A guard had come into Maleficent's room to give her, her dinner. She had asked him to light a fire in the pit on her balcony, and after five more minutes of convincing him that she couldn't hurt him or do anything with it after it was lit, he begrudgingly headed outside to make the fire.
The blonde walked over to the drink cart in her room and poured herself a glass of Regina's strong cider. As she poured, Aurora's voice filled the room.
"They don't let me see you."
Maleficent turned around to look her Briar Rose, "I know."
"But I want to…" Aurora looked down with guilt as she leaned against the doorway.
"I know you do."
"Don't you want to see me?" She asked with big, wet, hopeful eyes.
"I do." Maleficent nodded, "I want to see my Briar Rose."
Aurora nodded, "I want you to, too." She pushed from the doorway and walked back into the living room.
Before Maleficent could follow, the guard came back in, "Fire's lit." He said as he made his way back to the entrance of the room. He noticed that he left the door open, "She didn't come in here, did she?" Maleficent shook her head, "And you didn't go in there?" With another shake of her head and a swift turn away from him, the knight nodded once before making his way to the door, "I could accidentally forget to lock it…"
Maleficent turned back to him, her eyes watery and pleading, "You can?"
He said nothing more, but left the door that divided the living room and bedroom open and made his way quickly out of Aurora's ever changing dodge with a slam and a lock to the front of the chambers.
Maleficent waited for a good five minutes, hoping, wishing that Aurora would come back in, but she didn't. So, she picked up her cider—and the bottle—and walked outside. She put the capped bottle of cider on the ground next to her as she settled into the bowled, dark, wicker swinging chair. She sat crisscross and held her tumbler in her lap and watched the flames of the fire move about.
"The mashed potatoes were good."
There was that voice of her Briar Rose again. She looked over to the heartless princess that still knew she was in love. "Pardon?"
"The mashed potatoes… With dinner." Aurora walked back inside.
Just as Maleficent had given up on the girl returning and started to get out of the large swing, Aurora appeared again with a plate in her hands and the large comforter from her bed nestled between her chin and chest, dragging under her arm onto the floor behind her. After making her way to Maleficent, Aurora gave her the plate of food and put the blanket on her knees, avoiding the tumbler of cider. Then, she got in the swinging chair and sidled next to the blonde, pulling the comforter over them both, tumbler be damned.
Maleficent held the plate with one hand at the same angle it was given to her as her head turned to the other woman and stared.
Aurora simply reached out to the plate, swiping the potatoes with her index finger and sticking the stolen bite in her mouth, "They're good." She promised, savoring her mouthful. When Maleficent didn't turn to her plate, Aurora simply took it from her, measured a forkful of potatoes and put it in front of the blonde's lips. "Eat."
Finally, Maleficent moved. She brought her hand down and opened her mouth, letting the fork make its way inside her mouth.
Aurora then smiled, and what was left of Maleficent's heart beat faster. "They're good, right?"
They weren't anything to write home about; if anything, they were a little bland. "Delicious." Maleficent nodded.
"You don't like them." Aurora said knowingly, "I know when you're just being nice because I like something you think needs salt." She stuck the fork in Maleficent's potatoes once more, "I'm gonna eat them, Phyl, okay?"
Maleficent nodded, "Okay." She whispered, turning to the fire, hoping the other woman wasn't looking at her as a tear made its way down her cheek.
"You don't like it when I call you that." Aurora observed, "It makes you sad." She wiped Maleficent's cheek, "I don't think I've ever seen you leak water before."
"'Cry'. That's the word you want." Maleficent looked to the other princess again, "You've never seen me cry before."
"Right…" Aurora looked down, "Why do I forget things?"
"Because you've no heart. They've tortured you, controlled you, confused you. They've made you crazy."
"But you still love me." It wasn't a question; it was observation. "You still love Briar Rose."
"I do still love Briar Rose. And as long as you're alive, and as long as I'm alive, I have to believe that there is a chance that we will get our hearts back."
"But you can't look at me like you did until that happens…"
Maleficent stared the girl in the eyes, "I look at you. I'm looking at you now."
"But not like you did." Aurora leaned in a bit, "It used to be different. It used to not be cautious. Now you never know if I'm…"
"One of them."
"I don't think I am right now."
Maleficent swallowed the lump in her throat, "I don't think you are either."
Aurora looked to the food in her lap. She shoveled most of the potatoes in her mouth and swallowed before, "You need to eat. You're only human now. You have to eat." She gave the plate to the other woman.
