Title: The Prince of Redemption
Author: RebelByrdie
Fandom: OUAT
Rating: T
Spoilers: Some
Warning: Angst, Character Death.
Author's Note: Sorry in advanced.
The Price of Redemption
"No." Regina threw her hands out, "My son will not be a Lost Boy."
"It's too late."
One of the Lost Boys sneered at her, "Pan removed his shadow. He is ours now."
Regina whirled around and a poof of purple smoke materialized a dagger in her hand.
"Regina, don't!"
Snow lunged for her and Regina froze her in place with a flick of her fingers.
"Before I go forward we must all agree that Snow and Henry." She looked to the unconscious and frightfully pale and still boy folded up in Neal's arms, "never know."
She licked her lips. Henry must believe, completely and without a doubt, that his shadow is his own. As for Snow." She rolled her eyes, "We all know that it is physically impossible for her to keep a secret no matter whose life depends on it." There was only a trace of bitterness in her words.
"What" Charming had his sword at the ready, "are you going to do?"
Regina smiled, it was a small, sad, half smile that did not reach her dark eyes. "I'm going to save Henry."
She bent down, her movements were fast and without hesitation. She cut the shadow away from her booted feet with precise slices. When the dark phantom floated free in the air she dropped the dagger. She regarded her own shadow with something very close to affection.
"The time has come, my only friend, to do the right thing." She reached out a hand and the shadow mirrored her. Flesh and phantom clasped hands, fingers lacing together. "He has to be whole, complete, a real boy. You have to be his now."
Hook, Neal and David watched the shadow, a ragged thing that seemed like a vapor that could be blown away at any moment, float over to Henry. It ignored Neal and ran its fingers through Henry's hair. It was a mother's gesture, gentle and full of love and care.
"Put him down, Mister Cassidy, I cannot risk having the shadow bind to both of you."
He put Henry on the leaf-strewn ground.
"Let me say this one more time." Regina's face had paled a little, "Henry must never know that I did this. He must believe that this is his and only his shadow or it will not work. He needs a shadow to be whole, to grow up, to be a good and strong man. Without a shadow a person can never be a whole person. That's why Pan-" She trailed off at that, "Henry will not be another Pan."
"You can't bind another person's shadow to him!" One of the boys shouted, "No one has that power, not even Pan. It's impossible. No magic is powerful enough to do it, Witch."
This time Regina didn't smile, she grimaced as she reached into her chest and removed her own heart.
"Love, True Love, is the most powerful magic of all." She, and everyone else looked at her heart. It was dark around the edges but its center glowed a powerful, beautiful, scarlet. "And True Love can break any curse."
She cupped her heart and closed her eyes, a tear slipped out of each eye and slid down her cheeks. "And I love my son more than anyone else in the world, ever."
Pink dust swirled up from her heart and floated through the air and enveloped Henry and Regina's shadow. It swirled around them and the air around them grew warm and smelled of apples, cinnamon and something intangible, something indescribable. It made all three men remember and ache for their mothers. The air around them glowed pink and the Lost Boys, even those who had been on the island for centuries, began to silently weep.
The shadow slowly began to change forms. It became smaller, more androgynous, darker, whole once more. On the ground Henry's color improved and his breathing deepened, he seemed to glow with new health and energy. Regina was exactly the opposite. As the dust, her all-encompassing love for the boy she had raised as her own son, left her heart she grew less. Less everything. The indomitable, always powerful, even in defeat, woman seemed to fade away in front of them. Her naturally sun-kissed skin grew sallow and dull. Her eyes, full of spark and sarcasm, grew glassy and her face, lovely even in her darkest moments, twisted in something very close to pain. Her heart's color started to fade. The center did not turn black, though, it faded to a weak and washed out gray.
It was over just as abruptly as it started. The dust, the love, left Regina's heart and bound her shadow to Henry so seamlessly that had the men not watched her cut the shadow from her own form themselves they would never suspect that it was not Henry's original shadow.
The moment the burst of light engulfed the clearing three things happened. Henry woke up, he sat up strait with a gasp. Snow unfroze and stumbled to an ungainly and ungracious stop mid-run. Regina slipped her heart, a now sickly and mottled organ that seemed to only barely be able to beat, back into her chest and she stumbled backwards until her back met a tree. She slid to the ground, seemingly boneless.
There was a beat of silence and then the woods came alive with crashing and the rhythmic stomping of running feet.
Emma Swan, Tinker Bell and Rumpelstiltskin burst through the tree, a cavalry that was far too late to help win the battle.
"Henry!"
Emma fell to her knees beside her son, no one else seemed to matter. She didn't look at her parents, Hook or Neal. Emma only had eyes for her son.
