Melisandre peeked inside the bedroom to find her mother sitting on the floor in front of a book. The mark of tears stained her cheeks and her sniffles almost angered the little girl. The others were giving Regina space, but she couldn't help wanting to comfort her mother. She walked into the room and simply sat next to Regina, saying nothing for the moment. She did notice that her mother had opened the book. There were pictures of their family doing all kinds of things.

"This is 10 years of my life." Regina whispered. "The best 10 years." Mel leaned her head on her shoulder. "My supposed son wasn't in any of them."

"Well, if he was in any of them, they probably wouldn't be the best." She suggested. Regina smirked a little. "He'll get over it, and so will you." Henry's reaction had been the expected. Shock and confusion, followed by anger and then acting as if he had been betrayed or something with Emma goading him on, all of it leading up to Regina slamming the door in both of their faces while they were talking. She went upstairs, asking to be alone and that was that.

"It's hard." Her mother sighed. "I raised him, I taught him, or at least I tried. I know you don't like him, but it's difficult when you're a mother."

Mel frowned. "You don't think you're a good mother because you left him? That's why you're upset? Mom, you're the greatest mom in the world! And the greatest grandma, just ask Sarai. You're amazing in every way. Just because Henry didn't appreciate that, doesn't mean we don't. We're here. We're with you. He can go eat a fireball if he thinks it was better for you to stay here and be attacked constantly than go have a life worth living. He'll come around, but if he doesn't, the world won't stop. We can just make some more of these years." She tapped the photo album and looked down at the pictures, finding one of her moms where Regina standing with wobbly legs on a surfboard with Mal holding the board. Her blonde mom had a mischievous look on her face, one Mel knew well, so it wasn't surprising that in the very next picture Mal had swiped the board out from under her feet and sent her careening into the water. "Look at that. Look at that happiness."

Regina smiled and looked down at her daughter. "Thank you."

"Anytime, Mom. I'm always here. I'm pretty smart, you know."

"Yes, you are." She beamed when Regina kissed the top of her head again.

The door creaked and they looked up at Sarai and Jade as they peeked in. "You okay, Grandma?"

"Anything you need, Aunt Gina?"

"I'm perfect, children. Thank you."

"Well, Mel, Mom said to hurry if you want to try some fire breathing." Jade said. Melisandre was on her feet in a second. She gave Regina a quick hug and rushed out with the other kids.

Regina smiled at their departure and turned back to the photo album, turning the page. The next one was of her and Ruby racing in dune buggies. Then one of her and Belle pelting Zelena with water balloons. The next showed Lily landing with a parachute after skydiving. The final picture on the page was of Mal, standing in front of her new jet, one bought after they had tried regular flying, both in coach and in first class. Mal hated it, so she just bought her own jet for their travels. That was her life. She didn't regret leaving Storybrooke. As much as she still cared about him, she didn't regret leaving Henry either.

The door closed and she looked up, expecting someone else to come and check on her, but she was surprised to see a baby dragon sitting just inside the door. Barely bigger than a kitten with tiny horns and a cute little tail. Big blue eyes looked up at her and the little thing started to walk towards her, crawling a bit, as if afraid to frighten her. Regina closed the photo album and pushed it to the side. The baby dragon started running around the room. It did a little roll and balanced on its back legs. She couldn't help but laugh. "Mal, is that you?" Mal responded by blowing a ring of smoke at her in the shape of a heart. "You're adorable." Mal puffed out her chest and proceeded to let out a mighty roar...which was barely more than a squeak. "Okay, you cheered me up. Stop being so cute."

"Impossible." Mal said. In her new form, her voice came out sounding high pitched and squeaky. "Oh my, is that my voice? Oh, that is horrible. Wait a minute." Her mouth and throat glowed briefly as she mentally cast a spell. When she spoke again, her voice sounded almost baritone. "Regina, I am your mother. Welcome to the dark side."

"You're ridiculous."

"I'm cute, it doesn't matter." Mal replied, her voice returning to normal. "And you're smiling again, so mission accomplished." She hopped into Regina's lap and leaned up to nuzzle her neck. Regina smiled and pulled her to kiss the tip of her nose.

"You are a unique woman, you know."

"I do."

"Now, change back, please, dear."

"Nope." Regina's eyebrow rose as Mal jumped out of her lap and pushed her head between her front legs. She pushed off with her hind legs and Regina snorted when she started doing a headstand.

"You gave up control. Why?" The brunette asked. Mal's response was to lean over onto one paw. "Are you serious right now?" She rushed to her feet and Mal squealed as she took off, darting between Regina's legs and under the bed. Regina magically lifted it up and Mal shot towards the door, breaking a small corner off the bottom to get free. Regina gave chase and ran down the chairs, chasing her tiny lover with Mal squealing the entire time like a terrified animal. She almost couldn't run because she was laughing so hard. Ruby and Belle looking at them like they were crazy didn't help her laughing fit. Finally, she managed to catch Mal and picked her up. Mal began vibrating when she started purring and rubbing herself against Regina's neck like an excited cat. Another knock at the door made her rolled her eyes and she walked to the door while Mal balanced on her shoulder. It was Henry again. "Can I help you?"

