AN: I'm pushing forward to get more updates posted. I will be finishing this story, even if I'm typing it in the nursing home when I'm 80. It's going to be finished. I'd like to thank you all for your reviews and messages you've been sending me via this site. I appreciate every bit of feedback I can get, and I love all of you for the support.
This chapter takes place between Mine Alone to Hate chapters 13 and 14. Snow is in the enchanted forest with David, and their fighting Cora, and Regina is back in storybrooke.
Warnings: there's some blood and light violence, also lightly insinuated black queen. Nothing more than any of my MAtH chapters.
The tavern is dark and smoky, despite the cloudless high noon sky, a place that seems to forgo windows to match its shady clientele. David and I try to dress down for the meeting, but even with our simple boots and swords, with cloaks covering our uniforms, it seems enough to cause a quiet to settle among the bar patrons when we arrived, that as well as the daylight flashing across the tables and bar as we opened the door just long enough to enter. By now though, they've all gone back to their own business or pleasure, and we have settled at a table with three dirty mugs of warm ale, but the man sitting across from David and I couldn't care less about the way his alcohol is given, as long as it is given freely. The man is drunk already, settled in this spot long before we got here and he has been alternating between the ale we were buying and the flask inside his leather vest.
The metal of his hooked hand shines as it waves absently in the air between us. He swallows hard and slams the now empty mug between us, gesturing for another one already.
"This is all your fault, you know." His accent is getting thicker by each drink, eyes glossed from his drunkenness and bloodshot from sleepless nights, and those blue eyes were looking right at me.
"What?" I don't really expect that to be what comes from his mouth when we insist that at least something useful better come from it before we lose our patience. His eyes are boring into me now though, serious and cold, as if David no longer exists.
"The curse." The pirate exclaimed, jabbing one of his fingers on the table for emphasis. "The evil queen, wanting her revenge on you," My heart beats fast at his words because I haven't heard anyone speak of her since we got to this land. "And her bounty for you turned to her and everyone else being swept away to a land no one could get to. And when the curse broke, we were supposed to go as well, just as she promised." Cora. I had heard this story, from others besides him. How a small part of the land was protected from the curse, only to meet a worse tyranny than they ever knew from Regina. The Queen of Hearts who was strong in wonderland grew even more cold and cruel back in the Enchanted Forest. Staying at what was once Regina's castle, and even before that my family's, leading her men by the whispered commands in her drawer of hearts. Floor to ceiling, it's said that she has a long stretching hallway of them. But the Queen herself? There's only stories and fear, only my people's bodies laid out to me as gifts, and controlled messengers in lieu of her actual presence. I've yet to see her face in the 4 months we've been here. "Cora wanted to be reunited with her daughter, and me with the dark one's head." The drunk pirate continues, boasting about his revenge but there's fear deep in his eyes, just like everyone else in this land. "We couldn't find a way, so she just kept going on about 'best laid plans' and 'patience'. Well, I waited more than any of them. I'm done waiting. All I want is Rumplestiltskin, and all she wants is to wait." A disinterested waitress finally comes by with another three mugs, even though David and I haven't touched our first ones. More for the pirate, I suppose. Once the woman is out of earshot, he continues on as if she was never there."Hoping one day her daughter will show up in some flaming chariot, so they can have their demon reunion in hell."
"Hook—" David starts, sounding more annoyed than anything.
"Captain." The pirate corrects, and I feel my eyes rolling despite myself.
"Captain Hook." My husband actually manages a halfway convincing smile and his head dipped in apology, which made me tense next to him because David usually hits someone right after he makes that face. Which I do feel proud of my ability to still read him after all this time, because he's reaching over the table quick and grabbing the front of Hook's vest, and I'm sliding my chair away to give the men their space for a more barbaric communication. He lifts the drunken and limp body of the pirate up to match his glare, face to face. "We need a weakness." David hisses, angry and tired of all this fighting. We all are.
