Once We are Descendants

Chapter 14: Made, Not Born

"So, you think Uma's cooking up some kind of scheme?" Carlos asks.

Jay, Carlos, Mal, Dizzy, and Ben wait outside the chemistry lab as both Doug and Evie work together to test the substance that the royal couple had found by the lake.

"It wouldn't be the first time," Mal scoffs as she leans her head on Ben's shoulder.

"It's interesting that she hasn't gone after the wand though, that would be the easiest thing to gain control of anything she wanted," Jay says.

"Maybe she's just doing that to throw everyone off her trail," Carlos suggests.

"Well, we'll know more once Evie and Doug test it," Ben says.

The bell rings and students begin to file out into the hallways on the way to their next classes. Many sets of eyes wander in the direction of the Isle children and the whispers start almost immediately. A couple of kids point to them as if their fellow peers were an exhibit at a museum. Mal does her best to ignore the stares and pointing, but she can feel the rage against them bubbling inside her stomach. Obviously, all the VKs were being watched; after all, they were the implied vandalizers of the school.

Ben's phone keeps going off continuously, but he does his best to ignore it. Mal knows it's his secretary begging him to come and deal with royal duties.

"You sure you don't want to go back to your office," she offers to him.

"No," he says. "I'm staying right here with you. No one is going to say anything bad as long as the King of Auradon is with you."

"You know we can take care of ourselves, right?" Carlos asks, not exactly liking the idea of being treated like children in need of protection.

"I'm as involved in this as you guys are. Uma maybe from the Isle, but she just wants to be with the rest of us here. She wants a better life and it's likely that she wants attention from these actions. It might even be a cry for help. She may be hard and evil, but evil is not born, it's made."

Mal looks at Ben and smiles. She knows that he has a good heart and wants to see the good in people, but the daughter of Maleficent had grown up with the daughter of Ursula and it was definitely not what he thinks. A bad childhood and parent couldn't excuse the deep-seated rage and evil inside of this pirate captain. She was hardened to the absolute core and had likely been born that way. While most of the VKs had been raised bad, they'd all been led to believe that they were born bad and would always follow in their parents' footsteps. However, their second chances had obviously changed this mindset, but when Uma was given that chance, she selfishly took advantage of it, trying to ruin Mal and Ben at the same time. It was almost impossible that the slimy sea-witch's offspring would ever change, but the purple-haired teen just lets Ben go on thinking this until he's proven wrong once again. She admires his optimism and hope, but unfortunately, it would not be enough to change Uma.

Just then the door to the chemistry lab opens and Doug and Evie come out. Doug has his notebook and wears goggles and a lab coat. Evie wears similar equipment with goggles perched on her head and a beaker of green liquid in her hand that has a rubber seal on the top to prevent the specimen from being contaminated further.

"Well?" Mal asks.

"What did you find out?" Ben asks.

"It's definitely a potion of some kind," Doug answers. He reads from a slip of paper in his book. "It's made of many organic materials."

"What kind of materials?" Carlos asks, as Dude comes up to the group, to which his master scoops him into his arms.

"Well, it's mainly made of water from the Enchanted Lake, giving it a lot of magical properties. We also detected plant matter, possibly a flower of some kind, a bit of gold and rock, but mainly animal material..."