(Don't mind the city background, it was just the only gif I could find of the slide/path/thing) Enjoy!

____________________________________

"You better have a way to get us out of here, Icy." Sera hisses. "Half my plan's ridin' on you."

"I'm honored." I snap back. "Why didn't you think this through?"

"I did, you idiot, that's why I'm freein' you!"

"Enough chit chat." Uma says. "Harry, take your crew and throw 'em both back below."

"Aye." Harry moves forward with his goons and Sera straightens up.

"I dare you to try." She warns. Uma laughs and beckons Harry forward. Sera glares at me and I roll my eyes.

"Fine!" I swipe my hands towards the pirates, and a wall of ice appears between us and them. They start banging on it, and Sera laughs. 

"Nice, Icy! Now, c'mon." She leaps up and punches a hole in the ceiling, crawling easily through. I stare up at her.

"I can't jump that high!" I protest. She rolls her eyes and starts to say something then disappears. A few thumps and yells follow, so I assume she's fighting somebody. Cracks start to appear in my ice walls, so I refreeze them and look down at my hands. There's got to be some way up there, that doesn't involve jumping...

Ah!

I swing my hands down, and misty blue shoots out, propelling me upward and through the hole. I see Sera holding a guy in a chokehold. He squeaks and goes limp, and she lets go of him. She flips her braids out of her face.

"Hey. Let's go."

"Wow, no 'nice job'?" I ask, running after her.

"I'll tell you nice job when I have my brother back!" She dodges a guy and sends him flying towards me, and I encase my fist in spiky ice to punch his nose. He wails and we keep running. Once up on deck, Sera screeches to a halt. 

"Dang! They've put the plank on shore!" She kicks the side of the boat and grabs me. "Hang on, I'm not sure how far I can jump with you in tow!" She crouches down and pushes off, leaping towards the dock while holding my wrist. I yelp in surprise and she laughs, but she's right, she can't make the jump. 

But I might be able to...

She barely has enough time to curse when I wave my hand and a burst of ice appears like a kid's slide. We hit it hard and it carries us safely onto the dock, where a bunch of pirates are fleeing away. I hear Uma yelling nonsense on the ship and scramble up. Sera whoops.

"Nice goin'!" She grabs my hand and goes running. I stumble along behind her, shoving people out of the way as we run. She finally stops when we barge out of a huge pipe. She starts searching around, throwing tarps off of things until she comes across a huge metal box with wires sticking out everywhere. She grins.

"C'mere. You hang out with De Vil, right?" She asks. I go over.

"Yeah, he's my boyfriend." I say.

"Pfft. You're dating that nerd? Willingly?"

"Why is it your business?" I demand.

"'Cause this is one of his inventions, and Ar and I have been tryin' to figure out it works since he left. We've never told anyone about it. I don't think De Vil even remembers it's here." She says, blowing dust off of it and pulling on some levers. "It cuts holes in the barrier. Small ones, only for a few minutes, but it works."

"Seriously?" I ask, elbowing her out of the way. I run my hands across it. It sort of resembles some of the things he's shown me. I turn a few dials and a keypad appears. I scan it and smile. Only Carlos. I press the escape button and a laser shoots out of it, straight past us and into the ocean. A hole rimmed in gold appears a ways away from us.

"Woah!" Sera says. "That's never happened before!"

"That's because you've never used the 'escape' button on the keypad." I say smugly. "Now, c'mon! We've only got a few minutes." I grab her and run. Her long legs tear up the ground, easily pulling ahead of me. At the rip, she hesitates. 

"You can swim, right?" I ask her.

"Um... I live on an island?"

"Oh, shut it." I grab her and pull her through. She yelps but I wave my hand and another slide appears, sending us flailing towards the water. I hit it hard, landing on my feet on a sheet of ice. Sera wobbles next to me.

"Please don't tell me..." She sighs.

"Only way, unless you'd rather swim."

"Ugh. Fine." She grabs my hand. "Start runnin', Icy."

I kick off the frozen wave and freeze the water as we run along it, barely keeping up with Sera's pace. About halfway, I have a huge stitch in my side and Sera's making a tiny panting sound. Finally she slows.

"That's awful. I haven't run like this is forever. Can't you make the ground even?" She complains.

"I'm kinda more focused on freezing it so we don't sink!" I look back to make sure nobody's following, and that I'm melting it as I leave. Yep. Our circle is the only solid thing here. Sera waves me forward.

"We gotta keep walkin' at least. Every second Ar is in Auradon is another it could possibly explode."

"Wait, what?"

"Remember, we shattered your ice wall?"

