Hey! So now that we're on hiatus I thought that I should write something. I actually have a plan for this, unlike my other stories.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything you may recognize from OUaT
A carriage rolled through the kingdom, its plain exterior giving no hint to who or what could be inside. Its lone passenger smirked to herself as she rode through the streets of the small town on her way up to the palace. A crowd of people with glazed over eyes and black armor marched through the town.
Snow White and Prince Charming were ecstatic to say the least. They had just returned from visiting a seer, and Snow had been told that she was pregnant. The couple was dying to tell their friends, Red Riding Hood and the seven dwarves.
They walked through the halls, a spring in their steps. The happy grins never left their faces as they approached the war council chamber they knew the men and woman would be in.
They burst through the doors and surveyed the stoic, serious looks on the faces of their friends.
"Charming and I have some wonderful news!" Snow practically shouted to the confused looking people.
"What's up Snow?" Red asked her. The times had been tough recently due to the threat of Regina constantly hanging over everyone's head, so some good news was way overdue.
"I'm pregnant!" Snow beamed as she told her friends the news. A surge of pride rushed to her head.
"That's great," Grumpy was the first to congratulate her, and the other dwarves followed suit. The smiles on the young couple's faces grew wider with each minute they spent with their friends talking of their unborn child.
"Do you know if it's a boy or a girl yet?" Happy asked.
"No, not yet," Snow replied.
"What names were you thinking of?" Red asked.
"Emma for a girl, Liam for a boy," Charming answered.
The group sat in their carefree bubble for an hour, talking about trivial things such as baby names and nursery colors. The weight of the world leaving their shoulders, if only for a moment.
Doc was just getting to the punchline of one of his jokes when a guard burst through the door.
"Your majesties, it's the queen. She's here."
That was all anyone needed to hear before they rushed to the weapons chamber.
"David I want to fight. She's here because of me," Snow protested for what seemed like the thousandth time. She had been told not to fight, and instead would be escorted to a rendezvous point by Grumpy and two of her guards.
"I know you think it's bet, but what would happen to the baby if Regina got to you? I can't lose our child, Snow," Charming reasoned.
"I know, but I can't allow others to be hurt in my place. I can't just sit here and allow you and all of our friends to face Regina knowing that it's my fault she's here-"
"The baby," Charming cut her off with a tone of finality. He walked out of the room, Snow was sure he had left for the battle, but he soon returned with a large, glimmering sword, not unlike the one strapped to his own belt.
"I know that Grumpy's going to be taking you to a cabin where I'll meet you. You'll be in no danger, but at least with this you won't feel defenseless," Charming said, "Now go save our baby."
He was making to leave when Snow grabbed him on impulse and crashed her lips to his.
"Make sure you survive, then come find us," She said.
"I will always find you," David whispered into her hair as he pulled her into a hug.
Their emotional moment was interrupted by a knock at the door.
"Your majesties, it's time."
David gave Snow one last fleeting look before walking out to meet the guard at the door. She sat there for a few minutes more, a hand on her stomach and her eye on the door. An attack could come at any minute, and even though they had removed all mirrors from the main wing of the castle, the threat of Regina finding her was too serious to pass up.
Lost in her reveries, Snow nearly screamed in fright when Grumpy burst through the door accompanied by her most trusted guards, Lionel and Penny.
"You ready to go sister?" The dwarf asked her.
"Yes, let's go."
Charming walked down the halls of his palace accompanied by Sleepy, Red, and a man he didn't know but Snow said was called "The Huntsman." The sounds of fighting grew louder as they approached the entrance hall of the elaborate castle. With each step their pace quickened, eager to reach Regina and stop her from taking the kingdom again.
As they stepped in, a soft, "Good god," escaped the lips of Sleepy.
Regina was standing in the middle of the long entrance hall. A pile of hearts arranged in a circle was at her feet, like a grisly barricade, taunting them with their come and get me nature, but if they so much as took another step closer, whoever those hearts belonged to would be dead. No one was willing to take that risk knowing it could very well be the heart of one of their loved ones.
