𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐄:

𝑶 𝑼 𝑻   𝑶 𝑭   𝑭 𝑬 𝑨 𝑹

"It's great to see you again, man." Were the first words that Wyc spoke to the Hatter as they engulfed themselves in a great big hug.

Jax was laughing, a real happy laugh. "And you? Look who's all grown up and shattering hearts I assume?" He ruffles the boy's hair.

Thackery Earwycket II, also known as just 'Wyc' because it has been stated that his full name is both a mouthful and an earful, was the son of the March Hare. "I wish, most of my time is spent in the garage."

"Still think that getting hit by lightning will zap you home?" The Hatter panted.

"I have multiple theories about that-"

The happy reunion was cut short by the slow clapping of the ever so content, Binx Cheshire, son of the Cheshire Cat. "Fantastic, little Jaxy Hatter is back with his friends, hooray! We're saved!" He deadpans. "What, do you want a trophy? You think coming back here is any better than that island?" Everyone in the room could sense his anger. It wasn't long until he just went off on a rant. "What do you want from us, Jax? This place isn't any better, at least over there, people don't sugarcoat it."

"No, they don't, Binx." Jax agrees, runs a hand through his tangled hair. "I see you've gotten worse than usual."

Binx paused, an unlit cigarette hanging off his lip, open lighter in hand. He closed the lighter and proceeded to walk up to Jax, "You don't get to do that, you don't get to come here and judge me for my shit. You weren't here." He angerly whispers to him. Binx positions himself in the middle of the room, to look at the other three, standing there in silence. He licks his lips as he says, "Screw this." He starts heading for the door, intent on not being part of their group.

"Binx," Ruby warns him in a strong voice, and Binx already knows what she wants.

"I won't say a word." He mutters loudly, going to open the door, but suddenly he pauses for a moment. His head tilts to the side and he stays like this for a while before he says, "Incoming," He nods to Ruby.

She nods back, understanding his signal and grabs Jax by the arm, "How many?" She asks the werecat, as she opens the large wooden wardrobe on her side of the room. She starts picking up the shoes and bags at the bottom of the closet and gives them to Jax. "Put these under my bed," She instructs him.

As he does as told, Binx finally responds, "Four," He sniffs the air, "Plus a mutt." It takes him a moment to figure it out, "It's the villain kids!" He announces in realization.

Ruby nods and then looks to her friend, "Go in, sit down, stay quiet. I'll try and get rid of them quickly."

He nods in understanding, but before she can close the door, he takes her hand, "See if you can find something on Uma, daughter of Ursula."

Ruby gives him a raised eyebrow, but promises, nonetheless and closes the door shut.

Ruby sat at her desk, facing the door, and Wyc was leaning on Allie's bed whilst Binx kept an ear out. "What do you hear?" She asks.

Binx shuts his eyes to concentrate better. They were close, "You got a better idea?" That was Jay.

"We could try not to aggravate them!" That was Carlos, he was definitely holding the dog, Binx heard it whine as the boy spoke.

Then it cut to an angry Mal. "Okay, listen! When Uma got a hold of my spellbook, the first thing she ordered a lovestruck Ben to do was to search the sea for any sign of Jax Hatter, that means that he got out of the Isle. Who are the first people Jax Hatter would go to once he got out of the Isle? My money's on other Wonderland kids, and everyone says Ruby's the one they answer to." Binx scoffed at that. "So, we go in, we act nice, and get the information we need. Got it?"

Plenty of 'got its' followed through.

"They're debating on whether it's a good idea or not to come to talk to you. Apparently, your Hatter boy is missing. They think he's with you. You want me to let them know they hit the jax-pot?" He smirked at his own joke.

She only glared at him in silence, knowing he was just being a nuance. Then, there was a knock on the door. They all stared ahead, and even Binx, who prided himself on never answering to Ruby, waited on her word. "Wyc, let them in, would you?"

As he crossed the room, Binx let out a shrill laugh, "Oh come on, I never get to be your errand boy." He fake whines.

"Shut up," Wyc mutters and with a turn of a handle, opens the door to the Villain Kids of Auradon, the Core Four, or whatever you'd call them.

"Hi." Mal starts off, an uneven enthusiasm in her voice. "I'm looking for Ruby Queen."

"You found her," Ruby announces from her desk. She managed to pull out papers and pens from underneath her desk, to appear as though she was busy. She lifted her head to look at the colorful friends, "How may I be of service?"

At that answer, the four teenage ex-villains took the opportunity to enter the bedroom. The boys stood behind the girls, knowing they were more intimidating than them. Mal was at the center, with Evie on her right. Before Mal spoke, she took a quick look to her friends, silently asking if anyone else wanted to ask the questions, but none of them were too keen. "You used to know Jax Hatter, right?" She decided to ask.

