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Chapter Text

Chapter 1: It's A Start

It was hours after her humiliating defeat that the daughter of Ursula allowed the tides to wash her tired body back onto the shore. Her newly gained tentacles were long gone as soon as she had hit the barrier. She could faintly hear the warbling songs of drunken men in the distance as she dragged herself onto the shore. The once lovely gown she had been wearing just hours before melted away quicker than Cinderella’s coach had turned back into a pumpkin at midnight, shifting back into her usual pirate garb.

Her mother’s old necklace glowed weakly before its light was gone, its magic once again dormant under the barrier that surrounded the Isle.

She had failed.

Legs weak from the foreign switch from her newly acquired tentacles (they felt too dry and too restricting after wielding the tentacles of her true heritage) Uma, Captain of the Lost Revenge and self-proclaimed Queen of the Isle of the Lost tripped straight into two pairs of waiting arms.

For a moment, nothing was heard except for the waves crashing behind her as she stole a moment, not yet ready to see the inevitable look of disappointment on their faces. Loyalty was hard won on the Isle but oh so very easy to lose. She clenched her jaw, waiting for them to inevitably shove her away, to mock her stupidity and pride, for losing sight of what was even more important than getting revenge on Maleficent's wayward daughter: being free of their island prison.

Her hands shook as she finally pushed herself away from them, forcing several feet between them and a scowl on her face as she held her head high. She ignored how the moonlight gleamed on the hook of her first mate and how her stomach rolled with nerves as his face was perhaps unreadable for the first time to her. Though her legs still felt like that of a newborn’s, she held her ground as the son of Captain Hook slowly made his way towards her. Once he was less than a foot away Uma expected to feel his hook slice through her. It was only fair. He had the right. His captain had failed, used what little resources they had, and the only opportunity they had to get off the Isle only to come back empty handed and smelling like the foul nickname that purple hair fairy had given her all those years ago…

She wasn’t prepared for him to literally sweep her off her feet, cradling her in his arms as he stared down at her with what she could only describe as relief and devotion.

“Uma,” Harry murmured gripping her tighter as his eyes fluttered shut, his head bowing over her until their foreheads rested against each other. Uma allowed her thoughts and heart settle. Of course, she thought, letting the tension that she hadn’t even noticed her body was holding go. How could she ever have doubted the loyalty of her first mate who despite how she always downplayed it, she knew looked at her like the goddess she descended from? Movement behind Harry caught her eye and she remembered that Harry hadn’t come alone.

Grinning his usual naive and wanting to please grin, Gil stepped forward. “Captain,” his grin widened, drawing Harry close to them with Uma still in between them in a quick, somewhat awkward hug, releasing them instantly when Harry glared - albeit weakly - at him.

Uma couldn’t help but roll her eyes as she pushed away from her first mate, forcing him to set her back on her still shaky feet. She turned back towards the water hearing the distant horn of a boat where a certain king and his new lady were most likely disembarking after such an eventful night. (Uma didn’t think about the lovely teal and turquoise dress Mal’s spellbook had created for her. Didn’t think about how for a brief moment she felt more than just a girl from the Isle.)

“ Uma, I promise I’ll give you your chance… You’ll have your say…”

Sighing, Uma took her tricorn hat from Gil and allowed Harry’s hand on her back to steer her away from the water and back towards their ship where the rest of her crew was waiting. She half listened as Gil gushed and rambled about what he had seen of the cotillion on the TV and how cool her tentacles had looked. Thoughts, many of them opposing and a few that sounded distinctly like a young King swam in her head, demanding to be considered and mulled over. However, for tonight, she would push them aside. She allowed herself one night where she wasn’t focused on revenge.

She had failed but she still had the support of her crew. Loyalty was hard won on the Isle but for Uma it seemed, it was her greatest possession and in the coming months, though she didn’t know it, would be her greatest weapon.

2 Weeks Later

“I made you a promise to give you your chance,” it said in in the margins next to the elegantly scripted offered new title, “ Royal Councilor to the King, Ms. Uma of the Isle, Captain of the Lost Revenge ”

Eyes flicking from the parchment in hand to her first mate who had been reading over her shoulder, Uma looked up at the parchment’s messenger who was sitting primly across from her with the King’s royal guard behind her in the unusually empty Fish and Ship shop.

Evie, daughter of the Evil Queen and the new Royal Councilor to King Ben of Auradon.

“You gotta be fucking with me,” was the first thing out of Uma’s mouth.

The former Isle resident shifted in her seat uncomfortably though maintaining the perfect posture that her mother had drilled into her. “No. Not at all. We actually put a lot of thought into this, Ben and I. And if you think about this, it’s actually the best compromise for all parties involved.”

Uma leaned back in her chair, feeling Harry shift defensively behind her and Gil stop swinging his feet on the stool next to her as he glanced confusedly between Harry and Uma.

“Compromise?” Uma scoffed, arms crossing over her chest. “You and Beasty Boy must be confused. Pirates don’t compromise. We take what we want.”

The young sea witch watched as the blue princess barely flinched at the acid that her tone held and instead stared at her with a determined look of someone who was used to getting what she wanted one way or another.

“Look,” Evie shrugged. “I get it. You don’t like the King or what his father did to our parents and us by keeping us under the barrier. And you really dislike me and the others for getting out of this forsaken place and not looking back. I get it. I really do. You have every reason to be mad.”

“Mad is an understatement,” Harry muttered, shifting his hook from one hand to the other, a wicked glint in his eyes as he stared her down. “Try livid, lass!”

Though the guards behind Evie shifted, the Evil Queen’s daughter barely raised a brow at the pirate’s hostility. Even though everyone on the island knew that Harry Hook was wild, unpredictable, and even cruel to his enemies, that was a pretty tame response. He wouldn’t make the first move unless Uma gave him the word. And though Uma was looking at Evie like she wanted to gut and serve her to Ursula’s eels, Evie also knew that Uma was smart and her self-proclaimed title as Queen of the Isle wasn’t just hype that Harry had threatened people to spread...

The day after the royal cotillion, Evie had worked to get an invitation to Auradon Prep sent out to Dizzy to be the first of hopefully many to be invited from the island. It was part of Ben and Evie’s plan to give the children of villains a chance to choose their own paths. A few hours later, a magical limo ride, and a lavish dinner that made the young girl’s eyes wide with awe and disbelief later, the most popular fashion designer at Auradon Prep (and probably of all of Auradon) found herself in her room in a designing brainstorm with Cinderella’s step-niece.

“It’s so good to be designing with you again!” Evie had gushed, squeezing Dizzy tight in another hug, one of the many that she had shared with the young girl that night. Though signs of affections like hugs were scarce on the Isle, Dizzy was young and her family well off enough on the isle that she didn’t shrink away from the intimate contact but instead embraced it. (Evie still had to wait several seconds before the tension in Carlos’s body melted before he finally returned the gesture.)  

“ If this is a dream, I never want to wake up!” Dizzy gushed, eyes sparkling as she pulled away to clutch Evie’s hands. “Evie, you’re like my fairy godmother! But way better dressed of course!” she quickly amended.

Evie couldn’t stop the laugh that escaped at her friend’s excitement. “Oh Dizzy! I’m so glad you’re here now. You’re talent will be recognized and you won’t be bossed around by your grandmother and...” she said moving over to the small fridge that they were allowed in their room and pulling out something that made Dizzy’s eyes widen, “all the ice cream you can eat!”  

Evie laughed again as Dizzy squealed taking the carton and offered spoon and bouncing onto Evie’s bed. Sitting down next to her, Evie grabbed a brush from her nightstand and started taking Dizzy’s ponytails out before beginning to brush the younger girl's hair.

“I’m so sorry it took so long to get you off the Isle.”

Taking another bite ice cream, Dizzy shrugged, either unaware or choosing to not bring up how Evie’s voice shook. “I mean, Grandma was still annoying with her chores and making me always sweep up and clean the mess in the salon but it actually wasn’t all bad. Especially after you left.”

That caught Evie off guard, the braid she been making in Dizzy’s hair slipping from her fingers. “What do you mean?”

“Well,” Evie paused turning around to look at her role model with a thoughtful expression. “I mean, the Isle is the Isle. It has nothing on Auradon and life is never easy there but...once Uma started taking over Mal’s turf...things weren’t as horrible. Any kid who was kicked out or needed to stay away from their parents for awhile were offered a safe place to sleep and some food if they worked a shift at the Fish and Chips Shop or did some errands for her. It wasn’t great and Harry always liked to make a mess of things when Grandma didn’t want to pay up” Dizzy shrugged, “but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Uma’s scary but a lot of people on the Isle like her cause she takes care of hers.”

“Hey! Yoo-hoo! You still there Princess Blueberry?”

Evie blinked, leaning back from Harry who was leaning too close into her personal space. She was grateful when Uma pulled Harry back to his place behind her despite an annoyed look on the captain’s face directed at her.

“Okay, you were right,” Evie sighed, continuing only when Uma shifted her head slightly for her to continue. “When Mal, Carlos, Jay, and I got off this island we only thought about ourselves. We did what we had to do get out of this prison and once we did, we barely gave anyone else another thought. It was always us four, us four against the world and as long as we had each other we didn’t care to think about what happened to anyone else. We didn’t care what happened to you.”

“Mother of-! Uma can I please hook her?” Harry loudly whispered to her but Evie wasn’t done.

“We grew up on this island together, Uma. And though I know the unspoken rule is to always look out for yourself, you’ve always gone beyond that. You may hate this island but you care for its inhabitants who we both know don’t belong here. I know you don’t want to see any more children starve to death or abused by their parents. I know that you take in kids that have nothing and give them whatever you can.”

“What’s your point?” Uma growled, slapping her hands on the table and rising to her feet. Her patience was wearing thin.

Evie stood up as well, staring unwaveringly into Uma’s. “My point is that you know - really know - more of the kids on this island who deserve a second chance. We can’t get rid of the barrier because our parents, for the crimes that they committed years ago and the crimes that they commit every day on this island, deserve to be here without magic. But the sins of our parents are not ours.” Evie turned to her bag, purposely showing her back to the three pirates in a gesture of trust and how serious she was about this offer. When she turned around, she had another scroll in her hand. She offered it to Uma but Gil was the one who grabbed it before smelling it, shrugging, and then passing it to Harry who unrolled it. Uma kept her eyes on Evie while she allowed her first mate to read the scroll.

“It’s a list of names,” he murmured to Uma as he handed it over to her. “Kids on the isle. Most from that old loon Yen Sid’s little Anti-hero club.”

Glancing briefly at the scroll, Uma’s frown deepened before tossing it on the table between her and the best friend of her rival. “You barely have any names on it”

Evie nodded. “Which is why Ben and I need your help. You always knew more kids. Write whatever VK’s name you want on there and they’ll finally get what they never had here.”

“And what is that?”

“A chance to really make something out of their life.”

A snort escaped Uma as she sank back into her chair. “Is that so? And how do you and Good King Ben know that I’ll actually play nice this time? I knew the inhabitants of Auradon were dumb but I didn’t think they were that dumb to give the girl who put their king under a love spell another chance.”

Uma was somewhat put on edge by the mischievous smile that spread on Evie’s face at that comment. “You’d be surprised how forgiving they are.”

Filing that tidbit away for later, Uma stood up again, moving away from the table and off to the side, snapping her fingers for Harry and Gill to follow her. Once they were out of hearing distance from the surprisingly patient former evil princess, Harry and Gill stood shoulder to shoulder, blocking Uma from sight, just in case anyone attempted to read lips.

“Thoughts?”

“I don’t trust that blue powder puff!” Harry spat. “Who’s to say that this isn’t some sort of trap of that overstuffed flying lizard Mal again? Revenge for messing with her boy toy king?”

Uma nodded before glancing at Gil who usually didn’t contribute to these type of conversations, however, he had a rare though not completely unheard of thoughtful expression on his face.

“But what if it isn’t?” he asked looking so hopeful at Uma. “What if this isn’t a trap and she’s being honest?” A grin broke out on his face as he looked between his captain and his first mate. “What if this is real? And King Ben actually wants you to be on his council? You’re so good at ordering people around, Uma, and people actually listen. And Ben seems nice. Maybe he’ll even get you a nice ship and we can go on real adventures,” he gasped happily at the thought, grabbing Uma’s hands excitedly.

Rolling her eyes, Uma couldn’t help but let a small smile slip. If anyone on her crew deserved to get off this prison it was Gil. Naive but well meaning and loyal Gil. There were others like him on the Isle. Those who never quite got out of the grey between hero and villain. Was she really going to let her pride and dislike for Mal ruin this opportunity?

She turned her gaze at Harry who seemed to have read her mind before she had even come up with a decision. “Whatever you choose, Captain. You know I’ll follow,” he sighed, tugging lightly on one of her braids. He then stepped aside, sweeping into a bow as she moved past them and returned to where Evie was waiting.

“I have conditions.”

“I expected nothing less,” Evie smile, a brilliant real smile that almost made Uma reconsider before Evie handed her paper and a pen to write down her items of negotiation.

Though outwardly she radiated indifference, her heart was pounding. She couldn’t mess this up a second time. She let her rage and frustration take over last time and made the same mistake her mother made all those years ago when she relied on spells to motivate and manipulate people. Though Uma wasn’t above using magic to get what she wanted, she unlike her mother and many of the other villainous parents on the isle, was able to adapt to her situation in order to get what she wanted.

For now, it was a start.

Chapter Text

Ben would never say that being King was easy. Often, it was a very hard and taxing job, filled with many long nights, especially when you were still considered a student. More often than not, he found himself with his face pressed on his desk, drooling over whatever royal decree he had been going over the night before. Sometimes he would find a nice warm cup of tea next to him that Mrs. Potts must have quietly left for him, a blanket draped over his shoulders. Sometimes Evie, who had taken over a corner of his office when she was helping him iron out legislation related to the Isle would tickle his nose with a feather until he got up and actually went to bed before it became too late. (At this point it might as well be her office too since she had basically made it her design-workspace-away-from-design-workspace and filled it with precariously placed pins, needles, and swatches of fabrics that Ben always had a bad habit of stepping on.)

Sometimes Mal would keep him company, curled up on his office’s couch, silently trying to memorize all her new duties as his Lady of the Court, making notes in the margins of the agenda that Cogsworth had made for her. A wicked smile would play upon her lips as she crossed out something that Ben knew Cogsworth would make a fuss over later about her declining to go to. (Ben knew that the old man would whine and moan about proper etiquette but one did not grow up being partly raised by Lumiere and not pick up a tip or two on how to handle the tightly wound majordomo.) And then she would glance up at him, and her features would go soft with a little smile that said more than words could ever say to him. (“ Ben, I love you. I have always loved you.”) Needless to say, not much work would get done when he could cuddle up and just talk quietly throughout the night with the girl of his dreams in his arms…

Nonetheless, despite his lack of sleep and new dependence on coffee to get through the day, Ben never regretted being king...

“I’m sorry, your majesty, but isn’t this a bit...fishy? No pun intended.”

“Ursula’s daughter as a member of your Royal Council? Are ya still under that love spell, kid?”

“Now everyone, I’m sure King Benjamin has thought about the consequences of working with this girl. Isn’t that right, dear?”

“DISHONOR! DISHONOR ON HER! DISHONOR ON HER...uh...HER SEA COW! Thanks Crikey for the save.”

...Though days like today gave him doubts...

Urging himself to stay calm and collected, the young king looked around the room at the Council of Sidekicks.

Though often never given the credit that they were due, the Council of Sidekick was perhaps the most involved when it came to negotiations and legislation that impacted all of Auradon. (Of course, there was the Council of Heroes but they hardly convened unless under the most serious of situations since most of the members needed to stay in their respective lands.) Since the council contained members of various species, the room was not created in the typical boardroom style. In the middle of the room was a pool of water that connected to a series of tunnels leading out to the multiple bodies of water throughout Auradon. Currently in the pool were six of the seven princesses of Atlantica representing their father, King Triton. Queen Ariel’s trusted companion Flounder was also there as the representative for his oldest friend. Next to him was a much younger mermaid, about Ben’s age, raven hair pulled into a loose ponytail, with aqua blue eyes, and a salmon colored tail whose frown deepened as council members continued to make their opinions about Uma known. If Ben remembered correctly, she was Princess Melody, Queen Ariel’s daughter who had recently been studying in Atlantica to learn more about her mother’s heritage and was here today purely as a learning experience. Since her mother had once been tricked by Ursula, Ben wondered what she thought about all of this.   

Behind the pool were stadium seating seats for all the human/humanoid sidekicks, with the oldest sidekicks sitting in the front (the Seven Dwarves; Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather; and Cinderella’s three mice) and the newest ones in the back (such as Maui, though as a demi-god he way technically the oldest in the room in terms of age, a fact that he repeatedly reminded everyone of. Often. And loudly). Above the seats were tree branches that stretched across the ceiling from thick tree trunks that seemed to grow from the wall despite there not being any indication of them if one were to look out into the surrounding hallway. There, many of the bird or smaller animal sidekicks took their place.

And at the front of the room, facing the council was where the Ben stood. Lumiere and Cogsworth as royal advisors and representatives of King Adam and Queen Belle stood behind him and Evie and Carlos were there as well sitting behind the podium that Ben stood at. Evie was there as a representative of the new council for the Isle children (technically the only representative for right now) and Carlos was there...well, Ben wasn’t sure why Carlos was there. Originally he had thought that Mal was going to join the meeting with Evie. However, before the meeting had started, Evie had sent him a text saying that she was bringing Carlos instead. Ben didn’t mind the younger boy at all and actually enjoyed his presence a lot, however, Ben didn’t think that Carlos would be interested in the politics of a council meeting and thought the boy would rather be working on some new tech. He trusted Evie’s political insight though and didn’t question her despite how pale and silent Carlos was.

Standing taller, Ben addressed the earlier comments. “I understand all of your hesitancies. However, as High King of Auradon, it is my duty to protect and care for all of those in our kingdom, including those who live on the Isle of the Lost. As I stated with my original decree, the children and descendants of the original inhabitants of the Isle should not be punished for things that they weren’t even alive for.”

“Haven’t they proved that they can be just as conniving as their parents’?” Archimedes hooted through the magical communicators all the animal representatives used, wings spanning out and chest puffing in agitation. “Have we not forgotten what happened at the Royal Cotillion just a few weeks ago?”

A murmur of agreeing noises was heard from the members of the council that began to rise to the point where the words and voices were almost indistinguishable. Ben sighed, trying to quiet the room but with no luck. A throat cleared behind him. He looked back to see Evie standing, her best smile lighting up her face, a calculating look in her eye.

“May I say something to the Council, King Ben?” she asked, gently pushing him out of the way before Ben could even answer her. Almost instantly, the room went silent as the lovely girl flashed them all a smile. (Ben really needed Evie to teach him that move.) “Honored members of the Council of Sidekicks, as many of you already know,” she said waving a little bit at Dopey who had been waving enthusiastically at his son’s girlfriend, “I am Evie of the Isle, daughter of the Evil Queen, and amongst the first to be brought over from the Isle of the Lost thanks to King Ben’s decree.”

Evie was lovely and beautiful and a force to be reckoned with, especially when she flashed a smile. She commanded the entire Council’s attention effortlessly. Evie truly was a princess in everything but the title.

“You know how Mal, Carlos, Jay, and myself all came to Auradon,” Evie continued. “But, pun intended, I don’t think you understand just how magical that was for us. For us,” she waves towards herself and Carlos who looked way too preoccupied with staring at his hands, “it was a new chance at life. I know all of you already have your assumptions about villains such as our parents. Some of you have personal experiences with them, even. And in that regard, your feelings are legitimate. But none of you know the Isle. Not like us,” she said smile fading. “I’ve asked Carlos to come here and share his experience growing up on the Isle with you all.” She turned around and motioned towards Carlos who got up slowly. Eventually, Evie gently took his hand and guided him over to the podium. She took a step back, releasing his hand but keeping physical contact, her hand reassuringly on his back.

Ben looked at Evie, hoping that her face would divulge what her plan was but instead, she, like everyone else in the room, had her eyes only on Carlos.

“Uh, I’m-,” Carlos coughed nervously, hands shaking on the podium. “M-my name is Carlos de Vil. Son of Cruella de Vil. If the hair and color pattern didn’t, you know, clue you in.” He glanced back at Evie who was nodding, giving him an encouraging smile as she reassuringly rubbed his back. Carlos took a deep breath, closing his eyes for a second before releasing his breath and looking back at the council. Ben watched as the young boy seemed to transform. Not with magic of course, but something inside of Carlos, a certain strength that could only be gained after overcoming something very difficult, when still overcoming something difficult, seemed to rise from within him. “Though Maleficent, the Evil Queen, and even Jafar may have been known as the most terrifying villains due to the magic that they wielded, living on the Isle you realize that magic isn’t what makes someone wicked. As a parent, my mother may have been one of the wickedest villains on the Isle,” the young boy said.

Carlos took another deep breath before continuing.

“From as long as I could remember, I slept in a closet. I didn’t even have a blanket or pillow until I became friends with Evie maybe a little less than a year before we came to Auradon. I was given an endless list of chores to do and unfortunately,” he chuckled humorlessly, holding the council with an intense but also faraway stare, “I didn’t have mouse friends or a fairy godmother to help me. If I didn’t do my chores exactly the way she wanted them done I wouldn’t be given food, often I was beaten. Sometimes, she beat me even when I did everything exactly how she wanted. I can’t even remember how many times I was beaten to unconsciousness.”

From his spot, Ben saw how pale the mermaids became, especially Princess Melody who looked like she wanted to reach out to the obviously still hurting boy. Pongo and Perdita who knew Cruella's cruelty well whined for Carlos, the thought of anyone doing what Cruella did to her own son to any of their pups unimaginable. Other members of the council shifted uncomfortably, repulsed by the extent of one person’s cruelty.

“And those were the good days,” Carlos continued. “For all intents and purposes, I wasn’t her son. I was her slave. She took better care of her furs and her car than she ever did with me. And when money was tight…When she didn’t have enough booze to drown herself in...  she made me...she made me do other things to get more money for her...Things that can never be taken back and that I will always remember... And of course, she never wasted a chance to call me useless and weak, to remind me that I was nothing and I would always be nothing. Now, I know that’s not true but there are still days, still days where I’m afraid my family, my real family,” she said taking Evie’s hand again, “will get rid of me because my mother’s voice is always in my head. Times where I can’t really handle being hugged by others because the few times my mother did hug me, it was usually when she was planning something horrible for me. And you know what’s the worst part of this?” he said voice breaking, clinging on to Evie’s hands tightly. “None of you ever really thought about this when you sent the villains like my mother to the Isle. None of you ever really considered that these people who were horrible to people they barely knew would be just as horrible, maybe even worst, to their own blood. And all the abuse that I just mentioned that you all seem so shocked about, isn’t even the tip of the iceberg of what Cruella did to me. And I’m not the only one who went through that on that island. You all automatically assume we’re just as bad as our parents but many of us, many of us are just as much victims of their wickedness as you once were and just trying to survive the only way we can.”

Ben shook, wanting to roar. Wanting to punch something. Wanting to punch his father for not allowing something to be done for the Isle until now. He wanted to weep, to cry for Carlos. To hold the boy and never let anything happen to him. He wanted to do the same thing for Evie. For Jay. He wanted Mal to never doubt him and know the full extent of his love. The intensity of his thoughts must have peaked a bit through his usually calm features since he was pulled from them when he felt Evie’s other hand give his hand an anchoring squeeze. He gave her a slight nod in thanks before returning his attention back to Carlos.

“Evie asked me to come here today to share my experience with you on the Isle to help you better understand the necessity of allowing the kids there an invitation to Auradon. I know the decree has already been made and the reason we’re all here today is because of the terms of negotiations that Uma, daughter of Ursula, has made. I was never really friends with her and I’m sure that if she had gone to Dragon Hall and not Serpent Prep, she would have been just like every other kid there who bullied me. But...but Ben...Ben is my friend and he believes in her,” he looked back at Ben with a weak grin and the young King felt his heart both warm and break at this admittance (he didn’t feel like he would ever truly deserve the honor). “Ben was the one who helped me get over my fear of dogs,” Carlos continued turning back to his larger audience, “and Ben was also the one who without hesitation went to the Isle of the Lost himself to bring back one of my best friends...my sister...so, if Ben wants to work with Uma, a girl who undoubtedly had a similar childhood as mine but who honestly just wants the best for the innocents of the Isle, then I stand by the King and I hope you all will consider standing by his decision as well and giving us our happily ever afters. Uh...that’s all...thank you?” And with that, Carlos turned around and sat back in his chair, a blank expressionless look on his face.

Giving Ben a meaningful look, Evie sat down as well, immediately wrapping Carlos in her arms. It took a few seconds but Carlos let out a shuddering breath before embracing Evie back, hiding his face in her neck, letting himself be soothed by the words she whispered in his ear.

Ben’s cleared his throat, calling attention back to him and away from the younger boy as he looked solemnly at the members of his council, many of whom had tears in their eyes. “Members of the Council,” he said. “When my father sent the villains to the Isle of the Lost it was supposed to be a temporary solution. Twenty years have passed and we have grown complacent. Now we’re faced with a new generation, descendants of villains who are only on the island because they had the misfortune of being born there. We have already seen the great strides that the first set of Descendants who were brought from the Isle to Auradon have made. They proved that evil is a choice, not a genetic trait. However, we brought them here without knowing much about where they came from and what they truly needed. Evie, as my Royal Councilor, will be able to provide some much needed insight and changes in regards to the current curriculum for the Isle students once they have arrived at Auradon Prep. However, Uma is the one who has their loyalty. If we want any transition to go smoothly we have to make sure that we have leaders amongst them who will align with us. We need to work to build trust on things that are greater than just the old labels of Good vs. Evil or Heroes vs. Villains.”

Giving a soft smile, Ben began to remember the stories that his mother used to tell him about how she met his father. “My father, at one point was once viewed as a monster. Something not be trusted. And look how far he’s come, once he was given a chance and someone to believe in him. Uma just needs a chance.”

Doc, as Council Head, stood up. “All those in favor of the High King’s decision in regards to the Isle negotiations with Ms. Uma of the Isle, Daughter of Ursula, and Captain of the Lost Revenge, say aye.”

-----

“Hey,” Ben kneeled in front of Carlos, resting a hand on the younger boy’s shoulder. “Thank you for sharing. I know it wasn’t easy.”

Carlos looked at him, chuckling tiredly before shrugging his shoulder as he still leaned into Evie’s protective embrace. “You and Evie are the nicest people I know,” he said simply. Ben swallowed, holding back the lump in his throat.

“And you’re the bravest,” Evie smiled pressing her lips gently to Carlos’s forehead, as he slowly pulled away from her. He blushed, smiling awkwardly before muttering something about needing to go walk Dude before waving goodbye and leaving Evie and Ben alone in the empty Council Room. Ben made a mental note to check up on the boy later.

Ben got up and sat next to Evie. The two were quiet for awhile, soaking in the success of getting a majority council vote.

“That was clever thinking,” Ben finally commented breaking the silence. "They needed to hear someone's first hand experience."

Evie nodded, smoothing out the skirt of her dress. “It was and though I would love to take your praise, your majesty, you really have Mal to thank,” she said surprising Ben. “Carlos may have did this for us but Mal was the one who gave him the extra confidence push.”

“Mal did that? Wow.” Ben grinned with a dazed look that was reserved for only when he was thinking about his girlfriend.

“Mm hm,” Evie said holding back a chuckle. “Many of the people on the Council have children of their own. She knew that if anyone could, Carlos could get people to sympathize. He was always too...good for the island. Much too good for Cruella...” she said with a dark look on her face and for a moment, Ben remembered that Carlos wasn’t the only one who was neglected and abused on the island. Maybe Evie didn’t have the same visible physical scars that he caught glimpses of on Carlos and Jay in the Tourney locker room, but he knew she had scars of her own. Not for the first time, Ben marveled at Mal’s, Evie’s, Carlos’s, and Jay’s strength in making their own paths.

“Evie,” he said taking her hand that was currently wrinkling her skirt with its tight grip, waiting as she slowly let out a breath before looking back at him. “Thank you.”

Chapter Text

“Good evening Auradon! It’s been a little over a week since High King Ben and his recently appointed Royal Councilor Evie, of the Isle of the Lost and rising Auradon fashion designer, met up with the members of the Council of Sidekicks. No word on the exact nature of the meeting but it was declared this week that another group of children from the Isle of the Lost will be selected to attend Auradon Prep. As you all may remember, Councilor Evie, the newly titled Lady Mal, Carlos de Vil, and Jay, son of Jafar, were the first to be brought over as part of High King Ben’s first proclamation to provide a second chance to the children of some of Auradon’s wickedest villains.

“Sources say that another group of Isle children will be brought over sometime in the next few days. Currently, we have not been told how many or any of the names of the children selected. When High King Ben’s office was contacted we were only told that these children, like the ones before, were “the most at need” and that amongst this new group will be High King Ben’s second Royal Councilor who we have been told has already accepted the title and position.

“Survey of High King Ben’s recent activities in regards to his first proclamation has been met with mixed opinions and a great deal of uncertainty in regards to this mysterious second Royal Councilor. Though the original four children of the Isle have made promising steps towards good, many are still unsure whether anyone from the Isle of the Lost can be truly good for in the long run. For now though, all we can do is wait until the names of the newest group of children from the Isle are revealed and see what the King does next. This is Snow White giving you the Royal News Update on Auradon Evening News. Back to you in the studio-”

Fairy Godmother sighed tiredly before switching off the television. “This is going to cause quite a stir, your Majesty.”

“All new things at some point do,” Ben smiled gently, standing across from her.

“I suppose... Must we be so hasty, dear? This is such a large group and though our original four have been splendid, if not a bit...eccentric,” she smiled with one of her too bright smiles, “there will be many factors to take into consideration.”

Ben sighed. This conversation was not a new one between them. As Headmistress of Auradon Prep, it was her duty that all of her students had the best chances for success, even the troubled ones. Admittedly, Fairy Godmother was amongst some of the hesitant voices when Ben first made his proclamation, she never outright was against helping the children of the Isle. However, this larger than before group seemed to put the fairy on edge.

“Fairy Godmother,” Ben began, motioning her to take a seat. “Though I always appreciate the wisdom you provide as Headmistress as well as through your past reputation, we can’t and we mustn’t hold this off any longer. Unfortunately, we’ll never be able to save every deserving soul on the Isle of the Lost but that doesn’t mean we should stop trying. I know this is will have its challenges but several students, including your daughter have stepped up and agree to help with making our new guests feel welcome here.”   

“Ben, I’m sure there will be some wonderful students amongst this group. The concern that I’m afraid you’re overlooking is that one of them will be that young lady, Uma, who tried to take over the kingdom by putting a love spell on you,” she said placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. “How do you know you can ever truly trust her?”

“I don’t,” he said honestly. “I’m just listening to my heart. And it’s telling me that she deserves a chance. A real chance.”

Fairy Godmother nodded. Though she had retired her magic long ago, if she concentrated long enough, she could see the soft golden glow of a pure heart in the young King…

“Well, if that’s the case,” she said reaching for her nearby notepad. “We should probably discuss reopening the West Wing then.”

Smiling, relieved, Ben nodded. “Yes, of course.”

Same Time, On the Isle

“-many are still unsure whether anyone from the Isle of the Lost can be truly good for in the long run. For now though, all we can do is wait until the names of the newest group of children from the Isle are revealed and see what the King does next. This is Snow Wh-”

Uma turned off the staticy television, hearing enough.

“It’s so red! Why do you think they made it so red, Uma?”

The young captain wasn’t sure if she was more amused or frustrated by the fact that Gil had never seen an apple that wasn’t moldy or rotten until now. “Apples are supposed to be that way when they’re fresh, Gil,” she said turning towards the son of Gaston and plopping a tray of food in front of him.

The boy grinned at her from his spot sitting on the counter stools of her mother’s shop. “Wow. You learn something new every day,” he whispered in awe and complete seriousness before taking a bite out of the fruit, his eyes growing wide at its sweet juicy flavor.

The young sea witch’s lips curled into a small smirk at her friend’s easy delight. Grabbing his hand that held the fruit, Uma pulled it away from Gil mid bite and took a small bite of it herself. Gil grinned happily in pure delight as he watched his friend savor the sweet taste.

“Good, isn’t it?” he asked.

Uma released his hand, pulling away, her expression indifferent. “Not bad. I guess,” she said before the kitchen bell rang, announcing that one of her orders was ready. She plopped the food in front of who ordered it, still somewhat surprised when she didn’t get a complaint about receiving the wrong order. (Hey, if she was going to do three shifts back to back without a break, she didn’t have the energy to get orders correct).

A few days after Evie’s unexpected visit, Uma had been sure her terms of negotiation would not be met. Despite being filled with goody-two-shoe princes, princesses, and heroes, not once in Auradon’s 20 years of being united had anyone ever spared a look towards the Isle and its inhabitants. Therefore, the young Captain and her crew were filled with unparalleled shock when a magically directed barge came through the barrier filled with fresh food and supplies and docked itself right by her ship. It was mostly thanks to her crew competently following her orders (with a few threats from Harry to hurry things along) and that this happened in the dead of night, when even most of the villains on the Isle were asleep that there wasn’t a riot. (Uma begrudgingly supposed she had Evie or perhaps even Mal to thank for that, though she would never actually thank them. She was a pirate, afterall.)

Uma and her crew had spent all night dividing and separating the supplies. She of course made sure she and her crew were taken care of first, picking the best of everything provided but even the mediocre food and supplies that were left to distribute throughout the Isle was ten times better than what they usually had received for the past 20 years. The Isle never really celebrated any holidays like Christmas but when word went around that Uma and her crew were selling (they’re pirates, they gotta make a profit) non-rotten food and actually not useless supplies, it felt pretty close to Christmas.

Shaking her head, Uma forced her thoughts back to the present. It had been a week since that first arrival of actually edible food with two additional equally fresh barges showing up in a similar fashion since. With each barge, unlike her crew and the rest of the island who celebrated, a storm like fury brewed within her at the knowledge that at any time the “good” people of Auradon could have easily provided the basic necessities of living on the Isle. Uma wondered how many children wouldn’t have had to go to bed starving. How many of the sick wouldn’t have had to cut off infected limbs or become so weak and wasted with fever that slitting their throats was more mercy in one stroke than they would ever see in their life. She even allowed herself to wonder if the original villains sent here (her mother; Harry’s father; Gil’s father) would have been different (less shitty; less crazy; less abusive) if one’s own survival wasn’t always the first thing on people’s minds.

What if.

What if.

What if...

“Oooo! Her face is doing that lovely squinching thing that I love,” Harry’s voice chuckled behind her bringing her out of her Auradon inspired rage. “Someone must have really riled you up. But I just arrived. Should I be jealous, darling?”

Uma ignored the question and its asker, walking back over to the counter that Gil was sitting at, Harry swaggering closely behind her with a smirk. Uma turned to the kitchen window, ringing the bell twice before another tray of food appeared. She placed it in front of the now seated Harry before tossing another fresh apple that she had kept tucked away in her pocket at him. Harry winked cheekily, catching it before taking a bite, and placing his hook in front of him.

Leaning against the counter, Uma picked up Harry’s hook, idly twirling it in her hands. Harry didn’t even blink, instead trading the fresh hard boiled eggs on his tray with Gil’s untouched fresh tuna. “What’s the word, Hook?” Uma asked.

“The latest shipment has been sorted and divided throughout the Isle,” her first mate responded, licking his fingers. “A few skirmishes with some old hags and drunks but nothing the crew couldn’t handle. Even the ‘Big Bads’ like our parents haven’t dared to challenge ya.”

“And what have our little birdies been crowing?”

“Just your name leaving people lips in praise, Uuuummmma.” The boy purred, giving one of her braids a quick but affectionate tug before his smile faded.

Uma noticed. “What’s going through that twisted head of yours? That looks has been showing up for days ever since that little blue witch showed up,” she questioned. Gil even paused stuffing his face with hard boil eggs to look worriedly at his friend.

A look of uncertainty flashed on Harry’s face, something that Uma hadn’t seen in a long time on her usually confident first-mate face. It made her tense. It made her anxious. It made her stomach twist in a strange and uncomfortable way and her hands wanting to reach out to him in a way that she refused to analyze. Not here and not now at least.

Since Uma had his hook, Harry took off his hat. He ran his hands through his hair, giving them something to do with his nervous energy. “Do we really have to go to Bor-adon?” he said with a look that on anyone else would look like it was a pout. (It wasn’t a pout. Pirates didn’t pout.)

“Harry…”

“Hear me out, Uma,” he continued, voice low for only Uma and Gil to hear. “We run things here. We have a ship. We have a crew. We have Mal’s old turf. We now have decent food, for once in our lives. We rule this Isle. You rule this Isle.”

“It’s not. Enough.” Uma fumed, keeping her voice low. No point to give anyone potentially watching that something was amiss between the Captain and First Mate. “It will never be enough! We deserve everything those sparkling clean pretty pink princes and princesses in Auradon have. The bare minimum is not enough! The bare minimum hasn’t even been met! I don’t care if I do have to play nice with the King and his dragon-breath girlfriend or the Blue Powder Puff. I will rule one way, whether or not I have a visible crown. My goal hasn’t changed, Harry. Just the tides I use to get there,” she spat gripping Harry’s chin tightly in her hand to face her when he started to look away. Gil watched from the side, gaze worriedly flicking back and forth between the two. “Do I need to change my first mate too?”

Harry removed her hand from its grip on his chin, instead bestowing a light kiss on her knuckles, never breaking eye contact. “I’ll hook anyone who even thinks they could take me away from your side,” he said seriously. (“ Don’t throw me away.")

Uma’s expression was unreadable before she smirked which caused Harry to flash a wicked grin of his own. “Good, because I expect nothing less from my first mate.” (“I can’t do this without you.”)

The rest of her shift went by as usual and once it was over, Uma led her crew back to their ship. As everyone else went along doing their duties, Uma climbed up to the crow’s nest, unaware of the boy with the brilliant blue eyes and a gleaming hook who only had eyes for her. Once at the top Uma stared across the water at the gleaming city of Auradon. She knew that the invitations would be sent and soon the golden bridge made of magic would form leading her to Auradon. Though thoughts and plans constantly swirled in her head, she allowed her mind to focus on the familiar sea chanty that some of her crew members began to sing.

“We ride with the tide,” she sang softly along. “We ride with the tide and never look back.” She wouldn’t make the same mistakes she made before. Auradon wouldn’t know what hit it...

Chapter Text

“Um...Evie? Is this stuff supposed to be tingling?” Carlos asked coming out of the attached bathroom.

“Yep,” his friend giggled sitting on the edge of her bed. She was just finishing putting Jay’s hair into three braids that led into a man bun, her legs thrown over Jay’s shoulders as he (willingly) applied some sparkly blue nail polish to her toes.

The door to the girl’s room opened revealing Mal carrying a tray full of various sweets and snacks. “Look what I raided from the kitchen,” she grinned kicking the door closed.

“Score!” Jay laughed removing Evie’s legs from his shoulders before meeting Mal at the table where she placed the food. He tossed a bar of chocolate at Carlos, before passing Evie a plate of chocolate chip cookies. He snuck a few strawberries from the bowl that Mal had commandeered before taking the plate filled with pizza bites (something that Ben had recently introduced him to) for himself. “Okay! Now we can really get this Girl Talk started!” He said flopping onto Mal’s bed.

Since the Royal Cotillion, the four friends, despite their busy and sometimes never overlapping schedules had decided to make Sunday nights “Girl Talk”. (“We can’t change the name now, Carlos,” Jay had chuckled the first Sunday despite his friend’s embarrassment.)  It was a time for them to catch up on each other lives, the successes, and often times many of the struggles they still encountered as children from the Isle. It was a time just for them where they could be honest and not feel judged by their often well meaning but clueless Auradon friends. Not even Ben, Doug, or Jane were allowed to come.  

Some of their Auradon friends who knew about their Sunday night get togethers called it Villain Kid Support Group especially after the one time Freddie Facilier was seen joining them. (No one commented that night on how the girl’s witty remarks and cheshire-cat grin were forced. Nor on the bruises on her arm that she had awakened to from the nightmares she had the night before of shadowy hands pulling her somewhere dark and inescapable. Instead, Jay and Carlos showed Freddie how to play some of their video games; Evie made little hats for some of her shrunken heads; and before Freddie left, Mal passed her a small vial of dreamless sleep potion that, one of the few potions she remembered from her mother’s spell book.)

Tonight, though, it was just the Rotten Four. Tonight it was just family.

“It’s gonna be so weird tomorrow,” Jay said thoughtfully, popping a pizza bite into his mouth. “New VKs in Auradon is gonna be crazy.”

“Ugh, don’t remind me,” Mal groaned, picking up Dude as she sat next to the sprawled out semi-former thief (hey, bad habits were hard to break) and placing the small dog next to her. Dude sighed sleepily, commenting drowsily to scratch a little bit lower.

“You’re not gonna pull another runner, are you Mal?” Carlos teased sitting down at one of the girls desks and making a quick correction on one of their assignments. “The queen of Atlantis first name has three A’s by the way.”

“Ha ha ha,” Mal said dryly the same time Evie gave a cheery, “Thanks!”

“But seriously,” Jay said sitting up next to his oldest friend. “Are we gonna have to tie you down?”

The half-fae gave him a playful push. “Guys, I’m good. Seriously. I’ve been talking to Queen Belle. You know she wasn’t a princess before she married Ben’s dad. She may not have been from the Isle but she had to deal with her own adjustment to stepping into her role as queen,” she explained. “If my fate is to be Ben’s queen, I’m going to do it my way, on my own terms.”

“Wow, Mal. You make eventually marrying your true love sound sooo romantic,” Carlos murmured picking at his face mask that was beginning to flake. “Hey!” he exclaimed after a strawberry bounced off his head, Mal popping another one a little too innocently into her mouth.

“You can stop picking at it and wash it off,” Evie stated to the boy before turning back to Mal. “But seriously, are you going to be okay with tomorrow? This will be the first official group of VKs coming in after us. And...Uma will be with them.”

“Look,” Mal said crossing her arms, “as long as she doesn’t try to mess with what’s mine, I have no beef with her. We may not be friends but it’s like you and Ben have been saying, E. She’s a kid of the Isle and deserves a chance. But that doesn’t mean I have to trust her. She steps one tentacle out of line and I’ll personally fly her fishy butt back to the Isle.”

Evie shook her head. “I don’t think she’ll be a problem. I mean, no matter what our personal feelings are in regards to her, I really do think she just wants to do the best for those who really should have never been left on that island. You could see that with some of her terms of negotiations.”

“Fine. Okay,” Mal said running her fingers through her hair a little too harshly. “Can we change the topic? I’ll deal with Captain Shrimpy and her jolly crew in the morning.”

Looking around, Jay raised his hand. “Ok, Subject change,” he said. “So um… you know Carlos and I have a game coming up soon.”

“Oh yeah?” Evie asked while showing a now face maskless Carlos a new design she had been working on for him. “It’s an away game right?”

Jay didn’t answer, struggling for once in his life to get the words out. It was Carlos who spoke up for him. “It’s in Agrabah.”

Mal and Evie were silent, faces instantly filling with understanding.

“Yeah,” Jay chuckled, his grin just not reaching his eyes. “I know. It’s gonna be a hell of a homecoming.”

Mal rubbed his back. “You’re not your dad. They can’t blame you for what he did. I talked to Jasmine and Aladdin about it that one time I met with them and they seemed to hold no grudges against you.”

“I know that,” Jay sighed. “It’s just...weird, ya know? My dad always told me that I belonged to royalty. And though I never really cared about that, Agrabah it’s...I mean, I never been there before but...it’s supposed to be home, right?”

“They say here that ‘home is where the heart is’,” Evie smiled softly sitting next to him and taking his hand.

“Yeah,” Jay nodded looking at his friends who he knew had his back no matter what. “They may be right.”

----

The Next Day, On the Isle

“I swear on Davy Jones’s locker itself, if ye go against us, sister or not, I’ll-!”

“-hook me,” Harriet Hook rolled her eyes exasperatedly as she stared up at the ceiling of her ship’s cabin. “I know dear little brother. I thought you had lowered yourself into the position of being another Captain’s first mate, not her parrot,” she said.  

Harry growled, getting out of his seat. His sister always knew how to push the wrong buttons. He was pulled back down in his seat when Uma tugged on his jacket.

“So we’re in an agreement?” Uma questioned irritatedly, wanting to get out of the middle of this sibling squabbling. She also hated being on another captain’s ship, especially the one belonging to the oldest child of Hook. Though the slightly older girl had some slightly twisted sense of loyalty to her only brother, it was as fickle as a leaf blowing in a hurricane and often times she didn’t withhold saying something that would push her only brother into a destructive self-loathing.  

Harriet sighed, removing her boot clad feet from her cabin’s desk, the iconic red Hook jacket draped securely on her shoulders. “Aye. I’ll protect your remaining crew and turf here as well as handle the new fancy supply shipments. You lot just remember to protect my crew members going with you who were in Yen Sid’s little club.”

Uma nodded. “Aye,” she said, both captains shook, clasping each other’s forearms in agreement.

“Oh, and little brother,” Harriet called out just as they were leaving, Uma already up on deck. Harry didn’t turn but he stopped, waiting for her to continue. “If you see Calista…”

“She’s probably dead somewhere on this Isle,” he said looking over his shoulder. “But if the rumors are true and that crazy little wench did sneak through the barrier,” he grinned widely, a glint in his eye, “I’ll hook her for ya. Free of charge, sister o’mine.”

Harriet snorted unamused as she sat back at her desk, waving him out. “Get a new threat, idiot.”

Harry blew her a kiss before sauntering out and off the ship to where Uma was waiting for him. Uma raised a brow questioningly when he finally joined her but didn’t ask any questions  as she led the way back to their ship.

“Go on and finish getting ready,” Uma said not stepping up the ramp to board The Lost Revenge. “There’s something I gotta do before the cars arrive,” she said glancing over to where Ursula’s Fish and Chip Shop stood.

Harry’s eyes followed hers, frown deepening. “If yer not back before an hour’s time,” he said as she began walking away, “I’ll come in swinging!”

“You can’t even tell time!” one of the crew interrupted from the deck (Jonas. It was always Jonas just asking for a hookin’, Harry thought)  before being joined by a chorus of laughs and cackles.

“Why you!” Harry snarled stomping up onto deck, hook raised, threats being hurled in his heavy Scottish accent, promising the still laughing crew very painful deaths. Uma rolled her eyes at her crew fooling around, a small smile on her lips as she made her way to her mother’s shop.

When she stepped through the swinging doors of the chop shop, she paused, surprised at what she saw waiting for her in the empty room. Her mother. Ursula.

“What are you doing here?” came out of the young girl’s mouth before she could even stop them.

A poorly drawn thin eyebrow rose, chapped red painted lips turning down. “Last time I checked,” the older sea witch said pouring herself another glass of cheap rum, “this dump still belonged to me. Sit.”

The girl scowled but made her way over to the table where her mother was sitting. A frown of disgust was deeply etched onto her face as she watched her mother slingback the glass of rum, some of the amber liquid running down her chin. Finally, Ursula sat down her glass, letting out a loud belch.

“You know,” she began. “I always thought you were a disappointment. You were born with those hideous things,” she said gesturing to Uma’s legs. “You were never able to really beat Maleficent’s traitorous bitch. The family’s good looks seemed to have completely skipped over you,” she reached out tilting Uma’s face this way and that with one of her tentacles, patting her daughter’s cheek a little too hard for it to be affectionate. “And to make things worst, you further spit on the heritage that you weren’t even worthy of to begin with by becoming Captain of men and a dinky little ship.” She poured another glass, eyes never leaving Uma’s. “If I didn’t need you to fill in shifts for this place, I would have drowned you before you had learned how to swim a long, long, long time ago,” Ursula said offhandedly.

“Wow, and they said you didn’t deserve the Mother of the Year award,” Uma sarcastically spat. This wasn’t anything new but that still didn’t mean Uma just wanted to sit there and listen to her mother rant. She attempted to get up before she was roughly tugged back down into her seat by one of her mother’s tentacles.

“Oh hush now, angelfish. Can’t spare some time for you dear old mommy-dearest before you abandon her and all the fools on this island who follow you, just like your pal Mal?”

Uma slammed her fist down on the table. “Don’t you dare compare me to her!”

“Oooo!” Ursula chuckled deeply, a dark hacking sound that filled the entire room and made Uma wish that her mother’s old necklace still worked, if only to shut her up. “Guess I pushed one of baby’s little buttons.”

“Cut the crap, Ursula. What’s your deal?”

The sea witch suddenly grew quiet, unnerving Uma before she reached one of her tentacles back into the kitchen. The sounds of pots, pans, and various other items hitting the floor were heard before the tentacle pulled back dropping two items in front of Uma.

“A mildewy old potions book and...what is this? A fishbone pen?” Uma asked picking up the last with just her thumb and pointer finger.

“As you said, sweetcheeks, let’s cut the crap,” Ursula said leaning forward. “Disgrace or no, you are still my daughter, a granddaughter of Poseidon. I know what your plans are. A little drawn out and a bit bland for my taste but there’s nothing to do about that since you used your ace already at the little King’s cotillion. If you’re really going to commit to this Royal Councilor thing - don’t look at me  like that, I’m your mother. I know every thing - but as I was saying, if you’re going to commit to this thing and control the King from the shadows, you’ll need more than just my necklace. I’m giving you my potions book and dealmaker bone pen. Use them to have those Auradon scum controlled bowing at your feet!”

“You’re giving these to me?” Confusion and shock was evident on Uma’s face.

“Well who else am I going to give it to?” Ursula sneered, already annoyed with this conversation. “My sister’s kelp-brained daughters on the other side of the Isle? Ha! Rather have a little shrimp like you have it then to let that bitch think she won. She could never get over the fact that I was mother’s favorite. Now go,” the sea witch said dismissively. “I’m tired of looking at you.”

Not needing to be told twice, Uma quickly got up, deciding the little trinkets she had hidden in the kitchen under a floorboard that she originally name for were not worth another minute in this place. She made her way back to her ship, people quickly moving out of the way once they saw her dark expression.

When she stepped back on her boat, Jonas was tied upside down to one of the mast, obscene drawing drawn all over his face (“Really Hook? Did you have to draw that so close to my face?), a pleased looking first mate sitting next to him on a crate. As if by instinct, Harry immediately focused on Uma once she was aboard.

“What’s that in yer hand?” he asked as she moved across the deck to the other side of the ship where she snapped the pen in half before ripping repeatedly some pages of the book before tossing everything off the side and into the murky water.

“Nothing,” she said, just as a golden bridge of magic began to stretch from the Auradon’s coast to the isle. “Just old trash.”

Chapter Text

Ben couldn’t remember the last time his stomach felt so twisted with nerves.

“Don’t be nervous.”

Ben chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck. “Is it that obvious?”

Mal grinned reaching out to hold his hand. “A bit. But it’s cute,” she said making him blush.

“I just want things to go well. I’m not that naive to forget that a lot is riding on this.”

Mal squeezed his hand as they made their way to the front of the school where the newest VKs would be arriving: Hermie Bing, daughter of the Ringmaster; Eddie Balthazar, son of Edgar Belthazar; Little Sammy Smee, son of Mr. Smee; Big Murph, son of one of Captain Hook’s pirates; Claudine Frollo, daughter of Judge Frollo; Harry and Jace Badun, cousins and the sons of Cruella’s minions, Horace and Jasper; Diego de Vil, nephew of Cruella and Carlo’s cousin - whom Ben wasn’t even aware of until just a few weeks ago; Hadie, son of Hades; and Yzla, daughter of Yzma.

“If anyone could pull this off, it’s you Ben,” Mal comforted. “You always see the best in people, even when they put a love spell on you,” she muttered the last part.

Her boyfriend let out of bark of laughter. “Are you talking about Uma or you?”

A light blush appeared on his lady’s cheeks as she playfully hit his arm. Ben laughed and for a moment he forgot how nervous he was and instead focused on the beautiful girl next to him. Wickedly beautiful…

After the Royal Cotillion, Mal and Ben worked on having a more balanced and honest relationship. They were still often busy with their respective responsibilities but the half-fae felt more comfortable in her skin and embraced both her Auradon and Isle self equally. Long gone were the pretty pastel colored princess dresses and in their place were the familiar leather and dark colors that declared her where she came from with a mix of Auradon regalness that declared her as a future queen not to be messed with. Ben loved it and loved her even more.

“And what’s that silly little lovestruck grin for?”  she smirked, bringing him out of his thoughts. “Who are you thinking of?”

Ben stopped them, tugging the half-fae by the waist closer to him. “I’ll give you one guess,” he murmured, brushing his lips softly against hers. Once...twice...he started losing count just letting himself get lost in Mal.

“Get a room!” they heard Jay cackle closely.

Ben could feel Mal growl against his lips, probably flipping off Jay, but she didn’t let her grip on Ben’s blazer go until it seemed like she was sure she had left Ben blushing and almost in a daze.

“No time for dilly dallying!” Evie said pushing them apart, grabbing on of each of their arms as she pulled them along with her, like the force that she was, Carlos and Jay following behind them. “They’re going to arrive soon!”

With Evie leading, Ben and the others soon found themselves at the main entrance of the school where Fairy Godmother and Jane were waiting. Carlos quickly made his way over to Jane, a shy smile on both of their faces as they linked hands. Ben smiled happy that the two were finally dating.

“Okay,” Evie said letting go of Ben’s and Mal’s arms and addressing everyone. “It’s just us. No big pomp and circumstance like last time. We want to ease them into Auradon. Everyone will have a group that they’re responsible of. Ideally, if there were any problems, you would be the people they got into contact with as they transition into their new life. Got it?” Evie asked barely letting everyone answer before letting out an excited gasp when one of the limos came into view. “Oh! They’re here! Everyone get ready!”

Ben took a deep breath, taking comfort from Mal as one by one the three limos pulled to a stop in front of them. With one last deep breath, Ben put on a bright and welcoming smile.

This wouldn’t be so bad.

---

Once upon a time, though not very long ago, they were younger.

They were mischief and wicked little giggles.

They were thick as thieves.

They were best friends...

“What are you looking at?” six year old Mal asked when she noticed her friend had suddenly stopped her terrorizing of the bazaar shopkeepers.

Uma glanced over her shoulder before looking back at the outside wall of a building, where a family of three with too white and too bright smiles looked out almost tauntingly from a poster that mockingly said “Be Good”.

“Look, the posters changed again.” Uma commented.

Mal stepped forward, squinting her nose up at the image. “Ugh! Something is wrong with their faces. Their frowns are going the wrong way.”

“I think...they’re smiling,” Uma said tilting her head to the side.

“It’s gross,” Mal declared, blowing a raspberry at the young smiling boy’s face. She hated his smile the most for some reason. “I bet they do nothing but smile all day until their faces get stuck.”

“Or fall off,” Uma laughed.

Mal laughed too. “That would actually be funny to see.”

Uma paused, looking back at the picture. “What do you think it’s like over there?”

The half-fae shuddered. “It’s probably pink everywhere. Who would want to go there? My mom says it’s all boring with their dresses and princesses, and princes and happily ever afters,” Mal said. “Bleh!” she pretended to gag before seeing her friend’s saddened face. “But...one day, you and I are gonna figure out a way to get pass the barrier and we’re gonna burn Auradon down! Together,” the little half-fae said extending out her hand.

Uma eyes sparkled brightly, grabbing Mal’s forearm in a shake. “Together.”

Mal smiled, that mischievous little grin before she tugged her friend along to cause more mischief throughout the isle.

It was always supposed to be Uma and Mal. Mal and Uma against the world.

Until it wasn’t...

Until she had been tricked.

Stupid girl. Foolish girl. Too trusting girl.

You poor unfortunate soul...

Mal laughed. (“Look at the daughter of Ursula covered in sea sludge. Shrimpy. Everyone, laugh at poor weak little Shrimpy…”)

Others laughed until she ran away.

(Run Shrimpy! Run!)

Harry was the first one to find her.

“Go. Away. Harry.” Uma ground out. “I don’t want to talk to you or anyone else!”

“Good,” the young pirate grinned, “because I didn’t come looking for ye. Ye just happened to be in the best place to go scavenging,” he said shouldering past her to go deeper into the alley to start rummaging in a nearby pile of what was mostly junk.

Uma glared at him but when he still refused to stop rummaging in the junk, she snapped her head back to glare at the wall across from her. She sniffed, fighting back tears as she still felt shrimp residue in her hair despite how many times she watched it. Harry didn’t comment on the lone tear that had managed to escape.

“I hate her,” she said aloud.

Harry made an affirming sound, peering into an empty glass bottle. “Aye right. She’s very easy to hate. Ah dinnae ken how you dealt with her.”

“She-she thinks that just because her mom is big bad Maleficent that everyone should just bow down to her. But why? She’s nothing! Take away her mom and she’s just...she’s just-!”

Harry tossed the bottle over his shoulder, looking expectantly at her. “Come on. Say it! She’s what?”

“Fishbait!” Uma growled.

