As the bodyguards, the fairies and the majority of the royal family burst into the room in which Maleficent lay, each was prepared for the worst. Charlotte had been on her own with Maleficent – what had she been thinking? What Stefan had not been expecting was Charlotte cradling a sobbing Maleficent in her arms, the scream having evidently left Maleficent's lips and not his wife's.
"What happened?" asked Fauna, gently, moving around the bed to try and comfort Maleficent. She reached out a hand to touch a shoulder, her forearm, but soon realised there was nowhere she could offer a friendly touch that would not cause pain. On hearing Fauna's voice, Maleficent quickly pulled herself together and dried her tears, nodding her thanks to the queen as she gently pushed away from her.
"My apologies – bad dream." Maleficent managed a smirk at her own statement and tried to make herself comfortable. Her yellow eyes scanned the room and for the first time she appreciated how much trouble they had been through on her account – the parents, separated from their daughter, the father from his son – albeit briefly – and the boy imprisoned, the girl cursed, and now they'd treated her injuries. She was sure she should be feeling grateful, but the embarrassment of awakening with a shriek and breaking into heaving sobs in the arms of an enemy had not yet worn off.
Aurora walked forwards into Maleficent's sickroom, her curiosity about Maleficent now waning. All she knew about this woman was that she had been snubbed at Aurora's christening and in retaliation had tried to kill her. Since that event, Aurora's life had been a complex web of lies that she was having some trouble coming to terms with. Even though she could fully understand why she had been lied to, it was difficult to accept that everything she had ever believed to be true was a deception, designed to save her from a vague evil being she had never met. Aurora wondered if they had lied to her about Maleficent as well - perhaps the evil fairy was not as black as she was painted?
Behind her, Charlotte's guards shifted the position of their swords, the better to protect the princess should Maleficent unexpectedly attack her. Aurora looked down at the woman still drying her eyes on the hard bed. Aurora searched the fairy's face for any sign of good intent and found none, finding only a look of slight annoyance that was unmistakeable. Maleficent realised she was being stared at and returned the curious look. The two stared at each other for a moment, then Maleficent closed her eyes and tried to raise herself on the bed, causing her to moan with pain. Automatically, Hubert and Stefan stepped forward and helped her, taking an arm each and lifting her to a seated position. She opened her eyes fearfully and looked around the room at the assembled group of royals.
"Can I help you?" she croaked, flinching at the pain from her throat.
"Tell me why," whispered Aurora. "Tell me why you ruined my life!" Aurora couldn't stop the fresh tears from forming, the memory of the last few days still strong. She had fallen in love, been told she could never see the man again, told she was a princess, enchanted, rescued and married within the course of the last forty-eight hours. She felt she was understandably piqued. "For sixteen years I thought my parents were dead or hated me and all the time I could have been here with them! How could you?" Aurora had not had cause to lose her temper before and the rush of adrenaline as she started to shout was new to her. Maleficent however was not impressed, having dealt with far more serious threats than a stroppy teenager. She waited patiently as Aurora continued to vent her spleen and raised an eyebrow at her as the princess stopped for breath.
"Oh dear, you are right princess, I have been dreadfully mean to you. Would it help if I said I was sorry?" she asked, mockingly. Aurora swallowed hard, gulped some air and ran from the room, quickly followed by Phillip. Maleficent glanced around at the now angry faces around her. Amateur, she thought wryly. But she did admire the girl's spirit, certainly something she had not acquired from her fairy godmothers. Not many people had been brave enough to shout at Maleficent before - Aurora was certainly one of the first to do so and live. Maleficent tried to remember that she was here to recover and that she should really be working on mending relations with King Stefan if she was to survive the day, let alone the time needed in order to escape. Swallowing her pride and trying to phrase an apology mentally that would not offend the king and queen, she opened her mouth to speak.
"Your majesties, I apologise for my rudeness to your daughter. I assure you it will not happen again. I am afraid that old habits die hard." She half-smiled at Stefan, knowing the gesture would do little to appease him. "Could someone please tell me what happened? I am a little vague on the details." She winced at a pain in her side. More to the point, she added mentally, I want to know exactly what curse you put on that sword.
