Bane of His Existence

Chapter Nineteen

In the present…

"What the hell have you done to him?" Regina questioned angrily as she continued to hold onto Rogers, while Gold cautiously stood and moved in front of his partner to show the witch he was willing to risk his life to protect him.

"You mean, other than the obvious?" the witch answered snidely, stepping a few feet to her left so that she could see the former Evil Queen hidden behind the senior detective attempting to block her view of Regina trying to help the man she's been tormenting since their first night together all those years ago in the tower. "We needed a bargaining chip. The dreamshade now flowing through his blood is our assurance to get all that we need from you heroes. Oh… You must tell me, Regina… when you were together for that brief time in your lives, did you and he… ever make love, or give in to your sexual pleasures? We did tonight. And it was wonderful. At least it was for me. Detective Rogers wasn't exactly in his right mind this time."

Gold cut in as he responded, "So… he is drugged then? Just as you told the manager of this establishment downstairs when you brought Rogers in. Was it with a drug of this world, or of ours?"

She smiled cruelly and replied, "Surprisingly it's from here. Ketamine. Don't worry, it was only just enough to make Rogers more compliant. If it makes you feel any better, he struggled against me for as long as he could. He's been fighting harder to resist me despite the special ingredient I threw into the dark curse to make him irrevocably drawn to me."

"What you're doing to him is more vile than anything I ever did when I was still the Evil Queen," Regina said darkly while she glared up at the woman she was fighting back the urge to stand up and hit her like she had done once before while in Neverland. "I've done horrible things to good people, but this… It's sick. Why can't you just leave him alone? Why do you have this need to keep punishing him just because he denied you whatever twisted pleasures and plans you had for him ever since that first night? All because he wanted to care for a child you were willing to abandon and leave to die all alone up in that tower."

"Why did you have the need to make all of the heroes from your own land suffer for all those years just because a ten year old girl accidentally told a secret that led to the death of your first beloved?" Gothel answered cruelly and then stood taller as she finally turned her attention on the Dark One. "Enough of this back and forth. I don't doubt we could go on all day. Shall we discuss demands?"

Gold looked back on his partner and then into Regina's eyes before turning back to the witch before them as he asked sternly, "What is it you want? I've a feeling I know what you're after, but I've learned it's not always a good idea to make assumptions about people. Especially if they're a villain."

She smiled, then responded, "I need you to deliver both Victoria and Ivy back into our hands. You may know thanks to Rogers freeing them what we have planned for them, but know that if you refuse, Rogers will die instead of them. Because without the second vial I have that holds the healing waters of Neverland's magical spring, along with a potion of my own design already blended in that will make it so the cure will not kill him as it did the captain's brother, he will die. Even if you had your magic, you wouldn't be able to save him without me."

"Is that all?" Regina questioned her callously while she glared up at the other woman until the man still in her arms weakly began to stir, but not awaken.

"Actually, no…" Gothel replied smugly. "No, I will be needing something more. From you, Detective Weaver. I need you to find me information that will lead me to the rest of my sisters of our coven. There are four of us still missing. I know you knew who they were when we were living in our own land, so you should be able to find them here in Hyperion Heights too. As the Dark One, you always made it your duty to learn everything about your enemies. Don't pretend I'm wrong."

Gold kept his eyes firmly on hers while he retorted, "You've made it so that your touch was all that was needed to awaken your fellow witches, but perhaps you should have thought to include a way to locate them yourself without requiring the help of your enemies."

She ignored his wisecrack him as she answered, "Neither of you have to give me your answer now. But I wouldn't wait too long, or you'll be forcing your friend to suffer needlessly and his death will then be on you if you refuse to give into my demands. Good luck… heroes."

At last, Gothel left the room to return to wherever she and her coven were hiding, leaving Regina and Gold alone once again with their friend. The senior detective knelt down above Rogers again and lifted his shirt to examine the wound once more, finding that the striations hadn't grown that much more. Luckily his partner remaining unconscious was a small mercy, as both heroes knew enough about dreamshade from their own experiences with it to understand that the more a person who's been poisoned by it moved, the faster the poison within them spreads.

"It's time we get him back to someplace safe," Weaver stated quietly without looking up into the Queen's eyes, while he then made an effort to lift his partner. "We can take him back to my place. No one will think to look for him…"

"No… We can take him back to my bar," Regina interrupted him when she grabbed the other man's arm to keep him from lifting Rogers any further. "It may be more obvious because most of the police force know Rogers comes there often. However, I have a hidden room underneath the floorboards, behind the bar. There's already a cot down there and I've got plenty of blankets, water, food, a first aid kit… It will be easier for all of us to look after him, including Zelena and now Tilly. You know she won't want to leave his side until she knows Rogers is going to be okay. We should get going before she comes running back up here wondering why we haven't come down with him yet."

Together, Regina and Gold carefully lifted their friend between them and carried him out of the motel, ignoring the manager calling out to them when they walked past him. Inside a parked car just down the street, Gabriel sat behind the driver's seat while Anastasia sat beside him within the passenger's seat, as they both watched the two heroes leave the motel with their friend.

Neither of them said anything until Gothel then leaned forward from the backseat of the car after she quietly got in upon leaving the establishment herself and looked over at the young woman learning the ways of a witch as she spoke to her softly saying, "So did you learn all that you needed to know, Anastasia? About your mother and your sister?"

Without returning her gaze, she responded callously, "I learned that they don't love me like I thought. That they'll never love me again. They turned their backs on me, so now I will turn my back on them. I deserve better. You were right all along. I should have trusted you."

"Do you trust me now?" the leader of the witch coven asked as she reached out her hand and waited for Anastasia to take it in her own.

"I do," the oldest Tremaine daughter replied darkly, as she accepted Gothel's hand. "I'm ready to become one of you, Mother Gothel."