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"What did you do to Ben and Carlos?" Jay asked angrily. He was almost shouting.
"Oh your little king? We nicked him!" Harry said in a mocking voice. "And if you want to see him again, have Mal come to the chip shop tonight." He grinned as his eyes swept over the seething faces in front of him.
"What do you want?" asked Jay as Evie said at the same time: "And what about Carlos?"
"Awww" The pirate put on a fake pout. "Did you lose him?" And without waiting for a reply he swirled around and sauntered off. He had a boyfriend to greet after all.
While Hook's son picked up the pace to get back to the ship, Evie and Jay quickly ran up the stairs to the hideout. "I told you I want to be alone!", was the harsh greeting thrown their way, but Mal's hostile attitude quickly faded as she took in her friends' faces. "What-" But she was cut off by Evie. "Uma has Ben and Carlos!" A rare expression shimmered in Mal's eyes, fear.
"Well technically we don't know what happened to Carlos, but where else would he be?" Evie continued and Jay explained further: "Both of them vanished while we were talking to you and right after Harry Hook showed up" His jaw was clenched in anger. "He said if we want Ben back, you'll have to talk to Uma tonight. Alone."
The fear in their leader's face morphed into determination. "Okay." She grabbed her jacket. "You two wait here while i go down to the docks."
"You can't just walk in there completely unprotected!!" Jay protested immediately, but Mal didn't budge. "She said to come alone, I can't afford to defy her right now." None of them were pleased by this, but they knew she was right.
"Maybe Jay and I can go look for Carlos then." Evie suggested. "No." Came the quick response from Maleficent's daughter. "We need to lay low, the less people notice we're back the better. People might attack us or worse, tell our parents."
"But Carlos-" Evie tried again, but to no avail. "Carlos can look out for himself, he grew up here. I will go talk to Uma first and see what she wants. Afterwards we will make plans accordingly." And with that the discussion was over.
"Please remember to ask her about Carlos!" Evie said as the purple haired girl left the room.
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It didn't take long for Mal to come back to their hideout. Her two friends jumped up immediately.
"What did she say?" Evie asked, her eyes looking past the purple haired girl, checking if any of the two missing boys were returning with her.
"She wants the wand in exchange of Ben." Mal threw her jacket onto the sofa.
"Fairy Godmother's?" Jay asked and she nodded in response.
"What about Carlos?" Evie inquired.
In all honesty Mal had almost forgotten to ask about the younger boy. She had been too caught up in worrying about Ben and his wellbeing. After she had lost the armwrestling match, one of the patron's black, white and red outfit had reminded her and so she had said: "If i bring you the wand you'll hand over Ben and Carlos." To which Uma had replied with a smug smirk on her face: "If you can bring me the wand by noon you can have your little boyfriend back." After that the pirate had stalked away without further comment.
"I tried to ask about him but she completely glossed over it. I'm not sure if she has him but if she does we will hopefully be able to take him back tomorrow together with Ben. For now we need to come up with a plan to get Ben safely out of there."
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The next day Carlos was leaning against the railing of the ship, wind ruffling through his hair, looking across the sea towards Auradon. He was standing at the opposite end of the ship as king Ben. After the first shock had worn off, it hadn't taken too long for the royal to realise Carlos was on the opposing team. In typical Ben fashion he had first assumed the best in Carlos and thought he had been coerced into this scheme. But after the DeVil son assured him again and again that he had already been part of the crew long before he had left for Auradon the king changed course and instead tried to get Carlos to betray his crew.
His crew who had been so much more of a family to him than his actual relatives. He scoffed. He would never betray them just as they have never betrayed him. No matter how many times the king repeated that there was a different way, Carlos knew better. There was no true kindness in the world and empty promises wouldn't sway him. He had heard too many of them. "If you do my homework for me I'll invite you to the party."; "You can trust Mal, we're all friends here"; "I will bring more villain kids over."
"What got you frowning like that, Pup?" An arm wrapped around his waist and he felt a kiss being placed on top of his head. Carlos smiled as he leaned into the touch. "Nothing important." He waved off.
