Forgotten

Forming A Plan

Mal headed back to her dorm where Evie, Carlos, and Lonnie were all waiting. Carlos still looked pretty upset but was holding it together. Evie was pacing the room but stopped when Mal opened the door. The look on her face must have been shocking because everyone looked concerned and surprised. She still had tears on her face and the beginnings of puffy eyes from crying as the memories still clouded her brain making it hard to think straight.

"Mal what's wrong?" Evie came over to her and pulled her into a hug. Mal quickly accepted it and squeezed Evie tight like she might disappear. This was uncharacteristic for the somewhat selfish, snarky attitude Mal that they typically saw but she couldn't help it it was overwhelming to have these feelings from the past flood her present. It took a long moment before she managed to compose herself.

"It's a time spell. It's complicated apparently when Ben was sixteen, he invited us all here, all four of us. We became friends, Carlos and Ben fell in love and Uma broke down the barrier. The villains escaped and, in an attempt, to save Carlos' life Ben died. Guys, Ben died. In that timeline, me and Fairy Godmother worked a spell to reverse time, but I left a second spell, a memory spell so he didn't forget us. Time was rewound by two years and things were put in place to change the timeline, like Ben not becoming king until he was eighteen and done with school. Guys, we all went to Ben's funeral. He died saving you Carlos and we lost him. He was our best friend and king. Uma is the reason he died. History is repeating itself. Chances are if Uma removes that spell Ben dies." Mal held onto Evie's hand as Lonnie and Evie coped with what they were hearing. For Carlos his tears had started again as the memories came to him as they did with Mal. While he remembered most of it to this point he didn't remember the death and the spell til now. It broke his heart as if he had really just lost Ben. He sobbed and Lonnie pulled him back against her to cry. She was on the verge of breaking down, tears already streaming down her cheeks. Evie was the only one not crying. She was holding it all in, something she was an expert at. The memories were coming back to her too now. She felt the pain and the loss but she powered through. Evie was the most resilient of them all when it came to emotions, only showing what she wanted to show and right now she could not break down, someone had to be the rock for everyone else.

"You said chances, what do you mean by that?" Evie's voice calm, clear, but still concerned.

"Well, because the timeline changed so much, so might have Ben's fate. There's a chance that Ben would survive the removal of the spell but it is so slim we can't risk it." Mal sighed and Evie nodded with recognition. She paced back and forth head swirling.

"Uma wants a wand, right? What if we give her a fake wand with real magic? What if we use the 3D printer in the art department to make a fake wand and for Fairy Godmother to bless it with a small amount of magic, not enough to cast a big spell but enough to fool Uma? We get Ben and then run before the three can figure out it's a fake?" Evie contemplates the idea and Lonnie seems to agree but Mal's face scrunches up shaking her head.

"No, that won't work. If we leave her without sending her back to the isle, we risk her repeating history, sacrificing herself to bring down the barrier and starting a villain take over. No, whatever we plan we need to also capture Uma and her two lackeys. We can't risk it. That spell we used to reset time can't be cast again. It caused disruptions in the magic of Auradon for so long that even I could still feel them when we got here. Who knows what kind of mess trying that again would cause? We have one chance to do this and Two days to figure it out. All I know is our very last resort, the absolute bastion of hope we have is that if we let her undo the spell Ben might live. It's the shittiest failsafe in the world but it's the only one we got. So we need to think of something else." Mal sits on her bed going through her spellbook deep in thought. Carlos is calming down now but he still looks broken up.

"I'm going to go get some rest, I'm of no help right now to you guys. I need to pull myself together." Carlos whimpered getting up and heading to the door. Everyone silently nodded not wanting to argue. Carlos called Chip the limo driver for a ride to the castle as he left Auradon Prep, he couldn't be here right now. He knew what he needed, and it was going to hurt.

Once at the castle Carlos slipped up to Ben's room just standing in the doorway for a long second. He observed the cold, unlit empty room and his stomach turned, and his heart ached. It felt so wrong without Ben here. He crosses the room to one of Ben's wardrobes and pulled out a much too big shirt for Carlos and stripped down to just his boxers before sliding the shirt on. He padded over to the bed and slid inside. It smelled of Ben and felt warm. Carlos felt the tears well up in his eyes, despite all the tears he had already cried so far. He clung to the pillow squeezing his eyes shut tightly. "Please be okay Ben," he begged over and over, just repeating it as a small little wish until exhaustion to him and he succumbed to slumber.

Back in Evie and Mal's room, Lonnie got an idea. "So, what if we did what Evie suggested but what if the magic, we enchant the wand with is actually a trap? What if we boobytrap the wand so when she uses it traps them?" The three girls looked at one another. That actually might work, they would have to be careful about it. Evie left the room soon after to start the 3D printer on making the wand while Mal and Lonnie continued to go over back up plans and alternatives well into the night.