Notes: Huge apologies for taking so long to update. My semester started, work went nuts and I'm teaching...and *headdesk* I think I have a better handle on my life now so it should (hopefully) go much quicker. Thanks for sticking around.
Settling back in her chair, Maleficent let the Mirror play out his little drama for her. Apparently he could show her what was happening through any mirror in the land, which would be useful as she plotted her revenge. She sharpened the talons on her left hand, scraping the claws against marble to wear them into points, as she watched Regina through the hand mirror she so innocently trusted. Surely she knew the Mirror could see everything she did, but then foresight had never been one of Regina's talents.
Regina dressed slowly, fidgeting with her clothing as she pulled it on. Magic had healed her so that Maleficent's attack hadn't even left a bruise on her skin. Regina had always been jealous of good, did she now enjoy the privileges the heroes camp had to offer? The way she loving tucked her shirt around the swell of her belly, then carefully laced her breeches made Maleficent pause. Her hair was darker and her skin more olive than another queen Maleficent had once watched from afar. Dropping the sharpening stone, Maleficent retracted the onyx claws of her dragon form and let her hands return to their human state.
She remembered similar motions from that other queen. The same loving tenderness in her hands. Maleficent hadn't needed a mirror to watch her and the old sorrow, her deepest pain, rose into her throat.
Regina proved she wasn't an idiot and turned the mirror to the wood.
"About time you remembered your man in the glass," Maleficent murmured. About to send the mirror away because it now showed nothing, she heard Regina speak on the other side of the mirror, even though the reflection had gone black.
"Hello," she said.
The tentative way Regina formed the word, almost as if she feared her own unborn child would judge her for her weakness, cut into Maleficent's heart. Perhaps Cora had been right to rip out of her own. Life was pain, yet Maleficent welcomed the ache. She'd had years of her own thoughts as a dragon, slumbering away as the cursed decades past. She'd nearly forgot what it was to love and to bear the pain of letting love go.
"I know we're not supposed to go riding today."
"No, you certainly aren't," Maleficent answered her, ignoring that Regina could not hear her.
"We're supposed to be resting."
"You did just get attacked by me, dear, surely your patronising cerulean fairy told you to spend some time in bed?"
Regina insisted that she and the baby were fine. Maleficent tried to mock her, to summon the hatred she'd told herself burned so strongly, but instead she watched, listening to Regina's voice falter before it regained strength. Hating her would be simpler. Taking her child and crushing Regina's fragile happiness promised bitter vengeance, but Maleficent had no stomach for it as Regina continued.
She'd never destroyed love. She'd turned that little prince into a demon so he could prove himself, and sent Aurora and her mother into the cursed sleep, but she hadn't killed. She could tell herself she wanted it, that Regina and her white knight deserved their deaths for what they'd done, yet it rang false. Emma had only seen a terrible beast containing the damn golden egg her handsome prince of a father had stuffed inside her. Regina had trapped her as a dragon, but she'd always been a difficult friend. She hadn't killed her, even when Maleficent wished for death.
"You'll be loved from the moment we hold you. Every day," Regina finished within the mirror. Her voice cracked, soft with unshed tears and Maleficent's pity threatened to turn her own eyes.
She had true love, that had been proved beyond a doubt. Didn't she deserve the child too? Her Regina had been her friend through suffering, the only one who understood what it was to continue to lose, battle after battle and always be alone. Regina had her little family now, and Maleficent suspected it would not be difficult for the good to begin to forgive.
"Do you see why we must take her child?" The Mirror interrupted Maleficent's thoughts. "She loves the brat already. Taking it will make the queen suffer before she dies."
Were all men so simple minded? The dead king who'd given the Mirror his final wish hadn't seen what death lay next to him in bed.
King Stefan had never known the lengths his wife had gone to in order to give him the child Briar Rose. Queen Leah's memory still plagued her heart, gnawing at her with old, dull teeth.
Frustrated with her silence, the Mirror again called for Regina's head.
"I will see for myself," Maleficent hushed him. "Your powers are great, but I must see for myself."
"What more could you possibly wish to see? Take the child. Cut it from her if you must-"
Maleficent waved him quiet, putting enough magic behind the motion for him to truly understand what she meant. "Wait here for me." She made it a command, knowing he'd never obey. It was so much easier when one caused their own undoing.
Shrinking within herself, she took the wisp form. Travelling as dragon was quicker but it drew so much attention. Wisps were common enough in the Enchanted Forest for no one to pay them much thought. She reached out her senses, feeling for the enchantment on Regina's ring.
Trust the White Queen and her charming King not to realise that a tracking charm that powerful was accessible not just to the love birds they'd meant it for. Rumpelstiltskin would have known, but he'd kept it to himself as he always did. Perhaps it suited him to be able to find Emma and Regina at will. One of them waited within the castle: that would be the saviour. Regina had ridden out along the beach and Maleficent rushed through the woods from her Forbidden Fortress to the water.
Sticking to the trees, she kept herself down in the underbrush so the green light she radiated in this form wouldn't be that noticeable. She needn't have bothered, neither woman was paying much attention. Their horses walked lazily along the beach side by side as they talked. The White Queen was also with child and as they chatted about nothing, Maleficent realised there was affection between them. Snow had always been fond of her stepmother and that had once been a thorn in Regina's side, now she seemed to welcome it.
Maleficent had felt Cora's death, even as a wraith, and perhaps that had been the last obstacle between Regina and her long path to forgiveness. Maleficent too had a complex relationship with her mother, but hers had long been beyond repair. Fairies did not learn to be dragons. That was old magic, older than Reul Ghorm tolerated in her little coven.
Maybe she wouldn't have been so susceptible to Queen Leah's pleading if she'd been a better fairy. The power of the fairy sisterhood was great but it always had to be controlled. Not every pleading couple could have a child. Sometimes life refused to grow because of cruel fate and empty destiny. Maleficent had paid for her mistake, given the Reul Ghorm what she asked and accepted her exile. Regina had seen it as defeat, as had the kingdom, and she'd been content to retreat to her fortress with her pet.
The dark curse had needed a protector, and Maleficent had thought herself strong enough.
Regina's fall and her desperate hollowing of her own heart could have been prevented if Maleficent had been willing to sacrifice what she loved.
She hated sacrifice and was sick to death of the nobility of it. Paying the price of magic willingly was no better than blundering in blind of the consequences. Regina still did not know what she'd unleashed and what the final toll would be, but how could she? Dear, clever human that she was, she was still human, bound by the brevity of that existence.
