... Sorry
Disclaimer: I don't own OUAT
"There's nothing to work out! You kidnapped me and you're holding me hostage! If you really want to 'help' me then let me go!" Emma was really starting to get worked up, she could feel her magic running rampant beneath her skin ready to be let loose but the damn bracelet on her arm was keeping it on a tight leash.
"You know we can't do that, Emma." Snow looked at her sadly while shaking her head. It made Emma feel like she was a kid all over again and it really pissed her off.
"Fine. Then we have nothing else to talk about, so we just wait, I guess." Emma leaned back against the cage with a sigh.
"Wait for what exactly." Charming asked, confused.
"Well wait for me, of course."
All of the guards in the room reacted immediately, moving in to surround their king and queen, swords drawn and pointed towards the intruder. Red allowed her claws to extend, hoping to somehow intimidate the powerful woman. Regina rolled her eyes as she strolled forward, completely owning the room. She flicked her wrist in the direction of a few of the guards.
"Oh would you put those things away before you hurt yourselves." The spears went immediately limp, the wood hanging like a weeping willow. Regina's eyes met Emma's and she felt the tension in her chest ease slightly. Thank the gods.
"Speak of the Devil." Emma said smiling, her eyes lighting up at the sight of her wife.
"And she may appear." Regina said back, giving her a small smirk, completely ignoring the useless swords still pointing at her.
"Regina what do you think you're doing?" Snow yelled, her voice cutting through the couple's light banter.
"Snow, did I ever tell you about my friend that taught me to take voices? Because it is a very affective spell." Regina turned to Snow, tapping her finger to her chin giving the woman a questioning look.
"Get away from her! You've corrupted her enough, she's with her family now. Have you no respect at all?" Snow looked at her disgusted. Regina's eyebrows shot to her forehead. How dare she…
"Are you truly standing there talking to me about family and respect while you just had my true love taken away from me?" The disbelief in her voice and on her face, was clear as day as she spoke to the smaller "queen". Snow sputtered, her face turning red.
"You stole our daughter from us for 10 years, Regina! How-"
"I did not steal your daughter! I gave her shelter. A home. Something she was clearly lacking or she would not have run off in the first place. I accepted her for who she wanted to be. I loved her day and night for who she was. Not you or your idiot husband." The dark queen's voice rose with intensity and she spoke, her anger blanketing the room and magic twirling in her eyes. She turned from the stunned silent Snow to the cage her wife was still sitting in, looking at her with such fervor in her eyes. She approached the small prison, letting her arms fling out and send the guards who dared approach her across the room. Her hands wrapped around the bars of the cage as she watched Emma struggle to get as close as possible.
"Hi." Her knight breathed out.
"Hello, my love. I apologize for taking so long to get to you." She reached in and moved some of the wet hair away from her wife's face.
"All is well. Just having a nice reunion with the old 'rents. I knew you'd be here soon enough." Emma smiled softly at her wife, leaning into the soft hand that was now resting on her cheek. Regina gave her wife another once over before turning back to Snow.
"Open it. I can feel the barrier preventing magic from being used in or on it and I know you must have a way of getting her out." Regina flicked her wrist toward Snow dismissively while looking at her nails as she waited for her command to be complied with. Snow looked at Regina, her mouth hanging open, shocked at the woman's audacity. Snow clearly had the upper hand in this situation, yet Regina was still trying to make demands.
"I don't think so, Regina. You are not in any place to be making demands here. Here's what's actually going to happen. You're going to leave right now and not return and we are going to spend time getting to know our daughter again." Snow looked at her guards and gestured toward Regina, the men looked at her warily before glancing at their still limp swords. Regina caught the pitiful display and laughed from deep within her belly, the sound bringing a grin to Emma's face.
"Yes Snow, send your useless guards to detain me. I'm sure that will work, considering how competent they seem right now." Regina was leaning with her back against the cage, Emma's body was contorted so that she was able to lay her head against Regina's shoulder. Emma couldn't help but leave small kisses over Regina's shoulders, as she could tell the woman was becoming increasingly impatient with Snow.
