The Queen stared at Ruby, a sly, side-on stare that seemed to weigh her importance as if she were gold.

Ruby felt crowded and scrutinized even as the majestic woman's dark pools-for-eyes bore down on her in a non-direct way. The woman had only a moment ago glided into the quiet round room as if a dinghy on a quieter lake. She had moved towards the floor-to-ceiling gilded mirror, admiring her own reflection as Ruby's mother might admire a grand renaissance painting—awed into silence. Reverence. A hint of jealousy, followed by a sad realization that nothing could top it—that image.

The Queen's gaze flitted across the mirror's surface to find Ruby's upon it.

"Come here, child. Let me look at you this morning."

Snow's crisp voice sent a shiver down Ruby's spine.

Ruby felt a strange fear as she stepped towards the cold queen. Something in her heart told her: she is the Snow Queen, the one in the stories—with her frozen heart. Elsa without Elsa's heart.

Ruby caught Millie and gave her a nod. Go ahead. Please.

Ruby stepped closer than she wanted to. This was Snow White. The poor princess who had survived a homicidal step-mother. She was a sweet thing in the books. A sweet, sweet thing that won a Prince Charming of her own. She was all right, no?

Snow White turned then, her icy eyes locked on Ruby's face. Her cold, long fingers grabbed Ruby's chin and pulled her face this way and that. The grip was soft enough, but the icy touch froze her to the core. Snow wasn't just her name. The woman felt as cold as ice itself.

"You look a little different this morning, my dearest." The Queen sounded like the cold hiss of winter. "What is it?"

She turned to Ruby's handmaiden. Her now glimmering moss-colored eyes—the same colour the odd wood upon the first door to the chamber had been—fixated upon poor Millie.

Millie dared not look at the woman. "Nothing is different, your majesty. The Princess isn't feeling her best this morning."

Snow's head snapped back towards Ruby.

Ruby wished she hadn't. It was hard to not look at the woman—

"... and whatever you do, don't look the Queen in the eyes..."

Dang it! Ruby tried to look elsewhere, suddenly catching the Queen's unwavering eyes. She wasn't meant to look the woman in the eyes, and she'd done just that.

A fire of sorts danced in Snow's eyes. Like she was internally laughing, but intrigued. She pulled Ruby's face up by her chin.

"Look at me, child."

No.

"My dear, dear Ruby-Rose," the name dripped saccharine. "Why, you grow prettier every day... if only your father were alive, he would think you're the prettiest of them all."

A soft laugh rumbled out of Snow's red lips. "Come, stand by the mirror so we may look upon the most beautiful things in this world."

Geez, lady! Ruby was tempted to roll her eyes. Never in her life had she had the confidence to say, "look at me, I'm beautiful," and here was a gorgeous woman calling her one of the most beautiful women in the world. Talk about ego. Freaking huge—not Ruby's. The Queen's.

"Come, my dear child. Let me look upon you, the Enchanted Forest's future Queen."

Snow reached out her long, slender arm; her cold, frozen palm held out for Ruby's arm.

Reluctantly, Ruby slipped her warm hands into Snow's cold one and allowed the Queen to steer her towards the mirror.

Bet this is the mirror, thought Ruby as she came to stand next to the Queen, who was a whole head taller than her. Bet she is going to say mirror mirror—until Ruby saw the mirror was as dark as a black hole. The reflections she'd seen earlier no longer there. Instead, the dark pool swirled peacefully, occasionally catching some flickering candlelight. Where was the reflection?

Snow cleared her throat next to Ruby. "Mirror, mirror, on the wall."

Get out! Ruby stared at Snow in utter disbelief. This part, despite all the differences from her beloved fairytale, was real. They really said, 'Mirror, mirror, on the wall.'

Here was poor Ruby, expecting to see a featureless face on the rippling surface, and a disembodied voice to speak—just like the films.

Instead, the mirror rippled more urgently, as if in response to the call. This was new.

Ruby turned around to find Millie near the door, watching with a terrified look on her face. The look gave Ruby the chills.

"Show me, o mirror, in these lands, the fairest three." Snow's voice was silky sweet. It drew Ruby's attention.

Three? Utterly confused, Ruby stared on as the mirror rippled more, darkness engulfed by darker waves, until it settled and the inky blackness cleared.

Upon its surface danced an image of Ruby next to Snow, just as they were standing—though Ruby could hardly believe what she looked like. Was that really her? That pretty girl gawking back at her. An almost mirror image of Snow herself, just a tad more colour, lighter hair, pinker lips, but the resemblance was striking. Snow White could easily be her mother—or rather, Ruby looked close enough to be Snow's daughter.

A younger version of the beauty standing beside her.

Upon the mirror, beside Ruby's reflection lingered another figure. A figure not quite visible, not quite concrete, but it was another maiden indeed. Fair, though?—no one could tell. The image wasn't clean at all.

"Who is the fairest of them three?" Snow asked in an icy tone.

The mirror rippled again, and upon its surface an image of snow melting and a rose blooming came to pass.

Ruby snuck a peek at the Queen, wondering if the image made any sense at all to the older woman. But the Queen looked slightly puzzled and not at all pleased with it.

"Show me the maiden three!" The Queen demanded.

The mirror rippled further. The faint shadow standing beside Ruby became a little sharper, but no more. Nothing beside the long dark hair plaited to the side was clear.

But what the Queen didn't catch, Ruby certainly did. The figure looked a little familiar. Perhaps a bit too familiar.

"Who is she?!" Snow bellowed suddenly. "You will show me."

The mirror rippled once more, but showed no more.

"Your majesty? Is all well in there?" Sir Happy's voice broke through the closed door.

Snow bristled next to Ruby, composing herself. "Yes, all is well, Sir Happy. Please escort the Princess back to her wing."

Moments later, Sir Happy repeated what he'd done earlier that morning. He escorted Ruby and her handmaiden back to her chamber, the three unaware of the event transpiring back in the Queen's Chamber of Mirror still.

The Queen was not happy at all. Not one bit indeed.

Queen Snow stood before the mirror in the silent room, eyeing the uneasy rippling surface of the magic mirror, repeating her question with a slight twist.

"Mirror, mirror, show me the fairest one of all."

The mirror's surface rippled, revealing one Ruby-Rose looking into a strange-looking mirror in another Ruby-Rose's earthly home. An image of an identical young woman being fussed over by the handmaiden back in the royal chamber followed.

Snow White's stormy eyes narrowed on the girl being fussed over by the handmaiden.

"Send for Sir Bashful this instance. Tell him the Queen seeks his council immediately!" Snow White barked.

A shadow trembled upon the wall of the round tower room, peeled away from it and slithered out under the door with an echo of a mumble. "Yes, my Queen."

Left alone in the room's quiet, Snow stood before the mirror sneering at Ruby-Rose II—not that she knew the truth.

"Fairest of them all? Could it be... her?" Snow inched closer to the mirror, almost reaching a hand out to touch her. "It's impossible. It cannot be."

But ah, nothing was impossible. Not in this world or the other from whence Ruby-Rose II had arrived. This, the young Queen had yet to learn. Nothing was impossible, and there was every chance the young woman upon the mirror was her. Stranger things had happened before... as strange as the event that had taken Ruby-Rose White—once a wee baby—into the naïve, ignorant human world.

This indeed was HER—a child the Queen had once known.

WC: 1392 TWC: 8123

[A/N: What do you make of Snow White and her knightly dwarves who aren't small? Any ideas on what Sir Bashful is going to be like? And what do you think Ruby is up to with Millie?]