Third Season
Emma hated Pan.
No, that's inaccurate. Emma Swan HATES Peter Pan!
As much as the classic cartoony story versions of Captain Hook go on and on about how much he hates "Peter Pan", Emma hates the real deal exponentially more!
Out of all the villains and monsters she ever faced, even the one that ultimately killed her, Pan was the worst!
He was evil in a way that rivaled even Hades and all the past Dark Ones combined! He may not have been the most powerful, nor the one that was the most difficult to defeat. But he was absolute pure evil! And he was the most frustrating of all her villains to face in these Time Loops!
When she first started looping, actually, the whole trip to Neverland, while somewhat traumatic in that she'd (temporarily) lost her son and he lay dying in her arms right next to being body-switched and everything involved with that, was little more than a minor bump on the road to her eventually facing off against the Hooded Figure (the identity of whom was still in flux, although about five out of ten times it tended to be Belle and Gold's son Gideon, raised by the Black Fairy, but the rest of the time it was completely random as to who). Then, as the loops progressed, and she gained more skill and knowledge, not to mention spent a few years-worth of intermittent time as the Most Powerful Dark One in History, Pan's… approach and games started to change.
Whether it was because she'd let it slip early that she was more powerful and experienced with magic than let on, or the consequences of her own actions to try and minimize future casualties, he stopped underestimating her and started to take her attempts at rescuing Henry a bit more seriously. Like that first confrontation, when they were surrounded by the Lost Boys and had to fight their way clear, (not to mention her dad getting poisoned). He used to stop the fight and let them go by challenging her to play his little game. He didn't do that every time anymore.
When they 'tried to cheat' using a locator spell rather than crack the code of the map he'd given her, the consequences were instantly lethal for at least one member of their party, usually Hook, rather than the clear warning they got that first time.
By the point that she was spending her 'magic lessons' with Ingrid, Lily and Regina inventing new spells rather than learning control and learning the spells they had to offer, her Loops began to get cut short. That time she shot herself because Regina wouldn't listen? That was after a rather brutal defeat at the hands of Pan and his Lost Boys. They couldn't get to Henry in time and needless to say, Pan won. Luckily, time reset, but it had left her frustrated beyond measure, so the refreshed setback with Regina at the time had been just too much.
She hated having smart bad guys to contend with. Especially ones that were as evil and uncaring as Pan was. If he could be reasoned with, or just had a good enough reason for being the way he was, she might actually be able to sympathize with him. But he was just a sick old man, obsessed with staying young and powerful and ruling his own slice of the world however he wanted, damning the consequences.
At least with Regina, Zelena, Ingrid, even the Author, Isaac Heller, their reasons were quite simply that they wanted to be Happy. Which, honestly, is all that anybody wanted. They just saw no other options beyond the evil paths laid out before them.
Nevertheless, as much as she hated the monster and facing off against him, she had yet to find a way of avoiding Neverland, and to get to what followed meant defeating the boy-man and saving Henry. And then…
Emma closed her eyes as she held on while the Jolly Roger traversed the portal. Within moments, the ship erupted up out of the still waters of the night-covered Neverland. The Savior sighed and looked at the beautiful island and starscape with a mournful air. After they were done here, another challenge still lay before her.
New York.
First challenge they always faced upon arriving in Neverland; the Mermaid.
If Regina didn't automatically kill her during this, Emma would have happily turned the fish-bitch over to Ursula when they finally made friends with the Princess of the Seas. Quite frankly, she'd probably kill the mermaid herself, but Regina always beat her to the punch. The storm wasn't exactly pleasant, after all.
The first part of the voyage was mostly quiet, Rumpelstiltskin getting ready in his own way, while the rest did the same, whether through doing exercise, bolstering each other with hopeful words, or resolving lingering doubts with the only other person on board she could relate to. For Emma, the first few loops anyway, she continued to use the time to exercise and warm-up and all that. Later on, she started practicing her magic as much as she could. Now... now she was doing something else.
"What the hell are you two doing?" Regina shouted as David and Snow went back and forth with the wheel as the ship banged and rocked.
"Trying to keep it steady," Snow said as they continued to struggle.
"Hold on!" David shouts as the ship suddenly swerves from some impact.
Hook races toward them from where he'd been down below, grabbing the wheel and helping to keep the ship on course. He shouted, "Prepare for attack!"
"Be more specific," Regina demanded.
"If you've got a weapon, then grab it," he sarcastically retorted, before another large impact knocks him loose and he's thrown to the deck.
Screeching noises surround the ship, sowing unease amidst the few-numbered crew.
"What's out there?" Snow asked. "A serpent? A whale?"
"A kraken?" David suggests, worried.
"Worse," Hook says as he looks overboard and confirms the sound is coming from beneath the waves. He turns and looks back at his current crew, and tells them, "Mermaids."
"Mermaids?!" David exclaimed, having never had the pleasure, but had heard plenty of stories, both good and bad.
"Yes, and they're quite unpleasant," Hook responded, back at the helm.
"You think?" Regina said sarcastically, as yet another emerged from the water only to slap the hull with her tail.
"I'll try and outrun them," the captain replied, using every trick he could think of to give his ship more speed.
"How many of them are there?" Snow asked. The response to which was several more mermaids smashing against the ship at the same time, nearly tipping the entire boat.
"I will not be capsized by fish!" David shouted, grabbing a spear and chain and running for the cannon bolted to the deck.
"Where's Emma?" Snow asks as she helps her husband set up for their own version of 'fishing'.
"She was below decks, last I saw her," Hook shouted back.
"She told me she was going off to think," Regina replied. "Right before the fish arrived."
"Well then," Snow handed one end of the net she was wrangling to her former step-mother, "I need your help, Regina, so thanks for the help!"
"What moronic idea have you two gotten into your idiotic heads this time?" she snapped. Holding up her end of the net, she further questioned, "What are you doing?"
"Fishing," Snow replied with a mischievous smile.
David fired the cannon. Seeing an opportunity, the two dark-haired women cast out the net and got lucky, as Snow excitedly announced in the next moment. "We got one!"
"One? There are dozens!" Regina pointed out with a heaving grunt as they tried to hold onto the net and drag the fish-person aboard. David fired the cannon twice more before Regina finally lost all patience.
"Enough of this!" she snarled and started rapidly shooting fireballs into the school of mermaids. They quickly scatter after that. "There," Regina said, satisfied, "They're gone."
Emma was glad she wasn't on deck at that moment to pat Regina on the head in a mocking 'there, there' motion. She always got slapped when she did.
"Not all of them," Snow pointed to the net. "What about that one?"
Regina waved her hand and the bound and struggling magical creature was teleported to the middle of the deck. She was caucasian, with black curly hair, and sea-blue-green iridescent scales for her lower half. She seemed to like hemp 'fishnet' and shiny jewelry as that was all that she was wearing. The humans could only stare in amazement and fascination as she lay there, occasionally flopping as she struggled to move outside of the water.
