Chapter 33 - Keys Must Be Forged
In a burst of purple smoke, Regina the mother, the wife, the friend, and the Mayor became someone else. Standing her place, resplendent in a black velvet gown with a high collar that wrapped around her neck and skirts that billowed about her feet, was the Evil Queen. Her look, designed for intimidation, was highlighted by makeup that accentuated and darkened her features and which underscored the malefic gleam of her eyes.
"Now then," she said, grinning from ear to hear, "let's have some fun."
Stunned into silence, Emma gaped uselessly until a fresh wave of attackers burst through the forest line, drawing her attention back to fighting them off with her magic. Regina was too busy having fun to care. Cackling with glee, she dispatched her foes as they came, one by one, some with fire and others with bursts of energy that crushed their bodies. Wave after wave came on, and wave after wave fell to her unrelenting barrage until at last it seemed like the attacks petered out. Between Regina and Emma; s efforts, the corpses of around fifty hellbeasts littered the forest floor.
Panting from exertion, Regina estimated that her energy was dangerously running low enough that if another large assault were mounted, she would surely fall and Emma with her. The respite, unfortunately, did not last long enough to provide any benefit to her lagging levels. Not more than a minute later, the sounds of growling resumed from within the nearby tree line. Baring her teeth, she squared her shoulders and reached deep inside herself, tapping her reserves much in the way Emma had to free herself of Belmordan's magic. It was a dangerous gambit, but also a necessary one if they were to survive.
When the first of the creatures shot through the underbrush onto the path, darting directly toward them, Regina reacted almost instantly to repel the attack with magic. But when the creature leapt at her, it was struck on its side by an arrow, perfectly aimed to pierce it's malevolent heart. The next four hellbeasts were dispensed of in like manner. One by one, they filtered through the hole in the underbrush and one by one, they were felled by precision shots from a skilled archer somewhere in the shadows to the opposite side. When three more creatures attacked a moment later, Regina took care of one with a deadly fireball as Emma cut down one herself. The mysterious archer dispatched the final foe.
Ringed in by a mound of bodies, both Regina and Emma braced themselves, peering out into the encroaching darkness to suss out the direction from whence the arrows had been fired.
"Show yourself!" Emma shouted, the chill of the night air creating puffs of white mist as she spoke.
The sound of footsteps against the dirt alerted them both to the stranger's movement long before they saw them. As their movements grew ever closer, their silhouette revealed the person's identity. Their savior was a woman of slightly above average height with a mass of tightly curled hair. Regina instinctively sneered as recognition dawned. It was none other than the sarcastic, impudent redhead that had earlier stalled her pursuit of Ruby.
"You," she growled upon Merida's approach.
"Me," Merida replied with a mocking smile. "I should think ye ought to be glad to see me, yer Majesty. Considerin' I just saved yer hide."
"And we are, Merida." Emma cut in before Regina could retort. "We're both grateful."
After directing a pointed glare at Emma for speaking on her behalf, Regina narrowed her eyes at the impertinent redhead. "Were you following us?"
"What she meant by that is 'Yes, thank you, Merida'," Emma sardonically supplied.
Regina's eye twitched with irritation. "I meant precisely what I said, Miss Swan. Now answer the question, girl."
"I did, indeed, follow you. Good thing, too," said Merida matter-of-factly. "The way ye were actin' I got the impression that Ruby was in trouble. I'm here to help, nothin' more, so don't get yer royal knickers in a wad."
When Emma snickered under her breath, Regina cut her eyes over at the blonde, who did not bother to apologize for her amusement over Merida's brazenness.
"She's right, Regina," Emma then said, wearing a crooked grin of her own. "De-bunch your panties. We're all on the same team here."
Groaning with exasperation, Regina flicked her wrist to return to her previous sartorial state and then swirled to turn her back on the sources of her annoyance. The temptation to light them both on fire was becoming a little too seductive. Starting her march down the path, she was forced to step over several charred bodies as she went.
"I'm going to find my wife," she called out over her shoulder, once she was past the mound of corpses and back onto the path that she hoped would lead to Ruby. "When you two are done discussing the state of my undergarments, you're welcome to join me."
