A/N: As always, big thanks to everyone who left a review, favorited, or alerted this story. Your support has been phenomenal as I make my way into this fandom.

Laurathechef did awesome beta work, as always. Insert standard claim of non-ownership here. Any and all resemblances to any real people, places, or events is entirely coincidental.

I had to update chapter 8 - a scene got left out entirely by accident, so if you've read that one already, there's a new scene posted. My apologies!

Enjoy!


"This isn't working!" Rumpelstiltskin hissed, pacing around the cabin. "Regina's protection spells are taking too long to break!"

Maleficent and Ursula shared a silent look as the Dark One's anger intensified. He'd grown progressively more frustrated with each passing moment, and even the Author had taken to getting out of his way, sitting off to the side and jotting down badly-constructed plot ideas.

"It's just a simple barrier spell, darling. What's so complicated about breaking it?" drawled Cruella.

He blew out a snort. "It's more than just a barrier spell when it's Regina. She was always my best pupil. Her spells are difficult even for me to break. The amount of energy required would drain me of magical energy. Energy that I need to defeat Regina and get to Emma Swan!"

Ursula rolled her eyes. "Of course. So what do you propose we do? Start kidnapping people left and right?"

In the act of opening his mouth to shut down her suggestion, the Dark One froze, mouth open, and considered her words. Ursula saw the gears in his mind turning and backed away from her earlier statement. "Wait a moment; that might just be the thing!" He exulted.

"What's he talking about?" asked Maleficent from another corner.

Waving his hand, Rumpelstiltskin shushed her question. "Kidnapping! We have to do something to get Regina to dissolve her barrier spell. Something that would lure her out. Something that only she could handle. Something…magical…"

"Like what?" Cruella pressed, leaning forward in her chair by the window.

The Dark One began pacing the room, flinging his hands around to emphasize his points. "I will have a job for each and every one of you to handle. There will need to be a precise timetable to coordinate our efforts, but with this last movement, I believe we will be successful, and at last get our Happy Endings." He took in the three dubious expressions greeting his announcement. With a sigh, Rumpelstiltskin began explaining what each of their tasks would be in his grand plan.

"That's all well and good," commented Ursula, "But what will your own role in this grand scheme be?"

At that Rumpelstiltskin let out an evil chuckle. "I will play a different part in our little drama. An ace in the hole, as it were."

"And this will bring Regina out of hiding?" Maleficent asked, staring him right in the face.

His face transformed into a disturbing grin. "All that will get her attention, and in her new role as benevolent leader, she will have no choice but to respond. If that fails, there is one other thing I will handle personally." The last word turned into a hiss not unlike a serpent.

The three witches shared worried looks when he turned to look out the window at the town, but none of them seemed to know what to do next. Rumpelstiltskin seemed hell-bent on destroying a significant portion of the town along with its people as long as it got him the ability to write himself a new happy ending, but living in this world had mellowed their outlook somewhat. They didn't want a bloodbath to birth their happiness.

"Well, I think I'll turn in before going on a flight around the area at dawn so I know where everything is. Relatively new here and all," Maleficent drawled, "Would you two come with me and get me caught up on this world before I go to sleep?" she asked Cruella and Ursula.

Taking her hint, the other women got up and followed her into the back bedroom, leaving Rumple to his schemes.


"DAVID!"

Ruby's frantic shout as feet pounded the sidewalk behind him made him whirl around, ready to defend Snow and Neal against whatever was coming at them. When he saw the werewolf running toward them, his posture relaxed, but just enough to avoid drawing a weapon. Walking to the sheriff's station from breakfast at Granny's was their usual casual morning routine, taking in the usually-brisk Maine air as a good wakeup start to their work days.

The new boardwalk built the previous fall had stood up to the intense Maine winter thus far and it had become one of their favorite strolling places when the winds whipping in off the Atlantic Ocean weren't too bitter. Unfortunately, on this morning they were and thus the Charming family made their way directly from Granny's to the station to begin their day.

The shout from behind him changed their plans. "Ruby? What's wrong?"

"Smoke!" the waitress gasped, trying to catch her breath, "Smoke in the air coming from inland. The forest northwest of town!"

