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Audrey wasn't sure why she was doing this. She wasn't sure why she was considering talking about her problems to Maleficent of all people.
Maleficent was here in Auradon. She had managed to turn back into a human and Mal was kind enough to give her mother a room in the castle.
Maleficent was originally going to be watched by guards but Mal knew the feeling of not being trusted, so Maleficent wasn't put under any surveillance. Maleficent was free to do whatever she liked, but as far as Audrey knew, Maleficent mostly stayed in the room Mal had given her.
And now Audrey stood outside that room, trying to convince herself to knock on the door.
Who could she even talk to about her problems?
Her grandmother? No, absolutely not.
Ben? Maybe not the best idea.
She actually considered talking to Mal, but she wasn't sure how Mal would take it. They were on good terms now, but Mal might not like to hear about Audrey's nightmares.
She wasn't sure why she had even decided to come to Maleficent. What did have in common? The scepter? Being defeated by Mal?
Maybe this wasn't a good idea...
As she turned to walk away, she heard a voice.
"I know someone is out there. Either come in or I'll come out."
Audrey considered running but she talked herself out of it. 'No, you need to talk to somebody.'
Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath. Opening her eyes, she turned around and opened the door to Maleficent's room.
As Audrey slowly walked into the room, she was greeted with the unusual sight of Maleficent laid back on a bed with one of Auradon's magazines in her hands.
Maleficent looked up at her. "Audrey."
Audrey's breath halted. "You know me?"
"I do," Maleficent said. "You are Sleeping Beauty's daughter." She stared at Audrey for a few seconds. "You also happend to steal my scepter."
"You heard about that?" Audrey asked, her heart beating fast.
"I have. Both from my daughter," she held up the magazine and waved it back and forth, "and from these." She threw the magazine on the floor.
They had written about what she had done in magazines?
"I-I'm sorry for stealing your scepter."
Maleficent hummed. "Well, you clearly learned nothing from it because you just apologized. Real villains don't apologize."
"I-"
"Why are you here?"
"I...wanted to talk to you," Audrey said, nervous, not sure how to tell Maleficent about her nightmares.
Maleficent's eyes narrowed. "Tell me why you are here. I know you didn't come here to have a normal conversation with me."
Audrey knew she had no choice but to tell Maleficent about the nightmares. She took another deep breath. "I have been having nightmares about me with the scepter. When I stole your scepter, I wanted to hurt everybody in Auradon and the nightmares have me doing that. But recently, the nightmares have had me killing everybody. I-I don't know what to do or how to make them stop."
Maleficent looked at Audrey for a few seconds, her eyes observing the eighteen-year-old. "Why are you telling me this?"
"I don't have anyone else to talk to."
Maleficent rolled her eyes. "Your parents? Your grandmother? Your friends?"
Audrey shook her head. "My parents are away on a trip, they always are. My grandmother...wouldn't help me if I were to tell her, and my friends would be freaked out if they learned about my nightmares."
"And so you came to me because you think I can help?"
Audrey nodded her head. She closed her eyes, expecting to hear Maleficent tell her to leave or laugh, but she didn't. She heard a sigh followed by a question.
"When did you start having these nightmares?"
Audrey looked up at Maleficent, a little shocked by the question. "Three weeks ago."
"And when did the nightmares with the murder start happening?"
"One week ago."
Maleficent nodded her head and sat up. "Tell me, Audrey, did you enjoy hurting people with my scepter? Did you have the urge to kill?"
Audrey swallowed. "At the time, I did enjoy hurting the people of Auradon. I felt abandoned, sad, mad, and just hurt. Everything I worked for my entire life was lost when Ben proposed to Mal, my grandmother even told me that I had ruined our family history, she told me my mother was able to hold onto my father in her sleep. I just felt so upset and I wanted to hurt people." What Audrey said was true, but her mind flashed to her conversation with Ben before she turned him into a beast. "But at the same time, I felt a little bad at what I was doing."
"And the urge to kill?"
Audrey opened her mouth and then closed it. Her mind flashed to bringing the knights to life to attack Mal and her friends. Her mind then flashed to when she fought Dragon Mal, if she had managed to win, to blast Mal out of the sky...
The look on Audrey's face was enough to answer Maleficent's question. "And I assume you regret your actions?"
"I do. I feel like nothing I can do will ever make up for what I did when I had the scepter."
"And that's your problem."
"What?" Audrey asked confused.
"Your problem is that you haven't moved on from what you did. You need to accept it and if that for some reason isn't good enough, you need to forgive yourself."
"But I hurt people and could have killed people! How am I supposed to move on and forgive myself for that?"
Maleficent shook her head. "You just do."
It was then that Audrey remembered she was talking to Maleficent, who had probably killed tons of people. Not that Audrey cared, her days of judging villains and VK's were over. She knew that the Vk's were good and had good in them, and she knew that some villains could change.
