The VK's planner

by GNM_dreaming_girl

Summary:

When Lia is chosen to go to Auradon with the Dragon Four, she can't not go. So she leaves her crew, her boyfriend and all the children she swore to protect, because this might be their only chance, and she'll be damned if she can't devise a plan to turn that chance into a success.

...

What happens when the core Four have a planner with them when they go to Auradon, one that would do anything to protect the kids of the Isle.

Notes:

Just a little something that's been in my brain, tell me what you think about it please !

 

Disclaimer :

I do not own Descendants (that's very sad if you ask me)

English is not my birth language, please tell me if you find any mistake

Chapter 1: Leaving the Isle

Lia was walking down the streets of the Isle, doing her monthly grand tour to make sure all children on her crew’s territory were safe. She was taking notes in her trusty notebook, accounting for each child she saw, taking notes of the two who she’d seen who looked sick, they’d have to make sure they would be okay. 

She closed her notebook and her hand was on the hilt of her sword in an instant, men had entered the alley behind her, more than three, and they were making too much noise to belong here, this was Uma’s territory, and she’d defend it. 

Her eyes found those of the four kids present in the alley, with a nod of her head she gestured for them to get away from there. Hopefully, one of them would go inform the pirates of the situation and she’d have backup soon enough, she thought as they bolted. 

She turned around, drawing her sword. They were more than she had thought and their uniforms left no doubt as to whom had sent them. She managed to fight off the first two as they reached her, leaving a deep wound in one of their arms, but soon a hand closed around her forearm. Then one on her shoulder. One bent her other arm behind her back. One took hold of the exposed skin on her wrist. 

She wasn’t moving anymore, wasn’t fighting anymore, her body completely rigid and incapable of doing anything. She couldn’t move, she couldn’t scream, she couldn’t even cry, not with all those hands on her. Hands, hands everywhere, hundreds of hands on her body and she could do nothing about it. 

Lia had lost her grasp on time and space, she realized at some point that she wasn’t connected to the floor anymore but that was about all, the hands were still there, moving her, and she had no idea where they were taking her. Though, had she been able to think, she probably would have figured it out rather quickly.

 

Fuck… Lia was laying on a cold floor. She had passed out. She hated herself then, she didn’t know where she was, she still hadn’t opened her eyes. She could still feel hands on her. No. She was wrong. The floor was cold, hands would be warm, she could feel the hands but no warmth. It was her fucked up brain playing tricks on her again. 

She focused on the cold hard floor under her, trying to erase the feeling of hands on her skin. She hadn’t moved, if anyone was in the room with her they shouldn’t have noticed she had awakened, she needed to find a way to get back to the docks. Why would anyone kidnap her ? 

That’s when she remembered who had attacked her, they wore the uniforms of the Red Queen’s army. 

She knew exactly where she was.

Lia opened her eyes and found herself facing a throne, the Red Queen was sprawled upon it. Lia sat up and got to her feet, she didn’t have her sword anymore, but she could still feel the dagger in her boot, the one strapped to her thigh and the two on her upper arms. They hadn’t searched her, she found some relief in that knowledge. 

“Rosalia,” called the Red Queen. “You’re awake !”

She grimaced at the use of her birth name.

“Mother. Why did you bring me here ?” she asked coldly.

“No need for all the dramatics, child. I would have left you to play with the pirates but word came for you, from Auradon.”

Auradon ? Why would they send for her ? Were they finally getting the children off the island ? Were all children going ? Evil, she prayed they’d all get to go. 

“You and four other teenagers from the isle have been selected to attend Auradon Prep, you will be leaving tomorrow morning. I spoke with the other parents, while you are there, you will steal the magic wand of Fairy Godmother and free everyone from the Isle. Then we’ll finally go back to Wonderland.”

Only five were leaving ? What about all the others ? What about the youngest ? What was Auradon trying to do ? And their parents expected them to free them ?

“Who are the four others ?” she asked, for it was the only information the Red Queen would be able to provide. 

“Jay, Evie, Carlos De Vil and Mal Faery.”

That was bad, not only was she the only one from her crew, but removing all of the Dragon Four from the island was dangerous. The Dragon Four had a territory about as big as theirs and those two territories that took up more than half of the Isle were the only places safe for children. Taking away all of the Dragon Four would mean leaving half of the Isle’s children without protection. She needed to inform Uma, and she needed to devise a plan to make it possible for the pirates to protect the children currently under the protection of Mal’s gang. 

She didn’t want to go, didn’t want to leave her crew in the mess they would find themselves into. But she also knew that such an opportunity might never present itself again, they did need to go, that magic wand might very well be their only hope. She needed to talk to Uma. 

“Very well,” she said. “Thank you for the information, I’ll go. Now I need to go tell Uma about it.”

She took a step back, half turning towards the door, to find that guards were blocking said door. 

“The last time you left from under this roof, I didn’t see you for two years,” said the Red Queen in an eerily calm voice. “So you’ll understand that I will be keeping you here until my men escort you to the car taking you to Auradon tomorrow.”

Lia took in the dozen soldiers posted around the room. She wouldn’t be able to fight her way out, not alone. But how would she inform Uma that she was leaving, and that she needed to take over Mal’s territory, she needed to design a plan for the transition, for what they would do once the five chosen teenagers were gone. 

“Why would I not go to the car ?” she asked the villain. “I finally get to get off this island.”

“You might want to stay with your little boyfriend, love is such a strange thing, is it not ? You left our home to be with him, what’s to say you won’t stay on the Isle for him too ?” 

Rage overtook Lia as she listened to the Red Queen, the woman who had been supposed to be her mother, who had been supposed to protect her. 

“I left to get away from you !” she spat. “I left to get away from them !”

“And you shall again,” said the woman with a cruel smile, “tomorrow, when you go to Auradon.”

 

Lia had been escorted out of the throne room and to the room that had once been hers. It hadn’t changed, it remained exactly the same as in her nightmares. There were bars at the window, and she knew that a few soldiers had to be guarding the door. 

She sat at the desk in the corner. She wouldn’t be able to sleep, she might as well be productive, they would need an evacuation plan. She searched her denim jacket for her notebook but didn’t find it, it must have fallen when she was abducted, shit, could anything go well today ?

In the absence of her trusty notebook she searched her old desk for paper, thankfully she found some in the third drawer. 

Drawing up the evacuation plan occupied her time until the early hours of the morning, she could only hope her plan was clear enough and that it would work. The sun wasn’t up yet, and she couldn’t allow herself to fall asleep here despite how tired she was, so she began planning a way for Uma to take over Mal’s territory in the Dragon Four’s absence. 

 

When morning came, Lia walked to Maleficient’s castle surrounded by a dozen of the Red army’s soldiers, they only gave her more than a square meter of space once they arrived. Carlos, Jay and Evie were already here with bags, waiting for the car and she realized she didn’t have a bag, she hadn’t had any of her stuff, all of it was in her home, on a pirate ship.

She’d deal with that later, she had to ask them if one of them had informed Uma, hopefully they’d known since yesterday too. She walked up to them. 

“Did you inform Uma ? She’ll need to take over your territory.” 

Evie smiled at her. “Why don’t you ask her first mate ?” she said, nodding in the direction of something behind Lia. 

She turned around in an instant, and there he was, far too tall for his own good.

“Harry,” she exhaled, crossing the distance between them. 

He smiled, “Hello my Lady. Mal came last night, put a stop to the attack we were about to launch on the Red Bitch. She explained what happened, don’t worry, we’ll take over her territory, she also said your parents want you to lower the barrier.”

“They do,” she confirmed as she took out the papers she had spent the night on from her jacket and handed them to him. “Get this to Uma, that’s my plan, both for taking over Mal’s territory and for the evacuation”

He chuckled and leaned in to bring his lips near her ear. “You’re brilliant,” he whispered as he took the papers from her hand without so much as brushing it. 

“I packed for you,” he said, putting down a bag at her feet, “tried to fit myself in there but the bag wouldn’t close.”

She smiled, bringing her hands to his neck to pull him down to her while his hands disappeared behind his back. She kissed him fiercely, she would miss him so much. He kissed her back with just as much strength and quite a bit of desperation.

“I love you,” he whispered for only her to hear as their lips parted. 

“I love you too.” 

“Hug me, please ?” he asked.

Her arms immediately found themselves around him as she leaned her whole body into him, her head fitting perfectly right under his chin. “The Dragon Four all came to the Docks last night,” he informed her, “they explained what was happening. They promised to treat you as one of theirs, you won’t be alone, you’ll all keep each other safe.” She nodded in his chest as he kept talking. “I told them not to touch you, and not to let others touch you. But I’m not sure whether or not they took me seriously so pay attention to that, I think they just saw me as some psycho boyfriend for a minute there.”

She chuckled in his chest “In their defense you do usually play the psycho boyfriend.”

He shrugged, “I’m still disappointed in them,” he deadpanned, making her laugh some more.

She was comfortable, she noticed with surprise. She had felt dirty up until she’d seen him, but now she was finally good, comfortable with him in her arms. 

“You can hug me back,” she said, after a second of consideration. 

“Are you sure ?” he asked. 

“Yes.” 

She could almost feel his smile as he wrapped his arms around her, enveloping her in his arms while still keeping his hands away from her body. 

They stayed like that for a minute before a limousine arrived and stopped beside them. The driver got out of the car and opened the trunk, and she let go of Harry as Jay, Evie and Carlos were throwing their bags in, Harry beat her to her bag and put it in the car himself before walking back to her. He looked her up and down before leaning down to her. “You have your knives on you ?” he asked in a murmur. 

She nodded and saw him sight in relief. “Alright, love, you are not allowed to like any of those Auradon boys or girls, or the Dragon Four either, if anyone flirts with you your job is to hook them for me.” 

She chuckled, “Very well,” she said, before gripping his jacket. “You, love, are mine and you are to blind anyone who tries to take you from me in my absence.”

“Your wish is my command my Lady.”

In the corner of her eye, she saw Mal exit her mother’s castle, time was up. She pulled Harry down into one short but passionate kiss before climbing into the limousine behind Mal. 

Chapter 2: Welcome to Auradon

Summary:

The Dragon Four and Lia get to Auradon

Notes:

Hi ! I hope you like this chapter !

Disclaimers :

I don't own Descendants (And I don't own any fairy tale either but I'm pretty sure a lot of them are free of rights)

English is still not my birth language (crazy isn't it ?) so please tell me if you notice any mistake.

Lia seated herself and looked up at the Dragon Four, the four people she’d have to trust for the duration of this mission. Her gaze found Mal’s immediately, the pruple-haired girl nodded her way, a confirmation of their alliance, on her right, Evie gave her a kind smile. Then came Jay who nodded in a similar fashion to Mal’s and finally Carlos who was the closest to Lia and who smiled timidly. It was as good of a welcome into the group as they could deliver while the Auradonian driver was in hearing range, she nodded and smiled in quiet acceptance. 

The car began moving and they all slid a bit off their seats, there were no cars on the Isle, they were unnecessary considering the size of the island and they probably did not have the necessary materials to create them. They quickly got the hang of it and Lia adjusted back her long black leather skirt over her leather trousers. 

