Always by your Side - A Descendants Story : REWRITTEN

Chapter 18

Mal's pacing around her dorm, trying to get herself together and just walk out. "Okay, no, you're right, I shouldn't care what other people think or say, I should just ignore them," she finally says.

Evie stands up from her chair, glad she's finally ready to go out to go to the cafeteria. "Let's go then," she says, putting her hand on the doorknob.

"Wait!" Mal exclaims, and Evie quickly takes her hand off it.

"What?" she asks, almost getting annoyed. She just wants to get some breakfast before they head to their first class.

"I just need a couple more minutes," she says, sitting down next to Ben.

"We've given you half an hour already!" Evie reminds her. "Class starts in 10 minutes and if I don't get to eat anything before that-" she can't finish her sentence as they're rudely interrupted by a loud bang coming from somewhere in the building. "What the actual-"

Ben jumps up and hurries to the door. In the hallways he sees students and teachers all hurrying towards the noise.

"We have to go," he tells them, having a weird feeling about this.

"What was that?" Evie asks, while the three of them follow the crowd.

"I don't know, but it can't be good..." Ben says.

When they reach the main hall of the school, it becomes clear that it was in fact not good. It looks like there's been a big explosion; the wall of the front entrance is totally blown up, the entire room is simply in ruins and covered in dust.

Then a group of people appear in the blown up wall, wearing pirate hats and holding swords ready to fight.

"Hello citizens of Auradon!" Uma calls. "It's so wonderful to see you all again! Have you missed me?"

"Oh my God..." Mal stammers, trying to hide behind Ben.

"It's been some time, I know, but now we're back, for good this time," she tells everyone, twirling Fairy Godmother's wand in her hand. "Things will be a bit different in this kingdom from now on. We're locking up every king, queen, prince and princess this kingdom so dearly holds, and then you're all going to have to obey me; your new Queen!"

Mal's heart is pounding in her throat. Ben doesn't think twice, takes her hand and then starts running through the crowd. Mal quickly grabs Evie's hand, who's too stunned to even think about what they're doing.

"Ben, where the hell are we going?!" Mal asks him, while they're running to the other side of the building.

"We have to hide," he tells her. "Until we find a solution."

It is total chaos in the hallways; everyone is trying to get out, escape or find their friends. There's yelling, screaming and no one can hear anything anyone's saying anymore. Ben just keeps on going, seemingly having a destination in mind. When they finally reach the west wing of the school, they stop in front of a big old oil painting, displaying a countryside landscape.

"Aperiam tibi," Ben says, making the painting open up and revealing a big opening in the wall. We didn't waste a second and climbed in.

Next to the opening there's a phone on the wall, for emergencies, and Mal quickly dials Jay's number. "Jay-" Mal says, but he immediately cuts her off.

"Mal! Where are you?! Are you okay?!" he asks worriedly, clearly out of breath, barely able to be understood due to all the background noise.

"We're okay, Ben, Evie and I are in a hiding place," she assures him. "Are Carlos, Jane, Lonnie, and Troy with you right now?"

"Yeah, we were just having breakfast when the explosion happened," he says.

"Listen, you have to go to that paining all the way in the back of the west hallway on the ground floor, okay," she tells him. "When you get there, stand in front of it and say the words 'aperiam tibi'."

"What?" he asks, confused.

"Just do it," she orders him.

"Alright, we're on our way," he says, and hangs up.

Mal, Ben and Evie stand by the entrance, waiting impatiently for their friends to arrive.

"What's taking them so long?" Mal asks, nervously.

"They'll be here any minute," Ben assures her, holding her close.

And indeed, only two minutes later, the painting opens revealing their friends.

"Oh my God, guys, we're so happy you're okay!" Evie exclaims immediately pulling everyone into a tight group hug.

"What is this place...?" Jane asks, when they're all walking into the room.

The room is about 750 square feet, walls painted all white, wooden floors throughout the entire space, and decorated with a few pieces of art on the walls to make it a bit less empty. There's a little kitchen on one side of the room, on the other side there are multiple beds lined up against the wall. In the middle of the room is a round fireplace around which are cosy armchairs set up. The only door in the room leads to the bathroom.

"It's an emergency room," Ben explains. "A panic room especially for situations such as these. It's actually still from the pre-Isle era in case there was a villain attack, but the school never had this removed, so it's still here."

"How did I not know this even existed?" Troy asks him.

"No one really knows about it, actually," he says.

They all settle themselves around the fireplace, trying to get all the adrenaline out of their systems. Jay and Lonnie are too worked up already and start planning a strategy to defeat the pirates, while Jane and Carlos are trying to talk some sense into the ready-to-fight couple. Evie is discussing the chemistry homework of today with Troy, who's just going along with it in order to distract her from the whole situation.

Mal's sitting back in her chair, closing her eyes, trying to think of other things. "Are you okay?" Ben asks her, sitting next to her in the big chair.

"Yeah, just- overwhelmed," she sighs, resting her head on his shoulder. "And exhausted to be honest."

"You can get some rest now," he tells her.

"But we have to take action," she argues. "We can't just let them take over and watch them as they make others suffer."

"I know, I know, and we're going to figure that all out," he promises her. "First we all have to settle and get our minds clear again."

"But-" she wants to argue.

"It's hard to not do anything right away, but it's better to not rush this and make rash, adrenaline fueled decisions," he tells her. "And you need your rest now, okay. You're pregnant, remember?"

"Fine, I'll go take a nap then, if we're not doing anything right now," she gives in. "But only because you insist."

"Good," he says, placing a kiss on top of her head. "Sleep well."
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