Though she heard Emma and Merida talking and snickering conspiratorially, Regina ignored them and focused her attention back on her quest. Eventually, they fell into step behind her. For the next few minutes, they traveled along in relative silence. As the path took them ever deeper into the forest, Regina noticed a hum coming from south in the direction of Zelena's farmhouse. Turning toward the disturbingly abnormal sound, she gestured for Emma and Merida to remain quiet. The closer they got the more distinctive it became, until Regina recognized it for what it was. Only one thing made that kind of sonorous, energetic hum: an open portal.
With panic crawling up her spine, she made her way forward to investigate only to stop cold when she heard someone running in her direction. Straining her eyes, she caught sight of her sister running in her direction with Francesca in her arms. Zelena looked as terrified as Regina felt, which didn't help matters in the slightest since her sister was not one to be afraid of anything – except not being good enough, that is.
"Regina!" Zelena called out upon spotting the group of women working their way through the forest and recognizing her sibling among them.
Stopping their progress, Regina waited for Zelena to approach. Flushed from the exertion of running, the fear in her sister's blue eyes was especially alarming up close. Francesca appeared even more bewildered than her mother, clinging tightly to Zelena's neck, though some of the child's anxiety fled upon noticing her aunt Regina. Regina gave the girl a tiny smile despite the potential danger of the situation.
"Hi, Frankie," she greeted, ignoring her sister for the moment.
Regina loved her niece to pieces. She considered Francesca to be, other than her own children, the most adorable child in the history of the world. Every bit as precocious with magic as her fiery mother, Frankie – as Regina liked to call her much to Zelena's displeasure – was thankfully much more subdued and thoughtful. A frightfully quick study even at the tender age of five, among all the Mills children, Frankie was both the most magically inclined and the most interested in studying the intricacies of sorcery. Regina was very much looking forward to teaching her niece the tricks of the trade if her control freak of a sister would allow it.
At seeing her beloved aunt, Francesca relaxed, though she was clearly still battling fright of a situation she didn't understand. Not that Regina did, either.
"Hi, aunt 'Gina," said Frankie, returning the smile.
Regina's smile widened into a full-fledged grin. No one else could get away with the cardinal sin of referring to her as Gina, not even Ruby. But there was just something precious about the way Frankie said it that made the reductive moniker tolerable.
"Listen, I wish we had time for pleasantries," Zelena injected, "but we've got to get out of here and back to town immediately. Not more than a moment ago a portal burst open in my front lawn, and I swear Regina, beasts from the depths of hell start pouring out of it. It's like nothing I've ever seen."
"I know," said Regina with a heavy sigh, giving her sister her attention at last. "We just encountered them on the path to the wolf dens."
As if just noticing that there were other people besides Regina and herself and her daughter there, Zelena glanced with confusion between Emma and Merida and then back to Regina. "What the bloody hell is going on?"
"It's Belmordan," said Emma, cutting in before Regina could respond. "He swore he would find a way to track Ruby down and he has."
Dread filled Regina at the way Emma had spoken with such absolute certainty. If Belmordan was indeed in Storybrooke, things were about to get worse. Much worse. Perhaps more so than they had ever been, particularly for Ruby, which made locating her in a timely manner critical.
"Wait, wha - ? Who the hell is this Belmordan fella?" Merida asked, confused.
"He's this super-scary dude Ruby and I ran into back in the Enchanted Forest," Emma explained in her typically colloquial manner. "He had taken over Regina's castle. The entire time we were there, he had his sights set on Ruby, though we still aren't exactly sure why. All we know is that they are related somehow."
As Regina opened her mouth to give the impertinent interloper an abbreviated and extremely terse summary of events that had lead up to that moment, she was distracted by the sight of a shadow moving to her left near a thicket of bushes nestled beneath an old and frail looking oak tree. Peering into the inky darkness, a block of frigid dread settled in her chest.
