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Dark grey clouds gathered together, rolling, rumbling and sparking with thunder, lightning, and magic. Zaps shot out towards the ground, shaking the town with each hit. It was almost as if the storm was alive, picking its prey at will. Buildings were struck harshly, tearing them in half and injuring everyone inside. Screams could be heard as people ran for their lives.
A loud rumble accompanied by bright blue sparks coursed through the sky, sending out a string of magical lightning right into the roof of Granny’s Diner. The foundations of the building split loudly and crumbled to the ground. Regina and Ruby ran out of the diner and sprinted down the road, the sparks of lightning hitting the ground a few metres from them.
“This way,” Regina loudly said, grabbing Ruby’s hand and pulling her to a side street as they continued to run. “We need to get to my vault to find a way to stop this.”
“Anywhere is better than here,” Ruby replied, pulling Regina into her as another magical spark of lightning cracked right where the shorter woman was just standing.
“If we keep going and head left, we’ll end up at the cemetery,” Regina said, wanting to keep both herself and Ruby safe as they took off down the street.
Dodging the magical bolts of lightning, they made it to the cemetery entrance just as the dark clouds rumbled ear piercingly loud and opened up, sending waterfalls of ice cold water down onto Storybrooke and those stuck outside.
“This way,” Regina pointed, holding tightly onto Ruby’s hand as they carefully made their way to the doors of the vault. Opening it with her magic, Regina got them inside quickly and sealed the door.
Turning Ruby to face her, Regina held both of the younger woman’s hands in her own and stepped closer. Feeling the magic inside her Regina channelled it and closed her eyes as she concentrated on them being dry.
A few seconds passed, and Regina opened her eyes, they were both dry and would hopefully stay that way.
“Thank you, I was freezing,” Ruby smiled, leaning into Regina and softly kissing her.
“Any time,” Regina responded, leaning her forehead against Ruby’s as she tried to catch her breath. She hadn’t run this much in a long time.
“How much do you want to bet that Emma is the one behind this?” Ruby asked, moving to lean against the wall.
“I don’t need to bet anything that this was Emma’s doing. The blue magic is clearly hers. She’s reckless, and God only knows how, but she has a book of magical spells and curses. If she tried to cast one, didn’t pay any attention to the wording, which we both know she didn’t, she would have caused something like this storm. She’s irresponsible and definitely a Charming,” Regina said, getting angrier by the minute.
“Could it have been a potion gone wrong or?” Ruby asked, trying to direct Regina’s anger into another direction.
“Knowing Miss Swan and her high and mighty attitude, it’s probably both as I’ve never seen anything like this,” Regina answered, taking a deep breath while trying not to set something on fire.
“Is there anything we can do while we wait out this mess?”
“We can go into my private library and search through the books. I’ve never had anyone in there but I trust you to know what to touch and what not to. And I think you’re more than capable while being just as beautiful,” Regina grinned, trying to distract herself.
“I think you’re more than beautiful yourself,” Ruby smirked, leaning forward and pushing Regina against the wall, slowly kissing her. Their lips moved in sync while their tongues battled for dominance.
Breaking apart after a few minutes for some much needed oxygen, Regina smiled and held Ruby’s hand. “Come, my love.”
Leading Ruby through the passageways of the vault, lit only by candlelight, they stopped at a solid wall. Regina waved her hand over it and the wall slid up revealing a massive library behind it.
“Oh my God, this is stunning,” Ruby gasped, stepping into the large room.
“Every book in this room is from the Enchanted Forest, from my personal collection, it has over a thousand books with them all being perfectly arranged in order of spell books, potion books, tomes, and beginner books for dark magic. I keep the easily reversible books back at the house,” Regina said, leading her to the middle of the room and showing her to a seat.
“Where do we start?” Ruby asked, looking around, afraid to touch anything without permission.
“I think it’ll either be in the moderate magic books, or one of the dark tomes,” Regina replied, noticing the look of worry on Ruby’s face as she looked through her shelves. “I’ll take the dark tomes and you can start on the magic books if that’s acceptable?”
“That’s fine,” Ruby said, cautiously holding a book that Regina handed her.
