After reading so many fantastic fic's whilst I have been away, I am now eager to increase the excitement levels in this chapter. I really really don't want you to guys to be bored! Also, please do take the time to review if you read this fic. Sometimes I feel a little unmotivated, as if no one actually cares that much about what Regina and Emma are up to. Anyhow, let us commence with this chapter as our leading ladies immerse themselves in the dangerous realm of the Enchanted Forest. Ahh enjoy this longer chapter that I thoroughly enjoyed writing- I think it is my favourite so far.
Chapter 5
"Let me come with you!" Henry had pleaded, grabbing both his mother's by their hands. Regina had been adamant, causing Henry to then move on to his blonde (more easily persuaded) mother. The brunette had just parted with Robin, a tense goodbye that was merely a veneer protecting both of their conflicting emotions. Her soulmate had surprisingly understood. He couldn't keep Regina from saving Emma. Heck, Regina couldn't keep herself from saving Emma!
"Sorry, kid. The Enchanted Forest is a pretty messed up place…" Emma sighed, stroking a stray hair from Henry's forehead.
"I can handle it!" had been her stubborn son's reply in defiance.
"No, Henry. You are not going and that is final." Regina knew she had won by Henry's deflated expression.
In acquiescence he said, "Fine. Just be careful, okay?"
Regina leant in to kiss her child's head and, absentmindedly, Emma had followed with the same gentle touch. Their little boy.
And yet now, Regina is regretting leaving her son as purple mist erupts from her fingertips. Henry is strong enough to hold both of his fragile mothers, his hope enveloping their pessimism and uniting them in some sort of twisted family. A family which Regina had never experienced before… a family she has always wanted.
"HOW MUCH LONGER!?" Emma screams from across the portal, her own black vapour colliding with Regina's in some fantastical display of magic. Of power.
"THINK, EMMA!" Regina yells in response. She allows the portrait of her perverse former family, draped in regal finery, to usurp all her feeling. Somehow, the figure of an all too familiar man teeters at the corners of her vision. Rumplestiltskin.
"I would think twice before doing this, Regina. The past can be quite haunting to those with a troubled one."
Regina can practically feel the old man's words scratch at her arm. She opens her mouth in response, "I do-"
The bridge both women have built shatters, as the portal begins to absorb the life around it. Emma allows the magic to twist around her ankle, swallowing her whole in one silent movement. Regina turns back to face Rumplestiltskin before being absorbed herself. His face is hard behind the golden fireworks that threaten to change the past. The future.
…
The walls of the castle are cold. Regina instantly begins to feel claustrophobic, her hands pressing against the prison's hard shell as she attempts to push them out. She can't breathe. She's falling. Slipping. And now the ground is crushing her also, everything strangling her from all sides. She can't breathe. She can't breathe. She can't breathe.
"Hey, Regina? It's okay."
She can breathe.
Emma's words begin to ebb away the fear that ensnares the brunette's mind. Much to Regina's surprise, she finds herself craving more. As if the blonde can lure her back to reality. This thought is quickly eschewed.
They are both crouching in a small corridor that runs underneath Leopold's, no her, castle. Her literal prison for so long before it became a prison of something different entirely. Her anger. Her revenge. Regina pulls herself up, smoothing down her blazer and turns to face Emma's startled expression.
"You had a panic attack," Emma says dumbly, trying to find answers in Regina's eyes.
"Yes."
Emma appears to understand (or at least has the courtesy to not question it further) and nods carefully. "So what's the plan?"
Regina scans the corridor and sighs, "We have to wait until you transform before you can be… killed. I suppose we must blend in or-"
There are sudden footsteps descending down the stairs and Regina and Emma both share an alarmed conversation with their eyes. What do we do? Use magic! No you have the mark of the Dark One. What? You use it then!
"Oh my!"
Regina swivels and is met face on with a teenage girl. Her hair cascades down her left shoulder in a lose braid, a floaty gown adorns her slim figure and slightly red eyes, as if one has been crying, gaze back at Regina in utter terror. The girl opens her mouth as if to call out for help and then closes it. She has no one to call for. She is alone and Regina aches to rescue her.