Harry grinned wildly. “Aye. That she is. And what was it with that evil cackle of hers, eh? It sounded so nasally. Like slugs crawled into that nose of hers that she’s always turning up. Everyone knows that evil cackles should come from the belly,” he said patting his stomach.

A small smirk formed on Uma’s lips.

“Oh look! I’m Mal. Not even worthy of a full name,” Harry began in a high pitch voice, making an exaggerated imitation of Mal’s scowl and stance. Uma was unable to contain her giggles. “Look at me! I can make my eyes glow green. Soooo scary,” he drawled, leaning against the wall across from the giggling girl.

“You’re an idiot.”

“Aye, that I am,” the boy winked. “And you’re better than Mal. One day, you’ll probably even rule the island, especially with how bossy you are.”

Uma grinned, not noticing as everything around her seemed to melt away like mist.

“Uma, wake-up, darling. We’re almost there.”

Lifting the brim of her hat from where it had slipped low on her head, Uma didn’t flinch when she saw Harry’s face so close to hers. She could feel his breath fanning out against her skin, smelling like the sour gummy candy she knew he had stuffed himself with ever since they got into the limo.

“Two words,” she grumbled, voice still thick with sleep. “Personal space.”

Harry laughed, though he leaned back, giving Uma a clear view of the sticky sugary mess that he and Gil obviously made while she had been napping.

“Oo! Uma! We saved you your favorite!” Gil proudly exclaimed from the limo’s floor, holding up a barely touched jar of red fished shaped candy. She had had it once, when she was much younger, a lone red little fish gummy that some Auradon brat must have not noticed at the bottom of the bag before throwing it out. Reaching out for the jar, Uma took a handful, letting herself momentarily indulge. Gil grinned and Uma couldn’t help but grin back herself. She turned to Harry who was stabbing some gummy bears a little too gleefully with his hook. She mentally sighed, remembering what she had been putting off since she decided they would be going to Auradon. She really didn’t want to have this conversation.

“You’re going to have to put that away, you know.” the sea witch finally said.

Harry paused, eyes wide as he slowly, oh so slowly turned to face her. His expression looked like she had just told him he was no longer First Mate and a part of Uma wished she could just take what she said back. But she knew they wouldn’t let him keep his most cherished possession. And she knew why he had to keep it. Growing up in a place where everything was stacked against you, the only way to get by - to keep any sense of sanity - was the goal of proving yourself better, meaner, more wicked than your parents. Harry needed a hook to do that. To prove that he was more than just some unwanted bastard son of washed up pirate who would always be disappointed in him and some nameless tavern-wench. And if anyone tried to physically take it from him, Uma knew he wouldn’t hesitate to kill.  

“Repeat that, lass.”

Uma frowned, crossing her arms. “That’s Captain. And your hook, you-”

“WHAT ABOUT ME HOOK!?” he snarled angrily, accusingly...hurt. His face was red and his entire body seemed to vibrate with repressed rage. She should be frightened...

She heard Gil whisper something to the limo driver when the man questioned what was all the noise about but she couldn’t focus on that.

“Harry, listen to me!” she said forcefully, tugging him by the hook, not letting go, not breaking eye contact. “Those goody two-shoes will take it away if they see you with it. And I. Know. You. You will fight for it. You would fight tooth and nail and get your behind sent back to the Isle. Or worst! You told me I wouldn’t have to look for a new first mate. Do you remember that? Did you lie to me?”

Harry didn’t respond, looking away, body still shaking, still too tense. Uma could see his jaw clenching tightly and it made her so inexplicably angry. (At him. At herself. At his father and the stupid boy who started this whole damn hook business.)

Anyone else would have at least been wary but Uma wasn’t anyone. She was Isle born and bred. The sea roared and crashed in her veins. The storms raged in her eyes. She growled,before tackling the boy onto the floor of the limo, Gil just barely getting out of the way.

That was the scene that the limo driver opened the door to.

“Um...am I interrupting something?” Ben asked peaking in.

Harry shouted “Yes!” the same time Uma shouted “No.” Neither seemed embarrassed about their current positions.

Ben glanced at Gil who merely shrugged. “Harry wants to keep his hook but Uma says you won’t let him keep it,” the blonde said simply. “Also, it’s good to see you again Ben!”

“Gil!” both captain and first mate hissed.

Ben was silent as he leaned further into the limo. “Well...we can’t have students running around with weapons that could hurt either others or themselves.” Harry growled, making a move to lunge at the young king but thankfully for Ben, Uma still sat securely on top of him. “But,” Ben continued, “if it’s really important to you, Harry, we can get Fairy Godmother to spell it so that you would still be able to carry it around but unable to hurt anyone with it. We do it with all the fencing swords for. Would that be a suitable compromise?”

Using her knees to keep his arms penned down and covering his mouth with her hands, Uma answered for her first mate: “Yes. Deal. You can add it to our arrangement.”

Ben quirked a brow at her choice of words but kept his questions to himself for the time being. Suddenly feeling unsure, he cleared his throat. “Good. Well, everyone else is here waiting for-”

“Give us a minute. Gil. Out.” Uma ordered and Ben had no other option but to follow it as Gil pushed him out before closing the door.

Removing her hands from his mouth, being met with no resistance as she pulled the hook out of Harry’s hand, her hand gripping his and fingers intertwining with those of his hook wielding hand. She bent her head down low until she knew she was the only thing in his field of vision.

“What’s. My. Name?” she said low and and slowly.

Harry closed his eyes briefly, taking a deep shuddering breath. She could see the thoughts spiral chaotically throughout his head. The sweat beading at his brow. She felt his pulse beat erratically under her. But his hook wielding hand shook in her hers as he fought for control over himself and that reassured her greatly. He was still present. He was still here with her.

“Uma,” he whispered on a sigh that both sounded like a prayer and a desperate plea.

“And what am I?” she asked, squeezing his hand, her other hand combing slowly through his hair. Harry took another deep breath, almost leaning into the touch of her hand.

“Captain.”

“And who are you?” Uma asked, relieved when his breathing seemed to even a bit as his muscles began to uncoil and relax a bit.

Blue eyes opened, framed with thick eyeliner, wary and heavy with something that again Uma didn’t want to think of. (Not here. Not now. Can’t get distracted.)

“Yours. Always yours,” Harry whispered almost reverently, the thumb of his free hand drawing slow calming circles on the outside of her thigh. (For her? For him? She wasn’t sure.)

“And I protect what’s mine,” she said with such conviction that it left no room for argument. “I know what your hook means to you, Harry, but I can’t have you go pulling another Tick-Tock and trying to get rid of your hand when...you know. We had an arrangement. Do you remember that ?”

Harry sighed, hand on her thigh beginning to tap a staccato like rhythm against her skin. His eyes still looked wary but they were focused again, that something else still there but better hidden and difficult to spot unless she was really looking and at the moment, she didn’t want to see it. She knew this would be difficult for him but she also knew she was selfish and made him come to this place where things wouldn’t be easy for him anyway. (Because that’s what first mates did. Pledge to follow their captains to the ends of the earth.)

“Aye, Captain.”

Uma nodded, withholding expressing her relief. “We’re going to go outside now. You’ll hand over your hook. We’re going to get through whatever these Auradon idiots have in store for us and if you have to hold my hand all throughout it to keep yourself together enough, then so be it.  Squeeze it. Break it if you must if that’s what it takes to keep you by my side and not sent back to the Isle. But I swear to you, you’ll get your hook back. Understand?”

Harry nodded and that was all Uma needed before she moved off of him and opened the limo’s door, all the while still holding Harry’s hand. She had to refrain from squinting as she got out, the sun much brighter in Auradon. When her vision cleared, she saw that Gil was talking excitedly with Ben about something or another, the young king either very good at pretending or actually interested in whatever the other boy was saying. Taking in their surroundings quickly, Uma noticed that the other Isle kids were nowhere in sight.

“Ben thought you would prefer it if the others got a head start.”

Uma snapped her head over to where the daughter of the Evil Queen was standing next to the Fairy Godmother. At hearing Evie say his name, Ben turned towards Uma a bright smile on his face that left Uma confused as to whether Uma wanted to smile with him or punch him in the face. (Punch him in the face, definitely punch him in the face).

“I figured it would make things...less stressful,” Ben clarified, giving a slight nod to the hook Harry held limply in his other hand.

“How kind of ye,” Harry managed to drawled, looking anything but appreciative. If anything, Uma noticed he looked pale and tired in the sunlight. Nonetheless, he stood tall next to his Captain. Ben, Evie, and Fairy Godmother gave their joined hands brief momentary glances but didn’t comment on them.  

“Yes,” Fairy Godmother began, her smile just a tad bit force at the sight of the curved piece of metal that Harry had brought out with him. “King Ben has informed me of what he discussed with you,” she said holding out her hand. “If you give me your possession, I promise to have it back to you by your first class with me tomorrow morning.”

From the corner of her eye, Uma watched as the muscle in her first mate’s jaw twitched. Slowly, so slowly that she wondered if someone had slowed down time, Harry handed over his hook. Fairy Godmother quickly snatched it into her hands, giving a satisfied nod before saying her goodbyes and promising to return Harry’s hook the next day, leaving the five teens to themselves.

“All right,” Evie smiled softly, seemingly aware of the tense situation that Uma found herself in. “I know you all had a long ride so Ben and I will give you a quick tour before showing you to your dorms so you can rest. Classes start tomorrow for you.” With that, she pulled a slightly startled Ben along, Gil following.

Uma glanced at Harry. “Just focus on me, Hook. Focus on holding my hand. Squeeze it until it breaks if you have to.”

Harry let out a tired chuckle, body still holding a lot of tension. Though his hand in hers felt firm and warm and familiar. Steady, even. “Well, at least I get to hold hands with a goddess,” he winked, kissing her knuckles.

Rolling her eyes as she tugged him along, Uma allowed herself to smile. If her idiot was joking, he would be okay.

Chapter Text

Jane had never been to the Isle. Why would she? Afterall, she was born good, the daughter of the Fairy Godmother. Of course, she had heard things about it growing up - that the Isle was where all the villains lived and everyone there was evil - but she still didn’t know anything about the Isle.

When Mal, Evie, Carlos, and Jay first arrived, all she had to go on was stories that she had been told about their parents. How wicked they were. How cruel and cold and unlovable they were. Eventually, she got to talk to and know the VKs a bit better, she got to know Carlos better and she realized that the stories she had been told all her life were not true. A person wasn’t born evil and even the actual definition of what made someone evil was starting to seem more and more like something that was more grey than either black or white to Jane. After all, Mal and Evie helped her with her confidence, Jay made her laugh, and Carlos...Carlos was always so sweet and supportive.

However, Jane knew it would be a lie to say she now knew everything about the Isle. She barely knew anything about her own boyfriend’s life there.

“So you’re the pup’s girl, right?”

Jane startled, pulled out of her thoughts as one of the new VKs sat across from her with a tray overflowing with food. Carlos’s cousin, Diego de Vil.

Blushing when she realized he was referring to Carlos, Jane nodded at his easy grin.

Put side by side, it was obvious that Carlos and Diego were related, and yet, they were so vastly different. Both boys wore the De Vil color of white, black and red though where Carlos leaned more towards the white, Diego wore black. Even his hair was the inverse of Carlos’s, with white shaven sides gradually fading into a black mohawk. Jane also noticed that while Carlos was shy and soft and kind, Diego seemed edgier and confident and maybe even a tad bit cocky.

“Carlos and I have been dating for a few weeks now. Since the cotillion,” she offered.

A sound of amused disbelief escaped Diego’s lips as he glanced back to where his cousin and the other three new VKs waited in the lunch line. Carlos seemed to be struggling to maintain his patience with his two former friends (minions, Jane mentally corrected herself, remembering the look of indifference all three boys had exchanged when she had innocently asked how they had become friends earlier), Jace and Harry Badun. The two girls, Hermie Bing and Claudine Frollo, stood anxiously to the side of them as the sons of Cruella's henchmen continued to try to wheedle out if they were being tricked when told it was an “all you can eat” buffet.

Diego turned back to Jane and shook his head, his easy grin still in place. “Gotta say, if you had told me a year ago that Carlos would catch a cute gal like you, I would say it was some sort of scam or setup. But, I don’t suppose those things happen in Auradon, do they?”

Jane shook her, tucking a loose curl of hair behind her ear. “N-no, I guess not,” she said biting her lip nervously. “I mean, I haven’t heard of anything like that here.”

Diego shrugged taking a bite out of the sandwich on his plate. Jane was mesmerized by the way he ate. Where Carlos would sometimes forget that utensils were invented for a reason, especially after a long day of classes and practices, Diego seemed to have perfected the ability to practically inhale food but with the best of table manners. So mesmerized, Jane didn’t even really realize she was being equally observed by the older boy until he spoke again.

“You know you can just ask, right?”

She blinked confused. “Ask what?”

Diego laughed, a sound that didn’t seem as bright as Carlos’s. “Whatever is going on in that pretty little head of yours, Janey-Jane. Come on now. Ask. I promise I don’t bite. Much.”

Worrying her lip, Jane thought. Carlos was so sweet and kind and supportive but beyond from what she had seen of him at Auradon, she really knew nothing about his growing up. For bibbity bobbity sakes, she didn’t even know he had a cousin until Diego had stepped out of the limo and Evie had introduced him.

It wasn’t necessarily a matter of lack of trust when it came to her boyfriend. But Carlos never talked about his childhood. He would let her go on and on about little insignificant things that she remembered happening growing up (the time Chad used one of her pigtails as a brush; the time when Audrey made her play the frumpy lady-in-waiting when everyone else got to dress up as a princess; or the time where everyone except Ben forgot to find her during a game of hide-and-go-seek), listening with such rapt attention that butterflies would flutter in her stomach under his intense brown stare. But any time she tried to learn more about his childhood his face would close off despite the kind smile he still wore and he would hesitantly tuck a lock of hair behind her ear before saying he merely studied and messed around with his inventions a lot growing up. He wasn’t being completely honest, she knew he knew he wasn’t being completely honest, but when she had gone to Lonnie and Ben (the only Auradon friends she had that had been to the Isle) for advice about how to approach this situation, they both advised to just be patient. Carlos would tell her when he was ready. (She was patient. She was always patient. When was she not plain old patient Jane?) And now, here she had Carlos’s cousin, who she didn’t even know existed until only hours before, offer to possibly shed some light on the boy that she lo-liked. The boy that she liked.

Before she could open her mouth however, the chair next to her was suddenly occupied by her boyfriend, the other new VKs quickly taking the other open seats available. Carlos looked at her before turning a glare towards Diego. “What did you say to her?” he said with a tone so dark and threatening, one that reminded her that he had much more Isle in him than she ever knew.

His cousin merely chuckled, raising his hands defensively. “Hey man, I was just having a conversation with Janey here. Professor Yen Sid said it was always good to be friendly and make polite conversation when you meet someone new.”

Carlos looked towards Jane for confirmation who nodded.

“Oh,” Carlos said, expression melting into sheepishness. “Well...um, sorry, Diego. I- It’s just weird… I mean, you know, on the Isle-”

“Don’t worry about it, cuz,” Diego interrupted, waving his apology off. “The Isle is the Isle. Blood didn’t mean much there but, we’re not on the Isle anymore, are we?” he questioned, offering out his hand.

Jane didn’t know much about Carlos’s life on the Isle before Auradon but the tentative smile on his face, as if he wasn’t sure if Diego was joking or not, before he clasped his hand with his cousin’s caused her heart to clench for them both.

---

He didn’t think it was possible, but Harry would rather be helping Uma mop up the Chip Shop after closing than be here.

In all honesty, Harry just wanted Mal’s boy toy to just shut his trap. And to stop smiling. His smile was too damn bright. It was giving him a headache. Gods, did everyone smile this brightly in this pastel colored hell? Ugh, where was his hook? What was Good King Beasty and Princess Blueberry even going on about?

Oh right. Blah, blah, blah, blah, with a side of dull and kill-me-now.

His hand was tightly squeezed and the murderous glare he was directing at the young king turned into a cocky smile as he looked at his captain. Though she looked just as bored as he felt, he knew that she was observing everything, taking everything in, figuring how things ticked so she could take things apart and put it back the way she deemed fit. She watched the way all the poncy little princes and princesses gave their group ample space around them. How they looked anywhere but directly  at the three pirates who with their dark tattered clothes and equally dark expressions (well except Gil; the poor idiot couldn’t make anything look dark). Still, their whispers of judgement follow the group with every step that they took.

It was different on the Isle. On the Isle people feared them and crowds parted for him and Uma as soon as they walked into the room. On the Isle, people, even enemies, knew to refer to him as the first mate of Captain Uma. Here, surrounded by these too clean, too bright Auradon brats, he was merely a villain’s son and he once again felt his father’s shadow fall on him and swallow him up in the man’s never ending disappointment.

Harry shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts. To stay focus, but his skin felt too tight, like it was too small for him, his fingers tingling.He barely felt Uma’s hand in his. His eyes flickered quickly from one thing to another and his heart felt like it was about to break through his chest. He tried to focus on the words coming out of Ben’s and Evie’s mouth, the excited gasp that Gil let out over something, even the uncreative gossip about himself, Uma, and Gil that was swirling none to discreetly around them. Usually, one wrong word in regards to his captain would have had a string of angry curses and threats leaving his mouth but his breathing became too uneven, too shallow and the world seemed to spin around and around and around...

Davy Jones, was it always this difficult to breathe? Was this how he was going to go? Hookless and leaving only Gil to support Uma? No. He promised. He wouldn’t be taken from her side.

“Harry. Breathe.”

And slowly, with multiple deep breaths in and out, everything shifted back into focus with Uma at the center. He tried to grin but his lips just not reaching his eyes. “Sorry, Captain...Just...tired,” he said in an unusually soft and uneven voice. Uma motioned Gil to step closer to them, a worried look on the boy’s face as he blocked the view of many prying eyes from them.

“It’s happening again,” Uma commented more to herself and Harry’s grin couldn’t help but widen just a bit despite the discomfort he was in at the hint of concern in her voice and how tightly she squeezed his hand. “I shouldn’t have waited so long to talk to you about your hook,” she said, eyes holding uncertainty and self blame. Harry hated that look. Hated that he was the cause of that look, as he found himself leaning on her much smaller frame physically for support, Gil already trying to put one of his arms around his shoulders to aid Uma. He tried to ignore the voice that sounded too similar to his father’s whispering “pathetic, useless boy”.   

Ben looked concerned, eyes roaming along the pirate’s face for the cause of what ailed the first mate, looking unsure when nothing obvious stood out to him. It was Evie however, who took control over the situation (Harry seriously wondered how she hadn’t just taken over the damn kingdom by now). “Let’s cut the tour short and show you three to your rooms,” she said gently but with a note of authority that even Harry dare mess with in his current state.

Uma nodded, taking the opportunity to get Harry away to somewhere more private that Evie was silently offering. Harry held back a groan. He didn’t want Uma owing the other girl more than necessary, if anything at all, especially for him and felt like sea scum that he was putting more on his captain’s shoulders. “Just lead the way, Princess.”

Stuck between Uma and Gil, it didn’t take long to get to the dorms. Harry almost sighed in relief when Evie and Ben showed them the first room that would belong to him and Gil. He pulled away from his crewmates to stumble his way to the nearest bed where he flopped himself down face first. He let out a slight sigh of relief, pressing his face into the pillow. He didn’t feel like he was suffocating anymore from or that his fingers were going numb but he was left feeling drained and too sweaty.

Harry focused on his breathing, letting out a sigh of content when he felt the bed dip next to him and Uma’s wonderful fingers run through his hair.

The room was silent for a moment before Ben broke the silence. “What just happened?” he asked. (Harry almost snorted at the sound of concern in the boy’s voice. How did King Sheds-A-Lot Jr. last even a minute on the Isle with that bleeding heart of his?)

“I don’t know,” Uma responded, continuing to run her fingers through Harry’s hair.

“Uma, please. Trust me. I just want to help. You said ‘it’s happening again’. You know what this is,” the young king responded frustratedly.

Harry peeked one eye out from the pillow where his face was buried watching warily as Uma attempted to calm herself down. “I said, I don’t know.” A shiver ran down his back at her tone as she continued to rake her fingers through his hair.

Ben tried again, “Uma-”

“I DON’T KNOW!” the sea witch said untangling her hand from Harry’s hair and standing up suddenly, scowl set on her face. The air around her seemed thick with the smell of sea salt and coming storms. Harry pushed himself up on the bed, ready to back up his Captain at her first order, whether he was too weakened to or not. “Do you think I would let this continue to happen to what is mine if I knew what was going on?” She took a deep breath, reigning herself in and Harry reached out for her hand, which she immediately gripped like a lifeline. Voice more controlled but softer she finally shared, “It just happens when Harry works himself up too much. Not having his hook doesn’t help.”

Evie made a move to try to stop Ben but the boy continued on, stepping closer to the young captain. “But a doctor on the Isle should have-”

“What’s a doctor?” Gil asked looking so confused from where he had sat himself down on the other bed. That stopped Ben up short, staring at Gil as if he had whole heartedly with full conviction told him that he had two heads.

“Ben,” Evie explained softly as Uma turned her back on them, returning back next to her spot on Harry’s bed. “The Isle doesn’t have doctors.”

Chapter Text

“No doctors!?!” Ben roared once he and Evie were in the privacy of their office. (He might as well recognize it as “their” office since even Doug had started coming to this place first when he needed to speak with Evie.)

Evie watched patiently as her friend let off some steam with his pacing. Seeing Ben in such a state would have startled and maybe even frightened most but Evie had been trapped in her mother’s castle for ten years and had been witness to the woman’s fits and disorientating ramblings in that dreaded mirror voice of hers. She had seen Mal when she was snarling threats with her eyes glowing a dangerous shade of poison-green. She had seen Jay’s cold and silent brooding followed by fist sized holes in the wall. She’d seen Carlos’s emotionless eyes and sharp remarks that always managed to cut deep. These all made what Ben was doing look like a two year-old's tantrum.

So she just sat and waited.

Finally, the King plopped himself tiredly on the other end of the couch. “I’m already failing as a ruler,” he said so softly that Evie wasn’t even sure if he remembered that she was still in the room. “I don’t even know what to do to help one person let alone an island,” he said with the same look of hopeless despair he wore when Uma’s demands revealed the poor quality of food and supplies the Isle received. The same look of hopeless despair that she had seen on his face while Carlos spoke in front of the council, revealing the mental and physical abuse that every child on the Isle grew up in. (It was a familiar look, one she had seen in her own mirror after she returned from going through a draft list of Isle kids with Uma weeks ago, crossing out names that would never be given a chance in Auradon because Evie was months, weeks, days, hours too late.)

Standing up, Evie stood before him, arms crossed. “Okay, put away the pout, Ben.” she said sternly. “We don’t have time for pity parties. Nothing gets solved that way and neither does a king help his subjects that way.”

“How can you have so much trust in me? I’m obviously so out of my depth. I think I’m making some head way with things and then...just…” he sighed, running his hands through his hair tiredly before looking at her with vulnerable eyes. In that moment, Ben seemed unbearably young; too young to be having the weight of thousands of lives on his shoulders.  

Evie’s heart clenched before she knelt before him and gently removed his hands from his hair. She tilted his head up until he looked at her. “Because Ben, you’re the only one good enough to have even thought of giving a bunch of jaded, abused, and unfairly viewed kids a chance. You started this. You brought us here when everyone else in Auradon was glad to no longer be burdened by us, and for that, I’m grateful.” she smiled softly. “Ben, you welcomed me into your home when you could have turned your back on a disgraced and titleless princess. You gave me your friendship. You love my sister and look after my brothers. You gave me the opportunity to find someone to love who loves me back and thinks that I’m more than just a pretty face,” she said, her chest warming fondly at the thought of Doug. “And you helped me find my purpose outside of being the Evil Queen’s daughter. Something that lets me help those who I wasn’t able to help before,” Evie squeezed his hands, tears starting to run down her cheeks. She could feel her makeup starting to run, but she continued to smile nonetheless. On the Isle, crying like this would have been seen as weakness but Evie knew that Ben wouldn’t think any less of her.

“Evie…” Ben began, his own eyes beginning to tear up. There was no denying in his heart that he was madly in love with Mal but he loved Evie too - albeit in a different, familial, way - and seeing her like this, anything but bright confident smiles and sassy hair flips, tugged uncomfortably at his heart. He didn’t want to let her down.

The girl quickly wiped away her tears, holding up her hands to stop him as he tried to comfort her. “No. Let me finish, please. You’re human. You’re going to make mistakes. But Ben, I trust you. Mal, Carlos, Jay, we all trust you. And we have your back too. You’re not doing this alone. You’re one of us, even if the only thing rotten about you is that you’re too darn nice for your own good.”

Ben chuckled wetly, unashamed of his own tears as he embraced the blue haired girl in front of him. “I never had a sister, but if I did, I hope she’d be like you Eve,” the young king sighed.

The girl sighed, pulling away from him slightly. “Well, now you do. And your sister is telling you to get your butt up and do what you do best,” she said lightly, taking his face into her hands and placing a light kiss on his forehead. “Being good.”

She watched as the boy took a deep breath, nodding as he wiped his eyes. When he stood, she saw the king she was willing to follow with a plan beginning to form. He pulled her to her feet, with a grin starting to grow on his face. “Evie, we need to make some calls.”

---

The Lost Revenge was probably Uma’s most prized possession. She and Harry had worked hard to get it and then fix it up. Her acquiring it reinforced her position of power on the Isle, especially after Mal and her crew left. So, she had a lair, a place to be the headquarters for her growing turf, and something to call her own that her mother couldn't ruin.

Despite all that, there was a reason why she and her crew spent so much time at her mother’s chip shop: the boat lacked room for any personal space below deck. It wasn’t uncommon for the members of her crew that decided to sleep on the ship to share the old, creaking beds and mildew smelling hammocks. A tired pirate was a tired pirate and on cold nights a warm body was always welcomed on the drafty old ship. So Uma barely blinked an eye when she woke up with her back resting against pillows propped against the headboard of a bed, Harry’s head in her lap, with the hand he usually held his hook in holding hers. Her feet were currently resting on Gil’s back at the foot of the bed, since he was sprawled on his stomach and snoring slightly. After Ben and Evie had left, the exhaustion of the morning - dealing with Harriet, talking to her mother, worrying over Harry, and just being in a new strange place - overtook the captain and the two members of her crew to the point where they had slept the rest of the day away.

She took a moment to just observe the two boys, re-orientating herself to their current situation. Watching the two of them sleeping peacefully helped to push down the desire to blindly fall into chaos and inflict the revenge that always whispered in the back of her head. (“Burn the place down. Make them scream your name.”) Chaos and revenge was the path her mother chose. Ursula had gotten too greedy and so cocky that she wound up putting all her clams in one basket and getting impaled by a ship before she could even really do anything with that trident that she had for all of three minutes. No. That wasn’t how it was gonna go down for Uma. Not this time.

She was Uma of the Isle, Captain of The Lost Revenge and she would get her way. But she wasn’t her mother. Yes, revenge and the horrid living circumstances of the Isle fueled her ambition but...she glanced again at the two sleeping boys, her left and right hands. She couldn’t forget that she wasn’t just doing this for herself but for all the lost boys and girls of the Isle. She had a purpose, and she wouldn’t forget those who got her to this point. They would be her anchors when the storm inside of her roared with revenge against Auradon and all those who forgotten about or didn't care about the children they sentenced to death even before they were conceived.

For a moment, images of King Beast on his knees flashed through her mind, but then Ben’s too-trusting smile appeared and the storm inside her stuttered. Oh, how she hated him for that. Hated how genuine concern had etched itself on his face when she could do nothing but attempt to hold Harry together when this too new, too bright, too perfect place overstimulated him. She hated how she could read him easily and see nothing but genuineness and goodness in him. Hated how he didn't hesitate to take the word of a bitter and jaded girl of the Isle, who had not only kidnapped him but who also put a spell on him, and taken her demands seriously and placed her on his council.

But most of all, she hated how she knew she would never be able to go through with killing him because he was just too good. Even for an Auradonian, he was such an insufferable do-gooder and any plans to really shake things up would require her to think outside of the usual villain box.

Uma would never be a hero or a pastel princess or lady. She would never be so willing to forget and pretend that she hadn’t been mentally and physically beaten and broken on the Isle of the Lost and put back together into something darker and wicked. But she wouldn’t use the old love spells of witches and dark fairies who had been failed by them time and time again but still hoped that this time things would be different. No, she would play the game Auradon had forced her into, whether she wanted to play or not. (But she did want to play and she wanted to win. Losing wasn't an option.) She would never be a hero, but if being a villain meant she would always lose, she wouldn’t be that either. She would be something different…

Glancing over at the clock, Uma growled out a curse as she shoved Harry off of her and kicked Gil until he fell off the bed.

“Get up you two!” she ordered, already out of the bed. “Classes start in half-an-hour and I don’t want that too good to shit Fairy Godmother looking for an excuse to kick us out on our first day!”

Harry seemed to perk up at the mention of the Headmistress, remembering that he was promised his hook back. He grinned giddily, pulling Gil’s sleepy figure from off the floor and shoving him into the bathroom, blowing a kiss at Uma before closing the bathroom door behind them.

Uma merely rolled her eyes, as she began digging through Harry’s bag for a shirt she could steal for today. She didn’t have time to wander the halls looking for the room number Evie had scrawled on a note for her, so she continued digging and didn’t even blink a few minutes later when she heard the surprised shout from within the bathroom. (“Harry! You have the water too hot!” followed by, “Sorry that you’re a weakling, Gilly-boy. And Davy Jones! Brush your teeth! The toothpaste is there for a reason, ya know!”)

Uma sighed, and wondered briefly how she had gotten stuck with those two idiots. She switched her teal and purple mesh top for one of Harry’s less ripped ones. (And her first mate wondered why the crew called him a stripper pirate.) She had already taken one of Gil’s extra belts to tie around her waist and was putting on her usual teal jacket when the boys stepped out of the bathroom. A smidge of toothpaste was drying on the corner of Gil’s mouth and the kohl lining Harry’s eyes wasn’t too thick (though knowing the boy, he would have smudged it to raccoon proportions by the end of the day).

She quickly made her way to the bathroom, a small grin on her lips forming at the double take Harry did at her attire. He grinned, following her into the bathroom, standing behind her and placing his chin on the top of her head as she brushed her teeth.

“Yer wearing me shirt, darling” he stated, looking entirely too smug.

Uma spat out the toothpaste, wiping the excess from around her mouth with a towel Harry held out for her. “Have a problem with that, Hook?”

Instead of answering, he bit his lip, grinning as he pulled away, whistling an old sailor's tune along the way. Uma allowed some of the tension she was holding to be released. Harry was in a better mood so that put her in a better mood as well. A captain needed her first mate after all.

---

            On the Isle, Diego never really had a gang. Sure, he was the lead singer in the Bad Apples but he never really felt that strong of a connection with his band mates. To be perfectly honest, he didn’t really feel a connection to anyone on the Isle and that worked out fine for him.

He was the smooth crooner, the bad boy lead singer of the only decent band on the Isle. He was the guy dads told their daughters not to date only to do so anyway and then get their hearts broken when they saw a new girl or guy on his arm. (He was definitely no Jay, but he did pretty alright for himself.)

Despite all the attention, it hadn’t been satisfying. But what else was there to do on the Isle but just look out for yourself and surviving from day to day before inevitably falling into the same pit of despair and insanity he had seen both his father and aunt fall into?

Obviously, he should have asked Carlos. (He really should have known that Carlos was too good for the mediocrity that was the De Vil name).

Everyone on the Isle had seen the Royal Coronation, Carlos’s and his gang’s (No, they’re called friends here, a voice that sounded a lot like Yen Sid’s reminded him in the back of his head) declaration to step out of their parents’ shadows and not be villains, but be good. At first, like everyone else on the Isle, he had expected it to be a ruse; for Mal, Evie, Carlos, and Jay to turn around and say “PSYCH!” before grabbing the wand and wreaking chaos all throughout Auradon. But they weren't joking. They were for real. And as the news clips kept showing the four’s journey into breaking away from what some would call their unfortunate fate and the horrible Isle they were born upon, Diego found himself wishing he could escape as well.

However, he never told anyone those thoughts. He never took a break from breaking girls’ and a few guys’ hearts during the day before doing the few gigs available at night or just avoiding going back to the trash pit that was his home. (He guessed he should be thankful that all his dad did was just waste away and gamble the few things he owned. He could have had Cruella for a mother.) So it had been with more than a little surprise when he found an invitation to the Anti-Heroes club in his locker. He had been curious (worried) about what these sons and daughters of some of the wickedest villains on the Isle had to say about his cousin and his friends. He was amazed to find kids like him who wanted something different. Something like what they seen happening with Mal and her gang. Something good. Not rotten. Something that made him feel connected.

Despite the desire to be something more than just a villain, Diego had never really hoped for any big change occurring, or at least, not in his lifetime. And yet, here he was, at Auradon Prep waiting in the classroom with the other members of the Anti-Heroes club and Dizzy.

Everyone else was asking Dizzy questions about the class, the school, the people, the food, designing with Evie and the youngest Isle transfer student was doing her best to answer all their questions as thoroughly as possible. In the back of his mind, the part that would always be connected to the Isle, he thought that Dizzy should have been more selective with the information she chose to share, find some way to get something out of the exchange of information, make a profit. But this was Dizzy and they were in Auradon so Diego merely watched in amusement as the girl got the attention Diego knew they all craved for but never really got on the Isle.

Movement at the door caught his eye and he grinned when he saw a new but familiar face peeking in. “Well good morning, Janey. How’s it hanging?”

The girl blushed prettily and not for the first time, Diego could see how Carlos could fall for a girl like her. “Hi Diego,” she smiled, seemingly a bit more comfortable around him today than she initially was yesterday. “I just came to bring all of your updated schedules to my mother. Though I see she’s not here yet. Can I give them to you?”

“Sure,” Diego shrugged, taking the small stack of papers. Jane smiled before quickly saying goodbye and rushing to her own class.

“Isn’t she a bit too powder sugar sweet for your usual taste, De Vil?”

Diego turned, his usual confident smirk on his face, deciding to quickly change the topic from Carlos’s girl. “Well, if it isn’t the girl of the hour. Our Queen of the Lost and Misfit.” The room instantly quieted and Diego could feel the others’ eyes on him as Uma’s and her two followers’ presence were known.

Uma snorted, an amused look in her eyes as she pushed past him, taking the schedules that Jane had just given him and sitting on a nearby desk. Gil followed to stand next to her but Harry crowded Diego’s personal space, a scowl on the pirate’s face. Diego raised his hands defensively, choosing not to comment on how rougher than usual he looked (and not in a good way).

“Harry,” Uma called, allowing Diego to relax as the pirate instantly turned away, taking one of the seats near the sea witch and sitting in it backwards, his head resting on its back.

Uma began calling out names to receive them. It was quick, almost so quick that Diego wouldn’t have noticed if he hadn’t been looking. As Uma called each person up to get their schedule, her eyes quickly scanned over everyone from head to toe before giving them the piece of paper. Sometimes Harry or Gil would mutter something lowly to her and for those students there was a moment of panic before they were dismissed. She even called Dizzy who already had her schedule set since she arrived weeks earlier. Dizzy tensed as Uma’s hands pushed up her sleeves and patted the younger girl’s sides almost gently.

“You gained weight,” Uma murmured softly. “Good,” she said dismissively before calling Diego up and that’s when he realized what she was doing.

“So I take it we’ve been pulled into an agreement with ya, Queenie?” he grinned as he was handed his schedule. An agreement was as close to a promise as someone would get on the Isle and depending on who you had it with, it could provide necessary protection. Uma had a reputation on the Isle. She didn't have minions. She had a crew that were deeply loyal to her (it wasn't just Harry that you had to be careful around when talking about the pirate captain) and everyone knew that she was to thank for the recent rise in quality of the Isle food. If she could make that happen on the Isle, there was no telling what she would accomplish on this side of the barrier. Again, despite being in Auradon, there were just certain habits of the Isle that weren't easy to break and making sure you had someone powerful covering your back was one of them.

“Do you accept it?” Uma asked looking at Diego but addressing everyone including Dizzy who looked unsure. It wouldn't be surprising if Evie had already claimed her but as the oldest of the group it was unsaid that Diego spoke for them.

“Well, you got us this far, Queenie,” he chuckled, giving a slight bow before leaning against the table behind him in a well-practiced casual slouch.

Ursula’s daughter merely smirked before calling the next name.

Uma continued calling names and checking over those she had claimed as hers, passing the schedules that belonged to her, Harry, and Gil to the first mate (“What the bloody hell is Basic Chivalry and why do I have it for two hours while Gil only has it for half an hour?”) Finally, there was only one schedule left and Diego watched closely as Uma did a double take, glancing quickly at Harry before she said, “Freddie Facilier.”

Instantly, the room quieted down, and Harry Hook tensed up, snatching the schedule out of Uma’s hands to read it. Uma cast a dark stare around the room. “Freddie Facilier?”

“That’s my name, don’t wear it out, Shrimpy,” the daughter of the Shadow Man himself said, grinning her signature Cheshire smile as she leaned against the door frame.

Well, Diego thought, taking in the way the son of Hook stared daggers at the girl who was supposedly the last person seen with his sister, CJ Hook. This just got interesting.

Chapter Text

Though as unexpected as Freddie’s appearance in Auradon after months of everyone on the Isle assuming she was dead, Uma knew that the anger rolling off of Harry in waves was to be expected.

Her first mate never liked the girl, especially since that one time a few years ago where she attempted to use her and Uma’s similar looking facial features (a fact that both girls had an unspoken agreement to never delve into just why they looked so similarly related) to get some merchants on Uma’s turf to hand over money that was supposed to go to the pirate captain. (It had taken several dice games to win back the money, and ever since, Freddie Facilier hadn’t been allowed ten feet within the docks.) It also didn’t help that Freddie often partnered (though Uma had her suspicions that it had been more than that) with the youngest Hook sibling, CJ, who never seemed to stop being preferred over Harry by their father despite not having a ship or even a crew of her own.

Personally, the pirate captain wasn’t a fan of the other girl, but her feelings of distrust towards Freddie were nowhere near as intense as Harry’s.  Uma still wasn’t sure if Harry disliked Freddie for the sheer nerve of the girl and the schemes that she undoubtedly had a hand in helping with - CJ had often directed her pranks towards Harry - or if this was another example of the ever complicated relationship between the Hook siblings that partially stemmed from their father having them compete against one another for his approval. (In the end, it always went back to how screwed up their parents made them.) Whatever the beef between Harry and Freddie, she had expected Harry’s anger.

She didn’t expect Gil’s.

Her attention had been so focused on Harry that she didn’t even really comprehend the hated nickname being used. She definitely had not been paying attention to her blonde crew member and how he stepped forward, stepping protectively in front of his captain and first mate. “Don’t call Uma Shrimpy,” the son of Gaston said with a frown on his usually bright features. The look would have almost put her on edge if he hadn’t had glanced back at her, in classic Gil fashion, as if he wasn’t sure if he was doing something right or not. “She doesn’t like it.” Uma allowed herself to give the boy a grin of approval that seemed to brighten his entire expression.

Freddie snorted, poorly attempting to hide her chuckles as she pushed past him, patting his shoulder reassuringly. “Sure thing, tall, blonde, and dim.” She turned toward Uma, giving her a playful wink and ignoring the growl coming from a now standing Harry who only restrained himself from leaping at her due to Uma’s hand on his shoulder. “I just came for my schedule. Fairy Godmother said I passed her final exam last week and didn’t have to stay with you lot.”

“Yer fuckin’ mad if ye think I’m letting you go,” Harry growled, his accent getting heavy in his anger. “What in the seven hells are you even doing here? We all were hoping ye were dead, along with that idiot sister of mine,” he snarled, leaning over the table menacingly. “Now tell me where Calista Jane is or yer gettin’ scalped!”

“Harry! Calm down!” Uma ordered. She could feel Harry shaking with rage under her hand and she wondered if this too was going to set him off like yesterday. She squeezed his shoulder, making her presence known in his rage clouded mind. It would do no good for her first mate to lose himself now.

Freddie snorted again, crossing her arms as she looked unimpressed by the first mate’s threats. Uma supposed that was another thing that unnerved Harry about the daughter of Dr. Facilier and set him off even quicker than usual. She never seemed to show the appropriate response of fear when near the pirate. “Believe me, I didn’t choose to come here. You can blame Mal and Jordan for that. But I stayed because the food isn’t half bad...and some of the Auradon brats aren’t bad either,” she said with a look that was so soft but quick that Uma almost missed it before it was replaced with Freddie’s usual grin. “And as for your sister, I don’t know. Don’t care. We split a while ago,” she said with a look that told Uma that the two girls had not parted on the best of terms.  

Fortunately, (or maybe unfortunately) Fairy Godmother chose that moment to appear. She paused, taking in the tense atmosphere and the way that Harry seemed to be burning holes into Freddie.

“Is everything alright, dears?” she asked taking a moment to lay her gaze on Uma, Harry, and Freddie expectantly. Harry was about to snarl a nasty retort at the woman when he caught sight of a hook shaped object wrapped in a soft blue fabric in her hands.

Freddie took that moment to snatch her schedule from out of a distracted Harry’s hands before spinning around and tossing the headmistress a grin. “Just peachy, FG! Later!”

Harry made a move to follow her but Uma’s hand was still on his shoulder. He looked at her with a scowl that quickly turned into a pout. She shook her head, giving a subtle nod to Fairy Godmother who had moved to the front of the class but was still looking at Uma and Harry. “We’ll find the little voodoo witch later, I promise.” He grunted, frown etched deeply onto his face but he gave her a sharp nod, silently pulling out a chair for her before taking the seat next to her. Gil sat in the seat behind them while the other former Isle kids found their own seats.

“Well,” Fairy Godmother said with a large smile. “Let’s begin! Welcome to Remedial Goodness 101!”

---

Once upon a time, before she chose good, before she left the Isle, before she teamed up with Jay, Evie, and Carlos, Mal was approached by her mother.

“You’re running off with Ursula’s daughter again, aren’t you.” It was a statement from her mother. Not a question. The distaste coming from the dark fairy was almost palpable.

“Yeah, we’re gonna terrorize some people down by the docks. Maybe steal some stuff from the shops,” Mal said, trying to keep the nervous feelings in her stomach to a minimum. Her mother always had a look when she was on the verge of being disappointed with her daughter. “Y-you know wreak some havoc.”

“You’ve been spending a lot of time with this girl,” Maleficent said, breaking contact with the girl and gliding over to the large window that looked out onto the busiest part of the Isle.

Young Mal nodded, looking at the imposing figure her mother cut against the dusty light of the window. She had to keep herself from fidgeting, lest her mother decide to punish her in some way. Maleficent had never put a hand on her daughter but the young girl knew first hand just how cruel her mother could be even without being physical. “She’s my friend.”

Maleficent spun around, green fire blazing in her eyes. “You stupid little girl! She is not your friend, she is your competition! Do you think she cares about you? Do you think you and she will be best friends forever?” she asked the last part in a tone so saccharinely sweet that it sent a chill down Mal’s spine. “There are no friends on this Isle!” Maleficent hissed as she circled around the small girl with a predatory grace. “Do you not hear how the groveling whelps on this Isle talk about you two? It’s never Mal and Uma it’s Uma and Mal. You’re an afterthought at best and if you don’t squish her now she’ll destroy you and you, the daughter of the Mistress of Evil, will make my name a laughing stock of this entire island! Do you want to be seen as weak?”

Mal shook her head. “N-no.”

“Do you want to be Queen of this Isle one day?”

“Yeah, I-”

“Then,” Maleficent sneered, yanking her daughter forward by the collar of her shirt, “You better do something about it quick, my nasty girl!”

Mal blinked, pulling herself from her thoughts, as she made her way towards where she could see a blue head of hair. She leaned against the lockers, watching lazily as her blue-haired friend found her books for the day. “Another late night of plans to take over the world?” she asked teasingly.

 Evie chuckled. “Actually, Ben did most of the calls. I just stayed up a little bit later to finish some designs that I’ve fallen behind on.”

“Can’t say I miss getting poked by a stray sewing needle now that you’ve essentially set up shop in Ben’s office,” Mal snarked, though an apologetic look was present on her face. Ever since the Royal Cotillion, Ben and Evie had been working hard on improving Isle conditions and getting more kids to come over to Auradon. Mal had of course helped when needed but the politics behind all of it gave her a headache and Evie, being the wonderful friend that she was, had eagerly taken over the duties that should have technically fallen on Mal. But that left Evie with very little time for her fashion design business. (And sleep. Mal had to start counting on her toes how many times these last few weeks she had to make her way over to Ben’s office and drag both of them away from what they were working on, ordering them with glowing green eyes to go to bed.)

“Seriously, everyone needs to stop pouting” Evie sighed, rolling her eyes, already knowing what Mal had been thinking. “I enjoy working on the Isle project and don’t regret the time spent working on it. No reason for you to fret, M. I’ll figure out how to get my designs done.”

“And sleep,” Mal said pointedly.

Evie let out a laugh that pulled a small grin from her best friend as she linked their arms together, heading towards their first class. “Whatever you say, Lady Mal.”

“Ugh. That’s gonna stick isn’t it?” Mal said with a bit of unease but not the same amount that she had felt before she had fled back to the Isle. She wasn’t sure if she would ever feel like she was ready or worthy to be the Queen of Auradon. However, Ben had made an extreme effort to make sure that whatever responsibilities she had to meet as Lady of the Court were met on her terms. It was still very exhausting, but Ben and Evie had been with her every step of the way as well as Carlos, Jay, and the rest of their Auradon friends. She frowned briefly as memories of her mother calling her pathetic and weak swirled in her head before she pushed them down.

They both walked in silence punctuated by Evie’s yawns or waving hello to some of their friends as they passed.

“You know,” Mal began, her earlier daydream on her mind “You never told me what you really thought about all of this. About Uma.”

Evie shrugged. “I thought it was obvious,” she said tossing her hair over her shoulder as she made them both stop so they could face each other. “I might not like Uma very much, but I honestly don’t know her very well outside of the bad blood between you two. Compared to Auradon’s standards she’s not ‘good’ but on the Isle she seemed to be a fair leader, even when she didn’t have much turf. I know when we went to the Isle it still looked bad and decrepit after being here, but you have to admit,  it was actually in pretty good shape for Isle standards despite the fact that your mother is no longer in the picture.”

“But you wouldn’t trust her,” Mal questioned, sounding unsure. “Right?”

Evie frowned, tucking a stray strand of hair behind Mal’s hair. “What’s this all about, M? Really?” 

Mal struggled to put the warring thoughts and feelings burning inside of her into words, Evie waiting patiently. She was still figuring out what she was actually feeling when someone ran into her, knocking her onto the ground.

“What the fu-”

“Oh my clams! I’m so sorry!”  a voice squeaked.

“Princess Melody?” Evie questioned recognizing the black-haired girl as she helped them both to their feet. Mal got up to her feet and managed to clamp down her first instinct to growl or glare at the girl.

Melody laughed nervously, rubbing the back of her neck before she seemed to remember herself and did a curtsey. “I’m so sorry Lady Mal. I wasn’t watching where I was going,” she said glancing up before gasping slightly when she noticed Evie was also there. A slight blush tinged her cheeks as she dipped into another curtsey. “Hello Princess Evie.”

A sad smile fell on Evie’s lips at the incorrect title. “It’s just Evie,” she corrected before giving Melody a warmer smile. “And it’s nice seeing you again after the last council meeting. Are you a new transfer student?”

Grinning, Melody seemed a little less flustered. “Yes! I’ve decided to start my schooling at Auradon Prep to prepare me to be a better leader for both mer-people and land-folk residing near Seaside. Also,” she said, rubbing her arm nervously, “that council meeting really made me want to reach out and help Um - I mean the children coming from the Isle. No one deserves to be hurt or abused for things that they have no control over.”

“That’s right!” Mal watched Evie say with a genuine smile. “I’m so glad you feel that way and I’m sure Ben will be as well.”

Melody grinned before she saw the time on her watch. “Oh my gosh! Is that the time? I’m going to be late for my first day of classes!”

“Do you know the way?” Evie asked concerned.

The Granddaughter of King Triton nodded. “Yeah! One of my cousins goes here as well and she already showed me where all my classes are. I guess I’ll see you later,” she said before quickly taking off.

Both Mal and Evie watched her go.

“I think I needed that,” Evie said bouncing in her spot, looking more energized than she had seemed just a few minutes earlier. “It’s not just about bringing Isle kids over but it’s also about changing the perception that people have about others due to their rank or who their parents were.”

Watching her blue haired friend, Mal was hit by just how lucky she was to have this beautiful soul as her best friend. She knew that their friendship hadn’t started off the way that most friendships in Auradon started, but a very possessive part of Mal, a part that she wasn’t too happy to admit that she had, would do things exactly the same all over again if it meant having Evie at her side.

“Yeah,” Mal said linking arms with the girl as she pulled them towards her class. “Seriously, E, you’ll be ruling the world in no time,” she said causing her friend to let out a peal of laughter.

----

Harry wondered if he could get away with murder in this place. It shouldn’t be too hard. Step one: Get his hook and carve that annoying smirk off of the shadow wench’s face. Step two: Get Uma (and he supposed Gil too…). Step three: Steal a boat and sail far far away from the land of rainbows and sickeningly sweet goody-two shoe traitors and their beasty boy toys. (Step four: Get Uma to go on a date with him, but no rush. He’s wearing her down.)

It took a lot of restraint that Harry barely had on a good day to keep his mind off of one half of the current source of his frustration, Freddie Facilier. He tried to not think about how the bloody girl had been on this side of the damn barrier all this time. Tried not to focus on how CJ had been in Auradon when they had all thought she was dead or where she might currently be. (Tried not to think about how with only Uma as his witness, he had made his peace with her assumed death in the dead of night in a small cove of the island where Uma listened to him silently as he told story after story of his childhood, before he met Uma, when he and CJ followed Harriet up and down the docks like little ducks...) Instead, he directed his glare towards the other source his frustration: Fairy. Bloody. Godmother.

He gritted his teeth, trying to ignore the way that sweat was beginning to form on his brow or the way that his foot seemed to tap along with the rampant pounding of his heart. Bloody hell, not this shit again, he thought, frustrated and angry at himself.

He heard shuffling next to him and the next thing he knew, the spot on the desk that he had been staring intently at was filled with a bare arm, the hand of the other arm holding out a pen to him. A small grin played on his lips as he took the pen and began to draw on his captain’s arm. It was something they had done often back in Serpent Prep when they were bored. Harry wasn’t much of an artist, but Uma didn’t care as long as he didn’t draw any parts of the male anatomy on her arm.

Every now and then, Uma would glance down to see what he had drawn but for the most part, she kept her eyes up front, not participating in the silly fairy’s multiple choice questions but not totally disengaged and asleep like the spawn of Cruella’s Thing 1 and Thing 2.

Seven hells, what even was their high pitched, brunette dyed (because everyone and their mother on either side of the barrier knew that wasn’t her real hair color) prison guard even saying at the moment?

After a few more minutes of doodling, the bell rang and a collective sigh of relief was heard. Remedial Goodness was not exactly the most challenging class for the current new arrival of Isle children since Yen Sid had already taught them the basics months ago. As for Uma, Gil and Harry, the concept of basic goodness was easy to understand for Uma (though she generally didn’t practice it) or, in Gil’s case, came somewhat naturally when presented with the option. Harry couldn’t have given less of a damn and only paid the minimum attention to the lesson so that he wouldn’t be called on while doodling on his captain’s arm.

Letting go of Uma’s arm, he let his fingers trail lightly over the temporarily inked skin (he wouldn’t even deny that he enjoyed the little intake of air she made and the goosebumps forming along her skin from where he touched her) and the first mate felt a bit calmer. He watched with a bit of pride as his captain ran her own fingers along her skin, tracing one particular drawing that took up the back of her hand, a compass with the needle pointing to a hook instead of north. The pirate bit his lip to contain a satisfied smirk as the corners of her mouth twitched upwards.

“Harry, may I talk to you?” Fairy Godmother called as the rest of the class finished packing up and filed out.

Uma nodded for him to go on, Gil already waiting by the door. “We’ll wait for you outside,” she said getting up. Harry allowed himself to grin as he watched her tie her jacket around her waist, leaving her newly penned tattoos exposed.

When he turned back around, Fairy Godmother was just a few feet away holding his hook. It took everything in him to not just snatch it from out of her hands, not because he wanted to be nice or respectful, but because Uma would have his hide if he got himself in trouble on the first day (especially without her).

“As promised,” Fairy Godmother began, “here is your hook. It’s been spelled so you won’t be able to harm anyone. However, I’m aware that your hook can have...other uses.”

Harry gave her a lazy grin. “Gotta say, I didn’t peg you as the type to be into that sort of thing,” he drawled, as the petite woman turned red and started spluttering.

“No – I just meant – This is highly inappropriate!” Fairy Godmother exclaimed, her voice going up several octaves as Harry snickered. She smoothed down her dress and frowned sternly at him. “I just ask that you please refrain from bringing the hook out during classes. Understood?”

Harry rolled his eyes and nodded, hoping it would shut her up and have her hand over his hook. However, just as he nearly had the precious metal in his hand, the blasted woman withdrew it.

“Just one more thing, dear. There’s been a change to your schedule,” she said handing over a new sheet of paper and the boy’s hook. “Now you’ve just-”

“Yeah, yeah, thanks or whatever it is you people say,” Harry said dismissively, already halfway out of the room.

At the sight of his hook, both Uma and Gil grinned, already noticing a visible difference in the boy’s attitude.

“What’s that?” Gil questioned, noticing the paper in the first mate’s hand.

Almost too preoccupied with admiring his hook, Harry handed the new schedule off to Uma. “Something or other about a change in me schedule. Maybe they cut out that Basic Chivalry shit.”

His Captain nodded, her face expressionless as she looked over the sheet. “They did,” she said. “And replaced an hour of that with...therapy?”

---

“So I heard your little reunion with CJ’s brother didn’t go well.”

Freddie snorted in response, rummaging in her locker for her Life Skills Without Magic assignment. “Oh it went as expected. You know, he was all like” she pulled herself out of her locker and crooked her pointer finger into a hook shape. “Argh! Shiver me timbers! Walk the plank! Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate’s life for me.”

Her companion rolled her azure-colored eyes, arms crossed. “Wow, yeah. That’s probably exactly what he sounded like.”

Freddie chuckled. “Okay, I may be exaggerating this time, but he actually did have a period where that was all he said. Even had a damn eye patch that he would take everywhere,” she said, closing her locker.

“He doesn’t sound too bad.”

The former Isle resident leaned against her locker, gazing at her friend with a rare serious look. “Don’t underestimate him, and definitely don’t underestimate Uma. She wasn’t Mal’s biggest rival on Isle because of some silly little shrimp prank. She’s a storm in the form of a girl.”

Her friend just grinned brightly. “Well, this place could use a bit of rain to wash away some of the muck that Auradon tries to sweep under the rug.”

Rolling her eyes, Freddie moved away from her locker, calling over her shoulder towards the person who was probably her best friend on this side of the barrier. “Your roommate and her psycho boyfriend problem now.”

Chapter Text

Gil couldn't be lost. Uma would be so pissed if he was lost.

But...he was lost.

"Oh fuck…" he murmured, biting his lip. He had just parted with Harry and Uma, each having to go separate ways after Remedial Goodness for their next class. He had promised Uma he had been listening when he was given directions to his class, especially the odd class or two he had by himself.

At the time he thought he knew… Whether he knew or not, he needed to find his class. Fairy Godmother had stressed the importance of being timely to class and other planned engagements. (Mon dieu, he really didn't want to find out if Auradon had a time out step.)

Suddenly, a small hand grabbed onto his arm with a vice like grip, pulling the lost pirate out of his thoughts

"Oh! I didn't know VKs could be so funny!" a girlish voice chirped loudly.

Looking down at his arm, Gil saw that an unfamiliar girl had linked arms with him, her much smaller hand gripping tightly onto his arm. He wondered if she was a princess with her shiny dark hair and her clean pink and blue dress.

"Say something!" she hissed under her breath, tossing a glance over her shoulder before letting out another fake laugh; her smile just a tad too forced. "Oh my goodness! You're so funny!"

Now, Gil knew he wasn't the brightest kid on the Isle, but he figured that even Harry or Uma would be confused by this girl and her weird behavior.

"Um...who are you?" he asked as the girl tugged him down a hallway. A few students who still hadn't made it to their class watched the odd pair with barely hidden interest.

"Princess Audrey. Daughter of Sleeping Beauty and most popular girl at Auradon Prep. Yes, I know, it's an honor to be in my presence," she said distractedly, looking over her shoulder again. Gil made a move to look back as well, to see what she was looking at, but her perfectly manicured nails dug into his arm painfully. "Don't look back!" she exclaimed, looking fearfully over her shoulder. She cleared her throat, gathering herself. "Now look, uh….what's your name?"

"I'm Gil." He watched her nose scrunch up in confusion, a look that he had seen often on Uma's face when she looked like she wanted to question him but decided ultimately against it.

