Chapter 45: The Things We Love Most
Regina hadn't felt this much blood lust since she lost Daniel.
Or for that matter, ever.
She had lost her child.
Her beautiful son.
He would no longer open those gorgeous eyes of his. He would no longer hug her, despite her band on human contact. He would no longer beg her to make cookies, while Regina forced him to eat apples.
Henry was gone.
And there were only two people to blame for it.
Both of them her son's grandmothers.
Oh God, she was going to shove down a rancid apple down Snow White's throat. Or maybe five rancid apples down her throat before this was all over.
But right now, she had to take care of her mother.
Inwardly Regina cursed Cora.
This was so like Cora. Regina couldn't figure out what she hoped to accomplish. Then again, she never did. She still didn't know till this day why she took away Daniel from her.
And now her mother had taken her son.
Regina thought about how pale Henry had been in the woods.
Hypothermia. That's what Whale said he died from. She had tried to get him warm when she found him, but it was too late.
It was summertime though. Hypothermia didn't make sense to her. But he had been outside awhile, according to Swan who was just as upset as she was.
Little did she know, what Regina knew that Henry no longer had his heart. Regna was actually jealous of her.
And she didn't hate Swan for her innocence. It wasn't her fault and like Regina she tried to find him.
They had kicked them out of their house because he was gay.
Honestly, while she knew that there weren't really any out of the closet gay people in the Enchanted Forest, Regina really didn't give much thought to anyone's sexuality. Let alone her son's.
It just wasn't something that she really cared about. Okay, maybe if Snow White was a lesbian she would use that as a way to get her thrown off the throne, but that was because she was hell bent on revenge more than anything else.
And if Henry was gay…then really, she could care less. He was eleven, she doubt he would have a boyfriend at this age anyway. Not that anyone would be good enough to be with Henry.
Boy or girl. Hell, there wasn't even a mutt in town that was good enough to be Henry's pet. Archie really should learn better than trying to throw Pongo's puppies at her because it was not going to happen.
Though that didn't matter now, because Henry was dead.
Dead.
He was a child.
Children and death weren't supposed to go together. But he was gone. Gone. Gone. Gone.
She still could remember when Whale told her there was no hope. She knew it was going to be bad when they poofed in the hospital. He had been so pale in the woods. Not like her Henry, but hearing those words. That was something else.
This had happened before, she kept telling himself. When he accidently bit into that turn over. But he had been okay then.
Not now though. True love's kiss couldn't even save them. Her little boy was gone.
She was in such a daze that she didn't even care that Emma Swan had tried to hug her.
She didn't make any mean quip about how despite what Storybrooke's most deranged residents and Emma might want it, Swan Queen was not going to happen. Instead, she just cried and just stood there for a while.
Numb.
Until Whale and that idiotic fairy came to talk about making arrangements.
Arrangements.
That's what they meant calling a funeral home to prepare Henry's burial and memorial service.
Regina wanted to do nothing more, but throw a fireball at the Blue Fairy and Whale and be done with it, but instead she just went there and filled out the forms. It was better than hugging Snow White's daughter.
God she still couldn't believe she let her touch her.
She needed to bathe in bleach. But she didn't even think of that then. Instead, she just filled out form after form. And then they handed her Henry's things. There were his clothes. The shirt she had gotten him for Christmas last year. It was tiny, but he had grown so much. She hugged it tight to her body trying to get all the Henry smell she could from it.
She could barely smell him. Already.
The smell of antiseptic from the hospital overwhelmed her sense, but she could some just a sniff of cinnamon coming from his clothes.
Cinnamon something she herself was allergic to. It caused her to break out in hives, but she tried to smell as much of it as she could. Just to hold on to her son. It was during this she felt something in the pocket of his shirt.
And she pulled out a small piece of paper.
A piece of paper that had her mother's handwriting on it. And a name: Alice.
Regina felt her blood going cold. Her mother had her hands deeper in this than she initially thought. She had to have planned this.
