"Um, Nyx? No offense, but I think I'm starting to have second thoughts about this!" Rhea cried as she tried her best to hold on tight.
Nyx's chariot was flying at a great speed over the forest through the afternoon sky while the assembled ladies did their best to locate Diablo or Hades. Unfortunately, they had no luck so far. Rhea even considered heading to Greece to see if there was any sign of them there. But then Maleficent had a thought; she closed her eyes and waved her scepter over her head. The orb in her scepter glowed and a beam of green light shot down from it into the forest below. The evil fairy looked and her eyes brightened.
"Down there!" She cried.
Nyx whipped the reins and the chariot nose-dived down towards the trees. They reached the ground and almost barreled through the greenery as the beam of light continued to show them the way. Dementia then noticed something in the ground.
"Hey, I know those tracks! They're from Hades' chariot! We're going the right way!" She exclaimed.
"Let's hit it!" Nyx shouted as the chariot gained more speed.
Maleficent noticed that the beam was growing shorter and shorter and eventually, she shouted,
"Stop!"
Nyx pulled the reins as hard as she could and the black winged creatures pulling the chariot reared up and stopped, causing the cart to come to an abrupt halt. The gathered women stepped out of the chariot; they had all changed out of their formal attire and into their original clothes for their mission, except for Maleficent. She wore the black dress Nyx had made for her to wear to the reception. They all looked around, hoping to find a clue of some kind. When she saw Hades' chariot parked close by, Maleficent recognized the area immediately.
'My old home.' She thought as she ventured towards the nearby house; Nyx, Margalo, Rhea, and Dementia followed after her.
"You know this place?" Rhea asked.
"…I used to grow up here." Maleficent replied before placing her ear against the wooden door to listen for anything unusual.
She could hear muffled voices and hushed cawing from inside. Realizing that it's Diablo in there, she opened the double doors and looked inside. And there was Hades, Erebus, Thanatos, Pain, and Panic standing in the middle of the room as if they had just committed a crime and they were caught red-handed. Hades turned his head to see his true love standing in the doorway and his face lit up at the sight of her.
"Malef!" He exclaimed.
"Hades!" Maleficent cried; she grinned at the mention of the endearing nickname he had given her when they first got together.
They ran over to each other and pulled each other in for a hug before Rhea pushed them apart, covered their eyes with her hands, and said, "Hey! What are you doing? Shield your eyes, you two! You're not supposed to see each other before the nuptials! It's bad luck!"
"Rhea, please. We don't have time for that sort of nonsense." Maleficent said as she removed her hand from her face. "Hades, have you been here this whole time?"
"Not the entire time. We only got here about ten minutes ago." Hades replied as he removed his mother's hand from his own eyes. He walked over to a nearby sofa, reached behind it, and took out an old birdcage… with Diablo inside it. "I've been trying to get THIS guy back to the ceremony. And there was a lot of scratching and squawking, I'll tell you that much." He walked back over to her and took her hand. "But I knew you'd want him to be there, no matter what he did." He smiled and she smiled back at him before he handed her the cage.
She furrowed her brow at her familiar. "Diablo, my pet! What happened?! I was so worried about you!" She scolded the raven. "And what were you thinking?! Destroying the great hall and running away?! You know how important today is, and how much it means to me to have you there! I don't understand! What has gotten into you?!"
Diablo loudly cawed, flapped his wings, and jumped up and down in his metal prison, attempting to tell his mistress his side of the story. No one could make out what he was saying, however, and all they heard was high-pitched squawking and incessant screeching. Eventually, Margalo walked up to Maleficent.
"Maybe I can help." She said.
Maleficent looked down and raised an eyebrow at the young girl, not really sure what she could possibly do to help. But after a moment, she reluctantly handed the cage over to Margalo before walking back to Hades. Margalo opened the little cage door, held out her arm, and Diablo flew out and reluctantly landed on the girl's arm.
"Okay, Diablo. Start talking. What's your deal? Why are you trying to ruin your mistress's wedding?" She asked, putting her free hand on her hip.
The raven started cawing again, but Margalo listened to him with the intent of finding out why he did what he did. As she heard, she nodded her head and changed her expression every so often. The assembled adults watched the exchange with wide eyes, unable to comprehend what they were seeing. Then Diablo stopped and Margalo took the silly neckerchief off of him before turning around to her companions.
"I get it now." She started. "According to Diablo, he's been super anxious all day and that whole thing with the torch and the drapes was just a freak accident. In an attempt to get away from Pain and Panic, he wasn't looking where he was going and he bumped into it by mistake, but when people started to run and freak out, he took advantage of the situation and hoped it would be enough to stop the wedding. But it's only because he was afraid to lose you, Maleficent."