Harry let go of him and leaned against the railing, mirroring Carlos' position. For a moment they looked at the peaceful buildings of Auradon in silence.
"What is it like out there?" The older asked not taking his eyes off of the far away shore.
"Better than I though but also worse than I thought" Carlos had complicated emotions thinking about his time on the other side of the water.
"Tell me about it" Harry turned his head, his attention on his boyfriend alone. The latter smiled at the undivided attention and started talking. He described the comfortable beds and delicious food, what it was like to wake up to sunshine everyday and how bright everyone's clothes were. And he spoke about how fake many of them were, how they felt like they were better than the VKs as if they hadn't imprisoned thousands of people, forcing them to eat scraps. He talked about all the awesome tech he had access to and proudly showed off for not being scared of dogs anymore. He talked about all the friends and partners the other three VKs had found and finally how much he had missed the crew and Harry.
Harry pulled the shorter boy into a hug. "I'm glad you're back in my arms again." The other hugged him back. "So am I."
"When we took the barrier down let's go travel the world! We can take a ship and whoever of the crew wants to come along and we can get you different machines and devices from all over the globe. We'll do whatever we want whenever we want and wherever we want! No one will ever tell you what to do again." Carlos hugged him even tighter, understanding that the older was referring to Cruellas mistreatment as well as Mal's demanding personality. "I'd like that very much."
Carlos had always believed the people in Auradon were free, but after living there he realised that they all had rules and hierarchies to follow as well. Maybe freedom wasn't something you could just find somewhere but something you had to take for yourself. And maybe him and Harry would be able to taste freedom soon.
The two of them were interrupted by yelling coming from above. "They're here!"
Carlos stepped back. "I'd better go." They had decided it was best for Carlos to stay hidden below deck at least in the beginning. The other VKs hadn't gotten confirmation whether or not Uma's crew actually had taken him and the blue haired captain wanted to keep it that way, the less they knew the more it felt like Uma was in charge of the situation. The big reveal of his betrayal was meant to shake the others up enough to weaken their alliances for a while.
Hidden by the other crew members who were all rushing to get into position Carlos quickly made his way to the door and slipped inside. As everything on the isle the ship's interior was made haphazardly and therefor not very soundproof. Sometimes that could be really annoying but right now it was perfect. Carlos put his ear close to the biggest gap and waited for the showdown to start.
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It comes to no surprise that he had been listening to Uma and Mal quarrel for the past 15 minutes and the daughter of Maleficent had yet to even mention him. But as much as he likes to pretend that he doesn't care, he can feel the sting of her caring so much more about someone she had met just a few months ago.
Uma seems to have thought something similar as she is the one to finally bring him up. "I'm surprised that Auradon's beloved future queen doesn't even seem to care about one of her 'closest friends'" Her words are dripping in sarcasm and Carlos can picture the face she must be making. "What would the people say if they saw you right now? Trading in everyone's safety just to save your boo… Not even blinking at the fact that your friend went missing on an island filled with villains... What a great leader you are!" She laughed mockingly, the other pirates joining in.
"I take it you do have him then?" Mal replied coldly. Uma just laughed louder. "Aww", the pirate said in fake sympathy. "Is poor Malie suddenly concerned for her lackey?"
"Why do you offer Ben up for trade but not Carlos? The king is a lot more valuable." Again Carlos had to ignore the sting of her words. Of course a king was objectively speaking more valuable than him, but hearing it said so plainly from a person who once promised him friendship hurt nonetheless.
"I don't think you would be able to understand it if i spelled it out for you. There are things you will never understand." Before Uma could continue however, a third voice spoke up.
"What did you do to him?" He recognised Evie's voice. She had always been the closest thing to a friend he had outside the crew, but her loyalty to Mal was so much stronger than her sympathy towards him. Evie just seemed to have a soft spot for suffering children.
"I don't know what you're talking about", Uma responded. "I haven't done anything to Carlos."
"I on the other hand have done quite a few things to him!" Carlos perked up at the voice of his boyfriend. "I doubt you'd want to hear about that though.."
"What did you do??" Evie's voice had gotten significantly louder. She sounded as angry as a soft spoken girl as her could sound. The three VKs had obviously not caught on yet.