David and Snow turned to look in the direction Ruby had indicated and saw the faintest wisps of grey wafting above the tree line. The almost-smoke was clearly coming from one spot, however. "Call the fire department and lead them to the fire. They're mostly Regina's old Guard from the Enchanted Forest, and they're very good," he instructed Ruby. At her nod, she was off. Turning to his wife, he gave her a tight smile. "Take Neal and go to the school. You'll be safest there, and you can rally the town to that location if this gets out of hand. I'll call the town hall and get the alert out."

Snow nodded as they turned away from the sea and back to the town. Ruby, having shifted into her wolf form for a faster trip to the fire station, was already half a mile away. David gave his wife a kiss as he dashed off to the Sheriff's station.

Bursting in the door, he raced for his desk phone and punched in the number for Town Hall. "This is the Acting Sheriff. Fire has been detected in the forest. Sound the alarm and get people out of the woods."

As he ran to his cruiser, David hoped the fire was small and easily contained.


It wasn't.

Standing in the now-familiar clearing, David felt his heart sink. Zelena's farm house was engulfed in flames that the Storybrooke Fire Department didn't seem able to extinguish. He looked around and found the fire marshal standing by Storybrooke's only fire truck, barking orders at the volunteer force.

The fire remained persistent, with no effort from the firefighters even coming close to killing the flames. "What's going on with this fire?" David shouted over the commotion.

The Marshal turned from his radio, his long greying hair flapping in the breeze. "Who the hell are you and what are you doing at my fire?" He growled.

David gave what he hoped was an easygoing grin, attempting to defuse the man's ire. "I'm the acting Sheriff, so I wanted to see what I could do to help."

"You can get the hell back! This fire's growing like a son of a bitch no matter what we throw at it," the older man growled.

"What can I do to help secure the scene?"

"Get your deputy," the Marshal jerked his head toward Ruby as she ran around the house, "and set up a perimeter.

Knowing there wasn't anything he could do about the fire, David passed along the instructions to Ruby, who took the caution tape and started stringing it around the fire trucks. As he watched, he heard a piercing scream coming from the house. Every head swung and riveted on the sound, which David's mind calculated was coming from the upper bedroom window.

As the firefighters grouped at the front side of the house and wrestled the hoses into place, David stared at the same bedroom window he'd gazed out of during their stays keeping an eye on Regina. A shadowy figure passed behind the panes, which drew a chorus of shouts from the people below. He tried to stare harder into the room, remembering where the furniture had been, but he couldn't see the shadow again.

He moved past the barriers and up closer to the house, ignoring the fire marshal's shouts. As he approached, the flames shot forward as the heat blasted out at him, so intense he had to fall back. The figure made its way past the window with another scream. David made his way around the building, trying to find another way in to help the person screaming.

Every time he approached the house, the flames blasted out as if powered by a switch. When he backed off, they died down. Any other fire and he would have been glad to let it burn itself out, but the spectral figure screaming for help in growing intensity was pushing them to do something, anything. When they finally got the hoses connected to the town's one fire truck capable of transporting water to a fire, they started spraying from three angles. David watched, waiting for the fire to sputter out.

Except, it never happened.

If anything, the flames grew at every point the water hit, almost as if the firefighters were spraying gasoline instead of water. As the marshal screamed at his men to aim lower to the base of the flames, David thought he saw something unusual.

"Keep spraying on the north side of the building!" he shouted at the marshal, "I think I see something on the south side. I'll go in closer and take a look."

After being waved on, he moved in for a better view, positioning himself by the kitchen window. Still closed, its panes were doing a decent job keeping the flames inside. He got as close as he could to the window itself and tried to see through the thick smoke blocking the inside of the house.

What he saw made him fall back on his ass before scrambling back to the perimeter. The roar of the flames and the shouting of the firefighters made it difficult to communicate, but he was able to drag the marshal back from the crowd.

"You're not going to put that fire out with water," he explained, "It's a magical fire."

The fire marshal gaped at him. "How the hell can you possibly know it's a magical fire?"

David pointed back at the house. "Your hoses aren't putting it out, and it grows whenever anyone approaches. The figure inside is running back and forth in front of the window instead of reaching out for help. Last but not least, the fire inside is coming from a giant cauldron on the floor and it's green at the source. This is not a normal fire and you won't put it out the normal way."

