Option A: Emma Went First
AKA rewrite of "Snow Drifts" entirely, just with Regina and Emma rather than Hook and Emma, and instead of going to Rumple and being Prince Charles and Princess Leia, they work on their own and are "Lady Xena" and "Queen Gabrielle" and other small differences, but largely the same.
-~O~-
Emma fell to the ground with a heavy thud, rolling with the impact through both modern and ancient instincts. Rolling in the grass, she came up quickly, but the first thing she noticed was the trees, followed immediately by the familiar-unfamiliar scent and sensations of the atmosphere. Her mind made connections and jumped to the proper conclusions within moments.
"No!" she cried, still on the ground and just beginning to pick herself up. "No! Ow!" she rubbed at the forming bruises on her arms and legs from the fall. Behind her, Regina was also just getting up, though she kept her vocal responses to a minimum, the frown on her face spoke volumes.
"It would appear," the reformed Evil Queen remarked dryly, "that we are back in the Enchanted Forest. Again. I really hate this place."
Emma, about to retort with a sarcastic 'no duh' type comment, instead turned and arched an intrigued eyebrow at her fellow time traveller. "You're from this place, you were born here, you are a Queen here. It's your home, isn't it? Why would you, of all people, hate it?"
"Because I have never, ever been truly happy here," Regina answered mournfully. "I have only ever been a villain here, and I have only ever been unhappy and tortured by my failures and regrets in this land. So, yes, I hate it here. My home, like yours Ms. Swan, is in Storybrooke."
"Yeah, speaking of," Emma looked around, quickly changing the subject, "looks like the portal didn't stay open for the return trip."
"An unfortunate status quo of all such mediums, I assure you," Regina replied. "It makes returning home a great deal more difficult, but the fact that we actually survived the trip tells me that it is not impossible. Provided that we don't change anything. Question isn't where we are, so much as when."
"I think I have a pretty good idea," Emma said, going over to a tree and pulling down an all-too-familiar Wanted poster from it.
"Unfortunately… that doesn't narrow things down as much as I'd like," Regina sighed. "We could be anywhen during a five year period of time, as those posters remained up until Snow and Charming actually succeeded in taking back their kingdoms. Needless to say, a lot of things happened during this time that had… catastrophic consequences for a great many people, ourselves notwithstanding."
"Regina," Emma deadpanned, "Now is really not the time to be on your high horse. Or throne as the case may be."
"How very droll, my dear," came the biting response. "Perhaps our energies could be better spent doing something actually constructive for once. Such as ways that we might be able to get back?"
"How would I know how to get back to the future? Who do I look like? Marty McFly?!"
"Having actually witnessed the premier of that film, I can assure you Ms. Swan, that if you did look anything like the young Mr. Fox, our kiss would've ended very differently," the brunette gave her a saucy smirk.
"You had a crush on Michael J. Fox?!" Emma's face lit up with a smile that would have to be blasted off with magic, and even then it would probably remain.
Blushing furiously, the reformed Evil Queen snapped, "That is neither here nor there. Besides, as bad as the old west, what chances do you think we have of conjuring a time travelling delorean here?! How about an actually useful idea, Ms. Swan?"
"Here's one!" the angry blond retorted before responding with a rude gesture.
Before they could devolve into further argument, they were both startled by the sound of approaching knights on horseback, charging down the road at a full gallop. Regina only said, and only needed to say one word, "Hide!"
Normally, Emma might duck down and try to hide behind a tree. Now that she remembered being an Amazon Queen and a few dozen other past lives that had lived without 'modern' means of hiding or avoiding detection, she went with the most obvious means available; she climbed a tree.
That she shot up the trunk like a squirrel shooting for the top acorn, merely proved that climbing trees had little to do with physical capability and more with skill and knowledge. Regina, on the other hand, actually did a standing backflip almost twelve feet up through the air before latching onto the nearest tree and scrambling up the same way Emma had, only faster, casting some doubt as to whether it was a skill-advantage, or a magical one.
By the time the Black Knights had reached their position, they were both twenty feet up the tree and as still as aforementioned squirrels in the presence of predators.
