Finding New Love

The Break Up

No matter what Mal tried, it was never enough for Ben. He was always at meetings and never around. But this...This was the last straw. Mal didn't care if he was under Uma's spell. He wouldn't listen to her reasoning. He wouldn't listen to how much Mal had told him that she loved him. He wouldn't have it.

Jay, Evie, Carlos, Jane, Lonnie, and almost everyone else stood next of or behind her. They were on her side, but it still hurt. The words he spoke to Uma. He had never said them to her. Jay noticed Mal's tears first. "Give me the word and I'll drive you back to the isle," he said. And Mal knew he meant it.

She nodded. Jay put a hand on her back and led her towards the exit. They wold return to Auradon to collect their stuff and leave. Or, at least, Mal would. And she would never look back. Because Ben, the boy that had taught her what love was, had broken her heart so badly that Mal knew that it would take a long time to fix it.

Mal was quick about packing. She took nothing more than a small backpack containing her mom's spellbook, a fe changes of clothes, her paints, and her mom. She had one stop that she needed to goto before she left Auradon for good. A stop at a certain building with many old magic relics, including her mother's staff.

She didn't give a damn as she strode into the museum and took her mother's staff right rom the glass container it had been in. Alarms went off everywhere. Security guards surrounded her quickly. Mal sent them all flying with a sweep of the staff.

Mal felt so much hate and anger towards Uma and Ben, but at the bottom of it all, she simply felt.. Nothing. She felt empty.

She was out of the building before more guards came. Se walked with undaunted swagger to the limo. Jay noticed the staff and blanched. His skin went from its beautiful tan to a sickly pale faster than he and Carlos could go through an all-you-can-eat-buffet.

"Mal," he said softly. "What's your plan?"

"Return to the Isle. Start a few fights. Cause a little mischief. And settle the score between an old friend and me," she said with a dangerous grin.

"You don't mean-" Jay started.

"Yeah," Mal said, "I do." She looked down, and her smiled disappeared as she said, "He was right though. He was right, and I should've listened to him. I never should've left the isle." Harry Hook had begged her not to go. He had told her that in this life, Auradon was the villain. He had told her that in this generation the roles had been swapped. And Mal had ignored his words to please her mother. Those first few moths, she had been happy. Yeah, Audrey could be a bitch sometimes, but Ben had been perfect. Until tonight.

Ben had been under Uma's spell, but he had broken out of several of Mal's more powerful spells by himself before.

Jay saw Mal's tears. This was the first time that he had ever seen her cry. "And I left him on the island. I broke his heart and left him there," she said, remembering what she had told him. "I promised him that I would go back for him. But...I didn't keep it."

"Mal," Jay said sorrowfully.

"Just...take me home," she said. Because Auradon was no longer her home. Ben had made that very clear. Even before the Uma incident happened. Ben had been planning for them to break up. And though she had been away for a while, the Isle was still her home. It was where she was born and where she was raised.

"Home..." Jay said, trailing off at the thought of anywhere other than Auradon being his home. Even the Isle.

"Stay, Jay," Mal said with a small smile that hinted sorrow. "Go back to Lonnie. I'll find my way back to the Isle."

Shocked, he stared at her with his mouth slightly open, but then quickly shook his head. "No, Mal," he said, finding his resolve. "You're family, Mal. You're my sister. My little sister who got her heart broken by a jackass. I'll drive you to the Isle and stay with you as long as you need me to," he said, helping her into the back of the limo.

Mal nodded, not trusting herself to show her gratitude with words, as she stepped towards the front of the vehicle. And when the door closed behind her, darkness enveloped her and her heart. She was alone again.