so this is my first attempt at a Once Upon a Time fanfic. A plot bunny bit me, and wouldn't leave me alone, so I just had to write it.
a shout out to onceuponanevilregal, my beta for this story, thanks!
so, please read, and hopefully you will enjoy. please leave a review, criticism is welcome, but please be gentle as this is my first OUAT fic and I feel a little bit unsure about this :)
There Will Be No Dawn
Chapter 1 ~ No Light
Fire pierced the darkness. It burned her, coursing like poison through her veins; setting every nerve she had on fire. Pain shocked her into consciences as thousands of tiny white-hot needles dug into her skin, sending agony through her abused body. A high-pitched scream echoed through her head, deafening her as it rebounded through her skull.
Just as quickly as it had begun, the pain ceased. It was only then that she realised that the scream was coming from her own mouth. Keeping her eyes squeezed shut to prevent any tears escaping; Regina focused on her raged breathing, trying desperately to fill her lungs with much needed air and control the pounding of her heart. She remained where she was lying, sprawled on the cold dirty floor with her legs tangled and her arms stretched above her. She knew better than to try and get up.
There was a rustle of heavy material as someone knelt down beside her and the former mayor had to stop herself from flinching when she felt a puff of air on her face. A voice, a voice which had once only haunted her nightmares, hissed in her ear, 'I expect you to look at me when I am talking to you Regina'. A hand grabbed her face roughly, 'have you forgotten all the lessons I taught you? Look at me!'
Regina opened her eyes. The woman leaning over her had not aged in the last twenty eight years. Whether this was a result of the curse or her own magic Regina wasn't sure. She even looked the same as she had when she murdered the boy Regina loved. Eyes as dead and dark as ink bored into Regina's skull as she gazed up at her mother, willing herself not to cry. She might scream and wail but she was determined not to cry. She would not give her mother the satisfaction of seeing her cry.
Cora leaned forward and Regina flinched as something swung past her face. Hanging on a gold chain around Cora's neck was a circular golden cage that contained a glowing heart, still beating. Regina didn't know whose heart it was and while it wasn't her own, she highly doubted that it belonged to the other woman. But it was the other pendent hanging from her neck that really repulsed Regina. It was a dagger, a dagger that had once belonged to Rumpelstiltskin. At least, it had belonged to him until Cora had killed him. Its blade was still crusted with the imp's blood.
Cora's red lips curled into a sneer as she saw where her daughter was looking. She leaned further forward so that the heart swung dangerously close to Regina's face and whispered, 'you may have had a reputation of collecting hearts Regina dear, but you never quite had the stomach for the job, did you?'
Regina stared at the heart as if hypnotised, and it was because of this that she missed the warning signs. Cora's hand suddenly tightened claw-like around Regina's throat and she hissed, 'I asked you a question Regina'.
The younger woman spluttered and choked out, 'yes mother, I never had the stomach for it, you were always far more brutal than I was with my subjects'.
Cora stood suddenly, dragging Regina up with her, and threw her daughter bodily against the stone wall behind her. Regina struck the wall hard and remained suspended there as her mother squeezed her in an invisible vice-like grip. Cora sighed dramatically. 'Must I be the one to tell you what you just said wrong?'
The hard rough stone pressed into the abused skin of her back, causing Regina to whimper quietly as she fought to keep the pain off her face. The invisible force was crushing hard against her chest, constricting her rib cage and forcing the air from her lungs. It was becoming increasingly difficult to breathe. 'No mother,' she gasped. 'I… one must not make…sarcastic comments'.
A smile abruptly flashed across Cora's face. 'Good girl' she turned away from Regina and dropped her hand. Regina crashed to the floor, sustaining further damage to her already bruised body, knocking what little breath she had left out of her completely.
She lay sprawled on her front, listening to her mother crossing the floor towards her as she heaved great ragged gulps of air. She pushed herself up onto her hands and knees just as Cora reached her and placed a hand under her chin, forcing her head up.
Cora studied her face for a moment, eyes flicking over the bruises that were scattered across her beautiful face and the bags under her eyes. Blood trickled down from where her scalp had rubbed against floor but neither woman seemed to notice it.
The silence stretched on, punctuated by the sound of someone crying and trying desperately not to be heard. Finally, Cora said, 'you haven't cried. You used to cry'.
Regina swallowed. 'Physical pain is nothing anymore. Nothing you do to me can possibly compare to the pain I went through when you killed Daniel'.
A slow cruel smile twisted Cora's mouth, 'we shall see'. The older woman turned away and marched out the cell door, slamming it shut. She turned the key in the lock and then smiled through the bars at Regina. 'I hope that one day you will understand that everything I have ever done for you has been for your own good, Regina. Love is weakness and if you would stop attaching yourself to people who leave you vulnerable, you might remember that'.
The woman turned and left, climbing the stairs to the world above, to a town that would soon feel the pain she loved to inflict. She was followed a moment later by a tall guard clad in black armour who had remained silent during the proceedings.
