Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Jade hadn’t said a word when her gang left the Isle. She didn’t complain when Jay said goodbye, when they abandoned her to a power vacuum and angry parents. They had promised to come back- to send for her- as soon as they could.
I won’t leave you here, Jay had whispered before getting into the limo.

After a month, Jade stopped waiting. With Mal gone, the gangs in the isle were in a power grab, and she made the best of it- recruiting other kids her age, setting her territory, becoming one of the leaders of the Isle.

After six months, Jade stopped hoping. She pushed her luck, pushed the boundaries of her territory. Ginny Gothel and Hadie, CJ Hook and Celia Facilier- she expanded her people and she became ruthless, because ruthless was what was necessary in this home.

After a year, Jay, son of Jafar, decided to be good.
After a year, the VKs left a child to deal with the aftermath of their decision.

“Stop trying to be quiet, Ginny. I can hear you.”

Ginny Gothel huffed and clambered up next to Jade, with another bottle in her hand.

“Figured you wouldn’t mind an extra one tonight.”

Jade looked over at her for a moment, nodding imperceptibly, and took the drink.

“You figured right,” she shrugged.

“What are you doing up here, anyway? It’s cold. And dark.”

“Being a coward. Ran out after the announcement on the TV. I should- it’s going to be worse when I do end up going back,” Jade ran a hand through her hair and took another drink from the bottle. “I can’t make myself go right now. I- I’ll deal with Nasira and Jafar later-”

“They’re going to be angrier the longer you stay out.”

“Can’t make myself care right now, Ginny.”

“Maybe Jay’ll get someone to bring you over to Auradon.”

“It’s been almost a year. Think he’s completely forgotten about me- about all of us. I don’t think any one of us is leaving this place any time soon.”

Ginny exhaled slowly. “I can’t believe they all betrayed evil. On TV. In front of our parents.”

“I can’t believe they were that fucking stupid,” Jade hissed. “As if this place wasn’t already dangerous. There’s going to be targets on our backs.”

“We’ll deal with it.”

They sat in silence for a moment, staring across the waters. Auradon was aglow with lights and fireworks; the Isle was dead except for screams.

“Something’s bugging you, Ginny. You didn’t come here just to see how I was doing.”

“I can tell you tomorro-”

“Spit it out. That’s an order.”

“Maleficent called a reaping in two days. They’re punishing us.”

Jade looked down at the bottle in her hand and clenched her teeth. Of course they were- they were villains, and betrayal burned deeper than anything. A reaping would stop the Isle kids from attempting any rebellions, and it would mark the traitors with a painful death.

“Get the gang in the hideout. I want everyone there by first light.”

“Jade?”

“I don’t intend to let anyone die this time.”

“...Yes, Captain.”

Jade was left alone on the roof. She stood up after a moment, staring at the horizon, at the palace where Jay was probably enjoying himself…was safe.

“What have you done…” she whispered under her breath, and she flung the empty bottle into the sea. “What have you done?”

Chapter Text

Jade kept her hood up as she pushed through the crowd as best she could. The rest of her gang hung towards the back, at her order. She didn’t want them to attract attention until it was necessary.
The other leaders were already at the front when she joined them. She pushed down her hood and stared back at the crowd.

They would not intimidate her.

Maleficent took a moment to bask in the fear she saw in the eyes of every kid in the crowd before she moved to the edge of the stage and waved an arm.

“You all know why you are here,” she began and Jade clenched her jaw as Maleficent detailed the crimes of Jay and Evie and Carlos (but never once mentioned her precious daughter’s equal betrayal).

“Welcome to the reaping. For those of you who have never competed, I will reitarate the rules. Each leader will publicly claim their followers and will be responsible for keeping them alive. If they can.”

Jade stopped listening. She knew how it worked; Mal had done it for her a couple times before. For every member in her gang, she would complete a task. If she failed...

Mal and Jay had never failed.
Jade wasn’t planning on ruining a streak.

“Harry Hook,” Maleficent said.

“I claim him,” Uma said, voice strong and even, from her spot next to Jade.

“Cecilia Facilier.”

“I claim her,” Jade answered. Cecilia moved up through the crowd and stood behind her.

