Hello again! Thank you all for your patience on this chapter. I just wanted to take some time here at the beginning to thank all of you who have been so kind with your comments and helped with different creative ideas. More of my ramblings at the end.

"You sure you are willing to help me with this? I know you would be getting more out of this time if we worked on sparing again."

"You need a break from it. You'll work yourself to death if you don't take a break."

Eleanor smirked as she continued to get things set up in Maleficent's study. Upon receiving the message from their mother, Eleanor asked Kasparov to help her with practicing her blood magic. Her brother was eager to help, curious about this 'forbidden' magic that she was learning. Eleanor asked Maleficent to use her study for the afternoon to practice, and the ruler of the castle obliged her request.

"You sure you just weren't concerned that I'd beat you in combat?"

The young man let out a sarcastic laugh. "I have been training for years, I think I can win a fight against a novice."

"Any other novice, maybe, but I still have other skills that I have been honing for years as well brother dear."

"Tell me again how this works?"

"Let me see your dagger." She held out her hand, in which Kas placed the weapon. "I take a little blood, like so," she pricked her finger and let the blade take a few drops of her blood. "And I put it in the cauldron, like such." She flicked the blade to let the blood flick off it. The two watched as two figures formed in the cauldron, the same two that had formed for Eleanor previously. Wiping the blade off on a rag that she had sitting at the side, she turned to Kas, "Now it is your turn."

"So, if you already know the results for me, why are you practicing with my blood?"

"Because I already know what to expect. This way I can see if I did anything wrong. Now let me see your hand."

Kasparov extended it nervously, "Just don't cut too deep."

"Pfft, you big baby."

She slowly sliced the skin on her brother's finger, letting the blade drink of his blood as well. Performing the same movements as she had prior, Eleanor tapped the blade to have it release the ruby liquid. The images of Helen and Philip disappeared in the cauldron, only to be replaced by Philip again and someone else.

This woman was not their mother, but someone with fair features and golden hair. Her eyes shone like amethysts and she was the image of grace and beauty. A soft smile graced her features with lips that were stained the color of roses. It was the queen, Aurora.

"No…"

"Kas…there has to be some mistake. I must have done the spell wrong," but before she could finish trying to rationalize the image that they were seeing, Kasparov had started to back away in disbelief. "Brother, let's go ask mother about this."

"So she can lie to my face again?" Anger starting to seep into his voice. "That's why she always said it was my throne. I am the legitimate heir."

"Kas we will figure this out-WAIT!" Kas bolted for the door. Tears of anger were stinging at his eyes as he flew through the castle towards the stable that held Siegfried. On his way, he ran into the woman that his anger was directed at.

"Kasparov, where are you off to in such a hurry?" The young man quickly pushed past her, trying to get away. Watching after where her upset son ran, she looked back towards where he came from. What has him so upset?

Busting the stable door open startled the horse, but he calmed upon seeing his rider. Hastily placing his mount's bridle on, he flung himself on the horse's back and charged out of the stalls, making his way towards the woods. He urged his mount on as fast as the terrain would allow, making the two a grey blur.

After watching her brother run off, Eleanor tried to understand what they had just seen. I did it right, didn't I? If I did, what else has mother lied to us about? Trying to push her insecurities aside, she resolved herself to finding Kas. Shouting her brother's name as she left the room, a figure stopped her from advancing further.

"Eleanor, you as well? What has you and your brother so upset?"

"You mean half-brother."

Helen's eyes grew wide, "What do you-"

"What else have you not told us about who we are?"

"Did he say where he was going?"

"Is there a reason that Kasparov is charging out of the gates like a bat out of Hell?" The two females turned to see Maleficent had joined them, her brows arched as she waited for an answer.

"He knows," was Helen's only reply.

Maleficent understood immediately what her adopted daughter meant with that statement. She whisked the three of them away in flames to the top of the tallest tower. Peering out at the gates, Eleanor pointed ahead. "There! He's leaving the castle."

She started to stretch her wings to prepare to go after her brother but was stopped by a hand on her shoulder. She turned back to her mother, "Stay here." Enveloping herself in flames, she shot through the air following after Kasparov, who was winding his way down the mountain.

Eleanor leaned over the tower's edge watching the pillar of sapphire flames travel towards the forest that lay at the edge of the mountains. "This is your mother's mess to clean. I had told her to let your brother know long ago, but it seems that her hesitancy has been the cause of Kasparov's anger."

Kasparov continued to charge down the mountain path, the tree line within view. Tears stinging at his eyes, from the anger that was boiling inside him and from the wind whipping past him as he urged Siegfried to go faster. Before he was able to reach the grassy plane that lead to the forest, sapphire flames impeded his progress further. Siegfried reared up, as a shadowy figure started to materialize in the flames, throwing Kas from his back. The horse jumped across the line of flames, running to hide into the tree line.

"Kasparov!"

