Chapter Ten -
Four months ago - Enchanted Forest The attack comes in the middle of the night, they were expecting it but it still takes them by surprise, David and Snow run through the castle, royal robes thrown over their bed clothes, Regina is fully dressed but her hair is down, floats around her face, Robin cannot take his eyes off her as she strides past him, the witch is in my castle she hisses. The witch was indeed in the castle, sneaked in disguised as a villager, turned off the protection spell at midnight, for dramatic effect she tells them proudly flaunting her disguise their faces, it's witching hour she taunts and disappears in a green swirl.
They run to the battlements, his men assembled, the soldiers and those villagers that can fight in the great courtyard, the old, young and those not made for battle, gather in the great hall. The fairies arrive, a great drone of wings and bright lights. Regina waits for the fairies to pass the boundary of the protection shield, she waits until the first swarm of flying monkeys appear, diving towards the castle then she activates the shield, the creatures smash into the shield burning upon impact, they let out a collective breath but their relief is premature, the wind picks up and Robin feels magic rush across his body, the men in the courtyard are frozen. The castle is silent, nothing moves, every breath held, the men start to move, they twist and shake, their bodies turning in circles, they scream and groan, holding their heads, clutching their limbs, wings sprout from their shoulders, tails from their back, faces elongated.
A beat then screaming the creatures rush forward, beating their wings, rising into the air.
Robin stands shocked, thinks of the beasts he killed in the forest and the monkey in the dungeon and is sicken. He cannot order his archers to attack, these are their people but he cannot allow them access to the others inside the great hall. "Regina" he says.
She is furious, he has never seen her look so angry and she has been plenty angry with him her eyes flash, mouth pursed, eyes narrowed, he does not rush her, he knows she is trying to think a way out. "Robin" one of his men calls as the monkeys make their way closer, flying and climbing up the castle walls, hurtling against the castle door, smashing windows in the courtyard, he orders warning shots only, the arrows fly through the air, plunging into wings, grazing across the muscular bodies of the monkeys.
Regina is talking with the blue fairy, the fairies form a tight circle and Regina pulls her magic around them, the fairies enclosed in a protective bubble of purple and shimmering white, fly down fists full of dust, targeting the closest monkeys. Robin is relieved when the monkeys begin to transform back into men.
Regina disappears, Snow and Charming run from the battlements and he follows, repeating his instructions to the men.
Regina is stood in the main hallway, her back to the great hall, flinging magic at the monkeys who have scrambled through broken windows, she is screaming at them to come at her, egging them on, she is terrifying and magnificent all at once. Robin stands by her side, bow ready, he lets loose a couple of shots, catching the creatures and pinning their wings to the floor until she can target them. It is done he thinks as the last monkey twists back into human form.
He turns to Regina but she holds up a hand to stop him "where is Snow? She asks.
He does not know, he had followed David and Snow into the great hallway, they should be here but they are not.
Regina strides towards the great hall, flings the door open with magic, the gathered crowd shrinks back, she pays no heed but Robin feels the insult keenly.
Snow and David are not there.
"Looking for something?" The witch cackles.
"What do you want?" Regina asks, her voice cold and deep.
"Was bored" the witch sighs "I was waiting for you to come and find me but you didn't so I thought I'd come pay a visit"
Robin swears he can feel Regina throwing him a told you so look but when he glances at her, her attention is focused on the witch "and now you're here" Regina drawls.
"Indeed I am" the witch replies "and I brought a friend" she waves her hand and the Dark One appears by her side.
"You all know each other right? Well Rumple has a new name now, I call him my pet, don't I my pet," she crooned. "So you have a new toy and you wanted to show if off, how very grown up of you" Regina needles her.
"That's not all there is to tell, shall I tell them or do you want to my pet?," she asks the Dark One, Rumplesklitskin says nothing stares into space, hand twitching.
"Oh don't mind him, he's just upset over the death of his son, Baelfire or is it Neal,? It's so confusing who can keep up, well whatever his name was, doesn't matter now does it" she giggled. She circles closer to Regina, Robin's hand tightening instinctively on his bow.
"Can you feel it Regina" she draws out Regina's name, spitting it through her teeth "my power, it's stronger than yours and guess what? I'm stronger than you"
"That's nice dear but why don't you just get to the point, none of us are getting any younger here" Regina looks bored by the witch but Robin can see her pulse thumping in her neck and he knows she is listening intently to everything the witch is saying.
"So impatient Regina" the witch sing songs at them "but you are right, I've got things to do, places to be, you know how it is, busy busy, do enjoy your time here won't you" and she is gone taking the Dark One with her.
The silent room erupts with noise, Regina spins on her toes and walks quickly from the room, the soldiers formerly monkeys and his men from the battlements stand in doorway and part for her silently. Robin barks out his instructions, head counts he requests, check the perimeters, double the patrols, escort those that what to return to their homes, find beds for those that don't, he reminds them the queens tower and library are out of bounds, lowering his voice, he pulls his most trusted towards him, the Princess and Prince are missing, find them he urges.