Maleficent speared some green beans and took a cautious bite. Deciding she was okay with them, she finished the helping before moving on to her pre-cut chicken. She managed to use what was left of the potatoes as a dip without Aurora noticing.
Normally, Aurora would get riled up and tell her to apologize to the potatoes for saying they were gross then eating them anyways. As she finished her last bite, she rolled her eyes as she glanced to the girl next to her. How she ever fell for such a girl, she'd never know. She did know that she would give anything to have to apologize to her food for calling it bland, she would give anything to get her Briar Rose back.
Aurora turned to her as she set the plate on the ground, "Done?" Maleficent nodded, "I left some there because I know you like to use them as a dip like you're a child; even the times you don't like them." She gave the other woman a sad smile, "I wish I could feel the things I remember feeling. I remember everything, I think. I think I remember it all. I love you." She nodded, looking at the flames once more. "I really, really do."
"I know." Maleficent nodded.
"I'm not going to make you say sorry to them…" She pointed to the plate in front of them, "Not until I'm Briar Rose again at least."
"Why do you say that?"
"Say what?"
"Say that you will be Briar Rose again…?"
Aurora looked at her, "You haven't called me Briar Rose since they took my love from my chest."
"Your…" Gods be damned. Maleficent looked to the side as she felt the hot tears tinge the backs of her eyes and she swallowed the hard lump down, "Your heart, Aurora."
"My heart." Aurora nodded, "You haven't called me Briar Rose since they took my heart. You tell me that you want your Briar Rose back."
"I do not."
"You just did in the room with the big fluffy bed in there." She pointed to the bedroom.
"The bedroom." Maleficent looked down to her cider as she realized that everything Aurora was saying was true.
"The bedroom." Aurora nodded. "You did just say it in there…"
"I suppose I did." She drank what was left of her cider and poured herself another glass.
"Do you want me to go back inside?"
Maleficent stood up. She covered the fire pit, cutting off the life source to the flames and offered the other girl her hand, "Yes." She finally answered Aurora's question.
~0~0~0~0~0~
Emma was sitting in the desk chair, her axe at her feet. She'd skimmed over their plans and the entire book on Pure Ones that she'd never read before. It wasn't long and it was basic knowledge of Pure Ones with a nice, hefty section of torturing them. She wished she'd seen it in any of the libraries she'd been in. At least that way, she would have known what to expect. She shook her head. They have really researched what to do to torture me and drain me…
What are you going to do? Eva looked to her granddaughter, waiting for a plan.
Emma shook her head with raised brows, I don't know!... I think I'm going to take this book though. She reached for her axe, stood and grabbed the book, turning it invisible as well. Judging by the magic ripple that made its way around the book, she gathered she did in fact make it invisible. Cool… She looked up to her grandmother, Want to go get that picture?
Eva smiled, nodding and the two made their way back into the foyer of the chambers of the Dark One and his mistress, who were still going at in on their bed.
Damn…Old Nasties have stamina, I've give them that… Emma rolled her eyes at herself for thinking it in the first place, I'm really, really sorry, Grandmother.
Let's just get out of here. Eva hid her bemused smile from her embarrassed granddaughter.
Emma grabbed the picture of her mom and grandmother, waited for it to do the ripple thing, then moved to the door that was still a smidge open. She opened it a little wider, just enough that she and Eva could slip out. When she turned into the hall, she found a big, brute of a guard staring at the door as if it were possessed.
"How the hell?" He stepped forward.
Emma, not knowing what else to do, used the flat of her axe, to smack him in the face, causing him to step back a few paces and moan, garnering the guards at either end of the hall's attentions.
"What's going on with you?" One of them asked.
"Something just hit me!" The first guard uncovered his face, "Is my nose broke?"
"Aye, that's disgusting. How the hell did you do that?"
"I was just closing the door…" They all paused and stared at the still open door, listening to the ruckus inside, dirty smiles garnering their faces.
What a bunch of pigs… Emma thought as she hurried to the end of the hallway with her grandmother.
Emma dear, didn't you accidentally think the same things they were?
Emma gave her grandmother a look. Well, that wasn't very nice.
Maybe not, but it was the truth. Eva gave her a cheeky grin.
Aha! Now I know who the Dark One and Regina's mom can really blame for Regina's cheekiness.
Eva didn't comment, she merely changed the subject as they changed courses around the castle. So, what are you going to do?
With what?
