Chapter 29
There were several vials of Regina's blood lined up on a table next to a portable chemistry set. Henry seemed to be holding up just fine. Apparently his youth was keeping him from passing out like Regina has managed to in the past few hours.
While her captors work out some figures and test the blood samples Regina struggles to stay alert. It was no surprise that they threw all safe medical practices out the window, not caring how much damage they do to her here, but if she had the choice between dying of electrocution and being drained of her blood she would offer to allow Greg Mendel another chance to fry her here and now.
Over the course of these past few days she was struggling to keep it together and considering they had set sail for Neverland before she managed to recover from her first stint with Greg Mendel this made things that much difficult. Her first argument with Gold onboard the Jolly Roger took a lot out of her as it was more than just physically demanding to be able to strike him with her magic then. She endured hours of recount on her past with Mary Margaret trying to own up to her mistakes. She ended up physically hurting the woman and arguing with her several times before ultimately being subjected to the silent treatment which, as crazy as it sounded, did have some effect on her. She had been on the run with Emma while simultaneously trying to teach the blonde how to make use of her magic. She had a run in with that fairy who knocked her out cold several times and here she was on a table where these two fools were draining her of her blood like some mad science experiment. All she needed now was for Dr. Whale to show up to dismember and piece her together again.
She starts to hear mutterings from the two who still look over their notes at the entrance of the cave. She strains to make out what they are discussing now.
"I don't understand..." Greg mutters to Tamara as they hover over the table with their testing kits and vials in hand. "His blood mixed with hers should have worked."
"Well... I don't know what to tell you. The subject's blood is not reacting. Maybe it's not her blood that we need." Tamara suggests now with a frustrated sigh. "If that's the case this whole experiment is over. We can't proceed to the next phase without this."
"No... no..." Greg says shaking his head pointing to the wall of the cave. "The prophecy says that the boy would provide a cure through his mother's magic."
"Yeah but Emma is his mother... not Regina." Tamara reminds.
"Yes... but Emma doesn't have magic." Greg is quick to explain.
Regina in her tired state manages to hear Henry's sharp intake of breath, obviously understanding the mistake the man has made in his assumption. They both knew that Emma did indeed have magic and for some reason no one ever mentioned it to these two. As she meets eyes with Henry she offers a silent plea with a slight shake of her head. When he faintly nods his understanding she smiles weakly at him, happy that he could read her so well.
"The prophecy says that the magic is extremely powerful which makes sense because Regina's magic is powerful. She's cursed an entire town into an alternate existence. I was there... I remember. You don't get any more powerful than that and she's also technically Henry's mother as well. You know these things can be vague with the details. It's her." He says shaking his head then nodding adamantly. "It has to be her."
Tamara turns to look at Regina on the table watching as the woman's eyes flutter closed taking a chance to look over at the vitals monitor. "We gotta keep her stable if we plan to continue with our work here. Let's get her back to holding… the boy as well." She gestures for Nibs and his accomplice to come take Regina back. As they go to help her up her head lulls back. She is too weak to make an effort anymore. Tamara takes notice of this, "Looks like you're going to have to carry her back. Get her to eat something." She orders though there is not a hint of real concern in the woman's words.
Tamara watches them as they walk off before turning back to Greg. "Maybe because we have had her in those magical restraints her magic is too faded. We need to... jump start her somehow."
"We get her to perform dark magic?" The man asks skeptically with a wince. "I don't know if that's such a good idea."
"We've weakened her enough. She's been in those restraints for a while now. We didn't completely take the ability away like we did the last time. It's still in there we just need to get it active again." Tamara suggests assuredly.
"What makes you so sure it will work?"
"Do you have a better idea?" She questions defensively.
"Fine..." Greg relents as he tends to do for this woman. "How do we get her to perform dark magic without using it against us?"
"She has the ability to take hearts doesn't she?" She brightens up at the thought. "Get her to take someone's heart and crush it. She can then do some sort of magic to manipulate the dead body."
"Ah..." Greg says with a dastardly smile spreading across his face. "I think I've got the perfect victim for that. Let's make some preparations and we'll get her back in here. I think we'll need to have Henry here again as well... you know... for... motivation." His smile does not falter as they get to work.
Meanwhile Regina is taken to a different dwelling that is a bit more isolated. The boys settle her in to a cell within that dwelling before making their way back to take care of Henry.
"Regina." A voice calls to her and she feels a hand cradling her face, a thumb brushing her cheek. She tries to open her eyes but it takes far too much effort.
