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The rage that burned through Regina's consciousness was incomprehensible. Never had she desired anyone's suffering more. Not even Snow White's. Her magic coursed through her veins feeding of the intense emotions that were running rampant within her. She was vaguely aware of voices beyond the crackling air that surrounded her but she couldn't truly hear them. Her eyes were locked on the body of her lover. Her unmoving lover.
It wasn't until another stood beside Emma's body that Regina started to take in the scene around her. Henry struggled against his grandparents, both of whom had their arms wrapped around the boy. The trio all had tears streaming down their faces. The boy screaming and demanding that he be let go only to have his grandparents hold him tighter and attempt to get their comforting words to have some effect on him.
But it was the laughter that succeeded in breaking through the fog of fury and shock that had permeated Regina's being. Forcefully avoiding the urge to gaze at her lover again, Regina meet her mother's joy filled eyes. In that moment Regina stopped caring. She stopped caring about her promise to Henry. She stopped caring that she was supposed to be a better person. She stopped caring about the woman before her. Her love for her mother dying with her final transgression.
Channelling her rage she forced all other emotions aside. With new found focus Regina stood tall with all the poise and grace she had always possessed as Queen. The Evil Queen. Lifting her chin and tilting her head she assessed her mother. She was indeed as powerful as she had always been that much was certain but Regina could see the strain that Cora was under. Magic worked differently in this world, Regina smirked it would seem that her mother was only just beginning to realise this. A pity for Cora, but quite the advantage for Regina.
Stepping forward the air around her no longer fizzing with her magic. Regina allowed the Evil Queen to reign supreme, she didn't need any weaknesses getting in her way. Standing over the unresponsive body of Emma Swan the Evil Queen drew more strength from the pain that shot straight to her heart which fuelled the fire within her. With all the indifference and arrogance the Evil Queen was capable of she faced the woman that was responsible for the life that had created her and destroyed her happiness all over again.
"Mother." Regina pursed her lips, looking unimpressed and her tone of voice empty of any recognisable emotion.
"Regina, dear are you satisfied with my gift?" Cora smiled sweeping her hand over the body between them then motioning to Snow. "Snow White is suffering my child and now you can have what you have desired for so long. The end of Snow White."
"If I'm honest mother I am rather disappointed. It was lacking really. I had always imagined that it would be a drawn out affair. But it was over just like that." Regina snapped her fingers in front of Cora's face insolently, in a manner that Emma would've been proud of. "It lacked planning mother."
"My apologies." Cora must have been going for a contrite expression but all Regina saw was smugness.
Flicking her hair Regina scoffed at the woman. "Do not insult me with meaningless words. I am will not be spoken to like a child."
"You are my daughter." A statement of fact and claim punctuated by Cora's attempt to caress her child's cheek, an affectionate gesture when done by anyone else.
"Your daughter is dead. You killed her years ago in a stable. From that day on I grew, without you." Regina circled round Cora, out of grasp and purposefully keeping her eyes from landing on their audience. "You mean nothing to me Cora Mills."
"How dare you speak to me like…" Cora growled and glared daggers at the audacity of Regina's words and actions. Any lesser being would have crumbled before the infuriated woman, but Regina was no lesser being.
"I am the Queen. I do as I please, when and how I please. You are beneath me." Regina snarled leaning into her mother's personal space.
Not backing down from her daughter Cora mirrored her actions leaning in to meet Regina's challenge. "I am the Queen of Hearts."
Retreating out of arm's length the Evil Queen chuckled. "True but you are still beneath me."
Regina flung out her arm her magic leaving her with a force that sent Cora flying backwards not stopping until her back collided with a tree. Regina stood nonchalantly studying her nails.
"You will regret that dear." Cora managed to grind out, leaning on the tree behind her for support. Muttering an incantation under her breath Cora managed a grim smile of satisfaction.
