A/N since this is set in the time of early humanity I used the Latin terms for Queen , Red Queen, and Blue Queen.

Regina is Latin for Queen

Rubrum is Latin for Red

Caeruleum is Latin for Blue.

In Latin the color description follows the subject.

So Red Queen is Regina Rubrum and Blue Queen is Regina Caeruleum.

Regina Rubrum POV

I can hear my children calling out to me, "Regina Rubrum! Regina Rubrum!" however I am so very tired and so very sad. All I can now see is the heart broken visage of my dearest sister. I know that she has done this to me. Done this to my beloved princesses; I can't bring myself to hate her or be surprised. I wanted to end the cycle, but the moment I had done what I had I knew I was wrong. My heart aches, for myself, my children, my nieces, my subjects, but most of all for my sister. For I now know something she doesn't. For once we are not equals in all. How amusing that thought is now as i fade away, after our many centuries of fighting, the challenges , the arguing which always ended in a draw. We have defeated each other in the one way neither of us wanted. There will be no more queens. Its has ended.

2 days earlier

Regina Caeruleum

I hear the footsteps of my beloved sister approach from behind and though in years gone by I may have jumped at the chance to challenge her to a duel; I can't shake the contentedness in my heart, instead I smile. "Isn't the view beautiful sister?" I see her take in our surroundings in earnest searching for what I see.

We are 5 feet away from the edge of a cliff which juts out over the ocean providing a wonderful view of the sun setting and the sky open with but a few wispy clouds slowly floating over head. The horizon meets with ice blue sky and matching ocean forming a hazy line distinguishing one from the other. I am lying sideways on the soft teal grass which covers this particular cliff in a thick layer almost like what one might imagine the clouds to feel like if one had not actually touched them before. She stands right behind me facing the horizon.

"It is beautiful yes sister, though no more than it has always been." She follows this statement up with a small smile before saying "I think the princesses are making you soft already and they are not even here yet!" Her smile turning into a short chuckle.

I laugh with her, it is good to hear her laugh even a little. We have always been at odds, as is the fate of two Reginas, however this recent pregnancy has seen to us being far more calm in our debates. Despite the peaceful atmosphere in the here and now I know that a worry of some kind has made its way to the center of her attention as of late. "Come sister, won't you finally tell me what preoccupies you so?"

Her smile fades away and the laughter leaves her eyes, "... Aren't you scared?"

Perplexed I seek clarification, " Of giving birth?"

"No! No!... Not that… of what will happen to them after that?" She hurriedly explains.

My chest rapidly grows cold as the peaceful contented feeling flees far more quickly than it had come. "Yes."

Her face takes a troubled cast as she blurts, " Have you not given ANY thought the fate you would be consigning your own daughters to?!... We are the longest living twins in memory! Regina's MUST battle and compete till there is only one left! It is fated! Sown into the very fabric of reality! For so long as the gods battle so to must we! Never before has a Regina brought two new Regina's into the world before her sister was ended!"

My face I know must look as stricken as I feel as I jump to add "IN MEMORY! You know as well as I that while our History has been preserved in the hive that even the hive has gaps! Why MUST we kill each other! Who says! The gods?! Why do we have to play out their silly little squabble like puppets on marionette strings! I love you more than anything and I know that you love me more than anything even Nathaniel!"

Anger temporarily overshadows fear at the mention of Nathaniel which has long been a barb in our relationship of which I now deeply regret even though at the time i swore I never would. Red eyes blazing she hisses, "Don't!...Do not speak of Nathaniel to me!"

Seeking to defuse the situation I quickly speak up again in a soft voice, " I know… I do not mean to bring up such striff between us… I just mean that as wrong as I was in that situation and as angry as you still are you still chose me!" Guilt flashes across her face but I continue on before she has time to spiral to deeply. " So who is to say that we can not keep doing so?...Just keep choosing each other refusing to fight. You are as excited about the princesses as I am! We can raise them together and teach them how to live together just as we have learned to. Just because the gods have tried to overwrite our will in our genetics to make us toxic to each others blood doesn't mean we cant keep working on a solution!"

Something I said seems to have only pushed her further as she steps over my stomach very carefully and turns to face me before launching back into her worried tyrade, " Yes! Ok! Fine! We do that! Then more and more Regina's are born with the kill instinct! Do you honestly think we would be able to control two or four or even six more Regina's never mind OURSELVES! It would be a bloodbath! It's possible that no Regina would survive and then our species would die!" Tears spring to my eyes at the thought of my daughters killing each other just to settle some trivial bet between the gods. In a softer voices she continues "Right now they are princesses… but the moment they are born they will be Regina's and cursed to the same fate as us!...Can you bare that on your soul?"

She turns away to face the horizon again trying to hide her grief from me. Silly woman, she is my sister and we have lived for over a thousand years together, sometimes fighting sometimes not; but certainly long enough that she could never hide her emotions from takes some work however I manage to get to my feet move to stand beside her because now I understand why she is so distressed.

She wants to protect me from losing a child; a pain neither of us can imagine at this point. Yet despite how hard I know she has tried obviously she hasn't found a solution that she thinks will work and now I am scant days away from delivering.

I want to comfort her and assurances that it will be ok even though I don't actually believe it myself; however unexpectedly she starts to speak again, "You know…. You were right when you said that I loved you more than anything. And I know that I love you more than you love me. That's why it has to be this way."

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