Hello : ) Yes, I know I'm unbelievable. I practically abandoned this project, and I'm really sorry for that. I still love Once Upon a Time - and for months I've been planning a new story I hope to post in the next few months, but before I start working on it, I feel it's only right I put in some hard work for this story first : )
Now to any new readers, this won't make much sense, but to my older readers, please read the following notes so you'll know what's going on : )
Basically whilst I was away, I've made a decision about how I want to write this story.
To that end, I've decided that I want to start this whole project again. There were a tonne of little things in the original version I wasn't happy with, so my goal is to fix them and iron them out this time around : )
Anyway, for those that are new to this story, the pairings for this story will be Emma/Hook, Charming/Snow, Regina/Robin, and Rumple/Belle. Others will most definitely be added later on but those are the main ones for now.
Right now this is a time travel fic in which Emma and Hook and Zelena have all been sent back in time, and have merged with their past selves, effectively taking their own bodies over. It will probably become very AU as changes caused by the trio lead to more changes from other characters, i.e. the Butterfly Effect.
There may even be a couple of OCs at some point, but they probably won't have very important roles. That COULD change but is unlikely too.
Also, what I consider 'canon' to this story are the events of seasons 1, 2 and 3. Anything after that is fair game where this story is concerned, so some elements might stay the same, change, or be done away with completely : )
Anyway, please remember that Once Upon A Time is not mine, but the idea for this story is : )
I hope you enjoy this story : )
Secrets Of The Swan
The Time Portal
Emma Swan gritted her teeth as she charged towards the barn, a magnificent beam of swirling orange light reaching up into the sky.
Whatever the hell that funnel of light was, Emma knew it could mean nothing good.
It was exactly things like this which was why she had to take her son, Henry, and get the hell out of the crazy messed up town that was Storybrooke.
It was just far too dangerous to stay.
Even if it meant leaving her parents behind, as well as her baby brother who was barely a day old.
God, having parents and now a baby brother?
Emma still couldn't quite take that in. She'd never had that before. A family. Not until Henry. It just wasn't the life that fate had granted her.
But now wasn't the time for such thoughts.
She had to figure out what the hell that light show was.
Killian Jones, or Captain Hook as was his more colourful moniker, just the latest in the long line of men that had shown an interest in her, was right alongside her as Emma stormed towards the site of the disturbance.
As they drew closer, Emma reached into her pocket for her cell phone, wanting to inform her parents that there was a problem, when she noticed she had a voicemail. She pressed the phone to her ear, listening intently. Her eyes widened in shock.
"Whatever's going on in there can't be good" Hook said wearily.
"It's Zelena's Time Portal" she informed him, (Zelena, or the Wicked Witch as she was known of all things, was their latest foe that they had just barely defeated), "David left a message. Somehow, she died and triggered it"
They reached the doors of the barn, which were creaking and shaking, the wooden structure rattling due to the immense power building up inside because of the Time Portal. Emma went to open the doors, but Hook grabbed her arm, pulling her back.
"Wait!" he exclaimed, instinctively protective of Emma, "We have to get out of here!"
"Not until we find a way to close it" Emma protested determinedly.
"Have you got your magic back?" Hook demanded, Emma having lost it in order to save his life.
"No!" Emma said quickly.
A little too quickly.
Hook arched an eyebrow but knew now wasn't the time to press it.
"Then we're not bloody well messing with any of this!" he shouted instead of challenging her, "Let's go!"
He tried to pull her away, but it was already too late.
Unable to contain the growing magical pressure of the portal anymore, the barn's doors burst open, and before Emma or Hook could react, they were knocked off their feet; Emma's phone falling out of her grasp.
Then they were being sucked in.
Emma and Hook both screamed as they were pulled towards the portal, but thinking fast, Hook grabbed Emma's hand with his own, before slamming his hook into the ground, managing to halt their progress.
Emma yelled out as the portal sucked at her, her legs already inside the light.
It was eerily reminiscent of that time Neal Cassidy, the man that broke her heart and her able to trust but had fathered her son, had been sucked into a portal created via a magic bean.
