Ruby and Emma continued to eat.
Granny continued to cook.
Regina just stared at Snow as she finished catching her up on recent events.
Snow stared back in horror and dismay, Regina of course knew that this was how she was going to react.
" And here I was hoping that we could all finally live happily ever after, I mean, we are storybook characters for gods sake! Isn't that how it usually goes?", Snow asked rhetorically as she put her head in her hands in frustration. " Why do we get out of one thing and into another?", she asked miserably.
Regina patted her stepdaughter on the back soothingly, " I guess the happily ever after doesn't apply to us dear", she said half joking and half serious.
Snow looked up at her stepmother with an annoyed look on her face, then she quickly turned to look at Ruby who was still stuffing her face like a starved animal. " Ruby, are you okay? I can't believe you were that badly injured", she said worriedly.
Ruby swallowed down a mouthful of food, and then downed a glass of orange juice before answering her friend. " I'm fine Snow, I'm good as new", she stated confidently, then she went back to eating.
Regina stared at Ruby, she hadn't had a chance to really speak with the wolf girl since she woke up. Ruby has only been focused on eating and nothing else, which was kind-of cute in a way but also extremely annoying. Regina wanted to hug her close and kiss her, and just feel her. She couldn't stop flashbacks of finding her beaten to almost death on that forest floor, it was an image that would hunt her for a very long time. But she couldn't do as she wished at the moment, she had promised Emma that she could take all the time she needed to come to terms with Reginas feelings for Ruby, she also couldn't do anything in front of Snow. That conversation with her stepdaughter was something she wanted to postpone for as long as she could. So she would have to swallow it down, maybe she'll be able to catch Ruby alone later on.
Snow spoke up, bringing Regina out of her thoughts. " I'm glad your okay Ruby, but now I can't help but worry. You're one of the strongest here in Storybrook, whoever did this to you has to be pretty strong", she said, a frown on her face as she worried her bottom lip.
Granny walked over to stand in front of the kitchen island, frown also on her face and her arms crossed. " That's what I thought too, taking down a werewolf is no easy feat. Also, the fact that they went after Regina in pure daylight also shows the confidence they have in themselves", she stated.
Emma stood up from her spot, hunger satisfied. She walked over and put her plate in the sink, then she turned around and leaned against it with arms crossed. " They're also stupid, Regina is powerful on her own but now she's basically surrounded by powerful people. Whoever this is has to have recently come from the Enchanted Forest to Storybrook, none of the original residents have ever tried to take revenge on her like this", she reasoned.
Before anything else could be said, Ruby suddenly stopped eating and ran out of the room. Everyone looked at each other in confusion, wondering what had gotten into her. Then Ruby suddenly entered the kitchen once more, this time with a folded up napkin in her hand. Granny wrinkled her nose in disgust, she could smell it from where she stood.
" I found this stuff around your car yesterday, I figured I'd bring you some so you can maybe figure out what it is", Ruby said. She walked over to Regina with the napkin held out, her eyes staring intently at the mayor. Regina gulped slightly at the look on the taller girls face, there was this wildness in her eyes that made a shiver run down her spine. Ruby was giving off such predator vibes that Regina felt like the prey that was being hunted, it excited her. Plus, Rubys outfit wasn't helping. Emma and Granny had dressed her in loose fitting checker pajama pants and a red sports bra, Rubys perfect stomach in plain view for everyone to see since the girl hadn't even bothered to throw anything else on.
Reginas hand shook a little as she reached her hand to grasp the offered napkin, her eyes firmly locked on Rubys as she did so. It was like she was in a trance, she couldn't look away.
" Ruby, sit", said the voice of Granny sternly. Ruby kept on looking at Regina, not paying her grandmother any mind, she even took a step closer to the ex evil queen. " Ruby Red Lucas, I won't tell you again", she said once again, her voice low and serious.
Ruby shook a little, then she reluctantly stepped back. She walked over to her seat and resumed eating like nothing had happened, everyone in the room besides Granny staring at her in surprise.
