Auradon: Present Day
Regina wanted to curse Jefferson more than she usually did as the word warped around her only to coalesce back into being a good eight feet above a decorative pond in one of the courtyard areas of Auradon Prep. Needless to say, anyone that saw it would say that Regina's arrival created quite a splash.
The former mayor of Storybrooke muttered darkly to herself about the condition of her stylish red silk top as she struggled to her feet and pushed the damp hair from her eyes only to come face to face with a much less irksome surprise as a pair of eyes the same shade of brown as he own met her framed by blue and black hair.
"Mommy?" Evie gasped as she recognized the face the woman that had appeared above the pond out of thin air as she and Mal had made their way toward their shared dorm room.
Regina looked at the face of this girl, her alternate self's daughter and felt a connection the same way she had when she first held Henry in her arms as a baby as she smiled wryly and replied, "Not... exactly, my dear."
Anything else beyond that would have to explained later, though as guards dressed similar to Secret Service agents from the Land Without Magic swarmed the area and began to march her off to parts unknown.
Mal and Evie stood there in shock for several seconds before Mal asked, "Did I just lose it or did that look a lot like your mom, E?"
"Uh huh," Evie replied worriedly.
"And was it me or did she just suddenly lose like fifty or sixty pounds since when we saw her on the video chat before family day two weeks ago?" Mal continued.
"Sure looked like it. She always was upset that she could never get rid of my baby weight," Evie commented with a wince at the memories of Queen Grimhilde's... displeasure over that fact.
"And did she look a lot younger to you too?" Mal inquired.
"Kind of. It was hard to tell with all that wet hair in her face," Evie responded, still stunned at the encounter.
"Yeah. And since when did she not wear a ton of blue eye-shadow? Or her royal robes? I mean, she was in what looked like a power dress with a pencil skirt," Mal elaborated.
"First time I've seen her like that, except for bedclothes, she never wore anything else," Evie explained.
"This is going to be something really strange, isn't it?" Mal asked.
"Probably," Evie nodded back in agreement.
In what felt like a matter a minutes Regina found herself sitting in a sparse room that looked like a stereotypical interrogation room from television with a nothing more than a towel to keep herself occupied as she did her best to dry her hair out and try not to grumble about the anti-magic wards on the room. They left her there for at least an hour by her reckoning, probably trying to make her nervous so she would divulge information more readily. Well they were in for a surprise if they thought that. After all, she had lived 28 years without her powers in a town full of people that she loathed, she could deal with a few hours of interrogation. Still she wondered how similar the wards were to the ones woven into the Dark Curse?
Her mental musings were cut short as the door opened to reveal a security guard similar to the ones that collected her earlier and what looked like the local Fairy Godmother herself. Regina set down the towel in the table in the room and did her best to smooth out her hair and clothes before putting on the neutral expression she wore most of her tenure as mayor as she nodded politely to them both gave the a neutral, "Good afternoon."
It was clear the Fairy Godmother was going to take the lead in the interrogation as she smiled nervously and replied, "And good afternoon to you as well, Lady Grimhilde."
Regina held up her hand to pause things there as she informer her, "That isn't my name. And I'm certain you already checked to make sure that she is still locked up where she belongs in your local prison colony."
"I see. And what should we call you then?" the Fairy Godmother asked.
"Regina. My full name is Regina Mills. And before you ask, yes I was the Evil Queen where I come from. I'm probably a full genetic match for yours, in fact. But I'm not from Auradon, or any version of this reality, that you are familiar with. So please, call me Regina or Ms. Mills," Regina informed her.
"Alright, Regina. That would be a good place to start things off, then," the Fairy Godmother responded with a tense smile. "How about we begin with asking where you did come from and how you got here?"
"I was born and raised in the Enchanted Forest in King Leopold's kingdom, but my last residence was a small town known as Storybrooke, Maine, in a country called the United States of America. As to how I got here, I had help from an... acquaintance of mine," Regina explained. There was no way she would ever refer to Jefferson as a friend of hers or vice-versa.
"And that acquaintance would be?" the Fairy Godmother prodded.
"Jefferson, although you would refer to him here as the Mad Hatter. Or at least our version of the Mad Hatter," Regina explained.
"I see. And how did he send you here?" the Fairy Godmother asked.
