AN: To my guest reviewer, Sita. This story isn't done! There are going to be at least 26 chapters. Thank you for the review! It gave me a lot to work with! But to answer your question, it was simply a stylistic decision. The different styles of speech from modern to medieval-esque is just like including parks and park benches and the dances I chose to the technical medieval story. I decided to write anachronistically because it made it fun for me, and I personally think it set an interesting, entertaining, different tone and style for my story…
For the rest of you, I hope you enjoy!
"Aunt?" Snow and Regina both prompted at the same time again.
"Great-half-aunt, actually." Emma looked at Maleficent before handing Frankenstein's notebook and Rumple's book to her lover.
Snow's entire face scrunched in confusion, "But… no. Emma, she's… She's younger than me, how is that—?"
"She used an aging spell—or a counter-aging spell, I should say, my dear." Eva stepped into the conversation.
"She's your sister?" Regina asked the undead woman.
"Half sister." Eva clarified.
"Yes, she can't clear that one up enough." Maleficent rolled her eyes.
Regina didn't let what was most assuredly going to be an entertaining argument between a dead woman and a newly re-powered witch go further than that. She turned to said newly re-powered witch with a flash of disgust and a touch of playfulness despite all that had just happened, "Emma is your niece?"
"Snow is my niece. Emma is my great-niece."
"You tried to sleep with your great-niece." Regina stared the woman dead on.
This statement was followed by a lot of disgusted grunting and surprised gasps from all the other people in the room.
"I did no such thing!" Maleficent responded quickly.
"Yes you did." Emma nodded vigorously as she took Regina's hand, "The day you came to warn us of the two of them. Regina asked you what you wanted and you said you would have a marvelous time with me. And the inflection of your tone was all but pure."
"Maleficent…" Snow stepped forward, "Why?"
"Oh, good gods in the heavens." Maleficent rolled her eyes again and started moving around in a large circle as she collected her temper enough to talk with these… people.
As Maleficent looked to the crowd, she saw Emma and Regina's amused looks. She glared at them as she responded, "First, I didn't know that she was who she was. I didn't realize she was a White Royal. And when I did, I figured it didn't matter because no one was ever going to know…" She glared pointedly to Eva. "Then you had to get all righteous and descend from your higher plane and come help out!"
"Oh, a thousand pardons for trying to save my family."
"Family, sure." Maleficent paced away from her sister, she put her hands on her hips before she turned back with vengeance and heartache, "Where were you when they were torturing me?! When they were torturing Briar Rose?!"
Eva swallowed hard, "…That's not fair."
"It's no matter." Maleficent waved her off; she was not going to get emotional here in this castle, under a lake, with people that had come after her and she had gone after on multiple occasions. She looked to everyone else, "I probably still would have done it if I knew." She looked to Emma, "Because you didn't know who I was to you and really, I just like to rile the Shadow Queen."
Emma let the tension in the room fall as she walked over to her great-half-aunt and gave the other woman a welcoming hug. Then… she giggled. That's right, Emma Louise Swan White giggled as she looked to the older blonde, "She is fun when she gets riled up." She glanced back to her lover, "And you did rile her up a bit whether she admits it or not."
"I think I riled you up more…" Maleficent gave the younger blonde a grin.
"Yes." Emma was not afraid to be frank, "You really did." She wrapped her free arm around her new favorite family member and winked to her lover. "Let's get out of here."
She tapped her axe twice on the ground.
~0~0~0~0~0~
Everyone looked around as the bright morning sun caught light of everything it touched. They looked to themselves to discover they had once again changed from the formalwear back to the clothes they arrived in.
Emma only looked up at the sky and smiled. Then she looked to her undead grandmother to see if she was reading her thoughts.
Eva simply gave the girl a smile and a nod to tell her that yes, she did know when she first came to her that Emma thought her to be the sun.
Regina walked over to the White Princess still holding the books under her arm, "Darling? Why are we not in my castle?"
"I wanted to see Ice." She turned to find the steed still hanging out with the other horses, "Ice!" She called, giving her lover her axe.
He looked up and broke from the pack of all the horses that stood dutifully waiting on their humans, making his way over to his human. Emma smiled when the horse pushed his face passed her shoulder and ducked his head, pulling her in for a hug.
Emma stroked his neck, "Did you know I wasn't okay, Ice?" She whispered to the horse as she pulled back and stroked his muzzle.
Ice's ears fluttered back and forth and he nodded his head up and down before whinnying and staring at her.
