These characters don't belong to me. If they did, they might not be so frowny all the time.
A/N. This story is set after 3x11 and will be AU from that point on. Most of the story was mapped out before the mid-season premiere and will only incorporate a few aspects of the story from the show.
It will be a slow burn SQ fic. Probably very slow. :) Rated M for later chapters, and some bad language.
This story is also unbetaed, and I'm English, so there might be few spelling differences in there for some people. If anyone wants to volunteer for the betas job, I would be very grateful. Drop me a PM.
...
Chapter One
She waited patiently; a picture of poise and elegance in a grand room that had once been designed for a queen. The distant drum of booted feet in the corridor getting steadily louder as they hastened towards her, finally coming to bring the news she had been waiting for; news that would change everything. This moment had been a long time coming. Too long. Now, everything she had been working for, was finally falling in to place.
She learned long ago that vengeance was something to be savoured; a bitter fruit that only sweetened with time. So...there would be no swift, merciful blow to settle the score. No, she would take. Inch by sickening inch, until there was nothing left but the scorched earth and the broken remains of her enemies. Oh, she would take everything. They thought that this had been a war? The fools. They had no idea what was coming.
These thoughts had soothed her many times before, and now as the footsteps came ever closer she let the comfort they offered wash over her one last time. She let the anger build and contract into its purest form, felt it seep into her skin, deep into her bones, until it was the very air she breathed.
She was vengeance.
He was here now...it was beginning.
The elaborately uniformed soldier entered the room and bowed deeply at the waist, holding the position until she commanded him to rise with a flick of her wrist.
"Come." She leaned forward in her chair, fingers clutching tightly to the ornately scrolled arms in anticipation. "Well?"
"The pirate is gone, Mistress," he said proudly, satisfied to be one bringing her the news he knew she so feverishly desired.
She sighed happily, stretching languidly back into the cushions. "He took it."
It wasn't a question.
"Yes..." he hesitated, uncertain at first that he should continue, but his Mistress seemed hungry for details. "...he didn't even ask where it came from."
"Of course he didn't," she smiled indulgently. "People are easily blinded when you offer them what their heart desires."
"But, Mistress...what if he fails?" He tilted his head in deference, still mindful of his place.
She closed her eyes and laughed then, a slow sinewy rasp that cut through the guard without warning, filling him full of desire to hear it over and over again.
Desire to please her.
He felt the change before it happened, the familiar burning in his blood as the hair sprang from the skin on the backs of his hands and knew, without question, that his eyes would have turned a deep, and vibrant red.
He had lost control of himself and she would be displeased. He was hers to command. Hers alone.
He breathed in deeply; long, ragged gasps that pushed his chest against his armor until it hurt. Until the hair receded back under his flesh.
His Mistress would say that the pain is good. Pain brings clarity.
She is always right.
"Oh, you underestimate the lengths a desperate man will go to to get what he wants." The woman stood, unaware of his contemplations, smoothed her hands over her long black skirt and strode over to the lavish silver mirror that decorated the far wall.
The image was the same as it always was. Hope of something different died many moons ago now. Too many to count.
"Desperate? Desperate for what?" He shuffled further into the room, closer to her than he had ever been before.
"To finally be the hero, of course," she explained with exaggerated patience, teasing a lock of curled red hair perfectly into position. "Everyone believes they are the hero of their own story; even the villains. It makes them all so...deliciously predictable."
"Not you, Mistress," he offered quickly, all too eager to please.
"No, I'm something else entirely," she smiled coldly at her own reflection, gently trailing the backs of her fingers across the green hue of her cheek. "Something...wicked."
...
"Regina!" Snow White burst through the heavy wooden door to the library, eyes searching for the woman she knew would be in here. She always was lately.
The twelve months since their return to the enchanted forest had been anything but quiet. They had come back to a land that had been ruthlessly claimed in their absence; taken by a new and powerful force, whose motivations, even now, were still largely unknown to them.
