FROZEN HEART ━━ 031

( THE STORY OF MALEFICENT )

          AS MUCH AS IT PAINED HER TO DO IT, Ellie needed to preserve the memory of what Stefan did to her so she used her magic to absorb the ice that created the memories in front of her. She was going to need to show the others once she met up with them at Evie's place. It could possibly help them better understand Audrey's hatred for Mal that went deeper than the purple haired girl taking her boyfriend. Stefan's betrayal and the mutilation of Maleficent was the root of everything.

          Meanwhile, Carlos, Jay, Gil, Hayes, Harry and Dude were looking for Ben, Jane and Ellie's friends. Gil and Jay happened to get along just fine while Carlos and Dude tried to track down their friends and Harry was just being his usual pretentious self. They did manage to find Ben but he was in the form of a beast but then Jane showed up and sprayed him with water from the Enchanted Lake like Ellie told her to do before she ran across the ocean to the Isle. Just like the blonde said, Kaia and Marisa were with her but when they saw Harry, Hayes and Gil, the redhead didn't hesitate to shoot arrows at them and pin them to the trees.

          "Marisa, wait! They're with us," Jay said.

          "Is the world upside down or something? First Audrey is the one who cursed the kingdom and now they're on our side?" Marisa questioned as she lowered her bow.

          "Okay, right now, we need to look past that and find Audrey and stop her," Carlos said.

          "Kind of hard to look past his family's legacy but whatever I guess," Kaia said as she looked at Hayes. "Especially since he tried to kill Ellie at Pirates Bay."

          "I wasn't gonna kill your friend," Hayes said as Carlos and Jay ripped off the arrows that pinned him and Gil and Harry to the trees.

          "I still don't trust you," Kaia hissed.

          "You teamed up with Mal and her friends last time!" Hayes pointed out.

          "Carlos, Jay and Evie never did anything to hurt us but Mal almost killed Ellie and for that, we still don't trust her but we put up with her to keep the peace. The only reason we tagged along to fight you guys at Pirates Bay was to help Ellie so don't get it twisted," Marisa said.

          "Wait a minute. Where is Ellie? Is she with the others?" Kaia asked when she noticed that their friend wasn't with them.

          "Mal, Uma, Celia and Evie were at the castle looking for clues to help us find Audrey while we were out here looking for Ben and you guys. Ellie found a secret passage hidden under the castle and she went inside. Her mother told her that she would find the truth there and she thinks it will help us and she insisted on going it alone," Carlos explained.

          "Do you think Ellie found anything by now?" Harry questioned with his arms crossed.

          "She knows what she's doing," Carlos replied.

          "We've been friends with Ellie for nearly four years. If she runs into anything while she's down there, she'll come out stronger than ever before," Marisa said with her hands on her hips.

          "Listen, Mal has Hades' ember which is our only hope to stop Audrey and we gotta head over to Evie's to meet up with the others," Jay said and everyone nodded but Kaia and Marisa were still doubtful of the pirates, especially Hayes.

          "We'll put up with these guys but only for Ellie," Kaia said.

          "If he tries anything I will shoot an arrow right between his eyes," Marisa said menacingly as she pointed a finger in Hayes' face and then looked at Gil and Harry. "And that goes for you two as well."

          As Marisa and Kaia walked away to take the lead, Ben, Carlos and Jay looked at the pirates tagging along with them. "They're not kidding," Ben said.

          All nine of them, including Dude walked over to Evie's place where Mal, Uma, Celia, Evie and Doug were waiting for them. Everyone was happy to see each other and know that none of them fell prey to Audrey's wrath yet but Carlos' stomach dropped when he didn't see his girlfriend with them but he hoped that she was just inside and hadn't come out yet. "Where's Ellie?" he asked and everyone became silent.

          "She didn't come back yet," Mal said.

          "Do you think she . . ." Evie trailed off but Kaia shook her head.

          "Absolutely not. If Ellie ran into Audrey, Ellie would have swept the floor with her," she said.

          "Audrey's magic is getting stronger. My magic alone isn't enough to counter her. Me and Uma had to team up to fend off her last spell," Mal said and Carlos' stomach dropped.

          "Look, if she's been turned to stone or put to sleep, we can't think about that right now," Uma said.

          "Uma's right. We need to go to Fairy Cottage and find her and undo the curse she put on everybody," Jay said and everyone nodded.

          "I know the way. Follow me," Ben said as he led the others to Fairy Cottage while Jane, Doug and Gil looked for Fairy Godmother in hopes that she hadn't fallen under Audrey's spell and could help them defeat the mean princess.

