So I wanted to say that this story basically follows most of the established plot with few (HUGE) deviations. Ever thing that's happened in the present is the same the only differences are in the past. And of course this doesn't at all follow anything after the finale.
She felt nothing. As she smiled and played with little Roland she felt small pieces of herself drop to her feet and melt. She imagined that they were dancing in a pool of her melted self. A small laugh fell from her lips at the thought. Roland laughed along with her, not at all sure what was so funny.
His parents, Robin and Marian, stood further in Granny's humble little diner speaking hushed but no doubt heated words to one another while she worked at distracting the little one.
She was aware of how their eyes flickered towards her, Robin's with worry and Marian's filled with barely contained rage. She ignored them both, along with Snow and her dear little Charming family that all seemed stuck in a state of shock and grief as they watched her. It was good that someone felt something about the situation since she could not.
After the initial shock she had decided to stay. She wouldn't be made to feel as an outsider in her own damn town, was her first thought after the verbal lashing she had sent Emma's way.
But as the night wore on she began feeling less and less. She knew she should feel something-anger, sorrow, anything- but whatever reason she just didn't.
And it didn't bother her much.
No, it didn't bother her at all.
"Mom," Henry called to her. She turned and offered him a soft smile.
"Roland, why don't you sit with my friends Snow and her husband?" she asked gently, pointing in the direction of the aforementioned pair. Snow sat cooing over her small bundle while David eyed her with a tight grimace. No doubt watching to see if she'd set fire to the place in a blast of fury. Or maybe just looking out for her per Snow's request.
Didn't matter, either way. She had no intentions of harming anyone. Lest of all in a rage.
"With the baby?" Roland questioned with a slight frown. Regina nodded and ruffled his dark curls, earning a dimpled grin from the lad.
"And then we can dance a bit more later," she suggested. He nodded vigorously before skipping off to the couple. David offered the child a warm and sincere smile and Snow did the same, ushering him to her side to look over the newborn.
Finally Regina turned to Henry. He gestured to the door and she nodded, pulling her jacket tighter around herself as she followed him out. Once away from the warm stuffiness of Granny's overcrowded dive she allowed the smile to fall from her lips, it dropped into the pool of self that trailed behind her.
"Are you… okay, mom?" her son asked. Yes, her sweet brown haired boy. His warm eyes were filled with some emotion she couldn't put identify. Worry, regret, fear? She wasn't sure but it looked like something similar to the three. Maybe a mash up of them all. Wouldn't that be something.
"I don't really know," she answered honestly, pulling her arms around herself tighter.
"Mom, I…" he trailed off just as a huge gust of heated air rushed them, knocking them both back. They sat in a daze just as another gust blew over them. Regina felt as if her head was swimming as the smells of summer assaulted her nose. She coughed and turned to look at Henry just as he shouted for her.
"Mom!" he screamed through the growing tempest. She pushed herself up with shaking limbs. She staggered toward her son and pulled him to her just as the crowd from inside rushed out the door of Granny's. Heading them was Emma who pulled the two behind her, standing as if to guard them from the raging winds.
"Regina, what's happening?!" she screamed, her voice trailing off with the wind.
"I have no idea!" Regina shouted back, pulling Henry tighter against her front. Leaves around them swirled in a flurry before dropping without pause to back to their places as the wind died suddenly. Everyone stood looking for the source of the manic wind.
Regina thought immediately to her sister and it seemed that she wasn't the only one.
"Is this Zelena's doing?" David asked as he rushed to his daughter's side. Said woman shrugged mutely turning again to look at Regina who hadn't let Henry out of her tight hold. Something about that wind made her shiver with fear. It was familiar and foreign at the very same time.
"I don't think so, but it wouldn't hurt to check in on her," Regina said in a tight voice. Finally she released Henry from her grasp and turned to Snow, who stood wearing glowing red cheeks and a frown on her face.
"Henry, stay with Mary Margaret," Regina ordered, not waiting to hear their protests as she disappeared with a puff of purple smoke, figuring the others would follow on their own.
She reappeared not a moment later in the Sheriff's office. In the cell that her sister had occupied sat a pile of smoldering ashes.
"Tragic, isn't it?" a voice called behind her.
Thunder cracked, shaking the castle walls before it faded away. It was quickly followed by its faithful companion, lightening. The blinding white bolt illuminated the otherwise chambers for a feint moment. Cora sat brushing her long russet tresses with delicate hands.
As she watched her reflection she took notice of the wrinkles forming along her brow and along her pale cheeks. Frowning, she traced each line with distaste.
"You'll have to do something about those, my dear. Especially if you wish to keep the king from sowing his wild oats with our lovely dear Regina," a light voice teased from the other side of her bedchambers.
Cora rolled her eyes and continued brushing her hair. When each strand shown with silky softness she put the ornate brush down upon her vanity and , with a wave of her hand, magicked it into a complicated looking up do.