Maleficent could have brought it to an end. Regina trusted her horse, only holding the reins in one hand, and even though she argued her strength, the fight yesterday had weakened her. Maleficent only need spook the horse, send it galloping along the rocky, uneven beach until not even Regina's magic could save her.
The taste of death had softened her, brought her closer to her child. A child Maleficent would never be able to take. Revenge, cold as it was, had no appeal to her now. Regina had reminded her that love was weakness, and it was that Maleficent embraced. She'd wanted to summon the wickedness everyone knew lived within her, but there were older battles to wage. Her weakness could feed her, bring her closer to the humans she'd never fit among.
Hovering along behind the queen that was and the queen who'd been, just out of their view, Maleficent listened as they spoke of Emma, of potential names for the baby Emma was so convinced was a girl and how the baby would arrive, most likely in the dead of winter with snow wailing outside.
Maleficent's traitorous memory brought up another snow storm and she again forced it down. Now was not the time to think of Leah and her daughter. The granddaughter was here too, Maleficent could feel her in the castle above the water. Perhaps she'd rebuild her family's legacy, putting her own kingdom back together someday.
She would enjoy seeing that. Letting go of revenge lightened her heart and listening to Regina speak of nothing but her love for her daughter shifted Maleficent's ancient mind. The Reul Ghorm might say Regina did not deserve her happiness, but shaking up the balance had always been so much fun.
She'd go to him, the beast, and let him wax rhapsodical about the plot he'd wrought in the mine. Maleficent could sense the darkness there better than most because she knew blackness. She'd held the dark curse in her hands and kept it safe until Regina had overwhelmed her.
That she could forgive. Regina hadn't understood, or perhaps hadn't even cared how much the curse would take from her. She still didn't know what she'd unleashed by breaking it. The saviour's heart had great strength and the birth of the one who slept would go far towards settling the balance. It wasn't enough.
Humans could never feel the threads of their universe unravel and perhaps that was their gift. The itching tug of imbalance in the back of Maleficent's mind nagged like a constant headache. Dead had meant a moment of quiet in her dark, unyielding life. If only Emma had been allowed to truly end her and finally set her free.
Fate held her, far crueller than Regina and stronger still than the Reul Ghorm. Maybe she'd had too much power too long, because Reul Ghorm should have known what Maleficent did. She should have been able to sense it.
If she did, well then, that would be an interesting turn.
The Mirror spoke from the starlight sea. "Aren't you going to stop her?"
"What did I ask you to do?" Maleficent said, returning to human form. The cool air gave her strength rather than chilling her.
"Regina is there, undefended. You can kill her in front of the queen or kill them both. You could end all of this."
Staring at him in the reflective sea, Maleficent allowed herself a smile. "You're right." Summoning her powers, she pointed both palms at the Mirror in the sea. Dragging up the depths of destruction within her, Maleficent blasted him through the reflection, through every mirror in the kingdom that he dwelled within, through each surface that allowed him a window unto Regina, she burned him. Scorching him clean from existence, Maleficent blew smoke from her nails and shrugged.
"Now you're free."
That display had surely drawn attention so she embraced the dragon form, rising into the sky and turning her wings to home. Without the Mirror, spying would be more difficult but his rambling had been useless. Revenge was not what she wanted, nor did she want to break Regina's fragile heart. As difficult as she was, she was a friend and Maleficent had so few.
She'd grown soft, but all things did as they aged and even granite cracked with time. She wouldn't rush. Time had always been on her side, so she would wait. Perhaps even sleep until fate was ready to reveal itself.
"The mirrors just shattered," Emma said. The servant girl swept the glass from the floor and shook out the rugs. "Apparently it happened all over the castle."
Regina tugged her jacket tighter over her body, almost as if she were trying to hide. Though she'd come in from her ride flushed and happy, now she'd gone pale.
Emma waved the servant girl away. "I'll finish."
"Yes, your highnesses, your majesty." The girl curtsied, everyone was always curtsying to Emma and she could never figure out what she was supposed to do in return. Smile?
Snow smiled graciously, so Emma followed suit. The girl disappeared behind the oak door. Regina paced in front of the bed, her riding boots clicking against the stone.
"What is it?"
"All the mirrors in the castle broke at once?"
Emma shrugged. "Not all of them. The ones near us, our room, the corridor on the way to the throne room, not in Aurora's room, but the one in Mom's room."
Crossing her arms over her chest, Regina turned. "Places I've been?"
Snow extended a hand to Regina, stroking her stiff arms on her chest. "It's all right. He can't hurt you."
"What's going on?" Emma asked. Staring at both of them got her nowhere, so she focused on her mother. Snow would tell her first.
"You knew him as Sydney Glass," Snow said. Guiding Regina towards the bed with a gentleness Emma adored in her mother, Snow sat down beside her. "In this world he's a genie. My father found him in a lamp on the beach and freed him. My father thought of himself as a kind man."
Regina's expression darkened even further and when she started to pull away from her, Snow took her hand and held it close.
"He freed the genie with his first wish and used his second wish to give the genie the last wish, so the genie could begin a new life of his own choosing." Snow removed her riding jacket and handed it to Emma to hang in the ornate wardrobe. "The genie murdered my father because he thought he was freeing Regina to be with him."
"Because he loved me," Regina interrupted. "I made him love me."
"So what, he's after us too?" Emma stood in front of them, then stepped forward to reach for Regina's shoulder. Another danger was not what they needed, but she'd beat Sydney once, surely here with magic, that would be easier.
"So what, he's after us too?" Emma stood in front of them, then stepped forward to reach for Regina's shoulder. Another danger was just the icing on the damn cake, but she'd beat Sydney once, surely here with magic, it would be easier.
"He's trapped in mirrors, but the mirrors are destroyed." Regina leaned into her hand, just enough to make Emma aware of her concern. "I don't think he would have had the power to destroy them himself. He turned himself into an observer, nothing more. If he could have escape, he would have."
"Could Maleficent have freed him somehow?" Emma grasped at straws, but the number of people she knew with magic was limited to the fairies, Rumpelstiltskin, neither of which would have helped him, Regina, herself and Maleficent. Out of those five, the last was arguably the most dangerous and the only one who was currently violent towards them.
"Why would she?" Snow asked, looking at Regina.
Shaking her head, Regina forced her hands into her lap. "I don't know. Maleficent is not fond of men. She's a fairy."
