Forbidden
Forgotten:
Regina has never been afraid of a confrontation. Oh, no, not at all. In fact, she's the one who usually initializes confrontations.
But this particular confrontation is nothing like the other confrontations she's had in the past. This is different.
Mainly because Regina isn't interested in a confrontation at all. That doesn't mean she's a coward. Of course she's not a coward.
She just doesn't know how to tell Maleficent that she pushed her away simply because she was getting too close.
Because in hindsight, that was what happened. Not only did Maleficent weasel her way into Regina's bed. She also weaseled her way into that small corner of Regina's heart that wasn't dark yet at the time.
Regina had reached that conclusion sometimes during that afternoon. Or maybe she had known it all along. She just hadn't allowed herself time to think too much about it
She shouldn't be allowing herself to think about it now either. Maleficent is a part of her past. Admittedly, a fucking huge part of it, but nevertheless, what happened between them, happened in the past.
But that doesn't mean that Maleficent isn't still angry about it. Of course she is. She has every right to be angry. And Regina will apologize for what she did to her.
If Maleficent gives her the chance, that is. Maybe she just kills Regina the moment she steps into Gold's cabin.
But what was that kiss about then?
Well, that… No, Regina has no valid explanation for that. Maybe Maleficent was either frustrated or a tad nostalgic. Or maybe both.
Regina sighs. She might as well get this over with. Let the battle begin.
God, her life is still a myriad of battles. Even when she tries to "retire" from all that, there's still another battle waiting just around the next corner.
And Regina has a feeling that the battles might never stop. She's not cut out for a so-called quiet life.
Villains don't get quiet lives.
Regina puts her coat on and straightens her posture. This is it. Make or break. She made this mess in the first place, and now its time to fix it. It's time to straighten things out once and for all.
If I don't end up as dragon dinner before I get a chance to open my mouth.
She rolls her eyes. How pessimistic of her. But maybe not entirely wrong. She did try to strangle me once… Why shouldn't she take another shot at that? She was after all, interrupted.
Interrupted doing what exactly?
Getting nostalgic for some reason. It's so easy to confuse anger with passion.
Regina scoffs as she leaves the mansion.
She has barely reached Main Street before she notices that she's being watched. Or, followed to be more accurate. By a yellow bug. And Emma Swan behind the wheel.
Regina groans quietly to herself. Telling Emma about her upcoming "meeting" with Maleficent was clearly a mistake. Another mistake. It seems mistakes is the only thing she's making these days. Now the Savior is worried. And clearly under the impression that Regina needs some sort of "backup".
Which she doesn't. If Maleficent really decides to go "dragon crazy", the only thing working is a sword. And Regina is not about to drive a sword into Maleficent's chest. And she's not about to let Emma drive a sword into Maleficent's chest. Again. One time gotta be enough.
Regina continues her walk down Main Street. The damned bug follows. God damnit, this is nerve wracking enough without having the Savior breathing down her neck too. Regina quickens her pace.
So does the bug.
Okay, seriously?! I'm filing a complain for stalking. If I survive.
Regina decides that enough is enough and flicks her wrist. The yellow bug and Emma's concerned face disappears, and a moment later, Regina is standing in the woods.
She's not far from Gold's cabin now. She passes one of the large oak trees, and there, hidden in a lumen is the cabin. It looks quiet. Almost idyllic. No signs of an angry dragon anywhere.
Regina walks up the steps. She doesn't knock. She doesn't have too. Of course Maleficent knows that she's here. She always had an excellent hunch when it came to knowing where Regina was.
Maleficent is standing in the middle of the small living room. She's staring into the fire and doesn't look up when Regina steps inside.
Regina doesn't announce herself. This is Maleficent's meeting, so to speak. Her call. Her move. Whatever that might be.
Maleficent continues to stare into the fire. Her forehead is crinkled, and her brows knitted together. Regina has seen that expression on her face more than once. Not often, but still, she knows exactly what that expression means. Maleficent is concerned. And she doesn't look particularly murderous but looks can be deceiving.
Regina waits and prepares herself. For anything, really. Getting throwed into a wall. Getting choked, restrained with magic or whatever.
But nothing happens. Maleficent just looks into the flickering flames. She's holding on to what appears to be a rattle.
Regina raises her own eyebrow. What the hell is going on? Is Maleficent trying to lull her into some false sense of comfort? Or is she trying to unnerve her? Because if that's the case, she's doing a spectacular job.
Or perhaps the dragon has just lost her ability to say anything. And if that's the case, Regina doesn't understand why she's even here. She came to be yelled at. To be attacked. Not to stare into the flames in complete silence.
