The light thrives, it breathes in the essence of those it draws.
It wants them.
it needs them
it loves them
Cora wakes slowly, awareness settling over her in drifts and drabs. She grumbles softly about that damn clock, Regina's silly huge clock in the dining room that chimes so loudly. But it's another minute before she recognizes that the chimes are not sounding, no simple noise has awoken her, with a start she sits up in bed, pushing green and sick magic away from the house. The foreign magic has creeped its way back, more powerful and abhorrent than before, it's oozed around Cora's safe guards and snapped her from her slumber, trying to suffocate her.
She pushes it away, barely able too, and sweeps her legs off the bed, hands grasping in the darkness until she finds the door. Her nightgown billows around her form as she races down the hall to Regina's room, that magic, it had intent, and there's disquiet in Cora's gut that tells her that her daughter is in danger.
"Regina!" she yells, hiding her panic in anger as she pushes Regina's door open. Moonlight seeps in through the curtained window, exposing to Cora that Regina is not there. The blankets and bedding fall half on the floor from the ruffled bed, the room is distressingly empty, and Cora knows that Regina is not here, has not been here for a large span of time.
Cora lets out a forceful breath, her mouth snapping closed as wrinkled hands pull back unruly hair. With a frown she closes her eyes and concentrates. She concentrates on dark hair and dark eyes, on a scared lip, she concentrates on her daughter, seeking her out with her magic and with her blood, and it's when she remembers the soft trill Regina used to make as a baby that she knows where she is, on where the green magic has drawn her. Cora raises her arms and disappears in cloud of smoke.
The light sings, oh it sings and soars and lives as it thrums.
dimmer, brighter, dimmer
thrumming, thumping
dimmer, brighter, dimmer
Granny thinks she probably should have called someone else.
Charming and Snow, coats thrown over their sleepwear, stand shivering as they observe the light, now much brighter than it had been when first spotted. The reaction though, to call for the king and queen, had been instinctual when confronted with something that so unnerved Granny. Now though, as two dumbfounded faces stare up at the light, shining bright upon them as they shrug, Granny wishes, with a roll of her eyes, that she'd called someone with magic instead.
"I don't know Granny, I guess we'll just have to leave it and see what happens," David says, the tall broadly built man shrugging as if it really isn't of any consequence. Snow nods by his side, tired eyes squinting as she yawns.
"You don't understand," Granny said, looking at the man, the boy, so much younger than herself, from over her glasses. She gestures at the light, voice and tone and stance serious, "That thing is dangerous, I know it, and something has to be done."
"But what, Granny? We don't even know what this thing is, let alone how to get rid of it," David says, cajoling voice trying to sway her to his side and it's annoying as fuck.
"Look," she snaps, tirade at the tip of her tongue when Snow steps forward, eyes hard, eyebrows drawn down.
"Let's watch our tone," she says, as if she's dealing with a child in one of her classes.
Whoa, Granny thinks, a disbelieving snort escaping her, who the hell do you think you are? she wants to ask, before she remembers she's talking to Queen Snow White. But then right on the same stream Granny remembers she lives in Maine, and Maine doesn't have a Queen, and thank you very much Granny voted for Obama and he's the only person she would possibly take any patronizing from.
Granny opens her mouth to let loose when her ears catch it, old wolf ears hearing before Snow and David the sound of footsteps and hushed voices. Granny spins towards the sound, and lets out a relieved breath when she realizes it's the fairies, nuns rather.
But quickly any comfort Granny felt at having the nuns close evaporates, Nova at the head of the group dispels any false hope Granny had of the fairies fixing this situation. Nova's feet are bloody and bare; she's in her pajamas, coat thrown loosely over her shoulders, but her arms dangle free of the sleeves. Her face is blank and her eyes are wide and stares and stares into the light, she doesn't blink, doesn't turn her gaze from the brightness. The wolf in Granny howls.
"Blue," Granny calls, as she sees the diminutive woman a pace behind Nova. The Mother Superiors hair is undone, she's bent awkwardly and has an arm clutching her side, she's in a coat and pajamas, with ugly boots on her feet.
