A LEDGER SQUARED IN BLOOD
By Scribes and Scrolls

A/N: Warnings: There is somewhat detailed reference to child abuse. We're deep in Cora head-messing territory, so you have been warned.

Chapter 12: A Ledger Squared in Blood (aka: Bitchhasgottadie)

Regina stilled herself and listened. Right outside her bedroom's glass doors she could hear her mother's handiwork as fireballs rained on the valley below. The smell in the air, of potent powerful magic, filled her nostrils and she had to force herself not to think about the dire consequences. She had to rid her mind of the thought Emma was under there.

She owed a debt, and she intended to repay it. None of them, Emma nor her family, would ever be harmed by her or her family again. She would see to it. The ledger would be squared - in blood if it had to be.

She paused. Who was she kidding? It would be squared in blood. How else could it end? It was inevitable.

Regina felt the sickness in her stomach. The knowledge of what would come. Would it be a spell, she wondered, that would rob the woman who gave her life of her last breath? Would there be a physical struggle, and Cora would claw and fight and hiss and bite before finally, futilely, succumbing to the hands at her throat?

Perhaps Regina would simply fail and it would be her own broken body that Emma would find, shortly before Cora stole her life, too. She shivered.

She opened her wardrobe and let her fingers glide through her clothing. She had everything from humble peasantwear to hard-core dominatrix-meets-goddess garb. If she was to die, today, how would she like to be remembered, she wondered, fingertips drifting across the cotton and leather.

Or maybe a different question: If she was to finally stand up to her mother, to stop her cruelty once and for all, how would she like to be dressed for that encounter?

Her hands fell on a simple pair of cotton breeches and a vest, cross-stitched. A strikingly similar outfit to the one Emma had picked out for her on their first day together at the cottage. She'd had been so surprised by the choice - it had been functional yet oh-so seductive.

She smiled. She would face her mother wearing an outfit Cora would utterly abhor, something that screamed soft-butch fuck-me-girlfriend leatherwear. And with every subtle shift of the material across her breasts and thighs, it would remind her of Emma.

She quickly dressed herself and tightened the leather strips across the vest. A memory floated past her of the way Emma had raked approving eyes across her chest, subconsciously licking her lips.

Oh yes, Regina had liked this outfit a great deal ever since.

Now. Footwear.

Her eyes dropped to the bottom of the wardrobe. She blinked. Oh the irony, given who she was about to face.

Daddy's shoes.

Her father may have failed her on many levels - his cowardice in the face of her mother's power being just the start of it. But he never, ever, stopped telling her how much he loved her.

Her hand moved along and dropped to comfortable calf-high leather boots. Practical. And a little kick-ass. She smiled. Sitting down, she slid them onto her feet.

When she finished, she rose and looked herself over. She felt strong. Loved. Now she was ready.

An aggrieved shriek sounded from outside and Regina leapt up and edged over to the glass doors and peered out, craning her neck hard to the right. No more cannonballs could be heard but the shock on Cora's face told her the impossible had just occurred.

Regina's mouth quirked. Emma - and she didn't know how, but she sensed her hand in this somewhere - had actually helped bring down an impenetrable super-powerful trebuchet with the magic world's highest-level protection spells on it.

Of course she did.

The brunette's chest swelled with pride. The more outraged Cora looked, fists tightening on the balcony rail, the more supremely pleased Regina felt.

Cora was now glaring furiously into the ravine.

"GUARDS!" she screamed. "GUARDS!"

Regina tilted her head listening for the telltale rattle and thumping of Cora's well-armed personal security detail heading up the stairs.

Silence.

Huh.

Cora was enraged now. "FLORENCE!" she roared.

Regina smirked as she knew the lady-in-waiting was long gone. In fact, did Cora even have anyone left in her castle to do her bidding? Regina knew only too well from personal experience that demanding loyalty through fear had a definite downside when the wind turned against you.

"FLORENCE!"

Regina briefly wondered where they had all gone to hide before Cora yelled one more word that made her blood go cold.

"WOLF!"

Hell. That would be one servant who would never flee. And his power was frightening, from every quivering muscle in his grey haunches, to his wide strong muzzle.

A sound of heavy fleshy thuds could be heard and, sure enough, the beast appeared through Cora's bedroom doors and padded out onto the balcony.

"Wolf, you will find King George, tell him my castle will soon be under attack from Charming's army. Inform him they were behind all the Midas lies. Tell him I am invoking our treaty and I need his men here NOW!"

The wolf dipped its head and growled "Majesty." Then it thudded away.

Regina exhaled. She did not have much time. She assumed George would have to mount some form of defense - after all the marriage might be off, but they had signed an alliance together.

And if the king mobilised his men, Storybrooke's pitiful resources would be completely outmatched. She had seen his soldiers training - they were efficient, deadly and well-honed, not to be taken lightly. They would make short work of Snow and James's meagre force, which she assumed would be on its way shortly now the trebuchet had fallen.

Regina thought quickly. She really was left with only one option. She had to take down Cora right now - then George would have no reason to stay and fight for a dead woman. Especially if he discovered the daughter he'd once been so afraid of was now in charge. She knew she could pull off a few dark glowers and nasty eye flashes to make him think 'old Regina' was back, ready to crush a realm or two.

She considered what would be happening in the courtyard outside. It would still take a little time for George to get his troops ready to march on the ravine. And a little longer for him to map out where the swelter pools were with someone from the palace so his troops didn't march to their scalding deaths.

She watched her mother's back, resplendent in an apricot silk dress, yet radiating with fury, still glaring at the ravine. Waiting for her wolf to return no doubt. And waiting for George's men to spill out on to the rocky landscape below.

Time to move. Regina opened the door, unable to resist an almost predatory cat-like saunter as she reveled in how it felt to be in this outfit. She felt strangely powerful.