Hadie son of Hades. Anthony and Dizzy Tremaine. Ginny Gothel.

Five kids under her protection. Five tasks.

“No deaths,” she promised herself.

Chapter Text

Jade had some idea of what the tasks would be; they were never repeated year by year, but the ideas were the same. Who the toughest, the strongest, the most evil of all the leaders was. To keep her gang alive, she had to be ruthless; to save a life, she would have to become a villain. It was a role Jade was comfortable in.

Every gang had roles, and when Mal still lived on the isle, Jade had been a protector like her cousin. Responsible for the knife fights and the stealing, for ensuring Harry Hook backed off, and when needs be, teaching a lesson or two. She was comfortable with her fists, with the daggers at her side, with the sword slung next to them. The idea of being a villain was not something she resisted.

Jade had been broken too many times by the Isle to fight its training, and she was not plagued with morality like Jay was.

Out of the two of them, Nasira had a far more deadly child than Jafar.

The tasks, like always, would be spread over the following week; but life on the Isle would not pause. There were still hungry gang members to feed, food to steal, Jafar and Nasira to please. Jade used it as an excuse to keep herself busy; even if she did not flinch at blood, it was not the happiest thought to dwell on. She spent longer in the market, stole more than she should have in one go- not that it mattered, no one noticed because she was just that good- and dumped it at Jafar’s shop.
He wouldn’t hurt her until after the reaping. He wouldn’t jeopardize her victory, because it was his as much as hers. “Look how Nasira and I raised the most villainous child” and Jay would conveniently be forgotten. Jafar didn’t look up when she dumped the bag at his feet and left.

There was still food in the hideout, but not enough, so she spent the rest of the night flitting between buildings, stealthily climbing walls and snaking across halls. Other families needed food, but other families were not Jade’s concern. If they made it that easy to steal, they didn’t deserve the food.

“Don’t you have a task tomorrow?”

“Why are you still awake?”

“Why not,” Hadie shrugged. He’d been sitting on the couch when Jade walked in with a bag of apples and enough bread to last a few days.

Jade rolled her eyes. “Sleep’s a precious commodity.”

“Why don’t you sleep yourself; you’re the one who’s gotta succeed at everything.”

“I don’t need sleep to stab a pirate or two.”

“Assuming your task is stabbing a pirate or two.”

“It’ll be fine, Hadie. If I can run half the Isle, I can win the tasks.”

“You sound pretty confident.”

“I am.”

“Good, because my life is in your hands now, and I don’t like the feeling.”

Chapter Text

Jade stared at the ledge and it stared back. She’d walked by it plenty of times, when she was heading to the forest, just to get away from everything on the Isle: the screams, the blood, the clang of steel against steel. It was always too much, but some days, it was more than that. It defied everything in her blood, the genie blood that screamed for open deserts.

The Isle was designed to kill her and the forest was the best she could do to force the inevitable back.

She’d never tried climbing the ledge (it was unsafe and the ravine below it reminded her of a presentation she’d heard once in Dragon Hall about ways villains typically died). She’d certainly never considered trying to climb it while it was pouring rain like today.

“Fuck,” she whispered. Celia let out a pained noise.

“Y’know our lives depend on this right?” She whispered back. “Please don’t fail and kill one of us.”

“Fucking hell, Celia, look at that thing. It would be hard enough if it was sunny and dry and I had chalk or something. They’ve set it up to be impossible.”

“You climb circles around anyone here; you’re the best equipped for this,” Hadie shrugged, though there was a tenseness to his stance that wasn’t usually present.

“Yeah, I don’t want to die,” Dizzy reminded her.

Jade shrugged off Anthony’s hand from her shoulder. “They’re designing this year to be impossible.”

“They want us to die.”

Maleficent stormed past them to where a small stage had been erected; they all stiffened when they felt her cloak brush near them. Hatred had never burnt quite so fiercely for any one villain, but all the kids of the Isle would have murdered Maleficent if they thought they stood a chance (they didn’t, none of them did, that’s why they were here, slaved to her desire to watch them kill each other).

