Chapter Eight

Up To No Good

The black cadillac of Regina Mills slid gently along the watery grass, jerking slightly as it pulled to a stop alongside the edge of the gravel road. Her eyes still on the road, Regina's hand slipped down to beside her seat as she pulled down the control pad, putting her car into park. She remained oblivious of the curious stare of her passenger.

"I still don't understand these strange contraptions in this land… what did you say it was called again?" asked a bewildered Maleficent sitting next to Regina in the front seat.

"They're called cars," Regina reminded as she twisted her keys out of the ignition and put it into her coat pocket. "We're here."

She swung her car door open and exited the vehicle, not bothering to wait for the blonde, who was having trouble figuring out how to unlock the door and open it. After fidgeting with it for a moment, she finally conceded and disappeared in a flash, reappearing beside Regina outside.

"A cemetery," Maleficent said, looking around the place where Regina had driven her. It was the Storybrooke Graveyard. "This is where you've kept my sleeping curse? With the dead?"

Regina rolled her eyes at the lady.

It was the morning after she had made her dinner party-plea to Rumplestiltskin and the Queens of Darkness at her house. Regina had revealed to them her lead on the author, which had seemed to gain her some ground with the four. After that, she had gone with Cruella, Maleficent and Ursula for what Rumple had said was a "drive" though Regina knew that's not quite what it meant.

Their "drive" turned out to be a four-hour long rampage of drinking, laughter, getting high on potions and burning public property, all of which culminated at a campfire in an open field in the middle of the forrest. Were Regina still the Evil Queen, she might have found the crazy, night-time explosion to be fun. But she wasn't.

They had laid in the field, passed out, for a couple of hours before Regina woke up on the floor of an old, abandoned warehouse near the Storybrooke harbor, the four of them watching her, arms crossed, from around the room. Regina had figured they were further contemplating her loyalty, and as such she was slightly surprised when Gold actually answered her question of what they were planning for the day.

"Today, you and Maleficent will be going to retrieve the sleeping curse you have."

"And the three of you?"

"The three of us will be investigating this mysterious door/page you showed us last night by visiting the Sorcerer's mansion."

"I think I should be there, with you, since I'm the one who brought it to you," Regina had made sure to be careful when she questioned him. She still was on thin ice with them as it was, but she wasn't about to let them go investigating The Author without her. Not when he was her only hope of getting her happy ending.

"What do you have to worry about, Regina?" Rumple had countered back, a glimmer of suspicion in his eyes, "Whatever we find we will relate back to you, as well. We're a team. . . Don't you trust us, Regina?"

She had narrowed her eyes at him. "Of course not."

It still worried her, the thought of Rumplestiltskin discovering something dancing in her mind, as she trekked across the cemetery yard from her car and to her mausoleum, a cautious Maleficent hot on her heels behind her.

The blonde watched with slight amusement as her friend stomped up to the building, a smile playing on her lips. It was good to have Regina back.

Regina marched up the steps of the stone building and stopped just before the great, oak doubled-doors that served as the entrance. Reaching into the pocket of her coat, she pulled out a large ring of several keys and started to fiddle with them, inserting each one-at-a-time into the keyhole.

"It's been awhile since I've last been here," Regina offered as an explanation to Maleficent, who had stopped beside her and was now watching her. The blonde clutched the coat that was placed over her shoulder closer together as a breeze rolled through.

"That much is evident," she agreed, eyeing the vines that had covered the building and the grime that stained the stone here and there. "What is this place, anyway?" she asked.

"A mausoleum. My mausoleum."

"I know that, Regina. But whose is it? Clearly someone of importance to you, otherwise you wouldn't have hidden my sleeping curse here."

Regina sighed, inserting another key into the hole. "This building is the final resting place of several people who were important to me, Mal. My father, my mother - "

"Daniel?" the blonde added.

"Yes, Daniel was here, as well. . ." she faded away, hoping her friend would be satisfied with the answer and drop the subject. She didn't like to talk about those whom she'd lost.

