"Where your lover died."
"What?"
Regina couldn't have possibly have heard her correctly, but the physical pain in her stomach told her otherwise. Emma was looking at her, but not much had changed in her demeanor. They could have been talking about the weather or paperwork or the specials at Granny's. Not Regina's worst memory. Not her greatest pain.
"He died in the stables, right? What a terrible shame."
Emma's uncharacteristic phrasing didn't even reach Regina's ears, her blood was coursing so furiously.
"Emma."
There was so much warning in those two syllables, and Emma was crumbling. She could see how Regina was on the verge of collapse, or more likely, her murder, and she was the cause of it—that alone was enough to make her sick, but now, powerless to do anything at all, even to let the tears that were building behind her eyes fall, Emma wanted to vomit when Cora decided the Savior ought to see the whole story. She infused her memory of the night through the connection, and Emma was forced to watch as the young Regina, whose sadness she had so recently seen, cried over a crumpled Daniel, trying desperately to wake him with True Love's kiss as the dust of his heart slipped through Cora's fingers.
Emma saw it all in its true, terrible glory. She wanted nothing more than to kill Cora herself. But Cora had different plans.
"It was probably for the best, you know. You couldn't possibly have been happy with a stable boy. If he even really loved you. He probably would have used you for your dowry."
Cora was beginning to enjoy this little game, despite the strain of controlling such a powerful heart. She knew she shouldn't be pushing the Sheriff to fight harder, but it was such fun watching her suffer. Not to mention how successfully it was unraveling her daughter. Regina would certainly end up killing the Sheriff herself, and then there would be no turning back. She would only have Cora.
Regina's whole body was glowing purple, radiating magic, but she couldn't release it. Not just because of Henry. Something wasn't right. But that much unchanneled anger was ripping her apart at the seams. Especially when she was so weak from the pain already. The stables. Where she hadn't been until Daniel came back. Where she had had to kill him. Killing the people she loved. That's what she was best at. She might as well make it a trifecta by adding her mother to the list.
And Emma. Emma who had held her with no demands, who had sat on the floor with the only intention of comforting her—and now, so brutally harming her? She had to be manipulating her. It had all been a game. And that made it Regina's greatest betrayal, just when she was starting to care for the woman in a way that went beyond her connection to Henry. Of course. Why would she ever open her heart if it only meant suffering? Why should she ever love if she was destined to lose the people she cared for? But she couldn't just give in. She couldn't kill Emma, not even if she were attacking her physically instead of emotionally, because she could never wish her hurt on Henry.
She would give everything for him.
Her life.
But she had to protect him from Cora. She had to take her mother with her, destroy any chance of her harming her son. She tried desperately to rein her magic in, regain the control she had always possessed. But she couldn't. She was on a runaway stallion with no training at all.
Regina had been many things before. All sorts of emotional wrecks, in sorrow, in torment, in rage, but with her fingertips sparking with unfocused electricity, this was approaching something new, even for her.
Regina was on the edge of a nervous breakdown.
And Emma only kept pushing.
"It was probably teenaged infatuation—hormones. Was he the first boy you ever even met?"
Emma was split in two as she continued to spew what Cora made her, trying to fight it every step of the way. Sometimes she could feel the strain as Cora had to work harder, but what was worse was when she had no pull—when Cora used things that came from the dark parts of her own soul, her own little truths and self-hatred.
"Were you so desperate to get away from Cora that you'd jump into bed with the first thing that was interested in you?"
Emma felt like flinching—not only at the barbs she was hurt even to throw, but at the growing surge of magic emanating from Regina surely meant to do her harm. Watching her struggle, Emma couldn't imagine the strength in her restraint—or why she would even bother.
Her love had always been used against her. For the little girl on the horse. For Daniel. For her mother. For her father. Always the source of her pain. Emma tried to focus, tried to remember every bit of magical training Regina had taught her. She would break Cora's hold. She had to.
"It couldn't have been bad to be Queen instead."
Regina stiffened. Emma's words had come through distinctly, effectively pausing her meltdown.
This wasn't right.
Even if last night had been a ruse, their moments in the castle had not. Regina may not have had her lie detector power, but Emma had not been faking her disgust. For the first time since she had walked into her bedroom, Regina really looked at Emma. The blonde was ashen, sweating despite the cool morning air, her muscles occasionally tensing only to quickly revert to loose nonchalance.
Emma wasn't right.
Regina found enough control to pace slowly towards the Sheriff, clenching and releasing her fists as magic still threatened to burst.
Emma watched closely. She had seen the change, and she knew Cora had too, but she doubted the Queen of Hearts knew where she had gone wrong, or even if she knew she had considering Regina's stony glare offered little warmth. But Emma was so desperately hopeful. Regina knew that she couldn't mean what she had been forced to say. Not after their trip together.
