Short of stealing Regina's heart and ordering her to turn over that apple of hers, he'd done what he could. He would have loved to have traded the Curse for the apple, but because of what he could get in return for her casting it, his son, there was nothing more he could do. So he left the apple with her. He'd done what he felt the Seer was telling him was right to do. And yet his stomach twisted and turned as he watched Regina in his crystal ball. He knew; these next few hours were going to be crucial, for her, for the future, for his son.

She paced a lot. In fact, for hours after he'd left she did nothing but pace. Hands on her hips, back and forth in her room, on the balcony, around her vanity. Sometimes she placed the scroll he'd given her on her vanity and would cast sideways glances at it, sometimes she'd hold it in her hand and stare down at it as she walked. She opened it once, read through it, but then let it roll back together and went back to pacing for another hour. Back and forth, pace, pace, pace. Until she finally took the scroll and the apple and sat them on her vanity, then sat down in the chair before them, and stared. Head in her fists, curled against her cheeks, she looked back and forth between them, as if weighing her options. She was driving him crazy. He couldn't tear himself away from watching her. But he didn't even know what he was waiting and watching for her to do? Did he want her to destroy the apple? To walk away?

Maybe that was it. Until he saw her walk away, free David, and hide the Curse away, protecting it as he did…he wouldn't be satisfied that this was over. And so, as long as Regina stayed awake, contemplating the decision that he'd given her, he wouldn't rest either. He had to go on assuming the future he saw in his mind was coming, just like always. His fingers worked on the egg in his hand, he used wood to fashion innards, to whittle away at it until he had a spot just big enough for the vial that held the true love potion. Then he placed down feathers over the wood, and covered it with velvet. The metal would protect the vial from the conditions he was going to place it in, the innards would protect the vial from slipping and sliding within the egg and possibly cracking the magic. A few spells and it would hold up. A few spells and with any luck, and the right hiding place, it would be preserved for the next world so he could-

Regina moved.

Her sudden motion nearly had him dropping his creation and watching her as she grabbed the Curse in one hand and rose from her vanity. He watched. He couldn't have looked away if he wanted to. What was she going to do? Where was she going to go?

To her closet. To fetch a cloak. And then she was gone.

Before he could even come up with a theory or explanation, she vanished in a cloud of magic. She took the Curse with her. He had an idea, or maybe it was a hint from the Seer, something he feared about where she might have gone and where she would have been taking it. He didn't want to be true. If he'd been an optimist, he might have used his mirror and ball to look through the possibilities, to look into David's cell, the mausoleum, her silly little room of hearts, even the stables of her old estate "where it all began". But he didn't have time to test himself or trust Regina. So he cast a spell on his mirror and said simply "find her". What he found was exactly what he didn't want to see.

Regina, in Maleficent's castle.

"No…" he whispered, leaning in closer to watch their interaction. He had no choice. There were mirrors in her castle, but the ones that weren't covered were naturally kept enchanted to keep spells like his out. He had to be satisfied with only watching, even if he knew he'd never be satisfied. Their conversation was rushed and deft, but not without manners. The dragon invited her in for tea it seemed, and Regina appeared to accept. They sat in front of her fireplace chatting for a few minutes before Regina finally put her teacup in a saucer and sat forward toward her companion and he could tell just by her body language that the real conversation had begun. He watched them, tried to read their lips. He wasn't perfect at it, but he knew how to recognize a few words. He was best at seeing names, but he didn't seen any mentioned. What was she doing? She'd mentioned going to the dragon for a Sleeping Curse, but why would she have taken his curse with her. What was she thinking?

After a moment more of conversation, he watched as Maleficent went to a table across the room where books seemed piled high in disorganized columns. Disorganized to him, but not to her apparently. She wasted no time going to a certain stack, running her fingers along the spines, and stopping at one in particular. She lifted the books that had been on top of it up and off, then opened the book, paged through, and finally ripped one of the pages out.

He was willing to bet there was a Sleeping Curse on it. Why did he feel nauseous suddenly? Why did he feel like he was going to be sick?

