A Promise Kept
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters contained within nor the shows from which they appear in. Any coincidence to real life is unintentional. This story is not used for profit and is for entertainment purposes only. Quote used is from Batman Begins, another thing I do not own any part of. I do not own the story Snow talks about nor the line from Kingdom Hearts.
Summary: Snow and Emma return to Storybrooke but something is amiss. Henry and Regina strive to find the true Emma and to that extent they contact a Dream-Walker: Morganna. (Swan Queen, Regal Red Belle teamwork, Regal Cricket, Evil Regal Mafia Coven, Mills family reparation, Merlin/Morganna)
Author's Note: A Promise Kept is second in a series of three connected stories, centering on Regina Mills, Henry Mills and Emma Swan. The prequel to this story is called Regina's Most Dreadful Nightmare. It is not necessary to read that story to understand A Promise Kept, however, many elements will slowly crop up over the course of the story, and it will be an important aspect of several points made in the story and ensuing sequel, so I would highly suggest reading it in conjunction with A Promise Kept. It may not seem that way, but the names used to identify characters are used deliberately. I'm including a quote from Batman Begins as I feel it resonates strongly with the series.
Please read this link to my tumblr for an idea for how I will be handling the Regina/Henry dynamic.
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Chapter Notes: Thank you all very much for taking the time to read this series and your continued support! I cherish all of your comments, alerts and favourites. I love to read your thoughts! I apologize for the delay between chapters and that this installment is a bit shorter than usual. Most of my energy for this update went to my new story, I Believed in You, so please give that a read if you need more SQ goodness! Also, RMDN, APK and IBIY finally got a taste of amateur PhotoShop work for their cover images.
"…But I know the rage that drives you. That impossible anger, strangling the grief until the memory of your loved one is just…poison in your veins. And one day you catch yourself wishing the person you loved never existed, so you'd be spared your pain. Your anger gives you great power. But if you let it, it will destroy you."—R'as al Ghul, Batman Begins
It didn't matter whether it was kicking ass, taking names, pilfering shit or a combo of all three, Emma Swan was going to do it all with a grin and merry spring in her step. Her mind played with that description and she thought that if Regina knew she had a spring her step, she would do the nice thing and fix it for her. The thought made Emma giggle in a mildly psychotic manner that had the rest of her companions fix her with various degrees of wariness.
Even Morganna, the one most affiliated with evil, seemed quite frightened by Emma's cheeriness. "I beg your pardon, but are you ill?"
"Nope," Emma chuckled as she led the way down to the dungeon of Snow White's old castle. It had taken hardly any time at all to arrive at the castle and get the ashes, thanks to Morganna's magic. All they had to do was get the ink out of Gold's old cell and they would be home soon.
"This is a mission of great import; it would behoove you to take your duties more seriously," Morganna admonished and it caused Emma to stiffen. She could swear that she heard that in Regina's voice.
Snow entered Emma's personal space and laid a concerned hand upon her shoulder. "You're not usually this…optimistic," and the word obviously wasn't the best choice, as evidenced by the perplexed frown she wore.
Emma shrugged. "We're finally going home and I got to see Henry and Regina…I guess I'm kinda happy."
It was eerie how Morganna and Snow shared a skeptical look with each other. Emma was pretty sure there was something between the two of them, like with Regina, but couldn't find it in herself to voice her curiosity.
"You were happy to see Regina?" Snow questioned.
"Well, uh," Emma spluttered. Was she truly?
Snow thankfully interrupted that line of thinking. "It's just…" she hedged, "Well, you were rather upset with her."
Deflecting was what Emma did best. "I guess she must have put a spell on me when she healed me."
Snow pulled a face. "That was terrible."
It didn't occur to Emma that Snow was talking about the bad joke, not Regina. "Well, you were antagonistic enough for the both of us." It was Henry. Seeing him must have put Emma in a forgiving mood. "Nice role reversal, there. You had your turn defending Regina, now it's mine." Never mind that Emma had spent a lot of time defending Regina, even in the beginning.
