Chapter 9

Sorry for the delay in posting this chapter. Thank you everyone for reading :) I hope you enjoy.

Isaac turned his head slowly at the sound of approaching footsteps. A cold wind blew but he resisted shivering lest it gave him the appearance of fear. He didn't fear the woman holding the trumpet flowers in her hand as she walked towards him. He knew exactly who she was.

'I didn't expect to see you here, Ursula,' he commented as she knelt down beside him and lay the flowers on Cruella's grave, lingering a moment before standing up and looking at him quizzically.

'Her ex-husband's in prison, meaning you can't be him. So I assume you're the Author?' she asked, an eyebrow arched.

'You know who I am?'

'Cruella told me about you. What you did to her.'

'You can't say you disagree with me about that, surely?' Isaac frowned. 'In all honesty, I was very surprised when the Dark One told me he'd originally recruited you to help rewrite the happy endings. I've never seen you as a villain, not like the others. To me, you were always a hero who just lacked heroic opportunities.'

'And who was in control of the pen?' Ursula asked sarcastically. 'You know, when I missed all those heroic opportunities?'

'Oh, you misunderstand. I can't change stories, I merely record them. I was never allowed to interfere.'

'What? Like you didn't interfere with Cru's?' The Sea Witch snapped before shaking her head. 'How Rumple thought you could ever help is beyond me.'

Isaac looked down, clearly lacking any sort of response. The two stood in silence for a couple of minutes, both focused on the grave before them. It wasn't what Cruella wanted, Ursula couldn't help but think. She wanted something grand, the most expensive grave marker possible, of course. Though she supposed neither Rumple nor Isaac were willing to pay for that.

'I never realised that yours and Cruella's stories crossed. Or, at least not enough for you to return just for her,' Isaac eventually remarked, though his eyes remained downcast.

'You mean you didn't record that?'

'I didn't record every event that happened in the Enchanted Forest. That would have been nearly impossible.' He fell silent again, before asking, 'Did you love her?'

'Yes,' she answered, hoping he wouldn't inquire any further into her answer. The last thing she wanted to be discussing with this stranger was what happened between her and the socialite.

'I loved her,' Isaac said plainly, causing Ursula to look at him, frowning.

'With what you did to her? You still claim to have loved her?'

'I didn't love that part of her. That part of her scared me. But I loved the rest of her. I loved the innocent girl I met before she was ever corrupted. Though, of course, I'll never know if she loved me, in her own way. She wasn't the sort of person to ever let you know about those feelings.'

'Yes, she was.' Ursula shook her head furiously, disbelieving of the words that were spilling off of the Author's tongue. 'Cruella loved. She loved violently and passionately, and she always showed it. She struggled to hide it. She loved diamonds, and furs, and liquor. She loved Mal. And me, she loved me. If you don't know whether she loved you, then she didn't.' She couldn't stop herself now; her loyalty to the villainess had sparked her rage. 'And you never loved her, not if you didn't love her all. Cru was never the innocent girl. She was dark, and twisted, a murderess from childhood. And that was her. That was the 'her' that she wanted to be. You took that from her. You took her happy ending. Cru was evil, yes, but in her story, you were the villain.'

The Sea Witch didn't want to wait for his response. His response sparked no interest in her. Instead, she turned on her heel and walked away, leaving the Author stood on his own beside the grave of the woman he'd spent his whole life in delusional love with.


She tried to close the door quietly behind her, removing her heels almost as soon as she stepped inside just to limit the amount of noise she would make as she walked through the house. In tights, she padded through the living room into the sole bedroom in the cabin on the edge of Storybrooke she'd been living in for the past week. She pushed the door open lightly, attempting desperately not to disturb the inhabitant inside.

'How's my grave looking, darling?' At the sound of the low voice from inside, Ursula almost threw the door open in shock. Her face must have given something away, because Cruella chuckled softly from the bed. 'You weren't expecting this, were you Ursula darling?'

She'd been caring for an unconscious Cruella since the fight between the villain and the saviour on the cliff side. Ursula didn't know the details, all she knew was that the woman's body had been limp since then, the only sign of life that been the faint rising and falling of her chest with each fluttering breath. She thought she'd lose her. 'You're awake. How long have you…how did you know where I've been?'

'Trumpet flowers have a very distinctive smell, and I can't imagine where else you'd be putting them.'

'How long have you been awake?'

'Only since you've been gone. Come closer, darling. I feel too ghastly to be talking like this.' She had somehow hoisted herself into a sitting position, though the villain's face was pale, almost grey, as if the effort of just being awake was too much for her. Her eyes were dark, but with bruising rather than the heavy eyeshadow she usually wore. Her lips were colourless. Her hair hung limply. She made for a pitiful sight, though that wasn't enough to inspire Ursula to move any closer. At her resistance, Cruella pouted slightly. 'Please, Ursula darling, I need you closer. I don't even know where I am, I don't have the effort to argue with you again.'

'Cru.' The Sea Witch shook her head and walked over, perching as lightly as she could on the bed, so as not to disturb the other woman. 'Can you remember what happened to you?'

She frowned, before nodding gently. 'The sheriff. Regina's precious little saviour. She threw me from the cliff. I thought I was going to die.' She laughed, though out of fear and disbelief rather than amusement, before frowning once more at Ursula. 'You saved me? And there was me thinking you'd left me to swim off into the sunset with daddy.'

