Time Trekkers and Emotional Wreckers
Chapter 5/11 - Everyone Gets New Memories
Real-life Mal moved across the blanket, stretching slowly, and sat down on a corner not far from him. Ben moved his hand to touch her arm as she sat, then withdrew it again. Everything felt like an implication. "You don't like this?" he asked.
She shrugged, very noncommittally. He was reminded of her deflecting answers at the lake yesterday. Answering carefully. Disagreeing and then not explaining herself further.
The movie had only been going about a half hour, but the distance between him and Mal felt heavy with all the new ideas. He wasn't thrilled – trying to carry the weight of a sixteen-year-relationship on a four-day-old one was not something he wanted to experience. He liked Mal. She was lovely. She was funny. He felt a spark with her. But he wondered if this movie would be the equivalent of dropping a dry log on a candle. The fire could be completely smothered.
Still, what to do? Getting up and leaving would imply he was mad about the outcomes. Staying insinuated he was enamoured with them.
Onscreen, Mal had wandered towards the enchanted lake, waiting for another dizzy spell that would tell her where her mother had vanished off to. She laid down in the ruins they'd had their picnic in and stared up at the sky. Then, she appeared to drift off to sleep. Ben was reminded that it had been nighttime when she'd left her home.
When her eyes had closed, the scene changed. A dream sequence. Always a strong choice. They were in the kitchen in the royal family apartments. The camera appeared to be set on the counter as Mal wandered in, setting down her bag, and then wandered closer. She reached towards a platter covered with tin foil and fiddled with the edge. A frown crossed her face. "Ben!" she called.
There was silence. She waited, then tried again. "Ben!"
When there was still silence, Mal rolled her eyes. "Benjamin Florian! Where are you?"
"I'm here!" Ben called, off-screen, laughing. "Don't you full-name me! I will full-name you! What?"
"You ate my cookies again?"
"They weren't for me?"
"They were for my meeting!"
"You made my favourite cookies, not for me?"
"I need them so that people will like me more!"
"I like you more! They're still accomplishing their purpose!"
He appeared in blue striped shirt and kissed her forehead with a bright smile. Ben couldn't tell whether onscreen Mal was truly annoyed because she was laughing so hard. Then, breaking through the dream, there was a series of flashes similar to when Older Ben and Mal had deduced where Maleficent was going. Ben saw a hallway, younger Mal holding up a cookie… oh dear, was this going to be how the school found out he was under a love spell? Or, had been? For three hours?
"It's the tourney game day," he said. Odd that Maleficent hadn't gone for the video camera day.
Mal looked alarmed. He kept his expression perfectly still. And in the back of his mind, he felt a lot like another version of himself, keeping quiet about who ate the cookies.
The older Mal woke up against the stones, hefted the sphere, and vanished. Time shifted around her, and then she got up and began walking back towards Auradon Prep.
At Auradon Prep, an onscreen Jay wearing his new jersey stopped to chat beside Mal in her net jacket. "Are you feeling kinda weird about this?" he asked. "I mean, it's not so bad here." He smiled and moved his eyebrows along with his words. Nonchalant. Ben felt the corner of his mouth move against his command and quickly stoned his expression. You cannot be smug in public, he told himself. Not until they've officially made their decision.
"Are you insane?" a young, onscreen Mal demanded. "You're mean! You're rotten! You're bad news. Snap out of it!" She snapped in his face.
Jay thought for a moment, then nodded. "Thanks Mal," he replied. "I needed that."
They were near their lockers, overlooking the picnic tables. Jay crossed the hall to chat with some of the girls sitting there. Ben noticed that Lonnie was not one of the girls who got up. She stayed sitting and studying. Meanwhile, Mal began messing in her locker, watching as Ben put things away in his just a few down.
Older Mal was hiking across the grass in the distance, looking for disturbances in the force, and still in her brown-haired disguise.
When the camera returned to the teenagers in the hallway, onscreen Audrey was speaking to his onscreen self and in the middle of one of her all-about-me moments. "Then it's the lips, then the legs, then everyone looks beautiful and then… where will I be?"
Ben dropped his head forward and closed his eyes. Someone booed. The crowd picked it up. Mal chuckled. Someone else hissed and Ben could swear he heard someone say, "Yikes," not too far away.