Tinker Bell looked around, taking in the tied and bound Lost Boys, the prone Henry, shocked men, furious Snow and limp Regina. "What the hell happened here?"
Rumpelstiltskin said nothing. He looked from Henry to Regina and then back again. "Oh, Dearie." His words were softly spoken, and lacked their usual bite. He went to Regina's side and knelt there. He held an open palm over her chest but quickly dropped it. "Dearie, Dearie, Dearie."
Tinker Bell looked around, "Well is anyone going to tell me what happened?"
David sheathed his sword and looked as though he had been kicked in the stomach. "Regina saved Henry."
Emma finally looked up, her arms wrapped around her son, "How? What did she do? Is he going to be okay?"
Hook looked away, as if he couldn't make eye contact with Emma as he spoke, "It doesn't matter how she did it. The Lad is going to be just fine."
"It does matter!"
Snow, not content to be quiet in David's arms, roared. "She did something dark. Something wrong. Something evil. So evil that she had to freeze everyone to do it.
"Where" Henry's voice was muffled by Emma's shoulder, "is her shadow?" Emma loosened her death-grip on Henry and turned to look at the barely conscious woman in question.
"She's really evil isn't she? Just like Pan." Henry's voice was cold and sounded years older than his age, "Only evil creatures can live without a shadow attached to them. She's just like Pan."
There was a thick moment of silence, tense with words unspoken until David cleared his throat. "Yeah. She got rid of her shadow so she could tap into Neverland's dark magic. We tried to stop her but-" He looked down and away, his face set in a frown.
"She did what had to be done." Hook jerked his chin in her direction, "and now she's paying for it." He didn't sound angry, he sounded almost in awe of what had happened.
"There had to have been another, better way. Something not as dark. She stepped over the line again." Snow's voice dripped judgment and derision, "and she deserves whatever it is she gets."
Regina's hand shook like a leaf in a hurricane but she lifted it just enough to tug on Rumpelstiltskin's leather jacket. No one else could hear but watched the man's reaction to her words. The Dark One only nodded, "Of course."
He carefully looped his arms around Regina's knees and neck and lifted her as easily as he would a toddler. His cane, limp and any sign of whatever injury had given him those things, were long gone.
"Get your boy gathered up. It is time that we all went home." Purple smoke engulfed them and in the blink of an eye they were back on the fully repaired and restored Jolly Roger.
"Put her in my cabin."
Hook spoke not directly to The Dark One, but in his general direction. "The rest of you, man the rigging. We have to gain some speed if we expect to escape the Island's pull tonight.
The voyage took longer, something about portals versus magic feather bed sheet sails, and when everything calmed down Rumpelstiltskin disappeared into Hook's cabin to, presumably, talk to Regina. Emma left Henry with his father and grandparents and waited for him.
"She okay?"
Rumpelstiltskin was limping again and Emma wondered if it was a true handicap or a habit that he had developed as Mr. Gold.
He blinked at her, "I suppose that would greatly depend on your definition of okay, Miss Swan." His voice was tight and his words terse.
Emma sighed, it looked like the big happy family deal had been left behind in Neverland. "She's getting better, though, right. She just has to rest and restore her magic, like after Greg and Tamara-" She left off, unwilling to finish the statement. "She'll be recovered by the time we dock, or whatever, in Storybrooke, right?"
He looked surprised, actually shocked at her words. "Recovery?" He chuckled, "Oh my dear Savior, where did you get that idea?"
Emma opened her mouth, shut it, and then opened it again, "What do you mean? She's Regina. She's just doing her dramatic Evil Queen thing right now. She probably just wanted to enjoy Hook's fluffy bed after a week and a half of sleeping in the jungle." She started to push past him, "I want to go talk to her."
He put his hand on her shoulder to stop her. "She's not up to talking right now, Dearie."
Emma rolled her eyes, "So I'll wake her up when we get home. I owe her an apple cider or two."
He chuckled and shook his head, "You don't get it, do you Savior?" He sighed, "She is not resting, and she is not recovering. She is dying."
That stopped Emma cold. "Wait, what?"
He sighed, "She gave everything to Henry. A person, even one as stubborn as Regina, cannot live without-"
"Her shadow. Yeah but you wandered around without yours for a while and Pan- If you're saying she's not as powerful as him then I know you're lying. She smacked him down like a boss. We can fix that or work around it. She's, like, the biggest baddest witch of all, I'm sure she can live without it."
He tilted his head, "Perhaps but no one can live without hope, belief or love. She gave all of that, all of her, to Henry."
"Bullshit." Emma could feel fear bubble up her throat. "That's just bullshit. She wouldn't do that." Even as she said the words Emma knew that it was exactly what Regina would do.
