Maleficent stared into the eyes of the man who had broken her body with iron and her soul with betrayal. There, with his throat trapped between her fingers, he looked pathetic, and the sight disgusted her.

Kill him.

Yes. She could kill the creature she had despised for the last sixteen years. The sounds of his struggle to breathe indicated that the task would not take much longer. She could smell the sweat dripping from his forehead. It was the scent of an animal that knows it's about to die.

Fear.

The madness gone from his eyes, all they held was fear. The image unearthed a memory buried long ago of a pair of brown irises peering at her from behind a curtain of leaves. The boy they belonged to no longer existed, and he took her heart with him when he disappeared.

Most of her heart. As she had discovered, there was still part of it left to be stolen. And stolen it had been. But while the first theft had left behind a hole, the last one attained to fill it.

And so Maleficent's eyes cleared, for she knew that whatever else this man might be, he was still father to that second child thief. A child from whom she had taken so much already, and refused to take anymore.

"It's over." – She declared, her voice strained.

Releasing her captive, the faerie turned to walk away, her wings dragging behind her.

Alas, she had misjudged his strength. She felt him hook his arm around her neck and suddenly her feet were no longer under her body. For a moment they struggled and stumbled, until their tangled bodies treaded past the edge of the tower.

Instinct took over Maleficent as she fought to free herself from the king's grip.

Fly. Her wings opened as soon as his arms loosened their hold, and she stood suspended in the air, looking down at her foe falling rapidly towards the ground.

Maleficent stood motionless by the lifeless body lying on the stone floor. A small pool of blood beneath his head was slowly expanding, its edges gliding slickly over the rock.

The faerie considered what it was that she should be feeling. Satisfaction? Sadness? Relief?

But she felt none of those. As the seconds passed, she was gradually overwhelmed by an incredible exhaustion, the kind that follows after a sixteen year old battle during which the soul had known no rest.

Her conscience seemed like wind, blowing against her thoughts but remaining unscathed by the collisions. It was a welcome numbness that fought to prevail as faint traces of awareness began to seep back into her mind.

With a sudden effort, Maleficent pulled herself back to reality.

Aurora. Diaval. The fight was not yet over.

Her wings took her back inside the castle through the window she had broken earlier. The great hall was alight with fire. Wounded soldiers were scattered among wood and iron and rubble. To one side stood close together ten men, all that were left of the group of warriors, their spears pointed at the great dragon before them. Diaval was still, his enormous wings outstretched and his head lowered close to the ground, as if blocking something from the soldiers' view.

The sound of Maleficent's wings made humans and beast turn their heads towards her, the movement revealing what was hidden behind the fire-breathing creature: Aurora.

"Where is the king?" – Shouted one of the men.

Maleficent did not answer nor turned to look at the soldiers. She could feel the young girl's eyes on her and stepped closer so that she could see them clearly.

The faerie knew that what she was about to say would hurt the child. Even if an hour ago she was ready to go back to the Moors with her Godmother, the fact that this very person had killed the father she had just discovered she had might change everything. Could Aurora truly forgive Maleficent's curse, along with all the sorrow and destruction it had brought?

"The king," – Maleficent said, her voice cold and harsh, but her eyes soft as they stared into the girl's blue ones. – "is dead."

"We fought on top of a tower, and he fell to the ground during the struggle."

Silence followed her words, as their meaning was slowly captured by those listening.

She watched Aurora's face closely. The fear etched there moments ago was seemingly gone, replaced by confusion laced with sadness.

Maleficent felt as if a hand had reached inside her chest and clutched her heart. It pained her to see the child hurting, and the knowledge that she was the one responsible for it flooded her with shame.

She'd started to move towards the girl when the soldiers begun their shouting:

"Murderer!"

"The creature killed the king!"

"Kill her! Kill this winged demon!"

Instantly Diaval's massive frame straightened to full height, the fire inside his torso visible even through his thick scales, ready to be unleashed with the fury of the dragon's breath. Maleficent's own body tensed, wings unfolded, eyes alight and sharp. Let them come.

"No!" – Screamed a girl's voice. – "Stop!"

The faerie opened her mouth, the command for Aurora to stay back ready on her lips, but the girl had already moved between the humans and Diaval.

