Author's Note: Hello Teen Titans fans! Long time, no see! It's been a while since I've last written for you, so I hope I haven't lost my touch! In any case, Mother Mae Eye has always been my favorite Teen Titans villain, and I noticed that no one has ever given her a backstory. So I decided to try my hand at it myself! I hope you all enjoy the story, and please review!
Long ago, in a small village near the woods, lived a woman named Mae. She was a humble girl who's father owned the town's bakery, and she grew up learning the trade. He was a devoutly religious man who took her to church every Sunday. When she was a young woman, a stranger passed through town wearing a hooded cloak. Her father and many of the other townspeople accused the woman of being a witch. Mae was instructed never to go near her, and, wanting to please her father, she obeyed.
When she was seventeen, her father passed away and she was left to run the bakery on her own. She was a rather plump woman who was always jolly. Her happy nature attracted many suitors, but one man eventually got her. A man named Bennet Ivory, who was a friend to the entire village. After a few months together, they married, and he took over the bakery.
Mae had yearned for her whole life to be a mother. The second she was married she tried to have a child with her husband. But it didn't seem to be working. She kept going though, refusing to give up. After two long years of hoping and praying, she gave birth to a baby boy, whom she named Anthony after her favorite Saint. From the second he was in her arms, she was a changed woman. The love she had for her little boy was like nothing she had ever felt before. For that first year of his life, everything was perfect.
And then, just like that, her world crumbled.
Her husband became ill, and she had to have someone else take care of the bakery while she took care of him. The woman she hired was callous and cold, and without Mae's jolly attitude, her sales plummeted, drowning them in debt. The illness was worsening by the day, and Mae was running herself ragged trying to care for her husband and son at the same time. After a year of suffering, her husband passed away.
His passing had shaken her, but she still had her son. She would not break. Not when he needed her. But the town was pressuring her to remarry. She chose to ignore them, focusing on her child instead, but this did not get past the townspeople. In their own subtle way, they had slowly begun to resent her.
For three years she raised him on her own. It wasn't until he was around five years old that his health began to deteriorate. She took him to every doctor she could find, but they all said the same thing: there was no name for whatever was ailing her child. She was forced to sit there and watch her baby die. Two long years passed as slow as molasses, until finally her son took his last breath and died.
His death devastated her. It was at that point that many of the townspeople would consider her insane. The death of her child had pushed her over the edge. She scoured the earth in search of a way to bring him back, but kept coming up empty handed. Finally, many years later when she was older and tired, she returned to the village where she had grown up, but she did not go into town.
She went into the forest to find the woman accused of witchcraft.
That prayerful devout woman she once was was gone. The belief had broken her, the faith drained her. She searched the forest until she found a small hut. She knocked on the door to see a woman with a long, pointed nose, warts, and talon-like hands.
"Yes?" She asked.
"I need your help." Mae pleaded. A smile crossed the woman's face, and she invited her in.
The woman listened to her tale of woe and agreed to help her and train her as a witch.
For five grueling years they trained together. The nameless woman taught her everything she knew. When their time together came to a close, the two women parted ways as friends.
Mae traveled to a somewhat isolated place on the outskirts of a town to establish a new bakery and a place to live. When the moment came, she found she could not revive her lost son. Enraged, she accidentally baked the magic into one of her pies. When a customer took a bite, the reaction was nothing like she expected. The raven haired teenage boy called her mother, his behavior reverting to the exact age her son had been. It shocked her and flattered her so much that she continued baking some magic into a few pies. She saved them for the teens who came to the store alone. She took them into her home, and learned how to feed on their affection for nourishment. It made her feel needed again, and best of all, she was a mother once more. She changed her name to Mother Mae Eye to honor her past and future, and also to remain undetected.
For quite some time, the scheme went unnoticed. She moved from place to place like a vagabond, feeding on the affection of the children in her care. It wasn't until she moved closer to her hometown that she was ever challenged.
The witch who trained her knew exactly what she'd been doing, and it outraged her. Despite the townspeople's opinions, she was a good witch. She only used her magic to help the people who came to her. To see the magic she'd taught her being used for evil angered her, so she confronted her. Mother Mae Eye had just finished baking a pie when she was confronted. The fight escalated into a full out magical battle, that ended with the good witch trapping her in a pie. But not before Mae pulled one last trick: the pie could not be destroyed, and eating the pie could release it.
The good witch gave it to a gypsy who was traveling through town, and prayed that it would go far away from there and never sell.
It wouldn't, until Cyborg bought it from the Gypsy herself.