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Chapter Text

A Momentous Occasion

One touch. Just one touch of her hand, one look into her eyes, was all he needed for everything he'd planned to say to slip away from his thoughts. His speech, delicately written, memorized for hours on end just…gone, the second their eyes locked.

He could play it off, say that Jay, son of Jafar's, punch to the shoulder had startled him, but it would be a lie.

He reached out for Mal, daughter of Maleficent's, hand, ready to continue his speech until he got his first real look at her.

It was easy to not notice, to just look at the group of four and see nothing but the children of the land's greatest villains, to lump them together as though they were just one body. He had done just that, standing beside Audrey and the Fairy Godmother, he'd looked at them as a group. It hadn't been until he'd gone to welcome them individually that it happened.

He reached out, he touched her hand and felt a spark.

He looked up, catching her eye, and felt his heart stop.

His world stopped really, in that one moment (or hours, he wasn't sure) that he looked into her eyes. It was like everything vanished except himself and Mal, like they were the only two left in the world. He couldn't catch his breath to continue his speech even if he remembered what his speech was supposed to be. It was hard to concentrate on anything when he was staring into eyes so wide and green.

He honestly wasn't sure what had finally gotten him speaking again, whether it was the odd look coming to her own eyes, or the way he could feel Audrey staring a hole in his back, how he could feel the other three Isle Children tensing as he lingered on who could only be their leader for too long. Whatever it was that finally jarred him out of his stupor…he almost wanted to banish them for it.

He would have much rather stared into Mal's eyes for hours more than continue his speech.

But it would be poor form to ignore the other two Isle Children, a King, even a future one, could not be so rude.

He continued on, finally shaking her hand instead of holding it, "This is a momentous occasion," and forced himself to move on.

His hand felt cold even as he offered it to Carlos, son of Cruella de Vil, and Evie, daughter of the Evil Queen.

He tried, hard, very hard, to look at the others, to focus on them, but something kept pulling his gaze back to Mal.

Her snark alone, what would have likely insulted others, just made him smile and laugh, it was refreshing in a way.

"Or the day that you showed four peoples where the bathrooms are," Mal muttered as he finished his speech.

"A little bit over the top?" he smiled at her.

"A little more than a little bit," Mal teased back, a small laugh escaping her that he just couldn't help but answer with one of his own.

"Well so much for my first impression," he playfully lamented, chuckling at it, only to be rewarded with a small laugh from Mal.

It was a wonderful sound, he couldn't help but smile at it…

And then Audrey had to bring up how Mal's mother had tried to kill her parents.

Very tactless considering Audrey was a princess. He could hear it in her voice, when she had introduced him earlier. He had wanted the four to think of him as just Ben, someone they could go to or talk to or seek out if need be, not someone to be intimidated by or fawning over or impressed with, yet Audrey had insisted on his title, even going so far as to nearly squeal that he was the future king.

It hadn't been till after she'd added that part that she mentioned he was her boyfriend.

NOT something that he missed in the slightest, that she focused on how he would be the future king instead of calling him her boyfriend first. That was who he wanted to be in the eyes of whoever was his girlfriend, just BEN first, not the king or prince or future king.

Audrey seemed threatened by Mal, though he couldn't understand why.

They'd only just started their tour when he'd been forced to cut it short, having a bit to do with Audrey really. Mal had been asking questions about magic and he'd tried to play it off that they were all normal mortals, even when Mal added that they were kings and queens too. And Audrey had to jump in again, bringing up how far back their lineage went, moving his arm around her shoulders.

He'd stepped away as quickly as he could, as quickly as would be polite at least, when Doug, Dopey's son, headed down the stairs. It wasn't that he didn't want to put his arm around his girlfriend, it was just…if he wanted to, he would have put it around her himself.

And maybe a small part of him didn't want Mal to think that he and Audrey were that serious.

