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⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧•• lift the barrier

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── .✦ AUDREY WAS OKAY, she was safe and she was sound, thanks to Hades. But, Frederic had noticed the lack of gratitude from everyone towards Hades for saving Audrey. They just chucked him back onto the Isle inside of the barrier never to be seen again, left to rot on the dirty island.

     It angered Frederic, but he didn't say anything. Well, he did to Evie, and she understood him, agreeing with his opinions and feelings. It was unfair, everything about everything was unfair but there was nothing they could do about it.

The next day rolled around, and everyone stood at the entrance to the bridge that connected to the Isle. Evie was wearing a sparkly, short, dark blue dress that puffed at her chest and arms and hugged at her gorgeous curves, the dress matching her hair with a huge bow at her hip.

Whilst Freddie wore a darker than usual purple velvet suit, he wore his favourite purple vans and he was forced to hairspray his hair dark blue to match Evie's, although it was patchy. He could thank Carlos and Jay for that.

Mal, Ben and two guards walked under the balcony and towards the crowd hand-in-hand and Evie walked forward, her own hand clasped onto Freddie's as she spoke with a sweet smile, catching everybody's attention, "There they are."

They all cheered for the King and their Lady of the Court and most curtsied and bowed. They were respectful, unlike Freddie, who thought it'd be funny to whistle loudly at Ben, earning glares from some, especially Mal, "You're looking good, Ben." Frederic winked, ignoring the looks he was receiving.

Mal and Ben approached their group of friends, Evie first and the two girl best-friends reached their hands out, interlocking their hands, "Hi." Evie greeted and Mal smiled happily before she curtsied and made her way to the large balcony, up the stairs, her arm hooked with Ben's.

Clapping was heard all around and Frederic got with the program, clapping too when Evie nudged his shoulder, though she was annoyed, she couldn't slap the smile off of her face, so she nuzzled her head into his neck, staring up at Mal and Ben. Freddie smiled and turned his head, pressing a kiss to the top of her head lovingly.

     "Lady Mal and I wanna thank you for celebrating our engagement with us today. I couldn't be prouder or happier to call you my Queen." Ben began his speech and some swooned but of course, Freddie had to stick his fingers into his mouth and whistle as loud as he could, grinning happily as Ben laughed, "Thanks, Fred. So... raise your glasses. To our future Queen of Auradon."

     "To our Queen of Auradon!" Everybody chanted and Freddie scrunched his brows, realising he didn't have a drink to sip on. Evie noticed and giggled, holding her glass cup against his lips, and he smiled, taking a sip like a baby would.

     "Speech, Your Special-ness." Carlos joked, raising his glass in the air again towards Mal, putting on a terrible British accent.

     "Speech, Your Fancy One." Jay added to the joke, also lifting his glass in the air along with putting on the same accent as well. Everybody laughed at Jay's even worse attempt at speaking in the British accent, and Freddie placed his hand on Jay's shoulder, always finding the boy's jokes funny.

     It was silent, it was silent for quite a while and Freddie was starting to feel uncomfortable the longer he stared at Mal, who stood there incapable of moving her mouth until she finally did, tears in her eyes, "I can't." The crowd gasped and Evie looked back to Freddie and Jay, the latter shaking his head towards her, "I can't be Queen of Auradon."

     The engaged couple turned towards each other as others muttered theories to each other, gossiping like little kids in elementary school, "He probably cheated on her."

     "Yeah, with Audrey."

     "No, she wouldn't do that." Chad's worried voice sounded and Freddie's fists clenched by his sides, he went to turn around and say something when hands clasped over his balled fists, causing his hands to unclench and relax. They were Evie's hands, and he looked up from the stone flooring, watching as she sent him a comforting smile and she leaned forward, pressing a soft kiss to his cheek in hopes it would calm him.

     Which it did.

     "We made a decision...to close the barrier forever. And it was my idea. But it's wrong. I've learned... that you can't live in fear... because it doesn't actually protect you from anything." Mal chuckled, more out of disbelief because her words were true, and she was finally believing herself, "You never know where the bad is gonna come from. And you never know where the heroes are gonna come from either. Without Uma and her pirates, Auradon would be gone. And without Hades... my father..."

     Her words shocked everybody, some of the snarky people were gasping out of anger, irritation, or even fear but others were clearly just in shock, knowing they'd support her through anything. People began whispering — or really, gossiping — again, and Freddie rolled his eyes in irritation.

     "Let the Lady speak!" Freddie yelled, and the hissing and whispered came to a quick halt. Ben and Evie both looked over at him, sending him thankful smiles before Mal began to speak again.