“I’m sure you all know what the task is by now. Climb the ledge. Only one of you will win this task; the first person to reach the top. Everyone else will be considered a failure.”

An indignant protest died down just as quickly as it arose. There were seventeen gangs competing. Sixteen of them would be losing a member today.

“Begin,” Maleficent waved a hand.

Jade sprinted to the ledge, ignoring the fact that defeat would come, there were sixteen other leaders, all of them with more experience than her, and every single one of them wanted to win. She did too, but desire wasn’t enough for this.

A hand felt the rock, let her fingers catch into a hold; a boot raised and another groove found. She’d begun her climb. For the first two minutes, it was easy. She was relatively low to the ground, so falling wouldn’t kill her, and the rain was partially blocked by boulders above her. She shoved her hair back under a hood before moving to the next hold she could see.

There was no clear winner yet; everyone was moving cautiously, aware that any mistake would kill them and their crew. There was no room for error. Out of the corner of her eye, Jade could see Uma struggling to find a grab above her.

She cleared the first section of the ledge, and the rain fell harder. There was no more umbrella from the rocks; now, everything was even more slippery, and her visibility was constantly broken by the water. She pulled her hood over as far as it would go, and bit into the glove she was wearing, tearing it off. Fabric wouldn’t help her now. Switching her grip, she did it with the other hand and stuffed them in her pocket. It was bare hands now.

She kicked off her shoes next and let them plummet to the ground; they were too soaking wet for anything other than discomfort and weight. She could see other VKs beside her, doing the same thing. Leaving it to their bare skin was a risk, any cut and they would fall, but it was the only chance any of them had.

Chapter Text

It was the best and worst decision Jade could have made. She heard someone scream beside her and she looked back briefly, just in time to watch one of her competitors let go, clutching at the bloody gash on their leg.

She turned back; she didn’t need to or want to know if they’d survived the fall. It forced her to numb herself, to enter that state of complete and utter detachment that she’d become so good at. The first time was when she’d watched Jafar punish Jay.

This was the eighth time she did it. She stopped feeling anything; it was like all sensations were peripheral, no longer tangible to her. Her arms and legs moved mechanically. She didn’t hear the crowd gasp when she dragged her leg up and cut it deeply; she didn’t feel it either. Her ability to shut everything off had always scared Jay. He was worried that if she did it too many times, she wouldn’t be able to come back. That she would be robotic, unfeeling, a monster. Everything they’d tried not to be. It had baffled Carlos and his scientific mind, her ability to shut down that part of her brain. It had impressed Mal.

None of them were here anymore and Jade didn’t think about them when she did it; not Jay’s disappointment or Mal’s smug grin, or Carlos’s questioning face. They were dead to her, as dead as the other captains plummeting off the ledge. She had been naive as a child, but she wasn’t any longer. The Isle was not a game of good versus evil, it was only a game of survival, and whatever means it took to do that were fair game.

She barely registered when she reached the top, scrappily pulling herself over and collapsing on top of it. There was grass, soaking wet grass, clinging to her jacket and the rain pummeled her face as she breathed it in. Her feet were muddy and her leg was bleeding badly, but Jade didn’t care.

Since no one was up here yet, she had won. The fact registered blankly in her mind. She didn’t get up and celebrate- there was nothing to celebrate, this was an elaborate game of murder and she was a pawn in it as much as any other child on the Isle- and she didn’t cry. She stared at the stormy skies above her.

None of the kids under her protection would die tonight. That was all she could care about, all she could afford to worry about. She hadn’t disgraced Jafar (he’d warned her what the consequences would be if she did, and even after all these years, she was still afraid of him) and her crew would live another day, intact.

Other kids would die. Jade couldn’t be bothered to muster any sympathy. In this world, there was no room for that kind of weakness. There was no time for the luxury and if part of herself was broken and if part of her heart shattered at the idea of letting other kids die, she ignored it. She refused to show it. She wouldn’t let anyone know.

“The winner of this task is Jade, daughter of Nasira. All other captains, present your ransom,” Maleficent announced once Jade had made her way down and everyone had collected around the makeshift stage again.

