Work Text:
And then fire shot down from the sky in bolts
Like shining blades of a knife
And it ripped right through the flesh
Of the children of the sun and the moon and the earth-
From The Origin of Love by Stephen Trask
I.
Sometime after the beginning. When the universe was no longer shrouded in darkness and the gods feasted in the caves and heavens they looked upon the children of the earth. The ones their fingers had molded from clay and salt water. It was beauty the gods saw in their creation. Dark eyes that reflected the skies and a laugh that echoed through the valleys. The children of the earth needed and wanted for nothing other than each other. A pair, sculpted together. One blessed to be whole, to contain Infinity within herself. The other to be Queen of the constellations and the immensity within her beloved. They named one another and every living thing on the Earth. The great and the small. All who bowed to them and heeded their call.
But the gods grew to fear them. For the children of the earth did not cower from their thunder. For they swam in the great depths and learned how to spark a fire that would bleed into the night. And they forgot the names of their creators, only knowing their own. Singing them, breathing them out at night. Soon, said the gods among themselves, soon they will turn their sight on us. Soon, they said, they will seek to destroy us. Set the heavens and caves alight with their flames. The fate of the children of the earth was decided with swift agreement. The ground was to split under their feet. Lighting to strike if they dared to reach for each other. The world was to flood and the water to carry them to opposite ends of the earth.
And so it was. The earth quaked until the sea poured into the valleys. The sky split in the middle, violet with the rage of its heart and the power of thunder. The children of the earth screamed and wailed as they were torn from each other. As the waves swallowed them and the currents dragged them to the ends of the world. The Queen promised to spit fire in the face of the gods. Burn them to ash and scatter them in the night sky. Her beloved cursed their names, swore she would break into their caves and heavens to be reunited with her Queen. She sank her feet into the sea and fought against the tide. The storm and currents. The Queen walked through deserts and barren land on the rawness of her feet. Tainting the sand red with her pain and desperation. They would not be kept from each other.
A goddess of song and beauty saw the mistake in their godly design. The strength of their bond could not be undone. Not even by their divinity. She weaved a song into the wind, to reach the ears of the children of the earth. Nothing would hold them in place. They would always come together like the rivers and the seas. In this life, in the next and the next. But their love would be twisted like a knife. Sharp and unrecognizable. Hatred would bleed out of them until they emptied. Ripped to shreds by the will of the gods again and again.
That was the first time the gods stole Emma and Regina away from each other.
II.
The second time they were torn away it was done by the hands of the Nile, of empire, and tribes. They bathed Regina in milk. Dried her with cotton and lined her eyes with kohl. Dressed her in royal garments. Her crown was made of gold and whispered the name of a goddess in her ears. Daughter of the moon. Giver of life and magic. Queen, Queen again. Of dying splendor and flowing water. The gods, they gave her a skilled mind and an iron will. One that would never bend or submit to the empire of the eagle. It was amusement and cleverness that moved them to emblazon golden outstretched wings on Emma’s armor. To have her leave her people and exchange the gods of the tribes for those of empire. Swear fealty to a man who wore a wreath for a crown. A general they made of her. With a gift for the sword, one that threatened the crown on Regina’s head.
The first time they laid eyes on each other it was late in the morning. Regina narrowed her onyx eyes as she watched the enemy from her chariot. The Sun hit the golden of Emma’s hair as she stood in front of legionnaires with her unsheathed sword. Bold and unafraid, choosing to forego the bronze of her galea. Nothing about her was as it was in the beginning. Yet Regina’s love twisted like a knife. Stuck between her ribs and the Queen felt nothing but hatred. Disgust at the barbarian that would dare step foot across the Nile. The brute who would bring death and destruction to her door.
“That one,” Regina told her commander, nodding towards her lover. “Bring me her head.”
Emma felt the cut of that sharpness too. Despised the crown on Regina’s head. The serpent adorning her forehead. The wings of her gods and the monuments to her greatness. The empire wanted the Queen to bleed. To be the last of her kind and be dragged back to the streets of their capital. The crown jewel of the spoils of Egypt.
