The truck pulls up to a sputtering stop just in front of her and then the door is flinging open to admit her entrance. Emma moves quickly, practically lunging towards it. She's nearly breathless with fear and anticipation already, her confused and uncertain mind in chaos as she tries to figure out how to explain to them what she feels deep in her heart that there isn't time to properly explain; the longer that she's been standing here since Maleficent had poofed away, the more that she's waited for her parents to arrive, the greater her feeling over anxiety about Regina's state of health has gotten.
Something is very wrong; something is very wrong with Regina.
And it's really not just a feeling. It's an impression and almost this intense pressure in the middle of her chest. If she thinks, if she concentrates, it's like there's this bubbling panic and while she's afraid, it doesn't feel like her own.
If she didn't know better, she would almost think she was feeling Regina's panic over whatever situation she's suddenly been thrust into the middle of.
"She's dying," Emma blurts out suddenly, her bright eyes suddenly going wild and frightened. She feels weirdly hot and then abruptly cold and then that sense of panic is growing into something raw and uncontrollable. There's this impression of something closing in, like the world is somehow disappearing and growing dark and even more frightening than before.
Which if she is somehow feeling Regina, is somehow connected to this woman in a way that makes no sense and every kind of sense, that's a truly terrifying thought when she considers how much Regina has been through.
"What?" Snow demands, an odd tension in her jaw. Emma has the strange feeling that there's a excitable wildness to the expression on her mother's face - something beyond the fear that she herself is feeling. Guilt. Yes, that.
Because there's a lie beneath the surface of all of this, something dark and ugly and it's why they're all in this terrible situation right now. But there isn't time for confessions at the moment. There's only time to find Regina and -
Find Regina.
That's all that matters.
"Emma," David prompts. "Are you having trouble breathing?" He's frowning at her, noticing the way she's practically heaving with intensity, almost like she's working doubly hard to try to draw oxygen into her lungs. But the windows on the truck are down and the air around them is cool and fresh.
"No. I'm...I'm fine. Maleficent let me know how to find here..." Emma says, recognizing that yes, she does feel like she's struggling for air. But that makes no sense and she doesn't dare to focus on that right now. So she changes tracks; "Gold's cabin. That's where we need to go," she insists to her father. It's only when he starts driving that she speaks again. "But she told me that they'll hurt her if they find out that she's betraying them. She thinks Regina can't...that she can't do this. She thinks Regina has changed too much and can't pretend she is what she isn't anymore. She told me that none of them are actually believing her act."
"Emma," Snow says softly, but her hands are shaking and she looks terrified and almost pale beneath the force of whatever burden she's carrying. "You don't know that. Regina is...Regina's strong. She can...she handle anything."
"You think that she can handle Rumplestiltskin and three pissed off betrayed villainesses all by herself? Because I sure as hell don't; Regina's not the Evil Queen anymore, Mom. She's the woman who texted Henry fifteen times last week to make sure he really wanted butterscotch chips in his oatmeal raisin cookies. Does that sound like a big bad Queen of Darkness to you? "
Snow's eyelids flutter shut for a moment before she turns to David and Emma doesn't miss the almost devastatingly heartbroken expression that passes between her parents before David turns his eyes back to the road. "Snow," he says after a moment and there's so much more being said there, a deeper conversation between them. "We have to tell her the truth..we have to."
"The truth?" Emma prompts, wincing at they hit a rough patch of road.
"The truth," Snow confirms with a swallow. "We lied to you, Emma. We told you that going undercover was Regina's idea, but it wasn't. It was mine. And ll of this...all of this is happening because of something we did. If Regina -"
"We can't think like that," David insists.
"Telling yourself - telling ourselves - more comforting lies just because they might be comforting won't help, either,"Emma answers, her tone short and hard. She has no idea what secret they're keeping from her, but for the moment, it doesn't matter. Yes, she's angry over the lies told - especially because it's led them to this place - but the secret won't help get them to Regina any faster and it likely won't help them save her life if her life truly is endangered; only David's driving will do that. "David, go faster. Please."
"Yeah" David murmurs, his hands clenched hard around the steering wheel.
