Of Collars, Dresses and Devotion

[veil]

The kennel wasn't that bad, Jezebel considered. She'd slept in worse, and the man she'd been sent off with wasn't particularly cruel to her. He even, when they stopped this morning to ask directions, let her out to take a walk. That wasn't normal, the large hound reflected from between the bars, her head laid patiently on her paws, that was classy. She did not deserve such kindness.

As an added bonus, he even left the radio on as he drove. She would never touch him out of turn without being asked (it simply was not done), but if she could, she'd have kissed him! Even now the smooth cafe lounge styled music - a guitar, a piano, and a voice in song - lulled her and made her very nearly sleep in the comfortable kennel.

Some time passed. Jeza could not be sure how much... but the car slowed, then stopped, and the young man got out, silencing the music when the door opened. The hound lifted her head, perplexed, and watched him come around the van with her ears, perking the flopsy things to try and track him.

The back of the van was opened, and she happily breathed in the rush of scents, coruscating streams of blues and fiery reds, accompanied by the lilting tones of forests, earth, and fresh morning dew washed over her.

The man opened her cage - he smelled of sweat, mostly, but also of.. Something sweet she could not identify, a bit chemical... But flowery just the same.

"Jezebel, Come." He said, his authority clear to her. She stood and moved out into the side-lanes of the road before him, and shook herself free of the vestiges of her half-nap, tail still behind her as he hooked the chain leash to her collar, grabbed her bag and led her off, down off the road and into the forest.

Some minutes later, he came back, but the dog did not. Instead, a young woman with a lean figure and a bag remarkably similar to the one he'd gotten from the back, dressed in a severely formal black dress with matte cufflinks and a suit-like cut followed him, wearing a simple black blindfold to conceal her eyes.

He did not so much as spare her a glance, and she did not say a word - they simply got into the black van, and drove away, to the town of Storybrooke.

Some time later, a certain black ford van drove up Regina's drive, unmarked and plated for Washington state, and Jezebel, handler included, made their way to the Evil Queen's door. Quietly, the man in the suit leaned, and rang the doorbell on the imposing white mansion.

[Mithos]

Living with another person was... strange. Regina's mansion was very different from Altessa's house, and while he was given relatively free reign, Regina was much more... attentive than the dwarf had been. She usually distanced herself enough to keep him from becoming suspicious of her, but to know she was looking out for him was a little disconcerting. So he played along, doing his best to waste time with eating and sleeping, even though he didn't need to do either. Occasionally, he explored the town at night, with the explanation that he had nightmares and getting fresh air often helped him sleep afterwards.

There was no question that she would believe that - besides, it had once been true. Before he had become an angel, he did have nightmares after Martel's death. One of the reasons angels didn't need to sleep was for that exact reason - the idea of having nightmares for four thousand years was horrific.

Mithos tilted his head, hearing footsteps outside. He had to suppress his senses most of the time, to at least appear closer to mortal. Even half-elves didn't have such keen hearing and sight, not that Regina would know that... but still, it was safer to limit what she knew about him. He was prepared for the doorbell, anyways, and got up. "I'll answer it!" he called out - he was closer, and besides, not many people visited Regina. He had gathered enough at this point to know most of the populace loathed her - not that he cared. She still had the power and the information he needed. Perhaps they really would find some way to use their magic together to get back to his world... and even if that failed, this world was teeming with dimensional energy. He would find his way back somehow.

Opening the door, he stopped. He didn't know either of these people, and one of them had a strange mana signature. Not human in the least. "Um... hello. Who are you? What do you want?" he asked, wide-eyed and falling easily into his usual act of an innocent twelve year old. "You're not selling anything, are you?" he added, a little dubiously.

[veil]

The pair looked at him. One of them thought he was a cute twelve year old boy, just getting into the age bracket he needed to be more than a little bit of a nuisance, and the other... Immediately distrusted him to her sensible little boots. The woman in the dress grasped her modest little brown bag a little more tightly. If she'd been asked what she sensed later, if the young man in the business suit had any sense to ask her, she might have related that she had no idea why she felt as she did. He'd probably have ignored that, so just as well, really.

"I'm-" he didn't even reference the girl "- Jason Smith from the Staffing division of the Muntz corporation, with regards to an advertisement your mother put on a staffing agency website for a butler." He said, deadpan and serious as he stared down at him through his dark glasses.

