A/N: Here's a slightly longer chapter. Enjoy.

Chapter Four: The Girl Who Would Be Queen

Regina wanted answers but her mother was dead and Nadja ran out of the apartment ten minutes ago. Snow started to go after her but Emma said it'd be best if they gave her some time to cool off. Literally. Now, they sat around the dining table pining over what to do next. What could Cora have possibly wanted with Nadja?

"Cora?" David said. He'd come back just in time for Nadja to run into him on her way out. Emma was filling him in on what happened.

Regina got up from the table and left the apartment. It wasn't long until she heard footsteps behind her. Snow caught up with her just in time for her to step out into the warm afternoon air.

"Regina, wait." Snow said. "Where are you going?"

"My mother told Nadja that the portal would bring her to her mother."

"Yeah."

"If her mother's in Storybrooke, there's one person who'll know for sure."

"Gold."

Regina nodded. She started to walk but Snow grabbed her arm. Sighing, Regina turned to her stepdaughter.

"What?"

"Why do you care so much?" Snow asked. "Not that I don't but— "

"You saw what I saw up there. She's scared. And maybe her mother can help abate some of that fear."

Snow nodded and followed Regina to Gold's.


"If you're looking for Nadja, she's not here." Gold said as Regina and Snow walked into the shop. Emma had gone with David to try and track Nadja down and bring her there.

"What do you know about Nadja?" Regina asked.

"She did fall from the sky. Hard to miss that."

"We're in here looking for information about her mother, actually."

"That I can help you with."

Gold instructed them to follow him into the back room. Scattered across a cluttered table were dreamcatchers. Memory stealers as they'd recently grown to know them. He picked up one in particular and held it out.

"Whose memories are these?" Snow asked.

"Yours."

"Mine?"

"And Regina's. Your entire kingdom's." Gold said. "But, I think the two of you will be particularly interested in this one."

"Why do you have our memories?" Regina asked.

"A long time ago, a King made a deal to save his kingdom."

Gold relinquished the dream catcher.


When the time came for the king to speak for his actions, he'd simply use the excuse that his kingdom was on the verge of war. And it was. That's why he found himself in a deserted room of his castle, calling, "Rumpelstiltskin!"

"Yes, dearie?"

The king cursed loudly when the shorter man called out from behind him. He turned and regarded The Dark One. A man with so much power. A man who could save his kingdom. And he would. So long as a deal was made.

"I need your help."

"This wouldn't have anything to do with the army forming at the border, would it?" Rumpelstiltskin asked.

"My men won't stand a chance."

"I know they won't." Rumpelstiltskin laughed. "Their king is their best soldier. Undefeated in all battles."

"I know."

"And this…" A sword appeared in the dark one's upturned hand. "Will kill him. Kill the king…"

"Win the war."

Rumpelstiltskin laughed when the king went to touch the sword. The sword poofed away in a cloud of smoke. In its place was a scroll. A contract. "It'll only cost you…your second born."

The king was silent.

"Do we have a deal?"

"Yes."

The king signed his name. And the next morning, his best soldier rode into the kingdom carrying the head of the opposing king. One year later Queen Eva fell ill.

Years passed.

King Leopold had been informed that the new queen had woken to a terrible pain and blood in the sheets. Her screams had woken the entire castle just about. Snow sat waiting outside of her stepmother's bedchambers when Leopold made it. He didn't go inside. From the sounds of it, this wasn't an easy labor. And he'd felt guilty.

After the first time he'd taken his new wife to bed, she didn't come out of her bedchambers for days. There were whispers that she'd spent her nights crying. He felt terrible. Hadn't touched her since due to the pregnancy.

The screaming stopped. And the door opened.

Leopold and Snow entered the queen's room. They found Regina sitting up in bed with the kingdom's newest addition. She hadn't smiled like that in a long time.

"Congratulations," the midwife said. "It's a girl."

That night as his wife slept, King Leopold lifted the baby from her crib. She reminded him of Snow except she had much more hair. And the best news, was that Rumpelstiltskin hadn't come for her yet. Maybe the contract had been voided. Leopold had helped the Dark One many times since their first encounter. Rumpelstiltskin owed him a favor.

Leopold carried the baby out of the room. The seer waited for him in the corridor. With Snow, he hadn't used one. But he also hadn't bargained Snow's life. The baby girl made a noise in her sleep as she was placed into the arms of the seer. "Your daughter is special," the seer said.

"Special how?"

"She has no one path." the seer said. "There are two."