The truck speeds up, practically jumping over a fallen log as the vehicle rushes through the woods and towards Rumplestiltskin's cabin by the lake.
The cabin has been evacuated by the time they get to it, but the signs of a fight are obvious; there's furniture overturned and broken on the ground, and multiple indications of fireballs having struck the wall and burned away at the timber there. Which suggests that Regina had put up at least a little fight.
Emma allows herself the smallest of smiles at this; Regina won't just go down without a fight. The smile fades quickly, though, when she considers the hopeless nature of trying to fight off three angry witches and the Dark One.
"She was here," Snow says unneccesarily, her fingers on the burnt wall.
"Was," Emma agrees, continuing to look around. It's just she and Snow inside of the cabin together; David had stayed outside to look around the grounds and keep an eye out for any signs of the villains possibly returning quickly. Which leaves Emma standing awkwardly with the woman that she knows is somehow responsible for this, trying to figure out where the hell Regina is.
But it's the dark blood on the floor and the fireplace poker lying next to it that draws Emma's attention and a loud gasp of horror from her mother. "That's not hers," Snow insists, and she's practically trembling, tears in her eyes.
"Yeah, keep believing that," Emma snaps back and then turns around in a complete circle, looking everywhere around she and her mother. The cabin is definitely empty except for them now - that much is unfortunately quite clear.
Which means that if the blood belongs to Regina, then she's likely in grave condition. The question is if she's still somewhere on this property or -
"Emma!"
It's her father and he's screaming for them. Emma exchanges a look of worry with Snow and then they're both rushing outside and towards where David is bent down over the ground, his bare hands frantically digging away at dirt.
At a hill of dirt that looks like it's covering up what might be a shallow grave.
"No!" Snow screams.
Emma doesn't hear her, though; the only thing she knows is that her hands are extending outwards and magic is rushing from her palms. She vaguely is aware of the fact that her father is being thrown backwards towarsds her shell-shocked mother, but her now glowing bright green eyes are on the dirt as it rapidly spins its way away from the grave, revealing what's beneath.
Regina's still breathing body, her small form somewhat protected by some kind of magical bubble that has been wrapped around her like a sheer cloak.
"She's alive," Emma breathes, and the words don't show off nearly the relief that she feels because her eyes are sweeping over the shuddering frame of Regina Mills and though the woman is clearly in shock, blood seeping down her cheeks from a massive cut across her scalp, thanks to the weird bubble of magic (it's thin and shimmering faintly), she's still drawing air into her lungs.
Unfortunately, now Emma understands the feelings that she's been having - the suffocating darkness that had been closing in. And realizes that yes, she had been somehow picking up on Regina's panic. She tells herself that this is about their bond as teacher and student and their connection that has been formed over the last few years together, but deep down, she knows it's more.
Deep down, she knows that their time never really has passed.
Not as long as they're both alive.
And they are.
They are.
"Regina," Snow says, dropping down next to Emma. She looks up at her daughter in horror a moment later, when the woman who had once been her stepmother doesn't seem to react to her voice at all. When she barely acknowledges that there's anyone with her, trying to save and protect her.
"We need to get her to the hospital," David notes, a blanket suddenly in his arms. Where he'd gotten it from (the back of the trunk, Emma's logical mind supplies) is unimportant; he hands it over to Emma and watches as she wraps it around Regina's body, tucking it tight around her shivering frame. With a quick wave of her hand, she disperses the magic that had been assisting the queen's breathing, trying not to wonder if Regina had formed it herself or if it had been put there as a kind of torture device meant to extend her suffering.
Turns out she won't have to wait very long for her answers.
"You'd better hurry then," a cool voice says from somewhere just behind them. "My companions have been investigating other clues -" her eyes settle on Emma, "Your boy is safe for now, but I wouldn't leave him alone for long; he's the one person Rumple won't yet touch but neither Cruella nor Ursula care a thing about him and if they think he knows..." she shakes her head, her eyes flickering down towards Regina, sadness there. "But they will be back soon and they will be expecting to find Regina still half-dead in her grave."
