The Villain of the Story
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
Summary: Emma has to deal with the fall-out of killing the Evil Queen and in the process, she comes to some realization regarding Regina's motives behind her actions and for the first time she is able to see the woman behind the Mayor/Evil Queen mask. (Implied Emma/August just because it's me and I couldn't leave it out.)
Warning: character death!
I've decided to re-post this story because all the crazy crap that is going on in the reviews makes me uncomfortable. I really don't like that people are using that space for bashing other ships.
That said, I have a couple of other things to say.
I'm really disappointed. I spent so much time to find a way to explore how two-dimensional fairy-tale characters come to life in this show and all I get is spiteful screaming in my face because some Emma/Regina shippers thought that this would be a romantic fic... and I even dared to kill Regina! (how is that for creative freedom - and let's just forget about the fact that there was a warning about character death)
As for the reviews, you should know that I treasure every review I get but what makes a story really precious to me is the time and thought I put into it - and this particular story is really precious to me. I believe that I'm not asking for too much if I expect my readers to respect that. It doesn't mean, of course, that constructive criticism is not welcome. On the contrary. But saying that you hate the story without giving any specific reasons why except for hating the pairing in it, is not acceptable. You can have problems with bad grammar (it happens, however I'd like to think that I'm fairly decent in that area), or with the confusion of some words or expressions (I'm not a native speaker - again, it happens), or you can have problems with the concept of the story (in that case you are free to contact me and share your thoughts - I'm the first to admit that there are holes in my theory regarding Regina's character but that's just it, a theory...) - but just sending a review to say that you hated the pairing in it is totally uncalled for. I can understand your position, really. I myself am really particular about the pairings I like but I've never judged somebody and their stories because of their preferred pairings. It'd just downright rude. And let me tell you that I've been a member of this site for years and never have I met so much hate coming from a shipping community than now. And that says a lot because I have stories in a number of fandoms and my pairings are very rarely canon or popular.
And I really don't understand the uproar about naming Emma and Regina as the main characters of this story. It's Emma's POV about Regina, the main focus is on them so I don't see why I should have named August as the second main character. Because he was in the story? He just happened to be the one Emma spoke to. Because his romantic relationship to Emma was implied? That's stupid. If there were a button on this site that allows people to choose the pairing of the story, I wouldn't have hesitated to sign it as Emma/August (and I actually said so in the summary just to make it clear that there will be some mention of that pairing). But seeing that I've got only the option to name the main characters, I stuck with Emma and Regina. Deal with it! This story wasn't meant to be a romantic one - I didn't even name it as a genre so I really don't understand why everybody comes with this whole shipping BS.
All in all, I believe that all the berating comments were uncalled for. I've never said that it'll be a Swan Queen story and I explicitly said in the summary that Emma kills the Queen. It wasn't a romantic story and apart from the fact that August appears in it as Emma's love interest, his role is really secondary. He's there because Emma needed an audience and I happened to choose him. This doesn't make the story an Emma/August fic.
I really am very careful in signing the mentioned ship in my stories even more so if the story is not primarily a romantic one. So all I have to say is, please, next time read the summary and try to actually understand it - I'd like to think that there are intelligent people here who know how to interpret a couple of sentences. And anyway, I don't think that anybody was forced to read through the whole story after they realized that it wasn't what they'd been expecting.
For the sake of those people who really believe that naming two characters as the main characters of the story means that they will be in any way romantically involved, I took Regina's name from the list. But I refuse to list this story with August's name as a main character because he is not one.
And finally, I'd like to say thank you for the actual reviews! I really appreciate them.
Emma was kneeling on the cold floor staring into nothingness as she awkwardly held the lifeless body of the Evil Queen in her arms.
It was over.
The war had been won.
And in true fairy-tale fashion, it all came down to one on one – the villain versus the hero. No large armies in armor, no enthusiastic cries of war and the sound of steel on steel. There was nothing grandiose in the final battle… there was nothing heroic in facing the enemy – she had no choice in the matter.
It was her destiny, she had realized after a long time of stubborn refusal. She'd been thrust into the role of the hero and she had to follow her path.
She had to write her own fairy-tale. Henry told her that once and that was the only reason she had considered it at all. She'd do anything for her son… she'd believe all over again.
And believe she did but not only in all those fairy-tale crap but in herself, too. She believed that she could make an end to all that darkness that had been surrounding them ever since they got back to fairy-tale land. She believed that she could save all her people… her family… her son.
