Author's note: Welcome to Legacy, A fic that began life as a Frozen/Tangled crossover, and in the planning has expanded to encompass the vast majority of the Disney Princesses franchise. I intend to update this story every Friday. While I consider myself knowledgeable regarding Disney lore and its movies, if I miss anything, please let me know.
Fun fact: It was Frozen that brought me back into the Disney fold after having drifted away. I only really went to see Frozen because Idina Menzel was in it, so yay for celebrity casting. It also means I have a lot of catching up to do with my Disney product for recent years.
"My, that is ambitious," Hades said with a smirk. "And while I'm normally onboard with chaos and disaster, you do know I'm not the lord of the Underworld anymore right? Ever since Hercules threw me into the Styx, I've been a bit at loose ends."
The woman standing across from him in the dark and desolate landscape didn't respond to his levity. Even here, In this damned place beyond life where there was nothing but the dead spirits of all things foul, this woman had a regal bearing that the greatest mortal monarch could not have bettered.
Limbo was a strange place in many ways. Souls of mortals, even powerful sorceresses would normally go to whatever reward or punishment they had earned in life when they died. Some however were able to make exceptions. Sufficient power, as was the case with the woman standing near him, or a bargain struck with the right kind of monster or demon would allow the wicked to escape their justice. Their souls ended up here, a bleak wasteland of grey rock that stretched out forever in all directions.
A place of nothingness and void where any joy that a person had would slowly be leached from them until they simply stopped where they stood, forever frozen in apathy. In that too there were exceptions. People who had purpose, be It ever so dark lasted longer than those who were simply afraid. Those who blazed with the power of their desires, they lasted the longest, and the woman infront of him had laster longer than any other denizen in this place, himself excepted.
Of course since he was a God, the rules were very different for him. He returned his attention to the conversation as the woman had just finished explaining her plan to the former king of the Underworld. "Do not tell me you haven't still got power Hades, for we both know it would be a lie."
The ancient God with the burning hair let his mouth form into a lazy grin. "Oh I didn't say anything of the sort. Besides, it might be fun to see you try to take over the world again. I mean, your last effort didn't work out too well." The shot went home, and the woman's eyes narrowed dangerously. For Hades it was almost like a game, and what point was the game without high stakes. She was one of the few beings in this world whom he might think of as close to his equal, in brains if not in actual power.
She might be powerful, but he was a God after all. Even now, after centuries of being stuck in this limbo between worlds, he still had more power than any other denizen here. It just wasn't enough to escape as long as Hercules was watching, and the meddling do-gooder seemed to always be watching. So Hades contented himself with petty amusements aimed at those who couldn't effectively fight back, because they lacked the strength, or in some cases the will, or because they needed something from him.
It wasn't a great way to while away the millennia, but it was sufficient.
"It was," the woman said, then paused. An uncharacteristic action, noted Hades. She had been supremely confident in her plan. Of course this wasn't the first plan she had been supremely confident in. He'd seen others come unravelled in the endless centuries they'd been trapped here. "It was unwise of me to try and achieve my goals through mortal methods. I intend to be more direct this time."
"More direct?" he asked.
"I shall break through to the mortal world in the old castle. I shall find and recover the source of my power, and then the world will tremble."
It was a good speech, he admitted to himself, and it was quite obvious she believed it too. He wondered if she had a reason for that confidence given that she was down here, and had already failed several times. Still, he'd agreed to give her his opinions, and so he would.
"And you know that she had children right? And that those children had children and so on. Mortals," he said with a snort. "Obsessesed with one thing and one thing only. You're going to have to deal with those descendants. If they figure out who you are, and who they're descended from, they'll try and stop you. They won't be able to help themselves, it runs in the family, all the way back to Ancient Greece."
"Show them to me," came the command.
Hades shrugged, and waved a hand. Even here and with as little power as remained to him, being able to view mortals was a fairly trivial use of his powers. The first image to appear was that of a wooden sailing ship. Its masts ballooning out under the pressure of the wind and with the royal symbol of the Kingdom of Arendelle flying on the pennant. The image quickly zoomed closer and focussed on a young woman, in her late teens who was standing near the bow, eyes closed and a huge smile on her face as the spray came up and left her face drenched. She was wearing a dark green dress, which offset her reddish hair and the small tiara she wore. She turned to the large blonde man standing behind her and said something which made him laugh, or maybe it was the drenched face and wet hair that made him laugh. It didn't really matter.
Neither of the beings watching could hear what it was that she said as Hades ability to view the world was limited to sight only. It was a limitation he'd learned to live with in the many, many centuries since his exile. He'd never known why that limitation existed since he couldn't affect anything on the other side of one of his windows anyway, and at least with sound it might have provided some respite from the boredom of this place.
