DISCLAIMER:: yea, still don't own. oh how i wish i did.

A/N:: here it is. the sequel to actions have consequences. i hope i don't disappoint with this one. i'm trying to make it the correct mix of light and dark, just as with the first one. i don't want it to be horribly angsty as with my other fics. hope everyone enjoys. reviews are always appreciated.

SWAN QUEEN SWAN QUEEN SWAN QUEEN

A cloud of purple and grey smoke appeared in the center of the bed chamber of the woman formerly known as the Evil Queen and her wife, the crown Princess of the Enchanted Forest. When the smoke dissipated, two figures remained in its place, a brunette in a deep purple gown that hugged her tightly and gave her cleavage an eye-catching boost, and a blonde who wore a gown no less grand, as now befitted her station, but slightly less revealing. The blonde reluctantly extricated herself from the brunette's arms.

"She's… special." Emma tried to look like she meant it in a nice way, but her attempt failed quite miserably.

"She's one of my oldest friends." Regina admonished, but there was no trace of displeasure.

Emma grinned. "I'd be evil too if I had to put up with that."

Regina socked her arm playfully.

Emma held up her arms, trying to block any further assault. "Did you see how many animals that woman has? And all that pink? She's like Paris Hilton but with a unicorn instead of a Chihuahua."

Regina rolled her eyes, but a small grin found its way onto her face. Truth be told, she couldn't really argue much with the blonde in regards to Maleficent. Her old friend, after being defeated by Prince, now King, Philip, had retreated into solitude at the Forbidden Fortress. For Regina, solitude had always been easier. She selected her moments to make an appearance carefully, like a trained actress waiting for her cue. She knew when to shine and when to bow out; it was an art really. But Maleficent had always been, as Emma put in juvenile terms, an attention whore. She always wanted to be in the spotlight, quite possibly what had been her downfall. So her pets were her audience now. And Maleficent did have quite the menagerie.

"And I missed the girls."

Regina snapped out of her musings to look at her wife.

Emma shrugged. "I can't help it. I missed so much of Henry's life. I promised myself that I wouldn't do that with Cora and Brooke."

Regina reached for Emma's hand and squeezed it reassuringly. "We've been gone one night Emma. One night in four years, five in Cora's case. That can hardly be constituted as abandonment."

"I know, I just couldn't help feeling like something would go wrong." She shrugged. "I guess it's just mom nerves is all."

Regina pulled her close and wrapped her arms around Emma. "Believe me, dear, it will pass."

Emma nodded, a small smile on her face.

The door burst open, Snow standing there, a wild look in her eye.

It was a toss up of who was more shocked to see the ruling Queen of the Enchanted Forest, Regina or Emma.

"Mom?"

"Snow?"

Snow took a deep breath and as she did the tears came. "We couldn't reach you. Henry used the mirror to talk to me."

Emma felt her stomach turn violently. "What happened?"

Snow shook her head, her mouth opening and closing several times. "We tried so hard to get to you sooner, but Maleficent had wards around the Forbidden Fortress to stem any magical contact."

"Snow!" Regina stepped closer to the woman, a glare coming across her features. "What has happened?"

Tears slipped down Snow's cheeks. "It's the girls. They're gone. She took them."

"Who?" Regina closed the rest of the distance to the door and gripped the Queen's shoulders. "Snow, tell me!"

"It was your mother." Snow searched Regina's eyes, looking exceedingly apologetic. "She took them."

Emma stormed past the women and was off down the hall so fast she was like a blur. She was always complaining how twisted the layout of this castle was. But as she headed for Cora's bed chamber, her legs moved without hesitation, left here, right there. Every twist, every turn, she navigated with certainty until she slid into the open doorway.

Henry looked up with a tear streaked face. Clutched in his hand was Brooke's favorite plush toy, a swan that Regina had given her when she turned three.

Emma felt her heart wrench. She glanced to the bed. The blankets had been thrown back and were in utter disarray, beyond that the room was in perfect condition. No signs of a struggle. She walked slowly over to the bed, her hand touching the place where her youngest daughter had been when she last saw her. The spot was cold now, no trace of the little girl left.

Tears stung her eyes and she crumpled onto the mattress, sobbing. She felt arms slip around her, but she felt no comfort in Henry's embrace.

