Chapter 1: How Could You?
After making the rough journey through the portal, the gang tries their best to get along for the sake of smooth sailing, literally. Perched at the wheel, Hook holds control over his ship while Mary Margaret, Emma, and David do all they can to make sure the sails are in proper position. Regina stands at the side of the boat, keeping watch of the horizon with her daughter right beside her when she notices the tide picking up.
"Hook!" She shouts.
"There's a storm coming," Hook informs. "Get to your places."
Everyone scrambles to a post and grabs onto a rope to help secure the sails through the fierce wind. Through the downpour of raining and blasts of wind, a splash in the water is noticed.
"What's that?" Emma shouts over the wind.
"Sirens. Let them be, love!" Hook responds in urgency.
The ship is suddenly jerked to the side, daring to tip as everyone grabs a hold of their loved ones. As the Jolly Rodger rocks back to its upright position, a large wave of water splashes on deck, leaving a beautiful siren in their midst.
Emma looks to Hook, remembering his clear warning to avoid confrontation with the beautiful creatures. David and Mary Margaret, however, approach the siren, wanting to see that it is uninjured.
"What the hell are you doing?" Regina asks as she leaves her daughter safe by a mast and marches toward the couple.
"We can't just leave her here!" Mary Margaret exclaims.
"Let it flop its way back into the sea! You heard Hook, it's a Siren! Any confrontation and you're already being reeled into its trap!" Regina shouts.
"She's right, it's only here to cause fatal damage," Hook agrees from the wheel.
At those words of confirmation, David draws his sword and holds it to the siren's neck, keeping her secure and unable to hurt anyone.
Letting out a low chuckle, Regina steps toward him. "That's right, Charming. Filet the bitch!"
Hearing her mother growl such awful demands, Lucia runs to Regina, places her hand on her arm and says, "Mama, no!"
"Honey, get back to where you're safe," Regina says to her daughter, never taking her eyes off the distrusting siren. "I've got this."
Seeing the aggressiveness in her mother frightens Lucia. She hasn't seen her mother like this since they were back in the enchanted forest, before the first curse, when she was the Evil Queen. An Evil Queen who killed, who was about to do it right now to a creature that had done no harm yet.
Feeling overwhelmed, Lucia runs down the stairs that lead to a hallway of cabins and locks herself in one of them. Finding the bed right away, she sits in the corner of it and buries her face in her knees and hides from the nasty truth.
000
Watching the Jolly Rodger disappear into the portal, Dani is fuming. Just when she thought she could finally have time to bond with her mother, she is ripped from her once again.
Daniel, too, watches the ship vanish. Though he wants to worry for his love, he knows that his daughter is probably suffering more than he is. He makes his way over to her, but before he can say anything, Dani turns and walks past him.
"Daniela?" Daniel carefully asks, his voice laced with concern.
Dani ignores him and continues her path down the docks, leaving Daniel feeling helpless, as though he's failed her as a parent.
000
Court was always a tough thing for young Ariel to sit through. She was about 13 years old when her father allowed her to stay through the whole thing. Usually he would dismiss her toward the end, but now that she was "coming of age" he thought she should see what really happens when one messes with their royal ruler.
"Bring him in!" King Triton shouted from his throne at the front of the room, with Ariel sitting at his side.
The guards entered the large ballroom, dragging in a poor man who was begging for mercy. The poor thing.
"Please, your majesty! My family was just so hungry! I can work off my dues-"
"Enough!" The King silenced.
After a moment of staring at the peasant, Triton said, "You know what to do."
The guards nodded in response and began to tie the peasant man to a pole.
"No, please, your majesty!"
Seeing that he was getting no mercy from the king, the desperate man tried a different tactic.
"Please, Princess!"
Ariel squirmed in her seat.
"Daddy, what is going on?"
"An execution, Ariel."
"What?!" The princess looked back at the sobbing man. "All because he couldn't afford to feed his family?!"
"He deliberately disobeyed my rules; he must be punished."
"But, Daddy-"
"Ready,"
"Daddy, you have to stop this!"
"Aim!"
"Please! This isn't fair!"
"Fire!"
"Daddy, no!"
But it was too late. Once the job was done, Triton turned toward his crying daughter and raised his hand, swiping it against the side of her face, hard.
"That's simply how it's done. You best get used to it."
000
Noticing her granddaughter storming off, Cora follows her to the rocky beach and catches up with Dani to see what's bothering her.
"Dani, is everything ok?" Cora asks.
"What do you think? My mom just left me once again!" Dani exclaims.
"I know it must be hard," Cora begins to sympathize.
"No!" Dani whips around and faces her grandmother. "No, you don't understand! Once Henry and that stupid swan come back, I am ripping their hearts out!"
