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your-girl-mj · 2 years

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When you didn't say I love you back pt.2 [Madrigals x gn!reader]

Summary: Dolores, and Carlos reaction to you not saying I love you back.

Warning: some are kinda angsty, but idk

Note: WHAHAHAHA THE DATE IS KILLING ME

Created: February 19, 2022

Published: February 25, 2023

— DOLORES is someone who is hard to prank, considering that she hears everything, and constantly alert just in case someone needs help.

Any suprise made for her, are all failure. The super-hearing lied about having no clue, but admit it to you after the party since she doesn't want anyone's efforts go to waste.

You made a deal with Camilo, which is written on paper so Dolores can't hear it. You need to trick your beloved, any trick that will make her off guard and you need to do it by the end of the week, or you'll have to give him all the food he wants for a month. If you win, he'll make sure to help you buy the earmuffs, for girlfriend's incoming birthday.

It's challenging since she can hear your steps, breathing, as well as heartbeat. You need to be calm and collected to be able to do it.

Taking your tiple with you—you rush to the la casa Madrigal. You took off your slippers and put on another pair of soft ones, so your steps are quiet enough to make Dolores comfortable. You use your finger to tap against her door instead of knocking with knuckles is a habit you made yourself for your significant other.

You might not know it, but the super-hearing appreciate all the small things you made for her. "Hermosa, Good to see you!" You greeted once you opened the door, revealing the girl of your dreams sitting by her cello, turning away from the intrument, her lips formed into a smile.

"About time you show up," you giggled at her words, peeking at her lips, before taking sit at a nearby stool.

"I discovered this melody last night, do you wanna hear it? Only if you want to of course!" The softness of you voice is enough to make Dolores melt on the spot.

"Sure, I'd love to! Your music is always amazing." It's not a suprise that Dolores loves music, she always has ever since she's a child. She loves hearing all kinds of it, that was until she received her gift. Everything change from then on, before she met you.

"You already heard it last night, didn't you?" Playfully rolling your eyes when she let out a squeak, knowing that she already got caught. "It's fine, did it let you sleep though?"

"It did, thank goodness for that! Last night is very loud, especially those married couples..." lightly giggling at her statement, you move your fingers to the strings and stroke. Grimacing at the off tone.

"My sister might have played with this earlier," you adjust the strings, as Dolores waited patiently, scooching near while watching you with her big adorable eyes, and a warm smile at her face.

As you work, your mind caught something you thought could work as prank. While thinking of how the plan will work, you're focusing of relaxing your breathing and heartbeat, you know she'll find out you're messing with her once you did that trick.

"And done!" You exclaimed, stroking it once again satisfied by musical sounds it produces. "I'm doing to get some water downstairs, do you need anything, amor?" You stood up, grabbing the emtpy glass cups by the shelves, that you assume she forgot to bring down.

"A water will be fine as well," she respond, turning around to play with her cello once again, "careful walking with those glass, love you."

"I will!" You mentally give yourself a pat on the back when you heard her squeak once again. Focusing at your heartbeat and breathing, you successfully grab two glass of water, sipping a bit of it, before going back to a Dolores suspiciously giving you a side glace. "Here you go, mi vida. Now where were we?"

Throughout the time, you can feel the brunette's eyes on you. You ignored her stares— you know that she's waiting. Your heart pump faster as her stare is turning into a glare. You can feel yourself sweating, but need to keep calm. This is your only chance to buy those earmuffs, and you're not gonna let it slide.

Time past like blink of an eye, as you say goodbye at your significant other. "Today was great, mi vida. See you tomorrow, alright?" You say your farewell, locking your lips with her plump ones, smiling in contentment. Her arms snake over your shoulders, and pull you in for more, you didn't expect her to pull you deeper into it, but didn't complain.

You're the one to pull away from it because of the lack of oxygen your lungs are begging to have. No words exchanged as you and the brunette stared into one another, breathing heavily.

Dolores was the first one to break the silence, "see you tomorrow, te amo [name]," her slender fingers run to your hair, you beam at her sweet affection. You almost said it back if it aren't for your eagle-like eyes, spotting two of her siblings by the balcony.

Camilo's hand covering Antonio's eyes, the little one complaining about what's happening, while the teen made a silent gagging expression at the two of you.

Oh right, the prank. "Don't acknowledge them, it's his fault for spying," the super-hearing dismissed her brothers, taking note to herself to hit him later, for ruining your romantic moment.

Chuckling at her words, you continued with your plan, "I know, I gotta go now, bye lori." Peeking at her cheek, you turned around to go home, and tell the shape-shifter about you successful pla- "oooww, ow, ow, ow!" You exclaimed as the girl of your dreams pinch your ear, pulling you to face her.

"You're forgetting something." She reminded, softly patting you cheeks. Her brows knitted together, she knows and Camilo blew it for you. You're not gonna give up though.

"Oh, of course!" You replied, peaking her at the lips, before turning back and trying to run off, but you're not fast enough.

The super-hearing caught you by the back of your collar. Pulling you back, "you're not leaving until you say it, and we both know I know about your little tricks. So, stop with the playing, [nickname]."

Defeated, you whine bit. You were close, if only Camilo didn't show up, she won't know. "I'm sorry, I have to do it! Love you, 'Lores."

"Love you too, but I have to say, you're good."

"Learned from the master!"

— It was a scary experience to you that last time you prank CARLOS. He almost killed Camilo thinking it was him, you never dared to do it again. Though, today is different, you'll do it again but a prank that is something that will made him think what he did wrong, well in fact he did.

Carlos forgot your birthday, for the rest of the day you've been thinking he's planning a surprise for you. But no, the whole day he's acting as if it's any other one, doing his usual things that he do daily.

You two have been together for few months, you know when his birthday is, so how come he doesn't know yours? You two talked about it that's why you know when his was, did he forgot yours? Or didn't check the date? Maybe.

You were reading a book by your desk near the window when a shadow sudden block the light from the sun. Carlos sat near you more on the window in front of you, reading along the words from the literature, you didn't acknowledge his presence and continue with you activity.

The boy in maroon frown, usually you've notice him and give him your sweet cheek kisses before talking about your day.

"Hey," Carlos called out, popping to the chair beside you not after turning it around so the back rest is in front of him.

"Hi Carlito," you greeted, not giving him any attention as you flip another page. The troublemaker waited for another word from you, but is met with silence.

"Why Aren't you talking? Speak to me." He requested, more like demanded. He's not used to this routine, he's not used to your silence, he's not used to you ignoring him.

No one ignores him.

"Hmm?" That was the last straw for him. taking the book from you, he successfully gain your attention that he's unconsciously craving. "Give it back,"

With an eye roll, he stated. "Oh, now I've got you to notice me. I feel loved." Said Carlos, sarcasm lingering in his voice. The book just above his head.