"I told you to watch after them Henry!"

Henry looked up in shock at the intimidating form of his other mother in the doorway to the bed chamber. "I… they were asleep… I didn't think that…."

"Precisely! You didn't think!"

"But mom…"

Regina held up a hand. "Go to your rooms Henry!"

"I won't! They're my sisters and I want to help get them back!" He stood, anger crossing his face, no longer so little. He was sixteen now, just as tall as Regina, though not quite as intimidating. But he stood his ground now. He had failed in his task, it was up to him to make it right.

Snow appeared next to Regina. "Henry, come with me. We have work to do." She motioned for him to come to her, her eyes soft but leaving no room for argument.

He nodded and with one last shocked glare in Regina's direction, he exited with his grandmother.

Regina crossed the room to the bed where Emma was still a wreck. The blonde was sobbing, clutching the sheets. Regina grabbed her wife and pulled her up into her arms. "It'll be alright."

Emma shook her head. "How can you say that?"

Regina ran a hand through Emma's hair. "Because she won't hurt them."

Emma tried to pull away. "You can't know that."

Regina held her tighter. "This is about me. She's using them to get to me."

SWAN QUEEN SWAN QUEEN SWAN QUEEN

"Show me what you saw."

The face in the mirror gave an incline of his head and the surface of the mirror rippled. When it stopped, it appeared to be the screen of a television. They were looking into Cora's bed chamber where the girls were on the bed, sleeping. Red smoke seemed to envelope the mirror and as it dissipated, they could make out the shadowy outline of a woman. Brooke's eyes slipped open, followed a minute later by Cora's. Cora was the first to sit up and the defiant glare she gave the intruder sent a surge of pride through Regina's chest. At least she hadn't been so easily duped. She had been wary of the intruder. Magic orbs of light flew around the room, casting the bed chamber into perfect clarity. Regina watched in dread as first Brooke, and then reluctantly, Cora too, got up from the bed and took one of the woman's outstretched hands. They turned towards the mirror and Regina saw her mother stare straight through the looking glass as if she were looking at Regina herself and a smirk lifted on her mouth. Then red smoke enveloped the image again, but this time when it dispersed, she saw nothing more than an empty room.

Regina's hand began to glow a threatening shade of violet, energy crackling dangerously across her fingertips. She tried to take a deep breath but it did nothing to suppress her rage and she sent the bolts of violet lightening towards the mirror, shattering the glass into millions of fragments.

A hand on her shoulder startled her out of sending another bolt towards the wall where the mirror had been. She turned and found Emma staring at her, her gaze broken. "Gina…."

The energy, fueled by Regina's anger, dissipated as her rage quelled in the face of Emma's devastation. "She did this because of me Emma."

Emma pulled Regina into her arms. "We'll get them back, right?"

Regina nodded. "Of course. Emma, we'll find a way to get them back. And I promise you, I will eliminate the problem once and for all."

"Once and for all?" Emma's brow furrowed as she pulled back, but not away from the brunette.

Regina nodded, her jaw working. "I was merciful once. I couldn't kill her, so I banished her instead. But she has crossed me for the last time. No one fucks with my family and gets away with it! She will pay."

SWAN QUEEN SWAN QUEEN SWAN QUEEN

"How do we get to Wonderland?" Snow paced the throne room, looking desperate.

"I've only known of two ways." Regina watched the pacing monarch with sad eyes.

Emma reached for her hand and squeezed it. "What are they?"

Regina looked at Emma sadly. "The first is to be banished there, as my mother was, but it requires great magic and those banished cannot rejoin this world. Just as with the curse that sent us all to Storybrooke, great sacrifice is required."

"And the other?"

"A hatter. It's how I rescued my father from her clutches."

Emma smiled. "Well, that's it then. We'll just use a hatter."

Regina frowned. "I trapped the last one in Wonderland. You see, when a hatter takes you, only the same amount of people who left can return."

Emma frowned. "So use your magic! Isn't that what it's for?"

Regina shook her head. "Why do you think I needed the hatter? Wonderland is supposed to be cut off from this world; that was the purpose of banishing her there, so that she'd never return."

"But she did!" Snow slammed her hands on the table. "She came here and she took my granddaughters! So how did she do it?"

Regina ground her teeth. "I don't know, but I intend to find out."