108If she doesn't scare you, no evil thing will
Belle had never felt so anxious before. She hated that place, its grey walls, the poor light, the cold smell of the loneliness. She was following the authoritarians figures of Regina and Rapunzel, the former queen being the one who leaded them through the dark hallways, wishing with all herself that Rumple was there with her. He didn't even know that she was there, actually: she didn't have the time to tell him.
Regina turned left, in a darker corridor. Her figure was now illuminated, now immersed into darkness while she walked fast under the distant lights. They turned right, and a narrow hallway accommodated them.
Regina stopped in front of the only door in the short corridor. The plate at its side titled: de Vil, C. Regina eyed Rapunzel. The warrior nodded and waved a hand in the air: a sort of soft flash gradually showed the silhouette of a shield before them. It disappeared in a heartbeat.
Regina gazed at her. Belle blinked and swallowed, nervous.
" If you want to go..." the brunette murmured. Belle shook her head.
" No, I'm fine. Open it." she answered, showing a courage she didn't feel. Do the brave thing...
Regina nodded, glanced at Rapunzel once again and finally inserted the key in the lock. As she turned the key it was like if a hurricane had come into the asylum. Unbearable screeches filled the air, and bangs, explosions, dazzling lights. The shield that Rapunzel had created seemed to hold up to the attack from the dark room.
They waited. They waited a long time before that the terrifying rumors and blows ended. When Belle opened her eyes again, she found out that Regina was beside her, leaning against the wall behind her, waiting. Rapunzel, instead, was standing as an oak tree in front of the door, her left arm bent before her as if she really had a shield in her hand. Cruella de Vil was right in front of the warrior, panting, her skinny body wearied by the attack. She was tall, but stooped, and her skin was shriveled under the light cloth they covered her with. Her white and black messed hair were standing on her head, her hands, more similar to claws, were angrily sliding across the invisible surface of the magic shield, lighting ten light-blue stripes over it. The Slayer hissed at the impassible warrior, showing sharp-pointed teeth under the thin red lips.
" Who are you, lady of the shield?" she whispered to Rapunzel. Belle couldn't help but feel a cold shiver shake her body.
" The Golden Death." she answered in a low, growling voice. Another shiver ran through Belle's spine.
" Golden Death, Golden Death... Mh, never heard." she mocked her in a sharp hiss.
Belle saw Rapunzel's shoulders tense. " Your problem. Now shut up and listen to your Queen, Slayer." she barked, moving a little to make place for Regina. She took a deep breath while walking forward.
" Cruella." she formally said.
The woman growled at her. " Rrrreginaa..."
" Do you remember the Three Little Pigs?"
At those words the Slayer began to furiously claw the shield, screaming. Regina stayed immobile, just as Rapunzel, patiently waiting for her to finish.
" I take it as a "yes"." the brunette said with a smirk as the silence came back in the hallway. " You impeded me to kill them, Regina, and you'll pay for this!" Cruella cried out, punching the shield, lighting the place for the fraction of a second.
" You can kill them now." Regina calmly said.
The two women silently locked gaze for a while. Cruella was open-mouthed.
" Lie!" she finally spat.
Regina slightly shook her head, a grin on her face. " Why would I be here then?"
" Perhaps you were bored." the old woman franticly hissed.
" Perhaps you're more stupid than I remembered."
Cruella sneered. " We'll see it when you'll be begging me to kill you..."
She suddenly fell on her knees while speaking. Her mouth was opened in a mute scream, her eyes wide opened, weeping. Belle looked at Regina, but she was doing nothing if not staring in disbelief at Rapunzel. The librarian laid her eyes on her: the warrior's right hand was grasping the air, sparkles of blue light that sprang from her clutching fingers, a fierce expression on her face.
" Listen well, Slayer, as this is your only opportunity to gain my sympathy and so stay alive." the Golden Death said in a low, throaty voice. Her hand tensed a little bit more, and Cruella bent on herself, googling in pain, yet unable to scream. " Now you're exiting this cell, but you're not free: you'll obey to your Queen's orders, whatever they will be, or you'll deal with me. When the Three Little Pigs will be dead, your fate shall be decided by the Queen. You won't complain any of her words, you won't even think to harm her, or this is the pain you'll experience for the rest of your miserable life." Rapunzel clenched a little more her hand, and the woman curled up on the floor. She then suddenly relaxed it, letting her breath.
Shaya sighed, swallowing. She was pale, and sweated. Maybe the magic had tired her, but Belle hoped that that was regret. She remembered what she had read about her, but she hoped that the writers had exaggerated with the cruelties, even though what she had just seen didn't suggest it. " Is everything clear, Slayer?" Rapunzel harshly asked, making Cruella startle and then furiously nod. Belle swallowed the sympathy she was feeling for that woman.
