We Will Take Care of Each Other

"STEFAN!" Maleficent thundered. The mad king lowered his sword from Diaval and turned to face the broken fairy. He said nothing, but the hatred in his eyes spoke more than words ever could. It somehow managed to intensify when he noticed his daughter holding the fairy's hand. And she was holding the mangled wings. That much was able to coax a small, sadistic smile from Stefan's face, but that was the last expression he got to make before Maleficent had charged him. Even if she was a fairy and, thusly, naturally inclined to fight from the air, spending over 16 years without wings meant that she was painfully and terrifying good at hand-to-hand combat.

While Diaval continued to fight the other guards, Stefan and Maleficent engaged in a personal, private one-on-one. Aurora looked ready to jump into the fray, but she wisely held back, hugging Maleficent's wings to her chest. She could feel them fluttering weakly in her arms and it broke her heart to see how feeble they looked while missing over half their feathers. She was disgusted and horrified to think that such a cruel human could exist, let alone be her birthfather. She stroked the wings almost subconsciously as they continued to pulse weakly in her arms. All around them, war continued to rage. It was a strange thing to see, one small girl protectively cradling two broken mounds of flesh while so much more was lost all around her, but there was a beauty in it as well. This was a girl who was tremendously brave. Now, she had a fairy standing in front of her who was determined to show the equal amount of courage against the man who had started it all...

Physical and verbal blows were exchanged. Maleficent used her magic and Stefan his sword. They shouted, swore, insulted and cursed, each one blaming the other for the 16 years of torture that their entire kingdoms had suffered. But in the end, there was one final divergence. Where Stefan continued to insist that every amount of suffering was Maleficent's fault, Maleficent was willing to see how they both shared the blame. Maleficent did not count herself anywhere near as cruel or evil or tyrannical as Stefan, but she was willing to admit that she had been no saint either. She was willing to admit this and repent. Stefan was not.

"I know I did you and Aurora wrong, and I am sorry for that," the fairy confessed during their brawl. "But I am willing to make the steps to move forward, to move past the tragedy and recover and grow again. Can you say the same?" and the answer was no.

"You don't deserve to get off that easily!" Stefan snarled, seeming to forget how much Maleficent had suffered already. And because he was unable to see his own flaws and faults, he remained trapped in a prison of the mind, slave to his own dark and bitter thoughts. While Maleficent was able and willing to see and move past her suffering, Stefan remained stubbornly locked away in his. Because of that, while Maleficent was able to find some semblance of a clear mind, Stefan was not.

While Stefan continued to be blinded by rage, Maleficent was able to look at the situation with a clear and relatively level head. She was able to see what he could not, not just metaphorically, but literally as well. He was so fixated on her, and her alone, that he was not using his surroundings, the way Maleficent soon would. She danced around him, angling him towards the thorn wall. While he remained focused on her and her alone, she kept one eye on the wall. With a clear head, she was able to see and plan. He could only act in the moment. His lack of foresight became his own undoing. Once he was successfully trapped in the thorn wall, there was nothing left to do except squeeze...

The moment Stefan had breathed his last, Maleficent called off all of her soldiers and commanded a retreat. For a second, it seemed as if the humans might pursue, but the moment they got a good look at their king (or what remained of him) they all thought the better of it and entered a retreat of their own. Besides, many of them were only starved and frightened peasants. Even though they were in no way innocent or good, it really had only been Stefan who harbored enough rage and hatred to attack the Moors so recklessly. With him gone, the rest of the army was quick to flee.

Then, the second the last human had fled the Moors, Maleficent finally turned away to Aurora. The girl was still cradling her wings and her eyes were sparkling with tears, not of grief or fear or anguish, but of relief, pride and joy that she and Maleficent had both survived to see the end of the battle, and to see one another again. They exchanged teary smiles as Maleficent approached Aurora and reached out to touch her face. Aurora whimpered and nodded, unable to respond because she was still holding on to Maleficent's broken wings. But the look in her eyes said it all. She loved Maleficent and she was so glad that they had both survived Stefan's invasion and finally brought about an end to his madness...

And luckily, Diaval had survived too. Maleficent smiled tiredly up at the large dragon before bringing him back down into his human form. He gave her a weak laugh and seeing the smile on his face was enough to release the last bit of tension that she had been holding. The casualties were high, but Maleficent was selfishly able to say that at least she, Aurora and Diaval had made it out alive. He looked tired and scratched up, but he was in no danger of death and he was still able to smile. That was all Maleficent or Aurora needed to know to feel at peace...

In the months to come, then, the fairy, the raven and the human worked long and hard to repair their kingdom and its relationship to the one right next door. With Stefan gone, both sides were far more eager for a treaty and Aurora was able to be the connection point around which the treaty was signed and sealed. Although she might've been more of a Moors girl at heart, her status as the heir to the human throne proved to be quite beneficial in terms of human-fairy negotiation. Then once a shaky peace had been established, Aurora and her family were able to work on the Moors, taking down the thorn walls and properly honoring their brave, fallen friends.

The most important of all, however, came long after the initial dust had settled.

"Godmother?" Aurora asked, approaching Maleficent gently.

"Beastie?" Maleficent's voice was full of unspoken pain, but she was able to smile at Aurora.

"I have a gift for you," said Aurora.

"A gift?" just for a second, some of Maleficent's grief was replaced by intrigue and amusement. "What is the occasion?"

"There is none. It's just a gift that is long overdue," Aurora replied with a sad smile, then she flicked her head back to the place where she and Maleficent lived. Curious, Maleficent followed Aurora back. What she saw once they arrived at the home, though, made everything clear and she nearly fell to her knees in gratitude and relief. It was her wings. And they had been fully restored, repaired and re-feathered. How Aurora had managed to do it was beyond Maleficent, but that did not matter. What did matter was that the wings were back.

"Well?" Aurora asked, already sounding choked up. "Go get them..." and Maleficent did. Upon closer inspection, she realized that some of the feathers belonged to Diaval. So... he had plucked some of his own feathers for her? There were no words to describe her gratitude. He always insisted that it was he who owed her a life debt. Now she was more than convinced that it was really the other way around...

The second she touched the wings, they flew to her back and reattached. It was a painful, burning process, but for once, the pain felt good.

"Beastie," the dark fairy whispered once the reattachment was complete. "I don't know what to say..."

"Then say nothing," Aurora replied softly, taking Maleficent's hands in her own. "We promised that we will take care of each other..." then she stopped speaking as well, both she and Maleficent overcome with tears. They fell into one another's embrace and stayed that way for a good while more, Maleficent's wings instinctively wrapping around both of them to give them their privacy. Neither of failed to notice how perfectly the wings fit around them, like it had always been meant to be... Now their family was finally complete.

AN: Ok, so there's the end to that annoyingly long alternate ending. It was only supposed to be a 1 or 2 shot, but it became a 5 shot! Ugh. That went on WAY longer than expected... But I confess that I still had fun writing it. I hope y'all had fun reading it. Shoutout again to Qiralyn Cassette, for whom this story was written.