OQ One Shots (#OQPromptParty)

Day 6 - Wildcard

The silence of the Mayor's office chilled Robin to the core as he approached the glass paneled door, the blood racing through his veins as he anticipated what was awaiting him on the other side.

Regina had been missing all day in an attempt to defeat her evil half despite his frantic arguments to prevent her from destroying herself.

There had been chatter throughout the town of the great battle between the mayor and the queen, but the thief knew better than to pick sides between his wife and the equally hot headed queen.

He exhaled and opened the door to find Regina pinning the thrashing queen against the edge of the desk, her hand clutching her jugular. Fear flushed through his system as he raced against the linoleum and pulled her off, both of them reaching across of his straining body to bat at each other, their magic throwing office supplies and furniture towards each other.

"Alright! Enough!" He shouted, rubber band boxes pelting his head and torso, making him knock the rest of the objects to the floor. His infuriated wife spun her head around and began to stalk towards him in an enraged state.

"How dare you take her side! You're my husband!" She screamed, shooting her magic at the equally enraged queen, tying her against the pillar, shattering the window to hold the shard against the Queen's pale skin.

Robin huffed in frustration and held her trembling arm back, the muscles in her biceps rippling from the pure magic rushing through them. She couldn't see straight, her own self hatred now blinding her from what she wanted most, and as of now she wanted only to destroy the shell of a woman that was on the other side of that shard.

"I hate you." The Queen snarled with all her might, the sight of Robin protecting her weaker half made her want to hurl the desk at them, to singe their skin clean off with one of her notorious fire balls. He loved her, and the feeling of desire and love that haunted it's way into her heart only infuriated her more.

"YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO LOVE ME! YOU HAVE TO HELP ME!" Regina screamed once more, pressing the cool glass against the Queen's jugular, both of them waiting for her to act and end her life for good.

"I LOVE YOU BOTH!" Robin screamed, making both women spin around and glare at him, waiting impatiently for an explanation.

"What are you talking about?! How could you possibly love her?! She has done horrible things- she is the worst part of me- she physically CANNOT be loved!" Regina screamed in frustration, self loathing filling every ounce of her voice as she recalled the horrible things she had done to her family- Snow and David's wedding, Emma's birth, nearly killing Henry with the apple turnover that she had carelessly let him around. Every time Roland was around she pictured Marian's twisted expression of agony as she crushed the maid's beating heart, leaving Roland motherless and Robin a widower.

"No!" Robin spat back, yanking the glass from Regina's hand to free the Queen who went to lunge towards her, but he still managed to subdue her and sit them both down with him between for safety.

"In a way you both are my wife. I cannot choose one over the other, because I fell in love with, and continue to love, the woman who was both dark and light. The Queen carries your sins, but we all carry our own, and by making her bear all of them, it makes you resent her and yourself for them." He reminded Regina, making the mayor exhale and glare in both of their directions, not ready to admit to the fact that he did have some truth in that statement.

"And you, you cannot resent Regina for her redemption because you think that it's not possible for you. Forgiveness and acceptance is not weakness, and if you keep seeing it that way, then you will never be happy." The Queen swallowed her tears and glared at Regina who was also shooting looks like daggers, confusion silencing the room as they stared at each other for a moment.

"You wanted to kill me, to discard me like the unwanted trash that you see me as. So when I came back, that's how I saw myself, and I knew I had to make you pay for hurting me like that." The Queen wept, her tears shocking tears room as she broke down into painful tears, the realization taking her by surprise.

"When I did it, it was because I blamed you for Robin's death." Regina admitted, both of them now tearing up at the painful moment in their lives, rendering Robin speechless.

"All of your- I mean our karma, I thought it had all come back to me, and that the only way for me to protect my family from my worst self was to get rid of you completely, because in some way that would get rid of all the ill will towards me." She admitted, the realization breaking her down completely, tears spilling down her cheeks as her heart throbbed at the thought of that terrible moment.

"I couldn't accept the fact that I was the one who caused his death!" Regina sobbed, her bottom lip quivering as she recalled the moment before Snow had entered the roof of the apartment, how she stared at the pavement and wondered if her family would have been better off with her body splattered below, those thoughts shaking her to her very core.

"And now I realize that that feeling- is how you feel every day." She whimpered quietly, making the Queen tear up even more and nod, grateful that someone was finally acknowledging the deep loneliness that was permanently dug deep into the caverns of her blackened heart.

"You need love." Robin diagnosed to the Queen, her gaudy eye makeup staring at him intently as she tried to remain composed in his presence. "I have none, Henry is the only one I care about and I ruined it just like the last time." Recalling how she had nearly drove him to this depth of darkness to try and draw him close, but it only pushed him further away.

"Well it's not fair for me to hog it all." Regina admitted, looking up at the Queen who looked defeated by her own being, agreeing quietly. "I wish Robin was here when we did this, he could have stopped us from splitting." The Queen cried, a sneer now forming on her lip as she glared at the other version of herself who got to sport the wedding band on her finger.

"It wouldn't have changed a thing, we didn't love each other then, and it wouldn't have made a difference." Regina revealed, everything now clicking inside her head as she shoved her hand into her chest, along with the Queen's, ripping out both sets of hearts.

"Separate we don't work, we can't work, because you shouldn't be forced to carry all of our sins without some of what I have. We are meant to be together, and since I can't mesh the good and the bad, I can fix what I did on that rooftop." Regina declared, using her free hand to take the Queen's and squeeze it.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I never gave you a fair chance at happiness, and I want you to know that I love you, every part of you, because without you I have felt lost. You are a part of me, and I you, and I think that is the only way it'll work."

Regina then stared at the beating organs in her hands and thought back to the sweet feeling of forgiveness, how it felt to reach that point all on her own with hard work, and splitting herself was just a painful shortcut that threatened everything she worked for. Her hands swiftly collided the two hearts together, causing a bright light to shoot out from them, enveloping both women into a golden beam.

Regina moaned as she felt herself healing the painful tears and rips that her body had endured when splitting, everything restoring back to whole as the magic washed over her.

Robin watched with his mouth hung open, light engulfing his wife until it began to falter, leaving her crumpled in a ball on the floor. He rushed over and gathered her into his arms, carefully rubbing her forehead until she came to.

"I'm back." She chuckled, a mischievous smirk in her eyes, telling the thief that the Queen was still there, but the hopelessness that was once in the Queen's eyes was replaced with the joy of her new life, and her acceptance of what made her whole. Regina Mills was back down to one person, but she never felt more alive, her body whole with contentment as she gazed into the thief's blue eyes, reaching up to kiss his parted lips.

"I love you." She whispered, love and admiration seeping from her pores as she stared at the handsome thief holding her. A smirk spread across his lips as he pulled her closer.

"I love you too, all of you, every part of you that makes you Regina Mills."