Mere inches away from the woman she once thought she could call friend, Regina raised her hand and brought it to the blonde's chest.
Cora brought Emma's hand up to grab Regina's wrist, not thinking her daughter would go for the Sheriff's heart herself, but it was too late. The magic pulsing from her fingertips as they hovered over Emma told her everything.
Regina knew. Emma's heart was gone. And looking up to see the fear embedded in deep green eyes, any semblance of command over her expressions was gone with it.
"Mother!" She screamed, whirling about, rattling the horses in their stalls. "Mother, come out!"
Regina let out a guttural wail, matching the banshees of the old world, unable to form her fury into words.
"I know it was you! It was all you! How could you ever…I will never come back to you! Never!"
Cora was furious. Her daughter should have snapped by now, killed the Savior in a rage. She didn't have the patience for this. It was too much effort to turn Regina to her. She would just have to become the Dark One on her own and start again. Maybe adopt.
Maybe Henry.
Regina was still shouting at the air around her, all her unreleased magic pouring out in acrid words.
"Why, Mother? Why would you ever think that would work? I can't believe—
"—Oh, god."
Rage turned to terror in an instant when she turned back to her blonde companion, still frozen in Cora's control.
"Oh, god. Emma." Her voice was barely more than a whisper as her hand hovered over Emma's chest as if she could will her heart back.
As hard as it had been for Emma to watch Regina's hurt before, it was worse now as she stared into misty brown eyes whose anxiety was solely for her.
"Mother, please!" Regina pleaded, wishing she could take back all of her anger that had practically taunted her mother into killing. "I didn't mean it! Please."
The quick turn in Regina's perspective convinced Cora to give it one last go. She had an opening. Love would once again manage to be her daughter's weakness.
She appeared in the middle of the stables, Emma's heart glowing strongly through the cover of deep purple smoke.
"Well, darling daughter, it seems I couldn't trick you after all. Though I came rather close, didn't I," she scolded lightly, altogether too calm in light of the morning's events.
"Now before you answer, darling, I'd like you to remember who has the power here."
Cora raised up Emma's heart and gave it a squeeze, smiling as both Emma and Regina's quaked. The first from pain and the second from fear.
"You know what I am capable of, Regina, so give your answer some careful thought. Will you join me?"
"Mama, please. Please don't." Regina couldn't do any more than beg. She could practically feel the weight of her travelling cloak, her long hair tumbling down her back to match the tears on her cheeks. She was having flashbacks. She couldn't let this happen again.
Emma tried desperately to move as Cora was distracted, reaching out for Regina, not knowing what to say that could possibly help, but Cora caught her, giving another warning squeeze that had Emma collapsing to her knees.
"Mama, no!" Regina's voice was so much higher than Emma had ever heard it. It wasn't just fright, it was desperation. And she sounded so incredibly young, younger than the teenager in the castle. Mayor Mills was nowhere to be found.
There was only one thing Regina could do. She was determined to spare Emma.
"I'll come with you! I'll do whatever you need, Mama, please, I promise, just give Emma's heart back!" She pleaded, her volume dropping until Emma could barely make out the words. But she knew the tone.
"Please. I'll be good."
Cora should have been pleased to receive Regina's pledged alliance, but she was simply all the more disgusted by her daughter's blatant show of affection for the Savior. That wouldn't do at all.
"Really, Regina, this is pathetic. I'll have to save you from yourself. Get rid of this woman like I did that wretched stable boy. Now be a good girl after, and I won't have to take your heart, too."
"No, Mama, please, you can't! Take mine instead!"
Cora found herself steadily approaching the bawling mess that was her daughter. So things hadn't gone according to plan. At least she could have her proper goodbye, her daughter as tamed by her control over Emma's heart as if it were her own.
"I was wrong to think I could not kill you," Cora spun her words sweetly, the content clashing against her seeming kindness. "I had meant to, my darling girl, for your betrayal—first Wonderland and then, sending the pirate after me? And to be so foolish about it?
"To think I was so easily swayed by hearing that I was your weakness. Well, apparently, child, that was my weakness. Thinking that my hold on you could have influenced you. I wanted so much from you Regina, and from what I understand, I even had it." Suddenly, the air swirled purple around Regina as her mother played dress up, trying to imagine her daughter as she once had been. The effect, despite the tears that continued to stream down Regina's face, was breathtaking, the gown a magnificent deep purple, clinging to Regina's every curve, a bodice dripping with precious stones.
