T/W for character death
Sorry it's been so long :/ please do let me know if you're still interested because I'm considering just putting this on a permanent hiatus but I won't if there are people who still like this one after so long lol
Chapter twelve
"How long are you going to keep me in here?" Talia deadpanned with her arms threaded through the bars. She was honestly impressed with the dungeon she had been taken to underneath the club. The dust in the air could only mean that the room had long ago fallen out of use, but she found that she was unable to bend the bars as she would be able to if this had been a normal jail cell. There was something about this room that was suppressing all of her powers and she couldn't help but think how much the Hunters would have benefitted from such a room.
Rowan narrowed her eyes at the brunette woman and she replied, "you'll face my father in the morning when he returns from his trip. I'm sure that once he passes his judgement, you won't be here much longer."
"What exactly is my crime?" the younger woman asked.
Rowan actually laughed in disbelief at this as she turned away from making sure that everything was in place to ensure that the woman wouldn't be getting out of this. Once Talia had been knocked unconscious, she was once again able to read her girlfriend's mind, which meant that she knew for a fact that Emma was afraid of Talia now. If she didn't think that she hadn't done anything wrong to terrify one of the bravest women she knew, then this woman was clearly insane.
"You really don't know what you did?"
"You think I scared Emma, right?" Talia smirked mockingly, "she could have stopped me if she really wanted to…"
Rowan blew out a breath of frustration when it became apparent to her that Talia was currently reading her every thought. She knew what it was like to read another's mind and she had to admit that she didn't like it going both ways. It felt far more intrusive than she would have thought possible and she could only hope that not everyone could tell when she was reading their mind.
"If she could have stopped you, then why did I stop you?" Rowan shot back.
"Obviously because she didn't want to stop me, she just doesn't want to admit to her girlfriend that she wanted to cheat on her. It's just a pity that you can't tell that she is lying to you," the incarcerated brunette tutted as her smirk only deepened.
"You're actually insane," Rowan replied with her eyes wide. She was actually rather happy that her powers didn't seem to work on Talia since she didn't even want to imagine what her mind would sound like. She could only picture a garbled mix of voices, all telling her that Emma was somehow in love with her.
Talia just tilted her head in confusion as if she had no idea what the other woman was talking about, she so clearly had no idea that there was anything wrong with her and Rowan couldn't help but think that was what made her the most dangerous.
However, the confusion on the prisoner's face turned to something much more unreadable and Rowan frowned at the sight.
"What are you…" she began, but she was cut off when she felt something hard hit on the back of her head.
Talia watched as the other vampire fell down to the ground, unconscious. Under different circumstances, she would have smiled at the sight of the insufferable woman being knocked down, but the man who had set upon her was not a man who she had ever planned to see again.
"Are you here to kill me?" she asked with genuine fear dripping through each of her words.
The man smirked at just how petrified the usually brave woman looked and his eyes moved up and down her to inspect her. She was certainly not the woman he had known before he had received news that one of his best Hunters had been turned. What he had felt on that day had been beyond shame, considering what he had promised her parents, but that shame had quickly turned to anger. The daughter of his best friends should have never taken the coward's way out and run away rather than doing the honourable thing which she was trained to do all of her life.
"It's difficult to kill the dead," Darius replied, "your late brother is proof of that."
Talia frowned as her somewhat frazzled brain tried to work through exactly what her former master could mean by his words.
"Damon is dead," she said slowly.
"There are only so many failures I could take," Darius replied, "he was wasting resources on a mission he was clearly incapable of completing."
Talia swallowed hard and took a couple of steps back sub-consciously. There were not many people in the world who she was afraid of (especially since she had gained her supernatural abilities), but this man would always be Master Darius to her and she knew from experience just how much he hated vampires.
"And you're here to complete that mission?" she asked.
The man quirked an eyebrow at the once fearless woman he had known before she had been turned. He could have easily recounted the story of how he had tracked her here with such ease that he could almost laugh at all of Damon's pathetic attempts to find his sister. He had been surprised to discover that the trail had led him to a dungeon which was not very well guarded but he had quickly decided that it made no difference at all to what he needed to do. Just because she was a criminal by vampire standards, it didn't mean that she should be allowed to live.
He appeared to ignore her question as he replied, "did you know that you were always my favourite?" When Talia made no attempt at a reply beyond a confused frown, he continued, "you were always the smartest and the fastest, the most willing to follow orders. I always thought that you would be the one to take my place and then you undid everything with one stupid decision. It is in the code that being turned means that you must take your own life and you still ran away like a cowardly little child."
