Day 3 of OQRealmsWeek. How I would have had Neverland wrapped up, instead of the drawn-out mess we got on the show. I also really hated Pan. Hehe.
Regina held the rough blanket tighter around her as she tried to block out the sounds of the jungle. She couldn't remember the last time she'd had to sleep outside and what made it worse was the fact that she was meters away from the people she had loathed not so long ago.
Snow White was almost within touching distance as she snuggled up with her Prince Charming. It was enough to make anyone gag. Then there was Emma, the woman just didn't stop moving, she was tossing and turning and it was driving Regina crazy.
She had her back to them as she had made up her little bed on the outskirts of the camp. It was cold and damp and she would give her right arm to be in her lovely warm bed back in Storybrooke. No such luck though, Henry had got into trouble once again and of course, she had insisted upon finding him, unfortunately, that meant going along with the Charmings and trying to put their differences aside. Boy was it hard. Especially when they were so infernally dumb, Snow in particular never lost the ability to drive Regina insane. Her daughter wasn't much better, though arguably was the best of a bad, completely annoying, bunch.
She'd almost forgotten about the one-handed pirate who thought a hook made him look cool and wore guyliner for god knows what reason. He was a sorry excuse for a villain, to be quite honest she couldn't recall a single villainess thing he had ever done, except for maybe going into partnership with her mother. Even then Cora has been in charge, he was more like a little sidekick. Now here they both were past villains working with heroes on a rescue mission.
Regina was tired, but she couldn't sleep, she had been trying to for the past hour and it just wasn't working, she couldn't sleep whilst that silly little child in tights had her son held captive. Who did Pan even think he was? He'd messed with the wrong mother that was for sure and that wasn't even taking into the fact that Emma was also Henry's mother. She knew that neither one of them would stop until they had their boy back safe and sound.
Ugh, when had she started referring to Henry as their boy? It was progression and she didn't like it. She was so used to having him all to herself that Emma being here and wanting to be in his life was still such a strange concept. So she'd tried many things to get rid of the woman at first, but she was slowly warming to the idea that maybe Henry could have two mothers. It didn't mean he loved her less, she hoped the boy had enough love for the both of them.
After a few more minutes on the floor, she sat up and looked around the camp, the flames of the fire were beginning to die down and she could see Captain Guyliner himself sat by it beginning to doze off, so much for keeping watch, she thought to herself and she stood from the ground as elegantly as she possibly could.
Taking her blanket with her she headed over to him, "swap roles."
"I don't know about that."
"You're nearly falling asleep in the fire. We can't trust you to watch over us."
"And we can trust you? You'd probably slit everyone's throats as they slept."
"Don't tempt me guyliner," she hissed as she picked up some twigs and tossed them onto the fire. "Now, go get some sleep and I promise I'll leave the killing until you have a chance to defend yourself. Killing you in your sleep is too easy," Regina smirked, watching the pirate roll his eyes as he stood from the log.
"Maybe just for a bit," he stated with a yawn as he stretched his arms out before heading toward the place, he'd made his bed. "Don't forget to watch the trees, Pan tends to like creeping up on you when you least expect it."
"I'm not an amateur, don't think I'll be letting that shadow-less flying creep anywhere near this camp," she huffed, watching as he rolled his eyes at her. She took a deep breath, noticing how close the pirate laid his bedroll next to Emma's, god he really was desperate, if the blonde had any self-respect, she wouldn't go anywhere near the lice-infested Captain. The other woman shuffled further away from him and Regina had to hold her little snicker at bay.
The forest was dark, the only light was coming from the small campfire and the moon, even that seemed to be in hiding, covered by a layer of dark clouds which tried to block its light. It reminded her of when she was younger and afraid if the dark, for just one chilling moment she was back in that place. A little girl all alone in her bedroom, lying in the dark, unable to sleep and scared of the never-ending darkness. That was long before that same darkness seeped into her being and corrupted her.
She had been corrupted, she hadn't become that way off her own back and although she knew it was cowardly to blame someone else for her own mistakes, her mother certainly had much to do with the path she had taken. If not for her mother's dark magic, Regina just knew that she wouldn't have succumbed to the blackness herself. She would never have become a villain had her mother not pushed her towards it.
For such a long time she had blamed Snow, she now knew that the blame had been laid in the wrong place. She had blamed who she had wanted to, she wanted to blame Snow. Her mother had her so corrupted that she hadn't seen any other alternative.
A snap of a twig from the forest brought her out of her deep thought and her head shot up towards the trees. Something or someone was there, probably watching them and now she was on high alert. Her hand sparked up, a fireball forming within her palm. She wasn't entirely sure whereabouts it came from, but there was no way they were getting past her. It seemed that none of the others had been started by the noise, but she wasn't just going to leave it unchecked.
She walked towards the perimeter, peering into the darkness of the trees, suddenly a shadowy figure caught her eye as they darted behind a tree. "Show yourself," she breathed, not wanting to wake the rest of the group, even if maybe she should have done. Deep down she acknowledged that she would probably have been safer with the rest of them by her side.
