He has her cornered. She's alone with him and he grins at her with a devilish twinkle in his eyes as though he's attracted the lost little lamb to slaughter. She tells herself to stay collected, to avoid crying in front of him. Too many times has he seen her vulnerable, and every time he hadn't deserved the privilege.
His plan for the past couple years was to break down her walls and get inside, and she'd let him. He'd won and crawled under her skin like a parasite, fed off her loneliness and desperation until she was weak and his and no longer her own person. And then she'd become so dependent on having him in her life that she couldn't lose him. She wouldn't let him die. She wouldn't watch another person she'd let get close to her leave her.
She'd saved him in Camelot, but his life came at too high a price. They'd all tried to tell her. Regina had been the first to speak up. She should have listened, but it was like holding Neal in her arms as she watched him take his final breaths all over again. It's like she was cursed at birth to lose every lover she's ever had, destined to be forever alone. Because Saviors are meant to save, not love and be loved.
He's a Dark One, just like her. Well, not exactly like her. She chose her fate, but she forced it on him. And he hates her for it. He's targeting her, attacking everyone she cares about and threatening to kill them all for ultimate power. He wants revenge against Rumpel first and foremost, but as soon as his "crocodile" is dead, he'll take what every previous Dark One, except Emma, has wanted: complete control.
But her betrayal seems to sting more since it's fresh, because he's not going after Rumpelstiltskin. He's standing in front of her on the street in front of the clock tower and looks maniacal and ready to pounce with his fist tightened.
Emma looks down as his knuckles turn white and his arm muscles tense. She hears him chuckle, but watches his hand as he unclenches his fist. As soon as his grip is loose enough, smoke appears in the shape of a sword and when it clears she sees Excalibur is in his hand.
Her eyes widen as air escapes her lungs and she doesn't feel it return. She knows in that moment when she's there, why he's sickeningly happy to have her trapped and alone.
"If you don't want to join me, love," he starts to say, "then it's time we part ways."
She takes a step back and slowly starts to raise her hands both defensively and in surrender.
"Please, Hook," she breathlessly begs. "Think about this."
"Oh, I have."
She shakes her head and continues to try reaching out to him, speaking to the man he once was and not the monster he is, and probably has been for a while. "What about Henry? He's already lost a father. He doesn't need to lose a mother, too."
"You know, I'm fairly sure you've said that before," he mentions as he raises the sword and touches the sharp tip with a finger. "But…what do I care about the boy? He's not mine. He's yours. He's your responsibility and you've failed him."
"This isn't you, Hook. You did care about him. Before this. Before being a Dark One."
"Not really. I did my best with him. And I tried to appeal to his interests, but what else was I supposed to do if I expected you to love me?"
Her stomach flips in an unpleasant way and she feels nauseous. She looks down at her hands and sees his big, bulky ring on finger. She remembers when he let her have it despite the fact that each of his rings represents one of his kills.
"And I've got to say, Swan, you loved me really well in that field of flowers," he says, and she can hear the swell of pride in his voice.
She feels violated, and suddenly her entire body goes cold and rigid. She swallows down bile as it starts to climb up her throat her mouth falls open as she stares at the ground. She doesn't want to look at him, doesn't want to see the pleasure he gets from seeing her fall apart. And that's exactly what she's doing.
She's been hurt so many times in the past, but she's never felt as used and dirty as she does then. All she wants to do is stumble backward and magically find herself curled up on the floor inside a shower as the water pours down on her. She wants it to wash away the pain of Hook's words and the slime she feels all over her skin from a beautiful moment that's been twisted and forever tainted.
"Emma!"
Her attention snaps to her left as she hears boots and heels on pavement rush toward her. Her parents pant as they approach and Regina looks nervous as she observes the scene in front of her.
"Ah, just in time," Hook says, his grin even wider when Emma finally chances a look at him. "I'm really going to enjoy this."
"Hook," Regina nearly barks out.
He snarls as he looks over at the brunette.
Regina takes a few steps forward, slow and cautious as she stops beside Emma. Her brown eyes are focused, determined, and she looks a little less worried than before, even if Emma senses the other woman is only wearing a mask.
"Killian," Regina speaks again, softer and less commanding that time. She sounds like she's trying to level with him, be his friend. "You might not be the same person you were before we knew each other, but you can be that person again. Just like I'm not the Evil Queen anymore. You just have to make that choice for yourself."