Her mother vaguely registered her presence but was more focused on her precious lost toy.

"How the hell did they do that!" Cora snarled, snapping her head to the right as if expecting the demon vulture perched further along the railing to explain it to her.

Scapulus, eyes still shut and basking in the morning sun, ignored her entirely.

Regina went to the balcony rail, a few metres away from her mother, and leaned nonchalantly. She stared into the distance. She could see three specks of people who were facing in the direction of the trebuchet. A fourth shape in the distance suddenly emerged. The hair was blonde - Emma! She knew she was behind its destruction somehow! - and she was helping a shorter, fifth figure down the embankment to the others.

She smiled widely. Of course Emma would casually cripple her mother's precious war machine in under an hour.

"What the hell are you grinning at! That was our first and last major line of defense!"

Cora had finally noticed her. Regina cocked her head.

"Forgive me, Mother, if I don't greet the destruction of the thing which destroyed my cottage - and everything in it - with any sadness." She injected a little more savage sorrow into the line than she actually felt.

Cora snorted disdainfully. And suddenly her eye caught Regina's bad-ass butchy-butch vest outfit.

"What on earth are you wearing?"

Regina turned and straightened, sliding her hands sensually to her hips, puffing out her chest a little which expanded against the cross-hatched vest. For some reason it felt wicked to tease her mother, knowing there would be no tomorrows for her to take out on her.

"Just something I found in my closet," she said. "Emma loved me in this."

Well, she couldn't resist.

"It's revolting. Like your dead lover's taste. Get changed. Then burn it."

"No." Regina turned back to the vista and leaned once more on the rail, dismissing her mother casually.

"NO?!" Cora's eyebrows shot up, and she regarded her daughter for a moment, as if trying to understand what was different about her.

"We have more important things to discuss." Regina's voice was low, confident.

Cora's outrage ebbed, definitely sensing change. Her voice turned to curiousity. "Such as?"

"Let's start with grandmother was a brothel madam?" Regina asked placidly. .

"You heard that? Was your slippery little ear plastered to that door, daughter?" Cora snapped.

Regina shrugged. "I hear a lot of things. For instance, your tawdry proposition to Midas."

"LIES!" Cora hissed.

"Oh I know," Regina said confidently. "And then there were your interesting bedroom habits..."

Cora scowled and opened her mouth.

"Don't bother calling those lies, too, because we both know they're not," Regina waved her hand carelessly.

Cora bit back a response and began to watch her daughter closely. The silence was so loud, Regina could swear she could hear her mother's heart beat. But that would mean she had one.

"What are you saying to me, daughter?" the older woman asked slowly, her voice getting chilly.

"Just that I hear a lot of things, Mother. Such as I was fascinated to learn exactly who set you up to break your engagement. And how they knew all your dirty little secrets and lies."

That got Cora's undivided attention. In two short strides she was inside her daughter's personal space.

"Who?!" she hissed. "Who did this to me? I will crush them. WHO!"

"Not yet, Mother," Regina said softly and took a step back.

Predictably a cold bony hand was up under her neck and pressing painfully.

"Tell me now, daughter."

Regina simply stared down her mother for a moment, ignoring the building pressure. For the first time in her life, trapped in this vulnerable position, she did not feel afraid. She waited, watching. Her lack of tension became obvious to the woman with a deathgrip on her. Cora's eyes blinked in startled wonder.

"I will not tell you anything unless it's on my terms," Regina ground out.

They stared at each other a few more beats. Regina now felt light-headed. Her face was increasingly redder. But she waited.

And then all pressure was gone.

"Well, well, look who finally grew a pair," Cora scorned. "So name them. What are your terms?"

"You just truthfully answer a few questions of mine and I will tell you who poisoned your union with George today. It's a small price."

Her mother gaped at her. "Questions? What is this, Regina? We don't have time for silly games."

Regina turned away. She was tired of seeing that particular expression of disdain on her mother's face. She may as well not see it for any longer than she had to. The mountains really did look beautiful, she mused. She could feel her mother's impatience but let her stew for a moment more.

"It's up to you," Regina finally said. "If you like I could just leave now. Or you could kill me where I stand for defying you. Either way you'll never learn what really happened. And we both know that will eat you up inside. You'll always wonder who the clever little mole was."

Cora's throat made a strange noise - a cross between profound annoyance and reluctant agreement. Regina gave a tight smile and took that as agreement.

"So, we begin: Mother, have you ever loved anyone?"

The older woman's face twisted in derision. "THESE are your questions? Love-sick sentimental nonsense? What the hell are you playing at?"

"Wrong answer," Regina replied placidly. "Let's try again. Mother, have you ever..."

"I heard you the first time, you insufferable child. Why do you want to know? On a little fishing exercise are we?" She smiled cruelly, sliding eyes across her daughter's form. "Want to know whether Mommy loved her little girl?" she taunted.

There was that, Regina admitted sadly to herself. But it was more than that. She wanted to know whether her mother was even human. It was something she'd always wanted to know, and now she finally would. It's not like she had any more chances.

"What do you care? Now do you need me to repeat the question?"

Cora huffed. She looked down at her bejewelled fingers then back to her daughter. "Once," she answered waspishly. "I loved once. My mother. Until I was seven and she was shamed and killed for certain unsavoury choices ... by a respected member of society - who was never brought to justice. In fact the people cheered her death. And then it was spelled out to me in abundantly clear terms that I would not express love for her any longer if I didn't wish to follow the same fate. I soon learned. Satisfied?" she snarled.

Regina examined her mother. The downward pull of her mouth. The outrage, even now. She could well imagine a young Cora incensed that her beloved mother was murdered and then forced into condemning her just to survive. Social-status-building for protection began right then. She wondered if that was the day her heart died.

