Chapter 33: The Queen is dead
Little Rose Red was standing beside her mother while she spoke with the palace workers abut the last arrangements for Snow's birthday ball. She wasn't paying attention and was just looking around the room. Queen Eva noticed and dismissed the woman she was talking to.
"Everything okay, sweetheart?" She asked her with a soft smile.
Rose smiled back at her and looked down at her dress with a frown. It was green and to her, it only brought unwanted attention to her hair. The Queen saw this and raised Rose's face with a gentle hand.
"My sweet Rose. You are beautiful. You are unique and that makes you special."
"Unique is just a nice way of saying weird." Said Rose with a frown crossing her arms over her chest.
"No it isn't." Said the Queen with a frown.
She knew what people said about her youngest daughter. Her hair alone would be the talk of the court and peasants alike. After all, dark red hair is not a common color. But Rose also had different colored eyes. Everyone knew that peculiar eye color was usually associated with magic, and even if magic was used for good, people were still afraid of it when someone other than fairies had it.
"That's not true, Red. You are unique like a snowflake." Said Snow White entering the room. "And snowflakes are pretty and not one is the same as the other. Right, mother?"
"You are right, Snow." Said Eva looking at her daughters proudly.
She knew that they would always have each other's back. It wouldn't be the first time that she heard of Snow yelling at the town children for making snide comments of Rose. It wasn't the best way to deal with them, but little by little the children stopped making comments about Rose once they got to know her. Because Eva knew the Snow had people's attention for her beauty and made the stay with her kindness, and Rose won people over with her honesty and talent to make them think about their actions.
"Now, my dear Snow. You are an absolute vision. You are going to be the talk of the ball, and not just because it's for your birthday." Said Eva with a smile hugging her oldest daughter. "Come you two. I have a gift for you, Snow. It was my mother's once, and her mother's before that. And soon, it will be yours. And one they, it will pass on to you Rose."
They entered the room and saw Johanna, their caretaker, trying on a tiara. When the Queen got her attention, she hurried to take it off. Rose giggled, but Snow frowned and approached her.
"How dare you? That's mine. It's not for a servant." She said with a condescending voice. Johanna tried to excuse herself, but Snow interrupted. "Servants don't wear crowns."
Rose frowned, poked Snow on the side and whispered 'rude'. Snow looked at her with a raised eyebrow, but turned her attention to their mother when she told her to stop.
"I thought I raised you better than that, Snow. It doesn't matter whether one is a servant or royalty. Everyone in the kingdom deserves our love and respect." She said with a pointed look at Snow.
She tried to explain, but the Queen was having none of it.
"She apologized. And it isn't yours yet." She reminded her.
Queen Eva told her that they were all the same. Snow was going to make a comment about being royalty, but Rose interrupted.
"You defend me and call people that disrespect me vile. But you just acted the same way to Johanna." She said with a frown.
Eva nodded and smiled at her youngest daughter. For someone so young, she was pretty quick to catch on her surroundings.
"Exactly. We are royals, but that doesn't make us better than anyone else. The upcoming ball, for instance. Can you tell me what it's for?" Snow said that it was to honor her on her birthday, but the Queen shook her head. "No. It's for you to honor them, by showing them you will be a kind and benevolent leader when that time comes."
She got the tiara from Johanna and looked at her two daughters.
"When you are crowned with this on your birthday, it will be a symbol that you will always hold goodness in your heart and rule justly. Now do you understand?"
Snow stood in front of the mirror with the Queen behind her and Rose at her side. She thought for a moment and didn't try it on. She understood now, that her responsibilities as a princess were going to take a bigger part of her life.
Suddenly Queen Eva collapsed, Johanna went to find help while the two sisters stayed by her side. Snow was hover over their mother in concern, and Rose looked at her with a frown.
"You sound weird." The Queen looked at her and saw wonder with fear in her youngest daughter's eyes.
Mary-Margaret just wanted that day to be over, even if it had just started. Her birthday was always hard, overcomed with one of the worst moments of her life. David wanted to get her a gift, but as always she refused. This time she found a present on the table. He told her that he found it on the front door. It was weird as the only people that knew her birthday were herself, David and Rose. And she doubted it was from Rose.
She opened it and saw the tiara from that fateful birthday. Reading the note she found out Johanna was somewhere in Storybrooke. She got her coat and left to find her. Before she left, David told her how he wished to make this a happy day for her and Mary-Margaret shook her head with a sad smile.
"We both know it's not possible. The only one that was able to make it a little bit possible doesn't even remember me."
Mary-Margaret found Johanna tending to a small patch of snowdrops. They hugged and spoke about the flowers and their meaning.
"I thought keeping this garden would be a nice way to honor her." Said Johanna with a sad smile. "I also have some rose bushes. Dark red roses of course."
"Of course." Said Mary-Margaret with a sniff. "I miss them. Rose is still here, but she's not our Rose, at least not yet."