Regina's army vastly outnumbered their own; her black armored soldiers like a sea of death plaguing the men and women who had given their lives to protect the kingdom.
"I'm going to take my wolf form," Red whispered into the ear of the king. The brunette leaped into the air and transformed, the light of the full moon shining onto the scene, giving the room an eerie glow.
Charming unsheathed his sword and ran at one of Regina's men. The Huntsman took out his knife, and Sleepy took an arrow out of his quiver and loaded it into his bow.
The little team, the palace guards, and the rest of the dwarves couldn't hold back Regina's army forever though, and soon the shadow of doubt that had plagued Charming' mind became an ocean, and he realized he must either fall back or risk never getting to meet his unborn child.
"We have to fall back, her army is too great," He shouted across the room to Red and The Huntsman. The man looked a bit surprised at his sudden proposal to withdrawal, but anyone would. This was the man that had saved them from Regina the first time around, and now he was proposing that they just give up. But the last time he didn't have a wife or baby to think about.
"Alright, get the dwarves and anyone that's left from our side, I'll round up a small group to hold her up," The Huntsman called over to the king.
"You know that means you probably won't make it back right?" Charming shouted back, growing worried for the friend of Snow's.
The other man just gave a solemn nod and ran back into the battle. Charming ran around, looking for anyone that wasn't either dead or cursed with an empty hole in their chests and cold, dead eyes.
He spotted six out of the seven dwarves, which relieved some of the tension the man had coiled up inside of him. At least the dwarves and Red were alright.
"We've got to retreat, we can't win," He shouted over to them as he had to Red and the Huntsman earlier. Regina still stood in the middle of the entrance-hall-turned-battlefield, surrounded by her grotesque barricade of glowing hearts. The pile had grown as a few brave soldiers had tried to approach her, which both lessened their side and raised the numbers in hers.
The dwarves had begun to protest at his seemingly cowardly nature, but Doc soon spoke up in his voice of reason,
"I think that would be for the best," He said, though the words didn't sit right with anyone. Retreating now would mean surrendering the kingdom to Regina, the same kingdom they had just regained. After her little "I'll ruin your happiness" stunt at the royal wedding, they'd been expecting an attack, but they had never even imagined a situation where they would be forced to surrender.
Slowly and quietly, the group began to sneak towards the large double doors. Their formerly polished glean had become bloodstained and chipped; a pile of bodies stacked against them.
They were met by Red and a small group of men and women who had survived the battle. They were a few meters from the door when they caught Regina's attention.
"Running away little shepherd?" She mocked coldly, "You and I both know what happens to cowards."
"I'm doing what's best for Snow," He muttered, mostly to reassure himself that his decision was the right one.
"Honestly I'm disappointed that this was this easy. I don't think you should be allowed to go free."
At this statement she reached down and picked up the heart she had closest to her.
"Now I wonder who this belongs to. Let's find out which little dwarf isn't going back to widdle Snow," She laughed as she squeezed the heart just hard enough to invoke a scream from someone behind Sneazy. The crowd parted revealing Sleepy.
"I'm sorry men," He whispered. His face was pale and a small tear escaped his eye.
"I'm sorry," He whispered again.
"Well isn't that touching," Regina said sarcastically. She squeezed the heart again, just for good measure, being sure not to pop it just yet.
Sleepy screamed in agony. A white hot pain burst through his chest, like a thousand bee stings in one place.
"Regina stop this," Charming tried to reason with the woman.
"No, it's too fun," She said before screaming again. This time she went a bit too far and the heart turned to dust in her hands. What had been keeping Sleepy alive slipped through her fingers as the dwarf collapsed for the final time.
The other dwarves rushed to meet their fallen comrade, tears flowing freely from their eyes. Regina stood there and watched them, the fuzzy feeling she got from causing the ones who hurt her pain spreading throughout her like a wildfire.
It seemed like the group would never escape, they'd be forced to stay here in this never ending tango as Regina picked them off one heart at a time, not stopping until the last of them breathed their final breath. Or at least, that's how it seemed.