As she did this, the two boys threw themselves at… well she wasn’t sure what it was, but apparently it was edible, and that was good news because neither of the boys had waited any time before putting the things in their mouths. Anyway, they didn’t die, so Evie and her tried some too while Mal began playing with a black remote. 

She was trying her second food thing when Evie screamed at them to look as the limo was heading straight for the sea. The Dragon Four started screaming and Jay pulled them all against him, while she grabbed onto her seat, and kept looking forward, she would face death head on, she’d promised herself so far too long ago. 

She sighed in relief when she saw the magical bridge forming. 

“Guys,” she called. “We’re good, look.”

They did and Mal asked the driver if her remote had opened the barrier, it hadn’t, but the man showed them the remote that had opened it before closing the sort of window that separated them from him. Their parents asked for the magic wand, but that remote might be just as efficient for her plans, except that it seemed to only open that part of the barrier, which might not be the better option. 

She spent the rest of the time trying every kind of sweet there was in the car, she found that the most filling was the one Carlos had called nutty and sweet and took out an handkerchief that was always in her skirt from it before dumping the whole jar of the food in it and putting the lot into one of the two big pockets that she had sewn on the inside of her skirt. 

Mal nodded at the action and they all began filling their pockets with the rest of the food. No matter what, food was food and they had no idea what would happen in Auradon, they’d need strength. Then Jay began stealing more than food, which was alright until he decided to take a screen that, surely, would be noticed by the administration. She didn’t say anything though, Mal hadn’t and she was new to the group, while she was grateful Jay hadn’t grabbed her earlier, it didn’t escape her notice that she hadn’t been included in what was a protective gesture and it hurt, to not be with people she knew would protect her. It was the first time in two years that she was out of reach of the people who she knew would always protect her. 

 

The car came to a stop as Carlos and Jay fought over a blanket, she hadn’t even paid attention to the way the car had taken she realized, but they hadn’t traveled long and she wasn’t sure how fast cars went but she assumed that it meant that they weren’t too far from the Isle. 

The door opened and Carlos fell out of the car while still holding onto the blanket and Jay walked out, still fighting over the other end of the cloth. She climbed out after them with the girls and found rows of teenagers in an atrocious combination of yellow and blue playing music. They were quick to stop at the display Carlos and Jay were making but one look from Mal had Jay stopping and helping Carlos back to his feet.

“Leave it like you found it !” said a middle aged woman with what seemed to be a forced smile, the reason anyone would force themselves to smile eluded Lia. “And by that I mean just leave it,” the woman added once she realized that the boys hadn’t moved. 

Jay put the screen and the blanket back in the car and the driver closed the door and went to get in the car. On each side of the middle aged woman stood two teenagers, about their ages, a boy and a girl. Jay didn’t waste a second to flirt with the girl, who did seem affected but the adult brought back his attention to her by welcoming them all to Auradon Prep before informing them that she was not only their headmistress but also Fairy-Godmother. Suddenly Jay was back behind Mal and each of the Isle’s kids’ attention was on the conversation, this woman was the owner of the wand they wanted. 

Mal asked some questions, but they didn’t learn anything. Lia tried to see if the woman had the wand on her, she couldn’t see it, but again, she had four knives and a bunch of weird food in her pocket and no one would notice either so that didn’t really mean anything. 

The boy that was with the headmistress stepped forward then, introducing himself as Ben, he was Prince Benjamin, and while she had no doubt many people called their children Benjamin in Auradon, that plus the royal emblem on his blazer told her that this was the son of Belle and the Beast, this was the heir to the throne of Auradon. The girl confirmed it a minute later, right before Evie introduced herself and was told by that same girl that her royal status wasn’t recognized in Auradon before so kindly informing them that she was a princess and Ben’s girlfriend. Lia quite wanted to give the girl a beating, who the fuck were they to take away Evie’s royal status ? Plus, what logic was there to there being one main king and then there being other kings ruling over their little territory that the main king was also ruling over ? And why did Princess Bimbo tell them that Ben would soon be king ? Was the Beast sick ? And why was the girl being so happy about it if that was the case ? Lia could respect a drive for power and sure as the heir’s girlfriend she could see how it benefited the girl but it was quite stupid to show her happiness so openly. 

The Headmistress said her goodbyes, with a stupid joke about curfews, and left with the band, which was a good thing because she didn’t have to look at their horrible outfits anymore, leaving them in the care of Prince Benjamin and Princess Wench. 

The prince moved towards her, holding out his hand, and she had no idea how she would keep him from touching her. Then Jay was in front of her, punching the prince on the chest and she exhaled, she hadn’t realized she had been holding her breath. 

When the prince got over his surprise and turned back to her she waved at him, keeping herself half hidden behind the unmoving pile of muscle that was Jay. He waved back awkwardly and moved to Jay’s other side to shake Mal’s hand.

“Thanks,” she whispered to Jay, low enough that no one else would hear it. 

He nodded, not looking back, a quiet acknowledgment that she was under his protection. It was reassuring, to be protected, to be acknowledged as someone to protect by the protector of the Dragon Four gang, it made her believe maybe she’d be alright with them. 

The prince was giving some grand declaration about how this was the first day that their two people began to heal, which as Mal said, was a bit much, but was also bullshit because if the goal was to heal them why had they only brought five of them here. 

It also turned out that Princess Whore was the daughter of Sleeping Beauty, and while Lia already didn’t like her, she was worried that a rivalry between the girl and Mal would distract Mal. She’d see how that would go, there was no reason to believe that Mal could be distracted, after all, she’d ruled on her part of the Isle for quite a few years now without a problem so there was very little chance that a petty rivalry would throw her off. 

“How about a tour ?” offered the prince, clearly trying to defuse the tension in the room. 

“Sure,” Lia answered, “but could we get our bags first ?”

He smiled, “Oh, they’ll be brought to your rooms, don’t worry about it.”

She grimaced, “I’d rather have mine with me.” She’d already spent last night without anything that belonged to her, she wasn’t going to risk not getting her stuff. And she had no idea what Harry might have put in there, if there was any message she didn’t want to risk anyone searching it.

“Sure, okay,” nodded the prince, abashed. 

She smiled and walked to the trunk of the car, the driver arrived a second after her and opened it. She took her bag and the Dragon Four did the same. 

 

The prince took them on a tour of the school, and Lia committed everything to memory, knowing the environment you are in was far too important to not take note of every detail. She had clocked all the ways in and out of each room they’d seen and noticed a few blind spots but she knew that blind spots were harder to find during a tour so she had probably missed a lot of them.

Ben, as that was what he insisted to be called, ended the tour at the entrance of the dorms, where he introduced them to Doug, who was Dopey’s son but somehow wasn’t a dwarf, probably because of his mother. Doug gave them their timetables, which included a ‘Remedial Goodness 101’ class, which was frankly ridiculous and led them to their rooms while telling them that they would have to choose elective classes. 

They went first to the boys room, which Lia was glad about, it meant that she knew where the boys were and would soon know the way between their dorms. She wasn’t very happy that the boys wouldn’t know the way but if not everyone got the information she preferred to be in the group who had it. The other reason Lia was glad about it was that Doug seemed a bit less stressed after they left the boys behind, he was still scared but not as much and she had noticed that he had kept looking at Jay during the first part of their time together, and unless it was just Doug, it probably meant that Auradonians were prone to underestimating them girls, and that would surely make things easier for them. Lia knew she was more vulnerable than most Isle kids of her age, not that she couldn’t fight, she just knew she was, the day before was quite sufficient proof of that, but she could kill the dwarf’s son in less than ten minutes if she wished. 

Anyway, she had already established that they were all being underestimated. They hadn’t been searched, not once, not by anyone. Lia currently had four knives on her and no one had even thought to ask if they were armed. 

When they finally entered their room, Lia grimaced, it was… very pink. Mal agreed with her but Evie seemed to love the girly place, that made Lia smile, at least one of them got to be in a place they liked. Still Lia was glad when Mal pulled the curtains, she’d have to get used to the light that was everywhere, after all, they had lived their whole life with clouds over their heads. 

“We’ll go down to the boys room once the sun has set,” said Mal. 

That was quite a bit of time away but Lia nodded, it made sense. 

“Yes, I’d like to get some sleep before then, I haven’t been able to sleep last night,” she said as she took all the food she’d stolen out of her many pockets and put it on the table present in the room, Mal and Evie quickly did the same. “But first I’d like to be sure we’re on the same page with this wand business, you don’t actually intend to free our parents, do you ?”

Mal had a joyless laugh. 

“You and Uma really are two sides of the same coin, aren’t you ? To be completely honest, I did intend to when my mother told me the plan yesterday. But then, I went to Uma, I hoped to speak to you actually, but they told me what happened, and Uma convinced me that freeing everyone was a bad idea. I just hadn’t thought it through at the time but I know you pirates are right on this one, we just spent years protecting the little ones from the adults of the Isle, it would be stupid to free everyone. So with Uma we decided to just go with the plan to steal the wand, except that instead of freeing everyone we’ll just free the children. Uma said you’d probably come up with other plans, so if you do, we’re all ears.”

Lia smiled. “Perfect, I don’t actually have another plan right now, the wand is the most efficient one because it will work on the whole barrier, which means that the children will be able to evacuate from every part of the Isle. If we can’t get the wand we’ll have to steal the remote that opened the barrier but that would allow everyone to pass, not just the children and adults may slip through, plus it would only open in one point so the evacuation will take longer and there are chances that parents find out and trap their children. I only gave Uma an evacuation plan for the wand scenario so if we don’t get the wand, we’ll have to find a way to contact them.” 

Mal nodded and chuckled, “They weren’t kidding when they called you the planner.” 

“Nope, they weren’t. Will you stay while I sleep ?” 

Both girls nodded without missing a beat and Lia relaxed at the confirmation before she finally lied down and closed her eyes.

Notes:

What did you think of Lia's names for Audrey ? I'll admit I had a lot of fun with that.

Chapter 3: Pretentious handwriting

Summary:

The rest of the first day, including the museum heist.

And a bit more about Lia and Harry's relationship!

Notes:

Hi ! I really hope you like this chapter, because I do !

 

Disclaimers :

I do not own descendants (I promise, I'm a law student and I would never let that disastrous justice system happen)

English is not my first language, please tell me if you notice any mistake (I know it's crazy that my birth language didn't change since the last chapter)

The bed Lia woke up in was weird, she couldn’t feel anything hard, no hard wood under her. Where was she ? Fuck… what were the odds that it all had been a dream ? She opened an eye. Not a dream then… She actually was in fucking Auradon. A laugh escaped her, at first it was just a chuckle, but soon it turned into a full blown uncontrollable laugh. She was in Auradon, how bloody ridiculous was that ? They’d welcomed them with a stupid band, they’d brought out a freaking band to only welcome five of them. 

How dare they only welcome five of them ? How dare they leave behind all the children ? How dare they separate her from her crew, from all the people who she trusted ? And she was crying now. The tears stopped as soon as she realized that, and she put a laughing smile back on her face. She was highly conscious that Evie and Mal were in the room with her and she did not, as a rule, show her emotions to anyone who was not Harry, Uma or Gil.

