That Story Broke

Notes :

So... You knew it from the beginning it had to come a little bit darker near the end right ?

I mean, it's not like if I wrote a happy land made of fur and candy... From the first chapter you knew. Well, it is going to get darker.

And I should warn the sensible spirits and all, but really, let's be honest, they all quit long ago.

I am quite honestly exhausted that this story is coming to it's end, it's good but sad too. I wish I did some things better though. Maybe the next story will be better.

I'm still longing for more reviews but, after that one chapter I guess I will give up on that.

Thank you my one and fist reviewer Sailor Sayuri, it goes to my heart...

The last chapter will come in due time. It's been shaped but not written.

Sorry for any mistakes in the writing I had to post it tonight because I felt like it, so.

Long live SwanQueen.

Rating M. and more.

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9. Last Swan Standing

Regina woke up searching for Henry.

The whole world was screaming.

The walls of the universe were tense to the break point. The Earth was growling its pain. And the mine's walls were starting to shake and go down. They had to escape.

Without she even had to think about it purple smoke burst inside the thin corridors, breathing like fire, swirling, catching every last breathing creature in the mines in a last resort.

Regina's instincts sent everyone flying at the surface, abruptly.

They all fell against the others, heavily, some still sleeping. They landed in the worst disorder in the forest, hitting the trees and the earth painfully. A mere second after, the mines were collapsing on themselves. As was the town.

Everyone looked at everyone in shock.

Regina's head immediately felt like it was going to explode and she fell on her knees, crying out of pain. She pushed her palms against her head. As if she could cut through her skull and skin with her fingers, reach her brain hand suck the pain out.

Screams. She didn't even hear her own screams underneath the loud noise of her ache.

- Mom ! Mom !

- Regina !

She was burning inside. The magic was too much. Before Henry could reach to her, her hands burst in fire.

- Don't ! I can't hold it !

She growled to her son. Teeth clenched together. Terrified to hurt him.

The magic was eating her up. Too much light and strength. She had done what none had ever done. Transporting that much people at the same time required much more power than she thought she had.

She didn't really think though.

She tried to concentrate, screaming, to put the fire out. Everyone was surrounding her from a secured distance.

Snow looked terrified. She wanted to run to her but Henry was firmly gripping her. David was holding their son.

- Get. Back !

Screamed Regina her jaws glued to one another. Her whole body tensed as waves of rough magic burst from every corner of the earth at the same time. All trying to enter the small cells of the witch's body. She felt her bones ready to break, her blood ready to boil.

A circle of fire rushed out of her chest lifting her from the floor.

The magic wave flew over and trough everyone but without burning anyone.

Its strength left Regina out of breath before she passed out.

She could hear Snow and Henry running towards her, screaming her name.

The dusty cloud was only starting to fall back towards the whole where their world had been. Were Regina's town had stood for nearly thirty years. Only the forest in which they were standing remained. And at its center, there was a single form.

No more monsters.

No more anything.

Emma.

Emma was standing in the ashes of their world.

Her cape of feathers slowly floating in a cool smooth wind. Head down. They could only see her from far away. But even in the distance the effect was frightening. Her blonde shinny hair surrounding her head, lightly falling on her shoulders.

Had they been closer they would have heard the sound of the feathers clapping like birds wings do. She raised her head and everyone felt her gaze in their chests.

As Mulan, Henry and Ruby were petting a still absent Regina Snow's instinct rose, shamefully a little late for her own taste. She searched for little Emma and called for the child but as they all soon realized she was nowhere.

They all looked towards Emma again, in despair. They were truly lost. And terrified. Mothers and fathers gathered their children. But none knew what exactly to do.

And suddenly the Dark One's voice resonated, a squall of pure anger.

- Re-Gi-Naaaa !

She yelled in the distance.

That was a cold voice. Charged in hatred. In pain.

The call of an opponent.

Regina moaned painfully in her son's arms. He was crying.

Elsa was standing very still above them. Mulan rose at her side and her comforting hand flew to the blonde's shoulder.

The truth was, it was a fight none of them had been ready for. Emma was their friend and they couldn't get pass it.

No matter what.

Regina moaned again and opened her eyes. Her head still ached a bit.

She felt out of strength.

Barely any magic left.

Her suit was ruined. She smiled at the thought. Feeling silly to think about that then.

Elsa nodded as if talking to herself. And she started walking towards Emma.

- Wait !

Shouted Mulan.

- Don't try to stop me.

Dropped dryly the queen.

- I had no intention to, my queen...

Answered the warrior.

- Yeah. Let's do this...