They weren't really, serious or close that is, there had been a divide between them recently, she was very much against his allowing the children of the villains a chance. He understood, her parents and her family's history with Maleficent would make anyone wary of the woman's daughter, but he needed support, he needed support from his girlfriend and she hadn't given it, hadn't even been willing to compromise or listen. It wasn't till he'd asked her to help greet them that she'd stopped remarking about it. With all her comments about how he was her boyfriend, he was starting to be suspicious that she'd wanted to sort of stake her claim or assert her position and status over the other four, the way she'd shot down Evie's mention of being a princess too, coming close to degrading her, helped that suspicion.

Whatever it was, he didn't like it.

But he didn't want to be rude, his mother had raised him better than that. So when Doug appeared, he'd been all too happy to step over to Doug's side and away from Audrey, using it as an excuse and an out of sorts.

It was an odd feeling that swelled in him, seeing Doug. On one hand, he was happy the man appeared when he had, it gave him an excuse to remove his arm from Audrey. On the other hand, Doug wasn't meant to be there till later and the tour was meant to be led by himself and Audrey. With Doug there, the man would take over for him, which would leave him with Audrey and away from Mal, er, from the others.

He'd made sure though, before leaving, that they knew that he would see them later.

If he happened to be looking right at Mal when he said that, well he DID hope that he would see her later, see THEM later, all of them, not just Mal, though he wouldn't be opposed to seeing just Mal if the occasion arose.

He'd tried to offer them his help, that if they needed anything to ask him.

And Audrey jumped in again.

He would have thought it was concern for his safety, that she didn't want the other four to come to him alone to protect him. He would have thought that had she not been looking directly at Mal, as he had (as he had been doing practically the entire time after he'd shaken her hand), when she said it. She was telling MAL to stay away from him and go to someone else.

Well, he would just have to find a way to see Mal (and the others) some other way then.

Chapter Text

I Would Miss Him Too Much

He almost hadn't believed it, that his mother, Cruella de Vil, wanted him to stay on the Isle, to not go to Auradon, because she'd actually miss him.

He should have known it wasn't the case. But he'd hoped though, he really had. He'd been so shocked to hear her say she'd miss him, he'd actually had to ask her if she really would.

She would, she said she would.

But not because of anything meaningful. It wasn't that she'd miss his presence, that she'd miss her son, that he'd been at her side for years and years, since the day he'd been born, that she'd be sad to be without him. She wouldn't miss him because he was her son. She wouldn't miss him because he was going to a land she couldn't get to and she may never see him again and it broke her heart to think that. She wouldn't miss him because she cared at all.

No, she'd miss him because he was the one that touched up her roots, that fluffed her furs, that scraped the bunions off her feet.

She would miss her little servant, not her son.

Was that really all he was good for to his mother? Someone to do her bidding? Well, that was the way it was for almost all of them anyway, why should he be different? His mother was only going to miss him for the sheer fact that SHE would have to do all that herself now. She wouldn't be waited on by him, she wouldn't have him doing things for her.

Looking at Jay, at Evie, even at Mal, it proved they were in the same boat.

Jay's father didn't want him to go merely because he relied on Jay to steal things to fill the shelves in his shop. Jafar pushed his son to steal, having to resort to the thing he had once seen as being such a debasing thing in Aladdin, something he'd ridiculed the "street rat" for decades ago his son now did just to survive the Isle. What he'd once seen as so lowly he was encouraging his son to do, no forcing him to. The shop was what supported him and Jay, if Jay wanted food he had to steal. His father didn't care that his son could get into trouble, that he could be targeted by other villains he stole from, be cornered and punished for stealing things. If he was caught, he clearly hadn't been good enough at stealing, he was sure that was something Jafar had used to tear Jay down, just like Maleficent did Mal. No, Jafar didn't care his son would be away from him for the first time in 16 years either, that his son would be in another land, he just cared that there would be no one to fill his shelves.