Regina softly cleared her throat. " Good." She clearly forced herself to sneer, but Belle doubted that Cruella could notice it. " What are we waiting for, then?" she asked with velvety voice, already walking through the hallway, her steps that echoed between the dark walls. Rapunzel suggested her with a nod to follow Regina. Belle gave a last glance of sympathy to Cruella, then followed the sound of the former queen's heels.
" Who are you?" Finnegan snarled, his black eyes studying the thin human standing in front of him. The young man smirked.
" The name's Peter, and I'm a friend of yours, trust me."
Robert snorted. " Give us a reason not to kill you, human." He took a look around, his upper lips curled in a sort of smile to the battery of boys behind Peter.
Finnegan smirked at his brother, appreciating his threatening voice.
" Because I can save your lives." the boy grinned.
The two brothers barked out a laughter. " And who could kill us? The witch? She fears us, human, as anyone else in this land." Robert said, his fangs already lengthening under his lips. " Yet there is a human that you three fear, isn't it? A certain... Cruella, maybe? I think she said so, yes. Cruella de Vil, if I'm right."
Finnegan couldn't contain a loud growl. " She's long dead, human. You're lying!"
Peter brightly smiled while tilting his head. " If you can't believe me then go take a walk in town, and sniff the air."
Robert suddenly tore up his shirt, revealing his mutating body, already covered in black hairs. He loudly growled to the boy, showing his fangs. " Not before having dismembered you, human." he said with an inhuman voice and a very human sneer.
Finnegan, although wishing to feel that soft flesh between his fangs, leaned a hand on his brother's shoulder. " Wait. He's not lying." he murmured. Robert locked gaze with him. As always, a glance was enough to understand each other's thoughts. Robert nodded once and straightened, but continued to look fiercely at the group of boys.
" Peter, right?" Finnegan asked, locking gaze with the leader of the gang. The boy nodded smirking. " Good. Well, Peter, how on earth could you protect us from the Slayer? Are you a wizard?"
The human grinned. " Sort of. I have a powerful weapon, a magic one. I could squash the Slayer as a bug if I'd use it on her."
Finnegan listened to the boy's heartbeat while he was talking, but it was calm, and his smell didn't change. Again, he wasn't lying. The werewolf sighed, then widely smiled at the human.
" Alright then. What do you want in return for this weapon?"
" Finnegan..." Robert grumbled, eyeing him warily. Finn calmed him down with a glance.
" Your help. I need to get out of here, I want to go to another realm. This one is weak. I want magic, more magic, I need fairies." The boy's greedy green eyes were uncomfortably widened. He looked crazy. " I want to go to the Enchanted Forest."
" And how could we help you? We're werewolves, not portal-jumpers."
Peter grinned again. " True, yet there are many in this town. I need one of them."
" Then take him."
" Her. I would if I could, but she's well protected. They will protect her, I know that they will. I need you to kill them. All of them, but her."
The two brothers looked at each other. They nodded at the same time with a slight smile.
" Kill the Slayer and we'll do it." Robert said.
Peter smiled at him. " Deal?"
Robert sneered. " Deal."
" Who's the survivor?" Finnegan asked.
Peter leaned his big eyes on him, grinning.
" Emma." he whispered.
Finnegan narrowed his eyes, thinking. He recollected the smell of each person in town, trying to remember which name they'd responded to. " Emma... The Savior?" he asked.
Peter nodded once. " Exactly." he said.
Finnegan snorted. " Good. When are we attacking? We need the time to tell Steven about this. He won't be pleased now that he has found the female. "
" Alright then, talk to him. Remember to tell him that Cruella is by their side, in the remote case that he refuses to be with us."
Finnegan gave a low growl in response. " He won't."
" Good. Oh, and, Finnegan?"
The werewolf locked gaze with the boy. Peter gave him a brief smirk. " Leave the pirate alive, also. He's mine."
The phone's insistent ring had woken her up. Emma grabbed the cellphone and answered to it. "
Hope it's important." she muttered.
" You know about that idea of yours to sneak out of the hospital, Miss Swan?"
" Regina? What...?"
" Put it into practice right now and come at my house. Collect Henry from school in your way here, pass at the sheriff's office and take all of the weapons you can bring with you. I'm sure your father will help you. " Regina's voice lowered and distanced a little. " What? Oh, right." she asked before talking back to her. " Pick Miss Lucas up also. Be careful." she quickly added before closing the conversation.