"Get that thing off my ship!" Hook ordered, angry.
"No," Regina shook her head, smirking. "Now we have a hostage."
"I hate to say it," David said, "but I'm with Hook. Those things just tried to kill us."
"And perhaps," she suggested, "we should try to find out why."
"How?" Snow asked. "By torturing her?"
"Well, if need be," Regina shrugged. "Sure."
Unfortunately, the net brought up more than just the fish-person. She snatched up the conch-shell and blew into it, a loud sound, similar to a fog horn, echoed out across the waves. A rumble of thunder echoed back in reply.
"What the hell was that?" Regina growled, slowly lowering her hands from her ears.
"A warning," the mermaid mocked them. "Let me go… or die!"
The wind picked up and there was another crash of thunder. David loomed over the mermaid, snatching away the shell, demanding, "What is this? What did you do?!"
"Let me go," was all she would say.
"Not until you tell us," Regina sparked a fireball in front of her face, "Or we make you tell us."
Snow pulled the older woman back, saying, "Threatening her isn't the way to motivate her."
"Well, I'm all out of fish food," Regina snarked back.
"Doesn't matter if you get her to talk," Hook said from the helm. "You can't trust her. Mermaids are liars."
"Maybe they're just scared of Pan. If we let her go, maybe they'll be on our side," Snow suggested.
"Or maybe her and her friends will come right back to kill us," Regina argued.
"Oh, I don't need my friends to kill you. You'll kill yourselves. Now let me go," said the mermaid with a mocking smirk.
The wind and thunder hand turned into a full-on squall, surrounding the vessel. Its sudden appearance could only lead them to one conclusion.
"What the hell?!" David shouted as the rain and lightning poured down.
"It's a storm!" Hook shouted. "She called it. Don't let her go. She'll swim off and leave us all to die. At least with her, we've got leverage."
David grabs a sword and holds it to the mermaid's neck. "Stop the storm, then we let you go." He comes around behind the mermaid and hold it lower down her neck.
"That's more like it, Charming," said Regina, relishing the dark side. "Filet the bitch."
Startled by more than just the Evil Queen's words, he pulled back, saying, "No!" He fully removed the sword and stood back and away from the mermaid. "We are not barbarians!"
"What we're going to be is dead!" Regina shouted back at him, frustrated.
"Hold on! I'm gonna turn around," Hook says as he leaned hard to starboard. "I've outrun many a storm… What the devil?!" The ship, seemingly of its own accord, resumed its course for the island, and every attempt Hook made to change it and head away from the storm, the ship automatically reversed.
Unaware of this, the trio of Snow White, Prince Charming and the Evil Queen continued their fight over the mermaid, who was grinning wickedly at the display.
"Make it stop, or die!" Regina threatened her.
"We are not killers!" Snow insisted.
"Yes, you are," the mermaid countered. "And you brought this death upon yourselves."
"This is why we should free her!" Snow argued.
"That feel-good nonsense, Snow, might play in the Enchanted Forest, but this…" the semi-reformed Evil Queen shot her former adversary a dark look, "This is Neverland."
The ship suddenly tilted to one side, and then the other. David ran back to help Hook with the helm, shouting at him, "Keep your grip, pirate!"
"It wasn't me, mate!" the captain shouted out. "It was the ship! We're taking on water!"
"Now may I resume killing her?" Regina redundantly retorted.
"No!" Snow and Charming both shouted together.
"You kill her, and her kind will have a personal vendetta on us," Snow pointed out.
"The queen is right," Hook added his two pence. "They've already tried killing us."
There was a beat, and everyone briefly wondered where Emma was in all this, before Regina just nodded, saying, "Exactly." Then she waves her hands over their captive and turns the mermaid into wood, a fitting ornament for the front of the ship, she privately thinks.
"There," she stated. "That should stop the storm."
"Regina!" Snow screamed. "What did you do?!"
The storm actually gets worse around them, and a huge wave looms high over the ship, illuminated by multiple simultaneous lightning strikes.
"No!" she screams out in denial, so certain that her actions should have worked.
"What have you done?!" David yelled at her.
The ship, fortunately, ascends the wave and crests the other side, rather than being deluged with the whole thing outright. Everyone… most everyone, gets soaked. Hook keeps trying to get the ship away from the storm, but all of a sudden every direction looks worse, so he stops fighting it and just tries to keep her afloat long enough to get to shore.
"I thought you said you could outrun a storm," David yelled at the pirate next.
"This isn't a storm, it's bloody damnation!" Hook cursed, struggling more than ever.
"Why would you do this?" Snow screamed at the Queen.
"You're going to blame me?" Regina actually sounded hurt at the accusation. Though not necessarily surprised by it.
"You turned the mermaid into wood!" Snow pointed out with a flat stare.
"I did something about it, which is more than you can say," Regina defended herself.
"Undo your spell," Snow demanded. "Bring back the mermaid."
"And what? You'll win her over with your rainbow kisses and unicorn stickers?" Emma almost laughed out loud at that, but she was distracted with something of far greater importance than appreciating Regina's wit. And considering her opinion of the woman, that says something about just how important that 'distraction' was.
"Considering that your plan failed, at least we can try," Snow argued.
"Such a naive princess," the Evil Queen snarled.
"And you're such a…" Snow White's temper finally boiled over, in more ways than one, and she lashed out with a solid blow on her evil stepmother's face.
"That your best?" Regina mocked her, rubbing her jaw.
"Not even close," Snow promised. "I'm so tired of you ruining my life!"
"I ruined your life?!" Regina's ire raised even higher.
"Hey!" David shouted, trying to get them to stop fighting long enough for them to get out of the situation alive. Rather than diffuse the situation, it seemed to serve as the starting round bell, as the two engaged in a full-on cat-fight.
"Hey," Hook held him back from intervening. "Let the slags go. I need you at the mast."
"Don't call my wife a slag!" David roared as he started whaling on the captain, who duly defended himself.
Meanwhile, during all of this, sitting serenely at the top of the ship's mast in the crow's nest, Emma Swan sat, meditating. For the strangest reason, if one could apply reason to a force of nature, the storm seemed calm in the area immediately around the savior. She hadn't even been soaked from the massive wave from earlier, and the rain had yet to touch her. Of course that could be that she wasn't 'getting heated' from fighting with the others and instead 'staying cool' and calm. In actuality, it had more to do with what she'd uncovered while meditating.
Normally, Emma Swan was the last person that you would ever find meditating, unless you counted sleeping in general. But then again, once upon a time, she would've been the last to ever admit that fairy tales were real, that magic was real, that she could do magic, or that it was possible for time to go in a loop. And yet, here we are.
