Welcome to the story, I hope you enjoy.
I'm very into my dance music, well I was when I was younger, and this is one of the tunes that stuck with me. It is old now, but screams Regina to me when I hear it. Think it fits this story so please give it a go and let me know what you think: Plummet, Damaged.
I own nothing, not OUAT or the characters.
Kind of a sequel to This Means Nothing, this story is set in season 2 and is canon divergent – I may mention the relationship/events from the previous story but this one can probably stand alone too. It is in the same rating – Mature so please be aware, violence, sex, dark themes etc.
Thanks for taking the time to read and reviews are always welcome.
Regina watched the purple cloud of magic sweep over storybrooke, heading straight towards her mansion, straight towards her. She stood up to welcome it with a grin on her face. The smile finally reached her eyes, she was happy about something for the first time since Henry had decided he preferred the company of his biological mother.
Unfortunately for Regina, magic did not belong in this world she had created, and she realised that as the cloud swept over her and she was only filled with a sliver of the power she had once had. She had power again, but it paled in significance to the magic she commanded as The Queen in the enchanted forest.
The thoughts Regina had of reclaiming her kingdom, of being powerful again and using magic to dominate the townsfolk of Storybrooke all faded away as the cloud rolled onwards, tainting the town with its purple hue.
The smile fell from her face and she creased her brow, this was not how it was meant to work. She felt the emptiness inside her, the hole where her magic should be. She should feel the magic buzzing and crackling through her veins and she realised she couldn't feel any strength to it. It was a mild hum rather than the swirling and engulfing presence she was used to. She was virtually powerless and she knew that soon people would be coming for her. They would want blood, for her defiance and dominance over them as The Queen. They would want pay back for the hurt and suffering she had caused, both in the old Kingdom and in this realm too.
All she had done by enacting the curse was strip herself of her power, leaving herself as miserable and lonely as she had been in the enchanted forest. She was as bitter and angry, but now she found herself with nothing to protect herself from the inhabitants of Storybrooke. And it had taken 28 years of mundane, 28 years of living in this world. She sighed because she could hardly remember the first 18 years. They were long days, slowly and uneventfully turning into years, every day dull and dragging her down until she had adopted Henry. And even then there were times she spent struggling, being unhappy and all of it to ultimately to end up worse off than when she had started.
If it was anyone else's life the irony would have made her smile, maybe even laughed a little at someone else's misfortune. As it was she felt dread pool in her stomach at how royally screwed she was, and the realisation of her situation finally settled in on her. No Henry, no real magic and therefore no power and an angry town that hated her as much, if not more, than she hated them.
She wondered if she had left things alone and never enacted the curse, would she be better off now? At least before she had a castle and strong walls to shield her, now there were no guards to protect her and the tables had been turned, the numbers no longer in her favour, if they ever had really been in the first place.
It was a bitter smile that curled at her lips, even though she didn't view herself as The Evil Queen, she thought that somewhere, someone else obviously did. The someone who controlled fate and destiny because there had to be a reason why she could never truly win. Was it really as simple as the dammed story book said and it was because villains never do?
Shaking her head she pursed her lips together and blew air between them, centring herself and trying to focus. What was important to her and what was she prepared to fight for? Because when everything was stripped away, fighting for something was really all Regina knew, it summed up her life.
Henry.
And that was really all there was. Anything else was incidental, but she would fight for him, and in order to keep Henry, she needed to make a stand now. Running away would only show her son that she didn't value him enough to fight for him. She wasn't going to set that example, like the example her father had set to her. She loved her father, but he had been a coward. He had hidden behind his powerful wife and allowed the child abuse that still haunted Regina's dreams to continue under his roof. Regina would stand tall and show Henry he was important to her, it was what parents did for their children. Well normal parents, she supposed that her childhood could never fall into the category of normal and she ruefully shook her head. Thinking of the past wasn't helping her focus and make a decision. Her father was loved, but gone, and his actions were his own and couldn't be changed. She needed to push them away and the conflicting emotions they brought to her, she needed a clear head so she thought about her son, the boy she had raised for nearly eleven years and pictured him as she clenched her hands by her side and set her face into an unreadable mask.