She wiped her eyes and looked around the room, Evie was drawing something in a notebook and Mal seemed to be reading a leather-bound book. They were both carefully ignoring her. Lia smiled, one thing about Isle kids, they knew when not to mention things.

“Has anything happened while I was sleeping ?” she asked. 

“Doug came to tell us when it was lunchtime,” answered Mal “we went one after the other, I went with Carlos and Evie went with Jay. We brought some back for you.”

Evie smiled much more excitedly as she brought her a plate filled with food. “They have so much food here, I’ve never seen anything like it, and none of it is rotting, there’s no bugs, and Doug said dinner was at seven. He said we get to eat again !”

It didn’t sound real, it sounded like a joke, a dream, two meals in a day, a sick joke really. Still, she nodded and took the fork, the food tasted like ash as she put it in her mouth, but she wasn’t about to not eat when she could. 

 

When she finished her plate, she looked up outside, even with the curtains drawn it was very light, it couldn’t be close to sundown, which meant that she still had hours before they’d head out. So she pulled the bag she hadn’t packed onto her bed and she opened it.

The first thing she saw was her sword. Of course he’d found it, of course he’d put it in there. What was a pirate without a sword ? She pulled it out and stood to put it in the holster that was sewn into her skirt. 

“That will come in handy,” said Mal from her own bed. 

Lia chuckled. “Yeah, how ridiculous is it that they didn’t search us for weapons ?”

“Pretty ridiculous,” confirmed Evie from the table she was seating at.

Lia nodded and sat back down, looking into her bag once more. She found a few of her shirts, underwear, leisure pants and cotton period pads, all perfectly folded. Under it all, she found a familiar shirt and sweater, both far too big for her and she couldn’t help but smile softly as she passed her hand over the familiar fabric, that was his favorite hoodie and her favorite shirt of his. She could see how much care he’d put into packing all this for her, he’d probably spent the whole night obsessing over making sure she’d have enough of everything she might need. 

At the very bottom of the bag, she found her notebook, her beautifully and adored trusty notebook. He’d found it. Of course he had. 

She turned the pages to the data she’d been writing the previous day, there on the page facing her last half-written word was the beautiful cursive handwriting of her boyfriend.

My Lady,

As you’re reading this, you are farther away than you have ever been

but that’s alright, because it’s better than where you are as I’m writing this.

I’m sorry, 

I shouldn’t have written that, I just worry so much right now.

You love facts, so here are some :

We made an alliance with the Dragon Four, we’ll take over their territory

and they will be protecting you as one of their own while in Auradon.

Uma made a plan to steal Fairy Godmother’s wand but only use it to

modify the barrier instead of destroying it, this way we’ll be able to get 

out but our parents won’t. She thinks you’ll agree on that.

Also, the kids who told us you were being ambushed are alright, they ate

your meal, you’ll be glad about that. 

But all of this is very boring and I promised long ago to never bore you, 

so instead I’ll remind you exactly why I’m the best. 

I just relinquished my very favorite and most comfy hoodie, which 

absolutely does not mean that you get to keep it, it’s mine, but I’m

lending it to you because you happen to be mine too and I kind of like 

you.

I know you will miss me terribly, for I am irreplaceable so when you do, 

just put on my hoodie and imagine I’m hugging you. 

Remember you are Lia to-be-Hook, you are strong, fierce, beautiful, 

brilliant and I promised I’d marry you one day so you are obligated 

to remain safe. 

Stay safe for me my Lady, 

I love you,

Yours

Evil, she loved him, she loved him for making her laugh, she loved him for worrying too much, she loved him for managing to take care of her from an Isle away. He didn’t even sign, her perfect pretentious love, just wrote ‘Yours’ in his pretentiously beautiful handwriting because he knew, as she did, that he was the one thing that was truly hers.

 

Jay and Carlos came to the room at six thirty pm, as soon as they entered, Lia got up and moved her sword from the holster that was over her skirt to the one that was under it. Mal turned to her as Evie got up and started arranging her hair in the mirror. 

“The four of us usually walk in formation,” she told her, “I’m at the front, to lead the way, Jay is at the back, so he can see any threat, and Carlos and Evie walk side by side in between us, that way Jay and I can protect them. I have two possible places for you in the formation, the first is at the front side by side with me because I know you can fight, I’ve seen you fight, and you’ll be able to see anyone coming at you and Jay will see and stop anyone coming from behind, the second is in between Carlos and Evie, Hook said you can’t be touched but he wasn’t very precise, if you really can’t be touched that’s the place where you are certain to never be. Which is the best for you ?”

Lia knew all about walking formations. In her crew, she walked first, because no one dared to approach her when Harry was walking a foot behind her, he’d hooked more than one person for trying, gender didn’t matter, Harry Hook was a possessive psycho, and the entire Isle knew it. Gil and Uma walked side by side at the back if it was only the four of them, if it wasn’t, Uma was in the middle and Gil was at the back with the rest of the crew.

She would be safer in the middle, but it would also be a show of weakness, and she could deal with people bumping into her, especially if she could see them coming. Plus she was strong and a great fighter, Carlos and Evie shouldn’t be protecting her.

“I’ll walk at the front with you, I can deal with that.”

They nodded and just like that they were on their way, Lia and Mal leading the way. Everyone they crossed paths with in the hallways gave them a wide berth, clearly they all knew who they were. 

What she saw in the cafeteria was unbelievable, like nothing she had ever seen. The amount of food, she’d never seen that much in her life, this could feed all the children in her territory for a week, and they had that for dinner, their second meal of the day. It wasn’t fair, it wasn’t right, and she already knew that this time she wouldn’t be able to force herself to eat. She’d already eaten three times her daily food intake, she’d read that eating too much after not eating enough for a long time could lead to throwing up anyway. And Evil knew she’d researched malnutrition thoroughly. 

They got food, she was careful to only take food she would be able to preserve, and then the five of them sat down at a table Lia guided them to, one she could have a view of most of the room and of every door from. Lia didn’t eat and Evie didn’t either, Mal only ate a little but as she saw the boys put everything on their enormous plates in their mouths, especially Carlos who looked more malnourished than Jay, she worried a little about whether their bodies would be able to deal with eating that much food when they probably never had. Thinking about it, they should all have been seen by physicians upon arrival here, to make sure they weren’t harmed and to be given instructions on how to deal with malnutrition, but clearly Auradon didn’t care about their well-being. No matter, she’d have to find a physician or find books on medicine and learn about it to be prepared for the other’s arrival. 

Soon enough, the boys were done eating, the girls had hidden what was left of their plates in various pockets and they were all leaving the cafeteria and heading back to the boys’ room. Lia found that she liked the boy’s room better, it was all in dark wood and colors, it made her think of the ship she called home. 

“Alright, let’s get to work,” called Mal. 

“We need to know where the wand is,” said Lia, nodding. 

“Evie can take care of that,” informed her Mal. 

“How ?” asked Evie, confusing Lia. 

“The mirror, E.”

Realization seemed to hit Evie and she hurried to pull a little mirror out of her bag. 

“Your mother’s ?” asked Lia.

The princess nodded, “It shows me anything I want to see. Mirror, mirror in my hand, show me Fairy-Godmother’s wand.” 

The mirror was incredible, and after a bit of adjustment, they found out the wand was in the hero gallery of the museum of cultural history. It took a bit of time, but they managed to make the computer in the boy’s room work and to find a plan of the museum of the museum’s site, all emergency exits were present on the plan too. 

“Can you ask the mirror to show you the security system of the museum ?” called Lia. “The guards, the protection of the wand, the alarms at entrances.” 

Evie confirmed that there was only one guard, that the wand was protected by a magical field and that all entrances but the one adjacent to the guard were protected by alarms. Lia now had to turn to Mal.

“You have magical powers, right ? Do you have a spell that could take down a magical field ?”

“Let me look.” 

As Mal was looking for the spell, Lia drew up the way they would have to follow, the plan would be fairly simple if Mal found a spell, if she didn’t, they would have to abandon that plan. 

“I found it !” exclaimed Mal, jumping up from where she was seated on Jay’s bed. 

“Great !” smiled Lia. “Let’s go then.”

 

Getting out of the school was ridiculously easy, as everything seemed to be really. They had a long walk before reaching the museum so Lia took that time to brief everyone on the plan for the heist. They all listened and took in her instructions, asking questions and making sure they had heard right, it reassured her because she was used to everyone following her orders and she didn't know how she would have dealt with a team that didn’t take her seriously. 

When they reached the museum, Lia guided them to the right entrance and Mal immediately took out the guard with a sleeping spell she had searched for earlier before opening the door with another, magic truly did come in handy. Lia once again led the way to the wand, time was of the essence so she had them running through the museum, the goal was to be in and out in under ten minutes. 

Once they reached the wand, they all let Mal step forward to cast her spell. That wand, the one currently a mere meter away from Lia, had the power to free the children of the Isle, every one of Lia’s dreams united in this one magic wand. 

“This barrier has to breach, to allow us to reach,” chanted Mal. 

Nothing happened. Mal chanted again. And again. She did it five times and, still, nothing happened. 

“Maybe it went down ?” said Jay, though they could all clearly see the magic barrier, and before anyone could do anything he reached for the wand. 

The alarms went off immediately. Fuck, if the alarms woke the guard up, he’ll come straight here through the way they had taken to come here, she needed to make a detour. 

“Follow me !” she called as she started running up a flight of stairs. 

Thank evil she’d thought of looking for alternative ways out of the museum. 

She stopped as they reached the room they’d left the guard in, she peaked a look and sure enough, he wasn’t here anymore. “Okay, let’s go !” 

The phone started to ring on the way out and Carlos stopped and answered it perfectly, making the alarm stop with an amazing bit of improvisation. 

Soon they were all running back into the forest. Once they were covered by the trees, they could finally stop to take a breath. 

“That was brilliant, Carlos,” Lia said once her breathing had calmed down. 

The boy seemed to light up at the compliment, it made her sad, she’d seen it before, this need for praise, she knew the kind of abuse it came from. Then and there she promised herself to give more kind words to him. 

“Well now we’re gonna have to go to class tomorrow,” stated Mal. 

“Yeah. We won’t be able to get the wand from the museum, so we need to find a way to get Fairy Godmother to use it and steal it directly from her,” added Lia. 

Everyone nodded and just like that they were on their way back to the school.

 

It’s only when Lia sat on her bed that it sunk in, she had no idea how long it would take to get everyone off the island, she had no idea how long it would be before she saw Harry.

She opened up the bag she hadn’t emptied and remembering his words she pulled out his shirt and hoodie. She went to the bathroom to change into the shirt, she enjoyed the moment of privacy that allowed her to bask into her favorite smell in the world, his. The shirt was a dress on her and she just adored it, it fell perfectly and one of her favorite things in the world was seeing his face whenever they had a late night in one of their rooms and she inevitably ended up in one of his shirts, she just had to close her eyes to see that adoring face now. 