She smiled and magicked him his favorite mixture of sugar cubes and carrots—his favorite aside from Regina's apples that was. As he ate, she pressed her face to his nose, "Were you worried?" The horse merely stopped eating a moment took time to swallow, then continued on. She grinned to the horse and kissed his nose, "I love you, Ice." She kissed his nose again and continued magicking food for the horse, never letting her hand empty, until he was satisfied.
In the meantime, Regina had magicked a trough for the rest of the horses. She walked over to the horse and human, "Does he still love you?" She asked jokingly.
"Yes." Emma nodded.
"Would you like an apple, Ice?" Regina waved her hand producing the treat and Ice quickly pushed from his human to his human's special other human and started munching away.
"Hey! I thought you missed me and we were bonding!" Emma looked at her horse that simply ignored her and nommed happily at the apple. She shook her head and pet his neck before doing a quick survey across the crowd.
She saw Arely by himself for once, and that threw her off. As she looked on, she saw him facing away from everyone else, standing that the beginning of the dock to the lake.
"What's he doing?" Emma asked Regina as she pointed to the Caspian Prince.
"Oh, goodness!" Regina remembered how she got to her lover, "We have to put the mermaids in the Caspian Sea."
"Mermaids?" Emma's interest was peaked.
"Yes, Cordelia and her sisters brought us to the castle entrance."
Emma gave the woman an excited look before running through all the people over to Arely, "Make 'em come out!" She clasped both of his shoulders, "I wanna see a real mermaid. Not a merman turned King, but a real life, in the water, in the flesh mermaid!"
Arely gave the girl a bit of a chuckle before he stepped out to the dock, Emma riding his heals. He whistled "My Jolly Sailor Bold" as he did and when they got to the end, he waited. "Emma, I promised them that we would get them out of this lake and into my grandfather's sea."
"We will. Does he know we're coming?"
Arely shook his head.
"Well… Maybe we should tell him before we just drop a few mermaids into the sea." Emma commented.
"It's not just a few. These sisters obviously stuck together. They're their own pack. There was a sister for each of us, except Cordelia took me and Regina."
"Cordelia?" Emma watched Arely's face as he said her name and had no choice but to try to have a little fun with the man, "Could it be that you are finally going to stop sticking it wherever you please?"
"What does 'sticking it' mean?" a feminine, foreign, lovely voice came from below them.
"Wow!" Emma breathed out. She turned to Arely and waived her hand producing a vial, "This is travel dust. I've used it on you before. It will bring you back here when you're done talking with your grandfather." She tapped his head making him vanish. Then settled on her stomach on the dock.
"Where did he go?" Cordelia asked.
"I sent him to his grandfather. He's going to talk with him, tell him that he's going to have a school of mermaids to adopt into the clan."
Cordelia smiled, "Oh, thank you. I wasn't sure it was a pact that would actually have any benefits."
Emma smiled, "I think it will have more benefits than you realize."
"What does that mean?"
"Do you like Arely?"
Cordelia immersed herself in the water until only her eyes showed. She was covering her blush.
Emma pulled herself to the very edge of the dock and smiled at her, "I think that he likes you as well… He tends to go for any girl in a skirt—" She knit her brows as she remembered his many come ons to her, "No, strike that, he tends to go for any living, breathing girl with legs…" She grinned, "Maybe it will take a girl with a tail to make him see the error of his ways." The White Princess chuckled as she watched Cordelia push out of the water again and grab hold of the dock to keep conversation flowing. Emma could only speak what was on her mind, "Gods, you're beautiful." She stared at the mermaid.
"Thank you." Cordelia pushed from the dock, treading the water a moment before swimming back to the other girl, "You are beautiful too." She reached out and touched Emma's face, "You're Regina's love." She looked behind the blonde a moment before looking back to her, "You were still alive." She smiled, "That's good. I'm glad the bad man and Regina's mother didn't kill you."
Emma chuckled, "Me too."
"Would it anger Regina if I kissed you in thanks and appreciation for defeating the bad man?"
The White Princess looked down, "I think she wouldn't be the most pleasant with you if you did." She looked at the mermaid, "How do you know I even took part in defeating the bad man?"
"Because it's written all over you. You're the hero of this tale. I can see it in everyone's eyes. Including that tutelary spirit's." She pointed to Eva, "She's done her job."
"Tutelary spirit? Is that what she is?" Emma asked completely intrigued.
"Did she not tell you?"
"She didn't know. How did you?"