"What do you mean 'was'?" Maleficent asked curiously. Regina shook her head.

"It's a long story," she said, inserting yet another key. Twisting it, a click sounded and the mighty doors were set loose. "You've really been gone a long, long time, Mal. A lot had happened since you've been away."

With that, Regina turned away and pressed onward inside the building. "It's through here," she added, marching into the dusty room.

Mal followed suit.


Rumplestiltskin and Cruella stood, side-by-side, together, at the center of the Sorcerer's mansion, in the large, two-story ballroom, under the great, crystal chandelier. They had arrived a few minutes before, with Ursula, too, in Cruella's car, and had begun their search immediately. Going through the few front rooms in the house, they had found nothing. Not even the slightest piece of evidence having anything to do with the door or the page.

They had eventually made their way to the ballroom, where they were now, their eyes moving about the room. In Rumplestiltskin's hands rested the page Regina had showed them.

They were there for a mere two minutes before Cruella started, very impatiently, about how they couldn't find anything.

"I don't see any blasted door that resembles that page in this godforsaken mansion, darling!" Cruella snapped thickly and quickly, throwing her thin hands up into the air and flapping her heavy fur coat behind her.

"You are so impatient, aren't you?" Rumple said to her, seething with disgust, "We've barely started looking and you're already complaining." He gave her a mean glare, before turning away from her. Truthfully, he would've much more preferred Cruella wasn't there. He greatly wished he could've come alone.

Cruella De Vil was much more of a nuisance to the Dark One rather than a help. At least Maleficent, Regina and Ursula had their own benefits, but Cruella. . . she was just a pest to Rumplestiltskin. However, he comforted himself, knowing that soon, if the villains won, hopefully, he wouldn't have to deal with her anymore.

"Darling, I'm offended," Cruella uttered with an air of sarcasm, her mood seemingly different than what is was a few moments before. She pulled her coat closer, took a puff of her cigarette and looked back at him, awaiting his response. She very much hoping this would turn into an argument.

Cruella loved annoying the little man.

But, he ignored her, not wanting to indulge her anymore, and, page-in-hand, he started to walk around the vast, empty room, his eyes going back and forth from the page to the walls of the room. He was comparing the panelling in the picture to the one on the wall - it didn't match.

Rumplestiltskin was certain that the answer to this puzzle - the door on the page - had to be somewhere in this house, it was just a matter of finding it.

Suddenly, the sound of footsteps could be heard from outside. Heavy footsteps, to be sure, though footsteps nonetheless. Someone was approaching them, quickly.

The Dark One took a step back and faced the entrance. Cruella pulled out her pistol and aimed it at the front door.

They could see the shadow of the person coming to the door from one of the windows. Charging in, the could finally see who it was: Ursula.

Cruella lowered her weapon. "Ursula?" she asked, "I just about sprayed you with bullets, darling."

"What are you doing?" Rumplestiltskin asked her, "You're supposed to be standing outside on guard."

Ursula stopped before the man and placed her hands on her hips. She displayed her usual look of displeasure. "I'm getting tired of waiting around outside - all I have to look at is an open field and some windy trees." She paused looking around the room. "Have you made any progress on the door in the page?"

"No," Cruella spat, fingering the gun carelessly in her hand, "We've found nothing."

"Yet," Rumplestiltskin added, walking towards the end of the room. Behind a corner, he discovered a door - unfortunately not the one on the page- behind which was was hidden a narrow, circular staircase which led upstairs. "Where could this lead?" he asked, mainly to himself, however Cruella and Ursula overheard him.

"What is it?" Cruella questioned, stepping over to him with a look of curiosity. She couldn't make out what it was from where she stood.

"It's a staircase," Ursula answered, making it to the man before Cruella did.

"A staircase?"

"Yes," Rumplestiltskin replied, though it was evident his mind was elsewhere. He was clearly thinking about something, though what?

"How did I not notice this before-" he mumbled to himself, quiet enough that the other two wouldn't be able to hear him. He wanted to know how he had missed this - the mysterious staircase - when he had stayed at the mansion with Belle for his honeymoon.

