Chapter Text
Of course they weren’t let out easy. No one wants to watch four brats get freedom when their villanous parents have been dreaming of escape for near two decades. There’s plenty of brawling in the street as the limo makes its slow way toward the barrier.
Uma is nowhere in sight; a good sign. She’d always preferred to let Harry fight the big ones as she directed from the back, keeping score and count of her own. Gil usually gave support where Harry needed, but on occasion he’d be spotted cradling and carrying limp bodies to safety.
Mal turns away from the view. She wonders briefly by what miracle they’d managed to get the doors inside locked, then remembers that this is an Auradon car. Of course it has working locks.
She scans over her crew; Jay, gaze fixed on the outside. Carlos, absently itching his scabs and studiously ignoring the quickly-purpling marks on his arms, courtesy of Cruella. Evie, with one eyebrow raised primly. Her eye darts down to Mal’s still-leaking side and wrist bent the wrong way. Mal looks away.
“Hey, what’s this thing do?” she asks, poking a button on a thin black box. Golden shimmers catch her attention and her jaw drops as the barrier, that long-standing prison wall and only protection from the sea, begins to open.
And they’re driving into thin air. Carlos is the first to notice, yelping and scrambling into Jay.
“It’s a trap!” The older boy shouts, yanking on the door handle.
Mal wants to tell everyone to calm down, but her throat constricts as she watches her one and only chance at freedom melt into the roiling ocean below. Like what’s going to happen to the four of them if she can’t get them out of this.
But then there’s a bridge, and the driver is rolling his eyes while telling them to calm down, and Mal remembers the box she’s still holding.
“Did I- did this thing just poke a hole in the barrier?” she asks eagerly, leaning toward the window separating the group from the driver.
He raises his eyes to meet hers in the mirror. “No,” he says slowly, pointing toward the dashboard. “This button did. And this one…”
The window rolls shut.
---
The limo arrives at Auradon Prep with a calm that’s broken the moment the door opens. Two boys come tumbling out, pulling at each others clothes with hands full of candy. Prince Ben opens his mouth like he might say something but doesn't, staring at the group as the girls step out more cautiously. Mal ignores the way that Evie's eyes light up at the sight of the castle.
"You can leave it like you found it! And by that, I mean just leave it," a sugar coated voice calls out. An older woman, plump and in a blue dress, steps forward from beside the Prince. "Welcome to Auradon Prep! I am the headmistress, Fairy Godmother."
Mal eyes her carefully. "Fairy Godmother, like bibbido-bobbidi-boo?"
"Bibbidi-bobbidi, you know it!" she laughs lightly.
"So you put the barrier up." It's not a question. Everyone knows who erected the prison walls that keeps thousands of lives captive.
Fairy Godmother's smile grows strained. "That was a long time ago, sweetheart."
"Not as long as it was for us." Mal cocks a hip and lays her good hand on it, subtly tucking the broken one behind her back. "No, I guess two decades wouldn't feel too long for an old bat like you. Where's the bathroom?"
The woman in question splutters, hands raised in indigence. "Well, I, I never! How dare you!"
"Fairy godmother, please," the prince urges softly. "Let me handle this."
Mal raises an eyebrow. "And what do we call you? Your royal smugness?"
"I'd bet a finger or two that's beastie junior, Mal," Jay comments, snaking an arm over her shoulder and peering suspiciously at Ben. Somewhere behind the two of them, Carlos grumbles and dusts himself off from their tussle.
"Um, just Ben is fine, actually." The prince smiles, perfectly lined teeth shining pearlescent in the sun. "It's a real pleasure to meet you all. And your names are...?"
"Mal. Jay. Evie. Carlos." Mal points to each member of her crew in turn, hiking her thumb backwards to her friends' unofficially assigned positions. "Bathroom."
"Bathroom? Oh! Oh, yes, you did mention something about a bathroom, and I'll wager it's been a long ride from the, um, yes, from the Isle. I'll show Jay and Carlos to their room, and Audrey here can show you and Evie to yours." His freely given smiles, a sure threat of violence on the Isle, set Mal on edge slightly, but not as much as his words do.
"You're separating us?" The words come out more desperately than she means them to. Jay's grip on her shoulder tightens imperceptibly, and she collects herself. "You're not separating us. We stay together."
"Oh, that's... not really how things work in Auradon..." Ben trails off, eyes darting nervously between the group. "But I can make something work." Steely determination fills his voice, and his shoulders pull back, like he knows a storm is on the air.
Fairy Godmother gapes, fingers twitching. "Prince Ben, I do believe we need to talk about-"
"First, let's get you to a bathroom and then we can discuss your options," Ben cuts her off.
A young woman standing two steps behind the Prince, who until now hadn't made herself a person of interest, chimes in. "We can go to ballroom two. The needlepoint club should be done using it by now, and there's an accessible bathroom nearby."
Ben smiles gratefully at the brunette, while Mal's expression hardens. "Thank you, Audrey," he says, oblivious to Mal's shifting feet and - to her gang, at least - obviously nervous demeanor.
"And you are?" Mal's voice is like ice once more, distrustful as ever to people who help unexpectedly. Aid is never freely given on the Isle, and eighteen years of mistakes have taught the daughter of Maleficent more than most know about the cost of trust.
"Audrey." The sheer amount of pink on her clothes nearly burns Mal's eyes, but the girl finally comes into full view. A delicate lace trims every would-be edge on her frame. Mal can't help but bitterly wonder what Evie would have sacrificed for fabric of that quality even just a few months ago. A sneer slides onto her face to mask the itchy discomfort surrounding every aspect of this cushy new world.
"I know that, dipshit." Mal ignores Fairy Godmother's horrified gasp and continues. "Your parents, who are they?"
Audrey eyes Mal up and down, standing her ground with an unexpected determination. "...For what it's worth, my mother is Aurora of the moors. You'll know her story well, I assume?"
The welcoming committee that had been hissing and whispering to one another until this point, fall silent as the revelation hushes them all.
Mal nearly vomits right there and then. Bile rises in her throat as she winces through a tight-lipped smile. "Inside and out, princess."
"Well!" Ben claps. "To the bathrooms!"