"The fairies don't hate men," Emma said. Snow and Regina shared a look and that meant that this was another one of those things Emma just didn't know because she was a stranger to this place.
"They don't, now." Regina reached up for Emma's hand on placed her own over it. "The fairies are an ancient order, as old as the Dark One. In their history, they haven't always accepted that men had much purpose. Maleficent is an old fairy."
"She's hardly a fairy," Snow said. "She must have been banished centuries ago. Blue never speaks of her."
"She wouldn't." Regina's voice had a chill to it that Emma wanted to know more about. "Maleficent and Blue have history."
"Blue told me."
Regina's set of her lips suggested that there were conflicting accounts. "Let us say that Maleficent is a former member of the oldest fairy coven in this land and she remembers the old ways of their order. She'd feel little loyalty to any man and have even less interest for his well-being. She may have used the genie as an informant, but she'd hardly take the effort to free him." She took a breath, slowly filling her chest as her eyes met Emma's. "If the mirrors near rooms where I have been shattered as you say, I believe the genie may be dead."
"Dead?" Emma knelt in front of Regina, taking both her hands. "She'd do that?"
"Fairies have not always been glowing creatures in tutus who wish to be seen as kindly granters of wishes."
"Dead?" Emma knelt in front of Regina, taking both her hands. "She'd do that?"
"Fairies have not always been glowing creatures in tutus who wish to be seen as kindly granters of wishes."
Snow looked like she wanted to argue. She was pretty close to Blue and the other fairies, but she and Regina were trying to get along and Regina had definitely long been on the other side of the fairy issue.
"This wishes thing really doesn't go well here often, does it? Wish to Rumpelstiltskin and he takes your kid, wish to a genie and he might kill you, wish to fairies and what? What else can you lose?"
Neal had lost his father, though really that was Rumpel's fault, it probably hadn't helped him grow up to be the sperm donor he'd ended up being to Henry. Though he was trying and maybe this time together with the mermaids would be good for both of them. Thinking about Henry stung, as it did since he'd been trapped in the sea. Maybe this was the start of his teenage rebellion, but he didn't seem to mind as much as his mother's did. Maybe the kid just needed some time to figure himself out.
Regina and Snow shared a look. Having them almost on the same side was kind of weird, now that she thought about it. They had much in common and this look was all about losing their babies.
No one was going to take either of their kids this time, no matter what Emma had to do. Baby Trouble and Baby Charming would be safe. She had magic now, maybe if she got better, if she kept practicing, she could keep everyone safe. Add that to the ever growing list of responsibilities. Protect her family, protect the kingdom; be the saviour because there was always someone to save. It would be nice if the people who needed saving could stop being the people she loved for awhile.
"Perhaps you should speak to the Blue Fairy."
"I doubt she'll be truthful," Regina said. Her grip on Emma's hands tightened. "Aurora might know pieces of Maleficent's history, but I doubt her mother passed down the entire story. "
Snow frowned. "And you think she was truthful with you?"
"At the time we were friends and she was the only one I considered to be so. Why would she have lied?"
Emma kissed the back of Regina's hand, then returned to her feet. Her mother still looked unconvinced and the last place she wanted to be was between them in some kind of argument about the true nature of fairies. "I'll talk to Aurora and the Blue Fairy and try to get the whole story. Maybe Maleficent will agree to negotiate with me. I'm the one who killed her, perhaps I can find a way to make amends."
Regina stood, hands on her hips. "Emma, no. I trapped her."
"And you're pregnant." She hated having to throw that in there, but Maleficent was not hurting the baby, especially not through Regina. "I'm the child of true love, remember? I'm kind of immune to dark magic."
Wanting to negotiate seemed to have put Snow and Regina both back on the same side.
"Maleficent is not Cora. She does not take hearts," Regina said. Her lips set in a thin line, she watched Emma.
"She doesn't kill either, does she? She used the sleeping curse on Aurora and her mother, turned Phillip into a demon. I trust that you can save me from a sleeping curse and that my true love thing can save me from being a demon."
Snow turned her gaze to Regina, then folded her arms over her chest. "She certainly tried to kill Regina."
"So what, we skip talking and go straight to attacking? Do we kill her?"
"Perhaps," Regina said.
"When it's necessary," Snow agreed.
"Seriously?" Emma turned from both of them and paced in front of the shattered mirror lying on the table. She would happily toss Maleficent into the deepest dungeon for what she'd done to Regina, but straight up killing her was harsh. Regina had been the darkest force in the land, but she'd redeemed herself. Rumpel had traded, bargained and killed. He'd even written the curse that Regina had used to doom them all, but he'd helped save Henry. Where was the line? If it was killing, Regina did not deserve to be forgiven. If it was malevolent intent, Rumpelstiltskin probably shouldn't be living in his mansion on the outskirts of the kingdom.
"Can't we just take her magic?"
"She'd rather be dead," Regina said. Her hand slipped from her hip to the soft curve of her belly. "A life without magic would have no meaning for her."
Emma wanted to reach for her, to remind her that even magic, Regina had everything to live for, but Snow did it for her. Snow reached for her, pausing for permission in her eyes before she touched her belly. Snow's fingers followed Regina's, saying hello to her granddaughter.
Snow smiled but her eyes held sorrow. "She doesn't have anyone left to live for."
That was the limiting factor on Regina and Rumpelstiltskin. The beast had his beauty and the Evil Queen lived as Regina now. Maleficent had no one. She'd have to talk to her. Maybe there was a way to reach her. She had to have something. Rumpel had wanted his son back and Regina loved Henry. Was there someone, something out there Maleficent still loved?
"Killing her can't be the first plan. We can't do that."
Regina nodded, but Snow was unmoved. Was that the Queen's mask or had she changed so much now that she held the throne?
"Rumpelstiltskin may have a way to repel her, and the Blue Fairy will know how to keep her back, for now." Snow sounded confident, but Regina's face couldn't hide her doubt.
Emma wasn't sure how far she trusted either of them. The Blue Fairy had taken August's memories and turned him back into a boy. She'd made a deal with Geppetto that had taken Emma from her mother. She'd stopped Nova from being with Grumpy and the fairies seemed to have a pretty strange code governing their magic. Rumpel had been helpful, and maybe since he was happy here, with Neal back and Belle with him, he'd continue to be helpful. Though if he really had everything he wanted, maybe he had no motivation anymore. She had nothing to trade him.
For half a moment, her heart hardened, remembering how it had been her against a world of pain, alone. Her life wasn't that now. She had Regina, her parents, Henry, friends and a little future baby who was going to have Regina's dark eyes. She would never be alone again.