He scoffs. "Oh, so I get to choose who I want to be? Now I get to choose if I'd rather live or die? Where was that choice when I explicitly told you to let me go?" He directs his last question at Emma and tightens his grip on Excalibur. "I finally made the first decent and selfless choice in a long time, but you disregarded what I wanted. So now, whatever you want, whatever you beg for, I'll take from you. You beg for your life, I'll end it. You beg for theirs," he says as he points Excalibur at her parents who stand off to the side behind her. "I'll kill them. Better yet, I'll let them watch as I kill you. And while you bleed out, you'll get to see all three of them die."
"Stop this nonsense," Regina insists, and now she's not wearing a mask over her true emotions. This time she's defiant and doesn't seem willing to back down. "You won't be killing anyone."
"You'd like to think so, wouldn't you," he sarcastically asks her.
"Regina, don't," Emma chimes in and reaches out a hand to grab the other woman by the wrist.
Hook's eyes follow her hand and sees her grip Regina, firmly but not aggressively. He shakes his head and laughs. The laughter is unsettling, and naturally her grip on Regina tightens. She's scared of Hook and knows that while Regina might be able to take on anyone in town, she's fighting a Dark One. Regina's never been able to beat Gold and, even though she's gone up against Emma recently, she's never been as messed up in power as Rumpel or Hook. Her only misdeed was what she'd done to Violet and Henry. Everything else she's done has been to protect her family and to protect them she had to play the real villain. She'd hoped she'd be able to keep up the charade long enough to destroy all the darkness, but Hook's right. She's failed. She's failed Henry and the rest of her family and instead of things ending in a brilliant moment of luminance, it'll now end in bloodshed. Whether it's her own blood or someone else's, she's still unsure, but she still has a job to do before it's all over.
She may have failed at destroying all darkness, but she still has her parents and Henry and Regina to protect. Again. She can still save them. She can still make one last sacrifice. For them.
"I always knew there was something you were holding back," Hook says and looks from her to Regina and then down again at her hand where it remains around the brunette's wrist.
She frowns and doesn't get what he's insinuating, but she doesn't have a chance to think any further on the potential meaning of his words before he speaks again.
"I'm going to take even more pleasure in doing this than what we did in that field."
In an instant, their slow and drawn out tête-à-têtecomes to a swift and abrupt end.
He lifts Excalibur and lunges at her with it.
Regina's wrist breaks free from her grasp and suddenly, she's flung away as a flash of dark hair and a light colored coat step in front of her. There's a pained cry as she hits the ground, but it's not from her or her parents who groan behind her. Panic sets in as she hears a wet sound before a thump.
She hurries onto her feet and sees Hook standing over Regina with the darkest of smirks on his face. There's blood on Excalibur, so much blood, and Regina lays in the street with her hands on her stomach. Immediately, Emma's reminded of Isaac Heller's alternative version of the Enchanted Forest. Her vision flickers back and forth from the Storybrooke street in the dead of night and the bright Fall day in front of a wedding chapel in the forest. Leaves litter the ground Regina bleeds out on in the forest one second and then she's bleeding on damp pavement the next. She's watching Regina die for the second time in less than a year and she's overwhelmed with emotion. She doesn't have Henry to lean on like she did in the forest so this time, when she rushes to the brunette's side, she tugs at the woman's coat sleeves and presses her hands to Regina's cheeks. She brushes her fingers through dark, silky hair and cries and cries and cries.
"Regina," she says softly in a pleading and desperate voice. "Why did you- You saved me."
"You've worked- Too hard- To give ev-everyone else- a happy ending. It's time- someone let you- have yours," Regina replies in stilted breaths and grunts. "Take…care of- Henry."
It's the last thing she says before she loses consciousness. She feels alone and lost and doesn't understand why it feels like her heart is ready to explode out of her chest, which feels both tight and heavy as she stares down through teary eyes at the limp brunette she then decides to gather into her arms.
"Please don't leave me," she cries into brunette hair and presses her forehead against Regina's.
She sniffles and cradles Regina's head in her lap before she turns and looks up at Hook. He continues to stand over them and looks down at Emma with a serious expression on his face. His grin is gone and looks almost frightening.
