Won't Someone Save Me From Me?
Part Two: You Were the Only One Who Did
A/N: I'm back with the second half. This is where most of the plot comes in but don't worry, they'll be plenty of Swanqueen moments too ;)
Emma awoke with a groan, sitting up and spitting out blades of grass that had somehow found their way into her mouth. Everything ached and there was a ringing in her head like someone was pressing the doorbell way too many times and way too impatiently.
She looked around herself and let out a disappointed moan. She was in the middle of the woods. But these woods were different. They were crawling with magical animals. Animals that were talking shit about her.
"Her hair looks like a rat's nest," snidely commented one bunny to another.
"Oh, deer, and what are those clothes she's wearing," gasped a deer.
"You do realize I can hear all of you," Emma said flatly. None of the animals- not the flocks of birds on the branches above her, not the four deer, not the bunnies, and not the raccoon's- all gave a shit she could.
"So? You're supposed to hear us. We're talking animals," said the raccoon, his voice sounding a lot like Rocket the Raccoon from Guardians of the Galaxy.
A low moan of pain alerted Emma to the fact Regina had regained consciousness somewhere behind her and was sitting up. She grabbed her forehead, hair mussed up and smudges of dirt on her.
"Shit, it's the Evil Queen. Run!" the animals stampeded away from there, leaving the woods quiet.
Well, at least the annoying critters were gone.
"How are you feeling?" Emma asked, as she sprung to her feet to help her mate up.
"Like I just got swallowed up by a portal and taken to another world," Regina retorted, brushing off some leaves on her. "We need to find everyone else." That was a given.
"You think Rumple transported the whole town back?" Emma asked as they began to trek through the woods. Regina took the lead. She seemed to know this place well or at least have more experience with it, so Emma would let her handle things.
"Not the physical town. Just everyone in it," Regina replied, ducking her head as a branch swung by. Emma wasn't quick enough. It smacked her hard in the face. Hard enough that her nose bleed a little.
"Ouch, what the fuck?" she grunted out as the branch casually swung back. She could hear chittering coming from the trees.
Regina spoke up. "I forgot to mention, there are living trees in this area. And they love to trip up and annoy unsuspecting people." Just as she finished saying this another branch went flinging over her head. Emma managed to dodge this one.
"Are all the forests like this?"
"Yes, though this is a mild one. It doesn't have the howling rocks in it."
Emma didn't need Regina to elaborate on that to know it was maximum annoying.
"Yea, I can see why you would have wanted to destroy this kingdom," Emma commented dryly and nearly tripped up on a root that had come from nowhere.
She made a small fire ball come to life in her hands and immediately the roots retreated. That was more like it. A small smug grin came to her face. She turned her attention back to Regina.
"Are Mary and David in the woods too?"
"They should be. All four of us were hunting down ogres when it happened. But for the rest of the town I'm not quite sure. They could be anywhere. Rumple could have scattered us all to the four winds."
"That does not sound like fun."
"It won't be. Because if we ever hope to go back we have to hunt down everyone," Regina sighed out, already burdened by the task that lay in front of her, because knowing the bumbling idiots of the town, everything would come down on her shoulders. She would have to save everyone and make things right.
"Do you have an idea on how to revert this? How to transport us back?" Emma asked hopefully. There was no way she was okay with living in this kind of world. What about wi-fi? And bear claws? And hot showers?
Nope. She was not giving that up. No way in hell.
Regina's shoulders tensed. She knew of one certain way to revert the curse. But it would involve killing a loved one. She couldn't bare to do it again, not when she was certain she would be forced to kill Emma to cast it.
Maybe there was another safer option. Rumple had manipulated her into using dark magic to do it. But certainly light magic could do such things too. It wasn't like she was casting the curse for a bad reason now. She had good intentions.
"Perhaps," she answered haltingly. "But I won't know until I get out of these damned shrubs and find some magic books." She slapped with annoyance at a fern. It slapped back with equal annoyance.
"So, we're not going home any time soon, are we," Emma said dejectedly. The sooner she could leave this place, the better. But it seemed she would have to stick it out in medieval fun time land for a bit.
"We need to find Henry too," Regina said, worry for him overtaking her now that she knew she and Emma would be alright.