“Do not touch the Queen,” Emma said to her soldiers. “She is mine.”
The Sun stood in the middle of the sky. Watching the children of the earth move their soldiers across a field that became crowded with the dead. The gods delighted in the clash of swords and spears. In the fire that lit the tips of their arrows. Glorious, they called it. The iron that Regina tasted on her lips. The fury that pulsated through her. Glorious that Emma’s sword would cut through the bone as she made her way through the battle. The spectacle of dying men. A kingdom about to fall, losing its splendor with every tortured bray of a horse. What a thing to witness. Legionnaires making music with their shields, imitating animals with their formations. What beauty there was in seeing their schemes coming to fruition. To see the children of the earth reaching for the other with nothing but death on their mind. Beauty in the flames that soon began to consume the Queen’s monuments.
Seeing her city lost to the fire Regina fled on the back of a horse. Rode until she found the great tomb she had built for herself. With color lining the inscriptions of the walls and her sarcophagus empty and waiting. Chambers and chambers filled with the Queen’s treasures. To protect them from the invaders, preserve some of the honor of Egypt. Her servants bathed her, perfumed her body. Combed and braided her hair. Painted her eyes and reset the crown upon her head. Unaware that Emma had left the massacre. To chase after their Queen, capture her and chain her for the Emperor. She raced through the field. Through the burning streets and screams of the people. Until she laid eyes upon the temple she recognized as the Queen’s tomb. With its towering white pillars and reflecting pools.
There she found Regina. Sitting on a throne, plucking a serpent from a basket. An asp, the queen of them. Terrible and beautiful. One that matched the Queen.. The knife twisted deeper and deeper with the love that had turned into cruelty.
“Careful there, Your Majesty.” Emma told her. “Do not do anything hasty.”
“Like what, General?” The Queen hissed as the viper coiled its tail around her arm. “Taint your ill gained conquest?”
“The Emperor wants you to live. Do not be so proud as to toss your--”
“So proud? You ask that of the Mistress of Two Lands, of the Life Everlasting?! You should be on your knees if you are to ask me anything!” Regina stood with her eyes shining dark and her voice ringing through the stone.
“I am not asking, Majesty.” She took a step closer, her heart beating with something unknown. “I am ordering you to surrender and come with me.”
“Filthy barbarian, you could not even keep true to your people. Who are you to order the Nile to change its course?” The heart of the Queen beat with that same unknown, looking at the straw colored hair of the general. “I will not become a spoil of invaders. I will not be paraded through the depravity of your streets!”
Regina’s fingers pressed the asp’s neck until it sank its fangs into the skin of her wrist. She laughed, laughed in victory. It was in that moment of triumphant laughter that Emma recognized her love. The pain split her in half. Burned her with the memories of those days battling the sea, of her tongue turning to salt with grief of having lost her. The pain of having found her here, at this second. When venom flowed into her blood and Regina fell against the foot of her throne. The General rushed to the Queen’s side and took her in her arms. Even then she protested and fought who she believed to be her enemy.
“Regina, Regina. Why would you do a thing like that?” Emma said as she ran her thumb over her lips. “Tear yourself away from me?”
Her gaze was so dark and deep when the Queen found it that she saw the constellations contained in her. The magnificent Infinity that had belonged to her. She remembered the days when they named the creatures of the Earth. The names they gave each other as their hands roamed down their bodies. The music of their palms and the raindrops of the nakedness of their skin. It was as if a burning sword cut through her.
“Emma, my Emma,” Regina cried out, choking on her pain. One the gods themselves had inflicted on her and no doubt relished from their caves and heavens. “Darling, forgive me. I did not see you.”
