Ben puts his finger to his lips to shush us as we hide behind a tree in front of Fairy Cottage. We run from tree to tree to try and be out of view in case Audrey is inside.
Mal and Ben run to the gate first, moving it open as they try to stay hidden. After a second, we all follow after them and get in a line before going towards the door.
Ben slams the door open. I walk in next to him and Mal, grabbing my ember out in case I have to use it on someone to hold them off.
We all falter our steps a little when there's no one in the room. Jay runs up the stairs quickly to check the upstairs as the rest of us walk around the room.
Jay comes back downstairs after a minute. "She's not upstairs."
There's banging on a door and we all look at the door behind Ben. Harry takes a step next to me when I take a small step towards the door. Ben looks in the window of the door before unlocking it.
When he opens the door, Chad Charming is sitting on the floor, holding his knees to his chest, staring at the floor.
"Chad?" Ben asks.
Chad looks to the ground outside the closet. "I want my mommy."
Ben goes to help him up, but he jumps back and gasps. "It's okay," Ben says, helping him up and out of the closet. "What happened, buddy?"
"You okay there, Charming?" I ask.
His eyes widen when he looks at me, then at Harry, then between us again, then to the others before he finally looks at the open door. "Hmm. Ben. Ben!" Chad gasps, grasping Ben's collar. "Your face." He looks at us again. "She's gone? Huh?"
"I think I saw her coming down the trail," I say, which makes Chad's eyes widen and he screams. Ben covers his mouth quickly and gives me a little glare as Harry and Uma try not to laugh. "Oh, wait, nope. I saw her coming down the trail to the gardens at Auradon Prep like eleven months ago." I hit my head. "How could I be so stupid?"
Chad looks to the door. "The door is open. I'm free." He lets go of Ben and starts running out the door. "Freedom! Oh! Freedom!"
Harry starts laughing as Ben goes out the door. Everyone else follows Ben, so Harry has to close the closet door before walking behind me.
"Woo, okay," Uma says as we walk out of the cottage. "Let's get this Audrey chick taken care of already." Mal laughs. "What do you say, girls? Time to wrap things up?"
"You know," Ben says, swinging his arm around Mal, "you're gonna have to tell me how you guys all teamed up."
I feel a buzzing in my pocket and pull out my phone. "My dad's calling, everyone shut up for like two seconds," I say, answering the phone. Harry clears his throat.
"Hi, Dad."
"Did you dumbasses get it wet yet?"
"Nope."
"Did you get yours wet?"
"Still no."
"Who are you with."
"Oh, um, you know, the whole gang."
"The what?" Dad asks.
"Evie, Mal, Ben, Celia, Carlos, Jay, Uma, and Harry."
"Ugh, the pirate's there too?"
"Yes, Dad, the pirate is here too. Isn't it your nap time?"
"In two minutes, yes." I don't say anything. "Just wanted to check in and see if you guys screwed up."
"Well, we haven't yet."
Dad groans. "Fine. Bye."
"Bye, Dad."
I hang up the phone and shove it back in my pocket. "You can talk now."
"Right," Evie laughs. "Mal promised to let all the kids off the Isle once this is over."
I swing my arms around Uma and Harry's shoulders as Uma and I smile at each other.
"Mal?" Ben asks.
"I have to tell you guys something," Mal says, and we all stop to look at her. "Um," she sighs and turns to face all of us. "I lied to you."
I move my arms away from Harry and Uma as everyone's faces drop.
"What?" I ask.
Mal shakes her head. "The kids won't be coming off the Isle."
"What do you mean?" Jay asks.
"The program is shut down," Mal states. "And the barrier will be closed for good."
"What?" I ask loudly.
Harry takes his hook off and grunts.
"For Auradon's safety," Ben concludes.
"Oh, 'for Auradon's safety' my ass," I scoff. Then it actually sets in.
It feels like someone just ripped my heart out of my chest and stomped on it until it stopped beating. Everything goes cold in my body until it seems like I'm in frozen over water.
Mal lied to us all. She lied to me. She knew how much we all wanted more VKs to come over. She knew it all. And she did what she does best. She manipulated all of us into believing that everyone would get a chance. And no one else will. The one thing we were all excited about. Poof. Gone.
"Hold up," Uma says, walking in front of Mal. "So we're saving your precious people and your asses for a lie?" Mal doesn't say anything. "I knew it was a mistake to trust you. You're always out for yourself."
Harry walks around me and goes over to Ben, pointing at him. "And you, King Benny." Ben has a hard time making eye contact with Harry. Harry sighs. "You're probably just gonna throw us all back inside."
I blink when my vision becomes blurry. Celia steps up. "You know what?" she asks Mal. "I actually though you were brave. But you're nothing but a chicken." I can hear the tears in her voice as she looks at Mal. "Too scared to tell me I was never gonna see my dad again."
"Celia—"
Before Mal can say anything else, Celia grabs Dad's ember and walks off, throwing it in a birdbath on her way. The water sparks.
Mal starts freaking out when she looks at the smoking birdbath. She runs over to it and grabs the ember. "Regain your might and ignite! Regain your might and ignite!"
