Two (maybe 3) more chapters left.
While I've got your attention, how many of you have thought of Regina's ending for this story? Vampire? Not vampire? Dead possibly? Alive?...Married? Living in Storybrooke or not? Endings for Cora and Mal?
Something to think about. Enjoy.
Being able to boss around the Nolans made for a satisfying start to their night. That coupled with alcohol and a late night stroll, led to some very unfamiliar sexual activities. It was more passionate than Regina had ever really experienced.
She could be passionate anytime it was necessary or Emma requested it but it seemed it had been more about comfort than sex. It made far too much sense for her liking. Almost felt like a goodbye.
"It isn't," Emma had assured her.
Regina woke up the next morning and turned over to wrap herself around her sleeping girlfriend. Emma had momentarily woken her up in the middle of the night when she scurried over to the dresser, cursing loudly about the freezing hardwood, and grabbed the first sweatshirt, all while declining Regina's sleepy offers to turn off the air. The vampire wasn't deterred by heat but she didn't prefer it, however, the warm that came off of a Emma she never wanted to leave.
She laid her head on Emma's shoulder and closed her eyes, hoping to give herself another hour. Only a minute after her eyes slipped closed, she heard footsteps outside the house. Her eyes were once again open in an instant. The sound continued and Regina got up from the bed.
Emma stirred at her movement, feeling some of the warmth leave her back when Regina stood up. She pulled the sheets up over her and quieted her with a kiss on the temple.
Before the trespasser made it to the front door, Regina was dressed and already moving down the foyer, removing a trio of throwing knives from a hidden space in a lamp. She waited nearly the basement door listening to the sounds on the other side. She heard no keys and no tools, so it was strange that the door opened with ease.
Without a moments hesitation, she threw one of the knives with skilled precision.
"Bloody hell!" Killian's voice made her second throw falter and their eyes connected, misunderstanding filling the house.
He'd yelled loud enough to wake everyone but the quietness signaled maybe he didn't. She whispered, "What are you doing here?"
"I've been paid to be a mail courier," he said, pulling the knife from the door frame. He shoved the envelope at her when she was in reach. "I didn't get paid enough to have you throwing Indonesian daggers at me. These have poison in them."
"Which is why it was a warning shot." Regina opened the yellow envelope as Killian made gentle movements to get the knife back on the table without being nicked. "Who hired you?"
"The Tribunal."
A suspicious frown came upon Regina's face. "What is it?"
"I was just asked to deliver them. I don't know, love."
Despite her worries of this being something to put targets on her family, Regina pulled the papers out. Killian inspected her face when a sharp intake of breath caught his ears. He walked towards her and easily read what it was upside down.
It was a set of aging papers - parchment - written a very long time ago. Ripped a little and burned even in some places. They were the documents that started Regina's many encounters with hunters. Those were the reason Maleficent and the Nolans and countless others came in and ruined her life time and time again.
"Your bounty …"
"It's gone. It's over."
"That's never happened before," Killian said as Regina let him take the pages from her. He looked up from the word 'revoked' blocking out most of the decree's text and watched Regina take a seat on the coffee table.
"I never expected them to do it. I just needed expendable reinforcements. I needed Emma and Henry to be safe. I didn't care about me."
"Obviously, someone cares about you."
"Wake up."
Riley was abruptly brought to consciousness with the sharp ache of cold water dousing her. Her body convulsed in response. As horrible as it felt, it was the closest thing to a drink she'd had lately.
"Whatever eye you can still open, I'd open it if I were you." The same voice spoke again, even more demanding than the first time.
She opened her left eye finding it to be very blurry and the other would open even if she tried hard enough. It was swollen shut from the few beating she had taken. Judging by her injuries and the voice she was hearing, Maleficent was back to see her again.
"Which finger have you come to take now?" Riley questioned.
"If I was down here to cut off another appendage to send to Regina you'd be wishing it was just a finger." Maleficent raised the blade in her hand, dragging the tip down her chest. "Maybe a foot? Or possibly …which do you favor left breast? Or right?"
Riley let out a hoarse chuckle as she shook her head and said, "You're despicable." Her eyesight was clearing up a bit more and she was able to see the flash of anger on Maleficent's face. "Miss Mills isn't the monster. You are."
"Coming from the one who betrayed her people for the one woman who is truly the embodiment of a real monster. She is the thing that children fear lives under their beds."
"And you are the thing adults fear lives in the shadows."