"Well if you insist! You see I was quite happy to see him again, we hadn't seen each other in so long." Harry's dramatic intonation almost made the hidden boy snort. "So I took him to my cabin and pressed him against the closed door-" Carlos opens the door leading out to the deck. "Okay, I think that's quite enough!" He rolled with his eyes, a fond smile tugging on the ends of his lips. "We only kissed"
Carlos came to a halt next to Harry, who promptly slung his arm around his shoulders. But he barely paid attention to the other pirate as he took in the reaction of the other VKs. When he had first appeared on deck he had noticed relief in the faces of both Jay and Evie, Mal's face carefully blank. Now though all three of them looked at him in confusion. Actually, make that four. He hadn't noticed Lonnie was here as well. Had the others always been this close to her? Close enough to bring her along on a rescue mission? Was she his replacement?
But before he could think about it any more his attention was drawn back to Mal. Her face had morphed from confused to angry. "What are you doing?", she asked, her teeth audibly clenched together. Maleficent's daughter took a step forward, but stopped as several pirates lifted up their swords in a silent threat.
"Carlos?" His eyes swept over to the blue haired princess. Evie's voice sounded almost pleading, as if she was asking him to prove her suspicions wrong.
"Hello" He said with a fake smile. Jay and Mal were staring at him with so much fury, if looks could kill he would've exploded right then and there. Evie, as expected, wasn't quite as hot headed. "Carlos, what is going on?", she inquired, not willing to give up hope just yet. But before he was able to come up with a response, he was interrupted by Jay. "You chose them over us??" He was shouting.
Carlos took a step forward, Harry's arm slipping from his shoulders, and looked at the core 3. "Yes." He said calmly. "Easily." Uma and the crew cackled. "Oh, don't look so shocked.", Carlos continued. "Did you really think I'd stay your little lackey forever?"
"Carlos, we're your friends-" He scoffed at the blue haired girl's words. "Friends? Do you think I'm stupid? You only kept me around because I'm good with tech. You never included me in anything, you never listen to me, you never ask for my opinion, you never cared about how I was being treated at home, never tried to help me, you abandoned me time and time again, even now!" He was breathing heavily, his eyes stung. "Even now you care more about saving Ben who you barely know than you care about saving your 'friend' of many years! You were only ever nice to me when you needed something! But I was never enough, was I? Never enough to be a part of the group. Never cruel enough for Mal. Never strong and manly enough for Jay. Never outgoing enough for Evie. I was bending over backwards to fit in, but no matter what, you still huddled together to make important plans and went on your adventures without inviting me!"
He turned around abruptly to hide his watery eyes and took a deep breath to steady himself. His gaze met Harry's and feeling calmer he walked back to him. The older immediately slung his arm around him again and tugged him tightly to his side. It felt weird to finally speak his mind like this, bare his emotions to the whole crew and his old "friends".
Mal seemed to have recovered rather quickly from the shock of the betrayal. Her expression was blank again as she took in the scene in front of her. "How did you get him to join you when he wasn't even on the Isle? How were you able to communicate with him?"
Uma grinned. "We didn't." Mal raised one of her eyebrows, waiting for her to continue. "We didn't have to." The pirate captain positioned herself next to Carlos and Harry, Gil on her other side. They looked like a united front. "He was already one of us before you left."
Mal's mask slipped. the shock and surprise was evident when she asked for how long. Uma was clearly enjoying seeing the other girl like this. "About two years."
“Two years??” Evie looked heartbroken and Carlos avoided her gaze. Mal on the other hand seemed more interested in Uma’s strategies than in Carlos’ emotions towards her. “How did you convince him to join you?”, she asked again.
“You weren’t the only one who noticed Carlos’ talent.” Uma smirked smugly. “Not many people of the Isle are good with technology. But unlike you, I wanted more than just a servant. Our crew is family.” The young De Vil felt his boyfriend nod in agreement.
“And so I decided to test him first. I hired him to fix a broken TV for the chip shop. He needed a lot less persuasion than i had expected. A few free meals were enough. As expected he did a great job.” Harry proudly squeezed his boyfriend’s shoulder.
