Aurora and Phillip suddenly awoke very early the next morning to very loud cawing followed by a door opening; they turned on the light and sat up in bed to see what the matter was. Duke had entered the royal bedchamber with two armored guards behind him and a large metal birdcage in his hand. He presented the cage to the young king and queen.
"Your Majesties!" Duke moaned while gasping for breath. "You… won't believe… it. I… have just… found… this little pest… making a ruckus around the castle. We've been chasing it for hours… but we finally caught it!"
"A pest?" Aurora groggily asked before she finally noticed what was in the cage. She gasped, got out of bed, and took the cage from Duke before letting Diablo go. "Is that you, Diablo? What are you doing?"
Diablo cawed even more as he tried to explain his situation. Unfortunately, no one in the room spoke 'bird' and they couldn't understand a single word of what he was trying to say. Duke and the guards quickly covered their ears, greatly annoyed by the unpleasant sound.
"Oh, there it goes again!" Duke shouted.
"Wait! He's trying to tell us something." Aurora said, trying to decipher what the raven was saying. "He wouldn't come to us for no reason. Something is wrong."
Diablo nodded excitedly at her, happy that she could sense his plight.
"So what do you suggest we do?" Phillip asked, approaching his wife.
"I say we allow him to lead us to where he wants us to go. Maybe then we'll find out what he wants. And if we're lucky, we might find Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather too."
"Would you like us to come too, Your Majesty?" Duke nervously asked.
"No, Duke. It's fine. Phillip and I will go alone." Aurora replied.
"But Aurora, you heard what the Fairies said. You shouldn't be adventuring, especially in your condition." Phillip pulled Aurora into a hug and gently touched her stomach with one hand; she placed her hand on his in response.
"Phillip, I'll be fine. I appreciate your concern, but I can handle myself." She kissed his cheek. "Now let's get dressed; we have work to do. And Duke, please get our horses ready. We'll be heading out as soon as we can."
"Yes, Your Majesty." Duke gave a bow and left with the two guards following close behind.
0-0-0-0-0-0
"I'm sorry, Aurora, but I'm not so sure about this anymore." Phillip said as he and Aurora rode their horses through the forest while following Diablo.
"Phillip, I'm not giving up until we find out what's wrong." Aurora retorted, keeping her eyes on the path ahead.
As they rode further and further through the woods, Aurora and Phillip soon noticed that the early morning sun that was peeking through the trees was gradually growing more and more scarce and the forest around them seemed to take a darker and scarier tone. Then they rode a worn path up to the Forbidden Mountain, which caught the royal couple by surprise. The very sight of Maleficent's was enough to make the royal steeds rear up in fear and stop dead in their tracks. Phillip stared at the castle ahead, almost certain that this whole journey could be a trap.
"This must be a trick!" He said.
"And what if it isn't?" Aurora retorted. "We can't know for sure until we investigate." She gently urged her horse, Mirette, forward and she cautiously kept walking; Phillip hesitantly did the same to his own horse and Samson was just as alert.
They made their way across the drawbridge as slowly and as carefully as possible; the steps of the horses' hooves seemed to echo in the dead-like silence. Finally, they made it inside the castle; it was just as frightening and decrepit as Phillip and Aurora remembered the last time Maleficent was defeated. Phillip climbed off of Samson's back and tied his reins to a stone pillar standing nearby before he went over to his wife and helped her back onto the ground; she tied her own reins to the same pillar.
"So what now?" Phillip asked in a whisper.
But before Aurora could answer, another voice said, "I still cannot believe we're doing this."
Then two lights flew into the room like a pair of fireflies, one red and one green. Aurora immediately recognized those lights.
"Flora? Fauna?" She asked.
The colored lights suddenly transformed into the two fairies and they gasped at the sight of Aurora and Phillip.
"What are you two doing here?" Flora asked.
"We were going to ask you the same thing." Phillip replied.
"Diablo brought us here." Aurora said as the raven came into view.
"You brought them?" Fauna asked; Diablo nodded his head and flew off in a different direction before any more questions could be asked.