"She's made of stone," Hook snaps, eyes trying to focus through the haze of alcohol. "Crafted from Medusa herself."
I gently touch David's arm, and a moment later he's none too gently dropping Hook back into his seat.
"Well, even Medusa can be defeated, believe me." My words catch on hook's attention as he brushes off the front of his vest in offense to being manhandled.
"That's because Medusa had a heart." He scoffs starts to take another sip while mumbling; "Try finding Cora's."
"We're not interested in appealing to her sentimental side—" David starts with an edge in his voice.
"Cora's heart." I say and a silence covers the table, the pirate not making eye contact. Of course. The Queen of Hearts wouldn't be fool enough to keep her own heart in her chest. That would make her too human. "Where is it?"
Hook is already shaking his head and physically waving the question away.
"Somewhere no one can find. Not you with your brute force," A harsh glare towards my husband, then a softer but more suspicious one towards me. "Or you with your pretty face. Without a heart, she cares for nothing."
Another beat of silence passes until I speak again.
"Except her daughter. That's not for nothing."
The pirate doesn't answer, and only looks back down into his drink, I motion to David, and we're standing and ordering the pirate more liquor as we go off to an empty table to stand near, out of earshot of Hook.
"We need to find Cora's heart." There a little hope in my voice, because this is a small break, but it's the only one we've had since we came here.
"Okay, but how are we going to get Hook to talk?" David asks, because of course that's our one obstacle. A drunk and terrified lackey.
"He's too scared, and who's to say he even knows where it is?" He nods, in reluctant agreement. "And the longer we have him here, the more risk we have that Cora will find us."
"Let's take him with us. Hook is also Cora's closest ally and we can't fight her forever." It's a quick and desperate plan on our part, but we would be lucky if we made it another month fighting Cora. Still, the idea of transporting a drunk pirate so close to the queen of hearts, against his will on top of it? It wasn't ideal. David senses my hesitation. "What do you want to do?" He asks then, but my hesitation only grows at the question.
"You won't like it." I say, and immediately feel him tense.
"What won't I like?"
"We…" I avoid eye contact from him. "Should get Regina to help us."
"You have got to be kidding." I'm shushing his outburst because it's louder than I feel comfortable with, given our surroundings.
"We have enough magic to open a portal, to send someone back." I try to explain, and David's quick to interrupt me.
"And let me guess, you'd happily volunteer?"
My voice grows colder and eyes narrowing.
"David, you heard him. Cora's practically obsessed with Regina."
"She's not the only one." He snaps in an angry whisper.
I take a calculated breath, trying to reach him and stay calm at the same time.
"We need to be unbiased about this. If Regina helps us find a weakness—"
"Unbiasedly, there's no reason why she would help us. Unless, you found some way to convince her." He's getting more angery and his voice rising. I look around to make sure we're not drawing attention to ourselves.
"This isn't about that."
David laughs at me almost cruelly.
"About what? Just say it. You'd rather go be her consort than my wife."
It's like a slap in the face when he says it, never, never has he taken such a disgusted and degrading tone with me. My mouth opens but no words come out, and it's only a brief second later that his angry eyes and sneer disappear from his features. David shakes his head and looks down to avoid the hurt in my eyes.
"I'm sorry." He whispers, but I go numb all over.
"Find out what you can. I'll be back at camp." My voice is monotone, not looking back as I storm out of the tavern.
David is right, my mind went back to her as soon as I had an excuse to. Even before that, being back in the land we're all from, despite its war-torn changes, it's hard not to think of Regina.
And even before that.
A sigh escapes me, lost in my own thoughts when I finally enter my tent back at our camp. I'm alone, coming straight back here after the tavern and careful I wasn't followed. After getting some updates of the day while we were gone, and dodging some questions about the prince, I finally found myself alone in the tent, and whether or not David will return before morning is something I can't know or bring myself to care about.