“There is nothing to forgive.” She replied and took her wrist in her mouth and sucked on the darkening punctures. Her lips burned and she closed her eyes to endure the numbness spreading inside her mouth. But it was of no use. The asp was always going to bring down the Queen and her crown. Emma’s tears were bitter when she pressed her lips to the Queen’s. One first time. One last time.
“Come for me again.” Regina’s chest was tight with the venom and a vow. “I will know you.”
III.
The third time they were stolen away it was the Saints, the Virgin and the Son who drew the plans. They turned the blood in Emma’s veins from red to blue. Filled her pillows with goose feathers and her stomach with ham and wine. They taught her to speak the languages of empires. To long for the approval of her Lady mother and Lord father. To cross the Sea and do as they asked. Across that water the Endlessness had made Regina ruler of a different throne. They matched the black of her dress to the colors of Aras. Made her a keeper of divine secrets. Her court was filled with incense, drums, and strings. A silver headdress that imitated feathers held orchids and narcissus in place. She was made the perfect enemy to His Holiness and the kingdom across the Sea. One Emma was meant to dethrone once again in the quiet of night. After having been welcomed as a willing guest in her palace.
When Emma met the Queen she felt her pulse quicken. She averted her eyes from her, as the Sun burned behind her throne. Regina was impossible to gaze upon in all her majesty. The sharpness of that corrupted love cut down her middle and made her certain of her hatred of her. A usurper, is what they called her. Who made nobility from travelers across the oceans. From those who fled the rule of his Holiness.
“Your Majesty, it is--” Emma said, through her loathing.
“My title is Sovereign Ruler, Your Ladyship.” Regina interrupted with a cool voice that echoed throughout the hall. “You mistake me for a subject of tyranny. Though I suppose one could hardly expect different.”
Regina saw the green of Emma’s eyes and the threat reflected in them. The symbol of the Son hanging from her neck like an unsheathed sword. Hatred made her tongue bitter and she did not know her beloved. Blind she was to the curve of her smile. Deaf to the familiar ring of her voice. It was the unknowing breaking of a vow.
“Forgive my ignorance, Sovereign Ruler.” The words injured her tongue as she said them. “You are too gracious to allow me into your court.”
“For three nights only, your Ladyship.” The Sovereign Ruler said cuttingly. “I hope crossing the channel would have been worth it in the end.”
Emma bowed her head further to hide her disdain and allowed herself to be dismissed. Quietly and in a way that would never arise suspicion. She was meant to be the petals of a rose, not its thorns.
Two nights Emma spent in Regina’s court overwhelmed by the colors of it. The Saints made certain of it. Ensured that the blue skirts of men felt like a pebble in her teeth. That the gold and black that clothed the women awakened a strange sort of rage. One that boiled whenever Emma stole glances at Regina. The deep darkness she saw in her eyes was not known to her. Even if her beloved was the image of the Queen who had died in her arms in that city by the Nile.
On the third night was a time for the court’s dance of swords. This, Regina thought, would make the Kings and Holy Emperor across the water think twice before invading. Their envoy would carry word of a nobility and sovereign who clashed metal with metal to the beat of drums. Regina accepted her sword from a servant and felt her blood grow hot as she watched Emma draw a sword to join the dance. The Endlessness moved her to a fury that knew no reason, for what right would the daughter of tyranny have to move her feet to the music of her court. The Sovereign Ruler’s finest sword sparked blue as it hit metal and stone. Its step burned as she reached her beloved. She meant to disarm her, ridicule her for daring to set across the sea. But there was a strong grip awaiting Regina there.
“Your Ladyship, you impress me.” She told her, as she felt her hair coming undone. “One could be fooled into believing you are experienced.”
“I have always been a fast learner, Sovereign Ruler.” Her lips curled into a smile she had not known until tonight.
“You are not what you seem.”
“No, I am not.”
“What are you, then?”
Emma only hit back in such a way that revealed her to be the thorn. Too determined, too skilled to be a petal. It made the strings and fibers in Regina’s muscles hurt for more.
