Madder than a Hatter (Descendants)

Desperation of a Dragon (Edited)

We managed to make it all the way back to the school before Mal came running back.

"Uma! Uma, stop! Please, stop!" She ran in front of us and put out her hand. "I need your help!" When Uma tried to sidestep her, Mal put her hands out again. "We have a chance if we do this together!"

Uma almost scoffed. "Your friends kick you to the curb?" The wounded look on Mal's face did nothing to my emotions. "Good."

"Ben saw something in you, and today, Uma, I saw it too," Mal said, almost begging. "You care, Uma, you care about everybody. You even woke up Maddie when you could have just left her there! And Auradon is worth saving. Help us, please."

Harry glanced at Uma, then at Mal. "You talk pretty, but she's already made up her mind."

Objectively false, Uma was capable of changing her mind on a whim. It always kept me on my toes. I loved that about her.

"You brought this on yourself, Mal," Uma said, but I could hear the sadness in her voice. "You figure out how to fix it. Let's go."

I followed them as they began to walk away again. I was an expert at walking away from people. I'd walked away from Uma, I'd walked away from my dad, I'd walked away from Lonnie, why not add Mal to that list?

And then, from far away, I heard the telltale roar of a dragon and froze.

"She's going to hurt herself. Or someone else," I whispered to myself.

"What was that, Hatter?" Harry asked derisively.

"Nothing, Hook. I really don't like the alliteration in your name."

"Both of you, quit it," Uma ordered.

We all ran back into the courtyard, and stopped as Mal flew overhead. We watched as she held up the blue ember in her palm and breathed fire on it. For a moment, it shone bright blue again, but went out just as quickly.

"She doesn't stand a chance without that ember," Uma said desperately.

From high up on the rooftop, a blast of pink energy hit Mal on her wing, and she roared in pain, spiraling downwards.

"Come on!" Uma cried, and began to run again. I was doing a lot of running today, much more than I had originally anticipated. We ran in front of the school as Mal managed to right herself instead of hitting the ground. Uma pulled out her shell necklace.

"Oh, no," I commented cheerfully.

"Oh, yeah," Uma said confidently. She looked up to Mal, who was still struggling. "We're stronger together. We're stronger together! I'm right here, Mal! Regain your might and ignite! I'm right here, girl, I'm right here! Regain your might and ignite!"

Mal's sharp eyes softened with what could only be described as love, and she held out the ember, now glowing with power.

"Yes!" Harry crowed, and I punched him on the shoulder. He turned to look at me, and, seeing my wide grin, punched me right back. Uma laughed with delight at her and Mal's success. The happy laughter was a nice change from all the evil cackling I had heard today.

Mal flapped her wings harder and rose up, ready to confront Audrey. It was hard to see exactly what she was doing from down here and at this angle, but it was certainly better than having no view at all.

Pink electricity shot out from the scepter, equally met with blue light from the ember. The two energies collided in the air, equally matched.

"You got this!" Uma shouted. "You got this, girl!"

Mal began to fly closer and closer, and the pink stream got shorter and shorter. Audrey was losing. I could only imagine how angry she was getting.

With a final roar, the blue energy overtook the pink and blasted Audrey completely.

"Yeah! Come on!" Harry shouted. Uma shrieked with delight and let him lift her up into a hug. He let her down after a moment of swinging her around, and immediately did the same thing to me. I wrapped my arms around him in a bear hug, laughing like a kid on Christmas morning.

I knew that because the magic Audrey had used was no longer working, all the spells she had cast would be lifted. All of the sleepers would awaken, and all those who were turned to stone would cease to be inanimate figures.

Was that what had happened to Evie, Carlos, and Jay? Had Audrey turned them to stone to prevent them from getting in her way? Why hadn't she gotten Mal while she was at it?

Oh, right, Mal was the main character. She had enough plot armor to sink a ship. Or to protect one, I guess. (Looking at you, Cotillion.)

None of that really mattered anymore. The day (or night, I guess) was saved, and the good guys had prevailed.

We had won.

We all gathered in Audrey's room, where she lay in her bed, comatose or whatever.

"She's slipping away," Evie said, holding her hand.

Mal dropped her head, sighed heavily, and then raised it back up. "There's only one person in the world who might be able to do something about this, and that's Hades."

"Hades?" Ben said incredulously. "He wouldn't do it. I wouldn't risk it."

"Actually, he might do it for me," Mal said. "He's my father."

Ben took this news rather well, considering all of the other factors that might have caused a worse reaction. All he did was sigh out an, "Okay," and look down. "Well, I'll have to send guards to get him."

"Maybe I can hitch a ride," Uma said, and I looked at her, having a strange feeling about what she was about to say next. "The Isle is my home. Someone needs to be there to protect it."

Harry strutted up behind her and placed his hands on her shoulders. "Well then, you'll need your first mate."

I nudged her arm. "Is a certain hatmaker welcome aboard?"

Uma looked confused for a split second, then smiled so genuinely I thought the sun had come out.

"The Isle will be in very good hands," Mal said.

Celia got up from her place at the window seat and asked, "Can I go, too?" We all turned to look at her. "I wish I could be in both places." The unspoken was obvious: but if I had to pick, I'd choose my home.

Mal got up from her kneeling position, looking older than her nineteen years. "I really think that Evie was right," she said, despite the fact that Evie was all of three feet away from her, and I didn't know what Evie was supposed to be right about. "And I do think that we could've been friends. And I'm really sorry that I lied to all of you guys. You deserve so much better than that."

"You were just trying to do the right thing," Jay said.

"Yeah," Uma agreed, which was unprecedented. I'd missed all of their relationship development, which was a shame. I would've liked to see that.

"I get it," Evie added.

After a moment of silence, I tugged on Uma's jacket a little bit and pulled her out into the hallway.

"What is it, Maddie?" she asked. It was nice to know that we were back to using Maddie again.

"I just need to know. How did you wake me up?"

"Are you still hung up on that?"

"A little, yeah. Did you use your magic or something?"

She looked a little uncomfortable all of a sudden. "Magic, yeah."

"But what kind of magic?" I pressed. "Yours, someone else's, what?"

"True love's kiss," Uma said bluntly. "Works every time. Although I didn't know if it would work this time. It's been a while."

It suddenly became very hard to breathe. "Do you kiss all of your friends?"

"Only the cute ones."

"So me and Harry, then."

"Ha ha, not Harry."

"So just me?"

"Yeah."

"This is excellent."

Uma cocked her eyebrow. "Oh, yeah? How so?"

"Because I love you, too."