Gone but never forgotten 7
See we continuing! Here's the truth tea folks- try as I might I'm a bad researcher and so I couldn't find a song that was a think in whatever world or time or whatever once takes place in so INSTEAD I just used a song I like and you can all pretend it fits in the world without questioning it - love you
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Emma, sprawled out on the floor groaned and rubbed her head. Cora was advancing on Regina.
"Hey! Stay away from her!" Emma shouted, pulling herself up and pointing her sword once again. Granny was now blocking the bath to Regina. Red growled from her place at Regina side. The moon was nearly out, once it was Red would be able to transform into her wolf then this witch wouldn't stand a chance. Emma my needed to keep her busy enough until that time, just a few minutes.
Cora chuckled again and this time, raised her hand in a gripping motion lifting Emma in the air with her magic, choking her.
Emma gasped for air loudly.
"Mother!" Reginas voice broke through all the commotion, she sounded weak but determined. Coras grip released and Emma fell to the floor.
"Don't hurt them please mother..." her voice was raspy and she winced harshly.
"Oh my darling girl... What did you let happen to yourself?" Cora moved closer to Regina and no one stopped her but they didn't see any more at ease with her. Emma stood up once again and ground her teeth.
"She didn't let anything happen room her! This was done TO her! Do you even understand!?" Emma growled.
"Thank you miss swan but I can fight my own battles with my mother..." Regina looks around the room. "Can we have a moment to talk?"
The healer looks concerned, "I'd rather finish cleaning out your wounds first."
"It'll just be a moment..." Regina explained sweetly.
Emma, Granny, Red and the healer all exit the room leaving Regina alone with her mother.
"Oh Regina, look at what you've become..." she sighed disappointingly.
"What's that mother?" She asked somewhat rhetorically.
"This... this shriveled up, pathetic mess of a woman who can't even handle a good discipline before she needs to be whisked away by some brutish thief woman."
Regina shrunk away from her mother instinctively and an emotion flickered crossed Cora's face. Something along the lines of worry or concern but it was gone before Regina could even see it was there.
"He beat me everyday for months mother. There was no reason, it wasn't punishment it was joy for him. He reviled in it, thrives on my pain and got off on my fear." Reginas voice cracked as hot tears began flowing down her cheeks. "Why should I have stayed with him? Why should I have subjected myself to that?"
"Well then you should have saved yourself! But no you needed this stranger thief woman to save you! Her and your child stepdaughter!"
"How can you think that! I was chained - I was trapped! H-how would I have..." she sobbed harshly, her breath catching in her throat. She sucked in air but couldn't seem to catch her breath.
Cora looked at Regina gasping for breath. She was hyperventilating, she used to do this as a child, she would overwhelm herself and simply forget how to breathe, back then Henry would be the one to help her calm down though.
"Regina enough of this."
Nothing.
"Regina calm down. Now."
It wasn't helping. She thought back to when Regina was young, what would Henry do? She asked herself.
Sing. He would sing to her.
When Regina was young and she had one of her fits nothing could calm her down but Henry's soft singing and rocking her back and forth. It irritated Cora to no end but she let it happen seeing as all other methods of stopping it were ineffective.
Cora took a cautious step toward Regina who gasped again and jerked back.
"Stop!" Cora shrieked and wrapped her arms tightly around Reginas upper body, standing next to the bed she held her, one arm around her head, keeping her pressed against her stomach.
"Starry starry night... paint your palette blue and grey... look out on a summers day, with eyes that know the darkness in my soul..." she sighs as Reginas breath begins to even out, "shadows on the hills, sketch the trees and the daffodils... catch the breeze and the winter chills in colors on the snowy linen land..."
Regina, calmer now, looks up at her mother, her face tear streaked and smiles sadly at her.
"Now I understand, what you tried to say to me, how you suffered for your sanity, how you tried to set them free. They would not listen, they did not know how... perhaps they'll listen now..."
Regina cuts in, "starry starry night... flaming flowers that brightly blaze... Swirling colorings in violet haze, reflect in Vincent's eyes of child blue..."
Together they softly sings, "colors changing hue... morning fields of amber grain... weathered faces lined in pain, are soothed beneath the artists loving hand... now i understand... what you tried to say to me... how you suffered for your sanity, and how to tried to set them free. They would not listen they did not know how... perhaps they listen now..."
