Chapter 12
Storybrooke
Present day: Storybrooke, Maine
A shockwave resounded through the small town like nothing ever felt before, its effects unrivaled by any hurricane or tornado as it seemed to strike every inhabitant through the soul.
Anya was struck in her home, her small family gathered around a dinner table, each of them staring at each other dumbfounded. Memories racing through their minds of what felt like a past life, every second streaming into her mind, weighing instantly on her heart as tears filled her eyes from the pain. It was like being strangled, hands wrapped firmly around her throat and heart and were slowly suffocating her.
Had she always followed death so closely?
Others rejoiced at the regained memories, the family instantly scrambling over the table to embrace, recalling exactly how important family was to them. The parents and their son embracing the neighbors' daughter like family...but Anya could only stare.
Who were these people?
28 years with this family and they suddenly felt like strangers, her mind racing through memories...they were nobodies. Farmers, peasants, the shoe maker down the road. It made her sick. The family turned to her as one unsure of how to respond, a girl who had, until just a few moments ago, been their daughter they now knew was nothing but the witch daughter of the evil queen. Gaping, Anya tried to speak but no sound came out, immediately bursting to her feet and rushing from the house. Her mind linking the threads together as she raced down the street, the sound of her footsteps like thunder in her ears.
This was Regina's curse...this was her doing...She locked her in this realm, stolen her memories and in some sick sense of humor stolen her memories yet again and given the duchess a peasant family. People who would never really accept her, a false family to mock the pain of the one she'd lost.
Rage boiled her tears as her running slowed to a stop, wiping her damp eyes. This was pathetic. She could just imagine how her mother had laughed for all these 28 years...knowing of her ironic punishment. Anya couldn't care less for the fate of the others, but what Regina had done to her was unforgivable to the young woman.
Thunder clapped in the sky, green and black smoke billowing across the town, colors sparking like lightening, dampening the air as it went. Licking her lips as the familiar addictive taste of bitter power gathered on her skin.
Magic.
Something sparked in Anya's eyes, confidence...reassurance. She was the apprentice...she was power.
Her attention riveting as the roar of a crowd could be heard from several streets over. It wasn't hard to guess what they were gathered for and Anya wasted no time in joining the mob sent to kill the evil queen.
Stuck at the back of the crowd Anya watched as Dr Whale approached the mayor's door. Regina answering without much hesitation.
"Can I help you?" Regina grinned, glancing uncaringly over the mob. It was easy for Anya to tell that she'd felt it too, the empowerment of magic returning to them. This mob was in for a very short riot, and she wasn't sure who would end up on the prior this time.
"That smirk," Whale growled, infuriated in a way none of the villagers had seen him before. "Isn't going to last forever Regina...you took everything from us and now-"
"What?" Regina pressed, suppressing a laugh. "You're here to kill me?" amusement glittered in her eyes, she was like a lioness on the prowl, even when the odds were stacked against her she knew she could never really lose. A cut throat edge in her voice mirroring the confidence of a goddess.
"Not right away, first you're going to suffer. The way you have made all of us suffer." each word rising, thundering over her like a tiger, the two circling each other, neither of them ever breaking their gaze. Each fighting for power with every word.
"I believe listening to you has been suffering enough." She pressed, taking a step free of her doorway, pushing him hard in the chest, forcing him back off of her porch. "That's right!" she announced, louder now, speaking to the mob as a whole. With those simple words it was like the crowd began to panic. Instantly rethinking her plan to work her way forward Anya now backed down, slipping further behind the crowd as if slipping into shadows. Everyone knew what was coming. The assault, the attack...the reason she was the evil queen.
"You wanted to see your queen? Well my dears, here, she, is!" the crowd flinched, everyone recoiling, lifting their hands to protect themselves as the unthinkable happened.
...
Absolutely nothing.
As the mob regained its bearings Regina stood frozen fear flickering behind her eyes. Surprised, Anya immediately glanced down at herself...what about her? was all magic void here? No...Impossible! She'd felt the wave earlier, Regina MUST have felt it too. Anya's bravery faltered, stepping back. This was not her time, deciding that now the crowd would do what it may to their queen and when they were done who would they turn on but the one who'd carried out the queen's work?
