A/N: Hi folks! I really shouldn't be doing this since I have a few other fics that need updating and all that jazz, but I just can't help it! I really wanted to write an OUAT, SwanQueen fic, since the likelyhood of having them officially pair off is near impossible :( That makes me a very sad panda. The chapter was done in relatively short time so I apologize if the quality isn't all that great. I'll reread and see if it needs rewriting in a few days. This will be rated M for profanity and sexual content in upcoming chapters.
Alrighty, have a nice read and a fun ride!
P.S: The line breaks are acting up for some reason. It happened yesterday with another of my stories too. So forgive me if you see double lines, or no lines at all!
Yep. After publishing, I noticed line breaks missing. Will add xoxoxoxoxoxoxo just in case, even though it's ugly :(
She was startled awake when she was thrown off the bed. She grunting, knowing what had just happened. Her lover's magic had kicked her off their bed yet again. Getting up on her feet, she went back into bed, and tried to nudge the victim of countless nightmares awake.
"Regina, babe, it's just a dream," Emma whispered, as she gently tapped on her shoulder. The sleeping woman was groaning and grunting nonsensically, but Emma could tell it was pretty bad. Sweat was dripping from her forehead, her eyes were shut tight, she was mumbling and gripping the bed sheets.
The saviour wrapped her arms as best she could around her lover. It had been weeks now that Regina was losing control of her magic. Nightmares were plaguing her and Emma had no idea how to help. Gently placing kisses on the older woman's cheek and neck, she managed to calm her down.
Breathing into the crook of her lover's neck, she whispered to the woman in her arms, "I'm here, Regina. I'm here."
Before even opening her eyes, she knew she was alone in bed. Panic struck her, but was quickly died down when she smelled breakfast being cooked and Henry's loud voice recounting something to his mother.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxo
Slowly making her way down the stairs, she heard Regina let out a question, "Do you want me to take you to school today, Henry?"
"Nah. I'm good. You should stay home and figure out what's going on with you, mom."
Before Regina could respond, Emma walked into the kitchen. "Morning, folks!"
"Hi Ma!" The now 14 year old smiled, putting a piece of toast in his mouth. "You guys play nice! I gotta head out or I'll be late! See you later!"
He was out of the house in mere instances before either of the women could say anything. Regina smiled quietly at her son's energy. Lately, she'd been so drained, so exhausted, in so so so much pain, and very pale. She felt like zombie. Seeing Henry happy, healthy and active meant the world to her.
"Hey," a husky voice brought her back to the present. Emma placed a hand on her cheek, bringing their lips together. Regina fervently kissed back, craving more of Emma's mouth, her touch, her moans. The younger woman snaked a hand behind Regina, landing it on the small of her back, holding her in place. Once their lips parted for air, Regina gripped the blonde's shirt, hiding her face in the crook of the woman's neck.
"Emma," she whispered.
"I'm here, Regina," Emma assured as she held onto the woman tighter.
"Emma...I'm scared," it was rare for Regina to admit it, even now, but in Emma's arms, she felt safe and knew she would never be judged or seen as weak.
"I know. I promise you we'll figure this out, no matter what."
After a few moments passed in silence, Regina looked to her.
"Breakfast."
"Hm? What about it?"
She freed herself from Emma's grasp and went to grab some plates. "You need to eat something." She placed the pieces of bacon, scrambled eggs and toast, with a side of fresh berries.
"Bacon? You doin' okay babe?" Emma let out with a silly grin.
"Given how much of your time I've been taking up lately, I thought a little reward wouldn't be too bad."
Though it was said in jest, Emma took it seriously. She moved over to Regina and wrapped her arms around her once more. "Every minute I spend with you is worth it."
Regina placed her hands on her lover's waist and brought their lips together for a chaste but loving kiss. "You're going to be late."