He knew he would've noticed it. . .

"Well," Ursula said, "Are we going to go up it or what?"

Without responding, the Dark One took a step onto the stairs and started to ascend it.

Ursula and Cruella looked at each other, and, with a devilish suddenly grin painting both their faces, they followed him quickly.


The tap of Regina's heels echoed in the air as she hurriedly descended the steps into underground rooms of her mausoleum, her coat and scarf flapping behind her. She could here the echo of Maleficent's step right behind her, too.

Regina was eager to get down here as quickly as she could, find the sleeping curse, and then meet up with Rumplestiltskin at the Sorcerer's mansion. She didn't trust him, not in the least, and she wanted to get there as soon as she could lest he find something and not tell her about it.

The problem was, however, she wasn't exactly sure where the sleeping curse was. Regina knew she had hidden it down here with all her other magical potions and curses, the trouble would just be finding it out of everything else that was hidden here.

Walking down from the steps, she rushed into the medium-sized room opening off the stairs, her vault, and up to one of the shelves in the room. She started digging around in the clutter.

Maleficent, meanwhile, had stopped at the entryway of the room. She looked around the room - at all the magical potions sitting around, the spell books stacked up variously, the chests and boxes dotting the floors, and the large, steel, tentacle mirror that hung directly opposite her at the end of the room. Her reflection looked back at her in it - Maleficent instantly recognized it as the one from Regina's palace back in the Enchanted Forrest.

Her eyes then fell back on Regina, who was now shuffling through a small chest of bottles. Maleficent smiled at her friend, and took a step closer to her. "So," she said, seeing this as the perfect opportunity to inquire about what she had learned from Rumplestiltskin the day before, "Robin Hood?" she asked.

Regina stopped what she was doing and looked back at her. "What?"

'Robin Hood? That's who you're searching for," Maleficent added, looking Regina in the eyes. The blonde could easily see her friend's pain and sorrow merely with the mention of the man's name. "I could see it in your eyes, when I first saw you a few days ago after all those years, Regina. I knew you were looking for something, someone." She paused, waiting for the brunette's reply.

Regina simply looked at her. She was slightly surprised at how the other lady could find out about Robin, before she quickly realized it must've none-other than Rumplestiltskin. He was the only person in town who would've shared that with self-proclaimed 'mistress of evil'. But, besides that, deep inside herself, she was also worried what the blonde would think of her. Regina and Maleficent had known each other for a very, very long time. And, even though the blonde was a villain, Regina still valued her opinion. They had known each other for too long, and had been through too much together, not to.

Maleficent took Regina's silence as an affirmative. She took another step closer to the girl. "Why didn't you tell me, Regina?"

"I worried what you might think," Regina replied, turning back to one of the shelves to resume her search of the curse once more, "of the Evil Queen being with a thief."

"A thief is right," Maleficent added, the memory of him and his 'merry men' stealing from her playing fresh in her mind, "But I would've understood, Reg," she continued, knowing full well she understood what is was like to lose someone. "I really would've." Maleficent grew silent, her thoughts quickly turning to that of her lost child. The child she had never even known. The child she was, now, going to get vengeance for.

Without even saying, Regina could tell something was wrong. Just like Maleficent knew when she had lost something, Regina could tell when their was something wrong with her friend. Maleficent didn't even need to say anything. "Mal," Regina said, turning back to her, "What is it?"

And then Regina realized something: Rumple, Ursula, Cruella and Maleficent were there to get their happy endings. She knew what the Dark One's was - power- and Ursula and Cruella's she didn't particular care about. But Maleficent, she didn't know what her happy ending was. Could this have something to do with it?

Maleficent sniffed as a tear dripped down her cheek and made it's way to the edge of her face. Regina grew pale and her eyes widened. She had never, ever seen Maleficent cry before. The idea had seemed completely remote her that Maleficent was even capable of crying. . .

This was clearly something very serious.

"I've lost something, too," she whimpered, "My child. I lost my child."