"Okay, Gil. Here's the deal. You're going to walk me to class and along the way, you're going to pretend like we're best friends which shouldn't be hard because, hello, who wouldn't want to be friends with me?" she said, rolling her eyes. "And in return I'll...um...I'll get you something shiny. Villain kids like shiny things right?" she asked, not giving him a chance to answer before she continued on. "Right. Good. Now, laugh, Gil, and make it believable."

Not knowing what else to do (despite how Uma had once told him that princesses were weak, Audrey seemed to have a tight grip on him), Gil let out an awkward strangled sound, that apparently sounded enough like a laugh to appease the girl. When she loosened her grip on his arm a bit, he glanced back over his shoulder to see a boy with curly blonde hair completely red in the face and scowling at them as a smaller boy wearing glasses attempted to tug him in the opposite direction.

Gil wondered if the blonde boy was okay, not knowing if people in Auradon got sick easier than people on the Isle did. Maybe the boy should go to that doctor person Ben had mentioned the other day.

Again, he was pulled from his thoughts when Audrey suddenly stopped. "And we're here," she said with a gusty sigh as she released his arm and moved towards the classroom. "Thanks for your help Gil. You can sit with me during lunch, if you want, I guess. Wait," she paused, looking at him skeptically. "You do know how to use proper eating utensils, right?"

Gil tilted his head, an unsure expression on his face. (Princess Audrey was definitely a strange girl.)

The young woman sighed. "You know, forks and knives?"

"Oh!" Gil smiled brightly, not noticing the slight blush creeping onto the girl's cheeks. "Yeah! Totally! My friend Desiree, she does this thing with a fork, and-"

"Great. Sounds awesome," Audrey cut him off. "Don't you have, you know, somewhere you need to be?"

Rubbing the back of his neck with one hand, Gil pulled out his schedule from his pocket with the other. "Actually...I don't know where my class is."

Audrey gave him a tight smile. "May I?" she asked carelessly, having already snatched the piece of paper out of his hands. She quickly scanned it and gave him a small smile. "Well, you're in luck, Gil. You have History of Kingdoms with me right now."

Gil let out a relieved sigh, and then grinned. "That's awesome!"

Audrey looked at him, confused. "It is?"

"Yeah," Gil nodded, the bright grin taking up most of his face. "You said we're friends, right? You know, when we were walking here and the blonde boy was behind us was looking all red?"

"Chad was looking red?" Audrey grinned, grabbing his shoulders and shaking him slightly in her excitement (Gil thought she looked pretty when she was giving a real smile). "Oh that's so perfect! Hopefully that'll send the message loud and clear that I'm not interested in dating him anymore. Ugh, he can be so annoying, following me around and-" she blushed suddenly, pulling away and smoothing invisible wrinkles on her dress. "I mean, that's a relief," she said quickly before pivoting and gliding into the room, Gil soon following her.

The youngest son of Gaston was so happy. He had found his class and apparently he had made friends with a princess. He couldn't wait to tell Uma and Harry! He hoped they were doing well.

---

Harry frowned, looking at the door with a plaque labeled "School Therapist" on it. Between him, Uma, and Gil - which really meant between just him and Uma - they weren't able to really come up with any idea of what "therapy" was exactly. Gil had thrown around the term "head shrink", as well as something about lying on couches, and something or another about a dude getting inside your head which both the Captain and the First Mate shot down instantly. (Dear sweet Davey Jones, don't let that bloody idiot be right for once in his life.)

"Do I really have to do this, Uma?" Harry whined, looking dejectedly at the girl.

Though looking warily at the door, Uma nodded. "We talked about this. First few weeks we play it safe and follow King Beasty Jr.'s rules, at least until we get the lay of the land and see if this Royal Councilor thing," she said, using air quote around her new title, "will actually benefit us."

"So I can't convince you to skip yer class and come with me to...whatever type of torture Boradon has managed to cook up?" he purred, tugging on her braids as he sidled up to her.

An exasperated but fond sound escaped her lips as she gently pushed him away. "What?" she teased. "Scared of a little therapy?"

(Well if he knew what the hell therapy was, he could actually answer that question.)

"Hey!" Harry retorted indignantly. "I'm not bloody scared. But there's nothing wrong with a little caution when dealin' with these preppy whelps."

Uma allowed herself to laugh. The hallway was deserted; this room in a hallway with little to no student traffic. "Wow," she said with a smirk, reaching over to place the back of her hand on his forehead. "You must still not be feeling well, Hook." His eyes momentarily fluttered closed as he leaned into her hand, always left breathless when his Captain gave him her full attention. (He almost thought that he could live off Uma's touch alone sometimes.)

"No," he said, placing his much larger hand over hers, watching her teasing smile turn into something softer. "I just don't like being away from yer side. Especially in this place, Captain. Wouldn't be surprised if these Auradon fishbaits are stupid enough to try to seek 'justice' against ye."

The sea witch rolled her eyes. "I'd like to see them try," she scoffed, slipping her hand out from under his and back to her side. "You know I can take care of myself." (Aye, he did. Still didn't stop him from worrying.) "Now, stop stalling and go in, Harry."

Harry let out a sigh, allowing himself to run his hook through her teal braids one last time, keeping eye contact with her as he spun around to face the door until the very last second. "I'll be thinking of ye every second we're apart," he teased over his shoulder.

"Ha!" She smirked at him and began to walk away, a little sway to her hips. "When are you not thinking about me, Hook?"

That little bit of truth caused him to grin as he pushed the door open. As he stepped through the entryway, he paused; feeling like every inch of his skin was being pricked by small needles. Magic, he thought instinctively, looking back when the door he just entered closed by itself. His hand clenched tightly around his hook, the muscles in his body taut to spring into action at any second.

"Oh good! Harry! You found your way here!"

Harry spun back around, realizing that the small room with several chairs along the wall that he had stepped into, had another door on the opposite end that was currently open. Standing there with a wide smile was an older man with greying dark hair and what looked like the formation of wrinkles at the corner of his eyes. Harry shifted uneasily on his feet, the hairs on his arms standing on end and goosebumps running up and down his skin under the almost physical pressure of the man's gaze.

It wasn't that the man looked intimidating, (especially with his black slacks, red sweater vest, and top of a yellow tie peeking out) Harry reckoned the man might be even shorter than Uma. However, the man's gaze unnerved the boy. That behind the smiling facade was something not human... not fully at least.

Harry immediately took a step back, raising his hook defensively. "What- Who are you?"

The man didn't seem taken aback by Harry's obvious discomfort and merely put his white gloved hands up (utterly pristine, Harry noticed with a disgusted sneer) in a placating manner. "Oh, how silly of me!" the man chuckled, extending out his hand to the boy. "I haven't even introduced myself, have I? I'm Mr. Michael Topolino, the school therapist. But students here at Auradon Prep like to call me Mickey. Nice to meet ya!"

---

Uma sighed as she made her way away from Harry and to her next class, head held high as she moved through the halls, smirking inwardly as people pushed themselves to move out of her way. (She didn't come here to make friends, after all.) With no one in her way, she easily made it to her next class with just a few minutes to spare.

Her eyes swept across the room, looking for an open seat that would give her the best view of the room as well as an easy escape route if necessary. (You could take the girl off the Isle but you couldn't take the Isle out of the girl.) As her eyes scanned the room, she saw two available seats: one was next to a girl with dark purple hair pulled up into a high ponytail and bright azure eyes who gave Uma a little wave when their eyes met; and the other was next to...Oh seven fucking seas no. She was not going to sit next to little Miss Dragon Breath, the sea witch thought as she made eye contact with those familiar green eyes.

"Interesting seating choice," her desk partner commented when Uma slid down next to her. "Most people would jump at the chance to sit next to new Lady of the Court," she grinned, nodding towards Mal, who was attempting to discreetly watch them while also half listening to a story the girl in front of her was saying. (Uma vaguely remembered her being there when she had attempted to trade Ben for the wand back on the Isle.)

Uma glanced at the other girl from the corner of her eye before staring straight ahead, ignoring how the back of her neck prickled from all of the stares she was getting.

(She was the daughter of the goddamn sea witch, she was not going to let a couple of stares get to her.)

"Oooh, we're going for the quiet but badass sea witch pirate queen vibe. I can dig it," the other girl chuckled, settling her chin in the palm of her hand as she continued to observe Uma with an analyzing look.

"Didn't know you Auradon princesses knew words like 'badass', let alone were physically able to say it," Uma murmured, feeling uncomfortable at the thought of actually wanting a teacher to show up in order to put her out of this hell. (Oh fuck, was Auradon already getting to her? Those preppy-ass motherfuckers must have something pumped through the vents.)

"Well if I was a princess," the girl said, readjusting her gold jacket. "Your assumption might have been valid, but, since I'm not . . ." Uma raised an eyebrow and the girl smirked at her. "You've got a lot to learn, Captain, such as not underestimating potential allies if you're gonna make some real big moves here and shake things up."

She felt her eyes narrow and her body tensed up defensively. "Who the hell do you think you are?" Uma glanced back at Mal, wondering if this was another one of her cruel pranks.

"Hopefully a new friend," her desk partner said with a small smile.

Uma scoffed. (The nerve of this girl, to offer her friendship so brazenly. Though she had to admire the girl's spunk.) "Believe me; I don't need any new friends. Auradon princess or not."

The girl shrugged with a knowing smile on her lips, just as the teacher entered the room, starting the class. "I don't know, Ursula's daughter. You ain't never had a friend like me."

The sea witch raised a brow, briefly wondering if she should have just taken her chances sitting next to Mal. Other than Ben, the other students in Auradon had actively avoided her. It was somewhat unsettling to be directly in contact with another Auradon-born student who wasn't whispering about her as soon as they thought she was out of earshot or who wasn't trying so hard to avoid being near her. But this girl seemed to be an anomaly, and on the Isle, anomalies were hardly ever good.

Uma wasn't even sure what the teacher had been going on and on about for most of class, all of her awareness focused on the girl who was idly twirling one of her side bangs around her finger. The bell rang and before Uma could even think to do anything, her desk partner was out of her seat and giving Uma a dainty wave before waving to a few classmates, including Mal, before she disappeared out of the door. Uma saw Mal glance back at her, the girl worrying her lip (the pirate captain remembered her doing that a lot when they were younger, when she was struggling with something) causing Uma to decide to leave the room before the half-fae could make the idiotic decision to talk to her. (It wasn't running away, it was a tactical retreat. It would be idiotic to go up against Mal on a turf she wasn't used to without backup.)

Merging into the flow of students moving between classes, Uma managed to put distance between her and Mal, losing her in the push and flow of the crowd, even with a wide radius of students avoiding getting too close to her. She was just looking over her shoulder to make sure the half-fae wasn't following her when she nearly crashed into someone who had purposely stepped into her path.

Uma scowled up at the towering and athletically built auburn-haired boy standing before her. In an impressing display of self-control on her part, she bit down on a cutting retort as she tried to move around him. However, the idiot (who clearly had a wish to die) stepped in her way again.

"I don't see what's so threatening about a little girl like you," he murmured, a look of disappointment on his face as he tilted his head to the side.

Taking a step back, Uma crossed her arms and looked the boy over with distaste. "The fuck did you just say to me?" She did not appreciate that 'little girl' remark.

Not to mention, she was kind of taking it personally how he was looking at her like she was some sort of disappointing roadside attraction.

The boy didn't answer, merely reaching out and poking her in the shoulder with a beefy index finger before she could finish inviting him to fuck off. The sea witch didn't expect such a small movement to have so much strength behind it and her eyes widened as she nearly fell over at the powerful force. The once busy hallway seemed to slow and quiet as all eyes were on Uma and the boy before her. She heard someone whisper, "What the heck is Herkie doing?" and guessed that was the boy's name.

Uma barely ducked and weaved out of the way as the boy, Herkie, tried to shove her again, this time with both hands. This seemed to annoy Herkie as he reached out to grab at her wrists.

"Come on, witch," the boy goaded, an ugly sneer taking place on his face. "Let's see if all the rumors about you are true or not."

Oh, so this little dick wanted a fight! Luckily for him, Uma was already holding onto a kitchen knife that she untucked from her boot. But at the same time, she would only be able to threaten him with the knife. She highly doubted that the Wonder Boy King would take it kindly if she castrated one of his subjects and fed him his eyes.

Fucking hell, if this had been the Isle, this asshole would already be on his back bleeding! And weren't Auradon brats supposed to be little goody-two shoes that ran and told the teachers over any little thing? Weren't they supposed to be the "heroes"? So then why the blazing hells were they all just letting this obviously much stronger boy push around a much smaller girl? Where the fuck were the teachers? (A voice in the back of her head that sounded a lot like her first mate whispered, I told ye so.) Fuck, she thought with a snarl as she readied herself to give him a warning swipe. Maybe she had underestimated these over privileged bastards.

Just as Herkie was making a move to reach out towards her again, an overwhelming smell of ashes filled her nose before a gray hand reached out and stopped him. The auburn hair boy hissed in pain, pulling his arm away to reveal blackened skin in the shape of hand. "What the fucking Zeus!?"

"Temper, temper dear cousin. What would your beloved grandfather say to hear his pride and joy using his name in vain?" a soft voice sighed. The students surrounding them shifted with shocked whispers as Uma took a second to enjoy the flustered flush that went all the way from the boy's neck to the tip of his ears as he held his hurt arm close to his chest.

Uma turned half her attention away from the inhumanly strong boy, taking in the willowy form of Hadie, the son of Hades who was standing slouched and uninterested next to her side. (When the fuck did he get there?) His voice had caught her off guard, deeper than the last time she had heard it so many years ago. This was probably the longest sentence she had ever heard from the boy. One amber eye peeked through from under long blue hair that even on the Isle seemed to flicker and glow like a dying ember. Uma knew that underneath his bang was an eyepatch covering where his other eye had been. No one on the Isle really knew what happened to it, only that the boy had covered where his right eye was supposed to be with the patch ever since he was very young.

"You- I mean- You're not supposed to use magic, hellspawn!" Herkie managed to growl out, waving at the hand imprint on his arm that was already slowly beginning to fade.

Hadie shrugged, a mask of indifference on his face as Uma noticed he put a glove on that completely covered the hand he had touched the much larger boy with. (They were new looking and barely looked worn, indicating he must have got them in Auradon, Uma noted.) "And you're not supposed to be an arrogant hothead, but we must all make do, I suppose."

"You little shit. Wait until my grandfather hears about this—"

"Oh go ahead," Hadie replied airily. "Oh, I'm sure he'll rage and storm and curse my name, but he won't be able to do anything. You're the one who overstepped the boundaries. Boundaries that your temperamental grandfather and Uncle Poseidon agreed upon." The boy stopped and gave Herkie a small sneer, lips curling up maliciously. "What kind of a disgraced 'hero' needs to bully girls a third his size to make him feel masculine?"

Shaking with anger, Herkie opened his mouth to snarl out a retort when an arm slung itself around his neck, effectively cutting him off.

"Herk!" Jay gave the auburn-haired boy a friendly smile that didn't reach his eyes. "What are you doing? You know Coach and Lonnie will have your butt if you miss practice serving detention! You can't be late to class again, dude, we got the Agrabah game to prepare for."

In the midst of his spiel, Jay made eye contact with Uma, discreetly jerking his head in the opposite direction of where he was leading Herkie. At Jay's appearance, most of the students who had merely stood around watching the spectacle scurried towards their classes, the bell having rung just a minute or so ago, leaving only Hadie and Uma left in the hallway.

"I hope you weren't expecting a thank you," Uma muttered to the younger boy, tucking her unused blade back into her boot.

Hadie said nothing, just looked at her. But the way he was looking at her . . . It made Uma feel like she was an ant and he was trying to figure out whether it was worth stepping on her or not.

The son of the god of the underworld always had an uncanny ability in making others uncomfortable effortlessly. It was part of the reason why he never really got picked on much on the Isle despite being so thin and quiet. His appearance and quietness actually worked to his advantage, many people on the Isle thinking that since he was essentially the heir of Death and a god - even when imprisoned on the Isle - he must have more than a handful of murders under his belt.

It wasn't like he ever denied it, after all.

An old memory, one that Uma had purposely tried to forget came to mind. It was her birthday. The one year her mother had finally given in and agreed to let her have a birthday party only for Mal to decide to have her own on the same day, making everyone else forget about poor little Uma's birthday that she had spent hours decorating and preparing for. Harry hadn't even showed up - though that was more so because he had been recuperating from a harsh beating from his father at the time and Uma had made him swear he wouldn't injure himself doing something stupid like coming to her party. (He waited literally one minute after midnight before sneaking his way through the shop and into the small room she had called hers, a handful of colorful shells in his bruised hands for her.) The only one who did show up was little Hadie, who had wished her a quiet "Happy Birthday" with a small little smile on his deathly grey face and had only been there for all of five minutes before Hades had swept into the Chip Shoppe and dragged him away, hissing something about not needing Poseidon adding onto his punishment.

"Be careful around my cousin...and I suppose any descendant of the Olympian gods," Hadie finally spoke, drawing her from her memories, looking away with an almost wistful, yet far off look in his eyes. "I don't believe they're happy that you brought me here." He looked back to the sea witch, his gaze heavy with something unspoken, making the words dry up in Uma's mouth. Hadie lifted a gloved hand, and she was frozen as he tucked a loose braid behind her ear. "No, they're not happy at all," he shook his head, murmuring more to himself as he took a step back. "But I'm grateful to you, daughter of the sea. You will be repaid. Be vigilant. Not all of these Auradonians should be underestimated, and I would hate seeing you guided down the River Styx too soon, Uma." He turned and walked away. It wasn't until he had turned the corner, disappearing from sight that Uma realized that she hadn't been breathing.

"Fuck," she cursed, allowing herself to lean heavily against the wall. She should have felt powerful having the personification of Death in her debt, however, for some inexplicable reason that thought only made her feel very, very small…

Chapter Text

“So Harry, we can use this time however ya see fit.”

The pirate leaned with practiced ease against a bookshelf, schooling his face into annoyed disinterest while also scoping out the cozy office and the man it belonged to. The room was filled with books, many of which looked older than the world itself. In the corner of the room on a tall coat rack, was what looked like a well-worn red robe that looked like it had seen better days, along with a wide brimmed brown hat decorated with a large red feather. On the adjacent wall, taking up most of the space, was a large wooden boat wheel where on one of the spokes, Harry could just barely see a crudely carved “1928”.

“Can I use this time by not being here? More precisely, not being here with ye?” he snarked, attention snapping back to the man before him.

Mickey chuckled, crossing one leg over the other as he leaned back in his chair. “Sad to say, pal, but that would have to be a no.”

“I’m not your pal,” Harry sneered. “And what is this therapy crap? Are ye interrogating me? Is that what this is?”

“Ah,” the short man sighed, readjusting his pristine white gloves. “So Fairy Godmother didn’t explain this to you?” he questioned, pausing to see if the young man would say something before continuing. “Well, for an hour, two times a week, you and I will be meeting, just to talk.”

Harry tried not to look confused as he walked towards an antique looking globe that was on a nearby desk. “To talk? About what?” he asked, purposely giving off a disinterested air as he gave the globe a spin. “What could I possibly talk about with ye?”

Mickey shrugged, the encouraging smile (which was kind of starting to irritate Harry, seriously, no one was that cheerful,) never leaving his face. “Well, I’ve been told that ya had a panic attack yesterday shortly after arriving.”

The confusion still didn’t leave Harry’s face as he dared to ask, “Panic attack?”

Mickey nodded. “Symptoms of a panic attack sometimes include dizziness, difficulty breathing, your heart racing, and feelings like you’re inexplicably going to die or that you’re losing control. It can sometimes come suddenly without warning and often happens during stressful times in a person’s life.”

The pirate snorted, walking over to a window and running his hook through a wind chime. The echo-y tinkle of the bells made him think of his father, angry and drunk and throwing whatever was closest to him at Harry. (Never at Harriet. Never at CJ. Just Harry.) He stayed silent for a second, thinking. Yesterday it had been his hook taken away, before that it had almost been when he and Gil at first couldn’t find Uma after the whole Cotillion fiasco, and even further back it had been when Harriet had left the Jolly Roger to start her own crew, leaving behind a gangly Harry and a still small C.J. to fend against their father’s violent mood swings.

“And that’s what ye think I’ve been having?” the boy questioned, pausing before bursting into rough mocking laughter. “Yeah right! I’m a pirate. We don’t panic. We cause panic,” Harry grinned viciously at the therapist, spinning his hook in his hand.

He noticed how the movement caught the therapist’s eyes and that made him feel uneasy, to see the obvious interest Mickey had in the hook. So he casually crossed his arms so that his hook was underneath the other arm, mostly hidden from sight.

“Okay,” Mickey said with a small smile, leaning back in his chair. “Then what would you call them?”

Harry shrugged, slightly unnerved by all of the questions. “Dunno. Old Smee used to call me Da’s fits Neverland’s Curse.”

“And that’s what you think it is? A curse?”

Harry looked down at his hook, frowning deeply in thought.

“She’s calling me,” Harry remembered his father once slurred to him years ago in a rare state of quiet contemplative drunkenness. “Neverland,” the older Hook had clarified, eyes dull and far off. “She wants me to return, lad. To continue the game. To play my role against Pan. After all, what is the ‘the Boy Who Never Grew Up’ without a Captain Hook to fight with? To defeat and then start all over again? Round after round after round… It’s just all a game...all just a game for him...a never ending game that I had lost before I had even knew the game had begun…Be thankful, lad. That blasted barrier may keep us in here. But it keeps him out. We are trapped. But we are free here...”

Harry shook the memory off. “No. It’s a maids tale to explain how a supposedly once great pirate captain could have completely fallen so far down the rum bottle.”

Mickey nodded. “I see,” he said thoughtfully, and the first mate hated that for a second he actually thought the short man did see. Saw how the young pirate had always been running away from the shadow of a little boy he had never even met but whom had such an impact on his life. “Okay so not panic attacks,” he said in a way that made it seem like he believed the contrary. “And not a curse. What do you, Harry, think it is?”

The pirate shrugged, crossing the room to plop down in a chair, an amused smile lighting up his face briefly when he realized the chair spun. The room grew quiet, Harry continuing to spin lazily in his chair, untrusting bright blue eyes managing to hold a glare with calm brown ones.

The silence went on for what felt like many awkward minutes before Harry growled, frustrated. “I know I’m a pretty handsome devil but are ye gonna just continue to look at me without saying anything?”

The therapist chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck. “Sorry, Harry. It’s a therapist technique. Just trying to allow ya to feel like ya have the space needed to say whatever ya want.”

The boy scoffed, quickly getting annoyed all over again and the hand around his hook beginning to twitch anxiously. “I got nothing to say to ye.”

Looking down, Mickey nodded. “Okay. That’s fine,” he said, as he got up. When he turned his full gaze once again on Harry, the first mate once again felt that overwhelming sense that this man was much more than he let on. “We’ll go at your pace, pal. Just know that whatever is said in this space is between only the two of us. Not even the Fairy Godmother or King Ben will ever know what is said in this room, unless, of course you’re planning to commit harm to yourself or others.”

“Then I guess we won’t be doing much talking then,” Harry said with a smirk as he stood out of the chair. The mischievous glint in his eyes caused Mickey to pause.

“Ya know, ya look like him,” the therapist mused, more to himself than to Harry, but the pirate heard all the same.

Harry felt his usual cocky grin fade from his face. “Me Da?” he asked, hating how his voice sounded so small, how there was still a hint of wanting to prove himself to a man who hardly recognized him as his own blood.

“No,” Mickey replied, a distant look in his eye. “Like Pan.”

For a moment Harry forgot how to breathe, his mind stalling on those two little words that dredged up the raw feeling of self-loathing that Harry had tried so hard to forget for so long. To be compared to his father’s most hated adversary, the never aging child who had terrorized his father and cut off his hand and fed it to a crocodile, felt like a hurt worse than any physical blow. The therapists words seemed to dredge up all the memories of his father’s disdain and disgust and paint them in an even darker light.

Mickey allowed himself to give a small smile to the boy as he opened up the door, seemingly unaware of the turmoil he had just started. “I’ll see ya again for our next session at the end of this week, Harry.”

The pirate wasted no time going through the open door as if Pan himself was after him, and barged through the small waiting room. He wanted to get away from this strange old man and his strange office and his strange ridiculous thoughts about how he was more like the worst nightmare of his father than his actual father. He was already reaching for the door that led out to the hall when the handle slipped out of his hands, the door opening to reveal a startled looking Carlos De Vil.

“Um…” the younger boy began, a look of shock and confusion blooming on his face at seeing the pirate before him. Harry himself was momentarily startled to see the younger boy here as well when Mickey, still standing at the door behind him, called out to the younger De Vil boy.

“Carlos! Right on time as always! Come on in so we can get started!”

“Um...uh, yeah,” Carlos murmured, slipping past Harry quickly and ducking into the room that the pirate had just been in.

Mickey watched the younger boy with a fond smile before turning back to Harry, his smile still stuck firmly in place. “Have a good rest of your day, Harry!” he called out before closing the door to his office behind him.

Harry stumbled out into the hallway, feeling his heart already start to race as a voice that started off sounding like Mickey but then morphed into his father’s drunken sneer began to play in his head. Like Pan. Like Pan. LikePanlikePanlikePan. The thoughts roiled and tumbled in his mind until those words were the only thing that he could focus on...

---

Though technically still a student of Auradon Prep, it was rare when Ben was able to have a day where he could go to all of his classes without some sort of council meeting pulling him out. Despite the late night that he and Evie had, Ben felt energetic and hopeful. Maybe he would finally be able to atone for his father’s mistakes.

(It had been weeks since the young king had last contacted his father, but he chose not to dwell on that at the moment.)

He had awoken to an email approving his request to temporarily borrow a groundbreaking medical invention from the rising star student of San Fransokyo. Though part of the United States of Auradon, San Fransokyo was one of the newer lands that had been added after the first original kingdoms united twenty years ago. It had previously been its own governing nation that had a mostly amicable trading relationship with Auradon. It was only after mutual agreements that benefited both Auradon and San Fransokyo that the city-state was finally adopted into the USA. The city would help develop a long term plan for the other kingdoms to transition away from the use of magic, as long as any high level technology based crime that happened within the San Fransokyo was under the jurisdiction of the city’s personal protectors, the Big Hero 6. It was this allowance of essentially self-government that made San Fransokyo have a somewhat delicate relationship with the rest of Auradon. (And at some point Ben would have to deal with that and the fact that more lands would now request independence.) For now, he was just thankful that there was a solution to what seemed like a never ending list of problems.

Grinning down at the request papers in his hand, Ben felt eager to share them with Uma and hoped that this would be the start of a trusting and mutually beneficial alliance with the pirate captain. He knew that Uma could do some real good now that she was in Auradon, but Ben wasn't an idiot or as naive as the Isle kids, Mal and Evie included, tended to think he was. It would take more than just getting Uma off the Isle to gain her trust, he knew.

Ben was just wondering where Uma could currently be, wishing he had memorized her schedule, when he saw Jay with his arm slung around an Herkie’s neck. It wasn’t technically an unusual sight. Jay was probably one of the most physical people he knew, always casually slinging his arm around whichever friend was nearest. (Reassurance that they’re still there, that I can protect them, the long haired boy had once told him in a moment of vulnerability one day after a particularly tiring week when Carlos, Evie, Lonnie, and Jordan had all had the stomach flu and all the two boys could do was sit and wait for them to get better.) However, something seemed off, Ben noted, noticing the tense set of Jay’s shoulders.

The two were about to go into a classroom when the former thief caught sight of the young king. He said something to Herkie quickly before nodding his head towards Ben as he pulled away and walked over towards Ben. An unusually serious expression slipped onto his face once Herkie had entered the classroom.

“You need to find Uma,” was the first thing out of Jay’s mouth.

Ben blinked, caught off guard by the boy’s statement. “Wait. Wh-what?” he said shaking his head, wondering if he had misheard. “Did something happen? Is she alright?”

“I wasn’t there at the beginning but it seems like Herkie tried to start a fight with her, which is weird because Herkie wouldn’t hurt a fly. Hadie, one of the new Isle kids, stepped in but even though he stopped Herkie I think... I mean, I did what I could, Ben, but...” Jay sighed again, shaking his head. He pulled off his hat to card his hand through his hair before putting it back on. (He’s really nervous about this, Ben thought worriedly.) “Just...just find her, bro,” the taller boy said, a frown worrying his lips. “Especially before Harry does, or all the hard work that you and Evie have been doing is gonna go to hell.”

The young king’s eyes widened and he found himself nodding. Though he wasn’t particularly afraid of Uma’s first mate, (especially with his hook spelled), he was aware that the son of Hook had strong feelings for his Captain and wouldn’t hesitate to get revenge on anyone who even thought of hurting her.

“Okay. Yeah. Uh, yeah…,” he said, trying to calm down the rushing worries and fears that he had not only for the Auradon born students, but especially for the misunderstood pirate captain. “Where is she?”

Jay pointed in the direction that he had come from and that was all Ben needed before he took off down the hallway, hoping that he could salvage things.

He hadn’t noticed that his purple haired girlfriend had been walking up to them when she heard Jay’s explanation, nor did he hear her call out after him as he took off.

Ben just knew he had to get to Uma fast.  

---

Uma wasn’t even sure if she was walking in the right direction of her next class. To be perfectly honest, she really didn’t care. She just let her legs take her to wherever they were taking her. She just needed to not feel so small. To not feel so numb. She just needed…

“Harry.”

Familiar blue eyes caught her gaze and she unhesitatingly cut her way through the crowd towards where he was leaning against a wall, his eyes, as always, only on her. A bit of confidence rekindled itself in her as she heard some girls whisper how they wished a guy would look so intensely at them. (Dream on, girls. Dream on.)

As she drew nearer though, she realized he looked off. Though any of these Auradon punks would have thought he was lazily leaning against the wall waiting for her, Uma saw the slight tremors in his frame, the anxious way he rotated his hook in his left hand, how his usually vibrant cocky and mischief filled eyes seemed to lack their usual confidence and seemed slightly unfocused.

Not again, she thought, worried for her first mate.

However, as she got closer, a light seemed to spark within him, his tremors seemed to completely stop which almost caused Uma to smile until she realized that her first mate didn’t seem to be reinvigorated solely due to her presence. Actually he was glaring at her. No. That wasn’t right. He wasn’t glaring at her.

He was glaring at her shoulder, where a bruise, red and swollen, was beginning to form.

Uma cursed herself for being so soft and sentimental about the pen drawn tattoos that he had done earlier on her arm. She should have put her jacket on immediately after dealing with that idiot Wonder Boy-wannabe. Harry would never have noticed the bruise otherwise. When she looked back up at Harry, he was so close that she could see the patchy stubble that was beginning to form on his locked jaw.

“Who did this to ye?” he growled, eyes focused on the bruise.

Uma grabbed onto the collar of his red coat, forcing him to make eye contact with her. “It’s been taken care of,” she said slowly, making sure to never break eye contact with him. “You think there’s something I couldn’t handle on my own? You think that little of your captain, Hook?”

Harry was still tense but Uma could see him starting to calm down as he shook his head. Uma restrained herself from letting out a sigh of relief, pushing him away from her with a teasing smirk on her face that he immediately mirrored. She was going to suggest that they find Gil and ditch the rest of their classes for the day when a voice called out to her, stopping both pirates in their tracks.

“Uma! There you are! I was looking-”

Then her first mate was no longer standing next to her, but was instead shoving the boy king of Auradon face first against a locker, whatever papers the king had once been holding now thrown against the ground.

“Ye got a lot of nerve showing yer mug around me right now, Benny-Boy,” Harry tutted putting all of his weight on the boy from behind, one hand holding Ben’s wrist in a bruising grip behind his back while the other hand used his hook to threateningly caress his hook down the young king’s cheek before pressing it firmly against his neck.

“Harry! Stop it!” Uma growled, aware of the eyes that were all watching them. “I said it was already handled. It has nothing to do with Ben!”

“Harry,” Ben grunted from underneath the pirate’s surprisingly heavy body. “Mal and Evie told me about what agreements mean on the Isle and what it meant for me to bring you all here. You are all under my protection but despite that, Uma still got hurt. Let me fix things. I’ll make sure the student who instigated the fight with Uma is given the proper consequences without resorting to violence.”

“Then whoever the idiot is won’t be receiving the proper consequences if I can’t give them a hundred times over what they did to my captain!” Harry snarled, pushing Ben harder against the locker. “But ye seem to know who did it, so tell me and I’ll think about not sending you back to Maleficent's spawn with too many bruises.”

“Harry! Enough! Cool it!” Uma ordered, frustrated, as she tried to tug him off Ben. She heard several students calling for the royal guards and though the pirate captain was deadly with a sword, Harry wasn’t in his right mind to back her up properly if needed.

“The boy’s being kind of a dick. Let’s give him the treatment he deserves with a little kick!” a horribly familiar voice said, sending pinpricks down Uma’s arm at the sudden presence of such a concentrated amount of magic. The sea witch barely had time to move out of the way before her first mate was shoved away from Ben and collided with the opposite row of lockers with a bang! that made Ben and even some other students wince. Harry groaned and the only thing that reassured Uma that he hadn’t been hurt too badly was the long string of curses that flowed out of his mouth.

Whipping her head around, Uma’s gaze connected with a glowing green pair. “A little bit of overkill, don’t you think, Dragon Breath?” the sea witch hissed, the scent of cold sea air starting to fill the air.

Mal’s glare didn’t falter as she moved closer to a now free Ben, Jay and Evie backing her up, the latter looking worriedly between Ben and Uma. “Maybe I wouldn’t have had to use excessive force if you’d trained your guard mutt to uphold an agreement and not bite the hand that gave him food, Shrimpy!” she said heatedly, all sense of her normal cool demeanor gone. Uma would have laughed at having riled up Mal so much if she herself wasn’t so agitated as well.

“Mal that’s enough!” Ben nearly roared, startling everyone. Mal’s eyes stopped glowing, her face morphing from surprised to hurt, and she took a step back into Jay who immediately put an arm around her protectively. Uma could see the guilt that instantly blossomed on Ben’s face as Mal’s usual indifferent mask fell into place.

“Maybe we should put a pause on this conversation until it can be discussed somewhere more private,” Evie stepped in, gesturing to the students who were all whispering frantically among themselves about what had just happened. In the crowd, Uma could see the distinctive frame of Gil moving towards them, leaving the side of a girl who looked like every stereotype of a pretty pastel pink princess, who looked after him worriedly. (Later, when she wasn’t so close to wringing the neck of the next person who pointed at her or Harry, she would ask Gil about the girl).

“Yeah,” Uma said, nodding her head towards Harry when Gil got closer, the son of Gaston easily pulling the still fuming and bruised pirate back up to his feet. Gil kept a firm hand on Harry’s shoulder as the first mate continued to silently glare daggers at Ben and Mal. “But let me make this last part abundantly clear,” Uma sneered, taking a step forward, a cruel smile forming on her lips as her eyes focused on Mal. “I can handle anything you throw at me. However, touch my first mate, my crew, or anyone under my protection again, Gecko Girl, and I will skin you and turn you into boots. Remember, Mommy isn’t here to protect you anymore. And don’t forget,” she said, snapping her fingers more out of instinct than actual knowledge of what it would do. Nevertheless, a nearby water fountain started to spray water, and the resulting deluge landed mostly on Mal but also managed to splash Jay, Evie, Ben, and a few other students who were nearby.

Startled and angry shouting was heard as the sea witch cruelly laughed at their drenched appearances.

“You aren’t the only one with magic tricks,” Uma reminded before turning on her heel, Gil pulling a scowling Harry along as they followed their Captain.

A slight grin appeared on the sea witch’s face when she heard Mal’s shout of frustration but she didn’t stop until she had led both boys back to their dorm room. Once they had all stepped through and the door was closed, all amusement left the sea witch and Uma spun towards the two members of her crew, pulling Harry out of Gil’s grasp.

“What the hell did you think you were doing? she growled, giving him a hard shove that almost knocked him off his feet. The startled gasp he let out did nothing to calm the waves of her anger.

Her first mate didn’t even have the decency to look guilty, the kohl around his eyes had smudged, giving his blue eyes a haunted look as he stared stubbornly back at her.

“We’re pirates. We don’t play nice with pretty boy Kings. We don’t wait for justice. We take it!” he hissed.

“WE DO WHATEVER I SAY WE DO, HOOK!” Uma roared, the sound of waves crashing against jagged rocks embedded in her voice as she gave the boy another shove that actually did knock him off his feet. That seemed to knock him out of whatever rage-filled haze he had been in as he looked up at her with an expression of surprise and perhaps a very real bit of fear. However, at that point Uma was too far gone in her rage to even care.

“Uma,” he began, trying to push himself up. However, her boot-clad foot pushed down on his chest, sending him sprawling back down.

“Is this it?” the sea witch hissed, putting an uncomfortable amount of pressure on his chest as she looked from between him and Gil, who was looking at their captain with worry etched deeply into his face. “Is this the moment where I should expect another bucket of shrimp dumped on my head? Huh? Because you’ve managed to find a way to embarrass me in just a little over a day in front of all of these Auradon brats! Are you tired of being my first mate and taking my orders? Fine! Go grovel to fucking Mal and kiss her feet! Leave me like everyone else was so smart to do all those years ago!”

“Uma!” Harry exclaimed, disbelief in his voice as he grabbed onto her ankle, not to remove her foot or relieve some of the pressure she was putting on him, but in a desperate plea. “Ye know I would never join that witch! You’re my captain! Ye know that!”

“Yeah,” Gil finally spoke up, hoping to help calm his captain and friend down. “Besides, Harry said he’s allergic to purple-haired bit-”

“ENOUGH!” Uma bellowed, silencing them both. Her chest rose and fell with angry breath after angry breath and something deep within the depths of her wanted to drown the boy under her into submission. To watch as his lips turned blue as she dragged him deeper and deeper down into the water...

Wait, what? Uma found herself snapped out of anger, disturbed by her thoughts. This was Harry Hook, her hot blooded but always fiercely loyal, border-line worshipping, first mate. The only one who had always stuck by her side. The boy who never looked at her with anything but respect and wonder when her own mother lamented not just smothering her when she was too young to not fight back.

Weak.

Disappointing.

Poor unfortunate soul.

Should have drowned you a long time ago...

She looked down at Harry and nearly stumbled back when she saw the fear in his eyes. Fear that she had caused. Fear looked strange on his face. She didn’t like it.

She couldn’t stand to see that look any longer.

“I need to go,” she spun around, avoiding Gil’s gaze as well, knowing that whatever expression he held would be the final nail in the coffin.

“Uma! Wait!” she heard Harry call out, but she was already out the door, the last thing she heard was Harry cursing Gil and Gil’s mother for not letting him follow her.

Shoving her way past a group of younger looking students who weren’t able to move out of her way as fast as she would like, Uma made her way to the part of the dorm that she believed her room was, ignoring how the back of her throat felt itchy or the sudden pressure behind her eyes. (She was not about to cry! She wasn’t!)

It wasn’t long before she finally found the room belonging to the room number the pirate captain had been given the other day. She didn’t even give the plaque under her room number that had her and her roommate's name a glance as she opened the door, hoping beyond hope that no one else would be in the room.

It was a basic looking room by Auradon standards but still better than the little closet she had back on the Isle. But it was strange that there was only one bed. She had thought she was going to be sharing a room.

Whatever, she thought. She didn’t really want to deal with anyone right now.

She unwrapped her jacket from around her waist, pausing as her hands trailed over the compass Harry had drawn on her hand earlier before she reached for the hem of her shirt. Harry’s shirt. She hesitated for a moment longer before pulling it off and tossing it in a corner, turning to reach for her bag that had been placed at the foot of her bed. Once one of her many purple fishnet sleeved shirts was on, she pulled on her gloves as well so that all signs of the compass were covered.

On the other side of the room was a bookshelf that was completely bare except for a golden lamp with ruby and emerald jewels glittering merrily in the corner. There was a sign in elegantly scripted lettering right next to it that read, “Don’t rub the lamp!”

Maybe it was because she had such a long day and it was barely even over. Maybe it was because she wanted something, anything to get that fearful look that Harry had on his face as he stared up at her out of her mind. And maybe it was because she was tired of trying to play by the rules today only to first be showed up by that Olympian golden boy (she didn’t even want to think about Hadie) and then Mal and just wanted to do something wicked, no matter how small.

Whatever the reason, Uma ignored the sign and rubbed the lamp...and found her body being immersed in a cloud of lavender smoke before she was dumped on a large gold embroidered pillow.

“You know, usually I get really annoyed when people touch my lamp” a familiar voice said, startling her. “But I guess I can forgive you just this once,” the Auradon girl from her last class grinned from her position next to her.

“Where are we? Who are you and why did you bring me here?” Uma demanded, not yet noticing the teal and purple harem pants and top she was suddenly in.

“I didn’t do anything. You rubbed the lamp despite the sign saying not to,” the azure eyed girl argued, crossing her arms. “As for who I am, I’m Jordan, daughter of the Genie of Agrabah. I’m your roommate. And you,” she paused, taking in the way the young sea witch looked like she was one magic carpet away from flooding her lamp with tears. Jordan’s features softened slightly. “You look like you need a friend who can do this,” she said gently, opening her palm before flicking her wrist, a bowl of ice cream appearing in it before she handed it to the confused pirate. “And that,” she said pointing next to her where a spinning carousel filled with many different nail polish colors appeared. “And a little Abracadabra,” she said with one final point as the biggest TV screen Uma had ever seen appeared before them along with a tray filled with various snacks that the pirate had never seen before in her life.

She looked up at Jordan, who was looking rather proud of herself. “And this is…?”

“Roomie bonding, of course,” Jordan said with an exasperated but teasing tone. “Like I said before, you ain’t never had a friend like me,” she said with a wink before holding up the carousel of nail polishes. “Now, what colors do you want me to do your toes?”

Chapter Text

The water drenched pages of the San Fransokyo arrangement sat under his lamp, wrinkled, but miraculously still readable. At the same time though, it was still mocking proof of how quickly things could go south in just one morning.

Tired hazel eyes met the glare of an emerald pair across the room. It was just the two of them. Evie and Jay had wanted to give them space and thus had gone to change out of their wet clothes (but Ben wouldn’t be surprised if they both had their ears pressed against the door, listening in).

The room was silent, and it was becoming obvious that Ben was going to have to be the one to speak first. He knew that as High King of the United States of Auradon that he needed to contact Fairy Godmother and get to the truth of what went down between Herkie and Uma but he also knew that he was Ben, a sixteen year old boy forced to grow up way too fast and who was in love with a girl who still carried a lot of demons.

“Mal, I-”

“You need to send him back.”

Ben snapped into a straighter posture. “What?”

Mal pursed her lips, standing in front of his desk with arms crossed. “Harry,” she clarified. “You need to send him back to the Isle.”

The young king shook his head. He should have expected this, but hearing Mal actually say the words still hurt his chest a little. Harry Hook wasn’t the . . . friendliest of people, but he was just as deserving of a chance in Auradon as all the other children born on the Isle.

“I’m not doing that, Mal. He doesn’t deserve to be sent back there.”

The half fae scoffed, placing both of her hands on his desk and leaning forward. (Ben wondered if she was even aware that she did this when she was trying to intimidate someone or if it was just something from the Isle that she would just never quite get rid of.)

“He had his hook against your neck, Ben. What part of that do you not understand as life threatening?”

“He had a hook that was spelled to be ineffective as a weapon and despite your belief, I’m not made out of glass,” he reminded her.

Mal scoffed, rolling her eyes. “Says the boy who got himself kidnapped by a bunch of pirates,” she muttered before saying in a louder voice, “Harry has always been unstable and Uma is delusional if she thinks she can actually control him! He’s a danger to the other students! Do you not remember how he practically got off on the thought of killing you?”

Ben closed his eyes, his temples beginning to pound with an incoming migraine. Did Mal really expect him to be so cruel and heartless? How could she ever expect him to ever send anyone back to the Isle after his short but impactful time there?

A brief thought of his father came to mind before he quickly pushed it to a far corner of his conscious. It had been a stressful day for a lot of people, he thought. Maybe she just needed some time to cool off…

“It’s been a long morning,” Ben sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Let’s table this for now when we’re both a little less on edge and preferably dry,” he said, stopping himself from shifting uncomfortably in his still wet clothes. In all honesty, he really just wanted to change, curl up with a cup of Mrs. Potts’ hot tea and not have to deal with this. He didn’t want to deal with being King of entire kingdoms. Didn’t want to deal with running a kingdom and all of its problems at just sixteen when all his friends just had to worry about grades, and sports, and just being a kid...

Mal opened her mouth, as if to say something more, just as the door to the office flew open revealing a frazzled (and recently changed into much dryer clothes) Evie.

“Turn on the television,” she cried, leaving no room for questions as she strode quickly across the room and turned on the television herself. Jay, who also looked like he had changed clothes as well, slipped into the room, closing the doors quickly behind him.

“Evie? Jay? What’s going on?” Ben asked stomach sinking as the television turned on to reveal Snow White standing outside of Auradon Prep with many other news reporters in the background.

“- Auradon Prep behind me. Sources have confirmed the identities of the new transfers from the Isle of the Lost as Hermie Bing, daughter of the Ringmaster; Eddie Balthazar, son of Edgar Balthazar; Samuel Smee, son of Mr. Smee who was First Mate to the infamous pirate captain, Captain James Hook; uh . . . Big Murph? Hmm, another son of one of Captain Hook’s pirates; Claudine Frollo, daughter of the disgraced Judge Claude Frollo; Harold and Jace Badun, sons of Cruella De Vil’s henchmen; Diego De Vil, son of Cecil B. De Vil and nephew to Cruella De Vil, that poor dear. Joining them are Yzla, daughter of Yzma; Gil, son of Gaston; Harry Hook, son of the previously mentioned Captain Hook; and finally, Uma, daughter of the sea witch Ursula.

“No new development on which of these children the King has appointed as his new Royal Councilor, however, Auradon Prep is swirling with witnesses saying that on her first day of classes today, the daughter of Ursula instigated a fight with the son of Hercules, before also taking part in another fight later in the afternoon involving Harry Hook, the High King, and our newest Lady of the Court, Lady Mal. You may remember Uma of the Isle as the same sea witch who put King Ben under a love spelled and attempted to cause mayhem by turning into a horrid tentacle wielding creature. She seems to be following in the horrendously wicked path of her mother.

“We’re still waiting for more eyewitness details on these incidents, but if this first day is any indication, High King Ben might find some push back on his proclamation. Despite the success of the original Four, some are saying that enough disapproval is being felt to force the Council of Heroes to meet, something that hasn’t been done since former High King Adam first united the kingdoms. This is Snow Whi-”

“How did this happen?” Ben groaned, falling back to his seat, head cradled in his hands as Mal muted the television. “How did it get out like this?” he demanded, looking up to the other three for answers.

“Some kid probably cried to their mommy and daddy about the big scary Isle kids,” Jay said crossly. “I talked to Herkie though. He openly admitted he instigated the fight. He wouldn’t say why, but he promised that he wasn’t the one who went to the media.”

“We don’t have time to start a witch hunt,” Evie firmly stated, though her voice seemed to shake slightly. “Just a few minutes ago, Doug’s dad sent me a text to give us a warning that the Council of Sidekicks is scheduling a meeting sometime within the next few days where they’re going to reassess the Isle Reform Initiative and possibly vote to repeal Uma’s demands and possibly the entire proclamation.”

“That’s the first good news I’ve heard all day,” A dark sneer curved Mal’s lips. “At least now we won't have to deal with Shrimpy and her obnoxious pirate crew.”

Before Ben could even begin to address how horrible that statement was, Evie whirled around, her eyes blazing at the purple-haired girl. “Mal,” she said, voice shaking and it was at this point that Ben realized that all this time Evie had been holding back tears. “If this repeal happens it means not only is Uma being sent back but all of us are being sent back, except for you, I suppose. After all, you now have an official title as Lady of the Court.”

The half-fae could only blink in disbelief, but it was Ben who spoke up for her.

“WHAT?” he roared, springing to his feet. “They can’t do that that! It was my first proclamation as King! A first proclamation has never been overturned once it’s been put into effect, even before the kingdoms united!” He slammed his hands down on his desk, the wood creaking ominously under the force.

Gotta breathe. Gotta focus. Gotta lead. Gotta breathe. Gotta focus. Gotta lead…

“We need to plan and come up with something,” Evie’s breaths were uneven, and her composure was cracking. “W-we can’t go back to the Isle! Our parents! M-m-my mother!” she cried, fresh horror sweeping across her face at the thought. “I can’t go back there, Ben, I can’t! Not again!” she sobbed as Jay silently went over to her and wrapped his arms around her.

Ben’s chest hurt as he saw the how the fear of returning back to the Isle stripped Evie of all the confidence she had built for herself in Auradon. He saw how that fear caused Jay to close up, face expressionless over Evie’s shoulder. Saw the way fear made Mal’s green eyes glimmer with the threat of vengeance for anything that seemed like a threat towards those she considered hers.

“You won’t go back to the Isle,” Ben said, managing to pull himself together, standing taller. He pushed the scared little boy down and called forth the King he needed to pretend he was. He smoothed out his suit, moving around his desk to face the others. “Jay, can you alert Fairy Godmother as to what is going on and to get rid of the reporters? And once you do that, can you make sure that Herkie stays away from Uma and the other new Isle transfers, especially Harry?”

“On it,” the former thief nodded, pulling away from Evie and looking carefully at her face. When Evie gave him a watery smile, he glanced at Ben and Mal, gaze landing the longest on Mal, who was scowling angrily out the window before she caught him staring in the reflection. She waved Jay off, which seemed to be all the permission the former thief needed before slipping out of the room.

“Evie,” Ben said turning towards his blue haired political partner. He gently took her by the shoulders, feeling her shoulders shaking underneath his hands. “I need you to get Uma so the three of us can come up with something to present before the Council. Do you think you can do that? I really need you, Eve. We all know this whole initiative would have never even had gotten off the ground if I didn’t have you here.”

His Royal Councilor took a deep breath, gathering herself slowly, putting herself back together, piece by piece; cracked but still whole. “Of course. You would be hopeless without me, Ben,” she said with a shaky smile before taking one last deep breath and wiping her eyes, waterproof mascara still in place. “I’ll go find Uma,” she said, before pulling away from Ben, taking a quick glance at Mal before giving the young king a meaningful look as she made her exit.

“You’re still trying to work with her.”

Ben looked at Mal who was now sitting on one of the couches, staring down at her hands. He silently made his way towards her, kneeling in the spot in front of her, shedding his kingly facade for the girl who held his heart. He took one of her hands, waiting a few eternity-long minutes for her to speak again.

The half-fae dragged her eyes up to meet his, a look he didn’t know how to quite decipher in them. “You’re still trying to work with Uma,” she clarified.

“Yes,” Ben nodded. “I know you two have your history and I’ll never force either of you two to spend time together if that’s not what you both want to do. But Uma is a great leader, just like Evie. People on the Isle listen to her and I honestly think that people here will listen as well.”

Mal chuckled, a dark sound that grated against his heart painfully. “Uma . . . a great leader, huh?” She quickly got to her feet, nearly toppling over Ben with the hastiness of the movement before he scrambled to get up to his feet again, following her as she made her way to the door.

“Mal?” he asked unsure, almost reaching out to her but holding back at the last second.

She stopped, back facing him; hand on the doorknob before she glanced over her shoulder. “Do you realize that I’ve never been called a great leader? Never. My teachers praised my evil schemes and my mastery in causing unbelievable pain, but they never said anything about my ability to lead.” Her lips curled up into a bitter smile. “Certainly, my mother never thought so.”

Ben’s heart hurt at the thought of how callously Maleficent had treated her, but he didn't get a chance to say anything, because Mal was talking again, her eyes taking a far-off look.

“But you know who she did think was a leader? Uma. It boggled my mind how my mother, who hated Ursula and despised Shrimpy even more, could say she was a good leader. I never saw it, but I tried so hard to be a good leader, Ben, so hard. You know my mom though, nothing I did was ever good enough for her,” she laughed humorlessly. “I guess even here, in Auradon, Uma is still considered a great leader. And where does that leave me?” she asked looking up at Ben expectantly for an answer. When he hesitated too long, trying to figure out what was the right thing to say, she shook her head. “I’ll see you later,” she murmured, quickly leaving.

“Mal, wait!” Ben yelled, but it was too late. As he ran into the hall, she was already gone.

--

“See? I knew it! I told you that color would look great with your complexion!”

Uma looked down at her toes, wiggling them slightly and watching as their sparkly sea-green color caught the light. “I guess?” she said, not really sure what else to say in this situation. The day felt like she had gone through multiple trips through a blender and now, finding herself in a genie’s lamp, getting a pedicure was not making her head spin any less.

Jordan grinned, perusing the carousel that contained the nail polish until she found a dark plum color. Some show or another was playing on the television. Uma had no clue what the plot of the show was or why it involved women with obvious plastic surgery yammering on about pregnancies and the family name. Instead, she focused her attention on her new roommate. (No, she wasn’t trying to stop her mind from wandering over and down the halls to the room she had left, wondering what her two crew members were doing . . . If they had taken her words seriously and decided to find someone new to follow . .)

“Sooo...What’s the deal? Were you just the unlucky one who drew the shortest straw and got stuck with the wicked sea witch?” Uma questioned with a cruel grin, testing the waters. She didn’t get where she was on the Isle by trusting just anyone.  

Raising an eyebrow but not really looking up from the nail she was painting, Jordan nonchalantly asked, “Why?”

Shrugging, Uma reached out for one of the nearest bowls on the tray that Jordan had conjured up. She looked at the contents of the bowl and realized it was filled with strawberries which she immediately put down, images of watching Mal’s smug face eat them on the television coming to mind. She picked up another bowl, filled with orange slices of fruit and looked questioningly at it before putting it in her mouth. The sweet juice flooded her mouth, and she barely resisted the urge to moan (Seven Seas, she had only been in Auradon for a day, and the damn place was already making her soft), before she shoved another slice in.

The pirate captain wasn’t aware that she was being watched until a poor attempt at holding back a laugh snapped her attention back on Jordan. “Sorry,” the young genie said, not sounding sorry at all. Uma narrowed her eyes, walls immediately coming back up.

“I don’t get you,” the pirate captain said plainly, seeing no point in playing a game of wits with the strange girl. “Or why they allowed me to be roommates with you after what I did at your fancy Cotillion.”

 Jordan sighed, flopping down on the large pillow next to Uma. The sea witch snatched the bowl of delicious fruit close to her, not used to sharing her food with anyone but her crew. (Again, she tried to ignore the pain in her chest at the thought of her crew that she left behind. Gods, what was happening to her?).

“Well, there’s not much to get when it comes to me. I’m a teenage genie in a lamp just trying to get through life, just like another teenage genie in a lamp. Well, I think,” Jordan said thoughtfully before giving Uma a smile that seemed a little forced. “I mean, I don’t really know any genies my age . . . And as to why we’re roommates,” she shrugged, “it made the most sense. I needed a room because even putting my lamp on the highest shelf of the common room didn’t stop a few idiots from rubbing my lamp or knocking it over and disrupting my privacy or forcing me to make unintentional wishes.”

“So you do make wishes,” Uma said with a thoughtful look on her face before a slender finger poked her nose. Startled, she nearly fell off the oversized pillow before regaining her balance and throwing Jordan a scowl. Good food and good pedicure aside, this girl was getting way too bold, Uma thought with a frown, rubbing her nose where Jordan poked her.

“Don’t get any ideas, Captain,” Jordan winked playfully. “I’m a Level 2 Genie. Anything you could wish for outside of my lamp would either be too big, require a significant amount of your own magical energy which could possibly result in your own death, or make whatever you wished for disappear in an hour, maybe a day depending on whether I was really trying to grant your wish. It would take another millennium to get anywhere close to my father’s wish granting level. I’m essentially useless if you had any nefarious plans set up.”

“You just became infinitely less interesting,” Uma sighed.

Jordan laughed as if Uma had been joking, and Uma frowned, not entirely sure whether this was an Auradonian thing or just a Jordan thing.

“Anyway,” Jordan continued. “I needed a room but to get a room I needed a roommate and . . .well, here we are,” she said spreading her arms out before dropping them.

“And here we are,” Uma said, sounding unconvinced as she ate another orange slice.

The two were silent for a few moments though the silence wasn’t too uncomfortable. From the corner of her eye, Jordan watched as Uma reached for the bowl of strawberries again, her curiosity overwhelming her. The sea witch looked skeptically at the piece of fruit before taking a bite, considering it before eating the rest of it, hand already reaching out for another one.

“You seem to like those,” Jordan commented offhandedly. “You’re like Mal.”

“Don’t ever say that to me!” Uma growled, placing the bowl of strawberries none too gently back on the tray. Ugh! Couldn’t she just have one moment to pretend like things weren’t going to shit?

“Okay. Okay,” Jordan said holding up her hands placating. “Do you want to talk about what happened after I last saw you, then? Seems like you had a rough morning.”