Across the lawn onscreen, Older Mal noticed a shadow up on one of the rooftops again. She broke into a run, heading towards them. She made to launch herself into the air, but before she could, a blast took her off her feet. She was flung through the air and into the lawn. People shouted in concern, but Older Mal threw up a shield and everyone froze in place. With a wave of her hand, the lawn was restored. When she brought the shield back down, all of the people who'd been caught in the shield looked dizzy, vaguely concerned, but unaware again. Older Mal looked to where the blast was happening, but could see nothing. She launched herself up onto the roof again. When she crossed about ten feet, she broke through an invisible barrier hiding yet another battle from the students below. Maleficent was battling another Mal – evidently from just a few minutes into the future.
Down in the hallway, the younger Mal slapped shut her locker. "Hey, Benny-Boo!" she mocked Audrey.
Onscreen Ben turned. Even Ben could see his entire demeanour change as he relaxed. "Hey!" he said. And a few students catcalled his obvious interest in her.
Mal held up her plastic baggie, looking innocent and cute and confident. "I just made a batch of cookies. Double-chocolate chip. Do you want one?"
But onscreen Ben pointed towards the fields. "Um, I've got a big game. I don't eat before a big game. But, later-"
"No, I get it!" onscreen Mal broke in. "Be careful of treats offered by kids of villains. I'm sure every kid in Auradon is taught that."
In the darkness, Mal hid her face. Ben was trying to hide his laughs from her and the other VK's. You cannot be smug in public.
The movie took them away from the two before onscreen Ben could eat the cookie. The two Older versions of Mal were attempting to battle Maleficent. But Ben could see the problem here. Older Mal did not look thrilled, confident, or anything. She looked tired. Maleficent would get away again. Because that's how movies worked. They operated off the rule of three or four. The movie hadn't been running long enough for them to be successful.
One Older Mal was burned across her cheek. Maleficent, upon realising there were two, tried to flee. Ben didn't blame her. One was scary enough. They chased her with spells, using barriers to prevent any students from being wounded. Maleficent hurled her staff from one side to the other. A sudden gust of hot wind caught the main Mal and hurled her towards the conversation being had down below. She was swept into the hallway, skidding on the floor, and scraping her hands. The burn mark had appeared on her cheek.
Onscreen Ben was holding the cookie with the bite mark visible. "Are these walnuts?" he asked. "I love walnuts."
People laughed because they realised she'd broken him. Maybe they were making the connection between Ben stealing cookies in the future and Mal giving him a cookie before the game. Ben finally laughed too. His life lately was ridiculous. R-I-D-I-C-U-L-O-U-S.
Maleficent spun her sceptre in a circle and was gone. The second Mal scowled, took her own sphere, and left. The last time traveller Mal hobbled down the hallway and collided with Mal and the four VK's as they came around the corner, evidently discussing their success spelling Ben.
"Oh!"
"Off, sorr, Oh it's me!"
Young onscreen Mal scrunched her nose in disgust. "Me? What?" She examined the Older Mal's face and her jaw dropped. So did Evie, Jay, and Carlos's.
Older Mal panicked and put her hand up in front of her, like a stop sign. There was a sound Ben could only describe as "whimsical glass". Green rectangles appeared in front of each of their faces. Older Mal hesitated, then reached towards the rectangle in from of Mal's face and swiped right. Like she was viewing photos in a photo album, the image of the brown-haired older person was there. Followed by the corner they'd turned, and Ben eating the cookie. Older Mal tapped on the image of her brown-haired self and a red X appeared over the image. She did the same for each of the four, moved out of the way, and cancelled the stop spell. Mal, Evie, Carlos, and Jay immediately continued mid-step to where they'd been before, resuming their conversation as if they'd never run into anyone at all, with hardly a stumble. Older Mal had manipulated their memories. They continued away and didn't look back.
A feeling like ice went through his entire body. With that one clip, the entire meaning of the movie had changed. Because if that Mal had the ability to edit memories, then any of this… was suddenly possible.
But he doubted most people would catch on for a moment.
For the first time, the scene cut to Maleficent, who appeared in a cave by the sea and let out a wild and ferocious scream. She sent a blast of magic towards a boulder and algae, barnacles, and crabs were flung right off it. She blew a stalactite into bits. She hollered and slammed the staff into the ground and finally sank to the ground, exhausted.
Her body was littered with cuts and bruises. She breathed evenly. And then looked up. "If I can't fight you," she said softly, "Then I'll have to outsmart you."
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.