"There is-"
Before Maleficent could finish her sentence, Audrey interrupted her with a question. "Have you ever had nightmares?"
Maleficent seemed taken aback by the question and her eyes moved down before looking back up at Audrey. "I was killed by your father with a sword, then I was resurrected and put on the Isle. The last thing I remembered before being put on the Isle was being killed with a sword. So have I had nightmares? You can figure that out on your own."
Audrey nodded her head, knowing the answer. When she and Mal had met, they had brought up Maleficent and Audrey's grandmother, but the topic of Audrey's father killing Maleficent had never come up between the two. Audrey was thankful for that, she suspected Mal was too.
"There is something I wanted to talk to you about, actually," Maleficent said, getting Audrey's attention. "When I heard the tale of you stealing my scepter, one question popped into my mind. How is it that you were able to touch my scepter without falling into a deep sleep?"
"But I did fall into a deep sleep. It happened after Mal defeated me and I dropped the scepter."
"But you should have fallen into a deep sleep the moment you touched it. No one except for me and Mal should be able to touch it."
Audrey didn't know what to say.
"Did the scepter do anything before you touched it?" Maleficent had her hands together.
Audrey shook her head up and down. "The curtains moved back and the green thing at the top started to light up. It called out to me."
Maleficent's eyes flashed. "Interesting. Did anything else happen with the scepter?"
Audrey thought back to when she used the scepter, if anything unusual happen. "I know that when you used it, the smoke and the blasts were green. But when I used it, they were pink."
Maleficent nodded her head and sighed. She stood up from the bed and Audrey realized Maleficent was shorter than she thought. She seemed tall when she had broken free from the Isle two years ago.
"It appears that the scepter I have had for many years is no longer mine." She gave Audrey a look.
"What?" Audrey asked, confused.
"It is yours."
"What?" Audrey asked, even more confused. Why was Maleficent giving away her scepter?
"The scepter is bound to you. Yes, bound," Maleficent said when she saw Audrey opening her mouth. "Everything that you just told me has given me evidence of it being bound to you. It explains why you didn't fall into a deep sleep when you touched it, it sensed your emotions and wanted to help you. The next time you touch it and drop it, you won't fall into another deep sleep if you proclaim ownership of it."
"But-but I-"
"If you want any more proof that I no longer have control over it, watch." She closed her eyes and Audrey watched as Maleficent held out her arm. Audrey watched for ten seconds before Maleficent opened her eyes. "Now you try."
Audrey shook her head. "I-I can't. I don't want to be evil again. I don't want to-"
"I never said you were going to be evil again. I just said the scepter is bound to you. You can control what you do with it."
"But what if I lose control of the scepter? How can I control it?"
"I can teach you," Maleficent said, causing Audrey to look at her in shock. "Mal doesn't need the scepter to do magic and neither do I. I can teach you how to control the scepter and how to make sure you are doing the spells right. Even if the spells you will be doing aren't as much fun as the evil ones." She sounded dejected at that.
"Magic is currently not allowed in Auradon. Ben and Mal are working to change that, but I highly doubt they would be okay with you teaching me spells to cast with the scepter."
"Then we go somewhere and practice without them knowing."
Audrey looked down. "I don't think I can do it," she actually did want to use the scepter again, but not to hurt people. She wanted to learn magic and use spells without hurting others. "I don't think I can use the scepter right now. I have to do what you said, move on from what I did, and forgive myself. I have to make the nightmares stop."
Maleficent looked disappointed.
"But do you miss the feeling of having power? Having magic?"
"I do," Audrey answered, "which is why I do want your help but only when the nightmares stop. I don't want to become the Queen of Mean ever again."
"...The what?" Maleficent asked, as if she didn't hear Audrey correctly.
"The Queen of Mean," Audrey answered, looking at Maleficent. "It was what I called myself when I had the scepter."
Audrey looked at Maleficent, who was now looking like she was holding back from laughing. "What?"
"That is what you called yourself? The Queen of Mean?"
"I thought it sounded cool."
"It sounds like a kid pretending to be a villain." There was humor in Maleficent's voice.
"Well, what else was I supposed to call myself?" Audrey asked, putting a hand on her hip as if she was annoyed, but the smirk on her face showed she wasn't actually annoyed.
"The Queen of Evil? Queen of Darkness? Anything but Queen of Mean."
Audrey giggled. Maleficent actually seemed nice to be around. "Thank you."
"For what?"
"For giving me advice and for offering to help me with the scepter."
Maleficent didn't say anything for a few seconds, her eyes moved around the room before looking back at Audrey. "Yes, well, I was apparently the only person you could come to. Do tell me when you are ready to start using the scepter again."
Audrey nodded her head and smiled. "I will."
She walked to the door and opened it. She turned and looked at Maleficent. "Bye Maleficent."
As the door closed behind her, Audrey heard Maleficent say, "Bye Audrey."