Finding the Evil Queen was easy enough. If you are the hero who is meant to face her than you can't possibly get lost on the way even if you haven't got the faintest idea where to go.
Emma walked the path of the heroes, helping the ones in need and doing the tasks asked of her… and her path led straight to the castle of the Queen.
After that everything happened in a haze and the next thing she knew was that she was standing face to face with the Evil Queen with a sword in hand and fighting the unfair battle of steel and magic.
She'd been tossed against the massive walls more times than she could count and there wasn't a bone in her body that wasn't protesting in pain… but she stood her ground. Truth was that – like the time she had to fight a dragon back in Storybrooke – she had no idea what she was doing and most probably, she would have felt ridiculous wielding a sword if she had actually have the time to spare some thoughts to it. All her attention was focused on the Queen, though, and her efforts were rewarded.
She'd found the crack in Regina's defense.
Her eyes widened when she could feel the sword glide into the other woman's abdomen and a pained frown appeared on her face when she saw Regina giving her a small mocking smile just before the pain hit her and she grimaced. In a trance, she held onto the hilt of the sword, faintly recalling that if she didn't pull it back out, the woman had more chance to stay alive till help arrived. Of course there was no help coming… and she came here to kill Regina. But did she have the will to follow through with it?
It turned out that she didn't have a choice as Regina grabbed her hand on the hilt and she slowly stepped back all the while holding Emma's gaze.
She hissed when the sword finally left her body but otherwise her expression was steady. Emma, on the other hand, had a really hard time processing the happenings and, tearing her eyes away from Regina's haunting ones, she looked down at the sword in her hand. In the next instant she threw it away as if it had been on fire and looked back at the woman with a horrified look.
That was when Regina's mask crumbled and she fell to the ground with a painful grimace.
"No!" Emma cried out and was by the woman's side within a second, catching her mid-fall and laying her on the ground, holding her hand under the other woman's head. "I'm so sorry," Emma told her through her tears as she pressed her free hand over Regina's that was resting over her wound. Regina let out a small chuckle that quickly turned into painful coughing as bloody bubbles burst from her throat.
"It had to be done," she said finally. There was no malice in her weakening voice, no accusation. "Congratulations, Miss Swann," there was a serene smile playing on her blood-stained lips as she said that, "you've won."
After that it seemed that she had drifted off into unconsciousness but suddenly her eyes fluttered and her lips began to move. Emma automatically leant closer to be able to make out her words but when she did, she froze.
She didn't even notice when Regina finally let out her last breath just as she didn't notice the sudden gush of air that swept through her very much like when she had brought Henry back to life and broke the curse.
It was over.
The war had been won.
But it wasn't what made Emma frozen in time…
For a long time Emma just knelt above the lifeless body of the Evil Queen watching the ever growing pool of blood on the marble floor but not seeing it. She was pulled off of the floor by two strong arms and she became faintly aware of the presence of her father and August as both men held their grips on her arms.
In her haze she didn't even wonder how the hell they got there.
After long minutes, reality slowly set in and a strangled sob escaped her lips. Her knees buckled and only August's arms prevented her from falling on the floor. He pulled her into his arms and held onto her. James, still refusing to let her go, laid his hand on her shaking shoulder and watched her daughter with a pained expression.
When Emma managed to compose herself, August gently ushered her out of the castle while James quickly assessed the situation and ordered the securing of the castle and its inhabitants.
Nightfall found the little group of James, Emma and August camping in the woods with a handful of James' soldiers. Although it was late by the time they had finished taking care of Regina's body – Emma insisted on taking her with them – and making sure that Emma was all right, James insisted on getting on the road and putting as much distance between them and that cursed place as possible. He had left one of his people in charge in the castle then gathered a few people around him and they were on the road within the hour.
Emma spoke very little on the road and she seemed lost in her own world. She disregarded every curious or worried glance directed at her, not even bothering to dissipate her father's or August's concerns regarding her physical or emotional state.
She was distant physically, too and August and James looked on worried as she settled down by a small fire she had lit for herself away from everybody else.
Finally it was August who approached her, and he settled down next to her by the fire. He didn't want to crowd her so he left a healthy distance between them and he didn't speak up, either, letting Emma open up if she felt ready for it.
"It was so easy to think that she was simply unable to love," Emma finally spoke up in a low voice after a long stretch of silence that was only broken by the cracking fire and the sounds of the night forest. "It made things uncomplicated," she shrugged wringing her hands as some kind of distraction. "She's the evil and we are the good ones. Straight and simple like in…"
"Fairy-tales," August finished for her and Emma let out a dry chuckle.
