Chapter 8: The prophecy

"I'm only gonna ask this once." Emma said very firmly with her arms crossed on her chest. "What was that thing you gave to Regina?"

The woman, who was once posing as a nurse, sighed. The sheriff's station was the last place she thought she'd find herself in once her scheme was fulfilled.

"I told you, it's a magic serum. It was made by a man called Jekyll. That's all I know. Aren't you the magic expert? Figure it out."

"Did you know what was going to happen?"

"No! I mean, kind of."

"I need you to be a little more specific."

"Okay, okay! I wanted to bring back the Evil Queen... for everyone to see. It wasn't my intention to hurt the baby or whatever… but I did want to hurt her! She's not changed. She still an evil, cold-hearted bitch-"

"How dare you?" Snow interfered. Emma looked at her with much surprise, her mother was furious. "After everything what you did today? You don't feel a slight bit of remorse?"

"Really?" The woman grinned with irony. "So it's okay for her to have killed my husband on my wedding day, but I can't even call her a bitch? Tell me, where have your moral standards gone, princess? You and her used to hate each other."

"I swear, I'll-"

"Okay, enough." Emma put a hand in front of her mother, before she did something stupid, and then she dragged her out of the prisoner's range of hearing.

"Don't tell me you're going to defend her right now." Snow said with a high-pitched whisper.

"She has made a point, mom. And before you say anything - of course she shouldn't have done what she did, but we both know Regina has done far worse to many people, including us, in the past. We forgave her, but it seems like not everyone feels the same way. Regina knows how it is."

Snow looked at her daughter with pain in her eyes.

"She can't lose that baby. She just can't."

Emma finally realised why her mother is acting so strange. Of course that's why she was so worried. She was worriend the baby is dead. Emma shivered at that thought, because Regina was already on the edge. And then she remembered that an actual Evil Queen somehow broke out of her.

"Mom, she's just a simple woman with a sloppy revange plan. She's not gonna do anything else from here. All I'm saying is... she's nowhere as dangerous as Cora and the Evil Queen running around Storybrooke, god knows where."

"I couldn't agree more."

Emma and Snow both turned their heads around in shock. Regina was walking towards them.

"Regina! Oh my god! Are you okay?"

"Yeah." Regina smiled palely. "Just got back from the scan."

"And...?" Snow kept pushing.

"I'm... not pregnant." Regina chose her words carefully, but there was no other way to say this.

Both women froze. Her calm voice and posture were the only thing stopping Snow from collapsing.

"Oh, no. No, no,no. She's okay." Regina said quickly. "I mean my daughter, she's... fine."

"W-what?"

"The Evil Queen is carrying my child at the moment. I mean, it's the only explaiation." She smiled.

Snow and Emma looked at each other. Regina was in far worse state than they thought. Even if what she was saying was true, she lost the baby... again, and she was way too calm about it.

"Regina..."

"No, it's a good thing." Regina said, not sure who she's trying to convince. "When I started bleeding I could feel something's not right with the baby. And then I felt The Evil Queen's rage. She was just as scared as I was. Realising our daughter was in danger was the last straw that pushed her to split from me."

"So... you think she healed you?"

"She healed herself, yeah." Regina's voice was trembling slightly. "When she was emerging, I felt magic, the magic I didn't have. Besides, Whale said that not only he doesn't see any baby, it's like it never even have existed."

"I guess, that makes sense." Emma couldn't comprehend the idea yet, but then again... it was Storybrooke. And she certainly didn't want Regina to get upset. For her sake it was better to go with it. "There were two of you at the moment, but there's only one baby. The Queen is genetically your exact copy from the moment she detached from you. But it's still The Evil Queen… do you think it's safe with her?"

"With her - yes." Regina spoke without any doubt. "With Cora – absolutely not. And I'm not even sure they know yet. It took me a while to figure it out myself."

"Where's Robin?" Snow asked.

Regina looked at both of them for a couple of seconds.

"He's… um… with the kids. Can I talk to her?" She pointed at the station, but she didn't wait for the answer. She walked past them and into the office. Emma and Snow realised what she was doing and followed.

"Wait -"

Regina walked into the sheriff's station calmly.

"Regina?" Emma said.

"Relax, for god's sake." Regina responded, annoyed she still has to prove herself.

"You're here to kill me." The nurse stood up and took a few steps back until she found herself against the wall.

Regina stopped. She looked at the woman for a while and then slowly walked to the chair standing in front of the cell and sat in it. She looked very tired.

"I won't kill you. When will you finally listen to me?"

The nurse gulped. She was trying to put on a brave face, but she was shaking.

"I'm listening."

"Good." Regina rose her eyebrows, almost amused.

"W-why are you here?"

