Disclaimer: I do not own Once Upon a Time or any recognizable characters.

AN: WARNING! This is not a happy story! Also, my expertise of the brain falls under psychology, so I'm probably wrong about anything medical. In this universe, Regina and Emma have been together for some time, and instead of Regina being tortured, it's Emma, and the repercussions are awful.

TW for electroshock torture.

Prologue

"Is she going to be okay?" Regina asked frantically as soon as Dr. Whale stepped out of Emma's hospital room.

The doctor sighed, making Snow gasp sharply, holding a hand to her mouth as David held her back. Henry's eyes widened, while Regina stepped forward, forcing the doctor to stare at her.

"I don't know."

Greg cranked up the volume of the electroshock machine, not even settling to ease the blonde into her pain. Pulling the lever, he watched as Emma's body convulsed, her fists clenched and her back arched off the table before providing her a moment of relief. His eyes, what were once hopeful and bright as a child, were now darkened with lust for power and control. On the table he had the person the Mayor of Storybrooke held so dear. An eye for an eye was his motto, and over the weeks of his visit, he had noticed this interesting little couple around town, this magical town that Tamara was eagerly willing to help expose.

Regina took his father, so he was going to take her lover. The only difference was that he'd make her watch.

He pulled the lever again, cynically grinning at the blonde's attempts to ground out her screams only to let it release half a second later. The guttural cry reverberated off the concrete walls of the cannery, the cry falling on ears that only wished to cause her more pain. He paused the machine and hovered over her, malice and joy contorted on his face.

Emma, her body already slick with sweat, her knuckles white, and tiny crescent shaped indents pierced permanently into her palms from squeezing so tightly, glared up at him, not giving him the satisfaction of begging for release. Instead she mustered up all the strength she could and spat on him.

"She's going to kill you," Emma promised as Greg wiped the saliva off of his cheek. "You think she was bad before? Kill me and see what she does."

The man simply laughed and returned to his machine. "I'm not going to kill you, Sheriff Swan. Not me at least."

He pulled the lever down.

"What do you mean you don't know?" Regina all but yelled.

Whale stuttered, running his hand through his hair in an attempt to explain. "We did all the tests we could on her."

"What's wrong with my mom?" Henry asked worriedly coming to sidle up with Regina.

Regina didn't give the man the chance to speak when she saw Emma sit up through the glass window and pushed past him, Henry and the Charmings not far behind.

"Emma," Regina breathed out coming to the blonde's side before she could sit up completely. She gently swatted the younger woman's hands away when they tried to take off the bandages that wrapped her temple and head, a sizable burn engrained in her flesh.

The blonde coughed violently, her mouth dry and her limbs weak from underuse and strenuous electrical exposure. Regina immediately handed her the Dixie cup of water that was sitting on her bedside and helped tilt the cup back letting the blonde drink greedily. When Emma pulled back gently, Regina replaced the now empty cup, her hand unconsciously gripping Emma's.

"He didn't hurt you? Tamara?" Emma asked the brunette, her voice hoarse.

Regina shook her head and whispered. "They're dead."

Emma lay limp on the cold steel table. Her clothes were slick with her sweat, her muscles unable to clench or tense any longer. She didn't know how long she had been in Greg's presence. All she knew was that the man, with the help of Tamara, attached more wires to her head, methodically and strategically placed laterally across her skull. The wires were clearly something special what with their excited chatter, but Emma couldn't register what they were saying. All she knew was that she had to hold on. Hold on long enough for someone to find her.

The tears were flowing of their own accord, but she never sniffled. She never sobbed or cried out for mercy. She knew Greg and Tamara were bad news as soon as they came into town taking a particular interest in Regina, but Emma was prepared to suffer any sort of consequence if it meant the brunette woman would remain unharmed. She shut her eyes, bit her lip, focused on the faint drip-drip noise of an old pipe, and let the smell of the fish distract her from the inevitable.

No matter how much she prepared, the pain only seemed to get worse.

Emma shut her eyes in relief, leaning back against the pillows finding solace in the warmth of Regina's thumb stroking the back of her hand. She lifted her other hand, not needing to look but felt grateful when Henry took it, squeezing it tightly.

"Emma," Whale's voice sounded softly. The concern in it made Emma's eyes snap open. "How do you feel?"

The blonde shrugged. "Like a really, really bad hangover. My body feels like jelly."

The doctor nodded before turning his attention to a nurse coming in to hand him some scans. He held two of them up to the light, his brow furrowed before he brought it back down and motioned to the people in the room. "I'd like a moment with the patient, please."

"We're her parents," Snow began saying.

"And she is a capable adult," Whale reminded the petite woman. "This is confidential."

David stepped up to him, glaring fiercely at the doctor. "Ten minutes, Whale."

David led Snow out before extending an arm for Henry to follow. The boy kissed his mother's cheek giving well wishes before he ran after his grandparents.

"Regina-" the man began.

"I'm staying," the brunette insisted, moving to sit on the edge of Emma's bed, their fingers firmly clasped together.

"It's fine," Emma reassured Dr. Whale, noticing the man fidget and turn to the light board on the wall and place the scans on it.

"We took scans of your brain, Emma," the doctor began. He pointed to the one on the left. "This was your brain a couple months ago. Normal. Active." He pointed to the right one, noticeably smaller valleys of brain tissue folded in on each other. "This is your brain as of last night."

The blonde gulped, not blind at seeing the difference. "Is that bad?"

Dr. Whale scratched his head. "It's expected. Quite frankly after what you've been through it should be worse."

"So it's a good sign then?" Regina asked, her tone indicating his answer better be in the affirmative.

He stared between the two women before removing the CT scans and replacing them with fMRIs. He pointed to a noticeably darkened area of the right scan, still showing quite a bit activity, but not like the full burst of colour in the scan beside it. "This is the sensory motor strip. Something is preventing information to be sent or received from there."

Emma's eyes zoned in on the darkened image, comparing it to the other quite colourful one. "What does that mean?"

"It means," the doctor sighed, "not only did you receive a larger than tolerably possible dose of electromagnetic shocks directed specifically to your brain, but it seems like magic is slowly blocking off your sensory stimulation center, and by the looks of it, it's expanding."

Regina gasped, squeezing Emma's hand tightly. The blonde looked up at Regina, confusion written all over her tired and weary face. Regina simply held Whale's gaze, fire burning in her eyes ready to shoot the messenger. "You mean-"

He looked directly at Emma. "Your brain will shut down, starting with your senses. And at that point-"

Emma didn't hear the doctor's words. She simply gazed at the images of the fMRI scans in disbelief. She barely registered the fact that Regina had released her hand and stomped over to Whale, yelling at him and demanding he do more tests. Despite her girlfriend's screams, Whale's words reverberated in her slowly decaying brain.

Your brain will shut down, starting with your senses.