Only one more chapter after this... originally, I wanted to space this one out until March, but looks like that didn't work. Love these last two chapters...enjoy!
Regina followed Ruby and Gold in silence as they made their way into town. She hated that she had to send Emma to retrieve her mother's heart, but she had no choice; it needed to be done. And with her and Gold tracking down her mother, it only left Emma with the capabilities to go and get it. Regina just hoped Emma's heart wouldn't falter once she stepped into her vault, and there was no doubt in Regina's mind, that her mother had hidden her heart there. It was one thing for Emma to know about her past from stories, or from her parents and friends one-sided view points, but to see how evil Regina had once been would be the test to see if what Emma felt for her was real.
"Looks like she's hiding out in your office Regina," Ruby barked, snapping Regina out of her momentary haze, she originally was trying to avoid.
"Of course she is," the Queen replied, "I should have known that my mother's true purpose here was to rule, even if it is a small town like Storybrooke. She takes the lead of the town while destroying me in the process. It's a win, win for her." Gold glanced over at her annoyed, since they wasted the vial of blood in his eyes, but it was still needed whether he saw it that way or not, for Emma.
They opened up the front door of Regina's office building to a sinisterly feel in the air that made Ruby whimper.
"Relax," Regina whispered, making sure to fight back any and all pooch comments that were conveniently sitting on the tip of her tongue.
Regina and Gold walked toward the door as if they were Rockstars, making sure Cora would see that no matter what she had done to them in the past, it was all over with and forgotten. Then with one flick of their wrist the doors to Regina's office flung opened.
"Good afternoon," Cora announced unphased by their demeanor. "I didn't realize either of you had scheduled an appointment."
"Oh, I believe this little meeting of ours is way overdue deary." Cora looked over Gold admiringly, making Regina feel queasy.
"Let's just get on with it," she interrupted before her mother's eyes trailed down Gold to the point where she wouldn't be able to hold in her disgust. "What is it that you want here in Storybrooke mother?" Cora's gaze left Gold and floated over to her daughter.
"You break my heart dear." Again Regina held in her obvious emotions at the irony of the statement. "I came here for you, you know that." Regina glanced down at her wrist, where the scars from her encounter with her mother a few days earlier were still clear for all to see.
"Yes, and I received your motherly gift." Cora bounced up, causing Regina to step back, her mother's blazing eyes matching the fireball that was instantly created in her hand. Cora, looking even more repulsed by her actions, swiped the fireball away just as quickly as Regina had conjured it.
"We could have united, as mother and daughter, to reclaim your son for your own, to get your proper revenge on Snow White, to rule as mother and daughter. But no, you choose to go against me, and who you are. You chose this soft path of redemption, to ally yourself with those who despise you Regina. Here, the former Evil Queen coming to the aid of those she tortured and humiliated, to take on the only person who will ever truly love and understand you, your mother." Regina knew what Cora was trying to do, even though she had a point. She couldn't give in to her mother though. As tempted and as sweet tasting the power of dark magic was, she had come too far now to cave. Her life with Henry was too important, and the thought of Emma possibly being by her side as well intensified the must needed strength she needed to stand up to her mother.
"I know you don't approve of this new path I'm going down mother, but if you truly want what's best for me, you'll stand by and support me. We can have a life together." Cora began to laugh, softly at first, then it began to grow louder, until her voice began to echo off the walls. Regina and Gold took a momentary glance at one another, which Cora must have been counting on, and launched her arms at them, throwing them back, but Regina and Gold quickly countered Cora before they fell to the ground. The calmness in Cora's eyes sent sickly shivers down Regina's body, and as the tried to fight her ill feeling away, Ruby took her attention.
"Look out!" Hook had come out from behind the flung opened door with Gold's dagger, but Gold was able to spin around in time to catch the knife with his hands before Hook had a chance to stab him with it. With Gold's focus now on Hook, Cora jerked her hand at Ruby, sending her into the wall, and knocking her out.
"I've never known you to be a dog person dear, you seem to be more of the feline type." And as the words left Cora's lips, Emma appeared in the doorway, with David and Mary Margaret coming up behind her at each of her sides. "Right on time," Cora purred at Emma. Regina's mind flashed to Daniel as her mother eyed Emma up and down, her body filling with fiery rage and turmoil, and with nowhere to put it, Regina screamed and threw her arms at her mother with every ounce of magic she had inside her, sending Cora flying back into her office chair, and crashing back against the window.
