Chapter Ten
The plan was not a complicated one. Regina's track on Madame Medusa had given them an exact location that they could track her to, making it easy to find and capture her. The crystal that Regina had used to locate her would lead them straight to her location, almost like a magical GPS. Although Regina suspected that she may have been able to close the surface damage caused by Snow's arrow, she doubted there was much more than that which she would have been capable of in her condition. Hopefully, it would be a relatively easy battle.
Regina's plan was clear in her mind. It was simple. She would find her, and she would kill her. Then, finally, perhaps this would all be over. And there was nothing that anyone could say to change her mind on the matter. But that hadn't stopped them from trying.
"Can't we just lock her up?" Mary-Margaret asked for what seemed like the one-hundredth time. "It will be safe. We can make it safe. We can put her bellow the library where you kept Maleficent and…"
"No!" Regina snapped. "Have you truly not been listening to anything that I have been saying? Or are you just as stubbornly dim-witted as your not so charming husband? She is magical, and in possession of a kind of magic that I, nor anyone else in this town, is an expert on. There is nowhere in Storybrook that we can hold her. Our only option, the only way to make sure Henry is safe, is to get rid of her for good. I know it's not pretty and it's messy but it has to be done."
"What if we strip her of her magic?" David asked.
"And how do you propose we do that? That kind of spell takes days, weeks even to cook up. We have to act now."
"The cuff," Emma said. "The one Mendell used on you. Do you still have it?"
"It's locked up in my vault. And whilst it's possible that it may work, we have now way to be sure. That would be a huge risk to take."
"Why don't we just take it with us? If it works we take her captive. If not," Emma sighed and looked apologetically at her parents. "We take her out."
"Fine," Regina huffed. She opened her palm and the leather cuff appeared on the flat of her hand. She shoved it into her pocked, glaring at the occupants of her kitchen. "But if this doesn't work, or I think for even a second that it may falter, I'm taking her out." The others all nodded silently.
"Are you sure you don't need any extra help?" Snow asked. "Regina you were almost killed last time."
"We've got this Mom," Emma said quietly. "It's two of us v. one of her, weakened at that and without her crocodiles to protect her. Besides, we need you guys to watch Henry okay?" Mary-Margaret sighed and shared a worried glance with her husband before finally conceding defeat.
"Okay," she said. "Okay. But please, please be careful." Emma hugged her parents quickly as she heard Regina clack over to the front door.
"Today, Miss Swan. Or at least before the lizard moves again."
"Make sure you both come back okay, you hear me?" David whispered. Emma nodded, and with that she grabbed her jacket and left.
The crystal led the two women through the woods back towards the gorge, where dark crusted blood still spattered the rocks. They followed the winding little path that led them down through the rocks and the trees towards the creek at the bottom, where the shallow gurgling water cut it's way through the stone. Emma watched Regina closely the entire way, watching her for signs of lingering physical weakness, fatigue, or hesitation. But she saw none. The Queen had fixed her perfect porcelain mask of ferocious beauty and unstoppable rage and strength in place. Emma could see steal behind her eyes, and the rampaging fire of a mother who had had her family, her son, everything she held dear and everything that mattered, threatened one too many times. She had never seen the woman look more dangerous. And it both terrified and amazed her. After about half an hour of stumbling over boulders and trudging through the undergrowth they came upon the entrance to a small cave. The crystal spun out of Regina's hand and shot into the tunnel, swallowed by the darkness.
"Looks like we're going in," Emma mumbled.
"Good," the Queen growled. "She'll have no where to run." A fireball appeared in Regina's hand and, holding it aloft, she followed the crystal into the black.
The darkness seemed to wrap itself around them, like long arms covering you in a thick cold blanket of black that stifled their footsteps as they moved through the chill tunnel, the path ahead barely visible in the light produced by Regina's fireball. Water dripped from the walls and ceilings, splashing noisily into little puddles, the sound ricocheting around the tunnel in hurried little whispers that made the hairs on Emma's arms and neck stand to attention. As they came to a sharp corner the crystal dropped to the floor and Regina held up her hand, halting Emma in her tracks. A dim greenish light seeped around the corner, and Regina snuffed out her fireball, putting a finger to her lips, and they both fell silent, listening. A jagged, rasping breathing could be heard; it seemed to slither around the rocky corner and fill every crevice, every crack and corner of the space in the tunnel like an invading gas, until the sound of the raged laboured breaths seemed to be suffocating them both. A little tumbling of pebbled and a sharp hiss of pain told them that she had moved, and Emma shifted uneasily from foot to foot.