Emma looked astonishingly at her phone. Weapons and Henry together. All of the weapons she could take. What the hell was happening?!
The Savior stood up and began to dress up. David got into the room with two coffees in his hands while she was buttoning her blue jeans.
" Hey, Em, what...?"
" We gotta go. Henry, weapons, Ruby. We need mom's jeep."
" What?"
" Don't ask, dad." she said wearing her jacket. " I don't know what's happening, but if Regina says that we have to take weapons, it means that we're in deep shit." Emma flew out of the room, ignoring the confused stare that Whale gave her, and almost ran out of the hospital, followed by the sound of her yelled name and by David's heavy steps.
" The car's at Snow's!" he said as she stopped in the hospital's parking lot.
" What? Holy shit!" Emma exclaimed, passing a hand through her hair. " Well, call her and tell her to come and pick us up!" she said nervously waving her hand in the air. At David's expression she frowned. " What? Have you two fallen out?"
He loudly sighed. " Yep. "
She sighed in turn and shook her head while taking her phone from her pocket. " Well, she could even be mad at you, but I don't think she's at me..." she mumbled while dialing her mother's number.
" Em, she need a little of time to reflect upon... stuff. I don't think that..."
Emma put the phone against her ear, waiting for her mother to answer. " I don't give a shit! Henry could be in danger and..."
" Em?"
" Mom! I need help."
" What? Are you fine? What..?"
" I'm okay, don't worry. It's about... Well, I don't know actually, but I need your car and I need it now. Can you pick us up at the hospital?"
Silence. Emma could hear her distorted breaths, heavy, worried breaths. " Mom." she murmured.
Snow answered after what seemed an eternity. " I'm coming." she quickly said before hanging up.
" It must be by chance that this "Peter" has shown up just as I found the female..." Steven mockingly said, slightly shaking his head.
" Steve, you know that we're not lying. Don't be childish. "
He looked in his brother's green eyes. He wasn't lying, it was true, yet he could be hiding something. " Well maybe you knew him before. Perhaps you had an accord."
Finnegan tightened his lips. His heartbeat accelerated, his pupils dilated, and so his nostrils. He was angry. " Are you accusing us of such a coward action?" he calmly asked, though his voice was already throaty, almost a growl.
Steven let his eyes show their wolfish color. " You didn't deny it."
Robert actually snarled at him, stepping before Finnegan.
" Our honor won't be stained, not even by our own brother!" he barked out, showing the long fangs in his still human mouth.
The younger of them leaned a hand on Robert's shoulder, making him step back.
" We don't need this now, brothers, not with the Slayer around. We start this battle tomorrow, and we'll be free before the dusk. They're nothing to us. They're nothing confronted to us. They're all already dead." he sneered.
Steven sniffed the air. Lies weren't making it stink, but could he trust his brothers? Finnegan, overall? No. Absolutely not.
" Nothing? And the female? She's something to me. She's mine."
Robert sneered. " She isn't yet, the full moon hasn't raised."
Steven lowly growled to him. " Indeed. You can see by yourself that you behavior is suspicious, then."
" Only with blood I can take her. Tricks are for the weak humans." he objected, his eyes of a deep, intense yellow now.
" Or weak wolves." Steven grinned, making his brother snarl again. Finnegan held him once again.
" Brothers! Stop this silly fight, we need to be united now! There's no time for this if we want to survive. The boy was saying the truth, I smelled it, I saw it: Cruella is here, the Queen lied to us!"
The color of his eyes lightened for a second, showing the green-yellow eyes of the wolf.
" She'll pay for this. " Robert said in a growl.
Steven looked at his brothers. They weren't lying. They were his brothers. Maybe he could trust them, after all. He gave a smirk.
" Slowly." he muttered.
" Momma? Whatcha doing here?"
Emma pulled Henry by his hand, barely greeting the perplexed substitute teacher. " Bye, thank you! Let's go kid."
Henry followed her, well, actually he let her drag him out of the class. David was there, waiting for them.
" Any problem?" he asked while they surpassed him and quickly walked towards the exit.
" No. Let's go, Henry, come on!"
" Are you okay?" his grandpa asked him as he reached them. Henry nodded.
" Yes but... what's happening?"
He leaned a hand on his shoulder and opened his mouth to answer to him, but Emma was faster speaking. " Dunno, but your mom thinks that we're in trouble, so we'd better listen to her." They all got into Mary Margaret's car, he and Charming on the posterior seats and Emma next to Snow, who immediately started the car.
The silence awkwardly stayed between them for five minutes, interrupted solely by the engine's roar.