Maleficent lifted the blade to her throat, growing very frustrated that the younger woman wasn't the least bit fearful of her. She smashed the hilt of the blade into the side of Riley's face. Her head snapped to the side but she refused to make a sound to accompany the pain she was feeling.
"I wasn't finished," Riley said with a grin, "What did she ever do to you? Being a hunter is one thing but what are you supposed to be?"
"All this is corruption from her. She's poison."
"You were like this before you even met her. Nothing about you has ever been honorable. I know everything about you. You have no morals. You have no boundaries." Maleficent was close enough now that she could see and feel the unstable fire burning in her. "You're the reason why I enjoyed every bit of pain it took to rid myself of the this mark."
It was nice to provoke her even with the repercussions that followed.
And so followed a strong punch. It had enough power to knock the chair she was strapped to over. The wooden chair slammed against the floor, her skull cracking against the dirty, wet concrete. A throbbing pain started in her head.
"You're lucky Cora wants you alive or I'd kill you right now." Maleficent's boots came into the her view. "She wants Regina to watch you die. Hopefully, I get the honors."
"How did you even become a hunter?" Riley asked. "You're the worse thing anyone could ever imagine. You have no sides. No code. What makes you better than her?"
"Everything!" The hunter landed a kick to Riley's stomach. "Everything makes me better."
"Or maybe all of this is just jealousy that she moved on."
Maleficent pulled her up, sitting the chair back down on its legs. She pulled a gun from the holster on her waist and pressed it into Riley's cheek.
"Why the hell are you really here? There must some ulterior motive for you wanting to be her slave."
"It was a job," Riley said.
"No. Why is she so important to you? You mean nothing to her. Or she would've been here a lot sooner to save you." The older woman took a closer look at her face as if trying to find something. "Who are you?"
"Kill me. The only thing I need is the satisfaction of knowing that she'll kill you. If nothing else, you'll be dead soon enough."
"Cora said keep you alive," Maleficent said. She pulled what looked to be a Katana from the harness on her back. "She didn't say you had to have all your bits and pieces."
"Don't take too long, Henry." The teen waved his hand dismissively and she instantly knew it was a mistake to let Regina give him money. Knowing her son, he was going to come back with a year supply of milk duds and gummy bears. "Why did you do that?"
"Do what?" Regina asked, leaning against the side of the car with a tablet in her hand. She'd been tapping at it for twenty minutes. Other than fruit ninja, she couldn't imagine what the other woman was doing that involved that much tapping.
"You gave him your credit card and said 'There's no limit'. That's a bad thing to tell a teenager. He'll max it out on Mountain Dew and Hot Fries."
Regina just shrugged but Emma knew for a fact that she was just too distracted to have her motherly instincts kick in. Normally, Regina would've chased after him.
"What are you doing over there?" Emma asked as she finished filling up the gas tank.
"Looking at a map of Storybrooke."
"Are you battle planning right now?"
"Why wouldn't I be? I'm practically dragging you into a war."
"We've been over this and I'm not having this conversation again. I'm going say this one more time …" Emma took the tablet from her hand and tossed it on the hood of the car. She pulled Regina to her by the waist, their bodies flush together. "I have your back."
"I understand that part but this is real danger."
"Real danger? Vampires is your only definition of real danger? What about murderers and serial killers? That's what I did in New York."
"It's not the same and you know it."
"Well, I still won't be able to just wait around to see what the end result is. I'm not some vampire ninja but give me the right gun and I won't miss. Besides if something happens to me -"
"Nothing will happen to you. There's a failsafe in place in case I am unsuccessful."
"I hate it when you plan. It's never a good thing," Emma said, "I like the spontaneous Regina more."
Regina sighed into her shoulder and then placed a kiss on her lips.
"Don't be gross," Henry said. He was carrying a bag full of stuff. Regina could see why Emma was concerned.
"I'm allowed to kiss my girlfriend," Emma said, pressing her lips to Regina's again.
"At least have the decency to leave me out of it. Get a room," he said. As soon as he was back in the car, Emma shook her head.
"We'll get a room later." Regina winked at Emma as she reached behind her and took the tablet back.
After a reluctant departure, Regina handed Graham everything he needed just in case the time for Henry and his mother disappear from Cora and any other vampire or hunter's radar came. Emma refused to make it seem to her son she might not be coming back and it appeared to upset her that Regina had held on too long to Henry as if she was sure she'd never see him again.