"No one else? Daddy or ..." She couldn't say the word. Of course Mother didn't love her.

Cora's head snapped up and gave her a knowing look. "No," she confirmed with a slow cold smile, drawing it out to be crueler. "No one else."

Regina bit down hard on the inside of her mouth. Suspecting it and knowing it were very different things. She was surprised to find it did hurt. Cora seemed to be enjoying her reaction a little too much. Regina moved on.

"Was Daddy my real father?"

Cora humphed. "I was not like my mother if that's what you're implying. And I was damned if I'd let you be anything like her, either, although you always were wilful. But yes, your father was Henry Mills."

"Question three..."

"How many more of these ridiculous questions am I going to be asked? Can't we do this another time?"

Regina eyed her coldly. "We will not have another time, Mother." She tilted her head towards the ravine. "One or both of us will likely be dead soon."

Cora's eyes followed the brunette's and took in the sight of a distant army slowly making its way up the ravine. The older woman bit back a gasp, fighting to assume a mask of indifference. "Your Storybrooke minions, I presume?" she suggested.

"Not mine anymore," Regina said with a small shrug. "They weren't too happy about the curse. They will be just as happy to kick around my corpse as yours. Maybe more so."

There was a heavy padding noise and they both turned to see the wolf had returned. A shadow had followed but whoever it was hung back in the recesses of Cora's bedroom. Regina narrowed her eyes, trying to see their identity. Then her attention was torn when Cora demanded of her wolf: "Well? Where are George's men? I don't see them in the ravine yet."

"They are not coming, Majesty."

"WHAT?! We have an alliance! He can't just tear it up on a whim. What did he say? Tell me EXACTLY."

"Majesty," the wolf said slowly, dipping its head, "King George said 'Screw you'. And then he withdrew his troops, saying you were getting the only thing betrayal deserves. They're all gone now. Midas left as well."

Cora's howl was furious. Regina felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. Well, this was an unexpected advantage. Hell hath no fury like a king scorned, it seemed. The thought briefly occurred to her that George may have really loved her mother. Or he may just have really loved his ego.

"We will need to get the palace guards in position then," Cora barked. "There aren't many but maybe with the palace staff behind them we..."

"Majesty," the wolf interrupted, "The palace staff have all fled, as well. And many of the guards went with them."

There was a silence and Cora simply stared at the animal opposite her as if willing him to implode.

She turned back to her daughter. "We are still two strong witches," she said harshly. "Together we can make them pay for attacking the House of Mills. Perhaps you're wrong when you say one or both of us will die here this day."

"I'm not wrong," Regina said softly.

Cora's breath caught as she looked at the brunette, her eyes seeming to pick out the strangeness in her daughter once more.

"Well thank God you're not in charge of morale or everyone would be suicidal," Cora snapped. "We must make preparations!" Distracted, she turned to leave.

Regina replied: "As you wish. But if you go now, you will never get your answer."

Cora froze and turned. The unfinished business returned to the front of her mind. Regina saw the frustration in the way her coiffed head whipped around to glare at her.

"I have never understood you, daughter," she snapped. "Never. You always disappointed me at every turn. And now when our lives are on the line, you want to do this odd parody of mother-daughter bonding."

"If we don't do this now we never will. And I have never understood you either, mother," Regina replied neutrally. "Your hatred for me was not pleasant."

Cora pursed her lips in a half-smirk. "I wasn't trying to make it pleasant, dear."

"Well then - last question," Regina said locking onto her mother's clear eyes, willing herself not to flinch as she asked. "All those times when you hurt me, whipped me, beat me, and said you were doing it for my own good, did you really believe that?"

Cora almost cackled. "And that's what you most want to know when our hour draws near? That?"

"Yes," Regina said softly. "It is."

Cora folded her arms across her chest and stared down at her. "The answer is both. It was for your own good, so you would not grow up a spoiled brat under your father's treacly ministrations, and it was so I could punish you for the way he adored you and no other."

"You did not even love him, why did you care what he felt for me?"

"Not the point! It was a matter of loyalty. And he only gave it to you completely. So yes, I very much enjoyed our little sessions. Now, your turn. Tell me!"

Regina glanced away, gazing at the army edging closer, wondering where Emma was. She could not pick the blonde's hair out from the rest of the group.

"WELL?"

"Mother," Regina said stepping back, "You always did underestimate me."

"What?"

"You thought I could not master spells as well as you," she continued. "Couldn't memorise the nuances of old pronunciations in incantations..."

"You are making no sense."

"You also thought me a fool to be in love. Love was a weakness, you called it?"

Cora stared at her in confusion.

"Love is what drives us," Regina stated. "Remembering the smile and the first words of my son, having the memories of Daddy's hugs..."

"Are you trying to nauseate me?"

"Having Emma in my arms last night, trembling against my neck and lips, loving her for hours..."

Cora's entire face changed to shock.

"Oh, didn't you know? Turns out she was alive, after all." Regina said with mock casualness. "Also turns out I know the spell for impersonation. And the location of George's fake birthright documents. And the way to manipulate that conservative old fool Midas. Although to be fair it was George himself who shared your dirty bedroom secret when he thought I was you and tried to fuck me, Cora style, up against a wall..."

"It was YOU?!" Cora's eyes flew wide open. It was the most unguarded and astonished Regina had ever seen her. She filed away the expression to savour later.

"It was me," Regina said flatly. "You never should push people to the edge, Mother. You never should use their love against them. And you definitely never should threaten or kill the people they love. It only ends ... exactly as this will."

"You're here to kill me?!" Cora murmured finally understanding but still incredulous. "You?"

"Yes." Regina confirmed, eyes hardening.

