Torn Away (Disney's Descendants 2 fanfic)

Abandoned to be Taken

After returning from the Isle, Mal is thankful to be with everyone that she loves. Although she had been drawn to her childhood land, she knows better now. She feels that she is where she is supposed to be. Standing on the ballroom floor, she awaits her love, Ben. He fought for her, and she hopes she'll be able to repay him.

As she patiently waits, she looks over to Evie. The two girls share a smile and Mal is further affirmed in her position. She is right where she belongs. Mal looks up to the top of the stairs, seeking out Ben who should arrive any second to begin the cotillion. She looks over to Jay and Carlos, giving a quick wave. As she returns her attention to the stairs, the crowd around her applauds and she makes eye contact with her one true love.

Expecting a warm smile from him, she is confused when he hastily jogs down the stairs to meet her. Mal listens as Ben rushes on about how he wishes he had more time to explain. Explain what? She wracks her brain in an attempt to think of something, anything, that could possibly be wrong. She and Ben had been fine just earlier that day, right? What could've possibly changed between them? Other than everything they had already endured in their escape from the Isle, that is.

The abrupt silence of the noisy crowd around her drags Mal from her frantic thoughts. Standing now at the top of the stairs accompanying Ben is the last person she'd expect. Uma. She appears timid in Ben's shadow, seemingly nervous to approach the crowd. Mal's face instantly drops in utter shock. She feels her fist clench in anger. A wave of ferocity passes through Mal, taking over her shock. Her jaw tenses and she tries to combat her anger.

How the fuck had this happened?

At first, for just a moment, the anger is enough to consume her. She wants to storm Ben, to yell and scream. To fight Uma, pull out her hair and drag her back to the Isle. Anything to prove that Uma is undeserving of Ben, that Mal is the one who deserves him. Mal knows Ben. She knows him. She loves him with all of her heart.

But just as quickly as the flaming anger comes, it sizzles out. She loves him more than perhaps he would ever know, but not enough to have stayed, right? She left him after all. She wanted to escape to the Isle, to let him be free of her. She wanted the best for him, that's why she left. Mal is a burden after all, anyway. So why would her love for him ever be enough to justify their relationship?

She's not good enough for him. She never would be, so it only seems fair that he seeks out someone else. As much as she hated to admit it, she's always had a minuscule amount of respect for Uma's strength, and perhaps Ben and his overbearingly optimistic, kind heart had caught wind of that. Ben had finally realized what Mal had known all along.

She is nothing.

She takes a deep breath, fighting the swell of panic in her chest. Her emotional conjecture isn't enough to write off Uma and Ben's apparent courtship. Mal thinks back to earlier in the day; her and Ben had just spoken, they were good, and happily returned in one piece from the Isle. Desperately, she tries to piece together how Uma landed her spot at the cotillion. Mal watches as Uma smiles shyly and gives a small wave to the surrounding crowd of royals and Auradon students alike. As the audience adjusts to the shock of seeing Uma instead of the known blonde VK, Ben wraps an arm around the small of Uma's back, gently guiding her down the stairs.

Mal's heart aches to be the one Ben holds so tenderly. She yearns just to have him acknowledge her in a heart-to-heart, not some useless, rushed gibberish. Mal aches to hear his kind voice reassure her, to tell her he loves her. She wants the endearing boy she accidentally fell for, the growing King she would continue to love.

Mal hopelessly wishes for it all to be a joke, pleading internally that Ben would turn to her and say it was all a joke. Her hope crumbles as Ben graciously meets Uma at the bottom of the elegant stairway with a passionate kiss. Rage flares from the bottom of Mal's heart, but all she can do is stare.