" Mom, the office is..." Emma was saying when Snow suddenly turned the wheel, making everyone slid on the right side of the car.
" ...there." Emma completed the sentence.
" Henry, fasten your belt." David whispered to him.
Ten minutes later Mary Margaret decelerated a little, then harshly stopped.
Emma turned on the seat to look at Henry.
" Kid, stay here with your Grandma. It will take a minute." she said before getting out of the car, followed by David. He watched them enter the Sheriff's office. The silence fell in the car as a thick heavy air that barely let him breathe. He glanced at his grandmother. She was obstinately looking outside her window. He sneaked between the anterior seats, smiling at her. She barely gave him a glance.
" Hey." he said.
" Hey." she answered with a hoarse voice. " Everything will be fine." she murmured, still looking outside her window. " You'll see, we'll fix everything. Don't worry." Her voice trembled with the last words. Henry sighed and leaned back on his seat. She and David had argued, that was clear, and she was sad. He didn't like it when she was sad, but what could he do?
" I know." he said, smiling again. As he hoped, she looked at him by the rear-view mirror. " I believe in you." he added. He had the time to see her eyes fill with tears before she slightly smiled and turned again toward her left, hiding her face.
Red exited the diner, huffing in the effort to drag the heavy garbage bag to the garbage pail in the alley behind Granny's. It should have been Rapunzel's job, but she was going crazy into the diner, she needed some air, and that one was the only excuse she had found to go out. She threw the bag in the bucket and turned to slowly walk back to Granny's, but she had to stifle a scream as the imposing figure filled her visual field.
" Oh God! W-what are you doing here? You can't come here this way, I..."
" Red, listen to me, please. I mean no harm, I swear." Steven said, his hands lifted towards her, opened, as to show her that he was harmless, though he, big bad reddish werewolf, obviously wasn't.
" Ah-ah, sure, so you don't wanna like rape me or something..."
" No!" he exclaimed. He looked sincere, really, but she knew the truth. Maybe he didn't see it that way, but it definitely was that way. " It isn't so... However, this doesn't matter now. You have a bigger problem than me."
Red arched an eyebrow. " Bigger than you? Really? What is that? The apocalypse?"
Steven swallowed, glancing around with a worried face. Or scared, more than simply worried. Ruby felt her hairs stand up on end. Her sarcastic smile disappeared as the intense danger feeling began to fill her heart.
The werewolf locked gaze with her again, and suddenly took her by her shoulder. It didn't hurt, but it scared her, even because his eyes were wide opened and he looked really worried. " Listen well, girl, or you and anyone else in this town won't survive till the next sunset. The Lost Boys and my brothers are preparing an attack to all of you to get the Savior and make her open a portal to the Enchanted Forest. They want all of you dead. I can protect only you, Red. I can't betray my family. But you can warn the others, so that you'll be able to fight, at least. I don't want a massacre, trust me. I don't want this battle neither, but... However, tell the Queen that they want her dead, Finnegan wants her dead, which means that she'll die, but she can protect her son, he's innocent. They won't touch him if he doesn't join the battle. We won't kill any child. Tell them this, and tell the pirate that Peter wants him. It's everything I know. I have to go now. Run, you don't have much time, we'll attack at tomorrow's sunrise. Run!" he exclaimed in an almost desperate whisper before running away with an inhuman speed.
" I need my personal effects if you want me to kill those beasts." Cruella tightly said to Regina. " Your Majesty." she added in a grumble at Rapunzel's glare. The warrior slightly curled her upper lip in a satisfied sneer.
" I know, dear. I'm taking them. " the brunette calmly answered while taking off her blazer, smiling at the Slayer. She then began to climb the stairs. Shaya could do nothing but admire her perfect body, the black clothes clung to it. " Wait a minute." Regina added before disappearing upstairs. Her heels resounded above their heads.
" Rumple isn't coming. He said he can't, that it's "forbidden" to him. Something he signed, I guess." Belle muttered pocketing her cell phone. Shaya locked gaze with her for a second before that she hastily glanced down. The warrior frowned. Was that fear?
Cruella hissing voice took her attention away from the librarian. " Golden Death... Because of your hair, I suppose?"
Shaya narrowed her eyes. Seriously? She wanted to converse? " Indeed." she warily answered.
Something in Cruella's expression was alerting her senses.
The slayer snorted. " How predictable... I bet some rude soldier gave you that name."
