Redeemed - Sleeping Beauty 9
Author's Note: We were busy moving, but things are settling down again. Going to see Maleficent tonight, here's hoping.
With a gasp Maleficent took this new body's first living breath.
She was in her stone bed in her room at the top of the Forbidden Mountain, covered by a purple embroidered, black sheet.
The spell held her in place as her new body continued to form. She could feel the sheet on her chest but there was nothing to feel past her ribs nor could she feel her arms. Since Chernabog had her heart she knew the spell would recreate her body where ever she had last slept, but she hadn't thought that it would wake her before the body was fully ready. That was unexpected and unpleasant.
Maleficent was utterly helpless and unattended.
Maleficent rolled her eyes around to try to see something.
Her skin was pale and pink again. Her hair was blonde again too, as it spilled over the side of the bed. She was back in the body the fairies had given her.
That was annoying, at least there was no mirror to see more.
It was day so the room was lit from the sun. Her storm cloud had dissipated, not a surprise really, it had taken constant effort to maintain.
Her staff was not next to her mirrorless vanity, where could it be? It was supposed to have come back here with her. She had embedded some failsafe spells on her clothes and staff but it was now doubtful that they would be activated and even if they were, where would they end up? The spell on her robes would bring the first woman to her staff, where ever that now was. The staff had a failsafe that would swap the consciousness of herself and whoever claimed it, most likely whoever touched her robes.
Maleficent looked out the door, where she could hear goons grumbling and marching around. She could just see the beak of her familiar, Diablo, a small stone statue. "Oh Diablo, I'm so sorry..."
Maleficent trailed off as she began to realize that without Diablo she didn't have a way to relay messages to her goons and her last orders to them were not to disturb her. Those foolish goons would take that stupidly literal. She was trapped by her own hand. The irony twisted her lips as she chuckled.
She hadn't thought the fairies would be brave enough to try penetrating her home. Maybe love was more powerful then she thought. Why did it give the fairies courage and probably saved the Princess Aurora? But why hadn't it saved Henri or her parents?
Why hadn't it saved... her?
She was going to fall asleep, it probably would take a long time but she was sure she would, then the nightmares would come and bound by the spell, as she was, it would be worse. The helplessness would be even more real. There would be the helplessness as Henri died in her arms, and her parents and her kingdom and they would be raping her and there would be no one to save her ever.
Tears leaked from Maleficent's eyes and darkened the black pillow that contrasted so well with her sunshine blonde hair.
# # #
Maleficent drifted in and out of consciousness over the days and nights as her body reassembled. Try as she might she could not stay awake. Her body had minimal reserves for that. Her body was almost complete when a massive wave of green magic swept over her. Then a ringing silence descended over of the Forbidden Mountain. The goons had kept up a din for days and now it was quiet, the quiet of the dead.
Maleficent knew that some woman had been transported to her staff and it was close. She had used the staff and had felt its power. All she had to do was claim the staff as her own and Maleficent would switch bodies with her.
Maleficent was curious and concerned, someone using wand magic for the first time should not have been able to produce such a massive spell. Whoever had her staff had used magic before, but who could it be?
Maleficent waited patiently for something, anything to happen, she rested her head against the pillow. The spell rebuilding her body was almost done, in minutes she could rise and reclaim her staff and deal with whoever had been brought to her.
Maleficent's eyes fluttered shut as she waited.
Then she heard something she didn't expect.
"Hello, Maleficent."
"Hello, my sleeping beauty." Wild joy overcame Maleficent. It was the Princess Aurora herself standing backlit in the archway.
"Everyone said you were dead," commented Princess Aurora, with a cock of her head.
"Ha, you think I can be destroyed so easily? As if a sword could destroy me, Maleficent, the Mistress of All Evil. Even with their silly, little spell, all they could do was destroy that form for a while." Her tone went from mocking to conciliatory as she tried to buy herself some time. "As you can see, I am rebuilding myself. It takes time, but my goons are able to distract your father and the other kingdoms."
"I destroyed your goons. The war is over." Princess Aurora stated with certainty. Maleficent wondered what had happened to the devastated princess to give her this new strength, but it would be easy enough to shatter it.
"Yes, I noticed that. You've felt the power of my staff. It felt good, didn't it? To crush your enemies; to see them utterly defeated; to make your kingdom safe," She spoke lightly, trying to sooth Aurora to bring her guard down.
