A Queen Without Power (Once Upon a Time; Regina/Emma)
TITLE: A Queen Without Power
CHAPTER 16: Maleficent
FANDOM: Once Upon a Time
PAIRING: Swan Queen (Regina/Emma)
SPOILERS: Season one (in its entirety)
RATING: PG
SUMMARY: "Love is the only magic stronger than the darkest curse. It broke yours, didn’t it? Otherwise I wouldn’t be here."
*****
The elevator shuddered as it hit the ground, a loud metallic groan echoing around them as they pulled the grate open.
“Where did you leave it?” Regina asked, the sword her implication.
Emma looked around. “It was pretty dark down here the last time, so I can’t say for sure. But if I had to guess, I’d say it’s probably in a giant pile of ash where a dragon used to be.”
The queen threw her a look, clearly unamused by her sarcasm. “Ever-so-helpful, thank you.”
She just shrugged, shooting back, “You asked.”
Regina hummed shortly, looking around. “Remind me not to next time.”
Emma caught her arm again. “Look, what’s with you?”
She jerked her arm away, grinding out, “Nothing.”
“Right,” she quipped, tilting her head and planting her hands on her hips as a wry smirk tugged at one corner of her lips. “So you’re back to your ‘sunny disposition’ for no reason at all.”
“I don’t see why my disposition has any relevance right now. We’re here to retrieve your father’s sword, Miss Swan,” she narrowed her eyes, adding in a deadpan tone, “We’re not here for couples’ counseling.”
She waited for Regina to brush past her before she rolled her eyes, tilting her head back momentarily. She was almost thankful, in a way, for this brief flicker of “normalcy” between them. Things had been shifting so rapidly since the breaking of the curse that she’d barely been able to keep up. This temporary return to their original dynamic was a welcome relief.
“We should’ve brought flashlights,” she commented, her hand starting to glow a brilliant white before she could blink. She glanced down at it in surprise before glancing to Regina.
Regina simply quirked an eyebrow and reminded her, “Second nature.”
“Right.” Emma watched her glowing hand as the white light surrounding it began to gather. It formed a small ball of light and began rising off her palm, until it floated in mid-air just a few feet above her head. “So what do I do with this?”
“Just let it follow us,” Regina told her. “It can light our way.”
They began to search around in silence, Emma looking every which way for that pile of ash from which she’d grabbed that golden egg. The ball of light followed them as they moved, hovering in darker corners. “I don’t see anything,” she called to her counterpart. “Do you?”
As she looked up, the ball of light flew toward Regina, who was standing near a glass box of some sort. It was a strange shape; she recalled seeing it when she had been down there dealing with the dragon, but didn’t have time to figure out what it was. Woven between the pieces of glass were vines and branches. It was a very intricate design, and Regina was staring at it as if seeing a ghost.
“What is that?” she asked.
“It was where they put your mother,” she murmured, her hand tracing the woodwork. “After she took a bite of the apple. Before your father found her.”
Emma stared at it with her eyes wide in realization. She’d read the story a thousand times before, both as a girl and since she’d met Henry. And in every version of the tale, there was this: the glass coffin the seven dwarves had built for Snow White. “Whoa.”
“There’s the sword,” Regina broke into her thoughts before she could ask further questions, pointing just a few feet away.
Sure enough, there laid Prince James’ sword. But something was missing. Emma furrowed her brows. “Where are the ashes?”
A high-pitched giggle echoed throughout the underground. Emma glanced up and around for the source, but couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. She looked to Regina as another giggle bounced around the caves. “What the hell is that?”
Regina held her gaze. “It’s her.”
“Her who?”
“Maleficent,” answered a third voice, a musical lilt.
Emma looked up and just a few yards away stood a woman with curly blonde hair, long violet robes, and a bejeweled horned headpiece. Not the dragon she’d been expecting. She held a staff in one hand, a smile curling her lips.
Her gaze settled on Regina and she murmured sweetly, “Hello, old friend.”
Emma looked to Regina, able to feel the tension in her just inches away. “Regina...”
“Stay close,” Regina told her sotto voce, low enough that Maleficent couldn’t pick up on it.
“What was that, dear? It’s wonderful to see you again. It’s been so long since we’ve spent time together in person...” She tilted her head. “Wouldn’t you say?”
She watched as Regina engaged in this subtext-filled banter, plastering on a smile. “You’re looking well, Maleficent.”