"The alive and undead give off a certain aura mermaids can read—only mermaids. Not mermen. That's why merpeople have respected the female kind for so long. Each aura is different. She feels like a tutelary spirit to me."
"Wow… well that's a special little trick you have there."
"It's the most important reason I know that you're the hero." Cordelia smiled.
A puff of blue smoke filled the water and Arely appeared confused as to why he would be drenched. He looked to Emma, "You couldn't give this stuff a more precise measurement of where exactly it was to drop me off?"
"No." Emma shook her head. "It wouldn't be fun for me if I did that." She winked before sobering, "What did Granddad say?"
For his answer, all of Cordelia's sisters surfaced, waiting.
Arely smiled, "He's setting up chambers in the castle now."
"Good." Emma waved her hands, giving the prince another vial, "Use this after they've settled. This will take you back to the Shadow Castle."
Arely swam over to her and took it.
"As for the rest of you, thank you for bringing them to the castle's entrance. And I hope you enjoy your new home." Emma let her hand rest against the water's surface. A few ripples of white magic made their way into the water and soon Arely and the mermaid sisters were gone.
"Where did they go?" Chip asked as he came over and looked into the water.
"The Caspian Sea. Why? Did you fall in love with your mermaid too?"
Chip knit his brows and shook his head, "Nay. Can't say I did."
Emma smiled as she stood and hugged him, "I missed you, friend."
"I missed you." Chip hugged her tighter.
They turned, making their way back up the dock to the rest of the group. Emma took her axe from Regina then the books.
"What now?" Snow asked for the group.
"Now, mother, you take these books for a bit." Emma handed them off to her mother's waiting hands, "Keep them safe."
Charming put his hand in and stared a hard stare at his daughter, "Why do you sound as though we're separating again?"
Emma gave her father a smile, "Because we are." She stopped him—and everyone else's objections, "Only for a bit. I've to dispose of this." She pulled Rumple's dagger from her belt. "I've a place in mind and not everyone can come."
"I'm just stating for the record that you are in trouble." Regina whispered in her love's ear.
Emma grinned and turned back to her, "You are coming with me." She whispered back before turning to everyone else, "I'm sending you back and Regina and I will be there soon." She tapped her axe once, sending everyone to the Shadow Castle.
The second tap sent her and Regina onto their destination.
~0~0~0~0~0~
When they pulled from each other, they were at the spring that Emma had found three years before.
"Is this where your axe came from?"
"Isn't it beautiful?"
"Breathtaking.." Regina breathed out.
"Come on." Emma dove into the water, and Regina was quick to follow.
They made their way under the waterfall and into the cave. Regina held tight to her love's side after they got out until Emma produced enough light for them to see.
"Wow, you weren't kidding about the one path thing, were you?" The brunette asked as they started on their way.
"Nope."
Just as she had done three years before, she threw her white fireball into the pit and the semi-room flooded with light.
"Woah!" Emma was staring at a blank wall.
"What?"
"It's solid… there's no break in the rock from where the axe was." Emma began running her hand over the rock where the axe had been three years before.
"That's… not normal."
Emma shook her head. "No." She shrugged as she pulled the dagger out. "It just means that I picked the right spot, I guess."
"You picked this spot because it's surrounded with Pure-ness and the dagger alone is evil?"
"Yup." Emma stood before the wall then raised her arm with the dagger and with all her might struck forward.
As soon as the dagger's tip struck the wall, the dagger cracked, and as her arms followed through on her strike, the dagger shattered. The pieces floated around them then into the fire pit. The hilt of the dagger was pulled from Emma's hand and flew into the fire as well.
The two watched on with undivided attention. The fire swirled up to the ceiling looking down on them menacingly before it shrank to a small ball. Snowball size. What happened next was truly remarkable. The tiny ball erupted; it surged the opposite direction of the two women hugging in fear.
As they watched the white fire blanket the wall before them, they saw symbols appear as the flames started to fade.
"What is that?" Emma asked.
"Darling, I think it's your story… They're pictographs. All of the symbols must be."
Emma waved her hand, producing another fireball as the flames faded faster. She smiled and pointed, "Look at that one… the bench with the heart behind it." She took her lover's waist and held her tight as they watched the pictures form.
Regina kissed her cheek, "It's your story." She hugged her lover tight and felt the blonde transport them both.
~0~0~0~0~0~
The royals, advisors and competitors found themselves in the stables with the still dressed horses.