"It's time for you to go Killian," Cora yelled, flicking her wrist and sending a blinding light through the room, while a small purple haze engulfed the pirate. When everything cleared up, Cora was standing back up, adjusting her dress, acting as if she wasn't even phased by Regina's faint victory over her, and Hook was gone.
"The dagger," Gold cried.
"Yes Rumple, the dagger. Now my darling, what's more important, helping these fools with me, or yourself." There was no hesitation as Gold fled the office, everyone rolling their eyes at the predictable choice.
Mary Margaret rushed to Ruby's side, who was slowly coming to, with David and Emma still at the door. Regina took a few steps up to Cora, making sure not to show her mother any weakness, but still couldn't hide the love she would always have for her, even with the thoughts of Daniel still lingering within her.
"Please mother, it doesn't have to be like this." Cora stared at her for a while, causing uneasiness to fill the room, but then she looked down at her hands, and back up at Regina motherly and began to nod.
"This is what you want?" Cora asked, taking a quick glimpse at Emma before returning her gaze to her daughter.
"Yes, this is what I want, and need," Regina replied, trying to control the emotions piling over inside her. "I've been so maliciously angry for so long, and all it's done was bring me more misery and loneliness. The path I chose after Daniel died was wrong. I want to have a better life, to be a better person, and most importantly a better mother. I want to be happy." Cora walked around the desk, her face softening even more as she looked upon her daughter. Their eyes met and Regina prayed that this time her mother was genuine, as Cora lifted her hands up to take Regina's face.
"All I ever wanted, was for you to be happy." Regina couldn't help, but let her face fall into her mother's hands.
"Really?" she asked glancing up at Cora, tears creeping up into her eyes without permission.
"Really. It was wrong for me to kill Daniel. I thought by killing him it would make you see how much more there was for you out there, but now I know that I was wrong." Regina felt her body begin to ease. Although she knew how cruel her mother was, and how much pain and suffering she had caused. Cora was still her mother, and she loved her. If she could change, surely her mother could as well. But then Regina felt something dart into her chest, her thoughts removing her from reality for a split second too long, as she glanced down at her mother's arm that was now inside of her.
"Yes, I was wrong. For you to become the almighty, powerful Queen I know you can be, you have to be the one to kill the one you love." Cora stated, as her delusional crazed eyes fixated on Regina, the love and caring mother that was just there nowhere to be seen.
Regina could hear Emma screaming as she launched herself at her and Cora, David crying out for her to stay back as her mother brought her free hand up, casting a protective bubble around them. Regina stared open-mouthed at Cora, knowing once again that her mother's kind words were too good to be true. Certain people were just made to be and stay Evil, and Cora had become one of them.
Everything that happened next, occurred in only a matter of seconds, but Regina had slowed it all down as she closed her eyes. She saw Henry first. The day he entered her world, Regina never falling for anyone so quickly in her life. She saw his first steps, his smiles, and the love he had in his eyes for her before things started to become dark again. She knew now that this new path of redemption was the right choice, since the last words her son had said to her was that he loved her. Of course, her mind then went to Emma. That infuriating blonde, always finding a way to intrude on her and Henry, but this time, it was welcomed. She and Emma may have only had a handful of happy memories together, but looking back at it all, she could see that even in the beginning there was something that connected them, other than their son. Regina thought back to the night before. Emma turning her around in the shower, gazing into the very depths of her soul, Regina feeling more in that moment that she could be not only the person Henry wanted her to be, but that she could find love and happiness with someone who understood her inside and out. Regina's memories took in the passion of her and Emma's first kiss, not fast and intense like everything else the two of them always seemed to handle things, but sensual, caressing each others tongues like a slow dance, tightly wound together, molding with one another, never missing a beat. Regina remembered the Savior's fingers running up and down her body, the instant fire that built up beneath her, never craving someones touch as they were on her, wanting Emma to take her, and renew her, to bring her life back from the darkness.
The Queen's eyes then shot open, gazing into her mother and smirking at Cora's shocked realization that began to take over her face. Cora's hand fidgeting inside Regina's chest, searching for something that wasn't there.
"Like mother, like daughter," Regina said, answering her mother's frozen expression as Regina brought her hands about in a reversed circle, dissolving the bubble that was engulfing them.