One of the more advanced magical exercises, which Ingrid, Jefferson, and Regina had instructed her in during her early-loop-tutoring sessions, was the task of using magic to map out an area. Of course, that meant more than just saying 'river over there, mountain here, trees all around'. It meant knowing precisely where everything was in relation to various wellsprings of magical energy. In Storybrooke, where she practiced this skill the most, and where the only thing to change around was where the magical people were at any given moment, she could identify exactly when she was in the timeline by the level of magic and which areas had more magic than others. For example, there was the Magic Well, which remained magical even before magic was returned to Storybrooke, the Fairy Dust Mines, the Magic Bean Fields, and after Henry accidentally took magic out into the real world, and then brought it back, things kind of got cock-eyed and the Clock Tower became some kind of magical nexus for a while, to say nothing of all the other hotspots throughout town.
What she was doing now, had been doing for a number of Loops, and would undoubtedly continue doing for quite a number still, was doing the same thing to Neverland; she was trying to map out everything and everyone on Neverland with magic. After all, legend had it that Pan and his forces are in tune with every grain of sand on the island. Emma wanted that home field advantage for herself. Even if it took her a million tries to get it.
"Get that thing off my ship!" Hook ordered, angry.
"No," Regina shook her head, smirking. "Now we have a hostage."
"I hate to say it," David said, "but I'm with Hook. Those things just tried to kill us."
"And perhaps," she suggested, "we should try to find out why."
"How?" Snow asked. "By torturing her?"
"Well, if need be," Regina shrugged. "Sure."
Unfortunately, the net brought up more than just the mermaid. She snatched up the conch-shell beside her and blew into it, a loud sound, similar to a fog horn, echoed out across the waves. A rumble of thunder echoed back in reply.
"What the hell was that?" Regina growled, slowly lowering her hands from her ears.
"A warning," the mermaid mocked them. "Let me go… or die!"
The wind picked up and there was another crash of thunder. Emma stepped forward and held her father from approaching. She yelled out, "Nobody move! Nobody," she looked at the rest of the crew, her voice and gaze intent, "Say. A word. Don't talk, don't speak, do not ask questions." She said this directly to her parents, before turning her attention toward the mermaid on the deck before her.
"Now that," she said in a calming tone, "was very impressive. It wasn't the shell, or the act, part of it was the sound, but most of it was you. I don't think I could have done it quite as quickly either, but then, I'm still learning."
Emma was pacing slowly, delicately around the still-flopping mermaid, who was giving the blond in a tanktop and black jeans a wary eye.
"Emma, what…?" Snow started to ask, but was silenced by her daughter pointing a 'Silence!' finger at her.
"Do," she said in that same calming tone, continuing to pace, "Not. Speak. We are all under a spell at the moment. Well, not a spell. A magical effect. Every emotional word spoken, heats up the air. We are on the ocean. Hot air, plus water, equals very, very, very bad weather." At the emphasis she put into the word, the wind picked up and there was a distant rumble of thunder. They remained silent and Emma continued her slow, calm spiral around the mermaid. The wind died down, just a little, still blowing, but no longer as hard as it had started to.
"Let me go!" the mermaid insisted, flopping harder.
Emma stopped right above the mermaid's head and knelt down.
"Why did you attack this ship?" she asked, her tone and voice never raising or changing from that soothing sound she spoke in. "I mean, Captain Hook and the Jolly Roger spent centuries sailing these waters. I fail to see how a mere thirty years passage would have creatures that live for thousands of years could so easily forget the sight of this ship."
"You were not invited," the mermaid snarled.
"Oh," Emma moved around so that she straddled the mermaid's human half with her own, so they were face-to-face, "but we were. When the creature calling himself Peter Pan kidnapped my son," there was a blaze of lightning across the sky, the thunder deafening, "he invited my wrath. And therefore me and my family. You just had to get in the way though," Emma gently caressed the black-haired sea-woman's face, "didn't you?"
Hook, with a perfect view of the Savior arched over the half-naked mermaid, audibly gulped, loud enough that they all could hear it. Both her parents also opened their mouths to no doubt protest, while Regina uncrossed and recrossed her arms with her brow raised.
"Nobody speak," Emma preempted them, keeping her face mere inches from their captive's. "Hook, for the safety of the ship, close your eyes or look away. Mom, Dad, turn around so you don't have to watch this. Regina, pay close attention." The blond raised her head to stare into the brunette's brown eyes. "You might learn something about how to conduct an interrogation."
"Let me go," the mermaid begged. "I don't know anything. Just… let me go!"
"The magical effect only lasts an hour," Emma looked back down at her prisoner. "And she knows that if the storm isn't started soon, even if we start killing each other and having heated debates, it won't be enough to destroy the ship. We'll be to the island long before then, and Pan doesn't allow storms to touch his shores."
The mermaid was more than just nervous by this point. Especially with Emma caressing her face and hair the way she was.
"I'm going to ask you some questions," the blond told her. "You will not be harmed. And after I have my answers, which I will be getting, I'll put you back in the water myself. Do you believe me?"
"No," the mermaid shook her head. "I think you're going to kill me! Just… let me go! Please!"
"See, an answer already," Emma smiled and then leaned down closer, close enough that their chests were touching, though their faces weren't quite yet.
"It doesn't matter if you believe me or not. Once I have what I need from you, you are no longer of use. And quite honestly, whether you believe it or not, it's less of a hassle throwing you overboard than it would be to kill you. Because once you're dead, we'd still have to deal with your body."
She adjusted her position, just enough so that both of them were more or less comfortable, and they were close enough that most of that they could see was each other's eyes. The mermaid wasn't nervous any longer. She was outright terrified.
"Yes or no, do you work for Pan?"
"Yes, I do and he'll…"
"Just one word answers please," Emma interrupted her. "Making threats and telling more lies won't make this go any faster. Longer we're here, longer you're out of the water. Did Pan send the mermaids out to intercept the ship?"
"Yes, he knew it the moment you arrived. Pan is…"
"Is all powerful, never fails, blah, blah, blah. Do you have a favorite food?"
The mermaid blinked in confusion. "What does that have to do with…?"
"Please answer the question," Emma's gaze never shifted. Come to think of it, the mermaid realized, she hadn't even blinked, not once. "Do you have a favorite food?"
"Uh… yes?"
"Do you eat fish?"
Grimacing in disgust, while rolling her eyes, she scoffed and shook her head. "No."
"Do you like eating squid?"
"No."
"Do you eat eel?"
"No."
"Do you eat humans?"
Smirk. "Yes."
"Do you eat men?"
"Yes."
"Do you eat women?"
Licked lips. "Yes," she said with a purr.
"Do you eat children, girls or boys?"
"Yes. B-both."
"Do you count the stars?"
"What, I… uh, no. Why does that…?"
"Does Pan know we're here?"
"... Yes. He does."
"Does the Shadow still come and go?"
"Yes."
"Does the sun rise in the morning?"
"It hasn't dawned here in ages."
"Does the moon still rise?"
"No."
"Do you like children?"
"... To eat, yes!"
"Do you like girls?"
"Yes."
"Do you like boys?"
