Four hearts as one

Chapter 16: When love doesn't equal weakness

"Maybe good is more powerful than evil," He said, contradicting everything they had learned till that instant.

Maleficent growled, the purple smoke had come back when she saw her daughter overcome her manipulations.

"Give me the wand, Mal..." She tested once more, offering to say the words she knew Mal wanted to hear; the rest of the name lingering in the tip of her tongue.

"No!" Mal started sobbing, violently "That's not who I am" She might not know who she was, but her feelings guided her now "Mom, I'm not you" She tilted her head, hoping for Maleficent to understand.

"Oh, you obviously aren't! I would never believe in this love crap!" She was fed up, the breaking point was very close, but still, she thought she could get her seed back in her side "You can be like me, honey, you just have to leave all those dumb feelings behind"

"Weak? Dumb? Mom, do you even love me?" Mal knew the answer to the question already, at least, it felt that way.

"Of course a do" Maleficent's voice was amplified and echoed in the throne room, the harsh tone made the words feel like daggers in Mal's skin "But you are letting me down"

Her black gown enveloped her as a cloud of green fog came from her feet, surrounding her figure. Her horns grew bigger and eventually, her body also changed, mutating to a dragon's.

The smell of burning flesh filled Mal's nostrils.

Carlos took both Evie's and Mal's hand and pulling them back with him. Jay stood there, all his muscles tense, but he didn't move, ready to endure through Maleficent's attack.

The dragon wiped its tail and opened its mouth to release a puff of green hot fire.

"Jay!" Carlos yelled full of fear, even if Jay had dodged it perfectly.

Evie and Carlos kept screaming at Jay, who was barely getting away from Maleficent's claws, tail, and fire. Every time closer to getting him.

And Mal was frozen. Jay was her friend, maybe more, maybe they were family. She couldn't let him die.

"Jay" She heard herself yell, he finally snapped his head to them, barely avoiding the spiky tail "Behind me" Her eyes turned green and she ran ahead, almost tripping with her dress.

Maleficent's scepter was between the dragon's claws, Mal guessed the outburst and the transformation happened because of her defiance and not because Maleficent really wanted the wand.

So she tossed the powerful magic element behind her like it was nothing.

She caught Jay's hand and pulled him behind him, she held his hand with a tight grip, when Carlos arrived at her side, she did the same with him.

She could feel Evie's presence behind her, and she silently thanked to have them.

"The strength of evil is good as none, when stands before four hearts as one" She chanted, her eyes had never glimmered that hard, charged with such power Maleficent's dragon forms seemed enchanted by them.

Mal wasn't going to let her friends get hurt, she wasn't going to allow her mother to destroy another thing in her life. She wasn't going to just be a pawn, she was going to be herself, her new self, the new Maleficent.

The sparks and volts of energy started in her hands and her head, but they quickly expanded through her whole body; every inch of her felt powerful, and powerless at the same time. Even her friends appeared drugged by the discharge.

"The strength of evil is good as none when stands before four hearts as one"

She didn't learn the chanting from the spellbook, nor she had heard it before, it was just there, wandering inside of her, screaming to be released.