"I want to know what you want from me. Besides my death. What can I do to make up for killing your husband? Tell me."

The sincerity in Regina's voice was undeniable. It wasn't a game she was playing, and the woman finally saw that. It took her aback.

"I want my husband back, but you can't do that for me, can you?"

Regina smiled.

"The irony of the situation is that I've spent my whole life trying to do just that. Bring back my fiancee. Unfortunatelly it didn't work. So no, I can't do that."

The four of them didn't move. No one said anything for a while and then the woman behind bars finally asked a question.

"Is your baby okay?"

"I hope so." Regina responded evasively. She was annoyed by that question after all. "We're not talking about that."

The woman behind bars looked down and thought about something for a longer while.

"What about forgiveness?"

"What?" Regina was too deep into her thoughts to understand.

"You asked me what I want from you. I want forgiveness."

Regina felt something shift inside her. For the first time in her life what she perceived as a good deed, even against her old instincts, felt right. She wasn't quite sure what she expected from this conversation, but she was surprised something as simple as talking through it would make a difference.

"Sure." She said and stood up. "I'm not a sheriff, though, I will leave you in Emma's hands. But you have my word you don't have anything to fear from me."

And they were even. As simple as that.

"Okay then." Emma crossed her arms, not sure what to do with what she just heard. "We'll go by the book, anyway. She'll stay here and wait for a trial."

Regina nodded. And then the three of them left the room. The woman behind bars sat down on the bunk. A couple of minutes have passed and she suddenly felt like she's not alone in the room anymore.

"Pathetic."

She jumped.

"Who's there?!" The woman asked into the void. She knew that voice though. She was just talking to its owner a few moments ago.

First a cloud of purple smoke appeared. Then a dark figure emerged from it and stood in the middle of the station. In her shiny gown and with her hair tied up in a high bun, with a tiara on top of it. There was no doubt to who just paid her a visit.

"She's so blinded with the idea of doing good. It won't make her happy. It will only bring more suffering."

"You..."

The Evil Queen put up her hand. An invisible fist took a grip around the nurse's neck. The force pulled her up from the ground.

"You don't think Regina forgiving you is going to save you, do you?" The Queen growled through clenched teeth.

"P-please -" The woman was starting to choke.

"You made us split apart! It's your own fault you have to deal with me and I'm not so forgiving!"

"I'm - s-"

"You're sorry? I can't hear you?!" The Queen walked closer and clenched her fist tighter. The woman was kicking her feet, unable to make a sound.

"Oh, for heaven's sake!" Cora appeared out of nowhere and with a single wave of her hand she snapped the womans neck.

The Evil Queen didn't say a word. She just looked at the body and blinked.

"What?" Cora asked. "I was getting bored here. No need to lengthen a murder, dear. I tought you better."

Still not good enough, the Queen thought, even in murder.

"Stop following me, mother."

"Why? Where will you go? You know you can't go back to your little family. Not that it's your family, anyway." Cora walked to her.

"What are you even saying?"

"Didn't you realise it yet? They're planning on doing a witch hunt and we're the witches they're going to hunt."

"I can handle a bunch of fools."

"No, you can't. Not on your own. Not in your state."

Cora looked down at The Queen's belly and then touched it without asking, the Queen was too stunned to react or move back. Her mother smiled widly. The Evil Queen looked down at where she placed her hand. She opened her eyes widely, noticing the bulge around her waist, hidden under her corset.

"I didn't..." She was about to say she didn't know, but it wasn't true. It all just started coming back to her. She and Regina were still one person when the baby started dying inside them. She was always more powerful and... she was pissed. Why won't Regina do anything? When the two consciousnesses split, she did the only thing she knew would save the life she was carrying. She was too comsumed by rage to remember what happened after, but now it was clear.

"Now you get it." Cora smiled.

The Queen moved back. She suddenly felt very defensive. Her mother was a danger, but than again, who else has she got?

"It's fate that I found myself back among the living and now I chose to stay for you, my darling. We can be your family."

"You knew. When you told Regina you didn't know - you lied."

"This baby is truly the most powerful thing." Cora said. It wasn't an explicit answer, but it was enough. "You should be grateful how things turned out. Regina would only waste this potential. Think how much we can accomplish together. As a family. You want revange. You can finally get it all."

The Evil Queen still said nothing. Cora hugged her and she closed her eyes.

"Come with me, my darling. We have to get out of here. We have a lot to do."

They both disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

xxx

The meeting that took place in Granny's was pure chaos. The events of the last 24 hours alarmed the whole town. Not only did they lose Cora, they let the Evil Queen out and no one was safe. Regina, who was standing in the back of the room, wasn't really feeling like participating. Everyone was looking at her as if she was supposed to have answers. Eventually she saw Robin walk into the diner and she sneaked out to the back, basically running away from him.