The sorceress smiled, blinking demurely. “Why thank you, Reggie darling. I feel well. The best I’ve felt in years, as a matter of fact.”
“Is that right.” Regina’s lip curled, and Emma couldn’t tell if it was a smile or a sneer.
“Mm-hmm.” She studied Regina, shaking her head slowly as she ‘tsk’-ed. “You, however, are looking a bit tired. Dark Curse got you down?”
Emma felt the former queen tense and straighten at her side. Without moving her head, she chanced a glimpse, noting the thin line in which Regina had set her lips.
Maleficent smiled. “You thought I was merely blowing smoke, didn’t you? But I was right. There’s a void in you, Regina. Just like I told you.” She stepped forward, the sound of her staff hitting stone echoing all around them. “The Dark Curse was never going to bring you happiness. Only despair.”
“Stop,” Regina ground out, teeth clenched and bared.
“Why?” A chortle escaped. “You know it’s true.” She tilted her head once more. “Did you ever invest in a pet as I had suggested? They’re a great comfort. Someone to love you when no one else will.”
Regina’s chin just barely quivered; from her vantage point, Emma couldn’t tell if it was anger or sadness that caused it to do so. “Love is weakness,” she growled.
“Love is the only magic stronger than the darkest curse.” Maleficent raised her brows, a bit haughtily, her voice lifting into an almost taunting range as she added, “It broke yours, didn’t it? Otherwise I wouldn’t be here.”
“How did you come back?”
“Someone stopped by to help me. A benefactor, you could say.”
Emma felt her flesh crawl momentarily with the realization: Rumplestiltskin. He was the only other person who knew she was down here. She took a step forward, asking the witch, “When?”
Maleficent pouted. “Oh it’s so hard to tell down here. I feel like I’ve been here on my own for quite some time, now. It gets lonely, you know.” Then, she blinked, as if remembering that Emma had been in the room the entire time. “And who are you, dear?”
“Emma. I-I’m, uh--”
“The savior,” Maleficent finished for her on a gush, her eyes wide. “Yes yes. The baby daughter of Regina’s favorite person!” She giggled, looking positively gleeful.
Regina glared. “How do you know about her?”
“I was told,” she replied simply, throwing her a look.
Regina’s lips immediately settled into a scowl, and Emma knew she was thinking the same thing -- Rumplestiltskin had been by to ‘help’ Maleficent and fill her in on what she had missed.
Maleficent turned back to Emma then, her blue eyes glittering in the darkness of the cavern. “Tell me, dear -- how did you do it? How did you break the darkest curse ever known? Was it love?”
Emma dipped her head, throwing Regina another sidelong glimpse through her lashes and noting that the former queen seemed about ready to burst. Either that, or smoke was about to start pouring out of her ears. Then, a bit hesitantly, she nodded to Maleficent.
A joyful little squeal burst from her. “I knew it. Don’t you see, Regina?”
Regina scoffed, appearing to just barely hold on to her already-threadbare cordial attitude. “Please. What do you know about love?”
Maleficent quirked an eyebrow, accepting the challenge. “I know that it’s the only cure for what ails you, my dear. And I know that you will never let it find you again.” Sighing, she tilted her head once more. “Not before he gets to you, that is.”
Emma stepped up, sensing Regina dangling at the precipice and not wanting her to resort to irrational responses. Particularly ones that could inspire the other witch to resume her alternate, more dangerous, form. She gripped Regina’s arm. “I’ve got the sword, let’s go.”
But Regina didn’t budge, eyes still narrowed at Maleficent. “So ‘he’ is Rumplestiltskin. He’s told you that he’s planning to get revenge on me.” She lowered her head, looking at her through her lashes. “And you’re going to help him.”
“Now why would I do that?” Her smile spread slowly and wide, but there was no kindness or happiness anywhere in her tone. “You’re my only friend.”
Emma, sensing an impending confrontation, gave the women no more time to antagonize one another. She seized Regina’s arm again, “Let’s go!” and tugged her back toward the elevator, with Maleficent’s high, musically taunting giggle following them as they went.
Emma, still dragging Regina by the arm, flung her gently onto the elevator and climbed on after her, dragging the grate closed behind them.
“I wasn’t finished with her,” Regina seethed, teeth clenched.
“I know,” Emma huffed, slightly breathless from dragging the queen along with her in her rush. “Maybe you two can do lunch another day,” she quipped, ignoring the folded-arm facetious glare she got in return. “I wasn’t in the mood to wait for the escalation.”
