A/N: Eurgh... you're all just totally amazing, as always! :)
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Liv's anger dissipated as quickly as it had flared up. Lying face down on her bed, she'd screamed into her pillow for a while, kicking her legs in agitation. Then she'd punched a pillow instead of her brother. Finally, she'd remembered to breathe deeply and found that she had calmed down considerably.
She didn't really know why Henry had suddenly decided that he didn't like her. She guessed it might be a jealousy thing, but she couldn't work out how she'd managed to make the boy jealous enough to make her life hell. Not a day went past without him trying to get her into trouble. Liv was well aware that the main reason she retaliated was that she was scared that Emma and Regina would decide they didn't want her there after all.
A soft knock on her door drew her from her thoughts and she rolled over onto her side, pulling her knees up to her chest as she watched the door open and Emma slip into the room. The blonde smiled, leaning against the door as soon as she'd closed it behind her and eyeing Liv sadly. When the girl didn't say anything, but continued to watch her mother, Emma crossed the room and sat cross-legged beside her.
"You know… working out this whole thing with Gold would be a lot simpler if we didn't have to keep an eye on you and Henry in case one of you kills the other." Emma murmured after a moment or two.
"I'm not gonna try and kill him." Liv assured her. "He might try and kill me… but more likely he'll just bitch about me until you…"
"Until we what?" Her mother asked. When the teenager didn't answer, or meet her eyes, Emma sighed. "Liv… you're not going anywhere. I know it's tough, but you've gotta get it into your head that me and your Mom want you here and, even if you try to leave, you haven't got a hope in hell of escaping."
"Yeah?"
Smiling at the almost challenging tone in the girl's voice, as though she was daring Emma to test her, the blonde tucked a stray strand of hair behind Liv's ear. "Yeah. Now get down stairs because Regina wants to talk to you about some magical crap that I have no interest in and I need to go have a little talk with your brother."
"What kind of magical crap?" Liv asked, arching an eyebrow questioningly.
Emma shrugged and got up off the bed, pulling the teenager up by her hand until she followed her across the room. "No idea, but she's got that 'I'm about to lecture you 'til you want to hit me in the head with something' face on. Good luck, kid."
Groaning, Liv descended the stairs and made her way to her mother's study. She paused outside and briefly considered knocking. Then she rolled her eyes and barged into the room, shrugging as Regina jumped slightly and stared at her in surprise.
"Emma said you wanted to talk to me about something?"
"Mmm… close the door." Regina nodded and took a seat on the couch. Liv rolled her eyes again, but did as she was told, moving to sit beside the woman. "I've been wanting to ask you for a while… how did you learn the transportation spell?"
"The what now?"
"The beaming yourself around in a puff of smoke thing." Regina repeated the teenager's earlier words with a soft sigh. "How did you learn how to do that?"
Liv shrugged. "I don't know, Regina. I just did it."
"Rumpel didn't teach you, did he?"
"What? No!"
Regina let out a breath of relief, closing her eyes for a moment as though she was gathering her thoughts. "I thought… I know you were back in Storybrooke before you came home and I was scared…"
"You thought I went to Gold?" Liv asked in disbelief. "You saw his face when he realised I wasn't dead."
"I just wasn't sure… I couldn't work out why you wouldn't come here unless… unless you didn't want to. Or someone else had you."
"Mom. I came here straight away." The teenager said firmly. "But you were still pregnant and it made me feel… funny. So I covered you with a blanket and left. I came back the next night because I wanted to see you and Ma. But then you woke up and I panicked and sorta… poofed out of here."
Regina frowned lightly. "You just… did it? Instinctively?" When her daughter shrugged and nodded, the brunette's eyes widened. "It took me months to learn that spell."
"I think… I was thinking that maybe… well… you said that magic is linked to emotion, right?" Liv mumbled. Regina nodded slowly, seeing where she was going with her train of thought. "Well… I fixed Emma's car because I was guilty that I'd wrecked it. I like… strangled… that junk yard guy because I was really angry. I… I think… I think I came back from The Netherworld because I was terrified of whatever was in the dark. And then I was really shocked when you woke up that night and managed to transport myself away."