"Dun' matter! The Mayor's the one paying me after all," she grinned, only to face a raised eyebrow. She knew going along with her plan of teasing Regina would probably not be the best. "Alright alright!" She quickly ate the food on her plate. "I'm off. I really don't like leaving you though."
Regina's expression relaxed. "I know, but I'll be fine. I'm not in any pain at the moment. I think it's simply some excess magic running amok. It'll go away soon. Don't worry about it, Emma."
"I can't not worry, Regina! It's been three weeks! I'm..."
"Late."
"What?"
"You're late for work. Or going to be. Get a move on before I decide to cut your salary!"
"Yes ma'am!" She made a run to the door, grabbed her keys and turned around briefly. Regina nodded. Emma took this as a sign that she'd be fine for the day until she got back home.
Emma and Regina had been together for a little over a year, but their love for each other was unmistakably real. When Robin chose Marian over Regina, the ex-Evil Queen was so heartbroken that her heart had frozen over. Literally. Okay, Elsa did have a role in all of it, but those are unnecessary details. The gist of the situation was that only true love could thaw a frozen heart. Robin, much to a very reluctant Marian, tried helping, but to no avail.
It didn't make much sense. Wasn't Robin supposed to be Regina's True Love? At least according to a certain green fairy. With a little research and prodding Tinkerbelle to admit that the fairy dust maybe could have had a 0.0000001% chance of being wrong, Emma and the group concluded that Robin in fact was not Regina's True Love.
Eventually, much to everyone's surprise, they had found out that Emma, who had secretly been in love with the Queen was her True Love. Once the Saviour had thawed the older woman's heart...Well, it wasn't rainbows and daisies that's for sure. Regina was in downright denial. Emma had taken Robin from her and now she was expected to believe they were meant to be? That wasn't going to happen any time soon. So, Emma spent a good few months trying to woo Regina. She tried courting her properly, treating her like a Queen and letting her have Henry as often as she wanted, minus the exaggerated "I want him with me 24/7," to which she had to deny access. However, she did mention that if they were to end up together, Regina could have Henry to her for that long.
At the beginning, Regina had decided that it wouldn't be too bad an idea to go along with it. If she pretended to be in love with Emma, she could have Henry all to herself. So that's what she did. She pretended that she'd fallen in love with the woman. This lasted for a month. Emma was uncertain as to why Regina wasn't being physically intimate with her as deeply as she had wanted to, but she never pressed the older woman on it. A few nights after their first month together however, Emma overheard Regina talking to one of the new residents, Hans. The conversation went along the lines of Regina tricking Emma into thinking she was in love with her, when all she wanted was Henry. When Emma confronted her about it, heartbroken, Regina didn't know what to say. The Saviour took her son and left. Spending even a single night without Emma proved to be very difficult for the raven haired woman. So much so that on the second day, she had to admit it to herself. Admit that she had just been lying to keep her heart safe. She was in love with Emma. So so in love that it scared her. Terrified her. She'd given herself to Robin only to be heartbroken. She didn't want it to happen again!
She went back to Emma the next night and poured her heart out to the younger woman who very easily mellowed out, understanding why she'd want to keep herself safe like that. They made up and that's when their relationship really kicked off. It was a bit awkward at first, but Regina learned to open herself up more and more to the younger woman, to the point of even being able to cry in front of her.
Now that a year had passed, they were as thick as thieves, and it seemed as though the residents of Storybrooke had forgotten what the Evil Queen had done to them in the past, because most of them had been able to befriend her. So what caused her current situation? Her magic going rampant, pain coursing through her constantly? No one knew. No one knew, and that is why Emma did something she thought she never would again. Willingly went to Rumpelstiltskin for help. Regina hadn't wanted it. She was tired of dealing with magic and always paying a price. That's why she assumed this was her price. The pain she felt was the pain of all the people she had killed over the years. She tried to justify what she was going through, but Emma would not agree. Regina didn't deserve what she was going through.
So instead of going to work, after leaving the house, she made her way to the pawnshop as subtly as possible.
