[Fairy Tale Land]
The lights within the castle walls flickered dangerously, flames behind shades blown out by something present, something evil and uninvited. It was lurking in the shadows and it really wasn't supposed to be there at all. A dark presence that had narrow slits for eyes and no heart. It wasn't supposed to be in this world or any other world but buried underground, in the pits of hell because that's where demons inhabited. Dancing to the tune of the devil's song and cackling around fires that burned bodies stained from sin.
She was no match for whatever it was.
Black cloak flapping around black, knee high leather boots, fists clenched, a woman of enough power strode forward. Her brown eyes were on fire and so was the racing of a heart that had grown softer from reconciliation. When wars had raged through two kingdoms, never seeming to come to an end, at some point, a white flag was lifted.
They had put their differences aside and had worked to better their union as a family, encouraging the growing bond that she was never really familiar with.
The Charmings had welcomed her with love and understanding.
So when the news had shattered her silence spent in front of a warming fire merely moments ago, the Queen had no choice. She had to act quickly and to do what must be done. As much as she could do, that is, to aid in eliminating the threat posed by something not from this world. But a demon from hell.
It was coming.
She could feel it, casting a net around the area as the guards fell to their slumber in a split of a second.
Was she prepared?
Would she ever be prepared to face danger and to cut it down with her weak flow of magic in comparison to what that...thing...contained?
It had to be attempted.
Regina reached the master chambers and her bosom heaved whilst taking in a deep breath. To brace herself. To form some kind of preparation before entering a room that obviously was about to be ravished by a beast who was blood thirsty. With eyes as black as coal and skin of a reptilian texture. Fingers that curled and shot dark magic at the most innocent of hearts, only to have them writhe in pain all because he could not understand the simplest of things.
The Dark One could not understand the meaning of love.
Hands encased in black leather gloves pushed or rather shoved open the double doors and the sight that greeted her was enough to make the Queen's heart stop.
The monster had already frequented the room.
The shock that washed over her was of a cold nature, like being swept through with a gush of icy wind. Having your insides become frozen, the beating of your heart dulled to being nonexistent and the fear of not knowing instantly what had occurred was growing. But she knew what happening. Regina knew and because of that awareness, it dawned upon her that the time had come finally. The prophecy was unfolding.
Charming was just falling to the floor, eyes wide and the scent of death was already in the room.
His sword now coated in blood had been shoved through the very part where the most powerful organ other than the brain resided. Falling and falling then a thud. David's head lolled back and there was a clap of thunder coming from the skies that were turning gray.
"He's...here," Snow choked, lips coated in her blood. She stared at Regina. She was curled up and already dying. The light in her eyes were dying. "He's...already...here...Regina."
"Where?" she couldn't even recognize her own voice for it sounded so distant, the ringing in her ears growing louder.
Snow beckoned for the brunette to draw nearer with a white glove stained red. There was so much pain in those eyes when the Queen stooped gracefully to welcome the other woman's last words. So much pain in a pair of eyes that always shone with hope and everything cheerful.
"He...wants...her," Snow White sputtered, struggling to breathe. "You must not...let him...have...her." The child. She was speaking about the child.
"Emma." Brown orbs grew wide. She turned to consider David surrounded in his own blood. "Where is she?"
"The curse is coming."
"Where is she?" Regina's chest heaved. Where was the child? Was she in the room, hidden somewhere? Had the demon already snatched her?
"When the curse comes, we'll..." Snow's voice was dying out like a candle's light struggling on the last flame. "We'll be dead. Regina...you must...find her. Find her for us and...watch over her. Keep her safe...she's yours."
"I will," the brunette croaked.
"Promise me," the Princess sputtered, "Regina promise me that you'll look…after…her. You'll stay close to her and you will never, ever let her go. Promise…me."
"I promise," the older woman whispered.
"Remember…the…prophecy," Snow choked on her own blood. The wound in her midsection was slanted upwards, the greenest color gown was slowly staining red. "Remember…what…was said. Remember, Regina. There will come a time when…" her breath was leaving, "when she will…need you….the most. Stay with her."
The fingers that held onto the Queen's right hand slackened. With one last heave, Snow's chest stopped rising and falling.