"Hold on!" Hook yelled over the tremendous noise.
Emma grunted and strained and screamed with the effort it took just to hold onto the pirate, her heart pounding wildly as she came to the awful conclusion that soon, her grip would fail, and she would be lost.
"I can't!"
She thought of her parents, her new-born sibling, and her son.
Henry.
Images flashed before her eyes as she thought so strongly about the person she loved the most. About whom she'd be leaving behind if the portal washed her away.
The life she led with Henry in New York. Such happy and carefree memories. If only they were real.
Leaving Storybrooke and the pain of losing her parents all over again to save him from Peter Pan's curse so he wouldn't be alone. But he was worth the pain.
The fear she felt when Greg and Tamara had kidnapped him and took him to Neverland. She'd fight a psychotic demon if it meant getting him back.
The Evil Queen and the Queen of Hearts trying to take him away from her. Like hell she'd let that happen.
Henry eating the Apple-Turnover containing a Sleeping Curse intended for her. She'd only believed in magic because it was her only option to save him.
Bonding with him when the curse was in place. Trying to get through to him without making him hate her.
Henry showing up at her front door… the very second she wished not to be alone anymore…
Emma screamed as she lost her grip, and fell into the abyss of time.
Hook stared at the spot where Emma had vanished, his eyes wide with horror.
She was gone.
Slipped away just because he hadn't been strong enough to hold onto her.
Guilt, but also a fierce determination, instantly settled in his stomach.
He knew what he had to do.
"One of these days, I'm gonna stop chasing this woman" he gritted his teeth as he ripped his hook out of the ground.
Thinking of nothing but Emma Swan and the time she was heading for, Captain Hook allowed himself to be swept away by the time winds.
His path was now bound to her's… forever…
The awful sensation was of falling.
For hours or maybe even days, Emma tumbled through the abyss of nothingness, her own screams lost in the rumble of noise that pounded against her body.
It was like the storm and wind, crushing the air from Emma's lungs and pressurizing her flesh, determined to draw blood.
Minutes and Hours, Dimensions and Space, Emma fell through them all.
Colours swam around her in a rainbow, dancing around her as they flashed across her eyes. They were beautiful, and yet so wrong.
Nobody was ever meant to see them.
They meant bad things to those that crossed their path.
Her skin sparkled as if a live current of static was running through her, so much so that her teeth were chattering from the bizarre sensation.
And it hurt.
It hurt so much, it felt as though every single cell in her body was changing, burning, morphing into something else yet also feeling exactly the same.
And just when Emma thought the falling would never end, she was suddenly slammed back into reality.
Everything had stopped spinning.
The noises in her head were gone.
So were her own screams of pain.
She also felt solid again; something she hadn't felt as she fell through everything.
Moaning something incomprehensible, Emma immediately passed out, and darkness consumed her world once more.
Emma groaned as she slowly came to a long time later.
Her throat burned and her eyelids felt heavy, but eventually she managed to open her eyes. She blinked furiously against the horrible florescent light hanging over her.
What the hell?
Was she in the hospital?
No.
She wasn't in a bed. She was lying on the cold tiles of someone's kitchen floor.
Great, now it looked like she had broken in somewhere.
Just what she needed.
Getting arrested for trespassing.
How the hell had she ended up in this state anyway?
What the hell had happened?
She reached up and used one of the kitchen counters to support herself. She wobbled on her feet, trying to get her balance back.
She managed it after a few seconds.
Then a barrage of memories came back to her.
She remembered everything.
Leaving the diner, talking with Hook, seeing the funnel of light, hearing the message it was the Wicked Witch's Time Portal, before finally getting sucked in.
Now she was stuck somewhere without Henry… AGAIN!
"No" she whispered, horrified and not willing to accept it, "No!"
She slumped against the counter for support and banged her head off one of the cupboards to let out some of her frustration.
Why did this have to happen now?
This was EXACTLY the type of thing that did NOT happen outside of Storybrooke!
Scowling, Emma eventually arrived at three questions that she needed answering.
One, Where the hell was she?
Two, When the hell was she?
And three, How the hell was she going to get back?
