Authors note: Back from vacation y'all. I don't know when I'll be able to update again because I'm going back to school in a little more than a week and in that week, it's also my birthday (August 13 and I'm turning 16 :D). I promise I'll try to update ASAP. But for now, hope you enjoy this (short, I know, sorry) chapter! ;)
Trigger warning: Very small mention of child abuse!
...
Her light greenish, blueish eyes scanned the unrecognizable room around her. But even though Zelena was sure she had never been here before and couldn't remember as to how she got here in the first place, it wasn't hard to figure out whose room it was she was staying in. The tasteful interior, the not too dark, not too light colors that adorned the walls. Hell, even the air smelled like the owner of the room; mysterious with a tinge of apple and a hint of light perfume. It smelled regal and queenly.
You had to be a giant fool to not know this room belonged to Regina Mills, formerly known as the Evil Queen.
She didn't want to think about the fact that she'd just uttered the word 'formerly' even though it was said in her head, so she just didn't.
But, the reality she had been avoiding by staying unconscious for what Zelena guessed was half a day at least (she was absolutely sure the sun hadn't been that low when that Elsa woman had stepped into the diner) suddenly came crashing down on her, like someone had thrown a bucket of ice cold water over her head (oh, the irony). The cold feeling in her arm wasn't just a sleeping muscle. Actual ice magic had hit her when she'd ducked in front of Robin and her niece- no wait, Regina's brat. Yes, Regina's brat. The child might be related to her by blood but that was that and nothing more.
She was absolutely sure there was nothing more.
She wasn't even sure why she'd had the sudden urge to jump in front of the thief and his daughter. The fact that Regina's words in the cell earlier that week had brought a smile to her face was nothing more than her pathetic desire to be a part of a family, a real family and not the drunken hell that had been her youth. Those words had most certainly not been the fuel that caused the Wicked Witch to suddenly do an heroic deed. It would be ridiculous. Zelena had hated her sister for decades, she had felt burning fury and stinging pain every time she'd thought about the woman who had no idea Zelena even existed.
She would use the second chance Regina had given to her, but deep inside she knew she could never change completely. That jealousy would never leave her entirely. It was just not possible.
It remained a mystery to her as to why she saved the little girl that was her niece.
The little girl who looked so much like Regina, the woman she'd hated for what felt like ever.
Why did she save little Claire?
It was her last coherent thought before she felt the ice slip up higher towards her shoulder. The stabbing pain was enough to force her mind to black out once again.
...
Regina hadn't let Claire out off her arms ever since the group stepped foot inside 108 Mifflin Street, Snow noticed while she shot her former stepmother a smile that was supposed to be comforting but looked more like a strange mix of sympathy and worry.
The Dark One, known in Storybrooke as Mr. Gold, was pacing up and down the living room, his cane tapping the hardwood floor Regina always made sure was shining. But even the fact that the floor she had always been so proud of was now in danger of damage by the hard metal point of Gold's cane, wasn't enough to break her from her trance. It wasn't enough for her to forget her worry and snap at the man, scolding him and telling him to watch out with that walking stick of his.
"How could you bring something with you that you know is so dangerous?" Regina asked suddenly, Claire shifting in her arms, the little girl unaware of the tension in the living room. The former Queen's voice was low and her tone was incredulous and angry as she directed the question towards the Dark One who stopped pacing, his gray eyes moving over the tired brunette who probably hadn't had any sleep for at least a week (in the back of his mind he remembered how it was with Bealfire so many decades ago, the midnight feedings had drained his energy back then, but he quickly banned the thoughts away, because his son wasn't that restless baby anymore, he was now a rotting corpse in the cold ground).
"You weren't the only one who liked to take some things with them to the new land, dearie." The explanation was accompanied with a casual shrug of his shoulders and a small grin that exposed his yellow teeth.