Ransom was a strange way to put it, Jade thought, as she watched siblings crying, captains deliberating (all of them with tears in their eyes that they desperately tried to blink back, they couldn’t be weak, not now). Her heart stuttered as she watched kids walk up- a daughter of Scar, one of the Gaston triplets, someone from the east side, possibly a Panic child, but Jade didn’t recognize him.

Her heart stopped when she recognized Red, the daughter of the Queen of Hearts. They’d grown up at the same school together. Red had bandaged her in the bathrooms and Jade had stolen snacks for her when they skipped lessons. They’d gone their separate ways; Jade to lead a gang and Red to be one of the protectors in another, but they had never hurt each other. Their gangs were off-limits, for old friendship’s sake.

Not that they ever told anyone that. It was understood, and if people thought it was because they were scared of each other, Jade and Red let them.

She didn’t register any of the others that climbed onto the stage, or the captains following behind them, each clutching a knife in pale hands. The screams fell on deaf ears and all Jade saw was blood, scarlet blood, red blood. Red.

“Jade, let’s go,” Hadie pulled her away as soon as the spectacle was done. “Let’s go back to the hideout. We need to treat your leg.”

Chapter Text

“Red’s gone,” Jade whispered in shock. Why had she been chosen first? She knew Red’s gang like the back of her hand. There were other members that were far more expendable than her- and Shen, their leader, knew that.

Shen had been the first to fall from the cliff and he was the one she’d watched for a second before turning back to her own climb. He was smart, calculating. He knew losing Red put his gang at a significant disadvantage. He also knew it meant no more peace with Jade’s gang-

No more peace with Jade’s gang.

The realization hit her like a sword to the gut. Shen had chosen Red because he wanted to throw Jade off, to hurt her, to take her out of the competition. It was to hurt her. She growled, pushing away from Hadie, who’d been supporting her as they walked back to the hideout. The team should rest, get some sleep, before the next trial, tomorrow, but Jade wanted blood and she knew Shen would be vulnerable tonight.

“Jade, what are you-”

“Shen killed Red because of me,” she said, voice turning cold and sharp. She was already planning how to hurt him best. Taking out his entire gang was a possibility, but that would not be enough suffering for him.

“You don’t know that,” Hadie tried to reason. “Red might have sacrificed herself.”

“She would never. None of us would. That’s not how the Isle works,” Jade frowned at him. “He wants me off my game tomorrow, because one less competitor means he might come back a winner.”

“Jade-”

“I’m the best one out there and I have the only real shot of winning every day,” Jade said. It wasn’t modesty if it was true, and even if it wasn’t true…well, weren’t villains prone to lying and pride? “Everyone knows that.”

“He wouldn’t cripple his gang just to-”

“Are you sure about that?” Jade challenged. “There are no rules in the Isle right now. Everything we usually do or don’t do? None of that matters now. This is the reaping, Hadie. I know it’s your first one but when these happen, there’s no limit to what you do to survive. Shen is playing a long game.”

“What do you mean?”

“Sacrificing a queen to protect his king,” Jade whispered. “And he’s going to pay for it.”

“Are you kidding? It’s one thing to think he did something to Red to hurt you but you’re injured, Jade- you need to rest! You compete again tomorrow! You need to be in top shape!”

“I’m fine, Hadie. And I’ll be fine, tomorrow. This isn’t anything a bandage won’t fix and I won’t be able to sleep tonight, anyway. May as well get some practice in.”

“That’s absolutely not how that works.”

“Are you going to keep arguing with me or are you coming with me?”

“Fine. I’m coming,” Hadie knitted his eyebrows together. “But we’re taking Ginny. She’s good with this kind of mission.”

“It’s not a mission,” Jade shrugged. “It’s just revenge.”

“All revenge is a mission. I’ll go get her.”

Jade waited patiently underneath the hideout entrance until Hadie came bounding back down the stairs with Ginny at his heels. He handed her the knives he’d picked up in the hideout.

“Already debriefed her. We’re ready to go.”

Jade smiled tightly. As much as Hadie protested this plan, he seemed enthusiastic about it, now; because once you were forced to become a villain, it was hard to go back. They’d been thrown to the wolves as children, and they’d adapted- and when the time came, they threw themselves to the wolves of their own accord because it was all that they knew.

