She's My Daughter

I Truly Am Sorry

Selena POV
I stood shell shocked, my heart beating furiously. How could this be possible? Me, the Darkest One? It was mental! I wasn't anything special! I was just an abandoned girl. A lost girl.
"No." Regina whispered softly, her eyes beginning to water. "No, it's not true."
"Of course it is, dearie." Gold said. "She has quite literally been frozen in a shroud of darkness her entire life. How can it not be true?"
"You seem awfully cheery for someone who knows they're going to be dethroned." Zelena said finally, her blue eyes still bright with shock.
"Well, that's what I need her blood for, isn't it? To make sure I don't get dethroned." Gold smiled.
"You're not getting your hands anywhere near her blood." Regina growled.
"It was part of the deal." Gold said coldly. "She doesn't have a choice."
"You'll get my blood." I said, coming to my senses. "But the deal was information. And I haven't got all the information I want yet."
"You really are something special." Gold laughed. "Fine. What more do you want to know?"
"Who's the Black Fairy?" I asked.
"My mother." He replied quickly, no emotion in his eyes. Like him, I ignored the shocked intake of breath from the women around me. "She's worse than all of us here. Except you, of course." He smiled.
"I thought Lily was the anti-saviour or whatever." Emma said finally, her hands shaking on the knife she held.
"Lily?" Gold laughed heartlessly. "She was just a warm up act. Nothing compared to the Evil Queen's daughter."
"I won't let her become this Darkest One or whatever you're calling her." Regina said softly.
"You don't have a choice. It's calling to her and she's getting closer and closer to it with each second she spends here." Gold smirked.
"You don't mean-" Emma began.
"I have to leave." I whispered. I turned to look at Regina, our eyes meeting. I had never noticed just how much we looked alike. From our identical chocolate eyes to our high cheekbones and long lashes, we were the perfect picture of mother and daughter.
"That's not going to happen." She said loudly, taking my hand in hers. "I will not let that happen."
"If you want to stop her becoming the Darkest One then yes you will." Gold responded just as loudly.
"Then what do you need her blood for?" Zelena asked. "If her leaving is the only way, why do you need her blood?"
"As a failsafe. Once she's her fully fledged dark self, I'm guessing she'll feel particularly insecure about me having her blood. I'm sure she will be willing to make a deal or two to get it back." Gold smiled coldly.
"You've been planning for this a long time." Zelena said slowly. "You knew this was going to happen!"
"Did I know Cora had cursed her granddaughter to reappear only once she was nine months and three days away from turning 17? Did I know I had to get ready for the day she embraced her destiny at the ripe young age of 17?" Gold asked, walking out from behind the counter. "Of course I did." He murmured. "I will not let her become more powerful than me."
"I don't want to become more powerful than you!" I shouted.
"You don't have a choice! It's been written. It will happen." Gold shouted back, his eyes flashing dangerously.
"There must be another way. You never foresaw that Regina and I would become best friends. Or that Regina would give up being evil. There must be another option for her daughter." Emma said quickly, finally releasing Zelena. Zelena, however, didn't seem to notice as she stood just as still, watching the future unfold before her very eyes.
"She could...fight it, I suppose." Gold agreed reluctantly.
"How?" Regina urged, her grip on my hand tightening.
"With immense difficulty. She would be fighting her very nature. Every choice she feels she needs to make she'd have to do the complete opposite. Any enemies, she'd have to love them. Any pain, she'd have to squash it. Any anger, she'd have to overcome it. All in all, she would have to avoid anything that could possibly trigger her inner darkness." Gold summarised, his cane vibrating the wooden floor beneath my feet with every step he took towards me.
"I'm pretty used to pretending pain doesn't exist." I said quietly.
"It's not just going to be pain you have to let go. Anything at all has to go. You have to stop yourself from loving." Gold said slowly and I could have sworn I saw a glimpse of sympathy in his empty eyes.
"Why would she need to stop herself from loving? Surely that's her tether to the light?" Regina frowned.
"Love is weakness, my dear Regina, surely you know that? Imagine she loves you more than anything else in the world. And then suddenly there's a new evil in town threatening you. You think she'll just take that lying down? No, she'll fight for you because she loves you. And it may not be that fight that triggers her descent into darkness but it could be the next. Or the next. She will be living in an endless cycle of fear and suppression. She will have to completely forget herself and her own beliefs in order to become an impossible girl. A girl who neither loves nor hates. A girl who fights every emotion. An empty shell of the girl you love." Gold finished, his eyes boring into Regina's watery ones. A single tear fell from her eye and slipped down her cheek. Almost involuntarily, I reached up to brush it away, forgetting my hand was still blood stained. My finger painted a streak of red against her pale cheek, a symbol perhaps of the pain the future held. The love I could never have.
"Selena..." Regina said softly, her voice wavering.
"Here." I said, holding out the vial of blood to Gold but not removing my eyes from Regina's. "I have all the information I need. Thank you."
"Try to enjoy these 9 months and three days you have left. On your 17th birthday is when you lose yourself." Gold said quietly, taking the vial from my bloodied hand.
I closed my eyes and nodded, my head pounding. I couldn't think, I couldn't feel. I was numb. Regina took my hand gently and led me to the door, her fingers shaking in mine.
"Selena." Gold called as I reached the door. I turned slowly, looking past Emma and Zelena who were following closely behind us.
"I truly am sorry." He said gently. I took in his cold stance and confident posture, and yet it was his eyes filled with pain that made me realise he was being genuine. He might be the Dark One but he could still love. He didn't have this curse hanging over him like a literal dark cloud. And in that moment, I envied him. I nodded, clenching my jaw to stop the tears. I turned back to the door and pulled it open, knowing I was opening the door to a future full of emptiness, pain and misery.