"You don't mean that. You're just upset. Your mother loves you."
"No, she doesn't. Everything she said is a lie! Look around you, Nana. Lucia will always be Mama's favorite. Henry will always treat mom like dirt. And me? I'm just the third wheel. So let me do them a favor and leave!" Dani shouts.
Tears stream down her face as she looks her grandmother in the eyes and raises her hands, leaving behind nothing but a cloud of smoke.
"Daniela!" Cora shouts as an attempt to stop her granddaughter to no avail.
000
Not yet knowing how to handle an angry teenager, Daniel heads back to the mansion. He figures that all the danger left in the portal with Greg and Tamara, so Dani should be safe. She will come home when she's good and ready; he doesn't want to push her. Daniel is in Regina's office looking at the pictures she has up of the kids when he hears a knock at the door.
"Cora," he says in annoyance when he opens the door and sees that it is his killer, "to what do I owe the pleasure?"
"Cut the sarcasm, stable boy. I'm here to talk about Dani," Cora gets straight to it.
"I have that under control," Daniel states.
"Do you, now? Do you know your daughter doesn't feel loved?" Cora rebukes.
"That's ridiculous!" Daniel exclaims.
"Is it? Tell me which of your daughters is with Regina right now? And how much time have you really spent with Dani?" Cora interrogates.
Daniel pauses for a moment in heartfelt defeat, knowing that the older woman is right, he just does not want to admit it.
"That's what I thought. I really don't blame her," Cora says.
"Are you saying I don't love my daughter?" Daniel says angrily.
"Don't be ridiculous. I know you love your daughter, but open your eyes. Your daughter is crying for help. She needs her parents, and right now you are all she's got."
Turning to grab his coat from the coatrack by the door, Daniel says, "I've got to find her."
His actions are stopped by a searing pain in his chest. He grasps at his chest as he groans in pain.
"Daniel?" Cora asks.
When he responds with another moan and a stumble, Cora steps into the house and grabs onto his arm in an attempt to support him as she asks, "Daniel, are you alright?"
000
After the situation with the siren is settled (the creature was turned to wood and dumped into the sea, where her friends are sure to find her and change her back), Regina takes note of her daughter's absence.
"Lucia?!" She shouts in a panic. If those sirens did anything to her daughter...
"Aye, the lass went down to the quarters," Hook says with a jerk of his head toward the stairwell.
Regina runs down the stairs and stops briefly when she reaches the corridor of doors. All are open except one.
Knocking on the door, Regina hears a tearful, "Go away!"
"Lucia, it's me, open up," Regina says.
"Leave me alone," is softly heard from the other side of the door.
"If you don't open this door, then I'll have to do it myself," Regina threatens.
No response.
As she waves her hand over the doorknob, the door clicks unlocked. Regina gently pushes the door open and steps inside. Her heart breaks when she sees her daughter curled up in the corner of the bed. She approaches the bed, sits down, and begins to check over the girl.
"Honey, are you alright?"
Again, no response.
"Lucia, answer me." Regina says, her voice firming.
Looking up at her mother, the girl says, "Why did you have to do that?"
"Do what?" Regina asks, clearly confused as to why her daughter was upset with her.
"Kill that siren! She didn't do anything! She was innocent!"
"She was innocent so far, yes, but we had to stop her before she did anything. Sirens are very powerful creatures with very dark intentions, and we had just been targeted." Regina calmly reasons.
Seeing more in her daughter's eyes, Regina says, "Darling, what's the matter?"
"My dad- the king," Lucia corrects, "used to kill innocent people for unreasonable reasons. And you..."
Lucia trails off, not wanting to finish her sentence, not wanting to state the fact that in that moment, her mother acted just as Triton did. And that scares her.
"Lucia," Regina says as she reaches out and lifts her daughter's chin so their eyes meet. "I am sorry if I scared you. I only reacted that way out of instinct. That siren may have been innocent with her actions, but that's only because we caught her before she could've done anything. If you think I was going to let that dangerous thing stay on board while you are here..." Regina shakes her head. "I love you, Lucia. I will do anything and everything to protect you. I had hoped you would've known that by now," Regina said, slightly frowning.
"I do know, Mama. You just... I guess I just..." Lucia doesn't really know what to say.
"I know," Regina murmurs, giving her daughter a small sympathetic smile. Opening her arms, her smile grew as her daughter leans forward, accepting her mother's embrace. She kisses the top of Lucia's head as the girl relaxes in Regina's arms. Getting over an abusive parent is hard, and Regina knows that.
Before more words of comfort can be exchanged, Emma pokes her head in the door and says, "We're here."