Chapter Text

If the Isle had been equipped with internet, or books, or any myriad of activities, perhaps its children would not have become villains so quickly. There was no way to know now, but Jade suspected that the impossibility of getting information outside of what you were taught by your parents was a major factor. If you weren’t able to read about heroes defeating evil, why would you even try to do it?

The blood on her dagger was red. So, so red. A sparkling crimson that dripped onto her shoe. She grimaced, cleaning it against her jacket. It wasn’t the first blood she had spilled, it wouldn’t be the last, but it always left her feeling hollow after the act was done. Jafar had tried to train her out of it, the sick feeling that crawled around her every time she watched eyes close before her for the last time. Perhaps he had succeeded, for the first time, because Jade felt nothing when she stepped over the corpse.

This was revenge. This was a mission. This was something Red deserved- to have her death avenged. Ginny slid down the building and landed beside her silently. Her sword was already back in its sheath, but Jade knew it, too, had dealt with many throats.

The whole affair had been deceptively simple, she thought, as they slipped off. Hadie joined them as they crossed the bridge. They were sleeping so securely; they hadn’t even left a guard out. A fatal mistake when your hideout wasn’t well-hidden, and sometimes, even if it was. They should have known Jade would come for them that night. Had they simply not cared?

“They were like sitting ducks,” Ginny said once they were back in their own hideout. Hadie finished out celebratory drinks from the broken fridge.

“I guess they thought that with the reaping going on, the rest of us would back off gang violence,” he shrugged. Jade sipped her can thoughtfully.

“That’s a pretty dumb mistake to make,” she shrugged. “They deserve what they got, anyhow.”

“To Red,” Ginny lifted her cup.

“To Red,” the other two echoed. In silence, they finished their drinks. There was nothing to talk about; the violence may be what they were accustomed to, where they felt home, but that hardly made it a suitable topic of conversation.

Jade disappeared first, ostentibly to go to sleep before the next task. Instead, she slipped onto the roof and sat down, staring at Auradon across the waves. If anything, the reaping had made her angrier with Jay. Where was he when she needed him? He’d promised he would come back for her. If he ever did, Jade knew he’d find a very different person than the one he’d left behind. The reaping was designed to hollow you out, to take any parts of you that remained even remotely good and twist them and burn them until they were gone. All that would be left were villains, the worst parts of them.

“You should’ve come when you had a chance,” she whispered. The wind whipped her hair around but she made no move to tie it back. “I hope you don’t come now.”

Despite everything, she didn’t want Jay to see her the way she was now: the bloodlust and the anger in her eyes, the desire to burn the whole Isle to the ground, but more importantly to watch Jafar burn in front of her. Jay had done everything he could to shelter her, to teach her what was right. It might break him to see who she was now.
Jade couldn’t wish that on him, no matter how cruel she was. It was a game she could play on the Isle – and she was good at it, too, she excelled at killing and hurting– but when it came to Jay, it wasn’t a game she wanted to play. He was her brother.

“Honestly, if you’ve forgotten about me, it’s probably for the best,” she thought. “For both of us. You can be happy, and I’ll die eventually.”

Once, Jade had wanted to be a knight. Now, she thought, she’d be content as a footnote in the Isle’s history, dead before she caused too much damage. If the reaping wouldn’t kill her people, Jade knew she would have let herself fall from that cliff. She would have angled it so she didn’t survive.

An easy way out, for the coward she was. Who didn’t fight hard to be good, or to hold onto morals. Too easily broken into the villain Jafar wanted.

Chapter Text

“What are you doing?” Carlos asked, twisting in his bed to watch Jay open the door of their room. “It’s almost midnight. There’s nothing going on outside this room. Curfew was hours ago.”

“I know,” Jay frowned. “I just need a walk.”

“The room’s not big enough for that?” Carlos raised an eyebrow, trying to keep his eyes from closing.

“Go to sleep. I’ll be back soon. It’s not like it’s dangerous outside.” It really wasn’t. Auradon was almost boring in its safety. There was never so much as a food fight, and for all the calm, it grated on Jay’s nerves. He’d spent so long being a protector against bad things. He used to run into those fights and handle those violent, gory outcomes with practiced ease. It wasn’t that he wanted to return to those days, when he could barely sleep at night, too busy worrying about what might happen to Evie and the others.

