The Archer's Legacy

★彡01|31 - "Maleficent's here." 彡★

From beside Y/n, Jay, Evie and Carlos rushed away. The girl could only watch, her heart beating in her throat. Are they really going to do this? She didn't know why she'd hoped it would be different.

Jane rushed away and Ben took her place between the rest of the royal family and Mal. "Mal, give me the wand," he prompted.

"Stand back," Mal warned, and at that very moment Evie, Jay and Carlos burst through the doors.

"It's okay," Ben said, staying calm.

"Ben, I said stand back," Mal repeated.

Y/n looked at the situation, weighing her options. She could interfere but that wouldn't do much. She could stay where she was but there was no doubt something would go down soon. Or she could flee, get a horse or something and book it towards the North before it's too late. While thinking of the last option, a sentence echoed through her head in Carlos' voice. "If we go through with the plan, please, please, get away. Go back to the North. I don't want you to get hurt."

With a heavy heart, she moved to do just that, thinking her country's safety more important than her relationship when another sentence stopped her. "What is bravery, if not testing your own fate?"

Thus she stopped, looking over at the situation downstairs again, where Audrey was accusing Ben of not listening to her when she told him that the Isle kids were bad.

"Let's go!" Carlos prompted Mal, he and the rest arriving behind Mal.

"Revenge time," Jay added.

For a second, Carlos' eyes met Y/n's, who was still up at the balcony. There was a message in his eyes, a plea. Please go.

Y/n swallowed thickly, hesitating.

"You really want to do this?" Ben asked, still keeping a safe distance from Mal.

"We have no choice, Ben!" Mal exclaimed, tears in her eyes. "Our parents—"

"Your parents made their choice," Ben reasoned. "Now you make yours."

Make a choice, Y/n, the girl thought to herself. A second later, her feet carried her towards the stairs but whether to flee or to step in, she was not sure yet. Just as she arrived at the main floor and was about to make the choice in favour of fleeing, she heard Mal speak.

"I think I want to be good."

That made Y/n freeze. What? She does?

"You are good," Ben said, leaning forward, as if to let everyone know he was genuine.

"How do you know that?" Mal inquired, desperate.

Slowly, Y/n made her way through the crowd, the people parting dazedly and without a fuss as they were all fixated on the scene in the middle of the cathedral.

"Because— Because I'm listening to my heart," Ben said, struggling to find the right words.

Mal's posture loosened. "I want to listen to my heart, too," she confessed. Then she turned to speak to her closest friends. "And my heart is telling me that we are not our parents." She took a moment to breathe, giving Y/n a moment to arrive on the front lines.

Mal turned to Jay. "I mean, stealing things doesn't make you happy," she pointed out. "Tourney and victory pizza with the team makes you happy."

Y/n's ears started ringing, making the girl clutch her head as the puff of smoke she'd seen earlier played over and over again in her mind.

"And you, scratching Dude's belly makes you happy," Mal's voice broke hazily through the fog. "Who would've thought? And hanging out with Y/n, too, which is even more bizarre because she has no need to be nice to us!"

The world got hazier and Y/n stumbled back, further into the crowd as her head echoed with a malicious cackle. She leant against the wall at the very back of the crowd, her heart picking up pace as her eyes darted around to find the source of the voice.

Meanwhile, Mal continued. "And, Evie... You do not have to play dumb to get a guy... You are so smart."

Both of the girls laughed through their tears.

Carlos, remembering something —someone — and glanced back at the balcony for a second. His heart clenched when he realised Y/n had left, even though he had told her to do so. He just wished the girl had been there to see what was going down.

Unbeknownst to him, Y/n was there. Physically, at least.

She could only hear her own heart and the cackling on repeat, Mal's echoing voice only hazily breaking through the fog.

"And I don't want to take over the world with evil. It doesn't make me happy... I want to go to school... And be with Ben." Mal's voice grew stronger. "Because Ben makes me really happy." She turned to her friends again, for she'd turned around to show Ben her ring. "Us being friends makes me really happy. Not destroying things. I choose good, you guys." She thrust her fist outward, waiting for her friends' support.

"I choose good, too," Jay joined after a moment of silence.

"I choose good," Evie added through her tears, joining fists with Jay and Mal.

Then, everyone was left looking at Carlos. He was the one who most wanted this. But he was also the one who feared it. He feared the consequences, most of all. Thus, he said, "So, just to be clear, how really mad our parents will be? Because they're gonna be really, really, mad."

"Your parents can't reach you here," Ben promised.

"Okay, then," Carlos nodded. "Good."

Mal nodded for Ben to join, too, and Carlos' eyes searched the applauding crowd once again, hoping to find one particular girl.

And there he saw her, hunched over next to the wall, pale and in pain.

His heart clenching in his chest, he lowered his fist. "Y/n?"

That caught the other four's attention, who looked where Carlos was looking.

Her name having caught her attention, she looked through the crowd with blurry eyes, stumbling forward.

Carlos met her at the halfway mark, catching her in his arms as he worriedly searched the girl for any injuries. "Y/n, are you okay?"

The ringing in the girl's ears subdued, one last cackle being accompanied by an unmistakable horned head. And then it went silent, allowing the girl to slowly push herself up and look Carlos straight in the eyes. "Maleficent," she said, certain in herself as fear reflected in her eyes. "Maleficent's here."

And then there was an explosion.