Then simultaneously they all looked at Granny, hoping to get an answer to their unspoken question. Granny gave a small sigh, she should of told them this sooner. " The serum that I gave Ruby unfortunately has other effects then just speeding up her healing abilities, it also brings out more of the wolf in her human skin. Right now, she's more wolf then girl", she informed as she watched her granddaughter continue eating.
Everyone else stared at Ruby, but none as intensely as Regina. The urge to take the girl and be taken by her was almost overwhelming, she felt her face burn with the force of her blush. Emma and Granny were both staring at her, one with amusement in her eyes and one with a hint of jealousy and curiosity. She was thankful that Snow was more interested in staring at Ruby then at her, she really didn't want to explain the situation to her stepdaughter right now. She took a few silent deep breaths, taking advantage of Snows lack of attention to compose herself.
Ruby continued eating, not paying anyone any mind. Now that Regina actually looked at her, she did seem wilder. Her hair was curlier then usual, her posture more strong and intimidating, her eyes an intense blue with a hint of amber, when she took a bite Regina could see that her teeth were more extended and sharper then normal. Regina gulped, lord help her.
Emma asked a question, " How long is she going to be like that?", she asked cautiously.
Granny stared at Ruby while she answered the question, " Maybe a day or two, it depends on Ruby really. I've been trying to find a way to fix that little problem with the serum, so far I've got nothing", she said.
Regina finally managed to compose herself enough to speak again, " Maybe I can offer some assistance, but I'd also like to know why Ruby listened to you when you talked to her", she said.
Granny looked away from Ruby to meet Reginas eyes, " No matter if she's an Alpha wolf or not, I'm still her elder and her grandmother at that. Her wolf sees me as a parental figure, so it has no choice but to obey me to an extent. But there are still some things that even I can't interfere with", she explained.
Ruby gave a small annoyed growl, but Granny reached across and flicked her behind the ear, silencing her immediately.
Snow spoke, " Aw, she's kinda cute", she gushed.
Emma smirked, " Yeah, she's like a cute little puppy", she said while laughing a little.
Regina couldn't help but agree with her true love, Ruby was being extremely cute.
Granny then brought everyone back to the topic at hand, " Whatever Ruby gave you smells horrendous, it's Dark magic for sure", she said.
Regina looked down at the napkin she forgot she was holding, she opened it up and looked at the substance. She felt it, it was dark magic without a doubt. But it wasn't just any old dark magic, she could tell it was a really ancient one. Without wasting any time, she raised her hand and did a hand gesture. Not a second later a black leather book came floating into the room, landing right in Reginas hands.
She quickly started skimming the pages.
Emma raised an eyebrow at her, " I'm guessing you know what that is?", she asked as she came to stand next to her mother, who was also staring intently at Regina.
Regina gave a shake of her head, " Actually my love, I have no idea ", she said plainly .
Emma and Snow shared a confused look, Granny raised an eyebrow.
" Then do tell why your looking through that book as if you know what your looking for", said Ruby, her voice low and husky, Regina swallowed quickly. That voice was doing things to her… But this wasn't the time for that.
" I enchanted a page a couple years ago, I can pour anything on to it and it will reveal to me everything ever recorded on it", she explained. As she did she came across a black page with an infinity purple symbol in the middle, she smiled triumphantly. She grabbed the tissue and wiped the black substance on the page, it should only take a minute.
Everyone waited with bated breath, all except Ruby who just lazily leaned back against her chair. Her wild eyes never left Regina, not even for a minute.
Not soon after, the book gave a small hum and purple glowing letters floated in front of Regina. The letters floated in front of her eyes as she quickly read them, taking in the information. A frown started to form on her face, she didn't like this at all.
" What is it mom?", asked Snow worriedly.
Regina took a deep breath, the purple letters vanished back into the book. She looked up at everyone staring at her, " It's a dark cloning magic", she stated, her face showing everyone how serious it was.
Emma frowned in confusion, " Cloning?", she asked.
