Into the Light
The drive to the loft is one taken in silence. Regina can’t bare to think about leaving Henry, so she distracts herself as best she can by scourging her memory for all the details of the Enchanted Forest she can remember. Henry gazes out the passenger window, drumming his fingers on his leg and glancing over at his mother from time to time. The chilling uncertainty Regina feels grows inside her as she gains memories of Dark Swan furthering her plans to corrupt her past self with the Darkness. Regina dreads to imagine what her future, or, more appropriately, her present, will turn into if she would be successful. The mother and son arrive to the loft and Regina pats Henry’s leg once.
“Have I told you lately that you’re the best?” Regina says.
“Mom, come on, stop acting so weird!” Henry chuckles. “You’re not helping your case for me to not insist on coming with you.”
Regina smiles, “Alright, then, kid,” she can’t help but use Emma’s term of endearment for him in her absence, “You ready?”
“I guess so. Staying with Ms. Blanchard is gonna be weird, though, I’m glad it’s summertime so the kids at school won’t know about it,” he chuckles.
Emulating the poise of a true royal, Regina masks the panic she feels with an amused smile.
“I hadn’t thought of it that way, so I suppose you’re right. Me, too, then, my little prince,” Regina coos and scrunches her nose as she pokes his. “And I’m sorry, again, for having this dropped on us so quickly.”
“It’s okay, Mom,” Henry assures her.
She takes in a deep breath and makes to exit the car.
“You ready, Henry?” she asks.
“Yep,” he says and swings the car door open.
Together, they walk up to Mary Margaret’s loft, Regina toting his duffel bag and Henry carrying a backpack.
With every step comes a blinding fear for what will happen next. Will she be able to break the curse? Will she ever lay eyes on her son, again? These were all questions she couldn’t bare to face, for she had no choice. In order to save the entire realm she had once doomed to live stuck in time for all eternity, she has to abandon all she knows and loves from that place.
Laying eyes on Mary Margaret’s door is like setting eyes on the Unknown, itself. And, like a fool or a savior, Regina knocks on it.
In a flash, Snow answers and Regina is temporarily comforted by a familiar presence. Although she knows Snow doesn’t know who or what they truly are to each other, Regina is confident in her decision to leave Henry with her if the curse does not break.
“Hello, Madam Mayor. Henry, my goodness, you’ve grown so much already!” Mary Margaret gushes.
Henry shrugs with a smirk as Regina nods.
“Please, call me Regina. Thank you for helping me, Mary Margaret, I won’t ever forget this,” Regina states, looking deeply in her eyes. “And, as for you, Henry. I’ll be back soon, and remember- I love you so much. Don’t change too much while I’m gone,” she says and smiles at him.
He returns the smile as she bends down.
Regina holds her breath as her lips contact with his forehead. She waits for the push-back of magic being released but, she feels nothing.
A terrible sadness grates at the bottom of her heart as she pulls away from Henry. It isn’t either of their faults that the kiss did not work. There is only one explanation, Regina thinks to herself as she bates her shaky breaths; This curse wasn’t built to be broken by True Love’s Kiss. Her mind reels at this foreign source of magic. What had Dark Swan done to cast it? It’s then she remembers that last she saw Dark Swan, she had spirited away with Lily Page, the Dragon.
“I’ll try, Mom. I love you, too,” Henry replies sweetly, tearing her away from her intense plotting.
“Oh, Henry,” she whispers and scoops him into a long, tight hug.
Drawing from the strength and hope inside her, she is able to pass him off to Mary Margaret without tears.
Shakily, she descends the stairs and re-enters her black BMW.
Taking a moment to gather her thoughts, the realization hits her that she must now improvise a Plan B.
Immediately, she starts her engine and peels off toward the mines.
In the time it takes her to reach them, she assumes the worst. That Dark Swan had murdered Lily in order to enact her Curse and in doing so, admitted that Lily was the thing she loved most. And she sacrificed her. Regina parks in front of the only open mine she knows of and sobs. The tears are for many things, but mostly for this possibility. Her love for Emma is her drive in all that she does. Without it, she would be lost. But, they’re still gaining speed, the addition of memories to her already cloudy recollections as her as time as the Evil Queen. Regina breathes in the knowledge that they are together, in some form or another. Wiping the tears from her eyes, she steps out of the vehicle, grabs her backpack of supplies, and walks toward the entrance of the mine.