"What, are you going to do the opposite of what I do out of spite?"
"Maybe," Emma replied crossly.
Snow nearly stomped her foot in rage. "Were you always like this?"
"How would you know? You're the one that shipped me off to Maine!"
"Now you're talking like Regina!"
"How is that a bad thing!" Emma demanded and felt her throat constrict.
"Thank you kindly for foisting your family drama upon us," Morganna drawled with a hint of scorn. "'Tis truly enlightening to see the family dynamic."
Emma turned to glare at Morganna who appeared unfazed by the look. Sighing, Emma's shoulders slumped and she resignedly turned back towards Snow. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap at you. I've just been… out of it."
"Stress, lack of sleep, slashed by a hook," Snow gently replied and just like that Emma was forgiven. It was so quick and easy— she didn't have to earn it. The love so freely given was still disconcerting.
"Yeah, especially when we went into that dream–world," Emma scratched her neck.
"'Dreaming'," Morganna corrected swiftly. Her haughty expression didn't fade under the combined stare of Emma and Snow. "It's entirely possible for you to have residual side–effects from The Dreaming. It is, after all, a door to your soul, a place that connects everyone. Also, something may have transferred from Regina when she healed you," she lifted a shoulder as if stating a commonplace fact like the weather and not something important.
Emma blanched. She was positively giddy a few moments ago and then snapped into defensive mode at a perceived slight. Was this how Regina felt all the time? "Wait, so you're saying that Regina was happy to see me?" Her eyes widened to a gross level as she peered from Morganna's nonchalant face to Snow's equally aghast one.
"Implied, yes," Morganna sniffed and Emma had to fight the eye roll at the personality similar to Regina's.
With an audible click Snow's jaw shut and she brushed past Emma to continue the trek down the stairwell, Mulan and Aurora side–stepping around Emma and Morganna. Emma continued to stare at the wall, her mind abuzz with theories and memories. She was startled when Morganna laid a cool hand on her forearm.
"She truly was happy to see you," Morganna intimated. Her voice had taken a strange gentle quality to it and Emma had to wonder what this woman's game was. She was naturally wary before she came to Storybrooke but after the last year she became slightly paranoid, more so after she had been tricked by Cora. As if sensing Emma's discomfort, Morganna withdrew her hand. "I've been watching her, in The Dreaming. You are the Saviour, are you not?"
Emma winced at the title.
"Fabled White Knight?" Morganna goaded further, a dark chuckle rising from her throat at Emma's petulant look. "You're supposed to bring back the happy endings." At Emma's confused expression, Morganna lifted an eyebrow. "All of them."
Emma felt her stomach plummet. She couldn't handle this. She just wanted to go home and see Henry. No more magic or pirates or stupid creatures that were supposed to be confined to bedtime stories and cheap horror movies.
Morganna evidently took pity on her and exhaled loudly before descending the steps. A few moments passed and Emma followed her.
"You've gotta be shittin' me, sister," Leroy whined as Red and Belle arrived at the designated meeting spot, a mile out from the mine entrance.
Red scowled down at him. "It wasn't my idea," she defended weakly.
Belle let out an exasperated snort and breezed past them both, leaving them and Archie staring at her slack–jawed. "Come on you two, we don't have all night. Who knows when Cora and Hook will come here to take the fairy dust?"
Leroy jabbed Red in the side and the two spent several moments furiously hissing and poking at each other while Archie jogged up to join Belle. "Uhm, Belle, are you sure you should be out here with us? I mean, you are a target…"Archie trailed off when Belle whirled around to stare up at him.
"I can handle myself, thank you very much. I'm not going to sit idly by and let those two further the cycle of revenge, especially when people I care about are involved! Besides," she loftily inclined her head towards Red, "I have Ruby with me, and now you and Leroy. Everything will be alright."
Red coughed slightly at the complete faith Belle had in her. "That doesn't mean we should just rush into danger."
Belle leveled her with an exasperated look. "Your concern is noted but the longer we dilly–dally here talking, the more likely the chance that we will run into Cora and Hook."
