ᴡᴇᴅɴᴇsᴅᴀʏ ᴛʜᴇ 23ʀᴅ
ᴏғ ᴍᴀᴅʀᴇ 1219ᴀᴄ
5 ᴘᴍ

WHEN THE ROTTEN arrived they were greeted with fanfare and the institute's marching band loudly made music at their arrival. There was a switch once the train stopped, and a pretty white and blue carriage was waiting for them. They had been riding in it for half an hour and it had just as many sweets as the train. Mal suddenly missed how quiet the Isle was during the morning. She'll miss hearing owls hooting, bats squeaking and fighting, and Carlos shooting raccoons from the balcony at midnight. All her favorite noises were gone and replaced with cheery music and laughter that wasn't hers or her friends. Oh just kill me already.

She could only imagine how the others felt, or at least how one other felt. Jay would probably pay too much attention awaiting even the smallest mention of his kingdom. Evie would do the exact opposite and become enamored with new pretty faces and her dark ideas on what fate lay for them. In truth, she and Carlos were probably the only ones to really detest coming to the mainland.

Though eventually, she knew he'd have fun in the forest with all types of fuzzy creatures. They all had their own agendas, their own plans, but Mal just had this. If she— no, when she lets the barrier down and accomplishes what no one else in the Isle could, she'd be legendary.

          The carriage came to a stop and Evie was still cramming as many things she could in her small purse. Mal didn't know if it were empty bottles, machine parts, or just candy. Carlos was also stuffing his bag with as many sweets as he could.

          Mal was the first one out the door, pulling Jay out as well as the other two crazy heads got organized. The minute they stepped out the music stopped and eyes were glued on them. Mal would ask Jay about it later but he figured that though they knew they were expecting villains, they also figured they'd be just as clean and proper as them. Instead, they got to see a scary short purple haired girl with what they hoped to be old red paint splattered on her boots. (It wasn't.) And a tall muscular guy next to her, scanning everyone else like the enemy. Jay would later tell her that he noticed how their stares got even more nervous when he came out. He figured not many Auradoners looked like him, they were in good shape but Jay trained and got stronger every day of his life while they would take summer vacations, got soft, and eat as many meals as they liked.

          When Evie and Carlos finally came out of the carriage, they were both grinning at each other, no doubt about some secret idea they cooked up. Whenever those two worked together, it was never pretty. Carlos's grin dropped at the fountain and gardens. So much green. It was all filled with life and goodness, only about half the Isle could grow plants and greenery. But Evie's smile stayed, she was excited to be here and she had no reason to hide that. Especially when two very pretty people walked their way.

          It was a boy and a girl about their age, they recognized the boy as the King's son. In between the two walked an older woman in a baby blue dress with a great big smile that made everyone uneasy.

          "Welcome to Auradon Hall. I'm Fairy Godmother, headmistress." The woman introduced herself with a short bow. Her friends definitely noticed the way Mal's eyes lit up. They were standing in front of the very fairy they were going to steal from.

          "The Fairy Godmother? As in, 'Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo'?" Mal emphasized with a wave of her hand. She didn't notice she was close to walking toward her until she felt Evie pinch her side and it calmed her right down.

          "Bibbidi-bobbidi you know it." The older fairy gave her a warm smile that Mal could have found endearing if she weren't imagining tying her to a chair and pulling out her fingernails one by one if she didn't hand over her weapon.

          Mal gave her as genuine a smile as she could, "Yeah, I always wondered what it felt like for Cinderella when you just appeared, out of nowhere, ready to make her dreams come true." She shrugged her shoulders, "To be honest I think a lot of us back home hope for the same thing." She gave a sad smile she knew would make them pity her. The second she said those words, the older fairy came closer to take her hands. Her small fear of them as villains diminishing by the second.

          "Oh." She said, and Mal figured she would get some random meaningful quote returned whenever someone was uncomfortable at learning a harsh fact. "That was a long time ago. And as I always say, 'don't focus on the past or you'll miss the future'." The Fairy Godmother released her hands to use them in her expression. Mal couldn't let her face drop, but she admitted this would be harder than usual.

          Then, the dark blonde boy approached them with his hands held together, "It's so good to finally meet you all. I'm Ben."