“Despite him being part of your little group he seemed to harbour no unusual animosity against me or my crew. In the following days I paid close attention to him and saw how you treated him. He was nothing more than an afterthought to you, wasn’t he?” Uma looked down at Mal with contempt.
“His loyalty to you was basically non existent, he just needed you for protection, something we can offer him too. Even more so. I invited him a few more times, he cashed in his free meals and the crew quickly decided that he could be a valuable member. When we officially asked him to join, he agreed right away.” Uma looked over to the younger boy. It was his turn to share his side of the story again.
Carlos straightened his back and looked at the VKs in front of him. “I know you must think I’m not loyal, but that is not the case." Jay huffed. The younger boy ignore him. "You just never gave me anything to be loyal towards. Uma gave me something that I had never experienced before: Acknowledgment. And not only her, so did the rest of the crew. No one looked down on me, no one was ordering me around, no one pitied me. For once in my life i wasn’t just Cruella’s son or Mal’s underling. I was Carlos.”
“We protected you for years, took care of you, let you into our midst and this is what we get?!” Jay roared. He took another step forward, his eyes were shooting daggers at the white haired pirate.
“You protected me just enough to be useful, only kept me around enough so I wouldn’t run away!” Carlos could feel his own anger rising.
“And so what?”, Mal joined the conversation. “you went and dated the first person to look your way? Harry Hook? Really? They guy who has hooked up with half the island?”
The De Vil boy clenched his fists and was about to defend the older pirate when he heard said boyfriend laugh. With his usual confident swagger Harry stepped forward and leaned against the railing. “I’ll admit I like to flirt but i’m not that easy!” He grinned brightly. “While our Carlos here was going through his trial time i teased him to break the ice a little. I did nothing I don’t always do but Carlos had the most entertaining reactions. At first he was all flustered and shy but the more we saw each other the more confident he grew and then he did something I hadn’t seen coming at all. He flirted back” Hook’s son winked at the white haired boy.
“Turns out that they make an excellent team! After Carlos joined the crew, I had them working together a lot. But these two very quickly found any excuse to spend time together” Uma added. “They were painfully obvious.” Carlos and Harry smiled at each other and Harry continued his tale.
“It was just over a year ago. We had been celebrating a successful raid and i was being a gentleman and taking Carlos most of the way home for protection when he suddenly looked at me and the moonlight hit him just right and I just couldn't help myself.” Harry sighed over dramatically and clutched his chest, right where his heart was. “I pulled him closer and kissed him. It was perfect. It escalated to quite the make out session, it's a wonder no one caught us. Would you like to hear the details of that too? I still clearly remember-"
“We’re good, thanks” Mal replied sarcastically, cutting him off. Evie who had been listening quietly stepped forward now. Her face was almost blank now, but Carlos could still see the hurt in her eyes. “Carlos”, she said, looking directly at him. “Do you not remember all the things he did to us? The things he did to the people of the Isle? How could you date someone so cruel?” She sounded like she was begging him to come to his senses, but he had never felt more sure about anything than he felt about his relationship.
“The time in Auradon must be getting to you”, their blue haired captain said. “You were so busy living in your little pink princess world, you seem to be forgetting what the Isle is like. Being cruel is the only way to survive here. You used to be just like us. So save yourself the hypocrisy. At least we never hurt our family, our crew.” She stared pointedly at Mal. The purple haired girl’s eyes flashed in anger. “I have never laid a finger on any of my friends!”
“No”, Carlos voice was ice cold. “But you never cared about us either. Never cared what happened at home. You always thought of yourself as better than everyone else. We were never a team. There are many ways to hurt someone and you’ve always been creative.”
His words were followed by silence. Harry walked back towards him and quickly squeezed his hand in support. While the VKs were busy staring at their old friend with a mixture of anger and betrayal, the older pirate boy made eye contact with his captain. Uma nodded subtly and her first mate excitedly walked over to the king. It was showtime.
Uma easily slipped into captain mode, Carlos and Gil right behind her. The entire crew got into position, they were a united front. A force to be reckoned with. Carlos watched as the VKs eyes moved around rapidly. They were slowly grasping just who they were up against.