Why else would Henry contact her?
And everything Swan had blubbered out about Henry finally deciding to share his sexuality with Mary Margret of all people…
Regina had a hunch who was behind it and her hunches were never wrong. But she wanted to make sure she got her answers, and she knew there was only one way to do that.
Find her mother's heart.
Which was easy since Regina had it. Or at least she was pretty sure she still had it.
Unless Cora had pilfered it. But Regina remembered keeping that box hidden ever since she retrieved her father from Wonderland all those years ago.
She never really messed with it. She wanted to be done with Cora, but there was a part of her that could never muster enough hate to squeeze it into dust. And she doubted she'd be able to do it if she wanted too. If Cora had kept Moe's heart from being smithereens surely she'd do the same with her own.
But killing Cora wasn't what Regina had on her mind just yet.
Oh, Cora would pay. Which most likely meant dying. But after all these years, Regina wanted to her mother to be honest with her. But she never got answers. She didn't even know about her brother. It was time for the heartless queen to provide some answers. And then…well, then Regina would find some way to get vengeance.
Maybe she'd curse her to live with Snow White for eternity.
Both of them were horrible enough to deserve each other.
Luckily, the heart was still there in the vault. Cora had not touched it. Didn't even care about it. She wondered how long it had been out of her mother's body. Regina knew you could live for years without a heart beating in you, but it still unnerved her after all these years even though she had a vault of the things of her own.
Nowhere near as extensive as Cora's vault though.
She was still didn't like using heart magic, even after taking her own father's heart for the curse. She still had nightmares about that. She hoped she wasn't that monster anymore. She knew she had a long road ahead of her for redemption, but that moment…she did have regrets about it as much as she'd like to herself she didn't.
She wouldn't have any regrets about squeezing Cora's heart into dust. She knew she'd be depriving Harry of a mother, but Cora wasn't much of a mother. She killed for no reason whatsoever. Claimed it was love.
How was killing the only people that Regina loved, love?
Opening the box she gasped when she saw the heart. It was probably one of the darkest hearts Regina had ever seen. It oozed black in every direction. The small amount of red was barely visible. She had a hard time even calling it red. Maybe a blood red, but that was even sort of pushing it.
It was a wonder she wasn't dead.
Okay, it wasn't.
The nastiest people always tended to live the longest. Look at Rumpelstiltskin if you needed any further proof. Or for that matter, Baba Yaya. That witch had to be at least pushing five hundred.
But Regina really didn't get how someone could live with something this twisted. She almost felt a tinge of sympathy for how twisted her mother had become.
And then she remembered Henry's beautiful eyes and Daniel's smile. And she impulsively grabbed the heart to squeeze it only to find like she suspected Cora had protected her deformed organ from being destroyed.
Regina really needed to ask about that spell before killing Cora. She was going to make sure that no one else she loved was going to get killed via pulled out heart.
Not that Henry died because of lack of heart.
No, he died because he felt alone in this world thanks to Snow Fucking White.
Now that heart Regina would be glad to squeeze and be done with.
She'd squeeze her stupid husband's too, while she was at it. She didn't know what it was going to do though. At least to Snow. Twenty-eight years she seemed to have the perfect revenge and look at how that turned out.
Plus, she had Swan to contend with. And as much as she disliked Henry's birthmother, she was the only connection to Henry she had left and didn't want to completely severe any connection she had with him.
Though she hadn't entirely ruled out the killing thing (yet).
It was at this point she decided to perform a couple of spells on the heart. One of them to see if she could see where her mother was.
Imagine to her surprise when she was in her son's hospital room. The room where he died.
Oh, this would not do.
Poofing into Henry's hospital room. Regina almost rolled her eyes when she spotted her mother by a frozen Emma Swan. Hand reached ready to grab the Savior's heart.
She could just see how her mother thinking Emma's heart was some sort of prize. Personally, Regina though the heart hoarding was a little gross. She only collected hearts that she needed. Emma's heart would undoubtedly be useless.