"Is Regina Mills in?"

[Oswin Oswald]

It'd been a month now since they'd all come back from the Enchanted Forest, and Oswin, while at least coming out of her room on occasion to eat and just sort of wander aimlessly around the house, hadn't really done well in adjusting to life without traveling. Being stuck in one spot for so long made her anxious and restless, even though there wasn't much she could do but wait. The Doctor liked Storybrooke. He'd told her that before, the place was interesting to him, so all she really had to do was wait. And wait. And wait. And wait.

It wasn't going well.

At least she'd gotten her hands on a second-hand laptop. Nothing compared to the one she'd had on the TARDIS, this thing was a piece of scrap metal compared to that, but it was functional enough even if Oswin had gotten into several one-sided shouting matches with. Wasn't her fault the stupid thing liked to lag like crazy. She'd had to fix Regina's internet a few times too, apparently connection was terrible in a town full of storybook characters. At least it had given her something to do besides mope around in her room, which had quickly deteriorated into a darkened, messy little den within a week of Oswin taking up residence in it.

Generally, she avoided everyone else in the house, which really just amounted to Regina, Henry and Mithos. In the first two weeks or so, it was even worse and Oswin was mostly regarded as the household's resident Boo Radley, shut away in her room, until Regina finally managed to coax her out and actually get her to eat something and start taking an active part in life again. At present, she was curled up on a couch in one of Regina's sitting rooms with her laptop, looking rather out of place in the neat, orderly room. Oswin didn't do neat well on good days, never mind when she didn't even feel like getting out of bed.

She looked up when the doorbell rang and was just about to resign herself to getting up and greeting whatever guests Regina had in nothing but whatever she'd worn to bed last night when Mithos jumped in and offered. Brilliant. Having an unknown, distinctly disheveled girl answer the front door probably wouldn't improve people's views on Regina. Not that much would do that, but still.

"Tell them we don't want anything!" Oswin called over her shoulder, as Mithos asked if whoever it was at the door was selling anything. Well. Might as well be worth checking out. Without bothering to even smooth down her messy hair, she headed out to the entrance of the house. She walked up behind Mithos, giving the two people in the doorway a little once over. Relatively normal guy in a suit and...weird girl with a blindfold. Okay.

Her eyebrow arched skeptically. "You're not some kind of cult, are you?" Normally she might have been a little more tactful, but really. Showing up at someone's door with a blindfolded woman in tow was just a teensy bit suspicious.

[Regina Mills]

It was...strange, to be back home again. Being pulled into the Enchanted Forest had been an experience everyone in Storybrooke had reacted to differently. Some had been happy to return to their place of origin - and others, having grown accustomed to the luxuries of the modern world and their lives there, had been less than thrilled. Others still - those like Oswin, who had found themselves in the Enchanted Forest for the first time, had probably found the whole thing more jarring than anyone.

For Regina, who had precious few good memories of the land she'd been born in, the entire experience had evoked some rather mixed feelings. It had been almost nostalgic, in some ways. And a world where magic thrived so naturally was a world Regina felt as if she belonged in. But the entire experience had uprooted everything - every aspect of the life she'd built over the last thirty years of the curse. They could not simply...suddenly enter a new (or in this case, old) world and start anew. Her objective had quickly become to get the victims of the mishap (or at least the ones she cared for - Henry, Oswin, Mithos) home.

In the end, they'd emerged successful...if not entirely unscathed. Henry had, overall, enjoyed the whole "adventure", it seemed - although he was clearly happy to be home and had quickly slipped back into his usual routine. For once, he was the person she had to worry about the least. Mithos hadn't really spoken much about the experience, even when she pressed him occasionally. Sometimes she worried about how this whole thing might have affected him, how much he kept to himself - but she knew that a land of magic was something he was accustomed to. And his subtly reserved demeanor wasn't really anything new. Although on occasion she got the distinct feeling that there were things he wasn't telling her, she usually ultimately dismissed this. After all he'd been through, of course there would but things he wouldn't want to relive. He would talk when he was ready.

Right now, it was Oswin who concerned her the most. It had been weeks since their return, and the Doctor had yet to make an appearance. He was probably still off searching for his vanished companion, unaware that she'd returned to the same place she'd disappeared from. Oswin had not...taken the extended period of separation well. Right now, Regina was just grateful she was eating again, let alone emerging from her room on a regular basis. Still, she was...far from being back to her normal self. And as determined as Regina was to help her, she knew that what Oswin needed most was not something she could offer: the reappearance of the time-traveling alien man she idolized.