"Why? Why would you do this," she asks him.
"The blade was meant for you, Swan. She just got in the way. But…I can see it's tearing you up inside so I'm actually glad she did. Now you'll suffer, knowing this is all your fault. Her blood is on your hands, love."
He moves Excalibur forward and wipes off one side of the blade on her jacket sleeve.
"And now it's on your precious leather as well," he cockily says and then flashes her another grin.
She sets her jaw and shifts Regina closer to her as she holds up a hand and attempts to use her magic on Hook, but he disappears in a swirl of smoke before she's successful. Excalibur disappears with him.
She gasps and sobs and lets out little cries as the swirling, swooshing water dissipates and she finds herself on her hands and knees in a dark, almost pitch-black place. She takes a few deep breaths, but her chest still feels tight. She doesn't know where she is or why she just relived such a traumatic event, one that she only experienced for the first time a few hours ago, and she doesn't understand why she's on the floor while Ursula remains on her feet. Although, the other woman is leaning on what seems to be a wall and she's panting as she stares off into space with wide eyes. Maybe she's relived something as well and isn't actually fairing much better than her after all.
"Ah, ladies," a man greets them with a clap of his hands and a toothy smile. "So glad you chose to join us."
Emma pushes off the ground and straightens up. She brushes her hair out of her face and her fingers tangle in messy tresses.
The man in front of her wears a loose fitting and thin blue sweatshirt with dark wash jeans and some kind of work boots. She can tell he's at least slightly older than her due to the wrinkles around his eyes and the creases across his forehead, but other than that, he looks like a healthy middle aged man. Except for the hair, because it's fire. Apparently, the guy's a hothead. Whoever he is.
"Who are you," she asks and walks toward Ursula. They traveled together so they were going to stick together until they found what they wanted.
"Is that anyway to greet your host," he asks in response. "You don't even know who I am and yet you sought out this place."
"Well, we're not exactly sure we landed in the right place," Ursula finally speaks up. "It's happened before."
"Hmm," he grunts out and rubs his chin between his index finger and thumb. "You're right. We've got to figure out where you belong here. Since neither of you is dead or near death, you'll have to be sorted out the hard way."
"What," Emma steps forward, her brow furrowed and the rest of her muscles tight.
"Welcome to Hell, sweetheart," he says with a smirk and a bit of condescension, like Emma's too stupid to understand just what she's gotten herself into. "I'm Hades, Lord of the Underworld and I'll be your cruise director today.
"Normally, when a person comes to me, they're not all that alive. Because of that, they've already been assessed on the way down here. I know who they are and where they belong. The two of you, however, are very much alive and the only thing I know about either of you is what you're here for. Or rather who. That doesn't tell me anything about your character. I don't know if you belong with the more vicious villains or not. And if I don't know that...you can't get in."
"Whoa, okay, I did not come to Hell to be denied," Emma barks at him. "I don't know if I deserve heaven or whatever else might be out there, but I chose to come here before my time and I won't be shut out."
"Easy, easy. Down girl," he laughs. "All I have to do is figure out who you are and what your intentions here are."
"Ursula. Sea Goddess," Ursula curtly answers, probably just to move things along. "I would prefer to take Cruella back with me if she wants to leave, but if she doesn't I'll let her be and get out of your hair."
The man's lips curl even further upward and his hair flares an orange-pink before he says, "Excellent. I can take you to Cruella without a problem, but...if she does want to leave, there's something you'll have to do first. You have to exchange one life for another."
"I don't...I don't understand," Emma says when she hears that and watches Ursula's face fall with defeat.
"There's a balance," he answers. "Cruella's already dead. If Ursula wants to bring her back to life, she has to let someone else take Cruella's place."
Ursula seems to have either already known that, or at least expected it, because she doesn't look at all surprised. She only looks sad that there's no hope for a better outcome.
"It's a long shot," Ursula says then. "She probably doesn't want to leave anyway."
"And...if she doesn't leave? Will you stay or go," the man asks.
Ursula takes a breath and says, "I don't know. Do I still have time to decide?"
"Yes," he says. "Take all the time you need. Of course, the longer you stay here the less choice you'll have in the matter. That cut on your arm will reopen when your time starts to run out. Same goes for you."
