Chapter fourteen

Regina continued to stare at her former mentor, and the others in the clearing shifted their shocked gazes to the empty space that the mayor was looking so intently at.

"They can't see me," Rumple giggled and Regina swallowed hard, slightly inclining her head to acknowledge what the spirit had said.

"Regina?" Emma asked cautiously.

Regina blinked a few times and turned her attention to her fiancé who was looking worriedly at her.

Rumple came and stood behind her, whispering "she won't be able to stop the darkness."

"I'm fine," she replied to the blonde unconvincingly.

Emma nodded.

Regina didn't register the sheriff starting to come over to her as Rumple continued, "will you ever be happy knowing that there is something that can so easily control it. Are you confident that you will always be able to resist, after all, the saviour can't propose to you every time someone attempts to use you as a pawn in their plans. You should continue with your plan."

Regina set her jaw, she refused to believe that there was any truth in the plan that she believed Zelena had wanted her to use as an excuse. For once in her life, she didn't want to crush Snow White's heart, she wanted to go home with her fiancé and son and just be happy.

"Wouldn't you prefer to ensure that you can be happy forever, knowing that the dagger is always around, you will never achieve what you have been striving for all your life. There is one way to ensure that you are free," Rumple insisted.

The brunette began to move forward, and initially Emma thought that she was just coming to accept the hug that she was so ready to offer, but instead she just went straight past the blonde and towards her parents.

"Regina?" Emma tried again after inspecting the almost possessed look on the other woman's face, "are you okay?"

The blonde came up beside her and placed a hand on her upper arm just as she finally stood directly in front of the other two Charmings.

"Just two simple heart rips and you will have happiness for all time, you will be the most powerful sorceress to have roamed any realm."

A swirl of purple appeared beside her heels and each other person instantly recognised the box that the Dark One had summoned.

Emma looked over to Zelena to make sure that she hadn't magically woken up, she felt disappointment crash through her system as she saw the Wicked Witch was still unmoving.

Squeezing the former Evil Queen's bicep, she tried again, "you can fight this," she whispered.

"Why would you fight the darkness, dearie?" Rumple giggled, "remember its enthralling grasp? How spectacular it felt to know that all feared you? That after years of your mother's abuse, you were finally powerful enough to stand against her. Your darkness has done you far more than the light ever has."

Regina took a shaky breath, not even noticing when she magically bound her would-be parents-in-law in place once again, this time completely preventing them from making any movements at all.

Emma's eyes widened and she pulled the smaller woman away from them, forcing her to face her, "Regina, look at me," she insisted, "you don't have to do this."

"You do not enjoy being controlled," the former Dark One said.

"I do not enjoy being controlled," Regina repeated.

Henry blinked out of his shock at seeing his mother take his aunts life and came to stand beside Emma, "mom, snap out of it, you don't have to listen to him."

His blonde mother tilted her head slightly and whispered, "what?"

"When everything happened I looked up the origins of the Dark One," he replied, only partly because it seemed to be maintaining his adoptive mother's attention away from murdering his grandparents. "After so long, every one of them are visited by a manifestation of the Dark One, which would be Mr Gold for mom. They try and convince them to embrace the darkness, but they usually wait until they're at their lowest point."

Emma nodded, between understanding and caring, she said, "you can fight against him, Regina, and you've done it before."

"You don't need to do that Regina," Rumple insisted, "do this and we can both be free."

Regina's distant look suddenly fell away as she realised that the darkness must have accidently revealed its plan. It certainly made some sense that if she were to be free of the dagger, then the darkness would be completely free of it as well. She also had no doubt that it would have the ability to completely consume her.

"You already took the fairies' hearts just as I told you to," he said, sounding somewhat desperate, "just half a heart from each of them and we can both get the power we want."

"I don't want power," Regina replied in a whisper.

Emma and Henry exchanged a look as Regina proved the young boy's theory to be correct, the blonde noticed the hopeful look on her son's face and couldn't help but feel its infectious ability as hope began to bloom through her chest.

"Of course you want power," Rumple growled, "you have always thrived on it. For twenty-eight years you lived without magic and you cannot deny that you felt its absence every day, almost as if a part of you was missing. You and I both understand the addictive nature of dark magic, just do to Snow and her husband what you have always dreamed of doing and you will have more power than any living person has ever had."

Regina shook her head, completely ignoring the silent hopeful conversation her son seemed to be having beside her.

Rumple sighed rather dramatically and made the familiar pinching motion, instantly a sputtering sound came from beside her.

Turning she saw Henry clawing at his throat as his airway constricted.

"Stop!" Regina shouted.

"But, dearie, I am not doing anything," he replied, proving his point by relaxing his hand, which didn't change Henry's ability to breathe.

"Regina, stop!" Emma's voice shouted, and Regina suddenly looked down to see her finger involuntarily clenched in the spell's position. A moment later, she relaxed them with a lot of effort on her part, and Henry took a deep breath, falling into his blonde mother's side, who promptly caught him.

"The dagger may control me, but I control you," Rumple laughed, "now do as I say, your majesty."

Regina spun on her heels and sank each hand into the frozen people's chests, neither able to show the looks of immense pain that they felt.

Emma held Henry closely next to her, as if she were trying to ensure that he was still alive, and shouted desperately, "please Regina, you're strong enough, don't take them away from me."

"She will forgive you," Rumple lied, "now do it!"

Regina felt her hands beginning to contract, ready to do what she had done countless times before, ripping out a heart.

Her eyes fluttered closed and she imagined Emma's lips against her own, Henry's excited grin at just about everything, Snow's face when Neal's first word was 'Gina' instead of 'momma' and David's exasperated look whenever she said some kind of quip. She knew that they weren't the average family, especially considering all of the past, but she couldn't deny that she wouldn't trade them in for anything and she allowed herself to believe that each of them felt the same away about her.

With those thoughts sending a flash of light through her, she pulled her hands back.

Just as she felt herself being forced to try again, she took a deep breath and brought the dagger that had been lying across the clearing to her hand.

Henry and Emma looked at the brunette with expressions of utter confusion as she was clearly fighting to do something, they just weren't sure exactly what.

"Don't even think about it!" Rumple roared.

Regina thought back to the book that she was sure both she and Henry had read, and after a moment decided that this was truly the best.

Taking a final deep breath, she looked up to the pair that she loved more than she thought she was capable of, and said, "I'm not strong enough."

With that, she sank the dagger into her own heart.

A/N Hope you guys enjoyed, I would love to hear what you thought :)