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CARLOS tossed his newly packed traveling bag in the limo's backseat.

"Are you sure it's a good idea to keep Ben.. like that..." as Carlos asked the question, his head panned towards the weary tied-up beast boy. The light of late afternoon shines into Ben's slowly opening eyes and he tries to bring his hands to guard them.

Jay gave the Auradon's guard a pat on the shoulder, something normally done when it was Jay's turn to take over driving the limo. It wasn't directly for traveling to the Isle - it could have been to pick up Princesses or Queens, Princes' or Kings.

Why was Jay so entrusted with the driving was an mystery to some of the AK's, mainly those in Audrey's circle.

"Yes, or else he'll only stand in our way. This is his fault. We can't trust him," Evie felt bad speaking on Ben like this, but the desperate part of wanting to apologize to Mal was taking over her. She wanted to see her best friend and go back to sweeter, older times.

Carlos didn't know how to respond, so he instead gave a hopeful smile to Belle and nudged for Evie to come.

Fairy Godmother stepped down to King Beast's and Belle's level, "Are you sure this is an good idea? After all, they are... I think this situation would make them tempted," she nervously laughed. Although it came out as if she was saying they'd turn evil, she was deeply worried they'd be tempted to stay. Fairy Godmother loved them as if they were her own children. She already lost Mal, she wouldn't want to lose the other three.

King Beast took off his glasses and began cleaning them.

"Only VK's can understand each other," he said. Belle offendly elbowed him.

King Beast uttered an what, not aware of the close-minded statement he just said. But this was common with the king. No matter if Ben and Mal marry, no matter if they invite the entire Isle of VK's over and they all show change and growth, no matter if his son puts himself in danger for the VK's - King Beast will always deeply have prejudice views against all of them.

And Belle wasn't much better than her husband. She was a bit more opened-minded but she still treated the thought of the others besides the Core Four like everyone in her village once did her.

The comment bypassed Fairy Godmother. Anxiety comes as an electrical storm in her brain that, quite honestly, is painful. It's different from a headache and it feels the same as intense sorrow, perhaps as a sort of frozen panic with nowhere to go.

"Remember to flare the gun when you make it safely," she reminded the current Core Three.

But the friends were already inside ready to go track down their sister and make up for their past wrong-doings.

"Do you think she'll want to see us?" asked Carlos, feeling the cowardly thoughts flowing in his head.

Evie placed a hand on top of his, "Are you okay?"

She was well aware that Mal's disappearance didn't only bother her. One thing Carlos never had was someone who listened. He never expressed himself, he was always the nerdy kid that just got picked on. And Evie later found out he was also abused.

She still didn't know much about Jay. He was one big mystery to her, but she didn't want to force him to speak on his life growing up. For a short time Evie believed Jay hated her. It had nothing to do with him being annoyed by her perk attitude, it was more dealing with him and Mal once bullying her.

"I..." in the back of Carlos' mind something was pushing him to tell her; to tell her about knowing what was happening with Mal and the mysterious person that was releasing all her past mistakes, and turning their friends against her. Something was telling him to confess to helping Mal track down the mysterious person; something pushed him to tell her that he knew her best friend was in pain and his helping only made her emotionally worst.

"I just want to personally speak with Mal," he pushed away the guilt and stared out the window.

Evie's eyes traced down to the floor as she speak back.

"Me and you both."

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"Remember guys: we find Mal, get Mal, leave," Jay repeated, covering up the limo with an old shop cover Jay stole off someone's shop garage. Parking the limo was hard, but hiding it was harder.

They had to find a way to keep it out of bystanders view. He parked it near the ocean, directly where the bridge starts up. The only person who'd be able to see it would be Uma - and Jay highly doubted Uma would be out here, or he just didn't care enough to think about it.

"If I pull her aside when we make it back - don't question it," Carlos added on, earning a weird look from Jay but an understanding one from Evie.

Evie stepped aside so her brothers could go in first.

Jay wrapped an arm around her shoulder, "I'll lose in a tourney game before I allow you to get locked back on this Island," he comforted her.

"And.... do you think Uma and her crew would come looking for us?"

"I doubt it. Uma isn't as bad as we made her," Jay commented, memories of what happened between her and Mal flooded in his mind. But Carlos and Evie was unaware of the fallout.

Evie raised a questionable eyebrow, "Made?" She asked as she led the way ahead of Carlos and Jay. It was normal for the group dynamic to fall into this route. When Mal wasn't there, they fell behind Evie. Her leadership was more sweeter, more calmer.

Although this went unnoticed by all 3 of them.

"It's a long story. We're not here to tell tales; we're here for Mal," Jay dismissed the topic.

He grabbed them both by their wrists and pulled them in a nearby alley, watching as a group of teens around their age ran past with falling rotten fruits leaving a trail behind them.

Evie's eyes softened looking at the fruits, remembering the times when little her considered those the best meals she'd ever get.

"Mal would be in our old hangout.." Carlos commented.

"How do you know for sure?" asked Jay, his eyes scanning for any signs of bypassing Isle kids.

It was safe to say by heart they knew they weren't liked anymore over here. Auradon is more hated than Hades himself, and considering how the people of Auradon subminally treated the people of the Isle - the hatred was well deserved.

They lived in good conditions. They had fresh food, houses, air conditioning, the sun. They also had clean water, sinks that didn't crawl with molded bugs or fungus, or even buildings that wasn't falling off brick by brick. Evie was amazed for the first month straight just at how clean Auradon's books were... that should tell a lot.

And the four main kids of the Isle got chosen to go to Auradon and never came back for them. They became the ones tossing away good food that transferred to the dumpster of the Isle. They began taking advantage of the clean showers; the bright sun; the green grass.

Evie shamefully blinked remembering how the Isle left her mind overtime.

"Or... maybe she's giving away her Auradon money to the innocent kids here..." the soft sentence left Evie's mouth without second thought, even going unnoticed by the blue haired Princess.

"What? No, Evie. She always goes to the hangout when she's upset," Carlos explained, "One time I was there... I was hiding from Hadie - you know Hades' son. Mal had came rushing in and, um, I asked her what's wrong. So after telling me it was none of my business, she confessed she ran away from home - she was on punishment. She said whenever she felt herself being emotional she always landed there. It's a memory I keep,"

As she placed both hands on her hips, Evie shared the same look as Jay.

"What?" Carlos asked.

"Nothing. It's odd hearing M was emotional here... you know she was always either mean or spiteful," Evie let out a depressed laugh, "What type of friend am I..."

Jay once again grabbed both of their wrists, interrupting the conversation and continuing the journey. Although they haven't been on the Isle in a while, he remembered where their hangout was. He was an trained thief, from a baby up to know he memorized every place he's been to.

"What if she doesn't want to see us?"

"Not the time, 'Los," Jay replied.

"I'm worried we'll make her even more upset.. I'm just.. I don't want her angry at me,"

"She'll be mad at all 3 of us; not just you. And we can figure that out when we get there."

The anxiety Carlos was feeling was like being hooked up to a cattle fence - not enough voltage to kill but sufficient to keep things uncomfortable.

After the sentenced was said Jay, Evie and Carlos traveled the rest of the journey in anxiously high silence.

'There's no need to worry about her being angry at us..' Evie thought halfway along the journey

'She already is.'

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