Chapter Thirty-Seven: What Must be Done
She hadn't realized just how cooped up she'd felt. Snow had always loved the outdoors, even before her days as a bandit. The the last couple of days they hadn't even been out to go see Leroy after Emma and Bae had been taken, but there had been something akin to quiet since then - with one or two exceptions - so she really did think that all this hiding had to stop. How was she supposed to convince her people that everything would be alright if she was held up in Rumplestiltskin's home and hiding from their enemy? Anyway, if she was feeling cooped up, she didn't even want to think about how David was feeling. Perhaps that's why he'd so quickly agreed to a stop-off by the hospital.
"It's not like we're going to go stoking the fire or anything," David said, shooting an apologetic look towards their daughter that met it with an irritated glare. That hadn't been a pretty conversation, and one that they had ended in them being firmly reminded that they really couldn't get too mad at her over after the many, many situations that they'd rushed into.
"You don't have to stoke the fire with Cora," Regina countered, "you just have to dangle yourselves out there. Listen, I know I'm not the most patient person here, but even I realize that we're inching towards being able to fight back. There's no reason to-"
"Are you worried about us, Regina?" Snow asked sweetly and watched her step-mother's guards come up. That would get her off their back. The so-called Evil Queen couldn't let anyone think she was going soft on the woman she'd declared vengeance on for years now, even if Snow knew better in her own heart.
"No, I'm just trying to convey how utterly stupid and thoughtless this is. The dwarf is unconscious. It's not like he'll know you're there anyway."
"Regina," David tried to argue, but Snow held up her hand.
"We're going. It's two fewer people that you and Gold need to worry about getting back to the house. We're waiting for him to be back to normal, right? It's not like we're not armed in case something happens."
Regina eyed Snow's bow and arrows as if they hardly mattered. Perhaps she didn't think they did, but Snow wasn't the fool that the elder woman took her for. She and Baelfire had taken advantage of being in the shop to coat the arrows with squid ink. It was the only reason she had them there, but let Regina think she'd planned this from the beginning.
"Fine, but I'm not coming to rescue you when you get caught, do you hear me?"
"Loud and clear, Regina," Snow answered with a bright smile. No one else was bothering to complain, and really the former bandit knew that it showed how far she and Regina really had come. The older woman was worried for her, even if she didn't want to admit it aloud.
David chuckled at her side as they exited the shop, the wards giving to allow them passage. "You really know how to rial her."
"She'll get over it. We haven't been to see Grumpy in days. I don't even want to think about what that vile woman has done to poor Doc. The sooner Rumplestiltskin is on his feet, the sooner we can free him."
Her husband nodded, hand going to the hilt of his sword. He was good with the gun, but he was much more comfortable with a sword. After Neverland he'd never switched back.
They were halfway down the main street when a screeching sound made them both look to the sky. The streets were empty, as they'd become upon Cora's usurpation of power, but the pair both saw what looked like a large, winged animal clinging to clock tower in the distance. "What is that?" Snow managed.
"I'm not sure we want to find out," Charming answered as he pulled his sword from the sheath, reading it.
The creature cried out angrily as it swooped down. It's feathery wings stretched wide and its claws reached for them as it dove. Snow and Charming darted to opposite sides and the princess rolled to her feet, pulling an arrow from the quiver. It was faster than she expected and its clawed foot caught the top of the bow and sent the arrow flying uselessly away.
"Snow!" David cried and was on his feet, rushing the flying monkey.
The creature caught his sword with an impressive display of strength. Charming held tight, struggling with it as Snow found her footing and took aim. She loosed the arrow - or meant to - but found it suspended inches from where it had begun. "What...?"
"Oh, don't look too baffled, dear. It's just magic," a voice chirped and Snow turned, finding herself looking at a woman she'd never met before. She stood with a condescending smile plastered across her painted lips and she was dressed in all black with hints of green laced through. Her smile faded as she studied Snow back and she turned her nose up as if she'd smelled something foul. "My, you really are the fairest of them all, aren't you?"
"Who are you?"
The smile returned with a giggle that set Snow's teeth on edge. "I'm Zelena. Cora's eldest daughter, and Mother would like a word with you."
"Snow!" David called out, still fighting with the monkey.
