Hello again, my pretties! Thank you for your patience while I got my shit together. Had to send in a workshop packet for grad school. Enjoy!
Song: Somebody to Die for by Hurts
Ruby leaned against the frame that separated kitchen from foyer. Beyond the warmth of frosty panes, a flurry of snow spit and sputtered to life. The light fluff lacked the density to accumulate much. Within foggy glass, a different type of cold pierced her heart beneath warm skin. Regina sat at the small breakfast table near the back door, body stretched but tight with tension. The right thigh pressed down on the left, crossed and still. One arm stretched over deeply expanding ribs, the other elbow propped. The mayor bit the tip of a thumbnail, not really chewing just holding it between front teeth. Regina's eyes glazed and stung, screaming to blink. Still, she stared at the falling snow, flicking her gaze to and fro without acknowledging the things she saw.
Ruby shifted uncomfortably and crossed one arm over her stomach to hold the other elbow. Fury and rage, she knew what to do with that. She'd never seen Regina so still.
"Regina," she called and bit her lip.
The mayor blinked. Caramel eyes closed for a long moment and then opened to stare at the snow again. Ruby pushed from the door frame and took a few steps into the kitchen. Cold from the porcelain tiles seeped through her socks. Espresso eyes studied the silent woman, finding no difficulty envisioning her best friend and her sister as the perfect combination of lover and antagonist. Every little thing Emma revealed the past hour confirmed everything that the wolf's keen eyes already saw. Emma protected Regina because a kiss of True Love might have unleashed those horrible memories from the other timeline, and Regina allowed it because she believed herself undeserving of True Love – Emma's love.
Regina died to send Emma back to this better world. Emma hadn't said it yet, but Ruby fit the pieces together.
"How long have you known about the other timeline?" Ruby asked and stepped into her sister's line of sight.
Regina shook her head in tiny movements without removing her eyes from Ruby's deceptively thin thighs. "Not long. Since the night Emma returned from…" She swallowed, blinked. "Since the night of Belle's abduction." Perfect teeth clamped onto a thumbnail.
"It's no wonder why she's so fucked up. I can't imagine what she's going through right now." Ruby shrugged and crossed her arms. "I get it. The Zelena thing. She wasn't there, so she must feel like an anchor to this reality or something. I don't really know how to describe it, but I get it."
Regina rolled her eyes and shifted in the chair, straightening her spine. She uncrossed her legs only to cross the left over the right a moment later. Ruby chewed her lower lip and watched the seams pop loose within the dark woman. Maybe Emma fucked Zelena to keep Regina away from her – to protect both of them. Emma wanted them to never experience the horrors of the alternate world, and she needed to shield her heart from anything that dented the already thin armor around her sanity.
"Are you okay?" Ruby asked.
Regina stared straight ahead, through her stomach and into the cold world outside. The mayor breathed deeply and dropped the hand in her mouth to her lap. "No," she whispered in a rushed breath, more gasp than word.
"Wanna talk about it?" Ruby nudged the dangling foot with her knee and tried to smile, but it never reached her beautiful brown eyes.
"You cannot tell anyone that we're biologically connected," Regina ordered and finally met Ruby's shocked gaze.
"Why?" The wolf demanded and cocked her hips in defiance.
"The people of Storybrooke may appear to be your friend, but do you think they'd hesitate one moment before persecuting you as the reason Snow White fell? The Evil Queen's little sister infiltrated The White Kingdom and tipped the scales in her family's favor," Regina painted the picture as she knew it would have unfolded. A snarl tugged her upper lip, and venom burned the words as they filled the space between them.
"The war's over, Regina. People need to grow up," Ruby snapped back.
"Look around, little wolf. The stability of our world has been compromised, and if you think for one moment that these people you protected so valiantly will remain as loyal as you, then you are more naïve and ignorant than I'd ever imagined and have no place in the war that is beginning." Regina stood, pressing nose to chin with the taller woman. Hot breath puffed against the wolf's face, bringing with it the bitterness of black coffee and the salt of tears.
"Stop," Ruby growled. "I'm not a punching bag."
"I'm not saying this to hurt you, Ruby," Regina said, eyebrows raised in disbelief. "You've already been beaten and blinded. What will happen when your lineage surfaces and the entirety of Storybrooke turns their backs on you?"
"Okay," Ruby murmured and bit her lip. Regina tapped her teeth, and the wolf managed a grin.