"With one of the dimensional portals he makes with his hats. He had apparently been watching this realm for a while," Regina replied.
"Okay," Fairy Godmother responded, mentally taking note to ask later about the Mad Hatter's ability to traverse dimensions later in the interview. "And do you know why?"
"He is called the Mad Hatter for a reason, dear," Regina sassed back. She waited half a second before she continued, "But he did confide that he discovered your land while searching various alternate realities. He's been in a... contentious custody battle over his daughter and thought he might find a reality where he had been killed where he could take the place of his local counterpart. Although he claimed to give that plan up because it still wouldn't be his daughter he was raising."
The Fairy Godmother looked more that little disturbed as she replied, "That certainly sounds... troubling."
"If it makes you feel any better I'm almost certain he was telling the truth about his intentions and he only sent me here as a way to keep me from interfering with his attempts to reunite with his daughter in our reality," Regina assured her.
"And why would you be a hindrance to him?" the Fairy Godmother asked.
"Because I placed her with her foster family, whom she chose to remain with," Regina explained. "You see, I was actually the mayor of the town at the time."
"And he was a poor father?" the Fairy Godmother asked.
"He does love his daughter deeply. Almost to the point of obsession I would say. But love alone doesn't make one a fit parent. And the Hatter has a nasty habit of forgetting things when one obsession or another takes hold of him. That's not exactly a healthy environment for a pre-teen girl to grow up in," Regina replied.
"What about her mother?" the Fairy Godmother inquired.
"Dead, as far as I know. I never met her," Regina replied with a shrug.
"I see. And were you sent here against your will?" the Fairy Godmother asked.
"Not exactly. The Hatter actually offered me the chance to come here. Although I'm sure my... landing spot was his sick little idea of a joke," Regina with replied with a scowl.
"Hmm, indeed. And what prompted you to want to... visit?" the Fairy Godmother asked.
"Not visit, dear. I'm here to stay. Without some kind of dedicated portal to use trips like this are one way unless the Hatter comes with you to guide you back," Regina clarified.
"I see. And what made decide to come where to stay?" the Fairy Godmother pressed.
Regina's expression grew sad for a moment before she straightened and replied, "Let's say I was facing a similar custody battle and decided it was better for everyone to if I made a fresh start somewhere else instead of remaining where I wasn't wanted or needed."
"Could you elaborate on that for me a bit, dear?" the Fairy Godmother insisted politely.
Regina sighed in annoyance before she rolled her eyes and replied, "The town I was in, Storybrooke, was cursed so that the local inhabitants, that all originally came from the Enchanted Forest, had no idea who they were. They were essentially reliving the same day over and over again for years. We were all in a Realm referred to as the Land Without Magic in a different reality than the one we were born in. The only ones that knew who they had originally been were myself, Jefferson, and Mr Gold, who had originally been known as Rumplstiltskin; or, if you prefer, the Dark One.
And, after eighteen years of being surrounded by people that didn't even remember that they hated me or why they should, I suppose I was beginning to get more than a little lonely. Gold helped me arrange to adopt a baby from a nearby city and I raised him as my own for the next ten years. Unfortunately, as he came from outside of Storybrooke, he actually aged and started to notice that things were different around him. Eventually he got his hands on an enchanted book that told the true stories of each of the local residents and got it into his head that since I had once been the Evil Queen I didn't really love him. He stole my credit card and ran away to track down his birth mother, Emma Swan, who had apparently been banished to the Land Without Magic from the Enchanted Forest by her parents just before the curse that sent us all to Storybrooke was cast, and brought her back.
Through a series of rather ridiculous circumstances, his birth mother was elected the new Sheriff as the previous one passed away and she made it her mission to interfere with me wherever she could. Fast forward through a year of aggravations and arguments between us to my son, Henry, accidentally getting infected with a sleeping curse. Ms. Swan revived him with True Love's Kiss, which in turn broke the Dark Curse on the town, reawakening their memories. Suddenly everyone hated me again and my son was all too happy to continue to believe I am irredeemably evil. You have a few more months of problems, including Rumpelstiltskin releasing a wraith to try to kill me and the townspeople illegally throwing me out of office despite the fact there was not even so much as a special election to find my replacement. I was being treated like some kind of unholy combination of town pariah and a ticking timebomb as my own son insisted I was not his mother despite raising him and loving him will all my heart for eleven years, and that if I ever wanted to be part of his life I had to fit his idealized 11-year-old notion of heroics, up to and including refusing to use my magic. Except, of course, when I had to use that magic to absorb a death curse to save his mother and grandmother, thus putting the town in direct peril as it left it open to my mother arriving to cause problems."