“It wasn’t going to escalate,” she insisted. “We were being perfectly civil.”
Emma’s eyes widened in surprise, hands on her hips. “That was civil? Looked like a cat-and-mouse game to me.”
Regina rolled her eyes, craning her neck and throwing her voice upward. “Charming! Up! Now!”
The elevator jerked and began creaking and shifting its way upward, the journey up much more slow than the trip down. It afforded them plenty of time alone together, though they spent part of it throwing terse glances at each other.
“You’re not worried?” she asked, leaning against one side of the elevator.
Regina furrowed her brows, arms still folded across her chest as she leaned against the other side. “About what?”
“That she’s, y’know...” She shrugged. “Working with Rumplestiltskin?”
“No. I have no doubt she’s working with him.” Leaning over slightly, she intoned slowly, “I trapped her in the form of a dragon. She’d be ridiculous not to seek vengeance.”
She thought back on all the side comments, the self-deprecation, and she couldn’t help but ask: “How can you be so cavalier about this? There’s clearly a big-ass storm coming. How are you so calm?”
Regina sighed, turning so her back rested against the wall of the elevator. “Because.” She dipped her head, shifting her weight from one foot to the other before looking up again. “I’ve suspected, since the curse broke, that there would be a backlash of sizeable proportions. And I’ve known all along that it would be spearheaded by that lunatic.”
“But why are you so ready to give up?”
“Because there was no other way. I knew, going into this, that the curse was my last chance. When that chance ran out, that would be it for me. That curse was my curtain call, and now...” She tilted her head, not quite meeting her gaze as she finished on an exhale, “Now, it’s time for me to leave the stage.”
Emma swallowed hard, pushing herself off the wall and taking a few steps forward. “What about Henry?”
“I’ll spend my last breath protecting him,” she vowed, a solemn look on her face as she met Emma’s eyes. “Beyond that... I know he’ll be in good hands.”
The definitive tone of Regina’s voice tugged at something within her, and Emma’s mouth ran off without her brain’s consent as she whispered sadly, “What about me?”
Regina lifted her eyes, brown meeting blue as a thousand unanswered questions and twice as many unvoiced thoughts were suddenly thrust into the air between them. She opened her mouth to reply when the elevator screeched to a halt. Emma felt the floor tilting beneath her as it suddenly pitched to one side and she was airborne. Her grunt of surprise mingled with Regina’s cry of pain as they slammed together against the wall.
Emma had been able to stop herself with her hands on the wall of the car, on either side of Regina’s head, but it didn’t stop her forehead from hitting the wall. Nor did it stop the back of Regina’s head hitting the very same wall.
The elevator groaned, as if it had been hurt in all the commotion as well, and the women remained braced together trying to catch their breath. “Are you okay?” Emma whispered, watching as her breath rippled through Regina’s hair.
Regina nodded, replying in a strained voice, “I think so.”
Emma pulled back, her eyes searching the face of her counterpart as her heart continued to thud. She watched as Regina winced, and her gaze followed the motion of Regina’s hands as they raised to her rib cage.
“What is it?”
“My ribs. They uh... I think they’re just bruised.”
“Are you sure?” Emma’s eyes bounced frantically between Regina’s, her hands reaching up to help her.
Before they reached their destination, Regina’s hands gently twined with hers and pushed them away. “Yeah. I’m fine.”
“Everybody okay down there?” The prince poked his head into the elevator shaft, calling down to them.
Emma craned her neck to look up at him. “We’re fine! What happened to the elevator?”
“I don’t know!” The sound of metal clanging echoed, as did his soft grunt as he attempted to pull the lever. “I think it’s stuck!”
A bit of the ‘old’ Regina returned as she rolled her eyes in annoyance and yelled up to him sarcastically, “The car is turned diagonally! Of course it’s stuck!” Then, she shot Emma a look, still tentatively pressing on her rib cage as she quipped, “Clearly your mother didn’t fall in love with him for his brains.”
Emma glared facetiously. Then, she yelled up to her father, “Don’t do anything! We’ll climb up!”
“Climb?!” Regina’s eyes widened in disbelief, her right hand pressing tight just under her ribs. She nodded toward her injury. “You really expect me to scale an elevator shaft like this?”
James’ voice interrupted them, a frantic desperation in his tone. “It looks like one of the cables is severed! You have to get out of there, now!”
Emma cursed under her breath and reached for Regina. “Come on. There’s no time.”
Regina shook her head, still holding her injured side and wincing. “Just go, I’ll be fine.”