When she walked back into the room, Mal and Evie had already changed and Evie was massaging her face in front of the mirror. She took the hoodie from where she’d left it on her bed, and as it unfolded something fell from it. The hoodie escaped her as she stared at the piece of silver that now sat on her bed. This was Harry’s most prized possession, second only to her. He valued this over his hook. He’d given her his silver pocket watch, the one he’d never even let her touch. A paper had fallen with it.

She quickly put on the hoodie and slipped into her bed with the watch and the piece of paper. She opened the paper first, there was only one sentence written on it in pretentious handwriting.

I did this two weeks after meeting you, 

that’s why I never let you touch it.

She was curious now, what had he done again ? And so fast, she’d joined the crew a week after meeting Harry but they hadn’t been able to interact for that first week. So whatever he did, that was apparently in relation to her he’d done after knowing her for only a week, and evil knew that hadn’t been her best week.

She let her fingers trail on the watch for a second, loving the cold feel of the silver, it made her think of the hook she’d turned in her hands a thousand times. She opened it carefully, the clock’s needles were turning and facing them was her face, the one she had at twelve years old, the one he’d only truly seen once two weeks before the moment he apparently drew this on the now worn paper. 

They’d talked about this before, about how fast he’d become obsessed with her, and having the proof of his obsession seating in the palm of her hand just allowed her to breathe easier. He was hers, he’d been hers since the first time he laid eyes on her and he would remain hers for the rest of his life. Distance couldn’t change it, time couldn’t change it and at any moment of any day she knew for a fact that he was thinking about her, because that was just how obsessed he was. 

She held the pocket watch close to her chest as she curled up in her bed and closed her eyes.

Chapter 4: First day

Summary:

First day of school and 'Remedial goodness 101'

Notes:

Hi everyone ! I'm sorry it's been a while, I had connection problems at my apartment for the last weeks as well as a ton of work for Uni.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy this new chapter !!!!

 

Disclaimers :

I do not own descendants (my law degree would have killed me before I let that justice system stand)

English is not my birth language (really it's not making any efforts) so please tell me if you notice any mistakes.

School was an interesting concept to Lia. She knew there was actually a school on the Isle, one most of the kids had gone to, but Lia had not stepped foot outside of the Queen of Hearts castle before she was twelve, which was about the age at which school stopped, really. Which was not to say that Lia had not received an education, she had in fact probably received one of the finest educations of the Isle, the castle had an extensive library and from four to twelve, Lia had managed to read hundreds of those books. 

But she certainly hadn’t expected to be told there would be a meal before the beginning of classes as she was getting ready that morning, regretfully leaving behind her beloved sword. Which meant that they served three meals a day in Auradon while the children she had sworn to protect were starving. 

She ate nonetheless, unable to refuse to eat while she could, and at the end of the meal, the five Isle kids went their separate ways. They were separated by year and electives, Mal, Jay and Evie were all a year older than her which meant that the only class they had in common was Remedial Goodness. 

Thankfully, Carlos was in all her classes of the day. Together they found their way to history class. They were greeted professionally, and perhaps with some apprehension by the teacher but he didn’t seem to treat them differently than the rest of the students, which was good news, being underestimated was always an advantage. The class was on the Chinese war against the Huns, the one Mulan had fought in, and Lia was just glad it wasn’t about the formation of Auradon because she wasn’t sure she could have remained calm during such a lesson. 

No student addressed them for the first three classes of the day, mathematics and English flew by with no one talking to them except for the teachers and soon enough they found themselves back in the cafeteria where Lia forced herself to eat a bit more than she had yesterday despite not being hungry, she’d eaten that morning after all, the goal being to ease her body into eating more. At lunch they also found out that no one had talked to any of the others either except for Ben who had apparently ran into Jay at some point and given him a quick conversation. 

 

Soon enough they were parting ways again, Lia and Carlos had a free period while the others all had different elective classes. Lia knew they had to begin investigating, everyone was still afraid of them, being seen in public spaces would make them more approachable, which they wanted in case they needed to pry information from other people. Going to the library was an appearance in public that would still be useful, they had a ton of research to do. 

The librarian seemed surprised to see them but gave a tentative smile when they settled at a table in a corner from which she had a good view of the entry. 

“What do you want to research ?” asked Carlos. 

“I have a few subjects on my list,” she answered, “how the magic wand works, how to help malnourished children switch to a fuller diet, how to help traumatized children.” 

Carlos looked at her with an expression she couldn’t decipher. 

“You really care about us all, don’t you ?” 

She wondered for a second if she should answer, if she should reveal her emotions. Harry would tell her to shut up. But Carlos was nice, she’d always known it, and after witnessing his need for validation last night she thought that he might need to hear it. Plus she didn’t know how long she would be with the Dragon Four, trusting one of them might be good for her, no matter how much her boyfriend would hate it.

“Yes, I do. We’re children. We should have been treated better. And I’m going to make sure none of us is ever hungry again and that no child is left anywhere near the bloody arseholes who brought us into this world. And I’m also going to make sure we get to deal with our trauma.”

Carlos nodded at that. “I can search for the wand information, I’ve been learning about magic from Evie and Mal for some time now, I think I’ll understand it better than the rest.” 

She approved with a nod “Alright, tell me if you find anything interesting.”

And just like that they both went to explore the library, him searching for magical books while she was searching for medical volumes concerning trauma and malnutrition.

They found quite a few interesting books and had a good half hour of note taking and exchanging ideas on what they were reading. It turned out that Carlos was quite studious, she enjoyed their time together, and that was saying something considering how many times she’d sent her boyfriend away while she was studying. When their free time neared its end, Lia checked some of the health books out of the library. They decided against doing the same for the magic books, she didn’t want magic books to be linked to them, it might lead people to suspect them of nefarious designs, mind you they did have nefarious designs but she’d rather have no one find out. Instead, they selected the two most promising magic books out of the lot and simply stole them while putting the rest of the books back into their rightful places in the library. 

They hurried to bring all the books back to the girls dormitory before making their way to ‘Remedial Goodness 101’, Evil, that class was bound to be funny. 

 

They found the three others in front of the classroom, waiting. According to their timetables, Fairy Godmother would be the teacher for the class, which meant that this time could be used to gather information and hopefully find out when she might use the wand. 

The woman arrived a few minutes after them giving them just enough time to inform the others that their research had gone well and that they’d gotten a few books. She greeted them and led them into a classroom that was little but still far too big for just five students.

“I see, you’re all here,” said the woman, “but I’ll still call out for you, it helps me remember your names and that way you can correct my pronunciation.” 

She called them one by one in alphabetical order, beginning with Carlos and when she finally reached her name Lia grimaced as the woman called “Rosalia of Crims.”

“It’s just Lia.” She said, for what seemed to be the thousand’s time that day as she had done that in every other class too. 

The woman nodded with a smile. “Lia of Crims, I’ll write it down.”

“No,” protested the girl. “Just Lia.”

“No surname ?” The woman looked confused, which was stupid considering that Evie, Jay and Mal didn’t have a surname either and she hadn’t had a problem with that. 

“If you absolutely need one you can write down Hook.”

The fairy seemed even more confused. “Captain Hook is your father ?”

“No, but he will be.” 

It didn’t clear up anything for the fairy, and Lia had to admit she hadn’t made a big effort to clear it up but she didn’t care, all she cared for was to be called by her actual name and not whatever her ovary donor had called her. 

The woman put on what looked like an uncomfortable smile. 

“Just Lia,” she said as she wrote something in a notebook. “It’s written down, I won’t make that mistake again.”

Then the fairy did a whole speech about how since they were so little in this class they’d have a very interactive class and they’d begin with multiple choice questions.

The questions were stupid, they were situations and the choices were different reactions they could have to them. Considering the questions and answers, Fairy Godmother expected them to treat everyone the way they would treat the kids on the Isle, which was frankly idiotic. And honestly, at ever question, Lia would have done something different, but whenever she was called on she answered exactly as it was expected of her, because now was the time to lure the woman into a sense of security, to make her believe they were poor little kids who wanted to be good by her twisted definition of the word. Lia didn’t care for good or evil, but she was sure as hell the people who had trapped kids on the Isle weren’t good, and that woman’s magic had done the deed.

At some point, a girl in a blue dress entered the room and walked to Fairy Godmother, letting out a little squeal as she walked past them before rushing to the woman. 

The term of endearment that the adult called the girl was not surprising considering the general behavior of the woman but what was surprising was that the girl was asking the fairy to sign off on an early dismissal. Lia doubted every student needed the headmistress to sign off on their early dismissals.

“Everyone remembers my daughter Jane ?” asked the woman. 

That confirmed it, the girl might become useful. 

Jane protested against the introduction and only a few moments later she was looking at them, clearly afraid, “Hi. That’s okay, don’t mind me, as you were.” 

And just like that the girl walked out of the classroom, squealing again as she passed them. Fearing them was smart, they’d need to get past her defenses if they were to use her to gain access to the wand.

With Jane gone, the class went on and somehow Carlos found himself trapped under Jay on their table while the bigger boy had his fist messing up the black and white hair. 

The woman put a stop to it by taping her cane on her stupid lectern, as she did it Lia had to restrain herself from reaching for her knives, that bitch was treating them like they were animals. But she couldn’t attack the woman, if she did everything would be much more complicated. Instead, she listened as she talked about the boys going to a ‘tourney field’, whatever that was, and thought of a better world where Harry was still next to her at any given minute, he would have pounced, it was much easier to be reasonable when he was being unreasonable at her side. 

The class continued as it had begun, though with more participation from Carlos, Evie and Jay and soon enough they were all done with their day. 

 

In order to have the auradonians get used to them they decided against going back to the dorms, instead they claimed one of the outside tables. Lia knew it was necessary but she didn’t like being out in the open, it was physically impossible for her to see all possible threats coming and she hated it. 

“So does someone know what this tourney stuff, Fairy Godmother wants us to do, is ?” asked Jay. “She even gave us pamphlets,” he added, waving around the paper.

“It’s a sport,” answered Evie, “I heard some of the girls talk about it, apparently Prince Ben is on the team.”

“You should join then,” said Mal in a murmur. “He’s probably one of the few people with access to what we want, we should try to get close to him.”

Mal was right, getting close to Ben could be the key to getting the wand, hopefully it would work. 

“There’s Jane too,” added Lia. 

Mal nodded in approval. “Maybe she could get her mother to use the wand but she’d need a reason.”

“Who doesn’t need a bit of complicated magic ?” asked Lia with a smirk. “Especially at fifteen. We need to find out what she wants, but that’s a one person mission, anything more and she’ll be too intimidated to talk.”

“I can do it,” affirmed Mal. “Plus if I can help her out a little with my magic but have her need something more powerful it should be even more efficient.”

Lia nodded her approval, it was a good idea, and it would be a logical way to breach the subject of magic. 

Just then, a group of people sat two tables away from them, forcing them into an innocent conversation, after all, they could hear the other group which meant that the reverse was also true. 

Evie and Carlos immediately started a conversation that had clearly already begun, though no one knew what the beginning of the conversation had been. They bickered for a minute about who was right until Evie sighed and declared she was sick of having this argument before turning towards the rest of them and demanding they change the subject. 

