Shaya

Chapter 9 - Back home

Regina and Rapunzel materialized in front of Emma and Snow White, still hidden behind the big bush. Rapunzel was still holding her sword in the hand.

" Are you okay?" Emma asked, alternating her look between the two of them.
" "Okay"?" Rapunzel asked confusedly, with a hard look at her. She was strange. She looked angry. Emma swallowed.
" We're fine." Regina answered instead of her, giving her a meaning look. Rapunzel nodded, than took a look at her sword and sheathed it.
" And we have the beans."
Snow smiled widely, but Emma didn't. She was happy that they managed to take the beans, but something was wrong. Rapunzel was furious for something. Her sword was clean, but...
" So what happened? Was Greg inside?"
" Yes." the warrior growled. She said nothing more. Emma tried to search her answers in Regina's eyes, but the woman was gazing down. Something was most certainly wrong.
" What the hell happened?!" Emma asked in the end, frustrated by their mysterious silence.
" Nothing..." Regina tried to answer, but Rapunzel opened her mouth in the same moment.
" I killed him." she said with the sharpest look Emma had ever seen. Her eyes were a glacier. She couldn't help but feel a little shiver run through her spine. That woman was a ruthless killer. She could see it now.
" He tried to kill you with that stone!" Regina had big, wet eyes. She and Rapunzel were looking at each other.
" You know I could spare him. Don't justify me. I wanted to kill him, I just would have liked it to last a little longer..."
Regina made a step back, Snow faltered, Emma suddenly turned white. And turned whiter when she saw Regina tear lavishly.
" It's my fault if he became what he is...was. I killed his father!"
Rapunzel made a step towards her. " I don't care! He had a choice! He could have been better than you, than me! But he didn't! And he had the misfortune to cross my path. That's all. I decided to kill him. It's not your fault if I am a fucking vindictive monster!"
Regina stopped breathing. Emma clearly saw her expression change at least a million time. She didn't know what to feel, it seemed. Snow helped her. She reached her and hugged her. Regina's eyes widened so much that Emma feared that they could fall on the ground.
" She's right, Regina. You didn't want him to die. You forgave him. Do you understand? You forgave the man that had almost killed you! Henry would say "that's what heroes do", and he'd be right. He'd be right."
Regina didn't move a muscle. She was paralyzed, but tears were still sliding down her cheeks. It took her some minutes in that hug before she remembered to breath. She moved aside from Snow, eyes on the ground, and stayed still, silent.
Emma looked at Rapunzel. She was in tears. What the hell was happening? A come-on-bad-people-let's-cry-party? The warrior suddenly eyed her. She was sad, no doubt. And there was something else in her eyes. Happiness. Resignation. Pain. The blue eyes looked back at the ground, hiding what was inside them. She cleared her voice and spoke.
" We should find the others and go back home...well, my home, I mean. "
" Right!" Snow exclaimed. She gave a modulated whistle, a complex sound, one of a particular bird, it seemed. At Emma's perplexed face she smiled.
" It's our secret signal. Mine and David's. It means that..."
An identical sound came from their left.
"...we can show up."
Charming and Hook appeared running from the jungle.
" Is everything okay?" David asked, looking at everyone. His eyes stopped on Regina. She had dried her face, but her red eyes said everything. She was still gazing down.
" Yes, yes." Snow said. " We can go. We have the beans."
" Greg?"
The silence fell, taking with it many meaningful looks.
" Oh."
" Let's go." Rapunzel ordered, starting to move. Regina immediately followed her. Hook, seeing that none was moving, shrugged and followed Regina. Emma was waiting for her parents. Snow wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
" She's a good person. She'd never hurt us."
" How do you know that? She could be a total psychopath!"
" I'd be it if someone would have locked me inside a tower for twenty years after having killed my brother, and if the person I love had sent me in the most dangerous world of all for... I don't know... Forty years? She's even too sane for what she went through. She saved Henry's life, and probably ours, taking us to her cavern. And she's terribly loyal, I suspect, as she isn't neither mad at Regina for having left her here for so long."
" She'd just said she would have liked to torture a man to death!"
" Yes that's... horrible, I know. But, Emma, you have to understand that this kind of things were quite normal in her realm. If she was an adult when they accused her to have killed her brother, she'd have had the same treatment. It was their idea of justice. Moreover, she's been a mercenary for many years, so..."
" What a beautiful place! Do you really wanna go back there?!"
" Our realm is different." David intervened. " Even Regina's was better than the Golden Fields."
" It's the name of Rapunzel's realm." May Margaret explained. " Almost everyone has blond hair there, so..."
" Oh. I'm not sure I can still trust her, by the way."
" Emma, she's the same person you were laughing with this morning!" Snow objected, reaching for her arm to stop her and make her lock gaze with her. " She didn't change. She's simply been sincere. It's a good thing."
" A good thing? Mary Margaret, she killed a wounded man, and she wanted to..."
" I killed. Your father killed. Regina, and Hook, and Rumplestiltskin did. The only ones who didn't here are you and Henry. Are you really telling me you don't trust anyone here but your son? Because if it is so, you should take a bean and run away with him. "
She paused, letting her think. Emma looked in her eyes. She trusted her, and she trusted David. Somehow, she managed to trust Regina, too. Hook...she didn't know, yet. And she trusted Rapunzel till ten minutes before. She really did. Her eyes had told her only about love. And, actually, she killed Greg because of the weird idea those people seemed to have about love. It had been a revenge for what he did to Regina. Rage guided her. It was a passional crime. Perhaps she was not a serial killer.
" No." Emma finally said. " No, I trust you, and you." she said to her father. David smiled with love. " And, as Regina said, I owe her my son's life. And she's helping us, you're right. I'm just..."
" It's okay, Em... It's normal. We're just used to such things. If I was David Nolan, I would have run away crying and pulling my hair..."
That made her laugh softly.
" We would be pleased if you three joined our company..." Regina's voice startled them from behind them. They turned to see her upset face. " If you don't mind, we'd love to go to a safer place than a wild jungle where dangerous, immortal teens could cut our throats without we even notice."
" Sure, right, my fault." Emma said, hurrying to reach the other woman. She heard the steps of her parents behind her while walking, and her shoulders suddenly relaxed. She didn't realize they were tensed until that moment. She followed Regina, eyes on her hair. She really liked her haircut, but she'd never tell her. Emma smiled innerly at the thought, but the smile disappeared as she saw Rapunzel watch her. It took her a few seconds to understand her expression: she was just worried, and a little sorry. Emma tried to smile at her, but she knew she wasn't convincing. Rapunzel anyway smiled back at her, although noticing her hesitation. She turned and her swinging tress guided them through the path.

