Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Descendants, or for that matter any of the DAC, Aaron Stone or anything else that was featured in the film.

An: To my dear friends, aka challengers, I'm afraid owing to technical issues I'm unable to complete this month's challenge (the unfinished draft's on my not working desktop) but I hope you'll accept this botch job of part 1 to tide you over. I also apologise for any typos; with the thing I'm using now my handspan is wider than the keyboard which makes typing a bit tricky.

I can't remember the exact terms of the challenge off by heart by the gist was, at the end of the film there are many apologies that need to be made. Make them.

It had been a long day and all Mal wanted was to lie down and go to sleep, however fate was not on her side. She'd slipped away from the dance party after only two dances, steadfastly refused to attend the after party down by the death tra... no, it was called a 'swimming pool', and tried to return to her room as quickly as possible. Except the side door she chose was looked and she suspected hexing it open was not the good thing to do, which meant she'd be going the long way.

Even that might have been OK however since the place was practically deserted. She'd made it past the main door, down the corridor, even past her locker encountering no one, but then her luck ran out.

"Mal, Mal!" Looking over she saw a surprised Lonnie call her, emerging from a side room that Mal had thought was a boys' bathroom, which showed what she knew of the school's geography. Lonnie was one of the people Mal expressly wished not to see (along with Chad, Belle and a couple of others).

"What do you want Lonnie?" Irritation gripped her voice, though there was a hint of worry. A week earlier she'd hoped, no, honestly believed that they were friends and now... at the very least she wanted to retract the cool hair blessing. This was why she'd thought friendship a weakness. She knew now that she'd been wrong of course, friends were the greatest blessings in the world (that she knew of), as long as they're truly friends. But Mal believed she had seen enough to know Lonnie fell into the 'fair weather friend' variety that weren't.

"Um, well, uh, I was hoping we could talk? Is that OK?" Lonnie placed her hand on Mal's, which she instantly threw off.

"I don't know, say something and we'll see." Mal was still heading for her room as quickly as her unwieldy coronation dress would allow (said dress being another reason she wasn't enjoying dancing), but Lonnie had little difficulty keeping up, largely because the dress was so cumbersome.

"OK. Oh my, this is hard." Lonnie spun around so she was in front of Mal and blocking her. "Just, please hear me out."

Mal really didn't think Lonnie deserved even that, but she could bear it if it would get the conversation over with. She nodded. Lonnie gulped and took some deep breaths.

"Just as my father came to regret his abandoning of my mother in the mountains, I too have abandoned someone and I deeply regret it." There were tears starting to form in Lonnie's eyes as she took in Mal's blank face.

"Stop with all the fancy dressing and say what you mean." Mal's irritation was growing. Lonnie gulped again.

"I'm so sorry Mal."

Mal blinked a couple of times. "Wait, what?"

"I'm sorry." Lonnie was now full on sobbing. "I wasn't there for you (hic) last week, I wasn't any help to you today (hic), I'm a (hic), a sucky friend." Lonnie flung her arms around Mal, who struggled to get out.

Privately Mal thought there was no argument there, but she wasn't going to grace Lonnie even with an agreement.

"Please forgive me."

Mal stiffened in her grip, not sure of what to say. Or even what she wanted to say.

"Say something, please." Lonnie looked at the floor, making Mal wonder if she looked that intimidating. "Yell at me if you like. In fact, punch me if you like. Whatever you feel the need to do, just do it," she begged, finally releasing her vice grip and dropping to her knees.

Mal continued thinking long and hard. The good thing to do would be to accept Lonnie's apology and try to be friends again, but even if she could do that she wasn't certain said apology was sincere.

"I haven't changed in this last week Lonnie, and it's easy to like us now we're the land's newest heroes," Mal said after a while, Lonnie instantly staring into her eyes, begging. "Had we been having this conversation yesterday or this morning or any time between the weekend and around three hours ago then I'd have welcomed you with open arms. As it is, I wonder if you'd be kneeling here had my mother not shown up, and I fear that's a resounding no."

Lonnie got back to her feet, utterly dejected. "I don't know what I can say. I spoke to my dad the other day you know, and he suggested I should speak to you, but thought you might be busy preparing for the coronation and I should wait til afterwards. I wish I hadn't listened. Is there any way you can believe me?"

"Believe you. Believe you!" Mal was starting to scream. "I trusted you." Despite her legendary resolve, Mal too found herself crying.

"You trusted me?" Lonnie asked, surprise appearing on her face.

"Oh yes. I really thought we were friends, but it turned out I was wrong about that." Now it was Mal's turn to grip-hug Lonnie, though only because Lonnie was the only one available. "I thought you'd have my back in a fight."

"You know if we weren't all stunned everyone in that room would've fought to the death to stop your mother, right?"

"Oh yes, attacking the heroes directly when they're all together was always going to cause that." Mal gave a shrill laugh. "No Lonnie, I had to worry about her coming after me specifically - that when school finished and everyone else went back to their big fancy castles, her wrath would fall on me for disappointing her. And I'd have no one helping me then. No one to save me. No one to... never mind that. Luckily, Ben liked me and I could trust he'd do anything to keep that from happening. Otherwise I'd have probably helped mother, not out of villainy but out of fear. After all, those heroes had made their opinion of me very clear. They may well be valiant but I seriously question if they're as good as they like to claim."

"Oh Mal." For a minute they stood in the hallway, just hugging, before Mal pulled loose and started heading for her room again.

"So to answer your question Lonnie, I can, how do you say it, put water under the bridge, but I cannot truly be your friend, at least not now."

"I understand." Lonnie's voice was weak but loud enough to travel in the deserted corridor, however Mal also became aware of sounds from ahead of them, specifically from her room. She hurried as fast as her uncooperative dress would allow, Lonnie close beside her, and burst in to a more crowded than she expected room, several heads turning to her. There was Evie sat on her bed, Audrey and Doug over by Mal's own bed and a man Mal didn't recognise but felt she should have stood by Evie. Oh, and a certain shrunk evil fairy in a container against the far wall.

"Hey Mal, Lonnie," said Audrey tentatively.

"Oh hello." Doug put in before turning his (worried) gaze back to Evie.

Evie however just stuck her arms out and gestured to Mal, who almost ran into her, muttering a quick "hi" to their guests. Evie too looked like she'd been crying earlier with mascara tracks running down her cheeks.

"Alright, what have you done to her?" Mal asked the group, but especially Doug; Mal didn't think Evie respected Audrey's opinion enough to cry at anything she'd do and she still wasn't sure who the other one was.

"That's what we've been trying to figure out," began Audrey.

"Yeah, everything was going swimmingly, then she said and I quote 'sorry, I'm afraid I can't' and ran off," Doug finished.

Lonnie meanwhile had found the cage and reached out to touch its occupant...

"No!" Mal yelled. The man was faster and in a split second he had yanked Lonnie back, whereupon she tripped over a shoe before falling backwards onto Mal's bed.

"What, she's just a tiny lizard, right?" Lonnie asked.

"Just because something's smaller than you doesn't mean it can't sting deep." The man spoke for the first time since Mal arrived. "She" he gestured to the cage, "learned that from me, and I'd like to think I left a lasting impression."

An: Well, what did you think?

This was supposed to be the first of five, but given my PC's non-working state who knows if or when the others will be done.