That had been efficient, her crew had never created such ruses because they always held their private conversations in private places but she assumed the dragon Four might not have been able to speak freely in any of their homes. Lia sure as hell couldn’t have in the castle she had grown into, it wasn’t until she got her room on the Jolly Roger that she discovered what privacy meant.

“The school gave us lockers,” said Mal to start a new conversation. “I’ll need to tag mine later.”

“I saw your drawings in class, they’re really beautiful,” complimented Lia.

“Thanks.”

“Would it be possible for you to draw on denim ?” she asked, thinking about something that had been in her mind all day. 

“Yeah, for your jacket ? What do you have in mind ?” 

She nodded in confirmation, after all, her pants and skirt were leather, only her jacket and top were denim. 

“If you could draw me a hook that would be nice.”

Evie beamed from the other side of the table, the boys wiggled their eyebrows, and Mal smirked as she nodded. 

“I’ll draw you a few options, you’ll tell me which one you like.”

“Thanks.”

She hadn’t liked walking around all day without him, and she knew he would hate the absence of a mark on her. That boy gave her hickeys every few days for no other reason than to have everyone know she was his, she wanted his mark on her here too and she knew he thought the same.

 

 

Chapter 5: New plan

Summary:

A late afternoon in the girls dorm after two weeks in Auradon.

Notes:

Hi everyone, it's been a while, I'm a little sorry about that but I'm much more sorry about my exams coming up (trust me, if I could I would be writing instead of studying (why do you think I'm posting before my exams are over ?))

Anyway, we get to see more people from Auradon (one more but it's something) and we get to move forward a bit with the plot !
I hope you like it !!!

Disclaimers :

I do not own Descendants or any Disney characters, and I don't own some of the dialogues in this. `

English is not my birth language, please tell me if there's a mistake (and don't be surprised that I curse, I'm French people, it's a requirement to keep my nationality)

Lia had spent two weeks in Auradon and she was awfully aware that she was touch-starved. It was quite ironic, she was a girl who couldn’t be touched but who was completely desperate for touch after a few days away from her boyfriend. It was his fault really, Harry was so clingy that she was used to having him in her arms whenever he was in close vicinity, which would be all the time if he could help it and as, on the Isle, he could often enough, he was in her arms most of the time. 

She’d taken to wearing his hoodie whenever she was in her dorm, as long as only Evie and Mal were there, she trusted the girls enough to allow herself that comfort. Comfort she wasn’t using at the moment because Jane also happened to be present in the dorm with the three Isle girls. 

Missing Harry made her that much more aware that the plan hadn’t moved forward much in the first two weeks of life at Auradon Prep and that she therefore wasn’t any closer to getting back to him. Sure, the boys had joined the tourney team and Carlos had private training sessions with Ben but while it was good, it was nothing concrete. Really the only part of the plan that had evolved was the Auradonians’ perception of them, they had been afraid the first few days, they weren’t anymore. It was funny really, they’d stopped being afraid, but they hadn’t stopped believing they were bad people, therefore, they were now subjected to insults and open disdain. Thankfully, it wasn’t everyone, most people simply ignored them and some, as Jane was currently demonstrating were even nice to them.

Lia tuned back into Jane’s rant, the girl had asked her mother to use her wand after Mal manipulated her and had been sorely disappointed in her mother’s answer. 

“Mom said ‘If a boy can’t see the beauty within, then he’s not worth it’” was quoting the girl, “Can you believe it ? What world does she live in ?”

“Auradon,” snorted Mal, making Lia chuckle. 

“Mal, Lia,” called Evie from the table at which she was sewing. “Do you like ?” she asked, holding up a beautiful black and blue leather dress. They’d asked Ben for fabric and thank Evil he had delivered, being able to have actual fabric had made Evie so happy. 

“Yes,” answered Lia, “it’s pretty.”

“Yeah, it’s cute,” added Mal, “brings out your eyes.”

“I know,” smiled Evie with a confidence that Lia had realized in the last two weeks was only a facade. 

 “I’ll never get a boyfriend,” lamented Jane, laying down on Evie’s bed. 

“Boyfriends are overrated,” stated Mal without looking up from her drawing. 

“And how would you know, Mal ?” asked Evie with a teasing smile. “You’ve never had one.”

“It’s ‘cause I don’t need one E,” retorted Mal. “They’re a waste of time,” she added to Jane.

“No,” refused Evie, “your opinion is null due to a lack of experience. Lia, tell Jane boyfriends aren’t overrated.”

Lia wasn’t able to contain a smile at the girl’s antics. 

“It’s not overrated,” acquiesced Lia. “But don’t take any guy to be your boyfriend, he’s got to be right for you.”

“See,” said Evie with a righteous smile. 

Then Evie gasped, “I forgot to do Chad’s homework !” She got up and ran to take a bag that clearly wasn’t hers. 

“And that is exactly what I mean,” said Mal.

“I did say he had to be right for you,” reminded Lia with a sneer. 

Chad Charming couldn’t possibly be right for anyone, but Lia wasn’t going to say it right then, she didn’t think Evie was ready to hear it. 

“You have a boyfriend ?” asked Jane who seemingly hadn’t had time to with Evie’s outburst.  

“Yes.”

“How is he ?” the girl asked. 

Lia bit her lips before she could answer that he wasn’t great considering that he’d been sentenced to prison for being born and she wasn’t even with him, but she couldn’t say that, couldn’t be mean, because they wanted the girl to like them. So Lia said nothing. 

Thankfully that was the moment a girl chose to march into their dorm despite the lack of any invitation. Sure, the door had been open, but according to Lia, at that moment it was more an invitation for Jane to leave than for anyone to enter. 

Fuck. She wanted Harry. She wanted to hug him and not move for hours on end. She wanted him and she didn’t want to have to deal with anyone while his absence was so present. 

Still, they had to be approachable, it was essential for the plan. So she traced the familiar outline of her favorite knife through her skirt and listened to the girl, Lonnie, Mulan’s daughter. 

“I love what you’ve done with Jane’s hair,” the girl was telling Mal. “And I know you hate us, and, well, you’re evil, but do you think you could do mine ?”

Really ? Was that the new vision people had of them, ‘evil but useful’ ? At least it had a nice ring to it, she managed to stop herself from chuckling at the absurdity as Mal answered in a colder answer than Lia would have recommended.

“Why would I do that for you ?”

“I’ll pay you fifty dollars.” 

Lia was on her feet in an instant. 

“Good answer,” she said, taking the money the girl had been waving from her hand, they’d need that money, all the money they could get was needed. 

“Let’s see,” said Evie, joining her next to the Auradonian girl, “I’m thinking we lose the bangs, maybe some layers, and some highlights.”

“Yeah, yeah,” politely dismissed Lonnie. “I want it cool. Like Mal’s.”

“Really ?” sneered Evie without losing her smile. “The split ends too ?”

Had it been her hair in the balance, Lia would have listened to Evie any day of the week. In the two weeks they’d spent in Auradon the older girl had taken it upon herself to teach Lia hair and skin care. Lia had never known her curls could be that well defined and pretty. She actually loved the moments they spent together talking about that, she’d never had this kind of girl talk before, she loved Uma but neither of them had ever cared that much about their appearance, not when there were so many more important things to take care of. Considering who Evie’s mother was, Lia had no doubt that her new friend’s safety had greatly relied on her appearance on the Isle and that made Evie an expert.

Mal sighted, but as Evie and Lia reminded her of the money her little spell would grant, she stood up and cast the spell. 

Lonnie immediately loved her hair despite Evie’s efforts to have her change it, Lia couldn’t repress a chuckle this time as Lonnie ripped her skirt and declared herself cool. Evil, if ripped clothes were the standard for cool she wondered what they all were with their patched clothes, especially since the rip on the skirt wasn’t even visible. 

For some reason Jane ripped her skirt too and they were all able to see instant regret take hold in the prim daughter of Fairy-Godmother. 

“What did I just do ? Mom’s gonna kill me !” 

Lia didn’t laugh this time as she considered the girl’s words. She’d heard those words before, or similar words at least. But she’d never heard them that way. She had never heard someone say that their parent would kill them without a hint of true fear in their voice. Jane had said that her mother would kill her, but the words didn’t have the same meaning in her mouth as it did in Gil’s or Desiree’s. When Jane said her mother would kill her, she said it without any fear of it happening but just a little worry that she might receive the kind of punishment Lia didn’t even consider to be a punishment. 

“It’ll be okay,” said Lonnie who seemed to be the only one in the room able to conjure up a compassionate voice. “You’ll tell her it got caught in something and ripped.” 

“Wait,” called Evie, “it’s okay to lie about that ?” She asked, looking a bit confused. 

It was true that the line between acceptable wrong behavior and unacceptable behavior had not been clearly set by Fairy Godmother’s goodness class, the woman tended to only give them examples of things even they would never do, to only deal in absolutes when it seemed perfectly logical for there to be a usable grey area somewhere in the auradonian scale of good and evil. 

“Yeah,” answered Lonnie, “it’s a white lie. All in all, it’s okay to lie as long as no one is being hurt in the process, but it also includes emotional hurt. So as long as the lie doesn’t make anyone get hurt or keep people from helping someone who is being hurt then it’s okay.”

Lia appreciated the explanation. The only real inconvenience to their plan was that, because they would not in fact be taking over with a great evil plan, they would still have to play somewhat by the rules of Auradon before and after freeing all the children from the Isle. So, it was important for her to know these rules well enough to be able to negotiate with the royal family after they freed everyone. 

“Thanks for the explanation,” thanked Evie with a smile.

Lonnie smiled back, “It’s normal. I figured no one would take the time to explain those kinds of dynamics to you.”

The girl had met them five minutes ago and Lia didn’t like the fact that she had been able to read them and understand that so quickly. But the girl had been nice, didn’t seem to have any bad intentions, so hopefully they wouldn’t have to worry about her. 

 “Well, thank you for the haircut, Mal,” said Lonnie. “I’ll take my leave then, have a good day girls !” 

She smiled as she walked out of the room. 

“I better go too,” said Jane then before waving goodbye with a little worried smile. 

Evie waved at her from the door before closing the door with a smile. 

Finally, the girls were gone, there were only girls from the Isle in the room.

After five minutes with no new interruption, Lia finally took off her denim jacket. Her fingers lingered on the beautiful hook Mal had painted on the fabric, right above Lia’s heart, the girl truly was talented. She put the jacket at the end of her bed and took Harry’s hoodie from under the covers, a few seconds later she was enveloped into the comfortable fabric. 

She saw Evie smile as she exhaled, it felt like she could finally breathe again and clearly the older girl had noticed. Somehow, it didn’t disturb Lia, she realized she trusted Evie. Evie was kind, she made sure all of them ate enough at each meal even though she hardly ate anything, she always seemed to see beauty in the world and Lia was glad for every time she got to see a glimpse of the world through Evie’s eyes. 

“Lia, I’ve always wondered, where did you get such a big piece of leather ?”

Lia immediately knew what the girl was talking about, her skirt was without a doubt the biggest piece of leather ever found on the island, most of the leather clothes everyone wore were made of multiple scraps.

