I'm sorry to dissappoint some of you, but no, the potion did not cure them. Read, review, and enjoy!
Auw. That hurts. Why do I feel so empty? Where am I? Regina? I slowly open my eyes, and groan because of the bright light in the room. But then I suddenly feel lightheaded, and fall back unconscious.
"She's been like that for two days…"
"Just let her rest…"
"I recovered quicker…"
"You're stronger…"
Faint voices try to reach my mind, but I can't make out who they are and what they are talking about. Me? Or someone else?
"She's awake again!" I hear footsteps coming towards me, and someone sits down on the bed I'm lying on.
"Hey, can you hear me Rae? It's me, Regina", the person whispers. Then something touches my arm. A hand. I gasp softly.
"Rae? Are you awake?" I try to answer, but I can't really feel my muscles. I slowly open my eyes, and I hear Regina gasp loudly.
"Snow! She's awake!" Another pair of footsteps rushes over. I have full sight by now, and stare to a wooden ceiling. Why am I at Snow's? Then a blurry face appears in my line of sight.
"Hey there little bird." The nickname triggers something inside of me, and I am finally able to open my mouth.
"Gina?" I croak, my voice broken and my mouth dry.
"Yes dear, I am here. Snow, if you'd please get some water, she's dehydrated."
"Of course", Snow chirps sweetly. I surprisingly don't mind the cheerful tone.
"Don't try to speak, wait for the water", Regina says, and I nod slowly. Snow returns, and Regina's face disappears again. Then I feel a straw touching my lips, and I drink some of the water.
"There we go. Better?"
"Yes, thanks", I reply, and I cough a little.
"How are you feeling?" Regina asks, and I try to sit up a little. She helps, and I can finally properly look around. Snow and Regina are the only two in het loft, and Snow is standing by the end of the bed. Regina is sitting right of me, and looks at me with terribly worried eyes. But that all isn't what pulls my attention. She is wearing an old sweater and track pants, and drops of sweat cover her forehead. She is really red, and her eyes are swollen like she is incredibly tired. All with all she looks like she is incredibly sick, and I immediately panic.
"Oh my God Regina! What is wrong?" I ask, reaching out to wipe of some sweat. She looks down, and then magicks up a mirror. But when she does she immediately groans, and drops it on the bed.
"REGINA!" Snow scolds, and hits her on the arm.
"Sorry Snow", she whispers. She carefully picks up the mirror and turns it to me. I gasp in surprise. I look exactly the same.
"What is going on?"
"We're sick. Kind of", she explains.
"Sick? But, how?" I start to remember what happened. We were in the cell, and Rumplestiltskin injected us, and then I passed out?
"Gold's stupid magic serum. He tricked us", Regina sneers, and Snow nods along.
"He injected you, and then you both started screaming, and Emma and I wanted to help, but we couldn't, and then-" Regina motions for her to stop, and Snows is panting heavily. Regina shakes her head at her.
"What? What won't you tell me?"
"Nothing."
"Uh-uh. Spill it. Where are Emma and Henry? And Robin and Charming?"
"Oh. Emma and Charming are on the station, and Henry is on school. Roland is with Little John", she reacts, and I don't miss the fact that she purposely leaves out Robin.
"On school? But it was Friday? And Robin?" She swallows.
"You've been out for two days, it's Monday. I woke up yesterday afternoon. And Robin…" She trails off. I've been asleep for two days!?
"Regina, you're going to have to tell her anyways." Regina gives an angry look to Snow, who shrugs and walks to the kitchen. Regina sighs.
"Fine. Damnit."
"Oy. No cursing in my house."
"You live with Emma!
""So?
"" Never mind. Let's just get this over with." I stare at her, and she breaths in deeply.
"When Gold, Rumplestiltskin, injected us, it didn't lift the curse. It separated it from us. But it didn't just separate the curse. I took with it the part of our soul that was effected by the curse. The part that harbours all the hate in us, and what due to the curse was dominant over the part that loves. In other words, he separated us into two, one part all hate and one part all love. Don't worry, you're the love part. It is the biggest part, and also our current state of mind." What.
