Standard Disclaimer: These lovely characters ain't mine, I just play with them gently. Please don't sue me. The mistakes are mine, though.
Chapter 28 – A Rude Welcome
Everywhere Regina looks, all she sees is death. Fresh, too, judging by the pallor of the slain and the lack of bloat that ensues in the hours after death. For days she has been absent and this is what happens to her kingdom?
Bodies are strewn about the courtyard, piled four deep in some places, soaking the ground and staining the stones a sickly burgundy. More than half the casualties are recognizably from the Citadel's garrison. Some she even identifies as members of her personal guard. Their jet black plate mail, plumed helmets, and exclusive ebonsteel blades are unmistakable. The fallen of both sides have been gathered into neat lines for identification and subsequent disposal. While the invaders have been left to rot under the blazing sun until emergency triage is over, friendly fatalities have been given the proper respect of cover.
The stench of death permeates the air so thickly she almost has to cover her nose. It's been a long time since she was present at the site of a significant battle, of which this certainly qualifies. Clearly the fighting was particularly vicious here. There is evidence of men being trampled to death along with grotesque amounts of severed limbs and heads heaped in grisly piles in the southwest corner of the courtyard. The carnage ends just short of the primary palace entrance, which clogs Regina's throat with bile. The enemy had almost made it inside.
Had that happened, all would have been lost. Every servant would have been slaughtered where they stood and every noble rounded up to be dispensed with at the victor's leisure. The enemy commander and his most trusted squad would have immediately searched out the Royal Quarter's to claim the Queen for potential ransom. Or worse. Upon finding Red incapacitated, the unspeakable might very well have occurred.
Noble women are not always afforded the dignity of capture without the brutes who took them hostage raping them repeatedly. Spoils of war, those uncivilized cretins will claim as they take their turns ravaging innocent maidens and desperate mothers alike, none of whom are half as beautiful as Red. Slaves to their lust have enough problem controlling themselves in formal settings around Misthaven's junior Queen.
Regina had just thought she had it bad dealing with the unwelcome leers and unsubtle advances of drunken noblemen, and some women as well, who lost further track of their inhibitions with each sip of wine. She'd grown up being objectified and in a sense gotten used to it. Not that it didn't bother her later on. It did, she just became better equipped at hiding her disgust.
Red, on the other hand, is undressed by roving eyes with a vulgarity and regularity that makes Regina as sick as it does enraged. As a peasant in her famous corset and skirts Red always was the most attractive woman in any room, which isn't easy for a vain person like Regina to admit. Gussied up like a proper royal, with her hair intricately styled, arrayed in clothes designed to cling to her lithe frame, and her face perfectly made up to accentuate features that don't need a lot of help to mesmerize the weak of constitution? Well, that is a recipe for disrupting the conversations and general adherence to manners at any table. More than once upon entering a crowded room with her wife, she's had to flash warning glares at those less capable of subtlety and make overt displays of possession for those more crafty at hiding their secret desire to defile Misthaven's newest, most glorious and deceptively delicate flower. Red doesn't appreciate having to submit to Regina's purposeful pawing, but she does so out of necessity. She isn't ignorant to what those slovenly, indecent pigs – male and female alike – are doing to her within the protected confines of their depraved minds.
What, then, might a bunch of half-crazed soldiers who have abandoned all semblance of morality do to Red knowing she is helpless to fend off their animalistic aggression? Would there even be anything left of her to save – physically, mentally, or emotionally – if she was denied the mercy of a quick death? Regina's stomach curls at the thought, bile climbing the column of her esophagus before stalling at the back of her throat. Thankfully she doesn't have to entertain such horrific scenarios any further. Her forces had done their jobs and stopped the onslaught before it reached their incapacitated Queen. For that, both the living and the dead have earned her eternal gratitude.
Beside her, Snow stands stiffly, pale and fraught with similar concerns for her husband and best friend. Charming is a handsome fellow, after all, and soldiers unleashed from the chokers that keep their indecencies at bay aren't quite as discriminating. She starts to ask if Snow is alright only to be interrupted by an arrival to the courtyard. Stepping through the gate separating it from the lower circle of the citadel is Charming, and as he stalks toward them, he is flanked by Captain Rodrigo and Mulan. All appear battle weary, clothing torn and stained red in various places, as they converse among themselves.