In the days of her rule over the Enchanted Forest, she had become accustomed to utilizing her subconscious instincts to detect threats to her life. With no shortage of people lined up to take her head, she could not afford to be lax with her security, so she'd not only adapted her magic to create a buffer zone of warning, but she had also learned to listen to her gut whenever it told her something was amiss. At the present, her gut was screaming at her, alerting her to the presence of someone or something lurking nearby, fixated upon her, which created a sense of unease that in turn prompted her magic to flare to life. It danced along her fingertips as she frantically scanned the area.
"If only you knew the truth," a male voice suddenly said from the very area she'd spotted movement.
As one, the entire group swiveled to face the direction the voice had emanated from, each person ready to defend themselves if necessary. Since she had Francesca with her, Zelena set her daughter down and pushed her to the rear, shielding her with her body. It was, Regina thought, the same thing she would have done.
Swirling on the shrouded spot in which the shadowy prowler was concealed, Regina strained her eyes, hoping to catch sight of whoever was out there. "Show yourself," she called out as her eyes roved around the tree for any additional movement. For a long space, nothing happened; no reply was given and no movement could be detected. But then she noticed a figure emerge to the left side of the tree and from behind a scraggly bush.
"Who the hell is this little bugger?" Merida asked, eyeing the man, still concealed by shadow, as if prepared to put a volley of arrows in him at a moment's notice.
When Emma stepped immediately forward, her eyes hardening into stone, Regina knew who it was without needing to hear Emma's subsequent usage of his name. "Thomas!" she shouted, raising her hands and drawing on her magic, which began swirling in golden pools within her palms. At the audible mention of his, Regina physically started. Thomas Hatter. Could it be? "Come out now and surrender yourself or I'll have no choice but to force you." Regina noticed with some appreciation that Emma was fully prepared to make good on her threat.
"Come now. There's no need for threats, Sheriff." And with that, Thomas Hatter at last revealed himself.
"It's him," Emma said, glancing at Regina out of the corner of her eye. "That's Thomas Hatter."
Faced with the man who was responsible for what Ruby was currently going through, Regina's veins flooded with liquid fire. Incited to violence at the sight of the elusive assassin, Regina had to utilize every ounce of restraint she had available to keep from roasting him outright.
"You," she snarled hatefully.
Thomas grinned mockingly. "Me."
That specific taunt being leveled at her for the second time in nearly as many minutes only exacerbated Regina's foul mood. As her heartbeat began to throb in her head, a thread of her control slipped and she advanced to stand within a foot of the lowlife scum who had poisoned her wife. Her entire body was taught with rage.
"I see by your reaction the poison has done its job," he continued, more haughty and confident than he should be considering how much Regina wanted to murder him. "Thankfully, you don't have to worry. It won't kill her."
That statement caught Regina completely by surprise. "What? In every book I've read the Lycanthrope poison is always fatal."
Smiling as if privy to a secret he was thrilled to lord over her, Thomas replied, "For every other Lycanthrope, yes. For your little wolf? Agonizingly painful it may be, but rest assured, it will not be the poison that kills her."
Regina immediately picked up on the implication, as did Emma it seemed, for the Savior then stepped forward to stand next to Regina, unified in purpose. "So something else will, then? And what might that be?"
"Well, the Master, of course," Hatter said, as if they should already be aware of that fact.
"And who, precisely, is your master?" Regina asked, thinking of Spencer, but not seeing what possible motive he could have to see Ruby dead now that he believed she was his daughter. And Emma had informed her that Thomas was made aware Spencer called the hit off, so she was, much to her frustration, at a complete loss.
In response, Thomas turned to Emma and inclined his head at her. "You ought to know, Savior," he said. "I'm surprised that you haven't put it together yet. After all, how else could I know how to craft a poison that would kill any werewolf save one of a very, very specific bloodline."
"Oh, God," Emma gasped when she realized who Thomas was speaking of.
Regina looked at her imploringly. "Emma?"
"It's Belmordan," the Savior said, her demeanor tensed and facial expression laden with self-admonishment. "I should have known. I should have realized. It was Belmordan who set you up with Spencer wasn't it? He knows, doesn't he? He's known all along."
"Known what?" Regina asked, still not completely following and aggravated that Emma seemed able to make connections that she could not.