"Enough lives have been lost in this war!" – She continued, her voice a desperate plea. – "End it now! Please…"

That last word came out in a whisper, and she looked imploringly from the soldiers to her Godmother.

Maleficent's eyes softened, but the decision was not hers to make. She and Diaval could fly away from this castle before the humans had time to react, but not without having to leave Aurora behind. And the faerie didn't care how many she would have to fight. She was not leaving without the girl. So it was for the soldiers to decide how the situation would unfold.

The men looked at their captain, arrows and spears ready, waiting for an order.

The captain had sworn an oath to the king to do his bidding, but His Majesty was no longer living. For many years he had vainly lead his soldiers into the forest to hunt down this faerie. The Council's attempts to reason with the king had been futile. His obsession had eventually turned to madness, and the numbers of the injured rose above count. The men were tired. They knew this was a battle from which they would not come out alive.

He looked at the winged creature, who had not diverted her attention from the princess. She seemed to be abiding by the girl's wish, staying hers and the dragon's attack. The decision would fall to him.

"Your Highness," – He began. – "You are the rightful heir to His Majesty, King Stefan. In light of his death, my loyalty now lies with you. I am your servant. Tell me what you would have me do, and I'll see to it that it is done."

A wave of relief washed over Aurora. She thought for a moment before speaking.

"You will order your men to stand down. Then you will ensure us safe passage through the castle to the place where my father's body lays. In return, I give you my word that no human will be harmed from this moment onwards during our presence here."

Aurora looked at Maleficent during her last statement. The faerie knew it was a request, and she bowed her head slowly, confirming the girl's words to the soldiers. She didn't trust the humans, but she could not deny the child's bidding.

"Very well, Your Highness." – Said the captain, and with a gesture from his hand the men lowered their weapons.

They encountered no one on their way to the bottom of the tower. The castle's inhabitants seemed to have fled upon hearing the sounds of the battle.

Maleficent, having turned the dragon into his human form, now followed the captain and one of the soldiers through the palace's corridors. Aurora walked by her side, Diaval behind them, and lastly two more humans followed.

Their presence at her back unnerved her. She expected to feel the heat of an iron sword against her skin at any moment. The sounds of their armors echoed through the walls and pierced the air like a sharp blade.

Aurora's eyes remained cast to the floor, not having looked at her Godmother since they had left the great hall. Maleficent had wanted to speak against the girl's decision to go to her father from the moment she had voiced it. The child should not have to see his broken and bloodied body. She could not, however, bring herself to speak, her guilt becoming more overwhelming with each step.

What right had she to deny a daughter's wish to see her father? A man whose death was her fault?

She looked at Aurora's face, so pale in the moonlight and framed by strands of her golden hair. Some things not even her magic could fix.

They stopped a few feet away from the body. The night around them was unusually silent, as if in reverence to the life that had just ended. All four soldiers kneeled before their fallen king.

"Aurora…" – Maleficent began, concern winning over guilt and allowing her to find her voice.

But the girl had already left her side, walking forward to sit on her heels beside her father.

The princess looked at the dead man whom she had met less than a day ago. His eyes were open, staring at the sky, unseeing. Much like he had stared at her.

The truth was, his face had shown none of the joy nor the concern she had expected to see. The joy and concern she saw every day in the eyes of her Godmother, no matter how much the faerie tried to hide them.

The eyes she saw upon awakening from the curse were those of the only parent she had ever known, and who almost certainly loved her more than the one who was truly her own would ever be capable of if he was alive.

And so Aurora cried, not for the love she would miss now that her father was dead, but for the love she would have missed if he had survived.

All the while Maleficent stood silently watching her little beastie. For the first time, she found it hard to tell what was going through the child's mind. The girl's expression, always openly reflecting her emotions, now proved to be hard to read.

Then the faerie saw a tear roll down Aurora's face. It was followed by another. And another. And suddenly Maleficent felt the whole of her doubts and fears wrap around her, blocking the air from reaching her lungs, akin to what her fingers had done to another earlier that night.

Fly. She could not stand there anymore.

"Stay with her." – She said briskly to Diaval.

And before he could answer, her wings opened and flapped, taking her away towards the stars.