"Princess Anna of Arendelle," Hades pronounced. "And the boy she likes, a Sami named Kristoff. If you're looking for weaknesses, then he's probably it."
A second window appeared besides the first one, this one showing a cabin on a ship. It was a lavishly appointed cabin with solid oak furniture and massive windows looking out over the ocean at the rear of the ship. Sunlight streamed in through the massive windows, illuminating the cabin's occupants in golden light. The woman raised an elegant eyebrow towards Hades.
"Yes, they're on the same ship."
Sitting at the massive desk in the image was of another young woman, maybe a few years older than Anna with hair so blonde it almost seemed white, and a dress made of whites and greens. "Her sister, Queen Elsa of Arendelle," Hades provided by way of explanation. His companion for the moment stepped towards the gap in reality through which they were viewing the ship and gazed intently at the person sitting behind the desk. The young royal appeared to be doing paperwork while listening to a man in the uniform of an official speak. She would occasionally raise her head and respond or ask something before returning to her work.
"There is something, intense about this girl" the woman said after observing silently for a few minutes. "Even through this window I can sense power on that ship, cold and sharp and bright. She is one of the Powers that I need to kill, Ice perhaps?" There was an ugly tone in the woman's voice when she spoke of killing a young girl for personal gain. Hades didn't mind either way, since mortals tended to die pretty quickly and easily anyway. Normally he was playing a game far too big to worry about the odd mortal anyway.
"Who can tell these days. I know one of them has the power of ice, and I'd say the blonde in the white dress is probably your best bet," Hades shrugged through. "Could be either of them. You know that you're going to have to face the Sun, the Snow and the Spirit if you want to win, so does it really matter?"
"Only insofar it informs my tactics for dealing with each. One must know ones enemies in order to bring them to heel."
A third window opened, showing a third young woman sitting on a balcony, one leg dangling off it as she enjoyed the morning sun, her head leaning back against a pillar and her eyes closed. She was as short haired brunette to match Elsa's blonde and Anna's reddish hair. Standing next to her, leaning on the balcony was a young man with mischievous eyes and a bright smile who was gesturing animatedly towards something in the distance.
"Our final contestant, Princess Rapunzel of Corona. Recently returned to her parents after having been missing for her entire life. Gothel was one of yours I believe?"
The woman snorted angrily. "I had so long to work with Gothel, but she was canny enough. Even after centuries she was never willing to fully listen to the voice in her ear. She was a small woman, with small ambitions. All she wanted was to live forever and be left alone. She desired power nor control over anything else."
"So unlike you my dear," Hades said with a grin. "Fun fact, the pair from Arendelle are Rapunzel's cousins, but Elsa's coronation was the first time they'd seen each other since they were all children. "
"Rapunzel, Elsa, Anna," the woman made their names a curse. "I will need all the power you can give me and I will need servants and allies in the mortal realms to deal with them."
"Done and done," Hades said with a vicious grin. "So what's the plan Mallie. Can I call you Mallie?"
The glare that was sent his way should by all rights have incinerated him. Maleficent rose to her full height, staff in hand and even Hades had to admit that she cut an impressive figure, even here centuries after her defeat at the hands of a prince questing for his sleeping love. The horns on her head-dress gave her the vaguely draconic look. Appropriate, given that she had once transformed herself into a dragon in order to kill a prince.
Of course her vendetta against Aurora and all her descendants had been spectacularly unsuccessful. Mostly that was due to the fact that her body's death at the hands of Aurora's prince had cost her a huge chunk of her powers. In turn it meant she had been reduced to trying to influence people to do evil to the lineage of the princess for her while her spirit was stuck in limbo. Never quite moving on, never quite being at peace. From this dark place she could still affect the mortal world in minor ways. A whisper in the ear, a bad dream that was ill remembered the next morning, or irrational spurts of anger and rage that happened all throughout a person's lifetime had turned those self-same people from mere petty evil into genuine monsters in their own right. Evil stepmothers, insane churchmen and others. All had heard Maleficent's whispers and had acted.
None had succeeded, which was why she was now trying to gather the power to break out into the world once again. To succeed where her many minions, both knowing and not, had failed. To once again stretch forth her dark hand and have her shadow take sway. It was ambitious and bold, and worthy of a queen of darkness.
"You will call me Queen Maleficent," she proclaimed. "And as for those children, they will learn that my shadow is to be feared. When I have executed my plan, I will have scoured Corona from the maps of this world, Arendelle will lie in ruins, and the descendants of Aurora will dead at my feet."
Her lips pulled back in what only the very charitable might have called a smile as she glared at the three images of those she had named as her enemies.
Hades leaned back on the rock he'd been using as a chair, a smile on his face. "Long live the Queen!"
To be continued…