Uma scoffed. “Try rough life,” she sighed, plopping back down on the pillow she had just vacated. She gave Jordan a scrutinizing look before asking: “Why do you care? Why do all of this,” she said waving at the delicious snacks, the large television, the nail polish, “for a villain kid?”

“Because you’re not just a villain kid, are you? Don’t sell yourself short.”

Uma blinked, the amount of sincerity coming from her roommate foreign to her. It reminded her a bit of Ben. She wasn’t sure why she did what she did but the words were already out of her mouth before she could stop them.

“I think I may have lost my two best friends.”

Uma wanted to swallow the words up, to deny them but the memory of the look of fear in blue eyes, the same fear that had probably also been in too-gentle-for-the-Isle brown eyes, made the back of her throat itch. She cleared her throat, pushing her turquoise braids over to one shoulder. She avoided making eye contact with Jordan, and for the second time that day she felt so small. What a fearsome pirate captain she made, she thought sarcastically.

(Thinking about it, even the word “friend” felt weird after leaving her tongue. They were more than friends. They were crew. And on the Isle, crew meant so much more than just people you fought your enemies with. It meant more than just people who followed her wholeheartedly because Uma had a plan, a vision, a voice that she could make many believe in. Crew meant long nights staring up at the sky, Jonas and Gonzo trading an old harmonica back and forth while a few other crew members joked and boasted about whatever happened that day, Desiree singing random sea shanties that they had all heard at some point growing up on the docks - all the naughty bits included that would have made an Auradon princess blush - while Bonny would challenge Gil to a contest of who could drink the most barrels of whatever crappy brew they managed to steal away from the Chip Shoppe. And Harry. Harry would be sitting at her side, hook tucked away safely between them, her hand running through his hair as his voice took on a softness that not many were privy to as he told her story after story of each constellation and how to use them to navigate seas he had never seen, only heard and dreamed of...Seas she promised to show him.)   

A tan hand lightly placed itself over hers, startling the sea witch into making eye contact with the other girl. Jordan smiled softly and again, Uma found herself hating how much the small act from this child born of Auradon - who didn’t know the horrors the Uma had seen, experienced, participated in - made her feel just a little less alone.

“Gotta say,” Jordan said thoughtfully, “that if you just think that you may have lost your friends, then there’s still a chance that you haven’t.”

Snorting, Uma removed her hand, pretending like she was inspecting the hem of her new shirt (which she was totally stealing). “Is that some Auradon shit you tell each other because you already know you’ll get your happy ending without even batting an eye?”

“Insult me and what you think you know of my upbringing all you want, daughter of Ursula,” the genie replied calmly, though her azure eyes sparked with a power that was older than time itself. (If Uma hadn’t lived with one of the kingdom’s worst villains she might have been intimidated under the other girl’s heavy stare.) “But you’re no fool. Everything you have, you got it because you fought for it with every ounce of passion in that little body of yours. If they’re truly your friends, why shouldn’t you fight for them? You’ve fought to get this far.” Suddenly, Jordan gave her a wide grin that reminded her of a certain voodoo man’s daughter, a grin that never meant anything good. “Or . . . did I confuse you for a fierce pirate captain when you’re actually just a little shrimp in this big sea?”

The words hung in the air, the hair on the back of Uma’s hairs standing on end.

“Get. Me. Out. Of. This. Damn. Lamp,” Uma ground out, getting to her feet.

“Oh, leaving so soon?” Jordan grinned, already snapping her fingers, calling forth the lavender smoke that began to creep around Uma.

The self-proclaimed Queen of the Lost just sneered. “I got business to take care of,” she said, this time willingly thinking of bright blue eyes, before the smoke took her out of the lamp, leaving the resident of the lamp alone.

Once Uma was gone, Jordan pulled out her phone and dialed one of the numbers at the top of her saved contacts.

The phone barely rang twice when it was answered, an exuberant voice greeting, “Hello schnookums, light of my lamp, daddy’s number one-”

“Dad!” the young genie groaned. “Stop, that’s embarrassing. I have an image to maintain!” She barely had time to remove the phone from her ear before a pair of blue lips came through the phone’s receiver and pecked her on the cheek before retreating.

“Sorry, sorry. I just missed you ever since I took a year off from teaching to help your Uncle Al and Aunt Jazz teach Aziz the ropes of running a kingdom. Promise you’ll come home and visit your old dad soon?”

Jordan sighed fondly. Though she was a very independent young woman, Jordan did miss her dad. After all, not including the Sultana of Agrabah, her husband, and their son, her father was the only family she had now . . .

Shaking off those thoughts, she smiled fondly. “Of course, daddy. But listen, I’ve got a favor to ask you. Does Hercules’s old trainer still owe you a favor?”

Outside of the lamp, Uma was almost at the door to go in search for her boys when there was a sharp knock at the door.

The grin on her face at the thought that it was either Harry or Gil or both melted when she opened the door to reveal a dry but slightly worse for wear Evie.

“You need to come with me. Now. And no, that wasn’t a request.”

---

Elsewhere, away from Auradon Prep, on a small island of great renown, the youngest daughter of the infamous Captain James Hook stared up at a large tree covered in gold pixie dust coated leaves.

The usually loud and lively sounds of the island and its inhabitants seemed muted in this space, as if this was sacred ground. To a certain extent it was, CJ thought, gazing up where the wide trunk of the tree was made out of various twisting branches that weaved in and out of each other to form a protective cradle around a silhouette of a young boy who for all intents and purposes looked as if he was sleeping. The young pirate took a step closer, wanting to get a closer look at her father’s greatest foe . . .

“We told you not to come here.”

CJ let out an irritated sigh, glancing over her shoulder to see Tiger Peony, daughter of Chief Tiger Lily, frowning behind her with her mob of Lost Boys.

“Well, ya see Tiger Daisy, that’s the thing. I’m a pirate. We do things we’re told not to do all the time. Comes with the job description,” CJ grinned mockingly at the girl, (who hissed out “Peony,”), before taking another step forward towards the tree.

She heard the pulling of a bow half a second before she felt an arrow whiz past her, nicking her shoulder before it embedded itself into one of the tree branches.

“Ow! Blackbeard’s fucking ghost!” CJ cursed, glaring at the Lost Boy who was already reaching for another arrow. “That hurt! And I just stole this jacket too!” she pouted, fingering the tear in the shoulder of her new red leather jacket where the arrow had nicked her. It wouldn’t be anything too serious if she got it cleaned but damn it! Why couldn’t she just have the nice things she stole without some chief’s daughter and her merry band of Lost Runts ruining her fun?

“I’ll only say this once more, daughter of Hook. In the spirit of High King Ben’s proclamation, you are welcomed to stay here. The blood of Neverland runs through you, despite who your father is. But you cannot keep coming here to Pan’s Cradle!” Tiger Peony hissed, stomping closer to the pirate until their faces were only inches apart.

“Why not?” CJ huffed, crossing her arms and leaning back. “He’s as good as dead, ain’t he? You Neverland lot couldn’t handle the little brat and Neverland’s Curse once you got rid of Daddy so you did the ‘good’ thing,” she said making air quotes, “and had Pan’s own fairy put him to sleep.”

“It was the only way Neverland would survive in this changing world!” Tiger Peony growled. “Pan is Neverland and Neverland is Pan. The land, the inhabitants, the magic is all his and he didn’t take lightly to King Adam’s demands for magic to be retired. How could he when he is magic himself?”

CJ looked bored. “I’m sorry. Were you saying something important?”

Tiger Peony fumed but she held herself back. She was the daughter of the Chief. She would not let some pirate get to her.

“Return to your room, Calista Jane, or I will be forced to make sure that you are the last of your codfish bloodline to set foot on this island . . . and I’ll also make sure Mom takes away your boat.”

CJ gasped. “Seriously?! Come on! That’s cruel, you can’t take my boat. You know how hard it was to steal that from those Boradon brats and take out that fancy security tracker on it!”

Tiger Peony did nothing but look expectantly at CJ before the daughter of Hook sighed in defeat. She and Tiger Peony were almost back at the line of Lost Boys when the ground beneath them seemed to shake. They both turned to see the golden pixie dust on the tree leaves swirl and fall to the ground in a thick dense cloud, almost obscuring the tree.

“Get back!” Tiger Peony ordered as she grabbed CJ’s sleeve and pulled the stunned pirate back. After a few seconds, when the ground seemed to stop shaking, Tiger Peony slowly turned towards CJ. “What did you do?” she whispered in fear.

“Peony,” one of the boys near her dared to speak out. “I think . . . I think it was the arrow.”

Choking on a gasp, Tiger Peony’s eyes fell on the arrow shot earlier before looking down at the place where CJ’s jacket was now torn, a few drops of blood visible.

“Blood of Hook,” she said in disbelief, letting CJ go, her and the Lost Boys taking steps back away from the pirate, eyes wide with fear.

CJ stumbled as she was released, a scowl and biting retort dying on her tongue when she noticed that no one was looking at her but was looking behind her.

Glancing over her shoulder, CJ’s brown eyes met with hazel eyes paired with a youthfully mischievous smile.

“So, you’re the girl who woke me up, eh?”

Chapter Text

Once upon a time, there were three siblings that could only depend on each other. One night, the eldest sibling left, wanting to start her own life on the other side of the Isle, after years of looking after and protecting her younger siblings…

“Hey! Enough of those tears, Cali! They’re not gonna make Ettie come back!” a ten-year-old Harry Hook yelled, throwing a somewhat clean rag at his crying younger sister. Tears were streaming down her face, and though he meant well with his gesture, it seemed to only make the seven year old cry even more.

He scrubbed his face with the heel of his hand, frustrated. And Uma calls me dramatic, he thought. The fact that he knew the tears probably weren’t real and merely an old trick Harriet had taught her when CJ was still too small didn’t help him be any more sympathetic either. Did she think she was the only one affected by this?

Harriet had left in the dead of the night, collecting all of the few personal objects she had along with the red jacket that she had outfitted from one of their father’s old coats. Harry had suspected she would desert them for the past month now. She already had a ship, one of their father’s better ones with not too much rot, given a month earlier when she had turned twelve. Her crew was easy to come by since most of their father’s crew all had children of their own who they had grown up with and were already used to Harriet bullying them all around.

Good riddance! Harry thought bitterly, ignoring how much his older sister leaving had felt like betrayal. (Actually, it felt closer to losing his mother, and he wasn’t at all fond of the reminder.) He may only be ten, but he knew getting too close with anyone, even family was a risk. Blood wasn’t always thicker on the Isle after all. His strenuous relationship with a father who most of the time couldn’t bear to look at him was a prime example.

So he ignored how he would miss Harriet’s cackle of a laugh when he did something that really helped carve an impression into the minds of those of the Isle that he was a pirate not to be messed with. He ignored how he would miss their daily spars, where woven in between sarcastic remarks and insulting names, there would actual be tidbits on how not to get himself killed, much more helpful than his father’s slurred suggestion to just run himself through with a sword. (The frequency that Hook made that comment and ones similar had started to wear off...that is until the old Captain actually tried to force his suggestion onto the boy himself.)

“You’re gonna leave me just like Ettie did!” CJ wailed, throwing the rag right back at him, anchoring him back to the present.

Harry refrained his desire to just shove her off the boat and into the murky water below with the sharks but a sneer that sounded too much like his older sister reminded him that if “precious Calista Jane” went overboard their father would have his neck. And Harry quite liked his neck.

"Stop that cryin’ right now! Ye hear me? Or else I’ll leave ye too!” he growled, trying to repress himself from turning into a useless heaving ball, curled up on the deck of the ship, struggling to breathe and waiting for the world to stop spinning like he did when he first found Harriet gone.

CJ paused, teary brown eyes wide. For a moment, the young boy thought that one of his sisters was finally listening to him, that he was finally getting the respect he deserved as someone who would one day be captain of his own ship… Until CJ stomped on his foot with as much force as she could (which was a lot for a seven year old) before kicking his shin.

“Bloody hell! Ye little goblin!” Harry howled, falling to the deck of the ship with a hard thud and clutching his lower leg.

“No!” CJ cried, stomping her foot, though this time thankfully nowhere near his own. “You can’t leave! You can’t! You can’t!”

“Oh shut up ye idiot! I’m not going no where!” the boy rolled his eyes, flopping back on the deck of the ship. There was only a few of his father’s crew above deck at the moment, many of them somewhere else, roaming the island, or sleeping off whatever questionable moonshine they managed to get their hands on. He was bored of the conversation now. He idly wondered what Uma was doing and if she was stuck working her mother’s shop again.

“Promise?” CJ prodded, hovering over him, blonde hair knotted in a poor attempt at mimicking the braid Harriet usually pulled together. Her bottom lip was trembling and the only tell that this wasn’t completely an act was the way the younger child bit the inside of her cheek. When Calista Jane was pulling a con, she bit her bottom lip.

Oh Davy Jones, he thought sitting up. He was never really good when CJ got like this, when she looked at him expectantly as if he could actually keep a damn promise on this pitiful rock made of broken dreams that they called home. He wasn’t stupid. He hadn’t made a name yet like Harriet. He was still known to too many as just one of Captain James Hook’s bastards at the worst, and one of Harriet Hook’s bratty little siblings at the best. But maybe...one day, (perhaps with a certain sea witch) he would be so feared on the Isle that he could make a promise to his sibling without his stomach twisting at the uncertainty of being able to keep such a promise.

“Yeah, yeah. I promise,” he said pushing her away none too gently as he got up to his feet. “We’ll even go on a grand adventure one day,” he muttered, sarcasm heavy in his voice but CJ didn’t seem to hear it as her eyes grew wide, any remaining traces of her crying now long gone and she let out a squeal of delight before running off to another part of the ship yelling “ADVENTURE!” and something or other about needing to go find that Freddie brat.

Harry rolled his eyes again, glancing at the dock where a familiar turquoise figure caught his eye, and a mischievous smirk came on his face, fading away his concerns for the time being.

He ran down the ship’s ramp with casual disregard to his safety until he caught sight of an unpleasant head of purple hair waiting next to Uma.  

“Mal,” he ground out before turning to Uma. “Why’d ye bring her here?” he hissed.

“Yeah, I thought we were going to have some real fun, Uma…” Mal sighed, sounding almost bored as she barely gave the boy a glance. “Didn’t know we were gonna spend the day with this charity case.”

“Ye wanna say that a bit louder, pixie?” Harry fumed through clenched teeth, taking a step closer to her.

Uma pushed her way between the two. “Both of you, cut it out!” she growled before tugging Harry off to the side. “What’s up with you? I thought you’d be up for causing a little bit of mayhem,” she said, glancing back at Mal before in a lower voice saying, “I heard about Harriet and…ya know, thought it would cheer you up.”

Davy Jones. That weird stomach fluttering thing always seemes to happen at the most inconvenient of times, he thought, taking in her rare look of concern.

“I do like causing mayhem, but with ye, lass. Not with that purple tadpole. I just don’t see why ye would even want to hang out with her. She’s got no real substance! Everyone knows she’s just her mother’s clone. And not even a good one.” 

Uma rolled her eyes. This wasn’t the first time Harry had made his feelings about her friend from the other side of the Isle clear.

“Look Harry,” she growled, irritated, poking him in the chest. “Mal and I have each other’s back. We’re gonna rule this island and then we’re going to take over Auradon together and shove all those sugary sweet royal brats off their thrones. Now, I can do that with or without you, Hook, but if you’re with me then you need to shut your clam about Mal.”

Harry knocked her hand away from him. “This isn’t going to end well, Uma. I can feel it. Mal. Is. Bad. News,” he said putting emphasis on the last few words.

Rolling her eyes, Uma turned around, speaking over her shoulder, “You’re too paranoid, Hook. Mal and I have a plan. You’re either with us or against us, and when you come to your senses, Mal and I will be at the other end of the docks by that other ship of your old man’s,” she said before starting to walk towards where the purple half-fae was smirking triumphantly back at him.

(Damn pixie.)

The young boy bit his lip, holding back a curse as he watched them both disappear around a turn, hearing a faint conversation of needing to find something slippery for their next prank. His stomach twisted with a sense of foreboding that something irreversible was going to occur soon.

A few hours later, he would realize that he hated being right…and once again, he hated how he felt powerless in protecting what was his...

---

Harry woke up, blinking blearily as sunlight forced its way from behind torn and slashed curtains. The pirate groaned, throwing his arm over his eyes as he continued to lie in the center of the mess he had caused the night before.

Despite being scared out of his mind for - not of - his Captain, Harry had attempted to run after Uma the night before only to be stopped by Gil. It took everything in the first mate to remember that no matter how thick the other boy was, he was crew. Uma didn’t like when her crew was hurt. (And though he would be slow to admit it, Harry didn’t like it either.) So after one last final attempt to get past Gil, Harry turned his frustration toward the room knocking over, smashing, and tearing anything he could get his hands on. Even though his hook was spelled, he could still use the blunt edge to smash or hit things, and smash and hit things he did. There was not a single inch of the room that he didn’t make his mark on.

He had the brief thought that the room looked like his father had been through it, and he smiled bitterly at the thought (he ignored the way the thought also almost made bile rise up his throat). Not much like Pan now, am I Mickey-boy?

“Harry?”

The door to the bathroom cracked open, Gil’s head peeking out.

So that’s where he was, Harry thought, a small pit of guilt forming in his stomach. He didn’t respond to Gil right away. Instead, he moved his arm from his eyes and stared up at the ceiling.

“Harry?” Gil called out again, moving slowly out from the bathroom when Harry wordlessly waved him over.

“Didn’t hit ye, did I?”

Gil shook his head. “I’m good at ducking,” he smiled proudly helping Harry to his feet.

Harry nodded, standing unsteadily on his feet. It had been a very long time since Uma had ever been this upset with him...

Scratch that.

Uma had never been this upset with him. Annoyed? Irritated? Frustrated? Yes. (Thoughts of the time before the incident, when Uma was still friends with a certain purple haired harpy came to mind.) But this…This...This seemed to even go beyond Mal dumping shrimp on her head...

“She’s not mad.”

Harry’s head snapped up, looking at a softly smiling Gil. (When the hells did he start reading minds?)

“She’s not mad,” the blonde said simply. “She’s the captain, and you’re the first mate,” Gil said as if that was a universal truth, as if it was something that would never change like the rise and setting of the sun and moon or the push and pull of the tides. (Not for the first time, Harry wished he could look at things from Gil’s simple and uncomplicated perspective.)

He wanted to believe that was true. That the history, blood, sweat, and tears between Uma and he wasn’t as disposable as that insecure voice in the back of his mind always whispered it was.

So he decided to believe Gil and ignored the doubt in the pit of his stomach and swept on his signature red coat, eyes surrounded by the previous day’s smudged kohl like an armor. He ignored the way his hands shook, the slight breathless feeling that lurked near the edges of his awareness and instead focused on Gil’s unwavering optimism and the comforting warm metal of his hook. It only did so much, wasn’t as cutting in the darkness of his mind as the mere presence of Uma, but Gil was crew - a bit thick headed but a loyal member all the same - and until otherwise stated, Harry was the first mate, second in command. He couldn’t let these...these...shitty panic attacks (that’s what the damn therapist called them, wasn’t it?) stop him from doing his job. From doing his duty of supporting Uma even though he felt so powerless and out of place here...

“Wow, you sure did a number here, Hook.”

Harry snarled, glaring at the nonchalant smirk on Diego De Vil’s face as he looked around the room with an impressed expression from the dorm room’s entrance.

“Being cheeky are ye De Vil?” the pirate snarled, his stance hostile. The older boy wasn’t crew and agreement or not, he hadn’t earned Harry’s trust. “And how in the seven seas did you get into me room?”

As Diego moved to turn upright and sit in a chair further into the room like he wasn’t intruding in someone else’s space, Harry noticed that the heir of the underworld had been apparently hidden behind Diego’s taller figure. The younger boy always managed to creep Harry out, which was saying a lot.

“Your door wasn’t locked,” Diego said simply, bringing the pirate’s attention back to him.

Harry didn’t even have the energy or desire to glare at Gil for his forgetfulness. “Is there a reason why ye and Lord Death Junior are gracing us with yer presence?”

The carefree look on Diego’s face was instantly replaced with a look of seriousness. “Have you seen the news, yet?” he questioned.

“The news?” Harry questioned looking to Gil, who merely shrugged. “Why would I be concerned about the news?”

A snort was heard behind him where Hadie stood arms crossed as he leaned against the room’s door, a look of irritation on his usually impassive face.

“Because,” he began, voice sounding like the crunch of dead leaves in the fall. “You done fucked up, Hook.”

---

Once upon a time, before a Captain and her first mate went to Auradon, before they kidnapped a king, before it was Uma and Harry Hook, it had been Harriet Hook and her stupid baby brother Harry…

“Stop dragging your feet, idiot! Keep up! If the witches get and eat ya it’s not m’fault.”

“Arrgh!”          

“And stop that stupid sound! No one is going to take you seriously as a pirate making that dumb sound!”

“Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!”

A young Harriet Hook, just turned six years of age, dug her heels into the mud covered ground and spun around to face her younger brother (but no longer the youngest Hook sibling - that whelp that Hook’s last whore abandoned on their ship had survived a year despite her smallness, earning her finally a name, Calista Jane Hook, and the title of the youngest - known - Hook sibling). Bright blue eyes cut through the smudge of dirt that was ever present on his face, making their father’s most recent…lesson that surrounded his right eye barely noticeable except for a bit of swelling. (She would never admit the guilt she felt as an older sister when she couldn’t even protect him in their own home.)

Harriet frowned as the boy raised an old fish hook, tucked between his middle and index finger, a slight surly look on his face before letting out a taunting “Arrrrrrrrrgh.”

Tired and frustrated, Harriet did what any six year old who had enough of their annoying sibling would do. She pushed him. Hard.

The oldest child of Hook cackled as her brother was sent sprawling into the mud, knocking over another child who had been passing by in the process.

“Get off me!” a somewhat familiar voice barked, pushing Harry none too gently off to reveal the sea witch’s brat, teal, small, and already as nasty and assertive as someone three times her age. Harriet had met her a few times when her father asked her to run a few messages between him and Ursula. The younger girl was always either clearing leftovers off of a table or standing on a crate to reach the sink as she washed chipped plate after chipped plate.

Initially, Harriet though she was just another weakling, a child of the Isle that wouldn’t have survived as long as she did if it hadn’t been for the reputation her mother once held. (It wasn’t too unheard of. Madam Mim’s airheaded daughters and granddaughters were a prime example of that.) It wasn’t until she had tried to discreetly take a tip left behind by one of the restaurant's patrons from a table and found a kitchen knife embedded between her fingers with the girl staring coldly up at her, that she realized she may have judged Ursula’s spawn a little too soon.

Harriet was about to yell at Harry to stop wasting time on his back when the younger girl dragged Harry up to his feet with a strength not expected of a four year old, her grip tight on his arms.

“You made me drop my candy!” the girl hissed, eyes narrowed as she got into his face. Harriet glanced amusedly down at the ground where there were indeed three red fish-shaped candy, covered in mud and other sludge that covered most of the streets of the Isle. She must have scavenged for hours in the pitiful excuse for supplies that Auradon sent over.

Harry sputtered. As the son of Hook, no one outside of Harriet and their father had ever spoken to him in this way. Looking back and forth from Harriet to this strange girl before his confused expression morphed into what should have been a scowl but looked more like he had a bad case of the runs. “I ain’t did nothin’ and even if I did, I ain’t apologizing!” he declared crossing his arms and sticking his tongue out at her. “I dunno who ye even are!”

“Uma,” the girl said as if it was something that should be common knowledge. “And you owe me for making me drop my candy! Or else” she hissed, pushing his nose with her finger before stomping away. 

“Yer crazy, lass!” Harry yelled at her back but Uma didn’t seem to acknowledge his words as she continued on until she was lost in the usual Isle bustle and hustle. “Girls are weird,” Harry muttered pushing past Harriet, getting some mud on her coat which got him a hard whack on the head. “And evil,” he pouted.

That made Harriet let out an honest and true laugh, wordlessly tugging her brother behind her as they continued on with their errands.

If Harriet noticed Harry stuff some small toys and shiny trinkets, as well as a lollipop from an unsuspecting baby into his pockets, she didn’t say anything. And she didn’t say anything when he tried to weasel out from under her when they passed Ursula’s Fish and Chips Shoppe. (She did however, tease him mercilessly for hours. “Aw, is little Hook-boy in love?” “Shut up, Ettie! Ye dunno nothing!”) And months later, after his multiple visits to Ursula’s, she didn’t say anything when he went to the Chip Shop instead of to Harriet to bandage his wounds after their father had ranted and raved about Neverland and Lost Boys who had defeated him and mistakenly thought his own son was the boy who was the reason he was imprisoned in the first place. (Harriet would follow behind her limping brother, all battered and bruised but never crying, watching from the shadows until he reached Ursula’s where a small but commanding teal figure would wait on the steps as if she innately felt the pain that radiated off the boy and knew he was coming.) Harriet didn’t say anything when Harry stopped following her around, or when he stopped taking her orders and instead followed another with a sense of purpose that Harriet could never truly inspire in her brother…

Years later, when Uma, daughter of Ursula took on the title of Captain and named Harry Hook her first mate, of course Harriet teased him about never being a captain, but she never said anything against Uma’s declared title (or how utterly smitten her brother had become of the girl and how that both eased and frightened Harriet’s worries).

And months later, when Mal and Evie and Jay and Carlos left the Isle and Uma clawed and pushed and snarled her way to the top of the Isle hierarchy with first mate and crew by her side, taking over Mal’s turf and a few others that not even the Rotten Four dared to go up against when they ruled, Harriet begrudgingly tipped her hat at her brother and his Captain.

(And if Harriet Hook’s crew were ordered to never to harm even a hair on any member of the Lost Revenge, well they weren’t going to reveal one of their captain’s weaknesses.)

“I suppose I did this to myself,” Harriet sighed as she used a spyglass from the deck of her ship to watch as her brother, his captain, and their blonde oaf pile into a limousine, off to give Auradon hell.

“You say somethin’ Cap’n?” one of the members of her crew asked.

“No,” she snapped, pivoting on her heels, her back facing her one of her greatest treasures. “Not at all.”

---

Present, On the Isle

“We’re still waiting for more eyewitness details on these incidents, but if this first day is any indication, High King Ben might find some push back on his proclamation. Despite the success of the original Four, some are saying that enough disapproval is being felt to force the Council of Heroes to meet, something that hasn’t been done since former High King Adam first united the kingdoms. This is Snow White bringing you the latest news in Auradon. Back to you in the studio!”

Lady Tremaine released a sigh, turning down the volume of the television. “I should have known Ursula’s daughter would be unable to succeed. After all, what’s to be expected of those who went to Serpent Prep? I suppose they’ll be sending her and her band of hooligans back any day now,” she said running a brush through the hair of her current client. The Evil Step-Mother’s eyes narrowed, her brushing becoming almost bruising as she sneered in thought, “And when I get my hands on that granddaughter of mine, she’ll see that what I put that insufferable waste of space Cinderella through was nothing compared to what I have in mind for her.”

Harriet bit her lip, ignoring the urge to curse out the older woman as she abused her scalp. Eventually, Lady Tremaine finished, spinning the oldest child of Hook to face the cracked mirror. Harriet gave herself a quick glance in the cracked mirror, giving the woman a curt nod of approval. Though lacking in hospitality, the owner of Curl Up and Dye and Dragon Hall teacher was the best at what she did. The pirate reached into her jacket, ready to pay the usual overpriced amount when the Lady placed her hand tightly on her shoulder, stopping her.

“No need this time, my dear,” the woman said with a smile that could freeze the seven hells. “After all, you’re nearly family now.”

Though Lady Tremaine’s words almost made her want to scream and shatter the mirror into dust. Harriet silently nodded, putting back her coins and standing up. She wanted to get out of the salon before her former teacher brought up the topic of being part of the Tremaine family again. (I’m already part of one fucked up family. I don’t need another one, she thought.)

Harriet was just about to leave when Lady Tremaine’s daughter, Anastasia, stopped her at the door, pulling her off to the side, and away from the interested stare of Lady Tremaine. The former evil-step sister, now merely an unfortunate casualty of Auradon’s biased rule, looked sympathetically at the girl as she reached to tuck raven chin-length hair behind Harriet’s ear, ignoring the way the girl tensed at the contact. “I know this may not be how you wanted things but we really do consider you a part of our family, Harriet. Even before-” Anastasia began, stopping to clear her throat, struggling to get the words out. (Harriet couldn’t blame her. She struggled with saying the words too.) “I mean, even before…”

“I understand,” Harriet said quickly cutting her off. She still wasn’t used to Anastasia’s...mothering and always felt disorientated by even the simple gestures the woman made, like hugs or the warm and seemingly understanding look she always had in her eyes every time Harriet spoke with her, like the one she had now. It was off-putting and didn’t deserve to be on the Isle. It was too warm. Too bright. Too Loving. (Harriet couldn’t decide if she wanted to run away from it or hoard the warmth that the woman gave all for herself.)

Sensing the younger woman’s uncomfortableness, Anastasia nodded. She placed a light kiss on both of Harriet’s cheeks (something that never ceased to catch Harriet off guard no matter how many times she saw it coming) before stepping back, a sad smile on her face at the girl’s obvious discomfort.

“Be safe,” she said in farewell. “And please, don’t be a stranger, Harriet. You are always welcome with the Tremaines.”

Harriet merely nodded in response, not trusting her voice to stay steady, before stepping further out into the filth covered street, placing her captain’s hat firmly on her head. It wasn’t until the salon was far behind her did she feel the tension leave her shoulders, that she felt a bit more like herself. She had to be sure of herself. With Uma gone, a few idiots thought it was suitable time for a takeover until Harriet reminded them of their place. And if blood was spilled here and there to get the message clear that the pirates still ran the Isle, well, that was all more the fun.

She walked confidently down the streets, barely noticing as people rushed to move out of her way or the way that both men and women alike leered after her commanding strut. These were all things that she had grown used to as one of the rising power players on the Isle. Many said that she was just as fearsome as her father had been in his prime. Others said she was worst, more cruel, less forgiving of slights against her. Harriet didn’t really care what people said as long as she was feared, and if she wasn’t feared, she didn’t hesitate to squish any pathetic insects underneath her boot to remind anyone who even entertained the idea of going against her that there was a reason why the infamous Captain James Hook allowed his heir to be his eldest daughter despite old sexist sailor superstition.

Not that she needed her father’s backing anymore. He was getting old and was barely sober these days, spending more days either sleeping or fishing with Old Mr. Smee. Soon he would be more of a hindrance than an asset, Harriet thought coldly. Soon...but not yet.

So deep in her thoughts, Harriet didn’t even realize that she was nearing her destination until she arrived at the graveyard where the tomb that acted as the entrance into Dragon Hall. She had stopped attending her classes years ago, running her crew taking precedent over learning about the failed plans of has-been villains that she could just hear whenever there was an excuse for the adults to get drunk. But she made sure the younger members of her crew attended.

The heels of her boots echoed eerily down the mostly empty halls. The few students who were either just hanging out during their free periods or just ditching classes, watched in awe as she passed by. Not many who were not part of her crew were able to get this close to the heir of the Jolly Roger and keep their lives.

Eventually, Harriet came to a door that with slanted script that read “Weird Science”, pushing the door open unannounced and walking into the class filled with students and an exasperated looking professor.

“Miss Hook, I am in the middle of a class,” Yen Sid sighed, leaning tiredly against his podium. Despite his remark, he already knew that scolding the young woman was pointless from his memories of her as a student.

Harriet moved to the front of the room with the swagger that only a Hook could have, sitting on the professor’s old desk, and crossing her leg over the other. She picked up a crudely written essay from a pile on the desk and began to flip through it.

“You sent your little assistant to me requesting for a meeting, Professor, so I came as fast as I could,” she sighed, bored, before tsking and looking up from the paper directly at Mad Maddy, one of Madam Mim’s many granddaughters. “Oh Maddy, this paper is bad. Like, really bad. Maybe if you stopped turning tricks over by the wharf, trying to stir up some mess with my crew and maybe, I don’t know, applied yourself a bit more, you might have enough brains to at least know not to copy off one of Gaston’s lads,” The sincerity in her voice contrasted greatly with the nasty sneer on her face. “I mean, I’m not an expert on this science shit but if it has anything to do with eggs and it’s not biology related, it’s probably not right, sweetie.”

The girl in question blushed angrily, sliding down in her chair as her classmates laughed and jeered at her. Harriet smirked triumphantly, but memories of her walking through the back door of Curl Up and Dye after hours, instantly hearing the lusty moans and other sounds of carnal desire before hearing Maddy cry out, “Oh Anthony!” played over and over in her mind like a damn broken record…

Harriet looked away from the other girl, stomach feeling sick, and instead looked at the other members of the class. There were a few students, if Harriet looked closely, who were obviously forcing their mean behavior, members of Yen-Sid’s little club. She wondered if they would have stood up for their classmate if they had been born in Auradon. 

Distracted, Harriet didn’t even notice Yen Sid’s assistant shuffle close to her until she snatched the paper out of her hand, the quick motion causing a paper cut.

“Damn it!” Harriet hissed, hopping off the desk. She moved to corner the mousy-looking woman when Yen Sid, old as he appeared to be, easily stepped into the space between them.

“That is enough. Though I had wished to meet with you after class, I see it can’t be helped. Let’s take this to my office, Miss Hook,” the old sorcerer said firmly, his tone leaving no room for argument. He turned to his assistant. “Sophie, please look after the class and continue the lesson.”

His assistant nodded. “Yes sir.”

Yen Sid gestured towards another door at the back of the room. “After you, Miss Hook.”

Harriet sneered at Sophie, pride somewhat mollified when the assistant took a fearful step back, before making her way towards the back of the room, ruffling the hair of a few of her younger crew mates that she still made to attend classes as she passed, more a show of claim than actual show of affection. (Or at least that was what Harriet would say if questioned. Thankfully though, most on the Isle had wised up on not questioning her.)

When Harriet stepped into Yen Sid’s private office, she had to bite her tongue again for what felt like the millionth time that day. There was no way that a room this big and tall could exist in Dragon Hall, not on their current level, not without a bit of magic, barrier or no, Harriet thought. Even Maleficent, when she was large and in charge and not a lizard, had not even dared to mess with the sorcerer despite the fact that on the Isle he should have just been a powerless frail old man.

“Tea?” he asked, already placing a beaker of water over a Bunsen burner. “I received so many wonderful new selections of tea from the supplies that the capital has recently sent over. You might like them my dear, I have rooibos. Or maybe,” he said with a knowing look, “you would prefer something simpler like ginger or mint in your current condition.”

Harriet’s nails bit into the palm of her hands as she tightly clutched them into fists. “I would prefer if you just spat out why you called me here. If you haven’t realized, not only do I have turfs to maintain and supplies to make sure are distributed, I now have to prepare for the repercussions, on and off the Isle, due to the mess that my brother surely had a hand in instigating with those pompous Auradon lot. So please excuse me, sir,” she snarled. “If I want to skip the pleasantries that you shove down your little club member’s throat and just get to the point!”

If Harriet was anyone else, she would have stumbled back at the sheer weight of the man’s gaze, how it felt like he was looking at her past, present, and future. But she wasn’t just anyone. After a moment, the professor broke his gaze, turning back to the Bunsen burner.

“Hm, chamomile, for your insomnia,” he decided.

Harriet froze, as he began to prepare to cups.

“How did you-”

“My dear, it doesn’t take magic to see the bags underneath your eyes,” he chuckled, using tongs to pour the boiling water into the cups that already contained to the tea bags.

The pirate captain admittedly felt silly thinking that magic was involved, as she surprisingly took the cup of tea offered. She hadn’t slept in days since that night at Curl Up and Dye, too angry at Mad Maddy, too angry at the male Tremaine heir, too frustrated and angry at herself for not only falling for the boy, but now she was - Harriet stopped her thoughts, taking a large scalding sip of the tea, focusing on the burning pain that went down her throat.

Once Yen Sid had prepared his own cup (two sugars and a squeeze of lemon) he sat in a tall armchair with Harriet sitting on a stool across from him.

“I have asked you here, Miss Hook,” he began after taking a sip, “to discuss the next group of children bound to go to Auradon.”

Nearly choking, Harriet thumped her chest to get the tea she had just swallowed down the correct pipe. “Excuse me? Are you going senile, old man? Have you not heard the news that’s been playing on repeat since yesterday? Uma and my little brother fucked things up. Any idiot can tell you that once that damn Council of Groupies meet, all the kids from the Isle will be sent back with boot prints on their asses and it’ll be more than twenty years before the next ‘garbage strike’ ends, let alone them considering letting us off this island again.”

Yen Sid sat patiently, allowing her to verbalize her anger. She hated how he looked unruffled, merely taking a long sip of tea before placing the cup on the side stand next to him.

 “I’m going to let you in on a little secret, Miss Hook,” he said, leaning forward, elbows on his knees, hands folded under his chin behind his long gray beard. “Whether Miss Uma or your brother, Mister Hook, had lasted a day, a week, a month over there, this was going to happen. Biases were going to force them into a less than pleasing position. After all, in the perspective of many born and raised on that side of the barrier, they are villains as evil and wicked as their parents that will amount to nothing other than creating complete chaos.”      

“So this was just a bunch of shit?” Harriet asked, the accent of her father’s heritage that she started hiding since childhood growing thick in her anger and frustration. “Ye telling me them Auradon lot are just waving all their fancy things in our faces only to snatch ‘em back? Just because of our parents?!? I didn’t ask for James Hook to be me Da! I didn’t-”                

“Calm yourself, child,” Yen Sid cut her off. Harriet took a deep breath. She wouldn’t let this has-been magician see her riled up. Couldn’t let anyone see how she was falling apart from the inside out. “As I was saying, though this was expected, all change meets resistance. If Miss Uma is the leader that King Ben claims her to be, she will not stand alone once put in front of the Council of Sidekicks. Allies come from unexpected places.”

Harriet narrowed her eyes at him, head tilted to the side to observe him. She was silent for a few minutes. “What do you know?” she questioned.

“Honestly?” Yen Sid said getting up and collecting both of their cups. “Nothing really. I have long been out of the loop of Auradonian politics for years now and even before this Isle was created, I chose not to spend my time peddling to royalty.”

Harriet got up, following him to the door and begrudgingly taking a rolled up piece of parchment that she knew had recommended names for the next group of kids to be sent over if the Auradon messengers ever returned.

The old man opened the door to reveal a now empty classroom with Sophie picking up a stack of assignments, slowly inching herself around the other side of the room away from Harriet. (How did she even make it this long on the Isle, Harriet wondered.)

“I know that this is not something that comes naturally for you after living on the Isle, but please Miss Hook, have hope. A storm cannot be told to stop. It only stops when it decides it has ran its course,” Yen Sid said cryptically.

Harriet rolled her eyes. “Yeah, sure. Whatever mumbo jumbo shit you’re on just keep it to yourself,” she said, nearly out the door of the classroom and back into the hall.

She thought she had ended the conversation when suddenly she heard the old man call after her: “And may I also give my congratulations to you Miss Hook. You’re definitely setting upon a new adventure.”

Harriet walked quickly away, not pausing until she was back on her ship, in the privacy of her cabin. She pressed her forehead against the door, taking a moment to compose herself.

Pale arms, with long delicate hands wrapped themselves around her waist, a broad chest pressing against her back.

“What’s wrong, m’Lady?” the voice of her past dreams and recent nightmares murmured as he pressed kisses along her neck.

Inwardly, Harriet broke apart, wanting nothing but the soft warm memory of curling around Harry and CJ protectively in the bed that they had shared, listening to her siblings breathing softly, reassured and calmed in the knowledge that they were both still there, that she had managed to keep them alive for one day longer.

Outwardly, she turned around in his arms, meeting the usually haughty but now puzzled looking visage of Anthony Tremaine. She plucked a hair of Mim-purple hair from his jacket, both very aware of where it had come from and both knowing that Mad Maddy had been in school all day.

“Harriet,” he began. “You know I am very...fond of you,” he struggled to say, words of vulnerability not even a luxury amongst his family (except for his warm, warm mother who gave more than she would ever receive here).

“But not fond enough,” she said coldly, shoving him away and walking over to her desk where her maps were mixed with his records of all of their transactions and who owed them what. “Mr. Tremaine, I want a report on our recent shipment of supplies including the projected income or whatever it’s called, by tomorrow morning.”

“That’ll take hours!” he protested.

Harriet merely grinned, sitting in her chair with feet propped on her desk, hands folded on her stomach where she ignored the slight bump there. “Then you’d better tell your little girlfriends that you're going to be working all night and have to miss your date, then.”

If “fondness” wasn’t enough to obtain his complete loyalty, she would take his fear, instead.    

Chapter Text

Ben sighed, rubbing his eyes tiredly.

“It’s late,” he glanced at the clock. It showed that it was well into the early morning. Looking around the room, he shuddered, thinking about how Mrs. Potts would have a field day scolding him if she saw the messy state of his - no, their office.

The night sky was slowly beginning the lighten, marking the dawn of the third day working on their proposal for the Council of Sidekicks. The first day had been filled with learning curves...and cutting remarks...and death threats (surprisingly not all from Uma). But at some point, they had found a tentative and delicate way to work together. Threat of being sent back to a literal hell on earth was a good motivator after all.

He glanced down at Evie who was curled up next to him, her head having fallen on his shoulder a few hours ago. Clutched loosely in her hands was a notebook filled with neatly penned proposals and counter-proposals in blue ink.

“It won’t do us any good if we’re all too tired to stand on our feet before the Council,” he spoke softly to the only other awake occupant in the room. “We can start again later once we’re all rested.”

A soft snort of amusement came from the window seat that Uma had claimed as hers hours ago. (She claimed it was better than the “overstuffed couches” that the room held but Ben had his suspicions that she really just wanted a better view of the night sky.)

“Never thought I’d appreciate my mom working me like a slave all these years,” she murmured, flipping through an Auradon policy book. She had been dutifully referring to it the last few days, pulling out loopholes that even Ben and Evie hadn’t noticed before. (She really does have a talent for leading, he thought, feelings bittersweet as he thought of another girl from the Isle with purple hair who he believed that also applied to.)

When the sea witch looked up to see Ben’s horrified face at her statement, she looked like she had to restrain herself from rolling her eyes. He felt ashamed in his ignorance. Where Evie would gently guide him through his lack of knowledge, Uma didn’t hold back any punches, making it clear that she wasn’t here to coddle him. And he didn't want to be coddled. He wanted to learn in order to lead. People’s lives depended on it.

“I’m used to running on little sleep working back to back shifts for my mom,” Uma clarified.

“Oh. I see,” Ben nodded, careful not to jostle Evie too much. “Still, this isn’t Ursula’s shoppe,” he smiled reassuringly at her. “You don’t have to push yourself so hard. We’re going to figure out a plan to secure the Isle proclamation and hold off having the Council of Heroes called into session. I promise you.”

Uma stared at him and for a moment, Ben felt like an animal on display, being appraised, seeing if he was worth investing in or needed to be put down. It was a look he was quickly realizing was how children from the Isle, or at least the ones with their parent’s names behind them, sized someone up. Weak, threat, or ally. (He hoped she saw him as an ally.)

She finally closed the book that she had been reading, tossing it on the window seat next to her before getting up and walking towards where he and Evie were on the couch. She walked with the same power and confidence that she did on her ship. But it was more than just confidence that made him realize she was a leader. Past the rage and scathing retorts, he saw a girl who was forced into a position that someone so young shouldn’t have been placed in. It was something he saw often when he looked in the mirror...when he looked at Mal…

Keeping his thoughts in the here and now and away from the gnawing feelings of guilt from earlier with Mal, Ben realized that Uma was now sitting on the couch opposite from him. She leaned forward, elbows on her knees, braids falling in front of her, casting shadows on her face that made her piercing gaze even more intense.

“Jonas,” she firmly stated. “Bonnie. Gonzo. Desiree,” she continued, listing a few more vaguely familiar names before Ben realized she was listing off members of her crew. “Gil...Harry.” (Ben didn’t comment on how she paused on the last name.) “Those, plus the kids I came over here with and countless others back on the Isle, are exactly why I have to keep pushing myself, your Majesty,” she spat his title. “They are my people. Don’t promise me or them anything if you’re not damn sure you can back it up.”

Ben gently shifted Evie to her other side, careful to catch her notebook before it slipped and to pillow her head comfortably. Satisfied, he crossed over to the couch she was sitting on. Though her face remained neutral, Ben could pick up on the tense set of her shoulders, the way her eyes tracked every movement he made. He made sure to give a respectable amount of distance between them when he sat down on the other end of the couch.

“Uma-”

“Don’t,” she cut him off, reaching for Evie’s notebook. She glanced briefly at it before starting to add her own notes in sharp slanted print.

Ben frowned. “Don’t what?”

 “Don’t pretend like this is anything other than a mutually beneficial business deal, Beastie Boy,” she flipped some loose braids over her shoulder. “We’re not friends.”

“Maybe not yet,” Ben agreed, slowly reaching over to close the notebook in her hands. “But that doesn’t mean we couldn’t one day be friends.”

Uma snatched her hands away, immediately sneezing into her arm. “Sorry, I’m allergic to bullshit,” she smiled sweetly at him.

Not to be put off, Ben only grinned. “One day,” he vowed.

“One day you’ll be sorely disappointed,” Uma rolled her eyes. “You know, I don’t get you and your goody boy vibe. Don’t you ever want to be...wicked?”

Ben let out a soft chuckle. “I haven’t made myself out to be anything other than what you’ve seen.”

She snorted, crossing her arms. “Which is why I don’t get you. Other than maybe your silly little hero pride, what do you have at stake? I’ve read everything in the damn policy book. You have nothing to lose. Your little girlfriend won’t be sent back now that she’s engaged to be engaged to you, whatever that means. So why go through this hassle?”

“Because though I do care greatly for Mal,” Ben said, reaching out to take her hand again, smiling slightly when she didn’t immediately tug it away. “I can also care about you and Evie and everyone else on the Isle. You are all my people too,” he said giving her hand a soft squeeze before she pulled her hands away as though she had been burned. He gave her a disappointed smile. “And in that way, I do have everything to lose.”

He got up and walked towards his window, where the haunting shape of the Isle could be seen in the distance.

“I can never make up for what my parents, for what the heroes who were supposed to protect and not harm, indirectly did to you by putting your parents on the Isle,” Ben said turning around to face Uma. “But I can make sure that it doesn’t continue.”

Uma glanced at him. “I really wish I could believe that…” Her expression turned hard suddenly before getting up and walking towards the door. “But I’m not holding my breath. At least not for you to save us,” she scoffed before walking out and leaving.

Ben sighed, trying to ignore the feeling in the pit of his stomach that despite his optimism, something not good was about to happen.

--

Three days.

Three days of that nosy Jay following him around more than his own shadow. (Harry really had to resist the urge of sticking him with his hook, never mind that it wouldn’t do anything to the bastard.)

Three days of proper Auradon princes and princesses hurling hissed insults and veiled threats under their breaths as he walked past; heroes shoving him in the hall attempting to provoke him to do something that would get him sent back to the Isle or worst.

Three days without Uma.

Oh Davy Jones, his mind felt jumbled. He wondered where the hell the rum was in this place. (Damn Jonas. The idiot had thought it was funny to refill another lad’s flask with sea sludge. Where was the loyalty?)

“You’re zoning out again,” Gil whispered, bringing him out of his thoughts and back to their Basic Chivalry class.

Rolling his eyes, Harry picked up one of the millions of teeny-tiny spoons placed before him, inspecting it disinterestedly. “Sorry Gilly-boy but I really can’t bring meself to care about which itty-bitty spoon to use when,” he drawled leaning back in his chair. “They’ll all work the same when yer trying to pop a man’s eye out.”

As Gil recounted some trivial crap that he was probably incorrectly repeating from the teacher, Harry caught for the umpteenth time a raven haired girl glancing over her shoulder back at them. Harry just calmly made a rude gesture that made her frown, turning back in her seat with a harumph. (Seven seas, he knew he and Gil made a pretty picture but have some discretion, lass!)

The class continued on at a glacial pace. Harry wondered why he had been given an indefinite amount of detention for what happened with Ben when the classes alone were enough of a punishment. It also didn’t help that it constantly felt like everyone’s eyes were on him, just waiting for him to screw up and give the Council of Has-Beens a reason to send him back to the Isle.

To be perfectly honest, he didn’t mind being sent back to the Isle. At least he knew how things went there. He had made his own name there. Harry Hook. If he went back, he would be Harry Hook, first mate to...well, to no one. Because he knew that Uma would fight and rage and storm before she was forced back there as a prisoner. (And he would fight and rage and storm to not be taken from her side…)

He must have zoned out again because Gil nearly found one of the many forks stabbed into his head when he grabbed Harry’s shoulder.

“You know the bell just rang, right?” he pointed out, not looking at all fazed with the sharp tines so close to his eye.

Harry glanced around noticing that most of the other students had already left. The few students that remained, one of them being the Auradonian girl that Mal and her gang had brought along when they kidnapped the king, seemed to hang back, watching them distrustfully. (Damn sidekick girls . . .)

He was getting tired of people staring at him and worst of all, that annoying claustrophobic feeling was back, so Harry grabbed Gil by the vest and pushed past Sword Girl and into the hall.

“Bye Lonnie,” Gil called out over his shoulder.

“How the hell can you remember the name of a girl you only met once but you can’t remember your own Captain’s name half the time?” Harry growled irritatedly, letting go of Gil.

“You’re really grumpy today,” Gil pointed out. “Are you still sad you haven’t seen Uma? She did send that note that saying she’d be busy for a few days.”

“Are ye daf? I’m not-” Harry suddenly stopped seeing a flash of teal and hoping it would be a certain sea witch. When he actually saw what caught his eye, he wished his bloody hook wasn’t spelled to do no harm. Someone needed to be hooked.

Hanging high above in the main hall by its neck was a crudely made teal effigy that was undoubtedly supposed to be his Captain. It looked like someone had taken the top half of a doll (not even a doll with the proper skin tone), dyed its hair a messy seaweed-blue color, and sewn it to the bottom half of a octopus plushie. Tied around its neck was a large sign that said “Go Back to the Isle, Sea Bitch!” in sloppy uneven writing.

Students around him whispered, some looking sick, others looking indifferent, others trying to hide snickers between deceiving looks of pity. (Fucking vipers. All of them. They were all lucky he didn’t have a sword in his hand . . .)

“I told Ben multiple times that bringing such a large group of villain kids over at once was a bad idea,” Harry heard a pompous looking blonde boy exclaim to a group of young royals and nobles who stood around him, nodding. Harry had seen the boy around a bit, had noticed how he always seemed to get upset when Gil got anywhere near that uppity princess Gil had a few of his classes with.

“Um, Harry?” Gil looked unsure as Harry silently crept closer to the group. It was too late though. Harry’s blood was already boiling.  

“Hush, Gilly,” Harry growled. “Let a pirate do what a pirate’s gotta do.”

“But does he listen to me? Of course not,” the blonde continued. “You know, I should have gotten a chance to prove that I could be the High King of Auradon. Mother says I would look adorable in a long kingly robe,” he grinned, arrogantly tossing his perfectly styled blonde curls.

“Uh...Chad?” one of the boys near him began, noticing Harry’s approach, though he was completely ignored.

“Also, I would never let some sea witch’s daughter over here after what she did during Cotillion. I don’t know who put up that doll and sign,” he winked cheekily to the boy next to him, unaware of how his companions were no longer responding to him but looking at something (or someone) over his shoulder, “but they have the right idea!”

“They do, do they?” Harry grinned widely, slinging an arm around Chad’s shoulder and turning him to face the hanging doll.

The pirate let out a little giggle when Chad let out a high-pitched squeak, his shoulders trembling. Everyone around them took a step back, unsure of what this pirate would do when he was already in hot water.

“Ye know, I’m still learning all the customs and what not of this place and obviously there are some cultural differences anywhere one goes, but…” he trailed off, tutting. He pointed at the poorly made doll with one hand, the other using his hook to tilt a now quietly begging Chad’s chin up to look at it. “That, on or off the Isle is a threat. And I don’t take threats, especially about me Captain, lightly.”

From the corner of his eye, Harry could see Jay trying to shoulder his way through the crowd of onlookers. Looked like the goody-goody former thief was about to give him a lecture. He needed to make this quick. Harry was about to send this Chad bastard back to his mother in a matchbox when the smell of the sea and a small peach blur pushed him off the other boy before a slapping noise was heard.

The slap had been so loud Harry was left feeling slightly delayed when the accompanying pain wasn’t felt. It only took a second to realize that he hadn’t been slapped.

Chad had.

By the girl who was constantly staring at him during Basic Chivalry.

“Take that horrible thing down this instant!” she demanded, scowling up at the prince who was easily a head taller than her.

“You just hit me!” Chad cried holding his red cheek.

“And I’ll do it again if you don’t take that thing down now!” she pointed to the doll. “Do you not know you’re insulting a member of Atlantica’s royal family with that?”

Harry raised a brow at that. So she was one of Atlantica’s merfolk was she? He supposed that explained the staring. All the old pirates on the Isle always said the merfolk could smell out a sailor. But what was all this talk about insulting the royal family? Wait...oh Davy Jones he hoped this wasn’t one of Triton’s numerous grandchildren.

“Oh please!” Chad sneered down at her. “Anyone from the Isle is not a member of a royal family. They’re all just a bunch of hooligans and villains,” he snapped pointing at Harry, “like him that shouldn’t be allowed the same luxury as us normal students! They should all just be sent back right this instant!”

The girl looked like she was ready to slap Chad all over again as Harry snarled, “Oh, I’ll show you who’s a hooligan you son of a-”

A commotion was heard and all three turned just in time to see Dizzy push through the crowd, look up at the doll and the sign before looking back at Chad.

“Chad? You think I’m bad?” she asked, tears already in her voice and eyes before she ran off, an older brown-haired bespectacled boy throwing Chad a glare before rushing after the young accessory designer, calling after her.

“Wait!” Chad called out. “Dizzy! I- I of course didn’t mean you! Dizzy!” He turned angrily towards the mermaid. “Oh! Look what you’ve done! Now she won’t do my hair tonight!” he stomped his foot petulantly.

“Oh, Princey-boy,” Harry sneered, pushing himself into the boy’s personal space again. “Your hair is about to be the least of your problems,” he laughed, making Chad go pale once again.

“This show has gone on for far too long now. Make it quick, bring the doll down.”

Harry turned around just in time to see the doll drop from where it hung before Jay snatched it up from the air and handed it into the waiting hands of the purple lizard herself. (Seven seas. This day was NOT getting any better.) She looked at it before turning a cool glare at everyone standing around watching.

“Don’t you all have somewhere else to be?” she smiled sweetly. That seemed to be enough to get everyone moving, but in the hustle and bustle of things, Chad, to Harry’s displeasure, managed to slip by.

Harry would just have to find him later.

“Here,” he turned back towards Mal, who was holding out the doll towards the mermaid. “I hope your kingdom accepts mine and surely the King’s apology for the insult, Princess Melody.”

Ah, so that was her name, Harry thought.

Melody took the doll gently in her hand, looking grateful. “Thank you but I’m not the one who is owed the apology.” She glanced at Harry and Mal’s face scrunched up in a way that would have had Harry laughing if he wasn’t already so tightly wound up.

“Give me that,” Harry impatiently snatched the doll from Melody’s hands before pushing past them back to Gil.

He ignored the way Princess Mermaid called after him, ignored the lingering stares that followed as Gil trailed behind him. “Fucking royals,” he muttered, still furious that he couldn’t get his hands around that damn Chad’s neck.

“Did someone steal his eyeliner again?” a familiar voice asked. A certain voice that Harry had been longing to hear for three days now.

“Uma!” Gil exclaimed happily, picking up the small girl and bringing her into a bone crushing hug.

Harry watched the exchange from a distance, partly jealous of Gil hugging his Captain and partly unsure if she would allow a hug from him.

Despite how uncomfortably tight the hug must have been, she allowed the boy a few seconds longer than she would usually give before complaining about not being able to breathe. Gil sheepishly let her go, turning to Harry expecting to see the pirate happy to see their captain. Instead, both Captain and First Mate were staring over each other’s shoulders, avoiding eye contact. An awkward silence fell over all three of them.  

After a while, Uma proved why she was captain and broke the silence. “Hey Gil. I’ve been wandering around for most of the morning and missed lunch. Get me something to eat, will you?”

Looking unsure as he looked between the two, Gil nodded before running off to get some food.

As soon as he was gone, Uma turned around and started walking in another direction. “Come on,” she said over her shoulder. “There’s a lake nearby. We should...talk.”

Despite the awkward air around them, Harry did what he always did.

He followed her.

When they reached the lake, Uma sat down on a large rock near the water and removed her boots before sticking her feet in. Harry watched her, taking her all in like it had been years since he last saw her and not just three days.

“I was afraid that the next time I’d see ye you would be wearing a poofy ball gown,” he murmured, not knowing what else to say.

Uma rolled her eyes. “Believe me, Princess Blueberry is trying.” Harry noticed how there was little actual scorn in her voice and the expression on her face was more similar to one she usually wore after Gil said something stupid but amusing. An expression she only really wore when talking about a member of their crew. “What’s that?”