In the face of Maleficent's polite request and apology, the three good fairies could do little but agree to answer her question. They described the fight to her, the curse and the way Maleficent had been found. Aurora re-entered the room, clutching Phillip's arm while they were speaking. As she heard the details of the fight, she clung to Phillip and looked with increasing anger at Maleficent, who for her part was mentally taking notes of how to fight a prince holding a magic sword next time, should it occur. The story re-told and Maleficent puzzling over the failed curse as much as the other fairies, Maleficent decided to play at being the terribly weak patient just a little longer. Then it struck her - perhaps she could pretend the 'evil' had been burned out of her and that only the 'good' remained? She wondered if she could remember how to be 'good.'
"My sincere apologies to you all for this cruel situation," she started, the words choking her, "if only there was some way I could make this up to you - please Stefan - you would tell me if there was any way you could forgive me, wouldn't you?" Maleficent was impressed with her desperate, pleading voice - it had almost sounded genuine. She sighed dramatically and looked down at her hands, noticing for the first time how heavily bandaged they were. Stefan turned from her in disgust and left the room, gesturing for the rest to follow him. Fauna lagged behind, studying Maleficent's face and wondering why she was behaving like this. As she left, the door did not close properly and Maleficent could still hear the mutters of the group outside.
Outside the sickroom, Stefan turned to Flora.
"Explain," he said bluntly.
"I cannot. She seems quite genuine! Perhaps her experience has forced her to rethink her life or," Flora floundered, failing to think of any real reason why Maleficent may be acting like this.
"Maybe the curse you put on worked and you killed all the evil in her," offered Merryweather, not really wanting to believe that Maleficent had had enough good left in her to survive.
"If that is the case, we must consider the possibility that any revenge we take now would be against the relatively innocent part of her character that has survived and not against the crone who cursed your daughter, Stefan," warned Hubert. He was worried that his friend was likely to lose his temper and act rashly. Stefan surprised them all however by acting quite calmly and taking Charlotte's hands in his.
"I would prefer that she had died and that her head was now on my battlements or her rotting corpse at the bottom of a ravine. However she has lived and this leaves us with a problem. What do you suggest?" He turned to Aurora. "I would like your opinion as well, my dear. Should we have her executed as a traitor, or help her to recover as a new ally?" Aurora looked down. She wasn't sure what she wanted - she couldn't remember being cursed, or enchanted in the tower. Her only memory of the night she had pricked her finger was of sitting in a darkened room and hearing quiet music before everything went black. The next thing she had been aware of was her prince kissing her awake – no, that wasn't quite right, she remembered the eyes and a sing-song voice that had begged her to follow it. And now she was being asked to decide the fate of an invalid she had been told was her arch-enemy.
"I don't know what to do father - I don't understand why she was not invited to my christening nor why she chose to curse me in retribution. I don't know why she was kept alive or why I just want to talk to her but I cannot decide what to do - please don't make me!"
"What could you possibly want to say to her?" asked Flora.
"I don't know," answered Aurora tearfully. "I just want to know what made her think she had the right to do that."
"She cursed you because she could Aurora. There was no other reason - she wanted to hurt Stefan and Charlotte and you were the easiest way to get to them and tear their lives apart." Flora flew upwards and hugged Aurora's shoulders. "You were nothing to her and her existence should be nothing to you save for a painful memory if only my curse had worked. As it is, we shall have to see if Merryweather is correct and if this 'new' Maleficent is on our side or not. We could not, in all good conscience, execute her right now."
"Unfortunately, I have to concur," said Hubert, "it would not be the noble thing to do in these circumstances."
"Do we honestly believe she would have shown this much mercy to any of us? She did imprison Phillip. There must be some form of punishment," Charlotte added.