"Miss Swan," Mr. Gold nodded, cleaning the glass case he was standing next to.
"Help me," she let out as she took big strides to stand right in front of him.
"I would maybe consider helping if you asked nicely."
"Please help me" she drawled, clearly annoyed. She hated asking him for help. Not because of his prices. No. It was because if he agreed to help you, that meant he had something in mind that would benefit him.
"With what do you need help, Miss Swan? The Evil Queen's unfortunate predicament perhaps?"
"Do not call her that!" She snarled. It wasn't an exaggeration to say that Mr. Gold had become a much better person. He clearly cared for Henry, and finding Neal had changed him for the better. However, after Neal's death, he'd slowly begun to seclude himself, feeling there was no point to living. Emma felt as though he was returning to his former self, no matter how hard Belle was trying to help him.
"My apologies. I did not mean to offend. Regina's losing control of her magic, correct?"
The Saviour nodded. "I'm not sure what's going on. She has bursts of uncontrollable magic and is in constant pain...As though..."
"As though the magic is ripping through her, trying to burst free."
Emma simply nodded again.
"I can't help you, Miss Swan."
"The hell do you mean you can't?!"
"I'm uncertain as to what the problem is. Regina's had magic for over two decades. There is no reason for her to be losing control of it now of all times unless for some reason she had a massive amount of excess magic in her. And there is no explanation as to where she could have procured so much magic especially given the limited amount of magic we have in this world."
Emma groaned in frustration. She had no idea what was going on with Regina and how to help. Stupid magic! Magic was always at fault! If only it didn't exist! If only Regina didn't have any!
"Wait...That's it. That's it!"
"Miss Swan?"
"If she never had magic, she'd never have to go through this! We just have to stop her from learning magic! We just have to stop her from going to you for help!"
"Miss Swan...There are a lot of problems with your plan."
"I don't care. Give me something to time travel with!"
Mr. Gold let out a deep sigh, "Do you realize how preposterous this sounds? It took Zelena an incredible amount of time to even make that possible. And you've already gone to the past once before. Who knows what you'll change if you go now, minus the fact that you'll be changing the entire world when you convince her to not learn magic!"
In her frustration, Emma pushed him to the wall and held him by the collar of his shirt, "You always have a way. ALWAYS! You probably kept something from her. Something that would be able to help me time travel. Gold, you need to help me! Maybe I can even get Neal back!"
The man was clearly conflicted. And he knew that if Regina didn't learn magic, he'd never be able to find Neal again. But did it matter? His son died bringing him back. Neal would have probably been safe if it weren't for everything that happened in Storybrooke, which ultimately meant that Neal was better off if the curse had never happened.
"Let me go and I'll help."
The instant he let it out, he was dropped, Emma fixing his collar for him. "That's the Gold I know!"
Going into the back of the shop, he popped back up moments later with a small sundial in hand.
"What's that?"
"This, Miss Swan, is what's going to help you go back in time. Do you see the dial?" She nodded. "It has to absorb the blood of the person you have to go back in time to."
"What would happen if the person you wanted to get back to was dead?"
"Then you'd be unable to use it. This only works when the person is still alive, or if you've kept a blood vial," he responded matter-of-factly.
"So I need Regina to pierce her finger on this?" He grunted an approval.
"You can use the sundial a total of three times. The first one will be used to go back in time. The second attempt is a failsafe. In case you are unable to get her to change her mind, either go back in time again, to before having met her in that time, or go back further in an attempt to coerce a different self into stopping. The last one is to be used to come back. Do keep in mind that you have to think of the very moment in time you want to go back to. If you think of something too broad, such as 'Before Regina turned into the Evil Queen', you'll be thrown into anywhere between her birth to her taking the title of 'Evil Queen'. Be as precise as possible."
"How long do I have?"
"However long it takes. You could even choose to stay there until the end of time."
"What's the price?" She looked to him with a raised eyebrow. "And how do I use it to begin with?"