For at that moment The Huntsman charged onto the scene, followed by ten or fifteen soldiers who had agreed to let the others escape in their place.
Regina whipped around, stepping on the hearts closest to her in her hurry. The men by the door collapsed, giving the refugees a chance to escape. The dwarves picked up their fallen comrade, Red changed back from her wolf form, a hint of tears on her face, and Charming quickly and quietly led the procession of his friends and citizens out of his home and into the surrounding area, running towards the woods.
He took one last glance at his former palace before turning to the shelter of the trees.
A group of four people in woolen cloaks walked silently through the castle. A tall man led the procession followed by two women and a dwarf.
The sounds of a battle grew quieter as they walked deeper and deeper into the castle, through twisting and turning hallways, up and down seemingly endless staircases, and through many bedrooms. The group walked until they reached the servant's quarters, a large round room with many doors covering it.
"We'll just go through here," The man in front said to his companions in a heavy scottish accent, "And if I'm right it will lead us outside the palace gates. From there Penny and I are supposed to lead you to a nice little cabin where you and your charming Charming can reunite with one another before coming right back here. A bit redundant really, am I right Penny?"
The woman in question just rolled her eyes in reply, quite used to the man's rambling.
"Well could we stop talking and start doing before my feet fall asleep from disuse?" The dwarf spoke.
"Grumpy!" The other woman scolded
"Sorry princess."
The man in front opened the door revealing a long hallway lit only by torches.
"Well, ladies first," He gestured towards the hallway, and the taller of the two women walked in, followed by the other and the dwarf. The man followed, shutting the door and sealing the lock.
"This definitely the right way, right?" The woman who the dwarf had called princess asked.
"Yes. Absolutely. I'm 76 percent sure," The man said.
"Seventy Six?"
"Well you've gotta leave some margin for error."
"Would you just shut up Lionel!" Penny shouted, annoyed at her friend's antics.
"Sorry Pen."
The group continued down the long hallway, torch light casting long distorted shadows and the large hoods obstructing their vision.
"What was the point of the hoods, Snow?" Grumpy asked agitatedly.
"Disguises, Grumpy," The woman in question replied.
"We're almost out," Lionel said.
"Or so we hope," Penny muttered mostly to herself but loud enough for everyone to get the message.
"Be a bit more optimistic Pen," Lionel snarked back,"We can't be too self assured now can we?"
"There's the door!" Snow interrupted.
"Finally," Grumpy said.
Lionel reached into his pocket and pulled out a ring of keys.
"Which one is it, Penny?" He asked his fellow guardsman.
"Try this one," She said as she pointed to a little brown one.
He stuck it in the door and twisted, but to no avail.
"Maybe this one?" She asked uncertainly.
Lionel tried that key, then another, then another. He was halfway through his overstuffed keyring when a key finally worked.
"Ugh finally," Penny breathed out. Grumpy and Snow seemed to agree with this statement.
"So impatient," Lionel joked.
"Not the time," Grumpy groaned as he pushed past the other man and out of the door.
"Did we go the right way?" Snow asked him.
"Yeah, seems that way," He said.
"And you lot doubted me!" Lionel exclaimed as he reclaimed his place at the front of the group. The sounds of the battle were louder now that they were outside.
"Let's just go," Penny sighed, "Your majesty, you ready?"
"I suppose," Snow replied.
The group hastened towards the surrounding woods, the wind blowing strongly through the trees. A large gust blew the hoods right off their heads, revealing a raven-haired woman, a tall brunette man, a dwarf with a graying beard, and a dark skinned girl with bright pink hair tied up in a tight bun.
The party quickly put their hoods back on their heads, not risking being seen by any one from Regina's army.
"Where exactly is this cabin again, Penny?" Lionel asked his pink haired comrade.
"Just a mile north from here," She replied.
The group entered the line of trees and started on their journey. Snow held her hand to her stomach as she walked, the thought of her baby reassuring her.
"Got a stomach ache your majesty? We can stop and rest if you'd like," Lionel asked.