"I…" she began, but she couldn't think of a single defence for what she did. The fact was that she had betrayed everything she had ever believed in just because she was afraid to die. She betrayed her own family in order to run away and be alone until she was forced to take a roommate and then ruin their life as well. Overall, she couldn't help but feel as though she had destroyed the lives of everyone who had ever been close to her just because she had been too afraid to do what she knew many of her ancestors had done without any hesitation.
Darius smirked at the distraught expression on her face. He had killed many vampires in his life, but he had never seen one so broken as he did in that moment. He stepped over the unconscious monster in front of him (deciding that he could deal with her after he savoured the many ways in which he could think of to dispatch of Talia). He put his arm out to press the button to release the gate of the cell.
However, his smirk fell when the door slid completely across.
Talia frowned at his change of expression and she simply watched him for a moment. She didn't think for a moment that he was having a change of heart since he had killed her brother with very little remorse.
She cautiously took a step forward, until a thought occurred to her. She could hear everything that he was thinking. It obviously had some kind of different effect upon mortals and she had to admit that he was far less terrifying now that she could hear every doubt and insecurity that was going through his mind.
He did regret killing Damon.
He hated the fact that he wasn't there to save his best friends.
And he stayed awake almost every night thinking about how he broke his promise to protect their children.
"You can't kill me," she said as her confidence rose with each word.
"I…I…" Darius tried, but he found that not words could actually leave his mouth. He wanted to say that he could easily end her miserable existence, but for the first time in a long time, he felt a flood of doubts coursing through his system and he had a feeling that it had everything to do with the power that he could feel emanating off of the vampire.
"You wouldn't be able to live with yourself if you killed me, you would have completely broken your promise to my parents. Can you imagine how they would feel if they knew that you had killed both of their children?" she continued, ignoring his attempt to speak.
Darius swallowed hard and just shook his head. He did think about his friends a lot, but he genuinely believed that they would have agreed with his actions, especially when it came to their vampire daughter. If they had been alive when she turned, then they would have surely died of shame to discover that she didn't do what was expected of her. However, he could now only imagine what they're reactions would have been in the moment that he had brought that sword down on Damon and how they would feel if they knew that he was going to drive a stake through Talia's heart.
"I have to…" he tried, but he didn't sound too convinced.
"Have you ever considered how beneficial it would be to actually have a vampire on your side? You have no idea how much of what you taught me is incorrect," she smirked as she began to take steps towards the man who looked as though he wanted to protest but couldn't think of a plausible way to do so.
Darius just nodded to confirm that he agreed with her and the smirk grew on Talia's face when she finally realised what was happening. She may not have been able to to understand all of the new abilities that she had been developing since her night with Emma, but she knew now that she could control mortals and it was exhilarating.
She walked passed him and kneeled down and she pushed the unconscious Rowan over so that she could see her face and she smirked deeply. She knew that if the woman hadn't been focusing so hard on protecting her mind from her then she would have probably been aware of the fact that someone was sneaking up behind her.
She looked over her shoulder at the man who was ready to do anything that she asked him to and an idea suddenly came to her mind.
"Kill her," she ordered.
The only reply that she got was the sound of Darius unsheathing his blade.
Emma bit the inside of her cheek as she looked around the apartment that she felt like she hadn't been inside for an eternity. In reality, it had been a maximum of a couple weeks since she had set foot in this apartment, but she found that it now felt like a completely different world when compared to the mansion that she had basically been living in. She had somehow expected the loft to look different, but the moment that she had walked in, it still appeared as though she actually lived here.
Most of her possessions were still here, (with the perhaps the exceptions of the clothes that she had been systematically poofing over to herself as and when she needed them) but she just couldn't find it within herself to see this place as her home anymore, which made her feel somewhat guilty.
There was no one in town who could know what an intense experience it was to discover that Regina Mills was the mate that she had never thought she would actually find, which also meant that they couldn't understand why she would want to basically live with her girlfriend after only being together for less than a fortnight. Even if she was slightly worried that Regina would be freaked out by the intensity of their relationship at some point, it so far appeared as though she was just as invested as Emma was. There was also the fact that it was better for Henry if they didn't waste time going through the traditional relationship path since it was obvious to anyone that having his parents together and living in the same house was making him just as happy as it was making said parents.
Despite all of these doubts that had been plaguing the saviour's mind, the biggest fear that was consuming her mind was that of Talia. It had been two days since she had arrived in Storybrooke and she hadn't tried anything even remotely crisis-inciting apart from messing with Regina's mind. Since she so obviously knew that Storybrooke didn't exactly fall under anyone's jurisdiction, Talia could be held for as long as she saw fit and in this moment she decided that would be until it became an issue that she could no longer ignore.
It wasn't as though she could just move the woman to an actual prison cell since she had no doubt that the vampire was here for a reason and hiding her away would only increase Emma's anxiety. She couldn't spend the rest of her immortal life waiting for Talia to enact whatever her plan was, especially if there was any chance that she wasn't working alone as Emma suspected.
