A/N: YAAAAA MAAAAAAN! I managed to finish this one even though my life is being a little.. Um... All over the place. I'm really glad I did, I actually have big plans for what comes next. I hope you'll like it! :D
"I do hope you're prepared for the hard part," Said the imp after Robin disappeared. Emma looked up to meet his gaze, flabbergasted.
"The hard part?" She asked him.
"You didn't really think I couldn't kill you on the spot?" He smirked. "Oh, no, dearie. Make no mistakes. The battle we just had was a battle between a teacher and his student." She immedietaly thought of the duels she used to have with thomas before she got imprisoned. She wasn't doing her best, she didn't tried to hurt him. At most, she was trying to make him trip, and always helped him up as huge grins were quickly spreading on both their faces. She shivered at the comparison, thinking that what she has just expirienced was an example for a friendly battle.
"From now on we will be dueling every night for an hour. I will fight with no mercy, so I recommend you to do the same. Your main goal is to survive, by any means necessary. And to imitate what I do, for I will no longer teach you directly. Your prize for surviving is getting the chance to fight me again in the following night. The cost of losing will be your baby. The prize for beating me will be your freedom and a promise from me not to go near your loved ones, not even the prince."
She gulped. It wasn't open for negotiation, she knew it.
"I do believe it's about time for you to return to your cell, dearie." He said and waved hin hand. He noticed her eyes following the movement and assumed, and rightly so, that she was taking his advice and learning from his actions.
Once she was gone, he allowed himself to grin widely. By mimicking his magic, she was unknowingly practicing dark magic, and dark magic, as he knew better than anyone, was a choice that's hard to back out from. Her heart was blackening. And if it wasn't, it would, because when you fight to save your child, you obey to no rules. Hurting this child will make things even easier for him, for the hole that a lost child leaves in your heart is a hole that can easily br filled with darkness. A dark, powerful queen to rule the Encahnted Forest would serve him well, very well, in fact. He was not going to let such an opportunity slip away from him.
-xxx-
She's been practicing for hours.
She could now, with a swift flick of her wrist, disappear and relocate herself just like Rumpelstiltskin did, though the smoke she disappeared in was white. It didn't feel quite like smoke, she noticed- it was more similar to fog. To her own personal white cloud. And she didn't stop there- she couldn't risk her baby. She had to improvise. She practiced with the dirt and the dust on the floor, ordering it around the cell until she was absolutely sure she could fly things around without any problem. But the training was exhausting, and she wouldn't risk being sleepy in a battle in which she could lose her child.
She couldn't lose her child.
The small human being that was growing inside of her over the last few weeks was now her only source of sanity. She knew that without it, she would lose her mind completely. It was a bad thing (or a good thing, it depends on the way you look at it) that she could rip hearts out now. She just might decied she'd rather rip her own out then to remain locked up with nothing to give her hope and comfort.
She didn't want to think that she might give birth to it in this cursed cell. She didn't want to think about the fact that she could have been free already if she hadn't given her freedom to Robin. She didn't want to think about the fact that fighting Rumpelstiltskin would be a lot harder now. She didn't want to think at all.
She didn't realize how lonely she was.
She didn't truly realize she was alone. She mourned for her parents, she mourned for August, but she had never felt such hardness, suc hcold in her heart, like a coat of ice around her it, until she was in danger.
she was only eighteen years old, and it was after one of her shows. She hated the new form of them with fervour, the new, revealing costume, the new, seductive bows, the new kind of crowd it was getting her. Men, older than her (sometimes much older than her), tha were looking at her with lust in their eyes, that were throwing sexual remarks towards her, telling her about the things they'd like to do to her.
The show owner ignored her complaints and fears when she expressed them in front of him, telling her that she's lucky that he doesn't sell her body as well, to make nore money out of her, for her to actually earn the entire amount of money he was spending on her food and clothes.
The idea alone was enough to rattle her. she wasn't focused that night. Out of control. And even though she won the battle with ease as usual, it was fairly noticable.