Evie, she was excited to go, her mother wasn't forbidding it, which was something. But even then, her mother was SO concerned with how Evie looked when she left, how she represented the two of them. She said Evie had a unibrow, she didn't, she was beautiful, but her mother held her to such high standards that Evie always felt like she wasn't pretty enough, not for herself, not for her mother, not for a future husband. The Queen was pushing Evie to find a boy, a rich prince, not even to find love but to find money. She wanted her daughter to be a queen, didn't even care if her husband would be as bad a villain as they were within the hero's standards, just that he was rich. The man might not even love Evie at all for more than her looks and the Evil Queen was telling her daughter it was right and ok and what she wanted. She wouldn't even miss Evie either, she would just be concerned that Evie found a rich man, maybe even one with enough power and sway to get her off the Isle in the end.

It said a lot that the Queen gave Evie the same box she had once tried to place Snow White's heart in.

It said more that when the Queen asked who the fairest in the land was, that she rejected Evie's excited squeal that she herself was the fairest in order for her daughter to call her mother the fairest instead. Evie's face had fallen so quickly at the rejection, at the notion that her mother didn't see her as beautiful or the fairest. Her mother only cared that SHE was the fairest, above even her daughter, and they ALL knew what led to someone else being the fairest. If the Queen could do that to her step-daughter, what would she do to Evie if she was ever the fairest?

Mal, he was sure, had it even worse than all of them. Maleficent only cared about Mal if she was being JUST like her, if she was living up to her evil expectations. Mal was never good enough for her mother no matter how much she tried. And this? This was going to be an enormous weight on Mal, to prove herself, for ALL of them to prove themselves.

But the difference was, their mothers and father hadn't come right out and said that that they would miss their child solely for the fact of what they did for them instead of because it was their child.

They were all going to be sent to a world filled with heroes, filled with the descendants of those that their parents had wronged.

They were going to be surrounded by their parents' enemies.

And their parents didn't even care.

Wouldn't care so long as it didn't affect the mission.

They only cared about what their children could do for them, get them off the Isle.

Why had he expected anything other than that?

Chapter Text

Some Serious Sunscreen

"I'm going to need some serious sunscreen," Mal said before she and Evie closed the curtains in their hideous rooms to dim the light around them, to block the more powerful rays of the sun from seeping into their dorm.

They were pale, all of them, even Jay was paler than most would be. Why wouldn't they be though? They'd been left on an Island that was surrounded by a magical barrier to keep them all in. The barrier had a dark hue to it, it distorted the light, made it feel like there was a perpetual storm brewing above them, a constant cloud hiding the sun. Everything was shaded there, everything was more...different levels and versions of darkness.

She had never seen the sun before. Not once in 16 years had she seen the sun unobscured by the barrier. She had never seen pure daylight, none of them had.

They knew the sun was there, knew it existed, knew that it could burn skin and darken it, they learned about that, but none of them had ever expected to be in the sunlight before, ever. They had thought they would spend the rest of their lives on the Isle, forgotten by the people of Auradon, condemned to a punishment for something their parents had done before they'd even been born.

Yet there they were, in the daylight, in the sun.

They were going to burn, all of them, if they weren't careful.

16 years of no direct sunlight, and now to be exposed to it?

They would have to take precautions, their skin wasn't used to it.

THEY weren't used to it.

They weren't used to the light, in more ways than one.

Chapter Text

Raw Talent

He was fast on the Tourney field, one of the few that hadn't gotten hit at all in the Kill Zone. He was quick, his reflexes fast. He forced his way across the field with a power that the other boys couldn't muster, a strength and willingness to shove his way through that the polite princes would never do. The coach called it raw talent.

It wasn't true.

He'd never even heard of Tourney before the Fairy Godmother mentioned it, neither had Carlos. They hadn't had time to ask about it, to look at a rule book as the coach brought up. He really had no idea at all what he was doing. He'd seen Ben knock one of the players in yellow on his back and gone with it. He'd just knocked everyone off as best he could, trying to get the ball from one end of the field to the other, as he guessed was the point.

