Well I decided on a song. Sort of. Doing that thing I did in Road To Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions and Parallels when can't really choose: Use one for the chapter title and hide the other(s) in chapter. I'll let you know what ones and where at the end in case it's too vague.

Things to be answered this chapter: A little of Blue's past as well as why Pan's Shadow is different. It's not a happy story...in case you've somehow been asleep the last 21 chapters.

Questions likely to be raised: Is the writer an escaped mental patient? Or one that just hasn't been admitted yet?

Having beat out others by a hair, Disturbed's Down with the Sickness starts us off.

*Centuries before the casting of the Dark Curse*

The clouds above were dark and omimous. Certainly this was not the night for a stroll.

"Mother?" An unsure young man called to the woman walking slightly ahead of him.

"Yes my Prince?" She asked, voice laced with concern for his demeanor.

"What are those?" Rufio gazed warily at the black crystal spires arranged in some sort of array around them as they walked to the center it. He couldn't for the life of him remember how they ended up in the courtyard. Wait, there was something inside them.

"Others just like you. A generation of all my sons and daughters."

"?!" The teen squinted and gasped. He could just make out humanoid shapes within the nearly opaque structures. "B-but I thought I was your only child..." There had to be dozens of them! He tried to swallow the fear rising in him to no avail. Why didn't he know of them? Why were they in those, those things?!

"Have you ever wondered why no other fairies are allowed within my castle walls, only human servants? Why you receive such hateful stares when you've ventured out? Oh yes I know of your little excursions." She turned suddenly, black and navy dress flourishing dramatically as she did. Her eyes remained kind as she reached up to stroke his cheek.

"I don't-"

"You're so tall, now. You've grown up quite well Rufio; so sweet and caring if not brass and sometimes prideful. But so damn naive. Despicable traits you could only have inherited from him." Her lip curled in disgust, that gentle hand snatching ahold of crimson and ebony locks with a vice grip. "No, you're not my only child merely my last, my favorite, the one I loved most. How unfortunate for you. They will feel nothing but you will."

Rufio was forced to his knees as something dark oozed from the cracks in the stone floor. It encased his legs and arms freezing him in a kneeling position. Looking up he saw his mother, the woman he had been cared for by, though he was cared about by, stand over him brandishing a long, strange knife. That was dripping red. Why was it-

Wet warmth flowed down his front. Opening his mouth to scream, all he did was spew blood from his lips. About then the sting from ear to ear hit him. Blood flowing down his shirt, pooling in his lungs as well. Suffocating and burning him from within. The instant it touched the symbols etched in the floor, they glowed an angry red bathing the entire area in that light. The dark crystals surrounding them hummed with power and the bodies within were incinerated as they too glowed. The clouds above parting to reveal the twinkling sky.

"I always told you child nothing is impossible when you wish upon a star. So long as it's the right star. So long I have waited. The gate way to immortality and ultimate power is at it's zenith this night. And you will help me achieve it." She sank to his level, heedless of the sanguine fluid being absorbed by her clothing. "I've given you everything my son. Don't you think you owe your dear mother?"

With a mocking coo, she ripped his heart from his chest and crushed it in her delicate hands. Watching the light in her treasured son's eyes fade out like a snuffed candle.

*OUATE*

"No...that can't be true!" The Blue Fairy sobbed. She violently shook her head as her balled up fists bled. At some point in pulling the memory forward he had dropped her in the heap of broken glass and books. Despite the thoughts she had the instant she saw him before her...what she witnessed could not be true! It just couldn't! Those were nightmares, she couldn't possibly be that evil!

"Oh spare me, I know you remember. The rebound having muddled your mind for only a short time. Once you came to your senses, you did everything in your power to bury your legacy. To purify yourself for godhood, you shoved all your sins into me. You sacrificed my life...altogether the lives of 72* of YOUR OWN FLESH AND BLOOD to become all powerful you fucking bitch!" The black aura whipped around the room slaming her into her desk. His eyes no longer flashed but burned a hot white as he raged. "I can't separate myself from my siblings, from anything I've done since that night. Before I knew it, I'd given up all that was left and allowed myself to become you."

