Chapter 49
A/N: As promised, the next chapter. Big thanks to kurotenshi-08, Guest, Guest, evilregalslola, Guest, nacy3451, Guest, Once19, Guest, luv2read2, Guest, chen27 and Guest for your reviews!
"You sure this is the right place?"
Belle glanced down at the sheet of paper in her hand, her eyes flickering over the names and addresses neatly written out in alphabetical order. As predicted, Regina had kept documentation relating everyone in the town to their fairy-tail identities down in her vault. Finding it had required short but messy search through the last of the books and paper work left down there. David had stood in the middle of the room as Belle sifted through a box of aging parchments, his expression unreadable.
"Regina would throw a fit if she saw the place like this," he'd commented at one point.
"We'll clean it up before she gets back," Belle promised him, filling her words with conviction. Perhaps if they kept saying it, believing it, they could get her back safe and sound through sheer will power alone.
"Yea this is it. Apartment four," she said now, gesturing the face brick building in front of them. "They both live here. Matthew and Jeremy Adams."
"Great," David muttered, killing the engine.
"David," Belle put a hand on his arm as he moved to open the car door. He turned to look at her curiously. "We don't know anything yet," she started.
"I know that," he shrugged her off. "I'm just going to ask some questions, that's all." He turned, sliding out of the car. Sighing, Belle hopped out after him.
"You should stay here," David called back, frowning at her.
"Not a chance. I know you and Killian have a certain way of extracting answers out of people, but I'm not going to just sit around while you threaten innocent strangers."
"They're Frank's relatives," David scoffed. "I doubt there's anything innocent about them."
"That's exactly the kind of thinking I'm worried about," Belle muttered. This suddenly all felt like a terrible idea. So what if Frank had only male blood relatives? Surely that didn't mean they were all immune to magic like he was. She was grasping at straws, Belle decided uneasily. She jerked as David rang the intercom button. His whole body was tense, ready to snap at the slightest provocation. Before Regina had disappeared, Belle never would have imagined that the Charming Prince could carry so much rage.
"Hello?" a voice called through the speakers.
"This is Sherriff Nolan," David responded. "I'd like to have a word with you and your brother."
There was a pause. "…In connection with?" the voice asked.
"Your cousin, Frank."
A longer pause. "What about him? Look I don't think I can help you… We don't associate with him or his sort."
"Just open up," David growled.
"Please," Belle added, trying to play good cop. "We just need five minutes of your time, that's all."
Several long moments of silence followed, then finally, the door buzzed and opened. David held it open, gesturing Belle in ahead of him. She wandered inside, grimacing slightly. The floor was lined with dark grey carpeting that smelled faintly of cat pee.
"Nice place," she muttered, moving deeper into the dark interior.
"They're on the ground floor, right?" David asked, walking past her. He angled his head up, reading the numbers above the doors. "Here, number four." He lifted his hand, but the door swung open before he could knock.
"Yes?" A slightly overweight man in his mid-twenties opened the door. He crossed his arms, glaring at the pair of them.
"Are you Jeremy?" Belle asked.
"Matthew," the man muttered. "What do you two want?"
"Can we come in?" David asked, his eyes flicking past the man, scanning the limited view he had of the apartment building.
"No," Matthew's face scrunched up in confusion. "What the hell do you want? You asked about Frank? Whatever he's done, I had nothing to do with it. My brother and I are good people…"
"Mr Adams," Belle began hurriedly. "We just would like a few moments to ask if you or your brother know anything about the disappearance of Regina Mills?"
"The queen?" he shook his head wildly. "I don't… what the hell would I want with her?"
"That's it…" David growled, moving forward. "Get out of the way."
"What? No… hey!" Matthew stumbled back as David pushed past him, forcing his way into the apartment.
"Regina?" he yelled. "Regina? Are you in here?"
"What the hell is going on here? I told you I don't know anything about the queen!" Matthew followed after David in bewilderment as the prince stormed the apartment, opening doors at random and yelling Regina's name.
"What's going on?" a younger man – probably Jeremy, Belle decided – appeared suddenly in the small living room. David paused to stare at him.
"Where is she?" he snarled.
"Woah," Jeremy lifted his hands in submission. "Easy there. You're asking for Regina? The queen, right? My brother and I don't know where she is… honestly I don't think I've ever even spoken to her in person. Matt and I are fishermen… that's all. We're nothing but fishermen…"
"David…" Belle began softly. "David," she called him again, waiting until his blue eyes flicked to her. "This was a mistake," she said. "They don't know anything."
