Here it is at last: a new chapter! This update took a while but for all the right reasons: I was busy getting ready for the Paris con, and now I'm processing all the wonderful things, such as getting to hug Lana and meeting Sean and Jared as well! I might need a little time to recover from all this. Again, thanks a lot for your support and patience and I hope you enjoy my take on Regina and Zelena's clash at the barn...and the consequences.
Snow had been right. All of their joint effort had proven insufficient to stop Zelena - damn it, it hadn't even been enough to slow her progress. Regina rubbed the back of her head, hardly aware of the bump there or her throbbing shoulder or bruised arms.
The baby was gone.
So were Emma's powers - their best chance. Their only chance. So this is what Zelena had needed the Curse for: to make sure the Saviour, the only wielder of white magic around powerful enough to be a threat to her, lost that magic, and with it all hope of Zelena being defeated.
Except now it was Regina storming the barn with Robin, David and Hook in tow. Now it was Regina hoping against hope that Henry was right, that there was light in her and that she'd be able to summon that light and transform it into magic. She'd never done it before - until today. But that was different, she hadn't exactly done anything, at least not in that sense. The love she felt for Henry simply happened to be there, it was part of her being, ran through every fibre of her body, and it had acted of its own accord without her having had to push for anything at all. That was how true love's kiss seemed to work - it couldn't be forced, it just happened.
But this was different. Magic of this kind required focus, and as good as her concentration could be, until now her fuel had always been some dark aspect of her soul: anger, hatred, pain. That simmering rage. It was all she had. No, it was all she used to have, once. Not anymore.
She'd done good things. Not as many as she'd done evil, but she'd done them even though they hadn't been easy. Zelena was threatening Henry, threatening Snow and her baby, threatening the whole town, and Regina wouldn't let her hurt them. This wasn't about hatred or vendetta. This was about protecting others - people she, in some way or other, cared about and felt responsibility towards. People she even loved.
Love is weakness.
Robin was behind her with his bow at the ready, she heard his footsteps among all the rest and even smelled that characteristic vague waft of pine and fire.
And what good did this advice ever do to me, mother? She'd given up everything she loved for vengeance, and lost everything else: her father, Henry, and the rage she had nourished, the rage she had mistaken for life once was just like a fire burning in a hollow cave, burning boldly but without warmth, without light.
The barn door was closed but wouldn't stay so for much longer. They were almost upon her. Regina's knees threatened to buckle for a split second: another door of another building, not a barn but a stable, loomed before her eyes.
Love, true love, is the most powerful magic of all.
She'd loved and she'd lost.
But it had been finding love again through Henry that made her feel alive once more, even if it came with the fear of losing everything, of hurting, of breaking. That risk was just the price you had to pay for opening your heart to it. Everything, not just magic, came with a price. Some things were simply more worth paying that price for than others.
Everything was sharp and clear as they barged in: the curious lines and shapes on the floor; the blood-curdling offerings of a brain, a heart, and a newborn; Zelena's smug face distorted with malice and a sort of twisted joy corrupted by grievance and envy and blind hatred. Regina's breath hitched. She was essentially looking at herself years ago - maybe mere months - and she barely recognised the woman she was seeing. But her mortification only lasted a second because she couldn't afford more, not now, and she couldn't afford to feel sympathy for her sister either. At least not until this fight was over.
Hook, David and Robin fanned out around the room.
"I've got your heart," he said, and that was the final push, the last piece that clicked into place.
Zelena never bothered stopping the men circling her, her smugness clearly etched on her face. She was so certain Regina was helpless against her, that she was dark and horrible and incapable of summoning the light needed to overpower her. Everyone had always believed that. Regina had come to believe that. Regina wavered, and the fine threads of light she had managed to collect and weave a weapon from only flew apart. They were counting on her and she was going to let them down. Zelena knew this, too. She laughed - that sharp, mocking cackle - and laughed and laughed.
A spark of desperate rage - so very familiar - fired a blast of magic that surged towards Zelena, and… Nothing. Zelena's laughter rang in her ears in the chilly air, and Regina's fury grew along with her despair.
David launched himself forward in a foolish though understandable attempt to get to his son. Next moment he was flying against a wall. He hit it with a mighty crash and landed in a crumpled, groaning mess.
When Zelena held her up in the air, powerless and completely at her mercy, Regina struggled for breath because she always did - she always held on to life, no matter how miserable it seemed for her. So she struggled even though she had already lost.
I believe in you. Now you must believe, too.
Oh, Henry. They'd come so far. She'd come so far. It can't all have been for nothing.
I know you love me.
And she did. With every fibre in her body, she loved him. Her little prince.
Zelena was gloating, spewing word after venomous word, but Regina didn't hear her, she only heard Henry's voice and Snow's and Robin's, all these people believing in her, and it still seemed incredible, inconceivable - but, nonetheless, true.
Cold sweat stung in her eyes. She blinked and caught a flash of red against dark green.
There it was - her heart, safe and sound in his hand.
"I make my own destiny."
It had been hard to believe this was possible for her. It was still hard to believe, even as the energy surged through her, warm yet calming, nothing like the searing burst of dark magic she'd always felt before. Bright bolts of magic, silver-white instead of the usual purple, hit the Witch - her sister - square in the chest.