"Weren't you listening earlier stupid? She's pregnant!" Penny shouted to her friend, "Holding her stomach is a thing pregnant ladies do. My mom did it when she was having Johnny."
Snow blushed a bit at the mention of pregnancy, but beamed at the thought of her baby.
"You've got a brother?" Lionel asked Penny.
"I've got five of them," She replied. Lionel seemed to deflate at this statement.
"If we could focus, that'd be nice," Grumpy interrupted the pair.
"Sorry," They spoke in unison.
They trudged on in silence for what seemed like hours but was probably only a few minutes before Lionel spoke again.
"Peeeeennnnyyyyy are we there yet?" He whined at the woman.
"Almost you insufferable idiot."
They marched on for a few more minutes before they saw a light in the distance.
"That must be the cabin," Penny told the group, "Reggie, Martha, and Lisa are waiting for us there."
"Who?" Lionel asked.
"The cooks," Snow answered him.
"Oh, alright."
They walked up to the door of the large, wooden cabin. Grumpy waltzed to the front of the group and knocked on the door. The sound of footsteps could be heard approaching the door. The locks clicked and the handle turned. A middle aged woman opened the door with a sword in hand, but untensed when she saw who it was.
"Your majesty, welcome to the rendezvous point," She smiled kindly. Her gaze then fell on Lionel, "Oh, you're here."
"Nice to see you too..." He trailed off and looked to Penny for a name.
"Martha," She hissed.
"Martha!" he finished. The woman just rolled her eyes, as did Penny, at the man.
"Well you four should just make yourselves at home. Take off your cloaks and boots. I've got soup cooking for you while you wait for the others to come back," She said in a warm voice.
A plump red headed man walked into the room followed by a young mousy woman.
"Welcome," They said in unison to the four newcomers. The group removed their cloaks, relieved to be rid of the fabric, and pulled of their boots. The woman Snow assumed was Lisa picked up the garments and shoes and exited the room, "accidentally" bumping Lionel on her way.
Snow approached an armchair, and the other three sat on the couch next to it. Reggie and Martha followed Lisa out of the room.
The group sat there in an awkward silence until Martha came back, laden with a tray that had four bowls and cups.
"It's potato soup m'am," She said at Snow's questioning glance.
Snow just shrugged and accepted the bowl given to her. The mugs of what looked like tea were placed on the small table in front of the sofa.
They ate in silence, suspense building as they waited for news from the palace. Lionel eventually grew bored and tried to make small-talk.
"So Penny, you've got five brothers?" He asked.
"Yeah, four of them older and then little Johnny," She replied with a wistful smile.
"What are their names?" Snow asked.
"Gregory, Nigel, Ronald, and I've got a twin named Nolan."
"I've only got a sister, but she's kind of useless," Lionel responded, "Name's Nicole. Doesn't really do much and wears way too much pink."
"What's wrong with pink?" Penny asked.
"Nothing," He hastily said.
"That's what I thought," Penny replied.
Grumpy and Snow bemusedly watched the two bicker for two hours before they heard a commotion from outside.
"That must be Charming!" She exclaimed excitedly.
"Wait Snow, don't get too excited," Grumpy sighed, "If they had good news why would they bring the whole army?"
Snow couldn't hear him, she had already ran out the door, but Lionel and Penny both stiffened at this statement.
Snow ran towards Charming, oblivious to the forsaken looks on the faces of everyone else.
"Charming!" She exclaimed.
He smiled at her, but seemed otherwise occupied.
"You came, we can go home," She smiled. He stiffened at this.
"Snow, we can't. She won," He said sadly.
Snow then noticed the looks on the other's faces. She turned to the five dwarves. Wait, five? She noticed that Sleepy was missing. As was the Huntsman.
"Where's Sleepy? Where's the Huntsman?" She asked, dreading the answer she knew was coming.
"I'm sorry Snow, but we lost. We lost them and the kingdom," He whispered as he pulled her close to him. Snow allowed a tear to escape before turning to what was left of her army.
"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I'm no longer your queen," She spoke in a choked voice. She sighed before turning around and walking back to the cabin.