"I know. I miss them too." Said Johanna whipping a tear from Mary-Margaret's face.
They heard a noise from the woods behind them and Mary-Margaret went to investigate. She saw Cora and Regina digging in the woods. They were looking for the Dark One's dagger. She made haste to the Sheriff office and found David unconscious. They told each other what happened and Mary-Margaret had a plan on how to proceed.
The doctor was looking over the Queen, while Snow, Rose and Johanna looked on. Snow asked the doctor if she was going to be okay. The doctor just sighed and hoped for the best. Rose frowned and approached her mother with Snow.
Snow told her that they could cancel the ball and instead of celebrating her birthday, they could celebrate the Queen's recovery. Eva shook her head and told Snow that she would be fine and that she couldn't wait to see her with the tiara. Rose still had a frown on her face and a confused expression.
"Don't worry, Rose. I'll be fine." She said stroking her daughter's cheek.
"No." She said shaking her head. "You sound different. Quieter. I don't like it."
The Queen didn't show it, but that worried her. The only time Rose had heard something quiet down was when their personal guard dog died of old age. But before she could ask anymore, a coughing fit overcame her and told Johanna to take them away.
Johanna was comforting Snow and Rose as they were crying over their dying mother. She tried to tell them that the doctor would find a cure, but Snow quickly told her that he couldn't help. Then Johanna told them about a possible magic solution. Snow looked at Rose but the redhead shook her head. They knew she had some kind of magic, but she had never done anything else that hear thing others couldn't.
Johanna told them about their mother's confident. Someone said to be schooled in the most powerful magic. She told them about the good fairy that could grant a person's wish if their heart was true. She told them how to summon her. The sisters looked at each other and nodded.
That night they went in search of the fairy, but it was the fairy who found them. Snow told her about their plight, and the Blue Fairy informed them that what they were asking was not something fairies approved as it wasn't white magic. During the exchange Rose was quiet. She had never met a fairy before, but she knew that they were supposed to be good and this fairy screamed evil.
Finally, the Blue Fairy gave Snow a candle and told her that to save their mother, they had to burn the candle over the heart of the person that would die instead of the Queen. Rose's frown deepened and Snow was flabbergasted. Their mother wanted them to be good and the fairy was telling them that the only way to save them was killing someone else.
On their way back to the castle, Snow was looking at the candle. Rose looked at her sister and sighed.
"You can't really be considering this. White, you know in your heart what we must do."
Snow sighed and clutched the candle in her hands. She nodded and let the candle fall to the ground.
"We have to be with mother. See her one last time." Said Snow with tears in her eyes.
The two sisters arrived at the castle and ran to her mother's bedside. They told her about the candle and how they couldn't go through with it. Queen Eva smiled proudly at them.
"You two showed strength to resist darkness. A strength that not everybody can show. I am so proud of you." She said to her daughters preparing her last words to them. "We all reach a moment in our lives, where we are not meant to get better. And with or without me, someday you will be great queens."
"Please don't leave us." Said Snow crying.
"Mom, I don't want to forget your sound." Said Rose clutching her mother's hand.
"As long as you hold the spirit of goodness in your heart, I shall never leave you and you will never forget me." She said with her last breath.
They got ready for the funeral and Johanna brought the tiara for Snow. Once she put it on, she took a deep breath.
"She was right." She said with a small smile.
"Heavy hangs the head that wears the crown" Said Rose with red eyes.
Snow nodded and took her sister's hand. Now she had to be the perfect princess for the kingdom and the best older sister for Rose. It was time to grow up.
They entered the room and approached their mother's body. Snow put a snowdrop on Eva's hand and Rose put a red rose. They said their last goodbyes, faced the crowd and kneeled in front of their mother for the last time. They stayed there until everyone left. Johanna got them and took them to their rooms, so they could have a well-deserved rest.
The Blue Fairy appeared as they left the room and transformed into Cora. She approached Eva.
"You raised them well. My daughter doesn't love me the way yours do you. They would've been great rulers someday, but that'll never happen, because my daughter will be Queen. And all yours will be left with is knowing how I've felt. How it feels to be the Miller's daughter. I'll turn Snow White's heart black as coal. That candle won't be her final test. Little Rose Red will prove more difficult, but those with magic can go down a very dark road if they are not careful. Once I've darkened their souls, it won't just be you I've destroyed. It'll be your legacy."
Mary-Margaret and David stood in front of Johanna's grave. After doing the right thing, evil won. Cora and Regina had the dagger, they killed Johanna and Mary-Margaret found out that Cora was the one behind her mother's death.
She had had enough. She was tired of people being killed because she was too good to make the selfish choices. She had been good all her life, and she still couldn't get her happy ending. Not anymore.
"I'm going to kill Cora." She said with conviction.
David could only look at his wife with horror. Now more than ever he wished that Rose had her memories back. Because Mary-Margaret was down a dark path, and he didn't know if he could stop her.