"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?"

Emma didn't look back to Regina; instead she plowed forward, "We will start the competition over. Dunstan, Gustave, Patrick and Arely will rejoin and if you like the first game can be the battle you missed as you ran with the crowd and cowered in fear."

Lord Big Shnoz stood up and glared to the White Princess, "And how will we now if you use magic?"

"I'll have a sash that changes color this time. If I think about magic it will go from black to blue. If I actually use magic, it will turn white."

"No, Emma!"

"You can't agree to that!"

"We won't do it!"

"I'll not compete!"

And other various exclamations made their way from the competitors', Regina's, and the many royals' mouths.

Emma ignored them and stared at the court, "The competition will begin at the week's end. That should give us all enough time to recuperate and prepare." When no one said anything of agreement, she took a bored breath, "Now, if it pleases the court, I'm going to go to my bedchamber as I've been kidnapped, beaten, beaten some more, been thrown on the cusp of death and have come back. For those that haven't experienced it, it's awfully exhausting." She nodded once as they all seemed to wave her off a clever comment lost on the tips of their tongues; though, she grinned as Lord Van Dyke smirked her direction.

The White Princess then walked with an angry herd of people at her tail.

"Emma! Why did you do that?!"

"We're not going to compete for the Queen's hand! Not after everything that's happened!"

"Dear, think about what you're agreeing to."

"There has to be another way!"

"You shouldn't have to do it!"

Emma turned to all of them once she was at her family's guest quarters door. She gave them all a tired smile, "I know I shouldn't have to, but the fact of the matter is that I do. There isn't another way, I know what I'm agreeing to, the rest of you will compete, and I mainly did it to get it over with." She sighed and just as protests were about to explode at a decibel rate she wasn't sure should be able to be produced by humans, she put her hand up, "No… no." she shook her head telling them to stop before they started, "Tired. Beaten. Defeated the Dark One and Regina's mother. The week's end is the new start of the competition. Let us sleep. Let us talk about this later."

She looked to Regina and kissed her cheek, "I'm also hungry and going to your room… Will you feed me and sleep with me and love me?" She whispered.

As she glanced, she saw her grandmother, Aurora, and Queen Red grinning no doubt having heard what she said or reading her thoughts or something, and Chip was blushing a bit as he pretended not to hear what she said. She gave him a slight smirk before turning to go into the chambers.

Snow, Charming and Eva followed, shutting and locking the door behind them.

Regina sighed from the outside, "She's not to be reasoned with now. We'll reconvene once she's rested and willing to listen."

"She seams stubborn as her mother and father, are we sure that her being 'willing to listen' will ever happen?" Red asked jokingly.

Regina gave the other queen a look letting her know that she wasn't sure it would, "I'm tired as well, and I'm sure everyone that traveled with me is exhausted too. Whether she's willing to listen or not, she's right. We need to rest." She gave them all a smile before poofing out of the hallway.

She first appeared in the kitchen where most of the kitchen staff had returned from the excitement of the courtroom.

"Your Majesty!" Holly, the main cook looked at the evaporating smoke to see which magical being was gracing her with presence, "You must be exhausted! What are you doing in my kitchen?"

"Yes, you should go to sleep…" Gwyneth, the first of a pair of friends that could rarely be separated said.

Kendall, Gwyneth's second half started in, "Especially if the White Princess is also going to bed…"

The pair wore matching, knowing grins as Regina blushed.

The Shadow Queen looked anywhere but at the best friends before her, "I need sustenance. Holly do you have snack food?"

"I do." Holly nodded as she made a plate with various cheeses, crackers, meats, fruits, vegetables and matching dips for the fruits and vegetables—all of them, Regina noted were the snack foods Emma claimed to like most. She gave it to the queen and smiled, "I have one more thing." The cook walked to her refrigerator and walked back out with a small chocolate cake.

"Chocolate cake?" Regina asked as she looked to the cook.

"We knew it was her favorite. We made one a day since she left, preparing for her return. It's fresh." Holly smiled as she stuck two forks in the cake and handed it over as well.

Regina didn't feel the tears, she only noticed that the counter got wet as she looked down. She sniffled slightly and smiled up to the three women, "Thank you ladies." She then poofed out of there.

~0~0~0~0~0~

Snow and Charming tried to follow their daughter to her room, but they were stopped, "Snow, dear." Eva looked from her daughter to her son-in-law, or what would be her son-in-law were she not dead, "Charming. Come. Sit. She needs rest."

