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[lefthandedsidhe.livejournal.com]

What: Dream to Deal with Maleficent
Who: Margaret/Maleficent, Songbird, Ren, Aya (saving the best for last)
When: evening of March 9
Where: Margaret's house in Mirror Earth and a dream

Margaret watched with more anxiety than pride as her student worked the spell that would bind their dreams into hers. She wondered how this would go. If anyone could do this, surely it would the three of them, but she had doubts. She feared that other part of herself and had trouble dismissing those doubts. Only Sora had ever defeated her other self . . . and that had been in the most physical of ways. But within her own mind, who knew how dangerous Maleficent might be?

She bit her lip, then closed her eyes to lean back. She would have to have faith in the three of them.

All but willing herself to sleep, she finally felt her mind spiraling down into unconsciousness.

Comments

[ryuuzoku-aya.livejournal.com]

"Ahhh, I see now. So it's one or the other with no form of middle ground." Probably for the best-a blending of the two would produce a completely different person and that would entail both parties giving up their identity to be. "Well, looks like it's back to the dark reaches of the unconscious mind for you."

[hyperpsyche.livejournal.com]

Ren cringed and reluctantly materialized her own staff, which now resembled a low-key version of the one she'd used during the Dreaming. "If you have any other solutions, now would be a really good time to share them," she said, offering Maleficent one last chance to resolve this peacefully.

[lefthandedsidhe.livejournal.com]

"Ah, yes, this is after all what 'heroes' are for . . . to 'get rid' of anything that doesn't fit in with your idea of how the worlds are going to be. Very well. Songbird, I am sorry than your friends are not as willing to compromise as you are, but it appears that we are going to play a different game now." With these words Maleficent lifted her arms, calling down the green fire which suffused her body, wrapping her in its embrace. She laughed her haunting hollow laugh. "I must confess . . . long have I desired to dance with the scarred warrior."

[songbird9.livejournal.com]

Songbird held her ground, staff raised before her, watching that the fire didn't come too close. Of course, she didn't really know if she'd be using the staff as a weapon for long. She had another plan, but while it wouldn't be hard to guess for those who knew her, she wanted it to happen suddenly and unexpectedly, not simply at the start of the battle.

So she waited, and she did not let the sting of Maleficent's words show.

[ryuuzoku-aya.livejournal.com]

"I really hate it when people go put words in my mouth." Aya sighed, "But I guess it's just inevitable." When one doesn't share their opinion too often and must be judged by their actions at least.

A grin slid across her face, shoulders hunching just slightly and grip tightening on the strange variation of her trademark weapon. "Dance.." she said the word as if tasting it, unbothered by the green fire, "Nothing left for me to do but dance." Her stance shifted subtly, "All these bad times I'm going through, just dance."

No more waiting. No more posturing. She didn't even warn the others as she exploded into movement, violent, like a wild animal leaping onto its prey. Her strike didn't come from the spine, but from her foot of all things, swung in a roundhouse kick as she pivoted her body. Fire of her own followed the foot, colored a bright, furious red, sharply contrasting with Maleficent's own. "Got canned heat in my heels tonight!"

[hyperpsyche.livejournal.com]

And something inside of Ren just snapped a little. "Okay, you know what?" she asked, losing the polite edge to her words. "Screw you, Maleficent. We tried to be peaceful and diplomatic. Sure, things have gotten off on the wrong foot, but please," she said, making sure the word dripped sarcasm this time, "remind me of how you tried to help reach a peaceful solution that didn't involve offering a rigged deal. Now, I still don't want to fight you, but if you insist..."

And then Aya was taking the initiative and jumping into the fray. Ren looked at Song, shrugging a little and silently asking how best to support her.

[lefthandedsidhe.livejournal.com]

Maleficent's green fire flared brighter and she was pushed back by Aya's kick, though the red fire did not seem to burn her. She caught her balance and sent a fan of the green fire out from her hands in the direction of the three women. Using this brief attack as cover, she moved backward away from them deeper in the darkening mist.

[songbird9.livejournal.com]

Song shrugged right back at Ren. She really couldn't say how this fight would go, given the versatile setting, and she wasn't used to fighting in coordination with others anyway. They'd just have to wing it.

And speaking of wings, Song leaped into the air as Maleficent's flames rushed towards her, and she did not come back down. Rather, she floated some distant above on a pair of white wings. Her hand reached out and gestured as if pulling something upward, and the ground behind Maleficent gave way to a rush of water, as if an underground river had burst through. A little water wouldn't do much damage, but perhaps being doused in a wave of it would disorient the fae for a moment, or at least extinguish her fire, as was Song's intention.