"Regina." Maleficent finally acknowledges.
"Maleficent." Regina parrots and folds her arms across her chest.
Maleficent turns around and looks at Regina. She even smirks a little. "Look at you all tense and alert."
Regina shrugs. "I wouldn't call it tense."
"What would you call it then?"
"Prepared." Regina says dully and opens her palm a few times. She's completely ready to conjure a fireball. Not that she wants to, but…
"Oh, that won't be necessary," Mal says and waves her hand carelessly. "I'm not going to attack you. I thought it better if we talked instead."
Regina's eyebrow raises again. Talk? Well, that's definitely better than a spectacular with fight, but nevertheless unexpected.
"Alright…" she says hesitantly.
"But first we should have a drink," Maleficent says briskly and walks over to the table to get the two glasses of wine she seemingly had prepared for them.
A drink? Seriously, what's going on? Last time they met, Maleficent was very literally trying to squeeze the life out of her (among other things), and now she suddenly wants to drink with her?
"Just like old times, isn't it?" Maleficent says and smirks as she offers Regina the glass. "You, me, wine and an open fire place."
Regina rolls her eyes. Yes, this is very much like old times. Alarmingly much like old times.
"Cheers," Maleficent says and clinks her glass with Regina's.
Regina doesn't respond to that. She simply takes a sip of the wine. She immediately recognizes the taste. It's the same sweet wine she used to serve Regina after they…
Regina pushes that thought out of her head by taking another deep sip of the wine. Now who's getting nostalgic?
"Still a fan of sweet wine," she comments.
"Yes, indeed. Not much have changed when it comes to that."
Regina empties the glass. She's on a schedule here. If they're gonna "talk" they might as well get it over with. And preferably before miss Swan comes barging in.
"Okay, can we just cut the charade and talk alrea…" the words die on her tongue. Something is wrong. Gold's cabin is blurring around the edges, and she's suddenly feeling dizzy. She drops the glass and it shatters into a million pieces, but she can't quite hear the sound. Not completely.
Regina takes a deep breath and puts one hand on the wall to steady herself. The wine. Damnit. How could she be so fucking stupid?
"You… Did you put something in my wine?" she asks dumbly and curses herself immediately. Because of course Maleficent did just that.
"Yes." Maleficent answers plainly.
Regina swallows thickly and tries to stay focused. "I thought poison were a little below you, but apparently I was wrong."
"It's not poison." Maleficent says quietly. Or maybe she's yelling. Regina can't hear it.
"No? Something that will make me die a slow and painful dead, then?" Regina suggests sarcastically. Her legs are trembling. In a moment she won't be able to stand. But perhaps that was Maleficent's plan all along. To weaken her.
"Not that either," Maleficent says and surprisingly enough grabs Regina's arm and steadies her.
Regina tries to protest as Maleficent lies her down on what… the couch? The floor? a bed?
"What the hell did you give me?!" Admittedly, she's panicking a little now. Maybe it's not such a bad thing that Emma knows she's here after all.
"It's just something that will make you take a little nap… and when you wake up, you'll know so much more than you do now."
"What's that supposed to mean?!" Regina demands and tries to push herself up from whatever she's lying on. But it seems like she's struggling in vain.
Maleficent crouches down next to her and puts a firm hand on her shoulder. "Shh, just sleep, Regina. Go to sleep."
Regina tries. She really does. She fights valiantly to stay in the cabin, but she can't. whatever Maleficent gave her is too strong, and her attempts becomes weaker and weaker until her eyes close.
When she opens her eyes again she's not in the cabin any more. She's not even in Storybrooke. She's in the Enchanted Forest, in the castle she used to live in after Snow and Charming banished her. And she's standing right behind... Herself. She's seeing herself as she was, The Evil Queen, dressed in black and with her head bowed over something that very much looks like instructions as to how to cast The Dark Curse.
Suddenly, the door to her bedchambers open, and both Regina and the other, queenly version of her looks up. Maleficent steps inside, dressed in a grey gown and with her hair down.
"What are you doing here?!" the queen sneers.
"Visiting an old friend," Maleficent says silkily.
The queen opens her palm and a fireball appears. "Do you think I'm that stupid, Maleficent? This is no social call. You're here for the curse, aren't you?"
Maleficent doesn't say anything.
"You're not getting it!" the queen hisses. "You will not tear me away from my revenge! Nothing will."
Maleficent rolls her blue eyes. "Oh, do stop it, Regina. I think I've endured enough of your talk of revenge already."
"Then what do you want?" the queen drawls. "I'm rather busy at the moment. And I thought I made it quite clear that I don't…"
Maleficent doesn't let her finish. Instead she simply invades Regina's personal space and kisses her. "As I said, I'm simply here to visit an old friend."
