Chapter 2.. Where Rumple gets home and finds his daughter missing and we get a little backstory on Cora.
- have fun reading, np
When Rumpelstiltskin came home this evening, he was tired but looking forward to see his daughter and talk to her about her day. He had teleported into his garden and was about to open the huge castle doors, when he noticed a crow circling over his head.
"Master!" Lumière came running out of the castle, breathing heavily. "You are finally back!"
Rumpelstiltskin looked from the black bird to Lumière and knew something was amiss.
"Where is Regina?" He growled at his servant, making the man jump.
"That's what I came to tell you," the man said, holding his head low. "I can't find her," he swallowed.
The Dark One put one and one together and cried out with rage, "Maleficent!".
Sure enough, not a second later the witch stood in front of him.
"What have you done?" Rumpelstiltskin wrapped his hand around her neck with fury, choking her. "Where is she?"
"If you kill me," the blonde managed to rasp out. "You will never know."
She chuckled and he let go, pushing her away.
"What is it you want?" he hissed, waiting for her demands. He would do anything to get his daughter back.
"I want the same everyone does, I want back what is mine," she paced the lawn in front of him. "I want my child back."
"Your child?" the Dark One asked with disbelief.
"Yes. My child. Unlike you I was clever enough to not let anyone know about her existence… or at least that's what I thought," pain contorted her face and her eyes held a green glimmer. The dragon inside of her was rearing its head as it always did when she was overwhelmed by great emotion.
"She was kidnapped three weeks ago…"
"And you want me to find her?" Rumpelstiltskin wanted to know.
"Oh no," Maleficent chuckled but without any glee. "I want you to find her AND bring her back to me. Once I have her back in my arms, you can have your daughter back."
"So you're doing to me what someone else did to you?" he tried to make her understand. "I promise to help you but please give me back my child. You of all people should understand."
"I do," Maleficent admitted with great sorrow in her blue eyes. "But I know well not to trust you." The blonde took a small hairbrush out of a pocket in her dress and handed it to him.
"This is Lilith's. Find her and bring her back to me and I swear no harm shall come to your daughter," she looked into the imp's eyes. "And do not try to free your daughter. I am not working alone."
Then she disappeared in a cloud of silver smoke.
-
"The girl still hasn't eaten," Ursula said to Maleficent two days later. "Nor does she drink. At this rate we won't have a hostage much longer."
Maleficent grimaced. She didn't want the girl to be in pain, didn't want her to suffer. But what was she to do? There was just no other way. She had to go through with this for Lily.
She wondered if her child was locked in a tower as well? Or maybe a dungeon, a cave? Was she frightened, crying for help? She hoped she was even given food and water wherever she was..
'Hold on," she thought. 'Please hold on a little longer, Lily.'
She got up from her chair. "I'll go and talk to the girl," she said to Ursula who only nodded.
"Try your luck," Cruella hissed at Maleficent when she'd walked up to the tower. "Spoiled brat doesn't eat a thing. I'll be downstairs if you need me."
Then she turned and started walking down the stairs, leaving Maleficent in front of her prisoner's door.
She hesitated but finally entered the room.
The girl was sitting on the bed, knees pulled to her chest, staring at the wall. The plate with food sat untouched next to her.
"What's your name, girl?" was the first thing that came to Maleficent's mind.
It seemed the girl hadn't realized that someone had entered the room: She jumped, obviously startled, and drew her knees tighter to herself, looking warily at her captor.
When she didn't answer Maleficent sighed, put the plate on the floor and sat on the bed next to the girl.
"I am Maleficent," she started, feeling dumb but not knowing what else to say.
"Why don't you eat something? Or drink some water at least?"
She picked up the cup and held it out to her but the girl didn't move.
"What do you want?" the girl quietly rasped out, her mouth dry from not drinking for two days. "Do you..." she started but her voice trailed off.
"Do I what?" Maleficent looked at the frightened girl.
The girl hesitated but finally whispered. "Do you..." She looked away. "Do you want to... to touch me?"
Her voice was quivering with fear when she said those last words.
Maleficent first didn't get what the girl was talking about but paled when she finally understood what she meant.
"No!" she exclaimed a little too loud, making the girl tighten her fingers' hold on her knees.
"No," she said again, this time softer, vehemently shaking her head. "I would never force myself onto someone. I… I'm sorry this is what you thought..."
Maleficent hesitantly reached out a hand and laid it on her arm but quickly took it back when she felt the girl tense.
"Why would you think such a thing?" Maleficent looked at the girl, for the first time really noticing her beautiful features. "Has anyone..?"
"No," the girl mumbled. "But someone tried just a few days ago… I thought..."
Then it hit Maleficent and she gasped. "You're the girl from the market!"
"How do you..?" the girl asked but fell silent after making the math. "You?"
Maleficent could kill herself for what she'd done. She should've recognized the girl when she first looked into the panicky brown eyes. First she saved her from being raped by that pig, then she captured the traumatized girl.
'Well done, Mal. Well done.'
The girl still stared at her with wide eyes. Then she pried the cup from her hand, touching Maleficent's fingers in the progress. Maleficent watched her gulp down the water, watched her pick up the plate from the floor and start eating.
"I am Regina," she said between bites, not bothering to look at her.
"Regina," Maleficent softly repeated, tasting the name on her lips.
She watched the girl ravish her meal and decided that she should leave.