It wasn't raw talent he displayed, it was reflex.

You HAD to be fast on the Isle, you had to be quick, you had to have sharp reflexes and fast reactions or you were going to get seriously injured, or worse.

You had to duck out of flying objects, you had to shove your way through fights, you had to be able to smack someone with a plank or a crowbar to get away from those that meant to hurt you. His father was a genie by way of a wish, HE might have genie powers for all he knew, but there was no magic on the Isle. He couldn't poof his friends and himself away from danger or threat, as much as he wanted to at times, he had no magic. And when you didn't have a magical way to protect yourself, you had to find other ways out of danger. His father being who he was, the protection being the Son of Jafar gave him only went so far and sometimes it just made him even more of a target, people wanting to get back as his father through him.

You had to be able to fight, you couldn't afford to be scared or timid. You had to shove through people, you couldn't show weakness, you couldn't let them get you on your back. That was how you got hurt, that was how you were made a target. If you let someone else get the best of you, even once, that was it, you'd be seen as an easy target and more people than you could handle would go after you. You couldn't let anyone get the better of you or your life was as good as over.

HE couldn't afford to let it happen.

He was the oldest of the four of them by just a month, despite Mal being their unofficial leader, he was the eldest and he looked at the other three as his sisters and brother he never had. Despite his father's mantra of "There is no team in I" he couldn't help but want to look after the others, they were the only ones that really knew what it was like to grow up how he had, had seen him and his father first hand. He couldn't afford to be weak, none of them could.

You had to dodge and jump and duck and roll and avoid the chaos around you. You had to be aware and focused, had to be on your guard at ALL times, always expect a trap or a fight or a danger around every corner, you had to be able to use everything to your advantage to survive on the Isle.

No, it wasn't raw talent.

It was a lifetime of fighting just to survive.

Chapter Text

You Were Pretty Great In There

Evie couldn't help but smile as she sat beside Doug, Dopey's son, on a small picnic table out in the courtyard of Auradon Prep, having just shown him her last Chemistry test, one that she'd gotten a B Plus on! And all on her own too! She was SO excited about it, and she just had to share it with Doug. She wouldn't have even gotten a chance to take the test and prove herself if he hadn't stood up for her.

"You were pretty great in there," she beamed at him.

"So were you," he replied almost on instinct.

She shook her head ever so slightly to herself at that, he didn't understand at all what she was trying to say, trying to express, did he?

She meant it as a compliment, yes, he HAD been very brave to stand up for her, to stand up against the teacher, he was like one of those knights her mother used to tell her about, rescuing princesses to whisk them off as their new queens, though Doug wasn't exactly a king, she knew he was a Lord of some sort, Snow White had made all her Dwarves nobility for their help and support.

But she found that she didn't really care about that, about his title. She didn't care if he wasn't classically handsome or if he wasn't as rich as Chad. He made her feel so smart, and beautiful, just with the way he looked at her when she first arrived. After having just had her mother critique her appearance, her eyebrows specifically, having just had Audrey reduce her status as a princess to nonexistent, having just had Ben not even bat an eye at her, Doug's reaction had made her heart race, that SHE had had that effect on someone.

That wasn't what she was talking about here though, he was truly a great man, and what he had done in there was something she treasured and appreciated.

Because it just DIDN'T happen.

Not to them, not to her and the others, none of the children from the Isle really.

On the Isle, it was fend for yourself, never trust someone else, always expect them to turn their backs on you, never ever turn your back on them or they would stab you there. If you got caught, automatically expect the people with you to start pointing fingers and sell you out. That was how it worked with villains, the people around you were with were the ones that usually betrayed you. She couldn't even count how long it took the four of them to actually manage a trust and friendship despite how they'd been raised, to finally believe the other three wouldn't just sell them out like every other villain.

She had been taught that princes were meant to be noble, it was why she'd trusted Chad with telling him of her Magic Mirror.