"Don't mind us," Zelena said cheerfully and waved her hand towards him. Power struck hard, sending Snow's husband flying. "We're just having a little girl chat over here." She turned her blue eyes back on Snow. "We really shouldn't keep mother waiting."
"She wants my heart," the dark haired princess breathed.
"What a clever girl. It won't save you though."
Snow risked one glance back at David and knew she she wasn't fast enough to escape this woman. She could just barely see him stirring as she was dragged away, magic pulling her from the main street and to Cora.
"She did what?" Regina roared. She could believe it. When she'd given Snow hell before leaving even she thought she'd been a little paranoid. It had always been Regina's hatred for Snow, not Cora's. Though her mother had told her a few things in the weeks she'd lived with her in Storybrooke - never all together and never in any order that would have been noticeable at the time - that now fell into place. Eva. Cora had hated Snow's mother Eva. Regina wasn't sure why, but she was willing to bet that the hatred didn't stop at the queen's daughter. It likely was passed on to her daughter, and then to her son. Why had she ever trusted that foul woman?
"It wasn't Snow's fault, Regina," David growled. He looked terrible. Apparently he'd gone a round or two with a flying monkey before Zelena had taken him out of play. Regina really hadn't known much about her elder sister - with the exception of the fact that Cora did not want to talk about her - but if everything fit between what Bae had said and what David had described, her estranged sister was the Wicked Witch of the West.
"Well I did warn her, didn't I?" the Evil Queen shot back mostly out of habit. Nothing good could come of this.
"Regina, that's not helping," Baelfire said in a slightly exasperated tone.
"We're going to save her, right Mom?" Henry asked. He and Wendy had been told to wait upstairs once David had come stumbling in, but neither of them would have a moment of it. So there her son stood, listening to everything and the weight of the world on his young shoulders when it really wasn't his weight to bear. It was theirs.
"Of course we are, sweetie," Regina sighed. How could she say anything differently?
"She's been planning this," Rumplestiltskin said from his high-backed chair that reminded his former student so much of that old chair in the great hall of the Dark Castle. He sat there, elbows propped on either armrest, fingers steepled, and keen eyes sweeping the room to look for a reaction. He was every bit the man that had taught her, yet so very different here. It made her wonder what would have happened if things had been different. If she hadn't tried to kill her step-daughter and if she hadn't cast Rumple's curse. Would they have eventually found themselves sitting at the round table with those fools that Snow and Charming kept so close? They were as good as doing so now, even though it was the Dark One's living room in Storybrooke rather than Snow's castle in Charming's kingdom.
Rumplestiltskin's dark eyes then swiveled over to her. "We've been wondering what the delay is. Your mother knows nothing of mercy. Wasn't like she was trying to give us time."
Regina hummed to herself. "You think Mary Margaret was her goal all along?"
"I think Eva's line is something she wants to put an end to perhaps," he said and Regina wished that he wouldn't confirm her fears so bluntly. She wrapped her arm around Henry.
"Why are we just sitting around here?" Emma demanded. "She wants to kill my mother, we're sure as hell not going to let her go after Henry-"
"There's still the problem of the scroll," Belle pointed out sensibly.
"So we'll steal it back! Seriously, how hard can it be?"
"Harder by the moment," Rumplestiltskin said as he stood.
"I don't like that look, Rumple," Regina bit out. "It's a look that says you haven't been telling us something. So help me, if you've been keeping something-"
Rumplestiltskin stiffened as eyes turned on him. He had been hiding something, that impish little bastard. Regina was going to kill him. Then she was going to find a way to resurrect him, make him help her kill her mother, and then kill him again for good measure.
"It's not so much hiding as working through," he groused. "You know there were certain demands in the magic that was used to create the curse that brought us here. The price that you had to pay to cast it, Regina, and certain bits I had to meet to write it."
"What are you getting at, Gold?" David growled, patience apparently waning.
"Cora is talented in manipulating spells. She may have found a hidden thread deep within the curse itself to have tied it to herself."
Emma was standing by this point. "What does that mean?"
"It means that we can't just take it from her. The curse would view her somewhere in between the caster and one that has stolen it. She can't reverse it, but she's likely worked in some very detailed protection spells around it. I'm still working on ways around those."