Whatever Frank was, it had to be a fluke. The two brothers seemed completely ordinary.
"I was wrong," she said. She stepped closer to him, resting a gentle hand on his forearm. He was breathing harshly, his chest heaving with every breath.
He's losing it, she thought.
"You want to look for her?" Jeremy asked, speaking slowly and cautiously. "Feel free. Check the place out."
"Jeremy," his brother said warningly.
"Just give him a minute," the younger man said. Belle gave him a small smile, feeling a surge of warmth toward him. She was responsible for this mess. She had given David hope, dragged him down here on a wild goose chase. This Regina situation was getting to all of them.
In the end, it took David twenty three minutes to convince himself that Regina wasn't stashed inside one of the cupboards. He was still shaking by the time they walked out.
"I'm sorry," Belle breathed, once they were back outside. David leaned against the face brick wall, gulping in deep breaths.
"I can't do this," he whispered. "I can't figure out where she is… I don't know where to start… I don't…"
"David just calm down…"
"Calm down?" he turned on her, his eyes filling with rage. "She's gone! She disappeared into thin air and I have no idea where to find her. No idea! Everywhere I turn it's another dead end! Damn it!" he turned, slamming his fist into the wall. "Damn it!" he yelled, pulling his hand back sharply.
"It's going to work out," Belle breathed. Her heart was pounding. "Is your hand…?"
"It's fine," he snapped.
"It's… bleeding…" she flinched a little as the dark red drops fell from his fist, splattering against the concrete sidewalk. "We're going to find her," Belle said. "We are. Things always work out in the end…"
"For the heroes…" David said, his voice sounding dull.
Belle blinked in surprise. "What?"
"Things always work out for the heroes. But the villains…" David shook his head. "Regina told me once that it was only a matter of time before the universe figured out that a villain had gotten a happy ending and something terrible happened to her."
"That's ridiculous," Belle said.
"I thought so too. But think about how much shit she has gone through since the two of us got together. She has been in danger from the beginning…"
"And she would have been in danger regardless," Belle argued. "Her magic has put a target on her head. She's special. She was always going to be in danger once people found that out."
David's head dropped as he exhaled slowly. His shoulders slumped in defeat. "I kept promising and promising her that I would protect her," he said, his voice weak. "But I let George kidnap her. I let Frank break into our house and slit her throat… and now…" he pushed his uninjured hand through his hair, clutching his scalp. "I've failed her," he whispered.
"No," Belle stepped forward, grabbing his wrist. "Listen to me." She ducked down, catching his eye. "You only fail her when you give up, okay? And you're right. Villains don't get happy endings. But Regina saved this town. She is not a villain. Not anymore. So she is going to get her happy ending okay? You're going to make sure of it. And so will I."
…
"Knock, knock," Tamara sing-songed, poking her head in through the doorway. Her brow furrowed as she took in the single occupant of the room.
"Smith," she greeted him. "Where's Greg?"
The bespectacled scientist spared her a brief glance, before dropping his head back to the laptop in front of him. Jason Smith was known to be one of the more eccentric of their team of scientists, and since Regina's arrival he had pretty much spent every day camped out in the observation bay, pouring over the data they had collected from her. Usually Greg could be found in the same space, leaning against the observatory window, watching their newest subject like some sort of angry gargoyle. Tamara glanced around the room quizzically in search of him.
"I think he went to get something to eat," Smith shrugged, his attention still focused on his computer screen. "Finally. The man spends so much time in here… it's creepy."
"You should know," Tamara teased, walking deeper into the room. "You spend just as much time in here as he does."
Smith spared her a momentary glance. "I'm working," he said haughtily. "Which is more than I can say for him. All he does is stare."
"I know," Tamara muttered. Greg's obsession was starting to grate even her nerves. "So…" she turned back toward the scientist, eyeing out his laptop curiously. "What exactly makes her so damn special anyway?" she asked, sitting down on the chair beside him. Smith sighed, adjusting his glasses along his nose.
"Well, for starters, she creates her own magic."
"We've had cases like her before," she shrugged.
"Yes, but her magic is different. It's pure."
"Pure?" Tamara snorted, laughing. "Trust me, I know this one's past and it is anything but pure."
"That's not what I meant…" Smith rolled his eyes, looking exacerbated. "Take any other case of magic that works in a non-magical world… Magic beans, for instance, or that dragon fellow you killed in Hong Kong."
"You see," Tamara pointed a finger at Smith triumphantly. "He could do magic in our world. What makes the little queen so much better?"