Turning to Regina, Emma said, "That Ruby is a werewolf, that she's Spencer's daughter, that she's married to you, that she's...special." Pausing for a moment, Emma's eyes widened. "Oh, my God! He orchestrated the whole thing with Joshua Woods, didn't he? Drove him mad somehow and planted the idea in his head that everything that happened to him was Ruby's fault. I bet he was even responsible for Joshua's family being killed!"
"Guilty as charged," Thomas replied, happy as a lark to rub their faces in the fact that the unseen hand of his master had been moving pieces in their lives for so many years without them even suspecting.
Regina felt sick. It was nearly too much for her to comprehend that everything that had happened in her and Ruby's lives since the moment she was stabbed by Joshua Woods was all per a wide-ranging, incredibly patient, and highly intricate plan. The puppet master behind it all was this Belmordan character, the sorcerer who claimed to the be the first werewolf to ever live, and the ancient ancestor of her wife.
With her head swimming, Regina faltered a step, her skin turning pallid as she brought her hand up to her mouth.
"Regina, are you okay?" Emma asked, turning to place a hand on Regina's shoulder, though she never once lost sight of Thomas Hatter.
"No," Regina answered, feeling as if everything was closing in on her, as if the very air were choking her. "No, I'm not okay." Looking up at Thomas, she saw him grinning like a maniac, arrogantly satisfied with himself. "Why?" she asked, needing to know why someone would put her, put Ruby, through so much torture.
Tilting his head, Thomas' smile slipped from his face and he regarded her seriously. "My master requires her for his plans to come to fruition. It was thus necessary to prepare her before he could begin the last phase."
"And what plan is that?" Zelena asked, having grown cold with rage as she listened to Thomas Hatter explain that what Regina and Ruby had gone through was not the act of a lone, crazed individual, but a conspiracy with a complexity the likes of which she had never encountered. It did not lessen Regina's anxiety for Ruby to have her sister so ready to put her hat in the ring on her behalf, so to speak, but it did make her feel a bit more confident that they could deal with whatever was about to happen.
"Why, to conquer the entirety of the Nine Realms of course," Thomas replied. "All but three have fallen to his power. Only Midgard – that is, Earth – Olympus and Asgard remain."
Zelena's eyes narrowed with distrust. "Why are you being so chatty? Shouldn't this so-called 'grand plan' be kept under tight wraps?"
Thomas shrugged. "There is no longer any need for subterfuge. Once the Master has completed his objective on Earth, the rest will fall quickly enough."
"And what," Regina joined the inquisition, "is this mysterious objective?"
"To free his beloved from her eternal prison," was Hatter's vaguely succinct answer.
"And how might he accomplish that?" piped up Merida, her stance aggressive with her bow in hand and an arrow nocked and ready to fire. "What's the purpose of him tormenting Ruby, eh? What's she done to deserve what you've done to her?!"
Shrugging, Thomas eyed Merida as if bored by her threatening posture and angry questions. "She is the key, and all useful keys must be forged in flame. As for what she's done to earn her special treatment, well, my little fiery vixen, she was born. It's as simple as that."
The blasé way he responded to Merida and his casual dismissal of what was done to Ruby was the last straw for Regina. Striding forward, she prepared to unleash her magic at the man responsible for tormenting Ruby, willing and able to make him suffer untold agonies.
"I ought to rip your flesh from your body one layer at a time," she growled as she marched, and the second the words left her mouth, she stumbled back a step, hit with a torrential rush of memories that were suddenly freed from where they had been locked away all these years.
With crystal clear detail, she could at last remember the events that had transpired that terrible day in the God forsaken basement after she had revived Ruby by giving up half of her own heart. It was as if it all was playing through her mind, causing her to relive it, and after watching herself succumb to an influx of raw power she had never imagined she could tap into, she was horrified by what followed.
Never in her life had she heard of a person being executed in such a way as she had Joshua Woods. Not only had she levitated them both several feet into the air, but she had also summoned a magic so potent and precise that she utilized it to peel him apart one layer at a time until he was reduced to nothing but organs and bones. Somehow, though all of his flesh and muscle had been stripped away, he remained alive, held together by the incredibly concentrated yet supremely elegant magic she had inexplicably accessed. And then, when she was finished with him, she simply snuffed him out of existence with a wave of her hands as if he were an insignificant gnat.