Snow found a smile. "You two should get to bed. You've had a long day." She pulled Regina close, embracing her and reaching for Emma to add to the hug. "Take care of each other."
"We do," Emma promised. "Congrats, mom."
Beaming at them both, Snow pulled Emma close to kiss her forehead. "Your father and I are so happy."
"We're happy for you." Emma spoke for both of them, and Regina's smile agreed. "Besides, two babies at once should be fun. We'll all be sleep deprived and overwhelmed together."
"Won't that be a picnic."
Emma wrapped her arm a little tighter around Regina's back. "You're the only one who's done this. You'll have to be our role model."
Regina's expression passed through disbelief to a soft kind of acceptance that filled her eyes with tears.
"We're going to do it together," Snow said. "Which is the best way."
She kissed them both again, even hovering over the swell of Regina's belly long enough to bid the baby goodnight.
Emma finally returned to the broken glass and swept it up into the crude wooden dustpan. Regina waved her hand over the rest of the mess and it vanished.
"Right," Emma said. "Magic cleaning."
"It's a little faster."
"It's a little faster. You could have easily done it yourself."
Emma wiped her hands against themselves, then washed them in the basin on the bureau. "That girl was doing a good job. I didn't want to make her feel bad."
"She's Grace. Jefferson's daughter. Your mother gave her a position in the castle's household."
"That's her?" Emma finished drying her hands. She reached for Regina's sleeve and started extracting her from her riding jacket. "She's a servant? Isn't she like, eleven?"
"Childhood is very different here. Grace will learn a good trade in the castle. She'll learn to cook, to manage a large household so when she's ready, she could run an entire castle someday. Your mother's given her a good life." Regina wriggled out of her coat, pulling her long shirt free of her trousers. The way she sighed made Emma smile.
"They're tight."
"What?"
"Your pants."
"Riding trousers are always tight."
Sliding onto the bed, Emma wrapped her hands around Regina's belly. "Tight here?"
"Not traditionally, no." Regina sighed again, leaning back into Emma. Closing her eyes, she reached back and touched Emma's cheek. "I don't know how long I can hide it."
"You're not really known for dressing simply." Emma nuzzled the back of her neck. "At least, so I'm told." Regina's outfits in the past were pretty amazing in Henry's book. "We don't have to hide it. I can ask Mom to say something, or I can. I can make an announcement in the next council meeting if you want, then it'll be out there. You don't have to worry. Nothing's going to happen to the baby. Maleficent doesn't even know."
"If the Genie is reporting to her, she knows." Regina stiffened. "Perhaps that's why she killed him."
Emma ran her fingers lower, exploring Regina's thighs. "Because you're pregnant? I'm sure if she's a crazy fairy, she killed him because he annoyed her, or said something she disagreed with. If she really wanted to hurt you, wouldn't it be better to keep him alive?"
"Perhaps."
"Look, if you stay in the castle for awhile, Maleficent can cool off and you and I together are definitely more than she can handle. We could even ask the fairies to see if they can bind her out of the castle."
"Her magic is too similar to theirs to be affected by a binding spell."
Much more interested in Regina's thighs and what lay between them than discussing the nature of magic, Emma kissed her way down Regina's neck. "So there are three kinds of magic?"
"Crudely, I can think of five that I have seen in our land." Regina inhaled deeply when Emma's fingers dove in. Perhaps Emma could convince her there were things more important than magic. "There's fairy magic, which uses the most precious stones to bear the price. Then there's the Dark One's magic, which takes the cost from you directly, hollowing you out and binding you to the dagger. There's the magic of the genies of the east. My magic is learned. It's based in emotion and from what I can tell, that cost can be paid in whichever emotion is strongest. My mother gave up love and became incredibly powerful. You were conceived in true love, and that makes you powerful in a way I haven't seen before."
Emma rubbed her belly again, peering over her shoulder. "Will Baby Trouble have magic?"
"I have no idea. I had to learn mine, as my mother did. Perhaps if she learned she would, but she may have no natural aptitude. Magic is quite rare, and the cost is often high."
Rising her hands to Regina's breasts, Emma slipped her fingers beneath Regina's shirt. "You and I have true love. You saved me with it."
"But we needed magic just to bring her into being." Regina shook her head. "I don't know. There may be something in Rumpelstiltskin's library, but I don't know if he'd want us to rummage through it."
Peeling Regina's trousers down her thighs, Emma guided Regina up to undress her properly. "If she has magic or not, you and I can keep her safe."
"We will." Regina found a smile before she turned to kiss her. Physical affection came much easier than talking for both of them. Pushing Emma down onto the bed, Regina slipped out of the trousers she'd worn riding and climbed onto Emma's lap. "I missed you today."
"Did you?" Emma teased. Wriggling out of her trousers, she sat up enough to pull her shirt up over her head.
"I did." Regina worked her way down Emma's neck, then began to unwrap the cloth around Emma's breasts.
"We could just reinvent bras," Emma said, studying Regina's breasts from her vantage point beneath them. "I'm sure the seamstresses can come up with something."
Slipping out of the binding she wore, Regina lowered herself just over Emma, so their skin touched. She licked a trail down Emma's stomach. The heat of her mouth quickly faded into the cool night air and Emma squirmed as she continued down.
"Do you think that's the only way one makes clothes?"
Regina's fingers worked their way up Emma's thigh, forcing Emma to work to concentrate.
"You haven't made clothes with magic."
Nuzzling Emma's stomach, Regina rested her chin just above Emma's hip. "Frivolity wouldn't serve the kingdom."
Reaching down to stroke Regina's hair, Emma let her fingers slide through. "Our kingdom."
Kissing Emma's stomach, Regina paused and smiled up at her. "I never thought I'd care to share with anyone." Her index finger ran slowly across Emma's labia, teasing the wetness beneath.
"I'd let you have it." Emma's gasped, nearly losing her words.
Regina lowered her mouth just enough to blow across Emma's sensitive thigh. "Oh really?"
Rolling her hips up towards Regina's mouth, Emma dug her hands into the sheets. "I'd let you have anything."
Laughing, Regina lifted Emma's legs, opening them up. Instead of touching her, Regina crawled up, sliding her breasts along Emma's stomach and settling into the space between her legs.
Sighing, Emma pulled her closer. "Anything."
"Funny how that keeps me from wanting it." Regina kissed her. "You can't make it too easy."
