The Monster in My Bed
Part Two
Chapter Twenty Four: The Evil Queen and the Sea Witch
When the waves start crashing in/And your heart is black as sin/And when you feel the water rise/And you're about to drown/Can't take all the pressure/Gasping for a breath/You're thrashing arms begin to tire/Don't close your eyes/We'll make it out alive/You're not alone
-Never Alone, Stitched up Heart-
A/N: Warnings for graphic violence, as usual.
"You think you've won the tournament?" Cora assessed coolly as she rose to her feet, her cloak swishing around her.
"I've destroyed anyone that was sent to fight me. And as per terms of the contract, that means I win," Regina spat. Her body was slowly healing itself from the damages it had taken in the fight with Mal and she could stand more upright now that her broken rib had reformed.
As they talked, Ursula approached from far away, cocky stride to her step.
"I see you have finished with your trials as well, Sea Witch," Cora commented.
"Not quite," she quirked up a gray brow, stopping a little ways between Cora and Regina. This way they formed a triangle, a triage of evil and powerful proportions. "I still have one more thing to take care of."
"Do you intend to fight Cora?" Regina asked, astounded by Ursula's willingness to go this far. She thought the Sea Witch was content to let it end here. But no, knowing her, once she had tasted power, for now she was third most powerful demon in Hell, she surely lusted for more. So going after mother wouldn't be out of bounds for her.
At this Ursula threw back her head. Her cackles rang through the air and spread a chill down Emma's back. That did not sound good. Emma had known not to celebrate Regina's victory over Mal quickly until Emma and Regina were both tucked away safely, as far as dimension traveling could take them from the wretched head demon and this apocalypse. "I'm not going to fight Cora." The statement hung in the air and it took Regina's tired mind a second to wrap around it. Her lips thinned when she did.
"You're going to fight me." Her hands curled up immediately, and her legs spread into a defensive stance. "I thought you were supposed to help me." That was what Ursula had claimed at the start of this demonic battle royale. What Robin had ordered her to do against her will.
"I am helping you. Helping to kill you," Ursula said with malice and then summoned her Trident to her hand.
Regina should have known Ursula wouldn't drop the slights Regina had given her over the years quite so easily. And now she had her damned Trident. That would make her a force to be reckoned with.
Cora sat back down, pleased with this outcome. She waved her hand lazily as if commencing this fight to go on. Emma felt like pulling her own hair out. Felt like pounding her hands against the ground, like letting loose bitter tears. It just wasn't damn fair. Why were there so many obstacles lying in their path? Why did Regina have to struggle so much?
Ursula's eyes shone white as the Trident shone hot in her hands. A rumble went through the earth and Regina took three preemptive steps back from Ursula, knowing that whatever was coming next wouldn't be good.
And she was right. The fire hydrants and sewers exploded, tons of sea water sputtering forwards and beginning to wrap in a circle around the two women. The rushing water span around them as Ursula's powers controlled it. The air was filled with the scent of salt and rotted animals, the air roaring with the giant sound of hungry water spinning around and around until it had formed an impenetrable water tycoon, separating them from sight and from everyone else.
To try and make it out through the water would be suicide. Regina would be liquefied with the speeds it was going at. If she wanted to escape, it would have to be by defeating Ursula.
"Don't you think it's time to let old grudges die?" she asked over the roar of the water vortex.
"Preaching love and forgiveness? I think I may retch," Ursula and she did, opening her mouth wide and coughing out something long and slimy. It wiggled as it came out before dropping to the ground. It wasn't the only thing. Another similar animal came forth from the recesses of Ursula's mouth. Two eels. Two nasty looking eels. They slithered on the ground, growing larger quickly.
"Flotsam and Jetsam were looking for a new toy. I think you'll be perfect for them," she sneered as they expanded to be twenty feet tall. Saliva dripped from their jaws and electricity crackled along their bodies as they peered hungrily at Regina.
"For fucks sake," she hissed out miserably. She was so tired of fighting already. She just wanted it all to be over by now. Inhaling deeply, she threw her head back and summoned the last reserves of her magic. She was beginning to run out. But she knew she couldn't give up. Not when the fate of the world and Emma's life hung in the balance.
