Chapter Text
Emma relinquished her tight grip on Regina’s arm, looking around the suddenly quiet room. “Is it gone?”
Regina’s hands were shaking, she felt as though she were vibrating. She hadn’t felt magic like that for a long time. It thrummed through her veins, circulating through her system. She felt lightheaded. “It would appear so.” She turned her palm over and found smooth skin there, no trace of the mark left behind.
“That was…”
Regina turned her head, frowning back at the blonde who was staring down at her own hands as though she too could feel the same thing Regina had.
Perhaps she could.
It was quite clear that she possessed some kind of magic, if not the same level as Regina’s. She’d barely been able to pull it to the surface since the curse had broken. One touch from Emma had changed everything.
The Charmings began to rise from behind the rail they’d been clinging to, their eyes immediately hardening as they looked over at her.
“There,” David spoke first, expression tight, “we helped you. You’re not dead. Although if it were up to me, you would be.”
“Is that supposed to scare me, Charming?” Regina stood, conscious of the vulnerability of her position.
“No,” he shrugged, annoyingly condescending as usual, “but it is a warning. If anything else happens-“
“We’ll do the same thing all over again,” Emma interrupted with a frown. “No one in this town is dying.”
“We can at least return her to her jail cell,” Snow said, clinging to her husband’s arm.
“Why?”
All three of the people in the room turned their gazes from one another to look directly at Emma.
Regina was confused, having already resigned herself to the fact that she would have to at least go along with whatever punishment the Charmings had in mind for her, at least until she could call her magic forth at will in this world.
David and Snow looked positively outraged. “What do you mean, why?”
Emma, for her part, remained calm and open. Her hands were stuffed into the back pocket of her jeans and she leaned all of her weight onto one leg as she spoke. “We only took her there for her own safety. The mob has gone, we can call a meeting and ensure everyone is reminded of the rules of this town. It makes no sense to return Regina to that cell unless,” she turned to look at her, “are you planning on doing anything illegal?”
It took Regina back. She wasn’t used to being included in these kinds of conversations. They were normally about her, not to her. She was so surprised that her answer of, “No,” held absolutely no sarcasm or superiority. Her mind ticking as she watched Emma nod as though just her word were enough.
“Well, okay then.”
“Emma you can’t be serious,” Snow breathed incredulously. “After everything she’s done.”
“In your world, maybe.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Exactly what it sounds like,” Emma gave back firmly, “This is not your world. Any crimes Regina may have committed-“
“May have committed?” David laughed incredulously. “We have our memories back and they are full of the atrocities that woman committed. She instilled fear in every life she affected.”
Emma shrugged. “Memories aren’t evidence and in this world, that’s all that matters. You can’t lock someone up just because you’re afraid.”
“We are not afraid, Emma. You didn’t live through what we did, you weren’t there.”
“No,” she replied simply, “I wasn’t. So that’s what makes me the best person to decide on what happens in this town. That and the fact that I’m still the Sheriff.”
And then, to add to Regina’s complete and utter confusion…
”You don’t get to decide who Regina is here,” Emma’s bright blue gaze turned back to her, no trace of deception there, just open honesty, “only she can do that. And, for Henry’s sake, I hope she makes the right choice.”
She turned back to look at her newfound parents, looking slightly awkward at having to take such a firm stance against them.
“If she doesn’t, if she does something to jeopardise anyone’s safety in this town, then we’ll revisit the jail thing. Okay?”
They wanted to argue.
Regina watched the way David’s jaw clenched, his furious eyes glancing over at her before he looked back at Emma and nodded once. Snow’s lips were tight as she also nodded her agreement.
“Will we see you later?”
Emma sighed, straightening and folding her arms across her chest. “Probably,” she looked over at Regina and then back to them, “there are some things I’ll need to sort out first and I want to get that town meeting organised as soon as possible before people forget exactly which world they live in and do something stupid or dangerous.”
“Call us if you need our help,” Snow offered, finally stepping away from her husband to place a hand on Emma’s forearm, squeezing her through the leather of her jacket with a small smile.