Emma turned and shot her soulmate a look that quite easily translated to 'What the hell?', the reply to which was a regretful sad look, one that would've been seen on Xena's face whenever her evil past came up. The Savior imagined that the same thing had just happened, only with Regina's past over Xena's.
There was a sudden loud screaming echoing throughout the woods. It sounded like the Black Knights were attacking a nearby village. Sharing a look, Emma and Regina soon launched themselves through the trees in the direction of the screams. It wasn't as smooth as they remembered, mostly because neither of them had actually practised 'flying through the trees' like they had in their past lives and didn't have the same stamina they once did. Nevertheless, they managed to get to the village much sooner than they would've running along the ground.
They witnessed as the Black Knights stormed into each building of the small village and lined them all up alongside the road. Fortunately, the two heroes observed, there hadn't been any deaths or anything worse that a bit of rough handling. Neither one of them were quite sure what they would've done if the Knights had actually hurt the villagers.
Once the rabble were gathered, a black coach pulled up and the door opened, revealing in all her dark and forbidding glory; the Evil Queen. She wore a wide-brimmed hat with a black feather attached to the side, a blood red riding coat over a black velvet blouse and corset. On her legs she wore tight black leather pants that conformed to every curve, and knee-high black riding boots, complete with heeled spurs.
From their perch up in the branches of the trees above the village, Emma whispered quietly to the same woman beside her, "Damn Regina. You always have to look amazing in black leather, don't you?"
"Emma. Shut. Up," the reincarnated Warrior Princess grit out through clenched jaw.
"You still got that outfit back in Storybrooke?" she asked innocently, completely ignoring the tense atmosphere for the moment. Regina shot the blond a death glare, forcing her to back off, for the moment.
"Listen to me very carefully," the Evil Queen spoke, drawing all attention back to her with little effort. "Whatever squalor and despair your pathetic little lives have been able to tolerate until this point is nothing compared to the pain and misery I can inflict if I leave here unhappy."
"Did you seriously just give an 'evil monologue' down there?" Emma whispered to the brunette at her side. Regina just rolled her eyes and kept an eye on her younger self.
"You will help me," the Evil Queen stated, making it more of a command rather than the request such a statement usually took the form of.
"Wow," Emma couldn't help commenting, "You used to be even worse without the sensible pantsuits. Though, I have to say, Council meetings would've been a lot more… interesting if I'd had that to look at." Regina slapped the back of the blond's head.
An old man, with a magically moving wooden puppet by his side stepped out from the crowd, speaking as humbly as he could, "Please, Your Majesty. We're a peaceful village. What do you want from us?"
"That's Marco," Emma observed.
"Geppetto," Regina automatically corrected.
"Justice," the Evil Queen sneered. "If I find out that anyone in this village has helped the bandit Snow White, they will suffer dearly. Here's what helping Snow White looks like." She gestured and her guards pulled forth a struggling figure, pulling a sackcloth from the woman's head. She had an exotic, yet humble look, curly black locks around an olive skinned face with Grecian features and a full mouth.
She screamed, begging to the crowd, "Help me! She's gonna kill me."
"Who wants to be next?" the Evil Queen threatened.
"Please," the prisoner begged one final time.
Emma made to move, fully intending on helping the young woman, but Regina restrained her, holding her back long enough that she nearly lost her footing and had to abandon the action to leap from their perch. "What the hell do you think you're doing?!" the brunette hissed, scared witless by the blond's near-action.
"I'm helping that woman," she answered without hesitation. "She's just an innocent-"
"No, Emma," the future Evil Queen cut her off. "All fictional literature aside, Belle and Gold warned us repeatedly, after discovering Zelena's plans to change the past, about how dangerous it is. Messing with events could do untold damage to all of us. For once in your life, think of the consequences to your actions!"
"I'm supposed to let her rot or die?" the Savior asked, incredulous.
Frowning, Regina's eyes turned cold as she answered, "Whatever her fate, we cannot interfere. Not if we want a chance at getting back to the world we know."