So caught up in observing her, it took a moment for Harry to realize she meant the doll that was poking out of his pocket. He pulled it out, as if he almost forgotten how it had gotten in his pocket in the first place.

“Oh, uh...Some Auradon snob put it up,” he explained as Uma reached out to grab it, examining it critically before chucking it into the lake. “Some Chad kid.”

“Cinderella’s son,” Uma nodded, as if she had already heard about the boy. “Not a lot in the brains department,” she smirked, as if thinking of a joke she had been told earlier. A slight pang of jealousy went through his chest at not being able understanding the reference. Another silence fell between them.

Harry adjusted his grip on his hook. This wasn’t like them. Silences were either purposeful or intense with unsaid words that the other always understood...always felt. They weren’t like this. How did things go belly up in less than a week of stepping onto Auradon’s shores?

“How are the others?” Uma broke the silence as she wiggled her toes in the water.

Harry swallowed around the lump in his throat, ignored the way he felt sweat trickled down the back of his neck. “Gil and Diego are looking out for them.”

Stopping her light splashing in the water, Uma looked up, a confused frown set deep on her face. He knew that looking after the others when Uma was gone was his responsibility. Not Gil’s. Not Diego’s. (You couldn’t even be a captain and now look at ya! His father’s scathing tone whispered in his mind. Can’t even be a first mate!)

“And you?” she raised a brow questioningly. “How’ve you been holding up?”

Harry managed a snort. He looked down at the water and saw a small fish swim around his boot. He briefly wondered if the fish realized just how much smaller it was compared to the rest of the lake. If it ever just wanted to give up when the currents were just too strong...           

“Look,” Uma sighed standing up. “Let’s cut to the crap. The other night, in your room,” she took a deep sigh. “I’m sor-”

“No,” Harry shook his head, cutting her off. “Pirates don’t apologize. Remember?”

He watched as she fought with herself, feeling somewhat comforted that he could still read the worry in how she played with the ends of her braids.

“A good captain would never intend to harm her first mate,” she said softly, looking down at her braids before looking up at him. “You know that right, First Mate?”

He snorted, a growing grin played on his lips. “Hm,” he said thoughtfully, patting his sides dramatically. “Well what do ye know? No harmed first mate here. Though,” he winked cheekily, “if you want to check the package yerself, ye only have to ask, Captain.”

She laughed, the sound so beautiful and bright that it made him feel like the richest man in the world. Though dark thoughts still played at the back of his head, Uma was his compass that directed him away from it.

“Gods, you’re a sap,” she chuckled.

“Your sap, darling,” Harry said, grin turning soft as he brought her hand up to his lips. “I’ll never be like one of them Auradon princes and I dunno if I can even learn to be good like the others from the Anti-Hero club. I’ll never be yer knight in shining armor because ye can slay yer own dragons.”

“Definitely working on it,” Uma hummed.

“Aye. Only a matter of time,” Harry nodded with a smirk before frowning. “But Uma, I’ll only cause more problems here for ye and the rest of the crew if I stay by your side.”

Uma snorted, removing her hand from his grip only to tightly interlace her fingers with his.

“When did we ever have any issues with causing problems?” she smirked, squeezing his hand and he couldn’t help but to smirk back at her.

---

Fairy Godmother sighed as she looked outside her office window. Below she could see the grounds of Auradon Prep, students going to and from their classes and activities as always, unaware of the magic that swirled lazily around them. The potential for such great (and terrifying) change that each of them had.

Over the past three days security had been tripled and the press were currently being held off at the gates of the school. For now, things were relatively calm in Auradon.

Or so it appeared...

Her gaze turned further out, across the water. Though she couldn’t see it from her office, she felt that was where the shift was coming from.

Neverland.

“I don’t understand,” she murmured softly, before turning back to the school therapist who was sitting on the other side of her desk with a cup of tea (two sugars and a squeeze of lemon). “It shouldn’t - It shouldn’t be like this.”

“It shouldn’t,” Mickey said taking a sip of his tea, making a slight face at it but drinking it anyway. She knew he didn’t actually like tea, but she supposed some habits, after doing them for so long, were hard to get rid of. (Her hands always twitched, eager to go into the long sweeping wand movements every time she saw a student, pure of heart, down on their luck.) “But when ya think about it, the magic that Neverland naturally emits hasn’t been what it should be since...well, hm...oh, that’s right, for the last twenty years,” he said pointedly.

Fairy Godmother sat herself gracefully down in her chair though the look she gave the man across from her was more than enough to show her displeasure.

This was a conversation that he just wouldn’t let go.

“King Adam, the Council of Heroes, and I did what was necessary,” she responded coolly.

“Mildread,” Mickey sighed, finishing up his tea and placing the cup gently on the desk between them. “Ya merely put a bandaid on a broken dam.” He got up smoothly, adjusting his ever-present pristine white gloves and ignoring the deep frown the headmistress wore. “But if I know anything,” he mused, “magic will always find its own way to fix things. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always take into account the consequences of the methods in doing so.”

“Magic was what got us into this situation to begin with and you will do well to remember that, Mortimer.”

As soon as the name was out of her mouth, Fairy Godmother froze, fear plainly clear on her face. The room seemed to darken slightly despite the sun’s light streaming through the window. Air tense, Mickey managed to give a friendly smile (though deep, deep, deep in his eyes, Fairy Godmother could see the power she had unintentionally provoked).

“No need for that look Mildread,” Mickey said kindly, though his eyes glimmered with a strange light. “Though please, I think everyone would prefer if I stick with being called ‘Mickey’.”

“R-right. Apologies,” the woman nodded. “Uh, how are things going with the Hook boy?”

The room seemed to return back to normal, the tension immediately leaving and Mickey gave her a small grin. “After our first session, he hasn’t been coming.”

“What! It’s part of his schedule! King Ben requested it,” she fussed, before frowning. “What did you two talk about?”

“Aw, Fairy Godmother,” Mickey said, his grin turning into one that within the last few months Fairy Godmother had began to associate with her students from the Isle. “You know my lips are sealed. But don’t worry. He’ll be back.”

Chapter Text

The sounds of laughter and celebration could be heard all throughout the island. The fairies shined brightly, the air swirling with the pixie dust that had been so tightly guarded and kept away for so long. The mermaids were splashing joyfully and the flowers seemed to bloom brightly even under the cover of the night. Neverland seemed to be more awake, more alive than it ever had been in the last 20 years . . .

Yet, Tiger Lily never felt more afraid.

Silently slipping away from the party that her tribe volunteered (was forced) to hold, the Chieftainess of Neverland was careful to stay in the shadows as she made her way to an old but still floating row boat. Memories of long ago when a young brave and adventurous boy would swoop down and save her from cruel pirates using her as bait played in the back of her head like a badly edited movie: there were too many scenes that were either missing or over-edited. She was starting to lose her grasp on what was real or not in her mind. Had all of those good times had actually been all that good?

She got into the rowboat, trying not to make much noise as she began to row towards Auradon. She made a silent plea to any deity listening that her daughter, Tiger Peony, and the rest of the youth of Neverland, would forgive her for the burden that she placed on them . . . even hoped that Calista Jane, the trouble-making brat as she was, didn’t face the same fate that her father before her blindly walked into.

She needed to get to Auradon. The Council of Sidekicks needed to know about Pan’s awakening. Contingencies needed to be made before Neverland’s Curse took full effect.

Already, she was feeling the desire to row back to shore. To forget about all of this and participate in the festivities and just forget about . . .

About . . .

What was she doing again?

Tiger Lily violently shook her head, clearing the haze from her mind. Not again, she vowed.

She was almost out of Neverland’s waters when the boat tipped slightly, rocking her sideways. She paused, going deathly still. The mermaids of Neverland were a mischievous bunch. Unlike their counterparts in Atlantica, they were known for their pranks and slightly vain nature. Harmless . . . unless provoked. Unless otherwise led . . .

“You know, I’m kinda disappointed in you, Lily,” the familiar young voice of her past sighed sadly behind her. A cold chill went down her spine and for the first time, Tiger Lily thought she may have understood the dread Captain Hook must have felt for all those years.

 Tiger Lily clenched her eyes closed, fighting against the sudden desire to row back to Neverland and shirk all her duties to run and play, stronger this time in his presence. (Just let go. Being an adult is so boring . . . Just have fun . . .)

“Stop that Peter,” she breathed out through clenched teeth, eyes still closed as the boat continued to rock precariously.

“Look at you, Lily. Trying to order me around,” he scoffed. She could feel him floating in front of her, his breath fanning against her face as he leaned closer. Tiger Lily could only imagine him inspecting her face. Counting every new wrinkle and line she had gained since he had last seen her all those years ago. “You just had to grow old and be no fun didn’t, ya?”

Pan gripped her chin tightly, and she opened her eyes, glare meeting glare.

“Where. Is. Tinker Bell?”

Tiger Lily shook her head out of his grip, holding herself with the air of a chief, head held tall. “To die,” she began, voice clear and steady, “would be an awfully big adventure.”

Pan flew back slightly, as if some invisible force had smacked him. His face went soft, a solemn look in his eyes, and for a second, Tiger Lily saw the boy she once looked up to as a hero.

“Then to death,” he murmured softly, the serious expression foreign on his face.

She didn’t even have time to respond before her boat finally tipped to the side, plunging her into the water. Tiger Lily tried to quickly resurface but webbed hands clamped down on her wrist, dragging her down into the murky depths despite her struggles.  

Floating above the water’s surface, Pan watched as the formerly beautiful mermaids, now with slitted pupils and shark-like teeth, dragged the woman down deeper into the water. He stayed there, watching dispassionately, until the last of the air bubbles came to the surface before stopping.

“Pan! PAN! Where the hell is your leafy ass?” he heard CJ shouting from the shore.

The dark expression immediately lightened, replaced by his usual mischievous smirk as he quickly flew and dropped down in front of her.

CJ nearly jumped but managed to catch herself. “There you are Flyboy! I thought we were going to do something fun!”

Pan grinned, landing beside her and throwing an arm over her shoulder. “We are, silly girl!” he said glancing across the waters to where the lights of Auradon shined brightly against the night sky. “And I know just where to start.”

Across the water, in one of the dorm rooms of Auradon Prep, the heir of the Underworld suddenly looked up from the wilted plant he was repotting, his gaze far off and seeing something far beyond the confines of his darkened room.

The back of one dirt covered hand rubbed over his eye patch thoughtfully, unconcerned when dirt smudged against his cheek. He already knew what had occurred in the waters surrounding Neverland, could feel it in his bones as he felt the Fates cut another mortal’s thread.

Hadie watched as a single bud bloomed on the otherwise wilted looking plant. Even with gloves on, he was aware of the delicate nature of life at his fingertips.

It was overwhelming. He was already forgetting what touching something without gloves actually felt like…

“People think it’s all flashy lights and Homeric tales being the god of the underworld,” he remembered his father lecture him years ago while shoving a plate of poorly seasoned and undercooked souvlaki into his hands to give to a customer. “But it’s a dirty thankless job, kid, that can strip away at you if you let it. It’s why even though I’m on this Zeus-forsaken Isle with all these damn mortals, I don’t regret trying to kill off that beefcake cousin of yours. After all, you gotta switch things up every now and again when you’re immortal like us, son. You gotta place your bets somewhere to keep things entertaining.”  

The lights of the room suddenly flooded on, Hadie finding himself holding back a curse at the sudden and blinding light. He flipped his hood up, darkening his glare, but his efforts were only met by the now familiar chuckle of his roommate.

“Don’t give me that look,” Diego chuckled, walking into the room and tossing his leather jacket haphazardly on a nearby chair. “A little light wouldn’t kill you.”

“But an angry roommate might kill you,” Hadie continued to glare at him silently from under his hood before Diego sighed, rolling his eyes and walking back over to where the light switch was and turning the lights off.

Ignoring Diego’s grumbled “spoiled brat”, Hadie returned to looking at his mostly wilted plant. From the corner of his eye, he could see Diego sit down nearby, observing the plant as well.

“Lilium lancifolium. Tiger Lily, right?”

“Wow,” Hadie murmured dryly, a hint of teasing in his tone. “You know some big flower words, De Vil. Careful that it doesn’t ruin that bad boy persona of yours.”

Knowing that he was being teased, Diego grinned, shaking his head as he playfully gave the other boy a rude hand gesture.

Sometimes Hadie still found it so odd that he had befriended Diego, even before the Anti-Hero club had started. The older boy was reckless and despite all his suaveness often didn’t know when he was unintentionally flirting with death...or that death liked to flirt back…

“Don’t pretend you don’t think I’m the coolest. I know you’re my biggest fan,” Diego winked, reaching over to try and ruffle the other boy’s head but Hadie quickly ducked out of the way, pulling his hood further down over his face.

The room was silent and Hadie felt more than saw the way the blood drained from his friend’s face.

Ah...there was the fear.

“Fucking Dalmatians,” Diego muttered wide eyed and apologetic. “I’m so sorry, H. I...I forgot.”

“As they say, no rest for the wicked,” Hadie shrugged, getting up to his feet and moving the potted plant with its single bloom to his desk where the sun would reach it in the morning.

“Hadie…” Diego frowned. “We are not our parents.”

Caressing the closed bloom one more time with his gloved hand, Hadie let out a hollow chuckle. “We both know that’s not true.”

And oh Nyx, there was no greater reminder of that for the son of Hades as when every time he looked at his friend since arriving in Auradon, this land of magic, he knew up to the exact second, the exact number of heartbeats his friend had left. He kept his back turned to Diego, and could practically feel the other boy’s eyes on him.

“You know I’m always here for you, bud,” Diego finally sighed before shuffling into the bathroom.

Hadie allowed himself to let out a quiet breath of frustration before moving over to another plant, a simple fern. He removed his gloved and gave the plant the barest of strokes with his fingers. “A nice sentiment,” he murmured under the sounds of Diego taking a shower as he watched the plant instantly wilt before turning to dust.

--

For a brief moment, she knew it was a dream, the area around her having that dreamlike quality where everything seemed so hazy and yet clear. However, like most dreams, it was easy to forget the reality that was left behind, that after her conversation with Harry, Gil had come back with an armful of food which they had taken back to the boy’s room where they could catch her up to what was happening. The recent all-nighters with Ben and Evie had finally taken their toll and she had dozed off at some point as Gil retold a story about some Audrey girl he had befriended, her hand sleepily searching for Harry’s as her eye fluttered shut.

When she opened her eyes again, this time in a dream, Harry was tugging on their joined hands, fingers locking easily together, pulling them deeper into the lake that they had stood near just hours before.

He gave her one of his rare boyish grins, soft and easy like a secret between them, as he stepped backwards. Harry pulled her further out until the water was at his waist and just below her chest.

Uma couldn’t help but to grin back at him, forgetting that this was a dream and feeling like a heavy weight was lifted off of her shoulder after the last three days.

They were both broken and bruised souls but at least they were together.

Sometimes that was all Uma even dared to wish for...

“He’s the earth and heaven to you…”

Harry let go of her hands, pulling his captain close to him by her waist until she was resting her head on his chest, both of them gently swaying in the lake’s gentle currents.

“I missed ye, Uma,” he murmured pressing a lingering kiss on the crown of her head.

She didn’t respond. Couldn’t respond. Didn’t want to think of the strange but not horrible fluttering feeling in the pit of her stomach that she had been ignoring for years at the thought of him. At being held so tightly by him...

“ Girl you can't conceal it...We know how you're feeling...Who you thinking of…”

Uma pushed slightly away from Harry, nose wrinkled, looking over her shoulder in confusion.

“Did...did you hear that?” she questioned, scanning the surrounding greenery for the source of the...voice...or was it voices?

“Didn’t hear a sound lass,” Harry chuckled warmly behind her.

Uma sighed, allowing him to gently turn her face back to him with his calloused hand...not prepared to be staring at once bright but now glazed blue eyes sunken into a bloated pale white face, lips blue and spouting sea water.

Breath stuck in her throat.

She couldn’t move.

Couldn’t scream.

And then... they were falling.

Sinking…

Pulled down into the depths of the lake...no, they were under the sea.

Harry floated lifelessly down in front of her, unseeing eyes forever staring at her.

Judging her. Blaming her.

“WhO d'YoU tHiNk YoU'rE kIdDiNg? TrY tO kEeP iT hIdDeN…,” the same voices from before echoed around her in a distorted melody that wrapped around her throat like her mother’s tentacles, stealing her voice. “WhEn YoU gOnNa OwN uP tHaT yOu GoT, gOt, GoT iT bAd?”

“No,” Uma tried to scream as she watched helplessly as long tentacles wrapped around the pale neck of her first mate. “NO!” she managed to cry out as a cackling sound that reminded her of her mother echoed in her ears. Her terrified mind wondered how Ursula had managed to get off the Isle only for Uma to realize belatedly that it was she who was laughing, that it was her tentacles; strong, big, and teal were wrapped around Harry’s neck.

She had killed him.

“...not real…”

“GiVe Up...GiVe In…”

“...child, this is NOT real…”

“gIvE uP...gIvE iN…”

“UMA! THIS IS NOT REAL!”

“Uma?” Harry hovered over her, blue eyes clear and bright (and alive) with worry in the held in the way he tightly gripped his hook, ready to try and fight off even the dangers that weren’t even there. “Talk to me, darling,” he pleaded in the pale moonlight.

Sighing shakily, Uma reached out, removing Harry’s hook from his hand before turning on her side facing away from her first mate. She could feel his eyes on her back and hear Gil’s snore from the other bed.

It was just a dream. A terrible, horrible dream that she wouldn’t allow to ever come true.

“Who am I?” she questioned so softly even she almost didn’t hear it.

Harry swore under his breath, sounding exhausted. “Davy Jones, lass. All that time around Beasty Boy rottin’ yer brain, Cap’n? Yer Uma of course!”

Uma didn’t respond, keeping her gaze on the ways her hands clutched tightly around his hook.

Harry sighed, rolling off the bed and moving with light feet to the other side that she was facing. He knelt next to the bed and Uma felt herself looking anywhere but at his intense stare because then he would know just how much of a hot mess of emotions she was at the moment.

Seven seas, she really couldn’t get a damn break.

One of her hands was pulled from the hook she was holding before an ever-familiar pair of lips pressed against it. Instantly, some of the tension in her body melted away.

 “Don’t ye do this to me again, Uma,” he growled against her hand. “Don’t ye dare push me away again. I really will kill someone if ye ignore me again for another three days.”

Though his tone came off harsh, Uma couldn’t help but chuckle, finally making eye contact with him as she pushed him back slightly. “Cheeky bastard,” she rolled her eyes, the corner of her lips turning up briefly before her expression became somber. “Promise...Just...don’t…. don’t let me forget who I am. Okay? Promise?”

Harry’s brows knitted, his mouth opening to say something before snapping shut.

“Aye, aye, Captain,” he nodded tugging lightly on one of her braids as was his habit in these moments of vulnerability. “That I can do.”

--

“Ya seem to have a lot on your mind this morning. Care to talk about it?”

Mickey watched as the boy across from him stare intently out the window, hands anxiously petting the small dog on his lap. The boy looked dazed and distracted, the air around him heavy with nervous energy.

“Carlos,” Mickey tried a little bit louder, startling the boy’s attention back to him.

 “Oh, uh. Sorry,” he blushed, using the other hand that wasn’t petting Dude to run through his hair. Carlos momentarily closed his eyes, as he took a second to firmly plant his feet on the ground, holding a deep breath before slowly letting it out, just as Mickey had taught him sessions ago. When he opened his eyes after a few repetitions, he saw that Mickey was smiling gently at him.

“Tough week?” the older man guessed.

“Yeah,” Carlos nodded, a grin that looked more like a grimace on his face. “Something like that.” 

Mickey shrugged, opening out his hand, palm up invitingly. “Would you like to talk about what’s going? What you’re feeling?”

Putting Dude gently on the floor, Carlos leaned forward in his seat, elbows draped across his knees. (Oh boy, where to even begin?)  “Just...things have been really tense, you know? With the new students from the Isle and some of the kids who were born here. Ever since...for days there’s been rumors spreading that VKs, villain kids, are going to be sent back. And... And…” he trailed off, hands shaking as his fingers tapped against his knees.

“You’re afraid that you’ll be sent back,” Mickey filled in. “Back to your mother?”

“YES!” Carlos nodded. “I thought that by sharing what happened to me...about what my mother did to me, that they would realize just how horrible the Isle is. But this…” he trailed off, flopping back on the couch, his posture slouched, his whole body screaming defeat.

“Ya did something that was really hard,” Mickey acknowledged gently. “Ya talked about your past to a group full of people who probably could have never imagined such things to any child and you expected them to listen and make decisions accordingly. You thought they be better and you’re frustrated that they’re not.”

“I thought they’d be, you know, ‘heroes’,” Carlos frowned; using air quotes. He huffed loudly, face twisting in annoyance. “And what’s so frustrating is that the other students were finally starting to come around. Like, things were going well. Really well. I wasn’t Cruella’s son. I wasn’t a villain. I was just...Carlos,” he said the last part flatly. He bit his lip for a moment, ever aware of Mickey watching as he gathered his racing thoughts. (He was not going to start crying.) “And then Ben brings Uma to this side and everything goes to shit- I, I mean, uh, down the toilet,” he quickly amended.

“You can curse in here if you want to,” Mickey reassured reaching over for the mug of tea next to him. (Two sugars and a squeeze of lemon.) He took a sip of it, withholding a wince at the taste but taking another few sips nonetheless.

Carlos, always observant, noticed however. “Why do you drink that if you never like it?” he asked.

Mickey let out a chuckle, “I was forced to drink tea for so long by my former mentor that it’s unfortunately become habit.” He took one more sip before putting the cup back down. “Now, as ya were saying, ya feel that things took a turn for the worst when King Ben brought this Uma girl over? Did you know her well on the Isle?”

The boy looked almost offended at the thought. “No! But she was Mal’s rival! The feuds between them were legendary! Uma was mean, cruel, and ruthless!”

“Mean, cruel, and ruthless…” Mickey hummed, stapling his gloved fingers together thoughtfully. “Doesn’t that remind you of someone else you knew before you came to Auradon?”

“No,” Carlos immediately stated before pausing. “I mean, Mal but...well, Mal did bully me...like, a lot...and I mean she did that thing where...Ugh,” he sighed, scrubbing his face with a fist, irritated. “Fine! Mal was like that, and I mean she still has her mischievous streak every now and then...like the time she put purple dye in my shampoo...and in Dude’s shampoo...and it wouldn’t come out for two weeks... but- but it’s like...We’re family!” Carlos explained, voice filled with fondness and protectiveness. “She has her rough edges but...she means well.”

“So Mal can be a little rough around the edges but you essentially gave her a chance,” Mickey rephrased. “Do you not think that Uma, who seems similar to Mal in terms of the situations that they were both brought up in, should be given a chance?”

Carlos picked Dude up and allowed the dog to resettle in his lap. He focused on rubbing the dog behind his ears as he softly sighed, “Maybe.”

Nodding Mickey decided to not push the matter any further. He could tell that there was another matter on his student’s mind. “How are things with Jane?” he asked, watching as the boy’s expression brightened instantly.

“It’s going great,” Carlos said, his voice full with affection and perhaps still a bit of disbelief. “We took Dude for a walk in the gardens the other day. You know, because it was such a beautiful day,” the boy spoke excitedly, his words getting faster as his smile grew. “And Jane said this funny thing about a pumpkin-” He took a moment to laugh at the memory before he froze, expression falling.

“What just happened?” Mickey questioned, tapping his head to indicate he wanted to know what Carlos was thinking.

“I-it’s nothing.”

Dude jumped off of the boy’s lap before making his way over to Mickey where he whined to be picked up. Mickey smiled at the animal as he picked him up. “You sure?” he asked scratching underneath the dog’s head.

“She just asked me something about my childhood,” Carlos said so softly that Mickey almost didn’t hear him but once he realized what he had said, the older man felt a bit of pain for his student.

“It must be difficult keeping some of the traumatic elements of your childhood away from her.”

Carlos chuckled though the way his eyes watered revealed that there was nothing funny. “I-I don’t want to put that on her. I don’t want her to think about how I got some of my scars every time she looks at me,” he murmured tugging insecurely on his fingerless gloves where faint lash marks hid (though they weren’t his only or worst ones). His foot began tapping frantically in anxiety. “She’ll want to have nothing to do with me if she knew.”

“How can ya be sure? What is the evidence for that? The evidence against? Has Jane ever been anything but supportive of you, Carlos?” the therapist questioned, letting go of Dude and letting the dog return back to his master when he noticed how his boy needed his support.

“I don’t know,” Carlos muttered softly, using the back of his hand to scrub at his eyes.

“You don’t know or -”

“I DON’T KNOW!” Carlos yelled suddenly before instantly trying to fold into himself like he was afraid of being reprimanded. Dude let out a soft whine that sounded like “It’s okay,” as he tried to give Carlos comforting licks.

“Carlos,” Mickey said softly after giving the boy a few seconds, careful to keep his tone non-threatening. “What ya went through was very traumatic. I imagine what many of the children of the Isle went through was. But you survived it. ”

“I survived it,” Carlos murmured weakly into Dude’s fur.

Nodding Mickey continued. “It’s your decision to share or not share. I’m not gonna force ya to do anything ya don’t want to do and no one should. But as we’ve gone over before, putting Jane on this pedestal...not only must it be draining for her to be held to such high expectations, it also must be difficult for you too, right? If she’s anything like her mother, I bet ya she’s made of stronger stuff than you’re giving her credit for.”

Carlos nodded silently, eyes trained on his feet.

Mickey took a moment to take a breath for himself. Carlos was one of his favorites but also trickiest students to work with. His heart went out to the boy.

“Well,” he said looking at his watch. “We talked about a lot today but I think one thing that kept coming up is that sometimes our pasts can stop us from opening up to others and as we both know, if we base things solely on the past, we miss opportunities to make some real changes,” he summarized smoothly. “Maybe before our next session you can share with Jane one thing about your childhood. Something small. Or maybe get to know one of the new Isle transfer students better,” Mickey said getting up from his chair, signaling the end of the session.

Carlos got up as well, nodding slowly. “Yeah,” he said distractedly beginning to pack his things up. “I’m supposed to be hanging out with my cousin, Diego, so that’ll be good, I guess.”

With everything in his bag and Dude at his heels, Carlos made his way to the door, eyes going wide when he opened it and nearly ran into Jane who had her hand up as if she had been just about to knock on the door.

“Oh!” Jane blushed prettily. “Carlos! Hi. I was-”

“Sorry Jane!” Carlos suddenly squeaked scooping up Dude and giving her a quick peck on the cheek, freckles standing out over his own blush. “Can’t talk. Late for uh....things. Bye!” he called over his shoulder as he made a quick exit from the waiting room.

Mickey sighed to himself, watching as the boy made a quick disappearance before turning his attention back to the startled girl.

“Is there something I can do for ya, Jane? It’s been a while since we’ve last had a session together.”

Holding in chuckles, Mickey watched as Jane let out a small squeak, snapping her head back towards him, blush darkening as she had seemed to have forgotten whose office she was in.

“Uh-uh- I mean- you-” she began before pausing and taking a deep breath to calm herself down. “Sorry, sir. Mother has asked me to inform you that members of the Council of Sidekicks are currently arriving and to be prepared if they should call you as an expert witness.”

The man letting out a snort of annoyance, crossing his arms petulantly which surprised Jane. She had never seen him look so annoyed.

“Sounds like the Council is rearing to start a trial,” he muttered before uncrossing his arms and giving Jane a polite smile. “Thanks for letting me know, Jane. I guess I should prepare.”

“Oh! Right,” Jane nodded, realizing she was being dismissed. She gave a goodbye before exiting the office and its waiting room and stepping out into the main hall.

Once the door was closed, Jane took another deep breath, waiting briefly for the tingling sensation she always experienced in the school therapist’s presence to dissipate. Magic. Strong magic. Ancient magic, her instincts whispered and wondered not for the first time who the man had been before Auradon united...  

Jane was startled out of her thoughts when she felt the weight of an arm slung around her shoulders. “Hello Janey-Jane!”

Blushing slightly, Jane gave the elder De Vil boy a grin. “Hi Diego. What’s up?”

The older boy gave her one of his usual lazy grins as he pulled away from her, leaning against a nearby wall with the effortless coolness that Jane was beginning to associate with him. They had several classes together and though Diego seemed a bit of a harmless flirt, it was obvious that he cared about the Isle kids he came to Auradon with despite some of the recent tension between the new transfer students and the Auradon-born.

However, she could see that his grin was just a bit too much teeth, a bit too forced. Minute things that could be easily overlooked with how well it was hidden, but made Jane sad that he felt like he even needed to hide it.

It reminded her of a lot of Carlos.

“...Carlos.”

Jane blinked and blushed once again as Diego chuckled at her, an inquisitive look on his face.

“Sorry!” she squeaked. “W-what did you say?”

“I said I came here for Carlos. We were supposed to meet after his...therapy session?” Diego frowned looking uncertain at the term, as if he wasn’t sure he was saying it right.

“Oh yeah,” Jane nodded. “He was just here but he...he ran off,” she frowned thoughtfully. She hoped he was okay. He had been acting so strange recently the other day when they had been walking Dude. She hoped he wasn’t stressed out by R.O.A.R. or working too hard on one of his brilliant inventions.

“Don’t overthink it” Diego pushed away from the wall, offering her his arm after an overdramatic bow. “I’ve never seen him look at someone the way he looks at you. The pup has got it bad for you.”

Jane blushed, taking his offered arm. “Thanks Diego,” she smiled, hoping he didn’t see the way her smile didn’t quite reach her eyes.

--

 “How did you convince me to do this, again?” Uma sighed as she flopped back on the oversized pillow behind her. She looked up at the airy looking fabric strung above the top of the inside of the lamp with their bright pinks and oranges and purple that reminded her of the few sunrises she had seen from the Isle when the sky wasn’t covered in dark and ominous clouds.

Rustling noises were heard across the room before a grinning face popped up in Uma’s line of vision.

“Because I threatened to tell Fairy Godmother that you were in the boys’ dorms past curfew last night if you didn’t let me dress you for your Council meeting,” Jordan smirked.

“You think I’m afraid of that old hag?” Uma challenged, raising a brow. If this girl expected her to be a pushover, then she had a rude awakening coming.

Jordan tossed several articles of clothes at her before placing her hands on her hips. “That may be so but you know you’re in a tricky situation, roomie dear. For any other student being caught in their boyfriend’s room past curfew-”

“Not my boyfriend,” Uma interjected automatically, holding up a teal blazer that had been thrown at her. She liked it but it looked like it was missing something.

As if reading her mind, Jordan snapped her fingers and the shoulders of the blazer were covered in what looked like a stylish version of a navy captain's epaulettes. Uma tilted her head in thought before nodding. Not bad.

“As I was saying, if you were any other student, if you were Auradon born,” the genie emphasized, “you’d get a slap on the wrist and made to bake cookies with one of the good fairies as punishment. But you’re not. After what you pulled at Cotillion, there are a lot of people who would want you sent back just for sneezing,” Jordan said pointedly, every line of her body tense with frustration.

“And I understand how that’s my problem,” Uma frowned getting up from the pillow seat she was laying on, blazer forgotten on the pillow. “But I’m still not sure how that’s your problem. Even when you’re threatening me, the end result is making me look better. So,” Uma grinned predatorily stepped up toe to toe with Jordan, “what do you get out of this, friend?”

 Jordan held the pirate captain’s gaze before sighing, moving past her to flop on the large pillow that Uma had just vacated. She was silent for a moment before softly asking, “Do you know where genies come from?”

“Oh seven seas!” Uma said shaking her head quickly, eyes wide. “This is not the type of conversation I was expecting! I don’t need the details of how your parents ‘made love’ or however you Auradon folk refer to sex as.”

Rolling her eyes, Jordan snapped her fingers, causing the rug that Uma was standing on to be pulled out from under the pirate captain’s feet and sending her sprawling on her back unto another large pillow that had appeared. Before a complaint could escape Uma’s mouth, purple smoke swirled above their heads before revealing the cosmos.

“Do you know, at the beginning of all things, we were all made of dust from the cosmos? That all creatures and even magic were once one in the same and part of the stars?” Jordan murmured softly, fingers weaving a story above their heads. She waved a hand and a small speck of light grew until it was human in shape. “Though not all humans can use the magic around them, even the ones without the ability to manipulate it still have magic within them. Genies,” Jordan smiled, cutting her hand above her and causing the human shape to form into a lamp, “are the cosmos personified. We are not born, at least not the human way. Magic is like energy, always changing but never destroyed. Never gone, only displaced somewhere else.”

“This is a nice little light show and all,” Uma sat up slightly to look over at the other girl. “But this still doesn’t explain why you’re helping me.”

“Uh, wrong!” Jordan scoffed, turning on her side to face the other girl. “This has everything to do with your question. A Genie is magic personified. Now think hard, Captain. How do you imagine a being who is magic and magic is them would feel when they are strongly encouraged to not use magic?”

It didn’t take Uma long to put the pieces together, understanding dawning on her face. “It’d be like telling a fish not to swim. It’s something instinctual. You would be denying who and what you are if you stopped doing magic.” Uma paused, still thinking as a deep frown began to set on her features before she suddenly sat up, braids whipping at her face at the sudden movement. She looked at Jordan, taking a mental jump. “You’d die, wouldn’t you?”

Confetti shot down from somewhere above and bodiless applause filled the lamp.

“BINGO!” Jordan jumped to her feet and easily crossed the distance to where Uma sat. “And remember, Miss Queen of the Isle. For all intents and purposes of the lovely United States of Auradon, I’m a good guy. A quote, unquote hero. And even though Ben is a total naive but well-intentioned cinnamon roll, his dad and a few others on this side of the barrier could care less that they’re forcing magical beings into extinction for the sake of progress.” Jordan crossed her arms over chest as the corner of her lips turned down. “Now if the majority of the Council will do that to people that they like, imagine what would happen to the kids from the Isle whose parents they still have a grudge against.”

Uma swore, getting to her feet, moving away from the pillow she had just occupied to pace a bit. She went back and forth a few times before she spun on her heel towards Jordan, invading the girl’s personal space.

“If this is true, why in the Seven fucking Seas are you just now telling me this? Why are you telling me this?”

Jordan opened her mouth to speak but paused as a dull sound came from somewhere outside of the lamp. “Someone’s at the door,” she announced and Uma only had a moment to prepare herself as purple smoke surrounded them before placing them outside of the lamp and into the dorm room.

Whoever was behind the door knocked once more before Jordan opened the door, revealing Ben in all of his kingly attire. He smiled at both of them but both girls could see the nervous way his hands fiddled with his suit.

“Hello Jordan. Uma,” he greeted nodding to them both, back straight before giving his full attention to the sea witch. “It’s time. The Council is waiting for us.”

Chapter Text

He felt like shit, and it wasn’t just because he had gone through a hell of practice before the rest of the team packed up to leave for the big game in Agrabah. (There was a pain of regret and something else about not being able to see the land of his heritage yet, but it wasn’t home. Home was wherever a princess, a dragon, and a pup were.)

“Yeah, you don’t look so good,” Lonnie confirmed leaning against the locker neighboring his. (Fuck, he had said the part about feeling like shit out loud, hadn’t he? Damn it, Lonnie was sure to mock him mercilessly now.)

Jay’s features easily slid into a grin, looking up at the Sword and Shield captain from his place on the locker room bench.

“Y’know, you’re team captain and everything, but this is still the boy’s locker room.”

Lonnie rolled her eyes. “Not like there’s anything to see in here anyway,” she said confidently, not even a hint of a blush on her cheeks. (Jay always appreciated that about her.) “Besides, you’re the only one left in here. And stop avoiding the issue at hand or I’ll make you run double laps next practice,” she demanded, sitting down next to him and bumping her shoulder against his in a friendly manner.

A well-crafted lie was instinctively at the tip of his tongue, charming words that would weave themselves together in a way that would turn most girls into blushing messes but Lonnie’s ever unimpressed expression immediately put an end to it.

Dammit, he thought with a sigh. Why was he surrounded by super scary girls?

“I’m afraid,” he admitted, finally realizing what the tight feeling - like a rope chafing around his throat - was that he had felt for the past few days.

Jay was afraid.

Fucking forty thieves.

So that’s what fear felt like. Huh, he thought. He didn’t like it at all.

Lonnie put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “Half the battle is admitting that,” she murmured, giving his shoulder a slight squeeze. “Do you want to talk about it?”

(Yes.)

“Nah,” he plastered on a grin again. “I’m good. Just nerves, y’know? With Uma and Harry around things have just been hitting the fan and you know how Mal gets. All pouty and dragon smokey,” he laughed shrugging Lonnie’s hand off, masking the way he instantly missed the small comfort.

Lonnie didn’t look convinced but she didn’t press him, knowing that some walls were still difficult for Isle kids to let down, even amongst friends. (Again, another example of why Jay appreciated Lonnie and didn’t hesitate to step down so she could be captain.)

“Fine. But you know where to find me. You know,” she yanked off his hat briefly to ruffle his hair, “if you need to blow off steam, I could do you a favor and kick your ass in another duel.”

“Ha!” Jay smirked, this time genuinely, shrugging his bag onto his shoulder as he walked towards the doors of the locker room. “You say that like it’s a given.”

He could hear the accompanying roll of her eyes in her voice as she said, “Whatever. Say bye to the others for me and let Carlos know that if he skips another practice I’ll make Chad his practice partner for the rest of the year!”

Jay waved his hand over his shoulder in acknowledgement as he left, grin slipping momentarily off his face as he walked down the halls from the gym back in the direction of the dorms.

With each step his body grew tense, hands shoved in his pockets to hide the way they were clenched tightly and to also stop certain thieving urges.

There were certain habits that no amount of time in Auradon would ever get rid of.

Jay passed by a group of girls, all three instantly seeming to preen themselves when they noticed his presence. He smiled at them, giving them a flirty wink, eyes intentionally not looking at the bracelet decorated with little jewels on one of their wrists.

On the Isle, those same jewels would have given him dinner for a week and a half or... a delighted squeal from Evie; a grateful peck on the cheek that would keep him warmer than any bland stew ever would.

Jay continued walking, passing some young lord of some far-off place that he didn’t care to remember, who was tapping relentlessly on his cell phone, the newest version available. It was second nature to wonder about how much the parts would have gotten him while haggling with the Isle’s goblins.

It would have earned him either a few days without being beaten by his father or earned him an incoherent babble of tech geek speak that meant nothing to him but everything to an excited Carlos, whose excitement about getting his hands on such a high-tech device would fill Jay with pride as he watched the younger boy build and create.

 He glared at Chad, the blonde boy scurrying his way to his room like the mice in his mother’s story under the dark look. (Lonnie had made sure to make the vapid prince run extra sprints for how he had made Dizzy cry the other day.) 

On the Isle, Jay would have shoved and pushed the boy down to the ground just for the heck of it, because Chad was a self-absorbed brat and had nothing substantial to back up all the confidence he boasted about.

(Seeing Mal’s approving wicked grin would have been a nice bonus though).

Thinking about his oldest friend, Jay’s mind screeched from the bleak but not all bad memories of his past and into the present as he opened his dorm door, already knowing what lay behind it.

Still, when his assumption was proven correct, Jay couldn’t help but to let out a slight groan.

(He was so not looking forward to the unavoidable conversation.)

She was family. He loved her. He had gone back to the Isle for her and would always fight for her, but enough was enough.

“I see you’re still holding hostage my bed,” Jay teased, dropping his bag off near the door, before plopping down at his desk chair and letting himself have a few spins before stopping to face her again. “No, don’t get up,” he muttered, frown deep-set into his usually carefree features as the half-fae that sat across from him merely raised a questioning eyebrow. “After all, the bed is too comfortable after spending seventeen years sleeping on the floor with the threat of a shelf of TV’s falling on my head. Who needs good back support? Not me, that’s for damn sure.”

Mal rolled her eyes. “Someone has a lamp shoved up their ass,” she muttered, going back to the design she was drawing in her sketchbook, only giving a brief glance at the clock. “Shouldn’t you be getting ready for the game trip to Agrabah? I thought you leave in a few hours.”

Jay kicked his shoes off, letting them thud loudly on the wooden floor. “Not going,” he said offhandedly as he stood up and went to the bathroom. “Neither is Carlos, by the way.”

Mal snorted before pausing, his words registering. “Wait. What?” she demanded, getting up from the bed and following behind Jay, ducking out of the way when the boy smoothly shrugged off his shirt and threw it haphazardly in her direction.

Jay raised a brow as Mal sat on the closed toilet seat, studded boots tapping impatiently against the tiled floor, waiting for a response. He glanced towards the shower before back at her. She glared at him but shifted on the closed toilet seat so that her back was facing him.

He shook his head at her stubbornness but continued to remove his clothes before turning on the shower and stepping in.

“Explain,” Mal demanded.

“What is there to explain, Mal? I’m just not going anymore.”

“Bullshit!” Mal growled. “You were nervous but excited for the chance to finally go to Agrabah. Aladdin and Jasmine even sent you a personal invitation to have dinner with them.”

“And I sent them an apology asking for a raincheck like a good little boy,” Jay sighed, using some of the shampoo that Carlos had bought for Dude. (The fucking dog had more high-quality shampoo than both of the boys.) “They understood and were chill about it, unlike you,” he said, sticking his head out from behind the curtain to see that Mal was glaring at him from over her shoulder before she snapped her head forward again.

“I thought we all agreed to be honest with each other.”

Jay turned off the water, reaching out and catching the towel that Mal threw at him.

“Honest?” he scoffed. “Is that what you call hiding from Evie and Ben the last few days in here and stealing my bed?” He stepped out with a towel wrapped around his waist, tapping Mal’s shoulder as he passed her back into the main room.

“Jay!” he heard her shriek behind him before she came stomping out of the bathroom, all fire and brimstone in her glowing green eyes. (Joke was on her, that little magic trick had long ago lost its effects on him.)  He stepped into the closet that he shared with Carlos for a moment, re-emerging in his usual casual attire, tying his long hair into a messy bun at the top of his head. (He needed to stop by Dizzy’s room later and see if she would mind giving him a trim. Maybe she would even give him those little braids that would keep his hair out of his face.)

The former thief flopped backwards onto his bed, patting the spot next to him. “Let’s play a game.” When he looked up he saw Mal still standing, arms crossed and unamused. “Come on Malsy. Humor me?”

“Bite a poison apple,” she hissed, though she made her way to his bed, laying down next to him. She glared up at the canopy. “What’s the game?”

“Two lies and a truth.”

He saw Mal glance at him from the corner of his eyes, confusion radiating from her before he saw her give the smallest nod.

“You start first,” she ordered.

“Hm,” Jay hummed thoughtfully before raising one finger. “Lonnie finally declared her eternal love for me today at practice.” A second finger was raised. “I passed my chem exam yesterday.”

“Oh, that’s definitely a lie,” Mal snickered before Jay gently elbowed her in the side.

“And finally,” he said raising a third finger. “The night they announced that we might be sent back to the Isle, I dreamed that you all died.” He swallowed thickly, throat suddenly feeling dry. “You...Evie...Carlos...Lonnie...Ben...everyone, even Uma, Harry, and Gil. Swallowed up by this big...dark, monster. It just...destroyed everything. And I couldn’t do anything to protect you all.”

Jay felt his throat tighten and when Mal silently reached out for his hand, he grabbed onto it, anchoring himself.

A few seconds passed between them in silence. As one inhaled, the other exhaled in perfect tandem.

“Wow,” Mal cleared her throat. “Guess Lonnie has some pretty low standards,” she attempted to keep her voice light.

Jay let out a strangled chuckle, throwing his other arm over his eyes as he tried to keep himself together. Mal squeezed his hand tightly but kept her eyes trained on the ceiling above, not daring to mention the way his whole body trembled in quiet sobs.

“My turn, I guess,” she sighed. “One: I’m a disaster. Two: I’m a selfish disaster. Three: I’m a selfish disaster who really doesn’t know what she’s doing and keeps hurting the people she cares about.”

“Yeah,” Jay cleared his throat removing his arm from his eyes and looking at her, eyes red but dry. “You are a disaster. Like, damn! I’ve seen you in gym. It’s a miracle that no one has died due to Mal’s clumsiness.”

Mal gaped at him before breaking out into uncontrollable laughter, Jay soon joining her. “Be serious,” she giggled, slapping his chest. Jay caught her hand, holding it in his much larger one. They both sobered as they turned on their sides to face each other, their connected hands between them.

“I’ll always have your back Mal, no matter what. If it’s between you and Ben or even you and staying in Auradon, it’ll always be you,” Jay said sincerely, drawing a small thankful smile from Mal. “But that doesn’t mean that I’ll always agree with you or like how you do things. Mal, you’re wicked smart and you were born to lead, but you let your own pride and insecurities hold you back.”

The half-fae looked insulted. “I don’t-”

“Yeah. Yeah you do,” Jay cut her off. “And you avoid shit. Like, a lot. Anything that doesn’t come easy to you, you run from it.”

Mal tried to sit up, pulling her hand away from him but Jay tugged her back down next to him.

“Stop running,” he said firmly. “Just stop!”

“I’m not!” Mal yelled, eyes aglow.

“Yes you are, Mal!” Jay yelled back. “Ben may be your true love and Evie may be your best friend but I’ve been there from the beginning and I know the signs of your bullshit! You’re afraid. Just like I am.” He let go of her hand, closing his eyes. He felt Mal’s eyes on him and silently counted to ten to calm back down like he had seen Carlos do many times before.

After a few minutes, he felt Mal’s head lie on his shoulder and he maneuvered his arm to wrap around her shoulders, bringing her closer to his side.

“Sometimes,” Mal began softly. “Sometimes, I just want to take you, Evie, Carlos, and Ben and put you all somewhere. Somewhere safe,” she sighed as Jay squeezed her shoulder reassuringly. “But it’s more than just keeping you safe. It’s...I...I want you all for myself. You’re all mine. And Uma is a threat to that.”

Jay laughed opening his eyes and squeezing her tightly to his side. “Forty thieves, you’re such a dragon. Hoarding everything you love away. What’s next, are you going to climb on top of all of us and hiss at anyone who gets too close?”

“I may,” Mal muttered, and Jay smirked before making his tone more serious.

“But you know that’s wrong, right? Hiding all your friends away. Making decisions for them without asking them or taking their opinion into consideration. Thinking that you’re the only one who is right. That you still need to prove yourself to us.” He looked her directly in the eye. “We’re not your mom, Malsy. You don’t have anything to prove to us.”

Mal let out a choked laugh, using his shirt to wipe the tears that were beginning to escape. “Gods, I hate that nickname,” she sniffed, pushing herself up so that she was looking down at him. “And I hate when you’re right.”

Jay sat up as well. “But I am.”

She nodded. “But you are. I...I love you all and you’re all so precious to me. I’d burn this world down to ashes for all of you. No hesitation.” She took a deep breath. “But I’m not my mother. I- I can’t just force you guys to live like little dolls hidden away in a tower or some shit. But...I don’t know what else to do. I don’t trust Uma!” she exclaimed throwing her hands up.

“And I don’t trust Harry,” Jay stated calmly. “But I trust Ben because you and Evie trust him and if Ben thinks that Uma can help get the rest of the kids off the Isle…” he trailed off.

Snorting, Mal let out a hopeless laugh, wrapping her arms around herself. “Even after everything, mother was still right.”

Jay bumped her shoulder. “Hey,” he paused until she looked at him. “Not about everything. Not about you,” he emphasized.

“You sure you want to be the head of the Queen’s Guard and not something like that head doctor that Carlos is seeing?” the half-fae laughed.

Jay ruffled her hair before getting up. “What I say before? I’ll always have your back.”

---

Ever since she first arrived in Auradon, ever since she and Mal and Jay and Carlos decided that they were going to be good, Evie always knew. She knew that despite having her best friend be the High King’s Lady of the Court, that despite all the fanciful and lovely gowns she designed and made for Auradon’s princesses, Evie, daughter of the Evil Queen, would never be royalty herself.

And for a moment, the still very shallow, very insecure little girl within her that loved when her mother would slather layer after layer of makeup on her unwrinkled face, would mourn the dream that she had had for so long. Of having a prince that would give her a castle with mirrors in every room. Of being the fairest of them all...

But then, just as quickly, she would remember who she was now. She was a rising business woman. Independent, smart, and level-headed. She was a sister and friend. Loving, kind, and fiercely loyal.

Evie, daughter of the Evil Queen and founder, designer, and CEO of Evie4Hearts, had survived on the Isle. Against the lack of food, horrid living conditions, and her mother’s never-ending backhanded compliments about her beauty. She had not only survived the cruel bullying of the purple haired dragon that locked her in her castle for 10 years, but she became sisters, with said dragon, an honorable thief, and a lost pup.

Evie was not a princess.

She didn’t need a crown filled with sparkling jewels to shine. And though her mother had had misguided motivations, being groomed by a former queen, no matter how wicked, had its uses, even if Evie had to sift through years of mental and emotional scars to find what could be useful to gain sympathy for the Isle children.

“Smile, but not with too much teeth,” she remembered her mother’s voice scolding her.

“Hello, Mr. Cogsworth. Hello Mr. Lumiere,” Evie smiled entering the council room. The former clock and candelabra greeted her politely as they continued to set up the room. (She ignored the way that Cogsworth turned his nose up at her or how Lumiere’s stance became less tense when they thought her attention was elsewhere.) 

“Always be charming. Flirt but not overly so.”

“Oh my! Don’t you look dashing, sir! Is that a new suit?” Evie lightly ran her fingers over the shoulder of Doug’s father’s suit, Dopey grinning proudly at her praise. It was a fine suit. (But she could make him a much better one.) “The mice always design wonderful clothing,” she made sure to say just as Jaq, Gus, and Mary passed by. Jaq and Gus’s chests puffed with pride, but Mary looked unconvinced, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Ask them questions about themselves to make them feel wanted.”

“Really? He did that?” Evie gasped as expected, eyes wide and hands flying to clutch the material of her blouse over her heart with just the right amount of shock and concern. “And what did the royal advisors say when they found out that Emperor Kuzco named your children as his heirs, Pacha?”

(While Pacha enthusiastically narrated the rest of the story, she sees Pocahontas’ hummingbird, Flit, glaring suspiciously at her.)

“Always be aware of your surroundings. Use your beauty and charm to wrap them around your little finger. But be discreet, girl!”

“Maybe you should just sit this one out, sweetie,” Evie heard from the mermaid’s pool as she continued to make her rounds around the council room. She half-listened as the three Good Fairies squabbled over something or another, discreetly shifting herself to get a better view of the small pool.

She could see the eldest of Triton’s daughter, Attina, talking to who she quickly recognized as Princess Melody, her legs gone and replaced by a tail and fin.

“We wouldn’t think any less of you if you didn’t want to be here when...she arrives,” Attina continued with a look of concern on her beautiful features.

Melody’s back was turned toward Evie so she couldn’t see the other girl’s expression, but she heard the annoyance and disappointment in the princess’s voice when she said, “We owe her to hear what she has to say. I owe her, Auntie Tina! We left her and Morganna’s daughters on the Isle with no access to their heritage!”

Attina sighed as if this wasn’t the first time she heard this. (Maybe it wasn’t, Evie thought.) “You don’t understand,” the older mermaid began, keeping her voice soft under the buzz of the other conversations going on in the room to the point where Evie had to strain to hear her words. “Back then, the times were different and we-”

Melody shook her head violently, the ends of her raven ponytail trailing along the pool’s surface. “I understand exactly what it feels like to feel like your own family has sentenced you to a future that you had no say in. To keep you away from the one thing that is such a big part of yourself!” she exclaimed passionately, catching Attina off guard. Evie watched as she paused for a moment, her shoulders rising as she apparently took a deep breath. “I love you, Aunt Attina. I love you, and grandfather, and momma, and papa, and the rest of our family whether they’re on land or under the sea. And that includes her as well. Whether she accepts my love or not.”

Attina sighed before pulling the younger mermaid into her embrace. “You remind me so much of your mother at this age,” she murmured into her hair. Evie turned away, the moment seeming too private and the guilt of eavesdropping on such a familial moment mixed with jealousy curdled in her stomach.

“You doing alright, baby?” Mama Odie blindly reached out to pat Evie’s hand from where she sat. Evie blinked, noticing that Flora, Fauna, and Merriweather had already moved on to talk to one of the dwarves.

Poisoned apples, she hoped she hadn’t come off as rude!

(Oh, what did it matter, she had overheard one of them talking badly about Mal once, and Merryweather had been looking at her distrustfully ever since she joined the Council . . .)

 Evie pushed those thoughts out of her head before giving the old voodoo priestess a genuine smile, kneeling next to one of the few members of the Council of Sidekicks outside of the dwarves that she felt like she could be honest with.

“Yes, ma’am. Just...nervous.”

Mama Odie hummed to herself, still holding Evie’s hand tightly in her own as she apparently seemed to stare off. Her pet snake, Juju, bumped affectionately against Evie’s arm before curling himself around his mistress's neck.

“Can’t say ya got nothin’ to be worrin’ about, cher,” the older woman frowned, stroking the snake’s head. “But these things always find their way of workin’ out,” she said patting Evie’s hand reassuringly before letting go. “And I ain’t worried about you, child. Just keep on listening to this,” she tapped a knobby finger over her heart, “and you’ll be fine.”

There once was a time when being around someone so old, whose body was molded so much by time, that would have had Evie reaching for the makeup. Now, Evie took a moment to appreciate the love and joy that each wrinkle had earned and hope that she would be able to see that much happiness in her own life.

 Evie opened her mouth to say something but was cut off just as Ben entered the room with Uma at his side. The friendly buzz of conversation drastically stopped for a moment, everyone’s eyes on the two. But no one was looking at Ben. Everyone’s eyes were on the infamous Ursula’s daughter, who had become a legend in her own right.

“This sure gonna be something!” Mama Odie chuckled, wiggling comfortably into her seat, Juju moving to sit lazily across her lap.

Standing straight, Evie smoothed out the imaginary wrinkles in her skirt. “Definitely going to be something,” she said to herself as she made her way down to Ben and Uma, hoping that they had done enough...

---

The walk with Ben to the Council room had been silent and tense. Uma was too preoccupied, thoughts filled with genies, and magic, and the implications of heroes who barely took care of their own.

“Imagine what would happen to the kids from the Isle whose parents they still have a grudge against,” Jordan’s words played over and over in her mind. She had tried to pick apart the genie’s words, looking for a motive, an angle, any deceit. But when she found none, she realized, though still wearily, that it didn’t surprise her. After all, these were the same people who built an Isle, brought already defeated villains back to life and threw them on an Isle with no regards of the consequences.

And here she was. The supposed “villain” of this story.

When they finally reached the Council room, they were greeted with silence. All eyes on her (and not in the way she liked), like she was some wild animal that could attack at any moment.

Don’t give me a reason, and you’ll be fine, she thought bitterly as Ben led her to their seats.

As Ben called the meeting to a start, Uma crossed one leg over the other and straightened her back as she watched him. The boy king’s voice came out clear, but his body was tense, nervousness leaking out in the way he shifted from one leg to another or in the way he clutched tightly to the sides of the podium he stood before.

“Council members,” Ben greeted the audience before him. “We learned 20 years ago when this great United States of Auradon was first formed that we are greater together. That instead of dividing because of differences, we are stronger because of them.”

Uma watched the room. Her eyes roamed across the room, identifying each member from the list Evie had given her earlier. Her gaze had eventually fell on the pond where beautiful women with glittery mermaid tails lounged on shallow ledges, all pointedly looking away from her.

Well, all but one.

Uma blinked as the youngest looking mermaid raised a hand slightly from the water in a small wave. The sea witch frowned. A sense of familiarity and unease settling in her stomach at this strange little mermaid.

A hand reached out and touched Uma’s shoulder, startling her. She turned to see Evie looking at her worriedly. “Are you going to be alright?” she whispered, briefly glancing at the mermaids’ pool before making eye contact once again with the sea witch.

“Just peachy,” Uma shrugged the hand off and brushing a few braids behind her shoulder ignoring the piercing blue gaze from the pond.

“As I look upon our history,” Ben continued, “as I look upon the tales that led to many happy endings and even happier beginnings, one thing that I’m becoming more and more aware of is-”

“Sire, I do not mean to interrupt what I am sure is a very lovely and inspiring speech,” a clipped voice cut in. “But I would be remiss if I did not speak for many of us and ask why the daughter of Ursula is here and not in prison.”

Eyes narrowing, Uma gaze searched the room for the source of the voice. A bit of fluttering and feathers caught her eye from above, amongst the branchy leafy area where some of the smaller animal Council members sometimes sat. There, glaring down at them was a blue and white feathered bird with a large orange bill.

“Captain Uma is here as my second Royal Councilor and as an integral leader to the children of the Isle, Council-member Zazu,” Ben smiled, though Uma could see the way that one of his fingers was tapping anxiously against the side of his leg. “If you remember,” he explained, “the Council voted to allow her and selected children from the Isle to cross the barrier at our last meeting. She-”

“Has broken the parameters of her probation!” the bird interrupted again.