"Lose me?" She asked.
"Yeah." She replied, walking over to the evil fairy. "Diablo was just afraid that you were replacing him with Hades and he believed that if the wedding happened, then you wouldn't need him or love him anymore."
Maleficent's expression softened as she held out her hand; Diablo promptly hopped onto it. "Is this true, my pet?"
The raven hesitantly nodded and looked away, feeling a bit ashamed of his foolish and selfish actions. She quickly noticed and gently stroked his head with her fingers, which caught him slightly off guard. He turned back to her with a rather stunned expression.
"Diablo, you don't need to be so afraid." She said. "Yes, I was rather upset with you for what you've done, but I never thought for a moment that you had done it on purpose. You are my familiar, my pet, and my oldest and most trusted friend, and just because I've found someone to love doesn't mean you will be any less important to me. No one can ever take your place, even when you're behaving like a jealous little numbskull. And today is not going to be my happiest day if you aren't there. I want to be married surrounded by the ones that I love… and that means you. I will always love you, Diablo, don't you ever doubt that." She brought Diablo closer to her and they shared a cute embrace; Hades smiled and wrapped his arm around his bride's shoulders.
The impish minions stared in shock at Margalo.
"Hold up… you got all that from his shrieking?" Panic asked.
"…You can talk to birds?" Dementia asked.
Margalo replied with a smirk and a casual shrug. But then the moment was interrupted by a loud thud coming from outside. Everyone almost jumped out of their skins and ran out of the house to see what was happening. They were all shocked to see three massive monsters sitting outside the house; one of them was a giant of a man with jet black skin, glowing yellow eyes, enormous wings, and a pair of devil horns on his head, another looked like a combination between a man and a dragon with deep red scaly skin, huge bat wings, red and yellow eyes, lizard legs, and a long snake tail, and the third looked like a woman with a lizard's body instead of legs, giant wings, and horns. Hades quickly recognized two of them.
"Typhon?! Echidna?!" He exclaimed.
"Hi, Hades." The red creature, Typhon, greeted.
"What are you guys doing here?!" Hades asked, not even bothering to hide his excitement.
"We went down to the Underworld for the wedding, but then Hera told us you weren't there, so Typhon and I went out to look for you." The lizard woman, Echidna, replied. "And I hope you don't mind, but we also brought a few friends."
Echidna and her husband got a little closer to the ground and a few groups of people slid down off of their backs and onto the ground, one of those groups being the Fates. Hades grinned at the familiar sight of some of the newcomers.
"Set, Loki, Nephthys, Hel!" He cried as he went over to greet them.
One member of the group, Loki, was a young man with blue skin and sea foam green hair and he stood with his daughter Hel, a woman with green skin and dark swamp green hair and wearing a crown with curled antlers on it. Another man, Set, had the body of a man and a face resembling a jackal with dark gray skin, three fingers on each hand, and a forked tail, and he stood with his wife, Nephthys, a woman with purple skin and long, straight black hair. They all greeted all of each other like old friends.
"It's so good to see you again!" Set exclaimed.
"We really missed you, man!" Loki added.
"I missed you guys, too." Hades said before he turned his attention to a group of four who just walked up to him.
The first of the group, Pluto, was a man with yellow and orange eyes, bright red skin, short black hair, a pair of devil horns, and wearing clothes of red and black; the second, Prosperina, was a woman with purplish pink skin, flowing curly golden hair, blue eyes, and wearing a dress of different shades of red; the third, Hypnos, was a young man with orchid purple skin, turquoise eyes, pale blonde hair, and wearing a purple and black garment; and the fourth, Ceres, was a young woman with short straight black hair, reddish violet skin, red eyes, a pair of devil horns like Pluto's, and wearing a deep purple and red ensemble. Hades and the red skinned man smirked at one another.
"Pluto." Hades said.
"Hades." Pluto replied.
After a moment, the two calmly shook hands and smirked at each other.
"Good to see you again, I guess." The Lord of the Dead said.
"You too. And congratulations." Pluto added.
Maleficent smirked at the exchange before she turned her head and gawked to see a face she hadn't seen in centuries. She was so shocked she thought she felt her jaw would hit the floor.
"Maleficent? …Is that really you?" The woman asked.
"G-Grandmother Carabosse…?" She asked before she suddenly pulled her in for a hug. "I…I can't believe it. It's been so long, I've missed you so much." They parted. "How did you…?"