She closed her eyes, centered herself as Flotsam and Jetsam slithered closer to her, jaws gaping in delight at the chance to tear into something new.
Mary and David were beginning to tire as well. The demons and angels had been doing battle for the past eight hours nonstop and it was taking its toll on them. Too many good angels had been lost but it seemed barely a dent had been made in the demon army.
"What's taking Emma so long?" Mary groused as she wiped a streak of demon blood from her cheeks. She was panting and out of breath. She had slain too many demons to count and still there were more to count for they literally crawled out of the ground like ants. "She should have been able to find the head demon and slay it by now. Did we put too much pressure on her? Should we have gone with her?" She looked to David seeking comfort.
The angel warrior had blood caking the whole of his armor and sweat came down his brow. The ax in this hand felt heavy and cumbersome and he had splinters running up and down his fingers. "We must have faith in her. She is the destined one. She will prevail no matter what."
Mary nodded her head, smiling and more relaxed now with her husbands words. "You are right. We just have to wait a bit longer. Fight a bit stronger and keep these masses busy while Emma does her good deeds."
Mary notched another arrow and fired it right into the forehead of a demon ambling towards them.
The church was the only thing left untouched. Good thing too, because Robin would need it. Need it for what he was planning. While the angels were fighting their fight, and while Regina sought to save Emma, he would do his part as well. He owed them that much.
His demon, Ursula, was becoming too unwieldy. Too dangerous. And he knew once his contract ended the woman would try and fight or even kill Regina for whatever reason. And he couldn't let that happen.
He still cared for Regina, despite her being a demon, and even though she did not reciprocate his feelings, he would still do his best to clean up the mess he had made.
He opened the heavy doors to the church, his heavy boots echoing on the stone floor as he passed by empty pews all the way down to the altar.
Ursula had found a way to get around Robin's previous orders. He had told Ursula she could not hurt Regina. He had told her to help Regina, and this clever bitch had taken his words and twisted them around so that she could do as she wanted.
And while she herself could not lay a hand on Regina, her monstrous pets could. Though it was their teeth that did all the touching. One had grabbed Regina by her ankle and shook her properly before tossing her to it's eel brother who sunk it's needle like teeth into the flesh of her torso. It snapped and poked holes right through her guts, lungs, ribs, blood pooling inside her as she let out a scream of pain.
Magic flared in her hands and she aimed a blast right into it's eyes, blinding it. It howled in pain, before tossing her back to the other eel, which caught her in it's mouth and electrocuted her.
Her teeth clattered together and her limbs flailed around comically as all thought fled her mind. She chomped off her tongue halfway before the shocks ended before she was passed once more and electrocuted by the second eel.
Ursula relished in Regina's pain, laughing darkly as she watched Regina tossed back and forth like a rag doll, being slowly fried. The scent of burning flesh and hair filled her nose.
"I thought electricity was your forte," she said, though she knew Regina would not be able to answer her. She polished her nails on her shirt, making sure they were perfect and pristine to look at. "I guess not," she surmised as the demon's body was dropped to the ground. It flopped around like a fish, little sparks and bolts of electricity emitting from the burned and besieged body.
Flotsam and Jetsam grabbed one arm each in their sharp teeth and then began anew their torment. This time, they decided to play a little game of tug of war.
Regina slowly came to, her fried brain rebuilding itself axon by axon, and synapse to synapse. She couldn't recall much that had happened except that there had been a lot of pain she couldn't manage to handle without passing out. And now, she was becoming some sort of chew toy.
She had to stop this. Now.
But when she tried to move her limbs she found she couldn't. Not yet. The nerves connecting them were fried and she would have to wait until her body repaired itself before she could fight back. Until them she gritted her teeth as her joints protested to being roughly tugged around. As she fought the sensation of being literally torn apart. Already her tendons were screaming. Shredding.
She squeezed her eyes shut when Flotsam gave a particularly violent twist of his head. Suddenly she found the left side of her body several meters away, while her right side was dropped unceremoniously to the ground, every organ spilling out of her open wounds.