"Quit playing around, just give it back." As much as you want to mess with your lover, he needs to know you're mad at him. The problem about that is; he never takes things seriously.

The troublemaker's heart dropped when you turned around and fix your desk, ignoring him, he'll never admit that it hurts him. He's too spoiled with your affection that he doesn't know what to do when you ignore him.

The troublemaker is taken aback, but didn't show it. Hiding it behind in a raised brow, making it look like he's questioning your odd behavior; a part of him does though.

He knew he made a mistake, but kept denying it. What did he even do anyway?

Ignoring your words, he continued, "What's so special about this anyway? You've already read this a thousand times."

"But I just got to my favorite part!"

"You'll get it back when you get it back." You don't know how much he wants to peak on your pouty lips. Placing the book on the highest place he could find in your room, before leaning into nothing so he could fall onto your bed. You just stared at him as he made himself comfortable, you really don't know how this would end. "Why are still standing there? C'mere."

But his heart went back to besting animatedly when you came to his side once you put everything neatly on your desk. Though it irked him when you cuddle by his side with a gap between you two and your back is facing him. "What shit are you pulling?"

"What do you mean?" You know he doesn't like swearing in front of you, but when it comes, you know he's very much pissed off.

"[Name], there's a fucking gap between us, and you're telling me you don't know what I mean?" He cussed, pulling you deeply into him your back hitting his chest. The troublemaker buried his face in your neck, hot breath came in contact with your skin. "If I did something, say it. I'm no fortune-teller."

Neither of you said anything afterwards, he let you draw small shapes on his hands as well as arms. He gave you time to process your words before saying it to him, which is mostly unlike him. Carlos gave you small pecks as a sign of affection with a bit of rue. He wants to know what he did, he not good at being aware if his tease can be turned into insults.

"My birthday." You mumbled, snuggling deeper in his arms.

"Your what?"

"My birthday, you forgot my birthday..."

"Oh." He paused, realisation hit him like a brick. his mind bring him back to that same day, you weren't your usual self. you're enthusiastic about something that day, but as the day pass by he notice you became gloomy by every second. though, he only thought you were tired. "Sorry- what... how can i make it up to you?"

Thinking of what you want was something harder than you expected, "I don't really know. You can think of something."

The boy hummed in thought, his arms feel goosebumps as your fingers trail across it, writing the words love you repeatedly but of course he doesn't need to know that. and idea struck you. "I out of ideas, but—" he sighed, though it sounded with guilt as well as embarrassment, "I'm sorry, i can come up with something tomorrow. i won't forget it this time."

there are rare times where carlos would apologise, he delivered his sorry in a lazy tone, yet he means it all.

"it's alright, it was childish of me to do that." you smiled at him, carlos stared at you, analysing your features before he spoke again, loosing his trace.

"yea, you were an idiot." he yelp as you pinch his arm that you were just caressing a second ago.

your laugh has a nice ring in his ears, he erupt a low chuckle with you. he buries his face into your neck, your fragrance gives him comfort that he can't describe with words. "i love you, i'm sorry."

"i know, it's okay." and there it begins. mischievous creept up to your face, but he shows no signs of confusion.

carlos then again sound his thoughts, thinking you only respond to his sorry. "i love you, [name]." his voice is soft, and full of sincerity. making you melt of the spot. moments like this are something to cherish with him forever.

but sometimes he will get the taste of his own medicine. "i know." you replied, you felt giddy yet you pretend to doze off to slumber as you feel his arms tight around you.

"te amo, mi vida." his voice is firm yet gentle, as if demanding and begging for you to say it back. you can feel his breath by your neck

"mhm." is what he received. you wanna play like that?

chop.

"ack-!" you yelp, as he bit you by your shoulder. "why did you do that for?" looking back at him, trying to escape his grasp.

carlos kissed where he had bit you, before demanding "say it back."

"say what back?"

"i love you, say it back. right now. do it."

"carlito, i just want sleep."

"no you're not sleeping until— hey!" he exclaim, you hid under your blanket cutting him off. a huge smile is plastered on your face.

that gleam however, is wipped off when you feel a heavy body on top of you. crushing you. "you're heavyyy, off!"

"say i love you too, then I'll get off."

"no!"

"why not? i know you love me, say it back."

you emerged from you blanket, looking at him with a frown. "carlitooo" you whined as you try to push him off.

"amoooor" he mocked, inching his face closer to you. peaking at your lips, a smirk breaking into his face as he pulled away. "i love you."

pursed your lips together, your try not to break into how he kept his gaze at you. with a heavy sigh as well as an eye roll. you finally said it back, "i love you too."

"there you go," kissing you again, before he get off of you, bringing you body to his embrace. cuddling into your sheetings. "it wasn't so hard, was it?"

"it was challenging." he breathes a laugh at your reply.

"I'll take you on a date tomorrow, rest for now. idiot."

#encanto imagines #encanto #ecanto x reader #dolores madrigal #Dolores x reader #dolored madrigal x reader #carlos madrigal virus #carlos x reader #carlos madrigal x reader

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isleofdarkness · 6 months

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Chapter 7 FINAL DRAFT

Warnings- medical procedures, near-death experience, medical info, gun pointed at child, blood, murder, slight body horror, war, swearing, gang violence, trauma, flashbacks, slavery, chronic pain, selling souls Implied/referenced; genocide, starvation, character death, noncon, minor noncon, childhood prostitution, child sexual abuse, child abuse, torture, grievous injury, massacres, terrorism, gang violence

Part one

Sultana Jasmine was pacing.

That was what struck Li Shang first. Before he even noticed the books stacked on the table or the pale, drawn look on Aladdin's face, he noticed that Jasmine, eternally unshakeable Jasmine, was pacing.

Whatever they had been summoned for, it was going to be bad.

A glance around the room confirmed that suspicion. Everyone was there- Heracles, Megara, and Hryhoriy, King Arthur and Queen Guinevere, Tiana and Naveen, Kida, Milo, Sweet, Audrey, Vinny, and Whitmore, Aurora and Phillip, Snow, Rose, and Florian, Esmeralda and Phoebus, Ariel, Eric, and Melody, Elsa, Kristoff, and Anna, Moana, Merida, Ella, Christopher, and Anthony, Jabari and Dahlia, Anita and Roger, Hank McCoy, Logan, Kurt, and Charles Xavier, Alma Madrigal, even Oliver Warbucks. Everyone was there, even those who rarely came to these meetings. Something was very, very wrong.

Jasmine spotted them and stopped, hijab swinging as she whipped to face them. "Welcome to Jahannam! Please, don't linger in the doorway, come in and suffer with the rest of us!"

Ancestors protect them.

"What's going on?" He asked, stepping further into the room. There were a few murmurs of assent- everyone else was just as confused as he was.