Cora of course didn't think like that. As Regina could attest by the fact at how callously she took Daniel's heart.
She kept her composure though. She kept it enough to show Cora who had the power.
Cora laughed at Regina's remark about making her feel pain. "You can't destroy it Regina. A little angina isn't going to kill me."
"Is that what you think I'm going to do, mother." Regina said eying her.
"Well, what else can you do?" Cora asked.
She must have thought Regina was stupid. Or maybe she didn't realize that Regina had taken the time to look at her mother's heart. To note, that while Cora might've protected her heart from being destroyed, she didn't completely keep it from being manipulated. And that was what Regina took advantage of.
Looking at the heart Regina smirked. "So dark, isn't it?"
Cora rolled her eyes. "I'm sure yours isn't that much lighter."
"Probably not." Regina said. "But I had parts of my life that brought out the lightness. You took those spots away."
"Did I?" Cora said. "I didn't kill Henry, Regina. You know that."
"He had your number." Regina said. "I bet you told him to talk to Snow. That's something you would do."
Cora laughed.
That confirmed Regina's suspicions. Her mother always laughed like that whenever she wanted to deny something that so undoubtedly true.
Stepping over to her mother, they stood toe to toe. They were the same height. Which Regina found odd, because she always felt that Cora towered over her. Yet, that was not the case. Looking at Cora Regina said, "I want you to feel what you've done to me, mother."
And then she threw Cora's withered heart back into her mother's chest.
Cora laughed for a second, obviously thinking Regina had some sort of leverage over her. And then started screaming. Screaming so loud, that glass broke in the hospital room. Regina was just glad she had placed a soundproofing charm over the room when she arrived, otherwise security probably would've been hauling Cora off to the loony bin.
Actually, that was not a bad idea. Still, she'd have to explain the stunned Emma. And she wasn't just done with Cora yet. Let her have her mental check in after Regina said her farewells to the bitch that had destroyed her life.
"Regina…" Cora said her voice shaking. "What have you? I haven't…"
"Haven't what?" Regina asked.
"Felt anything." Cora said an odd look coming over her face before she added. "No. No."
"You know what, I don't care that you've gotten inwardly touched with your feelings. You'll have to work those feelings out yourself. With that fucked up heart of yours…good luck. I just want to know why? After all these years, I think I deserve an honest answer."
Cora looked at her aghast. "An answer. That's what you want?"
"Yes, I want answers. To everything. I want to know why you could never love me. I want to know why you killed Daniel so callously. I want to know how you could abandon your child so callously. And I want to know how you could possibly do that to my son."
"You know…about Zelena?" Cora asked.
"Zelena?" Regina asked. "What are you talking about?"
"Your sister." Cora said.
"I have a sister?" Regina asked. "Are you telling me you had twins?"
"Twins?" Cora said. "I never had twins. Just you, Zelena, and…and the baby that that freak took."
"Took?" Regina said. "Are you saying you didn't abandon Harry?"
"Harry?" Cora said, "Harry? Is that peasant my son?"
Regina didn't say anything. Instead she shook her head, "We're done here."
"Regina!"
"Your heart's been enthused with squid ink. You won't be able to do magic again. Not for a long, long, time. If ever. And don't even think about asking Gold for a cure. He'll probably kill you if you do. The only reason I'm letting you live is because you'll now feel guilt. Seems you forgot to protect your heart from being manipulated."
She then turned towards door. She knew she should've felt better, but she didn't. Instead, that feeling that ached her heart when Daniel had been taken from her seemed to have grown tremendously.
The screams she heard from her mother towards the door were nothing compared to what she felt.
"Regina!" Cora snapped again.
"We're done here, Mother."
"No," Her mother said. "No, we're not. Not if you want your brother to live."
Regina rolled her eyes, thinking that Cora was bluffing before walking away. But little did she know that Cora was actually being honest with her for once.
End of Part I.