"He said what!?" Emma cried at the new revelation. She shot up out of her seat and raised her arms up high. "You are Regina's family. Well at the moment until she remembers. How dare he!" She shot forward. "I'm gonna kill him!"

Suddenly, she felt herself being pulled backwards by an invisible force and plonked back on the sofa. Looking up, she saw Zelena's outstretched hand.

"If you go in there all storms blazing, how is that going to help you win over Regina?" Zelena asked. Emma's mouth opened and shut a few times over as she thought of a comeback. She failed. "Exactly, it's not," Zelena answered her own question. "You've got to treat all of this carefully." She then looked at Henry. "Look, we both know that you mother isn't going to marry him or have his children, she's not ready for that. Now that Emma has revealed an alternate past between the two," Emma had filled Zelena in over what had happened in the past over the day, including Robin injuring Regina's father, "she's going to be very confused at the moment. She won't do anything that's going to change everything."

Henry furrowed his brown in confusion. "How do you know her so well?" He asked.

Zelena smiled. "She's a lot like me," she admitted with a shrug, "and that's what I would do in her situation."

"He deserves a zap for it though," Emma murmured making the others chuckle.

"Well I won't condone it if you do it sneakily when Regina isn't there," Zelena joked, "I'll even zap him myself."

"But I don't have magic to join in," Henry groaned. "Can I deck him instead?"

At this, both Emma and Zelena burst out laughing so loudly that Ally looked up from her blocks and joined in, despite not knowing what was going on.

Emma reached out and ruffled Henry's hair. "I'm afraid not, Kid." She then thought back to the day before when Henry had alerted her to get out of the vault. "Did you ever find out why your mother went to her vault yesterday?"

Henry glanced at his mother before shaking his head. "No, she was crazy tight lipped about it. She just said, "nothing for nosies" and walked into the living room to start the movie. She's been acting so odd since you disappeared and came back. I don't like it."

Emma sighed. "I'm sorry, Kid," she muttered sadly. She glanced over at Ally who now playing with the teddy Dragon and smiled wistfully at her daughter. "It can't be easy being told you have a daughter and a wife you don't remember."

"I guess," Henry surmised. "Can we watch a movie?"

Accepting the swerve in conversation, Emma nodded. She allowed Henry to pick the movie while Zelena got some snacks together and Emma put Ally to bed. For her first evening with Zelena, it was going a lot more smoothly than she anticipated and quite frankly, she was loving every minute.

oOoOo

As per Belle's suggestion, Emma headed to the convent the next morning in search of Blue. She rarely went to the church if she could help it; she'd never had a great experience with the more religious families growing up and had slowly backed away from religion. However, she shook her head to clear her thoughts as to not think about that time.

She entered the convent and headed down the corridor to where she remembered Blue's office to be. She knocked quietly until she heard the fairy's command to enter.

Slowly, she entered to the room and saw Mother Superior typing away at her computer. Emma suddenly had a flashback of being sent to the headteacher's office at school and told to enter while they finished off on their computer.

Ignoring her thoughts, she sat down at the opposite side of Blue's desk and waited patiently for her to finish. She didn't have to wait long. After a few more taps and a click of the mouse, Blue finally looked up.

"Good morning, Sheriff," she greeted with a smile. "Sorry about that, had an urgent email about the fayre coming up. How can I help you?"

Emma bit her lip nervously, unsure how to start. "I just want to know the limits of magic," she stated.

The fairy raised her eyebrow. "I hope you're not interested in dark magic?"

"No, not at all!" Emma said quickly. "Look, you cannot repeat what I'm about to tell you to anyone. Especially not my mother, okay?"

"Emma, I'm a nun," Blue chuckled, "I can keep secrets."

The blonde smiled. "Oh yeah," she swallowed nervously. "I want to know the affects magic can have on pregnancy."

The nun's eyes widened slightly in surprise. Whatever she presumed Emma was going to say, it clearly wasn't that. However, she recovered quickly with many years of practice.

"Well it depends on the strength of the magic of the mother," she revealed.

She opened a draw in her desk before pulling out her wand. Emma couldn't help but raise her eyebrow at the fact the fairy trusted no one to steal it.

"It's sealed with blood magic," Blue revealed, answering Emma's silent question. She then stood up and walked towards Emma. "Can you stand for me?" Emma did so. Blue then motioned her wand slowly over Emma, scanning her. At first, her face was neutral, but the more she scanned, the more surprised she got.

"What?" Emma gasped, slightly frantically. "What's wrong?"