"He's smart, he'll be alright on his own for a bit," Emma soothed, wishing she could reach out and touch Regina on the shoulder. But she sensed the alpha would not be happy at the touch right now. She was tense and thrumming with aggressive hormones.
At least the woodland creatures were too scared of her to bother them.
A sudden roar sounded through the area.
"That sounds like an ogre," Regina commented, instincts blaring at her to protect Emma. But the blonde only stumbled ahead in the direction of the sound. "Mary and David were last fighting an ogre. What if it's them with it?"
"Don't just rush ahead," Regina chided but her mate wasn't listening to her, charging full force to go save her parents. She crashed through the undergrowth and when she emerged, she saw several trees felled. One of them was those living trees, judging by the whirled and knobby face in the bark.
"Ha!" Emma stuck out her tongue at it. That's what it got. But her attention was swiftly drawn to a booming noise. To her far right, the ogre had a tree ripped out by the roots in it's meaty hands and was swinging it down at her parents. Mary and David stood, sweaty and clothing dirtied and ripped. Emma couldn't see any blood on them but that didn't mean they weren't hurt.
Mary was shooting arrows into it's thick hide but if it hurt it barely registered to the ogre. It was like gnats. Annoying but doing no real harm.
A roar erupted from the ogre's mouth and he crushed the tree down where David had been standing a moment ago. He rolled out of the way, before rising to his feet, closer to the ogre than before.
"For Gods sake, can they not even be counted upon to take down one ogre," Regina rolled her eyes as she came up to Emma's side. With a twirl of her wrist, vines shot out from the ground, wrapping around the green and vile beast. He could barely move and it enraged him.
Mary and David noted them now. Smiles broke out on their faces.
"David, back away from the ogre!" Regina shouted out and he did so. Once he was far enough away, she released the vine spell in favor of an earth destroying one. The ground crumbled under the ogre's weight and he went flying down into the cavernous earth, his surprised roars getting smaller and smaller until Regina closed up the hole once more like nothing had happened.
A bead of sweat rolled down her neck at the exertion of this and she sucked in a greedy breath when it was over.
"Emma, we're glad to see you okay," Mary and David jogged up to their daughter, weapons sheathed.
"When the spell struck we didn't know where you would be." David shook his head. "But, now that we have you, we need to find out where we are."
"We're by the village that is a half day's travel from my castle," Regina announced. "And hopefully the rest of the townspeople will be there. We need to get to them before they run into danger like stray monsters. We haven't been here in decades. There's no knowing what rogue powers there are."
"Right. And we have to get Henry too," Mary urged. "Lead the way Regina."
They all followed the mayor along, her sense of direction impeccable. She used a mixture of memory and signs in the woods to make it out, though Mary did help by interpreting bird chirps and telling them which way would be faster.
They got to town, but were greeted by a troubling sight. Men in suits of armor on horses, circling around what looked like to be citizens of Storybrooke. Not all of them, and certainly not Henry, but a good chunk of them. Emma, Regina, Mary and David perched up on a thatched hut's roof to get a better look.
"Well, the good news is we found the townsfolk. The bad news is," here Emma trailed off as Regina filled in.
"The Evil Queen has got them."
The woman in mention was pacing around in front of the captured citizens, all of which who were bound and restrained to their knees by magic. She was wearing a black dress with a high collar and a deep decolletage. Her hair was up in a bun and her makeup was severe, only magnifying the cruel grin on her face.
"Well, what do we have here? Rats, that have infested my village?" She held her hands on her hips, leering at them.
"Regina, how is this possible?" Mary asked, watching with concern on at what was going on below. They spoke in whispers for the queen was but a house away from them. "How is she here, when you're here? There can't be two yous in the same time and location."
Something Mary said clicked in Regina's head.
"That's because we're not in the same time and location," she gasped out, eyes going wide. "Rumple, when he broke the curse, took us back in time. To before I even cast it." Thoughts ran fast behind Regina's brown eyes. "This is around the time when I was still coming into my power. But I don't remember this happening at all in my past memories."
"Huh. That's weird," Emma said. "Shouldn't you remember it?"