They danced with such rage for each other that the floor was cleared. The gods watched from their caves and heavens as the children of the earth dueled. The black skirts of the Sovereign Ruler catching the night air and the silk of a lady being grasped by a fist. Soon, they said. Soon the end would come. A whisper of holiness in Emma’s ear, one of justice in Regina’s and their swords would pierce the other one’s heart.
It was the Sovereign Ruler whose cheek was cut first and silence fell on the room. Then she laughed, laughed as if she had lost her mind. Regina thought of death, her body by the foot of her throne. The memory flooded her mind like a wild river. The venom that overtook her as she was held in strong arms. The bitterness of the lips kissing her farewell, the darkness contained in her eyes. It was then that her beloved’s sword pierced Regina’s shoulder with a ferocity she should have recognized sooner. Guards were called to the aid of the Sovereign Ruler as her blood dripped onto the black of the stone.
“Emma.” Regina sobbed out her name. “My Emma.”
The stars inside Emma’s Infinity knew the voice of their Queen and burned away at the words of the Saints. At the prayers to the Virgin. Her eyes brimmed with tears as she realized it was her love she had wounded with her sword.
“Regina,” she cried out through the sound of armor and marching boots. “I came for you. Just like you asked.”
The weapon was still in her grasp when she moved towards Regina, aching for her touch. Emma took her face in her hand and kissed her lips. So desperately. This kiss the guards understood to be another attack on the Sovereign Ruler, one that was meant to destroy her honor. One over-eager guard charged to protect his sovereign from the invader and ran the cold metal of his sword through Emma’s ribs.
“ No!” Regina’s scream shattered every glass in the hall that night. “No, stay with me. Darling, do not let me live without you.”
“You will know me again.” Emma told her as Regina cradled her against her chest. Her blood painted Regina’s skin red. A red that looked so deep as the Sovereign Ruler wailed in agony and tore her clothes. The red Regina did not wash off as she set the guard’s head on a pike. It colored her fearsome and terrible until the end of her days.
In all the corners of their heavens and caves, the gods rejoiced.
IV.
The fourth time they were stolen away it was the age of steel and nuclear fire. It was the craft and skill of the gods of war that hammered away the bits of their souls. Chewed them and spat them out like seeds of lead. Regina, they made an heir to a dying revolution in a small isthmus that had known caudillos and doomed feathered kings. They made her a dancer, a refugee of the cold of a union an ocean and continent away. Emma, they fashioned from steel. Had her born an orphan in an empire, one that she swore to live for. Kill for. Dance for. Let us watch, the gods of war said up to each other. They rejoiced in the cleverness of their design. At the pointed shoes on the feet of the children of the earth, at the tautness of their muscles. Soon there would be another deadly dance. If it brought clouds of fire, ashes to the world of men then they could stand in pride above all others in their caves and heavens.
They would meet in a foreign capital where it always rained. The Infinity and her Queen pretended to be free of ideology and conspiracies. But the gods of war clapped the beat to which their feet moved. Chanted arabesque, bourre, echappe. Again, again. Turn, turn until they found each other across a stage. And their love turned and twisted sharp again. They had not said a word yet they danced so furiously around each other. A queen and the knight who would kill her they were. Dancing the tale of a past life to the delicate notes of a piano. They were never away from one another’s gaze, already lost to their blind hatred. All to the rhythm of the palms of war.
Regina heard the whispers of the gods in one, two, three languages. It was these whispers that caused a singular misstep. The director clapped and called for a whip from the Queen and Regina confused one language for the other. Her leg returned to a position that it should not have, a position only taught behind an iron curtain. It was but a second, enough for Emma’s eyes to catch. So that night she stayed behind for the Queen. Watched as she danced in the dark of an empty studio, watched as she seemed to surrender into the music as if it were the first time. The electric strings of a guitar and the violent beating of a drum. Beauty is what she saw, loathing was what she felt. For her enemy forgot herself once more and gave into a red dance.