I honestly thought this would be better, this distance from Regina could allow me to go on with my life. It only makes me realize that there was never a part of my life that didn't revolve around her. She's been a storm that I feel as if I was born in, destructive and dark, but instead of trying to claw my way out, I've always gone deeper in search of the calming eye. That storm lives in my head now, and we could be worlds apart but I'll feel her every moment.
Before I even have a chance to settle in the silence of my surroundings, the tent opens and I turn to see David walk in with a small smile on his face as a greeting. I don't return it, hoping he would've decided to stay out until morning. His cloak from the tavern was gone already, wearing the uniform he had underneath it and a sword at his hip still.
"David." I greeted coolly. "Did you find out anything?"
He paused a moment before answering.
"Nothing much. Nothing we didn't already know." David said casually and giving a slight shrug as he moved his eyes around the tent, avoiding my gaze. Being back this soon, he couldn't have stayed at the tavern much longer than I did, and it makes me wonder if he even tried.
"He was our best chance." My tone has a bit of a warning to it, gently chastising in its own way. His temper with the pirate probably got him unwanted attention.
"Well, we'll just have to find another way." His voice is a little too unbothered for my liking. "Any suggestions?"
A frustrated sigh comes out before I can stop it.
"I already gave you my idea, and you weren't fond of it."
"I overreacted, and I shouldn't of. Let's keep talking about it." David sounds apologetic and his smile is gentle as he takes a few more steps towards me.
"Did you partake at the tavern?" I ask, side eying him and giving a disbelieving chuckle. He looks at me, his eyebrows crease in innocent confusion. A moment longer of consideration has me shaking my head and looking back to the clasp on my cloak, undoing it and starting to strip the armor away from the tiresome day. "You seem much more…unbothered." My voice trails off, not wanting to spark another fight with him. We're doing that too much, and more than a few of our people have noticed.
"We have more important things to be worrying about than petty arguments. I want this fighting to stop just as much as everyone." My head raises once I toss the cloak along with my blade on a nearby chair, meeting his eyes. "I don't want this war to hurt anyone else." While David walks towards me, his face is so clear of any upset—or really anything at all. Not even at his most civil towards me, not even the few times we tried and failed to be intimate since arriving to our old land, not even then were his eyes so clear. He's held onto it every moment, shifting a darkness over his face when he looks at me. I've seen it every single time except for right now. He reaches up and cups my cheek, smiling so softly, and his hands feel like ice, as a thumb traces my jaw line with a tender touch. It makes me go cold all over. "Mostly, I want my wife back." There's a vague tone of seduction in his words, as he leans in to kiss me.
My body shifts towards him, but before he can make contact with my lips, I've unsheathed the sword at his hip and have the blade between us and against his neck.
I know David. This isn't David.
His hands go up in a mock surrender, face full of mock surprise, backing away from me a few steps until I have the blade outstretched and its tip pointed at his chest.
"Snow…"
"Cora." I say coldly.
A silence settles between us, and without denial, I feel my stomach sink. This is bad. Very bad, and I'm so stupid not to have seen it earlier, but I've felt so disconnected from David as of late, and I've shown weakness to her because of it. Cursing myself can wait though.
The one thing—what I made sure to drill in everyone's head—is don't underestimate Cora. I know what she's capable of.
She smiles David's smile, and it looks so twisted and wrong, like a warped mirror giving off a distorted reflection.
"Clever girl." The octave of his voice goes a bit higher, taking on a regal sort of air that his never did. Authoritative and stern, but never a voice of royalty. "The husband may have been too presumptuous." She still keeps his body regardless, just to disorientate me, trying to make me as vulnerable as possible. All it's doing though is making me angry. "I may have had better luck with someone more familiar to both of us." Then a purple cloud surrounds her, but instead of the woman I remember, all that remains is the sight of Regina. I feel my body freeze and a gasp escapes my lips before I can stop it. It isn't just Regina, it's Regina from years ago. From before her title of 'evil queen', her hair long and curled around her shoulders, wearing the most stunning simple white dress. When my mind would wander as younger woman, when it would imagine her in any way, my mind would imagine Regina like this. I wonder briefly if Cora has gotten ahold of my heart, what with the way I feel it just crush at the sight. "Would this be better than your prince?" Cora giggled childishly, twirling once to show off the gown. Her cruelty seemed to be full of playfulness tonight, so I take a few deep breaths before my emotions over took me. Seeing what even just looks like Regina is enough to bring me to tears, but that can wait.
