So this came to me at half 1 in the morning when I should've been sleeping (whoops) But I just couldn't sleep until I wrote it, so here you go. Universe Alteration where Regina is cut by Excalibur, not Killian, you can probably guess what happens next...
Thank you to my awesome beta Jess! Keeping me sane!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything (otherwise that episode would've gone very differently)
Regina fought desperately against the iron tethering her to the tree, watching Merlin slowly choking the life out of Mary Margaret, Emma collapsed on the floor pleading with Merlin to fight against the darkness, seeing how blue Mary Margaret was becoming she was finally able to wriggle her wrist out of the cuff (they really should make cuffs small enough to hold a woman's wrist) lunging forward she swung her fist out and hit Arthur square in the jaw, making him drop the sword and allowing Merlin to stop fighting.
"Mom!" Regina turned and saw Emma run over to her mother, unlocking the chains with a flick of her wrist. "Are you okay?" Mary Margaret nodded and embraced her daughter, David running over and joining his girls.
"Regina, you're hurt" Robin noticed as he joined her, futilely trying to run after Arthur as he freed Zelena from her tree and the pair vanished in smoke.
Regina reached up and touched her neck, feeling something warm and sticky on her fingers. Pulling her hand away she saw blood. Arthur must have nicked her with Excalibur as he swung round. "It's just a graze" she waved her hand and her neck was good as new. "See all better." She added placing a kiss to Robin's lips.
"Thank you" Emma said, appearing at her side, arm laced between Hooks. "You saved my mom."
"What are friends for?" Regina smiled, wincing slightly as Emma pulled her into a hug, but softening and wrapping her arms around the blonde in return. "Now, I do believe we have the sword, the dagger and the flame, so why don't we get the darkness out of you? I hate to see what those Dwarves are doing to my town while we're away."
Emma nodded, bending down to pick up the sword she handed it to Merlin, who smiled weakly, stumbling slightly. "I'm afraid that battle rather took its toll, I need to rest". Nodding again, slightly worried this time, she flicked her wrist and transported all 7 of them back to Granny's.
Belle was on hand with several of Merlin's books, flicking through them hurriedly to see if there was anything to help him regain his strength. There wasn't so he simply sat down and took some water that was offered to him. Regina, David, Mary Margaret, Hook and Robin went off to search the forest for signs of Arthur and Zelena leaving Emma to retreat to the nearby well to try and light the flame.
"Need a light?" Emma turned at the sound of her voice.
"Regina." Emma almost breathed her name, sighing as Regina approached the edge of the well.
"I thought you could use a friend." Regina offered, smiling softly at the blonde.
"He's playing with me. He said I can't light it because I'm not ready to let go of the darkness." Emma looked back at the spark, closing her eyes, willing it to light.
"Are you?"
"Regina" Emma could sense the tone in her voice, the tone of disbelief.
"Hey. No one knows the lure of darkness better than I do." Closing her eyes to compose herself, Regina continued "You can lie to your parents. You can lie to yourself, but you can't lie to me."
"I don't know." Emma huffed, sounding like a moody teenager.
"Feels good, doesn't it? Indulging every impulse, wielding great power, doing whatever you want." If Regina was completely honest with herself, she missed the power, missed the darkness letting her do whatever she wanted.
"Yes. Yes it does, is that wrong?" Emma admitted, her voice quiet, ashamed of how the darkness made her feel.
Regina sighed "Of course it is. But it is also human." Regina took a deep breath "Look Emma I know you. It took a long time but I really know you and you're not as weak as I once was, so if you're clinging to the darkness, you have good reason and it's beyond temptation so what is it?" Regina's voice started to falter, why was Emma clinging?
"I don't know" Emma was confused, why didn't she know? So much was happening inside her head she couldn't piece things together.
"There's a difference between not knowing something and not wanting to admit it. These walls you put up Emma, it's time they come down." Regina picked up the dagger, holding it aloft with a smile playing about her lips.
"What are you doing?" There was a tremble in Emma's voice, afraid of what Regina would make her do.
"Helping you break down the walls. As your friend I command you, dark one, tell me, why are you so afraid to give up the darkness?"
"Once I let it go I won't be able to protect my family." Emma breathed a sigh of relief, there, she admitted it.
"That's another wall, Emma. Now… the truth." Regina's eyes narrowed, that's not the reason, it can't be, she knows the pull of the darkness, and she knows there's more.
"It is. Regina, please." Emma's eyes mirrored the pleading of her voice.
Emma's parents and Killian were approaching slowly behind Regina, not sure of the scene that was unfolding between them.
"No, it's not." Regina's voice cracked slightly but she pulled herself back from the brink of tears and continued "You just have to be brave enough. To knock down all those walls you're hiding behind. The dagger can make you look, but you, you have to choose to see. Now come on. Come on Emma, see. Tell me what you're really afraid of."
Emma opened her mouth to respond but was saved from admitting the truth when Killian tore the dagger from Regina's grasp and placed it back on the well.
"Regina, what are you doing?" David asked his tone severe
"I'm getting answers" Regina replied, as if she'd only asked Emma what the weather was like.
Emma picked up the dagger and the spark, turned on her heel and headed for the woods.
