Mal takes a very long breath, and her sigh is so slow and tentative that Regina wonders if she's ever going to stop.

"Fine," she says in the silence that follows. Her eyes announce that no, it is very much not fine, but she's willing to endure.

"It'll be temporary," Belle soothes. "It shouldn't be more than a lunar cycle."

Mal folds her hands in front of her on the table, sitting up straight and making eye contact solely with Regina. "Are you sure this is the best way?"

"This spell requires a sacrifice of age and wisdom," Belle says, opening the book and passing it over. "The more we sacrifice, the more accurate it'll be."

"So you need me because I'm several hundred years older than Granny, the former Dark One, and the pirate, combined: you're all just too concerned with protecting my vanity to say it." Mal glances at the book, but she knows what it says. Regina's certain she's heard of the spell before.

"We need to help Emma," Snow says and Regina waits for the snap, because she'd really let Snow have it if it were her daughter that had been taken, but Mal nods.

Mal turns her gaze from her book to her hands, suddenly small and helpless, even in her impeccably tailored suit. "All right."

"We'll keep you safe," Belle promises.

Mal's eyes flick up from her hands and she looks straight at Regina, then Snow. "I trust you will."

It's not even a threat. She trusts them, and a weight settles into Regina's stomach because she's not really sure if any of them know what they're getting into by agreeing to look after a very young dragon for a month. Henry was a fairly easy baby. He couldn't fly or breathe fire, and she's going to have to get the baby gates down from the attic.

The underworld is a huge place and they'll never figure out where to find Emma without a very powerful guiding spell, and this particular one requires a sacrifice. Other than the Blue Fairy, who none of them can see agreeing, Mal's the oldest being they have. Taking all of her knowledge and wisdom and pouring it into the spell for a month should make it work much faster for Henry, David and Lily. Snow's still breastfeeding little Neal, so she can't go (though she nearly wanted to take the little guy down to search for his sister). Regina should go, especially to protect Henry, but they only bargained for safe passage for three, and she can't take the place of Emma's father or her son. Lily's taken the last place because like her mother, she's immortal. If something bad happens, she must be allowed out. She can return, no matter what.

Piercing the veil between worlds might have its own consequences, Robin has an infant and might need her help and no one knows where Zelena has vanished too. She has to stay. Maleficent trusts her, and she'll have her hands full, certainly, with a baby dragon. They'll need to regress her almost all the way down to hatchling, to get as much as they can.

"But you'll be okay?" Lily asks, standing behind her mother. "You'll come back, you'll be you again?"

"It won't even hurt," Mal promises, standing up to take her daughter's hands. "It'll take my memories, so I won't know you, or anyone else, but you use them, you find Emma and bring her back."

"Of course," Lily replies, finding a brave little smile so much like her mother's. "Emma and I always find each other. We're connected, and you'll be there."

"In a way," Henry insists, standing beside Lily. He taps the globe in his hands. "We'll have part of you here, helping us find our way."

Mal shudders, and nods. "Well then, before I change my mind."

They draw a circle in the dirt, far out from town in a clearing. This spell needs moonlight, and fire. Henry holds the empty glass globe in front of him, like a born sorcerer. He might not have magic, but being the author is a kind of magic all its own. Regina begins to spin the spell, calling up the soft white energy of youth. It rises in streams from the cauldron, reaching towards Mal, almost like it intends to play with her. For her part, Mal doesn't flinch, even though Regina's fairly certain she would if asked to give up so much of herself, if only for a very short period of time.

A month can feel like forever. Will she even remember what happens to her?

All of Regina's questions are too late, because the light touches Maleficent, spiraling around her, and the essence of her age and experience begins to peel off, rushing towards Henry and the empty glass globe. It's little at first, a delicate silver-grey mist, almost green, like sage in the garden. Mal doesn't look any different, not yet, but Regina watches her face and slowly, she begins to change. Her eyes soften first, and her lips, and the traces of lines around her mouth disappear, erased by that hungry light. Her hair tumbles free of the knot on the back of her head and it cascades down her back, long and golden in a way Regina's never seen it. Her eyes grow brighter, more full of hope and fire. She shivers and her posture changes, her hands are younger, fuller, even her breasts look different in her suit, and then she's younger still, shorter, and her curves start to fade. The suit's too big for her, and she's a child wearing the clothing of someone she has not yet grown to be.

This is a Maleficent Regina's never known, one who could be Henry's classmate, whose smile is full of rebellion and wonder, and she shrinks, growing smaller before them. She's shorter than Henry, then barely taller than Roland, her hair so long that it nearly touches the ground, and there's a wildness in her eyes, something impish. That's her, Regina knows that part of her, but it's unfettered by experience. There's something so pure about the way she smiles, the way she laughs and reaches out the swirling light around her. It's then that she changes. The beautiful little girl in front of them shifts, slipping through smoke and darkness. Becoming larger, she rears up, but she's barely the size of a pony, and her wings are soft. She roars but like the giggling, it's a gentle, sweet sound. The dragon is also a child, growing smaller as the light continues to swirl. The dragon chases the lights with her mouth, shrinking down, her feet clumsy now as she twirls. The light brightens, taking the last that they dare and suddenly she's just a little thing, barely much bigger than a large house cat or little Neal. The dragon, Maleficent, nuzzles what she had been wearing and curls into it, making a nest with her little paws that totally lacks any real kind of coordination.

"Henry," Regina warns as the dragon shrinks even further. If they go too far, they'll have to wait for her to hatch and it'll be much more complicated.

The spell stops, the light retreats into the swirling globe in Henry's hand.

"We got it, Mom," he says. Belle hurries over to him and checks the globe, then the book.

