A/N Comments are always appreciated!
I got a wish
Imagine Emma's wish slowly transforming the world around her; the longest she remains unaware of who she really is the quickest the people she comes in contact with transform into the other versions of themselves, the ones that could have been in that other timeline.
At first the transformation needs a day and a half, two days tops and as Regina remains the same she sees Snow first and David second transform in their elderly versions of the Queen and King she once could have despised. She sees the fairies and Archie, sees Granny and Belle grow older as they forget, as they transform while Emma remains this princess-like version that's not her, that makes Regina's heart ache whenever she looks at her.
Henry is one of the last ones to transform and leave her, his transformation one of the most dreaded ones because Regina doesn't know how he will be on that other timeline. Who he would be. When a week after finding Emma on the meadow she comes to an empty room at the mansion she goes running to Emma's house -the place resembling more and more what would have been an actual castle every day it passes- only to find him serving as a knight on Emma's court. She cries that night after trying to revert the wish back with a kiss onto the boy's forehead, the knowledge she had learnt as Rumplestiskin's apprentice ricocheting inside of her: wishes cannot be undone. Not like curses do.
Imagine Regina seeing Storybrooke change before her eyes and be the one remaining unchanged not understanding why until she comes across the Queen at Zelena's old cabin-the woman already the Wicked Witch once again- The Queen looks tired and much paler than normal, all her bravado gone and Regina digs her hands into her pockets, looking at her before sighing and magicking some cider with a wave of her hand.
Is then when she learns that she is bound to disappear, that on the timeline that's slowly unfolding before her eyes she is supposed to be the Evil Queen but due to the split the part that's still her doesn't have anything to transform into.
"Will I die?" She asks then and The Queen shrugs once before finishing her drink, standing not so steady as before and having trouble to look at her before walking away from the cottage.
"You will be gone." Is the final answer and for the next few days Regina lives secluded at her vault, already unable to come and walk through a place that's not Storybrooke anymore but is not the Enchanted Forest either. The narrative changes and adjusts every time a new person falls into the wishes' reality and so everything keeps fading away. It's only two weeks after that fateful first day when Regina senses her hand trembling and nausea growing strong at the mouth of her stomach, her body feeling about to fail her for a moment before she is able to pull herself together.
Imagine Regina living in the shadows for the next two days, looking for faces she once upon a time despised but now finds solace in. Imagine trying to go for the Charmings for help only to see them fully as monarchs, unable to recognize or even know who she might be. Imagine calling Emma one day only to hear the tired and dying sound of the blonde's phone before the call stops permanently, battery dead and useless, magic already growing stronger, transforming the world around her. Imagine Regina's nauseas growing stronger, her powers turning more mercurial, almost like the first time she learnt about them, almost as if she is unable to really use them anymore. The Queen doesn't talk to her ever again but she sometimes sees her walking at the city line, the outside world growing also fuzzier, as if some kind of barrier is slowly being created in front of her very eyes.
Imagine Regina finally tossing the books she has been putting her hopes on completely enraged and tired and finding herself wanting to wrap her arms around Henry and told him how much she misses him only to realize the heartbreaking truth that Henry will never know who she is, very much like back at the missing year with the difference that Emma, that everyone else, is also forgetting, leaving her behind and she is afraid and can't help but blame herself on having being unable to see that the Queen's plan had been to use Emma's fear, Emma's most obscure wish.
Imagine Regina growing weaker and weaker as it becomes clear that the wish is almost done, that Storybrooke is only a few hours away before it completely disappears. Imagine Regina going even to the damned Pirate's boat only to find an elderly version of Hook and ask him, while trying to hide her shivers, for him to kiss Emma "princess Emma" and talk her out of this. The conversation makes her want to cry and vomit but she fears that there is no other solution and when the pirate tells her that he is not really interested Regina thoughts on hurling at him before stumbling out the ship, the light hurting her eyes as she looks at the city she once knew better than herself and now the mix between the buildings that remain untouched between the ones that are already transformed accordingly stares back at her, making her swallow uneasily as she wraps her arms around her midriff, the daunting silhouette of the Charming's castle looming over the rest of the place and, somehow, calling for her.
This time when she poofs she is far from graceful and she stumbles while trying to remain upright, a part of her already failing, as she goes to the very same spot she had seen Emma frocking around, the flowers of the meadow pink now and she wonders if some fairy is responsible for such changes.
Emma is there, of course she is there, picking flowers and looking like the kind of princess Regina would have loved to kill on sight but her green eyes stays on her as if some part of Emma is still interested on her and Regina feels herself tremble as another nausea, this time stronger than the others, makes her shudder and fall in front of the blonde.
When she opens her eyes again is only to find Emma staring at her, worry on her features even though there is also a glint of confusion as Regina's very same existence is keep being erased of her mind.
"You will be gone"
And Regina suddenly understands what that means and she wants to cry at the realization that she won't see Henry again, even if it's in this altered reality. She sighs and raises her hand only to see how her fingers seem to be losing consistency as she reaches for the blonde's face, her fingers tracing the blonde's skin as both of them let out a shuddery sigh.
"Take care of him." Regina says, closing her eyes already, feeling unwilling to keep moving, fighting. Wishes can't be undone; they aren't curses that can be taken down at the end.
And so she curls on herself and wishes for another reality, one in which Emma is still Emma and Henry, Henry and they are the family she knows they could have been but aren't because it seemed that it never was a good time to be sincere about it. Because she cannot curse anymore but wish… wish is something she can do.
And then she hears the blonde's voice chanting her name and that's when she opens her eyes only to see Emma crying; still looking so dauntingly beautiful on her white, frilly dress and a part of her breaks.
"I love you." She whispers between tightly closed teeth, the truth escaping them after all those years, after everything they had been through. "I'm sorry… I wish… for this to have been different."
"Me too."
The words, whispered back in a somewhat befuddled way, seem to crash against Regina's skin like sharp shreds of glass and for a moment both women remain looking at the each other; Regina still propped up the blonde's lap, eyes never leaving Emma's.
"Emm…" Regina beings, a sudden coughing fit making her wheeze.
"Me too."
And wishes can't be undone, not like curses do, but they can be out wished and Regina realizes that's what happened.
That and that she is madly in love with Emma Swan, Emma that is still looking at her, make up free and looking back to the badass shelf Regina first fell in love with, staring at her between shy eyelashes.
And well, there could be worse ways than realize you are in love with someone, right?