Ah this is so exciting! The past week I had been struggling with a captivating plot that linked the past and present together with the Enchanted Forest AND that managed to tackle Emma's transformation. Let's just say I had an epiphany and am now itching to get writing the next chapter. Chapter Four is the last part of the story before the adventure begins – I hope you are intrigued as to what happens next.
Chapter Four
Both women sit on the cold floor, staring expectantly up at Rumplestiltskin. After Regina's panic attack Emma had discovered the brunette as a crumpled heap, and had carefully nursed her to a sitting position. Her arm still hangs lazily over Regina's shoulder.
"What we have here is a very interesting case of magic," Mr Gold begins, shifting his weight on to his walking stick. "The magic of Entwined Souls is not often seen in such an unlikely context. Usually this form of sorcery is not associated with… well evil, I suppose… and when tinted with darkness it manifests in to something much more threatening."
Regina feels Emma tense at Rumple's last line, and she herself sinks lower in to the blonde's hold over her shoulders. The air around the women is thick with tension and fear, neither knowing what to say.
"I suggest we begin our search for a solution," Rumple juts in to the cloud that envelops the defeated tangle of limbs on his shop floor, "Regina, shall we?"
Hearing her former teacher's request, the brunette carefully unhooks her body from Emma's embrace and pulls herself up. Only when the old man is in her eye line does she shake her head, "No. I have learned from my mistakes, Rumple. And trusting you would just be a repeat of unwanted history."
Regina's purple mist begins to engulf the two women, snaking around their bodies. Rumple's face is hard through the thickening smoke, "Believe me, dearie, I don't want another Rumplestiltskin either." And with those final words, the magic dissipates revealing the empty echo of Regina's vault.
"Okay, so we've been magically transported to your vault. Without, may I add, my consent," Emma sighs dramatically, pushing herself up from the ground. Regina ignores her and begins to pull out books from the shelf, scattering dust. Entwined Souls. What does it even derive from?
Emma sighs again and stalks over to the brunette who is leafing through the pages of what looks like an oversized dictionary.
"That will take too long, Regina. Look," Emma clicks her fingers and within seconds a thick piece of parchment paper materialises in the blonde's palm. "Entwined Souls. A magic that has taken the hearts of many destined to be with one another, united in love blah blah blah. This is all just gushy waffle about true love!"
Regina nods her head curtly, irritated by Emma's apparent amusement towards the dire situation. "This is serious Emma. You cannot just blah blah blah your way through life when something bores you! Here, give it to me."
Surprisingly, Emma obeys the former Queen and presses the page in to the other woman's hand. It crumples under her touch and Regina closes her eyes to steady her thinking. Entwined Souls. Entwined Souls. Entwined Souls. A small gasp escapes Emma's mouth as she watches the paper mutate in to a dark brown, charred under the brunette's fiery hold. An entirely different text eradicates the previous swirly print, this one harsh and scratchy against the burnt scrap.
"To break the bonds between those under the influx of Entwined Souls, one half must silence the other's life at a pivotal turning point in his history. Only when both are united and have adopted the same state must the murder take place. Then the victim's body must return back to his original time period to realign the past and present," Regina reads, her breath hitching at the term murder. The two women stay very still, absorbing the words and trying to comprehend the reality it carries.
"So I have to kill Rumplestiltskin?" Emma questions after a long while of silence.
"No, Emma. Changing the past will generate drastic consequences. Rumplestiltskin must kill you. You must go back to the enchanted forest, where you must become fully entwined with Rumple's soul, and allow him to end your life," Regina deadpans and her heart plummets further in despair with every word, stabbing at her emotions.
Emma breaths in.
And out.
"Okay."
"Okay?"
"Yes, Regina. Okay. Okay I will do it. What choice do I have otherwise?"
Emma's emerald eyes are hollow at her words, reality compressing all hope in to nothingness. Regina turns to face the other woman and clutches her hands in an attempt to steady Emma. And herself. The look they share is so full of knowing that Regina feels the urge to envelop Henry's mother in a shattering embrace. But she doesn't.
"So we go together. I'm not allowing you to go by yourself. Look what happened last time you went to the past, Miss Swan! Excuse the pun, but we are not having a repeat of history!"
A small smile teeters at the corners of Emma's mouth and she nods quickly. Regina runs a hand through her thick hair and smiles back: a smile so small that one could easily mask it as a twitch, but Regina knew that for Emma it was enough.
…
The Queen was dressed in black: a bodice encrusted with jewels that hugged her torso and thick hair constructed in to a regal up do. Mourning clothed the kingdom, yet not her. Regina was the happiest she had been in awfully long time. To her left, just visible through her window, was the royal casket shrouded in flowers of every colour. She herself had placed a bouquet of the richest red roses, red like the blood the bled from her late husband's viper bite. Red like the blood that now poured through his daughter's snowy white skin, threatening to burst in despair. And Regina revelled in it.
"Rumplestiltskin," she called in to the air, her tone laced with authority.
"My, my, dearie, don't we look positively regal in black!" Rumplestiltskin trilled, clapping his hands together excitedly.
"It is done, Rumple. The king is dead, as you wished. Now you must return your half of the deal," Regina smiled wickedly.
"Ah yes. The death of an innocent."
The Queen shook her head violently, "She is NOT innocent!"
"No? Oh forgive me, my Queen," the dark one teased back, his eyes wide in mocking.
"Rumplestiltskin," Regina growled, her superiority thinning with every giggle escaping the shimmering imp's mouth.
"Quite right, Regina! We must exact vengeance at once. I have arranged someone rather special for this ugly deed."
The brunette raised a sculpted eye brow at her teacher, "Oh really? Who, pray tell, has the honour?"
"A huntsman, my Queen. And believe me… he will not fail."
…
"What exactly are we looking for?" Emma questions Regina, her blonde hair falling over the page portraying her parent's wedding. The former queen had crept in to her son's bedroom to retrieve his beloved book that documented their lives, and both women were now in Regina's sitting room attempting to find the pivotal turning point in history.
"Something that links you and Rumplestiltskin together," Regina murmurs, scouring each page in intricate detail.
"What about here?" Emma points to a large picture of the evil queen and Rumplestiltskin, both visibly livid with one another. Regina squirms under Emma's gaze, ashamed of her former self.
"No. We need something softer, less dangerous perhaps. Like… like here," the brunette flips the pages backwards until she reaches a very familiar portrait of herself. Leopold sits beside her and beside him is a small princess smiling broadly up at her stepmother. "It was on this evening that Rumple made his first deal with me – a deal which changed everything. In a perverted way, this deal also saved your mother's life and therefore saved you. Rumplestiltskin promised to kill your mother if I killed the king. Little did I know that it was in his master plan to preserve Snow's life, to provide the fire I needed to become evil and to enact the curse. "
"Sounds perfect," Emma breathes, her eyes hard and determined.
Regina nods, "Zelena's time portal is still unstable. It will require all the magic we have, combined, but it should reopen."
"Well then, Regina, what are we waiting for? We have a dark wizard to find."
Yet there is nothing heroic in Emma's voice. Only defeat and fear. And these are emotions Regina is all too familiar with.