Ghosts of a Chance
Chapter One
After the events of the day, once Emma had dashed her self assurance that the Savior would fail to save Ashley Boyd's life, or to keep the maid turned Princess from killing her Stepmother to make up for the sins of her miserable past, the Evil Queen entered the hospital once most of the staff already had gone home for the evening and the security was down to Sneezy and Bashful keeping watch, then walked into the mental ward towards Mr. Hyde's prison cell and opened its door despite the magic put in place to try to keep her out.
Classic music played over the gramophone while Hyde was sitting on his bunk reading a book until she walked inside, then began to complain about the heroes as she paced back and forth in frustration and finally she said crossly, "It's not fair. Even now the Savior wins."
The villain wearing the special dampening cuffs around his wrists to keep him from escaping his cell, using his immeasurable strength to do so, kept his back to her once he lowered his book and stood up to turn off the record he was listening to, then he responded, "Yes, but for how long?"
"Don't tell me to be patient," Regina's villainess half answered angrily as she continued to pace, until she finally stopped doing so to face the man she had come to see. "Right now, your pathetic half is working on a way to destroy me."
"My sympathies," Hyde callously replied to her when he turned his head towards the Queen, though still without looking directly at her.
She began to pace again while she curtly responded, "I'm not asking for your sympathy."
He finally faced her and then answered again, "No… you're asking for my help."
"And that's a tall order to fill… from inside this cell, milady," he sternly added as he rattled his chains to point out to her that he wasn't currently in the position to help her or anyone and walked up to stand before her.
"Well, in that case…" the Evil Queen replied as she looked down at the cuffs, then used her dark magic to make them vanish before opening the door as well so they could both leave his cell again together arm in arm. "Let's take a walk."
They continued walking through the ward's corridors until they came to the stairwell which lead up into the hospital, then she waved her free hand over them to teleport them back to Zelena's farmhouse where they could continue to talk preferably without worrying about the heroes' interference.
When they arrived, the Wicked Witch was putting her daughter to sleep and upon hearing them reappear behind her, she stood up from leaning over Robin's crib as she put her finger to her mouth to shush them, then glared at her sister's doppelganger stating quietly, but curtly, "If you wake my baby, consider this a warning that you will no longer have a place to hideout, or to plot, or anything else you might be up to now, Sis."
After she motioned for them to join her in the kitchen where she was baking an apple pie with her green apples so they could talk more openly without waking her daughter, Zelena snidely continued, "And I never said you could bring friends over to play. Just what the hell is this, Regina? Why have you brought Hyde here?"
"Relax… we've only come here to talk," the Evil Queen responded smugly as she and the other villain sat down at the kitchen table while the older sister pulled the pie out of the oven before it burned, then carefully set it down on the table between them. "Mr. Hyde here has his own place to hide, or places to roam around in. But then… it's not like he really has to worry about being caught again."
"Not now that I know what kind of weapon these heroes have to try," Hyde added smugly. "And they won't be able to catch me again."
The original doppelganger grinned, then looked across the table at the dark haired woman who set him free and asked, "So tell me, Your Majesty… what exactly is my price I must pay for you releasing me from my prison? If you wish for me to help you with your little problem that is Dr. Jekyll, I already have a plan in mind. Not only will it finally rid me of my weaker self, but Rumplestiltskin as well. And I will most certainly destroy the Dark One. I've waited too long to make him pay for all he's done to me. It's time to get what I want."
Regina's evil side leaned forward and smiled as she said, "Not just yet. I promise you, I will help you with your own revenge in due time. But first… we need to go after the Savior once more while she's still a bit shaken from barely being able to save that maid earlier. To weaken her and finish destroying her confidence. And the best way to do that is by hurting the man she loves. They're about the move in together. It's sickening. I need your help if I'm going to pull off what I have planned."
"Are you asking me to kill the Savior's pirate for you?" he questioned curiously. "I almost did once. When he was imprisoned in my world, in my cell along with the Charmings and your older sister. I had my hand around his throat and I squeezed. He was bold enough to question how I knew Rumplestiltskin and tried to lie to me. I regret not killing him then, but he was worthless to me. And your enemies told me what I wanted to know about the Dark One's location and what it was he was up to as of late."
"It's a good thing you didn't kill him when you had the chance," she answered haughtily and then began to cut herself a slice of pie to eat without bothering to ask Zelena if she could.
Zelena threw her hands up in the air in frustration while she curtly uttered, "If you wanted a piece, you could have just asked. I was making that pie for us to share over a friendly chat whenever you came back, but not for him."
She glared down at Hyde and finally just collapsed into another chair farthest away from either of the other villains with her, then the Evil Queen replied, "Well… I'm back now and we're chatting. I'm sorry, for bringing an unexpected guest home, but… here we are. Have a slice."
"Where was I?" she then asked when she turned back to Hyde again in trying to get back to their conversation they were having before Zelena had cut in. "Oh yes… you killing the Savior's love. I told you it's a good thing you didn't kill him back then. Not because I care of course. But because we need him for our plan. And we're not going to kill him now either. We just need a little something from him that I'm suspecting will cause him a lot of pain and suffering. And exactly what it is we want for Emma as well. What I have in mind… won't be simple, but tomorrow happens to be a special day most of this… Land Without Magic call Halloween. Only I prefer All Hallows' Eve. It's a night where real magic grows even stronger and believe me… this will help to make what I have in mind possible. This holiday isn't just a day where kids dress up in costumes and go trick or treating for candy. It's much, much more and from midnight tonight, to midnight tomorrow night, you and I will have the upper hand. And the Savior will be too distracted trying to save her boyfriend to figure out what we're up to next."
"All right," the monster who had been created by his weaker self at last spoke to her in agreement, then cut himself a slice of the pie before him as well when the Evil Queen offered it to him. "I suppose I am intrigued by this plan of yours. And I do owe you for breaking me out of my prison. But once it's finished… succeed or fail, you and are going after the Dark One. It's time I make him pay for what he stole from me."