3 days had passed and Zelena had not been seen. Maleficent was worried out of her mind. She would often find herself going to the farmhouse to try and catch a glimpse of her beloved witch, to no avail. Lily told her that the witch was having stomach problems and she'd dropped some medicine and some food off for her. It was gone the next day so she assumed that Zelena had taken it. Hopefully. Once, she glimpsed the witch going outside to get her axe that was used for chopping wood. Mal had already taken the liberty of chopping more than enough for her, so she wondered why the witch needed an axe. The day after that the shield Maleficent had made for her was laying on the porch, broken and dented beyond repair with the axe sticking out of it.
"I can't take this!" The blonde screamed as she walked into her house. Lily and Ruby both looked up at her. "I need to talk to her. I need to apologize."
"You've apologized enough." Lily sighed. "She clearly doesn't want to hear it."
Mal paced back and forth before she got an idea. "The box. The music box, I can just fix it and maybe she'll talk to me."
"Mom, you don't remember anything since you lost your memories."
"Untrue, it's coming back slowly. Quite frankly, I don't want those memories back. However, I know someone who does know what the music box looked like and what it sounded like." Her memories of the little thing were fleeting, but the thief and his son had seen it. She redressed herself in a little black dress, disregarding shoes and teleported straight to the Merry Men's camp. Robin and Roland were off to themselves. Maleficent knew that Robin was still angry with Regina for making out with the dragon and that they'd yet to reconcile. Robin was on his feet in an instant. "Wait, please." Mal raised her hands in a non-threatening position. "I need to speak with you and your son."
"About?" Robin asked.
"Zelena's music box. I need to know what it looked like and sounded like. Please."
Robin appeared skeptical, but Roland, despite remembering now how disliked Zelena was, agreed. The little boy drew hera picture and tried his best to describe it to even hummed the tune it played. Mal committed everything to memory before trying and failing to recreate the music box.
"Can't you just reverse your magic on it?" Robin asked.
"You think it's easy to just reverse the effects of incineration? Fire is meant to burn, nothing else. It's bad enough that I barely remember what I'm trying to bring back at all." She sighed and sat down, trying to come up with a better way to do this. She couldn't remember exactly what the music box looked like, but maybe...she could look through her own memories. She thanked Roland and teleported home to pull out the troublesome memories and actually watch them. They made her sick. The things she'd said to Zelena broke her own heart, but she had what she needed. Now that she knew what to do, it was easy for her to remake the music box and she rushed to the farmhouse to give it to Zelena. She placed it in front of the door along with another apology and knocked, teleporting a safe distance to watch the witch's reaction.
Zelena opened the door and looked around before noticing the small treasure at her feet. She picked it up and opened it. Maleficent in breathless anticipation for some sign of approval, but to her surprise, Zelena crushed the box in her hands and sprinkled the ashes at her feet. She went into the house, returning with the axe and the portrait that Mal had painted of her. She placed it on the hood of the car that Mal had given her and swing the axe hard, shredding the painting and shattering the windshield of the car.
"Zelena! What the hell are you doing?!" Maleficent roared, storming forward. She attempted to take away the axe, but a hard look from Zelena made her freeze. She hated those eyes. Those beautiful blue eyes that at one point she could've stared into for hours. Now they were dull and angry.
"Can you imagine what it feels like?" Zelena asked. She seemed to be a little out of breath from that one swing alone and Mal noticed she was much skinnier, much more gaunt looking. And yet her strength did not seem to diminish, although it could be adrenaline. "Can you imagine what it feels like to look into the eyes of the one person you love more than life itself, the one person you thought would always be there, and hear them tell you that you mean nothing to them. That you are pathetic and weak and petty and you'll never be as good as your sister?!" Zelena walked around the car, shattering another window with the axe.
"No, I can't." Mal said. "But you know I didn't have my memories. I didn't know. I never would've said those things to you otherwise. You know in your heart how I feel about you."
"I watched you dote on my sister, I watched you kiss her and hug her and listened to you call her your happy ending. Apparently I will never good enough as your little queen." Zelena broke another window. "By the way, do not ever call me your little witch again."
Maleficent sighed. She ran her hands down her face. "Zelena, please stop. Put down the axe please. When was the last time you've eaten?"
Zelena ignored her as she launched the axe, smashing in the back window. She leaned against the trunk of the car to catch her breath. "You did this to me. I knew it would happen. I let you in, I let you into my heart and I knew you would only cause me pain. I knew it but I wanted it so badly. All I wanted was love-"
"I do love you!" Mal exclaimed. "With all my heart, you know I do. What must I do to earn your forgiveness? Is all this about the music box? I remade it."