This was how her time since returning home had been spent: fretting and busying about, trying to fix the people in her home - the broken girl and the orphaned boy, the people who she sometimes believed were beyond her ability to fix - and yet in some ways, it had helped her. It was, at the very least, a welcome distraction from what had happened in the Enchanted Forest. She hadn't spoken about the confrontation with her mother that had occurred after she'd broken off from the rest of the group. She wasn't even ready to think about it, or the old wounds it had reopened, or the end result which had brought her and Cora dangerously close to death. And she especially didn't want to think about what might happen next.

So she hadn't thought about it, really, at all. Keeping it bottled up wasn't difficult when there were so many other things to worry about. But, admittedly, all of this had left her somewhat...strained. An extra hand around the house, at the very least, would have been appreciated - but when the doorbell rang that day, she hadn't even been thinking about the fleeting request for a housekeeper she'd put in. Given who she was and her reputation in this town...well, she hadn't exactly expected people to be lining up for the job - even if the company she'd contacted was a little...unusual.

She'd been in the kitchen, baking - something she did these days just to keep busy - when the doorbell rang and Mithos called to her that he would get it. Regina double-checked the oven and removed her apron. It was odd, that someone had approached her door in this town - and despite the time that had passed since the breaking of the curse, it immediately made her wary. When she heard Oswin get up and head to the door as well a moment later, she furrowed her brow, turned, and briskly walked out into the foyer just in time to hear Oswin inquiring as to whether the pair at the door belonged to some sort of cult. It wasn't difficult to see why - one of them, a woman, was blindfolded. "What is this?" she asked as she came to a halt a little ways behind her two housemates, eyes narrowed and tone bordering on sharp. Better safe than sorry.

[veil]

The man at the door looked at Oswin when she ran up - no, this one wasn't Regina either, and to top it... She thought he was in some kind of cult. He blinked behind his mirrored glasses at her in incomprehension, completely derailed and feeling increasingly a berk. Things did indeed look more than a little strange at this point, he realized, and wondered if he couldn't have approached this another way.

Even so, who should come to his rescue but the dark queen herself! When her stern, sharp "What is going on here?" Hit him in the face, he almost wanted to turn and run right then - his wife used that tone when the midden was about to hit the windmill, so to speak... But he knew instinctively how to respond.

Without a word, but with a disarming smile, the sharp dressed man reached and grasped his glasses, revealing his brown eyes and somehow, this made him seem a lot more human. He had maybe ten seconds - better make them count!

"My name is Jason Smith and this-" he began, and motioned to the girl behind and beside him with his arm, quarter- turning to her while still looking at Regina behind the two younger people, which to him looked more like a son and a daughter. "-is Jezebel. I have come here on behalf of the staffing division of the Muntz corporation in response to your advertisement for a butler." He offered her his hand at this point.

"You would be..." He referenced a card "Mrs. Regina Mills, is that correct?"

While all this went on, Jezebel bowed at the mention of her name. With hands folded neatly over her stern black dress's front, clutching her bag tightly as she stood straight, she took in the scents of the home and the people in the doorway. Jason was by now a familiar scent to her... But the woman who came in behind the not-human boy, she smelled human - as, mostly, did the woman who came in even after that! The first smelled younger, and like... Worry.

The older woman - she couldn't explain how she knew Regina was older by scent alone, but she did - also worried a lot... But she had been cooking - a great deal by the scent of her. Left to her orders, she, despite her curiosity, stared straight ahead through her sightless black blindfold. Was this the house she would be working in? It beat the kennels, that was for sure.

[Mithos]

Mithos tilted his head as he spoke. "She's not my mother," he pointed out hastily. Not that anyone who had seen either of them would think there was any biological resemblance - and of course, he wasn't human and she, despite her use of magic, was.

But that didn't matter, since the man went on to explain his purpose - and skipped over why there was a blindfolded nonhuman with him. "That doesn't explain who she is," he said, frowning. And a butler? That was strange... but it was ultimately Regina's decision, of course. Once she actually came to the door. He glanced over as Oswin arrived, and smiled faintly, though she seemed as restless and vaguely detached from the household as ever. It wasn't like he was any better - he just couldn't properly act normal. But then, Regina also didn't expect that, not after what he had gone through....

