Once Upon a Time Season 4 Part 1 - Cold Front
CHAPTER 4
"It was you…" Emma Swan said as she and Killian Jones faced down Rumplestiltskin in the main office of the Sheriff's station.
"Quid pro quo," he responded wickedly. "She killed my son and I killed her. A life for a life." The room fell into silence until Hook finally spoke.
"What will Belle say?" he asked, the only combination of words that could possibly have made Gold feel guilty about what had happened.
"What Belle doesn't know won't hurt her," he said. "Now you two may not have the luxury of not getting hurt," Rumple said, summoning a fireball in one hand and pulling the Dark One's knife out of thin air in the other. "I was ready to change, but you two… you two had to go poking around." He pushed his hand forward through the air and sent the fireball flying straight at them.
"Duck!" Killian yelled, throwing himself on top of Emma and knocking them both to the ground. The fireball singed his jacket and whizzed through the bars of the holding cell, igniting the single mattress within. Killian rolled off of Emma in time to see another fireball flying towards them. It smashed into Emma's desk and transformed it into ashes.
"If there was ever an opportune time to use some magic, Swan, this would be it!" Killian said, leaping over the other desk and narrowly avoiding Rumple's third magical attack.
"Enough of this!" Rumple yelled, waving the knife in the air. Magic pulsed through the room, freezing Emma Swan and Killian Jones where they stood. "Now, who's first?" he asked with a sinister grin. "The pirate or the princess?" He swung the dagger around in tiny circles until it finally settled on Killian. "The pirate it is." He sauntered casually over to him and stared into the younger man's eyes with hatred.
"Sort of an anticlimactic way to end our rivalry, now isn't it?" He circled Killian like a vulture. "The question is: what do I do with you two? I can't very well kill you without the whole city finding out… unless I just make it look like the two lovebirds decided to skip town… maybe for New York, perhaps? I hear it's lovely this time of year."
He unfroze Killian for just a second, just long enough for the pirate to turn around and desperately call out Emma's name before he turned him to stone as he'd done with Zelena. A tear rolled down Emma's eyes as she watched helplessly, trying to summon some magic… any magic. Suddenly she had an idea.
"Now, let's put you somewhere for safe keeping… I think the basement of the shop should do," Rumple said, raising his hand theatrically and flicking magic at Killian… or, at least, trying to. Somehow, and he couldn't quite pin it down, but somehow his magic felt different. Oh well, he thought, watching as the familiar cloud of smoke arose, it's working now.
When the dust cleared, however, the statue of Killian Jones was still in the room… along with someone else.
"Rumple?" Gold's heart sank as he heard the voice he knew all too well; the only voice he truly cared about hearing. Belle. "What are you doing?"
"Belle?" he stuttered, at a loss for words. No lies could save him now. "I… they…" He tried to explain, but Belle's attention was already caught up in something that lied behind him: the television, looping the image of him killing Zelena. The truth was plain in front of her, and she didn't like it one bit.
"I thought you'd changed," she said, her voice quivering and bitter. She wouldn't cry, she knew; at least not now. For now she was too angry. "You told me you were different and you lied… about everything. You're not the man I thought you were."
"Belle, please! I'm sorry!" Rumple said, dropping his dramatic nature and reverting to the person Belle had glimpsed all those years ago: the man behind the monster. He grabbed her arm and she spun on her heels, staring into his eyes.
"Go ahead, turn me to stone like you do to everyone else," she threatened, breaking away from his embrace. She looked at Emma's frozen form and suddenly felt something magically appear in her hands… something she'd read about so many times before… something that could stop Rumple.
"Belle, no. Just give me a chance, let me explain!"
"A chance! Rumple, I've given you countless chances and you've betrayed me every time. I should know by now: the lies never stop. You can never change!" She spat out the words angrily, knowing full well she'd regret them later… provided there was a later.
"Belle, don't go. I'll unfreeze her, see?" He waved a hand and Emma dropped from her paralysis as quickly as she'd entered it. She looked at Belle, urging her to use the object she'd magically placed in her hands.
Rumple took a step forward, getting as close to Belle as he dared. For a moment the room was totally silent, the three occupants and the statue lost in thought. Then Rumple spoke:
"There. All better," he said, trying to smooth over the fact that he was about to kill two more people when she'd gotten there.