“Fine. Don’t wake me up, though,” Carlos mumbled, giving into the sleep. He was exhausted from tourney practice, which despite getting easier, never got less tiring.

Jay closed the door behind him softly and padded down the hallway and stairs to the main entrance of the dorm halls. Once outside, he looked around, assessing his options. The walkway was too exposed– anyone might see him and report him from breaking curfew– and it wasn’t particularly pleasant. Just a bunch of gravel and neatly trimmed bushes. He turned away from it. The poles running up the side of the building caught his eye in their stead. His gaze followed them up to the roof. Jay cocked his head, assessing them and then looking at the night sky. Cloudless– and full of stars. He swung himself up onto the tiles and leaned back against them, wiggling around until he found a comfortable enough spot.

They were bright tonight, shining down on all of Auradon, and beyond. He pointed out Cassandra to himself. It was the only constellation in the sky that he knew, whose story he was intimately familiar with…

Jay sat up suddenly.

He hadn’t forgotten about Jade, per se. There were just so many other things happening: classes, tourney, a social life, adapting to Auradon, meeting the royals of Agrabah and deciding that they were somehow more of a jerk-filled family than Chad, and keeping the rotten four safe. It was understandable that thoughts of her hadn’t been his priority. But Cassandra was her constellation: that’s how he knew it. Somehow, when she was younger, she found a book on astronomy and out of all the stories and pictures, it was Cassandra she had fallen in love with, studied intensely.

The memory of a little girl crashing into him as soon as he came back from the market flooded his mind. She was half his height back then, but managed to send him flying onto his back.

“Jay! Jay!”

“What’s up, kiddo?” He asked, pushing himself back into a sitting position. “I’ve been gone for an hour, I can’t have missed much.”

And she told him the story of Cassandra for the first time. That night, he took her up to the roof, one so similar to where he was laying now, except it was decaying and rotten and probably not solid enough for stargazing, and they found it together.

“Jade,” he whispered, eyes darting around the horizon until they found the black mass that defined the Isle. Was she okay? Was she alive ? Who knew what happened to the children of the Isle after they declared their allegiance to good on international television; a shiver ran down Jay’s spine. Whatever the punishment had been, it wouldn’t have been good.

A single red firework shot off from somewhere on the Isle. It exploded in a brilliant blast of sparkles, followed by a deafening crackle. Jay’s heart constricted. The firework was only used for one event, because they were so hard to come by on the Isle, and Jade was in trouble.

If she was still alive at all.

Chapter Text

Mal had been sleeping. Scratch that, she’d been trying to sleep. The interruption wasn’t welcome, regardless of the state of her resting.

“What the hell, Jay?” She hissed when she saw his figure in the doorway. Her anger dissipated as fast as it arrived when she finally took in his appearance. It wasn’t common for Jay to be frazzled. He was the definition of a calm bastard that never had any nerves– they’d all been shot by his years of more and mroe dangerous parkour games on the Isle.

“Look outside,” he whispered hoarsely.

“What’s going on?” Evie mumbled, rubbing her eyes. She had been asleep and the interruption was even less welcome in her opinion.

“Look outside,” he repeated.

“Jay-” Mal started.

“Fucking hell, Mal. Look outside!”

She had never seen him this worked up, at least not that she could remember, and certainly not in Auradon. She clambered out of her bed at the same time as Evie and they opened the window curtains. Jay moved forward, now standing behind them at the window.

It was dark. Completely dark. The cities of Auradon were on the other side of the school. It was only forests and uncultured lands that stretched before them. Even the Isle wasn’t visible from this low on the ground.

“What are we looking for?” Mal asked. As soon as she did, the darkness vanished in an explosion of red and gold fireworks.

They were all silent. Evie was the first one to hazard a comment with a shaky voice. “That’s just- Auradon’s celebrating something, right? A birthday party or a-”

“No,” Mal said.

