Chapter Text
She had felt the exact moment the dark curse started to break, and now, after Emma had simultaneously broken the sleeping curse on Henry with True Love’s kiss, Regina could practically feel her whole world unravelling around her.
It was both terrifying and exhilarating at once.
For 28 years she had been walking the streets of Storybrooke like a zombie. Of course the first year or two were the most entertaining, but Regina soon found that being the only one in on the joke only provided so much amusement before it became utterly tedious. Well, tormenting Mary-Margaret Blanchard had never lost its novelty at least.
But then came Henry. And everything changed. Regina changed. Watching him grow had made everything worth it. Her past, her heartbreak, her evil deeds. All of it. And then that idiot Snow White had given him the book, the book that shouldn’t have existed. Regina could smell Rumplestiltskin’s hand in that, but it was best to ignore the imp and instead directed her rage to a source that actually deserved it: Snow White.
For once her ire was not as a result of a past the pixie haired woman couldn’t even remember. Mary-Margaret, who actually had children entrusted to her on a daily basis, thought it prudent to tell a ten year old boy that he was adopted.
A boy who Regina Mills had raised to be smart and inquisitive; to not just accept things as they are. Everyone would blame destiny or fate, for the arrival of Emma Swan – The Saviour - in Storybrooke. But no, not Regina. She blamed the incompetence of that idiot Mary-Margaret.
Ah, Emma Swan.
Aside from Henry’s arrival in her life, his birth mother’s presence a decade later, reminded Regina that she was still alive. The blonde challenged her, infuriated her, she made Regina’s blood boil and her stomach coil.
She’d felt the ripples in the curse the first time she laid eyes on the blonde. Yes, everything was changing. And Regina fought it, because that’s been the extent of her life. A constant battle to get what she wanted. Nothing new there for Regina Mills.
And now it was time to concede defeat, but oh, the war was still raging on…
Curse her stupid pride. Regina thought as she stood inside her mansion, dressed impeccably in one of her pantsuits. She’d always loved a nice vest, it reminded her of her riding outfits back in the day. She looked stunning. If they were coming for her, she’d settle for nothing less than perfection.
Unfortunately it was a feeling Regina was all too familiar with. That fear that was a result of feeling absolutely powerless. That knowledge that your fate rested solely in the hands of others.
She had felt the change within her the instant the purple mist had passed 108 Mifflin Street. Rumple had brought magic back. And even as she felt the familiar tingles coursing through her body, Regina was unable to harness her magic.
It built up in her stomach as she heard the loud, vicious, outcries of the former citizens of the Enchanted Forest as they marched up the street and toward her home. Demands for her head on a pike echoed throughout her large vacuous mansion.
But Regina took a deep fortifying breath and straightened the lines of her back. Because she was a queen. She is a queen. She would not show weakness. Especially not in front of them.
And with her resolve set, Regina barely even flinched at the loud hammering sounding at her front door.
She hid her surprise well when she discovered that it was Whale leading the angry mob. But on further thought she shouldn’t have been surprised at all. They were all sheep, and Dr Frankenstein had always been more of a take action kind of guy.
Regina looked over those gathered on her front lawn, having half expecting torches and pitchforks. But it was daylight still, maybe a night-time rally would’ve been more dramatic. They were a raggedy bunch, had she thought to arm herself with a weapon, she might have been able to fight her way through the throng. But running from your problems only ever resulted in a lifetime of hiding and being chased.
That was no life for a queen.
Even as she was violently shoved up against one of the pillars outside her front door, she bluntly met Whale’s angry gaze and smirked. Challenging him with her eyes, daring him to end her right there and then.
But surprise surprise. The saviour had come to save her. How appallingly poetic. Regina watched the blonde elbowing her way passed the lynch mob and positioned herself between Regina and them. Even the two idiots, obviously high on ‘finding each other’ and their long lost daughter, came to her defence.
She needed time to get her magic working again. So Regina remained silent while they led her into the jail cell back at the Sheriff’s station. Silent while they contemplated what to do next. Regina was amused at their righteousness, at their reiteration of how she didn’t deserve to die. She understood Emma’s reasoning. Emma wouldn’t kill her for the same reason that Regina hadn’t just killed Emma.
Perhaps the two idiots were thinking along those same lines. Well a small part of them perhaps. What Regina knew though was that those two didn’t act on what they felt, they acted on what they thought they were supposed to do. What people expected from them. What was perceived as ‘good’ and ‘right’.