Jasmine gestured sharply to the beaten books on the table. "The Isle kids snuck these across the barrier and had Jabari deliver them to us. These books are all about the Isle." She grabbed one and tossed it to Mulan, then one to him. "Shan Sarangerel, daughter of Shan Yu, and a written record of Shan Yu's efforts to keep the Isle alive with one bottle of medicine a year." She tossed one to Heracles. "That one's all about the suffering of Hades. I would advise you not to read it on a full stomach." She tossed a massive book to Naveen. "That's about the efforts by Doctor Facilier to help the children of the Isle." One to Kida. "Would you like to read about Rick, the son of Helga? He's a lot like Kaldur. And this-" She threw one to Anna, "Is about a little girl named Anna, daughter of Hans. Don't read it on a full stomach. The good done by Madonna Tremaine-" she tossed one to Ella, "The life of Anthony Tremaine II," to Anthony, "The life of Mal," to Aurora, "And our dear Claudine," to Esmeralda. "And more! Any requests?"

None of them had the nerve to answer.

"Diego de Vil, Belle LeGume, Harriet Jones, Jay, Riah, Harabolos, Evie, Uma, Yzla, Mischa, Reza, Sammy, Davin- prostitution, torture, abuse, rape, death, and more!" She held out to Rapunzel. "This one's on your daughter, Ginny. She's doing well, even has her own EMS- well, except for the fact that she's been raised by Mother Gothel, not by Cassandra." Rapunzel gasped, but Jasmine wasn't done. "You're about to be a grandmother, because she's nearly due with a baby. Of course, that's not mentioning the two children one of her loves already has-" she whipped to face Anthony, "Possibly the children of Anthony Tremaine the second! Congratulations.

"Riah," she continued, whirling to face Aurora, "Got that limp and all of those broken bones when he was ten, when six grown men broke into his house, raped him, and tried to beat him to death. He was only saved because Hades had a gut feeling and managed to escape a session with Maleficent halfway across the island. They had to do surgery where all he had was half a bottle of whiskey. Claudine," to Esmeralda, "Has been sexually and religiously abused her entire life, to the point where Ginny is almost certain she has dissociative identity disorder and to the point of permanent, irreversible damage caused by trauma she doesn't even remember! And just you wait until you read what her older sister has done to try and protect her!" Jasmine threw another book to the table. "Meet Lydia Snoops, who sold her soul at the age of five to save lives and has been turned into a monster. She's been sexually abused her entire life, she started her period when she was three, and she has to regularly go back to the cult that abused her to keep Claudine from getting hurt, even though it means taking the abuse herself. Our dear Mal," back to Aurora, "Is asexual, as fae tend to be. Her mother knows this. Maleficent has been selling her asexual daughter to a brothel whenever Mal fails her impossible explanations, she's been doing so ever since Mal was ten. It's to the point where the brothel is checked every night just in case. And Jay-"

They were spared her horror by Jasmine slipping into Arabic, but her fury and horror were catching even with the language barrier. It took nearly an hour for Jasmine to cut herself off, spinning on her heel to face one of the mirrors and pulling out a tube of eyeliner. Oh, she was beyond angry.

No one dared say a word as Jasmine wiped off and reapplied her flawless makeup, calming herself down. Her rage was gone when she turned back to them, replaced by grim determination. "I've already spoken to Fairy Godmother about my concerns, but she refuses to listen. We'll have to take this into our own hands." She grabbed a large stack of paper and dropped it onto the table. "Julieta was kind enough to send the files she collected on the six and Katherine Pulitzer has conducted multiple interviews about life on the Isle. Charles, would you be willing to conduct more extensive exams, as most of these six are genetic variants?" Charles nodded. "We should also conduct psychological evaluations. Ginny has assumptions but, without any proper medical training, nothing is certain. A word from you or Dr McCoy may be enough to petition for these children to be allowed regular and unrestricted contact with a therapist and a psychiatrist. These records are not to be released until Beast does something truly stupid and only within reason. I'm starting to look to remove children from the Isle." Woah- "I'm setting up a system here, but shelter and food will not be enough to help these children. I will need doctors, psychologists, paediatricians, medical specialists, and childcare specialists. If any of you are willing, I would readily welcome your help. If you are unwilling," she shrugged, "You may leave. No grudge will be held."

None of them left.

"Thank you."

Two weeks later, Riah started the worst day of his year by falling down the stairs.

October twenty-ninth was the anniversary. Not just the weeks surrounding it, when his symptoms built up and eased back, but the exact day It had happened, the day he'd nearly been killed. The day six men had broken into his home and made him know he would never be safe anywhere. The day... The day. He hated the day.

With his sixteenth birthday coming up in two days, his curse was getting worse. He'd woken up to spots dancing in his vision and thick fog filling his mind. It had taken a hellish fifteen minutes for him to remember where he'd hidden his oxygen concentrator, then another fifteen for him to get to it with how he was wheezing and coughing. The machine did its job, but just barely. It was a day where he absolutely needed the machine's help, but there was no way in hell he was letting the others or the Auradon kids see him relying on a machine to breathe. If he was lucky, he might have been able to get thirty minutes between each use. He just had to properly time a few bathroom breaks throughout the day. Unlike he would on the Isle, he made sure to wear it under his shirt, using a jacket to further conceal it. His brain protested not using it, but he wasn't letting anyone figure out he needed a stupid oxygen machine.

On top of everything else from the date, it was a bad pain day. A storm was rolling in on a cold day and his bones let him know about it. Even the bones that weren't usually a problem, his arms, good leg, ribs, jaw, and pelvis, ached. His skull felt like someone had buried a knife in his temporal hard enough to crush the side of his head. He could barely move his hands, couldn't even properly hold onto his cane. And his bad leg? His bad leg hadn't hurt this much in years. Hell, it had only hurt this badly when it was actually broken.

And he had class.

On the Isle, a day like this would be a day he wouldn't get out of bed. He wouldn't mind Hades and Seph worrying over him, and he wouldn't worry about them thinking he couldn't do anything for himself. This should have been a day where he curled up under the warm blankets and went in and out of sleep, his parents waking him every time a nightmare started to take hold and making sure he ate when he couldn't even walk. A day where he wouldn't mind who saw him relying on his dog for even the simple stuff. A shitty day, sure, but less shitty than it could have been. A day where he didn't have to do anything, because he couldn't find it in himself. But not in Auradon. In Auradon, a day like this meant class. And class meant walking down thirty stone stairs.

He knew he was going to fall. It was just a matter of how bad the fall would be. He'd hoped his arm and leg could at least hold out to the middle of the staircase.

They didn't. Not even two steps down, his bad leg collapsed. His bad left arm, his cane arm, folded when he put too much weight on it.

He went down.

His foot slipped out from under him as he lurched back on reflex, putting his elbow behind him to take the impact on it instead of the back of his skull. His bad leg caught on one of the stairs as he slid, forcing him into a tumble, and he tried to curl in on himself to protect his face and stomach from the worst of it, just like he would on the Isle.

