Daughter of Darkness || Once Upon a Time

Chapter Twenty | Fighting Fire With Fire

"Wonderful," Mulan muttered. "I bet that shared parenting works out well."

Ruby shook her head and led Mulan over to where David was sitting so she could introduce them.

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|Tartarus|
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Regina raised her sword and stepped in front of Robin. "What now? Come back for another duel?"

"Oh, no. We came here for your precious thief. See, you should never reveal you weaknesses."

Regina walked towards Cruella until she was standing a foot away. "Love is not weakness."

"Well perhaps you should ask my dear friend the Hydra." Cruella and the other woman stepped back and the Hydra took a step towards Regina. She swung at it, not thinking, and sliced off one of its heads. The blood from the wound bubbled and from it sprung two new heads.

"Fire," Robin shouted as Regina backed away from the creature. "You need fire!"

"Sorry, I'm fresh out of that," Regina called back. She swung at the Hydra's body, but one of its heads snapped at Regina and she really didn't like the acidic smell coming from the fangs. Regina ducked away from it and held her sword out. "Any other ideas?"

Robin glanced around Tartarus. The only thing that could be seen was a few boulders that were far to heavy to lift, Cruella, the other lady, and the Hydra. And of course, the river. Regina slashed at the Hydra again, careful to not cut the head off entirely. Blood spilled from the wound, but no head sprung from it. Could the Hydra bleed out from wounds?

Regina slashed again, but the Hydra snapped back at the sword and Regina backed up into Robin.

"What's dripping from the fangs?" Robin whispered.

"Poison?" Regina answered in the tone of a question. "I don't know. It doesn't smell very friendly."

"Could the Hydra be defeated by its own poison?"

"Maybe..." Regina blocked one of the Hydra heads from hurting Robin, but while she was turned, another head bit into her left arm. Regina dropped her sword and clutched her arm. Robin caught her before she fell. Regina nodded weakly, "It's poison."

Robin picked up the sword and jabbed it into one of the Hydra's mouths. The Hydra spit out poison in an attempt to get the sword out of its mouth. Robin removed the sword and blocked two of the heads from coming at him. The sword now had poison dripping off of it and Robin could only hope his plan would work because he needed to make sure Regina was okay.

Robin ducked underneath all nine Hydra heads and drove the sword into the Hydra's body. The Hydra began to shake and spew poison everywhere. Cruella and the other woman ran for cover and Regina used her good arm to pull Robin away. The two ran in the opposite direction from Cruella, continuing downstream. They could hear the Hydra hissing behind it as the poison travelled through it's bloodstream. Once they could no longer hear the monster, Regina dropped to the ground. Her face was pale and the skin on her arm around the wound had begun to turn a green-ish color.

"Can I see it?" Robin asked, dropping the sword a safe distance away so the poison wouldn't touch any bare skin.

Regina slowly extended her arm so Robin could examine the wound. She winced every time he touched a different spot, but she tried to not let him see how much it actually hurt.

"We should wash it out and wrap it so the bleeding stops," Robin said. Regina figured he knew what he was doing because she had been living in the comfort of the twenty-first century nearly three decades longer than Robin and she was used to being able to dial 911 and knowing everything would be okay with the help of modern medicine. Robin helped her over to the river and rinsed the wound out in the glowing water. After that, he took his scarf off and wrapped the wound tightly so the bleeding stopped. Robin helped Regina sit down and looked her in the eye. "You okay?"

It took Regina a few seconds to focus on Robin. "Y-Yeah. I think so."

Robin placed his hand on Regina's forehead. It didn't feel like she had a fever yet, but if they didn't get out of Tartarus soon and the wound got infected... "I don't think you should keep moving until you get some rest."

"But Cruella and the witch..."

"The sword still has Hydra poison on it. I can threaten them enough to hold them off for now. But you need rest, okay?"

Regina didn't have the energy to argue, so she simply nodded. Robin pressed a soft kiss to her lips and she laid down. Within seconds, she was fast asleep.

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When Regina woke up several hours later, Robin was sitting up next to her. He helped her stand up before picking up the sword. "As much as this poison could be dangerous to Cruella, I think its more dangerous for us to carry it around."

Regina nodded in agreement. "We could probably wash it off in the river, but I still wouldn't risk touching the blade. I have no idea if there are enchantments that would keep the poison in the metal or not."

After Robin let the blade soak in the river, he and Regina continued downstream. Hopefully Cruella and her friends wouldn't try bothering them again, but Robin figured there would be at least one more attack.