He'd betrayed her, she should have seen it coming.

But Doug?

Doug had stuck up for her.

She should have expected THAT though. He had admitted to stalking her at the bleachers when she'd been there with Chad, he HAD to have heard her talk about the mirror. And yet HE hadn't been the one to turn it over to the teacher, but Chad had. Doug had defended her.

It had been one reason why she'd tried to talk and explain herself to the teacher despite Doug telling her, repeatedly, not to help. She hadn't expected, even then, that he would actually DEFEND her and HELP her. It wasn't something she was used to, having someone else want to help her, want to stick up for her and defend her and trust her. She expected it from Mal, Carlos, and Jay, they had built up their trust, they'd had to on the Isle. Their friendship, their bonds, were probably the only thing that helped them all survive life there, sticking together.

The idea that a hero's child, that a child of one of the people close to Snow White, a person her mother had cursed, would help her was so far beyond her that she'd tried to explain herself to the teacher even with Doug helping her. She really hadn't thought he would help, she thought she would have to get herself out of this mess, like she had a few times on the Isle.

Trusting someone else to come to her defense that wasn't Mal, Carlos, or Jay was new.

But it wasn't necessarily bad either, she was learning, she was starting to trust Doug, something she never thought she'd do ever. She thought she'd be on the Isle for the rest of her life, constantly looking over her shoulder and questioning the motives of others around her. Here? Here she might just have found her own knight in shining armor, or, well, dwarf in cute bowtie.

Doug had proven her mother wrong in her teachings. The Princes weren't always charming, and the commoners weren't always worthless.

Doug was worth thousands of Chads to her.

He really was just great.

Chapter Text

Even Villains Love Their Kids

Silence.

All four children were silent, completely quiet at what Lonnie had just uttered. For as different as the Isle was to Auradon, Lonnie had still assumed that even villains loved their children.

And none of them could agree. None of them could say a word about it. They couldn't agree and go "of course," they couldn't defend their parents "in their own way," they couldn't say a single thing.

Being there, being confronted with so many happy and well adjusted kids, hearing about how the heroic parents were like to their kids, what COULD they say?

It was all too clear to each of them that no, their parents, the villains, did not love their children.

They'd always known it, deep down, they'd known, but they'd hoped. Foolishly they had hoped that they were wrong. They'd tried to play it off, all the hard comments and neglect, as that was just the way parents were. How were they supposed to know what parents were meant to be like when ALL they had as an example was their own? Hearing Lonnie talk, hearing the other children speak of their parents, it was just hitting them now the harsh reality of their lives.

Evie looked down at the cookie mix, not really seeing it. All she ever heard from her mother was critiques about her looks, how if she wasn't pretty enough she wouldn't be able to find a husband. Even when she tried, even when she put the most effort she could into her looks, it was never good enough. Her mother was constantly criticizing her, her choices for clothing, how she styled her hair, her make up, every little detail about how she looked wasn't good enough. She heard Jane speaking of her mother, the words echoing in her head, how a boy who couldn't love what was on the inside wasn't worth it. Her entire value, all her self-worth rested on her appearance, because of her mother. Her mother would never call her beautiful in a way that really MEANT something, she would always call her pretty in relation to herself. If she looked stunning, it was because she came from the Evil Queen, if she was beautiful it was because she was the woman's daughter and she taught her everything. She was never pretty in her own right, just…the poisoned apple falling close to the tree.

Her mother had never called her beautiful and meant it, had never cared if she was happy or if she was smart.

That wasn't love.