"Well it is fitting, you are the one who killed your beloved father."

That old grenade. She would not be drawn this time.

"Yes," Regina said again, looking her mother directly in the eye. "And I took no pleasure in it. It may surprise you to know that I will have no pleasure in killing you, either."

Cora laughed. "As if you could." Her arm rose and a fireball appeared.

"We will see," Regina noted. "And remember, some free advice, you probably shouldn't underestimate me again."

A fireball rocketed towards Regina's head in reply.

She dodged it easily. "Fireballs mother? So predictable. You always were. It makes it so much easier to defeat you."

She raised an energy shield and added: "But by all means, continue. Let's see how strong you think you are."

Cora howled and began to lash the brunette's body with a shower of fiery balls. The shield held and the fireballs ricocheted off harmlessly.

Her mother pointed at the heavens, muttering and tiny razor sharp black arrowheads began to fly, circling behind Regina. She recognised them. Movement tracers. They were looking for anything in their path that moved and then would burrow into it, breaking down into an acidic burning fluid. Nasty.

Regina stood stock still and muttered an incantation, trying not to even move her lips much. A wave of beautiful blue hearts spread out before her, and swirled around her body.

"Hearts?" Cora's eyebrows rose. "Are they going to pretty us to death?"

Before she'd finished the sentence, Cora's arrow heads suddenly began shooting off in different directions, aiming for the sea of blue, not Regina, and the magical warring creations finally disappeared in a cloud over the balcony.

"They are also dual-spectral passive counter measures. Although, yes, they are pretty. Thank you for noticing. I do take pride in my work." Regina smiled pleasantly.

Cora frowned as if wondering how her insult could possibly have been perceived as a compliment.

The older woman dropped to one knee and then flung out her arm. A targeted arc of lava spewed forth and Regina immediately called up a mirror spell. It bounced the molten floe back at her mother so hard she skidded across the decking and against the railing, a black scorch mark down her apricot dress. Cora spat out ash and glared straight up at the demon vulture perched above her, looking down with curiosity.

"Don't say anything," she muttered to it and then rose to her full height. She turned to Regina. "I see you have been learning a few new skills. But you never did have a counter to my multi-dimensional blast."

"No mother," Regina hissed. "Not that..."

Cora laughed mockingly and called up the elements which swirled around them both, the air finally concentrating around Regina and suddenly she was being pelted in every foreseeable direction by impossibly hard and fast microblasts of water. Regina raised her shield and waited, all the while begging her mother to stop. It was one of her mother's favourite spells. And it was true there was no counter measure to dissipate it. Not that it mattered. Regina had been counting on her to pull this out of her arsenal.

Her mother's arm was now quivering with the effort needed to maintain the vicious cloudburst, but Regina needed to tire her out completely. She whimpered pathetically for her to stop, that it was hurting, which predictably, only spurred her on.

Even as she watched, with Regina's own shield struggling to maintain integrity against the onslaught, she noticed the power of her mother's blast was finally weakening. Between the trebuchet and the draining blast spell, Regina had expected nothing less. First the weakening was just a little, then considerably more.

"Please Mother, no..." she whimpered.

Suddenly Cora narrowed her eyes and stopped abruptly.

"I know what you're doing," she said with a look of complete dissatisfaction. She seemed vastly irritated that her daughter had just taken her in.

"Do you?" Regina smirked, all begging instantly gone from her tone. "Well that would be a first."

She dispelled the shield and threw her arm straight up, lifting her mother effortlessly into the air.

"Got any fight left in you?" she asked curiously. "You should probably stop me now, because we still have a few mother-daughter issues to sort out before I kill you."

Cora struggled violently but failed to make any inroads in the invisible bonds. She began to curse Regina angrily.

The brunette rolled her eyes. "Please, Mother, as if I haven't heard it all before. And just to speed things along, I'll cut to the chase: You are the worst mother."

"How dare you! I did nothing but make sure you wanted for nothing!"

"And the discipline? Mustn't forget all those lovely punishments," Regina told the furious woman twisting futilely above her.

"You should be thanking me for making sure you didn't turn out spoiled."

"So you have no regrets about what you did to me?"

"Only that I didn't stab myself in the womb when I was carrying you, you ungrateful little..."

Regina waved her other arm and the top half of Cora's dress was ripped from her body, pooling uselessly at her waist. Pale skin was laid bare, and goosebumps pimpled along her cold flesh.

"How does this feel? A taste of your own medicine?" Regina asked, observing her mother's face, taking in the look of discomfort. "Shall I whip you, too? Hmm? After all apparently one must give thanks when treated in such a helpful manner."

Her lips curled into a dangerous smile. Cora didn't speak, but stared at her daughter with an unexpected expression. Regina recognised it in surprise. It was gone in an instant but she definitely saw it. Fear. Fear she was about to have done to her what Cora did to Regina for years.

Oh, she definitely liked that expression.

She lifted her arm. "How many times did you do this to me?" she asked conversationally.

"Well why don't we start at the very beginning. I was... six, yes?" She slammed her arm forward and Cora's back tore open in a whip mark, blood seeping out. "My infraction, if I recall, was crying in front of an important guest because you had thrown away my beloved toy bunny and I had just found out. You said I had embarrassed you in public. You said I deserved to be punished."

She pulled her arm back again. "Now shall we talk about my eighth birthday? Remember that?" The lash sounded and Cora bit back a curse. "Any comments on what you did to me that day? Do you remember I couldn't sit for a week. Or lie down. Or walk. Or stand. I could only do one thing, and that was kneel. Kneel before you in penitence at your great and awful power over a small terrified child. And do you remember what I had done that was so horrible?"

Cora shook her head. Regina couldn't tell if she didn't remember or didn't want to.