"Seriously, mom, please. Just let me out and I'm sure Regina will make sure to make her revenge swift instead of long and drawn out like I know she must be planning at this very moment." Emma was looking at Snow over Regina's shoulder, imploring the woman to let her out of the fucking cage. Her magic was becoming restless and increasingly uncomfortable. She may not have been as avid a magic user as Regina, but she still needed to let the damn stuff free from time to time, and this just so happened to be one of the times where she really needed to let it go.
"Emma, you can't know what you're saying. This monster has been torturing people for longer than you have been alive. She has no problem killing everybody in this kingdom just for her own amusement. She must have taken your heart, you can't really trust her over us." Snow stayed where she was but kept looking between the two women. She jumped back, startled, when Emma rammed her shoulder into the bars of her temporary cell, jaw clenched in apparent anger.
"Stop calling her that! You don't know anything, and I know nothing I say will change that. How about this? Let me out of this fucking thing and let Regina take my heart to prove that I still have it. And know this, I will never trust you, or anyone for that matter, over her." Emma was seething. Her wife did not deserve to be spoken to like that, especially from the likes of Snow White. Regina, also startled by the sudden outburst, turned and went back to stroking Emma's face trying to calm her down. Carefully grazing her finger over the new cut on her knight's forehead.
"Darling, please. I don't want you more hurt than you already are. You know I will find a way to get you out of here. She's trying to get a rise out of me, while also turning you against me. Just do what I learned to do years ago and ignore her." The muscles under Regina's hands relaxed slightly but anger was still evident in those lovely green eyes.
"I hate it when people call you that. You don't deserve that." Emma's whisper resonating through the otherwise silent room. Her queen just smiled at her, shaking her head,
"I know, my love. I understand that you're angry but right now, yelling at them will not get you out of here any faster and I need them compliant to figure out how to do that." Regina's whispers were much more hushed and inaudible than Emma's, making Snow incredibly nervous.
"I don't know what you're saying to her but just give up, Regina! Emma will not be returning with you and there's nothing you can say you change that. We're not falling for any of your word play nor will we give into any of your demands. You lose." Looking triumphant as ever the smaller queen crossed her arms and jut out her chin as she finished her little speech. It was Emma's turn to see Regina's jaw clench in anger. Her eyes glazing over that way they do whenever she's really mad. The trapped woman said nothing, simply raising one eyebrow as if to say 'Well?'. After several very deep breaths, Regina turned to face Snow, her idiot, and their wolf friend once more.
"You still truly believe this is a game, don't you? That I will just continue to put up with this back and forth. No, this is a war, Snow White." Regina stalked toward the white queen who was looking less and less confident with each step taken until Regina was toe-to-toe with the small woman, throwing back anyone who dared approach her.
"This is a war that you are sorely unequipped to fight. You may call me evil, a monster, an abomination, all those words you like to spew about me to your kingdom because they do no bother me; they're nothing more than an incessant buzz in my ear. But the moment you bring my wife into this, regardless of who she is to you, that is when I will come down on you, bringing hell and high water to your castle door. Believe me when I say this, if you ever try to take away a person I love again, I will become the very title you bestowed upon me." The power emitting from the dark queen blanketed the room, her anger palpable. Emma couldn't deny being a bit turned on by her wife's protective display, but it also made the magic trapped inside of her more intense. She could feel both her and Regina's emotions, but they were being dampened by the cage and the bracelet. It doesn't make a lot of sense that she can feel Regina's emotions because that happens through magic…right? I still don't get all the magic shit. All Emma knew was that the feeling was becoming increasingly uncomfortable, causing her to begin to sweat and shake at the building tension.