“Do you make dancing this late a habit?” Emma spoke at last as she emerged from her hiding place.
Regina contained her surprise, tempered her tongue into something quick. For she hated the love she did not know. The love she refused to see.
“Do you make spying on your fellow dancers a habit?”
“I think you mean comrades.” She stepped closer, her pulse dictating her moves. Soon, the gods whispered. Soon, you will destroy this evil. “I liked that fouettee you were doing just now. Is that how they teach it at the Bolshoi?”
“You are trying to be funny, I think.” Regina said as the gods angered her. Readied her for battle. “I’m afraid it does not suit your kind.”
“My kind? And what would that be?”
“American.” Regina savoured the venom, unable to help itself. “Your accent work is atrocious, for covert intelligence.”
“Hey, I thought I was pretty good.” She said with an exaggerated drawl. And. With that dangerous smile Emma last wore when a sword had been in her hand.
“You would.” Regina sneered as she tied a scarf around her knuckles. “Tell me, are you imperialist pigs after the ballet’s chief patron?”
“Only because you are. Fund a ballet today, a puppet guerrilla tomorrow.” It was audacious and too close. Emma knew that and did not care. “Lucky that you landed the starring role to catch her attention, huh?”
“Believe me, there was nothing lucky about it.”
Regina tightened the scarf between her hands only to be bested by Emma. Who launched forward and took her love’s wrist. With the intent of subduing, wanting only to hurt. But her Queen only laughed and punched back. Split Emma’s lip, the injury filling with a satisfaction she had never felt. They danced like this, to the rhythm of war. A kick, a knee to the gut. Hardened knuckles connecting with chins and cheeks. Again. Again. Turn, turn, the gods of wars clapped. Bruise, bruise blue for empires and unions. One, two, one, one two. Through it all the children of the earth did not see one another, not the Infinity nor its Queen. Not through broken skin and glass. Not when they gasped for air and felt fire ripping them in half. Not until Regina was flat against a wall, with a cut on her cheek. Until she was under her beloved’s grasp and something overcame them. The darkness in their eyes was recognizable. Pain, pain that was just the same.
They knew of nothing else to do but take each other’s lips. Not understanding why or the wetness of their eyes. The raw violence that had suddenly turned into a need. A newly discovered agony that only the other could cure. They were naked, as they were in the beginning. And the gods shook their heavens and caverns in their fury. Because the children of the earth would not be kept apart from each other. Not the universe’s lips from her Queen’s skin. Not the constellations and Infinity from their true ruler. The two women wept against each other. Because of the pain that follows joy. The one they tore away from the iron grip of the gods.
“Regina.” Emma cried out as she trembled beneath her. “I came for you.”
“My Emma.” The name cut through her throat. “It’s you again.”
They fell into each other and it was like it was at the beginning. A night where they only breathed out their names and the heavens and caves grew frightened of their power.
Weeks passed and the gods tinkered with their schemes, every day with growing fear and rage. The nights of the children of the earth were filled with nakedness and promises. To run across the world and become what they once were. A complete Infinity and its mistress. Soon, the gods said. Soon they will set their sights upon us. It was that the wisest of them who worked to find a weakness. At last she found it. Their love, a misstep in a war of mutually assured destruction. The goddess moved Emma’s fingers to type the wrong code into a machine. Report a lie to the empire, to keep her beloved by her side. The goddess had Regina utter falsehoods through secret wires and channels. All to keep her Emma. Watch, the goddess said. Soon, their betrayal will be discovered. Soon the children of the earth will become undone by the love they so guarded.
The time arrived, the very minute the goddess so anxiously awaited. The instant when the children of the earth stepped onto the darkness outside. When the Queen kissed the fingers of her Infinity and promised to love her for eternity. So unaware that the end was near. It was Emma who saw them first. The men who had come for them, united solely in their purpose. Holding weapons of lead in between their fingers. Regina saw it spelled out in Emma’s eyes and she refused to accept it.