"And how the hell are we supposed to do that again?" Emma grumbled. "If we are actually stuck here until your younger self casts the curse, we might as well try to make things better for the future!"
"And what if," Regina challenged, "while trying to do good, we just make things worse? A lot worse? Knowing the future is one thing, being from the future? We could make it so that either you aren't born, or that I never adopt Henry, or never cast the curse in the first place, or cast it too early, before the wardrobe is finished, letting you escape it! No, we aren't going to change a thing!"
"So… no chance of talking your younger self around to being a bit… less evil?" she asked with a resigned sigh.
"I wouldn't have listened," Regina shook her head sadly. "I… she is too filled with grief and anger to try anything else. Although… I will say that I sought out every alternative to my revenge besides casting the Dark Curse. I was not ignorant of the price or cost and consequences of casting it. I was, quite simply, desperate and out of options. At least, that is what I believed at the time. And even after it was cast, it took nearly two decades of monotony and self-inflicted torture to even contemplate changing my behavior or pattern. I… I don't know how much longer it would have been, but if I hadn't adopted… if I hadn't had Henry in my life, I probably would have started contemplated either ending the Curse, or some other ways of ending my suffering."
"Are… are you saying…?" Emma couldn't actually come out and say it.
"No," Regina shook her head, knowing exactly what her soulmate was thinking. "I was not… suicidal. But as with the curse, adopting Henry-at the time-was a desperate means of ending my suffering. Any attempt to… make her less evil now? It would either delay, or alter the timing in which she adopts and accepts Henry into her life. I won't… we can't risk that!"
Frowning, Emma nodded and offered up one final sigh.
"So," she asked, leaning back against the trunk of the tree as the Black Knights and Evil Queen rode away with prisoner in hand, "who did you used to go to when you were trumped with a magical problem and needed a miracle solution?"
Her eyes going wide with realization, the two soulmates shared a look as the brunette answered, "Rumpelstiltskin."
-~O~-
First thing to do when time travelling; blend in and do not stand out. Which meant a change of clothes as red leather jackets and fashionable power suits pretty much never came into vogue in the Enchanted Forest. Though, not for lack of trying after they returned from defeating Pan's curse and some of the younger generation wanting to emulate their absent Savior of the time.
Fortunately, with Regina possessing her full power of magic, and in spite of Emma's absolute refusal that she still had hers after having it stolen by Zelena, they did not have to resort to stealing other people's laundry in hopes of minimizing the ripple effects. Also, as well known as Regina's face is, and as dangerous as it was to let Emma's be seen by the wrong person, there was an even simpler solution than transfiguring their clothes, with but a simple glamour spell. A spell that Regina herself had avidly researched after Rumpelstiltskin had 'trapped' her in a peasant woman's body for a time.
Emma was… less than amused with the results.
"Are. You. Shitting me?!" 'Gabrielle' demanded of 'Xena' standing next to her in the conjured mirror. Although argument could be made that it was actually a glamour of 'Meg' given that the blue-eyed brunette was wearing a tavern wench's costume rather than black leather armor. 'Gabrielle' on the other hand was wearing the green halter top and orange/brown miniskirt and knee-high leather boots that she was best known for.
"What?" 'Xena' said in an entirely unconvincing 'innocent' tone.
Emma just glared at her soulmate from beneath the glamour, arms crossed beneath her barely-covered breasts. Regina just laughed and altered the glamour so that they could see one another as they truly were (while everyone else saw the faces of two long-gone heroes), and altered Emma's costume to the blue peasant blouse and ankle-length red skirt that Gabrielle had worn on her initial adventures with Xena.
"I am so having you play dress-up when we get back," Emma vowed.
"We'll see, my dear," Regina chuckled.
"Is all this really necessary?" the blond asked, adjusting 'herself' slightly.
"Answer me this," the brunette replied. "What would you have done if my past self had spotted you back there?"
"My guess?" she shrugged, "Run."
"And even if we had, what are the chances that she'd have seen you, so that I might have actually recognized you when you first arrived in Storybrooke, instead of assuming that you were a mere annoyance that I had to drive out of town?" she argued.
