A/N: I'm back! Hope you enjoy :) I had a few reviews asking about how Emma got out of the cuff/ how they've ended up in the enchanted forest. I will go into this more as the fic goes on- atm, neither one of them is all that sure how this has come to be, so it will be something they strive to figure out- but the main idea for the moment was that the darkness left inside of Emma, magnified by the darkness left in the earth of the basement, allowed that part of her to break out and come to the surface in the face of the Queen pushing her as far as she could go and baiting it out of her. The cuff and how they ended up where they are will be explained as this goes on :) Comments would be awesome!
"...Then let's play it."
The blonde invites, and as the words leave her lips, thunder claps up ahead as purple storm clouds crowd over the castle; ominous and bruised. A second later, and rain begins to fall, the droplets heavy and fast, and bringing with them an icy chill. The Queen wrinkles her nose and casts an angry look up at the sky, but her irritation seems not to be shared by her opponent who ignores the downpour that drenches her silver curls a foreboding shade of iron; streaming from her hair and down the leather of her corset it rivulets.
Taking another step towards the brunette, Emma watches curiously as the water glistens on soft skin; noting the way it trickles over delicate clavicles and down into the promising valley of the darker woman's cleavage.
"Make your move, then."
The Queen challenges, feeling a small shift in the younger woman's magic as it continues to bind her against the door, and catching the direction of Emma's attention with great intrigue. She tries to counteract that electric power with a surge of her own, but with the blonde holding her at her mercy, it does little more than send the Sheriff taking a couple of steps back and shivering slightly. The way she does so is almost as though she relishes the threat of the darker woman's magic, and the brunette swallows as she is unsure just what to make of this new facet of their game. It exhilarates her that the Saviour should agree to play with her, but with that thrill comes an acknowledgment of danger she is not well versed with.
"Fine."
Emma agrees, and her eyes flash at a nearby roar of thunder, before she leans in and takes each of the brunette's wrists in her hands.
"What are you-"
But the darker woman's words get lost in the void of the blonde's magic as Emma closes her eyes and takes them elsewhere.
"Can I get you anything?"
The young woman behind the counter asks, and Regina shakes her head without replying as she remains sat deep in thought. Eventually, Granny comes shuffling up to her; the old cook a little more persistent.
"Coffee's fresh, Madame Mayor."
"Fine, coffee then... No, wait. Make it a cappuccino."
The brunette sighs, but as she watches she supposes she needn't have bothered as Granny already makes her way to the machine; her order having remained the same for over thirty years now.
"Something troubling you?"
The widow asks, shooting her a sharp glance over her glasses, and Regina shakes her head as she taps her nails lightly on the spotlessly clean counter.
"I believe only bartenders are obliged to engage in small talk, and even then it's an act I've never much approved of."
"I'm not asking out of obligation, I'm asking because before Pippi came and asked after you, you'd been sat staring into space for the last ten minutes."
Granny points out, and the brunette thins her lips sourly at what she takes as an accusation, before asking irritably
"Since when did Pippi start working here?"
"Since she got fired from the clothes-mart for stealing hosiery... And since I needed another pair of hands on deck in light of our new visitors."
"You should talk Miss Lucas into coming back."
Regina sighs, and the old cook raises a brow as she places the Mayor's drink in front of her.
"I never took you to be a fan of Ruby's."
"I wasn't... But she was familiar at least. Everything's changing around here."
The brunette confides pensively, and Granny pauses as she considers offering up a response, but the darker woman has turned her attention down to her coffee and seems not to have anything else to say. Frowning, she simply slides across a packet of sugar that she knows the Mayor won't use before padding off to see to a young couple helping themselves to a booth in the corner.
Watching her go, Regina sips at her drink as she tries to decide what to do. The broken cuff she'd found in the Sheriff's basement remains hidden in the pocket of her jacket, seeming to burn a hole into the fabric as its very existence in this realm troubles her greatly. She is unable to fathom any reason why Emma should have come into possession of such a thing. She supposes it's possible that Rumple might have had another band similar to the one used by her mother and on Zelena in his shop, but she can't really put together a set of circumstances that would lead to him giving it to Emma. She is certain that Zelena herself won't have offered the blonde the cuff as, while the bad blood between them has more or less been left in the past, her sister remains on the fence when it comes to the Saviour for the most part; finding her to be pleasant but rather dull. She is just as certain the Zelena won't have used the cuff against Emma, as her sister is well aware that the Charmings- especially the blonde- are off limits if the two of them wish to remain in each others good books.
Which would leave only myself that might have the knowledge or the means to obtain such a thing...
Frowning, she fingers the sugar sachet she has left unopened dubiously, not sure what to make of what is shaping up to be a rather unusual day.
Unusual that you should find a powerful artefact in Miss Swan's basement...
... Her basement to which the door appeared to have been kicked in, with the woman herself nowhere to be found.
Not to mention that I have never before seen such a powerful relic rendered useless... Disenchanted, yes, but not split in two...
She supposes that there must be a perfectly reasonable explanation for all of this, but she can't help but feel a little concerned. Dipping her hand into her pocket, she runs her finger over the jagged split in cool metal; almost certain she feels the telling residue of the younger woman's magic.
Like a fingerprint.
A dark fingerprint.
This last thought comes to her before she can shut it out, and her brow furrows deeper.
"Uh oh, keep looking like that and you'll get wrinkles."
A pleasant voice warns from her left, and she glances over irritably to be met with Snow, Charming and baby Neal in his father's arms.