"Regina!"

She turned around to see dr Hopper down the hall.

"I'm sorry, I just wanted to see if you're okay."

"Snow sent you?" She snapped and regretted it instantly. "I'm... I'm sorry, I -"

"It's okay." He said. "And no, she didn't. I just heard of what happened. If you want to talk..."

"I appreciate it, really, but I'm fine. I deserved it all. My only priority is to get my baby back and-"

"Regina?" A voice they heard belonged to Robin and it was coming from around the corner.

"I'm fine." Regina concluded and left Archie to get away.

She walked quickly, but Robin found her in the back anyway and she had nowhere else to go to escape this conversation.

"Regina, can we please talk?"

"How are the kids?" Her voice was trembling and she just couldn't look him in the eyes. She felt like if she did she would break into milion pieces.

"They're okay. Please look at me."

"Don't do this." She begged him. "Don't... feel sorry for me."

"I'm worried about you."

Regina tried to stop herself from crying.

"This isn't about me."

"Please look at me." He repeated from across the room.

She did. She wrapped her arms around herself and clenched her fists trying to fight off the emotions of shame and loss.

"Hey, hey." Robin walked closer and opened his arms, but she took a step back, so he stopped.

Since she'd been found, he tried not to push her into a conversation. She told him in the hospital she needed time and didn't want to be touched, so he tried to do everything in his power to honour that request. She was, after all, fresh out of literal torture.

"I want to help. I just don't know how."

"No." She started crying. "Don't pretend like it's okay. I lied to you. I destroyed us. I destroyed everything."

Robin frowned and opened his mouth in shock.

"So that's it? You're worried I'm angry with you?"

Their fight about the linking spell was the reason she left that evening and got kidnapped, but it all started with her going behind his back in the first place.

"You should be angry. Look what happened, we lost her! It was all for nothing!"

"No, it wasn't and I'm not angry. Nothing you do could ever make me think that. Regina, I got you back! You've no idea what I've been through! I thought... I... Well, let's say that nurse is lucky that the Evil Queen and your mother showed up, because I don't know what I would do to her." Robin walked closer. "Whatever happens… we're in this together. You're alive and with me, this is all that matters."

"Our baby. Robin, I..."

"We'll fix this. We'll get her back."

"How are you so optimistic?" Regina got annoyed.

"Because in the very least we know she's alive." There wasn't much certainty to it, but they both were in just too much denial to accept any other option. "And she's protected."

"By my mother and my worst possible self."

"Still. If our daughter truly has some kind of power, your mother and whatever the hell emerged from you, will do everything to protect it. Their intentions are unclear, but with them at least we know she's unharmed."

"I was very easily corrupted when I was at that point. You don't know my mother, Robin, and I pray you never will, but I'd rather die than to let my daughter be raised by her. Even if she isn't a threat to her life, this isn't any less dangerous. Besides, I'm fairly certain my mother lied when she told us she didn't know I was pregnant. She must have known, the baby is what she's afrer, even though all of that prophecy crap is probably not true."

"Um, about that..." He paused. She needed to know eventually and since she was finally talking to him, this needed to be done now. "There's something you should hear."

Ten minutes later Robin brought Blue Fairy into the room, to Regina's much surprise. The Charmings came in as well.

"Gold, before he left town, told us about the prophecy. Blue is the only one who knows the whole truth."

"There's that again." Regina couldn't help herself. "Why should I believe anything she says? She hates me, she always have."

"I care about the life of your baby, regardless of my feelings towards you." Blue responder, in spite of Regina's harsh tone. "I'm here, because this child is very powerful and that kind of magic is dangerous if it's uncontrolled."

"My daughter is an unborn fetus, she's not a danger to anyone." Regina's blood was boiling.

"Perhaps. But she's most certainly in danger herself."

This shut Regina up.

"Now, if you let me finish... The power she'll come to possess will make her a target, there're people who will do anything to have it. There are ways to protect her, but you need to merge with The Evil Queen as soon as possible."

"There's nothing more I want. How do I do it?"

"First you have to know the prophecy. It was created long before any of you were born. I've never spoke about it, becuse for years I believed it's already been fulfilled by Emma."

Emma was standing behind, not expecting to be dragged into the story.

"O-okay. What's in it?"

"It says that there will come a powerful child, born out of the strongest kind of true love."

Emma looked at her parents with a soft smile.

"So I kind of check the boxes."

"That's what I thought, but there's more."

"There always is." Robin sighed.

"The thing is." Blue continued. "I would never think it could be you, your majesty. The prophecy said very direcly - the baby will be a product of true love or maybe even something stronger. The fairies never even assumed The Evil Queen could be capable of that."