"I think that is something we must discuss at a later date - assuming she survives of course," Stefan answered, clasping his hand in a prayer position in front of his chest. "I believe time may be essential if we are to come to the correct decision here. Let her recover in this castle. When she has, she will have to agree to remain as our prisoner until we have decided on her fate. If she has changed, she will understand our terms and if not, well, we deal with her appropriately," he finished darkly. Hubert and Charlotte nodded solemnly, with Aurora and Phillip slowly adding their agreement. Phillip was still aching from his fight with Maleficent and was rather bitter that she had not had the decency to die, but he could acknowledge the logic of Stefan's argument.
"Of course, if she has changed," started Phillip, "an ally who can turn into a fire-breathing dragon at will could come in useful in wartime." Stefan and Hubert nodded thoughtfully at that and the meeting unofficially adjourned, the royal families heading for their rooms and the fairies left loitering in the hallway. Fauna looked back towards Maleficent's room and noticed she had left the door open. Well, perhaps it was better Maleficent had heard their conversation. Too much of the previous twenty years had been spent courting secrecy and encouraging deception. It may be time to be honest to each other, thought Fauna, perhaps even to Maleficent. She flitted through the doorway and stood next to Maleficent's bed, Flora and Merryweather following behind.
"Are you still awake?"
"Of course."
"Didn't think you'd be the type to be scared of dreams," mocked Merryweather.
"I'm a little off-form," quipped Maleficent, suppressing a shudder. The sword had seemed so real, the pain so intense as to be the real Sword of Truth piercing her skin. And the battlefield... She'd spent years suppressing that memory, lost hours of sleep. "You killed my pet," she added, hoping that anger at Diablo's death would cover up the terror threatening to overtake her again.
"It was necessary."
"Hardly 'good' though. An innocent animal."
"There was nothing innocent about that raven and you know it."
"Why were you crying?" demanded Flora, bringing Maleficent back to the conversation she'd been trying to avoid.
"I don't know," answered Maleficent, more quietly than she'd meant to. An image of the dragon she'd been flashed in front of her and she cried out involuntarily. As Fauna touched her hand sympathetically, Maleficent drew back. "What's happening to me?" She couldn't control the tears this time and no longer cared whether she was acting the repentant patient or had actually become remorseful. "I was surrounded by death and pain and it just won't stop!" Flora touched Maleficent's other hand gently and even Merryweather didn't bite back with an acidic comment. "Make it stop hurting!"
"You've regressed to a child, I see," muttered Merryweather.
"If you're not going to be helpful, please leave!" Maleficent, despite her increasing terror at the thought of being alone, had had enough of the fairies' presence. She wasn't sure which irritated her more – Merryweather's rudeness or the other two fussing over her. "Please, just leave me alone."
"If you insist," said Flora, drawing back.
"If you should need us, just send for us," offered Fauna.
"Thank you. I won't." The three fairies left in a huddle. Merryweather turned to Fauna.
"Why'd you say that?" she asked.
"She was upset – I don't like leaving her that way."
"Never thought you'd say that."
"I never thought I'd see her cry," replied Fauna as they rounded the corner and out of Maleficent's earshot.
Inside her sickroom, Maleficent sighed with relief. If she could just convince them she was really a reformed character, and perhaps act a little weaker than she actually was, she stood a good chance of surviving to escape. And after escape maybe she could flee north and round up some of the goblins and her grandfather's relatives, the dark elves. She could take her revenge for this pain and humiliation and... Maleficent stopped that train of thought. She remembered Aurora's hurt words from the hallway and Flora's explanation of how cold and cruel Maleficent had been. It was all true of course, which made her actions sixteen years ago harder to explain to herself now. She found herself unable to answer Aurora's questions or explain why she had targeted the child specifically rather than her parents.
I wanted revenge, I wanted to hurt them and this is what happened. I spent sixteen years of my life trying to kill a child who had never heard of me. My body is broken and I dare not use my magic to heal myself until I am strong enough to control it. And now I'm faced with a little girl who can stand in my presence, receive my sarcasm and still not want to kill me. She hadn't done anything to me but I cursed her anyway and now they're offering me a second chance. They're even – gods forbid – being nice to me! But all I can do is lie here and start the cycle of revenge all over again. Maleficent shook her head to clear it. Oh no, I can't possibly be feeling guilty, can I?