"I just wanted to say I'm sorry." He said. "I was just surprised to find you here again. I thought you were gone forever."

"It's okay. I understand." She shrugged. "Would you like to come in?" She offered. He smiled and seemed to be about to accept the offer, but then he saw Roland. He shook his head and backed up as Roland came to stand next to Regina. His posture was tense, like he was preparing for a fight. She put a hand on his shoulder and he stopped, but Henry quickly turned tail and left. "What was that about?"

"Don't trust anything he says." Roland replied. "He's different now."

"What do you mean?" Regina asked. Roland rolled the sleeve of his shirt up and showed her the large scar on his arm. "Henry did that to you?" She said in disbelief. The gash must have been deep, extending the entire length of his forearm.

"You should see his hands." Roland said, rolling his sleeve back down. "They're green without Emma's spell."

Regina frowned and walked into the living room, taking a seat. "Talk to me, Ro. What's been happening? Why did he do this?"

"He did it because he thought you loved me more. With you being dead, there was no way we could confirm it and besides, he listens to Emma and she's crazy."

"So, when they tried to kill each other…"

"It was almost a civil war. The town protected their savior, the Merry Men protected their leader. Never mind the fact that it started with your murder. It was terrible. Anyway, Dad lost and we were banished to the forest. With the injuries Maleficent gave him, he can't hunt. And Emma used dynamite and forest fires regularly to scare away anything we could catch."

"I'm so sorry. I had no idea-"

"It's not your fault and it wasn't that bad."

Regina sighed. "I don't regret my decision." She said. "I just wish things hadn't gotten so bad. Especially for you. Robin didn't hurt you, did he?"

Roland shook his head. "Between being drunk and being angry at his men, he didn't have much time for me. Mr. Gold kept me safe most of the time."

That caused Regina's eyebrows to rise. "He did?"

Roland nodded. "He said it was a favor to a friend and he didn't want my dad's craziness to rub off on me."

"Well, I'm glad he did." Roland's attention was quickly snapped up by Mel showing him their game system and it left her to her thoughts, currently pouring over their situation. She had a way to make things better, but she needed to see someone first. The Next day she sought out the Dark One, both of them deciding to meet for breakfast at a restaurant across town. Granny's was considered off limits. She wasn't the only one who left town because of the people in it. Ruby and Granny were not on speaking terms after a large argument they had before Ruby left for good, centered around Ruby making Lily her mate and a secrets that Granny had withheld from her granddaughter involving her parents and a bunch of other matters. Regina didn't really know all of the details as it was not really any of her business unless those involved made it so, so she kept her nose out of it.

She and Mel arrived a little early and sat down at one of the tables outside. It was far too pretty a day to be inside.

"Mommy, who are we going to meet?" Mel asked.

"The Dark One, my dear." Regina said. She looked up as a waiter approached and she ordered them both teas and omelets.

"I thought you didn't like him."

Regina shrugged. "We have a complicated relationship."

"Should I be wary of him?" Mel frowned up at her.

"Always."

A few minutes later, she felt a light hand on her shoulder. "Good morning, ladies." Regina touched the hand and Gold moved to the chair across from them, inclining his head to Mel.

"Good morning, Gold."

"You must be Melisendra." He said, to her daughter. "You are as beautiful as your mothers."

"You must be Rumpelstiltskin. Pleased to meet you."

"So, will we be having pleasant conversation before get down to the good stuff?" Gold asked.

"Pleasant conversation while we eat. Good stuff for dessert." Regina smirked.

After an hour of eating and Gold simply talking to Mel and asking her questions, the conversation took a bit of a different turn and Regina bought Mel an ice cream sundae to keep her occupied.

"How's Belle?"

"Why don't you ask her? She's not mad at you, Gold. You know she's not the kind of person to hold a grudge."

"I hurt her...repeatedly. I've learned my lesson and intruding upon her happy ending is not something I would want."

"Maybe call her." Regina shrugged. It took quite a while but her former teacher seemed to have accepted that Belle would never be his. As long as he didn't threaten her family everything was good so she wasn't too interested in that aspect, although she did hope that Gold would find his True Love, as she had. "Thank you, for what you did for Roland." She said.

He shrugged. "Well, I knew the boy would either be left alone because of how much he meant to you, or he would be a target because of how much he meant to you. Either way, he seemed to be dragged into the thick of things."

"Do you know about his scar? What Henry did."