He sighed. "Pierce Regina's finger on that, and go back to the barn. There is still residue from Zelena's magic there. It'll open a portal for you. As for the price, I have none. But remember, Miss Swan. Just because I don't have a price for you, doesn't mean magic doesn't have one in store."
She turned around to leave the shop and let out a "Thanks." She'd deal with whatever magic had in store for her after she saved Regina. Now the only problem that remained was finding a way to get Regina's blood without alerting her. Because Emma knew full well that if she told Regina her plan, the older woman would never agree to it.
She spent the rest of the day patrolling the ever so quiet town, until she got a call from Mary Margaret.
"Emma here," she replied, slurping up her milkshake.
"Emma! Thank goodness! Something's wrong!" Mary Margaret was clearly frantic, her voice incredibly high pitched and filled with fear.
"Okay, calm down. What's going on?"
"Regina! It's Regina!"
Putting on the sirens and making a fast u-turn, she made haste to the manor. "What about Regina?!"
"I came to visit her. No one answered the door, so I wondered if she was out. But her car is still here. I poked a look inside and...Emma! She's unconscious in the living room!"
"Is she breathing?"
"..."
"MARY MARGARET! IS SHE BREATHING?!"
"I-I don't know!"
"I'll be there in two minutes!"
And in two minutes, she was. She quickly parked on the side of the street, banged the car door and ran up to the house.
"Emma!"
Grabbing her keys, she opened the door and frantically looked around. She was on the floor, on her stomach. The first thing Emma did was check her pulse. It wasn't strong, but it was there to which she was forever grateful.
"Emma, we need to take her to the hospital!"
"There's no point."
"What do you mean?"
She carried Regina in her arms up to their room as Mary Margaret followed.
"What do you mean, Emma?!"
"Magic is causing this. Whale can't help her."
Gently placing the woman on the bed, she held onto her hand as she sat next to her. It was getting worse. She had to enact her plan and fast, or else she was more than positive Regina would die. Taking out the sundial from her pocket, she brought it closer to Regina's index finger, however stopped when Mary Margaret let out a question.
"What are you doing?"
"I need to change the past."
"What?"
"This sundial will help me go to the past. Stop her from ever learning magic. If she didn't have magic, she wouldn't be going through this!" Emma turned to look at her mother with tears threatening to stain her cheeks.
"If I don't learn magic, I don't exile Snow White. If I don't exile Snow White, she doesn't meet Prince Charming. If she doesn't meet Prince Charming, they don't get married. If they don't get married, you aren't born. If you aren't born, Henry isn't born," the woman on the bed replied with a raspy voice, looking straight at the back of her lover's head. "Emma, look at me."
The blonde turned her head at the request. "No matter what happens to me, Henry will always be my top priority. I can't let you take him from me or from you. What happens if you go back to the past and never come back? What happens then? Henry won't have any parents lef-"
"YOU AREN'T DYING!"
"Oh, Emma..." Regina lifted her hand to cup her crying lover's cheek.
"She's right. You're not dying."
"H-Henry?" Emma let out through her teary hiccups.
The young boy walked over to the other side of his parents' bed, grabbing Regina's free hand. "Mom, you of all people deserves a happy ending. And if we can make it happen, then I think it'll be worth it."
"Henry, why aren't you at school?" Leave it to Regina to always have his best interest in mind even at such crucial moments.
"School ended half an hour ago. Not like it matters right now. You're more important!"
"Henry...If your mom went through with her stupid plan, clearly fabricated by Rumpelstiltskin I should add, and I in fact never learned magic, you wouldn't be here right now. There is a chance neither of you would!"
"I trust her," the young boy let out with conviction. "I know that she'll find a way to make you better and we'll all end up being alive and well and happy."
"Henry you can't have everything!" Regina let out a weak frustrated growl. The Charmings always had this issue! They thought they could have everything, when in fact they couldn't! She knew this first hand. She knew how hard it was to even get ONE thing you wanted, let alone everything!