At the question, the trio stopped dead in their tracks, acting surprised. They had done this plenty of times, they knew how to lie, and how to look innocent, well, innocent enough. At least, the boys knew how to lie. Ruby always prided herself on telling the truth, the thing she was an expert at was misdirection. "Yes, that's correct." The queen responded.

"Well, uh, you see, it turns out that last night when Uma escaped from the Isle of the Lost, Jax went with her. So, now he's out and he's here, in Auradon." Mal clears her throat, for some reason, Ruby's presence made her strangely nervous.

Ruby stood from her chair and slowly made her way to the center of the room to be sure they were all looking at her. "I don't believe you," She said. "Please go." She turned from them.

At this, Mal seemed to have dropped her nervousness and got annoyed, "You don't believe us? Why? Why would we lie?"

Ruby answered her question with a question of her own, "Why would I believe you?" She turned to face them again. "I barely know any of you enough to actually trust you, and the fact that you're now loyal to Auradon just drives you further away. So, forgive me if I hesitate to accept your assurance." She added in, sarcastically.

At that moment, Mal really stood there and thought about what she'd recently learned the last few days. "You're right, we barely know one another." She agreed. Ruby eyed her warily, never trust someone that agrees with you immediately, they tend to be hiding something. "You know, a professor on the Isle told us about your home, about Wonderland." She proceeded to open with that.

Ruby only smiled, you could sense she was internally tired. She was exhausted from having to talk about her home to those who wouldn't understand, and she especially detested those that talked about it without any real knowledge. But, she let the girl go on, "And what did he talk about? How it was out of control? Reckless and hopeless? That we were lucky to get out when we did?" With every word, Ruby's eyes and voice seemed to have gotten stronger and scarier.

"He said you were taken away from your homes, away from your parents. Is that true?" Evie was the one to ask, and rather than give in to the fear that made everyone cower from Ruby, she approached her with sympathy.

"You already know the answer to that, I can see it, in your eyes." She darted her sight back and forth between each of the teens. "And while you're trying to find Jax Hatter, he's not the only reason you came here, is he?"

It was Mal that ripped the bandage off, "The past year that we've been here, we haven't said a word to any of you, not because we didn't want to, but any time we saw you, we were whisked away. No one talks about you guys and if we say any of your names,  they clam up. We just want to know. What's with all the secrecy?"

When no one responded, Jay decided to ask his own question, "Okay, how about this, how come Nathaniel Knight isn't part of your group here? Hm? He's either with tourney players or cheerleaders, or both. Why isn't he with you guys? That's something that I don't get because I've actually hung out with the guy and he never talks about Wonderland."

"Don't say his name, we don't talk about him in here," It was Wyc that walked up to him and warned him, "So that's enough, you don't know the full story."

"That's because no one will tell us!" Shouted Carlos, surprising everyone. "How are we supposed to understand this whole thing if no one is willing to tell us what the hell has been going on around here?"

"You're sure you wanna know?" Said Binx, trying to counteract them. "After you do, nothing's the same. You won't be able to go back to your happy world filled with ice cream and strawberries." He mocked them.

"We grew up with villains, we're used to the sadness and despair, get it over with." Mal snapped.

As Binx was about to snap another remark at them, Ruby waved a hand at him, silently ordering him to calm down. And against his judgment, he did with a quick roll of the eyes. "The King and Queen aren't what you'd expect them to be." She started, who knew those first few words would make everyone so prudent. "But then again, no one is. Let me ask you a question, why do you think there's no magic in the kingdom? In any kingdom? What, did you believe that the faeries and the wizards and the rest of the magical creatures just decided to retire?" Slowly, but surely, it was like a blindfold had been removed and they were finally seeing for the first time. Ruby knew they would catch on quick, children raised by villains always assumed the worst, so at least she didn't have to spell it out for them. "There was a, what would you call it? An argument. About whether or not magic should be removed from their lives." After a small pause, she rhetorically asks, "Guess who won?"

"Wait so, they didn't want this? They wanted to keep their magic? But wouldn't they have fought against it?" Evie questioned.

"Oh darling, they did. Of course, they did. Beings like the Fey, the wizards and genies were born out of magic, asking them to stop using magic is like, asking someone here to stop walking."

"But why would they even do that in the first place?" Everyone looked to the De Vil boy holding the dog.