Chip chuckled after orienting himself and moved to his horse, taking its gear off.
"What is so funny, son?" Belle asked as she moved to her horse, mimicking her son.
"She could have taken the gear off all the horses and magicked us to our rooms." He smiled up to his mother, "She knew that, for the most part, all of us would be antsy and gave us something to do."
"Are you sure she could have done that?" Red asked from the opposite side of her son.
"Oh yes. Read Mom's books. Pure Ones have more power than Genies." The Genie of Agrabah walked by and stopped, staring at the werewolf. Chip was quick to try to explain himself, "Sir, Genie, that was a compliment… in a sense. The only thing comparable to a Pure One is a Genie…"
Genie gave him a blank look before finally cracking a smile and moving on to his horse.
"So… she wants us to take care of our own horses." Charming said as he patted his naked horse's neck. He looked over to Ice, "But what of her own?"
Ice tapped the floor and shook his head in quick side-to-side movements, as if trying to shake the reigns from his mouth.
Eva looked to the man, "Charming. Honestly. Take the horse's gear from him."
"Eva, I'm not sure you understand the trouble this horse has caused me."
Eva raised a brow, "All that trouble was not the steed, but his owner."
Charming took the horse in, "I suppose you blame Emma for your behavior as well?"
A nod came from Ice, "Well, I can't punish the innocent." Charming finally walked to the horse's stall and started removing his gear.
Arely poofed into the stables, wet. He had a wide-eyed, happy, dreamy look and rubbed at his cheek.
"What happened to you?" Artie asked as he walked over to the prince.
"Cordelia kissed me."
Chip narrowed his eyes at the man, "No she didn't."
"She did so!" He looked as if he were ready to start a fight.
"She kissed your cheek." Chip stated arrogantly, calling Arely's bluff.
"Same thing!" Arely turned from him to start telling his tale to the other contenders that had gathered around.
"It's not the same thing…" Dunstan was the one to pipe up. "A kiss of the lips and a kiss of the cheek is completely different."
"It's the same!"
"Different…" Alexander looked to the ground, not necessarily wanting to start a fight, but needing to put in his opinion.
"A kiss is a kiss." Arely crossed his arms.
"Says the man that wasn't kissed on the lips by the unattainable." Chip chuckled.
"A kiss is a kiss!" Arely practically shouted to the werewolf.
Chip gave him a glare, turned the Prince's cheek to him and kissed his cheek, "It's not the same thing, brother."
This made everyone in the stables laugh and Arely turn bright red. "I'd no idea you were queer, Chip. I admit you are good looking, but you're definitely not the gender I prefer."
Chip rolled his eyes and clapped the other prince on the shoulder. Instead of making a fight of it, he rolled with it—plus he didn't think it a thing to needed to defend himself over; he didn't think it an actual insult. He looked to the other man, "Your pride back yet?"
Arely shook his head, "Not quite." He looked around, "Why are we in the stables?"
"We're taking care of our horses. I got yours." Gustave said.
"Why are the stable workers not in here?" He asked.
"Emma wanted us to take care of them so she and Regina could have more time putting the dagger wherever it's going." Chip answered.
"I think we've spent enough time here; let us head to the castle." Charming stated, clapping his hands, waiting for a response. A response that came with grunts of affirmation and heavy nods.
~0~0~0~0~0~
"Listen, your majesty. We have to enact these taxes and we must do it now. If we don't then we won't match last year's numbers and the budget will be in deficit."
Grace swung her legs back and forth as she sat on her throne in the courtroom. She pursed her lips as she thought, "So you wanna tax all the poor peoples and rich peoples and all the peoples more so that there's no difficult."
"Deficit."
"Dat's what I said." Grace glared at the man explaining everything to her. She looked to Yvaine, Shrek, Ariel and Nancy—she liked them the most because they was a star, a ogre, a former merman, and from New York—and she was only allowed to have four royals with her in the court. That's what they said at least. She got off her throne and moved to stand in front of them, "What does 'tax' mean?"
"It means to add more money onto something." Nancy said softly. "Sweetie, they are asking you to make people pay an amount that I'm sure they simply cannot afford."
"They can't afford it? Tristan and I could barely afford the percentage they're asking." Yvaine joke though her tone was anything but joking, "Grace, you cannot do this to your people."
Grace looked to Ariel and Shrek, "Do you boys agree with the ladies?"
"In short. Yes." Ariel nodded.
"Yeah." Shrek agreed as well.