"Our current state of mind?"
"Let's just say we can call my Cursed Self the Evil Queen, and yours the Bird of Death." My old name brings tears to my eyes, and Regina quickly wipes them away.
"Don't cry. You're not that person anymore."
"I know. But if what you say is true, then she has returned", I sniff.
"Not only that. But both of them now consist of only hate and darkness. All that is good is within the both of us. And Robin. They have Robin. They took him", she cries out, and I immediately pull her into my arms. She sobs in my embrace, and I gently stroke her hair. Snow watches us from a distance with sad eyes.
"Shhhh. Don't worry, we'll get him back." I direct my gaze to Snow. "Snow, can you get me some tissues?" She nods.
"Thanks", I say when she hands me some.
"There is also no trace of Persephone yet. Belle and Gold have disappeared as well, and, uhh…" She suddenly stops, and looks away with a flinch of guilt. Or is it embarrassment? I find it strange I can't distinct the two. Shit! My heightened senses belong to the assassin part of me! She took them!
"She took most of my magic as well", Regina suddenly says. She stopped crying, and apparently noticed my confusion. To test her theory, I conjure up a fireball, and surprisingly it works. Regina wipes her eyes one more time.
"I developed my powers out of anger. You had them since you were little", she clarifies.
"Oh. Right." I blow it out. In the meantime Snow was making something in the kitchen, and now comes walking to us with a plate with pop tarts.
"Pop tarts!"
"You know them?" Snow questions.
"Hmm. Henry showed me, they're good", I murmur at her, while taking a bite. "What were you going to say before?" Snow looks to Regina, who nods, as if to say it's okay to tell me. Whatever this "it" may be.
"Right. Well, you probably wondered why you are in my house, and not in Regina's mansion. It's not for a lack of space of course", Snow begins. I hum in agreement, and Regina rolls her eyes, who are still a bit red from crying.
"They, uhmm, your other "halves" you might say, have taken custody of it."
"They stole it!?"
"That's another way of saying it, yes", Snow concludes.
"Great. Now we don't have somewhere to stay", I complain.
"And that's the least of our problems", Regina adds. Then Snow walks over to a cabinet on the right, and pushes a button on a strange looking box. It starts making music? I pull up my eyebrows at her, and she shrugs.
"It's so quiet here", she mumbles before walking off.
"You'll be here in my heart, always. Why can't they understand the way we feel. They just don't trust what they can't explain."
It's quite a sad rhythm, but the lyrics are very positive. I like it. To my surprise Regina's starts singing along with it.
"Snow, is this Henry's old Disney track?" Disney? Is that like a disease or something?
"Yes, I play them for Neal. He likes it." Regina looks at the singing box, and I see a string of emotions flooding through her. Another song starts to play.
"I'm gonna be a mighty king, so enemies beware! I'm gonna be the main event, like no king was before. I brushing up, I'm looking down, I'm working on my roar!" Regina gasps loudly.
"This is Henry's favourite!" She laughs, and pulls me out of bed. She makes me get into the living room, and swings me around. I can't help but giggle, what is unusual for me. Must be the fever. Snow is laughing as well, and makes the box sing louder by turning something. Regina starts singing again, and together we swing around. When I start singing to, she lifts me up. And on that precise moment Emma walks in the door, who immediately stumbles backwards in shock. She carefully walks around us, while we're still dancing, and starts a conversation with Snow. I hear a little of it, but I'm a bit occupied at the moment.
"Are they like okay?" Emma asks, judging us from behind the counter.
"Sure. Except for the fact that they are both burning up, and that the two once most evil women in the Enchanted Forest are now singing Disney songs, they're fine." Emma rolls her eyes, but can't help but smile at us. Then she waves her hand, and the music stops.
"Hey!" I exclaim.
"Sorry, but I need your attention." Regina and I are both panting, but we do direct our attention to the blonde.
