Chapter Text
“I have family on that Isle and yet you continue to dismiss my requests Beast”
Hercules’ harsh tone echoed in the enormous and lavish meeting room King Adam owned, members of the royal council winced at the sheer authority in the demigod’s voice. If Megara was feeling up to it, she would have made a joke about his thundering voice but now was not the time and quite frankly she was exhausted.
With every passing annual council meeting the routine was the same, Hercules and the other decent royals of the land would bring up their concerns about the children of the isle and the Beast and his cohort would ultimately ignore them and the meeting would further sour relations between kingdoms.
Meg knew her husband was borderline ready to call on the Gods of Olympus himself and get them involved and if she was being honest, so was she.
She’d been opposed to the idea of the isle from the start, bringing back villains from the dead just to punish them further was an act worthy of a God and yet the mortal and arrogant King Beast felt he had the same power to do so. Hades only compiled because he was told it would be for closure and to discover secret victims of the villains before he laid them back to rest. Unfortunately the moment he resurrected them, Hades was trapped on the island by a magical barrier. Megara knew that wasn't the whole story and there was definitely something more to it, as Hades would never just follow a command like that from Zeus let alone a mortal King.
Focusing on this meeting however, the registry had been set up with a promise that if children were born onto the isle that the Royal Council would be notified and meetings like this would be held to decide what they should do about said kids. Meg thought it would be common sense among all of them to get the children off of the isle and away from the villains and criminals who inhabited it.
Apparently it wasn't.
These Auradon royals couldn't get their heads further up their own asses if they tried to.
“Hercules, the registry shows the children you speak of are alive and therefore we can assume that they are well so why feel the need to open the barrier and risk the chance of a villain escaping?” Beast argued back.
Aladdin scoffed and Jasmine looked ready to burst with fury, she always had a temper which was something Megara loved about her friend.
“You can’t just assume that the children are well over there, that the villains are going to raise them well” Tiana argued back, Naveens jaw was set and he looked to be refraining from just storming out of the room.
Some royals actually did care about the welfare of the isle and the children but unfortunately due to Auradon laws the less prestigious their royal bloodline was, the less their vote mattered.
Typically, the meetings were split in half with Hercules, Meg and their allies and Beast with his.
Ariel and Eric were desperately campaigning for not only Ursula’s child to be released from the isle but also Ursula, saying that the conditions in which she was being held would drive any creature from the sea mad, not having access to the sea and her powers was basically trapping an earthquake under the sea witches skin, the same goes for her kid.
Ursula’s child was also a descendant of Poseidon, therefore related to Hercules and the hero was also campaigning to get them released.
As well as, Hades child and Hades.
“Please, the Villains are probably pampering and raising their spawn to be their heirs and conquer others like the evil children they are” Queen Leah shot back.
“Queen Leah is right, if we have no evidence that the villains spawn are in danger or being abused then who are we to rip them away from their homes?” Adam argued, his tone overbearing and cocky as ever.
“You sit here as a forced King and all you can do is justify convicting children of crimes they didn’t even commit!” Elsa argued back, Anna placing a hand upon her shoulder in support of her sister.
“We don’t know if they haven't been committing crimes since they were born, they could be thugs, murderers or thieves by now!” Adam shouted back, his face getting redder as the council meeting became more divided and heated.
“Most of the kids on that isle are barely teenagers-” Elsa shouted back
“Doesn't make a difference” Beast interrupted.
“Well if we’re judging children by their parents beast, is it fair to expect that Ben will grow fangs and fur alongside an attitude worthy of a curse” Hercules seethed.
Damn
The room fell silent at Hercules’ words, only Adams' heavy breathing being audible as he stared down the demi-god.
“The spawn of those demons will never reach Auradon soil, that is a promise Hercules”
With that the King stormed out, Belle following him and the royals began to leave.
“I suppose we’ll see you all at the next one” Jasmine announced quickly and rushed out the room with Aladdin.
That was code for ‘we need a meeting with our allies immediately’ and it was being used more and more with how Beast’s stance on the kids was not budging.
‘Guess we better head to Agrabah and get a game plan together’ Hercules thought
“A low blow Hercules, consider yourself lucky you even have this position at all with your lack of status, some of us have royal blood that goes back hundreds of years -”
“Give it a rest mother, i’ll see you both at the next one” Aurora cut leah off leading her to the exit and sending a wink to the demigod and her best friend before leaving.
As the room got more and more empty, it was only Hercules, Megara, Ariel and Eric left.
“Ξαδέρφη, χρειαζόμαστε την οικογένειά μας και όλα τα άλλα παιδιά από αυτό το απεχθές νησί” Ariel spoke to Hercules, the two had grown closer since they were both appointed to the royal court despite not having a clue about on land royal etiquette.