"No… it's not." Belle gripped Rumple's free hand in her left as she uncorked the small vial of liquid with her right. Without breaking eye contact with Rumple she poured it onto his wrist; his eyes contorted in shock as the magic took effect, encircling him in a purple glow. The last emotion Belle could see in his eyes before he was totally frozen was deep, deep betrayal.
And so it was done; Belle broke down into agonized sobs and Emma came over to comfort her, holding her close silently praying she never had to go through what the poor woman in her arms did. For a few long moments no one spoke, both parties content to sit silently with their pain.
"What… what happened?" Belle asked, finally breaking the silence. "Why did Rumple bring me here?"
"Rumple didn't; I did," Emma explained, trying to find the right words to describe the magical process. "When Rumple froze me he - and more specifically his magic - became connected to me. I couldn't do too much in that state, but I was able to piggyback off of his magic." Belle gave her a confused look.
"For instance, he attempted to send Killian to the shop, but I was able to reverse it. Instead of sending someone from here to there, I made his magic bring someone from there to here. After that, there was just enough residual magic left over for me to transport the squid ink from the shop to your hand," Emma finished, finally daring to look back at Hook. "I just wish I had enough magic to bring him back… Rumple's magic is more powerful than mine and I don't think I can enchant Hook - or whatever - and turn him human."
"Maybe you don't have to," Belle said, her voice sounding slightly stronger than before. She rose to her feet and went to inspect the reformed pirate's new form.
"What do you mean?" Emma asked, standing beside Belle, who's heels gave made her roughly the same height as Emma.
"Maybe you can do what you did with me; piggyback on Rumple's magic," Belle said. Her voice sounded distant, as though she was lost in thought; Emma supposed that was how Belle got when she was being clever.
"How so?" Emma asked, staring into Hook's eyes… he looked like he was in pain.
"I mean, maybe you don't have to put a whole new enchantment on him. Maybe there's enough magic left over that all you need to do is redirect Rumple's spell; turn something else into a statue… someone else." Belle could hardly believe she was asking Emma to bring Killian Jones - the man who'd try to kill her twice - back to life and to turn her husband into a statue. Desperate times… she thought, watching Emma's eyes as the idea registered.
Without another word Emma put one hand on Killian's arm and her other hand on Rumple's. Belle watched as the white wisps of Emma's magic appeared, coursing from Killian through the savior and then into Rumple. A few agonizingly long moments later Hook dropped to the ground, finally free of his stone prison.
"Hook!" Emma said, dropping to her knees and taking the pirate's hands. He looked up at her gratefully.
"You had me scared for a moment there, lass," Hook said jokingly, his lips meeting Emma's. Their embrace broke after a moment and Hook turned his attention to Belle. "I guess I should thank you too… it was your idea that saved me." Belle simply nodded, her eyes not leaving Rumple's stone body.
"Belle, I'm sorry - but we'll sort this mess out and then turn him back. He's just… just too dangerous right now," Emma explained, though she knew Belle already understood that. Belle's intelligence was both her greatest gift and her greatest curse; sometimes she understood things too well.
Without another word Belle left the station and started the long walk back to the library, unable to bear the thought of going back to the shop alone. Hook and Emma were about to run after her when Emma's phone rang.
"Emma?" It was Charming. "We have a little problem on the country road outside of town. You and Hook wanna pick us up at Granny's and then head out there?" With a sigh Emma hung up the phone and looked at Killian.
"Mom and Dad need us. Let's put… him in the cell and then go," Emma said. Together she and the pirate pushed Rumple's statue into the cell, took his dagger from his hands, and locked the door.
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"What the hell happened?" Emma asked as her parents piled into the back seat of her car behind herself and Killian. They were both bloody and bruised all over the place.
"We got… attacked by someone - something - on the old country road that runs out of town," Charming explained, not wanting his daughter to know just how terrifying the ordeal had been.
"Where's Neal?"
"We left him with Red in the diner. He's fine; didn't feel a thing," Snow said, laughing lightly despite herself.
"Good. Now you wanna explain to me what happened on the way?"