Technically, this was all a waste of time. He could be tracking down leads for Summon Spirits, finding some way to get back, to revive Martel - but instead he was acting as doorguard for two inferior beings.

At least Regina finally showed herself, and the man was suddenly in a great hurry to explain everything. "A butler?" Mithos repeated. "Why would you need a blind one? And Regina, I thought this... place doesn't usually have servants?" That was one of the stranger things here - that well-off people didn't employ others all that often, in comparison to the nobles of Tethe'alla.

This world was strange. At least Storybrooke had mana - the constant feeling of the entire world being dead was unnerving when he left the town.

Should he tell Regina about just what this Jezebel was? Her mana was a far cry from a regular human's - but no, doing so in front of the man would have just raised suspicions. He would tell her later.

[Oswin Oswald]

The edge of Oswin's lips twitched vaguely as Mithos gave her a faint smile in greeting. Smiling didn't really come too easily these days, but let it never be said she didn't try. The Doctor wouldn't have wanted her to mope about like she was, but Oswin couldn't help it. He wasn't the one that had to adjust from being trapped to having all of time and space spread out before her and all that freedom to being stuck again. Being stuck in Storybrooke was even worse than being in her pod in some ways, but at the very least, she had people to talk to. Things to distract here during her maddening wait. He'd be back for her, wouldn't he?

Oswin glanced briefly over her shoulder as Regina finally appeared, and idly leaned against the door-frame, still looking over the pair outside. Something seemed weird about this, but then again, maybe it was just that part of her brain that hadn't had a good adventure in a long time. Maybe she was just seeing what she wanted to, what she was accustomed to seeing on some other planet when she was by the Doctor's side, the suspicious things that always popped up wherever they went.

But come on, why blindfold a woman?

Well, Oswin was nothing if not direct when she was curious. "Why's she got a blindfold?" The metaphorical gears in her mind might've been whirring a bit too quickly, but still. Suspicious. Butlers, in Oswin's experience, generally needed to be able to see in order to actually do their job. Well. There was that one planet they'd gone to, but the people on there'd had eyes on their hands and the blindfolds were some sort of weird sacred thing. Oswin highly doubted this was the case with this woman for how tightly she was clutching that bag. Funny too, that she hadn't really said anything. If she was the butler, why was this man here, speaking for her?

"What, she not allowed to tell us this herself?" This whole thing was just weird.

[Regina Mills]

Regina's expression didn't shift much as the man introduced himself to her - currently, she was rather less than impressed with this entire situation, and suspicious enough of any strangers who showed up on her doorstep to already be considering using her magic to fling both visitors across her lawn, slam the door, and be done with the whole thing by this point. Suppressing the urge for the moment, however, she merely gave a curt, wordless nod when asked to confirm her identity. The man's explanation had left more questions than answers, but Mithos and Oswin were quick to point this out - and she allowed them to do so without interruption, shifting her gaze to Jezebel and narrowing her eyes faintly. This girl was to be her butler? Something was off here - very off, perhaps even beyond the very obvious and bizarre blindfolding. But she was brought out of her thoughts when Mithos directed a question at her.

Turning to him instead, she softened her previously icy and dubious gaze a little. "All things considered, I thought it would be a little easier to have some help around the house." she replied, brow furrowing slightly. She'd been hoping to have someone around to clean the house, perhaps not even necessarily to live with them if she was lucky enough to find anyone in town - but she certainly hadn't expected a man and his blindfolded associate to abruptly show up at her home. For now, she made no move to beckon her housemates away from the door. Quite a few more things were going to need to be explained before she allowed this pair to enter her home. "I can't say I was expecting..." Trailing of briefly, Regina pointedly turned back to Jason and Jezebel, in no mood to sugarcoat anything. "..this."

Oswin voiced the question that Regina very much wanted answered at this point, and she cleared her throat softly before adding onto that as well. "To say the least, I do believe one or both of you owes us an explanation." She wasn't overly concerned with Jezebel's silence, for now. Perhaps she was still accustomed to her own world, where servants had it drilled into her head to only speak when spoken to - or perhaps given the fact that the girl was currently blindfolded and seemingly effectively helpless, she was more concerned with the more prominent potential threat at the moment: the man who was doing all the talking.