Emma ran her hand over the swell of Regina's belly. Beneath Emma's palm, her skin was silk, soft and warm. She traced the curve as it filled her hands. She'd never found pregnancy beautiful when it was her own body. Henry living within her only became sadder the larger he grew. Henry had been growing away from her, each day rushing towards the point where she couldn't keep him. Maybe he'd always been moving towards Regina, because both of them had needed her.
Pulling Regina tight to her, Emma kissed her. Letting the tears run hot down her face, she kept kissing until Regina held her face, stopping her.
"What is it?"
"You."
Regina removed her hand from between Emma's thighs and rested it just over her heart. "Me?"
"I love you."
Sitting back, almost confused, Regina leaned close. "I know that."
"Sometimes I can't get over it."
"What?" Regina settled on her side, propping herself up on her elbow.
"When I was pregnant with Henry, it was different."
Emma rolled on her side and Regina curled around her, her belly just big enough to be distinct against Emma's back.
"No fairies tried to kill you?" Regina meant it in fun, but Emma had nearly lost her, and an powerful fairy was out there, waiting.
She was going to talk to Maleficent. It didn't matter what she had to say, what she had to give up: Regina was a price she wouldn't pay. Not now that she was happy. Cora hadn't been able to take Emma's heart, maybe she'd be able to hold out. Somehow.
She needed Rumpelstiltskin. If anyone knew how to keep Maleficent at bay, it was him. Regina wouldn't like it.
Rolling over in Regina's arms, Emma held her tight with their foreheads' touching. "No one tried to kill me. No one's going to try to kill you either."
"Thank you." Regina whispered.
Running her fingers through her hair, Emma waited for Regina to explain.
"No one's ever tried to save my life as much as you have."
"I love you," Emma reminded her. "Maybe I did a little then too."
Regina's eyebrows rose. "You don't say."
"I tried not to."
"You?"
Emma sighed and shook her head on the pillow. "I don't know if I would call it love, but I definitely had a thing for you before we-"
"Got me knocked up."
Giggling, Emma grabbed the hand Regina had on her belly and kissed it. "Would you really have said that?"
"I overhead it. We had far more crude ways of saying it." Regina pursed her lips, suddenly prim. "Not that I knew any."
"Of course not."
Regina's hand slipped down Emma's stomach and dove between her thighs again. Emma's breath caught in her throat.
"I love you," Regina murmured in her ear. Sliding her fingers over before they went in, Regina claimed her body as she already commanded Emma's soul. She never cried during sex. Sometimes long after, when whoever it was had gone. Now she kept kissing so Regina would trust that her tears were happy ones. Her dark eyes still held sorrow, and a gentle concern her wife hadn't been capable of before.
Emma wasn't Graham. She wanted to be here. Even with tears pooling on her chin, Regina above and inside of her was exactly what she wanted. Regina's tongue against her clit spun Emma's head, sending her towards the brink of climax, but Regina couldn't watch her cry.
No amount of gasping and moaning Regina's name could convince her, and Regina's worry precluded her desire to see Emma finish. Emma had to love her for that, even when orgasm threatened to abandon her utterly.
"I'm all right," she whispered. Kissing Regina's lips over and over until tears and the taste of Emma's sex were melted together on both their tongues. "I nearly lost you."
Sliding in and out, reaching up and in, Regina's fingers continued to move. Emma squirmed against her, almost wishing she could just let it go. They needed to talk, but they had so little time alone and she wanted Regina, more than she wanted to talk.
"You didn't. Maleficent isn't a killer."
The argument Emma wanted to make, concerning a very angry dragon hell bent on burning her to a crisp, stopped abruptly. Regina's fingers teased, pushing harder against her clit until she buried her cry of release in Regina's shoulder. Emma held her tight, letting the fog take her thoughts and soften them.
Regina's certain whisper echoed. With her lips next to Regina's ear, Emma shook herself out of her melancholy.
"What did you mean?"
Regina sucked her fingers clean, then brushed Emma's cheek. "Maleficent isn't a killer."
"She went after you like one."
"She used the sleeping curse against Aurora and her mother."
Kissing the fingers that still tasted like her, Emma sighed. "And that means?"
"She had the Dark Curse, the one that created Storybrooke, and she has the dragon, either of those would have been much more effective than the sleeping curse."
"Effective."
"In a final sense."
"You think because she didn't kill Aurora when she had the chance, she won't kill you."
Emma sat up, and Regina pulled away from her, staring.
"Why wait?"
"Why didn't you kill Snow when you had the chance?"
"Your mother."
Emma caught Regina's chin so she couldn't look away. "It's all right."
"I hated her too much." Regina took her hands back, as if to pull entirely away.
Bringing her back, Emma kissed her hands, then the soft skin of her belly. "That's done now."
"I don't think Maleficent hates me that much."
Keeping her hands over the baby, Emma tried to believe her. "You kept her chained in a cave."
Regina wrapped her hands over Emma's.
"She was my only friend."
That old, consuming loneliness was something they always shared. Emma had grown up alone, but Regina had been alone within her family, then alone within her marriage.
"I needed her," Regina finished. "I couldn't curse her. Not like the others."
"Because she was your friend?"
"She protected the trigger, and my secrets."
Stroking Regina's arm, Emma wrapped her up in her arms and brought her back to the bed.
Regina lay silently as Emma hold her close. Her breathing slowed and Emma would have been willing to let it go, to pick up the whole mess in the morning.
"I don't have many secrets left."
Emma's hands joined Regina's above the baby again.
"Maleficent tried to stop me from using the dark curse. She fought me, her friend, to stop me. I never would have done that. I didn't think it was too terrible. I didn't think about my heart, but she did. She worried about my heart once, killers don't do that. I think she's better than that. Better than I was."
Emma rose above her, finding her lips. "You're not a killer now. You're better than you were."
"That doesn't make it disappear. You can't take that past from me." Regina smiled, but there was no mirth in it.
"We're not our pasts. I'm not a lost little kid who can't be a mother. You're not a killer. We all start out clean and life makes us dirty and maybe we do some of it ourselves, but that's not who we are. You're beautiful."
Regina laughed, shaking her head on the pillow. "That doesn't excuse my actions."
"Not that kind of beautiful." Emma stroked down her chest, across her belly then brought her hands back to Regina's shoulders. "You're beautiful inside."
Regina's tears crept from her eyes. "To you."
"I'm the one that matters. Me and Henry, and Trouble here."
"You can't just kiss it all away."
"This is true love," Emma reminded her. "When I kiss you, it breaks any curse. That's how it works here."