Jay looked down at the ground at Lonnie's words, his hand absently rubbing his arm as he half hugged himself. He couldn't recall the last time his father had hugged him, HAD he ever hugged him? He had never heard his father actually be proud of him, ever indicate he loved him as something more than a person that could get him items for his shop. If he had a good day, it was almost like his father was proud, but it was more proud of the items he snagged than the fact he had snagged them. If he had a bad day, and came home with barely an item or two, his father hardly looked at him. He would come home with bruises sometimes, trying to get an item, maybe got caught in the middle. No one kissed his injuries, bound them, told him it would be ok, he got nothing save a "do better next time." There was no compassion from his father, he didn't want him to be happy hanging out with the other three. His father firmly believed everyone should only look out for themselves, after all there is no team in I.

So if his father believed someone should only care about themselves, that had to mean his own father didn't care about his son, just himself.

That wasn't love.

Carlos swallowed hard, focusing on Dude the Dog for a moment, just thinking about all the lies his mother had told him about dogs in general. For a woman that had been so obsessed with them, with making fur coats out of them, going so far as to keep a squeaky dog toy on her shoulder as though it were a real dog, she had a strange way of explaining to him why she wanted them so badly all the while telling him to stay away from them. She lied, she lied as a way to control him, to use his fear as a way to get him to do what she wanted. She didn't want him to go to Auradon, and reminded him there were dogs there as a way to do it, to keep him close. She had made him so terrified of dogs, because she was selfish too. She wanted dogs, she wanted their fur, she didn't want HIM to have a dog, because she wanted them. But she didn't even care about his fears. SHE had made him petrified of dogs, all he knew about them came from her, but not once could he recall her actually comforting him from a nightmare about them or reassuring him he was safe from them, that she would protect him.

The last thing his mother had said as he was leaving was to bring back a dog, completely disregarding his (then) severe phobia of them.

That wasn't love.

Mal's grip on the mixing spoon tightened as she looked away from Lonnie, just KNOWING there would soon be pity in the girl's eyes. Her mother was the worst villain in the land, that was no secret, she was also the worst to her, harder on her than any of the other parents. Maleficent had a way of making her feel so inferior, so desperate to prove herself, just wanting her mother to tell her she was proud of her, just ONCE. In 16 years she had never heard her mother say she was proud, she had never heard her mother tell her she loved her. Her mother didn't get her out of trouble, her mother didn't make her food or cookies or make her laugh when she was feeling sad. More often than not, her mother was the one that made her sad in the first place. Her mother didn't care about her unless she was being exactly like her mother, but she wasn't her mother, she was just Mal. She had sacrificed so much of herself in trying to be just like her mother, she wasn't even sure who she was anymore. Worse yet, she was sure her mother would be happy about that, to know her daughter didn't know how to just be herself she was so deeply set in trying to emulate her mother. No, her mother didn't make her any cookies, she never hugged her, never complimented her or comforted her. When everyone was leaving, the other parents called out something, just needing to get one more word to their kids, all gathering outside the doors to wave them off. Her mother had remained on the balcony, silent but watching, looking down at her, not another word, not another glance spared to her daughter as she left.

Her mother had thrown her into the lion pit to be surrounded by the children of all their enemies without a second thought because it would benefit HER.

That wasn't love.

"How awful," Lonnie breathed, seeming to realize exactly what they were admitting in their silence.

No, villains did not love their children.

Chapter Text

Evil Like Me

She flinched.

Whenever her mother turned to her too quickly, whenever she raised her hands too fast, whenever she pointed her staff at her, she flinched.

She couldn't help it.

She couldn't help jump back when her mother moved her foot to cross her legs just after mentioning how she fought with her mother when she thought she was mature enough, despite the fact there was enough room to know her mother wouldn't kick her on accident. She couldn't help but gasp and jerk when her mother pinged her head, about to tell her what she said in the past, expecting something much more painful to come from a hand moving towards her head. She couldn't help but try to back away when her mother had turned her staff towards her after asking her if she'd rather be good at being bad. She couldn't help but flinch and close her eyes when her mother's staff thumped against the steps of her display when she told her to take her place.

There may not be magic on the Isle, but that didn't mean their parents were helpless or powerless. For someone as small as Maleficent was, for someone that relied on her magic as much as the woman did, she still ruled the Isle with an iron fist.

