Prompt: I would love a prompt where Maleficent helps Emma rescue Henry from Cruella not wanting her to lose her child like she lost Lily.
She heard it as whispers first, swirling around the diner like small gusts of wind on a crisp autumn's day. Of course, nobody spoke to her directly. Why would they?
She was a villain. A dragon. A monster. Someone to be defeated and sneered at. Someone whose death would be cheered.
They weren't wrong, at least not entirely so. She had done terrible things and only on her most pitiful of nights could she bring herself to feel actual regret. But that wasn't all of who she was. She was also a mother. She had felt the joys of bearing new life and the experience had changed her forever and no matter how much she wished to go back to who she once was, she couldn't.
She should have been cheering at the idea of Snow White and her Prince Charming feeling a slice of her own pain. Their grandson missing, maybe dead (Cruella couldn't kill, but she could do other things). It was exactly what they deserved for what they did to Lily. But every time she felt even the hint of satisfaction creeping itself into her mind, she was flooded with thoughts of the savior. Of Emma Swan.
Emma Swan was once a friend of her daughters and if Lily was still out there, somewhere, they would be about the same age. Not only was Emma reflection of who her daughter could be (a powerful, young woman with magic pulsing through her veins), she was a reminder of the thing that united all mother's, the love for their children.
She made herself the promise then that she would help Emma find her son. The heroes would take the ground, the only field their pathetic legs could cover, but the sky offered a much better view and with her serpent like gaze nothing would escape her notice.
She transformed in secret, on the edge of the woods where it was unlikely to scare the people of Storybrooke. Gosh, it had been so long since she was free to stretch her wings to their fullest capacity. If she were ever asked to define freedom (and nobody knew freedom better than a woman who had been imprisoned for 28 years) she would describe the feeling of the fresh air pulsating against her scales as she prepared for her descent.
And the view, oh the view. From here in the sky, she could see the people of Storybrooke scurrying around like mice. She watched Granny serve Gepetto his food, with an extra prance in her walk, and looked away as August, noticing the flirting, chocked a little on his water. Eventually her eyes fell on Ashley, standing outside of Granny's and cooing over her little spawn. The sight immediately brought her back to her task and she drew her eyes away from the small town and into the forest, near Rumple's cabin where she was almost positive that Cru would have taken Henry.
She saw that the heroes had a similar train of thought as Emma, Regina and the Pirate approached the forests edge. Good, she wouldn't have to do this alone. She scanned for other figures and noticed Rumple lurking about. But where was the boy?
She circled the forest twice before she saw him, darting through the trees being rapidly descended on not by Cruella but by some four legged beast. The boy was quick, but speed would do him no good as he was rapidly approaching the edge of a cliff. Cruella was trailing quickly behind him and soon the boy would have no way out of this mess except down. Worst of all the heroes appeared to have separated and none of them were going in the right direct to find the boy before he meet a gruesome end.
She had to get Emma's attention. She needed to if she didn't want the woman to feel her pain of a lost child.
Emma's blonde hair stood out against the green of the forest. Mal swept in to she was hovering just above the blonde and released a loud screech. The savior jumped in fright and extended her hands as if to magic attack an imaginary foe. Mal rolled her eyes as Emma looked around for the source of the noise. She let out another screech and finally Emma looked up into the sky and, shielding her eyes from the setting sun, finally spotted the dragon.
Mal made a show of turning around, hoping that the savior had the good sense to follow her before time ran out. Mal relied on pure blind hope, to trust that savior was following behind her.
It was only when they were a few hundred meters from the cliff side, where the boy stood, arms shaking and stretched out to calm a ferocious Dalmatian, that Mal got the assurance she needed that her assistance had been take. The blonde hero sprinted across rock terrain and fallen trees, over taking even the massive dragon's form to reach her son. Mal could imagine how the blondes lungs must have burned with every breath she took, how her feet would ache as they were poked by sharp stones and how the air would sting as it cut into the scratches on her cheeks caused by wayward branches. Still the savior would not stop even for a second, not with what was at stake. If one thing was to define motherhood, Mal believed, it would be the image on the exhausted blonde, chest heaving up and down desperate for air, as she stretched her hands out towards her child offering the safety promised by a mother's embrace.
"Thanks,. You didn't have to help me but you did and you might just have saved Henry's life." Emma said to Mal once the people had cleared, leaving only the two of them.
Mal smirked. "I didn't do it for you, 'savior'. I don't know if you heard this but you weren't the only person screwed over by Cruella. This was purely about revenge."
Emma looked at Mal skeptically and shook her head.
"Sure it was.." She said, the disbelief clear in her voice. The savior turned to walk away but paused only a few steps away from the dragon queen. She turned her head and gave the fellow mother a smile. "I will find Lily, Mal. No matter what happens." She looked at the woman for just a second longer before continuing to walk away.
Mal smiled to herself. Despite the worlds of difference that separated the two women, Mal could feel the sincerity in the savior's words. For the first time in 30 years she had faith that she would see her daughter again.