Gold nodded. "He suffers from the same affliction as his mother. He told Archie that he felt you loved Roland more and Emma breeding that type of thinking didn't help."

"How do you know he told Archie?"

"I broke into his office for information. It's been horribly boring these past years so I had to find some way to entertain myself. As well as make sure no one planned to come after me. After their little civil war, your former suitors turned to grief and their idea of dealing with it, was to try and destroy everything that reminded them of you. Obviously forgetting that it was you who built this entire town. That's why it's so dilapidated unfortunately."

Regina sighed. "What did they destroy?"

"Emma blew up your office, torched your old mercedes, took a bat to a couple stores. Robin...destroyed your mausoleum."

Regina bit her lip to keep from scowling. She wasn't really surprised, he seemed completely mad next to Emma, even though both were crazy. Luckily she had moved her parents' coffins down into her vault and sealed it with blood magic before she left. "Why?"

"Envy destroys everything, Regina, especially the envious person." Gold replied, taking a sip of his drink.

"They won't stop."

"That would seem to be the case. Melisendra, my dear, what would you do, were you in your mother's shoes?" Gold asked.

Mel didn't even look up to answer him. She didn't didn't even think about it. "I would kill Emma and Robin. Actually, I would have a long time ago."

Gold grinned at Regina. "Your daughter is smart." He turned back to the child. "But they have children, dearie. What would you do about them?"

"I get what you guys were trying to do, since Henry would probably rather die than leave Emma and Robin wouldn't have let Roland go anywhere near Mom or the other Queens," Mel said, glancing at her mother. "But they're crazy and they probably shouldn't be raising children at all. Look at Henry. Roland turned out pretty good though, but that's probably because he said Robin ignored him. Anyways, yeah, they would be dead. No them, no threat."

Gold chuckled and leaned back in his chair. "As much as Maleficent annoys me, I do love the simplicity of her species. Dragons rarely face these types of dilemmas. You piss one off, you die." He chuckled to himself. "I love it."

Regina remained quiet, mulling over her daughter's words. There was truth to them and honesty in them, but their focus had always been on the children before Emma and Robin, even when they attacked Mal. That was what Mal had wanted anyway, but it was Regina who wanted to spare a couple lives. It was her who stayed Mal's claws and now that she thought about it, it wasn't worth it. She felt as if she were still trying to play a hero, but she was married to a Queen of Darkness. And she was a Queen of Darkness. She couldn't allow this to stand, she never should have allowed it.

"What's going through that mind of yours?" Gold asked.

Regina reached into her purse and pulled out a golden key. She held it up to Gold. "Mal and I leaving was never meant to be permanent. Before, we had always planned to completely change the face of Storybrooke."

Gold scoffed. "The heroes would never have allowed that, even with you as the mayor and certainly not now."

"No, that's why we were planning on expanding the town, but this new section would be run by us. A new province, a new era. Mal bought the majority of buildings on the north end of town and I was going to push back the border, give us more room to work with. That was the plan, but that was also before we were almost murdered." She gestured to the ramshackle buildings around them. "Storybrooke needs a villain's touch for once."

"Are you done playing nice with the idiots who almost killed your loved ones?"

"Yes." She turned to Mel, who was watching her closely and smiled. "Dear, how would you like to meet an old friend of mine?"

"Who?" Mel asked.

"Her name is the Evil Queen. You're going to love her."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The Charmings were silent as they were lead into the newly rebuilt mayoral office, followed by Robin and his Merry Men. The new office had been rebuilt just as Regina had always had it, but with a bit extra trimmings taken from a dragon's lair. Said dragon was sitting behind the grand desk in the throne-like chair, immaculately dressed in a black pantsuit with a golden shirt underneath, sipping a glass of dark liquor. Three little kids and Roland were sitting on the couch near the fire, watching with small grins as the drama unfolded. Behind the couch was Keith, the Sheriff of Nottingham himself. On either side of Maleficent stood Lily and Zelena and next to them were Belle and Ruby.

"What is this?" David asked.

"Hush, Farmer, we are awaiting the imp." Lily said. Just as she spoke, Gold walked in, taking a seat on the couch near the children.

"Now, we can begin." Maleficent said.

"I don't want to hear a word you have to say." Emma interrupted. Zelena snapped her fingers and stole her voice, conjuring a heavy chain on her neck that nearly dragged her to the ground.

"There is a new authority in town, my dears. Because the old one was shit and allowed fools to run it into the ground." Maleficent stood up and walked around the desk. "That new authority is the Queens of Darkness. So call me what you will: queen, ruler, boss, chief, Don, bitch- Whatever synonym you want to throw in there, I don't fucking care. Just know that this town is now mine and everyone in it is now under my rule. Starting immediately, there will be some changes." She looked at David. "Farmer, you're fired." She looked at Emma. "Fool, you're fired." She turned to Robin, who squared his jaw, glaring at her. "And you, you I ought to kill where you stand. But this is a new suit and probably worth more than you are so I will refrain from bloodying it. However, they won't." Little John came forward and punched Robin hard in the jaw.