They had been plunged straight into a war they were woefully unprepared for and had spent the first few months on the run, hiding from an army that seemed infinite in numbers, and with what seemed only one desire; to destroy them all. And yet, in the fiercest battle, when it seemed that all hope was gone and they should have been overrun, the enemy had inexplicably retreated. To this day, the only explanation Snow could think of...was that 'She' was toying with them. Like a cat with a mouse.
The people, without any real means to defend themselves, had fallen quickly before their return; though small bands of resistance slowly made their way to them, once the word of their return had spread, they were still too few, too weary, to offer any real hope of victory. They were, at best, delaying the inevitable.
For the last few months they had retreated, found a large abandoned house to base themselves in, and were concentrating on small raiding parties hidden strategically throughout the kingdom that could hit and run. Snow had been calling on all the guerrilla tactics she could think of that had worked well for them in another lifetime here.
Neal had quickly attached himself to Robin Hood's band of outlaws when they took to the forests, gathering intelligence and supplies.
Regina was as powerful as always. Offering them the protection of magic, shoring up the holes in their defences whenever they arose.
And Hook... ...well Hook, was the reason she was here.
"Do come in," Regina muttered tightly from her seat without looking up, her fingers grasping for the few sheets of paper that fluttered towards the edge of the table in the draft from the open door.
"Something you needed?" Regina asked impatiently when Snow merely stood at the entrance, quietly taking in the chaos of the normally pristine room.
Books had been pulled from their usual places on the shelves and lay strewn, haphazardly, across several of the tables. Maps of the enchanted forest, marked carefully with what seemed to be locations of the most recent attacks against them, were pinned along two of the walls. The intricate tapestries that used to hang in their place tossed carelessly aside in a heap on the floor.
Regina had been busy it seemed.
"What is all this?" Snow wandered over to the maps, tracing her fingers over the markings, automatically trying to discern any visible pattern to the raids.
"Research," Regina sighed irritably. "Is that all you came for, dear, to check if I'm doing my homework? Or was there some other reason you came barreling through the door so urgently?" Regina held up one finger when Snow opened her mouth to reply. "Wait, don't tell me...you lost sight of your beloved for more than a few seconds and you're launching a heroic quest?"
Snow gritted her teeth against a retort and let the comment slide. The news she came with was too important.
"It's Hook. He's missing..." she began, hoping to get a little of her story out before Regina shot her down.
It wasn't to be.
Regina scoffed, turning her attention back to the scroll in front of her. "Missing as in drunk, face down in a ditch somewhere? Or something else?"
"Missing as in vanished, Regina." Snow sighed wearily, unwilling to be drawn in to one of Regina's games. The woman knew exactly how to push Snow's buttons; she always had.
"While you may find it entertaining to play hide and seek with the pirate..." Regina looked up and gestured to the pile of books in front of her. "...as you can see, I'm rather busy."
"Regina! You need to listen." Snow barked sharply, quickly tiring of the softly, softly approach she had intended to take.
Snow crossed the room swiftly, planting herself in front of Regina and swiping the paper from the seated woman's hands, placing it just out of reach so that she had her full attention.
"Hook is missing," Snow stressed each word carefully, she was in no mood to be misunderstood. "He said that he had a lead on something that could finally give us the edge; that he just needed a day or two to flesh it out. That was a week ago. There's been no word from him since, and we have scouts covering every inch of those woods, Regina, there's absolutely no trace." Snow ran out of steam and threw up her hands in exasperation. "He's just...gone."
"What kind of lead?" Regina zeroed in on what she considered the most important piece of information. She may never have fully warmed to the man, but if he had found a way of bringing them victory, she would throw him a Goddamned parade. Pirate themed.
"He didn't say." Snow offered reluctantly, anticipating Regina's response.
Regina narrowed her eyes. "And you didn't think to ask?"
"Of course I asked!" Snow snapped. "Despite what you might think, I'm not an idiot, Regina."
When all Regina offered in reply was a perfectly arched eyebrow, Snow sighed and shook her head. "I asked...but he wouldn't say."