“It feels like there is strange pull to the book as I hold it,” Ruby noticed, gently opening it.
“It must be the wolf, an ancient form of magic,” Regina replied, looking at the green eyed woman.
“So, if I wanted to, which I really don’t, I could possibly learn magic?” Ruby questioned.
“I would say you could,” Regina honestly answered. “You may even be able to learn it quicker than most as you can control the power inside you.”
“That’s interesting.” Opening the book in front of her, Ruby began to skim the pages. “We’re looking for anything that’s storm related?”
“We are, dear.”
Flicking through the pages of the book and finding nothing of use, they moved onto the next books. They could hear the storm raging overhead, getting louder and louder each passing minute as it grew in strength and volume.
Onto her third book, Ruby winced at the cracks of lightning and roaring thunder as it echoed throughout the room. Her head started to hurt from the noise but she tried to ignore it as best she could. Flipping through the rest of the book Ruby couldn’t handle the sound anymore. She put the book down and covered her ears with her hands.
Noticing the pain on Ruby’s face, Regina immediately got up and knelt in front of her. “Ruby, dear, what’s wrong?” Regina asked, concerned laced through her voice, her hand resting on the taller woman’s knees.
“The noise, it’s too loud for my hearing,” Ruby replied, wincing as thunder echoed through the room.
Moving her hand across the room in the direction of the ceiling, Regina erected a barrier around the vault to keep the sound out. She loved Ruby and wanted her to be as comfortable as she could be; not having anything hurt her in any way. “I blocked out all sound outside of the vault, is it better?” Regina softly asked, holding Ruby’s hands in hers.
“It is,” Ruby gratefully responded, pulling Regina into her lap and hugging the older woman. “Thank you.”
Relaxing into Ruby, Regina placed a small kiss on her forehead. “I love you, Ruby.”
“I love you too, Regina.” Ruby smiled and brought their mouths together, softly kissing the woman in her lap, her lips parting slightly as the kiss got deeper.
Objects breaking and metal clanging against concrete broke the two apart. A strong wind blew throughout the room, blowing out some of the candles and flipping the pages of the books.
“What the hell was that?” Getting up from Ruby’s lap, Regina marched her way through the vault to the source of the wind and sound. Ruby followed closely behind, not wanting to be left alone.
Stopping in her tracks just before the entrance to the foyer, Regina held her arm out to stop Ruby from going forward. “There is a ghost in my foyer, my damn mother’s ghost,” Regina said, not at all impressed to see the woman.
“What is she doing here?” Ruby asked, watching the spirit rifle through a shelf, knocking objects onto the ground.
“I think she’s trying to find something but I have no idea what. I don’t even know how she got here unless Miss Swan tried to fix her stuff up and made it worse.”
“It looks like she’s trying to get into the wooden box at the back of the shelf,” Ruby pointed out, diverting Regina’s energy away from hating Emma once again.
“I don’t have the time to deal with my mother on top of all of this, whatever this is.” Stepping into the foyer Regina held her hands up and caught the spirit in a swirl of purple magic.
Watching the ghost of Cora turn a glowing red and push against the magic which held her, she broke free and soared around the room, loudly screeching as the wind got stronger. Regina tried to control Cora using more magic but it made the ghost angrier and faster. Cora, setting her sights on Ruby flew straight toward the startled brunette and knocked her forcibly into the solid wall behind her. Ruby hit the ground with an audible thump, Cora pinning her there and screeching loudly, the red intensifying.
Pain shot through Ruby’s back, head and chest, her eyes watering, her ears ringing, the pain from earlier only adding to being attacked by a ghost. She closed her eyes tightly and tried to breathe, ignoring the weight pushing down on her lungs.
“Get the hell away from her.” Ruby heard Regina faintly say through the ringing in her ears.
Realising the screeching had stopped and the pressure was off her chest, she opened her eyes to a very worried Regina hovering over her.
“Deep breaths Ruby, it’s okay, I’ve trapped her inside of the broach she was after. How are you feeling?” Regina helped Ruby into a sitting position against the wall and leaned down in front of her.
