Two days after Robin and Regina hatched the beginnings of their plan to defeat the demon in Cora, they were taking a walk around campus hand in hand, discussing the details of what they wanted to accomplish.
"Robin, I really don't know if this plan is going to work. My mother's like a leech, she just keeps attacking us until there's nothing left- what if she wins? I can't lose you." Regina fretted, gripping his hands tighter than usual to emphasize her point.
"It will," Robin reassured her. "You want to be with me and free your mother, right?"
She nodded, taking a long, drawn-out breath to calm her nerves. "More than anything."
"Then you need to trust me- we will get through this like we get through everything: together."
And as Robin's arms came around her and he started kissing her, Regina's doubts gradually faded into obscurity as she remembered the strength of the love they shared and the God they believed in.
Robin and Regina's plan was put into motion that weekend, once they had had time to fill everyone in.
Regina knew the plan had begun once she heard the doorbell ring on Saturday. She rushed to the top of the steps as Cora answered the door to find Robin, Alice, Archie, Belle, Mulan, Merida, Emma, Killian, Will, and Graham standing outside.
Regina asked them, "Where's everyone else?"
"They all said they had homework to do," Emma called up to her. "I'm not entirely sure I believe them though." Emma prided herself on being able to tell when someone was lying, although Regina had days when she wasn't sure if she trusted that gift or not.
Sneering, Cora turned to her daughter. "What is this, an ambush? Did you really think you could invite all of your friends here to fight against me? Well, I have some friends of my own."
Behind her, Regina heard Nottingham ask, "Are we too late, Madam Mayor?" Regina gasped as she recognized Peter, Gold, Zelena, and Sandy standing behind him.
"No," Cora responded, a sinister smile appearing on her face. "You're right on time."
With that, she, Nottingham, and the people that Regina had once considered her friends transformed into their demonic forms, while Regina, Robin and their friends immediately assumed their armor. After that, the battle began in earnest.
Of course, Cora and Nottingham each immediately headed for Regina and Robin, respectively. As she battled her mother, Regina tried to keep tabs on what was happening to the rest of her friends.
It was an uneven battle, as there were less villains than heroes, but that didn't keep them from making their presence felt. Cora and Nottingham, in particular, were the strongest of the demons, likely because they had had a demon inside them the longest. Regina needed the help of both Belle and Mulan to ward her off. Even then, it seemed that no matter what they did, Cora maintained the upper hand.
As she glanced over at Robin, she noticed that he was faring no better with Nottingham. Will and Graham were fighting the demon with everything they had, but the strength of the demon in Nottingham, enhanced by the ancestral nature of its habitation, was helping him gradually beat down his attackers.
We have to figure out a way to defeat them once and for all, Regina thought desperately. But how?
She glanced frantically around her, trying to think of anything in her house that could aid them in their efforts. No physical weapon would be of use against them. She looked down at the sword that was normally her Bible, and as if God had spoken directly to her, a verse came to mind: Of these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Simply wishing that her mother's demon would leave her and never bother them again, and hoping that wish would come true, would not help Regina and her friends defeat the demons around them. While trusting God would certainly help them in their efforts to defeat the demons surrounding them and everything else they wanted to accomplish in life, ultimately their faith was not an action they could take that would end the demons' control of their friends, and in Regina's and Robin's cases, their family. Only by loving them would they be able to dispel the darkness consuming the people currently fighting them.
But how to do that? One of Regina's favorite authors said that love isn't how you feel, it's what you do. But what could they do to show their love for the people they needed to rescue? She didn't know, but she needed to figure it out quickly, before the demons destroyed their hosts from the inside out.
As she blocked another blow from her mother, Regina glanced down at her sword, which shone with the words greater love has no one than this: that he lay down his life for his friends.
In a flash of understanding, she knew what she had to do. She stepped in front of Belle and Mulan, holding her arms out to shield them from her mother. "Mother, don't harm them- any of them," she implored. "Call off your allies- your quarrel is with me."
"So be it," Cora hissed. With those words, she turned and stalked toward Regina. Instead of looking her in the eye, Regina initially kept her gaze locked on Robin's face. He was looking at her with eyes full of love, the same love that she hoped that she would be able to show her mother, and by extension, the rest of the demons, most of whom still had her friends somewhere inside them. There was also a small amount of concern- for her safety, she knew- but ultimately, she knew that he trusted that her actions had a valid reason behind them.
She nodded to him gratefully, then refocused her attention on her mother. Slowly, she walked toward her, trying to catch a glimpse of her mother behind the demon's features. Their height was the same, and she could spot a hint of the same brown eyes that she inherited from her mother within the eyes of the demon that currently possessed her.
As she came to these realizations, her hand grew warm and started to glow, flames licking her fingers. In any other circumstances, this would have made her terrified, but somehow she instinctively knew that these flames were a product of her love for her mother, so she thought of additional things she loved about her.
With each new character trait that she added to the list, the flame in her hand grew warmer, brighter, and larger, until she didn't understand how she was holding a fireball (there was no other word for it) so large, only that she was, and she knew that given the source, her safety was guaranteed.
Her attention was suddenly drawn to Cora as she screamed, "What is this?!"
"Love," Regina responded, a smile on her face as she instinctively threw the fireball at her mother.
As the fireball hit, a shadow flew out of her mother and all of the demons that had chosen the members of ANC as hosts departed from them as well. The bodies of her mother and friends collapsed, and she looked toward Robin and the others in the silence that followed.
"Is it over?" she asked as Robin started walking toward her.
"Not just yet- or have you forgotten me?" Nottingham asked imperiously. Apparently the fireball had had no affect on him, unlike the others.
Robin turned toward his cousin. "Leave, now. We've dealt with enough today. Surely even you have enough compassion to leave us alone for now."
His relative stood, walking toward the door. "As you wish. But mark my words, this won't be the last you hear from me."
"I don't doubt it," Robin muttered as the front door opened and slammed shut behind Nottingham.
"So what do we do now?" Regina asked, pulling Robin into an embrace.
He smiled down at her, kissing the top of her head. "Celebrate, of course!"
And they did. They would have the days, weeks and months ahead to worry about Nottingham, but for now, Regina's mother was free, and that was a blessing they would savor for the rest of their lives, because it meant that they could finally be together. And as far as Regina was concerned, that was the greatest gift of all.
The Bible verses used in this chapter are 1 Corinthians 13:13 and John 15:13. The quote is by Madeleine L'Engle, from her book A Wind in the Door. Hope you enjoyed this, and let me know what you think!