Emma takes a few shallow breaths and then nods her understanding before the man continues.
"Now what is it you want, blondie," he asks her, his voice light and playful, with a knowing grin on his face and slides into her personal space. "Actually, I know what you want. First, I want to know your name."
She hesitates before she replies, "Emma."
"Ah, the fallen Savior and new Dark One. Yes," he purrs and holds out the "s" like a hiss. "I remember hearing all about you about a month ago. You took on the powers of the dagger and became the Dark One for someone here. How noble."
"I just want to bring her home. I don't...I don't have to let anyone die in her place, do I?"
He chuckles. "Not yet. She still has a chance."
Relief floods through Emma in that moment. A chance. That's all she needs. Just a chance, an opening, a single opportunity to talk to Regina and find a way to bring her home.
"How can I bring her back with me?"
The pain in her stomach hurts worse than she expected. She's never been run through with a sword before, but she had been slashed with one in another world and a different time. Emma had been there, too. The blonde always seemed to be there.
This time she doesn't save Henry. Last time she had, but this time it's about Emma. She did it to protect Emma. The younger woman took on the darkness for her and it was about time she did something strong and brave and selfless for Emma. It was time she gave Emma the happiness she's missed out on throughout her life, because of her.
"It's time- someone let you- have yours," she says as she starts to fade. She has one last thing to say to the other woman, something she's sure Emma already knows but it bears repeating just in case. "Take…care of- Henry."
She closes her eyes and her breathing starts to slow, but she can still hear Emma. The woman keeps jostling her around in her arms, though Regina's devoid of most feeling as she's pulled deeper and deeper into unconsciousness.
She thinks she feels tears fall on her, but she's not sure. The last thing she's aware of is that Hook still looms over them as Emma yells at him the same way Regina remembers yelling at Cora when she'd killed Daniel.
Regina wakes with a gasp and shoots up in bed. She pants out a few heavy exhales and takes in the dark room she's almost ready to start calling her own. It doesn't feel right, doesn't feel like home, but it's the only place she can be now. She doesn't belong with Emma and Henry. She's done. This is it.
This is where she's stuck and it's time to accept it. If she doesn't, she'll constantly hurt. She'll cry herself to sleep every night and she'll drink all day long. She'll refuse to do anything, even if Cruella continues to pester her about roaming through the Underworld to find entertainment, and she'll feel worse than death. Because even in Hell, even dead, she has another chance at life. She can live right there. She can live in Hell, and yet, all she wants to do is be as drained and lifeless as she feels.
She takes a deep breath in and releases it in a long exhale. She runs a hand through her hair and goes to the bathroom inside her room to wash up before she heads downstairs again. The bar is a little more energetic again tonight, and although there's no thumping music or rowdy dancing, there's still some music on in the background. It plays softly like it's not the main attraction and there's a TV that's on in one of the corners. It's playing a sports game, but there's a remote set out on the bar near where a bartender is cleaning a glass so she assumes they don't have to be watching sports. It's just what's on.
She takes a seat near the remote and waits for the bartender to serve the customer in front of her before the woman in a purple dress and nearly magenta colored hair moves over to help her.
"You weren't here before," Regina blurts out, her brow furrowed as she looks over the other woman.
"No. I try not to be in the Underworld at all, although here is better than the rest of the realm," the woman says. "I'm Meg."
"I'm...Regina. Do you mind if I ask…why are you in the Underworld at all?"
Meg sighs and folds her arms on the counter before she leans on them and lowers herself to be eye level with the brunette. "Hades tells me when he needs help and I help. No one else will and I don't agree with why he was disowned."
"Disowned?"
"Oh, yeah. He's my uncle by marriage so I didn't always know the truth about why he's here and not up in the clouds with my father-in-law Zeus and the rest of the family. But when Hercules told me, I was the only one to defend him. Came to find him some hundred years ago and now he's got at least one person in the family to talk to. And every time I go back up to the rest of the family, they bitch and moan about my visits here. I don't have the patience for that. You know?"
"You're tired of the backlash, but you don't regret anything," she deduces.
"Yeah. I'd rather be living my life. You know? But just because he's gay doesn't mean he should have to make a life for himself in a place that, quite frankly, was a vast and empty place until he was banished here and forced to make it his home."