"It's possible, I suppose, that an extreme burst of emotion could be the stimulus to your magic." Regina nodded. "In fact it seems like the most sensible explanation."
Liv chewed her lip anxiously. "But that's really scary, right? I mean… what if I get really, properly angry at Henry or you or Emma? What if I hurt you?"
"I don't think you would let yourself, sweetheart. But it's really important we work on you learning to control your magic, rather than your magic controlling you. Your magic is instinctive and natural. We need to work on forcing it to stay dormant unless you want to use it."
Regina's magic had grown and developed under Rumpelstiltskin's direction, but Emma's magic was completely natural and instinctive. It seemed that Liv was the same as the blonde; especially as both women were prone to causing things to explode when they were angry or upset. So far the brunette hadn't convinced her girlfriend to let her help her understand how to use her magic properly, but hopefully their daughter wouldn't be so stubborn.
"Like self-control?"
Regina smirked. "Exactly like self-control, which I know doesn't come easily to you, dear, so it'll take a lot of work."
"When do we get started?" The teenager asked, completely seriously. When her mother raised an eyebrow at her, she shrugged. "I don't want to take any risks. Henry might deserve it right now, but I don't want to even think about the possibility that I might badly hurt him."
Nodding understandingly, the brunette stood up and held out a hand towards her daughter. Frowning lightly, Liv took it and allowed Regina to pull her to her feet.
"Think of a memory that will cause you to experience intense emotion." She ordered.
Liv quirked an eyebrow at her. "Really?"
"Whatever you do, I'll stop it or fix it." Regina promised.
Closing her eyes, Liv focused her thoughts on how it had felt to return home after being in The Netherworld for so long. A swell of happiness engulfed her and she felt the familiar tingle of magic coursing through her veins. A soft chuckle forced the teenager to open an eye and, when she saw what she'd done, she looked around incredulously.
Every surface in the study was covered by baskets and vases and pots containing a variety of brightly coloured flowers. The scent almost knocked Liv out and she looked back to her mother, totally unimpressed.
"I don't even like flowers." She muttered.
"What emotion caused this?"
"Happiness."
"Interesting…" Regina pursed her lips for a moment and then nodded. With a wave of her hand she made every single plant disappear. "Try another one."
Liv's mind wandered to the current situation with Henry and she felt frustration engulf her. She didn't know how to deal with the situation; how to make him realise that she wasn't trying to take his place; that she just wanted–
Her train of thought was lost when there was a loud pop and the light beyond her eyelids was extinguished. A moment later, the light was back again and Liv opened her eyes.
"Don't move." Regina ordered, crouching on the ground. She held broken glass carefully in her hand; the remnants of the light bulb that had broken moments before. Waving her other hand over the glass shards, they vanished and she straightened up.
"Frustration." The girl supplied before she could be asked. "Why haven't I done anything big like the transport cloud or something? I conjured a few flowers and broke a light bulb. Big deal…"
"I think it's to do with what you want or need as well as emotion. You wanted to fix Emma's car, so you did. You wanted to scare the man to stop him selling it, so you did. You needed to leave that place and then get away from here, so you did." The brunette thought aloud. "It seems to me is that the emotional surge you feel is the stimulus to your magic. But when you combine it with a need to do something, you focus your energy."
"So if I can stop myself feeling–"
"No." Regina said at once, reaching out and grasping her shoulders. "You're not going to stop yourself feeling things. Shutting yourself off… that's not an option, sweetheart. You're going to learn how to control your emotions. Either that, or you have to stop wanting and needing things."
Liv nodded and smiled weakly, before dropping onto the couch and conjuring an apple in her hand. She took a bite, chewing thoughtfully on her mouthful. Her eyes followed Regina as she crossed the room to her drinks trolley and poured herself a glass of scotch.
"Do you have any idea what this whole thing with Gold is about?" She asked after a couple of moments. "Have you got any clues… where do we start? What could I possibly do to him that would threaten him that much that he'd want me stuck in The Netherworld?"
"There's only one person I know of who could be said to have any idea what goes on in Rumpelstiltskin's head but, unfortunately, she's dead. And even if she weren't…"
"Who?" Liv asked as her mother trailed off, staring miserably into her drink.