So engrossed are the three in their deliberations that they do not notice Regina and Snow with Jefferson in the courtyard until Snow cries out for her husband. At the sound of her voice, Charming startles and his visage brightens as if the clouds have rolled back and the sun has banished the darkness forever. It is the look of True Love, one that is not as unpalatable for Regina to witness as it once was when she wears it nearly every time she sees Red.
"Snow!" Charming cries out just as his wife had, and rushes toward her, heedless of the impropriety and equally so of their audience.
When Snow meets him halfway, they seamlessly mesh into a passionate kiss. Regina actually smiles at the sappy display. Strangely enough, she is happy for Snow. With all they have been through together, she feels closer to her fellow monarch now. Not in the way she had when she'd saved a panicky ten year old from a runaway horse, to be sure, but close just the same. There is an even playing field between them now that they are equals; one where, with time, they might learn how to accept one another as not only adventuring companions but as friends.
It is only when the Charmings break apart that Regina decides to rain on their parade. "King David," she greets. "Not that I am displeased to see you considering the circumstances," she then waves at the scene of butchery all around her, "but what the hell happened here?"
Now disentangled from Snow, he breathes a weary sighs. "Apparently the witch who cursed Red recruited an ally while she was in our world," he explains. "I'm not really surprised that old bastard George threw his lot in with her and was able to scrape up a somewhat sizable army. A lot of them appear to be mercenaries. We estimated their force was twice as big as the one he attacked Abigail with. They arrived late yesterday afternoon, made camp, and then began their assault at dawn this morning."
"It was quite a spectacle," Mulan adds in her matter-of-fact, no nonsense way. "The flying monkeys were an interesting supplement to the enemy forces, who were decent fighters and well organized. But they were no match for our superior skill."
Mulan's abruptness is abrasive to some, but not Regina, who appreciates her efficiency. The woman is a warrior of unequaled skill and an asset to the army that she is extremely fortunate to have in her corner. And while Red's friendship played a large part in Mulan's decision to stick around after her journeys brought her to Misthaven, it was Regina who ultimately won her over by offering her a lucrative post as her personal military adviser. It is an offer she has not once regretted.
"We fought them off, mostly thanks to Mulan, here," Charming says, bumping shoulders with the tiny but deadly woman. Regina is surprised to see Mulan smile at the friendly gesture. Normally she rebuffs them with a dour grunt.
"Is that so?" Regina asks, giving Mulan a look that indicates she will be embarrassing the warrior with accolades later. When Mulan blushes and ducks her head, Regina grins.
Charming nods fervently. "We were getting trounced. They had driven us into the courtyard. Our backs were almost to the palace walls. I was about ready to give up hope when Mulan arrived with her forces. She single-handedly dispatched two dozen soldiers in the rear of their lines before they realized what was happening. We folded them up like a piece of parchment after that."
"I was only doing my duty," Mulan injects, cheeks a rosy red despite her tanned complexion. "But enough about me." She then gestures toward a window a story above, one Regina knows belongs to the Royal Guest Chambers where her wife currently is abed in the grips of a terrible curse. "I heard about what happened, Your Majesty. I suppose you'll be wanting to see to Red now. May I escort you to her?"
"You may," Regina nods, and then allows Mulan to fall in beside her as she makes her way toward the door way leading into the castle from the courtyard. With Snow and Charming trailing behind they make their way down the first hallway in silence before Regina speaks again. "Did George dare to show his cowardly face in person?" she inquires with a glance behind her shoulder at Charming.
"As a matter of fact he did," he replies, and Regina bristles internally. She has always hated that man. He is the embodiment of everything she hates about nobility. An elitist snob whose arrogant sense of entitlement is only rivaled by his gross ineptitude. "He is currently being held in the dungeons with the rest of the officers. The rabble have been disarmed and are being escorted to a temporary internment camp being hastily constructed nearby. We'll sort through them after more pressing matters have been dealt with. For now, they'll have food and shelter, which is more than they deserve."