Once the sound of her footsteps had receded into the distance, Regina allowed her weakness to show, dropping her head against her chest as her arms trembled with the effort of keeping her body from meeting the ground again.
It had been three weeks since Rumplestiltskin had restored magic to Storybroke, three weeks since her mother had turned up in the town. They hadn't even noticed at first. The occupants of the town had been too busy arguing amongst themselves to notice a dark figure, no more than a shadow, slipping out of the forest towards Mr Gold's shop. Most of them had been clamouring for Regina's blood, and it was only the actions of Emma that had stopped them from trying to murder her where she stood. The fact that she was no longer helpless with the return of her own magic also helped to delay matters. But then someone had tried to kill Henry and it was only because of Regina that he had survived. The town, led by a thoroughly pissed off sheriff, had marched straight to Mr Gold's shop, only to find the body of the imp hanging upside down from the ceiling by his ankle.
Disaster after disaster had soon followed; the mayor's house had been set on fire, houses blew up, streets became impossible to enter because of the ground would suddenly rear up to swallow them and the hands of the clock tower burned with a malicious purple fire.
The former inhabitants of the Enchanted Forest had put aside their hatred for the former Evil Queen in the face of a much larger, and unknown, threat. Exactly two weeks ago they had discovered how real that threat was. First Snow White, then James and Emma, disappeared without a trace. Regina simply woke up one morning to find herself in the same cell she was in now, accompanied by the same people she had once hated. It was then that she discovered that her mother was very much alive. Regina hadn't even tried to escape; Cora held the threat of Henry's death dangling over her head. She didn't even know if he was alive.
Tears which she had been containing started to fall at the thought of her son. They had reconciled when she had agreed to help Emma defend the rest of the town and she had taken every precaution to ensure his safety. But it hadn't been enough. She had let him out of her sight for just a moment and he was gone, ripping a hole in her heart at the thought of what might happen to him. It seemed that her mother was determined to rip everything she had ever loved out of her life.
The silent tears left clean tracks on her dirt smudged face and she didn't have the energy to wipe them away. She wept for Henry, who was possibly dead because of her and she wept for Daniel, the boy who had died because she was stupid enough to let her mother near him, the boy who had died because of her love. Perhaps her mother was right; love was weakness. But it was a weakness she could not help. Everyone she had ever loved had faced death because of her.
A hand touched her shoulder gently, dragging her away from the dangerous path her thoughts were taking. Regina knew perfectly well who it was, but she no longer had the desire or the will to shake them off. After a moment the grip on her shoulder tightened and someone gently pulled her upright, leaning her back against the wall. She kept her gaze to the floor; she didn't want to see the pity that she knew she would see.
It was only when she felt someone wipe a cloth over her face that she jerked her head away. She neither deserved nor wanted the younger woman's kindness and pity.
Emma sat back on her haunches and glanced helplessly at her parents, shackled to the other side of the room. James shook his head, feeling just as useless as his daughter, and rubbed a hand over his wife's back, trying, and failing, to sooth Snow's sobs. Despite all the hate and pain between Snow and her step-mother, Snow couldn't bear to watch the older woman suffer like this. It was only during the past couple of weeks that Snow had begun to understand why Regina was the way she was, why she changed so much when she had lost the only person she loved.
Emma ran a hand through her dishevelled blonde hair and tried, for what seemed like the thousandth time, to think of something to do. She felt so useless these days, unable to do anything but watch as the woman who had once been her bitter rival suffered at the hands of her own mother. For the most, Cora left the other three alone. But she had paid attention to Emma once or twice and Emma would probably bear the scars for the rest of her life. That is, if they ever got out of here.
Emma gazed helplessly at the woman huddled against the wall, feeling her heart wrench as the broken woman rocked back and forth with her knees pulled up to her chest. Gone was the imposing mayor who had been such a pain in the arse to her. Gone was the proud upright woman who all most never shown emotion in public. Instead the woman before her resembled a wreck (though none of the others looked much better). Cuts and bruises littered her arms and her clothes were ripped, torn and dirty. Emma knew that under her clothes the woman was hiding further injures that she herself had witnessed Cora inflict. But there was nothing she could do to help.
With a final shuddering breath Regina seemed to regain control of the raging turmoil inside her and her tears abruptly stopped. She looked up at Emma and offered the younger woman a very small smile, though neither woman was sure what it meant. Emma leaned forward and used the edge of her sleeve to wipe away the blood trickling down Regina's face, watching closely as Regina stiffened ever so slightly at the contact. Then she sat back against the wall close to her, but not close enough that Regina would feel uncomfortable.
Emma had long since stopped trying to understand the relationship she had with her son's legal mother. When most people in the town had started clamouring for Regina to pay for her crimes, Emma had been completely against it and for more than one reason. The strongest reason had been because she knew what it would do to Henry. Despite the boy's fervent objections that his adopted mother was the Evil Queen, that didn't love her and that she didn't love him, Emma knew that this wasn't true. She knew that Regina loved Henry. She had known since that day at the mine, and the incident in the hospital had been enough to fix that firmly in her mind. And, despite his protests, Emma knew that Henry loved Regina back. It was evident in the way he still called her 'mom'. The other reason was that Emma knew first hand that life wasn't a fairy tale, and therefore not everything was as black and white as Henry's book made them out to be. There was another side to this story that she didn't know. So she had objected, and because she was the 'savoir' they had listened to her.