"The Evil Queen. Caster of a curse the world had never seen." Cora almost sighed. Her daughter had had such potential. Had gone so far. Where had she gone wrong? She let the illusion fall as she continued, already tired from her continued hold on the Sheriff's heart.
She would have to wrap things up.
"But as thoroughly as I managed to form you into something I could tolerate, something I could use, you continue to revert to your weak-willed ways. For what, Regina? More cause for blubbering? Do you not remember your wretched wailing over the stable boy? Or shall I remind you, before I kill you? Because you've somehow managed to find another, equally as miserable love."
Somehow, Regina managed to look over at Emma. Cora's magical hold on her was slipping despite the tight grip of her hand. She could see the blonde struggling, for her. She had never seen someone's face holding that kind of emotion, let alone on her behalf. Momentarily captivated, she was watching carefully when Cora deliberately began a slow squeeze—and Emma's sorrow contorted into unbearable pain.
Regina couldn't—she had to—this wouldn't be Emma's end.
With a scream that tore from the bottom of her soul, she threw herself at her mother, knowing her magic wouldn't be enough to stop her, but she wouldn't just let it happen all over again.
Cora, stupefied by Regina's entirely unexpected move, stumbled away from her daughter's colliding body, losing her grasp on Emma's heart with a burst of magic.
Regina staggered away to find her chest glowing a golden light.
She had taken on Emma's heart.
As her daughter and the Savior froze by the turn of events, Cora straightened herself, furious that her daughter had been successful in turning against her, for the Savior, of all people, who despite technically being a princess was no better than a peasant.
"Regina, you fool," Cora declared. "Love is weakness."
Cora used all of her magical energy to reach deeply into her daughter's chest with both hands, intending to destroy her daughter and her daughter's love.
Emma looked on in horror, now capable of her own speech and movement, but unable to do anything as Regina dropped to the ground, looking like she was being crushed from the inside out. But it didn't happen quickly. Cora's power was visibly coursing through Regina's body, rattling her, but she managed to gaze into her mother's cold eyes and push out her response.
"No, Mother. It's strength."
A pulse of violet threw Cora back, knocking both women to the ground.
Completely ignoring the older woman, Emma rushed to Regina's side, horrified by her closed eyes and shallow breathing, but more so when she put her fingers to Regina's throat to feel two distinct pulses. Though at her touch, eyelids fluttered open to reveal glowing golden eyes.
"I can't…keep both… it's too much…" Regina's voice was ragged, her breathing still uneven—she wasn't getting better. "You have to…to take yours back."
She would have laughed at how wide Emma's eyes went if the situation weren't so dire.
"Take it back?" Emma panicked. "Regina, I haven't exactly done this before. I could barely light a candle as of yesterday morning."
"I trust…" Regina was waning, her eyes struggling to focus on Emma, right in front of her. "You…Miss Swan."
Emma's hand hovered above the glowing hearts, feeling the radiating energy, her lip twisted between her teeth, when Regina's eyes drooped shut.
Aw, screw it.
Emma gently pressed her hand into Regina's chest, unmistakably drawn to her own heart, but she was fixed in place for a moment as she absorbed just how much energy Regina was carrying, the weight of two terrible human lives, every emotion magnified tenfold. Recovering from the wave of awareness that rushed over her, she pulled her heart from Regina's chest, and closing her eyes, quickly popped it back into her own. Completely weirded out by this turn of events, but happy for its success, she opened her eyes to find Regina looking back at her, smiling despite her weakness from the magic and the emotion.
Unbeknownst to the pair, Cora had recovered from her shock and risen again, fury unleashed.
"I should have killed you both!" She railed, lacking any of her usual control. "Why use finesse when blunt force will do?"
She summoned all of her remaining strength to throw the most powerful death spell she knew at the women on the ground. With no time to dodge it, and with no hope that her magic could overpower it, Regina used her very last bit of energy to throw herself in front of Emma, hoping at least to absorb the part meant for the blonde.
She wouldn't let her die. Not after this.
Emma watched in slow-motion horror as Regina came between her and Cora's spell before she even knew what was going on. Her cry of "Regina, no!" tore through her body as her mind ran in circles of no, oh god, no, not when they had come so close and her arms immediately reached for the body in front of her, connecting just as Cora's spell reached them.
In the same moment, the air around them exploded, the magic sparking as violently as a welder's torch against cold steel—purples and blues and whites and golds.
As Regina was blown back into Emma's arms, across the stables, an elaborate gown suddenly found itself without an owner.
And across town, in a locked crypt, a dark heart disintegrated.
A/N: Thank you all for your follows and reviews-I can't tell you what it means to be greeted with a full inbox after a long day. I hope I can continue to earn your kindness!