"Which shall she choose?"

"You will choose the path."

"Show me."


"I have a sister," Snow said.

Regina wrapped her arms around her middle. The pain she'd felt had been real. She'd had a child. And she couldn't remember it. Nadja had recalled the room because she'd been there before. She had been born there. A new form of hatred for her late husband welled up inside Regina.

"What did he see?" Regina asked. There was desperation in her voice.


Snow sighed rather loudly. She'd been bored the entire trip. A trip that she didn't want to go on in the first place. But there were "potential suitors" in the next kingdom, as her father put it. The carriage came to a stop and her father got out. Snow chanced a glance at her stepmother. Regina hadn't said much during the journey. Then again, she rarely spoke unless she was spoken to. This was also the first time she'd been away from Daniella.

Her sister had stayed behind for unknown reasons. Something about the weather. But Snow suspected that it had something to do with her throwing a temper tantrum. They'd left early while Daniella was still sleeping. Snow didn't get to say goodbye.

"It's an ambush!" the last thing that Snow White thought about before she died was her sister.

Back in the castle, Daniella waited anxiously for her parents and sister to arrive. Their carriage was due back at any moment. In her room, with her nose pressed against the window, she waited.

"Daniella," the six-year-old turned at the sound of her grandpa. Her eyes were big and hopeful. Henry gave her a sad smile and kneeled before her.

"Yes, grandpa?"

"I'm afraid I have some bad news."

Her mother, father, and sister were buried a week later.

On her sixteenth birthday, Daniella was to be crowned queen.

That day, she sat nervously at her vanity. Brushing her hair with her mother's brush. She found her maid staring at her when she looked into the mirror. Her grandfather was beside the woman. Daniella turned to face them. Her smile did not reach her eyes.

"It's time, sweetheart." Henry said.

"I'm not ready." Daniella said. "What if I'm not what the people want?"

"You will be a great queen."

Hannah motioned for the dressmaker to come in. He carried in the dress and laid it on the bed with delicate hands.

"It's so pretty," Daniella said.

"It belonged to your mother." Hannah told her.

The people of the kingdom cheered loudly for their blue and brown eyed queen.


The second vision that the seer gave King Leopold was much worse. Daniella clawed at the face of the man who tried to assault her. It was almost as if they were sucked back into Nadja's memory from earlier. Leopold vomited at the feet of the seer. Regina was about to do the same.

Daniella and Nadja were the same person. Her daughter.

"He didn't give her her best chance." Snow said. A tear fell down her cheek.

"Your father made a choice, dearie." Gold said. "He didn't want the baby subjected to the same fate as her mother. But he also didn't want to die. So, he asked me for the sleeping curse. I also erased her from the memories of the entire kingdom."

"She was a baby," Regina snapped.

"Only true love's kiss can break a sleeping curse." Snow said.

"I didn't cast the curse. I simply altered it, made it more of a preservation spell. She slept for years in the Land of Untold Stories, until, as fate would have it she was 'accidentally' sent to this world, where the spell broke. You'd already served your reign as the Evil Queen and relocated everyone to Storybrooke."

"Accidentally, my ass," Regina said.

Gold poked around the dreamcatchers. He grabbed two and handed them to Snow and Regina. Their memories.


Regina woke to a terrible pain and blood in the sheets. The pain brought bile to her throat. The baby was coming. She couldn't form any words so she screamed for help.

The midwife came.

"It's too early," Regina said.

"I think this little one has other plans."

Regina collapsed on the pillow after the last push. The baby's cry gave Regina just enough strength to reach for it. The midwife placed the newborn on her chest. Her baby's cries stopped almost instantly. Regina smiled.

"Congratulations," the midwife said. "It's a girl."

Regina was so lost in her little girl that she didn't hear her husband or step daughter enter the room.


Regina wiped the tears from her face. She remembered the weight of the small baby in her arms. The feel of her soft skin and hair. Her smell. Her baby. She needed to find Nadja.

"Your mother was just the messenger," Gold said. "She couldn't refuse since I had her heart."

"Why?"

"Your daughter would've been a great queen. But she also would've never come into her powers. And I need her powers."

"Leave her alone." Regina said.

"And you would've resented her."

Regina sent a fireball straight for Gold's face. Even though she knew it'd be no use. Snow moved to stand between them.

"Gold," Snow said. "Why did you give us our memories back?"

"Because I wanted you to remember why I have this."

The contract appeared in Gold's hand. Signed by King Leopold.

tbc