(Cousin, we need our family and all other children off that despicable island)
“Ξέρω, θα τους ελευθερώσουμε, αλλά δεν θα είναι εύκολο και θα χρειαστεί να ενωθούμε. Όλοι μας, ειδικά η οικογένεια.” Was the demi-god’s response.
(I know, we will free them but it will not be easy and we'll need to band together. All of us, especially family)
All descendants of Olympians needed to present a united front to fight for their family and so did the rest of the heroes and royals who wanted to free the children.
Ariel smiled gently at Hercules and Megara before turning to Eric and nodding slightly, then turning back to her cousin she spoke again.
“Έχετε την πλήρη υποστήριξη του βασιλιά μας, αλλά και του πατέρα μου και της Atlantica, που σημαίνει ότι η δύναμη της θάλασσας είναι με το μέρος μας.”
(You have the full support of our kingdom, but also of my father and Atlantica meaning the power of the sea is on our side.)
Meg understood the significance of that, having Triton and a whole kingdom of mermaids and mermen behind them was huge . There was a reason Beast had been borderline pestering Ariel to send her kids to Auradon Prep and for Triton to attend these meetings, they were extremely powerful.
“See you both at the next one” Hercules said, sending a look of appreciation to the royals in front of them.
Once the demigod and his wife had left Beast’s residence and were in their own vehicle they looked at each other with a serious expression. They knew what had just started in that meeting hall and the severity of what they were about to commit to.
It was time to organise the rebellion against King Beast.
*****
The heat of Agrabah was sweltering but it was the furthest kingdom from Auradon that they could travel to without being spied on by neighbouring kingdoms (considering Olympus wasn’t an option this was the best they could do)
So here they were, the ‘rebels’, all gathered in the meeting room of Jasmine and Aladdin’s royal palace discussing plans.
Tiana and Naveen sat near the Madrigal Triplets and their matriarch Abuela on a table in the back corner discussing quietly over trivial matters, waiting for the real conversation to get going.
Queen Merida had surprised everyone by showing up, she had been refusing to go near Auradon since it had been set up and had said the wisps had led her here and that she wanted to be a part of the cause.
There were many many heroes and royals gathered here for the same reasons.
Esmerelda and Phoebus were here, as well as Rapunzel and Flynn, Mulan and Shang, Emperor Kuzco and many more.
Hercules watched as Jasmine stood and cleared her throat, gaining the attention of all members.
“Friends, we are here today because we cannot allow the suffrage of children on the Isle of the Lost to continue” She addressed them, eyeing them all carefully before continuing “We are here because we were forced and some tricked into bowing down to Beast in electing himself King over all and creating Auradon, a land of hypocrisy and lies”
Hercules stepped forward to join her at this part, continuing on for the Sultana.
“We must work together to overcome Beasts’ frankly Tyrannical rule and we have to understand that this will not be a quick or easy mission. I suspect it will take even years to truly overthrow Auradon and Beast but we can do it as a united front”
“For the children of the Isle, and for the so-called Villains who don’t deserve to be there in the first place” Meg added.
“If you can’t commit to this cause then please leave now” Jasmine stated.
There was a tension in the air, but nobody looked like they were at all considering leaving and after a minute or two hercules decided to speak up again confident no one would be leaving the room anytime soon.
“We managed to obtain a copy of the registry. I want to call out the names of some children I think we should attempt to contact. If we can involve them and get accounts of life on the ise then that gives us insider intel and something to use in the media when we take down Beast”
Meg stepped beside her husband now, book in hand and opened it flicking to the book marked pages.
“Uma daughter of Ursula and Dr Facilier, aged 11, last recorded address on the docks towards the west side of the isle. From the very limited intel she appears to be in control of a ‘gang’ and ship which we can infer means she has influence in the docks”
“Mal daughter of Maleficent and father unknown, aged 11 seems to have the most influence in the market stalls and something coined ‘The Bargain Castle’ which lies in the centre of the isle but is ultimately run by her mother Maleficent”
“Mal’s ‘gang’ seems to largely consist of Evelyn (the Evil Queen’s daughter), Carlos De Vil and Jay Jafar”
“Whereas Uma has a much larger gang already, resembling that of a pirate ship so I think it is in our best interest if we contact Uma and start to build some sort of trust between us and her so that when the time comes..”
“We have an ally on the Isle who we can make aware of our plans” Ariel finished, smiling at her cousin's brilliance.
At this hands flew into the air, questions and excitement buzzing around the room. Hercules released at that moment, as did many of the others, how dedicated people were and how many allies they really held in this movement.
“How large is her gang?”
“Who else is in it?”
“How can we expect to make contact?”
Hercules sighed, not in exasperation, but in content. They had a strong backing of royals and heroes alike that were all dedicated to this cause. If they could gain the trust of his cousin now and build upon that then Beast would have no idea what’s coming.
But first, a visit to Persephone was needed.
“Here is the plan, it’s been in the works for a while now but i’m confident it will be the beginning of the end for Beast”
A storm was most definitely brewing.