"..."
"Do you like boys?"
"... no."
"Are there such things as mermen?"
"Yes."
"Is there a way out of Neverland?"
"No."
Emma sat up suddenly. She asked again, "Is there a way out of Neverland?"
The mermaid frowned, wondering why she was doing this. "No," she replied again.
"Is there a way out of Neverland that Pan doesn't know anything about?"
"No," she insisted.
"Can this way be used by anyone?"
"No, I mean… No, because there isn't anyway out of Neverland! Everyone is…"
"Can this way be used by mermaids?"
"Yes… No, I… stop it! Let me go!"
"Is this way Pan's shadow?"
"Let me go!" the mermaid was struggling now.
"Is there some other way out of Neverland?"
"No!"
"Is this way a magic bean?"
"No!"
"Is there a portal out of Neverland?"
"NO!"
"Do you know where this portal is?"
"No!"
"Huh. Is the portal on the island?"
"No!"
"Is the portal in the sea?"
"No!"
"Is the portal in the sky?"
"NO! Let me go!"
"Do you know where Pan is right now?"
The mermaid stilled and stopped talking altogether, petrified with fear.
"Do you know what he's going to do to you, and your kind, for what you've just revealed?" Emma whispered, her voice finally raising from that same calm soothing tone she'd been speaking in so far. "Do you have any idea what he'll do to you? Can you even fathom what he'll come up with to punish you and all your kind for this?! DO YOU?!"
The storm broke overhead, but there was no rain, just heavy winds and near constant lightning and thunder.
The mermaid would've pissed herself if she had the natural responses to do so. But fish express fear in different ways than humans.
Emma waved her hands and the mermaid vanished in a cloud of smoke. There was a splash from over the side of the ship. She stood up and said to Regina, once more in that soothing tone, "And that is how you interrogate someone."
"Wait, is that… Ariel?!" Snow cried out upon seeing the mermaid Regina had teleported onto the deck. "Oh my god, I am so sorry about that, we just…"
"Wait," Emma stopped her mother. "Ariel as in, 'Little Mermaid' Ariel? You know her?"
The mute redhead on the deck shot the blond a confused glance, after which said blond gave her a 'look' back, coupled with fingers over her lips. Yeah, they knew each other. Ariel, after all, hadn't been anywhere near Neverland before Regina called for her in the baseline. No reason for that to have changed during the Loops. Actually, Emma had summoned Ariel to Storybrooke during one of the 'Deputy's' days off, explained the situation, and even reversed Regina's curse on the poor girl. However, a major step in Regina's redemption was that she had the opportunity to do so, she make amends. Such as reversing her curse on Ariel and providing her with her 'Happy Ending', IE permanent legs so she can be with the man she loves.
"We met years ago," Snow answered her daughter, helping Ariel out of the net. "What are you doing here, Ariel? I thought you were with Eric?"
Ariel silently shrugged, then turned to glare at the suddenly uncomfortable Mayor standing off to the side, and gestured emphatically, and somewhat rudely, at her.
"What… what happened to your voice?" Snow asked, suspicious.
Ariel repeated her rude motion at Regina. Everyone on the boat was now looking at the ex-Evil Queen, who was slowly and steadily backing away, arms crossed.
"Hey, hey, hey!" Emma surged forward and took the other woman in her arms. "What is she, er, uhm, what does she mean, Regina? Have you met this mermaid before?"
"Uh, once," the raven-haired woman was reluctant to admit, though was comforted by being in Emma's arms, obviously.
"You took her voice?!" Snow stood up to scream at her.
"Mom," Emma snapped at her, before turning her focus on the woman in her arms. "Regina, you maybe wanna give the mermaid her voice back. She can't really tell us anything or answer our questions, if we can't understand her."
"Right, yes, of course," the woman acknowledged guiltily. Stepping forward, she knelt down by the green-scaled mermaid and looked the redhead in the eye as she said, "I'm… sorry. I… I'm trying to be… better now." Grimacing, she cast her hand out toward Ariel's throat.
"I…" Ariel stopped and held her hand up to her throat, a smile blooming across her face. "I don't believe you. If you were ever interested in… 'being better', then you wouldn't have done what you did! And if you think this is enough to make up for what you did!"
"OK, OK, OK," Emma pulled Regina back a bit. "That was a good thing you did, Regina. Just… give her a bit of time, maybe?"
"Considering that I kept her from being together with the man she loves," Regina replied, turning away, "She's letting me off lightly."
"Thanks to you, I don't even know where he is anymore!" Ariel cried out.
"Chances are that he's in Storybrooke," Charming pointed out.
"Wait, Eric's still alive?!" Ariel exclaimed.
"It's… a long story," Snow said, shooting helpless looks at the rest of the crew.
Emma shot the black-haired woman at her side a significant look, even tossing her head back at Ariel's direction. Rolling her eyes, Regina just sighed and focused on the enchanted object she'd once made a deal with the mermaid for. This time, without the red tape contract entanglements.
"This might make it easier for you," the sorceress said, conjuring up the item and transporting it to Ariel's hands.
"Is this…?" the mermaid asked, stunned. Then she looked back and forth between Snow and Regina, confused, and more than a little mistrustful. "But what about…?"
"These are legs that you have control over," Regina confirmed. "No need to… exchange roles, with anyone else. You're free to do what you wish, on land or in the sea. No price tag attached."
Snow and Charming shared in Ariel's frank disbelief and amazement at the ex-Evil Queen's generosity.
"Now will you please stop pestering me into being such a charity case, Emma!?" Regina snapped and walked off.
"It's more charity-giver, rather than charity case!" the blond called after her.
"Meanwhile, onto more important matters," Emma turned back to the mermaid and her parents.
"So, was that OK? Did I do it right?" Ariel asked the Savior.
"Better than I could've hoped for actually," Emma whispered back. "Thanks Ariel."
"Wait, you two know each other?" David asked, confused.
"Long story," they both replied at the same time.
"Well great, I can't wait to hear it," Snow commented. "But in the meantime, there's the more pressing issue of rescuing Henry?"
"Got them?" Emma asked rather than answer her mother.
The redhead grinned and pulled off the satchel she'd been carrying this whole time, handing it over to the tank-top-wearing blond, who grinned excitedly at receiving it. Her parents exchanged their own looks, before finally looking to their daughter and asking, "Emma, what is that? What's it for?"
"Oh, just some supplies that we didn't have time to gather before leaving," she answered. "In particular, a few… special items, which will prove useful." She pulled out Pandora's Box, a spare lighter, and a cooler that was in itself larger than the satchel it had come out of. Sticking both arms, and her head into it up to the shoulder, there was the sound of rustling and things clanging together, before she withdrew and pulled out Charming's sword and a set of modern bow and arrows for Snow.
"Just a few things then, huh?" Snow commented.