“They will not take you away from me. Never again.” She said, rage overflowing in her eyes. “I’ll burn this world and the next.”
“Regina, listen to me.” Emma kissed her lips. Her cheeks, already feeling the brittleness of the words she would say. “In the next life… there’ll be a piece of me with you. I’ll make sure of it.”
“What are you saying? You can’t give up, we--”
Emma shook her head and willed the universe contained within her to split. Split and make it way back to its Queen. Before the men closing in on them pulled the trigger. Planted seeds of death in them.
“You’ll know it when you see it.”
“How? Emma --”
“It’ll love you at first sight.”
Regina looked into the darkness of Emma’s eyes and took her lips one last time.
The guns went off, an empty sound heard in the heavens and caves. An empty sound that sent the gods into a drunken stupor.
V.
The fifth time it was a myriad of gods who came together to draw out a design. Watch, they told one another, watch as we chip away at the clay of the children of the earth. Scatter them through time and space, trap them between words. And so it was that Greed molded Regina into another queen, one destined for misery and suffering. A girl sold to a king. Who would not once get the reprieve of her beloved. A queen turned cruel and despotic.
It was the strokes of the brush of the god of Words that ensured Emma would be born to the Queen’s mortal enemy. Poetry, they called it. That the unborn infant would be destined to slay her like a beast. The Savior. Time and Space conspired to push Regina to cast a curse. One that would undo the very foundations of her world. All to cure the misery and rage she felt in her heart. They danced in their caves and heavens as they pulled at the strings of their plan. As Regina was swallowed by the green of Greed’s magic and as the Savior, who was just minutes old, was sent to that other world. How they howled in a perverse glee to see that Emma’s toils would be tied to the Queen.
For years the gods revelled, lay back and watched with malicious interest. As the Queen’s curse failed to cure her misery, seeing how it only festered in a frozen town she ruled over. They had their finest wine as they watched the Savior never know love and had the emptiness inside grow and grow. That emptiness that ached for what she could not have. It latched itself onto the shadow of love, onto a man of no significance. The gods toasted and clapped to the girl’s misery. Blind that it was a promise being kept. The one Emma had made, to split her Infinity and have it find Regina. The constellations within her were passed onto the child she carried in her womb.
How the Savior heaved and wept as he left her insides. As she turned her eyes away from her son and signed him away. Unaware that Regina ached for him, for that promised piece of Emma’s Infinity. Regina searched high and low for the child. Only certain that in knowing him the fog of her misery would lift. And so it was that the Queen found him and named him Henry, her Little Prince. It was as Emma promised, love at first sight. His little hand wrapped around her finger. The Queen thought she knew happiness, the gods only saw the devastation they would cause when the time came. The Savior who would come for the Queen’s happiness and then her life. Time, just a blink of an eye for the gods.
Eleven years passed until one day the Little Prince stumbled upon a book. One that was part of the divine design. The book twisted the love he had for his mother. Angered him, confused him. Henry took it upon himself to search for the Infinity who birthed him. And the night he found Emma he begged she be the Savior the book demanded. One who would defeat the Queen, the mother he believed could not love him. The Savior knew of nothing else but to concede to this part of her Infinity and let herself be taken back to the Queen. To the town that had sat unchanged for twenty eight years. Watch, watch, said the gods to one another. Watch how the Little Prince sets their demise in motion.
“I found my real mother!” He shouted at Regina. There were tears in his eyes because he did not understand the pain inside his chest.
“You’re Henry’s birth mother?” Regina asked when she first laid eyes on her love. Already blind to her, only seeing the danger in her eyes.
“Hi.” Emma replied, feeling an old ache. She smiled and hoped. Wished.