Of course, that had been a routine for a simpler time, when he didn't have two very snappable bones coming out of his skull.

His horns were the first crack he heard. But they weren't the last.

Horns hand fingers leg skull-

He wasn't sure who screamed when he fell. He was pretty sure it wasn't him.

Spine leg leg hands-

He hit the ground hard enough to wind him and slammed into one of the heavy, cushy chairs. His head cracked back against the side table and he saw stars, going limp.

When he blinked the darkness from his vision, his first instinct was to scream. His second was to start swearing. He managed to refrain from both. He still had shocked scared tears in his eyes when he looked up to see his friends racing down the stairs. And to feel the gaze of every Auradon kid in the building on him, concerned gazes cutting into him like knives. Fucking fantastic. They were all going to see him as weak and helpless just because of a bad day, his friends were going to see him as weak and helpless because of a bad day, Jay and maybe even Ben were going to see him as fucking weak and helpless and he had to show that he wasn't-

Refusing to show weakness, he forced himself to his feet, putting weight on his bad and now-broken left leg in the absence of his cane. The smile he gave his concerned friends definitely looked more like a snarl or a grimace, but he didn't care. "Fucking... just tell Fairy Godbitch I'll be late to class. I'm gonna see the nurse cause I just broke my leg in three places. Where's my cane?"

"How'd the ground taste?" Jay joked on what had to be reflex, holding Riah's cane out to him before withdrawing. Riah saw red. "Wait, you shouldn't-"

"Shouldn't what, Jay?" Riah snapped. Gods, his day sucked absolute dick and he'd only been awake for an hour. He needed to get to the nurse so that everyone wasn't staring at him like he deserved pity or something. "Walk with a broken leg? Newsflash, my leg's been broken for five fucking years and I got along just fine without someone carrying me to and from like I'm some kinda princess. Give me my godsdamn cane or I swear on my father that I'll be removing it from the hands of your corpse."

His eyes went black to prove his point, but none of them were impressed. Mal was giving him a shocked, worried, pitying look and Riah's blood boiled. "You shouldn't walk on a broken leg, cane or not, so-"

"I'm going to be walking out of here with or without my fucking cane so you'd best give it to me if you're so concerned." He reached out his hand, using magick to pull the cursed metal in his cane out of Jay's hand and into his. "I can manage by myself, I don't need help. I especially don't need pity. Stop acting like I'm fragile or some shit." He turned sharply, levelling a murderous glare at the Auradon kids between him and the door. "Is there a reason you guys are in my way?"

The Auradon kids practically dove out of his way. He stormed past them.

Just to prove his point, he forced himself to walk without his cane. The rage gave him enough fuel to walk sort of normally, but the fading adrenaline meant that he felt every. Single. Step.

The second he ducked around the corner of the building, he folded, leaning hard on both his cane and the wall and trying desperately to breathe on his own. Stupid leg and stupid curse and stupid everyone who thought he couldn't do anything and stupid Auradon and fuck, he was going to pass out-

There was no way in hell he was letting anyone see him like this after what had just happened. Fuck it. If Fairy Godbitch wanted to throw him out of school she could. He wasn't getting across campus without it but he sure as shit wasn't going to let anyone see it, so he had to. He whispered a spell, calling on magick from his grandmother, to make himself invisible to those he didn't want to see him. Once he was sure that was done, he pulled the flattened plastic mask out of his shirt, fixed the metal edges over his mouth and nose, and pulled the elastic bands over his head to fix it to his face. He didn't bother to lift his shirt to see the buttons on the machine hidden at his side, just flipped the power switch and sighed in relief as the oxygen concentrator started working.

Fucking sixteenth birthday. Bitchass spell couldn't even wait two days to kill him.

Claudine was a lot stronger than Mal thought. When she and Jay started after Riah, Claudine held them both back without effort. "Don't. You'll only make it worse."

"What are you talking about?" Riah had fallen down the stairs and was walking on a broken leg without his cane. How could they possibly make that any worse?

All too aware of the eyes on them, Claudine dragged Jay and Mal back up the stairs, leading the gang to the closest of their rooms and locking the door behind her. Wasn't she supposed to be Riah's friend? How could she be so calm? Mal would've lost her shit if Jay tried what Riah was currently doing. "You can't try to help him. It's not a good idea in general and it's definitely not a good idea today." Claudine bit her lip and sighed, clearly trying to figure something out. "I can't go into too much detail, but today is the anniversary of when his leg was broken. There was a lot of stuff that happened. Those breaks are all from today, as well as most of his scars. Have you guys seen the scars on his arms, collarbone, and jaw?" They were hard to see but yeah, they'd all seen them. "There's more of those across nineteen of his ribs, on his spine, on his pelvis, and down his good leg, and those are from where they managed to operate on his to put the bones back into place. He was awake during that and that was five years ago today. That's why he's been so touchy these past few weeks and he's going to be touchy for a few weeks after this, he always has been. Today is always a bad day for him, he usually doesn't even get out of bed. And it's a bad idea to try to help him in general, but it's one of the worst things you could do today."

"If he needs help," Mal argued, "Why's it so bad to try and help him?"

"Because none of you know how to ask and none of you ask anyway," Claudine explained patiently. "If you want to help Riah, you've got to ask if you can help him, not if he needs help. And if he says no, you have to respect that. Riah tries to be independent, he hates when people assume or act like he can't do something. It makes him feel as though people see him as less than and when you do that, he goes overboard to prove you wrong. I've seen him scale a brick wall using just his hands to prove that he could get up the stairs and I know Hades has seen him do a great deal more. Riah is very capable of a lot of stuff and he's usually really good about sticking to his limits, but he'll push himself too hard if he thinks people are going to think less of him for what he can't do. Riah was probably extremely embarrassed about falling down the stairs in front of everyone and I probably didn't help by screaming and drawing attention. What he needed us to do was act as though someone like Jay had just tripped. When he falls down the stairs, unless he's saying something is wrong, it's best to make a joke like Jay did and move on. You give him his cane and if he puts his hand out, you help him to his feet like it's no big deal. Don't even put your hand out to help him. I know you meant well and you just didn't know, so I'm telling you guys now so that this doesn't happen again." Huh. Claudine could definitely be a nurse. "Never, ever, try to take his cane away. That would be like taking Agony's arm or leg-" There was a collective wince. They'd all seen what happened when someone did that and how severely upset Agony had been. "Because that is like Riah's arm or leg. Plus, he can walk without it. He can run without it. And he will. Believe me, I've seen him do both and the aftermath of both is never pretty. If he doesn't have his cane he will hurt himself. He'll walk and run on that leg and if the bone breaks the wrong way it's an emergency trip to the hospital and several blood transfusions from the three people he can receive blood from and who aren't in Auradon."