“Sore, everything is aching, my head is pounding,” Ruby answered squeezing her eyes shut. Feeling Regina’s hands on her face, wiping away the tears she didn’t realise had fallen, Ruby leaned into her touch.
“I’m sorry she attacked you,” Regina sincerely said, pressing a kiss to Ruby’s forehead.
“It’s okay,” Ruby responded, kissing the palm of Regina’s hand before she opened her eyes and tried to stand up.
Getting onto her feet with the help of Regina, Ruby stretched out her back and winced when her shoulder cracked. “I think I’m going to feel this in the morning.”
“If you do feel it in the morning, I’ll run you a nice hot bath and give you a back massage,” Regina offered, feeling bad that her mother attacked her partner.
“So, if I want back massages in the future, I just need to be attacked by a dead relative of yours?” Ruby grinned, making Regina smile.
“I guess you do,” Regina joked back, leaning against the wall and cleaning the mess on the floor with a wave of her hand.
“How do you think the storm is going?” Ruby asked, remembering there was a silencing barrier around the vault.
“I’m not sure, we can open the door and find out, or I can lift the barrier and we can see what we hear.”
“Lifting the barrier is the safer option. I’d rather not be hit by a vengeful, magical lightning blast,” Ruby replied, moving her hands up to cover her ears.
Removing the barrier Regina waited to hear the storm overhead. It had been a little over two hours since it had started and she wondered how long it would go for. To her surprise, the only sound coming from outside was that of light rain. Placing a hand on Ruby’s arm, she motioned to the woman that it was okay to listen.
“Just light rain,” Regina informed Ruby, glad that it could potentially be over.
“I wonder if it ran its course or if Gold or someone managed to stop it,” Ruby said, looking at Regina.
“Most likely Gold, he wouldn’t let anything happen to that pawn shop of his,” Regina replied, picking up the broach from the shelf where she had placed it. “We need to do something about this. It was what my mother was after and I trapped her inside of it.”
“We could bury it, like ten metres below the ground or deeper,” Ruby suggested, not knowing a lot about magic.
“That would work, dig a hole, put up a magical barrier, drop it in, pack it full of dirt, trap her for at least the next couple of years or so and deal with it then,” Regina agreed, opening the door of the vault. “Wait here.”
Stepping outside of the vault, Regina looked around and noticed that the storm had vanished, leaving only light rain in its wake. “The storm is over.”
Exiting the vault, Ruby joined Regina outside. “Where do we want to dig this hole?”
“Away from my vault, I don’t want her anywhere near here.” Taking Ruby’s hand in her own she transported them to the town line on the other side of town.
“I do like your idea of far away,” Ruby said, still not used to transporting with magic.
“Let’s get this over with.” With a wave of her hand Regina had a fifteen metre hole dug next to the town line and the pile of dirt beside it. With another wave Regina erected a barrier and dropped the broach into it, packing it tightly with dirt once it hit the bottom. “And that’s one less thing to deal with.”
Walking up to Regina, Ruby slid her arms around the shorter woman’s waist and hugged her from behind. Placing a kiss on Regina’s neck, she snuggled into her partner. “Are you okay?” she softly asked, knowing how hard it is to bury a parent. Even their angry ghost.
“I’m okay, I feel relieved I think,” Regina replied, holding Ruby’s hands to her.
“How about we walk back into town? It might help clear our heads, and help the ringing in my ears.”
“We can do that,” Regina agreed, spinning around in Ruby’s arms to face her. Softly running her hand down the side of Ruby’s face, Regina leaned up and kissed her, trying to let Ruby know how grateful she was that she was there for her.
“You know, I can now say that I’ve met your mother, even if she did try to kill me,” Ruby said, smiling at Regina.
“You technically can, you did in fact get up close and personal with her,” Regina replied, letting go of the taller woman and taking hold of her hand. “Let’s go find out the extent of the damage, shall we?
“I already know that Granny needs a new diner and I doubt it’s the worst hit building,” Ruby replied, intertwining her fingers with Regina’s as they began the long walk.
“We can fix them all over the next few days, once I finish with Miss Swan,” Regina growled, glaring at the road in front of them.
Shaking her head, Ruby leaned into Regina and kissed her cheek. She’d deal with Regina and Emma later on.