For OQ Fix-It Week Day 7 - Dark!OQ Day
This is my second, more in-tune-with-the-theme piece, rather than the funky one that came before it. It's based on a manip that Starscythe made for this day of Fix-It Week, you can find it on her Twitter (same username!)
Let me know what you think!
She hadn't wanted to get her hopes up, hadn't even wanted to tell her that she was trying to do this, but her own blood won't work on its own, she needs Regina's, too.
They share a heart, darkness and light mixed in both of them, technically it should've worked with just her, but it takes a lot of power, rebuilding a soul, and so here the Queen is, in the woods of Storybrooke, waiting for Regina by the wishing well.
Robin of Locksley stands beside her, a reassuring arm looped around her waist, his nose caressing her cheek as he tries to contain his own nerves.
He's been fearful that she'll leave him, that if this works she'll abandon him and go back to... but that's not what this is. She loves him. Him. It'd taken a while to stop the comparisons, to stop herself from trying to make him into someone he's not, but she'd fallen for him, for the man he is, not the man she initially wanted him to be.
She kisses him, hard and quick, their lips parting with a wet smack before she tells him "It's you and me. Always."
"I know," he says, but doesn't sound convinced.
"This is for her, not for me. She gave me a fresh start, I... I didn't think I could ever be happy, even when she was. Being with you, living in the Enchanted Forest, ruling my kingdom the way I truly want to... I'm the happiest I've ever been, and it's because of her, because of what she did for me."
"She's you," he insists, giving up the pretense of confidence he's been carrying since they traveled back here. "You feel the same things she feels. You love Henry, too."
"He's my son," she argues, "just as much as he is hers."
"And Robin Hood is your soulmate, just as much as he is hers."
"You are my soulmate," she says vehemently, turning to look him in the eyes. "Robin loved me, and I loved him, yes, but... he's not you. Whatever happens here today, it won't change the way I feel about you, and I shouldn't have to tell you that."
"I know, I know," he says, frustrated at his own apprehension. "I'm sorry."
She's not used to seeing him being so insecure, and it's... refreshing, even if it worries her.
She kisses him again, softly this time, with a tenderness they seldom share, given how passionate they are most of the time. It settles him, though, seems to calm the storm in his eyes long enough to breathe, and nod, and accept this.
"Alright, let's do it."
The crunching of leaves announces Regina's arrival, her steps hurried and solid as she reaches them. It's still odd for the Queen, seeing her, seeing herself reflected back at her in pantsuits and shorter hair; a ghost from a past life that never completely went away.
"What's wrong?" Regina asks, looking apprehensively at the trees surrounding them.
"Nothing's wrong, I just... I need your blood," the Queen finally admits.
"My..." she trails off, looking suspicious as she asks, "What are you planning?"
It's instant, the way she goes into defensive mode, and the Queen would chuckle if she wasn't so familiar with it, if the fear that kicks up in Regina didn't echo in her own heart.
"I... I found something, in an old book at Rumplestiltskin's castle. It's... a spell, and I... I need to try it now, but I need your blood. Mine alone isn't powerful enough."
"A spell for what?" Regina questions, that suspicious look on her face growing in intensity. "What are you trying to do?"
"I don't want to say. Not until we've tried it."
"Well if you don't tell me, then you're not getting my blood."
"I'm not trying to kill anyone, if that's what you think," the Queen snaps, and Regina raises an eyebrow.
"Then I guess you'll have no problem telling me what you're up to."
The Queen huffs, suddenly understanding why Robin finds her so exasperating sometimes when they fight. She hears him chuckle beside her and knows he's thinking the same thing.
"Would you just trust me for once?!" the Queen snaps, "I almost died back in the Enchanted Forest trying to help you, I saved everyone in this godforsaken town, do you really think I'm about to destroy it? Destroy anyone? Have you forgotten we share a heart? Dig deep, Regina, do you think my intentions are evil?"
Regina sighs, looking effectively chastised as she shakes her head and admits "No, no I don't think that, but you can't blame me for being a little nervous when you suddenly show up here asking for blood."
"We always did know how to make an entrance, didn't we?" the Queen quips, and Regina gives her a humorless laugh, looking down at her feet for a moment.
The Queen realizes then, she's trying not to look at Robin, and she can feel the way her very soul hurts in the split second she does look at him. Regina misses her soulmate, and she's just brought her a living, breathing reminder.
"I'm sorry, but I need you both for the spell. I... I need all of me. Did you bring what I asked for?"
Regina pulls out a threadbare scarf from her coat pocket. Henry's. The gray and red stripes that look shorter and thinner and smaller on him as he grows. A symbol of the thing both women love most.
"Thank you," the Queen whispers, holding the garment reverently, running a soft hand over the fraying ends as a tearful smile forms on her face.
"What's next?" Regina asks. And right, of course. The reason she's here.
"Give me your hand," she orders, and Regina obeys, stretching her hand out to her. The Queen turns to Robin then, and runs a hand over his chest, until it slips into the hidden pocket of his shirt and fishes out the small knife she knows he keeps there.
The tip of it is sharp, and she pinches Regina's finger with it, lets the drop of blood ooze out and fall onto the scarf, joined seconds later by the Queen's own, two specks of red atop gray wool.
"Robin?" the Queen calls, and he takes a deep breath, and extends his hand to her, a third drop of blood meeting the other two on the scarf.
"There. All parts of us. Now we just need to mix everything together."
Robin starts taking the ingredients out of his leather satchel, rare roots and plants that have taken her months to collect; a locator potion, some dark fairy dust, and mystic add-ins like liquid moonlight and oak ashes caused by dragon fire. It was an extensive list, an exhaustive one, but she'd managed to get every single thing in it, all she needs is to put everything together in the wishing well and the magic should do the rest.
