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.
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.
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. Thanks for your patience and continued support- it means the world to me. This chapter kind of runs more along the lines of I Believed in You but lacks the length of that story's installments. In any case, I hope you enjoy it, as this installment has only a couple chapters left.
"…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
"I will never leave you."
Against her will, Regina felt her heart soar at the words echoing in her head, the words winding around the echo of Emma's declaration that Regina was not alone. She had Henry and Emma now both proving to her, themselves and the world that they were willing to believe in her and stick by her, seeing something in her that she oft overlooked.
They probably got that from Snow, believing in the good locked in Regina's heart. The memory of a young Snow and a promise broken inched its way up Regina's throat, the pain nearly choking her but Henry's hand on her back placed a stopper on her torment.
Regina had it with the lines drawn of 'good' and 'evil.' They all did both things, from her to Snow. Trying to be 'good' didn't erase the pain in her heart or in the hearts of anyone else she had hurt: no, it wouldn't, it wouldn't put her on the same moral page as anyone. Regina knew this and that she had condemned herself to an omnipresent veil of heartache.
But now Henry and Emma were here, the magic from their feelings coursing through Regina as surely as her own blood. Even the others were on her side, Snow choosing once more to give Regina a 'chance.'
Not this time, Regina took a deep breath, mind racing as the scene around her began to unfold in slow motion. This time Regina would give Snow a chance, would give them a chance, would give them all a chance to bring their lies and webs of betrayals to the surface and to see what unwound.
It would certainly help if Snow and her Charming weren't so predictable, Regina rolled her eyes as the people around her sprung into action. She yanked on Emma's forearm, siphoning a bit of magic from the woman, eliciting a surprised yelp from her.
Fire and lightning mixed with an arrow hurtled toward Cora and Hook, as well as David swiveling on his foot to direct his blade straight at Cora. Luckily for Regina, her mother, too, was predictable. Instead of deflecting any of the attacks, Cora used her magic to pull David in front of her as a human shield.
"DAVID!" Snow screamed, no doubt seeing in her mind's eye her very own arrow piercing the heart of her True Love.
Regina grunted with the exertion of creating a wooden barrier in front of a terrified David, the bark shuddering with the force of all the attacks converging upon it. Emma dropped her sword in favour of holding up Regina, the toll of keeping David safe temporarily winding her.
"David!" Snow screamed once more and ran towards him.
"Snow, wait!" Regina weakly said, to no avail. Snow was in full-on Hero Mode and would be unable to hear such a soft warning.
A puff of violet smoke billowed from behind the charred shield in front of David followed by a deafening crack and shockwave, the force bursting the wood into pieces and felling all of Regina's allies, their bodies getting pelted by the remnants of her shield. A particular sturdy chunk thwacked Regina soundly on the side of her skull, ripping away the skin instantly, blood freely running through her hair, down her jaw and into her eye.
Disoriented, Regina groaned and shook her head lightly, keeping her one eye shut and forcing the other one open to find Henry. He was face–down on the floor but his shoulders were trembling with the effort of trying to raise himself. A darkness erupted in Regina's chest at the sight and she felt her first instinct kick in, the switch to the Evil Queen beginning to rouse her, from her fingertips to the tissue of her heart.
The scattered bark around her body began to shake with new magic. Regina summoned the strength to propel herself off the ground as the pieces burst into new branches, each branch winding its way next to its fallen victim and binding them to the floor. Regina tripped as several branches began to wrap their way around her ankle but as she fell, a hand shot out and yanked on her forearm giving Regina the chance to let tiny flames wind their way from her fingers to the branches, turning them to ash.
"Regina, you alright?" Emma asked, harried. The anger in Regina quickly became centralized when she peered into Emma's eyes.
It was so easy to let her anger overcome her senses, make its way to destroy her once more, to whisper to her mind untold tales of wanton violence. Power—the only thing that made sense in any world—the ability to give one their true desire. That choosing the 'right' thing would result in making things worse, that all your 'good' was for naught.
Perhaps it all would be meaningless in the end, Regina thought as Emma's grip loosened and tightened within a heartbeat of each other. Regardless, Regina placed her hand on top of Emma's and bit back the sigh that threatened to release itself from her lips, it was….nice to have people who loved her, truly, people who were willing to heal alongside her.
"Yes…you?" Regina asked as she took stock of Emma, that infernal jacket already having new rips and tears, just as she had predicted.
"….yeah," Emma mumbled and tentatively brought her fingertips to the side of Regina's face, Regina wincing at the contact. She and Emma both recoiled as the action began to heal the cut.
"Hello, my love," Cora greeted Regina, stepping forward with all the regality and haunting caresses that plagued Regina's memories. Now that she had her original appearance, Regina found her confidence wavering.
"Mother," Regina stiffly echoed, decorum deeply ingrained in her behaviours. She stepped forward as well, to further shield Henry, and with a brush her shoulder, nudged Emma into a similar position of protection.