“Told ya he wouldn’t make it past opening remarks,” one of the dwarves could be heard muttering over the whispers of the rest of the council members.

Uma felt her body tense. “Probation? What probation?” she questioned, looking at Ben and Evie. Neither of them had mentioned a probation.

(“Look at this Cri-Kee! Poor girl didn’t even know this was her trial!” Mushu shook his head from above as the lucky cricket next to him patted his paw in sympathy, as if the small dragon was being put up for trial.)

Ben didn’t look at her, and that was all the confirmation Uma needed.

“You’ve set me up. Fuck you,” she growled out before snapping her head towards Evie. “Both of you!”

The other girl shook her head, reaching out to tightly squeeze Uma’s hand. At the contact, Uma felt a biting sting, like she had pricked her hand on something, but Evie merely held on tighter. “That’s not true and you know it! We both have a lot at stake here, Uma. Zazu has nothing on you.”

Uma snatched her hand away, glaring at Evie but keeping her mouth shut.

 “As I was saying,” Ben smiled pleasantly from where he stood, hands behind his back. (Uma wondered whether he would be still smiling after she had her way with him.) “Uma was granted amnesty for what happened during Cotillion and the Council decided together that she would be an appropriate addition to my advisors in regard to all Isle and Isle rehabilitation related work.”

“On the basis that certain requirements would be upheld!” Zazu continued. “But not even a week had passed before she started creating mayhem amongst the students of Auradon Prep by starting a fight with a student, and even had the gall to have her lackey attack you, King Benjamin!”

(Lackey? Fuck you, you stupid bird! Harry would show him . . .)

“Aw hush, now birdy,” Momma Odie chimed in, patting the table in front of her before grabbing a sheet of paper and holding it out. No one mentioned how it was a completely blank sheet of paper. “It says right here that neither Hercules’s boy or sweet li’l Ben have filed a complaint, ain’t that right, suga?” she questioned, pointing her walking cane directly at where Fairy Godmother sat off to the side as representative for the school.

“Oh! Y-yes,” Fairy Godmother sat up straight. “That’s correct. Both King Ben and Heracles, known to many as Herkie, son of Hercules have opted to not file a complaint.”

Ben seemed to relax a little bit more, relief in his voice as he spoke. “It seems like things have been all cleared up, now-”

“Ho-ho-ho! Not exactly, dear boy!” a brown owl swooped down and landed on the podium in front of Ben. His yellow eyes seemed to pierce into Uma’s as he cocked his head to the side. (Why the fuck were there so many birds in this damn Council?) “The parameters of the probation stated that no matter what, if Ursula’s daughter was found to be in violation of any of the measures, we as the Council decide her punishment. No exceptions!”

“Now Archimedes-!” Ben began but found himself once again cut off, since Uma had stood up, making her chair fall.

She had had enough of this bullshit.

“Punishment?” she roared. Evie reached out to grab her arm again but Uma swatted it away. “How is that fair? I didn’t even know anything about this fucking probation!”

Several members of the council gasped at her language but Uma didn’t even have the energy to roll her eyes. Instead, she turned on her heel and stalked over towards Ben.

“When the hell were you going to tell me about this?” she sneered, face close to his.

“He couldn’t,” Zazu, spoke up, flying over and perching himself next to the brown owl, Archimedes. “It was in the agreement that brought you over and provided food for your…people,” he looked down his long beak. “After all, how could we know for sure that you were actually trying to be good and not trying to throw another coup?”

(A tiny part of her mind thought that if this bird wasn’t so against her, she would have congratulated him for being the only one in Auradon with a brain and a suspicious mind.)

Fury stormed in her eyes as she shoved Ben away, immune to the hurt and apologies starting to trickle out of his mouth.

“Fuck you,” she said to him. She turned to the council. “Fuck all of you! None of you care about the Isle or the ways that you sentenced all the children there to our deaths before we were born.” She glared down at the mermaid pool, looking directly at the youngest mermaid with contempt. “That you derived us of our rightful heritages! I’ve had to kill before,” Uma continued, ignoring the sound of outcries. “But at least it was to survive! The blood on your hands is there just because you could.”

“Council-member Zazu,” Evie hurriedly got up, placing herself between Uma and the council, plastering a charming smile on her face that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “King Simba and his Pride have always been a source of inspiration in terms of not judging someone because of who their parents are and what they had to do survive. After all, the current Queen of the Pridelands, Queen Kiara’s own mate is the heir of Scar. Isn’t Kovu an adequate example that anyone, despite their background can change?”

Zazu looked down at her. “Of course, young lady,” he finally said after what felt like hours. Evie let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding. “That is why you and the other children that originally came with you, will have your own records looked at separately once the correct punishment has been made for the daughter of Ursula and her band of hooligans. If the Council deems fit, you may be allowed to stay with...restricted rights, of course.” 

“You can’t do that!” Ben suddenly roared loudly. “I forbid it! All of it!”

The room became silent. Even Uma looked startled by the king’s reaction, though a little impressed as well.

“For once, the kid is actually right,” a gruff voice called out from the council. “Though it ain’t because he forbids it.” A short older-looking man with horns and a greying red beard stood up from his seat and began to make his way to the front of the room. As he got closer, it became clear that he had legs of a goat.

A satyr, Uma vaguely remembered. And if there was a satyr in the council she could easily guess who he was: Philoctetes, trainer of heroes, trainer of Hercules.  

As he stepped forward, he looked at Uma as if he were sizing her up before shaking his head. “Damn, genie,” she heard him mutter lowly. “Gotta stop playing cards with him.”

“Philoctetes?” Zazu gasped. “You haven’t attended a meeting in the last several years!”

“Call me, Phil,” the satyr scratched under his armpit, expression bored. “And can’t a satyr enjoy his well-deserved retirement without having to listen to old birds like you two yap all day about rules? I got better things to do with my time.”

Both Zazu and Archimedes feathers ruffled angrily at his words though Phil barely noticed. 

“I’ll try to make this short. As all of you know, twenty years ago we set up the Auradonian Accords which united the kingdoms, created the three councils and blah blah, all that jazz,” Phil paced back and forth. “Part of the Accords is a special section titled the Pantheon Clause which states that gods and demigods are under the jurisdiction of their respective pantheon and therefore the council cannot give out punishment without the permission of the respective pantheon.” He paused, looking Uma straight in the eye. “And as a descendant of the Olympian pantheon, granddaughter of Poseidon, God of the Sea, the Earthshaker, and Tamer of Horses, Uma of the Isle will be judged not by the council but by the gods.”

Uma’s stomach dropped. Her mother had always said that her grandfather was...but how was Uma supposed to know what was truth and what was not from a woman who was always drunk and could barely remember her own daughter’s name half the time? The shock was quickly replaced with fury though. It didn’t matter who her grandfather was. He obviously thought just as lowly of his own granddaughter as all these fools on the Council did.

“Has she been claimed by Poseidon or any of the other gods?” Zazu glared down his beak.

“I’ll claim her if it means we can move on with this snooze fest,” Maui groaned from where he sat in the back. (Mushu reached over and high-fived him.)

“G’ha-ha-ha!” Archimedes exclaimed. “Only those from the Olympian pantheon can claim her.”

“Then I’ll do it!” a voice called from the mermaids’ pond.

“Melody!” one of the older mermaids hissed, but Melody shrugged her off, pushing herself to the edge of the pond so that only the end of her tail was still in water and turning around to face the Council.

 “As a descendant of the Olympian pantheon and the future Queen of Atlantica and Seaside, both sea and land, I, Melody, daughter of Queen Ariel, granddaughter of King Triton, and descendant of Poseidon, claim Uma of the Isle as not only part of the Olympian pantheon but as my cousin and heir to the Sea,” her conviction-filled tone resonated around the room, setting the room abuzz.

“What is this? A pity party?” Uma questioned, untrusting.

“No,” Melody turned to look at her, shaking her head. “It’s your birthright.”

A mirthless laugh escaped Uma lips, but she said nothing else.

Fairy Godmother cleared her throat, regret clear on her face. “Though I’m sure Miss Uma appreciates the sentiment, dear, it’s not quite that simple.”

“The lady is right, princess,” Phil sighed rubbing the bridge of his nose, a headache already beginning to form. “You don’t meet the qualifications.”

“That’s right!” Zazu exclaimed with glee. “She needs the claim of either the King of the Olympian Gods, the god of the sea, or the ruler of the underworld.” He chuckled as if hearing a funny joke. “Seeing how Hades has been stripped of his powers and is now on the Isle and that no one has seen Poseidon in decades, it seems only Zeus can claim her.” He glanced up expectantly, looking around for a few moments before shrugging his wings. “Hm, seems like Zeus will not intervene, making the Pantheon Clause void in this case. Now-”

“Oh dear,” a voice sighed, an overpowering smell of flowers and green grass and everything else that screamed spring filling the room. “I hope I’m not too late,” a beautifully tall woman blinked into existence by the room’s door. She walked towards the front of the room, a pleasant smile on her face, lush green grass and budding flowers appearing beneath her bare feet with every step she took. She wore a long dark green dress that had crawling vines and flowers that bloomed and then died before blooming again.

She stopped before the sea-witch looking at her as if she had just seen an old friend.

“Who are you?” Uma questioned before thinking, not realizing how loud her voice was in the completely silent room.

“I’ve gone by many names, sweetheart. Kore, Young Maiden, Demeter’s heartache, Goddess of Spring. But I think,” she said, tucking one of Uma’s braids behind her ear, a sweet-smelling yellow flower blossoming in the tuck of her ear, “in these circumstances I shall use here my title as the Queen of the Underworld, Persephone. And in my husband’s absence, I will claim you dear niece.”

Chapter Text

Uma’s mind had gone blank and all she was able to do was blink. And blink. And blink.

“What?” she managed to get out, feeling overwhelmed and small in this woman’s presence. It reminded her of how she felt with Hadie after her run-in with the son of Hercules. Though where Hadie had made her feel like an insect cowering before someone’s boot, Peresephone seemed to radiate warmth and serenity. If Uma was anyone else, she would have likened it to the warmth of a mother . . .

But Uma wasn’t anyone else and Ursula had never made her feel safe. Unbidden, her mother’s voice crawled into her thoughts. My little angelfish, no one will ever want anything from you, not without a price. You don’t get something for nothing, after all.

Uma mentally shook herself out of the intrusive thoughts and the feelings they had inspired. She had no time for useless emotions or reminders of her mother. She had a Council to conquer.

Persephone’s brown eyes shined with amusement against the deep bronze of her skin as she gave Uma a conspiratorial wink. Her slim fingers reached out to trace the girl’s cheek gently before she turned around to face Archimedes and Zazu again.

Uma felt some pleasure seeing the two look like stuffed birds; bodies tense, feathers all a ruffle, the power taken from their claws . . .

“I believe as Queen of the Underworld I meet the requirements to claim this granddaughter of Poseidon under your clause, correct?” the goddess asked, looking between Archimedes and Zazu with an expectant look on her face.

“Persephone—” Zazu began before Persephone raised her hand, cutting him off.

“It’s your Majesty,” she smiled warmly at the bird, “and please remember that you are talking to not only a queen but a goddess. Our favor can be as immense as the eternity’s worth of grudges we also can hold for even the smallest of slights.”

 Flowers continued to bloom underneath her bare feet as she moved to sit down in the chair that was meant for Ben, green ivy instantly growing along the chair’s legs and back, her serene face smiling expectantly as she crossed one leg over the other, waiting.

“What a fucking queen,” Uma couldn’t help but think, as a tiny impressed grin played on her lips.

“Very . . . very well,” Zazu cleared his throat after a silent moment. “I see nothing amiss with this claim.” Archimedes muttered something lowly but didn’t speak out further.

Doc, the Council Head, took this as his sign to pull his aging body up to stand and address the Council. “Based on the proposal of Council Member Philo- uh, Phi- oh uh, Phil, representative of the hero Hercules and the kingdom state of Greece, Miss Uma of the Isle, granddaughter of Poseidon, has now been claimed by the Queen of the Underworld and Goddess of Spring, by the Greek Pantheon under the Pantheon Clause of the Auradonian Accords. All judgement and consequences of Miss Uma will fall on the goddess and the other higher tier members of the Greek Pantheon to rule and enforce. If anyone has any reasons to believe that the requirements of the Pantheon Clause are not being met, I as the Council Head ask for you to bring forth your evidence now or to let this matter rest unless circumstances otherwise change.”

Doc paused, taking a moment to dab at the sweat on his brow and to wipe his glasses on the hem of shirt. All eyes fell on Zazu and Archimedes but the two Council members remained quiet.

“Then it’s decided,” Doc declared, turning to Cogsworth who was typing everything down for the council records. “May the record show the Council’s decision.”

Uma could feel some tension slip away but she didn’t let her relief show. She knew there was still much to do and there was still the matter that King Beasty-Boy and Wannabe Princess Blueberry had allowed her to walk into what could have easily been a sea witch hunt.

“Bunch of traitors.”

She glared at the two when they tried to reach out to her in congratulations. Ben looked hurt as did Evie, but she didn’t seem as surprised at having Uma’s animosity directed towards her. After all, trust and loyalty on the Isle was hard-won but so easily broken.

Uma turned to the Council, jaw set. It wasn’t over. Her gaze landed on Archimedes and Zazu who were looking at her with complete disdain. No, this meeting was far from over . . .

---

“More than a compass or even his ship, a good pirate must always trust his gut,” a memory of his rarely sober father whispered in his ear. Harry frowned, rubbing the thumb of his left hand against the curved cool metal of his hook. His gut twisted in foreboding. (Or maybe it was just the sight of seeing Gil practically inhale his food that was setting his stomach off. Hard for a lad to tell.)  

“Careful Hook,” Sammy Smee teased. “Keep spacing out on us like that and we might get ideas to draw a dick on your face. Give these AKs something to really look at.”

Harry snorted, stabbing halfheartedly at the food in front of him. It was still slightly jarring to see his plate filled with so many colors instead of the usual gray and ‘you-may-or-may-not-die-from-this’ gray of foods from the Isle.

“Not spacing out, Smee,” he stabbed a piece of sausage before shoving it in his mouth, mind so distracted he didn’t even notice the rich savory taste or that he had missed out on an opportunity to taunt his old playmate.

“He’s right,” Gil said around a mouthful of food. “He’s not spacing out.” He took another bite of his sandwich before shoving some syrup-soaked waffles into his mouth with his other hand. A bit of it dribbled down his cheek and Harry barely had the energy to throw a wadded up napkin at him. “He’s wallowing.” (That’s it. Next ship he and Uma took over, he was making Gil walk off the plank. No fucking loyalty.)

“Oh, that’s so much better,” Yzla muttered distractedly under her breath as she fiddled with what looked like an engine part. No one bothered to ask what poor unlucky bastard would find their engine missing and Yzla didn’t bother to tell. It was plausible deniability. (Everyone at the table could already take a guess it belonged to the scooter of the teacher that had stopped her from using the girl’s bathroom earlier and had forced her to use the boy’s instead in front of a large crowd of gawking, snickering students.)

“I’m not wallowing!” Harry growled, the end of his dulled hook scraping against the table in an unsatisfying way.

“Sulking then?” Eddie Balthazar proposed, mousy brown hair falling in his eyes as he dealt out cards between himself, the Badun cousins, Diego (who had minutes ago slid into an open seat, throwing a parting wave at the mousy daughter of Fairy Godmother after entering with her), and Sammy. Eddie’s gray eyes shifted up whenever anyone passed too close to their table, staring at them unnervingly until they walked away.

“Pouting?” Hermie Bing suggested quietly, her tiny frame practically hanging over one of Big Murph’s broad shoulders, watching as he carved a small figurine from a scrap piece of wood from his Wood Cutting class. (Harry idly wondered if the shiv he was carving out was to scare those young lords that had been messing with the petite girl earlier after Remedial Goodness.)

“Bumbling?” Hadie croaked, at the same time tugging his hood further up on his head while also switching the pomegranate seeds on Claudine’s tray for the apples wedges on his. (When she had seen what he had done, she playfully ruffled the back of his head through his hood, glancing questionably at Diego, who merely shook his head when Hadie tensed at her touch.)

“Are all of ye deaf?” Harry groaned, tugging at his hair in frustration. “I ain’t doin’ any of that! I’m strategizing! If all of ye haven’t noticed, these cookie-cutter princes and princesses want us out!” he hissed.

“We’re off the Isle, Hook,” Diego grinned, placing a card down to the dissatisfaction of the other players. He leaned forward to pull the betting pool of loose change, candy bars, and tangled earbuds closer towards himself. He kept the earbuds but split the candy bars between Claudine, Hadie, and Yzla, the latter of whom gave a distracted sound of thanks. “You can say you’re worried about Queenie. I mean, I’d be worried too having a smart girl like that constantly surrounded by people who hate us just because of who we’re related to.”

“I’M NOT DOING ANY OF THAT! And of course I worry about her! She’s my captain!” Harry slammed his hook loudly down on the table, some heads from nearby tables turning to stare at them. He glared back at them until they all quickly turned away. Focusing his attention back on Diego, Harry kept his voice low. “It’s my duty! We’re crew! And is no one else worried that she may be rotting in a dungeon somewhere? It shouldn’t take this long for her to chew out that damn Council!” 

“The Council meeting should have just started,” Claudine commented offhandedly, pulling out one of the school provided phones that they had been given the other day. The girls had seemed to have easily picked up on how to use the devices, sometimes sending texts to each other and giggling inexplicably to the confusion of their male companions. “I mean, if you look at that school poll that the genie girl put up,” she slid the device over to the pirate - the screen showed a picture of the girl who had so rudely barged into his room earlier this morning, forcing a grudging Uma to follow - “a lot of people are worried that the son of Hercules was too aggressive with her,” she said before pausing, looking around the table. “That’s actually good here,” she emphasized. “We want them to have sympathy for her.”

Eddie snorted. “Too bad the same can’t be said for you, mate,” he directed at Harry, not deterred one bit when the pirate’s glare fell on him. (Seriously, did these Anti-hero lot not have a sense of self-preservation or was Harry just losing his touch in grand ole Boradon?) “The genie poll voters are on Mal’s side in terms of what happened with you throwing a fit and attacking the King.”

Rolling his eyes, Harry scoffed. “Like I give a damn what that flock of sheep thinks.”

“You should,” Hadie narrowed his one good eye at the pirate. (Oh, how Harry yearned to pluck the boy’s remaining eye out and shove it down the lad’s throat.) “What good is a queen’s knight if he just undoes all of her work?” He folded his gloved hands in front of him on the table, pushing his tray away, voice soft as always but still cutting nonetheless. “If you’re really Uma’s First Mate, adapting is not negotiable. It is an absolute must. What do you plan to do, pirate? Solve all of your problems here swinging around a hook that can’t harm anyone?”

Harry shot out of his seat, seething. He really hated the nonchalant expression on the younger boy’s face. “Believe me,” he growled, “I don’t need me hook to do harm to ye, brat.”

“Hey, hey, hey,” Diego tried to intervene. “We’re all on the same side. We’re not gonna last long here if we start turning against each other.”

Hadie opened his mouth to give a cutting retort but was cut off by the bell ringing, signaling the end of lunch and the return to their different classes. He glared at Harry before getting up.

“Well, education calls,” Diego grinned easily, getting up and stretching before slinging an arm around Hadie and Claudine’s shoulders, ignoring the way the younger boy tensed at the contact and leading the two towards their next class.

“Damn, I was hoping to start a bet,” Jace groaned to his cousin Harold as they cleaned up their card game and grabbed their bags.

“I’ll put down four of those chocolate bars that you like that Hook starts another fight with someone before this day is over,” Yzla murmured, tossing the small engine into the trash as they all walked away, leaving only Gil at the table to deal with Harry.

“Fucking wannabe goody two-shoers,” Harry growled, kicking his chair, leaving his tray behind as he began to storm off.

“They’re not so bad,” Gil shrugged, about to follow after him until they both heard a voice call out to the blonde.

“Gil! Come on! We can’t be tardy!” the pastel pink and teal princess that had figuratively and literally sunken her claws into Gil breezed by Harry. (The daughter of Sleeping Boring or some other mouth breather in pink, if Harry remembered correctly.)

“Oh, uh . . . okay Audrey,” Gil said confusedly, shrugging at Harry as the banshee in pink dragged him off the other way. “Bye Harry!”

The pirate merely gave a V-salute in goodbye as he exited the dining hall. He pushed through, shoving people out of the way as he strode through the hall. He knew he should be trying to stay under the radar and head to his next class. After all, that’s what Uma had ordered him to do but she had also ordered him to get himself in check before he did anything that would cause trouble.

Uma.

Even though she didn’t mention anything about it, he knew that the dream that she had before she had woken him up with her thrashing had shaken her deeply. And it wasn’t like he could hook a dream and make it go away. It wasn’t like he could do much in this land of pastels and candy when the things he was good at (hooking, threatening, and sailing) weren’t options... Davy Jones... maybe that walking one-eyed blue matchstick was right. He was failing as a first mate.

The last time he felt this low, Uma found a bucket of shrimp over her head . . .

Harry gritted his teeth, digging the point of his hook into his thigh to calibrate himself before turning down a hall, the amount of people in the hall drastically smaller than in the main hall. It still felt overwhelmingly claustrophobic. Harry stomped down a few more halls until he had not seen anyone for several minutes. He would feel proud about the fact that he had kept his word to his captain if his vision didn’t feel hazy. If he didn’t feel like his legs were turning into jelly under him . . . and bloody motherfucking buggering hell, everything was swimming around him again.

Harry slammed into a door, fumbling with the doorknob, trying to get out of the empty hallway where the walls were getting smaller and he couldn’t get enough air into his lungs. Fuck, he was dying, wasn’t he?

His sweaty hand finally got a good grip on the doorknob, and the door fell away under him, causing him to stumble into the room. He managed to catch himself, his back pressed against the door as he quickly closed it behind him. Harry concentrated on his breathing as he slid to the ground, eyes closed, but he still couldn’t get rid of the feeling that everything was slipping through his fingers.

It was a testament to just how off he felt that he didn’t even notice that the room he was in was occupied until someone nervously cleared their throat. The sound managed to cut through the fog in his mind, and he could feel his breathing ease slightly.  

“Look, I don’t want any trouble, Hook...” he heard the De Vil brat begin.

“Trouble?” Harry rocked unsteadily to his feet. (Whoa...when did the little runt get a twin?) “TROUBLE?” a mad cackle bubbled from his lips.

He landed hard on his side against the door, face pressed against the glass but he continued to giggle uncontrollably. It was the only thing that made it feel like he had any control over himself right now.

 “Why wouldn’t ye want any trouble, pup?” Harry pouted, head lolling to the side as he grinned at the younger boy before tapping the door with the curve of his hook. (One . . . two . . . fuck what comes after two?) “What’s . . . what’s life . . . life without a little trouble?” the pirate struggled to gasp out, his tapping becoming a little less intentional.

His head made a dull thud against the door as the room around him began to swirl. The pressure on his chest felt like that one time when he was still a wee little thing and Harriet had thought it would be funny to see Tick Tock take a nap on him (only for her to freak out when the weight of the large crocodile cut off his air, making his face turn blue - it was one of the few times he actually remember seeing his frightening sister so scared).

“Oh Dalmatians . . . You’re having a . . . shit . . . Uh . . . I’m gonna...just - just wait right there. Don’t move,” Harry could barely hear Carlos, and then the blurry black, white, and red blob that the pirate assumed was the little runt suddenly dashed somewhere off to the side, probably to run off and make an alibi so he wouldn’t be a suspect when they found Harry’s body. It’s what Harry would do after all if the roles were switched.

His heart pounded loudly in his ears accompanied by a deafening ringing sound. He clawed at his chest, frantically wondering if he tore out his heart if this madness would end. He also wondered if Uma would like it as a gift, sealed tightly in a jar with a blue ribbon to match her hair; a token that he was hers forever and ever and - WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT GIANT MARSHMALLOW THING COMING AT HIM!?!!?!?

“Hello. I am Baymax, your personal healthcare companion. My scans detect that you are having a panic attack. I am here for you. You will get through this. Though frightening, what you are feeling will soon be over. ”

All Harry could do was glare at the giant white round thing sitting down in front of him as he struggled to breathe, Carlos was hovering, terrified, behind the thing (or at least Harry hoped the wee runt was terrified. It would be a cold day in hell if he wasn’t even pirate enough to make Carlos De Vil want to wet his pants.)

“According to the student database that I’ve been downloaded with, you are Harry Hook, a transfer student from the Isle of the Lost. Your father was Captain James Hook, a pirate. Would you prefer if I engaged my pirate translator for the rest of this experience?”

Harry really tried to give the two-fingered ‘fuck you’ to this white marshmallow demon, he really did, but his hands were tingling and numb so it came off as a weird flopping movement.

“Is that a no?” Baymax asked, tilting his head.

“I think he tried to flip you off,” Carlos pointed out, scratching the back of his neck. “So I’d take it as a no.”

“Alright. Harry, your heart rate is still very high and your breathing is still shallow.” A soft blue light appeared on the giant fat thing’s stomach, forming a circle that slowly expanded before pausing for a few seconds, then decreasing just as slowly, pausing once more before repeating. “Please breathe slowly in with the circle, then hold your breath before slowly breathing out with the circle. It might also help to focus on things, places, or people who make you feel safe, if possible.”

Ugh, the white demon’s calming voice was so irritating. Harry wanted to hook it, see if it would bleed those little tiny marshmallows that Gil had got excited about the other day, running all the way back to the dining hall just to bring Uma a cup because the blonde just knew she would love it (and she did). His thoughts unsurprisingly focused on Uma and then the sea and then sailing and then sailing with Uma on the sea.

Ah, what a beautiful sight.

His breathing started to follow the steady growing and shrinking of the circle on Baymax’s stomach until the world no longer seemed to swim and the Tick Tock sized pressure on his chest went away and his hand, just barely grazing his hook where it laid on the floor began to register the feel of the cool metal of the item.

“Very good!” Baymax chirped, seeing that the boy’s heart rate was stabilizing. “I recommend that as soon as possible, you see a mental health professional to work on the cause of your panic attack to avoid the likelihood of this happening again. Are you satisfied with your care today?”

Harry pushed away the damn mutt that followed the De Vil runt around when the creature came over to lick the sweat off the cheek that wasn’t pressed against the cool surface of the floor. “Didn’t need any of yer damn care, Marshmallow-man, now pop back to whatever sugary hell ye came from!”

“According to my pirate translator,” Baymax said in his usual calm and non-intimidating voice as it rose back somewhat unsteadily to its feet, “that is an affirmative.” And just as quickly as it appeared, the white giant disappeared, easily folding into itself until it was nothing but a small cube sitting in a nearby charging port.

Good riddance, Harry thought until he felt light kicks to the side of his boots. “What in Davy Jones’s name was that thing?” he asked aloud

Carlos frowned before his face processed what the older boy was asking. “Oh uh . . . that was Baymax. He’s . . . ”he trailed off, as if trying to find the right words. “He’s a personal healthcare companion . . . robot . . . thing. Ben’s borrowing it. Thinks Baymax might be useful with new kids from the Isle being brought over. I was supposed to make sure his systems were up and running, which I guess…they are.”

“Not happy to be of service,” Harry drawled.

“Uh . . . are you just gonna lie there?” De Vil asked, looking like he wasn’t sure if Harry was going to run up and bite him.

“What? Ye gonna make me move?” he snorted, adjusting himself so that he was sitting with his back against the wall. He kept an eye on De Vil through sweat soaked hair, somewhat pleased when the boy began to shift uncomfortably under his stare (Still got it.)

The room was quiet for a moment in some sort of tentative and cautious truce.

Harry wanted to leave but he still felt weak and tired from . . . what the hell was it called? Right, a “panic attack”. Rather be in here with an enemy he knew how to deal with than out there where anything could happen. No, he’d stay here and snoop around until it didn’t feel like invisible fingers were about to close around his neck at any moment.

The De Vil boy’s little lab almost rivaled Yzma’s shop with the whole “evil mad scientist” vibe it had going on. Harry wondered if he could “convince” the boy to make him one of them cool robotic arms that he saw once on TV when Uma and he were wee tykes and snuck into Ursula’s room to see what was so interesting about her damn soap operas on the rare occasion where the older sea witch visited her sister on the other side of the Isle.

“No. I’m not building you a prosthetic robotic arm,” Carlos firmly stated, not looking from the piece of tech he was working on. “You already have two working ones.”

Oh, he must have said that aloud. Whatever, there were ways of making the pup do what he wanted. Just needed a little persuasion.

“Try it and I won’t hesitate to Taser you, Hook,” the younger boy flatly said, eyes serious as he lifted up a small device that let out a spark of electricity.

“Ooooh kinky!” Harry couldn’t help but grin, despite the flare of annoyance that his mouth was bloody betraying him. “The little pup has grown a pair. How cute! Should I call you zaddy now?”

Carlos snorted, rolling his eyes, hands returning to their tinkering. “Is this your defense mechanism?”

Harry’s brow furrowed. “A defense what-now?” he asked hopping onto the table, feigning innocence when he knocked some tools over.

The younger boy had the nerve to look embarrassed when Harry sat right in front of him. “Oh it’s uh . . . I mean...didn’t Mr. Topolino talk to you about that yet?”

“That little rat?” Harry scoffed, crossing his arms over his chest and glaring down at Dude who was looking up at him expectantly for pats. Harry rolled his eyes but patted his leg, the dog managing to hop onto a nearby chair before hopping onto the table next to the pirate. “Ye actually dumb enough to believe he doesn’t skitter back to that old bat of a headmistresses and doesn’t tell her all of your little secrets?” he asked scornfully, scratching behind Dude’s ear.

“Ah, good pirate,” Dude happily barked in the limited speech he had as a leftover from the truth gummy.

Carlos shrugged, watching the way Harry unconsciously smiled down at the dog. “If it makes the voice of my mother in my head go away . . .” he trailed off softly and for perhaps for the first time, Harry felt he knew exactly what the pup meant . . .

He was going to say more, perhaps taunt De Vil a little more in hopes that it would make himself feel better and make the rolling feeling in his stomach that felt like guilt go away, when a scream that was quickly cut off startled them both.

“Dizzy,” Carlos breathed, recognizing the voice. He jumped over the table and ran out the door, Harry walking with his hook raised behind him. (If he still felt woozy from earlier, he wasn’t going to let that stop him.)

“Stay there, mutt,” he managed call over his shoulder at Dude.

When Harry and Carlos arrived at the nearby hallway where the scream had come from, they saw Dizzy, unconscious and slumped against a wall, Sammy Smee and Big Murph standing with vacant expressions nearby. 

Harry nearly choked at the thick air of pure magic that seemed to be saturated around the two.

And in front of the two dazed looking boys, kneeling next to Dizzy was a young boy wearing clothes of green leaves and a small dagger that Harry had never seen but had heard about for years in the drunken rants of his father.

“PAN!” Harry growled just before Big Murph knocked him out.

---

Freddie’s back thudded heavily against the locker next to Jordan. She let out a loud sigh. “You sure I can’t get away with murder?” she glared darkly at Chad as he scurried away under her glare. (She hated being the one to find Dizzy crying in the hallway after Chad’s prime example of how to be a Grade A asshole. Freddie never did well with tears.)

Jordan hummed thoughtfully, closing her locker. “Well you’re the one with the tarot cards, Fred. You tell me. I will say though that I won’t visit you if you get put into jail.”

“Boo! You never let me have any fun,” Freddie snorted with a roll of her eyes, leading the way down the hall of students making their way to class.

For the most part, many of the Auradon kids had gotten used to her presence before the new Isle arrivals had come, but there was a significant amount that gave her a wide berth when she got near. Freddie had learned to shrug off most of the weird looks she got. After all, it came with the territory when the shadows seemed to get darker every time Freddie stepped into the room or haunted whispers told her other’s secrets that she shouldn’t have known.

(Not many people knew about the sleepless nights when the shadows clawed at her dreams creating nightmares that not even the Isle could imagine. Making promises that they would drag her to a dark, dark place like they did her Daddy . . .)

“Come on,” Jordan said, easily catching up with her, bringing her out of her darker thoughts. “Don’t be that way,” she smiled, easily slipping her hand into Freddie’s, who pretended to ignore how warm her cheeks were getting as their fingers easily intertwined (how her heart stuttered before pounding full blast; how every ounce of tension left her body at such a simple touch). “You said so yourself. If anyone could make some real change happen here, it’s Uma. I just know it! Besides, you read it in the cards!”

Freddie shook her head, squeezing Jordan’s hand tight.

That was true, but it wasn’t so simple. She still didn’t understand her powers and she wouldn’t be surprised if she had misread the cards. “I read that Uma would be the catalyst for something, but not what or when. So I don’t know about you, but that seems vague as hell.” She frowned and uncertainty was laced in her voice as she said softly, “The less we know the more things can wind up biting us in the ass later . . .”

“Sounds kinky,” Jordan teased after a slight pause, bumping shoulders with the other girl.

Freddie rolled her eyes, but a small smile played on her lips as she bumped Jordan back. “And people say I’m the bad influence.”

Jordan stopped them both, placing her hands on Freddie’s shoulder. “Chill, Fred. I feel good about this. My dad pulled a favor with a friend of the Council. Hercules’s old trainer. Once the Pantheon Clause has been put into effect, there’s only so much power the Council of Sidekicks will have over Uma.”

Shrugging Jordan’s hands off her shoulder, Freddie glared at Jordan for a long moment before sighing. “Just . . . be careful,” she said reaching out adjusting Jordan’s blazer collar, smirking as she felt Jordan shiver as her fingers brushed against the taller girl’s neck. “You shouldn’t try to control a hurricane, especially one named Uma. And if anyone finds out that you were the one who told the press about the fights, and not that idiot Chad, you’ll be prime target for a lot of Isle kids. I don’t need my tarot cards to know that none of them will listen to your explanation about how it needed to happen for the greater good or whatever other shit you say.”

Jordan laughed, leaning down slightly to brush her lips against Freddie’s. “Don’t worry, babe,” she smiled once they pulled apart. “Things will work out, now gotta go or else I’ll be late for class. I’ll see you after,” she said, bopping Freddie lightly on the nose, (fuck you, she was not melting into a small puddle) before spinning on her heel and walking away, leaving Freddie to roll her eyes at the genie that made her heart warm.

Ugh, Auradon was making her such a freaking sap.

“Davy Jones! I knew staying with these Auradon nerds would suck the fun out of you! I think I got a toothache just watching that.”

No, Freddie thought, panicked. She spun around and came face to face with her past.

“Hello, darling,” CJ grinned as she pushed herself away from the wall she was leaning on.

Freddie crossed her arms, alert and aware. She knew exactly what CJ was capable of. “Thought I smelt something fishy.”

“Ouch,” CJ pouted, disappointed, walking slow circles around her old partner and friend. “Is that really all you got to say to me after so long, babe?” She suddenly stopped, face lightening up with excitement. CJ grabbed Freddie’s hands in her own, ignoring the way that the other girl seemed to withdraw at the touch. “Let’s go on an adventure! We’ll be partners this time, I promise. I have a plan. I’ll have a ship and Pan—”

“NO!” Freddie yelled, shoving CJ away. “No,” she said more firmly. “I thought I made it clear when I last saw you that we were done. It was always about you CJ. It wasn’t fair.”

“Fair?” CJ exclaimed throwing her hands up. “Seven seas! This is worse than I thought. You’ve become one of them! Where’s your sense of adventure? Where’s your sense of fun? We used to be partners! We were supposed to get off the Isle and go where ever the winds took us!”

“And you treated me like I was just another one of your crew!” Freddie snarled. The shadows around them seem to darken and gain substance in the presence of Freddie’s anger.

CJ clenched her jaw, still not wanting to stand down despite every inch of her body telling her to run, to get away. “Freddie,” she allowed the plea to sink into her words. “We used to be friends,” she raised her hand, palm open and up in invitation. “We used to be more.”

A sad, nostalgic expression crossed Freddie’s face and the chill and the shadows seemed to fade away with her anger. She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath before replying, “That was a long time ago.” When she opened her eyes, her expression was neutral. “You should go before someone calls the school’s guard.”

And then she walked away, oblivious of how CJ’s heart crumbled with each step.

“Don’t be like that CJ,” Pan chuckled behind her.

CJ scrubbed the back of her hand quickly along her eyes. (She wasn’t crying. She wasn’t!)

Turning towards the immortal boy, she was ready to hurl an insult at him when her eyes landed on what was behind him. She leaped towards him, ignoring his cries of disgust as she planted a wet kiss on his cheek.

“You, fly boy, are the best!” she squealed happily. “This is going to be the best adventure ever!”

Pan grinned, chest puffed with pride. “I know.”

---

“Come on,” Jay sighed, tugging Mal along behind him. “The quicker you apologize - genuinely apologize - the quicker you can make up with Ben and Evie.”

The purple haired girl snatched her arm out of his grasp, stopping them in their path towards the council room.

“What if they don’t . . . you know . . .” Mal trailed off, worrying her lip.

Jay smirked, placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “Well, Ben is always saying how Auradon is the land of second chances. Can’t go making a hypocrite out of himself, can he?”

She rolled her eyes, but chuckled as they continued on their way.

“Mal! Jay!” a voice called out.

The two immediately looked down to see Dude rushing towards them. When Carlos didn’t follow and they heard the dog’s worried whine, unease quickly filled them both.

---

Watching the members of the council begin to file out of the room felt surreal. Uma felt like she had been stuck in that room for years and not just mere hours. Though the battle had been won, the war was not yet over. There was still much to do to make sure that nothing jeopardized getting more kids off the Isle or the kids who were already there.

Zazu and Archimedes along with several other council members were still demanding that each child of the Isle go through some sort of individual process to determine whether they had the potential to truly become good.

They said it was a precaution.

Uma knew it was a trap.

It was a poorly veiled attempt at pretending to be fair when it was obvious that before anyone could have an opportunity to defend themselves, to defend the necessary things they had to do to survive on the Isle, their judgement would already be passed by those who looked down on them simply because of where they born and who they were born to. Thankfully, it was still too early for such a motion to be passed . . . for now.

Persephone placed a gentle hand on her shoulder and Uma was once again overwhelmed by the warmth that flowed from the goddess, like sunshine and flowers and Harry’s smile all in one touch.

“I am happy that I could help you, Uma,” she smiled. “Unfortunately though, I have to go. The Underworld doesn’t rule itself and I’m afraid that I’ve been gone too long. But I’ll come visit you again. I’m sure you must have a lot of questions.”

Uma frowned. “You’re not going to see Hadie? Aren’t you his mom?”

For a second, Persephone almost looked like she was wilting before her warm smile was back on. “Unfortunately, circumstances beyond even my control won’t allow that, just yet, but please, tell him that I think about him every second of every day. Please,” she said with a final plea.

Seeing the unabashed way Persephone cared about Hadie made Uma shift uncomfortably on her feet before nodding. “Uh . . . yeah. Sure.”

“Thank you,” the goddess smiled even brighter. “If you need me, just call for me,” she said in farewell before turning on her heel and melting out of existence. The flowers that had been growing underneath her feet withered away before turning to dust, the smell of mint hanging thick in the air.

Uma sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose. Everything that happened today . . . was a lot. She just wanted to check up on Harry and the others, take a bath, and go to bed (preferably with a certain first mate of hers curled up next to her so she could feel his heart beating underneath her fingers, reminding her that he was still there, that he was still alive).

“Uma,” Ben began walking towards her, but the glare she gave him and the smell of the sea in the air made him pause.

“Don’t you dare,” she hissed. “You lied to me! You said you had everything to lose but you know, I was the only one being turned into fish chum up there!”

“That’s not fair,” Evie said as she came up next to Ben. “We told you the truth about everything else. But it was part of the agreement with the Council before you came that to even get supplies and food necessary to actually live on the Isle you had to prove that you weren’t going to turn against us.”

“Well life ain’t fair, princess,” Uma laughed mockingly before turning her glare back on Ben. “Do you even know how genies are born, Beastie Boy?” she asked, taking a step into his personal space.

The young king frowned, confusion clear on his face. “Wait. What does that—”

“Forget about it,” Uma sighed pushing past them. “Like I said from the beginning, no one’s looking out for me, except me.” She spun around, leaving them to think about her words as she quickly tried to make it back to her crewmates and the former members of the Anti-Hero club. They needed to regroup. Figure out their next move if they wanted to make sure they stayed off the Isle. (And if they had to go back to thinking about old plans like stealing the wand, then so be it. Uma was tired of trying to play nice.)

Thoughts continued to swirl in her head from the meeting. She had managed to avoid the chopping block that those so-called heroes had tried to place her on and now out of Persephone's presence, her mind felt less lulled by the woman’s almost intoxicating pull and was able to finally start thinking about the implications of what the heck just happened in that council room.

Granddaughter of Poseidon . . . Grandniece to Hades . . . and Zeus.

Her hands clenched at her side as she made a sharp turn down a hall.

Was that why that meat-headed son of Hercules tried to start something with her? A good ole’ family hazing on the black sheep of the family? she thought furiously, feeling her fingertips prickle with sparks.

“I guess things have been made clear to you now, haven’t they, cousin?”

Uma spun on her heels, coming face to face with Hadie. She realized that she had made her way outside to the front of the school, deep in her thoughts. The deathly pale boy tilted his head slightly, hood casting a shadow on the upper half of his face as he observed her from his place leaning against the statue of the Beast.

“No thanks to you,” she frowned, hand on cocked hip. “When were you going to clue me in, cuz?”

Hadie shrugged. “I tried to. Several times on the Isle,” he said in his usual whispery voice, though Uma wasn’t sure if the hint of frustration she heard was there or all made up. “But even gods who have been casted out have to follow certain . . . rules when it comes to demigods like yourself.”

Perhaps it was inevitable with all the bullshit that had been thrown at her today but control over her own fate felt like it was quickly slipping through her hands. Hadie had the nerve to look surprised when she grabbed him by the front of his hoodie, intending to wipe the smug look from his face.

The boy panicked, trying to pull away but his efforts worked against them both as his sudden movement unbalanced them.

“Fucking seven seas!” Uma cried, releasing him and rubbing her forehead where his head had collided with her own. She let out several more curses that would make a sailor blush (and Harry proud) as she took a step back, rubbing angrily at the area on her head where they had connected. She glared down at Hadie from where he had fallen to the ground, caught off guard by the amount of pure shock and awe he was looking at her with.

“Y-you’re okay,” he said disbelievingly.

“If you call having your bony skull colliding with mine ‘okay’ then sure, I’m okay,” Uma spat.

Hadie shook his head quickly, all of his previous aloofness gone as he scrambled to his feet. “N-no. Not that. I mean—”

“Blackbeard’s tits!” CJ chuckled as she stepped out from a nearby bush. “I don’t think anyone has seen the mysterious heir of the Underworld this off his game since . . . well forever.”

“CJ?” Uma frowned. “This has been where you’ve been?”

“What, jealous that I got off the Isle before you, Shrimpy?” CJ smiled wickedly, stepping closer to them.

Uma didn’t respond, not falling for the blonde’s bait. If Harriet was ruthless, knowing where exactly to stab her figurative and literal knife to make her enemies fall, CJ was wickedly mischievous to the point where her sudden appearance - no matter how much she knew finding CJ alive would lift a weight that had been on her first mate’s shoulders for months - didn’t bode well with the young sea witch.

“Get the others,” Uma murmured low enough for only Hadie to hear.

“She’s not alone,” Hadie warned. (She didn’t even dare question how he knew that. There wasn’t any time to.)

“Even more reason. Go!” she ordered.

Hadie looked at her one last time, expression unreadable before he ran off.

“Ah, did wee baby death get afraid of playing with the big kids?” CJ faux pouted before grinning. “Oh well. I guess it doesn’t matter,” she said, playing with a lock of her hair. “This is a conversation between us captains.”

She couldn’t help it. Uma laughed at the ridiculousness of it all.

“You still calling yourself a captain with that little dinghy row boat you have? Girl, I’m surprised it hasn’t sunk yet.”

Instead of blowing up in anger like Uma expected her to, CJ crossed her arms smugly, a growing grin on her face. “Oh Uma, I’ve upgraded. Big time,” she said, just as a large ship surrounded in glowing gold dust floated just above the treetops towards them.

Eyes wide, Uma found herself taking a step back in the presence of the ship’s looming shadow.

“You like?” CJ asked, suddenly right next to her. The blonde threw an arm around her shoulder, leaning in as she whispered, “I even got myself a first mate,” before pointing up to the ship where unconscious and tied up against the figurehead of the ship was one Harry James Hook.

No, was all Uma was able to think.

Suddenly, the ship’s cannons BOOMED and for Uma, her world turned upside down . . .

Chapter Text

Once the Council meeting was over, Melody had planned to pull herself out of the pool and go talk to Uma. She wanted to let her know that she wasn’t alone and that there was someone in their family that cared about her. While Uma had stood up there, lashing out, her aunts had reared back, as though remembering Ursula and Morgana’s rages.

But all Melody had seen was how thin her cousin was. How her ribs rose prominently and how sharp her collarbones were. When she looked at Uma, she didn’t see a monster. She saw an abandoned girl.

A girl my family abandoned.

Melody caught sight of the young sea-witch, off to the side talking to the goddess Persephone. Throughout the entire meeting, even when she hadn’t been speaking, Persephone was mesmerizing. Growing up on stories of the Greek Gods she descended from, especially of her own great-grandfather, Melody hadn’t expected the Queen of the Underworld to be so . . . Nice.

Before Melody could pull herself out of the Council room pool, one of her aunts put a firm hand on her shoulder, stopping her.

“Melody. Come,” Attina said in a firm voice, leaving no room for argument. Melody bit her lip, shoulders slumping. Of course her aunts weren’t happy with her.

The mermaids departed wordlessly together, swimming through the canals that led from the Council room to a hidden grotto just outside of the perimeter of Auradon Prep. Her aunts were quiet, which was unusual for the normally chatty bunch of sisters.

Once they had all broken the water’s surface, the princess knew she was immediately in store for a lecturing.

“What were you thinking, Melody?” Attina hissed, breaking the silence as she angrily threw up her hands.

“Aunt Attina-”

“No!” the eldest of Triton’s daughters cut her off. “Do you know what could have happened if you had been allowed to claim that...that...that girl!?” She pulled at her hair anxiously. “When she’s caught breaking the rules - don’t you dare interrupt me Melodia!” she snapped when the young mermaid dared to open her mouth in retaliation. “I’ll shell-call your mother right now and tell her to take that necklace of yours away!”

The young mermaid gasped, clutching on to the shell hanging from her neck. It had taken so many months and so much back and forth between her grandfather and King Adam for her to be legally allowed to have such a magical item. Not even her older cousin who also went to Auradon Prep, Attina’s daughter, was allowed to have one. Only Triton’s heir had easy access to both land and sea. 

(And Melody had been thrust into the role of Triton’s heir before she could even say’high tide’.)

“You-y-you can’t do that! I was only doing what was right!” Melody cried. “It was practically a witch hunt in there!”

“Well, she is a sea witch,” one of her other aunts, Arista mumbled. Attina gave her sister a look before turning back to Melody with a deep frown. Seeing the defensive look on her niece's face, so similar to that of Ariel’s, the mermaid let out a sigh, pinching the bridge of her nose before taking a deep breath.

“Melody, I’m sorry,” she said, reaching out and gently cupping her niece's cheek. “I know you apparently see potential in this Uma girl, but what you did was risky. If you had been allowed to claim her, you would have been sent back to the Isle with her when she inevitably did something evil. The Isle is such a horrible place.”

Melody shoved her aunt’s hand away, a storm brewing in her eyes. (She truly was Ariel’s daughter.)

“Then why do we condemn children to live on it? Our own family!” Her aunts all hissed as if they had been slapped, but Melody continued, ignoring their response to their family’s dark shame. “And why is it an automatic assumption that Uma or any kid from the Isle for that matter is evil? That’s...that’s…” Melody struggled to find the words before settling on words she had heard sailors by the dock say one day when no one had known she had snuck out of her parent’s castle. “That’s bullshit!”

The older mermaids gasped.

“Princess Melodia Athena Eriksen!” Attina began, but before she could say anything further, the walls of the grotto cave shook with a reverberating boom. Attina pulled Melody close to her while some of the other mermaids dove into the water, seeking shelter from the cave’s falling debris.

And then...everything was silent again.

“W-what was that?” Melody questioned softly, slowly letting go of the older mermaid. Despite her aunt’s cry for her to stay in the grotto until they knew for sure that things were safe, the younger mermaid dove underwater to exit through the cave’s entrance to the outside, popping back up when she knew she was in a position to see the land nearby.

She gasped when she saw large dark plumes of smoke coming in the direction of Auradon Prep.

---

All Ben heard was ringing in his ears, and all he could see was smoke and dust from the explosion that had happened mere feet from where he had just stood. One moment he and Evie were walking down the hall, trying to think of some way get Uma to understand that they hadn’t meant to lie to her, that they knew that she wouldn’t risk the lives of the rest of the kids still on the Isle for petty revenge, and then the next moment the wall of the hallway exploded open, knocking both him and Evie off their feet.

The young king attempted to push himself up, going into a coughing fit as the thick cloud of dust filled his lungs, his stomach cramping painfully with each cough. 

“E-evie?” Ben coughed out, looking for familiar blue hair amongst the dust and debris. His lungs began to sting and his eyes watered due to the dust, but the panic that filled him with every second he didn’t hear a response back from his friend was suffocating enough. “Evie!” he yelled, finally managing to stumble to his feet, the ringing in his ears accompanied by a throbbing headache and an overwhelming sense of nausea.

Dancing teacups. He must have a concussion.

“EVIE!” he managed to roar before going into another coughing fit.

“Why are you screaming for some silly girl? What’s so special about her?”

Ben quickly spun on his heel, losing his balance as everything seemed to tilt sideways. He lost his balance, landing hard on his backside. He hissed in pain before looking up.

 Staring down at him was a young boy dressed in green leaves who looked extremely familiar, but Ben’s head was too woozy to remember where he had seen him before. The cocky smile on the strange boy’s face shifted into surprise as he stared down at the king.

“Beasty?” the boy said softly before enlightenment appeared on his face. “No,” he chuckled, kneeling inquisitively, like he was inspecting a bird with a broken wing, small and weak and utterly at his mercy.

Ben caught a glimpse of blue hair, covered in dust and debris, right over the boy’s shoulder. But before he could focus on whether she was alive or not, his view was blocked by the strangely familiar boy.

“You’re not the old Beasty King, are you?” the boy cooed, smile wide but eyes filled with hate. “No, but you’ll do, little Beast.”

And then the boy’s shadow peeled from the ground, grabbing Ben in a crushing hold until he couldn’t breathe, and that was the last thing the King of Auradon remembered...

----

There was something about walking into a room and having all eyes on you.

Harry loved it.

Uma commanded it.

Gil, on the other hand would rather take a step back and not deal with it.

However, that didn’t seem like an option in Auradon, Gil noted as he stepped into the school library, the few students who sat at tables filled with books pausing to stare at him.

Do I have something on my face? he wondered, self-consciously scrubbing at his cheek with the back of his hand. (Though, he supposed it was strange for a Gaston to be seen in a library.)

Honestly, Gil didn’t want much. Just for him and his crew to be off the Isle together and happy. For Uma to be his Captain and for Harry to be his First Mate. Though his stubborn friends had finally made up (like he knew they would...like they always would because even Gil knew that what was between the two was more than just destiny), Gil couldn’t help but feel a looming blade hanging over all of their heads as tensions seemed to rise at Auradon Prep.

He wasn’t completely oblivious. (After all, there was a certain amount of awareness needed if he was the one who was supposed to watch Uma’s or Harry’s back.) Gil had seen how people had stared and talked about them when they had first arrived from the Isle. That in itself wasn’t anything necessarily new. Not only as the son of one of the Big Bads on the Isle, being a member of Uma’s crew made Gil stand out even more so than just with his father’s name. People knew to give him space unless they wanted to start a fight that they wouldn’t win.

Not having to fight over rotten food or constantly eating eggs was great, but everything else Gil had hoped and expected in terms of coming to Auradon were not meeting expectations. (For one, he had yet to poop rainbow jelly beans like Jonas and Gonzo had always said happened to people in Auradon. Maybe he wasn’t eating enough starches?)

Here...Now...Things were different. There was a social hierarchy that Gil just didn’t get and he didn’t understand how he could fit in here to best help his two best friends.

Gil wasn’t the brightest, but he wasn’t blind to the pronounced dark circles underneath Uma’s eyes or how Harry’s entire body always seemed to tremble and the pale color his skin had taken recently. Plus, the members of the Anti-Hero club were also seemingly not doing well and most of them were already on their third round of detentions, except for Diego, who was able to sweet-talk his way through most things and Hadie who...well Hadie just kind of kept to himself and the plants in his room. (Gil had seen them once. They were nice.)

Wasn’t life supposed to be better in Auradon?

Sighing, Gil moved through the maze-like set of bookshelves. The boy had never known so many different types of books existed. Tracing his finger over the spines of a few as he walked past, he wondered idly if Queen Belle had read them all. He hadn’t met her but she seemed nice. (Though he was mostly basing that on his father’s stories and also on the few interactions with Ben.)     

“What’s wrong, young Atlas?”

Gil looked up, startled, to see a woman with a gentle smile looking down at him from one of the tall ladders that allowed students to reach some of the higher books.

“Uh...my name isn’t Atlas,” he pointed towards himself. “I’m Gil. Just Gil.”

The woman laughed. It was a nice sound. Warm.

“Well ‘Just Gil’, do you mind holding this ladder in place for me?”

Gil grabbed the ladder, keeping it in place. “Like this?”

“Perfect dear.” She reached up for one of the higher books, opening it and flicking through it. “Now I don’t mean to pry, but it looks like you’re carrying the weight of the heavens on your shoulders.”

“That sounds heavy. I think I would get squished.” Gil frowned. “But it is hard being here. Things don’t really make sense. I mean, things are always kind of confusing for me. My brothers and sometimes my friend Harry says it’s because my brain is egg-sized. Uma thinks I could be smart if I just listened and didn’t zone out but sometimes it’s hard on the Isle and it’s even harder here. I never know if I’m doing something right or wrong.”

The woman nodded, the dark curls that were pulled back into an updo position by a white head wrap bouncing slightly as she looked over the top of her book down at him. “Starting a new journey is always hard, especially when going through it alone. That’s why it’s a gift when you know that there are people that you know you can trust and rely on. After all, some of the greatest heroes only became so because they had people they could count on.” She chuckled softly as she adjusted herself on the ladder with practiced ease so that her back was facing the book, one of her feet hooking onto a ladder rung to stabilize her balance. “My sisters all have their own big personalities and interests but I know I can always rely on them, even when I feel lost. And that’s the truth!” she raised her hand as if in a pledge. “Do you know what I mean, young Atlas?”

Gil scratched the back of his head. “Um...yes?”

The woman laughed again as she reached up to grab another book along with the first before making her way down the ladder. Once she got down, Gil was a little surprised to realize that this woman, even without her hair piled high, was still somewhat taller than him. “Don’t worry yourself,” she said, patting his shoulder. “Your role in this story is such an important one, for yourself and for others. I look forward to telling it,” she smiled, handing him the two books in her hands.

If Gil wasn’t confused before, he was definitely confused now. He looked down at the books she handed him but frowned when the titles weren’t familiar to him. They weren’t even in a language he recognized. He barely registered the light kiss the woman pressed to his brow, a tingling sensation filling him, like when he slept on his arm wrong. When the feeling passed, he looked up, but she was gone.

“You know, it’s rude to keep a lady waiting, Gil,” a voice called out from behind him. Turning towards the voice, Gil found Audrey sitting at a nearby table, a stack of books in front of her. From the cover of the book on top of the stack, he realized it was their History of Magic textbook.

Gil blinked. “Uh...were we supposed to be meeting now?” He blinked again and then looked over his shoulder. “Did you see where the pretty library lady went?”

Sleeping Beauty daughter’s frowned. “The only librarian here is Aunt Fauna,” she explained before shrugging it off like it was of little importance.

Audrey was nice, Gil thought taking in her always nicely done hair and always nicely cleaned clothes. One of the few nice things so far about Auradon. Sure she was a bit weird and sometimes over the last few days she would appear out of nowhere, linking her arm with his and laughing randomly even when he didn’t say anything. Gil often wondered if she was going to cut someone since Harry was the only person he knew who would laugh at nothing.

Despite everything though, Audrey was one of the few Auradon-born that would speak to him. Most were either cowards or spoke down to him because they thought he was an idiot. (He wasn’t an idiot. Uma had said so herself after tripping both of his brothers into a pile of goblin dung when he came back to the Shop with a particularly bad black eye after he said it was stupid to think that a girl couldn’t be a good leader.)

“Gil,” Audrey said, a hint of exasperation in her voice when he had still yet to make a move. “Are you going to join me or just stand there?”