"It's entirely possible that the idiot went and got himself captured, I suppose," Regina conceded eventually with a frown. What the hell had Hook gotten himself into?
"Normally I might agree, but like I said, we have people watching. If he'd been taken, we would know," Snow countered reasonably.
"Well, what do we know, exactly?" Regina closed her eyes and rubbed wearily at her temple. It seemed that she was destined to have that headache she had felt throbbing in the background for most of the morning after all.
Snow blinked, finally taking in the exhaustion on the older woman's face, the dark smudges painted beneath her brown eyes. How long was it that Regina had been cooped up in this room for? They were all pushing themselves too hard, trying to get ahead of whatever attack was coming next, but Snow wondered how it had escaped her notice that Regina had simply stopped sleeping. She would suggest that her former stepmother got some rest, but she knew exactly what answer she could expect in return. Although it was Snow's first reaction to seeing someone in distress she knew that Regina wouldn't want her to be gracious, to offer her comfort. Regina needed to play her part in this war. Needed it perhaps more than any of them. Snow wouldn't be the one to deny her that.
"Hook was last seen in a tavern close to the northern border," Snow said directly.
Regina laughed openly for the first time in weeks. "Oh, well let's alert the media, shall we?" she mocked. "I can see the headlines now, 'Drunken man seen in tavern!' It's the story of the century." She fixed Snow with a steely glare. "Did you come here just to waste my time, Snow? Because in case you haven't noticed we are fighting a war!" She stood briskly, moving to the position Snow herself had occupied in front of the maps and motioning to the areas circled in red. "Or should I say, losing a war."
Snow closed her eyes, knowing full well that those marks represented their heaviest losses to date. She could picture too easily the faces of their friends, new and old, that had fallen in each skirmish.
"I don't have time to babysit a brooding, petulant drunk!" Regina pushed both hands onto her hips, her pose decidedly mayoral.
"Regina, please." Snow pleaded, leaning both hands on the dark wooden table in front of her. "I know...I know how it sounds. But something has happened to him. I can feel it."
"Lord, save me from more of the Charming family's gut feelings," Regina grumbled, dropping her hands. Her eyes flew up to meet Snow's when she heard a startled gasp come from the smaller woman and she realised what she had said.
"Regina..."
"I..I didn't mean..." Regina stumbled awkwardly over the words. "I wasn't...I wasn't trying to be cruel."
"I know, Regina." Snow smiled sadly, and she meant it. Regina had been given plenty of opportunities over the last year to rub salt in Snow's wounds...they both had. The fact was, they simply didn't talk about who they had left behind. What they had lost. It had been part of the tenuous truce that had existed between them all these months.
Regina found that she didn't like the wounded look that settled across Snow's delicate features, but what she hated even more, what really twisted her stomach, was that she knew without doubt, that the look had been reflected on her own face for the smaller woman to see as well.
This uncertainty was new. Regina had spent the last ten years absolutely sure about what she wanted from life.
Henry.
Nothing else mattered. And now the only anchor that she had found was in doing what she believed Henry would wish for her to do. Becoming the person he believed she could be. It wasn't much, she admitted, but it was something to cling to in her darker moments.
When they had returned to the enchanted forest they had been thrown headlong into a war that left no room for careless bouts of emotion. She could, she supposed, let herself fall under the weight of pain left behind in her sacrifice. But then, she never had been one to bow gracefully to anything.
Their opponent was ruthless, crazed, hell bent on...well they didn't actually know what exactly, but 'She' would stop at nothing to get it. And that, at least was a sentiment that Regina understood better than anyone.
"He was last seen talking to a man. A man who gave Hook something." Snow continued after a few painful moments of silence.
Regina cleared her throat, happy to be back on more neutral ground. "What man?"
"That's just it...no one knows. I spoke to the tavern owner and several of his regulars, no one even saw his face."
"Maybe he doesn't want to be found," Regina's eyes flashed dangerously as an idea formed in her head. "If he wasn't taken, perhaps he went willingly."
"Regina..."