"Regina!" Emma exclaims from behind the brunette.
"Yes," both the older woman and the younger, chorus.
The young queen closes her eyes for a second and clears her throat, "I assume you are my future self. Has Rumplestiltskin sent you?"
"Something like that," Regina murmurs, eyes on the hard stone floor. Her younger self sags suddenly, the walls as her only stability.
"Tell me. Do I ever escape?"
Her words are so small that Regina barely registers their meaning until she sees the dark eye bags and the shrunken cheek bones. Underneath this poor girl's beauty is the face of a prisoner. Regina reaches out to take her younger self's hand, "Yes. You do escape. And…" she glances at Emma who is watching them both with something Regina refuses to label as love, "you find a family."
The young queen lets out a sob in relief then clasps a hand to her mouth in embarrassment. "Oh goodness, I'm sorry. I must stay strong. I am learning magic as you… as you know already. It gives me power and maybe, just maybe, it will grant me my freedom?"
Regina stares at her own naivety in disbelief. "I need you to come with me. I need to keep you safe tonight as something very important will happen, "she says, almost robotically.
Young Regina's eyes widen, "But I am due to dine with Leopold tonight!"
"Well aren't you lucky Regina here barely ages!" Emma smirks, placing her arm atop of the reigning queen's and leaning in to her slightly. Regina watches on with confusion. Is Emma flirting with her younger self?
"So you will take my place?" The teenager's eyes glitter with excitement and for a moment Regina wants nothing more than to rid the girl of this prison. To rid herself of this prison.
"Indeed," is all Regina says in response as she begins to march up the stairs, Emma and the queen in tow.
"So why were you in the corridor anyway?" Emma asks softly and Regina turns before realising that she is not the subject of Emma's question.
"I suppose I don't need to hide anything from my future self," young Regina begins, "I was going there to cry. It is the only place I can get away from… from everything. Leopold never sends his guards to look for me down there. It is safe. I write on the walls words like hope and-"she breaks off in to a heavy sob and Regina clenches her fists. Weak. Nobody had ever cared enough to ask how she was before. Before Emma, that is.
"Why would Leopold's guards look for you?" Emma continues to prod, clearly desperate to discover more of Regina's past and take advantage of her younger self's fragile walls.
"Because I would run from his chambers," Regina snaps.
Both Emma and the young queen stop to look up at her. Regina rolls her eyes and advances further through the maze of tunnels until she stops outside the door to her former chamber. Her younger self pushes it open, leaving a crack just big enough for the other women to squeeze through.
The chamber's interior is exactly how Regina remembers: large bed in the centre, a mirror above a large table strewn with jewels, double doors that lead to a protruding balcony surveying the kingdom, and her wardrobe abundant with royal finery. Emma practically jumps on the bed with excitement, and Regina cannot help but laugh at her infantile nature, reminding her that Emma really still is Emma under the mask of the Dark One. Although not for long.
Regina walks over to the large wardrobe and begins to rifle through the array of dresses, "Which one were you going to wear tonight?"
The young queen gingerly touches a sky blue gown encrusted in diamonds. "Ah yes," Regina muses, remembering how trapped she had felt, the dress tightening around her. But she is tougher now, and it brings her a small amount of happiness to know that this innocent girl will not have to endure this coming night.
….
There are several knocks on her door before a guard enters the queen's chambers. "My Queen, Snow White is ready for you to accompany her down to the dining room."
Regina inhales and exhales, gathering her nerve before she leaves the safety of her bed chambers. The dress is tighter than it was a decade or two ago, she can already feel her breath thinning at its constriction and the knowledge of what is to come. Emma and her younger self have hurried away. Regina has no doubt that Emma is learning many new and tender secrets about the brunette's life.
Outside the door, Snow White is dressed in a pale pink gown. Her hair is piled atop of her small head in ringlets and she wears a smile so wide that Regina finds herself smiling back.
"You look beautiful," the young princess breathes, offering her hand to Regina. It is soft, innocent, and the brunette suddenly feels very uncomfortable with the pain she has caused this poor girl. Never, though, would she ever regret it. Her vengeance helped Snow find her Charming and gave Regina a kind of love she had once vowed never to experience. Henry.
