Chapter One: How It All Began
"Push! Push!" a man's voice cried out.
Inside of an elegant and brightly-colored room, a young woman was screaming in pain, while another man and two middle-aged woman was standing on either side of her. The woman who was screaming was laying on a bed, her reddened face covered in sweat, and her bright red hair frizzled. She was in labor, and it was as painful as she was told it was, but at the end of this, she would finally have someone there for her who would love her unconditionally. Like her mother did before she died. She would enjoy this moment so much more if it didn't hurt so bad.
"I can see the head!" the man called. "Alright, come on, you can do it. We just need one more push."
"Doctor, I have an interesting proposition to share with you!" the woman howled, irritated. "Next time, you can deliver the baby, and I'll tell you to push, and we'll see who has the easier job!"
"Says the one who's not having their hand crushed!" the other man shouted. "Geez, why use magic to torment people in the past when you can crush everything in your hands!"
"Push!" the first man shouted.
The woman did, and her face turned as red as her hair now.
"BLOODY HELL!" she screamed at the top of her lungs.
Through the screaming, the sounds of a baby crying could be heard. The woman finally relaxed, and saw the doctor taking the bloody baby in his arms to clean.
"Listen to that child cry." one woman said, amazed. "He's got a healthy set of lungs there."
The doctor called one of the midwives over to bring a blanket to wrap the child in, and the midwife then handed the baby over to the new mother.
"It's a boy." she announced.
The woman cried tears of joy as she took her new son in her arms.
"He's beautiful." she sobbed. "He's so beautiful."
The baby's cries silenced, as he was rocked in his mother's arms, and his eyes opened for the first time, taking in his new surroundings. He smiled when he got a good look at his mother's face, and a soft laugh escaped his lips.
"Hello, love, I'm your new mum." the woman greeted, softly.
As she handed her child a rattle to play with, the doctor returned to her side with a clipboard.
"What will the child be named?" he asked.
The woman glanced at him for a moment, then looked back at her son, who was playing with his rattle.
"I thought about it for the longest time. I don't know what kind of man my son will be, but I want him to have a name that everyone will remember." the woman answered. "I've asked my father for advice on a name that wasn't strong or anything like me or the father of my son. We've agreed on the name 'Taran'."
"'Taran'?" the doctor repeated. "Are you sure?"
"I haven't been more sure of anything in my life."
The doctor wrote down the name, just as a woman in a puffy baby blue dress walked into the room.
"Good evening, Zelena." she greeted.
Zelena, the mother, looked up at the fairy, tiredly, about to greet her in return. However, once she saw the frightful look on the fairy's face, she also became uneasy.
"What is it?" she asked. "Is there something wrong?"
"He knows." the visitor announced. "And he's coming."
Zelena looked from her, to her child, then back at her.
"But he can't take him." she pointed out. "He can't take any living mortal with him, it's against Olympian law, Lord Zeus assured me of that."
"Hades can't take a living mortal with him, that's true." agreed the blue fairy. "But now that he knows of Taran's existence, he will find a way to take your child by any means necessary and corrupt him and his destiny. We need to send him to someplace safe."
Zelena shook her head, sadly, as her voice started to crack.
"Please. Don't make me let him go." she begged. "He's all I have left, he brought me and my father together after all this time. The land of Oz is happier with him here."
"He will help you find your happiness again, Zelena. I promise." the fairy reassured her. "The road to your happy endings will be filled with pain and sorrow, but you will find each other again. You've proven that you can let go of your hatred and vengeance for your child, that dedication will reward you in return."
Zelena looked from the fairy down to her child, and shook her head. She really didn't want to be separated from her son so soon.
"I promise you, he will be safe from Hades." the fairy told her. "You won't be separated forever. Upon his return, your family will be greater than you ever imagined, and the pain of loneliness will seem non-existent."
After a bit of processing, Zelena suddenly broke down sobbing, and held her baby close to her. She reletented, and agreed to surrender her child to protect him. The blue fairy made arrangements to throw Hades off of his trail so that the baby could be delivered from Oz safely, and told Zelena to just put the baby's basket onto a cart manned by a peddler. While doing so, without the fairy watching, Zelena took out a small amulet, and tucked it into the baby's blanket.
"Keep this with you, love. So you'll always have a piece of home with you." she whispered. "You'll always have a place in our hearts, just as we hope that we'll always have a place in your heart. Mummy loves you, and grandpa loves you, too. And if grandma were here, she would tell you that she loved you, too."
Taran reached up to grab his mother's index finger in his little hand, and smiled up at her.
"You're a braver person than I, Taran. I don't know if I should be worried or proud." laughed Zelena. "I know you won't remember this, or understand a word that I'm saying, but...be nice to the other children, don't show off your magic, and don't give your caretakers a hard time. Try to stay out of trouble. You have your father's genes, so I expect that you'll find yourself drawn to fights a lot. At least, that's what your uncle says. And always remember that you decide what kind of man you want to be, but try to be a good one. If you find yourself in darkness, there will always be someone there who can guide you back to the light."