The queen sneers again as she pulls away. "You're here to ensnare me. To distract me, like you did it in the past. But it won't work. Not this time."
"You're still seeing hidden agendas everywhere, Regina. Is it really that hard to believe that I'm here simply because I missed our little… meetings?"
"You're lying." The queen states plainly.
"No, I'm not." Maleficent says. "Let me prove it to you."
"And how exactly would you do that?" the queen says haughtily.
Maleficent once again steps closer to her, cups her cheek and then brushes her fingertips over her cheekbones. "Come back to me. One last time."
The queen laughs. "Are you really that pathetic, Maleficent? Can't you find anyone else who's willing to fuck you? Is that it? Quite sad I must say. As I said once before, you've fallen quite a-ways, my dea…"
Maleficent kisses the queen, fiercely and almost angrily, but it doesn't take long before her actions forces the queen to react.
Regina gapes and lowers her gaze to the floor as… well, herself and Maleficent tumbles down on the bed like they've did it so many times before. She's not particularly interested in witnessing this scene.
And mercifully enough, she doesn't have to. The scenery changes to a rather pale looking Maleficent in The Forbidden Fortress. A Maleficent who barely touches her food, a Maleficent who appears to be dizzy when she stands up. A Maleficent who seemingly have trouble with her magic, and finally a Maleficent touching her swollen belly. Rubbing it tenderly, calling her unborn child "little dragon", telling it tales of a sweet young queen who tumbled down a dark path.
"People know her as the Evil Queen, my little dragon. But she wasn't always like that. She was sweet and gentle and kind. And it seems like she's still capable of doing good after all."
Maleficent rubs her stomach again.
Regina stumbles back against the wall. No. It can't be. It just can't. It's not… It's not POSSIBLE.
She wheezes as she's suddenly rather abruptly "returned" to Gold's cabin and the flickering flames in the fireplace. So she is in fact lying on the floor.
Regina pushes herself into a sitting position. What the hell just happened? Is Maleficent seriously trying to tell her what Regina thinks she's trying to tell her?
"That's…"
"Rare, but not unheard of." Maleficent says. She's still looking into the fireplace.
Regina remains quiet. It's true. In her studies of magic, she did come across tales where magic had been involved when it came to… conceiving.
"Why didn't I know of this… event?"
"Because I took your memories," Maleficent says plainly. "I waited until you slept and then I removed the memory from your mind."
"Why would you keep that from me?!"
"I felt it happen," Maleficent says. "I knew right away that something was different. And would knowing it really have changed anything? Wouldn't you still have been hellbent on casting the curse? The curse that trapped me for thirty years."
"You kept my own child from me!"
"I did what I found necessary," Maleficent says icily. "Who says you wouldn't have killed me on the spot if I told you?"
"I never would have…"
"You say that now," Maleficent says, and her voice becomes a bit softer. "But you weren't exactly in your right mind back then…"
Regina mimics Maleficent's previous behavior and stares into the fire. She has a child. They have a child. Lilith. A child Snow White and prince Charming shipped through a portal.
They have a child. A daughter. A full-grown daughter.
Oh, it was so much easier when she thought Maleficent wanted to kill her.
"Now you know why I didn't kill you the other day," Maleficent says quietly. "I couldn't very well kill my child's other mother."
My child. Other mother. Lilith. Oh god. She's getting a headache.
"It's funny really," Maleficent comments. "How the past can suddenly come back."
"It would appear that I have even more things to apologize for than I thought," Regina mutters.
"Don't apologize for impregnating me," Maleficent brushes her off. "You weren't in control of your magic. You were terribly frustrated that night."
"I'll take your word for it."
"But trapping me for thirty years, taking my humanity away… I'm not sure I'm quite ready to forgive that."
"I wouldn't be either," Regina assures and finally pushes herself up and stands up again.
"I don't trust the Savior," Maleficent says, and changes the subject swiftly. "I don't trust anyone in this dreadful little town…"
Regina raises an eyebrow.
"And that's quite unfortunate since the Savior is the one going to New York to search for Lilith."
"You can trust her."
Maleficent scoffs. "Trust the person who's indirectly responsible for my- our daughters darkness?"
Regina isn't sure how to respond to that.
"We both know I can't leave the town unless I want to end up as a pile of dust again, so…"
"So?"
"I want you to go with her." Maleficent says plainly. "To this New York. I want you to find our daughter and bring her back."
Regina nods immediately. The room is spinning again, but this time it has nothing to do with the memory potion.
They have a daughter….
To Be Continued?