Once Upon a Time Season 4 Part 1 - Cold Front
Introduction:
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Disclaimer: I do not own Once Upon a Time in any way! Just love the show and love speculating on what's coming next! Enjoy!
UPDATE: If you've finished this story, here's the link to Part 2:
s/10571400/1/Once-Upon-a-Time-Season-4-Part-2-Frost-Bites
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"Legend tells of a being so powerful that nothing could contain it. A creature of darkness so fearsome and so awful that it devoured all light, extinguished all love and destroyed all joy. A beast so horrific that no power could defeat it, save for that of a little girl with a pure heart. Years ago, some say before the beginning of time itself, the beast and the girl were bound together, twin fates sealed in the stars. The beast, Baba Yaga she was called, would do terrible damage to the world and bring it to the brink of destruction before being stopped. Some say she escaped from another land, some say she has existed since the dawn of time. Still others say that this being, this Baba Yaga born of darkness, was the first Dark One-created from the molten hatred of every living soul, springing to life from the Dark One's Vault on a treacherous winter night. Her true origin remains unknown, as does her fate. Legend has faded to myth, and myth into folklore, and now all that remains of this gruesome tale is the stories; the little girl, the Vault, the darkness. Tales told on a cold winter night to-"
Emma swan closed the book in her lap and tossed it onto the coffee table next to her. She'd had enough ghost stories for one lifetime. Besides which, now was a time to celebrate. Zelena was defeated, she and Hook were home, and Storybrooke had been saved-again.
"Emma?" Charming called from the upstairs of the loft. "Could you come take your brother for a second?" That was going to take some getting used to. Emma had never had a lot of family before and now she had parents her own age and brother thirty years younger than her. It wasn't necessarily bad. It was just… weird. The Savior stood and mounted the stairs quickly, intercepting Charming at the top and scooping her baby brother out of his arms.
"Thanks," Charming said, wiping a few beads of sweat off of his forehead. He'd never really done the whole "father" thing and was, apparently, not all that much of a natural at it. Emma laughed at her father's seeming ineptitude and made her way back down the stairs, sitting on the couch with her brother in her lap. Charming joined her a moment later.
"So… how's parenthood going?" Emma asked with a light chuckle.
"Let's just say it was easier the first time around… I wish we could just skip to when he was twenty-eight like we did with you," Charming tried to joke, but the memories of her abandonment still stung a little. She knew it had been for the best, that everything had worked out in the end, but that didn't mean she couldn't regret what might have been.
"I imagine," Emma said, trying not to let Charming in on her sadness without much success.
"I'm sorry, Emma. More than you can ever know."
"It's alright, Dad. I understand. It just might not be something I can ever totally get over," Emma tried to explain. She knew it wouldn't make sense to him, but there were some wounds you just always kept with you. "But hey, this isn't a time to feel sad. You've just had a baby, we've saved the town, Hook and I managed to not change history too badly…" she joked, trying to lighten the mood.
"You're right… I just wish I knew why I felt so… strange. Like… like something bad is coming," Charming said pensively, taking Neal back from Emma's arms and holding him close.
"I know what you mean. I've got the strangest feeling that it's not quite over," she said. It seemed, at least to her, that the whole town was feeling that way… like perhaps the real battle was just about to start.
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Hook tapped his hook impatiently as he waited for Granny to bring out his order. He was in a foul mood, made fouler by the fact that he didn't know what exactly was bothering him. I should be overjoyed! He thought to himself. Emma Swan made out with me. I've spent years chasing her and now… now I know she wants me too.
His mental pep talk did little to improve his mood. He was resigning himself to the idea of brooding in silence when he heard the bell ring at the front door and turned his head to see none other than Robin Hood walk in and take a seat next to him.
"If you're looking for something quick I'd suggest anywhere but here, mate," Hook tried to joke.
"I heard that!" Granny shouted from the kitchen. A moment later Ruby appeared with Hook's food and set it down in front of him, giving the dashing pirate a quick smile.
"Frankly I've not had much of an appetite the past few days… not since…" Robin Hood trailed off.
"Not since Emma and I brought your wife back from the dead," Hook said flatly, not wanting to beat around the bush.
"Well… yes, quite honestly. I know I should be grateful-how often do you get a second chance with your first love?-but I'm just feeling… troubled," Robin Hood tried to explain, knowing very well he was making next to no sense.
"Ay, I think that's going around, mate," Hook said, biting into his food and taking a sip of his beer. "I'm having this terrible feeling that we're headed for something far, far worse than Zelena."
The conversation trailed off their, both men lost in thought… lost in fear.
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Snow White didn't expect to find herself shooting arrows in the woods after giving birth, yet all the same she was doing so. It had started out innocently enough-she wanted to get back some of the physique she'd had before getting pregnant-but it had slowly morphed into something else… a way of coping.
It infuriated Snow that she had to feel so unhappy when there was so much to feel happy about. She had her infant son, her grown daughter, a town full of friends, a great husband, and a stepmother who, for the first time in upwards of forty years, wasn't trying to kill her. By all accounts this was the best Snow's life had ever been.