"So what can we do?"

"I'll try to get a hold of Blue. She should be able to help put it out," David explained.

A lone figure in the woods just beyond the tree line watched as he moved off to the side and pulled out his phone. "Nicely done, shepherd," Maleficent murmured before teleporting herself back to Rumple's cabin. The first phase of his plan was under way, but with her added wrinkle of a non-destructive fire that wouldn't automatically cast her as a villain in her new home.

David cursed as he pulled his phone away from his ear.

No answer.

Less than no answer, the call ended in a half-ring before going to voice mail. He hadn't been in this world long, but even he had enough experience to know that Blue had sent his call to voice mail on purpose. Without the time to pursue the issue any farther, and with Rumple gone and his daughter under the Sleeping Curse, David knew there was only one option.

With a wince, he dialed another number in his phone.


"Do you mind telling me why you had to summon me away from your daughter's bedside for a simple house fire, David?" Regina snarled as she appeared in front of him in a cloud of smoke.

Too startled at her sudden appearance, the fire marshal could do nothing but bow deeply to his Queen.

The Deputy pointed to the house behind them. "It's a magical fire. We can't put it out, but it's also not destroying the house. There was a phantom person in an upstairs window calling for help, but I figured it wasn't real when they never came to the window. There's a cauldron inside powering the flames, which are green around their base before appearing normal as they spread out."

Regina's eyebrows had steadily risen throughout his explanation. "Perhaps I've been too critical of you in the past, Deputy. Nice work," she complimented. Ignoring the cheeky grin that made her heart hurt at how much it reminded her of Emma's identical expression, she turned to the house. "Green tinted, you said?"

"That's what I saw," confirmed David.

Setting her jaw, Regina turned back to the house. She raised her hands and called on her magic, sending a pulse of purple energy toward the house. The effort rocked her back on her heels, but she remained standing. The fire sputtered and sparked, but eventually the house cleared. The firefighters rushed in, kicking the front door open as they went.

Silence reigned around the house for the better part of ten minutes before the marshal called them in, voice inflecting upward at the end as if he was asking them a question instead of calling them inside a fire scene. When David and Regina got inside, their own eyes grew the size of dinner plates.

The house was untouched. If he hadn't been standing outside watching the conflagration, he would never have believed the house was on fire. "Did your magic restore this at all?" he asked the Mayor.

"Not even the slightest," she retorted, staring around in just as much wonder. "All I did was cast a canceling spell, shutting off any magical power source in the vicinity. Where was the source?"

"Oh yeah. In the kitchen," David answered, nodding for her to lead the way.

Once in the kitchen, they found the fire marshal staring at the cauldron. Rather than the generic, rusted metal pot he expected, one side of the cauldron bore a stylized initial M with two curved horns jutting up from the top of the letter. "Maleficent," Regina murmured.

"She set fire to this house?" asked the fire marshal, "I thought she was dead! The Savior killed her before the Curse broke, right?"

"She was," Regina confirmed, "but she was recently…brought back, shall we say? This cauldron is a message."

"What's Maleficent telling you with a signed cauldron?" David wondered.

Regina gestured around them. "A house aflame with no damage. I expect the fire itself acted strangely?"

The marshal cut off David's comment. "It did, your majesty. Whenever any of us tried to approach, the flames grew as if they were powered by a gas furnace from this world. When we receded, so did the fire."

"Thank you, Marshal," Regina acknowledged before turning back to David with a smirk. "Do you see? She could have just burned the house to the ground with a breath. She could have triggered it to hurt as many people as she could. Instead she made it almost impossible for anyone to get in, left the house in place, and made it so that I could break her enchantment without breaking a sweat. She was telling us that she did it all on purpose."

"But what would she gain by any of this?"

Before answering his query, Regina turned to the gaping fire marshal. "What I have to tell the Deputy is for his ears only. I need you to go outside and get your men back to the fire station," she instructed in a low, commanding voice.

With a nod, he turned on his heel and was gone.

Alone again, Regina turned back to David once more. "Maleficent visited the mansion the other night. Rumplestiltskin did indeed bring her back, but there's more to the story. The Dark One has enlisted Ursula and Cruella along with Maleficent to help find the Author to Henry's magical storybook, which they have done, release him, which they have also done, and find him the enchanted ink, which they have yet to do."