"How did you guys do that?" I ask. 

"We're kids of Ares. Off the Isle, we have some decent powers." She shrugs. "My dad's the god of war, of all things destructive."

"So... Arson could blow up Auradon if he wanted?" I ask.

"Probably not all of it. Just, like, most of it. If they haven't found some way to stop it." She says. 

I sigh. "They probably have. FG has a bunch of stuff that subdues powers. At least she's not going to take them away."

"She can't do that!" Sera snorts. "Can she?"

"Um, yeah. If a contract is made where the person agrees to it. I almost had mine taken away because my mom made a contract when I was a baby." I start jogging again and Sera follows.

"Wait, your mom made a contract? Without asking you?"

"Well, I was a baby at the time. My answer probably would have been goo-goo." I say.

She glares. "Still. Your mom?"

"Elsa. Remember? Miss-shut-my-sister-out-because-of-one-scary-incident? And I get she got scared, but still."

She snorts and has me stop running so she can talk. "So, what happened? WHat did you mean when you said almost had yours taken away?"

"Well, Chad and a few other Auradonian kids stole the wand the night of Ben's coronation and jumped me in my room. Held me down and would have taken my powers away if not for Carlos showing up." I shudder. That was still one of my worst memories right now. 

"De Vil saved you? That nerd?" She asks.

"Stop calling him a nerd, he's done a lot for us."

"Yeah? Like pullin' you from the water when we captured you?" She teases.

"Oh! That reminds me, do you know who on the Isle---"

"Get down!" She hisses. She grabs me and pushes me down on the ice. I melt it and we sink underwater. I note Sera glaring at me, but it hides us a lot better. A limo is crossing a golden bridge right above us, heading to the Isle. I perk up. 

"That must be Ben! Or somebody. Come on!" I heave her up and summon my powers, rocketing us out of the warm water on a pire of ice rising up.

Sera grabs me. "Stop! How do you know they'll let me see Ar?"

"Ben will. And if he doesn't, I will." I promise. I slow the rise of the ice until she lets go of me and nods grudgingly. By now whoever was in the limo has spotted us, and it's stopped. Someone climbs out and waves at us.

"Ellie!" Carlos' voice carries. I keep my hands pressed against the ice rising, but I'm getting tired. Why keep the road so high? But I don't stop until we reach the golden road and step off. My ice melts instantly, and I collapse against the road. 

"Woah! You okay, Icy?" Sera grabs me under my arms and pulls me up. I wave her off sleepily.

"I'm fine. Jus' tired." I say. She keeps her grip on me as Carlos bounds over and she doesn't let him get close.

"Are these the people you can trust?" She demands from me. Ben steps out from the limo too, along with FG and Mal.

I'm feeling a little less dizzy now, so I get up a bit. "Carlos, Ben, Mal, and Fairy Godmother. Yeah, I trust 'em." I point to each. Sera looks a little wary.

"Who are you?" Ben asks.

"Sera?" Carlos asks. "Ben, this is Arson's sister."

"Ar? Where is he?" Sera demands, letting go of me and bounding forward. She grabs Ben's shirt and about a dozen guards appear out of nowhere with a wave of FG's wand. Sera grudgingly lets go of Ben.

"Umm, Ben, this is Sera." I say. "She helped me escape on the condition that I get her brother back, and I intend to keep that." I rub my forehead. "Can we just go back, please? Without any fighting?"

Ben nods and he and Mal get in the limo. Carlos runs over to me and hugs me tight. I laugh. "What, no Dude?"

"I didn't want him to come. Plus, Brit says she wasn't coming." He lets go of me. "Are you okay, I didn't even know anything had happened until Mal told me, and by then you'd been gone for hours!"

"Carlos, I haven't even been gone an entire day, I'm fine! I promise!" I smile and he turns to get in the limo, but ends up face-to-face with Sera. 

She grins. "Well, y'know, I can't call you Squirt anymore." She nudges him towards the limo. "I gotta talk to your girlfriend for a sec. Go on." 

He looks at me and I nod. He glares once at Sera and gets in. I hear him and FG talking.

"What'd you want, Sera?" I ask her.

"Did you know my name is my dad's spelled backwards?" she asks.

"Um, no. I didn't put that together. Why does that matter?" I ask, glancing at the guards who are already heading back to Auradon. Were they invisible or something? Maybe. Or maybe they're just magic... mirages? Is that the word?

"Because dad always said I had more of him. And while they didn't work on the Isle, dad trained me to use all of my powers. So I'm tellin' you now, you better get Ar back for me, or I'ma destroy Auradon, startin' with you." She jabs a finger in my face. 

