He hadn't planned on going anywhere after the wedding and Regina's pronouncement. He hadn't figured he would need to go anywhere. Snow and David, after their wedding and a conversation about Regina, had gone on their honeymoon. They'd left that evening so that they could get to the summer palace by morning. He didn't bother to watch them navigate in the dark. There was no point. He knew them well enough to know that if they had waited this long to consummate their marriage, they weren't about to pull over on a dirt road and do it. No, the King and Queen would wait until they reached the palace. They'd make sure there was a bed for them to sleep in, and knowing them, there would probably be a fire and wine and cheese and fruit and maybe even a picnic beforehand. They'd romance one another, then fumble awkwardly with clothes and hand positions, blushing as all virgins did their first time. They'd take things slow…as if they hadn't gone slow enough already.
There was no point in watching Snow and David, but Regina, on the other hand…she provided him plenty of entertainment and allowed him to collect something that he simply couldn't let pass him by.
After she'd made her pronouncement, she ended up back in her rooms at her palace; she and one other little thing that she'd carried with her from the Charming Wedding-David's Sword. He hadn't realized what a close call she'd had with it until she reappeared, and the thing flew past her and embedded itself into the wall of her chambers. She looked it over for a moment, but only a moment before roaring at her father to bring her the carriage; another one, he assumed, as she'd taken one to the Wedding. Perhaps that was part of her wedding present to the Charmings; their happy day and a carriage she'd abandoned when they'd nearly killed her. Lovely. But not as lovely as what he saw next.
Regina. In the back of her carriage. Riding for hours just as the Charmings were, only her destination wasn't the Summer Palace, but rather something far more sinister. As Regina entered Maleficent's domain, he dare not turn away.
The Dragon was still in heat, apparently. It had been months…surely dragons didn't stay in heat for this long! But, if what she was wearing was any indication, then he knew very little about female dragons. It seemed impossible, but the dragon was all curly hair and purple robes and a headband that certainly didn't give off the same fearful and wicked vibe that her black horned headpiece did to enemies. For her sake, he hoped that this phase wouldn't last much longer. The woman called herself a villain; so long as she was like this, she looked more like the Blue Fairy's half-sister.
But he hadn't pulled their image up in the cauldron to look in on what the dragon was wearing. He'd pulled it up so that he might see a dreadful decision finally undone. He couldn't hear, of course, heat or not, Maleficent was still a powerful dragon, and the spell that she'd placed over the reflective surfaces in her castle held true. But he didn't need to hear in order to see what he wanted to. He just had to watch.
And so he watched as Maleficent invited Regina into her home, as she used her magic to kindle a fire and summon two chairs to sit beside it. He watched as Maleficent retrieved wine, and the pair sat and chatted amiably with it in their hands before things changed. Drastically.
Everything changed. Their body language, their smiles, their faces. Everything suggested that a once friendly moment had suddenly become something far more deadly. All at once, Maleficent rose from her seat, and Regina summoned fire from the fireplace. It was a battle. Oh, he hoped he knew what the battle was for. Maleficent jumped away and cast a protection charm against Regina's fire, a relatively weak defensive spell considering her magic could have torn Regina apart. Perhaps heat did interrupt her magic, weaken her or just make it act wonky. Perhaps Maleficent wasn't thinking clearly. Or maybe she was, and she wasn't as committed to protecting the Curse from Regina. Maybe she was a villain.
Whether or not Regina saw what he did, it didn't stop her. When the fire failed, she summoned swords and javelins off the wall and aimed them at her pet, a miniature unicorn. The Dragon jumped again to protect the beast with another protection spell. But in protecting it, she'd wound up right where Regina wanted her. Compelled, she collapsed a chandelier on her and let the metal wrap itself around her body. Her staff clattered to the ground, and Regina retrieved what he'd been longing to see in her hands for years.
The Dark Curse. She intelligently unfurled it and read it before she left, checking to make sure what was there wasn't a decoy or a fake. But there was something else in her eyes as she examined it. There was an interest there, a fascination he'd never seen in her before, not with that Curse. When he'd handed it to her before, it was just a thing, a slip of paper he'd given to her. Now hungry eyes devoured it like it was an oasis in a desert.
Satisfied with what she'd found, Regina left. Maleficent struggled for a few moments, but angry and unable to contain her magic burst into a dragon and flew off before Regina could even get back into her carriage.
And there it was. Regina had the Dark Curse back. It was finally all falling into place, and he was suddenly so happy he could have cried! He could have cried…but there were other things he had to do.
Like, take advantage of Regina's absence, even if it meant risking alerting her genie. With his student gone, he went to her castle to pry David's sword out from the wall and then took it home with him. The next night, as he sat with the blade on his table, the potion with his blood in it to safely recall it back to him once they were in the new world, he checked in on Snow White and David.
When he found them together in the summer palace, she was lounging on a chaise, eating fruit, drinking wine, talking to David. It was just as he'd predicted without the help of the Seer, which was why he turned away and banished the image when the pair started to kiss. He sat down in a chair by the fire and tapped his fingers together, grinning with glee.
After all this time…Regina finally had the Dark Curse back in her possession, and Snow and David finally sleeping together in a way that had significant consequences.
It was about damn time.
Another short but necessary chapter. I wanted Rumple to take David's sword because really...he may as well. After David discards it, it goes back to Regina's, and we never see it again (timeline-wise) until Gold gives it to Emma in his Pawn Shop. I doubt Regina ever said, "oh, by the way, here's this back." So really...why not have Rumple take it? David has used it enough by now that it could be called "her father's sword," and I liked the idea that Rumple took it for safe-keeping much more than I like the idea of Regina taking it and keeping it.
Thank you, Jennifer Baratta, Alarda, and Grace5231973 for your reviews on the last chapter. Yes, I always got the idea from this chapter that Emma was pretty much conceived on their wedding night, so timeline-wise, you have about nine months left. Of course, Rumple is imprisoned for part of that, but not all of it. We have two more chapters left in this section. Ready? Peace and Happy Reading!