So she let them rush off to find Rumplestiltskin and took the time alone to focus on the magic tantalizingly buzzing within her. Taunting her, and yet still remaining just that little bit out of reach.
She wasn’t surprised when Rumple himself appeared in the station outside of her cell. As far as dramatic changes to the world as she knew it went, Emma Swan’s passionate defence was about the only genuine surprise Regina experienced that day. The rest was easily explained.
“Rumple darling. Welcome.” She gestured with open arms to her tiny cell while she remained seated on the uncomfortable bunk. Prim and proper. Just like Mother had drilled into her until it had become second nature.
Yes, Cora was the worst of parents, but she had raised a magnificent queen.
“Your Majesty.” The imp smirked and bowed in that gay way he had. “Quite the predicament you’ve found yourself in.” He mused, grinning maniacally.
“Indeed.” Regina deadpanned. Then raised an eyebrow to get him to his point, because Rumple always had a point when seeking you out. An agenda. Something that benefited him and more often than not screwed you over.
Regina had noticed the gold medallion dangling from his grasp by then.
“My Belle and I are headed out of town. I’ve come to pay my respects.”
Shit.
It was all Regina could do to not to shift uncomfortably on the cot. If Rumple and Belle have been reunited, the Imp was clearly aware of the fact that she had kept them apart for almost three decades.
“Well,” Regina smirked, “all of the best to you both.”
She didn’t miss the darkening of his eyes. The frustration. The rage. She knew those feelings rather well.
“I promised her I wouldn’t kill you.”
“How very romantic.” Regina sneered. “Let sleeping dogs lie, old friend.” She gathered all the regal authority she could muster whilst seated in a dank cell for the warning she issued next. “Neither of us are innocent. It would be rather duplicitous of you to seek vengeance now, especially when your love has pleaded against it. Not to mention cowardly.”
“Cowardly?”
Regina didn’t miss the flash coming over the usually composed man’s features. It was his weakness. Belle was his weakness. So was his ego. But Rumplestiltskin’s reaction to the word gave Regina a little hope that she might survive the visit yet.
“Yes dear. Cowardly. I am without my defences. Surely you don’t think the Charming’s would let you get away with kicking a dog when she’s down? I know that Miss French definitely wouldn’t agree.”
Rumple started franticly giggling in that unnerving way he had.
“All this talk of dogs from the main bitch herself. What to do? What to do?”
Regina left him to contemplate it some more before continuing.
“I do of course realise that they have nothing on the Dark One, but those idiots do manage to become quite the fly in the ointment if left to their own devices.” She lazily remarked. “Assist me with regaining my powers and I will keep them occupied whilst you go about doing whatever you wished to when you used my anger to cast this curse to bring you to this very specific world we find ourselves in. Not to mention, my continued use of oxygen would guarantee you stay in Belle’s good graces. Heavens forbid she leaves you so soon after finally being reunited again.”
When a flash of irritation passed his features, Regina thought that she might’ve gone too far. But then Rumple smirked and produced a book with a flourish of pink smoke. Regina, however, remained seated and watched him carefully. No way in hell she was going anywhere near the manipulative imp. Rumple snickered amusedly and placed the book on the floor inside of her cell.
Regina just continued to hold his gaze.
“Careful dearie, in this light, one might mistake you for your mother.” He cackled before disappearing as abruptly as he had arrived.
It was a stab right through Regina’s heart. A stab that spread to knot in her stomach when she noticed what the book was that remained behind.
Her mother’s spell book.
She got up and flipped through it. It had been decades since she last held it in her hands and yet it still felt as though it was just yesterday. For a brief instance Regina felt like giving up. She knew that it was as a result of the fear that Rumple was right. That she had turned into her mother. But Regina had had a long time for introspection since she’d cast the Dark Curse. Yes, there were similarities between Cora and herself, but much like she could have similarities with any stranger on the street. It meant nothing.
Regina was capable of love. Cora was not.
Her mother was powerful and dogged in her agenda. That was where the similarities ended. That’s where Regina was determined for them to end.
Regina was her own person. She was powerful. She was the queen.
And with that thought in mind, she cast a spell to make the bars on her cell disappear, slowly inhaling the pages of the spell book. She felt the magic rush through her senses, igniting her own innate powers. She exhaled with a relieved smile and a flash of purple in her eyes.
Regina then magick’ed the book to the vault below her family mausoleum before restoring the bars again. Casually, she sat back down on the cot and closed her eyes, enjoying the feel of power strengthening her from the inside.
Finally, Regina felt complete again.