That book, and my picture…
I am going to find a secret hiding place, I'm thinking the dungeon, since it's the only place they know I'm not. She gave her grandmother her own cheeky smile, And I have a few more things I need to find before I execute my completely brilliant plan.
Eva stared at her granddaughter, reading her mind, That is a completely brilliant plan.
~0~0~0~0~0~
Arely walked back over to the group. Hook stared at him in awe, "You got a mermaid to kiss you…"
"Aye." Arely nodded, giving the pirate an arrogant smile. He then turned to Regina. "They've agreed to take us to the entrance. Do you have a spell that will let us hold our breaths for a really, really long time?"
"No, but I've one that will give us gills. Is that alright with everyone?"
The group simply looked to everyone and shrugged, but Chip quickly raised his hand.
Regina smiled at him, "Yes, Chip?"
"My mother and myself… Will we be all right? Human, dog and temporary fish?"
"You won't be a fish. You'll just have gills. You and your mother will be fine." She placated the werewolf before she looked to Arely, "They're really going to direct us?"
"Aye." He nodded.
"Then, lets get in the water." She said as she walked the dock and sat on the end, sticking her boots in first.
"Why do you seek the bad man?" Cordelia asked as she resurfaced.
Regina gave her a questioning look, "How do you know it is me?"
"It was you who yelled at the gods." She said.
"It was you who threatened the gods." One of her sisters corrected.
"Shh!" Cordelia shooed her sister and looked back to the Shadow Queen. "You look like his mistress."
"She is my mother." Regina gave the mermaid an evil look.
Cordelia was impressed with this woman, the daughter of the bad man's mistress, "Tell me, why are you going to take their lives? Why take your mother's life? That is what you're doing is it not?"
Regina nodded, "Because they took mine." She looked into the water, "For too long they've taken from me, and now they've taken Emma."
"Emma is your life?"
"Yes."
Cordelia smiled in realization, "Emma is your love."
"Yes."
~0~0~0~0~0~
Emma tightened her grip on her axe and squinted hard. She held her breath in concentration hoping she could figure it out.
"Emma?" Eva looked to her granddaughter, "You need to try something else… Holding your breath isn't working."
Emma let her breath out. "I don't know what else to do. And the quality of books our libraries have on Pure Ones are terrible." She looked to the undead woman blaming her.
"That's not my fault! I've been dead for thirty-two years!"
"Then you should have had stuff kept in the library! The last living Pure One died only thirty years ago… You should have had mountains since he was alive when you were alive!"
Eva crossed her arms. "Stop blaming other people. You are the Pure One. If the first of them had to figure it out by themselves, the first of the second generation will too."
Emma's teeth grit together and she picked her axe up, slamming it down in frustration.
"That was good. Do that again. They won't ever find out you're merely invisible when you slam large metal object against stone walls of a prison that seems to echo every which way…"
Emma's jaw was jut to the side as she looked at her grandmother, amusement in her eyes as she took the other woman in, "I really am a lot like you, grandmother."
"I know what your next words are going to be and I'm still taking that as a compliment."
"I am sassy, sarcastic, cheeky, and always right… Unless Regina is, then I'm wrong most times."
Eva grinned to her granddaughter, "Try to see through the wall again."
Emma nodded, she closed her eyes and let herself calm. She inhaled deeply and opened her eyes.
"Your eyes are doing the same thing they did before you turned yourself invisible."
"I know. I can feel it." She looked passed her grandmother and knit her brows, "We're underground…"
"Actually we're underground, under water."
Emma looked over to her grandmother, "They put their castle under the ocean floor?"
Eva shook her head, "A lake floor."
Emma rolled her eyes before looking through the interior walls, "I was wondering why no guard came rushing to the sound." She walked back up the stairs of the dungeon, she would start to call her guest room, and into the hall.
"No guard is out there?" Eva followed her.
"No, they just don't care about 'phantom noises' right now; they are all going up the stairs for some reason. I thought you already knew everything…" Emma glanced the other White royal's way.
"I know your thoughts. I can see your past and bits and pieces of your future, but not enough to make sense of."
"Good to know I'm getting out of this alive." Emma smiled.
"Why do you think I'm here, granddaughter?" Eva smiled back.
"To help me survive."
"Exactly." Eva narrowed her brows. "Why do you suppose the guards are going upstairs."
A siren started sounding, but only for a short note every few seconds.
"I'm sure that the thoroughly sexed Dark One and mistress Cora are going to line them up then go on some kind of killing spree or start beating them for letting me get away… And that is the calling siren."
Eva pushed the conversation along through the ever annoying siren, "That's uplifting and not at all revolting."
