Frenzy
Title: Selfish
Song: Don't Leave Me by P!nk
She needed Diaval to be her wings. For sixteen years, Maleficent depended on Diaval to be an extension of herself. Now, however, she has her wings back.
She doesn't need him anymore, technically speaking.
If she was a good faery, if she had a pure and fair heart, she'd let him go.
He deserved a quiet existence as a raven.
He deserved to find a mate and form his own unkindness.
He deserved to be free of his duties to her.
Diaval- loyal, faithful Diaval- deserved a life of his own, where he is in command of his every action and he has power over his own form.
Maleficent has no right, not anymore, to transform him into any creature she wishes him to be.
She doesn't have the right to demand that he watch after Aurora.
She doesn't have the right to ask him to fly with her whenever she desires.
She doesn't have the right to make him stay.
But Maleficent isn't pure or fair or nice.
She is selfish- selfish enough to curse an innocent baby because of a vendetta, selfish enough to collect payment for saving the life of an endangered creature, selfish enough to hide her true identity from the child she cursed for years, selfish enough to use the raven she's 'saved' for anything she required, even if it is to his own detriment.
She was selfish enough to do all those things.
She is being selfish now, by continuing to shackle Diaval to her authority.
Sometimes, her conscience claws at her insides, demanding to be released, and she finds herself telling Diaval that she is grateful for everything he's done for her. However, she always quells her conscience down before she reaches the important part- the part where she tells him that he has now paid his debt and is free to go.
Somehow, Maleficent always stops herself before it ever gets to that point. Just the thought of him leaving her- alone- is enough to terrify her conscience into submission.
She tries to compensate in other ways. She gave him the ability to transform at will, so he can vacillate between being a raven and a man when he wants to. She lets herself be vulnerable enough to assure Diaval that she is being genuine with her warmth and her fondness. She endeavors to show appreciation so he knows if and when he is doing right by her.
But she is still his mistress, and he is her servant.
Maleficent always reminds him of it, because this is the only way she can tell him that she needshim- not because she is in any way incapacitated or because she is physically limited.
Maleficent needs him because after sixteen years, her soul had become interwoven with his, and if he tries to rip his soul apart from hers, she will be irrevocably broken. If he leaves, she will be rendered incomplete.
If she gives him the freedom that he deserves, he might leave her.
At least, when he is her servant, he has no choice but to stay at her side.
It's an awful way to keep someone.
But it's the only way she knows.
A/N: This took a darker turn. Oops. I might do a companion piece to this, but I'm still unsure.
This goes out to OTP Starch, who suggested the song. I hope this was okay.
Cheers!