Shaya couldn't help but give a mocking grin: she couldn't be more wrong. " Though your logic is predictably sensed, no, it wasn't a rude soldier, nor a peasant or whoever you'd think incapable of inventive: but rather a king, so scared of me to pee in his regal pants. Before I cut his miserably empty head, he yelled " here's the Golden Death that takes my life". He was right, after all, yet, as you said, totally predictable. As many others like him, the most educated, yet the most frozen minds, closed between the thing that they had diligently learned, but never questioned. The nobles were the ones who expectedly gave me names as " Whore of the Devil", " Fair Death", that one was a rich poet in truth, or " Blonde Demon", what a novel idea was it, uh?, and never questioned why I was there to kill them, who of their numerous enemies could have sent me. They watched me fight from their windows, kill their incompetent guards, and they were sure that the Hell had sent me. Poor idiots! I killed them more for contempt that for money. The peasants, instead, them and the rude soldiers even more, they asked me why, at least. And only rarely they died without dignity, peeing in their pants, no: they fought, or asked me to die standing, proudly watching me in the eyes. And you know what? They laughed at my name. They laughed, and I laughed with them, and I shed tears when I killed them, if I decided to kill them instead of letting them run away, because they were worth living and ruling their lands far more than their despicable kings and queens."
An astonished silence followed her words. She deeply inhaled, sighing then while clenching her teeth. " So, Cruella, what are you gonna do? Will you laugh at my name, or will you tremble at its sound?" Shaya finally asked her, a slight sneer curving her lips. The Slayer burst into a hissing, disturbing laugh. Rapunzel chuckled at it, eyeing Regina, standing still at the base of the staircase, a hand on the handrail and the other one hanging an old leather bag. She looked impressed, amused and confused at the same time, and beautiful, absolutely beautiful. Shaya slightly smiled at her. Regina frowned in a questioning expression, hiding a smile. Rapunzel shrugged, pressing her lips together. Regina visibly held a laughter at her face.
" So you used to let them go?" Belle asked to Shaya, her smart gaze studying her eyes.
" Sometimes." she nodded.
" And... What did you say to who payed you?"
Rapunzel glanced at Regina while laughing, who was hardly stifling a laughter, shaking her head. " Say? I obviously killed them, Belle. What else could I do? Run away? Tell them that I was too sensitive to kill the poor man who didn't want to sell his land? Or the girl who had managed to run away before they could rape her, or to kill the newborn bastard?" Shaya asked opening her arms and shrugging.
" But... Didn't you know before? I mean, didn't you ask them why they wanted those people dead?"
" A mercenary doesn't ask, Belle, who would ever pay a possible informer? I asked directly to the targets."
" And if they lied to you? If you let them live, and killed the..."
" One can't lie with a Truth Spell in their throat."
Belle was about to say something in response when what sounded like an ogre knocked at the door.
Regina glanced at Rapunzel. " Watch her." she said, nodding towards Cruella. Shaya gave a quick nod, eyeing then the Slayer while Regina walked to the hall and opened the door, letting in the suspected ogre, also known as Emma, holding hands with her confused son, and the two very silent Charmings, followed by a very pale Red.
" Regina, we have a big, huge, immense problem!" Emma anxiously said. Shaya listened in.
" I know, the..."
" No, you can't know it, Steven has just said it to Ruby." she interrupted her, frowned. Regina frowned in turn, inciting her to go on. " You were right, the Lost Boys are here, and they want me to open a portal to the Enchanted Forest, and they want you dead."
" Finnegan wants you dead, not the Lost Boys." Red corrected the Savior. She shrugged.
" Well, yes, it's the same..."
" It isn't." Regina muttered, leaving Emma open-mouthed. Shaya felt cold shivers of fear shake her heart. Regina shared a glance with her, then turned and bitterly smiled at her son, caressing his cheek. " Finnegan's way more dangerous than a group of mad children."
" Regina." Shaya murmured her name, making her turn to look at her. She smiled at the brunette, trying to reassure her. " We've been through worse. That asshole is nothing to us. " she said, still smiling. The worrying in the brunette's eyes didn't fade away though.
" I know what you're doing, Shaya, so don't. I know that you can't defeat a werewolf. We both know what will happen."
" Aye." Shaya agreed " The Slayer will kill that son of a bitch and his pervert brothers and we'll take care of the Lost Boys. Then we'll party at Granny's and Belle will write a story about us.
That's all."
She shared a look with the librarian, who slightly smiled at her. " It would be a very large, intricate book."
Shaya smiled. " Well then, I love books. " she said to her before gazing back at Regina. They stared at each other for a while, and everyone respected that silent speech. " We'll be fine."
Rapunzel finally said.
Regina sighed before glancing down, slightly nodding. Shaya watched her turn and begin to talk with Emma with a painful knot clenching her throat. It didn't work, Regina still believed that that Finnegan would have killed her. Well, that was not going to happen.