"Your lover, Lord Hades, invited me and convinced me, and a few others, to come." She held up an invitation and smiled. Carabosse winked at her granddaughter. "Take good care of him, my dear. That one is a keeper."
Maleficent blushed and smirked in embarrassment before she noticed Carabosse's companions. One of them her grandmother's servant Kazi while there was a trio of short, round women who bore a striking resemblance to Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather, but they were wearing orange, yellow, and purple instead. And there were even three unusual men Maleficent had never seen before. One man had dark skin, long dreadlocks for hair, deer antlers on top of his head, and wearing a golden garment; the second had red skin like Pluto, but he also had scars along his neck and left arm, long, messy brown hair pulled into a ponytail, black and red eyes, and sharp teeth; the third had pale gray skin, black hair, yellow eyes, slick black hair, feathers around his face and ears, and carrying a scepter. The man with the antlers stepped forward and took the evil fairy's hand.
"You must be Maleficent. It's a pleasure to finally meet you. I am Conall, this is Borra and Diaval." He said in a deep, calm voice. "We all knew your father well."
"My father?" Maleficent asked in disbelief.
"Yes. The great Lazarus Thornheart." The scarred man, Borra, said as he took a step forward. "He was a great warrior and sorcerer and we fought alongside him many years ago."
"But now, we're here for you. Your husband-to-be had all of us invited; we've come to witness your nuptials." The feathered man, Diaval, said.
"Indeed, and we want to help in any way we can." The demonic giant chimed in.
"…Thank you, master Chernabog." Maleficent said with a smile; Chernabog nodded at her.
"Yes, yes. Very emotional, loving it. But, um… tick tock, people! Some of us have somewhere to be!" Rhea said, tapping her wrist as if she were wearing a watch.
"She's right, you know!" Atropos said as she and her sisters stepped forward.
"Loving the reunions, but we haven't the time." Lachesis chimed in.
"Everyone is waiting for us." Clotho added.
"Then let's hurry back before we're too late." Carabosse chimed in. She started waving her magic wand, but Hades quickly stopped her.
"Hold on." He turned to Maleficent and held her hands. "Maleficent, babe. You said you wanted to be married surrounded by the people you love, right?" She nodded. "Well so do I, and here they are. And I want you to enjoy every single moment of today; I mean that. So what do you say, Malef? Will you marry me here? Right now?"
Maleficent silently gasped, then smiled as a tear fell down her check. "…Yes, yes. Yes! That would be wonderful."
"Wait, WHAT?! No, no, no! You can't be serious! What about all of Hera's plans?! What about the other guests waiting for you? And the orchestra, the birds, the fireworks!" Rhea cried while on the brink of having a fit.
"The dress…" Nyx said as if she were about to cry.
"Oh, you mean… this dress?" Carabosse asked, waiving her wand. Magic swirled around Maleficent and in an instant, she was wearing her wedding gown once again. The Mistress of Evil beamed at her grandmother who smiled back. "Kind of what I do."
"Um, pardon me, madam. Carabosse, is it?" Rhea approached the elder dark fairy. "Do you think you could also help with, you know… the atmosphere? Because this place is nice, but um… eugh! Definitely NOT suitable for a wedding, if you know what I mean."
Carabosse gave her a sly smile. "Way ahead of you." She turned to the three women who were standing nearby. "Regina, Ramona, Kristabelle, if you'll assist please."
"Yes, ma'am." The trio of fairies said in unison, nodding and raising their canes over their heads.
The four fairies waved their wands and with a puff of multicolored smoke, the entire group was not only wearing the outfits they were originally going to wear to the wedding, but they were also transported to a clearing in a different part of the forest. There was a waterfall with a small river leading out, thorny bushes and shrubs scattered about, and gnarled, twisted trees of different kinds surrounding the clearing and towering over everyone; even though the bright light from the setting sun was peeking in through the tops of the trees, the area had a spooky, yet beautiful atmosphere to it… and Maleficent loved it. She stared in awe.
"Oh…" She said, dreamy-eyed.
"Welcome to the Moors. A perfect location for a wedding, if you ask me." Carabosse said proudly.
"I'll say it is." Prosperina commented; her husband and children nodded.
Hades gave an impressed whistle. "Not exactly what I had in mind, I will admit. But you know what? This place is even MORE perfect for the ceremony. We can definitely work with this."
"I suppose we can. But it still needs a little…" Rhea started.
"Panache?" Nyx asked.
"Evil flair?" Ceres chimed in.
"Maybe both?" Margalo added.
"That is precisely what it needs." Maleficent said with a big smile.
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's get to work!" Erebus exclaimed.