I blow out, coating her finger with ice. "I'm not backing out of my promise. I swear. Try trusting me, Sera."

She glares for a second then dusts her finger off and smiles. "Y'know, you aren't so bad, Icy." She turns and gestures for me to get in. I do and she goes in last, shutting the door. Because of the way the limo is arranged, Mal, Ben, and FG are on one side, and Carlos, Sera, and I are on the other. 

Because this ride won't be awkward...

"So how'd you get out, Ellie?" Ben asks after a minute of silence. 

"I got her out." Sera says. "And you should be proud of this kid, she didn't go bezerk and try and bargain her way out. She threw a ball at a wall."

"What?" Everyone asks at once.

I roll my eyes. "Yeah, I sound like a real hero now, Sera. Gil gave me a ball last time I got captured, and they put me in the same cell this time, and I got bored."

"You got bored. While being kidnapped." Carlos repeats.

"Hey, I never said I didn't try and escape first! But those stupid gloves were back, and I couldn't get them off again." I say. 

"How did you get them off the first time, anyway?" Sera asks. "You weren't supposed to be able to."

"Duh." I say. "But I really don't know. I don't remember very well. I was drowning, and I knew it, so I just... ripped them off."

"They just slid off?"

"No, I tore the fabric."

Sera seems to be lost in thought, so Ben clears his throat. "So, Arson is your brother?"

Danger! Danger!

Sera glares. "Yes, and if I find out you did anything---"

"Relax!" Mal says, holding her hands up. "He went ballistic when you left, so we had to put him in a non-magical room, but Brit calmed him down. He's fine, he just keeps wailing about wanting to see you."

Sera goes tense. "Any chance this thing can go faster?"

"One speed only." The driver says.

"Maybe you could speed up a little?" Ben suggests, watching Sera go a light pink in anger.

The driver glances back. "Fine." We speed a little, and Sera seems satisfied. She starts pigging out on the candy left here, and I see FG holding back her comments.

The drive is silent for a while, and I can tell that Carlos wants to say something but isn't. Mal won't look at me, while Ben repeatedly glances at me like I might explode sometime. Finally I sigh.

"Okay, what is so bad that everyone but Sera won't tell me?" I demand. "You're all giving me these cautious looks, and this silence is getting on my nerves."

Ben clears his throat. "Um, well..." He looks at Mal.

Mal shakes her head. "Don't put this on me!"

I look at Carlos. "Anybody?"

He sighs. "Fine. Ellie... Um..."

"Oh, out with it!" Sera says.

"Your mother heard." FG blurts. I stare at her.

"What is that supposed to mean?" I demand.

"She's waiting for you back in Auradon." Mal says. "She says she needs to talk to you before it's too late."

"Too late? Too late?" I yell. "Too late for what? For me to forgive her? Because it's been too late for that for months now!"

"Ellie, we know, but---" Carlos starts.

"But nothing!" I cross my arms over my chest to keep from punching somebody. And since the two people closest to me are my boyfriend and the daughter of the god of war... probably best. "I'm not talking to her." I say, keeping my voice as level as possible.

The car goes silent again until Sera bursts out laughing. "And you wonder why they didn't wanna tell ya!"

We pull into Auradon Prep, thankfully, and I don't see my mother. What I do see is a crowd of people, watching us pull up. 

"I thought this was supposed to be private." Ben tells the driver.

"It was, sir, but word leaked out about Miss Elicia's capture and your rescue plan." He says.

Ben groans. "Sera, um, maybe try to be a little less..."

"Noticeable?" She asks. "Not possible." She opens up the door and slips out before Ben can stop her. I hear the chatter outside go silent.

I scramble up to follow her out. Carlos, Ben, FG, and Mal get out too. Some people cheer, and some people start booing. I see Ned conducting a huge group of booers. A huge group of reporters lunges towards us, barking questions that I ignore because of one person I catch sight of.

She's standing near the back, wringing her hands, until she locks her identical blue eyes with me. She's wearing a deep blue gown, not a fancy one, just a walk-outside one, and her hair's done up in it's usual out-of-the-way bun.

But she still looks as terrified as she did at the coronation. At the garden party.

Mom.

_____________________________

So this isn't a HUGE cliffhanger, but it kinda is. I mean, she basically think her MOM thinks she's a monster. Her mom is hiding this big thing she's scared about, WHY she wanted her kid's powers gone, and why she's so terrified of her DAUGHTER. And Ellie is mad, so that makes it kinda a cliffhanger. :D

ANY-way. Hope you like this update, comment and enjoy!