“What a shame” Uma started speaking, all eyes on her. “All these years of never caring and now someone was finally able to melt the ice princess' heart but he's about to walk the plank” She and several crew members cackled. Mal balled her hands into fists. At the end of the ship a tied up Ben was being toyed with by Harry Hook. He is completely defenceless, a far cry from the king shown on TV.
After that everything happened so quickly Carlos could barely keep up. Mal gave Uma the wand, but when it doesn’t work the white haired boy takes a quick look and recognises the telltale signs of a 3D print. Once he shared this information with Ursula’s daughter, all hell brakes loose. There are fights everywhere, the air is filled with the sound of swords clashing and yelling. It’s hectic and dangerous.
Carlos was never particularly gifted in sports and it was only thanks to many training hours with Harry and the crew members keeping an eye on him that he was still standing. While Evie seemed to avoid fighting him, Mal and Jay seemed to target him specifically. And every time he was saved by one of his real friends stepping in and fighting them off. But the fight was far from over and so Carlos found himself backed into a corner by Jay. He was slowly running out of energy. He knew he stood no chance against the jock, but giving up was not an option, not on the Isle. And so he swung his sword time and time again until the long haired boy managed to smack it out of his hand. Carlos’ weapon slit out of reach and the younger boy’s breath stuttered in fear.
Suddenly a figure appeared next to Jay, diverting his attention away from the tired boy. But he felt no relief as he now helplessly watched Harry fight the experienced athlete. It was an intense fight, neither of the two letting off until Jay managed to get ahold of the famous hook. With a triumphant grin he threw the accessory into the sea. Pain flashed up in Harry’s eyes but one look at the white haired boy and the pirate’s resolve was back.
Carlos felt warmth spread through his chest. He knew how important the hook was to his boyfriend but without missing a beat he was willing to sacrifice it to protect him. The younger knew there was nothing much he could do to help Harry fight. His sword was still many feet away and he was trapped between the two fighting boys and the sea. But there was something else he could help with. With new found determination he spun around and jumped into the blue depths to retrieve the hook before it could sink any further.
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Despite their best efforts the pirates were unable to capture the VKs. Carlos watched as Mal kicked the wooden bridge off of the ledge and ran down the tunnel. But the pirates knew the island better than anyone. “Over the roofs! Now!” Uma yelled and Carlos began climbing the wooden structures closely behind Harry and their captain. They ran like they were being chased.
The sound of a car starting made Uma scream in anger and they jump to the ground only to see a black limousine snaking its way through the tight street towards the barrier. Uma, without thinking twice, sped up even more to follow the car. Several crew members tried to keep up with her but Carlos slowed down. His chest was hurting too much to keep sprinting like that. Instead he scanned his surroundings and notices a strange man trying too hard not to be seen.
Carlos instinctively scans the man’s appearance and gasps as he recognises the book in his hands. Harry, who had slowed down with him, followed his eyes. Carlos quickly pointed at the spell book. “Mal’s spell book!!” No other words were needed, the other pirate had already started running again. The man yelped as the book was aggressively torn from his grip. But he knew better than to fight a pirate. With bated breath Carlos watched as the taller pirate took all his strength and ran towards the barrier.
The limousine was already passing through and Carlos’ heart sank. But the hole in the barrier was closing slowly. Slow enough for Uma to jump through. The pirates cheered in victory. No one else was close enough to even attempt to get through, but they were happy to see their captain on the other side.
But the young De Vil’s eyes were following the only pirate who had not slowed down yet. Harry was still running with all his might. He was way too far away to jump through, but before Carlos could wonder what he was doing, the first mate yelled Uma’s name. Their captain looked directly at Harry through the now basketball sized hole. The son of Hook pulled his right arm back, the arm that was holding the spell book, and in a split second decision threw it directly at the barrier. As if time had slowed down the entire crew watched as the book got closer and closer to the shrinking gab in the barrier. Uma lifter her hands and as if by some kind of miracle the book landed in her arms.
Carlos shouted and threw his fist into the air in triumph. Freedom was so close he could almost taste it.