"What about his breathing?" Evie asked. Shit, was there something wrong with how he was breathing? Mal hadn't even noticed. She was supposed to notice this stuff to take care of her crew. "His lips and fingernails were blue and he was breathing too fast and not deep enough."

"His curse." His fucking what? "Riah has a curse trying to crush his lungs, he's had it for his entire life. He wears an amulet to keep it from killing him, that blue stone he doesn't take off, but..." Claudine gave Mal a nervous look. "It was cast by Maleficent and you know how her curses are. They kill on the sixteenth birthday. And Riah's sixteenth birthday is in two days."

"Hold the fuck up," Mal raised a hand to cut Claudine off. "Are you telling me right now that Riah is cursed to fucking die on his sixteenth birthday, which is in two days, and neither of you told me or any of the gods know how many magical beings we have access to?"

"He thought he could handle it and I thought he could, too. Mal, Riah wasn't cursed to die when he turned sixteen, he was cursed to die before he turned thirteen. He's lived with a spell trying to kill him for three years. He thought, with the magic he would have access to here, he would be able to keep fighting it. But..." Tears started to glitter in Claudine's eyes. Claudine never cried. "He can't. He only has so much left to use and once it's gone, he's going to die. But he won't take more. He can't. He would rather die."

"Take what?" She needed someone to draw a diagram so she could keep track of the punches. Riah was going to die in two days. Great.

"Life." What?! "I don't know how it works. Riah drained the life energy, the souls, out of four people almost fourteen years ago. That's how he's stayed alive. With that abundance of life magick, he's been able to extend his own life. But it's been so long, he's running out, and he can't get more."

"Can't he just drain someone else?"

"And get us all kicked out of Auradon?" Good point. "Even if that weren't a problem, he's not capable of it. He's got something keeping him from using it. Someone would have to willingly perform magick to transfer their life, their soul, into him, knowing that they would be destroying themselves. Their lives would be gone and so would their souls. Their souls would be destroyed, taken apart for magick, and they would cease to exist in even the afterlife. No one would be willing to do that. There's... there's no way to fix it."

No. No, Mal refused to believe that. Her crew had survived dozens of things that couldn't be fixed. If Evie's heart could be fixed, if Carlos's lungs could be fixed, if her brain could be fixed, if Jay's spine could be fixed, Riah could be fixed. They just had to think outside of the box. There had to be a way and they were going to find it. "Claudine, I need you to stay with Riah today. Don't leave him alone. We'll get you excused from class." Think think think, there had to be someone or something that could help. "Jay, get Jordan to bring her dad to talk to us. Evie, get Adam Constantine and see if Snow White can get us in touch with Aurora. Carlos, see if Audrey can get us an audience with Kida, or if Kida has any kids we can talk to. I'll talk to Jane and Doctor Sweet. If you have the chance, ask if they can get us in touch with Maui, Elsa, Heracles, Te Fiti or Moana, Rapunzel, Sofia the First, anyone who knows a lot about magic. No Merlin and no Fairy Godmother. There's an answer to this, we've just gotta find it."

They had to try.

Thank God Doctor McCoy had been visiting. If he hadn't been, Julieta was almost certain the Isle boy would have died.

The boy with the cane- Riah, she remembered- had only just managed to stagger through the doorway before he had collapsed, clumsily throwing a hand out to catch the edge of the desk and slow his fall. Julieta, as fast as she was, had barely managed to get to her feet before Riah's hands went to his chest and spread out just under his neck, pushing down slightly. It was a strange sign, almost like a failed attempt at a choking sign, but his intention became clear when she got a look at him.

His lips and fingertips were blue. Each tiny exhale came out as a strangled grunt. His chest was falling far too deep, as if his body was trying to suck his ribs to his spine. His nostrils were flared behind his oxygen mask and he was mouthing something as he curled in on himself. He went down before Julieta could kneel in front of him.

"His lungs!" She grabbed him by the shoulders and laid him on his back, undoing the magnets in the shoulders of his shirt to undo the magnets of his binder before starting chest compressions. "He's in respiratory arrest-" she wasn't doing any good, only forcing more air out of lungs that couldn't expand. "Take over chest compressions so I can call 911."

"It won't do any good," he argued, handing her his phone as he took over. "An ambulance won't get here in time. Call Kurt and tell him he needs to teleport to your office and that there's a medical emergency incoming. Cecilia needs to set up the life support machines for respiratory arrest."

The three rings of the phone were the longest few seconds of Julieta's life. She didn't give the person on the other end of the line time to speak. "This is Julieta Madrigal we need Kurt to come to my office at Auradon Prep immediately and we need Cecilia to prepare McCoy's equipment for respiratory arrest."

"Charles!" The voice on the other end shouted, accent thick even in one syllable. "Tell him what you know, I will be there in two seconds."

Another voice started to speak. She didn't give them the chance to. "The patient is a fifteen-year-old transgender boy in respiratory arrest. He has a curse constricting his lungs and his lungs cannot expand. He's on oxygen but it won't do good if he can't breathe."

"Slow down," the man ordered gently. "What do you know about the curse?"

"It crushes his lungs. He has an amulet to create a barrier between his lungs and the spell but the amulet doesn't always work. He wouldn't say much about it."

"So the spell is a physical thing?"

"The way he explained it, yes." She knew nothing about this kind of magic. The Encanto was a blessing, a miracle, not a curse. She didn't know anything about curses.

"They'll be there in one-" There was a strange sound as three people appeared in a puff of smoke. "Moment."

The older of the two women, a Latina woman with brown locs pulled back in a bun, knelt next to Riah and put her fingers to his neck. "No pulse." She pulled the shirt and binder off the rest of the way, making access easier. "McCoy, move on three. One, two, three-" McCoy jerked back and she quickly got his clothes off and pulled the strap for his strange oxygen machine over his head. "Resume." McCoy went back to chest compressions as she tore the corners from the wax paper covers on the electrodes and poured a clear gel into her hand. "McCoy. One, two, three." He moved back again and she quickly applied the gel across Riah's chest, then applied the five electrodes. "Resume."

The young woman with red hair put her fingers to her temple, brow wrinkling. "I can't move it much, but I've given him maybe an inch of room. There's something really wrong with the shape of his lungs. I've never seen anything like it. It looks like some kind of ILD, but I can't find an exact diagnosis."

McCoy frowned. "We'll have to do an imaging scan." He didn't say it, but the way the atmosphere was quickly turning grim told Julieta how dangerous the situation was becoming.

The machine came to life, showing a pulse that was far too slow and far too shallow. But it wasn't a flatline. Cecilia let out a small sigh of relief, turning over his arm and quickly finding a vein and swabbing the skin. "Julieta, Jean, hold him down. McCoy, in one, two, three-" McCoy stopped compressions again as Cecilia pressed a needle into his arm and injected it.

