Mickey's Halfway House

The Trigger

Magnifico blinked, as if getting a sudden realization. "At least, I was the king of Rosas . . . . "

The fire building in Maleficent's veins stopped, and the Evil fairy burst into laughter. "Cruella, dear!" She called to the fashionista still flattened against the floor. "Why, you've got tears of royalty on your precious furs!"

Cruella sputtered and pulled herself up with the aid of a chair. "Likely story! If he's a king, where's his crown?"

Maleficent turned back to the unhappy man in her booth. It was true - despite his regal appearance, he lacked the headpiece that usually marked a king's true status.

Under the Evil fairy's stare, Magnifico sighed and ran a hand over his crownless head. "It wasn't about that. I just wanted to protect them. And - I failed." More tears came to his bright eyes, like two rivers about to overflow. Even Maleficent couldn't help being dumbfounded at the sight of the café's new member - a world leader! - breaking down in front of everyone like a child. He was literally the saddest king Maleficent had ever seen. 

He was making her sick. 

"First things first," the Evil fairy began. "Do us a favor and go find someone else's coat to dry yourself with. There are no tears in this café. And second - "

"I owe you all nothing," Magnifico interrupted. 

The fire in Maleficent's veins was back! "Then you can forget that I asked, because I'm demanding you to obey my orders!" She shouted. "Get out of my booth or I'll burn the café down with everyone in it!"

This time Magnifico didn't even blink. "I doubt it," he retorted. "Or you would have scorched your way out of here a long time ago - Mistress of Evil."

Maleficent's fire ran icy. If he thought she was going to be publicly humiliated by another king, he had something else coming. She locked eyes with his and fixed hers into a glare, showing him visions of entire cities being consumed by her ire; families blinded from each other by smoke and orphaned infants wailing against walls of flames. Once gallant armies were cut to pieces by a vengeful dragon that burned the remains to ash. And in the middle of it all, a fair-haired maiden wandered lost through a forest of nightmares. 

In their link, Maleficent sensed what her victim did; Magnifico's heart rose to his throat and he couldn't take a breath. He smelled the burning of the land, and suddenly he was back as a boy barely emerging from his nursery yet needing to run faster than the raging fires could spread. But no matter how fast he went, he could never run far enough to escape the heat on his back. The stars wouldn't answer his sobs - he had to find his way on his own. That is, until a cool and patient hand touched his. It was light, yet it held the weight of a young man who spent the first nights together weeping with a passion that left him breathless in the woman's arms. When he'd recovered his senses, he felt soft droplets on his forehead - she had wept with him. Together, they would channel that grief into creating a haven for all the lost of the Earth to be found again, to have community once more, to be the children the founders had once lost . . . .

" . . . . Amaya," Magnifico uttered. 

Now Maleficent blinked, breaking her link with the king. "What?" She questioned. "That's not my - "

"Please, my queen." Magnifico continued, still in a stupor. "I'm sorry. Please come back. I need you . . . . "

Hades approached Maleficent. "Babe, he's clearly missing a bolt or two," he said, gesturing to the king. "So why don't you say we mosey on down to the bar, okay? Kronk made these wonderful little sandwiches - "

"Shush." Maleficent held a hand up to Hades before waving it front of Magnifico, who seemed to be staring blankly into space. "Are you dafter than the Ace of Hearts?" The Evil fairy questioned the king. "Don't you hear me?"

Magnifico met her eyes again. 

"Stop." Magnifico, frozen and gripping the table until his knuckles went white, had an unnaturally green hue filling his eyes. 

Maleficent shook her head. "I don't understand you, king," she began. "You're not - "

"STOP!" Magnifico cried out and spiraled another wave of green light throughout the café. But this time it didn't settle - it kept going and going, spinning into a torrential hurricane that filled the café to the brim. 

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With Magnifico's eyes aglow, the green snaked through his being and showed as veins bulging on his forehead and neck where his mirror flashed in rapid pulses.

Maleficent couldn't make out anyone else in the café. She tried raising her arms to reel in the storm, but it was no use. Her own magic had no effect on that which had possessed the café.

"In the name of all that is wicked, you need to calm down!" She screamed at the king.

Magnifico rose and loomed over the Evil fairy. Speaking with the voices of the thousand souls also trapped by the terrible magic, he said, "Keep away from me, Mistress of Evil!"

Tears the color of Magnifico's blinding torrent fell from his eyes. When they hit the table, the wood scorched as if splashed with acid. "I don't belong here!" The king cried.

Maleficent's breath stole from her lungs as two giant green claws emerged from the king's mirror and protruded outwards. The Evil fairy wished she'd avoided the café tonight - even a pile of ash seemed better than being strangled alive by a complete mad man!

"Have the booth, if it means that much to you!" The Evil fairy moaned.

But the hands didn't reach for her - they covered Magnifico's face, causing him to collapse back into the booth with another howl.

Seconds of eternity passed. Then the torrent began to slow before thinning and finally dissipating. The claws had vanished back into the mirror, which still contained a faint glow. The blue returned to Magnifico's eyes and the café settled again. Maleficent could then see that many of the other villains had taken shelter under tables. The café was quiet, the only sounds being the occasional hacking of a villain and Magnifico's own ragged breaths.

"I don't belong here," he groaned again.

No one spoke. Nobody could. Maleficent was now the one staring dumbly into space. Magnifico cast his eyes downward, seeing the scorched parts of the table.

Finally, a puff was heard - Hades had relit his hair again. 

Maleficent turned to the god of the underworld, who cleared his throat. "So, um," he said. "He, uh, will do that when pushed too far. So. That's that."

The Evil fairy brushed some dust from her shoulders. "Quite extraordinary," she said to Magnifico. "I must agree, you don't belong here. Why, who could possibly have lived in your kingdom who was powerful enough to defeat you?" 

The king sighed. "You just witnessed it."

Maleficent frowned. "You speak in riddles. Whatever do you mean?"

Magnifico looked at the Evil fairy, but avoided eye contact.

"You know," the king said. "I - I could use a drink."