"Blue, what's happening?" Snow asks, rushing towards Nova, hands stretched out to touch her.
"Don't! Don't touch her," Blue wheezes, but it's enough to stop Snow, who turns her concern instead on the deathly pale Blue who sways in her steps.
"What happened?" she asks again.
Blue is looking at the light as well, narrowed eyes calculating, "It's this thing," she spits out, "there's a, a," she gesticulates wildly as she searches for the right word, "a sick magic in the air, it's emitting from this light, I can feel it. It's drawing Nova towards it."
David steps forward, jaw squared as he reaches and grabs Nova's bicep, totally ignoring the cry of 'don't' that come from both Blue and Granny. Granny has no idea what he was hoping to achieve, but she thinks being thrown to the ground several feet away while gasping for breath was decidedly not it. Snow runs to her husband's side, shocked little gasps escaping from her mouth every step. But Ruby gets to him first, surprising them all with her sudden appearance. Ruby manhandles David into sitting and once Snow has her arms wrapped around his neck she stands and approaches Granny.
"Granny," she says, voice questioning and nervous as she looks up at the burning light, and then back to her grandmother. "This thing had my hackles rising all the way from home, what the hell is it?"
They never really were touchy feely type people, but Granny is overcome in this moment by how much she appreciates Ruby, how much she loves her, she wraps Ruby in a one armed embrace and the much younger woman seems to melt into it, the tension in her shoulders relaxing.
Granny and Ruby both hear it though, the soft padding of bare feet on concrete, they pull away from each other, faces pointed towards the sound and they are the first to see Regina Mills walking towards them, wearing silk pajama bottoms and a Eurythmics band tee that's way too big.
The light burns so bright, it shines, and dances and oh, oh
they are so close
the light beckons.
Blue is very old, very, very old, her power as a fairy in the old world lending her years beyond measure, but when she looks into that sick growing light, something in her, something deep and unexplainable, recognizes that it harkens back to before her lifetime. It should not be. It should not exist.
And yet here it is, it is repulsive and feeling it in the air around her, having it touching her skin, makes her almost physically sick. The cracked ribs from her blow to the window aren't helping much either really. But she walked with Nova, never letting the girl out of her sight, even as Jude and the other sisters begged her to rest, to let them take her to the hospital, she didn't let Nova out of her sight. But now, standing so close to the light, standing before the light that drove Nova into the night, Blue has to sit down, her strength leaves and her legs collapse just as she catches sight of the Evil Queen, looking far less evil than usual in her too big shirt and makeup less face.
Snow rockets up from the ground just as Blue falls, she snarls and stands with her arms outstretched as if to protect everyone from the deposed Mayor.
But everyone watches silently as the dark haired woman, far shorter than normal without her heels, comes to stop unmoving before the light, blank gaze staring and staring just like Nova's. "Regina," Snow snaps, disgust in her voice as she stalks towards the woman she'd once called step-mother.
"Don't touch her!" Blue calls in exasperation, she half expects Snow to be as ignorant as her husband and do it anyway, but at the last moment Snow stops, a foot away from Regina, her back stiff. There's a bruise under Regina's right eye, on the high cheekbone, it's ugly and Blue finds herself wincing at it before remembering that she's looking at the woman that had cursed them all. But without make up, and with bedhead hair, Regina is a pretty woman, girl really, to Blue who is centuries old, she is a pretty girl just like Nova, and, it might be the pain driving her mad, but Blue does feel sympathy for the Evil Queen in that moment. She could never imagine hitting Nova, and Nova isn't even her daughter, she doesn't know how Cora does it.
"Regina," Snow says again, and Blue can hear how she spits out the name, and doesn't fault her. Blue shakes herself, Regina deserves her hatred, deserves all their hatred.
Snow is thrown back, and Blue blinks at the suddenes of it, but it's not green that does it, it's dark blue and Cora arrives in a cloud of smoke, snarling in her nightgown, "Get away from my daughter."
Disclaimer: I wish it was the Regina show.