"Held hands with a friend at school - a boy who was upset because his mother was sick. All I did was HOLD HIS HAND. But you didn't like that he was attached to me and from the 'wrong' part of the village, did you Mother?

"Or was it something else? Was it because an hour before you saw me when I hugged Daddy tight and told him how much I loved him?

"Which was it? Being too friendly with a boy or being Daddy's little girl?"

Cora scowled and shook her head.

"That's right, the answer is irrelevant, you bitch! They were both absurd reasons to hurt a child. I was only EIGHT!"

She pulled her arm back again. "Shall we get to the pubescent years? The borderline sexual abuse, wrapped up as 'teachable moments'? That hideous cruel thing you used to do to me?"

Regina leaned up on her toes and hissed into her mother's ear as Cora tried to wrench her head away. "Oh yes, Mother, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Did you enjoy doing that? Where no one could see? And then telling me you had to make me ugly so the boys wouldn't want me."

Cora muttered: "I was protecting you from them."

Regina snorted. "Of course you were.

"Well even though we've only barely covered the humiliation years, let's skip ahead to the murderous years. The odd disappearances of anyone who got a little too close. Was that protection, too? Mother?"

Cora spat out: "They would have lead you astray."

"Really? My English tutor who I adored? She was leading me astray? And the riding instructor who was almost 70 years old and wouldn't hurt a fly but thought I was 'special'? He was leading me astray too?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"LIAR!" Regina slapped her mother hard. "Next you'll tell me I just imagined you crushing Daniel's heart in front of my eyes."

"I found a king for you! And all you wanted was that, that... ridiculous stable boy."

"I didn't want a king! And it was never your decision! What is wrong with you?"

Regina realised her frustration had leaked out. She forced herself to breathe more steadily. Cora saw the weakness though and her lips bared as she verbally pounced.

"All I ever wanted, you ungrateful wretch, was that my family should not be tossed in the gutter the way I was. You never understood what my life was like. And you never appreciated all that I did for you."

"What you DID for me? You tortured me and killed anyone who loved me! You are SICK!"

"That is IT!" Cora roared. "Let me down now."

"Why? Do you feel three lashes and a slap makes up for a lifetime of misery? You feel that ledger is now nicely squared and balanced. We are all even?"

"I think, daughter, that you are not going to kill me - at best you just want to play with me a little until that precious army below us catches up and they can attack me for you. Let's face it, dear, your heart isn't in it or you would have done it already. So we may as well end the charade now."

"I will kill you." Regina declared, a little unsettled to discover she felt doubt when she said it. Was that why she had been delaying the end of this conversation? She realised she had no need to rehash these particular painful wounds, the abuse. The responses and rationalisations ... it was nothing her mother hadn't said before. Even hanging her in the air, hurting her ...

Regina realised she hadn't gotten the slightest satisfaction out of it. All she was doing really was just ... stalling. Oh hell.

"You won't kill me," Cora sneered knowingly. "We both know you are not the same woman who killed your father. That Regina was thoroughly evil but by God she had spirit. Even George noticed you're nothing now. The trashy blonde you love so much has turned you into a docile pet."

"I will kill you." Regina repeated, dredging up menace, but even less certain now than before. She tried to picture doing the deed and felt even sicker. What the hell was happening to her?

"Not only won't you, but you can't, dear," Cora smiled sweetly then, all trace of fear erased and suddenly Regina realised her mother had been playing her for a fool. She had even used her own tactics against her. Let her talk and talk while her strength gradually rebuilt, at least enough to do a few small spells.

The realisation hit her at the same moment Cora's fingers twitched twice and she muttered an incantation and crashed to the ground.

The older woman laughed as she pivoted neatly and put up her own magical shield, preventing Regina's next spell from hitting her and declared: "I told you love was a weakness. It has dulled your fighting instincts. You should have immediately known my next move and killed me at your first chance. But no my dear, you just can't do it. You have been neutered."

She flicked her hand and Regina went sprawling, never even seeing what hit her. Another spell cracked the air around her and she felt as though every bone in her body had been shattered.

Regina cried out in agonising pain. Cora stalked over to her and viciously kicked her in the ribs.

"Your problem, my dear, is lack of follow-through," she sneered. She kicked her again, causing Regina to gasp. "If you say you're going to do a thing, like kill your own mother, you have to believe you will."

"She might not be able to do it," said a new female voice from behind them, "But I sure as shit will."

Regina smiled, despite the agony, at the most glorious sound in the world, as she heard Emma's mocking tones from behind them both.

Cora turned sharply and eyed the blonde emerging from near Regina's bedroom, holding a large sword. It was aimed at her head. "Go ahead," Emma smirked, "Make my day."

Cora looked at her perplexed. "What does that even mean?" she asked in confusion.

Emma's mouth dropped open. "Uh, you know Dirty Harry? Do ya feel lucky, punk?"

Cora just looked at her, mystified, as though she had three heads.

"This world completely sucks," Emma muttered and she wound back the sword to attack, only for Cora to freeze it instantly in an icy residue.

"OW," Emma said, staring up at her arm now also encased in ice. "Shit that's cold."

Cora ignored her and glared at her daughter. "Was that some sort of a crack at me? Dirty Harry?" she hissed. "Just how many people did you tell about me?"

Emma's eyebrows rose and Regina wished she could laugh. It just hurt too much. She settled for performing a small spell to help repair her wounds. It would take a little while to fully kick in, but for now it would get her moving about a little.

"Whoa, if the shoe fits lady," Emma retorted.

Regina lifted an arm and snapped it Emma's direction, a shot of green smoke spiralling out. The ice on the blonde's sword melted instantly.

"Hey thanks," she said and gave her lover an impossibly adoring grin.

"I should have killed you when I had the chance," Cora snarled, appalled at the sight of the sappy look.

