For The Devil To Dance Again (the rewrite)

AU

It all takes place in my own convoluted rehashed view of the Once universe. Yes I did a complete rewrite. It's rated M for many reasons, torture, language, sexual encounters and character death.

Emma and Regina are in an established relationship.

This is by no means a sweet romantic fluff piece, there will be angst and maybe even tears as it progresses if I manage to write it correctly, so in advance, I'm sorry... but not really cause if you're mad at me then you skipped the warnings, so it's on you.

There is MAJOR character death and torture, though I have no intention of going into vivid detail in that regard. This will, by far be the darkest piece I have written to date though if I throw many more warnings in you'll know the plot before you even get through the first chapter so...Imagine just about every warning, that way all the bases are covered and the plot will be a surprise.

I own nothing and I think that's all, so enjoy. (Updates should fall every week or so)

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Chapter 1

The dampness, it seeps and clings to my body like falling rain. The frigid tendrils of mist creeping ever deeper and hungrily sucking what warmth I still possess.

To my core I feel its grasp reaching, scavenging ever further as my numb and worn fingertips ease the glacial metal restraints from their entrenching hold of my wrists. Inching the biting metal higher along my forearms in desperation as I attempt to massage both feeling and blood back into sore bone and torn flesh. I can't help but think over the path that led me here to this pit, the very same path that I am unable to damn since it led me to 'her'.

Here within the vermin infested underground doubt has no place within my clouding mind. Among the whispered voices calling to me in the darkness, I stand beside my convictions. 'Was she worth this?' they ask without tact, what feels like a hundred times over in a cacophony of dirty sounds. And a hundred times more I always answer 'Yes', screaming it at times if I am so moved. It would seem that even the darkest pits can not tarnished the moments she and I had shared. So I hold strong and tightly onto what of her remains; she was and is my heaven, my sanctuary in the light-less dawn that is upon me. With every breath I hold onto that, she was worth this and so much more.

She is worth my soul... and moreover she is worth theirs.

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The surrounding silence covers everything except my breathing and the irregular drips of putrid water falling from the ceiling. Sitting here among the stench of stale air and stagnant darkness I have little more then the groaning of the woman in the hole next to me, the shadows and my memories to keep me company. Somehow I can't fathom this stranger's alleged crimes being able to rival my own. Nothing seems able to trump treason and evil after all.

"I have some water left," the rough voice of the occupant in the cell next to me beckons within the darkness. Her bony hand extending a beaten cup towards my general direction through the bars, blindly offering more than just the water either inadvertently or not.

"You'll do best to save what little they offer you." I respond, my voice curt and gruff in tone. A stranger am I after all to such acts of generosity now. Shying away from both this cursed woman and the world I was once so happy to be a part of. Nothing, I have learned, is ever given without a cost, just as everything can be taken without a single reason.

"I fear what kindness they offer me wont be extended to you your Grace." The woman's voice raspy from a lack of use.

The simple fact of her knowing my identity seemed to ease the burden only slightly, much like a grain of sand blowing off into the wind. "No, I'm sure it wont be." I smirk in contempt, long gone is any sustainable hope or belief in fair justice being given to me. My reality resting it's weight all to firmly upon my shoulders. I am the damned after all, I am the one they now fear the most, I am the tempest they can not control, I am the force they can never fathom.

I am their darkness.

"Then you would do best to take it..." The edge to the stranger's words reminding me of the ire I could elicit from 'her' on the best of days. She reminded me of the cheeky retorts and loving banter of my late Love.

"Why? You know nothing of me." I counter, anger flaring up instantly within me at her arrogance and demand, this woman was not my wife, and yet she dared to say such words. I am nothing if not short tempered as of late.

"I know more than most." There was a strength behind her boast in its utterance, it hinted to her being more than what she appeared. That fact alone held true among many in this land, even a child naked with vulnerability was more than they generally appeared.

Her words raising the hairs of my neck. "And what do you know of me?"

"I know your past. I know your path..." The woman trailed off.

"Ha," I bark back. "My path is known to many," I breath. "It would be to the hangman's noose or the archer's target where it possible to kill me. "

The silence passing on for heartbeats till she spoke again."It wasn't always, now was it Savior?"

"No, it certainly was not." I mumble unfettered. The flash of eternally deep brown eyes ghosting across my mind. The warm flutter of sun kissed skin haunting my fingertips as the briefest hint of a summer like scent taunted my lungs. I missed her, like the arid desserts missed the living force of rain.

"You love her still." I could not tell if the woman's words were a question or a statement of fact, all I felt was anger at the doubt of their intent.

"I'll love her always!" My tone was harsh as I rose in defense, the chains around my limbs flexing to their limits but not giving even the barest hint of breaking as my tone filled the echoing chamber. Growling as the blood within my veins seemed to catch light and sing from the rage, "You know nothing but common gossip." I hear her slinking back within her cell at my ire. The edges of my anger not fully capable of expanding beyond the confines of my body, so I vent the rage by closing in, lowering my mass, shackles and all to the floor along the darkest wall. Ensuring that none of the dismal light cast by the flickering torches reaches my skin. It is here I've found, rocking within the midnight silence of this pit they have cast me in, that I find the most peace of late. It is here, among the shadows and darkness, that I find it easiest to remember her smile and with it the rampant rage within begins to calm once more. The bite of the enchanted metal draining the venom from my heart until I can hear her voice again.

Her calm tone floating to my ears within the silence. 'Ease your heart my love, it's beat betrays you.' The notes of sensuality wrapping around me.

"How am I to do that when your beauty ensnares me?" I counter in the close quarters, my back pressing deeply into the wall, I respond though not much louder than a whisper, too afraid am I to even open my eyes lest I break the fragile moment.

Her slender fingers pressing along my chest till the flat of her palm stills above my racing heart. 'Then let my lips distract you from the torment of my beauty.' Time seems to slow to a halt, I can hear her sly grin within her words as my fingers entwining with hers upon my chest as I breath her in deeply.

"From one torment to another my Love.." I whisper as she bring her delicate lips to press lightly upon my own for but a moment.

'From this too I am sure you'll survive.' Again the amber tones of her voice sooth my aching soul, taming the violence that lurks within.

"I'm not so sure..." The doubt was blatant and raw in my voice, for her alone am I so open and bare. "...I miss you," I utter as I feel a treacherous tear burn itself a trail across my dirtied flesh. It's purity quickly polluted by the grime I am covered in till its weight could bare to move no further.

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I know some of you probably prefer the original, however that is not the path this story took...sorry.

-Frigid