“I will.”
They gave one last look to Regina, eyes clouded with distrust, before they smiled at their daughter and left hand in hand.
With only the two of them left in the room, Regina focused her attention on the hat once more. She felt rather awkward left in just the Savior’s presence. Particularly after she’d defended her so openly to the two people she hated most in any world. She wasn’t sure how she was supposed to feel now, nor how the blonde would expect her to react after such a show. So she dropped back down and began checking that the magic inside had actually dissipated.
Emma watched, conflicted. She hadn’t meant to strong arm her parents but when they’d assumed their roles as leaders in a world that wasn’t theirs and had attempted to lay down their own law, Emma had bristled. Perhaps her resentment for their choice to send her away as a baby was still unresolved.
“You’re not gonna prove me wrong, are you?”
Regina stilled, eyes closing against the flicker of irritation that flared at the question. She was not a child and she did not have to answer to anyone. Still, for the simple fact that Emma had saved her a night behind cell bars, she tamped down her anger and took a deep calming breath before answering. “No, Miss Swan. I am not. I have no plans to do anything other than return home with my son.”
“Woah, Regina,” Emma breathed a slightly incredulous laugh. “Who said anything about Henry coming home with you?”
Regina turned on her heel and stood in one smooth motion, eyes studying Emma’s expression. She was frowning over at her as though the very notion were ridiculous. “He’s my son.”
“That may be true but you’ve just spent the better part of a year convincing him and everyone around him that he was crazy.”
Regina’s mouth dropped open. “I have not-“
“The boy’s been going to therapy for months, listening to yet another adult lecture him on his overactive imagination because you wanted it.” The small kindness in Emma had disappeared now, her strength returning as she stared Regina down.
“That was for his own good,” Regina replied hotly.
“Don’t pretend anything you did was for him,” Emma scoffed. “You just wanted to cover your own back, keep anyone from believing in the slightest possibility of your curse being real.”
Regina shook her head, lips curling in distaste. “Look at what happened the moment the curse broke, how people changed, how this world’s rules no longer mattered.” She shook her head, “Our world was brutal, Miss Swan. People were executed without trial and sometimes without justification. You think you know who you’re dealing with because you read a few fairytales? These people are nothing like you think. They are brutes and they are murderers who only see black or white and never grey.”
“And that justifies tearing hundreds of people away from their homes? Splitting families up? Ruling the town with an iron fist?”
“Why don’t you speak with Ruby, ask her if she’s missed losing control of her body each time the full moon rises.. Ask the drunks and vagrants with no job and nowhere to live if they’d rather be in the Enchanted Forest.” Regina stared Emma down, waiting for her to interject. “We didn’t come from a land of magic and wonder, Miss Swan. Don’t think there aren’t some who wouldn’t thank me for bringing them over to this world where circumstances changed and no one was left without.”
“That wasn’t your decision to make.”
“Perhaps not,” Regina bit back, spine straightening. “But I would make it again and again if it meant I got to have my son. And I will not allow you to take him from me. He is not yours to take. You made that decision in your prison cell, remember.”
Emma’s expression went stony. “And whose fault was that, huh?” She stepped closer to the furious mayor, the air between them almost alight with the energy transferring between them.
The hat twitched on the floor, unwitnessed by either.
“I never would have been in this world if it weren’t for you.”
Regina laughed bitterly. “No,” she shook her head, letting her eyes move down Emma’s body and back up as she stepped even closer, staring the other woman down. “No, I expect you’d have been married off by now to whoever suited the Kingdom’s needs best.
Emma frowned in disbelief, “They would never-“
“Oh they would,” Regina laughed bitterly. “If not by your father then certainly by your mother. You come from a lineage of royals who hold no quarrel with trading their offspring to make strategic alliances. Nor are they particularly averse to forcing unwilling young girls into a marriage with a man three times her age but that is neither here nor there.”
“I don’t believe a word that comes out of your mouth,” Emma bit back. It was a lie, Regina was telling the truth, she could tell. But she wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction right now. “You’d say anything to cover your own back.”