"My thoughts exactly," Emma countered. She lowered her voice conspiratorially: "I gotta say though, I'm not digging your new fashion look. Very unbecoming for a lady. What is it - hippie harpy chic?"

Cora glanced down in reflex at her naked torso, an arm instinctively coming up to cover her breasts and Emma seized on her lapse to lunge, cracking her nose and then jaw with an elbow and fist combo. A wet crunching noise sounded and a spray of blood went everywhere. Cora went down howling and hissing in agony.

Emma dropped to her knees and sat across her hips and lifted the sword, preparing to deal the fatal blow.

"NO!" Regina screamed, summoning all her strength and pushing aside the pain to shove her off her mother. The sword clattered harmlessly away and Emma crashed haplessly to the floor.

"What the hell, Regina? I had her!" she snapped and jumped back up, feeling about for the sword with one hand, and pushing away her lover's scrabbling hands with the other.

They tussled for a moment as the brunette hissed, "I can't let you do it Emma, please, stop - killing someone will change you for life. Do you really want to be like us?"

Emma finally got enough purchase and rolled over, grabbing the sword. But that gave Regina the chance to take over her position on Cora's hips, a crackling spell hissing and sparking from her fingertips, eyes blackening as she muttered. Her face was completely cold, hard and emotionless.

"No," the blonde shouted this time, crashing her to one side, disrupting the dark magic. "Don't! Not again! It ... please don't go there. It scares me..." she blurted.

Regina's eyes widened in shock at the admission. "It scares you? Or do I scare you?"

Emma looked away. She shook her head, unwilling to answer.

Cora cackled beneath them both. "Lover's quarrel?" she said, gasping, still too weak to move. But not too weak to mock.

Emma and Regina instantly both lunged towards her at the same time.

"ENOUGH!" came an angry bellow.

Everyone froze. All eyes swiveled to the wolf they had forgotten had been crouching there, just off to one side. Watching everything.

"Oh quite right," Cora laughed. "Well isn't this lovely. I have allies after all. Wolf!" she bellowed, eyes turning into dark chips of coal. She pointed at the two women above her. "Take out the trash!"

Regina and Emma both paused, looking at the enormous beast in trepidation. Dark red eyes met theirs ominously. But then it blinked and looked down at the woman bleeding on the floor.

"Majesty, I do not answer to you on matters of life and death. You are not my master."

Cora swore. Actually swore. Regina realised it was the first time she'd ever heard any obscenity drop from the controlled woman's lips.

"Fine," she scowled. "Fetch your master."

The wolf merely lifted its head and howled once.

The noise was so loud it reverberated throughout the castle and into the ravine below. It was a chilling primal sound and Regina felt a shudder go up her spine. She glanced across at Emma who still refused to meet her eye.

The approaching army heard a terrifying howl go up across the lands.

Snow and James exchanged looks. "I don't like this one bit," Snow muttered as they gingerly made their way around the swelter pools, clutching Emma's map tightly.

Granny strode forward. "It's a Grizzly Wolf, mark my words," she said with authority, shifting her crossbow on to one shoulder. "Impossibly rare. Highly territorial. Incredibly deadly."

Red ran up to them. "I have just been scouting the area ahead - both Midas's and George's armies have gone. All that's left is Cora's personal guard, and they don't seem too enthusiastic about staying at their posts, if you know what I mean."

"How many?"

"Forty at most."

Snow smiled. "Excellent news."

James nodded and turned and raised his voice to the army. "OK just like in the briefing. You know where to go and what to do. Point team, with us, we're going after Cora on the balcony now." It had been where the wolf's cry had come from afterall.

"Let's hope we're not too late," Red whispered. Her eyes flicked up. "I haven't heard anything from up there in a few minutes. No magic or threats or anything. I hope Emma is doing OK. And is, you know, kicking her skanky mother-in-law's butt as we speak."

Snow and James glanced up at the castle looming before them, also unable to see any movement at all.

"I did give her my sword," James half whispered. "That has to help, right?"

Snow dropped her hand to his and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "She is very good with it, Regina trained her for many hours every day."

James nodded and turned to the mass of people behind him.

"EVERYONE MOVE IT!" he bellowed, and flicked a worried glace at his wife. "We'll get there in time," he told her.

The army began to surge forward.

A shadow made its way forward from the main bedroom.

Cora beamed. "Huntsman, order your wolf to attack this disloyal pair."

"I am afraid I can't do that your majesty," the man said, leaning against the door frame, sliding hands into pockets.

Emma and Regina both gaped. Then the blonde grinned widely.

"Graham!" she exclaimed and promptly rushed over to him, enveloping him in a bear hug, dropping her sword with a clatter.

"Oh for God's sake," Cora spat.

"Just not your day, is it, Mother?" Regina snorted. But even so she examined the bearded man cautiously. They hadn't exactly parted on the best of terms, what with her semi-killing him and stashing his body out of the way in the Infinite Forest that night. She wondered how the man was at holding grudges.

"Your Majesty," he said addressing Cora, "The cycle must end here. I will not give this wolf orders to attack."

"How dare you!" she sputtered, "And after all I did for you. Why I found you wandering lost and confused and half dead, with only a wolf for company, and offered you shelter. This is how you repay me? You defy me?"

"I do," Graham said without a hint of remorse. "And I was actually neither lost nor hungry. I was merely presenting myself to you in a way that would not arouse your suspicion."

"You were a plant? A spy?! For who?"

"For me," a voice said.

Everyone shifted their attention back to the wolf.