"Are you just going to stand there ladies, or are you going to come in and say hello?" a broken voice croaked out. Emma and Regina stepped around the corner into the dim light and the sight that greeted them made both women freeze. The reptile like woman looked utterly broken. The trip down to the cave clearly hadn't been made by magic, and had only served to damage her further. Emma couldn't help but think she closely resembled a dogs chew toy, torn and shredded, only to be thrown haphazardly in the corner once the animal was bored with her. Her fingers were stripped raw and bloody, nails broken off at peculiar angles and in odd places from where she had clearly had to haul her tattered body through the undergrowth and over the rocks in the creek. Little cuts and grazes latticed her jaundiced skin, and her back was mottled black and grey and purple around the poorly closed arrow wound, where the flesh underneath was clearly still bleeding.
"Pretty isn't it?" Madame Medusa hissed, a sickly smile stretching across her sallow face. "So my dears, you've taken my children from me, you've taken my revenge from me, and now I suppose you have come to take my life from me also."
"Not entirely," Regina grinned, taking the cuff from her pocket. "But we have come to take your freedom." The cuff disappeared from Regina's hand in a puff of purple smoke and wrapped itself snuggly around Madame Medusa's wrist. The scaly demon simply chuckled darkly however; the tort grin stretching itself even further across her skin to reveal long unnaturally pointed teeth.
"You really think I need magic to come after your precious little Prince?" she spat. The witch cackled, a low mirthless gurgle that promptly lid into a violent coughing fit that echoed loudly around the empty chamber, bounding off of the walls and around their heads. "I'll keep coming for him," she hissed. "I'll hunt him like a dog with a fox. So long as I breathe he'll never be safe. I won't stop until his heart is dust in my hand!" Regina let out an enraged roar and lunged for the crumpled reptile. The woman was thrown up against the wall, her throat magically pinned by Regina's invisible hand to the sharp rocks behind her, so that the cackle that bubbled from her mouth was stiff and horse. But something was off. Emma could see it. There was no fire behind her words, no spark in her muted eyes. She was bluffing, and this was her suicide.
"Regina no!" Emma yelled, running forwards to the pair. "She's bluffing Regina. She just wants you to kill her."
"Do it," Madame Medusa hissed. "Just take my heart and squeeze."
"She's bluffing Regina she won't be able to hurt him if we lock her up. If you kill her now it will be murder. You've come so far please, please don't let her pull you back Regina." Emma took Regina by the shoulders, stepping in-between the two in an attempt to draw Regina's gaze away and break her focus. But dark eyes simply stared straight past her, never wavering from their target.
"Don't give her what she wants," Emma pleaded.
"Do it," the reptile hissed, her snake like tongue slithering out from between her teeth as she spoke, as if to taunt her, to dare her to do it. Regina's eyes flickered to meet Emma's, and for a split second, her mask cracked, and Emma could see through the anger. But before Regina could lower her hand the leather cuff around Madame Medusa's wrist seemed to smoulder, and it fell in ashes from her wrist. Regina's hand was plunged elbow deep into the woman's chest, directly above her heart.
"Regina!" Emma shouted. "What…?!"
"It's not me!" Regina yelled, panic creeping into her voice as she attempted in vain to pull her hand from the woman's chest cavity.
"Oh, but technically it is," Madame Medusa grinned. Regina felt her fingers wrap themselves around an unusually cold slick heart; she could feel it beating in her hand, pulsating sickeningly in her palm. She had taken so many hearts she had lost count, but never, never had she been forced to do so against her own will. Her arm lurched roughly from the woman's body and the heart sat, bloody in her palm, glowing a dark greenish black as it beat sluggishly on. She could feel her fingertips begin got squeeze.
"Remember this," Madame Medusa grinned at her. Regina let out a startled cry , shutting her eyes as her hand snapped shut and she felt dust run through her fingers. She heard the body thud to the floor and suddenly every muscle in her seemed to go limp.
"Regina!" Emma's strong arms wrapped themselves around her before she could hit the floor. Regina clung to her, burring her face in the saviours shoulder.
"I didn't… I couldn't…" she stammered.
"I know," Emma said. "I know."
Regina watched as dark blood swirled down toward the plughole, scarring the white ceramic basin as it travelled. It was everywhere. It was under her nails, gouged into the cracks of her knuckles, stalking the lines of her palm. It seemed to spot and shout at every pore on the back of her hand, dye every hair. Her white shirtsleeve was coated in it, and her jacket was ruined. Red. There was red everywhere. It was all she could see. And she could still feel it; still feel the cold flesh beneath her fingers, the way the blood oozed under her nails, how sticky it felt. Then there was the dust. It made her hand feel gritty. It was stuck under her nails, mingling rudely with the blood making it look like it was rusting. She had someone else's heart under her nails. Regina grabbed the soap and started scrubbing. More blood spiralled down the sink. She scrubbed harder and harder and harder until the walls of the basin were stained brown with blood and dust and finally the water ran clear. But she still didn't stop scrubbing. It wasn't enough. She could still fee it, still feel the cold wet flesh against her fingers.