"If it true nngh...why didn't it work? Why am I not a god?" She stood defiantly despite the ribs she knew to be broken.

"Because your ascension was intercepted and rebuffed two fold, mother dear. You wiped any darkness from your soul yet you generated an immeasurable amount of dark power all in one act. If the moon had not interfered, it would have killed your stupid ass. Instead you awoke the next day as you are from the ashes of the Black Fairy. Clutching what would become the Dark One's Dagger for dear life."

Another blast sent her careening into a far wall. By this point, the other fairies were trying desperately to get into the room. But shadows had sealed the door shut.

"I won't kill you now but don't ever think I'm letting you go. I'm all fucked up because you are. For that I'm going to destroy you slowly." He hissed snatching her hair to make her look him in the eye. "You thought you owned me, but you really didn't know me mother. You were only in my way."

*OUATE*

"What the hell does that mean?" Regina scoffed. "Your riddles and vague innuendoes are getting old."

"I agree, shocking as it may be. Since we're all in such danger, don't you think you should stop yanking our chains?" Rumple growled.

The two teens shared a quick look. Peter shrugged and Felix huffed then rolled his eyes.

Gabriel continued to look decidedly uninterested in the happenings around him. Instead going to inspect the potted plants by the windows as if he hadn't hinted at anything at all.

"Well Rum what if I were to tell you owe your immense power to the horrific deaths of 72 innocent fairy children?" Pan smirked.

"Well I wouldn't exactly be surprised. Other than the cost being rather low in terms of a massing magical energy no matter the source. But what has that to do with anything?"

"LOW?!" Emma and Snow both screamed.

"Numbers are very important, especially when one of them happened to be the thing the Black Fairy loved most. She she bore, imprisoned then murdered her own children trying to become all powerful. Raising only one to become attached to and be the lynchpin in her scheme. Just couldn't convince her what she felt for him was real enough to change her mind. Unfortunately for her, she didn't account for all the variables. She would have died without my master's interference. She sort of did though. In the end her instrument of murder became imbued with that essence. The same weapon you were tricked into using so long ago and now rests wherever you've hidden it Rum. My shadow is the amalgamation of what remained of those children she damned. The dominant persona being the favorite, driven to the point of madness by her betrayal. And what was left of that wicked fairy? Well you call her Blue. She's got to listen now, whether she likes it or not."

For the first time since they'd formed this truce, silence reigned without magical assistance.

*OUATE*

Yep. The Black Fairy wanted power so badly she thought nothing of having 72 kids (fairies sorta live a long time anyhow...) just to kill them for it. Unknowingly laying the groundwork for the Dark Curse.

That happened.

This also explains the way the shadow sounds, his voice is literally 6 dozen angry, somewhat insane, people talking at once,

*No, that number isn't random. Don't you guys know me by now? Quick numerology lesson. 7 is linked to the moon and wisdom (things Gabriel embodies, of course this ritual got his attention...and pissed him off). Two is the balance, yin-yang, duality. Together they equal 9, the number of completion of processes. The number 1 (representing what her kids became) is linked to the universe, beginnings, the source of all.

As for the hidden songs, I fully blame Pandora Radio and my muse trying to be clever by taking lyrics and modifying them:

Dirt Room by Blue October: "...don't ever think I'm letting you go...You thought you owned me, but you really didn't know me..."

For You by Staind: "...I'm all fucked up because you are..."

Just Like You by Three Days Grace: "You were only in my way."

Figure.09 by Linkin Park: "I can't separate myself from my siblings, from anything I've done since that night. Before I knew it, I'd given up all that was left and allowed myself to become you."

Faint by Linkin Park: "...Just couldn't convince her what she felt for him was real enough to change her mind...She's got to listen now, whether she likes it or not."

Love it? Think I need my head checked? No strong feelings either way? Lemme know anyway.

Reviews are like hugs! Sirensoundwave out!