ORGANIZED LIGHTENING.
Note on head canon: I can't deal with Bae as Neal as being Henry's father so I don't even bother in this story. Anyway, the story is winding down…eventually. Now that the show has explored their shared use of magic a little bit more, I'm happy to let this one run its course and maybe turn into a sequel along the way somewhere. Thanks for reading and for your comments!
Chapter 15.
The rest was chaos, at least for a time. There was, in the moments before she bolted, some look Regina gave that felt like goodbye. It made sense to Emma, when she thought about it later, that after all they'd been through, this time between her and Regina should end where they began. In darkness and in hiding and too far apart to help one another.
It started when their caravan stopped on the side of the highway. When Emma and Henry walked to meet with Snow and James, to compare strategies for dealing with what appeared to be an enormous magical outbreak, Regina promptly shifted herself into the driver's seat of her car, and roared away from the group.
"No!" Emma swore and shouted and tried to no avail, to convince James to give her the keys so she could start some high-speed pursuit after a woman whose destination was already known.
Moments later, another car pulled up behind them. It was Gold. Rumpelstiltskin. Whatever. And the car was made of solid gold. Upon seeing it, Emma instantly wished she'd brought her gun.
"I'll ride with him." She growled. "You follow us. Henry, go with your grandparents."
Driving into the city was like driving into a completely other world. There were silver ghosts of animals and people, flitting from car to car, house to house, and elves and gnomes (Emma wasn't sure if there was a difference) leaping to catch each one. Enormous, glowing green snakes, wove through sidewalks and slithered up buildings. People screamed and ran and created an assortment of odd magical after-effects—one woman's rage at another who had toppled her, turned air around her to black ash. As Rumpel slowed about a mile from Regina's home, a group of women with purple and blue and pink hair passed by, singing who some long, continuous note in Emma's direction. Emma was mesmerized. She had to be pulled back into the car as their song intensified and their hair flew about like waves in the sea…and their eyes turned to black ink and they showed tiny sharp teeth. Emma recognized one from the small bar on the outskirts of Storybrooke and blushed brightly. Then, following the fairies closely behind, was a woman with green tinged skin and long, dark green hair. She wore a flimsy emerald dress and raised a glass in their direction.
"Is that…?" Emma yelped when Rumpel had to yank her in yet again.
"Yes, it is. Now stay put, Ms. Swan." He looked warily at a crowd of pale, skinny young men, all with jet-black hair and large black eyes. They seemed to know him and looked at once.
"Why are you here?" Emma's question broke Gold's reverie. The leather of the gold Chevy was sparkly silver and kind of rubbed off onto Emma's jacket. She felt odd and heavy, worried about Regina but also nervous about whatever Rumpelstiltskin was up to. His eyes kept flickering over toward her, straying from the road. From time to time, he had to steer the car around a streak of green or blue magic.
"I live with my son now, he and I were passing through when we saw what was beginning." He paused. "I figured, this morning, that when things intensified, Regina might return to her previous hiding spot. It was, after all, where all of the magic gravitated toward, combining with other forms. The magical creatures that roam other realms want to expand their horizons. Wouldn't you?"
"I don't…know…" Emma had no idea how to answer such a question. Creatures. Ghosts. She turned and spotted a small dragon, breathing fire at a hairy dude who looked like Bigfoot. All around Bigfoot were scurrying little elf like people, throwing things in his way and blocking any damage the dragon might have made.
"Some of the magic of this world, Ms. Swan, is greedy magic. It is angry, thieving, lying magic. The darkest magic. I don't want to bore you with dreary politics, the rest is complicated. There is also older magic and all of it, combined with what we brought from the Enchanted Forest, has created a wonderful sort of chaos." He smiled, but the result was less than reassuring. "That thing in there isn't Cora, but a replica of Cora. You have to go and get Regina out before she falls too deeply into the illusion."
Emma scrunched her nose, scratched her arm through her brown leather jacket—her third favorite these days—and droned, "Why would Cora be back?" as another fairy threw dust that coiled into a silver spring and then splashed like water on the car. She felt her arm being shook and was pulled back from the odd display.
"Cora isn't Cora, but a simulation. Of Regina's weaknesses and neediness meant to draw her out of Storybrooke. Meant to draw the magic out of Storybrooke. There is magic here as well. Magic all around. Nothing much one can do about it, but with so many untrained, greedy people…" He giggled. "Who can say?"
For a second, Emma thought back to that Ghostbusters movie—was it one or two, she couldn't remember—when the guys had to rescue a baby from the edge of an apartment building. Regina's building looked like a smaller version of that particular weird scene, only without any ghostly nannies thank the fucking gods. It took Emma an entire hour to stumble through the wreckage that was in front of Regina's loft when they did arrive in front of it. There were magical stairs that led around and around and around before depositing a person into the lobby where a revolving door promptly spit them back out again. It took Rumpel doing a levitation spell (after laughing for half an hour) to get her up the side of the building, but then the windows turned to giant gelatinous hands that bounced her up and down. It was ridiculous. She didn't get inside until three small people, sort of like elves but more like the protectors of the Bigfoot guy, scurried up the building and grasped her elbows, pushing her through the gel.