"Now." Whale continued, his triumphant gaze landing on Regina as he pushed her back into the pillar of her porch, pinning her as the crowd drew closer. Her terrified eyes meeting his. "Where were we?" The tiger had won, lunging at the lioness with a final roar as his hands rose to her throat.
Anya was surprised as the charmings heroically came to the rescue, the irony was not lost on the girl as they undoubtedly saved the life of the woman who'd spent most of her life trying to kill them. Anya however had lost interest, looking down at her hands. This little observation had been good experience. She needed to double check her powers...make sure they were working before she rushed headfirst into a fight. Her thoughts seeming somewhat clearer now.
She was going to need to gather her pawns if she was going to destroy the dark one and the evil queen.
"AHHHH!" Anya screamed, grabbing the rock and flinging it up at the leaves she'd been trying to blow off a trees, her breathing erratic and shallow. What the hell was going on? She had just spent hours on a task that should have taken her seconds, finding she was unable of using even the simplest of magic as she'd retreated further and further into the forest until night had fallen.
Running her hands stressfully though her bright red hair Anya paced a line again, having walked back and forth so much that her steps had actually drawn her path of frustration. Slipping to the ground Anya curled up, pulling her jacket tightly over her. Now what was she going to do? The sun was setting, it was getting cold, and she had no magic and she doubted anybody in town would be willing to give her of all people refuge. Magic had to be her top priority right now...after she achieved it then she could find shelter and food.
"Having trouble?" a voice echoed, Regina's head snapping up in her cell as Anya entered the empty sheriff's station. Eyeing Regina as if it were their first meeting in a century. Regina stared in silence for a moment before opening her mouth to reply.
"What are you doing here?"
"Thought I'd stop by...come see what's become of the evil queen. My how that the tables have turned."
"Please." Regina sneered, "Quit the crap kid, what you want?"
"That was the problem with you." Anya snapped. "You were always so god damn condescending, you drove me crazy!" she almost laughed, as if trying to understand how she'd lived with it before, as if the reality of her freedom was just sinking in. She was no longer the Queen's black apprentice. She was a dog no more but an enchantress of her own, and once she found Cora she would have the power she needed to take care of the Queen once and for all.
"Watch your mouth." the queen snapped, she didn't need to take attitude from anybody, especially bratty teen who needed to remember her place in life, right under her. "Surely you didn't come to just talk, nobody ever comes just to talk. I hope you know this is a temporary arrangement, once i get my powers back escaping will be as smile as a flick of my hand...how was that working for you? What ever became of those pathetic charms of yours?" Growling, Anya had to bite her lip to refrain from reacting, taking a deep breath before answering.
"That's where you are wrong...I just came to talk. I wanted to show you what a monster you've made of me."
"Could be better." Regina smirked, eying Anya up and down in disgust. She wasn't exactly the most dangerous person the queen had ever faced and she doubted Anya would ever even come close in that running. "When you finish puberty let me know, it's hard to take you seriously with all that on your face."
Anya's cheeks turned visibly red in embarrassment, biting the inside of her cheek in a childish pout. How could she be so cocky! she was locked in jail for Christ's sake what pedestal was she on that made her believe she could talk down to her like that?
"What?" Regina snapped again. "Did you forget what you wanted to tell me?"
"Oh no, no Regina i remember, i remember everything. I remember the massacre at the castle, i remember training under you, i remember the hatred flowing through my veins."
The queen fell silent, never breaking eye contact with Anya, there were any number of things she could have done to avoid this confrontation, a simple twist in the curse would have made Anya her daughter in this new world...looking back she couldn't say she'd do any different. If she'd kept Anya then she would never have gotten Henry and that trade of was simply not worth it.
"I remember you coming by every day...at least for the first few years. Was it funny? Watching me with some fake family? Did you have a good laugh out of it?" Anya spat, disgusted as she grabbed hold of the cell's bars, pressing her face to them, snarling her words and looking down on the woman who had once been her mother.
"Hilarious." Regina retorted, a deadly edge in her voice as she rose to meet Anya, her hands resting on the cell just below hers, their gazes inches apart, staring into each other's souls. "Does it sting? Does that wound your ego? Those strangers masquerading as your family, did you enjoy their pity? Because it wasn't love i can assure you of that. I cannot count the times i walked by your pathetic little shack and laughed." She hissed, her words striking Anya like lightening, the girl shrinking back, obviously taken aback by the queen's words. Regina however stood tall, it was her turn to look down on Anya. "What was it like? The life of a peasant? I hope you took good notes. You're not royalty here. Nobody cares who you are just the missing orphan on the side of a road."