Let this game begin, if it was to be her last she would face it with dignity, if she fell then she would go down as The Queen, The Mayor. Neither title had made her happy but it was all she had, so she clung to them even as the fear settled over her, closing like a glove against skin. Fear she tried to ignore, it would pass, eventually it had to, her whole life had been spent with fear lurking in the background, surely there had to be some kind of respite.
When the mob that Dr. Whale had assembled came to Regina's door, she refused to back down or hide. She had a strong sense of when to fight and when flight would best serve her, she wouldn't say she was a coward, but sometimes living to fight another day was the most prudent decision.
Regina knew this time, flight wasn't an option, it would only prolong the inevitable, so even without magic she would stand her ground. She hoped with a little magic and the confidence she didn't really feel she could bluff her way out of this situation. On legs she pretended weren't shaking, she strode out onto her porch with a purple cloud of magic accompanying her, held at her side in a silent warning to the townspeople. She hoped seeing the magic crackling, and with some acerbic comments and not so subtle threats which she was so well known for she could turn the mood of the mob. She had been Mayor, she knew how to handle meeting and groups of people. She could be diplomatic and read the situation, she could still come out of this unscathed – that was what she kept telling herself while she steadfastly looked at Dr. Whale – she didn't want to see other faces, see the size of the crowd that were baying for her blood. She didn't need to see the number of people crowded on the lawn in front of her, it would just rock her confidence, so instead she pierced Whale with her best glare.
Even without counting their number, Regina could feel the anger and hostility pouring off of the mob and towards her in waves, a pack that wanted blood, and like all pack animals, they would attack if they saw weakness and she refused to give them that. If she could turn just one of those narrow minds away from their animosity into even just a small amount of fear she hoped she might be able to turn the whole mood of the pack.
So she stood her ground, back ramrod straight as she composed her face into her trade mark smirk, and tried to look down on the people that until recently she had governed. She was trying to emit confidence and praying that her voice wouldn't shake when she opened her mouth to speak.
Whale spoke first, breaking the tense silence.
"Madame Mayor."
The words were heavy with sarcasm, a smile on Whale come Frankenstein's face, he was obviously enjoying being in control of the people he had gathered to him. Regina was glad it was him, there could have been more competent people, people she would have been more afraid to face down and try to bluff with.
"My good Doctor." The brunette woman responded, a quirk to her eyebrow, "How can I help you this evening?"
She breathed a little easier, her nerve was holding, her voice was strong and steady and held the bite she was known for.
Their eyes bored into one another, neither looking away, that would be weakness and this situation was balanced on a knife edge, it became a competition whoever could hold their nerve the longest. Regina smiled, she had much more experience in this situation than the Doctor did, she could wait it out and stare him down. She was a Queen after all, and eventually they all bowed to her wishes, one way or another.
"Regina, why?" Whale lost some of his bravado as he took in the purple caressing Regina's fingers.
Regina sighed at him, letting him know he was testing her patience while pulling more magic to her hand, glad her body was responding to the raw emotions she was feeling and the magic crackled a little louder. It didn't stutter, and she grinned widely taking confidence from the fact that her limited magic was behaving and wasn't going to betray her nervousness.
"Of all people, Doctor, You should understand that if you don't like the way life has treated you, you look for a way to change it. When you feel life has taken things unjustly you do whatever is in your power to bring it back. Just look at your poor brother."
It was a low blow, Regina knew it, but she needed to score points, show she wasn't as vulnerable as she felt. Whale took a breath, he swallowed and struggled to hold her gaze. She saw the motion in his throat and the tick of the muscle as he clenched his jaw. She knew he wanted to look at the floor as his eyes became unfocused, but he held his head up as he answered,
"And I regret it every day, he became a monster."
Regina held his gaze as she nodded, telling him in a calm and cold voice, her mask never slipping, "And this is my monster."
The brunette had admitted that carefully, calculatedly and nodded to herself seeing an understanding dawning on his face. She suspected he remembered his own youthful naivety and how much hope and trust had shone on her face when they had meet when she was younger, how much she had wanted to believe that Daniel could be hers again and that Doctor Victor Frankenstein could help her with that.