"What's the matter, Cora?" I ask and her smile fades at the casual tone I'm using. "So much blood on your hands, you can't stand the sight of your own face?"
"Any destruction I caused was simply self-defense. You are trying to take my thrown, after all." She reasons, with Regina's voice, and right before I feel like I'm going to lose my mind, Cora smiles wide and dark, like a Cheshire cat, before finally taking the glamor away. The smile stays, and I see such a resemblance between the two of them because of it. "Ah, repeated history." Cora sighs, looking not a day older than when I was ten, her body covered in a dark purple and black gown. Now as herself, she clasps her hands in front of her, and starts to circle me curiously. I follow her movements, not letting my back go to her. "…My daughter always favored you. They all did." She stops and takes a few steps to me, sidestepping my sword gracefully, and I feel my grip on it waver for a moment. "The things a pretty face can buy." Her hand moves to touch my cheek but I jerk away as red fills my sight.
"If you touch me, I will kill you." I spit at her, stepping back and raising the blade once more. My defiant words causes a look of disapproval cross her, because she thinks she has the upper hand. Here, with me alone, maybe, but I have an army, and we have plans, and loyalty is stronger when it's because of gratitude rather than fear.
"Dear child, your threats are as empty and fragile as that pedestal you stand on." My combative stance is dismissed as she looks back around the tent curiously. "I've noticed you've learned to block the looking glass spell. A trick no doubt learned because of Regina." A knowing glance is spared towards me that makes my throat go dry. "One of many tricks, I'm sure."
"I'm sure I don't know what you mean." I don't let her affect the infliction in my voice.
"Such a lasting pain never to know love, isn't it?" Cora continues, as if I never spoke at all, not caring about my words either way. "And the love of a mother and a daughter is the most powerful there is. How hollow that must have left you."
My eyes narrow in suspicion at her accusation, one with a purpose lost on me.
"My mother loved me."
"Regina never did." She states, eyes settle and point at me once more. My sword is lowering slowly, only because of its weight straining my arm.
"Regina is not my mother." I feel my cheeks start to get warm, my nerves getting the best of me. Four months in this land, and all her battling has been second hand, all the fighting has been with her armies and creatures she controls. Four months and I never saw her face, now she finally shows up and all she wants to do is chit chat.
"As close to it as you ever got while you were growing into a woman." Cora scans my form off handedly, but I feel it like ice down my spine. "She claimed the title, for so many years, so why still deny her of it? Was she not maternal towards you? Could you never bond with her, as she did with me?"
I didn't know whether to laugh or be angry at such a claim. A claim that Cora would be a better mother to anything, compared to anyone.
"You only ever saw her as property." My voice snapped at her, leaning more towards angry. I remember well, clear as ever, even after all this time. I remember the look in Cora's eyes when she would land her sight on Regina. It was disturbing and confusing to a child of ten, not knowing the depth and layers of such an abusive dynamic. I remember thinking that the way Cora looked at her, was the way one would look at a servant, or a servant to a dog. It wasn't appropriate, and it made me feel uncomfortable to see, almost as if I wasn't meant to.
"Quell my curiosity, dear." I hate hearing that label come from her mouth, and her claims of simple curiosity rings hollow. "How did you see her?"
The words remind me my role in this though, and it isn't to defend Regina in any way. Cora needs weaknesses, and I have an abundance of them in Regina's name, but my strengths are in bravery and stubbornness, and I won't allow her to exploit me that easily.
