Ibis didn't dare communicate with Carabosse as she rocketed towards the human kingdom. He followed her silently and perched in a tree outside the princess's bed chamber.

Carabosse waved her hand, sending out her magic to unlock Aurora's window, but it was stopped by a sparkling, gold force field.

"Mother..." she muttered, then tried again. The window would not budge. With a sharp hiss between her bared teeth, she gave up and went in search for another entrance.

Eventually she found a tiny crack within a side door that led to the servant's quarters. She shrunk herself to fit through the gap and grew back to her human-sized fairy form as soon as she landed on the wooden flooring inside.

The atmosphere inside the castle felt thick with her mother's magic.

Slowly, she walked along the claustrophobic corridors and looked around at the various staff members that lay on the ground, sleeping in the place they were working when Heartha and the Rosebush Twins cast their large sleeping spell.

It was not only the humans that were affected by the fairies' magic. The castle pets were also asleep, and the lit candle flames were still, as if they were frozen in time. They carried on burning but in a sleepy, cooler hue.

When Carabosse reached the princess's chamber door she was met by that same sparkling force field.

"No!" she hissed through her teeth. "Those thorough, meddling..." she cussed aloud and hit the force field hard with her fist.

A small dark crack then formed within the protective wall of golden magic.

"They always underestimate me," Carabosse sneered through a forming smile.

She then pushed her hand against that crack and made it grow. Soon the Mother of Fairies' protection spell completely evaporated from the door and disappeared into the ceiling above her, like a cloud of steam.

The door made an uncomfortable creak as the dark fairy slowly pushed it open, revealing the sleeping princess upon her royal bed. A wicked laugh escaped Carabosse's crimson lips when she saw the countless magical white roses surrounding the girl's sleeping form.

She stepped over the threshold, her bare foot landing inches away from Claudia, who slept, slumped against the wall beside the door. She glanced down at the dark haired girl, then headed towards the four-poster bed, where Aurora lay.

Her thoughts went reeling as she took each step. She was trying to think up a plan to beat Mother and the Rosebush twins once and for all.

She reached her black-gloved hand forward and stroked the delicate, silky petal of the first flower she came to between her thumb and forefinger.

"I'll show you. I will! I'll prove to everybody that I'm the most powerful fairy here!"

Then suddenly, without a hint of a warning, a flash of golden magic entered Carabosse's darkened irises. She saw, as clear as day, Aurora's future.

She saw a strangely dressed gentleman bent over her to give her a gentle kiss, which successfully woke her up. The vision then disappeared from Carabosse's mind in a blink of an eye and a scowl replaced the surprised look that pulled on her brow.

"So arrogant, oh so arrogant, Mother..." she growled, then took in a deep calming breath and squeezed her eyes shut.

Out of the depths of her searching mind, a thought reared its head, causing her smile to return.

"You may have power over her physical destiny, Mother, but you failed to foresee this!" she declared to the room, which only harboured two sleeping humans.

From outside the princess's window, Ibis watched intently what Carabosse decided to do next.

She wrapped the long fingers of her right hand around the stem of the largest rose upon Aurora's chest. Then she reached her left hand up to rest upon the princess's cool forehead. Green, glittering magic surrounded the pair of them and caressed its way along Carabosse and Aurora's long hair strands, making them dance together wildly in an impossible breeze.

He flapped his owl wings in shock as a flash of lightning lit up the room. Once he managed to recover from the attack upon his retinas he saw that Carabosse disappeared. Worry gripped at him as what he witnessed began to sink in. His fairy friend was gone. He could no longer hear her thoughts.

◇

Carabosse blinked her dark eyes and took in her new surroundings. She was standing by the closed door of a cramped, dark room. Cobwebs draped across its walls, and in the centre stood a dusty mirror. Beside the mirror, upon the cold, stone floor, was Aurora, hugging her knees tightly to her chest. Her golden hair embraced her shoulders and her lilac ball gown was torn into rags around her slender form.

She looked up at Carabosse, revealing a tear-stained face and red, puffy eyes that grew wide with fear as she took in the dark fairy's appearance.

"It's you," she whispered with a tremble. "The dark fairy Godmother told me about. I - I can't remember your name..."

"Carabosse."

"Why?" the princess's voice began to climb in volume, as she allowed the tiny spark of anger she had in her surface. "Why have you trapped me here? What have I ever done to you!"

Carabosse didn't see the need to answer her. Instead, she sauntered up towards the mirror. Her black skirt fluttered menacingly behind her as she moved, and her large feathered wings scraped across the hard floor.

She wiped her hand across the glass, scraping away a line of dust at eye height. The glowing green within her black irises glistened in her reflection. She took in a deep breath and blew the rest of the dust away. With the help of her magic, every single speck left each nook and cranny found within the mirror's ornate frame, as well as it's shining surface.

She stood there taking in her reflection - her amber waves, her large raven wings, her black gown, and her porcelain skin.