“Oh,” Gil nodded, placing the two books he was still holding into the bag slung over his shoulder and sitting none-too-gracefully in the seat across from her. She smiled expectantly and once again, Gil had to wonder if he had forgotten something important. “Uh...I noticed you looked tired in class right after lunch. Are you not sleeping well too because the beds are too soft here?”

Zut. That must have been the wrong thing to ask by the way the girl paled considerably.

Before Gil could fumble out an apology, a tight grip clamped down on his shoulder.

“What did you say to her?” a voice hissed angrily in his ear.

It was only Audrey’s indignant squeak of “Jay!” that stopped Gil from acting on instinct and not grabbing a nearby pencil to jab onto the hand holding him. “He didn’t do anything!”

The hand reluctantly retracted and Gil didn’t hesitate to rub the spot where it had once been, impressed more so than irritated.

“Oh, um...Sorry, man,” Jay murmured looking sheepish as he took a step back. Mal stood behind him, holding a dog that looked like the one that always followed Carlos.

Gil shrugged, hoping that would suffice as forgiveness here. It must have because Jay gave a slight nod. When he glanced back at Audrey, she looked considerably less pale and was giving Mal that look that Jonas often gave Harry, like she wasn’t sure if she was happy or not to see her. He belatedly remembered that even though Mal had gone good, there was still a lot of history between her mother and Audrey’s. (That must be awkward. Gil was glad that Ben and he didn’t seem that awkward despite their parent’s past.)

“I slept well,” Audrey smiled, answering Gil’s earlier question, though there was something in her eyes that told Gil that she wasn’t being completely honest. He didn’t push her though. He knew it wasn’t his place. Even those born in Auradon had their own secrets. “What brings you two here? I highly doubt it was just to say hello,” Audrey said, never breaking eye contact with Mal.

“Have you seen Carlos?” Mal got straight to the point. “We found Dude running around the halls frantically and we’re kind of worried.”

“I thought the dog could talk,” Gil said, reaching out to pet the animal though Mal quickly took a step back, like she expected him to break the animal’s head off. Gil must have looked hurt because Jay quickly stepped in to explain.

“The spell that was on him mostly wore off after a few days. He can only say simple things like names and stuff. Enough for us to know something is up but not exactly what.”

“Well, I haven’t seen Carlos all day,” Audrey explained. “I know during morning cheer practice Jane said that she wanted to meet up with him, but I haven’t heard anything since.”

Mal nodded before turning a glare on Gil. “And what about you, Gaston?”

Gil tilted his head to the side. Why were people getting his name wrong today? “But I’m Gil,” he said, confused. “I haven’t seen Carlos though.”

Mal’s face squished up and turned a weird red color. Gil wondered if she too was trying to poop out rainbow jellybeans.

“What about Harry?” Jay intercepted. “Dude said something about a ‘Red Pirate’.”

Gil scratched the back of his neck. Before he could answer though, a loud BOOM was heard, followed quickly by the room shaking, many of the books falling from their shelves while students let out surprised screams.

“What was that?” Audrey cried from her hiding space underneath the table.

“It sounded like it came from the direction of the Council Room,” Jay coughed as thick layers of dust swirled around them.

“Uma!” Gil gasped, already running out of the library towards the Council Room, despite Audrey, Mal, and Jay calling after him.         

---

“I’ll need you to go to the Isle of the Doomed and run another electrical power check and restart.”

A mousy brown head of hair popped up from where it had been hunched over, grading the poor excuses for essays that the students of Weird Science had turned in. The few assignments that were turned in either had handwriting that looked like chicken scratch or, in one case from one of the rare students from Shan Yu’s compound, was actual chicken scratch.

“Another one, sir?” Sophie questioned, holding back a groan. She looked up at Yen Sid who was hovering in the back part of his office where vials of chemicals and a box of canisters filled with loose-leaf tea sat. (If the young apprentice had expected an explanation when one of their students from Harriet Hook’s crew had arrived to class with said box of tea she didn’t get one, just the brief look of amusement tainted with something sad in her master’s eyes when he received it.)

The Weird Science professor’s expression darkened and Sophie held back a squeak, shoulders hunching all the way to her ears.

“No disrespect, sir!” she hurriedly tried to back-track. “I was just wondering if something was wrong since we did one less than six months ago and the electrical currents that give the barrier a boost still remained steady. Despite, um. You know, Maleficent's escape attempt.” Her master’s expression still did not change and Sophie worried her bottom lip between her teeth, fearing that she had angered the man who she had always viewed as a second father.

After a moment, Yen Sid gave a harumph before returning back to his bunsen burner, where he was boiling another beaker of water.

“I’m getting old, my dear,” he said, placing a blend of loose leaf tea in two tea infusers before placing them in two nearby cups. “And if I have done my job right training you as my apprentice,” he murmured, slowly pouring the boiled water into the cups, “then it will be you one day with your own apprentice.” He looked up at her, a thin but approving smile on his face. “But for right now, it would be wise, my young apprentice, to do as I say.” 

Sophie nodded, getting up. “Yes, sir. Of course, sir.”

The young apprentice shrugged off her lab coat, exchanging it for a dulled in color but still well-taken care of yellow jacket. She paused for a moment before reaching out for a red scarf with white polka dots - a gift from her mother.

When she turned back to the old professor, his approving smile was tainted with...something. It reminded Sophie of the same look her mother and father had given her when she was selected by Yen Sid to be his apprentice all those years ago...

“Professor?” she asked, feeling like there were a thousand questions at the back of her throat, a million and one things that she wish she could say in this one moment but couldn’t. “Sir? Is there...is there anything else you would like me to do?”

“No,” Yen Sid sighed, turning away. He added two sugars and a squeeze of lemon to one cup, aged hands moving with deft confidence.

Taking his simple reply as his dismissal, Sophie grabbed her bag and was almost one foot out the door of the office when he called out to her.

“Yes, sir?” she looked over her shoulder.

He wasn’t looking at her, instead he had his back facing her.

“Thank you for being my apprentice,” he said. “You’ll make an outstanding Sorcerer Supreme and Professor of Science when I’m gone. Be safe, my dear.”

Sophie wanted to snort. Yen-Sid? Gone? The man had lived to see many kingdoms rise and fall. Yen-Sid had always been Sorcerer Supreme (though he had once mentioned someone named Walt that he had spoken so highly of, who supposedly taught him a great many things) and everyone who had ever studied under him, a handful of individuals that Sophie found herself immensely humbled to count herself among, only ever made it to the ranking of Sorcerer Apprentice.

 “T-thank you sir,” was all she managed to get out. “I’ll come back as soon as I restart the power and check the self-replenishing power runes,” she said before leaving, giving one final look at her mentor, unable to shake the strange foreboding feeling that filled her.

She didn’t even notice the small purple lizard that managed to scurry into the office before she closed the door.

---

“Good evening citizens of Auradon. This is Snow White interrupting your regularly scheduled program with breaking news. After 20 years of peace, the United States of Auradon is on high alert after an attack on the prestigious Auradon Preparatory School For Future Heroes and Leaders that led to the kidnapping of several students including High King Ben.

“Sources say a large…” Snow White cleared her throat, hesitancy evident in her face before she continued. “Sources say a large floating ship covered in the highly restricted substance known as pixie dust launched a cannonball attack along the front of the school. This happened less than half an hour after the conclusion of the meeting of the Council of Sidekicks that was to be the debut of High King Ben’s newest Royal Councilor, who we now know is Uma of the Isle, daughter of the cruel sea witch, Ursula.

“The exact culprit behind this attack, as well as the identities of the other students kidnapped, are unknown as well as whether or not Ursula’s daughter played any role of it. Members of the Auradon Daily News have attempted to contact the Office of the King as well as the Fairy Godmother, the Headmistress of Auradon Prep but the Office of the King has not responded and Auradon Prep is currently on lockdown, to the frustration of many concerned and worried parents and guardians of the school’s students.

“In the next hour, we’ll have an expert come in to talk to us about what this means for the United States of Auradon as a whole since this is the first time we have been without a High Monarch as well as what this means for the future safety of Auradon. And this leaves us with a serious question: Has our twenty years of ‘Happily Ever After’ finally come to an end? We-”

Mickey gently placed his tea cup down as Fairy Godmother lifted her hand to mute the television. The school therapist didn’t comment on how she did so with magic and not the remote.

Fairy Godmother’s office was already tense enough.

Leaning back in his chair, legs crossed, Mickey observed the woman. She was pinching the bridge of her nose between her fingers, taking deep breaths.

“How could this have happened?” she sighed, glancing up at the muted newcast that was showing a helicopter view of the former east wing of the school’s main building. Smoke was still rising out of the gaping hole through the fire had been put out hours ago. The statue of King Adam in his beastly state had been toppled over, its horns knocked clean off. It was obvious that it had been purposely done.

“Well, I’d hate to say I told you so but-” Mickey cut off at the headmistress’s withering glare. “Sorry. This isn’t the time for petty squabbles. We were attacked. Our students were put in danger and six of our students, including the High King, have been kidnapped.” He tugged thoughtfully on the cuffs of his white gloves. “The pixie dust messed with the cameras and we only have two confirmed witnesses of what actually happened.”

“It might as well be none,” Fairy Godmother sighed again. “Uma was found unconscious and Dizzy...” she trailed off, expression growing instantly somber.

For a moment, Mickey caught a glimpse of sharp teeth, hair the color of starlight, black pupilless eyes, and pointed ears, but he blinked and the pristine but tired image of the headmistress of Auradon Prep shimmered back into view, albeit weakly. Mickey picked up his tea and slid it over wordlessly to the woman.

She looked at it for a moment, before reaching out and draining it in one long gulp. She made a face but the image of Auradon’s pristine headmistress snapped back into place more firmly. “That’s disgusting! I’ve told you before that the pills or even the shots work just as well as that disgusting brew of salamander blood and shedded pixie wings!”

“It’s a habit at this point,” he shrugged simply before his expression turned serious again. “Listen, Mildread,” he began, ignoring the weak glare she sent him at the use of her name. “Neither of us saw this coming, which narrows down greatly the number of suspects. That, along with the fact that pixie dust was used...I think we both know who the main suspect is.”

“Oh really, now?” the headmistress rolled her eyes. “And who would that be?”

“Peter Pan.”

Fairy Godmother bristled at the immortal youth’s name. “Let’s not be hasty, Mr. Topolino. We don’t know that for sure. Freddie Facilier came forward earlier and shared that Calista Jane Hook had managed to sneak her way back into Auradon Prep after her last...visit,” she wrinkled her nose distastefully. “Perhaps she and her brother had planned to kidnap King Ben all along once young Mr. Hook was able to join her off the Isle.”

Mickey couldn’t help it. He laughed. “Seriously?” he chuckled, wiping a tear from his eye. “That’s what you think? You’re losing your touch, Milly, if you can’t see true love when it’s right before you. The boy’s dedication to Ms. Uma is the only reason that Harry Hook left the Isle in the first place. You don’t need a wand to be able to sense that.”

The headmistress fumed, standing up from her chair. She had had enough. “You’re right. I don’t need a wand. What I need is a solution to get back our King before the whole nation goes into a panic! King Adam wants his son back with not a hair on that sweet boy’s head misplaced. I have a crowd of paparazzi trying to sneak onto the grounds and gobble up any bit of information that they can get their grubby little hands on. I have parents - kings, queens, lords, and ladies - calling in, questioning the safety of this institution and my competence as headmistress, demanding to yank their children out.” She walked around her table, coming toe-to-toe with the man before her, her face contorting into an angry sneer. “And I have a know-it-all member of my staff who thinks he can just come into my office and act as if I’m not aware of how dire all possible realities of our situation are!  What I need is for my students to be returned safely and unharmed. You may be the most powerful of the Sorcerer's Apprentices and therefore hold some influence in the Council of Magic, but this is my school and I don’t need any subordination from a mouse of a man who constantly critiques and judges me for my personal life choices! Now either do something useful or get the bippity-boppity out of my office!”

The room was silent, save for Fairy Godmother’s heavy breathing, her words hanging tensely in the air between them.

Mickey eventually broke the tension with a sigh, looking down somewhat ashamedly. “How do you want to go about this?” he asked tiredly.

Fairy Godmother closed her eyes for a moment, taking a step back before speaking. “Ask Cogsworth to contact Neverland. Since they’re the only known source of pixie dust, we’ll start there. And no,” she said raising her hand as he opened his mouth. “I don’t believe that Pan has awoken, but we must be thorough and leave no stone unturned for the King’s and the other students’ sake. Meanwhile, we’ll keep the lockdown in place until we know more. All students are to remain in the dorms. Food will be brought to them and until further notice, classes will be cancelled. We’ll contact Mulan and Aladdin and have soldiers from the Northern Wei and Agrabah on standby. And if this...” she paused before sighing. “If this is something bigger-”

“You mean if Pan is awake. A possibility that may be likely,” Mickey pointed out.

Fairy Godmother looked at the files of the missing students before her, each with a photo clipped to the front: King Ben, Harry Hook, Sammy Smee, Alan Murphy, Carlos De Vil, and...Evie.

“For their sake,” she said gravely, reaching over for the pot of his disgusting tea and pouring herself her own cup. “I hope you’re wrong.”

“But if I’m not, we’ll need help. Magical help,” Mickey pressed before pausing thoughtfully. “When was the last time you talked to your sister?”

“Blue?” Fairy Godmother asked confusedly as she back at her desk, thinking of her fairy sister who was just as invested in Pinocchio's family as the headmistress herself was invested in Cinderella’s family.

“No,” Mickey corrected. “I’m talking about your other sister.”

Fairy Godmother let out a snort, taking a long drag from her cup before placing it down. “Haven’t seen Circe since the Accords were signed and the Isle was created. For all I know, she’s not even Circe anymore. She always had a bad habit of...reinventing herself on whatever whim she had. Besides, if she knew what was good for her, she’d never step back in Auradon, else King Adam would have her head for the curse she placed on him and his castle.”

Mickey frowned. “You’d think he be thanking her. Afterall, he’d never would have met Belle if she hadn’t had cursed him.”

“If Circe had just been doing it for the sake of matchmaking then sure,” she frowned. “But unlike the Blue Fairy or even Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather, Circe always toed the line between light and dark magic. If she did something that had good outcomes, it was never out of selflessness. No,” she shook her head. “If things get dire we’ll call the members of the Council of Magic that we do have and deal with it with reason. We don’t need Circe or whatever she is calling herself now…”

 --

Her entire body felt heavy. And hot.

Eyes still closed, she instantly recognized the familiar feeling of Carlos curled up asleep against her side and her tired mind immediately began to think that they had probably fallen asleep in one of their rooms and that the weight leaning against her back was probably Jay and the weight that was cutting off circulation across her legs was Mal.

Having pieced together that easy and normal situation, Evie slowly began to let herself drift off again.

“Damn ye, lass! Wake up!” a roughened voice that was definitely not Mal’s hissed against her leg. And the body behind her, though firm, didn’t have nearly as much muscle as Jay’s though in her hazy mind felt just as familiar.

Evie’s eyes snapped open, the light instinctively making her wince. As she blinked her eyes several times until they were able to focus again, the daughter of the Evil Queen realized several things: judging by the air and the hard ground she was on they were definitely not at Auradon Prep; her hands were tied tightly behind her back; Carlos wasn’t waking up no matter how many times she bumped against him; Ben was probably tied up and unconscious behind her; and Harry Hook… And Harry Hook was leaning on his back against her legs, his tied hands rubbing furiously against her fallen crown that had some point been propped between her boots.

Growing up on the Isle, even as sheltered as she had, had taught her that sometimes she was only given seconds to figure out a situation.

“That’s not sharp enough to cut through the rope. You need a knife,” she kept her voice low, eyes beginning to search the area that they were in already for an alternative. They looked to be in a hut, but there didn’t seem to be much else in it other than themselves

Harry paused in his attempt at sawing off his bonds to glare coldly up at her.

“What? Really? You think?” he hissed, before going back to work. Evie rolled her eyes but clenched her feet tighter together to keep the crown in place as he continued his sawing attempt. After what felt like several moments, he let out an irritated growl.

“Fucking seven seas!”

“Where are we Harry? Who tied us up?”

“That would be me, princess,” CJ grinned, walking in. “Though if I had my way, your pretty little ass wouldn’t even be here.”

“What have you done, Calista?” Harry growled, voice rough and eyes filled with the utmost hatred. Evie had heard that CJ and Harry didn’t get along but Harry’s reaction seemed really intense.

“Oh, nothing much,” a voice chuckled above them. Evie looked up to see a boy wearing clothes of green leaves floating above them, hands placed cockily on his hips. “She just woke me up,” he chuckled as he floated down next to CJ.

“And who are you?” Evie tried to smile, using the same tone she used with the younger children at Auradon Prep though everything within her was telling her that this boy was dangerous.

“Don’t bother. Yer lookin’ at a devil, lass,” Harry growled, eyes never leaving the boy.

The young boy didn’t seem insulted. If anything, he grinned wider.

“Just as spirited as always, Hook!”

 Harry tried to spit at the boy. “Ye don’t know me, Pan!” he said, loathing in every word.

It took a second, but Evie gasped, eyes wide. “You’re Peter Pan.”

Pan’s chest puffed with pride as he floated down, crouching before her with a pleased look. “See! I knew you’d be a good Wendy!” he grinned, pleased, reaching out to touch her. However, before he could make contact, he quickly withdrew his hand, as if he had been stung. His eyes went back and forth between his hand and her before he floated back, a slow and pleased smile growing on his face. “Well, you just got more interesting.”

---

The fog that only played in the corners of her eyes were the only clues that Uma had to know that she was dreaming.

Harry was tugging on her hand, a soft grin on his lips as he looked over his shoulder at her, pulling her further into the dream, further into a forest that she had never seen before.

“Where are we going?” she asked with a frown.

Something was off. Something was not quite...right...

“Just a little bit further, darling,” he promised, giving her a hand a light squeeze as they moved through the deep foliage. She wasn’t sure where he was leading her, their path not apparent, twisting through and around the deep foliage seemingly directionless.

After awhile, his strides became longer and it was difficult for her to keep up with his faster pace.

“Harry!” Uma nearly tripped over a root. “You’re going too fast! Harry!”

He continued on, ignoring her angry shouts to slow down until he brought her to a cliff.

Uma snatched her hand away from him, glaring at his back. After a moment, she begrudgingly moved forward to look at the view that he was so captivated by, breath catching at the beautiful sight. From here she could see the glistening water below them, the water of the island’s lagoons shining bright like it was made of jewels. If she strained her ears enough, she could hear a chorus of hauntingly beautiful singing.

Mermaids, she thought momentarily with distaste before she caught a glimpse of her first mate. He looked so...unburdened. So free.

“It’s beautiful,” she breathed out, eyes never leaving him.

Harry was silent for a moment before he looked down at her. The easy smile that was on his face slipped, his eyes widening and before she could ask him what was wrong, he was spinning fully around on his heel, eyes wide and searching for something that seemed to increase the panic in his eyes every second he couldn’t find it.

“Uma?” he called out, fear tinting his voice.

“What?” said girl questioned, confused, just as he shouted her name again.

“Uma!?”

“Harry! Chill! I’m right here stop-”

But he couldn’t hear her. Couldn’t see her. He continued to frantically call out her name, dropping his hook, pulling at his hair madly.

It broke something within her and Uma tried and tried and tried to move towards him, but she found her feet stuck, unable to go to her first mate who was slowly backing up to the edge of the cliff in his crazed state.

“Harry!” she struggled to move towards him as his foot nearly stepped off the edge, fear embedding itself into her very core.

And then...he stopped. Everything stopped. The sounds of the lagoon and the singing mermaids all silenced. And then suddenly, Harry looked right at her. Lines of the thick kohl he wore ran down his face, mapping the tear lines and making his face look gaunt and hollow and dead. But he seemed to have finally seen her as his lips turned upwards in a strained smile that chipped cruelly at her heart.

“Oh, a pirate’s life is a wonderful life,” he suddenly started singing, voice low and thick, never breaking eye contact with her. “It’s filled with adventure and sport.”

“Harry,” the sea-witch attempted to keep her voice calm. “Come here,” she extended a hand out slowly to him. “Take my hand.”

“But live every minute for all that is in it,” he continued to sing, his voice growing louder as he took a frightening step back.

“HOOK! Don’t you dare!” Uma yelled, trying to fight the invisible force that kept her feet from moving,

Harry spread out his arms, singing more boisterously, “For the life of the pirate is short,” he punctuated the last word, making a tight spin on his foot. “Oh, the life of the pirate is-” and then he fell backward off the cliff.

“NO!” Uma screamed, able to finally move. She thoughtlessly jumped off the cliff as well, just as Harry went crashing through the surface and beneath the deep waters below.

As soon as she was submerged in the water, her legs seamlessly transformed into tentacles, propelling her through the water to the unmoving body of her first mate.

She got closer to him, grabbing his arm. His eyes were closed, his skin pale and his lips already blue. But she had a hold of him. She could still save him. There was no other option.

She pulled him close to her, preparing to bring them both up to the surface when his body gave out, dispersing into sea foam.

“No,” Uma said shaking her head, frantically trying to grab at the white substance as it began to float upwards. “No! NO! Not him! Please! NO!”

“BuT liVe EvErY mOmEnT fOr AlL tHaT iT iS,” a warped version of Harry’s sang around her tauntingly. “bUt LiVe EvErY mOmEnT fOr AlL tHaT iT is,”

“Stop it!” Uma cried covering her ears, the remaining sea foam spinning around her. “Please just stop!”

And then...everything stopped. And she felt suddenly felt at peace.

She was floating now.

She allowed herself to lazily float, still getting used to her tentacles. It was strange feeling, one that she was not sure would ever feel completely like herself, but she would make do. She always did.

She continued to float past a school of fish, watching the patterns and shapes they formed as they blocked out the sunlight from that pierced through the sea’s surface. At one point, they seemed to form a hook shape and she briefly wondered why that seemed to cause her a bit of pain from her heart, before the thought slipped from her mind.

She reached up, letting one hand play in the refracted light, the other lightly placing itself on her stomach. She closed her eyes, at peace for the moment.

Just her, the currents, and her chi- And then, a boy with one amber eye and pale skin and hair the color of blue flame was before her.

“It is not your time to die, cousin. Wake up!” Hadie commanded, snapping his fingers.

Uma gasped, breaking through the surface of the water and sputtering as coldness enveloped her and water got uncomfortably in her nose. It took her a moment to realize that she was sitting up in an ornate tub, the spawn of her mother’s demise hovering worriedly over her, that disgusting look of pity still in those seafoam green eyes.

“Y-you’re awake!” Ariel’s brat exclaimed as if that was supposed to mean anything to Uma. As if that gave the mermaid any reason to be anywhere near her.

“It wasn’t her time,” Hadie’s whisper-like voice cut through the tension in the room like a knife. “You had nothing to worry about, cousin.”

Even though it was only recently that Uma had learned about her heritage, the sea witch felt a ball of jealousy in her chest at the familial title her newly discovered cousin addressed Triton’s spawn.

“Someone going to tell me why the hell I’m in a tub?” Uma splashed the water she still sat in, unconsciously forcing out a bit of power that seemed to be rolling like unsettled waves beneath her skin. She grinned a bit when the raven haired girl let out a squeak as she was caught in a splash, managing to soak a bit of her clothes. Hadie miraculously remained dry despite the floor and wall around him being splashed with water.

His lips quirked upwardly.

“You were hurt badly in the explosion that CJ and her mysterious accomplice created as a cover to kidnap the King. Two of Mal’s gang were also taken, Grimhilde’s daughter and the pup, along with Samuel Smee and Murphy...oh, and your pirate,” Hadie said as if discussing the weather. “I was told that the son of Gaston found you and brought you to the infirmary. The mortal doctors here weren’t sure you were going to make it. It was Melody who reminded them of your heritage.”

“M-mer-people heal quicker in water. Faster if it’s salt water,” Melody informed, meeting Uma’s glare with a determined gaze of her own. “We brought you back to your room and-”

“I’m not going to thank you,” Uma cut her off, keeping her expression blank. (Inside she was screaming. In her dreams and reality all she could do was watch as Harry was taken from her. The one constant in her life snatched from her grip.)

“I didn’t do it for your thanks, Uma,” the mermaid said with a tone as if she was disappointed that Uma didn’t seem to be getting something that she felt was obvious.

It irked Uma to no end. Her mother’s necklace thrummed with power against her skin.

“Don’t give me that damn pitying look you’ve been giving me since the Council meeting,” the sea witch snarled, standing up and stepping out of the tub so that she came face to face with the other girl.

A blush crawled over Melody’s face, but she held her ground.

“You say we’re related and maybe we are, but blood relations mean nothing to me,” Uma paused, glancing over at Hadie as well. “Ma made sure I knew that blood meant nothing. So both of you, I’m only going to say this once, so listen up. I don’t need your pity. I don’t need your handouts. I don’t need this family shit!”

The water of the tub began to boil, sloshing dangerously over the sides. Hadie eyed it cautiously.

“Uma…” he warned. But the sea witch continued on, unstoppable as always, Ursula’s necklace giving off a faint but threatening glow.

 “I don’t need you! I have a crew!  I have a first mate!” her voice hitched, eyes burning, “I have-!”

The door exploded open, Gil barreling in. He blinked owlishly at them, as if he wasn’t sure exactly why he was here. The necklace stopped glowing, becoming dormant once again.

“Uma?” he questioned before frowning, then looking away, and scratching the back of his neck. “Why are you naked?”

Though her cheeks warmed at her own delayed realization, Uma kept her voice even. “The better question Gil, is why aren’t you giving me your shirt?”

“Oh! Yeah! Right,” the blonde nodded. He quickly took off his shirt and held it out to his captain.

“You’re right,” Hadie said, for once sounding amused as she shrugged on Gil’s oversized shirt over her head. When she turned to glare at him, he was looking at Gil like she had seen Evie look at an expensive dress. “You may not need us. But you’ll want us...one day.”

“I think you both have other places to be,” Uma purposely stepped in front of Gil, blocking him from Hadie’s view the best her short stature could do. “So get your asses out of here.”

Gil made a move to leave but Uma grabbed him by one of his belt loops.

“NOT you, Gil.”

Melody followed Hadie out, glancing over her shoulder once she made it outside the door of Uma’s room. “He’s right, if you ever want our help-”

Ursula’s daughter closed the door on the mermaid.

“Fairy Godmother would say that was rude,” Gil chided.

Uma glared at him before turning around and releasing a scream filled with anger, frustration, and an ocean’s worth of other feelings until all that was left was empty and coldness. She couldn’t explain it. It felt like her mind was numb and the only way she could even think to describe it some sort of sixth-sense connection to Harry, one that on some level she had always been aware she had but had gotten so used to that she forgot about it. Until now, when she couldn’t feel the usual lulling thrum.

“Uma?” Gil finally spoke after awhile.

The pirate captain flopped face down on her bed. “What is it Gil?” she murmured into her mattress.

“I-I know I’m not first mate material like Harry but…” he paused trailing off until Uma could feel one of his hands rest comfortingly on her shoulder. “I got your back. I’ll...I’ll hold up the entire heavens for you if that’s what you need me to do.”

Uma snorted, though she turned to lay on her side to look up at him. “You say the weirdest things, but...uh...thanks.”

Gil smiled brilliantly and without warning reaching over and gave her a tight hug. Allowing herself a few seconds, the hard exterior of the Pirate Queen briefly melted, revealing just sad and scared Uma hugging one of her best friends.

Eventually, she shoved Gil away, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. She appreciated that Gil didn’t point out how red her eyes looked.

“We have to get him back, Gil. We have to get them all back.”

The blonde nodded, a rare serious and focus look on his face. “I...I think I might know where you can start.”

Less than half an hour later, dressed in her own clothes, Uma found herself in the school’s infirmary. She had sent Gil off to do something only she could trust him with, insecurities appeased by the loyalty that oozed from the boy.

She watched Dizzy’s even breathing, thinking to herself that it looked so strange to see the usually vibrant girl so...still.

“She was having really wicked waking dreams,” Diego, who sat next to Dizzy’s bed like a stoic sentry, sighed. “Some sort of spell. The doctors thought it would be best to give her something to knock her out into a dreamless sleep until they could figure out a counterspell. Since I’m 18 and legally an adult here, they let me stay with her, despite that Chad kid throwing a fit when they turned him away.”

“Girl deserves the rest,” Uma said getting up from her position sitting on the edge of the bed. She paused, plucking the vibrant green leaf that laid upon the nearby bed stand. “Is this…?”

“Yeah,” Diego nodded, as he moved to tuck the unconscious girl further into her bed. “When Evie’s boy, Doug, found her, she was clutching this. I don’t know much about magic but...maybe it can help you find CJ and whoever she’s working with.”

Uma tilted her head to the side. “So you think there was someone else helping the little brat, too?”

Diego let out a tired chuckle. “No offense to your boyfriend-”

“First mate,” Uma corrected automatically, though there was no heat behind her words.

Diego let out another chuckle. “Apologies, Queenie. But maybe if this was Harriet I’d believe the possibility of a Hook working alone. CJ and Harry tend to…” he paused, obviously searching for the right word that wouldn’t offend her. “Not do well without some sort of...anchor.”

“Well even more reason why I need to get my first mate back,” Uma said pocketing the leaf.

“And my cousin,” Diego added.

Uma observed him, keeping her expression blank. Carlos wasn’t one of her priorities. Harry was, of course. And not bringing Ben back alive and well was the equivalent of putting a noose around her neck. Sammy Smee and Big Murph were under her protection. But Evie and Carlos were Mal’s problems.

“Dragon Breath should have that covered,” the sea witch said, preparing to make her way out when she felt Diego reach out and grab her arm.

“Mal isn’t the one I follow,” Diego stated, his words adding more weight to her shoulders.

She watched him over her shoulder for a moment before nodding. “I’ll see what I can do,” was all she would promise, all she would allow herself to promise because if it came down to it, she would sacrifice even Ben if it meant Harry was safe and at her side.

Letting go of her arm, Diego nodded, though he didn’t seem completely convinced.

Uma gave Dizzy one final glance before exiting the infirmary.

Once alone in the unusually quiet hallway, Uma allowed her shoulders to slump slightly. She closed her eyes, breathing in deeply, centering herself.

She felt like she was breaking.

“You look like crap.”

Uma bit her lip, holding back a sharp retort as she pushed away from the wall and stood tall, a cool glare on her face.

Mal waited impatiently with crossed arms and a cocked hip. “You have something we can use?” the half-fae asked.

Uma pulled out the leaf from her pocket. “What about you?”

Without breaking eye-contact with Uma, Mal reached into the book bag slung over her shoulder and pulled out a book. Maleficent’s spell book.

“Jay hasn’t lost his touch. It was easy for him and Gil to sneak out and get it back from the museum, especially with Jordan’s help,” Mal explained, looking like she would rather be anywhere else, but sticking out her hand. “Truce?”

“Truce,” Uma gripped the other girl’s hand tightly, and they both surveyed each other, each thinking the same thing. If I have to sacrifice him for the other though . . .

Mal stepped back, a sneer pulling at her lips. “But I still think you’re a shrimpy loser with delusions of grandeur.”

Uma bared her teeth in a facsimile of a smile, stepping forward and relishing the look of unease on Mal’s face as she registers how close Uma is. “And you’re an uppity bitch who can’t see past the end of her upturned nose. What’s your point?”

“Though a cat fight would be fun to watch,” Jay said, stepping out from a hiding space, Gil following. “We have bigger issues, like getting our friends back.”

Mal turned on her heels, walking in the direction of her room. “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s make a locator brew.”

Chapter Text

Once upon a time, they had left her behind. 

Not for the first time and not for the last. She was always left running after their red leather coattails. An after thought in their journeys of recognition. 

The Isle was a rough and dangerous place for anyone. Even the young knew that the first few years were all about survival. A test some would even say. How to either be unseen or be quick enough to get out of a tricky spot.

And sometimes the greatest dangers came from the ones that brought you into this world…

For the lucky few (or maybe unlucky) that made it to the double digits and had a backing either through their parent’s name or their gang reputation, they could start making a name for themselves. Even then, only a select few - the meanest, cruelest,  and most cunning - actually made it out on top of the kiddie pile to even think about playing with the adults who looked down at them like vermin clawing for their scraps...

Keeping all of this in mind, it was strange for six-year-old Calista Jane “CJ” Hook to push through the crowd as confidently as she did, moving down the uneven streets of the market alone, splashing mud on anyone unfortunate to be near her. 

Too small and too scrawny and with hair in many matted knots, CJ was still too young to have been given (i.e. steal) one of her father’s coats like her siblings, but the quality of the worn but sturdy boots that were stuffed to fit her tiny feet, along with the noticeably less amount of dirt that covered her face meant she was better off than some of the other unfortunate bastard sons and daughters of this Isle. It should have been warning enough for any who even dared to mess with her…

CJ was supposed to be on one of her father’s ships, waiting for Harry to come back from whatever he did with Ursula’s recently shrimp-smelling daughter and take her to Dr. Facilier’s shop to play with Freddie. But even though she had pointed to where the hands on his pocket watch would be when he needed to pick her up multiple times, her idiot brother had still not shown up even after being over an hour late.

He had forgotten her! And it was probably Uma’s fault too since CJ knew the older girl could tell time, unlike her brother. 

What was so great about Uma, anyway? CJ thought the prank that Mal had played on her was great. She had hoped Harry wouldn’t want to play with the shrimp-smelling girl and instead would decide to go on adventures with CJ, his most amazing and cool sister. (He should be honored at how fortunate he is to be related to the CJ Hook!) However, if anything, the incident made his friendship with Uma stronger and tighter, distancing himself further and further from his baby sister.

Tired of waiting for what she wanted, headstrong CJ decided to go see her friend on her own. After all, she had made the trip several times with Harry and a few more times with Harriet when the older girl was still living with them. (CJ didn’t know that the empty gnawing pain she felt in her chest was due to the idea that both of her siblings abandoned her). She didn’t need them. She could be a big bad pirate all on her own.

CJ held her short frame as tall as she possibly could as she made her way through the crowd. It shouldn’t be too hard…

Right?

“Hey, look at her. Pretty li’l runt, ain’t she?”

“Aye. Ya lost little one? Need an uncle to walk ya home?”

CJ frowned, staring up at the two grimy looking older men grinning down at her.

“Never go anywhere with a man who ain’t Mr. Smee or Harry, ya hear me, Calista Jane?” a memory of Harriet saying this while firmly gripping her chin played in the back of her head.

“Ah, cat got yer tongue, poppet?” one of the men laughed, reaching out to grab her arm.

“And if they try to force ya, run like Barbosa’s ghost is after ya!”

CJ kicked the man’s shin hard, a howl of pain escaping his lips. The other man tried to grab after her, but the youngest Hook child slipped between his legs and took off.

“Get back here, ya li’l wench!” the first man yelled as both men started going after her.

The little girl ran and ran, turning up and down streets to get the two men off her tail. She finally ducked into an alley, hiding behind some wooden crates. She bit the inside of her cheek, trying to keep quiet and remain hidden like Harriet and Harry always made her do when daddy had too much of his “special juice” and went chasing after Harry until either Harriet or Mr. Smee somehow managed to stop him.

The worn and taped boots of the men paused at the entrance of the alley-way.

“I coulda sworn I saw her turn down here,” one man, the man she kicked with a funny looking scar across the bridge of his nose, murmured as he stepped into the alley, kicking and knocking over anything in his search.

“Li’l tramp. Probably ain’t worth the effort of catchin’,” his companion spat.

“Aw, don’t say that, mate,” the scarred man growled. “Those pretty little eyes of hers are probably worth a couple of even prettier little coins from the witches. They like to still do rituals and shit to their demon lord despite not having any magic here.”

CJ more so heard rather than saw the other man shudder. She herself didn’t like the witches that they were talking about. There were many types of witches on the Isle: Ursula, the Evil Queen, and Madam Mim being the ones that instantly came to mind first. However, there were another category of witches on the Isle, witches who were rumored to be the Mistresses of Chernabog. They were old, twisted, and shrivelled women who had willingly given their souls and beauty to the God of the Night in hopes that he would one day rise from his mountain and rain terror down upon their enemies. CJ remembered how even Harriet, her strong and fearless sister, wouldn’t even dare to mess with them unless she absolutely had to.

No, CJ thought, reaching for the small pocket knife she had stolen off of Harry earlier that morning when she had jumped on him to wake him up from another dream that made him sigh “Uma” and “fucking pixie” every now and again amongst his snores. She wasn’t going to be taken to any witches.

“And if ya can’t run…” Harriet’s voice reminded her.

Her hand trembled slightly as she waited for the men to step closer to her hiding space.

“Then stick ‘em with the pointy end!”

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you, poppet.”

Eyes wide and unintentionally dropping her blade, CJ realized that scar man’s companion had snuck up behind her and was now holding a knife against her throat with one hand while the other pulled roughly on her tangled mane.

“You hurt me and you’re gonna be dead!” the girl yelled, trying to move back as the man with the scar knelt in front of her. “My sister and brother are the meanest kids on the Isle!”

“Oh shut up, ye wee bastard!” the man behind her hissed, annoyed as he tugged harder on her hair, causing tears of pain to form in her eyes. “Like we’re afraid of some no-name kids. Now be good,” he grinned, revealing a few yellow teeth amongst a mostly toothless mouth. “The witches would want ya alive but they wouldn’t be too put off if you were just a few minutes dead.”

“NO!” CJ howled, trying to scratch and bite her way away from these men. She didn’t want to be some ingredient in some witches séance! She didn’t want to be alone with these men! She just wanted to have an adventure with her big sister and her big brother! “LET ME GO!” she began to sob earnestly.

“Ah damn! Ye fuckin’ idiots made the li’l monster cry,” a familiar voice sighed tiredly.

“Get out of here lad! Ain’t nothing for ye here,” the man with the scar hissed.

The intruder stepped forward, a boy with a mess of black hair framing bright blue eyes that narrowed when CJ let out another whimper of pain. “Now, that’s where yer wrong. I don’t think ye understand whose sister yer messin’ with,” the boy grinned wickedly, holding up a polished hook in his hand, one of Captain Hook’s old ones that had been polished and fitted so that he could hold it in his less dominant sword-wielding hand.

That was apparently all the introduction the two men needed to see as they connected the dots, gasping before pushing CJ as far away from them as possible, hoping that that would be enough to appease Captain Hook’s insane and cruel son. Despite the Isle’s size, rumors spread quickly with nothing else to do but waste away. Even with only being just shy of eleven, the boy was starting to make a name for himself as a fierce and ruthless fighter with his manic laugh and what some could only see as an obsession with Ursula’s disgraced daughter. Just the other day he had hung a man twice his size by his toes for daring to call the sea witch’s brat “Shrimpy.”

“W-we didn’t know!” the man with the scar tried to defend himself to this boy not even half his age. “She din’ look like yer father!” he continued before his eyes widened, trying to backtrack. “I mean, she didn’t have the Hook red coat. The red coat like you be wearing! We thought she was just another runt.”

“They said they were gonna give me to the witches for my eyes and then they pulled my hair!” CJ pouted crossly, tears already forgotten as she looked irritatedly up at Harry.

The boy sighed, shrugging, looking at the men with a “what can you do?” look on his face. “Well gentlemen, runt or no, it seems you’ve woken a sleepin’ beast.”

The men began to beg at him but all Harry could do was shake his head.

“I’m sorry, but it ain’t up to me,” he shrugged, raising his hook . . .

Just as sword emerged from the front of one man before pulling back and doing the same with the other. Both men tried to staunch the blood with their hands but it poured freely through their fingers, too quickly for anything to be done as they began to choke on their own blood. 

Harry frowned, looking put out. “Ya couldn’t save one for me, Ettie?”

Harriet wiped the blood off of her sword on one of the dying men’s pants, looking nonchalant.

“Think of it as punishment for not looking after Calista Jane properly.”

“‘Think of it as punishment,’” Harry mocked. “Davy Jones, what happened to your damn accent, lass? You abandon us for months to go play on the other side of the Isle with all ‘em land-loving stuckups and all of a sudden ya think yer hot shit!”

“I like it!” CJ exclaimed, beaming up at her big sister with nothing short of admiration, totally desensitized to the sight of two bodies bleeding out. Harriet smirked at her before a frown quickly replaced it.

“Calista Jane, what were you doing walking the streets alone? You’re too young and without any street cred to go walking around the Isle by yourself,” the eldest Hook sibling reprimanded.

Crossing her arms and frowning, CJ stomped her foot. “But ya told me you did it when you were younger than me.”

Harriet frowned, stepping over the now dead bodies and bending down to grab CJ firmly by the chin. They both had their father’s brown eyes despite Harriet’s much darker skin tone. “Because I didn’t have an older sister or even an idiot older brother (“Hey!”) to watch my back,” she said gruffly, the accent that she had tried to rid herself of leaking through. “There’s a lot of bodies I wouldn’t mind seeing sent off to Davy Jones but I refuse to have ye be one of ‘em, Calista Jane. Not yet. Not this young. Not ever . Ye understand?”

Sighing, CJ nodded. Though Harriet could be really cool, there were a few times where she was no fun.

“Sowry,” she said, fat tears waiting to fall from her eyes.

Harry rolled his eyes. “Oh come on ya li’l fish bait. If yer gonna try to throw a con over us, the least ya could do is realize no one’s gonna believe that baby talk crap at yer age,” he paused, thinking. “Though they might think yer a lil’ slow between the ears but that’s not really you acting then, is it?” he teased.

Harriet straightened up, smacking Harry hard behind the head, causing CJ’s fake tears to immediately stop and the younger girl to break into wicked little giggles.

“Damn lass! That’s me head! I only got one of ‘em!” Harry hissed, rubbing the abused spot.

Harriet ignored him and turned back to CJ. “Let’s do a proper scam.”

CJ gasped excitedly, dancing a little in her spot with excitement. Harriet hardly ever wanted to run a scam with anyone but her crew. “All of us?”

Harriet turned back to look at Harry and CJ held her breath. Ever since the “Shrimpy” incident, Harry had been sticking even closer to Uma, having no time to run scams with his little sister.

The young pirate boy sighed, as if it would be such a chore, but the eager look in his eyes told the truth.

“Oh, why not?”

Later that night, being lulled to sleep by the sound of Mr. Smee singing an old sea shanty above deck and surrounded by toys and sweets that Harriet and Harry had allowed her to keep, CJ decided that today was one of the best days of her life and she would do anything to have another adventure with her siblings.

---

This was one of the worst days of Harry’s life. 

Not even his worst nightmares had been able to capture the complete and utter off-putting feeling that crept into the bottom of his stomach and died like some foul, odious rat when he came face-to-face with the harbinger of all of his father’s failures; the specter that haunted and drove his father mad, like a shadow within reach but untouchable.

With messy dark auburn hair, pointed ears, and deceivingly cherub features, this was the boy. 

This was his father’s nightmares personified. 

This was the ghost Captain Hook always saw when he looked at his own son.  

Harry wanted to spit in the boy’s face as Pan gave Harry one final look of glee before rushing out of the hut that was their prison, pulling a still bound and struggling Evie with him. Harry wanted to shout and scream until his throat was raw and bloody, to curse to the deepest depths of Davy Jones’s locker the boy who had always been a haunting shade in his life.

 He also wanted to yell at CJ for the epitome of her brash thinking that not even he, Harry Hook himself, could be proud of. He wanted to bombard her with questions, demanding every detail of how she got off the Isle and landed in this godforsaken dark land that he knew was Neverland just as easily as he knew sea ponies were Uma’s favorite animal. He wanted to be free of the ropes that restrained him and tug her forcefully into his arms, crushing her to his side until she was oh so teeny and tiny and could fit nice and safe in his pocket where he could always protect her...even from herself.

“Callie,” he looked up at her, making a quick glance at the silent sentries at the door. 

The possessed Big Murph had tied him to one of the thick posts that held up the roof of the hut before taking his place once again at the entrance where an equally possessed Sammy Smee stared off into the distance. Carlos and Ben were still knocked out on the dusty floor, bound by only the ropes that Harry himself had initially woken up to. 

He didn’t want to think about Evie’s crown scuffed up and abandoned in the dirt where she had been…

“Don’t worry about them,” CJ suddenly broke the silence, eyes still not looking at him. “Pan has plans for them.”

Harry didn’t want to know who she was referring to or what plans had in store. He just wanted to get away from this damned place, his father’s warnings of Neverland’s Curse becoming all too real.

“What have you done?”

Flicking her eyes briefly up from the map she was studying, CJ proudly replied, “Stole this map from the Chieftess’ daughter, who’s a right pain in the ass. It has all the ports that Neverland has been trading with!” She excitedly pointed to what Harry could only assume from his position were said ports. “We can start with these two smaller ports here and pillage and plunder to our hearts content! Make names for ourselves outside of Daddy’s shadow before we hit some of the bigger ports and-”

“Ye damn done lost yer mind.”

CJ scowled, all the excitement from her face quickly snuffing out to something much darker and crueler. (If it was any other situation, Harry would have almost been proud of the fierce look. But it wasn’t another situation.)

 “Careful, Harry. You ain’t in a position to be saying things like that. Show a little respect for your wee baby sister.”

“Respect?” Harry laughed cruelly. “Now that’s a funny one. Maybe just as funny as ye thinkin’ ye actually have any power here! For seven sea’s sake. Callie! I thought ye were dead. Harriet, she- We all thought ye were dead!” CJ’s hard face broke momentarily at the pain in her brother’s voice, but Harry continued on. “A-and now I find ye not only alive and still a nuisance but yer here with the devil himself!”

Building walls tightly around herself, she scoffed and rolled her eyes before getting up to her feet. “You sound like Daddy.” She took a moment to roll up the map before giving Harry’s cheek a light smack with it. She grinned impishly as he growled. “Ever thought that he was wrong about some things? I mean, we both know that a few knots weren’t quite right with dear ol’ dad. And I did what I had to do to get off the Isle. Never waste an opportunity is what they taught us in Dragon Hall. What they teach you at Serpent Prep? Mouth Breathing 101?” She chuckled. “Had to with all that rotten shrimp smell your dear Uma forces people to tolerate.”

Harry seethed. CJ smiled smugly. She always knew what were exactly the wrong buttons to push. 

“Don’t.” Harry warned seriously, eyes narrowed and trained on CJ just as intensely as her gaze was trained on him. He vaguely noticed the way Beastie Boy Jr.’s eyes fluttered, silently awakening and the way that the pup’s shoulders moved minutely, hands slowly pulling out a small switchblade from his pocket that had been overlooked, but it was hard for Harry to focus when his breathing was growing shallow and red began to bleed along the edges of his vision.

“Come on, Harry!” CJ crouched before him, eyes and smile wide in glee as her fingers dug into the material of his jacket’s shoulder. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up at her touch. “Forget about that little poser pretending to be captain. Forget about Daddy and his fears. We’re actually here. Neverland. Everything we want is at the tip of our fingers. We could be great! We could be feared. It’s the adventure you’ve always promised me,” she grinned with such sincerity that Harry wished he could for once give her what she wanted…

But just as his skin had buzzed and tingled with the taste of magic thick on his tongue when he had first walked into that damn school therapist’s office, his skin crawled and the overwhelming smell of sickly sweet magic that nearly made Harry want to vomit in Pan’s presence tugged relentlessly at the back of his subconsciousness in warning.   

“I can’t do that Callie,” Harry looked away.

CJ hand struck out, grip tight on his chin as she forced him to look at her. Her face was twisted with rage. “Why? Because of Uma?” she spat. He could feel her hand tremble despite her bruising grip. “Why always her? What is it about her that you’d leave your own sister, your own blood for!”

“She’s my captain!”

“ And I’m your sister! ” CJ screamed, face red, her entire frame shaking. “ Don’t you want to be great together? Can’t- Aren’t ya even happy to see me?”

The desire to tug on one of her knotted braids cooled his anger. “Ye know I am,” he murmured softly. “Probably the best news I’ve had since getting off the damn Isle. Ye know soft words...that’s not our way, especially as Hooks but when I thought you were gone,” he coughed, clearing his throat. “...I am. So happy, Callie. But nothin’ good be coming from Pan! I don’t know what he promised you but-”

“But nothing!” CJ shoved a wad of fabric in his mouth, silencing him. “Unlike some people, Pan keeps his promises. I will be the captain of my own ship. I will have my own crew.” She roughly grabbed his hair so that he could soak in her cruel grin. “And all of Auradon will fear me for me and not because I’m your kid sister. I will make a name for myself! Watch me!”

---

Harriet gasped suddenly, nearly cutting off a finger on the knife she had been sharpening. A few wary patrons glanced at her strangely before pretending like she wasn’t there lounging next to Uma’s throne in Ursula’s Chip Shoppe.

(Her brother’s little Wharf Rats had nearly drawn their knives and shivs and other assorted weapons that they had failed to leave in the weapon check when she had first attempted to sit in their precious Captain’s chair. Le Foux Deux, her current first mate with Sammy Smee gone, had almost had an aneurysm at the action, but Harriet had merely rolled her eyes, dragging a plain but sturdy chair over to sit next to the throne before glaring at them all silently until they returned to whatever they were doing before.)

Harriet sucked thoughtfully on the cut she had made on her thumb. What she had just experienced felt like a sharp pull on her belly button before a restless thrum of energy filled her, buzzing beneath her skin with a vague familiarity that caused dread to settle deep within her. She tapped her foot impatiently, her senses on high alert for a threat that she recognized but also didn’t. Like an itch she couldn’t reach, she almost felt consumed by it.

“You alright there, Harriet?” Jonas frowned, a dirty apron with little seahorses all over it tied to his waist as he haphazardly slid dirty dishes from the table into a bin to take back to the kitchen.

The Chip Shoppe was currently in a rare lull. Harriet could hear Gonzo gruffly grunting something undoubtedly snide under his breath to one of the younger crew members as they did something within the depths of the kitchen. It was obviously something that would get them all a lashing from Ursula’s tentacles if they disturbed her from her damn soap opera. Bonnie and Desiree sat in a corner, counting the gold and jewels and other shiny bits and bobs they had collected with the latest food and supply distribution from Auradon. Jonas had somehow gotten the short end of the stick, and had been forced to deal with duties relating to serving and cleaning off the tables, and apparently, keeping an eye on their substitute captain.

Harriet was close to snapping at him, restless energy building beneath her skin like a balloon about to pop. Perhaps Uma allowed her crew the freedom to question her decisions, but Harriet refused to lead with anything other than one-hundred percent complete obedience, whether out of fear or loyalty was their only choice. However, Jonas was an idiot, and had repeatedly dared to question her every command, even to the point of somehow persuading the remaining members of Harriet’s own crew sign up for shifts at the Chip Shop.

(Of course her brother’s crew would be just as much of a headache as he was.)

Ignoring Harriet’s glare, Jonas took a step closer to the fearsome pirate captain, head tilted to the side as he observed her.

“It ain’t your…uh…it isn’t your newest passenger, is it?” he said lowly, glancing over his shoulder to make sure no one else was listening. When he turned back to Harriet, he only got to see her eyes quickly widen before she grabbed him by the back of his neck in a tight grip that caused him to drop the bin he was holding.

Already chipped dishes broke and scattered across the dusty floor, loud in the sudden silence of the room.

“Listen ye yellow bellied sack of shit,” Harriet hissed into his ears, her usually well-hidden brogue making an appearance, the only clue that she was losing her cool. “I don’t know what the fucking seven seas ye think ye know, but let’s make it one-hundred percent fucking clear, okay, pet? Yer captain and first mate, supposedly the strongest and baddest of the Bads that had been on this rotten rock in months, are gone. Ye understand what that means?”

Desiree and Bonnie had already gotten up from their seats, a butter knife in Desiree’s hand and a broken bottle in Bonnie’s. Gonzo was now leaning against the door frame of the kitchen, drying one of kitchen’s butcher knives against his pants legs. Jonas waved them off though. Like hell he was going to start a turf war the one time Uma put him in charge, especially not with Harriet fucking Hook. Harry may be crazy and unpredictable, but Harriet was just plain ruthless. And scarily hot.

(Jonas hoped desperately no one could see how the pain of Harriet digging her nails into the back of his neck was so turning him on right now…The others would never let him live it down. And it didn’t really bear thinking about what Harry would do if he found out.)

Jonas nodded, form hunched over as he raised his hands up placatingly. “That the fearsome and cunning Captain Harriet Hook is the only thing keeping a turf war from happening,” he grunted out.

Harriet shoved him away, tugging up the collar of her Hook signature jacket, before placing her captain’s hat on her head. “And don’t ye forget that,” she hissed, before stomping out of the shop.

The four senior members of Uma’s crew looked at each other.

“You think Harry knew?” Jonas asked, hissing when he touched one of the small crescent shaped marks on the back of his neck before Bonnie and Gonzo tugged him back onto his feet.

Desiree snorted, running her hand through her long hair. “Ya see a certain pompous bastard hanging from the ceiling, hooked by his toes with his goods cut off in here?”

Jonas glanced up.

Gonzo rolled his eyes before returning back to the kitchen, and Bonnie pinched the bridge of her nose. “You’re every bit the idiot Uma says you are, Jonas.”

“Hey!”

--

“Cogsworth contacted me. Nobody has been able to get in contact with Neverland. All phone calls just ring on and texts are never able to go through. He even tried messenger pigeons and other less high-tech means and they’ve all had the same result,” Fairy Godmother fiddled with her hands, for the first time in twenty years feeling exposed without the once familiar weight of her wand in them. “I-” she paused before taking a deep breath. “I still don’t want to raise the alarm yet, but there is definitely something afoot in Neverland. For the time being though, I’ve advised King Adam to close the bridge connecting the island to the mainland. Officially, it’s under construction and its closing just so happens to also coincide with King Triton’s blessing and cleansing of the sea. A sacred ritual that just so happens to be occurring now and requires the water surrounding Neverland to be boat free. Coincidentally, of course.”

“Oh darn!” Mickey said with false disappointment. “I had hoped to go fishing with the boys right in the middle of a school lockdown.” 

Fairy Godmother could only afford to give him a side glare as she discreetly spelled all the windows of dorms from being opened by shadows, or more specifically, a certain shadow. Precaution, she told herself, though it was getting hard to fool even herself when the writing on the wall was all starting to point towards one thing that shouldn’t be possible: Pan being awake. 

“You know,” she cleared her throat in a poor attempt to banish those thoughts. “I really don’t understand why you don’t allow the royal ship makers to upgrade that old tub that you call a boat.”

“It’s a classic!” Mickey replied, sounding scandalized at her suggestion. He tugged on the cuffs of his gloves absentmindedly as they continued to walk down the silent halls of Auradon Prep’s dorms. “Having someone mess with ol’ Willie would ruin the boat’s integrity!”

Fairy Godmother stopped them both, rolling her eyes. but deciding not to press that particular matter. Instead she asked, “Have you at least moved it? We’re in a lockdown, Mr. Topolino, and we can’t risk any of our students getting it into their heads to do anything risky.”

“To play hero, you mean?” Mickey chuckled, before sobering up at Fairy Godmother’s glare. “Don’t worry. I moved Willie near the mermaid’s council room entrance and the key is in my pocket,” he pulled said key out. “As long as the key stays in my pocket, magical influence or otherwise, the old boat won’t move even an inch.”

Fairy Godmother gave a curt nod of her head. “If you say so.” She tightly turned on her heel and continued on down the hall, making sure that all of her students were respecting proper lockdown etiquette. 

Mickey took a step forward to follow her before he paused, looked down at the key he was still holding before sliding it back into his pocket.

If any observer was watching though, they would see the man completely miss the opening of his pants pockets, the key landing soundlessly on the carpet as he walked away in the direction that Fairy Godmother went, whistling a chipper tune under his breath. 

When he had turned the corner and his whistling had grown quiet, Claudine Frollo and Hermie Bing stepped out from behind a long woven tapestry, arms filled with various snacks they had snuck from the kitchens after the lockdown had been set in place. (There were some habits that even the Anti-Hero club, with Yen Sid as their mentor, still struggled to get rid of, such as hoarding food in for times when their next meals weren’t too certain.)

Claudine and Hermie both looked at each other before they looked simultaneously at the dropped boat key.

“Hurry. Grab it before he comes back!” Claudine ordered softly, heart pounding quickly in her chest. “I think this might be useful.”

---

“ Spirits of the four winds guide us, ” Mal chanted. The lit candles around Carlos and Jay’s room swelled with life, the flames turning an eerie green, the scent of brimstone thick. 

The now familiar tingle of magic building and growing buzzed beneath her skin pleasantly. She didn’t realize how tense her shoulders had been until she felt them relax. She felt connected. To what...she didn’t know. 

She had tried to explain it once to Ben, late one night when she came to force both her boyfriend and Evie to stop working and to go to bed. He had listened intently, in that way that Ben always did, his attention fully on her that made her toes curl and made being good so worth it. 

But despite how hard he tried, despite how his father’s curse lingered mostly dormant in bones, magic didn’t sing through his blood. Mal had tried to ask Evie, but her friend oddly seemed to avoid the topic of her own magic abilities, not completely denying her heritage, but actively choosing to not rely on it. And Jay...Mal had her suspicions but there were some things that even her old friend didn’t share with her. 