The sound of a mug being placed in front of her brought Emma out of her spiralling thoughts and she looked up at the brunette woman and smiled gratefully.
Snow smiled back and slipped into the seat opposite her daughter with her own mug of coffee sat in front of her. The school-teacher had been spending more time with the younger Charming since their initial lunch and it was becoming increasingly easy to see that Emma was still the same woman she had known after the curse had broken, with the only caveat being that her eyes glowed crimson red and she drew a pair of fangs when she was truly pissed at someone. At the time, Snow had been sure that the image would never leave her mind and that she should be at least a little scared of the blonde after seeing it, but after a few hours had passed, she found that neither was true. As much as the blood red of her eyes had been terrifying at the time (which was sure was supposed to be the desired effect of the change in colour) she was finding that the image didn't negate the time that she had spent with her daughter prior to Talia turning up at the diner. Emma Swan was still the saviour who was willing to do anything to protect those she loved, the whole vampire thing just meant that she had more powers in her arsenal in order to do so.
After that realisation had hit the princess, Snow couldn't stop herself from feeling stupid for actively avoiding one of the people she loved the most in the world for so many days. Spending time with a vampiric Emma was far better than never getting to see the blonde again, so she decided that she would just have to suck it up until she was completely used to everything that she didn't know about her daughter just two weeks ago.
"Are you okay, sweetheart?" Snow asked with a frown when she noticed the faraway expression on her daughter's face. She knew that the whole Talia situation had been bothering the saviour, but she had absolutely no idea what had happened between the pair to cause such a reaction. She and Charming had been told pieces of information about the other vampire (including the fact that she had been the one to turn Emma and that they had joined a clan together) but they didn't really know all that much about who she was before becoming a vampire and they certainly had no idea what it was that had broken up their friendship.
"I'm fine," Emma replied with a rather weak, and unconvincing, smile. She wasn't quite sure why exactly she was lying to her mother but she knew that she didn't want to have to explain things that she hadn't even told Regina yet.
Mary Margaret tilted her head at the blonde and opened her mouth to say something, but she closed it when she decided against it. They may have been talking a lot more lately, but there was always one topic that she had managed to avoid rather skilfully, She had honestly thought that it would be difficult to not bring up the mayor of Storybrooke, but she hadn't said the brunette's name in front of her daughter in at least two weeks and she had no plans to break that trend today. The longer that they didn't talk about their relationship (and the fact that they appeared to have already moved in together) the happier Snow would be since it would give her a chance to first get used to the idea that her eldest child wasn't strictly human before she tried to face the fact that the ex-Evil Queen could one day become her daughter-in-law.
Despite this, Snow knew that it was the idea of Regina that was bothering her in connection to Talia. David had been told that he shouldn't allow Regina into the station alone with the prisoner, which could only mean that Emma expected something to happen if the pair of brunettes were to be left alone together. As much as Snow didn't want the mayor's name to pass her lips just yet, she also stand the thought of her daughter feeling as though there was something she couldn't talk to her mother about. Emma had spent years after the curse pretending that she was human, so it wasn't fair that she had to pretend that she didn't have a girlfriend, especially when she was so worried about something.
"Emma…" Snow began and the blonde looked up at her, she had an almost hopeful look on her face, almost as if she knew that she was about to get the chance to get some major anxiety off her chest. "How…how are things going with…"
The blonde actually laughed at her mother's stumbling and she placed her mug of coffee back down onto the table, "Regina isn't Voldermort, mom."
Snow sighed and nodded, though there was a slight smirk tugging at the corner of her lips, somehow, hearing Emma say Regina's name made her realise that the whole situation wasn't quite as strange as it should be, even if this was far from the future that she had imagined when she found out that she was pregnant.
"Your dad told me that you won't let…Regina come to the station unless you're there…" Snow said, with the slight smile falling away when she saw how much more tense the mention of the station made the sheriff. it was hard to deny that the thought of someone who could scare the saviour after all she had been through was pretty damn terrifying. What could possibly make Talia so fear-inducing?
"Talia…can do things to…humans," Emma said with some effort as she tried not to think about what she had walked in on when she had gone looking for Rowan. The vampire had specifically not her not to enter the dunegeon, but Emma had been unable to stop herself when her first real girlfirend had not returned to their room at the time she said she would. The blonde's fist clenched, as it did every time that particular memory reared its ugly head, and she once again wished that she had simply heard of Rowan's death rather than being the one to report it to the leader of the clan.
"Emma?" Snow said and the saviour looked up at her in confusion and it quickly became evident that wasn't the first time that Snow had called her name.
