A/N Hey so I increased the rating to T and this chapter has T/W's for torture and implied self-harm. I also used one swear word in this chapter, feel free to let me know if you would rather that I didn't use them. I know this chapter is a bit dark compared to the others but I hope you enjoy it anyway XD
Chapter forty-seven
Neal leaned against the wall with his arms crossed, refusing to meet the pleading eyes of his first love. Greg continued to turn switches, preparing the machine that Emma found all too familiar, and she was ashamed to say that she was actually terrified.
Regina had been tortured for hours with that very machine, and seemed to have come away from it unscathed. Despite her injuries, the stubborn woman had gone straight to the mines in an attempt to give her life for a town of people who claimed to hate her.
"Why?" she managed to croak out.
Greg looked up from the machine and smirk manically, "he needs information, and I need revenge, its win-win really."
"What information?" the blonde asked carefully, she was legitimately afraid that she wouldn't be strong enough to withstand the electrical torture, and she had no doubt that this information would be something that these two morons should never know.
Neal finally unhitched himself from the wall, and approached the metal table, "where is the trigger?"
Emma furrowed her brow, and replied, "why?"
"Travelling to the past has clearly worked out for you," he said almost to himself, "I wouldn't pass up a chance to save my son from corruption."
"Corruption?...magic?" Emma choked out, knowing that 'magic' actually meant Regina.
"If we stayed together, she wouldn't have adopted him, you would never have come to Storybrooke, and Henry will be safe from..." the man quickly trailed off, realising that he was revealing too much, and added, "we could have raised him in Tallahassee."
Emma returned with a venomous look, and replied, "you can change the past all you want, but I would still somehow have ended up in Storybrooke, it's my...destiny."
"Well I would just have to cross that bridge when we come to it, now are you going to tell me?"
"No," she said adamantly.
"You could be happy," he said almost pleadingly.
"I'm already happy."
"You won't be if you're electrocuted to death!" Neal roared, and turned on his heels to leave.
"Where are you going?" Greg asked with a furrowed brow.
"I'm going to 'help' with the search parties, just get the information."
Greg nodded to accept the order, and as soon as he slammed the cabin door shut he closed his eyes against the scream of utter pain tearing through the structure.
Regina sat at the Charming's kitchen counter, and rolled her eyes at the pacing owners.
"You're being quite unhelpful," she commented.
"How can you be so calm!" Snow glowered, "our daughter...your girlfriend is missing!"
"We'll find her, all we need is a locator spell," Regina sighed, and brought the coffee up to her lips. Though she was trying to maintain her calm facade, she knew that if Emma was gone for long, she wouldn't be able to keep it together for long.
The front door opened, revealing Cora who offered her daughter a tentative smile, and placed the blue potion on the counter after she approached the kitchen.
"What did Gold want in return?" David asked with a furrowed brow.
"Don't worry about that," she replied, and received a questioning look from Regina, but she found herself unable to care.
"Mom!" Henry shouted, as he his way down the stairs.
"What's wrong?" Regina asked, feeling distinct foreboding creeping upon her.
"We looked all over Emma's room: all her stuff is gone!" he announced and ran into her arms for a reassuring hug.
Regina looked despairingly at the useless locator spell, and sighed deeply, "how would you two not know that someone broke into your apartment?"
David shrugged, biting his fingernail in worry, as the door opened once again, this time to reveal Neal.
"Have you found her yet?" he asked, sounding almost desperate.
Regina released Henry from the hug, and turned to the man that she had the urge to punch again, just to make herself feel even slightly better.
"We had a minor setback," she said evenly.
"Minor setback?" Snow asked incredulously, "how can you be so calm? Do you not even care?!"
The younger woman quickly clamped her hand over her mouth, "oh God Regina, I didn't mean..."
Regina held up her hand, and raised to a standing position, and stalked closer to her former-stepdaughter, who fearfully took steps back.
"I am trying to actually find her rather than pacing back and forth in your kitchen. How dare you accuse me of not caring, simply because I do not display my emotions for the world to see like you two idiots. I love Emma and I would cross any realm to save her, is that clear princess?"
Snow nodded, with a small squeak of fear and Regina finally took a step back.
"Do you have a plan then?" David asked, hopefully.
Regina pinched the bridge of her nose, before her eyes fell upon a blonde strand of hair on her blazer. Plucking it off, she said, "call Little Red Riding Hood."
Emma's back arched off the metal table as wave after wave of electricity tore through her body. She heard a strangled scream come from a seemingly far away place, and she was vaguely aware that it was her own voice.
She recognised someone smashing the button next to her head, and the a few more jolts, her body relaxed back onto the table, but the all consuming pain remained. But still all she could think about was that Regina had to go through the same exact thing.
"Ready to talk yet?" Greg asked, his voice dripping with smugness.
Emma considered this for a moment, they had been at this for hours and she had tried as best she could to stay with the fact that she didn't know, so Greg was now asking how he could find out, and Emma knew that the answer was Henry's story book. That meant that admitting the truth was not an option, so as she had been doing each time she was given a brief respite from the torture, she shook her head refusing to meet the man's gaze.
"Who are you protecting?" Greg growled, "is being with the Evil Queen really worth this?"
Emma finally turned to face him, and replied, "there is nothing you could do that would make me stop fighting for her."