"Damn it!" she yelled, hurling the soap away from her.
"I's Mom okay?" Henry asked quietly, looking up at Emma and his grandparents.
"Of course kid," Emma said, trying her hardest to stretch a smile across her face. "She just needs to rest."
"Which is why you're going to come with us for a couple of nights okay buddy?" David smiled. Henry nodded and looked from his grandfather to his blonde mother, who pulled him into a one armed hug and planted a kiss on the top of his head.
"She'll be fine after a couple of days to rest up, okay kid?
"Promise?" Emma's smile faltered for a split second, but she managed to catch it before it fell completely
"Yeah," she mumbled. " 'Course."
"Go out to the car with your grandfather sweetie. I'll be right there," Mary-Margaret said with an attempt at a smile. Henry merely nodded, and followed David silently out to the truck, his head hung low, his rucksack dragging along the floor behind him. Snow pulled her daughter into a tight hug.
"Call if you need anything okay?" Emma nodded.
"Will do." Snow pulled back and tried again for a smile.
"She'll be okay. She's probably just exhausted and in shock." Emma nodded again.
"I should go and check on her. I'll text you later okay?"
"Okay."
Emma closed the door behind her mother when a muffled cursing, followed by a loud bang echoed through the house.
Regina scrubbed. Under her nails, over her knuckles, over her palm and the back of her hand. It stung, the bristles of the nailbrush having rubbed her skin red and raw, but it still didn't feel clean. She could still see the blood, still smell it, still feel it. It would never go away. It was etched into her hands, injected under her skin, engrained in her pores. And suddenly she could see it all, the blood of every heart she had ever pulled, coating her hands like slick red gloves.
Regina flinched as he felt a pair of hands take her shoulders and she gasped, dropping the nailbrush to the ground.
"I'm sorry," Emma said quietly. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you." Regina looked back down at her red hand, her eyes glassy and unfocused.
"I can't get it clean," she murmured. "I can't get the blood off." Emma took Regina's hands in her own, and the woman continued to stare.
"There's nothing there Regina," the blonde said softly. "Look at me." But she didn't. "Regina, please will you look at me?" Slowly, a pair of sparkling black eyes raised themselves to meet Emma's. "They're clean, okay? There is nothing there."
"But I can still smell it," Regina whispered. "I can still feel it Emma." Her voice was hardly more than a whisper.
"Regina, honey you're in shock." Emma didn't know where the term of endearment came from, and under usual circumstances she was sure Regina would never have allowed it. But right now she didn't care. Right now it felt right. Emma sighed as the woman looked back down at her hands. She reached over to the sink and pumped some of Regina's hand cream into her palm, and the faint smell of lavender filled her nose.
"Here," she said, gently taking Regina's hands and rubbing the hand cream into them. "This will help with the smell." Regina nodded, not taking her eyes from her hands. "Come on," Emma said, putting an arm around the older woman's shoulders. "Let's get you to bed okay? You'll feel better in the morning." Regina simply nodded, and allowed herself to be steered out of her bathroom and towards her bed. Emma sat the brunette down on the edge of he king sized bed and started rummaging through the woman's draws, looking for her pyjamas. Finally, after much searching and messing up of the woman's freakishly neat draws, she found a pair of grey silk pyjamas.
"Honey, I need you to give me a hand and stand up," she said, and Regina did as she asked. She allowed Emma to strip her down to her underwear, which Emma decided to leave on owing to the fact that she didn't want the woman to incinerate her once she regained her senses, and then pull on the bottoms and buttoned up the top. She climbed into the bed and as Emma went to pull up the covers she grabbed her hand, and broken brown eyes looked up at her. She didn't even need to speak. Emma smiled softly at her and gently removed her grip so that she could pad over to the other side of the bed and climb in next to her. She pulled the petite woman into her arms and wrapped her in a strong protective embrace.
"I wasn't going to do it," Regina whispered, her voice cracked and shaking. "I wasn't… I had no control… I couldn't…"
"I know," Emma murmured, planting a soft kiss on her forehead. "I know baby." And then the woman broke. And she cried. And Emma held her. And finally, after what seemed like hours, the pair fell asleep.