"I've returned for you," Cora smiled, halting a few feet in front of Regina and Emma. "I see that you've been playing nice with Snow and her daughter. Doing that won't get you your son back," she shook her head, disappointment laced in her tone. Regina hunched over, the disapproval from her mother already striking true. "You don't want their love back, do you? They will never see you as anything else. You've been bad for too long."
The room had gone silent or perhaps Cora's words were the only ones that Regina would ever be able to hear.
Cora brought a hand up to grip Regina's jaw, the touch gentle but stifling all the same. "What would you have to do, love? Prove yourself every day or they'll leave you. They will never let you be yourself. You will never be good enough as you are. Unlike them, I've never stopped loving you. I've never abandoned you. I haven't shown it in the right ways. I want to change that and be the mother you deserve."
Regina felt her knees buckle, her mother's hold on her jaw keeping her upright. She had always loved her mother, the emotion already threatening to cripple her, to acquiesce, to be loved.
Henry's face exploded in front of her eyes, sure as reality. It was easy to want to give him all he wanted so he would love her, Regina dimly remembered. She had learned that from Cora, she had done as Cora had done and just like that the spell her mother had on her heart weakened.
The love was too tight, and it suffocated Regina.
Love wasn't something you earned, Regina told herself. It was something freely given, that kind of love pure and infinitely more special. Regina drew herself up. "You no longer know what would make me happy—you cannot understand me!"
Cora drew back as if she were physically struck, looking at Regina in the most heartbreaking fashion and Regina had to harden her heart against the sensation. As quickly as the face appeared, it was replaced by the familiar one that Cora adopted when she overrode all other thought.
The face that she had after she killed Daniel.
"Of course I understand you, Regina, I know what makes you happy, and it's Snow's heart," Cora insisted, daring Regina to challenge her again.
The fear swirling in Regina's stomach nearly brought her to her knees. "No, Mother, that would not make me happy, not anymore."
"But she betrayed you, Regina," Cora replied, confused.
Regina shook her head fiercely. "No, Mother, you did."
"I didn't betray you Regina, I was protecting you," Cora replied, traces of her fury beginning to spark from her body, "as I'm protecting you now. Nothing good will come out of your dealing with Snow White, just like it never did with me."
Regina drew back in shock. "What are you talking about, Mother?"
Cora ignored her, a wild look taking residence in her eyes. "Their betrayal will always be the most acute, Regina, their love for you banking on their opinions of who you ought to be. I will protect you…I will save you from their evil!"
Just like that, Cora's spell lifted off Regina, like the sound of rushing water crashing over her head. Regina should have known that her mother had done so; Emma was never so compliant as to just stand by silently and let diatribes be spewed from her enemy's mouth. Various screams echoed as Regina became cognizant that the loudest cry was hers.
"Regina…"Emma choked out.
It was kind of like one of the old film reels of this world, the clattering of the machine both comforting and ominous, the world around her becoming dim, Regina thought. The scene was practically overlaid with the one from her memory, her mother's hand firmly embedded in the chest of one she cherished above others.
Surely it was magic that caused Regina's feet to be rooted to the ground.
The slice of a blade pierced the air and Regina gasped as a blade was run through her mother's chest. She looked on in shock as her mother merely laughed, no visible traces of blood pouring out of what should have been a fatal stab wound.
"No," Snow's voice trembled, the blade wobbling in Cora's chest.
"Oh, my darling Snow," Cora's voice dripped with condescension and she lazily flicked a hand and Snow and David's sword were propelled backwards and to the broken remains of the posts that used to be gates in the room. Vines imbued with thorns immediately wove their way around Snow's body, Snow crying out as they dug into her flesh. "If only your mother could see you now."
Snow's whole demeanor snapped and she tried to tear herself from her bonds, the thorns embedding themselves further into her body. "What do you know of my mother!?"
Cora lifted a shoulder, lifting Emma even further off the ground. "I know she would just be beside herself to see her little girl's heart turn as dark as hers."
"Liar!" Snow bellowed. "My mother was pure and good, don't you dare slander her name!"
A tickle began at the back of Regina's mind, pieces of her past clicking together in a far more frightening manner than they had done in the past. "You did it so I could be Queen, didn't you," she wearily asked of her mother, her gaze dropping to the floor.
"…not entirely, dear. I have to admit that killing Eva was a more than just a means to an end," Cora chuckled and Snow's anguished cries echoed in the room. "There was something poetic about her dying of poison, a slow, insidious corruption that consumed her thoroughly," she whispered, more to herself than anyone else.
No.
No.
Regina couldn't let Cora take someone else from her. She began to hyperventilate, the thought of losing Emma already beginning to corrode her common sense. The tingling in her finger brought her sense back to the forefront. She quickly glanced over the room as her mother continued to be lost in her own mind.