Whispered Ruby following them suddenly.

One by one, slowly, people just joined the three women.

- They have no magic ! Or not enough ! They're gonna get killed !

Feared Gold.

Regina got up with her son's help and wiped out the dirt on her clothes. She put a hand on her son's cheek and closed her eyes.

- I love you Henry. Please forgive me...

- Mum...

Tried the boy.

But he was already with Snow and David and the baby at the town line. Her last strand of magic.

They all shouted of anger and surprise.

Snow smiled and, following her heart she tossed her baby in Henry's arms and pushed him. The teenager couldn't help crossing the town line. He shouted in surprise. Feeling a bit betrayed by everyone.

He couldn't see but he knew his gran parents wouldn't follow.

And he was right.

Smiling at each other they started to run on the empty road. What ever Regina had in mind, they would not back down from a fight.

From this fight.

At the top of the hill Regina smiled both shyly and proudly at Gold, and to answer him she just said:

- Well, dear... They don't need magic. They're heroes. Heroes never run.

And she started to walk towards Emma.

Towards her last fight.

Towards a most certain death as she had no magic left.

And Emma started to laugh. A bright and loud laughter. The echo of sorrow. Echo of solitude and pain. The laughter rolled like the horses of a thousand Huns thrown to battle. Like walls of mirror breaking and water falling to the abyss.

And their hearts went cold at its sound.

Yes she laughed as her mind was clear at last. She had become one again. The most dark of ones. And coming to her was her last ingredient to destroy the town line and let magic devour the rest of the world. For she would be the queen of this new world. She would shape it to match her pain and sorrow.

She would shape it to last for ages, a world of solitude and ashes. No man nor woman would escape her deathly embrace.

They would pay for her pain. They would pay for their egoism. For their cowardice. For their love. And for so much more.

For there is no stronger force than darkness.

She shook her head, trying to fight the pain of the loud voices in her head.

She smiled.

Coming to her was the resilient heart of Regina. Every strand of hate and desire she had towards the woman was waiting for the moment she could plunge her hand in her chest. Every part of her filled with the anger of knowing she was the one that had ripped her from her parents, her world, her childhood... Every last part of jealousy telling her that Regina had stolen Henry from her.

Emma was full again. Love and hate. No more divisions in her head. She loved the woman that she knew and she hated the Queen.

She could only see one path.

Death.

One of them had to die. That all made sense in her head now. It was her. Regina. It had always been about Regina. And the voices agreed on that. But they didn't agree on who should die. The sides were getting stronger. Love, hate. They were splitting up. Only this time no Inbetween to hide into. No other body, no other world.

This time she was full, full of her own contradictions and mysteries. This time she was One. And she understood what it meant. To hate for love and love the hatred. Anger was her water, her air. Anger was everything.

She saw Regina walking fast to join Elsa, Mulan and Ruby on the front line.

She was surprised to see how many of them had come to kill her.

She was proud too.

She kept thinking of the joys she had had there. In Storybrooke. She kept convincing herself how beautiful the town was, in how much happiness Henry had grown into because of Regina.

She kept thinking how many things she had missed of his childhood. How many birthday presents, how many smiles. And her parents ?

And Neal ?

She searched for Gold in the crowd but he was nowhere to be seen. She wasn't too surprised about that.

She kept thinking how easy it had been to wallow in Regina's dreams. She kept trying to remember her sent, the sound of her voice, her laughter. The way her eyes shone when she was angry. The way she moved. The way she moaned when she made love to her. All the reminders she had to destroy the one that had taken everything from her.

Even love.

When they arrived a hundred meters from her they stopped. Elsa and Maleficent had their hands up. Ready to fight. The others had swords.

Emma smiled.

She still couldn't decide if she should kill them all or have them watch her destroy the world they had blindly left outside, pretending they weren't part of it. The world she had been raised in. Her world.

A place without happy ending.

Yes.

They should watch. She would crush their souls before she'd kill them.

She snapped her fingers and shadows appeared between her and them. Shadows of beings. Tall and blond beings.

Beautiful and cold as death.

Thin and muscular.

Elves as they don't exist in their stupid world of fairy tales. Elves as existed in her mind. Elves of darkness, shinning with light.

- Regina...

She whispered in a painful tone. She longed to seize the woman and fuck her on spot. She longed to seize her and strangle her take the last strand of life out of her.

The creatures lifted their swords and the battle begun. Metal against metal. Flesh against teeth. She took advantage of the rush and fear to approach her goal.

The witch was surprisingly good with a sword.

Emma felt the woman had no magic left. She smiled.

