Antha1: Trust me, the Queen's not out of their hair yet...

"Why am I the Snow Queen's daughter?"

The question loomed in the air like frosted breath. There was an uncomfortable silence as all four inhabitants of the house stared at Gerda, whose eyes were filled with cold, bitter sadness.

After what seemed like an eternity, Gerda's father found his voice. "Gerda, what are you talking about?"

Gerda squeezed her eyes shut, biting down hard on her lip. "It's me," She whispered softly, her teeth gritted. "I'm. . . her daughter." She struggled with every word, as if the thought of her true heritage was causing her physical pain.

For a moment, Gerda's father was still. Then, unexpectedly, he let out a small laugh.

"Oh Gerda, that was a good one!" He said in an amused tone. "It's good to see that wretched adventure didn't ruin your sense of humor!" But even as he tried to look at ease, the sense of doubt and denial in his voice was not lost on those present.

Gerda stood up from the staircase, her eyebrows furrowed in anger. "Stop laughing!" She growled, causing her father to shut up immediately.

Immediately, everyone in the room became tense as Gerda glared at them with rage-filled eyes. For Belle and their father, it wasn't an abnormality to see Gerda angry; everyone got angry at times. But this was different. There wasn't just anger in her expression; there was something else, something worse than simple anger.

Pure devastation.

"This isn't right," Gerda said, speaking more to herself than anyone in particular. She raised her hands to rub her forehead as she paced around, deep in thought. "This can't be happening. I am a normal girl, I was born and raised in the Kingdom of Grimm. . ."

"Gerda," Belle whispered, her voice as cool as a winter breeze. Gerda stopped her rambling, and turned to face her elder sister, her eyes lost and confused.

"Belle, tell me I'm dreaming," She pleaded, extending her arms forward. "Please, we're sisters. We're family. I can't be related to. . . her."

Belle briefly closed her eyes. She wanted desperately to lie, to comfort her sister and tell her that they were truly related, that they had the same mother and father. But as she opened her eyes and turned to face her father, and the Beast, she knew she had to come clean. No comforting lies would be able to ease Gerda's pain.

"Gerda, I found you when you were merely a babe," Belle explained softly. "You were lying in the outskirts of the kingdom, nothing but a soft blanket shielding you from the winter cold. You would've surely frozen to death, so I took you in. Me and my father tried to find if you had any relatives, but we found nothing. So we decided to take you in as our own."

Gerda's face crumpled. She slowly cast her eyes from Belle and towards her father - or at least, the man she used to think was her father.

"It's. . . true, dear," The man confessed, a guilt-ridden look on his face. He cast his eyes to the ground, unwilling to see Gerda's reaction.

The Beast and Aisley stared at Belle and her father, unsure what to say. They then turned to look at Gerda, whose face had shifted from confusion to empty bitterness.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Gerda asked, staring at her feet.

"We didn't think it was important," Belle admitted. "We didn't think we'd ever find your true parents. So we felt there simply wasn't a need."

She knew it wasn't a convincing excuse, and from the look on Gerda's face, she didn't think so either.

"I can't believe this," The redhead said, sweat dripping from her forehead from anxiety. "I can't be the daughter of the Snow Queen." Tears were beginning to stream from her eyes.

"Gerda-" Her father began, standing up and extending a hand forward to comfort her.

"Leave me alone!" Gerda shouted, and she immediately rushed through the door out the house and into the freezing cold. She could faintly hear the house's residents calling out for her to stop, but they were like faint echoes against her agony.

In her panicked daze, she bumped into several villagers, receiving annoyed shouts and glares in response, but she ignored them. She rushed down the streets of Grimm, trying to find someplace where she could be alone, free from the townsfolk, from her 'family'.

She didn't stop running until she was on the outskirts of the village, on the borders of the dark forest. There, she collapsed onto her knees, staring blankly at the empty abyss that lay before her. The abyss that, not too long ago, she had trekked through fearlessly in search of her friend, every second yearning to return home.

But now that she was back, she wondered if she truly could call it 'home'.

"Well at least now we know what Kai was hiding from us."

Snapping to attention, Gerda whipped her head around at who had spoken from behind her. It was Aisley.

"Looking back on it, it was rather obvious," Aisley continued. She sounded bizarrely casual, given the circumstances.

"I mean, why else would Kai go to such great lengths to keep the remaining mirror shard out of the Snow Queen's hands?" She said, twirling a strand of hair around her finger. "He must have seen your eyes in her own and then, he just knew."

"Why are you here?" Gerda asked, squinting her eyes at the former Robber Girl. She wasn't far away, but it was hard to see through her tears.

"Gerda, I know this is a lot to take in, but I doubt it's that bad," Aisley told her. "So what if the Snow Queen's your mom? That doesn't change the fact that Belle's your sister and your dad is your dad."

"It's not just that," Gerda said, waving Aisley off in exasperation, causing the dark-haired girl to flinch.

Gerda sighed. "All of this is because of me," she said, guilt welling up in the pit of her stomach. "Everything the Snow Queen - my mom - has done, it's because of me."

"Hey, you can't blame yourself for this," Aisley replied, her voice sharp but sympathetic. "You were just a baby. Everything the Snow Queen did was of her own choice."

"So what if it is?" Gerda asked. "Doesn't change the fact that it's my fault she did it."

Aisley groaned. "At least you're home," she said, trying to find some positives to the situation. "And Kai is safe."

Gerda stood up. "Yes, but for how long?" she asked, turning to face Aisley. "The Snow Queen knows I'm her lost child. She knows I'm back at Grimm. Which means. . ." She shut her eyes tightly, wincing before speaking again.

". . . Which means it won't be long before she comes."

Ever since that ragtag group of miscreants had infiltrated her castle and rescued Kai, the Snow Queen had been deep in thought as she contemplated this stunning revelation.

Gerda, that mere peasant girl, had been her child all along.

Looking back on it, it genuinely baffled her that she hadn't considered it beforehand. She had been the correct age, after all, and who else but her own offspring would have been able to withstand all the trials and tribulations she had dealt out on her throughout her journey?

And then there was Kai. Back when he had broken the gem in two to keep her from repairing her mirror, she hadn't understood why he had done it. She had figured it had been simple malicious intent on his part, a spiteful attempt to keep her from achieving closure. Now she knew he had done it out of love.

Why couldn't you see what was right in front of you?

She hadn't understood his words then. She did now.

And now that she had comprehended everything, she felt. . . lost.

All that searching, all those years of striving to reclaim what she had lost, to discover the truth. Now that the truth had been unveiled, she was stumped. She thought she had been prepared for this day, for this very moment.

But she wasn't sure she was.

But alas, she hadn't spent over a decade looking for her lost child for nothing. Now that she knew who her child was, she couldn't simply let her go. She had to go after her. It had been her purpose, her only purpose, in years.

"Tobias!" she suddenly called out.

Immediately, the guard rushed inside. "Yes, my Queen?" He asked, bowing before her.

"Gather the others," The Snow Queen commanded. "We're heading to the Kingdom of Grimm."

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