"I sincerely doubt that." Brown eyes gazed at the older witch like a hawk feeling around her for any sense of threat around her. "Henry." Regina murmured under her breath, whipping round to face the small group that stood gawking at the scene before them only feet away joined now by more friends. Unwilling to move from Emma's side Regina flung up a barrier around the bystanders. Realising the real threat too late.
Hissing Regina fought her natural desire to cry out. The thorns that wrapped around her left leg and torso digging in painfully, their grip getting tighter with Cora's every step closer to her quarry. The warm blood that trickled out of the many small wounds tickling the skin it ran down. The Evil Queen ignored the irritating tickling sensation and glowered at the smirking woman before her.
"I did warn you Regina that you would regret your impudence." Cora clutched Regina's chin forcing her to look at her.
"I still don't mother." She spat out.
Regina's head flew to the side with the force of the slap. She was almost grateful that the thicket was holding her or she would have been sprawled on the ground. She saw red when she looked down. Emma. With renewed strength she faced her mother with a smirk to match. The thorns lost their grip when the fire claimed them. The flames licking up her body destroying that which held her captive leaving her free and unmarred.
Stalking towards her mother the smirk didn't fade nor did her strength. It was unnerving she knew, she had experienced the same thing from her mother and now the shoe was on the other foot. With each step forward her mother fell back. Confusion etched on her face. Her retreat was halted by the barrier Regina had placed around her son and company. Hands splayed out against the magic behind her attempting to weaken it to further her escape from her daughter.
"There is no escape mother. Your tyranny ends tonight." Regina regarded her mother pathetically trying to use the little remaining magic she possessed to leave the area in a flash. "You will pay for what you've done."
Vines wrapped around Cora's limbs holding her in place. Regina couldn't stop the sadistic grin that spread across her face at her mother's predicament. The Evil Queen forced the vines to tighten almost cackling in delight when Cora hissed in pain. For all the times Cora had placed Regina in similar situations there was a sense of poetic justice at having the chance to share the experience with her mother.
"Tell me mother was it worth it? Were all your actions, all your choices pertaining to my life worth dying for?" The Evil Queen sneered, pondering the best way to rid herself of the woman who had ruined her and her life time and time again.
Holding her head high, in the same way Regina herself did, Cora held her daughters gaze. "Yes. Without me Regina you would never have become Queen, never have come to learn the importance of power."
"I would have been happy." Regina spoke softly unhappy at being in such close proximity to their audience behind the barrier.
"With the stable boy, Dylan was it?" Cora tsked at her daughter.
"His name was Daniel. I loved him mother, I never wanted to be a Queen." Regina snapped.
"You were born to be a Queen and you were a little more than a child, you didn't know what you truly wanted."
"You had no right to do what you did. You killed him." Regina's voice rose, her voice echoing around them in the silence. Her accusation ringing out for everyone to hear clearly.
Cora smiled, shaking her head condescendingly. "I saved you from making a disastrous mistake. Just as I have done today."
"Don't you dare." Regina hissed.
"I suppose she was a minor improvement. A Princess, royalty. However she was not raised as such, she was not worthy of you dear." Cora's eyes looked past her daughter at the woman they were discussing, before looking to Regina again.
"That was not your choice to make. Emma…"Regina's breath hitched. "Emma was my true love."
"Now you are just being ridiculous dear. True love, is simply another way of declaring how weak you are. I thought you knew that by now."
Regina looked her son before saying truthfully. "I've never believed that."
"I know you haven't dear. You always had the strangest notions about love. What was it?" Cora tilted her side mockingly her daughter. "Ah yes. True love is the most powerful magic of all." Cora cackled. "Clearly that isn't true dear. If it were would your true love be lying over there in a pool of her own blood?"
The Evil Queen howled heartbreakingly in the suffering her mother's words caused her, as if Cora's words had physically wounded her. Plunging her hand into Cora's chest, Regina acted on instinct and yanked her hand back out with her mother's heart securely in her grasp. Giving it a squeeze she thoroughly enjoyed the agonised whimper Cora released. Her hand tightened on the beating organ before a hand on her wrist stopped her.
