A/N: I know I said this was the last chapter peeps but it kind of spiralled out of control as I was writing it so I've split the finale into two and this is the first part- hope you don't mind. Hope you all enjoy, any reviews, thoughts, horrendous insults, virtual high fives, metaphorical face punches appreciated!
TELLS CHAPTER 21 PART ONE:
The witch closed her eyes and offered her palms to the roof hanging above. They were a lighter shade of jade than the rest of her, with deep cracks and grey fissures etched into them and Emma found that fact almost as disconcerting as the billowing smoke that began issuing from them. While she struggled uselessly against the force holding her immobile she wondered whether the smoke flew out directly from Zelena's blood stream- if it were some kind of chemical magic that reacted to the air as the two gases mixed together.
Regardless of its origins, the vapour quickly filled the space around the witch, the fat ominous cloud ballooning faster and faster as each second ticked by until the room was practically choked with the intangible mist. Forcing her breathing into a regular pattern, trying to bury the vague fear that the witch planned to suffocate everyone around her in some grandstanding display Emma kept resisting the force holding her up, begging her muscles to just move. A centimetre. An inch. Anything that told her they maintained even a hairs breadth of control. Something to cling onto.
Something to take away the runaway fears stampeding through her brain about Henry and Mary Margaret, Ruby and everyone else she cared about. Were they safe? Were they even still inside the building enjoying that sham of a celebration she'd been roped into or had they gotten to safety before everything twisted and broke free? And Regina- what about her? She had to still be in here somewhere, Emma could almost feel her hot and wounded presence in the same way that she had before her eyesight had been returned. And what was Regina thinking right now? It was no secret that the brunette had much more experience of magic than she did but had she ever come up against anything like this shitstorm? Was she feeling the same overarching helplessness that poured through Emma's veins? Regina had never seemed helpless to her, even in the midst of this nightmare to end all nightmares but when she thought about it logically, what strength could she really be using now when their entire world seemed to be fracturing?
Just then a thunderous crack rent the air overhead, making Emma and Regina and everyone else cringe instinctively at the horrendous sound whilst covering their heads.
It sounded as if the whole of the world was caving in.
And despite all their differing beginnings, all their different upbringings every single person trapped in the room opted for the old 'duck and cover' method of protection although they weren't even slightly aware of it. Emma would have laughed herself silly if she had been able to see them through the fog.
Maybe people in the 60s's weren't so crazy after all, she might have thought.
As it was she simply hung there in the same awkward position, trying to curl into herself away from the awful reverberating sound.
It was only after the humungous crack that the dust and debris began to fall from above though. Small specks at first. Then more. Clouds of them drifting downwards in soft patterns. In fact, soon the smoke was pushed to the back of her mind as this new vaguely persistent haze drew Emma's attention away from her worries and dangerously reminded the blonde woman of her previous torments... albeit in a faded slightly more benign stonewash version. The memories it disturbed were real enough to her though. Of how it felt to be sightless. No markers, no guides to follow.
Jesus, get a grip Swan.
Emma tried to focus her attention on freeing herself again but whereas the dust had started as a light drizzle now it was getting hard to even keep her eyes open as more and more powder fell on the occupants of the room. The Sheriff felt each crystal land on her skin with a gentle kiss, dirtying the already ragged skin there and wrinkled her nose to try and shake the specks off. It was a pointless exercise of course, since the fragments of rubble simply sat there taunting her with their durability while her body refused to move.
Laughing in her face. But she had to do something.
Anything but wait there for something new to attack.
Something new to tear them all to pieces.
Unbeknownst to Emma at that moment, Regina was in fact suffering a very similar fate to hers as she felt the odd crumbs of wreckage beginning to settle in her hair, dotting the russet tones with soiled flecks of grey. She knew enough to not even bother wrestling against the bonds constraining them though; she'd used them enough times in the past to know they fed hungrily off resistance and the way her mind was zooming back and forth between thoughts of Henry and Emma, burning with deep aggravating worries about their safety there was no way she could focus enough to do anything useful even if she'd had magic at her disposal.
It had always been tied too closely to her emotions, that's what her mother had said. She might have actually been right about that particular point as much as Regina hated to admit it and considering a legion of anxieties were currently scurrying around inside her mind, stopping briefly on random disconnected images of the town and it's people, she should probably thank God she didn't have her powers back right now. Hell, she barely knew which way was up let alone what she could do to the people and building around her if she was packing heat.
