"Hurry!" Emma yelled as the wall of flames separating the group from the wraith grew taller.
"Can't you see I'm trying?" Regina asked, continuously spinning the crushed velvet hat on the floor, "The damn portal won't open!"
"Well can you try a bit harder? The wraith isn't exactly going anywhere!" David yelled, waving his DIY torch in the flying creature's face.
Hot tears of frustration welled in Regina's eyes, when she felt a hand on her arm.
"Come on," Emma said gently, crouched beside her, "Try again."
In an instant, the portal opened, extinguishing the flames and sucking the wraith into the Enchanted Forrest. Along with Emma.
x-x-x-x-x
"No!" Mary Margaret yelled, starting to run to the portal, "I'm not leaving her again!"
The woman was stopped by Regina, who replied, "Yes, you are, but I'm not!" And promptly flung herself into the other world.
David and Mary Margaret tried to do the same, only to be met with cold tile.
The two women woke up beneath a heap of rubble. After much struggling, they emerged in a slight daze. Emma looked around, and jumped when her green eyes met Regina's dark brown ones.
"What the hell, Regina? Why are you here?" she asked with slight anger as they stood up.
"Well, Miss Swan, I didn't feel like letting my son's birth mother die. He'd be crushed," Regina replied, looking down her nose at Emma as she smoothed her now wrinkled blouse.
"Yeah?" Emma said in disbelief, "Well nice freaking job, because now he could lose both of us! And seriously, call me Emma, considering we could die within the hour."
Regina scoffed, "I believe you should be thanking me, Emma, because I'm here instead of your parents."
"And why is that such a wonderful thing?"
"Because there's no way they could protect you like I can! They're inferior!"
"Don't you dare talk about my parents like that. Besides, why do you care about my safety? Wouldn't you rather have me dead?"
Regina's ears burned slightly, "Well, yes, but it would crush Henry, as I said before."
"Whatever, Regina, I will never understand you."
"I wouldn't want you to."
Their bickering was cut short by a voice behind them, which called out, "Were you the ones who released the wraith into this realm?"
Regina turned to the warrior-looking female and put on her Evil Queen voice, and said in a matching tone, "We may be. What concern of yours is it?"
"Because," the girl said, "It killed Prince Philip."
x-x-x-x-x
The warrior, whose name they now knew to be Mulan, had immediately restrained them.
While walking to town, Mulan questioned them quite a bit.
"So," she said, gesturing to Regina, "You're the infamous Evil Queen, huh?"
"Kind of," Regina said, at the same time Emma said, "Not really," causing the Savior to blush furiously.
"Uh… alright," Mulan said, confused, then looked to Emma, "Who does that make you, then?"
"I'm, uh," Emma looked at her feet, "I'm Emma. The Savior."
Mulan stopped, looking at Regina for confirmation.
"Evil Queen and the Savior. What an odd pair you two are. How ever did you two end up together?"
"Well," Emma started, "I kind of fell in a portal."
"And I kind of followed her in," Regina finished.
"Well, we're here," Mulan said, concluding the conversation. She tied the rope that bound their hands to a nearby tree, and stood up on a tree stump, and addressed the town.
"Attention, people of the village!" Mulan called, causing every eye in the small square to land on her, "I have brought with me two women who I've charged with treason. One of these women is the Evil queen."
This elicited many gasps and murmurs amongst the crowd, and Mulan continued, "The other is the supposed Savior."
This got a much bigger reaction from the townspeople. Even so, Mulan spoke on, "I realize that there is no formal way of handling treason, so I've come to ask you all what we shall do with the traitors."
A moment of silence passed before the people began to yell out their answers.
"Off with their heads!" shouted one.
"Tar and feather them!" called another.
Some of them were so ridiculous that the captured pair would have laughed, had their death not been being decided.
Finally, after half an hour of outraged citizens giving their opinions, it was settled. A sorcerer would strip Regina of her magic, and they'd be thrown in the dungeon to be dealt with later by the king's men.
The two women sat with their backs against the cold, mossy stone of the dungeon.
"I'm sorry I followed you into the portal," Regina mumbled.
Emma sighed, "I'm sorry I blew up at you. I really am grateful that you were thinking of my safety, Regina."
A small gasp came from the shadows, followed by, "Regina, dear, I thought that was you."
Regina stood, staring into the shadows, trying to decipher who the voice belonged to.
"Who's there?" she called out, barely registering the way Emma stood defensively between she and the voice.
"Oh, dear," the voice said again, "You don't recognize your own mother?"