"I think I like this look on you. Instead of Evil Queen, how about we call you Split Queen?" Ursula commented, approaching Regina's body and driving the heel of her shoe into Regina's eye and popping it. "That's for blinding Flotsam. An eye for an eye, it's only fair." Technically it was the heel hurting Regina and not Ursula herself, so the magical order was twisted once more out of proportions.
Regina tried to make something come out of her mind but she found herself unable to speak because with the heel sticking through her eye and right to her brain, words could not be formed properly and her tongue was also missing.
Flotsam lowered his head, still carrying part of Regina with him. Ursula snatched Regina's arm from him and withdrew her foot so she could instead slap Regina with her own arm.
"Haha, I think I like this a lot. Having you beat yourself up," Ursula cackled as she continued to slap Regina's face back and forth while her decimated body twitched in an effort to repair itself. The Sea Witch did this for a while, relishing in the other demon's pain. Tears of frustration pricked at Regina's eyes. How mortifying to be hurt by her own hand.
"Good job my boys," Ursula praised at last and they both drew their heads closer to her so she could pet them. "Now tear up the rest of her."
They eagerly got to work, while Ursula held onto the Evil Queen's arm, using it to prop up her chin in a contemplative manner while she watched her pets eagerly follow her orders.
Bits and pieces went flying over their heads.
"I'm afraid this is your last stand, Regina," Ursula commented as they did so. Then she looked at the arm. "Or last hand?" she contemplated the joke, figuring it wasn't her best one. But before she could do much more something caught her attention.
She froze.
It was a summons.
A call she could not resist.
"Perhaps not today then, Evil Queen," she said, eyes already looking away in the direction of the signature that called her name. "I have some much more important factors to attend to. Though do not think that this means I won't come for you in the future. I will. You won't be safe until I am avenged."
She opened her mouth to recall Flotsam and Jetsam, the two of them racing towards her mouth and shrinking down to a manageable size just in time for her to swallow them down. They slithered down her throat one by one and she swallowed them, licking her lips. Then, she disappeared.
Without her, the magic holding up several thousand galleons of water sent them crashing down onto Regina's prone form. They covered her, flattening her, suffocating her, crushing every last bone in her body and sending parts of her flying this way and that, to be scattered.
It was like a mini ocean had been dumped in the middle of the field and in a way it had, and it washed everything away with greedy fingers.
Cora, sensing this, smartly teleported herself and Emma away until it was safe to come back, evaporating the flood of water covering her throne and the field with nothing but a single snap of her fingers once the water had stopped falling. There was almost nothing left remaining and no sign of Regina at all.
Tears gathered in Emma's eyes. Where did her demon go? Where was she?
And Ursula was gone too. What had even happened in the tycoon?
Ursula arrived at the doors of the church, and with a sneer she gave the unassuming structure a look over. "A church cannot keep a demon like me out, so you are mistaken if you think I will not follow you in there. You owe me your soul, Robin," she licked her lips and pushed the door open.
She found him in front of the altar, on his knees, head bowed. The pitiful sight pleased her.
"God cannot save you now," she said, her heels clicking with each powerful stride down the marble walls. A wave of water followed after her, wetting the ground while tentacles wrapped around the pillars supporting the church, crushing them with their tight hold.
The church roof gave a groan that was muffled by the screams of monster and men and clanging of armor outside. At last she drew to a stop right in back of Robin, whose head was still bowed and whose lips were moving in silent prayer.
"Out of the kindness of my deep black heart, I'll give you a second to finish up your prayers. But I won't wait too long. I'm starved."
"I won't need extra time," he announced, getting up and facing her. There was something different about him. Something almost inhuman.
She knew what. "You," she hissed and wasn't fast enough to duck his fist. It sent her careening out of the church, breaking the doors down on her way and taking a huge chunk of the front wall down with her. The building began to collapse in on itself from lack of structural integrity.
She got up from the ground, wiping the blood leaking from her nose with the back of her hand and instantaneously summoned the Trident. It shone golden, thrumming with power.
He strode out just as the finally piece collapsed, a cloud of dust marking his entrance. His eyes glowered and the muscles on his body seemed bigger, stronger. He almost shone with a sort of inner power.
"Trideon," she spat out his name in disdain.
"King Trideon to you," he corrected, his voice booming and carrying over easily.