No, she simply had to conserve her energy and wait for some kind of opportunity to exploit Zelena's one weakness. Her ego.
The weakness of every witch she'd ever come across.
Including me. Her stomach baulked at the realisation but it was the truth plain and simple. There was no arguing with it, even in the midst of her mind's chaos.
So she held her breathing steady and patiently waited like the lady she had been trained to be.
Using the few useful gifts her mother had given her.
Until after what felt like eons... the last of the smog had dissipated.
When it was finally gone, all eyes strained to see what horrors the witch had conjured now. But to their communal surprise the room was exactly the same. Damaged and shoddy after the recent lightshow, the walls were laced with cracks and fallen brickwork but everything was solid nonetheless. The only noticeable difference in fact was that the room was a hell of a lot more populated than it had been before and everyone simply stared at the newly discovered gatecrashers with absolute bewilderment.
Mr Gold was the most prominent addition - stood as he was in the centre of the space, his cane resting against a piece of aerial flotsam and his head shaking from side to side as if to clear it of some memory he couldn't quite place. His current cohorts the slender witch Maleficent and Jefferson's wide-eyed daughter simply stood a few metres away, neither one touching the other but their eyes darkening the walls and scanning the strange décor with a shared sense of incomprehension.
The confusion all around was palpable.
Even Jefferson and Graham were back on their feet, the two men seeming a little less terrified but apprehensive all the same, neither moving but their mirrored stances suggesting that they anticipated some kind of fight.
"Mom! Ma!"
Henry's ecstatic cry rang out then. Emma started at the sound and glanced over at Regina to see her standing there alive and safe, her auburn eyes watering a little at the sudden appearance of everyone including their son and his mess of brown hair.
Ooof!
The blonde's relieved smile quickly turned into a groan as Henry sprinted at her and slammed into Emma's stomach with arms wide open, his face burrowing into her abdominal muscles as she realised she was no longer under the spell that had held her in stasis.
"Kid what are you doing here?!"
It was all she could get out with the thick dust coating her tongue, although the sight of his off centre parting and beaming grin filled her with something nameless and oddly reassuring despite the complete incongruity of the circumstances.
Peering over at Regina again, looking for any hint of an answer to what was happening the blonde faltered as she took in the blatant trepidation on the other woman's face and without further thought beckoned her over with a hand.
It took a few seconds for the Mayor to respond to the gesture. She seemed surprised by it if anything but then relief flooded Emma as the other woman started moving and the blonde found herself relaxing the tiniest bit with each step the brunette took towards them.
And then the three of them were together in one group, the two women hugging him and keeping Henry safe between their bodies, while they enjoyed the feeling of security that buzzed electric around them.
"Mom!" Henry mumbled merrily into Regina's clothes. "Where have you guys been?!"
The brunette smiled widely at her son's stifled affection. "We just had a few town issues to take care of sweetie. But we missed you, isn't that right Miss Swan?"
Emma rubbed her hand down their son's back. "Always kid."
Dragging her face away from their burrowing son, Regina looked Emma up and down with concern. "Are you ok?" she mouthed then.
Emma gave a very Henry-esque lopsided grin and nodded. "You know you can actually speak now, right?"
"Indeed." Regina snuck a glance down then lowered her voice to a guttural whisper. "Although I'm not sure who's more glad of that out of the two of us. I seem to remember you were quite distraught without my usual...verbal contributions."
A pink blush swam up the blonde's neck and she scrunched up her nose. "Figures that'd be the one thing that sticks in your brain from this whole nightmare."
Regina simply smiled softly at the ridiculously adorable expression in front of her, one that was somehow simultaneously preposterous and delectable at the same time then let her hand come to rest on Henry's head.
"What can I say, I'm ornery that way."
Emma leant inwards just a little, feeling the familiar buzz grow into a swirling current as she did so. She knew of course that their son was standing next to them but part of her didn't care if he was traumatized by what he was hearing. Part of her had had enough of tiptoeing around and lurching from one hell to the next. He might even understand- he was a smart kid and he loved the both of them unconditionally after all.
Besides. She'd never felt so desperate to feel something real in the whole of her life. Something solid. And everything inside her without exception was screaming out for Regina. That couldn't just mean nothing. It couldn't
"You know you're doing that thing again. Your tell. And if I didn't know any better," she leant even closer until she was an inch from the mayor and wet her lips before speaking again, "I'd think you were doing it just to get my..."
"If I could have everyone's attention!"