"You'd remember a glimpse of a face 30 years from now?" she put stress on the word to put a frame of reference on it.
"Your face, yes" Regina confirmed. "The point is to minimize making a lasting impression. Both fortunate, and unfortunate for us, during this time in my life I was so consumed by my anger and hatred that I put blinders up to everything that didn't have to do directly with my destroying Snow White. The only exceptions were people or incidents that actually made me angrier than my general disposition."
"Such as?" Emma inquired, trying to act innocent and only casually interested.
Regina saw right through her, and answered with a glare, "Let's not find out, shall we my dear? For now we need to focus on some means of getting back to our own time."
"About that," Emma said, apprehensive as they started walking along the road, "are we sure that we want to go to Rumpelstiltskin about this? Neither of us exactly have the best history with the man."
"I would hardly call him a 'man' in this form," Regina sneered. "But the fact of the matter is, that until Zelena actually pulled it off, time travel… changing the past was considered one of the fundamental laws of magic. Right up there with being unable to make someone fall in love or raise the dead. It cannot be done!"
"I'd say more like shouldn't be done, but you've made your point," Emma sighed. "If anyone is going to find a loophole around the laws of magic, it'll be Gold."
"Rumpelstiltskin," 'Xena' corrected.
"Whatever," 'Gabrielle' grumbled.
They were a few miles down the road without seeing anyone for a little while, though there had been a couple of close brushes with Black Knights, they'd always managed to hide just in time to avoid detection, when they heard the sounds of an approaching party. Lots of horses and at least one carriage from the amount of noise being made.
"It could be the Queen, er… you, again?" Emma suggested.
Regina shook her head. "I only ever visited Rumpelstiltskin at his castle a handful of times, and I never took my carriage there. Still, we shouldn't be seen." That having been said, they both ran for the trees, jumping over the log lying across the road-not exactly a huge hindrance for the two of them-and quickly scrambled up out of sight. They didn't immediately notice that they weren't the only ones hiding amongst the branches.
A white carriage eventually pulled up, stopping as the entourage came upon the fallen tree. When a certain familiar passenger disembarked from the carriage, Emma's eyebrows shot toward the sky. As the scene progressed, she slowly realized what it meant and began looking around, specifically at the high branches over the carriage itself.
"Worry not," Prince James shouted back to the remaining occupant of the carriage. "It's but a fallen tree."
"Is that…?" the blond whispered to her companion.
"Your father," Regina answered with a grave nod. "We should leave. Immediately."
"Wait…" Emma had finally spotted another huddled mass amongst the tree branches and recognized it as her mother. Looking back and forth between Prince 'Charming' and Snow White, an unintentional smile crossed the young woman's face. This was the moment that her parents met. Everything started from here, for her at least.
Unfortunately, she'd leaned out a bit too far and the branch she was on creaked just a bit too loud, startling the young bandit in the tree across the way. Startled her enough that she mistimed her reach for the next branch and instead of swinging down onto the carriage as was her intent, she fell down backwards all the way to the ground.
By this point, the yet-to-be-named-Charming had noticed the status of the tree blocking the road. "Look at these markings," he said to the soldiers. "This tree didn't fall. It's been cut. It's an ambush!" He and the other soldiers immediately drew their swords.
The knights immediately began working to move the log, as Prince James raced back to the carriage and his fiance. Snow, no longer in position to take advantage of her distraction, weighed her chances and decided she didn't like the odds. She took off into the woods, away from Prince James and the carriage. Emma watched on in growing horror.
"I take it back, Emma," Regina commented with her usual dry wit, "You are Marty McFly. Parent falling out of a tree and everything."
(Author's Note: Taking a page out of fellow fanfic author M. McGregor's page; the story is going to take a slightly different turn than usual here. I'm choosing BOTH options, just so that is clear, but I'm going to alternate. So, this one is Option A - Emma went first, next Chapter is Option B – Regina went first. Then we'll see how things develop from there. So, for the next few updates, at least, there will be TWO new chapters each update, so keep that in mind when reading ahead. ENJOY!)