Chapter 53
It wasn't until they were back at Auradon Prep that Mal caught up with them as they were crossing the lawn.
"Uma! Uma! Stop! Please stop!" she said running in front of them and blocking their way, "I need your help, we have a chance if we do this together."
"Your friends kick you to the curb?" she asked, "Good."
But Uma's answer didn't deter Mal, "Ben saw something in you and today Uma I saw it too, you care! Uma you care about everybody and. . . Auradon is worth saving. Help us. Please." She begged.
Harry looked from Uma's blank stare to Mal's desperate one, "You talk pretty, but she's already made up her mind." He said as Mal looked to him then to Camilla with tear trails down her face though she wasn't crying anymore, she refused to in front of Mal. The dragon witch was at least clever enough to know her old friend wouldn't help her on this. Not after she'd found out Mal had been the one to suggest closing the barrier for good and ruining any chance of Carlos and Camilla ever living peacefully together again.
"You brought this on yourself Mal." Uma said, "You figure out how to fix it. Let's go."
Uma took the lead again walking off to find Gil. Harry and Camilla followed behind her lingering in their own moment. Camilla looked at her feet as they walked and started to hum to herself before the melody left her lips.
"Every step, every word, with every hour I was falling in." Camilla began softly, "To something new, something brave, to someone I, I have never been. If only I knew what my, heart was, telling me. Don't know what I'm feeling, is this just a bad dream? Ah oh, yeah. . . "
Harry rubbed up and down her arm before he took over, "Were we crazy? That maybe, it could happen?"
She turned to him as his arm dropped from her shoulders and she took his hand and intertwined their fingers, "Will you, still be, with me, when the magic's all run out?"
He brought their hands to his lips and kissed her knuckles as they followed after Uma. They were just at the opposite end of the lawn, about to go through the trees and head off toward the castle and the museum hoping Gil would be there when they heard a scream.
"Help me Mal!"
"That sounds like Celia." Camilla said as Uma turned on her heel.
"Yeah save your little friend Mal!" came Audrey's voice and a moment later they heard a dragon roar and they ran back the way they'd just come.
"Help me Mal!" they heard Celia shout again as they looked up into the sky and saw the purple dragon that was Mal. She had the ember in her claws and blew fire at it trying to get it to light but it wouldn't.
"She doesn't stand a chance without the ember." Uma said.
"Help me Mal!" Celia cried.
"Come on!" Uma said and they followed Mal and saw her circle a tower where a figure in pink and black was – Audrey. Uma took her necklace in her hand and it glowed.
"We're stronger together." She said before looking up at Mal in the sky, "Stronger together, I'm right here Mal."
The dragon heard her and looked down at the three of them.
"Regain your might and ignite." Uma said the spell Mal had tried before, "I'm right here girl. Right here. Regain your might and ignite!"
Then the ember began to glow again and Uma cheered and Camilla swore she saw the dragon smile.
"Yes!" Harry shouted as Mal flew back up to the tower to face off with Audrey. They saw a bolt of pink lightning clash with the blue light of the ember and it seemed to push the pink light back.
"Get her Mal!" Harry shouted.
"You got this!" Uma cried, "You got this girl!"
"Take her down!" Camilla shouted as the blue kept overcoming the pink bolt. Mal roared and the ember gave a final blast and the pink light vanished.
"YEAH!" Harry shouted dropping his hook and grabbing Camilla and spinning her around before he set her on her feet but kept his arm around her as he and Uma fist bumped and cheered.
"We should get up there." Camilla said leaving Harry's embrace and heading for the door knowing the school from the days she was stuck living in these dorms. They made their way to the roof and found Celia unharmed and Mal, now human, crouched over Audrey who was unconscious.
"Audrey." Mal tried to wake her, "Oh no."
- -ROTTEN TO THE CORE - -
They were all gathered in Audrey's room while Ben's parents contacted Audrey's family. Mal and Evie were on either side of Audrey's bed while the others were scattered about her room. Celia was sitting on the window seat, Carlos was in a chair near her, Gil was still out with Jane and Doug while Jay stood by the fireplace and Harry and Camilla shared a couch while Harry rested his feet on a glass coffee table and Camilla rested her head on his shoulder. Uma and Ben were standing at the foot of Audrey's bed watching to see if she'd wake up on her own.
"She's slipping away." Camilla heard Evie mutter as she rested her hand on Audrey's wrist probably feeling her pulse weaken.
"There's only one person in the world who might be able to do something about this and that's. . . Hades." Mal said.
"Hades?" Ben asked, "He wouldn't do it. I wouldn't risk it."
"Actually he might do it for me." Mal said, "He's my father."
Camilla lifted her head from Harry's shoulder surprised at that news. So Mal was a fairy and a demigod? Wow, a lot to live up to. All Camilla had was her mother and father's reputations in the fashion world which in comparison wasn't as heavy a weight on her shoulders – thank God.