Regina shook her head and Emma kissed her. Kissing her again and again, Emma brought herself over her, slipping her leg between Regina's until she gasped.
"Whatever we have to do, we'll keep you safe, and Henry, and our baby. True love wins here, right?"
"For your parents." Regina's argument was breathy, half lost in the motion of Emma's leg between her own.
"Maybe I take after them."
"Which is certainly the height of irony if that's how you choose to defend me."
Emma ran her hand down, between their skin. Regina's hips rose to met her fingers. Her labia wet when Emma found her. She rolled her fingers over Regina's clit, making her moan.
"Gotta go with what works." Emma nibbled her shoulder, sinking two fingers deep into the heat of her.
Her thumb circled Regina's clit, forcing her to breathe faster. Regina twisted up, sending Emma's hand deeper. Emma played with her swollen breast, teasing her nipple. Regina dragged her hand away, clasping their fingers together. Watching her face, Emma brought her to climax with her fingers, sharing her breath when Regina gasped into her mouth.
Lying on top of her, the sheets and blankets spread around them as the cool air took the heat from their skin. Emma didn't believe the fairy tales. She'd known too much of the world, but this world was different, wasn't it? Maybe in this world everyone was redeemed, even those who'd lost themselves to the darkness. Regina's lay behind her, so did Emma's, it had to because a whole kingdom depended on her being the shining princess.
She'd never wanted to be the saviour. Saving Henry had been enough responsibility to nearly drown her and saving the town was an accidental bonus. If she could keep Regina safe and make a life here in the netherworld of fairy tales, maybe she'd find enough within herself to be ruler. Save her queen, learn to be one.
She could do it. She had to. Everyone depended on her and somehow that wasn't as terrible as it had once been. Yes, it was a terrible idea and no one in their right mind would have chosen her to be princess, but Regina had taken her as wife and Henry and this baby needed a mother. Emma could do that and maybe, if she was lucky, muddle through the rest.
With Emma gone into yet another council meeting and Mulan not yet allowed to return Regina to patrol (Snow was overprotective, she'd always been), Regina had a day without responsibilities. She'd never been good with her free time. In Storybrooke she'd had her garden, and there at least time had passed so she'd had something to do. Did she dare plant an apple tree? Would someone come for it? Did she need Snow's permission?
Her relationship with Snow was better than it had been in decades and she'd be allowed to plant a tree if she wished, if Snow and David would want her to was another consideration entirely, but they were doing better. Emma wanted them to be friends. Her child and Snow's would grow up nearly as siblings and that thought did not turn her stomach. In fact, part of her enjoyed the closeness. Pregnancy had been a very isolating thing. Everyone who knew was interested but protective; they kept their distance. Emma was her sterling self but Regina didn't know how to share joy.
No one was ever happy for her and now people were. Mulan and Ruby were kind, even friendly. Belle had made her overture of friendship and reconciliation even though Regina had kept her prisoner for so many years. Emma thought the baby would be a way in, something everyone would be happy about. Emma hadn't had an entire town doubting her position as Henry's mother, and maybe she didn't realise how heart wrenching that had been. Emma had her parents optimism, though it was tempered by enough realism to keep her from their idiocy.
She and Henry were alike that way. Would she be able to reach Henry today? How near were the merfolk to shore? Was he still happy? He was so young to have such freedom but what else could they do? Rumplestiltskin's help was out of the question. Emma's goddess, whomever she was, hadn't been able to help and Triton could only turn Henry human for short periods of time. Henry didn't even seem to want his legs back. Maybe it had all been too much for him, perhaps she'd pushed too hard. Perhaps one day, when he was older he'd despise magic less.
Perhaps Emma's optimism was wearing off on her in ways Regina wasn't sure she approved of.
Tugging her jacket a little closer, Regina moved carefully through the crowded Great Hall. The fairies and dwarves had been busy constructing homes, trying to fit everyone onto the neat grid of plumbing that Belle had developed so that they, like a Roman city far in the south, could have something a little better than cess pits. Not everyone wanted to live in a town, but their time in Storybrooke had brought them closer, no matter how much they loved to loathe her for it. From what she'd gathered second hand, because few dared speak to her, even with her wedded to their saviour, many wanted to remain in a town because they enjoyed being near each other.
There was enough talk of businesses beginning again, perhaps with more attention to detail and currency as they'd ever had before. They were going to put Snow on their golden coins, David on the silver coins and Emma on the smallest, the little coppers that will have swans on the back. She had seen that drawings and already threatened to wear one as a necklace so Emma would always be with her.
Not that she needed threats for that. Emma might be swamped with council and the preparations for running the kingdom during the day but her nights were Regina's. The baby turned, or swam, whatever it was she did that felt like bubbles beneath her flesh. Regina tried not to smile and failed utterly. She had no explanation when they stared at her and that sinking sensation of being trapped in a crowd like quicksand crept into her.
She'd never been one to flee, but if teleporting away wouldn't have made such a stir she would have used magic to be away from the eyes that never stopped following her. She couldn't smile, not like that in the middle of people. Regina tried to bury it, tried to summon the cold, imperious glare that made her people shy away.
It didn't work. Some of the servants, the youngest ones, were clearing the tables so they could be cleaned before lunch and Grace, little innocent Grace, who she'd taken from her father, smiled back at her as she slipped by with a bucket in her hands.
"Highness," Grace muttered, turning an awkward curtsy. The others followed, a whole horde of children sinking down before the former queen.
"Shoo!" Granny called, sending all of them scurrying back to work. Her hand closed on Regina's shoulder. "You'd think they just learned their manners yesterday from the way they act."
"Are they all servants?"
Granny led her away from the whispering crowd. Even in her plainest clothing, Regina stood out among the refugees still staying in the castle. Perhaps she stood wrongly, or they'd had too much time to know her as the Evil Queen.
"They're helpers. The castle needs many hands to keep everyone fed and cared for and there were many children who needed a bed."
Regina dragged Granny to a stop in the corridor down to the huge castle kitchens. "Where are their parents?"
"Building homes, tilling fields, tanning and smithing. You and the princess may be able to magic yourselves whatever you wish to wear, but the rest of us have to depend on our hands." Granny patted Regina's wrist, as if to soften her words. "Better they're all here, safe and warm than out in the woods scavenging."
"Shouldn't they be in school?"
Granny chuckled. "Perhaps. We're doing what we can. Archie teaches them some reading and writing, and Ruby and Mulan have a very popular set of classes on tracking, how to survive in the woods and self-defense. They learn some math in the kitchens."