Riah jerked hard, eyes flying open for just a moment as he gasped and choked. He wasn't awake for long, only a few seconds, but the added space gave his heart and lungs a chance to start working again. When he went back down, he was breathing.

"Keep him down," Cecilia ordered. She quickly set up the ventilator she'd bought with her and got a breathing tube down like it was easy. No one dared to breathe as they waited a few minutes, making sure Riah wasn't going to back into immediate danger. He didn't. "He's not stabilized yet, but he's fit for transport. Call his parents and Kurt can bring them back to the institute."

"His parents aren't available." It was horrifying to think about. Riah had nearly died and they couldn't so much as call them to say what had happened. "He's one of the Isle children. I can contact his friends and the family taking care of him here."

After a beat of horrified silence, Cecilia nodded. "Do that. Hopefully, we'll have good news to send to his parents."

How had none of them noticed? That one question played on repeat in Jay's head as everything kept getting worse and worse.

How did we not notice he's cursed? He'd wondered as Claudine explained Riah's situation. They all knew Riah had an issue with his lungs, but he'd brushed it off as some lung condition, said it was no big deal. And they had all believed him. How could none of them have noticed that his "condition" was a curse, a curse that had been actively trying to end his life for three years?

How did we not notice him dying? The thought had been agonizing. Jay took it upon himself to notice everything about his friends. If Evie looked a bit too thin or perfect, if Mal looked a bit too desperate, if Carlos was just a second off- Jay was supposed to notice this stuff. He was the one who watched out for the crew even if Mal already was. If something got past Mal, he was supposed to catch it. How had he not caught the fact that Riah was dying? How could anyone hide something so well, knowing they were going to die in just a few days? Had there been something he missed? Had he overlooked something? Had some sort of negligence on his part led to this getting this bad?

How could he hide this from us? Yeah, they hadn't known him for long, but this wasn't something you hid from your allies. Why would he do that? How had he been able to? How the hell could someone be so good at lying that he could hide a curse and his impending death from them?

What else is he hiding?

What if he dies?

Considering how often his mind went to worst-case scenarios, Jay was no stranger to praying he would be wrong. He could count on one hand the amount of times he'd been hoping it this hard. Riah was tough, after all. He wasn't going to let some stupid curse kill him. When the blue demon (he would worry about that later) grabbed him by the shoulder and made them appear in some sort of hospital room, Jay had almost convinced himself he was going to be wrong.

The second he saw Riah, that growing hope died.

How the hell had he gotten so bad without any of them noticing?

He knew Riah was thin, they all were, but the lack of a jacket and long pants let him see that Riah was skeletal. He had some muscle, sure, but it was all flat and dense and right underneath the skin, as though he didn't have even the thinnest layer of fat. His skin was clinging to his muscles and bones. What Jay had thought were just high cheekbones and a sharp jawline suddenly became evidence of severe starvation- how had this guy managed to get out of bed, let alone walk the quarter-mile to the nurse's office? He had picked Riah up, how had he not noticed the guy being a bag of bones? How could Riah, who easily ate more than any of them, be so skinny?

The paper gown revealed just how bad his leg was. He'd known the bone was curved, but thick jeans had hidden the worst of it. The skin on his left thigh was bumpy, as though the bone had healed in spikes under it. His leg wasn't merely bruised, it was almost entirely painted in shades of black and blue. Bruises painted his thigh entirely in patterns that meant breaks, and most of those bruises were old. His knee was bent in a slightly weird way, as though the lower part of the joint had turned a bit, and the swelling and bruising showed both dislocation and breaks. There was even a slight but unnatural indent to his calf, with bruising that looked like it had broken a few weeks ago- the entire leg was an emergency on its own. How had Riah been able to put any weight on that leg, let alone walk on it without his cane?

The third thing he noticed was the least important, but somehow it surprised him the most. They'd all been wondering why Fairy Godmother insisted on calling Riah Rhiannon, a girl's name, and why he'd been put in a girl's room. Despite everything, he felt a hot flash of anger. What was wrong with this place? Riah had made it abundantly clear that he was a guy, so what did it matter if his body didn't match? There was no way they hadn't known about him being a boy. Were they trying to make some kind of point? Allah, that was so messed up.

Claudine wasn't surprised. She darted to Riah's side as the rest of them paused, squeezing his limp hand. "How bad is it?"

Another one covered in blue fur, this one built like a gorilla, shook his head. "The damage is too severe to be fixed and his blood type makes a transplant impossible. There's no way to make his lungs function again. I'm so sorry."

No.

Jay nearly staggered under the weight of those words. Riah... no, Riah couldn't die. He'd been fine yesterday. They'd been joking and complaining just like normal only yesterday. Riah had been a bit stressed, yeah, but he'd been fine. And now he was going to die. He was going to die and Jay would never see his smile or hear his laugh or trade insults with him ever again. He was only fifteen and he was going to die. And they would have to send his body to the Isle with the barge as though it was garbage, and there was no guarantee Hades would get his body before anyone else because Hades wouldn't even know Riah was dead-

Claudine jolted, face going hard. "There is. We need to get him to the Isle. Right. Now."

"What're you talking about?" Mal asked. Was it something about letting Riah die with his family?

"He's had transplants before, his heart and kidneys. A lung transplant is possible, but we need to get him to the Isle for that to happen." She shot to her feet. "Mara Winchester is a complete universal donor and her tissue changes to match whoever it's transplanted into."

"Winchester?" Jay shared a confused look with Mal. Mara Winchester as in that weird girl who lived in the forest? The one who smoked, drank, swore every three words and insulted someone every five? The firstborn daughter of Madam Mim and the Horned King, with the-

The pure white skin, curly black hair, and glowing red eyes.

Holy shit.

"He's Matilda Mim," Evie whispered. Matilda Mim the Third was a bit of an urban legend on the Isle. The secondborn kid of the Horned King and Madam Mim, born three months premature, cursed, and left to die at only a few hours old. Legend was that Matilda had actually survived and was still alive-

"Don't call him that," Claudine corrected. "His name is Riah. But yes, he was."

Holy shit!

"We're wasting time," she continued. "The longer we wait, the more damage is done. If we get him there within the next hour he might be able to survive long enough for the transplant-"

"What's going on?"

Jay's.

Heart.

Stopped.

They all whirled to Ben standing in the doorway, Aurora and Audrey with him. His eyes were tight with worry, his muscles tensed and ready to move. He looked worried, but there was no way he would let them take Riah back to the Isle at the drop of a hat-

"We're taking Riah to the Isle to save his life," Claudine said, squaring her shoulders and giving him a look as if daring him to argue. "And we're taking him there right now."

"You'd better believe they are."