"The same way I see you, as a villain. And I will defeat you, just as I defeated her. It will turn into an easy feat if all you choose to do is spend your time speaking of her." Her dark eyes narrow at me, and I gain strength in my voice and my words. "Your obsession with a fallen queen isn't a secret, at least it's certainly a rumor running rampant through your troops. You mind's eye only on her and not on the power and treasures you promised them. You can dream all you want of a lasting pain for me, because all I need to do is wait out a mutiny against you." I laugh lightly, but without humor. "You should be grateful she's not here by your side, because I know once you've gone to the end of every world for her, she'll still reject you." If there is one thing Regina knows how to do very well, it's how to push people away.
"As she rejected you?" Is all Cora responds with, her voice low and dark, and I take a threatening step towards her, being led by the heat of my cheeks from her claims.
"I left the land she occupies willingly, not banished by her as you were. All the hearts you've collected, but the only one you want is the only one you can never grasp. Such a lasting pain, isn't it?"
Her face twists in anger and hand reaching out as if to grab at me, so I try lifting my sword but nothing happens. Cora's magic suddenly causing all my muscles to seize. Magic gripping me to my very bones, feeling as it even moves my lungs to its own accord. My eyes grow wide at the shock and the only sound is the metal of the sword hitting the ground.
"It may seem we have that in common." Her steps are slow as they close the space between us. "But blood is stronger than the lies behind your family name. Despite how my daughter may have pushed me away in the past, I will never give up on her. I will never abandon her, send her away as a defenseless infant to fend for herself in a foreign land." I try to struggle then, my anger rising at the implication, knowing she's talking about Emma. "Never in all my deeds would I do anything as heartless as that. I love my daughter."
"God only knows what loving her means to someone like you." I manage to croak out through the hold of magic on me, and Cora says nothing at my harsh and cutting words, at my ability to always push too far. My anger allowing for a childish stupidity to come out in spades.
Cora simply moves her raised hand slightly, in the most offhanded and casual movements, a brisk wave in my direction, and a cold eyebrow raising as its only emphasis. The action though, causes me to fall straight to my knees, hard. Pain shoots up my legs and a flash of pain crosses my face. The magic keeps a stronger hold on me, and I can't even move my head to follow her movements.
On my knees and frozen in place, Cora is in front of me without her face in view, but I suddenly have the feeling of her fingers moving through my short hair, soft and gentle with her nails lightly running along the top of my scalp to the back of my head. Nausea is growing inside me, but as her hand twists and grabs a fist full of hair, the sharp pain pushes back any other feeling. Her wrist snaps my head back as far as it will go forcing me to look up to her face, her eyes are dark coal and full of an anger I couldn't make out as clearly as when we were circling each other a moment ago. They're piercing into mine while her other hand slowly moves to cup my cheek.
"Do you have an urge to know what God knows, Snow White?"
Her thumb brushes over my bottom lip.
I feel the magic that's immobilizing me grow tighter around my limbs, causing a pressure and pain to surround me everywhere.
"She's going to kill you." Cora practically growls, because I did get under her skin, and it looks as though I might die for it. She releases my hair but keeping her hand on my face with a strong hold on my jaw. "You will look at her like a child with love in her eyes, and she will crush your heart right in front of you. All for me." As Cora speaks, her words grow darker, her hand gripping my face tighter and tighter, fingers digging in with the rage building up. I feel one of her nails break skin deeply, drawing blood. "She will belong to me completely, and that will be the last thing you see before you die." Fingers twisting in my skin, feeling as if Cora is ripping it right off my face, marking me for slaughter, and the image of Regina's lip scar filters into my mind.
The binds of magic grows tighter still, starting to compress my chest as I struggle to breathe even more and my eyes water as I choke, feeling my head start to float away, limbs turning numb. A tear trails down my cheek mixing with the blood along my jaw, and the moment before I feel as if I'll die, my blackening vision clears as Cora releases me. I fall to the ground completely just as a purple cloud of smoke surrounds her, making her disappear.