All heads turned to stare at the green skinned witch who had taken up position in the centre of the room and who stared back at her captives with an unapologetic stony gaze.
"Zelena?" said a voice.
She turned. "Rumplestiltskin. Always a pleasure."
"What exactly is meaning of this?"
"That's an excellent question," hissed Maleficent pulling herself up to her full height. "A little outside your jurisdiction aren't you?"
The outsider gave a brief guffaw. "Jurisdiction implies boundaries darling. And those old ideals went out the window when your beloved Mayor here threw her magical temper tantrum."
All eyes turned to Regina who held her rigid stance although Emma could see the tension and guilt building in the muscles of her neck. Stepping forward an inch, she slid her hand into Regina's without bothering to ask and positioned herself in front of Henry and the brunette.
"Why are we all here, Zelena?" said Gold in a falsely calm tone.
"Why are we here?" repeated Regina quietly.
Zelena threw her arms out wide, the jade hue of her unblemished skin drawing the attention of everyone in there.
"And finally we get to the crux of things! Revenge my dear, plain and simple. Even you should appreciate that as motives go."
There was a collective intake of breath although no-one noticed the Mayor swallowing hard as a thick ball of something poisonous coalesced in her throat.
"Revenge for what?"
Zelena's face grew haggard and cold at the banality of the question and her eyes pierced brown. "For everything. You and your damned curse destroyed everything that I built; how's that for a reason?" Regina went to speak again, her skin ashen but a thin hand shot out silencing her. "Oz may not have compared to that green and pleasant land you ruled over with its shacks and markets and fairytale endings but it was mine. My home. My chessboard to play with however I saw fit." Her tongue flicked out and wet her thin lips. "I wasn't a benevolent ruler I'll grant you but there was an order to how we lived. A hierarchy to be minded whichever side of that damned road you came from. But then, all of a sudden there were new whispers in the streets. That a dark blight was coming. A nightmare no-one can escape. Insidious mutters started running through every congregation in the land although no-one knew the source of the rumours. But the taverns were still ablaze with it. A sinister prophecy."
She sniffed. "And they were right, weren't they? All those small minded superstitious peons. You brought about the end of days in Oz."
Everyone was fixated on the volatile conversation between the two women, except for Emma who tightened her fingers around Regina's. For strength. Or reassurance. Or something she couldn't quite put a name to.
"So all this…" The brunette's free hand motioned around them, "this sideshow, was a punishment for me?" There was a strange expression crossing her features, a bizarre mixture of what looked like relief and pride that caused Emma's brows to knit together but she kept as silent as she could figuring that it may not be the best idea to interrupt when they were finally getting some useful information. She simply tried to paste on a disinterested façade as she took mental notes that might help them and their son get out of this giant web of craziness.
"At least that explains it…" she mumbled to herself but Regina obviously caught the comment because she shook her head a little sadly at Emma before glaring at Zelena.
"It doesn't explain it at all. If this was a personal vendetta against me and you've spent all this time watching us and trying to work out where you could strike to inflict the most pain you would have focused your attack on Henry not Emma."
She regretted the words almost as soon as they escaped her mouth. Henry's small body had shivered next to her at the implications of what she had said even thought he wasn't old enough to take them all in and he took a step further behind her although he probably wasn't aware of doing it. The Sheriff for her part stepped closer, shielding their son even more completely. She was also wearing a grimace; one that proved she understood and agreed with Regina's logic but felt the sting of that demotion too. Demotion to innocent bystander rather than being recognised as a prized part of the Mayor's life.
It was totally idiotic and selfish to think that way, the blonde knew it. Especially considering how brittle and antagonistic their previous encounters had been in the recent past but those words still served to exacerbate old wounds from her life outside Storybrooke. Reminding her of old overused platitudes about keeping in touch when the same beat up Ford Sedan came to take her back to the county home after things had gone wrong with the family next in line to take her on.
Regina caught how both Henry and his birth mother responded to her words and her chest tightened painfully at the fact she herself had caused them but she had no time to explain to either person right now. She had to get to the bottom of things otherwise this wasn't going to end well. For anyone in town. A million questions hurtled through her brain as she felt torn between reassuring the ones closest to her and keeping them safe from any further harm.
"You're quite right dear, if that was my only interest I probably would have," came the sneer.
"So there's more to this than petty revenge."