"Well I'll have to send guards to get him." Ben said.
"Maybe I could hitch a ride." Uma said and now Harry also sat up watching the conversation. "The Isle is my home. Someone needs to be there to protect it."
Harry and Camilla stood up and walked over to their captain.
"Well then, you'll need your first mate." Harry told her resting his hand on her shoulder.
"And you're crazy if you think you can leave me behind." Camilla said smiling at Uma as she took Harry's free hand, his hook hanging from his belt.
"The Isle will be in very good hands." Mal said.
"Or sometimes tentacles." Camilla said which got a small chuckle out of the others.
"Can I go too?" Celia asked, "I wish I could be in both places, but if it's a choice between here by myself and on the Isle with my dad and sister. . . " she left the end of the sentence hanging, all of them knowing the obvious choice.
"I really think that Evie was right." Mal said standing up, "And, I do think that we could have been friends. And I'm really sorry that I lied to all you guys. You deserve so much better then that."
"You were just trying to do the right thing." Jay said.
"Yeah." Uma agreed.
Evie stood up, "I get it."
They were all quiet as Ben left the room and took out his phone making the arrangements to get Hades off the Isle and get the pirates back where they belonged.
- -ROTTEN TO THE CORE - -
When they returned to the Isle they were welcomed back by their crew who were very excited to see that they had returned with Uma. She put on a fake smile and told them how Mal's VK Days were over and she had regained her power as the sole leader of the Isle. When they asked questions about her plans to get off the Isle Uma told them how boring Auradon was and tried to make life on the Isle seem like one adventure after another instead of tea parties, tea parties, tea parties. A lot of the crew agreed, their parents being lesser villains and really having no one in particular they wanted to seek revenge on they were happy to continue to pillage in Uma's name. Harry, Gil, Celia and Camilla were the only ones on the Isle who knew the truth and they kept it to themselves.
"You know. . . "Harry began as they re-boarded their ship, "Most men take a lady's silence as off-putting. But I love a challenge." He said trying to cheer her up since he could tell by her crossed arms and quiet behavior that she was still out of sorts. Camilla tried to keep her neutral mask pretending not to have heard him but then her lip twitched and soon she had a full smirk as Harry chuckled knowing what he said had made her smile. She bumped her shoulder into him keeping her arms crossed.
"I hate you." She muttered and his smile grew wider.
"Nay milady, ye love me."
"Lucky for you." She joked back with him. She made her way up some steps to a higher deck and he went to follow when Uma stopped him.
"Not a good time Uma." He said but his captain wouldn't hear it, they had work to do so he let her pull him away while Camilla wandered the decks of the Lost Revenge. She turned and saw Harry and Uma talking by the wheel as the crew got to work keeping everything in ship shape. Camilla wandered to the edge of the ship and looked down at her reflection in the sea water as it lapped along the side of the ship.
"Here you are again, but now it's different. Your home is still your home, but there's something new. You had a cause to serve but did you serve it? Or did I see myself in a way that wasn't true?" she sang thinking about how she'd left with the purpose of freeing everyone on the Isle and how once in Auradon and trying to stop Audrey she'd, somehow along the way, started playing the role of a hero. She turned from her reflection and rested her elbows on the rail looking over her shoulder at Auradon in the distance.
"This is not your brother's fairytale. And no, it's not your mother's fault you failed. So when your story comes to light, make sure the story that they write, goes, once upon a time a girl tried harder. Once upon a time she tried again. Once upon a braver choice, she took a risk, she used her voice. And that will be my once upon a time, this time.
Why let yourself hope? You only feel unworthy. Like there isn't solid ground for you to stand. Believing in yourself, is the only firm foundation. Hope alone is a castle, on a mountain made of sand."
She left the rail and paced the deck looking across the ship at Harry by the wheel, "This is not some pointless dark desire. And no, it's not your dreams now set on fire. So when you feel your courage start to quake, if there's a change you wanna make, take, once upon a time she stood on her own two feet. Once upon a time it was her own fears she beat. Once when push came to shove, she faced herself, she learned to love. That's how I see my once upon a time, this time." she went on as she descended the stairs from the deck she was on and walked to the netting that led to the crow's nest and began to climb.
"Life is not a storybook but life unfolds in chapters. Turn the page and make your own tale. There's no pre-written guarantee of 'happily ever after', so take the pen in your hand no matter what anyone says."
She made it to the top and leaned on the side of the nest looking out at the whole Isle she was so high up, "So when your story ends, they'll say, once upon a time a girl found her true self. Once upon a time two ships passed in the night." She looked down at Harry again, "Once among a pirate crew, she found her place, she began anew. That's got to be my once upon a time, this once upon a time. I'll finally see my once upon a time. This time."