Chapter Text
CHAPTER ONE
Rumpelstiltskin and Regina were sitting on the beach waiting for Ariel, The Little Mermaid, to return from the mission they had set her off to in Storybrooke: Get the Pandora box from the Pawn Shop and smuggle it secretly back to Neverland without Pan's noticing. The rustling of the leaves was the only sound to fill the night; Caused by the wind's melodic soft humming, shifting between the tangled branches of the jungle as if checking for their welfare. Regina was seemed lost deep in her thoughts, and Rumple? He was replaying the conversation he and Cora had moments before her sudden death. He thought of how drastically Cora's words have changed his world; How her secret reshaped his past and curved a new way into the future.
A few weeks ago
Now it was just the two of them. For the first time in dozens of years, it was just the two of them. Each of them is a wildly different person from the one they had been when they first met. Cora stood in front of Rumple. He was lying on the only bed in the room. They were so close yet so far away from each other. Cora had never thought a day she would want to kill the man she loved will come. The man who saved her from her miserable life, the first man to want her for who she truly is. She loved him deeply, but she wanted power more than she wished for love. While love fades with time, the power lasts forever.
Even without her heart, Cora could feel the remains of her love for Rumpelstiltskin. The feeling resembled sparks of fire that each time it crackled, you saw more and more of your darkened surroundings. She was saddened at the thought of him not knowing Regina was biologically his daughter. She had lived all these years, knowing what they could have had, what she gave up solely for power. Her lack of heart helped her live through it all without a hitch, however for Rumpelstiltskin, had he known, they would have been somewhere else entirely right now.
There is no telling what he would have done had he known. Telling him would have been too cruel even for the heartless queen she was. Now here she is, holding his dagger tightly in the palm of her hand, never truly touching it, ever a glove to set it apart. There was no time to waste as Rumple was already on his deathbed. With nothing to gain from sugarcoating her secret, Cora skipped directly to the truth. Sugarcoating wasn't their style anyway. Before she could utter a single word, Rumple spoke.
"What is it?" The Dark One looked at his former lover and student. He watched at the motionless expression she wore on her face. He sighed heavily. Each passing moment the poison was making its way to his heart and bringing him closer to an unstoppable death.
"I am going to kill you. Yet, there is something I have to tell you first. A secret of mine I had kept from you for decades" Cora's voice turned quiet under the weight of her words. Anything she said was well thought out. She had no room for tiring misleads. Cora looked at the floor, unable to meet his confused, questioning gaze.
"You better tell me now, dearie. I am dying. You wait a little more and have only the wooden cabinet to play as your priest." Cora looked up at him, knowing that talking to him with direct eye contact was the only way to make him capture and take her words seriously.
"Regina is your daughter." Cora eventually announced.
She watched as her words seeped into him; Surprise and shock were written all over his face. He frowned as if not able to grasp the meaning of it.
"No. That is not possible " Rumple was speechless. Not once, the thought of Regina being his daughter has crossed his mind. He always believed Regina was born prematurely; She was smaller than a regular one-day-old baby. However, the look of pure honesty on his former lover's face was enough to let him know she was telling the truth. That was not something you get to see every day from the queen of hearts.
"But why?" Rumple's anger started to build up. "How could you hide such a secret from me?! How dare you to take her from me? Do you even have any idea what she had been through because of me?"
Cora knew all too well that just like she did, he had manipulated Regina into doing whatever he wanted.
"I have manipulated her into doing the thing she feared the most, darkened her heart! I had made her become The Evil Queen! I had her cast the curse to find my son while promising her false hope of a happy ending!" Rumple couldn't bear the thought of what he had done to his daughter.
"Had I known, I would have never-" He couldn't finish the sentence because Cora interrupted with a protesting scoff.
"You would have! Knowing Regina was your daughter or not wouldn't have mattered! You would have made her cast the curse. You were far too involved in getting to this land!" Cora stopped for a moment to take a deep breath. Even without Rumple to look at her, she knew he was listening.
"You were so desperate to find your son, no matter what the cost, you would have made her cast the curse. Had she known you are her father, she would have loved you!"
The realization of what Cora was trying to explain was getting to Rumple's mind. He finally understood Cora's point of view.
