Chapter 12

Two funerals in the first week of me being here did not bode well for the rest of my time in Storybrooke. Cora's funeral, I will say, was far more sparsely populated, with just Regina, me, and a rather nervous priest in attendance.

I hadn't seen anyone else in nearly a week. No-one that I had been with at my father's shop had bothered to get my number, and I'd been secluding myself away with my mom as she processed her grief over her mother. If nothing else, the time alone had finally given us a chance to talk, really talk about where I'd been after I'd been stolen away.

It hadn't seemed wise to tell her everything, (explaining how I'd been tortured when I was 12 somehow didn't seem like a great way to endear my world to her), but I had explained enough about Mages, Skulduggery, and the War for her to understand why I was the way I was. A demonstration of my powers had fascinated her, even more so when I had explained that no one was really sure why they had developed the way they had after my Surge, and why I was able to use limited necromancy. Darquesse, I had decided, was a conversation for another day.

Unfortunately, as my jetlag had faded away, my nightmares had returned with a vengeance, and Regina had been the one to shake me awake several times this week, face drawn and hands trembling. She never tried to ask what they were about, but she always made sure to usher me downstairs to the kitchen where she could make hot chocolate for the two of us in comforting silence.

One of those comforting hands now rested on Cora's gold toned coffin, a rose clutched in her other. Another rose, my rose, had already been placed atop the shining surface. We were standing in the family crypt, a wall of candles standing at Regina's back as tears tracked down her face. I stood to her right, not sure if I even had the right to be upset that Cora was gone, given the fact that I barely knew her, and I had (unknowingly) played an part in her death. My hand rested on my mother's back nonetheless, trying to comfort her in any way I could.

The sound of a limping gait began to echo towards us, and I looked past Regina, towards the entrance, to meet the empty gaze of my father. I opened my mouth to say something, but he beat me to it.

"Black always was your color." He said softly, my mother tensing under my hand as she turned towards him.

"I'm here to bury my mother." She replied, in a cold voice. "So if you've come to gloat-"

"I came…" Mr. Gold started, his gaze darting to me momentarily, before he looked back at my mother, pulling out a rose from behind his back. "to pay my respects." He placed the rose next to my mother and I's roses, and it took everything in me not to childishly knock it away. "We had our differences, but Cora will always have a place in my heart." I scrunched my nose up at that, the implication of my father and grandmother's previous relationship already echoing in my head after the parting words they shared while he was dying. I hadn't shared that with my mother either, not really knowing what their relationship was like when I was born and thus not wanting to cause unneeded hurt or drama.

"You killed her to save your own life." Regina scoffed, barely reacting when my hand moved down from her back to grasp her hand. She simply squeezed back as she stared down Gold.

"Sadly, desperate times call for desperate measures."

"Like getting Mary-Margaret to trick me into killing my own mother?" She asked, tears still running down her face. "You may be able to hide behind your dagger, but she can't. She's going to die for what she did." My eyes shut at this, unwilling to face the idea that my mother would be killing another person, my step sister technically, in short order. When my eyes opened again, Mr. Gold was staring right at me, a knowing look in his gaze.

"Oh, come on." He scoffed, eyes still on me as he moved closer to Regina. "We both know killing her will cost you the things you want most-" Regina shifted to block me more from him as he stepped into her space. "-your children." She looked back at me, concern written on her face, and I raised my chin to meet her gaze head on.

"I'm not super jazzed at the idea of you murdering anyone." I said after a moment, shrugging. "But I can hardly blame you for wanting revenge after everything she's done. It's up to you, I'm not going anywhere." I finished, relaxing slightly as Regina gave me a soft look, squeezing my hand gently. My gaze shifted back to my father, and I noticed the flash of jealousy that passed over his face before a calm façade came back over his features.

"Fine then." He said tightly. "You'll be losing Henry." He turned back to Regina, his voice growing impassioned as he spoke. "Why don't you just give up this obsession with vengeance? You know it can never make you happy."

My mother stared down at the coffin for a moment before responding. "Yes, it will."

"You had a whole curse worth of vengeance, and what did it get you? A gaping hole in your heart."

She turned almost violently towards Gold. "That was your curse. And I got my daughter back." She squeezed my hand tightly, bordering on painfully, but I ignored it in favor of watching my father's face.

"Which we cast. Together." Gold said, ignoring her comment about me. "Still haven't learned your lesson, have you?"

"What lesson?" my mother asked.

"Same one your mother learned a long time ago." He answered, glancing towards the coffin. "You can't have everything. She wanted power, ripped out her own heart to get it." He pointed at Regina. "You want vengeance? Henry's the price you'll pay." A long pause stretched over the room. "Time to cut your losses."

My mother shook her head, a terrible smile splitting her face. "Never." She whispered, voice growing in volume as she went on. "I will have my son, and I will have my vengeance." She leaned towards him. "I will find a way to have everything." Gold stared at her as she turned back to the casket, before his eyes turned towards me.

Guilt and pain swirled in his gaze, but I couldn't bring myself to leave my mother in that moment, nor did I truly want to speak to him. So, I turned towards the casket as well, leaning my head against Regina's shoulder, and ignoring the swell of pain that came with his uneven footsteps shuffling away.


David and Mary-Margaret's apartment

Henry and Emma's discussion about Mary-Margaret, and the role she had played in Cora's death, was interrupted when David opened the door to a tired looking Mr. Gold.

"Get out." David exclaimed, even before Gold could say a word.

"I think you're going to wanna hear what I have to say…" Gold replied, looking off to where Mary-Margaret was lying. "for her sake."

"What are you talking about?" Emma asked, appearing behind David with Henry at her hip. Gold turned to her.

"Regina. She's planning to strike back against your mother." Henry scooted closer to his bio mother.

"What is she gonna do to her?" the young boy asked, Emma's hands coming to hold him back from moving towards Mr. Gold. His eyes drifted down to the boy and tried to ignore the features on him that mirrored both his son and daughter's.

"Oh, she didn't say." Gold started, hesitating. "But I suspect she might have help."

"No." David protested, ignoring the last part of Gold's statement. "You don't get to come in here and just drop a bomb like that. You're gonna figure this out. And you're going to help us."

"Help?" Henry cut in curiously. "From who? The dark haired lady at the docks?"

"And why should I?" Mr. Gold responded, ignoring the young boy. David raised his eyebrows.

"Because aside from us being family now," He started, "Mary-Margaret saved your life. You owe her a debt." Gold's eyes shifted towards the woman in question. "And you always pay your debts, don't you? You're going to help us stop Regina."

Mr. Gold's eyes finally moved back to David. "Fine." He nearly snarled, turning to leave before pausing to look back at Henry. "Oh and Henry? That dark haired woman is my daughter, Valkyrie, and if she chooses to help Regina in her vengeance, I believe that nothing in this land that would be able to stop them."