"You promised you'd come back," Henry said to her as she pulled away, "You said you'd be around to teach me how to pick up girls since my mom has no game."
"Hey." Emma frowned at them and it earned a laugh from the pair. "Have some game. I got Regina."
"No, she definitely got you. You get all clammy and awkward around women you like."
Regina chuckled and stopped Emma from replying to that with a hand on her forearm. She gave him one more hug and then put her hands on his shoulders.
"I'll be back to help you steal Violet's breath away."
Killian, August, and Jefferson drove ahead, using a secluded cabin deep in the woods for a checkpoint. Ruby went into town for surveillance. The fail-safe needed to be in place before anyone working for Cora or Maleficent caught wind of their arrival.
Emma understood all of that, even if Regina was refusing to let her know about the failsafe. She tried not to push it though. Regina was under a lot more stress than she was. What she did want to know was why Regina had not taken the route to the cabin or into town.
She didn't want to be too suspicious of anything but Regina parked her car in a hidden spot near a cemetery. It wasn't until she was walking with Regina to an unknown destination when she finally decided to ask.
"Uh, Regina …" Regina turned to her and she cleared her throat. "Listen, I trust you. And other than the vampire thing, you've always told me the truth."
"Of course," Regina said.
"Well, it'd be great if you could tell me where you're taking me. Because right now I'm getting the 'I know too many secrets and you have to kill me' vibe right now."
"I'm not going to kill you." She hooked her arm around Emma's as they came up on a stone structure. "Of all the thing my mother has said in my lifetime, she's only been right about one thing. Ever."
"And what's that?"
"That you should meet my parents."
"Your …" Regina nodded over to the mausoleum and Emma looked up at it. Her Latin was really rusty but before she could attempt to badly decipher it, Regina's finger lifted her chin. "'Mills'. That's your family crest."
"It is. It's only fair that you should have this chance. I want you to meet the one parent that really mattered to me."
"Your father," Emma said walking up to the entrance and touching the chilled stone. "You really are something, Regina Mills."
Regina stepped forward to the entrance and swiped her fangs across her palm. She lifted her bleeding palm to the seal on the door and gears and chains began to click. The heavy stone slid to the side grinding against the flooring beneath it. Regina stepped aside, and Emma walked in.
The only light came from the sun outside. It was bigger than she expected. A vaulted ceiling. The flooring was actual marble.
They stayed in silence for a few minutes, Emma lost in deep thought about what she would've said had she been meeting her girlfriend's father and he was alive.
"Do you need to be alone for a while?" Emma asked, turning away from the stone casket.
Regina had been standing in the entryway looking out for anything suspicious. She left out of her thoughts and shook her head.
"No," she said, "I've come here every Thursday since I arrive in Storybrooke."
"Did you build one everywhere you lived?"
"I didn't." She moved away from the doorway and stood next to her. Her hand landed on the casket, gentle finger brushing over the engraved name. "Something about Storybrooke …he would've liked it here."
"You think there's anyway he could …you know …" Emma gestured around but Regina didn't look too optimistic. "Your mother is back."
"My father …he's dead. Unfortunately, I'm certain of it."
"I'm sorry." Emma slipped her hand into Regina's. "Thank you for letting us meet."
Regina brought their hands up and pressed a kiss to Emma's knuckles and said, "No, thank you."
Something buzzed in Regina's coat and she pulled out her phone. She read a series of messages, her eyebrows drawing together at every sentence. It took Emma to bring her out of the words.
"Hey." Emma tugged on her hand. "What's wrong?"
"It seems my mother has brought friends ..."
"We can handle it."
"And she's made herself comfortable in my house."
Ruby was still setting things up but she mentioned it was a bit trickier than they had expected. Vampire were occupying the town. Most of the resident probably wouldn't notice them so they'd been invaded, no doubt overnight, without a clue. On top of that, Cora had stolen what would be a safe house of sorts. They'd have to strike in the cover of night after Riley had been secured and safely escorted out of town.
Truthfully, Regina wasn't ready but as always Emma was always 'game' for anything.
"That's just fucking intrusive," Emma said. "We came here to get rid of her, let's do it."
I'm aware of the news and as sad as it is to hear, all good things must come to an end. And even with it's faults I have enjoyed being apart of this fandom and this ship.
With that said, concerning my stories, I'm hoping to finish all of my stories before the finale in May. My continuation to write fanfiction for SQ after the fact is still up in the air and honestly up to my audience.
So, if you want more just say the word I'll be here.