"But you still don't like it here, in Hell," Regina says it like a statement and not a question, though she's curious to know the answer.
"Sometimes it's not my favorite place to be. Villains are always so strange to me. Although, I think the people here are less villain-y and more...misunderstood. That's what my uncle was...until he made this place."
Regina stares at Meg as the woman looks across the bar like she's in a trance. She has a fond smile on her face and Regina thinks she's looking at something, or someone, and turns to see what could have the other woman's attention.
Hades is walking into the bar and gesturing around the place as he weaves through the small crowd with two women tailing him. She can't quite make out who they are, but she knows Hades by his fiery blue head.
"I'm proud of him," Meg adds. "He's so comfortable here. And...he doesn't do even half the things a lot of people in the Underworld have, but he welcomes them anyway. He says it's because they've all been outcasts at some point and he identifies with that."
Regina breathes out and her lips twitch into a brief smile as she inwardly agrees. Her eyes are still on Hades and the two women with him, so when she catches a glimpse of blonde she gasps. She blinks a few times, her eyes wide as she tries to look a little harder through the crowd. It can't be real. She can't be real.
But when she steps out past the people as Hades leads her to the stairwell, Regina can't deny what she saw only seconds ago. Emma Swan is there. The blonde moves across the room, the other woman and Hades are in front of her as she follows and looks around at the place with interest and awe.
And then it stops. Everything stops. Emma looks over in her direction and their eyes met across the room. The conversations around her are drowned out by the cries she hears in her head, but doesn't remember when or why or how she ever heard them.
"Please stay with me."
"Don't leave."
"Regina!"
Her vision dims until all she can see is Emma. Emma who's standing still even as the other woman and Hades continued toward the stairwell before Regina lost sight of them. Green eyes are focused intently on her and she just can't look away. She knows in her heart that it's Emma, the real Emma. Hook probably killed her. The blonde screwed up and didn't finish Captain Guyliner off like she should have, and now Henry doesn't have any parents. He's an orphan just like Emma was, except he at least has his grandparents to raise him. Still, it's not the same and she's not supposed to be here. She's supposed to be safe.
"Emma," she quietly says on an exhale.
She watches as the younger woman's lips part in response. She can't tell what the blonde is feeling, or even what she might be feeling. It appears that she's either in disbelief or she's just overwhelmed and doesn't know how to process what she's seeing or what's happening.
Truthfully, Regina isn't sure she knows how to process what she's seeing either. She's not even sure what's happening or why Emma's there. So she slides off the bar stool and starts to walk over to the blonde, but a few people walk in front of the younger woman and block her from view. When the people pass, Emma's nowhere to be seen. She's just...gone.
Regina sighs and her shoulders sag with defeat and disappointment. Maybe she was only seeing things. Maybe she imagined Emma there because even though she wants the other woman to be alive and well in Storybrooke with their son, she still craves to see a friend in this new life of hers.
Instead, she only sees familiar faces and it's not enough. Cruella approaches from a distant point across the room and it's not enough to know the person, to recognize the people in Hell from her past life. It's not enough that she's seen Cruella a few times before Storybrooke and a few times after and is now able to maybe befriend the woman while they're down here. It's not enough because, aside from Cruella missing Ursula in a way that she finds herself missing Emma, they don't understand each other. They don't fit. They aren't those people. They can't be friends. Not like she and Emma were. Not even like she and Snow had sort of started to become. It's different and it's not enough. But...maybe it has to be.
"Hello again, dahling," Cruella greets her with a bright smile. Her lips look a little brighter red than they had been the previous night and her fur coat isn't the only luxurious accessory she's wearing today. As the woman takes a seat on the empty stool next to her, she sees light reflect off a red and white diamond necklace. It looks like something she'd seen in her mother's jewelry box once when she was much younger, but that's probably another thing she's imagining.
"Hello, Cruella," she replies. Her tone isn't icy, but she's not sure they should really be friendly either, and instead settles on a neutral tone. "How's your inter-realm travel going?"
"Well enough, I suppose. I can still only manage to go back and forth from here and the place I started in."
"The pl-place you started in," she asks before she even thinks to check if Meg is still there. She is, but she's at least a good enough person to pretend she's not listening to them as she wipes down the counter just a little further down from them. "What part did you start in?"