"Game over," I say.
Mal comes back over to us and looks at Uma helplessly. Uma grabs her shell necklace. "Bummer." She turns to Harry. "Let's go find Gil and leave them all to rot. Harper, you can come and find Gil." They both start walking away.
"Yeah, one sec," I mumble enough for them to hear.
Mal turns to me. "Harper! Give me your ember! You have one! Maybe—maybe it can—"
"I'm not giving you my ember, Mal," I say, clearing my throat. "I'm not letting you come anywhere near it."
"But- What about Auradon! What about Hades Ember?"
I shrug. "Auradon never did shit for me, and it's not doing shit for my family on the Isle. Auradon can rot here for all I care."
"But do it for me!"
"No."
"No?"
"No," I repeat, taking a few steps closer to her. Tears start to weld in my eyes, and my voice gets a slight rasp while I force it not to break. "You do what you always do. You never change. You manipulate everyone into thinking you're the good guy when, in all reality, you don't care about anyone but yourself. You lied to all of us to get what you wanted. You lied to every single person here. You lied to Carlos. You lied to Jay. You lied to Evie. You lied to Uma. You lied to Harry. You lied to Gil. You lied to Celia. You lied to Dad. You lied to all those kids on the Isle." I point to myself. "And you lied to me. You betrayed us all. And for that, I can never forgive you."
Without another word, I walk to Uma and Harry about ten feet away, wiping my cheeks as I get to them. Harry sighs and wraps his arm around my shoulders as we walk away from Mal.
༒
The three of us are walking across the lawn at Auradon Prep when we hear Mal yell, "Uma! Harper!" We keep walking. Mal runs in front of us. "Guys, stop! Please, stop! I need your help." We try to walk around her but she moves again. "We have a chance if we do this together."
"Your friends kick you to the curb?" Uma asks. When Mal doesn't say anything, Uma says, "Good."
"Ben saw something in you. And today, Uma, I saw it too," Mal says. "You care. Uma, you care about everybody. And Auradon is worth saving. Help us, please." She turns to me. "Harper. Please."
Harry glances at the two of us before he looks at Mal. "You talk pretty, but they've already made up their minds."
"Harper. Come on," Mal's voice breaks a little. "You're my sister."
"I'm only your sister when you need me to be," I snap. "As far as I'm concerned, we aren't connected at all. Got it?"
"You brought this on yourself, Mal," Uma says. "You figure out how to fix it. Let's go."
The three of us walk around her. And we keep walking.
I stop and look around when I hear a familiar screech. "Um, Harry, Uma. We have a bit of a situation."
They both look over and see Mal flying around the building. We all give each other a glance before running back to the yard. We stop abruptly as Mal stops flying over us.
Mal blows fire on a blue ember in her hand. A couple seconds later, my pocket starts glowing. "Interesting."
"She doesn't stand a chance without the ember," Uma says.
"Uh, I think she might be getting it?"
Something hits Mal in the wing and she stumbles down through the air.
"Come on," I say, grabbing their hands. We run over to the school and look up as Mal slows down and flies in midair.
Uma gets her shell necklace out and it starts glowing. "Mal! We're stronger together! We're stronger together! I'm right here, Mal! Regain your might and ignite. I'm right here, girl!" Uma nudges my arm.
"Oh, this is a group thing? Okay," I say, getting my ember out of my pocket.
"Regain your might and ignite!" we say together.
Mal holds out her claw, holding Hades ember. It lights up and starts glowing brightly. I put my hands over mine because of how bright it starts shining. I shove it in my pocket.
Mal flies up to Audrey. When Audrey goes to shoot her with the scepter, Mal shoots back with the ember. The two powers clash together and go back and forth between winning and losing.
"Go, Mal!" Harry yells up at her as Uma shouts, "You got this! You got this, girl!"
Mal starts losing significantly. Harry and Uma sigh and start shouting at Mal again.
"Fifty-fifty," I mumble. "Hey, guys?"
"Yeah?"
"So, like fifty plus fifty equals a hundred. And if I'm fifty percent Hades and Mal's fifty percent Hades, that would make us a hundred percent Hades. And I am a hundred percent Harper already, so my ember gives the full power to me, yeah?"
"Uh, sure!"
"K. Wish me luck then," I say, grabbing my ember out. "Oh, wait, take the hat." Harry grabs it off my head. I nod and blink before looking up at the two lines meeting.
My eyes start glowing and my hair flames up like it did on the bridge before I use my ember. I try to aim as best as I can, and the line of power hits the middle where Dad's ember and the scepter meet.
With both Mal and my powers working together, it pushes Audrey's back by a lot and a lot quicker than it would have. The powers go out and the sky is blank.
Uma and Harry start cheering. I sigh and laugh. Harry drops his hook and grabs me, picking me up and spinning me around. He puts me down and grabs my face before he crashes our lips together. I laugh against him and shake my head a little.
Uma taps our shoulders and gestures for us to hug her. We both grab onto her so quickly that we end up falling onto the ground. The three of us start laughing so hard I start crying.