"You humans are so arrogant," he said in a low growl. "So sure we will all abide by your rule and ways. But you are not the only ones who get a say in this. We have all conferred and voted on how we want the realm to be. And I speak for the other wolves, the deathclaws, the higher birds and the marsupials of the southern ravine: It ends now. Cora must be not be allowed to live. Her realm is evil. Unsustainable. Wicked. We all know what she did to the human female who angered her. Staking her with a pitchfork in wolf form so she howled for three days before dying."

The wolf shook his head in disgust.

"The vote was unanimous - we do not want to live under the reign of the Evil Two. It is time for that to be over. And it is especially time for you to be over." He growled again in distaste as he eyed Cora.

Cora, for her part, looked completely outraged. It was hard to know whether it was because a death sentence had been declared or that it was 'mere' animals pronouncing it on her.

Regina slowly raised her hand, nodding solemnly magic sizzling at her fingertips once more, while Emma reached for the sword where it lay at Graham's feet.

"It must be me," the brunette said firmly.
"I will do it," the blonde said at the same time.

The wolf snapped at them. "I told you the animals had decided this. And neither of you," he looked at Emma and Regina, "will be allowed to kill her."

There was a stunned silence.

"Why not?" Emma asked finally breaking the strange pall. Even Cora leaned forward to hear, despite a pained grunt issuing from her lips.

"Because she," the wolf said snarling at Regina, "has a dark side we do not want back. And you are a saviour who must remain pure. Your soul would become twisted and tortured if you did this. Killing is not for you."

"Then who?" Regina asked, perplexed. "Not Graham?"

Cora had been slowly rising as the wolf spoke and now her fingers snapped suddenly, a ball of fire coursing spectacularly around her fingertips.

"None of you," she shouted and threw her arm up. "I will take you all with me!" The size of the ball was enormous and everyone went to ground. Emma instinctively flashed out the sword with one arm, and covered Regina's body with her other.

Everything slowed down. Regina saw out of the corner of her eye the gleaming sword impact the fireball and send it ricocheting harmlessly over the balcony.

And yet there came an anguished, blood-curdling scream. The brunette twisted her head to see Emma's face, petrified beyond all reason that she had been burned. But the blonde woman was turning in confusion in another direction. Towards...

God! Mother. She snapped her head up to look at her. There, sitting on her bare chest, covered in blood, sat the wolf. The beast tilted his head towards her and she could see his muzzle covered in a sticky redness.

Oh...

"Move," she demanded, "Get off her. I have to see..."

The wolf did as she bid and Regina gaped. Her mother's throat had been savagely ripped out. Cold dead eyes stared back at her, with a faint expression of surprise.

The woman was dead. Dead. She wasn't even a woman any more, but a body. Just a piece of flesh lying on the floor.

Regina swallowed and shook her head numbly at the sight. She could feel everyone's eyes on her but she couldn't see anything but the horrible sight before her. She should feel joy, she told herself.

"Mother!" she found herself crying out in a strange, twisted noise. It shocked her. She did not know how she felt. But seeing Cora like that... After a moment her mother's cruelty and humiliations flooded her senses. She turned away. It was so confusing. Emma's look of surprise at her response made her close her eyes.

No one could understand this. Her head was screaming.

Dimly she became aware of the wolf speaking to her, or was it to all of them?

"It was always going to be the animals who finished this," the wolf growled. The blood on his matted grey fur stood out starkly and he looked obscene, like a creature from a horror movie. She recoiled a little.

"It was the only way to end the humans' cycle of evil," the wolf continued darkly. "We will no longer allow the humans to keep replacing one evil with another. We are sick of it," he spat. His large head turned to the demon vulture which had been silently watching. "Scapulus? As agreed."

The mighty black bird gave two flaps until it was above Cora - Emma scrambled to get out of the way - and then lifted the body effortlessly with its talons.

Everyone stared as it flapped off into the sky - an awful sight in silhouette holding its twisted human cargo - then suddenly paused midflight and dove towards the earth like a missile. At the last moment he let go of the broken body and the ground opened up on impact. Cora sank quickly into a swelter pool, then disappeared from sight.

Scapulus cawed and arced towards the heavens.

Regina felt tears sliding down her face and great confusion. "I don't understand this," she said softly. "I hate her with everything in my being and yet..."

Graham turned and said softly: "It's possible to hate someone and still not want bad things to happen to them. But that's only possible if you have a heart."

Her eyes slid up to his. She saw his knowing look. Who were they talking about now? Her or him? He smiled at her confusion and explained.

"You are not the woman I knew in Storybrooke, Regina," he said kindly. "And I am not the man you knew either. We will talk properly another time. But I am glad you have found love. It has changed you very much for the better."

He gave her a crooked grin at her surprise and turned to leave.

"Wait," Emma cried out. "I need to talk to you." She glanced over her shoulder. "Alone."

Regina watched wordlessly as he inclined his head and they walked towards her bedroom. She felt sick in the stomach and hurt all over. Her eye fell to the wolf, with its bloodied face and brooding expression.

"And who did you work for, dear," she asked derisively, unable to contain all the pain inside. She felt desperate to lash out at someone.

"The animals of the Infinite Forest," he growled. "The one you know as Graham and I helped to get them organised. When I found him, after he awoke from ... death he called it ... I cared for him. He spoke often of his old world in a place many horizons away. He said he believed he had failed at bringing justice to his people even though it was his duty. He felt ashamed and relieved he had a second chance. He said it was time he worked for the greater good.

"So together we worked out the best way to do that. To reclaim the palace from the Evil Two. And then you arrived and made things go faster. But even if you hadn't been here, the ending would have been the same."

"With my mother in a swelter pit?" Regina scowled.

"Yes."

"And Graham - he never really worked for her?"

"No. He just let her think he did. She mainly wanted use of my services anyway. She used me as a spy."

"I recall," Regina hissed. "You were spying on us all. For her AND for Graham? That time you saw me crying in my bedroom ... and by the lake?"