"Can we kill her?" David asked and Regina patted Henry on the back.
"Upstairs."
"Why? It's not like I don't know how this is going to end."
"Yes, but there's no reason for you to listen to us talk about it."
"She's right, kid," Emma agreed. "Up you go."
Rumplestiltskin allowed the conversation to pause until his grandson was out of the room, followed closely by Wendy and her brothers as well. They didn't have the stomach for this, and for that Regina couldn't blame them. They were children, after all, and she hoped her own son kept his innocence as long as possible.
Once Henry was out of earshot, Rumple continued. "Possibly. It depends how deep she's dug in. I've been looking into it the last couple of days, since we got back from the town hall."
"So we learned a couple of things there," Baelfire said and his father shot him a look, but didn't deny it. Well, at least Regina knew where Henry had gotten that particular trait from.
"So what can we do to reverse what she's done and take it from her?" Regina asked pointedly.
"I don't know yet."
"It's your curse, Rumple."
Rumplestiltskin sighed and leaned heavily on his cane. He was on the mend, but far from his usual strength. "When I have something, you'll be the first to know."
Snow had been transported by magic before, but Zelena's was jolting. Beyond that, she simply left her to sit in a room that had been locked from the outside, the only window high and far too small to climb out of, and seemingly alone. She hadn't seen Cora anywhere yet, nor had she seen any of her friends that the terrible witch had taken. She'd tried banging on the door - once she found it - only to find that wouldn't give. The whole place was likely teaming with magic.
She didn't know how long she'd been sitting there and waiting for something to happen when the door finally opened. A small, round shadow filled the frame and Snow had to squint against the sudden light. She was on her feet in an instant though, ready for whatever came at her. Finally, her eyes adjusted, and she saw a very familiar face attached to the little woman who was holding a tray of what might have been considered food. "Johanna?"
"Snow?" the equally familiar voice answered. The platter crashed to the floor and they were embracing each other in an instant. Snow hadn't seen the woman that had all but raised her in years now. She hadn't even known she was in Storybrooke. When they parted, Johanna reached up and thumbed away a stray tear that was trailing down the dark haired princess' cheek. "Oh Snow. I'd hoped she wouldn't take you."
"Well, she hasn't beaten me yet," Snow White answered stubbornly. "You're here, and that door is open. We can escape."
"Snow, she has my heart…."
"Then we'll steal it back. She doesn't have mine, and I know there's an entrance to Regina's vault somewhere in her office. All we have to do is find it."
The elder woman looked ready to argue again but her resolve crumbled under Snow's beaming smile. "If something happens, if she gives me an order... Snow, I would never want to hurt you."
"You would never hurt me, Johanna. You were the only mother I had when mine died. I trust you with everything I have."
"Is it time, Mother?" Zelena purred, peeking into the mirror that Cora was using to spy on Eva's daughter.
"Patience, dear," Cora answered. "Everything in due time."
Zelena tilted her head in question. Her mother had told her about that terrible brat Eva and everything she'd done to her. Oh, her little pet magician had told her a tidbit or two, but she understood her mother's rage now. She'd been denied her place just as Zelena had by Regina. They would make Snow White suffer, then they would kill Emma and her boy. Regina would suffer with the death of her child and her elder sister would let her stew in it before she ended her miserable existence. It was quite the happy ending for mother and daughter.
"What do you plan to so with Rumple?" Cora's elder daughter asked after a moment. "He seemed quite determined when he was here."
"He's limited right now, my dear. Rumplestiltskin will be putting all of his strength he's managed to get back into saving Snow."
Zelena turned up her nose. "Why would he bother? She's served his purpose."
"Because Rumple is getting sentimental in his old age. Snow is his grandson's grandmother, so to him, if he likes it or not, she's family."
"And he'll leave everything else vulnerable."
Cora smiled darkly. "The man that would never bow to anyone, that would kill for the mere suggestion, dropped to his knees for his son. When he and the others come for Snow, I want you to break through his wards. Do you think you can do that?"
"Rumple never did give me the credit I deserved. Of course, Mother. Give me time and I can unravel anything."