Blue shook her head. "Nothing," she replied quickly, trying to calm the blonde. "I've just never seen it before." She shook her head in disbelief once more. "Sit back down." Emma did so while Blue returned to her seat. "There are different factors of magic as I'm sure you know. The worst is dark magic as I know you're probably aware. There's also light magic with many levels in between that are a bit complicated and not necessary for this. The purest, and best, type of magic is the magic of True Love. Emma, your body, mind, soul and magic are all thriving of this."

"What does that mean?" Emma asked, not quite understanding.

Blue smiled reassuringly. "It means, that you are a pretty powerful woman, Emma. Your magic cannot be outdone. I wouldn't be surprised if even the Dark One couldn't get to you." Emma shuffled in her seat uncomfortably at the passing comment. Blue didn't seem to notice as she continued. "Not only were you born from True Love, but your magic was unlocked by your True Love. The baby you carry is no ordinary baby. Can I ask who the father is?"

"I'd rather not say at the moment," Emma asked quietly. "It's a bit complicated."

The fairy didn't argue, which Emma liked about her. The moral side of her came out quite often. "That's fair enough," she said instead. "As for the affects magic can have on pregnancy, for you, I don't think there will be. I would just say, if you're going to be casting any large spells that use a lot of force, make sure you're fully rested beforehand and it wouldn't be surprising if you passed out afterwards. It's nothing harmful, your body will just shut down to allow you to rest. You'll wake up a few hours later and it will be as if nothing has happened."

Unable to believe her ears, Emma had to ask, "Are you sure?"

Blue chuckled. "I'm positive. Just don't be casting too many powerful spells at once and if you're casting a curse, let me know so I can prepare my fellow fairies."

Emma smiled and stood up. "Thank you, Blue. I feel a lot better about it." She started heading to the door before turning back. "But please, don't tell Mary Margaret."

"I promise," Blue said, her eyes open and honest and Emma's lie detector didn't ping. "Now, go enjoy the sunshine." She then turned back to her computer.

At the dismissal, Emma left the room and headed back home.

oOoOo

Emma soon informed the others of Operation Phoenix about what Blue had said about the spell and the pregnancy meaning they could get started whenever the next full moon came. Fortunately, it was the in the next two weeks so everyone, apart from Ruby, was rather excited about it.

They kept meeting every few days to go over what needed to be done and who needed to be where. Ruby spent most of the meetings grumbling that she couldn't participate and again, it was Zelena who comforted her before Emma even had the chance. There was definitely the start of something there, but she didn't want to mention it in case it ruined anything.

It had quickly been decided that Hook would look after Ally. He'd jokingly said that he'd replaced Nanny Kala which Emma had to admit that he had. Though, she tried not to think about the Nanny as she hadn't seen her in Storybrooke, so she sadly imagined the worst for her fate.

Belle was going to be on hand to double check everything was going okay. Naturally Emma and Zelena were the ones casting the curse and Henry was on Regina and Robin duty to make sure they didn't happen to want to go for a wander to the docks that evening. Emma was pretty convinced that that would never happen; she knew Regina didn't like to get her hair knotted in the breeze.

However, there was a slight spanner in the works when Belle brought Rumple with her on their final meeting before they cast the curse. As soon as he stepped over the threshold, both Emma and Zelena were blocking his path.

"Killian, take Ally to the back room," Emma instructed. She lit a fireball in her hand. "I don't want her to see this."

The pirate did as he was told but he was back after a few moments as he didn't want to leave Emma's side.

To their surprise, Rumple held his hands up in surrender. "I come in peace, I swear!" He announced. Emma used her lie detector and was rather confused to find that he wasn't actually lying. Her detector was never faulty, so she quickly put out the fireball, but she didn't relax.

"What do you want, Rumple?" Zelena demanded as she was also not comfortable with him being in her house. Especially after the last time they met when he threatened to kill her, but he didn't. He'd simply threatened her that if she ever came near him again, he would kill her. However, as he had searched her out, clearly he wouldn't do so.

"Belle told me about what was going on. I wanted to offer my help and propose a truce," he revealed. He then glanced to Emma. "After our last battle, I wouldn't want to go up against you again."

Emma looked proud of herself. "Good." She paused for a moment and glanced at Zelena before looking back at the Dark One. "I'll allow a truce as long as you stay away from this operation and answer a question and how many are provoked afterwards."

Rumple nodded. "Okay."

Emma then walked back into the study where Operation Phoenix had been set up. She wanted everyone to be a witness, but she also wanted to sit down as she was rather tired at 12 weeks pregnant.