Aurora hefted the staff, extending it over Maleficent's prone body, and the crystal head crackled with power. "I did what needed to be done. I would put an end to your evil as well."
"Ha! So you would try to kill me, too? You can't kill me, not as long as this mortal world lasts and evil lurks in the hearts of men," said Maleficent defiantly. It took all her will to keep her eyes on Aurora and not on the magic leaking from the staff.
"Why did you try to kill me?" Aurora demanded.
"Kill you? I didn't expect you to die. I knew the fairies would try to save you."
"...then why?" asked the confused child.
"Why? Because of the wish your parents made, a wish for a baby. They both wished as hard as they could at the same time on the first star of the evening. It was a powerful wish all by itself, but they also had the faith in the wish to do their part."
"Their part?" the clueless princess asked.
Maleficent actually felt some pity for the poor child. "They had sex, princess."
"Well, at least they tried to," The witch smirked, how innocent the princess was, how fun it was to take that away.
"Your father was having a hard time, so your mother dragged him out into the forest to play Capture the Unicorn. She danced the Lure so well in the light of the full moon, that she not only raised your father, but an actual, real unicorn, and not some colt, but a full grown stallion."
"What's so hard about that? I do it all the time. I never have a problem meeting the unicorns of the forest," said Briar Rose.
"Of course, you don't." Envy streaked through Maleficent's heart. The princess was almost as innocent as a babe, and had everything the unicorns valued, just as much as she embodied everything they hated.
"It usually takes an innocent, virtuous maiden displaying her body to raise a unicorn. Well, after 15 years of trying to get pregnant your mother was no longer a maiden, and as a queen hardly innocent, but she was virtuous. She was doing it not for themselves, but for their kingdom. That was very powerful. Many people make wishes, usually for themselves, but so few put any faith, much less work into making their wishes come true.
"That got the notice of every magical being in the world. They all wanted to give gifts, such virtue and faith needed to be rewarded, and with more then just a baby. They soon decided if they all did something, they'd kill you from all that incompatible magic. So they limited themselves to those magical beings in the kingdom at the time of the wish. That left the fairies and myself."
"Why did you hurt me?" demanded Aurora.
"I? I did not hurt you, the fairies did that; I merely listed what they had done to you. They hurt you, not I." That was the truth, funny how that worked out.
"But you cursed me. You cursed me to die before my 16th birthday." Aurora said, brandishing the staff.
"Yes, yes I did. Why do you think I did that? Some people think I mistimed my entrance, since Merryweather still had her gift to give, and modified my curse binding you only in sleep. After all, sixteen years is a very long time, when I could have killed you right there in your crib, could I not?" Maleficent looked quite directly at the princess.
Maleficent could see Aurora bite her lip, knowing the truth of that statement.
"It forced the fairies to reveal to the world just what they are. I am evil, I enjoy causing pain and suffering, but I do not hide that fact. The fairies, on the other hand, call themselves good, but cause pain and suffering wherever they go. They always lie and they always hurt those they say they love. They hurt me too, and destroyed my kingdom."
"Your kingdom?"
"Yes, your highness, I am a princess too."
"Y-you're a princess, too?"
"Please, princess," the prone witch chided.
"Outside your forest is a whole world, filled with kingdoms; most kingdoms have a princess or two. The world is ankle deep in princesses. You aren't anything special, but your parents are, though not because they are a king and queen. They made the strongest wish of their generation, it got everyone's attention in the magical realm."
"Yes, they wanted an heir. That's me."
"Indeed, a light of hope for the kingdom, someone to continue the fight against me. Not that I am against your kingdom," the incomplete woman scoffed.
"Your kingdom is inconsequential to what is going on. I am going to show the world what the fairies are. I will force them to show their true colors. They are not so good as they make themselves out to be. They destroyed my kingdom, and have hurt many other people and kingdoms, and nearly destroyed you and your kingdom."
Aurora nodded.
"But you said my suffering was delicious to you. You searched to find a way to make it worse. You took my clothes!" Aurora said accusingly to Maleficent.
"I said your suffering was exquisite. Worse then my own, I'll admit. The pain you were in was the worst I have even seen in another person. As for your clothes, it was obvious that the fairies made them; I didn't want any potential embedded spells getting in the way, like how my cloak brought you here. Besides you were going to sleep, and it is so much easier to sleep without them," she wiggled her bare shoulders, beneath the purple embroidered black sheets, smiling.
Aurora's eyes narrowed.