"Yeah, just a few," Emma grinned and packed most of it away before putting the satchel over her own shoulders, and then helping Ariel to her 'feet'. "Now, time to discuss how we're getting on the island…"
The quintet crew of the Jolly Roger swam ashore, having traversed the lagoon, and two miles of winding, rapid-filled river to come up on a sandy alcove, covered on three sides by rock face, and by jungle just beyond the beach. They'd left the ship anchored on the other side of a craggy skull-faced rock island, out of sight of the actual shores of Neverland proper. Emma had insisted. They'd swam rather than use the dingy, all for stealth sake.
"We don't have to do it this way," Regina gasped out as she trudged up the beach. "I can fix the Jolly Roger. My magic is powerful enough. We can execute the pirate's plan."
Emma scoffed and shook her head, saying, "Sneak attack? Let's not be naive. Save your magic. I promise you, we'll need it later, because Pan already knows we're here. See this?" she picked up a handful of sand and let it trickle out of her fingers. "Pan and his forces are connected to every grain of sand in this land. He knows exactly where we are. It's time we stop running. Gold was right. This land is run on belief. All of us have been too busy being at each other's throat to be believers. I was as wrong as anyone else. It's time for all of us to believe. Not in magic, but in each other."
"You want to be friends?" the Evil Queen gave her of scoff at that. "After everything that's happened between all of us?"
Emma shook her head. "I don't want or expect that. I know there's a lot of history here, a lot of hate."
"Actually, I quite fancy you from time to time," said Hook, flirting, "When you're not yelling at me that is."
"We don't need to be friends," she said. "What we need to know is that the only way to get Henry back is cooperation."
Her father shook his head, pointing at the villains, "With her? With him? No, Emma. We have to do this the right way."
"No, we don't," she argued back. "We just need to succeed. And the way we do that is by just being who we are—a hero, a villain, a pirate. It doesn't matter which, because we're going to need all those skills, whether we can stomach them or not."
Regina shot a baleful glare at her rival and asked, "And what's your skill, 'savior'?"
"I'm a mother," she stated with a finality that none, not even Regina could argue with. "Worst of all, I am a pissed off mother looking to protect her child. And now I'm also your leader. So either help me get my son back or get out of the way."
She flipped open the satchel and tossed everyone their weapons with deft and unwasted motion. Wielding her own sword, she turned to the jungle path, and started to carve her way through it. The others all silently followed after her.
There was only one way to win against Pan and save Henry. And that was to play his games, let him delay them as much as he likes, win Henry over so the boy gives up his Heart of his own free will, and nearly win only to be blindsided at the last moment. If they don't play his games, or suddenly are much closer than he likes, he moves in and kills the lot of them, save for Rumple, who he taunts with their deaths, and tricks Henry telling him the only way to save them is to give up his Heart. If Henry isn't won over, no matter what elaborate lies or tricks or all manner of circumstances Pan throws at him, he loses patience and accepts a 'lesser boost' by taking the Heart of the Truest Believer by force. It only grants him an extra century or two, rather than sustaining him throughout the rest of eternity, but even Pan's patience has its limits. In either case, he'll just take the rescuers hostage and kill them or nearly kill them so that Henry still gives up his Heart of "his own free will".
IF, however, they get to the Tree of Regret soon enough, which they almost always do, Pan never sees the blind side coming, no matter what happened before. With the Heart of the Truest Believer beating in his chest, Pan is so confident of victory that he never even considers that there might actually be adults without regret, and thus unable to be trapped by his Tree.
But, there were a lot of hurdles between arriving on Neverland's shores and the confrontation at the Tree of Regret. Number one of which was their first 'night' on Neverland. Which is ironic, because for the past ten to fifteen years, give or take, the sun has not once risen above Neverland's horizon.
"The ridge is just a few hundred paces up ahead," Hook said as he lead them through the jungle's undergrowth.
"And we'll be able to see the whole island from there?" Emma confirmed.
"Aye," Hook agreed. "From there we should be able to see everything, including where he's keeping your son."
"You know I could have just teleported us up there," Regina sourly remarked.
"Where?" Hook confronted her. "Have you any idea what's up here or anywhere? There are dangers all about. Only I can guide us past them."
"He's right," Emma stated, knowing that if she didn't resentment would just grow between everyone. "Hook's lived here before. He knows the lay of the land and some of what to expect. It's an asset we can't afford to ignore."
It was a bit more long-winded than what she usually said, but it tended to make everyone acknowledge her abilities as a leader that much sooner.
They made it past the nightshade thorns and ultimately up to the top of the ridge. Unfortunately it was also where Emma and Hook often encountered the same problem.
"Pan's lair should be just… uh… right…" Hook trailed off as they looked over the massive, dark, and forbidding jungle that could give African Rain Forests a run for their money.
"Where?" Regina asked, throwing up her hands in frustration. "All I see is jungle!"
"Aye, the Dark Jungle," said Hook, pulling out his telescope and sweeping the mass of dark green below them with it. "It's, uh, grown so much since I last set foot in Neverland."
"So this nature hike was for nothing!" Regina sighed and went to sit down on a rock.
Before either of her parents could say anything, whether to admonish the villains or to wax poetic about hope, Emma stepped up to the edge of the ridge herself and started turning her head every which way, trying to take in the view all at once. When she stepped back, she only had one thing to say.
"Ffff-Frak."
"Emma?" Snow questioned, as she'd never heard her daughter almost curse before. "Is something wrong? What is it?"
Shaking her head, Emma let out a similar sigh of frustration as Regina had. "Nothing. It's nothing. Just… it's all different! Couldn't this place stay the same just once?"
"I… don't understand…" the pale brunette muttered.
"I need to meditate," Emma pronounced. "Everybody get some sleep. I… we need to figure out where Henry is before we go charging off into the jungle after him." She said this mostly for Regina's benefit. "Please don't disturb me for at least six hours."
She only really needed two in order to fully map Neverland's magic hotspots, but she wanted to try and 'track' the magic that moved, see if she could predict it. It was something she still worked on every time she came to Neverland.
Of course, about halfway through her meditations, while everyone was fast asleep, dead to the world, Peter Pan himself showed up, announcing himself with the sounds of crying children, though he claimed he couldn't hear them. Then, after Emma threatened him, he presented her with the map, and challenged her to a game.
The interesting part came in that if she 'won' quick enough, he just changed the rules and added whole new games, everything from a scavenger hunt, to rescuing Neal from the Cave of Echoes all over again. Not that that didn't happen anyway.
What was more interesting was that if they didn't cheat and use the Locator Spell on the map, then Pan did that changing rules/new games thing anyway. Of course, this was also the fight where her father got poisoned and risked being trapped in Neverland after taking the cure. It's also why she included body armor for all of them in that satchel of supplies she had.
"No one's here," Snow observed as they entered the campsite Pan's parchment had lead them to via the locator spell. "Maybe your spell was wrong, Regina."
"Yes," Regina rolled her eyes. "Blame me… again."