          By the time they arrived, the sky was dark and they didn't hesitate to search the place but they didn't find Audrey anywhere. They heard whimpering from inside the closet and when they opened it, Chad was inside curled up like a ball. The others were confused as Ben tried to talk to him but once the blonde boy realized that Audrey wasn't there and the door was open, he ran out.

          "How can someone that cute be so stupid?" Kaia asked with her arms crossed and everyone looked at her. "What? I honestly thought he was cute when we first started going to Auradon Prep but then I realized he was a big jerk, an idiot and a misogynist."

          "Fair enough," Evie said since she herself knew what Kaia was talking about.

          "Look, it's obvious Audrey isn't here so we need to head out and look somewhere else," Uma said and everyone agreed.

          As they were leaving the cottage, they felt the ground shake and they all tried to figure out what was going on. Everyone huddled together as they noticed huge creatures that looked like they were made from rocks. Marisa prepared an arrow while Uma and her pirates took out their swords as the creatures got closer. The pink smoke surrounding them was the telltale sign that it was a spell Audrey casted to throw them off.

          "There's too many of them. We can't fight them all off," Evie said.

          "We'll give it our best shot," Marisa said and was about to fire any arrow but lowered her bow when the creature was covered in ice and frozen solid.

          Everyone turned around and saw Ellie with ice and snow dripping from her hands but she looked different from the last time they saw her. She raised her hands and shot ice at two of the rock creatures and they were like statues once they were covered in it. She knelt down and placed her palms on the ground and ice travelled from her hands and across the ground. The ice travelled under all the rock creatures and up their bodies until they were all frozen statues and she stood up while everyone watched in awe.

          "Get down!" She instructed as ice travelled up her arms and surrounded her entire body.

          Everybody got down on the ground while Ellie released all the ice that was building up around her body and it was like a bomb went off. The force was enough to make the frozen rock creatures fall apart like a tower made of blocks and some ice even covered the trees that were around them. Once everything settled, Ellie manipulated all the ice into snow and let it all fall to the ground.

          "I don't know about you guys, but I do not wanna get on her bad side," Gil said.

          "Love the new look," Marisa said as she took in her friend's new outfit.

          Carlos didn't say anything as he marched over to her and wrapped his arms around her tightly, too afraid to let her go. "I thought Audrey got to you," he said and his voice cracked and Ellie sighed heavily as she hugged him back.

          "I found something down there that I think all of you need to see. It's the root to everything, the very beginning that led up to all of this," she said as she pulled away.

          She used her magic to recreate the memories she saw in the ice place inside the magic mirror and there were ice figures of Maleficent with wings, Stefan and Audrey's great grandfather. The memory started with the king telling Stefan to kill Maleficent and then it went to the part where they said they loved each other, which was a shock to everybody, even Mal. And then it got to the painful part where Stefan used the iron chains to cut off her wings while she was unconscious. Celia turned away and hid her face in Evie's shirt and Mal covered her mouth while Carlos squeezed Ellie's hand. Maleficent's screams made her close her eyes tightly and everyone was left in shock once the memory was over.

          "Audrey's grandfather betrayed my mother and he mutilated her," Mal said and her voice cracked as she wiped her tears and Ben pulled her to his side. "And all these years, I never knew this."

          "No one did. King Stefan made sure nobody knew of the history between him and your mother. Not even Queen Leah knew about this," Ellie said.

          "So all of this, the feud between Audrey's family and Maleficent, the mutual hate between Audrey and Mal all started because Audrey's grandfather was a coward and betrayed Maleficent, who was his girlfriend at the time, for royal status," Uma said and Ellie nodded.

          "This needs to stop. It's a cycle that won't ever end unless we stop it," the blonde said. "Tonight, this ends with us."

          "The three of us will go ahead and look for Audrey," Kaia said as she pointed at Ellie and Marisa.

          "I just got you back," Carlos said as he grabbed Ellie's hand.

          "I know, but we need to split up again and stop all this hatred once and for all. Even the hate between me and Hayes, it needs to stop. I saw way more than just what happened to Maleficent. I am sick and tired of fighting our parents' battles," she said and Carlos swallowed the lump in his throat.

          "Just promise me I'll see you again when this is all over. I can't lose you," he pleaded.

          Ellie placed her hands on his face and rubbed his skin with her thumbs. "You could never lose me. I promise you that I will be there when this is all over. After all this is over, we can do whatever we want," she said softly as she smiled and Carlos held onto her wrists. "I love you so much."

          "I love you, El," he said before Ellie removed her hands from his face and started heading back to the castle with her friends.