"To say the least," Regina says, sighing at the work before her after Red is returned to health. It is going to be an official nightmare to process the captives and secure their release to the kingdoms from which they hail, but she supposes she can entrust much of that work to Mulan and Charming, who seem to have forged a bond in battle. "Very well. I will pay that conniving bastard a visit in the morning and see what he has to say for himself. But for now, I would have a moment alone with my wife," she then says, having arrived in the hallway leading to the Red's resting place as well as their chambers. Once standing before the door of the guest chambers, she adds, "I won't be long, so you can all wait here."
"Of course. Take all the time you need," says Snow with tender sympathy. Charming also voices his acceptance.
Regina reaches for the door handle to enter, but then a notable absence strikes her. "Where is Eugenia?" she asks Charming, referring of course to Red's grandmother.
"With all the wounded from the battle, she couldn't sit still," he tells her. "She went to help out in the infirmary and refuses to take a break. Your father is with her."
Regina sighs. "Of course she had to get involved. Well, see to it that she is relieved promptly, my father as well, irregardless of any protests. I want them both here when Red wakes up."
"I'll send for someone after we've all checked in on her," he replies, which is acceptable for Regina, so she nods before addressing Mulan.
"Will you stand guard for me, Mulan?" she then asks, knowing the request will be seen more as an honor to Mulan's warrior spirit than an order to be simply obeyed.
"It would be my honor, Your Majesty," Mulan nods, pride on her face as she takes her place beside the door to stand guard at full attention. Regina is glad her assessment of Mulan is correct, as it serves as proof that she knows Mulan beyond her capacity as Regina's primary adviser. Smiling at the woman who has become a friend that she truly cares about as a person, Regina grips Mulan by the elbow before opening the door and passing inside.
Upon entering the room, she closes the door behind her and takes a moment to gather herself. Leaning her head against the frame, she draws several shaky breaths. She is beyond elated to be back home with the ingredient needed to craft Red's cure in hand. At the same time, she is scared what she is about to see. Back in Oz, Snow's dream had weighed heavily on her mind, for in it, Snow had been made privy to Red's suffering in the Burning Room and had witnessed her in such a sad state that no amount of shouting and screaming could rouse her.
It takes nearly half a minute for Regina to work up the nerve to face reality. Once she does, she is greeted by a sight that steals the breath from her lungs. She gasps, knees weakening in dismay as she takes in Red's complexion. Her pale flesh is disturbingly wan, mottled with an array of ugly burns, and she appears fragile in a way that is contrary to her otherwise general hardiness. Her cheeks are hollowed, eyes gaunt, and she is flushed from neck to hairline with the burning intensity of a supernatural and insidious fever.
Fear taking over, Regina rushes to the bedside and falls down to the floor. Her knees land heavily on the unforgiving stone. She winces at the pain of the contact but otherwise dismisses her own discomfort as inconsequential in the light of Red's condition. It is far worse than she had anticipated.
She reaches out a hand and holds it beneath Red's nostrils, searching for an indicator that she still lives through the air exiting her lungs. Her own breath refuses to come until she feels a faint puff of warmth against her skin. Looking down at Red's blanket covered chest, she is able to make out slight movement as Red breathes, but it is evident by the stilted nature of the rise and fall of her chest that her lungs are now struggling to draw even faint wisps of vital air.
Tears pricking at her eyes, Regina brushes a hand over Red's hair, feeling that it is damp yet not matted. She makes a mental note to reward Iris and the other maids and nurses who have been caring for the Queen while she has been away, bathing her and washing her hair to ward off decay of her body as much as is in their power. Although a minor service in the grand scope of events, it is no less important to Regina that those in her employ are willing to go the extra mile for her wife, not only out of duty but because they love and respect Red for her own merits.
"Oh, my sweet angel," Regina then says around a hitched cry as she leans down to smother her wife's feverish face with kisses, raining them down as she speaks, first to Red's brows, then upon her temple, her forehead, her jaw, her nose, her cheeks, and at last, her semi-parched lips. "I'm sorry that it took me so very long. And I'm sorry that you've had to suffer so for crimes that were not your own. But I have what I need to make your cure, so just hang on for a few more hours. I will bring you back to me where you belong, mi corazón."
