DISCLAIMER:: do not own ouat or its characters. just borrowing for purpose of creative expression. no profit obtained.
A/N:: I sincerely apologise. I didn't touch dreamscape (on purpose) during the work season because it takes a lot of thought and once work was over, I find that the four chapters I had managed to produce were consumed by a virus. Had to be rewritten. This isn't as great as it was before, but it's as close as I could remember. I hope to update weekly, maybe even faster, if I can manage. sorry again, hope you're all still with me.
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-Chapter 58: The Only Solution Was To Stand And Fight-
Mayor Regina Mills stepped through the darkness and emerged into Eternity. The grand hall they'd left from was as it had been when they'd departed that morning. As her feet made contact with the marble floor, the mirror behind her faded. She turned back to the space it had just occupied as if it might somehow reappear.
"Suddenly the decision isn't quite as simple as it was when first the hourglass was turned, is it?"
The mayor rolled her eyes before she'd even made the full turn back to regard the queen. The woman was standing near the table with the hourglass, still dripping away the last remnants of their time before their choice must be made. A small amount of sand remained them, just enough to discuss what they'd seen and reach a mutual verdict. The sharp comeback left her lips at the sight of it, the weight of the coming choice weighing heavy on her heart. How was this fair?
"I must admit, the life your curse created for you... it has its charms." The queen traced a finger around the top of the glass. She looked up to the mayor with the closest thing to respect she could manage flooding her eyes. "You've created quite the life for yourself. It's...impressive."
The mayor saw the statement for what it was, an olive branch. They had wasted too long fighting already. "Your daughter, she's quite enchanting."
The queen smiled. "Yes, she is. Emma... my version of Emma, rescued her from the market at Peppergrey. You remember the one?"
The mayor nodded. "I've had nothing to distract me from remembering for the last twenty eight years. The curse gave me many things, including freedom from the judgement of others, but not from myself. I have lived with my... with our countless sins a long time."
The queen gestured to the chairs they'd occupied before walking over, falling into her own. "It seems we are both cursed to walk with our sins the rest of our days."
The mayor hesitated only a moment before walking to the center of the room. Her gaze kept on diverting back to the hourglass, their time limit never far from her mind. "That is true. But perhaps if we work this right, we won't have to walk this path alone." She took her seat.
The queen narrowed her eyes at her other half. She didn't want to allow herself to hope she was hearing what she thought she was hearing. Could there really be a way? "What are you saying?"
"You have your life, a daughter, a... wife. She's your wife. You tied your soul with hers. I may have been in a magicless land for the better part of the last three decades but even I know the depth of a soul-binding. And even more, she made the same choice. She knew both of us. This little day in the life showed me that she kept her memories. My Emma and your Emma, they are one and the same. And she chose to tie herself to you. That means something. But, as you've just found out, I have a life too. And I think my actions twenty eight years ago are proof enough that I will do whatever it takes to ensure my happy ending." The mayor tilted her chin up, her body falling easily into a role the muscles still retained memory of, the Evil Queen.
The queen raised an eyebrow. "So what is it that you propose? Go ahead, make your stand, but just know that I am just as committed to protect what I have. You have no idea what I have been through these past two fortnights to keep her." Her hands gripped the arms of the chair, her knuckles white as her nails sunk deep into the fabric. "Do not underestimate me. I am still you."
The mayor's lips turned down at the corners in a grimace. "And I am you. But as unfortunate as that fact may be and as simple as it would be to just turn my back on an existence I left behind twenty eight years ago, I can't. My Emma is connected to yours. I can't erase yours from existence anymore than I can mine."
"And I cannot condemn yours either." She looked at the dwindling hourglass. "So what is it you propose we do? Fate will want an answer from us when the last grain of sand falls."
The mayor crossed her legs and steepled her fingers. "We fight back."
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The queen was still skeptical that the mayor's plan would work. Fate was not to be trifled with. She had powers beyond their own, though even her powers were not limitless. They lay within the flow of events. Her abilities only extended so far as to affect the procession of time. Even she could not delve into the arcane arts, such as bringing people back from the dead or forcing love for one being onto another that does not already harbour it in their heart. And above all else, she must remain neutral, she must protect the balance. And Mayor Mills' plan hinged on this limitation to her power.
"You do realise that at the end of all this, if all goes according to plan and we don't lose our lives in the process, one world will still be lost when the dust settles?" The queen stroked her fingers along the length of her dress. Her clothing returned to its prior state when she passed back through the mirror into Eternity.