“I have no idea,” she answered honestly. “Harry found it. We weren’t together yet, it was just a few months after I joined the crew. But I’d been sewing things for kids and when he brought it to me, I thought he wanted me to make him a coat like his father’s,” she could still see how proud he’d been when he’s presented her with the biggest piece of leather she’d ever seen, a piece that had been ten times bigger than the other biggest piece of leather on the Isle. “And I would have been glad to do it, he got me out, you know. But he just shook his head when I asked to take his measures, said it was for me, so I’d never feel unsafe again. And it’s done a great job so far, holding and hiding my weapons,” and hiding my legs , she didn’t say.

Evie smiled and nearly swooned, “He’s pretty amazing with you, isn’t he ?”

“The very best.”

“Good, you deserve it.”

 

Lia was looking at maps of Auradon on her computer, trying to figure out where to set up camp once they got everyone out, when the door to the dorm opened. Carlos walked in and closed the door behind him. He had a dog in his arms, a real, living, fucking dog. If there was one thing she’d gathered about Carlos, it was that dogs terrified him. Actually, she’d learned a lot more than that about him, but still, Carlos with a dog ? She definitely hadn’t seen that one coming.

“What are you doing with a dog ?” asked Mal, clearly as surprised as her. 

Carlos looked at the animal in his arms, as if he’d forgotten it was there.

“Oh… That’s Dude. He’s the campus mutt, Ben said I could take care of him if I wanted.”

“And you want to ?” asked Lia, who was still very confused.

“Yeah,” said the boy with a soft smile, “he’s nothing like what my mom said.”

She looked at him, truly looked at him. His shoulders were relaxed, there was no tension in his jaw, he looked… at ease. She’d never seen him more relaxed, he didn’t look ready to bolt the way he always did. Was it that dog that had such an effect on him ? If it was the case they were keeping it, if anyone wanted it back they could come and fight her.

Carlos put the dog down and walked to where she was laying on her bed. He pulled a handful of sour-candy and put it down on the bed near the computer the school had given her. They’d found out their third day here that she loved sour candy and ever since he spent his time stealing some for her. It was the kind of affection she’d have expected of Jay as the renown thief of the group, but it clearly was one of Carlos’s usual marks of affection. The boy stole pencils for Mal, scraps of fabric for Evie and any little shiny thing for Jay, all to put smiles on their faces. He truly was the kindest of them all. 

“Thank you, Carlos,” she thanked, opening one and putting it in her mouth.

He nodded and sat down at the foot of her bed after taking his own computer from his bag. The dog immediately joined him. He quickly told them how his session with Ben went as he started his homework. 

“We need to know more about Auradon politics,” called Lia as she circled places on the rough schema she had reproduced of the map of Auradon. “Robin Hood’s a thief, I wonder if he would be more disposed to speaking to us and offering us a safe place than the other kingdoms. I wonder if any of the rulers were against trapping kids on the Isle, really, maybe some of them would protect us.”

“But none of the kids of the rulers are talking to us,” said Carlos, “except for Ben but I doubt he’ll be easy to manipulate.”

“Well, there’s also Chad,” said Evie, “but I don’t think he’d know anything about politics.”

“There might be Lonnie,” thought Lia aloud. “Mulan doesn’t rule but she’s involved in politics and at the head of Northern Wei’s army, chances are Lonnie would know something. I’ll try to talk to her about it.”

“And Doug seems to know about everything,” added Evie, “so I’ll try to ask him about it.”

Lia nodded and looked over at Mal who was combing through her spellbook, Lia knew she was searching for a spell that would help in getting the wand. Though Mal always seemed detached, Lia had soon noticed that she cared deeply. She was focused on their goal and calculating, sure, but Lia wasn’t about to blame her for it, and she was so much more. She’d seen Mal put a lot of care in the hook she’d drawn for her, making sure it was what she wanted through a ton of preparation drawings. And most of all, she’d seen how protective the girl was of her gang, if only for her loyalty, the girl had Lia’s utmost respect, she was a good leader.

 

Lia was looking into the history of the formation of the Isle of the Lost, trying to find proof of opposition at the time, when Jay barged into the dorm. After closing the door he posed, showing off his tourney jersey. She smiled at him as Carlos whistled and soon enough, he had crossed the room and asked Mal if her plan with Jane had worked. 

“Do you think I would be going through every spell in this book if I hadn’t completely struck out ?!” 

“Someone is in a bad mood…” said Carlos.

“Everyone is counting on me ! I can’t let them down !”

“We can do this…” said Jay. “If we stick together.”

“We will,” assured Lia. “We’ll do this, and we’ll do it together.”

“Because we’re rotten…” called Mal.

“… to the core,” they all called back. Even Lia, because on their third day here they’d explained it to her. They’d included her in the group and here she was, two weeks later, they weren’t exactly her people, but they were close, and she would protect them the way she did her crew. Jay had been a big part of that, he was like a big brother, even to her, making sure they all stuck together, protected each other. He was a reassuring presence in the absence of the boy that had been her protector for years. She never felt truly safe, not the way she did with Harry, but she knew that was too much to ask.

“Oh yeah. I found out that Fairy Godmother blesses Ben with the wand at coronation and we all get to go,” said Evie. “I have nothing to wear of course.”

Lia blinked, it seemed it was all she could do at the moment.

And just when her mouth opened to ask more details and ask why the fuck she hadn’t told them that in the last two hours, someone knocked on the door. An actual first today, everyone tended to just open it without knocking. 

Mal got up and opened the door, Prince Ben was on the other side.

“I didn’t see most of you today,” he said, “I was just wondering if you had any questions or anything that you needed.”

Mal looked back at them, their eyes crossed and Lia lifted her notebook as she shook her head no. 

“Not that I know of,” Mal answered. 

The prince nodded and backtracked, making his goodbyes, and just as he was about to turn away Mal called him back, as if she’d just had an afterthought.

“Oh, wait !” and just like that he was back at the door, earnest to help. “Um… is it true that we all get to go to your coronation ?”

He confirmed it immediately. 

“Wow, that is beyond exciting,” pursued Mal. “Do you think it’s a possibility that the five of us could stand in the front row next to the Fairy Godmother ? Just so we could soak up all that goodness ?”

“I wish you could,” he started, and Lia didn’t like that start. “Up front it’s just me, my folks and my girlfriend.”

Girlfriend ? Maybe they could work with that. 

“And your girlfriend ?” repeated Mal, clearly getting the same idea as her.

“Yeah, I’m sorry,” he confirmed again.

“Ok, thanks. Bye !” said Mal with a smile before closing the door in the prince’s face, which was pretty funny.

“I think it’s time that Bennyboo got himself a new girlfriend,” declared the leader of the Dragon Four with a smirk.

 

Notes:

I find myself perfectly incapable to not speak about Harry all the time, clearly I'm obsessed, the guy isn't even here I mean...
What do you think about him so far ? I'm curious...

Chapter 6: Author note

Hi everyone ! 

Sorry, this isn't the next chapter, but thankfully it's not the kind of author's note you get when an author abandons a story, so I'm guessing you're feeling both disappointed and relieved (hopefully they can cancel each other out).

I'll tell you about the next chapter at the end of this, but before the author, please hear the activist out : 

 

I'm writing to you today because I have a request, if you're an European citizen, there is currently a petition to ban conversion "therapy" in Europe, we need 1 million signatures by Saturday, may 17 in order for it to go to the European parliament. You will find the link below as well as the instagram account of the association who started this European citizen's initiative. We already have almost 550 000 signatures and it would mean so much for you to sign the petition and send it to all your friends that are European citizens !

For those of you who might not know, conversion "therapy" is defined by UNO as a form of torture and the goal of those "therapies" is to make members of the lgbtqia+ community into cis-heteros. If you want the whole explanation is much better on the petition, so you can read that instead if I didn't explain it well.

Link to the petition : https://eci.ec.europa.eu/043/public/#/screen/home

Instagram of the association : @act_lgbt

My instagram in case you have any question about the initiative, I'll be happy to answer any question : @girls_new_motto 

Thank you so much for your attention ! 

 

 

About the next chapter : 

I don't have a clear timeline as to when it will be out, my exams finish on the 27th of May so it will probably be in the week after that.

I'm very glad you all like this story !

Thanks for hearing me out !

Chapter 7: Cookies

Summary:

The VK's make a magic cookie;

Notes:

Hi everyone !
I'm late, I know, I'm sorry about that, my life has been a bit hectic.

Anyway, here is the chapter, I hope you like it !

 

Diclaimers :

I don't own descendants or Disney (If I did I promise you Iron man would not be dead)

English is not my first language (I just love butter too much to not be French people) so please inform me if you notice any mistakes

The late afternoon of the Isle kids had been filled since Prince Ben’s visit. Mal had found two love spells, the most efficient of them happened to be love cookies that required mostly normal ingredients. Carlos had already checked the kitchen, as he was the most familiar of them with cooking, and had confirmed that all ingredients but two were indeed present in the kitchen. The missing ingredients were a tear of sadness and three shredded carnation petals. 

Mal had to be the one actually baking the cookie in order to have Ben fall in love with her, therefore she was sent to the students’ kitchen to familiarise herself with the place and the utensils while the rest of them searched for a carnation flower. They had split up, Evie and Carlos searching one way while Jay and Lia went another. 

Lia and Jay had the longest search ahead of them, they had to walk to the town and back to find a florist. Lia had checked and it wasn’t the season for carnations, therefore she had sent Evie and Carlos to the school’s greenhouse, hopefully they would find a carnation there, but in case they didn’t, Lia and Jay had to find a florist which meant going all the way to Fortuna, the closest city and the one in which they could hope to be less conspicuous than in the capital. 

It would be an hour long walk and they would have to skip dinner but that was okay, just a few weeks ago they hadn’t had meals to skip. 

 

“I won’t be at the game tomorrow,” she said at some point during their walk. 

Jay nodded, “I figured. You need only support me from wherever you are,” he smiled.

She chuckled, thankful that he didn’t speak of the crowd that was the real reason she wouldn’t be there though she had no doubt he knew. 

“I’ll be sending my good luck thoughts to Carlos, you clearly don’t need them.”

Jay smirked at that, “Truer words have never been spoken. What will you do instead? The whole school will be at the game.”

“I need to find out more about Auradonian politics,” she answered easily. “I want to know if anyone was opposed to leaving us on the Isle. If someone was, they could be agreeable to letting us set up camp on their territory, they might even protect us and give us some food.”

He nodded gravelly.

“Do you think we’ll be able to amass enough non-perishable food to last us a little bit of time?” he asked.

For a week now, the five of them had been stealing any canned or dry food they stumbled upon in the school, in just a week they had managed to amass about a hundred food rations, if the deadline was the coronation, it meant that they had five more weeks, if they kept going at this rate, they’d have enough to feed the 157 children of the Isle for about three days, a week if they skipped days by halves the way she used to in Uma’s territory. 

“A few days,” she answered. “Hopefully that will be enough to strike a deal with the King.”

It had to be enough, if it wasn’t she would find a way to steal more, or perhaps to overthrow the regime. But she wouldn’t watch even one more child die, she had seen too many. 

“I trust you, I swear sometimes you’re even more cunning than Mal.”