So Charming and Snow related the story of their strange encounter with the snow monster as Emma turned down the road that would lead them to the scene of the crime. They explained how they'd been miraculously uninjured by the crash, how Charming had nearly been frozen, and how they'd had to walk all the way back to the diner. By the time their story ended Emma was pulling up next to their frozen vehicle.
"I see…" the savior said, piling out of the car along with the other three passengers. She gave her parent's car a kick for good measure; frozen solid. "What the hell…" she said as she walked around it.
"Looks like this freak snow storm is doing more damage than we thought," Killian observed, rounding the car and standing next to Emma.
"No kidding," Charming said.
"Hey, look at this," Snow called. The other three whipped around and saw the princess disappearing into the trees at the side of the road.
"What is it?" Charming asked, climbing in after her. Emma and Hook weren't far behind.
"Look here: the rest of the trees are covered in snow, but these ones? They're frozen solid. I think when she escaped she went this way. We can track her," Snow said, shifting from mild mannered Mary Margaret's mindset into the Snow White that had survived by herself for years.
"After you," Hook said, motioning with his good hand for Snow to lead the way. With that the four trekked further into the forest, the snow beneath them deepening and the snow above them swirling more intensely.
"I can't see a thing out in this damn snow," Emma said, holding onto Hook's hand so as not to get lost… and, she supposed, for other reasons too.
"We've got to be getting close now!" Snow called over the howling wind. Emma had lived in Alaska for a brief period as a child and had once been caught in a white out; this, she observed, was much worse. As if in answer to Snow White's words a huge dump of snow fell on them, knocking them to the ground.
"What the…" Killian asked, picking himself up. "Emma?" he called out. No answer.
. . . . . . . . . . .
"Hook!" Emma Swan called out after righting herself. She felt like she'd been run over by the snow, and now she was having trouble getting her bearings. She stumbled around for a few moments before smacking head first into a thick wall of ice. She turned to her left and met another one, then another, then another. She panicked as she realized she was fully encased in it.
She scraped some snow away from the walls, allowing her limited visibility. Emma looked out and could just make out the form of Killian Jones… and someone else she didn't recognize.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
"Emma?" Hook asked, trying to see who exactly was approaching him through the dense snow fall. She was blonde like Emma, but she was wearing something very different… a dress it looked like, not Emma's signature jeans and t-shirt. The figure reached a hand out towards Killian, who realized just a moment too late that the woman in front of him was not Swan.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
"Hook!" Emma called through the walls of her ice prison, watching helplessly as a woman who was not her reached out and grabbed him by the jacket. Whoever it was came closer to him… to close for Emma to like at all. She pounded her fists into the ice for only a moment before realizing all that would get her was a broken hand.
"You've got this, Emma," she said to herself, placing her palms on the ice and trying to imagine heat; a roaring fire, the dragon she'd fought, the time she'd saved Regina from her own burning home. Finally the ice beneath her hands began to sizzle, slowly melting away. She thought harder, this time about a different kind of fire: the spark she and Killian had.
In a split second the entire wall turned to water and Emma was freed.
. . . . . . . . . . .
"Please, don't," Hook begged as the shockingly strong figure placed a single, horrifically cold hand on top of his heart. "Stop…" he pleaded, trying to look into the figures completely white eyes. It said and did nothing, its only discernible movement the shaking of its hand as ice crystals began to shoot out of it and leech into Killian's heart. His vision blurred and his breathing slowed, his life beginning to slip away… until a fireball flew out of nowhere and smashed the figure away from him.
Killian dropped to the ground gasping for air as Emma leapt over him in hot pursuit of the woman who'd just nearly killed him. He rolled over to see her disappear into the white storm, her hands glowing a fiery red.
"Hook! What happened?" The next voice Hook heard belonged to Snow White, who explained that she and her husband had been trapped in icy prisons just as Emma had. Apparently they had also melted when Emma escaped.
"That… creature… it did… something to me. Emma went after it," he gasped.
"Charming stay with Hook. I'm going to help my daughter." With that Snow White leapt over Hook and followed Emma into whatever laid beyond the white snow.
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Author's Notes:
-Did you like it?
-Reviews are welcome!
-Is Emma ever gonna get really good at magic?
-Is Elsa a villain or just misunderstood?
-Rumple: redeemable or totally evil?
-Was Belle justified in freezing Rumple or should she have given him another chance?