In answer to a prompt sent on tumblr by the lovely Laura (lala-kate) I give you this Missing Year Evil Charming oneshot (well I do have ideas for a follow-up, if you're interested, let me know)
Prompt: Evil Charming: "You don't understand. You can't use your magic around here."
Ensnared
She should have known this could only lead to trouble, anything organized and planned by the Charmings -even a simple recognition mission such as this was supposed to be- never ends well for her. Though even after imagining all the possible scenarios, Regina never would have thought that she would end up pressed up against Prince Charming himself in what seemed to be an underground cell.
They had been chased there by a flock of flying monkeys which hadn't been deterred by the amount of fireballs and various form of magic she had thrown at them. The beasts had led them right into this trap, the bars of the cell falling down as soon as they had put a foot inside. A ray of moonlight coming from the only other opening, situated a hundred feet above them, was the sole thing keeping them from total darkness.
The cell obviously hadn't been designed to host a couple of grown human beings, and though they weren't moving, Regina could feel the walls closing in on her. She needed to get out of here and fast.
She gathered all her focus to blast the bars away, but as she released her spell they didn't even budge an inch. She tried again and again, oblivious to David's call of her name. Desperate, she grabbed the bars in her hands and screamed when they burned her skin.
David seized her arms and managed to turn them around, pinning her against the wall furthest away from the metal gate. "Regina, stop this, you will only hurt yourself!" He exclaimed, but she didn't appear to have heard him, she was struggling against his hold, holding up her burned hands, which her magic were attempting to heal, trying to keep her breathing under control and unwanted tears from falling. "Regina, please," David attempted again.
"I have to get out of here," Regina yelled at him.
David nodded. "I get it, I really do, but not like this. You don't understand, you can't use your magic around here," he revealed and she froze, eyes narrowing dangerously.
"How do you know that?" She asked, and suddenly he couldn't meet her intense gaze. "How do you know that?" She repeated louder, her tone more forceful, and even with no magic and burned hands David was certain she could find ways to hurt him severely if he refused to answer her.
He sighed and looked at her again. "This cell was built long ago by the fairies to hold any powerful magical being and prevent them from ever using their magic to get out. We once considered imprisoning you there," he admitted and gulped at the sight of her.
She was standing rigidly still, her face devoid of expression, he was convinced the statues in the castle's courtyard conveyed more emotions than this pale, almost ashen, mask of hers in this moment. Long minutes, that seemed an eternity to David, passed before she spoke again, in a voice so cold he actually shivered.
"You would have thrown me in here and tossed away the keys?" She resumed, and he nodded, the shame that filled him as he imagined the broken Queen, alone and defenseless in this unbearably cramped space, knowing her as he does now, choked any attempt at speaking in his throat. "I guess it is fitting. Of course Snow would have loved to see me in a cage again, less golden this time, to teach me a lesson, as you would a dog who had bitten the hand that fed him," Regina commented and David was horrified.
"No, no Snow never could accept this possibility, that's why we never went through with it," David was quick to defend his wife.
"But this possibility suited you just fine, didn't it?" She taunted and David realised he had walked right into that one.
"I didn't know you back then," was the only thing he could find to say, and she laughed, but there was no joy, no mirth in it, it was bitter and hollow and it made his guts twist in an unpleasant way.
"You didn't know me, but it didn't stop you from getting in the middle of my war with Snow. You sided with her, not knowing any better, you assumed that she was just a helpless victim and I the ruthless villain. You never cared to find out what had happened between us and why would you? Your precious snowflake couldn't have possibly done anything wrong, it was all the fault of her evil stepmother," Regina ranted, her voice rising with every syllable until his ears were ringing, and he thought about "She tried to poison me because she thought I was prettier than her", and how even then he knew there was more to it but he never pushed until it was too late and 28 years of separation had passed.
"You're right," he said, and his reply shocked her into silence, her jaw snapping shut. "You're right. I was a blinded fool in love who didn't know any better and never cared to. You have no idea how many times I have wondered if things would have turned out differently if I had just tried to discover why you hated her so much, if it would have gotten that far, if I could have stopped it or reached a truce instead of trying to prove that I hadn't completely usurped my title of Prince. The dwarves cornered me once, accused me of taking advantage of Snow to get myself a kingdom, and I denied it, but I think some part of me was so eager to prove to everyone that I deserved to rule more than George that it prevented me from seeing the big picture."
He leaned back after that, trying to give her space, but there really wasn't any to give, and with each second of silence he became increasingly aware of their proximity.
"I was too far gone to be reasoned with at the time, there was nothing you could have done. Though it certainly didn't help that Snow had found herself a shepherd Prince after she had gotten my stable boy killed," Regina whispered at last, her head falling back against the stone wall, her eyes looking up towards the sky, glistening.
He didn't try to correct her statement, he knew she knew who the real culprit was, that she had stopped blaming Snow for what happened to Daniel so long ago. He just felt like a fool for having believed for so long that this deadly rivalry had been ignited by a beauty contest. A broken chuckle escaped him and she looked back at him, questioningly, quirking an eyebrow.