"Yes, my sleeping beauty, I am also a princess and I received gifts from the fairies and they betrayed me too. I know what they did to you, which was not so different from what they did to me. I know how you feel: the betrayal, the fear, the hate, and the guilt." Maleficent spoke earnestly, saw Aurora lick her lips.
"They took everything from you: your parents, your castle, the love your parents had for you, the love you had for them, the beautiful cottage you painted, the forest friends you had, the clothes you made, your true love, even your name. They took everything from me too. My parents, my true love, my kingdom, even my body. Everything, even my name. I was not always Maleficent. My princess name is Celestina." Celestina spoke from her heart.
Briar Rose blinked, "I know that name. She was a story that my aunts told me before bedtime. Celestina was a princess; she got gifts from the fairies. But she was betrayed, her true love died, traitors took her kingdom and she became the morning star."
Maleficent laughed bitterly. "Those dear, simple fools, trying to give me a happy ending. I am Celestina! They betrayed me, and the realm of my father! They allowed my true love to die in my arms, they allowed the traitors to overthrow my father, and they allowed my kingdom to die! I am the last of them, my entire people was slaughtered to the last. Not a building left standing. Not even the animals or trees was spared. I couldn't even help them." She had been too weak to help her people, and now that she was strong it didn't matter. A tear fell slowly for all that she has lost.
"But I will have my revenge! I will break the fairies who did this to me. I will snap their wands, breaking their power. I will rip the wings from their backs and they will be my slaves forever, and my nightmares will finally end. I found my power and used it. I crushed my enemies. I destroyed them completely, and I became great!" She finished fiercely.
Maleficent took a breath.
"Did you not just crush my goons? Are you not now great? Did it feel good to remove the threat to your kingdom? To feel safe?" Maleficent said more calmly, almost seductively. "We are not so different, I think."
Maleficent could see Aurora questioning everything in those lovely eyes, then they hardened.
"Why should I believe you? You're the Mistress of All Evil. You'd lie about anything. We aren't the same," challenged Aurora, the staff in her hands shaking as she pointed it at Maleficent.
"Heh, little child, I have no need to lie, not when the truth is already so awful. The fairies know you are to become great, as I am. You are weak. You have not taken up your power. You do not know your strength. Raise my staff. Claim it as your own, only then can you be safe, only then can you truly have the power that is yours.
"Your kingdom would never have to live in fear again. None could betray you again. No one could take anything from you again. You could make everything right again. Nothing could stop you. You would be strong. You would be safe. You would never have to feel the Pain again." Celestina said earnestly.
"We are not so different. We share so many of the same experiences. We are both princesses. We were both betrayed by the fairies. We are like sisters really. You...We wouldn't have to be alone ever again." Celestina pleaded, it was a desperate, impossible wish to have something like a family again.
Maleficent watched as Aurora flexed her hands around the staff, considering what to do. She could only wait.
Aurora raised the staff and her red, red lips part.
Maleficent saw green fire flared around Aurora's body. Her clothes changed, the black and purple cloak going from a shawl to full black robes with pale blue lining covering her completely. Sweptback horns, which end in a curl, crawled up and covered her hair and head, cradling her crown.
Meanwhile, Maleficent's feet and hands began to assemble and grow.
Maleficent, her long blonde hair spilling over the purple embroidered black sheets of her bed, awaited Aurora to claim her staff. Maleficent's body will be completed in moments, if Aurora didn't choose, she will be able to rise up and retake her staff and deal with the princess herself.
The green fire surrounding Aurora lit up the small bedroom, the delicate flowers and vines painted on the walls stood in stark contrast to the black stone.
Maleficent arched an eyebrow as Princess Aurora rose up and floated at the end of Maleficent's stone bed, black robes with blue lining swirled around her, as massive amounts of green magic coursed over her body. Aurora was channeling a huge amount of magic through her. She was actually hugely dangerous because she lacked control.
Maleficent sat up as her body completed its regeneration and freed of the spell. She stood, the black sheet clutched to her chest. She took a step to close the gap and lifted her hand to take the staff back.
The Princess Aurora brought the glowing staff around in a circle above her head; rose up on her bare tiptoes and shouted "NO!"
Maleficent was confused by Aurora's refusal, then felt something far beyond fear as she saw Aurora bring the end of her staff down on the end of her stone bed and the world exploded in a blaze of light, because she knew she had never anticipated this and had no idea what would happen next.