"Not anymore."
"No, but shortly."
He held out his hand and the Trident was yanked out of Ursula's and into his own. She looked shocked by it's sudden betrayal.
"You may have destroyed my underwater kingdom with your tyrannical rule but no longer. I have come to right the wrongs and to reclaim the Trident and crown as they are rightfully mine." She had tricked him many eons ago, before banishing him to a sad and dry life on land while she tormented his people, mining their kingdom for everything it was worth and letting it fall into ruin under her watch.
"The kingdom is mine!" she swore and unleashed from under her dress her tentacles. But he was faster. He dodged them all and ended up in front of her using super speeds. And with his arrival was the unwelcome addition of the Trident's three prongs right through Ursula's chest.
"This ends here, Ursula, false queen of Atlantis." The Trident responded easily in his hand, her hands scrambled at it, to pull it out, even as her eyes rolled into the back of her head. Salt water began to pour out of every orifice. From her ears, her nose, from her eyes and her mouth. What came as a small stream gushed out fervently until even water came from her fingers and toes, swelling her limbs until at last she grew too swollen and her body erupted into sea foam.
Drowned, in her own body.
Trideon stepped back, content that his people would finally have justice after suffering for many eons. As he did so, a sharp pain grew around his heart. It seemed he had exerted the human host's body. It would be time to return to the sea and leave Robin be.
He steadily made his way to the nearest beach. He had done all he had came to do. With his powers and position restored he could care for his people once more.
There were pieces slowly inching together. Pieces of a demon in human form.
Emma felt like she was going to be sick.
That...that was all that was left of Regina. How was she even alive in this state?
She was literally nothing but bruised flesh and ground organs and bones.
Emma looked away, feeling bile rising in her throat. Holy fuck. She didn't even know how to cope with this. How Regina was coping with this.
She wanted to scream at Regina that this wasn't worth it. That she should just run, leave Emma be. This pain, this suffering. Nothing was worth it.
"Oh pull yourself together, Regina," Cora said with contempt and rolled her eyes at the feeble attempts of the crawling parts. "It's but a flesh wound." She didn't have time to wait around.
When nothing much occurred, Cora rolled her eyes once more and span her wrist. Immediately magic covered Regina's parts and pulled her together, quickly and painfully knitting her together.
Her screams echoed through the air, so guttural and languished that Emma felt her pain.
Gods, she was filled with so much anger and hatred for Cora. She wanted to kill her. To render her from limb to limb and then crush and grind her down until she was nothing but dust. She would make her pay for what she had done! She swore it!
She struggled against her shackles, fingers curling and digging in, scratching at the space between the chains and her skin. She began to bleed, but she didn't care. If she kept going maybe she could slip out somehow.
At last once more together, Regina rose to her shaking feet. She felt wrong. Out of sorts. But that would be a given because of what she had just gone through. She clutched a hand to her chest, feeling the frantic beating of her heart underneath.
"Why...why did you bring me back?" Regina slurred, much like someone on the tenth drink of their first day of their weekend bender. Her eyes couldn't focus properly either and she blinked heavily to make sense. Even gravity felt wrong right now and she had to remember that she was on the ground and not floating up in the air much how she felt.
"Did you really believe that I wouldn't be on the roster of the tournament?" Cora had never fully expected Ursula to finish the fight. The woman always let her lust for certain things distract her. "This competition isn't over until you defeat me," Cora announced dramatically, sliding off her cloak. It fell to the ground with a thump of finality.
"No...no, I just...I can't," Regina began to plead. She had already been through so much. She couldn't take much more. She was tired. She just...she just wanted it to be all over.
"Don't tell me you're giving up now?" Cora mocked. "I always knew you didn't have the spine needed to be a true Mills."
Regina felt tears press into the backs of her eyes. Satan, she was just so tired. So, so, tired. But she didn't have an option. To say no would result in her immediate death. And to face Cora, would mean her death too.
Maybe if she had been fresh. If she had been rested, she could somehow fight her mother. But not like this. She would be an absolute joke.
And she knew without a doubt she would lose.
I'm sorry, Emma. I tried so hard and I failed.
Still, she bravely held her chin up and prepared to meet her doom.