The Dark One motioned for Emma to ask away.

"Why did you make Regina cast the memory curse to forget about us?" She asked, not beating around the bush.

"I had to," he replied, once more honestly. "She would never have cast my curse and I no longer had any leverage over her with Alexandra Charlotte gone. I knew if she forgot about you, she'd be back to the Evil Queen that I needed for my curse. She was the Depressed Queen with you gone and that didn't work."

Emma bit her lip as she listened. "But Henry…"

"Was always going to be used," Rumple said, though he frowned. It turned out the imp could show emotion. "You know that the curse needed to be cast for you to go back and have Alexandra."

"You knew what the trigger was all along," Emma guessed. "Didn't you?"

"Yes, Dearie," Rumple replied. "I could see the future. A power that has been lost to me since I came here. The memory curse Regina placed on everyone can be broken with your True Love, you know that, don't you?"

Emma nodded but then frowned. "But she doesn't love me here."

"Don't doubt it, Dearie," Rumple said simply. "True Love can defeat anything." He then stood up and started walking to the door. "That's all I came to say. Zelena, truce?"

Zelena raised her eyebrow and crossed her arms. "For now," she said. "One step over the line though, Rumple, and it's revoked."

Rumpled nodded before surprising everyone and turned to the Pirate. "For the sake of our friends and loved ones," he began, but swallowed and stuttered over his next words, speaking them as if it pained him, "I ought to extend a truce to you too, pirate."

Killian raised his eyebrow and smirked. "I will happily, if you refer to me by my name," he offered.

Rumple physically shuddered and glanced at Belle. She nodded encouragingly. The Dark One turned back to the pirate, the latter was grinning as he was enjoying every moment of this.

With a deep breath, Rumple said, "Killian Jones, will you accept my truce?"

Killian paused, smiling with mirth, making the Dark One sweat a little before finally relenting. "Yes." He held out his real hand and the two shook, one curt shake, before releasing as if they'd be burnt.

Rumple then turned to Emma. "Miss Swan?"

"Deal," Emma said, also unable to hide the smirk after witnessing Rumple and Killian's exchange. "You know my consequences but here are the final two. Stay away from Alexandra and do not get in the way of my breaking Regina's curse. Okay?"

"I wouldn't dream of it," Rumple said before he smiled at Belle and headed out of the house.

Once the door shut behind him, Emma turned to the rest of them. "Did that really just happen or am I dreaming?"

Belle chuckled. "He's trying to be good," she revealed. "I told him the first steps were making peace with the three of you, especially now we're all friends. It could get awkward if you didn't get on with my husband."

Emma laughed too. "I'm fine with him as long as he sticks to my rules and doesn't try to kill me again."

Henry, who had been quiet the entire time, finally spoke up. "It looks my family tapestry is weaving itself back together rather easily. We just need you and Mom back together now and it'll be complete."

Emma smiled at her son and kissed his forehead. "We're getting there, Kid."

oOoOo

A couple of days later, the day before they were due to bring back Maleficent, Emma had swapped swifts with her father so that she and Zelena could rest. However, the two decided to go to lunch before they rested all afternoon watching TV. The two headed to Granny's when they hoped the lunch time rush would be finishing, though the diner was still thriving as always. There were only a couple of tables free.

As they walked in, Ruby greeted them, heading over straight away with two normal menus and a kid's menu for Ally that included some crayons which Ally unwrapped immediately. She'd barely placed them down when the customer from the next table was interrupting them.

"Excuse me, we were here before them, where are our menus?" He demanded.

Looking up, Emma saw Robin was sat with Roland.

Without even hesitating, Ruby continued to Robin's table with another two menus.

"I was on my way when I saw them and killed two birds with one stone," she said defensively. "Let me know when you want to order."

Robin glanced down at the menu for thirty seconds before closing it and standing up. "Actually, I don't want anything, nothing here is nutritional for my son."

Emma's mouth dropped in shock. "What is your problem?" She asked, unable to stop herself. She felt Zelena's hand gently rest on hers, a subtle reminder not to go too far but allowing her to continue for now. "Ruby hasn't done anything wrong."

"I changed my mind," Robin huffed. "Come on, Roland."

Confused, the little boy slipped out of his seat and walked to his father. "Papa, what's going on?" He asked quietly.

"We're going to go to Regina's for lunch instead," Robin said.

At that, Emma snapped. "You're going to make her cook for you?" She questioned. "Just because you had to wait a few minutes for a menu? The place is busy and she's the only one working. Regina is working, she's also busy. Just man up!"