The mayor pursed her lips and sighed. "Yes, I realise now that we are aware of each other, we can never return to life as it was."
"I hated having to compete with you. The moment she woke me from that curse, I knew I could never be without her. There was no question in my mind of where I belonged, what I was fighting for. I would do anything to protect the current Queen of the Enchanted Forest, just as I would have done anything to take down the former. But there was always this part of her that could never be mine. Every night, she would go to sleep and she'd go to you." She chuckled dryly. "I will never understand why you didn't love her from the moment you met her. Though we have lived a separate existence, we are still two halves of the same whole."
The mayor sighed. "I did love her. But loving her meant losing her, and I...we...," she gestured between the queen and herself, "have never done well with loss. I had to protect myself. I would not, could not, go through that again." Her hand slid over where her heart beat beneath her chest as if making sure it was still there and working effectively.
"What changed your mind?"
The mayor smiled to herself. "As you said, I could not be without her. And Miss Swan is rather persistent when she's set on something." She met the queen's eyes, her eyes. "And she was set on having both of us."
"And yet, she will only have one of you." Fate stepped from the darkness between the columns, her face dispassionate. She looked just as she had a day ago, or maybe it was only a second; neither half of Regina had any doubts that time moved slower here in Eternity. Her curls framed her face and the mayor mused that she might actually be earth-shatteringly beautiful if she would venture a smile. The flowing navy chiffon of her toga-like dress almost touched the floor as she moved towards them, her bare feet moving across the cold floor with familiar ease.
Both the mayor and the queen's attention shot to the hourglass at her sudden appearance. Neither of them had seen the last grain of navy sand slip down to join the others on the bottom. Their time had reached its conclusion; the choice needed to be made.
The mayor watched the woman with narrow eyes as she sat soundlessly in the seat she had occupied when she first put this choice before them. Fate stared at them with her cool gray eyes. She said nothing, just looked back and forth between the two, expectant but patient.
The queen and the mayor's gazes met across the space between them. The queen gave the smallest of nods, a barely perceptible tilt of her head. The mayor's eyes flashed briefly, the only response.
The mayor cleared her throat and turned to regard Fate regally. "Spending a day in each other's lives... it was slightly cruel, wouldn't you agree?"
Fate's steely gaze swung to regard the Regina from Storybrooke. "I was merely showing you both what you would be sacrificing. It is quite easy to make a decision when you only know one side of the story. I should think you know that better than anyone, or have you so quickly forgotten your own persecution?"
The mayor drew her breath in sharply, her eyes widening in anger. "I will never forget." As if she could. Everyday of her long life she'd lived with the knowledge that her side of her own story was left untold.
The smallest hint of a smile curled Fate's lips and the mayor immediately realised that the woman had been trying to get a rise out of her. How easily she'd been manipulated. She ground her teeth together and continued. "We have reached our decision."
Fate's eyes turned to the queen. "You are both in agreement?"
Queen Regina nodded. "We have discussed it at length and we have reached a verdict that is mutually beneficial."
Fate stroked her long fingers along the arm of her chair. "Is it to be the creation of your mind, where all is as you made it so and your son?" She glanced at the mayor. "Or is it to be the world of fairytales and magic?" Her gaze swung to the other Regina.
The mayor cleared her throat and sat up a little taller in her seat. "We have chosen... both."
Fate looked at her blankly. "That was not one of the proposed choices. You must choose."
The queen took her cue from a brief glance from the mayor. "This war in the Enchanted Forest, it wasn't part of your grand design. Your will has been circumvented."
"I fail to see your point."
The queen continued. "Somewhere along the line, something, someone, slipped through the cracks. It is your job to maintain the balance between good and evil. You are the reason I was never able to kill Snow White. You are the reason Emma was born, the reason she and I crossed paths. You maintain order. But somewhere along the way, someone slipped past you. All those years ago, this evil swept across the land, killing everything it touched. It wasn't until it succeeded in doing what I never could, killing Snow White, that it stopped."
The mayor jumped in then. "I'm sure you then thought that everything was back in order. You regrouped, had Emma take the throne earlier than she was supposed to. But now, Snow White has resurfaced, and so to has this evil. No one knows who this threat is. Not even you."
Fate glanced between them before crossing her legs. They were getting to her. "I still fail to see what this has to do with your decision."