"Leopold is a fool but he isn't stupid. He knows not to touch her," Cora finally spoke.
"Not yet, maybe. But men are like dogs, dear. New shiny thing can easily garner their attention and even under threat of punishment, they will seek to make that which is unused their own. You, surely, should know this more than anyone, the voice bit out, as if reprimanding her.
Cora sneered into the mirror, she was no child.
"Oh, please control yourself, love. I didn't come to upset you. I wanted to know if it was done. Have my darlings finally come together?" the voice asked, almost gleefully.
"No," Cora admitted.
"And why not?" snarled the voice, a shadow behind her moving closer.
"I may have let my anger get the better of me," Cora stated with a shrug just as another crack of thunder sounded, the lightening trailing it momentarily chasing away the darkness in the room, thereby casting the owner of the voice in a startling silver glow.
She was tall with glowing amber eyes, a dainty nose, and supple lips all set into a long tawny colored face. Her limbs, covered in a stylish white tunic top and black form fitting trousers, seemed impossibly long but not out of place when paired with the litheness of her figure.
When the lightening flashed away she stepped into the warm candle light surrounding the other sitting woman in the room. And, though her voice seemed full of mirth and sweetness, her face was screwed into a frighteningly twisted grin.
"And what did you do, Cora?" she asked in a soft voice.
"I crushed his bleeding heart in my hand," Cora said without pause.
"You did what? Do you know how very long it took for me to find him? With pure blood untainted by greed or sickness, not tainted by scores and scores of human vices? There will never be a more fit changeling for the task," the woman hissed, her face shifting with rage, teeth bare and back arched as if ready to pounce.
"I will not have you using my daughter as some broodmare," Cora calmly stated before turning to the agitated woman.
"But it is fine if your dear Leopold does the same? All I have wished for was to make her my rightful successor, Cora. You know this as I. And yet, you have thrown away her only chance at happiness. Of freedom! Of power!" the woman shouted, throwing arms into the air with exasperation.
"What does she need to be free from? I will protect her," Cora said with a stern voice, stepping around the woman and towards the small window to the right of them.
"Are you a fool or just mad? When he finds her, and he will, he will take her. He will set her mind a flame and consume her. He will drain her magick from her without pause or remorse," the woman whispered softly.
Cora pursed her lips. "I do not fear him as you do. I will make her strong in my own way," she threw back.
"In the same way that you made your other daughter 'strong', Cora? You've done a bang up job of that," the woman sneered.
"Do not ever bring up thatchild to me," Cora hissed, shooting a bolt of magic her way. The tall woman waved it away with a bored look before nodding her head in defeat.
"Fine then, Cora if you will not listen to reason then be damned. I promise you will regret this. That girl is the stuff of prophecy," the woman growled. And her only chance at peace, she added silently. That girl held her whole damned world in her chest and she wasn't even aware of it.
"There are thousands of prophecies and enough pots of piss in the entire world to hold them!" Cora raged at the woman. She was sick of this back and forth. Had been for years but now her patience had finally run out.
"I will have her, Cora. You cannot stop me. I will have her," the woman said after a tense silence. She left in a swirl of whirling silver winds, leaving nothing but a spattering of leaves in her wake.
"Who are you and what have you done to Zelena?" Regina asked, her palms filled with balls of flames that flowed and licked at the air around her.
"That," she gestured to the pile ahead of them," is not my doing."
"How can I trust that?" Regina growled, her emotions finally bursting back into chest, filling her with a shuttering pain.
"You can always trust me, darling. I have only ever wanted the best for you," the woman said softly as she moved to stand closer to the younger woman.
Just then Emma rushed in, her gun drawn on the astoundingly tall woman before her, with David and Hook following close behind. Robin brought up the rear, looking as if his very favorite toy had been ripped from his hands.
The sight of him reminded Regina of exactly she had lost today. Her second chance was gone. Her sister was gone. All she had now was her son. And he wasn't even hers anymore. Not alone, anyway.
"Regina, do you know her?" Emma asked, jerking her head towards the woman before her wearing a weak smile.
"She doesn't remember me, which makes sense. It has been a long time," the woman spoke. Regina looked over the woman and felt something tugging in her gut telling her that this woman meant her no harm. There was something familiar about her.
Regina, after a pregnant pause, allowed her hands to fall limply to her side. She offered the woman before her a tentative look.
"Ah, so you can feel it? The warmth that rolls through me is very similar to that which quakes like thunder inside you. You, my dear, are a summer storm," the woman said with a proud grin.
"Who exactly are you and how do you know me?" Regina asked, trying to avoid Robin's concerned gaze.
"I am Titania, the Queen of the Summer Court. But you, dear, may call me step mother," Titania spoke, her bright eyes gleaming with hidden joy, as if enjoying some kind of inside joke that only she was aware of.
So this is just a lil sneak peak of my next work. I honestly couldn't help but to post it so don't hate me!
I'll be working on this once I finish TAOLG. Let me know what you think, alrightie.