“I saw it from the roof,” Jay whispered. They didn’t bother asking what he’d been doing on the roof at that hour of the night. They’d all escaped there before, when the silence of the dorms was too stifling and the doors and hallways and roommates made them jumpy. “It’s coming from the Isle.”

“But-” Evie shook her head. “It can’t be- it happened last year. It’s not supposed to happen for-”

“We declared our allegiance to Auradon on national television,” Mal pointed out bitterly. “We were stupid. Of course they took it out on the other kids since they can’t reach us.”

“Dizzy,” Evie whispered. “She doesn’t-”

Mal looked back at Jay and his clenched jaw. The fists at his side. The way his eyes were almost red like the fireworks. If there was any genie blood in the boy, it was in those eyes that shifted colours. She’d never seen him use powers but she doubted he’d ever tried. Maybe now, he would.

“Jade,” she whispered. Evie looked over at the two of them in a brusque moment.

“We left her in charge! She’s-”

“The red and gold,” Jay said. “She’s alive for now. Took me a moment to figure out those were her colours. We usually had the purple and green fireworks for when Mal won.”

“Red and gold- those are your colours, Jay. She’s doing this under Jafar’s name, not her mom’s.”

The three of them looked even more concerned, if that was even possible.

“That’s either the dumbest or smartest thing Jade’s ever done.” Very few people knew who Jade’s mother was– it wasn’t news that made its way out of the tight lips of the Rotten Four. It wasn’t dangerous information but most kids on the Isle only knew about one of their parents. Having two, knowing who those two were, put a target on your back. Jade had been publicly claimed by Jafar as his niece and she’d stuck to the claim, playing the role of Jay’s younger cousin instead of taking up the mantle of either of her parents. It put her in his shadow but it was still a gamble.

His reputation with the other gangs might play into her favour. They wouldn’t be as quick to cross her if they knew she was Jay’s cousin. Then again, he’d betrayed all of them. The target on her back might be larger. On the other hand, playing under her mother’s name would protect her more but there was a reason Jade had never lived with her. She wouldn’t take kindly to her daughter using the name.

“I don’t want to find out,” Jay mumbled. “Mal-”

They stared at each other. Auradon was safe for them. The Isle would not be. But they’d promised to go back for her and the timeline had just been drastically shortened. She was good; they’d trained her themselves, to make sure she’d always be able to survive the Isle, but the reaping was ruthless. And it wasn’t likely that the almighty powers that be named Maleficent would let the protegee of the traitors win the games.

“Wake up Carlos,” Mal said. “I’m going to talk to Ben. Meet in your room. We’ll see what he says about getting Jade off now. If not…”

“I’m going back, with or without everyone else,” Jay said.

“We’re all going, idiot,” Evie told him. “We stick together, especially if we’re going back there.”

“You might not be able to come back,” Jay said. “I don’t know how Auradon would feel about us taking a joy-ride back to the Isle to help Jade.”

“We’ll survive,” Mal said. “We always have. And it’ll be easier to get Jade through the reaping and to safety if there’s four of us. Doesn’t matter how good you are, Jay. Four is still better than one.”

“Fine. But I’m leaving tonight so get your boyfriend up.”

Mal pulled a jacket over her tshirt and ran through the hallways to Bem’s rooms. It was way past curfew but that was the least of her worries. Jay was loyal to Mal and the crew. He was even more loyal towards Jade. He wasn’t lying when he said he would leave whether or not the rest of the VKs did. It didn’t matter if he didn’t have an escape plan or any strategy; he’d go in, guns blazing. Probably usurp Jade’s position as gang leader and finish the reaping himself. He’d win, as long as Maleficent didn’t sabotage him. Or he’d die protecting his cousin.

Jay was very black and white in his understanding of the world. And, Mal thought, in a situation like this, there wasn’t that much grey to contend with.

Chapter Text

Ben was sleeping for the first time in three days, after running himself ragged trying to catch up on the mountains of paperwork his father never bothered getting around to. For someone he has loved and admired all his life, Ben wass starting to think that King Beast was not a good King. He jerks=ed awake when someone pounded at his door.

“Wake up! Ben, wake up!” It was Mal, he registered sleepily and then he was more awake than he had been in a long time. It was Mal and she sounded like she was in trouble.

