Descendants One Shots

my epic return bitches

A/N: ello, it's been a while? so i was going back through my older stories and realised this is by far my most popular one, so i thought why not come back? ive been out of the descendants fandom for a while now, more into jatp, but the movies will always have a special place in my heart <3 the comments on here have really inspired me to get some shit out for u all, so thank you so much for sticking with me and still giving this book love after all these years. hopefully the newer stories will be better as ive advanced quite a lot as a writer! this is for @BesstheBee my lovely who waited a whole year for this <3

The kingdom was quiet for once in a long, long time. Carlos couldn't quite explain the feeling of... numbness. He felt alone for the first time since the Isle, which was so long ago the feeling was unfamiliar. The disease had been spread. Auradon's leading scientists had first discovered it in Ben's mother, Belle, who'd fallen ill just two months after the barrier came down. Her husband was the next victim, both of them passing away just four weeks away from each other. Then, Doug went. Then Jane. Then Audrey. Then Fairy Godmother. Then Ben. Mal had been struggling with the stress of not knowing how the disease was spread, nor what cured it as her beloved people dropped like flies. Carlos, Evie, Jay, Uma and her crew had locked themselves inside the castle alongside the queen, hoping it would provide some kind of protection. It didn't. Gil fell first. He started showing fever-like symptoms, his temperature higher than normal. His started coughing all throughout the night, forcing the group to isolate him in the left wing. He died two days later. Then, it was Evie. She'd been much more graceful in her last few days, isolating herself and writing letters to all her friends to remind them how much she loved and cherished them before passing peacefully in her sleep. Harry wasn't so lucky. His was gruesome and brutal. He refused to be isolated, claiming "this shitshow is spreading anyway, it nay matter where I go!" before being knocked out clean by Jay. He had to be locked away in one of the bedrooms. The disease got him the worst. His skin started melting off, his eyes went all red and he started being much, much more aggressive before he finally died. With every passing day, the pressure on Mal to figure this out got worse and worse. Carlos could tell it was taking a toll on her. The rest of Uma's crew fell down, one dying every day until they were all gone. Then, she followed suit. Mal, Jay and Carlos sat alone in what used to be Ben's office, the symptoms of each respective victim laid out in front of them. "I don't understand," Mal stated, flicking through the papers and briefly stopping on Evie's before carrying on. "There is almost nothing that connects the cases except for the fever. Everything else is subjective."

"Maybe there's different strains of the disease," Carlos suggested. "That would explain varying symptoms."

"Or maybe it just effects people differently based on their anatomy," Jay piped in, picking up Harry's paper and skimming through it. "But the main point is to solve it before the entire kingdom is wiped out." The thought of everyone being just... gone terrified Carlos, inspiring him even more to figure out what it was. As the most science-y person in the group, the responsibility fell mostly onto him.

"It must've come from the Isle," Carlos decided. "It came about after we brought the barrier down. Perhaps the cure is somewhere on it."

"There's no way we'll get there without getting infected," Mal explained. "Almost everyone out there is sick, and those who aren't only have so much time before they are. We're trapped here." Carlos and Jay shared a worried look before turning back to the papers.

Then Jay got sick.

And he died.

That was when it went truly quiet. Mal stayed locked away in her bedroom, refusing to face the situation while Carlos had to move Jay's body outside, adding it to the pile. The entire castle was silent, only the sounds of Carlos' footsteps and quiet sobs filling the space.

The kingdom was quiet for once in a long, long time. Carlos couldn't quite explain the feeling of... numbness. He felt alone for the first time since the Isle, which was so long ago the feeling was unfamiliar. Mal had gone crazy. She locked herself in her bedroom, but Carlos could hear her cries, as well as the scratching of her nails on the wall. He couldn't blame her. He felt the same way. All of his comfort was gone: there was no Evie to pull him close and press motherly kisses into his hair, there was no Jay to fill the silence with his stories and jokes, there was no Harry or Uma or Gil cackling away in the corner, there was no Ben pacing up and down the corridor. He was alone.

Mal died soon after. She'd gone so mad she'd started to tear her own hair out, followed by her clawing at her skin until it bled. Her corpse was so gruesome and mangled, Carlos had to leave it multiple times to throw up before he got it outside. Now, he was completely and utterly alone. Helpless.

What even was the point anymore?

A/N: I know the request only asked for Mal to die, but as my writing has developed so have my ideas, so the things I am writing have become more... like this, I suppose. i am totally happy to do a version closer to my old style if bessthebee requests me to (or anyone really)! Obviously I won't exclusively be writing things like this, I have plenty of fluff left in me, but this felt appropriate for a nice bang back into this book. ive got lots of work to do tho (exams n shit), so please don't expect a very consistent upload schedule. ill write whenever i can - but please do leave requests! imma need to assistance as i get back into this fandom (i do have a project coming soon tho... that maybe includes a crossover... hehe) so give me some ideas in the comments! Love you all <3