After Henry (Once Upon a Time)

Chapter Thirty-Six: Unlikely Sacrifice

Hyperion Heights, Seattle...

Ivy: My cellphone didn't stop screaming at me while all I tried to do was concentrate on my latest plan to best Victoria and her beloved Anastasia.

I had the gun in my hand, shivers running all over my body and mind screaming at me for being so stupid and out of control. My dark impulses were taking the whole of me, after so long being quelled by the curse's magic and fake memories of a life as Ivy Belfrey.

No more waiting for Fate to give me a happy ending, I knew that the only way to fight darkness was with darkness! It was a foolish thing to do, I was lost, caught up in a storm of demons that were way bigger than my bones, colder than the messy frozen hell I was trapped inside. 

Henry and I spent six months in this new land, and although that life brought light to my spirit and the belief I could be a better person, leaving behind my villainous past as Drizella, in the face of my niece's peril and knowing Anastasia's magic was the only thing that could not only save Lucy but break the dark curse, I had no other choice but to take it from the Red Queen, even if it meant bringing her and Victoria down. That woman would never love me as her own child, it was time to make it official that I didn't love her as a mother, though I knew I spent too long trying for her to do so. 

Holding that silver gun in my hand and feeling my baby's feet kicking me, screaming at my insides not to be led by darkness, it felt terribly bad to do so. My hands fell over my belly, trying to suit little Clara down, heavy tears fell all over and my lips shook as I whispered some fainted words.

"I know you're pure like daddy, but it's time mommy faces her demons and makes some use of her past dark ghosts. You don't know this, baby, but ever since mommy came to Hyperion Heights she's been trying to run away from the dark shallow witch she was back in a faraway fairytale. Now, I see...that this is the only way, I hope you forgive me, but Henry is wrong...Light can't always snuff out the darkness, sometimes, only dark can snuff out dark." I judged myself so much for doing that, choosing the easy path when I knew all too well it wasn't the hero's move, what the heroes in Henry's books would do to save the day, time and time again, going from the savior to a redeemed Evil Queen. 

Maybe I was weak to fall so short, but of one thing I was sure. This wasn't Once Upon a Time I, the story of Henry as a kid, of him finding his mother, the savior and bringing light to Storybrooke's residents, as they fought all sorts of villains and dangers. This wasn't a tale of heroes and villains who found redemption. This was a new fairytale, written in shades of grey with different rules. In it, the heroes didn't have their happy endings written right away, they had to fight for them, and get them, even if it meant fighting poison with poison, so to speak.

As my amber eyes stared at Victoria's gigantic mansion, I went through my plan once more. Enter, find them and threaten to shoot them, unless Ana gives up her magic willingly, only if she did that could Lucy be saved and maybe that magic could be strong enough to break the dark curse, it was pretty simple, minus the strength to do that. 

At the edge of Hyperion Heights, Amy Jones searched for the shady dark one's warehouse, hoping she'd find magic strong enough to wake up Lucy and with any luck break the dark curse.

The outside of the building was dark, the lack of lightning screamed night's terror as stars bled out and the tense atmosphere took a whole of the savior's "old" bones.

"I'm getting old for this..." The blonde whispered, parking her yellow bug and feeling the weight of her half century life. 

After she parked the yellow shining beacon of hope that whisked away the darkness when first arriving in Storybrooke all those years ago, Amy silently entered the building and was let down by the fact she needed to enter a four digit code to enter said place.