Stained Glass Breaks and So Do Hearts

When Push Comes to Shove

Ben sits in his office panicking and stressing over the state of the kingdom. With Audrey running around with Maleficent's scepter, reports of people being put to sleep are coming in. Ben is doing everything he can to ensure everyone is taken care of and safe while his guards attempt to locate his ex-girlfriend. How could he be so blind? How did Audrey slip so low that she would do this? Sure, Audrey was kind of on the mean side at times, but she wasn't a... villain... was she?

All he could think about were the years spent together, expectantly waiting for a day like today when he would propose. However, in those days it was supposed to be Audrey who he proposed to. Now it was Carlos. Learning of his sexuality wasn't easy, it was mostly because of Mal that he realized how much he didn't love Audrey in that way. He cared about her but not the way he does for Carlos. This whole day and issue were bringing up painful thoughts but the one that bothered him the most was "Is this all my fault?" Ben and Audrey had been ideal until Mal's spell. Yet even after it ended, he never really apologized for dumping her like that. It wasn't a very princely or kingly way to handle the situation but the VKs never really brought out his most Kingly side. They tended to remind him of how much he himself likes to rebel a little.

Carlos was a VK and yet one of this nicest and least threatening people he knew. Sure, Carlos could take care of himself and protect himself, but he wasn't evil. From day one, Ben saw goodness in his pup that no one else really did. Behind that VK exterior was someone soft, warm and a little rough. That was the Carlos he had fallen in love with, even before Mal's spell he felt it. So It wasn't much of a surprise that they ended up together.

Now, Audrey was terrorizing Auradon and he couldn't come up with a single explanation why other than revenge. Revenge on the king who dumped her and the people who took him from her. He knew all about her fascination with being Queen. She would go to the museum just to see it sometimes. She would sketch herself wearing it sometimes too. Ben wanted to talk to that girl again. To apologize to that girl.

He sat back down at his desk after giving the orders, "Find out if she has a list of demands" and opening his jacket. The longer he went without news of Carlos and the others, the more stressed he felt. With a sweeping of pink smoke, Audrey appeared behind him.

"Just one," Audrey said with nothing but fake cheeriness and cold bitterness behind it. "I demand my life back." Ben had a sinking feeling at her words this was already something he wasn't willing to give. "I have a proposition. I'll wake everybody up right now... under one..." Her fingers began to walk up his arm and caress his shoulder in a way that made him feel a little sick. "itty-bitty condition, Benny-boo. Make me your Queen, and we'll rule side by side." Audrey smiled as if all the evil had suddenly meant nothing to her.

"Did someone put a spell on you? Just tell me who and..." Ben couldn't believe how twisted this really was. This wasn't the Audrey he knew at all.

"You'll what? Marry them? Most people get dumped because they aren't good enough. I wasn't bad enough. How do you like me now, Benny-boo?" She giggled and twirled for him, displaying her now corrupted pink princess look.

"I like the old Audrey better. She wouldn't want to hurt Auradon. Just give me the scepter, and I'll forgive you." Ben's concern growing with how attached she was to it.

"You'll forgive me? I don't think so. Sleeping is too good for you." Audrey hissed as the spell flung from the scepter, it sent Ben to the ground, body morphing into the beast within.

"Sleeping is too good for Auradon." She screamed bitterly, casting a spell to turn some of those still around to stone.

Ben's mind felt unhinged with rage and pain. He fled down the halls of the castle, leaving nothing but devastation in his wake. He needed to go, if Carlos came back, he wouldn't be able to live with himself if he hurt him in any way.

After heading into the Voodoo arcade Carlos had turned on the TV before calling people over. The Auradon new was reporting on the sleeping spell, making speculations and refusing to believe it was Audrey. Of course, they wouldn't believe Audrey could turn evil. Most of them thought evil only existed inside Villains, inside the barrier. That wasn't true, even in just the way people treated the VKs at times, there were meanness and wickedness in that too. Mal turned Celia at her side, going to find hades, going to get the ember. She had a feeling he would give it to her, but she had to play it right. Hades wasn't just her Dad, he was a god. Gods tend to be a whole lot smarter than your average villain shmuck.

Carlos and Jay were reduced to chasing Harry and Gil around on their bikes. Carlos still had a bone to pick with Harry after the capture of his Ben. Thinking ahead, he cut the hook off, clotheslining the hook boy of his bike. "You think I'm afraid of you Carlos?" Harry said getting on his feet, murderous villainy in his eyes. Carlos had a wave of burning anger in his own.

"No but you are going to pay for kidnapping the king before. He is MY king... and should you EVER lay your filthy little hook on him again... I'll make sure to hang you by it." His voice a growl by the end.

"Oh, come now my little minx... You're just jealous that I might have had a little fun with your wee boyfriend... wasn't that long ago that it was you that- "Harry teased still villainous as ever.

"Shut up. Nothing happened between us, no matter how close we got. Should you ever try to ruin what I have with Ben... You'll see how twisted us De Vils really can be." He channeled every bit of his mother he could. Being intimidating and evil wasn't his thing but being mad certainly made him feel it. Harry sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Fine, I won't mess with your wee king again, just don't threaten me ever again either. You aren't Jay." Carlos backed off sighing heavily as Mal and Evie called for the boys. They rallied at the barrier, ember in hand.