Set quite a few years after the movie. Backstory is that Aurora's kingdom (which I've named Rayume because none of the disney kingdoms have any goddamn names) is going to war with Snow White's kingdom when the stepmother is ruling. Slight Once Upon A Time referenced crossover.
Requested by addicted2memorie
Genre angst, romance, angst, some gore, more angst.
Enjoy!
I Believe in You
Maleficent gazed at her reflection in the still water, her wings held high and back. She'd donned her battle armor; all thick black leather and thin wooden plating of Ironwood arranged like scales. Her wings wore nothing. They were protection enough alone.
Today the Moors were going to battle once more. After nearly a decade of peace between the Moorfolk and Aurora's kingdom of Rayume, a new threat had arisen from the North to destroy their gentle world.
"Milady?"
She turned, and smiled slightly. Despite the grim circumstances, Diaval managed to bring a smile to her face. He was dressed in human armor himself, but it was too large for the gangly thing and the helm kept slipping down over his eyes. She moved closer, lifting it from his head.
"Let me," she suggested, and with her magic resized the steel helmet for him. She smoothed back his sleek ebony locks and slid the helmet back on, and this time it fit snugly. The rest of his armor still hung awkwardly, but if things got serious he wouldn't stay in human form to use it for very long.
"Your hair," he pointed to it, and she glanced at the long brown locks. "You should put it up."
She turned and sat down on a log, waiting expectantly. Diaval combed the sienna strands back with his fingers, braiding it tightly. He tied the end off with a small piece of brightly colored string from his coat pocket, and she glanced at it curiously. He blushed.
"I'm still a raven at heart, you know. I collect pretty things."
She took his hands, drawing him to sit beside her, and rested her forehead against his.
"Keep them safe. Aurora and Philip are in your care."
He cupped her hands where they rested on the sides of his helm. "As if I'd let anything happen to them. You keep yourself safe, alright? I won't forgive you if you're careless."
She kissed his steel brow. "I shall. Go to them. If we are pushed back, we shall join forces at the ruins."
He took a running start and transformed with a trail of smoke into an iron plated raven, streaking away to the Royals' side. Maleficent turned the other way, taking a deep breath. She leapt from the hillside and rocketed into the air, soaring over the dark trees and quiet forest of the Moors. All the creatures were either hiding preparing for war.
She landed amidst the Guardians and other warriors of the Moors, and turned to face the North.
"To me!"
They began to pound their spears rhythmically on the ground, and the sound swelled like the heartbeat of a great beast, as if the very Moors were alive and breathing, as if they would help her fight back.
"To me!"
The beat increased in pace and volume. She snapped her wings out, heart pumping. The sounds of howling wolves and heavy horses crashing through foliage became audible, and the stamping became a roar in her ears.
"Hold your ground! Do not let them pass!"
Then the two forces clashed, a force of nature with all the violence and power of wave and shore.
Who would be worn away was yet to be seen.
Diaval stepped carefully over a smoking tree guardian, trying not to breath the air that hung thick with smoke and ash. The forces from the North had burned a great swath in the Moors, but had been pushed back successfully. The day was won.
But Diaval couldn't find Maleficent. He had fought hard on the Rayume front and bore the wounds to prove it, but the anxiety and uncertainty caused by this separation from his former mistress was proving even more painful.
"Maleficent!" He shouted, his voice echoed forlornly across the battlefield. A drop of rain hit his face, making him start and look up. Even the clouds were crying for this unnecessary bloodshed. His stomach was clenched into a knot of burning steel.
"Maleficent!"
A soft tug on his coat drew his attention, and he glanced down to find a tiny, usually shy tree spirit at his feet. It gestured with a three-fingered white hand, and he followed. It led him through the ravaged forest until they came to a small thicket of bright silver maples and bushes populated by colorful flowers. His chest clenched-the tree trunks were splattered with blood.
The spirit gestured again, and he clambered through the bushes and found himself in a tiny sheltered meadow, ringed with silent trees and illuminated by a shaft of sunlight. No ordinary meadow-a Faerie ring.
Lying in the center of the Faerie ring, he found her. She lay at a sprawl, as if she had crawled there and fallen when she could crawl no further. One of her wings was gashed and showing slick white bone, and she was breathing shallowly.
"Maleficent!"
He fell to his knees beside her, hands trembling as he checked her pulse. "Maleficent, oh gods-"
"Diaval?" she murmured, and her eyes fluttered. He turned her onto her side gently, carefully situating her damaged wing where it would be less painful to her. She groaned quietly, and he cradled her head in his lap.
