Chapter Text
We all know how this began: one day King Beast and Queen Belle got married, united all kingdoms into the United States of Auradon, and condemned the villains and their accomplices to live in isolation on the Isle of the Lost—secured (locked away) by a magical barrier that prevented anyone from leaving.
However, that wasn't where it all began; it was only the preamble. The story starts one afternoon, while the future king Ben is having his suit measured and knows he must talk to his parents, but doesn't yet know exactly how. He wants everything to go well, but he also knows that would be asking for too much luck.
It is on a perfect sunny day that he announces to his parents: “My first official decree as future king will be that the children of the Isle of the Lost have the opportunity to live here in Auradon.”
And it goes as well as he imagines. His father refuses, reminding him of what their parents did—how heartless, cruel, ambitious, and vile they were, and why they were sent there in the first place.
Ben already knows this. Everyone knows, every tragic story around them was marked by one of them. But Ben also knows that children are not their parents. He sees this more than anyone else every morning when he looks in the mirror, knowing that one day he will have to wear the crown—and that he will not be able to fill it like his father did.
But that thought doesn’t linger long, because knowing it won’t change anything, and he is not his father. Nor does he want to be. Don’t misunderstand him: he loves his parents more than anyone in the world, but trying to become someone he isn’t would only bring him unhappiness at a very young age.
So Ben insists. The first children have already been chosen: Mal, Maleficent's daughter; Jay, Jafar's son; Evie, the Evil Queen's daughter; Carlos, Cruella's son; and Hadea, Hades' daughter. That creates a lot of tension, five children, two of them born to incredibly powerful figures. Bringing the daughter of a God doesn’t seem like the best option, especially if she's as strong as her father, and Maleficent’s daughter is simply…
In the end, he manages to convince them. It will be a trial run with these first five children. Ben wants to bring more, as many as he can, but first, he must prove that they are not a danger. Announcing the decree may not be the hardest part, but he has no doubts; on the contrary, he feels optimistic about it. Because the world will be a better place.
*****
Meanwhile, on the Isle of the Lost, four teenagers cause trouble wherever they go, led by a girl with purple hair and green eyes. This is how things work here: more than children playing pranks, they are young people forced to act older than they are. Otherwise, the Isle would destroy them.
No matter how much they act like leaders, each of them bends to something—not as a weakness, but as something that was instilled in them since childhood. And that is evident when Maleficent arrives with her daughter, exposing her poor performance as a villain and reminding her that to be evil incarnate, she has to be more, much more.
Finding out that they will be sent to Auradon creates a strange and, for some, panicked feeling driven by expectations. None of them believed they would get out of there, at least not so easily.
For Mal, seeing this as an opportunity doesn’t sit well. It feels like pity, like an attempt to “reform the villain” and all that nonsense. Her mother’s plan doesn’t sit well with her either. Now she has a precise plan to follow, one she didn’t create. In her own plans, she was the one who would escape the Isle and conquer Auradon, proving to her mother that she was a worthy villain.
For Jay, leaving the Isle doesn’t really cause much tension at first. That is, until he speaks with his father and is reminded of his role in all this: to be Jafar’s eyes and ears on the outside, to ally with Mal and follow her plan, but never trust her. (That always makes his jaw tighten, but he doesn't say anything.) As Jafar’s son, he knows he must be cunning and charming. Only then can he take advantage of other people’s wealth.
Carlos is terrified. What will he do in Auradon, far away from his mother and everything he knows? She asks him for dogs, many dogs, but he is terrified of them. If they were such good animals, why would his mother make coats out of their fur? That obsession with those garments is beyond his comprehension, but it can't mean anything good.
Evie, on the other hand, doesn’t know how to feel. Going to Auradon is an excellent opportunity to prove she is the daughter of a Queen, a princess, after all. But she also remembers that her mother fell from grace. Now it won’t be just her mother’s eyes watching, judging, and silently disappointing her. All of Auradon will be able to see her—and that doesn’t make her feel safe.
*****
Somewhere on the other side of the Isle, in an extreme and dangerous area, there is a volcano, practically on the edge. There, in a kind of underground lair surrounded by fire and debris, lies the domain of Hades, the God who was overthrown before he could even enjoy the pleasure of taking Mount Olympus.
And there, Hadea is with the visitor who announces the news from Auradon: “You have been given the great opportunity to study in Auradon.”
The girl looks at her father, who is also studying her. He does not order her to go and conquer the world, but she knows that is what he wants, and asking outright would only reveal a lack of ambition in his daughter.
So she agrees to go, to learn from everyone, how they work and their weaknesses, and also because not going would be a mistake. And her father, before leaving, tells her: “Remember that you are a Goddess…”. That could have been the end of it, but it isn’t. In what he doesn’t finish saying, he demands that she live up to what is expected of the daughter of a God. And what a god! Hadea knows that this opportunity is actually a test. And she must prove that she is capable.
The story begins here, where the “Once upon a time, five children in a black limousine…” truly starts, because this is when the lives of the five finally intertwine.
And none of them will be ready for what comes next.