Disclaimer: I do not own anything from Once Upon a Time.
Author's Note: Here we go. It's the beginning of the end for the last curse that holds Storybrooke in its clutches.
As always, R & R!
Andrew walked in first, with Rumpelstiltskin and a couple guards half carrying the queen. Emma and Henry were behind everyone else. Andrew walked over to Armina and wrapped his arms around her in a warm embrace, whispering in her ear, "She won't go down without a fight."
Armina nodded and walked up to Rumpelstiltskin, who had a protective arm wrapped around Belle's waist. "If this goes well, your week starts as soon as I take her power," whispered Armina to the both of them.
Regina glared daggers at Armina, Snow, and James. She gave them a wicked smile and said, "I hear the 'fairest of them all' has asked to spare my life."
Snow grabbed onto James's hand for support and answered, "I thought maybe you could—"
Regina cut her off. "Change?" she asked with a mocking tone. "Many would think I'm incapable of change."
"I didn't," said Snow. "You were kind once; I remember it. I feel like I owe you something for what's happened in our past."
"It's too late for that," said Regina with a defeated expression. She looked to Armina with a half-hearted challenge in her eyes. "Are you going to bother with the formality of a trial, or just kill me now when you take my power?"
Armina smirked and replied, "I don't go back on my word. I promised that you would live. I may not be a saintly beast, but I have honor to uphold. Of course, that doesn't stop me from taking your magick."
Regina's eyes grew wide at Armina's declaration. The Queen of Beasts smiled, revealing her beastly teeth. She strode over to the dethroned queen and placed a hand on her forehead, receiving little or no resistance as she did so.
Armina took in a deep breath as she began to concentrate on taking Regina's magick. Regina groaned as she felt the crushing loss of strength in her bones. She felt vulnerable and weak, and she was sure that her body would be weakened so completely that she probably wouldn't be able to stand on her own feet.
On the other hand, the nagging compulsion to kill those who got in her way disappeared with her magick. The grip of murderous tendencies lessened until it was almost completely gone. The sticky blackness of corruption lost its iron hold on her heart and she felt inexplicably, wonderfully free of its influence.
All in the room were silent as Armina pulled the power from Regina. Andrew watched intently for any sign of impending danger as his wife took the last of the Evil Queen's power.
Suddenly, Armina collapsed, holding her head as if she'd been shot, her breathing shallow and labored. Regina passed out and hung more limply in the guards' grasp. Andrew was immediately at his wife's side, sitting on the ground and pulling her curled-up form into his lap. He murmured words of comfort as she felt the full force of the power's corruptive ability. Though Armina was used to having an obscene amount of magick flowing through her veins, but this power's evil source made it unbearable.
Andrew continued to whisper things in an odd language, which, for a change, wasn't Latin. The guards took the silent cue to put Regina somewhere else to recuperate for her trial. Andrew slowly rocked Armina like a child, her breathing returning to normal as his quiet words ended.
Emma could only marvel at how he seemed to take her pain away. If she ever doubted that Andrew and Armina were truly in love, it would end there. Snow White tapped Emma on the shoulder and pulled her and Henry out of the room to go into town in James's truck. Henry didn't need to see any more of Armina's torture.
Rumpelstiltskin let go of Belle and placed a reassuring hand on Andrew's shoulder. "I could help you take her up the stairs."
Andrew kept his face close to his wife's, and replied, "That won't be necessary. I've been known to carry weight several times that of a car. I think I can handle my wife. Besides, she promised that as soon as you brought Regina, you would have your week off. I don't think she would want to go back on her word. Go on; enjoy your time with your new wife."
Rumple released his hold on the monarch's shoulder and took Belle's hand. "If you do need anything at all, I still owe her for fixing my leg."
"I will remember that, Rumpelstiltskin. Now go, and enjoy your time off." The captain of the guard nodded and guided his wife out of the room.
Andrew looked to the two guards left over after the others took Regina to a secure place. "One of you needs to open the door to my chambers for me. I can't very well do that with her in my arms."
Benjamin Auris stepped forward and indicated he would follow his sovereigns. He went up the stairs and opened the door for his monarch, giving a respectful bow.
"Thank you, Benjamin. Your queen would thank you as well," said Andrew as he entered the chambers. He nodded to Benjamin, who walked away as Andrew kicked the door shut with his foot. He carried Armina over to the bed and managed to place her delicately under the blankets. Andrew gingerly slipped her boots off of her feet and covered her with the blankets.
She still clutched her head in her hands, her battle with Regina's power still raging inside of her. Andrew hated seeing her in pain like that. His race, the Fae, was magickal, but he never was interested in that aspect of his lineage. Oh, he could have done what Armina had done, but he never took the time to learn how. Now he regretted not learning. The most he could do was try to ease her battle with some ancient elven words of healing.
With a frustrated sigh at himself, he brushed some loose tendrils of blonde hair from her face. Gods, if only he had realized how deeply the magick held the corruption. He hated himself. He lay next to her and continued to whisper elven words of comfort as she slipped into a fitful sleep.
