V IS FOR VENDETTA

A Fate Worse Than Death

"I thought you'd never figure it out."

Lena can tell she's not entirely conscious by the static that seems to coat her body as she turns to find Grace leant casually against a tree with a lilting smirk.

"Grace..." She whispers wistfully, a hand instinctively reaching toward the girl before dropping to her side dejectedly. "Is it true? Please... please don't lie to me."

"What? That you abandoned me?" The girl spits, stepping closer until they're nose to nose. "You never wanted me, and I was the one who ended up suffering because you were a coward."

"No!" Lena cries "I did want you! Grace, I wanted you so, so much. I didn't realise it then-"

The teen interrupts her with a sharp bark of laughter. "Well, it's too late now."

Lena falls to her knees as her chest collapses on itself, watching as her daughter reveals the heart she'd been holding behind her back and squeezes it. The likeness Grace bares to her is chilling, a mirror image of Lena at her most malevolent as she tightens her grip on the organ.

"Death is too good for you." She tells her mother "no... I want to see you suffer. And I promise you are going to feel every... last... second of it."

In one fell motion she forces Lena's heart back into the cavity it had been absent from for decades, and suddenly the full force of her trauma takes root in her chest. Everything she'd fought to suppress comes bubbling to the surface more vengeful than ever, unravelling her from the inside out. Her mind has already caught up with the revelation that her daughter is, in fact, alive- but her heart is only now erupting with the realisation.

With a gasp she recovers from her stupor and immediately presses a hand to her chest, shocked to feel a faint pulse beating against her palm. Tink's face comes into view as the fairy urges her to sit on a nearby log and she can't even remember reuniting with her.

"What is it?" She hears Hook mutter viciously. "Who's doing this to her?"

Emma's brows raise as she places a hand over the other womans that rests on her chest. "Your heart... it's back."

"Grace... she must've stolen it from Pan." Lena sighs "I need to talk to her. To find out what lies he's been filling her head with. She thinks I abandoned her..."

"She'll come around, love." Hook promises, but she looks up at him with a deadly glare and makes to strangle him until she catches sight of Roland, snivelling into Neal's leg. Instead she leans into his ear and snarls quietly.

"You are dead to me. And when she finds out what you've done, I'll let her kill you herself."

He hangs his head as she shoves past him and kneels before the little boy. "Roland... do you like magic tricks?"

His pouty bottom lip trembles as he turns his attention to her, chubby hand wiping furiously at his eyes as he nods.

"I'm really good at them. Wanna see?"

His nose scrunches but a glint of excitement shines in his dark eyes as he watches her tap her chin thoughtfully before summoning an extravagantly iced cupcake and smiling wide when he gasps, giggling loudly when she swipes a wad of buttercream across his nose.

"You can have it, if you say... that I'm the prettiest, smartest, funniest, most amazing person in the world."

"Okay, Lena. You're the prettiest... smartest..." His hands inch forward with every syllable until they wrap around the sponge base, wasting no time in quickly but gently pushing the cake into her face. "Silliest person in the world!"