"So," Regina's voice held her back. "What is it you want? You didn't answer me earlier."
The girl looked so frightened that Maleficent decided to just tell her.
"I need your father's help," she said, sitting back down on the bed. "My daughter Lilith was taken from me. He is the only one who could possibly find her and bring her back to me. I didn't have much choice."
Regina thought about her words. She placed the now empty plate on the floor and looked into the blonde's blue eyes. They were full of worry and pain and somehow it hurt her to see her this way.
She slowly reached out a hand and cupped the woman's cheek.
"He will find your daughter," she just stated, gently stroking a strand of blond hair out of the woman's face.
Maleficent couldn't do anything but stare. Here she sat, being comforted by the young woman she had kidnapped and locked up in a tower. She felt ashamed for the weakness that made her close her eyes and lean into her touch. It had been so long that someone touched her other than Lily.
Before her heart could burst with all the contradicting emotions she felt, she hurriedly got off from the bed and left the room, sneaking a last green-eyed glance at Regina from the window in the door before teleporting herself outside onto the roof where she transformed into her dragon and flew away.
-
"I found your child," the Dark One said to Maleficent the day after.
The woman's blue eyes shone with hope and Rumpelstiltskin shook his head.
"I can't get her out of there myself, I fear."
Maleficent wrinkled her forehead. "What do you mean, you 'can't get her out'? Where is she?"
"Queen Snow White has captured her," the imp began, trying to explain. "It came to my ears that she and her husband were afraid of your child's potential darkness and therefor decided to lock her away where she never would be able to hurt anyone."
"Where is she?" Maleficent asked again, rage at the royal family turning her eyes green and her hands to clenched fists.
"They have her in a special little prison underneath the palace," Rumpelstiltskin said. "Not even I would be able to escape from it. It was created long ago with true love's magic by Morgana and Merlin. However…" he trailed off, always the drama queen.
"However what? There must be a way to rescue Lilith," the witch was getting impatient.
"The prophecies say only someone with a pure heart but born from great darkness can go in and out as they please," Rumpelstiltskin told her. "You see, the queen might have trapped your daughter in the cave but not even if she wanted could she free her again."
Maleficent didn't want to believe what he just said. Because if it was true, there was no way she would ever hold Lilith in her arms again.
"Na, na, dearie," the imp said, suddenly grinning. "I have exactly what you need but first you have to let go Regina."
"And why would I do that?" Maleficent wanted to know. "You'd just take her and go back on your promise."
"Well dearie," he chucked. "You'll just have to trust me or rather Regina. She is the key."
"Key to what?"
"To your daughter's cell of course," he said as if it was something every child knew. "You know... Regina is the one those prophecies are talking about. She was born from great darkness - me and a literally heartless mother - and she has a pure heart. Probably the purest there is." The imp shuddered when a 18 year old memory hit him. "I involuntarily got to see it once when she was just a few hours old. Her mother had ripped it from her chest to taunt me…" Maleficent gasped at that. "…it is white as snow."
He remembered it as if it had been yesterday.
"Cora, stop!" Rumpelstiltskin said as he saw the woman plunge her hand deep into the newborn's chest. He had just arrived at Cora and Prince Henry's house to collect his newborn child and take her away from her heartless mother. He might be the Dark One and his heart may be blackened but he thought it was still better than having no heart at all. His knees went weak when he saw her hand emerge with a tiny heart and he gasped when he saw that it wasn't red but white.
Cora chuckled. "Another joke from destiny?" She let one finger idly stroke the small heart, watching it without emotion.
"Put it back or…"
"Or what Rumple?" The woman raised a finely manicured brow in contempt. "Come one step too close and I swear I will crush it between my fingers."
He slowly walked up to the crib and first laid his eyes on his daughter. She was perfect. Her fine hair was darker than her mother's, a deep black, and her eyes were a dark brown. The baby didn't have a heart and still he found the newborn curling her lips into a cute smile upon seeing his face. This wasn't possible. Did she feel even without her heart being where it belonged?
He gently smiled at his daughter and knew he would never let any harm come to her.
So he bent over the crib, picked her up and rocked her in his arms.
Then he looked at Cora. "Whatever you want, it is yours. Just give me her heart and let us go in peace."
The woman sneered in disgust. "I don't want anything. I have no use for a child, especially not one that's yours. When you leave through that door though, I want you to never be able to lay a hand on me, never be able to kill me."
"Deal," he said and a contract appeared in his hand. Cora took it and carefully read through the paragraphs. Eventually she nodded and signed. She looked down at the tiny heart beating in the palm of her hand. "Take her, you will certainly regret it one day. How could someone like you raise this child?"
Then she chuckled and threw the heart to him. He acted fast and caught it safely in his right hand, the baby having fallen asleep in his left arm. "Out of my sight," Cora hissed and he couldn't be happier to comply. First though, he put the tiny white heart back where it belonged. He did it so gently, Regina didn't even move in her sleep.
"I guess it is your lucky day today, Maleficent. You kidnapped the one person that would still help you afterwards, despite what you did," he said to the witch, frustration evident in his voice. Taking a seat on the stairs in front of the fortress he added, "Go and fetch my daughter, will you?"
AN: The next chapter is already written up. So follow, favorite, review and I'll post it soon ;) I'll post it soon anyways - still, I'd love to hear what you think.
