole. Mal leapt over the couch she'd previously one-handed herself over and seized the sceptre. Her eyes were lit up bright green. When she spoke, she had an echo. Like three Mal's were talking all at the same time. "You are not going to hurt my son," she said.
Maleficent tried to tug the sceptre away. Her face was contorted in fear and shock and surprise. Mal let her rip it away, but before she could cast another spell, took her mother by the shoulders and lifted her up over her head, like some type of bench press.
And then she hurled her mother towards the wall.
It turned out to be an outer wall of the palace. By sheer luck, Maleficent managed to collide mostly with a window instead of the wall. Still, she punctured the sheetrock in a few places as she burst through the glass and tumbled out of sight.
Someone on the tourney team whooped. "Go Mal!" Another screamed.
Onscreen Mal quickly stooped down to look Zach in the eyes. "Zach, darling, I love you. Please go into your room and lock the door for a little bit. Dad or I will come get you when this is done. Nothing bad will happen, so please don't worry."
Without a question or comment, Zach turned and sprinted down the hall. He disappeared into the bedroom he'd come out of earlier that morning.
Ben didn't know a lot of little kids. But the ones he did know came with a lot of questions. Which left him with the question – why did Zach trust his mother so completely? He looked to be almost ten. Plenty old enough to realise that parents aren't always right and can't control everything in the world. But he had hid behind Mal so calmly, dutifully… like he knew that nothing could touch him so long as she said so.
Onscreen Mal cracked her knuckles, then her neck, then took a running stance and leaped through the hole where the window had been before. There was the whistling of wind – from the speakers or in the real world, Ben couldn't tell. And she dove to the ground.
The royal apartments were apparently on the east side of the castle where the ground was lower than the foundation. Technically "first story" but really about fifteen feet in the air. Mal must have been climbing the stairs from the garage when they'd first seen her walking in. Everything was updated and renovated, so Ben couldn't tell for sure. Those apartments, as of right now, didn't exist.
He was getting a headache from trying to keep up with all these connections.
The grass took on a brighter green hue just before Mal landed and absorbed her impact so she landed comfortably on her knees. Maleficent was in a heap behind her, gasping through some pain, and brandishing her sceptre. She threw another spell and Mal, and Mal deflected it and sent it flying back into the wall of the castle.
A song had begun playing at some point, but Ben had been so wrapped up in the commotion that he was only now noticing it. The subtitles read, "I'm trouble y'all. I disturb my town."
Huh, this was one he actually had heard of.
A scene change occurred, and Ben saw himself standing in front of a window, once again hammering away at a cell phone. He'd had an outfit change and was wearing something that looked very much like the pantsuits each of the VKs had been wearing when they'd first come to Auradon. Blue leather, black trim, and bits of metal and various beast patterns adding accessories. No doubt Evie had made it.
"Her phone says she's here, but she will not answer!" Older Ben exploded and tossed the phone onto a desk. As he moved, Ben realised they were in the library of Beast's Castle, and his parents sat in two armchairs at a corner with each other, watching. It hurt his heart to see them looking older. His dad's hair was more grey than brown. Crazy.
"They cannot find Maleficent and we have no clue if she's in human form or lizard form or-"
A blast shook the room the three were standing in. Older Ben rushed to the window again. He looked down. On the ground, there was a green funnel of magic and shredded lawn laid vertically on the ground, with wind whipping from it in every direction. One could just make out two figures down below. Older Ben turned, mouth open to give some sort of command, but stopped.
The baby carrier was floating towards him. The protective bubble was still around it. It hovered up over the desk Ben had thrown the phone on, and then came down with a soft landing. The screen of Mal's phone was lit. Fourteen missed calls from Lumiere. Six from Palace Security. Ten from Ben. Older Ben looked down at the baby, still sucking on her plastic loops. Then he looked over at his parents in the armchairs. "Mom, Dad, can you-"
"We've got you," Adam said, rising out of his chair. Belle quickly followed.
"Hello little girl!" she cooed and took the little girl out of her carseat. "You get to hang out with Grandma and Grandpa for a bit, yes you do…"
Older Ben pulled out of a holder in a corner a sword that Ben recognised as his Swords and Shields competition sword. Not to sound too vain or wealthy, but it had been custom-made to his arm length and the handle fitted to his hand and it was made of steel and he really, really liked it. It was a good sword.
And it was this sword that Older Ben seized and sprinted out of the library with.
Outside, Maleficent and Mal were exchanging spells. But it was incredible – when Mal cast a spell, her magic wasn't green as was to be expected. It was somehow gold. Like the flecks in her eyes.
Ben had learned a little about magic a few years ago and had thought it quite interesting that magic rarely changes colours. You typically have similar power levels as your immediate relatives and different colours indicate different power levels. And gold was a much more powerful colour than green. Fairy Godmother's was very nearly white. There was only one person Ben had heard of with gold magic and she was not someone he personally wanted to meet. That person was the enchantress who had cursed his family.