"I mean no harm milady," the figure spoke, emerging from the darkness, his hood still raised, hiding his features. His voice was soft and she deducted an accent of some sort, but he certainly wasn't from Netherland, that left her with the question of who was he and how the hell did he get onto the island.
"Who are you? Lower your hood," she ordered, taking a step further into the darkness, the fire in her palm not wavering as she mover closer towards him.
"Robin Hood, at your service," he quipped, lowering the hood, allowing her to see his face properly.
Regina swallowed heavily as she looked at him, she'd heard of the name Robin Hood and had even seen his wanted posters plastered throughout her kingdom. Though she hadn't been prepared for how unflattering those posters had been, they certainly didn't do him any justice. She felt an instant attraction, something she hadn't experienced in a long time, so long that it actually felt foreign to her. "At my service?"
"You're with the party looking for the boy are you not?"
"Indeed, what do you know of that?" she asked, narrowing her eyes at him as she looked him up and down, turning up her nose at him. She had to do something to disguise what she was feeling and she felt that pretending to be disgusted would probably do the trick.
"We received news that help was needed. Who better to help you steal something back than a thief?"
"That something you just mentioned is my son," she huffed, "how exactly are you going to help us get him back?"
"Well, for one I know exactly where Pan's camp is, I also know how to sneak inside without being detected. As you're probably already aware milady, I am skilled when it comes to petty thievery. Or larger thievery," he grinned.
She felt her stomach do a little twist, his smile was beautiful and now he even had pretty dimples pressed into his cheeks. Regina knew that she needed to stop getting distracted, it was imperative that she focused on what was going on. "Do you really think you can help to rescue Henry?"
"Yes, I'm sure that I can be of some help. The cloak of darkness will help us with our task, Pan won't be expecting you to find him so soon, so we also have the element of surprise on our side."
"I suppose that is true. What do you suppose we do now, should we wake the other or…"
"I don't think that's necessary. I've been watching the lot of you since you docked and trust me, they'd only hinder us in our task. You seem to be the most sensible of the bunch, also maybe we could wake them with the good news once we return."
"Who will guard the camp whilst we're gone?" Regina asked warily, sure they were annoying at times, but she didn't want anything to happen to them in her absence, not when she had taken the duty to sit on guard.
"Can you not cast a protection spell?" he suggested.
She offered a curt nod, yes, she could do that, it would drain some of her magic though and she did risk waking them up as she cast it. She wasn't sure about it, it could all be a trap, set to lure her away from the safety of the group. Safety in numbers as they said, which probably meant not going off alone with this stranger despite what her ego was telling her to do. "How do I know I can trust you?"
He bit down on his bottom lip, before producing a dagger from his belt, she took a step backwards at the gesture, seeing the blade her immediate thought was that she was in danger. However, instead of raising it against her, he pulled the sharp blade of the metal against his palm, making a long incision and cutting the skin before raising his hand to her.
"You want us to make a blood oath?" she asked in shock, that would mean binding themselves together, it was a way to swear allegiance to someone, in the most powerful way. Should he break the oath his life would be forfeit. Why would he go out of his way to be so committed to her? She didn't really understand it. "Why would you want to do that? Why would you risk that for me?"
"I want to show you just how honest I am, can you perform the ritual?"
"Yes but…"
"Do it and then we'll go save your boy and you can go home."
Regina nodded, using her magic to open up a wound on her hand before pressing her palm against his hand, their blood dripping and mingling together, sending a powerful warming sensation through her veins, different from any blood oaths she had ever performed, not that there had been many. Her eyes widened as she watched their joint hands glow bright white, her magic boosted, thrumming through her veins.
She saw Robin hadn't been expecting it either, and as much as she wanted to pull away from the foreign feeling, she found herself moving closer to him. The blood oath should be over, it only took a moment and yet she couldn't draw her hand away from his and seemingly he was struggling in the same way.
"What's going on?" he asked, his voice deep as he stared into her eyes.
"I have no idea," she whispered, the light began to spread, moving out from their hands until their entire bodies were glowing bright with strong, powerful magic, different to any she had ever felt. It was light magic, good magic, purging the darkness within her and altering its structure, finding a way to change the molecular build of her powers. It was many minutes before she was able to draw the strength to move away, her composure though was gone. "Let's go save my son."
Robin led the way and she knew that in that one moment her whole life had changed forever.
As promised Robin found a way into the camp, with the help of some magical friends they placed a sleeping spell on the lost boys, Pan included and were able to get to Henry. With the help of his storybook, Regina had made sure that he would be immune to the power of the curse, meaning that he was the only one left awake. He magic seemed much stronger now following the blood oath. "Henry? Henry, where are you?!"
"Mom! In here! Help me! Mom!"
"I'm here, don't worry, it's all going to be okay," she breathed, hurrying over to a cage-like structure hanging from some trees. Her eyes widened as she looked up at him before raising her hands and using her magic to slowly bring the cage down to the ground, revealing a rather scared boy cowering inside. "Henry!"
"Mom!" he hurried to the front of the cage, his hands holding to the bars, "you came for me."