"You seem pleased with that." The widow's smile made no sense. She had described a terrible, slapdash curriculum with a great grin on her face.
The skin around Granny's eyes crinkled and her smile grew. "These are the children of peasants and farmers dear, few of their parents could even read before the curse. Most of them would have learned the basics they needed for their trade and begun to work by now. They might be underfoot in my kitchen, but this is a childhood they would not have had in the old world. Maybe now things will be a bit better."
"All the children in the kingdom becoming drudges in the castle kitchen is better?"
Granny pulled her along, down the twisting stone stairs to the kitchens that fed the castle. Huge fires burned in great ovens along the walls, roasting carcasses turned on spits and on the counters in the middle, children kneaded bread dough nearly bigger than they were, laughing and tossing flour at each other.
Clearing her throat brought the flour tossing down to a minimum, mostly when Granny's back was to that particular child, and Granny circled the room, checking progress. There were a few others Regina recognised, Gertrude, from the bakery that had supplied Emma with those terrible bear claws, the butcher and his wife making sausages in the corner. If they knew her on sight, none of them dared cringe, and the baker even managed a small smile.
"We're making one of your favourites for dinner, perhaps you'd like to help?"
Several children, including Grave, dragged a huge barrel of apples out from the stores, pulling it in a wagon. Grace nodded and her half-smile nearly broke Regina's heart. She'd kept this girl from her father, used her as pawn to achieve what she wanted and she seemed determined to like her. Perhaps she'd never seen a princess before, or something about Regina's vulnerability yesterday had earned her the girl's pity.
Regina knew the scent of those spices. "You're making apple turnovers? For the castle?"
Rolling up her sleeves, Granny dunked her hands in a bucket of soapy water to wash them. "Your princess requested them, and we like to keep her happy."
"Emma."
"Her highness, yes," Granny finished, nodding her head just enough to be respectful of her future queen. "We try to give her what she asks for."
"Emma doesn't like turnovers, the queen and her husband hate apples, you'd need an army to even approach making that many by sunset-"
Granny clapped her hands and children assembled behind her, wiping their hands on their aprons and waiting for instructions. "I have an army, dear."
Their little faces looked up towards Regina, as if waiting for her to give them instructions. Their rosy cheeks threatened to break into smiles and none of them, not even the littlest girl, tried to hide behind Granny's skirts. When she'd rode through the villages as queen, all of the children had been hidden away and any she saw inevitably cringed and fled from her: their muddy, tight faces pale in fear.
No child in this kitchen was starved. None cringed as if expecting a beating. None of them tried to flee from her.
"Perhaps you'd like to help? My army could use another captain."
Emma hadn't even tried her turnovers in Storybrooke and considering what they had caused, it seemed the oddest of ideas. Granny and all the children stared at her, waiting for her to answer. Her request was genuine, and none of the children flinched at the idea of her joining them. Maybe they still thought of her as their mayor, reserved but kindly. Their parents must certainly remember the Evil Queen.
The strangeness of Emma's request forgotten, Regina nodded to Granny, dumbstruck when the children smiled at her as she agreed. They even seemed pleased for the assistance, swarming around her and Granny as they tried to organise their recipe. The older children, the ones who could be trusted with knives, were sent to chop the barrel of apples. Some of them were younger than Henry had been when she'd allowed him to use a small knife in the kitchen, but this was a different world. Some of them had undoubtedly had to defend flocks from foxes or themselves from goblins or ogres. Children their age had been taken to the ogres wars only a century ago.
They would not stoop to that. One reward thing of Snow's incipient goodness would be no child armies fighting the ogres. These children would have a chance to grow up being able to read, adding sums, perhaps some of them might have their own businesses, tailoring or coopering. Perhaps they'd even start work towards a fairer economy than the mess Regina had taken over after Leopold's death.
She talked some of the smaller children through how to stir properly and worked with Granny to make the giant balls of dough they'd need. Rolling all that dough flat was filled with more laughter than work, but a pleasantness hung in the air like the smell of spice. They'd had to trade diamonds to get cinnamon from the grasping traders, but the mines in the White kingdom were magical and diamonds meant magic to them, not wealth.
When the heat of the oven got to her, Regina removed her jacket and accepted one of the well-used rough aprons of the kitchen staff. Feeding a town was difficult work, and she hadn't appreciated how many people it took down in the kitchens when her meals came to her in her room. She'd worried about their supplies when she sat in the Great Hall, but Snow continued to insist that everyone should be fed together, at least until the houses had chimneys they could trust and the sewer systems could be relied on not to spread disease.
The curse's knowledge of microbes and bacteria had been a terrifying blessing when they'd had to confront the way they'd lived before. Raw sewage in the moat might keep invaders away, but it also invited plague that they no longer had the resources to treat.
She'd heard of fevers ravaging the villages near the mansion where she'd grown up. Sometimes only her mother dared go for supplies because all of the kitchen staff were afraid. Disease had been rare in her house, but the stories had always reached her. Picturing any of these excited children dying twisted her stomach enough to stir the baby, but at least here she didn't feel obligated to hide her smile. Regina's joy blended with everyone else's here, in this sanctuary from the kingdom upstairs.
Regina hadn't even noticed that her apron gave away the swell of her belly until she caught one of the younger girls smiling at her. She couldn't have been more than five and she needed a barrel beneath her feet just to reach the table where they rolled out the dough.
"What?" Regina asked.
"You're having a baby, like my mommy."
Regina doubted her experience had been much like that of the girl's mother, but she nodded.
"Yes."
"Are you happy?"
"Yes." The strength of the love welling within her nearly brought tears to her eyes. A thousand things were wrong: Henry was trapped, the ogres were massing outside the borders, Maleficent and the rest of the fairies, but she had Emma. Emma's baby turned and swam inside of her, stretching the confines of her universe.
"I'm very happy."
More through enthusiasm than culinary skill, the dough flattened beneath the rolling pin the girl rolled madly back and forth. Regina rescued the pastry before it could become goo.
"My mommy and daddy make bricks. Who's your baby's daddy?"
More children looked at her now, curious for her answer. If she said nothing, she'd obviously disappoint them. If she told the truth, would they tell their parents that the Evil Queen carried a child? How many of their children had she threatened? Killed?
She couldn't run. Her past needed to be answered for, and no matter how much Emma and Snow talked of forgiveness, neither of them really understood the vulnerability that required.