"She's going to Regina." Charming stated as relented chasing after his daughter, knowing that was why Eva was trying to stop them. He plopped with his wife on the couch in the living room

Eva sat on a chair adjacent to the couch, "Would you do any different, were you in her shoes?"

Charming glanced to his wife, "I suppose I wouldn't." He patted his wife's knee relaxing into the cushions before lurching forward. "Just like I wouldn't let the court tell me that I should either be disqualified or start from the beginning of a competition!" he growled his anger. "I promised Regina that I would do everything I could to not have the competition be an issue—"

"Char—Charming, Charming!" Snow wrapped her arm around her husband, placing her hands on his shoulders, squeezing in effort to sooth, "Darling, you need to calm down. There's nothing we can do right now, today…" She turned to her mother, "Is there?"

Eva shook her head, "You need not fret." She looked to the man that made her daughter so unbelievably happy, "I'm here to help."

Snow smiled over to her mother, "And will you stay after you do?"

Eva gave her daughter a sad smile back, "I'm afraid I can't be down here forever. Just when I am absolutely needed."

Snow seemed to get irrationally upset, "So, you help us then you just leave? The gods think that fair?"

"The gods are merely advisors for me. Snow, dear it's my decision. And I know that after I help I need to go back to my plane."

"Can't you stay for a little while?"

Eva now grinned, "I'll stay for a wedding or two, give myself a reward." She nodded.

~0~0~0~0~0~

"Oh, man! You guys wouldn't believe it!" Artie jumped with excitement before taking a sip from his chalice as he looked to all the royals and guards and a few workers that were listening to his relaying of events in the garden.

He had napped for an hour or two before hunger and thirst called for him, and it was as his cousins walked over to the picnic he had set up with a few royals at their sides, did he decide to start in on his tale.

"Arely. Pompous, egotistical, ladies' man, Arely that we think only thinks of himself and is all too arrogant, walks out to the dock, and begins whistling." Artie mimics the tune.

"My Jolly Sailor Bold." King Eric provided for everyone.

"That's the song merpeople enjoy most…" Ariel added, "Well… it's the song merpeople grace humans with presence for before…"

"Before…?" Nancy asked with wide, curious brown eyes.

"Before they lure their prey face first into the water, pretending to assure them a kiss before eating them." Eric provided.

Nancy gasped and moved into her husband's lap from her spot next to Ariel.

"Calm down, Nancy… I'm a vegetarian. And I'm human now…"

"Right…" She hugged her husband tighter, "I just love my husband…" She tried before grinning, knowing it was a lost cause, "How does a mermaid stop eating humans if that is apparently what they do?"

"I've never eaten one…" He shrugged, "My father is the leader of the only known clan of vegetarians. We are of peaceful nature and tend towards befriending humans… despite fathers' wishes sometimes." He raised and lowered his brows once before taking his husband's hand.

"Interesting." Nancy looked back to Artie, "So, what happened next?"

Artie smiled, "Well, next, I think our dear Arely was pricked with Cupid's bow. Cordelia emerged. They talked, they kissed and Arely came back to us. He said they'd made a 'pact' and would bring us to the entrance of the castle."

"And the castle was really inside the lake?" Edward asked.

"It was underneath it. Buried for no one to ever see."

~0~0~0~0~0~

As evening settled in, Graham, Hook, Chip and Arely found themselves on one of the side porches, beers in hand, a fire going in the center, obnoxiously elegant, fire pit.

Hook looked between Arely and Chip, "You know, Prince Chip—"

"Please, we're far passed formalities, are we not?" Chip gave the older gent a look.

Hook smiled, "Chip, you seem to try to ignore Arely an awful lot."

"And?"

"And you still end up by his side." Graham chuckled taking a swig.

"Yes, well, it's hard to get rid of a gnat."

"Oh, come now. I am not merely a gnat."

Chip tried to hide his grin through his rant, but he knew that the other men knew he was letting steam off and actually respected the other prince. "But you are! You're annoying and inconvenient and always there when I need you the least. The only reason I've even tolerated you is because you've benefited Emma and the Shadow Queen, two women not unlike my mothers, whom I respect and are in that special kind of love. And I want to see that love last—that, Arely is why I haven't swatted you away."

Hook let out a laugh as he watched the two, "You two are just like Graham and myself." He looked to his best friend, "I suppose Bae was right, hm?"

Graham only grinned as he took another drink, "Absolutely." He looked at Chip, "Just let him do as he wishes. He's not going away anytime soon. And despite realizing it, soon you will find him amusing and actually seek him out."