She manages to inhale deeply and as she exhales her eyes slowly open revealing that inexplicably familiar boy. "You again?" She questions to the young boy in a groggy mumble.
"Yes it's me… are you alright?" The boy asks as he bends down further where he kneels next to Regina on the ground.
"What happened? Where… am I?" She asks in a breathless whisper.
"You fell ill and they brought you here to rest." The small boy offers to her in a hushed tone as he anxiously looks up and around the dwelling. "Do you remember any of that?"
"I… was…" Regina winces and tries to put a hand to her head but both her wrists are still bound together in the magical restraints she's been lead away in time and again. She drops her hand back down to her belly and tiredly sighs. "They had me in a cave… on a table. I was hooked up to some sort of monitoring device and they… they… drew my blood and put it into several vials." She says in a faraway voice. "I… thought I heard Henry's voice before I blacked out the last time but that could have very well been my imagination."
"Obviously they took more of your blood than they should have." The boy says as he reaches out to wipe at Regina's forehead with a wet rag.
"You aren't like the rest of the lost boys here are you?" Regina carefully asks. "They seem to treat you quite... differently."
"I'm new and these boys do not like newcomers." The young boy offers with a shrug. "Tell me... do you... do you know if Rumple managed to find Emma?" The boy asks but Regina thinks she is mistaken.
"Emma was…" Regina suddenly stops in her trail of thought as she is now thrown by the question. While the rest of these boys seemed to know little about her this one seemed to know too much. She had not mentioned to anyone that she had been with Emma.
"Regina?" The boy calls to her gaining her attention. He goes to grab at Regina's hand but she is quick to pull away from him.
"Who are you?" She asks narrowing her eyes on him. "Why do you seem so familiar?" She presses as she finally manages to sit up, though it is an awkward motion due to her bound hands.
"Madam you most certainly know who I am." He says standing with his hands resting firmly on his own hips, a cheeky grin spreading over his face.
Regina's brow furrows in thought. She had heard this statement before, recently too, and her first thought is to set her gaze to the ground to confirm her own suspicions before she asks, "The… shadow-less man?"
"I'm not actually a man," Says the figure who transforms in to a now familiar fairy, "I'm more of a fairy." Tinker Belle says happily.
"You…" Regina growls out. "Why did you try to trick me and Emma into thinking you were Hook?"
"Ah the infamous Evil Queen doesn't like to be deceived? I had expected you to make an attempt to escape but you've done nothing of the sort. You haven't even put up a good fight since they brought you back here." She says as she walks about the cell.
"Maybe the fight has all been drained out of me." She offers with an angry frown. "What do you want then? Why have you been posing as others rather than yourself in interacting with me?"
"I actually have little choice in the matter. I'm bound to the shadow and I must do his bidding." Tink offers with a slight frown. "The only way to get to people without him noticing is by disguising myself."
"How are you bound to him?" Regina asks narrowing her eyes.
"When he rips away a shadow he keeps it and so he has kept mine. It makes him stronger. It helps to sustain him but in return the person is forever bound to him."
"You do his bidding yet you are here offering me your insight. You tried to tell me that Henry was here but you're helping these people to keep me locked up in this cell?" Regina offers angrily.
"I don't do any of this for The Shadow's benefit. I do it... for... my friend. I do it for... for Peter." The fairy offers in an overwhelmed stutter.
"Peter Pan?" Regina questions with a wince from sitting up to fast. She leans back once more and shuts her eyes a moment.
"Peter was separated from his shadow some time back by the Indian Chief's daughter, the princess... Tiger Lily. Her people... they... well they dealt with a certain breed of magic. It was neither light nor dark. It was... I don't know..." the fairy trails off with a shrug. "Elemental?" She finishes not knowing what to label it. "At Peter's request they performed a ritual that would allow him to stay forever young but as most magic does it came with a price. The price came in the form of his shadow becoming its own separate being. The Shadow grew stronger as Peter stayed the same. Later The Shadow itself was able to separate others from their shadows though it was a much more painful process than the Chief's daughter had used all those years before."
"Why are you telling me all of this?" Regina cuts in not having an ounce of patience left.
"I need your help." The fairy says desperately. Regina frowns angrily but says nothing. "I know that... I attacked you but it wasn't completely my fault. I... I later tried to act as Hook the Pirate to try to convince you to come back without having to hurt you anymore. I knew that I was weakening you each time I initiated an attack. I figured you would trust him enough to come back and I would convince you of willingly fulfilling the prophecy while still managing to perform the tasks given by The Shadow."