~Meanwhile~
Emma and Henry were stuck like sardines in David's aged pickup truck. It was oddly quiet in the cab, even with Henry there. By some stroke of fate, Emma was wedged between her parents, keeping them apart. Henry sat on her lap smiling as he watched his grandfather drive into downtown Storybrooke.
Emma's car didn't fare so well on its way up the road to Armina's estate, and had a flat tire caused by the gravel on the road. Being that Emma didn't have all that much money to spare, she didn't have a replacement. So there they were, packed in the cab of an old truck.
Finally, Henry broke the silence. "So, when do I get to spend the day with you two?" he asked with a grin.
"Uh… I don't know, Henry. We've got…a lot to do right now," said James, giving a pointed and completely inappropriate look at Snow.
"Why don't we worry about Operation Cobra right now, kid," said Emma, giving her parents a look of discomfort and shifting in her seat.
James pulled up to Regina's old house and unlocked the doors, allowing Snow to get out and let Emma and Henry escape the confines of the truck's cab.
"Uh, thanks…m-mom," said Emma, a note of insecurity in her name for her mom. She shifted awkwardly, unsure of what to say.
"Look, Emma, it's hard for all of us. You don't have to call me 'mom' or James 'dad.' It's strange to think that I've missed twenty-eight years of my only daughter's life, including the birth of my first grandchild. Let me just say, I really didn't think I would look this good when I got my first grandchild," said Snow White with a grand smile. Emma couldn't help but grin back at her mother, who didn't look a day over thirty. "Maybe we could go to Granny's and talk one day soon."
"Sure…" said Emma as she looked up at Regina's mayoral mansion. "Let's go, kid."
Henry beamed up at his grandmother and said, "I'll see you tomorrow, right?"
Snow looked to James, who nodded and said, "We can all go to Granny's for breakfast tomorrow. I'll pick you up at nine. I can pick up a tire for you, too. We can drive up there tomorrow after breakfast and replace the old one."
"Sure, that sounds good. We'll see you tomorrow. Come on, Henry." Emma put a gentle hand on his shoulder and guided him up to the front door. Snow and James left in his truck, leaving them all alone with the dethroned queen's old mansion. "Do you have a key?"
Henry nodded and searched his pockets for his house key. "I can't find it, Emma."
"Are you kidding me?" she asked, frustrated. "I don't have a key!"
"I know that!" insisted Henry, while still searching his pockets. Before the situation got even more frustrating, a brown rabbit hopped behind Henry, patting his foot with its paw. Henry turned and found the rabbit holding his house key with a note written in elegant script that read, 'This was in the car. I sent Parvus to give it to you.' The letters SW were on the back of the paper. Henry gave the rabbit an appreciative pat on the head and it hopped away.
"Who sent that?" asked Emma, taking the key and unlocking the door.
"Grandma sent him to give me my key. Magick really is back, Emma," said Henry as he walked through the threshold.
"You really think that Mary, I mean Snow, really sent a rabbit to give you your house key?"
"Yup," said Henry simply as he walked into the kitchen and grabbed a granola bar. "Take what you want, just don't eat any of the apples. I'm pretty sure they're all poisoned. I'm going to go take a shower and go to bed. I haven't really slept that well at Armina's house. It's too big," explained Henry as he began to ascend the stairs to the second floor. "Goodnight…mom."
Emma smiled and replied, "Goodnight, Henry." After he went up the stairs, Emma began to snoop around in Regina's living room; she wasn't all that hungry, anyway.
Regina appeared to have a really strange choice in décor. It was based off of a palette of whites, grays, and blacks. She seemed to like the gothic style of furniture, which Emma really didn't like; it just looked inexplicably evil. That would have to go first.
Emma finished looking around and went up the stairs, hearing Henry still in the shower. She walked down the hall to what had to be the master bedroom. Regina kept this room particularly dark and evil, Emma noted. The four-poster bed was made of a dark ebony wood and the dark velvet curtains were parted to reveal a silver-trimmed, black silk comforter on a massive king-size bed. It stood in stark contrast to the white and light gray walls that made up the room. Pictures of Henry adorned the walls in shiny black frames.
Her décor befits an evil queen, Emma thought as she ran her hands across the dark comforter. She walked through the door into the master bathroom, finding a huge room centered on a gigantic bathtub surrounded by a rim of gray tile.
Emma shrugged and pulled the shirt and shorts she'd been given by one of Armina's servants while she and Henry had gotten ready to leave. She had the opportunity to use the world's most luxurious bathroom, and she wasn't going to waste it.
She turned on the water and found the right temperature, allowing it to fill the tub halfway before getting in and allowing the stress to melt away. For and evil queen, Regina certainly knew how to get the best of everything.
After nearly an hour, the water turned lukewarm and Emma got out, dressing herself in the clothes the servant had given to her. With a little hesitation, she pulled back the comforter and crawled into the bed, falling into a fitful sleep soon after.