AN: So, this is a companion piece to The Evil in this World. Shoutout to Concolor44 for leaving the first review on that one and encouraging me to make this one as wonderful as it could possibly be. I hope that this at least keeps pace with that one, if it doesn't surpass it.

'Faster, faster!' she urged in her mind, a deep-rooted sense of guilt and fear causing her to spur her mount ever onward.

Diaval's flanks were glistening with sweat in the late evening sun, the castle just visible in the distance but looming ever closer. She spurred him on, desperate to save the child she had come to tolerate. No, no, it was more than that now. A deep seeded fondness, she supposed, though that didn't quite fit either. She felt her servant panting under her, sides heaving, yet still pushing onward for the child he had grown to love.

She was oddly proud of him, though he was only performing his duty as he had for the past eighteen years. Magic ensured that the prince's mount was able to keep up, and still more magic made sure he stayed in place on the saddle.

Every so often her eyes darted to the sinking sun. She wasn't just racing against the sun; she was racing against time.

And something told her she wasn't going to make it.

Inside the castle, Aurora had just found the secret door leading to the twisting stairways. But Maleficent had no way of knowing that. She simply knew that the castle was getting closer, and if she could have just a few more minutes...

"Come on Diaval!" she yelled, determination and desperation present in her voice.

Aurora found her way to the lowest dungeon, where before her eyes green magic repaired a spindle until it was like new. Something other than her free will pulled her forward...

"Come on, Diaval, faster!"

Maleficent was pushing Diaval to the max, determined that they would arrive in time. Every hoofbeat brought them closer.

Aurora moved forward slowly, some tiny part of her mind warning her against what was to come, but she was far too entranced to listen.

The castle was right there! Just in front! If only they could go a little faster!

Aurora pressed her index finger to the sharp tip of the spindle. There was a flash of pain, and then, darkness...

Maleficent felt the curse's completion. It reverberated through her heart, mind, and soul. Through her entire being. Diaval, linked as he was by her magic, sensed it too, and reared up in despair. Maleficent's face contorted into a mix of emotions, devastation being the most prominent. The sun dipped below the horizon, outlining their anguished figures.

Maleficent and Diaval, now in human form, stood watching as the prince attempted to awaken Aurora. Though she didn't believe, the faerie found herself hoping in desperation that the kiss would somehow work. It didn't, and she felt an almighty sadness consume her. The pain of being rejected earlier in the afternoon couldn't compare to the devastation that was now permeating her being. And ever so slowly, the sadness and grief faded away, leaving her empty and devoid of emotion entirely.

She'd thought she'd been unfeeling before, but now she understood what true emptiness was. They could kill her and it wouldn't matter now. She had lost the one truly wonderful thing in her life, why should she continue to live? And then, through the emptiness, an idea came.

She would continue to live, and though her life may now be worthless, she would serve a purpose-she would protect Aurora until the sun ceased to rise and the stars fell out of the sky.

Slowly, she stepped out from behind the dressing screen, walking over to the bed where her beastie lay, hopefully sleeping peacefully. As she stopped, she summoned up what little emotion she had left, and began to apologize.

"I will not ask for your forgiveness. What I have done is unforgivable. I was so lost in hatred and revenge. I never dreamed I could love you so much."

'That's it. Love, not fondness,' she thought, glad to finally have found a name for her affection toward the girl.

"You stole what was left of my heart and now I've lost you forever. But I swear, no harm will come to you as long as I live...And not a day shall pass that I won't miss your smile."

To her surprise, tears were welling up in her eyes. Not only had she thought her emotions were spent, she hadn't cried in nearly two decades. She bent and pressed a kiss to Aurora's forehead, allowing it to linger for a moment as it would be the first and last she would ever give to her. She stood and turned, a lone tear slipping down her cheek, prepared to find a place where she would be able to keep watch on the girl. She missed the fluttering of eyelids as she did so.

"Hello, Godmother," a voice called from behind her.

Maleficent stopped, eyes widening, and turned around. She was met with the most beautiful sight. Aurora's sapphire blue eyes, wide open and twinkling, locked on her own.

"Hello, Beastie," she whispered.

In that moment, her heart, in all it's shattered glory, snapped back together, the only evidence it had ever been broken the nearly invisible cracks running across it. Emotions exploded in the newly repaired organ, some that not even her mind could name. Love, relief, happiness, all were prevalent and warring to be the most notable.

She let out a small gasp, the sound strangled, and with it the last of her pain. Aurora smiled at her, and she smiled back, laying a hand atop one of the girl's.

"There's no truer love," Diaval murmured from the corner.

Maleficent vaguely heard him and wondered what he meant. Then it hit her. A mother's love is pure an true. It was her unyielding love for the girl that broke the spell. Another tear slipped out of her eye, and before she thought, brought the girl into a hug.

She felt hands grasping the back of her dress, and she clung to their owner equally as tightly. She felt warm tears wetting her shoulder where Aurora's head rested, and allowed a few more of her own to slip free. And suddenly, everything clicked into place. Maleficent realized that whatever happened from there, be it she live or die, she would be content to know she had saved Aurora, and safe in the knowledge that someone loved her.

And as their tears slowed and their grip on the other slackened, she knew that this love was forever, and could not be displaced by something as trivial as power. For this was a love between a mother and a daughter, and no love was purer.

...

"There is nothing as powerful as a mother's love, and nothing as healing as a child's soul." -author unknown