Emma saw him, sitting there, in Henry's jacket! But she didn't say anything. Instead, she stepped out into the open to allow herself as much room to fight as possible, and drew her sword while charging up her other hand with magic.
"It's a trap," she announced.
"Of course it's a trap!" the boy wearing Henry's clothes called out, standing up, and turning around to reveal Pan standing there with that insufferable smirk of his. "Hi Emma!"
"Where the hell is Henry?" she shouted at him. She briefly lost control and there was a brief spark of energy over her golden blond hair, as her blue eyes flickered briefly to a solid sea-green-blue-turquoise color before reverting.
"You broke the rules," Pan admonished her. "That's not fair. Bad form. I expect more from you, Captain."
"Aye," the pirate replied, readying his own weapon, "And you'll get it."
"Give us Henry," Emma demanded, the magic in her fist snapping dangerously, like an exposed wire too close to the water.
"Sorry. Can't. Don't you know?" Pan laughed as his forces, all the Lost Boys, surrounded them. "Cheaters never win."
"Watch out for their arrows," Hook warned his crew. "They're laced with dreamshade."
"Everybody get around me now," Emma commanded, and then unleashed the magic she'd been building up all this time at the same moment that the Lost Boys unleashed their poisoned arrows. Only to find them stuck in mid-air, impacting and freezing on the spot where they touched the magical barrier Emma had erected around the group.
"News flash for you, Pan!" the Savior called out. "Little something I've learned over the years. If you're not cheating," she ignited the barrier, over charging it to the point that it exploded outwards in a wave of raw power, knocking out the nearest boys, and sending the rest to the dirt, "you're not trying! Now, give me back my son!"
Pan had vanished into the night. He also never confronted Emma alone ever again, afraid of the power she wielded. He also held onto Neal, refusing to let his grandson go, feeling that he'd need a hostage. So it was just Emma and Hook alone that went to get the Shadow, on top of Regina going off on her own at some point and Pan capturing her as well. Henry still got tricked, and it was only Emma going straight to the Tree from freeing Regina and Neal both that won them the day, though it was far too close for the Savior's liking. On top of that, he still managed to switch bodies with Henry!
They were back up on the ridge, having just arrived on the island.
"Pan's lair should be just… uh… right…" Hook trailed off as they looked over the massive, dark, and forbidding jungle that could give African Rain Forests a run for their money.
"Where?" Regina asked, throwing up her hands in frustration. "All I see is jungle!"
"Aye, the Dark Jungle," said Hook, pulling out his telescope and sweeping the mass of dark green below them with it. "It's, uh, grown so much since I last set foot in Neverland."
"So this nature hike was for nothing!" Regina sighed and went to sit down on a rock.
"Nope," Emma stated, already pulling out the ingredients she'd need from the satchel. "It got us the perfect vantage point for seeing most of the island. Here's hoping this works. Regina, need your help with this. Hook, there is about to be a light shining somewhere down in that forest. I need you to start planning out the fastest, not necessarily the safest route down from here to wherever that light may be. Mom, Dad, put your sunglasses on."
"Sunglasses at night?" David asked, confused.
"How… how did you come up with this spell, Ms… Emma?" Regina asked, staring in open shock at what she was working with.
"Oh, y'know, tutoring sessions," she said without meeting the Mayor's eyes. "With, y'know, Jefferson and Lily and Ingrid and… y'know… you..."
"Uh huh," she replied in an entirely unconvinced tone.
Actually she'd invented it, yes invented it, while she was the Dark One in the previous Loop, and spent more time making the components for it less rare and less complicated than she did in actually freeing Excalibur from the stone, so she'd ended up doing things the same out of habit more than anything else.
"OK, ready? Everybody ready?" Emma called out. "Here we go then."
She and Regina cast the spell in unison. A blast of white and red light shot up into the sky. Right as it reached the apex, Emma quickly covered hers and Regina's eyes. The ball of magical light exploded and it was like the sun in the sky! So much so that the stars briefly vanished and it was blue skies and white clouds all around. About fifteen seconds or so after it burning bright like that, the light dimmed and started to fall back down to the ground. With the sudden reemergence of the night sky, it appeared all the more like the proverbial shooting star. And then, where he was surrounded by all the Lost Boys, staring up in wonder along with the rest of them, the light struck and surrounded Henry Mills. Rather than harm him, all it did was making him light up like the sun that had been in the sky moments before.
"Way to go Moms," Henry commented, looking down at himself.
"Let's move!" Emma yelled as they could all see the brightly shining point on the ground.
Pan realized what was going on instantly. He managed to block Henry's 'light' for a while, but then Emma pulled out another way to track Henry directly, and so he ended up taking Henry's Heart unwillingly, and they barely got it back in time. What followed that victory, however, was worse than if Pan's version of the Dark Curse actually did come about.
Henry remained in a coma for the rest of that Loop, and when Zelena showed up, it wasn't to gather components for a time travel portal, it was just to outright kill Regina. She came closer than anyone ever had actually, but while it wasn't close enough to kill the woman, she was paralyzed, both magically and physically. Regina spent the rest of that Loop in a wheelchair. And then Isaac, the Evil Author, somehow escaped the book, despite nobody actually looking for him or trying to free him at the time, and Emma still ended up becoming the Dark One because of removing the Darkness from a dying Gold, only… without Regina or Henry, there was no freeing Merlin, no reuniting Excalibur, no vanquishing the darkness. No visiting the Underworld or the Land of Untold Stories either, but…
It was a pretty sucky loop. Emma never tried to 'find Henry early' ever again.
Of course, nobody said that the person kidnapped by Pan's forces had to be Henry. They just had to think that it was Henry, and be able to pass all of Pan's tests. After all, why else would Emma spend an entire loop work on improving her con artist skills if she wasn't planning on using them?
After escaping Greg and Tamara, 'Henry' was soon pursued by all the Lost Boys, only narrowly managing to avoid them thanks to another 'boy' who was on the run from them for stealing pixie dust from Pan. Only for it to turn out to be Pan himself, who all too happily revealed that fact after seeing 'Henry' succeed in using the pixie dust to fly, something that only a true believer could accomplish.
Then, after that, they spent a couple weeks playing games and earning 'Henry's trust and slowly trying to convince their abductee that 'he' was one of them. Everything from shooting at apples with bows and arrows, to rough housing swordplay. Of course, that was all just prelude to Pan's big speech about needing 'Henry' to "Save Magic!"
Ironic really.
Y'know, given what the future holds, where Henry finds the Dark Grail and thereby using it he destroys magic…
Before he did that though, the insane Eternal Boy had to resort to one final trick to get Henry to willingly sacrifice himself for Pan's sake. The exact circumstances about how Henry came to find her seemed to shift with Emma's own actions against Pan, but find her he always did, and the conversation was near-identical, always driving home the same point. Wendy Darling was 'sick' and the only way to heal her was with magic. Magic that meant Henry willingly turning over his Heart to Pan.