Regina sashayed over to the Dragon Queen and reached out to take the paper that she offered. But at the last second the Dragon pulled the paper away. He knew that technique. He used it himself when he wanted to make a deal.

"Oh no," he breathed as she spoke to Regina. "No."

Regina listened as she spoke, carefully before looking between Maleficent and the paper she held just out of reach. She was tempted.

"No…"

After a few beats, he watched as Regina returned to the cloak that she'd left on the chair she'd been sitting at. She pulled something small from one of the pockets.

"No, no, no…"

She held out what was in her hand for Maleficent. It was the Dark Curse.

"Fuck!" he cried. Turning around and overturning a table. He hardly heard the crash because he'd already looked back at the mirror to spy the women. Maleficent knew what it was. He could tell from the look in her eyes. She was a sorceress heads and tails above Regina. What Regina had failed to sense so long ago it was clear Maleficent had not a problem feeling. She could feel it was powerful Dark Magic. Whether or not she knew what exactly she was being offered he couldn't tell and wouldn't be able to unless he spoke with her or figured out a way to read her mind.

His fingers were curled into fists, his nails digging into the skin on the palm of his hand as he watched the women. Regina spoke. Then Maleficent spoke again, something short and brief with her eyebrows raised, a yes or no question then. Regina took a step closer and smiled. She uttered a single word that looked to be like "positive". And then Maleficent responded with a word he knew all too well.

"Deal."

Maleficent handed the paper over to Regina.

Regina gave her the Dark Curse.

He screamed. He roared in anger and frustration. He did more than turn over a few chairs, he used his magic to blast the mirror he'd been using off its balance so that it fell back and shattered onto the floor.

For years he'd protected it! For years he'd kept it safe from the fairies and Bald Mountain, for a century he'd searched for it. And Regina had traded it for a Sleeping Curse? A simple Sleeping Curse?! As if it compared to the Dark Curse! He'd practically handed her the revenge she wanted on a silver platter, and this was what she did with it. Foolish, ignorant girl!

His chest expanded so impossibly that he had to loosen the buttons on his vest. This wasn't over. Not by a long shot.

"The first born of Queen Core will cast the curse…"

He knew that. He knew that because there wasn't a single day in his life that he hadn't repeated those words to himself! He'd done what he could. He'd gotten her the Curse, he'd placed it into her hands…and now Maleficent had it. She could do anything with it; cast it, destroy it with her dragon fire, or even turn it back over to the fairies. This was bad.

He had to fix this. How was he going to fix this?!

He strode over to his cauldron and summoned up the image of Maleficent, the room that he'd just seen the women in. Regina was gone, probably already back at her castle working on the Sleeping Curse. But Maleficent…

She stood by her fireplace all alone, a small unicorn standing beside her. She scratched it behind its ears and then watched as she pulled apart the scroll. Her eyes darted back and forth as she read. And read. And read. Her eyes grew bigger, her mouth parted so that her jaw dropped in something like horror. She flipped the scroll over as if expecting to read more on the back, but there was nothing and she flipped it back to the words and read again. For a moment, just one he thought that she was going to throw it into the fire. He pulled on his magic, preparing to go to her castle and fetch it back…but he couldn't.

He tried. He tried to transport himself inside that room, the same rooms that he'd transported himself into last time…but he couldn't. There was something stopping him. Magic. She'd blocked him. She'd locked him out of her property just as he'd locked her out of his. He couldn't get there. He couldn't get to the Curse. If she tossed it in the fire, that was it…that was the end.

His mouth was dry as he stared into the cauldron, letting his hands burn on the hot metal as he gripped the sides. He watched as Maleficent stared at it for a long while, put her hand to her mouth, looked around, and he prayed that she wouldn't call on the fairies. She'd ratted him out to the Blue Fairy once before. If the fairies got their hands on that Curse once more, he was certain he'd never see it again.

But then she reached out and grabbed something from beside her fireplace. It was her staff. She reached up, grabbed the little glass ball at the top, closed her eyes, and pressed the scroll to it…then watched as it melted into the glass ball. When she opened her eyes, the scroll was out of her hand and instead was encased within the glass bauble; entombed. And from there she walked away with her staff as if it was nothing and the Seer delivered to him a very special, very important message. The Curse was safe.