Leroy grumbled something incomprehensible and tromped ahead to join Belle and resumed their walk to the mines. "Let's get going then. You'd better have…whatever it is Gold had to swap the dust."
Smiling, Belle nodded and patted the satchel slung over her shoulder. Leroy eyed it with disdain. "What?" Belle pouted. "Ruby assured me it was very fashionable."
Red laughed slightly as Leroy turned a sickened look at her. "It is, obviously fashion goes over your pretty little head," she dropped a pat on top of Leroy's head. Annoyed, he batted her hand away.
"Watch it, fuzzball," he grumped.
Archie, for his part, felt trepidation enough for the whole group. He kept looking furiously all around and didn't realize how clammy his hands had become until Belle grasped one of them briefly, offering him a reassuring smile. "Does Rumplestiltskin know you're here?"
Belle's smile faded slightly. "Yes. He's learning to communicate better and to have faith in me, much like Henry and Regina."
Red took a huge whiff of air, relaxing slightly when she couldn't pick up any scent of Hook or Cora. "She locked you up, Belle. And she did terrible things to Snow. Some things and people don't change."
"She can change," Belle stubbornly persisted. "A person can overcome their darkness."
Red was pretty sure Belle wasn't talking about just Regina anymore. Her eyes flitted in Red's direction and Red felt warm all the way to her toes, much like when Snow accepted her.
"Yeah, well, there's a big difference between conscious and unconscious evil," Leroy nodded at Red.
Belle sighed. "'Good' people do a lot of the same things that evil does. We have to take responsibility for our actions. Forgiveness is hard to come by unless we find peace in ourselves."
"Well said," Archie muttered under his breath as the group arrived at the entrance of the mine. Dopey was leaning against the side and gave a curt nod to Leroy as they passed into the tunnels. The warm glow of magic trickled from the ceiling and seemed to disperse in the blood of the group. Archie glanced at the others to note that they had similar gentle expressions on their faces.
"Okay," Belle snapped out of the glow first and opened her purse to produce a wand.
Leroy eyed the stick with scrutiny. "Isn't that a fairy wand?"
"I guess," Belle answered as she held out her purse for Red to hold. Upon her doing so, Belle dug into her purse to produce a large drawstring sack. She motioned for Jiminy to hold the sack and she waved the wand three times counter–clockwise in front of it and a black powder rose from the bag. Belle then twirled the wand clockwise three more times at the ceiling and the mine exploded in a show of black and blue specks. Everyone shielded their eyes and, after several moments, opened them to see that the sack was now filled with fairy dust.
Leroy let out a low whistle as he gazed up at the ceiling. "Nice work. It looks just like the real stuff."
Archie looked to Belle. "You can use magic?"
Belle grinned. "True Love is magic."
Snow sighed as she attempted to shift her body into a more comfortable position. She was currently sitting down in Rumplestiltskin's cell after their group had spent nearly an hour scouring the area for the ink they were to find. Mulan chanced upon a tiny hole in the wall and procured a tiny bottle that contained a piece of parchment with Emma's name written upon it. Morganna proclaimed that the ink was used in the writing and they could still use it but the sight of the object had rattled Emma. Snow had suggested they take a break before Morganna constructed the Looking Glass and that's where she currently found herself.
Body pillow to the Saviour.
Snow smiled softly as she tucked an errant lock of hair behind Emma's ear.
"Do you hate her?"
Snow nearly jumped out of her skin when Morganna's silky voice broke through the silence. She was seated across Snow and the others, near the entrance of the cell. A small, magical fire crackled in the space between them and gave her the hauntingly beautiful look Snow had remembered since her childhood. "Regina?" She guessed.
Morganna's lips quirked. "Who else?"
"Cora," Snow snorted and shared a look of loathing with Morganna. "Sometimes," she admitted at length.
"But not entirely?" Morganna's voice tilted with curiosity.