"You let them do this to her," Emma snaps as she looks up, her simmering green eyes finding Maleficent's bright blue ones as the much older woman icily regards the trio of Charmings from a few steps away from them. "For all of that talk about caring about Regina and not wanting her to die. It was all-"
"It was all truth. She's not dead," Maleficent answers quietly. "And I made it so that she's barely even aware of what she's gone through in that...grave. She will remember being attacked and the fight and maybe she'll even remember being struck by Cruella and unfortunately, I think it's likely that she will recall being put in the grave by Ursula, but not much after that; I was able to cast a stunning spell on her that I think should have help...block most of this out."
"How did this happen?" Emma demands, her hands clenching into fists.
"I warned you about the danger that she was putting herself into - that she was put into by those who were supposed to care about her," Maleficent says as she glares over at Snow and David. "As it turns out, she is still suspectible to Rumple's manipulations and apparently he's not protecting her nearly as much as he once did. I must admit, I truly didn't anticipate that. For as much as he has always...done what he's done to her, I believed he had affection."
Emma's hands clench even harder, bright red sparks flying from her fingers.
"But enough of this silly idle talk; you need to get Regina out of here if you want her to survive this. If any of you want to survive this. The three of you are no match for the others and I will fight with them," Maleficent tells them. Her simmering eyes find Snow and then David's again and there's something like a kind of intense hatred burning there, "I would see you both where Regina was just a few minutes ago if that were in my best interests. But it's not and I would rather see you both suffer. But not her. So flee while you still can."
The smoke is swirling and then she's gone once again and Snow is exhaling.
But Emma is staring at her, a thousand angry questions on her lips as she clutches Regina's still shaking - thankfully incoherent - form against her. She says something - something that sounds a whole lot like Emma's name and then Henry's - and then she's back to gasping for air like she can't seem to get enough of into her even though there's nothing preventing it now.
David says sadly, so resigned, "Later. I promise we'll tell you everything." He leans down then and with a small smile of apology to Emma, takes Regina from his daughter and lifts her up into his own arms, securing her and trying not to think about the fact that it was his own sins that have brought them here. Trying for a moment not to absorb the realization that everything he has always believed about himself including his own basic goodness is a lie.
And the woman gasping against him as she stirs and tries to pull herself back towards consciousness - the woman who had once been so easily and simply described as evil by him and by others, the one he'd been able to see as the opposites to he and Snow and to feel strong because of that - is his proof.
"Okay," Emma agrees, but her voice is rough and hard and he thinks that even if she doesn't know anything yet, everything is breaking into tiny shards of glass between them all and maybe it deserves to but that doesn't mean that this doesn't hurt worse than just about anything he's ever felt before.
Aside from the moment when he'd had to let his baby girl go years ago.
He lets out a breath, looks over at Snow and then turns and walks towards his truck, speaking only when he puts his mouth against Regina's ear and whispers in a voice that only she can possibly hear, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
They reluctantly don't take her to the hospital in the end - it's far too difficult to protect Regina and that building on the kind of scale that would likely be neccesary should there be an attack. Instead, they take Regina back to her mansion and Emma uses every bit of magic she knows to throw up protective shields and then demands that her parents make the Blue Fairy do the same.
Blue is typically superior and haughty, but when Snow angrily - cursing more than Emma has ever heard her curse - reminds her about how Regina had saved her from the hat, she finally agrees to reinforce the protections around the mayor's mansion to ensure that the enemy can't enter unexpectedly.
Which means that Regina is safe and sleeping soundly in her own bed. Blue had verified the magic done by Maleficent and promised that it would wear off within a few hours, allowing Regina to return to full consciousness then.
For now, though, she's still shaking and warm to the touch, feverish and ill.
But she's alive and she will survive.
After finally fully healing the cut on Regina's temple, Emma turns away from the queen reluctantly and looks over at her parents, his eyes finding the guilt-stricken ones of her mother first. "We're going to talk now," Emma says coolly. "And you're going to tell me the truth about what you did that made Regina think she had to go undercover with those psychos. Why you made her put her life in danger for...any of this crap. No more lies. I want the truth. Please."
"We did something terrible," Snow admits. Her eyes flicker towards Regina.
"To her?"