As a tear escapes her lids to roll a path down her cheek, Regina leans down to kiss Red again, lingering upon her lips as she bites back her sobs. She wants to collapse against Red and hold her shriveled form while she weeps until she is dry of tears, but she does not have that kind of time. Red is dying. Every second counts.
With one last gaze in which she pours out her love for Red, Regina rises. Before departing, she takes Red's hand, and as she had with her wife's face, peppers it with a dozen kisses, leaning her cheek against Red's knuckles after.
"I love you," she whispers, body swaying gently as she stares longingly at the only person for whom she is willing to move heaven and earth. "I always thought I knew how much until this happened, but I was wrong. Seeing you like this, going through all that I've been through to save you...well, it has awakened me to a new depth of perspective that I did not have before. I made new friends, my love – friends that you will get along with famously. And Snow and I...we have laid the foundations upon which, I think, we might can build in the future. More than anything, I learned that my wedding vows were not an oath, but a prophecy that is coming true."
Taking a deep breath, she presses another kiss to Red's hand and then begins repeating a portion of her vows for emphasis, willing Red to hear them just as she had before departing for Oz. "I love you with all of my heart and all of my soul," she says. "You are my joy, my strength, my equal in all things, and my very beating heart. You are my happy ending, Red, and to prove that to you, I bestow upon you half of my kingdom, which is less in value than the half of my soul that already belongs to you. It is, and shall ever be, my greatest privilege to be your wife. So let all the kingdom hail, from town to country, from valley to mountain top, and from earth to the heavens above, that there is a new Queen in Misthaven. Prosperous may her reign be, and long may she live."
"Hear, hear," a voice sounds from the door, startling Regina.
She turns to see Snow standing in the doorway, tears flowing down her ruddy cheeks. Behind her, Charming nods his endorsement of that blessing with which Regina had ended her vow, and she can see that he, too, has tears in his eyes. And then there is Mulan, sandwiched between the two Charmings, her normally detached visage so full of emotion that Regina feels a swell of warmth rising within her chest. With so many people pulling for Red, it just does not seem possible for there to be any outcome besides a happy one.
But as if the gods have heard her thoughts and wish to prove once again how little she really knows, everything suddenly falls apart. Red's hand clenches in her own so viciously that she yelps in pain. Before she can pry her wife's iron grip free, something truly terrifying happens. Red gives out a groan from deep within her chest, which works its way up her throat until it is droning through the room. And then without warning, she stiffens tight as a drum from head to toe then immediately thereafter begins to thrash. The violence of the tremors shake the bed, and those awful groans continue on unremittingly until Regina thinks in some dim part of her mind that it is a miracle Red's weakened lungs are able to produce so much noise when they are barely able to sustain even slight breathing.
"What's happening?!" she shouts as Snow screeches from beside her for someone to help Red, who is now flailing uncontrollably upon the bed. Regina is beside herself in fear and helpless as to what to do to help her wife.
"It's a seizure," Charming says, rushing over to the other side of the bed where he deftly maneuvers Red on to her side, but does not in any other way attempt to restrain her as she continues to thrash for what seems like forever. He glances up at Regina, expression tortured but also eerily calm. "I know it looks bad," he tells her and Snow, then glances at Mulan who – looking pale as Regina has ever seen her – has moved over to help him stabilize Red on her side. "She's been doing this on and off since the day you left. Doctor Frankenstein told us that all we can do is let her ride it out."
And that they do, though the minute and a half that follows is absolute torture for Regina. There is literally nothing she can do but watch as Red groans and shakes and foams at the mouth before mercifully slumping in a boneless heap, appearing for all intents and purposes dead save for the labored rise and fall of her chest.
The second Red has stilled, Regina checks her to ensure she is still alive. She finds a pulse, erratic and weakened but detectable, and Red is still breathing, although she labors even more than before to draw air into her lungs.