"I was just thinking about what Snow used to tell me about the reason you wanted her dead: that you thought she was prettier than you," he told her, and both her eyebrows flew up at this revelation, her expression one of outrage. "I know, I know that does sound like complete bullshit when you stop to think about it. I mean no matter how much I love Snow, I still have eyes."
She looked taken aback for a moment. "I do hope that's not how you seduce women, though that would probably explain your troubles during the Curse," she teased him, and he couldn't help but look at her lips, remembering some of those 'troubles' she was talking about.
"You certainly didn't help with that," he said in a low voice.
"Well, that would have been completely counter-productive if I had," Regina retorted, looking down at her palms, which were still raw and red but at least the pain had lessened.
He took her abused hands in one of his. "I think I've got something that could help with that in my satchel," he suddenly remembered.
She threw him a doubtful look. "If it's anything that the Blue pest has brewed, don't bother," she replied and David let the bottle he had had just grabbed fall back into his bag.
"Alright then," he said. "You sure you're okay?" He asked.
"I will live to see another day," she answered and he winced at the lack of enthusiasm that notion seemed to bring her. "It would probably be a good idea if you gave me back my hands though," she added.
"Oh, yes, probably," he said sheepishly, lowering her hands gently, but not letting them go; she cocked her head to the side, frowning slightly. "You do know you can talk to us, right? Just because we put on a good front doesn't mean we have forgotten those we had to leave behind," he told her and she scoffed.
"You really don't understand, do you? Of course, I'm not going to talk to you about 'those we left behind' as you put it. It's my fault if they're gone. I only have myself to blame for being separated from Henry. I really don't want to talk to you about this and have the constant reminder that I also separated you from your daughter a second time," she all but shrieked, pulling at her hair in frustration and David shook his head.
"We don't resent you…" he started but she didn't let him finish.
"That's the thing, you should! You should hate me for everything I did. I wanted to kill a ten-years old because she spilled a secret to one of the most manipulative person to have ever roamed the Earth!" She screamed. "I laid waste on anything and anyone that stood in my way, I cursed hundreds to a lifetime of misery and false memories because I wanted my revenge so badly. I killed my own father to make it happen. The only good thing that ever happened to me was Henry and I lost him, I'm paying the price for my mistakes but how can I make up for what I did…" Regina couldn't go on anymore, her voice broke, the dam she had so carefully built broke as well, and the tears she hadn't been able to shed ever since she said farewell to her son fell.
She pressed an injured hand to her mouth, trying to contain her sobs, but there was no stopping them now.
David bit his bottom lip, wondering if she would welcome any attempt at comfort he could give. He couldn't let her suffer like this and he hugged her against him as her sorrow engulfed her.
"We don't hate you. It wasn't always the case, I won't lie, but we've made our peace with it. Emma is who she is because she grew up away from us, and Henry most certainly wouldn't have been born if the circumstances had been different, and despite everything he hasn't turned out so bad, has he?" He whispered and she hiccuped, the sound muffled against his chest.
They stayed like this for long minutes until Regina pulled away.
"I'm pathetic," she let out, disgusted by herself for this display.
"You're in pain and you have kept it all bottled up ever since we got here. It had to get out at some point," he replied, wiping away the remnants of her tears and her breath hitched.
He lingered a bit too long, his hands cupping her face, their eyes locked and it reminded them both of another moment quite similar but which seemed to have happened a lifetime ago. He didn't even realise he was slowly closing whatever distance remained between them until she spoke again.
"Charming, what are you…" Regina started but the resounding calls of their names coming from above cut her off.
"David? Regina? Are you there?" It was Snow, and Regina would never admit it but she had never been more glad to hear her former stepdaughter's voice.
"Yes, Snow, we are," David answered back.
"Are you alright?" Snow asked and they heard other voices huffing and puffing as they tried to move the grating.
"Yes, we just really want to get out of here," David replied.
"Working on it," Snow informed them.
Regina stayed strangely quiet as they waited for their rescue team to extract them and David wondered what she was thinking about and if their talk would in any way make a difference for her in the future.
Soon, a rope was thrown down and he helped Regina, securing it around her as the others hoisted her up.
As he resurfaced he found her being tended to by Robin Hood, the outlaw bandaging her hands after having applied some sort of ointment, his cape around her shoulders to ward off the chill of the night. The fact that Regina was letting him do all that without snark told David more than anything else how shaken she really was.
Snow embraced him tightly. "Blue felt the cell being activated, we were so worried. Are you really okay?" She informed him, then asked in quick succession.
"Of course we are, just a little scared when Regina tried to use her magic but that will heal, I'm sure," he explained and noticed Snow's uneasy expression.
"Does she know about…" She trailed off, nodding her head towards the opening of the cell.
"Yes, I told her. She didn't take it well but we were able to talk." David could see that his wife was burning to ask more but she reined herself in and he was relieved.
As he mounted with Snow on their horse, he exchanged a look with Regina, who was settled in front of Robin. She managed a small smile and a nod, which he returned in kind.
Maybe there was still a chance for her to find some reason to go on and he would make sure to help with that.