The Fairy Godmother seemed to try to digest what Regina has said for several moment before she asked, "Your mother?"
Regina sighed again before she explained, "Cora Mills. The miller's daughter in the original story of Rumpelstiltskin. Although she later came to be known by another name: The Queen of Hearts. Picture what you know of your Grimhilde, give her a much nastier mean streak, and and then add a taste for ripping out and crushing the hearts of those that oppose her with her magic. Needless to say, the thought of her being anywhere close to reaching me or Henry did not sit well with me, especially when I was the one to push her through the looking glass and banish her to Wonderland originally. But the locals could have cared less about that threat. And, after a while, it became abundantly clear that my son was happier and better off with his... birth family. So, when I saw this place and the Hatter offered me the chance to make a clean break from the heartache and memories around me, I took it."
"That is quite a tale," the Fairy Godmother replied.
"Yes, I'm sure it would make for a compelling evening drama on television with the right writers," Regina noted sarcastically.
The Fairy Godmother chuckled a bit as she conceded, "Sounds a little dark for my taste, but I could see the appeal. Now, tell me more about this curse that brought you to this Land Without Magic?"
"Do you want to know the origin of it, the true purpose behind it, or who cast it?" Regina asked tiredly. She already suspected there was a spell on the room compelling her to tell the whole and unadulterated truth in addition to the wards against her using her magic. She was being way too candid with the oversized moth in front of her. Still, it was probably better to get all of this out of the way now than have it come back to bite her later.
"All of the above, if you don't mind," the Fairy Godmother replied.
"Fine. As you probably suspected since I kept my memories, I cast the curse. It was supposed to give me my happy ending while spiting my enemies and denying them theirs at the same time. Only it didn't work out that way. Honestly, I should have known better considering both the source and the fact Mal wanted nothing to do with it," Regina replied with a sense of resignation.
"Mal?" the Fairy Godmother asked.
"Maleficent. She had stolen the curse from its creator and I had to battle her just to get hold of it. I should have listened to her and let things go. Anyway, as you could probably imply by who else did not forget, Rumple created the curse. Only it turns out that it was solely for his own purposes and I was being used as his pawn. Not that the Dark One using people was anything new," Regina explained.
"And what was his purpose in getting you to cast this curse?" the Fairy Godmother inquired.
"Apparently Rumpelstiltskin's son ran away from him and was sucked up by a portal centuries ago. Through his powers he discovered the boy was in the Land Without Magic years in the future. The whole mess was to get himself there so he could get to his son. Looking back, the imp arranged everything. He trained my mother in dark magic, then trained me after she destroyed my life and basically molded me into the Evil Queen. He convinced Snow and Charming to put their daughter into the wardrobe to send her to the Land Without Magic to protect her from the curse, then arranged for me to happen to adopt her son years later so she would be drawn to the town to break the curse and allow him to leave the borders to search for his child. Last I heard he was even calling in a favor from Ms Swan to have her find his son directly in the outside world. Miserable little cheat played each and every one of us, and yet I'm the one that's reviled for it," Regina groused hatefully.
"He sounds quite unpleasant," the Fairy Godmother remarked.
"You have no idea. The thought of him almost made me reconsider coming here," Regina noted.
"How is that?" the Fairy Godmother asked.
"Let's just say in my world he wore many hats. He was the Crocodile that took Captain Hook's hand, for instance. Although, in all fairness, his wife had abandoned him and their son to run off with Hook before he gained the powers of the Dark One. But the one that really stood out, at least for me, was that he was well, the Beast as well. True love to Belle and everything," Regina confided.
"You're saying this Dark One in your reality is King Adam?" the Fairy Godmother asked in alarm.
"Not exactly. Jefferson and I both checked that pretty thoroughly using his hat. Your Beast is a separate person from both the Crocodile and Rumpelstiltskin from what I can see. You have nothing to fear from him from what I could determine. Trust me, I would not have come near a world ruled by Rumple if I could help it. Not after all that he's done," Regina explained.