The Dark One's dagger flew out of Zelena's hands and clattered against the ground. The shock on Zelena's face lasted long enough for them to close in on her, Robin with his bow and Regina wielding no magic now - but she could be, the energy was still filling her to the brim, and it was marvellous, nothing like anything she'd ever experienced before. It was like freshly cut grass, a juicy apple on a warm summer day, the wind in her hair as she flew through the meadow on horseback, the way baby Henry had felt in her arms and the way it felt now when he hugged her.
Zelena clutched at her throat, her fingers finding the chain of her pendant - the pendant Regina needed to remove. Rumple was closing in on the dagger they needed to secure. Could he be trusted? She could still get there first, and the pendant should be harmless for now, Zelena far too little recovered to collect enough magic for a backlash. It did still, however, contain Zelena's magic, powerful and therefore dangerous.
Regina reached for the pendant, and Zelena, resigned, released her hold on it. As Regina's fingers curled around the green stone, the magic contained in it hummed to life. A flash of light later, she yelped and snatched her hand away. The searing pain was nothing, the skin burnt black hardly hurt compared to Rumple's betrayal. If it hadn't been for her hand on the pendant or for the deflective magic cast over it, Zelena would have been dead.
"You don't get to kill her!" Regina screamed as she scrambled to her feet. Rumple stepped forward, but Robin blocked him and sent an arrow on its way. It was no match for the Dark One, however, and fell to the ground at a wave of his hand. Rumple bared his teeth at the man standing between him and his revenge. Before Hook rushed in from somewhere, his attempt foiled by a lazy flick of Rumple's wrist.
"Step down," Rumplestiltskin growled at Regina, his sneer in Robin's direction a threat so clear she couldn't possibly miss it.
"Now's not the time to have this discussion!"
Then Robin was flying through the air, Regina's heart knocked out of his hand. Two of the pits on the ground burst into flame: the baby and, having been drawn back in by magic once Robin had dropped it, Regina's heart.
"You can only save one - or none."
Regina released a blast of water from each palm. It wouldn't quench the flames. Of course it didn't.
Like so many times before, Rumple was making her choose again. Somewhere deep in her soul she hated him for it, but now was not the time for that. She needed to make her choice: her heart, Snow's baby, or her wayward but possibly redeemable sister.
Nothing's worth the loss of a child.
The baby whimpered as she snatched it from the enchanted flames, but it was unharmed. She'd been quick enough. Regina pushed the newborn into David's arms and turned to Rumple and Zelena. He was towering over her with the dagger in his hands, ready to strike.
Regina worked up a ball of magic, whether white or purple she couldn't have said, and took aim. The dagger was coming down, soon it would plunge into Zelena's chest. Just as the spell swished through the air, Zelena jerked aside. Rumble roared in frustration at the sound of glass shattering. Regina's magic missed and shattered against a wall, leaving a smoking dent. The dagger had never come as low as Rumple had planned for it to, stopped by the cracked emerald pendant in Zelena's outstretched hand.
Green snakes of some smoky substance issued from the damaged stone, swirling like so many magical snakes released from an eternal prison.
"No!" How could this be? They'd defeated her after all. They should be safe, this shouldn't be happening, if only Rumple hadn't…
Rumple let out a bestial groan, and for once, Regina could only agree. She looked around, her eyes darting from corner to corner in a frantic attempt to fight back somehow. The greenness was spreading fast, filling the pattern etched on the ground with its magic. David lifted his eyes form his son and gazed wildly. Hook fought his way up, picked up his sword, then let it fall down again at the sight of a small vortex surfacing in the centre of the barn.
"It's too late," Zelena spat with a triumphant glint in her eyes, though not without bitterness in her words.
Was this it, then?
"Regina, no! Regina!"
Robin. Where was he? She couldn't see his form where he had landed anymore. Then he emerged from behind the green haze of Zelena's spell. And he was holding her heart. It glowed strangely red, as if it weren't even hers. Robin stumbled on his feet, still weak from the hit he'd suffered. His hand was singed from the hot flames, but he'd retrieved her heart for her - again.
And it was all for naught.
People started swarming into the barn like moths drawn to a flame, arriving only to meet their end that much sooner.
Robin stared at her shoes, black and sleek. Yes, of course… Perhaps it wasn't over yet. As she squinted at the shoes, recalling all the things in Robin's letter and all the things she knew about the story of the slippers, the spell she'd put on the shoes began to lift of its own accord, revealing a pair of gaudy, kitschy slippers Regina wouldn't be caught dead in.
Dark and light. Hard and soft. The owner of a resilient heart - though still without it now.
Robin's fingers raked the ground as the pull of the portal had knocked him off his feet and dragged him towards the centre of the vortex. His other hand outstretched, he struggled to keep Regina's heart out of the portal desperately. It was a lost cause. It didn't matter now, however. She could do this without her heart if she could do this much already. But instead, she only stared as Robin fought against the portal's force. He'd be the first to be snatched because he'd gotten to close while trying to get to her heart. Everyone else would follow soon enough. Their eyes locked and maybe she should say something, say it, but before she could muster the will or form the words, he couldn't hold on anymore. The portal swallowed him with her heart still clutched in his hand.
Until we meet again.
People screamed and scrambled to get out of harm's way - too late. The portal swept one, then another, then the next one, and with each victim its hunger only grew, and with it grew the portal's gaping mouth.
Regina closed her eyes and clicked her heels three times. Everything disappeared in a vortex of colour and stifled screams.