"It's the truth, grandmother." Emma shrugged, still ignoring the noise, "Either way, it gives me time to find the hearts I need."
Eva stared at the youngest White royal, "Why Briar Rose's and Maleficent's hearts?"
"Because if their love is as true as I believe it to be, then they deserve their hearts."
Eva smiled, "Good girl." She approved of her granddaughter's methods.
"Now…" Emma pursed her lips, "If I were a beating heart, where would I be?"
"In a chest."
Emma stopped walking and put her arms up as if calming down an imaginary crowd, "Thank you ladies and gentlemen, she'll be here all week." She looked to her grandmother sarcastically before starting once more looking through walls while she went.
"No really. She kept them in small chests. Like a pirate's chest but miniature. Well, big enough to fit a human heart."
"Were you supposed to tell me that?" Emma asked.
"I was never given any rules… I don't have a boss, I don't think. I mean, the gods are there as advisors, but if I go against their advice nothing happens…"
"Well if you do have a boss and you pissed them off, it's not my fault you didn't make me think and guess and debate with you as to why it would be right that the woman make the hearts' she's stolen resting places a giant pun."
Eva laughed despite the fact that it would not be the royal or goddess-esque thing to do, "Chests."
Emma smiled to her, "I wish you were still alive. I feel we would gang up on mom and I'd win more arguments than I usually do."
Eva nodded, "We definitely would."
Emma nodded with her grandmother before looking away from the other woman. Then as the siren finally stopped, she rolled her eyes, "Gods that was annoying." She stopped and stared into the room next to them, "Oh my gods there they are. In that room there."
"Neat. How do you get in?" She asked after looking for a door and coming up with nothing.
"I'm going to try to flash." She poofed away from a split second and came right back. "Damn it."
"I don't think you have that ability right now."
"But it's so simple… Why can't I flash, but I can be invisible and see through walls?"
"Because the gods like to make it challenging."
"Yes, because my life thus far hasn't been challenging enough. Especially what I was going through before they let the two idiots kidnap me, overpower me and torture me!" She looked up to the ceiling. "Oh, yeah! I'm talking to you! I swear when I get up there I'll—"
"Emma Louise Swan White." Eva said seriously, "Do not anger nor threaten the gods. Do you think they take kindly to that?"
Emma pursed her lips and rolled back and forth on her heels to the balls of her feet, "Probably not." She looked back up, "Sorry gods… I just… need a bit of a break here. Let me poof in there get their hearts and poof out this once?" Emma and Eva both waited a moment. "Should I try to poof?"
"Not yet."
"What? Oh right, you have a direct line to the gods even though you, yourself are unclassifiable as an undead being except to say that you are a spiritual being that comes from a higher plane."
"That about sums it up, yes, granddaughter." Eva gave her a cheeky smile.
Emma shook her head before looking away from her back into the room of hearts, "Just tell me when or if I can poof." Just after she finished speaking she saw two small chests emerge from the two opposite walls and float to the ground. She looked back up, "Thank you!" She looked at the ceiling again and poofed into the room of hearts, her grandmother choosing her own way of walking through the wall. "Cool! I wanna walk through walls!" She said as she materialized and watched her grandmother finish her trek into the room.
"One thing at a time, dear."
Emma nodded and bent down to pick up the chests sitting next to each other when a large thump echoed in the room. Both Eva and Emma jumped and turned at the sound. There was no one in there, but a book had fallen from a shelf and lay face down, opened in the middle.
Emma cautiously walked over and picked the book up by its back half, and read the spine, "The Hearts of Witches and Humans." Emma raised a brow and looked to the chests, then to her grandmother, then to the ceiling, back to her grand mother, back to the chests and back to the book title, "I suppose this is from them to me with love?" She flipped the book over, keeping it open to the pages it landed on. When she did this she saw that a chunk of he pages dog-eared halfway down the page as if marking a completely different part of the book.
"I'd say that's a pretty accurate guess."
Emma chuckled as she read the first full sentence on the page, "'If a witch is drained of her magic, has little or no heart, and has survived, she can get her magic back by putting her heart back in her chest.' Interesting." She fingered that page and flipped to the bent pages, "'A human or witch can materialize anywhere their heart is if a magical being holds the heart and says the spell below. This spell will work even in the strictest of magical shields.'" She smirked and looked up to the ceiling again, "Thank you."
AN: Thoughts and feels? Aren't Maleficent and Aurora adorable? Please Read and Review!