But he probably ought not to mention that. His dad would not like Mal even more.
But going down this stream of thought, if Mal had gold magic, where he was pretty sure – 99% sure – she had green magic now, that must have required some super intensive and specific training.
Always fun when his pre-teen obsessions bore fruitful information for him later in life.
Maleficent, still battling the pain of being defenestrated, was sweating trying to evade Mal's blows. Mal was controlled and honed. It was incredible.
"I think I understand why she's the General of the United States of Auradon," Ben said aloud. He glanced over his shoulder at his dad. "Look at that!"
Adam's face was ashen white. But Belle had her hands over her heart and was smiling. "It's a battle scene, mom," Ben said. "Why do you look like that?"
"I want to know the little girl's name," Belle replied.
Ben did not reply, but he did chance a glance towards the VK's and watched them all look the other way as his eyes passed theirs.
Onscreen, Maleficent howled in outrage. "How are you so powerful?" she demanded.
Onscreen Mal paused, not even gasping for breath. "I'm the General over all of Auradon. Did you think I was going to be an easy fight?"
"So you're not the queen?"
Ben again chanced a discreet glance at Mal. She was mouthing, "Queen?" to Evie.
"I wear multiple hats. Ben does well enough on his own."
Mal put her head down for a moment.
Maleficent fumed, shot wide, and then turned into a pillar of smoke to flee. It appeared Older Mal did not have this ability, but she used some sort of blast to fire herself up and through a window. But right before she crashed through it, it turned transparent, and she melted right through it.
Older Mal raced through the castle and then paused in one of the main hallways. She thought for a moment, then turned and raced down a separate hallway. She dashed past portraits and displays and then ripped around a corner and smacked into Older Ben with a sound like a clap. The collision was such that she was thrown back and toppled over the balcony. But before she'd fallen more than a foot, Older Ben had snatched her arm and hauled her back.
"Your mother-" he began.
"She's here. She's after Fairy Godmother's wand!" Older Mal was rubbing her jaw.
"You're heading to your office?" Older Ben demanded.
"Yes, but, the bus will be dropping Tyler off soon." Mal put her hands together in a two-handed point. "If she sees him, he has my hair, she may grab him…"
"I'll get him. Meet you back at yours."
The height difference between them was startling. Mal didn't seem much taller than she was now, but Ben… Ben seemed half a head taller. And stronger.
Older Ben sprinted one way down a hallway and Older Mal sprinted down another. She made it to an office and flipped on a light. There were three metal plates on the wall. One read "Office of the Queen of Auradon." Another read, "Office of the Head General of Auradon." The last read, "Office of the Magical Authority of Auradon."
"Any other person that would be a foolish decision," Ben said aloud.
"What do you mean?" Jay asked, frowning.
"Three titles, one person." Ben held up fingers to explain his thoughts. "Usually, it's better to separate things like that."
"Where is Fairy Godmother?" Evie asked. "She's the magical authority in Auradon."
"This version of Mal," Ben gestured to the screen, "…clearly outranks Fairy Godmother. Did you see the precision she was casting with?"
Mal finally leaned around Evie and Jay and Carlos. "Do you know anything about magic?"
"A lot, yeah," Ben nodded. "You know, um, regardless of what you end up doing in life, being that powerful would be a really notable accomplishment."
Onscreen Mal was casting a shield around the office. She opened the drawer to her desk – there was Fairy Godmother's wand. But it had different colours than normal. It was purple and gold instead of blue and silver. "Oh," Ben said aloud, "That's not Fairy Godmother's wand anymore."
Older Mal slammed the drawer shut and breathed a sigh of relief and a shadow moved out from behind the door behind her. Someone shouted, "Look out!" near the front, and then there was a sickening crack. Older Mal collapsed, slamming her head again on the corner of her desk, and slumping onto the floor.
People gasped and leaned away, wincing. Some people averted their eyes and shrank into themselves.
Onscreen Ben suddenly paused in running down the hallway he'd taken off down. He thought for a moment, then snatched a decorative sword out of a holder on the wall. This one was iron and would bend upon severe impact. He took both swords and ran back down the hallway.
In Mal's office, Maleficent glowered down at her daughter. Ben couldn't deny, this looked bad. She was bleeding badly from two heavy head wounds. When the movie showed her perspective, sounds seemed underwater and her vision was blurry. With the barrier up around the office, Maleficent was protected from anything on the outside and sealed in.
Except, Ben thought, his older self had grabbed an iron sword. Which meant…
"You fool," Maleficent snarled. "I hope you're happy with yourself. You could have been so much more. You could have been the most powerful person in the world."
