Ways to be Wicked - Descendants 2 AU

Chapter 15

 "She wants what?" Alya screeched incredulously.

Upon Marinette's return without Adrien in tow, Alya, Kim and Nathaniel had had questions, so many that Marinette was starting to feel a headache come on. They were just as happy about Juleka's demands as she was when she explained what had happened down at the fish n' chips shop.

"There is no way we're gonna give Juleka the wand," Alya said firmly as she paced the communal sitting area where Kim and Nathaniel sat looking just as set in the idea as their friend. "She'll destroy Auradon."

"If she doesn't get the wand though, Adrien is toast," Nathaniel pointed out while Marinette paced the floor opposite them, her mind going a mile a minute as she tried to think of how to outwit her opponent. Everything her friends were saying wasn't new to her. She had already gone back and forth about it during the walk back to their hideout. What they needed now was a plan...

"Right, so we're just gonna give her, of all people, the most powerful magic tool in the realm," Alya sneered as she fidgeted with a knife she had found hidden in the desk she had in the loft. "Great idea, Nath."

"Do we have another choice?" Nathaniel barked back, his hands spread as he waited for a better answer. "It's not like we have a spare wand just lying around!"

A spare wand, Marinette thought, pausing in her march across the floor as the idea struck her. A wicked grin spread across her face as she turned to her friends, all three looking at her warily. They knew what that grin meant.

"Maybe we do," Marinette said as she clapped her hands together. She pointed at Kim excitedly. "Kim, you still have the key to the wood shop back at school, right?"

Kim raised an eyebrow as he too picked up on her line of thinking. "You're thinking about making a phony wand."

"Yes," Marinette said excitedly as her plan finally came together in her head. "Kim can carve it in the shop with the tools there. Shouldn't take you more than an hour at most. Once that's done, Nathaniel can paint it and they'll never know the difference."

"Except I don't exactly have a photographic memory," Nathaniel said warily. "And after last time, I don't think they're going to trust us being near the wand again."

"Doesn't matter," Marinette retorted. "I drew that wand enough times in Remedial Goodness that you can use it as a blueprint. It should still be in my sketchbook, in my room on my desk. Full color and from every angle."

"Sweet," Kim said with a crooked grin only to have Alya snatch the feeling of victory from them.

"The second Juleka tests it, she'll know it's a fake," the pirate said, making Nathaniel and Kim deflate with her logic. Marinette chewed on the tip of her thumb nervously. How were they going to pull that off?

"Why does it have to be the wand anyways?" Kim groaned as he leaned his head on the back of the couch. "If she wanted out so badly, she could just threaten us to take her back with us."

"It's not just about getting to Auradon," Marinette explained as everything fell into place. "Juleka wants to prove she's better than us in every way possible. She wants the recognition for freeing the Isle, for doing what no one else could, thereby erasing us from the history books. What would the VK's be when compared to the Isle's liberator?"

Marinette's friends looked at her, stunned.

"That's pretty thought out, Mari," Nathaniel said skeptically as he eyed her.

"Yeah, how'd you think of that?" Kim added, though judging from how he looked at her, she had a feeling he already knew the answer.

"I may have thought of the same thing when we were planning on stealing the wand," Marinette clarified. Her friends managed to achieve a three-way side glance between them before Alya moved past it.