"That's my girl. Bring me Rumple's dagger and Eva's great-grandchild. That bloodline has poisoned our family too long. It's time to put an end to it."
Rumplestiltskin had been through every book, dug through every memory, and had chased down every alternative he could come up with in the short time he had to find a fix to this problem that Snow White had landed herself in. He was clever, he knew, but usually when his own cleverness failed him his curse would step in and provide an answer. It often wasn't an answer that anyone with a hero complex - and he seemed to be surrounded by them as of late - would appreciate, but it was always an option.
The option his curse whispered now was pointless though, and even he was not willing to go down that particular road. As often as they'd butted heads over the years, he was not willing to sacrifice Regina to buy time. If that was the best his curse could come up with, he had to be better than it, just as Belle was convinced that he was.
His main issue was that with the wards Cora had set up it had limited the people that actually could take the scroll to he and Regina, and sending Regina in alone would be suicide for her. He'd spent the last two hours locked behind his own personal wards in which only two people could walk through. He had searched through the future at every angle he could think of in sending Regina in alone to snatch the curse back. The only scenario that didn't end in her death was the one where she destroyed the scroll, but the price for that would be Henry being left behind, and that had been why Baelfire had come back in the first place. He couldn't let his son down like that and he refused to let his grandson grow up without his parents. Nor could he let Regina die.
Not that he would do a damn bit of good if he tried to go in with her. He was still fighting to get his strength back from his and Cora's first found with the dark fairy dust. It had hit him harder than he'd thought possible, and while his magic had patched up the physical wounds for the most part, it was still tied up and exhausted. Using Regina as a distraction would be risky on a level he wasn't sure that he was willing to risk, especially since his visions didn't seem to want to cooperate with that scenario.
Rumplestiltskin slammed the book in his hands closed and threw it clear across the room in a fit of frustration, nearly hitting Belle in the process. She pulled back from where she was slipping into their bedroom, narrowly missing the flying book as she entered the room. She turned a questioning look on him. "Did it offend you?"
Her love snorted, pulling himself from the chair on the far side of the sitting room. "Yes. It didn't have what I needed."
"Not the book's fault," she reminded him softly and he winced. He'd have preferred her to come in at any other time than that. She knew his temper well enough, but it was a weakness he'd rather even she did not see. He'd learned some larger degree of control after being buried under Gold for so many years, but he was hardly a patient man.
Belle crossed the room to meet him where he stood. Carefully she pushed him back down into the chair, circled around behind it, and her hands lingered on his shoulders, fingers finally moving to work at the tension there. He sighed, his body giving even if his mind could not. "Tell me what you've found," she prompted.
He closed his eyes, his own voice sounding distant to him as he explained the walls he'd hit. Belle made small noises of acknowledgement as he spoke, explaining the way the wards were set up and how there seemed to be no good answer to saving Henry's grandmother. "This war will happen unless we shatter the curse, but I haven't found a viable way of doing that." He tried to keep the fact that he'd prefer to stay in Storybrooke out of the equation entirely, though he knew it influenced it. There were things about this life that he'd grown very fond of over the years. His shop and their home, the fact that it was the world that Bae had seemed to love certainly had its place there as well.
"Well, I'm very pleased to hear you're not willing to make sacrifices of people's lives," Belle said as she leaned forward and kissed his cheek, "but is there nothing else? I know you, Rumplestiltskin. You're clever and resourceful. There has to be some way."
He sighed, slumping down into the chair. He tried again to reach for the possible future where he was the one that stole the scroll away, but it fluttered just out of his reach. He wasn't sure if Cora could kill him without his dagger, even in this land, but he really didn't want to leave that to chance. He sighed, Belle's presence promising to give him strength. Her hands stilled on his shoulders and she leaned forward, arms wrapped loosely around him in a light embrace from behind. He leaned into her, drawing from her courage.
"If you found yourself in an impossible situation, what would you do?"
Belle seemed to think on that for a moment. "When I was little and I was afraid," she murmured, "my mother always told me the same thing, and it's stuck with me. She said that I needed to have the courage of the stars. She said that no matter what the cost, they bravely lit the sky. I remember that every time we face an impossible situation. If they can burn bright and have courage, then so can I. It's a little silly, maybe, but it's what I hold to."