Silently they sat for a long moment before Cora pulled away.
"Thank you mother..."
Cora cleared her throat, "yes well... you suffocating on your own incompetence serves no purpose to me."
Regina was about to respond when the bedroom door opened, catching the attention of both women. Snow walked in, seemingly unaware of Coras arrival to the castle at all.
"Regina I thought- oh... Cora... when did you... what are you doing here?" Snow said, and placed a tray of food down on the table near the door.
"Are you hear to heal Reginas wounds?" Snow asked somewhat naively.
Cora scuffed and stepped away from Regina.
"Regina got all she deserved and she'll suffer the consequences."
Snow looked shocked. "Deserved? No. She didn't deserve anything... and b-besides she's in pain... and she's your daughter!"
"Snow... it's not worth your breath- honestly... she has no heart... she doesn't care what I feel or that I'm her daughter... love is weakness."
Xx
Cora was gone now, she had disappeared in the same smoke she had appeared in not long after Snow arrived. The healer had returned with Granny to apply more salve and Regina was resting.
Snow was sitting beside the bed.
"What did you mean before?" She asked softly.
"Hmm?"
"You said she has no heart."
"Oh, I meant it Snow."
"How can you have no heart?"
"She ripped it out long before I was born, my father told me once about a man she used to love but she wouldn't risk loosing her power so she ripped it out and married Daddy."
"But how can she love you? Without a heart?"
"She can't." Regina took a breath, "well I think she can a little but not like she would. It doesn't matter though, if she wanted to love me she would put it back in and we would be... happy..." she shook her head. "But it doesn't matter."
"What if she just doesn't know, I mean, know what I felt like to love you so she doesn't know what she's missing..."
Regina sat silently.
"What if I got it back to her? Then she would feel love for you! I know what I feels like to love you Regina! It's - it's something I've never felt before... you have the biggest heart of anyone I've ever known and you have so much love to give..."
Regina sighed. "Snow, I don't even know where she would keep it."
"Well she took a room for herself down the hall, apparently she plans to stay so maybe I could look there!"
"Snow it's too dangerous, don't go near my mother please." Regina whispered she was getting tired.
"Get some rest Regina, I'll be back to check on you later."
Xx
Snow creeps down the hallway silently, checking over her shoulder. She makes her way to a another set of wooden doors. Checking her surroundings once more and held her breath and pushed the doors open as quietly as she could. The room was empty and she breathed a sigh of relief. In the corner we're chests and wardrobes, she began her search.
After at least 10 minutes she was getting annoyed. Maybe Cora hadn't brought her heart with her. That was until she hear a soft heartbeat from a square chest in the corner. She followed the sound to a glowing red box. Slowly and carefully she pulled the box out and opened it. She gently picked up the heart and listened to the soft beating. The purple cloud of smoke appeared once again in front of her.
"Cora..." Snow whispered, clearly frightened.
"Snow... why don't you hand that back to me?" Cora asked, her voice dripping with fake sweetness.
"N-no. You need it in your chest! You need to show Regina that you really do love her."
Cora took a step toward the girl, reaching for her heart.
"Stop!" Snow yelled and Cora froze, unable to resist the command given to her heart.
Snow looks thoughtfully at this, "tell me how to put this back into you."
"Place it next to my chest and push it in, simple." Cora responded unwillingly.
Snow nodded and placed the heart against Coras chest then slowly and as carefully as she could pushed it in.
Cora gasped loudly and stumbled back, away from Snow who reached out to her but didn't dare touch her.
"C-Cora... are you alright?" She whispered.
"I- I've never..." and she was gone again in her cloud of smoke before Snow could speak another word.
Xx
Regina lay still in the bed other than shivering slightly despite the layer of blankets. In her signature cloud of purple Cora appeared. She took a few cautious steps toward her daughter.
"Oh Regina..." she whispered and brushed a sweat soaked piece of hair behind her ear. "You would have been enough..."
At that she raised her hands over Reginas body and a warm glow emitted from her palms, soaking Regina in a healing spell. Her shivering died down and she stopped sweating. The wounds and marks closed themselves just as Coras legs gave way from beneath her and she collapsed on the ground exhausted.