The mayor returned it and tapped across the kitchen to refill the cold mug of coffee with fresh. Ruby chewed her lip and watched. Regina had no clue what she felt for Emma. If she knew, she'd have moved heaven and hell in the fight to preserve that love. The mayor raised an eyebrow over the black mug against her mouth. Ruby clamped her mouth shut, teeth as far from her lower lip as possible.
"I'm glad Emma and Zelena are friends," she blurted before her brain gained control of her mouth. Regina almost spit coffee. Ruby snickered and continued, "Think about it. If Zelena ever got her magic back, she would have killed all of us in our sleep, and no one would have ever seen it coming. Now, she might be on our side because Emma is Emma, and there is no way Zelena didn't open up to her a little bit."
A buzzing sound followed the explanation, and Regina touched her phone rattling against the counter and sipped more coffee, lowered the mug to marble. David's number lit up the screen. "I suppose," she responded to Ruby and sent the call to voicemail.
"Are you okay with, ya know… I mean, I know you're not okay with it, but if Emma believes that Zelena saved her life, we really should try to respect that." Ruby chewed her lip, waited for the backlash. It never came. Regina stared into the steam wafting from the black mug filling her palm.
"Emma tried to tell me," she said to the mug. With a deep exhalation, she raised her eyes to find dark chocolate waiting, patient and compassionate. "The day she left, Emma wanted me to ask her to stay. It made no sense at the time, but she also said that being asked to stay wouldn't mean anything if anyone else had asked her to stay. I don't believe all life has inherent value like the rest of you sentimental fools."
Ruby reached across the counter and touched her forearm. "Regina, it wasn't fair to put that on you, and if Emma had, you know, it wouldn't have been your fault. With everything Emma's dealing with right now, I'm not sure anyone could have helped her. She needed to find a reason to keep going by herself. It's not on you, okay?"
"Stop," Regina snapped. "It wasn't you she wanted to help her, Ruby. She came to me, she opened up about this mystery woman to me. She reached out to me, and I did what I always do. I pushed her away because…" The mayor pulled her hand from Ruby's warm touch and hugged her chest protectively.
"Because what?" The wolf pressed.
"It doesn't matter," Regina dismissed the conversation and stomped to the sink with the full mug.
"Yes, it does," Ruby protested over the spray of water against metal and porcelain. "Regina, it matters. You pulled away because?" The mayor scrubbed the mug, finished and repeated the process. "Because you were afraid to care? Because you're afraid that you care about Emma? You're afraid that Emma would get violent again? What? Talk to me."
"I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to help her," Regina lashed. Porcelain shattered where she smashed it against metal. "I've done nothing but leave destruction and agony upon everything I've touched in two lifetimes. I refuse to destroy the mother of my son." She whirled, wet hands limply at her sides. Droplets shook loose from fingertips and dripped onto gray slacks and white porcelain – a replacement for tears shimmering in caramel eyes.
"I'm not sure I'm capable of love anymore. I can't even tolerate looking at the man who was marked as my soulmate. If my heart cannot even soften for him, what right do I have trying to save the soul of the woman who literally wields the power of True Love?"
Ruby's forehead scrunched into a tight bundle. "You didn't feel worthy of comforting Emma even though you're the one she wanted?" Hot splashes tickled her cheeks. She cried for the woman who refused to cry for herself. "You really have no fucking clue, do you?"
"Excuse me?" Regina crossed her arms, leaving wet splotches along her biceps.
"Ruby, Regina?" Belle called from the doorway. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but David's called." She glanced between the two and held the phone in front of her. "Emma's at the station."
"What? When did she leave?" Ruby snapped and grabbed the phone.
"I don't know. I went upstairs to change a few minutes ago," Belle explained, growing more visibly upset with each word. "David needs Regina. Emma's magic is out of control."
"Damn it," Regina muttered and disappeared in a swirl of violet smoke.
She reappeared outside the front doors of the station and immediately wished she'd thought to bring a coat. The roar of a crowd behind her pulled her gaze to the plaza. Emma stood atop the patrol car, wild blonde hair flying in the harsh wind, dried blood still covering the front of her.
"Rumpelstiltskin is plotting against you all!" Emma yelled at the deafening cacophony.
A safety light exploded behind her. Some people screamed and ducked. Others quieted and cowered. Most yelled at the sheriff about the use of her magic. Sparks showered the crowd as a transformer blew above their heads. Storefronts went dark, and more people joined the riot, pulling on coats and hats angrily, to complain about their loss of business. Regina pushed through the rabble, shoving backs and shoulders from her path. An enthusiastic man shook his fist in the air and caught the point on her shoulder when it lowered. With a snarl, she sent a pulse of electric shock between his legs. He yipped in shock, and she shoved him out of the way.