One of the more repulsive men that watched her fight that night followed her outside She didn't even notice him as she usually would have until it was too late, meaning mere seconds before he pushed her against the alley wall and pressed the palm of his hand to her mouth to silence her screams. He pinned her hands to the wall above her head with his free hand and began thrusting his hips into hers with brutal force, again and again, ignoring her muffled whimpers of pain and fear and her attempts to bite his hand. He was murmuring about the things she was doing to him, about the things he was going to do to her, and the descriptions he provided were detailed enough to make her horror increase. His hand left her mouth and he pressed against her fully as it went down to undo the laces of his trousers, and through her frantic panic attack she recognized an opportunity. Using the fact that he was focused on his pants, she kicked his groin with as much force as she managed to recruit, pushing him off of her and picking up a rock from the ground, knocking him out cold with it before he could recover.
And then she ran.
She didn't know where was she running to. had nowhere to run to. No one to run to. She just knew what was she from. And it was enough for her to make it to another alley, lean against a wall and force herself to count to five.
One. She cannot cry. Two. Other people like him would find her if she would. Three. She mutsn't cry. Four. No one would come help her, even if she would. Five.
And then the panic was gone, leaving nothing but the recognition of her loneliness she had just allowed to invade her heart.
There was no one left to love her.
She was alone.
-xxx-
When he sent her back to her cell, after they fought, she was the most exhausted she's been in a very, very long time. She didn't want him to notice, but her confidence in her ability to repeat what she did in the following night, not to mention all the ones to come until (if, corrected a skeptic, bitter, terrified part of her mind) she'll defeat him. She had just spent an hour disappearing and reappearing around the dining hall every two or three seconds, the locations chosen randomly so that he wouldn't be able to predict her actions and beat her.
Or basically, she had just spent an entire hour avoiding a battle.
She didnt like the feeling it caused her. She felt like a coward, as if she had no honor. It stood against almost every single thing her father had ever told her about true bravery in a battle.
But she did it for her baby, and she'd do it a hundred times more, if necessary.
(The way things are right now, it seems like she really would, suggested the worries that lay deep in her heart and mind.)
She had no time to waste worrying. She needed her strenght if she was to continue fighting the imp every night. She found a place to reat her head and closed her eyes with a firm intention to fall asleep.
It was only then that she allowed herself to think of the man she loved.
But only for a brief moment.
A brief moment that was more than enough to shatter her heart into a million aching pieces.
She missed him.
-xxx-
She wasn't going dark.
Rumpelstiltsin was going mad. The smoke she was disappearing in was white and pure as the sodding moonlight. It should have been black as coal, red as blood, heavy, dark blue like the night sky. Not white.
As the product of true love, being extreme was a part of her nature. When she loved, her love was deeper than the ocean. She hated with equal fervour. If the darkness within her would take over her soul, she would be the most dangerous creature to ever walk the earth, the most fearsome leader any realm had ever known.
But it didn't.
And he knew the reason.
He was watching her right from the start, pulling strings so that she'd always get left alone. He was invested in her future from the very first day, and during the years he was planting seeds of doubt, of pain, of fear, of darkness in her pure, powerful heart. Her loneliness helped them grow into thick walls that surrounded her heart, keeping it away from the pain and from love. It was perfect. She didn't believe in her ability to be loved, not to mention actually feeling love for someone else. She was full of self-loathing, never believing herself to be good enough.
But all of this beautiful, useful misery had changed recently.
She had something else guarding her heart now. But this time, it wasn't darkness keeping her away from love- it was love keeping her away from darkness.
And he will not have it.
Not after all this time of patiently waiting for her to grow into the powerful dark queen he needed, not after everything he's been throuhg to ensure her darkness.
He needed to crush that love of hers. He needed to burn it into ashes, tear it away from her. This will surely turn her dark, he didn't know what would if this failed.
He will have his dark queen.
The Dark One does not fail.
Okaaaaay.
Umm... tell me what do you think? :3