There were too many of them.

Too many bodies, all under the influence of faerie lust, even though she wasn't full fae. Her mother must have magicked them somehow. For a brief moment, everything was suffocating as everyone she had ever magicked piled on top of her. Then, with a deep breath, she built a force field around herself and shoved them off.

With a quick jump, she was back on her feet, knowing they would all be coming back for her. She pulled magic to her palms and fired off as many spells as she could to knock them down, knock them back, stop them however she could, but they just kept coming. If she kept fighting that way, she would tire herself out and run out of magic.

No faerie should ever run out of magic.

As if it couldn't get any worse, a shock of pink hair appeared in the crowd and surged forward. Meredith. If Mal wasn't in a life threatening situation, she would have quipped something mean at the older girl. Instead, she threw a sleeping spell and hoped it landed.

Of course it didn't.

Meredith surged ahead. Mal kept throwing spells at her with no change. Finally, Meredith approached her with a speed that someone under faerie lust wouldn't have. It took her a long while, but Mal realized something was different about Meredith.

The moment Meredith was close enough, she grabbed Mal hard, her fingers like talons in Mal's arm. Mal fought against her, but Meredith held her there harder than anyone else ever had.

Fury soaked her through. She would not die at the hands of Meredith under her mother's control. That would just be wrong. She took a deep breath and blasted Meredith away with another spell. Meredith fell, but just kept on coming for her.

The next time Meredith got close enough, she didn't grab Mal's arms as hard. Instead, she reached out and punched, but Mal dodged. For a moment, Mal just stared. If Meredith had magic, why wasn't she using it?

Mal threw another spell her way, and Meredith dodged. Instead of throwing one back at her, Meredith grabbed her wrist with that same intensity she had grabbed her earlier. For a moment, they simply stood there, locked in battle.

Then, Mal realized her lips were moving, or trying to move against the magic, her eyesclouded over by magic, but mostly Meredith.

"Hit… me," For a moment, it sounded like she hadn't said anything at all, the words coming out as a small squeak.

Then, the crushing realization came.

Her magic was her mother's magic. She was fighting against her own magic that her mother had control over. Mal tried not to feel too excited about it. She couldn't remember the last time she was in a decent brawl.

Instead of throwing magic, she threw her fists. Throwing her fists was a different kind of exertion, but the smile across her face made everything feel better. For a brief moment, she could forget her fear of facing her own mother.

Within the hour, she had most of the magicked victims on the floor, their faces bleeding, their eyes closed, no longer chasing her. There were a mere handful of victims left, the ones she couldn't quite bear to hit. The ones she had held her punches and her kicks back. Her friends there in the bubble with her looking so unlike themselves.

Each of them went down with ease. She had always been the best brawler of the four of them, even though Jay liked to brag.

"I'm sorry!" She said as she swung at Carlos and knocked him down without much fight. His lip bled through onto her fist, but he didn't stand up again.

"I'm sorry!" She said to Jay as she swept him to the ground and brought her fist down onto his face hard. A sickening crack underneath her told her his nose broke, but he would be fine. He had always wanted a cool scar across his face anyway, but was too chicken to ask for it.

"I'm sorry!" She said to Evie as she elbowed her in the chest to knock her back. Evie lunged to bite her, but Mal dodged and grabbed her hair hard. The yelp that Evie shrieked bit into her insides and made her cringe, but it had to be done. She punched her in the throat and she went down. Evie would hate it if she broke anything on her face.

After that, only Charlie was left.

She looked so small, fragile, but so vicious as she rushed Mal, fighting tooth and nail to get to her. It didn't seem fair that one so young would be involved in something so sinister, and yet there she was.

It was easy to forget that Mal herself had been that tender age and already fighting too.

Once she realized that, it was easy to throw the blows that would knock her out. Charlie was small enough that Mal could pull her punches easy enough to knock her out, but not overtly hurt her.

Once Charlie fell, the last thing that remained between her and her mother, she would just have to face her mother once more.

"It is over, mother!" Mal shouted across the piles of unconscious bodies, wiping the last of the blood from her hands onto her jeans. "It is you and me now!"

Maleficent just laughed. Cold and hollow it echoed across the ballroom. It found every nook and cranny and echoed back at her as she moved closer to where Maleficent sat on the aged and dusty throne. "Daughter, this is far from over."