Regina cut elegantly in an expert move at a shadows chest and, following the move, turned around and led her blade into another. Both faded away leaving her to face only Emma.

Emma smiled malevolently.

And suddenly she felt the need of and audience.

She lifted her arms and sent everyone to the floor. The shadows faded away. Regina was still standing in front of her.

- You took everything from me...

Whispered Emma.

- My family. My land. My son...

- Emma...

- My heart.

- Emma !

Shouted Snow's voice in the crowd. She looked like she had ran. Regina looked at them, frightened. They only gave her a smile.

- YOU TOOK EVERYTHING FROM ME !

Yelled Emma.

Regina took a step forward.

- Yes. Yes I did.

Emma searched for pity in her eyes but found only pain and... love ?

- Emma... Leave them be. Please. It's me. It's me you want.

- Yes... You're right. You're very right my Queen... But mostly... It's your heart I need !

She shouted while sinking her hand in the chest of the woman she hated and loved the most. She ripped the heart out of it's caged and smiled.

- Much brighter, now, are we... My dear, dear, Evil Queen ?

It was mostly bright red indeed.

- Emma !

Shouted a few imploring voices.

Regina sighted.

They all saw that.

Even Emma.

But they all wrongly thought they knew why.

Even Emma.

As Emma had seized her heart Regina felt a glimpse of magic. Only an echo.

She remembered a long gone memory.

Only a glimpse.

She was a girl. Merely three or four. She was longing to swim with the birds swirling at a pound's surface. Ducks and swans. As her mother was looking away she escaped and joined the water.

Without thinking, believing the mere sight of a movement made her able to copy it, she entered the water. Soon she was drowning but her mother hadn't see her yet.

The girl didn't yell nor gasped.

She had become a swan.

The purest of magic had surrounded her and, in fact she had copy it. Copy life itself.

Regina smiled.

Emma frowned and understood she had missed something. But before she could even think Regina's hand swiftly draw her own heart from her chest.

Everyone gasped. Emma looked at her darkened heart in disbelief.

- No ! No ! You can't I saw your mother ! You... No... No...

Regina felt the void that was inside of her. She was empty.

Fully empty. Empty of all.

No pain. No love. No fear.

The world around didn't even felt real.

She couldn't fail.

She wouldn't fail.

She accepted her death gratefully. Emma would live. Henry would be safe.

She knew who she was and the purpose of her suffering. The purpose of her resiliency. Emma was right. The darkness inside of her had understood what none had seen before... She, Regina, was the master of darkness. Capable of turning it to light.

She closed her eyes and called upon her magic luring in the air, in the trees, in every tiniest part of the dust. Her magic had never left.

Magic cannot be destroyed. Only changed. Shaped. Pushed away.

And her mother could never had taken it away from her, not really. Not forever.

She let the black strands of Emma's heart leak to her fingers, swirl around it, as Emma stood frozen by fear.

And after she had successfully ripped all darkness from her heart, the darkness trapped inside of the woman she loved started to leak out as well. The dark strands reaching out the same way they came. A squall of blue and black. Circling to the sky.

The dagger appeared out of nowhere. Spinning on it's tip on the floor between the two women. And as the strands coming out of Emma started to thicken, the knife started to fade. Turning to the same black matter.

Before it was all over Regina smiled sadly to Emma. Only to her. And pushed roughly her heart back were it belonged, causing the blonde to gasp.

Emma remembered that she, herself, was holding the queen's heart and threw it back to Regina's chest. She desperately wanted to talk but couldn't think of anything.

As the last strand left Emma the two women were lifted in the air. The cloud of darkness angrily shooting blue waves of pain at them both. And, in them, reflected as sun rays on a dark cloud were the shapes of two swans.

- Regina !

Suddenly shouted Emma in a sore, tired voice. But her own at last. She felt the magic. She felt its strength. A strength she couldn't control or comprehend.

She was terrified.

Terrified to loose her again.

- I love you, Emma... I love you more than anything in the world.

Simply said Regina also reaching for Emma's hands.

The queen's voice resonated, covering the loud noise of the dark clouds.

And as everyone gasped, as Emma's hands finally touched Regina's, a blast of light stroke, covering everything with its bright, blinding ray.

And the whole world stopped spinning for the last of a heart beat as Regina felt her whole being slipping away into emptiness.

At the town line Henry changed the baby's position and felt an itch. Small. Almost unnoticeable. As if his heart had just missed a beat.

And the air fell into flaming pieces. The yellow line cutting the road in half appeared.

The magic wall was down.

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