Emma looked away from Rapunzel only to set her eyes on Regina again. She had to force herself not to stare at the creepy thin woman next to the warrior, her gaunt face with those glittering eyes, her mouth like a wound in the pale skin, the sharp, inhuman teeth under the dark lips that looked ready to tear her to pieces as she would have encountered her gaze. No, she couldn't look at her, not until she would have had something even vaguely similar to an explanation.
" Who's she?" Emma asked to Regina, hugging Henry more closely to her. The kid was staring at the woman with his eyes wide open. She could feel him shiver and press himself against her when the woman looked back at him and smiled.
" She's Cruella de Vil, Emma." the brunette answered, pressing her lips together and lifting her brows, in a clear suggestion not to freak out at the name.
" Cruella de Vil." the Savior repeated, frowned. " The one I'm thinking about. That Cruella de Vil."
Regina slightly tilted her head. " Sort of. She's a werewolves' slayer. She'll kill the Three Little Pigs."
Emma was literally open-mouthed. She looked at the woman, who slightly bowed with a creepy smile of hers. " At your service." she hissed, making her shiver. Emma gazed at Regina.
" A friend of yours, uh? Like the dragon. "
Regina had to stifle a laughter. " Beware your words, Miss Swan. You're my friend, too." the brunette said, pinching her lips in a repressed smile, her eyes glittering with something dangerously close to affection.
Emma grinned at her. " Seen your friends, you're the one who should watch out, Mills." The hissing laughter of the Slayer froze the room. Everyone turned to look at her. " She has a forked tongue, doesn't she, Your Majesty?"
Rapunzel glared at her. " And you'll have yours cut off if you keep talking, Slayer."
The woman hissed against the warrior like a snake. Shaya devilishly grinned.
" Don't try me..." she murmured making Emma shiver, more than she wished to admit. She looked at her darkened eyes, a visible prelude to darker thoughts. The Savior swallowed hard. " Perhaps you'd like to give me my weapons before the beginning of the battle..." Cruella said, tilting laterally her head, glancing at Regina. Emma watched the brunette gave a slight nod. " Of course, dear. " she politely answered. Well, her version of politeness. The one that always implied a threat.
Regina turned and stepped forward, facing the Slayer with a smirk. " However, I can't find it wise to give you your powers back. Not before that our friend is safe from you, at least."
Cruella looked away from her, suddenly pointing her eyes on something behind Emma, at her left. The Savior turned, finding out that Ruby was the only person Cruella could be looking at, seen that her parents were literally at the opposite angles of the wall, distant from her. The girl met her gaze for a heartbeat. She was hella scared.
" Oh, that little puppy... I promise I won't hurt her."
" Whatever will happen to Red, you'll get the same."
Rapunzel's voice made Emma watch her. If she was Cruella, she would have believed her.
The Slayer angrily sneered.
" You're asking me to protect one of those beasts?" she hissed. Emma was beginning to get used to that inhuman voice: her brain didn't ache at its sound anymore.
" No. I'm kindly suggesting you to do it. For your own good." Shaya gave her a mocking smile, ignoring the bite that the woman gave to the air.
" Fuck you, Golden Death! I'll eat your skin!"
Rapunzel slightly sighed. " Oh, I feel so in peril! Someone save me from this terrifying woman." she dramatically said, the back of her right hand leaning against her forehead, suddenly pretending to faint. She stood up again before touching the floor, a derisive, half sympathetic smile on her face.
Henry's unattended laugh made Emma frown. Cruella didn't look that amused. She glared at the kid, but Regina put herself between her glare and Henry while Emma hugged him from behind. " You mustn't even look at him, Slayer. " Regina steadily said. Emma could see Cruella's creepy eyes above the brunette's head. She was furious.
" Or what, Your Majesty? Your guard dog will rip my eyes out?"
" Emma, please, go with Henry upstairs. I have to talk with Cruella."
Emma didn't hesitate a second. Henry wasn't safe with that monster there. He would probably have nightmares for months.
" Let's go, kid."
The boy preceded her without a word. He just shared a look with his mother, who gave him a reassuring glance before welcoming back the Evil Queen in her glare.
Regina waited for her son to be safely out of range before speaking again. " See, dear, I understand that you can't know much about me, seen your last...
thirty-two? years spent in a cell, but, exactly because of this, you should know what I am capable of." she calmly said, slightly smiling at the Slayer. Cruella hissed again, showing her teeth. " Let alone the one you dared to call my "guard dog". She's kind of irritable, you know? Oh, right, you know. You experienced it. How could I forget it? How could you forget it, I wonder? I thought you didn't like pain, dear. "
Cruella gritted her teeth. " I don't. "
Regina brightly smiled at her, but she clearly felt her eyes stay cold. " Good then. There's nothing else to say. Never again."