"Zelena?" the fairy called out.
Zelena looked at her, and saw the sad smile on her face.
"Zelena, it's time." the fairy told her.
Zelena reluctantly handed the basket over to the fairy, who set it in the cart, and pulled the tarp over it, hiding the top of it from view. The peddler then pulled it along with his horse, leaving Zelena to watch them depart. The fairy flew off into the sky after that, watching the peddler closely. Zelena felt tears starting to build up again, and covered her mouth with both hands to try and hold her pain in. The pain of watching her child leaving becoming more and more unbearable. As the peddler and the fairy disappeared into the distance, Zelena felt a fresh stream of tears rolling down her face. Behind her, she could sense that the evil that she was warned of was standing behind her.
"You're too late." she told him.
The blond-haired man in the dark suit standing behind her seethed in rage.
"Why?" he demanded. "Why did you let them take our child away like that?!"
"Because you don't see him as a son! You would've raised him to be as bitter and hateful as you are now!" the woman screamed back, as she rounded on him. "Our son is meant for more than just helping you get your revenge, he has his own life to live and his own destiny!"
"A destiny that involves killing me. I was told my future, too, and I don't intend to fight my son."
"He wouldn't fight you if you didn't give him a reason to! You will never change, Hades! You'll never let go!"
Hades clenched his hands into fists, and stormed over to grab Zelena, and jerk her around to face him.
"I will find my son again." he promised. "I won't let anyone else turn him against me."
"No one is turning him against you, Hades." Zelena reasoned with him. "You're blinded by your need for revenge."
Hades stared at the woman he loved, shocked. It was their thirst for vengeance that brought them together in the first place. Vengeance against the family that had wronged them. The Lord of the Dead felt that he no longer recognized the woman standing before him now.
"You've let go of your darkness." he realized.
"And you must do the same." begged Zelena. "Please, Hades, enough is enough. We can be a family, we can reunite with our son if you would just let go."
The look on her love's face told her that he wasn't going to let this drop.
"Tell me where our son was taken to." Hades demanded, as calmly as he could muster.
"I left him in the hands of his fairy godmother." replied Zelena. "Even I don't know where she's taken him. But I was assured that I would meet with him again."
"You would trust our baby to a stranger, but not with his father. I see now that our love does not stand a chance after all."
With that, Hades disappeared in a burst of blue flames, and returned to the Underworld. As he strode towards his lair, he looked to the side at his attendant.
"Summon the hounds." he ordered. "I want my son found."
The attendant nodded, and hurried off. Hades then stopped in the center of his lair, and looked down at a portal in the middle of the floor. The image of Zelena walked down the yellow brick road back home appeared, and Hades waved a hand over the image.
"I will find my son again, Zelena." he promised. "For now, I will erase your pain, so that when I find him, we can truly be a happy family together."
Unknown to either Zelena or Hades, the blue fairy flew up higher and higher into the night sky, with the infant Taran in her arms. She had teleported him into her arms when the peddler disappeared into the woods, just as planned. As the fairy flew through a portal, the baby started to look more and more apprehensive, as if he was sensing that something was not right. On the other side, it looked similar to the world she had come from, but the air felt darker. The fairy continued to fly towards a mountain and landed inside a tunnel, then looked down at the infant in her arms that was looking up at her.
"Welcome to your new home, Taran." she told him.
The fairy changed into a dark-haired woman with a black dress with black lace, and the light that she bore in her eyes was now replaced with pure darkness. She carried the child down through the mines, and stopped before a woman. The woman looked up at the fairy, her eyes full of despair and fear, as the fairy smiled maliciously at her.
"This is Taran, your new charge to care for." the dark fairy announced.
She handed the baby to the woman, who quickly took him with shaking arms.
"Teach him to love and obey his new mother." the fairy commanded. "This boy will serve my cause well."
The fairy walked away, leaving the woman alone with the child, while the other people hacked at the walls with their pickaxes. The woman studied the child carefully, watching as he stared back at her, unafraid, and a small smile crossed her features. A small hopeful smile.
Been outlining and brainstorming this for a while, one of the projects I wanted to work on for about a year or two. I lost count. Work with me for the time paradoxes though, please. I planned it out this way to help make this story work. If you don't like it, there are plenty of other stories on the site to read, and nobody's making you read this. Not trying to be disrespectful, but come on.
I do not own the title or anything related to the Chronicles of Prydain, which is owned by Lloyd Alexander. I don't own the OUAT series either. If I did, I'd be looking for a way to fit Kingdom Hearts into the mix, and I'd be having a team help me out. And Atlantis would be a part of it, too, because it's the coolest Disney movie. Digressing, all I own is the plot. At least the plot that I made.
Update (9/19/18): I'm going to try and extend the first chapter a bit, chapter four is halfway done, I've been trying to figure out a way to extend the Neverland Arc. Chapter Titles will be renamed.