"Don't you dare call it petty!" Across the room Zelena screamed so hard and unexpectedly that Regina's head snapped back. The witch pointed at the two men she'd used as pawns. "Their kind of vengeance is petty. Imagined slights and inconsequential melodrama. My entire world was ripped from me! Or are we not allowed to cry over genocide anymore?"
Regina's mouth instantly went dry. And she found that for all the things she was now free to say, all the thoughts and arguments she was able to elucidate since having her voice back that she had no answer to that.
To what she had done.
What she had ripped apart all in the name of her own selfish pain. She'd known in the back of her mind that the curse would have further reaching consequences than even she could contemplate at the time, that much was true but she hadn't thought they could be so...
So brutal.
So all encompassing and violent. And all down to her.
Her knees began to sag underneath her although her grip on Henry and Emma kept her just about in place.
Fuck this.
Emma couldn't stand it. Couldn't stand the look of shame painted across Regina's haunted face. On a logical level she understood the other witch's rage, even her need for revenge as calculating and fierce as it was. But since she had read Henry's book right through and noted the large unassailable gaps in the stories, chasms that barely hinted at the villain's pasts she also knew that there were reasons for every action. Every reaction. Her whole ridiculous life had taught her that. And her experiences had also taught her one other thing.
That Regina wasn't the same wounded, hostile person she had been when she made her jaw-droppingly short sighted decision.
She was someone else now. Someone who loved her son in all the ways possible and...and someone who showed compassion for others when it was least expected.
She was different now.
Emma's fury surged forwards and she snapped her fingers to get Zelena's attention, enjoying the incredulous eyes that swung to hers at the uncouth sound.
"Ok we get it lady. She hurt a lot of people when she cast the curse. Everyone here actually, me included. She brought about a whole shed load of pain for everyone around her. And there's not a single damn excuse that'll make up for any of it. But..." Emma forced herself to keep facing forward and not make eye contact with the brunette. "...she's not the same person that she used to be. Jesus, even you can see how guilty she feels. Look at her. What good is revenge if it's not on the same person that hurt you?"
Zelena's mouth curled into a hard line. "It's no good." She took in the sight of the three people in front of her and raised her chin. "Unless you combine it with a way to obtain reparations for the damage caused."
"What possible compensation would..."
Zelena waved off Regina's query as if she hadn't heard it and her eyes flicked to the ceiling. "It began with pure vengeance of course. When I first crossed over the borders and broke through into your little hamlet that was all I ever intended. To make you pay. To make you feel what I had felt."
No-one had to ask the obvious question about what she might have felt. No-one even bothered to try.
So Zelena simply continued on as she wandered between the gathered witnesses.
"I had nothing, do you know that? No-one. It was desolate. To be so alone and watch you going about your day to day business as if nothing had happened of any importance. Until I really thought about what I should do and what I wanted. I'm not a fan of self reflection, dear as you might imagine so... I took a leaf out of your tattered book and decided to rebuild my world- everything that was stolen from me by your inability to deal with your rage."
Regina gasped.
"Oz is resurrected."
"Close enough. The streets are a little emptier these days but you'd be surprised how many people are willing to take a chance on a newly created land when they've become little more than refugees from their own."
"So why come back here? Why waste your time with me, why not stay there and rule?"
Green eyes flashed fire; a lightning bolt of gold inside them. "Because a life is more than the sum of its geography. It needs balance. And a true villain is nothing without enemies. You should know that better than anyone Regina; it's not hard to imagine those first months after you brought everyone here were tedious beyond measure. No confrontations, no fire."
The mayor snuck a glance at Emma but quickly returned her worried gaze to the witch.
"I needed the challenge back just like you did. The fight. And I needed a chance to get back at the only people who dared defy me in the old world, since my retribution was whisked away from me."
"Enemies? You mean that ragamuffin band of animated objects? A girl, her dog and some assorted travelling companions she stumbled across on her way?" said Gold with mirth.
"Shut the front door!" Emma said dumbfounded as she realised who the sorcerer was referring to. "No way is that real."
No-one paid her the least bit of attention.
"That girl as you call her killed my sister!" snarled the witch narrowing her eyes. "She was a murderer and a thief! Untried and unpunished. As were those idiots she adopted as friends."
"I'm not sure that straw and tin a good enemy make." He mused.
Maleficent shrugged. "Isn't dissolution punishment enough?"
"It is not. And so here we all are." Zelena replied.
The enchantress motioned to everyone around with undisguised satisfaction before she looked closer and took in the sea of blank faces staring back at her. Vacant uncomprehending faces.