Regina went to reclaim her seat, she would need to sit down for this. " I've only ever heard of it in stories, it came centuries before my time. But there was once these powerful sorcerers who got married and brought to the world two twin sons. The mother died a couple years later due to experimenting with Dark Magic, but what she hadn't known was that one of her then 11 year old sons was spying on her each time she experimented, and he became fascinated by it. As they grew, the son who spied continued on with his mothers legacy, since for some unexplainable reason he couldn't produce any light magic like his twin brother. His father praised the Light twin more then he ever did the Dark one, which caused jealousy to arise in him. At the age of 21 he decided he had enough, and concocted a plan to get rid of his twin brother. So, under false pretenses he invited his twin on a hunting trip. Then when they were far enough, he stabbed him right through the heart. As he watched the lifeless body of his twin he started regretting his actions, and he feared what his father would do if he found out what he had done. So in a moment of madness, he used dark magic on himself, creating a perfect identical copy of himself that he hoped would pass for his brother. The father bought it for many months after that, and the Dark twin thought he had gotten away with it. But, dark magic has a way of coming back to bite you. One fateful night, while he was doing more experimenting, his clone came up to him and snapped his neck, killing him instantly. Then the clone went and killed the father in his sleep, he took over the castle and lied to everyone about the deaths of his twin brother and father. Then he went on to perfect the Dark cloning magic and writing everything down in old ancient books. Hoping that one day the spell would be used on everyone to create evil copies of them, then the clone's would kill all the originals", she finished grimly, that story always left a bad taste on her mouth.
Emma and Snow looked wide eyed in horror, even Granny got a little pale after hearing the story. Rubys face was expressionless, completely amber eyes gazing at Regina.
Emma gulped loudly, almost afraid to ask her next question. " So how are these clone's created?", she asked slowly.
Regina looked at her, " The blood of the original is needed, infuse that with some Dark magic and the clone will be created with the intent to kill the original no matter the cost. If the original doesn't die, the clone will slowly vanish over time", she answered.
Granny then spoke up, nostrils flaring in anger. " Do you think a clone of Ruby was created? based on what you told me when you found her she had lost a lot of blood", she said.
Regina paled even more at that, the thought hadn't crossed her mind but now that Granny brought it up, it was possible whatever attacked Ruby took some of her blood. Regina quickly walked over to the still staring werewolf, she could tell that the Alpha was still present in Ruby. She grabbed onto her shoulders and stared into her amber eyes, but she couldn't keep her gaze for very long and she found her eyes shifting down to her chin instead. " Ruby, what attacked you in the woods?", she asked.
Ruby leaned in and sniffed her a little, taking her time savoring her mates scent before answering. " Some type of floating dark shadow thing", she said casually, not seeming to be bothered by the seriousness of the situation.
Regina frowned even more at that. " Could you describe what it looked like?", she asked, still trying to ignore the way Ruby was looking at her, as if she wanted to eat her. She had to constantly be reminding herself that they had bigger things to worry about, that she had to hold herself back.
Ruby stared unblinkingly at her as she answered, " It was wearing a black hood, it floated above the ground, it didn't have any legs, and it was lanky with sharp claws for hands", she informed.
Regina tensed a little, she knew exactly what it was that attacked Ruby now. She turned around to address the others in the room, but Ruby quickly grabbed her hand. Regina found herself being pulled to stand in between the girls legs, Ruby turning her around so her back was to her while she slowly caressed her back, a contented rumble coming from the wolfs chest.
Before Regina could come up with an explanation for Snow, Granny beat her to it. " She's going to be clingy to other magical beings, it's just part of the serums effects", she stated gruffly. Regina knew that she was lying, and judging by the look Emma shot her she knew her true love picked up on it too . Granny must have said it to keep Snow from asking questions, Regina was extremely thankful for that.
Snow just nodded her head slowly, she didn't know a lot about Rubys wolf but this was not the weirdest thing by far.
Regina coughed slightly, pushing down her outward reaction to Rubys touch. " Anyways, I'm certain that what attacked Ruby was a Sentient. They're soulless creatures from the underworld that can be summoned for a price to do your dirty work, the price could be anything", she explained, she unconsciously leaned a little more into Rubys warmth.