"Good. David and I did some investigating, but unfortunately, we saw no one in your mansion. But that doesn't mean I couldn't feel them. Their Dark Magic can be felt from the other side of town," Emma starts. I motion for her to stop. She does so, and I close my eyes. If what Emma says is true, I should be able to feel them. I concentrate, and let my magic flow around town, when I suddenly hit a brick wall, made of Dark Magic. The wall immediately fights back, assuming I'm hostile, and I'm thrown all the way back to Snow's house. When I open my eyes, I lie on the floor, and I groan when I get up.
"Yep. There's a wall. I can't get through. It's strong", I confirm.
"Those witches. Now what?" Regina asks.
"Can't you get through?" Emma replies to Regina, but she shakes her head.
"She took all of my magic. I developed my magic out of hate. So that is where it stays." Emma sighs deeply, but she doesn't get a lot of time for her disappointment. The door of the house slams open out of nowhere, revealing, ehh, no one? I look around in confusion, and so do the others.
"Can't find me? Look harder!" A sugary, purring voice asks. A voice I recognize with a feeling of terror. I look to Regina, and in her eyes I see embarrassment, and a flinch of fear as well.
"Reveal yourself, you witch. I am not afraid of you", I call. A fierce wind blows from the door, but still no sight of the Evil Queen.
"You should be. After all, you're the weak part, isn't that right little bird?" Now it's my turn to feel shame, and a lot more fear then Regina. She might have been ruthless, but I was relentless, deathly, and above all, seductive. There was never a soul that didn't like me. Which makes everyone an easy target.
"Oh. Scared, little bird?" The careless, bored and dangerous voice doesn't feel like mine, but she sounds like me. A lot. Snow and Emma have their hands clutched together, and are ready to fight. I too take an offensive position, but I retreat when Regina is frozen of her feet. She has no magic, and no way to defend herself. So I sneak over to her, and take her hand, while staying alert. She squeezes it, and keeps looking around.
"Kraaaa!" A big, purple-indigo crow swoops down from the ceiling, but when it touches the ground, it disappears into a whirlwind of feathers. They fly upwards, and a figure appears in the middle. I step out of it. And yet I am also here. This is the most insane situation I've ever been in. The bird woman walks over to me, and lets her hand caress my face.
"Little bird", she whispers, and chuckles sweetly. I hit her hand of my face, and she looks indignant. Only now do I take the time to admire her outfit. She is in all black, with little tints of that indigo colour. She wears a tight pair of leather pants, with a pair of practical boots for running and jumping. Her upper body is fitted into a corset, and she looks like she can barely breath. The corset is decorated with indigo lace, and her long hood is held together by a beautiful indigo broche. The scarf she can pull over her mouth and nose to protect her identity is pulled down, and her lips are a dark shade of red. Her eyes have black eye shadow, and the irises are a darker version of my bright blue ones. Her auburn hair, which I now wear short, is pulled back into two braids on the sides of her head, and end in a high ponytail. But what draws my attention the most is the stunningly embroidered transparent fabric that covers her incredible cleavage. She catches me staring, and places her fingers underneath my chin, lifting up my head. I blush a dark shade of red, and she smirks.
"Naughty girl. That would be incest dear", she rightly informs me, and I look away.
"Leave her alone", Emma says bravely, and the woman's attention has shifted. She bites her lip at me one last time, before walking over to the mother and daughter. Regina pulls me closer, and I hold on tight, because the woman's touch made me feel worse. Why isn't she sick?
"Em-ma." She lets the name roll over her tongue. But before she can touch Emma, a familiar appears from behind us.
"No touching her. You can have the other three." She sounds like a cat, and gracefully walks around me and Regina. The Evil Queen is wearing a red, fitted velvet dress, and she looks gorgeous. Again, she doesn't look sick either.
"Raena, Regina dears. How wonderful to see you again. Sorry I'm late", she purrs, and irony fills her voice. She smiles at the two of us, and I feel a fear I haven't felt since a child. We're helpless.
The first voice was Cursed Regina's, the second Cursed Raena's. Thank you for reading, I hope you like where it is going!