Chapter 15

Ruby and David had joined us on our mission to find my missing nephew, Ruby proving herself especially useful given the fact that she was a werewolf, which was a fact that I had only learned 15 minutes ago, much to my personal chagrin. She eventually led us to an old mine shaft, which we had clambered down into, despite the way the old wood creaked ominously under our feet and the musty smell of dust in the air.

"Henry!" David called out, echoed by Emma and I as we walked further in. Ruby turned a corner.

"Oh, down here." She called over her shoulder, picking up her pace as she inhaled deeply. "He was in here."

"Why would an eleven year old kid run away to the mines?" Neal asked bewildered.

"Wouldn't be the first time." Emma sighed, swinging her flashlight around in front of her. David spoke up, rushing towards a large divot in the wall.

"I think I know what he was looking for." A long red box sat in the center of the hole in the wall, warning labels plastered on every side of it. "The dynamite the Dwarves used for blasting."

"What the hell would he want dynamite for?" Emma asked, ignoring me as I muttered under my breath.

"And why was he able to access the dynamite so easily?" A look of realization came over Neal's face once again, and he closed his eyes in horror.

"To get rid of Magic." He whispered, unable to see the shocked looks that the three other people with us were shooting at him. Emma was the first to recover.

"Wait. What?"

"At the diner," Neal responded, rubbing a hand over his face. "he said someone should get rid of Magic."

"And you encouraged him." I shot back at him, still irritated at his remarks. He gave me a displeased look in response.

"So he's gonna blow it up?" Ruby asked, glancing around at the group in question. Neal looked to David.

"Where would he even go to do that?" He questioned, a look of understanding coming over Emma's face before she turned on her heel and began running out of the mine shaft. I groaned as the rest of the group hurried to follow her, and resigned myself to the fact that I might be running after my family forever, before breaking into a jog after them.


We ended up in the woods, running towards a well of some kinda where I could see my mother and my nephew standing together. Emma pushed forwards towards them, calling out to Regina.

"Hey, Regina! Get away from my son!" Slightly out of breath, and a few steps behind her, I responded.

"Technically, Emma, he's her son too." David glanced at me disapprovingly, but I just shrugged. Its true, even if they don't want to admit it. I thought to myself as Regina turned towards the approaching group. My adoptive mother was just as much my mom as Regina is.

"He's not yours." My mother called out, her eyes meeting mine briefly before darting away. "He's mine. And after I cast this, you'll never see him again."

"No one ever tells me what's going on." I grumbled to myself, utterly lost on what exactly was going on, and in no mood to puzzle it out.

"That's never going to happen." David exclaimed, not hearing or caring about my comprehension of the situation. I scoffed, leaning against a tree as I watched the drama unfold.

"You wanna kill Mary-Margaret, you're going to have to go through us." I tensed at Emma's words, shadows gathering at my back as I contemplated shadow walking over to Regina, grabbing her, and getting us out of here to avoid any further confrontation. Regina, for her part, simply rolled her shoulders back, a fire ball forming quickly in her hand.

"Okay." She smirked, watching as David pulled his gun out and aimed it towards her. I moved then, darting in front of his gun, Henry doing the same at my back. David stared me down, his forefinger tapping the trigger as Neal tried to pull him away, Emma doing the same with far more success to Neal.

"Stop!" Henry yelled from behind me.

"Henry, Val, get out of the way!" Neal yelled, allowing Emma to pull him away from David. I wasn't concerned about myself, I was still wearing my Ghastly designed clothing, so unless David was willing to shoot me in the face or neck, I was probably going to be alright. Behind me, Henry continued yelling, enraging me with the words that came out of his mouth.

"Not until someone helps me destroy Magic!" he exclaimed.

Regina, being the most reasonable person besides me in attendance, answered. "There's no way to get rid of it. You can't just blow it up."

"Magic isn't the problem, kid." Emma tacked on, my admiration for her growing slightly. "It's her." And suddenly that admiration was gone again as the blonde woman reached her hand out for Henry.

"It's not just her." Henry responded, his voice growing more and more upset. "It's everyone. Look what Magic did to Mary-Margaret." I glanced over my shoulder to see Henry turning towards Regina. "Look at what it did to you. It's ruining everything. It makes good people do terrible things." Emma crouched, still reaching out to Henry.

"And bad people." She reminded him, ignoring the way my fists clenched at her implication. Henry glanced at her, before turning and walking towards Regina. She glanced down at him, fire still flickering in her hand.

"Please." He pleaded, looking desperately up at her. "It's gonna destroy my family. Help me get rid of it."