[veil]

Most men at this point would have run. Some might have excused themselves quietly, some would have thrown chocolate and ran, screaming into the morning light. Some men might have stammered and made fools of themselves... That is, more of a fool o themselves. But the man before the three merely, with tension in his shoulders and in his voice, put his glasses in his front pocket and cleared his throat politely.

"Well, I would have preferred more privacy for this discussion, but if you insist, I'll just start from the beginning, shall I?" He said, and smiled at them - he was nervous - probably a married man, judging by his reaction to Regina's 9000 megawatt death-glare (Men learn certain self preservation instincts quite quickly in a marriage).

"I am well aware that you are familiar with the... Occult, Mrs. Mills, so I will not candy-coat this. Jezebel... Is something special." He said, then continued "Monsters exist in this world that prey upon humanity. She is a monster that preys upon those monsters."

"Before world war two broke out, the Vatican and the nascent Nazi party signed a peace treaty, and one clause of this was to establish the Gottesrecht - God's Right - to combat a growing lycanthropic epidemic in Germany at that time. During the course of the war, Adolph Hitler seized control of the organization for his own nefarious purposes, and began to capture and..." He hesitated

"... Breed them. Those experiments continued even after the war ended, for decades." He sighed and looked to Jezebel then. "And they were a success, Mrs. Mills. Gottesrecht successfully domesticated a strain of werewolves - a new species, which we call Hounds of Creed. Jezebel is one of these." He said.

He returned his gaze to Regina. "During the mid-ninties, a joint task force brought down the remnants of Gottesrecht in the Swiss Alps, and rescued a number of young Creedhounds."

"Jezebel was one of these. Her particular breed - the Geliwen - was engineered specifically for a servile, protective nature and its characteristic tenacity. She does not suffer the lunacy as a werewolf might in the light of the full moon, but she changes shape nightly - and upon command."

"She is absolutely loyal - and that is the purpose of the blindfold, Young lady" he said, nodding to Oswin. "Once she sees you, Mrs. Mills, she will identify you as her master - and obey your commands. Such is the nature of the conditioning she has undergone." He turned to the blindfolded Jezebel.

"Present your credentials to her, Jezebel" he said, tones ringing with command. Without hesitation, she bowed deeply, and spoke in response, her face turning to Regina's directly, though it was clear she would not possibly be able to see with the blindfold.

"My name is Jezebel Geliwen. I can speak English, German, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, and Latin" she began, her voice meek but practiced, like this was rote.

"I am trained as a Butler, and I have a broad classical education. My skills include, but are not limited to, personal medical cares, housekeeping, etiquette, writing and composition, and music."

She blushed just barely, slightly, as she went on "I am fully trained as a guardian as well, I am housebroken, and I get along well with children" she said, finishing with

"I should like very much like to serve you." offered with a respectfully deep bow, folding at the waist. There wasn't emotion in the little speech exactly - it was said like a simple statement of facts, but the polite words shuffled into position like she was placing the words in position from little boxes, then neatly replaced where they belonged.

[Mithos]

Mithos listened to the explanation with keen interest - though to him, it was clearly a waste of resources. Breeding nonhumans, as well... what made them think they could do that? That they could impose such standards on clearly sentient beings, just because they weren't human? Their arrogance made him sick.

And then for all that, they made them servile. The result before him was bland and obedient and practically a mirror to the most lifeless of angels - but they had had an excuse. And besides, they had been in a minority - most were like Remiel, ambitious and scheming and with an interest in their own affairs. He had understood that, encouraged it. He had needed obedient subordinates, of course, but it was easier for them to be useful when they thought, when they could take initiative on occasion - and if they sought power and had ambition, then he could better manipulate them for his own ends.

This... this girl was absurd. Really, only humans could think this had been a good idea. But he could hardly express that sudden resurgence of loathing he had for these inferior beings, not in front of other humans who were ostensibly his friends. "Conditioning... you mean, you trained her to obey?" he said instead, uncertainly. "But she can... think, and speak... isn't she a person too? It sounds like she's a dog, or a slave, or something..." He turned to Jezebel herself. "Doesn't that bother you?"