Everyone was still bound to the floor, even the most stalwart magic users. That couldn't be right, Regina mused. Surely their combined might would break free of those bonds, all of them combined being more powerful than Cora. Even if they were, by some strange chance, knocked unconscious, they would have been roused by this point. They were all in various degrees of resistance, none more so than Snow White, fueled by her fury.
Where was Hook? This was the perfect opportunity for him to exact his revenge on Rumplestiltskin. He should be here, delivering and drawing out the final blow, his revenge so neatly presented to him. Unless…unless…unless Cora knew of their plan all along. That she knew that they would swap out the fairy dust. That somehow she must have gotten her hands on it, or laced her magic with a poison, perhaps one from Hook, something that amplified her powers.
That she had gotten her hands on her original book, tucked away in Regina's home.
That Hook was planning something more sinister than just killing Rumplestiltskin straightaway.
Regina trembled. Her mother was truly a mastermind.
"No," Regina stated and was impressed that her voice had so much strength in it. Cora glanced quizzically at her. "Take my heart, instead," she pleaded, stepping closer to her mother, still unable to raise her hand against the woman.
Cora clucked her tongue in consternation. "Don't be daft, Regina. Why would I need to take that which is already mine?"
The bile burned her throat as Regina struggled to look at her mother and not Emma, Emma who was so scared and brave and true and who didn't deserve to be met with such a fate and…
"Oh, isn't this precious?" Cora's cloying whisper felt like a stake to Regina's heart. Regina was frozen with horror as her mother looked between her and Emma, as if sliding the puzzle pieces together. "I suppose this is a more fitting punishment for Snow, but Regina, love, have you forgotten the most important lesson of all?"
"Love is weakness."
"Then love again."
"No!" Regina screamed as she lunged for Cora but was swept aside with the wave of magic emitted from her mother's free hand.
"Love is weakness, Regina, and it will destroy you by any means," Cora intoned and she pulled her hand back.
And was stopped.
Cora tugged her arm back, harder and harder but still it would not escape Emma's chest. Regina felt her heart leap into her throat even as Emma gaped down at Cora's arm and then to Regina herself. "No," Emma breathed as Regina scrambled to her feet and made her way towards Emma, "love is strength."
Regina reached Emma just as a golden light erupted from her chest, propelling Cora backwards and letting Emma collapse to the floor, right on top of Regina, her body bracing Emma's fall. They landed in a tangled heap on the ground. Seconds passed in utter silence before Emma and Regina raised their heads and stared at each other, Emma's eyes wild with fright, like a spooked horse that was about to run.
It was a good thing Regina had devoted her youth to learning all there was to know about horses.
"Emma," Regina cooed softly and brought her hands up to gingerly cup Emma's cheeks. "Emma, dear, don't worry."
Emma blinked rapidly at her.
"You have magic, that's all," Regina gently told her, despite the hammering in her heart imploring her to other words.
Emma glanced down and back up at Regina, her mouth fighting a tremulous smile but before they could connect, Snow's pained cry broke their moment. As one they rose to their feet to see Cora stalking over to Snow, the vines tightening around her body.
"Snow!"
Emma leapt towards Cora, snarling with unadulterated hostility and Regina lunged after her.
"You fool!" Regina clamped her arms around Emma's middle and tugged fiercely. "Just because she can't take your heart doesn't mean that she can't kill you!"
"I don't care! Let go!" Emma wriggled her body every which way but Regina refused to yield.
"You're so reserved about mortal peril," Regina grumbled. Daring a quick maneuver, she raised one hand off Emma and upended the post Snow was tied to and quickly brought it across the room. She released Emma fully when the action wasn't challenged by Cora and used the shattered remains of the benches near Cora to form a new barricade between her mother and her allies.
Cora's chest heaved, not with exertion but with fury. "They say they are on your side. For now. What happens when I go? Will you help them destroy the one that always returns for you? They'll take your son away."
Regina fought the visions that Cora's words produced, instead willing her feet to bring her closer to her mother.
The action pleased Cora for her smile became human. "That's all you want, isn't it? They want to save you. Now, dear, I'll give you some time to make the right choice. You're always so clever, I'm sure you'll make the right one. Then you can decide whether or not you want to be saved."
Regina realized, then, that she had spent her whole life living in a pit, one dug by others and deepened by herself. There was no place to dig her way out, no light to guide her. But at Cora's words, something flickered in that hole for Regina. There was a light now, and it didn't come from Emma or Daniel or even Henry.
It came from Regina.
All of those words and actions, from herself and others, were suddenly exposed to her mind and heart. She could see how every action and decision led to this very moment. The time had finally come to make that decision, to choose who she would be, who she wanted to be, who she would become and who she would believe.
Regina's whole being lit up with her conviction, an invisible hook drawing her head back up, her chest swelling with the truth of her 'self.'
"I don't need anyone to save me," Regina spoke and it was her heart. "I'll be my own Saviour."