An iron fist indeed.

And a wooden staff.

Really though, her mother had cursed an entire kingdom and a baby, originally intending for the baby to DIE.

Jafar had tried to usurp a kingdom from a Sultan and had abused numerous people in his quest for power.

The Evil Queen had been willing to have the heart of a young girl carved out.

Cruella wanted to drown 101 puppies and skin them into a fur coat.

What did people truly expect they would be like raising children? Just because the magic was gone, it didn't erase the evil and darkness in their hearts.

And just because the magic they used to punish others was gone, didn't mean there weren't other ways to punish their children.

Chapter Text

How Long Does She Think That's Gonna Last?

It was a valid question, but not in the way Audrey meant it, the four from the Isle were sure.

How long HAD they thought all of this was going to last?

They were all kicking themselves as they sat at the picnic table outside the school, feeling worse about themselves than they ever had, even on the Isle. Because on the Isle they would have expected this. They would have expected everyone around them to turn on them for one mistake, not even a mistake to just turn on them for no reason. But here in Auradon? They hadn't been expecting it there, not in the middle of the heroes, not in the kingdom of the Queen that was famous for giving a brute and a beast a second chance.

They had let their guard down, they had started to think they'd each found a place there, something to make them happy. They had started to think they were being accepted. They started to be happy.

So of course this would happen.

Of course the people around them would turn on them without a second thought. It happened all the time on the Isle, it especially happened with their parents. Every compliment given to them, every scrap of affection or compassion or love was always coupled with some sort of disappointment, some sort of critique, some underhanded way to give them hope just to cut them down moments later. Their parents were pros at that, at making them feel a single moment of happiness and pride and warmth before the rug was pulled out from under them and they were left with nothing but hurt and disappointment and self-loathing.

And that was just it, wasn't it?

They expected it on the Isle, they were ready for it from their parents, from every other person around them to do something sinister like that. They expected to be built up by the people that should care for them solely for the fact that it would hurt them twice as much to be shattered. They expected to be used and abused by their parents.

They hadn't expected it in Auradon as well, not from the heroes, not from the "good" ones.

They hadn't expected to find a place among the other children, whether on the Tourney field or with animals or in school or in doing hair. They hadn't expected acceptance, so when it happened, when it SEEMED to happen, they were cautious to accept it. Not enough though, because they HAD accepted it eventually.

They had JUST started to get used to being around the other students, to the hope that they might not always be seen as villains and just be themselves. They had just started to think that they might be able to grow there, that they were being built up by the goodness around them.

And then even good cut them down in an instant, leaving the four of them sitting there, silent, deep in thought, staring at nothing in particular as they each battled their own demons that Chad's words had brought out. They knew that Audrey was cautious of them, especially of Mal, especially after Ben started to date her. They knew the others were cautious too, but they honestly thought the others had gotten over it by now, they hadn't given any of the children a reason to think they were truly evil. They had thought the others were accepting them, and they'd been wrong.

They'd been so wrong.

And it had been proven not just in the halls of the school, but in front of EVERY royal family that had attended Family Day, in front of the King and Queen themselves.

And when they did what they always did, resorted to protecting themselves from an attack by others, they were ostracized further for it.

They were being treated like pariah now, outcasts, and...villains.

It hurt, it hurt so much more than anything their parents could do or say to them, broke them all in ways they hadn't thought possible if their parents hadn't managed to do it yet. It hurt more because they had started to open up to others, they let them in, and all it got them was hurt and betrayal. It was all their faults for trusting the children of the heroes, and now they had to deal with their own weaknesses.

It shouldn't hurt, it really shouldn't, they were used to the abuse and distrust.

But that was on the Isle, not Auradon.

Auradon was supposed to be different, but was it really? Had they just exchanged one prison for another? One form of abuse and neglect and torment for another more powerful one?

Who knew the heroes could be so villainous.