Chapter Text
The eleven-year-old girl ran through the decrepit buildings. She invaded windows, jumped across roofs. Until the day before, she would walk this path with a smile on her face; today she didn't have the same excitement. Thanks to Mal, she had a lump in her throat that she couldn't take away.
The girl arrived at the coast of the island. She always looked back to make sure she wasn't followed. Luckily, Harry and Gil were too busy destroying a store.
She jumped into the water and swam to a set of rocks that was divided in half by the barrier created by the Fairy Godmother. The dark-skinned girl sat on one of the stones and waited. She turned against the magic barrier with a boiling rage.
“Uma? “ She heard her name a few minutes later.
She managed a smile when she turned to the girl on the other side of the barrier.
“Hey, Mel-Mel.” She tried not to show her disappointment and anger, but it was unsuccessful.
“You don’t look happy”.
“I'm a villain, Mellie. I'm never happy”.
“Yesterday you were” the fair-skinned girl announced, “It seems the competition didn’t go very well”.
Uma snorted.
“Mal said I'm not bad or strong enough to be part of her gang. Neither I nor any of the pirates.”
“I'm sorry, Uma.” Melody thought about the words before starting over “Why don't you become your own pirate gang?”
"They are the strongest! They already have huge territory”.
“But with your own gang, you would be the leader”.
This idea sparked a glow in the little villain. Everyone on the island would know her by her name, not her mother's; as if that could happen. She became discouraged.
"I couldn't compete with the daughter of …”
Uma stopped at her words. The girls made a deal from the day they met: never name anyone's parents. They didn't want their friendship to be shaken by finding out who the other's father or mother was.
Melody understood that she would say the name of a villain. She took the line:
"But weren't you the one who said we're not our parents? Expecting her to be like her mother is to expect me to be like mine. We’re not copies of them”.
Though Melody didn't say much about her parents, Uma knew the princess didn't like being compared to her mother, who – as her friend had described – as graceful and beautiful. The dark-skinned girl even laughed, she had no problem with not being graceful, it wasn't important on the island. Melody's determined, positive, and ironic and it was enough for the hybrid. And never Uma found her less than beautiful, no matter how much Melody said her mother was more.
“She lives with her mother and other villains. All the villainy spills over the tenement where she lives.” Uma wouldn't wait for the girl to answer, “But that's not important today”.
The princess knitted her brows. Uma smiled with the corner of her mouth.
“Last month you said that it was exactly one month away from your ‘personal martyrdom’. And it’s today”.
Uma liked how her friend showed surprise. In the first month they started talking, Uma had complained that birthdays on the island are prank calls and rites of passage; no gifts nor parties. The next time they met, Melody had made a tiara from the prettiest shells in her collection. Since the pirate wanted to be the queen of the Isle of the Lost, Melody thought it more than appropriate.
She was the first person, besides Harry, to give her a gift. She didn't count the boys that Harry forced to pay her some tribute. It was Uma's turn to reciprocate.
Melody didn't like her birthday either. She hated being the center of attention; that's why she didn't like parties in her honor.
“No, Uma. I don’t wanna anything”.
It didn't help, the girl already had a defiant open smile and was taking something out of her pocket.
"You may not want to, but you will get a birthday present."
“I thought villains didn't give gifts. Unless they were a trap or poisons.” the princess joked.
“Exactly, Mel-Mel,” Uma replied in the same tone. “Then don’t waste my goodwill.”
Melody laughed. The pirate took something covered with a cloth from her pocket. Between the rocks and divided by the dome, there was a pool of water, where Uma placed the bundle and pushed it. Both girls had long ago discovered that they could pass things through the water, just as fish could pass through the barrier. Only people and objects of medium to large size were prevented. They have never tested any magical object.
On the other side, the tanned girl took it. She opened the wet fabric and lit up with what she saw. It was a cheap chain bracelet, there were blue and green beads on the sides and small shells hanging. Among them was a larger purple shell.
“It's beautiful!” the girl exclaimed “Did you make it?”
“Don't judge, craftsmanship was never my strong point.” Uma felt her cheeks heat up.
"But I loved it!" Melody responded in true enthusiasm as she put it on her wrist.