Heart in her throat, Regina rises and strides over to the corner of the room, hands seeking purchase in her hair to wrench at it until it feels like she is about to rip it loose by the roots. So that no one can see her face, she presses her forehead into the corner, chest heaving with panicky breaths. She can feel a scream of frustration and grief welling up deep within her gut, and it builds and builds until she cannot contain it anymore. All movement in the room stills as she ventilates her anguish until her lungs are vacated of air. She screams twice more in a similarly unhinged manner before her fit ends, draining out of her as if a stopper has been pulled to empty a tub.
Spent, she turns her back to the wall and slumps against it, hands droppings uselessly to her sides as she slides down it. After landing roughly upon her ass, legs bent at awkward angles, she peers at her hands, palms turned up, cursing her inability to help her wife despite the awesome power that is always lurking just beneath the surface of her skin. The same power that had so boldly resisted Zelena upon a cold, snowy mountain pass in Oz is useless to her now.
Berating herself for her failures, she does not hear Snow approach. "Regina?" the raven haired monarch poses carefully.
Regina does not acknowledge Snow, merely continues to stare at her worthless hands and curse her worthless powers. She had learned magic so that she would never feel powerless again, and now she feels more so than ever before.
"Why?" she asks Snow after a moment, lifting her face to look at Snow, eyes wide and brimming with tears.
Snow crouches down so that she is looking at Regina at eye level. "Why what, honey?"
"Why her?" Regina replies, eyes flitting to Red before turning down upon herself in utter contempt. "Why not me instead? Aren't I more deserving of such torment? Why does she have to suffer for loving me? Why, Snow? Why does everything I love get taken away from me?" Now rocking back and forth and keening in despair, Regina's hold on sanity slips, and for a brief moment she starts to hyperventilate. "I can't lose her," she wails, gasping breath as tears pouring from her eyes. "I...I can't. She is my whole...world. She's my whole world, Snow. I can't...lose her!"
"Oh, honey, you're not going to lose her," Snow promises and then falls to her knees and opens up her arms.
Regina collapses forward into Snow's embrace and for the first time since Red was stricken down by Zelena's curse, allows herself the luxury of turning loose of her emotions. Not even her crying fit the night she'd woken to her father watching over her rivals the bitter sobbing that overtakes her. Unable to stop herself, Regina cries and cries and cries until there are no tears left, and the entire time, Snow does not let go and does not stop whispering encouragements into her ears as she soothingly rubs Regina's back in the way only a mother could.
At last spent, Regina's cries have turned into hiccups when Snow pulls away. She gazes at her once nemesis with blurry eyes.
"Feel better?" Snow asks, not a hint of judgment in her tone.
"A bit, yes," Regina answers after a moment. She clears her throat as she dries her tears on her sleeve. "Thank you. I'm sorry..." she gestures lamely between them, "for that regrettable lapse of control."
Taking Regina's hand, Snow gives it a pat and then smiles. "Nonsense. You needed to get that out since before we left for Oz. And I was more than glad to help." She then stands and helps to pull Regina back to her feet, staying nearby until Regina is not quite so wobbly. "But," she then says once Regina has steadied herself, "now that you're more composed, I think you have some important work to do. And don't worry about Red, we will take care of her in the meantime."
Regina nods gratefully. Words cannot express how much it meant to her that Snow was so free with her consolation. If anyone in the world had a right to relish in Regina's sorrow, it was Snow, and yet she chose to be the bigger person, just like always, and not for the first time of late, Regina can see how valuable of a trait that is.
And yet, Regina is still a proud woman at heart, and rather than tell Snow this, she merely smiles weakly and nods. "Thank you," she offers, "and you are correct. Red does not have much time, so I best get to making that cure."
And with that, she magicks herself into a black dress with red trimming that makes her feel at home again and in control, a Queen in her element, confident and proud. Head held high, she strides out of the bedroom, then makes her way down into the belly of the castle where her personal apothecarium is located.
After scrubbing a hand over her face, she rolls up her sleeves and rolls her neck to relieve the stress of the past few days. Determination settles in, eradicating the sorrow that had temporarily claimed her.
Snow was right. She has work to do.