"No. To Maleficent." A glance at David and then, frowning. "You have to understand, Emma, our world was so much different from this one and we were afraid. We didn't...we didn't know what to do. But we did the wrong thing and we took something from Maleficent in order to protect you."
"Protect me? How? And what did you take from her?"
"We met a sorceror," David notes, looking almost ill. "Who told us that he could help bind the darkness inside of you. I know it sounds...it sounds absurd but it was a very real fear for us. We were told that you could have great darkness in you. The potential for it, anyway, and we...we panicked."
"I don't...the potential...I don't understand any of this."
"The sorceror told us if we brought him something, if we paid a price, he would bind that inside of you. But that wasn't enough. We were scared, Emma. Regina was bearing down on us and...we asked for more. We asked him to ensure that you had a way to fight back. A way to defend yourself."
"Myself or the kingdom? As the Savior?"
Her parents exchange another look, their shame apparent and obvious.
"Right. So this...guy you went to, he manipulated my magic? Did he create it?"
"He ensured that you were born with it. And that it was white magic."
"So all of this True Love shit..."
"Emma."
"It's fake. There's no such thing," Emma says dully.
"Emma, you woke up Henry with True Love's Kiss," David insists. "It's real."
"How do I know that wasn't just...what you did to me? What you made me?"
"It was supposed to be a good thing."
"Yeah. Supposed to be. What price did you pay? Or more to the point, who did you make pay the price because you were unwilling to trust me?"
"Not you," Snow says. "Us. We were unwilling to trust that we could be strong enough to fight against the potential for darkness that was inside of you."
"Don't you get it? We all have that potential inside of us. That's called life. What you did - what you tried to do - was take away my right of free will."
"That's not how our world saw things," David says quietly.
"What did you give this sorceror?"
"Maleficent's child," Snow says, her voice low and horrified like she's experiencing it all over again and truly feeling the guilt of her previous actions. "We gave him...we gave him Maleficent's child. Before it hatched."
"No."
"We thought it was...we thought it was..." David shakes his head, unable to even try to say the words "right thing". A look behind Emma and at the woman tossing and turning in the bed and he knows the words are all wrong.
"You stole her child..." Emma shakes her head, tears in her eyes. "Regina, was that why she was undercover? To protect me from finding all of that out?"
"Yes," Snow admits. "She...I asked her to and she...she agreed to do it."
"Knowing everything that she has done to better herself and knowing that Maleficent might have a grudge against her and all the different shit that Gold has done to her..." she runs a hand through her hair. "God, you put her in the line of fire because you didn't have the courage to tell me the truth?"
"Would you have understood?" David asks. "If we'd told you the truth?"
"Is that your justification for that?" Emma snaps, gesturing towards Regina.
"No," Snow insists. "There is none. We...screwed up, Emma. We did this."
"You did. And you know what, I don't know if I would have handled the truth well, but I think I would have tried to. Everyone around this damned town - including the woman in that bed and the guy I was dating - have done shitty things so I probably would have tried to understand. But you lied to me. You didn't trust me. And you did this. You let her get hurt for you. For me." Her face contorts. "Now I need you to leave. I need you to go away. I need..."
"Emma, please -"
"No. I need space. To try to figure out...I need time to absorb all of this."
"We were scared."
"And now I'm pissed. And I'm scared. And I don't...I need you to leave."
"Regina -"
"Is safe now. With me. They'll go through me to touch her." Her eyes glow with an eerie light, her hands sparking red for a moment before cooling.
"Snow," David says, a hand on her arm. "We need to...she owe her this."
"We love you," Snow insists.
"At this moment, I don't really care. You should have told me the truth and let me try to deal with it. Instead, you lied to me and put our entire family at risk. You put everything that we have built and...what am I supposed to tell Henry about why his mother is hurt? Because his grandmother kidnapped a child?"
Snow's eyes flutter closed and a strangled noise tears from her throat.
"Go," Emma says. "Just go."
The door closes a few moments later and then Emma is dropping down to a knee in the middle of the bedroom, her head rested in her hands. A harsh groaning sob sounds a moment later and then she's falling to the carpet.
She wonders if this is what it feels like to be buried alive.
TBC...