          Almost immediately after he said his name, the attractive girl spoke up. "Prince Benjamin. Soon to be king." She informed them and spoke lowly, her voice was strong and serious. She gave a half smile to the prince before it fell when facing the Rotten.

          "Prince? You're Beast's son, right?" Evie addressed him, and it garnered attention toward the blue-haired girl. "Is it true he can switch from man to beast? Can you do it too?" Evie's eyes shined brightly with intrigue as she talked fast. Now it was Mal's turn to hold her back.

          "Ben is nothing like his father, that's just a rumor because of the statues around here." The same girl clarified, she immediately took control of the conversation and Ben let her. From this one interaction, Mal knew that Ben was no alpha, not in any way.

          "This is Audrey." He introduced.

          And again, she clarified her status, "Princess Audrey. His girlfriend. Right, Bennyboo?" She gave him a personal smile, one that was sickeningly sweet and obviously insincere.

          The Fairy Godmother gathered their attention once more, "Ben and Audrey are going to show you all around, and I'll see you tomorrow. The doors of wisdom are never shut. But the library hours are from 8:00 to 11:00. And as you may have heard, I have a little thing about curfews." She specified with all the newcomers and they gave nods of understanding quickly as she departed them.

          Ben then started going around to shake everyone's hands starting with Jay who didn't say a word back, "It is so, so, so good to finally meet you all." When he got to Mal, there was a pause in his statement, she noticed he stared at her a little too long. He finally snapped back, "This is a momentous occasion, and one that I hope will go down in history— is that a phonograph horn?" He pointed at Evie's bag that was barely covering the stolen equipment but let it go just as quickly as he noticed. "As the day our two peoples began to heal." He finished shaking Carlos's hand and hastily pulled away. "Ah!" Carlos often pricked people with sewing needles he kept hidden on the sleeve of his jacket. It was either to annoy someone he didn't like or— no, that was the only reason. "Sharp there, huh?" Ben paid no mind to it, thinking he got caught in a sharp edge of the devil boy's jacket.

          "Or the day that you showed four people where the bathrooms are." Mal brought the attention back over to her knowing Evie and Carlos would just keep acting weird around the Auradoners.

          Ben simply gave her a smile and visibly let his shoulders loose a bit, he was nervous about this too, "A little bit over the top?" He asked.

          "A little more than a little bit."

          He chuckled, "Well, so much for my first impression." He kept staring at her after that, if they were on the Isle this would be the moment she'd snap her fingers and Carlos would throw a dart in his arm. Evie would then tell her that the reason he kept staring was that he found Mal attractive and different and for Auradon, Mal was as weird as you can expect. Too bad for him, Mal didn't like boys.

          Audrey was quick to intervene and Mal was beginning to realize she did this a lot. "Hey! You're Maleficent's daughter, aren't you? Yeah, you know what? I totally do not blame you for your mother trying to kill my parents and stuff."

          Mal's eyebrows raised, "Oh! So you're Aurora's daughter, huh?" That was when Mal took a good look at her from head to toe. She wondered if she looked like her mom, whenever Maleficent spoke about Sleeping Beauty there were always insults and random descriptions about her. "I mean, to be fair my mom did overreact just a bit with the whole curse thing, didn't she?" It seemed neither of the royals expected that from her, both of them leaned a bit in surprise until Mal continued, "I mean if you want revenge don't blame the six-month-old baby," she scoffed out a laugh before pausing, her voice once casual dropped a bit to be serious, "blame the parents."

          No one really spoke after that, Mal's words left an awkward yet also scary silence in the air. She wanted to hold back, honestly, she did. But it was perfect, could you blame her? Besides, it's not like they expected four kids from the Isle of the Lost to be model citizens after being in Auradon for five minutes.

          Ben finally broke the silence with a clap of his hands, "Okay! So, how about a tour? Yeah? Auradon Hall was originally built over three hundred years ago and converted into a university institute by my father when he became king. Named after our kingdom and Audrey's mother, may she rest in peace." He gave his girlfriend a soft smile and then trailed off with more information but Mal's eyes kept following Audrey.

          The princess stared back at her every second she could and it wasn't a friendly glance. Mal hated the thought of gaining an enemy all because of what her mom did to this girl's mom. It was empty mutual hatred, if she were to gain a mortal enemy it would be because of her own actions, not her mother's. She wanted to gag.