"Maybe she was too busy killing so many people she doesn't remember it," David said. They all turned to look at him with varying degrees of disappointment on their faces.
"Sorry, bad joke," he said, admonished. All three women turned back to brainstorming.
"Unless it's possible it did happen but my memory of the event was erased. Which we need to do after we fix all this. She, I mean me, can't know this happened. It could ruin things in the past. It could make me even not cast the curse," Regina said gravelly.
"Alright, so what do we do?" Emma asked as a loud cry from below made them look down. The Evil Queen was tormenting some man with her magic.
"You weren't here last night, but suddenly you are infesting my town like pests. Tell me, where did you all come from?" she demanded.
"Storybrooke, Maine!" Archie cried out, face turning red as his insides were clenched in a tight hold.
Maybe that was how Regina had gotten the idea of a place to send them too. Emma shook her head. Time travel was strange. She didn't want to dwell on the implications and complications of it any longer.
"And how did you get here?" the Evil Queen demanded.
"Magic. A giant curse," was the sputtered answer.
"We need to stop her first off. Before she kills anyone!" Regina declared, a furrow between her brows.
Emma's hand on her shoulder stopped her.
"You can't go. She can't see your face. Don't you know if past you and future you see each other shit could go down."
"She's right," David said. "I've watched enough time travel movies to know this is true. You have to stay out of this."
"She's too powerful. Your little sword and Mary's little arrows will do nothing to her. Besides, she can't see Mary either. She'd flip!" Regina argued.
"My sword's not little," David mumbled under his breath but they ignored him.
"Then how about we cast magic spells on ourselves to mask our identities?" Emma offered.
"Those take time and ingredients to craft!"
"Or wear masks."
That would have to do. Regina waved her hand on Emma's suggestion, and they were all wearing masks. David had a hockey mask like Jason. Mary had a Freddy Kruger one. Regina's was a Micheal Meyers mask and Emma had on- "Hey, why do I have a poop emoji mask?" she whined after she had felt it up. "Why do they all get to be scary movie murderers and I get to be shit?"
"Now's not the time to be picky on masks," Regina chided. "Quick, this is the plan."
They all leaned in as she whispered it to them.
There wasn't much time to act. Already the queen was beginning to extract too much information from the captured fables and there was no telling when she might start executing them. They all split up for better efficiency. Mary found another roof to perch on and began to fire volley after volley of arrows, all lightening fast. She managed to take out three knights before the rest went after her, drawing swords and kicking off of on their horses to get to her. Having their attention, they jumped off the roof and into a bale of hay conveniently there before rolling to her feet and taking off down the road. Once she ran past a certain alleyway, the horses hot on her back and the knights one inch away from swinging their swords and beheading her, a trap awakened.
Suddenly they found themselves frozen, unable to move. The blue circle under them shone with intensity and that same blue light held them captive.
Emma emerged from where she had been hiding and high fived her mom who took a second to bend over and regain her breath.
"I really need to start exercising more," she said between gasps.
"We need to lure the town folk away from the Queen."
"Is David doing his part?" Mary asked as they walked past the frozen knights back to the town square.
Loud shouts were coming from that direction. "Yes, I think he is," Emma confirmed.
"You idiots!" the queen hollered after her vacating knights. "Don't all chase him down!" But they ignored her, too intent on the chase. Another half dozen knights on horses chased down David as he raced to the agreed upon location. He had shown up, waving his sword and mocking them and they had turned to chase after him. This left the Storybrooke citizens unguarded, except for a pissed off Queen and Graham. But it was Regina who was going to take her on. Not the others.
David turned in the nick of time and avoided the trap. These were weight sensitive. So he could run across it and be fine. But heavily armored knights and their horses would not be. Blue light trapped them and they were unable to move.
Now that the knights were taken care of, he could focus on rescuing the citizens.
He went to regroup with his team and found Emma and Mary already leading and freeing those who had been captive.
"Quickly, hide in the woods," they urged. "We will find you there later."
"Some fables are missing," Happy explained, not looking happy at all. "And we have no idea where."
"Don't worry, we'll find them too," Emma promised. "But right now focus on getting away and on staying away."
The Evil Queen was occupied for now and it was thanks to Regina.