"Why do they need enchanted ink?" David asked, not liking the growing feeling of dread settling in his stomach at Regina's description.

Regina grimaced. "Rumple wants to use the Author to write happy endings for the Villains, hence his use of Cruella, Ursula, and Maleficent. The ink needed for the Author to write in his magical book has to be enchanted with a very special kind of magic," she trailed off, not wanting to tell him what was needed, but knowing that he had to understand what was at stake, "They need tainted blood from a powerful light magic user. A light magic user who has darkened their heart with words or actions."

He remained still, watching her as his expression filled with dread.

"They need Emma's blood," she finished, grimacing at the words coming out of her mouth as she did so. "This was a warning from Maleficent. Whatever Rumple's endgame is, it's about to begin."

David's mouth opened, but his reply was lost in the ringing of his cell phone. "Deputy Nolan," he bit off through gritted teeth. "I'll be right there."

Hanging up the phone, he nodded to Regina. "Looks like you were right. There's a disturbance at the docks, but no one seems to be in any particular danger."

Regina looked stricken. "Go deal with the docks. If you need magic, call, but my suspicion is that you won't. I'll be back at the mansion strengthening the protection wards I cast earlier."

"Understood," he acknowledged. "And Regina?" he interjected as she raised her hands to teleport, "take care of yourself afterward. We're going to need you to protect Emma. None of the rest of us stands a chance against the Dark One," he pleaded.

She returned his nod before vanishing.

David swallowed heavily and made his way out of the house, instructing the remaining firemen to gather the rest of their crew and move to the docks.


"David! Regina called me and told me about what happened at the farm house. Did you get the problem with the docks taken care of?" Snow asked David as he hung up his jacket in the loft's entryway.

Heaving a sigh as he was finally able to relax after a brutal day, he wrapped his arms around his wife and reveled in the familiar sensations of her scent and strength. Even if it was just for a moment, it was worth forgetting his worries in Snow's embrace. She always had a way of grounding him whenever the current crisis got out of hand.

After one brief, blissful moment, he pulled back and gave her a chase kiss. "God, I missed you."

"It's only been half a day," she grinned, "Was it that bad?"

"Not really. I mean, after Regina explained what happened at the farmhouse, we were able to respond to the high waves battering the docks more carefully. It was still touch-and-go for a while, but the entire fire department and any able-bodied citizen we could find were able to get enough sandbags filled and placed to keep the waters at bay. After a while Ursula – if she was indeed behind it – let the waves die off on their own. But after that we had to go back out into the forest. A bunch of animals were stampeding toward town," answered David, still hugging her.

"Oh my God! How'd you fix that one? Did Blue help you at all with any magic to override Ursula and Cruella's spells?"

"No, see that's the weird part. Blue never answered her phone the entire day, and I must have tried calling her a couple dozen times. We ended up digging a firebreak and lighting a controlled blaze. Even in their magic-fueled mania they weren't going to charge a wall of fire. As we're assuming, Cruella let the enchantment dissipate, and we put out the fire and everything back to normal. A good thing, too, because by that point our men were ready to drop."

Snow withdrew from the embrace, not noticing the disappointment that flashed across his face as she looked around, trying to put the pieces together. "Every one of these events has one thing in common. They overextended our first responders and taxed our ability to respond to a crisis. Without Blue's help, we could have been in serious trouble. Regina told me what she thinks the causes of these events were, and I have to agree with her since no one got seriously hurt. We just lost our ability to respond capably to any crisis for a few days."

"So the theory the two of you are working on is that the Dark One was making sure we couldn't handle whatever…" David trailed off as Snow's phone rang.

"Regina? What's wrong?" His wife answered the call and immediately turned as pale as her namesake. Her horrified gasp and the dropping phone were more than enough confirmation that another crisis had hit, but this time it was most likely Rumple's turn.

She turned to him with glistening eyes. With a tremor in her voice, she whispered what Regina had called to tell them: "Henry's gone."


A/N: I regret nothing! I love cliffhangers :) thoughts? Reviews and constructive criticism are always welcomed!