Why do you feel so scared then? Snow asked herself, sending an arrow flying into a nearby tree. She willed herself to feel happy, to feel something, but found she only had one emotion left: dread.
Despite all evidence to the contrary, Snow White felt as though her "happy ending" was about to come crashing down around her.
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Belle French-Belle Gold now, actually-twisted the ring around her finger absentmindedly, her attention drifting between it and the book in her lap. It was an old, dusty thing she'd found a couple of copies of in the back of the library a few days. She gave one of them to Emma, thinking she might enjoy a read from her native world, and was just now getting into her own copy of it.
Unfortunately, Belle found it difficult to get any reading done with her mind in the state it was. She felt wholly distracted and really couldn't put her finger on why, which only added to her overall state of distress.
She was married now, for God's sakes! She should be over the moon with joy! After all the years of losing and finding each other she and Rumplestiltksin were together. They were married. They were supposed to be happy! Why then, Belle wondered, did she feel so decidedly unhappy?
"Belle?" Rumplestiltskin's voice called to her from the outer room of the shop. Grateful for the distraction she put the book down and rushed to see why he was calling her.
"What's up?" she asked, joining him behind the shop's counter. There was no one in the store, so she guessed he was just lonely and wanted to talk.
"Are you… feeling alright, Belle?" Rumple asked concernedly. Belle was shocked at the question and took a moment before answering.
"What? Yes I'm-I'm fine… I'm great actually!" she perked up as if she was just now remembering how happy she was supposed to be acting. "We're married! I couldn't be happier!" She cracked a smile, leaning in to kiss him.
"I am too, Belle. I just wanted to make sure you were alright after… well, after everything," Rumple said, grabbing her hands.
"I'm really am, Rumple. We've found each other. After all these years we've finally found each other. No more trouble, no more lies, no more secrets," Belle said, giving him a sad smile that spoke to the years she'd spent in misery.
"Yes, Belle. No more lies, no more secrets."
But that was the problem. There still were lies and secrets. They both knew there were, teeming under the surface and just waiting to escape, to explode all over their happiness. And, truth be known, it was slowly killing them both. Rumple was finding it harder and harder to live with the ways he'd deceived Belle and Belle was finding it harder and harder to ignore her nagging suspicion that their whole wedding had been a pretext to something else.
One thing was sure, though neither of them were willing to say it just yet; something bad was coming. They didn't know where or when or what, but somewhere in their hearts they knew that their "happy ending" was about to turn sour.
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"Mom?" Henry's voice trailed into the big, empty mansion. He dropped his bag by the door and made his way into the rotunda, listening for any signs of life. Finally, after a moment, he heard some muffled sobbing come from his room and bounded up the stairs.
"He-Henry?" Regina asked, looking up from the old pillow of his that she was burying her tear stained face in.
"Mom!" Henry said, running over to her and hugging her. She threw the pillow to the side and returned it, grateful for the embrace.
"Henry, what are you doing here. You should be with Emma," Regina scolded, though the tears rolling down her cheeks made the punishment seem far less convincing.
"Mom, Emma doesn't need me right now. You do," Henry said, sitting next to her on the bed. "What happened?" he asked, not having been present at the diner when Marion returned from the dead to snatch away her happiness.
"It's Robin Hood… and it's complicated."
"We've got time."
"It's his wife. Long ago-really, really long ago-I did something terrible to his wife. But last night Emma and Hook brought her back. They brought her here, to Storybrooke. And now she and Robin can finally be together," Regina explained, trying to put on a brave face.
"You mean… you killed her?"
"In another timeline I did. But no, not in this version of reality. Here she's alive and well," Regina said, conflicted. Of course, as the now un-evil queen, she was glad that someone she'd once killed had been found alive and well… she just wished it wasn't her boyfriend's wife.
That, however, was only one aspect of her sadness. What really got to Regina Mills was the fact that she and Robin Hood were only together in the first place because she'd been cruel enough to kill his wife. All that pain he'd talked about, all those horrible things he'd been through, it was all because of her. And that killed Regina.
"Mom… I'm sorry," was all Henry could manage. He took her hand in his, trying to offer some comfort the only way he knew how.
"It's OK…" But, in point of fact, Regina Mills had a distinct feeling that it would not be OK. Something was happening in Storybrooke. It seemed to Regina that things weren't quite as happy as they appeared. It seemed that a cold front was moving in.
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The young blonde woman stumbled out of the stable, collapsing to the frozen ground on her hands and knees. She fought to catch her breath, sucking in clean air that she'd been denied for so long. She fought for clarity, for some semblance of thought to hang on to. Finally, through the haze of confusion and magic that was swirling around her mind, the young woman latched onto two ideas: the first was that there was someone she had to save. The second was that something very, very bad was about to happen.
Author's Notes:
-Did you like it?
-Reviews are welcome!
-Frozen coming into the show: inspired or just a cash grab?
-How great would it be for Idina Menzel to actually play Elsa?