Swallowing her fear, she answered. "My baby has two mommies. Her mommy is Princess Emma."
That sunk in with whispers fluttering around the table. The child who'd asked continued to smile at her, flattening a new ball of dough into a blob rather than a circle.
"So your baby is a princess too!"
"Or a prince," one of the other children added.
Most of them seemed happy with that. Regina took trays of flattened pastry and brought them to Granny and some of the older children for filling.
"When you have magic, everything works a bit differently. I hear if you get enough of it and two men can have a baby." The children giggled at that, and one boy insisted it was true.
"Dwarf eggs all have two fathers. My Grandfather told me. And fairies have two mothers."
"Maybe Princess Emma is a fairy," a little girl said.
"She doesn't have wings, silly."
"Not all fairies have wings."
"Fairies are little."
"But they can be big. I've seem them be big."
Their argument moved to the logistics of fairies and left Regina's fading secret behind. She had nearly put it out of her mind when she heard something that made her forget everything else.
"I've seen fairies be big in the mine. I was helping my mom look for candles in the mine and we saw fairies. Big fairies, they were talking about diamonds."
"Big fairies, in a mine? That's ridiculous."
Regina turned the boy from his work. "You saw large fairies in the diamond mine? Human size fairies?"
The boy nodded, obviously happy someone believed him. "I saw lots. The Blue Fairy was there, and the Red, and some that were pink and yellow."
Tearing off her apron, Regina forced herself to wash her hands and move calmly.
"I have to go."
"Go?" Granny asked, flour and sugar adorning her face. "Have we tired you already?"
"There's something I need to check. I'm sorry. It has been nice baking with you."
"Come back anytime dear, we always need more hands."
One of the boys pretended to chop of his partner's hand and she mimed losing it up her wrist. She waved the stump at Regina.
"Always need more."
Laughter exploded around them, distracting all the children from their work as Granny tried to restore order. Regina put back on her jacket, pulling the lapels close as armour against the world. Fairies had no reason to be in the mine. She'd let Emma's accident slip from her mind. There was so much happening now, with Maleficent and Snow and David leaving the kingdom to Emma while they travelled. She'd forgotten the accident, how the mine had nearly taken Emma from her.
Fairies had been there. Fairies had no reason to be there. Their longstanding agreement with the dwarves was that the dwarves were solely responsible for the production of fairy dust because they were a tireless workforce that could be trusted with the most precious commodity.
Regina headed for the stable, then stopped herself. Would the stablehands say anything? She'd been riding with the queen yesterday and been allowed out without question but today she was alone. Retreating to a dark corner of the corridor, she pictured the mine entrance, calling it to mind from that painful memory of Emma's injuries and teleported herself there.
Calling fire to her hand for light, she walked into the dark entrance to the mine without seeing anyone. She could hear the dwarves, singing and talking to each other as they worked, for they loved working, but they were down the right tunnel. The left tunnel sat silent, winding away into darkness. That was the way. Magic not her own tugged at her, beckoning her down. Regina followed, watching the walls and strands of diamond gave way to true veins, cutting through the rock. Diamonds ran deep in Snow's kingdom, which brought them wealth and made the fairies powerful.
The light in her hand didn't reflect off the diamonds quite right in the walls of the cave. In fact, when she leaned close, she noticed that the diamond in the wall almost seemed to devour the light. She stroked the stone, expecting the gentle heat of magic within the fairy diamonds, but this was cold, cooler than the stone all around her. Regina continued, walking faster as the sensation of magic grew stronger and more insistent. Something was down here, just ahead, and it made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end.
Pickaxes were hard at work, but they weren't in dwarven hands. Fairies, human-sized fairies, with their wings absent or hidden, tore at the walls, dropping rough, black diamonds to the floor. Other fairies picked them up, collecting the black diamonds in a mine cart. Magic buzzed in the air, as insistent as a hive of wasps, yet no of the fairies used magic in their work. None of them smiled and unlike the dwarves, there were no songs in the air.
Regina doused her light, concentrated on the shape of a rat and took it, shrinking down into a furry rodent. As if surprised by the transformation, the baby moved within her, kicking out with foetal rat limbs. There was no way to warn her, or explain that everything was fine, they just needed to be less visible for awhile. She wasn't sure how much the baby understood, or even felt of the transformation. Perhaps it was the use of magic that had stirred her, yet the baby's kicking came with guilt.
She just needed to see what was happening: why were the fairies were taking the risk of mining themselves, why were they collecting black diamonds when she'd never heard of dark fairy dust. Maleficent's powers came from emotion and study, just as Regina's and her mother's did. There was some of a residual fairy aura around her and perhaps her fairy blood was what made the dragon come so easily to her, but this was different. Fairy dust usually gave her the kind of headache Henry called brainfreeze. Being around too much of it made her skull seem to contract around her brain.
This was warm in the back of her throat, like red pepper flakes. She'd never been around fairy magic that felt like this and as she scrambled along the floor of the mine on rat paws, Regina listened to the voices above. They were muted, dull, nothing like the vivacious fairies she'd always tried to avoid since her brief encounter with Tinkerbelle.
Their magic was waning, Regina learned, listening to the talk above. Some of the fairies couldn't even fly anymore and many had trouble unleashing their wings. Fairy dust from white diamonds wasn't giving them enough power so they would attempt the black. She didn't dare stay in any place too long, lest someone notice the rat, but she moved under their feet, watching and listening. Many of the fairies spoke in whispers about 'she', how they were planning to finally capture her.
Their opinions were as varied as the brilliant hues of their outfits. Some thought they shouldn't even engage with 'her', others wanted to capture her immediately and find out what 'she' knew that could help them. A few of the oldest fairies still thought 'she' had earned 'her' death and keeping 'her' alive was fallacy.
Slipping back towards the entrance to the tunnel, Regina kept herself hidden. Sitting behind a crate of black diamonds, she watched the blue orb of light float down before becoming the recognisable figure of the Blue Fairy. All the fairies working in the mine stopped, turning and bowing their heads in respect to their leader.
"I've discovered her weakness. The plan to capture her will proceed on the full moon, when our powers are strongest."
She wanted to stay, even though the fairies would eventually realise she was no common rat. When was the full moon? Still a few days away, she thought. Who were they after? What did they want?
Regina ran along the floor of the mine, just to the bend where she could risk turning back into her human form to teleport away.
"How will we breach her fortress?" One of the fairies asked.
"We'll make Maleficent come to us," Blue replied. "I know exactly what will lure her out."