"Whatever this bird wants from us had better be important." Phillip commented before he, Aurora, Flora, and Fauna followed the raven through the castle halls.
After a while of running, they came across a tower near the very top of the castle; that was Maleficent's bedchamber. When Aurora and Phillip stepped inside, they looked and saw Merryweather reading from a book next to Maleficent who was fast asleep in bed. The couple gasped in shock.
"Merryweather?! What are you doing?" Aurora cried.
The little fairy in blue looked up and asked, "Aurora? Phillip? When did you two get here?" She tossed the book she was reading to the side
"A few minutes ago, the raven brought us." Phillip said as he approached Merryweather and took the book from off the floor; he skimmed the page to see that it was a reforming spell of some kind. He glanced at Merryweather. "Care to explain?"
"What did you do?" Aurora asked, walking up to her husband.
Merryweather sighed in defeat and faced Aurora and Phillip. "Okay. I know this looks bad, but I can explain everything. I promise."
That's exactly what she did. Merryweather told her friends everything she knew; she told them about how she was right about Maleficent being alive this whole time, how she and her sisters helped the evil fairy get ready for a ball the night before, and how she found Maleficent asleep and wounded just a few hours earlier. By the end of the tale, the couple was very skeptical until Aurora noticed the bandage wrapped around Maleficent's right hand. She approached the sleeping fairy, took her hand, slowly removed the wrap, and gasped in shock and disgust. Her wound was still large and bleeding, but it was also turning back and creeping up the veins in Maleficent's wrist and throughout the rest of her hand.
"Oh goodness! What is that?!" She exclaimed, nearly gagging at the sight.
"I told you." Merryweather said, wrapping the evil fairy's hand up again. "Maleficent is in danger and from what I heard, she only has until sunrise tomorrow or she'll be gone forever."
"But if I may, Merryweather… will it be a crime if she's gone forever?" Flora asked.
"Flora, how can you say that?!" Aurora gasped. "We can't leave Maleficent like this!"
"But Aurora, don't you remember what she's done to you? To the kingdom?" Phillip argued.
"Yes, Phillip, I remember. I know she's evil and I know everything she did is seen as terrible and unforgivable, but wouldn't leaving her for dead make us just as bad? Even if we don't agree, nobody deserves this!"
The three fairies looked at each other, then at Maleficent. Diablo suddenly flew up to his mistress, perched next to her in bed, and sadly stroked his face against hers, feeling completely helpless and unsure of what to do. Even though the Fairies hated to admit it, their dearest friend made a very valid point and they realized that Maleficent hadn't recently done anything wrong either. And slowly being poisoned to death while in a cursed coma? They all agreed that was a cruel way to go.
"You know… I think she's right." Fauna said; her sisters reluctantly nodded in agreement, along with Phillip.
"There must be some way to help her, but how?" Flora chimed in.
Then Aurora had an idea. "Are there any other books on magic, Merryweather? We're going to find a spell to reverse this even if it takes all day."
And for the next several hours, Aurora, Phillip, Flora, Fauna, Merryweather, and even Diablo scanned almost every book and tome in Maleficent's library and the Fairies tried every reversal spell they could find, but nothing worked. By the time sunset rolled around, they were all exhausted and Maleficent was still asleep.
"This is hopeless!" Phillip said in exasperation.
"We tried everything, but nothing is helping!" Fauna cried.
"Is there nothing else we can do?" Merryweather asked.
"Oh, I wish there was a way." Flora said solemnly.
"Wait… maybe there is a way." Aurora said as she was reading a book titled 'Greek Tales, Legends, and Myths'. It was the very same book Maleficent read on the night she and Hades first met.
"Like what, dear?" Flora asked.
"It might be a long shot, but… what if we call for Divine Intervention?"
"What do you mean, love?" Phillip asked.
"I mean, what if we summon a God or Goddess to help us?" Aurora explained. "I'm sure the Gods of Olympus have the power to do something that can help. And this book says the proper way to summon a Greek deity is to call the name of the one you seek and say 'I beseech you'. It looks easy enough."