Emma had to fight her way through yet another angry mob – the same reassembled mob?- to make her way into the station. It was a lot to take in. She was glad that she had asked Ruby –Red Riding Hood- to take Henry away from the insanity.
Jeez. Emma wished that someone had extended her the same reprieve.
She understood why everyone was pissed off at Regina, but could she really just hand the adoptive mother of her child over to them to be what? Executed? They definitely didn’t live in medieval times anymore, but the Sheriff’s handbook really didn’t cover what to do with a powerful Sorceress that had cursed an entire civilization filled with fairy-tale characters to a small town in Maine.
David and Mary-Margaret were close on her heels, hell she didn’t think that they were ever going to let her out of their sight again. Her parents. Fuck, her parents were the same age that she was. It was all too much. All Emma wanted to do was go home, take off her pants, grab a beer and watch some TV. Maybe some reruns of Law and Order: SVU. Emma Swan was so over this day already.
“So what are we gonna do about Regina?” She asked as they finally managed to enter the station.
“We’ll convene the Royal Council to decide her fate.” Mary-Margaret – no, Snow Freaking White – stated.
And it was plain as day that the timid school teacher had left the building. That eerie observation alone would’ve been enough to make Emma a believer that magic had come to Storybrooke.
“And then what?” She asked.
“Execution. Banishment.” David shrugged like those were everyday occurrences. Like, go to shop, buy some milk and bread. But Emma guessed where they were from those were a usual occurrences.
Her first instinct was to just say no to those options, but first she had to come up with an alternative of her own or they would never go for it. There were a lot of angry people out there screaming for Mayor Mills’ blood and they weren’t going to take no for an answer.
Mayor Mills.
That’s who Emma knew. The powerful and sexy politician who ruled over Storybrooke with an iron fist. And she wasn’t above admitting that she often had thought of the woman as evil. Those tight skirts were especially evil. Not to mention that enticing cleavage always on display to distract her and turn her into a bumbling fool, leaving her open to the mayor’s quick wit and hurtful jabs.
Emma stopped and stared now at the Evil Queen, standing poised and dare she even think it: Regal in her jail cell. The woman seemed different somehow than before they’d left her there. Taller. More confident. It was like she was back to being Mayor Mills again, only version 2.0: Bigger. Better. And Bitchier.
Regina’s face was pulled in that all too familiar smirk, a darker variety even. It still had the same effect on Emma though. Her knees went weak and she lost the power of coherent speech.
“The Royal Council Snow?” Regina drawled, head tilted to the side in contemplation. “Whose Royal Council might that be?”
The shorter woman visibly bristled.
“My Royal Council, Regina.” Snow gritted out. “Or have you conveniently forgotten that I’m the rightful queen.”
“Oh no, how could I ever forget that?” Regina’s smirk darkened even further. “Your sense of entitlement has been a constant thorn in my backside for years. But since you clearly seem to have forgotten where you are dear, let me remind you.” Regina started walking forward as the bars disappeared and she stepped into the centre of the room leaving the Charming’s to gawk at her.
“We are no longer in the White Kingdom, now are we?” Regina’s grin was positively chilling. “And as such, you have no power over me – not that you ever had might I add – but go ahead and assemble your peasant army.” Regina continued her prowling, right passed the stunned family. And as she spoke a sliver of purple smoke coiled around her body like a horny snake, changing her mayoral suit into a tight fitting black dress fit for an evil queen.
Emma’s eyes keenly followed the woman’s path, watching in fascination as Regina’s collar seemed to grow higher, even as her neckline plunged lower, to reveal her evil assets.
She gulped. Damn.
“I created Storybrooke.” Regina announced, briefly soaking up Emma’s reverence, before she turned back to her nemesis. “Hence, I am the rightful ruler in this realm.” She smirked before walking out the door and down the hall toward the angry mob.
The angry mob!
Emma’s eyes widened as she set off after the Queen, arriving outside just in time to watch half the mob on their knees as the rest gaped at their former queen. A faint whistling was heard before Regina’s hand shot out and caught an arrow heading straight for her head. Her grin only broadened as she locked dark eyes on her would-be assassin. With a dainty flick of wrist the arrow went flying back to the stunned man, piercing him right through his shoulder. His agonized scream had another few citizens falling to their knees.
A hush fell over the once animalistic mob as Regina walked further in between them and came to a halt standing poised and regal, so everyone could take a good, long, look. Then she turned around, her eyes landing on a still wide-eyed Emma.
“I thank you for your hospitality Sheriff Swan.” The Evil Queen purred lowly, and disappeared in a puff of purple smoke.