He crashed out of his bed and opened the door in one smooth, terrified movement. She fell into his room.

“What is it?”

“How fast can you get someone off the Isle?” The look in her eye gave him pause. Mal had never been like the princesses of Auradon: she was wild and untamed and dangerous and he loved her for it. But this wass the first time that Ben saw the fire in her eyes and understood just how far she would go to protect those she loved.

He realized, with a start, that included him now. “It depends,” he said quietly, wishing he had a better answer to give her. “Technically, I need a council vote to bring anyone else off the Isle but if you have reason to suspect-”

The rest of his words hung in the air, understood but not spoken. Ben had never brought it up with Mal or any of the other VKs but he knew from the way they walked, from their blatant disregard for punishment. Fairy Godmother had not brought it up, either, but Ben was sure that she knew, as well.

“If I think she’ll die if we don’t get her out tonight-” Mal said slowly.

“I could bring her over and we can deal with the consequences later.”

“Please,” she whispered. Ben knew that he would never have been able to say no to her request.

“Who is it?”

“Jay’s cousin. Jade.” Mal struggled over the words and he blinked.

“I didn’t know Jay had any relatives.”

“Closely guarded secret. We didn’t want anyone to target her because of us.”

“You think she’s in danger?”

“When we left, she took over our side of the Isle,” Mal explained. She’d taught him the basics of the Isle hierarchy. How gangs formed between villain children, based on their parents and based on their own talents; how they included leaders and protectors and the protected; how divisions of land and power depended on how intimidating you and your parent were. He knew that Mal had controlled a large portion of the Isle. That Jay’s cousin took it over successfully was remarkable. Ben wondered what the cost had been.

“Which means she publicly declared herself as one of Jafar’s,” Mal finished and Ben knew that was the cost. It was probably too high of one to make the land and power worth it.

“And since Jay aligned himself with us,” he began. Mal nodded as he continued. “The target on her back went from big to large.”

“There’s an Isle tradition. It’s called the reaping.”

“Doesn’t sound at all ominous.”

“This isn’t something we joke about,” Mal snarled. “It’s a competition meant to kill off gangs.”

“What do you mean?”

“Gangs are formalized. Every leader– it used to be me but now it’s Jade– announces who is under their protection, who’s in their gang. Then, there’s a series of fucking impossible tasks that the leaders go through like it’s a kind of game for our parents and if they fail, they die or one of their protectees dies. It thins out the ranks. Keeps us under their thumb. From getting too powerful.”

“That’s…barbaric.”

“And there’s one going on right now,” Mal hissed. Her anger made her eyes flash green but Ben did not step back. He was not scared of her like this but he was horrified at what she was saying.

“Jade’s leading.”

“Jade is someone that my mother wants to get rid of right now. No matter how good she is in the trials, she will not survive.”

“Do the others-”

“They’re waiting for your permission to go.” The threat hung in the air between them. There was much they never said out loud. It’s understood, nevertheless. They will go, whether or not King Ben sanctioned the trip.

“Meet me out front in five minutes,” he decided. He watched his father neglect the Isle and its children. He watched as four teenagers chose good because they were given a chance to. Ben did not intend to let another child die, not if he could help it.

“Where are you going?”

“To get us a car. And a driver.”

Ben couldn’t take his usual driver so he snaked through the hallways of the dorms until he arrived at number 32. He hesitated for a moment, unsure of how the boy would react to this request, and then he knocked. Aziz was the closest friend Ben had in the political minefield of Auradon and Ben knew that Aziz did not mind the VKs. If anything, he might consider it an exciting adventure to visit the Isle and rescue Jay’s cousin from impending doom.

+
And there's blood everywhere. It covers the couch and it pools on the floor. She wonders briefly how there’s so much of it when she’s still conscious and then she grunts because thinking while bleeding out hurts too much.

Chapter Text

hi everyone,

this isn't actually an update- this is me officially closing the story! I'm now busy with publishing deadlines for my own series :) and can't balance fanfiction on the side.
if you want to keep reading my work, though, my debut just released: Olympia by Eva Grace.