She smiled, “A compliment of the highest order, thank you my good sir.”

He laughed and they kept walking while exchanging easy banter.

 

They fell silent as soon as they reached the city, bodies on guard and ready to fight as their eyes managed to catalogue possible threats and escape routes while avoiding eye-contact with the few people they crossed paths with. 

It didn’t take them too long to find a florist. He entered the establishment first, there was no one in the street, which meant that the only possible threat laid inside, and as always he acted as a protector. 

In one of her hidden pockets laid the money they had gotten from Lonnie earlier that day. She had considered stealing the flower, but it would draw more attention than a simple purchase. 

“Hello,” a petite woman called as they entered the shop. “Welcome! What can I help you with.”

“Hello,” smiled Lia as Jay nodded in acknowledgment. “My friend here is searching for a romantic flower but we don’t want a rose as it seems a bit overdone.”

The woman chuckled at that. 

“It’s for a sophisticated declaration, then?” she asked as she turned on herself searching her shop for specific flowers.

“Exactly,” confirmed Lia, “and I don’t know if you can tell but he’s a bit nervous about it.”

The woman nodded with an endeared smile. 

“I’m not nervous,” complained Jay, making Lia chuckle and the shopkeeper’s smile widen. 

“Sure you’re not,” dismissed Lia with a smile as the woman grabbed two pots full of cut flowers and brought them to her. 

“In the cut flowers, there is the tulip and the carnation, but if you’re interested in a potted flower there’s also the orchid that would suit.” The woman pointed to each flower as she described their signification. “Tulips mean perfection, which imply that you find the person perfect, Carnations mean fascination and distinction, there’s a notion of intent here that is very suited to a declaration, and orchids mean refinement. Any of them would make a good choice really.”

This woman was making this really easy, Lia turned towards Jay. 

“What do you think?” She asked. “I must admit I rather like the carnation now that I hear its signification, and you are quite fascinated by her…”

Jay nodded and looked down while passing a hand in his hair, acting bashful perfectly. “Yeah, it’s pretty too.”

Lia smiled. 

“Perfect then! We’ll take one carnation please.”

The woman seemed surprised by the number but nodded with a kind smile. “Right away, do you want to pick it?” she offered Jay.

The boy nodded and chose a beautiful blooming flower. The shopkeeper seemed to approve of the choice and wrapped the single flower in a beautiful paper cone. 

“That’ll be two dollars, please.” 

Lia nodded and dropped the money on the counter. 

“Thank you!” they said as Jay led the way out of the shop, flower in hand. 

 

The walk back to the school felt longer, probably because she wasn’t designing plans anymore, as soon as the city got out of view they only had to walk through the woods in the right direction, utterly boring.

After a good hour, they finally came into view of the school. They walked in discretely, it was hardly their first time sneaking in, and soon they were down in the students’ kitchen. The other three were there, Mal having already started on the preparation of the cookie. 

“Did you find it?” asked Evie. 

She nodded with a smile and watched as the older girl’s body relaxed, clearly the greenhouse hadn’t been a success. Jay handed the flower to Mal who picked three of the center petals and cut them with a technique that was uneasy but already efficient despite this being her first time cooking anything. 

Carlos then walked closer once Mal put the shredded petals in the bowl holding the rest of the preparation, giving out instructions on how to mix the batter as she added the butter. After that, she added the eggs and mixed a bit more before looking up at them. 

“We’re only missing the tear now.”

“Can we just chop some onions?” asked Carlos. 

“No,” answered Mal with a shake of her head though she looked quite disappointed by her own answer. “It says we need one tear of human sadness, this love potion gets the best reviews so we have to follow it exactly.”

“A tear’s a tear,” complained Jay.

Evie gave him an exasperated look before correcting him. “That’s not true, Jay. They both have antibodies and enzymes but an emotional tear has more protein-based hormones than a reflex tear.”

Mal looked at Evie like a proud dad, exactly the way James Hook looked at his son when Harry beat him in a duel for the first time, “Look at you.” 

Lia was smiling too, it was rare to see Mal’s walls down, to see her proud. At the same moment the boys were bantering about whether Jay had known about everything Evie just explained or not. In this moment, they all looked like a family, it didn’t feel that way exactly yet, but for the first time Lia could see them getting there.

“Well, I never cry,” stated Mal, “so how are we doing this?” 

Lia cried, Lia had always cried, but she didn’t feel comfortable enough to admit to such a weakness, not with them, not yet. 

Before anyone could come up with a solution, Lonnie walked into the room dressed in pink pyjamas, making Lia wonder why she would go out of her dorm in pyjamas, the lack of any kind of preparation before facing others seemed to equal exposing one’s self to danger. She looked very eager too, didn’t adults take advantage of a girl like that around here? Seeing emotions so clearly displayed on Lonnie’s face made Lia feel unsafe for the girl, she should learn to control her expressions.

“There you are, Mal, I was looking for you! You know, all the girls want you to do their hair.” Lonnie then looked down at the bowl in front of Mal. “Midnight snack? What are you guys making?”

“Nothing special,” answered Mal, “just cookies.”

As Mal finished her sentence, Lonnie reached forward and dipped her finger into the batter before putting it in her mouth. Fuck… If Lonnie fell in love with Mal, it would be problematic, they’d have to find a counterspell as well as a spell that would make her forget about the whole ordeal. Evil, it was going to be a nightmare. 

Everyone had screamed to try and stop her, it obviously hadn’t worked, and the girl was now looking at them with confused eyes. 

“What? I’m not going to double dip.”

“Feel anything?” asked Evie. 

“Yeah, like maybe it could be missing something?” added Mal. 

“Just please be honest about how it’s feeling,” said Lia. 

For some reason, Jay stepped forward, passing a hand in his hair and giving the Auradonian girl a flirty “Hey, there.” Had he not listened when they said that whoever ate the cookies would fall in love with Mal? There was no chance for his tactic to work even if the batter already was spelled. 

Lonnie grimaced before declaring that it could use some chips and making her way to one of the cupboards. She wanted to put potato chips in a sugary thing? It seemed strange to Lia, but she also knew that she had never cooked, perhaps it was normal.

“And those are?” asked Mal.

“Chocolate chips, just the most important food group.”

Chocolate chips? Chocolate had been a new discovery for all of them. Lia loved it. Adored it. She’d eat chocolate off the pavement. To be honest she had eaten a lot of things off pavements in streets much less clean than Auradon’s so she wasn’t sure it meant much, but still, she definitely would. 

Lonnie was smiling as she brought the bowl of little bits of chocolate. As she put them down, a thought seemed to reach her. 

“Wait, didn’t your moms ever make you guys chocolate chip cookies?” 

‘Mom’ was a word Lia had never used, not even when she was young, not even before the worst. Mother was the term she had used, because anything less would have been considered a disrespect that would have ended with her being the Queen of Heart’s punching ball for an hour, being screamed at for half a day and a lack of food for a week. She had been more protected than most until her twelfth birthday, only her mother would lay a hand on her back then and though she’d never stepped out of the Red Queen’s castle she’d received a great education and she’d been dressed in the finest dresses one could find on the isle. But even back then her mother had been crazy, had demanded respect and submission from all, let’s say that she had seen more cut heads at the age of five than Harry had seen swordfights.

“Like when you were feeling sad, and they’re fresh from the oven with a big old glass of milk and she just makes you laugh and puts everything into perspective and…”

Lia didn’t know what Lonnie was talking about, didn’t know this existed, was even possible, mothers didn’t do this. The closest thing to it in her life was probably the night James Hook sat next to her on his ship’s railing and told her she didn’t have to prove herself or to work for him. That night he’d told her that Harry had chosen her and therefore she was one of James’s kids, the rest didn’t matter, she was his and she would always be welcomed on his ship. 

“Why are you all looking at me like that?” asked Lonnie. 

“It’s just different where we’re from,” answered Mal.

Lia realized she hadn’t been the only one surprised by Lonnie’s words, they all had been and the mood of the room had not improved to say the least.

“Yeah, I know. I just, you know. I thought ‘Even villains love their kids’.”

Some did. She knew James did, Smee did, Dr. Facilier did. Some dads did. Just a few of them.

“Oh,” exhaled the auradonnian girl, clearly shocked by the fact that no, their parents most definitely did not love them. “How awful.” 

She was crying, the girl had a tear running down her cheek. Thankfully Mal saw it at the same time as Lia did and wasted no time putting it in the batter. 

“Yeah, big bummer but we have to get these into the oven so thank you so much for coming by,” said Mal as she basically threw Lonnie out of the kitchen. “Good night, see you tomorrow, Evil dreams.”

Mal only managed to stop speaking once Lonnie was out of the room. 

Then she turned back to them and smirked, “Let’s get this into the oven.”

Soon enough the spelled cookie was in the oven. Lonnie’s reaction to their baking made Lia want to actually taste cookies, plus it would be much less suspicious to have more than one cookie. 

“We still have some of all the ingredients,” she said. “Let’s make more cookies, unspelled this time, so we can give some out to more people than just Prince Ben, it’ll be more logical this way.”

The others nodded and this time Carlos took care of baking with a little help from everyone, it went much faster than it had with Mal and soon a full batch of cookies was replacing the single spelled cookie in the oven. That cookie was set apart and when the new batch came out Lia packed them all in a box and hurried everyone out of the kitchen and to the boys’ dorm. 

Lia closed the door to the room behind them and turned with a smile. 

“Sit down,” she ordered, taking a seat on the floor and gesturing for them to do the same. 

“Tonight was a bad day,” declared the pirate, “and all bad days must end with some good.” That was one of the rules on the Jolly Roger, she didn’t know how many times she’d heard James say that before starting a song.

“Here,” she said, giving out one cookie to each of them, of the non-spelled ones. “We were just told these are good so let’s try them.”

The others nodded, they all had tentative smiles on their faces, even Mal. They all put the cookies in their mouths and simultaneous groans were let out as they all tasted the baked good. It was so good, and the chocolate, Evil, that thing was amazing. 

When everyone finished their cookie, they all looked at each other, and Evie smiled, her real smile, not the neon one that made everyone think she was happy all the time, a sweet one that reached her eyes. 

“I’m glad I’m here with you all,” said the princess. “When everything is done, let’s make cookies for all the Isle kids, they’ll love it.”

Everyone nodded. 

“Sure,” approved Lia, “but let me get them in a healthy shape first, it is very heavy food, I think if we give them that too soon they’ll throw it up.”

Everyone nodded and soon the girls left the boys to get some well-deserved sleep, after all, they had a game tomorrow. 

 

Chapter 8: A day of songs

Summary:

The day of the game.

Notes:

Sorry I'm late ? I feel like I say that every time I post so I guess you need to get used to me being late.

Anyway, this chapter contains the first scene I imagined when I began this story so I hope it makes you feel things.

 

Warnings :

Mentions of past rape

Panic attack

 

Disclaimer :

I do not own descendants (if I owned Disney there would be signs, like pictures of me and Rick Riordan and just me at the Percy Jackson set because I would live there)

I do not own the song 'Black Flag Flying' by David Rovics either (I hope the people who wrote, composed and/or sing it own it but Taylor taught us that's not always the case)

English is not my birth language, (perhaps my perpetual bitchiness was not enough of a sign to show that I am in fact French) please tell me if I make any mistake.