She gaped at her. “Do you know how high up we are?! You won’t be fine, you’ll be dead!”
“I said just go!” Regina shouted, tears filling her eyes. “If you continue to act like a stubborn ass, Henry will be motherless. Now go.”
“No.” Emma stood her ground, feeling the metal floor shuddering beneath her feet and knowing there wasn’t much time. “I’m not leaving you.”
Regina shook her head desperately, a pained whisper sliding out. “Emma...”
She ignored Regina’s plea and grabbed the sword, which had clattered to the floor during the fall, looking up to James. “I’m gonna throw the sword up! Try to grab it!” And she gave it a hard toss before he could answer.
Moments later, he yelled down, “Got it!” and Emma let out her breath.
She turned to Regina. “C’mere.”
Regina’s grumble skirted past the edges of her hearing and she chose to ignore it, grabbing the queen’s free hand and tugging her close. “I’m gonna lift you. Try to push yourself up on top of the car, okay?”
“It’s tilted sideways. Be reasonable.”
The car pitched a bit further as if in answer and Emma gasped, she and Regina bracing themselves against one another again. She looked around frantically for some sort of an out. Then she spotted it. “There,” she murmured, nodding toward the far wall of the elevator shaft.
“What?”
She looked over at her. “First things first.” Her hand began to glow bright blue and she advanced toward Regina. “Let me see your ribs.”
“No, there’s no time!” She pushed her hand away.
“Oh for God sakes.” Gently, Emma pushed her against the wall and grabbed the hem of her shirt.
Alarm lit Regina’s eyes. “What are you doing?!” and Emma thought for a moment she saw a spark of... arousal?... hiding in the browns.
She said nothing, just held Regina’s gaze as she slid her hand under her shirt, skipping upward over the soft skin of her abdomen before she felt it, and her stomach lurched. Regina’s rib was broken. As she gently cupped it, she heard the tiniest yelp escape Regina’s lips and she raised her eyes, spotting the tear at the corner.
Without thought, she leaned in and dusted a comforting kiss to the corner of her eye, catching the tear. “It’ll be okay, I’ve got you.”
As she kept her hand in place, she felt the transfer of warmth. She felt Regina’s rib returning to normal, their eyes remaining locked. “Why didn’t you just leave me?” Regina whispered, their faces just centimeters away.
“Because. I know you’re not ready to go yet.” She swallowed, pulling her hand away and watching the glow disappear as she added, “And... maybe I’m not ready either.”
She watched as Regina absorbed that comment, swallowing slowly and blinking back her tears. Before she could open her mouth, once again they were interrupted by another groan from the elevator car, this one a sickening rumble.
Emma was jerked back to reality, berating herself for getting caught in a moment at such an inopportune time as she grabbed Regina’s hand. “Come on. There’s a cable on the side of the shaft. It’s not connected to the car. If we open the door, we should be able to reach it.”
Regina nodded, a silent agreement struck to push away whatever had just happened between them in favor of surviving the disaster about to befall them. Together, they wrenched open the grate, hanging on to each other as they stepped up to the edge of the car.
“We won’t reach from here,” Regina told her, looking over at her. “You’ll have to hoist me out there.”
“What?”
“I can do this.” She nodded with confidence. “You lift me out there a little bit. Once I’ve got a grip on the cable, I’ll pull you up with me.”
“No, that’s too dangerous. Maybe there’s another--”
“You’re gonna have to trust me on this,” she broke in, giving Emma a meaningful look.
Emma searched her eyes, knowing they had no other choice, and no more time for other options. “Okay.”
She wound her arms around Regina’s waist, grunting slightly as she lifted her up and out. As she did so, Regina leaned forward, reaching for the cable, and was able to get both hands on it. “Let go,” she grunted, and Emma released her.
Once she had braced herself, Regina reached back. “Give me your hand.”
Emma glanced down, making sure her heels were still inside the car as she leaned out, straining to extend her arm further. “I can’t reach.”
“Jump. I’ll catch you.”
Emma met eyes with Regina... searched them back and forth, remembering her plea for trust. She rocked back and forth as gently as she could, trying to gain momentum. The car rocked with her, and she looked up again to see the alarmed look on Regina’s face.
“Emma! The cable is unwinding. Jump! Now!”
And Emma sucked in a breath and closed her eyes, preparing to leap. Just as she did, she felt the entire world fall out from under her and she fell with it, Regina’s scream echoing in her ears.