Zelena glared at her. "You know how much my mother meant to me. She was everything to me. That music box was all I had of her. I tended to it with my own hands for as long as I could remember, for her, just like she did. You destroyed it and now you think you can just replace it?"
"I wasn't trying to-"
"I don't care." Zelena threw up her hands. "I want it gone. All of it. All of your gifts, everything that you touched, I want it all gone! I want you gone!" Her voice softened. "I want the pain to go away." Mal's dragon hearing caught the words anyway and she slammed Zelena against the car and kissed her lips. Zelena struggled, but she couldn't break Mal's grip.
"I said I wouldn't hurt you." Mal said, leaning back to look into the witch's eyes. It hadn't gone unnoticed on her that Zelena hadn't her back. "Clearly I have, but I will do whatever it takes to fix this. I love you, with all that I am and I will fix this. Please, give me another chance. I can't...I can't stand this." Zelena simply stared at her. She couldn't tell what the unpredictable redhead was thinking. "Do you hear me, Zelena? I love you." Mal released, hoping that her words were making some headway.
Zelena looked away. "No one can love me." The slap came unexpectedly and Mal backed away, holding the side of her face while Zelena walked back to her house.
Maleficent bared her teeth, dragon fire raging behind her eyes. She stormed up to the house as Zelena closed the door. A barrier prevented her from touching the door. "Zelena, I don't think you know exactly who you're dealing with. After all this time you should know that I don't give up easily. I have waited over 3000 years to feel a love like this, Zelena and I'm not giving it up without the fight of my life. I know you love me and you're in pain. I don't expect you to let me help you and I know how crazy love can make you feel and makes you vulnerable to other people. I won't be weak again." She waited to see if there was a response. She punched the door when there wasn't one. "For the love of the gods, I don't care if you forgive me, for my sanity just eat something!" She screamed. "No matter what you feel, don't take it out on yourself. You promised that you wouldn't do that anymore. Please."
"You shouldn't waste your time on the Wicked Witch." Zelena said softly.
"I don't give a shit about the Wicked Witch!" Maleficent screamed. She sighed again. "I only care about you, Zelena." There was no reply. She almost couldn't take it anymore. "Don't you see? Someone wants this. For us to hate each other, to bring us up. Don't give them the satisfaction. Help me find who did this and let me destroy them for you." She perked up when the door opened a crack. Zelena peeked out, eyes red and clearly on the verge of crying. "You've come far, my love, don't let those thoughts pull you back into the darkness. Please...Mitt Hjarta."
Zelena's cheek turned a cute shade of pink. "What does that mean?"
"My heart in Swedish." Mal answered.
Zelena sighed. "I love you too, Mal. I do, but I-I…"
"Take all the time you need, just please stay in contact at least. If we have to start all over, I'm fine with that. Again, a very patient woman." Anything was better than nothing. "I'm sorry for the things I said."
"I know. It doesn't mean they didn't hurt."
There was a moment of silence between them. Zelena looked uncomfortable and tired while Mal simply enjoyed looking at her at all after the past few days of being cut off from her love. Her gaze fell to Zelena's lips. Gods how she wanted to kiss her again,to mark her again. The rift that grown between them just didn't seem to be growing any smaller. "You know, you're going to have to pose for another portrait." The blonde said, feeling pleased at the little smirk on the redhead's lips.
"Perhaps we should spend some time apart-..." Zelena frowned, her attention caught by something across the room.
"I really don't want to do that." Mal muttered, but she frowned when the witch no longer seemed to be paying attention. "What is it?" Zelena's answer was to push the door open wider, revealing the music box sitting on the coffee table. A white flower was laying in front of it. Maleficent growled when she could catch no foreign scent. Zelena even let her into the house to look around. There was no trace or anyone except the unmistakable presence of magic, a powerful aura surrounding the music box. Zelena flipped it open and it started to play that eerie pleasant melody again. "Who sent this?"
"I don't know." Zelena said, although the dragon felt the annoying sense that she was lying. The witch offered no more information and Maleficent was sent into a furious guarding mode at the thought of anyone entering Zelena's house with no trace and while a powerful barrier was in place. However, Zelena didn't allow her to look around for much longer before politely albeit forcefully asking her to leave. The dragon obeyed, but both knew she wouldn't go far.
Zelena closed the door after Maleficent had left and put the barrier back up. She felt herself trembling from the past hour, the exertion from destroying all of Mal's gifts to being undernourished was finally taking its toll. In this moment she was trembling for a completely different reason. "You can come out now...Hades."
He appeared a moment later, the God of the Underworld, was standing in her living room, holding the little white flower. "Hello Zelena."
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