"Never."
She replies loftily, nodding when her long ago nemeses gestures hopefully at the stool next to her.
"Well, if you do get them, it's Emma's fault for starting up time here again. I told her the same the other day when I thought I'd found a grey hair. Turns out it was just paint from the nursery."
Snow grins, and David chuckles as he adds conspiringly
"It was also green."
"Rather more rare."
Regina replies with a tight smile, feeling a little drained, but the younger woman seems not to notice as she beckons over Granny and orders them some drinks. Offering the cuff in her pocket one last squeeze, the Mayor pulls herself together and asks in what she hopes is a casual tone
"Have either of you seen Emma at all?"
"No, not since I ran into the two of you at breakfast the other day. She's probably with Hook."
Snow smiles, and the brunette nods and agrees that this is probably true, while inwardly doubting it. She supposes it's possible that she might have somehow missed the Sheriff on the way to her house, but she doubts it, and having spied the pirate in the company of Will Scarlett, she doesn't deem it to be all that likely that Emma will have chosen to join the two of them on whatever misdeeds they might be getting up to.
She's not with Hook and she's not at home... She's also not... Not herself today.
A flash of pale flesh and scant black fabric and Regina purses her lips and pulls a couple of dollars out and lays them beneath her mug.
"I better get home."
She apologises, and she agrees distractedly to Snow's offer of coffee the following morning. She is beginning to feel a little uneasy about how things are looking for Emma, but she isn't sure whether bringing this up with the blonde's parents is the best idea.
At least not yet.
After all, the Sheriff is a grown woman, and might not appreciate her raising the alarm due to being unable to track her down for a couple of hours, busted door or not.
It wouldn't be the first door that woman's kicked in...
And what would she tell Snow, anyway? That she's a little concerned about the way her daughter has been acting of late as she's never really flirted so openly before?!
No, the younger woman's curious behaviour is certainly not something she's about to bring up, and she decides that she needs to do a little more sleuthing before worrying the Charmings unnecessarily. If she's wrong about all this and sends the blonde's parents into panic mode, she knows she'll never hear the end of it.
What's the worst she could do?
A small smile at this, which she promptly wipes from her face as she stalks for the door; shoving any inappropriate intrigue veiling what had been meant as a derogatory question firmly back into the dark corners of her mind.
Opening the door out into the cold, she makes her way down the Diner steps while pulling her jacket firmly closed against the early evening chill. Reaching into her pocket to check for any messages from Henry, she finds that she's received two texts since she last checked her phone and comes to a halt as she opens them up. The first is from Henry, informing her that he and Violet have gone to help her father with his horses before heading home. The second is from Gold, and is characteristically cryptic.
I believe we may need to discuss a few things. Come by tomorrow before noon.
Frowning, she resigns herself to her fate and closes the messages, hesitating for a moment as she considers trying to get a hold of Emma. Checking the last text received from the blonde's number, she tries to gage if there's anything that appears off to her, but comes up empty.
Just the regular, useless trivia...
Yes, but her brow furrows as she suddenly recalls that she'd received another, more recent message from the younger woman from another number.
Lily's number.
That residual friendship she's never quite been able to understand.
Opening it now, she finds no signs of concern in the younger woman's wording, but when she looks back up, she is surprised to spy Lily herself leant against one of the lamp posts a little further down the street; bathed in the pale tungsten glow that has just flickered to life. Weighing up her options, she looks down at the message in her hand before running her fingers over the cuff in her pocket uncertainly.
Well, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to ask...
No, she can see no harm in asking the rather surly young woman if she's seen or heard from her friend. She is also confident that if Lily hasn't, she is unlikely to panic as the Charmings might should she suggest that this is starting to seem a little odd. She knows that the two will sometimes share a drink down at the Rabbit Hole or sat outside the Sheriff's Station, and so she harbours some hope that Lily might know of a few places Emma might be found that she hasn't been let in on.
She tells herself she's not jealous.
She tells herself that she's only looking out for the blonde's best interests, and that Emma will in no way mock or resent her sharing her concerns.
She'll just have to deal with it... After all, what's the worst she can do?
Blinking against the sudden darkness in which she finds herself, the Queen breathes in the rustic smell of packed earth before coming to the realisation that the blonde no longer holds her captive with her power. Pulling free of the younger woman's loose grip on her wrists, her victory is short-lived as she becomes aware of the bars that separate them.
"What have you...?"
She spits venomously, taking a couple of steps back as she drinks in her surroundings in disbelief.
Emma smirks at her through the bars; wrapping her fingers around old, rusted iron as she waits for the brunette to get her head back in the game.
"How?!"
The Queen demands, slowly coming to the dreadful realisation that she recognises her confines from her own rule, despite never having been on this side of them.
Rumplestiltskin's cell... But how... How would she...
Emma smile is wicked as she explains casually
"When we came through the book, you threw me down in the dungeons, and that's always weighed on my mind as a bit of a sore subject... of course, I could never really blame Regina for that, because it wasn't really her that did it. It was you. Oh, sure, it was some weird alternate reality version of you, but it was the Queen. The Queen that humiliated me and had her men drag me down here. The Queen who stripped me bare and put me in rags... It's time to pay for that, Your Majesty... Time for you to see how you like it..."
"I-"
"-As for why I brought us here...
I know what this place is...
I know who this cell was built for... I've been stuck down here once before, and I know that while you're locked away in there, you can't touch me...
Pity for you that it doesn't work both ways."