"What could be stronger then true love?" Emma asked with a frown, she didn't want this to come off wrong, but there was no other way to say this. "What could be stronger then... me?"

"Soulmates." Robin said quietly and Regina looked at him and then back at Blue, who kept on speaking.

"That's true. Tinkerbell told me all about your story and seeing you both now, against all my judgement, I can sense very clearly a strong soulmate magic. The pixie dust bounded you, you share true love and now you're expecting a child together. That child came into being despite the curse you had put on yourself and she comes from a line of very powrful witches as well. What makes her even more special is that she will not only be born of light, she's the product of both light and darkness and the prophecy is being fulfilled as we speak."

"The Evil Queen."

It all made just too much sense. And this is why it was becoming so scary.

"Why would my daughter, of all people, become the most powerful witch in history?" Regina asked through gritted teeth. She never wanted this legacy upon her baby. "I mean, you speak about power... if she's going to inherit my bloodline magic, she's going to have to be taught anyways."

"We both already know this is not the case."

Regina froze in place. Of course she knew. What other baby can use spells from inside the womb?

"So you ask what makes her special. This wasn't easy to figure out. This is actually something fairies treated like sacrilege or just didn't believe. But seeing who her mother is, who her aunt was, and seeing the story play out... I have no doubt it's true. There's only one thing even the strongest magicians can't do with magic. And that is to break its laws."

Regina opened her mouth. She understood immediately.

"Yes, your majesty. Your baby is destined to break the laws of magic."

Everyone went quiet. Regina was looking down as if someone had punched her in the gut. Why? Why was is happening? She just wanted a normal life for her daughter, a loving house, maybe a little magic if she got old enough to be responsible with it. Was that even an option now? Was her daughter going to spend all her life fighting with power seeking villains? Fate was cruel in ways beyond comprehension.

"Oh my god." Emma's gasp ripped everyone from their thoughts. She was looking at her phone.

"What is it?" Snow asked.

"It's dad." She said lifting her head and opening her eyes widely. "The nurse. She's dead."

All Regina could do is just look. She didn't need more to get the whole picture. She lost strength to stand, so she sat down in the couch.

"The Evil Queen and Cora." Robin nodded, he understood, too.

"We should've never leave her alone with those two being out there." Snow shook her head.

"This is why you need to merge." Blue said looking at Regina. "The longer the baby stays inside her, the bigger impact it will have on her magic. It will become dark. Soon we might not be worried about protecting her from others, we'll need protection from her - the biggest villain there ever was."

"How do we do it? How does Regina merge with her?"

Blue Fairy closed the book on the table and sighed.

"I don't know."

xxx

"Mother!" The Evil Queen was shouting with anger. "Why are we here? Why are you dragging me through the woods?"

"That's close enough." Cora stopped suddenly and didn't bother to look at her daughter.

"Close enough to what?"

The Queen didn't understand any of this. If Cora was looking for a safehouse, why wouldn't she just use her magic to transport them there? She was pregnant, for god's sake, and moving around with that gown didn't help. She was angry all the time and started to wonder what she's angry at? Cora was her only option now, right? The only family she had.

And then flashes of her family started to get through. Henry. Robin. Roland. No, no... It wasn't her family. It was Regina's family. But she was Regina. It was all very confusing. Which memories belonged to her? She wanted to kill Snow, but remembered going shopping with her just a few days ago. What would've happened if she stayed in that basement? No! Don't let them get to you, they're weak. Love is weakness. But she did love her daughter...

"We're in the place where portals have been opened."

"Why?" The Queen asked with her hand on her belly. She felt unease movement.

"Because we need one. We have to get out of Storybrooke if we want to be fully safe. If we leave they will never find us."

And I'll never see them, a thought ran through The Queen's head.

"Do you have a bean? Or slippers? Or a rabbit? How do you want to do that?"

"Oh my dear, there're many things you don't know yet. For starters, what the magic of your baby is capable of doing."

"What do you mean?" She froze. She wanted to take a step back but she knew she had to play along.

"This baby is the most powerful witch in history, she can break the laws of magic." Cora made a siginificant pause. "She can also create portals."

The Evil Queen shifted her head in disbelief.

"Of course now she's just a fetus." Cora added. "But with little help from you, as you're carrying this child, I can use this magic to do it myself. We can open a portal and go anywhere we want. Do anything! Isn't that amazing?"

The Queen looked at her mother and smiled. But this smile was fake. This was the moment The Evil Queen realised her mother only ever cared abour power. She was never going to help her to get revenge. How would she? She wanted to leave the town.

This was the moment The Evil Queen realised she made the wrong choice.