"Regina," Emma cried once more in confusion. Cora backed up, her hand slowly exiting Regina's body, bumping into her office desk, empty-handed.
"You see mother, I did learn a few things from you," Regina went on, taking her own steps back as she kept her eyes glued to Cora. Emma glanced over at her, then to Snow, their petrified faces mimicking each others.
"But unlike you, I know that my heart is in safe hands." Regina held out her hand, and with an uncertain look, Emma gave Regina the box that held Cora's heart.
"Thank you Emma," Regina said, hoping her soft reply would ease the shocked room.
"Now mother, I suggest you find Killian, return Gold's dagger, and leave Storybrooke." All eyes in the room now showed a new form of shock. Regina was aware this could come back to hurt her, but again, Cora was her mother, killing her would only be the absolute last resort.
"How do I even know that this Savior of yours retrieved the right heart?" Cora began her face slowly becoming upright. "I mean you have so many dear, do you really think she's that talented to pick out the correct one." It was clearly a dare, Regina knew it. But it was one she was willing to take, as she carefully opened the box, and pulled out a scorching black heart.
"Looks about right to me." Cora glanced down, admiring the charcoal chunk of meat she called a heart, then with a poof she had vanished, only to reappear behind Emma. With one swoosh, Cora tossed David into the wall, trapping him with vines on one side of the room, and Mary Margaret and Ruby on the other side, as she brought up a letter opener to Emma's throat.
"My heart dear?" Cora requested, the letter opener pressed tightly against Emma's soft cream skin. Regina's eyes fell, unable to leave her Savior's neck.
"Stop hesitating Regina. I may not be able to pull out yours or your lover's heart, but I'm sure she'll bleed out with one slice of this remarkably sharp device before you have a chance to mend her wounds." A new wave of terror flooded over Regina, but Emma met her gaze for an instant brushing them away. As Regina began to hand over her mother's heart, Cora outstretched her arm enough to loosen her hold on Emma, giving the Savior enough time to reach up, and grab the hand holding the letter opener, blocking the pointy object from reaching her neck. Cora knocked her heart out of Regina's hand from the shock of Emma's swift movement. As Cora's heart rolled across the room, Emma elbowed Cora in the gut as Regina dove at the letter opener, knocking the small dagger to the ground, magic escaping from all their minds as the three woman struggled with one another, but only for a moment. Reality struck Cora first as she shot her arm at Emma, sending her across the room, and reached out for the letter opener with the other. Just as she was about to stab Regina in the stomach, Cora began to gasp. The powerfully deviant sorceress fighting for air as if it was lost to her. Regina watched as her mother crumbled to the floor, gasping for another minute, before losing all life within her.
Regina and Emma's eyes found each others first, before searching the room for the person with the residence of Cora's heart under her hand.
"She was going to continue hurting you Regina, until she broke you, and took everything you loved away." Snow said, bothered by what she had done as she stared down at the dust under her hand. Although Snow had been tangled by Cora's vines, she was able to reach out for the heart that seemed to roll perfectly over to her. Regina met Snow's eyes, not sure how she felt about what had just happened as Emma ran over to her, and immediately grabbed at her chest.
"Regina," she whispered frighteningly. Regina looked around the room lost. Her heart was not with her and her mother was dead, killed by the person she had sworn a lifetime of vengeance on. "Regina," Emma cried out once more, pressing her hand on her chest even harder, finally causing the Queen to look up at the Savior. Regina's fingers shaking as they found their way up to Emma's neck, where there was a trickle of blood from when Cora pressed the letter opener into her.
"I'm ok." Their eyes locked once more, helping Regina out of her haze. "Where's your heart?"
"Henry," she let out, taking her other hand and placing it on top of Emma's over her chest. Emma let out a sigh of relief, as they continued to gaze into one another, forgetting the others were all still in the room.
"Emma, Regina, a little help?" David asked, glancing down at his vine restraints. Both woman kept their one set of hands pressed together against Regina's chest as they waved their free hands simultaneously over the vines. Regina freeing David, while Emma let Mary Margaret and Ruby go.
"Now, let's go home and get your heart." Emma said, keeping her eyes on Regina as her family came up with support behind her.
May have to do a few touch ups, but I just couldn't wait any longer :)