The sun is setting, orange light peering from the canopy of the trees and shining right onto them. It's time.
Regina stays, and watches, and avoids eye contact with Robin, but thankfully doesn't ask any questions, simply lets her go about her business and furrows her brow as she tries to discern just what spell this is based on the ingredients. The Queen hopes she won't figure it out until it's done.
The scarf is the last ingredient to go in, and she holds it close, takes a deep breath, and looks into the well. "God, I hope this works," she whispers, and lets the scarf fall.
It kicks up instantly, black and purple smoke shooting up from the very bottom of the well, enveloping all three of them. Regina screams, asks her what the hell this is, but it's drowned out by the wind as it picks up and thrashes all over, shaking them, moving them as magic forms and sputters over the space.
There's a heavy thud, and the Queen finds the source of it instantly, Robin gasping beside her as he finds it, too.
"I don't believe it," he whispers as the magic dissipates.
"It... it worked," the Queen tells him needlessly. She still can't believe she's done it.
Regina is passed out by a tree, but there's a white glow on her chest, right over her heart, one that is mirrored in the shape now stirring on the floor just beside her.
He rises, and he turns, his eyes landing on the Queen first.
"Regina?" he says, taking in her regal attire, and her heart is beating fast, so fast with the revelation of what she's done, and before she can help it, she's in his arms, hugging him and holding him close, breathing in the scent of him. It's exactly how she remembers it, and it soothes her, but it's not quite right.
Because he is not hers.
Her own Robin is standing just a few steps behind him, staring at the exchange and frowning, that apprehension back in his eyes; tormented blue that looks away as soon as she tries to catch his attention.
And so she sighs, and parts from Robin Hood, smiling gently at him.
"No," she says softly. "Regina is over there."
She points to her, and the glow that covers him fades away, giving way to a single thread of light that connects him to the passed out woman by the tree.
Robin frowns, stares at her, then at Regina, his eyes finding his own not-quite-clone in the interim.
"What is all this? How are you both here and— What's happening?"
"It doesn't matter," the Queen tells him, "what matters is that you're here. And Regina..." she trails off, looking at her just behind him, "is waking up."
—-
There's dirt on her designer pants, dry leaves in her hair, and her heels are now caked in mud. She's disoriented, and whatever that queen planned on clearly wasn't something innocent, or she wouldn't have ended up smacked against a tree by magic.
But then her eyes land on someone else, someone she wasn't expecting to see.
Robin of Locksley is younger than Robin Hood was when they met, his hair darker, his face devoid of those lines Regina had loved to trace on her soulmate's face with her fingers.
And that soulmate is standing before her now, his hair the color of caramel, his eyes wise and lined at the corners, his smile tender despite the confusion in his eyes.
It's him. Not a clone, not an alternate version from a wishing world, but him. Her love, her second chance.
"Robin?" she asks, her voice breaking on the word. She hasn't said it out loud in so long, has been hurting over him so long, she's not altogether sure he's real.
Behind him, the Queen stands proud, Locksley's arm around her shoulder as they both smile at her, albeit nervously.
"You..." Regina starts, torn between wanting to jump in her soulmate's arms and chiding her not-so-evil counterpart for what she's just done. "How is this even possible?"
"Wonderland's Spell of Lost Things," the Queen informs her. "It returns something valuable that you've lost, something... meaningful. I, uh... tweaked it a little bit."
She sounds rather proud at that, and how could she not be? When Robin is standing right there, flesh and bone and breath, looking confused but so ready to touch her that Regina can't take the distance anymore.
She turns, stares at him with tears in her eyes, and then he's there, holding her, squeezing his arms around her waist and keeping her close as he takes a deep breath, his nose buried in her neck.
"Regina," he sighs into her skin, his hand moving up to touch her hair, playing with the ends, feeling them slide between his fingers.
"It's you," she cries, overwhelmed with emotion. He's solid, and real, and alive, a miracle given to her by her second self. By a friend.
"You gave me my life back," the Queen tells her, turning to her own thief and holding his hand as she continues, "you gave me Robin, and a new start. You gave me... happiness. I thought it was time to return the favor."
She's tearing up as she speaks, and Regina walks away from Robin's embrace, feels the sob the Queen is trying to suppress deep down in her chest, but doesn't mention it.
"I..." is all she says in return, baffled by the selflessness of the gesture, the genuine affection she sees on the Queen's face when she turns to her Robin again and smiles.
And then Regina is hugging her, holding tight to a body far too familiar, feeling the way it shakes with quiet laughter at the gesture.
"Thank you," she says, and the Queen's mirth dies in a satisfied sigh, her face pulling back to look at her.
"Now we can both be happy," she tells her, and takes a step back, rejoining her thief and urging her to do the same.
Regina turns, finds Robin staring at the three of them, befuddled, she imagines, by the appearance of a second set of them. But then his eyes find her, and they soften, his smile growing as he extends his hands and takes hers.
"I can't believe we're here again," he tells her, and Regina has lost the battle against her tears now, is laughing and crying at the same time, nodding at him even as he moves in and kisses her softly, his lips warm and wonderful, just as she remembers. "Finally. Our second chance."
They kiss again, lips lingering in the soft exchange, pulling away only to come back for another smooch, and another, his arms hugging her around the waist again as hers move to do mimic the action.
"No," she sighs, her whole body relaxing into him, those blue and inviting eyes of his closing as he leans in and rests his forehead on hers, their noses brushing. "Our forever."