"What the hell are you doing, Sheriff Swan?" Regina demanded as she broke from the mob and marched towards the cruiser.
"They won't listen to me," Emma shouted in response to the question but wanting the crowd to hear the desperation. "Regina, I keep telling them what's happening, and no one will listen to me!"
Regina slammed her hands on the hood of the car and glared up at her. "Perhaps they may hear you if you stop scaring everyone with magic. Come down from there."
David, Hook, and Robin shifted in her peripheral, and Regina released a shaking breath. If they controlled the crowd, she needn't have watched her back. She reached for Emma's hand, offering her the lifeline previously denied. The Savior looked at it, stupefied. Tears and snot streamed down her cheeks and lips. Red splotches of emotion and cold bloomed on her cheeks, around her eyes. Tangle blonde hair whipped and frayed in the wind. A wildness glittered in wide, green eyes. It pivoted one way and then the other, afraid to reach out and touch the reality of their world.
Emma wasn't capable of reaching anymore, only running, and Regina followed.
"Emma, come down," she tried again and stretched her hand a little closer. The crowd quieted, holding a collective breath.
"They won't listen," The Savior repeated, broken and quiet. "Why won't they listen? I'm trying to save them. I'm always trying to save them, and they won't listen."
"They don't understand, Emma," Regina explained softly. "I understand. I'm listening. Come down and talk to me so I can make them understand."
Emma pressed heels into her temples. Her head leaned one way, then the other. Snot gurgled when she sniffed and tried to catch a breath. Regina waited, her presence enough to create a cocoon of patience and understanding and silence. The mob waited, too. Twice in as many days, they watched the former queen choose compassion over judgement, patience over anger. Her heart slipped onto her sleeve, and Emma Swan shone brightly in eyes once hateful and dead.
"I fucked up, Regina," Emma whimpered. One knee at a time, she knelt on the hood of the cruiser, almost eye level with the mayor. "I trusted her. We can't trust her. She's working with him."
She grabbed Regina's hand, pulled her close. The mayor grunted and groped at the excess magic surging around her hand, channeling it into the earth before Emma blew up a building. Warmth wept into her chest in gentle trickles, vibrating in her legs and fingertips. She imagined feeling such compassion every waking second to be more of a curse than a blessing. All magic came with a price, and Emma paid hers by never really shielding herself from the pain and horror of their world. She had to feel it in order to love the abused and disadvantaged – to feel everything and know that no one came to put the pieces back together once she'd defeated the enemies knocking upon their door once more.
The Savior continued in a rushed whisper meant for her, "She gave me the antidote to fix Ruby's eyes. She knew exactly what to do because she's been mixing herbs and living off the land. She made the powder that burned Ruby's eyes. For all I know, she's the one who attacked her. She probably used it to get Ruby at a disadvantage, and she's strong. She could have kidnapped Belle. If she can drag me around, she can drag Belle around."
"Emma," Regina growled. "Unless you intend to tell everyone what you're babbling about, do shut up."
"They won't listen to me," Emma cried again. Her chin fell against her chest as another shoulder-shaking sob tore loose from her throat. "They won't listen."
"Emma, listen to me. You need to go inside with David," Regina whispered and cupped Emma's cheek. "You need to go inside so we can help you."
Green eyes whipped about, a frenzied energy in them. They stared at the world meant to love her and saw terror of her own making, her own self-built prison. Emma scrambled to her feet, boots slipping on wet metal. Regina tried to hold onto her hand, raising from the ground slightly before losing her grip. Static crackled in the air. Snow melted in an expanding circle around the cruiser. Clear replaced white, puddling the plaza. People screamed and trampled away from the spreading power controlled by no one.
"You want to take my magic!" Emma screamed into the crowd. "You want to make me powerless, so he can take over. He'll kill all of you if you take my magic. I won't let you!" Cement exploded shrapnel into the crowd, blowing a hole in the middle of Town Hall Plaza.
"Emma, stop," Regina yelled. "Let me help you, Emma."
"You're the worst one," The Savior pointed an accusing finger down at her. "You want my magic gone most of all. You trapped it. You trapped me. You kept me prisoner and trapped my magic."
"Emma, please," Regina begged and reached for her again. "Stay, Emma," she whispered.
The Savior froze. White streams of air moved around her, the only inert thing except the frenzy in green eyes. Regina lifted one knee onto the cruiser and crawled up the slippery metal heated by Emma's raging power. Regina stood on wobbling legs on the uneven surface and searched for the woman beneath the pain and anger. Breath heaved in and out of Emma's open mouth.
