Regina enters Grannies with more energy than she's had the past couple days. Even though they still haven't heard from Emma, she's mostly recovered from the attack. She notices Snow and David sitting at the bar, sharing a plate of pancakes and doing the crossword together.
She looks at the couple with distaste and sits down next to them. "How do you two do it? You're always being torn apart, and forced into horrible situations. How are you still this close?" She had just spent the morning at an ultrasound with Zelena regaling her with stories from New York, and all the fun things she and Robin did together.
Snow answers almost immediately. "It's about total trust in each other."
"And learning from past mistakes so you can grow together." Says David.
"Ugh. I'm sorry I asked." Regina pauses a moment. "But... how does it always work out perfectly for you?"
"Oh, it doesn't. We might end up completely apart from one another, hence our saying."
"You don't worry you'll find each other too late?"
"No, we follow our hearts and it usually works out in the long run." Snow finishes a word and looks up at her. "Regina, are you okay?"
Regina half nods and makes a dismissive hand gesture. "It's just that it never seems to work out for me and Robin, even in the long run so it would seem."
Snow frowns. "Maybe you should talk to the Blue Fairy about it. The fairies are the ones that pointed you towards him in the first place, right?"
"How did you know that?"
"I literally own a book where you're a main character."
"Right." Regina looks over to the other side of the diner and nudges Snow. "Don't look now, but I think bookworm is breaking up with her boy toy."
Snow glances behind her and winces. Belle looks on the edge of tears, as always, but Will just shrugs and says something that makes her laugh. He then pours a small bit of amber liquid from a flask into her cup and a generous amount into his. They then clink glasses together and take a sip.
Regina slides out of her stool and walks across the diner to their table. "Belle. How's Rumple?"
Belle jumps a bit at her sudden appearance, but composes herself quickly. "He's still asleep. Well, I think magical coma might be the better word for it. The apprentice says that if we wake him up now he might die."
"And this apprentice, has he said anything about contacting Merlin?"
"Just that he can't after Emma hit him with that blast of light magic. He's weak right now, but hopefully soon…" Belle shrugs.
Regina scoffs, "So we're just going to wait around now? While Emma suffers as the Dark one, we-" She gestures at belle's cup, "drink with our hot cocoa?"
"Like I said before. If you find Emma and bring her to me I can try and help, but there's not much else I can do." Belle says with narrowed eyes.
Regina is saved from finding a retort when a loud noise comes from outside the diner. An explosion mixed with the sound of grating metal and shattering glass. The entire diner jumps in surprise.
Grumpy comes barreling into the diner. "The clock tower was just destroyed! Something exploded from the inside!" Most of the diner's patrons rushes outside to see what's going on.
They look down the street to see that it's true. Debris is scattered across the street from the tower. Hook is already approaching the building. He sees the group outside the diner and gestures wildly at them with his hook. Regina shares a look of understanding with Snow and David, and they take off down the street. Even Belle and Will follow.
Hook sees the group coming and nods. "It must be her, right?" He looks at the glass littering the street and mutters under his breath, "Who keeps fixing this thing?"
Belle unlocks the door and they all rush up the stairs to the door leading into the tower. David tries the knob but finds it locked. "Belle, do you have a key?" She shakes her head. "Emma! Are you in there?"
There's the sound of footsteps and a soft bang noise. Emma mutters incomprehensibly.
"We're coming in!" yells Snow.
"No, don't come up!" Emma shouts through the closed door.
"Emma, please!" Snow shouts back. She waits for a response, but none comes. She looks over at Will. "Pick the lock."
Will nods and kneels by the rusted doorknob. He's just gotten out a pick when the door and the entire wall start to shimmer with magic. He jumps back just as the door disappears, becoming the same colourless stone as the rest of the wall.
Emma shouts something again; now indistinguishable behind the wall.
Regina sighs and steps forward. "This is getting ridiculous." She waves her arms and disappears in a cloud of purple smoke.
She reappears on the other side of the wall and looks up the wooden steps to the platform by the now-mangled clock face. "Emma?" She begins to climb up and spots the other woman crouched on the floor, her arms wrapped around her knees. She's only wearing her white tank-top and jeans, despite the chill in the air.
Emma shifts, and looks up, her face obscured by her hair. "What are you doing in here? I told you all to leave. I can't be seen right now."
"That's ridiculous. How many times do I have to tell you to keep yourself connected to the people you love? Come on, we'll go collect the rabble and have dinner at Grannies or something." Emma doesn't move so Regina narrows her eyes and thinks to the one think that helped her out of the dark. "Henry's waiting."