"He's talking from personal experience." Hook added. "Yup, I am the apple of his eye—Oh! No, that's wrong, I'm merely his brother now. The apple of his eye is Ruby."

"Ruby?" Arely asked with a wide grin.

"Who's Ruby?" Chip gave a grin of his own.

~0~0~0~0~0~

Alexander and Patrick walked along the corridors of the castle. They walked until they found the vacant quarters they were told about by an interesting, formerly crazy birdie that answers to the nickname 'Briar Rose' and merely walked over to them with a smile and told them where they could not be interrupted for alone time.

They looked down either end of the hallway before Patrick pushed his prince against the wall and tried to open the door. Finally successful, it took all of three seconds to separate and move stealthily into the open quarters.

Pinocchio was walking out of his quarters at the other end of the hall at the most inopportune moment; he caught the tail end of the display of affection and could only stare on. Not because it was something he'd never seen, or thought public displays of affection gross, or was just surprised that they finally found vacant quarters to be together in.

No, it was merely because he was jealous. He watched the two men look at each other with such passion, passion that rivaled his Queen and the White Princess. Passion that could only seem to take place in a story, but somehow manifested between two real people.

He'd had that once. He'd had that passion. But he'd lied about who he was. And then when he told her he wasn't who she thought, he lied again. And since all he seemed to be able to do was lie to her, he walked away. He wasn't the good boy, the good man he'd promised his father and the blue fairy he'd become.

He looked down as he stuffed his key in his pocket. Maybe he could make up for it. Maybe she would understand, possibly even to the point that she could forgive him. Maybe she would let him in just enough to let him show her how much he had changed. How much he tried to make up for the fact that he let her down. Twice. Maybe more times than he knew.

Maybe after watching his best friend go through all he'd gone through and be left to raise a child alone. Maybe after helping raise her, seeing the father's pain dead-on, maybe he had finally found perspective.

Maybe, just maybe, she would speak with him.

He turned, digging his key from his pocket and made his way back into his quarters. He knew he had packed away some traveling dust, just in case he got the urge. He gave the vial a hopeful look before he sprinkled some over his head.

~0~0~0~0~0~

"Okay, little girl." Jefferson carried his toddler into her bedroom. "Time for bed."

"But Daddy, I don't want to go to bed. I'm the Queen."

Jefferson smiled, "You know very well that you're not the Queen anymore. But you were a very good Queen." He said as a side note. "You didn't let any of the court members push you around. You told them 'No'. You did everything you were supposed to do, Munchkin."

Grace smiled, "I did. I membered what Aunt Regina always does and I did dat."

"That's my girl." Jefferson put her in bed and pulled her covers over her.

"Did she tell you how regal she was as a queen, Sir Jefferson?"

Jefferson turned, "Delaney." He smiled to the girl's nanny, "She was just relaying events."

"Good." She started for the door.

"Please. Stay. I'm just putting her down." He gestured to Grace.

Delaney nodded, "Alright."

"Daddy?" Grace said through a big yawn.

"Yes, pumpkin?"

"Is Emma really going to let the court push her around?"

Jefferson looked off to the side, "I don't think so." He pursed his lips, "Emma always seems to be about 13 steps ahead of everyone else. Wouldn't you say?"

Grace nodded, "She's sneaky and smart. I didn't know she had even beened here before!"

Jefferson smiled, "I know!" he tickled her a moment before tucking her in, "I think that Emma is just letting the court think they are getting their way."

Grace looked up in thought, "Wow… That is smart."

"And sneaky." Delaney added before turning off Grace's lights and waiting for Jefferson to come to the living room.

~0~0~0~0~0~

The Genie retired to his room just after the White Princess and the Shadow Queen disappeared. He moved to his carpet at the center of his living room. Everyone always asked him why he didn't want a coffee table to set over it, and he always brushed them off. He wasn't going to tell them that the carpet was magical, that would just be one more thing he would have to worry about.

He sat down at the carpet's center and flicked some leftover dust from its corner. The carpet came to life and moved the Genie around in a circle as if asking where it should take him.

"You know where." He told the carpet. And in a flash, they were off.

A trip that should have taken them days—weeks to complete took a mere matter of minutes. He knocked on the door of the large cabin hidden in the side of the Grecian mountain and waited.

Soon the toddle of a child was seen in the low lights inside and the door opened. The little girl's hair was pulled into pigtails and she wore purple pajamas. She looked up and her wary features were overtaken with delight, "Daddy!"