“Do not start with me, Miss Swan.” That familiar feeling was tickling at her skin once more, her fingers almost sparking with the magical energy waiting to be released. She could feel it shooting out from her like it was a bolt of lightning and she was the oncoming tornado.
The hat twitched again, almost completing a full turn unnoticed.
Emma’s own unexplored magic was reacting to Regina’s, meeting it in the air, becoming entwined as it hit the closest surface to it. “Or what?”
”You think a dragon was a challenge? Believe me, you have no idea what I am capable of.”
“And you, Madam Mayor,” Emma returned through gritted teeth, “have no idea what I am capable of.”
Regina lifted a hand out of pure instinctual memory, her fingers curling in toward her palm as she watched Emma instantly begin to claw at her own neck, eyes widening. This was what she wanted, this was the fear she so desired.
But a moment later, the moment Emma’s hands curled around the sides of her own neck, fingers coming into contact with her pale skin, Regina hissed in pain as a white hot fire shot through her veins as though her own magic was backfiring on her. But that wasn’t it. She could tell by the foreign feel of it entering her system.
This was Emma’s magic attacking her right back.
But it wasn’t an attack. Regina could see that by the look in her opponent’s eyes, the look of confusion as she let go of her neck, able to breathe again now that Regina had withdrawn her spell.
Emma’s though, that hadn’t retreated with the removal of her hands from her skin. Regina was still burning, her blood on fire inside her as she struggled to remain upright.
Regina was unable to stop a small shriek from escaping her as she dropped down onto a knee. It thudded painfully against the floor though it was nothing compared to the feel of the Savior’s magic moving through her.
“I don’t know how to stop it,” Emma stepped closer to Regina, her hands raised towards her as though it would help her figure out what to do.
With her remaining strength, the brunette managed to send out her own pulse of magic in the desperate hope that it would break the connection. It was at that same moment that a rather panicked Emma had the same thought and tried to send out her own pulse.
The magic met in between them, combusting spectacularly and throwing both women back from each other as it expanded throughout the room. In mere seconds, it had reached the hat and sent it spinning wildly where it sat.
The portal was reopening.
“Shit!” Emma exclaimed, glad she’d been thrown back towards the wooden rail that usually marked the divide between speakers and audience at meetings. As a dangerous wind began to pick up speed, she reached over her head and hooked her arms around two of the wooden slats, hoping to god it was strong enough to hold her weight.
Regina, on the other hand, was not so lucky.
She’d been thrown, hard, against the back wall, her head slamming against it as her vision swam. She’d barely managed to cry out in pain when she felt herself being dragged back towards the centre of the room. Towards the open portal, towards the hat.
“No!” she screamed, trying to turn onto her front and grip at something, anything to keep her from being pulled in. She wouldn’t go back there. She couldn’t.
The floor was smooth beneath her hands, there was nothing for her to grab.
She turned onto her back once more and tried to dig her heels in to keep from moving any further but the strength of the hats pull was too strong. She was flipped onto her front again, her head closer to the hat rather than her feet as she caught Emma’s eye through the swirling vortex between them.
The Savior was watching as she clung to safety, her face unreadable with the distance between them.
“Please,” Regina cried, inches away from the portal now. She was crying, her whole body quivering with terror at the thought of her old world. Of the people left behind who would be waiting for her. “Please, Emma.”
Their eyes locked for only a moment more before the wind picked up even higher and Regina was dragged into the swirling darkness and swallowed whole by it.
Emma’s grip tightened on the rail, this was for the best wasn’t it? Henry would be safe, the whole town would be safe. They could live freely without the threat of the Evil Queen?
But she’d caught the terror in Regina’s eyes. For the first time in the whole year Emma had known her, aside from the day they’d thought they’d lost Henry in the mine, Regina had looked absolutely petrified. And she’d called her name.
Not Savior, not ‘Miss Swan’. Emma…
So, despite her better instincts, she let go.
She let go and followed the dark queen through the portal to a place that she had never gotten a chance to know with a woman she was quite sure would kill her when given the first opportunity.