"Talk to me, Carabosse, please. Don't I deserve an answer?"

"No," Carabosse answered without making an effort to tear her gaze away from the mirror.

"What have I done to you?" Aurora persisted.

"Nothing."

"Then why?"

Carabosse ignored her again as she carried on analysing the mirror within Aurora's enchanted dream world.

"What are you doing?" Aurora demanded.

"You ask a lot of questions, Princess," Carabosse said dismissively. Then stepped back from the reflective glass that she successfully studied. With a smile upon her wicked face she clapped her gloved hands together.

"This is perfect!" she declared with a delighted chuckle.

She then pressed her hands flat against the glass and sent her dark magic into it. The mirror began to ripple violently like a stormy sea.

Once she was done, the mirror stiffened back to it's original stillness, and Carabosse, without a word, turned and started to make her way towards the locked door.

But she was stopped by a pale hand grabbing her wrist.

"No! You can't leave me here! Not without answers!" She heard Aurora's melodious voice plead behind her.

The dark fairy looked around her black, feathered wings and saw the brave princess standing beside her. Aurora's confrontational gaze pierced into Carabosse's black eyes. She responded to that look with a much more intimidating stare, making the girl shrink back.

"Please," Aurora whispered timidly.

"What do you want to know, Aurora?"

Aurora was taken back, she didn't expect Carabosse to respond like she did. She took a second to regain her thoughts, then straightened up courageously.

"Tell me, why have you done this? Why did you curse me?"

"For revenge."

"I don't understand. What have I done to warrant revenge?"

Carabosse rolled her eyes.

"You are relentless, Child!" she said with a sigh.

Aurora refused to back down.

"Fine! If you're that desperate to know why, I'll tell you," Carabosse angrily gave in. "It will only help me more if you know the truth anyway!"

Carabosse squeezed her hand uncomfortably around the princess's wrist and dragged her to the mirror. She then forced Aurora to press her palm into the hard glass.

The smooth surface began to ripple again beneath the princess's fingers, and strange colours began to swirl inside its frame, they danced around in all directions, until a picture appeared.

Aurora watched a dirty, dark winged fairy break through dusty earth, under a blood-red sky. Then saw a golden, majestic fairy reluctantly approach the wretched creature.

"You came from ash, formed from despair, your features drawn together by the flames of death..." the shining figure's cruel sounding voice echoed in the princess's ears. "Your name shall be Carabosse, for your face is an inflammation that I can barely look at."

A sympathetic look entered the princess's eyes as she carried on watching, unblinking, what Carabosse chose to show her.

She displayed in the glass every single memory she had of her abusive upbringing.

"Fairy Godmother?" Aurora gasped in shock as the fairy she knew so well entered the picture within the glass. Although she looked younger, she had no doubt in her mind that it was indeed the red Rosebush twin, herself.

She watched Cezanne look at Carabosse with a sneer filled with cruelty. A look that seemed so alien upon her assigned fairy guardian's face. The fairy's voice took over the atmosphere within Aurora's dream world, as she heard her mean chanting.

"Carabosse, born from ash! Carabosse, born from ash!"

That chanting kept on drumming a beat as more of Cezanne's angry words began to layer themselves upon the constant droning.
Words that were full of jealousy and spite.

"You don't belong here, do you hear me Carabosse? You are evil!"

Carabosse's innocent pleading then played above the drone too. "I'm not evil..."

"You are! You are an evil beast!" These words that Cezanne ended with, repeated eerily as the picture within the mirror began to diffuse into a cloud.

Aurora's hyperventilating breath fought out of her chest as she allowed what she just watched to sink in. When the mirror returned to it's former state - still and only showing the princess's and Carabosse's reflections, she turned towards the sombre looking dark fairy.

"M-my g-godmother..." Aurora tried to speak through heavy, distraught tears. "No! This is a lie, she can't have, she's not..."

"Those were my memories, my honest past," Carabosse uttered to the princess's turned back.

"No... it... it can't be... Cezanne is a good fairy, good fairies are not jealous, they are not..."

"Maybe you don't know the fairies as much as I do. You are only human after all," Carabosse said coldly and turned to leave.

"No, please don't go! Don't leave me all alone!" Aurora screamed after her.

"You're better off alone, Princess," Carabosse called back to her from a few yards away. "For who out there can you really trust?"

At hearing this the princess collapsed to her knees in despair, for she knew that Carabosse was right. Everyone she knew did lie to her, they all kept important information from her all her life.

What else could they have kept from her?

But then one face came to her mind, a face she knew she could always trust, no matter what.

"Claudia!" the princess shouted, making Carabosse halt.

"Claudia? Indeed, that girl is special," she agreed before summoning green flames and bright lightning.

The princess was soon plunged back into darkness, left all alone, crying on her knees in the centre of the prison cell that was her enchanted dream world.