"Who are you?" The queen snarled out, launching fire balls at Regina's head. The woman dodged them and jumped over Graham's unconscious form that lay between them. He had been the only knight left guarding the queen after the others had stupidly left. He had gone down easily despite his bravery.
"I won't let you harm them."
Magic continued to fly through the air as Regina did her best to keep the queen distracted. But whereas Regina was holding herself back because she didn't want to kill herself, the Queen didn't know who she was truly fighting and she had no such qualms.
"You can't stop me if you're dead," she gritted out, summoning a huge bolt of lightening that lit up the day.
Damn it. Emma didn't like this. She didn't want Regina to take the Queen on by herself. Emma wanted to help her, but freeing all these citizens was taking ages. How had the Queen even done it herself?
Magic. She had to use magic to summon them into this area. But Emma wasn't gifted enough to do that. "We've got to hurry and help Regina," she urged her mother and father.
"Regina can handle herself," David assured though he didn't look certain.
"Yea, I'm worried about which Regina can. I'm hoping it's not both," Emma grimaced and magically sliced free the restraints on five people this time. They were getting closer, and Emma simply took to suggesting to those who were free to help the others. This way they could get more done.
A huge rumble went through the ground, upsetting their balance. Emma fell hard to her knees as did several others. She turned her head to see that Regina and the Queen were locked in battle. Two bolts of magic were aimed at each other. The queen's red and Regina's blue. The two colors fought, each to overcome each other.
Emma prayed that Regina would win. She itched to go help her, but she also knew how pissed Regina would be if Emma disobeyed her orders. So she got up, focusing more on evacuating the town square.
"Your magic," the queen grunted out, strands of her hair slipping free from her bun and whipping around her face. "It's so familiar."
That wasn't good. Regina couldn't have her filling in the dots. She urged forth more magic and the blue light shot up and blasted the Queen off of her feet.
She landed several feet away, right in the puddle of mud.
Regina knew getting dirty was a high insult and that she had just unlocked more of the Queen's rage.
The woman in question stood up, vibrating with anger. She held out her arms and torpedoes of red magic zoomed at Regina with scary speeds. All she could do was barely manage to set up her shields and stand there as the blasts decimated the ground around her.
"Regina!" Emma called out in concern, but David was closer to the Evil Queen. He lunged at her, sword in his hand. "Leave her alone!" he proclaimed and this was enough of a distraction for the barrage to decrease. She turned her attentions to him and lazily flicked her wrist like one does to a fly. He was sent flying, smashing right into the wall of a house and going right through it.
"David!" Mary shouted out and went rushing to him.
Regina, now less bombarded, dropped her shields and rolled to the side, sending out a bolt of energy to snag the queen by her feet and throw her up into the air. But the queen was quicker. She turned into black smoke and reappeared behind Regina, grabbing her into a head lock that radiated electricity.
Regina squirmed in her hold, screaming as shocks coursed through her. Her feet kicked at the ground as her hands struggled to escape the vice like hold.
Emma felt anger course through her veins. Both hands went up and sent blasts of powerful magic. The queen sensed this and turned around so she could deflect the blasts into the ground with her own magic.
Emma didn't let down her attacks, sending blasts every which way while getting closer. Regina's struggling was getting weaker. Just when Emma was about a foot away, the queen switched tactics. She absorbed the magic Emma sent at her and then directed it right into the ground. It raced towards Emma and exploded, sending her flying through the air and crashing down into the ground hard. Her head rang from the impact and every bone in her body felt jolted and out of place. She sliced her tongue on her teeth and spat the copper taste out, more blood dribbling down from her nose.
She couldn't hear anything and she tried to get up as bits of dirt and rock showered onto her as an aftermath. But her body wouldn't work. And there was something wrong with her head. It throbbed and when she went up to touch it with her hand, her fingers came back red.
She must have cracked it open when she landed head first.
The thought made her woozy and nauseous and she collapsed back down to her back.
"No," Emma groaned out as the lights dimmed for her. She reached out a hand, badly wanting to go after Regina but unable to. She collapsed to the ground, her head heavy. The last thing she saw was the Evil queen and a limp Regina teleporting away in a cloud of black smoke as Mary called out Emma's name.
And then nothing.