He could remember being eager, wanting, hoping, and praying so hard that Milah would have a baby. He remembered thinking it felt like an eternity. There was little doubt in his mind that to King George and his wife Annabelle three years would feel like an eternity, of course, that was only if he chose to tell his beloved wife. If he hadn't, well, then it would probably feel even longer. For him, however, three years could pass by in the blind of an eye. Three years to him was nothing but a strike of lightning.

Yes, he knew where to get the twin from. As the years had passed, he'd gained some sense of what the prophecy he was following meant and had a little bit of control over his power of foresight when he concentrated. Every time another step became illuminated he'd garnered insight from what was once nothing but a jumble of images and phrases and feelings. While there were many things, the brown-haired woman in his bed, for example, that were mysteries to him, for the most part, he understood the things it meant. Long ago, his power had led him to two pieces of property. One was a sheep farm; another was the home of a girl. Neither family was familiar to him, and yet every time he'd visited in his search, he'd had the feeling that he was right where he needed to be. In the end, the girl he'd encountered had given birth to Cora, who had given birth to Regina, who would cast the curse all because of a hatred for Snow White, who would marry the False Prince and give birth to the Savior, the Swan. Other than the Swan, who certainly would not be born for a long time, there was only one more player left, and every time he wandered back to that sheep farm, his confidence grew. This was the family that the False Prince would be born to.

They were a young couple, but otherwise fairly unremarkable. Like a million other terrible fathers, the husband already had a penchant for drinking, and the wife had a skill of looking the other way until it got bad and they fought. Things would get better for a while, until the next bill came, and then the cycle began all over again. They were not rich, not in the least at least not from what he gathered. He wouldn't say they were dirt poor either, they had enough to support themselves and a farm and perhaps a child, but two children? No. And that was where he saw his opening.

Nine months before he was due back to King George, he visited the farm, knowing without a doubt it had to happen soon. Sure enough, when he extended his magic over the sleeping woman, he sensed not one, not two, but three heartbeats within her. All according to plan. He frequently returned in those next few months. A little magic here and little there. It assured that the children would be in a state profitable for him when the time came but wouldn't damage them entirely. After all, he needed the False Prince, whichever it would be, to live well into adulthood. He needed to be healthy for that. Underdeveloped lungs were the perfect beginning. It assured they would develop nicely with time but would make the children weak and susceptible to his ultimate plan. A plan he finally enacted on the very day of their birth.

The babes were but newborns, and after watching the farm for an extended period of time, he saw that while they weren't in the best of places financially, they wouldn't be ready to take the deal yet. They needed a couple of months before they were "there" and, perhaps, a little…persuasion. In the dark of the night, as mother slept in recovery and father was slumped in the chair after celebrating too much with a drink, he stood by the bassinets and pulled a bottle from his pocket. Inside was a golden liquid. If drunk, it would be fatal almost instantly but if inhaled…the poison would take some time to do its work. It would be nearly a month until they even saw signs, and with their weak lungs, it would easily be fatal after three months. Of course, he planned to intervene before then. This wasn't something that was so rare a doctor might be able to diagnose it and provide medication for, but cure required the scales of a dragon and thus was very expensive. They'd never be able to afford it to save their sons. Not without persuasion. In a few months, his deal would be up with the King. As always, the prophecy would be perfectly timed.

He smiled as he uncorked the bottle and held his own breath. Nothing could hurt him, of course, but it still smelled foul. He held it to their noses and watched as they helplessly breathed the junk into themselves. Then closed the bottle. David and James…which would it be? The future hadn't yet revealed itself on that matter. Sometimes the name that came to mind was David sometimes it was James, and he could only assume that meant that the fates hadn't decided yet who would be the lucky twin and who would be the unlucky one. It was no matter. In a couple of months, he'd be back. There was plenty to keep him busy until the time came.

He had his mirrors set, focused around the house on different places, and individuals he liked to keep track of.

Regina at thirteen was quite the horsemen…or horsewoman, he supposed. Not much had changed since her first horse, to be honest. Her father doted upon her while her mother chastised her for wearing pants too often and not mastering her dancing. As far as Henry and Cora were concerned, he smiled a little every time they looked at each other, and he saw no love. It was nothing but indifference from Cora and on Henry's side disappointment. One decision and everything had been poisoned against her. It was fitting.