Regina dismissed Snow with a wave of her hand as she began to pace back and forth. "We have to be realistic. He knows the whereabouts of our safe houses, our weapons. He's had access to our plans, you have considered that?"
"Hook may have his faults, but he's fought by our side these past six months, Regina." Snow said calmly, trying to reassure the increasingly agitated woman before her. "He won't betray us."
"Oh, Snow!" Regina laughed sardonically. "Your infinite faith in people never ceases to both amaze and irritate me."
"I have faith that there isn't always an ulterior motive to every good deed."
"Then you're still a fool." Regina snapped, her voice hard. "After all this time, have you learned nothing?"
"I have learned that no matter what, people can change. For the right reason, they can." Snow watched Regina, weighing her next words carefully. She knew that Regina hadn't meant to refer to Emma earlier. And she wanted to offer her the same consideration now, but these were desperate times. "Do you know who really taught me that, Regina?" she asked softly.
Regina's eyes widened as she caught on to the smaller woman's meaning. "Henry." She whispered, her voice catching on his name.
Snow smiled widely. "Henry," she breathed. "Just look at us, Regina. If I had told you a year ago that we would be working side by side like this, what would you have said?"
Regina arched one eyebrow carefully, her prickly armor fully back in place. "That depends, were there any sharp objects nearby?"
Snow laughed. "I should have expected that answer, I guess. And yet, here we are."
"Yes. So it would seem." Regina allowed with a tilt of head. "However, lets not get too carried away just yet, dear. Perhaps, maybe the best we can hope for is that I haven't killed you in your sleep...yet."
Snow's mouth curled up in a half grin. "I can hope for more that, Regina. I always have."
"Yes, well..." Regina's body stiffened at Snow's words. She'd had just about all the touchy feely nonsense she could stand for one day. "What do you plan to do? About the pirate?"
Snow sighed. "I have no idea."
"Give me the rest of the day," Regina walked back to the table and began to gather up her papers. "at first light we can travel to where he was last seen. If magic was used in his disappearance...I'll be able to tell."
"Thank you," Snow said sincerely, letting out a breath she hadn't realised she had been holding.
Regina merely nodded her head once and Snow knew that was all the acknowledgement she could expect. This was the most personal conversation they had had since their return, Regina was sure to be retreating back behind her carefully constructed walls by now.
Snow headed towards the door, intent on finding her husband, who with any luck should be returning from his reconnaissance mission soon. "Oh, and Regina?" she called over her shoulder as she pulled it open.
"Hmm?" The older woman didn't even look up.
"I sleep with a dagger."
Regina's throaty chuckle warmed her more than she cared to admit as she tugged the door closed with a gentle click.
...
"Snow." Charming smiled and greeted his wife in the corridor with a soft kiss to her forehead.
She smiled warmly at the gesture, feeling some of the weight the past few days lighten with his presence. She cupped his cheek gently to hers for a second before releasing him.
"What news from the border?" she asked, tucking her arm through his as she turned them in the direction of the kitchens.
Charming sighed and curled his hand over the one Snow threaded around his elbow.
"Nothing new, I'm afraid. There's still no sign of him," he replied, wishing he had better news.
"Something's wrong. I know it."
"Did you talk to Regina?" he asked. "What did she say?"
"It took a while, but I think I finally got her to believe that something serious must have happened. She said she would help." Snow walked in step with Charming, her mind wandering back to the pain she had seen in Regina's eyes when they had discussed Henry.
He looked down at her as they walked, taking in the two small frown lines that appeared above Snow's nose. "Did she insult you?"
"It's Regina. She's said far worse." Snow shrugged, a wry smile tugging at her lips. "Yesterday, in fact."
Charming's step faltered a little, as if he was contemplating heading back to the library to offer Regina a piece of his mind. Snow merely tightened her hand over his arm in reflex, pulling him further away. Verbal confrontations with Regina rarely ended in his favor, but she still loved that he was always so willing to stand up for her.
Snow smiled lovingly up at her husband. "Come on, you must be hungry."