He catches up with Regina but she pays him no heed, she turns to the dungeons, runs down the stairs, past the secret tunnel to what he knows to be the castle crypt. He calls her name again but she runs faster. His feet slide on the cold marble of the crypt floor, she is pushing at the great hunk of stone that covers the Kings resting bones, she does not use magic and it takes him a moment to figure out why, she is panicking he thinks and he had never seen this in her before.
He helps her push and finally the lid moves, Regina gives a quiet sob as she helps the Princess climb out of her father's tomb, where the witch had sent her, hidden amongst her father's bones.
The Princess does not cry but she trembles and Robin wraps an arm around her shoulder, she asks after David and the Kingdom.
Robin reassures her, he glances at Regina, she leans against the tomb when she feels his glaze upon her she straightened and he watches as she pulls her mask upon her face, head held high she leaves the crypt, as Robin follows, he hears the sound of stone on stone as the tomb of King Leopold seals shut. David is found staggering from the castle waste pit, covered head to toe in animal excrement, the dwarfs take care of the Prince and Robin leaves them. He knows Little John is with Roland and he is safe, he will find them shortly, first he needs to see the Queen. She is leaving the war room when he catches up with her "sheep shit?" she asks, yes he says.
He says nothing as he walks her to her room, reaching her door, he wants to ask her how she knew where the Princess was but instead he asks if she would like him to bring her anything, maybe the sleeping remedy he suggests, she tells him no and to go to his boy, he nods his head as she turns to enter her room, he pulls her towards him and hugs her, runs his hands through her shining dark hair, feels her heart beating next to his and sighs his relief into her, she allows him one moment and for one moment he feels her press back against him, tighten her grin on his forearms, gives a little squeeze and then she is gone, door closed.
Storybrooke Robin sighs, he has his memories now but Little John and Roland do not and it has been hard to explain why he pulled Roland from school for no reason. Both of them have been questioning him, Little John thinks he has news of Regina which he is not sharing which is true and Roland is just confused. He pretends he just wanted to spend time with them but the excuse sounds weak to his ears, especially since he had started going back to work before going awol again.
What he really wants to do is shut himself in a quiet room and think through what he has learnt but they are supposed to be playing Ludo and Roland is blantely cheating and Little John has called him on it, twice he has called John by his nickname, causing the big man to look confused and slightly hurt.
Fed up of Roland and John's arguing, he packs up the game and tells John he is going to the shop to sort out dinner but there is food in the freezer, it's just a excuse, he needs to get out and think.
Out in the fresh air, Robin tries to sort through his memories, accordingly to Mary Margaret he has spent the last two months desperately searching for his wife, two months of heartbreak and guilt not to mention the previous months of watching his wife have a break-only down and be committed to the mental health facility, now to discover Regina is not actually his wife at all but in fact a complete stranger. He has heard of the Queen of course, fought and escaped her guards a few times during his past real life but they had never met.
Now he sees her face when he closes his eyes, he smells her perfume on the clothes hanging in the closet and he knows it is the perfume she wears because he smelt it on her when he drank the potion.
He thinks back to the three times he has actually met the real Regina here in this cursed land that is not his own. The first, he thinks was in the hospital, she had been different from his previous visits, ironically more like his wife but he had thought that she was getting better but now he realises that time had just started for them, the past memories were truly false, how they met, their marriage, Roland's birth all of this had occurred in non-existence time. Robin groans as the guilt of forgetting his true wife, Roland's mother hits him. A wave of grief hits him as he mourns the lost of this woman, all his memories slamming into him at once. Time passes and Robin manages to bring his thoughts back to the present, he needs to clear his head for his sanity. The curse has left him confused, Regina has left him confused, the woman he met in the hospital did not seem like a Evil Queen, she had seemed so fragile and at ease with him but this had to be a lie, she was just trying to escape he realised angrily and he had kissed her and she had kissed him back. Mary Margaret and David were convinced that Regina could be trusted, that she had broken a evil wizards curse costing her in the progress, her son and that alone meant she had changed they proclaimed. If her son was truly her motivation then could he really blame her for using any tool to her advantage? even if he was the tool he mused and was who's to say if she truly had been in her right frame of mind at the time, she had started laughing and been unable to stop her, he remembered feeling scared for her and the feeling lingered.
Thinking of the second time, he had found her which made him feel proud, hadn't lost the knack of tracking after all, she had erased his memories but the potion had unlocked that portion of his mind too. She had seemed so sad, in fact every moment he had seen the real Regina she had seemed sad, he felt his heart tighten as he remembered the look on her face as she casted the curse on him. The third time he found her, she was practically bleeding to death, his fault catching her by surprise causing her grip on the knife to slip. He remembers the rage in his false memories when he caught her but now it seems so familiar, catching her and holding her.
He needs to see her he thinks, he needs to see her now when his mind is clear, to talk to her and then he can put this behind him and focus on his son and how to help his men remember who they are.