          The fact that Audrey's parents had both passed was interesting to Mal, she wondered what her mother would do with that information. Would she abandon her quest for revenge or simply switch it towards the young princess? She'd probably switch it, if she was quick to curse a baby for the lack of invitation then she'd be fine cursing the next one in line.

          They were entering the school and she had to ask something else so she wouldn't be bored to death about how his father went through trouble making this into a school or something. "So you guys have a lot of magic here in Auradon? Like wands, genie lamps, tridents, and things like that?"

          The young prince nodded, "Yeah, it exists of course, but it's pretty much retired. Most of us here are just ordinary mortals."

          Carlos finally spoke, "Who happen to be kings and queens."

          Ben simply shrugged his shoulders with a nod and a decent, "Yeah." He then glanced at the stairs and called on a kid from the marching band, "Doug. Doug, come down. This is Doug. He's going to help you with your class schedules and show you the rest of the dorms. I'll see you later, okay? And if there is anything you need, feel free to—"

          Audrey intervened yet again, "Ask Doug." It became clear to the Rotten that she was doing her best to assert her dominance. It was cute compared to what they were used to back home.

          Mal gave a short laugh at that, which Audrey gave back. She left her home over eight hours ago and it felt like months already.

          The guy could have been around their age, he looked younger though, maybe eighteen. "Hi, guys. I'm Dopey's son. As in Dopey, Doc, Bashful, Happy, Grumpy, Sleepy, and—" He trailed off counting his uncles when his eyes settled on Evie. "Heigh-ho."

          Mal and the boys rolled their eyes, this would be interesting. Evie often got the attention of people, her actions with said people depended on her mood. Right now she was excited and happy, she'd flirt and make him flounder but if she were pissed, this guy wouldn't have much of his skin left.

"Evie," She introduced herself, sometimes that was all it took. "Evie Azula."

He coughed a bit, trying to find the words, "Okay. So about your classes, I, uh, put in the requirements already... History of Woodsmen and Pirates, Safety Rules for the Kingdom, and, uh, Remedial Goodness 101." His voice got higher the more they looked over his shoulder to see the chart.

Jay scoffed a laugh, "Let me guess. New class?"

"Dorms?" Mal asked the kid, only to snap her fingers in front of his face after he couldn't stop staring at Evie. "Yo, dorms?"

"Oh, uh, yeah, that way." He pointed to his left across the hall and they quickly made their way there.

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i switched up Jay's paragraph in the Long Live Evil chapter so if you're interested, let me know

and yes, Evie's full name is Evie Azula (she changed her last name after she left home).
i chose it bc not only is 'azul' blue in Spanish (and Sofia Carson is Latina) but bc of Azula from ATLA and how she was able to make blue fire and was a powerful female character that definitely scared me as a kid, so it seemed fitting for Evie to take the name.

Carlos still has de Vil as his last name and Jay is often referred to as Jay Amir (Amir being the Arabic word for prince). His full name is Jafar Amir, Jay is just his nickname, like how Mal is actually named Maleficent.

And Mal is just Mal.

for now.

as for that, i also changed up the time period in this. there is no specific time period as it's very difficult to change certain key elements, i don't think it'd be that difficult but for the sake of my story, i wanted to bring a sort of balance. there's no limo, instead, we get a train, there's no television set, instead, we get a phonograph it's kind of 1880s almost. but then we still have stuff like bathrooms and indoor plumbing working (which was also around that time), but with Cruella de Vil coming from a sort of 60's style time period i more or less combined them both. it doesn't have as sophisticated technology, but the fashion and style choices will be more updated. it's an interesting combo.

think of the show Legion, and how half the time it's like the early '70s happening and yet the other half has so much advanced tech and stuff happening it's almost either the 21st century or farther into the future. it's a strange combo and i think it works.

main reason for it is due to the number of stories, a ton of tales are either happening or have happened already and most of those happened before any big technology so im trying to find a road to follow. in the books, the characters have phones and computers, Carlos has a laptop and a 3D printer in the movie too, so it'll be fun working around that.

anyway i hope you liked this!

no mundanes allowed