"Why her? You had no use of her here." Regina almost spat, burying Claire's small head in her chest when she heard her daughter's breath hitch at the sudden angry sound of her voice. Taking deep breath after another, Regina finally managed to calm herself down somewhat and she moved her hand in soothing circles on the baby's back. "Queen Elsa is dangerous, she can't control her magic. What use would you have of her here?"
Rumpelstiltskin was about to snap back when a sudden hand on his elbow, Belle's hand he realized, stopped him. "There was no master plan behind this all except that I just like my things." And even though he didn't snap, his voice was still a grumble.
"How do we undo it?" Emma asked from her place on the couch next to her mother. "We can't just let her die." She said resolutely, her Savior complex shining though which caused Regina to mentally roll her eyes.
"And why can't we, Savior?" Gold asked with a raised eyebrow. "If I remember correctly you had no problem with that a week ago."
"Because that was before she wanted to change, before she saved a baby from getting turned to ice." And her words had everyone shivering, realizing how it could've ended. Regina stood up from the chair and instead moved to stand next to Robin, drinking in the safety she felt radiating off of him as he put one arm around her body.
"May I remind you she saved the same baby she first wanted to sacrifice so she could go back in time." Rumpel offered up again, both of his hands resting on the gold knob of his cane that was standing in front of him.
"She realized she made a mistake." Snow said and shot the former imp a foul look. "She deserves a second chance. The same one Regina got and the same one you yourself got also. Or have you already forgotten about that too?" Snow's voice was regal and it somewhat reminded Regina of the voice the princess had used when she'd let her army to war. Their last war before Regina had been banished, the former Queen mused. "And now that that's out of the way, how do we save her, Rumpel?"
"There is no way to do that, princess." Gold did snap this time as he started pacing again. "Or at least none that I know of."
"Then I guess that answer is simply, isn't it?" Robin said with a sigh as he pulled Regina and his daughter closer into his side.
"We have to pay a visit to the Ice Queen."
...
Her mind was drifting in and out of consciousness. Large black spots clouding her vision, rendering her unable to get a good grip on the situation. She knew nothing had happened yet though, because she was still lying on the soft matras she had been lying on earlier when she had regained consciousness for the first time.
With tired movements she rolled her head to the side when she heard the doorknob twist. Maybe they've finally come to put an end to her misery?
But instead of the perfectly coiffed dark hair of her sister, or the sleezy looking gray locks of Rumpel that she'd expected to see, a head of light brown messy hair turned around the door.
"Does your mother know you're here, Henry?" Her voice was sounding slurry even to her own ears. With great difficulty she was sure Henry noticed, Zelena leaned on her good arm and pushed her body up against the wall in what somewhat resembled a sitting position. Well, at least she hoped it did.
"No." Came the simple reply from the teenage boy as he stepped fully in the room. "They're gone to see Elsa, me and my sister was left with my grandfather but I sort of-" he bit his bottom lip, looking a little ashamed of his actions.
With a wheezy chuckle, Zelena patted the empty spot on the bed next to her. "What, ran away?" Henry's only answer was a nod. "You are so Regina's son."
"How come?" The boy asked, closing the door behind him and sitting down on the bed next to who he guessed was his aunt (yeah, he was sure a new family tree was in order after all the extra members seemed to pop up everywhere). "I thought you didn't know my mom when she was younger."
"Ah, you have a very good memory then." Zelena smiled and wondered why it was so easy to talk to this little boy. "No, I only knew she existed when I was about twenty-two and she was nineteen. I believe it was just after the wedding."
"How did you find out you had a sister?" The question would only seem to be childlike curiosity to most people. But Zelena wasn't most people, to her the question was a sign that someone actually wanted to hear her story, that someone was actually interested in her and not the facade she'd made herself by becoming the Wicked Witch.
"So you're interested in hearing the story of how the Wicked Witch became Wicked?" Her eyebrows were lifted and it was obvious she really wanted to know the answer.
"No." Henry smiled, cocking his head slightly to the left. "I want to hear about how Zelena became the Wicked Witch."