"Of course, I did! I love you so much, do you really think I would let someone harm you?" she asked, blasting the lock with her powers, allowing the door to spring open, along with it her son launched himself at her, wrapping his arms tightly around her. "Everything is going to be fine now, I promise."
"Regina, we need to get out of here before they wake up."
Regina turned to look at the source of the voice, seeing Robin stood waiting for them. She rose an eyebrow at him for interrupting her reunion with her son, but she knew that he had a point, the sooner they were out of there the better. "Mom, who is that?" Henry whispered.
"That is Robin Hood."
"What?! The Robin Hood?"
"Hmm," she nodded.
"So cool!" he grinned, leaving her embrace and hurrying over to Robin, bombarding him with question after question which the man answered in turn, glancing over at her as he laughed at her over-eager son.
"There's something I need to do before we leave," she stated, "would you mind taking Henry back to the camp and making sure that everyone heads back to the boat?"
"Sure, will you be okay on your own?" Robin asked cautiously.
"Yes, I'll just be a moment."
"Are you going to do something evil again mom?" Henry asked, glaring at her in disapproval.
"No, not inherently anyway," she shook her head. She simply planned on making sure that Pan could never cause them problems again.
"Do you promise? Mom, you have to swear please," Henry begged, moving over to her and grabbing her hands, "you can't be evil anymore, you just can't."
"You know I'm trying Henry. I really am, I want to be a good person," Regina sighed, "I promise that I will not harm anyone."
"You sure?"
"Yes, certainly."
"Okay." He nodded, "but if you lie to me again, I'll be staying with Emma forever."
"Does that mean you intend to come back home?" Regina asked, her eyes widening. He'd been living with Emma ever since the first curse had broken. The blonde woman had enforced the rule that he was to stay with her, they hadn't trusted Regina to take care of her own son which was absurd. She loved Henry more than anything and she couldn't for the life of her understand what they thought she might have done to hurt him. She would rather die than let anything harm her child.
Once they were gone she stormed her way through the camp looking for a certain black box, it didn't take her too long to find it and once she did, she stalked towards the person she was going to use it on. She tied him up before waking him from the sleeping spell, "you."
"What have you done?!" Pan screamed, looking around and clearly panicking when he realised that he was tied up and his magic diminished.
"I have taken my son back. Now I plan to deal with you. This little box is the answer to my problems," she quipped, playing with the metal cube in her hands, "I think I'll simply trap you inside her for a while and maybe then you'll stop being such a misfit."
"I'm a villain."
"You're barely a teenager, I don't think we can class you as a Villain, simply a delinquent," she tutted, "now, any last words before I open this up?"
"You bitch! You're going to regret this! I will have my revenge, I will…"
"Bye," she smiled viciously as she pressed the red section on the top of the box, sucking Pan inside, trapping him within. She slipped it into her pocket and wandered through the camp, allowing the rest of the lost boys to wake up slowly as she hurried through the woods heading to the port.
The sun was just beginning to rise as she emerged through the trees, the rest of her group, mainly the Charming's were practically yelling at her. Hurrying across the beach towards her, "where the hell have you been?!"
"What were you doing? Regina!"
"Where's Pan, did you kill him?"
She ignored them, walking straight past them over to the man who was simply standing near the lapping waves, looking out to the sea. She placed her hand on his shoulder, making him turn around.
"Hey, you're back, are you okay?" he asked, his eyes meeting hers.
Regina smiled back at him, her hand slipping from his shoulder to the lapels of his jacket as she pulled him close, pressing her lips against him. She worried for a moment that he wouldn't reciprocate the embrace, but was surprised when his arms wrapped around her, his lips moving against hers. She hummed before pulling back, her hand going to his cheek, her thumb brushing over his lips.
"I'm not complaining, but what was that for?" he questioned, a grin pulling onto his face as he looked at her, his fingers still stroking her lower back.
"Call it a thank you if you will," she smirked, her bottom lip moving between her teeth as she chuckled at him. "Thank you, for helping me rescue my son."
"You're welcome. What about Pan?"
"I got a little creative," she shrugged, pulling out the little box, "I don't think he will be causing us too much trouble in the future. What are you going to do now?" she asked. She knew that everyone was staring at them, with Emma trying to corral them all onto the ship. Glancing over to where her son was already on the Pirate's ship, standing with another little boy who was playing with acorns. "Whose child is that?"
"He's my son," Robin smiled, "Roland."
"He's very cute."
"As for what we're going to do now. I wonder if there might be room for us somewhere in Storybrooke. There isn't much left to go back to in the Enchanted Forest."
"I'm sure that the mayor will be able to find you somewhere to stay. Or I would have been able to if Snow wasn't trying to snatch my job," she chuckled.
"Well then, I think me and my men will have to come along for the ride."
"Hmm, I think it sounds like a plan," she smiled softly. She didn't know what this feeling was, but after the blood oath, she sure as hell wasn't going to let it pass her by without figuring it out. She just hoped that they could all find a way to be happy together in Storybrooke.