She looked around at the place where the Portal had taken her too.
It seemed like your average everyday apartment, only it lacked any personal touches or sentimentality.
Like it was just a place to sleep and nothing more.
There was something oddly familiar about the whole place though…
The when was less challenging.
Judging by the appliances scattered around the kitchen, she was still in fairly modern times. A few things were outdated by a couple of years, but still recent.
She breathed in relief, thanking her lucky stars she hadn't ended up in medieval times or even worse, the future.
As for the how to get back, Emma was stumped.
This apartment didn't exactly reek of being in a land with magic, and she would definitely need magic to get back.
In fact, it looked astonishingly like her old apartment before she had gone to Storybrooke.
Her jaw dropped wide open.
It didn't just look like her old apartment.
It WAS her old apartment.
"What the hell?" she breathed as she looked around the kitchen she hadn't been in for years now.
Her eyes landed on the microwave, which reflected her image back at her.
She frowned at the sight of herself in a tight red dress.
She most certainly had NOT been wearing that before she'd ended up here.
What the hell was going on?!
As she pondered over this latest development, her eyes caught sight of a small cardboard box set upon the table behind her, the microwave reflecting it at her.
Curious, Emma headed over to it and slid the lid off. Her eyes widened in shock.
Inside was a small cupcake.
A very familiar cupcake.
"This is… not possible" Emma muttered to herself in disbelief, "This has happened before. The red dress and the cupcake and…"
And Henry.
This was exactly like the night that Henry had come to find her and she'd taken him back to Storybrooke, right after she had made her birthday wish.
Emma's eyes widened as an impossible idea came to her.
"That's it!"
She rushed over to the draw where she remembered she had kept the matches in this place, and returned with a small blue candle shaped like a star and a box of matches.
"This is crazy enough to work. I hope it does" Emma muttered.
She carefully placed the candle on top of the cupcake, before striking a match and igniting the candle.
Putting the match out and the box down, Emma leaned down until her chin was resting on the counter, her eyes scrunched up tightly as she focused every fibre of her being into making this wish work.
I wish my family will find me.
Emma blew out the candle, and tensed, expecting it to have worked and to feel a tug at her body, signalling she was being sucked back through the Time Portal to where she came from.
But sadly, Emma Swan knew from a harsh life the bitter taste of disappointment better than anyone, and right now, it was threatening to swallow her whole.
Her eyes snapping open, Emma kicked the counter angrily, needing to vent her frustration that her idea had fallen through.
All that happened was she now felt a sharp pain in her foot to add to her list of problems.
The doorbell rang.
Hissing in anger and pain and trying not to cry at the fact that her only idea hadn't worked, Emma sighed as she hobbled down the hall to answer the door.
Her eyes bulged out of her head when she saw who it was.
No way… there is no WAY that getting back to him could be this easy.
But something wasn't right.
The visitor, who was none other than her son, Henry, didn't look like he had barely an hour ago.
He was wearing different clothes, much like Emma herself, and he was shorter by a couple of inches.
"Err…" Emma oh-so-intelligently said- but to be fair, she was thrown by Henry's different yet strikingly familiar appearance.
"Are you Emma Swan?" he asked.
Emma's jaw threatened to drop wide open.
What the hell?!
Why did Henry need to ask her that?!
She was his mother for god's sake!
He knew her name.
What the hell had happened to her precious little boy to make him forget her?!
Another curse?!
"What… I mean, yeah… but…" Emma spluttered, dread building in her stomach.
"My name's Henry" he said, as if she didn't know that already.
He then said three words which made the situation oh-so-horrifically clear to poor Emma.
"I'm your son"
And there's the prologue.
I know this is practically identical to the original version of the first chapter, but I felt it set up the story well, and I saw no real reason to change it : )
Anyway, I'm sorry if me restarting this project annoys anyone, but I really do think this approach is in the best interests of this story : ) I can't promise to update regularly, but I can promise to put more effort into trying : )
Finally, please leave a review on your way out as they always brighten my day, and motivate me to work harder on getting the next chapter up : )
Until the next time, keep on reading : )