"Hello, Amelia." Genie smiled down to the girl.

The seven-year-old tugged on Genie's hand and brought him inside. After locking the door, she jumped into her father's arms, "Why were you gone so long this time?"

"Well, my darling, the Dark One and Cora kidnapped one of Regina's competitors… I had to stay to help her."

Amelia held onto her daddy's face as she listened, "I guess that's okay." She turned to look into her house more, "Momma? Daddy's home."

Amelia's mother was leaning against the walkway between the open living room and the kitchen, "Hello, Genie."

Genie gazed at the woman before him with a slightly lazy smile, "Calliope." He set his daughter on the ground and walked over to her mother, hugging the beautiful woman, "I'm sorry I—"

"I know why." Calliope assured, pulling back a bit, taking his face. "I'm a Muse for heavens' sakes. Not only that, but I'm the Muse of Epic Poetry." She smirked and moved away from him, going to the kitchen to make all of them a snack.

"Just what does that mean? That you are the Muse of Epic Poetry? What's that to do with where I was?"

Calliope turned with a grin, "You know, what it means, darling."

"Emma's gonna be an Epic, daddy." Amelia felt the need to clarify for her father.

"Is that what it means?" He grinned to the girl before picking her up again, settling on the counter barstool with her and looking over to his lover.

"Yes." Calliope turned around, "Though, I think she is going to be my simplest, least complicated story."

"The White Princess? Simple?"

Calliope went back to her task as she spoke, "Well, darling, she's a Pure One, and therefore needed to remain Pure. She's not like the others; she's going to commit a crime of any kind. She's not Oedipus; she's not going to kill her mother and sleep with her father—vice versa in the real epic's case. She's not Rama, she won't make Regina walk through fire to see if she did in fact sleep with Ravana, then reject after she comes out clean. She's definitely not Gilgamesh. The gods won't need to create an Enkidu, a grotesque counterpart for her to challenge her and show her that a hero isn't one who takes girl's purity, and is a glutton for food, and is greedy and prideful and envious and—well, all of the fifteen evils."

She turned back around and set sandwiches in front of her lover and their daughter and placed another next to them as she walked around to sit. "She's simply a Pure One that fell in love with an amazing woman that overcame so much in her life. She'll fight to the death, take any beating and murder anything that threatens her love or any of the people she cares for. She's flawed, sure, but nothing like my early epics. The worst that's happened, and will happen is that flirtation with Maleficent." The Muse waved that incident off.

"You just couldn't resist yourself, could you?" Genie chuckled as he took in Calliope's reaction. He picked up his sandwich, "Does she have a happy ending?"

Calliope gave her man a serious look, "That, I don't know yet."

~0~0~0~0~0~

Gustave had wandered around for the majority of the afternoon. He, like a few others did eventually go to his bedchamber to catch up on sleep, but he woke up hungry long after dinner had come and gone.

He made his way into the kitchen and tried to subtly poke around for a snack.

"Sir Gustave!" Kendall walked in from the yard with an apron filled of homegrown vegetables. She set them on the counter and looked to the knight, "What are you doing in the kitchen?"

"Well, I've found myself hungry, and I figured the kitchen would be a good place to look…" He smiled.

"Sir Gustave!" Gwyneth made her way into the kitchen as well, "You missed dinner."

"I did." He nodded. He took detailed note on the dreamy look in the best friends' eyes.

"Sit." Gwyneth patted one of the chairs at kitchen's table.

Gustave smiled at the woman and sat down.

Gwyneth placed her hands on his shoulders and squeezed comfortingly, "We'll get you some leftovers."

Kendall, who had already started up the stove, made her way over with a snack tray. "Here." She put some cheese on a cracker and fed it to him, giving her friend a warning look, "It's the best cheese you've ever tasted, right? The Queen has impeccable taste in all things including the simplest of foods." She wiped her thumb across his bottom lip and smiled, "Crumb." She said by way of excuse.

Gustave suddenly lost his appetite as he looked between the two lovely kitchen workers. "You're beautiful." He stood and looked to Kendall, taking her cheek with one hand before turning to Gwyneth, "The both of you… exquisite." He smiled as he took Gwyneth's cheek with his free hand. "Just how deep does your friendship run?"

~0~0~0~0~0~

Dunstan had gone to the library that evening. There he saw Queens Belle and Red. Though they looked as though they might be needing to find a room, or at the very least a dark corner sooner rather than later.