Her words were bitter, vicious, but she couldn't quite manage the harsh tone to go with them. The most she could master was hurt. Ursula reached out a hand and took Cruella's, rubbing the skin softly with her thumb. 'Yes. I came back. I saw you fall, I couldn't do anything to stop it happening. But I did manage to get you to this cabin and treat you. Magic healed your bones, though it will take time for the pain to go, and you will be weak for a while,' she explained before sighing. 'What happened, Cru? What did you do?'

'All I wanted was my happy ending. You hardly left me a lot of choice, darling? You'd swam off to reclaim your glory days with the fish, meanwhile Mal found out everything we did to her little brat. Plus the Author was going to tell Rumple that I'd lied about knowing him. I just thought if I could find a way to kill the Author and reclaim what he took, well then I'd be free. I could leave. Find a way back home. Go back to being the villain I'd always wanted to be, rather than relying on other people to do my dirty work for me. After all, if everyone else can get their happy endings, why not me?' She'd become agitated while talking, her eyes bright, but she closed them and leant back into the pillows once more. 'But damn Regina's too soft now. I thought I could get her to kill the Author for me. It turns out the Evil Queen couldn't even manage that. Who'd have thought it? Instead, I end up in a face-off with Storybrooke's so-called saviour with no way of defending myself.'

'Cru, I never thought…I never wanted this. I didn't even think about Mal finding out…'

'Why would you? You had what you wanted. I don't even know why you're back now. Was your happy ending not all you thought it would be?'

It had been a cruel taunt, and Ursula hated the look of surprise on her lover's face when she nodded. 'Yes.'

'Darling?'

'Yes, Cru, you're right. It wasn't what I wanted. It's never really been what I wanted. And you can stop looking like that.'

'Well, excuse me for looking a bit flabbergasted, but that was always what you told me. And you were so hurt when I lied to you.'

'I never lied to you. I thought it was my happy ending. Ever since I was a girl, retrieving my voice has always been what I thought would make me happy.' The Sea Witch looked up, shaking her head, trying not to let any memories of her time back home cause tears to form in her eyes. 'But that was the problem; I've lived my whole life chasing the happy ending of a girl. A girl who clung to her voice as the last memory of her mother, and the only way to connect with a grieving father. But I'm not that girl anymore. I haven't been that girl in years. It took me three days of being home for me to realise that I don't belong there anymore. I've been a villain almost my whole life, I can't give that part of me up so easily. I was wreaking revenge on my father for years longer than I was living with him. After three days I knew that. And then I knew you were right.'

'I've not heard many people say that to me, you might have to clarify.' Cruella arched an eyebrow, before patting the bed beside her. 'I'm not made of glass, Ursula darling, you can sit closer. And I still can't kill anyone, so if you're worried about that at all…'

'I'm trying not to hurt you, Cru.'

'Oh darling, I've had hangovers worse than this. You should have seen me after my first wedding.' She joked, but she couldn't quite manage the tone to go with it. Still, Ursula climbed in to the bed beside her, and Cruella rested her head against the Sea Witch's shoulder with a slight wince. 'So, tell me more about me being right.'

'I judged you for your happy ending. I judged you for wanting back something that had been taken from you, exactly the same as what I wanted, because of what it was that you'd lost. I judged you for your darkness, as if I wasn't the exact same. But you're right. I've killed more people than I can remember. I've ruined lives for nothing more than my own enjoyment. Who am I to judge you? I'm not some hero just because I wasn't born dark. I became dark out of my own choice. If anything, that's worse, surely?' She asked, frowning. The other woman lifted her head from the Sea Witch's shoulder and looked at her. 'I'm a villain, Cru. I like being a villain. I don't need a happy ending like some pathetic hero. I just need you. I came back the minute I realised that. You understand me. You understand me more than my father ever could. More than anyone ever could. I'm sorry I let this happen to you. But I came back to help you. We can still get your happy ending, if that's what you want.'

It was a sincere offer, and the socialite couldn't help but be warmed by the notion, though she laughed it off as much as she could without causing herself any pain. 'Oh, I'd much rather not, darling. Mal wants my head, and I've already had to deal with her once, I'm not sure I have the effort to do that all again. Plus the Dark One would happily offer his services now, as well. He never intended for any of us to get our happy endings, he's as awful as he's always been,' she said, waving a hand dismissively, before meeting Ursula's gaze. 'If you must know, I'd be very happy just to leave them all. I'm sick of listening to all these ghastly heroes. I'm sick of all these twisted morals being thrust on us like children. And now we have magic, we could go home. That would just be wonderful. You and me, back in the Enchanted Forest, just like it used to be.'

'I have missed it.'

'And I don't want to go without you, Ursula. I don't think I could have coped much longer in this town without you. Surrounded by all these pathetic heroes. Even Mal's going soft being here.'

'We can go home, Cru. As soon as you can, we'll go. We can go back to being villains, real villains. Together.' She smiled, a mixture of relief and happiness surging through her body at being back with the socialite, the two united once more.

'Oh, I missed you, darling,' Cruella purred, leaning in as if to kiss the Sea Witch before whispering, 'now let's finally leave this ghastly realm behind us.'