When she fell on the other side, she immediately heard the sounds of Regina's screams. Her heart leapt into her throat and she ran as fast as she could, smashing through the already damaged and unhinged front door of the loft.
What appeared to Regina to be Cora, appeared to Emma to be a dragon. Maleficent. Emma shouted in shock as a wave of flame roared toward her. Regina only saw the Cora-creature throwing heaps of purple orbs into the air, each one with a different affect. One moment, Emma was suspended in mid-air, the next she was flung against the ceiling. Somewhere in the chaos, Snow and Rumpel joined, having been pulled up and inside by a more successful levitation spell. When Emma strained her head to the side, she could see Rumpel throwing a protective bubble around Snow and then blocking a jolt of blue that went from the dragon or Cora or whoever, and tried to latch around Emma's ankle.
That was when Regina broke out of her trance long enough to realize that the person she loved was glued to the ceiling.
Regina couldn't reach her, couldn't touch her to trigger any remaining magic between them so she shouted at Snow,
"I need whatever it was that was contained in that egg!"
From the corner of her eye, Emma saw Rumpelstiltskin speaking in quiet tones with her mother. It took a moment of hesitation, but Snow nodded. She threw the object she'd been hiding in her purse, up to the ceiling, toward Emma…
…who promptly let it fall, bursting open.
Regina looked up, then flicked her wrist, and Emma was lowered again. Her eyes shining with tears, Regina held out a hand. Their fingertips touched for just a second before the magic took them both over.
"Mother…" The anguish in Regina's voice stirred the creature that hovered behind her. It began to spin and spin, uttering words in some language only Regina could understand.
"It isn't her. It's ok to let go now." Emma's words echoed in her mind, but Regina somehow heard them.
Regina tried, turning around with a strangled cry. She turned her back on the regret and guilt and anguish of her ghostly mother, and the magic roared its frustration. Rumpel started to shout as a portal opened in the fireplace:
"Regina, you know what to do. You did it before but this isn't your mother. It isn't even her, not this time. She's gone, now let whatever they've taken of her go…for good!"
Emma couldn't quite focus on what happened next, but she heard rather than saw, Regina spin quickly and push the Cora-creature through the portal.
There was silence then, the portal squelching shut after a quick second of flashing light. Snow walked quietly forward and put an arm around Regina, who said by way of reply to the show of affection…
"I think I'd like some lunch now." She sounded tired. And defeated.
"Ok, sure thing." Snow nodded and opened the other arm for her daughter to collapse against.
They levitated down to the sidewalk. When Henry saw his mothers, he waved with a huge grin, but continued his conversation with whatever elfin creature had captured his attention. Regina was silent the entire time and barely even registered Emma or Henry's presence. Her clothes were torn and covered in dust, so Emma held a towel aloft while she changed in the backseat of their car, into an old tank top and too-tight jeans from Emma's bag. It was cute, seeing her in Emma's clothes, but it didn't solve the confused frustration Emma still held onto. Whatever magic had coursed between them, it was still in her head. And it was as though she could see the world through its warped lens. There was irrational, thrumming anger there. Emma ignored Rumpelstiltskin's curious and knowing glances, rubbed her fingers on her temples and turned away.
Most of what had turned the city upside down, seemed to be dissipating. Thread-like strings of magic, made of blue and green energies, arced toward Emma and Regina's wrists in jagged lines. The Bigfoot creature walked by them just then, glanced their way, and was followed by a wolf spirit. They retreated into what looked to be a fold in the air. It was almost like a dream, but when Emma dug her nails into her wrist, the world did not change.
They piled into their cars after Snow quietly announced that they'd be leaving again, this time with Rumpel in tow so he could answer their questions. Emma drove with just Regina. They didn't speak.
Over an otherwise quiet lunch, Henry kept asking questions of Rumpel. "So there's magic all around us all the time? Older magic?" He glanced nervously at his mother as she methodically ate her banana pancakes and stared into space.
"And new. And old new. And new old. From many worlds at once." Rumpel gave a flourish of his wrist and giggled like a dork. Then he directed his thoughts to Regina, "The demons wanted you to feed them—to mother them. But what you and Emma created defeated all of that. The egg was made up of all that you were avoiding. All of the power you wouldn't take. All of the magic you were afraid of…"
"The question that worries me, is whether or not Storybrooke is safe." Snow spoke in low tones, watching as the magical trickster contemplated which answer to give.
"Mostly," he giggled, "but you'll have to make yourselves invisible all over again…"
They left him behind at the diner, after he called his son to pick him up. Something flashed in his eyes when he looked at Regina and Emma—like he had a secret that pertained only to them. Which, of course—of course he would.
"Fucking guy." Emma muttered, slamming into her car again.