TBC
{x-posted to onceupon_fanfic and regina_emma}
CHAPTER 16: Maleficent
FANDOM: Once Upon a Time
PAIRING: Swan Queen (Regina/Emma)
SPOILERS: Season one (in its entirety)
RATING: PG
SUMMARY: "Love is the only magic stronger than the darkest curse. It broke yours, didn’t it? Otherwise I wouldn’t be here."
*****
The elevator shuddered as it hit the ground, a loud metallic groan echoing around them as they pulled the grate open.
“Where did you leave it?” Regina asked, the sword her implication.
Emma looked around. “It was pretty dark down here the last time, so I can’t say for sure. But if I had to guess, I’d say it’s probably in a giant pile of ash where a dragon used to be.”
The queen threw her a look, clearly unamused by her sarcasm. “Ever-so-helpful, thank you.”
She just shrugged, shooting back, “You asked.”
Regina hummed shortly, looking around. “Remind me not to next time.”
Emma caught her arm again. “Look, what’s with you?”
She jerked her arm away, grinding out, “Nothing.”
“Right,” she quipped, tilting her head and planting her hands on her hips as a wry smirk tugged at one corner of her lips. “So you’re back to your ‘sunny disposition’ for no reason at all.”
“I don’t see why my disposition has any relevance right now. We’re here to retrieve your father’s sword, Miss Swan,” she narrowed her eyes, adding in a deadpan tone, “We’re not here for couples’ counseling.”
She waited for Regina to brush past her before she rolled her eyes, tilting her head back momentarily. She was almost thankful, in a way, for this brief flicker of “normalcy” between them. Things had been shifting so rapidly since the breaking of the curse that she’d barely been able to keep up. This temporary return to their original dynamic was a welcome relief.
“We should’ve brought flashlights,” she commented, her hand starting to glow a brilliant white before she could blink. She glanced down at it in surprise before glancing to Regina.
Regina simply quirked an eyebrow and reminded her, “Second nature.”
“Right.” Emma watched her glowing hand as the white light surrounding it began to gather. It formed a small ball of light and began rising off her palm, until it floated in mid-air just a few feet above her head. “So what do I do with this?”
“Just let it follow us,” Regina told her. “It can light our way.”
They began to search around in silence, Emma looking every which way for that pile of ash from which she’d grabbed that golden egg. The ball of light followed them as they moved, hovering in darker corners. “I don’t see anything,” she called to her counterpart. “Do you?”
As she looked up, the ball of light flew toward Regina, who was standing near a glass box of some sort. It was a strange shape; she recalled seeing it when she had been down there dealing with the dragon, but didn’t have time to figure out what it was. Woven between the pieces of glass were vines and branches. It was a very intricate design, and Regina was staring at it as if seeing a ghost.
“What is that?” she asked.
“It was where they put your mother,” she murmured, her hand tracing the woodwork. “After she took a bite of the apple. Before your father found her.”
Emma stared at it with her eyes wide in realization. She’d read the story a thousand times before, both as a girl and since she’d met Henry. And in every version of the tale, there was this: the glass coffin the seven dwarves had built for Snow White. “Whoa.”
“There’s the sword,” Regina broke into her thoughts before she could ask further questions, pointing just a few feet away.
Sure enough, there laid Prince James’ sword. But something was missing. Emma furrowed her brows. “Where are the ashes?”
A high-pitched giggle echoed throughout the underground. Emma glanced up and around for the source, but couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. She looked to Regina as another giggle bounced around the caves. “What the hell is that?”
Regina held her gaze. “It’s her.”
“Her who?”
“Maleficent,” answered a third voice, a musical lilt.
Emma looked up and just a few yards away stood a woman with curly blonde hair, long violet robes, and a bejeweled horned headpiece. Not the dragon she’d been expecting. She held a staff in one hand, a smile curling her lips.
Her gaze settled on Regina and she murmured sweetly, “Hello, old friend.”
Emma looked to Regina, able to feel the tension in her just inches away. “Regina...”
“Stay close,” Regina told her sotto voce, low enough that Maleficent couldn’t pick up on it.
“What was that, dear? It’s wonderful to see you again. It’s been so long since we’ve spent time together in person...” She tilted her head. “Wouldn’t you say?”
She watched as Regina engaged in this subtext-filled banter, plastering on a smile. “You’re looking well, Maleficent.”
The sorceress smiled, blinking demurely. “Why thank you, Reggie darling. I feel well. The best I’ve felt in years, as a matter of fact.”