"No." Snow shook her head and remembered Emma's words and actions. "I mean, I despise what she did. She tried to kill me so many times, she enacted the curse and took away my time with my child. I hate that woman but sometimes I still remember who she used to be. That's why I stopped her execution but she refused to change so I banished her." Her eyes crossed as she stared deeper into the fire. "But then she adopted Henry and something started to grow within her. She didn't know how to express it in a healthy way but I could sense it. And when we saw her in The Dreaming…" she trailed off and looked Morganna in the eye.
"She wasn't anything like you remembered?" Morganna guessed.
"No, she was like the young woman I knew and loved and that's what worries me." Snow shuddered. She wanted to trust and believe in the change in Regina but she couldn't be sure. Regina had betrayed her, and she Regina in turn. "Emma believes in her, and Henry does, too. I'm scared that their faith is misplaced."
Morganna gave a soft laugh. "You're scared that yours is," she answered perceptively.
Snow remembered the kind and gentle woman Morganna once was but she had heard the gruesome tales of the woman during her last few years in her home world. She was just as vicious as Regina, if not more so. King Arthur had issued a decree calling for her capture or death—preferably the latter. Yet there was still a sparkle in her eyes that Snow had caught several times like she had recently witnessed in Regina.
If she didn't believe, she had nothing. It was how she and Charming found each other time and again, how they had been reunited with Emma.
"Can you tell if she's truly changed?" Snow hesitated. "Can she?"
Morganna narrowed her eyes slightly at the question. "You mean to ask if I have seen her soul through Dreaming?" Snow nodded. "It's true that I can perceive a person's soul via Dreaming, but the thing about humans is that we are constantly changing."
Snow rotated her arm slightly so Emma's head wouldn't fall off it. "There's a tale from the world we're going to, Storybrooke. A wise person once told a youth about two wolves inside of us, a light and dark. The youth asked which one would prevail and the elder answered that it was the one we fed."
Morganna's lip curled in distaste. "The soul is generally engaging in a battle between light and dark and too much of one is an imbalance. The brightest light casts the darkest shadow."
"That was part of the reason it was so hard to reconcile Regina with the Evil Queen," Snow said.
"Perhaps, but I think that it's because you were deluding yourself that she wasn't changing. You were a child," Morganna averted her eyes to the side. "Regina, like most others, gradually changed. As for where she is now…" she shrugged lightly. "She's pretty firmly in the grey and I don't think she'll ever completely erase the dark in her. I hope not," she smiled.
Snow looked aghast at the admission. "Not if she wants to redeem herself —that will only hold her back."
"You have darkness in your heart, too, Snow White, and if you deny that you'll only wind up harming yourself and those around you. If you and Regina find a way to accept and deal with the darkness in your hearts, it won't overwhelm you."
Snow peered cautiously at Morganna. "And you?"
Morganna stared back stonily. "I've made my choice and it won't ever change. Not until I've done what I need to. Sometimes you can't save everyone." Snow frowned at that and Morganna smirked slightly. "You can't save someone who doesn't want to be saved. But Regina wants to be saved. By her son with Emma, Emma herself, even you. Most of all, by herself." She lifted an eyebrow at Snow's contemplative look. "I think, this time, she'll let you in."
Snow coughed. "Well, it's not as if I want to go and bake cookies with Regina or anything." Emma snorted in her sleep and Snow was sure that Emma's self–proclaimed lie detector flared at that.
"Are you so sure about that?" Morganna drawled, picking at her nails disinterestedly. Snow's eyes narrowed. "I'm sure one day your love for each other will endure."
"Regina and I don't love each other," Snow vehemently denied, a wild look in her eyes. "She wouldn't have done all those horrible things to me if she did."
"That's precisely why she did, dear." Morganna's tone brokered no argument. Snow faltered. "Because Regina loved you, when you told her mother of Daniel, it was like she lost you, too. The betrayal of a loved one is nigh unbearable," and it appeared as if her eyes began to glisten but Snow couldn't be sure. "Then she began to hate herself for loving you and then she had to make that hatred go away lest it destroy her, so she had to redirect it elsewhere." There was a distant look in Morganna's eyes that nearly went unnoticed by Snow, seemingly trapped in her own memories as well.