"It seems like it'll be more than enough to guide them through," Belle agrees. "They'll have until the next full moon to find Emma, hopefully that'll be enough time. We could try again, but I'd rather not risk putting Maleficent through that."

They continue to talk, Snow and David chime in, but Regina walks forward towards the little bundle inside of Mal's clothing. The dragon notices her and hides, burying her little snout in Mal's shirt. She digs in further, but once her head is hidden she stops, because if she can't see Regina, she must not be there.

Regina kneels beside the rumpled clothing, then reaches out her hand. "Hello there," she whispers. "I know you're frightened, but you need to come with me so you'll be safe." She stretches out her fingers, barely stroking the scales of the tiny dragon and the little beast startles, digging in deeper as if beneath the coat she might be able to hide.

She can't risk losing her, not out here, so she scoops her up, coat and all, and Mal doesn't know where she is or what's happening and she squirms, struggling against Regina's arms. The tail helps her gain leverage and she nearly pulls herself free before Lily intervenes.

"Hi mom," Lily says, and there's enough of the dragon in her voice that Mal settles, if only for a moment. "I know you're scared. I'm scared."

Mal's scaly little head is barely bigger than Lily's hand, but she works her way free from the coat and sniffs at her. Rubbing her snout against Lily, she relaxes, letting Regina cradle her to her chest.

"I promise we'll be back, and you'll be back." Her voice catches a little in her throat, but she continues to stroke Mal's head, which keeps her calm, because she knows her kind. She doesn't know her own daughter, but she must be able to sense that Lily is like her. "It'll be okay. Regina's got you."

Shifting her weight, Regina cradles the little beast so she's wrapped in Mal's coat like a baby. Will they be able to get her into a car seat? Would they be better off with a crate of some sort?

"I love you," Lily whispers, bending to kiss her mother's much smaller head.

The little dragon snuffles, accepting the kiss before she curls up, resting her head against Regina's chest as if she's decided to trust her, for now.

David drives them back into town, and the car engine startles Mal awake and Regina again has to hush her, muttering nonsensical words she hasn't used since Henry was a baby. Mal would be the first one to make fun of her if she understood what Regina mutters to her, but as a hatchling, there's nothing she can do. She likes the sing-song reassurances that's she's okay, and with claws like hers, Regina has to keep her calm. She rocks little Mal in her arms in the back seat, half-listening to Snow and David talking as she wonders where she should put Mal to sleep.

Dragons like nests, but where does she had space. She put all of Henry's old things in the attic long ago, and Mal's too big for his basinet and she'd never tolerate being a crib. She could make her a space with pillows and blankets in the bed beside her. Perhaps she'll stay there.

Regina wakes in the middle of the night because a hatchling crying sounds remarkably similar to a baby and the part of her mind that woke her so often for Henry won't let her sleep through it. Mal isn't beside her, nor is she curled up anywhere on the bed. Dragging herself up, Regina flips on the lights and searches her room. With the doors closed to the hallway, the bathroom and the closet there are few places she could be. She's not in the corner, or under the nightstand, and finally, Regina lines on the floor and peers under the bed and she's there, in the far corner beneath the bed, curled into a ball with her head on her tail. Her eyes glow in the darkness and she cries, like one of the kittens in the barn, so very long ago.

Sighing, Regina settles down on the floor and whispers about nothing important to a baby dragon that can't understand her, or why she's alone and cold and expected to sleep somewhere as dark and strange as Regina's bedroom. She pulls some of the blankets off the bed and gets as comfortable as she can on the carpet because Mal's not going to move.

Sometime before morning, Regina wakes again, stiff from the floor, and Mal's curled against her stomach: a little ball of warm scales in the blanket. She strokes her, just once, terrified that she'll wake, but she sighs, snuggles closer, and they both fall back asleep.

She makes Henry breakfast before David picks him up, and hugs him close because he too won't be back until the next full moon and he's going to save Emma, as he should (as Regina should) but she can't. Not this time.

Mal was asleep in the bed when she left, but she's under it after Henry leaves and Regina spends most of the morning coaxing her out with cold bacon and little pieces of egg. She should have asked what a hatchling eats, but apparently they eat everything, because once she's over her fear, Mal attacks anything Regina puts in front of her. She grabs her, hoping to save her bedroom from smelling eternally of bacon, but Mal squirms and writhes and she does have teeth and claws. She quiets if Regina half-sings to her, and she doesn't sing in front of anyone.

Even as a baby, Mal was contrary, and she adores it, even if it is off key and Regina can only remember half of the words. She fences off part of the kitchen with baby gates and sits on the floor with Mal as they experiment with what she will eat (bacon, toast, eggs) and what she won't eat (tomatoes, apple, banana). She enjoys pouncing on little pieces of toast, growling as she half-eats, half-shreds them. Regina should stop her, but she's so enthusiastic when she gets one, and the vacuum works.

She takes her out into the safely fenced back yard, and it seems to big at first, because Mal could hide under any of the trees and Regina will have to dig her out, but she barely wanders more than five feet from Regina in the grass before she hurries back, her wings glistening in the sun. They don't seem to work, her soft, leathery little wings. Sometimes Mal twitches one of the other but she doesn't seem to realize that she's doing it, and like her feet, all of her movements are clumsy. She crawls through the grass on her round little belly and sits in the sun, pleased and brave until she can't find Regina and then she panics, searching wildly and falling over her feet on the way back.

Finally, she curls beside Regina's thigh, forming a little ball in the sunny grass. Stroking her warm scales, Regina smiles as Mal's eyes squint shut. "What am I going to do with you in the office tomorrow?"