"Hmmm… I suppose that could work." Flora said. "But who can we call? There are so many deities of the Grecian Pantheon, how will we know which one to choose?"
"Now that could be a problem." Aurora said, glancing back at the book. She turned the page and saw an illustration of a woman who seemed very familiar to her. She skimmed the caption underneath and got an idea. She cleared her throat. "Megara, Goddess of Inner Strength, I beseech you!"
"Megara?" The Fairies asked.
But before another word could be said, a bright pink and purple light suddenly appeared and with a flash and a puff of glitter and smoke, a beautiful woman with glowing blush pink skin, violet eyes, long curly purple hair pulled up in a ponytail, and wearing a magenta dress appeared before the group. When the smoke cleared, they all stared at the woman in awe. She coughed and used her hand to blow away the colored vapor and sparkles before she cracked her knuckles and straightened up.
"Oh, sorry about the glitter. It always makes a mess." She said with a smirk; she brushed the skirt of her dress with her hand as the glitter vanished. She stood straight and flicked her bangs out of her eyes. "Anyway, did someone call me? Name's Megara, but my friends call me Meg. What seems to be the problem?"
Aurora took a few steps closer to the glowing woman and curtsied before her. "Hello, Lady Megara. My name is Aurora and my husband, friends, and I seek your counsel."
"Whoa, easy there." Meg said, allowing Aurora to stand straight. "You don't have to be so formal with me. Just think of me as an ordinary person." But then Meg got a good look at Aurora and paused. "Wait… you seem awfully familiar to me. Have we met before?"
"Um, no. I don't think so."
"Sorry to interrupt, Lady Meg. But we need your help." Merryweather said as she stepped forward. "Maleficent is in danger." She showed the sleeping Maleficent to the Goddess and Meg's eyes widened.
"Hey, I've seen her before!" She said.
"You have?" Phillip asked.
"Yes, she was at the ball on Olympus last night!" Meg explained. "She and Hades were together the whole evening. But then at around midnight, she just ran out without saying a word and nobody knows why. What happened?"
"Well, I have reason to believe that Maleficent was cursed AND poisoned." Merryweather explained, leading the pink and purple Goddess over to the dark fairy's bed. She took Maleficent's bandaged hand and showed the wound to Meg, who was immediately repulsed by the blackened slash across the fairy's hand. "Before I found her, I overheard two other women saying that she'll die by sunrise tomorrow if she doesn't wake up. But when I went in to confront them, they were already gone and I found her on the floor with a bleeding hand and this laying next to her." She then showed her the spindle.
"Can I have a look at that spindle?" Meg asked, holding out her hand.
"Uh, sure."
She handed her the spindle and Meg soon noticed some kind of substance sprinkled on it. She held it up to her face to get a closer look and after a moment, her eyes widened in dread the moment she realized what this substance was.
"What is it?" Flora asked, noticing Meg's panic-stricken expression.
"I know what she's been poisoned with." The Goddess said.
"What? What is it?" Fauna asked.
"It's called Hecubane Crepidotus." Meg explained. "It's most commonly known by its street name, heck. I heard Hecate created this herb eons ago and it's highly toxic to mortals, but it has an opiate-like effect on… on the Gods. If used correctly, it's an incredible painkiller. But if it's used for recreational purposes, it's like meth mixed with sulfur, rat poison, and helium. It's highly addictive. It's terrible for your liver and not so good for your brain either. Of course if you HAD a brain, you wouldn't be using the stuff in the first place. My best guess is that Hecate had a pretty big part to play in poisoning your horn-headed friend here."
"Hecate. She's the Goddess of Witchcraft, right?" Aurora asked.
"Yep, and necromancy. She worked for Hades down in the Underworld and I heard she even tried to get rid of him a few times so she could rule instead. Can't imagine why she'd want to rule the Underworld, though. To each her own, I guess."
"Either way, is there any cure for this herb?" Merryweather asked.
"Not that I know of. I'm sorry." Meg answered with a shrug.