"She could have killed me when she captured Charming, but she didn't," Snow mumbled. "She stabbed me afterwards but…I don't know," she tapered off.
"Regina wanted to make you suffer, and she did, but her actions led you to your Prince…Charming," the word dripped with disdain. "If it makes a good comparison for you, I want nothing but to kill Arthur. I don't want him to suffer, I want him gone." The hatred was evident in her voice and Snow shuddered under its intensity. "We all do evil things, Snow, even you 'good' people." A flick of Morganna's wrist upped the intensity of the fire to a bluish white colour.
"I know that now," Snow whispered and looked down at Emma, her golden hair shining in the light of the flames. "I've done many selfish things, as Regina has as well. After seeing Regina in The Dreaming and talking to you now, well, she did remind me so much of the Regina who saved me. Jiminy told me that a person was only truly at peace when they accepted the dark and light parts of themselves, like you were saying." She sighed as Emma curled further into her side. Snow realized that Emma had truly been the most self–less of them all. What a 'good' person was, someone who did the right thing, no matter how painful it may be, even when the alternative was easy, like saving Regina, time after time.
Morganna clucked in consternation. "That bothersome little Cricket."
Snow ignored Morganna. The cycle had to stop. She recalled when Regina wiped away her tears when she was in prison, even though she had framed Snow and relished her suffering. Even before their meeting in The Dreaming, Regina still retained some semblance of love for her. If Snow was truly honest with herself, she still harbored a love for Regina, as well. All she could hope for was that they had finally reached a place where they could both be adults and overcome their history, for the good of everyone. And perhaps Regina and Emma could finally stop fighting over Henry, like some sort of pissing contest.
Snow felt her heart skip a beat as the crackle of magic pierced the air. Emma lifted her head instantly, wide awake and Mulan leapt into action as she positioned herself protectively in front of Aurora. Morganna swirled her hand and the fire compacted itself into a ball and she hurtled it out of the cell. There was a massive blast of white light as it made contact with something at the foot of the stairs and it dissipated into tiny little specks.
"I know it's you!" Morganna roared as she stalked toward the stairway, lightning bolts shooting from her fingertips. The sparks were immediately countered by a similar magic as a dark figure emerged from the shadows.
Snow's hands scrabbled to find purchase on her bow and she leapt off the ground as she and Mulan rushed to Morganna's side. "You're outnumbered—surrender and we won't kill you."
The figure paused and raised its hands in acquiescence.
"The hell I won't!" Morganna snarled and reared her left arm back, the temperature around her dropping rapidly and a huge chunk of ice began to materialize above her palm.
"No!" Snow dropped her bow in favour of shoving Morganna's arm down, interrupting and redirecting the spell so that it hit the wall instead of its intended target. "They surrendered! This isn't you!"
"You don't know me!" Morganna snarled. "He's here to stop me! No one is going to keep me from going to your world!" She used her right arm to slug Snow across the jaw but before she could do more the figure near the steps had closed in on her with a frightening amount of speed and grabbed her wrists and sent the both of them crashing into the wall. The figure backed away from Morganna, revealing that she was now restrained by white magic, her wrists cuffed to the wall and a slight aura of white shimmering in front of her.
"Damn you!" Morganna screeched and attempted to rip herself from her bonds.
"Mom!" Emma extended a hand to help Snow off the ground. She rubbed her jaw, the area quite tender from the impact of Morganna's fist.
"Who are you?" Snow demanded of the figure standing still in front of Morganna, her rage boiling down into a silent fury. Her eyes bore into the figure, emotion unclear but intensity frightening.
The figure pivoted on its heels to face Snow. The dark cloak around it obscured what was underneath completely but a pair of hands slipped out from under the sleeves to pull back the hood obscuring the face under it. A short crop of black hair appeared followed by a piercing pair of ocean blue eyes.
Morganna growled and the name from her lips was ground out in pain. "Merlin."