Regina knew now that he had never meant to damage his family, his fear and hurt from the loss of his brother and a misguided desire to correct things had escalated until he lost control, he had been drunk on the power he thought he could command, and Regina had realised they weren't that different. Life, fate, whatever pulled people through their lives, had taken both their deepest desires, their youthful ignorance and twisted the outcome into some hideous parody. Neither of them had got what they wanted, and they had hurt many people in their respective journeys. She saw he understood the similarities between them and despite hating her and her actions, she knew he now understood a little better, he had the answer to his question.
Whale looked away from her, finally breaking eye contact, a sign he was defeated, his desire to maim her, the need to strike out and kill was ebbing from him.
Regina began to feel more confident knowing she had managed to talk him down without threatening him and feeling quite proud of herself. Her reasoning and calm demeanour which had rarely been displayed to people in the enchanted forest to but had served her well when she was Mayor had diffused the situation and she hadn't had to call on any magic, which she knew would drain her terribly due to the weakened nature of it in this realm.
Someone at the back of the crowd amassed on her front lawn raised their voice and shouted with venom,
"Enough of this, talk means nothing, neither do her reasons. She needs to pay."
Peasants, Regina thought. It was always so black and white with them. She was Evil and deserved to suffer. That was their view and nothing would shift it. Fear was the only language that they responded to, and she would scare this crowd into domination, into leaving her alone, for tonight at least.
Whale shifted away, seeming a little lost. It was possibly in his own memories or possibly remembering his oath as a doctor, to protect life, any life, even Regina's. The brunette wondered if he realised how close he had been to breaking that oath, to getting more blood on his hands and making another life changing mistake. He would always have blood on his hands but no matter what he had done in his past but his disposition wasn't as a cold blooded murderer. At least in Whale's case the blood was accidental but no less haunting.
Regina nodded her head at his retreating form, knowing between them things were settled. She moved her eyes from Whale to scan over the crowd, to address them. As she opened her mouth a stone was thrown at her. It was thrown hard, was the size of a clenched fist and the aim was true, so is struck her with some force, hitting the side of her forehead and drawing blood. She closed her mouth and her eyes for a moment to deal with the sudden pain and the shock that came with it. She would not cry out, she breathed slowly out through her nose, but the effort of controlling the pain caused her to lose focus on her magic. In that second she knew it had been a mistake to try and face the crowd, flight might have been the better option after all. Her purple cloud stuttered and she felt the mood change in the crowd, like electricity they were suddenly alive and on fire, any trace of fear wiped away. They were burning with a destructive desire, and it was aimed solely at her.
The words "Pride comes before a fall" echoed round her head as Regina realised she couldn't run from them and that her victory over Whale was a small battle and that she was going to lose the war as someone swept her legs out from underneath her and she felt the air knocked out of her lungs as she hit the cold marble of her porch and lay on her back.
Someone else leaned over her and sneered before kicking her in the side, she bit down on her lips from the pain, unable to breathe and get air into her lungs as any movement caused arrows of pain to shot up her side and stars to dance in front of her closed eyelids. She didn't see who then punched her in the face, but her head shot to the side from the impact and she felt something wet running down her chin and knew it was blood running from a split lip.
She felt heavy and her focus was scattered, she couldn't recapture her magic and knew the situation was pointless. She couldn't get herself up from the floor, so she just lay there with her eyes closed as blows came in from either side. She was sure she was going to be bruised and bloody, someone stood on her hand and she felt and heard a crack. She was surprised because the level of pain was muted through her foggy brain, but then all of her hurt so much and it was worse because her body was fighting to remain conscious. She had learned a high pain threshold because of her Mother so she knew her body would endure several more minutes of this punishment.
At one point she was certain she could hear Leroy's drunken slur, but by then she was thankful that she was beginning to slip away into unconsciousness even as someone grabbed her by her shirt front ripping the material and then proceeded to throw her back down on the cold ground, so the back of her head connected squarely and with a smack against her porch floor.
She hardly felt the new pain exploding at the back of her head as a blackness was settling over her mind. She felt a thin veil of magic caress her, it wrapped itself tight around her and flashed purple across her closed eyelids. Just before everything went dark and she wondered if this was finally it, was this the end of her life? Broken and bleeding on the marble of her porch she fully slipped away, seeing Henry's face flicker across her eyelids. She lost her hold on the image of him as all of her senses shut down, slipping into an unconscious state, she was just glad to be slipping away from the pain as well.