Fairy Godmother quietly slipped out of the conference room and fled to her office, leaving Belle to soothe her husband’s temper as the other heroes and heroines watched the retired king in numbed silence.
Sinking into her chair, she stared at the telephone for a long time.
“Come on,” she muttered, “Come on, ring!”
It rang, as if all the magic of Auradon was at her fingertips, and she almost knocked the entire phone off the desk, “Hello, hello, hello,” she babbled, trembling all over, “What’s the news? Have you found them?”
“Hey, Fairy Godmother.” The purple-clad girl’s voice unexpectedly came through the connection.
“Mal?” Fairy Godmother gasped.
“Sorry to cause you all this trouble.”
“Oh, Mal!” the headmistress finally lost it, “Everything’s gone wrong since you left! I—”
“It’s okay, Fairy Godmother,” the purple-clad girl interrupted hastily, “I get it.” She paused, weighing whether or not to tell her exactly what had happened. Then she lost her nerve and lied, “Everything is going to be fine now.”
*o*o*0*o*o*
“Oooo, how lovely!” Madame Medusa’s whiny voice made Anthony cringe as he watched the old villainess and Dr. Facillier from the shadows, “Is it for me?”
“Of course, my dear, of course,” Dragon Hall’s headmaster cooed, holding up a cracked half-filled bottle of red wine, “Just a little something to add to what you already have.”
Swallowing hard, Anastasia’s son managed to push down the bile rising in his throat and stepped out of the shadows. “Pardon me,” he bowed regally, “But I thought you’d like to know that I just saw Celia trying to sell some stuff from your shop.”
“Is that so?” Dr. Facilier gave him the evil eye, “Are you being a snitch, boy?”
“Her prices were way too low.” Anthony bowed again, “I just thought you should know.”
Madame Medusa’s eyes widened in horror, “That little snot! You have to do something!”
“It appears so,” the old witch doctor growled, reluctantly rising from the table, “Can I count on you to wait for me, sweetheart?”
“Why, of course, my dear,” she prattled, giggling as she rubbed her hands together with pleasure, “Of course!”
*o*o*0*o*o*
“Um, ah, listen, Yen Sid,” Mal swallowed hard as she hung up the phone, trying to summon the courage to finally tell the truth, “I told—”
He held up his hand. “I’m just relieved to know where everyone is—”
“Well, almost everyone!” she squeaked, interrupting with emotion. Her face turned scarlet, “Ya see, I, uh, well, I lied to Fairy Godmother.”
He waited in silence, his face set in stone.
“After they got to the house, everything was fine until Evie had to go out to kiss Gil.” She rolled her eyes, “It was just a dumb thing from this morning. Don’t ask.”
“After E went out,” she hastily continued, “Doug got all panicky so I thought a tour of the house would settle things down. Only Audrey got upset because…well, you know. Then Chad started a fight in her defense.”
She bit her lip, “By the time we broke them up, everyone was embarrassed enough to agree to the tour so we went upstairs, but I forgot to keep an eye on Doug and he must have slipped out while we were in the dungeon. I think Audrey and Chad went with him.”
A few tears leaked down her cheeks, “This is why I came back, Yen Sid! So this stuff wouldn’t happen and everyone would support Ben as king and be happy! I just keep messing up!”
“You did exactly the right thing, Mal,” he answered briskly, immediately turning his mind to their newest problem, “There are some things that we have no control over.”
“E hasn’t come back yet either,” the purple-clad girl continued mournfully, “I don’t know what happened to her. She can handle herself, I know, but I’m worried about everything now.”
“Take it easy, Mal,” He gripped her shoulders with his powerful hands, “We’ll fix this.” He smiled wryly, “As you told Fairy Godmother, everything will be fine now.”
“Yeah, right.” she muttered, still wiping tears, “When E gets back and finds out—”
Suddenly, the door flew open and Celia scooted in. “I found them! I found Sophie and Evie! They were—” Her eyes widened, “Mal!”
“Hey,” the purple-clad girl gave her a half-hearted little wave, “What’s up?”
“What are you doing here?” the younger girl asked, “I thought—”
“That’s enough for now, young one.” Yen Sid broke in, holding up his hand; he turned to Mal, “I sent Celia out to look for Sophie when she was late getting back with the antiheroes.”
“They’re going back to your place.” Celia babbled excitedly, “They ran into Uma earlier but, don’t worry, they ditched her.”
A green fire blazed up in Mal’s eyes, “Hardly!” She spun on Yen Sid, “We have to move now! If Uma—”
“Peace, Mal.” His big hand rested on her arm, “If you’d taken my class, I’d have taught you that villians often undo themselves when their plans begin to unravel because they panic.”
“Carlos has mentioned that a few times.” She frowned.
“Hello, hello!” Dr. Faciliar suddenly breezed through the door, “It’s a good thing I knew where to find you, my dear, darling daughter!”
Young Celia almost panicked but before anyone could react the purple-clad girl stepped in.
“Hello to you too, Dr. F.” she waved, “Did ya miss me?”
*o*o*0*o*o*
Stooping down, as if to inspect the dead landscape around the castle, Evie silently fumed that Sophie would give them away if she didn’t come out of hiding.