"It's okay. But that doesn't mean all hope is lost. There has to be some way to help her." Aurora said.
"Sorry, blondie, but I'm just as clueless as all of you. I may be a goddess, but I'm far from omnipotent. But I have a feeling that if Hades found out what's been going on, he'd probably burn both Hecate and her accomplice to a crisp."
Just then, Merryweather got an idea. She excitedly jumped up into the air, fluttering her wings. "That's it!"
"What's it, Merryweather?" Flora asked as she and Fauna approached their sister.
"That's the answer! What we need is Hades!" The fairy in blue exclaimed.
"Hades? You want to bring him here?" Aurora asked in disbelief.
"No, wait. I think Merryweather might actually be on to something." Meg replied. "I'm just riffing here, but in all of the years I've known Hades, I've never seen him look at anybody the way he looks at Maleficent. Maybe there is a way for him to help."
"There is! True Love's Kiss!" Merryweather said. "If Hades truly does love Maleficent and if she loves him in return, then a kiss from him should be enough to break the spell!"
Flora and Fauna gasped with grins adorning their faces.
"Of course! True Love's Kiss is what broke the spell last time!" Flora said.
"So it should work again! Oh Merryweather, you're brilliant!" Fauna added.
"Last time? This happened before?" Meg asked.
"Long story." Phillip commented.
"Then that should be easy. All we have to do is beseech Hades and tell him to kiss her." Aurora said, sounding hopeful.
"Eh, good luck with that." Meg said in an uneasy tone. "From what I heard, Hades has been totally unreachable since the end of his birthday ball last night. Zeus and a few other Gods had tried to contact him multiple times, but he's not responding to anything."
"Nothing at all?" Phillip asked.
"Nope."
"Then there's only one thing to do… We have to go down to the Underworld and talk to him in person." Merryweather said.
"Are you sure, Merryweather? If Hades is anything like he was at the coronation, how will you be sure he'll cooperate?" Aurora asked.
"I don't know, but we have to try. I'll even go down there by myself if I have to." The fairy in blue said as she started to walk away, but Flora quickly grabbed her cape to stop her.
"Not without us you're not." Flora said.
"We're doing this together as a team." Fauna added.
"Thank you, sisters." Merryweather beamed before turning to Aurora and Phillip. "Would you like to come with us?"
"Thank you, but perhaps not. Someone has to stay behind and keep Maleficent safe." Aurora replied, approaching Maleficent's bed.
Even though he was very reluctant, Phillip nodded and took his wife's hand in his own. "She's right. You three go, we'll stay here and keep an eye on things."
Diablo cawed and nodded his head, agreeing to stay behind as well.
"Well okay then. Looks like you guys have a solid plan here." Meg said before turning to the Good Fairies. "But I have to warn you, the Underworld can be a pretty scary and dangerous place; it's full of spirits, monsters, and very powerful and not-so-nice deities. And if you are able to convince Hades to go with you, then it would be nothing short of a miracle. So you three have to promise me one thing."
"Yes?" The Fairies asked.
"Promise me… that you'll be careful down there."
"We promise, Lady Meg."
"Okay. Good luck."
The three fairies nodded and flew out to find the spell that would lead them to the Underworld. Meg then turned her head to face Aurora and Phillip.
"Sorry if I wasn't much help." She said.
"No. You've done so much more than you realize. Thank you." Aurora said.
"You're welcome." The Goddess of Inner Strength smirked before she perked up as if she heard something. "Huh? Oh, sorry. Someone else is calling me back home. I gotta go."
"Will we ever see you again?"
"I don't know. But maybe we will cross paths again someday."
"I hope so."
"Well, good luck with your friend. And congratulations on your pregnancy, by the way."
And with that, Meg disappeared in another puff of glitter and smoke and flash. Aurora and Phillip coughed when the smoke cleared before Aurora noticed a piece of paper on the floor near Maleficent's bed. She picked it up and read it, then she turned to Maleficent and started making strange hand gestures while still glancing at the paper.
"Reme, Peo, Tou, Sha…" She chanted in a whisper.