"What a load of bullshit," she shook her head. "We're not the good ones here. Hell, I'm certainly not." How could she be the good one when he'd just ended the life of another human being?
"And all those fairy-tale characters… good or evil… they are just like any other people in our world. Whoever said that everything was black-and-white in fairy-tales didn't know shit." How strange it seemed now that killing the villain of the fairy-tale had never been labeled as murder. It was the just punishment of an evil force that had caused some kind of grievance to the hero – the final killing was clean, never thought about again.
Emma wished she could do that – leave this part of her life behind without any second thought. But it didn't work like that. Happily ever after didn't come with forgetting the events that had led to it.
And what about the villain? Nobody had ever thought about inquiring after their reasons behind all their evil acts. That was because they were branded as evil – no need for any particular reason to commit villainy. It was in their bones – darkness.
They just can't help it, right?
That was exactly what was so disturbing for Emma.
"I set out to find Regina… to end things for once and for all, believing that I had no other choice." Because, let's face it, heroes have no choice, either, in acting the way they do. They are predisposed to face the villain – to occupy their preordained position against the villain. Good versus evil, right? "I believed that I had to be the hero for once."
But did it make her the good one?
"But I was wrong," Emma admitted. "I am no hero… and Regina was no villain." They were only two ordinary women with lives that had taken a wrong turn at some point - they were damaged.
And that was the brutal truth. Even in fairy-tale land, life wasn't a fairy-tale.
There are always two sides to every coin. And it's too easy to forget that.
"I think I understand her now. And you know what is really scary?" That was the first time that she'd turned to August to look the man in the eye. Her expression was hard and the shadows cast on it by the fire made her features more prominent. "We are not that different after all. We never had a chance. She just wanted to love and to be loved… I just wanted to run away from every human feeling and the responsibility it carried. She had no choice but to erase every human feeling in her and I had to accept that loving others – my parents, you, Henry – is my destiny. And the funny thing?" she scoffed turning away once again. "Neither of us has ever stopped searching for love. I may have denied it but I needed it like any other person and as for Regina… her attempts might have been misguided but she just wanted the same thing like everybody else."
Love.
Love conquers it all, they say. It was such a cliché, and fairy-tales knew it, too. One would say that tales were about true love but the truth is that there is no genuine love in fairy-tales. There is a kind of love in fairy-tales that is taken for granted, left unquestioned. It is the prerogative of the good ones.
And then again, what about the villain?
"It just sucked for her that she was labeled as the villain."
For the first time since she found herself in this strange world of magic, Emma found herself asking questions. What about Regina? Did she love? Was she able to love at all? Did she love Henry?
And this last question brought a whole new dimension to Emma's troubling thoughts.
"And the saddest part of all?"
"Henry," August answered and Emma gave him a small smile. He understood her.
"Henry," she nodded. "Regina hoped to learn to love him… to love in general. And he taught me to love and to accept it. But he was never meant for both of us to keep. And that's why I killed her. No matter what I tell myself… it wasn't because my people needed me to play the hero, to save them. It was because I couldn't let her to take my son away. What kind of person does it make me?"
"A good mother."
"That's what Regina wanted to be, too," Emma stated. "And I killed her for it. At the end of the day, I'm just a murderer." And that was life. It was not justifiable to kill someone just because society labeled them as evil.
What was evil anyway?
"Don't think like that, Emma. This is your story and this is how it should end."
"And that's again quite stupid," she observed with a sideway glance. "Yes, this is my story but it won't end here. This is not my happy ending. I have a life to live. And so did Regina," she defended the other woman.
"You may not believe in the way life works here but there are things that are quite simple," August argued and Emma found herself sigh tiredly. "Regina was evil – whether she could help it or not – she made awful things to other people… things that could never be excused. Not here. There is a rule here, Emma, a rule nobody can break – evil has to be punished," the conviction in his voice made Emma tense up. "They have to perish because no matter what you'd like to think, they'll never change."
They'll never change, Emma repeated it in her head. She could accept that. Most probably Regina would have never changed. But it didn't mean that in her own – pretty much screwed up – way, she didn't try. That had to count for something, right?
That was just what she'd been talking about in the last few minutes – the unfairness of judging things by the extremes, to think that things are black-and-white in a world where really there is every color of the rainbow existing in between.
"You don't listen to a word I say," Emma snapped, suddenly feeling annoyed by August's narrow sightedness. "There is no such thing as pure evil and pure good. You of all people should know it – Pinocchio." She said his real name with a snort then shook her head and proceeded to stand up.