"As do you, "Regina whispers, squeezing the little girl's hand. She can practically feel the happiness emanating off the child with that touch of affection. Clearly, Regina had been quite hostile in the past months towards the King's daughter.
Snow babbles on and on about this party and that party and on and on about her daddy and her step mummy and the family she has always wanted. They reach the dining room and Regina is ushered in to a seat at the head of the table, next to the grand throne of her husband. She shivers in disgust as she slides in to the chair. Many other guests are already seated yet fall silent at the arrival of the queen. She hates this. She hates all of this. The facade she wears when she greets suitors and smiles at the king and Snow…. it is exactly that, a façade, a veneer of deception that masks the ugly truth. She is a prisoner.
"All rise for His Majesty, King Leopold."
The entire body of nobles stand in respect as he walks in. Regina closes her eyes as her breath hitches. Her heart pounds and it is all she can do to stop throwing up all over the fine china. She had said goodbye to her vile memories of him many years ago, and yet now here is in the flesh. She can't breathe. She can't breathe. She can't breathe.
And then she sees Emma. At the far end of the hall, hidden behind the curtain, is a tangle of blonde and warm emerald eyes. Regina's breath begins to steady again. Thank you Emma, she whispers inside her head.
He slumps down in to the chair beside her all too soon, touching her hand and squeezing it too tightly to be affectionate. She is his possession and he is reminding every other admirer in the room of this fact. Regina shivers, still refusing to look in to his eyes.
"I see you wore the dress I picked out for you?" he whispers, and she can feel his hungry gaze wander over her appreciatively. She wants to slap him.
"Yes."
"You will come to my chambers tonight, yes? I have so missed your… company these last few nights."
Regina sees Emma again and allows her presence to dilute her anger. "Perhaps," the brunette says simply, although she can feel her former husband tense. Regina bites her lip. Stupid. Her past self would never have spoken like that. Only the Evil Queen and the mayor would dare tamper with royalty.
"You seem different," Leopold muses, stretching back on his chair and surveying the room with interest.
Regina says nothing, just focuses her gaze on the roast swan in the centre of the table and finds herself chuckling, inwardly, at the irony.
…
They have a painter come and sketch their portrait after the meal has ended. Regina doesn't smile or lean in to the hold she has on her husband's arm. He is a ghost. He is dead, she keeps reminding herself. Snow becomes very quiet, as if aware of the tension, and Regina surprises herself by reaching over and squeezing her shoulder. Snow relaxes immediately and asks her father if Regina can accompany her back to her chambers. They walk together in companionable silence before Snow stands on her tiptoes to kiss Regina's cheek.
"I know that what you have with father is not true love," she says wisely, furrowing her brow. "Not like what you had with Daniel. I just want you to be happy, Regina. Perhaps if I was to be your daughter, you would be happy?" Then her tiny hands fly to her mouth and she is shaking her head, "Oh no. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to be so… of course I can't be your daughter! I'm sorry." And with that she flies in to her chambers and Regina is left contemplating would could have been.
She walks back in to her own chamber, thoroughly confused. Maybe the prison would have seemed less threatening if she had accepted Snow, despite all that she had done to ruin Regina's young life? Kicking off her shoes, she slides on to the large bed- only to find Emma and the young queen already there.
"Emma!"
Young Regina is dressed in a tight t-shirt and jeans, hair loose around her shoulders, boots and a red leather jacket. Emma is in a ball gown.
"What?" Emma is grinning at Regina, "We just wanted to play dress up." There is a wicked gleam in her eye that Regina cannot help but smirk at.
The newly clothed teenager is giggling as she wiggles her legs in the air, and Regina is utterly appalled (and somewhat amused). "Look! I'm modernised," she states proudly.
Emma turns and places her hands on her hips, "Bow down to me, peasants."
The young queen is in stitches at this and Regina is laughing too. They all sink in to the large bed together, finding everything far too funny. And Regina suddenly feels so happy.
Then there is a knock and Leopold himself is calling through the door, demanding his prisoner.