Well Emma had one thing right about this fairy. She clearly had some mental health issues as it was still unclear with whom her allegiance lay. "What is this prophesy? I thought I heard Greg and Tamara speaking of it."
"The Chief's daughter knew that eventually Peter might change his mind. That he would regret the cost of his decision not to grow up so after the ritual was performed she offered the words of a prophetic vision passed down to her by the ancestors of the tribe. The prophesy states that there would be a boy who would be the undoing of the dark one, though that is entirely left up for interpretation as there seem to be several dark ones at the moment who fit the bill. Either way… the boy would provide a cure to stop the shadow, ultimately restoring the light that once built Neverland. This Greg and Tamara think that the cure can work to eliminate all magic but that simply isn't the case."
"How do they think they will attempt to garner this cure?"
"That is also part of the prophesy. It was said that the mother of the boy would possess a magic so powerful it would eliminate the dark of this land and in the process restore Peter's shadow to his person. Peter is where the Happy Thoughts once originated for he was the first Lost Boy. His time spent among the mystical mermaids transitioned into him helping the fairies that once thrived here. They would use fairy dust to procure children for visits, only keeping those who were truly orphaned. The visits of these children helped to sustain those Happy Thoughts. We've already lost the chief and his tribe. I am one of the few fairies left in this land. The mermaids are gone as well. If they are successful in their creation of a cure they will test it on The Shadow which will kill Peter and then Neverland will fall."
"But that prophecy says nothing about the mixing of my blood with his..." Regina offers as she tries to follow the logic.
"No... Greg and Tamara are the ones that came up with the idea with their magical... science." She stresses the foreign word. "When I caught wind of their plan I knew I somehow had to convince you to help me. All we had to do was get you here but Rumplestiltskin..."
"Rumple? You were working with Rumple the entire time?" Regina asks in a rush.
"Not at first... He managed to make his way in to camp. He offered a deal in exchange for safe departure from the camp... among other things. They discussed for some time the prophecy and how it might come to take place. It was he who suggested they needed to get you in their custody. He offered to get you to them but he wanted to seek out Peter before agreeing to anything further. I..." She hesitates. "I haven't been able to find Peter since your captors came to our camp but I managed to speak to Rumple. I offered to assist him in any way that I could so long as he would help me to restore Peter's shadow to him. It was he who convinced me that the best course of action was to attack both you and Emma. I was to subdue Emma and keep you for Greg and Tamara all the while ensuring that Emma somehow got back to Rumple."
"Did you not find it odd that he wanted to keep Emma?" Regina asks in a somewhat sarcastic way. "The prophecy says that you need his mother."
"Well... aren't you Henry's mother?" Tink asks with a tilt of her head, not understanding.
"I... I didn't..." She trails off deciding to start again. "I only raised the boy. Emma is his birth mother." Regina says as she holds back an eye roll, not enjoying having to confess these words.
"But your magic... Isn't dark magic the most powerful of all? I thought that you were the Evil Queen in your realm? The stories we have heard of you all say that you are... pardon my recollection here... a heartless witch who would just as soon kill her own mother and father to gain power."
Regina growls and shakes her head. "I am so tired of people twisting the stories of my past to use against me. I don't even know you and you certainly do not know me!" She shouts angrily and then nearly faints from the excitement. She shuts her eyes to try to gain her composure. "What is happening to me?" She asks feebly.
"You're still weak. You should rest. They are going to come back for you." She says transforming back in to the image of the boy. "I left you some bread and water." She says as she exits the cell and locks it up behind her. "If you aren't Henry's real mother then I need to find Rumple. I need to... get us some help."
"Us? I haven't agreed to help you." Regina sits back up to glare at the fairy.
"I didn't really expect you to..." The fairy offers sadly but suddenly she perks up as she warns, "Just remember that if they are successful, anyone who is still here when Neverland falls will suffer, and for some reason I don't think you have it in you to allow that to happen. Not if you truly care for Henry." The fairy then offers a smug grin before exiting the dwelling leaving Regina to think all of this new information over.
**I know I made Tink this confusing character but J.M. Barrie wrote that fairy's are so small they can't feel more than one emotion at a time. I made my Tink a little bigger so I decided... she'll just be a little off when expressing herself so... yeah. ha ha. :)**