"Still, something like that, it sounds so..." the Fairy Godmother trailed off.
"Horrific? Welcome to my world. I think you can see why getting away from it began to sound better and better once the option presented itself," Regina noted wryly.
From there the interrogation continued for several hours, going over each detail multiple times so that the Fairy Godmother could give a full and complete report to the newly crowned King Benjamin and his parents both. Although it was clear within the first couple of hours that Regina meant no harm and was more interested in learning about Evie than anything nefarious. By the time it was all said and done the Fairy Godmother was firmly in favor of offering Regina Mills asylum in Auradon on a probationary period with the option to apply for permanent residence at the King's discretion.
Storybooke: one week later
Regina was right in her assumption that it would take Emma Swan more than a couple of days to discover the letters included in her incoming work mail. Although in Emma's defense she was out of town tracking down Gold's son, who also happened to be her ex-boyfriend Neal and Henry's biological father. So the fact it took her a whole week to discover the letter could be excused. Although once she read the letter she was cursing up a storm over both its contents and the lost week itself as it was that much more time for Regina to lose herself in the greater world at large.
"Damn it, Regina, are you kidding me? How in the hell do you figure this is what Henry would want?" Emma muttered to herself as she reread the contents.
Dear Ms. Swan,
By the time you receive this you will have likely begun to notice my absence from Storybooke. Or perhaps you haven't noticed yet and this will be how you discover it. It has been a week, after all, and I have not heard from anyone in this town, not even Henry. People can say many unpleasant things about me, my dear, and most of them are true. But one thing you can not claim of me is that I am too unintelligent to know when I have lost. Henry is yours and he clearly prefers it that way. I see now that I will never be anything more to him than a horrible storybook villain and I have made peace with that. The fact that he is happy with you and your parents acting as his family is enough for me. But, that being said, I can't find the strength to stay here and watch it like some demented peeping tom. Instead, I have chosen to concede defeat to you and Snow White both and withdraw from the field of battle so to speak. I have left to a land you will not find through means I will not divulge. Suffice it to say that even your self-lauded skills at finding people will be unable to locate me. Tell the people the Evil Queen has been vanquished, for you will not see me again.
That being said, I implore you as Regina the mother to take care of Henry. He has chosen to give you without question the love and devotion I fought to earn for the whole of his life. That is the most precious of gifts Ms Swan and I would not see you squander it. Be the mother he deserves as well as the mother he prefers. Be for him what I failed to be despite my best efforts. And, should he ask some day, tell him that I love him and that I will always love him with all of my heart. I have given him the best gift I know to give, his freedom.
With that being said you will find enclosed in this envelope several legal papers, including the dissolution of Henry's adoption, the naming of yourself as his legal guardian, inheritance papers naming Henry as the sole beneficiary of a trust account that includes all my property and assets here in Storybrooke and the greater Land Without Magic in general, and the title of my Mercedes, which I leave to you. You'll excuse me for saying so, but I prefer the thought of Henry riding in something a little safer than that rusted out piece of junk you call an automobile. If it is still running at the time feel free to give it to Henry when he is old enough to drive if he wants it.
There are so many more things I could say Ms Swan, but I don't have the energy in me to ramble on. Instead I will simply say be careful and take care of my son. And should my mother somehow follow you and Ms Blanchard back from the Enchanted Forest, do what you must to stop her. As bad you have assumed me to be in the past I am nothing compared to her. She will do anything in her power to get what she wants. Do not let that happen and keep her away from our... your son at all costs. I am counting on you for this, Ms Swan, as I will have no way back from where I have gone nor will I be able to check on him. His safety is solely in your hands now.
Sincerely,
Regina Mills.
Emma looked over the legal papers absently, even as she glared at the letter and its content for a third time. How in the hell was she supposed to tell the kid that his mother somehow skipped town without anyone noticing? For all that he liked to claim that Regina wasn't his mom, Emma's "super power" told her that he was lying. Henry loved Regina the same way she loved him but now they as a family had managed to somehow push away the most stubborn and contrary woman Emma had ever met in her life.
"Goddammit, Regina," the Savior reiterated tiredly.
Author's note: Okay here's the next installment. As always your feedback is greatly appreciated.