Hours had passed before Emma returned. Back at the diner everyone was gathered around the dagger, the sword, and the now burning flame, waiting for Emma to reunite the blades.
"Ready love?" Killian stood opposite Emma, watching her nerves spread through her as she nodded and smiled uneasily.
Emma levitated the flame above the table, concentrating hard. Everyone around her was mesmerised by the magic she possessed and staring at the hovering flame. Regina, however, looked only briefly at the flame. She had done this countless times herself, flames weren't hard to maintain, she didn't need to see this. Instead she focused on Emma's face, her eyes narrowed in concentration, tongue threatening to peek out of her lips as she smashed her hands together. The flame grew, its light dancing around the diner. Regina smiled proudly as Emma brought the sword up to the flame, all her magic lessons had paid off. Emma would finally be free of the darkness.
Suddenly Regina felt woozy. Reaching up to touch her neck she gasped when her fingers came away covered in blood. "Regina?" It was not Robin's voice that first called her name but Emma's, shortly followed by Henry's cry of 'Mom'. Pulling the sword away from the flame Emma dropped it back on the table as Regina collapsed into the seat behind her, blood seeping through her fingers.
"Regina, what's wrong?" Emma pushed past Robin and bent down in front of Regina, reaching out to touch the hand not covered in blood. Henry appeared at her shoulder.
"Excalibur. Arthur nicked me with it earlier but I healed it." Regina breathed, wincing as she did.
"I'm afraid it's not as simple as that." Merlin uttered sadly. "Excalibur was forged to cut immortal ties, no wound from it can be healed. I'm sorry."
"There must be something we can do. That she can do!" Mary Margaret's voice was loud, making Regina wince more as the sound bounced around the diner.
Merlin shook his head.
"No. I can fix this, my magic is powerful enough. I saved Robin for crying out loud." Emma protested, looking worriedly between Regina and Merlin.
"I'm afraid your magic isn't powerful enough. Nor is mine." Merlin added, sensing what Emma would ask next.
"There must be something I can do. Anything?!" Emma was panicking now, she couldn't lose Regina. Not now, not after what she had realised earlier.
She loved her. Emma loved Regina.
After all the years fighting for Henry to be hers, accepting him as theirs, she'd never realised that she wanted them to be a proper family. It took Regina to see that, albeit with the dagger, but still. She couldn't lose her now.
The dagger. That was it, there was her answer. She could tether Regina to the sword, she could save her.
"The sword. What if I tether Regina to the sword? I can use the promethium flame and tether her to Excalibur, she'll be immortal. She'll live." Emma spun around to look at Merlin. His face gave Emma her answer. It could be done.
"Emma, no." Regina's voice was dry as she protested Emma's idea. "You can't. Don't create another dark one."
"Mom please. You'll die." Henry's cheeks were stained with tears. His hands grasping hers now, refusing to let his mother go.
"I can't lose you Henry, but if I become the dark one I'll end up pushing you away and I can't do that." Regina was struggling for breath now, getting paler by the second.
"No. Regina I can't let you die. I'm going to fix this and no one can stop me!"And with that Emma and Regina vanished in a cloud of smoke along with the sword, dagger and flame.
Regina winced as she fell back against the grass, Emma kneeling beside her. "Emma please." She was begging now, she couldn't go dark again, she couldn't lose Henry, lose the relationships she'd built with Mary Margaret and David.
And Emma.
"Regina it'll be okay, I'll fix this, please let me." There were tears in Emma's eyes now, her throat constricted with sobs and her voice barely more than a whisper. Blinking them away she continued, "I can't lose you. Look how far we've come. If you die I don't know what I'll do. Please... I love you."
Regina gasped through the pain. Emma loved her?
"I was finally able to admit it to myself when you told me to knock down my walls. I've been clinging to the darkness, thinking if I lost it I'd lose you too. You'd go back to Robin and I'd go back to Hook, but I don't want that. Not anymore. Please Regina. I can't lose you."
Regina didn't even try to stop Emma, knowing she didn't have much breath left she simply smiled at Emma and whispered, "I love you too." Her eyes slowly closed and her breathing became shallower and quieter.
"Regina! Regina come back to me." Emma screamed through the tears. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry but we can beat the darkness. Together." Emma picked up Excalibur, holding it over Regina she willed the flame higher. Encasing the sword, it glowed brighter and brighter until black tendrils erupted from its base and swirled around it. Merlin's name was erased and 'Regina Mills' was carved in its place. A blinding light erupted from the sword as Regina vanished leaving Emma alone.
Emma looked down at where Regina had lain but all that remained was the indent in the grass. Gone was Emma's white dress and cape, she now wore a black, scaly leather jacket with a large collar. She had succumbed to the darkness. Emma looked at the broken sword in her hand and the dagger sat at her feet. A single solitary tear dropped onto the engraved surface, dissolving into the metal without a trace. Soon, her parents would find her. Robin would find her. They'd want answers, to questions she couldn't hear. Not yet. Emma knew where she had to go, where every dark one began its life. In a puff of smoke she disappeared and reappeared beside the dark one's vault.
It had already started to open, a figure forming slowly as the darkness escaped the vault. Suddenly the black, shapeless mass solidified.
There stood Regina. Alive.
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