"I'll make it happen, Regina. I promise."
When she looked to Emma, she knew the younger woman was serious and being completely honest. No matter how implausible, maybe the product of True Love COULD make it happen.
"If what we have is True Love, as lovers, as family, then I know. I know in one way or another, we WILL end up together again, no matter what. If our love for each other is real, then we'll see each other again Regina."
Before Regina could respond, another wave of pain hit her, throwing everyone away from her.
"Emma!" She cried out, the Saviour getting up from her fall and running straight to her.
"Regina, I'm sorry. But I have to do this. Even if you hate me for it. Henry believes in me, I need you to believe too. I'll save our happy ending. I'll save you. I'll save us. So please. Please trust me."
All the weakened witch could do was nod. That was all. That was all she needed. She took her lover's finger, and pierced her skin with the sundial. Blood slowly trickled down onto it, a light of approval indicating that one part of the job was accomplished. Grabbing her gun and phone, she placed a kiss on Regina's lips, gave Henry a messy kiss on the forehead, and looked to her mother.
"Please, take care of them."
Mary Margaret nodded, and uttered two simple words. "Be careful."
That's all Emma needed. Her mother supported her and trusted her. She ran to the car and quickly sped through to Zelena's barn. Once she arrived, she walked into the barn. It was strange. The markings were still there from when they had defeated the wicked witch, gone to the past with Hook and even dealt with Elsa. She decided to take a chance. Placing the sundial in the middle of the circle, she stepped back, thought to the time she wanted to go to and waited. After a few seconds a purple smoke began to rise and slowly transformed into a portal.
"Well, it's now or never. Let's hope I don't fuck up too much."
Nodding to herself, she ran and jumped into the portal.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxo
Groaning awake, she felt someone or something poking her. Opening her eyes, she found men clad in black, prodding her awake with the sheaths of their swords.
Looking around her, she noticed where she was. It'd worked! She was in the Enchanted Forest, even though the time was unconfirmed.
"Get up, pleb," a rough voice let out, kicking her.
"Watch where you're kicking!" She huffed as she got up, not paying much attention to the situation she was in. All that mattered at the moment was that she made it. First order of business? Find Regina! She tried to take a step forward, only to notice that she was being moved on her own.
"What the..." Looking to her left, she saw one of the men clad in black holding her left arm, while the man on her right was holding her right arm. They were both dragging her somewhere.
"Hey! Let go of me!"
"Given you appeared literally out of thin air and landed on one of my men, that's not going to happen," the one at the front of the cavalry let out loudly.
And it was one scary cavalry. All men dressed in black armor with black stallions. "By the way," the leader continued, "Is this yours?" He held up the sundial.
"Hey! Give that back!" She said trying to turn around. But her neck hurt too much.
"It'll be a present for the Queen."
Her ears perked up, "Queen?" She wanted to get as much information as she could before she plotted her escape. "Who's this Queen?"
"The Evil Queen," one of the men holding her let out. That's all it took for Emma to slump down and let them take her wherever. Because she knew full well that Regina was where they were taking her. She also knew that the sundial had fucked her up. If Regina was already the Evil Queen, then she'd already had magic. She needed to get the sundial back and make sure that her words and intentions were a hundred percent clear. She didn't understand how she'd messed up. She'd thought of wanting to see Regina before she learned magic, so why hadn't she been sent to that time instead? She had a feeling that someone, or something, was playing her. 'All Magic comes with a price.' Was using the sundial itself her price? Because if it was, and the price screwed over her second chance? She would probably never be able to go back home.
A/N: That's the end of chapter 1. I hope you enjoyed! R&R is greatly appreciated! Also, can't wait for S4. Hopefully they don't mess up Frozen too much. I like Elsa ;_; And I'll live with the fact that she's supposed to be the "misunderstood" villain apparently. As long as they don't kill her off or make her fall in love with someone completely random, I think I'll survive!