Emma raises her head fully and the soft streetlight coming through the clock face illuminates her face. Regina takes an involuntary step backwards then groans. "Oh, no… Emma."
There's tough, leathery skin in splotches covering half of Emma's face. Her right eye is a bright, lizard-like, gold colour that reflects the light. Her hair has lost its sheen, and hangs limp. There are two nails on her hand that have sharpened, and lengthened. They almost look like claws now.
"I can't stop it from happening." Emma says, in a dead voice. "It's taking over." Light magic mixed with random streaks of darkness bursts violently from her hand with multiple sparks that scorch the floor then die out.
Regina slowly inches closer to Emma, with one hand up to defend herself quickly if need be. "Just try to relax. We can get your parents and Hook in here, they can help…"
"No!" Emma shouts. The railing behind her crumples in on itself and hangs in splinters. "I don't want to see any of them. I just feel so… angry. I know it's not actually me that's angry with them, but I can't help it. I just want…" She trails off when Regina lowers herself so she's sitting next to Emma. Their shoulders touch, and Emma suddenly finds herself grounded by the contact.
"You want everybody else to feel what you're feeling. You want to lash out at the people closest to you, because they're easy targets. Plus now I bet you're having trouble seeing why they're close to you at all. Why could they love you, when you've been through what you have?"
Emma meets her gaze then looks down, ashamed. "Yes. That's exactly it. At first I thought I needed to be alone to protect them, now I'm not sure what I'm feeling."
"Magical darkness works like a parasite. It latches on and feeds off whatever you were before, turning you on your loved ones so you're isolated and it can grow even faster."
"I should go with you, I know. It's just… I've been trying to get a hold on this magic, but it just keeps getting-" Another burst of sparks comes, brightening the room for a few short seconds and leaving more scorch marks. "…I think the light magic is actually making it worse, somehow."
Regina looks up at the room and notices burns and small areas of destruction littered everywhere.
"This is only happening because you're alone. I'm sure of it," Regina lies, forcing a confident smile. "Come on, let's go have dinner and it'll all calm down." She stands and offers her hand to Emma.
She takes it, hesitantly, but grows in confidence when Regina's hand doesn't immediately combust. "Alright." She can't help but smile back. "I guess it's your turn to be the hero now, huh?"
"Oh, I hardly offering to walk you down the block to a terrible diner qualifies me as a hero." Regina knocks some dust and splintered wood off her otherwise pristine skirt.
"No, no…" Emma smiles and they start to descend the wooden stairs. "That's nice too, but I was talking about your whole attitude about this. You're going far out of your way to make sure I'm not an idiot, and I really appreciate it. Plus, you said it yourself. You're practiced at fighting the Darkness. Sounds like a hero to me."
"I don't think it counts if it's your own evil you're fighting."
"Well, as the curse-anointed saviour and hero, I completely disagree." Emma's voice has taken on a teasing tone, and Regina would be comforted by the fall back to routine, if it weren't for the one golden eye, reminding her that everything is not as it should be.
Regina teleports them to the other side of the wall and the whole crowd is still there. Even Will stuck around, he lets the coin he was flipping between his fingers slip into his hand when he sees Emma. She reaches for her face self-consciously. "Hey, everybody."
Hook steps forward and grabs her hand. If there's any hesitation at the sight of her face beginning to change, he buries it deep. "Swan, we've been so worried. Are you alright?"
"I'm fine. Thanks to Regina, I now see I may have been acting a little impulsively. We can figure this out together."
Hook smiles and leans in, pressing his lips to Emma's in a sweet kiss that they both pull away from giddy. Regina looks past them and notices Belle frowning slightly, her eyes locked on the couple.
The group leaves the building as one, bur Emma pulls Snow to the back of the group so she can talk to her alone.
"Do you still have the dagger?" She asks. Snow nods. "Good. I just… I want you to know that I'm not totally in control of the choices I'm making and…"
"But we can help you with that."
Emma smiles a little sadly. "I know you will, but seriously, if I ever start to do anything… use the dagger to stop me. Don't hesitate because I'm your daughter. If you have to, use it to order me into the cells at the station, or even one of those creepy rooms under the hospital."
"Emma, I-" The hesitant look on Snows face gives Emma some concerns.
"Look, if you can't do it, give the dagger to Regina."
With a doubtful look, Snow agrees.
"Great, now let's go get something to eat."
Hopefully going to get into stuff about Merlin in the next one... Again, first fanfiction, so if there's anything flawed, or NQR about anything in here, please let me know :)