It wasn't like he had any vested interest in Regina acquiring a servant, but this... it disgusted him, and it was easy enough to express at least part of his feelings. It was hardly how he truly desired to act, but... killing the human handler was hardly an ideal decision. He hesitated, and then turned back to Regina. "I... didn't know there was a war, recently. What are these... Nazis?" He said the unfamiliar word uncertainly, but that had clearly been the salient point - that they had been the ones to start this process in the first place. Perhaps they had been a group relying on terrorism, like the Desians he had put in place. Did they still exist?

He hadn't given much thought to the history of this world before. Clearly, that would have to change - perhaps there was something in its records that could help him.

[The Tenth Doctor]

A loud noise. An appearing police box. You know, the usual for the Tenth Doctor.

But this was no usual situation. Quite the opposite, actually. The Doctor had lost his companion, again. Not in the usual sense, though. This time she could be found. After running a few quick scans {quick meaning taking days scanning an entire universe}, The Doctor had pinpointed the exact location of Oswin Oswald. She was in a small town called Storybrooke - he was familiar with it. A while ago, it had been nothing. Then, a whole world was taken there, just like that. Magic, being as difficult as it was to understand considering how many different types of magic there are, was somewhat beyond the Doctor's range of knowledge. So, he couldn't reverse what had been done.

Well, apparently, the curse had been broken or... something. Really, that wasn't very important. What was important that he found his companion. That was why the TARDIS materialized in on a sidewalk in Storybrooke. The Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS, looking around at his surroundings. There was almost nobody around, save for a man standing outside of a rather imposing building. He was being greeted by a few people, one of which was Regina, who was Oswin's friend. Maybe she had something to do with this... or, at least, she knew where she was. If Oswin was in Storybrooke, this was probably the first place she would check. The Doctor started walking up to the group, but not before hearing something about Adolf Hitler. The Doctor stopped in his tracks, before starting to listen more carefully.

Werewolves... engineered specifically for service? No, that wasn't right. Not right at all. Werewolves might be feral, even violent creatures... but they didn't deserve to be forced into slavery. Even the Daleks didn't deserve this. The Doctor stepped forward, reaching into his coat's inside pocket and pulling out his sonic screwdriver. After a quick scan of the man and the girl, he found nothing overly spectacular, besides what he'd already known. She was a werewolf, he seemed to be a normal human... unless he was hiding something. At the boy's question, the Doctor looked at him. "Bad news is what they are." The Doctor said, as he walked past the man and addressed the group at large. It was then when he realized that Oswin was among the group. The Doctor smiled at her and gave a short wave. "Regina, Oswin." He greeted, before turning back to the man.

"First of all..." He said, turning his attention to Jezebel. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry about what these people have done to you."

[Oswin Oswald]

...what the hell?

As a time-traveling computer genius, Oswin had, up to this point in her life, seen and heard some pretty weird things. She'd been to entirely different worlds, seen things that no other human had ever seen and would never see in the entire lifespan of the universe. So, it wasn't really the inclusion of werewolves in this tale that struck her as really weird. In fact, the man's dramatic reveal that there were monsters in this world that no human knew about wasn't met with the shock and awe that he was probably expecting. On the contrary, Oswin was rather unimpressed, left idly wondering what the man would think if he knew that he was telling this to the Evil Queen of fairytale lore and a time-traveler.

The rest of the story, however, confirmed Oswin's previous thinking. Something was very, very wrong here. "Breeding?" Her voice was laced heavily with disgust. "What the hell d'you mean breeding? You can't just breed people, no matter what else they've got in them!" Okay, so what if this poor girl was a werewolf? That didn't mean that anyone had the right to take her and force her or her kind into breeding with each other just to make weapons out of them. It was pretty clear, clearer too, once the girl, Jezabel, spoke, that they were sentient, could clearly think just like normal people. "What, so all she can do in life's serve people? That's sick!"

Feeling a rush similar to what she'd experienced before when she was by the Doctor's side, Oswin advanced a step forward, never mind that her height was far from intimidating and that she was, at present, looking rather scruffy at best. "How many other people've you been locking away and turning into servants, just because they've got wolf in them too?" Oswin's gaze turned briefly to Jezabel and for a moment, she felt pity rising in her. Poor girl. She might've been so much more. If the Doctor ever came back, she would have to tell him about this. He'd put a stop to it.

Speaking of which.