It gave the gods pause in their caves and heavens, that the Infinity should not hate her Queen instantly. They hardened Regina’s heart, clouded her dreams with terror. Whispered in the Little Prince’s ear, shrouded his eyes so he would not see his mother’s love. Twisted Regina’s love like a knife. Made it dangerous, furious. Unrepentant of evil. Watch, watch as the children of the earth seek only to destroy one another. How they fight over the boy. Make the other bleed. Wish for nothing but pain. Oh, how they celebrated when Regina set out to poison the Savior who would destroy her happiness. Take her son. Finally, they will die by the other’s hand. As they had always been meant to.
But the gods were not stronger than the will of a young boy. Who chose the poison for himself. The Little Prince whose life made the Queen and Savior mothers to the same child. They were not stronger than the love they held for him. It was with horror that they watched the Savior work to protect the life of the Queen. So Greed worked harder, spoke with the voice of Regina’s mother. To whisper in her ear. Plant the seed of doubt in the Queen’s mind. No, the Savior only works to take your son. Your happiness. Love. Love is weakness. The gods hardened the Savior’s hands into fists. She was furious at an imagined betrayal of Regina’s, at the idea that her faith had been broken. Emma became convinced it was hatred she felt for her Queen. Red, white and righteous.
“He’s not your son, he’s mine!” Emma shouted, ready to hurt. And be hurt.
And Regina obliged. For there was nothing more powerful, more vengeful than her broken heart. The gods stomped on the shards of it. Made a mockery of her grief until she wanted nothing but destruction. Of everything and everyone in that forsaken town time had left behind. Watch, the gods said. Watch as it all ends in catastrophe. But the Queen’s broken heart ached in one crucial moment, as she looked at the Savior as she held death between her hands. And thought of that piece of Infinity she had yet to recognize. Her Little Prince. Thought of the love that still lingered among the ruins of her. It was enough for Emma to ignore the gods in her ear. To save the life of her Queen again.
Oh, how the gods sought to destroy them then. If it was the boy that brought them together, if it was the boy who kept them from cutting into each other then let the boy be taken away. They sent the fates for him, to ensnare his ankles and take him to an island hidden from time and space. Soon, the gods said, soon they will blame each other. Cut a red line on each other’s throat. The entirety of the heavens quaked with their rage as the Queen and Savior boarded a ship that would take them to their son. They blew at the winds, sent lightning and all the creatures of the Sea to stop them. Still, they would not be shaken in their resolve.
The gods grew desperate. They wove love songs and new destinies for them on that island. But the children of the earth would not be swayed, would not forget their Little Prince. Would not stop aching for that piece of Emma’s Infinity that lied inside his chest. If not the promise of new love, the gods said, let it be regret. Let it be guilt, that tears them apart. Let the ugliness of their souls, every ounce of it be exposed. Let them see one another for who they truly are, let the children of the earth be broken by the weight of their lives.
One of the gods went down to that island. With his magic he tied them together. He asked them to think of every misdeed, every cruelty they had ever committed. Every life they had destroyed, everything that would mark them as evil. The Savior bowed her head, not being able to withstand the weight of her actions. But the Queen raised her chin and let that primordial darkness swirl in her.
“Yes I’ve maimed! I’ve tortured! I have killed !” Regina said, rising proudly like the asp that once crowned her head. “And I regret none of it because it got me my son!”
And she laughed, and laughed in the face of the god. Freed them from his grip. The ring of her voice awakened the darkness in Emma. She saw her beloved as she was in the beginning. As she was by the Nile. In a palace. Dancing. So powerfully stubborn. Beautiful and terrible. More frightening than the lightning of the gods, with flames burning in her palms. The god who would have entrapped them just barely escaped the Queen’s wrath, his immortal clothes burned by her power. Emma could only follow after her. With the pain, the joy of having found her again.
“That cowardly son of a bitch!” Regina screamed out into the night. “I’ll spit fire in his face!”
“Hey,” Emma said, daring to take her wrist. “Regina, wait. We need to--”
“That creep has our son and you want to what?” She asked, snatching her hand away. “Take a breather? Reconvene with the men following you around? I don’t--”
The Savior shook her head and smiled. Smiled until there were tears in her eyes that confused the Queen. She took her hand despite Regina’s protests and looked into the darkness of her eyes. Into the pain of them.
