A.N: Okay first of all, THANK YOU. I got the most reviews ever on the last chapter, and that may seem a bit pathetic because it was four reviews, but hey it's my personal best for this story.

And just a heads up, angst is pretty much my forte so fluff comes less often than angst. Doesn't mean every chapter there's a big injury or a fight, just that I find it better for plot points.

Disclaimer: I do not own Maleficent and all rights go to their respective owners.

...

Maleficent woke up in darkness, and the first thing she noticed was the numb pain... everywhere.

Quickly she sat up, gasping at the sudden surge of more intense pain. Despite the efforts, the faerie couldn't remember much of what had happened.

Then, as if in fast-forward, the memories came back to her.

Aurora... Cage... Burn... Diaval... Kiss... Stefan... Blades... Chains... Pain.

She'd run away, hoping to get further and further away from Diaval as she could, but still attracting the guards' attention. She'd heard them coming, there was a blade... in her shoulder. Then iron, seeming to burn everywhere on her skin.

Maleficent's memory was hazy after that, she remembered screaming and getting dragged, then nothing.

Stefan must of brought her here. She was probably in the dungeons, or a special room prepared just for her, how special.

Diaval had been bait, and yet the faerie didn't regret a singular moment of it. He was safe, Aurora was safe, and he had promised her to keep it like that.

The words 'I love you' crossed her mind, and she felt a lump form in her throat. That wasn't fair to Diaval, she could very well die here and it would make it only more complicated for them.

But she did, she loved him, so much. Maleficent tried to touch her lips, but they were jerked back down by the shackles attached to her wrists.

The faerie angrily began to struggle against her restraints, her mind rationalizing that if she pulled hard enough the chain would snap.

"You can't break it." Maleficent's head whipped up, now adjusted to the darkness she could see the figure standing in the corner. "And you can't use your magic."

"Iron doesn't drain magic." She replied, glaring at the form. "It just burns faeries."

"Perhaps, but this does." Stefan replied, taking out a vial of liquid.

"That's a small amount to keep me at bay." Maleficent spouted back fiercely, surprising herself by keeping her voice strong.

"Oh, this is a small amount of the larger quantity we have." He said, sauntering over to her.

"You're not going to be able to make me take that."

He grabbed her chin in his hand, jerking it to face him. Maleficent struggled and jerked, but his grip was fast. Stefan poured the contents into her mouth, tipping her head up to force her to swallow.

"I think I'll manage."

Maleficent choked, but the contents went down her throat, and she felt the energy drain from her body. Stefan threw her down, looking disdainfully at the creature before him.

"What did you do to my daughter?" Stefan asked, gently turning her head towards himself with his fingers.

"Nothing. She wanted to come back with me." She replied, not surprised when she received a backhand.

"No, you put a curse onto Aurora."

"The only curse I placed on her was the one I placed on her as a baby. I stopped it."

"I don't belive you. I think your curse failed, and so you kidnaped and cursed her again."

"No." Maleficent insisted, lifting herself up again. "I love Aurora, like my own daughter."

"You lie!" Exclaimed Stefan, kicking her hands out from under her. "You can't love."

"I loved you, biggest mistake of my life but hey, it's possible."

"Come now, we both know you can't love anymore."

"Here's the thing Stefan," Maleficent defiantly sat up again. "You ruined me, but that was seventeen years ago. I've been pieced together bit by bit, I'm still broken but I'm not ruined anymore. You didn't beat me Stefan."

There was a silence in the room, the only sound Maleficent's heavy breathing.

"You've said that you love Aurora, and maybe I believe that you believe that it's true."

"It is true." Hissed Maleficent, trying to kick Stefan away, only to find her legs were shackled at all.

"Does Aurora love you?"

"Yes." She replied boldly and surely.

"How'd that happen? You cursed her, how'd you come to love her?"

"The cottage she lived in, it was close to the Moors. I've watched over her, her entire life. When she was fifteen I took her into the Moors, she came everyday without fail. When she first saw me, she thought I was her faerie godmother with my shadow."

She immediately wanted to take her words back, she was telling the truth because it seemed to keep the King calm, but she had said too much.

"Shadow? You mean the crow."

"Raven." Maleficent instinctively corrected.

"Or man, or wolf, or horse, or mouse, or whatever you wanted of him. Was he your whore too? Whenever you had urges?" His heavily accented voice which once comforted her, now outraged her.

"No!" Maleficent cried, lunging at the King, "After you no one could touch me!"

"You saved him, but he wasn't with you when we caught you. I think, you sacrificed yourself to save him. You were no where near a place you could escape, heading away from it more so."

"Maybe I was just lost, and my servant got out by himself."

She received a slap, the faerie grunted as her head whipped around.

"Don't lie, your hands were scarred and burned when we took you. And we both know he's more than a servant to you."

"Lose your interest on your daughter already Stefan? Maybe she's better off with me."

"Quiet witch! You speak to a king."

"You're no king to me." She repeated the same words she had told the king before him, but this time it held more meaning.

"So you've done nothing to my daughter? She simply loves you?"

"That's right. She was here with me, she left with Diaval."

"What do you mean?"

"While we were here, I sent her to wait for me, Diaval's taken her home." Smartly saying so Maleficent smirked.

"Her home is here, with her family."

"Family?" Maleficent laughed coldly, "She identifies her family as the three idiots, Diaval and her Godmother. She identifies you as a father she's never known."

Stefan grabbed her neck and shoved her into the wall, leaving her alone in the dark room, he didn't know if she unconscious or not but she lay unmoving so he left.

...

"No, Diaval we have to go back..." Aurora wept, trying to get away from the raven-man as he held her back.

"Aurora, no! We can't go back!" Diaval's heart broke feeling the child go limp in his arms.

"How could we do that?" She sank to the ground, "How could we do that? We left her there!" Aurora's devastation came in waves.

"Aurora, do you think that was easy for me? That was the hardest thing I've ever had to do!"

The child went quiet, besides her soft weeping. Diaval knelt on his knees, his hands reluctant to touch the girl as his mistress had done. Hesitantly he stroked her hair.

Aurora turned her body and hugged Diaval, taking him by surprise. He'd raised the girl, yet in this moment he didn't know what to do.

"Please get her back Diaval, please." Aurora was weeping into his shoulder, and Diaval realized he too was crying.

Moving the hands from the young princess's back he touched his lips and remembered her taste, and her touch. Those three fatal words, words he had longed to hear for years, escaping her lips.

"I will. As I kept my promise to her to keep you safe, I swear to you I'll get her back."

Aurora's weeping quieted, and she drew herself back.

"You love her." She declared, looking into his eyes.

"Very much." Diaval replied, gently wiping away her tears.

"She loves you too."

"She told me so, she kissed me, before drawing the guards out."

"Godmother kissed you? And told you she loved you?" Aurora's face lit up slightly, a shadow of smile gracing her lips.

Diaval nodded, a small smile also forming.

"Do you promise to stay in the Moors? If I am going back into the castle, I need to know that I am still keeping my promise to Mistress."

"I promise, on Godmother's wish and on your's I promise." She said sincerely, intending on keeping it.

Diaval helped her into the tree, patting her hand before transforming himself into a raven and flying off, going to save Maleficent. And even if he died, he would rise and continue to fly.

A.N: Again, thanks for the reviews. Means a lot, and we're about to get some Diaval/Maleficent romance and fluff! Excited? I am, very excited. Thanks for following, favouriting, and reviewing!

Whoever can guess what'll happen next can give me a sentence and/or a paragraph to base chapter seven off of! :D