Snow White continued to grow. At five years old she was not nearly as invested in riding as Regina had been, but then again, their situations were different. Snow White had the weight of a future Kingdom on her shoulders even at such a tender age; especially since it looked as though her father and mother would never produce another baby. With no chance for a boy, he was aware that every time he looked upon the girl with chubby cheeks and a wide smile she was a future Queen but only in this world, not the next. In the next, she'd be a mother. Both the Swan's parents had been born now, and he couldn't wait to see just how that would play out in a couple of decades.

But spying wasn't the only thing he was doing. He still enjoyed the art of the deal. It was something simple that broke up the monotonous ramblings of endless days and nights. He'd begun to create something of a stockpile, common spells that he was frequently asked for. He had a few clients that were regulars now, a few he often traded with, and he kept their orders well stocked as well. Of course, every now and then, there always came a surprise that got him giddy and excited. People did have a tendency to stop by the castle, constantly looking for something or other. His rooms were nearly stuffed with objects and artifacts now of things he was intrigued with and things he didn't truly need but meant something to the individual surrendering it and therefore thrilled him to possess. Visitors come constantly. His only relief was in the Winter when it was too cold to venture outside, and the snow was often so thick it made the journey a perilous one. Only fools risked that. In truth, he often found himself gone in Winter. He didn't feel cold anymore, not like humans did, but even he acknowledged that there were simply not enough fireplaces in existence that could heat that place when the snow fell. It was in the months of Winter that he often found himself seeing to business outside of his home…as he was now.

Her name was Maleficent. And she was special. Very special. It was obvious to him when they first met that she didn't think he knew who she was, but naturally he did. To begin with, he'd been spying on Cora since he'd been banished from her property; he knew that for a short time the pair had been friendly. But in the last couple of years, the relationship seemed to have come to a close. Still, it was through that former relationship that he knew that the women possessed strong magic. He'd seen them talking passing spell books to one another, trading secrets. She was a rare witch, much older than she appeared, but she'd taken an interest in Cora at least for a while, it was his suspicion for a while that she'd become Cora's new teacher in his absence.

In addition, it was impossible to look at her and not know what she was in addition to "who". The species that called themselves simply "Dragons" were rare, and it was a good thing too. Born magical, no one wanted those creatures to reproduce easily. Dragons were humans that could shift into the form of a dragon at will, for the most part. They were born not of a womb but an egg. Thick and difficult to break, though the females laid at least one egg a year, after heat cycles that could last for months. Still, more often than not, the eggs were unfertilized and hollow. However, even when eggs were properly fertilized, many times the dragons inside died on their own, simply because they were too weak to break through the strong shell. He'd only ever encountered one in his lifetime and that was in dragon form already, but he didn't make his presence known. He had no wish to deal with a creature like that. But he remembered the magic that came with it, the taste of the being that flew over him and hadn't forgotten it. That was how he knew the woman before him was more than she claimed to be. She wasn't just a "witch on my father's side" as she claimed, she was part Dragon, if he had to guess, on her mother's side. She got her magic from her father and her shapeshifting from her mother, a dragon born from a human birth…that was rarest of all. Most of those unions only resulted in a normal magical child. Not a dragon. And yet here she was. No wonder she was so powerful.

"I need help! I need an answer!" she demanded of him when he arrived at a tiny cottage within a lush green forest.

"Forty-two."

Instantly she stopped her pacing and rambling and glared in his direction. If he weren't the Dark One, that glare might have struck him dead. "What?!"

"Well, you needed an answer, but failed to specify a question! Therefore, my answer is forty-two. I think you'll find it's the answer to a number of different questions."

Across the table, she suddenly slammed a book she had lying out closed. "Is my pain a joke to you?"

Oh now…there was something more than Dragon in her. Something more than witch even. Something dark. Darker even than Cora, he could taste it, feel it sizzling in the air around her. Cora's evil had been held back on a leash, but Maleficent…her evil was a shadow. It was woven into the very fabric of her skin. This woman…she would never be happy. Never truly. Not with Darkness like that inside of her, not without something substantial to create light where there was darkness. That would be a truly rare phenomenon indeed.