Ben laughed. He couldn't help himself. No one asked him anything. They were all probably thinking the same thing.
Mal had refused to help her mom steal the wand because she already owned it. Her mom had said, "we will rule together," unaware that Mal already ruled. And now, Maleficent was telling one of the most powerful magic wielders Ben knew that she could have been powerful.
Oh irony. Ben's sweet friend.
Maleficent raised her sceptre and pounded down the blunt end on Older Mal's hand. Everyone on the lawn gasped as they watched her gasp and curl in pain. The sounds and lights were still fuzzy from her perspective. Belle covered her mouth in horror. The real Mal flinched away from the screen and held her hand to her chest. Evie yelped.
Ben wanted to cover his eyes. But then he glimpsed blue in the corner of the screen. Older Ben was now outside the office. He quickly examined the barrier, found an area and slammed the decorative iron sword into the side of the barrier, then pressed himself against the wall. He unzipped his jacket and withdrew something thin and silver out of it. Ben had a hunch he knew what it was.
The sword in the barrier lit up like a plasma sphere. It cackled and hissed like electricity and then the iron in the sword was dissolved and the handle shot out of the barrier at the speed of a bullet fired out of a musket. The hilt burrowed into the wall and the barrier collapsed.
"How'd you do that?" Mal demanded, pointing at the screen. "How'd you… how'd he?"
"Iron," Ben replied. "You just have to know where to stab a smaller barrier."
Maleficent turned as the barrier collapsed. Older Ben reappeared in the doorway. He had his hand behind his head. And as Maleficent was mid-turn, he threw something. The camera zoomed in and slowed down on a thin throwing knife. That had been the silver thing he'd pulled out of his jacket.
It might have killed Maleficent if she hadn't turned towards the door. Instead, it clapped against her horn and there was a snap. Maleficent's left horn was broken clean off her head and the tip thudded against the floor. Maleficent howled in pain and dropped to the floor on the opposite side of the desk from where Older Mal lay.
"Mal!" Older Ben said, dropping to the ground beside her, ignoring Maleficent wailing and gasping. "Mal, can you hear me?"
From Older Mal's perspective, fuzzy paleness spun in her vision. His voice was scarcely recognisable.
Older Ben rolled her onto her back, cupping one of the bleeding wounds on her head, and laid her head across his leg. He laid his sword beside him and then leaned down and kissed her.
There should not have been outrage at this point, considering there were three children in the film, but there was. Audrey shrieked, "No!" from her blanket and Mal gagged and plenty of people yelled and shouted and hooted and catcalled. But this shut off quickly, because gold light lit around the wounds on Older Mal's head. She put her hand up to touch a wound. Ben took it as if he were about to help her up. The wounds healed.
True Love's Kiss.
"You alright?" Older Ben asked her. She nodded. "Are you good to go?"
Maleficent, on the other side of the desk, noticed a door. A label read, "Workspace". She snatched the handle, wretched it open, and revealed a storage area with many magical objects and artefacts stored.
She pulled herself inside and slammed the door shut. Older Ben and Mal's attention snapped over. Older Mal paled. "Oh no!" she cried.
Maleficent put up a barrier on the other side of the door. Mal lunged forward and ripped the door open, but was thrown back by the barrier. Maleficent quickly headed into the area and disappeared from sight. She rummaged frantically among the different objects, looking for something she could use, and then stopped by an hourglass. The label read "Jafar's hourglass."
"Oh no," Jay said beside Ben.
Maleficent swung her staff at the hourglass.
"Something broke! Quickly! Use your sword!" Older Mal yelled, back in her office. She grabbed the steel sword off the ground and made to thrust it into the barrier, but Older Ben snatched it out of her hands.
"This is steel!" he shouted. "You need iron! Summon one from the hall!"
She did, but he immediately took that one out of her hands as well. "You do not know how to do this!" he said. "You know how to cast barriers, I know how to break them. If you want to learn later, we can talk. But you are going to let me have that before you blow us up."
He crouched down, examining the barrier. Older Mal was practically dancing with anxiety. "Hurry!"
Older Ben found a place and shoved the sword into the barrier. Then he snatched Older Mal by the wrists and pressed her against the wall while the barrier disintegrated the blade and spat the hilt out into the side of Mal's very expensive desk. It lodged in the wood, sending splinters everywhere. The two tumbled through the doorway together.
Maleficent had opened up the top of her sceptre and gathered in most of the sand into the crystal in the eye of the artefact. She spun it in a wide arc. "You might be more powerful here," she called as Mal and Ben tore around the corner and came upon the smashed hourglass. "But I'll find a time when you aren't! And I'll get rid of you!"
Older Mal leaped forward, but Maleficent faded from view. "She's gone," Mal gasped. "And she's taken the sands of time."
While this story is completely written, I can easily add details if they are requested. Leave a comment letting me know what you want to see.