“Is that right.” Regina’s lip curled, and Emma couldn’t tell if it was a smile or a sneer.
“Mm-hmm.” She studied Regina, shaking her head slowly as she ‘tsk’-ed. “You, however, are looking a bit tired. Dark Curse got you down?”
Emma felt the former queen tense and straighten at her side. Without moving her head, she chanced a glimpse, noting the thin line in which Regina had set her lips.
Maleficent smiled. “You thought I was merely blowing smoke, didn’t you? But I was right. There’s a void in you, Regina. Just like I told you.” She stepped forward, the sound of her staff hitting stone echoing all around them. “The Dark Curse was never going to bring you happiness. Only despair.”
“Stop,” Regina ground out, teeth clenched and bared.
“Why?” A chortle escaped. “You know it’s true.” She tilted her head once more. “Did you ever invest in a pet as I had suggested? They’re a great comfort. Someone to love you when no one else will.”
Regina’s chin just barely quivered; from her vantage point, Emma couldn’t tell if it was anger or sadness that caused it to do so. “Love is weakness,” she growled.
“Love is the only magic stronger than the darkest curse.” Maleficent raised her brows, a bit haughtily, her voice lifting into an almost taunting range as she added, “It broke yours, didn’t it? Otherwise I wouldn’t be here.”
“How did you come back?”
“Someone stopped by to help me. A benefactor, you could say.”
Emma felt her flesh crawl momentarily with the realization: Rumplestiltskin. He was the only other person who knew she was down here. She took a step forward, asking the witch, “When?”
Maleficent pouted. “Oh it’s so hard to tell down here. I feel like I’ve been here on my own for quite some time, now. It gets lonely, you know.” Then, she blinked, as if remembering that Emma had been in the room the entire time. “And who are you, dear?”
“Emma. I-I’m, uh--”
“The savior,” Maleficent finished for her on a gush, her eyes wide. “Yes yes. The baby daughter of Regina’s favorite person!” She giggled, looking positively gleeful.
Regina glared. “How do you know about her?”
“I was told,” she replied simply, throwing her a look.
Regina’s lips immediately settled into a scowl, and Emma knew she was thinking the same thing -- Rumplestiltskin had been by to ‘help’ Maleficent and fill her in on what she had missed.
Maleficent turned back to Emma then, her blue eyes glittering in the darkness of the cavern. “Tell me, dear -- how did you do it? How did you break the darkest curse ever known? Was it love?”
Emma dipped her head, throwing Regina another sidelong glimpse through her lashes and noting that the former queen seemed about ready to burst. Either that, or smoke was about to start pouring out of her ears. Then, a bit hesitantly, she nodded to Maleficent.
A joyful little squeal burst from her. “I knew it. Don’t you see, Regina?”
Regina scoffed, appearing to just barely hold on to her already-threadbare cordial attitude. “Please. What do you know about love?”
Maleficent quirked an eyebrow, accepting the challenge. “I know that it’s the only cure for what ails you, my dear. And I know that you will never let it find you again.” Sighing, she tilted her head once more. “Not before he gets to you, that is.”
Emma stepped up, sensing Regina dangling at the precipice and not wanting her to resort to irrational responses. Particularly ones that could inspire the other witch to resume her alternate, more dangerous, form. She gripped Regina’s arm. “I’ve got the sword, let’s go.”
But Regina didn’t budge, eyes still narrowed at Maleficent. “So ‘he’ is Rumplestiltskin. He’s told you that he’s planning to get revenge on me.” She lowered her head, looking at her through her lashes. “And you’re going to help him.”
“Now why would I do that?” Her smile spread slowly and wide, but there was no kindness or happiness anywhere in her tone. “You’re my only friend.”
Emma, sensing an impending confrontation, gave the women no more time to antagonize one another. She seized Regina’s arm again, “Let’s go!” and tugged her back toward the elevator, with Maleficent’s high, musically taunting giggle following them as they went.
Emma, still dragging Regina by the arm, flung her gently onto the elevator and climbed on after her, dragging the grate closed behind them.
“I wasn’t finished with her,” Regina seethed, teeth clenched.
“I know,” Emma huffed, slightly breathless from dragging the queen along with her in her rush. “Maybe you two can do lunch another day,” she quipped, ignoring the folded-arm facetious glare she got in return. “I wasn’t in the mood to wait for the escalation.”
“It wasn’t going to escalate,” she insisted. “We were being perfectly civil.”
