"Well that is certainly something you don't see every day," Killian says.
"You guys see dragons, knights, curses, and mermaids on a daily basis and this is what shocks you?" Mal asks.
"I'd hate to see what scares you guys," Dude says. "Hey Mal, where are we?"
"The Land Without Magic," she explains, holding Dude in her arms.
"No wonder it smells so different. Okay, who smells like seawater and eyeliner,"
Regina and Crystal snort, trying to stifle their laughter. Rumple is also looking very amused.
"Hey buddy, what's with the utensil?" the talking animal continues. "Is it you, Captain Crook that smells like makeup and old seaweed? What is that thing for anyways, opening cans or herding sheep? Could you make it more useful and open a can of dog food for me?"
Killian does not look particularly amused, but Emma's trying to hide her smiles. The pirate is used to Regina's sarcastic comments about his appearance, the Dark One's daughter's too, but coming from a talking dog is something not entirely pleasing to him. He bites his lip to hide the annoyance.
"Hey... Dude how about this?" Crystal offers, she waves her hand and conjures up a nice chewy bone for him. "Will this curb your appetite?"
"Oh man, you are now officially my new best friend in this town," the dog says, wagging his tail in excitement. The young adult gives him the bone which he chews on happily.
Mal lets him down onto the floor to enjoy his treat. Suddenly, Neal begins squirming in his mother's arms, making a big fuss.
"Honey, what's wrong?" she asks.
Neal babbles something and is pointing down, kicking, and trying to communicate his desire to be let down. His mother obliges and places him on the floor, to which the toddler crawls over to Dude. The dog looks at him with the bone in his mouth, cocking his head to the side in curiosity. Neal reaches over and grabs a clump of the dog's brown fur rather roughly.
"Ow, hey..." Dude barks, dropping the bone in pain.
"Gentle Honey, gentle," Snow says. She grabs her son's hands to release the clump of fur the toddler has in his grasp; she then guides his hand gently to show him how to pet the dog properly. Once the little prince gets the hang of it, he starts petting Dude with a much softer touch. The talking dog then sniffs the baby curiously.
"How come you don't walk like the rest of the humans?" he asks.
Neal makes some sort of noise as if to answer the question. A big smile spreads across the tiny tot's face, happy to hear this animal talking to him.
"Sorry, I don't speak your language..." The brown dog then goes up and licks the toddler's face, to which Neal squeals in uncontrollable delight. The happy noises make the others towering over the two smile widely. Dude continues to lick the boy's face. "Mmmm, what did he have for lunch, peanut butter? He tastes much better than he smells. I expected him to taste like powder or maybe salt."
"I think Neal's found a new friend," Crystal says, still cradling a sleeping Gideon.
"Indeed," Killian agrees. "A friend with a rather big mouth,"
"Who is no different from Zelena," the daughter of Rumpelstiltskin smirks.
"Zelena?" Mal asks in confusion.
"My half-sister, The Wicked Witch of the West," Regina explains.
"Wicked Witch..." Mal trails off, trying to remember something that she'd read. She slightly resembled Belle when she was thinking of something "Is she from a land called Oz?"
"How do you know that?" Belle asks.
"There was a book I found in the library; the one that told me about the different realms that existed, and Oz was one of them. Ben and I wanted to visit there, especially the City of Emeralds and meet this Wizard who rules it."
"Uhm, he's not around anymore," Emma says, biting her lip, her mind going back to Walsh and what happened to him.
"So, who runs the city now?" Mal asks.
"I think it might be Glinda, the good witch of the North, but I'm not sure," David says. "We've kind of lost track of what's happened in other realms."
"Including Auradon," the daughter of Maleficent says.
"Auradon? What's that?" Emma asks.
"You've never heard of Auradon?"
"Kid, I think there's a lot about you we don't know," the Saviour says. She conjures up a stack of papers and file folders, ready to do the ever-exciting job as the town sheriff, the paperwork.
"Well, I guess Auradon is an alternate realm from this one, where we have different versions of our parents, but about 20 years ago, King Adam and Queen Belle created The United States of Auradon, uniting all the kingdoms of the many heroes and heroines in fairy tales. It became a safe place where all the heroes could live out their happily ever afters and raise their children in peace."
"But you said that you were the daughter of Maleficent," Regina points out. "And no offence, but she's a villain, one of the worst out there, and villains don't usually get their happy endings."
"I am, and she is a villain. But I'm not from Auradon originally. You see a lot of us who came through the portal are from a place known as the Isle of the Lost. It's an island that was formed near Auradon and it's where all the villains were either brought back to life or merely imprisoned there. There's no magic and it's a place that usually gets the leftovers from the kingdom, which makes it pretty pathetic and poor."
