The Story You Never Heard

16 Years Ago

Once upon a time in a treacherous land not so far away, there lived an evil woman named Maleficent. What she lacked in honest behavior, she made up for in her beautiful mesmerizing charm. She began her imprisoned life sentence with the attitude of a free woman roaming the streets. Her beauty and grace almost made it seem like she hadn't just tried to kill half the kingdom. It was here in the tavern on the Isle of the Lost that she met the one and only Hades, king of the underworld. She fell almost instantly for the man, his broad shoulders and fiery blue hair caught her eye as if she were under a love spell. (an impossibility since magic didn't exist on the Isle.) Maleficent found herself deeper and deeper enthralled with the possibility of Hades becoming a permanent addition to her lonely lifestyle. But Maleficent, like anyone, had her flaws. Her most fatal one was her addiction to the magic that had been stolen from her once she was banished to the Isle. A fate she intended to reverse by contacting the only man who could ever pass through the barrier without harm and leave it just as easily as he arrived- Chernobog. The only villain that couldn't be contained by magic for he himself was the very incarnation of evil magic in it's most basic form. Maleficent began her dalliance with the evil villain and soon tricked him into a feat of romance. But Maleficent wasn't as clever as she thought herself to be, soon enough Chernobog heard of the treachery she had been pulling with him in the efforts to restore the magic for herself and her true love Hades. He sent an ugly plague to kill her but then a miracle happened. Just before the darkness reached her, she gave birth unexpectedly to twin girls. Both with glowing green eyes and dark purple locks. One was slightly more intensely colored than the other, but other than that the girls were practically identical. Maleficent begged Chernobog for forgiveness, she had never dreamed of being a mother... but here they were right before her eyes. Chernobog told her if she handed over one of the twins then her life would be spared and she could continue living her non-magical life on the Isle with Hades and one of the twin girls. Maleficent was young at the time and knew of the tole this would have on Hades, who still did not know of the twins existence. So she accepted Chernobog's deal, picking up the child who had been born first and placing a soft hand on her cheek. "Mara Gertrude... goodbye my sweet child" she said before handing the child over to the evil man. Chernobog never showed weakness in all his forms, but in this one moment... he took the infant and paused in confusion as she wrapped her little hand around one of his fingers. Like it or not he would always be a father to the child, no matter her bloodlines or opinions. In this moment she was his daughter. Chernobog left before Maleficent had a chance to take back her action. Leaving Maleficent all alone with one of the twins, this one who was screaming in agony over losing her other half. "Mal Bertha! Stop that crying!" Maleficent shouted at the infant and shoved a makeshift pacifier in her mouth before calling up Hades to inform him of their child. It was in the moment that she saw her oldest child being taken away by the truest form of evil that she realized she herself was the worst evil in the world- a mother who would trade her daughter for her own selfish life? And in that moment, her heart turned a deathly shade of charcoal, forever hardened by the decision to give away her daughter, as if her life meant nothing more than to bargain her own life with. She could never love Mal the way she intended to, her heart was paralyzed from losing Mara. 

Hades never understood the switch in Maleficent, the heartbreaking sorrows she put him through or the breakup that tore him away from being involved in his daughter's life despite being on the same small island with her. Over the years it became easier to ignore the fact that Mal would never know the truth, nor would Hades ever learn of the horrors that ensued in the moments before he could meet his child. Or rather in the moments before he could have met his children. If only.