"No! I won't listen to any more of your lies! Did you steal me as an infant in the middle of the night so you could enact your curse? Am I just some pawn to you to play your little games with?"

"Sweetheart, none of that is true. I should have told you myself to prevent you from thinking these thoughts." Kasparov looked behind him to see if he could still escape. Upon seeing this, Eleanor encircled the two of them within her flames, blocking any escape. "You deserve the truth, but you have to stay to hear it. Yes, you are not of my blood, but you are my son all the same. I did not steal you from Aurora in that manner, instead I bore you the same as your sister. My curse was-"

"Kas!" Eleanor flew into the ring of flames, landing next to the young man. "Kas, why did you leave?"

"Eleanor, I told you to stay behind."

"And let you continue to lie? You need to explain yourself mother, we deserve that much if we are to put our lives on the line for you."

A silence formed between the three. Helen's features became somber, knowing that her daughter was right. "Where do you want me to start?"

"How is that you 'bore' me if I am not your son by blood?"

She closed her eyes, before letting out a sigh, "In order for my curse to be put into effect, I had to possess Aurora while she and Philip shared their marital bed. In doing so, I was to have you, Kasparov, grow in my womb, but at the same time your sister was conceived. Aurora had a pseudo pregnancy of sorts, thinking that she had a still born while her actual first born was alive with me. As far as Philip and Aurora are concerned, you do not exist.

"When it was almost your due date, your father thought I had killed you and as an act of retaliation he sent soldiers here for my head. After defending the castle, I had you two shortly afterwards. Since your first breath, you have always been my son."

The furrowed brows on both of her children's faces told her of the doubt they still harbored towards her. "I see that you still are unsure, but what I said is true. I give you my word."

"Your word means nothing, you liar!" Kas shouted at her. Helen took a step back as she felt her heart starting to shatter slowly inside her.

"Then so be it. I swear my life on it. Ask your grandmother to tell you, and if a single detail I said was false you can ram your blade through my heart then and there. But please let us go home first." She extended her hand to them.

"We will go home separately from you, mother." Eleanor responded as she held out a hand to her brother. "We need time to process this."

Helen slowly dropped her arm as tears started to well up in her eyes. A few managed to escape when she replied, "As you wish." She transported herself back to the castle in the same sapphire flames she used before and in doing so took the flame barrier with her.

Eleanor looked back at Kas, who was still sitting on the ground and avoiding eye contact. "Do you want to sit here for a bit?"

He did not reply to her, staring off into the distance. It wasn't until a shove in the back that he turned his attention back to Eleanor.

"How could you?" she shouted at him. "Did you think I wouldn't miss you if you left? Did you know how much that stabbed a knife into my heart? To have your own brother, the other person who you have lived every day of your life with, to just abandon you. What were you thinking?" Tears had started to fill her eyes, and her voice had begun to shake as she held those tears back.

"I didn't-"

"No! You didn't think did you! You just rushed out, not even including me in your decision to leave." She wiped away the tears that were pooling over. "This doesn't change anything. You are still my brother, and always will be."

"I'm sorry. I just…all I saw in your face was her, and I was so fueled with anger that I had to get away."

Eleanor stood back up releasing a sigh before responding. "I'm still hurt, and I will need time to forgive you, but we should head back. It's the only way we will learn about the truth."

Kas pushed himself up to standing and walked over to the woods where Siegfried had run off towards. He whistled to his stead and waited to hear the soft sounds of hooves over grass and fallen leaves. Taking the reins that hung loosely from the horse's neck, Kas turned back towards Eleanor. "Want a ride?"

Eleanor turned back, "Yeah. I flew as fast I could after you, so I don't know if they have the strength to get me back, and I don't want to magic myself back either."

"Why not just come with…her?"

"She told me to stay, but once she left grandmother told me it was my choice to go after you and that she would not dissuade me."

"Hmm."

"Out of the two of them, she has never withheld the truth, except if mother asked her to. She can't say no to her."

"You've been very observant of their interactions." He walked Siegfried over to where Eleanor waited.

"While you have been learning to break someone physically, I have been learning how to break down people mentally and emotionally to find their weaknesses to hold against them. Mother's weakness has been harder to trace, but from what I just witnessed, I would say it is the two of us."

Kas helped her up onto the horse's back, then swung himself up to sit behind her. "Just rest. I know you are more exhausted than you let on." Eleanor folded her wings in as close to herself as she could so Kas could hold onto the reigns with his right hand just as easily as he could with his left. She knew sitting side saddle was the only way that he would be able to see around her wings. As she grew accustomed to the horse's gentle swaying on their trek back to the castle, Eleanor started to feel the exhaustion in her muscles from the flight down the mountain. She could have just coasted using the air currents but had to get to her brother before a fight broke out.

So don't worry I am not going to leave you guys on this for very long. I am working out the kinks on the next chapter as you read this. This chapter was one of the big plot points that I had come to mind while writing the prequel. Please let me know what you thought. Until next time friends!