Robin stepped forward until he was close to the blonde. "Do not tell me what to do!" He commanded, but Emma didn't shrink back, she kept her height. She wasn't scared of him. "And do not come near Regina. She's mine. Get it?"

Emma lost it at that comment. Despite her daughter sitting so close, she swung her arm back and punched him square in the jaw.

Robin's face turned a deep red, almost purple, in anger. Just as he pulled his arm back to retaliate, he was surrounded by a cloud of green smoke and he and Roland were transported out of the diner.

Emma flopped back into her chair. "I'm sorry," she murmured quietly to Zelena. "I didn't mean for that to get so out of hand." She glanced at her slowly bruising fist. "But god that felt good."

She flexed her fingers and hissed at the pain and automatically, Zelena rested her palm lightly against Emma's knuckled and healed them.

"Thank you," Emma said.

Zelena squeezed her hand supportively. "You're welcome." She glanced up to Ruby. "Are you okay?"

The waitress nodded and smiled before sighing. "He's not the first one to complain. I wish I could have punched him so thank you. I just don't know who he thinks he is, demanding for stuff. Surely Regina doesn't cook for him every day when he commands her to?"

"Are you kidding?" Emma chuckled. "She'd singe his balls off."

"Mama, I'm hungy," Ally announcing, cutting off the conversation about Robin.

"Sorry, honey," Emma said, going straight into mother mode and was instantly glad that Ally didn't seem to have seen her mother's actions as she coloured in her picture. Emma glanced down at the menu quickly before looking up at Ruby. "Can we have the nuggets and carrots sticks for this one with an apple juice and a turkey burger with fries for me with a soda?"

Ruby noted them down. "Coming up. Zee, what would you like?"

Zelena glanced at the menu before looking back at Ruby. "I'll have a BBQ chicken panini please with apple juice as well please."

"Got cha," Ruby replied, noting Zelena's order down too before heading to the back.

Once she was gone, Emma turned to Zelena while running her hands through Ally's hair as she coloured in the menu. "Well that's a way to start our day of relaxation."

Despite Emma's words, that was the only slightly chaotic thing to happen. She'd half expected Regina to come banging down their door at their treatment of Robin as he would have told Regina about the green smoke, alerting the Mayor to her sister's antics. However, she never showed. Instead, Emma and Zelena headed back to their house and for the rest of the evening and most of the next day, Emma introduced the Wicked Witch of the West to FRIENDS, something Emma never expected to do, well, ever.

oOoOo

Finally, it was time for the resurrection.

"We can always try again next month," Zelena said as they walked up to the docks. They'd collected Maleficent's ashes the day before as the witch had required a short break from the sitcom.

"I guess," Emma replied. "But I just want this to go smoothly."

Belle had said the true full moon only lasted for a couple of seconds, but the spell book she had found advised that it had to be done on the first night a full moon showed so they only had that night until the next lunar cycle to try.

As they reached the chosen spot, they saw Belle already waiting.

"Hey guys," she greeted with a smile. "How are we feeling?"

"Good," Emma replied as she started stretching her arms and shaking them out, getting into the zone. "I just want this to work."

"I'm sure it will," Belle said, ever the optimist. "Rumple marked the area earlier so that it was windproof. I know you didn't want him to help, but he insisted."

Emma raised her eyebrow and glanced at Zelena who shrugged. She put her finger to the air and realised there was no breeze.

"Thank him for us," Emma said instead of arguing.

Belle nodded and smiled. "Ready?"

"Ready," Emma and Zelena confirmed.

Then it was time.

Emma walked forward and emptied the canister they'd filled with Mal's ashes. She and Zelena then magically cut a small gash onto their palms and allowed three drops of blood to land on the ashes before resealing the cut. After a quick glance of reassurance between the two, they both held both hands outstretched over the ashes and chanted in the incantation.

Within seconds, a large beam of bright white light shot out of their palms, so bright Belle had to look away. The ashes shot up and started to swirl around, combining with the light. The ashes started to grow and join with other particles as they got bigger and bigger.

Slowly, Emma realised that the particles were forming together to create a dragon. She was half terrified that Mal would be stuck in her dragon form forever. However, as soon as the dragon form materialised, she breathed a small flame before a black cloud covered her body. It swirled around and got smaller, lowering to the ground, until at last, where the once stood a dragon, stood a very familiar person.

Maleficent stepped out of the darkness, fittingly wearing her signature black horns and a slim fitting black outfit. She grinned. "It's good to be back."