The woman loudly sighed, visibly enraged despite the menace. " You can't ask me to protect a werewolf!" she growled, pointing a finger towards Red. " I can't do this!"
Regina smirked. " Well, then. Rapunzel." she just said, stepping back then.
Shaya stepped forward instead, positioning herself behind the Slayer. She now had huge, wet eyes. Shaya leaned a hand on her shoulder.
" Regina..." David's voice didn't made her look away from Cruella. She expected his intervention. She expected Snow's, to be true, but apparently the idiot was in shock or something similar because, since when she had entered her mansion, she had stayed miserably silent in an angle with her eyes fixed on the floor. Poor innocent girl.
" I won't beg you, if you're expecting it..." Cruella said, locking gaze with Regina. She frowned.
" Oh, no, don't worry: you're not even gonna scream."
The former Queen waved a hand in the air, sealing the Slayer's mouth.
" Regina! You can't..." David insisted, his voice overlapping Red's.
" Rapunzel...?" the werewolf weakly said, almost in a questioning way, as if she couldn't believe what was going to happen.
" It's necessary, Cub. Don't worry."
Regina felt her prepare to use magic.
" It's... It's not! I don't need protection, I can protect myself!"
Regina glanced at her.
" Not from them."
" Then you guys will protect me!"
Regina this time locked gaze with the younger woman. " Not from them." she repeated. " You could rip her heart out, she'd do whatever you ask her to do. Why won't you?" Snow's voice startled them all. It didn't even seem her voice anymore. Bright green eyes met deep brown ones.
" S-she doesn't have one. She lost it." Regina answered after a while, finding herself astounded.
That woman wasn't Snow White. Snow White never had that look.
The stranger nodded once, shrugging.
" Such a pity." she said, tilting her head.
Regina shared an astonished look with Charming. He was literally open-mouthed, and pale, very pale. Not as much as Snow, however. She looked ill, or like... consumed.
Regina turned, locking gaze with Shaya. She was pale too, now. The warrior swallowed, making her shiver, because Shaya was afraid, and she didn't know why. She couldn't be afraid of Snow, it was impossible. She could have never been a threat to her.
Shaya let go Cruella's shoulder, giving Regina a quick, worried glance before walking towards Snow. She stopped three steps away from her. Regina watched them look at each other for a second, but then Snow hid her eyes glancing down. Shaya stepped forward and put a hand on her shoulder, making her give a slight jump.
" Listen well, child, because this is your only occasion to do it: we have short time. You are Snow
White, daughter of King Leopold and Queen Eva, Princess of the Northern Lands, wife of Prince David, mother of Princess Emma. As a Princess, your sacred duty is to protect your people. As a wife, your sacred duty is to protect your husband. As a mother, your sacred duty is to protect your daughter." Shaya paused. Snow was looking at her now, slightly open-mouthed, frowned. It looked like if someone had just stabbed her. Surprisingly, it wasn't pleasing to Regina to see her in those conditions. " In the name of your own being, find your strength and fight for the ones you love. The darkness is not a safe place, Snow, trust me. "
Snow narrowed her eyes. " Why should I? You're her lover." she spat, disgusted, hitting Shaya's hand to move it from her shoulder and stepping back then.
" And I'm the one who saved your life, if you can remember..."
" Only because of your pathetic attempt to protect that bitch from herself!"
" That is exactly the same thing I'm doing with you now!" Rapunzel steadily replied to the hysterical yelling of Snow.
Snow froze for a second, but then something passed in her eyes, and she bursted into a harsh laughter. No, really, that one wasn't Snow White. Regina was sure about it. She looked for a trace of magic, but found none.
" Oh d'you wanna kiss me now? Show me how much you love me, darling? " Snow stepped forward, getting really, really close to Rapunzel, who didn't made a move though. " Why don't you die for me, instead?" she asked in a devilish grin. Her hand reached Shaya's sword, but the warrior's closed upon it, sticking it between steel and skin. She moved her head forward, facing that weird thing that Snow White had become.