As if this couldn't get any more confusing-

The man who stepped out of the shadows was Isle, it was obvious even if Jay hadn't known who she was. The scars on her skin and across her face- he could match so many of her features to Riah's- the tattoos painting her arms, her light turquoise hair, buzzed at the back and sides but long at the top in a way no one on Auradon used, her black armour-

Maverick fucking Mim.

She gave them a crooked smile, just like Riah's, and stepped further into the room. She was only a few inches taller than Ben, but she seemed to tower over him "Let me make this clear, Benny Baby- if Riah dies, everyone dies. Riah is not supposed to die yet and if he does, it fucks the natural order sideways in a way that reality really can't afford. I ain't in the position to kill myself so that his death wouldn't upset the natural order, so you're going to take him to the Isle so that I can continue playing cleanup for the absolute fucking disaster your daddy created. Now." She turned back to them. "There's a specific way you have to do this."

"How the fuck are you here?" Mal asked, finally finding her tongue in her shock. Maverick Mim didn't have any way to be in Auradon. She was powerful with magick, sure, but if she hadn't broken the barrier yet, she wasn't going to. So how had she gotten to Auradon?

"Technically I'm not," she shrugged. Yeah, because that made sense. "I'm astral projecting so that I can talk to you because I don't want the world to end. And, by the way, ask King Beast how I know Riah's dying because that fucker knows, and he also knows why Riah's death before my death would upset the natural order of everything. We ain't got time to unpack all that. Now, are you gonna listen to me or are you gonna let him die so that the world ends?"

If any of them had a response, she didn't give them enough time to say it. "As I was saying, you guys need to follow directions because there's a certain way this needs done. Get him to the barrier but don't open it and I'll take care of the rest. You're going to need to drive."

"The Blackbird can get there faster," some bald guy in a wheelchair said.

Maverick shook her head. "Not gonna work. Number one, the hospital is underground-"

"Since when?" Mal sounded frazzled. Well, it was nice to see he wasn't the only one who had no clue what was going on.

"If one of you idiots interrupts me one more motherfucking time I swear to the gods," Maverick snapped. "We moved it because of I'll explain later. Point is, shit's underground now. There's no way for an aircraft to get to it even if we could get an aircraft through the barrier safely. So, you need to drive to where the bridge breaks. I'll handle everything else. I'll explain once the world is no longer in danger of ending. Get my little brother to the barrier and bring Benny Baby with you." She turned again, giving Ben a grin that was all teeth. "We need to talk."

"Who are you?" Ben managed.

"That answer will have to wait until we're face-to-face, golden boy, and none of you are allowed to tell him. I think a demonstration will drive it home better than me just saying it." With that cryptic statement, she turned back to the five. "Just get my brother to the barrier. I'll explain everything once he's stable. You guys willing to do that or do I have to do something that's going to bring Auradon's fist down on thousands of innocent children?"

Jay was so confused he was practically dizzy from it- he was almost certain he was physically swaying from it. Mal grabbed his hand, squeezing hard to try and ground him. "We'll get him to the barrier. Everything else can wait."

That was why Mal was the leader. She had a gift for keeping her head in even the worst situations.

Maverick nodded. "I'll be waiting. And, no matter what, you guys need to not interfere with what I'm going to do unless I tell you to. If I don't tell you to do anything, you do nothing. That goes for the X-Men, too." She gestured at the adults so that there was no question who the "X Men" were.

"I'll keep them in line," Mal promised. With one final nod, Maverick stepped back into the shadows, melting into them. Just as inexplicably as she had arrived, she was gone. "Let's get moving, fast. If she's involved, we need to believe her because she never gets involved unless it's the apocalypse."

"Who was that?" Ben asked, struggling to sound composed. The poor guy looked as confused as Jay felt.

"That," Mal gestured at the shadow Maverick had vanished into, "Was our sign that the world is going to end and a way to keep it from ending. On the Isle, her word is law. If she orders you to jump, no matter what gang you're part of, you say 'How high?' If she's saying we need to get Riah to the Isle, we're getting Riah to the fucking Isle. Now let's get moving before he dies."

Ben had no idea what was going on. It turned out that the Isle kids didn't, either.

The entire journey in the X-Van was spent listening to Claudine explain everything. No matter how bad Riah's physical conditions had seemed, they were only the surface of the issues. Riah had been born nearly three months premature. He'd been blind when he was younger and had needed surgeries and different treatments to fix this, but his eyes were still sensitive to light and he struggled with processing visual information. He'd needed multiple organs replaced- his heart, his kidneys, his intestines, and even two vertebrae. He'd had brain surgery when he was three to lessen severe epilepsy, but he was still epileptic and had seizures triggered by stress (which he was on medications for, but still.) His left femur wasn't simply broken, it had been eighty-five percent shattered. Fixing it had been impossible for reasons Ben never got but they all seemed to know. He had chronic pain from dozens of broken bones and this pain was sometimes so severe that he couldn't get out of bed. Today had been one of those days, and Riah had still forced himself out of bed and tried to walk down the stairs.

The only area Claudine didn't know much about was his lungs. That was where Doctor McCoy stepped in.

"Getting an imaging scan was far easier than you think. Equipment for mutants with ice, fire, and electricity abilities worked like a charm. This is why these six must see a provider used to working with genetic variants- if this had been detected earlier, we would have been able to act before it was an emergency." So they needed mutant doctors. He would have to see if the Xavier Institute would be willing to treat them moving forward. "Riah's lungs are extremely malformed. If I had to guess, I would say they were the size of an eight-year-old's lungs, and a small eight-year-old at that. Their growth has been severely restricted by the curse. As a result, they've grown into an extremely dysfunctional shape. The walls of his lungs are inconsistent, some parts are far too thick while some parts are as thin as tissue paper. The insides are almost eighty percent scar tissue, I suspect due to the way they've been forced to grow. It appears he's had some sort of laryngotracheal reconstruction surgery, surgery to fix his windpipe, at least twice in his life, but there's still a great deal of damage and malformation with his windpipe."

"He shouldn't be alive," Audrey whispered, eyes wide with horror. "How can he still be alive?"

"It appears he has some minor form of immortality. His body seems to adapt to any issues that put his life at risk. I noticed in the scans that he has scar tissue across his intestines, right under the scar across his stomach. An injury like this should not have been able to heal and should have required removal and a great deal of medical intervention, but his body was able to heal the damage and restore function. Scans of his brain, stomach, heart, liver, and spinal cord reveal similar scars and similar healing. If I had to guess, I would say the tissue in his lungs has mutated to function despite the damage. The real question is why this ability suddenly stopped." The Isle kids shared a minute, knowing look. "I hope to speak to someone who knows more about his medical history."

"Hades should know," Claudine whispered. "He's been taking care of Riah for Riah's entire life. He knows everything there is to know about Riah's medical issues and he'll probably be at the hospital."

"Fantastic." McCoy looked almost like a child at Christmas.