"I'm not sure there was really a name for it, but the men there weren't gay. They were actually extremely delectable. I almost took one home before I met someone else. I'm waiting for them now, in fact."
"You met someone? But what about Ursula?"
Cruella laughs and says, "Oh, not that kind of someone. She's a friend. She's been trying to help me get around so we could have a little more fun. She doesn't like staying in one place if she's not in control of it."
Regina frowns. She has a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach and there's something telling her she should run. Her heart starts to beat a little faster and she thinks she's sweating, but she doesn't know with absolute confidence. She's too fearful to know if it's just tingles down her spine or if there's perspiration on any other part of her body.
Cruella turns and waves someone down before she happily says, "There she is now."
As soon as Regina sees the woman in a red shirt and black pants on her way over to them, her blood runs cold. She really shouldn't have expected anything less than torture when she came here. Maybe she truly was destined to be unhappy, even after death.
"Cruella, dear," Cora says with a warm smile and a healthy display of teeth. Her lips are the same shade as Cruella's and Regina realizes they probably shared it.
Regina shudders at the thought and doesn't dare ask how Cruella managed to get lipstick from her mother. She doesn't want to know, even if the other woman only asked for it and the tube was momentarily lent so she could apply it.
Cora wraps Cruella in a hug like they haven't seen each other in days, and then the older woman sees her over Cruella's fur-covered shoulder. "Regina! What are you- You're here."
Cruella pulls away from the hug, but Cora's arms have already lost most of their grip by the time she does.
"Hello, Mother," she says through partly gritted teeth, her voice rough as she tries not to bolt like a frightened child.
"How are you here? What happened," Cora asks. For a second, Regina thinks the woman sounds concerned or sad about her daughter's apparent fate, but then she remembers all the magic and harsh words. She couldn't possibly... But then there was the last thing her mother ever said to her.
"You would have been enough." And isn't that such a lovely sentiment. More recently she's not so sure Cora meant it, but as soon as she'd lost her mother she thought she really had.
"I...I was stabbed," she chooses to say as an answer and leaves out all the rest.
"Well, that's a little dissatisfying. Did you at least go down with a fight?"
There's the interrogative mother she remembers. Maybe being in Hell means she died, but even with her heart, she doesn't have much compassion left in it.
"Not exactly," she quietly admits.
"Regina, dear, please." Cora steps into her personal space and places both her hands on Regina's biceps. She gives them a little squeeze before she adds, "Just tell me what happened."
"She sacrificed herself for the Savior," Cruella cuts in.
Cora's eyes light up with...something. She's not quite sure if she's in trouble or if the woman is just surprised by the truth.
"You... That girl? The blonde you share a son with," Cora asks with a cocked head and curious eyes. She still doesn't know if Cora's going to yell at her and dig her nails into her skin, or if the woman just wants to hear what she has to say.
"Yes," she timidly replies and averts her eyes.
"Oh, dear," Cora says as her mother hooks a finger under her chin and gently forces her to make eye contact. "Why would you be willing to die for her after all the trouble you went through to get your son back? To try and make him all yours?"
"I…I don't know," she lies and looks down again, her chin still in Cora's grasp.
"We both know that's not true," Cruella laughs.
She swallows and pulls out of her mother's grasp. Cora surprisingly lets her go.
"Aw," her mother says with a slight pout before she runs both hands through her hair and finger combs it near the tips. "Well, we have each other now. You don't need her. If it's women you're interested in, I'm sure we can find someone who actually deserves you."
She's startled by that. She's never heard her mother be so supportive. Of course, the woman's also tearing down Emma because she doesn't know the whole story and probably never liked the blonde at all. There was a time when Regina would have agreed with her and scoffed at the name Emma Swan. But now she just wishes that it had been real when she saw the younger woman across the room earlier.
"You want…you want to set me up," she asks with obvious confusion in her eyes. Her head is cocked and her brow furrowed. She's not sure what answer she wants to hear.
"You need to get over her," Cora supplies. "What better way to do that than to have some fun? Already I see plenty of women who can entertain you."
She cringes and regrets ever asking about being set up. She doesn't know why or how long her mother's genuine concern is going to last, as strange and slightly disturbing as it is, but she thinks she should enjoy it. She wants to enjoy it. So she nods and agrees to the madness that is her mother attempting to get her laid.