It was evening when it happened. The jungle was silent. Too silent. The sun had just crossed the horizon line, so that a wet, grey light was all Rapunzel was using to see the sketched path between the plants. Then she heard it. A breath, a leaf moving, feet leaving a branch over her head. She unsheathed her sword and with a single, fluid movement the falling Lost Boys was cut in two parts.
" Gather, none alone! Hook, Charming, protect those sides! Regina, watch up! Burn the arrows! Snow, kill..." A figure fell down from a far tree with a deep thud. " Aye, him." the warrior said while engaging with a boy right in front of her. He had scimitar, she had a longsword. His scimitar broke in three seconds, his throat opened in the next one.
A fireball exploded next to her, crashing against a Lost Boy hidden behind a high branch. He fell down screaming desperately. She finished him, then turned and fought against a girl with daggers. Her right hand was cut down, then her head, before she could even begin to scream. Rapunzel took a pause to control the group. Charming and Hook were well defending Snow, concerned in throwing arrows as a cloud throws raindrops, and Emma, all eyes, a gun pointed to the ground. Regina was setting on fire half of the jungle, moving creepers as tentacles, breaking necks and crushing bodies. She was a war machine, and she didn't even know it, Rapunzel thought with an inner smile.
A sudden pain to the left hip made her falter. A tall guy, holding a saber, red on the edge, was smiling at her.
" The Golden Death in the flesh, I guess... A little distracted though. Hope you don't mind if I killed you? Nothing personal."
Rapunzel touched the wound and watched her fingers covered in blood. The pain was strong, and it was expanding. The blood was mixed with something, a sort of limpid liquid.
" Where's the boy?"
Rapunzel fell on her knees, and sneered. " You're dead."
An intense heat suddenly flied over her head. The fireball hit the boy, making him violently bump against a tree. As he fell on the ground he began crying, shaking, helplessly trying to shut the flames that were devouring his body.
" Retreat! Retreat!" he screamed, running away, still trying to put out the fire from his head and chest. A few people followed him.
Rapunzel smiled before tumbling on the ground with a moan. The poison was acting, making her tremble, increasing the pain, now extended to all of her abdomen. The wound wasn't deep, but it bled much under her hand.
" Rapunzel!" she heard Regina shout.
Another warm hand joined hers, pushing painfully on the wound. Her sight was beginning to be confused. She saw two Reginas above her for a moment. Not bad, she thought with an inner smile.
" Hold on! It's not so bad! Heal yourself, come on! I know you know how..."
Rapunzel shook weakly her head and smiled at her. Other people were above her head, but she saw only confused figures and shining objects.
" The sword was poisoned. There's nothing I can do."
She dropped the sword and took the beans from her pocket, handing them to her.
" Nor you can. Take these and go home. Straight south, follow the stars. "
A fresh hand on her cheek. Snow White's voice.
" I told you I wouldn't have let you die. Don't make a liar of me."
Rapunzel tried to smile, but the intense pain made her water and tremble. She had to hold herself from screaming. She just moaned.
" Go! They could come back!" she said with a hint of voice.
" You'll come with us. Rumplestilskin can help you, I'm sure." Regina said " Rumplestiltskin, I summon thee!" she said to the jungle.
The warrior shook her head. " He can't hear you. My cave is protected from magic..."
" Shit!"
Always keeping one hand on her wound, she tried to lift her from her shoulders.
" Come on Rapunzel! Stand up!"
Someone helped her. Somehow she found herself standing with an arm around Regina's shoulders and the other around Emma's. Hook was bending tight her hip. She sneered at him.
" Isn't this your forbidden dream, Captain?" she managed to joke, indicating the two women with a nod. He laughed.
" Oh, aye! " he exclaimed, raising an eyebrow. " Although one of them wants to kill me. And I'm not sure of which one. " he smirked before that he became serious and talked to Regina. " She can't walk up to the cave. She's too weak. Let's go to the Jolly Roger, we'll be safe there, and then I'll go to pick up the Crocodile and the kid. The beach is closer than the cave. "
Regina watched Emma, who rose her eyebrows. " O-okay. But I'll come with you." she answered to the pirate. He nodded.
" Let's go!" Snow intervened. They all moved.
Rapunzel was barely able to walk.
Charming offered after less than a minute " I can carry her if you..."
" She's as tall as you are, Charming, and she probably weighs the same as you do. Hook can't protect us alone if they attack us. Me and Emma can do this. " Regina answered, visibly tired. Evidently the battle exhausted her, or she'd used magic to carry her. Rapunzel took a look at her face. Although tired, sweaty and worried, she found her nothing less than beautiful.