“Sorry,” the Sorcerer’s Apprentice whispered a moment later, after the blue-clad girl gave her a vile look, “I’m not like you guys. I’m not even dressed like you guys!”
“All the more reason to not stick out like a sore thumb!” the blue-clad girl hissed, “Come on, let’s work our way to the back. Steady now.”
Continuing to act as if they were searching the bushes, they crept along the wall until Evie got the idea to throw rocks at the third floor windows that had been broken during the looting after Maleficent, hoping to draw attention from inside. Her efforts won her a smattering of applause and a few pirates even followed suit, thinking that she had the right idea.
“Stop!” Sophie implored fervently, “We’re drawing too much attention.”
Evie shrugged, “I like attention.”
“Yen Sid says that’s a villain’s downfall. They like attention too much, then they draw the wrong kind.”
“Carlos has mentioned that before.” Evie nodded, pausing a moment before tossing another rock.
“Evie!” Sophie blurted out.
“Hey, it’s Evie and Sophie!” someone yelled, as the young apprentice clamped her hand over her mouth, “Grab em!”
“Get Uma!”
“Oh no, you don’t!” the blue-clad princess swung around to fight.
“Well, well, well,” Harry suddenly appeared with his sisters in tow, gently fitting his hook under her chin again.
“It’d be a shame to mar something so beautiful,” he whispered in her ear. Nodding at Harriet and CJ, he added, “Tie em up, will you please?”
*o*o*0*o*o*
With hearts ramming against their ribs, Doug, Chad, and Audrey strolled bravely through the exit, laying all their hero’s DNA on the line in an attempt to break out of Pleasure Island. No one said a word until they were well away from the amusement park and hidden behind some half-empty barrels of rotting food.
But even after conquering one danger, Doug looked like he might cry, “I don’t know what to do anymore! I don’t know where to look! I should have listened to Mal. Evie knows her way around here. We’re just making more trouble for them because we’re lost.”
“I see Mal’s castle,” Chad encouraged him, “It’s just up there.”
“You can see Maleficent’s place from anywhere on the Isle,” Doug spat sourly, “It’s not just up there.”
“Hey,” Chad tried again, “We’re AK’s! We can do this!”
“Says a hero to a sidekick.” Doug muttered.
“We’re all heroes,” Audrey counseled him, not forgetting to be thankful that the Isle’s residents continued to be too busy with their own agendas to notice the little group. She laid a hand on his arm, “Don’t give up, Doug. We need you.”
“And we promised to stick together.” Chad added.
“I just wish these streets weren’t such a maze.” Audrey muttered, inadvertently reminding Doug of how hopeless he felt.
“Did Evie ever give you a map?” Chad asked.
Doug gave him a dark look, “She hated talking about this place until Mal came back.”
“So, she didn’t give you a map?”
“No, Chad, she did not give me a map.”
“Stop being stupid, you guys,” Audrey hissed, “We’re heroes, remember? We’ll just have to do it without a map. But we can do it!”
“Okay, babe.” Chad automatically leaned in to kiss her, but she pushed him away.
“Heroes don’t get a kiss until the work is done.”
“Okay, babe.”
“You know, maybe if we just keep heading towards the castle we’ll get there,” Doug said, began to rationalize; his friend’s support meant everything to him, “Maleficent was all-powerful here, right? So maybe all the streets start and end at her place?”
“That sounds like something she’d do.” Audrey shivered, “Grammy always told me that she was drunk on power.”
“Then let’s do it,” Doug held out his fist, “I’ll admit, we have made it this far.”
Chad immediately laid his hand on Doug’s and Audrey didn’t hesitate to follow suit. After reaffirming their pledge, they slowly crept out of hiding and began to slink up the street, looking for all the world like Dragon Hall-trained VKs.
At first no one bothered them. Then out of the blue a powerful hand grabbed Audrey by the shoulder.
“That’s not yours.” a deep male voice growled, pointing at the dark red scarf wrapped around her head.
“Who says?” she snapped, whirling around with fire in her eyes before her friends could react. Finding herself toe to toe with two burly boys who looked exactly alike, she fired back, “Keep your filthy hands off me!”
“We gave that to Ginny last week!” Gaston III agreed with his brother, “She’ll be furious when she finds out it’s missing!”
“Well, Freddie gave it to me!” Audrey snapped, forgetting every precaution, “Who are you anyways?”
“Everybody knows us!” they chorused together.
“I’m Gaston Jr.” the older twin said, flexing his muscles, “Who are you? You’re almost as pretty as Evie.”
“Almost?” Audrey’s voice rose an octave; she stepped closer with balled fists.
“And I’m Gaston III,” the younger twin wasn’t going to be left out; he flexed his muscles too, “Evie is my girlfriend.”
“She is not!” his brother’s face turned beet red, “She’s mine!”
“Is not!”
“Is too!”
Is not!”
“Is too!”
“You’re both wrong!” Audrey cut them off hotly, “Evie is going out with—”
“Enough!” Doug hissed in her ear, iching her away slowly, “Let’s get out of here before they recognize us!”
With their hearts in their throats, the AKs edged their way down the street and around the corner as the twins continued to bicker. They just missed Gil dashing up to his brothers.
“So…do you think they’re telling the truth?” Chad was incredulous, “About Evie, I mean?”
Doug snorted with laughter, “No! She can’t stand them!”