This takes place before Chapter 6
Chapter 7: The Final Battle - Part One
Maleficent stands before us, leering at us with such ferocity that I actually begin to feel terrified. She grips her staff, the orb shining a bright green. A small grin forms on her face, and I fear of what is going through her mind. I know she's capable of great power. And now that all six of us are up against her, I can only imagine what lengths she will go to keep us all at bay, or rather, how she'll KILL US ALL. Her robe flutters eerily in the wind. The sky is black and suddenly small droplets of rain begin falling. Dark clouds continue rolling in around the castle. I'm not sure if Maleficent is causing the storm, but her terrifying grin seems to confirm it.
"Come, now Ben. Don't tell me you're afraid of a little rain, are you?" she taunts. "You wished to fight me, is that not right? I really don't see why all of you are just standing there."
I have to be brave, I thought. She's going to be a tough one to defeat. But if we work together, we can take her.
"I'm not afraid of you or your storms," I say. I raise my spear high into the sky and see it glowing a bright white. I thought it only worked if I was in danger – maybe it's already detected my imminent demise.
"We can beat you Maleficent!" Sarah exclaims, raising her morning star into the sky. She touched her weapon to mine and both seemed to be glowing a brighter white light.
Prince Phillip came over to us, and pulled out his longsword and touched it to our weapons. I felt a sudden lightness come over me, a sort of feeling of increase in power. All of our weapons were glowing so fiercely now that I had to close my eyes at the brightness.
"Here, let us help," I hear the red fairy say.
"NO! IT CANNOT BE!" I hear Maleficent shriek.
I open my eyes and to see that all of our weapons had a white streak running down the shaft and was glowing brightly. I have only the faintest idea of what just happened, and I'm starting to feel a bit more hopeful.
"You - you couldn't have united all of them ..." I hear Maleficent say with disbelief. "It's not – no, this can't be right!"
"Your doom is upon you, Maleficent!" The red fairy decries. "And yes! It's entirely possible to unite the Three Holy Weapons so long as the users have a pure heart and the desire to triumph over evil! These three have shown courage and the will to fight! You will be defeated! You will -"
"Shut up, you worthless fool!" Maleficent shouts and blasts the red fairy with a beam of pink lightning. She gets shot out of the sky and falls onto the rocky ground with a hard thud. I look over to where she fell, devastated by how quickly things escalated. I want to go over and inspect to see if she's all right, but I realize that it would not be a good idea to turn my back on Maleficent.
"Flora will be fine," Merryweather says as she flies next to us. "You must keep your attention on Maleficent. Your weapons have been super-charged and will work well against dark magic. Go forth, mighty warriors!" Merryweather wraps herself in her cape and becomes as small as a bumble bee, appearing as a tiny blue light. I saw that the green fairy has done the same, both lights flying about the battlefield.
"You may have found something to your advantage, my misguided heroes," Maleficent begins, "but I still have something none of you have! Experience!" Maleficent strikes her staff to the ground and the earth starts shaking. My mare rears up, and tries to turn around. It takes all my effort to keep her in place. As Maleficent cackles, I can see what's happening around us. Thorns begin protruding from the ground, rising high and growing thicker. I see that Maleficent has hidden herself behind a large mess of thorns.
"Easy, girl!" I say, trying to calm my animal down. She's going crazy trying to avoid the spiky plants coming through the ground. The other fairies are trying to cut down the stems, but they're growing too rapidly and are too big. Phillip's horse keeps rearing, trying not to touch them. He tries to slash at the vegetation, but he can't seem to get steady.
I look down, and my heart stinks as I see a smaller vine snatch at my mare's front legs. Other vines quickly follow and tie themselves tightly to my horse's legs. She whinnies in agony and I can feel her pain. Thorny vines wrapping around skin and bone and pressing hard into it, enough that blood begins to draw from her legs by the vines' clutches. I can bear no more of her cries of pain. I aim my spear at the vines and a narrow beam of white light shoots out and cuts through one of them. I do this for the remaining vines, relieved that all of them are cut.
"Keep blasting the vines, guys!" I hear Phillip shout. "Don't give up!"
I see Spatterson freaking out at all the thorns rising up around her, seeming to trap her in a cage. She fires a concentrated beam of spiked balls within a white light at all of them. The thorns seem to be backing off slightly at this, but still more rise to replace the damaged ones.
"This isn't working!" I shout, observing more and more thorns coming out of the earth, rising to meet me head-on. I know eventually they're going to go for me, and so I frantically start to whip my spear about, trying to cut down the encroaching plants.
To make matters worse, I hear Maleficent cackling from behind her thorny refuge. "Try all you want, you pitiful excuse for heroes! These thorns have no weaknesses! Not even your weapons can defeat them!"
Yeah, we can see that, bitch! No need for commenting on our struggle.
Come on, I think, there must be some way to defeat these things. This is only the first phase ... if we can't past this part I hate to think of whatever else she has in store for us.
Just then I think of my initial purpose for coming to this land. I came to interview Maleficent. I wanted to get to know her and why people fear her. I try to recall the questions that I asked and the responses that she had given. There must always be a balance in this world, good and evil. Maleficent is stronger than the three fairies, and right now there's only two of them. Maleficent said she was born evil and that the thought of being kind and generous made her sick. But was that due to her trying to be nice? Was anyone else ever nice to her? How would that make her feel?
"Maleficent!" I shout at her. "Maleficent I want to ask you a question!" I try to direct my mare over to where the Mistress was hidden. But more and more thorns rise up. There was no use taking my horse through all this, so I drop off from the saddle and begin to weave my way around the mess, slashing at them with my spear with the white light. I try to get close enough to the evil fairy so that she'd hear me. "Maleficent! A question if you will!"
"We already had our interview, Ben. I'm afraid it's too late for any more questions."
"But it's not too late! The whole reason I've came down here was to interview you! There's more I want to ask- "
"You've chosen your side, Ben. Both you and Spatterson seek to destroy me. If I let down my guard right now, who's to say all three of you won't destroy me on the spot?"
"I'll call them off."
"It won't happen."
"Look, it was Spatterson that angered you, remember? You at least owe me a few more answers to my questions. I promise you, no harm will come to you if you agree to answer these last remaining questions. If you agree I'll put down my weapon right now and after the interview I'll leave and never come back. You'll get your happy ending, and I won't interfere again."
"Ben!" Spatterson says. "What are you doing? We need to fight her!"
"Hold on," Phillip says gently. "I think he's on to something."
The thorns slowly begin to recede and I see Maleficent, her yellow eyes transfixed upon me. An aura of darkness surrounds her, evidently not trusting my sincerity of conducting a third interview.
"Why do you find me so fascinating, my dear Ben?" she says rather coldly, her eyes narrowed in contempt. "Am I really such an interesting person to speak with?"
"Look. I really do have more questions to ask you. We didn't get to finish on account of you trying to kill us after the last interview. And a battlefield is not the best place to ask questions. So what do you say, Maleficent? Will you answer my last remaining questions?"
She ponders my question, raising a hand to her pointed chin and strokes it. "I believe ..."
What questions will Ben ask? Are there even any more questions out there? And more importantly, will Maleficent agree to it?