Then someone had tried to attack Henry. Emma's hands clenched in anger, eyes closing as the scene rose behind her had been walking to the hospital from the diner, his head buried in his book, when it happened. Emma, mere metres away from him, had been arguing with a group of people, including Regina, Snow and James, when she had spotted him walking towards them. Even now, Emma wasn't sure what it was that had alerted her that something was wrong. A feeling in the air, a build-up of tension, something had sent her sprinting across the road towards him. Her cry of warning had been echoed by Regina. A moment later, a car beside Henry had blown up. Emma had skidded to a stop, horror filling her as a column of smoke rose into the air, a scream of despair flying from her lips. And then she had heard a sound to her left. Spinning, she saw with shock and relief that Henry stood in the middle of the road, safely wrapped in Regina's arms.
It was then that she had started to trust Regina. As long as Henry's life was threatened, Regina would put his safety before any conflict she had with Emma, or Emma's mother. It was during the next few days, amidst the fear of an unknown threat that had been strong enough to kill Rumplestiltskin, that Emma had begun to consider Regina as an ally. Now, having been trapped in a cell with the woman for nearly two weeks, Emma didn't know what to call her. A friend? Emma was pretty sure Regina would not accept that title, no matter what Emma herself felt.
On the other side of the room, Snow had also stopped crying. She pulled away from her husband and rubbed her eyes, feeling suddenly ashamed of her tears, then sat very straight, setting her chin determinedly. 'We have to get out of here'.
Emma and James looked at her, seemingly interested, while Regina just continued to gaze at the floor. As if to support his wife, James stood and stretched. 'Snow is right. We can't give up hope that we'll be rescued. I trust Thomas and they do have the Blue Fairy'.
This very short speech was undermined when Regina snorted sceptically. James turned to her and raised his eyebrows. 'What?' There was no menace in his voice however. He had learned to work with the former Evil Queen over the past weeks, and seeing the way she somehow managed to withstand her mother's onslaughts had made him feel, if not friendship towards her, then at least respect. He had come to understand that it was very true when people said that there were two sides to every story, and that Regina was not the Evil Queen that he had once thought her to be. She was not evil. And while her story was a lot darker than Snow's, it was really just a darker shade of grey than an empty black abyss. He sighed heavily to himself; he still didn't even know what Regina's story was, or why she hated Snow so much, as neither woman had told him yet.
Regina continued to gaze at the floor, her voice barely above a whisper as she spoke. 'Do you have any idea how powerful my mother really is? She was always skilled in the dark arts but now she has had over thirty years to enhance that power. Power is an obsession for her. And now she has Rumplestiltskin's power, the power of a Dark One. There is no telling what she can do now. The Blue Fairy,' Regina muttered darkly. 'Compared to my mother the Blue Fairy's magic matches the skill of babe'. She paused. 'As for the others, my mother has never taken very well to insubordination'. Her fingers traced absentmindedly over the scar on her lip as she spoke, and no one in the room had any doubts as to how it got there.
There was a long silence. Then Snow said, 'I'm so sorry Regina'. She spoke quietly, yet her voice was thick with hidden emotion and her shoulders were slumped as if a great burden weighed her down.
Very slowly, Regina raised her head. Snow stared into her soft brown eyes, and for the first time, she saw past the mask that Regina usually wore. She saw the torment and the anger, the pain and the grief and felt unimaginable sorrow for the part she had played in causing all that. Once, she had hated her step-mother. Now, there was no hate left to feel.
Regina stared at her and for a second she saw the young innocent girl that she had saved all those years ago. What had it all been for? She asked herself. The pain, the anger, the need and desire for revenge on a little girl who hadn't understood what the consequences of her actions would be. It wasn't Snow's fault, not entirely, and it wasn't really even Cora's. It was hers. It was all her fault that Daniel had died that day. It was all her fault that her mother had ripped his heart out. Snow had been the stones that started an avalanche. Cora had been the executer. But Regina had been the cause. She caused Daniel's death by daring to love him. Regina searched desperately inside herself for some scrap of hate that she could direct at Snow, to save herself from the river of guilt that threatened to swallow her. But there wasn't any. She felt her hate wink out like a candle flame, only to be replaced by guilt and regret. All those years wasted, all those lives lost, all for a cause that had been useless in the first place. If there was anyone who she should have taken it out on, it should have been her mother. She thought of all the blood on her hands, all the pain she had caused and turned her head away, feeling the tears well up again, ashamed of what she had done. Then, with a great effort of will, she turned her head back to the young woman, whose face was wet with fresh tears, and nodded.
In that moment, in the darkness of the cell, Regina finally allowed herself let go of her hate.