"Sorry…" the blonde mumbled.
"What can Talia do, Emma?" Snow asked, even though she really wanted to ask, 'what did Talia do to you?'.
"She can…convince human's that they should do things that they would have never even considered doing. She can convince someone that they need to attack other people…or to hurt themselves…" Emma looked down again as a new thought occurred to her. Instead of thinking about walking in on Rowan's prone body, she imagined what could have happened if she had decided to get a coffee from Granny's on the day that she had interrupted Talia and Regina's conversation. She would have arrived about ten minutes later and she could have well found another girlfriend lay lifelessly on the floor and Talia would have no doubt had a satisfied smirk on her face at the sight.
The blonde blew out a breath that she didn't really need to and brought her hand up to shakily rub her left temple.
All the time, Snow was frowning as she considered her daughter's words. So Talia could easily convince a human (which was a word that she was still getting used to the idea that her daughter would need to say) to hurt themselves? She didn't find that particularly hard to believe, but she didn't understand why Talia would want to do that. She knew that sometimes simply having a power drove people to use it, but nothing that Emma had told her about Talia explained why she would suddenly go from best friend to feared enemy.
"Why would she want to do that…to Regina?" Snow asked.
Emma's hand dropped from her temple and she shook her head, "it's complicated."
The brunette reached across the table and took the other woman's hand, "then explain it to me," Snow replied and squeezed the hand at the same time.
The saviour shook her head for a moment but she stopped abruptly. She had been coming up with excuses to not tell people about her past for so long and she now realised that she didn't need to do that anymore. And, after all, if she didn't feel ready to talk to Regina about the death of her first real love, didn't it make sense that she could talk to her mother about it?
With the many pauses to consider her words, Emma finally got out her story about how she and Talia had been best friends before they joined the clan together, how their friendship became strained when she began dating Rowan. The blonde tried to not to blush when she told her mother about her drunken one night stand with Talia, but she quickly moved past it when she went on to tell her about what happened which resulted in Talia being imprisoned by Rowan.
Snow placed her hand back onto Emma's and squeezed when the blonde told her about finding Rowan, though she couldn't quite say exactly what she saw, the brunette could guess exactly what she meant.
"You think that Talia wants to…kill Regina?" Snow asked after a few moments of consideration.
"She's obsessed with me…" Emma sighed as she tried not to think about the look in the woman's eyes all those years ago. Though Talia was clearly not quite as manic now, Emma could still see the same kind of look whenever she happened to glance at the irritating woman in the cell. Even if she knew nothing about what she was planning, Emma had no doubt that her motivations had not changed.
Snow sighed at the terror on the blonde's face and began to wish again that she didn't try and avoid the topic for so long.
"Regina has defeated so many of her enemies," Snow said, hoping that she was at least sounding reassuring.
Emma frowned and thought back to what she had walked in on in the station. She had been so consumed with thinking the worst that she hadn't considered that there were other alternatives to what could have happened. If she had never walked in, it was very possible that Regina would have been able to regain control; after all, Emma knew that she'd had relapses before, but that didn't mean that she was somehow the Evil Queen again just because she had allowed herself to be consumed by negativity.
At the thought, a smile actually began to tug at the corner of the saviour's lips as she imagined Regina regaining control and then throwing a quip at Talia.
"You shouldn't be worried about something you don't even know is going to happen, Emma," Snow said, "you've been letting thoughts of Talia rule your life since she arrived in town, and couldn't that be exactly what she wants?"
"So…you're saying that I should be acting like she's not here?"
"Not exactly…more that you should be cautious but not overly-cautious," the brunette replied. When Emma made no attempt to reply, Snow swallowed hard as she decided to do something that she had planned on avoiding, but she knew that i t would serve as the exact distraction that her daughter would need, "in the diner you…mentioned that you wanted a family dinner…"
The blonde's frown only deepened at the mention of the thing that she had abandoned. Snow's reaction to it hadn't exactly been great before, so she had convinced herself that it was something that they could revisit after the crisis was over, but all of this waiting around for something to happen didn't exactly feel like a crisis.
"With the whole family?" Emma asked cautiously.
The brunette smiled at the hesitation, though it was a rather sad smile, "I believe that it is only right that your father and I should officially meet Regina as your…"
"Girlfriend," Emma supplied with a little laugh. Even if her mother was not quite ready to say that her daughter was dating Regina Mills, she had to admit that the fact that she was willing to try meant more than she ever thought it could.
"Right…that…" Snow replied with a somewhat strained smile, she was already thinking that she didn't to go and talk to her husband so that he could calm her down about the prospect.
"I'll talk to Regina about it," the blonde replied, hoping that the offer hadn't disappeared in light of all that had happened.
A/N Reviews are a great motivation :)