With a smile Zelena softly looked down. "Like I said, Regina's son."
"Yes well, I figure that if my mom, the former Evil Queen, never intended to become evil, then my aunt probably never intended to become the Wicked Witch either."
The words seeme to come so easily to the boy- her nephew, Henry - but they meant the world to Zelena. "Well, since I'm in pretty big risk of dying, why not tell my life story to the twelve year old son of the Evil Queen?"
"That's the spirit!"
...
The Ice Queen that had looked terrifying back in the diner, now seemed small and helpless as she was shackled in a cell at the sheriff's station (Regina's jaw almost hit the floor when she'd seen the destruction that was the cell where Zelena had been locked up in. It was a mystery how the witch had survived that). The cuffs around the Queen's wrists were surrounded by a blue hue, signaling that the caster of the charm had been the Blue Mosquito.
The moment Elsa heard footsteps approaching, she practically ran towards the bars. "I'm so, so sorry. I never meant for anyone to get hurt."
But the begging and pleading did nothing to bring even a smudge of sympathy to Regina's dark eyes. "You almost killed my daughter." The words were said slowly, dark, making sure the ice witch knew exactly what she had almost done. "My beautiful daughter who isn't even a month old and you almost killed her."
The deadly whisper caused goosebumps to form on Elsa's skin as tears pooled in her big blue eyes. "I, I can't tell you how sorry I am, Your Majesty. That was never my intention-"
"You hurt my sister." And the amount of anger that accompanied the words, even surprised Regina herself.
A single tear broke free and rolled down Elsa's pale cheek, turning to opaque blue ice and then falling on the linoleum floor, shattering into a thousand pieces.
"How do we stop the ice from reaching her heart?" Robin asked, putting his right hand on Regina's shoulder and softly squeezing in support.
"I-" Elsa furrowed her blonde eyebrows taking one step backwards. "I don't know. The only way I can think of is true love."
"Do you think we would be here if we knew she had a true love?!" Regina snapped, moving closer to the bars in a threatening stance. "We need to find another way."
"But I don't have another way." Elsa breathed out, trying to look away from the woman she knew as the Evil Queen. "I promise, I don't know. Please just believe me when I say that this all was never my intention. All I wanted was to find my sister."
"And for that you had to kill mine in the progress!"
...
"So why did Rumpelstiltskin choose my mom and not you, seeing that you were clearly the better student?" Henry's eyes were filled with childlike confusion.
He had been listening intently while Zelene told the tale of her drunken father and her growing jealousy, though she did leave some parts out, parts Henry should never, ever know. Like how she'd seen King Leopold do terrible things to his mother (how she could've ever thought Regina deserved such things was beyond her) and how Zelena had once been beaten by her father so hard, she'd have died if she hadn't been able to heal herself.
The heavy burden that had been resting on her for more than five decades finally seemed to lift somewhat and Zelena felt able to finally breathe. Even though the ice in her arm was numbing her senses as it crept closer and closer to her heart.
"Because your mother had the one thing I didn't have."
"Which was?"
"The thing she loved most."
Henry looked down at his hands as realization dawned on him. "Her dad."
"Yes, her father." Zelena sighed, burying herself further in the fluffy pillow behind her that Henry had kindly put there about an hour ago. "So after Rumpel made his choice, I used the slippers, went back to Oz and met Glinda... and Dorothy."
"I see the bucket of water didn't work." Henry softly tried to joke and Zelena smiled.
"No it didn't."
The pair stopped talking when they heard the front door open and cries of a child echoing throughout the house. Henry shot his aunt one last smile. "Thank you for telling me your story."
"Thank you for listening."
And then the boy was out of the bedroom, leaving behind a relieved Zelena who listened with a smile how Henry tried to calm down his scolding grandfather and a crying Claire ("really Henry, if your mother finds out!").
Yes, it was all messed up, but wasn't family always?
...
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