She rolled her eyes. "Oh for God's sake. No-one has any imagination anymore."
Clapping her hands together, a wave of energy swept the room at about head height; a halo of power smacking into all those she'd assembled. Regina immediately stared down at herself trying to assess what Zelena had done but as much as she turned her hands this way and that she couldn't make out any changes brought on by the spell.
Which was a relief.
"Oh hell no," came an exclamation from beside her then and she turned to see Emma staring down at herself with absolute horror. Well, not at herself so much as the disappearance of her jeans and top which had been replaced with an old fashioned blue and white plaid dress.
"Say hello to the orphan girl; sent away to a hard unforgiving place, always searching for her home," said the witch surveying her handiwork with interest to see if it matched her memory as well as it should.
"If you think..."
Emma didn't have time to even finish her sentence before she was thrown away from Henry and Regina and found herself colliding hard with the far wall, her wrists suddenly bound there in place by invisible ties and her spine vibrated with hot pain.
"No," Regina whispered forlornly as her mind took in what was happening at a frustratingly lethargic pace.
"Emma!" Henry cried and the brunette was forced to react then, throwing her arms out and holding him back before he bounded over to where his birth mother now stood. It took almost all of her strength to contain his struggling body as he fought against her yelling Emma's name but she knew much worse would come if he got involved in the fracas so she kept repeating that thought to herself as he rebelled in her arms.
The witch grinned malevolently as she raised her hand again and this time Jefferson slid forward from his spot as if he were on wheels, his neck dragged backwards simultaneously so that the fat scar underneath his chin shone white under the ceiling lights. Madness dancing across his countenance.
"The man in search of a brain. Well, in search of a cohesive one at least."
He stared at the witch with a pale face full of fury and shock at the treachery he hadn't seen coming despite his own deviation from the plan not that long ago. He went to speak but she waved a hand and he too was flung against the wall a metre away from Emma who snuck a helpless glance at him, a brief flicker of delight dancing in her pupils at his sudden comeuppance.
She mostly kept her eyes on Regina though. Regina and their son who stared at her with moist eyes practically willing her to save herself. Emma wasn't sure she'd ever felt so much of a fraud as she did when Henry looked directly at her. It was enough to make her blood freeze in her veins.
The witch was only just getting started though. Next it turned out to be Graham's moment in the sun. Everyone could see his struggle to fight against the silent instructions moving his own body, it showed in the shaking of each muscle, each sinew as he was propelled forward but it did him no good as his rebellion made little to no difference to his motion. Soon he was lined up next to the Hatter, held in suspension spewing venom with his pupils at everyone.
"The man in search of a heart."
Regina's brows knit together as her mind raced. "But I didn't have his…"
"You might not have taken it my dear, but I'm afraid your mother had the same kind of appetites she instilled in you. She got to your boytoy a long time before you even met, in fact she was the one who whispered his name to your advisors when they went about searching for a Huntsman. I suppose she needed a set of eyes on you when hers were…indisposed. "
Regina felt sick to her stomach, unable to take it all in. "But they helped you, they're not your enemies."
Her adversary giggled. "You'd be surprised what a little betrayal can do to change a man's allegiances. "
"But we followed the plan."
Zelena arched an unflinching eyebrow at Graham's whimper, "Yes. Right up until you didn't. Up until your own desires threatened mine. I wouldn't claim the moral high ground so quickly if I were you law-man."
Sending another smaller wave of magic slamming into her three conquests, Emma groaned and bent over as much as she could within the confines holding her, her stomach knotted and painful from the incantation.
And Regina could only watch in terror at the wounded look burnt into Emma's countenance as she flexed her fingers urging some semblance of her past magic into being. Something. Anything.
But there was nothing there. No spark. No building fire.
Just cold muscle.
She was almost glad that the blonde didn't catch her eye at that moment so that she couldn't see the utter hopelessness coiled inside of her. Her complete inability to intervene.
"Rumplestiltskin," cooed the witch seemingly oblivious to her distress although Regina somewhat doubted it. "If you would be so kind."
The lank haired man's muscles tightened as he was pulled unceremoniously towards Zelena although his natural magical resistance slowed the movement to a crawl.
"Now I'm particularly proud of this one. A great and powerful wizard. And a cowardly animal to boot. You're quite the catch my dear."