He could breathe again. Unlikely as it seemed, the Curse was safe with Maleficent. Leave it to a villain, a true villain, to feel the temptation of a curse like that, and to be unable to give it up. Fine. Let her keep it with her, safe, for now. At least he knew where it would be when the time is right. And, no matter the difficulties getting it presented, at least it would be less of a struggle than getting it back from the fairies or Bald Mountain. Exceptionally-

Regina was back in Maleficent's castle, confronting the Dragon, battling with her. She fought her until she couldn't win and then targeted the little unicorn, sending fire in its direction. "No!" the Dragon cried, rushing to the aid of the animal. She left her staff unattended, and Regina grabbed it. "You're my only friend." With magic and pure strength, she broke the glass at the end of the staff, and took the Curse for herself.

For herself. Regina took it back. Yes…that would be exceptionally easier than fetching it from Bald Mountain. Regina would only need a push to go back and get it. The right push. But not today. No, today, tonight she was...

With his magic he righted the mirror he'd tipped over, he healed the glass and opened up the spell again. There she was. In her workroom, the apple at her side, as she prepared to make the Sleeping Curse.

The right push.

Maybe the Sleeping Curse was exactly what she needed. Not because she would "win" as she so carelessly believed. But because she would lose. She'd confessed to him herself that she'd been working on this plan for a long time, been scheming and dealing, pulling strings like he did in order to make it work. It was a plan she'd invested in. A plan she believed she'd be successful at. Perhaps that was why he needed to let her follow through with it, let her think she won, get a taste of victory before it all came crashing down. Maybe she needed to put all she had into this and see it fail so that she'd be desperate enough to use his ideas.

And as for her idea, well, it wasn't terrible but it was flawed. Sleeping Curses were hard to break but not nearly as hard as the Dark Curse, not when he knew right where the cure to this one was, and it was within his reach while Regina remained so confident it wouldn't happen.

Could he do it?

Could he let Regina do this and then lead David on to break the Curse? He watched as Regina chanted while dipping the apple into the first layer of the cursed potion. The mixture clung to it as that it formed the picture of a deathly skull.

It would appear he had no choice.

So this all happens pretty quickly right, seems really rushed and hurried. It seems unlikely that in one night Rumple gives Regina the Curse, she trades it away, and makes the Sleeping Curse. Originally, when I had this bit outlined, before I did the rewatch, I had a few days of time before Regina and Snow's meeting at her old Estate just to allow this exchange as well as the one that Regina makes with Maleficent a little time to breathe and make it seem more plausible. However, for whatever stupid reason, in one of these episodes, A&E chose to write a time constraint into the script. Time constraints are words and phrases like "tomorrow", "Yesterday", "the day after", "the day before", anything that defines when something has to happen in relation to something else. For the most part, Enchanted Forest flashbacks don't include these (Thank God). But naturally, for whatever reason there was, in one of these episodes, there was mention of one. I'm sorry, I don't remember where it was or who said it at this point (and I'm not going back to look through the scripts to find it), but somewhere someone uses one of these words which very clearly states that all this has to happen in one night. I know it because when I began writing this bit, I very clearly thought "This is no biggie I'll just add a couple of days" but by the time it was over I was cursing the showrunners for obviously not considering the time their story was working with. So, yes, all this happens in one night, there is nothing I can do about that.

Thank you Jennifer Baratta, Grace5231973, and Alarda for your reviews on the last chapter. I'm happy to hear that you liked that original bit. This bit is of course semi-original, since we never really see Regina hand the Curse over to Maleficent either, but I sort of hurt myself in this one, continuity wise. Way back when Rumple got the Queens of Darkness together for their meeting it's mentioned that Rumple can't hear from Maleficent's Mirrors that she has cast the spell on them that keeps unwanted ears out. It was necessary for making that storyline work. But it sort of hurt this storyline because we can't hear into their trade. I don't regret that though. If given the choice between that and this, I'd keep everything the way it is. I know that sort of makes this scene a filler chapter, but it'll work for our purposes. Peace and Happy Reading!