     "...Audrey would be gone." They all gasped again, now looking towards the girl dressed in light pink with her mother and Chad stood behind her, "We are all capable of good and bad, no matter which side of the barrier we come from. And that's why I can't be Queen of just Auradon. I have to be Queen of the Isle, too. And it's time that we take the barrier down forever."

     "Yeah!" Frederic exclaimed, raising his fist in the air out of excitement and Jay and Carlos joined him, their fists in the air too.

     "I choose to be a King who moves forward. It's time for forgiveness. It's time for new beginnings. The barrier will come down!" Ben announced and both Carlos and Freddie cheered happily, the two wrapping their arms around each other in a bear hug, causing everyone around them to chuckle.

     Ben and Mal held onto each other's faces, looking into one another's eyes lovingly and Carlos began to clap, motivating everybody else to clap too for their amazing King and Queen. Even Queen Leah was clapping which was super surprising.

     Mal waved Evie, Jay and Carlos up onto the balcony and Jay grabbed Evie's hand, pulling her over to the stairs leading up as Carlos ran after them. There Freddie stood alone beside Jane, but Ben shook his head, rolling his eyes, "Oi, my love!" Ben called out, one of his hands around his mouth and Freddie's eyes snapped up, a grin spreading across his lips.

     He pointed at himself in questioning and Ben chuckled, nodding. Without another thought, Freddie made his way to the balcony, standing beside Ben, the two royals standing behind the four VK's. Mal held Fairy Godmother's wand in her hand, taking a breath before she spoke, "To make the world a better place..."

     "We have to do it face to face." The four spoke in unison, their strong friendship uniting to become more powerful than ever. Mal held out the wand and it zapped what looked like a gold lightning bolt towards the barrier on the isle, breaking it forever.

     Clapping, laughing and cheering erupting in the crowd at the sight of the barrier turning into a bunch of gold dust and the bridge appeared, only now it stayed there instead of disappearing after a couple of seconds like it usually would.

     Evie cried, she cried her heart out, well, she wanted to but she didn't want to ruin her makeup. She turned around and Freddie looked down at her, immediately lifting his hand to gently wipe away the tears from beneath her eyes in a way that wouldn't smudge her beautifully done makeup.

     The six friends held each other tightly, and Freddie leaned over, kissing the side of Carlos' head, catching him off guard but he laughed nonetheless, always finding Prince Frederic to be harmless, and too friendly for his own good.

     All of the "villains" came from their side, laughing and cheering out of shock. The barrier being broken wasn't announced to them, but they were so excited about it. Finally, out came Uma at the back of the crowd and she felt tears coming on as her biggest wish finally came true.

     "It's time to bring it together. Time for a brand new start." Mal sang, leaning her arms on the edge of the railing of the balcony whilst Freddie stood to the side, guitar in his hand, playing the cords like spreading butter, "No more no division we down. New time got the vision, unite. I see you. Imperfect. Face to face we can see, clearly our similarities like. Wrong or right."

"We're gonna break this down." Ben, Carlos, Mal, Evie and Jay all sang together, and Freddie grinned, wishing he could take a picture of the beautiful moment right there and then. But, Doug had beaten him to it, snapping a picture of them with a goofy smile on his face, "We're gonna rock the town. Everyone all around. Let's be whoever like this. Stronger together like this."

     "Welcome the additional love." Evie sang, her arms out by her sides as she skipped along with everyone else towards the bridge. But, Freddie stood to the side, his back against the stone entrance way to the bridge so that everyone could hear his guitar even from the Isle. Speakers came in handy.

     "Unity new beginning for us." Carlos sang this time, a grin on his face.

     "Harmony that's the mission, marching—" Jay sang last, on the other side of Mal, skipping too.

     "In the light, one, two, one, two like. I see you, you see me. Imperfect, perfectly. Face to face we can see, clearly our similarities like..."

     Ben and Freddie spent years, practically their whole lives, talking about this moment. Talking about finally being able to save all of the lost souls on the Isle, they didn't deserve to be punished for crimes they didn't commit. And for the people who did, they change, everybody can change.

     Evie changed. She changed how she saw Freddie, she was finally able to notice his hurt. Maybe that was a factor of her childhood, maybe her mother was un-detecting of her pain which was why she was unaware of other's.

     At the end of the story, Freddie never blamed anybody for not being able to notice when he was depressed. It wasn't their responsibility, it was his parents'. After all, he was still sixteen.

     Speaking of, it was almost time!

AMXLIEWRITES || I SEE THE LIGHT