"She told you something. Something that can fix it. You two have something figured out. You two have a plan, right?"
He looked away, his face suddenly wistful and almost nostalgic. "Do you know that I held Regina when she was only a few hours old? I looked down at her and knew that I would manipulate her entire life for my own means. I knew that she would have to suffer and strive so that she could become a powerful enough sorceress to cast my curse. I held a newborn in my arms and all I could see was an Evil Queen. The woman she became, though" He looked towards his son, "despite everything she suffered and inflicted upon others." He shook his head, "I've done a great many horrible things, but giving my grandson to Regina to raise. That is the one thing I will never regret. It is for this reason that I will not fail her now. She asked to go home, to her parent's house, and I will take her there."
Emma blinked, "Her parent's house? They never had a house in Storybrooke. Only the-" The understanding hit Emma like a punch, "the mausoleum."
She stumbled backwards, "No. There has to be something else we can do. I have magic!"
Rumpelstiltskin had never seemed weak to her. He was a thin, gimpy little man but he had always had an invisible mantle of power. Now, as the ship sailed towards the tiny town they all called home, he let his shoulders fall and that power dissipated to nothing. "I believe there is a glass coffin that held her fiancé's body before the good doctor desecrated it. I think she would-"
"No!" Emma punched him in the chest. "She's not dying!"
The rest of the crew turned at her shout. "We are going home. To raise our son and run our town. We won, damn it. We won!" She pushed past him and through the cabin door.
Regina lay on top of Hook's neatly made built-in-bed. Her dark hair was spread around her head like a halo. Her hands, beautiful weapons of mass destruction, were folded over her stomach. Her eyes, deep dark windows to her troubled soul, were closed. She looked like she was sleeping. Emma went to her side and grabbed one of her hands. The hands that had cradled their son when he cried and bandaged his scrapes when he fell. It was cold and stiff.
"Regina?"
She squeezed the hand between both of hers. "Wake up. We're almost to Storybrooke and there's going to be a big welcoming party and you're the hero. They're going to be cheering for you. You don't want to miss that. You're the savior this time. You did it. You saved Henry. This is your victory." She leaned forward to look at Regina's still face.
"Come on. Henry's outside and he wants to see you." She didn't care if it was a lie, she didn't care if Henry hated her forever for making him do it, he was going to hug Regina, call her Mom, and they would be a family. "He missed his Mom. I think he even missed your nagging and healthy meals."
Regina didn't respond or even move. She wasn't moving at all. She wasn't even breathing. She wasn't there, she wasn't hearing a word Emma was saying because while Emma had been arguing with Rumpelstiltskin, while they had been having a stupid conversation about stupid things, Regina had slipped away. She had left them. She had abandoned them. She had died. She had died alone, thinking that everyone, including their son, hated her.
Emma had failed her. Regina had only asked one thing of her and she had failed her. She had asked, with tears in her eyes, to be allowed to die as Regina. Only Emma had let her die alone while everyone called her The Evil Queen.
"Mom?" Henry's voice came from the door, "is she okay?"
Emma couldn't even look at him. "Don't call me that, Kid. Not ever again." She was choking on her tears, "Now come in here and tell you real mom goodbye."
Snow, Tinker Bell and David were behind him.
"Emma, what are you talking abou-" Snow's voice abruptly cut off, like her voice had been muted mid-word.
"Regina?"
Tinker Bell's accented voice sounded sad and hopeful at the same time.
Emma looked up at the other blonde and shook her head.
Snow looked to David, tears in her eyes, "It wasn't supposed to be this way."
Emma held Regina's limp, and lifeless hand between her own and watched, too detached yet simultaneously too overwhelmed, to react as Henry fell across Regina's chest, sobbing and kissing her. Trying to wake her up.
"It wasn't supposed to be like this."
The crew, the merry band of heroes, the family that had set out to rescue Henry, stood in Hook's cabin, gathered around Regina Mill's lifeless corpse and all Rumpelstiltskin could think was that he had known that this was exactly how it was supposed to be, but didn't share it with anyone.
All he could think about was the way that the tiny babe that Regina had once been had looked up at him with guileless, innocent, newborn blue eyes and grasped at his outstretched finger, oblivious to her fate. All he could think about was how that same broken woman had been in his arms at her end. Her eyes, full of pain, sadness and just a tiny spark of pride, had locked on his before they had slipped shut, resolute and given over to her fate.
It was true that everything, even redemption, came with a price and Regina had paid it. If anyone deserved peace, even if peace was final and eternal, it was her. He locked the scene in his memory and knew that he would never be able to make anything right. Some people deserved redemption and others, like himself, deserved every ounce of fire and misery that awaited them in Hell.
Fin