They drove for three hours before another rest stop, Emma and Regina's vehicle trailing behind the rest. As her fingers curled, cramping on the steering wheel, Emma wished they could just enjoy the trip somehow. Maybe stop somewhere to see the sights in New York or visit old haunts in Boston. Instead they drove steadily onward, their cars sped up by some silly little spell that Regina used to cloak them and steer them quickly at the same time.
"That's cheating." Emma muttered as she passed a speed trap without so much as a siren.
When she looked at Regina then, all curled up in the passenger seat wearing her clothes, looking absurdly beautiful despite her obvious sadness, she was reminded of those weeks spent in Philadelphia together. She remembered how she'd started noticing little things about Regina. Like how her hair, when it was a longer, was wavy and softer, or how her eyes could flash almost auburn in candlelight, or how she bit her lower lip when Emma kissed the back of her neck…
"Oh please, are you really thinking about all of that at a time like this?" Regina's voice startled Emma and her hands shifted too quickly on the wheel. They were righted again in their lane by Regina's magic but the chuckle that followed was annoying.
"So now you're talking so I can ask you some questions, right?"
"What kinds of questions?" Regina pressed her forehead to the passenger side window. "I won't read your mind too often, I promise. I mean it's probably just sex stuff that'll make it easier." She looked briefly to the left and nodded at the flush that covered Emma's chest.
"No, just…I mean now what?" Emma asked quietly. "Are you going to run away again, hole up and wallow? The floors probably need redoing back in your old place. You could start there." Her shoulders slumped. Anger and disappointment etched its way across her features.
If the magic had been hard to take, the emotional blowout that followed was harder but at least it didn't last long. Regina shouted, "Everything is so bloody easy for you, isn't it Emma?" Worn out from what she'd already been through, she started to cry, hands covering her eyes and pressing hard against her forehead. "You come after me, with so many promises to save me from myself, you fall in love with me—so easily—none of it was hard for you! Every part of it was hard for me. It was hard to trust you, to open up to you and now, to do magic with you…"
"None of this has been easy for me. I just don't reveal a whole lot." Emma frowned again and the feeling helped pull her down, away from Regina's heat and anger. She straightened her shoulders and added, "We're a team, Regina, you, me, this whole weird little family. Snow already told you that and I'm reiterating the point. A team. You don't run into dangerous situations without us. And from the looks of it, you're definitely stuck with me from now on, so…"
"So we're a team." Regina said softly. "Ok."
They stopped outside of Boston, at yet another diner. Emma was beginning to wonder about their collective eating habits, so she ordered a green salad to go with her cheese burger. Henry was asleep, so Regina climbed in beside him, coaxed him with soup, and then they emerged as Emma watched.
"You two ok?" Snow interrupted Emma's quiet watching—mother and son, alone again…
"Yeah. I don't know. I think so." Emma was noncommittal. "I'll stay at hers tonite if you can take our kid?"
"Of course."
Emma watched as her mother scratched her nose, looking past her.
"You do that when you're worried about something."
"I'm worried about Storybrooke." Snow shrugged. "We have no idea what's out there, magic or otherwise. We don't even really know who we are. I mean we're from at least three different worlds, from what Regina has told me. And the line between magic and non-magic beings isn't clear cut anymore."
"Maybe it never was." Regina's voice surprised them. Snow looked pleased though, patting a place next to her in the booth.
By the time they arrived at the magical border to Storybrooke, Emma could see the moon streaking through the sky like some bizarre comet. "uhhh…"
"Don't worry. She'll sort herself out." Regina looked again. "Oh, good, that was just an illusion." She nodded and said, "otherwise we'd really have issues."
"When will it stop?" Emma asked. Driving in the darkness, with little signs of magic all around them, reminded her of the day when she first found out that the Curse was real. She'd never been so proud of herself, for saving Henry—for slaying a fucking dragon even! But the thought that Regina's actions had actually led to Henry's near brush with death…well that had only recently begun to sink in. It was fear as much as anything. Fear at the new/old/new…whatever…world that that begun around them. Regina had to have her fucking back. They had to work together. Otherwise…
"Hey…" A hand strayed onto Emma's thigh, squeezing briefly. There was a flash of that green ring again. Regina's old alliances. Her old coven. Not like the new one. Not at all dedicated to Storybrooke's protection. To Emma and Henry's protection…
"Are we ok?" Emma's voice was timid.
"Yes." Thankfully the answer came back in a firmer tone. Regina twirled the ring on her finger. "I found this old thing in my jacket this morning. I'll tell you about it sometime." She slipped it off and threw it out the car window, just like that. It was a ridiculous gesture made all the more absurd by the fact that she didn't bother opening the window first. The ring slipped through and bounced on the side of the highway.
"Ummm…does it have…"
"Powers? No. No one will take it and use it for evil." Regina laughed. "I was just making room. Don't worry so much darling."
"Sure." Emma sighed. "Could you stop reading my mind though and answering questions before I ask them?"
There was a chuckle by way of reply. But when Emma turned and raised an eyebrow, Regina nodded again.