Chapter 91: Aftermath

The world is now quiet and still. The four women sit in prolonged silence with nothing to say. They all knew that a lot of people would be showing up shortly, so they may as well embrace the silence.

Mal smiles at her best friend. She was relieved at being healed considering how much pain she'd been in and was also happy that Evie had found a good use for her magic. Maybe this would help her see that magic isn't a bad thing. It killed the daughter of Maleficent to see her best friend in so much pain and so afraid of something that was a part of who she was. Sure magic was different, but it made them special and it could do good things.

"Evie!"

The silence didn't last as long as they hoped.

Two figures appear up the road and come towards them. As they get closer, the group realizes that it's the Evil Queen and Evie's boyfriend. Evie and Mal both stand up.

Regina races over and embraces her alternate daughter.

"Thank god you're okay, are you hurt?"

"I'm fine," she mumbles.

Once the mayor has released her, Doug pulls her into a bone-crushing hug.

"Don't ever do that again," he whispers. Evie can hear the despair in his voice. "Please…"

"It's okay Doug," she says, trying to reassure him. "I'm fine, I'm…

"No," he interrupts. He breaks from their embrace, and she can see the fear in his eyes, almost on the verge of crying. "I need to get this out. Magic or no magic, I… care too much about you Evie to lose you… I can't… I don't want to lose you. I don't care if you have magic or not, you're too special for me to lose you. If you're having trouble with this or anything, please tell me or at least know that you can come to me when you're ready."

"I will, Doug I promise," she smiles, wiping away her tears and kissing his cheek before hugging him again.

"I'm just glad you didn't hurt yourself or anything," Regina says.

She then turns to the dragon ladies. "What the hell happened in the sky?"

Mal looks over at Lily and Maleficent, waiting to see if they would reply. Looks of guilt across all of their faces.

"It wasn't exactly very subtle. Why was there a literal Game of Thrones battle above the town? Do any of you realize that you could've burned the town or the entire forest down? How many people you could've killed? Or that you could've killed each other? Did none of you think of that?"

Like a mother scolding her children, Regina wanted answers and none of them were speaking.

"It was an argument that got out of hand," Mal states simply. She's not going to assign any blame, even though she didn't start any of this and was only trying to protect herself.

"You think?" Regina snaps. "What would possess any of you to do something so reckless? Why can't you settle your differences like normal people?"

Lily's eyes glow gold for a second to express her annoyance and rage at the whole situation, hating that a former villain is lording morality over them. Then again, the mayor was only looking out for the town and the people they could have killed, and they also could have laid waste to the whole town, leaving survivors essentially homeless.

"Because we're not normal," Lily says smugly, with a smile. "We have no other outlet for our rage."

"Don't give me that crap! Two out of three of you are fully grown adults and can't settle it without a firefight?"

The Evil Queen then looks at her former ally and still friend, shaking her head in disappointment. While she can understand that Maleficent was relatively "new" to parenting (those circumstances extended beyond the situation) she'd had a daughter for years and should know how to help. From what Regina and Doug saw in the sky, it looked like Maleficent was trying to manage the situation, getting in the middle but her girls didn't seem to care and the situation just escalated. She had a pretty good idea of who had started it but just decided to confront them all as they were all part of the problem.

"And on top of that, you went over the town line. God forbid that someone saw both of you."

She looks over at Maleficent. "Just… find a better way… I'll leave you to deal with the rest of this."

Soon, other people arrive to check to make sure that everyone is okay. Snow leads Jay and Carlos to the scene.

"Everyone all right?" Snow asks, surprised to see Lily amongst them.

Carlos and Jay race over to hug Evie.

"You're okay!" the son of Cruella says happily. He signals for Mal to join them, which she does. The group was together again.

"Of course, I'm okay," she smirks. "What made you think I wasn't?"

"Don't joke!" he snaps, holding her tightly. "You scared us so badly."

"Yeah Eves, you really had us going there," Jay chimed in. "We were worried you'd gone to another dimension or something."

"STOP!" Carlos snaps. He pushes from the group.

"What's wrong with you?" Mal asks, shocked by his outburst.

"This isn't funny. Evie, we thought we lost you and then Mal… in the sky…"

"It's okay Carlos. We're all okay," Mal assures him.

"But what if something happened…?" The group can see the tears forming in his eyes. "I don't want to lose you guys."

"You won't," Jay says.

"How… how can we know that? With everything that's happened… it's all so… much."

The trio pulls Carlos close and holds him. It's clear that he's been keeping this in… likely since they got to Storybrooke. They understand how scary, seemingly precarious, and ever-changing their situation was, but they were still in one piece, and they still had each other to lean on. Plus, they now had parents and other friends who were working to get them home.

"It's okay," Evie says quietly. "We all feel like that… but it's okay because we're rotten…"

"To the core," they all recite together, their group motto from their days on the Isle.

They smile at one another, coming to a silent understanding.

More people begin to show up at the town line including David, the twins, and Ben, along with the married sheriff and deputy and Harry and Audrey. The king of Auradon goes and embraces Mal tightly.

"Are you okay? I saw the fighting and I couldn't get there in time…"

"I'm fine," she cuts him off. Ben the worrywart. She doesn't bring up the fact that she was hurt in the fight for the sake of his sanity. "It wasn't the best experience, but it's okay now."

Ben wants to protest further, but Mal gives him a look to just stop. It's been a rough time and she just wants to recover without any more fighting or worrying.

As he hugs her again, his eyes look over to Maleficent and Lily. He shoots a death glare at Lily in particular because he correctly assumed that she's the one who attacked first. While he hadn't seen the beginning of the fight, he saw the dark dragon come from out of nowhere and then he felt the heat when fireballs were exchanged. Whatever this woman's problem was, she'd taken her rage out on Mal and if she'd hurt her in any way, he'd be hellbent to deliver proper justice. Lily does look guilty and sheepish for a moment, but then her eyes glow gold to show him that she wasn't going to be intimidated. However, he doesn't flinch, shooting another angry glance before bringing his attention back to his "girlfriend."

Emma knew that Lily was the instigator and gives her a warning glare after her eyes started glowing again. What would possess her former friend to attack a teenager like that? Jealousy, rage, and hatred are most likely, all based on immaturity on Lily's end and while the Saviour wants to confront her, she decides not to make it worse for the time being. Right now, they all need to just head back to town now that Evie has been found and the violence deescalated. She does a check with everyone in case there was a need for healing, and Maleficent seems particularly weak. When the blonde heals her, she feels as if the Mistress of All Evil went through something extremely traumatic considering how weak her body felt.

"Let's head back to town," Regina announces. "We'll postpone training until tomorrow."

Everyone is relieved and happy, ending the VK's and AK's first day with magic and it was certainly one to remember.

A/N: And I'm back. I'm sorry it's been so long, but here's a new chapter. It's more a bridging chapter, not as much action, but giving the characters room to breathe and recover before heading into the next parts of the story. Thank you again to everyone who reviews and shows their support by reading.