He smiled their way after he caught their eyes and they caught his, then he moved down the closest isle. All of it seemed to be over dance. He saw a book over the forbidden dances and just stared at the spine.

His mind wandered back to the only reason he was eliminated from the competition. Not that he still wanted to be in the competition. Even though he guessed he was at this point once more. But, the book made him remember that he'd never gone out and lived before this competition.

He'd remembered passing by a tavern that Artie said had good dancing when they first embarked to find Emma. At the time he wanted to scold the youngest prince, but realized, the boy was trying to keep his mind occupied. He stared for about four more seconds of debate before he strutted his way out of the library.

He was going dancing. Who knows? Maybe he would even find a girl, fall in love and have his life changed forever in that one night.

~0~0~0~0~0~

Dunstan was not wrong about Belle and Red. In fact, after they watched him walk out, Red smirked and leaned in to her wife, nipping at her neck.

"Darling!" Belle's voice was high pitched and surprised as she tried to push the other woman away, but Red refused and pushed her into a darker isle before pushing her against the wall of books. "Darling!" This time Belle moaned the endearment, turned on to the point that it could rival their honeymoon night.

~0~0~0~0~0~

Maleficent and Aurora went back to their guest bedchamber. They napped for a long while. It was actually Aurora who woke up first. She sat up and looked over the other woman before she let her fingers roam over curly, frizzy blonde locks and finally began tracing the features she'd fallen so tragically in love with.

She giggled at her own thoughts.

"What's so funny?" Maleficent opened an eye and looked at the girl.

"Nothing. Well…" Aurora smiled and waited to see the other woman's eyes, "Tragically."

Maleficent raised questioning brows, "Tragically?"

"That's how in love with you I am, Phyllipina."

Maleficent swallowed the lump that swiftly made its presence known. She nodded as she sat up and took her princess's face, "That's a good word." She swallowed again, letting her hands fall to the other woman's shoulders, then waist as she pulled her into her lap to hold onto her tight.

Aurora nodded, and smiled as sinewy arms made their way around her body. She took her love's face, soothingly tracing the apples of her cheeks back and forth, just staring in her eyes. She pressed her forehead against the other woman's, "Phyl?"

"Yes, Briar Rose?"

"I think that it's time for you to make love to me."

Maleficent choked out a laugh, "Is that what time it is?"

"Yes. I'm all here now. Just a little different, but I can feel it all again. And I need to feel you again."

Maleficent stared into the depths of Aurora's eyes, "I have been waiting for this day far too long."

"As have I." Aurora smiled and kissed the other woman.

~0~0~0~0~0~

Regina and Emma had made a cocoon in front of the Shadow Queen's burning fireplace in the bedroom. Rather, they somehow ended up in a cocoon in front of Regina's burning fireplace after they woke up and made all kinds of love from the heated, passionate kind; to the 'I never thought I'd see you again' kind; to the slow, delicate kind.

They were both happily, gloriously naked. Regina was sitting astride her princess's lower back, giving her a massage, watching the firelight catch the snowdrop diamond on her finger in the most brilliant ways. She had a lazy smile on her face as she leaned down and kissed Emma's spine between her shoulder blades.

"Mm." Emma grunted before pushing up a bit, signaling she was turning over. Regina stayed astride the blonde and now sat her hips. They stared at each other, relishing the other's look. Emma's hands found their way to Regina's hips, thumbing over the bones, "I love you, Regina Maria Mills."

"I love you, Emma Louise Swan White."

"I'm gonna marry you one day."

Regina swallowed hard with sigh and a nod, "You are."

Emma pushed up so that she was sitting, she caught her lover before she fell backward and held her tight, kissing and nipping her neck.

Regina leaned back a bit more, breaking contact with Emma's lips, grabbing the tumbler they'd put next to the fireplace and took a sip of cider. Emma stared at her with focused, dilated eyes the whole time. She watched the liquid move down the woman's throat and her stare moved back to her eyes. Regina only smirked before placing the edge of the glass against Emma's lips letting the blonde drink as well. After Regina set the glass back down, Emma moved up to kiss the woman's lips one or twelve times.

Regina giggled as she pulled from her lover, "Emma?" She tilted her head as she held onto the blonde's jaw to keep her attacker at bay.

"Yes, my love?"

"Why did you agree to start the whole thing over again?"

AN: Some of you are going to kill me for not answering the one question we all had… Next chapter! I promise! Thoughts and feels? Read and Review, please!