"Who are you?" 'Henry' asked, having climbed a bamboo ladder after following the sound of weak coughing.
"You're not supposed to be here," the 'young' blond girl in a nightgown said. She had an English accent and 'he' could tell that she wasn't nearly as surprised by 'his' presence as she was supposed to be.
"I know," 'Henry' said, stepping up to the end of the bed. "I thought Pan might be keeping my family here. Wh-Why are you so far away from the camp?"
"I'm," the girl looked down and to her left before locking her eyes onto his and never wavering in her stare as she continued to speak, "I'm sick. And he's afraid someone might catch it." Wow. Great actress, shitty liar.
"Who are you?" 'Henry' asked again.
"My name is Wendy," she answered.
"Wendy Darling?" 'he' confirmed.
The blond in the bed silently nodded her head.
Moving quickly, 'Henry' looked all around the hovel filled with all the typical furnishings of a 19th Century little girl's bedroom. Eyes narrowed at the dressing screen in the far corner, but quickly moved past it and instead hurried over to the side of the bed so as to be close to the bedridden girl as possible. Then 'Henry' pulled out a small trinket from his shirt pocket and opened it. There was a brief, muted flash of light, mostly hidden by the two children's bodies, and then Wendy and Henry's voices could be heard continuing the conversation;
"I'm Henry. What's wrong?"
"It's the island, Henry. It's power is fading. I've been her a long time, but, well, for some reason it's affecting me more than the others."
'Henry' held fingers to lips, universal sign for 'Silence!' Moments after that, 'Henry' was replaced by fully decked out and tank-top-wearing Emma Swan.
"The illusion only lasts for about three minutes, at most," she whispered urgently to the suddenly terrified Wendy. "So not a lot of time. Pan still sees you and Henry talking. I've got a proposal for you, Miss Darling. Interested?"
"You look like him," Wendy's voice could be heard saying, though the girl hadn't said anything since Emma revealed herself.
"He can't see anything?" she asked, desperate.
"We could get up, dance naked and toss the room all around him and he'd still see 'Henry' and 'Wendy' talking on the bed, convincing him to do whatever Pan wants," the adult blond confirmed.
"We have to leave then!" She insisted, tossing back the covers. "You do have a way out, yes?"
"Several, but…" Emma trailed off as she helped the girl to her feet. "Like I said, illusion is only good for a couple minutes.
"Who?" the question was asked mid-air with as lengthy a pause as Emma could give it.
"He'll kill us!" the girl begged.
"I've got a plan," Emma told Wendy. "It just… it's a bit unorthodox. And you have a part to play. Good news, your brothers are still alive, and I know where they are."
"Your father."
"Bad news," Emma transfigured Wendy's nightgown into something a bit more practical for traversing the jungles of Neverland, "They believe Pan is holding you captive and are willingly serving him. Oh, and Pan is going to know something is up if you're not still in this bed when the illusion runs out. Back to good news," she pulled out a straw and yarn doll, one ironically called Peter Pan by its original owner, "I can fix that." She then transformed the doll into a duplicate of Wendy, still in the nightgown, and back in the bed.
"Y-you… you knew my… father…?"
"We were... friends."
Wendy's brow raised at Emma, not at her doppelganger, but the illusion speech.
"What, you think it's easy making a minute-long conversation last as long as possible?" she scoffed. "Anyway, head down the ladder, then go off the path to the right. Felix and some of the others are to the left. Then make your way to the Hollow. Don't actually go in," she said quickly to the younger girl's horrified look. "I'll meet up with you with some of the others that are leaving with us tonight."
"A long time ago. When he was just a little older than you. He… saved my brothers from danger. I… would do… anything… for my family… *KOFF*, *KOFF*, *KOFF*!"
"How did you know what I was going to say?" Wendy whispered as they hurried over to the ladder.
"Eh," Emma shrugged. "Heard it before. Long story. May even tell it to you. Remember, to the right, then straight to the Hollow." She stopped and shook her head. Neverland was messing with her, it made practically everything she said sound like some reference to the old book this whole thing was 'based on'. Quite frankly, the Savior was pretty sure it was meant to be the other way around.
"Are you gonna be OK?"
"Wait…" Wendy stopped before actually going down, "Who are you? Why should I trust you? What makes you so much better than the last handsome face I trusted in?"
"Are you referring to Henry's father, or Pan?" Emma teased the 'younger' girl. "My name is Emma Swan. I'm Henry's mother. And… Henry hasn't actually set foot in Neverland. Yet. I disguised myself as him and let Pan's minions capture me. Now, personally, I'd love to sit down and discuss my exploits and unveil my master plan, but as you can hear," the magical conversation going on around them had reached the point where Wendy was 'begging' Henry to leave before he caught whatever illness she had, interspersed with a whole LOT of coughing, "we are running short on time. Now go!" She punctuated this by making herself look like Henry and hurrying back to the bed.
There was a brief noise as Wendy scrambled down the bamboo, a moment during which the illusion was ended and 'Henry' began to slowly stand up, leaving behind the bag of supplies at the end of the bed. 'He' made his way back over to the ladder and then turned back, saying, "I'll come back for you. I promise!" and then left.
The doppelganger spell, especially one cast upon a doll, could only do so much with so little time. If she'd had a bit more time, and walked in with it already transformed, she probably could have gotten it to double for Wendy in almost any situation. As it was, she had little clue as to what Wendy and Pan talked about in private, so she went with the doll being able to fully move about and give off a flawless physical performance, but unable to say even one word. She kind of doubted that Pan would notice a difference.
Her plan for this loop was simple, yet complex in its intricacies. Step one, take Henry's place and ensure that he never sets foot on Neverland. Step two, free the Lost Boys and Wendy by getting them out of Neverland via one of the three methods of escape; Magic Bean, Pan's Shadow, or… the Well of Miracles, the magic water that ran through all of the Realms, even Storybrooke. Even Neverland.
The fact that it sprung from a cloud that was constantly hovering over the tallest peak of the island merely spoke to the bizarreness of the place, in her opinion.
Step three, destroy Pan, and his Shadow, and take the last of his magic, thereby killing him instantly. She was still working on the details behind that last step there, but she was sure something would come to her.
Eventually...
Emma Swan had been through nearly a hundred loops already, and maybe a fifth of those had ended 'early', and three-quarters of those had ended in Neverland. Try as she might, there just wasn't anyway that she could best Peter Pan without following the script of how things went the first time. In other words, letting Pan almost win and take Henry's heart and hang around the Tree of Regret, (which, yet again, for the record, besides the literal shape of the island, the Echo Caves, and the Dark Hollow, is the only things to remain in the same place between Loops), was the only way to ultimately survive Neverland.
Only other thing to remain consistent, besides the location of the Tree of course, was that good old Rumpelstiltskin, going off on his own and doing the Dark One thing, managed to get himself trapped in Pandora's Box and placed there at the base of the tree as bait. A trap that Snow always got the trio of mothers caught in.