“You know me.”
“What? Of course I know you.” The Queen said, flustered by her Infinity’s touch. “That’s what got us into this mess. You barging into my life.”
“I made you a promise.” Emma told her, her fingers brushing her knuckles. “I said there would be a piece of me with you.”
Regina hardened her eyes. She could not, would not see the love in front of her. Their time together had been one wrought with too much rage, they had inflicted too many wounds on one another. Impossible, it is impossible, the gods breathed into her thoughts.
“Pan’s magic has made you delirious.” That divine urge to hurt rushed back into her blood. Victory, the gods claimed. “I suggest you get the hell away from me before you become someone else I’ve maimed.”
“Shit, this is the most difficult you’ve ever been,” The Savior told her, her smile so fragile. “And that’s saying something.”
“Oh, fuck you.” She spat out avoiding the darkness in Emma’s eyes. “And whatever act you’re putting up right now.”
The Queen expected Emma to retreat. To insult her, call her every other word for ungrateful. Say she couldn’t believe she ever thought she would change. Break what was left of her heart, she had done that many times since that first night. Soon, they said, soon if they are not stopped they will fill our caves and heavens with their fire. The gods peered at the scene, watched with trepidation. They blew at the winds to carry their words. They moved trees, beasts. The will of that cursed island, called upon magic and love songs but it was all for nought. For Emma only locked her fingers with Regina’s, the Infinity returned to her mistress. And time stood still then. When the Savior tugged her Queen closer.
“You know me, Regina.” She said, with her lip quivering. “I came for you again.”
Though the Queen could not truly make sense of the words, that pain that follows joy overtook her. She looked at her beloved and knew only to kiss her. Until she could make sense of the ache flooding her chest. Regina cried against the feel of her Infinity’s lips. Remembered that last kiss before lead blossomed in their bones. That last kiss before a sword stole Emma away from her. The venom in her blood as she lay in her arms. That last time when her teeth had grazed her lips before the earth quaked and they were torn apart. Taken to the ends of the world.
“Emma, my Emma.” Regina kissed her. Again, and again until the gods in their caves and heavens trembled in fear. “Our child. Our baby boy. He is out there without us.”
“Then let’s go steal him back.” Emma said feeling the constellations move within her. Respond to their mistress.
“And set fire to their caves and heavens.” The Queen said, sparking ungodly heat between her fingers.
The gods hid away from the children of the earth. For the tides receded at their request. The winds no longer carried the names of the gods. The creatures of the seas helped them across the waters to find the Little Prince. Even the moon bent to their will, all for the rulers of the earth. All for the Infinity and her Queen who wanted for nothing but their child back. The god who had stolen their child Regina turned to ash and Emma scattered him across the night sky with her breath. Let it serve as a warning to the gods who sought to destroy them. Who would dare touch them again. They rushed to take their son in their arms, inspect every hair on his head.
“Henry... our precious boy” Regina said, as her hand settled beneath his chin as she could say no more.
“Oh, kid.” Emma breathed out, her voice trembling. “Does anything hurt? Is your--”
“Moms! I’m fine.” The Little Prince smiled for the stars inside him knew of the shift in the order of the world. “I promise.”
The Queen and Her Infinity kissed their son’s forehead and his eyes through their tears. The Little Prince laughed as he let himself be carried by the Infinity and her Queen. In triumph and joy. It was long after the beginning. When the universe was no longer shrouded in darkness and the gods hid away in their caves and heavens that the children of the earth wanted for nothing other than each other. A pair, sculpted together. And the son they fought divinity to keep. They sang out the names they had given each other as they journeyed through the tides. Blessed to be whole, blessed to be free.
“Cari ñ o, you must have been so scared.” She said, marveling at the Infinity shining through her son’s eyes.
“Not really.” Henry told them, basking in their love. “I always knew you would come for me.”