Loose ｡ Henry Mills [2]

34 - THE GENIE OF AGRABAH

Word had spread fast about Belle French leaving Storybrooke. Although everyone understood the woman's decision to leave and hoped that she would get to live a long and happy life with her daughter, they wished that they could have given Belle a proper farewell party at Granny's Diner. Most of all, Snow White, who had been under the Evil Queen's sleeping curse and never even got the chance to say goodbye to her friend. But the most important thing is that Belle and her daughter were safe, and that they no longer had to fear the Dark One now that he was locked away in a cell at the sheriff's station. With Rumplestiltskin imprisoned and the Blue Fairy having found the Dark One's dagger hidden away at Gold's shop so they could lock that away as well, they had one less villain to worry about in town.

In the days that followed their victory against the Dark One, they focused on finding a way to break the bond that Regina had with the Evil Queen, hoping that by permanently separating the two women, it would allow them to defeat the darker half of the woman they all cared about once and for all. But they haven't found anything in any of their research yet, no matter how many grimoires they went through at Regina's vault. Their hope was barely hanging on by a thread, as it seemed as though there was no solution to their problem in sight.

Emma, Regina and Alice had taken a break to have dinner at Granny's Diner with everyone before they began heading back to the cemetery to continue searching through more of the many, many grimoires Regina had in her possession. With them, they had also brought along a sword that they had come across at Gold's shop when they were going through everything after he had been imprisoned in hopes of finding something that could help them. Emma had felt drawn to it when she saw it. The Savior wasn't able to explain the power she felt when she first held it in her hands, but they believed that she was meant to wield it and hoped that they could somehow use it against the Evil Queen without hurting Regina.

Once they arrived at the cemetery and entered the vault, they were surprised to find the Evil Queen herself standing inside. She was holding a bouquet of flowers and reached out to place them on the resting place of one Henry Mills.

"Get away from him!" Regina shouted.

"Oh, don't worry. I'm not here to desecrate our father's resting place," the Evil Queen said reassuringly as she turned to look at them, her eyes briefly lingering on Alice before she met Regina's gaze. "I loved him, too, you know." She chuckled darkly. "Loved. Past tense. Crushing his heart was the hardest thing we ever had to do, but his death was a necessary sacrifice that had to be made. His love always did make us disgustingly weak."

"He didn't need to die," Alice said, shaking her head in disbelief. "And I know that deep down, you know that. But you are just trying to justify your actions to make yourself feel better about what you did to the only person other than myself that truly loved you back then."

"See, that's where you are wrong, Alice," the Evil Queen said, pointing a finger at the woman. "His death and losing you were only two of the many things that pushed Regina to liberate me, to free me from the prison of her self-loathing." She looked at Regina, a grin spreading across her face. "To make me the best version of us."

"Regina, don't let her get to you," Emma whispered from beside her.

"It's too late," Regina said, her jaw clenched. She held out her palm, conjuring a fireball that caused the Evil Queen to laugh.

"What are you gonna do? Throw a fireball at yourself?" the Evil Queen taunted in amusement. She waved her hand, diminishing the fireball within Regina's hand. "The only way to hurt me is to hurt you, which is why your friends won't be able to stop me. See? Love is weakness." She then turned her attention to Emma. "Say hi to Sleeping Beauty. Or is it Sleeping Daddy?"