Rumplestiltskin made a small noise of acknowledgement. Stars also burned themselves out eventually, but that light could travel further than a former spinner from the Frontlands could really wrap his mind around. It lit the night for others long after its death. While Belle's mother may not have said it in so many words, that was what the story had meant. Even in the face of death, one should show the courage of the stars.
"Thank you," he whispered.
"Did that help?"
"I think so. I'll need to speak to Regina about it, but together I think we can get our hands on it."
"I knew you'd come up with a plan," his love murmured and kissed his cheek.
Rumplestiltskin took hold of her hand and pulled her around. She circled the seat, never letting go of his hand, and he stood to meet her. "I love you," he confessed softly. "I will always love you, no matter what happens."
She kissed him again, one hand still in his and the other came to the side of his face, fingers playing with his hair. He pulled her closer and for that moment they were all that mattered in the world. When they finally broke she looked up at him, those clear blue eyes full of love for him and he found himself wondering - certainly not for the first time - just what he'd done to deserve it.
"I love you too," she whispered. "We'll get through this just as we've gotten through everything. Cora won't be our end, nor will she win. I have faith in that."
He couldn't find it in his battered heart to agree, so Rumplestiltskin leaned forward and kissed her forehead, not willing to risk his own voice. He loved this woman and she gave him strength. If it came down to it, it would be that love he would cling to to give him the strength to do what must be done, no matter the cost.
They were unarmed and deep within the enemy's stronghold, but Snow was certain that she'd been in worse situations. She wasn't just going to leave Johanna there, and if she wanted to make sure that they both got out safely, she had to get her heart first. She'd seen what Cora did with them, and innocent as Aurora had been, it was that evil witch drove her to betray them and nothing had been able to stop it. She wouldn't risk putting Johanna into the same situation.
Snow hissed a warning as she saw someone walking by and she pulled Johanna back. When the cost was clear she urged her on onto Regina's office.
It was just as it had been when Snow and the others had first found out that Cora held the scroll hostage. No one was in the office and the princess counted that as a blessing as she moved to the far wall. "I'm not sure exactly where it is," she murmured.
"The entrance to the vault?" Johanna asked. "I saw her open it just yesterday. It has something to do with that mirror there."
"Perfect." Snow ran her fingers along the mirror until she found what she was looking for. The latch clicked and it swung open, revealing a tunnel that didn't look like it should lead to the space under the vault in the graveyard, but somehow it did. She ventured a guess that there was magic at play there.
The two women moved in quietly, finding their path open. There was a lot that Snow White could call a fair amount of it luck, but by the time they reached the vault with all the hearts she had started to suspect something else entirely.
"Johanna, there's another entrance that way. Could you go check it? I want to make sure we're really alone."
"There's no point," Johanna answered softly.
"What do you mean?"
"She means that I'm already here," Cora chirped, appearing in a swirl of magic. Zelena appeared blocking the exit they'd entered through. "Really, dear, do you never learn?"
"Snow, I'm so sorry," Johanna said desperately.
Snow smiled at her. "Whatever happens, Johanna, know that this is not your fault."
"You're right, Snow," Cora said, her tone sounding as if she were speaking to a child. "It's yours."
The princess didn't have time to respond as the Queen of Hearts did what she did best. She gasped as the elder woman appeared directly in front of her and slammed her hand through her chest, tearing her heart out and holding it up as if it were a trophy.
"I will never do what you ask," Snow vowed.
"You really have no choice. You'll find your weapon of choice on that table over there."
Dread started to rise in her. "Why would you just hand me my weapon?"
"Because you're going to put an end to Johanna here," Cora answered cheerfully.
Even as her lips parted to deny it, Snow felt her body move forward against her commands. Her fingers trembled from the effort to stop it and tears stood in her eyes as she took up the bow and an arrow. She turned, feeling them spill over to her cheeks. "Johanna, I-"
Her old friend smiled, mirroring the same tortured expression. "It's not your fault," she promised.
"How sweet," Cora growled and waved a hand. "How untrue. You will kill her, Snow White."
The command slammed into Snow and the bow string slipped from her grasp.
TBC
Notes:
Next time - Chapter Thirty-Eight: At All Costs, in which the final battle begins.