From the sidewalk beyond, a noise rang out that caused Oswin to freeze, anger leaving her expression as she stared at what she thought was the source. For just a moment, she held her breath, waiting tensely and hoping it wasn't just her imagination playing some sort of trick on her. Wouldn't be the first time that happened, but this. This was way too real. Especially considering the fact that the familiar police box she'd been waiting nearly a month to see was currently appearing on the sidewalk. Oswin briefly glanced back at Regina, but only for a moment, as if she were afraid the TARDIS would disappear again if she looked away from it for too long.

And just when she thought the anticipation would be too much, the door swung open and out walked the Doctor, looking just as he had the last time Oswin had seen him. She bit back a strangled little cry of joy and made to give in to her instinct to push past Jason Whatever His Name Was and Jezabel, but as she caught a glimpse of the expression on his face, she stopped. Oswin had seen that look before. The Doctor was here for a reason more than just her. Did he already know about Jezabel and the people who had done this? She wouldn't doubt it, he had sources pretty much everywhere and in every time. And so, composing herself as much as possible, Oswin straightened, trying to adjust herself a little to look a bit more presentable.

"Doctor." It was meant to be a simple greeting, but Oswin couldn't really help a little emotion seeping through. Or a lot. She still wanted to just run into his arms, but it was very clear that a proper reunion would have to wait just a bit longer.

[/justify][/blockquote]

[Regina Mills]

If the man thought his explanation would capture Regina's interest, or even soothe her into a slightly less sharp and hostile state, he'd been terribly mistaken. Servants were servants - in her own world, it had been that simple. They'd known their place, and that place had been unquestioned...but at least they could still think for themselves. At least they hadn't been bred for a single purpose that stripped them of their free will. She didn't chime in to Mithos or Oswin's indignant retorts - she didn't really see the need to. It was a waste of time, trying to convince this man of how disgusting he was. She'd deal with him accordingly in just a moment. And to add insult to injury, he'd implied that she needed a werewolf for protection - as if she wasn't more than capable of protecting herself and those she cared about, as if she needed some sort of glorified guard dog to do all her dirty work for her. Her eyes narrowed icily, only briefly tearing away from the man to eye Mithos for a moment as he addressed her with a question.

"It was years and years ago - not quite recent." she replied quietly, her voice steady. She was practiced in not betraying so much as a hint of anger, even in situations such as this, and now was no exception. Focusing on Mithos' question helped her reign it in, as well, and even her expression was calm if somewhat cold. "The Nazis were a party who supported their leader in the attempted genocide of certain races and religions. Their defeat in the war stopped them, but the damage was fairly severe." It was a brief explanation, and not exactly detailed, but it would have to do for now. Even if she'd wanted to extend the history lesson any longer, she was stopped by a sudden, all too familiar sound. Immediately, Regina's attention was drawn to the blue police box that had suddenly appeared on her front lawn. She stiffened slightly, and her eyebrows raised.

Well. It was about time he showed up.

She supposed she couldn't really blame the Doctor - his separation from Oswin hadn't been his fault. But watching her friend suffer through these past few weeks hadn't been easy, and she had to admit it would be a relief to see all of this come to an end. When she glanced over at Oswin, however, it was only to notice that she hadn't bounded into the Doctor's arms the way Regina had expected her to. A moment later, it was pretty clear why - after gauging the situation, the Doctor had wasted no time in reprimanding the man still standing at her front door. Clearly, he intended to put a stop to this. Well...Regina could save him the trouble, at least here. No doubt she could trust him to look into this organization as a whole later, but for now...she couldn't quite resist the satisfaction of taking out some of her anger on the one who actually deserved it.

With a simple flick of her hand, she sent the suited man flying through the air, all the way across her lawn, and out into the street, where he landed with a painful thump. "As long as you're still able to walk," she called to him coolly, much in the way she might have addressed a subject who'd displeased her in the Enchanted Forest. "I'll give you the next thirty seconds to get out of my sight." With a sort of grim satisfaction, she watched the man struggle to his feet, and tear off down the street as fast as his newly acquired limp would allow him to. As for Jezebel - Regina turned to her, looking her up and down briefly, and then made a dismissive comment. "You're free to go. You no longer need be made slave to your conditioning." She didn't really care what the girl did, from this point on - she was free to do as she wanted, and that was the important thing. Right now, her new priority was the man who'd just shown up in his time traveling blue box.

"Doctor," Regina addressed him, a little less tensely. "I'm sure you and Oswin have some catching up to do. Would you like to come in?"