The girls had a packed morning before the game. Lonnie had come early and had brought girls who wanted Mal to do their hair, there were about twenty of them and they all paid for it. In just two hours, Mal’s powers raised over a thousand dollars. If it kept going that way, they would have enough to buy everything they would need to make a big camp. 

Once they were done they went down to eat and then brought the stolen food from their meal to the boys’ room where a case had been charmed to be endless by Mal, it would be much easier to transport when they would need to. She had an inventory of everything that went in it in her notebook, it was the most efficient way to keep track of how much they had. 

Carlos had found out during one of their practices that Ben would head to the pitch early after lunch, just taking a detour by the lockers to leave his things. Therefore the VKs, who had left lunch well before the prince to be certain they would not miss him, made their way to the lockers. Mal held the spelled cookie in a plastic bag while Lia and Carlos both had normal ones in hand, Carlos’s was half eaten but Lia waited until they were out, Ben seeing them eat the cookies would make accepting one a more logical choice. 

When they got to the lockers they were greeted warmly by some of the girls that had been in their room that morning for a hair transformation. And Jay went there and flirted, telling all the girls to come to the game. 

Audrey and Ben were by the lockers, talking, and Lia kept an eye on them as Audrey left and Mal called out to the prince. She stood a few meters away, eating her cookie, Evil, that thing was amazing, and watched as Mal offered the spelled cookie to Ben. He refused at first, but when Mal accused him of not trusting her he took it out of her hand and bit into the baked spell. 

The effect took a second to settle in but Lia saw the boy's eyes widen as she made her way to the duo, the rest of the VKs following too. 

“Mal?” Ben was saying, “Have you always had those little golden flecks in your eyes?” 

The spell had worked, Mal was quick to get the cookie back from the prince and Jay was behind Ben in an instant. 

“How are you feeling, bro?” 

Somehow a few seconds later the guy was singing Mal’s name. What remained of that cookie needed to be destroyed and kept away from all living beings because, Evil, that shit was strong. 

Jay and Carlos managed to pull Ben away, they needed to make their way to the pitch for the game. 

 

The game would only start in an hour, and most people would go there about half an hour in advance, which meant that Lia had about half an hour to find Lonnie. Thankfully the girl wasn’t hard to find, she was seated outside, writing something in a notebook at one of the tables. 

Lonnie smiled as Lia sat opposite her. 

“Excited for the game? It’ll be your first one, right?”

Lia gave back a thin smile and shook her head. “I’m not going.”

“Why?” There was no judgement coming from the girl, only a surprised frown. 

“I don’t like crowds.”

“Oh,” nodded the girl. She looked at Lia, clearly hesitating over asking for more details or not, she decided against it, good, she was smart. 

“Actually, I had a question for you,” said Lia, bringing Lonnie’s attention back to where she wanted it. 

“What is it?” 

“I want to free the children of the Isle, and I know Ben said he wants to but I’d like for it to go as fast as possible but I know this kind of decision is very political and I don’t know much about Auradonian politics, do you know if anyone would be in favour of that and with whom I could speak maybe?” 

Lonnie thought about it for a second before smiling. 

“I think you should talk to my mom about it, she would know and I know she wants the children off the Isle too, both my parents do really. She knows all about politics and making legislation pass, she’s been playing that game for a while now, comes with the job.” 

“How can I contact her?”

“Well… she’ll be coming a week before the coronation for parents’ weekend, so you’ll have to wait until then for face to face but I’ll tell her about you and if she’s okay with speaking to you before that, I’ll get you her number.”

Lia nodded, “Thank you.” 

They had switched to the much lighter subject of their calculus teacher when they were interrupted by Mal and Evie’s arrival. 

“Hey, we’re heading to the pitch, do you want to join Lonnie?” asked Evie with a smile. 

Her interlocutor nodded and got up, they waved her goodbye and the three girls were on their way to the game. 

 

Lia spent the next hour in her room after a detour by the library where she lifted a few books on the recent Auradonian politics and opposition. It seemed that Mulan and Robin Hood had been the strongest voices of the opposition to leaving the children on the Isle when it was discovered that the locked up villains were reproducing. But Triton was a strong supporter of keeping the children on the Isle and if they wanted to reach either Westerly or Northen Wei by the sea they would have to pass Atlantica. She needed another solution, one that didn’t cross the territory of a god of the sea who hated them. 

She was seated on the floor with one of the books when the door opened on Mal and Evie.

“They won!” Evie informed her excitedly and Lia was on her feet in an instant, smiling.

“And Ben invited me to be his date at the coronation. The guy actually sang me a song in front of the whole school, those cookies were efficient to say the least.”

That was great news, the girls kept on filling her in, informing her that Audrey would be going to the coronation with Chad and informing her that both Carlos and Jay had played in the game and had even been decisive in marking the winning points. 

They were laughing as Evie described the song Ben had sung when someone grabbed Lia.

They were grabbing her, she needed to act fast, before they had a good hold of her, before they could restrict her movements. In a fragment of a second, her hand had found one of her knives, had unsheathed it and had left it behind in the shoulder of the person attacking her. 

She ran. There was a room, she closed the door behind her. There was no other way out of the room, she locked the door, she also pushed the only piece of furniture present in the room in front of it to block it. She took another one of her knives in hand, she needed to be ready if they managed to break down the door. She’d kill them before she let them take her again. 

Maybe the door would hold. If the door held Harry would find her. He’d come find her. Harry always found her. 

If the door didn’t hold she’d kill them, but what if she couldn’t kill them? Maybe she should kill herself if that was the case, it’d be better wouldn’t it? Facing death head on. But how would she know if the door would hold? Maybe by the time she knew she wouldn’t have time to kill herself. Her mother wanted her alive. They all wanted her alive, she was the payment after all. 

No. She didn’t want to die. She’d survived too long to die now. And if she died, who would protect the others? 

Harry would find her. The door would hold until Harry found her. 

And if it didn’t, she’d kill them. All of them, as many of them as she could. She’d kill them. 

She pulled a second dagger into her other hand. 

She’d kill them all. 

And if she didn’t. If they caught her, if they got her again. 

She’d survive. 

She’d survive and she would kill them after. Harry would find her, and when he did, when he saved her again, they would go back and kill them all. 

She’d survive and she would live. She would live the way Harry always promised they would, happily. She would thrive and she would make sure every kid on this damned Isle got to thrive too. 

She would live.

 

Lia was very aware that she was having a panic attack, she was hyperventilating, her heart was beating much faster than it was supposed to and she physically couldn’t move. She needed to get better. Because if that door opened, she needed to be able to fight. She needed to get herself back.

Something she could feel. 

She could feel the dagger in her hand, the little creases under her fingers that came from the patterns of the sculpted handle. She had another dagger in her other hand, the metal was cold. 

Something she could hear.

She could hear her sharp intakes of breath and her rushed exhales. Surprisingly, she didn’t hear banging on the door, it was odd, she could only hope it was a good sign.

Something she could see. 

She could see her curls, strands of her curly hair falling on the sides of her vision. There were white tiles on the floor, a sink in front of her and a shower in the corner. She was in a bathroom. A clean bathroom, a clean bathroom with a row of decorative tiles on the wall. Evil, she was in Auradon. She was in her dorm’s bathroom. Evie and Mal had been with her when the person grabbed her, if they were dangerous they would have reacted. Fuck, she had stabbed them. If it was a member of the staff this could jeopardize everything. If it was anyone from Auradon really. Evil, what would she do? She didn’t even know how long she had been in the bathroom, it could have been five minutes or three hours and she wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.

She knocked on the door and waited for an answer. 

“It’s only us Isle kids,” called Evie. “You can come out.”

She exited the room slowly. 

Carlos was seated at the feet of Evie’s bed, and had clearly been there looking at the door of the bathroom for a while. Evie was on her own bed but she had nothing in her hands, which was strange considering the girl was always either drawing, sewing or fidgeting with something. Mal was seated on her bed with her spellbook next to her. Finally Jay was seated at the desk, his t-shirt was stained with blood and there was a hole in it at his shoulder.

She had stabbed Jay. 

“I’m sorry.” 

Somehow the words hadn’t come out of her mouth, they had come out of Jay’s.

“I’m the one who stabbed you.”

He nodded, but somehow, he didn’t seem to be mad at her. “You told me not to touch you, Harry told me not to touch you. It’s not your fault, you were protecting yourself and I had been warned. I’m really sorry Lia, I never should have forgotten.” 

She nodded. “How long was I in there?”

She needed to know, her losing sight of reality like that was a liability, she needed to know how long it had lasted. 

“An hour and a half,” answered Evie. 

That was too long, too dangerous. Harry wasn’t here to find her, wasn’t here to bring her back. She needed to find a way to not lose sight of reality. She looked at the four people with her. If she wasn’t able to bring herself back, it meant she had to trust them with this. It was the only option, she couldn’t be out of commission for an hour and a half again. 

Lia walked to her bed, pulled Harry’s hoodie from under her pillows and sat on the bed with it in her lap. She could smell him still, it was like he was there, right behind her. 

“I can’t be touched,” she said. All their eyes were on her, listening, letting her take her time. “I was raped, and now I can’t be touched.” 

They didn’t react to her admission, they probably already suspected it. Even if they didn’t, it wasn’t exactly a rare thing on the Isle. She was sure Evie had known, had seen the signs, the way Lia had seen them in her. Takes one to know one, she guessed.

“The worst thing anyone can do is put a hand on me. I can bear brushing people or even bumping into them but the feel of a hand on me is always going to send me into a panic. That’s why Harry acts crazy sometimes, to make sure no one ever tries to touch me.” She sighed, holding the hoodie tighter to her chest. “If this happens again, my first reflex will always be to fight, in these moments I think they’re trying to grab me again. So you need to make sure I don’t kill anyone, and the goal is for it not to happen, but you also need to try to keep me from hurting someone, I don’t want this to destroy the image we’ve curated this far in Auradon. I won’t stop fighting until I find some place I can lock. What you need to do is to tell me where we are, remind me we’re not on the Isle, that the Red Guard can’t find me. Don’t touch me under any circumstance but talk calmly. If I don’t come back, the best bet is to sing me a sailor’s song, they always work, do you know any?”

They shook their heads. 

“Can you teach us one?” asked Mal. 

Lia nodded, glad to see that they truly wanted to help. 

“It’s called ‘Black Flag Flying’,” she told them, “I think you’ll like it.”

Lia began to sing the familiar tune as her new friends listened attentively. 

“Come all you sailors near and far

You honest men know who you are

All of you who'd dare be free

Combine with us upon the sea”

She closed her eyes, letting the tune bring her back to the dock of a familiar ship where people would sing with her. 

 

No more whips and no more chains

To live free or die is what remains

If life is too short either way

You might as well live free today

All for one and one for all

We'll board the ship and make the call

Join us, all you good men

And have your liberty again

Watch the crew now leave their captain frying

As they come sail with the black flag flying