Melody's open smile warmed her heart and made her smile thoughtlessly like a fool. She took another bracelet out of her pocket. The beads and small shells were different, but the larger shell was identical.
"That's mine," she said. "The shells are a match."
She saw the princess blush. Uma always found her flushed face cute.
"Did you make a matching bracelet so that one won't forget the other?"
Uma turned her face away to hide her embarrassment.
"I made one for myself because I thought yours looked pretty. But think what you want”.
Melody laughed. Uma would never admit a sign of friendship between the two and they both knew it.
"Thank you," the birthday girl finally said.
They talked everything. Usually about how the day went, what they found at sea or on the coast. Uma avoided saying about the robberies her crew carried out.
Later, with nothing left to say, the girls looked at the beginning of the sunset. The pirate always wondered if this image was prettier on the other side of the barrier.
“Imagine how wonderful it would be to see the entire sea,” Melody said without looking away. “Without worrying about anything you leave behind”.
"You have a better chance of that than I do," Uma said crestfallen.
The girl saw a twinge of guilt in the princess.
“Sorry, Uma. I didn't think before saying.” She was quiet for a moment “Though I don't feel so free either.”
Uma also knew this story, she managed to force her friend to speak once. Melody was chased by a witch seeking revenge against her parents. Because of this, her parents limited her from leaving the house and monitored her movements. There were nothing fairies or good magicians could do to track down the villain.
"You could talk to your mother. As far as I know, the people of Auradon are much more understanding.”
“Of course” mocked the princess “ She was going to have a part... “
Melody froze for a moment.
“The party!” She exclaimed.
Uma laughed.
"Did you forget your own birthday party?"
“Sorry, Uma. I gotta go”. Melody slung her bag of shells over her shoulder and threw herself into the water.
“Try not to break anything.” the pirate joked.
“Try not to miss me so much,” Melody replied in equal spirits in the water.
Uma rolled her eyes and watched the girl disappear into the ocean. Melody always managed to leave her with a chaste smile, even though Ursula's daughter never said it out loud.
——
Uma opened her eyes in surprise. She rose to her feet in disgust as she put a hand to her head. Didn't she have anything better to dream about?
Her crew had captured the king the day before, she had managed to drop Mal's guard and had Auradon's new happy foursome in her hand. She would either get the magic wand or kill Ben. So many perfect dreams she could create and yet her treacherous mind had to bring up a memory of Melody?
The pirate rubbed the sleep from her eyes as she lay in her bed. She was in the same old room decorated with shells and corals. The smell of dead fish and frying from her mother's kitchen downstairs was particularly cloying when Uma woke up.
But soon it would all be over, she thought. Uma would dominate the land and seas. She would finally be free.
Melody's image came back to her mind. Her honest smile, her bright clear eyes, and her flushed shoulders and cheeks.
Uma growled to herself. She was proud of having gone months without thinking about the princess. ‘About the mermaid’, it's worth remembering. At first, her absence was overwhelming; she managed to direct the anguish and fury inside her towards her goals on the island. Her boiling rage turned against the gangs. That weak sadness – she dared to admit that it existed at the beginning – was wiped out.
She tried to forget about Melody at all costs and in time she succeeded. However, there were days that this girl came back to her mind, which was already naturally disturbed. It made her feel bad, shaken, and angry at herself for feeling it.
She looked at the shells tied to the mobile. There was a small blue shell that didn't attract attention next to the others. This one came from the crown Melody had made for her. When Uma threw it against the wall, it was the only one in the set to remain in one piece. Uma had hung it with the others and said she would forget where this one came from. Didn’t work.
The villain cleaned up and changed her clothes. She knelt without thinking beside her bed and touched inside, between the wood and the mattress. She found what she was looking for: the bracelet that matched Melody's.
Uma had no idea why she kept it, probably the princess had already gotten rid of hers. The girl thought that maybe it would serve to spur her anger on Auradon. Even though she already had a grudge against the mainland and everything it stood for, she couldn't feel that when she looked at the jewelry. She was disgusted, to be sure, and would never admit her sadness.