I had a post but LJ ate it.

[ryuuzoku-aya.livejournal.com]

Aya didn't even attempt to dodge the fire, 'tanking' it as she would say in her own words. Visibly, it had its effects as her skin bubbled and peeled, but Aya didn't show any pain for it.

As water bubbled forth in Maleficent (and thus her) direction, the liquid that came at her rapidly crystallized into cloudy ice. From there it quickly came under her sway and was spread to either side of her. "Song, good, try to get in front of her too!"

I had a post but school ate me

[hyperpsyche.livejournal.com]

Ren gritted her teeth and tried to fend off the flames through force of will, but her attention was still divided between the fight and trying to come up with some desperate way to resolve this peacefully. A tongue of flame lashed out at her arm, burning through her jacket's sleeve and leaving her with an ugly burn as she screamed and stumbled back.

"Mind over matter," she gasped to herself, trying to break through the pain and get back into the fight. She still had her potions in the dream, everything would be fine... "That's all it is, just mind over matter..."

[lefthandedsidhe.livejournal.com]

When the ground beneath her ceased to be solid, Maleficent did not even blink. Her feet remained exactly where they had been, as if the water were as solid as a marble floor. Using the dark staff she held in her hand, she swept it, wreathed in green flame, in a broad arc, trying to clear the area nearest her.

[songbird9.livejournal.com]

Song tried not to be too distracted by Ren's scream. She'd be alright... Hopefully this dream's malleability would be close to that of the White City and they could heal themselves. There could be a chance that Maleficent would be able to restrict a good deal of the control to herself, but Song really didn't know and hoped that the fairy wouldn't think to try. Or had already tried and failed.

Though the water had no effect on Maleficent herself, it seemed to be impeding her fire, so Songbird did as Aya asked and called up more of it, this time in a geyser directly beneath Maleficent. Perhaps if the water surrounded her and Aya turned it to ice, they could trap her, if only for a moment.

[ryuuzoku-aya.livejournal.com]

Song must have been psychic at that moment for that was exactly what Aya tried to do.

Slamming the Spine down in front of her, where it embeds itself in the water, ice began to spread forth from the weapon. It infested the water quickly and absolutely as Aya made sharp gestures with her hands. No words passed her lips and her eyes were narrowed in concentration.

Great claw-like spines erupted from the frozen water all around Maleficent, curving inward and lacing together like the teeth of a Venus flytrap closing upon an insect.

[hyperpsyche.livejournal.com]

Ren bit her lip as she watched Song and Aya's attack close in. It was amazing to behold--and she had been too weak to help create it. An ugly mix of jealousy and inadequacy bubbled up within her until reason started screaming for her to ignore it, push it aside until after the battle. Let it go unchecked, and she'd be giving Maleficent another weapon against them. "I'm a little more than useless," Ren half-sang to herself under her breath as she stepped forward. She had to hold onto that thought now if she wanted to help.

Since Maleficent had already shown distaste for it, she thought of cold iron, mentally shaping it into a latticed fence surrounding the icy cage to further contain her. It glinted a little in the light they still had, protected from corrosion by Ren's will.

[lefthandedsidhe.livejournal.com]

Maleficent seemed unaffected by the ice, moving through it as if it or she were only mist. But when Ren's cold iron appeared around her, her face grew less calm, and her already white face grew even paler.

She hesitated, her face weaker than it had been, but then rose up and through the ice, moving above the circular confines of the iron fence to float in the air high above. This put her closest to Songbird, though her attention seemed less on the dreamer and more on Ren, who had summoned the cold iron.

Maleficent made a grandiose gesture, and thorny black vines began to grow out of the earth, attempting to wrap themselves around Ren.

[songbird9.livejournal.com]

Song took stock of what had just happened. She'd have to thank Ren for that when this was over.
And now, with Maleficent distracted and with the inspiration from Ren, perhaps it was time to play her own little trump card. It still seemed early, but if this battle ended sooner than expected, all the better.

She flew higher, maneuvering herself above Maleficent while the fairy attacked Ren, and then she changed shape again. The form was her favorite, and so came quickly, a pale golden dragon about half the size of Maleficent's own dragonic form. She made a few adaptations this time, however, dreaming a laticework of cold iron armor over her body, particularly around her talons and wolfish muzzle. Then, without a sound, she fell into a swoop, trying to snatch her foe out of the air with iron-capped claws.
She would have done more. She would have aimed to kill, but she wasn't sure what effect that might have on Margaret.