Grace toddled to the bars of the perch in the courtroom and looked over what seemed to be the infinite members of the court. Then she saw Lord Van Dyke. She made her way to the stairs, holding on to the railing as she took each careful step down. Then she toddled all the way over to the only truly respected court member. She climbed in his lap and looked him in the eye. "Lord Van Dyke." She stated.
"Yes, my queen?" He tried to hide his grin.
"Would they even think about asking the real queen to tax?"
The man looked to his fellow court members before shaking his head, "No, your majesty, the thought would never have crossed their minds. They're trying to take advantage of you."
"They's not asposed to do that. Regina said so. She said if they did she was gonna… Well, she was gonna do not nice things."
Lord Van Dyke chuckled, "I'll bet she did."
Grace leapt from his lap and made her way back to the throne, "No taxes!" She yelled with a raise of her arms and stamp of her foot.
~0~0~0~0~0~
Regina and Emma poofed to the castle doors just as the rest of the royals and the advisors got to the front of the castle.
"Greetings." Chip called to the two women as they smiled and waited on the rest to join them.
"I thought it clever for you to take away the stable hands and all the workers from the stables to the castle so we took more time getting from one place to the other."
Emma knit her brows, "I didn't take out or move any workers from the stables or the grounds…" She looked around, "Where are all the guards?"
Regina's face took on an angry, grave mask. She swiftly magicked the doors open and started walking—stalking was a more appropriate term. She knew something sinister was going down when they saw, in the main hallway, a crowd gathered outside the courtroom.
Regina pushed through the crows and growled. "Move." Her voice was low and threatening.
The royals and workers didn't even have time to realize and relish in the fact that everyone had returned seemingly safely. No, instead they darted away from the large doors as Regina magically forced them open—so much so that they flew off the hinges creating the elaborate entrance she wanted.
"Wow…" Snow said softly.
"Talk about a power couple." Eva added.
Emma looked to her mother and grandmother, the same surprised face on all three women, "She is pissed!" She said before running after the Shadow Queen.
All the contestants and advisors were hot on her heals and then the rest of the royals decided they could enter as well. The concerned guards and workers were the last to enter.
Regina scooped Grace into her arms, "Have you signed anything? Said 'yes' to anything?"
Grace shook her head, before realizing who it was that was holding her, "Aunt Regina!" She hugged her neck tight, "They wanna tax everybody, but I said 'No'. And Jacob losted Maleficence and Princess Rora… but I decided that I couldn't do anything about that until you got back… And, I gotted dessert every night before bed!"
Regina couldn't help the sigh of relief and the laugh that came from her mouth as she hugged the toddler tight.
"Daddy!" Grace started wiggling and Regina set her on the ground so she could jump into her father's arms.
Regina stood over her court, placing her angry hands on the railing, looking down on all of them, "Taxes?" She gave the room a glare, letting them know that they were better than that, better than trying to pawn schemes off onto her toddler replacement while she was gone. "Really?"
"Your Majesty, all due respect, you have no right to judge us in this moment—"
"Because I haven't been sworn back in?" She looked to the toddler in her advisor's arms, "Queen Grace, I relieve you of your duties as I am of sound mind and physical presence." She turned back to the man that tried to get off with a technicality, "Taxes… Really? I seem to remember that we've had this conversation on more than one occasion, and I seem to remember that the last time it was brought up, you all swore to the heavens you'd not bring it up again."
"And you need to look at the books—"
"The books that are falsified at every possible chance?" Bae interrupted, looking to the other court member. "The queen keeps a book of her own. It's never been tampered with. We're fine. In fact, we're prospering more than ever before."
A silence settled over the court. "Well, if that's all you men called in a meeting for, I'd say we're adjourned."
"Not quite." Lord Big Shnoz stood up. "We need to discuss the competition."
"Oh, yes. The competition…" Regina rolled her eyes.
"Yes. There is a rather large matter to discuss."
"And that is?"
Lord Big Shnoz looked to Regina as he spoke seriously. "We might have been frightened due to your mother and the dark one, but we all saw the White Princess take off her band and burn it. Her magic was able to over power it the whole time. She needs to be eliminated, or at the very least—the very least—the competition needs to start over."
Regina's jaw was tight. It was taking everything inside her not to leap down there and strangle the whining butt-munch to death.
"Alright." Emma's voice rang out. "As you wish."
Regina's eyes landed on the blonde. "What?"
AN: Wait… Emma's okay with starting the competition over? Thoughts and feels? Please Read and Review!