"Regina would have loved you. And we both know what the price to casting the Dark Curse is."
"The thing you love most," Rumple replied.
"The thing you love most." Cora nodded in confirmation. "You value your life more than anything. It would have never ended well." Silence filled the room as Cora paused.
"That is why I have never told you. The thought of the two of you destroying each other was unbearable for me. Yet, it is what eventually happened." Cora remembered Regina's story of the demon Rumple sent at her right after the curse's break.
"I would have found another way had I known." Rumple dangerously hissed without even looking at Cora. Images of times he had hurt his daughter directly or not flashing before his very eyes. He remembered all the little things he used to say, pushed her further into the darkness. All of it playing in his mind was pure torture.
One question and one question only came to his mind.
"why?" Rumple asked.
"why what?"
"Why are you telling me this now? You are about to kill me anyway. What was so important in telling me? Why bother?"
"Because I could not let you die without knowing the truth." Cora sighed. She kept her gaze at the wooden floor, still not able to acknowledge the hurt in his eyes.
"Who knew the queen of hearts has a conscience" Rumple laughed dryly.
Cora gasped suddenly, filling a strange sensation in her chest. She felt someone pushing her heart back into her chest.
"Mother!" she heard Regina's voice. She turned around and met her face. She felt pure joy as she looked at her beautiful daughter. Alas, with her happiness of seeing her daughter came the guilt of all her wrongdoings.
Having her heart back in its rightful place brought many overwhelming feelings and flashbacks from her past. It was all anew to her since it had been decades from its removal. Decades from the day she and Rumple ended things between them. Sharp pain washed over her left shoulder. Turning her head to see it, she spotted a wound was starting to form as silver-colored blood mixed with the blackened poison poured out of it.
Cora felt her daughter's hands grasping for her, trying to guide her carefully down to the floor. The very same spot she was staring at just a moment ago. The dagger in her hands was no longer but long forgotten, lying two feet away. Cora breathed heavily. She managed to catch Regina's eye contact.
"The silver-" She couldn't finish her sentence, the sharp pain preventing her from clearing her mind, but Regina understood right away.
When she was a little girl, Cora explained to her that they were different from other people. She always warned her from getting injured in public. To not let anyone know of their unique condition. In addition, her mother made sure to conceal their rare kind of blood with a monthly spell. Cora would cast it on them both, every full moon, and hide their blood color from everyone's eyes. Even from Cora's husband, Henry. They can cast the spell at any time with the right words. Performing it under the full moon only decreases the energy taken from the caster. After Regina banished her mother to wonderland, she asked Rumpelstiltskin for help. He taught her how to perform the spell on her own.
Ever since she landed in Wonderland, Cora had not felt the need to hide her blood color. Wonderland was a place where strangeness was the norm. Furthermore, no one dared to get close to the Queen of Hearts.
Regina quickly performed the spell. Both she and her mother didn't want anyone to suspect even now. Since she was familiar with casting the spell, Regina managed to perform it within seconds.
"What is going on?" Regina asked tearfully, yet no one replied. Fear crept into her mind at the same time as confusion washed all over her. Her mother was fine just moments ago. Rumple felt his wound closing and beginning to heal. It was the reason he had Snow manipulated into using the candle on Cora's heart. Rumple has discovered that the Silvers, those who had silver-colored blood, were never ill. He unraveled that if a Silver gets injured, their special blood magically heals them instantly. He never had the chance to test his theory. To the best of his knowledge, Cora and Regina were the only ones with silver blood. Out of the entire Enchanted Forest, at least. But now, he knows his suspicions were correct. Silvers' blood has healing abilities. In a way, it saddened him to get this knowledge by killing the mother of his daughter. However, desperate times call for desperate measures.
Present – Neverland
"Regina" Rumple was the one to break the silence.
"hum?" Regina was only half-listening, still lost in her thoughts.
"There is something I must tell you,"
"What is it?" she asked and averted her gaze to him. Curiosity shows all over her face, driving her immediate attention to him. Had the circumstances been different, he would have commented about their similarity in choice of words, but he needed to be serious now. He took a deep breath, looked at her in the eyes.
"You are my daughter."