"Baby, as much as I love you being so protective and, frankly, kinda scary, I really need you to calm down." Emma's situation was not exactly ideal. Being trapped in a small cage, hands trapped behind her while her wife rages at her parents, all the while Regina's bubbling emotions rising inside her is just about as fun as it sounds. Regina whipped around at the sound of Emma's strained voice, her eyes looking over the blonde curiously.
"What's wrong?" Regina strutted towards Emma, still somehow amazingly sexy while at the same time worried. The problem was clear, though, when she noticed how sweaty Emma had become in such a short time.
"Nothing serious. Just… for some reason I can feel your emotions even now and everything is building up because I have no way to release the magic right now. So, if you could just calm down a teensy bit, I think I'll be fine." The smile she gave apparently wasn't as unconvincing as she'd hoped because one of Regina's hands white knuckled as it gripped the bar of her temporary cell.
"Open this right now, before you end up killing your own daughter." Her steady voice was perhaps more alarming than her outright raging at the younger royals. Snow looked to James who just shrugged.
"Yeah good try, Regina. If you think we're going to fall for that you've got another thing coming." Silence descended over the room, the only thing that could be heard was Emma's shallow breathing. Regina let her eyes slip closed as she reigned in her anger, well, rage really. She did not want to contribute anymore to Emma's growing discomfort. Eyes opening again, she waited only a few seconds before disappearing and reappearing behind Charming and immediately plunging her hand into his back. She was fully aware that she most likely wouldn't be able to pull his heart from his chest, but she could still crush it from within and that's exactly what she planned to do if Snow did not comply.
"No!" Snow's scream pierced through the room, she began to move toward her husband but stopped when Regina appeared to tighten her grip on his heart. "Regina, please. Don't do this!" She kept looking between the older woman's face and her husband's, he was barely able to keep himself standing.
"It's really very simple. You will open the cage and let Emma out and I will not crush his heart." Her stare was unwavering while she watched the white queen debate with herself.
"Don't do it, Snow! Just save Emma!" James wheezed out, clutching his chest, his face contorted in pain.
"Oh, shut up, shepherd." Regina and Snow stared each other down, waiting for the other to falter and show any weakness. While the two queens were locked onto each other, Emma wasn't getting any better in her own situation and Red took notice. She was slumped over in her cage, sweat collecting heavily on her shirt and head but her gaze never wavered from Regina. As silently as she could manage, Red shuffled over to her old best friend, concern covering her attractive features.
"Em? Are- are you okay?" She grimaced at her own words. It was a stupid question, because she obviously wasn't, but she didn't really know what else to say. Emma huffed a light laugh.
"I've definitely been better, Rubes." Emma had mixed feelings about Ruby. She didn't want to be mad at her and she understood the relationship she had with her parents, but it still hurt that she was siding with them.
"I- what exactly is wrong?" She whispered, ignoring the arguing happening between the royals behind her.
"Well, I have pretty powerful magic and ever since finding Regina it has been increased a lot. I'm not exactly an expert at it, or at least not Regina level expert and I still struggle with it sometimes. Because Regina and I are true loves I can feel her emotions and since emotions have a huge impact on magic it messes me up if the emotions are too extreme. I've also never had it forcibly contained inside of me and it's… very uncomfortable." She realizes she probably shouldn't be telling Ruby how easy it is for her own magic to overcome her, but she's always just kind of spilled her thoughts to her, their time apart apparently hasn't changed that. Before Red could respond she heard Snow yell,
"You don't even deserve Emma and she would be far better off without you!"
Regina's eye flashed bright purple, "How dar-" and before she was even able to finish her statement Red saw Emma slump over completely, her arms contorting strangely because they were still attached to the bars, her brows furrowed in what looked like pain and concentration.