"What are you doing?" Robin hissed. "You traitor!"

"You betrayed us. You couldn't let it go." Little John said. "You have always had my loyalty, Robin, but last winter, we lost 3 of our brothers because they froze, because they were hungry, because of you and her." He gestured to Emma. "You have lost your mind and if this is what I must do to save my friends, so be it."

"Usually I would offer gold, gems, weapons, to steal a bit of loyalty." Mal said. "You know what they wanted to turn on you, Robin? They wanted food! They wanted a fucking house! That is all."

"They attacked you." He glared up at Little John before meeting her eyes. "They almost killed your child."

"No." Little John scoffed. "All the men you convinced to do that are either dead or evicted." He turned to the dragon and bowed his head. "I promise to you."

Maleficent shrugged. "We have spoken, I am pleased. Now, back to the changes. Storybrooke is going to need a strong hand in order to turn itself around and in order to do that, we need new leadership. Keith will be the new sheriff. My word will be his will." She conjured a pouch of coins and tossed it to him, which he caught easily. "Little John, you and the rest of the Merry Men can have one of the mansions near the forest. I'll have food delivered to the house for you, clothes, blankets, whatever you need and in the coming days, you will serve as interim leader until our young forest prince is ready to take over." She flashed a smile at Roland, who waved in reply. "Now, you may leave. Keith, make sure you secure Mr. Hood please." Keith smirked as he grabbed Robin and handcuffed him while he watched with hatred as the Merry Men departed. She turned to the Charmings.

"So you're the new mayor?" Snow asked.

She scoffed. "Uh, no. That title will be held by my lovely wife for the time being." Just as she said those words, the doors of the office flew open and in walked Regina in all her dark and stunning glory. She was dressed to impress in a little black dress and jewels gracing her neck, arms, ears, even her ankles and even more gems glittered from her heels.

"Sorry I'm late." She smirked, almost skipping over to Mal, pausing just in front of her with a mischievous glint in her eye. Mal pecked her lips and pointed her finger at her.

"Play nice."

"No promises."

Mal whistled for the others and they made their own departure, leaving Mel and Gold with Regina as she faced her longtime enemies. Regina bit her lip, watching Mal leave. Once the others were gone, she stepped forward to remove the chain on Emma's neck and placed it on the desk. "I know you don't know this, but I spent almost a year building this town. Brick by brick, stone by stone, every blade of grass meticulously placed." She said. "I know you probably don't care either, but there are people in this town that I care about, and the fact that they had to spend the last 10 years in this hellhole because of your neglect and incapability of disciplining your daughter, sickens me." She gestured to Emma. "She needs help. I think you know that." She looked down at Henry. "And I honestly don't know what to say to you anymore. I know what you did to Roland." Henry swallowed but said nothing. She took a deep breath and backed away from them. "For the last 10 years, you all tore this town apart, you let it fall to rubble, because of what? Because Emma got rejected, you just let her destroy half the fucking town?" David opened his mouth to speak. "Shut up." She snapped. "Your family is no longer in power and as long as I live, they never will be again."

"You're moving back into town?" Emma whispered, rubbing her neck.

"For now, but I doubt we will stay and when we do leave, you can rest assured that we will leave someone in place worthy of leading this town. In the meantime, we call the shots and if you even think- if it even crosses those tiny little pea sized pods you called brains to defy us then I will kill you where you stand. Do I make myself clear?"

"I agree that things have gotten out of control these past few years, but you can't just show up and take over. The people won't allow it." David said firmly. "And we won't let you treat our citizens like nothing. We still rule here."

Emma rolled her eyes and Robin started snickering. "Idiot." They said in unison.

"You know, you're right." Regina sighed. She looked at Mel. "We've been going about this the wrong way, my dear." She snapped her fingers and Keith moved behind David and tazed him until he nearly collapsed. "You see, David, I can and will do whatever I want. Your people are not my concern, but I highly doubt that they will mind us fixing what you destroyed. But you know, if you want me to take the people and build a better town and leave you all in this fucked up one, fine by me. Just know that while I'm here, it's no more Miss Nice Regina. Do you understand?" The blonde slowly nodded and she turned around to Mel. "That wasn't exactly the Evil Queen reborn, but close enough. Maybe you'll meet her tomorrow when we go threaten the dwarves. Let's go then, dear, we have to begin reparations."

"Yes ma'am." Mel hopped down and followed Regina to the door. "I like the Evil Queen."

"She likes you too." She smiled at her daughter. "You're dismissed, Uncharmings. Keith, come." Keith sheathed his taser and followed after the new mayor.

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