Gold snarled at her and began whispering under his breath, an invocation so old and potent that he barely remembered where he had learned it but as if she had expected exactly that kind of opposition Zelena simply clicked her tongue and his mouth went limp.
"Oh, my dear. I didn't just give you a taste of our girl here for kicks you know. Her buoyancy, her optimism still runs through your veins. And your heart doesn't have the darkness required to complete that kind of spell while her influence remains."
Gold's eyes went wide and Regina saw a mirror image of her own uselessness reflected back in them. In fact she'd never seen the man look so defeated.
"Same goes for you Maleficent so please don't try my patience." A strange nostalgic light lit up that green face for a moment. "Glinda was exceptionally talented at that... and while you may not exhibit much in the way of righteousness, a witch is a witch I suppose. Beggars can't be choosers."
The statuesque woman stared at Zelena with disdain, her hands falling back down to her sides in slow motion but she refrained from speaking. She simply held her back straight and gave a small shrug as if to imply she was exactly where she wanted to be. It was almost impressive, thought Regina, the theatrics of it.
Insane but impressive.
Watching every new twist and turn as it happened as if from a distance, Regina's head suddenly snapped up as she realised something else that hadn't occurred to her before now.
"All of this...all these things you put us through they weren't just amusements for you. They were tests to see if these people were worthy."
Zelena nodded clearly pleased at the small note of awe in Regina's strong yet husky tone. "I can't have just any old replacements for my fallen heroes. They wouldn't last the course and I'm an old fashioned stickler for stamina."
Regina thought back to everything that had happened then, all the jagged pieces finally falling into place as she roved back over each incident. The small victories they had thought they'd won when she had found Emma at the hospital. When Emma had freed her from Graham's attack. All trials to be mastered and nothing more. The reasons behind Gold and Maleficent having been dosed with Emma's magic and causing such good natured chaos in the town- to prove that they could exist alongside others, could rally them instead of hiding behind their solitary lifestyles. No, in fact it was even more complicated than that- Zelena had wanted to make them benign. Amenable at least until she'd transported them home. And that's why Jefferson and Graham hadn't been offered any. So that they in turn wouldn't be lenient in the way they treated herself and Emma during their ordeal. So that they could be ruthless criminals instead of wounded scoundrels.
It was all planned down to the finest detail.
Feeling Henry's grip on her leg tighten in fear, she glanced down at him with a watery smile and whispered something reassuring although she couldn't have recalled what. It was all she could manage when she felt as if she were coming apart at the seams. But it felt calming nonetheless and she took the reassurance from his faith in her whether it was selfish or not.
"What about my daughter?"
Everyone turned to the Hatter as he blinked wildly trying to fuse his thoughts together.
"I beg your pardon?"
"Grace. My daughter."
The girl's head lifted for a moment.
Zelena though took a moment to inspect her nails. "She was never meant to be a part of this; I asked for the wizard and the witch. Bringing your daughter into proceedings, that was your doing."
His eyes began to water. "But she's just a child."
"And now she'll have to watch me steal her father away right in front of your eyes because of your rampant sentimentality," hissed the sorceress.
Jefferson's head slumped downwards then, as if all the fight had left his body in one fell swoop and after a moment he struck up a low keening wail under his breath. Primal and primitive as it was, the sound raised the hackles on Emma's neck as soon as she heard it and it spurred her on, trying once again to jerk against the constraints around her wrists. It didn't do much good though, she could feel the skin chafing there as she did it but for all her efforts she barely moved an inch.
It was the most demoralising thing she'd ever experienced.
One look at her comrades told her that she wasn't alone though. Each one had a rigid frame of muscle and ligament under a pale face that attested to their attempts at mutiny. Not a single one any more successful in the endeavour despite the differing levels of power between them.
"And there we have it. The full set." Crowed the emerald skinned witch, surveying her new set of puppets with unadulterated enjoyment. "I feel like I should take a picture for posterity."
"Free my hands and I'll take a selfie for you," growled Emma which caused her adversary to burst into peals of laughter.
"Very good my girl. You'll need that pluck where we're going."
Never before had the blonde wished she could give someone the finger so much in her entire life.
"And what if I said that you can't have them?"
The blonde's heart skipped a beat for a moment when she heard a familiar voice cut through her reverie.
Regina.
A salacious grin was pulling the skin tight on Zelena's face though as she took in Regina's own granite visage. "Them, dear? Or her?"
The Mayor froze, a crack in her armour as Henry's small hand gripped tightly to hers. "I don't know what you mean."
TBC...