"What happened?"
"T-They brought a...a sorceress. A young...human named Regina," she relayed, eyes still closed and brow furrowed. She was fighting down pain. "She was...very powerful."
"Not more powerful than you, surely. You're the most powerful creature in the realm," he said with forced laughter, and she smiled slightly.
"Not more...more powerful than me, no. But also...not alone."
A shard of ice shot down his spine. He had left her here on her own, and she was broken and bleeding because of him. He bent over her, clenching his eyes closed as he forced the burning tears away.
"There were wolves. So many...wolves."
Her voice sounded weaker than it had a moment before. His eyes shot open and he realized that the hand cupping her shoulder was slick with blood. He tore a strip from the end of his coat, pressing it to the warmth seeping from her body. Her leather armor had been shredded by massive claws.
"You're going to be just fine. I'll get you out of here. I promise," he said, but his voice broke and she opened her eyes in time to see him begin to cry. She raised a hand, brushing his cheek with her delicate fingers.
"Shh, shh my pet," she said softly, stroking his hair. "They will not return."
He wiped his face, taking a shaky breath. "I'll take you to Hometree. Unicorn's blood can heal you, I'll find one, they're sure to give it to you after everything you've done-"
She placed a finger on his lips to quiet him, caressing his cheek. "Be still, Diaval. It won't help, and you know that. Please, just...just-" she emphasized as he tried to protest, "stay with me."
He swallowed hard. "I was wrong to ever leave you."
She gestured for him to come closer, and he did so, draping an arm around her shoulders as she lay her horned head on his chest. They lay in silence together, the way they did when it was cold at night at Hometree, or when she was lonely or upset but didn't want to talk about it. He wrapped his arms around her, burying his face in her hair that smelled like smoke and blood, but also faintly of rain-soaked earth. She had always smelled that way to him.
"Diaval?" she murmured, and he held her tighter.
"Yes, Maleficent?" His voice was remarkably steady considering the fact that his oldest, dearest friend lay dying in his arms.
"I lied to you."
He looked down questioningly. Her eyes were closed, and her voice was faint.
"What do you mean?"
"I should have told you long ago." She sighed, the puff of air exhaled through her bloodred lips thin and soft.
"Told me what?"
She gestured him closer, and he leaned in anxiously. She was fading. He couldn't bring himself to acknowledge or accept it, but Maleficent was dying.
She placed a gentle, tender kiss on his lips, startling and stunning him, and smiled weakly, her green eyes a faded, washed out green.
"I didn't believe in love for so many years, Diaval."
She took a painful breath, and he held her fiercely, as if he could keep her in this world through sheer will alone.
"But...I believed in you. And I think it may be the same thing."
He felt as if he had struck the ground at a hundred miles and hour. His primary muscle groups ceased functioning; he couldn't think, couldn't breathe, couldn't move. Had she just told him...she loved him?
"I love you too, Maleficent. Gods I love you so much. I have for a long time," he said in a rush, and the admission felt like a thousand pounds being lifted from his chest. He kissed her, something he had wanted to do for so long yet lacked the courage to do so, and suddenly a brilliant golden glow shone from somewhere too close to himself to see properly. He started back, and realized that he was glowing, and so was Maleficent, both of them glimmering with the warm amber color of the Faerie's power. It grew so bright he had to shield his eyes, and as suddenly as it had appeared, it stopped.
"Malefi-" he opened his eyes, blinking owlishly, and broke off midsentence.
Maleficent was standing, hair loose and wild. Her armor was gone, replaced by a simple white dress tied at the waist with twine and falling off her pale shoulders. Her wounds were gone. Diaval scrambled to his feet breathlessly, taking her hands.
"What- How-?" he fumbled for words, and she smiled.
"True Love's Kiss."
The sentence warmed him head to toe, and he grinned like an absolutely fool, winding his arms around her.
"I love you too."
She stroked her fingers through the dark hair at the base of his neck, and he kissed her the way he had always wanted to, the way she had never kissed anyone before, nor ever would again. When they broke apart, he was so weak in the knees he slumped to them, taking her down as he went. He knelt in the dewy grass holding her, and buried his face in her neck.
"I thought you were going to leave me," he sobbed quietly, and she held him tightly.
"I never will again. I said I wanted you by my side all those years ago, and I meant it." She pressed her forehead to his. "I want you by my side, forever."
He kissed her again. Now that he'd done it, he thought it may be impossible to stop. "As long as you'll have me."
Forever was a very, very long time. But Diaval had a feeling that it wouldn't be nearly long enough.
*insert rainbow vomit gif here*