Regina's eyes wandered up from the hand that rested on her wrist, up the arm to the shoulder that connected it to the rest of her lover's body. Doe brown eyes misted over as the meet the familiar, though pained, green eyes of Emma Swan. Emma was paler than usual, covered with blood and shaking from the effort of staying on her feet but she had never looked so perfect to Regina before. She was alive.
"Don't." Emma managed to mutter, squeezing Regina's wrist a little tighter.
Her free hand cupped the blondes face. Imploring the Saviour to see the importance of ridding the living world of her mother once and for all. "Emma. She is too dangerous, she nearly killed you. She cannot be allowed to live."
"She's already dead Regina, her body just hasn't accepted it yet." Cora ground out.
"Silence!" Regina roared. "What would you have me do Dear?"
Her chest heaving Emma held on to Regina's hand pressing a kiss to her love's palm. "You have her heart."
"Well done dear, your observation skills are remarkable." Cora mocked.
"She can be imprisoned." Emma huffed out. "You have her heart so you control her right?" Regina nodded. "She gets to live unable to escape from her punishment because you will control her. You can't kill her Regina. You're better than that."
Brown eyes fluttered close and Regina released a sigh, mulling over Emma's idea. The Evil Queen hummed out. "Or I could just kill her."
"Then you are no better than she is. She will suffer more knowing that you are happy in with your life, making your own choices." Emma stepped closer to her conflicted lover, wincing when the movement aggravated her wounds. "Don't give into your hate again. I love you Regina Mills, past, present and future but I don't want to lose you to the Evil Queen that used to be."
Regina arched an eyebrow at her lovers words. "I have never stopped being the Evil Queen dear. I will always be the Evil Queen."
"Maybe but you've changed Regina. There will always be a dark side to you, and I love that part of you too. But I couldn't stay by your side if you allowed that side to rule your actions." Emma carefully held Regina close.
"Very well." Regina pulled back from Emma's embrace. "Mother you shall be imprisoned, for the remainder of your life. You will never escape your fate and you will never harm another person that I love. Nor shall you ever use magic again."
Regina finally dropped the barrier around Henry and the others. Only releasing the hold the vines had on her mother when David and Ruby had a solid grip on her.
"We'll take her to one of the jail cells at the station and make sure she's guarded twenty four seven." David said nodding reassuringly at Regina. The prince and the werewolf leading their prisoner towards the Sheriff's station.
"Ensure that the guards you select are trusted implicitly." Regina called after them.
David raised an arm yelling back. "Will do."
Henry and Snow supported Emma's weakening form. The boy in particularly struggling to hold his birth mother's dead weight upright. Regina gently shooed her son to the side, quickly taking his place holding Emma's right arm over her shoulders. Tilting forward Regina twisted her head to see the state her lover was in. Unconscious again.
"Henry I want you to take…" Regina centred herself. "Your grandmothers hand and mine." Nodding at Henry when he did as he was told. "Now both of you, do not let go of each other, Emma or myself. Understand?"
"Yes mum." Henry said seriously, a solemn look set on his face as he kept his eyes on Emma.
Having juggled the hand that was holding Emma's arm over her shoulder Snow nodded. "I understand Regina but why?"
"We need to get Emma to the hospital as soon as possible and the fastest way to do that is to flash there." Regina stroked her thumbs over Emma's and Henry's hands respectively.
"I thought you promised not to use magic." Snow muttered.
"Right no dear I don't give a damn." Regina snarled. "Would you rather Emma's suffering be prolonged by waiting for help?"
"Of course not." Snow cried out indignantly.
"Then be quiet. We're leaving." Regina tightened her grip ever so slightly on her lover and her son.
Concentrating on her destination and her travelling companions, the group disappeared in Regina's signature purple smoke. To get their loved one the help she needed.