Villain or Hero?

Page 67: Not Fate, but Hope:

It was sundown and Emma pulled up to the mansion. She got out of her car, shocked to see Dream, standing in front of the mansion, looking at it.

"Dream?" Emma asked, confused to see her.

"Emma?" Dream asked, confused to see her, too, but Emma noticed how corpse-like Dream looked.

"What's going on? You look--"

"Like I'm dying? Yeah... I am." Dream sighed, placing her hand on her belly. "My dad told me to meet him hear. He has a permanent spell to take away my magic. It might save me." Dream said as Emma scoffed out a chuckle to herself. "What are you doing here?" She asked her.

"Gold promised to use a spell to get rid of my magic so I can't hurt anyone," Emma said, walking over to stand next to Dream. "I guess we're in this together," Emma said with another chuckle.

"Together." Dream smiled softly when the two of them walked inside. "We will be normal." She added when the two of them saw a random glow coming from inside.

"You're sure these are from her bug?" Henry asked as he stood with his mother and grandparents, seeing tracks on the road.

"Oh, yeah. She definitely spun out here, and then she got out of the car and got back in." Mary Margaret said, recalling what an old friend told her before she became the Bandit Snow.

"Anyone else out here?" David asked, standing with Henry.

"No, it's just her footprints. Come on. These are so fresh, we can carry on, on foot." Mary Margaret said, walking with Regina while Henry followed David, who moved to turn off his truck. "So, before we were interrupted, you were telling me about Robin Hood." Mary Margaret said, glancing back to see that David and Henry were by the truck.

"We'll there's not much to tell... It's not gonna work out. It's the story of my life. Whatever's working against my happiness is more powerful than I am." Regina sighed, voicing her doubts and fears.

"Why does it have to work against you?" Mary Margaret asked, sighing a bit when Regina looked at her. "Look at me and David. We have faced impossible odds numerous times, often because of you. And yet, we've always worked out. You know why? Because we have hope." She continued, making Regina scoff at the "hope" word.

"You get a quarter from the Hope Commission every time you say that word; admit it." Regina joked.

"I'm serious." 

"Well, it's easy for you to say, you're a hero. Whatever you need help, it just magically shows up, like Henry's book." Regina scoffed, looking ahead of her. 

"Yeah, I think that when you do good, the universe takes care of you. That's why it showed up." Mary Margaret tried to defend.

"Well, doesn't really matter why. Your wishes are rewarded. Mine are crushed." 

"No, I refuse to believe that happiness is impossible for you to achieve. You've come too far." Mary Margaret said to Regina, who sighed. "Look at your own daughter. I mean, whether you agree to it or not, she was born from two villains. And she's in love with a villain... one who spent most of his life to kill her own father. And look at how happy she is. She is a mother of two beautiful babies and one on the way. And she is engaged." Mary Margaret said as Regina looked down at the ground.

"She has her happiness because she is a hero," Regina said, sighing to herself. "I've known that girl since I first held her in my arms. She's always been so good. It just proves that evil can't be born, only created." Regina sighed, thinking about her daughter.

Mary Margaret sighed, seeing how upset Regina still was. "You may be sleeping with a married man, but guess what? So, have I." She added, glancing back at David as she recalled when they had an affair under the curse while David was "married" to Katherine.

"I've done far worse than that." Regina sighed to herself.

"Which doesn't mean that you can't earn forgiveness. A chance at grace, I have to believe that." 

"If you do good hoping to be redeemed, is that really good?" Regina asked her. "Maybe evil is born, in some cases, and that's just who I am." She sighed, retracting what she just said about knowing that evil was not born especially when it came to Dream.

"Regina, you saw me grow up." Mary Margaret sighed, stopping when Regina watched David lead Henry to keep going ahead. "You know how selfish and shallow I could be as a child. You know what I've done since. You have literally seen my heart; you know it's not untouched. You are not all evil, and I am not all good... things are not that simple." She continued to say, hoping to encourage Regina to stop thinking she was evil.

"Well, whoever's guiding all this seems to think it is. You're the hero, and I'm the villain. Free will is a joke. It's all in the book, and we both know how it plays out."

"Mmm, maybe. But maybe not. Your stories went poorly because you made bad choices. But now you're making good ones. It may not happen as quickly as you want, but if you stay the course, your happiness will come." Mary Margaret continued to reassure her.

"You honestly believe that?" 

"It doesn't matter what I believe. What matters is that you do." Mary Margaret said before continuing to look for her daughter.

Suddenly, Regina's phone started to ring.

"Hello, who is this?" She asked, putting the phone up to her ear.

"Regina, it's Robin. I've just found something that you have to see right now."

"Right now? I'm sorry, but I'm in the middle..." Regina went to say something, but Mary Margaret stopped her.

"Go. We got this." 

"He found something," Regina said, moving the phone to her shoulder so she could talk to Mary Margaret for a moment.

"Maybe hope worked." Mary Margaret smiled at her.

"Well, if it did, I owe you a quarter." She said to her before putting the phone back up to her ear. "I'll be right there." 

~season 4, episode 9: "Smash the Mirror: Part 2"~

~1020 words~