It was the queen who answered. "This war is messing up your balance. We've discussed it and we agree that the reason whoever is behind this has stayed hidden is because, until you know who's doing this, you can't intervene. You can't change fate, unless you know who's fate to change."
The mayor leaned forward in her chair. It was now or never. Either Fate would accept their proposal and they may yet be able to save both their worlds, or she would refuse and they'd have to make the decision. "With a little time, we are confident we can draw whoever is doing this out. If we can expose whoever it is long enough for you to rewrite their story, it might end the war without an upset in the balance."
Fate looked back and forth between them for several drawn out moments. Though her expression was unreadable, she was obviously considering their words. "And in return?"
"A month. We go back to our own worlds. We work together to expose the threat. If we succeed, we come to an agreement that lets everyone live. If we fail, we make the choice. One world dies, the other lives on."
Fate looked back and forth between them with her stormy eyes. "You always were quite adept at finding the loopholes in any rule. I should not be surprised that you would find them in mine." The look on Fate's face was far from surprised, but they took her at her word. "Very well. If it is a month you want, a month you shall have. You will be able to communicate through the looking glass. Collaborate how you wish. At the end of the month, if I have been able to restore order, you may propose an alternate solution. But if you fail... I will be the one to decide which world perishes."
The mayor and the queen shared a long look before they nodded. "We accept."
Fate inclined her head in agreement. "And there is one more stipulation."
The mayor knew this had been too good to be true. "We're listening."
Fate smirked, a true smirk in every sense of the word, one that made even Regina, both of them, envious of its impact. "The Queen of the Enchanted Forest has lived her entire life switching between her two separate existences. Yesterday marked twenty eight years; her time is done. If you do this, you do so without her help. She will not remember one life from the other; she will be separate pieces of one soul, just as you are. This is your battle." Fate stood, lithe like a cat. "This will not be easy. You will know desperation. You will know what it feels to live every single moment believing that no matter how hard you fight, you will lose... just as she did."
The mayor stood, her hard gaze meeting that of Fate's. "I am no stranger to inevitable loss. It has been my... our constant companion since we were young." A big part of her endless quest to win sprung from knowing deep down that she was destined not to. The only person who had ever changed that belief was Emma. Emma had made her feel like she could win, and now she needed to let that faith fuel her.
Fate gave a small smile and nodded. She walked back towards the shadows beyond the columns, ghosting across the marble without a sound, going as quietly as she came. Just before she was lost entirely to the darkness beyond the torchlight, she looked back over her shoulder. "Your time is short. Use it wisely." And with those words of caution, she left them.
The queen stared after her until she was sure the woman had disappeared from their presence. She turned her head back to the mayor, looking at the regal woman with a new respect. "It's quite the relief to know that eight and twenty years have not robbed you of your resolve."
The mayor inclined her head in a recognition and return of the respect. "Neither have you."
The queen chuckled dryly. "Well I did have the benefit of being asleep for all but the last moon turn of that time. But I'll admit, though my anger and my lust for revenge has waned, my ambition has never been as great. I still seek my happy ending with the same amount of fervour; I just now know that it does not lie with the death of Snow White, but with the life of her daughter. Emma is my happy ending, our happy ending."
The mayor gave a sharp nod. "She, Henry, and Savya must be protected at all costs."
"Agreed." The queen stood. "If what you say is true, we will be starting preparations for war upon my return."
Mayor Mills nodded. "And I must find a way to break my own curse, without the aide of the one person who can best help me." She couldn't imagine, now that she herself knew the truth, what she was going to do without Emma on her side. There was little doubt in her mind that the blonde deserved the ignorance she was being granted, but at what expense?
"Just because she doesn't remember her life with me in our world, does not mean that she still can't be of use. She is the same woman, all the qualities she has displayed in her time with you are still there. You just have to tap into them." She ran her hand over the back of her chair. "And I will be with you. Fate has given us a way to communicate. We can fight this war and break this curse, together."
The mayor nodded, trying to adopt the same look of confidence in her other half's eyes, though she didn't feel it. "I suppose this is goodbye."
"For now." With a wave of her hand a trail of magic lit up before the long haired royal, snaking it's way back into one of the many cave mouths beyond the columns, leading the way back to her mirror.
The mayor watched her go before waving her own trail into existence. She followed the purple mist back into the darkness, weaving through it to its end. The surface of the mirror rippled, calling her home, back to her girlfriend and son. But, as she stepped through the liquid glass, she couldn't help feeling a small piece of herself reaching back towards the blonde queen and their young daughter, telling her to go back.