It’s dark, dusty, with sparse light to be seen inside. Regina magics a flashlight in her hand and flicks it on.
She looks at the crooked entrance, then breathes out a frustrated sigh.
“What the hell am I doing?”
Desperately, instinct urges her to turn around, and her eyes fall on her car. The car she’s become so at home with, the one that drove Henry to school every morning, and home from every afternoon. But, all of that is in the past. Dark Swan is too dangerous to let roam around the Enchanted Forest, enchanting the Evil Queen into twisted fantasy. Two Dark Ones. To this thought, Regina shudders, and returns her sights to the mine.
“No, I will not give up,” Regina avows. “I’m coming for you, Emma.”
With this, she begins her descent into the mines. Her stomach tightens as she begins to stumble in the dark. Light from the entrance fades quickly and Regina is faced with a crushing darkness all around her. The fact that it’s daytime shows no certainty here. As she wanders deeper, the middle of the path becomes too treacherous and she’s forced to scale the side, using the wall as balance. Her breath becomes parched and in a small patch of sunlight, she pauses for a drink of water. Greedily, she sips from her canteen, and swallows gratefully. And listens. She quiets her breathing and walks toward the opposite wall, where she swears there are sounds can be heard coming from. Reaching it, she presses her ear to the wall.
“I don’t know, Carlisle,” she hears a woman say. “If you’re not careful, the wrong person will hear the things you say, and the Evil Queen will have your head in an instant. So, shut up, and help with supper.”
Regina gasps.
“How?” she whispers.
Dark Swan has transported all of Storybrooke to the past? Why? To keep track of us? Regina thinks.
Stepping away from the wall, the chatter falls out of earshot.
I’m a powerful sorceress, yes. But a cloaking spell? Oh, gods. Rumplestiltskin has done it for me once in the past, and I’ve only cast the spell once since then.
Without potions it will be especially difficult, but- I’ll try my best, she thinks resolutely.
Regina shakes out her arms and hands in an effort to jump start their power and synchronization. Inhaling a deep breath of dusty air, she channels her magic at herself. This causes a light blue shield to be cast around and fall upon her like a gentle wave. The shield encases her. It falls to her feet, hitting the ground in gentle wisps. With an unbelieving laugh, she steadies herself, laying a hand on her chest to catch her breath, and the other on the wall in front of her. She lets her fingers trace it until nothing can be heard beyond it. After walking for an hour or so, Regina stops. Her hand still on the wall, she lets it spark with magic as she brings up her other hand to help tear it down. Pushing with all of her might, she forces her magic to make dust of the wall before her.
With one hand she whips at the air in front of her face, sputtering in the debris of her triumph.
Slowly, the Majesty’s head peers out from the rubble. Luckily no one is around, as she’s emerged in the forest at the outskirts of town. She takes a couple of careful steps out of the mine, and repairs the mountain from which Storybrooke is hidden. Her eyes linger on it for a brief moment as Henry’s face appears in her mind. A dreadful longing tempts her to tear down the wall, again, and run back to him, to hold him safe. But she knows he wouldn’t be safe, not really, not with Dark Swan holding them all for her own enjoyment. Regina steps back from the mountain, and transmutates herself to the secret entrance to Rumple’s vault in a cloud of purple smoke.
A look of uncertainty washes over her face as she surveys the pathway. Figuring it would be a safer path than using magic to enter the vault, the decision is made to continue on foot. The tunnel is musty, and wetter than she had expected. Soon her shoes are soaked up to the ankles.
Only Rumple would devise such an eerie setting for his secret entrances, Regina thinks amusedly to herself.
Before long, she comes upon the doorway to the vault.
She listens closely for any movement on the other side, and waits.
For a long while, she waits, to ensure there is absolutely nothing to be heard. The chance of her running into Rumple is one she’s not willingly going to allow. After awhile, using magic to help her only with the lock, Regina slips noiselessly inside of the Dark One’s vault.
Once there, she is faced with an odd sense of deja vu. It’s one she’s become quite accustomed to in the past couple days, but this is something different entirely. To be returned to the past is something no one should have to face. But, there's too much to be done to linger on that thought. One Forgetting Potion for the Evil Queen, and one Retaining Memory Potion for me, Regina lists in her head as she walk over to Rumple’s cabinet of potions. Relying on her memory of potions making for resemblance, she discovers the two needed and steals away toward the Evil Queen's castle.