“ Unwavering hands of fate, bind us, ” Uma continued the chant across from her, the salt water in the basin beginning to boil between her and Mal. Ursula’s necklace began glowing steadily around her neck and the sounds of crashing waves filtered into the room.

Where her own magic had felt warm and pulsing, Uma’s was cool and biting, rushing through Mal with very little forgiveness. She found herself gritting her teeth against the contrasting element threatening to drown her.

“ Show us the path that we seek,” they chanted together. 

Just a little bit longer, she told herself, forcing her and Uma’s magic to interweave amongst each other, Mal’s the base and general skeletal form of the spellwork and Uma’s charging it all, filling out every nook and cranny, like detailing a sketch. 

It was simple…

...or at least it was supposed to be.

Just as they were both about to speak the final line of the spell that would hopefully manifest the desired outcome, the candles snuffed out and the basin bubbled over.

Mal let out a squawk of disbelief.

“You sure that lizard brain of yours read that spellbook right?” Uma snapped stumping up to her feet, the legs of her pants damp from the spilled water. Mal glared up at her as Uma waved her hand over the darkened fabric, the moisture turning into small orbs in her hand ( She’s getting too good at that , Mal thought sourly) before flicking them naughtily in Mal’s face.

Somewhere off to the side, where he and Gil would be out of the spellwork, Mal heard Jay groan out a warning “Mal…” but she was already up on her feet, face twisting with the intensity of dragon fire and rage. 

She wanted to smash Uma’s sneer right off her face. To remind Shrimpy who was the head witch in charge. She wanted to roar! To breathe out her anger until all that was left was fire and ash and the twisting feeling in her heart stopped yearning, stopped crying for what was hers but which was now stolen from her. 

Carlos. (Mine.) 

Evie. (Mine.) 

Ben. (Mine. Mine. Mine.)

“At least I have one. Where's yours, huh? Momma Calamari didn't think you were ready for the big witch toys?”

She saw the way that Uma stiffened and the thing - the thing that made her feel more fire than girl - roared in pleasure. The smell of smoke and brimstone hung heavily over the room, sparks of green flames licking the tips of Mal's fingers as eight thin tendrils of water ducked and weaved around Uma, the smell of sea salt and ozone mixing in response.

If Uma wanted to fight, she would get a fight and Mal would end it. 

Once and for all…

But it wasn’t Mal who made the first move. Neither was it Uma. 

“Enough already!” Jay growled, a heavy but muted presence pressing against Mal’s consciousness that she had always equated, even back on the Isle, with her oldest friend. 

(She had once asked, once they had gotten off the Isle and were free from their parents, if he had ever tried, if he was ever able to do the things his father once did when he was the Royal Vizar. To do the things Jafar once did when he had been tricked into becoming a shackled, wish-granting embodiment of magic. He had only shrugged as he emptied out his pockets that she hadn’t even realized were filled with stolen objects. 

“Not really,” he had said, handing her back the ring that Ben had gifted to her all the way back when being recognized by her mother had been her only dream. He had winked at her as he continued to empty his pocket into the designated return box everyone knew to check when something went missing. “I was never really interested in power,” he shrugged. The “like my dad” part had went unsaid…)

 Mal’s magic thrummed with protectiveness when Jay stepped between her and Uma, and the thing, the creature, the dragon within her roared to snatch him up and hide him away. Safe. (Mine. Mine. Mine.)

“Mal,” Jay placed a grounding hand on her shoulder, pushing her back up to the surface of her consciousness, the girl once again, though instinct buzzed in the background, warning her to be weary. 

Taking a deep breath, Mal turned her gaze back towards Uma who seemed to be whispering furiously to Gil who was now back at her side, hands scratching absentmindedly behind Dude’s ears as he held the dog. 

When she looked back at Jay, her heart clenched. 

 Evie was a whirlwind, a force to be reckoned with. You either stepped aside and let her do what she wanted or get knocked over. Carlos was the reality check, the voice of reason that was always observing, taking in the things that others often overlooked with the familiarity that only came with having been overlooked himself for so long by his mother, by other kids on the Isle...by Mal herself. But Jay had always been a steady presence, attaching himself to her like a limb that she had eventually forgotten she had not been born with, had snuck his way past her defenses and stole her loyalty even when she denied ever having that sort of attachment to him on the Isle, always ready to bear her weight when she felt at her weakest. Evie had always joked, even back on the Isle, that Jay was more knight in patchworked armor than thief. 

(She wasn’t wrong, Mal thought, not even able to dream of one day being Queen of Auradon and not having Jay with her, watching her back as he had done since that first time he tried to steal from her.)

But when Mal looked up at him, not for the first time she realized that what so many confused for confidence was fear masked behind well practiced sleight of hand and charm.

You’re not the only one afraid for them, she thought angrily at herself, wondering not for the first time what her friends, what Ben, saw in a selfish little half-fairy like herself.

“We’ll get them back,” she promised, taking his other hand that wasn’t on her shoulder into hers. “I promise you that on my name,” she swore, knowing that he knew it wasn’t a statement to be taken lightly. Not from a fae, even a half one. 

Nodding, Jay squeezed her shoulder. “I know, but please Mal,” he leaned down so that they were eye to eye. “For me. For Carlos and Evie and Ben. Please, get over this stupid feud with Uma. Please. At least until they’re back.”

She was silent for a moment before nodding. “Fine.”

When they both turned back to Uma and Gil, it seemed like the two had finished their own conversation, Uma not looking pleased but the tendrils of water had found their place back in the bowl and Gil had a pleased grin on his face. 

Mal wasn’t going to apologize and knew that Uma wouldn’t either but with synchronization that only the best of friends or the best of enemies could obtain, they both took a step forward towards each other, neither saying a word for several minutes.

“We did the spell right,” Mal eventually said. She ran a hand through her hair, deep in thought. “The incantation was said correctly and we had everything set up right. We should have gotten some sort of sign or-”

Mal suddenly cut herself off, mouth open.

“Is she...is she okay?” she could hear Gil ask, though he sounded far away compared to the internal ringing of magic that was going through her. 

“What in the seven seas are you doing, Mal?” Uma hissed, Mal more so sensing then seeing the other girl reach out and grab her arm. “If this is another-”

When Uma’s hand connected with Mal’s arm she froze too, their magic folding together, overlapping, weaving together cool fire and burning waves. Mal could feel their magic buzz across her skin and into Uma’s, like pumpkins rolling down a hill. If she focused on it, she could feel Auradon Prep breathe around her, feel every student in the dorm. She knew Uma felt it too. 

They could feel Jordan and Freddie curled up together in the genie’s lamp. They could feel Ally, daughter of Alice snoozing over her History of Magic assignment due at the end of the week. They felt Chad standing at Dizzy’s side, holding the unconscious girl’s hand gently in his own. Mal felt the Bibbidi-bobbidi and Uma felt the Salagadoola of Fairy Godmother tied together with a stroke of midnight as the headmistress made her way down the halls of Auradon Prep, a presence that felt like falling stars and sweeping brooms behind her. And approaching the room that they currently were in, Mal and Uma felt carnival rides mixed in with stage lights and a cracked bell that chimed deeply, both buzzing with excitement.

And amongst the net of magic, the spell took form, plucked against the web that they casted before snagging against a brief moment of clarity; of the where and how.

Mal and Uma gasped simultaneously, their lungs remembering how to breathe once they pulled away from each other. Their eyes connected and for a second, Mal knew that as she breathed in, Uma breathed out, a fading connection of their magic that was reminiscent of easier times when stealing candy from a baby was good enough and when smelly shrimp wasn’t loaded with history. 

“What was th-that?” Jay broke their daze, his usual tanned skin looking a bit green under a thin layer of sweat. 

“It was the spell,” Uma looked back towards Mal contemplatively, before turning back to Jay with his sick looking skin and heavy breathing and magic that was stuck beneath his skin. As if not even thinking consciously of her actions, Uma reached out and gently touched Jay’s shoulder. The dragon within Mal bristled at the smell of sea salt mixed with desert sand that returned her oldest friend’s skin back to a healthier color.

“Thanks,” Jay blinked, giving an amused smile at the pout on Uma’s face as she murmured, “Don’t mention it.”

“So it worked? You know where Harry and the others are?” Gil grinned hopefully, and for a second, as the last strands of their magic untangled, separate once again, Mal wondered if Uma was struggling not to push Jay in a corner, surrounded by soft pillows and warm blankets just as much as Mal was struggling not to fondly roll her eyes and lightly chuck Gil’s chin before shoving the freshest food at him.

Catching Uma glare at her from the corner of her eyes was all the answer that Mal needed.

“Neverland,” Uma answered, the dread in her voice apparent as she played with the ends of her braids.

Gil’s grin slipped off his face and Jay swore, a mix of swears that only an Isle kid could string together. Uma moved towards the desk where a map of the United States of Auradon laid spread out. 

Mal knew she was calculating their inevitable journey, doing the mental math with swift efficiency that even Mal couldn’t turn her nose up at. 

“It’s going to take too long if we try to drive there,” the pirate captain groaned frustratedly. “The route is surrounded by forests and cuts through in an overly roundabout way that’ll take us too far west before it curves back to where the bridge that connects the mainland with Neverland.” She looked up, tapping her fingers agitatedly against the map. “Even if we got the fastest car here, it would still take too long. Unless we had a boat. That would drastically cut down our time and would be a straight shot.”

“Ask and you shall be answered,” Mal smirked, opening the door to the room to reveal Hermie and Claudine. “You have the boat key?” Mal asked before Uma shouldered her out of the way, surprising both girls with her sudden and specific answer. Claudine and Hermie exchanged startled looks before Claudine pulled out the boat key from her pocket. 

Grinning, Uma took they key in hand before she remembered the two girls who were waiting expectantly at the door. 

“You’re gonna,” Hermie began softly, fiddling nervously with her hands. “You’re gonna bring back Murph and - and Sammy, right?”

No , Mal thought, biting her tongue, thoughts only on Ben, Evie, and Carlos. Bring them back yourself, shorty.

“Right,” Uma nodded. 

Mal didn’t even bother hiding her shock, jaw dropped as she stared at Uma incredulously as both Claudine and Hermie reached out to touch Uma’s hands in thanks before they turned away and made their way silently back down the hall and to their room.

Uma turned back to the room, rolling up the map and stuffing it in her jacket pocket.

“You shouldn’t have promised them that,” Mal hissed, ignoring Jay’s sound of warning. “You know that getting four people and dealing with evil- knows-what-CJ-has-up-her-sleeve is going to be hard enough without adding two more. I know you’re smart enough to realize Big Murph and Sammy Smee are on their own.” 

“You don’t know anything, Mal!” Uma exploded, her limited patience for the half fae finally snapping. “And you definitely don’t know me!” she spat. “Now get your shit together! We’re leaving on the boat, with or without you in half an hour.” With that she stormed out of the room, Gil following.

Jay opened his mouth to say something before deciding against it and instead muttering that he was going to get swords from the gym before leaving.

Mal let out a scoff. What did she do now?

She looked down when she felt a paw press itself against her leg, Dude looking up at her with far more understanding than she was comfortable with a dog giving her.

“Be. Good,” was all he was able to speak before leaping onto the window seal and staring out the window, Mal knowing somehow he would wait there until his boy came back. 

“I’m trying,” she sighed softly, allowing herself a moment for one lone tear to fall. “I’m trying.”

--

Uma was a sea witch, pirate captain of the Lost Revenge, and self-proclaimed Queen of the Isle. Even back on the Isle, she could tell you when the waters would be calm enough to swim in and when the winds would cooperate with the sails. Now, no longer being restrained by the Isle’s barrier, Uma could feel each crash of the waves like her own heartbeat, felt the life of all the creations beneath the water’s surface like a soft caress at the back of her mind. 

The sea and ocean and any other bodies of water felt like old friends. It was instinctual. 

However, now staring down at the mechanics and knobs and bobs of the old and less-than-impressive-looking steamboat, named Steamboat Willie, that she was trying to commandeer, she was reminded of one woefully overlooked fact that having a first mate who had grown up on ships had always simplified for her: Uma knew very little about boats. 

“What?” Mal eyes flashed dangerously at the news.

“Oh shut up, Dragon Breath!” Uma snapped before turning to look at the deceptively simple helm of the ship. “It’s not like you have any ideas either.”

Mal shoved her hands in her hair, tugging to keep them from reaching out and strangling the girl in front of her. “Well I’m not a freaking pirate captain, am I?”

Jay and Gil who had been sent off to explore the boat and make sure it was suitable for their needs entered the room, both instantly feeling the thinly frayed nerves of the wheelhouse. 

“We uh, we found the engine room,” Gil announced.

“We also found some stowaways,” Jay frowned, stepping aside to reveal an impassive heir of the Underworld and a nervous mermaid princess. 

Uma didn’t care if Hadie came or not. After all, she didn’t think it was such a bad idea to have death, or at least a personification of Death on your side. It was Melody that caused Uma to tense and hiss out a strong “NO!” that made said mermaid flinch as if the sea witch had physically hit her. 

“As I said before, cousin,” Hadie rasped with his usual aloofness, his pulled up hood making his flame blue hair and one visible amber eye glow eerily against his pale skin, “you may not need us, but you’ll want us.”

Mal crossed her arms, brow arched as she gave Uma a questioning look at the mention of “cousin” but she held her tongue. She didn’t really want to mess with Hadie. The kid, despite being about Dizzy’s age had always given her the creeps. It didn’t help that the son of Hades was the one person on the Isle her mother had told her to never mess with. Even a fae as old and dark as Maleficent had a healthy fear of Death. 

Uma glared at Hadie, pushing down the instinctual creeping feeling that ran down her back whenever his attention was fully on her that this was a full god she was staring down and she should bow her head down in deference to him. 

“Iknowhowtoworkasteamboat!”

All attention snapped to Melody. She gulped at the sudden shift of attention before taking a deep breath, back straightening and determination filling her expression. 

“I know how to work a steamboat,” she said again, only the barest traces of nervousness in her voice. “My father, he taught me about different boats growing up. Steamboats nowadays are used more for cruises in the Bayou d’Orleans so they’re not as common as sailboats but I still know enough to get it started. To get us to Neverland.”

“Why would you think we were heading to Neverland, princess?” Jay grinned, expression all disarming charm and flirtiness that hid how his eyes were looking for any tells of deceit.

Melody looked at Hadie who merely turned to a corner and, as if he was merely moving a piece of fabric, pulled back a shadow, Freddie and Diego tumbling out.

“Oh. Uh uh, nope,” Freddie shook her head, looking nauseous as she stayed unmoving from her place on her back. “Traveling by shadows: do not recommend.”

“Hey Queenie,” Diego waved weakly beside her. “Herms and Claud heard you all before knocking on the door. Couldn’t let you guys have all the fun.”

Uma glared down at them. Diego had the nerve to wink up at her despite the shadow-induced nausea he was going through. It was Freddie though that struggled for the first time since they’ve known each other in making eye contact with the sea witch.

“CJ, she- I-I didn’t know she was going to do this,” was all Freddie said before sighing. 

Uma closed her eyes, taking a deep breath to calm the roaring waves inside her crashing against each other and demanding vengeance for what had been taken. When she opened her eyes, all eyes were on hers, waiting expectantly. Even Mal’s. 

Turning towards Melody, Uma gave the mermaid her worst scowl. “You mess things up for me, sharkbait, and I’ll rip something more than just your little voice from you.”

If this was someone else, Uma would have been impressed by the unwavering determination held in the other girl’s eyes. However, Melody was everything Uma was not. A princess. A mermaid...Surrounded by love even before she had been born. And all Triton’s granddaughter had to do to have earned that was being born into the right side of the family. 

Uma’s anger had always been bubbling, boiling when Mal and her gang had been taken off the Isle. But it had always been a general anger, save for the bad blood between her and Mal. This however, this feeling she realized had been buried beneath that other anger once she saw Melody was different. Personal. Jealous. Longing…

“I won’t let you down,” Melody said, extending her hand out with the heaviness of an oath. Uma rolled her eyes, shoving past her and out of the wheelhouse.

“Well this is going to be a fun trip,” Freddie sarcastically murmured.

Chapter Text

Once upon a time, a boy who would never grow up lived happily on an island...until he didn’t…

Sun kissed hands speckled with freckles reached out, gingerly touched a drooping flower. Peter Pan, the boy who would never grow up, watched with a downward twist of his lips as the flower seemed to wilt even more in just a few seconds. He pulled away, standing up from his crouched position and looking around.

To an outsider, perhaps even someone who had not been on the Isle as long as Peter had, the island paradise looked just that: an island paradise bright with color and sound. But they would be wrong. Peter had spent years and years and years on the island. Though he always struggled with names, he knew every face, every animal, every tree, and flower and insect. Neverland sang in his bones and every breath he took was the island breathing in as well.

But something was off. Something so minuscule that anyone else wouldn’t haven’t noticed until it eroded away, crumbling until everything that was being held up by it collapsed, until it was too late. 

Decision clear in the way that only a child can confidently decide on, Peter flew into the air. Several minutes later, he landed on the landing of the tree house belonging to Tiger Lily. He didn’t even bother to knock, walking in as was his usual habit. He found her, back towards him, writing at her desk. 

“Hello Peter,” she greeted without looking up. 

Peter frowned, not knowing what but knowing something was...off...like the flower had been off. Like Neverland had been off. He shrugged it away though. It may have just been because Tiger Lily was a girl and girls, to Peter, were strange creatures that always seemed a bit off, even the interesting ones like Tiger Lily.

“Lily, have you been outside?” he asked, taking his customary position, legs folded under him, elbow propped up on his knee, hand holding his chin as he floated in the air. 

“Hm, can’t say I have this morning,” Tiger Lily responded as she wrote and then crossed out something in the brown leather bound book she was writing in. 

Peter squished up his nose in distaste. “It’s already the afternoon Lily! How could you not have gone outside and had an adventure yet?” he asked, his original purpose for being here temporarily forgotten at the shocking news that one of his favorite playmates had thought staying inside all day was a better idea than going out and feeling the sun on her skin, the smell of the sea, and the joy that radiated throughout Neverland. 

He paused, thinking why Tiger Lily would ever pass on an opportunity to go out and run amok, free of her duties as the daughter of her tribe...Peter gasped, a thought coming to mind.

“You aren't afraid of that old codfish, Hook, kidnapping you again? Because I’ll always rescue ya!” he said as gallantly as possible, standing up in the air, hands on his hips.

Tiger Lily snorted, looking over her shoulder. “Peter,” she chuckled. “I haven’t been afraid of Hook, nor have I needed you to rescue me in a very long time.”

Peter didn’t process her words, too caught off guard by just how...old Tiger Lily looked. She was no longer a girl. She was a woman. An adult. She had grown old without him. Just like Jane Darling had. Just like Wendy had before that. 

Before he could comment on it, an unexpected bundle of excited energy and girlish giggles entered the room in the form of a little girl. Peter was bad with age, simply declaring someone as either a child or an adult, but this girl seemed about Tootles size, small and barely coming to Peter’s waist, so maybe they were the same age. 

“Hi Peter!” the girl giggled in that weird way that girls always seemed to do in his presence before running up to Tiger Lily, who easily turned in her chair revealing to Peter that not only did her face look older but the rest of her body had grown as well. She easily caught the young girl in her arms, tossing her lightly in the air. “Momma!” the little girl laughed as Tiger Lily caught her, hugging her tightly, pressing kisses against her cheeks.

Peter paled. A mother. 

Tiger Lily happened to look up and see the confusion and slight horror on the boy’s face. “Peter,” she said gently. “You remember Tiger Peony, right? My daughter.”

For what felt like a long moment, Peter did not saying anything. 

It felt wrong. So wrong. He may not remember every name, but he knew every face on this island and he didn’t know this girl’s. He didn’t know this old Tiger Lily, he-

-and then, like a rubber band, everything snapped into place. 

Yes, this was Tiger Peony, daughter of Neverland’s Chief, Tiger Lily. Peter had taught Peony how to fly before she could even walk. Tiger Lily had decided to grow older and lead her people...while Peter would remain a young boy forever… 

“You forgot again, didn’t you?” 

Peter shook his head, grinning as he flew closer. He poked Tiger Peony in the nose, the little girl letting out a peal of giggles. “Of course not! I was just testing you! Making sure you weren’t becoming a boring adult.” 

Tiger Lily looked unconvinced. However, before she could say anything, a horn was sound in the distance. “He’s here,” set Tiger Peony on her feet before standing up.

“He’s here! He’s here!” the little girl stamped her feet happily.

Peter frowned. “Who's here?”

Tiger Lily walked past, giving his shoulder a slight squeeze, Peter for a moment catching something unreadable in her eyes. He didn’t know what it was but he didn’t like it.

“King Adam, of course. And he would like to speak with you.”

--

Gods, even the lesser ones, could move easily in and out of the constraints of the space and the laws of physics that surrounded them. They moved seamlessly in ways that mortals - even those who had the ability to connect and manipulate the magic around them - couldn’t ever hope to grasp.  They could walk into slivers of time and space that stretched like endlessly long corridors between the past, the present, and the future. They could even travel between realms, galaxies, and realities, as easy as climbing up a flight of stairs.

It was on a flight of rarely used but still pristinely polished stairs that Persephone climbed, the familiar earthy smell of dirt and rot from the River Styx fading to be replaced by the sharp smell of ozone...and lightning.

Her dark gown, woven with rose thorns and creeping ivy and the long dead roots gifted long ago from Mother Willow when she was just a sapling, melted off her body. It was quickly replaced by a lighter cloud like dress that solidified around her as the softest of materials, trailing after her like autumn leaves in the wind. It was yellow as deep and bleeding as the sun rising. Trimming made with young green vines decorated the hem and ran into the golden clasps at her shoulders. A beautiful gown woven as the embodiment of spring. Too frail to survive even the mildest of frost or the shadows of the Underworld. 

Her crown, woven with thorns and the eerie grey petals of asphodels grown from her very own plot of the Elysian fields, disappeared, tucked away in her own pocket of space. The comforting weight of the crown of the Underworld was replaced with a thin woven ringlet of golden barley that felt uncomfortably light and ill fitting against her brow. The sickly sweet smell of mint clung closely to her, the only armor she could afford to keep when summoned to Olympus. 

“There was a reason why I created an elevator from Olympus to the Underworld millenia ago. Makes shuffling souls around from the mortal realm to the Underworld a little speedier,” a voice sighed above her. “Not that I don’t love what you did with redecorating down there. I do. Really. I swear! If you hear anything different than Dionysis is a damn liar! And a drunk! Wait, don’t tell him I said that. The liar part, not the drunk part. I still like getting his little gift baskets of wine on my birthday, or the day that I decided my birthday will be this century. Tell me, do I seem like a Gemini?” 

Persephone paused in her journey. Looking up, she found her mouth genuinely curving into a fond smile despite her previous dark mood. 

Winged heels landed soundlessly next to her, attached to an outfit of a blue modern men’s suit blended with a white robe that was trimmed in gold and knotted high at the waist in the old grecian athletic fashion. The appearance he had chosen for the last couple of hundred of years was tall and unsuspecting in its gangliness with dark hair cut neatly and blue eyes that twinkled with tempered mischief. It was the only sign in an otherwise handsome but unassuming face that he was the herald of the gods, protector of shepherds and travelers. The one who guided thieves and those of cunning wit. The god who guided the dead to the Underworld. This was Hermes. This was her oldest friend.

 “Did you decide what day yours will be this century?,” he continued speaking aloud his face pace train of thought. “Your birthday, I mean. Am I invited to the party? I hope I’m invited. But please don’t give me a pity invite just because I’m the one that has to deliver the invitations. Besides, emails are quicker. You know what else is quicker? Elevators!” he clapped his hands. “A lot quicker than stairs. Less creepy too. Especially these stairs. Yeesh! Like, have you wondered what kind of shady figures - no pun intended - hang out around here? Maybe I should get you that human mace stuff the next time I visit you. Or you can, you know, take the elevator. Did I say that already? I think I did. But I’m saying again. You can take the elevator. You are, you know, allowed to use it being Queen of the Underworld and all. And again, less creepy. Wasn’t joking about the mace.”

“Hermes,” she greeted him warmly, accepting his kiss to her cheek, not at all put off by his tangential speech. “I was wondering when you would grace me with your energetic presence.”  

“You flatter,” he teasingly blew a raspberry at her, crossing his arms in mock offense. “But seriously, oh Queen of the Underworld. You shouldn’t be slinking around in the back stairwells of existence.”

Persephone linked arms with him, continuing forward. “You know I enjoy the time to think and prepare before coming back to Olympus. Especially after Hades’s...departure...” she trailed off before taking a deep breath.

“I know,” Hermes softly reassured, his usually fast paced energy mellowed by her somber expression. The “I’m sorry,” hung unsaid but known in the air between them as it had done for the last two decades. 

Afterall...it had been Hermes who had snatched Hades from out of her grasp and placed her husband in some place that she could not follow. The isle that the mortals and their fairies had created with Zeus’s blessings.

The smell of mint became overwhelming but Hermes didn’t comment as they continued to ascend, finally reaching the top of the stairs. 

“Why was I summoned, Hermes?” Persehphone finally asked, hands gripping his arm tighter. “I had thought Zeus had tired of me,” she said neutrally, pushing away eons old thoughts of unwanted hands grazing her skin, pulling her close, laughing as she cried, as he- 

Persephone forced herself to unclench her hands, the indentation of her fingernails in the palm of her hands releasing a faint mint smell before she thoughtlessly made the broken skin smooth and perfect again. 

Hermes nervously glanced around the open air hall, the finery and opulence that was Zeus’s home growing more and more with each step. “You know Zeus doesn’t let me in on his plans. I just deliver them,” he tugged on his tie, giving his free hand something to do. When that didn’t help, he manifested his golden staff, twirling it deftly in his hands like a baton. “You didn’t hear this from me,” he began after a moment, tone serious. “But word on the Greecian streets is that the old man is furious with you.”

A regal brow arched. “You’re right. I didn’t hear that from you. Zeus’s disdain for me isn’t exactly the freshest of Olympic gossip.” 

Hermes swerved in front of her, stopping her. He landed, gently but firmly grabbed her shoulders. “This isn’t Zeus’s usual pettiness, Sehph! You claimed a demi-god that wasn’t your direct descendant! He’ll use this as a claim that you’re not fit to rule!”

The golden barley crown across her brow withered, turning as dark as ash. The air around them grew cold as the smell of burnt mint grew sickeningly sweet. “Uma is mine ,” Persephone said with deathly quiet. “I am a queen. Whatever is my husband’s is therefore mine by right!” 

“You know he won’t see it like that,” Hermes said gently, ignoring the dark twisting vines that crept up his legs. He knew she wouldn’t hurt him but he also knew that one did not gain the moniker “Dread Queen” for nothing. “Maybe if we were talking about any other demigoddess. Anyone but her.” He shook her gently but firmly. “You remember what the Fates prophesied, don’t you?”

Persephone mouth hardened. 

The vines that had at this point wrapped around up to Hermes’s torso, recoiled. After a minute, Hermes slowly loosened his grip on her shoulders. Another minute, and he stepped back. “Kore, you’re my best friend.” the messenger of the gods sighed softly, pinching the bridge of his nose.

 Gods didn’t grow tired, nor get headaches. Not in the same ways that mortals did. At that moment though, Hermes felt the millennia of his existence weighing heavily on his shoulders.  

“But Zeus is my king. If you choose to keep championing Poseidon’s spawn, you’ll never get to see your son, not even when he reaches maturity.”

Persephone was silent, looking down at her feet. “Thank you,” she murmured softly.

Hermes reached out to comfort her. His hand stopped short when the smell of mint, that had yet to cease, grew thicker and heavier in the air. The Goddess of Spring lifted her head revealing the cold and withering glare of the Queen of the Underworld.

She shouldered past him, her bright yellow dress casting aflame in scorching blue flames that had Hermes jumping back. The flames died down as suddenly as they appeared revealing a dress dark enough to swallow the light of the brightest star, the crown on her head glowing with the eerie embers of Hades. An ensemble fitting of dread Queen Persephone. 

“Thank you, Hermes, for reminding me just how much you Olympians underestimate me,” the queen looked over her shoulder at him. “You know there’s a saying the mortals have. It’s cute, but fitting, especially when I adapt it a little. ‘Hell hath no fury like a queen scorned’.”

Hermes blinked, golden rod hanging loosely in his hands. “Is that a threat?”

The queen only gave him a dark smile. “Oh no my dear,” she tisked, lightly tapping his nose. “That’s a promise.” 

---

Her outfit was dirty. Her hair was a mess. There was a tear in her skirt that would never sew up nicely. And oh! Evie didn’t even want to think about what her makeup looked like at the moment!

She was sitting in some sort of meadow, surrounded by trees and florals that maybe at one point could have been such a lovely and vibrant green but now seemed dull and listless in a way that was difficult to put into words. It felt like ash was on her tongue. Like the world around her was slowly bleeding of its color. 

A part deep within her, a part that barely brushed against her consciousness, ached with one thought that she strangely knew to be true: Neverland is dying.

“I can’t believe you’re back!” Pan exclaimed excitedly, distracting her from the feeling of decay and rot that had settled in her stomach. He cartwheeled in genuine happiness in the air. Boyish laughter filled the air before he stopped suddenly in front of her a wide fond grin on his lips. “I mean, you said you would be back but it’s always difficult with you and your pretend game. Never know if it’ll be you or you but not you,” he waved his arms around excitedly. “Best pretender I know! You’re called Evie this time, right? That’s what I heard the Boy King call you.”

Evie nodded, smoothing out her features into a pleasant smile. She didn’t know what he was talking about at all but she pretended, just as he said, that she was talking to Dizzy. She made her voice fill with the same care and love and patience she gave the younger girl while also looking for an opportunity to escape. 

“That’s right! Such a smart boy you are, Peter!” she praised, watching the way the boy preened. “I work with High King Ben as one of his Royal Councilors and-”

The laugh that abruptly came from the boy startled Evie, her smile tensing. “Oh that’s- that’s a perfectly wicked game you’re playing,” he gasped between his laughter. 

He suddenly flew closer to her, his face just a mere few inches. And despite a voice in the back of her head that whispered, “This is wrong. He is wrong,” Evie couldn’t help her heart from breaking, just a little bit, for this boyish being. He gave her the most earnest smile, decades worth of sadness tucked into the corners of eyes. She wondered if that’s how Dizzy would have looked if she had never been given a chance to get off the Isle. If that’s how Carlos or Jay or Mal would have looked if there hadn’t been a naively kind prince to give them a chance...If that’s how Uma and all the other kids left on the Isle looked when they didn’t initially return for them... 

“I’ve missed you,” Peter sniffed, pouting. Within a blink of her eyes, he was suddenly kneeling in front of her, arms wrapped around her shoulders, face pressed into her neck like Dizzy does when she misses her sisters or cousin or like Carlos when he has nightmares about his mother. Evie couldn’t help but wrap her arms tightly around this lost boy.

(“ Bleeding heart”, Mal had joked once.)

 “You were the only one who understood,” he sniffed “Who tried to stop him from making things worse. But now we can fix it,” he murmured into her neck. “I have a Hook. A Hook and a spare.”

A Hook? Spare? Evie wanted to ask but before she could, an explosion of smoke and color filled the meadow. Pan released his grip on Evie, gasping in pain as he clawed at his neck. 

She didn’t allow herself a second to hesitate.

She ran. She ran and ran, ignoring the branches of the thick foliage that seemed to claw at her like hands that tried to hold her back.

Evie tripped over a tree root, panting heavily on the ground. She tried to soften her breath, trying to strain her ears to figure out if she was being followed or what had caused the explosion but she heard nothing. Not the birds calling or the rustling of leaves. Just...silence.

Quietly, she got to her feet, mind whirring to think of a plan. She needed to get back to Ben, Carlos, and Harry. They needed to get off the Isle and let the rest of Auradon know that there was something very wrong with Neverland. 

However, Evie didn’t notice that someone was right behind her until a cloth was forcefully pressed against her nose and mouth.

Poisoned apples, she thought as the world around her grew dark. She hated being the damsel in distress. Ben was much better at it, after all...

---

His heart pounded against his chest, panic rising like thick smoke in his lungs as he managed to spit out the wad of fabric shoved into his mouth. Harry licked chapped lips, feeling the earth shake with the residual impact of a faraway explosion. “What the seven seas was that?”

CJ ignored him. Instead, she nodded her head towards the entrance, Sammy Smee and Big Murph silently moving out of the hut, swords drawn. Harry watched as the usually bright and impulsive CJ wearily placed herself between the entrance of the hut and her captives. Her entire stance spoke that she was preparing for a fight and the hard headed lass that she was, Harry wasn’t going to let her fight by herself. 

“Untie me, Callie,” Harry tried to reason with her. 

Her grip tightened around the handle of her sword. “Shut up,” she hissed, gaze never tearing from the hut’s entrance.

From the corner of his eye Harry could see Carlos silently undoing the ropes around his legs before rolling silently onto his feet. He had expected the runt to move next to begin to untie the still unconscious boy king like the good wee little pup that DeVil was. What Harry didn’t expect was the younger boy to silently stalk towards CJ, pocket knife held out, a calculating cold expression on his face.

Harry’s blood ran cold. His stomach dropped. All he saw was his little baby sister with knotted hair and a gap tooth grin clinging onto his coat tails with grubby little hands. He had thought she had died. Mourned for her on the isle only to find her alive and well and sided with the devil with a cherub smile. She was still Calista Jane. Wee little Callie. His sister…

He acted without thinking.

“CALLIE!” Harry  warned just as Carlos had crept within a foot of her. 

Just as CJ turned, blocking and disarming the pocket knife from Carlos with one swift movement of her sword.

Just as another explosion went off, right outside of the hut, knocking them all off of their feet. The last thing Harry was aware of was three colorful eyeless masks staring down at him from where he landed on his back, before the world went black.

Chapter Text

Harriet clicked her teeth into a scowl. Another pickpocketing brat, one of Shan Yu’s lot, tried to slip their grimy little paws into her pocket.  She was already regretting her rash decision to ditch her infamous red leather jacket for an oversized, mildewy-smelling jacket she had snatched from a clothesline. But despite her family’s penchant to be a bunch of dramatic and showy scallywags, Harriet Hook understood the importance of discreetness. Of blending in when needed.

Like when the Mistresses of Chernabog were stalking her.

They clung to the shadows, the fanatic cult of old hags that every parent on the Isle threatened to throw their whelps at when they started to act up. Even on the Isle, where magic couldn’t thrive, the Mistresses of Chernabog regularly made offerings to their Dark Lord. They usually kept towards the craggy shores that faced the Isle of the Doomed. The only time they ever moved close to the congested streets of the Isle of the Lost was when they planned a human sacrifice. Usually, an unfortunate child who didn’t have a gang to watch their back. (It had been one of the many reasons - before she had commandeered one of her father’s old ships and scrounged up - for Harriet’s former babysitting gig.) 

Harriet glanced around discreetly, looking for anyone young enough to be the witches’ target, but the foreboding feeling that hung over her grew heavier when she saw none. “So why in Barbosa’s bad name are they following me?” Harriet muttered as she glanced over her shoulder. The old witches moved forward further in the shadows, hidden from most of the Isle’s residents by their dark gray cloaks and the Isle’s perpetual overcast. The superstitious part of Harriet, that had grown around even more superstitious seamen and drunks, wondered if the hags had found a way to sneak magic onto the Isle after all. 

It was a theory that she had once brought up to Anthony once a few years ago that he had scoffed off. “ My dear,” he had crooned in a tone as if speaking to a small child or pet while admiring a sparkly bit of treasure in her captain quarters from a recent raid. “Those old witches are just that. Old. Probably don’t even realize that their magic is gone. And even if they had any, not even that Grecian death god could escape this Isle.”

“See you’re popular as ever, kid.”

Speak of the devil.

Leaning casually against the door frame of his boarded-up souvlaki shop, surprisingly clean cocktail glass with smoking blue liquid in his hand, Hades watched her with his usual mischievous grin. His black robe - more bathrobe than the flowy Grecian get-up that Hercules and his family were always seen wearing on the National Auradon Channel - hung over dark pajama pants and a grey shirt that looked like it had seen better days. He looked far from a powerful god of the underworld with black framed reading glasses perched on the end of his nose, but Harriet supposed, as she glanced over her shoulder at the Mistresses of Chernabog creeping closer, that beggars couldn’t be picky. And the evil that she knew was better than the unknown one. 

“You ever find a new dice challenger?” she asked as she pushed past him hurriedly into the dimly lit cramped restaurant. The pirate wasn’t surprised to see that there were no customers at all. The souvlaki shop was rarely open except for rare days when Hades was bored. 

Said god chuckled as he followed behind her. “Guess we’ll just have to see, now won’t we, buttercup?” he replied before snapping his fingers, blue flames lighting the dusty hanging lights above. Harriet knew that a few years ago, Hades had paid Reza, son of Agrabah’s corrupt former Royal Astronomer and one of Jafar’s few followers and an overall know-it-all pain in the ass to come in and install lighting. Eerie blue flames immediately flicked to life thanks to a hidden mechanism made from recycled parts thrown haphazardly away by the folk of Auradon. The flames were reminiscent, supposedly, of those in the Underworld.  

Not even hesitating, Harriet pushed towards the back of the restaurant and down the stairs, Hades following at a much more leisurely pace. The basement apartment was deceptively large, carved deeply into the rock that was the Isle. It was decorated with old but well taken care of furniture, much nicer than even what Maleficent’s home once held. The nice setup was one of the reasons why Harriet didn’t mind babysitting Hadie years ago at the peak of her babysitting gig. (A job that was always in high demand growing up as one of the oldest of the Isle kids with a bunch of has-been villains who liked the idea of their legacy continuing in theory until diapers started smelling like shit.)

Twisting her body just so as she plopped down on the familiar old brown couch that had a spring in it that always poked uncomfortably if you weren’t aware of, Harriet stared up at the ceiling where several hanging plants hung from carefully rigged planters, the dark and eerie looking leaves and blooms creating a haunting canopy of foliage above.  

When Hades had first hired her, she had mentioned the mournful hum she swore she heard coming from the plants. Hades had just watched her, looking at her with unreadable eyes, a squirming Hadie in his arms before murmuring something in what Harriet assumed was Greek. He never explained the sound, but after that first time, she never heard it again…

“Not very often that the old hags come crawling out of their little dingy holes,” Hades shuffled over to the small but clean kitchen area. Harriet listened to the sound of him opening and closing cupboards, not taking the bait. After a moment, Hades continued, the sound of the kettle boiling softly filling the room. “They must really want whatever they’re looking for to show those hideous mugs around here.” 

“Like I’d fucking know.” Harriet sighed, feeling tired all of the sudden as the earlier adrenaline rush began to settle. “Not anything good having them wander around, though. They’re unpredictable.”

Hades hummed in agreement. “Should have checked how the birds were flying this morning like I showed you, sweetheart.” His only response was a snort. 

The room quickly became silent again as the disgraced god continued to make what Harriet could only assume was tea. The thought was oddly funny to her, especially when Hades finally returned, placing a tray of only marginally chipped teacups on a nearby overturned crate. 

What a day. The Mistresses of Chernabog. A god was serving her tea. And…She glanced down at her stomach.

“The morning sickness phase is a pain in the ass.” 

Dark eyes watched her over the rim of a chipped teacup, a certain depth in them reminding her that he was much more than an unassuming man that would make her listen to horrible dad jokes before sending her off with enough week-old leftovers for her and her siblings when she had come to babysit Hadie once with a fresh bruise blooming on her cheek. 

“Or so I’ve heard,” Hades shrugged as he shuffled over to an overstuffed armchair. He let out a convincing groan, creaky knees and all as he settled in. Almost human, but never quite. “Need me to place a hit on the kid’s dad? The Tremaine brat. Heard he was...getting familiar with one of Mim’s deranged spawn. Though to be honest, thought you’d be smart enough not to get knocked up.” 

Harriet rolled her eyes, shrugging off her stolen jacket despite the chill that had nothing to do with her feeling cold. “Go swim with sharks,” tone holding very little heat. “I can take care of my own business,” she reached out for the remaining cup. Harriet wouldn’t have even touched the cup if this was any other of her former babysitting clients or even her own father. It wasn’t necessarily that she trusted Hades not to kill her. She would have been foolish to think that. She supposed that it was more so the knowledge that if he did want her dead, he wouldn’t hesitate to let her know. 

“Besides,” she said after a sip of tea, the taste reminding her of the tea that Yen Sid had given her. “Wouldn’t that mean I owed you a life debt or something?”

The god let out a heave of a laugh. “You’re confusing me with some wishy-washy fae,” he frowned momentarily before his mischievous grin broke through. “Nah. That’s not how things work with the gods. We have favorites, mortals and demi-gods that we like to place our bets on. Just to keep eternity interesting.”

“Of course, you lot would turn things into a game,” she rolled her eyes. 

“Sweetheart,” the god leaned forward in his seat, a slight tilt to his lips that made him slightly inhuman for the briefest of seconds before the human facade snapped back. “When you’ve been living existence for over a millennium, you’d get bored too. But, believe it or not,” he leaned back into a recline, bunny slipper-clad feet that had seen better days propped up between them, “getting locked on this pebble of a prison is a nice little break from the business.”

Harriet snorted, loud and unladylike. For a brief moment, she thought of Anthony and the tangent he would go on and on about the uncouth behavior. She immediately tramped that line of thought down. She would make the bloody cheating bastard’s hand bleed, scrubbing every inch of the ship before she’d ever swoon again over his posh good-for-nothing arse.  

“That so? Can’t imagine work being that difficult if you could be away from it for more than twenty years,” she said while pushing thoughts of her failed...whatever it was between herself and Anthony away.  “I mean, how many poor bastards have died? Where are they at? Just waiting in the lobby of the Underworld until you get off for good behavior and check them in?”

Hades put his teacup down, his grin unnaturally all sharp teeth and angles as he leaned towards her. “What do you take me for, buttercup? An amateur? No,” he tutted. “You gotta think bigger. Big picture. There are layers to these things.”

“Layers? Is this gonna turn into an onion metaphor?” Harriet couldn’t help herself asking. 

“Wrong studio company but you’re on the right path.” The broad grin that momentarily revealed too many pointed teeth - more teeth than any human should have - made her feel like she had finally asked a question the god was eager to answer. That thought was affirmed when he quickly pulled out a book from behind him that she was sure hadn’t been there before.

Harriet raised a brow as Hades opened up the thick leather-bound book and held it out to her. She sat up, ignoring the uncomfortable spring that poked her as she looked down at the page. On it was what she wisely kept to herself as a very generous illustration of the god next to her, or what she assumed what he looked like before his powers were stripped...and before the dad bod...  

“Hey, no drooling over my picture, even if I do look great,” Hades flicked her forehead before tapping the page again. Harriet glared at him but refocused cursing under her breath before her attention back on the page. “What do you know about me?” Hades asked. “As the god of the Underworld.”

“Other being a pain in the ass?” Harriet muttered before frowning thoughtfully. “You’re Death, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” Hades nodded before shaking his head. “...and no.” Harriet watched as he pulled a small tab she hadn’t noticed before on the page. 

The image of Hades pulled apart into five separate sections before they flipped over, revealing illustrations of several different figures, all vastly different looking. One even looked like they had the head of a dog but the body of a man. Reading had never been one of Harriet’s favorite things to do, but old Mr. Smee, despite being the pushover that he was, had made sure that his children and the Hook children knew their letters and numbers. (Or at least most of their numbers in Harry’s case.) However, the words seemed to swim on the page, unreadable. Harriet closed her eyes briefly, feeling a brief sense of vertigo before opening them again, able to easily read the words under the dog-headed person. “Anubis,” it read. 

Hades watched her silently before continuing. “Whether I’m around or not, death is still going to happen as long as there’s life. As long as there’s mortality, there will always be vassals of Death. Personifications who, outward appearance are dependent on the cultural context but overall, one in the same. A dead soul is a dead soul. Gods, but especially those with my responsibilities, aren’t picky as long as the natural flow of things continue. Birth. Growth. Decay. Death. Spring. Summer. Fall. Winter.” 

Hades tapped the illustrations before flipping the page to another image of who appeared to be that old fart in the red suit with the list of kids names Harriet remembered watching on the only damn channel Auradon allowed them. Sandy Claws or something like that. 

“Not like those minor gods of beliefs whose existence and powers rely on a specific and concentrated mortal belief,” the god beside her rolled his eyes with annoyance. “Like hope and wonder or good cheer, whatever that is. I mean, have you ever heard of bad cheer? No you haven’t.”

Frowning, the pirate captain looked up from the book. “So you’re saying that there are other gods out there. Death gods, who are picking up the slack while you’re here?”

“Yeah, yeah. Something like that. I think that’s the easiest way for your little mortal brain to wrap around things,” Hades shrugged before turning the next page. 

At first, Harriet thought the pages were merely blank. Then, however, she watched as he began to unfold the pages so that they spread out, four times the original size of the book’s page. A complex and crowded family tree appeared with countless names and lines connecting them to each other like the scribbles the Smee Twins used to draw all over their cabin walls. It was a mess.

“It’s a mess,” Hades sighed as if he had plucked the thought right from her head. “It’s what happens when one of your brothers is an entitled...what do you kids call it,” he paused, rubbing his chin in thought before snapping his fingers. “That’s right! A man whore! Zeus tends to think with...well, whatever bits down there that fits his fancy,” he snickered. 

“I did not need to hear this,” Harriet rolled her eyes. “Doesn’t he have a wife? I’m surprised she hasn’t killed him in his sleep.”

A loud cackling laugh escaped Hades as if she had just told him the funniest joke in the world. “Well now I know the route you’re planning to go with the Tremaine brat,” he cackled before shaking his head. “But believe me,” he eventually calmed, “It wasn’t for Here’s lack of trying. Olympus has no fury like a queen goddess scorned. She’s a jealous goddess that honestly only an idiot like Zeus would marry and then cheat on.” Sighing suddenly, sounding deep in thought, Hades began folding the page back to its original size. “Zeus never learned how to be appreciative of those around him.”

“Why not just divorce Zeus?” Harriet found herself asking. “Or whatever is the god equivalent.”

“Because Hera likes being queen and, believe it or not, actually knows what she’s doing when she’s not thinking up complex revenge plots to get back at Zeus. Plus, it’s not that simple. When a god or goddess makes a vow like that, whether to another god, or even a mortal, it can’t be broken without some sort of consequence.”

“Like a demi-god becoming a full god when his wee lass gets hurt after being promised she wouldn’t?” Harriet challenged. It was an idiot move. An idiot move to bring up the downfall of any of the Big Bads at the hands of the heroes who put them on this rock. It was especially an idiot move to do with a god like Hades. Harriet knew better but it had been as invisible fingers had plucked the words from her lips.

However, instead of blowing up in rage like she had expected, the god stared at her, expression unreadable. “Yes. And you better remember that, sweetheart. Every contract has loopholes. Just gotta figure out if they work for or against you. Remember that.” 

Harriet could only nod, feel the air charged with…something. Something hidden within his words, meaning out of reach but there, taunting. 

“Now, drink your tea before it gets cold,” Hades ordered, getting up to put the book away and pulling out a couple of dice. “You promised me a game. Humor an old god. It’s quiet without Hadie brooding in his teenage angst.”

Harriet rolled her eyes, though there wasn’t too much annoyance in her expression. “Fine, but I’m using my own die. I don’t trust you not to cheat like you did when I was twelve.”

Chuckling, Hades shrugged sitting back down. “What? A god can’t teach an important life lesson to his favorite mortal? By the way. I was serious about offing that soon-to-be baby daddy of yours.”

“I can handle my own shit, ya geezer,” she rolled her eyes with something that some would say was fondness. Harriet would deny that though and said she was merely entertaining a bored god until she was sure the old hags outside were long gone. “Now roll! And no funny business, you cheat!”

Chapter Text

Freddie decided that she wasn’t a boat type of girl. 

Late-night impromptu carpet rides with Jordan? 

Sure. 

Fine. 

It was nerve-wracking at first to be riding at top speeds on a bit of home furnishing with nothing but a prayer and a giggling, beautiful, brilliant, pain-in-the-ass genie girlfriend to keep her from being bug juice on the speeding landscape below. It was frightening but breathtaking to be so high above everything. Like nothing mattered—a whole new world, as someone would say.

Even Freddie’s recent experimentation with shadow walking - which, if she thought too much about how easy it had been to wrap shadows like a blanket around her, using shadows like her own personal network - was preferable to the current torture she was going through.

The old steamboat hit another rough wave, and not for the first time since arriving on the boat, it took everything in her not to throw up.

A cool hand placed itself on Freddie’s forehead before she could smack it away, and in between one heartbeat and another, the motion sickness lessened significantly. Amber eyes squinted up at the kneeling figure of her savior.

Uma.

“Neat trick,” Freddie attempted to smirk. However, she felt like it came off as less confident and casual and more shaky and unsure. “Someone’s taken to magic like a fish to water.”

Uma huffed, easily spinning around in her crouched stance so that she placed herself sitting next to Freddie, both leaning against the wall that led up to the level of the ship where the wheelhouse was. They could both hear Gil’s faint voice asking several different questions to whom they could only assume was Triton’s granddaughter and heir based on the cheery high, pitched responses. “Yeah, well, didn’t want to smell your sick because you couldn’t make it over to the rail,” the sea witch muttered.

Freddie snorted, pushing back the small hat on her head more firmly into place just to give her hands something to do. She would deny it vehemently if anyone asked, but it always felt awkward being in Uma’s presence. No, she mentally corrected herself. Not awkward. Lonely. 

Whether the rumors were true or not about their linked parentage - something that neither of them nor their parents ever really brought up - Freddie knew she was being weighed and judged against Uma. Heck, all children of Big Bads were weighed and judged against each other, but some amongst them set the standard for the others. 

For instance, no one expected much from any of Gaston’s acknowledged heirs. (It was a badly kept secret that there were a few raven-haired girls that hung near the wharf with distinctly familiar jawlines and muscular physiques.) But everyone expected big things of Mal, being the Misstress of Evil’s daughter. And despite Ursula’s very early discontent with her own daughter, Uma had always been someone to claw and bite her way to the top, gaining people’s attention and either inspiring loyalty or fear in them. Though Freddie would loathe to admit it, she couldn’t help turning expectantly to Uma. Waiting for her to lead.

“So what’s the plan?”

Uma looked far off in the distance. “Get Harry. Get Ben and the rest of ‘em. Get the hell out with all of our limbs attached before that pesky Fairy Godmother even realizes we’re gone.”

Freddie narrowed her eyes. “And we’re getting CJ too.”

There, she thought. I can come up with a plan too.

“The hell we are,” Uma snarled, snapping her head to look at Freddie with a livid look. A wave rocked the boat roughly on the otherwise calm waters. “I could care less about what happens to that ungrateful, selfish little shark bait! Calista Jane Hook has only ever looked out for one person and one person only ! Herself! Even you can’t deny it.”

Freddie shook her head. Old feelings of protectiveness for the rambunctious blonde bubbled to the surface despite how there was no longer a feeling of fireflies dancing in her stomach like there used to be. “She’s just over her head again!” she tried to explain. “You know she acts before she thinks. She’s rebelling against her daddy again and just got carried away and-”  

“THAT’S WHAT YOU ALWAYS SAY!” Uma thundered. “STOP MAKING EXCUSES FOR HER!”

Freddie reeled backward as if the sea witch had physically slapped her. Her heart rammed against her chest, and she tried not to choke on the ozone taste of Uma’s magic.

Uma pinched the bridge of her nose, taking a slow deep breath. A frayed attempt at appearing calm. “Even now. Even after all the bullshit she put you through...Why do you keep making excuses for her?”

Freddie looked off, pulling her knees closer to her chest. “I know what it’s like, wanting someone’s attention so bad but being ignored by them. Like you’re not even there. Like you don’t even matter.”

Uma rolled her eyes, getting up. “Life’s tough, angelfish,” she sneered. “We were all ignored. Ignored by our parents. Ignored by the so-called ‘good guys.’ CJ doesn’t get a pass for her sad sob story because, guess what, we all had sad sob stories!”

Something unfolded within Freddie, a tight nasty little thing that she had ignored for years, telling herself it didn’t matter. It wasn’t smart to go against Uma alone, especially Uma with access to magic unless she had backup or a death wish. 

“But ma chere, you got friends on the other side…ArE yOu ReAdY?” a voice deep inside her purred darkly, phantom drums banging the start of a twisted song. The water surrounding the boat grew choppier as the sea witch eyed the shadows around them. They grew unnaturally darker. More solid. Both girls could hear the others cry out in alarm at the suddenly rough waters and eerily growing darkness. 

Freddie wondered idly what was faster, water or shadow…

And then...Freddie took a deep breath, and the shadows dimmed to normal, and the voice inside, which sounded a little too much like her Daddy and CJ at their worst, was pushed back down.

After a few seconds, the waters calmed as well. 

Letting out a sigh that held a certain type of heaviness felt just at the sound, Freddie shook her head. “You know what? You’re just as bad as all the Auradon girlies you look down on. You think you’re so self-righteous. The Isle’s Queen,” she spoke softly but cuttingly. “And you’re just as bad as Mal. You only do what’s good when it works out for you. If it weren’t for the fact that it would have all the damn heroes down your back, you probably wouldn’t even think about rescuing even Ben. What’s another pawn to you? That’s all any of us are to you. Pawns. Things to hoard or throw away.” 

Uma said nothing, staring coolly at Freddie, the air thick with unspoken threat.

“LAND, HO! Uma! There’s land! LAND, HO!” Gil’s excited shout broke the tension between the two girls. 

Uma turned on her heel, looking at the approaching island before glancing over her shoulder at Freddie. “If you find CJ first, then she’s your problem to deal with,” she seethed. “But if she crosses my path first , if she gets in the way of me getting back those who are mine , I will not hesitate to end her, once and for all. Are we clear?”

Freddie crossed her arms. “Crystal.”  

—

His head throbbed painfully. 

It was the first thing he became aware of as he sluggishly crawled toward subconsciousness. The second thing he became aware of was someone helping him to sit up, pressing the rim of a wide bowl to his chapped lips. At first, he struggled against drinking, spitting out the foul-tasting liquid until his senses finally caught up, and he smelled the familiar scent of roses, milky almonds, and green leaves: Evie. 

“I know it tastes horrible, Ben, but it’ll help with the headache,” she crooned softly. Ben focused on her soft praise and how she ran her fingers through his hair, and he forced himself to swallow down what she gave him. It took two runs of her fingers through his hair before the throbbing in his brain settled blissfully away.

Ben took a moment to open his eyes, slowly sitting up fully, thanks to Evie’s guiding hands. Once his vision settled, he could see they were in some sort of underground room, walls looking like they were made with packed dirt, framed and held together by many long stretching roots. The lighting in the room, old oil lamps with dancing flames, gave everything a somber glow, and the old cot they both sat on protested with every slight shift they made. 

“What happened?” he frowned, lifting a hand to gently tilt her chin up as he cataloged each scratch, bruise, and misplaced hair visible on her. “Where are we?”   

Taking his hand that held her chin between hers, she brought their hands down between them. Evie looked down at them as if their hands held some evasive answer. “Neverland,” she answered. “More specifically, an old emergency bunker used pre-Auradon to hide the children and elders of Tiger Peony’s tribe when Hook’s pirates looted. Pan and CJ, Harry’s sister, took us. Took me, you, Carlos, Sammy Smee, Big Murph, and Harry from school and brought us here to Neverland for some reason,” she frowned, squeezing his hand unconsciously between hers. “Pan…he’s just all…wrong. Not right,” she murmured, gaze briefly looking far off, before looking back at Ben, eyes worried. “I don’t know what he wants exactly or how CJ got involved in all of this…But something is wrong, Ben!” she tightly gripped his hand. “I can’t explain it, but Neverland is wrong! The magic here-! You can taste the ash on your tongue if you focus. Neverland, it’s…it’s-”

“Dying,” a voice filled in, and at a doorway that Ben had overlooked, Tiger Peony leaned against the door’s frame. “Pan has awakened, my mother, Tiger Lily, is dead, and Neverland is dying,” she spat with barely concealed rage as she pushed herself away from the door and looked down upon them both. “And it’s all thanks to your father, King Adam.”

Chapter Text

Hi folks.

I’m sorry to say that I think it’s time to call it. Though I know exactly how I want the story to go, I’ve unfortunately lost a lot of motivation for “We’ll Light the Fuse” and most of my other unfinished Descendants stories.

Post D2, being part of the fandom, especially the Huma/Sea Three Side of things was so inspiring. I vibed with a great group of mutuals, and for the first time, I engaged in a fandom outside of just being an observer. I’m not sure exactly what I’m trying to say, but I just want to thank my readers and other Descendants mutuals. Y'all unknowingly got me through a pretty rough time in my life. I hope you’re all doing well ❤️

Anyway, I said I would outline how I wanted WLTF to go even if I never finished. If you use any substantial bits, please reference me and also let me know! I’m not doing much writing, but I’m still reading!

You can read Part 1 of my outline here: https://edream93.tumblr.com/post/736478053432164352/i-think-its-timewltf-outline

Thank you again. Until next time.