Emma’s eyes widened in surprise, hands on her hips. “That was civil? Looked like a cat-and-mouse game to me.”
Regina rolled her eyes, craning her neck and throwing her voice upward. “Charming! Up! Now!”
The elevator jerked and began creaking and shifting its way upward, the journey up much more slow than the trip down. It afforded them plenty of time alone together, though they spent part of it throwing terse glances at each other.
“You’re not worried?” she asked, leaning against one side of the elevator.
Regina furrowed her brows, arms still folded across her chest as she leaned against the other side. “About what?”
“That she’s, y’know...” She shrugged. “Working with Rumplestiltskin?”
“No. I have no doubt she’s working with him.” Leaning over slightly, she intoned slowly, “I trapped her in the form of a dragon. She’d be ridiculous not to seek vengeance.”
She thought back on all the side comments, the self-deprecation, and she couldn’t help but ask: “How can you be so cavalier about this? There’s clearly a big-ass storm coming. How are you so calm?”
Regina sighed, turning so her back rested against the wall of the elevator. “Because.” She dipped her head, shifting her weight from one foot to the other before looking up again. “I’ve suspected, since the curse broke, that there would be a backlash of sizeable proportions. And I’ve known all along that it would be spearheaded by that lunatic.”
“But why are you so ready to give up?”
“Because there was no other way. I knew, going into this, that the curse was my last chance. When that chance ran out, that would be it for me. That curse was my curtain call, and now...” She tilted her head, not quite meeting her gaze as she finished on an exhale, “Now, it’s time for me to leave the stage.”
Emma swallowed hard, pushing herself off the wall and taking a few steps forward. “What about Henry?”
“I’ll spend my last breath protecting him,” she vowed, a solemn look on her face as she met Emma’s eyes. “Beyond that... I know he’ll be in good hands.”
The definitive tone of Regina’s voice tugged at something within her, and Emma’s mouth ran off without her brain’s consent as she whispered sadly, “What about me?”
Regina lifted her eyes, brown meeting blue as a thousand unanswered questions and twice as many unvoiced thoughts were suddenly thrust into the air between them. She opened her mouth to reply when the elevator screeched to a halt. Emma felt the floor tilting beneath her as it suddenly pitched to one side and she was airborne. Her grunt of surprise mingled with Regina’s cry of pain as they slammed together against the wall.
Emma had been able to stop herself with her hands on the wall of the car, on either side of Regina’s head, but it didn’t stop her forehead from hitting the wall. Nor did it stop the back of Regina’s head hitting the very same wall.
The elevator groaned, as if it had been hurt in all the commotion as well, and the women remained braced together trying to catch their breath. “Are you okay?” Emma whispered, watching as her breath rippled through Regina’s hair.
Regina nodded, replying in a strained voice, “I think so.”
Emma pulled back, her eyes searching the face of her counterpart as her heart continued to thud. She watched as Regina winced, and her gaze followed the motion of Regina’s hands as they raised to her rib cage.
“What is it?”
“My ribs. They uh... I think they’re just bruised.”
“Are you sure?” Emma’s eyes bounced frantically between Regina’s, her hands reaching up to help her.
Before they reached their destination, Regina’s hands gently twined with hers and pushed them away. “Yeah. I’m fine.”
“Everybody okay down there?” The prince poked his head into the elevator shaft, calling down to them.
Emma craned her neck to look up at him. “We’re fine! What happened to the elevator?”
“I don’t know!” The sound of metal clanging echoed, as did his soft grunt as he attempted to pull the lever. “I think it’s stuck!”
A bit of the ‘old’ Regina returned as she rolled her eyes in annoyance and yelled up to him sarcastically, “The car is turned diagonally! Of course it’s stuck!” Then, she shot Emma a look, still tentatively pressing on her rib cage as she quipped, “Clearly your mother didn’t fall in love with him for his brains.”
Emma glared facetiously. Then, she yelled up to her father, “Don’t do anything! We’ll climb up!”
“Climb?!” Regina’s eyes widened in disbelief, her right hand pressing tight just under her ribs. She nodded toward her injury. “You really expect me to scale an elevator shaft like this?”
James’ voice interrupted them, a frantic desperation in his tone. “It looks like one of the cables is severed! You have to get out of there, now!”
Emma cursed under her breath and reached for Regina. “Come on. There’s no time.”
Regina shook her head, still holding her injured side and wincing. “Just go, I’ll be fine.”