"Why does anyone do anything? Out of fear." At that word, a few of the young ex-villains lowered their heads, they have had plenty of fear in their lives. "The King has lived in fear of the Sorceress that cursed him for decades. So when he finally got his body back, he declared no use of magic. So many of the leaders sided with him, saying that magic brought them nothing but pain and suffering, they were fine with discarding it. The magical friends they made and cherished didn't want to pick a battle with their loved ones. They knew they would win, so they sacrificed their birthright, and withdrew to stop using their powers so they could live with the ones they loved." Ruby raised a hand, letting Wyc take over the history lesson.

The young inventor stood from Allie's bed and made his way to the center of the room, occasionally moving from side to side. "Soon, it got out of hand. They wanted to make the villains pay, more so than they deserved." At that, the Core Four glanced at each other when the word 'villain' was mentioned. "Next thing you know, only the Fairy Godmother was allowed to do magic. But then one day, they employed Merlin and the Three Good Fairies. Together, they created the Isle of the Lost. Made the barrier around it, and raised the dead villains. Afterward, they basically became his own magical mercenaries, minus the slaughter of course. They did whatever he said, not just because he could overthrow them, and place the blame on them, and no doubt everyone would side with him because of the simple fact that he's the King. But because after a spell that big, he knew they would be weakened for years to come." He took that moment to sit on Allie's desk chair.

"You see, Merlin and the Fairies, their power comes from within, but the Fairy Godmother channels hers through her wand. So in a way, she's healthier than the rest, but she could never take on an entire kingdom by herself. She's only one person, and with a kid that lives here." Carlos' head snapped at him and his posture stiffed at the mention of Jane. "So, she keeps her head down, does whatever they ask, plays the part of the protective mother and caretaker of all the other students."

For no particular reason other than to annoy and irritate everyone further, Binx decided it was his turn to tell more, "They've got 'er on a tighter leash than anyone else around here." He made himself more comfortable in the reading chair that was against the wall between the two beds and lowered his voice passive-aggressively. "Why do you think Jane's so bubbly and nervous half the time? Hm? It's all that power, just waiting to burst." Binx says, simply to antagonize Carlos, to which he only sent a glare and a growl from Dude. "Her mom is one of the most powerful magic users in this land, do you really think she didn't inherit any of it? Or maybe all of it?"

"Binx, I do believe that is enough, don't you?" Ruby scolded him as though he were a child, which quite frankly, he often acted as such.

"No, I think I'm just getting started." He promises with an enthusiastic nod.

With a piercing stare, he quieted down, and Ruby moved her gaze to the four teens, "While Jane does seem to possess a strong amount of power, her mother has been teaching her control since she was a child. You needn't worry, she'll be fine."

"How do you know all this?" Carlos asked, in an unexpected calm voice.

"The Fairy Godmother, of course. When we arrived here, she told us the story and made us promise that we should keep our abilities concealed. Three years down the line and Jax couldn't take it anymore. He was desperate to get back, he was terrified that his father wouldn't make it without him." Wyc and Binx stared at Ruby, and then looked to each other, not knowing why she was talking about this. She never spoke about Jax with anyone. "But something went wrong when he stole the wand, it didn't work for him and when the King and Queen caught him, they had no other choice but to discipline him. That's what they called it, discipline. They said it wouldn't be forever, just until he's learned his lesson, they said. But they were lying, I knew they were. But I couldn't do anything about it, I had others to look after." The boys looked at each other again, their faces showed that they understood, she wasn't telling them this story for their sake, she was apologizing to Jax, the only way she knew how. Nevertheless, her strong persona never faltered. "The day that he left, we got to say goodbye, and he took me aside and made me promise to forget about him, to focus all my energy on our people. He promised that one day he'd come back to us." She finally whispered under her breath.

Ruby cleared her throat and looked at Mal in the eye, "So, you see, even if Jax Hatter made his way into our lives again, I wouldn't give him up for the world."

The four ex-villains took that moment to look at each other, and simultaneously nodded their heads, Mal turned to look at the girl again, "Well, we're so sorry to be a bother. Honestly, I don't even remember what we came here to do in the first place." Mal shrugs her shoulders. "Oh well, see you around." She swiftly turns and motions for the rest to go.

"Mal." Ruby called out, causing the girl to turn and face her. Her friends followed her lead. "Be careful out there." Her voice was somehow still strong when she spoke softly. Mal instantly knew this wasn't a threat. Ruby was literally telling her to watch her back and her friend's. If Auradon was capable of such horrors before, what's to say it still is?

*******

I hope you all liked this, and get ready for incoming, I'm introducing you to all the new characters!

Okay, thoughts on Ruby tonight?

How did you like Wyc?

He's played by Elliot Fletcher

What did you think of Binx?

He's played by Cameron Monaghan.

Thoughts on what the VK's learned?

Bonus:
here, have a Jarry aesthetic made my moi

this will be added to the 'cast' chapter

no mundanes allowed
- polaroized