Once Upon a Dream

Going Where You Least Expect

"Hi Maleficent."

Merlin said trying to be polite and not trying to show fear.

"You and Yen Said have one thing in common."

"And what would that be?"

"The two of you are two historical oldies."

Maleficent let out her shrill laugh and inside even Rashid laughed.

"So, you will help us?"

Merlin said using the utmost of his kindness

"Sure, why wouldn't I help the people who locked me up for twenty years in that disgusting place?"

"If you try anything, I'll squeeze more." Rashid said regarding the handcuffs he placed on her. Maleficent wore two magical handcuffs that prevented her from trying to escape using magic. "In fact, I think you'd better tighten them now."

"That's not necessary. Now, where is my daughter?"

"She is Secured." Merlin said. "If you don't mind, I think it's best if Mal stays away from Ruby."

"I can't believe I'm going to say it, but maybe you're right. Keep my daughter away from that woman." The seriousness in her eyes at saying that was frightening. "Okay, I agreed to that, but do you guys have a plan?"

"You'll distract Ruby and I'll lock her in the prison of mirrors."

"Okay, but that's not a plan, you know that, right? And not to be pessimistic, but without my scepter I don't have 100% of my magic."

"I can prepare a paralyzing potion, Maleficent throws it at Ruby and Cirse imprisons her again, but this time forever."

Merlin spoke.

(...)

United States of Auradon

After the unpleasant discussion Ben returned to do what he had planned to do from the beginning. Help the people. In the middle of the mess, he found Mal smiling and helping a child. Her smile was beautiful, but what caught his attention the most was how she played with the boy. Mal was not just an island girl full of the bad adjectives that everyone thought.

"Did you know that the boys here can not run?" Mal started to say to Ben when she saw him. "The boy over there told me that when everything started to collapse, they didn't run, how do they see a building falling down and not run?" Amidst his laughter he noticed the brown-haired boy laughing, "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"I didn't know you liked kids."

"And I don't know if I do, I'm just helping, I guess." She was still new to this helping people thing. "I know it's none of my business, but do you think your family alone is going to be able to help all these people? It's a lot of people, and when I was talking to the boys, they told me that there are more families in the more distant neighborhoods."

"Wow, you found all this out in twenty minutes?" She nodded as if it was something easy and obvious. "In twenty minutes, all I did was fight with my father, as always."

"Was he very mad?"

"Nothing out of the normal. I was wondering, if they managed to convince your mother?"

"Honestly, that's practically impossible, but I don't know if I've understood the world anymore for a while."

"Yeah. Villainous princesses who fall in love with cute princes, what a strange world."

He mocked making her laugh

"Hey!" She punched his arm weakly. "That's a lie, you know."

"Which part?"