"Stay with me," Regina pleaded and blinked away tears trying to mirror Emma's. Glassy caramel flicked back and forth, searching for the woman beneath the frenetic energy in turbulent green eyes. "Stay with me, Emma."
"Oh, how touching," a familiar, condescending voice called through the sudden stillness.
Emma's eyes grew large with clarity as her gaze shifted from Regina's and over her shoulder. Regina turned slowly, footing unsure on the slick hood. Zelena stood a few feet from them. Green velvet gloves covered the hands on the hips of a black dress corset that laced up the front and split into a sharp 'V' between modest breasts. A black, wide-brimmed hat cocked to the side atop the tight, red bun at the back of her head. An acrimonious smirk brushed over bright red lips.
"Hello, Sis," she greeted Regina. "Next time you let your rabid dog off her leash, give her an extra treat to ensure she actually eliminates her target. I'm not so easily killed, as you can see." She swept her arms in a graceful arc and leaned to one side, posing for the disbelief of the crowd.
"How?" Emma sputtered and took a step forward, shoulder pressing against Regina's. "I killed you."
"Not very well," Zelena laughed and returned hands to her hips. "You're superpower appears to be on the fritz, Savior. You can't detect a single lie, and you certainly can't kill a witch who has no heart." She hit the t at the end of heart sharply and ran the tip of her tongue along the point of the left canine. "I learned that from you," she praised Regina mockingly.
"Is that why you were so upset this morning? You thought you'd killed the orphaned trash too pathetic to have the dignity of dying as an infant?" Regina riled Zelena, drawing her attention from Emma who had started crying again.
She hopped from the car, melted snow splashing over the toes of her boots and up the legs of gray slacks. Emma knelt behind her, blotchy eyes glaring at Zelena over the protection of Regina's shoulder. Zelena held out one palm, and the tickle of Emma's magic excited the hairs on the back of Regina's neck as a fireball appeared above Zelena hand. She cocked a thin, red eyebrow and grinned maniacally.
"It seems I've mastered magic without my pendant. Care to compare my rage to yours, dear sister?" Zelena taunted the mayor, baiting her. "It's much more powerful than envy, don't you think?"
Regina raised a fireball of her own, comforted by the gentle wash of Emma's magic upon her back, protecting her against the low temperature. Emma tucked and rolled from the car, instantly soaked in freezing water, a moment before the fireball exploded on the hood. The sister witches ducked the respective attacks. Emma remained on her belly and waved a hand in the air, catching Zelena off guard in a flash of white. She flew through the air but landed safely on a pile of plowed snow, slightly disoriented.
Regina followed her with a fireball. Without watching its trajectory, she grabbed Emma's forearm and pulled her out of the puddle. Zelena threw her weight forward and rolled down the bank. Smears of white slush marked the rumpled black dress. Emerald green eyes stared at the pair stronger than she when they worked together. Regina devoured the flash of fear and tugged at Emma's magic, surprised to find nothing there for her to combine with her own. The Savior held the power closely to her soul, entrapping it from use by either of them.
"This isn't over," Zelena declared and tossed a pouch into the air. It exploded green haze across the plaza, obscuring visibility to only a foot in any direction.
"Damn it," Regina swore as Emma's magic replenished and tickled her palm. She dragged Emma through the slush and puddles, but by the time they saw the snow bank, Zelena had disappeared.
"I told you I fucked up," Emma whispered.
"Swan!" Hook's concern cut through the smoke. He appeared from the thick green, jogging. "Alright, Love?" He asked before stopping in front of them.
Robin emerged a moment later and squeezed Regina's shoulder. The mayor shrugged him off and turned to Emma. "We need to go now," she rushed, panic shivering in her voice. "I didn't erect the barrier spell around the house."
The four of them materialized in the foyer. Ruby laid unconscious on her side. Pieces of a shattered glass she must have been carrying stared up at them from a puddle of cranberry juice. Regina knelt by her sister and touched her neck. The tension drained from their shoulders and told them all they needed to know without words. Regina found a pulse.
"Only Ruby drinks that. She has a glass after her coffee every morning," Regina seethed. "They targeted her. Belle!" She called towards the balcony where Robin and Hook already sprinted.
"Regina," Emma murmured and squatted on the other side of the wolf. "How did they know Ruby always drank that?"
Caramel eyes met stormy green in clarity and fear. "He controls someone. Who did he enslave in the other timeline?"
Emma spared a glance at the men returning to the bottom floor. "I don't know," she lied. "He controlled so many by the end. I don't know."