"But if there's no magic there, how did you guys get here?" Snow asks.
"I'm getting to that. Almost a year ago, Ben... my former boyfriend was going to be crowned King of Auradon when he turned sixteen and one of his first proclamations was to bring the children of some of the villains to Auradon for a second chance and Auradon has magic, although they don't use it very often. His idea to rehabilitate us kind of worked, except my mom crashed Ben's coronation and with the help of my friends, the strength of evil is as good as none when stands before four hearts as one; we were able to turn her into a lizard, a small one because it was based on the size of love in her heart."
"And let me guess, she didn't have a lot of love," Crystal assumes.
"Exactly. Anyway, unfortunately with my friends and I getting our second chance, several other kids from the Isle became jealous and tried to take over Auradon... twice. It was the second time we'd battled them when we were all sucked into the portal. I think my rival was trying to send us to a different realm, she was experimenting with portals from what I gather from everything that happened. The problem is, we don't know why we ended up here,"
"I think that's because I was experimenting with portals on my end, and like a phone, you guys made the call and I guess we answered it," Crystal says. "The two ends connected and you ended up here.
"Putting it mildly," Mal says. "But that's pretty much the whole story."
"Now this rival of yours, was she the blue octopus that came through on your leg?" Killian asks.
"Yes, her name is Uma, she's the daughter of Ursula, she's the whole reason behind all of this mess. She kidnapped Ben to lure me into battle and I fell for it and now... We're all here."
"It's going to be okay Mal," Emma says, putting a hand on the teen's shoulder. "We'll figure it out, but we do want you to help us make sure everyone is taken care of. Coming through portals is hard on the body and we need to ensure all your friends and even your rivals are okay."
"Aye lass," Killian agrees. "You mind giving us the full introduction to them? We'll need to document it."
"Do you mind if I go get some water first?" Mal asks, her throat has become dry due to all the talking she's done.
"Sure, the fountain's just down the hall," Regina says, directing her. "We'll be here when you get back."
"Thanks," the purple-haired girl says. She slowly walks down the hall, pulling back some of the hair that had landed in her face. She's realized that she's sweating a bit and feeling very overwhelmed. She's not exactly sure how she's going to reveal to these people of Storybrooke that they have kids... at least in this alternate world. How were they going to take it? Is there a version of her mother here in town? Where is this Lily person? Would the sorceress even believe her when she said anything? There is one other question that is bubbling in the back of the teenager's mind, one that she's unsure about whether she wants the answer to it? Would this Maleficent be a much better mother than the one Mal had on the Isle? The girl swallows as she walks towards the water fountain.
Suddenly, a hand comes from out of nowhere and pulls the daughter of Maleficent from sight. She feels her head being bashed against the nearest wall and a hand at the collar of her leather jacket. She gasps as she tries to see who grabbed her. Her eyes begin to glow green when she recognizes the turquoise braids and vengeful looking face.
"Miss me?" the voice hisses. Her spiked leather gloves wrapped around Mal's collar.
"Hardly," Mal snarls. "You're the one who got us into this mess in the first place."
"Nice of you to leave me on top of the clock tower," Uma hisses, still gripping Mal, her hands now approaching the throat of her rival.
"That was your decision," the purple-haired teen smirks.
"You left me no choice, you were going to drop me if I didn't let go..." Uma does her best to sound tough, but she was still shaking slightly from having been us so high. Heights had never been her things, which is why she avoided climbing the lookout on The Lost Revenge or even The Jolly Roger.
Mal's strength is enhanced by something, she's unsure about what is empowering her... After all, magic was different here, she could tell and feel it. But it felt amazing, just like the arm wrestling for Ben's fate, Mal feels her strength coming back enough to remove herself from Uma's grasp. She squeezes her rival's hand very tightly, so much so that Uma grimaces in pain. Mal is then able to turn the tables, she pins the pirate captain against the same wall and lets out a snarl.
"Is this going to end right now?" Uma says, trying to remain brave, even though Mal is starting to cut off her airway. "In a hospital full of innocent people."
"Like you care about innocent people," Mal says in a low voice. "You weren't above putting Ben in the middle of this just to see who could rule the Isle and who was superior..."
Another dragon-like snarl escapes Mal's lips when suddenly she hears footsteps and voices coming down the hall.
"Mal...?"
The girl turns to see Evie, still dressed in her blue outfit rushing up towards her friend. There are several nurses and doctors pursuing the unknown girl in an attempt to give her a full examination.
"Evie!"
The two girls forget about everything else and simply embrace one another, their sisterly bond mended once again.
A/N: Please Review. What do you think should happen next? I'm open to ideas from the readers.