"Yes," the wolf said. "And your tears saved your life. Some of the animals voted to kill you, too. To end the cycle forever. So your darkness could never again surface."

Regina bit her lip. Her fabled darkness. She shuddered. Truthfully it scared her, too. She wondered if that's what Emma wanted to talk to Graham about. Cling to his shoulder and sob about how afraid she was of her lover?

The wolf was staring at her. She stared right back.

"So what changed their mind?" she asked. "About killing me."

"I told my master about what I saw. The saltwater. And your plans to hurt your mother and her mate. And that was when he told me you were different now. The animals trusted that. They trust him.

"Still, it was a risk to let you live. It was why I took the kitchen girl to you at the cottage ruins that day, to save you before it was too late. It was a risk, you and your blackness. But my master said you were now worth saving."

"So all this was for nothing?" Regina laughed bleakly, rubbing her face viciously "My scheming? It was always going to end this way. I was little more than a pawn, too?"

"No," the wolf said. "If you had not done what you did, loved who you did, fought when you did, stayed your hand in attacking me when you did, you would be in that pool now, too."

Regina looked at him. She opened her mouth.

"Do not thank me," he stopped her. "It was the will of the animals. I am merely their eyes and ears and voice among humans."

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Scapulus resettle on the balcony. Of course - she hadn't dismissed him from his sentry duty.

An almighty crash sounded and a group of Storybrooke residents burst out onto the balcony.

"Where is she?" James snarled, striking an appropriately heroic pose.

Regina resisted the urge to roll her eyes and instead pointed over the balcony edge.

Snow's eyes widened. She ran to look. "I don't see a body."

"She's in a swelter pool," Regina said softly, tears pricking her eyes again. "Dead," she added redundantly. She then realised now she could finally identify her main emotion. They had all been so jumbled up. Relief. She felt relief. The weight crushing her that she'd felt her whole life was gone.

Cora Mills was no longer a threat. Not to her, not to Emma. Or anyone else.

She smiled suddenly. "Dead," she added again half to herself. She felt the protective darkness inside herself that she had felt for decades recede as if it were shrivelling in a corner. She realised she no longer had a need for it. She felt light. And free.

Her eyes sparkled and she found herself, ludicrously, smiling at Snow who looked back at her curiously.

Granny burst to the front of the group. "Are you seriously telling me we got all ready to fight and there's nothing to fight? I mean hell, half Cora's guards took one look at us and ran. And I only got that one bastard in the knee because he tripped over his own flaming armour!"

Regina bit back a smirk. She could relate. Unspent adrenalin was the weirdest sensation. She cleared her throat to get the attention of the wild-eyed woman. She then pointed to a scout bird that had been hovering to one side the moment the army burst through on to the balcony.

"You could always take out her spy. Cora did love those."

"Done," Granny declared and growled as she pivoted and shot off her crossbow in one seamless movement. It skewered the creature in the neck and then nailed it to the balcony rail with a satisfying thunk, right between the demon vulture's talons.

Scapulus squawked in surprise and looked down at it, then looked back up at Granny.

"Niiiice," the bird said in honest appreciation.

Regina almost laughed at Granny's expression and her old feathered ally's immediate respect for her. He was not easily impressed.

"Where's Emma?" Snow suddenly asked, turning to Regina fearfully.

The brunette pointed to the open doors at the end of the balcony.

"In my bedroom," she sighed.

Snow's eyes went wide and Regina could almost hear her internal squeamish squeak.

Red, however, lacked all restraint and exclaimed: "All right! Lusty Saviour gratitude party about to start!"

Regina sighed. "She's talking to Graham," she ground out.

"Graham?" Snow's whole expression changed to one of delight. She rushed down to the end of the balcony and then gave a pleased squeal at what she found and disappeared through the doors.

Regina could well picture the saccharine hugging and squeezing and loving from way over here.

Emma emerged a few minutes later, eyes red rimmed.

Regina took in the sight, an anxious feeling skittering along her spine. What had they discussed? He was probably filling Emma in on her dark past - flinging him into bed whenever she was in the mood, or wanted to punish him. Would Emma even want to be in the same realm as her any more, she wondered? Shame and loathing filled her. The sense of unworthiness grew in 'the pit of her guts.

She could feel Emma next to her now, hear her sniff. She felt a soft warm hand lift her chin and force her to look her into beautiful green eyes.

"Regina," she said softly.

The brunette looked at her fearfully. "Yes?" she said so quietly she barely heard the word herself.

Suddenly Emma flung her arms around her and whispered in her ear: "I love you."

And then Regina Coralina Mills, former Evil Queen, wicked kick-ass mayor and dispenser of the darkest of dark evil curses, to her complete horror, burst into tears.

To make matters worse, as she tried to stem the traitorous flow, she caught sight of Snow coming out of her bedroom and smiling indulgently at her.

She tried to think of something suitably intimidating to say or do but just then her chin trembled.

Snow beamed even wider and then dwarfed all earlier horrors by actually walking up to her and putting an arm around her shoulders, enveloping her and Emma in a warm embrace.

Then the young woman looked at her with soft eyes - the same big brown pools she remembered seeing decades ago when Snow was a little girl plopping herself beside her on the couch as she sewed. Snow leaned forward and whispered so very softly into Regina's ear just three small words.

They were words that made Regina's entire soul clench and her eyes flash wide with wonder.

"I've missed you."

A/N: Well that was the smackdown. You know how I love reviews, but I have a small favour to ask this week: If reviewing, pretty please try to resist mentioning who/what killed Cora in your reviews. Would like to keep that space spoiler-free if possible. I know it's not exactly a Crying Game twist, but I think it might ruin things if someone read it there first. Thanks everyone. One more chapter to go: Party!