Emma nodded her head, a thoughtful look on her face. " So someone summoned one of these things to get revenge on you?", she asked.
Regina nodded her head, " It seems like it, even though I don't know who would want to go through such extreme lengths for just revenge. Summoning one of those things isn't easy", she said.
Snow then spoke, " But then why attack Ruby?, they couldn't have known for sure that she was there trying to uncover something, she could have been there out of curiosity", she reasoned.
Granny then gave a small huff, irritation in her voice . " They didn't have to be certain of anything. They either saw Ruby rescue Regina, or she was also one of the intended targets. We've been speculating all this time that it was Regina that they wanted, but what if she isn't the only one?", she said gravelly.
Emma walked up to stand in the middle of the room, green eyes hard and jaw tensed. " You're right, it's possible that more people are on the hit list. But how do we know who's on it?", she asked.
Regina then answered, " It's quite easy my love, what do me and Ruby have in common?", she asked everyone.
Everyone stared at her, waiting for her explanation.
Regina continued, " We're both one of the strongest characters in Storybrook, me with my magic and her with her wolf. It's safe to assume that the bigger threats are getting cloned first", she stated.
Granny nodded her head, " Makes sense", she said.
Snow got up to stand next to Emma, " Then we have to warn everyone we think might be on the hit list, we can draw names all we want but we can't be sure who's going to be attacked and who isn't. Also, they already got to Ruby. So based on what Regina told us of the Dark Cloning magic, we have to now worry about a clone of Ruby coming to kill her", she said, a little fear creeping up into her voice no matter how hard she tried to hide it.
Regina frowned, she looked back at Ruby who was contentedly running her long fingers down her back. She would protect her and her family with everything she had, she wasn't going to let anything happen to them.
Regina looked back at the group, " Ruby and Granny should stay here at the mansion, Snow, you should also come and stay here with Charming and Neal. We can't afford to be separated right now, not until we catch the individual or individuals responsible. Me and Emma can use our combined light magic to create a few more rooms so we can all be comfortable. Then, we'll have a small meeting with everyone we think might be in danger of attack. We'll figure out our next course of action from then", she commanded.
Everyone nodded their heads in agreement.
The Sentient flew deeper and deeper into the woods, following its summoning.
As it broke into a clearing near the town line, it came upon a tunnel in the ground. It flew in, following the dark tunnel all the way until it reached an opening deep underground. It came upon a room, it was decorated in dark colors and tables full of magical artifacts surrounded it.
From the shadows stepped a person, Regina Mills. Or more precisely the Evil Queen, Reginas evil self that everyone thought was destroyed back in the Enchanted Forest.
Following her was another woman, this one with long horns on her head and a staff.
Behind her came another, a larger woman with purple skin and short white hair.
Lastly, came a tall skinny lady with long curly hair.
The Evil queen walked up to the sentient with an evil smile on her face, " What have you gotten for me my pet?", she asked. The Sentient said nothing as it raised its clawed hands, showing her its blood covered claws. The Evil queens smile grew in size, she quickly pulled a small bile from her robe and scooped up some of the blood into it. She handed it over to the horned woman to examine, " What type of blood is it?", she asked her.
Maleficent took the bile and smelled it, she smirked. " Werewolf blood, it looks like our little pet here got into a tangle with the werewolf girl", she said with an evil chuckle.
Gothel spoke up from her place on the couch, lazily twirling a flower in her bony fingers. " Werewolf eh?, fascinating", she said curiously.
Ursula walked over to the back of the room where a large glowing pot bubbled loudly, she started slowly stirring the black contents inside. " Hand it to me, let's get the cloning started. I can't wait to see what an evil werewolf looks like", she declared with a booming laugh.
The others joined in her laughter, they couldn't wait to get their revenge on all those princesses. One by one they will fall, until only their evil selfs remain who shall become servants to them after they killed their originals.
The ball has been set in motion.