"Careful," Regina called out as Snow stepped up to the box. "Pan wouldn't have just left it behind for no reason."
"It's David's only way home," Snow argued, as she leaned down to pick the box up. "Without Gold, we're stuck heeere—!"
Vines lashed out from the darkness and wrapped tightly around all three women, dragging them back to the trunk of the Tree.
"Are you still at it?" Pan asked as he stepped out from behind. "Don't you know? Peter Pan never fails." They all gave him cold glares, not saying anything for the moment, although Emma was wracking her brain and heart for any and all traces of 'regret' that she might have and snuffing them out as fast as she could. "I didn't expect you to find me. Then again, I shouldn't be surprised. You're mothers. Quite tenacious about your offspring. Believe it or not, I understand that. But if you're looking to see Henry again, I have to tell you there is only one place you'll be reunited. In death."
Regina tried to lash out, but the vines held them all tight. Emma, rather than struggle, was pulling constantly, providing constant pressure against the magical plants, making sure that she gave them nothing to feed off of while steadily wearing them down.
"Having trouble moving?" Pan mocked them. "Not surprised, given where you are. D'ya see, what's hastening your demise… is your regret."
Knowing that she had to keep him talking, if only to keep him from noticing the vines actually straining for as long as possible, Emma asked him, "What are you talking about?"
"This tree is the site of a very important event for me," he shared. "I abandoned my boy here."
"You have a son?" Regina asked, incredulous.
"I'm older than I look," he shrugged.
"If you have a child," Emma repeated what she said every loop in this situation, just using it to stall for time, "you must regret losing him too."
"But I don't," Pan replied, walking over to the box and picking it up. "Quite the opposite actually. See, I have him all boxed up, so I don't lose him again."
"Rumpelstiltskin is your son?!" Regina exclaimed.
"That he is," Pan confirmed.
Emma couldn't be bothered to look horrified at this (to her) very old news. Fortunately the other two captives with her were more than willing to display enough shock to satisfy Pan.
"How is that possible?" Snow asked. "You're…"
"Younger than him?" Pan finished her sentence. "Not really. Just like you and your daughter?"
"You're a fraud," Regina taunted him, drawing his attention. "Your magic has weakened. You can't even hurt us. Let alone Rumpelstiltskin!"
"You're right," he said. "But that's why I'm here. This tree will protect me until my power is restored. And then!" He held his sword out, the edge under the Evil Queen's chin. "Well, then I get to have some real fun."
"Ew," Emma grimaced as her mind interpreted his words a very different way than from how they'd been intended.
"And I won't ever have to worry about my child again. Something we will all soon have in common."
Emma might have tried to lunge at him or something, just from the insinuation, but her 'regret' from how her mind worked did enough to tighten the vines on its own. She hated how literal magic got sometimes.
"I'm going to kill you Peter Pan," Emma vowed, her conviction at those words enough to vanquish that spark of regret she'd felt moments ago.
"No," he said, getting close, "You're not going to get to me. See, this Tree attacks the regret inside anyone who comes here. And you? You've got plenty."
"I've been working on it," she told him. "Haven't I, Regina? Owning up to my past. Accepting the consequences and facts of what I've done. Very enlightening therapy sessions, wouldn't you say, Regina?"
"Oh, you mean the ones where I constantly belittled you and called you out on your faults and made you regret ever meeting me?"
"Uh, yeah, those," Emma nodded. "Minus that last bit though."
"Therapy?" Pan laughed. "No, that's not all, is it Savior? No, I have your son's heart inside me. I can feel just how much you let him down, time and time again."
Emma frowned and tilted her head, even as Snow rose to her defense.
"Leave her alone!"
"Perhaps I should," he shifted targets. "After all, what chance did she have of being a good mother? Look at the example you set! Abandoning her for twenty-eight years!"
"Are you finished?" Regina asked, having finally figured out the trick to the tree.
Of course, Emma having finally cut the last of the vines and feeling their sudden slack probably had as much to do with it as that.
"Last words from the queen!" Pan called out. "Perhaps a deathbed confession from the one who has the most to regret of all."
"Yeah, there's one problem with that," she said, looking back and forth from the vines and Pan. "I did cast a curse that devastated an entire population. I have tortured and murdered. I've done some terrible things."
"Stop teasing him and get it over with, Regina," Emma interrupted the monologue.
"Spoil my fun," Regina pouted as all three women stepped away from the dead vines.
Emma had Pan in an arm lock and immobile before the boy could even blink. Regina stalked forward and was pulling Henry's Heart out of his chest within the next second.
"See," Emma whispered into the Eternal boy's ear, "Therapy's good for something after all. Like you said…"
"We should be overflowing with regret," Regina picked up what Emma was saying, before they finished together, "But we're not."
"Mom, the box," Emma nodded. Snow White picked it up, and was about to suggest the run off to join the others at the ship, but the two sorceresses stopped her.
"Regina, you wanna do the honors, while I hold the brat? I think you need a time-out, mister!"
"NO!" Pan shouted, struggling against her grip, but she wasn't letting go, and he was weakened from having Henry's Heart removed.
"Do we have time for this?" Snow asked.
"Considering what might happen if we just let the brat go?" Emma pointed out. "Trust me, that would be something we'd really regret."
In short order, Regina had Rumpelstiltskin released from Pandora's box, and Peter Pan thrown into it. After that, it was a short hike back to the Jolly Roger, where they reunited Henry with his golden glowing heart, and then Pan's Shadow was bound to the sail, allowing them to fly back to Storybrooke and return home. With Pan in the box already, and not body-switched with Henry, Emma was ready to call this a win.
Until Felix, the Loyal Lost Boy, somehow managed to sneak away with the Box, release Peter Pan once they were in Storybrooke, and have him steal the Dark Curse and cast it anew, thereby forcing Regina to give up Emma and Henry both in order to stop it. And… New York.
Not that there was anything, necessarily, wrong with New York City, it was just…
As part of the new Curse, Regina had to rewrite both Henry's and Emma's memories. And whatever was going on with the Time Loops, or whatever they were… it didn't make her immune to the Curse. So, while she still knew she was in a time loop, still had 'memories' of what was to come and what had happened and everything, it was ALL filtered through the false memories of what Regina had done to them. To save them.
So… for the next year, no magic, no Family, and no prepping for when Hook (or Red when Hook was 'dead' that Loop cause of, y'know, the Huntsman) eventually showed up. At least she 'remembered' enough about "Walsh" to know that he wasn't any good for her and could avoid him. Mostly. He somehow always managed to worm his way into Cursed-Emma and Henry's lives.
On the plus side, she still remembered pretty much everything 'as it happened' from the year living in Storybrooke while it was still under the first curse. Meaning that she could remember and recall and utilize all her extra 'study time' and getting her various degrees and whatnot.
Still… New York City.
END (3 of 7)