Remembering all of this could not have come at a worse time, either. Engulfed as she was by molten hot anger at Thomas Hatter had rendered her especially susceptible to the influence of her own personal supply of darkness. Clamping down on the growing desire to tap into that primal source of chaotic energy, she lifted her eyes to Thomas, quite satisfied to see him blanch at the unveiled hatred he saw there.
"It would be very easy for me to do just that, you know," she then said after recovering from the onslaught of memories, tipping her head down just a fraction so that she was looking up at him through pools of black animus. "I have done it before. The last person who dared lay a hand my wife discovered just how far I am prepared to go to punish those who harm what's mine." Seeing Thomas gulp and put one of his feet backward as if to ready himself to flee, Regina grinned wickedly and wagged her finger in a taunting manner. "Tsk-tsk, don't even think about running."
"Wait, Regina," Emma begged, seeing the murder written in Regina's eyes. "Don't. We might need him."
Hatefully glaring at Emma, Regina retorted, "What possible need could we have for such a worthless piece of refuse such as this?"
"For one, he might have more information about Belmordan's plans. Vital information that might help us save Ruby..."
After taking a moment to consider what Emma had said, Regina came to understand how much sense it made. Sighing, she deflated somewhat, though her edge never completely left.
"Ah, well, that may very well be true," she conceded, noting that Hatter was visibly relieved Emma had intervened on his behalf. The bastard. One way or another, she would see him pay, no matter what Emma thought about his potential usefulness. But at least for now she was willing to play along. "In that case, I am inclined to agree. It is your lucky day, Mr. Hatter. So long as you prove useful you may live. But if I for even one second sense that you are toying with us or feeding us lies, I will kill you. Slowly and painfully."
Thomas did not flinch even so much as an eyelash. "You won't get the chance. My master will come for me." He was confident, Regina had to give him that.
She regarded him with a grim smile that spoke volumes about the amount of pain she was just dying to inflict upon him. "We'll see about that, won't we?" As he slightly blanched once again, just enough that Regina barely caught hint of it, she turned away with satisfaction. Finding Emma staring at her, she raised a sable brow.
Emma sighed. "C'mon," she said, gesturing for everyone to gather around her, "let's just pool our energy together and poof everyone to the Station. I can gather everyone there to prepare for the storm that's about to hit town."
Regina acceded to the request, moving over to stand next to Emma on her right side. "Agreed." She then turned to her sister who was still holding on her daughter. "Zelena, after you help us would you be so kind as to teleport to my home and gather Sophia and Amelia. Tell Snow and David to meet us here, and then take all the children somewhere safe."
Looking put off, Zelena huffed. "Fine." She clearly wanted to protest being sidelined but refrained because she recognized that the children would someone very powerful to watch over them. Not for the first time, Regina was glad that she had taken a chance on her sister. "I will take the children to Walsh's home," Zelena then informed her, "but don't be a fool tonight, Regina. Should you need my assistance, call for me and I'll come."
Regina nodded, grateful. It was a bit strange to consider that at one time she had wanted nothing more than to destroy her elder sibling. Now, she couldn't imagine a life without Zelena in it. As it turned out, Zelena was the kind of older sister Regina had always dreamed about having, interesting enough to challenge her, stubborn enough to infuriate her, but loyal enough to kill for her without a second thought.
"I will. Thank you, Zelena."
Zelena winked as she approached the group, Merida drawing along beside her. "Any time, Sis."
"Now, then, let's do this," Regina said, thrusting her hand out into the center of the circle of women and then gathering her magic. And as Emma slid her hand onto Regina's, she too gathered her own power and Zelena did the same. Only once Merida placed her hand atop the others did they all surge their magic into producing a portal spell, and moments later, they were all in the Sheriff's station.
As they dispersed to their objective, Emma making phone calls, Zelena teleporting to Regina's home, and Merida pacing the bullpen like a caged animal, Regina was seized by a feeling of trepidation, the kind which she only ever felt before the dawning of a great battle. War was coming to Storybrooke. She only prayed everyone was ready.