"Both of you cut it out!" She shouted over them, her outburst surprising everyone since she hadn't said anything since Regina had arrived. Before either woman had a chance to reprimand her interrupting them, they noticed the hunched body in the cage and reacted without thought. Regina pulled her hand from the man' chest, ignoring his cry of pain, her sole focus on her wife. Snow wasn't sure whether or not she should go to Emma or James first but with his shooing gesture she was close on Regina's heels. The platform that the cage was sitting on top of made it easy for Regina to crouch and come face to face with the struggling blonde. She tapped on her face a few times, trying to get her to open her eyes.
"Emma, dear, open your eyes." She tried to not let the worry she was feeling slip into her voice.
"Hmmm?"
"Love, I need you to open your eye for me. Can you do that?" Regina blocked out all of the other people around her, slapping Snow's hands away when she tried to touch Emma, not having the patience to deal with the rage-inducing woman. She watched as green eyes opened and squinted at her.
"How bad is it? Any more painful than the other times?"
"Y-yeah. This is different. It feels different. It's like, being forced to stay inside and I can't… it's not like I'm just stopping myself from letting it out, I physically can't." The strain in her voice worried Regina immensely. She went to grab for Emma's hands only to realize they were still tied behind her back, she turned on Snow.
"Unchain her hands. No as a matter of fact, let her out of the fucking cage before she become seriously injured!" She watched as the raven-haired woman eyes her then Emma hesitantly. She turned to Red,
"Undo her hands." Red, about to protest, decided against it when Snow gave her a sharp look. Regina ground her teeth together but decided it was better than nothing and that she did not have time to fight with this child. She took Emma's hands gently, flexing her jaw at the sight of her bruised and raw wrists from being tied so tightly and without care.
"Emma, can try pushing it to me like you usually do?" Nodding weakly, Emma did as she was told but was hit with yet another bolt of pain and tiredness like the one from when she first arrived in the cage.
"I can't. It won't let me." Regina kept her hands in Emma's while she turned her head to a worried looking Snow.
"Well? Are you going to get off of your high horse and release her or are you going to keep the daughter you claim to love in this cage and in pain?" Her voice remained calm, knowing how easily her emotions could contribute to Emma's pain. She could not believe how hesitant Snow was being when her daughter was in obvious pain simply because of her own stubbornness.
"We'll call Blue in and she can take care of it." Snow said, though she didn't sound at all confident in her idea.
"That little fly has no ide-" Emma groaned and gripped Regina's hands, silently asking her to calm down, which she did immediately. "She has no idea how to handle Emma in this state. I have helped Emma for a decade with these kinds of situations.
"I'm sure Blue will be able to help Emma just fine. You need to go. Do you really think I don't know that the second that cage is open you're gonna take Emma back to where we won't be able to get to her?" Snow knew she was being stubborn, but she didn't trust Regina as far as she could throw her, and they would not get a second chance at getting Emma back. She watched Regina close her eye and take a deep breath, Snow was preparing for another fighting math with the older woman. Regina leaned down to whisper in Emma's ear,
"As much as I despise this, I'm going to leave. The moment I feel our connection come back I will return here and have Maleficent with me and I will take you back home." Regina stroked the side of Emma's face as she spoke, promoting the woman to trust her. Emma gave her a small smile and squeezed her hands as tight as she could,
"You love me?" Regina choked out a light laugh, not expecting that at all.
"Gods do I. With all my heart. I will be back, Emma. Even if I have to burn this kingdom to the ground." She watched Emma mouth I know before nodding and standing up. She stood directly in front of Snow, mustering ever ounce of hatred she had for the woman in that one look. She said nothing as she flicked her wrist, leaving behind nothing but purple smoke.
*looks at watch* huh. Well then. It's good to see you. Felt super good to actually finish this chapter. Swamped atm but was really feeling writing and i owe you guys like 30 chapters at this point but here we are. Hopefully you know at this point that i feel like shit for such long periods of time b/w chapters so we'll leave it at that. I swear i'm trying y'all . didn't proof read the last half cause it's like 4:45am here in Chicago.
Thanks for sticking with me and still commenting and sending me messages. I truly do appreciate it. Yell at me at: .com