"We're bringing his dog back with us," Aurora said. Ben looked at her, puzzled. Since when did Riah have a dog? And why did they need to bring a dog with them to Auradon? "He has a service dog, Lydia, and he wasn't allowed to bring her with him. He needs her."

"She does a lot," Claudine added. "She helps him get around, grabs stuff for him, keeps him from falling or helps him get up after a fall, opens and closes stuff, wakes him up from nightmares, alerts for his panic attacks, meltdowns, shutdowns, flashbacks, and dissociation, and she helps him feel safe. She can even alert them to his seizures before he has one, sometimes an hour before they happen. I've seen how much she helps him. She's as important to him as his cane, maybe more."

"If she's so important, why wasn't he allowed to bring her?" He'd never said anything about the Isle kids not being allowed to bring pets, and he'd certainly never forbidden service dogs. If Riah had a service dog, he should have been allowed to bring her with him. And why hadn't he been told about this? At the very least he should have been made aware that Riah had an essential service dog he'd been forced to leave on the Isle.

"She's a Tibetan mastiff." A what? "According to Hades, her breed qualifies as giant, like a Newfoundland or Great Dane. She's heavier than Riah by around twenty pounds and when she stands on her hind legs, she can put her front paws on her shoulders. She looks like some kind of lion, too, or a bear. She's just a massive dog, and I guess they thought that her size made her dangerous." Claudine gave him a pleading look. "But she's not. She's so gentle, she doesn't have a mean bone in her body. She's not friendly, yeah, but she's not aggressive. I swear, she won't put anyone in danger. If anything, she'll keep bad situations from happening."

"If he needs her, I don't see why he shouldn't be allowed to have her. I had no idea he had a service dog that he wasn't allowed to bring with him." Maybe not having his dog would explain why Riah seemed to have gone downhill so fast in Auradon. He was the only one of the Isle kids who had lost weight, and he'd lost a lot- maybe the dog reminded him to eat, or helped relieve stress so he could eat? If she kept him from falling, his leg probably wouldn't be as bad as it looked. Maybe she could have calmed him down before he snapped under his anger or anxiety. Maybe a lot of his anxiety was from not having his dog- not having the comfort, not having an early warning for seizures, not having something that could remind him to listen to his emotions and take care of himself- it would make a lot of sense. He couldn't believe this had never been brought to his attention. "Do any of you have service animals you left behind? We can collect them while we're here."

Mal shook her head. "But I know I've got some stuff I left at home, and I know the others probably do. Would it be okay if we went home and grabbed some things we forgot?"

"Absolutely. Just don't bring any weapons." He felt stupid saying it. The Isle kids might have been rough, but they weren't dangerous. They weren't going to bring weapons into the school.

Jay snorted into his hand and Evie bit her lip to keep from laughing. Mal elbowed both of them, but it was clear she was trying not to laugh. "No problem."

With those plans made, Ben looked back at Riah, still unconscious in the gurney that had fit perfectly into the X-Van. He was so thin, far thinner than he'd been when he first came to Auradon, and covered in black bruises. It was hard to believe he'd been in Auradon for two months. While the other five had healed up and gained weight, he'd lost weight and gotten injury after injury. "Has he been eating?"

"He eats more than any of us," Jay frowned. "Sometimes I think he eats more than all of us put together. I don't get how he lost so much weight."

"Maybe we should ask Mara." Who was Mara and where did she come into this? Seeing Ben's confusion, Mal went on. "She's his biological sister, around a year older than him, and they look like they could be twins. If anyone knows how Riah managed to lose this much weight, it's her. Maybe she'll even know how to help him get back to normal... Well, normal for his weird ass. She'll be the one he's getting lungs from, so she should be there."

"His sister is really going to die for him?" That was a very impressive amount of sibling dedication, but God... How could they talk about that like it was no big deal? How were they supposed to talk to this girl knowing she was going to die so that Riah could live?

"What?" Mal gave him a strange look, then seemed to understand. "Oh- Mara's immortal. She sold her soul to the woman you saw earlier because Mara needs to be immortal for now. She'll just regenerate her lungs and she'll be fine."

"There isn't any magic on the Isle." If there was no magic, how could anyone sell their soul to anyone? How could they become magically immortal and get to magically regenerate without magic?

"There's names," Mal explained. "If I were to ask someone to give me their name- never have, by the way, except in emergencies when someone won't be able to live unless I do it, and I always free them the second they aren't in danger- and they were to say their full name, I would own their soul. It's a rare practice, but people do it. Some people use it in very bad ways, but some people, like the person from earlier, use it to help people. Mara's currently the only thing keeping some of the adults in check, so she sold her soul to M- that person from earlier, because she needs to be immortal for everyone's sake. For what it's worth, she's has never forced any of the people who've sold their souls to her to do anything they don't want to do. Actually, I know at least two of them are freed from their contract if she tries to order them to do something they don't want to do."

Back to the mystery woman from earlier. Even the memory of her made Ben feel small. He could still feel her bright turquoise eyes piercing his soul, seeing every wrong he'd ever done. She had obviously been a lot older than all of them, twenty-one at the minimum, but he couldn't tell which villain she was. Of course, he hadn't been able to identify anything about her. If not for the Isle kids, he wouldn't have even known she was a woman. "Who is that woman? How do you know her?"

"Don't call her a woman. She's fine with she/her pronouns but she prefers titles for a guy or gender-neutral- so she'd be a man, not a woman." That didn't make any sense to him but he wasn't going to police how someone identified. Okay, M was a guy... ish? "As for who she is, she's..." Mal shook her head. "If she said we can't tell you who she is, we won't. When that one gets involved, she's in charge. When she gives us an order, we listen. We know her as Destiny, basically." Destiny as in Destiny of the Endless? The oldest of them, with a chronicle of all time chained to his arm? The most powerful being on the planet? "She's not, obviously, but we treat her like she is. She knows everything, knows what'll happen if something else happens. She has a really good intuition, or some kind of magical schooling, and we listen because she's never been wrong. And she rarely gets involved. Usually, she stays on her part of the Isle, doesn't interact with anyone outside of her gang. When she gets involved, it means something extinction-level needs stopped, and she knows how to stop it. If something is bad enough that she gets involved, we listen to her because she never gets involved."

"She's the Pope of the Isle," Claudine said. "She doesn't give orders often but when she does, her word is absolute law."

"How is she going to get us onto the Isle?" Ben felt like he was trying to put together a billion-piece puzzle with no edges and no picture. He wasn't going to let himself dwell on anything, just learn what he could so that he could figure out the bigger picture.

Mal shrugged. "No idea. But if she said she's going to get us onto the Isle, I believe her."

Ben glanced out the window, at the wide expanse of blue ocean, then at Riah.

Whatever happened, he hoped it happened fast.

#chapter 7 #descendants #descendants au #isle of darkness #original character #descendants oc #swearing

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