"Where is she, Snow?" she captured such a pale face and give the younger woman a small shake. "Snow!"
But lo and behold, both the Prince and the Princess were dead to that world.
Which left only one other little being that was surely concealed well and must be found.
Rising and unfolding herself but with the sharpest pain in her chest, Regina wasted no time. Somehow it seemed that the Dark One had completed his destruction on a very important family and had moved on to the one thing his demented soul had been planning for ages.
The curse.
Somehow the little babe was the least of his worries, unless he was still on the hunt for the product of True Love.
When Regina did find her, it was after a fatiguing search through the castle. Flinging open wooden wardrobes and falling to her knees to check under beds. Tearing apart rooms with the wave of a hand and listening for the mewling sound of a little creature that had come into this world with such an innocent soul.
She remembered when they had first set eyes on each other.
It was such a beautiful moment for her, when Snow had offered the squirming bundle that wouldn't stop crying into the Queen's arms. Regina remembered how frightened she was, from holding the beginning of life, something she would never be able to create. Not in this lifetime and never in another world. And then the little child stopped crying, stopped fussing. Emerald eyes had fixated upon her with such intensity, she felt slightly intimidated.
Emma.
Emma made her realize that there could be hope in life. That sometimes our hearts are broken and we fight wars. But in the event of a child, one can just stop the fighting and the bloodshed and drown in the sincerity, in the innocence of an awakening. Of knowing that this little soul had slipped into the world, with a clean record and without the stain of sin or pain. An angel that must be protected and when the time came, life would turn and twist her little heart.
The Queen somehow felt an attachment to the child and this connection led her to it.
When the little baby was found, she was swathed in a yellow wool blanket and resting inside a wooden trunk with vents in the side walls. It was startling to discover that as soon as her gloved hands rested on the latch, the purple haze of magic swirled around it. And there was a distinct click. The lid lifted slowly whilst brown eyes widened.
How the Charmings had used such a force they never welcomed, it was rather puzzling at first. Until Regina realized that this must be the fairies at work.
But there, just there, with her little emerald eyes peering upwards was the little baby girl.
At first, she was so hesitant to reach down and wrap her arms around the little body. She was frightened of touching the little angel who gurgled and curled those tiny fingers into a fist.
"Give her to me," came the voice of the devil from behind. He was here. Heart racing, she realized one thing; that the curse had already been cast and it was coming. "Give me the child and be gone, your Majesty."
"Never," Regina inhaled deeply. Her red stained lips were licked. "Leave her be."
"Don't make me angry." He cackled from behind her and adrenaline kicked in.
Without wasting any time, her hands reached down, and captured the tiny bundle. Even in the process of lifting Emma up, the color of her magic, oh so purple and tickling the baby's face swirled around them. Emma batted and gurgled. And even before he could get to them, could stop them, they were gone.
.
.
[Storybrooke, Maine]
She always thereafter wished that the child's upbringing was outside of that dreadful town. It had become like a mental asylum with each passing day where they lived the same memories over and over again. Faces passed each other at the same time and the clock in the tower never worked. Certain things were missing and stories never told. Fifteen years back was a blank. No one remembered anything.
Yet Regina remembered everything.
It was her curse, as he oh so gently put it after the brunette stormed in his office, the Mayor's office with the door slamming in her wake. Slamming gloved fists upon the polished oak desk, the rattle of things did upset him but she had had enough. With a demented mind that was slowly cracking into a million pieces, Regina could no longer hold onto her sanity, whilst she remembered and they didn't. Whilst she felt the pain they could not. Whilst she was left with nothing but a hole in her heart because he had done things his way.
She was now reduced to the owner of a boutique that carried the latest fashions and an abundance of makeup brands. Most of them, Regina had no knowledge of but they were of impressive quality. However, as time went by and the routine activities became easier to manage, it wasn't so bad. It wasn't the position she now held that bruised her ego and mind but the status the Dark One had cemented for himself.
Gold was the Mayor and strutted around a town that he controlled as a king.
No matter where their lives led, in any realm as it may seem, the Dark One always set up the board with all favors on his side. And it was no different in Storybrooke.