" What you're doing is just silly, Child. Wanna be evil? Well then, support Pan and the werewolves. Kill us all. Kill the man you love, your daughter, they won't be by your side. Your grandson, too. He's Regina's son, she raised him. He's like her, can't you see it? Take revenge on her and kill him in front of her eyes. Let Finnegan torture her to death, enjoy the show, dress in her blood. Participate eventually. Tie me up and burn me alive, it will be funny to dance at my screams. And Red? She'd betray you, too. Let her to Cruella, she'll take care of her. Granny,
Archie, Geppetto, do you need them to stay alive? Just a waste of food. Cut their head. Hook? Should I mention him? Rumplestilstkin? Take Belle, change her life for the dagger, then kill them both with it. You could keep the children, raise them, make them your army, reestablish your kingdom. You'd be the Dark One, who could stop you?" Shaya took a pause from her almost whispered monologue. Regina started to breathe again: even simply hearing those things made her heart stop. Shaya had a brilliant, terrorizing dark mind, she couldn't deny it. Regina mentally thanked her for being that beautiful person that she had decided to be instead of surrendering to her dark side.
" I would never..." Snow muttered, her widened eyes weeping, apparently incapable to end the sentence.
Regina watched Shaya nod, then move and slowly hug Snow, letting her cry on her shoulder. " I know, Child, I know. Remember it, okay?"
It looked like if Snow wanted to melt with Shaya so tight was her hug, and suffocated her weep. The warrior made a sign with her hand, and David sided her, just to hug Snow together with her then. The woman let Shaya go and grasped to her husband. He gently took her in the kitchen at Regina's mute permission.
" We're screwed." Cruella sighed shaking her head in disappointment. Regina had forgot to keep the spell going.
" Shush." she murmured while sealing again her lips. She looked at the Slayer. " Stay still while I
protect Miss Lucas." she ordered, already walking to the werewolf. The pale girl was still watching Shaya with her eyes wide open. Regina quickly took a hair of hers and pulled.
" Ouch!" Ruby exclaimed with a jump, massaging her head. " What the hell...?"
But Regina was already walking back. She stopped in front of Cruella.
" Kneel." she ordered. The Slayer had no choice than do it, pushed by magic. They had wasted enough time. They had a battle to prepare.
Regina burned the hair and trapped the smoke in her hand, adding whispered words of power to it. She then put the hand under Cruella's nose.
" Inhale." she ordered before opening her hand. The Slayer couldn't disobey as Regina didn't let her breathe for a while. She then coughed hard, not forgetting to insult her, until Shaya glared at her, at least.
Regina slightly smiled at the warrior, who winked at her, making her heart skip a beat.
" Here's your stuff, Cruella." Regina handed the bag to the Slayer. She grabbed it and immediately took off of it a long, white wolf fur. She stood up and wore it, caressing the pearl-white hairs. " I missed you..." she whispered to the fur. Her son. Regina shivered at the thought: Cruella's son had been bitten by a werewolf, and became one of them. He was out of control, and killed many people in the village they lived in. The slay had began the same night: ten men, former soldiers and huntsmen, were looking for the beast, ready to kill it. Cruella, desperate and alone, found help in a mysterious magical creature of great power. None knew who this creature was, but it was known that the woman had asked for a way to save her son, and she had had a flute made out of a bone. " Play the flute" the creature had said " and your son will come to you". So Cruella had done it on a lonely hill in the middle of the forest, and her son, a huge white wolf, had run to her. But he wasn't the only one to hear the magical sound: another werewolf, black as the night, came to the hill. The two wolves began to fight, staining the blanket of snow with red, filling the night's air with hollers of blood. The black wolf's howl was the one to fly victorious upon the trees in the end. He tried to run away, but Cruella, blind with fury and pain, played the flute again, and the wolf ran right against the ten hunters, dying under their blades. They said that then she was so enraged and crazy that she did it too, and killed the men with her teeth and nails, snapping at their throats, scratching their eyes out. She then came back to the hill, covered in blood. Her fury had been so deep to transform her in a beast, so she used a knife of one of the huntsmen and skinned the wolf that had been her son. She wore his fur, took back the flute and disappeared for years. Then between the packs the voice of the Slayer began to pass from ear to ear as more and more wolves were found skinned alive and with signs of weird bites on their throat.
Regina wondered if she would do the same if Henry was... she couldn't even think of it. Yes, she would probably go crazy and kill everyone, just like Cruella. Her eyes met Shaya's. Those two circles that seemed to have stolen the color of limpid ocean water in a bright sunny day, able to chill her never ending burning rage and to warm her heart at the same time. And, as every time, a reassuring calm invaded her at that worried stare, washing away any trace of dark, silly thoughts from her mind. Herny was safe because she, Emma and Shaya would protect him with their lives. There would have never been the reason to go crazy. Again. Her happy ending was standing right in front of her, and no werewolf could change that.