Neither of them spoke for a minute. Anya was hurt, quickly turning away to hide the emotion rising inside of her, the tears threatening to fall. She couldn't see Regina's own surprise, contemplating her own words. It was true, she'd laughed at Anya's petty little life. But to pretend she hadn't too given years of her life to raise the orphan was enough to startle her, able only to discard the girl because of her most recent love of Henry.
Moments passed in silence tension rising. Anya wished for her magic to return, Regina was trapped, if she had her magic then the queen would never talk to her like that.
As if summoned by their rage an ominous wind blew through the police station, the lights flickering before turning off completely. Startled, both witches twirled towards the windows watching the street lights flicker out one by one a sudden shadow snuffing them out like flames on a candle. Startled, Anya felt her heart flutter in her chest as the door to the station slammed open a full scale wraith appearing before her.
Fear struck Anya's heart, she'd only ever heard of the soul suckers in books, but to see one before her brought them into an entirely new light. This, thing, was a murderer of legends. The redhead immediately scanning her mind for knowledge, a connection finally snapping in her mind and she spun to Regina. Anya was scared, but Regina was terrified.
"You've been marked." Even as the words rolled off her tongue the news didn't quite settle in, glimpsing the burn mark on her palm. The meaning of the mark finally settling in. The queen was going to die...and Anya didn't even need to do anything. The realization was almost glorious, a sliver of a smile piercing her lips quickly replaced as the wraith pulled the door from the cell, thrusting it aside and slamming Anya to the floor. The world rang and buzzed around her for a moment as the darkness drew in around her, slowly slipping into unconsciousness.
Waking up several moments later to a thunderous crash Anya scrambled to her feet, her heart pounding in her chest. The windows were shattered and the infamous snow white herself was holding a hairspray bottle and a lighter to the air, the final flickers of its flame dying out.
What the hell? This world was strange, it's lack of magic replaced by an unconventional form of fighting.
"We haven't got much time." Prince Charming, or...David Nolan spoke up, barely glancing at Anya before returning his gaze to his wife.
"David's right, we have to get rid of it." Regina said hurriedly. Everything was happening so quickly Anya almost couldn't get a word in.
"Yea but how?" The new blonde in town, Emma, asked. She was panicked, "What the hell was that?" This must have been her first encounter with magic, Anya could see it in her eyes. She had no idea what was going on, or how to fight. Anya doubted she could even summon a simple charm. Yet somehow she had broken Regina's curse. One that even Anya herself hadn't managed to see.
"The mad hatter's hat." David cut in, each person speaking a mile a minute, jumping from one person to the next. "We can open a portal and send the wraith through."
"Will you have the magic to power it?" Snow asked, turning to Regina who nodded in turn...that did it.
"Why do we have to get rid of it?" Anya asked. "It's not after us, it's after her. And lord knows she's done enough to deserve It." an odd feeling settled in the room, and Anya could feel the disgust in the charming's guts. Everyone looking down at her petty vengeance.
"We can't let it do that." Snow answered quietly. She wanted to believe that Anya was still a child...somewhere deep down that Anya was still capable of love. But at the moment she wasn't sure if she would be able to help the child realize it.
"Yes, you better hope that we can get rid of it." Regina cut in, turning her full attention to Anya. The redhead's last comment having pissed her off. "Because if it doesn't, I may die, true. But i will make sure that I mark and pull you down with me. So hush up the adults are talking."
Biting her lip Anya was silent. Perhaps what she'd said was out of place. Didn't mean the queen didn't deserve to die though. Accepting her silence as cooperation, Emma finally broke the awkward silence.
"So how about we all get a move on and head over to the mayor's office. We can barricade it and set up this...hat...thing."
"Why are we taking orders from the blonde?" Anya couldn't help but butt in. "She's new! She doesn't even know how magic works.
"Hey, magic might be your specialty kid, but right now, in this world, I've got the upper hand." Emma eyed Anya for half a second, as if denouncing her as a threat before nodding to the others, each rushing from the station, racing before the next wraith attack. Anya growled, pacing once before reluctantly chasing after them. She had to know what was happening. It wasn't like she had a home to rush back to.