ask no questions and you'll get no lies (chapter 1)
Summary: Right after the Core Four defeat Maleficent at the coronation, King Adam decides the four VKs his son brought are too much of a risk and, overruling Ben, sends them back to the Isle.
Too bad they're not going to just sit still and take it. Even worse for him that they now know there are more options than to work alone and accept the lot they were given in life, and this time, it's personal.
Meanwhile, the AKs are starting to doubt their own parents and aren't content to just follow orders they no longer agree with.
After a few moments, the present crowd slowly started to comprehend what just happened and began to cheer. Even those who had been more than a little against the Villain Kids coming to Auradon were looking at them appreciatively.
Mal was shocked at seeing Audrey, of all people, smiling at her, and thought she might've inhaled some of her mother's green smoke when she saw Aurora doing the same. Queen Leah, at least, wasn't smiling, but wasn't glaring in disgust either.
By her side, Jay wasn't looking so surprised at seeing Aziz waving at him from behind his parents, both looking confused but in good spirits. He noticed a group of boys excitedly whooping and felt warmer than expected when he realized it has his teammates gesturing at him and Carlos.
The shorter boy wasn't expecting anyone to react like that to them, but seeing them cheer for him felt good. He saw Jane smiling from where she was hanging on to her mother, and heard Dude before he jumped on his arms, and couldn't help but smile disbelievingly.
Snow White was smiling and cheering at someone, and it took a moment for Evie to realize it was aimed at her. The older princess opened her mouth, but whatever she wanted to say was lost when King Beast stepped forward and straightened himself.
"Guards! Take them away."
Everyone quieted down, all eyes turning towards the man. His wife and son included, who stared at him in confusion.
"Darling, please-"
"Dad, that's not fair!"
And then volume picked up again as people started to voice their own opinions. The VKs were once again shocked to hear most of them seemed to be in their defense.
"You can't be serious!"
"They did nothing! They saved us!"
"They helped us! Leave them alone!"
"You can't do that!"
They recognized Lonnie, Jane, Doug and even Audrey piping in their defense, and they weren't the only ones. But it didn't matter, because Adam Florian the Beast listened to no one but himself. Not even to his son, as everyone saw when Ben stepped closer to try and reason with him, but the first word hadn't even left his mouth when his father interrupted.
"Enough! "
His shout could be better defined as a roar, and the presents went quiet under the deafening volume and the sight of fangs once more protruding from his mouth. He clasped his hands together, and smiled through it.
"You forget, children, that I am still High King. The coronation was interrupted, and it's obvious you aren't ready for such responsibility." The last part was aimed at Ben, said as the Beast picked up the crown and placed it once again on his own head. "I can do as I choose, and it will be fair if I say it is. Trust me, I know what's best for Auradon, and for all of us."
The four friends, tired from weeks filled with nerves and stress, adapting to such a change and feeling pulled in two directions, a confrontation with an actual dragon and the emotional aspect of their choice, took more to process what was happening than normally would. It was only when the guards closed in on them, and one slapped heavy iron shackles on Mal's wrists as her eyes glowed and she started to recite a spell, draining her power immediately, that they realized what would happen. That this was never meant to last, not for them. It was obvious by the way they were approached and restrained that the Beast had been ready to send them back since they arrived. Carlos was saying something, but even he wasn't sure what, and the others couldn't hear him as they were pulled away and the yelling of the crowd drowned it. The last thing they saw before new guards approached them and plunged syringes into their necks were the bright yellow and blue colors of the Auradon flags, standing proud and mocking everywhere their eyes could see as they blacked out.
☆
"If we got the same punishment for being good that our parents did for being bad, does it even matter what we do? Because it looks like we'll be judged and found guilty either way."
Evie looked up at Carlos, and tried not to wince when their eyes met. They'd been back over a week, and anyone who saw them could tell their mothers hadn't been happy about the attempted betrayal that went down at the coronation. There was a purpling bruise over his jaw, his left eye could barely close, and the shadows shaped like fingers around his neck matched the ones around hers and her arms in a grotesque way. She’d been staying in their hideout since the fourth night, when the Evil Queen moved her to her old room and she was finally able to climb out the window and run to the place closest to “safe” on the Isle. Evie had waited every waking hour for someone else to walk in, painfully aware she could not go looking for them in her state; she woke up in the middle of the night to the familiar sound of rocks hitting a metal sign and started crying as an even more familiar head of white hair appeared from the stairs. Carlos was as bruised and bloodied as she had been, but they held each other tight ignoring the sting of their wounds even when they ended up kneeling on the floor and resting against the other. Two hours later, they had helped each other clean up and they were finally talking about the elephant in the room.
"So what do you propose we do? Show them how bad we can actually be?"
"No, not really. Just do what we need to, and forget what they might think. Everyone has obviously already made up their minds about us. Now it's time for us to do what's best for us."
"Where do we start?"
It was impossible to ignore what he was saying, especially with the notable absence of the other two echoing through the hideout. Evie remembered the way Jay looked at them before his father dragged him off, the effects of the drug still weakening them enough that their parents had no difficulty imposing once again their will over theirs. There was nowhere else to go for them, their safe place too far away for them to reach like this. It had been far too easy for Jafar to get to Jay while Cruella and the Evil Queen closed in on their own children. They caught glimpses of the painful hold his father had him in as he literally dragged him by a dislocated arm to make sure he couldn’t tear away even if he regained his strength.
And Mal... Evie closed her eyes to try and forget the terrified look on Mal's face as she faced her mother, in human form again, and realized she didn't have her magic to protect her (to protect any of them). They hadn't seen any of them since. The blue haired witch opened her eyes, and exhaled slowly through her nose. Over a week alone with their parents would be cause of worry under normal circumstances; with the current situation, it was incalculably worse. Carlos and Evie had been able to get away relatively faster and more easily because their mothers had very few henchmen anymore, but Jafar had plenty men that would still listen to him, and Maleficent had the most men working for her other than- Muffling a curse with her hand, Evie looked at Carlos; by his grimace, she knew he had reached the same or a similar conclusion as her.
“We don’t have any other option, do we?”
“Not really, no one else has enough people for it to work.”
“And how are we supposed to convince them?”
A quick glance around the hideout was enough to spark an idea. Evie started to smile, ignoring how it hurt to do so.
“Say, C, do you remember that device you made a couple years back? The one that was meant to 'change things' completely?”
“Which devi- oh yeah, but it barely did anything.”
“Would you say you learned enough in Auradon to try again? If you had the necessary materials.”
She stayed quiet as he mumbled calculations and lists, and saw the answer in the set of his jaw and the rise of his eyebrows before he even lifted his head again. Carlos grinned, and his eyes darkened, and Evie had hope for the first time since they crossed the barrier for the second time.
“We have plenty of work to do, then.”