"The dragon could do magic," Smith nodded his head. "But his abilities were restricted. He was an alchemist. He was able to enchant items, produce magically imbued potions… but that was it. His magic was powerful, but limited."
"He put on a pretty impressive smoke show before I put him down," Tamara grumbled.
"Anyway," Smith huffed. "My point is that any time we've seen magic that works in our world, it's only when it has a very specific purpose."
"But that isn't how magic works," Tamara scrunched her nose. "People who have magic use it in all sorts of ways."
"In Storybrooke, you mean?" Smith was smirking now. "That's because of the magic in the air in that town. Magic that was taken directly from their world. Multi-potential magic, pure magic, as it's dubbed in the old texts, is created as a part of the atmosphere of magical worlds. Magical people who live in those worlds have somehow adapted to be able to use that energy source. The fairies, Rumplestiltskin, Emma Swan… it all works the same for them. Regina Mills, on the other hand, is creating that same magic all on her own. Here, take a look." He reached for his mouse, opening a file on the computer in front of him. Tamara leaned over as he pointed between two graphs of haphazard lines. "You see?" he nodded his head, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Her magic has a different energy signature to the magic in Storybrooke, but the general properties of it are very similar. Now take a look at this," he opened another file. "This is the energy signature you collected from the dragon. Do you see the difference?"
Tamara nodded slowly, her eyes flicking between the images. The line on the dragon's graph was flatter, almost straight in places. Regina's line, in comparison, fluctuated wildly from one extreme to the other, running jaggedly all over the screen.
"I still don't know what the hell I'm looking at," she muttered.
"The SDA's greatest fear has always been the evolution of mages – that one day they would be able to use their gifts in our world, without the help of magical artefacts. And the dragon was proof of it. But he was just the start of the evolution… Regina is the end. He could use some magic in this world, but she can use all of it. Anything she was capable of doing in the Enchanted Forest, she can do here. It's incredible."
"All right, all right, stop gushing," Tamara waved her hand irritably. "You're like a school boy with a crush."
Smith frowned at her, shaking his head. "You still don't get it, do you? What we have here, it could change the world. Magic can do things that medicine can only dream of – cure cancer, HIV, Parkinson's… you name it. We could win the Nobel prize for this!"
"That's not what they're going to use her for," Tamara said, shrugging her shoulders. She glanced through the glass window into Regina's room, feeling a strange, unwanted prickle of sympathy as she stared at the small, unconscious form in the hospital bed. "The only reason the SDA is investigating magic is to find more effective ways to destroy it and the people who can use it. She's never going to be anyone's miracle cure, Smith. I mean look at her – she can't even save herself."
"Don't… Don't talk about her like that."
"Like what?"
"She's not a victim, Tamara. She's a subject. She doesn't need saving from anything. We're not the bad guys here, remember?"
"Right," Tamara nodded her head quickly. "You're right. We're the good guys," she smiled at him, pushing aside the twinge of unease that still lingered within her. "We're keeping the world safe," she said. The words helped, filling her with conviction. She had seen what happened when powerful magic fell into the wrong hands and Regina Mills was the worst combination of both those factors.
She's the enemy, Tamara, she told herself, staring across at her once more. Don't forget it.
"They're going to wake her up," Smith continued, oblivious to her thoughts.
"What?" Tamara jerked, her eyes widening.
"Hansen told me this morning. From what we understand, she shouldn't be able to use her magic effectively so long as we keep her sedated. She needs to be fully conscious in order to cast. We're still trying to find a more effective way to contain her abilities so that we can study her properly… Last I heard they were thinking of finding a way to use the ink we got from Neverland, but that seems a little risky…"
"You're waking her up?" Tamara shook her head dumbly. "Why would you wake her up? She could rip through this place in seconds if she's not contained…"
"We don't know that," Smith shrugged, annoyingly calm. "In order to understand what she is and how she uses that magic of hers, we're going to have to test her while she's conscious."
"You want to see her use it, don't you?" Tamara asked, feeling sick. "Her magic."
"Of course," Smith's eyes were bright. "Can't you imagine…?"
"I can imagine us all dead. Ripped apart and left in pools of our own blood. You haven't been in the field Smith, you don't understand… You don't want to see magic. Ever."
"Relax there agent," Smith rolled his eyes. "We know what we're doing." He glanced over the top of his laptop, smiling fondly through the window at Regina's sleeping form. "And I can't wait to get started."
A/N: Sorry Regina wasn't in this one. But she's waking up in the next one guys. And that next chapter is already finished. So let me know when you want it;)