Regina look sorrowfully down at him. "I can't do that, Henry." I breathed out, thankful that she understood. "But there is something I can do." I spun around at her words, surprised by her change of tone. She pulled out a small scroll, holding it over her fiery hand. Henry back away a step as I moved a step forwards, watching as she dropped the scroll into the fire, the old parchment disintegrating in seconds. Regina closed her palm, extinguishing the flames.

"Thank you." Henry whispered, the gun at my back disappearing as David flipped on the safety with a soft click and lowered it. Henry turned away from Regina, meeting my eye momentarily, before bypassing me entirely to join Emma. I walked forwards, concerned at the look on my mother's face as she watched her other child walk off with them, Neal lingering behind for a few moments. He glanced between the two of us before focusing on me.

"You gonna be alright Val?" He asked, and I nodded towards him. He glanced around, toeing the dirt. "Alright. Let's catch up later, ok? Breakfast tomorrow at Granny's? On me." he coughed out nervously. I sent him a tight smile.

"Sure Neal. I'll see you then." I turned back to my mother, bringing my arms up to embrace her as Neal's footsteps crunched away behind me. She gripped me back tightly.

"You shouldn't have gotten in front of the gun." She whispered into my hair, squeezing me tightly. "You could have gotten hurt." I snorted, pulling back slightly to look at her.

"Indestructible clothing, remember." I grinned up at her, trying to get her to smile. Instead, Regina pursed her lips in concern.

"That doesn't make you indestructible darling." She whispered, pulling me back into a hug. "I can't lose you." Not both of you, was left unsaid.


Several hours later we were home again, Regina having decided to try to teach me how to make apple turnovers, despite my insistence that I was prone to burning anything I tried to bake. A knock at the door interrupted our light hearted discussion on the merits of baking with magical help, and Regina frowned slightly, pulling off her apron to go see who it was.

After several moments, I heard a pain filled groan, and I rushed to the door. Regina's back was to me, and I could see Mary-Margaret in front of her, bent over in pain on the front stoop. I came to a stop a few feet behind them, watching as Regina held something that glowed red in her hand.

"Huh." Regina gasped, remarkably calm. Mary-Margaret, having not noticed me yet, reached a shaking hand up to her chest.

"What?" she panted out, tears tracking down her cheeks. My mother turned the thing in her hands towards the other woman, pointing at something on it.

"Do you see that?" She asked softly, Mary-Margaret's face contorting in horror as she did.

"What did you do to it?"

"Oh, I didn't do that." Regina said, shaking her head slightly. "You did it." Mary-Margaret looked disbelievingly up at Regina, eyes catching mine for a second. "You darkened yourself."

Mary-Margaret's face crumpled. "No. No." She half pleaded, tears coming down faster. "No!"

"Yes." Regina said quietly. "And once you blacken your heart, it only grows darker and darker." I reached up to my chest, aware of how dark my heart would likely be by this point, at least according to my mother's own logic. Dread pooled in my stomach. "Trust me, I know."

"So crush it." Mary-Margaret hissed out, surprising me. Snow White wants to die? Interesting. "Do it. Crush it. Get it over with."

"And put you out of your misery?" Regina exclaimed, shaking her head. "I don't need to destroy you. You're doing it to yourself." Mary-Margaret started to hyperventilate as Regina continued on. "And along the way, you'll bring down that perfect little family that you fought so hard to reunited." She paused for a moment. "And then Henry will be mine."

"Please." Mary-Margaret begged tearfully. "Kill me. Please, just kill me." She sobbed out.

"You see," Regina said victoriously. "I can have everything." She thrust the heart back into Mary-Margaret's chest, gleefully watching her face contort in agony. Regina leaned in, whispering, "Thanks to you." in a voice so low that I could barely hear it. As I backed away towards the kitchen, I heard Regina speaking one last time. "Now get off my porch." The door slammed after her.

She turned, stopping short when she saw me in the doorway to the kitchen. We stared each other down for a moment before I nodded at her, a smile growing in the corner of my mouth. "I think the turnovers might be about to burn." She half smiled back, wiping a few errant tears away, and making her way over to me.

"Let's go rescue them then, shall we?"

As we walked towards the kitchen, I realized two very important things. Firstly, I really didn't care what my mother had done, was doing, or had planned to do in the future, no matter how evil the act might be, because I was selfish. The fact that Regina wanted to love me, wanted to be in my life at all was enough for me.

And, secondly, if I was going to embrace my mother, evil tendencies and all, then I probably needed to do the same for my father. Dead grandmother or no.