Regina sighed and moved to sit beside her, her gaze still trained on the amber liquid in her glass. "My Mother."
"Your Mother? Cora? Why would she know what he might be up to?"
"They were… she… My Mother was more than a match for Rumpel. He taught her, but she was just as powerful as he was. He confided in her and she seemed to understand the way his mind worked; although that's not necessarily a good thing."
There was a long silence as Liv turned the words over in her mind, wondering whether that information could be of any use to them. Her hand sneaked out and she squeezed Regina's gently, not looking at her. The brunette clung on tightly, a wave of relief washing over her as her daughter didn't pull away. Although things had been better since Liv had returned from The Netherworld, she mainly acted as she had done before finding out her connection to the two women; as though she was still just Regina's employee and houseguest. Occasionally she would copy Henry's use of 'Mom' and 'Ma' but it was usually 'Regina' and 'Emma'. 'Grandma' and 'Grandpa' were even more infrequently used; in fact she almost never called her grandparents anything other than their names. None of them pushed her, however, wary that she'd spook and retreat even further away.
"What if we could find a way to bring Cora back?"
"That's impossible." Regina told her quickly, involuntarily tightening her grip on the girl's hand as she remembered Daniel's return. "Even if it wasn't… it wouldn't be her."
Liv winced, guessing what the brunette was thinking about from the story Henry had told her. "I meant… what if I could literally bring her back?"
"What?"
"From The Netherworld or Underworld or wherever she is."
Her mother's eyes widened. "No! Absolutely not."
"Mom… I can–"
"It's too dangerous; far too dangerous. I will not risk you for anything. Especially…"
"I can do it without you." Liv reminded her. Regina's eyes widened even more, if that was possible. "I can go to Gold and ask him for that potion – he'd probably be more than willing to send me back there – track Cora down and then just beam us out of there. If she can help solve whatever is going on, then I am more than willing to do it."
"You can't!"
"I can and I will."
There was a long, heavy silence where mother and daughter stared at each other, neither willing to back down. Regina had mixed feelings about the suggestion. She wanted her mother back, especially now she had her heart, but she was terrified that it would be the old Cora; the ruthless, cold woman who'd cared more for power than anyone or anything. She also couldn't bear the thought of something happening to Liv if she went back to that place.
The determination she saw on the teenager's face left her in no doubt, however, that she would find a way to carry out her plan whether Regina helped her or not. The best thing the woman could do was make sure the risk was minimal; as minimal as possible, anyway.
"Fine." She growled out, gritting her teeth. "But we are not going to that twisted little imp. I will find a way to send you back there. But Liv… you have to be sure you can do this. I don't know if I'll be able to come with you."
"I can. I can do this."
Regina sighed. "We have to tell Emma."
"Tell Emma what?" The blonde asked, making both of them jump as she entered the study quietly.
"We… I… I'm going to bring Cora back."
"Are you fucking crazy?" Emma breathed, staring between her girlfriend and their daughter in horror. "Cora? You want to bring Cora back?"
"She's the only one who knows how to deal with Rumpel. And now she's got her heart back..." The older woman sighed.
"But babe... this is Cora we're talking about." The blonde shook her head. "Besides… Bringing her back from the dead… won't that turn her into… well… whatever Daniel was?"
Regina shook her head slowly, clenching and unclenching her fists. "We're not going to reanimate her body."
"Then what are you planning to do?"
"I'm gonna go and get her." Liv informed her calmly, swinging her legs slightly as they dangled down.
"What?"
The teenager smiled. "I'm going to pay my old friend Erebus a visit."
"You mean–?"
"I'm going back to The Netherworld."
"No!"
"Yes, Ma." Liv told her firmly. "Mom's gonna try and work out a way she can come too… but I know I can do this. Cora might be able to help us and, if not, at least Mom'll have her mother back and Grandma will stop feeling guilty about the whole situation."
All three of them knew that the teenager was using the family names to get the women onside, but none of them mentioned it. Emma bit her lip, unable to fault the reasoning, but still far from comfortable with the idea. It seemed, however, that the argument had already been lost.
