Title: Trying to convince the Dark One to avoid Temptation.
By James Carmody.
Summary: both Regina and Emma are intimately familiar with one of the typical Dark One temptations: lust, but it isn't for eachother, it's for guys in their lives. This is about avoiding or resisting general temptation, however, and they're friends.
Pairing: Regina/Emma
Setting: Season 5 after Emma becomes the Dark One, right about when Regina is trying to convince Emma to let go of the dark magic within her.
Chapter 1.): "I love you, my friend."
Regina was getting increasingly flustered with Emma's trying to dodge the question; ever since Emma had entered Storybrooke, thanks to their son- Regina's adopted son, that is- Emma and she had NOT gotten along, but now she knew what Emma Swan was going through: a massive orientation towards darkness and all things evil.
Regina was no alien to evil, she knew it rather intimately, thank you very much, and not in the physical sense; she had had many years of being a villainess, now their roles were reversed and she, Regina, the notorious Evil Queen had to redeem her ex-nemesis and now friend. The irony wasn't lost on Regina, not by a long-shot!
As Regina picked up the dagger to command Emma to tell her truthfully what had happened and why she was so reluctant to forego all this dark power for a real chance at the true love she had had with their son, again, in her anger she found herself falling into another type of temptation: enslaving Emma WASN'T in her game-plan! Regina pushed that thought to the back of her mind right now, she loved Emma because of all the good that Dame had done to and for her in their past, but now she had to repay the favor. Regina looked Emma directly in the eyes, and stated to her calmly "Because I love you, I command you to talk to me about what's troubling you."
Regina wasn't aware of how she was hurting her, so she found herself giving in. Incidentially she justified her actions to her Creator, whereever He may be, as an effort to save His daughter, and just as a precaution she mentally begged that her love of Emma and her inherrant respect for her be taken into account.
"You're not answering me." Regina said, kind of hurt that Emma was barring her friend from her heart, and told her again to answer truthfully about what scared her.
What she learned was a clue that they weren't that far apart to begin with- in terms of character. Like Regina, Emma was scared of hurting her loved ones, and now that these women were friends, Regina was counted in that circle.
"Fear can keep us as slaves, Emma, yes, I know what being a slave is... I have been one to the Darkness for most of my life, as was my mother. Killian, your boyfriend, loves you- and before you hurt him, I encourage you to let go of this dark magic addiction before it consumes you and makes YOU hurt him!" Regina begged Emma to return to her friends and family and leave her state of being a slave to the Darkness behind.
Finally, in disgust, Regina turned her back on Emma and stormed off, muttering "If you want to remain a slave, that's fine. I tried to save you, though, and I won't just give up on you!"
This was what finally got through to Emma that she had to resist, to save herself from her addiction to darkness. As she heard Regina storm off, she thought she heard tears, and through them she heard these words "Addiction is slavery, moreso than anything else, and far more subtle than any other means too..." said quietly and sadly.
As Regina well knew; the temptations of the Dark One were mainly on the side of the self-centered and the sadistic, and even with her feelings badly hurt by Emma's seeming rejection of her help, she was satisfied and happy that she hadn't abused Emma, but tried to save her, in this case from herself; when she had used the Dagger to control her.
"Regina, wait, I'm sorry." Emma began...
Possibility of continuation elsewhere, such as and AO3.
Author's Notes End Chapter 1.) Regina and Emma's love for eachother is platonic here, there's no romance here, but I sincerely hope this is acceptable to the challenger who issued this prompt.