But Darkness or not, he wasn't about to let the little witch forget who she had summoned.

"What your pain is to me is of little consequence," he snarled, reaching out and using his magic to choke her into submission. It was so much easier to talk with people when they were gasping for breath. "My opinion of it won't solve your problem whether it be a joke or genuine. All I'm here for is the deal. But…" he released her, and she slumped against the table clutching her throat. "If you are too busy with dramatics to tell me why you wanted me here-"

"His name is Stefan!" she cried out, pushing herself back up on shaking arms.

"Ah! A crisis of love!"

"It's more than that! I'm sure you've heard people before who want nothing but love, but this is different."

"Aren't they all?"

"We've been friends for a long time, but his father…the King is a dreadful man-"

"Most Kings are."

"He wants him to marry a woman from a neighboring country, one that can help save them-"

"From you!" he presumed, pointing in her direction.

There was the smallest bit of shock on her face before she carefully rearranged her features into something that resembled disgust. "Excuse me?!"

He crept closer just to watch her take a step back. Her hand twitched at her side as if she was preparing for another attack, but he did nothing. In this case, a verbal assault was just as intimidating. He was the Dark One, why did so many who tried to summon him for help try to assert dominance?

"Don't talk to me like I'm some kind of charlatan!" he growled. "I'm…the Dark One," he announced, rolling his tongue and flinging his arms out dramatically before rounding on her again. "I know these lands are haunted by a Dragon so fierce and uncontrollable it would take an army like the King doesn't have to destroy it. That dragon…is you."

He knew he was right. The silence that followed his accusation spoke for itself. And watching her face fall as she finally realized for the first time that she was not the most powerful or knowledgeable made the assumption worth it.

"I don't always have control when I'm in my dragon form," she finally admitted. "Sometimes I can't even remember what I've been doing. But when I get angry sometimes I just…I lose control. But Stefan…Stefan has been there for me since I can first remember. He found me after the first time I changed and brought me back to my father, we've been friends ever since! All was fine until he told me his father was talking of marriage and that…Briar Rose came into the picture!" she raged, her upper lip curling as if the name tasted bad. He couldn't blame her. Briar Rose was almost as bad as Snow White…so sweet it was sickening. "Now every time I hear that name-"

"All right, calm yourself down before we have a far more serious problem," he snapped. He'd tried to make his voice sound uninterested, but in truth, he had been seeing what she was talking about. With her mention of the girl, her hands had balled into fists, and her arms had begun shaking. But when she looked up at him, it was the yellow eyes that startled him the most. This land was a fair distance, even by magic, it had taken a lot of energy; he wasn't about to have it ruined as the girl became a Dragon. Fortunately, she seemed to understand too. She closed her eyes, took a breath, and forced her hands to relax and open again. Then, with complete composure, she stepped back up to the table and opened the book before her once more.

"The joining of the two kingdoms is important, so is peace between them, I can't do something to make them believe I killed her or anyone from this Kingdom but…my father once told me of a spell, a curse, one so powerful he'd never touch it. A sleeping curse…but I can't find it!"

Again, she slammed the book closed in her anger and he was forced to bite his tongue. Every deal was different. Every client was different. This girl made him go back to the days when Baelfire had been around, throwing a rare tantrum that he'd easily grown bored of. In those days, he'd sent his son to the loft and told him they would only speak again when he was calmed down. Now he wondered to himself if the girl had a bedroom in this tiny hut that he could send her to.

"You wish only to put the girl to sleep?" he inquired carefully, choosing to ignore his instinct.

"Yes. To preserve the bond between kingdoms but keep her from marrying him…you can't marry a sleeping girl, you know."

"Clever observation."

He knew what she was looking for. He had at least half a dozen books at home on the subject and all to easily raised his hand into the air and summoned one of them into it just then. He took his time on purpose, glaring at her in a manner that he hoped suggested there was a right way to behave and a wrong way. Calmly he went through, page by page until he found the one he was looking for and finally tore it free slowly before offering it to her.

"The Sleeping Curse."