When the Charmings had made her the baby's guardian since that tragic day of their deaths, the new Mayor of the town had altered everything.
Can you just imagine the pain the Queen felt when she discovered that the child had been adopted by Doctor Whale and his wife, no other than Red Riding Hood? Of all the years she had lived, never had she felt such torment in coming across the happy couple pushing a yellow stroller with the infant snuggled inside. That little angelic face immediately turning as if a connection was achieved and their eyes met and lingered.
Regina felt as if her heart had been ripped into two.
Whale had been a most dear friend to her over the years before the curse. Trying to aide in the revival of her lost love Daniel and a trusted friend when not manipulated by the demon. But she had been hesitant to approach him, until one day after her routine sitting in the park just by the pond, their eyes met. And when he stopped the stroller, and stared, familiarity passed between them. She knew that look, meeting a friend again and regaining memories spent together.
It would appear as if he had been a victim of the curse she been washed over with as well.
"Dear me, is that you?" he drew nearer and his voice was just a whisper, moving lips shielded by a hand.
"Yes," she stared, hands neatly folded in her lap, back as stiff as a poker. "I gather you can recall everything as well?"
Whale ran a hand over his face and sunk into the wooden bench. The absence of Ruby somehow created a sense of calm on the brunette's nerves for they had never been close as acquaintances could get in the other realm. Not that the woman would have remembered any of it since all the inhabitants of the town had been given new lives. But just resting her brown eyes upon the yellow stroller with the sleeping occupant was enough to dull the ache in the Queen's heart.
"You have no idea what it's been like," Whale protested, slumped into the seat, eyes focused on the water before them. "Regina, I have been going crazy with...this...all of this."
She chuckled. "I can imagine. You have a wife now."
"I woke up," the man next to her stared, "and I was a husband. I was told that we were married and we couldn't have kids. And we adopted this...angel."
Her lips were bitten because the baby stirred and a little fist was lifted. Surely she could lean forward a bit and cast her eyes upon the angelic face? It wouldn't be a crime, would it? That little face had only been seen from across such distance for so many months and to have the offspring of True Love just a foot away, Regina was curious to know how the child had changed.
"What is her name?" she inquired after, wondering if that had been altered as well.
"Oh you mean the kid?"
"Yes." She still stayed in her seat, catching the gurgles emanating from the stroller.
"Well I was told...that her name is Emma. It says so on her blanket. This yellow one we have back home."
"It is," she croaked, smiling, eyes glassy. "That is her name. Emma."
"I mean, do you know who she is? Where she came from? Do you know anything at all about her, about any of this...atrocity?" Whale's eyes were wide and it was obvious that he seemed to still be lost in the functioning of the curse.
Regina made him swear that day, on his life that he would keep the intensity of the secret buried deep down. No matter what, the tale was not to be related to anyone else, not even his new wife. She turned those eyes upon him and made a connection, showing how genuine her words were, how pure the concern was for the child because it was a divine thing to behold. The Queen who had fought battles and stained her record with bloodshed was really connected to another little soul in a way she still could not decipher.
"Promise me," she whispered, and Whale stared back without speaking. "Promise me that you'll look after her as if she's your own. It's not that I bestow this responsibility on you forcefully. But it is because of the tragedy surrounding the beginning of her life."
"So they're...dead." He had to ask. "They're not here or anywhere else."
"No," eyes lowered, she bit her lips.
"Dear God," he heaved out a sigh and glanced around. Whale licked his lips. "The poor child. What a sweet angel. What a little babe. And to have lost both parents."
"She hasn't lost everything as...yet," Regina found herself saying, eyes resting on the stroller's little yellow shed pulled forward to shade the child from the sun. "She still has...someone."
"So based on the way you all mended your ways and so forth, so forth," he fished, noting the color in her cheeks, and how the child was gazed at, "Snow and David would have wanted you to...be close to her?"
"I made a promise." Gloved fingers curled upon her lap. She was smiling. "I made a promise to her mother that I would watch over her, for eternity. That I would do whatever it will take to protect her from any harm. And that is exactly what I intend to do."
xx