She gaped at her. “Do you know how high up we are?! You won’t be fine, you’ll be dead!”
“I said just go!” Regina shouted, tears filling her eyes. “If you continue to act like a stubborn ass, Henry will be motherless. Now go.”
“No.” Emma stood her ground, feeling the metal floor shuddering beneath her feet and knowing there wasn’t much time. “I’m not leaving you.”
Regina shook her head desperately, a pained whisper sliding out. “Emma...”
She ignored Regina’s plea and grabbed the sword, which had clattered to the floor during the fall, looking up to James. “I’m gonna throw the sword up! Try to grab it!” And she gave it a hard toss before he could answer.
Moments later, he yelled down, “Got it!” and Emma let out her breath.
She turned to Regina. “C’mere.”
Regina’s grumble skirted past the edges of her hearing and she chose to ignore it, grabbing the queen’s free hand and tugging her close. “I’m gonna lift you. Try to push yourself up on top of the car, okay?”
“It’s tilted sideways. Be reasonable.”
The car pitched a bit further as if in answer and Emma gasped, she and Regina bracing themselves against one another again. She looked around frantically for some sort of an out. Then she spotted it. “There,” she murmured, nodding toward the far wall of the elevator shaft.
“What?”
She looked over at her. “First things first.” Her hand began to glow bright blue and she advanced toward Regina. “Let me see your ribs.”
“No, there’s no time!” She pushed her hand away.
“Oh for God sakes.” Gently, Emma pushed her against the wall and grabbed the hem of her shirt.
Alarm lit Regina’s eyes. “What are you doing?!” and Emma thought for a moment she saw a spark of... arousal?... hiding in the browns.
She said nothing, just held Regina’s gaze as she slid her hand under her shirt, skipping upward over the soft skin of her abdomen before she felt it, and her stomach lurched. Regina’s rib was broken. As she gently cupped it, she heard the tiniest yelp escape Regina’s lips and she raised her eyes, spotting the tear at the corner.
Without thought, she leaned in and dusted a comforting kiss to the corner of her eye, catching the tear. “It’ll be okay, I’ve got you.”
As she kept her hand in place, she felt the transfer of warmth. She felt Regina’s rib returning to normal, their eyes remaining locked. “Why didn’t you just leave me?” Regina whispered, their faces just centimeters away.
“Because. I know you’re not ready to go yet.” She swallowed, pulling her hand away and watching the glow disappear as she added, “And... maybe I’m not ready either.”
She watched as Regina absorbed that comment, swallowing slowly and blinking back her tears. Before she could open her mouth, once again they were interrupted by another groan from the elevator car, this one a sickening rumble.
Emma was jerked back to reality, berating herself for getting caught in a moment at such an inopportune time as she grabbed Regina’s hand. “Come on. There’s a cable on the side of the shaft. It’s not connected to the car. If we open the door, we should be able to reach it.”
Regina nodded, a silent agreement struck to push away whatever had just happened between them in favor of surviving the disaster about to befall them. Together, they wrenched open the grate, hanging on to each other as they stepped up to the edge of the car.
“We won’t reach from here,” Regina told her, looking over at her. “You’ll have to hoist me out there.”
“What?”
“I can do this.” She nodded with confidence. “You lift me out there a little bit. Once I’ve got a grip on the cable, I’ll pull you up with me.”
“No, that’s too dangerous. Maybe there’s another--”
“You’re gonna have to trust me on this,” she broke in, giving Emma a meaningful look.
Emma searched her eyes, knowing they had no other choice, and no more time for other options. “Okay.”
She wound her arms around Regina’s waist, grunting slightly as she lifted her up and out. As she did so, Regina leaned forward, reaching for the cable, and was able to get both hands on it. “Let go,” she grunted, and Emma released her.
Once she had braced herself, Regina reached back. “Give me your hand.”
Emma glanced down, making sure her heels were still inside the car as she leaned out, straining to extend her arm further. “I can’t reach.”
“Jump. I’ll catch you.”
Emma met eyes with Regina... searched them back and forth, remembering her plea for trust. She rocked back and forth as gently as she could, trying to gain momentum. The car rocked with her, and she looked up again to see the alarmed look on Regina’s face.
“Emma! The cable is unwinding. Jump! Now!”
And Emma sucked in a breath and closed her eyes, preparing to leap. Just as she did, she felt the entire world fall out from under her and she fell with it, Regina’s scream echoing in her ears.
TBC
{x-posted to onceupon_fanfic and regina_emma}