"How romantic," he cooed mockingly, "but I do wonder how she would deal with the death of her loved one. I hear she doesn't have the best track record with that kind of thing."
Emma's eyes widened and she almost growled, "Neal told you everything that Henry told him."
"Anger will get you no where saviour,"he chuckled, and moved away from his seat next to the blonde.
"What are you doing?" She asked in a hoarse voice.
"Looking for a more effective means of torture," he said casually, and Emma vaguely recognised the flipping of a switchblade.
The blonde's eyes widened, and she felt sweat move down her already severely burned temples, "please don't," she said weakly, desperately trying not to notice how pathetic she sounded.
"Is the great and powerful saviour really afraid of tiny little blade," he laughed.
Emma tried to squirm away from him as he got closer, only succeeding in causing pain to shoot through her arms from where her shoulders were attached to the wires.
"Come on Swan, are you really scared of this?" The teen asked the quivering nine year old.
"Please leave me alone," she cried and huddled further into the corner.
"You need to be toughened up, you'll never survive the system acting like a pathetic little baby," he taunted, gaining a grunt of agreement from his brother.
With the encouragement, he flipped the switch blade and knelt in front of her, holding out the handle to her, "if you want to be one of us, you have yo do it," he said pointing towards the scared eight year old, otherwise known as the newest addition to the group home. "Even you have the scar Swan, now you need to give him his."
Emma looked down at the jagged scar running up her forearm, and was reminded that it was only that long because 'she struggled.' Remembering the pain she suffered before it healed, she adamantly shook her head, "I won't do it."
"Well then you know the rules," he glowered, grabbing her arm.
She cried out as he sliced another long, deep cut into her arm, and the only response that she received was the sound of someone turning up the TV.
Emma felt the four scars, one for her 'initiation', one from when she took another's place, and two from the guilt of not, burn for the first time in years. She had spent a good deal of time trying to forget the stupidly violent rituals that some of her foster homes had, in fact the only person she had ever told was Neal, and she had considered telling Regina but she 'hadn't gotten to it yet.'
Swallowing hard, she tried to remind herself that she had killed a dragon, ogres and managed to maintain a functional relationship with the Evil Queen, she certainly shouldn't have been afraid of a little blade. Clearly however, Neal had told him how to get to her, as the man went straight for her right arm, with the faded scars that could only be seen if one was to search for them intently.
"Tell me," Greg growled as he ran the blade across her skin, much deeper than necessary.
Emma closed her eyes against the tears, and desperately tried to fight off the thoughts of the terrified orphan who had cut herself for not being brave enough to go against the older kids. The nights after she had been forced to hurt the new kids, she had heard them crying as she had done.
She knew it was irrational, but the familiar pain made her feel helpless. Like she no longer had a family that loved her and were undoubtedly looking for her right now, like she no longer was strong enough to fight anything that came her way. The memory seemed to have taken the saviour out of her, and as many more like it flashed through her mind she found more like lost little girl than ever before.
She finally opened her eyes, and saw Greg smiling manically holding up the blade, and noticed the little tint of green under her blood.
"I thought you're supposed to be against magic," she choked out.
Greg shrugged and inspected the remnants of the potion that Neal had given him, "Neal's job gives us access, and you can't argue with results. What's the harm of using it once in the aim of its destruction?"
"Why would you want to destroy magic?" Emma asked, trying to distract herself form reminiscence charm that was currently digging up her most deeply repressed memories.
"Because it destroyed my childhood," he growled.
Emma sighed dramatically, and replied, "oh would you get over it?"
Greg narrowed his eyes, and she explained herself, "I was put in a wardrobe as a baby and sent to another world so that I could come back after twenty eight shit years and break some curse. But I'm happy now, you just need to let things go."
"If you're as good at letting things go as you claim, then why are your memories turning you into a shivering nervous wreck?" He mocked as he picked up another phial of green liquid. "Perhaps you would enjoy a longer trip down memory lane?"
Emma took a deep breath, feeling utterly weak, she shook her head in the negative.
"Are you going to tell me what I want to know then?" He asked while re-coating the blade in the potion.
She shook her head again, and he brought the blade down to her neck this time, "is this really worth the fight? Do you honestly not believe that you could be happy with Neal?"
"He is not the Neal that I knew," she choked out, trying to move away from the blade, and instead feeling it slightly digging into her skin, not quite yet breaking it.
"You wouldn't know the difference."
"It would still be a lie," she replied, her resolve audibly weakening by the second.
"Why?" he scoffed.
"Because he's not Regina," Emma ground out.
Greg rolled his eyes and brought the blade closer, this time actually breaking the skin.
-'Nobody needs you."
-"Not even your parents wanted you."
-"You're worthless."
"Henry's book, it's in his book."
Greg bought the blade back, and began tutting, "how despicable, endangering your own child."
The blonde's chest heaved as tears streamed down her face.
Approaching the machine, he continued, "looks like your use is up."
"Neal wouldn't want you to kill me," she tried.
"I would have thought that you of all people would understand time travel, he promised that I could get my revenge, and the look on her face when she realises she's too late to save you is all I need."
A/N Had a spark of inspiration so this was kind of an extra chapter for this week, the next one will be on Saturday XD
Hope you guys enjoyed and would love to hear what you think