necessary evil {closed..ish}

[Regina Mills]

Regina could remember, in very vivid detail, the first time she'd ever taken another person's life. It had been after everything good - love, compassion, hope - all of it had been taken form her, until all she had left to cling to was anger and hatred and despair. It had seemed so plain then, that the only thing she had left was power. When she'd ripped out that girl's heart and crushed it in hands, the addictive sort of thrill that had coursed through her had been something she'd been unable to let go of since. She hadn't looked the girl in the eyes, not even once. Hadn't stopped to see her confusion or terror. All she had focused on was that heart, enchanted by magic but still so weak and useless - still so easily crushed to dust. Her anger had spiked in that moment. Where the murders her mother had committed had been done for power and intimidation and even pleasure, Regina's first kill - and many after that - had been fueled by sheer rage and hatred. Hatred towards that damn heart for not being strong enough, towards Frankenstein for not being strong enough, towards herself for not being strong enough. But she would be, one day - that much she'd promised herself. One day, she'd be powerful enough to bring Daniel back, and she would do whatever it took to get to that point.

So she'd learned all that Rumpelstiltskin had to teach her, and allowed the dark magic to seep into her very soul and corrupt her.

Many, many hearts had been ripped out since that day, and now here Regina was, so close and yet still so far away from the goal she'd been desperately struggling towards for all these years. Dr. Whale had agreed to help her. And this time, he'd assured her, nothing would go wrong - and as much as she doubted that, she couldn't see how it would benefit him to lie to her when he needed her help to get back to his own world. And hope, more than anything, was blinding. The only problem was, though Daniel still had not changed a bit since the day her preservation spell had been cast, they still needed a heart. A strong, reliable heart, a heart that had to be perfectly compatible. Regina had spent hours searching through the hearts in her vault, but it hadn't taken her long to realize that she really...had no idea who most of these belonged to anymore. There were so many of them. When had she hurt so many people? It all seemed like a blur, now, and yet the evidence was right in front of her.

What she did know was that most of these had been taken from people who were weak - people who she'd felt deserved this punishment, cowards or traitors or people far worse than that. None of them were worthy enough to be given to Daniel - even if there were a couple that were, she would not have taken the risk of randomly selecting one from the vault. She would not risk having Daniel come back wrong. There was only one way, in her mind, to assure that he wouldn't, to assure that she'd know exactly whose heart she was using and exactly what the risks of the surgery would be. ...The last person Regina had killed had been Graham. And the time she'd actually ripped a heart out had been long before that. She was no longer the vicious, cruel woman who could do this without so much as batting an eye, and her hands trembled a little at her sides as she walked along the dimly lit streets of Storybrooke that evening, weighed down with the realization of what she was going to have to do.

But if it came down to a choice between Daniel's life, and the life of some civilian of Storybrooke that Regina could have cared less about, then it wasn't much of a choice at all. Daniel was her true love. That, according to the old rules of the Enchanted Forest, only ever happened once in a lifetime. So without him, it was as if a part of her was missing - without him, she was truly lost. With him, however, she'd have the strength to be good again. To be the mother that Henry needed and deserved, to let go of her hatred towards Snow, to put everything that Cora had done to her behind her. With Daniel, she could do anything. He was her happy ending.

She'd already selected her victim. She'd been careful to choose someone who'd never even interacted with Henry, so that her son would never be affected by this loss - a man who, in the Enchanted Forest, had been a well-respected prince from a far away land, one well-known for his bravery and determination. Apparently, he'd once climbed a tower and faced a witch at the top to free his true love from the witch's clutches. Regina didn't know the details on that one, nor did she care to. He'd work just fine. Like many of the self-proclaimed 'noble heroes' of their own land, upon regaining his memories he'd volunteered for the sort of semi-established 'police force' that had been organized under Charming and Emma. This, meaning that he would be among those foolish enough to go out patrolling Storybrooke after nightfall, made him even more ideal. She'd been following him for some time now, fooling most onlookers by transforming her appearance into that of a harmless elderly woman who was just trying to make her way home. And now, with no one else currently present, was the opportune moment to carry out her plan.

She rematerialized in an alleyway just a half a block or so in front of the prince's current location, before stepping out and immediately proceeding to...'spill' the contents of her grocery bag all over the sidewalk. Taking care to look especially distraught, she made a show of acting as if kneeling to retrieve everything was especially tiresome. Painfully predictable, the prince hurried forward to help her. She heard his footsteps before she looked up to see him with a hand extended to her, offering a bright red apple that had apparently rolled a little too far down the sidewalk. "Oh," Regina cooed in her disguised voice. "How sweet of you to help me." And with a wave of her hand, she'd used magic to throw him back into the alleyway before getting up with ease and stalking towards him, all pretenses of helplessness abandoned. ..All pretenses of everything abandoned, actually, the illusion of the old woman shimmering away and leaving Regina in her place, gaze fixed coldly on the man who was struggling to his own feet now.

He recognized her immediately, as most people in Storybrooke did, the shocked look on his features contorting to one of hatred. "You." He drew his sword, but with an easy flick of her wrist Regina sent it flying out of his grip. She stopped before him, hesitating only a moment, and...just as she had with that first girl so long ago...refusing to look into his eyes in a moment of confliction. But then her gaze suddenly shot up, meeting his with nothing but coldness - and in one lightning-fast movement, she'd plunged her hand into his chest, wrapped her fingers around his still-pounding heart, and tore it out of his chest.

There was no blood. There never was, with this spell - not even a wound remained behind, and the heart immediately began to glow with the magic it'd been enchanted by. The prince merely stared at her in shock, unable to move or speak or cry out because she did not will it - she had control of him now. But she could not let him run off now - nor could she risk anyone finding him. With a slight clutching motion, she allowed her magic to choke him, unable to tear her gaze away as for a few painful moments he scrambled for breath before the last spark of life left him. Regina's expression did not change, as if she'd numbed herself to any emotion. With another wave of her hand, the body shimmered and disintegrated into something that almost resembled fairy dust.

The glow of the heart did not fade.

She summoned the box she had prepared for it, lifting its lid and delicately placing the heart inside, before snapping it closed again and hurrying away from the alley - putting as much distance between it and herself as possible.



OOC:// SO this is pretty important and I just didn't want to say 'oh it happened off-thread', so here it is. Kind of a oneshot - no need for anyone to reply, unless someone has some idea they'd like to toss at me.