A grimace of annoyance on her face, she wasted no time snatching the paper free from his grasp and looking it over only to have her brows furrow in confusion. "An apple tree?"

He rolled his eyes openly at her. Another result of impatience.

"It's only one version of the Curse and a rare one at that, it uses cursed trees that bear fruit that are...easily influenced. No, I believe what you are looking for is just below that. Simply have the girl prick her finger on a spindle and she'll fall into a deep sleep never to be woken again."

A smile grew over her face as she read. "Yes…that'll do nicely."

"Ah!"

"Hey!" she cried as he summoned that paper back into his own hands. "Give it to me!" she cried, holding her hand out for it. "Give it back to me now!"

"No!" he argued with a smile of his own. "Can't get something for nothing you know, I have to have something in return."

He watched the emotions flash in front of her eyes; irritation, annoyance, candor, and finally thoughtfulness, something that might have been considered bright if she were asking for anything other than this. Without a word, she turned and knelt down by the stone hearth. He watched as she removed a loose stone and reached so far down into the crevice created that her entire arm disappeared. When she came back up, he saw a relatively large brown pouch in her hand.

"Dragon scales," she stated, handing it over to him. "Incredibly rare. Very powerful."

He took the bag and opened the drawstring. They were as she said. Large black glittering scales that could have come from a fish if some of them weren't so large. The biggest one was the size of a man's heart, the smallest the size of his pinky nail. And the magic they possessed...it was familiar...

"Your own, I presume," he muttered, glancing up at her.

She shrugged and crossed her arms over her chest. "I would assume. My mother died when I was young, I've never met another Dragon."

He pulled the bag closed. Dragon scales, not as powerful as the breath of an unborn baby dragon, but still, they had potent abilities, especially when healing was required. Instead of bartering for a cure for the babes, he'd simply be able to make his own and afterward still have most of the scales left for storage. He'd have to be an idiot to turn down that deal.

"The trade is fair," he concluded, handing over the paper to her.

She grabbed it eagerly out of his hand and was quick to turn her back on him in dismissal as she read through it. He could leave. The deal was done. But he didn't like being ignored as she just had. Perhaps one more lesson to remind the girl of her place in the world.

"Oh! There is perhaps this one little thing I should mention, a sort of loophole to the curse," he stated in a happy sing-song voice that forced her to turn back around and acknowledge him.

"I'm listening," she sighed.

"They say True Love's Kiss can break any curse, if Stefan truly loves the woman, and kisses her in her state-"

"That won't happen!" she insisted with a shake of her head. "He loves me! He'll see. He'll see once she's out of the way. I'll stop becoming the dragon, and we'll be married. He'll see."

Her words were enough to make him smile. People who truly believed in their own love didn't need to prove it with so many words as she'd just used. She was a smart girl in love, but she wasn't blinded by it. She saw what she didn't wish to see. And he'd seen all he needed.

"Well, in that case, congratulations on your nuptials! Don't expect a gift," he muttered before fluttering away.

His first meeting with Maleficent and our first chapter into the set-up of 4B as well as a handful of other little things in this fiction and beyond. Maleficent was a character that we didn't see much of, not in the long run, but she certainly influenced quite a bit because of her relationship with Regina. We remember that Maleficent gave her the Sleeping Curse in exchange for the Dark Curse, that she was friends with Cora as Regina found one of her spellbooks with her mother's things, we're also getting into the story of Briar Rose which will lead to sleeping beauty, talking a lot about Dragon babies, and believe it or not that comment about Dragons going into heat is really going to be a lifesaver toward the end of this fiction. I'm going to use it to explain something that was never really explained.

Thank you MerlockVonBaron, Grace5231973, MissAmande, and Jennifer Baratta for your reviews on the last chapter! I was super glad that no one wrote me back to tell me that the scene was elsewhere and I missed it! That's a relief and a weight off my back. I do hope you like this brief intro to Maleficent. We will "encounter" all of the Queens of Darkness before they made their deal with Rumple. I say encounter and not meet because while we'll meet Ursula, Rumple will only ever be made aware of Cruella before deciding he can use her. I was actually quite pleased with how this little sub-plot came together, I felt that stretching it out was the way to go, with any luck, as we continue on, you'll agree! Peace and Happy Reading!