She looked out the window, it was already dawn. Uma put the bracelet in her pocket. She went downstairs, grabbed an apple and didn't bother to say goodbye to her mother. She followed through the filthy streets, the smell of sewage and salt was strong and small thieves ran ready for the next blow. She entered a building whose entrance had already lost its threshold. It was a path that only she and a few of her crew knew about. Uma went up to the third floor and entered one of the bedrooms. She jumped from the shattered window to the window of the front building. This building was infested with rats and insects, like the previous one, some beggars ventured to live there, but mostly it was desert.
Uma arrived in what was supposed to be a kitchen, opened a refrigerator that hadn't worked for decades. Inside it was a hole in the floor with stairs.
She descended the stairs already with the idealization that she would command Auradon. ‘The world would know her name, she repeated to herself.
"Ah, so I would be another slave to you," Uma remembered Melody's sarcastic voice.
‘Shit’, she scolded herself. ‘Just don’t think about that girl.
The musty smell hit her nostrils, she finally made it to the bottom of the steps. This was her hiding place for the hostages; for those who face her gang, don't pay what they owe or have the necessary information. The only light came from above, from a grated drain in the street. When it rained, water fell through the opening and made the ground flooded and uncomfortable for those captured.
Lucky for the chosen one that not a drop fell from the sky and the stench of infiltration was relieved, though Uma wanted him to suffer more. The king slept sitting in the corner of the room fastened to the shackles. The pirates said he wouldn't stop screaming the night before, as if someone from that place offered to help.
“Prince Ben is not bad, I think. He just doesn't hang out with good people.” Melody's voice came back to haunt her.
The villain clicked her tongue. She turned to the side of the entrance, where there was a table and chair. One of her pirates was sitting with his head thrown on the table.
“Wake up, Jeff,” she ordered.
The poor young man woke up with a start.
"Yes, Captain." He yawned and tried to be willing.
"Go get something to eat and get ready for noon."
He nodded and withdrew. Uma sat in a chair with her legs on the table. She bit the apple in her hand. Her expression proved to be unpalatable, she had the misfortune of picking up a rotten fruit. She already imagined the feasts she would have on the mainland.
“There is so much I want to show you, Uma” Ariel's daughter was still lingering in her mind. She growled, gave up looking for some edible part of the fruit, and dropped it to the ground.
The memories were more irritating than any day. Today was supposed to be her glory day, by Hades! Uma felt the world in her hand, or she would rule or see the kingdom crumble with Ben's death.
"You're cool, Mel-Mel." Now it was her own childish voice resonating in her mind "When I take over the world, I won't let anybody touch you."
Uma laughed at the younger version of her. She had been stupid to have faith in anyone from Auradon. Whenever she had these daydreams with the princess, she forced herself to remember their last encounter, the day after Melody's twelfth birthday. It wasn't sad, in fact, it was the biggest hope the girl had ever had.
“Until today” she commented in her mind as she smiled sadistically at the king in front of her. How they could choose such a weak sovereign, she wouldn't understand.
Unconsciously Uma had taken the bracelet from her pocket and started playing with the pendants. When she gets to Auradon, she will end up seeing Melody again. The pirate wanted to be able to attack the girl like any miserable creature on the continent, only she didn't know how to face her.
“Melody is a traitor, two-faced and selfish”, she said in her mind “She kept you waiting and forgot about you, Melody is as bad as the villains. You should just not give the worst treatment, because there’s Mal."
The thoughts should drive her villainy and cruelty, but she felt it false even in her mind. She remembered the feelings she had when Melody commented that someone had mistreated her. Uma used to want to break the bones of anyone who tried to hurt her friend. But the mermaid also hurt her a lot.
"From the rancor on my captain's face," Harry commented from behind which made her jump in her chair “I feel you are planning something fun for Mal and her squires”
The girl got stressed by the sudden appearance, but she would never admit that she had been scared, and she would never admit about Melody either. So, she just forced a smile.
“Let's say I have some things to talk to Auradon's little children.” Well, that wasn't a lie.
Harry responded with a sadistic smile and took a tray from his back, there was cut fruit in a bowl and toast on a plate. Uma sighed in relief. After all, someone took care of her, at least enough. The only person she could really count on was herself – the villain thanked Melody for that.
"What about the jester over there?" asked Harry while the pirate ate her breakfast. – I want to have some fun.
Uma smiled triumphantly at the sleeping king then at her first mate.
“I let you use the hook on him at noon”.
Finally, her focus strayed from the mermaid.