"Pure evil exists," he reached for Emma's wrist to stop her from leaving. "Maybe there is a dark side in each of us – and we fight it every damn day – but it's sure as hell that the Evil Queen didn't have a speck of light in her. This is who she was."
"The villain?" Emma scoffed. "It's quite unfair, don't you think?" she challenged shaking her hand free from August's grasp. "Why is everybody so adamant here on pointing at others and branding them? We should look into ourselves, August. You said it right – we fight the evil every day. And it's us. And no matter what you all say, Regina has fought her own battles as well."
"And she's lost."
"But it doesn't mean she didn't try. And that's what makes her more than the villain of a story. That's what makes her human." And with that Emma was gone.
The next day, on their way home, Emma mostly kept to herself, riding on her horse deep in thoughts.
She just couldn't get Regina's last words out of her head – Tell him… Tell him… I'm sorry… I couldn't help it…
These last words of a dying woman had turned Emma's world upside down once again. For one, she had to face that possibility of Regina actually having feelings – what kind of feelings, nobody could be sure but the mere fact that she felt remorse made Emma feel some deep compassion towards the other woman.
That was why she had actually made efforts to understand her… or more like she was punched in the face by comprehension.
But with understanding came other things to face – Henry.
She had alluded to as much to August the day before. Her son was meant to teach Regina to love again. Emma wasn't sure what the other woman had meant to accomplish by adopting the boy but her desperation was clear as day.
How could she not see that earlier?
A heartless woman doesn't go out adopting children just to make her life more difficult. Regina accepted the responsibility raising a child entails – but why? Surely not because she wanted to control something in her life; she had a whole town to do that.
She wanted something she didn't have – love.
Because by no means was she unfamiliar with the feeling of love. Emma had heard tales about a young woman who had to witness the death of her sweetheart at the hands of her own mother and who'd been forced into a marriage she did not desire… and all of this because of a naïve little girl who just wanted to help her.
Now that she actually thought about it, Emma suspected that somewhere on the way the Evil Queen's quest to avenge the death of her beloved on Snow White had become a quest for her lost heart. She may have lost her heart when her mother killed the man she loved, but she didn't lose the desire for love.
Regina expected Henry to do a miracle.
Maybe there were miracles that weren't meant to be.
Looking sideway to the man riding next to her, Emma let a small smile creep on her lips. She might have said that she and Regina shared a lot of things in common but there was something essentially different about them – Henry had actually been able to teach Emma how to love. And while this thought didn't make her feel better about killing Regina, she felt worthier of her life than before.
She slowly reached out and gave August an affectionate smile when the man took her offered hand in his, squeezing it affectionately.
Henry had done a miracle - he had brought unconditional love into her life. His capacity to love and trust helped Emma to open up and accept the affection of other people... to believe that their feelings were genuine. Henry had set her on a road to be a better woman... a mother, a daughter.
Emma's features were worn with exhaustion when she finally rode into the court yard amidst the crowd that gathered to celebrate the Savior. She was too tired, though, even to pretend that she welcomed the commotion. Her tired eyes were searching for only one person – her son.
She let August help her down from her horse and gave a grateful smile to her father when he told her to go inside while he took care of the cheering people. Without a word, August gently guided her through the corridors toward their bed chamber. They didn't get too far, though before Henry came running towards them, eager to greet his mother.
Seeing her son, Emma stopped suddenly not feeling ready to face him. She knew that whatever Regina may have done, she was Henry's mother, too. And she knew that whatever she may have done, Henry had never hated her. For a long time she'd been the only family her son knew and it couldn't be erased - nor did she want to erase it.
But there she was, standing in front of her son to tell him that she had killed the woman who'd been his mother ever since his birth.
It just wasn't fair on him.
Sensing Emma's reluctance, Henry slowly came to a stop, too, and for a while they just stood face to face. A couple of times Emma opened her mouth to tell him what had happened but no words came… and no words were necessary because Henry understood.
And when the boy began to sob she couldn't deny Regina's last request. Henry had to know. "I'm sorry," she said gathering the crying boy into her arms. "I'm so sorry," she repeated, finding her own eyes filling with moisture. "She loved you." She pulled him closer. "She loved you."
And maybe that wasn't the whole truth but that was that version of it Henry had to hear at that moment… that was that kind of truth that made Regina just a little bit more human in his eyes.
The End
Thanks for reading!